In this raft of cancellations and suspensions, we're coming up to more disastous ones, and Eccentric Family was gunning strongly for the win. The pain of betrayed expectations made it the worst. It started with Evirus' secret messages, and then Nova quipped how it was "like the chemo to cure all the edgy and preachy pseudo-intelligentsia shows that have been all the rage recently". No. It is the cancer, not the chemo. But the cancer that is pretending to be the cure.

No disagreement about the qualities here: the storytelling and direction are supremely competent. The way Uchouten Kazoku is put together is level with Katanagatari. It's that good. The problem, however, is that just about everyone involved is a massive asshole. Which they ought to be, because tanuki are supposed to be mischievous. Obviously. Still, I spent 8 episodes hating everyone to bits — most of all Benten — and it wasn't much fun at all.

Another, smaller, issue was that the supposedly interesting life was very uninteresting, because it was so worthless. What have you accomplished, guys?

I only lasted so long because I hoped that Kaisei would redeem this stinker, but she didn't.