Category: First Impressions

We’re onto week two of the fall season anime premieres and there’s still plenty more to come in this meaty season. So far I’ve enjoyed most of what I’ve come across but I’m not sure if the rest of these premieres will continue that trend or lead down a road of disappointment. Either way I guess my opinions are here for your amusement (or annoyance), so let’s keep going shall we?

Ratings Scale

Bad: Stay away far away from this one.  Not worth watching

Decent: Has some okay elements to it. Might be worth giving a  couple of episodes to see how it goes

Good: Fairly solid show. Should be worth keeping up with for now

Great: Really good show. Definitely worth seeing if you get the chance

Excellent: Really outstanding show. Absolutely worth following .

• All series synopsis from Anime Planet

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Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle

Synopsis: Syalis is a princess. A really cute one. When she gets kidnapped by the Demon King as a hostage, she’s stuck in a castle full of demons, waiting to be rescued by her knight in shining armor. So what does she do? What any of us would. Take a nap—on a pillow she fashioned from her Teddy Demon guards. Duh.

First Impressions: The manga for this has been circulating for awhile, and every account I’d heard of it had it pegged as a pretty solid comedy so I was expecting good things going in. Coming out, I was pretty amused by what I watched, but I’m not sure how much mileage I’ll get out of it. This tale follows the princess of the kingdom of Goodreste (far from the last goofy pun in this show) who is kidnapped by the Demon King and held hostage in his castle. While this situation seems dire on paper, the princess seems pretty okay with things since it gives her plenty of time to sleep. The only problem is she can’t get any rest between her uncomfortable bed, and all the loud noises surrounding her, so she opts to make her living arrangements a little better by acquiring new materials to help with that and comedically brutalizing any demons that either serve or hinder her agenda, and that’s…basically the whole joke. It’s admittedly a pretty solid joke, and while not every instance of her murder gremlin behavior was a gutbuster, I definently got some laughs out of things like her contemplating murdering some sentient teddy bears for their fluffy fur, or her falling into a pit of lava only to get resurrected because the demons can’t afford to have anything happen to her. It’s clear that even though she’s a “prisoner” she’s basically got the run of the place, and even the Demon King finds himself wondering at the end of the episode if he might have made a horrible mistake by kidnapping her. It’s funny, but I’m kinda worried how much can actually stretch the joke. The whole gag about her going on “quests” to obtain better sleeping arrangements was already starting to wear a little thin by the end of the episode, and other jokes like the Demon King never being able to talk to the princess because she’s always asleep when she walks in, get repeated a few times. If there’s already this much repetition in the first episode, I’m not sure how much longetivity this’ll have as a comedy. Thankfully I’ve heard that the manga does manage to do quite a lot with its one joke, so with any luck, I’m just worrying a little too much, but for the time being I’m cautiously optimistic, and I’m willing to give it another episode or two to see if it can branch out a little more with its setup

Rating: Good

Ikebukuro West Gate Park

Synopsis: Crime-ridden Ikebukuro is a haven for violent gangs, the Yakuza, and home to Makoto Majima. To protect his friends, this charismatic troubleshooter mediates disputes among the warring factions—even fixing problems the police can’t. But when a rising tide of violence results in Makoto losing a loved one, can he ride out the storm, or will he drown in all the spilled blood that floods his streets?

First Impressions: I’d heard a little bit of buzz surrounding this show but was otherwise clueless about it, so while I knew it was definently going to have a very urban setting, I wasn’t expecting it to be about Japanese gangs. While stories about gang culture aren’t too unusual in the US these days, I’ve rarely seen them pop up in anime outside of maybe Durarara so this was kind of interesting. The premiere follows Makoto who’s friends with King, the leader of a gang called the G-Boys. When a junkie gets a little girl’s mother hospitalized, Makoto is asked by king to shut down the dealers who supplied him. It’s an effective, if kind of basic setup for this kind of story, but while it does mostly seem to be centered around gangs, I was a little surprised how much it felt like a cop procedural drama. Makoto goes around hunting down leads and talking with contacts in a way similar to what you’d expect out of a western live-action drama, with the only serious bit of underhandeness here being the exact method in which Makoto gets the dealers caught by the cops. It’s certainly not bad, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting something a little grittier, though going by how the episode ends, what happens here is clearly meant to build into something larger. Visually the show also looks to be about what you’d expect from most anime with very urban settings and while that’s certainly not the sort of thing I generally associate with Dogakobo since they tend to do a lot of comedies, it works well enough to get the job done. I can’t say I was quite as blown away by this premiere as I would have liked to be, but it seems to be a perfectly fine variant of what it is, and it doesn’t seem to have much to compete with on Tuesdays so I’m willing to stick with it for a while

Rating: Good

Noblesse

Synopsis: Rai wakes up from 820-years long sleep and starts his new life as a student in a high school founded by his loyal servant, Frankenstein. But his peaceful days with other human students are soon interrupted by mysterious attackers known as the “Unions”.

First Impressions: We’re on the third of these Crunchyroll funded webtoon adaptions and after being burned on both Tower of God, and The God of High School, despite their promising starts, I came into this one with a lot more skepticism. Even with that in mind though, I can safely say that this one is easily the worst of the trio, and while I’m kind of appreciative to know early on not to waste my time with it, I’m kind of astounded how incomprehensible it is. It opens up with a bunch of soldiers getting taken out by a group of presumed super soldiers that appear to be from a group called the Union. From there we cut to a high school in Japan where someone who seems to be an escapee from the Union’s experiments has been hired onto work there at the behest of the school’s director who’s also one of the students, and probably a vampire I guess. From there most of the episode is wacky shenangians involving vampire guy not really getting the modern world, and then a bunch of hoodlums show up trying to fight one of the students for completely a completely contrived reason until the escapee guy scares them off. Also the super soldiers at the beginning of the episode are now in Japan and I guess they’re gonna hunt down the escapee and the vampire guy. If all of that sounded confusing to you, rest assured it somehow both exactly as off the rails as that seems, and also extremely boring throughout. Apparently to follow literally anything that’s happening here you would have been required to watch the Noblesse OVA, which seems reasonable…if not for the fact that it came out four years ago, and even if you advertise that, almost no one going into this show blind is gonna know to do that. I certainly didn’t, and as confused as I was throughout, nothing I saw really made me inclined to go back and see that OVA just for comprehension’s sake. I guess for what it’s worth this show doesn’t look awful, and while I’ve certainly seen better looking productions from Production IG, it seems like it’ll hold up well for the rest of its run. That’s basically the nicest thing I can say though, because otherwise this was far and away the worst premiere I’ve seen all season, and while I’m sure this show might be for somebody, it’s off to a pretty ridiculous start.

Rating: Bad

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World

Synopsis: Embroiled in a hundred-year war, young Iska is sent to assassinate the Ice Calamity Witch, Aliceliese. Meant to murder each other, their initial encounter on the battleground creates doubt in their missions, but finding common ground together would make them traitors to their own countries. Though circumstances previously made them enemies, their now conflicted hearts may just make them lovers!

First Impressions: This one I went into totally blind, to the point where I wasn’t even sure what kind of media it was based off of until I finished the episode, but I had a pretty decent time with it. The series takes place in a world divided between the Empire, and women known as Astral Mages, or witches, as the Empire has deemed them. Our hero Inka was imprisoned for a year after helping to free a witch, but gets let out in order to hunt down a woman named Alice, who’s known as the Ice Calamity Witch. Inka and Alice’s forces meet in combat, and the two have a brief duel, but both realize that they’re idealists with similar aspirations about bringing the war to an end. While both sides end up retreating, the two of them end up having another chance encounter at an opera house, and yeah I’m pretty sure you can already tell where this is going. It looks like this is going to be a fantasy based take on Romeo and Juliet, and while this far from the first anime to go for that particular set-up, I haven’t seen much of the other attempts at it, and it’s an inheriently interesting concept so it was bound to grab my attention so long as everything around it seemed passable enough. Thankfully I can give the show a pretty solid yes on that front as the characters, while fairly archetypal, seem likeable enough, and the world itself seems pretty cool, since as mentioned with Elaina, I’m down for almost anything involving witches, and I’m at least a little curious to learn a little more about the Astral Mages. The production looks pretty decent too if not particularly remarkable, and while it seems like there’ll be plenty of fanservice, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be super obnoxious about it, even if the Romeo and Juliet parallels between Inka and Alice already feel a little on the nose. Aside from the romance, I have no real clue where this show is going, which means it could easily head in any number of disappointing directions, but I liked what I watched well enough that I figure it’s worth at least a couple more episodes.

Rating: Good

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Yuna prefers staying home and obsessively playing her favorite VRMMO game to doing anything else, including going to school. When a strange new update gives her a one-of-a-kind bear outfit that comes with overpowered abilities, Yuna is torn: the outfit is unbearably cute, but too embarrassing to wear in-game. But then she suddenly finds herself transported into the world of the game, facing down monsters and magic for real, and the bear suit becomes the best weapon she has!

First Impressions: It seems like shows about people casually playing video games are back in style and this is the latest in that trend. This particular show follows a girl in a bear suit who gets tasked with taking out a giant black viper attacking a village. The villagers are largely skeptical of her skills because she’s well…in a bear suit, but she turns out to be a pretty tough cookie, and defeats it in style with her awesome bear powers. That’s…basically it. On paper this seems like something I would be down for since her bear suit is very cute and the lead has a pretty chill personality that would make this a relaxing show. The only problem is I’m not quite sure what tone this is trying to go for. While we know the bear girl is just casually playing a game. the stakes of her quest are treated dead seriously, and while that is kinda understandable since we see that from the perspective of the NPCs, because we know the bear girl is probably going to defeat the viper in an overpowered manner it just seems weird to spend most of the episode on such a dark mood, for what’s inevitably going to be an anti-climatic finish. I’m also not sure how feel about what little we see of bear girl’s home life in the real world, where she’s revealed to be a reclusive NEET who’d rather spend her time gaming than going back to school, and its hard to say if the show’s going to address her real world issues in any capacity or actively indulge her lifestyle since I weirdly walked away from that scene feeling it could legitmately go in either direction. To summarize my rambling, this was a much more tonally confused show than I was expecting, and I’m not sure what to make of it. What I can say is that I didn’t hate it and I least like the bear girl’s pair of fluffy bears, so I might give it another episode to see if I can get a better idea of what it’s trying to be. In the meantime though, I’m not sure how much I can actively recommend it, but I guess if anything I mentioned sounds like something that would interest you, maybe give it a shot for yourself.

Rating: Decent

Akudama Drive

Synopsis: Many years ago, a Great Civil War ravaged Japan, leaving the country fragmented between two regions: Kansai and Kanto. In Kansai, a group of six Akudama carry out missions given to them by a mysterious black cat, while evading the police. But a dangerous journey is about to unfold when a civilian girl becomes twisted into the Akudama’s way of life and witnesses their criminal drives.

First Impressions: So this is an original series from Pierrot being helmed by the group of writers responsible for the Dangaronpa franchise, and while I have yet to play even a single one of the Dang-It-Grandpa games because I’m lame, I do like what little I’ve seen of its aesthetic so I was down to check this out. So far I can say it’s off to a pretty wild ride, even if I’m totally sure what exactly it is I watched. This series takes place in some kind of cyberpunk future where public executions are apparently treated like a spectator sport, and a young girl who tries a little too hard to be earnest when not wanting to pay for a meal with money some guy dropped on the ground gets rewarded by being sent to prison. Meanwhile a bunch of presumed expert criminals known as the Akudama all recieve a mysterious request to rescue another Akudama called Cutthroat from being executed. While these killers all trip over each other to beat each other to their prize, the aforementioned girl continues to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and when the Akudama all decide it’s just easier to kill her, she lies and pretends she’s an Akudama herself called Swindler. The Akudama succeed in rescuing cutthroat but they all get collars slapped on to them that could make their heads explode and the kitty that Swindler was carrying with her all this time, has brought these seven together for some mysterious purpose.

To say this is weird would be putting it mildly, but it’s certainly my brand of weird. For one thing, the show is oozing with style, and everything from the cyberpunk design of the enviornments, to the colorful comic book cues the show takes whenever one of the Akudama gets introduced makes for a pretty cool, if weird aesthetic. I also like what we’ve seen of the Akudama so far, and while all of them are only named by their occupations, including Swindler, the episode still manages to give all of them pretty distinct and fun personalities, which makes it pretty fun watching this carnival of killers attempt to outmanuver each other, with death coming to pretty much anyone unfortunate enough to get in their way. Since I know the Dangaronpa franchise is built as much on puzzle-box mysteries as it is quirky characters I assume this show is probably gonna follow suit, but it’s anyone’s guess what kind of mystery will be made out of this already strange set-up, and I’m kind of excited just to see where it goes with that. There’s certainly a lot more style than substance to this premiere, and I imagine that anyone not down with its particular sense of style won’t get much out of this, but it seems like my kind of fun, so I’m ready and willing to tune into this bit of insanity for the foreseeable future.

Rating: Great

Adachi and Shimamura

Synopsis: Known for skipping class on the regular, two girls lives become intertwined when they find each other on the second floor of the gym. From there, Adachi and Shimamura’s friendship slowly grows as they play ping-pong and hang out. But when something happens that changes their relationship, how will they react?

First Impressions: I’d been sold on this series as being a chill yuri romance story, and this premiere more or less delivered on that expectation. It follows a pair of girls named Adachi and Shimamura who happen to meet while ditching class, and gradually become friends as they spend time playing hooky. While Shimamura has at least a couple of close friends, Adachi is a loner, and that puts a bit of distance between them since Adachi seems to prefer the two of them hanging out alone. In terms of actual progression, not much really happens in the episode beyond that, but it more than makes up for it in its sense of atmosphere as the show does a good job of getting you into the heads of both girls through both visually expressive internal monologues and solid character animation. My only real complaint with the show’s direction, was that while the show is far from horny, there were an awful lot of closeups of the girls’ skirts that felt a little weird considering how chill the general tone of the show was, but it’s more of a headscratcher than a dealbreaker, and it never really breaks the tone it’s going for. If my thoughts here seem a bit empty, it’s mainly because this show is clearly going to be a very slow burn, and this premiere ends with very little in the way of what would be considered “romantic progress”. While I imagine something like that is going to test a lot of people’s patience, I enjoyed it more or less, and the girls have some pretty good chemistry, so I’m down for more of it. This certainly isn’t going to be for everyone, but it’s pretty charming so far, and if you can tolerate it’s slow pace, I think it has the chops to deliver on a nice quiet love story.

Rating: Good

The Gymnastics Samurai

Synopsis: Jotaro Aragaki, former member of the national team, had given his whole life for gymnastics and was fighting against his age and physical strength. However, one day he is told by his coach to start thinking of his next career. Jotaro struggles, but his daughter, Rei, is always there by his side. But with one fateful encounter, the Aragakis’ lives change drastically.

First Impressions: While this wasn’t the most anticipated premiere of the season for me it was pretty high up on the list. Between the pedigree of the staff, and the trailers implying this was going to be a wholesome tale about a middle aged single dad trying to stay relevant as an athlete, everything about it seemed to be my brand. As far as what I actually watched was concered, I certainly enjoyed it…but it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. For starters the overall tone of the show was a lot more comedic than some of the trailers implied and while the show does indeed start out with the protagonist Jotaro on the verge of retirement, it’s played less as him being frustrated that he can no longer do what he loves and more that his coach has been trying to tell him for ages he’s past his prime and he’s been too clueless to take a hint until now. In general Jotaro is a lot closer to a himbo than a DILF and most of this premiere is him very badly trying to tell his daughter, Rei that he’s retiring, but failing spectacularly at every turn because he’s kinda dumb, and a weird ninja boy keeps getting in his way. Ah yes, I should probably mention the ninja boy. See when Jotaro and Rei go to watch ninja show performance, one of the ninjas is on the run from the feds, and when said ninja later turns up at Jotaro’s house looking for a place to stay, he turns out to be a foreigner who’s scared of getting deported (boy if that isn’t a 2020 mood, I don’t know what is). He also seems to be really good at gymnastics, and while we don’t quite learn what his deal is yet, seeing him show off his moves, and remembering how much Rei used to enjoy watching him, Jotaro decides not to retire after all during what’s probably gonna go down as a pretty awkward retirement presser.

So uh…yeah this show was a lot more loose and weird that I was expecting (I haven’t even gotten into the goofy looking parrot Jotaro’s family owns) but it suddenly all made sense when I remembered the director, Hisatoshi Shimizu, is probably best remembered right now as the director of one Zombieland Saga, which was also way more weird and chaotic initially than anyone was expecting. The only difference is that show was extremely vague with it’s marketing right up until the premiere so literally no one knew what it was, while this tried to paint itself as being artsy right up until the actual premiere, so if nothing else, I applaud the staff for coming up with a smarter way to hide the joke. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little sad we weren’t getting a serious sports drama about a struggling dad trying to continue with his passion, but at the same time, I can safely say I have absolutely no idea where this show is headed now, and that’s just as exciting in it’s way. Of course given how Zombieland Saga turned out, there’s a non-zero percent chance this’ll turn around into being an actual sports drama in the end, but for now I guess I’m onboard with whatever the heck it is right now.

Rating: Great

The Day I Became A God

Synopsis: Yota Narukami is a high schooler who planned to spend his last summer vacation like most others: preparing for his university entrance exams. But when a young girl named Hina approaches him saying she’s a god, his summer vacation suddenly becomes anything but ordinary.

First Impressions: While he might not be too familar to younger anime fans, the name Jun Maeda has been in the anime sphere for close to a couple of decades now, and depending on who you ask, he’s either famous, or infamous for the melodramas he’s crafted over the years. I can personally say his stuff like Clannad and Angel Beats were shows I enjoyed immensely when I watched them roughly a decade ago, and they have just about as many fans as they do detractors, but his last work Charlotte from 2015 got panned pretty hard for how bonkers it got in its final act, and between that, and how rushed Angel Beats clearly was despite the mostly positive reception, it left many (myself included) wondering if Maeda had finally tapped out of ideas. Apparently not though, because he’s back with a new anime original project, and the premiere is…something. One day a teen boy named Yota has an encounter with a little girl caliing herself Odin who claims to be a god. While Yota dismisses her as loony, alongside her claims that the world will end in 30 days, as she follows him around, it seems like she at least has the ability to predict the future, but isn’t very effective at using it to help Yota hook up with his childhood friend Izanami. That’s more or less what takes up the premiere’s runttime, and while I didn’t quite know what to expect from this, it was a least funnier than I was anticipating. It’s been a good while since I last saw one of his projects so I forgot he has a pretty decent grasp on comedy, and while I can’t say the jokes were super-hilarious, stuff like “Odin” predicting how to help Yota win a baseball game, but having her last prediction fail, or Yota trying to confess to Izanami only for her to reject him outright were pretty funny, and had some solid comedic timing. Of course while Maeda’s stuff can be funny, he’s a guy who’s primary focus is in drama for better or worse (and baseball too I guess because he references it in nearly everything he does) and I’m sure that whole end of the world bit will lead to some kind of emotional rollercoaster later down the line. Admittedly though, despite “Odin” here apparently being able to predict the future, the jury is still out on if this show will actually have much in the way of supernatural shenanigans. Personally I’d kinda prefer if it doesn’t, since a lot of Maeda’s best work happened when he leaned more towards realism, but Charlotte was a thing, so for all I know the apocalypse will really happen at the end of this show and be treated dead seriously, I can’t exactly say this premiere left me excited to watch more of the show, but I liked what I saw here enough, that I guess I’m at least willing to cave into my curiosity and see where its headed. Hopefully I won’t regret that decision in a few weeks

Rating: Good

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And that’s it for my impressions. Normally I’d try to come up with some kind of clever way to wrap things up , and look out towards the future, but frankly this year has been awful, and there’s no telling how it’ll end, much less what next year will look like. If nothing else, I do hope we’ll all still be here to goof around and talk about anime for the Winter season, so until then, stay safe, and stay animated.

This year has been a gigantic dumpster fire, but the end is finally in sight. While it’s anyone’s guess how horrible the next three months will be for the world (I’m frankly not confident 2021 will be anything to write home about either) we at least have a ton of new anime to watch because nearly everything that got delayed thanks to you-know-what has basically clustered together into the fall season, and there’s a pretty big selection of titles. With that in mind, I doubt I’ll come close to covering nearly everything, but as always I’ll aim to get as close to the sun as I can without frying my eyes from too much anime. Let’s get started

Ratings Scale

Bad: Stay away far away from this one.  Not worth watching

Decent: Has some okay elements to it. Might be worth giving a  couple of episodes to see how it goes

Good: Fairly solid show. Should be worth keeping up with for now

Great: Really good show. Definitely worth seeing if you get the chance

Excellent: Really outstanding show. Absolutely worth following .

• All series synopsis from Anime Planet      

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Higurashi: WHEN THEY CRY- NEW

Synopsis: New kid Keiichi Maebara is settling into his new home of peaceful Hinamizawa village. Making quick friends with the girls from his school, he’s arrived in time for the big festival of the year. But something about this isolated town seems “off,” and his feelings of dread continue to grow. With a gnawing fear that he’s right, what dark secrets could this small community be hiding?

First Impressions: So kicking things off we have a remake of an old mid 2000’s horror classic, and one I don’t think anyone was really asking for. The original Higurashi was really strong, and way more compelling than it had any right to be, but it was also well…a complete adaption and covered every route, along with the true ending path across two 26 episode seasons, and by all accounts did so pretty well. Sure the old DEEN adaption was kinda janky looking (especially the first season) but that arguably worked to its benefit in some respects so right off the bat this reboot needed a really good reason to justify its existence. So far well…this was just a nicer looking version of the first episode of the DEEN adaption. Most of the story beats are handled about the same, the visual atmosphere looks pretty similar, and the set up to the show’s larger mysteries concerning the townspeople was also pretty much just like the DEEN version. About the biggest differences were that the world building feels a little clunkier than the DEEN adaption (such as why these characters of varying ages are all in the same classroom) and one of the biggest character mysteries in the story got hinted at a lot earlier than I was expecting, which makes me wonder if this adaption will be shorter than the old one.

On the plus side, the improvement in the visuals do come across pretty well in the comedy segments since the wacky character faces we get are way more expressive than anything in the DEEN version, but I’m also a lot more curious how the actual horror elements are gonna be handled and what we get in this episode, feels a little on the nose, even knowing how weird some of the arcs get. Long story short I’m not really sure why this reboot exists, but for my gripes about that, nothing seems to be off enough about it to be a dealbreaker, and if you haven’t seen the old Higurashi because it was either before your time, or because of well…how it looked, this seems like it’ll do you fine for getting into the series. Personally I don’t know if I’ll keep up with the simulcast for this, but if it ends up getting a simuldub, I’ll probably watch that, because if there’s one thing that’s aged more poorly than Higurashi’s visuals, it was the old Geneon dub by Bang Zoom, and I’d be up for getting something stronger. In the meantime though, Higurashi is back to terrify us all again, and if nothing else, it’ll hopefully be just as wild on that front as the original.

Rating: Good

Assault Lily BOUQUET

Synopsis: On the verge of extinction by the alien entity known as Huge, the planet unites to develop CHARM. Merging science and magic into a weapon, military facilities called Gardens quickly sprout up to train recruits in this nascent technology. Forged by nature and training, teenage girls emerge as a heroic Lily upon blossoming. Can humanity survive long enough for these Lilies to bloom and save us all?

First Impressions: I didn’t really know anything about this going in, but between the character designs and the premise, I assumed this was an adaption of some mobage game. It is apparently not that, but is instead based off a series of figures which was a little unexpected. Functionally though, this premiere feels pretty in line with mobage adaptions though as we’re thrown into a world where a bunch of girls attend a high school to fight giant monsters called…(and I kid you not) the HUGE. Our heroine is a plucky young rookie named Riri who joins in order to reunite with her childhood savior but said savior is the idol of the school, and while Riri’s inexperience ruffles some feathers with the other girls, she manages to stumble her way into success and begins to win over her idol. It’s fine for the most part, but cute girls doing cute things remains an eternal hurdle for me even when dressed up as an action show, and stuff like that usually has to pull out all the stops or have a real strong hook to keep my attention. In this case the hook seems to be that that it seems like it’ll be more committed to its yuri undertones than similar shows tend to be, and if the ED sequence is any indication, this could maybe turn out to be a more vanilla version of Valkyrie Drive Mermaid for anyone who remembers that little number. That would be pretty interesting, but I’m not quite sure if it’s enough to keep my eyeballs on this show. The one other point in it’s favor is that the show looks pretty solid, and while SHAFT’s lost quite a bit of their best staff members over the years, there are still a couple of cool cuts here and there. It’s not super likely I’ll keep up with this, but if you’re in the mood for a perfectly functional yuri action show, this’ll likely fit the bill.

Rating: Decent

Jujutsu Kaisen

Synopsis: Although Yuji Itadori looks like your average teenager, his immense physical strength is something to behold! Every sports club wants him to join, but Itadori would rather hang out with the school outcasts in the Occult Research Club. One day, the club manages to get their hands on a sealed cursed object. Little do they know the terror they’ll unleash when they break the seal…

First Impressions: As an avid shonen fan, I’m always interested whenever a big Shonen Jump battle manga comes out with an anime adaption, and while it admittedly took me a couple of tries to get into the Jujutsu Kaisen manga, I’ve gotten pretty fond of its sense of style, and with this show being helmed by the director Sung-hoo Park, of Garo: Vanishing Line and The God of High School, and the same team at MAPPA responsible for the latter being brought on board for this show (which is frankly a much better use of their talents) I was pretty excited for this one, and thankfully the premiere didn’t disappoint. Right off the bat this adaption has a pretty strong sense of visual flair and both the comedy and the action sense are bursting from the seams with energy, and the staff does a pretty job of bringing Gege Akutami’s sketchy horror artwork to life on the screen. Of course as we learned from The God of High School, all the sakuga in the world can’t really do much to polish a weak story and thankfully Jujutsu Kaisen does a solid job on that front as well as we’re introduced to the protagonist Yuji and how his grandfather’s final words to him have affected his stance on death, and fuel his desire to help people in a way that feels both stranger and more organic than what we typically get with a JUMP lead. There’s also a pretty good sense of mystery to this premiere as well as it opens up with Yuji bring held hostage and told he’s to be executed before getting to the sequences of events that leads towards him acquriring the power that put him in these dire circumstances, and while I already know where this is all going as a manga reader, the way it’s re-arranged events like that actually serves as an improvement, and the tight direction through the rest of the episode gave a lot more weight in regards to Yuji dealing with his grandfather’s passing than I felt when I read the first chapter of the manga back in the day, so it’s safe to say Sung-hoo Park knows what’s doing beyond making stuff look cool. All in all this is a pretty strong premiere of what’s sure to be the next big thing in JUMP so if you’re curious about jumping on the train early, or you just dug the general aesthetic of early Bleach, there’s a lot to like here and it’s certainly worth your attention

Rating: Great

HYPNOSIS MIC- Division Rap Battle

Synopsis: Legendary rap group The Dirty Dawg could have taken Japan by storm, but they broke up before they could. Now each member has joined one of four rival groups—fighting for the territories Ikebukuro, Yokohama, Shibuya, and Shinjuku. Battles for turf are fought with Hypnosis Mics. These special microphones have the power to affect the human spirit, and people now use rap to determine superiority.

First Impressions: I knew going in that this was an otome franchise of some kind, and while I generally have respect for otome stuff, and quite a few of my close online friends are super into them. otome adaptions rarely click with me, and usually require a little special something for me to illicit something more than “this is fine”. So with the utmost apology for how condescending that probably sounded, my point here is that absolutely nothing could have properly prepared me for what I just watched. This show opens with a scene where a political party run by women completely and utterly abolish the use of all firearms and weapons instead forcing all conflicts to be resolved through the use of words, particularly rap battles. Three years later we’re introduced to some of the various rap groups that exist under this system including a trio consisting of a doctor, an abused salaryman, and some kind of priest, and one composed of a gangster, a cop, and a navy man. These rappers either struggle under the system, or actively enforce it by hunting down terrorists who despise this new world order, but all of them are being controlled by these big-boobed women who want use them to further their agenda and control all men, and oh god I literally can’t keep a straight face while typing any of this.

On paper literally any aspect of what I just described sounds like some weird right-wing conspiracy from 4-ch, and grossly offensive, but it’s all just so over the top in execution that it all swirls together to form the perfect form of stupid, and I’m totally here for it. While this is far from the first otome thing to have a musical aspect involved (the Uta-pri franchise springs eternal after all) I can’t say I was expecting one that had an element of political satire to it, and while it’s hard to say yet if this series actually buys into the ideology behind the insane premise its presented, or is actively mocking it, its certainly got my attention either way and its got me curious what the rest of the series has in store. Of course even without the potential “political intrigue” here, there’s a lot of fun to be had as the actual rap battles presented here have some pretty wild visual direction, and while there is some awkward 3DCG mixed in here and there, there’s so much flair on display that it’s hard to be critical of something this silly, and while several folks have already commented on it, I have to give serious props to the translators of this show, because it could not have been easy to handle all of the rap sequences here. I rambled a lot here, but to summarize, I’m totally on-board with this amazingly stupid show, and even like me, you aren’t much of an otome person, between the absurd visuals, and the even more absurd politics, this one is certainly an experience you won’t soon forget.

Rating: Great

I’m Standing on a Million Lives

Synopsis: Aloof and logical middle school third-year Yusuke Yotsuya is transported to a game-like alternate world. He becomes a third player and takes on a dangerous quest with his classmates Iu Shindo and Kusue Hakozaki, who were transported there earlier. The cold Yusuke eschews emotionalism and examines all elements with detachment, sometimes even toying with the lives of his companions. Can he protect his party from attacking monsters, difficult incidents, and powerful scheming enemies and win the game?

First Impressions: Having trouble sleeping? Need a little something to help you doze off? Well nothing works to cure insomnia quite like isekai, and in spite of it’s uniquely absurd title, I’m Standing on a Million Lives doesn’t really do much to change that. Alright I guess to be fair this particular blend of isekai comes with a couple of unique flavors. One being that our heroes can apparently travel back and forth between isekai land, and all of three of them are absurdly weak compared to the monsters they’re facing. The other being that instead of being a potato, MC-kun this time around is an edgelord, who seems weirdly comfortable with the danger he’s now in. While all of this sounds somewhat exciting compared to most isekai, I can assure you it’s still about as boring as the rest of the genre. The edge presented in the first minute or two of the episode is mostly washed away by some lame attempts at comedy as the show attempts to riff on JRPG tropes through the characters awkwardly navigating their way through the world’s weird mechanics and how casually death seems to be treated. and all of it feels kinda flat in execution. Even when the show “rips off the mask” to reveal the ultra-edgy revelation that they’ll die for real if all of them die within 30 seconds of each other, it still doesn’t feel as shocking as the show clearly wants it to be, and instead feels more like a hamfisted attempt at giving it some darkness. I guess if you’re super into isekai as a concept and are willing to settle with literally anything different then you might get something out of this, but like with most isekai, this bored the heck out of me, so it’s a pretty easy pass.

Rating: Bad

Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You

Synopsis: Nasa Yuzaki falls in love at first sight after an encounter with the mysterious Tsukasa. When Nasa earnestly confesses his feelings, she replies, “I’ll date you, but only if we’re married.” Nasa and Tsukasa’s cute and precious newlywed life of love is about to begin!

First Impressions: In my earliest weeb years, Hayate the Combat Butler was my favorite anime comedy, and its blend of slapstick and otaku references combined with some parodying of romcom tropes made it a fun watch in its prime. While the series did kinda drag later into its run (and from my understanding the winner of the Hayate bowl was a sketchy choice) I had fond enough memories of it that I was looking forward to checking out a new series by the same author. Man, I wasn’t prepared to be this let down. Going back to Hayate the Combat Butler for a second, that show opens with Hayate being told in a dream by Santa he’ll never get presents because his family is poor, and him dealing with the combination of having absurdly bad luck and even worse parents who sell him to the yakuza to pay off their gambling debts. It’s all pretty absurd and while there is some level of sincerity in Hayate trying to maintain some level of goodness despite his ridiculously bad circumstances, all of it is rightfully played for laughs because well…it’s pretty ridiculous and it made for some punchy comedy.

In comparison while there are a few gags here and there, everything here about Nasa’s backstory of…overachieving because he doesn’t like his weird name is treated dead seriously as is his whole love-at-first sight meeting with Tsukasa, even when it results in him trying to give her a dramatic love confession after having a close encounter with anime’s ultimate villain, Truck-kun. While again there were a couple of gags thrown in here, the speed in which the show takes us to this point, made it nearly impossible to buy into this, so jumping from that to Tsukasa showing up at his house to announce they’re newlyweds felt more eye-roll inducing than funny. There’s clearly supposed to be at least some sense of mystery involving Tsukasa, but even with that in mind, the idea that she’d marry a guy she’d just met is bizarre even by anime standards and since this premiere doesn’t really establish Nasa’s personality beyond “doesn’t like his name, and thinks Tsukasa is hot” it just makes this premiere feel like a weird bit of wish fuffilment, with Tsukasa being framed as the ideal dream waifu, and the handling of marriage feeling like it’s trying to get an endorsement from former Japanese prime minster, Shinzo Abe. The production isn’t anything to write home about either, and while it doesn’t look awful, neither the comedy or the drama have enough bite in their visual direction to elevate the material in any way. It’s a shame this one turned out to be a dud because I really was fond of Hayate, but rather than watching more of this show, I’d rather just fire up some clips from Hayate’s first season instead.

Rating: Bad

Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai

Synopsis: The world that was once afflicted by Hadlar, the Dark Lord, has regained peace in the hands of a swordsman called the “hero” and his companions. Delmurin Island became a place where monsters released from the Dark Lord lived. Dai, who is the only human on the island and longs to be a hero, lives in peace with the monsters. However, that life completely changes with the resurrection of the Dark Lord Hadlar. With promises from teachers, encounters with friends, and a destiny that cannot be escaped… In order to save the world, the adventure of Dai and his quest to be a hero begins!

First Impressions: This wasn’t quite my most anticipated premiere amongst the shonen-heavy hitters this season, but I was still pretty eager to check it out. This series is based off an old Shonen Jump manga that ran in the 90’s and said manga is itself based off of the Dragon Quest franchise, which while having only recently gained some steam again in the west, is one of the biggest video game monoliths in Japan. While I skimmed through some chapters of it in my teen years, it’s all basically a blur, but I do recall liking what I read, and having recently come off of Dragon Quest 11 which might be my favorite JRPG, I’m in the mood for basically anything Dragon Quest and this premiere didn’t disappoint. The set up of a young boy clearly destined for greatness being raised on an island of plucky monsters before meeting a princess is all stuff we’ve seen countless times in older JRPGs and battle shonen, but attempts by both genres to be more subversive have retroactively served to make stuff as straightforward as this more charming when when done well, and boy is this done well. Dai comes off as an immediately likeable protagonist, and while his naive nature and desire to be a hero could be annoying under worse circumstances, he’s such an earnest kid that it’s kind of hard not to root for him, and the fact that he is well…a kid, makes the more generic aspects of his personality a lot easier to deal with. A lot of the comedy works pretty well too, and while nothing here is really laugh out loud funny, it’s got all the charm and energy of a really good Saturday morning cartoon, and since that’s what I dug the most about Dragon Quest 11’s general aesthetic, I’m glad this show replicated it.

Still for as charming as its core is, I’d be lying if I said the real show stopper here wasn’t the visual presentation, because lordy did Toei really pull out all the stops on this one. It’s been long rumored that the staff for a presumed high quality production of a second season of Dragon Ball Super were instead shipped to this show, and I can certainly believe it because the animation looks fantastic throughout the premiere, and everything from the action sequences to the comedy look gorgeous and really help to punch up the whole aforementioned super good Saturday morning cartoon aesthetic. The only real weakness with the visuals is that the 3DCG for the monsters was a little jarring in some shots, but its certainly not a dealbreaker and the 2D animation was so polished that if this is the price we’ll have to pay for that, it’s a pretty good exchange. Needless to say I’m on-board with this premiere, and while I imagine this might not catch the attention of folks looking a more “mature” shonen series, if you’re down with really good kids’ shows, they really don’t get any better than this

Rating: Great

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon

Synopsis: Set in feudal Japan, half-demon twins Towa and Setsuna are separated from each other during a forest fire. While desperately searching for her younger sister, Towa wanders into a mysterious tunnel that sends her into present-day Japan, where she is found and raised by Kagome Higurashi’s brother, Sota, and his family. Ten years later, the tunnel that connects the two eras has reopened, allowing Towa to be reunited with Setsuna, who is now a demon slayer working for Kohaku. But to Towa’s shock, Setsuna appears to have lost all memories of her older sister. Joined by Moroha, the daughter of Inuyasha and Kagome, the three young women travel between the two eras on an adventure to regain their missing past.

First Impressions: While I didn’t actually burn through the entire show until later in my otaku years, Inuyasha has been a franchise I’ve been aware of since childhood, and its mix of shonen adventure and shojo romance love triangles made it a pretty big hit in its day, and one that I enjoyed despite some hiccups. Since rebooting old franchises is a pretty popular trend for anime these days, I guess it probably shouldn’t be too surprising Inuyasha is getting touched again, and since the anime did adapt the manga’s finale, going the Boruto route and making a spin-off about the kids was also probably a good call for getting people back into the series and maybe gaining some new eyeballs along the way. For the purposes of this premiere though, what we got was basically just another episode of Inuyasha, as while it opens up with Sesshomaru’s daughter Towa being held against her will, most of this is an extended flashback that takes place shortly after the events of the manga’s finale as Inuyasha and friends deal with a demon called Root Head that Kikyo sealed away back in the day. For what it’s worth it was pretty fun seeing the old gang, with Sango and Miroku having more or less settled down while Inuyasha and Kagome still bicker like cats and dogs despite being actually married now. Their antics are still as fun as ever, and it serves as a good way to ease audiences back into the the kinds of character dynamics and comedy you can generally expect from this franchise. It’s not particularly newcomer friendly, but even if you’ve only seen a couple of episodes of Inuyasha, it’s not super hard to pick up on this, since it was pretty episodic for a long-running adventure shonen anyway and the production here looks pretty solid as the staff at Sunrise does a solid job of translating Rumiko Takahashi’s distinctly retro character designs to life with a more modern look, and I have little reason to doubt the show won’t stay consistent on that end. Of course since this spin-off IS supposed to be about the daughters of Inuyasha and his bro Sesshomaru, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed this premiere wasn’t focused on properly introducing them (even if mostly just for the peace of mind/potential dread of knowing who Sesshomaru knocked up) aside from a brief fight at the end, and while we’re getting that next week, I’m admittedly a little more interested in that story than a trip down memory lane, so hopefully it’ll be worth the extra wait. In the meantime, if you’re a fan of Inuyasha, this is certainly more of it, and I have just enough investment in this franchise that I’m guaranteed to watch this through to completion no matter what, so here’s to it being a fun journey

Rating: Good

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

Synopsis: Inspired by her favorite book, Elaina ventures out to see the world she’s read so much about. Like a leaf on the wind, she travels from one country to another, looking to sate her inquisitiveness and searching for new experiences. She’s confronted by humanity in all its forms, whether strange, bizarre, or emotional. Exploration and curiosity drive her journey. Where to next, Elaina?

First Impressions: There are few anime backdrops as inherently interesting as basically anything involving witches, and while not every witch themed anime has been great, few I’ve seen left me feeling completely out in the cold, so I was curious to check this one out. The premiere follows a young girl named Elaina who dreams of becoming a witch so she can go on her own journey across the world, and works hard to become the youngest apprentice witch in history. However her quick rise to success leaves her with no one willing to take her on as an apprentice until she encounters the mysterious Stardust Witch, Fran. Fran becomes her master, but refuses to actually teach her anything, instead basically treating her like a maid until Elaina finally has enough and breaks down. This then leads to the revelation that everything Fran did was an act requested by Elaina’s parents so she could learn how to better assert herself and experience the values of failure. It’s uh…certainly not a terrible sentiment to say the least but as well intentioned as it might have been, I wouldn’t exactly call it grade-A parenting and it’s a little irritating the show just kinda rolls with that. That problematic hiccup aside, the rest of the show’s aesthetic is pretty pleasant with nice crisp backgrounds for a fantasy setting, and some fairly solid animation, Elaina herself is also pretty likeable, and since the episode ends, three years into her having finished her apprenticeship and beginning her journey, I’m pretty curious just what that journey will entail, and it seems like a pretty good setup to a fantasy romp. Of course there’s the danger the show’s writing won’t live up to the atmosphere of its aesthetic, and the awkward handling of Elaina’s relationships with Fran and her parents does leave me slightly more concerned about that than I would hope, but there was still more I liked about this than disliked, and it seems like the kind of thing I’m in the mood for, so outside of any giant red flags, I’ll be hoping along for this journey

Rating: Good

Warlords of Sigdrifa

Synopsis: When the Pillars suddenly appear on Earth, threatening all life, it’s only the act of the god Odin that offers humanity salvation. Providing a means of fighting back, he gives Earth the Valkyries, young female pilots with supernatural powers and spirit fighter planes. These skilled troublemakers, all young, risk their lives in a long-running war—but the final battle is fast approaching!

First Impressions: I vaguely recalled going into this that this was an original anime project being helmed by the Re:ZERO writer, and while I admittedly dropped off that show after the first episode, and never quite got back to it, I’ve heard enough great things about it that I was at least interested in seeing a new work from the same writer. The show opens up with humanity under attack by a mysterious force known as the Pillars, and on the verge of annhilation until the Norse god, Odin shows up and offers to lend a helping hand through the support of one of his Valkyries named Claudia. She does battle against the Pillars via magical airplane dogfighting, but despite her skill, her comrades typically end up in the line of fire, and some political manuvering forces her into a base way out in the boonies to serve as a replacement for a fallen pilot. While nothing in this set-up is mega exciting it at least serves as a solid foundation for an action show, and while I’m not super into airplanes or dogfights, the presentation looked cool enough that I could have seen myself sticking around for the rest of the show…

And then we get to where Claudia meets the new team of pilots she’s working with, and all three are a pretty standard assortment of moe archetypes. From there the episode shifts to a significantly lighter tone, as Claudia gets to know the other girls with plenty of moe hijinks and light fanservice that ensue. It’s a pretty weird bit of whiplash to say the least and it almost felt like I was watching a completely different show than what the first 10 minutes or so implied. The whole looming threat of whether or not Claudia’s new teammates will survive their first mission with her still technically clings in the air, but the shift in direction makes the remaining beats of the episode so obvious that there’s basically zero room to doubt they’ll all be sticking around, and sure enough it’s a pretty happy ending for all. I’m not particularly mad about what this ended up being, but between this being the Re:Zero guy, and the premiere being double length, I spent the entire back half expecting some dark last minute twist to suddenly shift things back towards tone of the first few minutes, but it turns out the change into a decidedly lighter show apparently was the twist. Even though I’m not usually the biggest fan of cute girls doing cute things, I’d be a little less annoyed if pulled this in the span of a 24 minute episode, but the fact that I had to sit through this for an extra 30 minutes expecting a little more bite than what I actually got makes me feel a little extra prickly about this otherwise perfectly fine thing. I guess if you’re into dogfighting, moe, or Strike Witches specifically you might enjoy this, but I was honestly kinda bored by the end of it, so this is probably where I’m gonna jump off

Rating: Decent

Love Live! Niijisaki High School Idol Club

Synopsis: Nijigasaki High School is known for their diverse subjects and the freedom they give to students. Second-year student Yu Takasaki has been turned on to the charms of school idols, so she knocks on the door of the School Idol Club with her friend, Ayumu Uehara. Sometimes friends, sometimes rivals, the members of this club each contribute their own thoughts and motivations to the group.

First Impressions: Next to isekai, idol shows are pretty much the most surefire obligation of any given anime season, in that one will almost always exist, and nothing encapsulates idol shows quite like the Love Live franchise. While I’ve never really been an idol guy, I’ve been weirdly fond of Love Live, and it’s mix of family friendly melodrama and bombastic musical sequences that feel like something straight out of a Disney animated film have helped to give it a lot more charm than it’s competition. I’ll also admit that while I had a pretty decent time with it, I was little less invested in Love Live Sunshine than the first series, and while I liked all the girls well enough, it couldn’t help but feel like more of the same throughout, right down to having a similar “save the school from being shutdown” plot. A third Love Live series was going to have to do something at least a little different to distinguish itself, and the solution seems to be…taking a much more relaxed approach. The show kicks off when a pair of high school girls named Yu and Ayumu are hanging out and come across an idol performance done by a girl named Setsuna, who also happens to go to their school. Yu is inspired by her performance and wants to join the idol club despite Ayumu being a little shaky about the idea, but it turns out Setsuna has disbanded the club, and all the members have gone their seperate ways. Yu is dejected, but Ayumu doesn’t quite want to give up on the whole idol idea, and reveals she’s been a lot more passionate about the idea than she’s let on. Compared to the previous two Love Live premieres this is decidedly more down to earth, with Yu and Ayumu both feeling like the most natural acting high school girls the franchise has produced and their goals for now seem relatively mundane. The other club members, who all make cameos throughout the episode, seem a lot quirkier but compared to how quick Love Live Sunshine’s premiere was to show off all the girls as quickly as possible, I appreciate that this was a little more conservative and stuck to focusing on our leads, who feel both likeable and shippable(which has me a little worried it’s gonna pull the same bait and switch that happened with Sunshine). Of course this is still a Love Live episode, so when Ayumu reveals her hidden passion for idols, and outs herself as the actual protagonist of this incarnation, she does so via an over the top music sequence that felt like something from a music video, and that’s the level of wild I partially come to this franchise for. I don’t know how it keeps doing it, but Love Live always manages to find a way to pull me in, and I’ll more than likely be sticking around for this season.

Rating: Good

Iwakakeru- Sports Climbing Girls

Synopsis: Sport climbing is a sport that makes use of both the body and the brain to climb walls. Kasahara Konomi, a master at puzzles, just happens to discover her school’s climbing wall, and it looks almost like a colorful sort of puzzle in her eyes. This fateful encounter brings big changes to Konomi’s life! With her teammates in the Hanamiya Girls’ High School Climbing Club, Konomi races for the top in this passionate climbing story!

First Impressions: Rounding out our trifecta of obligatory genre obligations for this season, we have our sports show in the form of Sports Climbing Girls. Sports shows about girls aren’t particularly new, but more often then not they tend to be on the horny side, and while I’ll admit I was fully expecting that going off of some of the preview videos I saw for this, it’s surprisingly lighter on that end than I expected and seems to be well…actually relatively commited to its sport of choice, which is cool I guess. The sport here, is of course rock climbing, and our heroine Koyomi is a newbie who’s looking for an after-school club to join and stumbles upon the rock climbing team. She quickly sees rock climbing as a fun challenge which earns her the ire of one of the regulars named Jun who thinks she isn’t takings seriously enough and threatens to kick her out the club if she can’t beat her in a race. However it turns out Koyomi has a pretty good knack for the sport, and her raw talent ends up winning the approval of the other girls, and some begrunding respect from Jun. It’s a pretty by the numbers sports show narrative, and while it’s the kind of thing I’ve seen done by similar stuff a dozen times before, it’s a formula that tends to work, and since I’m admittedly pretty naieve about rock climbing in general, learning more about it throughout the episode was pretty cool, and it’s enough of a hook to make this a harmless watch. 

…All of this is what I would say, but I’d be hard pressed to talk about this show without mentioning its twist. As mentioned before, Koyomi turns out to be a natural at rock climbing, and while a natural born prodigy discovering the sport they were destined for is far from anything new as far as shonen sports tropes go, what I didn’t mention is that Koyomi’s talent comes from…being a hardcore gamer who was really into puzzle games. Yes, you read that right, and some how, some way, the show treats this concept almost entirely seriously in-universe. This is the kind of nonsense I could never hope to concieve even in my wildest dreams, and it’s absolutely amazing. I really can’t say I was expecting this premiere to be about a gamer girl rising up to take a sport by storm, and the fact that the visual direction actually has the climbing walls shift to look like a puzzle game whenever she’s figuring out the best way to climb it only adds to how wild this concept is. I suppose if I had any actual attachment to this sport, I’d find this premise a little offensive, but it’s such an utterly bizarre trick to pull that it’s pulled this show from a perfectly fine genre thing, to a must-watch, purely because I’m curious just how far it’ll run with it. If this bit of insanity sounds up your alley, or you’re just in the mood for a solid sports show, this looks like it’ll be quite a ride, and I’m totally on board with it.

Rating: Good

 

Moriarty The Patriot

Synopsis: In the late 19th century, the British Empire nobility reigns while its working class suffers at their hands. Sympathetic to their plight, William James Moriarty wants to topple it all. Frustrated by the systemic inequity, Moriarty strategizes to fix the entire nation. Not even consulting detective Sherlock Holmes can stand in his way. It’s time for crime to revolutionize the world!

First Impressions: The manga this series is based on came pretty highly recommended, and while I’m not super into detective stuff, it usually makes for good entertainment, and a story about Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis Moriarty sounds like it could be a fun time. Thankfully this premiere more or less delivered as it opens on a caper involving the legendary Lord of Crime tracking down a serial killer who preys on young boys. When he manages to deduce that the killer is a noble of high stature, he tracks him down and offers the father of one his victims the chance to enact his revenge, and helps to cover up the deed. Normally revenge stories are kind of a turn-off for me, but two things make it work pretty well in this instance. The first being that this tale comes with a distinctly “eat the rich” vibe as there’s a very clear sense of condescension towards nobles who turn their noses up at the poor that’s sprinkled throughout the episode, and watching smug rich people get dunked on is a pastime, I can certainly get behind. The second being that the way in which the show opens up with a child reading a Sherlock Holmes book gives the distinct implication, that the series is being framed from the perspective of seeing those novels come to life, and that’s a pretty fun take on detective stories. The sharp visual direction throughout the episode also helps to give the show a little extra punch whether its to give the show a little more of a detective drama vibe through the visual cues with the evidence, or the way certain facial expressions help to showcase the intentions of the chararcters. It’s possible that if this show is going in a caper-of-the-week direction, it could get a little repetitive, and the actual “mystery” was more or less solved in a way where it was impossible for the audience to guess anything ahead of time, but there’s more than enough promise here to put this show on my watch-list and whether you’re into detective stories, or watching the rich get taken down a peg, this show seems like a winner

Rating: Great

 

Talentless Nana

Synopsis: In the year 20XX, these teenagers with special powers attend specialized schools to hone their abilities. And then there’s Nana, who was sent to attend one of these schools but doesn’t actually have a unique ability. Can she defeat the Enemies of Humanity with her brains and wit?

First Impressions: I’ve known the manga has been available through Crunchyroll’s manga section for awhile, and I’ve heard it be compared to My Hero Academia a few times, but apparently with a darker tone. While I can’t say I really care much for the idea of an “edgier” version of MHA, I was at least curious what this would be like, and having seen it I can safely say: I do not care for this. So the basic setup here seems pretty straightforward at first as a bunch of students with superpowers called Talents are sent to an island in order to be trained to fight a threat known as the “enemies of humanity”. However our hero Nanao, aka not-Deku, is the only one who doesn’t seem to have a Talent of his own, and is incessantly bullied by not-Bakugo, and belittled by the rest of his classmates. His luck seems to change when two new students transfer into the class, one is a mysterious unfriendly edgy boy, and the other is a bright and cheerful girl named Nana, who has the power to read minds, and immediately befriends Nanao. She thinks he has more potential to stand out among his classmates than he’s letting on, and he slowly reveals to her that part of the reason why he doesn’t like the idea of standing out is that his father pushed him to be a leader, and he’s decidedly less timid than that. Nana’s coaxing makes him rethink that perspective a bit when she tells him how quick he was to help her when she almost gets into danger, and when it happens a second time, Nanao decides to reveal his actual power, which is to negate other Talents, and it earns him the respect of his other classmates. Everything described here is pretty standard shonen fare, and while it isn’t super original, I might have stuck around for a show about these kids banding together to fight evil.

And then we get to the big shocking twist: Nana actually can’t read minds, and was just using her powers of deduction to coax Nanao into revealing his powers because it turns out the students have been the so called “enemies of humanity” all along and she’s out to kill them, starting with Nanao who she pushes off a cliff to his presumed (but more than likely) death. This is clearly meant to be super mindblowing and shocking to the audience…except the title of the show more or less gave away that she didn’t have any powers and as soon as the whole “enemies of humanity” can look like humans thing was brought up, it was obvious she was gonna be evil and I was just sitting around waiting for that shoe to drop. I’ll admit the kids being the supposed threat to humanity was the part I didn’t see, but in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really change my opinion of how bad this twist is for one simple reason: why are we supposed to care about any of this?

While revealing Nana as some presumed edgy anti-hero assassin is certainly a “twist” (and going by the opening, the quiet edgy boy is her partner in crime) in essence she just killed off the only likeable character among the students for no real reason, so any effectiveness this would have in making her seem cool, just makes her feel unlikeable instead. Not to mention that the episode is leaning so heavily on making this twist as big as possible that it doesn’t really give us any reason to actively want to follow Nana’s mission in killing her classmates, because any big hints would give it all away, and it can’t have that. I guess there is some potential mystery in learning exactly why she’s on this mission and what’s driving her, but even the most basic mystery still has to give you some reason to actually care about the answers, and if the execution here, and the shots in the opening are any indication, this just seems interested in throwing around as much darkness as it can. I’m sure this show is for somebody, and I imagine anyone who’s super into battle royale, or death game scenarios might get something out of this, but it just left me feeling numb, and I can’t imagine watching even one more second of it.

Rating: Bad

 

By The Grace of Gods

Synopsis: Only 39 years into a life full of bad luck, Ryoma Takebayashi passes away in his sleep! Taking pity on him, three divine beings show compassion by reincarnating him as a young boy to a magical, new world. Now he spends his time researching and caring for slimes. But after healing an injured traveler, Ryoma decides to set out with his new friends on a journey to use his power to help others.

First Impressions: This is our second isekai of the season, and since the buzz I’d heard from people who watched the early premiere from Funimation awhile back was positive, I was curious to check this out. The story follows a young boy named Ryoma who’s just chilling in the woods with a bunch of slimes until he happens upon some knights and helps them out since one is injured. While Ryoma is helpful, he seems mysteriously self-sufficient for his age, and while claims to have lived with his grandparents until a few years ago, this is of course a lie because that was the moment he got reincarnated from his life as a salaryman on Earth. I knew going in that this was an isekai so I wasn’t particularly surprised by that revelation, but while it was honestly a little more interesting to present a little bit of the world before going into detail about how Ryoma ended up in isekai land, it also did a solid enough job of it that part of me wishes it actually was purely just a comfy fantasy show without the need for those tropes.

For what it’s worth, Ryoma’s flashback as to how he ended up there was at least slightly more amusing than usual since he was overworked in his previous life and doesn’t seem particularly surprised by his fate (which is admittedly kinda dark given that death by overwork is a pretty big problem in Japan) until he learns that he died in a pretty silly manner, and the gods who reincarnate him all seem pretty chill. Since that explanation takes up most of the backhalf of the episode, it’s a little hard to tell what direction the show will actually go in, but it certainly doesn’t seem interested in being a power fantasy, and Ryoma doesn’t really want to do much of anything but play around with his adorable slimes (I want plushies of all of them) so it seems like it probably will commit to being low key and fluffy, which is at least a nice change of pace from most isekai. My only slight worry is that the episode ends with Ryoma reuniting with the knights he helped, and meeting a young girl with them, who going by the opening, might be is love interest. It’d be cute if Ryoma actually was just a nice boy playing with his slimes, but because it’s a reincarnation isekai and we know he’s really a middle aged man, it’s gonna feel at least a little weird if the show seriously commits to that. It could be a pretty big red flag going forward, but I enjoyed most of this premiere otherwise, and while it’s probably not going to be appointment viewing, it seems like it could be a relaxing way to spend a half-hour on a Sunday afternoon.

Rating: Good

 

 

 

 

Between the scorching summer heat and the world still being on fire we could all use a little cooling off, and nothing beats the heat quite like some good old fashioned anime. But sadly since again, the world is still on fire, anime production as gotten hit pretty rough, and most of the stuff that was originally set for this season has been moved over to the fall while some of the stuff that didn’t last through the spring are restarting now. This leaves us with very few actual premieres, and while I certainly can’t complain about having less bad shows to potentially shift through for impressions, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed about having less stuff to watch. Still the situation is what is, and I could certainly do without folks dying just so I can get my cartoons faster, so I’m more than willing to make do with what we’ve got. With all that out of the way, let’s see what this season has to offer

Ratings Scale

Bad: Stay away far away from this one.  Not worth watching

Decent: Has some okay elements to it. Might be worth giving a  couple of episodes to see how it goes

Good: Fairly solid show. Should be worth keeping up with for now

Great: Really good show. Definitely worth seeing if you get the chance

Excellent: Really outstanding show. Absolutely worth following .

• All series synopsis from Anime Planet      

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Super HXEROS

Synopsis: Earth faces an unprecedented threat from an invasion by the mysterious Kiseichuu. The Kiseichuu feed on human sexual energy, also known as “H-energy”, and weaken the human population. High school student Retto Enjou is a member of the hero group HXEROS, who fight together to save the earth from the Kiseichuu.

First Impressions: On the surface this seemed like a trashy premise with a lot of potential to be fun. Parodying tokusatsu shows with heavy fanservice tropes isn’t exactly a new concept, but it’s one I can get behind, and fanservice shows in particular tend to be far more entertaining when they’re played as over the top as possible so I figured this would be at least close to my exact brand on that end. In execution however, this show was a lot more boring than I expected. The tokusatsu trappings are still there, and everything from the eyecatches, to the monster designs and especially the banging OP song, seems like it’d make for a perfect love-letter for the genre. Unfortunately the actual material doesn’t carry around any of that same energy as we spend most of time being introduced to the protagonist Ret who’s sad that his childhood friend Hoshino is no longer into him, while there’s an alien invasion in the background and despite some occasional wackiness with the fanservice, almost all of it treated dead seriously, which for something like this, kinda has the opposite effect when it comes to enjoyment. The actual tokusatsu stuff isn’t executed much better as even with stuff like Ret losing his close everytime he punches a monster, or that the aliens suck erotic energy from people, it all comes off as more flat as intended, and even the punchline of Hoshino acting like a tsundere only for it to be revealed that she was so horny for Ret as a kid it made one of the monsters explode didn’t have the right amount of punch it’s execution to get much of a laugh out of me. Long story short, I expected the direction for this show to be way wackier than it actually was, and the fact that it’s playing what is clearly supposed to be a campy parody in such a dry manner is extremely weird. and I kinda can’t help but imagine what it would be like the anime staff really went buck wild with it. For what we got though, this was mostly just a shurg, and while it’s always possible later episodes of this will be campier in execution, for now this seems like it’ll probably be a pass

Rating: Decent

Monster Girl Doctor

Synopsis: In the town of Lindworm where monsters and humans coexist, Dr. Glenn runs an exemplary medical clinic for monster girls with his lamia assistant, Sapphee. Whether receiving a marriage proposal by a centaur injured in battle, palpating the injury of a mermaid, or suturing the delicate wounds of a flesh golem, Dr. Glenn performs his job with grace and confidence. But when an unsavory character seeks to steal a harpy egg, how will the unflappable Dr. Glenn respond…?

First Impressions: While the winter season’s Interspecies Reviewers was a pretty hot topic while it came out, both for it’s content and the licensing nightmare that ensued because of it, this show is more in line with what I’ve come to expect from the “monster girl” genre. That is to say it’s horny and definently interested in having its audience ogle cute monster girls via fake science, but relatively tame in terms of actual sexual content. In the case of this show it follows a human doctor and his snake girl assistant as the roam the land treating monsters of various races who all happen to be women because well, this show knows exactly what people are here for. The focus for the premiere has them treating an ojou-sama centaur warrior who keeps losing matches because she refuses to put on horseshoes (which I guess would sound about right), and if you think the show wouldn’t be able to make something as seemingly beign as that into something horny, rest assured it somehow finds a way, and even putting aside that angle I was kinda surprised at the attention to detail in how they made sure the horseshoes were fitted properly. This is a whole lot of rambling, but frankly this is one of those things where you’ll probably know whether or not it’s for you pretty quickly. If you’re into seeing monster girls getting ogled in (mostly) consensual ways and some potentially light harem antics, since you can bet your bottom dollar all the monster girls want to play doctor with the doctor, then you’ll probabIIly get some mileage out of this. If not, then I’d recommend looking elsewhere for something entertaining this season. Personally though, I kind of am in the mood for some light fanservice trash, and since Super HXEROS was a lot more boring than I expected from it’s branding, this seems like it might do nicely so long as it doesn’t go too horny on main, and I was amused enough that it seems like it’s worth at least another episode or two.

Rating: Decent

Lapis Re:LIGHTs

Synopsis: Tiara at Flora Girls Academy is where witches are trained to purify the magical beasts that threaten the humans. Together with her classmates, Tiara is ready to learn how to save lives and bring smiles to people’s faces.

First Impressions: Even with a pandemic going on and production schedules getting obliterated in the process, it still wouldn’t be a new season of anime without at least one idol or cute girls doing cute things show, and Lapis Re:LIGHTs is here to pull double duty. At least it seems like that’ll be the case based on a lot of the promotional material and the opening theme. For what we actually get here in the premiere the show so far leans a little more towards the cute girls doing cute things end of the pool as we’re introduced to a band of plucky techicolor haired heroines who all seem to neatly fit into the character archetypes you’d expect from that. As is often the case with cute girls doing cute things shows though, there’s usually some kind of hook and in this case it’s that the girls are all witches attending a magic academy. I’ll admit it’s a pretty good one, and this premiere does some solid world building as we’re introduced to the various forms of magic that the girls can perform, and the rank-based hierarchy that determines the social pecking order at the academy. Of course, none of this is really too different from anything you’d see in another witch school show, so even on that end, it functions more than it actively stands out. It doesn’t help that the character designs for all the girls have a lot of sameface going on, and while the show is pretty to look at otherwise, they’re still clearly supposed to be the main selling point, so that sort of thing is a pretty big cardinal sin of blandness for me. If it sounds like I’m being overly-harsh here, I didn’t really anything against this premiere and it seems like a perfectly fine show, but so far it doesn’t have enough of a kick to seem like it’ll hold my interest. Maybe I’ll give it another episode to see if it does a little more with the worldbuilding, but right now I’m leaning towards giving this a drop

Rating: Decent

The Misfit of Demon Academy

Synopsis: Anos Voldigord was a tyrannical Demon King that eradicated humans, spirits, and even the gods, but became bored of eternal warfare and reincarnated with dreams of a peaceful world. However, what awaited him in reincarnation after 2000 years were descendants who became too weak after being accustomed to peace, and all sorts of magic that deteriorated to the extreme. Anos enters Demon King Academy that gathers and educates those who are viewed as the reincarnation of the Demon King, but the academy could not see through his true powers and ends up branding him as a misfit!

First Impressions: So continuing the trend of obligatory genre shows, we have our light novel based title, The Misfit of Demon Academy, which might as well be labeled “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Mahouka”. The Mahouka-ness in question largely centering around the fact that series stars a smug overpowered protagonist who the audience is clearly supposed to admire for how cool and powerful they are, while in-universe the character is demeaned because they don’t fit into the rules of that world’s society. Since I dropped Mahouka after a couple of episodes, and everything I heard about it’s politics made me more than happy to never look back, this seems like it would be an instant dealbreaker, but I’ll admit there’s a little potential here. For one thing while our MC-kun is “unfairly punished” for being a super awesome special snowflake, instead of using that a vehicle to justify weird right-wing politics the same way Mahouka did, instead this show’s MC-kun is beating up smug nobles who think their bloodline is everything, and he himself has contempt for how little value they put on the lives of others. This theoretically puts it safely to the left of Mahouka, and while I’m not really a power fantasy guy, a power fantasy about beating up rich people who only inherited everything they have seems like it could make for a fun time. Of course this being a light novel adaptation, there’s all the chance in the world it could end up either not doing anything with that or go in the opposite direction later down the line. It’s sense of humor is also kind of hit or miss because while I did get a kick out of MC-kun’s parents being sweet and over-enthuastic about their son, and MC-kun killing a noble over and over again because he was too smug to surrender, I was a little less amused by the gag about MC-kun being one month old and picking up girls already since that does come off as a little squick-ish and with the way light novels can be sometimes, that might be a big warning flag. Even so I got a little more out of this than I was expecting, and it certainly looks pretty, so against my better judgement I might actually watch one more episode of I Can’t Believe It’s not Mahouka. Hopefully I won’t regret this decision

Rating: Decent

The God of Highschool

Synopsis: Well-known fighters are all here at the national competition to find out who is the best fighter, but a mysterious group, called “Nox Solidarity”, comes and tries to make a mess. Now, who is going to fight with Mori and his friends against Nox?

First Impressions: This is the second of the major co-productions between Crunchyroll and WEBTOON, and while Tower of God turned out to be kinda boring and empty, this one I was a little more interested in. The main reason being this adaption happens to to be helmed by one Seong-Ho Park of Garo: Vanishing Line fame. For anyone who didn’t happen to check that show out while it was airing it was basically one giant “rule of cool” and throwing as much testosterone and style at the screen as humanly possible, with some cool kinetic fight animation to match. So far this series looks to be a pretty good repeat of that since there’s plenty of brawling going down here, and all of it’s presented in a way that’s designed to be as mainstream as possible, but that’s not quite what won me over. What actually got my attention was the crazy and chaotic energy poured into a single bicycle chase that lasts half the episode, but was both ridiculously well animated, and also a weirdly fun way to introduce the three main protagonists as the hefty amount of slapstick they go through in an effort to retrieve an old lady’s purse speaks both to them being good natured, and incredibly stupid, which is a combination that’s generally endearing to me. Combine all that with a cool soundtrack and some overly stylish eyecatch cards, and it’s clear that this premiere is out to impress as quickly as it possibly can, and I’d say that for the most part it succeeds. My only real fear is that for all the flash and style that was here, there’s a pretty high chance the actual story might be a little too empty for all of this to compensate, and given how Tower of God turned out, it’s certainly possible it could end up being similarly bland in that area. Still, I had way more fun with this show’s premiere than I did with ToG’s so for now I’m willing to give this the benefit of the doubt, and with Seong-Ho Park’s general sense of style and flair, it’ll at least be pretty to look if nothing else. Hopefully this show didn’t totally blow it’s load in the first episode, but for now it’s certainly the most fun premiere I’ve seen this season and I’d say it’s worth giving a peek.

Rating: Great

Deca-dence

Synopsis: After nearly being driven to extinction by life forms known as Gadoll, humanity dwells in a mobile fortress named Deca-Dence. Built to protect humans from the Gadoll threat, it’s occupied by Gears, warriors who fight daily, and Tankers, those without the same skills. Natsume, who dreams of fighting, meets Kaburagi, an armor repairman. Their chance meeting will shake the future of this world.

First Impressions: Deca-dence is this season’s big anime-original project, and one being brought to us by the anime studio with the greatest name in existence: Studio NUT. Jokes aside, I was pretty curious to check this one out because one man’s name was attached to this as the director, and that name is Yuzuru Tachikawa. Between his work on his previous anime-original series Death Parade at Madhouse, and his insanely well-crafted adaption of Mob Psycho 100 at BONES, Tachikawa has quickly become one of my favorite anime directors and I’m excited for anything new he gets to work on. That excitement was pretty well rewarded with this premiere because there’s a lot to like about this series. This series takes place in a world where humanity has been under attack by monsters known as the Gadoll and has been forced to live inside a giant mobile fortress known as the Deca-dence where they attempt to hold up a resistence. Enter Natsume, our plucky young heroine who dreams of becoming a soldier in order to help humanity live in peace, but because she lost her real arm in a Gadoll attack as a child and only has a prosthetic, she has to make due living out a quiet life making repairs on the Deca-dence under the direction of her supervisor Kaburagi, who’s a pretty big cynic. As fate would have it though, there’s a little more to Kaburagi that meets the eye, and when the Deca-dence undergoes another Gadoll attack, Natsume gets a close up view of how well he can fight.

This is just the base summary of the episode but I haven’t even gotten into things like the fact that the soldiers who fight the Gadoll and more along the lines of the wastelanders you’d see in a Mad Max movie, with the cars and hair to match, and the Deca-dence is operated like a robot fortress you’d see out an old 80’s mecha anime like Macross, complete with it’s own crew. Long story short, this show is basically what would happen if Attack on Titan, Mortal Engines and Mad Max: Fury Road had a baby, but instead of that baby being overly dark and serious, they’re just out to have a good time and take everyone else along for the ride. This hits just about all my checkboxes for cool things I like out of anime and action movies, and layering all of that on top of some pretty fun character animation puts this next to The God of Highschool as the premiere to beat this season, and I have a lot more faith this one won’t lose any steam as it goes on. My only real issue is that the 3DCG for the Gadoll looks a little clunky in a couple of shots, but with how impressive the rest of the show looks, it’s a moot point and the action choreography of the big battle more than makes up for that deficiency. I don’t know quite where this show is headed, but with Tachikawa at the helm, I have all the confidence in the world it’ll be exciting.

Rating: Great

Rent-A-Girlfriend

Synopsis: In Japan, the lonely have a new way out — online services that rent out dads, children, even girlfriends! When Kazuya’s true love dumps him, he’s just desperate enough to try it, and he’s shocked at how cute and sweet his rental girlfriend turns out to be. But she wants to keep their “relationship” a secret, and there’s a complication… she goes to his university… and their grandmothers are in the same home… and they live next door to each other?! And Kazuya finds out she’s not nearly as nice in “real life”… 

First Impressions: I’ve heard a lot of mixed things about this rom-com, and while none of them made me excited to watch this, they certainly made me curious, and sure enough I walked away from this premiere feeling mixed on what I watched. The basic rundown of the episode is pretty straightforward, Kazuya is a 20-year old college student who gets dumped by his first girlfriend, and in desperation turns to an online app that allows him to date a fake girlfriend named Chizuru. She plays the part of the ideal girlfriend, but that only causes Kazuya’s insecurities to come out, and when that messes with Chizuru being able to keep up her persona in public, her real, more brash personality comes out and the two of them but heads . After some hijinks, Kazuya realizes he’s been pathetic by forcing his insecurities onto her, and while Chizuru is sympathetic to his lonliness, she seems to have plenty of her own problems to deal with and the two resolve never to meet again until it turns out that Chizuru also happens to be attending the same college as Kazuya.

So one thing I liked about this premiere is that compared to the average rom-com or harem lead, Kazuya comes off as kind of a jerk, and some of the resentment he shows through the episode both towards Chizuru and himself made his character feel pretty believable without having him go full on incel, and as a lonely single dude myself, I could at least relate to him on some level with his self-loathing, even if it didn’t exactly make him likeable. I also appreciated that the show actually seemed to be pretty aware of his behavior and while he is given some sympathy in regards to his whole relationship with his grandma, he still has to own up to taking his resentment out on Chizuru when she was just doing her job, and Chizuru herself comes off as fairly three-dimensional, and while we don’t know the reasons behind her doing this kind of job, the show doesn’t seem to think less of her for it so far. Really my main problem here is that the story this premiere tells actually feels pretty self-contained, and the healthiest thing for Kazuya probably would be to move on from his ex and never see Chizuru again so the fact that it seems like both those things are being chucked out the window is a good sign this show doesn’t have quite as much self-awareness as I’d like, and is likely out to be as spicy as it probably can from this point forward. I guess that could be amusing in it’s own way and the fact that the characters are at least kind of interesting right off the bat, gives this a little bit of an edge over other harem rom-coms. but if the show’s already tossed aside the best possible outcome then I can’t say I have much confidence it’ll be worth sinking time into. I might give this another episode or two to see where it goes and the premiere was pretty okay overall, but I don’t have much confidence later episodes will wow me.

Rating: Decent

Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out

Synopsis: To Uzaki Hana, nothing sounds worse than being alone. That’s why she’s made it her mission to keep her upperclassman Sakurai Shinichi company. The problem is, all he wants is some peace and quiet!

First Impressions: I’ve been seeing Uzaki-chan memes swirling around the internet for the last couple of years (well that and the whole weird story with the blood donation poster of her from awhile back) and that made me a little curious about that. I kinda wish I hadn’t indulged that curiosity though because this show is very not good. The basic run down involves Uzaki hanging out with her grumpy MC-kun sempai in college who’s kind of a loner, and her simultaneously annoying him with her loud antics while distracting him with her gigantic boobs. That’s uh…kinda supposed to be the joke I guess. I say “kinda” because I watched about 13 minutes of the first episode, and all 13 of those minutes were painfully unfunny. There’s no real comedic chemistry between Uzaki and MC-kun, and as a pretty anti-social dude, the way she rags on him for being a loner just kinda feels more mean-spirited than it is funny, especially since he seems like a pretty okay dude otherwise who’s just trying to live his life. This pretty much leaves the only appeal being Uzaki and her giant tracks of land, and I’d normally be all for big boobs as a single straight dude, Uzaki’s character design literally looks like what would happen if an artist drew a 12 year old and slapped giant boobs on her, and combined with the fact that Uzaki has the annoying personality to match, it makes all the “jokes” surrounding her huge knockers feel more uncomfortable than sexy and it only increased my desire to tap out of this show early. I guess the one thing I could say in this show’s favor is that Uzaki has some pretty good smug faces, and I can see why they’ve spawned so many memes, but they sure as heck aren’t worth sitting through the rest of this for, and I was both bored and annoyed enough by the halfway mark that I couldn’t muster the energy to continue. I’m sure there’ll be folks who find this show funny, or at least have fun with all the smug Uzaki faces, but I can’t say I’m one of them. I’m out.

Rating: Bad

Gibate

Synopsis: In 2030, people in Japan are turning into different forms of monsters based on their age, sex and race. The illness is named ‘Gibia’ – after being rich in variety like gibier. A pair of samurai and ninja appear in the blighted wasteland of Japan. They both travelled from the early Edo period, fighting together with help from a doctor who tries to find a cure for Gibia. Facing ceaseless attacks from Gibia, and outlaws that attack travelers for food, they start the dangerous journey with enemies all around.

First Impressions: This is the other big co-production from Crunchyroll this season next to The God of Highschool, but I hadn’t heard nearly as much about it going in. About all I really knew was that this show featured character designs by Yoshitaka Amano of Final Fantasy and Vampire Hunter D fame so I was curious what this would look like. Unfortunately after checking out the premiere, I can’t quite say the show looked “good”. Amano’s character designs of course look pretty distinct, and while there isn’t an immediate appeal to the character designs, they certainly stand out enough and have a lot of detail to them. The problem however, is that the rest of the actual production can’t compensate, and while the backgrounds look nice enough, the animation is extremely limited with a lot of speed lines and close-up shots that make the whole thing look unpolished. It doesn’t help that on top of that, the 3DCG used for the monsters sticks out like a sore thumb, and however cool Amano’s initial 2D drafts of them might have looked (and we do some of what was probably the original concept art for them at one point in the episode) the show certainly doesn’t do them justice and it just adds onto the production woes. That basically just leaves the story which takes place during the aftermath of a giant pandemic. Given the current state of the world, that does make this show’s premise a little timely, or at least it would be, aside from the whole thing about time travelling samurais and the virus here turning people into giant bug monsters. This isn’t to say that any of that is bad and it’s a decent enough premise for an original action show, but since again, show looks kinda janky outside of Amano’s character designs, that doesn’t leave this with a whole lot of appeal. and the characters all feel a little basic for this type of story. I can’t exactly say I hated this premiere, and under normal circumstances I might give it another episode or two to see how it pans out, but considering how much it looked like it was going to melt in the first episode alone, I don’t have much confidence this show’s production will hold through, and it doesn’t have enough going for it quite yet to make it worth putting up with those production problems. It’s likely this’ll get a dub since it’s a Crunchyroll original so maybe I’ll check it out that way, but between the two I’d say The God of Highschool is probably the one to watch

Rating: Bad

It’s time for week two of the Spring 2020 anime premieres and there’s still plenty of stuff left to check out. So far the season’s off to a pretty decent start but there’s plenty of room for more promising titles, or piles of trash so let’s see what lies in store. (Sorry I couldn’t come up with an intro that was a little more creative)

Ratings Scale

Bad: Stay away far away from this one.  Not worth watching

Decent: Has some okay elements to it. Might be worth giving a  couple of episodes to see how it goes

Good: Fairly solid show. Should be worth keeping up with for now

Great: Really good show. Definitely worth seeing if you get the chance

Excellent: Really outstanding show. Absolutely worth following .

• All series synopsis from Anime Planet      

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Shachibato! President, It’s Time for Battle

Synopsis: In the developed city of Gatepia close to the Gate, citizens gain access to Kirakuri, an energy fundamental to their way of life and to humanity. But there’s competition in Gatepia, as thousands of corporations seek to become the strongest and obtain the most Kirakuri. Minato, the newest president of Kibo Company, is looking to make it big by hiring the best employees to become the greatest fantasy adventuring company ever!

First Impressions: Mobage adaptions are about as inescapable as isekais so you can always count on getting at least one or two every season and this is here to fill that void. The basic setup here involves a world where there are endless dungeons to explore and dungeon crawling has literally been made into a 9-5 office jon. That’s where our hero comes in as following the passing of his father, he’s asked by his employees to take over his company and lead them in battle. If this sounds like a potentially neat idea for a fantasy premise or at least a parody of one, I’m sorry to say it’s not nearly as interesting as that description implies. Like a lot of mobage adaptions, this feels very much like it was built for people who have already played the game, and while it does at least have the sense to explain the mechanics of how dungeon crawling works in this universe, it all feels pretty by the numbers, with our lead being kinda boring, and his employees all generally filling your standard ensemble of anime sterotypes with the only really interesting gag being that one of them may or may not have a bloodthirsty monster in their bag. The actual dungeon crawling comes off as a little too sacchrine to be engaing either, and I was only about 10 minutes in before I started wondering when the episode would be over. Like most mobage things, this was perfectly harmless, and I’m sure people who’ve actually played the original game might enjoy it, but I’m kinda struggling to even find much to say about it, so that doesn’t really speak well to how much it engaged me. Maybe next time one of these will grab me

Rating: Bad

Glepnir

Synopsis: Shuichi Kagaya an ordinary high school kid in a boring little town. But when a beautiful classmate is caught in a warehouse fire, he discovers a mysterious power: He can transform into a furry dog with an oversized revolver and a zipper down his back. He saves the girl’s life, sharing his secret with her. But she’s searching for the sister who killed her family, and she doesn’t care how degrading it gets: She will use Shuichi to accomplish her mission…

First Impressions: I know quite a few folks on anitwitter who were excited for this one, but I didn’t know too much other about it other than that it’s apparently pretty horny. It’s very much that, going by the first episode, but I’m not quite sure if I could tell you what the rest of it is. The premiere follows a high school student named Kagaya who seems pretty normal, but is hiding a big secret: his body can transform intoa giant monster that resembles a stuffed mascot. Since he has no idea how he got this power, he tries to keep it on the downlow, but when he uses his powers to save a classmate named Claire, and the animal instincts of his beast form get a little…grabby, she blackmails him into following her around for reasons that aren’t yet clear. Also it seems that Kagaya isn’t the only one around who can transform, and the ability seems to have something to do with some mysterious gold coins that are floating around. That was quite a mouthful, but about all you need to know about this show is that it’s really, REALLY weird. Kagaya’s powers are weird, tying them to his teen hormones is weird, and this whole gosh dang premise is weird, and I’m honestly not sure what to make of this. It seems like something that could be your run-of-the-mill ultraviolent and sex-charged edgefest, but even with how horny the show gets with everything about Claire it seems a little too bizarre even for that, and I have no idea where this is going or what it’s goals are. All that said, I’d sure as heck be lying if I said I wasn’t at least interested because this premiere didn’t leave me with nearly enough to form a solid opinion on the show. It could either be really fascinating, or just the latest in edgelord branded nonsense, and both outcomes seem possible right now, so I feel like I need at least one more episode to form a picture of it. I know that was a lot of rambling, but I guess the point here is…go watch Glepinr I guess? I have no idea what it is, but if nothing else, I can probably guarantee you, you’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Rating: ???

Princess Connect! Re: Dive

Synopsis: In the beautiful land of Astraea where a gentle breeze blows, a young man named Yuuki awakens with no memory of his past. There he encounters a guide who has sworn to care for him—Kokkoro, a lovely swordswoman who’s always feeling peckish—Pecorine, and a cat-eared sorceress with a prickly attitude—Karyl. Led by fate, these four come together to form the “Gourmet Guild.” 

First Impressions: And here we have mobage adaption #2, or at least I’m assuming it is because it seemed a little too beign to be anything else. This one involves our MC-kun falling from the sky and waking up to find himself being waited on and and foot by a mysterious girl who says she’s here to serve him. I kinda immediately rolled my eyes around this point, but by far the most amusing thing about this is that MC-kun has amnesia, and not typical anime amnesia, but is basically just a helpless infant, which considering how often the reverse tends to happen, got a good chuckle or two out me, as we see MC-kun trying to eat coins because he doesn’t know what money is, or frequently getting carried off by hungry wolves because he can’t defend himself. Sadly that all wasn’t quite funny enough to take away from how saccharine and low stakes the rest of it is, and by the time we got to the revelation that he’s something called a Princess Knight and is presumably destined to unite a bunch of pretty girls to his harem (starting with one who spends nearly the entire episode not realizing two dudes were trying to swipe her sword) I’d already kinda lost interest. If there’s any other positives here, it’s that the show certainly looks good, and while the character designs are kinda generic, there’s some pretty good battle animation towards the end of it, and it’s pretty plesant to look at overall. Once again though, I don’t really have a lot of patience for these mobage adaptions if they’re gonna remain low stakes and mostly built on the assumption you’re already into the game they’re based on so this looks like another easy skip.

Rating: Bad

Shironeko Project: ZERO Chronicle

Synopsis: The series follows a young adventurer who hails from the Astora Isle, who joins up with a man named Kyle, and the two set out together. After meeting a curious talking white cat and a mysterious young girl, the whole crew uncovers an island in the sky–where Kyle falls into darkness.

First Impressions: Now we’re at mobage adaption #3 but to this one’s credit, it does a much better job at disgusing itself. This one takes place in a world divided among two races with one called the Blacks being ruled by the King of Darkness, and the other being the Whites being ruled by the Queen of Light. If this sounds super on the nose to you, you’re not alone and I can assure you pretty much the entire episode carries that same level of energy. Our nameless protagonist hails from the land of darkness and after an encounter with a powerful knight, he’s given the opportunity to try ascending to the throne and take over the mantle of the King of Darkness so he can bring peace to all. That motivation is all well and good, but the lead up to this felt like it was trying to be edgy for edgy’s sake and none of the writing in the rest of the episode did much to convince me it’ll do anything interesting. On the flip side of things the folks in the kindom of light come off as even blander. and while I’m certain some kind of star-crossed romance will form between our edgy protagonist and the Queen of Light, I can’t say I have any interest in seeing how it gets there. It gets tiring repeating the same point about these mobage adaptions feeling kinda empty to anyone not familar with the source material, and again I give props that this one disguised itself with enough edge that I thought it was based on a light novel at first, but it didn’t have enough to grab me in the end, so it looks like I’m 0-3 on interesting mobage shows this season.

Rating: Bad

Shadowverse

Synopsis: While attending Tensei Academy, Hiiro Ryugasaki ends up acquiring a mysterious smartphone. It comes installed with the popular card game, Shadowverse! Meeting new rivals, facing major tournaments, forging bonds with friends… Shadowverse leads Hiiro to all sorts of new experiences, all that serve to “evolve” him…

First Impressions: It’s time to move on to mobage adaptions to card game adaptions. Okay well I’m pretty sure there is technically a mobile game for this, but it’s presumably closer to how a typical TCG functions so that’s how I’m seeing it. Anyway, I was sorta curious about this both because Shadowverse the game has been around for awhile and I’ve always wondered how it played, and also because I’m a 10-year old at heart and I’m perfectly fine with watching shiny toy commercials if they do a good job of drawing me in. Sadly Shadoverse was lacking on both accounts. The formula for the premiere follows just about every toy based anime cliche you’ve seen before with our lead Hiro dreaming of being able to play the game someday until he happens upon a mysterious smartphone and gets the chance to battle against a skilled player after said player defeats his childhood friend in a card duel and steals her cellphone as a prize. That last bit kinda soured me right away as did Hiro inevitably winning his first battle despite not having ever played the game before, but I could maybe get past that had the episode done one simple thing: explained how the card game works. Sadly it doesn’t do that, and while I guess they’re functioning under the assumption enough people already play the game that they don’t need to do that, this is still being marketed towards kids as a way to further push the game, so doing at least that much seems like a no-brainer. Since I could barely follow what was happening in the game, and the show had kinda lost me everywhere else, there wasn’t really anything for me to latch onto. It certainly looks nice at least, and a little more polished than the footage I’ve seen of the newest Yu-Gi-Oh series, but this doesn’t look like it’ll satisfy my toy show itch quite like I thought it would, so I’ll probably just wait and hold out for that to get simulcasted instead.

Rating: Bad

The Millionare Detective- Balance: UNLIMITED

Synopsis: Follows the incredibly wealthy Daisuke Kanbe who audaciously solves cases in unconventional ways. Kanbe is assigned to the “Modern Crimes Task Unit” — a unit created to keep problematic officers away from others. There, Kanbe becomes partners with Katou.

First Impressions: This show wasn’t super high on my radar, but bishonen detective shows can be fun when they’re done well, and all the trailers looked kinda interesting so I was sorta curious about. Boy I sure wasn’t expecting what I actually saw. So the basic setup here is extremely straightforward. A former elite detective named Katou is on a case to stop a potential bombing, and in the process he has a run in with a bored billionare named Daisuke who turns out to be his new boss. It seems like it would be pretty standard for a buddy cop show, and in a lot of ways it is, but what I sure didn’t anticipate was…basically everything about Daisuke. From the second he shows up on screen the show wants to tell you that Daisuke is far too cool and smooth for the likes of this earth, and even his theme song (which blares literally EVERY SINGLE TIME HE DOES ANYTHING) feels like something out of a James Bond movie, and it’s just so amazingly ridiculous I couldn’t help but have a smile on my face. The whole gimmick of a character with more money than god certainly isn’t new, but the way Daisuke uses his money to do everything from intentionally causing car crashes that he can pay double reperations for, to literally buying out a bridge to stop a pair of would-be robbers, he feels more like a character out of a Saturday morning cartoon than an anime, but that’s also my aesthetic, so I’m totally down with that. Speaking of the robbers, they were also a pretty good part of the characters, as they had the kind of wannabee Bonny and Clyde energy that almost made me want to see them succeed so I’m glad they weren’t blown to smithreens when Daisuke almost pushed them off a bridge (it’s really hard to keep a straight face while typing any of this). As much as the over-the-top nature of basically everything in this premiere is the primary appeal, it certainly helps that the show looks pretty good doing it, and while it certainly isn’t the slickest looking production from Cloverworks, it nails the cop aesthetic where it needs to, and the 3DCG for the cars isn’t too obnoxious. About my only potential hangup is that I kinda don’t care about Katou yet so I don’t know how well he’ll bounce of Daisuke when they start working together, but everything about Daisuke is so…Daisuke that even if the show doesn’t strike the right balance for a buddy cop comedy, I can still watch it just for him. Since humor is subjective I don’t know if this’ll be everyone’s cup of tea but I had a stupid grin on my face almost the whole way through this, and you bet your bottom dollar I’ll be watching every week

Rating: Excellent

APPARE-RANMAN

Synopsis: The socially awkward yet genius engineer, Appare Sorano, and the wise but cowardly samurai, Kosame Isshiki, find themselves aimlessly drifting in the sea between Japan and America. In order to earn enough money to get back home, the duo enters a trans-American race in their own steam-powered car. Rivals, bandits, and other trials await them on this race from Los Angeles to New York.

First Impressions: And rounding out my impressions, we have an original project that’s kinda been on my radar ever since it’s been announced. PA Works’s original productions have gradually gotten stranger with time, and it’s hard to imagine getting any stranger than a racing anime that takes place the early 20th century. And when I say racing, I mean racing that looks like it might be shooting to be the anime equivalent to Wacky Races for anyone old enough to remember Dick Dastardly beyond the recent memes for the upcoming Scooby-Doo movie. It’s an odd premise to be sure, but it’s also one that’s pretty much my brand, and I’m happy to say it seems like it might live up to that potential. I say might, because while the first few minutes tease the eventual big race, most of the premiere flashes back to how this all started as we’re introduced to our two leads Appare and Kosame. Appare is an eccentric inventor from a merchant family who dreams of doing the impossible but is lacking in social graces, while Kosame is a bit of an everyman who just wants to get by comfortably until he’s dragged head first into Appare’s shenanigans. It’s a pretty familar dynamic, and the show hasn’t particularly sold me on either character yet, but they have some pretty decent chemistry together, and while nothing they did over the course of the episode had me rolling, I was at least entertained the whole way through. Thankfully it doesn’t seem like we’lln have to wait all the way till the last few episodes for the actual race, because this one ends with our duo ending up on the shores of the U.S. after Appare goes on the lam, and it seems like we’ll get introduced to the rest of the cast pretty quickly. The show also looks pretty polished, as is usually the case with PA Works, and while there’s a little corner cutting here and there, it has a lot of immediate visual appeal, and the 3DCG for the cars seems decent enough that the eventual racing should be pretty fun when we get to that. I’ll admit I’m more interested in the potential of this show than anything that was necessairly in the premiere beyond the first 2 minutes, but those first two minutes seemed close enough to what I wanted that I’m willing to bet on this show reaching it’s potential, and if wacky anime racing seems like something you might be into, I’d say this looks like it may be well worth a shot.

Rating: Good

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And that’s it for my impressions this time. All in all this looks like a pretty solid season. There’s some promising looking titles, and even the lame stuff wasn’t particularly bad outside of the typical blandness that comes with mobage adaptions. There’s a decent amount of variety too, and it looks like one of those seasons where no matter what your tastes are, you’ll probably find at least one thing to sink your teeth into (unless you’re a shonen fan in which case your only dish is Season 5 of Food Wars which is being served to you way past it’s expiration date). Of course with the virus affecting things worldwide, it’s anyone’s guess how well these shows will hold throughout the season, or if some of them will even finish at all, but hopefully things work out as well as they can. In the meantime, I hope everyone stays safe, and until next time, stay animated.

<-Part 1

So normally I’d talk about how nice it is to get away from the cold of winter and finally soak up some warmer weather, but I’m pretty sure you don’t need me to tell you how much everything sucks right now, and I hope all of you are staying as safe as you can. In the meantime, while we’re all holed up at home, waiting for this whole virus situation to be over, we might as well try and escape reality with some new anime. Since I frankly don’t have much else to do in the meantime, the odds are slightly higher I might get around to more stuff than I normally would, but I’d also like to avoid burning myself out, so we’ll see what happens. Now that my rambling’s done, I guess it’s time to kick this off

Ratings Scale

Bad: Stay away far away from this one.  Not worth watching

Decent: Has some okay elements to it. Might be worth giving a  couple of episodes to see how it goes

Good: Fairly solid show. Should be worth keeping up with for now

Great: Really good show. Definitely worth seeing if you get the chance

Excellent: Really outstanding show. Absolutely worth following .

• All series synopsis from Anime Planet       

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Tower Of God

Synopsis: Fame. Glory. Power. Anything in your wildest dreams is possible when you reach the top of the Tower of God. Those lucky enough to be chosen by the tower ascend each floor in hopes of fulfilling their dreams, but to succeed, they must complete dangerous and deadly tests along the way. But there are others who can enter the structure on their own free will; these “irregulars” are feared by many and are said to leave chaos and change in their wake. Twenty-Fifth Baam is one such irregular who begins to climb the Tower of God in hopes of reuniting with his childhood friend Rachel, but as he soon discovers, this perilous path will put him in the crosshairs of fierce competitors, untrustworthy rivals and terrifying monsters, and he might not make it out alive…

First Impressions: So this is probably one of the most anticipated things of the season for a lot of folks, and it certainly seems to be the show that Crunchyroll is banking on to carry them through the season, since the original web comic is pretty popular. Personally though, it’s been at least somewhere around a decade since I skimmed through it, and I recall literally nothing about it, so I basically went into this blind and to be honest, I’m not quite sure what to think of it. The most immediately stricking thing about the show (aside from having the Crunchyroll and Webtoon logos blaring through the credits, signifying how much the former banked on this) is the visual style, which from everything, I’ve heard was made to resemble the earliest parts of the webcomic. It’s certainly a unique look, and it very much gives the show a comic like vibe in a way that I haven’t seen a lot of other productions do, but in execution the visuals are kinda a mixed bag. The backgrounds look pretty neat, and rough pencil-like outlines work really well for some of the monster designs, but as far as the human characters go, it makes them all look weirdly flat, and while that’s not too off-putting on it’s own, there’s not a whole ton in the way of fluid animation either, so there are points where it feels a few steps away from being a motion comic. Strange as the artstyle is though, the actual plot is even stranger as the show immediately dumps us into the titular tower, and we’re given more in the way of clunky wordbuilding than we are characters as we don’t really know too much about our lead Ban beyond his desire to find a girl named Rachel who once saved him from some mysterious circumstances and may or may not have made her way to the top of the tower. All of this seems it would make the show a hard pass, but as awkwardly pieced together as all of it is, there’s also something about it that has me kinda curious where it’s headed, and I’m equally curious how much mileage the show will be able to get out of it’s artstyle without going totally off the rails. I can’t say this premiere won me over, but I probably will watch at least a little more of this, so on that end, so I guess for the time being, I’m onboard.

Rating: Decent

Tamayomi: The Baseball Girls

Synopsis: Yomi Takeda is a pitcher who, after a failed attempt at climbing the ladder in a junior high baseball tournament, vows off the sport when she heads to high school. But after reuniting with her childhood friend Tamaki Yamazaki (the only one to ever catch her special “Magic Throw”), the two head back to the sport once again.

First Impressions: It’s time for another round of cute girls doing cute things, this time with baseball. That was about the only thing I knew about the show going into this, well that and the potential of some yuri-baiting and…yeah it was basically that. This premiere follows a girl named Tama who used to be an ace pitcher on a baseball team, but hung up her hat after middle school until meeting a pair of enthusiastic twins and being reunited with her childhood friend Yomi, who happens to be an excellent catcher, reignites her passion for the game. Annndd…that’s basically the whole premiere. It reminds me quite a bit of Cinderella Nine from a few seasons back, and much like that show it kinda wavers between whether it wants to be an actual sports drama or moe fluff. Thankfully it seems to have a slightly tighter handle on that than Cinderella Nine did, and the sport antics take emphasis, but unfortunently it’s not super compelling on that end. While Tama’s plight concerning the fact that she had to hold back from using her full capabilities in middle school because no one could catch her pitches was at least kind of interesting, that whole hangup is resolved by the end of the episode, which already paints a bad sign that this isn’t going to have any long term stakes, which is kind of a death sentence for a sports drama. Adding onto that, the show is pretty poorly animated, and while it isn’t super wonky looking, it’s already cutting a lot of corners which means there isn’t likely to be much in the way of spectacle. This certainly isn’t a bad show, and I nothing about it really bothered me, but even as I’m sitting here typing this, it’s already starting to fade from my memory which isn’t exactly the best sign. Maybe I’ll give it another episode if the rest of the season is really slow, but right now I’m leaning towards a no.

Rating: Decent

The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?

Synopsis: Shingo Ichinomiya, a 25-year-old man working at a firm company, while thinking of tomorrow’s busy working day, goes to sleep. However, when he woke up, he found himself in a room unknown to him and realized that he is inside a 6-years-old body, taking over his body and mind. He soon learns from the memories of the boy that the boy was born as the youngest child of a poor noble family living in a back country. Having no administrative skill, he can’t do anything to manage the vast land his family has. Fortunately, he is blessed with a very rare talent, the talent of magic. Unfortunately, while his talent could bring prosperity to his family, in his situation it only brought disaster. This is the story of the boy, Wendelin Von Benno Baumeister, opening his own path in a harsh world.

First Impressions: Well folks, it’s time for another round of isekai bingo so let’s see let’s what we can check off here. MC-kun is a boring salaryman who gets reincarnated into another world? Check. MC-kun is in a world where magic exists, and he’s a super special magic user more powerful than god? Check. MC-kun has a harem of pretty girls? Check. Congratulations we’ve already hit bingo and all of this was established before I got even halfway through this premiere. Long story short, this was really boring, and if you’ve seen literally any isekai involving reincarnation, then you’ve pretty much seen everything this has to offer. The main “gimmick” here is of course in the title, where MC-kun gets reincarnated into a poor noble family and is the youngest of eight brothers, but that’s clearly just an excuse for MC-kun to be overpowered and beloved by all, and it matters so little to those endgoals that at least half of MC-kun’s older brothers have the same generic background character designs and are promptly written out of the show before the end of the episode so you can be sure all the focus will be on MC-kun where it should be. In someways, it’s a shame, because an isekai where the protagonist actually DID have a bunch of brothers to compete with, and needed to prove himself and carve out his own identity could at least be mildly interesting, but that’s far too ambitious for this show’s standards, and even for an extremely run of the mill isekai, I struggled to stay awake through the whole premiere. There are certainly worse things out there, but unless you’re really desperate for a new isekai, or looking for a cure to your insomnia, I’d recommend kicking this to the curb.

Rating: *zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

Kakushigoto

Synopsis: Single father Kakushi Goto has a secret. He’s a top-selling artist of popular erotic manga, but his impressionable young daughter, Hime, can never find out! Now he’s having to bend over backwards just to keep her inquisitive little mind from discovering what he does for a living. A father-daughter tale of love and laughter.

First Impressions: While I can’t say I was highly anticipating this, it was at least kinda on my radar for this season because it’s original author is the madman behind the cult classic, Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei. Zetsubo-sensei was a pretty wild black comedy in its heyday, and while this show looks like it’ll be a lot lighter in tone, I’m happy to say that the comedy is just as sharp. Much like Zetsubo-sensei, this series seems like it’ll revolve around one primary joke, the joke here being that the main character Kakushi is an author who is desperate to make sure his young daughter Hime never finds out he draws raunchy manga. While it seems like something that could easily get old, the show’s already proven it knows how to get a lot of mileage out of it’s humor, and everything from Kakushi putting on a suit everday to maintain the ruse, even though he prefers to draw in casual clothes, and and a gag about Starbucks patrons being hipster monsters got a lot of good laughs out of me, and made the whole episode go by like a breeze. The visual direction and editing for the comedy helps to play a pretty good part in landing the gags, and while it doesn’t look as wild as the best parts of Zetsubo-sensei, it does give a pretty unique identity of it’s own. Funny as it all is, everything here is brought home by the fact that Kakushi and Hime’s dynamic is totally adorable, and while I’m not a parent, I can definently sympathize with him wanting to keep his hobbies away from his family, and it helps in making the humor here relatable. I don’t know how much momentum the show will have after this, but it’s certainly the best of the premieres I’ve seen so far for this season, and if you’re in the mood for a cute comedy, this may be right up your alley.

Rating: Great

Sakura Wars: The Animation

Synopsis: Set in 1940, it’s been 10 years since the great demon invasions, and the World Luxury Operatic Federation has designed a tournament for all to participate in! So how will that work with another impending demonic war? 

First Impressions: I don’t really know too much about Sakura Wars other than that it’s a video game franchise that has been around for pretty much forever, and that the most recent entry had the character designs for the girls done by Tite Kubo of Bleach fame. What I ended up watching was…certainly a video game commercial I guess. The most immediately striking thing about this is that’s done entirely in 3DCG which despite having seen vast improvements thanks to productions like Beastars, is still generally not the best mark of quality when it comes to anime productions. As far as this goes, the character models actually come pretty close to the anime cel-shading look that so many similar shows have tried and failed to pull off and the designs for the girls are all pretty cute. Sadly that’s about all I really have to say about this show because the rest of it was a bunch of nonsense that I imagine is only really going to make sense to you if you’ve actually played the game this is based on and I haven’t. About all I really gathered from the premiere is that the girls are part of a revue theatre that doubles as some kind of miltary organization and they’re tasked with looking after a little girl who holds some big mystery. There’s not really a whole lot in the way of explination, and it doesn’t help that the actual combat portion of the show was weirdly where the 3DCG looked the shoddiest, since there was a lot of notable corner cutting in how some of the shots were framed and while it’s far from the worst I’ve seen done with 3DCG on that, it certainly didn’t help to maintain my interest. This is yet another premiere where nothing here stood out as particularly awful, and maybe if it was a 2D production, Kubo’s character designs might have convinced me to maybe give it another episode, but I’m currently not seeing a whole lot of reason to stick with this. Hey, maybe I’ll try out the actual game instead.

Rating: Decent

Listeners

Synopsis: In a world where the entire idea of music vanishes from existence, Echo Rec is a young teen who comes across μ, a girl who, oddly enough, has an auxiliary port on her body. Together, they’ll work to rock the foundation of society and bring music back to the world.

First Impressions: This was one of the handful of things that was on my general radar for this season, both because the aesthetic seemed interesting and also because it’s an anime original project helmed by Dai Sato. Dai Sato has been around the block for a long time, and he’s the primary force behind the beloved mecha classic Eureka Seven so he’s certainly capable of some great work, but he’s also worked on stuff like Dai Shogun, which in addition to being a horny mess of a show, is quite literally the single worst animated TV series I’ve ever laid eyes on, so it’s always a coin toss as to which version of Dai Sato we’re gonna get. Thankfully he seems to be a lot closer to his E7 game than his Dai Shogun game, and this premiere has all the hallmarks of a mid 00’s mecha anime. Our hero Echo is a young man from a junkyard town who dreams of exploring the world, but is also content with living his life out quietly until an amnesiac girl named Myu comes crashing into his life, and she turns out to be a player, the only beings capable of wielding giant robots called Equipment and fighting against monsters called the Earless. What follows is pretty straightforward, as the inevitable arrival of an Earless convinces Echo that he wants more to his life after all, and he and Myu start on a journey to explore the world. Cliche as a lot of this is, these are cliches I haven’t really seen done this way in a long time since these kinds of anime original productions seemed to have largely gone out of fashion, and mecha especially had pretty much zero pull in the 2010’s so seeing a new one that isn’t Gundam related is kind of a shock. I’d also be lying if I said I wasn’t a sucker for this sort of thing since I’ve certainly consumed plenty of this kind of mecha show in my day, and Eureka Seven in particular was rock solid, so if this ends up coming even halfway near that level of quality it could make for a fun ride. I’ll admit I’m basing a lot of my opinions here on optimism more than anything, since there’s any number of ways this could turn out to be disappointing or boring, but I’ve really missed these kinds of productions so I’m rooting for it to be fun, and I’ll certainly be tuning into it until it gives me a reason not to

Rating: Good

Wave, Listen to Me!

Synopsis: The stage is Sapporo, Hokkaido. One night, our heroine, Minare Koda, spills her heartbroken woes to a radio station worker she meets while out drinking one night. The next day, she hears a recording of her pitiful grumbling being played live over the air. Minare storms into the station in a rage, only to then be duped by the station director into doing an impromptu talk show explaining her harsh dialogue. With just one recording, the many eccentric facets of Minare’s life begin to pull every which direction as she falls ever deeper into the world of radio.

First Impressions: This is another one I was kinda curious about, both because I’ve seen the original manga floating around in Crunchyroll’s manga catalog for years, and also because it looks to be a comedy about working adults which is sadly kind of a rarity in anime. The story follows a young woman named Minare who after getting into a drunken ramble over a breakup with her boyfriend, ends up getting dragged into the world of radio, and becomes a talk show host. If that premise sounds kinda weird, the show very much is, and it doesn’t help that it starts in media res with Minare already working on the show, and imagining a scenario where she finds herself face to face with a giant bear, before eventually cycling back to tell us how this all started. I can’t say I didn’t get a kick out of it though, and while the show wasn’t ball-busting levels of funny, Minare’s maniac energy is almost impossible not to laugh at, and her struggles with work and relationships feels down to earth enough to be relatable. Even more than her antics though, what really stood to me was the production from Sunrise, and that the episode had some pretty zany animation to match how wild MInare’s personality is, right down to actually going all out on Minare’s imaginary bear fight. Needless to say I was pretty happy with this one, and while I don’t know if the animation quality will hold the whole way through, the comedy certain seems sharp enough to compensate, and if you’re looking for one that’s a little more adult this season, it looks like it’ll be one heck of a time.

Rating: Great

Arte

Synopsis: 16th century Firenze, Italy. One girl, One ARTistic ambition!The birthplace of the renaissance era, where art is thriving. In one small corner of this vast city, one sheltered girl’s journey begins. She dreams of becoming an artist, an impossible career for a girl born into a noble family. In those days, art was an exclusively male profession, with woman facing strong discrimination. In spite of these challenges, Arte perseveres with hard work and a positive attitude!

First Impressions: While they can sometimes be hit or miss when it comes to the actual execution, period pieces are almost always something that I’m at least a little curious about so I did kinda wonder what I was going to get here. As it turns out, this is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. The story follows a young noble girl named Arte who dreams of making a living as an artist, and after her father passes away, desperately seeks out an apprenticeship before finding the only person who will take her on in the form of a scruffy looking man named Leo. Leo of course isn’t really interested in taking her on, as women were shunned from the arts during the times of the Rennasaince, and dealing with a spoiled little noble girl specifically seems like it’s more trouble than it’s worth for him. Of course Arte is much scrappier than he realizes, and she eventually wins him over. There isn’t too much here you haven’t seen in other period pieces about women trying to work their way through male-dominated professions, but thankfully the execution here is solid enough to outshine the cliches. Arte comes off as almost immediately likeable both in her energetic personality, and her determimation to live her life the way she wants to, and while she might seem a little too naieve about the latter, she’s far more aware of how difficult that’s going to be than it first seems, and it makes it easy to root for her. Leo also seems like he’ll work as a good counterbalance to her, as he struggled through poverty to get where he is, and it makes his initial dislike of Arte pretty understandable, and I’m kinda curious to see how their relationship will develop as master and apprentice. Visually the show also looks pretty adequate for a period piece if not totally amazing, and it seems like it’ll be a modest enough production to probably hold steady the whole way through, This premiere was very much a “what you see, is what you get” kinda deal, but that’s not always a bad thing, and this was pleasant enough that I’m eager to see where it’s headed in the coming weeks

Rating: Good

My Next Live as a Villaness: All Roads Lead to Doom!

Synopsis: Wealthy heiress Katarina Claes is hit in the head with a rock and recovers the memories of her past life. It turns out the world she lives in is the world of the game Fortune Lover, an otome game she was obsessed with in her past life… but she’s been cast as the villain character who tries to foil the protagonist’s romances! The best ending the game has for Katarina is exile, and the worst, death! She’ll have to find a way to avoid triggering the flags of doom, and make her own happy future! The misunderstanding-based screwball love comedy now begins!

First Impressions: I wasn’t super excited for this one, but I’ve been hearing good things about it for awhile so I was really curious to check it out. While isekai stories about characters being reincarnated are pretty much a dime a dozen, isekai with female leads are something of a rarity, or at least compared to the 90’s when that was pretty much the norm so this at least had my attention for that alone, and so far it’s off to a good start. Rather than starting us, at the very beginning of her getting isekai-d the story starts with our heroine Katarina living out a lavish lifestyle as a young noble girl until she hits her head and remembers her past life. From there she slowly pieces together that she’s in an otome game, and that she’s the villaness whose destined to someday get upstaged by the heroine and subsequently exiled or murdered. The setup to that puncline is pretty solid, and from there Katarina spends the remainder of the episode doing her darndest to avoid anything that’ll trigger the game routes that lead to her demise, whether it’s getting engaged to the main pretty boy, or making sure her adopted brother has a happy childhood so he doesn’t grow up to hate her and subsequently get her killed. Unfortunently for her, Katarina is none too bright, and her attempts to save herself tend to backfire more often than not, and to a hilarious result. It’s a pretty good comedy setup, but it’s also one that could get old fast if there wasn’t more to it, so it helps that Katarina is as good-hearted as she is stupid, and seeing her stumble into doing the right thing in the end makes it easy to root for her. It’s possible the show end up squeezing but so much out of its premise, but I had a pretty fun time with it. and if this premiere is any indication, this looks like it’ll more than live up to its reputation

Rating: Great

Sing “Yesterday” For Me

Synopsis: Rikuo has graduated from college, but has zero ambition or direction and works in a convenience store. A strange high-school dropout, Haru, keeps coming around with her pet crow. Rikuo still has a crush on his senior Shinako, who is beginning a teaching career, and who shows up in the store one day. Rikuo’s relationships with the girls, and his feelings about his life, keep changing as the story evolves, bringing in other important characters—Rikuo’s co-worker, the coworker’s sister, and a childhood friend of Shinako’s, etc.

First Impressions: I didn’t really know anything about this going in other than that it was a drama centered around and young adult characters, and given that again, this kinda thing is rarer in anime than it probably should be, it’s a genre I’m always eager to check out. Having said all that, I wasn’t expecting this to be as painfully relatable as it is. The series follows a young man named Rikuo, who after graduating college, finds himself drifting by working a part-time job because he has no serious aspirations for the future, and doesn’t see much point in pushing himself towards a serious career if he’s not passionate about anything. His world changes when a mysterious high school girl named Haru starts hanging around him, and he’s reunited with his college crush Shinako. While Rikuo is content to sit by and let his crush go unrequited, Hana’s cheerful attitude convinces him to try taking a chance on asking Shinako out. Unsurprisingly, he ends up getting rejected, but he finds out that he has more in common with Haru than he thinks since like him, she’s the kind of person who’s gotten through life by pretending to be more passionate about it than she actually is, and has the same kind of self-loathing. As a guy who has, and still is kinda drifting through life without purpose, everything about Rikuo’s character felt instantly relatable, and his line towards the end of the show, about attempting to problems that dominate his life only to see that othing really changed afterwards is a sentiment I’ve found myself echoing more times than I’d care to admit. Haru also seems pretty interesting so far, and while the show is maybe a little too casual about how she comes onto Rikuo, it doesn’t seem like it’ll head down any potentially creepy territory. The show also looks pretty good, as is generally expected of Dogakobo productions, and while it looks a little more reserved than some of their comedies, it has a strong atmosphere that really matches the dour mood of the show. This looks like it might be a bit of a slow burn, so it may not be for everyone, but this is probably the closest to home an anime premise has ever really hit for me, and while I don’t know exactly where it’s headed, it looks like it’ll be the drama to beat for the season.

Rating: Excellent

Gal and Dino

Synopsis: After a night of drinking, Kaede wakes up realizing that in her drunken daze she had brought an unexpected guest home—a dinosaur! Kaede just goes with the flow and accepts her new living situation. Now she navigates her daily life while eating, watching TV, and shopping with her prehistoric roommate. Together, the duo enjoys each other’s company as they take on whatever the day brings.

First Impressions: I uh…wasn’t sure what I was gonna get with this, but I was sorta curious about it, because with a title like Gal and Dinosaur how could I not be. After sitting through the premiere I can safely say I watched a show about a gyaru and a dinosaur. That’s it. Much in the same in the same vein as 2018’s Pop Team Epic, the punchline here is that there isn’t really one, and the joke is entirely in how it plays with your expectations and subverts them. The Pop Team Epic comparison mostly stems from the fact that this is also a series being adapted by the folks at Kamikaze Douga, and this has a lot of the same staff. That can definently be seen in the show’s visual style as it’s also a mixed media production, and switches between limited 2D animation, 3DCG, puppetry, and even an extended live-action segment for the entire second half of the episode. It’s very bizarre to say the least, and that weirdness kept my attention pretty much the whole way through. However, while Pop Team’s subversive humor was aided by how utterly bonkers it was, Gal and Dinosaur is a lot more relaxed and subdued so if you’re here expecting a second season of PTE, this definently isn’t that, and I imagine it’ll disappoint some folks. But if the brand of weird I just described to you, seems like something you’d be curious about, I’d certainly say it’s worth seeing at least once. I dunno if this’ll hold my attention quite in the same way PTE did, but I certainly couldn’t look away from it. so I guess it succeeded

Rating: ???

Digimon Adventure:

Synopsis: It’s the year 2020. The Network has become something humans can no longer do without in their daily lives. But what humans don’t know is that on the other side of the Network is the Digital World, a realm of light and darkness. Nor are they aware of the Digimon who live there. Fifth grader Taichi Yagami’s mother and little sister Hikari went to Shibuya, and now they’re aboard a runaway train. Taichi hurries to Shibuya to save his mother and sister, but the instant he heads toward the station platform… a strange phenomenon befalls the DigiDestined, and Taichi goes to the Digital World!

First Impressions: With the exception of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh (and even then I kinda associate Pokemon more with the games) there aren’t really a lot of anime from my childhood that stuck with me quite like the Digimon franchise did. While it wore the skin of a toy commercial and very much was one, it also had a lot of heart to it, and the way the original eight kids dealt with their own individual struggles and grew past them over the course of their long journey in the original anime is a story that holds up even now. So when it was announced that Toei was going to straight up reboot the franchise from the beginning, this easily became the thing I was anticipating the most this season, but I wasn’t totally sure what we were going to get. On the one hand this show is coming fresh of Toei’s latest reboot of GeGeGe no Kitaro, which initially seemed liked it was going to be a relatively laid back kids show about weekly ghost hunting shenanigans, only to end up having some pretty powerful allegories for race relations, enviornmentalism, war, and how easy it is for society to demonize groups who don’t fit in with the norms, and since this Digimon reboot shares some of the same staff, that gives it some serious potential. On the other hand, this reboot is also coming off of the Digimon Adventure Tri films which started off promising, only to end up being an absolute mess, and while I’ve heard from some folks in Japan that the recent Last Evolution movie is a significant improvement and a much better send off to that timeline, it’s hard not to be a little skeptical of Toei going for such an obvious cash grab. After the first episode though, my feelings are mostly leaning towards optimism.

Given that the first Digimon Adventure anime is pretty well known, even in the west, I was curious how they were going to make it fresh, and the answer seems to be piling on the mysteries. Instead of immediately pulling the kids into the Digital World, this starts off with a series of mysterious cyber attacks, and our protagonist Taichi (or Tai for all you 20-somethings like me who grew up with the dub) getting dragged into the middle of them before learning that they’re the work of creatures called Digimon who secretly exist on the net. For reasons not yet explained, Taichi has a connection to one of them named Agumon, and together they must work to put an end to the cyber attacks before they lead to a potential nuclear holocaust (yeah I’m not kidding). Those are some pretty high stakes to start a new iteration of a kids’ show with, but while this all seems like it would be a lot to digest, the general direction of the episode does a good job of easing us into the setting, and making the audience naturally curious about everything. While I certainly had my share of skepticism that this was going to play it safe going in, by the end of the episode, I was extremely curious where this would be headed, and that the episode doesn’t end with Taichi and Agumon having completely shut down the cyber attacks soothes my fears that this was going to be more episodic that the original anime was. The atmosphere of the premiere also benefits from the fact that this is probably the best a Digimon TV series has ever looked. As much love as I have for the franchise, it was never exactly a smorgous board of animation, even for the recent films, but this has some pretty neat action cuts, and while I doubt every episode is going to look this good, if it can stay at even half that level of quality, it’d certainly be an improvement over how the original series looked. If I have one serious hangup about this premiere, it’s mainly nostalgia-based in that I liked Digimon Adventure as an ensemble show, and in addition to most of the other kids not properly appearing in this episode besides Koushiro/Izzy, the OP and ED theme songs have me worried that most of the focus is going to be on Taichi and Yamato/Matt, which would be a shame since the other kids are just as great. Still, that’s a worry for the future, and for right now, this is off to a pretty solid start, and whether you’re an old fan of the franchise, or coming into it for the first time, I think there’s enough here to grab your attention.

Rating: Great

Part 2 ->

Hello everyone, and welcome to the 2020’s! The 2010’s were pretty rough for a lot of the world, but it’s a new decade, with new possibilities, new things to hope for, and of course, a lot of new anime. The start of a new year for anime is always interesting to look at, but seeing how a new decade for anime kicks off is especially exciting, which means that the shows this round have that much more to live up to. Much like any other new season of anime though, I’ll be going through this by trying to cover as much as I can, and hopefully still retain my sanity by the time we reach the other end of it, so without any further ado, let’s see how anime’s gearing up for the new decade.

Ratings Scale

Bad: Stay away far away from this one.  Not worth watching

Decent: Has some okay elements to it. Might be worth giving a  couple of episodes to see how it goes

Good: Fairly solid show. Should be worth keeping up with for now

Great: Really good show. Definitely worth seeing if you get the chance

Excellent: Really outstanding show. Absolutely worth following .

• All series synopsis from Anime Planet       
•   

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Somali and the Forest Spirit

Synopsis: In a world where the ruined human species has been driven almost to extinction by the monsters that now dominate the land, a forest golem is surprised to find a human child sitting alone in the woods – dirty, barefoot, and in chains. The golem takes little Somali under his protection and the two begin a journey together, traveling through beautiful and dangerous lands where the small girl’s humanity must be kept hidden for her own safety. The golem hopes to find Somali’s parents alive somewhere, but the chances of this are slim; and besides, as far as Somali is concerned, she has already found herself a beloved father.

First Impressions: Between the good things I’ve heard about the original manga, and Crunchyroll’s heavy promotion for it, I was pretty eager to check this one out, and I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint. This series takes place in a world mostly populated by demi-humans and other creatures,and follows the unlikely pair of a golem and a young human child named Somali. The pair is unusual because in this world, golems never leave the forests they’ve been assigned to protect, and humanity was thought to be wiped out after their bigotry towards other species led to a war that resulted in their own demise. As such, the beings of this world don’t seem to take kindly to humans beyond finding them delicious, and the Golem has disguised Somali as a minotaur in order to presumably help them find their family(Somali’s gender is never specified over the course of the episode and I’m assuming that’s probably intentional). I say presumably because this premiere doesn’t actually start with the full explination of why these two are travelling together, but that’s okay because the rest of the show is so dang charming, I’m more than willing to put up with a little extra mystery. While isekai has kinda poisoned the fantasy well for a lot of anime-goers, I’m still personally a sucker for actual fully realized fantasy worlds, and this show seems to be leaning much more towards that aesthetic, right down to having its color pallete and backgrounds resemble something akin to a children’s storybook, which really helps to enhance the atmosphere.

The golem and Somali also seem like they’ll be a pretty fun pair as the golem claims to have no emotions and interacts with the world as though he’s just an observer, so watching him bounce off the much more energetic and precocious Somali was pretty entertaining, and it seems like the journey these two go on may end up teaching the golem a little bit about empathy and emotions, which is always the kind of tale I can get behind. About my only point of worry here would be the fear that this’ll go down the child-grooming route as some similar anime have, or otherwise get into some…uncomfortable territory with Somali, but I’ve been told by manga readers that this story is child-grooming free, and apart from one slightly weird gag towards the end of the episode, it seems like this show will be pretty wholesome, and there shouldn’t be be much to worry about. So far this one is off to a really strong start and if you like more traditional fantasy settings as opposed to isekai, and you’re also in the mood for some heartwarming parent-child dynamics, this one seems like it’ll be a winner.

Rating: Excellent

Darwin’s Game

Synopsis: An unpredictable battle of superpowers. Kaname Sudo, an ordinary high school student, receives an invitation email to try a mysterious app called “Darwin’s Game.” Kaname, upon launching the app, is drawn into a game where players fight one another using superpowers called Sigils. Without knowing the reason for all this, can Kaname survive furious battles against the powerful players who attack him?

First Impressions: While I didn’t know any particular details about the premise, I knew from it’s title and the way folks online were talking about it, that this was probably some kind of death game show, which meant this one had a pretty big hurdle to clear for me. There was a time where I was pretty into stuff like Future Diary and the like, but time has made me far less receptive to how mean-spirited and nilhlistic these kinds of shows tend to be, and they almost always end up telling the exact same story anyway, so my general interest comes down to not how interesting the actual game set-up is, or anything about the actual plot, but rather how stupid the whole thing is, and if it’s amusing enough to enjoy ironically. Luckily (or maybe unfortunently if things get dicey later on) this show was a riot and a half. Right off the bat this show hits pretty much every death game anime trope at full speed, with such staples as generic whitebread protagonist who gets himself sucked into the game by not taking it seriously but somehow ends up with the best power anyway, a psycho killer in a panda costume, and a psycho-yandere who goes from wanting to kill our precious hero to wanting to bone him and bear his children. It’s incredibly dumb, and starting off with an hour-long premiere certainly seemed like a gamble for something this outrageous, but over the course of that time, I went from rolling my eyes, to laughing at how much this show was trying to take all these wacky tropes as seriously as possible. I’ll admit the whole “it’s so bad, it’s good” thing is the kind of viewing experience I rarely have these days since hardly anything hits that sweet spot for me anymore, but this is the closest anything has come to that for me in a good while, and I’m in the mood for it so against my typical judgement, I’ll actually stick with this one for a while. Time will tell if it stays amusing, or gets too mean-spirited or gross to continue on, but for now I’ll give it a cautious recommendation if you’re into irony-watching.

Rating: lol

Asteroid in Love

Synopsis: When she was little, Konohata Mira promises a boy she meets at a campsite that they can find a galaxy together. When she enters high school, she joins the astronomy club. But that year, the astronomy club happened to combine with the geology club, making it the astrogeo club?! Won’t you find all kinds of sparkles with the astrogeo girls?

First Impressions: Like always, it wouldn’t be a new season of anime without at least one show about “cute girls doing cute things” and this is a show about cute girls studying geology and asteroids. Similar to the whole death game thing with Darwin’s Game, this is a genre of show that tends not to particularly appeal to me unless it’s got some kind of good X-factor, and the X-factor I typically look for is if the main gimmick or characters feels interesting enough to overcome the usual tropes of this genre. In the case of this show it’s looking like a “maybe” because the actual gimmick here isn’t the geology angle (it’s possible later episodes might dive into that more but the premiere doesn’t seem too concered with it) but rather that the two leads are reunited childhood friends who clearly have the hots for each other. It’s far from unusual for these kinds of shows to have lesbian subtext, and half the appeal for them is that they often take place in worlds where men don’t seem to exist, but the fact that this show opens with the bait-and-switch of having one of the girls thinking that the other is a boy until they’re reunited in high school, but has her no less interested, makes me think there’s a chance this show might actually commit to a romance angle, and I’d certainly be down for a cute love story. Still, there’s plenty of room for this show to walk things back and go the more typical route of “they’re clearly gay, but won’t say it so dudes can pretend they’re straight” that lot of similar stuff falls into, so my optimism might not be entirely founded. For now though, it’s an interesting enough hook that I’m likely to at least give this one or two more episodes to see how much it’s willing to buckle down on that, so I guess it succeeded in getting my attention.

Rating: Good

Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story

Synopsis: Few people know the truth: the world is safe thanks to the Magical Girls who are forced to slay Witches. Even though these girls are putting their lives on the line for a wish, rumors say they can be saved in Kamihama City. That’s where Iroha Tamaki is headed in search of answers. She can’t remember the wish she made to Kyubey, but a shadowy figure haunts her dreams.

First Impressions: So like most folks who have kept up with anime for the past decade or so, I’m a pretty big fan of Madoka, and I think the show is a masterpiece. I’m also of a mind that it told a pretty complete story (as long as you pretend Rebellion doesn’t exist) and that we didn’t really need more of it. Of course it made simply far too much money for Aniplex to even consider letting the franchise die, so here we are with a spinoff series that’s being adapted from a mobile game. I’ll admit I wasn’t super jazzed about checking this out since again, I didn’t really need more Madoka, but I was at least kinda curious what we were gonna get and so far it’s…okay. Aesthetically this has all of the polish that made Madoka really stand out as a visual production. The backgrounds look great, and everything from the art design to the music is more or less carried over from the original show, meaning that just about everything here looks gorgeous. It also has a pretty good sense of atmosphere going for it too, as it gets the generally haunting tone that the original Madoka had gone fore pretty well, even if it’s a little less lacking in substance, and while the story so far hasn’t wowed me yet, there’s enough to lean on that I’m at least a little curious to learn about these new characters.

My problem though I guess, is that even though this looks and feels like Madoka, it obviously isn’t going to have the same level of heart since that all largely came down to the very specific story Gen Urobuchi was telling with the original, and I’m not yet convinced that simply mimicking everything I liked about it aestehtically will be enough to make up for that deficiency. Basically this feels like a thing that’s going to appeal to you if you were more interested in the world of Madoka than the story of Madoka (and I do mean that specifically because even though this is technically it’s own thing, it very much assumes you’re familar with all the terms from the original) and I’m not sure I liked that world quite enough to be on board with a version that feels more manufactured. For all my griping though, I was still engaged so I guess for better or worse I’m probably gonna watch this for at least a few more episodes. While I’m obviously not expecting this to hit anywhere near the highs that Madoka proper did, hopefully whatever it does end up ultimately going for is good enough to justify it’s existance.

Rating: Good

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Synopsis: First year high schooler Midori Asakusa loves anime so much, she insists that “concept is everything” in animation. Though she draws a variety of ideas in her sketchbook, she hasn’t taken the first step to creating anime, insisting that she can’t do it alone. The producer-type Sayaka Kanamori is the first to notice Asakusa’s genius. Then, when it becomes clear that their classmate, charismatic fashion model Tsubame Mizusaki, really wants to be an animator, they create an animation club to realize the “ultimate world” that exists in their minds.

First Impressions: I’ve been a fan of Maasaki Yuasa’s work as a director ever since I checked out The Tatami Galaxy a few years back, and after Devilman Crybaby blew up into giant phenomenon back in 2018, his perception in the west has gone from niche, to him being rightly celebrated as one of the most ambitious anime directors out there. With that in mind, there was definently a lot to be excited about with him returning to a TV anime project for the first time in a while, and boy did this premiere hit all the right marks, The basic set up here is pretty straightforward as it follows a trio of girls who are passionate about anime creation (well two of them, since one doesn’t have much interest in anime beyond it’s money-making potential) and how the chance encounter of the three of them coming together leads them to work on making their own anime project. If you checked out Shirobako way back in 2014 (and if you haven’t you should correct this gross oversight immediately) this is a pretty similar wheelhouse to that in regards to talking about the actual process behind making anime, but where as Shirobako talked about anime creation from an industry perspective, and all the cynicism that comes with it, Eizouken seems far more interested in talking about the joy of making something new, and the way animation can challenge our imaginations.

This is perhaps best expressed in one of the show’s last scenes, which features the trio imagining that they’re flying a plane through a cityscape with penciled in backgrounds, and the sheer wonder it manages to express in just a couple of minutes, brought such a huge smile to my face that I’m already sitting here wondering when the next episode is coming. If you couldn’t tell from that whole little sphiel, the show looks pretty good, and the folks at Science SARU really get a lot of mileage out of it’s simple character designs as the girls get to be pretty expressive throughout the premiere, and are all chock full of personality. The girls themselves are all very likeable so far too, and I appreciate that in addition to giving them non moe-fied designs in exchange for something a little more in line with what teen girls actually look like, the voice acting also reflects that, and it manages to make them feel immediately distinct from each other. I certainly wasn’t expecting Yuasa to disappoint, but even with that in mind, this is easily the standout premiere for the season thus far, and it’s gonna be a pretty tough one to beat. Whether you’re interested in how anime is made specifically, or just like the joy and wonder of making something new at all, this show’s got you covered, and I’m super excited to chow this one down every week

Rating: Excellent

ID: Invaded

Synopsis: Sakaido was a famous and very talented detective until the day his daughter was killed, and he committed revenge! Now in jail, he uses his skills to help the police find criminals of cold-blooded crimes through a system that allows him to invade a criminal’s “ID.” But he’ll soon find clues that bring back his daughter’s case!

First Impressions: So I guess I should preface this by saying this is technically a second impression because I actually checked out the first two episodes when Funimation offered an early preview of them on their site a few weeks back. I watched them again both to refresh myself so I could write this, and because I was curious to check out the simuldub (which sounds good, save one performance I’m a little iffy on). Anyway this show is a new original IP from Studio NAZ and director Ei Aoki of Fate/Zero fame. That last part would make this something to look for in theory since Fate/Zero’s quality basically speaks for itself, but that was an adaption, and Ei Aoki’s track record with original anime, extends from Re:Creators which was good, and Aldnoah Zero which is uh…yeah we don’t talk about that one anymore. It was hard to say exactly where this one would fall on that potential spectrum, and having sat through the first two episodes twice, I can safely tell you that I still have no idea. Conceptually there’s a lot of interesting ideas here. A procedural cop drama where the detectives can literally dive into the minds of the killers to study their psychology and hunt them down is an idea that could go in a lot of interesting directions, and I also like the idea of the protagonist apparently being some kind of special prisoner who’s being used as a tool to dive into the minds of these killers, and seems to have lost his daughter to some criminal mastermind who can make people into serial killers. Of course, there’s also plenty of room for that to turn into an overly-edgy mess, and these episodes weirdly haven’t made too strong a case for the show going in either direction. It’s impeccibly well-directed, and I like how the show opens with the mystery of Sakaido finding himself inside the world of one of the killers, and having to recollect what he’s supposed to be doing from there, but I was a little less impressed with the actual serial killer being chased after for these two episodes since the writing there felt a little barren. Still it managed to keep me engaged the whole time, and the warning signs for this turning into nonsense don’t feel like they’re blaring right now, so I’m up with sticking with this for a while. It’s hard to tell exactly what we’ll end up with, given Ei Aoki’s previous track record, but if nothing else it’ll at least grab your attention

Rating: Good

Seton Academy: Join the Pack!

Synopsis: Majima Jin hates animals, and yet he finds himself at Seton Academy, a school full of animal students! Can he learn to get along with his classmates?

First Impressions: I’ve gotta say that given how big the furry community is, I’m a little shocked that that “high school harem anime, but with furries” is somehow a thing that didn’t exist until now (well I guess there’s Beastars but it has yet to hit Netflix, so I have no idea if it qualifies as a harem show), meaning there was plenty of potential for this to be at least amusing, if not actively funny. Unfortunently this show squanders pretty much all it’s potential right off the bat. Firstly the main character is pretty unlikeable, and spends a lot of the episode’s runttime being a jerk to a wolf girl and basically everyone except the sole human girl at the high school, who weirdly puts up no objections when he accidentally declaires he wants her to join his “pack”. That set off some minor warning bells in my head which got amplified later on in the episode when MC-kun exposes a zebra girl as faking her relation to horses by…literally lifting up her skirt and exposing her panties to a large crowd of students so they could see her tail. That was pretty gross, and it gets shortly followed up a group of bears attempting to rape the wolf girl and the human girl, which is not only there for the purpose of making MC-kun look better, but ultimately ends up getting played for laughs in the end. Yeeeeaaaaahhhh…this really sucks. It’s a shame this is opting for such mean-spirited and frankly gross “comedy” since again, this could have been fun on paper, and I kinda liked the whole narration about certain animal behaviors, but there’s definently no getting past everything else that’s bad about it. Hard pass.

Rating: Bad

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen

Synopsis: Orphen is a powerful sorcerer who is notoriously lazy. Everything changes when he finds a way to save his sis, who was turned into a dragon during their days at magic academy. Betrayed by friends who refused to help, Orphen will stop at nothing to track her down, even if he has to go it alone.

First Impressions: I don’t know too much about the original Sorcerous Stabber Orphen anime from way back in the late 90’s. but reboots of old classics seem to be the hip new thing with anime these days, and I was kinda curious to check this out since it’s always interesting to see old stuff get a new coat of paint. Unfortunently this uh…wasn’t very good. This show seems to take place in your standard Dungeons & Dragons fantasy world, and follows the antics of a lone sorceror named Orphan who’s on a quest to track down his lady love that got turned into a dragon. I say “seems to” because this premiere doesn’t really explain much of anything about the actual plot here or eases us into the setting. Instead we’re kinda-sorta introduced to Orphen as a character who starts off beating up a couple of kids who owe him money (well I suppose they’re technically dwarves so they might NOT be kids, but they certainly look, sound, and act like them) and doesn’t get any more likeable from there as he joins them in an attempt to scam some rich people out of their money. It’s the sort of thing that would probably be funnier under the visual direction and style of actual 90’s anime, but for the purposes of this reboot it just felt kind of obnoxious and annoying.

This kinda leads into my other grip with this show, which I guess isn’t as important, but is just kind of personally irritating: if I didn’t know this was a reboot of a 90’s thing, I would never be able to tell by the visual style of this premiere. There’s something to be said for updating the look of a show for modern audiences, and I’m usually pretty okay with that if the core of the material itself is kind timeless, but in the case of this show, the tone lives and breathes the 90’s aesthetic so having this resemble basically any isekai (albiet with slightly better character designs) feels like it’s selling the series short, and it doesn’t help that the actual production looks kinda all over the place. The background art is nice, and there’s a couple of bits of good slapstick with the character animation, but it all meshes together in a way that looks off, and it doesn’t help that there’s a few bits of 3DCG every now and then that only add to the muddied look of this production. I really wish I had liked this more than I did (or at all really), but this felt like a mess, and I found myself looking at the episode’s runttime more than once. Maybe I’ll give the dub a peek if David Matranga comes back as Orphen since I know that was his debut anime role, and I’m kinda curious to see how he’d handle it now, but on the whole this gets a pretty big thumbs-down from me.

Rating: Bad

BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense

Synopsis: She may be new to gaming, but Maple has found the secret to invincibility! Just put all your skill points into defense until you can’t even move. That works, right? She doesn’t want to experience any pain in the VRMMO game she started playing, and somehow it works better than anyone expected. Now she’s got followers??

First Impressions: It’s the most tedious time of the season again: isekai time. Or at least it would be except well…this one isn’t an isekai surprisingly! Nope, we’re back to the regular shenanigans of people just casually playing a VRMMO and it’s something I didn’t know I kinda missed until now, because considering that the general stakes in most isekai are miniscule anyway, being upfront it, gives the show opportunities to excell in other areas. Surprisingly this premiere actually does that, as in addition to not being an isekai, this particular MMO power fantasy stars a female protagonist named Kaede (or Maple in the game) who mostly just comes off as cute and charming in her strangely specific quest to avoid taking damage, and feels immediately more likeable than most whitebread isekai MC-kuns. While it’s not exactly a big secret that she ends up being pretty overpowered in that area by the end of the episode, the road to her getting there actually turns out to be kinda funny, and I got an especially good laugh out of bit where a little rabbit monster does it’s best to hurt her, only to die trying. In addition to some decent comedy, it’s also got a pretty solid looking production, and while nothing about the backgrounds or the character designs blew me away, it looks polished enough to at least have a bit more of an identity than most isekai stuff, and the visual slapstick was pretty nice. This wasn’t exactly the most impressive premiere of the season, but it was a pleasant little surprise, and one I’ll be happy to watch a little more of.

Rating: Good

Plunderer

Synopsis: Every human inhabiting the world of Alcia is branded by a “Count” or a number written on their body. Depending on how each person lives their life, this Count either goes up or down. For Hina’s mother, her total drops to 0 and she’s pulled into the Abyss, never to be seen again. But her mother’s last words send Hina on a quest to find a legendary hero from the Waste War—the fabled Ace!

First Impressions: While I wasn’t “excited” for this one, I was kinda curious, both because I knew Funimation had invested a pretty penny in it, and because I knew the creator was behind Heaven’s Lost Property, which I haven’t seen but I’ve heard enough weird stories about to make me wonder what this was gonna be. Boy do I regret that decision. On the one end, this show is really skeevy, even by light-novel anime standards, as it features our presumed protagonist making his introduction by sexually harassing the heroine in a way that’s clearly supposed to be played “for laughs” but just feels gross instead, and continues that with multiple extended shots of thighs which quickly cease to be sexy and just kind of feel uncomfortable, and eventually getting to the villain of the episode who tries to assault the heroine. Or at least I’m assuming that’s how it goes because it was around that point I checked out of the episode. Even if I didn’t find the content to be a bit too gross for my liking though, the show sure doesn’t have much else going for it, since the visual aesthetic isn’t much to look at, and the writing has what is hands down some of the absolute worst exposition I’ve ever seen (and I’ve sat through a LOT of bad light novel exposition) as when the heroine isn’t getting harassed by someone, she’s having people explain things about the world to her that there’s basically no way she possibly couldn’t know as someone else who lives there and it took me out of the episode almost as much as the skeevy stuff did. Between this and Seton Academy I’m not quite sure which one was the worse premiere to sit through (though I guess at least finished Seton’s first episode so there’s that) but one thing that’s for sure is that I sure won’t be watching any more of this. I’m out.

Rating: Bad

Hatena Illusion

Synopsis: Ever since he was a boy, Makoto Shiranui dreamed of being a magician just like the famous illusionist, Mamoru Hoshisato, his hero. But after traveling to Tokyo to train under Mamoru, he’s mugged by a mysterious and beautiful female thief! To add insult to injury, his once close childhood friend, Hatena, has no time for him anymore. This is no way to start off his new apprenticeship.

First Impressions: So this appears to be one of Funimation’s new co-productions with Chinese streaming service bilibili now that the two have teamed up, and it’s…certainly something. The basic gist of this seems to center around a girl named Hatena and her younger sister who take a young boy named Makoto into their home after he becomes the apprentice of their father who’s a stage magician. The only catch is Hatena didn’t seem to be aware that Makoto was a boy until they agreed to let him move in, and she’s none too happy about. Also there maybe some actual magic going on this family, and Hatena herself seems to be a magical girl of some sort. It’s kind of odd, but for the most part this premiere is a lot more low-key than that weirdness would suggest as the potential magical girl elements don’t pop up till towards the end of the episode and we instead spend time getting to know Hatena and Makoto. The only issue there is that said time mostly involves Hatena being extremely callous towards Makoto upon finding out he’s a boy (I assumed the joke here was that maybe Hatena is gay, but that this seems to be leaning towards a romance between the two would suggest not unless she swings both ways) and Makoto doesn’t really deserve since by all accounts he generally comes off as a sweet cinnamon roll for the entierty of the episode. That was a bit of a turn-off but not enough of one to totally break my interest because if this does end up being a magical girl show of some kind I’d be totally down for that, since it seems like we rarely get those these days outside of the Precure franchise and whatever new edgy magical girl thing is trying to rip off Madoka. It’s hard to say if this will maintain my interest in the long run, but I’m just curious enough about where this is going that it’s at least worth one more episode.

Rating: Decent

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun

Synopsis: Kamome Academy is rumored to have many mysteries, the strangest of which involves the mischievous ghost of Hanako-kun. When occult-loving high schooler Nene Yashiro accidentally becomes bonded to him, she uncovers a hidden world of supernatural beings. Now the two of them are conspiring to keep the peace between student and supernatural—that is, if they can only stay out of trouble themselves.

First impressions: While I’ve never read it, I’ve been hearing good things about the manga for a long time, so I was kinda curious what the buzz was about, and boy did this one catch my attention. I’m not super versed in Japanese folktales and superstitions, but the story of Toilet-Bound Hanako is one that’s come up in enough anime that I at least know the general gist of it, so putting a twist on it by making Hanako a boy is pretty neat one, and the show gets some good mileage out of it. A lot of this premiere centers around Hanako helping a young girl named Nene with her crush in ways that feel a lot sillier and mundane than the legend surrounding him would suggest. I’ll admit that the comedy here was kinda hit or miss for me, but the show really grabbed my attention towards the end of the episode when things take a much darker turn. It quickly becomes apparent that Nene’s one-sided crush is more of a way to fill the void in her heart than actually being interested in the guy she’s after, and her attempt to fill that void leads her to accidentally take on a curse that turns her into a fish and nearly has her taken away by a mermaid. Hanako saves her and agrees to turn her back into a human, but only in exchange for her services as an assistant. Basically the whole thing gave off the twisted vibes of old childrens’ fairy tales where wishes would be granted with some unexpected consquences, and that’s an aesthetic I’m totally down for. It helps that the visual style of the show really meshes with that vibe as both the character designs and the background art feel like they could have been ripped straight from your favorite childhood storybook, and it made the darker moments of the episode feel more surreal. Combine all that with a pretty cool opening song, and you’re looking at one of the strongest premieres of the season. I’m not sure if this is gonna opt for a twisted fairy tale of the week scenario, or a more ongoing plot from here on out, but either way I’m down for more, and I really recommend checking this out.

Rating: Great

The Case Files of Jeweler Richard

Synopsis: One night, a college student with a strong sense of justice, Seigi Nakata, saved a gorgeous foreigner, Richard, who was being harassed by some drunks. When Seigi found out that Richard was a jeweler, he asked for an appraisal on a ring with a shady history; one which his grandmother had kept secret until she died. The appraisal had revealed her past, truth, and desire. It led Seigi to work as a part-time employee for Richard’s jewelry store, the “Jewelry Etranger” in Ginza. While solving various “mysteries” introduced to the Jewelry Etranger, the relationship between Richard and Seigi gradually changes. However, each of them has secrets they have not told anyone.

First Impressions: This is another one of CR’s co-productions for the season and while I wasn’t super interested in it, I was kinda curious what the deal was here since it’s always nice to see them invest in something that isn’t an isekai. Since this had “Case Files” in the title, I was expecting something of a mystery show, but the premiere was a much more mundane drama involving a college student named Seigi getting involved with a jeweler named Richard in order to return a ring that his grandmother once stole to it’s rightful owner. It’s about as low-key as that description sounds, but it actually manages to get a pretty decent amount of nuance out of it, as both Seigi’s grandmother and the woman she stole from both had to deal with unfair circumstances in their youth, and it makes what could have been a simple act of theft into something a little more thoughtful as we see how that incident changed their circumstances in life. I wasn’t exactly blown away by the storytelling here, but it was kinda nice, and both Seigi and Richard feel like pretty likeable leads even though we don’t really know too much about the latter yet. My only issue here I guess, is that premiere felt like a complete enough experience that I don’t really feel as though I need to see the rest of the show. It’s always possible things could take some crazy turns from here, or the writing quality at least stays as consistent as this episode did, but while I thought this was fine, it doesn’t feel like something that would be a high priority to watch unless this season ends up being really light for me, or it ends up getting a dub. If you do have room for a low-key drama in your schedule though, this seems like it might do you pretty okay.

Rating: Decent

Smile Down the Runway

Synopsis: Chiyuki Fujito has a dream: to become a Paris Collection model. The problem is that she hasn’t grown past 158cm. As she is too short for a model, everyone around her tells her to give up on her dream. However, no matter what anyone says, she wouldn’t give up. Her classmate, a poor student named Ikuto Tsumura, also has a dream he hasn’t been able to let go of, which is to become a fashion designer. But one day, Chiyuki tells him that it’s “probably impossible” for him, causing him to consider giving it up…?! This is the story of two individuals who wholeheartedly chase after their dreams, despite others telling them that they won’t ever come true.

First Impressions: I’ve never gotten to check it out, but I’ve been vaguely aware of the manga for a while now, and I thought it was kind of interesting to see a series published in a shonen magazine (no matter what the cowards at Kodansha USA want you to believe) tackle the subject of modeling so I’m glad the anime adaption has given me an excuse to check it out. So far this series seems to be off to a pretty solid start. As far as shonen premieres tend to go, this one is pretty by the numbers as we’re introduced to our two protagonists Chiyuki and Ikuto who dream of becoming a model, and fashion designer respectively but have rough circumstances getting in the way of their dreams, For Chiyuki, it’s her height which is considered too short to make for an appealing Paris runway model, and for Ikuto, it’s that he comes from a poor family and has to sacrifice his own dreams in order to keep food on the table. It kinda goes without saying I was a little more drawn into Ikuto’s side of the story since his circumstances feel a little more relatable but both leads come off as plenty likable, and I found myself rooting for them to suceed in going after their dreams. None too surprisingly, a chance encounter between them ends up opening the door to both of them making a step towards their goals, and while a lot of it feels pretty predictable, the payoff is still strong enough that it feels satisfying when it happens. Mostly though, I’m just curious to see how this’ll end up talking about the fashion industry, since that’s a topic I don’t really know much about, and everything here clicked enough that it seems like this’ll be an enjoyable way to learn. The only thing I’m slightly worried about is that I hear the story becomes much more about Ikuto than Chiyuki as it progresses, which I guess isn’t too big a deal considering Ikuto’s side of things was a little stronger here anyway, but it’s just kinda sad when stuff that opts for a dual-protagonist scenario doesn’t go all the way with it. Putting all that aside though, this was pretty solid, and it got enough of my attention to stick with it for awhile

Rating: Good

If My Favorite Pop Idol Made it to the Budokan, I Would Die

Synopsis: Passionate music-lover Eripiyo only wants to see her favorite underground pop group, ChamJam, make it to the big stage at Budokan. Because they’ve enriched her life by their very existence, Eri is willing to dedicate everything she has to see this dream fulfilled – even her health. At their last performance she got a crazy nosebleed. Hey, no one said being a super-fan was easy!

First Impressions: This is another series where I’d never read the original manga, but I’ve been vaguely aware of it for a while so it was a bit on my radar. Idol based anime are basically a dime a dozen these days and there’s countless stories about a group of ragtag girls coming together to form a popular idol group, but we’ve never really gotten anything from the perspective of actual idol fans, and the culture surrounding them, which is a void this seems happy to fill. The show primairly centers around a woman known as Eripiyo who becomes an idol fan after listening to a performance by a small idol group called Cham Jam, and is obsessed with Maina, who seems to be their least popular member. Since a lot of idol culture is centered around the worship and commoditization of actual people, it would have been extremely easy for this show to get into creepy territory right off the bat, but the antics of Eripiyo and her other otaku friends feels mostly harmless, and while I’m not personally into idols, as someone who’s stood on long lines at anime conventions for voice actor autographs and the like, I can relate to some of the antics the characters get up to in this premiere, and it helps to make a lot of the humor feel relatable for anyone into some form of nerd culture. It also helps that Eripiyo’s antics are just over the top enough that she almost always gets a laugh no matter how obsessive she’s being, and despite her enthuiasm, she’s respectful enough of Maina to avoid being too pushy around her, which is something Maina herself seems to have picked up if the end of the episode is any indication. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect out of this but I ended up enjoying my time with it. There’s always a chance this could get a little too uncomfortable for it’s own good later on, but for right now, it’s walking that line just well enough that it feels like another safe watch for the season

Rating: Good

Interspecies Reviewers

Synopsis: In a world bursting at the seams with moe monsters and humanoids of the horned sort, which brave heroes will take it upon themselves to review the beastly babes of the red-light district? Can only one be crowned the ultimate title of best girl?

First Impressions: As a heterosexual male, I’d be lying if I said this show wasn’t one of the biggest things on my radar this season. Not necessairly because I thought it would be good, but mostly because I was really curious just how horny it was gonna be, and to what level it was commit to that. Having now actually sat through it, I can safely say this was even hornier than I expected. The show basically opens with two of our leads banging elf and human MILFS respectively before arguing about which one is hotter, and it basically maintains that same level of absurdity throughout the entire episode. At least 1/3rd of the shots in this premiere feature some variant of giant (censored) anime tiddies, and our “heroes” are none too shy about their quest to bang every monster girl under the sun, and rate how good the sex is. It’s so unapologetic about what it is, that it’s kinda hard to be mad about it, but if there’s one thing here that did kinda raise an eyebrow for me it’s that we’re eventually introduced to a third lead in the form of an angel shota who’s both extremely shy and is also is also a hermaphrodite that loses their virginity before the episode’s through. It’s a little weird, but I guess if you were gonna object to anything in this show, there’s well…the rest of the show, so it’s hard to be too prickly about it. If I were to give this show a serious review, I’d say it’s probably way too horny for it’s own good, and far from most people’s cup of tea, but it’s basically impossible for me to be serious about anything this premiere had to offer. If you’re here wondering whether or not I’m gonna keep watching this the answer is: heck yes. It’s definently not good, but it’s the sort of bizaarely horny thing that can only really exist within the realm of anime, and I’m so mystified by this show’s existance, and the fact that it actually made it onto television in any capacity that I’m practically obligated to see how much more insane it’ll get. Odds are I’ll regret this decision a few weeks from now, but for the time being. I guess I’ll be sampling this one every week.

Rating: NSWF

22/7

Synopsis: One day, Miu Takigawa suddenly receives a letter notifying her that she has been chosen as a member of a brand-new project. Half in disbelief, she heads over to the location stated on the letter. There, she finds seven other girls summoned there in the same fashion. The girls behold a giant, top-secret facility. They stand in bewilderment as they are told: “You are going to debut for a major record label as an idol group.” A new kind of idol, never-before-seen, is about to be born here.. .

First Impressions: Like I said with Budokan earlier, idol shows are basically a dime a dozen these days, and so many of them follow the exact same formula that I’ve mostly learned to ignore the genre altogether outside new iterations of Love Live. This series on the other hand, seems like it might offer a potential shakeup to the usual formula, as our usual ragtag group of plucky idols who have to gradually come together to take the industry by storm, are instead assembled under the mysterious pretense that they’ve been chosen, and half of them don’t even seem to have much interest in idol work specifically. This is especially true for the main heroine who comes off as so much of an introvert that she seems like the last person who’d get picked for idol work, and she initially rejects the offer, only for circumstances to force her into it. Between that, and the fact that the company that hired these girls features a strange device that issues out commands that must be followed, it seems that this show is definently aiming to be a lot darker than a lot of it’s competition, and might potentially have something to say about the idol industry as a whole. Given the many, err…issues that exist within idol culture, I’d certainly be down for a story like that, and I’m hoping this’ll deliver on that end. So far I like the general direction of the series so far, even if the writing is a little on the nose, but if there’s one serious thing that might end up holding it back a bit it’s that the voice acting for the girls is pretty bad all across the board, and the heroine specifically gives the most stilted performance of the bunch. This is apparently because the seiyuu in question for these characters are actual idols and not professional voice actors, which could certainly be a big problem later on if this show takes a serious turn for the dramatic. For the time being though, it’s at least got me curious, and idol anime have gotten so formulaic that I’m up for something that at least aims to be a little different

Rating: Decent

In/Spectre

Synopsis: Both touched by spirits called yokai, Kotoko and Kuro have gained unique superhuman powers. But to gain her powers Kotoko has given up an eye and a leg, and Kuro’s personal life is in shambles. So when Kotoko suggests they team up to deal with renegades from the spirit world, Kuro doesn’t have many other choices, but Kotoko might just have a few ulterior motives…

First Impressions: It’s been a few years since Blast of Tempest came out, and while I only vaguely remember that show, and don’t know if I’d call it “good”, it was certainly interesting and knowing this is by the same author had my attention. The story here centers around a high school girl named Kotoko who develops a one-sided crush on a college student named Kuro and tries to ask him out. The catch here though is that Kotoko was kidnapped the supernatural as a child in order to be made into their goddess of sorts and is now revered by them, while Kuro has a mysterious power that makes his body poisonous to the supernatural, and makes them afraid of him. It’s odd to say the least, and much like what little I recall of Blast of Tempest, it’s presented in a way that feels just a bit too self-serious for it’s own good. That being said, I did at least find Kotoko to be pretty charming, and I was amused by how forward she was about her crush on Kuro, but without coming off as too comically horny which was a nice change of pace. Kuro on the other hand, I’m not quite as interested in as of yet, but the mystery concerning his power is at least interesting enough that I wanna know more about what the deal is with that. Visually speaking, the show doesn’t look super impressive so far, but the presentation in the premiere felt solid enough that it doesn’t feel like the production’s holding it back, and the yokai designs have been pretty decent thus far. I can’t say I was super impressed with this one, but I figured it would at least be interesting, and I certainly got that much out of it, so I’m up for seeing where the next couple of episodes take it

Rating: Good

A3!

Synopsis: Mankai Company is a far cry from its glory days as an all-male theater. With only one member left and debt collectors at the door, it’s no wonder Izumi Tachibana finds herself in over her head when she boldly confronts the yakuza’s loan sharks, promising to bring her father’s theater back into the spotlight. She might be able to recruit enough talent, but can they bloom into the actors she needs?

First Impressions: I suppose this technically isn’t the first otome adaption of the season, but I’ve kind of fallen behind on premieres so it’s the first one that I checked out, and I’m kinda glad I did. As I’ve said during other season impression writeups, as a hetero dude, otome game adaptions are kind of inheriently not for me, so whether or not I stick with them typically depends on if there’s some kind of hook that catches my attention. In the case of this show, the hook is that it’s about a theatre troop, and while I wouldn’t really call myself a theatre nerd by any stretch (my journey down that path pretty much ended with getting an acting award in middle school and not much else) as someone who at least masquarades as an acting critic, stories about acting do at least catch my attention. This premiere is pretty straightforward as we get a typical “save the orphanage” plot in regards to a run down theatre troup being on the verge of demolition unless our plucky heroine can recruit enough pretty boy actors to keep it alive. It’s not exactly original, but the execution was done just well enough to keep me at least a little invested the whole way through, and seeing the nearly impossible demands the troupe has to meet in order to keep the lights on, works as a pretty solid hook since I’m already kinda curious how it’s gonna be pulled off. I also really like the heroine so far, since she seems to have a bit more personality than most self-insert otome protagonists do, but I’m not quite as sold on the boys themselves since aside from main one, they haven’t shown too much of themselves beyond stock character archetypes. Still, there’s plenty of time for the show to flesh them out a little bit, and on the whole I thought this was a pretty solid premiere. I’m not totally confident that I’ll stick with this in the long run, since my history with otome game adaptions would suggest that isn’t super likely, but it’s certainly worth at least another couple of episodes.

Rating: Good

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And that’s it for my seasonal impressions. Gotta say, that while I came across a couple of pretty bad stinkers, on the whole I’m actually feeling really confident about this anime season so far. There’s some really cool stuff in the mix, and plenty of stuff that at least feels solid for what they’re aiming for. More importantly, there’s a lot of variety, and enough needs are being served this time around, that I’m pretty sure you’ll find at least one thing that catches your attention unless shonen slugfests are your particular cup of tea (and even then, there’s always the new season of Haikyu, even it’s technically a sports show). Time will tell if my optimism holds up by the time Spring rolls around, but until then, stay animated.

We’re onto week two of the summer season anime premieres and while it’s been off to a surprisingly strong start so far, there’s still plenty of stuff left to burn through, meaning things could get a whole lot better or having me wish for the sweet release of death. For now I’m still pretty optimistic, but let’s see what else the summer has to offer.

Ratings Scale

Bad: Stay away far away from this one.  Not worth watching

Decent: Has some okay elements to it. Might be worth giving a  couple of episodes to see how it goes

Good: Fairly solid show. Should be worth keeping up with for now

Great: Really good show. Definitely worth seeing if you get the chance

Excellent: Really outstanding show. Absolutely worth following .

• All series synopsis from Anime Planet          

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Hensuki: Are you willing to fall in love with a pervert, as long a she’s a cutie?

Synopsis: Once upon a time, Cinderella left her panties in a boy’s locker… wait, what?! Keiki Kiryu receives a mysterious love letter, that has no name, but includes a pair of white undies. Curious to find this panty-leaving-Cinderella, his investigation leads him to discover that every candidate is… a total pervert! Surrounded by perversion he still has one important question to answer: who’s the perfect fit?

First Impressions: And we’re kicking off our second week of summer anime premieres with yet another fanservice show and one that going by the overly long title is based off a light novel, which is a combination that rarely works well for me. The basic summary here is that MC-kun is a “nice guy” who really wants a girlfriend and also happens to be surrounded by four pretty girls (one of which includes his younger sister, and I’ll at least give this show credit for shuffling her off to the side as fast as possible) who are all clearly into him, but he’s too trapped in his headspace to realize it. Things only get more complicated when one of them seemingly leaves him a love letter along with their…panties and he spends the episode trying to figure out which one is in love with him (again, the answer is all of them) and discovers one of them is closet pervert. It’s uh…something I guess and while a lot of this is pretty par the course for a typical harem set-up, something about the way MC-kun’s plight here was framed as “I’m nice therefore girls should love me” felt like a transparent incel fantasy. Granted that could describe a lot of harem shows if you read between the lines hard enough, but being this blatant about it kind of irked me, and even as someone who’s more than willing to indulge in some trashy fanservice from time to time, this feels like it might be trying to have its cake and eat it too. I guess if I had any real positives here, it would be the visual direction, and specifically how a lot of the early incidental shots in the episode convey a surprising amount of horny energy without an actual cheesecake on display, and it’s something that surprisingly few fanservice shows have really attempted. Aside from that though, this one lost me pretty fast, and while I might have been more inclined to give it a pass if it were a more basic version of the usual harem formula, I found MC-kun’s attempts to pursue his harem even more insufferable than the usual reverse scenario, and it really turned me off. Hard pass.

Rating: Bad

Kochoki

Synopsis: The fearsome warlord, the demonic king—Oda Nobunaga! Before he was trying to rule over Japan, he was a teenager who began his path to greatness with his younger brother and faithful followers. Through succession, betrayal, battles, and bonds between one another, the struggles these boys face promise a future where they can blossom into powerful men.

First Impressions: It’s been a good while since the last one (or at least the last one I actually watched) but it’s time for yet another obligatory Oda Nobunaga show. If you’re new to this scene and you don’t know who that is, Oda Nobunaga was a famous Japanese warlord, and an extremely prominent historical figure in Japan. So much so in fact that there’s been dozens of anime made about him, including stories where Nobunaga was a girl, stories where Nobunaga possessed a girl, and even one where Nobunaga piloted a giant robot. Given that trend, I came into this expecting some kind of crazy gimmick to distinguish it from the other Oda Nobunaga shows, so imagine my surprise when this one seems to be about well…the actual history of Oda Nobunaga! Specifically it seems like this might be about his younger years, before he became a famous warlord, and this premiere centers around a story from his early childhood where befriended a group of young thieves and got swept up in a minor political struggle for being associated with them. Admittedly I was kind of bored with the first few minutes of this, but by the end, I actually found myself a little interested in where this was all going, and the conflict here didn’t end quite the way I expected to. While it did kind of win me over a little though, going by the fact that the end of the episode jumps a few years to when Nobunaga was a teen it’s hard to say how much it’ll commit to covering those early years, and my interest will fade pretty fast if it does end up just going straight to the warlord stuff since that’s an area that’s been covered dozens of times by other shows. In the meantime, even though this premiere didn’t quite blow me away, it held my attention a bit more than I was expecting it to, so if nothing else I’m pretty willing to give it another episode. I didn’t think I’d be interested in learning anything new about Oda Nobunaga at this stage, but if this show can manage to avoid staying out of familiar territory, it might be a worthwhile history lesson.

Rating: Good

Cop Craft

Synopsis: 15 years ago, a hyper-dimensional rift appeared above the Pacific Ocean linking Earth with a magical world. San-Teresa City became a melting pot of cultures and species, but despite peace on the surface, there’s always an underbelly. That’s where Detective Kei Matoba and knight Tirana come in—partners with different perceptions of life and law, working together to keep the city safe.

First Impressions: While I wouldn’t quite say this was a highly anticipated show for me, I was at least curious about it since it seemed like it could be my exact kind of thing. Buddy cop shows are usually a pretty fun time for me, and the idea of integrating that with high fantasy shenanigans sounded really cool. In execution though, this premiere left me feeling very…mixed to say the least. On the hand I do dig the general aesthetic of the show, and I like how some of the fantasy elements are contrasted against the grittier looking ones of our own world, such as the idea of turning fairies into an ingredient for drugs. On the other hand it also appears that the primary theme of this show is going to center around race relations (specifically between humans and the denizens of the fantasy world) and it…doesn’t seem particularly well equipped to handle that particular subject. While I appreciate the show highlighting some of Kei’s obvious racism regarding Tirana, and it seems pretty obvious he’ll broaden his views a bit the show progresses, it also features a scene where a black guy also acts racist towards her which is a bit, uh…problematic to say the least. It doesn’t help that this scene is immediately followed with the revelation that this dude’s boss is another black guy who’s meant to come off as comically shady and while I probably wouldn’t think much of this one on it’s own, combined with the first thing, it’s setting off potential warning signs for me, especially given that Japan doesn’t really have the best track record with depicting black people.

I will be fair in saying that I don’t think this show is gonna turn out to be ultra-racist or anything since Kei later tells Tirana not to view things in black and white despite the black guy being an obvious criminal, but it does make me feel like the original author didn’t do a ton of research on that end, which makes it’s attempts at directly addressing racism feel a little misguided if not horribly intentioned. I guess on the bright side of things, this show looks pretty solid, and while it’s not quite a stand-out production, everything here is decently animated, and show has a good visual aesthetic going for it with some pretty good character designs, and nice looking fantasy backdrops. Still, I was really hoping to like this one, so walking away from it such mixed feelings is more than a little disappointing. I think I might give this another episode and see if shows any promise of balancing things out a bit in regards to how it tackles race, but for now, I’m really on the fence with this, and I can’t quite bring myself to give it a solid recommendation.

Rating: Decent

Arifureta: From Commonplace to the World’s Strongest

Synopsis: Hajime Nagumo and his high school class are suddenly summoned to a fantastical land as heroes. But while most of his classmates have powerful stats and abilities, Hajime does not. Underappreciated and unprepared, he tumbles into the depths of a monster-infested dungeon where voracity and sacrifice are his only options. To thrive in this savage world, he’ll have no choice but to welcome the abyss.

First Impressions: It’s isekai time again, but this one’s on the “dark and edgy” side of things which made this premiere extra “fun” for me. The gimmick here is that MC-kun and a group of his classmates are transported to a fantasy world (or at least that’s the implication since this episode doesn’t go into that backstory) and while they’re all busy exploring a labyrinth, MC-kun is betrayed and left for dead, causing him to turn into a vengeful edgelord bent on taking down anyone and anything in his way. If this sounds pretty familiar to you, this tone has quite a bit in common with winter’s Rising of the Shield Hero, and going by the amount of attention my opinions on that show’s premiere got me, I’m pretty sure I don’t need to tell you that I wasn’t exactly a fan of this one (though I guess in fairness at least the first episode of this one wasn’t bogged down by Shield Hero’s…other problems). The whole “become an instant badass and take vengeance on everyone who mocked you” thing is a specific flavor of nerd fantasy that feels pretty toxic, and having come closer towards being this kind of person than I’d care to admit means I have even less patience for this show’s nonsense, and getting through this episode was a slog. It doesn’t help that even putting aside all of that, this show still suffers from the usual isekai woes concerning sub-standard world building, and some utterly horrendous looking CG monsters that feel like they’d be right at home in Berserk 2016. I guess if you were a fan of Shield Hero, or you’re just a big isekai fan, you might get something out of this, but I’m neither of those things, and this came off as more than little vile to me, so it’s safe to say I’m not touching any more of this with a ten-foot pole.

Rating: Bad

Isekai Cheat Magician

First Impressions: It’s time for isekai #3 of the season and given that the first two were both pretty awful in their own ways, I can’t say I had any particularly high hopes. Imagine my surprise then, that I actually kinda this one. That’s not to say this premiere was particularly “good” as this show seems to be operating on a partial sense of self-awareness that makes it feel a bit too smug for it’s own good, while not actually being unique enough to warrant that, but it does have a couple of things going for it. For one thing, instead of the usual set up with MC-kun being transported to a fantasy world alone to become it’s greatest savior, this time he’s transported alongside his childhood friend Rin, and while she’s not big on personality either, having the two of them bounce off each other helped in making Taichi feel a little less bland than he would have otherwise. It’s also kinda neat for this kind of power fantasy to have a girl as one of the actual leads, and while I don’t exactly have high hopes they’ll do anything interesting with her, it is unique if nothing else.

The other big thing this show has going for it is that it seems like there’s a chance this might be an actual fantasy world and not an MMORPG with a coat of paint, which could do a lot in making the show’s worldbuilding feel like less of a slog, and it helps that as of the end of the premiere, while Taichi and Rin are clearly destined to become overpowered, they aren’t quite there yet, and this show isn’t instantly jumping into being an all-out power fantasy. Admittedly I’m placing a lot of my optimism here on hopes that are likely to be dashed pretty quickly, but my expectations for isekai have been lowered so much, that I’m up for anything that seems like it’s at least trying to aim for something more than blatant pandering and this might just fill that void. Time will tell if it disappoints, but for now I’m willing to go along with this a little longer.

Rating: Decent

The Demon Girl Next Door

Synopsis: Yuko Yoshida is just an ordinary schoolgirl — until one day her dormant, devilish powers are unleashed by the demon Lilith! Yuko transforms into Shadow Mistress Yuko, a supernatural powerhouse with horns and a devil tail. Now she must defeat another mystical being named Momo Chiyoda, the shrine maiden of the Light Clan… who just so happens to go to Yuko’s school! But being a demonic magical girl isn’t as easy as it looks, and Yuko has a whole lot to learn before she’s ready to fulfill her destiny and take on the Clan of Light.

First Impressions: I walked into this one blind, and while I didn’t have any big expectations one way or the other, I found it to be a bit more enjoyable than I was expecting. Comedies parodying magical girls or demon lords have gradually become a bit more common over the years, but what made this one kinda click for me, was how deadpan a lot of the jokes were. Rather than flipping out over her transformation and lineage, Yuko’s reaction to finding out she’s descended from a demon clan, is to mostly find the whole thing to be a giant drag. It certainly doesn’t help that she doesn’t yet have any powers to go alongside the horn and tail, and I especially appreciated the gag that her horns only really serve to weigh down her head and disrupt her equilibrium. I also liked that her magical girl “nemesis” Momo carries an even bigger level of tired energy, and very clearly doesn’t want to deal with any of this, but doesn’t perceive Yuko to be anything resembling an actual threat, so her reactions to her antics come off as pity more than anything. It made for a pretty fun dynamic, and while I can’t say I burst out laughing at any of it, I definently got a few more good chuckles than I was expecting, and I was more entertained than I thought I’d be by the end of it. Production wise, this doesn’t look too different from your average “cute girl doing cute things” show, and there isn’t a whole ton of visual comedy with the animation, but it worked well enough for what this was going for so I didn’t find it to be too much of a dealbreaker. Can’t say I was expecting to latch on to this one, and it does seem like it could get stale depending on the execution in the coming weeks, but I got enough out of this premiere that I’m willing to gamble with giving it a bit more of my time.

Rating: Good

given

Synopsis: Somehow, the guitar that he used to love to play and the basketball games that he found so fun just lost their appeal… That was until Ritsuka Uenoyama randomly met Mafuyu Sato. Ritsuka had started losing his passion for music in his everyday life, but then he hears Mafuyu sing for the first time. The song resonates with his heart and the distance between them starts to change.

First Impressions: This series is serving as our NotiminA show of the season, and while haven’t been following this one that much, I’m always interested in whatever that block has to offer and this seemed like it could be interesting. This premiere follows a teen named Ritsuka who enjoys music and runs in a band who has an encounter with a mysterious boy named Mafuyu who continually nags him to teach him how to play the guitar. That sentence more or less surmises the whole episode weirdly enough, and while I’ll admit I was slightly less impressed with this than I was hoping I’d be there’s a few things here I’m interested in. For one thing it’s a show about music, and while I’m not exactly the world’s biggest music fan myself, I’ve always found myself drawn to stories about musicians, and it helps that the scene we get with Ritsuka performing in front of Mafuyu is a pretty good jam. This is also apparently supposed to be a more serious boy’s love story, and while Mafuyu hasn’t yet displayed enough personality for me to say there’s a ton of chemistry between him and Ritsuka, who’s a little more interesting, I’m still at least kinda curious how that relationship will develop, and to learn a little more about what exactly Mafuyu’s deal is. On the animation front this show looks pretty solid as would generally be expected from Lerche, and there thankfully aren’t too many animation shortcuts with the guitar playing, though between it and Astra Lost in Space it’s pretty apparent which of those shows are a higher priority for them. While I don’t have as much to say about this as I expected to, this was a fairly solid premiere, and although it hasn’t totally grabbed me yet, there’s enough potential that I’m pretty willing to stick with it for a while

Rating: Good

Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two Multi-Hit Target Attacks?

Synopsis: A new kind of momcom roleplaying adventure! What would you do if you got transported into a video game…with your mom?? That’s the dilemma facing high schooler Masato Oosuki, who has been unwittingly thrown into an RPG world with his doting mother close behind as part of a secret government scheme. As an avid gamer, Masato is eager to show off his skills…but that’s hard to do when your mom is an insanely overpowered, dual-wielding, multi-target specialist!

First Impressions: And wrapping up my impressions for this season, we have our final isekai of the season, and the one everyone seemed to be looking forward to the most. The isekai genre has become such a slog that the premise of the main character getting sent to another world with his mother seemed like it could be pretty funny, and especially with the idea that she’s more powerful than he is and can therefore suck all the fun out of his power fantasy. I did have one big point of apprehension that kept me from getting too excited though: the possibility that this would all lead to incest. While mom-fetish stuff isn’t as prevalent a thing with otaku based stuff as little sister-fetish stuff is, those things still exist, and since I’ve had my own awkward encounters with at least a couple of them I was worried this might follow the same route. Fortunately the episode’s final punchline put that fear to bed (for now) since there’s a pretty strong implication that Mamako’s personally putting together and screening every member of Ma-kun’s “harem” which was a both pretty good joke, and also one that presumably wouldn’t happen if incest was the endgoal here.

Anyway with that bit of rambling out of the way I can talk about the rest of the show which was surprisingly a lot of fun. As I said with Isekai Cheat Magician, isekai parodies aren’t exactly a new concept, but almost all of the jokes here were great. From the setting literally being some kind of test beta for an as of yet-named MMO (which ironically serves as a better backdrop for this show’s world than most isekai) to the developers rewarding Ma-kun and Masako with over-powered items right off the bat because they know modern gamers want the best stuff as soon as possible, this show has some excellent meta-humor going on, and if you’re as tired of generic isekai tropes as I am, this looks like it might tear a hole into them pretty well. Of course all of that wouldn’t mean much if the titular mom wasn’t a fun character in her own right, but thankfully she is, and while she’s a little too cutesy moe at times to feel super believable as an adult, almost all of the embarrassing mom jokes surrounding her land where they need to, and a lot of her interactions with Ma-kun help in making him feel a little less bland than most isekai heroes, even if he’s a bit overly snarky. Overall I had a lot of fun with this one, and while I’m still a little cautious this might pull the incest card at some point, it seems pretty safe for the moment, and it’s got plenty of laughs to offer. If you’re looking for a good comedy this season, this seems like a solid recommendation

Rating: Great

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And that’s it for my summer impressions this time around. While there were a few stinkers here and there, I have to say that on the whole this season looks really promising, and there’s a lot more interesting stuff than what I’m typical used to for this time of year. Of course there’s always the chance than more than a few of these shows will implode, but it seems like there’s a pretty good amount of variety here, and odds are pretty good everyone will have at least one thing they’re happy with by the time we hit fall. Until next time, stay animated.

<- Summer 2019 Anime Impressions (Part 1)

I’m currently huddled up inside trying to escape the scorching heat of the sun, so I guess we’ve hit the summer season. While spring had a bevy of good but not great shows (with the exception of Sarazanmai and Fruits Basket), the summer looks to be a lot more promising as there’s an unusual amount of heavy hitters coming out of the woodwork this time around, as well as a few potential darkhorses. Since I walked away from the Spring season with a bit of a shurg, I’m pretty excited to check some of this new stuff out, so I guess we might as well get this started.

Ratings Scale

Bad: Stay away far away from this one.  Not worth watching

Decent: Has some okay elements to it. Might be worth giving a  couple of episodes to see how it goes

Good: Fairly solid show. Should be worth keeping up with for now

Great: Really good show. Definitely worth seeing if you get the chance

Excellent: Really outstanding show. Absolutely worth following .

• All series synopsis from Anime Planet          

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To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts

Synopsis: During a protracted civil war that pitted the North against the South, the outnumbered Northerners used dark magic to create monstrous super-soldiers called Incarnates. Now that the war has ended, those Sacred Beasts must learn to make their way in a peaceful society, or face death at the hands of a Beast Hunter. Nancy Schaal Bancroft, the daughter of an Incarnate, turns to hunting the hunter herself. But once she catches up with her quarry, she discovers hard truths about the lives of these Sacred Beasts.

First Impressions: Other than that this was a MAPPA production, I didn’t know too much about this going in other than that it’s premise sounded extremely similar to last season’s Fairy Gone, and given that show ended up being a snoozefest, I was hoping this would at least be a more entertaining variation. What I definitely WASN’T expecting though, was for this show to somehow be a fantasy world X-Men fanfic. The story follows our protagonist Hank Henriette (whose character design and name being extremely similar to Henry “Hank” McCoy aka “The Beast” from the X-Men is completely coincidental I’m sure) a solider who is also one of the several muta-err…”Incarnates” created by the government in order to help win a civil war, only to find that the experiments done in order to make these super soldiers comes with the side effect of them gradually going insane. As the war comes to a close, Hank finds himself betrayed and left for dead, while his comrades have all succumb to madness and are now terrorizing the populace. Now having lost his chance at happiness, Hank now devotes himself to hunting down his former comrades and granting them a merciful death before they can cause anymore harm.

Yeeeaaaaaaahhhhh…this one’s pretty angsty and while it’s a better variant of the kind of grimdark fantasy Fairy Gone was peddling, I’d be hesitant to say this premiere was “good”. Having said that, between the protagonist basically being AU fanfic Beast, and the amount of unsubtle red flags that things were going to go bad for him throughout the episode, I was pretty entertained, and watching this guy go from cinnamon roll to angry monster hunter was certainly interesting if nothing else. It helps that the show looks pretty good, as is generally expected from a MAPPA joint, and while this feels like a production that could probably see some heavy woes later on, at least for the moment it has a decent enough visual aesthetic. With how hamfisted the setup here is, it’s hard to say exactly where the story’s gonna go, but despite the last few minutes having the subtlety of a freight train, I was invested enough for most of the premiere that I’m at least mildly curious where else this’ll go. For my sanity, I hope this doesn’t lean too much into the X-Men route since there’s only so many ways you can tell that particular tale (and only so many jokes about the similarities I can make), but at least if it does, I can look forward to not-Magneto showing up eventually. For now, this seems like it’ll be worth another episode or two.

Okay but seriously, WHY DID THEY MAKE THE BEAST LOOK REALLY HOT? I DO NOT COMPREHEND.

Rating: Decent

Magical Sempai

Synopsis: “I encountered her … a cute, but ‘weird’ sempai!” Magic-loving but stage-fright-addled, this sempai comes with a failure rate of 100%—but you can’t take your eyes off her! The off-color, magical gag manga that’s caused an uproar all over Japan is finally here! Here’s to non-athletic hobbies!

First Impressions: I knew going in from one of the previews and the general look of the heroine that this was probably going to be a fanservice heavy show and…yeah there sure is a lot of fanservice alright. The basic gist of this is that our lead heroine is a clumsy dork with hentai boobs who likes performing magic but sucks at actually doing it and performing in front of an audience. Helping her is a snarky junior who gets roped into being her assistant and watches as all her attempts to do magic end with her in extremely compromising or erotic positions. Anndd….that’s the joke. Basically the ONLY joke, as this premiere somehow goes through four shorts over the span of 12 minutes, and pretty much all of them more or less follow the same formula. As a single straight dude, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t down for some fanservice every now and then, but I at least like those shows to feel like they’re trying or otherwise offering something else besides cheesecake, but that’s pretty much all there was to this one, and while it wasn’t outright boring, it wore out it’s welcome pretty fast for me. If you want an unabashed fanservice title for this season, then this’ll probably be a perfect fit for your needs, but I’m pretty sure I’m gonna take a hard pass on this one

Rating: BOOBS

Are You Lost?

Synopsis: Because of a plane crash… starting today, we’re spending the springtime of our lives on a desert island!! There’s nothing here, so we have to make everything!! And eat everything!! (Ugh!) Check out our high school girl survival story of courage and knowledge. We’re actually doing pretty well!

First Impressions: So like Magical Sempai this is also a half-length show that seems to be largely centered around one joke. This time the joke surrounds a group of four high school girls who get stranded on an island including one who’s a survival expert and is willing to resort to factually correct but generally lewd sounding survival tips in order to help the rest of the group. While the joke here also feels like one that could get exhausting fast, I’ll at least say this one worked a little better for me since a lot of the tips here, while weird, are things that would probably be helpful in their current situation which makes this one of the horniest edutainment shows I’ve ever seen, and the tips themselves are varied enough that the jokes didn’t get too repetitive. Make no mistake though, this is still pretty heavily geared towards fanservice, and even though this one didn’t wear my patience like Magical Sempai did, I don’t know if I’m really up to the idea of watching more of it. For now though, I’ll at least say it was interesting enough that it’s at least worth a peek and you can decide for yourself if it seems like it’ll be worth your time.

Rating: Decent

How Heavy Are the Dumbells You Lift?

Synopsis: Hibiki Sakura’s love for food is starting to affect her size. In effort to slim down, she scopes out her local gym only to discover two problems—it’s a haven for intimidating body builders, and her classmate Akemi has a weirdly aggressive muscle obsession. After meeting her handsome personal trainer, Machio, Hibiki bites the bullet and starts her quest for a hot bod!

First Impressions: And here we are with yet another fanservice show, and probably the one people were looking forward to the most, based on it’s premise. I’ll admit the idea of a fanservice comedy largely centered around weight training is certainly an interesting hook if nothing else, and so far I’d say this premiere has actually capitalized on that pretty well. Hibiki is a pretty funny lead so far, and sounds properly in over her head for someone going through regular workout sessions for the first time. That allows her to play off pretty well against the much more enthusiastic Akemi who’s very much into the idea of getting swole, and maybe a little too into muscles. The visual comedy is what really sells this premiere though as everything from Hibiki’s exaggerated facial expressions to the overly detailed animation on everyone’s muscles when she sees dudes weight lifting for the first time, helps to elevate the humor, and gave me a few more good chuckles than I was expecting. Perhaps the most interesting part of this premiere though is that well…it actually seems to be pretty dedicated to the idea of getting it’s audience into exercising. While the show pokes a little fun at edutainment, it still manages to provide easy to follow explanations of how all these routines work, and even includes a segment at the end for how you can try doing some of them at home (I immediately tried doing a few sets of squats after watching this, so I guess I’m the right audience for this part of the show). So…yeah I enjoyed this quite a bit, and certainly more than the other fanservice centered shows I’ve come across so far this season. Hopefully it can maintain a good balance of cheescake and edutainment, but it certainly seems like it’s off to a good start.

Rating: Good

Demon Lord, Retry!

Synopsis: On the night of his favorite game’s shutdown, Akira Oono awakens in the body of his online character: Demon Lord Hakuto Kunai. He’s not the most confident guy ever, and he’s traveling with an injured young girl. But with powerful game mechanics and abilities on his side, this gamer turned badass plots his course through a diverse new world filled with saints, demons, and charming companions!

First Impressions: *ZZZZZZZZZZZ* Wait, what was I doing? Oh right, anime impressions. So here we have our first obligatory isekai of the season and…yeah it’s an isekai show I guess. This time around the gimmick is that MC-kun finds himself stuck in the body of the demon lord he created for a video game he designed, and said demon lord looks and speaks like a mob boss. If this sounds like it could actually be pretty entertaining to you, rest assured, this was still really boring in spite of that. Much of this premiere checks off the usual isekai tropes of clumsy worldbuilding, and the main character already feeling like he’ll have no trouble breezing past any obstacles in the world he’s found himself in. About the only other things of note here is that this makes a few attempts to poke fun at generic isekai tropes, and the main character very clearly wants out, and that he’s explicitly middle aged while our heroine…looks like she can’t be any older than 12 or 13. The first thing seems like it could maybe give this show an edge over it’s contemporaries, but it follows through on the tropes it’s mocking pretty faithfully so there’s not much chance of that, and the latter thing is uh…concerning to say the least. Granted the show could go for something resembling a father-daughter dynamic, and some of their interactions in this premiere seems to lean towards that, but I’ve done this song and dance enough times to know better than to trust light novel based media not to go for something potentially creepy (and she even gets a slightly skeevy bath scene in this premiere) so that’s already a pretty big red flag for me. Combine all that with the show’s mediocre looking production, and it’s safe to say there isn’t really anything here for me. If you’re hungry for a new isekai this season, maybe give it a shot I guess, but there’s bound to be at least a couple more of these coming, and at least one of them might be better executed, so maybe wait a second before you dive into this one.

Rating: Bad

Dr. Stone

Synopsis: Several thousand years after a mysterious phenomenon that turns all of humanity to stone, the extraordinarily intelligent, science-driven boy, Senku Ishigami, awakens. Facing a world of stone and the total collapse of civilization, Senku makes up his mind to use science to rebuild the world. Starting with his super strong childhood friend Taiju Oki, who awakened at the same time, they will begin to rebuild civilization from nothing… Depicting two million years of scientific history from the Stone Age to present day, the unprecedented crafting adventure story is about to begin!

First Impressions: And so we finally hit one of the most anticipated shows of the season, and one that I was also pretty excited for. The Dr. Stone manga has been a pretty pleasant read for me, and while I wouldn’t quit rank it among my favorites of JUMP’s current lineup, it’s been consistently entertaining, and I was curious to see what an anime adaption could bring to the table for this. So far, this looks like it’ll be pretty straightforward on that end as this premiere covers the first two chapters of the manga pretty faithfully and almost panel for panel (well aside from removing the very important scene of Donald Trump being turned to stone, you filthy cowards) and doesn’t attempt to do anything bold with the material one way or the other. Fortunately said material is pretty fun so this premiere works out pretty well regardless, and while the actual scenario of the world’s population being turned to stone is breezed through pretty quickly, it still does a good job of setting up the dynamic between the protagonists *heh* Taiju and Senku and how the former’s overly straightforward attitude plays off of Senku’s more steady and rational approach. Given what happens later on in the story, I’m a little surprised the premiere devoted so much time to Taiju, but it works pretty well in spite of that and it manages to accomplish the thing that would more or less break this adaption: making all of the science explanations look fun. All of the show’s wacky science shenanigans all feel pretty energetic, and are delivered with enough flare that it’s pretty easy to look forward to the idea of these two rebuilding civilization from scratch.

About the only serious nitpick I had here was the production looks a bit more middle of the road than I was expecting. A lot of the nature backgrounds here look gorgeous, but thick linework on the character designs causes the two to have a rough time totally blending together, and it makes some of the show’s limited animation stand out a little more. Thankfully there’s still a good amount of visual comedy here in spite of that, and being pretty familiar with the source material, I already know this isn’t something that really requires a lot of heavy animation to work effectively, so hopefully it’ll be able to maintain some level of consistency if nothing else. Those nitpicks aside though, this was a pretty fun premiere and while this adaption doesn’t exactly look like it’s aiming to outdo it’s source material, if it sticks to it, it’ll be a fun ride if nothing else, and a pretty easy recommendation for something to jump start your weekend

Rating: Great

Fire Force

Synopsis: Tokyo is burning, and citizens are mysteriously suffering from spontaneous human combustion throughout the city! Responsible for snuffing out this inferno is the Fire Force, and Shinra is ready to join their fight. Now, as part of Company 8, he’ll use his devil’s footprints to help keep the city from turning to ash! But his past and a burning secret behind the scenes could set everything ablaze.

First Impressions: This was another hotly (pun not totally intended) anticipated show for the summer season, but while I was curious to check it out, I can’t say I was super excited for it. I picked up the first 8 or so volumes of the manga in a cheap digital bundle deal a few months ago, and while I didn’t dislike it, it felt like pretty standard shonen fair, especially compared to the author’s previous series Soul Eater, which was brimming with energy and charm, even if it was a little too self-indulgent at times. With that, my interest in this mostly lied in seeing if the anime adaption might elevate the writing a bit, or make some slight shifts with the story to make something a little more unique, but the first episode seems to have more or less played out the same as the manga’s first chapter. Shinra’s plight of wanting to become a hero, and having a power that others feel is responsible for the death of his family is all pretty by the numbers as far as shonen intros go, and while the execution on that here isn’t terrible, it’s probably not gonna shake you much if you’ve been around the block a few times with shonen stories (and this is coming from a pretty big shonen fanatic).

What does stand out here though is the production by studio David Production of Jojo’s fame as the show’s visuals look rad as heck, and are bursting from the seams with a sense of flare that makes the look of the anime immediately stand out from a lot of it’s competition, and the animation on display here is equally stellar. It helps that a lot of the anime’s staff is carried over from studio SHAFT, who pretty much excelled at visual presentation, and the show’s been blessed with a great production schedule, meaning we can probably expect most episodes to look as good as the premiere did. Unfortunately I can’t quite say that the visuals did enough to make the story feel any less standard but I certainly give the anime staff credit for going all out on this, and it’s hard not to respect the amount of work put into this. Much as this all sounds like faint praise, like I said in the beginning while I have problems with the manga (mostly in regards to the female cast), I don’t dislike it overall, and I’ve invested a fair amount of my time into it already so I’m probably gonna stick around for this even if it’s probably not going to be priority viewing for me. For everyone else though, if you’re fine with a little substance, and a whole lot of style, this should probably do you pretty good.

Rating: Good

GRANBELM

Synopsis: It had been nearly 1,000 years since all the magic in the world disappeared, and most people had forgotten it ever existed. Kohinata Mangetsu is a cheerful high school student who has a pretty positive outlook on life, but she has nothing to call her own– Because she wasn’t good at academics or sports, she dreamed of having something she was good at. On a night where the full moon was shining brightly, she happens to meet another girl with the character for “moon” in her name named Shingetsu Ernesta Fukami. That was also when she encountered the mechanical dolls called “ARMANOX.”

First Impressions: And here comes our first major anime original production behind it, and one that seemed to have a lot of potential. Much of the staff involved in this show worked on Re:Zero and while I haven’t seen past the first episode of that, there’s no denying it was a pretty big hit, and I was interested to see if this could follow suit. So far it’s off to a solid, if not particularly great start. A lot of this premiere is heavy on the action and jumps into it almost immediately with little time spent introducing us to the main heroine, or giving us too many details about the story’s core conflict. What we do get works well enough for those issues not to be a total dealbreaker, and I’m a sucker for anything that can successfully mix together magic and mecha, so this seems like it’ll scratch that particular itch pretty well. The handful of details we get about the setting also did enough to make me a little curious to learn more about this show’s world, even if I don’t know if I’m totally up for another “magical girl battle royale” premise, which seems to be what this is leaning towards. Aside from that my only other big complaint here was probably the visuals which aren’t bad. and even feature some much sought after 2D mecha animation, but the mecha designs themselves are incredibly simple, and the animation used for them isn’t exactly stand-out, which kind of hurt the overall aesthetic for me a bit. Regardless I’d still say this had a fairly solid premiere, and while this one didn’t quite blow me away like I was kinda hoping it might, it left with enough that I’m curious to see how it develops

Rating: Good

O’ Maidens In Your Savage Season

Synopsis: When the girls in the literature club ask themselves, “What do you want to do before you die?” one of them gives a most surprising response. Now they’re all preoccupied (for better or for worse) by their friend’s unexpected answer! Soon each of these very different young women find themselves propelled along the uncertain road to adulthood, their emotional journeys taking them down paths as surprising as their friend’s unconventional wish. 

First Impressions: This was a show I was pretty eagerly anticipating, and primarily because of it’s writer. Love her or hate her, Mari Okada is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable writers in the anime industry and while I’m not always in love with her work, it’s pretty much always interesting and knowing that this an adaption of a manga she worked on boosted my curiosity even higher. Tales about hormonal teenagers and puberty are pretty much a dime a dozen, but it’s pretty rare to get them from a female perspective, and this show dives into all those awkward feelings with a pretty high level of intensity. A lot of that can be seen through the main heroine Kazusa, who seems to be the most stuck between wanting to keep her life and relationships simple, and how much the encroaching fear of having to confront both her and her childhood friend’s sexuality threatens that simplicity. It’s all pretty engaging, and while parts of this premiere were actually a little lighter in tone than I expected, given this show’s subject matter and Okada’s typical writing habits, it all balances out for the most part, and helps in driving these themes home. The production from Lay-duce certainly played a part in selling all this, as it gives the show a polished look that fits the nature of the material pretty well and the exaggerated running animation during the episode’s big climax did a lot to boost how awkward that moment was meant to feel. Since as I said before, I’m not always in love with Okada’s work, there’s a chance this could go south, but for now it has my attention, and it’s looking like a definite watch for me

Rating: Great

Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files {Rail Zeppelin} Grace Note

Synopsis: Waver Velvet – The boy who fought side by side with the King of Conquerors – Iskandar – during the Fourth Holy Grail War in Fate/Zero. Time has passed, and the mature Waver has now adopted the name of Lord El-Melloi. As Lord El-Melloi II, he challenges numerous magical and mystical cases in the Clock Tower, the mecca of all mages…

First Impressions: Putting aside the absurd word salad title of this show, it was among the things I was most looking forward to for this season. I really enjoyed Fate/Zero and Waver was one of the best characters in that show, so the idea of getting an entire series dedicated to just him, is like getting something shiny that was made for me specifically and this premiere does a good of making a case for this spinoff. While dedicated Fate fans are pretty aware that Waver takes over the family of his deceased teacher Kayneth (may he be resting some place warm) this episode fills in the details of how that whole setup went down, and the idea of Waver getting blackmailed into the position is both hilarious and pretty in character for him. The extended flashback we get of his younger days also provides a pretty good idea of how he was spending his younger days after the Holy Grail War and helps to introduce us to a couple of new characters as well as providing some cool action spectacles. While I’ve talked about this as a Fate fan though, the good news is this show seems like it’s entirely newcomer friendly and gives enough of an explanation as to the Grail War and how the Clock Tower works that you could probably jump into this without getting too confused, and the premiere establishes Waver’s personality well enough for him to feel immediately likable. About the only real barrier for anyone new here is how jumbled the show’s explanation of magic can be at times, but that’s also kind of a thing with the Fate franchise in general so it’s not exactly a bug that’s specific to this show. Production wise this show looks pretty solid as would be expected from a TROYCA joint, and while nothing here really compares with some of the best action sequences from Fate/Zero proper, this looks more than good enough to fill your itch if you’re in the mood for a new action show besides Fire Force. It pretty much goes without saying I had a lot of fun with this one, and while I’m admittedly very biased here, if you’re a longtime Fate fan, or a newcomer willing to dip your toes into it because this looks interesting, it seems like an extremely solid recommendation.

Rating: Great

Ensemble Stars

Synopsis: The “idol-training produce game” takes place at a private boys’ idol-training school with a history of turning out many great talents in show business. The protagonist is the school’s lone female student who transfers to the school because of a special situation, and enters the school’s producer department.

First Impressions: It’s time for our first idol show of the season, and this one happens to be one of the rare few male idol shows that actually makes it over to the west. Okay I suppose that’s not being entirely fair here. A decent chunk of them actually do, but they’re usually tossed to the wayside by streaming companies without a second thought so the thought of Funimation actually going out of their way to give this an eventual simuldub certainly raised my curiosity a bit. As I’ve said multiple times in the past, idol shows that are played straight tend to put me to sleep (that goes for both male and female idol shows) so there usually has to be some kind of interesting gimmick put beside them if they want to catch my attention. The gimmick here is that the show’s setting is an all boys idol school where they hold stage competitions like tournaments and students have to climb their way to the top if they wanna make it in the idol world. It’s a decent enough concept (especially if it uses it to comment on the exploitative nature of the idol industry a bit, but this doesn’t seem like it’ll be that kind of show) but it wasn’t quite strong enough of a hook to grab my attention. What did draw me in though, was a brief moment where two of the male idols singing on the stage suddenly broke out into a brawl and whacking each other with their guitars as the rules of their competition allow them to do that…somehow. That’s the exact level of quality absurdity needed to make this kind of show work for me, and while that was unfortunately only a 2 minute sequence in a 24 minute show, it was amusing enough that if the show were to pull out similar stunts regularly, it could be a fairly fun time. As of right now though, while this was a perfectly pleasant show, I dunno if I’m gonna go any further with it. I might give the eventual dub a shot for now and see how that goes but for everyone else, I imagine your interest in this will probably depend on if you’re in the general audience for male idol shows. I’m not obviously, but I have friends who certainly are and if nothing else, I’m glad it looks like they’ll be catered to pretty well here.

Rating: Decent

Re:Stage Dream Days!

Synopsis: Young Mana Shikimiya once had big dreams, but she set those dreams aside once she reached middle school in order to live a normal life. When Mana joins the Singing and Dancing Club of Homareboshi Academy to help save the group from being shut down, her dreams of stardom are rekindled. She’ll give it her all to win the Prism Stage competition and be named the top idol. With her friends beside her, there are no dreams too big!

First Impressions: We’re two-for-one on idol shows today but unfortunately between this and Ensemble Stars, I found this one to be far more of a typical idol show, and less interesting as a result. The set-up here is pretty basic as our heroine is a new transfer student who finds herself getting roped into her school’s Lyrical Dance Club aka Idol Club and seems to already possess a fair amount of the talent necessary to make it as an idol. It’s a pretty typical idol show setup and about the only thing that stands out here is that rather the heroine being an enthusastic go-getter who jumps at the chance of becoming an idol, she seems terrified at the thought of performing on stage, and it’s apparently connected to her older sister who’s already a successful idol. While this got me a little curious as to what exactly the story is there, and the idea of her having to overcome her anxiety about performing could be interesting, judging by the fact that she ends up joining the club anyway by the end of the episode, I have my doubts it’ll do anything notable with that. I can’t say there was anything particularly wrong with this premiere, and while the show doesn’t exactly look good (especially the generic character designs), the animation for the dance choreography was decent enough for this not to feel totally empty. Even so, I have but only so much time, and since this wasn’t even as amusing as Ensemble Stars was, this seems like a pass for me. As for anyone else though, if you’re really desperate for a new idol show, this might end up being decent enough to get by.

Rating: Decent

The Ones Within

Synopsis: Akatsuki Iride is a popular live streamer for the free-to-play game “The Ones Within-Genome”. But what was once fantasy quickly becomes his and 7 others’ reality when they’re transported to the game world against their will. View count matters more than ever before as millions watch them try to complete various high-risk challenges. Only the best will survive in this land that’s always live!

First Impressions: So I didn’t know anything about this going in and after watching the premiere, I…honestly have no idea what it is I just watched. The basic gist (?) of this involves a group of teen Let’s Players getting roped into some kind of game where they have to reach 100,000,000 views to escape and take part in a wide variety of events. If that sounds weird, the show itself is even weirder, and while this sounds like something that might be par the course for a wacky survival game show (complete with a creepy host in a mask) the terms of the game are so vague it isn’t even established these kids are in any actual danger of losing their lives aside from potentially getting locked in a dungeon somewhere (did I mention this is weird?). All of this wackiness is further elevated by the characters being a group of oddballs themselves, particularly the main character, who seems to be little overly relaxed about this whole situation.

Honestly I’m struggling to describe this show because it’s one of those things where only the act of watching it will do it justice, but I will say that while I certainly wasn’t bored with this, I wouldn’t exactly call it “good”. In a lot of ways this reminds me of Angels of Death in terms of how it plays up a horror scenario with enough wackiness that it feels like a parody, and while I didn’t dislike that show, the magic kind of wore off after a while for me, and parts of this premiere were already testing my patience in terms of “look at how CRAAAAAAZZYYYY this is”. As it stands I’m currently lacking in Sunday shows, and this one’s been dubbed right out the gate, meaning it won’t require my full attention, so it’s possible I might end up giving this another episode or so, but I’m still feeling more than a little cautious about it. If you like absurdity, this is about as absurd as it gets, and provided you can turn your brain off for this one, it might prove to be entertaining, but uh…seriously what the heck even was this?

Rating: ???

Vinland Saga

Synopsis: Ten years ago, a strong warrior named Thors lost his life in a fight with Askeladd – a powerful and ruthless Viking. Having witnessed his demise, Thors’ son, Thorfinn, became consumed by hatred and vowed to exact revenge on his father’s killer in an honorable duel. With nowhere to go, Thorfinn was recruited onto Askeladd’s ship and began working with the crew as they pillage settlements and trick naive armies. Now, the young boy spends his days honing his battle skills while carrying out Askeladd’s bidding in order to earn his reward of a duel with the vicious captain. But despite having failed in all his bouts with the man he despises so much, will the day ever come when Thorfinn can finally defeat Askeladd and lay his father’s memory to rest?

First Impressions: I’ve been hearing great things about the Vinland Saga manga for ages, and combined with the talent at Wit Studio, this had all the makings of a prestige project, and boy this didn’t disappoint. In a rare act of benevolence on the behalf of our overlord Jeff Bezos, Amazon was kind enough to drop the first three episodes of this all at once, and it’s been a real treat so far. While I wouldn’t exactly call myself a history buff, it’s always interesting to learn about time periods that aren’t often explored in media, and despite how much those stories have endured, there isn’t nearly as much stuff about vikings as you’d expect so this was a pretty interesting experience for me, and I really appreciated how well this show drew me into the atmosphere and culture of this era in a way that felt really organic.

Of course all of that wouldn’t mean much if the story wasn’t good, but thankfully it’s off to a fantastic start. While I don’t have too many thoughts on the protagonist Thorfinn since he’s still a child at this point in the story, his father Thors has proven to be a really compelling character so far, and I’m really impressed with how fleshed out he’s been in spite of his eventual fate feeling pretty obvious, even if I wasn’t aware of the general plot of this show. His hatred of violence and war makes him stand out in stark contrast to the times he lives in, and I appreciate how effectively the show managed to silently point out some of the inherent evils of slavery (a topic isekai seems to have a lot of trouble with these days) by tying his desire to help an escaped slave into his own desire to leave behind his violent past, and this story as a whole feels a lot more emphatic so far than I would have expected from a period piece. In stark contrast to Thors though, Thorfinn seems to be much more into the idea of battle, and doesn’t seem to take his father’s attempt at teaching him pacifism to heart, so I’m curious to see how this show’s inevitable tragedy will shape him going forward, and how that’ll tie into what this story has to say regarding war.

About the only point of apprehension I had here was in regards to the production and specifically the show’s usage of CG. While the majority of this three episodes looked pretty great, and actually looked a lot livelier than I would have expected from Wit compared to their work on Attack on Titan, but the opening battle on the boats looked a little awkward in some places, and while that’s not a dealbreaker by any stretch, I hope the rest of the show’s big battles will look a little better balanced. That nitpick aside though, Vinland Saga is off to an amazing start, and even in a season that already doesn’t seem like it’ll have any shortage of exciting content, this show really stood out from the rest, and seems like it’ll be the one to beat.

Rating: Excellent

Happy new year, everyone! Hard to believe it’s almost been five years since I set up this blog, and life since then has certainly had its share of surprises and disappointments. Of course while things may change, anime is eternal and as always, the new year means a wave of new shows to check out. Fortunently Japan had the decency to wait until the weekend for premieres which certainly worked to my benefit, so I guess it’s time to dig in.

Ratings Scale

Bad: Stay away far away from this one.  Not worth watching

Boogiepop and Others

Synopsis: There is an urban legend that children tell one another about a shinigami that can release people from the pain they may be suffering. This “Angel of Death” has a name: Boogiepop. And the legends are true. Boogiepop is real. When a rash of disappearances involving female students breaks out at Shinyo Academy, the police and faculty assume they just have a bunch of runaways on their hands. But Nagi Kirima knows better. Something mysterious and foul is afoot. Is it Boogiepop, or something more sinister…?

First Impressions: So I actually do own Boogiepop Phantom since I blind bought it on impulse at a con earlier this year, but I sadly haven’t gotten any further than the first couple of episodes because the whole thing felt way too obtuse and confusing for me (the lackluster dub didn’t really help much either). Even so I was pretty determined to give this show a shot because it’s being helmed by director Shingo Natsume, and while everyone mostly associates him with One-Punch Man (and to a lesser extent Space Dandy), his work on ACCA 13 Territory Inspection Dept. proved that he’s a versatile director, and I was curious to see how he’d handle this kind of series. This show ended up premiering with two episodes, and it’s a good thing too because I would have walked away a lot more confused otherwise.

The first of these episodes involves a highschooler and his girlfriend who has apparently taken on a split-personality named Boogiepop who claims he was summoned to save the world, while the the other involves two other pairs of high schoolers, one of which is apparently the clone of an alien sent from space to judge humanity. Needless to say it’s pretty weird, and the storytelling format only pushes that further because a lot of the events are told in non-sequental order and require that you pay close attention to piece it altogether. Framing a story this way can be kind of hit or miss for me since for every Bacanno, you get other shows that just end up being a confusing mess, but so far this has me intrigued and the weirdly atmospheric nature of the presentation grabbed me even though the animation is honestly a little shakier looking that I was expecting. I’m honestly not sure exactly how much I liked this double premiere, but I’m certainly very curious to see how it’ll all fit together so if nothing else, the show seems to have accomplished it’s goal in that area.

Rating: Good

 

The Price of Smiles

Synopsis: On a planet far, far away from Earth, there reigns a kingdom overflowing with smiles. Princess Yuki is twelve years old and beginning to ride the roller coaster of emotions that comes with adolescence. Each day brings with it tears, laughter, and even a little romance. The palace is full of fun, and the vassals who serve her there add color to her life. Seventeen-year-old Stella is a brilliant warrior. Even though she is cool as a cucumber, she never fails to smile. That’s because smiling is essential to life. This is a story about two girls born on a distant planet.

First Impressions: So I knew going into this that it was an anniversary project for Tatsunoko Productions, and while Tatsunoko’s produced their share of good shows, they’ve also had their share of stinkers so I wasn’t quite sure which end this would fall on. As of the episode 1 premiere however, it’s somewhere in the middle, and I mostly walked away feeling a giant shrug. The setup here seems to involve two warring nations, and I say seems because much of the premiere is spent focusing on one of these kingdoms and it’s princess. Said princess comes off as pretty likeable for the most part as do her subjects but nothing about the characters feels particular fresh and the production looks equally by the numbers from the character designs to the mecha CG. I wish I had a stronger takeway from this but this feels like the sort of thing where you kind of know exactly what you’re going to get, and even the episode’s last minute “twist” doesn’t really do much to help there. I might give this another shot if the rest of the season looks barren but right now it’s not looking like a priority

Rating: Decent

 

W’z

Synopsis: Inspired by house music from a young age, Yukiya spends his free time as a DJ for a crowd of one and uploads his videos online. Like any young teenager, he yearns for something greater than his current life. He wants recognition and importance, but breaking out of his comfort zone means he runs the risk of getting hurt, so the cycle continues. That is, until the day he crosses the line of no return and stumbles across a mysterious live broadcast that will change his world forever.

First Impressions: Whoo boy, where do I begin? So I have a complicated history with GoHands in that I like the K franchise (even if the second season was overly padded) but everything they’ve made outside of that has looked progressively worse, and Hand Shakers in particular was a downright baffling (if amusing) travesty. Even so, I figured their newest show was probably worth a peak for better or worse, so imagine my surprise when it of all things, it turned out to be a Hand Shakers sequel all along. Now in fairness, Hand Shakers did end on a note that threatened the possibility of another season but no one actually thought GoHands would be insane enough to follow through on it, and the fact that this show so brazenly references its predecessor makes you wonder if they learned anything from that show’s shortcomings.

I suppose the nicest thing I can say here is that this premiere doesn’t look quite as messy as Hand Shakers did (no CG chains to be had here…yet) but even thing from the camera angles to the nearly-seizure inducing color filters pile on bad decision after bad decision, and that’s not even getting into how bad the storytelling is, and the awkward attempts to create a sense of mystery regarding what the main character’s deal is. Everything I’ve said probably gives the impression I’d drop this in a heartbeat, but Hand Shakers was a gloriously fun hatewatch and I’d be lying if part of me wasn’t curious to see how this’ll follow up on that show’s sins. If you’re into watching stuff ironically then it might be worth your time, but if not, I’d suggest running for the hills while you still can

Rating: Bad

 

The Rising of the Shield Hero

Synopsis: Naofumi Iwatani, an uncharismatic Otaku who spends his days on games and manga, suddenly finds himself summoned to a parallel universe! He discovers he is one of four heroes equipped with legendary weapons and tasked with saving the world from its prophesied destruction. As the Shield Hero, the weakest of the heroes, all is not as it seems. Naofumi is soon alone, penniless, and betrayed. With no one to turn to, and nowhere to run, he is left with only his shield. Now, Naofumi must rise to become the legendary Shield Hero and save the world!

First impressions: So Crunchyroll has been promoting this to high heaven as the next big thing in isekai shows, but I’ve been pretty apprehensive about it for a while. This was mostly due to musings about parts of the source material being problematic, and one element in particular sounded potentially awful, but as with most things I figured I should at least see part of it for myself. This…this was a mistake. So before I get into the really big problem with this show, I’ll talk about the rest first, though there’s not really much to that. This show kicks off with the typical isekai set up of an otaku getting transported to another world with video game mechanics with the twists being that the main character isn’t the only hero, and that alongside not being a gamer, he has the weakest ability of the heroes. On paper this could have been an interesting setup for a more atypical isekai story but much of this premiere features the same bland setups from the barebones worldbuilding, to long dumps of exposition, with the only major thing of note being the other heroes, who for the most part seem like they would be way more interesting to follow than our actual main character until the “twist” happens.

And speaking of said twist *sigh* this is where everything gets rough. And by rough, I mean repulsive. So towards the end of this premiere the main character gets falsely accused of rape by his only party member who was planning to backstab him all along. This is a pretty nasty scenario in and of itself, and a cheap way to garner sympathy for the protagonist, but the specific framing that’s used here, turns the gross factor up to eleven. See, the show just happens to take place in a country that’s predominantly a matriarchy where women have more say over men, and the crime for sexually assaulting a woman is death (though in MC-kun’s case he “gets off” with having his name besmirched). To anyone who can’t quite connect the dots here, this is implying that men are falsely accused by women who just want to take advantage of them, and that women shouldn’t be blindly believed when making said accusations.

This, to pardon my french, is a load of horseshit. Roughly 98% of reported rape accusations turn out to be true, and this promotes a dangerous narrative that makes it harder for women to go public about being sexually assaulted because they don’t know if anyone will believe them. That this show is promoting this kind of shit is beyond infuriating, and to make matters worse, immediately following the rape accusation, the main character grows into an edgelord and seems willing to purchase a slave girl because “she can’t betray him”. I’ve seen a lot of bad isekai shows, some that were really, really gross, but this may well be one of the most repulsive ones I ever sat through, and even making it to the end of the episode was a challenge. Simply put: I hate this show, and while I imagine I can’t really dissuade anyone from watching, hopefully everything I’ve said here has at least given you all fair warning

Rating: SCREW THIS

 

How Clumsy You Are, Miss Ueno

Synopsis: Not only is Ueno the president of the science club at her junior high school, she’s a genius inventor, too! However, despite everything she has going for her, there’s one big problem she can’t seem to solve: no matter what she does, she can’t figure out how to confess to her crush, Tanaka! Can she find a way to give her heart what it truly yearns for?

First Impressions: And so we’ve arrived at our first short of the season. I haven’t reviewed one of these in a long while but’s a slow day so here we are. The basic gist of this is that the main character Ueno is a genius with a crush on her classmate who’s a bit too dense to notice her feelings, and rather than directly confessing, she uses her weird gadgets to help him get a clue. Comedies like this can be a little hit or miss for me since they ultimately have to rely on the staying power of a single joke and some get more mileage out of that than others. As far as this show goes, it was fairly charming in it’s own way, but my own personal aversion to gross out jokes meant that it kinda lost me when it decided to spend the first segment on a pee joke. The second one was a little funnier to me, but wasn’t quite able to give the impression that it would offer my kind of crass jokes. On the whole this seems harmless enough and if nothing else pops up for Sundays I might give it another go, but for now I’m kind of on the fence here.

Rating: Decent

 

Pastel Memories

Synopsis: Akihabara is known as a shining beacon for otaku culture everywhere. But in a not-to-distant the future, that culture is on the decline due to a mysterious affliction causing widespread memory loss.  As a result, Akihabara has lost its luster. However, in one of the few remaining otaku shops, Izumi and a handful of comrades hatch a plan to restore lost memories and return “Akiba” to its former glory.

First Impressions: I didn’t really know anything about this going in, and at first glance it seemed like it was going to be a cute girls doing cute things kind of a deal. Most of this premiere involves our large group of heroines searching for an out of print manga for their cafe, and it’s about as entertaining as that description sounds. About the only thing that stood out to me here was how contrived it would be to have trouble finding manga in Akihabara of all places, but apparently that was the point because apparently this actually involves some kind of reality warping shenanigans involving a virus determined to wipe otaku culture out of existence. While that is admittedly a little more interesting, it takes to the end of the episode for that bit to drop, and even then, it wasn’t really presented well enough to hold my attention. This could be made somewhat more passable, if the girls seemed cute, but in addition to coming off as generic moe archetypes, the character designs themselves are so samey that all the girls quite literally have the same bust size, which honestly gave the impression that the people working on this didn’t care much about what they were doing either. I’m sure someone will find this entertaining enough to give a pass, and I didn’t exactly hate this, but time is short, and this was a little too boring to feel like it was worth a second glance.

Rating: Decent

 

Dororo

Synopsis: One day, a man entered a temple that housed forty-eight statues possessed by demons and made a deal: in exchange for ultimate power, they could each take a piece of his soon-to-be born son. Soon after the child came into the world and the demons held up their end of the bargain; the man then left the crippled child in the river to die. Found by a kind doctor, the boy grew older with the help of prosthetic limbs and enhanced senses, but soon demons began to follow him, and the boy – who his new father named Hyakkimaru – left to find a way to complete himself. He searches for the forty-eight demons; each one he vanquishes returns a piece of his body. Alongside the child thief Dororo, Hyakkimaru travels from place to place, hoping to one day become whole.

First Impressions: So there wasn’t too much stuff that I was actively anticipating this season, but this was definitely one of them. Partially because it’s a studio MAPPA production and their projects are usually interesting but mainly because it’s an adaptation of a manga by the legendary Osamu Tezuka. For those unaware, Osamu Tezuka, otherwise known as the creator of Astro Boy, is by and large considered to be one of the most important creatives in the history of manga and anime as a whole, and was more or less responsible for helping to pioneer the industry into what it is today. As such, I was pretty excited for the opportunity to check out some of his non-Astro Boy work, and this show is off to a pretty interesting start. The basic gist of this premiere is that a feudal lord desperate to save his people from famine, decided to abandon the ways of Budda and make an exchange with demons for prosperity. The sacrifice was his newborn son who was cursed by the demons and was promptly abandoned and left for dead. The boy survived, and ends up having a run-in with a young thief named Dororo who’s amazed at his ability to sense demons. In many respects this feels more like something out of an old folktale than a manga, but that’s a good thing because it gives the show a dusty sense of atmosphere that helps it to stand out, and it feels appropriate for a series as old as this one. That atmosphere carries over into some of the art design choices, as the mostly painted backgrounds help to carry the old-timey feel of the story, and while the character designs are admittedly a bit more modernized than I’d like, it’s not so much so that the show looks completely indistinguishable from any other modern production. Story-wise it’s hard to say where this is headed, and from what little familiarity I have with Tezuka’s works, I know his stuff can get weird, so I’m very curious to see what we’ll end up with. For now I’m more interested in the show’s potential than anything else, but this is a solid enough premiere that if you’re a little starved for content this season, then it should more than likely be worth your time.

Rating: Great

 

Wataten: An Angel Flew Down To Me

Synopsis: Miyako is a shy college student who is also an otaku. One day she happens to meet some angelic grade school kids! When Miyako sees her little sister’s new friend Hana-chan, Miyako’s heart won’t stop racing! Miyako tries to get along with them but struggles… A sketch comedy all about trying to get along with the super cute girl is about to begin!

First Impressions: *siiiggghh* Welp, it’s another one of these. At first glance this seemed like it was going to be a cute comedy, but the “joke” on display here is definitely going to be…divisive to say the least. This show is primairly about a college girl who finds herself with a crush on her younger sister’s friend. The catch here though is that both her younger sister and her friend are grade schoolers, and I’m pretty sure you can see where this is headed from here. I figured that last season’s Uzamaid was going to be the exception rather than the rule concerning well produced comedies where the gag involves paedophilic undertones, but I guess I was wrong and this show is here to darken my door once again. Unlike Uzamaid though, where the heroine was openly predatory to her intended target, the protagonist of this show hasn’t quite realized she’s in love, which is presumably meant to make her advances less creepy, but in some ways might actually be worse since it kind of feels like this series is trying to have it’s cake and eat it too. To this show’s credit, the fact that it wasn’t super brazen about its premise allowed me to actually make it through to the end of the episode, which is a lot more than I can say for Uzamaid, and it’s final gag was pretty amusing in isolation from everything else. I imagine that if the undertones of this show don’t particularly bother you than you might get some mileage out of it, but this sort of thing is my personal kryptonite so I’m gonna have to give it a hard nope.

Rating: Bad

 

My Roommate is a Cat

Synopsis: The story of Mikazuki Subaru, a novelist who is shy and struggles in relationships with other people, and a cat who was dumped by humans and lived a tough life on the streets. Through a twist of fate, the two of them end up living together. This heartwarming tale illustrates day-to-day life through the eyes of both man and cat. These moments seem trivial, but as they build upon themselves, the two become family and find happiness in their life together.

First Impressions: This is another series I went into blind, but with a title like this one I figured it might be a good stop for a wholesome slice-of-life show. The premiere pretty much delivered on that feeling as we’re introduced to the protagonist Subaru, who’s an introverted author that recently suffered the loss of his parents. On a whim he decides to take in a stray cat to use them as inspiration for his next work, and his interactions with the cat help in stretching out a bit beyond his shell. It’s fairly charming, but it was so by the numbers for the first few minutes that I wasn’t sure if it was going to be able to hold my attention. However things changed pretty quickly for me when the show suddenly switches to the cat’s perspective, and seeing its simple yet sensible takes on the Subaru’s shenanigans did a lot to give the episode an extra bit of life and by the end I found myself feeling like I could totally be up for more of it. This show probably isn’t going to set the world on fire or anything, and the overall tone is fairly low-key, but if you’re looking for something wholesome and relaxing for the season, this seems like a safe pick

Rating: Good

 

Girly Air Force

Synopsis: Mysterious flying creatures called Zai suddenly appear and overwhelm all of mankind’s aerial combat forces. To fight them, mankind modifies existing aircraft frames to create mechanized soldiers called “Daughters,” which are operated by automated piloting mechanisms called “Anima” that have the appearance of human girls. The story begins when Narutani Kei, a boy who yearns to take to the skies, encounters a shining red aircraft and its pilot, an Anima named Gripen who has been named mankind’s trump card.

First Impressions: About all I really knew about this going in was the basic plot description, and going off of that and the character designs I figured this would be something resembling a magic high-school show (which weirdly in the endless sea of isekai every season I’ve almost found myself nostalgic for. Instead this seems to be something more akin to Arpeggio of Blue Steel (for the 10 people besides me who vaguely remember that show) as our hapless main character who wants to join the JDSF in order to take down a force known as the Xi, and doing so requires that he helps a bunch of fighter jets with AI’s that happen to resemble cute girls obtain the flying skills they need to do so. Admittedly it’s pretty different than what I was expecting but I’m not totally sure if that was for the better. Much of this premiere is spent introducing us to the protagonist and his childhood friend who are fine, but not particularly interesting, and while there’s a fair chance I’m reading too much into it, I kind of raised my eyebrows a bit at the villains apparently hailing from China of all places, given Japan’s rather complicated history with them. It doesn’t help that the technical merits of the show don’t stand out much either, and while I wasn’t super bored with this premiere, I didn’t feel all that engaged either. I might consider giving it another go if I can’t find anything else decent for Thursdays, but for right now it doesn’t feel too likely that I’ll stick with this.

Rating: Decent

 

The Quintessential Quintuplets

Synopsis: One day, a poor high school second-year named Futaro Uesugi comes across a private tutoring gig with good pay. But his pupils are his classmates!! And they’re quintuplets!! A-and they’re all gorgeous girls, but they’re also troublemakers who hate to study and are on the verge of flunking out! And his first task is simply gaining the sisters’ trust?! Every day is a party! The curtain is rising on the Nakano quintuplets’ quirky romantic comedy with five times the cute!!

First Impressions: So I knew going into this that it was a classic harem show, and weirdly it feels like it’s been a long time since we got one of those without any crazy gimmicks attached to it so I was kind of curious to see what we were going to get here. What we get here is pretty much par the course for mid 00’s harem comedies as our story kicks off with the protagonist Futaro being roped into tutoring rich quintuplets in order to support his poor family. It drew some pretty strong parallels to the We Never Learn manga series from Shonen Jump, which has a very similar premise and is slated for anime next season, which is a feeling that never quite left me throughout the premiere. Aside from laying down the premise, the goal of the first episode is to introduce the girls as fast as humanly possible, and each of them have their own quirks that fits pretty nicely into your standard anime harem with a tsundere, an onee-san, and an introvert among the inevitable contenders for Futaro’s affections. There was a time where this sort of thing would have felt pretty exhausting for me, but it’s been such a long time since I saw a harem show so unabashedly honest about what it is (the episode literally ends by teasing the mystery of “which girl will he marry?”) that I found myself being pretty amused with it. It helps that Futaro has enough a personality not to feel like a blatant male insert, and while none of the jokes were particularly funny, I was surprised at how restrained the fanservice was compared to some of its contemporaries. I’m probably being a little too kind here, and this season’s prospects have been so barren thus far that I’m kind of willing to settle for anything that kept me entertained, but I feel like I’m probably gonna give this another episode. Hopefully I won’t come to regret that decision

Rating: Good

 

Domestic Girlfriend

Synopsis: Natsuo is a high school boy who is experiencing the crushing despair of unrequited love. To make matters worse, the person he is in love with is his teacher, Hina. In an attempt to lift his spirits, he attends a mixer where he meets a girl named Rui. The two sleep together, expecting never to see one another again, but fate has other plans. His life suddenly becomes more complicated when his father comes home and announces he has remarried a woman with two daughters whom Natsuo has met before: Hina and Rui!

First Impressions: I recall skimming through the first couple of chapters of this a while back since it was available through Crunchyroll’s digital manga library and my impression was that it seemed pretty trashy and over the top. The first episode of the anime more or less gave me the same impression, as the core plot basically boils down to “dude bangs girl who becomes his stepsister while also harboring a crush for his other much older stepsister”. It’s about as NTR a setup as it gets and the show doesn’t waste any time in playing up all the sexual elements as being super scandalous. It’s about as silly as it sounds though I’ll at least give the episode credit in trying a little harder than it needed to in making Natsuo and Rui’s feelings seem somewhat grounded, which gave the impression that there might be something more thoughtful underneath the surface than what the premise suggests. Of course a lot of that drama is looped in with wacky rom-com hi-jinks so there’s a pretty high chance I may be giving it too much credit. Either way I can at least say I wasn’t bored with this, and like I said with some of my other impressions, the season’s looking sparse enough that “not boring” may have to work as an endorsement. If nothing else I’m not really averse to trash so long as it’s fun so I feel like there’s actually a decent chance I may stick around for another episode.

Rating: Decent

 

Kaguya-sama: Love is War 

Synopsis: As leaders of their prestigious academy’s student council, Kaguya and Miyuki are the elite of the elite! But it’s lonely at the top… Luckily for them, they’ve fallen in love! There’s just one problem—they both have too much pride to admit it. And so begins the daily scheming to get the object of their affection to confess their romantic feelings first…Love is a war you win by losing.

First Impressions: And sounding off this round of impressions is a show I wasn’t sure I was gonna like. I’ve been hearing positive things about the manga for a good while now, and the premise certain sounded amusing, but as much as I love a good rom-com I kind of tend to get annoyed when they don’t go anywhere with the romance half of that genre, and in this case doing that would mean the end of the series so I didn’t know if it’d be my cup of tea. To my surprise though, those conflicted feelings went away after the first couple of minute because this show is a treat. While the concept of two characters refusing to admit their feelings for each other sounds like it would be pretty annoying on paper, the episode is immediately able to sell Kaguya and Miyuki as the kind of egotistical snobs who WOULD think confessing their feelings is somehow “beneath” them, and subsequently makes their attempts to dodge each other a lot funnier than I expected them to be. It helps that the show has some stylish visual direction, and while it does feel a little over the top in a couple of shots, it mostly serves to the show’s benefit in helping the jokes to land, though I can’t quite say the same for narration since that was a bit more hit or miss to me. I’m still a little concerned the joke here could get old fast, but the last of the episode’s three shorts veers in an almost completely different direction than the first two, so it seems like this will be able to branch out for its gags if it needs to. All in all I enjoyed this more than I expected, and while I wouldn’t quite peg it down as appointment viewing, if you’re in the market for a good rom-com this season, this show seems it’ll be the place to go

Rating: Good

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And that’s pretty much it for me this time around. There’s still a few more premieres left in the season, and a few shows I didn’t quite get around to checking out but if I’m being honest the general direction of this season’s premieres thus far haven’t really made me motivated to try digging through more of them. It’s not the first time where a season basically boiled down to “the stuff I liked was the stuff I figured I would like” but I’ve only had a couple of surprises here, and even then they aren’t ones that particularly blew me away. Of course not every season needs to stand out, and The Promised Neverland is here, so as long as I can gush over that every week I should be content until spring. Till’ next time, stay animated.

So unfortunately my internet modem decided to start acting wonky over the weekend so I’m currently without internet for the next day or two. That’s gonna be a bit of an issue as far impressions go, so some of these are gonna come a little later than I would have wanted. Gonna do my best to go through as many of these as I can though, so bear with me

 

Ratings Scale

 Bad: Stay away far away from this one.  Not worth watching

 

Conception

Synopsis: Itsuki Yuuge is a high school student who finds out on the day of his graduation ceremony that his cousin and childhood friend Mahiru is pregnant. Immediately afterward, Itsuki and Mahiru are taken to a magical world called Granvania, which is currently being invaded by monsters. The only people who can fight and exorcise the monsters are the “star children,” and the star children can only be produced by the 12 “shrine maidens of the constellations.” In order to defeat the monsters and return to his own world, Itsuki must father the star children with the maidens.

First Impressions: So in the interest of fairness, I guess I’ll confess that I actually have played the first hour or two of the game (franchise?) this is based on before. However it was a pretty long time ago. So long in fact that I’m genuinely surprised someone decided to resurrect this from the grave for an anime adaption, but I guess if anyone was gonna do it, it would be Studio GONZO who’s been digging into the well of old video games to adapt for the last couple of years or so. In essence this show is based on a fantasy RPG involving being sent to another world where they have to defeat giant monsters. The catch, of course, is that doing so involves impregnating girls with magic babies in order to destroy them. It’s a premise so silly it feels like it’d be right at home with Darling in the FRANXX in terms of how much it wants to sell the idea that having kids is great, but weirdly this premiere is…lacking. With something so inherently over the top in nature, you’d expect the anime to completely revel in it and be as overtly horny as possible in adapting it, and while it’s not totally lacking in that area it feels a bit too conservative. A lot of the first episode just feels like the show going through the motions of watching someone else playing a video game, and although it at least has the decency to poke fun at that a bit, it doesn’t change that the direction feels blander than it should be. I suppose in fairness if this show HAD fully embraced it’s premise, it’d probably feel a little repulsive, but I’d at least be able to respect it’s commitment. I guess if you’re REALLY desperate for a fan-service show this season, it’ll work out for you, but I ended up being a lot more bored than I was expecting so I’m gonna have to give this a no.

Rating:: 

 

My Sister, My Writer

Synopsis: Yuu Nagami, a high school student aiming to become a light novel author has a little sister named Suzuka. Suzuka is an excellent student with good grades and great looks, but she’s very cold toward her older brother. Every year Yuu keeps failing at the preliminary rounds of the light novel contest, but one day Suzuka reveals a shocking truth. The flirty sibling romantic comedy that Suzuka wrote has won the light novel contest! To make matters worse, Suzuka doesn’t understand anything about light novels or moe so she begs Yuu to stand in for her under her pen-name, Towano Chikai!

First Impressions: It’s been a while since I’ve had to deal with the eternal curse of imouto shows, but I suppose our paths were destined to cross again, and my suffering was inevitable. Ever since Oreimo pulled a bait and switch from being a fun slice of life comedy about siblings to full on incest, imoto shows have been the bane of my existence and suffice to say this didn’t really change anything for me in that area. To this show’s “credit” the premiere dispells any pretext that this won’t ultimately end in incest as despite her tsundere attitude, it’s made extremely clear she’s horny for her brother, and it’s only a matter of time before MC-kun decides he’s down with that. Putting aside my personal distaste for incest though, this was straight up boring. Every story beat of the premiere is extremely obvious, to the point where you can easily predict where it’s going well before any of the “twists” happen, and that low energy writing is only further let down by the show looking kinda ugly, with character designs and “buy the blu-ray” fanservice shots that look like something from the late 00’s. Even if imoto shows are something you’re down for, I have a hard time imagining anything about this would catch your eye since stuff like Oreimo and Eromanga Sensei at least had decent production values going for them, and while this didn’t feel quite as soulless as Conception’s premiere this felt a lot more by-the-numbers than I was expecting too. Again, if you’re desperate for a fanservice show this season I guess you could do worse, but this is another big pass for me

Rating: Bad

 

Karakuri Circus

Synopsis: Masaru Saiga is a fifth-grade boy who aims to become a puppeteer. After Sadayoshi Saiga — the CEO of the giant home telephone maker Saiga and Masaru’s father — passes away, Masaru inherits 18 billion yen. Masaru is targeted for his wealth, and is saved by two people. Narumi Katō is a man who has studied Kung-Fu and has a weird illness called “Zonapha Syndrome,” and Shirogane is a silver-haired woman who controls the puppet “Arurukan” (Harlequin). Together, Masaru, Narumi, and Shirogane get thrown into various conspiracies by those who would try to steal Masaru’s fortune.

First Impressions: While I was certainly interested in what the series had to offer going in, I was pretty surprised that Ushio & Tora  turned out to be as strong as it was, and now stands as one of my favorite shonen anime. As such, it pretty much goes without saying that I was excited for Karakuri Circus, since it’s not only based on a manga penned by the same author, but has the same staff members that helped to make Ushio & Tora such a comprehensible adaption in spite of how much material it had to cram. Sadly that excitement turned to rage when I learned this show was destined to be an Amazon Prime exclusive for streaming, and the premiere has only helped to further elevate that rage because it was pretty fantastic. Trading in fights between yokai for fights between puppets is a bit of a weird trade, but puppeteers always seemed like a concept you could probably build a decent battle shonen around, and the fight we get in the premiere makes me think we’re in for a good time on that end. The main trio is also really likable so far with Narumi in particular managing to come off as a lot more big-hearted than his brash attitude would suggest and it makes for a decent foil with the more calm and polite Shirogane, even if the premiere makes it a little too obvious they’re destined to hook up. Production wise it’s pretty much on par with the look of Ushio & Tora so if you liked how well that was able to capture the look of 90’s shonen, this will definitely please you. My only real gripe here is knowing that Amazon’s involvement is going to make the likelihood of a dub, or even a physical release in general, one heck of an uphill battle, but while we wait for that to get settled, you should absolutely give this a watch.

Rating: Great

 

Merc StoriA: The Apathetic Boy and the Girl in a Bottle

Synopsis: Yuu, a young healer with the power to heal the hearts of monsters, receives a mysterious bottle from his father as a gift. When Yuu touches the bottle, Merc, a girl made of liquid, appears from it. Merc has no memories from before she met Yuu and wants to learn more about who she is, so the two of them set out on a journey through various countries. And thus begins the comical fantasy of Yuu, an apprentice healer with a fear of monsters, and Merc, the girl in the bottle.

First Impressions: This is the second video game adaption I’ve previewed but unlike Conception which was far more boring than it’s absurd premise would suggest, I was reasonably entertained by this. One point in this show’s favor is that it does a pretty fair job of disguising it’s origins and feels like fairly genuine, if extremely low-key, fantasy show. It helps that rather than having the usual trappings of a hero fighting giant monsters, the magic in this series is instead used to heal the hearts of monsters, and prevent them from causing harm. While I wouldn’t necessarily say that this premiere makes full use of that concept, it’s an interesting enough idea that it managed to catch my attention, and I’m curious what might be done with. The other point in the show’s favor is that the leads Yuu and Merc have a pretty fun dynamic and even though none of their antics were laugh out loud funny, they came off as more charming than I was expecting going in. All that said, this looks to be a pretty low-key affair both in tone and in terms of visual presentation, so it’s hard to say how long it’ll be able to maintain my interest, but I was happily surprised enough that for now it’s worth a couple more episodes.

Rating: Good

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And that basically wraps up my fall impressions. I know I missed a few things thanks to my internet being out over the weekend but I don’t really have the time to spare to do a ton of backtracking and I’m pretty content with what I managed to cover. So far this season hasn’t had many surprises in terms of what shows managed to catch my attention, but I suppose it’s fine to get that every once in a while, and fortunately there was a fair amount I was interested in, so it’s not like I won’t have anything to watch. Hopefully we’ll be able to end this year on a strong note, anime-wise, but until then, stay animated.