Yes I know, there’s only one anime y’all are really interested in reading about.
What do I want to watch this season? Last time I had thirteen series listed and managed to finish four before the season ended. Of the unfinished ones I dropped one (Kuro no Shoukanshi) because it was just utterly mediocre and one (Shine Post) hasn’t been finished yet due to production problems. This time around I hope to have a better ratio, as this season is loaded with extremely juicy looking anime, including a plethora of high profile sequels. Not all of which will appear here however, as for example I never finished Mob Psycho 100‘s second season so I cannot start the third season yet. This is all based purely on the first episode I saw and in order of preference. But before we go to the meat this post we first have to deal with:
The (n)isekai corner
Too many series this season to give them all a write up, so let’s tackle the various isekai and pseudo-isekai that aree too formulaic to waste too much time one in one paragraph, shall we? Yuusha Party o Tsuihou Sareta Beast Tamer, Saikyoushu no Nekomimi Shoujo to Deau was a decent timewaster as a manga, but it is a very average story of a guy kicked out of the Hero’s party who is secretly overpowered but undervalued even by himself, so now he becomes an adventurer and assembles a harem of overpowered waifus. Futoku no Guild: dude wants to retire as a hunter, is persuaded to accompany a newbie adventurer on her mission, she turns out ot have knack for getting herself caught in …embarrassing positions, more girls join him, rinse and repeat. Noumin Kanren no Skill Bakka Agetetara Naze ka Tsuyoku Natta has protag-kun wanting to be a farmer, but the leveling up of his farming skills means he’s now incredibly overpowered. Hijinks ensue.
Shinobi no Ittoki
Ittoki is a seemingly normal boy in the last year of middle school. The only thing not ordinary about him is the sheer absurd number of afterschool classes his mother insists he takes on: prep school, gymnastics, flower arranging, all because he’s the son of a prestigious if poor family. It lives him no time for hanging out with friends and when he tries, his childhood friend is there to keep him in line, having been asked by his mother to do so. No wonder that he immediately accepts when a cute kouhai confesses to him. His mother forbids him to see her, but he sneaks on a date with her anyway and they end up in her bedroom, with her apparently eager to get physical. He should’ve listened to his mother though, as it turns out there’s a ninja under the bed and this was all a ploy to assassinate him. All because he turns out to be the 19th heir to the Iga clan of ninjas and their rivals the Koga want him gone.
Mother of the year there. Your son is a target of a bloodthirsty ninja clan and you only think to tell him after their murder attempt almost succeeded? You didn’t think to teach him actual ninja techniques, like you did his childhood friend, but thought being good at gymnastics and flower arrangement would be enough to keep him safe? Was this all an attempt to get him to “lead a normal life”, the usual excuse for this sort of “normal boy turns out to be a secret badass” series? If so, it’s clear that failed as well since he was far too busy with all those nonsense classes instead. Fortunately, the koga assassination attempts were just as dumb. Who hides a ninja under the bed? Why was there no attempt to kill him before he discovered him? Why, after he escaped, set up an elaborate ruse with murdering a fake police officer instead of just letting that officer kill him himself? I understand this show is just going for vibes here and wants to have that grand reveal at the end, but none of it makes sense and instead it was just annoying.
Animation wise it also wasn’t good enough to overlook the plot awkwardness. The fights were meh and the ninjas themselves just boring. Maybe this will be better once the actual story gets going and Ittoki is initiated in the world of ninjas, but this seems likely to be one of the first series I’ll drop in this crowded a season.
Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!
I was looking forward to this series as the manga version of it was hilarious. The first episode was completely fucked up though. This is a series about a serious chuunibyou who wants to be the “Eminence in Shadows”, the weak looking normal dude who’s secretly badass and manipulating the rest of the cast, to the point he trains himself to survive a nuke and gets depressed when that’s impossible. He then reincarnates into a fantasy world where all his wildest dreams can come true, never realising that the conspiracies and villains he dreams up actually exist. It’s a light hearted absurdist comedy about the world’s greatest fantasist living in a world in which his fantasies are real, so how better to introduce it by making the first episode an edgy grimfest about a high school idol being sexually assaulted before being rescued by the protagonist?
I think what they were going for was to set up a rug pull. Make it all look super serious and edgy, then in the last few minutes reveal the truth. But don’t use rape threats for that… Moreover, the edgy shit lasted way too long which left the after credits reveal feeling like more of the same, as it was done utterly deadpan. Luckily the second episode was far better, with Cid having been reincarnated as a baby and we follow him as he lays the foundations for his role playing. The series should’ve started here, as most of his pre-reincarnation story could’ve been summed up with just a few scenes, just like in the manga. Which would’ve also left room for some of the scenes now left on the cutting room floor. Including the scene in which it was revealed he was only reincarnated because he was trying to gain magic by hitting his head against a tree and mistook the light of an oncoming truck for magical power flowing into him…
Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai! Double
The second season of the big chested, small statured Uzaki-chan harassing her bear like, antisocial loner senpai so he won’t be lonely. Well, that’s her excuse anyway. Everybody but them sees them as a couple, but they themselves are refusing to do so. Hopefully there will be some progress this season as it becomes more and more impossible to keep up the gimmick.
Akuyaku Reijou nano de Last Boss o Katte Mimashita
Aileen Dautriche discovers she’s reincarnated as the villainess in a harem game at the very moment her fiancé the crown prince denounces and breaks up with her in front of the entire student body of the magical academy they both study at. What will she do? Make a play for the villain of the story of course, the prince’s older brother, shunned for being the demon king. She has no choice: if she does nothing she’ll die at his hands in three months…
I do like this sort of otome game based isekai stories and the manga version of this one was decent but short. This anime version is workman like and from the two episodes so far, a bit less coherent than the manga, which explains things better.
Uchi no Shishou wa Shippo ga Nai
A tanuki goes into the big city (Osaka) sometime in the Taisho era to try and trick the humans there. Which does not go according to plan as modern city slickers are not fooled by the pranks of a hick tanuki. By chance she witnesses a rakugo performance, falls in love with it and decides that this is a better way to trick humans.
I love the concept for this but the execution is a bit subpar. The rakugo performance was the best part of the episode though it really didn’t need to be explained (or rather, retold) in the post-credit segment. I’m actually quite proud I got the concluding Japanese puns in the story; that and the tanuki jumping down from a tower to fly away using her non-existing scrotum in the traditionally manner made me laugh out loud. Always a good sign for a comedy anime. What also kept me interested was the dynamic between Mameda, our tanuki and the mysterious rakugo teller Bunko. Most of this episode was setup so hopefully from the next episode the rakugo will be more central and we’ll meet the rest of the cast.
Koukyuu no Karasu
Deep within the imperial palace of fantasy China lives the Raven Consort. Unlike other consorts she’s not one of the emperor’s concubines, but a mystic doomed to live a life secluded from the rest of the palace. One night the emperor calls on her however, to get her to solve the mystery of to whom a haunted ear ring belongs. This sets in motion a chain of events that could change history.
A could be interesting mix of historical fantasy, mystery story and romance on offer here. The Raven Consort herself is revealed to be just a sixteen year old girl, new in her role, with a big secret to hide, while the emperor is young himself and only in power thanks to him overthrowing the rule of the dowager empress. He knows she murdered his mother but despite killing at least a dozen innocent guards, balks at executing her without evidence. This is just one of the things that had me worried for this series, the other being that the Consort’s big secret got revealed at the end of this first episode, far too soon for my liking. Both signal that this series will stick to convention and formula, with the emperor and consort falling in love with each other while having the morality of a high school romcom. Far better had the emperor been ruthless enough to kill the empress.
The setting is what keeps me interested, as we don’t see imperial China often in fantasy anime outside of Three Kingdoms inspired series. Animation wise it’s all decent, but nothing more, with no real stylistic interest.
Mushikaburi Hime
Perhaps the anime with the dumbest English title this season: Princess of the Bibliophile which sure reads like some meddling Japanese executive with no grasp of English insisted on it. Elianna Bernstein is the Bibliophile Princess in question, coming from a family of bookworms who can think of no greater pleasure than a good book. Despite this she’s the fiancee of prince Christopher, number one in line for the throne. She knows it’s a fake courtship, that she’s only there to keep the prince free from the unwanted affections of other women. Nevertheless it hurts when she notices she’s slowly being frozen out after four years of pretence as a more outgoing woman enters the prince’s life. As should be obvious from the ending and opening there’s more going on, but this first episode really managed to establish the low level anxiety and slowly growing sense of unease that Elianna feels. One thing I do wonder about is whether the name Bernstein was chosen by the original author just because it sounds foreign and European or whether they knew it’s a traditional Jewish surname.
Shinmai Renkinjutsushi no Tenpo Keiei
The episode start with our protagonist, Sarasa, facing her graduation exam at the Royal Alchemist Academy, the last remaining obstacle to her long awaited dream of being an alchemist. the the opening plays and after it ends we’re in the middle of a flashback that sees her parents murdered by bandits, the young Sarasa swindled out of her inheritance and dumped in an orphanage. There she meets an alchemist one day who inspires her to try and become one herself, so that she can make the money to open a store like the one her parents used to own. It’s a bit heavy for a light hearted series about a rural alchemist, don’t you think?
The rest of the episode is more like it. Sarasa joins the academy, is too busy with studying and working to make friends, but is taken under the wings of one of the leading alchemists, who acts as her mentor, teaching her things above and beyond the school curriculum. Which stands her in good stead in the exam, as she’s asked to create a medium grade healing potion but one of the ingredients for it was replaced by a similar looking herb. Thanks to the knowledge she got from Ophelia, her mentor and through quick thinking, she manages to create a substitute potion and a higher grade at that. she passes easily and again with help of her mentor, buys the full set of alchemy guidebooks she’ll need. Said mentor also steers her towards buying the deeds of a small alchemist’s shop, which is where Sarasa will spent the rest of the series. The most interesting part of this first episode was this relationship between Sarasa, her mentor Ophelia and Ophelia’s assistant Maria. It’s pretty clear that Ophelia and Maria are a couple and it feels very much like they adopted Sarasa as their daughter. Not sure how much we will see of them in later episodes, but with Ophelia already showing up again in episode two, chances are good they will re-appear.
Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita
Our nameless protagonist finds himself reincarnated as an overpowered magical sword in the court yard of a ruined castle. Luckily he has a limited form of telekinesis which allows him to jump around and attack the monsters surrounding the castle, gaining stats and skills as he does. All of which come in handy when he comes across a slaver caravan under attack by a super powered monster. One of the slaves, a cat girl called Fran, manages to wield him and defeat the monster. When the slavers come back the sword in return kills them and frees Fran. Finally an isekai series that knows slavery is not some innocent fetish.
Another flawed first episode here. We spent far too long following the as yet unnamed sword buffing his stats, full of the same tedious explanations you find in every other Dragon Quest based fantasy isekai series. It’s only when he and Fran meet that the series really comes to life. Fran is adorable and knows what she wants: to eat good food and to evolve, something no black cat person has ever done. The sword, now called Master by her, vows to help her do so. With two more episodes having come out in the mean time this is the isekai I like the most this season.
Pop Team Epic (2022)
The original shitpost anime is back! Same format as last time, with the second half repeating the first half of the episode but with male instead of female voice actors. The humour is the same as well, the same sort of quick fire sketches using a diverse bunch of animation techniques. What is different this time is that instead of the fake-out opening being a romance anime, it’s a pitch perfect tokusatsu parody. If you liked this series in 2018 you’ll like it now.
Spy x Family Season 02
This starts off where the first part stopped, with Anya wanting a dog as a reward for her finally getting her first Stella. Naturally the dog she gets involved with isn’t a normal one, but one to be used in a terrorist plot, not to mention being an escapee from a secret project that left it able to see the future. So while Loid is called away to deal with the terrorists, Anya and the dog escape from their hideout but get cornered only for Yor to show up… If you liked the first series you’ll like this one, the quality remains as high as it was. The only thing that I hope improves this season is with Yor. She’s been treated as the butt of the joke for most of the first season and got little chance of showing off her cool side, unlike Loid and Anya. A little less of that would be great.
Akiba Maid Sensou
Akihabara 1999: a paradise for every otaku dreaming of being served by his favourite type of maid. Wahira Nagomi is one such otaku, dreaming of being a cute maid. She gets a job at the decidedly ramshackle Oinky Doink Cafe, where the waitresses cosplay as pig girl maids. In her enthusiasm she fully embraces her role, but is clumsy and awkward. The true horror of being a maid however is only revealed when she’s ent on an errant to another maid cafe, where it turns out she was delivering an insult. It’s only thanks to the other new joiner, Mannen Ranko, who is more clued in than her, that she’s manages to escape from the clutches of the Wuv-Wuv Moonbeam maids, as Ranko just start shooting everyone.
Whoever thought about doing a parody of old yakuza movies but set in the cutesy cutesy world of maid cafes is a genius. Everything in this first episode was pitch perfect. The violence was stylish and stylised enough that it didn’t come across as edgy and the moe elements worked perfectly to underscore the absurdity of it all. This is a series I will have fun with.
Bocchi the Rock
Introvert loner Gotou Hitori picks up the guitar in her first year of middle school determined to make friends, get a band together and play at the cultural festival. Three years later she’s in high school and all she has done has been uploading videos to Youtube under the name guitarhero. When she decides to bring her guitar to school in a ploy to get attention and people talking to her, it of course fails, but by pure coincidence she runs into somebody who needs a guitarist right away. I don’t want to say I’m as bad as her, but the whole thought process of let’s take something interesting to school so people will notice me and have to talk with me? That hit closer than I’m comfortable with. I’d worried about Bocchi being too much of a secondhand embarrassment kind of show, but her internal monologues were too funny to let me bother it much.
You can occasionally see the four panel gag manga roots of this show in certain scenes, but on the whole this episode flowed very naturally. I would’ve liked a bit more focus on the actual performances as we only got snippets of it here, but the little we did see gave me confidence a full performance would be on a par with some of those from e.g. K-on, to name an obvious influence. Apart from that, the character animation was excellent and helps keeps Bocchi’s anxieties on the humorous rather than depressing side. At the same time her anxieties don’t feel like just a comedic tic; she’s genuinely struggling and her troubles won’t disappear the moment she found people with the same interests who could be friends. The best comedy always has a bit of pain in it after all. Character and design wise this really is a Manga Time Kirara, especially the stoic deadpanned bassist, who could’ve been in any of half dozen other such series. Both her and the airheaded, energetic drummer feel more like stereotypes than fully rounded characters at this point, but that’s to be expected with the episode’s focus being so fully on Bocchi herself.
Yama no Susume: Next Summit
The fourth season of Yama no Susume, saddled in English with the unfortunate title Encouragement to Climb, does something I’ve never seen before: devoting its first four episodes to retelling the first three seasons. This is less mad than it seems, as the first season consisted of three minute and the second and third of twelve minute episodes. In that first season and this first episode we meet Aoi, very much the indoors type, happy to be holed up in her bedroom doing her latest hobby, her greatest excitement a trip to the library. However, when she’s reunited with Hinata at the start of her first year in high school, Hinata drags her along on her hobby: mountain climbing. Aoi is reluctant but also remembered of the one climb they did together as young children, so let’s herself be convinced. As she gets more comfortable, she also befriends two other girls into mountaineering: Kaede, a senior at their school and Kokona, a slightly airheaded girl they met on a mountain walk. This first episode feels a bit episodic because that was what the original season was like, but is still a great introduction to the series.
As a whole, the Yama no Susume series is the best anime studio 8Bit has ever released, most of the rest of their output being light novel adaptations like Infinite Stratos. The animation in every season was always excellent, but has been kicked up a notch in this fourth season. The same goes for the landscapes and backgrounds Aoi and Hinata move through. What I also like about this series is that it is serious about its mountain climbing, not just an excuse for cute girls doing cute outdoorsy things. Aoi and Hinata have as their ultimate goal to climb Mount Fuij and that is not something that will be done without setbacks and problems to overcome.
Do It Yourself!!
Yua Serufu isa bit spacey, prone to daydreaming and extraordinarily clumsy, which leads to minor accidents on a daily base. One time while cycling to her new high school, she crashes her bike into a lamp post. Her bike is ruined but luckily a kindly senpai repairs it for her (even if she could’ve done it herself). Tracking this senpai down leads her to joining the DIY club as the first of the new recruits it needs to be allowed to remain a club.
A slice of moe hobby series, but one with incredibly high production standards. The animation switches from slightly dreamy to incredibly smooth and precise where necessary (the bit where senpai tests the drill bit to see if it’s hot before taking it out frex) and the character design is godly. Serufu’s senpai actually looks older than her. Turns out the character design was done by the same person as who did the character designs for Yama no Susume, so that might explain it. I like Serufu’s carefree attitude and dreamy approach to life, though I can understand why tsundere childhood friend Purin got annoyed with it in the end…
Chainsaw Man
Here it is. Here’s the anime version of what’s arguably the most popular manga in the world right now. The one series that you’ll probably be sick about hearing off real soon. There’s just something about this big blockbuster anime that attracts the worst kinds of fans, the ones that just won’t shut up about it and who get offended if you don’t share their delusions that it is the Best Ever Anime Ever! It is therefore a bit of a mixed blessing that the first episode is as good as it is. A one on one adaptation of the first chapter of the manga, it’s a master class in how you set up a series that something like Shinobi no Ittoki could learn a lot from.
Denji is poor, shockingly in debt and working for the yakuza as a freelance Devil Hunter with his chainsaw devil Pochita. The entire first episode is an exercise in showing how downtrodden and grind down he is by his circumstances, to the point where his biggest dream is to be able to eat bread with jam. His boss calls him out for a job only to betray him and he dies, murdered by the Zombie Devil. He’s resurrected by the powers of Pochita who fuses with him to become the Chainsaw Man. What impressed me is that like the manga, the anime doesn’t rush into the climactic origin and the extremely well choreographed fight that accompanies it, but takes it time to show us Denji’s situation and why becoming a devil himself is not the worst thing that happened to him.
The quality of animation in this episode is excellent as expected. It does lose some of the raw edge of the manga, the animation is maybe too slick, the rough edges polished off too much. There is a danger that the emphasis will be on grand action set pieces rather than on the more personal moments that make the manga so great. It’s also ironic that we get a lament on the plight of the working stiff from MAPPA, one of the anime studios with the worst reputation for workers’ rights in the industry.
Kidou Senshi Gundam: Suisei no Majo
It’s absurd that it took to 2022 for Gundam to have a series with a female protagonist, but they’ve made up for it by making it mecha Utena. Suletta Mercury is a new student to the Asticassia School of Technology and on her way there she rescues a girl from being stranded in space. She meets the same girl, Miorine Rembran, again in her first day at school, where they both witness a duel between mecha. The winner of the duel, Guel Jeturk , declares that Miorine is his fiance, something she clearly doesn’t like but it is her duty to be the bride of the Holder, the school’s best duelist. Then, when Suletta follows Miorine to her greenhouse and eats a tomato for the first time, Guel shows up again harassing his fiance, which leads Suletta to slap his ass and challenge him to a duel. Which she of course wins, with Miorine declaring that now she is her fiance. Yes, this all sounds very familiar.
Suletta is a great character, incredibly shy and nervous anywhere else but in her not-a-Gundam, where she is aggressive and assertive. Miorine too is great, feisty and completely fed up with the position she’s in thanks to her father, the big cheese in their part of space, who made up the rule about her becoming the bride of the top duelist in the first place. All of which promises the usual potent mixture of mecha battles, interpersonal drama and absurd space politics every good Gundam series need. The injection of much needed yuri in the franchise doesn’t hurt either, certainly looking at the amount of fan art generated.\
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