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Iaboo, Youaboo, Weallaboo for Anime!

Scarlet Nexus is a tie in show to the recently released game with the same title. It has some code attached to the series that will unlock stuff in game.

Also! My Next Life as a Villainess started its second season! Bakarina returns with the first episode as a low stakes recap of who's who from season 1. With a couple of new princes, and their fiances, being introduced.
 

Rosewood

The metal babble flees!
(she/her)
Dear Brother: I was surprised and pleased to find that Discotek has released this Osamu Dezaki classic on Blu-Ray. I first came across this title back in the '90s when TechnoGirls was fansubbing it. They went all out with a meticulous translation and cultural notes, this in the age of VHS fansubs. They didn't quite get all the way through DB before real life and/or the age of shitty flash-in-the-pan fansubs took over.

A test run of the first episode of Discotek's edition is promising. The picture looks very nice, the translation's fine, and I sank right into its melodramatic, near-gothic vibe. I'm looking forward to seeing its ending at long last!
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Oh dang, I also watched the TechnoGirls subs of Dear Brother way back in the day! Crazy shoujou fistbumps.

Meanwhile I've started watching the dub of Godzilla Singular Point with my partner. I haven't watched the apparently sub-par 'flix subs to compare, but the dub seems serviceable - all the technical stuff (of which there's quite a lot) has been follow-able. The voices are generally fine if not stellar, pretty standard dub stuff. The AI manifesting as a puppy has a squeaky little kid voice that gets a little grating at times, but I think it's the kind of thing that's pretty difficult to make *not* grating in English.
 

Alixsar

The Shogun of Harlem
(He/him)
I watched Jujutsu Kaisen. It looks pretty, and is a shonen. Aside from that, I dunno. I liked it when the girl was mean to the main character? Sure? Okay, it is a show. Oh and the 1st intro and ending are GREAT and the 2nd intro and ending are dumb. Boooo!!

I finished Zombie Land Saga Revenge. I don't know what I was expecting, but this season kinda felt like diminishing returns? I liked that we got to see Yugiri's story, but the ending felt kinda out of nowhere.

Anyway. That's it, that's all the anime. There's no other anime.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Looks Delicious! ;) I watched a bunch of FBC fansubbed long ago, but I can't remember whether I got through all of it or not...

I was just looking it up and had no idea there was a "sequel" series... except apparently it's really not, as it has a completely unrelated plot and characters.

Also I wonder how GKids got the Alexander Key estate (who owns the story it's loosely based on) to shut up about not wanting it released in America, seems like they'd been blocking earlier licensing. Maybe a newer generation accepted a small bag of money to sign off on it.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Oof. This season. This season has been rough so far. Ten shows. Out of them, only three shows are ones I’m interested in continuing. And even them, I’m not over the moon for any of them like I was for To Your Eternity or Oddtaxi last season. But let’s get the worst out of the way first.

The Detective Is Already Dead

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Premise (from memory)


A young man named Kimi finds himself forced to transport a mysterious briefcase on a plane. He overhears a flight attendant requesting a detective, to his confusion. But it turns out there is a detective on board, a young girl codenamed “Siesta”. She and Kimi meet a plane hijacker who turns out to be a cyborg and defeat him with a bullet made of blood. Then they solve a case involving zombie Hanakos during a school festival.

It Gud?

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve seen a show I disliked a show so much. The crazy part is I’ve seen a lot of shows where I’m bothered by its misogyny or having despicable leads it assumes we like. But The Detective is Already Dead gained my ire based purely on its own demerits. The things I hate aren’t based on being toxic or spreading an ugly message or worldview. The problem is that it is a self-satisfied, convoluted mess.

First off, its not a detective show. I suppose if the show was good, I would forgive the bait and switch, but it starts off with the veneer of the mystery when the detective gets to show how smart she is… except the says “I know the answer and I always knewed it” and never actually does any sort of homework in solving it. Instead, it is obfuscated by the reveal that the hi-jacker is an android. We never get to see how the lead works anything out, she just does because its that time in the script.

The second mystery is a little closer to what it could be but is still terrible. The problem with that one is that the premise is a mystery is hi-jacked by a romantic comedy, which is a potentially fun conceit but doesn’t work because it is painfully unfunny. But while there is a mystery the writer thought up with a solution, the portioning it out is terrible, with it front loaded with an exposition dump far to heavy to absorb with info that doesn’t feel like it turns out to be terribly relevant to how things plays out. If anything, the mystery is a poorly written book end to the piece.

A lot of this would be forgivable if it didn’t feel so very thrown together. Some of my favourite shows are crazy if you have to explain what happens, like Jojo. But this show doesn’t give me the impression that it cares or that I should care or that everything fits together tonally, logically, thematically, etc. And beyond that, the show really wants me to enjoy the chemistry between the two leads. It definitely feels like it is going for something similar to Rascal Does Not Dream of the Bunny Girl-Senpai and In/Spectre, shows I like despite some major flaws. But here, it all falls flat. It feels close to those shows if they made only a few more wrong moves in tone but they made for a drastically worse show.

The Detective is Already Dead is annoying. It isn’t fun to watch or parse. And the episode’s 50 minute run time feels like an eternity. The mythos is hot nonsense. The show feels like the writer lost the thread every five minutes and instead of going back, only uses the last page as a reference. It wants us to think this couple is charming but they are a snarky, hollow collection of facts. I did not care for this.



But at least its only up from here!

The Duke of Death and His Maid

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Premise

Since he was a child a young aristocrat was cursed by a witch for reasons unknown. Now if he touches anything or anyone alive, they die. His mother has placed him in a mansion in the middle of nowhere but he does have a butler and a maid. His maid is sexy and makes no bones about the fact that she is into him, but the young man understandably doesn’t want to touch and kill one of the few friends he has in this world.

It Gud?

I feel like I’ve seen a wide variety of flavors of “I don’t want to keep watching this.” This is probably the most problematic one. To a certain extent, I’m thankful, because I’ve seen so much worse in this regard. But it hurts what could be a MUCH better show that’s buried not so deeply under the surface. The problem isn’t that he has a sexy maid who gets close but he is scared to touch. Its that she is very aware of what she is doing and in the words of the main character, he is being sexually harassed. It goes beyond “hey, cheeky” to “this is emotionally cruel and also you CAN’T just lift up your skirt at people. That wrong”.

In the second half, this is mostly dropped for an imperfect but much better story about the main character meeting a childhood friend and having to deal with how his power isolates him and make people think worse of him. And I like that he doesn’t mind the insults but he doesn’t like seeing the woman he like insulted by having it implied she is forced to be there. That’s a much more emotionally engaging story. Unfortunately, its frontloaded (no pun intended) by cheesecake shots and very noisy breasts (should they should like someone taking a dump?)

It is also hampered by some pretty weak CG-animation. Its not as good as Beastars or Drifting Dragons but its also not as memorably and boldly bad as Ex-Arm or Berserk. It just looks weird and cheap and it is a shame that it didn’t go with non-CG. I still would have had negative things to say, but I would have had one less bad one.

Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles

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Premise

A guy remembers promising to marry a childhood friend and then his out of control bus is hit by a train. The end. No wait, he wakes up as a poor orphan in a medieval fantasy realm with only slight memories of his previous life. It turns out he, get this, has amazing super powers that make him more awesome than other people and after saving the life of a princess is given the chance to live as an aristocrat.

It Gud?

This is the most generic isekai I’ve seen in some time. And they are all a certain level of generic with each other, so that is an accomplishment. Most feel that way despite relying on one high concept premise to carry them through but if Seirei Gensouki has a saving grace, it isn’t trying to be “meta”.

Unfortunately, if fails to give me a reason to care about the events that are unfolding. It lack any really repugnant qualities but it also lacks anything to make the show interesting in any respect. Its another show were it doesn’t seem to matter that the main character is transported from another realm (he doesn’t remember it), he’s magically strong for plot reasons and he’s very quick to go from lowest on the totem pole to a big wig. It all feels very played out. It does make the choice to have an electric guitar sting once he gets dressed like a noble, which is weird. Like, it doesn’t even feel like a cheeky or ironic choice, just assuming the audience thinks “isn’t the badass rad”? Seirei Gensouki has nothing to offer unless you’ve never heard of the genre.

But also, apparently there’s a crowdfunding campaign for the show’s… presence? Just for hype? So there are now external sources giving me slightly more ire towards it.




Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan

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Premise

Uramichi is a host on a kid’s show on the edge. A former gymnast, he now entertains on a morning educational program for young children but spends his evenings drinking and feeling sorry for himself. And frequently, Uramichi’s anger and regrets make their way on the show proper and while he tries to smile through the pain, he often imparts on children some life lessons they aren’t quite ready for.

It Gud?

In the category of show I will not continue watching, this one fills out two on the punch card. One is: this is something I was genuinely looking forward to. To a lesser extent, Duke of Death and the Detective is already dead was on it, but that was more like “this will probably be fine enough” instead of super disappointing. But my hope with Uramichi was something that filled in the comedy slot similar to Househusband, focusing on a character with a personality counter to his job but he still does it well or has some sort of saving grace.

And its KIND of that. I don’t know if he’s a great host but while the character is two-faced, he does mention he likes working with kids. As someone in a similar position, I can relate in trying to codeswitch for the kids but being confronted by situations that challenge that.

Unfortunately, the show just… isn’t funny. And it wasn’t painfully unfunny like a lot of bad comedies. It didn’t hurt to watch. But I was left bored having to sit through a lot of antics that, at best, elicit an occasional “ah”. It’s a real bummer. I really wanted to like this one. And I feel like all the ingredients are there. I think each cast member has potential to bring laughs, including the lead, two mascot characters terrified of him and two other hosts who are equally cynical off-camera in different ways. All the ingredients are there. But it just doesn’t make me laugh. I don’t know if it’s a bad adaptation but I suspect I wasn’t going to like the source material either.

So I don’t even “hate” it. It doesn’t make me “angry”. I’m not here to rail against it. I’m just really bummed that a show that is close to being fun is just a swing and a miss. I’d certainly rather sit through this than the Detective is Already Dead but with Detective I’d be interacting with it, mostly to yell at it and mock it. With this, I would sit silently until my time is up. And for a comedy, that might even be even more damning.

Kageki Shoujo!!

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Premise

A pop star whose dislike of being touched resulted in her having an unfortunate encounter with a fan and being forced to “graduate” from her group. Deciding to move on to performance arts, she joins a special university for theatre (particularly musical theater). While attending the super exclusive school, she is shocked that her roommate seems completely different than any other student: incredibly bubbly, absent-minded and tall as heck. But she also has some hidden talents as well, including fearlessness in any performance endeavour. And it turns out she has acting in her blood… a very old, classical form of acting.

It Gud?

FINALLY!!! FINALLY!!!

Finally, something worth watching. Something that speaks to me and is fun to watch and I have absolutely no complaints about. It’s been a rough start to the season to me. So often, I’ve complained about watching too many shows at a given time but this is the first season where there just isn’t enough. So I am sooooo thankful that this show is fun to watch.

It’s also exactly the kind of show I want to see. I like good shows about a craft or a process. This one feels like it wants to really dive into it while remaining fun throughout. I also like the main character a lot. She definitely feels like a long line of eternally optimistic shounen protagonists but it really works to have a relentlessly positive character in a world where it is easy to become cynical. In fact, its clear the crux of the show will be the friendship between the friendly giant and the jaded pop star and it is already fun as the two make a fun comedic pair.

Over all, the show is just a joy. Its fun to be in that world. After one of the sloggiest viewing evenings to memory, its nice to have a complete pick me up in every sense of the word and I’m looking forward to seeing how the main character’s atypical acting knowledge will benefit her in her quest to play Lady Oscar in the Rose of Versaille. That’s right anime nerds, the end game is musical based on a manga!
 
Don't Tease Me Miss Nagatoro is a show that I thought I would skip out on after the first episode. Instead, I followed my two episode rule and watched the second episode. And I'm glad I did. Not to say they don't go a little too far with Nagatoro's teasing, but they gave us a reason to not hate Nagatoro by showing that she was not interested in the normal guys her friend was trying to set her up with. It also helps that they show Nagatoro is genuinely interested in Senpai and they soften her teasing to be less cruel. Hell, they even show that Nagatoro is good for Senpai by making him stand up for himself. But that first episode and a half are a bit hard to get through.

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S started last night. All I can say is that there is another big tittied dragon girl. Bigger than Lucoa even. Yep, big ole tracts of land on display there.
 

q 3

here to eat fish and erase the universe
(they/them)
How good are you at compartmentalizing? Were you able to enjoy Usagi Drop? Maybe watch episodes 1-3 and pretend it's some unfinished '80s OVA with modern aesthetics and it's great. Go through ep 7 if you don't mind a few questionable lines. Too bad they never finished it, though, it had a lot of potential!
 

Ludendorkk

(he/him)
I've never watched an unfinished 80s OVA nor know what Usagi Drop is. I just want a straight up or down on whether people still think the finale is so rancid it ruins the entire series and it's better not to start it at all, which people have been making it sound like
 
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Purple

(She/Her)
I haven't seen it, but I know someone who was watching it and growing increasingly horrified at the building obvious queerphobia over the whole series, being told she had a bad faith reading by people right up until the end when everyone realized that no, that's totally what was up?
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
While the series itself isn’t my favourite anime (as noted elsewhere, that’s Slayers), Dirty Pair might be the Most Octo anime; so much so that I suspect that at some point in the future I bury a time capsule; but I put it in upside down and it’s dug up in Japan in the early 80s and it inspires the creation of the series.

That or Haruka Takachiho and I share design and storytelling sensibilities. But that seems far less plausible. It’s almost certainly me misunderstanding how time capsules work.

Anyway

I picked up Dirty Pair Flash, as it was on iTunes and cheaper than I expected and I was buoyed by my general affection for DP and… based on the first episode, this is kind of what I feared Dirty Pair would be like, rather than the reality of what it is.

To its credit, it does revel in the primary draw of the series (the heroines are given a moderately difficult challenge, and accomplish it after wreaking the greatest possible amount of collateral damage, bickering all the while) and the dub is miles above what the older series offered (Yuri is voiced by Aisha from Outlaw Star… which is not my first choice, granted), but it’s otherwise so horny. Just massively, distractingly horny.

And, as the first thing we learn about the characters very pointedly states, while ogling the title characters as much as possible, they’re also both 17 years old.

Also, there was no Muhgi, which is also a massive failing, but a far less skeevy one
 

conchobhar

What's Shenmue?
I've never watched an unfinished 80s nor know what Usagi Drop is. I just want a straight up or down on whether people still think the finale is so rancid it ruins the entire series and it's better not to start it at all, which people have been making it sound like
Don't bother. Even just purely from a narrative point of view, the show ends without any sense of closure that is sure to frustrate. It's not a case of being open-ended so much as not ending at all.
 

Purple

(She/Her)
I picked up Dirty Pair Flash ... but it’s otherwise so horny. Just massively, distractingly horny.
I mean, yes. "Flash" or "ふらしゅ" is an ancient Japanese word that roughly translates as "made so desperately uncomfortably horny as to make people think the perfectly wonderful original is also sleazy trash not worth your time. See also Cutie Honey Flash. No wait. I mean don't. Don't see Cutie Honey Flash.
 

Peklo

Oh! Create!
(they/them, she/her)
Really? This is based mostly on openings and basic information available, but everything about Cutie Honey Flash seems like it's taking a turn away from the Nagai-style sex romp baseline of the franchise and into a very deliberate Sailor Moon-patterned riff, as much of the production staff came directly from that as it wrapped up. It's the only Cutie Honey series I'd consider watching because of that distinct difference from the others, though I know very little about Universe through osmosis as it's so recent.
 

Purple

(She/Her)
Oh damn. I must have been thinking of New Cutey Honey. That just ruins the joke. Honestly there's a pretty weird split with the franchise where it's like 50/50 basically-porn/Mega-Man-but-girl-fighting-catgirl-gangsters. The original '70s show falls into the latter, and apparently so does Flash? Although wikipedia is... troubling.
The protagonist of the series, as with other Cutie Honey media, is Honey Kisaragi. However, unlike other Cutie Honey incarnations, Honey is not an android but possesses a fully functional human body including reproductive capabilities. Consequently, she is indeed a 16-year-old girl at the beginning of the series, not a robot posing as one.
 

Peklo

Oh! Create!
(they/them, she/her)
I think it's a fundamentally troubled media license no matter what, so you're going to end up compartmentalizing a lot in engaging with any of it... Flash just seems to bring it adjacent to a separate set of precariously navigable stock thematics which to me (on paper) sounds more interesting to watch unfold in friction with its own inherent staples, rather than the "do you guys remember this stuff from when we were kids and how it ruled?" tributary approach folks like Gainax have employed with it.
 
just finished season 1 of spider isekai, which has gone from kitschy, video-gamey parody, down into the territory of commentary in a clumsy and too tied into the same content they're generally riffing off of. It's still a joy to watch though, but in contrast to the beginning where the non-spider portions were uninteresting to the point of distraction, it's now that the non-spider parts are frustrating but competent enough to keep thread through spider portions. It's intriguing in an almost completely brain-candy political intrigue arc, but the human characters are finally in scenarios that I feel tension for their resolution. It's also just in time for me to actually focus in on all the reincarnation talk that is nicely and relatively neatly set up in the final 3 or so episodes. I will not remember anyone's names, but I think they all have names now.

and I also finished the chimera ant arc in hxh. I actually don't know what the general consensus is about this, other than it being very notable, for good and bad. Really thrilled with it tho. The resolution of King and Komugi feels wholly earned, surprisingly so, and seems to make up for a lot of episodes that didn't really seem to end up going anywhere. Some of the meta-commentary involved is up for question, but I like how it was handled, though not necessarily "admire". I'm too lazy to spoiler tag a bunch of talk about it, but I'm sure the damn thing has been beaten to death anything. I mean, the show is great at big emotions and complex powers, which are covered here to the limit.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Chimera Ant arc to me is... ambitious. It is swinging for the fences and it hits a lot of fucking dingers. I don't think it is a deconstruction of the shonen formula but it makes a lot of choices that intentionally subvert it, like having Gon's big rage based power up be a tragedy that fucks him up and helps very little and makes him seem more monstrous than the murder cat or having the main protagonist and villain never actually cross paths. Gon's existence NEVER plays a role in Mureum's life or instead of the victory being a symbol of humanity's ability to overcome, its a symbol that however monstrous a literal monster can be, humanity is capable of worse, like a needlessly cruel spite bomb.

But on the down side... its kind of an emotional slog. Its such a dark story and very drawn out, so it is very draining. It also almost feels like its own series within a series, which is interesting. So there's stuff to enjoy but respect feels like the stronger word in that arc for me.

Fact is, the final arc is actually a lighter story and a great palette cleanser, despite having some of the most horrifying imagery the series produced.


Speaking of shonen, I watched Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. I still have issues with this franchise, mostly its treatment of Nezuko and Zenitsu being kind of awful when he's awake. I know shonen series have a history of the annoying wiener kid but despite having a fun fight gimmick, he's kind of awful. But its easy to forget that beyond the beautiful animation, Demon Slayer is pretty damned good when it wants to be. I kind of felt like they were doing some low key foreshadowing on its ending in the series 1 season finale (two characters has a convo that screamed to me "this is their last convo") but its still very effective, even if the very last fight feels weird in a movie structure in that it is only loosely related to the main plot. But its still a great fight. And it made me excited for a series where I remembered the flaws more than the MANY good stuff it had going for it (it did hurt a bit that its one of those series that never quite lives up to a stellar first ep). Interested to see the new series next year.

Also, I don't have much to say about To Your Eternity except it continues to be VERY good and like Oddtaxi, I want to talk about it a lot.
 
Since new animes are coming out, it was time to check a couple more out. First off, Drugstore in Another World seems to be a relatively inoffensive slice of life show. Office drone Reiji Kirio wakes up in another world with the ability to make any potion. Which is great since he saves the life of Noela, a werewolf girl who becomes his store's mascot. Along with ghost girl and shop assistant Mina, Reiji brews up cures that turn out to be pretty popular. The first episode does little world building, aside from a couple of lines here and there, but I'm not turned off by it. Instead it simply shows Reiji being a really good pharmacist. I'll probably keep watching it since I like slice of life shows.

D Cide Traumeri on the other hand throws out story and terms with little explanation as to what the actual fuck is going on aside from weird monsters, people have to fight them, and the main character seeing his older brother getting killed and the weird symbol he left. Which, shockingly, is the same symbol on the weird monsters! Are they connected (of course they are)? What are the weird monsters? Do I really care enough to watch a second episode? Eh, that's my rule so probably but I don't see myself checking out much more after that.

And while not technically an anime, The Daily Life of the Immortal King is a Chinese cartoon that is very much like The Disastrous Life of Saiki K, except it's magical kung fu abilities and everyone has them, but the main character is super powered in comparison to everyone else. I liked Saiki K, so this is right up my alley.
 

R.R. Bigman

Coolest Guy
I can’t stop watching Oddtaxi. I have to struggle to watch anything else every time I sit down to watch TV.

All the character dialogue is stellar, but when the gacha addicted cat guy aimlessly wandered the city looking for Odakawa, saying he’s used to working with far worse odds after playing the same gacha for four years? That hit me.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Oddtaxi is definitely my favourite show of the year. Though it is unfair since Winter had two big disappointing second seasons of some shows I loved and this season's been a huge dry spell. But Oddtaxi is nonetheless well worth checking out. To Your Eternity is also very good, but doesn't have the advantage of economy and clockwork efficiency that services Oddtaxi so well.
 

Purple

(She/Her)
So I was just made aware of this obscure cutesy OAV called Space Family Carlvinson, which is about a bunch of wacky aliens (I'm reasonably sure every single one of which is a cutesified version of something, offhand the real core cast seems to clearly include Leader One, Nei from Phantasy Star 2, and one of these guys:
61ie2b2laaL._AC_.jpg


And then one of the minor characters is this this here cutesy cartoon dog.
sfc-ova5.png


And he looks like that for all but like, maybe 10 frames out of the whole thing. Very blink and you'll miss it. Like when he gets mildly injured at some point and needs a moment to pull himself together, and when sneezes at one point with his back to the camera.
sfc-ova6.png

And apparently the manga this is based on goes into quite a bit more of his backstory, explaining that he is, I am not making this up, John Carpenter, director and presumably star of The Thing. And you know, Halloween, Christine, Big Trouble In Little China, etc.

So that's amazing. Anyway it's fansubbed on youtube but now I really really need to see the manga.
 

Purple

(She/Her)
Yeah, I kinda buried that under all the obscure reference stuff, but it's a nice charming little wholesome family-building story. With bug monsters. And robots.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Man, I been sitting on these reviews for a while. We are well into the season and I’m FINALLY getting to these last little shows I decided to try out. And some I wrote the reviews before I tried later episodes.

D_Cide Traumerei

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Premise (from memory)

A young guy ends up finding a weird dimensional portal to some sort of horrible world full of hand dogs and young warriors who fight against them with powers. He eventually unlocks his own power, lion hands, to battle a gaming nerd gone made that merged with a monster. Then the character realizes the main threat is connected to a childhood trauma.

It Gud?

Like Scarlet Nexus, what could have been another “based on a game” trainwreck is… watchable but not something to get invested in. It was a completely watchable half-hour of TV, which is more than I can say about The Detective is Already Dead (for at least two reasons). I kind of like the dog/hand monsters, which are kind of a cool visual. The animation wasn’t all that bad either, though it doesn’t quite live up to the intro in terms of quality.


But after the Duke of Death, this was noticeably better. Part of me wonders if it was, in fact, simply better, or if the Duke of Death’s character designs didn’t lend themselves to the CG look as well as this one.

When this one started, I thought it was going to be about a card or VR game everyone is into that turns out to be legit important (like Yu-Gi-Oh or Bakugan) but it turns out it was just to set up the plot of the episode. Really, I while I wasn’t over the moon, I will say the show turned out better than my expectations. But I also feel there wasn’t enough there to keep me going. Though having a girl with a mini-gun with a Mabel Pines-like taste in Ice Cream Cone Sweaters is a nice touch.

Aquatope of the White Sand

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Premise

A teen idol is dropped from her girl group and with nowhere to go makes an impromptu visit to Okinawa. There, she finds an aquarium, which moves her greatly and decides she wants a job there. Why, this must be divine happenstance, because the director, also a teen girl, is desperate for workers to help her keep the aquarium afloat. In fact, it may be divine happenstance, thanks to a little god with a penchant for fish heads.

It Gud?

After last seasons flawed but enjoyable and relaxing Super Cub, Aquatope is a nice change of pace while still being a nice, relaxing chill show. It doesn’t luxuriate in ambiance of the quiet moments but it is a nice quiet show about two girls who grow a friendship through a mutual love. The show has a supernatural bent but that doesn’t inform the show greatly so much as it is set dressing… so far. One character has a vision of sorts but it isn’t at the shows core, instead, skirting around the edge of the series (so far).

Instead, first and foremost, its about two girls who love an aquarium and are going through a learning curve, one learning to run a complicated business at a young age and being a good leader and the other diving into a new life of challenges. There’s a lot more visual pleasure than the much more muted Super Cub, as this is a much more colorful series. In all honesty, I’m not expecting much more than spending a nice time with some likable characters as they figure their deals out and maybe on occasion, see trippy stuff.

Ore, Tsushima

flat,750x1000,075,f.jpg


Premise

A large cat moves in with an old woman.

It Gud?

This is basically like Garfield, except I actually enjoy it. This is a short one, two minutes a piece. Weirdly, they also have an alternate “web only” version and all are available on their youtube page. There’s so little, there isn’t a lot to say. I don’t think its laugh out loud funny but I like the look of the cat and the voicework is good. If you want to see a short little bit of something, you could do worse.



Battle Game in 5 Seconds

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Premise

A kid walks down the street, narrating to himself that he’s too fucking smart for everything and he’d just rather play games forever. He’s attacked by a giant mummy but manages to defeat it using his love of gaming. I hate this character. A woman shows up dressed like a cat and keeps saying “nya” and has a weird voice and blows a fucking hole in the main character. I am conflicted about this character. Anyway, it turns out that he’s been recruited into a death game and all the participants have been given a super power. He game kid learns his power is potentially amazing… but relies entirely on trickery.

It Gud?

Generally “death game” shows tend not to be good. This doesn’t have to be the case. The Battle Royale movie and manga (for its problematic elements) are very good (never read the source novel). But it tends to attract an understandable (if not forgivable) edgelord sheen. Women are strong killers but they still moon over the lead character for his murder abilities is a trope I’ve seen too often in here. Battle Game in 5 Seconds… isn’t the worst in this type of programming but it feels very much in the same wheelhouse. But the lead character is immediately off-putting, and his initial ability to be a perfect battle strategist because he is very good at video games is the stupidest kind of wish fulfillment. Not even worse, but naked and dumb about who it is trying to appeal to in a pandering way.

But there is one bright spot: the power he gets is very fun. Potentially. It’s a fun idea for a power and could lead to, in theory, clever stuff in the way that Talentless Nana could be. But everything else tells me it won’t be. It’s a pretty dumb show and its not very well animated either. Its not unwatchable but it doesn’t seem worth watching. And in a season where I feel like I’m grasping at straws for something to watch, having a good reveal NOT enticing me to continue is pretty damning.

Sonny Boy

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Premise

The world has disappeared. A school and its students exist in a black void. Are they trapped forever? Why do some of them have superpowers? Or do they all? One boy seems to not want to get involved if possible with this weirdness but a girl wants to fight against a new power structure that is emerging among the students. Soon a battle is brewing between a new “student council” and some of the students but the girl who isn’t interested in the power games seems more interested in setting herself, and maybe everyone else free. And she soon reveals that freedom is a lot closer than it appears. But once she upends the already weird status quo, what complications will that lead to.

It Gud?

I’m still sorting out my feelings on this one. This was the show I was super looking forward to at the start of the season and I came away from it lukewarm. Usually of me and JBear, surreal trippy shows is much my jam with shows like Wonder Egg Priority (which I’m given to understanded ended… badly) and Sarazenmai being for me. Sonny Boy is very much in the same mode, save for it being a very quiet show (the show has no music until the episode ends with the show’s NEW status). It feels like it is for me. I think its not making any secret that it is inspired by Lord of the Flies and Drifting Classroom (itself directly referenced in the episode, but also feels like it wants to reject the more cynical element of Flies with a protagonist wanting to shake the characters out of their own personal traps of wanting to impose order.

But I also feel that while this is swinging for the fences, there’s also a very… high school mentality at play. Which makes all the sense in the world. But I remember being at that age and finding so much meaning in a show like this and being older feeling a bit like in trying to say big stuff about life, man, it comes across as a bit to enamored with doing this at the cost of me being invested in the characters. To be fair, part of this is that the lead character looks to be having a journey of learning that you need to be involved with people and society, no matter your desire to sit on the sidelines. I think it will open up. But it feels metaphor over character and while that isn’t inherently a bad thing, it is keeping me at a distance.

The mystery itself is somewhat interesting. Do characters know more than they are letting on? One shitty character seems to be, particularly with a significant look by episode’s end (though that just could be that he realizes his ambitions to control are being thwarted). I’m definitely going to give it a try. It seems very much for me. But I’m worried that if they put message before character or don’t properly integrate them, it will be a series that becomes frustrating or, an even bigger risk, insufferable.

(Note, I’ve seen the second episode since writing this and I am liking it more)

The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace

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Premise

800 years ago, the God fought demons for humanity. As the battle came to a close, the Gods entered the demon world to close the gateway from the inside, leaving only one God to protect the Earth. Now she must train teen-like Gods with no little interest and would rather just enjoy peace time… until a fascist warhawk nation looks to reawaken the demons. Then the young Gods must spring into action and fight.

It Gud?

*sigh*

OK, lets get this started. This is a series with a lot going for it. It is stylish. It’s a very good looking show with some wonderful animation scenes and a tone that feels reminiscent of early Dragonball, complete with a wacky Dr. Wily/Eggman-esque mad scientist to antagonize our super powerful kids. Most of the show got off on the right foot. Oh, there were warning signs. This otherwise sensational intro has a top-heavy naked nun.


But I did notice that it begins with the Noitamina anime block logo, which is a late night block that tends to skew adult. I mean, not everything in it has ecchi stuff, some it just demographically more mature, like Honey and Clover (man, this animation block’s been around for a while). So why did this VERY shonen-y show end up there. I mean, Hunter X Hunter is pretty violent at times but it still gets prime time.

So here we go. Serious trigger warning here. Keyword: sexual assault.

The first episode had some extreme violence in the name of comedy and maybe a blue joke. But then we get to the last scene of the episode. Seriously, we are at the event horizon here if you want to back out.

We see a nun praying for help from the Gods after she’s beset by some Nazi-like goons. I’m not going to go into detail about how everything plays out but some of the extra details make it extra unpleasant. But it gives us, I fuck you not, a stylish rape scene. Who wants this? Like, stylish in part for standards and practices, maybe but also the show is really leaning into how over the top wild the rape scene is done in shadow on stained glass over wild, dramatic music.

Well, fuck, that just yucked a fairly decent yum for me. I was on the fence on watching the second episode. I decided to try it in case that was a one-off case of “what were you thinking”. Well, the good news is there isn’t a stylish rape again. The bad news is that the show wants us to know that the bad guys, even if they don’t SHOW it, are super into rape. One of the villains gives a call and response speech where she allows them to go into detail of the KINDS of people they want to rape. Then their legs spin Looney Tunes-style towards the enemy town.

WHY? WHY SHOW? What could have been a fun bit of fun that… also may or may not have something to say about godhood (one God paints the gods as useless to help against any horror that isn’t a demon, which may have pointed in a direction that maybe Gods could do more, but also it looks like the bad guys have super powers so maybe the point is moot?). It even made me laugh once or twice (one baddy in a robot body breaks it and uses a generic body with his picture taped on it. Its an old joke but it made me laugh). But your weird (warning again) rape obsession completely cleaned out any desire I had to see your show. A couple years back, I quit Fire Force because of its repeated shitty treatment of its female characters. I can’t tell if I should be more angry for just being worse or grateful that at least it laid its cards on the table to let me know I should get out. And get out I did.
 
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