Plot: Steve and Blue celebrate what they’re thankful for with a big feast. To tie together the day, Steve collects examples of everything everyone is thankful for in his Thankful Book. Breakdown: Blue’s Clues was one of my favorite shows as a young child. I got very much into the lore, so to speak, of the show when I was younger, and I was heartbroken when Steve left.

Now that Ichigo’s proverbial cat is out of the bag, you’d think we’d enjoy some smooth sailing for at least a little bit, but no. The shorter seasons mean less time for such frivolity. Instead, we’re immediately thrust into Aoyama not wanting Ichigo to be a Mew Mew anymore because his nightmares of her crying are paralyzing him with fear that something bad will happen to her.

Welcome, one and all. Grab a glass of beverage. Have a snack of food. Pull up a furniture. And join me as we reminisce on the Indigo League and prepare for our adventures in the Orange Islands. Fewer things are as nostalgic to my generation as the first season of Pokémon. One of the best dubbed theme songs ever. Such a unique premise.

Plot: The fifteenth season of the horror anthology series, Yami Shibai. Breakdown: You know the drill. Episode 1: Lottery – An okay starter episode, but not really scary. Also, continuing the season 14 trend of being kinda confusing. Episode 2: Inheritance – The art does a lot of lifting in this episode, but it’s still a fairly strong episode. Episode 3: Clang, Clang, Clang…

Plot: The fourteenth season of the horror anthology series, Yami Shibai. Breakdown: You know how this song and dance goes by now, so how did the fourteenth season stack up against the rest? Episode 1: My Girlfriend – Not the most memorable story, but still a fairly decent starter. Vibes above writing here. Episode 2: Hand’s Hands – Creepy and clever imagery, but I feel like the overall story just fell a bit flat.

Episode 11: Mourning Scent Plot: A putrid stench is linked to the ghost of a man’s friend. The lingering odor won’t leave his house, and neither will his friend. Breakdown: I guess we’ll go for a hat trick in season 15 with another what the fuck?….In a more confused way. This episode is kinda boring, and it’s confusing in a boring way.

Plot: Arthur and his friends play a prank on Francine and Muffy during a costume party where a famous children’s horror author will be reading her new book. Breakdown: I used to really enjoy Arthur. It was never one of my absolute favorite must-watch shows, but I still liked it a lot as a kid, and I know the series is very high-quality.

Episode 9: Lingering Snow Plot: A woman visits her snow-covered old hometown after a year of being away from home. She’s delighted to be spending time with her friend, a little girl named Yuki. What will the lingering snow uncover about their past? Breakdown: By far, the best aspect of this episode is the art. It flawlessly shifts from cozy and cute to unnerving and frightening.

Episode 7: Duty Plot: A couple settle into a new apartment building. As the husband goes to work, the wife decides to meet the neighbors. But it’s not exactly a good idea to fit in with them. Breakdown: I was put off a tad at the artwork for this one for a second at the start, but it actually works quite well with the unsettling vibe the story has.

Episode 5: Nokotta, Nokotta Plot: A man gets lost in a town when he’s approached by a boy obsessed with trying to sumo wrestle him. Breakdown: Oh god, it’s the scariest thing ever! Annoying children! I’m just kiddin’. This episode was just funny. I guess there is a little bit of a creepiness factor to it, but it’s mostly just funny.

Episode 3: Clang, Clang, Clang Plot: A little girl is enamored with the sound “clang, clang, clang!” When she hears a strange version of the sound after finding a nail in a sandbox, tragedy strikes. Breakdown: Okay, I haven’t said this in response to an episode of Yami Shibai in a while. …..What the fuck?! Kudos on the turnaround. I really thought this episode would wind up being more bittersweet or tragic than scary or horrifying, but they proved me wrong.

Episode 1: Lottery Plot: A woman enjoys a local shopping district when she stumbles upon a lottery booth. She wins third place, but winds up getting more than she thought as a prize. Breakdown: The new opener this season is….kinda bland, actually. The narrator just asks what story will we see this week as he shifts between several cards of various stories before there’s no longer a card and the narrator reaches his hand through the stage at the viewer.

Plot: Oblina, Ickis, and Krumm sneak out during Halloween night. In the chaos of the holiday, Ickis winds up getting mistaken for a young boy named Nicky. He winds up having to pretend to be Nicky until his friends can come get him. Likewise, Nicky has to pretend to be Ickis until he can go home. Breakdown: Aaahh!! Real Monsters was a show I loved as a child.

Episode 11: Shared Inheritance Plot: A man’s corpse lay restless in his coffin as his mother pleads with a priest for help at his funeral. Breakdown: Another episode that starts off with the creepiness immediately, but also one that I just don’t understand. Spoilers: Right off the bat, we see a dead man, Hiromichi, flailing in his coffin. Apparently, he’s been afflicted with some grudge and haunting since before he even died.

Plot: Bingo and Rolly, dressed as detectives for Halloween, try to solve the mystery of the missing treat bowl. Breakdown: I’ve never heard of this show, but it’s about puppies, and it’s a Halloween special, so I’m all for it! This special was alright. Felt more slanted towards mystery-solving than Halloween, to be honest, but that’s fine. The overall vibe of this show seems fun enough for little kids.

Episode 9: Desire Release Plot: A boy from the city is forced to move to a rural area for two years. He’s not happy about the move at all, particularly that he has to give up his friends and old school for two years. Some kids from his new school give him a tiny bit of hope when they bring him somewhere that supposedly grants wishes.

Plot: Ami shows Usagi and Rei her favorite park and her close friend Kunitaki. However, he shares some sad news and says that the park is soon to be demolished into a business district. Meanwhile, Rei gets Mamoru to go on a date with her so she can have a date with a cute guy in the park before it's destroyed.

Episode 7: Used Car Plot: A man buys a used car for a great price, but it comes with a tragic past. Breakdown: I had a mixed reaction to this one. Buying something and finding out it’s haunted is pretty old hat at this point in the horror genre. I think they did a good enough job with the scares at the very end to make it effective, but it was also pretty confusing.

Plot: X Middle School’s cocky rapping chess king, Checkmatey, is being threatened by an unknown saboteur. Fillmore and Ingrid are tasked with protecting him at least until the chess tournament is over. However, Checkmatey’s attitude grates on Fillmore and Ingrid’s nerves, and they have just as much trouble keeping him in check as they do finding the culprit. Breakdown: I’ve decided that the next series I will put on my more regular rotation to replace Space-Time Detective Genshi-Kun in order to speed up completing it will be Fillmore!

Episode 5: Paprika Plot: A man buys his childhood home as the new home for him, his wife, and his daughter. As they work on some renovations, they find an old dog doll that belonged to the father when he was a boy. His father had bought it for him when his dog, Paprika, passed away while saving him from getting run over by a car.

Plot: In Syrup Village, the Straw Hat crew meets Usopp – the sharpshooter with a habit of constantly telling tall tales. He has befriended several people in the village, particularly the rich and beautiful Kaya, but most people in the village are frustrated and annoyed at his lying and antics. Kaya’s imposing butler, Klahadore, confronts Usopp and the Straw Hats to protect Kaya from their troublemaking ways.

Episode 3: The Dawn Girl Plot: Two thieves attempt to steal a statue of a woman called The Dawn Girl from a local park. Breakdown: I really enjoyed this one. It was a bit easy to figure out some aspects of it, but I loved the janky animation on the statue, and the final scene was equal parts freaky and funny.

Plot: Shun’s brother, Ikki, now sporting the Phoenix Cloth, has seemingly returned from the dead and has crashed the tournament in the middle of Shun’s match with Jabu. While Shun’s elated to see his brother at first, it soon becomes clear that this Ikki is not the same loving brother Shun once knew. Ikki immediately attacks Shun and Jabu, shattering their armor and badly wounding them with Ikki barely lifting a finger.

Episode 1: My Girlfriend Plot: A man is haunted by the spirit of his girlfriend’s deceased ex-boyfriend. Breakdown: Wake up, everyone! It’s time for Animating Halloween! And with a new year comes two new seasons of Yami Shibai to cover during this spooky season, so let’s hop on it. Season 14’s opener has a group of people in narrator masks all talking over each other to say the usual preamble.

Drowzee Name: Drowzee’s another one of those names where it’s just an existing word but misspelled. I don’t mind much, though, because it’s very fitting, and the word “drowsy” is pretty snappy and cool. The Wiki obviously points this out, but it also suggests it could include “Zzz” as in the onomatopoeia for snoring. That makes sense but is also a bit of a reach, if you ask me.