#animoose and mango

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hello! do you have any yuri manga recommendations? im trying to read more of it but i get overwhelmed with how there are simultaneous so many and so few

Aaaah dude I hear you. I was voracious for a time and went dumpster diving into mangadex’s yuri tag and consumed the entire thing a while back and there are a lot of bad takes. a lot. I’m overwhelmed thinking about the mountain of trash i had to climb to stand here but i would absolutely love to share some works that stuck with me!!

I think Kase-san and Morning Glories is a great place to start, and I consider it to be a hallmark gl series for a lot of reasons. It’s an easy way in-- the stakes are low, the drama is minor, both characters are charming and wholesome but not Class S Chaste. But there’s lots of gl manga that take place at a high school and are about two girls falling in love, so if you’ve already covered Kase-san, check out Hana ni Arashi or Hana to Hoshi. I will always make a case for A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, even though it gets flak for not being Yuri Enough or whatever because i think it is nice to look at and sweet to read 

Bloom Into You is as fantastic as everyone says, and although I personally think it’s a better character piece than it is a romance, it’s still well worth the read. BiY is concerned with many lesbian experiences and really tries to showcase that. Not exclusively gl, but Shimanami Tasogare is a very nice read that addresses and looks at a number of LGBT experiences and features a lesbian couple as part of the main cast and should definitely be considered part of the queer canon. 

Speaking of the queer canon, please consider reading My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, which is not a manga so much as it is a manifesto. There is no easy way to read My Lesbian Experience, every pass at it is affecting, and it hurts to read about hurt but if you’re reading gl work, i think it’s important to read this one real lesbian’s take alongside it. 

if I had a nickel for every gl that was about a girl getting into a relationship with a girl while already being in a relationship, i’d have a couple of nickels. which isn’t much, but it’s weird that it happens so often. please note that these feature cheating pretty prominently. Run Away With Me Girl is a soaring, magical manic middle finger to compulsory heterosexuality and the idea that marriage and children is for men and women only. Even Though We’re Adults plays out much the same way, except it is more about the Guilt of realizing you’re Gay but in a relationship with a Man. (Takako Shimura has a couple of gl works, so if this one doesn’t call out to you, try Sweet Blue Flowers, which is high school slow burn. Her work is often about messy people with messy emotions and can be divisive, but I admire her hauntingly sparse layouts and very human characters.) After Hours is a little different, a little more hip, a little more about girls who meet girls at clubs and then stumble into being DJs and then perform with their new gfs at a club after they break up with their bfs. 

Lesbians who fuck up, so much! So Do You Wanna Go Out Or is a masterclass in disaster lesbians but it’s also really smart about how it presents sex-- frank and fun and kind of mortifying. Still Sick is a meta manga about messy lesbians who create doujin and manga. 

Some recommendations for gl that aren’t strictly manga: Her Shim Cheong, a historical Korean revenge thriller webcomic about the role class, religion, and tradition take in oppressing women and women who love women. Mage and Demon Queen is good self-aware genre schlock full of lamp-shading and is about what happens to all those little girls who grow up with crushes on Disney villans. Roadqueen: Eternal Roadtrip to Love is giddy manic goodtimes that almost borders on parody, but like, with a pure heart. 

As a rule, yuri is a niche genre, so if you find a work you enjoy, try seeing if the author has done more because quite often they have. Morinaga Milk and Akiko Morishima are big names and have quite a few works, so definitely try something by them because odds are there’s something you’re going to like! Also, basically anything Sexy Akiba Detectives scanlates is good shit bc they’re good taste gang

There are more titles I’d recommend, but then it starts getting into the weeds of preference. Stuff like Cheerful Amnesia, My Wish is to Fall in Love Until You Die, Pieta, or Just Let Your Future Burn, which I like well enough but would have difficulty selling. There are dozens and dozens of high school romances as mentioned, so I could rattle off more of those, too, haha.

looking forward, we’ve got Otherside Picnic and Adachi and Shimamura getting anime adaptations soon, so consider checking those out!

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Well that just begs the question, what are your top 10 anime ops? ;)

Aaaaaaah tough question!!! I guess I trend towards more stylistic OPs………....here’s the list that came to mind, in no particular order: 

-Xam’d Lost Memories’ OP is firstly a Bop and secondly just a solid package-- I love the continuity of the letter threading together the beginning and ending, and the foot tapping is instantly iconic 

-Paranoia Agent’s OP still gives me goosebumps. it’s such a haunting wake up call, especially when I first experienced it at 2AM on adult swim, and it lives in my hindbrain

-Eden of the East’s OP is a graphic designer’s dream. I see “the abuse of power is when it disjoins remorse from greatness” and I go nuts

-Kokkoku’s OP just goes so hard. Absolutely baller visuals, great color design, killer song

-Dororo’s OP woke me the fuck up when I first saw it. Guy who directed Redline did it and it shows. Excellent shit

-Obligatory Death Parade because it’s fun as hell and funky fresh

-Another Boom Boom Satellites OP: Kiznaiver is a kaleidoscopic tumble down a rabbit hole 

-The overlooked and underappreciated Yama no Susume’s 2nd OP is delighted with textures and patterns, a precursor to the Yuru Camp OP (which is also excellent), bright and cheerful and fresh

-Samurai Champloo’s OP is a stylish and unique classic, and sets the scene for the entire show and rockets me back to my youth

-Soul Eater’s first OP is a godtier bit of editing and timing magic, and a banger to boot

Honorable Mentions: 

-Kaguya-sama

-Eureka Seven

-Princess Principal

-Lain

-Acca 13

-Wasteful Days of High School Girls

-Kaiba

-Eizouken

-Kakegurui xx

-Girl’s Last Tour

These are close to my heart because they are so Terrible:

-Ginga Densetsu Weed

-Detective Conan

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forbidden bri give us the top 10 eds,,,

hhhhh ok ok ok this is hard but here’s some EDs that come to mind: 

-Eden of the East is doing something right, because it gets on this list, too. I dig it when there’s a huge art style shift, and this papercraft ED is imaginative and seems so labor-intensive that it’s just plain impressive

-everyone should watch K-On, and of its EDs No Thank You! is the most iconic. I love this vision of the OPs being all home video-style footage and the EDs being this polished, professional music video. excellent stuff

-welcome to the wacky world of Space Dandy. I love this tune-- which is pretty at odds with the rest of the show-- and this sudden cutesy Sanrio-esque art shift. it’s eye-meltingly experimental and trippy

-Sarazanmai had the fortune to snag The Peggies for their ED and the chorus STAND BY ME ONEEEEEGA II III is instant karaoke material. the characters composited on live action footage and the lighting effects are super cool, as well

-Tatami Galaxy’s ED is a microcosm of the narrative and that’s awesome. I love watching it, it is memorizing. I want it as a screen saver

-Kekaki Sensen’s ED was a huge meme for good reason-- Sugar Song to Bitter Step is a bop and the dance number that accompanies it is vivacious and full of character and energy. 

-Hisone to Masotan’s dance number is similarly memorable but for different reasons-- the French song from 1966, the oddball character designs, and the jerky, janky way the characters dance are all instantly memorable and fun. 

-Despite its numerous controversies, from a purely animatic perspective, Stars Align had a pitch perfect ED. The conceit of choreography being performed by each character allows for such a range of information to be delivered purely through animation, and it is such a monumental achievement of that. 

-Revue Starlight’s constantly evolving ED made it so that it never tired itself out and made each episode either sweet or haunting. When a character disappears from or appears alone in the ED, you knew you were In for It. Just a neat little bit of extra topping

-*counts quickly* uhhhhh look at this lil bear dance in the Yurikuma Arashi ED

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this season was kind of whack, but at least we had Eizouken

Heya Camp is just kind of a lazy reminder that Yuru Camp exists, and will continue to exist in the future. You remember these characters?? OK good, just making sure. That said, did I immediately feel the tension release in my entire body when I heard the OST? Duh. Did I sing “it’s coffee time” to the ending not knowing these were the incorrect lyrics? The entire time.

I don’t know what to do with Isekai Quartet because like, objectively, I should hate it. I do not enjoy like 2.5 of the shows involved, and the addition of Shield Hero was not a welcome one. Turns out it doesn’t matter anyway because it was just Isekai Quartet and also Naofumi is Sometimes Scowling in the Background and that’s about as much of him as I want to see anyway. And yet? I do enjoy this Disney Channel Original Crossover. There’s something inherently fun about watching these characters from disparate shows interact with each other, and no matter what the original stakes were in their respective series, they’re all just doing homework and getting part time jobs and that shit’s funny when a big skeleton man is doing it.

After its first episode, Asteroid in Love was kind of a slog. This is your typical seasonal CGDGT show, and apart from that, I really can’t think of anything to say about it. I didn’t learn anything about the Extremely Niche Topic these girls are doing, and it wasn’t even that gay. Disappointing. 

I was really looking forward to Toilet Bound Hanako-kun because I am a big fan of the source material, but I was pretty let down by this adaptation. It seems that they prioritized the art style and the color scheme above everything else, but that essentially just meant the entire project ended up being colored manga panels. I wanted to see them move around! There was not a single moment of animation that justified it being an anime. You might as well have been watching a PowerPoint. I can’t think of anything nice to say. Let’s move on. 

Bofuri is my power fantasy. I want to play a video game so cluelessly I break it into tiny pieces and bumble into being the most powerful player in the world’s nicest MMORPG. Maple turns powercreep into powersprint. What Bofuri lacks in character development or plot, it makes up for in outrageous Maple feats. She holds the entire world in the palm of her hand and she doesn’t even know it. She named her OP pet turtle Syrup and then turned into an alien abomination unknown to the world and went on a killing rampage. This anime was Maple Crossing Online. Love you, Maple. Wreck shit, Maple. 

If My Favorite Idol Got Into Budokan, I Would Die walks a thin line and what separates it from being a slobbering idol otaku engine preaching how Cool it is to Be an Otaku and an Idol Show Watamote is the fact that Eripiyo is a girl. That’s it. If you took her and replaced her with your average Joe Schmoe-san, this show would be insufferably creepy. Every time I was waiting for it to topple over, Jenga-like, it managed to right itself and straddle the tightrope. It’s not a particularly subtle piece of media, nor does it do what I was hoping it would do and engage in any sort of conversation about the obsessive nature of idol otakudom, but you know what it does a good job of doing? Portraying being an idol as a job. Just some adults putting on underground shows and selling the same CD of like two songs over and over again. I was also hoping it would address what happened to Eripiyo, maybe talk about why at the beginning she’s dressed like an office worker and apparently gives that all up to follow this kinda-shitty idol group, why this fanatic escapism is preferable, or even maybe address how gay it is? Not in the cards, though. Honestly Budokan was, despite itself, pretty enjoyable? There are some great background lesbians. Also can we talk about how consistently good the production values were on this show? Why did this have such great dance sequences? Why did this look better than Love “Has More Money Than God” Live? Actually no I take everything back this show was kind of just Idol Otaku Watamote

Hey, let’s talk about the other idol show airing this season: the completely unhinged 22/7. This show is Whack. This show operates on an entire different plane of reality. I know nothing about the actual band, so I came into this blind and oh my god. Hey guys, the plot of 22/7 is that a Wall tells some girls to form an idol unit.  A sentient Wall whose orders absolutely must be followed. Why? Dunno! What happens if you don’t follow its orders? Never elaborated on. (Actually, is this a reference to Pink Floyd? I have no fucking clue.) In any case these eight girls, summoned by a letter from the Wall, are all invited to become an idol group, and then they’re magically an idol group. It’s unclear how they become successful, how they book gigs, who’s keeping the lights on at the agency, how they’re getting paid, who HR is, how their gorilla man agent found this Wall and determined that all its directives Must Be Followed, but shit, man. What follows in 22/7 is a one-member-per-episode serial that quite frankly stumbles far more often than it succeeds. One girl’s grandma died and that’s why she came to Japan. One girl had a traumatizing experience where she got lost in the woods for a week and it broke her family apart and now things just suck forever. These things are equal. One poor girl’s entire episode was about how she didn’t want to put on a bathing suit for a photo shoot and how uncomfortable she felt about it, but in the end she was made to apologize for dragging her feet for so long and takes her photo for a pin up. Yuck. Gross. Bad. The only valid girl is Jun, end of discussion. None of this even holds a candle to the finale-- wherein the girls are directed by the Wall to disband, and, defying an order for the first time, the girls return to their agency and throw shit at the Wall until it breaks down. It’s revealed that the Wall isn’t supernatural-- behind it are tv monitors, photos of the girls as children, records of their activities. A person or people are behind this. Why??? Are they being groomed?? Is the Wall a metaphor for the Industry? I’m so concerned. The girls aren’t, though, because after a little side eyeing, they ascend a staircase and wow! A Stage! Our fans are all here for our reunion tour! And then they’re fine and I guess their idol group is back together or something? Did I mention the stage where they perform? It’s at a zoo. I can’t tell if this is the most scathing condemnation of idol culture I’ve ever watched or just completely oblivious. The characters don’t engage in any sort of thought about what they’re being put through, but they are performing their final song, the lyrics of which are about how life is just too hard to keep on living, at a zoo and I don’t think you can have that sort of thing happen unless you’re trying to make a point. Right??? RIGHT?!? Dance and sing, monkeys.

Smile Down the Runway was another show completely divorced from reality. So you got your main character, Chiyuki, whose thing is that she’s Too Short to Be a Model at her father’s very prestigious modeling agency. Which, like, is valid! Let’s see some variation in the modeling industry. Let’s shake it up. Let’s lead the charge for alternative models with bodies outside of the very narrow requirements of the fashion industry. What’s that, Chiyuki? You have no interest in that? You want to be a Hypermodel? I don’t know what that shit is, I think you made it up. Our other protagonist is Ikuto, the destitute, put upon, bobcut boy with a dying mother and 3 younger siblings who is trying to pursue his dream of becoming a fashion designer. Are you beginning to sense the problem here? There is a fundamental imbalance in the presentation of these characters’ goals and situations. Also? Emotions are at an eleven, always. Characters are always acting as if they’ve just seen someone get murdered in front of their eyes even when it’s like. There’s a messed up seam. They are constantly being mortified, crushed, and having their dreams ripped away. One time, two different assholes offered Ikuto magical mom-fixing blood money when he was struggling to come up with funds to pay off his medical debt at the cost of giving up his spot in the fashion show. Wildin’ 

Haikyuu didn’t exactly come in like a lion, but I’m sure it’ll be more organic upon rewatching. We were laying the groundwork for much of this season so I’m expecting it to payoff later, but the beginning definitely lagged. Every time Haikyuu hints at a women’s volleyball tournament, I want a volleyball anime with girls. Man, those ten minutes we got with Kiyoko? Those were great. 

I don’t have too much to say about Somali and Forest Spirit. Abe’s “Make Children” agenda feels at least a little more like a narrative choice in this anime, and I enjoyed Somali and the Golem’s relationship and their travels were in equal turns harrowing and heartwarming. And I did tear up at the end so you got me there, anime. 

In/Spectre has some balls being an anime. It’s existed as a light novel and a manga and those are both superior mediums for it because let’s put all our cards on the table here-- In/Spectre is a show about talking. Five whole entire episodes take place in a car. The finale is winning an argument in an anonymous 4chan chatroom. That said, I have such a fondness for In/Spectre. I think Kotoko rocks. I think a show willing to do nothing but talk at you for two hours is badass. Sitting through this anime is like watching a podcast. I think the show engages in some great dialogue about human nature and how we prefer stories that are theatrical, narratively-driven, and have a logical cause-and-effect, instead of the truth, which is more often than not grim, and disappointing, and illogical. I like that Kotoko’s only function, in-story and out of it, is to bullshit so hard she invents alternate realities. Anyway In/Spectre is good. 

There’s no praise I can lavish on Eizouken that hasn’t already been said. It’s powerful, it’s strange, it’s energetic, and it’s packaged with such love. It’s repurposed the CGDCT template into something deeply affecting. It’s an anime for people who love animation.  I hope everyone watches Eizouken.

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Bri!!! What were some of your favorite anime of the decade? :D

A singularity impossible task which I will now undertake!!!

I combed through my MAL for series between 2010 and 2019 and by that count I have 368 entries. please don’t look at me. in order to form some semblance of order, I’ve broken my picks down by completely arbitrary categories.

Here are some of my favorite anime from the decade:

Kyoani Korner, god I love Naoko Yamada:

Hyouka

K-On!

Hibike Euphonium

A Silent Voice

Liz and the Blue Bird

Welcome to Ikuhara’s Twisted Mind:

Mawaru Penguindrum

Yurikuma Arashi

Let Rie Mastumoto Out of her Gilt Precure Cage:

Kyousougiga

Kekkai Sensen

Yuusa Rules so Hard, God I Need to Watch Ping Pong:

Tatami Galaxy

Night is Short, Walk on Girl

Movies that Aren’t Your Name:

Maquia

When Marnie Was There

In This Corner of the World

Patema Inverted

Promare

Sakuga Fuel:

Space Dandy

Yama no Susume

Occultic;Nine

Land of the Lustrous

Kimetsu no Yaiba

Shows That Make You Feel Like, Sad, But Also Kinda Happy You Get to Feel Sad:

 Mushishi

Girls Last Tour

Sora no Woto

Non Non Biyori

Yuru Camp

It’s About the Journey:

A Place Further Than the Universe

Shirobako

Little Witch Academia

Ascendance of a Bookworm

Underappreciated in Their Time:

Big Windup

Robotics;Notes

The Eccentric Family

I Want 12 Episodes and a Complete Story:

Death Parade

Erased

Kiznaiver

Psyche!

Zombieland Saga

Gakkou Gurashi

Durarara!

Boogiepop and Others

The Promised Neverland

Giggles and Shit: 

Hinamatsuri

Kaguya-sama: Love is War

Hitoribocchi 

Cute Girls Shoot Guns:

Princess Principal

SAO Alternative: Gun Gale Online

Girls Und Panzer

LBGT and Other Woes:

O Maidens in Your Savage Season

Princess Jellyfish

Bloom Into You

Kase-san and Morning Glories

Shows That Know They Are Being Consumed and Hate You for It:

Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight

Re:Zero

SSSS.Gridman

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My Wish is to Fall in Love Until You Die takes place at Murder Hogwarts for Orphans. Shiina is one of these orphans, and she attends a school that trains up wizards for some great war that is happening far away. Her roommate dies. Then she meets Mimi. Mimi is really, really good at magic, which means she’s really, really good at killing people. Mimi is also, like, 12.

there’s an undercurrent of something sinister, but it’s hidden very well underneath moments of calm. The dynamic between the leads is warm and charming but over it hangs the dread and guilt that Shiina feels because the only reason she has avoided being sent to the battlefield is because Mimi is so good at what she does.

war trauma and survivor’s guilt on the Murder Hogwarts Express: the yuri manga/10

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elibean replied to your post “man, folks on here talk like FMA is the only manga they’ve ever read...”

You should rec some women-written manga! ;D

YOU GOT IT, BUB

Jun Mochizuki’s Pandora Hearts 

Ryoko Kui’s Delicious in Dungeon

Adachitoka’s Noragami

Asa Higuchi’s Big Windup

Riyoko Ikeda’s infinitely influential Rose of Versailles and Claudine

Takako Shimura’s LBGT+ works like Wandering Son and Sweet Blue Flowers

anything by Akiko Higashimura but Jellyfish Princess and Tokyo Tarareba Girls specifically

Ooima Yoshitoki’s A Silent Voice and her currently publishing To Your Eternity 

Kamome Shirahama’s Witch Hat Atelier 

Yuki Urashibara’s Mushishi or Cats are Facing West

anything by Kaoru Mori, Emma and A Bride’s Story being the standouts (my favorite is Shirley!) 

Kazue Kato’s Blue Exorcist

anything by Aya Nakahara, starting with Lovely Complex

Shinobu Ohtaka’s Magi

Izumi Tsubaki’s Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun

Yuki Midorikawa’s Natsume's Book of Friends

Chica Umino’s March Comes in Like a Lion and Honey and Clover

and of course works by CLAMP, Rumiko Takashashi, and Naoko Takeuchi 

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this is the first season i’ve just considered not watching any anime at all. but I did anyway. 

the continuing Dr Stone aka Spartan Crafts Club has wormed its way deeper into my heart, and even though it’s still not a title I would tell people to go out and watch, it was a fun palate cleanser for the rest of the garbo this season. Crazy how a former hentai artist treats his female characters better than Fire Force, woof

my opinions on Vinland Saga remain unchanged: it’s a show that gets a pass from me just by virtue of its unique setting. It’s watching history unfold, and a lot of that is just watching people do terrible things to each other. the last episode, I will say, really elevated the show to a new level in comparison to its first season. 

I thought studio 3Hz had something special after Princess Principal, Flip Flappers, and Gun Gale Online, but then I watched Rifle is Beautiful and Black Fox. Rifle is unexciting and the girls are lazy copypastas of literally every other school girl club anime, and the jarring 3D models look downright uncanny. I was very excited to see Black Fox, but wow executive meddling really took the air out of the sails for this one. It feels half baked and repetitive, convenient when it needs to expedite things and drawn out when it needs to pad itself. I’m not sure what happened at this studio but I really hope it finds its footing again. 

Afterschool Dice Club exists to feature a bunch of board games and I’m OK with that because I enjoyed learning about board games, but the scenario it concocted to justify its existence was a little underperforming. The stakes just don’t feel very compelling-- and they don’t have to be, it's a show about board games, so like...don’t put them in? My board game buying went up by like, at least a hundred percent though so who cares because it did its one job well. 

Kono Oto Tomare really hit its stride in this second season. It’s a slow burn shojo sports-lite show and the emotions finally come to a head, paying off all of what it had sown in season one. It hits those some highs as any sports anime in its soaring moments. It’s cheesy, it’s sparkly, but if you enjoy that sort of fluff, I’d seek it out.

Beastars, oh Beastars. I like Studio Orange and I wanted to understand the buzz surrounding this title. And to its credit: the CGI is not why I didn’t enjoy Beastars. The horny animals and the unsavory gender politics are why I did not enjoy Beastars.

the only thing I can say about Ahiru no Sora is that maybe possibly I would have watched more if it weren’t 50 episodes long.

Stars Align is in the running for AOTS purely by being the only show to have it all: tournament arc, sportsball, a curvy girl who’s not the butt of a joke, trans rep, child abuse and neglect, and plagiarized dance numbers! (It’s okay now, the choreographers were credited and I am allowed to joke about it.) I’m bummed to hear of its production troubles and I hope that a continuation finds its way eventually.

this season had a smorgasbord of greasy isekai, which I immediately regretted sampling. Not sure who the fanservice is for in Kemono Michi-- probably furries, but those furries are better off sticking to Beastars because this was grotty. Do not sniff unconsenting dog asses/10. The shorthand for Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! Is Average Isekai, which it fails at being because it is so boring and also completely misunderstands what the concept of an average is. Cautious Hero somehow ended up on top of this shit sandwich even though it is a horrendous product with one gag and it only does that because it is the only one with any sort of self-awareness and also Rista is a delightful fucking incompetent. The ending, though, implies all sorts of truly horrific things about Seiya’s role in the universe and reincarnation at large and yet it still bills itself as a comedy anime.  wack.

The best isekai was Ascendance of a Bookworm, which I would even go so far as to put in a separate category all its own: “Good Isekai”. Bookworm is great at a lot of things: world building, character establishing, slowly building up the stakes. By the time you’re at the end and you’re looking back at this little girl’s kingdom of shampoo and handicrafts you’ve almost forgotten her original goal was to make a book. I like Bookworm because it’s refreshing to see an isekai protagonist invested in the well being of the people that surround her, and actively work to lift them up. Bookworm is about a plucky little girl choosing to stick it to the class system by inventing and distributing the means to make simple goods that were once restricted to the upper classes to vastly improve life for everyone. DISRUPT THE CLASS SYSTEM, MAIN. EAT THE RICH. very excited to see this get a continuation this summer. AOTS. 

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an extremely varied summer 2019 vis a vis annie may. let us reflect:

Dr. Stone has the biggest false start. It’s genuinely hilarious how much of a misstep the first arc is. It ditches 80% of its main cast 5 episodes in and is so, so much better for it. Senku faking his own death and sending his friends away to “spy on Tsukasa” is like sending a dog away to the farm. Anyway this show is ugly and the pacing is bad but you know what, after we arrive on Gilligan’s Island and Senku begins interacting with the people there I became reluctantly invested. The critiques I had at the beginning of the show—that the premise wanted me to believe in the Power of Science above all things and also gave me a Jojo high schooler who punches a lion so hard it dies—fell away after those things became irrelevant and it turned  into a quirky little science camp show. It’s fun like that, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it to anyone new. A huge spike in my investment came in giving Suika, the little girl with a watermelon on her head, a pair of glasses, so those are the kind of stakes we’re dealing with here in Dr. Stone.

I don’t know how Ohkubo did it the first time. He captured lightning in a bottle with Soul Eater, and a huge part of that is Maka carrying the entire series on her back. Fire Force is bad. Narratively it’s a mess that doesn’t spare a moment for the characters in its story and instead flits from one plot point to the next, and emotionally it’s empty and, to be honest? Unsettling. Studio Shaft’s finger prints are all over this series and even that can’t save it—and in some places it actively hurts it.  There’s so much dead space. Also, let’s address the elephant in the room: this show is misogynist. This show delights in making its female characters uncomfortable. Whether it’s Iris getting her clothes burned off or Tamaki’s “oops I’m accidentally sexy!” bit, it’s Bad, Folks. There’s an uncomfortably long moment where we, the audience, watch Tamaki cry, largely naked, after having her face punched in by her former idol. On a smaller note, Shinra just isn’t a strong enough character to carry the plot; his defining character traits are Smiles Weird and Kicks Things, neither of which are a personality. 

Vinland Saga thrives almost exclusively on the uniqueness of its setting. It’s a dark historical seinen and I welcome the change of tone from traditional seasonal fare. There’s something to be said about the incidental nature of Thorfinn’s presence—the narrative moves almost without him. It gives the story this larger-than-life historical backdrop. We, like Thorfinn, are just kind of along for the ride. Time marches on with or without us there to participate. Also it’s got a sick OST.

O Maidens in Your Savage Season is a show with an audience that’s hard to pin down. I mean, the audience is me, but outside of that it’s a hard sell. It’s a series penned by the divisive Mari Okada about a handful of high school girls coming to terms with sex, sexuality, and girlhood. If you turn your brain off now and stop listening you’re doing yourself a disservice because this show is bombass. It’s incisive and biting without being lewd or over the top or conservative. It tackles some heavy shit and does so with relative grace. It’s got LGBT rep. In one of its soaring moments, a pedophile is punched in the face. It also features a girl walking in on her crush beating it to train-themed porn. It’s extremely uncomfortable to watch and had my heart rate spiking. It’s anime Eighth Grade and it’s harrowing and relatable and challenging without pitting girls against each other and turning a love triangle into yet another tortured shoujo romance. It deftly handles each character’s agonizing and embarrassing struggle with adolescence. I understand why this one flew under the radar but it shouldn’t. Also, Sonezaki’s boyfriend is the smoothest boy alive and I would like any romantic confession to be at least half of what his was.

There’s a show like Wasteful Days of High School Girls every season. You know the drill—it’s a comedy about some girls in high school. Each one of them is a trope. And yet? The glee this show takes in making its cast deliver stupid punch line after stupid punchline, the surprisingly heartfelt moments that give way to absurd freefall, the single digit collective IQ of the cast? Charming and highly successful. I had a good laugh at least every other scene.  

Granbelm is a serviceable magical girl/mecha fusion that treads common ground but manages to have its own voice. In fact, the finale struck me as very engaged in a conversation with Madoka, and the penultimate episode was raw and emotional and even got me a little misty-eyed. Weird flex to say that this is a rare non-Gundam anime to have hand-drawn mecha. If dark magical girl shows are your thing, this is one of the better ones.

The continuing Fruits Basket loses its luster for me the further along I watch. This may change now that we’re getting into all new anime territory, but I couldn’t help but feel as if I just had more fun watching the 2001 anime. I still haven’t come around to Kyo and knowing what’s at the end of this long road just makes it harder. I did enjoy the two episodes each that both Hana and Ou got, and that’s certainly a plus for this new iteration.  

Carole and Tuesday petered off a little at the end, but despite the general consensus that it spent too much time on episodic adventures, I quite enjoyed it. Watanabe shows are consistently odd, offbeat passion projects of love and it is clear that C+T wanted to be a showcase of artists and musicians first and a political narrative second. I got what I came for and even if in, say, my most ideal version of this show features a little more character and a little less Mars Got Talent, I still liked what I got. Besides, soaring cast-comes-together-to-sing-the-final-song moments always get me choked up no matter what.   

Astra Lost in Space was the surprise of the season. The source material is a little-known cult favorite, but I had heard no real buzz about it at all prior to watching and was all the more impressed for it. Astra is a tight little sci-fi narrative that knows its strengths and saves its twists for when you least expect them. It’s filled with charming characters you root for and is competently directed. I had a lot of fun guessing and shooting wild speculations off while I watched. Perfect for a 12 episode adventure complete with a wholesome and warm ending.

If you haven’t checked out Kimetsu no Yaiba yet, do. Just do it. If you’ve been on the fence, just take the leap. This second cour of Demon Slayer went from “this is an enjoyable show” to “holy shit I wish I could watch every episode again for the first time and all at once”. To speak nothing of Ufotable’s absolute mastery over 3D space and the Action Scene, the source material is no slouch either. There’s such a solid backbone of character and empathy and every story featured in Demon Slayer only furthers its ultimate message of family, found and otherwise. I make no exaggeration: episode 19 is one of the most perfect episodes of anime in recent memory. It hits every beat. I watched it twice, back to back. And then after I was done with the season, I voraciously ate up the source material.  If Ufotable adapts all of the manga to the level of care and attention as this first installment, I am very confident in saying that Demon Slayer could be one of the Best.

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for fans of Alien Nine or Girls’ Last Tour, might I recommend Wakusei Closet, a surreal horror manga about two girls, a dream world one can’t escape from, and terrifying mutant creatures that are leaking into reality?

it’s weird, it’s unsettling, it’s got that slow burn cosmic horror simmering in the background. it’s Annihilation with cute anime girls. it’s also uhhhh kinda gay?

sci-fi cosmic horror yuri/10

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a little bit o’ spring anime season retrospective, a little late 👇

I’ve only watched 2.5 series involved in the Isekai Quartet but I was thirsty for Re: Zero content so I tuned in to this. I’mma be honest: this was fun. Crossovers are fun. I really enjoyed seeing funny skeleton man and Goddess of Dumbass interact, and I think equal time and attention was given to all parties involved, and that made it fun, too. It was accessible for someone like me whose knowledge of these shows was only tertiary and even if it had its questionable moments (Darkness I hate you so much), the sum is an enjoyable package. I question if this show could work with any other quartet of isekai heroes because all other isekai protagonists are boring af.

Watching Fruits Basket again makes me realize that I absorbed too much of Tohru Honda into my personality when I was impressionable and wee and never figured out that it was bad. Anyway this was a nice new coat of paint on a beloved series. The updated designs are nice to look at and the care given to the new material is evident. But it is considerably less…fun than the first incarnation and can I be honest? As a manga reader, knowing what I know about how the little love triangle pans out and watching it from the beginning? I just don’t like Kyo like I did when I was 12. Which, uh, wasn’t that much to begin with. Tohru deserves the world and the anime has a lot of work to do to convince me that Kyo can give that to her.

Fairy Gone takes its place alongside The Lost Village for being the biggest waste of time. In its favor: I liked the main character’s design and that she wore pants. Its sins: horrible clunky CGI I could not make out, way too many proper nouns, infodumps every episode, butt rock, a general disinterest in its main cast and their secrets. It expected me to care about a bunch of stuffy old men and their machinations when there were friends-to-enemies girlfriends in the background they weren’t even considering. I don’t remember who the assistant attorney general prime minister of Not-England is and I don’t care. The fact that this gets another 12 episodes is baffling, how anyone could anyone listen to another 12 episodes of dull political cud-chewing is beyond me.

Carole and Tuesday makes La La Land look like a plastic bag tumbling underneath a highway. Carole and Tuesday should win the Oscar for best everything. Carole and Tuesday is the best contemporary musical by a mile. Watanabe has been waiting 25 years just to make this show, and it’s a delightful cross section of everything that’s made his shows successful in the past—the slice of life futurepunk of Cowboy Bebop, the zaniness of Space Dandy, the ensemble cast of Samurai Champloo. It’s a pleasure to watch. I love seeing these girls underestimated and then blow everyone out of the water, it’s a consistent delight. The soundtrack is amazing and everything on it sounds genuine and legitimate—probably because it is. Netflix shouldn’t be keeping this one all to itself.  

Hitoribocchi was a sweet little gem of goodwill. Strange, anxious Bocchi’s quest to make friends with her equally strange classmates was funny, empathetic, and endearing. I love this cast of weirdo misfits and who among us doesn’t secretly hope their friends don’t forget about them when they’re sick oh thank goodness it’s not just me.

Senryuu Shoujo was a little cute, a little funny, a little heartwarming. It’s forgettable but a nice kind of forgettable, where you fondly remember it for five minutes and then move on with your life. It’s a short form series so if you’re in the mood for a quick n’ light shoujo about pining and misunderstanding, this is an easy recommendation.

I think I set my expectations too high for Sarazanmai. I wanted it to be the takedown of yaoi tropes like Yurikuma so gleefully pitchforked yuri tropes, but that wasn’t its project at all. It was Ikuhara’s most visceral work, but also, I feel, his most grounded in reality, which is a weird fucking thing to say about a show wherein three boys turn into kappas to go up the concept of someone’s butt. This was, decidedly, my least favorite Ikuhara title, which isn’t to say it’s bad. It’s just not Penguindrum or Yurikuma. Its scope felt smaller, its commentary less biting, its reveals less….revealing. Stand By Me is a bangin’ ED, though, I will Stand By That.

Kono Oto Tomare suffers from not knowing who its main character is. Surely it’s Megane Senpai, who starts the show off? But it’s not, it’s most assuredly Delinquent Guy, who is the emotional heart of the show and who definitely has something going on with our third main character, Prodigy Girl, leaving Megane Senpai the third wheel. This show just doesn’t start with its feet underneath it—it hobbles along an ungainly fusion of shoujo and sports anime and doesn’t do either tremendously. It does, however, have a heart, and this cast did eventually grow on me and I want to see them succeed. Protip: if your show is about an activity, please feature the activity. There is very little actual koto playing in this show and this is one of its biggest missteps. It’s a serviceable show, but not a great one.

I don’t drop a lot of anime but I dropped Cinderella Nine at episode 5 because it was just too ugly. It was so bad that I began to doubt there was an “on model”. There was just nothing going for it—the character designs were awful, the animation would pass as a power point, and the sportball was nonexistant. Non Non.

Dororo really let me down. I didn’t care for its ending at all, and in fact, sort of felt as if it nullified all the hard work of the prior 23 episodes. Having Dororo and Hyakkimaru part is a terrible decision. Nothing was learned. The payoff was not rewarding. Would have to point to Aldnoah to find an ending in recent memory I disliked more than this one. >:(/10

The show I was most hyped for every week was Demon Slayer. It didn’t start out swinging—Tanjiro’s origin story is unfortunately pretty par for the course in terms of shonen heroes, and the years-long training arc and time skip right after it was not the most inviting beginning. In fact, that’s where I dropped the manga when I tried reading it a couple of years ago. But ufotable makes this serviceable and by the fourth episode or so, I was completely sold. Something I loved about the manga was its unique artstyle and use of patterns and gradients—any other studio would have sacrificed both. Watching a fight scene in Demon Slayer is a joy. Characters ping pong around each other and footwork is fancy and weapons feel dangerous and the techniques look cool and require Tanjiro to puzzle them out. Also, Tanjiro is such a good boy. He drinks so much respect women juice. Every time an episode ends I’m disappointed I don’t have more to watch.