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.

Plot: Tensions rise between Luchia and Kaito, but she still wants to be with him. The girls hear of the legend that says you can ensure mutual love from the one you love if you light a candle inside a cave that is only accessible once a year. The only condition is it has to stay lit until it naturally burns out.

Plot: Escaped convicts wind up as the latest test subjects for twisted scientists who run an island of genetically engineered monsters. 009, 007, and 006 have to locate Monster Island and stop this madness for good. Breakdown: In 1968, after two successful movie releases, Cyborg 009 got its own TV series. Mostly by stroke of luck as writer Masaki Tsuji stated that Cyborg 009 was purely a filler series to take the spot of a show that had recently ended.

Plot: Maylu and Roll blow their tops at Lan and MegaMan for being insensitive as Mr. Match and TorchMan return to wreak fiery havoc on the town. Breakdown: After his defeat at the hands of MegaMan in the first episode, Mr. Match watches a DVD about fire in his depression. A very bad DVD about fireworks because it keeps getting the temperatures wrong.

CotD(s): None Plot: Ash is holed up in his room after his humiliating defeat in round five of the Indigo League Tournament. Misty tries to break him out of his depression by inviting him to go get some fresh air, but he eventually snaps at her to leave him alone. Misty gets fed up and snaps back, starting an argument between the two of them.

Plot: Yuki and many other villager women have been kidnapped by the vampires while being escorted by a massive demon. Atsushi, Akira, and Ken set out to save them. While they’re successful, for the most part, the demon is proving harder to fell than they anticipated. With a lightning-fast tongue that can crush stone like a soda can, it has destroyed their weapons and left them defenseless.