52 Anime in 52 Weeks: February

An anime from start to finish every week is a deceptively simple anime challenge. The deception lies in simplicity. My week starts on a Wednesday and ends on the following Tuesday. So I keep telling myself I have time and then I blink and it is Monday. Here is how the second 4 weeks of the 52-week challenge went for me, week 5 through to week 8. 

Week 5: 2nd – 8th February

Week five saw me taking on the lengthy title, Full Dive: This Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life! (Kyuukyoku Shinkashita Full Dive RPG ga Genjitsu Yori mo Kusoge dattara). This anime was both a hit and a miss. I tried watching this weekly when it was first released but I lost interest. I decided it would probably be better to take this on as a binge-watch. I was right. However, saying that, this anime is both good and meh depending on your mood when watching it. In the right mood, this is brilliant comedic and a new fresh take. In the wrong mood, this anime is excessive and a try-hard and an under-delivering series – until you get past the first 4 episodes.

Week 6: 9th – 15th February

I had read the manga for week 6’s anime and I kept putting off watching the anime. I do not know why, I just could not get into the first few episodes of season one. Since Valentine’s day fell in this week I decided to properly give, Kaguya-sama: Love is War a try. I binged through both seasons and was all caught up before the 11th. I am glad that I watched this. I am not sure how well this holds up as a romance, but it is fantastic as a comedy. 

Week 7: 16th –  22nd February

For week seven of my anime challenge, I had taken on Grand Blue Dreaming. This is an anime where my brother and close friends of mine told me I should watch it. They have been nagging at me for a long time. They were right, I should have listened and watched this ages ago. 

Grand Blue is a rough anime in terms of comedy style but it also has some really amazing scenes and characters. Every episode had me laughing hard, I could not help myself. From screenshots I had seen of this, I did not think that I would enjoy this.  

Week 8: 23rd – 1st March

For week eight I binged my way through Edens Zero. I had wanted to watch this when it was released but decided to rather wait until I was in the mood for it. I do have a few thoughts on this ‘Fairy Tail but not’ anime but first I want to mention my enjoyment. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would and I was surprised by the mini-recap for each episode, considering it is a Netflix anime. As for my thoughts, I am glad that the main cast is not core Fairy Tail members other than Happy. Yes, they are mainly different colour pallets but there is enough difference that it is not a retelling of Fairy Tail in another setting.

However, the reuse of certain Fairy Tail character appearances as actual cast characters or as cameos was incredibly distracting. While in theory, it is nice to pay homage to the creator’s other work and a nostalgic point for fans of Fairy Tail, in reality, it was a world breaker for me. Each time an iconic Fairy Tail character came on screen I was taken out of the Edens Zero world completely. Then when the character did not behave in the way they would have in Fairy Tail would irk me. Happy not saying Aye, a helpless Mira? What have they done? Regardless, I am now invested and am waiting for season 2.

Musings on the 52 anime in 52 weeks anime challenge:

I managed to get into the swing of things in February, which means, I actually kept up to date. I was genuinely surprised that I did not fall behind this month. I even managed to keep pace with my Detective Conan this week.

In March I have my Anime March Madness Challenge. I am not sure whether I shall be watching an extra anime each week, or include one of the anime from the 31 I am aiming to watch as part of my 52 anime.

Are you joining me in my 52 anime 52 weeks challenge? How is it going for you? I am following the #52anime52 tag on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest and Gettr, if you would like to share your journey with me and others.

Completion: 8/52 (15% completed)