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18if

18if is an interesting one, and one I’ve seen more than the first episode of. It’s not one long serialized story, but an anthology of short stories loosely connected by a plot about a young man entering the dreams of comatosed women and helping them through their trauma (or not). It’s sort of a Kino’s Journey meets Alice in Wonderland vibe, though admittedly not as good as either. 

Like all anthologies, some of the stories are pretty good, and some of the stories are pretty not. It’s generally agreed that episodes 3, 7 and 10 are its best, with episode 9 being the most WTF, and will either leave you slack jawed with horror, or laughing your ass off, and no I’m not going to explain anything at all, you can toss the dice on that viewing experience yourself. But it does have a dick genie, if you need a hint about what you’re getting into.

18if’s clearly not got a huge budget, but I respect its experimental ambitions, even if it never reaches the great heights of other, better anthologies. If you’re into such things, this is one worth checking out. 

Extra half a point for hot cat man voiced by Yakehito Koyasu,  6.5/10. 

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11 Eyes

You know why this is called 11 Eyes? Because there’s 6 main characters and one has an eyepatch. Do you get it? Do you? Heu heu heu. He’s not even missing an eye, it’s just a different color and he’s embarrassed by that. Apparently wearing a big gaudy eyepatch is a better option than, like, a colored lens.

I don’t remember his name so, protagonist Eyepatch Boy spends the whole episode hanging out with his totally cute and completely devoid of personality childhood friend while in the background various mysterious girls stare wistfully into the sky, or into fires, or at Eyepatch Boy. Oh and also occasionally the world shifts into Nightmare Mode where Eyepatch Boy has to fight off monsters that look like one of those failed cakes on Nailed It. 

11 Eyes is the most 2009 show I’ve ever seen. It’s got those big-eyed, baby-faced characters that were so popular in the day, and its idea of peak humor is the male best friend making gross sexist jokes towards one of the girls and his girlfriend/keeper violently kicking or punching him in the face. Haha, sexual harassment and domestic abuse are so funny! Thank god anime has moved away from these tropes in recent years. Mostly. That shit still rears its ugly head from time to time. At least Eyepatch Boy didn’t fall on top of anyone and grab their tit, though it’s a small blessing as this show shoves in panty shots at the most random times. They’re not even titillating panty shots, it’s like the camera is being held up by ants and they shot her underwear by accident.

Goddamn it anime!

4/10. It’s got plot that moves, and the animation is kinda nice at points, (though some girl’s eyes will go wonky in scenes here and there) but it’s very dated and the characters are like automatons bleep-blooping their way through the story.

[datfirstepisode]

First Episode Review - 07 Ghost

Join me on my journey to watch the first episode of every anime on Crunchyroll in alphabetical order!

07 GHOST

He might have less painful thoughts if he pulled the spire out of his ass.

For the start of this adventure we could’ve done a lot worse than 07 Ghost.

07 Ghost has some of those post Code Geass vibes, but gayer. I’m not sure if this is the kind of show that would go full gay, or just tease us with an abundance of sexual tension between hot men for 25 episodes while never officially sealing the deal. Either way, there is barrels of hot men in this episode and only like, one woman who definitely isn’t going to show up again.

The front half was a bit exposition heavy, and yet I still only vaguely understand their world. Protagonist Teito and his best bud who likes to crawl into his bed and snuggle him (they’re just friends though, guys!) are in some military school to join some elite prestigious army. Who are they fighting? Why? Enh doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that Teito passes with flying colors because he’s the bestest, smartest, coolest student in school. In fact he doesn’t even need classes anymore because he’s surpassed all the teachers in awesomeness. Oh and he has amnesia because of course he does. 

To pass the final exam you just have to beat the shit out of a criminal with five of your classmates. Sounds not too hard, except that the criminal is like, 40 feet tall for some unexplained reason. Are giants in this world? Or does evil build your muscles like steroids? Whatever. Regardless awesome Teito kicks his ass. (Right after the criminal is done rattling him like a salt shaker, which is kind of hilarious for what’s supposed to be a super tense fight scene.)

The second half of the episode is when the show decides to pour a literal bucket of hot dudes into your lap. Hot bad guys, hot good guys. Just so many hot guys. With the hottest being an evil guy who’s evil and also looking for someone who can use some super special relic. Of course it’s Teito. Teito is the chosen one. Unfortunately the relic makes a sound that awakens some tragic memories in Teito, and he attacks the hot bad guy. Hot bad guy is pretty dumb though. Even though he knows the relic user is nearby, and he literally has the relic in his hand, he doesn’t think to test the relic on Teito before attempting to murder his face. Like bro. You’re gonna have some serious egg on your face when you have to explain to your superiors that you killed the chosen one on a whim.

Anyways the episode wraps with Teito escaping and falls into the laps of even more hot guys. Just… hot guys falling from the sky, yo.

For a first episode I’d give 07 Ghost a 7/10. It’s fun, things happen, plot moves. The animation looks a little cheap but not awful. The hot guys are all tropey AF but they’re decently designed, albeit definitely radiate 2010 fujoshi vibes. In fact I’m surprised this show isn’t more well known, which makes me wonder if it horribly drops the ball down the line.