It’s summer. The season of sunshine and being outdoors. The season of eating ice cream and reading on the nice chair. It’s the season of, you guessed it, code red weather alerts. When I woke up this morning I heard the rain – it’s the 5th of July as I’m writing this, by the way – and after I went back to sleep my phone started making a noise that will wake up even the deepest of sleepers. I suppose at least I should take solace in having my alerts for national emergencies set up correctly. But we’re not here today to talk about the dreadful weather, we’re here to talk about some of last season’s anime. And I have thought. Most thoughts are positive ones. So prepare yourself for a lot of strong recommendations. I already talked about Ousama Ranking last week, so check out that post if you’ve missed it. And without further ado, let’s look at three anime that may or may not be worth your time.

A galaxy next door

For some reason this show got the song Numbness like a ginger stuck in my head. I think it’s to do with the name of this show being Otonari no Ginga. ‘Ginga’ and the way the lead singer of Unison Square Garden pronounces “Ginger” are very similar. Sometimes it’s just that simple.

Speaking of simple, this show is a very simple show at its core and I wish it was a little bit more simple than it is. Ichiro is trying to support his two younger siblings while working as a manga artist. His parents passed away and he’s been taking care of them ever since. Then one day, Goshiki Shiori arrives at his doorstep, wanting to be his assistant. He accepts, since he needs an assistant, and the two start working together. Then, completely accidentally, he touches her stinger and they’re now bound in a contract. You see, Shiori is a princess from a strange island tribe and they have a stinger. They also can contact each other telepathically over short distances. Besides that they just seem like a bit of an odd group of people, but not that different from humans. The two develop a relationship over the course of the series and then wonder if the stinger is partially responsible for their feelings.

I think the subplot of the stinger was my least favorite part of this show. I’d much rather have the same story but her parents disapproved purely because she is a princess or something. I don’t think the fantastical elements add enough value to take me out of the realism of what is at its core a very tender and fun romantic show. Ichiro is an extremely kind person and Shiori is a force of personality in her own way. And the kids are adorable. Fumio and Machi are Ichiro’s younger siblings and they’re both very thoughtful for their age, but not in a “I’m 10 but I’m written like I’m an adult kind of way.” They’re much more just very patient, which is likely due to the cards they’ve been dealt in life. Fumio is very quiet, but he’s kind and attentive. Machi is much more open about her emotions and often speaks for the two of them.
To make a long story short, I really enjoyed watching this show every week. It’s fun, romantic and wholesome and I’m glad I watched it.

My love story with Yamada-kun at level 999

We’re all gamers. We understand what it’s like to be at our computer all day talking to someone’s avatar or profile picture. Then we meet them, or see their picture, and they are different from their icons. I for one like to play as female characters in MMOs a lot. That’s always been my preference. But I also like people calling me by my real name, makes it easier and more personal, and there’s nothing wrong with sharing your (first) name. I haven’t ever randomly ran into a guild member after getting broken up with and then realizing that; oh no, he’s hot.

Well, Akane has. She meets Yamada at the perfect moment and wakes up in his room after he helped her home when she was drunk. Yamada seems more annoyed by her presence than anything else and you can’t blame the guy. Some drunk woman grabs on to you and won’t let you do what you wanted to do. They quickly find out that they are from the same guild and although Yamada was raised well and he’s a polite young man, he doesn’t want to deal with the hassle that Akane brings. But she’s a very social gal and doesn’t let him get away. The two do become friends pretty quickly as the show goes on.

Where this show shines is on two fronts. The first one is how funny some of the side characters are. Eita is an absolute joy to watch in every single frame he’s in and Kamota-san reminds me of some of the older people I’ve played games with throughout the years. Kind and supportive. Akane’s friend Momo is great too in how self-absorbed she can be at times. Not every person is always there for you, but that doesn’t make them bad people. We all have our own lives.
The second thing is a particular scene which I won’t go into too much detail in, but if you’ve seen the show you’ll understand. There’s a little bit of a devious bait and switch in one of the early episodes that puts Akane in a dangerous position. The way the rest of the cast properly deals with this and has respect for the sort of scenario it is, without exaggerating any part of it for drama made me really happy. It just takes itself seriously in a good way. 

This show was not as good as some of the others that aired this season, but it was still extremely enjoyable from start to finish. Would recommend it, just like the first anime we walked about today.

Otaku Elf

There is one more anime I want to talk about today. And it’s a show I almost didn’t give a shot. I saw the premise of an elf being a god that’s been prayed to and taken care of and is also an otaku, and didn’t think it was going to be any good. But I wasn’t watching a lot of shows yet, so I figured I’d give it a watch for at least one episode. I’m glad I did because I was immediately hooked. Let’s start with talking about my favorite thing in this show, which is something I’ll be listening to for a very long time: The opening theme.

The song is called Kien Romance and it’s by Nanawo Akari. It’s an absolutely fantastic track with all sorts of interesting instrumentals that I’m not knowledgeable enough about to point out. But there are flutes and what I would guess might be a shamisen? I don’t even know, but I do know that this song lives rent free in my head. Every time the episode would come up I’d be happy just to hear the opening.

But an anime is more than just its music, even though it is a vital part of it. The anime itself tells the story of Elda and Koito. Koito is a young shrine Miko who is taking care of Elda, who is housed in this temple. Elda has been around for centuries and she’s always been taken care of by the shrine Mikos here. But she’s also a big introvert and has become a bit of a slob and an otaku over the years. Despite all of this, Elda is kind and caring and when she really needs to be serious and mindful, she definitely is. 

Koito is your typical young teenager. Worried about her looks, busy with school and she has a bubbling personality on top of all of this. She comes from a complicated family structure and is very mature for her age, seemingly due to necessity. We meet several other characters throughout the run of this show and by the end of it we have a solid supporting cast.
The highlight of this show is definitely the relationship between Koito and Elda. In the absence of parents, Elda has almost taken on this role herself, even though at times I wonder if she has the proper maturity. But like I said earlier on in this post, Elda is very kind and caring. She consoles Koito when she needs to and she makes sure the young girl is doing okay. And whenever Elda is going through something difficult – which is generally just relative to the life of an otaku – Koito is there to repay the kindness. If I had to use one word to describe this show, it’d be pleasant. 

And there you have it. Three shows from the Spring 2023 season that I thoroughly enjoyed. I realize that these reviews are a little bit longer than some of the other ones I’ve done for this format, but these shows were all excellent and deserved a little bit more attention. I’ll try to keep the next round a bit more short and sweet, but for now I hope this will give you something to watch in the upcoming summer months. If you enjoyed these recommendations, please leave a comment down below and as always; thanks for reading!