It took me a lot longer to write this review than I had originally planned. I also took the time since then to read the manga – up to volume 11 – to get a sense for what was coming after. There will be no spoilers for the manga though, only the knowledge that after the anime ends, the story only gets better. With that out of the way, let’s dive into the world of Daemons of the Shadow Realm.
A little fun fact about Gabby. Her color scheme wasn’t actually designed by Arakawa herself but it was just such a broad assumption that she’d be blond with a red coat that the author just went with it.
Yuru is a normal boy living in a mountain village. Well, normal might be a lie. He lives with his grandmother and his twin sister and goes out into the mountains to hunt. When he was younger, his parents abandoned him and his sister. This sister has also been stuck in a cell since she was very young, as she had a very important duty to perform for the village. You see, Yuru and his sister Asa are the twins of day and night. When twins are born in Higashi Village and one is born during night and one after daybreak, they are said to be able to inherit the power of seal and break. Seal and break are powerful daemons who allow their wielders to interfere with other Daemon contracts in pretty major ways. They basically make the person who wields them incredibly powerful. But to gain these powers, the twins will each have to die at least once.
You’re going to get that feeling a lot, I’m afraid.
The story takes off on a day when Higashi village’s barrier is torn down and they are suddenly and brutally attacked by a group of strange people wielding even stranger weapons and powers. You see, while Higashi village maintained an old standard of living within their barrier, the rest of the world advanced to modern times and those modern times have now come to wreak havoc. The main culprits here are a young blond girl named Gabby who wields a giant set of dentures and a young woman who is Yuru’s sister? But Yuru’s sister is in the cell? What is going on? During the chaos, Gabby kills a lot of villagers with no regard for their lives and Asa violently attacks Asa – yeah, it’s confusing – before proclaiming that she is the real Asa.
I love this show of Yuru posing against the sun behind him. He is the night after all, and we see Asa in darkness, the two of them being each other’s other half.
While all of this is happening, Tadera Ryu – a porter for the village – takes Yuru to safety, even giving him a medallion that lets him wake up two powerful Daemons that have guarded the village for centuries. Left and Right. These guardian Daemons are supposed to be a countermeasure against the powers of break and seal, but now they are in the hands of one of the twins. After Asa and Gabby reconvene with the other people they were with, Dera takes Yuru off the mountains and into the modern world. And all of this is just the first episode.
Hana explaining things this way is easily the best running gag in the entire manga/anime.
The story more or less follows a complicated web of different factions wanting different things from the twins. Yuru needs to navigate this web as well as his new life in the world below. Hiromu Arakawa – yes, that Hiromu Arakawa who wrote Fullmetal Alchemist – is at her best when she’s writing believable characters with interesting moral dilemmas to face. Yuru is calm, collected and very reasonable, but he’s also a teenager. He gets upset, gets overeager and in a world where he does not understand the stakes of what he’s doing, this can lead to dangerous situations. Still, he behaves logically and is a joy to watch. Asa has a life of trauma under her wing that she and the people around her try their best to navigate as well.
Good job!
When it comes to the anime itself, the execution is perfectly adequate. It doesn’t have the animated polish of One Piece’s Egghead, but the animation just does its job perfectly well. With character designs that feel grounded yet interesting, we get to see once again why no one does it like Arakawa. I genuinely think she is one of the most – if not the most – talented character writers in manga. There are better characters in manga than the twins (both from this show and from FMA) but I can’t think of many authors who are as consistent in writing characters. Asuma, Gonzo, Asa, Yuru, Dera, Hana, Yamaha, Danji, Left, Right, Gabby and Jin all feel like they are real people with real backgrounds, experiences and worldviews. And the same can be said for many of the more minor characters.
The other twin, Asa.
Lastly, to finish things up let’s quickly talk about the opening themes. Both of them are solid as well, with the first one being by a favorite of mine, Vaundy. The second one is done by an artist I’m less familiar with – Masanori Otoda – but is just as good if not better. What I like about the second opening is that there are some pretty big pieces of foreshadowing that I wouldn’t have caught up on unless I knew what was going to happen, so props to the people directing those. If you want an anime that – despite not telling the full story quite yet – feels like the complete package, then you absolutely must give this one a watch. I liked it enough that I thought it warranted its own review, that’s why it took a little bit longer than the rest. Thanks for reading!
Although I do not put any big spoilers for the latest seasons of these shows in here, I will be putting in some pretty big spoilers for season 4 of Re:Zero, so if you haven’t seen it yet, skip that part of the review please.
Go listen to the ending of Polar Opposites by season 2. It’s one of the catchiest songs I’ve heard in a long time and it’s made me an instant fan of Mega Shinnosuke.
A little look behind the curtains for you all, but when I know I’m going to have a busy day at work, I try to schedule a piece of writing that’s a little bit easier to get through and requires less of my brain to still be functioning. Quick Reviews are a great outlet these days because I think they’re fun and interesting enough for people wanting to quickly see what the season was about while not being particularly deep, so writing them feels like a breeze. A win-win situation for everyone. I’m writing this one after I spent the entire day doing a training for mentorship in school. I might become a mentor at some point in the future so I figured I might as well take the training for it ahead of time. It’s free after all. Anyway, you’re not here for that, you’re here to see my lukewarm opinions on some anime sequels. So without further ado, let’s get into it.
Ascendance of a bookworm
I feel like this is what he ends up saying throughout this series the most. It’s got to be hard dealing with an adult in a child’s body who often just behaves like a child anyway. Not like he’s any easier to deal with himself.
And let’s start off strong with the now fourth season of this lovely isekai series about a book lover who died and reincarnated a sickly young girl. Where season 3 of this show felt a little bit slow and unassuming to me, this fourth season really managed to pull me back in with an interesting storyline, some more time spent with interesting characters we met in the last season and even a pretty interesting ending to the season. We continue to follow Myne – now Rosemyne – as she navigates her new life among the nobility. The subtitle for this season is the adopted daughter of the archduke after all. Rosemyne is trying to make a Jureve this season, a sort of elixir that will harden the mana in her body and – after a lengthy slumber – should turn her into a healthy young girl. She needs several hard to get ingredients for this elixir, but nothing is impossible if you have the head priest and several royal knights on your side. Still, getting all of the ingredients for this elixir does take some time and things even take a turn towards the end, causing the situation to become much hairier than it should have been. Still, throughout it all Rosemyne continues to love books, develop new technologies and stuns everyone in her surroundings with her vast amount of knowledge and ideas. If the third season made you wonder if this show was still worth your time – like it did for me – know that this fourth season has picked up the pace and is probably fun enough. A small bump in the road was the use of AI in the making of the first opening of this season which rubbed fans – myself included – the wrong way, but they have since then changed it. Up to you if that’s enough for you to turn away from the series or if you don’t mind. I’m fine either way.
Saga of Tanya the Evil
I think she’s mad.
How much time between seasons is too long? Attack on Titan tried to figure out just exactly how much time they could get away with and it resulted in the show feeling a little bit more confusing and chaotic than it could have been. I’m sure they had good reasons to take it slow – catching up to the manga being one of them – but the damage was still there. For me, the Saga of Tanya the Evil felt similar. In this second season of the bizarre show about an alternate world war 2 after nine years without it felt rather jarring to me at times. I remember liking the first season – in big part because of how strange it was compared to other series on the market – but I didn’t remember much beyond the basic plot. A ruthless person on earth is pushed under a moving train – Gantz style – and reincarnates into the body of a young girl. There he starts a feud with god – being X – about what it means to exist and if God truly is real. All of this takes place in the aforementioned alternative reality world war 2 where the empire is still going strong, but not without costs. In season 2 the fighting continues and we spend more time on the frontlines while others are getting involved. Fictional allies, fictional Great Britain and Fictional Italy all have a part in this war and things get dicey for the Empire at times. With Tanya wanting to find her way out of this predicament, she seems to have no luck so far and we end the season in a very similar position as we started it. I don’t know, I’m not convinced I’ll watch a third season of this if it arrives, but if the setting excites you, I have no real complaints about the execution. It looks and sounds fine and there’s lots of army battles. Just not my cup of tea.
Grand Blue Dreaming
Preach.
This is a show about diving. I think. Anyone familiar with this anime or manga will know that this is technically true but also a meme. Grand Blue Dreaming is about a college club called Peekaboo that goes diving. Iori has been living with his uncle and cousins above their diving store for a while now, and has fully embraced life in college away from home. Their club does more drinking than diving, although they are truly passionate about diving too. In this season, we finally get a bit more romantic development between the characters but also a growing feeling of responsibility as they all get a little bit older and their seniors are even trying to get jobs because their time in school is almost over. The atmosphere changes although there is still room to return to the silly toilet humor we’ve come to appreciate throughout the earlier seasons. In this third season we see a return to Iori’s home where we meet some strange foreigners, some hijinx with Iori and Kohei’s classmates, a stint into becoming influencers and we top it off with a trip for just Iori and Chise which doesn’t quite go the way they expected. Throughout it all, the series is loud and proud of its humor and there’s even jokes in there about the censoring having grown by a certain percentage to keep up with the rules and regulations. There’s honestly not too much to say about this show. If you like dumb comedy shows this one will be great for you and even if you’re not big on comedy in anime – which I really am not – you will still have a good chance of enjoying this one. The jokes definitely land at times and the show can be surprisingly tender when it wants to be. At the very least do yourself a favor and watch the first season, just to get a taste of how silly this show is.
Re:Zero
You’re basically just a squatter.
When it comes to Isekai anime, Re:Zero has always been an interesting one to me. At some points in the story it feels rather generic in its plot and worldbuilding and sometimes I get the feeling that the story is a little bit all over the place. But then the core mechanic of how this world works and how Subaru’s suffering eventually makes him grow as a character is really interesting. Not only did he suddenly find himself in another world, but he also keeps returning to an earlier point in his life within this new world every time he dies. This is obviously quite traumatic and with Subaru not being the bravest person to begin with, this is tough for him to deal with. In this fourth season, we leave the city of Priestella behind us and start making our way towards the tower where the sage is located. We still haven’t found a way to get Rem back, and the same is true for Julius. Both of them have been forgotten, but at least the latter is still conscious. I personally thought that the first half of this season was rather weak and had some jarring tone shifts. Subaru’s behavior was off throughout and it wasn’t really explained why this happened. One thing – and this is where the spoilers come in – that really got me curious from this part of the story is what happened to Emilia at the top of the tower. I still remember how she introduced herself as Satella in the very first loop, which then made her very shocked when Subaru called her that in the next loop. This is a question that set up the mystery at the start – which I think was a great hook – and seems to be built upon here. The dragon Volcanica refers to her as Satella as well but gets angry when she mentions the witch of Envy. Maybe there is more truth to the fact that Emilia and Subaru were in the tower somewhere in the far past. But then again, Shaula only recognized Subaru and she would have recognized Emilia too if she had been there before or if Satella had been there before. After all, the few visions we get of Satella tell us that the two look very much like each other. I’m definitely back to being hooked on this series again and can’t wait to learn more. Hopefully we get a fifth season somewhat soon.
You and I are polar opposites
I love all of these silly little goofs. But most of all I want each of these fictional characters to be happy.
When I talked about this show after the first season finished airing, I already made it very clear that I loved this show. The characters are great and the pace is very solid, making for an enjoyable experience. Although I think some of the early episodes of season 1 as well as the opening theme and its beautiful animation added some depth to this show, I think the second season kept going strong. Where much of the first season was focused on Tani and Suzuki, we spend a larger part of this second season on the relationships between Taira and Azuma as well as Yamada and Nisshi. This gives us three relationships with very different dynamics that each play out very differently. It reminds me a little bit of Horimiya with that, because in that show we ended up focusing on a lot of different characters as well and it really made the show a lot better. A relationship can be very complex and we see some of that in the different ways these kids develop their feelings. There were some moments where I was a little bit worried about where the plot was heading, but by the end of the season, I felt completely satisfied with everything I’ve watched. I have a soft spot for the Taira and Azuma relationship because it comes from a place of hurt for both of them, but evolves into something very healthy. I bought the manga after the end of season 1 but specifically waited for the anime to finish before diving into it, so I still have that to look forward to.
This poor guy can’t catch a break.
And with the exceptions of Bleach and Yomi no Tsugai, I have now more or less said everything I wanted to say about this past summer season of anime. Those two anime will get their own dedicated post in the near future because I have lots to say about Yomi no Tsugai and I don’t want to talk about the Bleach season yet with 2 episodes still not having aired yet – as of writing this. And then it’s time to start looking ahead again to the future. I better start thinking of things to write about. I’ll go do that, so thanks for reading.
Don’t worry, we’ll get to talk about you soon enough.
With the heat and sun soon behind us, it is time to get excited about fall weather. I love the colder air, the ability to sleep under a blanket without sweating and the earlier darkness. It’s the perfect atmosphere to sit down, relax and watch some anime. But first, before we start looking ahead, let’s look back on a very successful season of summer anime. Because there are actually quite a few series I want to talk to you about this time around, I have decided to split everything up into two different posts. Today we’ll be looking at new shows and next week we’ll be looking at sequels. This is mainly because there are quite a few sequels that aired this past season that I’d like to take a moment to talk about as well. There’s also an anime I watched this season that will get its own dedicated review because of how much I enjoyed it. That anime is of course the work of Hiromu Arakawa: Daemons of the Shadow Realm. That review is scheduled for two weeks from now, so look forward to that! With that out of the way, let’s start with a classic anime revisited.
The Ghost in the Shell
Please don’t look at me like that, I’m shy and don’t know how to respond.
I’m not the biggest fan of Science Fiction. I’m aware that a lot of the political intrigue, drama and personal journeys can be very similar to fantasy stories, but the setting doesn’t nearly excite me as much as one with dragons and magic and swords and bows. Still, I know a good show when I watch one, and when I watched the Ghost in the Shell movie several years ago I liked what I saw. A story about what it means to be human in a world where machines and artificial intelligence are reaching scary levels of believability, that’s an experience so far removed from our present day that it is pure science fiction. Yeah, I only watched this movie like five years ago and look how much things have changed. Enough that watching the new Ghost in the Shell adaptation that aired this season felt like an almost scary look into our future. A future that is flashy, boisterous and loud but has a lot of nastiness bubbling underneath all of that. If you’re new to this story, we follow Kusanagi Motoko, who is this ghost within a shell. Ghosts are people’s consciousness and shells are artificial bodies they inhabit. Together with a squad of misfits she works for Public Security section 9 in an attempt to deal with the rampant corruption and criminal activity in this world. This version of Kusanagi is much more molded after how she was in the manga – from what I’ve been told, I have not read it – and has much more personality than the grittier version we’ve seen in early versions. It makes sense. Even in a dystopia there are still vices and why wouldn’t you partake in those regularly. She’s quite tongue and cheek and I would be too in her position. She’s caught up in the middle of international subterfuge as well as a mysterious cyber criminal known as the puppet master. If you like shows that are loud and boisterous but also say a lot during their quiet moments, definitely give this one a watch.
Smoking behind the supermarket with you
I love these two so much. I wish nothing but good things to happen to these two fictional characters.
If you’re like me and after a busy day at work you might not need all the loudness that GITS has to offer but instead you just want to relax and recharge some energy, then perhaps this next show is for you. Imagine you’re Sasaki. You’re in your forties, single, working a difficult job with a loud and obnoxious boss and all you have to relax is your smoking break. That and of course Yamada-san who works the counter at the local supermarket with her healing smile. One day when Sasaki makes his way home from work he is disappointed that he doesn’t get to see the kind cashier and lights up a cigarette outside the store, to the dismay of the other customers. He quickly scurries to the back of the supermarket to hide his vice in shame where he runs into another smoker. This red-haired woman with a leather jacket and piercings looks a lot like Yamada-san from counter 2 but has a very different vibe about her, so it must be a different person, right? This is how our romantic comedy between exhausted office worker Sasaki and friendly supermarket employee Yamada – I mean Tayama – starts. I said this was a romantic comedy, but a lot of this show is much more focused on the comedy part of it. There’s a lot to like about the banter between Tayama and Saski, but due to their age difference and their relatively recent friendship, there aren’t any big developments when it comes to the romantic side of this story, but after a long day of work it’s a very pleasant show to watch. Sasaki is very anxious and socially awkward, but not to the point that it becomes annoying and Tayama’s teasing nature matches him perfectly to create a great dynamic. The supporting cast is great too, and it is quite refreshing to see a romance anime that has some adult characters instead of your standard teenagers. Nothing wrong with the latter, but as someone in their thirties, it’s nice to believe that even at my age there’s still hope to find a cute girl wearing a letter jacket that doesn’t mind a little bit of social awkwardness.
Liar’s Game
She carries this show, hands down. She’s such a fun character with layers to her.
This show was a bit longer that rest, having run for two cours, and I’m glad it did because it gave us the opportunity for some of the characters in the show to grow on us. Kanzaki Nao is a young woman who has a kind heart and is very trusting of everyone around her. The perfect victim for a scam. One day she is roped into playing something called the Liar’s Game. She is given 100 million yen (560.000 euros) and is told to keep it safe from her opponent while trying to get her hands on his money instead. You see, the goal of the Liar’s Game is to make money at the expense of others. After the game ends, the Liar’s Game Office will seek to collect the initially 100 million yen from the contestants once more. If you’ve lost some of the money, you are now in trouble, but if you’ve managed to get your hands on some of your opponents’ money you can now get away with a nice bit of cash. How does that work legally? Don’t ask too many questions or this show’s believability falls apart. There are two rules. Don’t question if the core plot could actually work and don’t question why Nao is so ridiculously stupid. Both of those are purely because it moves the story along. As everyone expects, Nao is immediately conned into giving her money away to her opponent, an old teacher of hers who she really liked, and when she finds out that he does not plan to safely return it to her by the end of the game, she needs a plan fast. Luckily for her, there’s a young man named Akiyama who has just been released for jail. What was he in jail for? Conning a massive corporation until it went bankrupt. The perfect person to help her out with this game. He will only do it if he gets part of the money from Nao though, and not for free. Thus the two set out to get Nao’s money back from her former teacher so she can safely get out of these games. Without going into the spoilers, the two quickly reach a common goal within these games and start working towards a better outcome for everyone involved. Along the way they meet several characters, the most interesting of which is Fukunaga Yuuji, a trans woman who uses her ability to appear both feminine and masculine to her advantage. She is by far the most interesting character as she acts the most like a real person and is kind of a scumbag. The reason I said earlier on that this show having 2 cours was a boon is because we get to see more of her character journey and it elevates the show. If you like the first few episodes of this show but aren’t sure if you want to keep up with it, definitely consider sticking it out for the second half is much better than the first. And outside of the anime itself, please do yourself a favor and check out the music video for the first opening “Abuku” by Yorushika. It’s fantastic.
A witch’s life in Mongol
A young Sitara, still full of life and wonder.
For some people, conquering others without regard for their welfare isn’t just a goal, it is a way of living. It is in this part of the world we are dropped as Genghis Khan is at the height of his power, conquering his way through the steppes all the way to Persia, where our young protagonist Sitara simply wants to live her life with the people she lives with as a slave. Despite being enslaved, Sitara’s life is relatively decent here. Of course, there is no freedom, but she is being treated well and even taught a fair few things about life, including being able to read some books. That ends when one day the son of the Khan – Tolui – comes into town and ransacks the place. Sitara and the lady of the house hide in a shelter under the house, but are found by Tolui who is looking for a book for one of his wives. In the scuffle for this book, the lady of the house is killed in front of Sitara and she is then enslaved into the Khan’s following. Having lost everything, Sitara – who has now renamed herself to Fatima to appear more important as a slave – is hellbent on revenge against the people who killed her found family, took her books and took her freedom away. But a simple slave girl will not have a lot of chances at revenge in such a dangerous place. Luckily the balance shifts after Genghis Khan dies and his son Ogedei becomes the new Khan. Fatima (Sitara) finds her way into the employ of queen Toregene, who is also hellbent on revenge against the Mongol army for similar reasons. Together, the two plot out a way to destroy the kingdom from the inside while other forces are hard at work to either destabilize certain factions within the army or attempt to improve their own position. All of this political intrigue is accompanied by a gorgeous art style that is unique. The character designs are kept very similar to how they are in the manga – having the one downside that it’s really hard to guess how old characters are – but it allows the show to catch your eye from start to finish. If you like historical drama shows then this one is a must for you and even if it’s not normally your genre, I would still recommend you watch at least the first 2 episodes to see for yourself. It has been likened to shows like Apothecary Diaries and Ranking of Kings, both of which are shows I have put in my personal top 10, so that is high praise.
If looks could kill, there would be a massacre on the steppe.
One Piece Heroines
I love One Piece and will enjoy most things that are even remotely related to it, but as you know from my opinion on the live action series that has not stopped me from criticizing the series when it’s deserved. Whereas a while ago we got an absolutely fantastic special episode titled “Fan Letter” that any fan of the show should watch, we now got another special called “Heroines”. This time we do not focus on the pirating side of being pirates but instead on the fashion side of being pirates. Yes, it feels mismatched to me too, but sometimes these strange sidequests work out well. Unfortunately in this special, that is not the case. What One Piece is trying to do with this special is tell a story about strong women being able to come out of their shell and be the bad-asses they want to be. What ends up happening instead is a kind of half-assed attempt at this, with some of the women coming out much less competent than they are in other parts of this story. Nami is somehow completely unable to function as a pirate due to her shoe not fitting her perfectly and doesn’t even manage to then get a refund for the shoes without having to do far more work than the shoes are worth. Essentially, the women end up being exploited more so than becoming powerful role models. If I were to give this one a compliment it would be towards the art style. This special looks very different from the rest of One Piece and I think the style they chose for this special works well for the story they were trying to tell but unfortunately I do not think this one stuck the landing.
Just getting to see Robin in uniform makes it all worth it.
And that is all for this season’s Quick Reviews. Except not yet, as there are still a whole bunch of sequels to talk about. And we will do so, next week. For now, thanks for reading!
Me when the kids give me their dumb excuse for why they didn’t do their homework.
Sometimes a good manga will get an anime adaptation that doesn’t quite fulfill the promise. In some cases that is because of anime original endings, or just poor adaptations. The problem that plagued Zom100 was production issues. And instead of sending out low quality episodes to keep up with deadlines, the team behind the anime released the episodes after a delay. This kept the quality of the anime relatively good, but it also meant that there were long pauses between some of the episodes that made people lose interest. I never did end up losing interest and after the anime finished, I was curious about where the story could head from there so I decided to buy the manga. And I’ve had a blast with the manga ever since, so let’s talk about it.
Zom100 follows Akira, a young man who is working a dead-end job in Tokyo after he wants to get out of the small rural town he grew up in. He’s depressed, he hates his job and he’s overworked and his best friend Kencho seems to have it all figured out (we find out later that he doesn’t). At wits end, things only seem to get worse for Akira as a zombie apocalypse suddenly throws his life into chaos. But after overcoming the initial horror of the situation he is now in he realizes something. He doesn’t have to go to work the next day. This revelation brightens Akira’s day and he soon finds himself enjoying life. Not only that, he even decided to write a bucket list of things he wants to do before the end of the world. This is where the show gets its full title from; Zom100: Bucket list of the dead.
Besides Akira – who is admittedly a pretty dull character for big parts of the story and serves more as a self-insert than an actual fleshed out character – we get a pretty fun group of characters that travel alongside him. Kencho is his buddy from college who seemed to be doing much better in life than Akira was but in reality was in way over his head and did not like where he was either, instead wanting to become a comedian. They are joined shortly after by Shizuka, a young successful woman who is all about efficiency in an attempt to please her father. Through our main character she learns to be less uptight and actually takes the time to enjoy life. We’re also joined by the tourist from Germany: Beatrix. She’s a big fan of everything Japanese culture and thus also fights with a katana because why not. Later on in the story they are joined by Takamine who is an old college buddy as well and Izuna, a young gamer who is immune to the zombie virus and the key to figuring out an antivirus. There are more characters that join them for a time, but this is the core cast.
The story focuses on the lives of these people and their dreams. Living a free life, becoming a doctor, restoring Nippon’s glory, becoming a comedian and more. Throughout this journey they try and tick off the 100 different goals they have which includes some pretty silly stuff like skydiving, going to space, holding a one man comedy show and more. Most of the goals on the list are initially Akira’s goals but as the group grows, the others add their own goals onto the list as well.
Despite the very silly premise of the manga, it does manage to hit some nice emotional beats. It mainly get this from moments where Akira helps other people realize what they really want to do with their life and that they shouldn’t throw away the moments they have just because efficiency and work get in the way. We learn about how much trauma Akira truly has from his job when he meets his former manager again and they get roped into helping him. He learns to appreciate his hometown more when he returns there with his friends and the village becomes an attack target for the zombies due to some bad apples. And throughout it all there are tons of terrible jokes and naked running around and just all around sillyness. This is not a mature story. This is a very childish story that has some mature moments in it to balance out all the silly stuff.
Listen, just go with it, okay? It probably makes sense somehow.
After 20 volumes of this I still haven’t really lost interest in this manga which I would say is pretty high praise. The story is always moving forward and as long as you can suspend your disbelief long enough – like when the gang goes into a wildlife sanctuary, they go into space or they fight a horde of soldier zombies – then it becomes a very fun manga to read. The characters are fun and there’s even a fair bit of romance sprinkled on top of it all to add some spice to it. The quality of the art is fine, I wouldn’t praise it as much as something like Soul Eater or Witch Hat Atelier, but it’s still doing its job. All in all, you should definitely give this manga a read or start off with the anime first. At the bare minimum, treat yourself by checking out the opening to the anime, because the colorful mayhem that is accompanied by Kana-boon’s singing is worth your time for sure. Thanks for reading!
Unfortunately, there is no episode of Tensura this week, but in its stead it looks like the second movie is now available online, so I decided to watch that instead. It gives me something to do on a Saturday after all. Speaking of things to do, I have been hard at work in the past few days to update the look and more importantly the navigation of this blog. You will now find the main menu in the top left of your screen and from there it should be much easier and more clear to navigate to where you want to be. With that out of the way, let’s review this movie. I’ll keep it light on the spoilers so you can decide for yourself if you want to watch it or not after reading this post. And if you’re curious where this movie takes place, it looks like this is just after the founder’s festival so between season 3 and season 4
There’s a line in here just before this shot where Milim is kind of surprised that her dragon wasn’t the only one around, which is kind of crazy considering Veldora is right there.
The setting for the story is simple. Rimuru and his friends are invited by the ruler of Thalion, lady Elmesia, to visit a private resort island. They bring along Eren – of course – and her two adventuring buddies as well as Hinata, Luminus, Milim and Frey. There are a total of three members of Octagram here with two former members along for the ride. While everyone is relaxing at this resort, Gobta gets caught up in a mess with a woman named Yura who stole something called “the dragon fang” from a nearby kingdom. We also learn that Leon’s El Dorado is located in the vicinity of this island and is under constant attack of nuclear-grade magic. I wonder if that’s coming from Jaune or not, since she seemed to be a thorn in Leon’s side before Diablo recruited her. The main conflict of this movie seems to be that Yura stole the dragon fang which lets you summon the water dragon. Obviously she stole it from the bad people trying to abuse it and now it’s up to the gang – mostly Gobta – to solve this issue.
Gobta out here channeling his inner Jackie Chan was kind of fun to watch.
Now I have to be honest with all of you, before I checked out this movie I had already seen that the reviews weren’t particularly positive. Anyone watching a Tensura movie this late into the game is probably pretty heavily invested in the story. You often see this with sequels of mediocre shows, where the later the season, the better the rating because the only people actually rating it are those who are still on board. When a movie this late into a series gets poor reviews, it probably means something. I went into this movie with that bias already in my head. And I kind of understand the comments too. Although it’s not a particularly bad story by any means, I can’t say this movie was better – or even as good – as a regular episode. The direction of it felt all over the place and the animation and art quality weren’t anything to write home about either. It feels very much like an anime movie that’s written because a show is popular and they want to expand profits on it. None of what happens feels like it’s important for the plot of Tensura and even though they sprinkle in some canon moments to make you feel more invested, it can definitely be skipped.
Thanks for the memories
One thing that I did think was really well done in this movie was the music. The song playing during one of the fights was an absolute banger and some of the musical interludes were also great. I also liked the character of Yura quite a bit, and her buddy cop attitude with Gobta was also really fun to watch. It’s almost unfortunate that eventually the actual story started to settle in and we went past the fun and whimsy and into a more serious arc for a country and characters we’re really not all that invested in. One of the big benefits of Tensura’s endless meetings is that you get to really know the characters and feel like you’re invested in what might happen with them. It’s a lot of build-up for a pretty quick pay-off in the end. Contrast that with introducing all the important characters in the span of a short movie and it starts to feel like they just reused an existing story beat and rushed through it. The previous movie had similar issues in my opinion. I suppose this is really a problem that many anime movies have. They can’t have too big of an impact on the main story after all.
One of these days Veldora will actually be allowed to show his mettle instead of being relegated to protection duty because he’s too powerful to actually be able to take part in the plot
All in all, I think this movie was fine and I’m glad it became available online when there wasn’t an episode out, but I’d rather get a weekly episode than this. Regardless, see for yourself if you want to invest 2 hours into watching this movie. You can definitely skip it in its entirety and be fine though. And remember that I’ll be fixing up the page for Tensura content in the next few days, so check back to see what it looks like soon. And as always, thanks for reading!
Back in 2021 I posted this review of Mushoku Tensei. To this day it is by far my most viewed post on the website and I still do not understand why, but that’s okay. What I do understand is that even five years and several seasons later, Mushoku Tensei is doing really well and is very popular. On anime-planet the show currently has 4.5 out of 5 stars which is a very good score. And I will admit I’ve been keeping up with the show all this time, enjoying a good chunk of it. The worldbuilding of this show is very solid, I’ve said that at the start and I still agree with that. But there’s a glaring problem that needs to be addressed.
One of them is a child.
Rudeus Greyrat – the main character of Mushoku Tensei – is a pedophile and a groomer. We knew this back in season 1, but there were quite a few fans of the original light novel that came out of their basements to defend the series, saying that Rudeus is supposed to be a shitty person at the start and will grow as the series continues. At the end of season 1 I recommended people to watch this show, as I thought the good outweighed the bad. That last part also took into account the potential of the character of Rudeus. His actions also hadn’t gotten nearly as bad as they have now, and that’s impressive considering I was already grossed out by stuff in season 1. Let’s go over what we’ve had happen in this season’s first four episodes.
Last season, Rudeus had a child with his childhood (using that term loosely) crush Sylphiette. Sylphie is a minor, and there are definitely some moral issues with their relationship, but one could argue – I sure wouldn’t – that Rudeus is in the body of a teenager so he counts as one. The issue I have with that logic is that Rudeus does not see anything wrong with his actions, nor does the author. If we look for a comparable situation, we can point at Arthur from The Beginning after the end. Arthur lived a full life as a king and was then reincarnated as a baby in a new world. Arthur rather quickly found a close friendship with an elven princess and she clearly has a massive crush on him. Different from Rudeus, Arthur pushes most female advances away due to still feeling like an adult mentally. Of course he gets flustered at times and doesn’t always know how to handle the situations he gets into, especially with how popular he is with women, and how he doesn’t feel like he belongs with girls his age, but also not with older women. No matter what conclusion he ends up making – and I wouldn’t be surprised if he does end up with Tessia in the long run – at the very least he’s put a lot of thought into it, is aware of the moral implications of his actions and doesn’t start having sex with random children just because he is in the body of a child.
Rudeus on the other hand has no such restrictions. He doesn’t even seem to have a moral compass when it comes to sexual acts. He is in an active relationship with Sylphie – a minor – while also pursuing an active relationship with Roxy – a woman who looks like a child and was his teacher when Rudeus was still a young child. This second situation somehow feels like grooming in both directions which has to be something unique to this anime. And while all of this is going on, Eris is training to become strong enough to fight alongside Rudeus, considering him to be hers already. Now, neither Eris or Rudeus communicated their feelings well to the other, but Eris is a literal child and Rudeus is a grown man, having lived for over 50 years at this point. It also doesn’t help the show that one of the side plots is about an elven woman who is cursed to be horny all the time and she is also marrying a teenager. It’s not a moral quandary that the author is trying to figure out through his writing, it’s pedophilia and it’s not even hidden all that well.
This is the main character, not some goon that gets kicked into orbit during the story. Is this your mans?
I am not a big fan of dropping shows. I blame the autism for that, but when I start something I really want to finish it or it’ll kind of irritate me. I regularly come back to my list of dropped anime and see if there’s something I can stomach enough to finish. Not exactly healthy behavior, but what can you do? Despite my dislike for dropping series, Mushoku Tensei is firmly going into the dropped pile. If Rudeus had shown even the smallest amount of growth as a character I would have loved to continue watching it, but I can’t stomach the latest episodes at all. The man is happily married but still has his wife’s period stains and his girlfriend’s used underwear in a shrine hidden in the house he shares with them. There’s no excusing his behavior and even though we should absolutely separate art from the artist, I do wonder about this particular artist. This will be the last time I’ll write about this series. To all of you who read the first post about it, thank you so much for making my blog feel more alive and seen than it otherwise would. Please check out some of my other posts too, I promise I’m usually more positive about the shows I watch. Thanks for reading!
When I was growing up, I always had a very extensive imagination. I was a bit of a weird kid – who would have guessed – and especially during my teenage years when I wasn’t fitting in all that well with my peers my mind would spend a lot of time wandering. I would also read a lot of books and it was around that time that my love for the fantasy genre came into full force. As much as I actively despise the author, I have to admit that as a child I was enthralled by Harry Potter. The idea that there was an entire world out there that was filled with magic was so incredibly appealing to a young boy. Appealing enough that I would even be able to ignore one of the most glaring issues with the series. No, I’m not talking about the inconsistencies or the racist undertones, I’m talking about how at the end of the day, much of the magic we are shown in Harry Potter is incredibly boring. At least the books let us apply our own imagination, but in the movies it looks uninspired at best.
I have a soft spot for illusion magic like this, it’s very simple, but it can be used in so many different ways.
Now I’m not here to take shots at Harry Potter – although I don’t mind doing so – but instead I want to talk about why magic has been such a big obsession for me and many other lonely children. Because what is magic? Magic isn’t something we can very clearly define. You can argue it’s things that science can’t explain, it’s tricks that magicians use like sleight of hand, or it’s the mastering of the elements like in Avatar. Magic can be whatever a storyteller wants it to be, but that comes with its risks. In fiction we have what we call “soft magic systems” and “hard magic systems”. Lord of the Rings is a great example of the former, where magic is this strange power that just sort of does things to advance the story. And hard magic is what we see applied in the anime we’re discussing today.
Unfortunately the person you’re talking to right now does not have your best interest in mind.
That’s not to say that hard magic is better than soft magic or the other way around, either system can be great if it is executed well. Suspension of disbelief is a powerful tool and if an author does not abuse this then even the most unexplained magic systems can still function wonderfully. But for me personally, there is something incredibly special about a hard magic system that also manages to look cool. In the world of Witch Hat Atelier, the masses are made to believe that magic is something you are born with, and only those who have the aptitude for it can become witches. In reality, that is not the case. Anyone is able to use magic if you just know where to get some special ink and learn how to draw magic circles. Depending on the size, design and direction of the circles the magic will change and witches are those who study these circles and learn to draw them so that they can cast magic spells. They need to do all of this while hiding the truth from the public as readily available magic can easily be abused like it was in the past.
In this show, the magic looks best when it is in motion. Unfortunately a screenshot can’t do it justice.
In this world, Coco finds out about the truth and becomes a student at Qifrey’s atelier while the duo try to save her mother from the spell that Coco accidentally cast on her as well as figuring out more about the brimmed caps. These brimmed caps are the villains of the story – at least at this point they are, I don’t know if that will change since it feels like this story definitely has the ability to go into many directions – and keep messing with Coco as she seems to be a tool in one of their schemes. Coco in the meantime is learning rapidly and alongside her three fellow apprentices she is working hard to master more seals.
A magic ball of water, for those who like to stay hydrated.
Now, what really sells this manga for me is the way that magic gets applied to tools. The concept of drawing magic circles to cast certain spells is fun for sure, but it’s not the first story that uses this concept. Fullmetal Alchemist did it decades ago and I myself am an avid fan of this type of magic and use it in several of my stories. But the way these circles are also drawn onto objects to make them function just really blew my mind. Flying shoes? Half the circle is on the left shoe and the other half is on the right shoe and when put together the magic activates. Only when the circle is completed does the spell activate, so all witches have a small round notepad with prepared spells they can cast in an instant if they need to. Powerful spells are engraved into weapons and objects to give them the properties of the magic. It’s honestly a really fun application of a tried and true concept.
This is the most important part of the magic in this world.
So why do we love magic so much? I should probably deliver on the premise of this post by now. Magic – to me – is the idea that there are things out there that we cannot fully explain. As sensible as a magic circle is, why does it do the things it does? Why does using the ancient language in Eragon give you the power to do magical things? Why can the people in the world of Avatar use their bending to control the elements? Just because a magical system is well explained, doesn’t mean that it’s a reality. And we don’t like reality. Reality kind of sucks most of the time. Just turn on the news for an hour and you’ll be going to bed depressed. So what would be more optimistic than the thought that a world could exist where magic could be used to solve some of our problems?
Magic is the idea that anything is possible if you just put in the time and effort. It’s why we love a story about someone who doesn’t expect to have the talent or ability for magic to find out that they actually do. I think that creating a world where you require special powers to use magic is kind of sad. Instead, think of creating a world where anyone can use magic if they get the right tools for it. That is exactly what the world of Witch Hat Atelier does and I’m very curious to see how its limitations come back to bite it in the long run. Thanks for reading.
I recently had a revelation. There have been popular anime with or around Rakugo before, the first one coming to mind being Show Genroku Rakugo Shinju that aired several years ago. I could never really get into these types of shows because the concept of Rakugo never really appealed to me. A person telling you a story with nothing but their voice and their body language? No theater or video to go along with it and not even anyone to bounce off of? That cannot be all that fun to watch, right? Anyway, let me show you this clip of Brennan Lee Mulligan monologuing as several different characters in a single scene by using nothing but his voice and… oh, I get it now.
Arakawa Shinto before he was expelled from the Arakawa school of Rakugo. Akane points out that the wife in the scene is modeled after Shinto’s own wife.
Akane’s father was her idol, performing Rakugo in their spare room while he practiced his craft. Akane would always peek into the room to see him, and be transported into the stories he told. When Akane’s father went up for a promotion performance, they all went to go and watch it, and the results were heartbreaking. A legend in the industry from the same broader school as Akane’s father, Arakawa Issho, is the one judging and not only does he not promote any of the performers present for that test, the expels all of them on the spot, making it so they can no longer be a part of the Arakawa school of Rakugo. Although Arakawa Shiguma – who trained alongside Arakawa Issho – pleads for his students’ case, the older disciple will not budge. Thus Akane’s father is forced to quit his Rakugo dreams and get a regular job to provide for his family. This not only results in Akane no longer seeing his Rakugo performances, but due to work demanding a lot from her father, he’s absent a lot for work trips. All of these injustices have lit a fire in Akane as she now studies under Arakawa Shiguma to become such a good Rakugoka that she will prove that her father was unjustly expelled. That is where our story picks up.
Akane learning how to pay attention to the wants of your audience – in this case the customers at a bar.
Akane is talented, we know this from the very start, but there are still a lot of things she can still learn from the more experienced Rakugoka that train under Shiguma. She only becomes an official member of the school towards the end of her High School life, and even requires her teacher to be convinced, which is a great way to put in a character that is just as clueless about the world of Rakugo as some of us viewers might be. Also, the teacher is very attractive. That. That is all. No more questions.
Like I said, no more questions
Throughout the first season we meet a couple of interesting characters including the aforementioned Shiguma and Issho who each have their own individual school within the Arakawa branch. Issho has a promising pupil who meets Akane early on and although he is set up to be somewhat antagonistic, the two get along relatively well. Akane also meets her elder disciples in Guriko, Koguma, Maikeru and Kyoji. She learns something from each of them – except Maikeru but surely he’ll play a role of sorts in the second season that will arrive next year. The first season focuses on the journey Akane takes as a beginner in the world of Rakugo and ends with a confrontation that will leave you wanting for more.
She’s so cool when she’s locked in
One major complaint I’ve seen online – that I have to agree with – is that the actual Rakugo stories could require more time in the anime. The final one we see is a bit more extended due to how much is focused on the material of Jugemo, but they rarely give us enough time as an audience to feel fully invested in a story. It’s more about everything that happens around it. I think it could be good if some of the performances – obviously not all of them – were given in their complete form so that we as viewers can get a proper insight into what Rakugo is like.
I spoke about this briefly in my post yesterday, but it’s scenes like this where the quiet does everything and there is no dialogue that really make a show for me. If I can feel the atmosphere then you’ve got me hooked.
All in all, this series reminds me a lot of Chihayafuru with an interesting female lead, a somewhat obscure – at least here in the west – game or art form and enough competition to make you feel like you’re watching a battle shonen even though no one is getting beat up. The animation is fine, it does what it needs to do and although it doesn’t blow anyone away, it’s still sufficient. The music is also good and the character designs are great and instantly memorable. If you’re looking for a fun series you can give this one a watch without really knowing what Rakugo is. And honestly I just wanted to use that title, which is the main reason why I wrote this review. Thanks for reading.
Now that we’ve had two longer breaks from the One Piece anime, I’ve really started to appreciate how nice it was to have the same show airing almost every single week for about half my life. Let’s not think about that too much, I think I just took damage to my life points from realizing how old that makes me. With opening 29 we enter the Elbaph arc in all its glory and for those of us reading the manga, there are a ton of little easter eggs throughout this episode so please beware that you do not read this post if you aren’t up to date on the manga. You have been warned. Seriously, I’m talking about everything we see in the manga, so do not read this!
The harley still looks a little bit vague here, but if you zoom in and enhance you can see what it’s all about.
We open on Luffy’s Elbaph outfit and immediately jump into a lovely shot of the Harley at the bottom of Yggdrasil. The prophetic wall paintings were a huge deal in the manga and have resulted in tons of speculation about what the final arc of this show might look like. With Egghead being the way it is, we’re almost certainly going to learn that the void century was a time of technological prosperity the world hasn’t seen again since then. Speaking of the void century, the shot of the Harley is interrupted by a shot of Joyboy standing next to Emet before we’re shown the important people that traveled the world before Luffy donned the Straw Hat that has become a vital symbol of freedom throughout the world.
I love this shot in particular, having a voice to go with Emet’s huge robotic frame has really upped my love for the character.
With the weapons reflecting the sun and the sky we’re reminded that Dory and Broggy only returned to Elbaph to pick up some new weapons. These two – I love them to death – are about as stubborn and dumb as you can be. After a hundred years of fighting for a cause that they long forgot, they broke their weapons, the world is in turmoil and all they can think about is returning to Elbaph, grab some new weapons and get right back at it for another century. Men, am I right? While the Sunny is parked nice and safe on land, we see three tiny dolls in Rodo’s room where the clothes he’s made for Luffy, Nami and Usopp are sitting, ready to be put on his livedolls. We’re followed by a shot of the underworld that could almost be mistaken as a bunch of mountains, but instead shows us the chains that bind Loki, prince of Elbaph and the next member of the Straw Hat pirates. Maybe.
Rodo’s livedolls, what a creep.
Luffy marvels at the bar that Shanks frequents, where the giants often drink with any visitors they have, although I can’t imagine they have too many in this part of the world. We’re then shown a shot of the New Giant Pirates, who of course are part of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, but first we see them as children, in a very pencil-drawn style. Of course this is to show off St. Killingham’s ability to turn nightmares into monsters, but here we see the young children looking happy, perhaps portraying a more kind dream than the ones we see throughout the arc. We’re then shown what they look like now, with their captain Hajrudin at the center.
Some serious cottagecore going here.
From here we go quickly so stay with me. Harjudin leaves our shot and is replaced by his brother, Loki, who looks away. We’re then shown the library and the children happily studying at it, as well as a quick shot of Chief Jarul with the weapon stuck in his helmet. Next up is the abandoned Elbaph Castle where disaster struck when Harald gave control over to Imu, not quite understanding what he was doing and dooming the nation of Elbaph to subservience. At least that would have happened if a certain someone didn’t prevent tragedy.
I love them.
We see some shorts of the Straw hats in their Elbaph gear and yes that’s right, she’s there. Nico Robin with her old haircut. Ever since we left Punk Hazard behind, I don’t think the crew’s outfits have missed at all, but I really like their Elbaph garb. Franky’s long beard really suits him, Usopp and Luffy with viking helmets look great and as an official member of the Nico Robin fanclub, seeing her with her old bangs, showing them off to her old friend, is such a sight for sore eyes. Speaking of sights for sore eyes, here comes the sun and with that I mean Nika, the sun god. We see him in a book before the watchful eye of Imu, alongside the Holy Knights that appear during this arc, looks at us.
Our brave little warrior. Rayleigh was the only one of the big three on Roger’s crew to be smart enough to not have any kids. Then again, being the mountain eater probably isn’t a bad deal either.
Here we move into much darker shots although if you haven’t read the manga yet, their meaning might be lost. We see the children drawing their biggest fears, which of course get turned into reality by St. Killingham’s powers. We see the thorns that St. Sommers employs as well as the arrows that St. Gunko uses. All of these are combined to force the children to walk off the cliff and into the hands of the world government all while Collun puts on a brave face. Meanwhile Loki rages at the world for treating him unfairly and for what they did to his mother while Hajrudin – presumably – rages at the fate that put him against his brother for all these years. Hajrudin’s had a rough life, especially with being turned into a toy at Dressrosa, but with the big reveals throughout Elbaph it seems like he might finally get into a better place. I also don’t really think Loki will join Luffy’s crew directly, he’ll probably join up with Hajrudin’s crew.
Okay but can we just remember that he was supposed to marry Lola at one point? The woman that’s about as tall as I am? Yeah.
Finally, we end with a montage of shots that don’t hold a ton of meaning from what I can see but are mostly there to show us all of the fun characters we’ll get to meet throughout this arc. We see a quick shot of Gunko and fake shanks – I mean Shamrock – as they’re on their way to deal with Loki, before we’re shown all of the Straw Hats, the New Giant Pirates as well as the two captains of the old Giant Pirates. Finally, we’re ending on a shot of Luffy transforming into his form where he is the most free, while the sun shines brightly upon him. * symbolism *
Look at our boi!
With everything we’ve discussed so far, I think it’s safe to say that after the last few openings, Toei studio is continuing to cook with this one. It’s not going to be my all time favorite, nor will it be a top five entry, but having listened to the song a lot on repeat over the past week, I do think it’ll be one to remember. At least it’s a lot more memorable than a lot of the openings in the 10s which are all serviceable, but some of them I cannot tell apart. AiNA’s husky voice tickles my ears just right – you might recognize her from the latest Dandadan opening – and the song itself is a fun tune that builds up well then crashes into you with all the force of the pirate crew that will free the world from 800 years of oppression. Thanks for reading!
It’s the end of the winter season and although it’s a season that felt dominated by some incredible sequels and quickly overshadowed by the upcoming season – for me at least – it still ended up having some very good anime. In the next few weeks, we’ll look back on a season full of surprises. Join me next week as we talk about the ever cheerful You and I are polar opposites and the week after that for the deep confrontational story that is Journal with Witch. But first, let’s take a much quicker look at some of the other shows you might have missed out on this season. I am going to exclude most sequels, but I will take a moment to talk about the final season of Fire Force as I have some thoughts on that show. Let’s get to it.
With the goofiest smile on our faces, let’s dive into the winter season head-first.
Fire Force
Besides having one of the best ending songs in the anime industry right now – and that’s a tough competition these days – the final season of Fire Force tries its very best to go out with a bang and give us something to remember. I’ve not talked about Fire Force much on this blog now that I think about it. As a massive fan of Ohkubo’s other work – Soul Eater – this newer manga has always felt like it was falling short compared to its more creative older brother. Following Kusakabe Shinra, a young man with fire powers in a world where those are somewhat common and the main cause of death has become spontaneous combustion, we see his growth in the eight fire force division. Throughout the seasons we spend time figuring out what exactly is going on with the world and is causing this phenomenon of spontaneous combustion. Meanwhile the white-clad cultists are trying to bring about the end of the world. In this final season, what the story ends up focusing on is the world-rending great cataclysm which allows for the story and the animation to get funky and creative. A clashing mix of styles is used to denote different periods in the story’s time and the creativity of the human mind is pushed to its boundaries in this season. The world is what we make of it, and combined human consciousness is now responsible for what the world looks like. I like the concepts presented in this final season a lot, it feels like classic Ohkubo insanity that straddles the line of being nonsense or genius storytelling. But where Soul Eater leans towards the genius for me, a lot of Fire Force unfortunately leans more towards the nonsense. Despite all this, the reason I wanted to include this sequel where I’m skipping the others, is that I think you should still watch it even considering its flaws. It’s a creative idea done justice by studio David Production and you might come away from it thinking it wasn’t very good, but I doubt you’ll come away from it thinking it wasn’t creative and different. And I dare you to listen to the ending and not feel incredible afterwards.
A leftover from the previous season, you can already see how the night sky has been touched by the madness. This is a sign of what is to come.
Fate/strange Fake
Welcome to the American city of Snowfield where the next holy grail is about to start. How do we know this? Well, there’s been a little bit of a set-up. This time around, the idea was to only summon six servants, making it so the grail war wouldn’t officially start. Unfortunately the grail itself had other ideas and now we’ve somehow ended up with fourteen masters and fourteen servants. As usual we have an unorthodox mixture of crazy people and their crazier servants battling it out in the streets as only one pair can win and claim the holy grail for themselves. This season focuses on a woman named Sajyou Ayaka and her servant Lionheart of the Saber class. The duo must fight their way through the holy grail as conspiracy looms everywhere for this grander than ever grail war. This entire war has been set up by a man named Faldeus who seems to be working for the US government. He’s a real piece of work and shaping up to be a big antagonist in this and future seasons. We have your classic spread of good and evil characters with a lot of morally grey folks caught up in the middle. The original story was written by Ryohgo Narita – of Durarara and Baccano fame – so you know it’s written by someone who is excellent at writing a large but cohesive feeling cast of strange characters, as that is what he’s historically done best. With a sequel already confirmed, this show is a must watch for anyone who misses the old days of Fate/Zero and wants to relive that feeling of being completely lost on what’s going on but still enjoying every second of it.
Oh no, he’s hot
In the clear moonlit dusk
Takiguchi Yoi looks more masculine than your average high school girl, earning herself the title of “prince”. She’s not the only one, as one of the upperclassmen is also given this title, for looking handsome and apparently being from a rich family. After a chance meeting, Yoi and Ichimura-senpai start hesitantly going out with each other. This romance focuses on the distance between these characters and their different histories when it comes to dating which eventually leads to their relationship blossoming. I had a lot of fun with the first half of this show, but where it started to really nosedive for me was the very forced love triangle it put into the story in the second half. It was clear from the beginning where it would end and it just made for two or three very frustrating episodes towards the end that made me want to punch some of the characters through the monitor. Despite this complaint, I would still say I enjoyed most of my time spent with this show and if you’re looking for a more muted romance that feels very, very shojo – and that is saying something, coming from me – then give this one a go. It was a bit too much for me at times, but if that’s your thing, then definitely give this one a watch.
When people say “boys will be boys” I can’t help but think about how every boy’s dream is to be good at hardcore parkour and jumping off of things.
Sentenced to be a hero
When the world is under attack from a strange demon blight that devours everyone and everything in its path, the worst punishment a criminal can expect isn’t to be sentenced to death. It’s to be sentenced to death only to be brought back to forcefully have to fight against this demon blight. Xylo Forbartz is one of the unlucky people being sentenced to become a hero and he’s desperate to avoid dying and reviving, since it’ll strip away your memory over time. In the midst of this chaos, he comes across a box with a goddess in it. Goddesses allow their knights access to crazy powers and in return wish to be praised. Teoritta – the goddess in the box – immediately takes a liking to Xylo, and not long after do we learn that she isn’t the first one to do so. Xylo’s crime was letting the previous goddess die. Although from the snippets we see, she burned out on her own accord during a dire fight, it seems like Xylo still got falsely blamed for the whole endeavor. With this set-up for a story, we start diving into this crazy world where some people even want to coexist with the demon blights. We meet an eclectic cast of criminals – some proper pieces of work, others more falsely condemned – and although heroes are mostly looked down upon, the actions of Xylo and his comrades slowly earn them some respect from the knights and people they fight alongside and protect. Of course there seems to be a much deeper conspiracy lurking behind the shadows and as much as I ended up enjoying this show, it really irks me that it ended on such a big cliffhanger. In an industry where sequels aren’t always a given and even if they are, it might take a while, that feels bad. Luckily, a sequel is already in production and I honestly cannot wait.
One of the selling points of this show is that – although a lot of them don’t seem to have much intelligence – the enemies have a very cool and colorful design.
The holy grail of Eris
Out of all the shows I watched this season, it was this political intrigue story that surprised me the most. Ten years after the execution of Scarlett Castiel – one of the coldest political schemers in the kingdom – we meet Constance Grail, a young woman from an honorable family in a world full of betrayal and wickedness. Young Connie is being tricked and berated by a fellow noblewoman, and is about to lose all of her standing. In a desperate plea to get some help in this dire moment, she calls out to someone, anyone, and the ghost of a vengeful woman answers. With Scarlett’s wits and skills, the young girl masterfully takes down her enemies and immediately gains several new ones in the process. Now that she’s managed to get out of this mess, things aren’t going to get any better as she quickly finds herself caught up in a massive political plot that keeps getting more and more convoluted as she’s trying to help Scarlett get revenge on the people that wronged her. That is her payment for Scarlett’s help in this. What I really appreciate about this series is that although Connie doesn’t tell every soul she meets about Scarlett, she does share the knowledge with some characters, allowing them to act much more rationally. I was worried this would become a show where the secret would play a big role, and I was pleasantly surprised when that didn’t end up being the case. We meet many nobles throughout this story and the two women become close friends towards the end of the show. With the entire story finishing up in a single season, this is a fun one to watch and I would highly recommend it if your interest was even slightly piqued by this description.
People die when they are killed. Except when they don’t. Then they just return to come haunt you as a big tiddy goth ghost.
The Darwin incident
Let’s finish this up with a weird one. And yes, they are turning our anime woke. The Darwin Incident tells the story of Charlie the Humanzee. Charlie was born in a lab to a human father and a chimpanzee mother. Due to his unique existence in the world, it has been a difficult road to get him any rights, as by law he is not considered a human and most of the laws only apply to humans after all. Charlie himself seems to be the least bothered by all of this, just trying to live his life. The story starts with Charlie attending college while a terrorist organization called the ALA is trying to recruit him to their nasty schemes. The first couple of episodes focus a lot on the idea of being vegan and how it’s bad to eat meat while on the other hand some think it’s bad to be vegan as their family owns a steakhouse. It’s a pretty in-your-face way of talking about this topic and it is quite frankly the opposite of subtle, but it is fun to see everyone up in arms about it while Charlie does not really care. As the season continues, the story starts to go off the rails more and more with school shootings, terrorist bombings and even some fights wearing night goggles in the middle of a forest. It’s a pretty bizarre story all things considered and although I don’t think it really works well as actual social commentary, if you just take it as a weird story I found it very enjoyable. The villain is comically evil, Charlie’s friend Lucy is overly caring and definitely much more invested in Charlie’s rights than the man himself and the cliffhanger at the end of season 1 completely caught me by surprise. There’s definitely some criticism to be leveled at this show, but it never gets boring. And that includes the opening theme. The absolute banger by Official Hige Dandeism has been on loop on my Spotify account for the last couple months and I’m still not bored of it. Even if you think this anime isn’t for you, I would recommend at least listening to the opening theme Make me wonder. Beware of flashing lights though.
mmmm Monke
And with that, we’ve reached the end of this season’s quick reviews. There are a few more shows I’ll talk about in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned for those, but this should give you some time to catch up before the next season starts. Now I’ll go back to rewatching Ace of Diamond before I start the new season of that. Thanks for reading!
