Watching

Anime

Everything anime: where to look things up, what’s worth reading about the medium, and what I’ve actually watched.

Reference

MyAnimeList (Website) — the standard database and tracker: seasonal charts, staff credits, and community scores. The series links below point here.

mocha (Channel) — anime video essays with an unusual specialism: sports anime. 181 videos at 20–45 minutes, arguing why Kuroko no Basket isn’t a sports anime, what makes the greatest tournament arc, and how Dandadan saved shounen — plus a long detour into Fate lore.

For the craft side — animators, directors, and how a show is actually made — see Animation.

Series I’ve finished, with a rating.

Dandadan (Seasons 1 & 2) — 9/10 — a sci-fi occult action-comedy where a girl who believes in ghosts and a boy who believes in aliens both turn out to be right, and get dragged into both worlds at once. Gorgeous animation, unhinged energy, and genuinely funny.
Sakamoto Days (Parts 1 & 2) — 8/10 — Yuto Suzuki’s Weekly Shōnen Jump manga animated by TMS: the greatest hitman alive retires for love, gets fat, and runs a corner shop, until the trade he left comes looking for him. The fights are the draw — choreographed around shop shelves and whatever’s on them, with Sakamoto refusing to kill anyone. Aired in two cours across 2025 and was Netflix’s most-watched anime worldwide in that year’s first half; a genuine second season follows in January 2027.
Vinland Saga (Seasons 1 & 2) — 9/10 — Makoto Yukimura’s Viking-age manga, animated by Wit Studio for season one and MAPPA for season two. Season one is a revenge story: Thorfinn fights for the mercenary band led by Askeladd, the man who killed his father, waiting for a chance to kill him. Season two drops the war entirely and puts Thorfinn on a farm as a slave, clearing stumps beside Einar — the same show, re-pointed at what violence costs the person doing it.