Anime: Ranking of Kings: Treasure Chest of Courage Studio: WIT Episodes: 10 Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Disability
Remember him? Of course you do, how can you ever forget this lovable little royal.
When I made my top 10 series of 2022 I put Ranking of Kings at the very top. We’re now halfway into 2023 and looking back on it I think I still stand by this choice. The artstyle, the music, the characters and even the story itself were all fantastic and I still remember how I spent every week waiting for a new episode to come out. So when a “sequel” was announced I was immediately excited. This excitement dimmed a little bit when I learned that it consisted more of side stories and extra content instead of a direct sequel but I was still pretty excited. Then I forgot about it for a little while until it started airing recently. Today, let me give you my thoughts on it. This review will contain spoilers, but no major spoilers. If you are planning to watch any sequels to the first season I suggest you watch this show since there are enough important events that you’d be missing out on. With that out of the way, let’s dive in.
This episode – as well as some others – was great to fill in some of the gaps in the first season. We all know that Queen Hilling suddenly appeared with Anne at her side but we never got much of an explanation as to where she came from. Now we know.
This series definitely starts off slow. We dive into some side stories about things that the characters from season 1 went through that didn’t quite make the cut. These stories range from encountering strange creatures we’ve never seen before to Boji and Kage living their lives in the underworld with Despa. We get a little bit more Kage being happy with his mother, which is heartbreaking knowing what will happen later and we get some silly competitiveness amongst the big four. My favorite stories are the ones that are more emotional. This show has always been about disability representation and seeing these characters being loved and cared for is just such a joy to watch. The cast have reprised their roles again and everything from start to finish feels just as polished as the first season does. I do prefer the original season, especially when it comes to the opening and ending themes. They’re fine for this series, but they’re not as amazing as Vaundy’s Hadaka no Yuusha. We do get treated to Aimer’s Atemonaku as an ending theme which is a great nostalgic sounding song, but I feel like using Aimer for your soundtrack is unfair at this point. I firmly believe she’s one of – if not the – best singers currently making anime themes.
Okay, I’ll be honest. I cried when I realized that Daida had learned sign language so he could communicate with his brother. His character was so incredibly complex in the first season, with trauma and expectations, and watching him grow has been a joy.
Moving on to the final episode. If you haven’t seen this show, this final episode seems to pick up the story in a more serious tone than some of the previous ones. We ended season one with Boji giving up the throne to his brother and going on an adventure to find Kage. The two reunite and start a journey to go “wherever they want.” But there were more things happening at the end of season one. One major thing that happened was that Desha won the Ranking of Kings. His goal has been to save his brother, Ouken, from the curse that’s made him into a soulless, immortal warrior. He seems to be successful in his task in this episode and we get Ouken back. Everything seems to have a cost though. Ouken deals with a god who was going to harm the people inside of the building where the winners are taken. Who they all are isn’t really explained yet at this point, but I am very pleased we’re getting a sneak peek at a potential second season. A second season might still be far away though, looking at the source material. When Ouken finds out that his brother has lost his memory, he immediately starts preparing to fix this. What a good man.
Guess who’s back? Back again! Ouken’s back! Tell a friend.
All things considered, I’m very happy with what we got. It wasn’t a full sequel yet, but to fill in the time between seasons this was a fantastic way to flesh things out a bit more that didn’t have me bored one bit. I hope you enjoyed this season as much as I have and thank you for reading.
Man oh man, did I think I was going to just pretend this wasn’t happening. But unfortunately we live in a world where a One Piece live action is happening and there’s nothing we can do about it. Live action adaptations of anime have a pretty bad track record, I personally can’t think of a single good one, but I can think of several bad ones. When I heard how closely Oda was working with the project I had a little bit of hope but now… I’m not sure. Either way, let’s look at the things this trailer tells us.
First things first, we see a shot of the Going Merry, presumably being worked on or built at that point, and Luffy is aboard. I think the guy who plays Luffy looks fine, but it all looks a bit too much like a cosplay. I’m also curious – and this is just a small nitpick – if the strap on the straw hat is there from the very start or not, since I’m pretty confident Nami attaches that for him after Buggy steals the hat and damages it during their encounter. Also, if Buggy doesn’t sound like a dying seal in the first arc that’ll be disappointing, his voice actor is fantastic at portraying how unstable of a character he is.
Luffy tells us he wants to be the king of the pirates, the usual. We then get a nice shot of Luffy sitting in his iconic spot on the sheep head of the Going Merry while Baratie pans up in the background. Up until now I have zero complaints about this trailer if I’m honest. It looks about the way you’d expect and you can even see other ships next to the Baratie, which is a nice detail. I do wonder if the Baratie had that many floors in the manga, but it’s ultimately irrelevant.
We move on to a lovely shot of a town with the big navy building where Luffy Meets Zoro central. I like the touch of blue in the building, it really makes it immediately recognizable. I feel like the ground around the fort was much more flat in the manga and anime but again, that’s just a difference from the source material and not a bad thing per se. We’re 21 seconds into a 103 second video and so far I have no real complaints. That’s a good start – especially for a live action adaptation.
Zoro is introduced and he looks about as edgy as you’d expect. I’m not sure I like the look of this fortress all that much, but I wonder if they should have given his hair a more muted color. It looks like a cosplay wig, and keep this comment in mind since we’ll get back to it later on. I’m not sure who the guy with the red mohawk is that is fighting Zoro. He’s not from one of the first arcs, maybe they’re introducing a different character for the story? I also can’t tell what island that is supposed to be. None of the early islands had bamboo forests like that as far as I know. Having said that, aesthetically that’s a pretty good scene. So far my biggest worry is that they’re going to be faithful to the manga in some places and go their own way in other players and they’re not making the right calls for which is which. I don’t think I like the fact that they’re sticking to very ‘anime’ hair colors. Make Nami a more natural redhead and give Zoro a darker green haircut and they look much more like real people.
Going back to my nitpick, it seems like Luffy has the strap on his hat before he meets Nami as he has it when he’s fighting the big sea monster. The CGI here looks fine, I have no issues with it. The pink ship we see next is Alvida’s I believe, and there’s even a barrel in the water which might be what Luffy is in at the start of the story. We don’t see Alvida here but we get a shot of Buggy the Clown on meth. Holy crap he looks so weird, I don’t like it. Buggy to me is a goofy character. He makes some very funny facial expressions and is one of the earliest characters to go completely wacky. His power also requires a wacky character, I think it would look far too eerie on a more psychotic clown. In the manga and anime he has no white face paint and although his lipstick goes past the lips, it looks very deliberately applied where he now just looks terrifying.
Zoro and Nami’s bickering makes sense this early on but Luffy picking up on social cues??? That’s just weird to me. I hope I’m not insulting any actors, but Sanji looks older than the rest so far. The actor is 27 after a quick google and he does not pass for a teenager. Usopp on the other hand looks great. I was worried about him the most since he’s such a unique looking character but they’ve decided to not go with the nose and I think that was a great decision. Out of the cast so far I think he looks the most believable.
We then get a shot of Luffy’s Gomu Gomu no Pistol, which he even yells out definitely not sounding suspicious or anything. He fires it at, presumably Alvida, who instead of looking like an ugly old hag, is just some woman. Her entire thing is that she’s this large, unattractive woman but I feel like they didn’t want to go there, so they just made her look normal. But I had to go frame by frame to get a good look at her character, so it’s hard to say.
All things considered I don’t think this trailer looks terrible. I don’t think it’ll be good, but I have some level of hope. Just not a lot. But maybe you disagree, I’ve definitely seen different opinions on the internet. I just think that the things that make One Piece so good don’t translate well to live action. It’s too goofy, but the goofiness works because of its format. That’s why it can get away with being goofy while talking about extremely sensitive topics like dictators, death, poverty, health care etc.
But yeah, let me know what you think of the trailer. I know I’m for sure going to watch the show, and I’ll let you know my thoughts when it comes out in late August. Until then, thanks for reading!
I’ve talked about Japanese musicians on this platform a decent amount already and I even did so recently when talking about strange band names and song names. You can check out my post Numbness like a ginger for that. In that post I talked about a couple of groups, one of which is a band that goes by the name Bump of Chicken. They’re one of my favorites – among a few others – and after hearing a song of theirs again today I felt like I really wanted to talk about them a little bit.
Bump of Chicken is a band with four members who have their origin in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Apparently they’ve been performing since 1994 when they were still children. Their alternative rock sound is quite popular in Japan with most of their singles charting in the top 10 whenever they’re released. They’ve also done the music for several anime, games and other media projects. Because I’ve been a big fan of them for quite a while, I’d like to just quickly talk about a few of their songs.
And what better place to start than with Hello World, the song through which I discovered them. I think what drew me into this song the most – and this isn’t really that much praise for the song itself – is the visuals of the Kekkai Sensen opening theme. This song played at the start of this anime for an entire season and the visuals are stunning. I remember just being in awe at the slow sunset that opens up the song only to reveal a bunch of photos. And then the photos turn into a much bigger image that shows the entire city??? Brilliant. I fell in love with every part of this song very quickly. How the rips in the different imagery reflect the pictures used before and then we get a collage of pictures of Leo getting ready for the day as well. The catchy part of the song plays in front of the main character spinning around as the supporting cast dances around him. And for those who didn’t quite catch it, the sign does say Nightow, which is a reference to the author of the Kekkai Sensen and Trigun manga. But this is only the start of our journey into their music.
I wouldn’t hear much more about them until I watched what became my favorite anime of all time: 3-Gatsu no Lion. The first opening to this hauntingly beautiful story of a depressed shogi prodigy is preceded by Answer, another amazing song by Bump of Chicken. Because before this anime ever aired, we had a music video called: March comes in like a lion meets Bump of Chicken. The song itself is called Fighter and was inspired by the original manga by Chika Umino. The author then wrote a short story for Rei Kiriyama to accompany the song and that’s how this video was born. It’s a fantastic project and it only makes sense that when the manga eventually got adapted into anime it would be accompanied by the sound of Bump of Chicken. I’m guessing that the four guys that Rei walks past on the bridge are representative of the band members of Bump of Chicken. This show would go on to get a few more amazing opening songs that definitely match up and even surpass Answer, but thematically I think this was the best one.
Let’s move on to December of 2020. We’re now knee deep in the pandemic and any hope I had left for society to become normal has long gone. After having struggled with my content marketing course and not bothered with finishing it my outlook on advertisement has gotten pretty bleak. I think that there are people who can create art while also trying to sell a product, but they’re exceptions. Look at people like Sam Riegel who does entire stories that take several ads in a row to get to a conclusion and sometimes even have unmentioned B-plots of him slowly turning into a sunflower. It doesn’t make much more sense if I give you more content, trust me. We also have the hosts of podcast The Yard who just come across completely unhinged when talking about any product they’re advertising, making the ads much more enjoyable to listen to than they would be otherwise. But there’s only one advertisement that has ever made me tear up. I know that sounds insane, but hear me out. Shinsekai is the song that is used by Japanese candy brand Lotte. The song and accompanying music video is an advertisement for the candy brand where a young boy and girl both grab the same chocolate and the girl lets him have it. He then comes across her again and gives it to her after which she snaps it in half and they all share the chocolate. Of course our young man is head over heels for the girl immediately but this opening just has so much style. Who knew advertisement could be so enthralling. I’ve watched the music video dozens of times and I spot some cool references every single time. If I lived in Japan I would 100% buy this chocolate and I wouldn’t even feel bad about it for a moment. One quick thing I want to mention is the characters in the advertisement behind the young boy and girl being invested in what’s happening in front of them, all leaning in to see. Like, are you kidding me? That’s absolutely brilliant. This ad is single handedly restoring my faith in the market. I’m sure that won’t backfire.
I recognize that I’ve been talking for far too long already so I’m going to wrap things up. If I go through my spotify there’s a ton of songs that I’ve liked by them and I could recommend each and every one to you but that will just be overload. So instead let me recommend one final song: Acacia. Just like with the Lotte advertisement, we have another advertisement here. This time it’s for Pokemon. Bump of Chicken is far from the only artist who’s made a song for Pokemon, with Ed Sheeran and Post Malone also coming to mind, but like with much of their music, it’s extremely pleasant to listen to, and the animation is fantastic as always. Bump of Chicken has worked with many other projects and seems to be deeply entwined in other media for years now, assumingly because they enjoy the media as well. Just indulging in a trip through some of their best music videos as I’m writing this blog post has been an absolute joy and I recommend you do the same. Thanks for reading.
I’ve been doing quick reviews for anime for a while now, and it’s one of my favorite kinds of posts to write. Now, writing about the manga you read in the past month/week/quarter isn’t exactly a new idea, but many of my ideas aren’t new. Better to steal a good idea from someone else than to think of a bad idea on your own. Then again, the best case scenario is to think of a really good idea yourself, but that’s a lot harder to do. So for now, let’s do what others have done before me, and talk about some manga. These reviews will contain some spoilers for the volumes in question, so if you haven’t read them, beware of that. I won’t go too deep into them though, so you can skim them if you’re mildly curious about if these manga might be for you. Let’s start with a banger.
The Breaker Volume 5 (Final)
I’m going to be honest with you all. I’ve read the first part of The Breaker a total of four times by now. Out of all the manwha I’ve read, it’s my favorite. I haven’t read a lot of Manwha, admittedly, but it’s also better than many of the other manga and webtoons I’ve read. The Breaker Volume 5 concludes the first big story arc, where Goo Moon Ryong clashes with the Union. Shio gets fatally wounded by a sniper and we learn a little bit more about the machinations in the background of this Story. What’s most interesting here, funnily enough, is the ending. It sets up the story for the second season really well, which we’ll dive in once those volumes get translated. That’s right, they’re up for translation too. What an exciting time we live in. I won’t say much more about this volume so as to not go into big spoilers, but I do love how the clash between the main characters and the union of Murim happened. It was very impactful, left a deep scar, but also opened up for future possibilities. And next part we get Jinnie, so that’s exciting too.
Wave, listen to me Volume 9
Oh Minare, I want you to step on me. I mean, what? Ignore that part, that’s not why I read this manga, I swear. I’ve talked about Wave before, a long time ago. You can find that post here if you’re interested. When this became an anime I was almost immediately interested in the story. Minare is such a fun character to follow. She’s so different from most main characters I’ve seen. She’s complex, she’s kind of an asshole for most of the story and she just does not have a filter at all. She’s vulgar and over the top and makes all the wrong choices, dragging everyone around her down to her level. But she’s also slowly starting to warm up to radio, and with this video we get some great character development from her and Chishiro, especially in the later chapters. Something strange is going on as well and I honestly can’t wait for the next volume. I’m liking this part of the story better than some of the previous chapters. Especially when the gang was captured by that cult I thought the chapters were very hit or miss depending on the chapter. This time around I think I’ve enjoyed every chapter. The only big piece of feedback I can give is the fact that some pages have so much text that this might as well be a book. I like to call this the Hunter x Hunter problem. I wasn’t the one who first used that term, but I do think it’s apt. Now I’m sad about Hunter x Hunter being ended for the time being. Look what you did!
Laid-Back Camp Volume 13
After being wounded by the end of Hunter x Hunter it’s time for some healing. And I know just the manga for that! Laid-Back Camp – or Yuru Camp – is back with its 13th volume. We have a bunch of individual camping journeys this time around that do end up with meetings as they tend to do. There’s really not all that much I can say about this manga that I haven’t already said. It’s a very enjoyable, very relaxing read. The characters are fun, the setting is fun and the only thing that would improve this manga is animation and music. Luckily we have an anime to watch if that’s what we crave. We had our first nice day of the year here, where it was 20 degrees and sunny. It was a little bit windy which was unfortunate and the very next day it started to rain. But I did spend that afternoon outside reading this volume, and it was very pleasant. I recommend that if you do pick this one up, you do the same. Either that or cozy up by the fire in fall or winter while you watch these girls have fun in the outdoors. I’m already looking forward to the next volume, that’s for sure.
I was initially going to cover more manga, but I got distracted with other things and didn’t read as much as I initially planned. I’m also still working on figuring out where to buy manga from next, so for today I’m going to leave it at that. I have a job interview in a couple of hours and I’m not really in the headspace to write more. Wish me luck and thanks for reading!
If you’ve been following this blog along for the past few years, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of slice of life shows. Shows in which the plot doesn’t really move forward at all, but characters just kind of exist in the world they live in. What’s vital to the success of these kinds of shows is how interesting the world they live in is. This can be achieved by creating compelling characters, a world you want to explore or a vibe that just makes you feel at ease. If anyone ever figures out how to create good vibes consistently, please teach me. This does bring me to today’s topic: Ousama Ranking (Ranking of Kings). This was my favorite show of 2022 and right now it has a spin-off season in Treasure Chest of Courage. Three episodes have aired so far and I think that’s enough to give my thoughts on it, for those of you who might still be on the fence about watching it.
It’s more Ranking of Kings, what’s not to like?
Let’s start off with the obvious question; do you need to watch Ousama Ranking to be able to enjoy this spin-off season? Well… Yes, that’s probably for the best. A lot of these scenes take place during things that happen in the first season, and although none of it is hard to grasp on its own, it’s one of those scenarios where there’s really not much here if you’re not already invested in this world and its characters. If you’re considering watching this spin-off without watching the first season, then I think you’ve got your priorities wrong. But now you’ve gone away for a day or two and watched the first season of Ousama Ranking, should you watch this spin-off?
Ever accidentally come across an oasis of strange creatures that don’t seem to follow any logic?
Let’s get the intent of this season out of the way. I knew there was more Ousama Ranking coming, but hadn’t done all too much research. It was only after I read some posts online that I realized this wasn’t a direct continuation but more a side story filling in gaps in the story of season 1. I was a little bit disappointed, but I also immediately had to think of the spin-off for Tensura, which quickly became one of my favorite shows of all time. So with that in mind I gave the show a try and I was pleasantly surprised. So far it hasn’t blown me away nearly as much as Tensura’s spin-off did, but that’s a hard one to follow up. What did immediately catch my interest is the fact that this show actually seems to fill in some gaps in the main story. The first episode didn’t get this through nearly enough to get me invested, but by the time we’ve reached the third episode, we’ve gotten solid insight into several of the characters in this show, learning things we didn’t know before that are 100% relevant to the main story. To give a clear example of this, we had no idea really who Ann was in season 1, and why she suddenly showed up alongside Hilling. Here we learn that she was an adventurer that used to travel with Hilling when she was still an adventuring cleric, before becoming queen. We pretty easily accepted this fact in season 1 as something that just kind of happened, but getting more insight into these two characters and what they mean to each other was definitely a pleasant bonus.
I’m sorry, but Bojji showing off a book to baby Daida is so stupidly adorable that it’s almost unfair. I loved this scene.
With all of that said, I think it’s pretty obvious what my recommendation is. I enjoyed every second of Ousama Ranking and I’ve so far been fairly invested in this spin-off too. If you like Slice of Life shows and if you liked the first season of this one, then I think you’ll like this show as well. The voice acting is as solid as ever and the enchanting art style from the first season has been converted to the second season. I admit I almost exclusively watch subs, but if you’re a dub person the Kage is once again reprised by the very talented Sungwon Cho (ProZD) and his voice is amazing. All in all, I figured I’d talk about this show because I think the first episode left something to be desired and people might have dropped it after that, even though it immediately got much better in the second episode. Are you watching this show? What do you think of it so far? Let me know in the comments down below and thanks for reading.
I know that we’ve already done two of these at the tailend of the winter season, but I watched a whopping 28 shows that season which means there’s still things left to talk about. If you missed the first two quick reviews I did, you can find them here and here. If you’re all caught up then let me take you on one last trip through four shows that I watched last season. I will say these are some of the shows I didn’t enjoy as much, so my opinion on them will probably be a bit less positive. With all of that out of the way, let’s get started.
Farming Life in another world
Okay, I lied, it’s back to enjoyable anime whether you like it or not punks! Farming life in another world adds to the genre that I love of shows where not all that much happens and everyone just kind of has a good time partying in a strange world. Hiraku dies and god sends him for a second chance in a world filled with monsters. He was accidentally sent to a dangerous region but with his almighty farming tool he has it easy. One of the dumb reasons I laughed at this show’s first episode is because it reminded me of the golden hoe in minecraft. I used to watch Roosterteeth back in the day (like seven controversies ago) and they’d make fun of the gold hoe from time to time since it’s an item that’s pretty useless but it has hoe in it so it’s funny. I’d like to think we’ve all matured since then but I wasn’t raised a liar. Hiraku is joined by many people, vampires, angels, elves, dragons and many more. They all just kind of get along though and live the easy life on a farm in the woods. Watching this show feels like playing Stardew Valley. If that doesn’t convince you, nothing will. Having said all that, it’s not a memorable show by any means. I can name several shows that do the same concept better and if you’re looking for something that will stick with you, this isn’t it. But coming home from a long day and watching twenty minutes of farming and living it up is pretty nice, so I’ll leave the decision up to you.
The good news is: you’re not ill.
In/Spectre 2nd Season
I enjoyed this show a lot more than I expected I would. I remembered the main duo very well from the first season, since they’re peculiar characters to say the least, but I can’t say the plot stuck with me particularly well. Two episodes into the second season I was definitely interested again. Kotoko is still very much a crazy character. She’s scary when she wants to be an horny when she wants to (which is often. Kuro is stoic but not in a boring way. I especially enjoyed the Yuki Onna sidestory that went for a few episodes. Unfortunately the murder mystery arc didn’t grab my interest at all. Barring a few outrageous comments from Kotoko that made me laugh out loud, I just didn’t care for any of the characters involved in that mini arc. It does paint a picture of a fun manga series that I might pick up in the future. Check it out if you like eccentric characters and fantasy mysteries. It has two seasons by now, so there’s quite a bit of content.
She fits into the trope of looking young but being older, but she’s actually mature because she’s an adult. It’s a weird character and I’m not sure I really mind in this case. I’ve known people like this, they can be a hassle at times to deal with.
The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady.
Gee, I wonder if this one’s based on a light novel. The title kind of explains it all, not much left to say. This show didn’t really grab me all that much but I think it’s a very good case of Isekai done wrong. That doesn’t mean that the isekai done wrong is making the show bad. What I mean by that is that I don’t think the Isekai-aspect of this show adds any value to it. Euphyllia could just as well be from this world and not much would change. As a matter of fact, I don’t even remember what about this show was Isekai? Perhaps it was mentioned in the first episode and then never touched upon again? Either way, Euphy and Anisphia are fun characters on their own, but the attempt at a romance just didn’t feel natural to me. For starters, Euphy is just very forceful and sends the wrong message about how things go, but I just didn’t see anything between them. In my head they were more akin to good friends, but maybe I’m just bad at parsing this information. I wouldn’t recommend this show per se, but if you like a fantasy story about girls, perhaps this could be up your alley.
I was looking for a good screengrab to represent this show but instead I came across a very relatable one. The most exhausting days teaching are the ones where I’m barely teaching and instead doing administrative work all day.
The angel next door spoils me rotten
I thought I was going to like this show. A wholesome romance between two neighbors sounds right up my alley. But I think I’m either getting jaded or this show just didn’t hit the right notes for me. I found a lot of their relationship growth to be grating to watch. Maybe it’s the whole “we’re basically dating for like nine out of twelve episodes but refuse to actively admit to it.” schtick that I’m getting bored of. I don’t know. The characters in this show just didn’t do it for me. I feel like a lot of the drama that got set up early in the show also never actually got resolved, we’re just sort of expected to forget it. My guess is that the source material might cover a lot more and this stuff is saved for later in the story, but as an anime it just didn’t hold up for me. There were better romance shows in this same season.
They’re like 14 but behave like a married couple. Always struck me as a bit odd.
And I think I’m going to keep it at these four. The rest of the shows were so not interesting to me (or sequels, which I try to avoid for these most of the time), so this is what you’re getting. That means I’m done with the winter season and need to think of new content soon. Shit. I’m joking of course, I already have some plans. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I’m planning to rewatch some shows I haven’t watched in (almost) a decade to see how they hold up. I’ll get back to you on those. It’s May break after all, and I’ve earned. But now that I’ve covered a total of 15 shows (here, here and here), let me know if I’ve missed anything from the winter season that you recommend to me. You be the blogger now! Anyway, thanks for reading.
When I watch new anime at the start of a season, I tend to give a lot of different shows a start. Often a show will start off really fast and as the season progresses you realize that there might not be as much substance as you would have liked. On the flipside of this coin are the shows that start off boring and might pick up steam later. Unfortunately I will have likely dropped those shows before they ever get off the ground. Much more rare are those shows that start off slow while still grabbing your attention. Shows that don’t burn bright from the very start but show that there is potential if you just give it a shot. Not every show that starts like this actually lives up to its potential, but the few times it does you get a well written show that takes their viewer seriously and respects their time. Mononogatari – or Benevolent Spirits – is one of those shows.
The blonde woman in the middle is voiced by Sawashiro Miyuki, if that doesn’t convince you to watch this then I don’t know what to tell you. Her voice is so, so pleasant to listen to.
Mononogatari follows the story of Kunato Hyoma, a young exorcist that deals with spirits that are called Tsukumogami. He hates these spirits with a passion after one of them killed his older brother and sister several years ago. His grandfather sends him to live with Nagatsuki Botan, who is a girl his age that lives with a bunch of these spirits. It’s a form of immersion therapy to put it bluntly. The story follows Hyoma’s life at the Nagatsuki household where he interacts with these spirits and the other people involved in this strange part of modern society.
Perfectly hit the nail on the head.
I am planning an in-depth post about Tsukumogami tomorrow, but to give you the short explanation, they’re spirits that house in objects. The reason they stay in these objects is because the owner really cares for this object and uses it often. Eventually they turn into spirits that still hold the properties of the objects they live in. In this world, they also gain access to fighting power that is similar to the sort of object they live in. To give an example, there’s girl who is a mortar and pestle, and the wheel that’s used to grind the herbs turns into her leg, which she can then fight with. It’s pretty straightforward but you can get creative with it.
The reality is that working together with spirits isn’t always easy. There’s an air of hostility that’s hard to get past.
As this anime was airing, I noticed that the ratings weren’t particularly high – not terrible, just not amazing – and it wasn’t being talked about a ton. I think this is mainly due to its slow start. Hyoma also isn’t your typical protagonist and it shows. He’s a very serious person and he is very stalwart in his convictions. Botan on the other hand is hesitant in a lot of things and for good reason, her life hasn’t always been easy. We follow these characters through realistic character growth that is rare to see in anime sometimes. I think this contributed to the lower ratings. Mononogatari takes its time exploring its setting and building up its cast.
Hyoma has very strong convictions but his hatred of Tsukumogami has clouded his judgement and made it so he thinks he can justify violence.
The selling point for me personally is the concept of the Tsukumogami. It’s a type of Japanese myth that I find absolutely fascinating. The idea that taking good care of your stuff so that one day it might have a spirit move in because of the bond you form with your important things is super cool and it’s something I really want to explore in my own storytelling as well. It’s done very differently from how I would approach it here, but that’s also what makes it interesting. Mononogatari is a complex tale of humans and spirits trying to live together that really takes its time exploring what it means to have this distinction and doesn’t rush anything through. The supporting cast is diverse and well written and the mysteries are only just starting by the time the season ends so it leaves you wanting for more. If you’re still not convinced to watch it by now, then I don’t think there’s much more I can say. If this is an anime you’re even remotely considering watching, please give it a shot. I think you’ll enjoy it. Thanks for reading.
It’s time for a second round of quick reviews. I might even do a third round after this, but I’m still undecided on it. Some of the shows I watched weren’t very interesting and it feels a bit weird to talk about a bunch of sequels. Most people will either already know what they think about those shows or not want to get spoiled for later seasons, both are fair. But we have enough material for this second round so let’s get to killing. I mean parenting. I mean writing.
Buddy Daddies
I already talked about Buddy Daddies once early on in the season when I was just getting into this show. Buddy Daddies is an anime in the same vein as Spy X Family. Two hitmen get saddled with a four year old girl after they kill her father and her mother shows no responsibility for the child whatsoever. She even sent the girl to go find her father on her own, knowing he’s probably not the most innocent of people. Now Kazuki and Rei are stuck raising this child and they’re taking it very seriously. Well, Kazuki is, Rei is much more of a slacker but he’s good at games so he has that going for him. The two have to navigate their dangerous job as well as dealing with a young child. As we go through the series we learn how to raise a child, we process deep seated trauma and we deal with taking over the family business. This show is surprisingly packed for such a short runtime and it feels like a complete package from start to finish. In all honesty, I think I might have enjoyed this show more than I did Spy X Family at times. I think the over the top suspension of disbelief of Spy X Family can get a bit tiring at times and although this show isn’t exactly steeped in realism, I believe these characters way more than I do Loyd and Yor. All in all this was one of the most surprising highlights of this season and if you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend that you do.
He is your dad! He’s also about to put a gun to your head, so I wouldn’t be too excited about having found him.
Blue Lock
I already talked about the crazy title of the second ending of this anime in this post. It’s called Numbness like a ginger if you don’t want to read another post right now. But weird naming sense aside, Blue Lock is probably the most unique sports show I’ve seen in a while. A lot of shows that use sports as their main narrative focus on people bonding, becoming better together and overcoming different problems in their life through their sports. It’s a way of storytelling that I absolutely adore when done well, and for that reason I believe everyone should see Run with the Wind at least once. But Blue Lock isn’t about that. Instead it focuses on the darker, more competitive side of humanity. Take Ao Ashi from a couple of seasons ago, and mix it with the Hunger Games and that’s how you get Blue Lock. A man by the name of Ego (voiced by the legendary Hiroshi Kamiya) has invited a few hundred strikers to a facility called Blue Lock. They get the offer to stay at the facility for the foreseeable future and partake in a high stakes training camp where the weak get eliminated. This leaves us with a bunch of egotistical (see where it’s going) strikers that want to do whatever it takes to become the best striker. The players treat Blue Lock like it’s a life or death scenario because to them it is. It focuses not on teamwork and overcoming problems but instead devouring each other to become the very best. The main character starts off pretty boring but as the show goes on he becomes a much more fun character. Early on the side characters outshine him quite a bit. One thing I do appreciate about Blue Lock is that even though it’s silly and kind of insane most of the time, they take it seriously enough to at least address this by having Ego-san attend meetings with the people paying for this project as they wonder why they let this crazy person do as they please. But it does seem to work so far and with a second season in the works I think this is a good show to catch up on if you like the sound of it.
This entire thing is purely bias and bullshit, but at least Ego is honest about it from the very start.
High Card
When I was a child, I used to play this game where I would have a magic watch that when activated let me see a whole different world around me. This watch would allow me to use all sorts of strange super powers against monsters and ninja. You know, normal lonely child stuff. High Card kind of takes that childlike wonder about super powers and expands on it. The power in question in this world comes from playing cards. There’s fifty-two in a set, and at the start of the series someone steals them from a palace and they get distributed throughout the world. We then go to Finn, a young orphan who is in desperate need of money. In an attempt to make some money with gambling he gets himself stuck in a dangerous situation. There’s several people with these cards in the casino and soon he’s embroiled in the center of it all. Before he knows it, he’s working at a car store which is just a front for an organization that is trying to collect these cards for the crown. Finn meets several other card users here and works with them as they’re trying to deal with bad guys with cards. It’s a pretty straightforward show but the power system is somewhat interesting, the characters are fun and the worldbuilding is just well thought out enough that it keeps you wondering what’s going to happen next. The series ends on a good note as well and they’ve quickly announced that there’s a sequel in the work. If you like some modern superpower action, this show is a great recommendation.
That is a weird question to ask, but weird times call for weird question.
Campfire Cooking in another world with my absurd skill
From the title alone I think this is probably based on a light novel. Most manga have shorter titles although that could be different for sure. We see a lot of different Isekai shows throughout the seasons and I think I’m going to start watching a few less. Some of the ones I did watch this season were rather disappointing. Campfire cooking, on the other hand, had me engaged for most of its runtime. Three people were summoned to a fantasy world to save them from danger. But two of them were heroes and the remaining one seemed to be just some strange salaryman who could use Amazon Prime from any location in this new world. So he quickly takes his leave with some limited funds and a pat on the back and sets out on his own. His goal is to just slip under the radar so he won’t have to work for the king and can just live a relaxed life. Mukoda has quickly realized how incredibly convenient his new powers are. So he sets out on a journey and quickly enough he’s approached by the legendary Fenrir, who is curious about the man’s strange cooking. Fenrir becomes his familiar in exchange for free good food and the two set off on their adventure. From here on out it’s just a combination of the legendary beast defeating any and all enemies with ease and Mukoda cooking him some chicken nuggets as a reward. It’s a relaxed and humorous story and I found it very amusing to hear Miri’s voice actress from Buddy Daddies (earlier in this post) back as the slime Sui. Once you know it, it’s easy enough to pick up on but it’s still a different enough voice. They quickly make many friends by defeating dangerous monsters and Mukoda even gets involved with some of the worlds’ gods who want offerings from him because he can order donuts on a zero second cooldown. I think this is a very simple idea for a story but it’s often the simple ideas that work the best, as long as you execute them well. If you want your seasonal relaxing Isekai show, this is one of two options you can pick. I’ll talk about the second option in an upcoming post, so stay tuned for that.
‘Huh’ sums up it pretty nicely actually, I’ll leave it at that.
Handyman Saitou in another world
When looking at reviews for the source material of this show, you get mixed results. Some people absolutely love it while others seem more confused by its chaos. The way the show flows makes me think it’s based on a 4koma manga, short four panel stories put together into a larger narrative, but I don’t think that’s the case. This series is very different. I flip flopped from episode to episode on whether I think that is a good thing. Regardless. Saitou was a handyman back in Japan and he suddenly finds himself in a fantasy world. It’s a much more gritty and dangerous world than a lot of the ones we’re presented with in Isekai and that makes some of the goofy characters it has more grounded. Not only that, throughout the series we actually learn quite a bit about why Saitou was summoned here, how he could possibly go back and what is going on with the travel between worlds. But in this strange world, Saitou teams up with old, forgetful wizard Morlock, Burly swordswoman Realza and tiny cleric Lafanpan. The four go through dungeons and meet with other adventurers. There’s a bunch of side stories going on all at once, but I think the main reason this show feels so strange compared to many other Isekai shows is in its lack of formula. A lot of shows feel very formulaic. Everytime I watch a new Isekai, I feel like I’ve seen three others that are similar. With Handyman Saitou, I can’t really liken it to anything else I’ve seen. It’s weird, it’s chaotic and it feels strangely real at times. Not my favorite show of the season, but definitely one I’ll remember fondly because of how strange it could be at times.
99% of the time, Morlock looks like a confused old man but in the 1% of times where he gets his act together he is the real deal. There’s a reason his name is known.
And there you have it, five more shows and my thoughts on them. Everything I’ve talked about today gets a passing grade from me so it’s up to you to decide if it’s something you want to watch. And if you did enjoy any of these shows, let me know in the comments down below. Thanks for reading.
As we reach the end of the winter 2023 season it’s time to start talking about the shows that aired during this season. I watched way too many shows this past season, to the point that I was regularly behind on schedule and had to binge for a few hours to try and catch up again. It was also a season that was filled with delays, with several shows going on hiatus and some still being on hiatus. As I’m typing this I just learned that the second season of Bofuri will be on break again next week. It’ll at least finish in April, so it’s getting a better treatment than Uncle from another world did. But we’re not here to talk about either of these shows. If you didn’t watch thirty different shows like I did, but still want to know what is worth watching, I’ve got you covered. Over the next few weeks I’ll be telling you about all the shows I watched this season and what I thought of them. Well, most of them, some aren’t worth talking about or have been covered by many others already. Now then, let’s get started.
Kaina of the Great Snow Sea
One thing this show does really well is portray just how vast and empty the world around them is. Most of humanity has long died by this point, and there is a lot of unused – and unusable – space.
If I were to tell you that my favorite part of this show was the opening theme then that probably isn’t giving you a ton of hope. To be fair to Kaina, the opening is an absolute banger. Sang by one of my favorite Japanese artists: Yorushika. As far as I’m aware, they’re not normally featured in anime, so I was very surprised when I instantly recognized them. My favorite song by them is Hitchcock which you should definitely give a listen. Moving on from the music, the story falls a little bit flat for me. I like where they’re going with the worldbuilding, that part is interesting to me. Kaina lives in a treetop above the clouds but needs to help Ririha, a princess from the great snow sea, down below. They have to fix the war between two nations and find a legendary tree that should have water. The characters in this show are great. I don’t dislike any of the protagonists. I do think the bad guys are extremely one-note and the way the story ends is pretty disappointing. Overall I wouldn’t really recommend this show, but it has some interesting ideas so if that’s all you need then who am I to stop you.
Onimai: Oniichan was Oshimai
Mahiro is already enjoying the change in body and clothes. Mihari is probably enjoying it even more.
When I first read the plot description for this series I didn’t think I’d end up liking this show half as much as I did. I expected it to be aimless smut. A high school girl who’s also a mad scientist has turned her NEET older brother into a young girl in an attempt to fix him. Yeah, I thought it was a stretch too. Although the early episodes explore genderbending quite a bit, once the show really hits its stride is when it starts becoming more wholesome. Mahiro goes to school, makes friends and really comes out of her shell. It is kind of weird that this is a teenage boy in the body of a little girl, which is why I initially worried about this show. But it ended up being really nice. The supporting cast is great and watching this young girl slowly come out of her shell and become a more happy person is a kind of sweet journey. Not the best show this season but also not nearly as trashy as I expected it to be. If you were on the fence about this one, I recommend you give it a shot after all.
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale
Probably the best thing about this show is the way it looks. It’s gorgeous from start to finish which does a good job of hiding some of the other issues that a lesser quality production would stumble over.
So hear me out. What if we made a romance story, but the guy is a slave. I swear I’m getting so sick of this slavery being a big plot point in anime lately. Have Japanese authors just accepted that the only way to reach any form of romance is by literally enslaving one of the parties and forcing them to be involved? It’s so crazy. This show would have still worked if Challe was just a mercenary. The only thing that would have changed was that the writer actually had to think about any roadblocks for our characters as opposed to just default to literal slavery every single time. Seriously, this show has a lot of good for it. The art is gorgeous, the characters are fun and the idea of an artisan running into blatant sexism isn’t the most original in the world but it’s also not so overdone that I’m bored of it. Anne Halford is trying to become a Sugar Artisan so she can send off her mother who unfortunately passed away before the story starts. On her way she buys Challe, who’s a fairy and a slave. They slowly befriend each other and get rather close after a while. They run into a lot of trouble on their way, mostly with jealous men trying to undermine Anne. It’s a gorgeously animated show that really misses the point when it comes to the story. It is getting a second season though, so if you do get into it, there’ll be more than enough content for you to watch.
The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague
The character designs in this show are really well done. Not just for Fuyutsuki and Himuro, but also for many of the other characters.
Sometimes when I write a story I spend hours thinking of a clever title for the story. I’m starting to think that these authors – or at the very least the people translating – just stopped caring at a certain point. He has ice powers so let’s call him ice guy and then make a pun on that and voila. Fuyutsuki isn’t even cool, so it makes no sense. She’s not cool in the sense of being a skater girl and also not in her interaction, she’s really kind to the people around her. Just a little bit introverted at times. The story follows a bunch of coworkers at a company in a world where people are descended from mythical creatures. There’s a lady with fox ears, a guy who’s descended from a phoenix and our main character, Himuro, is descended from a Yuki-Onna, or snow woman. Whenever he’s excited snow starts to appear around him, thus he has to temper his emotions quite often. He quickly falls in love with his coworker, Fuyutsuki, who is kind and lives alone with her cat. From there on out the story is a fun romance story with a great cast. Unfortunately, like many romance stories, the plot progresses at a pace slower than a turtle with a broken leg, but if you go into this show already having that expectation then it does quite a lot of things right. And it’s also refreshing to have adults in a romance show as opposed to high school students. I stopped being able to relate to high schoolers well over a decade ago, so give me a show like this any day of the week.
Tomo-Chan is a girl?!
Tomo explains how the show works for those who are still confused.
It is tomboy season and Tomo is at the peak of the movement. This four panel manga that came out on a daily basis for several years was a staple in my life while it was going on. I remember how it would go on a hiatus regularly – which is fair enough – and we’d all just be waiting for its return. The fact that Tomo-chan got an anime was a total surprise to me as I had mostly forgotten about it. I will quickly admit that I was a little bit hesitant when this started its run. When I enjoyed this manga I was a lot younger than I am now. There are shows I liked ten years ago that I couldn’t sit through now and vice versa. Besides that, it was a four panel manga and a lot of those – in my experience – don’t translate amazingly to anime. But after a mediocre first one or two episodes this show really hit its stride and it quickly reminded me why I liked it so much. It’s a classic romance story where the childhood friends are both in love with each other but neither are willing to take the first step. It takes forever for any progress to happen but Tomo-chan shines when it’s being over the top. Aizawa Tomo was just one of the guys growing up. She’s strong, works out, does martial arts, has relatively short hair and for a part of their friendship Jun thought she was a boy. When she showed up in a skirt to school he was definitely surprised. They stay friends and we meet several of their other friends which include the scheming Misuzu, the bubbly Carol and the awkward Misaki. We follow their journey as Jun and Tomo grow closer and this anime covers the entire manga so we get to the ending that left us manga readers satisfied. It’s a little bit rushed at times, it could have probably done with an extra half a dozen episodes to make it even better, but we get what we get. The animation and art style aren’t good or bad, it just does its job. If you even think you like tomboys or romcoms then this is definitely one you should take a look at. I am very happy it got an anime.
And there we go, five anime done, another bunch to go in the next few weeks. This week’s pick was a bit of a mixed bag, but I don’t feel bad about the time I spent on any of these shows. There’s something good in every show. If you’re going to only watch one out of these five, I’d go with Tomo-Chan, but it also depends on what genres you like. But that’s just my opinion, let me know what you think in the comments down below. Thanks for reading.
Here we are then, the final episode of this season. What I was expecting from this series run time has come true and they’ve already announced a fifth season. Not only that, but it’s coming out this summer! That’s something really cool to look forward to. It’s not technically a split-cour series, but it might as well be. Either way, knowing that we probably won’t get a significant conclusion today, but also being aware that this isn’t the end, let’s temper our expectations and dive into the final episode of this season!
But grandma, what murderous energy you have.
We ended the last episode with the Hunting Dogs getting attacked by the gambling addicts in the flying casino. Sigma wants to make sure his project stays safe. Tachihara got stabbed and hit in the head by a bat, but we’ve learned at this point that these people aren’t going down easily. We’ve already seen Teruko grow stronger so watching her turn into an old lady here is no surprise at all. I just wonder where Tachihara is. Oh, that explains it. She can use her power on other people too and turned Tachihara into a small child. And as I’m typing this, we get an explanation of her power as well. What a terrifying opponent, she can just age you to the point where you’re no longer a threat. This does make me wonder how old Teruko is. It might be one of those things where she’s actually a thousand year old woman and not a young girl. We’ll see.
I’m sorry, but can you at least draw a face on the characters?
We get a little bit more information about Sigma. As I kind of expected, he’s not a real person per se, but someone spawned from the book. Three years ago, to be precise. So at some point in the past, the Decay of Angels had access to the book and might have lost it since then. Now they’re using one page of iit again. Teruko makes it to Sigma and gets handed the key to the controls. We cut away to Atsushi and Kyouka making their way through the casino. The two splitting up worries me, but Atsushi has to hurry if he wants to be in time to join the standoff between Sigma and Teruko, who just disabled Sigma’s weaponry. Sigma gets the upper hand though and aims the discount dominator at Teruko who still manages to overpower the ability. She destroyed her own eardrum to stop the damage from being as severe. Oldest trick in the book
That’s pretty hardcore, not going to lie.
The Hunting Dogs have a mentality much like Akainu from One Piece. Absolute order at the expense of everything else. If someone is considered a criminal they will be taken down, no matter the cost. It’s this iron determination that allows them to be so scary and undertake dangerous operations that need monthly repeating. Sigma pulls Teruko off of the but she manages to catch back on. Atsushi then saves Sigma. I was half expecting him to save Teruko, but he quickly reminds us that Sigma is their way to find out where the page is. We also learn he stabbed the police chief. Sigma is kind of painted as a victim, and to an extent he is being used by Fyodor. On the other hand, he is a dangerous terrorist trying to undermine all of society and use coins to blow up the country. So we can only spare so much sympathy. Things aren’t going smoothly still for Atsushi, as someone flies up to them, probably sent by Fyodor. I’m not sure I know who this person is, but at this point there’s just too many characters.
Shouldn’t have gone into the dollhouse, that was a pretty bad move.
It did strike me as strange for them to save Sigma. The Hunting Dogs will now be even more convinced that the Agency are bad guys. A video reaches Tachihara of Atsushi explaining the plot, but apparently Fyodor has written a line into the page that no one will trust the Agency. And of course we learn that both of the Mafia executives are perfectly alive. I do want to make it very clear that this is disappointing. I know this is a shonen series and the stakes often end up being extremely low for any real named character, but at least the old executive should have died here. Tachihara probably cared for them more than he was willing to admit and i’m going to guess that his special power somehow lets him circumvent the page’s words, but come on, have some respect for the viewer here. If every “death” is fake, the reader will stop being invested. Game of Thrones ran into this problem where early on everything had consequences and later on characters would just walk away from lethal damage like it was just a papercut. Shonen does this way too often and it shouldn’t keep getting away with it.
I’ll be honest, I did quite like this guy, so I don’t mind him still being around, but it does feel cheap.
Oh, that’s the point of this all. That’s some great writing, I love this. Fyodor:All law enforcement and investigative bodies that happen upon evidence of the Detective Agency’s entrapment will dismiss it without consideration. Of course this would disappear for Tachihara when he realizes he’s not a hunting dog but a member of the port mafia at heart. I like his story arc a lot, it’s complex but not in a contrived way. He just really loved his brother and let the rage get to him. Even like Hyoma from Mononogatari he is still a reasonable person. The Mafia believes in the Agency because it knows the Agency all too well. They can’t be terrorists, they’re the most annoying goody two-shoes that exist and they’ll either come out proven innocent or die in the fight. I love how Dazai’s master plan is just “Humans are too unpredictable” We also get to find out what happened to Nikolai. He didn’t die after all and is probably going to either save Sigma or perfectly finish him off.
And we get some closure on this part of the story to round off the season with.
A very solid cliffhanger that would have made me very angry if not for the fact that we already know we’re getting more of this story soon. I’ll cover the next season right here on this blog so subscribe if that’s something you’re interested in. All in all I think this was one of the better seasons of this show, and that’s saying a lot considering it’s been pretty good for most of its runtime. I definitely should invest in the manga in the near future, I’m pushing it higher up the list of priorities. Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 