There seem to be a lot of shows recently about girls being decent to geeks. Maybe it's wishful thinking on the part of animation producers. Maybe they think eventually life will imitate art, or maybe they've just tapped into the wishes of their audience.

Class de 2-banme ni Kawaii Onnanoko to Tomodachi ni Natta "I made friends with the second prettiest girl in my class" definitely seems to fit the bill. Loner Maki Maehara totally flubs his class introduction, but something about it resonates with Umi Asanagi, a girl in the orbit of the most popular gyaru in the class. (The boys call her the second prettiest girl in the class behind her back, but I disagree.). They get into the habit of her secretly ditching her gal pals on Fridays to hang out with Maki and play games and watch schlocky shark horror movies. You know they are destined to eventually become a couple, but they're in denial. So it's a slow-burn romance that they don't realize they're in. But there are side effects, as he slowly gets brought into the orbit of the popular girls....

Animation is about average for a slice of life Rom-Com, although the coloring effects are strong. the one bit that strikes me odd is the characters have a bit of a "turtle lip" when their mouths are closed. On the plus side, they have actual lips.

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Kanan-sama wa Akumade Choroi - Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy: Kanan, the devilish daughter of Beezlebub, the devil of Gluttony (Huh?) has decided that what she would most like to feed on is human souls, rather than the mountains of luxurious food that fill the palace. She goes to a high school and sets herself up as the sole member of the Discipline Committee, and plans to shape these dumb animal students into the perfect meal. And the first one she sets her sights on is Youji Kyogi. Unfortunately for her, he interprets her monologuing about eating him as some kind of lewd proposition, and he's all for it. This throws her off guard. And then when he tells her he loves her, that emotion she's never had in her thousands of years comes forth and breaks her gluttonous brain.

So imagine Kyogi as similar to the protagonist from Girlfriend-Girlfriend, overly enthusiastic and loud, and leaping to conclusions so quickly that Kanan is perpetually thrown off her game.

Kanan is ridiculously busty, but it hasn't been particularly shown off yet.

His childhood friend Nadeko Masurao is a shrine maiden. She apparently has been trying to get Youji to call her by her first name for years, but he won't. She asks him for help cleaning the shrine, expecting him to agree because he has a perpetually open schedule, but he declines because he figures he'll be busy with his new girlfriend. Yeah, that's another standard role filled. But her fixation on being on a first name basis compels Youji to bring this up with Kanan. She's too embarrassed to actually say it, but he has no trouble with hers, and every time he says it is another jolt right to her heart.

Yeah, this is the silly dumb comedy of the season. The credits promise plenty of other devils (and angels) showing up. Not sure if this is going to be a harem or just folks messing with them. Time will tell if the funny outweighs the stupid.

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Kami no Niwatsuki Kusunoki-tei - Kusunoki's Garden of Gods: Minato Kusonoki has been able to see spirits since he was a child, but only good ones. He's recently been dispatched to a rather nice house in the country that an uncle had built as a retirement home, but he died two years earlier, before he could retire to it. Unable to see evil spirits, he can't see the miasma hanging over it, but it doesn't matter, because his handwriting has the power to exorcise them (and the only indication that he has done so is the writing fades away.)

Banishing the spirits has a positive effect on the local Yamigama a large wolf-like creature who begins by secretly leaving Minato gifts, unaware that he can be seen, until Minato returns the favor, and they become friends.

In the B-plot, a team of three Onmyoji (priests) are able to see the evil spirits, and are hard pressed to fight their recent increase. During a battle, one escapes and flies off, crashing headlong into Minato, destroying both itself, and his shopping list. Eventually, Saiga Harima, the leader, and most powerful of the Onmyoji ("Most powerful" is a bit of a stretch, they're struggling), tracks down Minato, tells him about the public institution he works for, and begs him to write charms for them. The Yamigama encourages him to do so - which reveals that the priests can't see the good spirits. Saiga pays him an absurd amount of money and promises more, a literal embarrassment of riches that he only accepts because again, the Yamigama tells him to. On impulse, Minato sharpies a pentagram on Saiga's hand, the symbol of Onmyoji, and it immediately becomes intensely useful as Saiga is called away by his partners for a tremendously strong evil they can't handle. The pentagram blows it away trivially.

The Yamigama eventually spawns three cute little martens who are his minions, Seri (with a blue tail), Torika (red), and Utsugi (yellow).

It is lushly animated, and the end credits promise that the house's large garden becomes a popular hang-out for the local spirits. No indications where the B-plot is going.

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