I really enjoyed I Parry Everything, weird to see it so low or not even ranked in categories it makes sense for. I also watched No Longer Allowed in Another World and it's way weirder to see it at the top of so many lists. Maybe some of the charm is lost in translation or I just don't appreciate the play on tropes as much.
Makeine is great so far, half way through about to binge the other half. Lovely art, generally avoiding the gross tropes that turn me off with these types of anime. When those tropes are visited it still manages to frame things in a believable way. I need to get my wife to watch it for her take, but it feels like the girls are represented respectfully as their own relatable characters and not strictly some object for the male viewers to desire. Probably still not totally there, but feels nice to see some growth in that direction.
Curious if anyone can compare Makeine to Days with my Stepsister, and Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian. Both of those shows have some face value ick that's keeping me from starting them.
Makeine is more like Alya in that they romantic comedies. Makeine is heavier on the comedy, with a heavy reliance on failed-romance to drive the comedy/plot forward. Alya has a more prominent non-romantic drama plot that runs alongside the romance/flirting. Both feed a bit into a basic male sexual fantasy (Alya more so, but episode 2 of Makeine had a pretty unnecessarily spicy scene).
Days with my Stepsister is more of a romance / coming-of-age story without much comedy and I feel like it doesn't excessively feed into a sexual fantasy. There's like 1 exception early-ish in the season, but even that kinda felt like the main purpose was to shake up the story, rather than getting the viewers horny.
That scene in episode two certainly felt unnecessary, maybe a service to the horny viewers. They manage to keep it somewhat believable, where most other shows typically fail to do so. I think the overly interested in the younger characters' romance teachers is weirder than that scene, though I've met people like that and they aren't even exaggerations.
Maybe I just relate to the MC. There's a reluctance to romance that takes me back. Most other anime I've seen way over exaggerate it, or don't play on it at all.
I Parry Everything was nice. Not like top tier anime but a fun little show to watch casually. It gets a lot of hate for the MC not realizing his own strength, but it wasn't that bad.
No Longer Allowed in Another World was great though. Really enjoyed it, both the comedy and the plot.
Personally disappointed that Ossan Newbie Adventurer didn't make the top, that one is up there for me this season. If you liked Parry you'll probably like this one too.