#Anime Reviews

[brucebocchi]

i can't believe i'm saying this but The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You is incredible.

it is the apotheosis of harem anime. it's peak trash. it makes rent-a-girlfriend look like nausicaa. i haven't seen an anime comedy this consistently insane since asobi asobase. it's like every romcom trope got fused together, became sentient, fell into a blender with the panera lemonade, and got mainlined directly into your eyeball.

and i want to be clear that this is 100% intentional. it's funny in all the ways it wants to be. it's meta and self-aware without getting all joss whedon about it, and it doesn't subvert expectations so much as it shoves your nose directly into them. it's basically sneering at you, "oh, you like harem anime? have all the harem anime in the world" like you're homer simpson being force-fed donuts in hell. it is as purely anime bullshit as anime bullshit gets, and it revels in that fact like a pig rolling in shit.

i caught up on girlfriend girlfriend so i could be up to speed on the second season, and this honestly puts it to shame. hyakkano does the harem comedy, the tropey characters, and even the genuinely sweet romantic moments so much better. it's also the first anime i've ever seen make use of the DJ airhorn sound effect, which is instant points in my book.

watch it. i'm serious.

[spacevixenmusic]

Avatar: The Legend of Korra is one of the most profoundly unique animated series ever produced in America. No matter how you slice it, there is nothing else quite like it on the market. The sheer premise alone sounds utterly insane when you consider the sad state of animation over the past decade or so, and without the backing of its parent series (The Last Airbender), it's a pretty grim chance that a show like this would ever have come to exist on its own, at least not in the four-season big budget capacity that Korra fulfilled. And if streaming media continues to push in the bleak and often soulless direction it has been lately, I feel it's possible we may never see something quite like it again.

This is, without a doubt, the longest review I've ever written, because I have so many words to say. You can read the whole thing on my website (blatantly NSFW, 18+ only!) at the link below. There are no ads, no paywall or login required, and no comment sections, just my full unabashed thoughts, plain and simple.

>> READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

*I make no money from doing these reviews, and all opinions expressed within are 100% original and biased exclusively to me and my own tastes. I do not take requests to review shows (unless you like, buy me a DVD set or something I guess).

[beneaththetangles]

Film Review: The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes

How far would you go to make a wish come true? Rumor has it, Urashima Tunnel grants your heart’s desire, if only you can find it and if only you are willing to pay the toll, which is counted out in days and years rather than legal tender. You see, time moves differently inside that endless tunnel where the uncanny maple trees light the way with electric leaves. One day, Kaoru Touno finds that tunnel; on the next, Anzu Hanashiro finds him. 

(Read More)

[hopeymchope]

Why Raeliana Ended Up... Being So Awesome

"Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion" is SO fucking good - so much more up my alley than I ever expected - and I'm going to now struggle to explain why.

The short version is that it's all about the quality of writing and the likeability of our lead heroine. The dialogue is so human and the conflicts never feel based in stupid actions that could just be equally discussed. The characters are all smart and engaging. The animation's no slouch, either, and the opening song is a BANGER.

...okay, so there's a lot of stuff to like. But the writing is the MAIN factor.

I'm getting ahead of myself. See, this all began as a Korean serial web novel, and I would DEEPLY like to read it some day but DAMN, there doesn't seem to be an English translation. It was then adapted into a manwha that thankfully IS being published in English. (...I'd still rather have access to the original source material though.) And now it's additional gotten a visual novel that's coming to Steam and it has this anime adaption! The very last of those being how *I* finally discovered it.

You know what this shot implies *already*, don't you?

Let me get this disclaimer out of the way: This is... an isekai. And I usually recoil from isekai stories because it's not a setup I like to begin with, but they are also SO overdone by now that they feel SO generic.

And yet... lately I've found a couple delicious exceptions. Such as this one.

Lovely Sarcastic Independent Aggressive Manipulative Funny Adorable Badass

Your quick story setup: A young woman (in the web novel and manwha, she's Korean; in the anime, she's Japanese) is killed under mysterious circumstances and wakes up inside the body of Raeliana, a minor character from a Eurpoean Fantasy-style romance novel she recently read. In the book she read, Raeliana's murder is what spurs the main heroine of the story, Beatrice, to come home from studying abroad, investigate and charge the killer with his crime, and fall in love with the mysterious Duke Noah Wynknight along the way.

This immediately presents our New Raeliana with multiple concerns rolling around her brain:

She now lives in a world that resembles a Regency-era European country, albeit with magic and monsters. This means that, as a woman, her options for autonomy are limited. Women in this fantasy world may have slightly more freedom than they did in reality at the same time... but not by a lot. And this becomes an overarching issue to EVERYTHING ELSE she tries to do.

She wasn't fully reincarnated, either — she woke up inside an already-adult body. Which implies that she somehow stole it from the soul that previously inhabited it. If that's the case, where's the Original Raeliana? And how will New Raeliana feel about suddenly occupying another person's life and altering it by her actions, either unwittingly or intentionally?

New Raeliana knows from reading that novel that "she" — or rather, the body she's inhabiting — is supposed to die soon. She also knows who the culprit will be: Her own fiancée that she's been engaged to for years, with both families long having agreed upon the match. She has no intention of just letting herself die twice in rapid succession, but how is she going to get adequate leverage to break it off? And even if she does, will that actually change her fate?

....though if she doesn't die, where does that leave Beatrice's future?

Of course, New Raeliana is wielding the inside knowledge she gleaned from the book about this world and its characters. She uses those resources to work her way into a protective arrangement wherein she lives at the mansion of Duke Noah Wynknight under the guise of being his fiancée. (The Wynknights are evidently well-known for their tradition of incoming fiancées having to live in the same house with their future husband, albeit on separate floors.) Then it's matter of manipulating over events into her favor...

PLOTTING.

This situation makes Noah and Raeliana into Uneasy Allies. And many more challenges will threaten that alliance, as well as his standing and her own survival, including physical dangers from murderers and monsters, societal threats from plotting nobles, the potential exposure of their lies, emotional turmoil from within, and SO MUCH more.

Duke Noah ain't a slouch on SKETCHY-ASS behavior, either.

Ultimately, this is a love story — the kind where some initial antagonism melts into affection against the supposed "better judgment" of those involved. It's can pretty touching, honestly. But along the way, there's just so much fun dialogue and characterization PLUS some really badass bits. The greatness isn't in the concept; it's in the execution. Which is something that's kind of hard to explain in a review like this one. You just have to see it for yourself, and I don't want to ruin any of the highlights.

Well... maybe I can imply a few things.

FEATURING SUCH DELIGHTFUL TROPES AS:

Fake Relationship

Deconfirmed Bachelor

Bodyguarding a Badass

Belligerent Sexual Tension

The Quiet One

Violently Protective (Boy)friend

Wham Shot

[cherry-valentine]

Winter 2024 Anime Season

I didn’t do write ups for the Fall 2023 season because I was only watching two shows and they were just new seasons of shows I’ve written about multiple times before (Dr. Stone and Spy x Family) so I didn’t feel the need. Both were great. I’ll just leave it at that.

Mr. Villain’s Day Off is one of my favorites this season. Following a stereotypical Tokusatsu villain on his not so typical days off from villain work, the show is a tender hearted comedy without a single mean bone in its body. The humor here is more subtle and situational than the usual fast paced slapstick we often see in anime. As a result, the story actually has a heart. The main character, usually just called Shogun (reflecting his status in the villainous organization), spends his days at “work” fighting a team of Power Ranger-like heroes (each of whom actually get some decent characterization and cute moments, especially the perpetually lost Red) and plotting the destruction of humanity so that his race of aliens can take over the planet. But he spends his days off visiting the zoo to see the animals he’s come to adore: pandas. The charm of this extremely charming show is primarily in the contrast between the violent villain who wants to wipe out humanity and the quiet, good natured man who loves pandas and is genuinely enjoying learning about earth and human customs. The art is very nice, nothing too fancy but it serves the story well. The music is soothing. Overall it’s a very sweet and comforting series that wisely avoids going over the top with the comedy and never really drains its primary joke (villain who loves pandas) too much. Recommended (though you’ll definitely get more enjoyment out of this show if you’re at least vaguely familiar with Tokusatsu tropes).

A Sign of Affection is an incredibly sweet and gentle shoujo romance about a young deaf woman named Yuki and the relationship she forms with Itsuomi, a handsome guy from her college who knows several languages and decides to learn sign language after meeting her. There’s been a bit of a trend lately that I’m totally here for: shoujo romances that are wholesome and healthy. Though I definitely enjoy the drama of more spicy shows, it’s also very nice to relax and watch something that’s not going to piss me off. A Sign of Affection is very careful with its romance. Characters behave in more natural, mature ways. There are fewer misunderstandings and the ones we get are completely understandable. It’s just nice to see healthy, equal, consensual relationships. Because those are the ones I want to root for. Yuki’s disability is handled with delicacy and tact. We see her limitations and struggles but we also see her living a full and happy life. The art style is very typical for high quality shoujo. Lots of pastels and gentle, natural designs. The animation is fluid enough for a show like this, and the music fits it well. Recommended if you like romance.

Cherry Magic is a BL (Boys Love) series that continues the fairly recent trend of non toxic BL anime (that started with shows like Given and Sasaki and Miyano). Cherry Magic centers on Adachi, a shy man who discovers he has magical powers after hitting age 30 while still being a virgin. The power? To read the mind of anyone he touches. Out of curiosity he touches his handsome, popular coworker Kurosawa and finds out Kurosawa is in love with him. Once upon a time, nearly every BL anime that came out was full of toxic relationships and, I’ll call it a “strained relationship with consent”. There’s been a lot of discussion over the years about why that was and how people felt about it, but I for one (a straight cis woman, so take my opinion with a grain of salt) always found those aspects to be uncomfortable. Thankfully, like with shoujo romance, modern series have been moving away from abusive relationships with (very) dubious consent. Cherry Magic is refreshing, mainly in that the two leads are 30 and they actually form a very sweet and equal relationship. It’s a very slow burn romance, but it works well here. The art isn’t anything amazing. The character designs are rather generic and the animation quality dips noticeably after the first episode. But the music is nice and the writing is strong enough to carry the show. Recommended.

High Card season two is, so far, a bit of a letdown. Following a group of people using magic playing cards to give them special powers as they try to gather all the cards, the first season was a blast. The characters were fun and the plot, while occasionally getting a little dark, was overall upbeat and energetic. Season two is fine. I’m enjoying it and it’s had a few great episodes, but the pacing just feels off. Some episodes feel disjointed, and just when it seems like the plot is getting tense and urgent, things come to a screeching halt to have backstory or even side story episodes. To be clear, it’s still a very good anime, but so far the second season is failing to live up to the first. The art and animation are still great and the music is too (though the opening and ending themes just don’t compare to the absolute bangers of season one). Definitely still worth watching for the colorful, lively characters alone.

The Demon Prince of Momochi House is a very pretty supernatural shoujo series about an orphaned girl named Himari inheriting a house from a family she never knew, only to find it already occupied by a trio of handsome young men, two of whom are not actually human. It turns out Himari’s new house sits on the border between worlds, and one of the young men, Aoi, is tasked with guarding that border. The plot is fairly episodic, and the show’s main weakness is that it feels very familiar and predictable. The basic setup of “bright cheerful girl with no family moves in with supernatural hot guys” is not new. But it’s a common setup for a reason: it’s charming and fun. The art and design are very pretty. The music is a high point, with my favorite opening theme of the season. It’s a cute show. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s still a fun ride.

Sengoku Youko is a fantasy action series focusing a pair of traveling “siblings” (not related by blood) consisting of Tama (a fox spirit) and Jinka (a human who hates other humans and wants to become a spirit creature). Traveling with them is a young human man named Shinsuke who wants to be a swordsman. The plot is fairly episodic, with the siblings mostly wandering into dangerous situations involving spirit creatures. There’s an overarching plot about a human religious sect that’s been doing experiments to combine humans with spirit creatures, but that’s usually in the background of the other adventures and serves to provide villains. The characters are overall interesting and fun, and a few of them even avoid falling into the usual fantasy anime tropes, or flip those tropes around enough to be interesting. The fights are exciting, even if the powers and abilities aren’t always made clear. It’s nice that there are plenty of powerful lady characters as well. The art and animation are nice, and the music is great. The ending theme is hauntingly beautiful, and my favorite of the season by far.

[dazkinnie]

Genuinely good anime's

So i've noticed that in the Anime communities, certain anime's get more attention than others. Sometimes being overrated as hell and sometimes perfectly rated. However it triggers me when so much shade is cast upon genuinely good anime's that have so much fandom potential so heres a list of personal favourites that just need more attention (ALSO WHY DOES DEMON SLAYER COME UP WHEN YOU SEARCH UP UNDERRATED ANIMES? LIKE I GET THAT MUZAN AND MITSURI ARE SMASH BUT HUHHH?????)

Bungo stray dogs - Listen I know the fandom is growing and its not as underrated as some of the others on this list but I need this series to gain more recognition im not even joking. It kills me when I realise so many members of the fandom don't even know about the basic books (such as no longer human) and rich background of the characters in the series. The way of the househusband - Same kid who recommended me it from my second last post (bl section). He truly has peak taste like no joke. Doukyusei - Such a good adorable bl that I have genuinely no words left. More people need to know about this refreshing movie ;( Neon genesis evangelion - No words. Old but a classic. On netflix. Mainly watched it because it reminded me of the song title New genesis by Ado Perfect blue - ERMMMMM SIR? I'M SO JEALOUS OF THE PEOPLE WHO GOT TO WATCH THIS IN 1997 WHEN IT RELEASED THIS IS MY VILLAIN ARC FR Undead unluck - I'm on this ice right now. Newly released, traumatised forever from the first episode but the plot seems unhinged so I love it :) Great predator - THE MC'S FLIRT SO MUCH THIS IS THE BEST MOST UNDERRATED STUFF EVER JS PLEASE WATCH IT

Paranoia agent - Yes. Just yes. (Also I really dislike MHA but why does Makoto look like that one kid who kicked Deku's balls)

[theanimecritique]

Buddy Daddies Season Review – Winter 2023

When P.A. Works announced the release of Buddy Daddies, anime enthusiasts quickly compared it to last season’s hit, Spy x Family, with its captivating portrayal of found-family dynamics. However, Buddy Daddies Season 1 didn’t simply live in the shadow of its predecessor – it emerged as a unique and refreshing take on the genre. For those unfamiliar, Buddy Daddies follows the story of two hitmen, Kazuki and Rei, who find themselves tasked with caring for a baby named Miri.

Animated by P.A. Works and helmed by director Yoshiyuki Asai, Buddy Daddies takes viewers on a heartwarming journey as these two formidable men discover the joys and challenges of fatherhood. From navigating diaper changes and feeding schedules to protecting Miri from their dangerous line of work, Kazuki and Rei undergo a remarkable transformation as they learn to put their newfound role as dads first.

What sets Buddy Daddies apart is its ability to strike a perfect balance between humor, action, and emotion. The series effortlessly blends heart-pumping fight scenes with heartwarming moments of tenderness and vulnerability. In addition, the animation is top-notch, with stunning visuals that perfectly capture the story’s essence.

[ecargmura]

What I'll Be Reviewing For Fall 2023

Here are the animes I've decided to review for Fall 2023.

My New Boss Is Goofy

Deranged Detective Ron Kamonohashi

Paradox Live: The Animation

Dog Signal

Yuzuki-san Chi no Yon Kyodai (Four Brothers of the Yuzuki Family)

Frieren: Beyond the End

Apothecary Diaries

That's a lot. I might stress myself out, but I do want to challenge myself and do seven because they all look so good.

Are there any other animes you suggest I watch?

Are any of these your watches for next season?

[tantei-armin]

ANIMES I'VE WATCHED - WINTER 2023

I'm going to make these from now on, just for fun. This is about the animes I've watched this season, my short opinion and my rate on each. This is just my personal opinion.

-

DROPPED SHOWS: Tomo-chan is a Girl! (2 eps), The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Collegue (3 eps) and Kaina of The Great Snow Sea (1 eps).

First, let me be clear that none of these shows are bad. I will not rate them, coz I don't think it's fair since I've watched less than 3 episodes of each.

Tomo-chan was funny, but after 2 episodes it just felt generic to me. Ice Guy is a super pretty show and rly cute, but I just got bored and not rly invested to want to know more. Kaina, idk. Obviously the CGI animation can't be compared to Trigun Stampede, but it's not by any means bad. It wasn't the animation that made me drop the show, it simply did not hooked me at all, and after the first episode I completely forgot about it. Let me know if you think I should give them a second try.

Now here are the animes I've finished and my ratings for each (in no particular order). Beware for a few spoilers!

High Card

This one was good, but tbh, I couldnt really connect with any of the characters in the show. I actually enjoyed the episodes where it was just dumb fun with getting to see new characters and their weird powers, more than the episodes with actual plot. So the whole thing with Chris at the end, didnt rly appeal to me much, I felt like I barely new anything about him to actually care. Would I watch it again? Probably not, but I did enjoy it and will most likely give S2 a try.

Rate on MAL: 7/10 (Good)

Bonus: Favorite ED this season.

-

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale

I didn't expect to like this show as much as I did. I assumed I would lose interest quickly like it happened to Ice Guy and Cool Colleague. But the show, aside from being visually super pretty, have a nice (even if not the most creative) premisse and I rly liked the characters. It was one of the few anime that I was actually excited to watch a new episode every week. The only downside for me, is that the plot became repetitive halfway through. Ann gets screwded over by others, coz she is a girl and they are jealous of her talent. That made it get quite tiring near the end. But I am still excited for S2 and I hope the plot moves on a bit more.

Rate on MAL: 8/10 (Very Good).

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In/Spectre S2

Tbh, I feel like this show might be better in manga form than anime. Because there's A LOT if talking. This season (so far) did not have much of a plot, more like 3-4 episodes arcs, that you can watch in random order and it will not affect the experience at all. I like the puzzles and the mystery, but thats about it. I actually waited for each arc to end and watched those episodes on a row, rather than watch weekly. I didnt have to force myself to watch the show and I quite enjoyed each arc. But I wouldnt rewatch it, specially since I know the answer to the mysteries now.

Rate on MAL: 6/10 (Fine).

-

Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari

Went into this one completely blind. I actually kinda loved it. Unlike other shows that I started losing interest by the end, with this one I started to enjoy more as it went. The first episode gave the impression that it would be just another dumb shounen. I didnt expect the romance and actually rly liked it. The characters are very endearing, and it was refreshing seeing a MC that started as an edgelord and turned out to be a complete awkward dork instead of the other way around. Whats so funny to me is that practically nothing big happened by the final episode. It started as classic shounen and kinda ended like a Slice of Life. Would watch it again, and will definitely check out if theres a S2, since it's clear this was just the beginning of the story.

Rate on MAL: 8.5/10 (Very Good)

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Revenger

Another show I went in completely blind and enjoyed it... for like half the show. Would not rewatch it. It's okay, I'm not big on historical shows, but it was interesting for most of it. To be honest, I would have rated this show higher, wasn't for the last episode. If tristamp had the best finale of this bunch, this show had the worst.

(Major spoilers ahead)

There was a whole lot of complicated built to the finale only for it to be SUPER BORING. The villain was so generic and during the entire show he was like this super smart guy, always one step ahead of the heroes... only to die in the dumbest way possible. Seriously he literally standed in front of the guy trying to kill him and say "hey come on join me" and got murdered. And then there was this whole thing during the entire show about having the main dude, forgive himself and find another reason to live and whatever. It kept building up and then in the last moment he was just still depressed and got killed by a character that appeared like twice and they never explained why the kid even did that or why he was so angry at him to begin with. Look, I'm all for sad endings and stuff, but this one just felt like the ending basically made half of the show's point completely useless.

Rate on MAL: 6/10 (Fine)

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Buddy Daddies

This one was great! Very wholesome. It was a lot of fun, but also with some quite good drama. Not gonna lie, I teared up more than once. I expected it to be just dumb comedy, but it turned out to have quite the right amount of fluff and angst. A lot of people expected it to be SpyxFamily Gay Edition, but thats not it. I do have to say though... probably unpopular opinion, but I do NOT like Miri. Honestly she annoyed me to no end. Which makes her more realistic as a kid I guess. Do not go into this if you are expecting some homoerotic tension between the two guys. It's not about that, it's about found family for all parts involved and it's absolutely wholesome. I'll definitely rewatch it some day. Highly recommend.

Rate on MAL: 9 (Great).

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To Your Eternity S2

Aw man this is hard. I absolutely adored the first season, it have probably the most beautiful first episode of all anime. Unfortunately... S2 did not do it for me. I desperately wanted to love the show as much as I did the first season, but it just didn't happen. By the end of the season, I felt detached from it and also disappointed. It didn't give that rush of feelings from season 1, and by the last couple episodes I felt like all the things about loosing people were thrown in the trash with all the revivals. The big reunion was kinda boring too, I was so excited for it, and yet it was just, meh. There were definitely some great highlights, but overall this season was incredibly inferior to S1 imo.

Rate on MAL 7/10

Bonus: Best character development of the season: Bon.

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Trigun Stampede

Listen. LISTEN! If you follow my blog you know. But listen. This show! I'll say it right now: Anime of the Year. Haven't hyperfixated on anything this hard since Banana Fish.

No, I did not watch Trigun, I tried years ago and dropped after like 3 episodes for a bunch of reasons that I''ll not gonna go into rn. Tbh the main reason I decided to watch Stampede was over the visuals. I am a big fan of Studio Orange. I find their shows visually beautiful and just really pleasing to the eyes (where's my Houseki no Kuni S2, Orange!??), and I was instantly attracted to it when I watched the trailer. So I hopped on the first episode for the eyegasm.

But boy, oh boy this show is gorgeous. After the first episode I was hooked solely for the visual experience and the fun ride. By episode 3 I was hooked by the plot, and by episode 4 (with Wolfwood's introduction), I was in love with the characters.

I love the visuals, the designs, the story, the music, everything. Some of the changes people complained about werent actually changed, just postponed (which I theorized would happen halfway through the show), and some of the stuff that is actually different from the 1998 anime are actually the things I did not like in Trigun 98. And thats just a personal preference. But I do think that the fact I didn't watch the 98 show as a kid (it wasnt even released in my country) gave me the opportunity to fully enjoy Stampede without nostalgia getting in the way and clouding my opinion on it. I'll say that I agree that the pacing was quite fast, but I also understand why Orange and Kenji Muto did that, specially after we realized this entire season was a prequel. I do hope S2 slow down the pace a little bit.

But guys. The finale. Holy shit. The finale. I was rendered speechless. The final episode alone was a masterpiece. That's how you raise the bar on how to do a finale. The second cour of 86 had an AMAZING finale, but this here was something else. The animation was stunning, the music (ohmygod the scene they fell from the tower holy shit, when Vash's wing appeared), everything was absolutely incredible.

This was the show I couldnt wait for a new episode. This was the show I kept rewatching the episodes over and over while waiting for the next. And every time I did, I would find a new detail that I didn't notice in the previous watchs. Look, preferences aside, it is crystal clear how much love and passion was put into this show. From the gorgeous animation, to the character's expressions, to the small details everywhere, to the way the studio's staff interacted with the fans on twitter, this show was put together with a lot of effort, passion and thought.

I can say right now that Trigun Stampede easily became one of my favorite shows of all time, and this is coming from someone who have been watching animes for over 20 years. I'm not really planning to try watching Trigun 98 again, but I am planning on starting the manga, specially since I already got spoiled about some big events.

Bonus: Favorite OP of the season.

Rate on MAL: 10/10 (Masterpiece)

Anime of the Year for me 100%. I do not see any anime taking Tristamp's place, not even SnK's finale, and this is coming from an originally SNK obssessed blog. Thats how much Tristamp impacted me.

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That's it!! If you think there's an anime I missed this season and should check out, pls leave it in the comments which is and why I should give it a try.

[blackcatfilmprod]

Hi Guys,

Tomorrow Boys 'n' Ghouls Film Review Podcast reviews the anime Devil's Line here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3HSNWuVIhM via YouTube

[lyrical-lovely]

Anime Review - Idoly Pride (S1)

Idoly Pride. Idoly effing Pride. Where do I even begin to describe the emotional journey that this thing took me on? If you're here, you know that I LOVE idols, so do take that bias into account...

Watch Idoly Pride if: - You want to experience a state of true catharsis - You love idols and music - You have a sister

Do NOT watch Idoly Pride if: - You are not emotionally prepared for it - You don't like women??? - ??? It's 12 episodes you can do it

MILD SPOILERS below the cut- I'm only gonna spoil episode 1 plot points though so

Oh my GOD. Where do I even start? I guess we can begin with a summary. A young man named Kohei becomes an idol producer after being asked to do it by his acquaintance (at the time) Mana. Over the years, Mana goes on to become a legendary idol, but passes away in an accident just before the finals of the Venus Something competition. A few years after that, Kohei begins scouting for a new idol group, and he meets two girls of importance- Sakura, who has a voice that sounds just like Mana's and a heart that told her where to go; and Kotono, Mana's younger sister who took up idol training to follow in her sister's footsteps. The anime follows the story of the two girls discovering their own truth as idols and what the profession means to them. Ultimately, though, this is a story about forgiveness- both of others and of ones-self. That said, there are a lot of lessons to have pulled from this heart-wrenching story, and this is just how I interpreted it.

Love Live walked so Idoly Pride could run. Seriously, Idoly Pride does EVERYTHING right that Love Live got wrong. For example, character development. Sakura and Kotono are, of course, joined by a cast of fun and quirky side characters, who each get a somewhat significant plot point around them. For example, the sister relationship between Chisa and Saki is touching, and Rei's intensity being misinterpreted as cruelty helps her develop as a character, too. All the side idols are really great, and I think that in a second season there'd be a lot of potential for good plot points there.

Idoly Pride also succeeded in that things actually went right. Unlike Love Live, not everything goes wrong for Hoshimi productions, and as a result, the anime is a happy one, not frustrating to watch at all. The characters, for the most part, act as reasonable human beings would and usually make good decisions. They're a bit unrealistically emotionally intelligent- I mean, have you MET high school girls? That aside, I also enjoyed the balance of "filler" to "plot." There's a ton of cute little moments, like Suzu falling asleep and rolling off a bench while waiting for laundry, or Shioriko doing "ego surfing" on her phone between shows. I think this mundane aspect of it gives the characters a bit more realism and makes them so much more likeable.

Just to dote on this show a bit more- the 3D animation was like nothing I've ever seen before, and there were times when it was actually hard to tell what technique the animators were using. There were even times when you could tell they had rendered in 3D, then drawn over the idols in 2D to get an incredible 3D sweeping background with a 2D character overlay. A lot of love was put into repeatedly drawing the intricate costumes on even the side characters, and I really respect that.

The only crime this anime committed was not being long enough! Well, and there were a LOT of loose ends, and I wasn't completely satisfied with what happened at the finals of the Venus Something cup. The solo song performed at the end was absolutely beautiful, but the outcome of the cup as a whole was kind of confusing to me. Well, whatever. Fix it in season 2!

I'd like to bring up two more things before I go. 1, this anime portrays sisters really well. I love the way the relationships between the two sets of sisters are explored. And 2, the handling of the power dynamics between older, male idol producers and the young, often underage, female idols. I think this was presented rather well, and it's something I'd like to see them discuss more in the next season, specifically with Rui.

Overall, it's a 10/10 for me. I cried the last four episodes. Something about this anime knows exactly how to punch you right in the gut. It's beautiful.

[brucebocchi]

Winter 2024 anime, Pt. 2: Mixed reactions, the bench, and the gems

hey y'all, this is also up on my ko-fi! it's free to read both here and there, but i'm struggling financially rn so i could appreciate if you'd throw a few bucks my way if you liked it! part 1 can be found here.

And we're back for part 2! Here's all the new stuff I finished this season, and one more I'll get back to later. As with before, these are sorted alphabetically within each category and are not ranked as of yet.

Also as before, the OP for each series is linked in the title. Check them all out if the header images aren't giving you the right feel for each show, but also check them out because most of them were actually pretty damn good this season.

[Solo Leveling OP voice] LET'S GET IT!

Mixed Bags:

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!

Your standard, quasi-harem “easily flustered Regular Guy wins over hot girls just by being really nice” shonen romcom. I really don’t have much to say about this one other than if you’ve seen My Dress-Up Darling, you’ve basically seen this already. The only thing that really sets it apart is the setting.

Tsubasa (voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki, in a FAR cry from his turn as Mahito in Jujutsu Kaisen) is a straight-laced Tokyoite whose family situation lands him in a small city in the frozen boonies of Hokkaido. While looking for the bus to his new house, he runs into a gyaru in the snowy wild, the underdressed, hilariously-proportioned Minami, and they hit it off. It turns out they go to the same school, there are other cute girls there who take a shine to him as well, it’s nothing new.

I ultimately don’t have much to say about Hokkaido Gals, but I do have a soft spot for series like this, and after reading ahead in the manga I felt obligated to see it through. This is all junk food, but it’s all stuff you’ve seen done better in other series. I also have a soft spot for gyaru in anime and manga, and while I do like Minami just fine, she isn’t Marin Kitagawa or Rumiko Manbagi. I don’t really have it in me to recommend this show to many, though, at least not until another season rolls around, if that ever happens. The manga genuinely does get a lot better as it goes on, but the really worthwhile stuff may not happen until a third season, and I just don’t see that happening. 

The manga has issues that the anime isn’t willing or able to solve, chief of which being the visuals. The art style of the manga is wildly inconsistent, and getting a mediocre animation team on this didn’t help matters at all. While the colors often pop nicely against the pretty, snowy backdrops, nobody looks all that great overall. The characters are recognizable, but they just plain don’t look great a lot of the time, nor do they look consistent from one cut to the next; I said that Minami’s proportions are hilarious, but just as hilarious is how wildly they vacillate from one scene to the next for the sake of trying to titillate the viewer.

My biggest takeaway from both the manga and anime was everything I learned about Hokkaido in the process, and if the series is taking subsidies from the island’s tourism bureau, then it’s a job well done. I want some goddamn jingisukan now. The OP is a great time, though. I’m shocked it took over a decade for us to get a proper “Uptown Funk” knockoff in an anime.

Metallic Rouge

I’ll be upfront in saying that this was my biggest disappointment of the season by far. This show had so much going for it, and what we got was… ugh.

There was an unbelievable amount of promise from the outset: This was Studio Bones’ commemorative 25th anniversary production, and coming from the studio that gave us all-timer adaptations like Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and Mob Psycho 100, not to mention later works from Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichiro Watanabe (including the Cowboy Bebop movie), you can’t fault anyone for having high expectations. It looked to be a fitting production as well: Watanabe’s influence shines through immediately in the gorgeous, lived-in cyberpunk off-world locales and racially diverse cast. Action takes the form of dope robo-tokusatsu transformation fisticuffs, and it’s entirely in 2D animation to boot. The first couple of episodes were killer, too; everything looked and sounded amazing, and there were just enough plot threads teased out that I just had to see how they’d unravel.

It brings me no joy, then, to say that Metallic Rouge collapses into a jumbled mess. I don’t even want to bother talking about what happens in the show because I don’t fucking care anymore. There are few media experiences more sobering than to have it dawn on you over a span of several weeks that “oh… this isn’t actually all that good, is it?” Episode after episode piles on with sloppy lore, weak worldbuilding, warring factions whose names you immediately forget, pointless double-crosses, and the most predictable twist you’ve ever seen. For a while I was willing to accept the fact that I didn’t know what was going on half the time and expected things to become clearer, but now I’m not entirely sure the writers knew either. The stakes apparently kept rising and everything just kept getting more claustrophobic. I’m glad it’s over, if only because if I had to hear “Clair de Lune” one more fucking time, I was going to go ballistic. 

There are several attempts at emotional beats, as the story is rife with tragedy and sacrifice, and every single one lands with a wet thud. Nobody gets enough time, motivation, or characterization for any of these things to feel like they actually matter, and that’s especially a shame because the finale might have been able to stick the landing if the previous episodes were less dense and better paced. Emphasis on “almost,” though, because just before the season ends, we get the absolute most pointless fakeout I’ve seen since The Rise of Skywalker, which is the lowest point of comparison you can make for any work of sci-fi.

This is especially frustrating because on paper, there is so much to like here. Rouge and Naomi are likable-enough deuteragonists with a fun dynamic, and they’d make easy yuri bait in a better show. The characters are all pretty and uniquely designed across the board, and the overall aesthetic, almost a pastiche of late-90’s anime futurism, is undeniable. The toku suit designs are neat and several of the action scenes are gorgeous. The score and soundtrack are outstanding (except for the aforementioned Debussy indulgence). I have few complaints about how the show looks and sounds; the style is great! All of my issues lie with the substance.

Metallic Rouge may have had all the ingredients, but it just needed more time to cook; whether that would have been by doubling the episode count or by more carefully planning the pacing and trimming some of the fat from the lore, I’m still not sure. Probably both. It probably needed better writers, too. Maybe it just isn’t as smart as it acts and there was no way to satisfyingly resolve the clumsy civil rights allegories that bring it uncomfortably close to the likes of Detroit: Become Human. So all of the above, I guess. I tend to adore stories that involve artificially-intelligent beings developing their own wills and emotions and learning to cut their own strings (the likes of Blade Runner, Nier Automata, even a couple of character arcs in the Persona series), but this ain’t it. I’m not even mad anymore. I’m just disappointed.

If there are two positives that will stick with me, though, they would be the absolute banger of an OP and, of course, Naomi Orthmann herself (pictured above, left). Outstanding character design. I’m mildly obsessed. She deserved a better show.

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer

This one isn’t even worth talking about, so here’s a brief synopsis, then I’ll add some commentary, and then we’ll all move on with our lives. 

Rentt, a beloved but mediocre adventurer in a fantasy town, gets lost in the mysterious labyrinth that all adventurers explore for personal gain, gets waxed by a dragon, and awakens as a shitty-looking CGI skeleton. He notices, though, that he’s able to level up better as a skeleton than he did as a human, and with the more monsters he defeats, the more he evolves into something closer to human. The rest isn’t really worth discussing.

If I’m being honest, I should’ve dropped this show much sooner. It looks kinda lousy most of the time, the plot (inasmuch as there even is one) is boring, character designs are forgettable (except for Rentt’s closest ally, Lorraine, holy hell) and it seems wholly uninterested in actually building its own setting. If it returns for a second season, I won’t be there, nor will I feel like I’m missing anything. Each episode felt like a chore to watch. I probably only saw it through because 1) I liked looking at Lorraine, I know what I’m about, and 2) I didn’t want to lump it in with the shows I did drop. The Unwanted Undead Adventurer isn’t as patently upsetting or frustrating as those three, but it just plain isn’t a very good show.

The Witch and the Beast

This show could have been so much more. I was drawn in by the gorgeous character designs and intriguing blend of Victorian gothic aesthetics and architecture with modern infrastructure, and very quickly disappointed by just about everything else. The first episode is an exceptional proof of concept, and almost everything that follows is an upsetting showcase of what could have been.

The story centers around Ashaf, a languid, chain-smoking agent of the governing church with a big-ass coffin strapped to his back, and his partner Guideau, a snarling hyena in a young woman’s body, as they investigate abuses of magic across the continent in search of nefarious witches. Guideau in particular has a bone to pick with witches, as the body they presently inhabit is the result of a witch’s curse, and they remain in furious pursuit of the one who cursed them. The curse can be temporarily undone by a kiss with a witch, allowing Guideau’s true body, a hulking brute confined to the coffin, to escape and wreak havoc. Meaning that on a few occasions we get a girl-on-girl kiss followed by a big dude wrecking shit. There’s also other investigations of serial killings, necromancy, and a cursed sword, and here’s hoping you like those, because the coffin breaks are few and far between.

This wasn’t great! By the third episode I had the sneaking suspicion that the animation talent on hand just wasn’t enough to support the aesthetic. While the character designs are exceptional, almost everyone looks awful in any shot that isn’t completely focused on them. This is especially true of Guideau, who looks so inconsistently off-model from one shot to the next that I’m still not entirely sure what they’re supposed to look like, and that’s kind of unforgivable when we’re talking about a main character. Everything looks too dim and too shiny at the same time, and action scenes look like shit more often than they look interesting. I can see so many flickers of something excellent (or at least really good-looking) in Witch and the Beast, and everything else that keeps those flickers from actually igniting makes it so much more frustrating to watch. Maybe just read the manga instead; the panels I've seen from it were uniformly gorgeous.

Actually, yeah, you should probably just read the manga, because for a season of anime, the pacing is atrocious too. It’s clearly trying to angle for a monster-of-the-week format, but each of these mini-arcs is a little too dense for a single episode, so multiple episodes are dedicated to these one-off curiosities, most of which do nothing to advance the plot or show off what the show does best. And if one of them isn’t particularly interesting, you’re saddled with it for the next two weeks like you've been stuck munching on a mealy apple. And I know you can only adapt so much in a 12-episode season, but the decision to end the season on a flashback arc and a lore dump was baffling. That’s not world-building, that’s lazy, and it made the show’s existing pacing issues feel that much more inane.

I feel like I was sold a false bill of goods. I can only imagine how the mangaka feels about this. Dull and uninspiring all around. What a waste.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic

Isekai, unassuming high school boy gains a unique power, impending war with the Demon Lord, yadda yadda yadda. The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic isn’t anything new or special by any means, nor is it particularly well-animated or -paced, but at its best it’s silly and charming enough that it made a nice, brainless palate cleanser on Fridays.

Usato, your standard quiet high schooler, ends up walking home on a rainy evening with the popular, attractive student council president and VP, when an isekai portal happens. It turns out that it was just the seito-kai that was invited along for the ride (and President Suzune, as it turns out, is fucking psyched to get to be in an isekai), and Usato got caught along with them. When tested for magical aptitude, Suzune and VP Kazuki hit the jackpot with electric and light affinities, respectively, but things go awry when Usato’s reading turns up with healing magic. Terror strikes the palace as the intimidating dommy-mommy Captain Rose barges in to spirit Usato away from his new friends and into her squadron of goons to train him as a combat medic.

As character comedy goes, this one is actually pretty solid at times. Shogo Sakata is plenty of fun as the put-upon, lippy Usato (a much louder role than Chainsaw Man’s Aki Hayakawa), and Atsuko Tanaka (Major Kusanagi herself!) is a blast as the uncompromising Rose, a terrifying slave driver of a drill sergeant with a secret soft side. The dynamic between them is great, too; Usato is over Rose’s shit from the beginning and isn’t afraid to talk back to her, but before you know it, this transforms into friendly banter as Rose clearly takes a shine to Usato and knows he can handle any punishment she doles out. Suzune’s also a bunch of fun now that she’s broken away from having to be the competent, popular girl at school and gets to fully lean into being a complete dork.

Wrong Way also works decently as an isekai, because it makes an effort to stay rooted in high fantasy rather than fall back on JRPG mechanics, meaning there are no stat screens! It also avoids the trappings of wish-fulfillment isekai series by having Usato start out as a regular-ass guy; he’s not a Kirito type, just someone Rose sees as a rough gem in need of cutting. There are no cheat skills or OP weapons or anything, just a kid training every day to get stronger so he can protect the people close to him, and that’s the kind of anime protagonist you should want to be.

For better and for worse, I get serious mid-00s vibes from this one; watch the OP if you don’t believe me. Some of the colors pop uncannily in that early-digipaint-era way, and the animation is pretty middling; the most fluid animation we see is whenever Suzune is acting like a creep. Much like those mid-00s anime, though, Wrong Way may have benefited from being weekly (or twice as long) rather than seasonal. There’s a ton of planting with very little payoff, and it doesn’t feel like the actual scope of the story has even been addressed yet. We don’t even learn why the series has the name it does until someone literally says it aloud in the 11th episode. I may have to reevaluate this season after a possible second, if we ever get one, because this doesn’t stand too well on its own.

Of the anime in this “mixed bags” segment, I’d say I enjoyed Wrong Way the most, but it still had enough problems for me to keep it here. It’s not a particularly bad anime, but it’s not especially good either. I guess we can slot it into what Hazel refers to as “good mid.”

On Hold: 

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (three episodes watched)

Man, what a title. That was the main draw for this BL series, which on paper is basically a gay version of the Mel Gibson vehicle What Women Want. 

Adachi (a surname that will always make me laugh thanks to Persona 4), a gloomy salaryman, has hit the big 3-0 without getting any, and now he can somehow read anyone’s thoughts just by making physical contact with them. Just as he laments that this is his life now, he accidentally bumps into his handsome, popular coworker, Kurosawa, whom he learns has been harboring a massive crush on Adachi this whole time. Well dang, what now? Kurosawa’s a really nice, thoughtful dude, but Adachi’s never even thought about being with a man before! And isn’t there something wrong with already knowing this secret? How can he even go into the office and look Kurosawa in those big, handsome eyes… every single day…

What I’ve seen so far has been pretty solid, if not particularly well animated. The visuals are really my only gripe here; I just put it off for way too long and didn’t have it in me to finish it on time to actually get this thing written and published. Yaoi isn’t my forte, which feels like a shortcoming on my end as a fledgling bisexual, and I’ve already remarked on the solid LGBT representation this past season, so I do plan on hopping back on this one.

I gotta say, the co-leading voice actors put in serious work this season. Adachi is voiced by Chiaki Kobayashi, who continued his role as Stark in Frieren, returned to Mashle as Mash Burnedead, and contributed to Metallic Rouge’s cluttered cast as Noid. Kurosawa’s seiyuu, Ryota Suzuki (of whom I’ll always be a fan for his masterful turn as Yu Ishigami in Kaguya-sama), also held down leading roles in Bang Brave Bang Bravern and The Unwanted Undead Adventurer. They’ve been great in the few episodes of Cherry Magic! that I’ve seen so far, and they’ll be a huge part of what brings me back.

The Gems:

Bang Brave Bang Bravern

I feel like the mark of a perfectly audacious piece of media is in the moments where I find myself incredulously shouting “WHAT THE FUCK AM I WATCHING” at the screen, and Bravern made me do that at least once per episode. I have so many things to say about what makes this show great but all of it can be summed up as “it fucks so goddamn hard.”

A joint military exercise in Hawaii between Japanese and American mech pilots goes south as a sudden invasion by metalloid aliens portends certain doom for humanity. Just in the nick of time, though, a bombastic, autonomous mech named Bravern arrives from space and insists that ace pilot Isami Ao take his reins. Isami reluctantly agrees, and to his consternation, Bravern goes full tokusatsu on everyone’s asses, complete with fully-diegetic theme music, and keeps the threat at bay. With Bravern continuing to pester him to act as a pilot, Isami is forced to take up the mantle of a reluctant hero as everyone rallies around Bravern to save Earth. Tagging along is blond-haired, blue-eyed American pilot Lewis Smith, who gets to live out all of his Top Gun fantasies, right down to the latent homosexuality.

That last point isn’t a projection or anything: This show is legitimately gay as hell, and it rules. Bravern’s feelings towards Isami feel far more romantic than what you’d expect from a literal robot, and his description of how it felt to have Isami pilot him for the first time, as relayed to a grim-faced military council, is riddled with hilarious innuendo. Isami struggles not only with shouldering the burden of needing to be a hero to all of humanity, but also being beset on both sides by a loud, insistent mecha and a dewy-eyed gaijin, both of whom very well seem to want to get in his pants. Intricate rituals punctuate Isami and Lewis’ angsty relationship as these broad-shouldered, muscular men grow ever closer. It’s also worth reiterating that Isami is voiced by Ryota Suzuki, who also voiced Kurosawa in Cherry Magic!, and that may not have even been his gayest role this season. I’m not super well-versed in mecha as a genre, but I do know that there’s a lot of Warrior’s Bond-type stuff in these series, and Bravern lays it on thick. And hard.

This show looks killer, by the way. CGI implementation in 2D anime is still a touchy subject, but Bravern features some of the best I’ve ever seen. Simple cel-shading goes a long way to the point where, outside of some uncanny motion, Bravern himself feels perfectly blended into the hand-drawn animation. Mecha designs range from realistic military-style tech to otherworldly sentient robots, and battle sequences run the same gamut as the stakes rise. As goofy as all of the above may sound, it’s committed to being a grandiose, big-time mecha showcase.

This is as good as camp gets in anime; Bravern does for the mecha genre what Akiba Maid War did for yakuza film pastiche (I have also heard positive comparisons to Samurai Flamenco, which I’ll have to get on ASAP). It’s an excellent mecha show in its own right, and wildly hilarious to boot. Bravern himself is very genre-savvy and seemingly a bit of an otaku himself; he loves acting like a mecha hero, to everyone else’s chagrin. Several of the villains (also mechanical beings, voiced by an all-star seiyuu roster that includes Kenjiro Tsuda, the aforementioned Atsuko Tanaka, and Rie Kugimiya) are total dorks themselves. A CIA interrogator tries to waterboard a mecha at one point. Bravern is a deeply silly show, but the heart is as firmly on the sleeve as the tongue is in the cheek: For as wacky as it can get, the story still unfolds with a straight face and excellent emotional beats. 

This show also has the most unskippable ED of any anime since Chainsaw Man dropped a new one every week. I will not say what happens. You cannot predict what it is. Just watch it. One of the top YouTube comments on that video says “When I saw this ending after episode 2, I thought I was going crazy.” That’s a ringing endorsement.

Chained Soldier

On the heels of 100 Girlfriends completely rewiring my brain, I was raring for some more good old-fashioned anime trash. I was told that there would be plenty this season, but you can consult the “dropped” section to see how well that worked out for me. Chained Soldier came with some significant hype, and soon enough into the first episode I realized that I’d actually skimmed through this manga before (don’t ask why), so I was on board immediately. Now here’s some nice trashy fun.

The world is in peril thanks to creatures called Shuuki that can advance on our world via portals from another dimension. Women primarily lead the charge against these monsters, as this dimension produces a special fruit that can lend them (and not men) otherworldly powers to help them in the fight. Yuuki, a perfectly normal young man, ends up in grave danger as he stumbles into a portal, where he is saved by the beautiful Kyouka, a commander who is able to subjugate Shuuki at will and use them to fight others. In a bind, she asks Yuuki if she can subjugate him, which he agrees to by licking her finger and transforming into a monster himself, at her beck and call. Because of his utility in battle, Yuuki is enlisted into her squad of baddies (and also an 11-year-old), living in their home as a caretaker and answering directly to Kyouka as her “slave.”

I know, I know, but let's settle down for a second. I put “slave” in scare quotes because Chained Soldier fortunately isn’t going full Shield Hero on us; this arrangement has a give-and-take baked in. See, every time Yuuki completes his service, Kyouka (or whomever else takes advantage of this anomaly) is compelled to carry out whatever suitable “reward” springs from his unconscious, and this is where the ecchi kicks in. Sometimes it’s a kiss, and sometimes it’s something a little more; the reward corresponds to the length and intensity of Yuuki’s contributions to battle, so the heat can turn up in the form of, say, clothed face-sitting, a good scrubbing in the bath, or some nice, casual CBT. All of this is to say that “slave” is a bit of a buzzword here: It’s more of a dom/sub situationship with a lot of extra steps.

Yes, just about everything that isn’t an action setup is full-on harem trash, and Chained Soldier lays it on thick, right down to full-on nudity. Nothing about this show resembles high art, but I can’t help but admire such a high level of commitment to its aesthetic, including the sleaze. It fully commits to the bit and doesn’t even bother lampshading its own trashiness. Chained Soldier knows what it’s about, and I respect that. It also has the good sense not to sexualize the youngest girl, which is a point in its favor that I can’t award a couple other shows previously discussed.

And while this show is plenty fun, the action sequences often excellent, and the character designs usually delightful, there’s not actually a whole lot going on here. As I said with Mashle, I know that battle manga like this can take a minute to really get cooking, and as I said with Witch and the Beast, 12 episodes may not always be a sufficient runtime to adapt enough to break ground, but the debut season feels more like a proof of concept than anything else. That being said, Chained Soldier’s manga has a very effusive audience, and its praises don’t seem to entirely be about the boobs and butts, so I’ll wait patiently for the second season. I think it’s earned that much.

Delicious in Dungeon

This is the one I’m having the hardest time writing about because it so confidently and so completely speaks for itself that anything I could add would feel like scattering sawdust at the beach. Dungeon Meshi (I refuse to call it by its official English name) is a widely beloved manga among those who’ve read it, and for Studio Trigger to do an honest-to-goodness manga adaptation for the first time might as well be front page news among anime fans. 

The story follows Laios, the deeply weird human hero, as he delves back into a bizarre and mysterious dungeon to rescue his sister Falin from the belly of a dragon, along with his misfit party: the neurotic half-elven mage Marcille, the temperamental halfling rogue Chilchuck, and the dwarven warrior-slash-chef Senshi. The party is frequently low on supplies, so to survive the trip they’ll need to subsist on the most abundant resource in the dungeon: Monsters. Senshi’s aptitude in the kitchen helps ensure that everything is edible and sufficiently tasty, regardless of how nasty the monster it came from may have been. With monster obstructions out of the way and their bellies filled, our party delves deeper into the dungeon as the mysteries deepen in kind.

I love the character dynamics in this so goddamn much. Marcille and Chilchuck are frequently put off by the food presented to them, but their consternation is worsened by the fact that Laios’ fascination with monsters annoys the shit out of them. I referred to him as “deeply weird,” but that doesn’t begin to describe his absolute galaxy brain, and I mean it as a term of endearment. Laios is deeply knowledgeable and curious about the fauna in the dungeon, and not just how they taste: He is vocally curious about how certain monster attacks may feel, sings along with siren songs, and even keeps a hardcover bestiary inside his breastplate. He’s one of those people you turn to if you have a question on a hyperspecific subject, but you have to be careful how you ask it or else you’re trapped for the next two hours. And I love him for it.

Even putting the comedy aside, there is a fascinating human element at play in Dungeon Meshi, and I can tell that that surface has barely even been scratched yet. Marcille is just as dogged in her pursuit of saving Falin as Laios is, maybe even moreso (remember what I keep saying about LGBT representation this season?). Chilchuck continues to convince himself that he’s only in the job for his own personal gain, but you can see that mask slipping. And I still wanna know what Senshi’s deal is. Even with the five major players I listed, there’s an increasingly deep roster surrounding them—showcasing a broad spectrum of races and ethnicities, both real and fantastical—each with their own histories and motivations, and I cannot wait to see how they play out and interact with one another. There seem to be much deeper themes at play here as well as we learn more about perceptions and grudges between differing races, oppositional magics, clashing ideologies, and the monetary incentives that drive both the dungeon’s exploration and its very existence. I’m here for it.

I’ve been holding off on reading the manga until the season is up in June (though I could crack any day), but I know a loving adaptation when I see one. Not that Trigger ever slacks off in the animation department, but they absolutely brought their A-game here. As with Frieren, the action sequences aren’t frequent, nor are they entirely what the show is about, but they look incredible every single time. Everyone looks bouncy and cartoony in the way only Trigger can pull off while still looking as close as possible to Ryoko Kui’s source material (as far as I can tell). And the food, of course, looks incredible, no matter how weird. This is practically a cooking anime and a fantasy dungeon anime at the same time, and both aspects are visually on point at all times.

I’m obviously speaking from my own bubble as one of the six people who still uses Tumblr in 2024, but I rarely see new anime make a splash like this on social media every single week, and the ones that I do are usually the monster shonen hits like Chainsaw Man or Jujutsu Kaisen. Dungeon Meshi deserves the exposure and success it’s attained, and I’m excited to see it continue. I’d easily slot this right up there with Bravern as one of the best new anime of the season.

A Sign of Affection

I’ve seen a hell of a lot of shonen slice-of-life romances in the past year and change, so a nice fluffy shoujo like this was an excellent palate cleanser. There were a hell of a lot of Big Action Setpieces and panicky teens and grim dungeon crawlers this season, and at the end of the week I wanted to unwind with a bunch of pretty twenty-somethings falling in love with each other.

The show centers on Yuki, a college student living with congenital hearing loss, making do at a public college after growing up at a school for the deaf. Though she’s able to get by with LINE messages and lip reading, she’s unprepared when a foreigner asks for help, but she’s saved by a handsome and mysterious young man named Itsuomi. He’s able to help out, and takes an interest in her when he realizes his fellow undergrad is deaf, and Yuki takes an interest in kind because he’s really goddamn hot. It turns out that he’s a polyglot and an avid world-traveler, but sign language is not in his purview. This mutual interest sparks the concern of her childhood friend, Oushi, one of the few people in her life who already use sign language, who wants to be sure that nothing untoward is happening. And it isn’t, because this is just a really lovely, low-stakes romance story.

This is pure, unfiltered shoujo at its best. Yuki’s internal monologue is peppered with flowery prose, and everything and everyone looks soft and beautiful. Fashionable, doe-eyed women and pillowy-lipped ikemen abound (seriously, holy shit, the lips on these boys) as the scope widens and the main love interests’ friends explore their own possible love stories. Itsuomi is very much of the “mysterious boy” archetype you’ll find in romance stories in this demographic, but he’s not hiding any sort of dark past like you’d typically expect; he’s just an interesting guy who keeps his personal life close to the vest. He’s a self-appointed world citizen who loves learning about how people of all cultures live their lives, and in Yuki he sees someone within his home turf who happens to live in her own world entirely. And it’s easy to see his forward behavior with Yuki as infantilizing at first (Oushi sure does, and I’ll get back to him in a second), but as they grow closer he quickly becomes much more considerate of her boundaries and learns to accommodate her as he studies sign language and gestures that help ensure her comfort. This is a story about Yuki’s horizons broadening just as much as it is about Itsuomi wanting to be let into Yuki’s narrow world, and that sort of synergy makes for some exceptional romance.

A Sign of Affection deserves some credit for refusing to shy away from Yuki’s disability and making a point of depicting her world as one that does little to accommodate her. Very few people in her daily life ever bothered to learn sign language, she relies on a friend to take notes during lectures, and work is hard to come by. It’s an honest depiction that makes an effort not to be exploitative, which is a breath of fresh air. Not only that, but there’s some interesting meta-commentary in there: The only major conflict in the story stems from Oushi’s jealousy, and his reservations about Itsuomi possibly “taking advantage of” Yuki almost feel like he believes that he’s the only one who knows what’s best for her just because he’s done the bare minimum to accommodate her. He thinks he’s coming from a good place, but he winds up accidentally infantilizing her in exactly the way he thinks Itsuomi might. That’s a particularly interesting bit of irony!

I’ve seen enough shonen-oriented romcoms where an unassuming Regular Guy gets flustered as a way-too-casual girl pushes his boundaries (hell, I’ve already reviewed two of those this season), so it’s nice to see the formula flipped for a shoujo as Yuki and her best friend Rin blush and squee over Itsuomi and his coworker Kyouya, respectively. A Sign of Affection isn’t afraid to get a little silly with it, either; plenty of these moments are punctuated by characters’ faces going low-detail or full chibi, and they are cute as shit every single time.

This one was just cozy as hell. If you’re into this sort of thing, swaddle yourself in it and bask.

Solo Leveling

I let this one collect dust after the third episode and didn’t pick it back up until the season was almost up, and honestly, I was kinda dreading it: The trailers didn’t look too promising, the show was slow to start, and it looked like yet another derivative JRPG-style dungeon crawler that managed to get popular. Turns out, nah, this show actually kinda fucks and the web novel series and webtoon it’s based on are popular for a reason. The story is nothing special, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a perfectly serviceable turn-your-brain-off action spectacle with a bit more lying beneath the surface.

In a modern-day South Korea where portals to mysterious dungeons open up and threaten the populace, those who can brave the dungeons, known as hunters, are an invaluable human resource. Once someone is assigned a grade as a hunter, they have that grade for life, barring some rare occurrences. Sung Jinwoo is at the lowest rung on that ladder as an E-rank, incapable of improvement, assigned the epithet “the weakest hunter of all mankind.” He mostly shows up to portal raids as a warm body to fill a quota, and one such job goes haywire as a secondary dungeon within a portal brutally slaughters most of the raid party, Jinwoo included. He somehow wakes up in a hospital, unharmed, and able to access a digital menu before his eyes that exhorts him to do the One Punch Man workout every day, lest he incur punishment. He gets hilariously chadly in the span of a few days in the hospital, including an inexplicable haircut, and finds access to dungeons only he can enter and levels up within this new system.

This one gets off to a slow start and may have benefited from a longer premiere like Oshi no Ko or Frieren, but once the table is fully set, Solo Leveling really starts to cook. Jinwoo’s titular leveling process is a blast from one fight to the next, and as he moves to work in the dungeons that other hunters can access, it turns out he’s been training with the weights on. He’s suddenly fighting way above his pay grade, and after staving off attacks from hunters taking advantage of portals for nefarious ends, he is recruited by an ambitious corporate scion to make some real coin and establish an independent association of hunters.

While it can feel like there’s a whole bunch of table-setting between portal sequences, it’s some smart worldbuilding on Solo Leveling’s end to establish how portal hunting became a central pillar of this society, and doubly so how political and capitalist interests can leave a wide berth for corruption and bad actors. If there’s money to be made in hunting, of course people will find ways to make even more at the expense of others, both at the corporate and personal levels. There’s a lot of talk in there about “survival of the fittest” and “natural selection” and that… makes me nervous.

Those are terms that can be used to justify immoral actions in the name of money, sure, but Jinwoo also uses them to justify his own actions. To what end is he constantly improving himself? Sure, he's doing what he can to provide for his younger sister and their ailing mother, but I see less and less humanity in him as this goes on. There are constant hints at something far more sinister at play than just a dude getting stronger for himself, not the least of which being “the system,” the UI that implores him to keep taking on these “quests.” Someone, or something, seems to be guiding him. Whenever another hunter turns on Jinwoo, of course his self-defense instincts kick in, but system pop-ups instruct him to defeat X number of hostiles like it’s a normal video game scenario. There’s something eerily depersonalized about these encounters, despite them being full-on mortal combat, that gives me serious Ender’s Game vibes. Consider me intrigued.

I’d heard that the Solo Leveling manhwa’s main draw was its visuals, and though I had my doubts early on, I'm sold now. This is a pretty solid presentation! Hiroyuki Sawano turned in yet another banger soundtrack to punctuate all the action setpieces, helping to stitch together a fairly complete package. Said setpieces are exhilarating and almost impressively bloody, and while the animation is nothing impressive in the day-to-day, it goes absolutely batshit when the gloves come off. Movement is inhumanly fluid and the visuals can go into the same psychedelic territories we’ve seen in the likes of Mob Psycho and Jujutsu Kaisen. If this is the new meta for shonen action, I’m not complaining.

By all rights, this is a pretty decent show, but if I’m being honest, this one just hasn’t stuck with me much. And that’s fine! Sometimes I just wanna see some nutty action stuff and move on with my day. Solo Leveling hits that spot perfectly, and I'll be right back there when it returns for its next season.

‘Tis Time for “Torture,” Princess

I was surprised to learn that the gag manga this is based on, with such a seemingly simple premise, has been running for well over 200 chapters and counting. As the anime progressed, I was far more pleasantly surprised to learn that it actually works.

In a standard anime fantasy world where the forces of good are fighting the demonic Hellhorde, an unnamed warrior princess and her talking enchanted sword are taken prisoner and subjected to torture as they’re squeezed for intel. Said “torture,” as the title’s scare quotes would suggest, is mildly unconventional, as the demon baddie inquisitor, aptly named Torture Tortura, attempts to ply the princess by presenting her with tantalizingly delicious-looking food that she can only partake in if she coughs up some info. Naturally, the princess caves every single time, but her intel is often inane and useless, so the “torture” continues. It’s not all food, though: The princess is soon held out of arm’s reach of adorable baby animals by a gyaru beastgirl, pampered into submission by a spa-loving giantess, and is faced with a tsundere vampire faildaughter, who… tries. 

And you’d think that would be it; the joke wears thin and you move onto something else. Before you realize it, though, something’s changed: The princess and her captors are quickly becoming friends. The premise almost feels perfunctory: These inquisitors are actual people just doing their jobs, and whatever happens after the princess’ myriad confessions is fair game. There’s no malice or animosity, even during the “torture” sessions themselves: Everyone will have a blast and grow closer as friends, and then the princess will voluntarily go back to her bedless cell. It’s like Sam and Ralph after they clock out, except they’re almost always off the clock. Everyone is genuinely looking out for each other in all directions, and the only thing that keeps the torture going is the need for a status quo to return to, even as it grows more elastic. If anything, Time for "Torture" is a good example of committing to the bit without having to necessarily rely on it.

The real irony in all of this is that it becomes increasingly apparent that the princess is having her needs met in captivity far better than she ever did back home. In her proud proclamations about how she’ll never cave to the temptations before her (shortly before she does just that), the princess often talks about her upbringing and her time as the head of an imperial legion, but these stories often betray her lack of friendship or any of the little things that make life worth living. Her life as royalty was one of isolation and deprivation, to the point where she finds more freedom and fulfillment as a prisoner. She truly lives in a society.

Hellholm, on the other hand, has a surprisingly healthy approach to things like work-life balance, food, and leisure, and its most valuable prisoner is no exception. The Hell-Lord himself is a surprising exemplar of this; for as much as he looks and talks like your standard terrifying JRPG demon king, he’s a surprisingly good dude! He looks after his family, employees, and even the captive princess as if they are all one and the same; he exhibits strong principles and an aversion to conflict, sees to his employees' needs and wants alike, and is a supportive, loving father to his unbelievably precious little daughter (who also serves as a “torturer,” to the princess’ delight). He’s also a big time anime dork, and even bonds with a knight attempting to rescue the princess over their shared otakudom before sending him off peacefully. As “villains” go, he’s top tier.

Time for "Torture" is nothing groundbreaking by any stretch, but it’s a cute, silly time and it plays with anime fantasy tropes in the same way a six-month-old German shepherd “plays” with a cheap stuffed toy. How long the premise holds up is entirely up to you, but I had a lot of fun with it. I have no idea how this ended up being one of the better shows this season, but I guess it just scratched the right itch for me.

[spacevixenmusic]

Shows like Gushing Over Magical Girls present a "what if" scenario that people like me can use to re-examine how they grew up, and what things they wish they had learned at a younger age. Watching Utena's face flush with excitement as she discovers what turns her on feels extremely familiar to my own teenhood, and I wonder how differently things could have turned out if I'd been allowed to engage with and understand my own kinks back then like she does here. There's a difficult-to-explain sort of catharsis to it that can only be explored in fiction like this, and I think it's not only valid but extremely valuable to have this type of show for that reason.

You can read the full review on my website here! (site is blatantly NSFW, 18+ only!)

*I make no money from doing these reviews and I don't bother with reading comments. My site is 100% ad-free and sponsor-free, and I post new reviews whenever I fucking feel like it.

[beneaththetangles]

Review: Suzume

The animation is stunning, the voice acting flawless, and the soundtrack expansive, but what makes writer-director Makoto Shinkai’s latest film Suzume so very brilliant is the way it plays the heartstrings: this film will have you tearing up over an item of furniture and almost—almost—disliking a cat. In short, Suzume is set not only to break global box office records, but the Internet itself—all while tackling such weighty topics as rural depopulation, childhood grief, and the loneliness that comes with the atomization of modern life.  

Suzume is the work of a storyteller in his prime. It builds on the core of fantasy-tinged romance Shinkai is so well-known for (Your Name, Weathering With You), but unleashes a whole new level of imaginativeness, pressing into the supernatural and dialing up the peril to create 120 minutes of gripping action adventure, peppered with hints of horror and wrapped up in a coming-of-age road trip. These varying genres blend together well in the tale of high school girl, Suzume, and college student, Shouta, who team up to save Japan from a destructive force that lies deep beneath the earth—and the troublesome feline, Daijin, who seems bent on unleashing it.

(Read More)

[hopeymchope]

True confessions from an RE:Zero convert

This might be more of a ramble than my better-organized reviews, but I have a lot to get off my chest.

Personal Backstory: The stuff you skip when reading a recipe

For a long time, I avoided isekai stories. They were so pervasive in anime/manga that I found them quite annoying.

When I first caved, it was only for comedies. I figured that, hey, they're taking the piss out of the genre; that sounds up my alley. So I felt it was safe to enjoy Konosuba. After that, I fell in love with Trapped in a Dating Sim... and to my surprise, it wasn't solely engaging for its overarching comedy. There was more characterization and interpersonal relationship stuff that grabbed me in that one.

That's probably what made me feel more receptive when I saw a couple of people call out Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion as an underappreciated anime highlight of 2023. I gave it a shot one afternoon with only mild expectations for it, and guess what? I adored it.

Yet despite ALL THAT? My expectations for RE:Zero were close to the floor. Raeliana had opened the floodgates, leading me to try some other isekai stories... yet I repeatedly found the ones I tried quite lacking. Furthermore, almost everything I'd read about RE:Zero over the years had been resoundingly negative in spite of its seeming popularity — a real "Sword Art Online" situation, basically.

But eventually, I was curious enough about why some people are invested in these characters that I started giving it a watch. These low expectations left me perfectly disarmed when it began to weave its spell over me.

Storytelling and Worldbuilding: Returning by death

You can neatly divide the show into story arcs, each representing a unique event/hurdle that the protagonist has to get past using his unique power.

The first arc of the story is mostly just setup for some of the important characters and the basic conceit. Our freshly isekai'd Japanese protagonist, Subaru, meets and bonds with a half-elf girl named Emilia, only to soon get tragically murdered. However, he just restarts his life from roughly one day earlier. He can go back in time by dying, giving him a new chance to take new approaches to situations and to accumulate knowledge via loops. Eventually, his "save point" advances to a new point in time... but what causes that to happen is left unknown for now. Making matters even worse is that if he tries to tell anyone about this superpower/curse, he feels intense chest pain as though he's about to be killed... so he has to keep this under wraps. (Though I still wish he'd try to tell people that he can't tell them. We never see if that'd work.)

With Subaru and Emilia established, the second arc introduces the most important supporting characters — Beatrice, Roswaal, Rem and Ram — and also puts one of them through a significant stretch of development. And finally, the third arc takes up the bulk of the series' first season, dealing with... frankly, a LOT. There's a lot crammed into it. You could even argue that it's got multiple smaller arcs stacked inside of it, and that would make complete sense. The third arc definitely does the bulk of the world-building/stage-setting for the future of the series, but there are details and background provided all throughout to get you up to speed on how people think here, how the government works, some of the existing races, etc.

I was initially taken aback by now blasé Subaru is about being transported to another world. This isn't a "death and reincarnation" thing like I've seen in most isekai stories; Subaru just blinks, rubs his eyes, and suddenly he's in a fantasy world just like that. And he... is completely unconcerned and unimpressed by that? It's a weird choice. Combine that with a point late in the first arc where he literally talks to the camera, and I thought maybe we were getting some kind of Deadpool-esque comedic commentary on isekai conventions.

It's the severity of the violence and related agony that makes me take it more seriously than that. I still find animated blood and gore extremely affecting — moreso than fake blood in live-action. That's probably because I was raised on Western animation that contained little to no sign of such violence, whereas Western movies and TV are full of corn syrup and other blood stand-ins. I'm just saying that when the deaths/kills come around in RE:Zero, they hit hard and often quite intensely. They're not showing entrails hanging out (even if they talk about it), but you can expect to see snapping bones and arterial spray. It's still a minority of the time, though; this is NOT a gorefest, and it's better off for that fact. When you suddenly get two minutes of ultraviolence after four episodes of relative peace, that makes it feel all the more effective.

It's not lookin' good there, chief.

I'm an easy mark for this stuff. Some of my primary entry points into anime were horror anime, so playing up this kind of horror gets me to sit up and take notice. It's not going to be anywhere near enough to keep my attention, though. I've certainly watched AWFUL horror anime that had nothing to boast about beyond their gore levels. That's where the quality of RE:Zero's character writing really saves the day.

What's really important to understand is that, through the strength of its gradual buildup of intensity helped along by showing the repeated consequences of failure Re:Zero manages to make some of the big anime shōnen  battles EXTREMELY hype! And yet, thanks to the great characterization? One of my favorite episodes in the whole show is an ep where two characters are just talking the entire time from a single location. THAT is the mark of something I love: If two characters holding a discussion for nearly half an hour has me COMPLETELY GLUED to it.

I've glossed over season two here because, although it still has some excellent moments, it's just not as good as the first. A big part of that is because it's just one giant-huge arc that covers all 26 episodes... and that's a LOT of time to spend on a single ongoing challenge/hurdle. It not only becomes exhausting and kind of boring to be confined to this problem/situation for so goddamn long, but it also makes it extremely obvious when Subaru is going to reach his final time loop and succeed. So once you piece together that the entire season is going to be stuck on this one arc, you realize you're stuck just waiting for him to get close enough to the season's end to finally achieve real progress. Once he does, though? It weirdly manages to feel like it's too soon -- like he didn't do enough to prepare all the problems at hand and somehow just won this time around because he tried super duper hard. There's also the fact that my favorite character from the first season is entirely sidelined (and apparently won't be in season 3 EITHER) — and nobody new manages to step into any similar shoes to pick up the slack.

Sounds like a good time to talk about that that character... as well as the rest.

Characters: The value of growth and change

One of the reasons I got into this so much is because the characters have flaws, go through changes, grow and develop. Rem is an early standout of this. As is apparently a common opinion, she quickly became my favorite character. Her shift from being suspicious and disdainful of Subaru to being 1000% supportive of him is EXTREMELY well-handled, and her sympathetic backstory is also one that we get before most other characters share their own. But when you get down to brass tacks, the main reason I think she's great is because she flips out and goes into violent combat mode whenever anyone she cares about is threatened. :D That's always a favorite archetype of mine. I love me a bloodstained hero or heroine who will march through hell and take any measure of punishment to save someone. Honestly, it makes it hard to understand why he'd so hooked on Emilia when Rem is so peak. And as I mentioned above, a big downside of season 2 is that Rem is completely absent past the first episode. In fact, she won't even be in the upcoming season 3!!! Alas, there is no "person who absolutely tears shit up and covers themselves in the enemy's blood to protect the ones they care about" character who steps in and picks up the slack, so I'm missing my favorite archetype after the first season. TSK.

She's not a princess (a lot of anger in it). Not your cutie girlfriend, oh no, don't you know?

I find it literally depressing that, to date, Rem is STILL not truly back in the cast of the source light novels - not in any way that matters. She makes her cameos via illusions or flashbacks or what-have-you, but she's not really there until she's physically AND mentally present once again. So until she returns to the team with all her memories (and therefore, her all-important character development) intact, I must legitimately ask: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, NAGATSUKI?!

Enough about Rem: We need to talk about the lead protagonist. Subaru is pretty brave throughout all this but really has to grow over the course of the first season and learn to be less self-serving and invest a lot harder into self-improvement. It's nice to see someone who clearly has blatant personal flaws but also is never a detestable person. I actually first saw him when I watched a few episodes of Isekai Quartet a couple years back, and frankly? I found him pretty loathesome over there. I was fully prepared for him to be a shitheel that I was inexplicably expected to like. I'm so glad that this isn't the case. In fact, I love having a character who wears his heart on his sleeve. He's not too manly to weep openly, and he's not afraid to act like a total doofus... or maybe he’s not smart enough sometimes to realize when he does. And although he may be frequently selfish and kind of stupid on multiple occasions, he never becomes one of those perverted male characters or too egotistical. Well... he gets a bit egotistical at times. Too much for someone like me, but... still not overmuch compared to many, many anime protags.

Panic! After Repeated Trauma

And yet... he does get a bit exasperating by the end of season two, imo. Partly because he doesn't grow too much in season two. At least he gets to confront his bottled-up feelings over leaving his homeworld behind, so that's nice. But otherwise, he's pretty much treated as this perfect man whose only major remaining flaw is a lack of combat skill. By the time you've got him convincing yet ANOTHER long-lived character to never give up and put all their faith into him personally just like he's done multiple times before, and it yet AGAIN works? The swelling music and the emotional reaction of the characters to him speechifying about how he'll always be there for them and needs them... that lands well maybe two times, but by this point — when he's talking to a character who has mostly treated him with disdain/avoidance and whom he's only hung out with maybe five or six times — it's pretty hard to swallow, honestly. But I'll try not to hold that against Subaru... I just want him to show some more flaws in future stories that go beyond just "He's not good at fighting." I want him to lose more arguments again. Besides, one of the best things in season two is when his mind starts to crack under the stress and pain of all the deaths he's endured. I think we should dig deeper into that.

I honestly love seeing a hero begin to crack under the pressure.

I kinda cheated by talking about Rem before Emilia. Emilia's the main female lead, after all, whereas Rem is a supporting player. The thing about Emilia, though, is that she's good and noble and pure-hearted from the start. She doesn't grow at all during season one, though at least she does show us a different side of herself when she questions Subaru's behavior during their argument. Season two sees her face her past and gain new inner strength, but she still undergoes far less change than Subaru or Rem in even just the first season. I'm glad they took the time to show her failing and then needing to learn in order to move forward, but Emilia's maybe just a little too perfect, y'know? One thing that garners her a lot of sympathy is that most everyone who meets her dislikes her just for being born a silver-haired half-elf. So many people associate that with one of the gravest threats to ever exist in this world that Emilia has to endure a lot of racism, and honestly? Confronting that racism is when the character is most engaging. So while Emilia is clearly likable and not totally uninteresting, she's not as interesting as a lot of the other players in the story. Most of the characters run deeper than her or have more mysterious goals. Compared to them, Emilia is an open book who rarely changes. The author of the books has said that Emilia is his favorite character, and maybe that's why he never sees much need to develop her. I think it does her a disservice.

On top of being beautiful and kind and intelligent, Emilia is also a powerful combatant. Because of course she is.

Her relationship with Subaru is a major focus, but it seems sort of hollow at first. Subaru admires her kindness/helpfulness and thinks she's beautiful, so he follows her around and dotes on her as much as he can. It's easy to see why he'd admire someone so good-hearted, but it starts to become a little cringe just how obsessively he dotes on her... and that cringiness peaks right around the moment when the two have a big argument and a falling out. It's an important scene that helps both characters, because it shows us Subaru's flaws on full display and also makes him confront just how cringey his devotion to Emilia can come off. Emilia, meanwhile, walks away to spend time without him for a while... though she never really rejects him, either. She really struggles with being independent. She keeps thinking about him and wishing he'd come back and make up with her. Clearly, she's gotten addicted to having a Hype Man around... and goddamn, I can't even blame her. Subaru looks at Emilia the way Stilgar looks at Paul Atreides. Who doesn't want that level of positive reinforcement available 24/7? By the end of season two, although both of them have grown, Subaru's still relentlessly hyping her up. He did criticize her (softly) in one major season two moment, but despite his claims otherwise, he still acts like she's an angel on Earth. And so, although he pool of their romance has grown deeper, it still feels like we've stepped out of the kiddie pool and into the shallow end. It means a lot more to see a character and their feelings grow and change over time, y'know? I suppose part of why we don't see that happening much is because Emilia is treated as so flawless to begin with.

Something I love in a long-running story is when a minor background character slowly starts to appear more frequently until - surprise! - they become a major cast member and full-time supporting player. Season two does this very successfully, and I love the character they expanded and brought into the cast. I feel like I shouldn't say too much about them for anyone who's a newcomer, because the gradual increase in their presence is so enjoyable. But it's a character who first appears in season one and has to wait numerous episodes of season two before they become important enough to get a front-row seat. It's very satisfying to watch them shift slowly from "fifth-tier supporting character who shows up for two scenes" into "major player."

Other characters? Ram is Rem's sister, and she's... not exactly a wealth of depth. Not yet, at least. She's mostly there to act tsundere. Her exact relationship with Roswaal remains hazy by the end of season 2, but she's clearly devoted to him and he's clearly doing... something for her? Roswaal and Beatrice both get by on acting mysterious. We learn a lot more about them in season two, and what we learn makes it hard to tear your eyes off Roswaal especially — he's a fascinating and weird bastard. Puck is a cat-like spirit with a lot of power and a very mischievious attitude. There's a surprising darkness lurking within him that keeps him from being some cute mascot-type. Season 2 also brings us some new characters whose long-term presence among the cast is still in question, but Echidna (not an Australian monotreme) is a standout. She really made me question everything I thought I understood about the moral good-and-evil situation in this reality.

Get those eyebrows under control. We ARE on television, y'know.

Serial Killin'

The series a whole is SO serialized and SO intense that it's really hard to watch it with gaps in-between episodes. Even taking one day off from the show mid-viewing proved too agonizing for me, so I was really grateful I could tear through seasons 1 and 2 in a rapid binge. I say this because... yeah, I don't see myself watching season 3 as it airs. Maybe I'll do a binge for each story arc it contains when they wrap up, or maybe I'll just wait for the whole season to conclude. But either way? This is something that demands to be binged in rapid succession.

I guess you get my point by now. I'm pretty hype about this series in spite of it holding some noteworthy flaws. I'm surprised I can still get so invested in something that dates back as far as 2016 that I haven't seen yet... and that gives me hope for what else I might discover going forward with my anime viewing.

[cherry-valentine]

Winter 2023 Anime Season

Here’s what I’m watching:

Buddy Daddies is easily my favorite new show this season. Following a pair of skilled but unlucky hitmen (Kazuki and Rei) who end up taking in and attempting to raise a little girl they just orphaned (Miri), the show is primarily a comedy. The humor mostly comes from watching two people who are woefully ill equipped to deal with a child having to work through the day to day challenges of caring for a little girl, from finding a good daycare to figuring out how to dress her. These mundane objectives are made hilarious through the lens of these guys being literal assassins. They go from shootouts to making dinner for their daughter. The show also sneaks in some truly heartwarming moments, as well as truly traumatic ones. Both Kazuki and Rei have tragic backgrounds that explain why they can’t just abandon Miri. The relationship between the two men is fun and interesting. While a lot of viewers are hoping for a romance between them, I just don’t see it happening. So far I’ve yet to see a single hint that the story will go that direction. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see it, but I’m afraid there’s going to be a lot of disappointed fans at the end of the season. Other than that, the show has decent animation and excellent character designs (Just look at Rei when he’s in assassin mode. Just. Look. At. Him.), as well as fun peppy music. The series overall is just super watchable. There’s not a moment in any episode that I’m not entertained. Highly recommended.

The Tale of Outcasts follows a young orphan girl named Wisteria who can see a powerful demon named Marbas, a rare ability among humans. Marbas is immortal, very old, and very bored, so he decides to take Wisteria along with him to travel around the country, meeting other demons along the way as well as avoiding powerful demon hunters sent by the church to destroy him, one of them being Wisteria’s long lost older brother Snow. This show is a bit more light hearted and mild than I expected at first. It does have serious or darker moments, but overall the stakes don’t feel incredibly high at any given time. The charm of this story centers on the relationship between Wisteria and Marbas. Both care very much for each other, and thankfully (so far) the age difference prevents it from becoming a romance. If anything, Marbas takes an almost fatherly role with Wisteria, even if he sometimes forgets how fragile humans are and unintentionally puts Wisteria in danger. It’s a soft, sweet relationship that carries the series on its back. The animation is fine, nothing special, and the design work is pretty good. In particular, the demons all have cool designs. I’m not crazy about the music but that’s a small quibble. Recommended.

High Card is an energetic action series set in a fictional modern kingdom where 52 special playing cards give people super powers. These cards were accidentally (?) scattered across the kingdom, one of which lands in the possession of a young thief named Finn. After getting drawn into a battle for possession of another card between rival groups seeking to collect them, Finn is recruited to join High Card, an organization trying to gather all the cards for the king. This is a very colorful, vibrant series with a fun setting, exciting battles, and excellent visuals. The characters are cool, especially Wendy, a somewhat shy and mousy young woman who turns into a batshit crazy, unstoppable killing machine when she uses her card, and Chris, the flippant ladies’ man who is rendered immortal by his card’s ability (and there’s obviously more to him than meets the eye). The animation is slick. The music is, in my opinion, the best of the season (both the opening and ending themes are absolute bangers). Honestly, if not for Buddy Daddies, this would have easily been my favorite new show of the season. The show has a generally light hearted vibe but they’ve thrown at least one episode at us to prove how serious and dark the story can get. Highly recommended.

Bungou Stray Dogs has a new season (I think it’s season four?) and like with a previous season, it opened with a mini arc that’s entirely comprised of a flashback. This is something not every show can get away with, but Bungou Stray Dogs pulls it off. This flashback deals with the creation of the Armed Detective Agency, a group of “gifted” (people with special powers) agents who work with the government to neutralize threats, most often involving other “gifted” folks. When the season’s actual plot kicks in following the flashback, it’s about the Agency being framed for horrific crimes and being pursued by powerful government-sponsored hunters. The strength of this series has always been its ability to balance its genuinely funny humor with the darker, more violent aspects of its plots. It does both things so well, and manages to overlap them without one aspect distracting too much from the other (something a lot of stories, anime or otherwise, struggle to do). This season might just be the darkest yet, with each new nightmarish development making the situation more and more bleak for the Detective Agency. The animation remains polished and the design work attractive and interesting. If you watched previous seasons, you’re definitely already watching this. If you haven’t, this is a great time to catch up.

Revenger follows a group or mercenaries who take jobs killing targets as revenge for people who can’t afford to hire hitmen, charging only a single coin that has been bitten into, to display the rage of the person who was wronged. A skilled but stoic samurai named Raizo joins them after they get involved in a plot by his lord that tricked him into killing his fiancé’s father. While they’re definitely a group of killers, there’s a lot of moral variety among the group, with some seeming to enjoy the kills while others simply want to see the guilty punished. It’s an interesting mix of personalities. There’s an overarching plot about a giant stash of opium hidden somewhere in the city and corrupt government officials, but the show is best when focusing on stand alone stories of random people needing revenge. The animation is decent and the character designs are varied and attractive, particularly the leader of the group Yuen. The backgrounds are especially nice, with lovely colors and lighting. The music is quite good too. It’s not my favorite show this season, but it has a solid spot on my watch list.

Carry Over Shows From Previous Seasons:

Boku no Hero Academia

Blue Lock

Yowamushi Pedal

To Your Eternity

Best of Season:

Best New Show: Buddy Daddies

Best Opening Theme: High Card

Best Ending Theme: Buddy Daddies

Best New Male Character: Rei (Buddy Daddies)

Best New Female Character: Wendy (High Card)