Summer 2024 Retrospective

I was challenged to watch every anime this season (that I realistically could). That means that while I didn't have to watch any sequels I wasn't caught up to, I had to watch everything else. And I succeeded, with a caveat. I didn't watch the Rick and Morty anime. You might say that it doesn't even count as anime - MAL still, as of posting, has it "pending approval" despite that being the case for months and the show ending its run already - or that, because it's part of an established brand and I am not caught up on the main show, that it shouldn't be needed ... but I'll say I didn't get to it and it should count. But apart from that? I did it, you guys. I either have finished or am still watching 49 of the 54 shows from the season, with 4 of the ones I had to skip being sequels I'm not caught up on, and then Rick and Morty: The Anime. Was it worth it? It was not worth it. It's too much for one person, especially when this isn't my job. Make it my job and, yeah, sure. But on top of a job? And on top of the other retrospective shows? Yup, there is too much anime. But I did it anyway. And I'm not saying I won't ever do it again. But probably not for a while, or not until I somehow figure out a way to make a job out of it. So let's talk about this season. You know I like to talk about stats first, so let's get to those. By my count, there are 54 full-length series that started to air this season. They add up to 690 episodes - not counting OVAs. 41 of these shows are new, while 13 of them are continuations (read: sequels) from previous seasons. I am not including long-running shows in these numbers; those will be included only in the season in which they began. Here are the shows that are being included: In total, I completed 43/54 shows, which includes 37/41 new shows, as well as 6/13 of the continuations. I am still watching 6 shows. 5 of those are new and 1 is a continuation. Not much you can do when it comes to delays or multi-cours shows except delay this longer than I want to. My average rating for completed shows was 5.33/10, which is fine, but I do not like most of the still-airing shows, so it'll go down. I'll accept any season over 5/10 as basically an average season, though. A reminder or introduction for any new readers: (MAL's average score sits around 7.10/10 for the entirety of the full-length database. You guys score high. The average score should be 5.5/10 if the entire scoring system is used and a random (or, not-cherry-picked) sample size is used. Neither of those happens for the majority of users, which leads to a high average. Nothing against it, but my average - and generally individual - scores are almost always going to be lower than the MAL scores, and there's nothing wrong with that.) Let's get to the reviews! Disclaimer: These are my opinions. Feel free to disagree. You can like things I dislike and I can like things you dislike. That is okay. Now that we've finished all of the reviews, it's time for the Anime of the Season and my 3x3. We are done. Like I said, I'm not going to rule out doing all of the anime I can in a season again, but it won't be for a while. You won't have to wait too long until the next retrospective, though. I'll have the Fall 2016 retrospective out in a couple of weeks. See ya!