Writing my feels about the new season shows' first episodes again
Reincarnated as a Sword
The Premise
A dude dies and turns into a powerful magic sword. Realizing his buffs can allow him to move by himself, he begins killing monsters to power up until he ends up stuck in the Earth. He is found by a catgirl slave who manages to get free and the two become friends planning to get powerful together.
It Gud?
The first 15 minutes are so are watching the sword flying around murdering monsters and levelling up. Like, aside from a couple scenes of a slave girl suffering, it’s mostly this sword getting really jazzed about his new powers. Yay! Fire magic 10! That… means nothing to me. I don’t remember fire magic 1-9 for comparison. And also… are any of these monsters “evil”? Because he sure kills the fuck out of them without a second thought and with the worst sin being spitting on him or something. It’s insanely repetitive and it feels like someone playing D & D by themselves, fighting, levelling up and then looking at me like I should be as excited by this as they are. I… actually don’t care. I have no investment in this character before you dove into their lust for power and spent most of the episode detailing it. By the time he teams up with the slave, I don’t care about either of these character’s future growth. Powering a character up constantly means nothing if I think nothing of them.
Blue Lock
The Premise
A soccer forward is invited to a special event that he learns has invited pretty much every high school aged forward in the country. While our hero believes in team work, his heart is still aching from his most frequent loss, believing if he shot instead of passed, they could have one. While there, a man tasked with creating a winning Japanese soccer team feels that Japan isn’t lacking for team work but needs something counter to win: a forward of pure ego. Therefore in a radical experiment, he’s going to create a “pure egotist striker” with everyone in heated competition playing bizarre games in a “every man for himself” atmosphere. Will our hero abandon his principles to be #1? Looks like.
It Gud?
It’s… OK, it’s well made for sure. And it’s swinging for the fences in terms of silliness. I don’t want to use the word “edgelord” but it is following a model of edgelord show, in that it’s saying “hey, man, maybe platitudes about teamwork are bullshit.” It’s also a mix of sport and “death game” where the stakes aren’t death but simply you will never be part of the Japanese national team (which would be more of a threat if there weren’t other sports avenues in theory). It’s not super clear morally where this is going; is the character going to find that true victory comes from abandoning old ideas of team work or is he going to dip into blood-thirstiness, only to turn around and try to overcome a toxic mindset. It seems like the former but I did read a previous manga by the same mangaka (which I didn’t realize until later) that WAS a deathgame manga where it really was about “I know we can throw each other to the wolves but we really need to work together on this to overcome our tormentors”, so I could easily see more of a push and pull.
I think I’ll keep with it and it helps that this soccer Squid Game series is leaning into how silly this is with an over-the-top orchestrator of the even and the various competitors. Whether it is a show about a kid becoming a villain or about a kid understanding working together in a deeper way beyond mere platitudes, I’m very curious to see where this one goes.
I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss
The Premise
A girl is reincarnated at the villainess in a fantasy otome RPG game at the point where she loses her fiancé to the main character. However, realizing accepting her fate will result in her death in the third act at the hands of the main villain, she decides to try to get in good with him to help herself avoid that fate. In doing so, she ends up winning over the demon king, though he has doubts about her motives.
It Gud?
This is my first dive into otome isekai, which is apparently a big thing and my biggest note is that… why is this an isekai? Why is there a backstory that the main character died of what I assume is cancer as a motivating backstory followed by the emotional backstory of her character also designed to lay out her motivations. It feels like it really only needs the latter and I feel it could be excised and it would be the same show. If the writer felt is was essential for her to know her fate, then give her a vision of the future or even go meta and have her be an NPC who learns she’s just a game character and doesn’t want to follow the pre-set rules. It’s the part that bothered me the most (and really is a problem with several isekai where it just adds nothing to the character).
But otherwise, this is actually a not bad as a little show. It’s occasionally funny, though I wished it leaned into the silly humour a little more a la Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle. Because when this show does get a little silly, that’s when it is the most surprising and interesting. Our protagonist still makes some villainess moves, like drugging a magic bird, and that kind of stuff is where the show is working. I’m not really interested in the Demon King yet so I’m hoping the comedy pairing will work better as the show goes on but I’m going to stick with this one, I think.
One of the weirdest aspects is there’s a baby Fenrir caught in a beartrap in the middle of the school grounds and… are there just bear traps lying around the school? Or did the nasty students drag it out into the middle of the school to kill it? Also, the scene ends with an open beartrap on the ground… that seems like a real Chekov’s beartrap that I think the series will forget about.
Do It Yourself!
The Premise
Yua Serefu (haha, really?) is an accident-prone teen in a near future tech filled world. After she gets into a bike accident, she gets help from a girl from her school and learns she has a do it yourself club for making stuff. Yua decides to join in order to help the club stay afloat and learn the joys of making things.
It Gud!
I’ve watched a lot of “girls take up a hobby” shows but this one has a lot more visual personality and weirdness than I was expecting. In a good way. I would be happy if it was another variation on “Let’s Make a Mug, Too” but instead, it’s shockingly into world building, in a tech-heavy city with drones in the sky and tiny robot jellyfish in the home. It sets things up thematically for Yua as her bestie is studying an a high class school and has a tech pet while Yua is Earthy, has three animal friends (including a pig in shades) and is covered bandaids. This is a person unafraid to make mistakes and gets hurt a lot.
It's a much more unique show than I was expecting, even though it really sits down and walks you through the pun on the main character’s name. Regardless, tonally it feels slightly closer to a Science Saru show (slightly, don’t get overexcited) than the polished looking series with multi-coloured hair friends than I am used to (although, weirdly, the inside of everyone’s hair is differently coloured than the out. That seems hard to pull off). I’m looking forward to this one.
I Somehow Got Stronger By Raising My Farming Skills
The Premise
The title pretty well covers it. Also, farmer doesn’t want to be badass he wants to farm.
It Gud
No… but it’s not awful. It’s completely inoffensive. And it doesn’t shoe-horn in a reincarnation element. It just takes place in a video game fantasy world where inexplicably the main character finds by grinding on farming, he’s pretty much One Punch Man but he doesn’t want to get involved, he just wants to farm. This isn’t an isekai but it clearly is a light novel and like many of them, one of the themes is breaking out of your “class”. This character is built for fighting but he doesn’t want to and basically needs to be shanghaied into it by the plot.
It doesn’t really do anything new with the idea though, and the comedy isn’t particularly funny. The animation is subpar, particularly in throwing some ridiculous 3D around. Still there are a few bits I enjoyed, like the main character exploding a dragon by throwing a carrot at it. Not enough to keep with it though.
Bocchi the Rock!
The Premise
A young introvert decides to take up the guitar in order to inspire her to start a band and make friends. Three years later, she’s a brilliant guitarist but just as lonely as ever. She does have a strong, internet presence, though, under the name Guitarhero. Eventually, she takes a guitar to school hoping to start a conversation and after school she’s confronted by someone desperate for a band mate. Now she must overcome her social anxiety to be a part of the band… even if she needs to play inside of a box.
It Gud
The shows that on the surface of “cute girls get a hobby” show that I just assumed would be decent fluff has really stepped up it’s game this season. I was surprised at the kind of show DIY was and though in broad strokes I could tell were Bocchi the Rock! was going, I was genuinely surprised that it not only was pretty funny but that the lead voice was great. I’m often not familiar with Japanese voice actors, outside of a few (I know I’m going to get a good, sexy performance from Kenjiro Tsuda and I know MAO is the hardest working actress even though most of what she is in, through no fault of her own, is garbage) but Yoshino Aoyama might join those because she isn’t content to be cute but swing for the fences with some of her wild line reads. It’s glorious.
Overall, it’s already a funny fun, funny journey with a good cast and pretty decent animation. And a really gorgeous looking opening credits sequence. I think it’s already going to be in my year end top 10 for Ops and there’s some strong competition this year. I was worried that this might be a season were there were actually only a couple of notable strong things but getting some surprises from what I initially assumed would only rise to a certain level makes me very happy.
Raven of the Inner Palace
The Premise
In long ago China (don’t ask me the era, as I must confess ignorance on these things), a young man has performed a military coup to become emperor. He soon starts seeking the help of “the Raven Consort”, a consort who doesn’t perform “nightly duties” but in fact has magic powers and even the emperor must concede to her to gain her service. In particular, the new emperor has an urgent question about a ghost, believing that she’s the clue to solving a mystery of his own… one that answering him will allow him to get revenge and remain a just ruler.
It Gud?
Yes…. But it’s a bit of a slow-paced show. I suspect it’s not even a “slow burn”, I just think it’s a show that’s decided on it’s pace and it isn’t breakneck. Not in and of itself bad. It’s also mostly self serious. Not overly so, but while there is some humour to it (the title character’s façade only cracks in the face of yum yums), it’s a quiet, largely laughless show of palace intrigue. And in particular, the kind of palace intrigue is a murder mystery where the detective is a sorceress. It seems like while she has a number of magic powers, the character will have to use her mind to suss out the truth and find out the real reason why this woman died. I’m interested to see if it will be a new mystery every few weeks or if the show will be building multiple mysteries to build a case against the villain who is already defeated and in jail… but the emperor will only have her killed if he can prove her guilt. It’s an interesting idea and I think it could lead to one of more interesting mystery series in a while.
Bibliophile Princess
The Premise
A young woman is courted by a prince (or duke I don’t fucking know. Rich fancyman) to be her fiancé. But he really doesn’t want a fiancé, he tells her. But he will give her a mutually beneficial relationship because he knows she loves books more than anything and he has a huge library. So, she spends her days reading while he does important work. But as time moves on, it seems he might be ready to see someone else… or has she misread the situation.
It Gud
While Raven Consort was a slow-moving series I could get into, Bibliophile Princess… not so much. I’d rather have a woman read books for a half hour than a sword telling me his stats but I found myself at a total difference from this character who is passively moving through life reading books. It’s implying there’s a story happening around her that we haven’t been clued into but in all honesty, I don’t trust that the answer to those mysteries are going to be worth sticking with these rather uncharismatic leads.
I don’t particularly care if this guy turns out to be in love with her and I feel like there’s little momentum on the title character that’s getting me to root for her. I wanted to like it for having the feel of a really old school shojo series but it feels like a rather bloodless series with no passion and a rather limp lead. Like, I was expecting the fact that she’s read everything to matter, like maybe she knows how to sort out problems with the accounting or governing but no, she… just reads. Maybe it’ll get there but it’ll get there without me.
My Master Has No Tail
The Premise
A tanuki comes to the city to play pranks on humans but finds it doesn’t work as well as it used to. Feeling dispirited, she attends a rakugo performance and is captivated and notices the audience has been too. She feels she’s been “tricked” and wants to similarly be a master of trickery… and her mentor isn’t just a rakugo master, she’s also a kitsune and fellow shapeshifting trickster.
It Gud
OK, so… this is a well-made show. It is kind of interesting intellectually because it actually spends some time deep diving into classic rakugo stories. I think the premise is neat and like the idea of comparing the magic of storytelling to trickery and think the idea of supernatural pranksters rebranding as storytellers is really cool. It never really slows down.
And yet, I was kind bored. I don’t think it’s the show’s fault. I do think there’s some stuff that is having a hard time in translation since I think some of the jokes require some understanding of puns and Japanese culture and the subtitles don’t do a lot of handholding. Then the last 3 minutes explains the story we just heard in detail (that is a ding against it). I think this is a good show but I kind of don’t care for it or want to watch anymore. A shame, there’s a lot in here I really do like.