I've now seen the first three new shows of this season.

Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku - "Loner Life in Another World": Took a flyer on this because it was mentioned on .clue. It is, alas, a pretty typical "Class is summoned to another world" Isekai. Our protagonist is the book-reading loner in his class that is otherwise evenly divided into easily identifiable, stereotypical cliques (Jocks, Nerds, Gyaru, and Student Government). He's genre-savvy enough that he tried to dodge the magic circle that appeared under the class, but it followed him into the vents. The reward for his evasion is that he gets the last pick of the skills the "God" has on offer, and they're just the scraps, except they serve him pretty well for wilderness survival.

The episode ends though with the four cliques approaching him from all directions with unknown intent (Although I guess we can assume the Jocks are evil.) but any kind of reunification is already ruled out by his assigned class that prevents him from forming a party.

Not expecting much from this one.

Saikyou no Shienshoku "Wajutsushi" de Aru Ore wa Sekai Saikyou Clan wo Shitagaeru - "The Most Notorious "Talker" Runs the World's Greatest Clan": A Fantasy, rather than an Isekai. Demon portals open up randomly over towns and "Seekers" fight them off. Our protagonist's grandfather is legendary, but goes down in a final battle defending their village. He raised him to be a Seeker, but they assigned him the "Talker" class, which basically boils down to being the tactician with bard-like abilities to buff his party by giving them orders, a few weak offensive spells, and a magic revolver (just roll with it). Apparently there's a huge boon in monster leftovers for advanced magic tech, and Seekers are famous. But our hero's four-man team are mere subcontractors to a clan, so they get the short end of the stick. Surprisingly, he isn't the leader, that's their swordsman, and the healer is the leader's girlfriend. They also have a tank with a huge axe, which he has to grind with our hero, while he also crudely hits on the healer. Now our hero of course has the goal to be "The Best" even in the weakest class, and apparently he's rich thanks to gramps (Mum apparently wasn't all that good of a Seeker, which is why gramps raised him). He offers to put in his cash along with the group's funds to start a clan, so they don't have to subcontract any more. They all agree to meet over it in another couple of days.

At the appointed time, the tank busts into our hero's room and tells him that the leader and the healer have taken off with all the money. That's an interesting surprise. We'll see where they go with it. I wasn't expecting much from this one either, but at least there's a bit of a twist at the start.

"Acro Trip": Date Chuzuko is a young girl who gets shunted from place to place as her mom constantly gets relocated for business reasons. We meet her as she's riding with her Grandfather in his Kei truck to his place, where she'll be spending the week while the movers relocate her mom's house. Nothing excites her much. She's considered "Mature" by her folks. During the drive something brown lands on the truck and takes off, but she doesn't get a good look at it and thinks nothing more of it. Later, her grandfather takes her to the mall (Which does not impress her, she's seen malls before) but he has to leave her there because he has to drive a neighbor with a bad back to the hospital. She's surprised when she sees a claw machine at the arcade full of bear dolls that look like the thing that landed on the truck. She surmises that they're not popular since nobody's going for them. And later she nearly sits on a strange cat who makes a very distinctly non-cat sound. Then a girl with long pink hair and an empty cat carrier runs up and thanks her for finding her cat. Not a Circle K anywhere in sight, but strange things are still afoot, and she's barely scratched the surface.

Strange things or not, it's not enough to break through her apathy. She's walking back to her Grandfather's place, along the canal. She wonders if she'll ever find a place she wants to settle down. Whereever it is, it's going to be quieter without these air raid sirens going off. That's when she sees a guy in fancy clothes running along the river with a couple of giant bears running beside him, and a pink-haired magical girl appears on the bridge. A battle ensues, during which the bridge gets totally destroyed. Chizuko watches this with utter amazement. Not even noticing as she gets soaked by the rain.

When she gets home, she is excited beyond belief, and begs her mother if she can keep living with her Grandfather. This is where she wants to live. Naniga City has a Magical Girl!

In the second half of the episode, she's started in the new school. The intercom announces that there's a "Kaijin" alert, and her classmates are NOT thrilled. I guess the ongoing magical girl battles are old hat to them. A couple of girls mourn that this means they can't go to Karaoke. But not Chizuko. She grabs her backpack and rushes off in the rain to try to get to the site of the battle in time. Alas, she can't, but she CAN see the Jumbotron with witness-supplied video of the battle, which is how she learns the Magical Girl's name is Berry Blossom, and the Villain is Chrome. The battle is over in seconds. It was very lame.

Did she say that out loud? Yes she did. Did anyone hear her? Just that still sizzling villain standing behind her. She doesn't even look before she launches into her critique. When she's done, she finally notices who it is, but when he advances on her, she folds her umbrella and whacks him with it, which is enough to send him crawling. But he says he appreciates her insights, and asks if they could talk elsewhere. After all, they both love Berry Blossom....

At an outdoor table at a nearby cafe, Chrome starts monologuing at her about his origin, when he first started terrorizing this town, and their first battle, and how she rose to the occasion to defeat him. Chizuko pegs him as a masochist who just likes it when Berry Blossom takes him down. He ripostes with how she wants her to endure harder battles. She's smart enough to realize that she needs to run. But the bears catch her. She was afraid he was going to kidnap her and use her as bait. He didn't think of that option, he just wants to recruit her to his evil organization, Fossa Magna. She runs again, making her escape. But she's haunted by the offer. She convinces herself it was only a dream, until she goes to the convenience store and Chrome, in his civilian role as Kuroma, is working the cash register.

Surprise!

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