As one of the people who've been on this site the longest, this almost doesn't feel real. Dragoneer's been a staple member of the community for so long, he's been such a constant, familiar presence... And while he made some legendarily boneheaded decisions and rules over the past decade or so, he certainly wasn't an awful person or anything, and he was still great at keeping the site user/artist-friendly even as other sites crumbled under the weight of corporate greed, insane vendettas against fictional characters, AI "art" glorification and caring more about being a hot app than a functioning site. Without him and this site, I'd have never even met a number of very good friends. Now I worry even more about the future of FA with him outright gone...

I'm not sure what else to say but goodbye, Neer. Thank you for making this place for us all, a site we all consider home, and I hope you're at peace... We'll never forget you... ;w;/

Eiji is a second-year highschool student and a member of his school's drama club as a stagehand. He meets Rin, a first-year student and member of the same club who serves as its long-awaited hope. Rin decides to use her extraordinary acting skills to help Eiji achieve this lofty goal of being admired by all his peers. With her incredible acting talent, she crafts a harem of loving girls, each one showering Eiji with affection, but behind these diverse characters is Rin herself, and her feelings for Eiji are genuine. As Eiji enjoys the attention from the various "girls", he can't help but be enchanted by Rin's vibrant performances and wonder if the actress behind these roles could find a way into his heart.

Well, at this point it wouldn't be a new anime season without me getting to a new series much later than I should've, eh? And I won't lie, Pseudo Harem is a show that took me by surprise with how much I loved its first episode...until some more time passed and I realized that I was settling into more of a "like" mode. I do want to emphasize though how much I will go to bat for our main couple, Eiji and Rin. These two were obviously made for each other and I've already decided that they must end up married later on and raise a troupe of cute little theatre dorks. Hey, any romcom that gets me so on board with the protagonists as a pair must be doing something right. And really, Pseudo Harem still charming as all hell. Seriously, with such bright and cozy production values, being paired with the talent of seiyuu like Nobuhiko Okamoto and Saori Hayami, this is the kind of anime that I could probably watch for hours without getting bored. Just watching these two kids mess around and have so much fun being together and playing out their make-believe harem shtick is all the entertainment I need to get through a rainy afternoon.

Aside from constantly praising our new unhinged deer overlord, but that's not the subject of this review.

At the bottom of everything is the increasing suspicion that Rin is so good at acting because she doesn't see herself as anyone special. She's able to change so completely into these various stereotypes because she's seen them have more value in stories than the normal girl she is. Or maybe she's just looking for an easy way to catch the eye of the upperclassman who managed to tap into her personal fantasy by spontaneously playing out a scene she loves when they first met. Since Eiji says that he dreams of having a harem, a harem Rin will become in order to win him over. She'll cycle through the characters he asks for, although by the middle of this episode she already seems to be regretting her initial choice at least a little bit. Things come to a head--or would if this wasn't a comedy first and foremost--when she realizes that Eiji is coming up with costumes for all of her "personalities" to wear in an upcoming relay race, and when she asks if she couldn't just go as herself, he says that she'd have to wear loungewear. Even if I'm reading too much into her roleplay, that still is clearly a blow she wasn't expecting.

You'd think something with such a gimmicky premise would run thin really fast, especially since this episode is basically a collection of disconnected shorts. However, none of that matters when you have two leads who are this much fun together. Eiji and Rin both capture that awkward energy of two kids who are obviously crushing on each other but too insecure to fully admit to it. Yet instead of blushing into silence or hitting us with a tiresome tsundere routine (well, a genuine one, at least, since Rin does have a tsundere character she can switch to), they bounce off each other with goofy acts and playful teasing, with Rin letting her numerous "selves" work as ways to express her feelings without being totally vulnerable. Eiji pulls his own weight, carrying some of the comedic load with enthusiastic reactions that only egg Rin on. Wow, a romcom where the lead couple has real chemitsry and feels like they should actually be together, who'da thunk, huh? Take notes, vast majority of all the other romcoms I've watched and read.

That being said, by the end of the premiere I did find myself wishing that the show had more creative ideas for its brilliant gimmick. Rin being able to effortlessly embody all of the usual harem archetypes singlehandedly has so much comic potential, and yet we don't see much of it realized onscreen yet. Rather than using Cool-chan, Tsundere-chan, Spoiled-chan and the other girls Rin can embody to craft fun genre spoofs or set up clever gags that fit each individual character type, all Pseudo Harem does is run through the same basic romcom routines, except every now and then Eiji will ask Rin to repeat her thoughts in a funny voice and then she complies. The skits that make up the episode give the premiere a very loose structure as well, and it becomes all to easy for one to zone out as they simply let the vaguely funny sights and sounds blend together and flow by without much notice. Still, this is definitely not a bad show. It got some real chuckles out of me, especially when we see Eiji's amazing case of bedhead, and there's an air of good-natured ribbing to his and Rin's antics. I never got the feeling that these are two people who shouldn't be together being unnaturally forced into each other's lives, which is a serious step up from a lot of other anime romcoms, or romcoms in general.

Still, this is definitely not a bad show. It got some real chuckles out of me, especially when we see Eiji's amazing case of bedhead, and there's an air of good-natured ribbing to his and Rin's antics. I never got the feeling that these are two people who shouldn't be together being unnaturally forced into each other's lives, which is a serious step up from a lot of other anime romcoms, or romcoms in general. I also like that all of Rin's personas have distinct hairstyles and body language, and the ending theme's animation is really neat in the way it blends the source manga and anime's styles together. Pseudo Harem is one of the most infectiously positive shows you could watch this summer. Just don't expect for it to stick with you for very long once it's over.

The visuals are a bit of a mixed bag. The character designs feel rather low-effort, but the show makes the best of them and delivers some spectacular faces from both Rin and Eiji. There are a few moments of solid character acting, but most of the comedy gets the job done through smart timing and the main vocal performances. Stuff like that is ultimately more important than the overall quality of the animation, and any issues I may have had quickly faded into the background thanks to the speedy pacing. I also like that all of Rin's personas have distinct hairstyles and body language, and the ending theme's animation is really neat with how it blends the source manga and anime's styles together.

Pseudo Harem is one of the most infectiously positive shows you could watch this summer. Part of me still worries that this premise will run out of steam before the end, but for now I'm too charmed by this pair of goofballs to really worry. I'd usually say the show could bolster itself through its extended cast, but in this case, that just means giving Rin more to work with in her acting toolkit. For now, this is a surprise highlight of the season, and absolutely worth checking out.

Rick Gladiator is a guild clerk who strives to become an adventurer. Common sense dictates that it's best to start the path of an adventurer at a young age, as it takes a lot of training to gain magical powers. However, Rick started after he turned 30. Thanks to working with Orichalcum Fist, a legendary party of the most powerful adventurers in the land, he's already lived an unimaginable life with top-ranking fighting abilities. With skills honed by literal "Monster-class" masters from dragons to vampires, Rick takes on one elite adventurer after another.

Two minutes into this episode, my computer abruptly decided that connecting to the internet was a bad plan, and it took me 20 minutes to convince it otherwise. Is this event connected to how unimpressive the episode is? I can't prove it, but the thought did occur to me. Mostly though, what's disappointing here is that we've seen so many of these same story elements in better shows, most notably Suppose a Kid From the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, which has a similar concept of someone with no real idea of how strong they are believing themselves to be weak and unimpressive. The only major change is that our hero this time is, by shonen anime standards, old.

I'm gonna be generous and give the premiere of The Ossan Newbie Adventurer a little bonus point on account of how it managed to make me laugh exactly two times. Yes, the bar is that low by now. Anyway, the first time I chuckled was when our hero-guy Rick got all confused about how pathetic a snobby little mage boy's fire magic is, seeing as his trainer would fling fireballs ten times that size at him just for fun. After that, Rick douses everyone at the hero test place with a bunch of green slime that reminded me of watching Uh-Oh! back in the day (this didn't make me laugh, but it made me feel vaguely amused for a second, so I'll allow it). The second laugh came much later when the mage boy's sister was dueling Rick for her brother's honour or whatever. At the end of the fight, she trips over a rock and skids face-first into Rick's fist, which results in her flying off like a pinwheel. I will not pretend that these were smart or well-constructed jokes, but hey, sometimes my inner 12-year-old wins out.

Sadly, those two mildly funny scenes were just about all Ossan Newbie Adventurer had up its sleeve. The rest of it is the same old thing we've seen a million times by now, except this time the gimmick isn't that the comically overpowered MC uses a weird class or has some convoluted rules that his powers have to follow. He's just...older than your average adventurer. If you just take any of the "My Overpowered Whosimawhatsit is Helping Me Conquerize the Dungeonmajig!” shows we get every season and paste the words "But you're 32 years old!" into the dialogue every two minutes, then you've got Ossan Newbie Adventurer in its entirety. I wouldn't even be surprised if that was the exact method the creators used to make the damn thing.

It's a shame too, because as a man well into his 30s, I'm all for anime that dare to focus on characters old enough to rent a car and accrue crippling amounts of debt and lower back pain. I wouldn't even mind the brazen laziness of the storytelling if it bothered to throw in even one scrap of interesting characterization or worldbuilding that related to Rick being a first-time adventurer at 32. There are plenty of funny parallels you could make to switching careers in the modern day or trying to balance a new job with keeping the old bills paid and all that. But no, the fact that Rick has the cajones to still exist after the age of 29 is just a minor gimmick that's being exploited to keep Ossan Newbie Adventurer from being sued for copyright infringement.

The thing is, as a comedy, the show just isn't funny. There's a single joke, repeated ad nauseam: Rick thinks he's weak. Everyone around him assumes the same because he didn't start training as an adventurer until he was 30. Then he does something absurdly powerful and everyone around him sits there, slack-jawed, buggy-eyed! Sometimes his busty partymate gives him advice while staring blankly ahead. And it's all done with zero comic timing or flare. Seriously, it can't be overstated just how stale the single joke of "Rick thinks he's a weakling but is secretly a god in human form" gets in just this one episode. That's partly because this exact same goddamn joke has been used in countless other shows just like this one, where everyone underestimates our secretly legendary protagonist, only to have their minds blown to smitheroons when he scores infinity on every test. There's even the standard joke where the magic testing device flunks him because he's too powerful for it to read. Every single angle that's ever been used in this type of setting to mislabel a protagonist as an underdog so they can immediately prove all their one-dimensional haters wrong is here in succession, and they're all as boring as they were the first time.

But I'd still take all that over the eight-minute fight sequence that consists entirely of an arrogant lady knight who rarely speaks below a shriek running at Rick while bragging about her speed as he stands stock still and marvels at how slow she is. I kind of get how he feels though--I felt the same way watching the progress bar inch along.

That could perhaps be remedied if any of the characters had some kind of engaging personality, but everyone here is as flat as the humor. Rick's sole defining characteristic is that he's 32, so everyone thinks he's old and dumb and a big wimpy loser who belongs at Weenie Hut Jr's until he punches a hole through a castle wall. His elf maid companion Reanette provides emotionless support and a pair of breasts for Rick and the audience to stare at whenever things get boring, which is always. Reanette is also introduced tits-first, which is never a good sign. This, we quickly learn, is absolutely Rick's point of view, as Reanette remarks that her eyes are up here, thank you very much, while Rick denies that he's got her breasts in his sights with the single-minded fixation of a dog staring someone down for their sandwich. Then when the aforementioned screamy lady knight Angelica shows up, her coat is carefully tailored to frame her chest. Add in that the best-animated scene in the whole episode is the guild receptionist leaning forward while her breasts squish onto the counter, and we know what value this show places on its female cast.

Speaking of the animation, 90% of this premiere looks like ass. Not good ass either, I'm talking some flat, tiny Hank Hill ass. It's constantly struggling to find any consistency between scenes. The brief action moments are stiff and awkward, straining to convey any movement at all, let alone something with tangible impact. In combination with the repetitive humor and obnoxious characters, it makes for a premiere that feels three times longer than it is.

This is the point where I thought of trying to say something positive, because first impressions aren't always accurate, I've absolutely been wrong before and I'd very much like this show to prove itself, but I'm struggling this time because the unattractive art, the lackluster animation, the repetetive humor and the way it treats its female characters aren't giving me much hope.

After his father remarries, Yuuta Asamura gets a new stepsister, Saki Ayase, who happens to be the number one beauty of the school year. They promise each other not to be too close, not to be too opposing, and to simply keep a vague and comfortable distance, having learned important values about relationships from their parents' previous ones. Saki, who's worked alone for the sake of her family, doesn't know how to properly rely on others, whereas Yuuta is unsure of how to truly treat her. Standing on fairly equal ground, these two gradually learn the comfort of living together. Their relationship progresses from strangers to friends as the days pass.

Man, a couple of minutes into the premiere of Days With My Stepsister, I already had some good jokes to use as a hook for this review. I was planning to go with "Somebody needs to establish a Bureau of Accidental Incest Prevention in Japan, so we can make sure these wacky single dads don't keep suddenly remarrying women with hot daughters for their sons to develop inappropriate feelings for!" As it turns out, Days With My Stepsister isn't that kind of show. At least, it sure as hell doesn't seem like it's trying to be such ludicrous trash. Yuuta and Saki really come across as two relatively believable teenagers navigating the strange circumstance of waking up one day to find out you have a new parent and sibling to learn how to live with. The closest we get to anything you'd expect by now based on the premise is when Yuuta stumbles upon one of Saki's lacy bras while helping her unpack, and the show treats it like the slightly awkward but completely uneventful non-issue it would actually be in real life.

On the one hand, this makes Days With My Stepsister a breath of fresh air. Yuuta is not the prototypical self-insert dude whose only hope for romantic salvation is for a gorgeous and unusually intimate girl to literally be forced into his life by the whims of their parents. Saki is not whichever of the different cliches that the female lead usually has to be in order to possess the lack of social and moral qualms necessary to be cool with dabbling in faux incest with her reasonably attractive new brother. They're just two normal kids. The fact that their parents are being given a shocking amount of warm characterization also makes me think the show might be content to let the family stay functional, rather than going the route of ripping the poor parents' relationship apart so as to make their kids' love feel marginally more acceptable in the eyes of society.

On the other hand though... This show is unbearably dull. That's the other side of the coin when it comes to treating your characters like real people instead of emotionally unstable drama dolls, I suppose. Most of the time, two families moving in together turns out exactly like this, people just living their daily lives with more than your usual amount of icebreakers and conversations about house rules and whatnot. What's more, Days With My Stepsister seems unaware of how boring its subject matter fundamentally is in this first episode, because it has this overbearing treacly piano score that insists upon itself so damn much, even when literally nothing of interest is happening onscreen. Like that scene I mentioned earlier, when Yuuta gets his whole family chuckling over a misplaced bra--why on Earth does the background music of an unpacking montage sound like it was ripped from the cathartic climax of a Ghibli movie?

Additionally, maybe the grounded cinematography threw it into relief, but the script kinda stinks. Saki and Yuuta don't have any "getting to know you" conversations or awkward small talk. Instead, Saki launches straight into trauma-dumping about how she had to raise herself in her small apartment since her mom's schedule as a hostess meant that she was too busy to actually be a mom. A discussion about Yuuta's oddly formal language transitions into her telling him how she cut off her friends for being rude about her new family situation. But it's fine because she "can't read their minds." When Yuuta offers to help her unpack, I can't help but feel like he doesn't know how to respond to all that she just put out there and feels uncomfortable. I know I would.

There's an argument to be made for the reason this show's premiere has such glacial pacing. The premise seems to be the deconstruction of the stepsibling romance trope, at least in the characters' heads (and no promises that it won't turn into an affirmation of the trope later on), and two strangers suddenly being forced to live together can be intensely discomforting. Neither Yuuta nor Saki are all that keen on their parents' remarriage, although they're also not dramatically opposed to it--they're just trying to figure out how it's going to change their lives. The changes seem to be more drastic for Saki, since not only is she living in a new house, but her mother's schedule is implied to have changed a lot too. And even if she is still working nights, the presence of Yuuta and his dad means she's no longer a latchkey kid. Both of those factors are beautifully demonstrated by the post-credits scene where she first forgets to turn off the hall lights, then has to figure out which switch will do it.

So I do appreciate what this is trying to do. In some ways, it's setting itself up to be the anti-incest romcom. The problem is that, again, it's boring. Scenes like the aforementioned light switch debacle drag on just a little too long, to the point where several times I had to check to make sure the video player hadn't frozen. Day-to-day details are all treated with a seriousness they don't need. Saki finding old stickers on her closet door and realizing that little Yuuta put them there is one thing, showing people opening and unpacking boxes is quite another, and the episode has trouble realizing that not everything is symbolic and beautiful. All of the shots of flowers in the world can't change the fact that there are some lines in the source novel that are better skipped than animated.

And I can't stress this enough, I will give the show credit for not having Saki freak out when Yuuta finds her bra, she just laughs it off like anyone else. There's also no moments of panic when Yuuta realizes he'll be expected to cohabitate with a girl his own age, he's more mildly annoyed that his dad waited until he was engaged to a woman with a kid his son's age before bothering to tell said son he was even dating. But that's the overall feel of this episode: Mild. Mild surprise, mild annoyance, mild amusement, mild actions, etc.

I can see the bones of a good idea here. There's some solid characterization for the main characters, like how Yuuta seems to constantly apologize for taking up space, or the ways Saki has internalized being alone. These are fine pieces to build something on, but the episode never capitalizes on that. By the episode's end, Yuuta and Saki's understanding of one another hasn't advanced or changed since their first conversation. Call it a slow burn if you want, but when the pilot doesn't even finish assembling the kindling, it's hard to want to wait around for it to find a match. At the end of the day, while I appreciate the vibe that Days With My Stepsister is going for, I can't imagine myself watching much more of it unless it starts getting a lot more interesting. Without suddenly resorting to an incest-flavoured curveball.

Torako Koshi thought she had successfully buried a wild past to become a normal highschool honours student, with none of her classmates aware of her delinquent roots. But that all changes when she discovers Noko Shikanoko (Nokotan for short), a new transfer student with antlers, tangled up in power lines. Whatever she is, Torako (who's given the nickname "Koshitan" by Nokotan) may regret saving her, since Nokotan can smell the former delinquent on her. Now a punky past and a reality-defying deer girl have crashed into Torako's life in the hilarious and chaotic highschool comedy that she's become painfully aware she's in.

The best way I can describe My Deer Friend Nokotan (or, as the viral opening theme lets us know it's called in Japanese, Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan) is that it's like Nichijou and Yuru Yuri had a baby and let it be raised by Asobi Asobase and Pop Team Epic. In fact, it's a show that's clearly learned the most important lesson taught by such series as Nichijou: When it comes to animated comedy, there's a direct correlation between the stupidity of a joke and the unreasonable amount of time and effort you spend committing to it. In the case of My Deer Friend Nokotan, it's already pretty funny that poor Torako has woken up to find herself in a world gone mad, where she's seemingly the only one who thinks it's even a little strange that there's a new girl at school with antlers growing out the sides of her head. What makes this show often downright hilarious is that the deer girl, Nokotan, behaves like a borderline malevolent demigod who uses her power to violently disrupt the laws of physics and basic anatomy and become Torako's new best friend (read: ruin Torako's life by shattering the carefully crafted illusion of perfection that she's so meticulously established since abandoning her life as a delinquent).

Basically, My Deer Friend Nokotan has three types of humor. The first is puns and references. There's a ton of deer-centric wordplay--I mean, our titular protagonist, Noko Shikanoko, has a name that could literally be translated as "child of the child of the deer". Then there's the recurring bit with the word "shika" being ominously chanted in the background music. Added onto that is some Fourth Wall-breaking humor where the characters and narrator reference that this is an anime, and they make references to a bunch of other media, including Drifting Classroom, Fist of the North Star, Detective Conan and even Dangan Ronpa.

The next type of humor used, conversation humor, is the show's weakest point, in my opinion. Torako, desperate to keep her secret safe, is constantly trying to steer the conversation away from her dark past, but Nokotan keeps bringing it up. There are also humorous manzai routine-style conversations that either end up with Torako exposing her true personality or being conned into doing something due to her own ego. Honestly, these didn't entirely work for me, but only because they seemed very predictable and that lessened the effect of the humor.

Lastly, we have the best part of the episode, the surrealist humor. I legitimately laughed my ass off at the scene of Nokotan entering the classroom for the first time. The joke was obvious from the moment you could see she wouldn't fit through the door and wasn't smart enough to turn sideways. But what made it so funny was that it was taken to the most insane extreme--glass shattering, walls breaking, debris flying, people smiling as they receive bloody injuries, all of it in dramatic slow motion, and to top things off, we had the ominous chanting. It was perfect. The other surreal jokes are funny as well, from Nokotan hanging from the power lines to the uncanny photorealistic CG deer that appear randomly throughout the episode.

Unfortunately, it's time for me to bring up the things I didn't enjoy, as the show doesn't stick the landing of every joke. The giant trail of snot that extends from Nokotan's nostril like a tentacle and sticks to Torako's head when they first meet, for example, is more gross than anything, and there are a few bits that revolve a little too much around Torako loudly explaining the gag. I also wasn't a fan of the joke about Torako's virginity and everyone's ridiculous investment in it. I get it, the entire first half of the episode is about how ludicrous notions of feminine purity are, with the implication that Torako's shift from shonen manga-influenced delinquent to the epitome of girlish perfection is her going from one ridiculous stereotype to another, but the whole thing is both nobody's business and decidedly not funny.

Still, those small misfires are usually offset by a beat of gloriously overanimated visual spectacle that sells a joke so much better than simply explaining why Nokotan is weird over and over. The bit mentioned above where Nokotan makes her grand entrance that ends up injuring several obliviously grinning classmates and the equally oblivious teacher is easily the grand highlight of the episode, but I don't want to overlook the smaller but equally funny parts. My favourite joke of the episode, aside from that scene and the unexpected Dangan Ronpa reference (you'll know it when you see it, trust me) might've been the way Nokotan's head warps and rubber-bands when Torako reluctantly brushes her hair with an animal brush, complete with utterly charming boi-oi-oing sound effects from Megumi Han. And speaing of the voice actors, the moments where Torako reacts incredulously to Nokotan's weird shit and yells at her are made particularly funny simply by knowing who voices her--those rough-voiced delinquent outbursts are provided by Saki Fujita, the voice of Miku Hatsune and Elena from Street Fighter. I also know for a fact that Yurika Kubo (the voice of Hanayo from Love Live, Koume from Urara Meirocho, Toa from TsukiMichi, Marguerit from The Legendary Hero is Dead!, Cavalla from Azur Lane and Cocoa Cookie from Cookie Run Kingdom), an actress born in Japan's deer capital Nara, is also in this show as a character who has yet to show up outside of some foreshadowing within Torako's moments of bragging about her facade of perfection.

By the way, I don't know if it was the work of the world's fastest fansubbers or just an alternate subbing team for English-speaking Asian markets like a number of other anime have had, but thank all that is holy that I watched a version of this with good subs, because the show's official subs on Amazon Prime and Crunchyroll are truly awful. Studio Wit has been extremely eager to force it into worldwide meme status, and so they had a company called REMOW handle the subs for multiple languages all at once so it could be rushed out onto various international streaming services. There's some discussion about whether the subs are AI-translated (and the French ones are reported to be the worst of all, having turned out 100% incoherent), but to be fair, there's nothing in the English script that 100% signals it was translated by a program. There's multiple changes that only a human would make, like converting the temperature from Celcius to Fahrenheit or understanding the loanword "yankee" as meaning "delinquent" rather than "American". At the very least, it feels like there was human involvement. The many issues people are pointing out have to do with quality control (typos, formatting errors, consistently referring to antlers as horns, not capitalizing the start of a new sentence, never translating onscreen text, etc.) that could just as easily be human error from a company that doesn't know or care enough about the standards for simulcast subs. Either way, they're bad, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were a number of linguistic jokes that got lost by being translated literally. Even better, Crunchyroll issued an apology for the subs, accepting part of the blame for using them but mostly directing people's attention to REMOW. So this means they were handed REMOW's subs...and didn't even proofread them, they just went ahead and used them. I'm having flashbacks to Funimation airing three episodes of Interspecies Reviewers before finally realizing what it is, pulling it from their streaming service and essentially holding the entire IP hostage. Between stuff like this and the steadily declining quality of both Crunchyroll and Sentai Filmworks' subs, especially whenever Katrina Leonoudakis is involved, is it really any wonder why so many people are still seeking out fansubs? Meanwhile, the only thing wrong with the version I watched was a two-second spot close to the end where they apparently forgot to put subs at all.

I will admit that I might've let myself fall for the hype a bit too much, as I was expecting to laugh more than I ultimately did with this premiere. I was certainly always have a great time though, and I'm definitely going to be checking in on this show throughout the rest of the summer. Now that we've gotten the setup out of the way, I imagine the show will only get funnier once it's able to compound on its zaniness and really cut loose.

Oh yeah, and as a bonus, the end credits are placed over real footage of deer in Nara Deer Park and a video showing the process of making shika senbei, the special rice crackers sold at the park to be fed to the deer. I'm eager to find out whether this is the set ending sequence for the whole series or different things will be shown in each episode.

Kaito Takagi is a highschool student with a low status. He's an ordinary explorer who hunts slimes everyday in dungeons that appear in Japan. One day, he encounters a golden slime that he's never seen before. Baffled, he still manages to defeat it and get an extremely rare item called the "servant card", which can summon a mythical being and has a value of hundreds of millions. He then summons a valkyrie, and Kaito starts his adventure to become a hero.

Who was it? Who was the monster who decided to drop two episodes at once for this stultifying pile of shit? Bring 'em to me, right now, so I can tie them to a patio chair on my lawn and force them to watch grass grow, as vengeance for all my extra time they wasted.

Seriously, this thing did NOT need a double-length premiere to try and make its case, because it has no case. While I initially had a bit of hope for this upon seeing that it's set in the "real" world, it quickly squandered that hope by spending an entire episode on a flavourless sack of potatoes grinding out levels in the world's most boring dungeon crawler. The extra 22 minutes didn't do anything to develop that idea or give it an interesting twist or provide even a single engaging character nor line of dialogue. Instead it cycled through the same pattern of this dude killing slimes and/or goblins, badly lying about it to his love interest at school, and then doing the same thing again. It's such a perfect combination of formulaic and sleep-inducing that part of me thought I'd dozed off mid-episode and the video had somehow started to loop.

It doesn't help that the whole show looks like crap. While there are maybe a handful of isolated cuts with some personality, the rest of the visuals are constantly on the verge of falling apart. The designs for he human characters are as bland as possible, rendered in that particular modern style that I can only describe as "Cheap Afterthought", with our protagonist's two pet lolis being the exception. Yeah, those summoned beings are depicted as grown women on the cards but then inexplicably turn out to be lolis in person. And of course they unconditionally adore Kaito. They look like summons from a short-lived gatcha game who'd end up starring in half a dozen hentai doujins all made by the same artist well after the hype dies out. At the same time though, their designs are at least more interesting than the rest of the creatures and people in this show--love interest Katsuragi's headband is giving me major flashbacks to 90s character design trends, but that's really too little to save this. The real killer is that so much of this premiere takes place in nondescript grey caves with Kaito fighting extremely generic monsters. It all combines to make for a visual experience as dull as the writing.

That said, there are a couple of elements that aren't awful. I did appreciate that the information about the dungeons' appearance and whatnot wasn't done via a lengthy conversation or narration--we get the pertinent details first from a quiz show playing in the background and later from a TV drama, which was both amusing and unsettling. Either way, someone took the time to save us from an infodump, and I, for one, am grateful. I also admit to finding it at least a little funny that our hero fights slimes with bug spray made by the Geek Ou corporation. Sadly, those are all the kind words I have for these episodes. Absolutely nothing else stands out, especially not our protagonist.

Literally the only reason I gave this thing half a point more than I'd have normally given it is because episode 2 features a weird in-universe show called Dungeon Love Story that was just stupid enough to make me chuckle. Granted, it was only slightly more hacky than the actual show, but being bad on purpose is at least slightly more admirable than being bad because nobody making this thing cared enough to make it compelling.

The land of Earthsea is out of balance. Haunted by grim premonitions, the king falls, slain by his son. The misguided and lost Prince Arren is taken in by the archmage Sparrowhawk, who hopes to bring him towards redemption and his true destiny. As the world crumbles around them, the pair relentlessly search for the source of the imbalance, a wicked wizard from Sparrowhawk's distant past.

Tales from Earthsea is a Ghibli adaptation of Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea books. Going from Howl's Moving Castle with its similar background to Earthsea seemed to be an attempt to move from strength to strength. But then something unexpected happened: Goro Miyazaki was named director. Goro, son of the famous Hayao, is a trained and talented architect and landscape designer and had most recently been curating the Studio Ghibli Museum. He was in an odd situation--he'd been around the studio his whole life and understood animation production well, but had never worked in it. Hayao, it was reported, wasn't wild about the choice and refrained from assisting with the film's production, firmly believing all the while that his son was not ready for this kind of responsibility.

The finished film did what Ghibli films typically do upon their domestic release, ie. making bank at the box office, but while its ticket sales were doing great, reception was decidedly mixed, and it's astoundingly easy to see why. Watching this film after having so many wonderful movies like Spirited Away, Kiki, Nausicaa, Totoro, Howl, The Cat Returns, etc. kinda left me mindblown, and not exactly in a good way. Goro's Earthsea is stiff, scattered and mediocre. It struggles to make sense, to provide entertaining dialogue and action and a clear plotline. It's borderline incoherent at times. We expect none of these things from Ghibli films, so watching this is surprising and instructive, but still deeply weird.

In a magical kingdom out of balance with the world, a dispirited young prince named Arren murders his father and flees in terror from his destiny. He's eventually taken in by the archmage Sparrowhawk, who seeks to restore balance to Earthsea. But why is the world out of balance? Because Sparrowhawk says so, that's why--we never get a clear explanation of what being "out of balance" really means. In their travels, the pair are harassed by a slaver named Hare, but soon come to seek refuge with Sparrowhawk's old friend Tenar. She introduces them to a mysterious young girl named Therru. Arren is angry and sad, and Therru is fearful and suspicious, but they slowly open up to each other. They'll have to rely on each other, to brace themselves with Arren's destiny and Therru's mysterious power, to face down the true threat to Earthsea's balance, the failed archmage Lord Cob.

This movie has men at arms, dragons, castles, swords, spells, all that good stuff. It has a wise old mentor and his stupid kid student, a gentle matron and a mysterious girl, a slimy henchman and a menacing wizard. All of the building blocks for a good adventure are right there, but what Goro lacks in making this film is the glue to put them all together. We learn very little about the characters, their pasts and their personalities. The book is bursting with neat ideas, such as the concept that people have common names and "true names", secret things of considerable power. True names come into play in the film, but are never explained. Cause and effect are tenuous in this movie, and the characters frequently seem to stop speaking to each other altogether, instead sounding like they're just standing there giving speeches to no one in particular. And yeah, every-goddamn-body gets a speech in this movie.

And I'm sorry, maybe it's just me, but it's so boring and unmemorable. It's a 75-minute adventure spread across an increasingly dreary 120 minutes, like a modest pat of cold butter destructively smashed and swiped against a large piece of warm bread. The camera is mostly static, with lots of medium shots of two characters interacting, long shots of travel and close-ups for the important dialogue. Every so often, the camera does break free of its shackles, but it happens so infrequently that it's startling when it does. It's as if Goro came into this film unfamiliar with the idea of really using the camera to tell the story.

It's not all bad news though. Goro has, in my estimation, a unique gift for really making scenery come alive in his works, particularly in the extravagant backgrounds. They bring to mind the great paintings of Maxfield Parrish--Miyazaki and his team don't have the famous artist's crispness, but they share his appreciation for light and shadow, lush green foliage and big Roman columns. One of Earthsea's central ideas is the vain struggle for eternal life. Sparrowhawk is intent on teaching Arren that this is futile, and there's a great scene where he explains that death is necessary to keep the life cycle going. "Would you bring the entire ocean to a standstill, just to save one wave?", he asks the disillusioned boy.

Regarding the vocal performances, I have to say that it was better in Japanese. The role of Sparrowhawk, the wise old archmage, is played by the late, great Bunta Sugawara, who made his name as a steely-eyed, violent and principled yakuza tough in the Battles Without Honour and Humanity films. He was a fine voice actor, but it's kinda weird--Sparrowhawk looks like him, in a way that I kept wondering if it was intentional or not. My other major comment on the Japanese cast is that the role of Cob is played by Yuko Tanaka. Cob's an androgynous man, and I don't always buy it when a woman plays a grown-ass man in anime, but I think it works well here. The dub features wholly forgettable performances by Matt Levin as Arren and Blaire Restaneo as Therru. Timothy Dalton is splendid as Sparrowhawk, the film's anchor, even though he doesn't have a lot to work with. Mariska Hargitay is alright as Tenar, but there's a part in the film where Tenar says "This reminds me of the tombs...", and I naturally assume she's talking about the Manhattan Detention Complex. Cheech Marin is fine as Hare, but his inclusion also feels like Disney probably just grabbed whoever was available at the time to round out the cast. The biggest strike against the dub is Willem Dafoe as Cob. Willem's normally a great actor, but in this film's dub, Cob really only ever sounds like Willem Dafoe trying to sound creepy, and it just doesn't work at all for the character.

Ghibli regular Joe Hisaishi and his distinctive, soaring musical scoring is absent from Tales from Earthsea. Tamiya Terashima does a decent job instead--his music is suitably sweeping and evocative, just not very memorable. I also have a problem with the character designs, by Akihiko Yamashita. He also did character designs for Howl's Moving Castle, and I thought his work was fine in that film, but here, the characters seem simplistic, not fully realized, almost like discount versions of Howl designs. They look weird, especially when they're expressing anger. Artistically, the best stuff in the movie is going on in the background.

I look at Tales from Earthsea and can only conclude that it was a mistake to try and get Goro Miyazaki to make the kind of film that his father might've made. Hayao spent years trying to convince LeGuin to let him adapt Earthsea, but when she finally relented, he was busy with Howl's Moving Castle. Producer Toshio Suzuki wasn't drastically wrong to appoint Goro as director, but the end result is a jumbled mess that doesn't play to his strengths or background. Happily, Goro's next film was much better.

We make fun of films like Origin ~Spirits of the Past~, Green Legend Ran and Brave Story for trying to mimic Ghibli films without really having the zest to nail the landing. Tales from Earthsea is in the same league as them despite literally being a Ghibli film. It walks like a Ghibli film, looks and sounds reasonably like a Ghibli film, but isn't the total package that the studio's other films are.

Operating out of the movie capital "Nyallywood", Pompo has been shooting one B-grade entertainment flick after another. One day, Pompo's movie buff assistant Gene spots a new script written by Pompo and is moved by its exquisite story. However, Pompo tells him to direct it, and so Gene takes on his first directing gig. Meanwhile, Natalie, an ordinary girl who just arrived in town with actress dreams, has been discovered by Pompo.

What a delightful, exhilarating film to finally get around to watching. Pompo the Cinephile is the perfect showcase of anime cinema, with equal emphasis on both words. Every single frame is packed with vibrant colours and flavours and boasts snappy transitions between cartoonish and cinematic expression. Packed with visual homages and a deep love for film in all its forms, it's an absolute must-watch movie.

As for the story, it's not the highlight, but it's good enough. It might be a film about making a film, but don't go into it expecting to learn about the intricacies of the process in the way that White Box, for instance, teaches you about anime production. Right from the opening minutes, it's full of elements that discard believability, starting with the titular Pompo. She might look like a loli and be prone to dramatic flourishes, but she's also apparently a veteran film producer. There's a bit of explanation about how she's the granddaughter of a famous producer, but it's really not trying to convince you that this is how the film industry works or anything.

Naturally, the plot itself is larger than life and full of convenient turns. Gene and Natalie both quickly get the chance to prove themselves with an ambitious feature-length film. Financial difficulties arise when Gene decides that he needs to do additional filming after the initial shoot, but there's never any question about his ability or judgement, nor is interpersonal drama a focus. The story is more about revelling in the experience of creative expression than in portraying the realities of filmmaking.

"Where's the drama then?", you might ask. Well, that's where the "film within a film" narrative device becomes relevant. The movie that Gene directs, Meister, follows a grizzled musician whose pursuit of the ideal song isolates him from others. As the stories of both Meister and Pompo progress, the characters of Meister end up embodying the dramatic confrontations and catharsis that take place within Gene as he struggles with himself to create the perfect final cut. My favourite part of the film is how it visually represents the editing process, because it's where the real battle takes place. The imagery of Gene picking up a blade as he kills his own creations one after another is such a vivid depiction of the difficulties of realizing one's creative vision. Scenes like this make it clear that you don't need to come up with an external conflict to depict the trials and tribulations of an artist.

On the other hand, I can sort of understand why one might feel underwhelmed. It might seem like a waste to see such brilliant visual creativity applied to such a bare-bones story, but honestly, I think that in itself is an impressive feat. This film makes its appreciation for B-movies obvious from the start with its unabashed depiction of a campy monster film headed by an actress in a bikini. The camera lingers on the actress' curves, as if to proclaim "Yes, this is cinema too!" So when the characters apply their energies to create a film with an Oscar bait plot, there's no feeling of snobbishness about it. Film is all about finding an image that speaks to the viewer, regardless of the subject matter.

Pompo the Cinephile is such a likeable film from start to finish, and what it lacks in strict accuracy or drama, it more than makes up for with its energetic animation and visual charisma. It has a spark that'll give anyone who watches it the hunger to create something of their own.

Sumireko Ogawa is an aspiring novelist who loves mysteries and works at a bookstore with a boy named Ren Adashino. They pass the time with aimless conversations. However, Ren knows a secret that Sumireko hasn't caught on to: Some of the ghost stories, urban legends and modern-day ghosts that people talk about are real.

I hope you're up to date on your ancient Japanese poetry forms for this one, because it appears to use a particular collection of verse from the Nara era and its component poetic forms as the basis for its supernatural mystery. The book in question is Man'youshu, a multi-volume work thought to be one of the earliest poetry anthologies. And in the world of Mysterious Disappearances, those poems are spells that can do things like make someone's body seem to age backward. However, they aren't getting younger, just temporarily regaining their younger body, at a terrible price.

It's definitely an interesting concept. In this first episode, struggling author Sumireko is busy lamenting turning 28 and that ideas just don't come as easily to her now that she's older. She blames her age, but what she's missing is that she didn't outgrow her creativity, she added adult responsibilities, which cut down on the time she had to create things. It's easier, not to mention more comfortable, to believe that getting older is the culprit. Still, as she's forced to learn (or at least acknowledge), the problem is that she's stopped making the time and found it easier to blame it on a society that tells her that her worth decreases with every added year.

Sumireko's voice of reason is in the form of Ren, an apparent teenager who works with her at the bookstore. Ren only ever talks to Sumireko, which is some sort of warning about him, and he's the person who realizes that she's fallen under the spell of the poetry collection and what that means for her longevity. Ren is your basic Mysterious Young Man archetype--his eyes are closed most of the time, his true age is indeterminate, and he's got a connection to some spiritual or horror realm that regularly sells tickets to someplace called "Yami", which is almost certainly an underworld or land of the dead. Why else would the ticket agent appear as a blood-soaked noose? Ren appears to have a creepy younger sister who's also set to be involved in the show's events.

This episode is a bit of a roller coaster, zooming and looping wildly between genuinely interesting, character-driven horror and tiresome attempts at comedy and fanservice that left me feeling like I was watching a bootleg Monogatari episode. It's an odd, rather frustrating mixture that ends up evening out to a middle-of-the-road score, mostly because every well-done aspect gets undercut by something obnoxious. Take, for example, Sumireko. There's a lot to like about her. She's an adult struggling with the disillusionment of her late 20s, fighting to keep her creative passion alive as a writer while facing consistent rejections of her work in a society that seems to think her worth diminishes with each passing year. She has a menial day job to pay the bills, struggles with writer's block and misses the days when she was a young prodigy winning writing awards. That's an engaging portrait to paint for our main character. As the episode's supernatural twist seemingly grants her wish and turns her into a loli, only for it to turn out she can't stay that way too long because her adult mass is compressed into this form and the pressure will kill her from inside before long, it feels like it's building to something.

In the middle of all that, however, our secondary lead Ren keeps making comments about Sumireko's body, and the camera keeps focusing on her massive boobs and not-as-massive ass. The opening is emphatic about the sheer size of her tits and even has a close-up of her bra when Ren searches her apartment, complete with a comment about how he wishes he was there under "different circumstances". Later on, there's an extended gag about how the curse afflicting Sumireko only took effect because she's a virgin. It's just a weird, juvenile sense of humor matched with aimless fanservice, and even when it's not actively undercutting the tension of drama, it sucks up enough time that the resolution plays out way too quickly. Having some comic relief or T&A to pair with the horror is fine, but it's actively hurting more than helping here.

The visuals similarly swing between extremes. The designs are solid, and close-ups are generally rendered well. Wide shots struggle, and any scene set in the dark has a good chance of looking too murky to make anything out properly. The final scene is so dark that it's hard even to see the spooky imagery at play.

While there's still promise of an interesting supernatural mystery series, I'm not without skepticism. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this one yet. It's intriguing enough that I'm gonna give it another couple episodes, especially since I started late and there are three episodes available--the use of the poetry compilation is fascinating and there are enough questions I want answered that it may be worth putting aside what this does wrong in favour of what it does right.

In the rural town of Engamori, the mountain breeze often blows. Everyday life there is mysterious, filled with monsters, humans and gods coexisting. They live each day with their own joys and worries in their hearts. Buchio lived as a cat until he was 20 years old, then he died and was reborn as a nekomata. Mutsumi is a human who lives a positive life, even though she's concerned about her missing father. Jiro is a karasu tengu who's been protecting this town for generations. This is the gentle and mysterious story of connections that occur in the daily life of a relaxing and heartwarming countryside town.

This season really proved to be one where the new shows I checked out last won me over the fastest. In fact, I was won over by Buchio alone. He's a shy little fellow who was only recently reborn into his new yokai form, and he's still learning the ropes. He's on the hunt for a teacher to show him how to work his yokai magic, he appreciates his human family members for being so gracious about this new phase of his life, and he wears a cute little hat when he goes out on walks with his tengu pal Jiro. I was beginning to worry about this season's prospects, considering how mediocre-to-bad most of the new shows have been, but Tonari no Yokai-san is an anime that instantly shot right to the top of my spring watchlist within five minutes of its premiere.

So yeah, this came out of nowhere. Tonari no Yokai-san, the season's obligatory show with only a romanized Japanese title and no translated or localized English one, had completely slipped under my radar, but when I finally watched it a couple nights ago, I was hooked in no time. I already love sweet and melancholy stories about the supernatural, and every new detail and development in this episode served to get me more invested and intrigued by this world and its characters. That it did so without ever breaking its warm, comforting vibes made it all the more impressive.

A part of me wishes I could live in Tonari no Yokai-san's world. It's a place where maybe our poor departed kitties would've lived on in a new form, where the dead really do come back and visit on their holidays, and where your neighbour just might be a karasu tengu. Of course, it's also a world where Mutsumi's father has vanished into something called "the void", an event separate from being spirited away or dying because the implication seems that once the void has you, it will not let you go. This juxtaposition of the dream and nightmare qualities of folklore is the strongest element of the premiere. The deceptively gentle tone mimics the sort of storytelling that lets people think fairytales are for children, and we see both sides of it through Mutsumi's experiences. She goes from the excitement of her friend Takumi's cat Buchio turning into a nekomata to the quiet heartbreak of her deceased grandfather coming home for Obon to the horror of hearing her mother on the phone with the police, creating a clear picture of the unique ups and downs of living in Engamori. Parallel to her experiences are those of Buchio, who had no idea he was about to be reborn as a nekomata or what that would mean for him--he certainly never expected to have to fill out yokai registration paperwork to be officially counted as a sapient being. Mutsumi is our example of a child growing up in a strange world and becoming aware that it has layers she wasn't previously aware of, while Buchio represents the person just discovering what living in Engamori means. The two storylines play off each other well.

Yokai are such a common element in anime that I'm sure they can feel rather tired to some, and using the supernatural as an analogy to highlight the different walks of human life is pretty well-trodden ground. However, this show walks that travelled path with a soft-spoken charm that makes the journey feel novel anyway. I love the casual friendliness and support between the human and yokai characters. I love the lived-in familiarity that the human residents display towards the supernatural, treating ghostly horses and giant weather spirits like everyday neighbours while also showing how this mingling of the mystic and the mundane affects the locals' view of spirituality and death. I love the goofy details like a cat having to apply for whatever the hell "yokai health insurance" entails.

But what I love most about this show--other than Buchio, a perfect gift to humanity who must be cherished and protected at all costs--is how (for lack of a better term) human everyone feels. While we only spend time with a handful of households in the premiere, they display an interesting range of emotions as they go through their daily lives. Buchio's family is supportive and curious about his new existence, quickly adapting to their elderly cat becoming a talking, bipedal and much younger family member struggling with new abilities. Jiro is a disarmingly chill tengu working to fill in for Mutsumi's missing father while the rest of her family grapples with the tragedy. Yuri is an intense and reliable kitsune who seems to be harbouring some secrets, even as she helps Buchio master his magical powers.

The bright colours, pastoral tone and gentle pacing can be deceptive. Despite the warm nature of everyone's relationships, there's a sense that something dark and sad is hiding in the forest. We actually see that at the very end of the premiere when Mutsumi, who sees more than the average human, spots the void lurking between the trees, but it's also an apt metaphor for the town as a whole. There's more going on here in this town where gods, yokai and humans live together. There's a sincere sense of community to it all, and it's infectiously sweet even as it starts tackling darker, more high-stakes themes.

The number one reason for this show's success in my books is the quiet but supreme confidence of its worldbuilding. I have to be honest and recognize that a lot of the inherent novelty and magic of the setting is being amplified by the fact that I wasn't born and raised in a culture where all of these yokai and spirits would feel familiar at least as cozy fairytales and local legends. Still, even if I had more than a decent outsider's knowledge of these things, I reckon that I'd still be completely engaged with how effortlessly this series is crafting its sense of place and purpose. Despite taking place in a relatively simple and sleepy rural town, Tonari no Yokai-san makes sure to stuff every single frame of every single scene with details that make it all feel truly alive. Of course the newborn yokai like Buchio would have to deal with the hassle of government paperwork. Naturally, human and nonhuman girls alike, such as Rain the kappa and her friends, would visit the very real bathroom ghost Hanako-chan for romantic advice. And it only makes sense that an old guardian tengu like Jiro would have to reckon with the (again, quite literal) ghosts of his past when his parent-body tree comes under attack by the vengeful spirit of a snake goddess that he once did battle with over a century ago.

Of course, all the worldbuilding and stakes in the world wouldn't amount to anything if the story wasn't anchored by characters we cared about. Once again, this show has proven itself more than capable in this regard. I could write thousands of words about how obscenely sweet and loveable Buchio is, and I almost certainly will by the time the season is done, especially if he continues to use his powers to save his loved ones from harm's way. Jiro's role as the guardian of Engamori has already proven to be a great source of suspense and action, but his role as the surrogate father figure for poor Mutsumi quickly becomes the soul of the story. Even the side characters are all excellent! It's fun to get little side stories involving younger characters like Rain and Ryo, and the show has even managed to wring a few tears out of me thanks to the understated performances from Buchio and Takumi's mom. As for Yuri, hoo boy, she could come around to yell at me for my crappy magic skills anytime she wants, lemme tell ya.

If you couldn't tell already, I loved everything about these first three episodes. Its art is lovely, its characters are endearing, its world is brimming with so much mystery and promise, and all of this and more is wrapped up in seven layers of Cozy-Ass Vibes™. Tonari no Yokai-san has shown up out of the blue to become the front-runner for best new anime of the season. Seriously, I cannot understate just how good this series has been so far, especially in such an otherwise lacking season. I've been racking my brain for things to complain about or even nitpick, and the best I can come up with is that the big climax of Jiro's rescue from the snake ghost lady might've benefitted from an extra episode of buildup. If you haven't started watching this show yet, fix that problem immediately. Make sure to tell your friends and family to do the same. I suspect that this will continue to be one of the Spring 2024 season's most essential new shows to keep up with.

Genius bartender Ryu Sasakura makes the most incredible cocktails anyone has ever tasted. Seeking his "Glass of God", individuals from all walks of life visit his bar. With both a compassionate ear and a godly drink, Ryu helps people with their problems.

If I may be allowed a moment of terrible pedantic nerd rage, the definition of "bartender" given in this episode made me irrationally upset. Sorry, Ryu, but the word derives from the combination of "a straight piece of rigid material long in proportion to its thickness" and "one who tends or waits upon another", the synonym of "caring" has nothing to do with it. I appreciate what the show's trying to do, but no, that is not correct.

I've never gotten around to seeing the first Bartender anime, but I know that it was generally viewed as either a nice relaxing watch or a big waste of time depending on who you asked. I was both hopeful and skeptical about this remake/reboot/rewhatever. I was hoping this premiere might sway me one way or the other, but by the time credits rolled I still wasn't sure how I felt about it.

I like the premise, an empathetic and attentive bartender making the perfect drink to soothe the nerves of whoever walks into his bar, listening to their stories and offering comfort in a quiet yet earnest manner. Unfortunately, we don't really get to see that in action through this first episode. Instead we're stuck in the framing device of a couple of beleaguered hotel employees trying to find someone that can meet their boss' incredibly vague and frankly unprofessional demands for a hotel bartender. Savvy viewers will know immediately that Ryu is going to be the guy making a "Glass of God" by the end of the episode, but by the time we actually see him working, all we have time for is him making a low-alcohol drink to help Miwa unwind. That's nice and considerate, sure, but it doesn't really live up to the godly title.

Though that divinity may also be part of the problem. I get the appeal of a story setup like this, letting us peek into different peoples' daily struggles as they try to decompress and complementing that with a thoughtfully prepared offering to ease their mind, but that only works if the delivery is understated enough to feel believable. So making Ryu out to be not just a kind soul and professional bartender, but God's gift to alcohol feels like it's going too far. Grand visual metaphors are nothing new to food/drink-based series, but having Miwa mentally teleport to a serene lake and float on air after taking one sip of a highball feels like you're overselling it. It takes the focus away from whatever human connection might exist between Ryu and his customers and puts them solely on his peerless skill.

By the time I finished, I was still intrigued, though this is definitely the kind of series that'll turn away folks looking for thrills, chills or moderately exciting spikes in drama. In other words, not a lot happens. The part of me that loves watching culinary infotainment was pretty interested in seeing how Ryu does his thing, especially since the show's music and production values are really damn good. The part of me that looks for gripping characters and narratives was left a little more parched.

I know, that's a lot of complaining for a premiere that was, in total, just okay. I like the chill vibes the opening promises, and now that we've gotten our recurring cast and premise established, hopefully the next few episodes will give a clearer idea of what the show will really be like. I may not be much for drinking (it's not an ethical or religious thing, I just don't like the taste of alcohol), but I love anthology stories that try to capture something relatable and universal through different angles. There's certainly room here to be a charming, heartening experience, bu it's just not quite hitting the right notes yet. That said, there's something about the whole vibe of this show that I'm digging, and I want to give it at least another couple episodes to try and fully win me over.

And frankly, in a season this lacking, I'll take whatever I can get.

Prince Oscar has been cursed since childhood to never have a child of his own, and he seeks out the calamitous witch Tinasha to find a way to break the curse, braving the trials of her tower. When they meet, Tinasha reveals that she has a strange connection to Oscar, and a curious courtship begins between them that threatens to shake the power structures of their world.

Lemme tell ya, this show is not being done any favours by airing in the same season as the Spice & Wolf remake. Obviously neither show's creators planned that, but the fact we have two dialogue-heavy premieres about a guy and his centuries-old magical girlfriend in a low-fantasy setting shines the harsh light of comparison on Unnamed Memory, and it doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

For one, it's kinda dull to look at. The character designs are alright but not memorable, especially Tinasha, whose design is surprisingly subdued. The animation is serviceable, carrying the short action scenes with just enough energy to get by. The direction makes occasional attempts at more dynamic angles, but lacks the evocative storyboarding necessary to keep an extended scene of two people talking visually interesting. The result is a lengthy sequence that feels like it drags hard and makes watching more of a chore than it needs to be.

Of course, our leads could mitigate that if they established strong chemistry through all that talking, but Oscar and Tinasha are no Lawrence and Holo. Many of the pair's discussions revolve around Oscar pushing for Tinasha to marry him entirely for the sake of birthing a royal heir, which makes their relationship feel much more one-sided from the get-go. It's hard to root for these two to get together when their central romantic tension is Oscar trying to slow-roll a political pregnancy, and it only gets weirder when they establish that his great-grandfather tried the same shit with the same woman. Considering a different witch was the one who cursed Oscar, maybe all the men in this family should just keep their dicks away from any magical women as a rule.

Even setting aside that dynamic, Tinasha isn't very interesting in her own right. Despite being a witch who's lived for hundreds of years, secluded in her magical tower of her own will, she feels neither ancient nor particularly antisocial. She doesn't offer a perspective that betrays her age, and her prior relationship with Oscar's ancestor is played for a laugh while otherwise never affecting anything in the long run. She feels generic, and Oscar's pushiness superseding any other part of his personality makes for rather boring company. That's enough to make the whole episode kind of a bust, and it does nothing to make me want to watch more. It'll have to do a lot more within the next two episodes for me to feel like it's worth my time.

When the gods grow bored, they decide to spice up their eternal existence by challenging all takers in an ultimate battle of wits. Of course, these deities are capricious, unfair and incomprehensible at the best of times, so winning is virtually impossible for a mere mortal. Even so, things are bound to get interesting when a former goddess and a genius human boy team up in a bid to win the game to end all games.

In truth, I have a hard time understanding how so many anime can still be screwing up one of the most fundamental laws of stories about characters playing a bunch of random clubhouse games: Absolutely nobody on Earth likes to have the rules of a game laboriously explained to them instead of just getting to play the game themselves. Aunty Donna did a whole skit on the concept! This is why the good anime about dicking around with children's card games, like Yu-Gi-Oh, make sure to spice up the otherwise stilted proceedings with wild visuals, campy storytelling and increasingly ludicrous stakes. To this day, no one knows or cares what the actual rules of Duel Monsters are. Gods' Games We Play doesn't do any of these things, despite featuring a premise that is literally dependent on the involvement of gods and magic. Instead it's nothing but flat shots of two uninteresting characters as they sit in tiny room and play the most "killing time at grandma's house" games imaginable while talking ad nauseum about them.

Yeah, I hope you like characters casually sitting and talking to "themselves" as a way to throw an entire series' worth of lore at you, because that is definitely the way that Gods' Games We Play is operating in its premiere. Forget "Show, Don't Tell", because this episode does not trust its viewers to be able to put the pieces together on their own, with the most egregious example being a section in the middle where Miranda just sits staring at her own computer screen nattering away about the entire deal with gods, apostles and games, laying out how the whole thing works even though she's an administrator of some kind and absolutely knows all of this. There's no one else present in the scene, and thus no conceivable reason for her explanation other than clumsy infodumping for the viewers.

Sadly, the games are no different, although the stakes do look like they may change significantly in future episodes. This one, however, focuses on a variation of the old standby Memory. Fay, our preternaturally gifted and unfortunately named protagonist, is brought to the goddess Leoleshea to alleviate her boredom (and see if he's worthy of helping her, presumably), and then rapidly proves his worth by letting his amazing memorization skills slip. Not interested in cheating Leshea out of a good game, he agrees to her fancy moving variant of Memory, which the show acts like is fully new and not something I've seen in at least four different hidden object games--the cards move, making it harder to remember where they are. But we're still treated to an exhaustive explanation of the way the game works and how awesome at it Fay is, because why trust your audience to use their brains and put shit together themselves when you can beat them over the head with information?

Unfortunately, no amount of lifeless exposition concerning the supposed stakes of these games can make up for the complete lack of life in the story itself, and the presence of some floating playing cards doesn't make the proceedings feel magical, no matter how much the show wants to trick you into thinking otherwise. This is one of those startlingly unremarkable filler shows that seemingly exists to fill a box on some company's production schedule checklist. I'm not convinced that even the people who made it will have any memory of its existence by the time the season is done.

It's just a dull watch, since there's nothing at stake and nothing interesting happening, and all the exposition feels like thin excuses for justifying our heroes playing a series of supernatural games that they'll inevitably conquer by figuring out the trick behind it. That would be fine if these characters had any noteworthy personality to hook us with. Fay likes games and is looking for a mysterious red-haired woman from his past. Leshea likes games and is a dragon goddess who doesn't wear underwear. They both have the same perspective on games and agree with everything the other says for 20 minutes. Yippee. If you're really into this particular kind of story, you could certainly do worse (like last year's Liar Liar), but there's also far better versions with more interesting characters.

{Note: This was mean to go up yesterday, but I was horribly sick, so today you get a two-for-one deal.}


Prince Lloyd wasn't always a prince. In fact, his previous life is one he remembers perfectly: He was a sorcerer of sorts. So when he was forced to reincarnate, he decided to continue his studies, prince of the realm or not. But his new life has its own sets of challenges, including being a kid.

I'll say this for I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince So I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Show's Overly Long Title, it completely understands the tone it wants to set. There is no more perfect introduction to our main character than his being excited about being burned alive with magic. This tells us everything we need to know about him, that he's a magic fanatic who puts experiencing magic above everything else, even his own life. There's no mission for revenge, no lamenting about how unfair the world is for commoners like he used to be, he just is as he always has been, focused on magic. Of course, now that he's part of a royal bloodline, that means his fanatical passion for magic bears much more fruit. So what we get is the constant joke of him doing anything to learn/experience new magic while being completely overpowered in the process.

So as I've been doing increasingly lately, let me start with the positives. For one, there's a lot of really lively, ambitious animation throughout the episode. While the action sequences can sometimes get a little hard to follow, scenes like Lloyd's sword training or his battle with the demon are delivered way better than I'm used to seeing from shows of this type with titles this long. Similarly, the opening scene depicting Lloyd's death in his previous life is rather well done, abstracting the emotions of his death at the hands of noble magicians before swerving into the punchline of him nerding out over the very magic that's killing him. In the same vein, I like Lloyd's weirdo personality, defining him as the kind of hyper-obsessive nerd who would devote two whole lives to his lifelong fixation.

Unfortunately, those strengths aren't enough to make this episode all that interesting. While not technically an isekai, since Lloyd's been reincarnated into the exact same world he already lived in, it carries many of the hallmarks that sap that subgenre of conflict. Lloyd is established to be so massively, unstoppably powerful compared to everyone else that there's no chance for any tension or obstacles. That seems to be part of the joke, since the main fight turns into a comedy of escalation by the end, but it's not a particularly new or clever one, and it only serves to make our hero less interesting. There's no journey for him to go on because he's already reached his destination, and the magic system itself just isn't enough to make studying it for its own sake an engaging story. Seeing more and more people freak out at how strong Lloyd is will only get less funny the more it happens.

What I imagine will be the dealbreaker for many (or maybe the best thing for others), however, is the sexual undertones surrounding Lloyd. There's the predictable stuff like his horde of doting maids just thinking he's ever-so-cute and bathing with him because hey, he's just a child--the same kind of thing you see in a lot of these shows about adult men inhabiting children's bodies. Then they start fighting over who he'll share a bed with and that subtext starts looking a lot more like text. It doesn't seem like they're intent on anything but sleep, but it's still framed in such a way that you could spin it otherwise, and the clear imagery of the one maid Sylpha's breasts resting on Lloyd's shoulders leaves even less room for doubt. Then we have the ending animation where three of these women are getting dressed up to go on what each assumes is a solo date with Lloyd. Combine all of that with the way the camera loves to pan over Lloyd's legs, rendered with the same blushing shimmer and pigeon-toed posture given to girls in fanservice shows, and, uh...

Yeah, look, let's all just be real with each other and admit the core truth of I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince: You don't make an anime about an especially pretty-looking shota dressed in obscenely short shorts with conspicuously glistening thighs who gets smothered by a dozen bountiful, bouncing breasts in the bath if you aren't at least partially motivated by Weird Sex Stuff. And look, if the creators and viewers are down with that, more power to all parties involved. Contrary to what Twitter freaks who weren't raised properly believe, there's no real kids involved and nobody is getting hurt, and any kinks that can refrain from crossing that most important of lines is the business of no one but the pervert and the deities of their choosing.

That said, the road goes in both directions. If we're all going to be sensible and mature in recognizing that a not-insignificant percentage of the content in this show is made by and for shotacons, then we'll also need to acknowledge that this severely limits its appeal as, y'know, a TV show to be watched by anyone who isn't in the same category as its creators and core fanbase. See, even if Prince Lloyd weren't the obvious object of fetishization that he so clearly is, and even if he wasn't surrounded by a bunch of women with extremely dubious definitions of appropriate adult-child boundaries, this was still never going to be a good show. Just look at the title! It's the same nonsensical mush of generic fantasy tropes and overpowered cliches that get mindlessly rearranged in every third or fourth new anime each season. The one silver lining I could find here was the cute relationship between Lloyd and the spooky demon dog-thing that he finds trapped in the magic book, but it's not enough to free this show from the shackles of its mediocrity.

The only thing that separates it from any number of its other inbred cousins is the tiny boy in the booty shorts, and it should go without saying that such a variable is not going to broaden this story's appeal in any meaningful way. Like, imagine if you'd been eating nothing but cheap greasy cheeseburgers for three months. No matter how much you like junk food burgers, eventually the novelty is going to wear off and you'll start getting sick. I can't imagine that most people are going to suddenly change their minds and jump for joy if someone hands them a virtually identical burger except this one has a suspiciously well-drawn picture of a half-naked preteen boy's ass etched onto the bun.

And even without those issues, the art makes it look like Lloyd is drawn by someone different than the rest of the characters. They have a much more realistic look to them (stupid belts on the maids' uniforms aside), while Lloyd looks disproportionate, as if they wanted to make him look silly and cute rather than have him actually fit in with the rest of the art. It feels like the least of the episode's problems, but it's just one more stick to add to the fire, which is perhaps too dynamic a way to describe this episode.

Whatever positives are present in the production, and whatever comic appeal Lloyd's personality might offer, I'm not sure it's enough to justify further viewing. Maybe it's worth the old three-episode test, just in case things suddenly and hugely improve, but I don't have high hopes for this one.

Deemed a "good-for-nothing" for his low level and lack of a god-given Gift, Allen is stripped of his noble status and banished from the Duchy of Westfeldt. But Allen has a secret: He was a great hero in a previous life, and he's thrilled for the chance to finally live the way he truly wants. His drama-free existence, however, is soon interrupted by a desperate encounter with his ex-fiance. As a former hero who still possesses the incredible powers of his past life, Allen can't ignore someone in need, no matter how much he might like to.

I was gonna dock The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases points for being an unnecessary double-episode premiere, but then something magical happened. In the middle of episode two, the renowned blacksmith who doesn't wear a shirt under her thick leather apron for some reason revealed our hero's special new sword, a legendary work that she promised would surpass the treasured divine blades of old. And it was the most embarrassing thing I'd ever seen. Of the thousands of swords I've seen anime and game characters pull out, this one was among the saddest, goofiest pieces of animated metal I can remember. I laughed out loud at it and went 'Oh nooo~" like I was watching a kid fall down during a gradeschool Christmas pageant. It was so pitiful that it pepped me up during what was otherwise a dirt-flavoured show about nothing of interest.

"Pitiful" is really the best word to describe this whole premiere. It's one of those shows that was obviously tossed together as quickly and thoughtlessly as possible, evidenced by the consistently awful, lifeless animation and art. Even the opening introduced in episode 2 is just reused footage cobbled together from the first episode with some filters thrown on to make it less obvious. It's like the kind of long-dismissed no-effort shit that companies like 4Kids or Saban would do back in the day--but hey, since we're in an age of people defending bad localizer decisions to the death, who knows, maybe that'll be more accepted now. Characters move and emote with the grace of a plastic bag in a street gutter occasionally catching the wind. Action scenes are at best stills, at worst incomprehensible nightmares of editing to disguise how little has actually been drawn for any given moment. It's almost begging to be put out of its misery. Or my misery. Or both.

It doesn't help that there's not a single original idea or character in this whole thing. This show is a ripoff of a ripoff that was aping countless other ripoffs. Allen, our protagonist who looks like someone tried drawing Chrom from memory, says he wants to use his new life doing as he wants and not worrying about the responsibilities that wrecked his previous life, yet he sure is doing a lot of heroic deeds and standard RPG adventurer shit all the time. Saving princesses, slaying dragons, getting magical blacksmiths to craft legendary swords... Gee golly willickers, it's almost like the whole reincarnation gimmick is just a way to justify Allen being monumentally stronger than anyone else yet still looked down upon by the villains! Meanwhile, his companions are entirely bereft of personality, existing as vaguely feminine sources of conflict for Allen to resolve and eventual love interests for him to be the only important thing in the world to. And of course, his evil family who thought he was a failure and disowned him are secretly the bad guys behind all the bad things happening in the kingdom, and their banishing Allen for his failures will doubtlessly prove to be their demise.

It's the most boring power fantasy this side of the ostracized nerd revenge fantasies in stuff like Arifureta. The story wants to indulge in the underdog story by proving the doubters wrong without ever having to work or worry that victory isn't assured in every encounter. Put that together with the terrible production values and you have a recipe for a show so bad it'll make you sad just looking at it.

I'm not sure what to say that others haven't already said better, but I'm greatly saddened by this sudden loss and felt it was only right to at least try. We've lost a truly great person who had a massive influence on Japanese pop culture and its gradual spread around the world. Thank you for everything you've done over the past 40 years, Toriyama-sensei, and I hope you rest well. I miss you already... ;w;/

Highschool nobody Ken Usato was just waiting for the rain to stop after someone took his umbrella when he unexpectedly met two of his school's most popular students, Kazuki Ryusen and Suzune Inukami. Fortunately, they're both really nice, and Usato quickly feels like they're all on their way to becoming good friends. Unfortunately, Kazuki and Suzune get summoned to another world, and he's pulled along with them. Kazuki and Suzune are, of course, the heroes the kingdom was looking for, but Usato's far from useless--he turns out to have the rarest of all powers, healing magic. He'll be really helpful in fighting off the demons, assuming the training doesn't kill him first.

A funny thing happened a few minutes into the premiere of The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, one of numerous shows I've walked into a bit late due to decreased drive to check out the season's new shows. Despite everything I've been trained to expect from shows with this exact kind of premise sporting this exact kind of title, The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic was...taking its time to introduce its main characters before getting into all the isekai stuff. And the characters were...good. Usato is a bit of a socially awkward loner, but he's still likeable enough to make for a decent protagonist. Suzune is charming and funny, but she's allowed to talk to the boys in her life like a real person and not a glorified plot device with tits. Kazuki is the all-too-perfect student council member who should be everything a guy like Usato resents and envies, but not only is he not written like a sociopathic strawman, but he's also such a decent dude that you buy it when he, Usato and Kazuki just become friends, no strings attached. This strange sense of meaningful connection that these kids share, it's... Yeah, that's right, it's called "chemistry". I was starting to think that was allowed in an isekai anime.

I started to get this funny feeling in the pit of my stomach, something altogether foreign to me and yet not at all unpleasant. I was having fun. Surely this had to be some kind of fluke, right? Once the main character got zipped away to the isekai world, it'd all be over and I'd have to return to the real world, where shows like The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic are required by law to suck ass.

Except it didn't suddenly start to suck. Instead it somehow managed to establish Usato as the unexpected wild card with shockingly deep reservoirs of magical powers without coming across as stupid or contrived. It plays off jokes like Suzune being a shameless nerd and everyone in the kingdom being terrified of Usato's healing magic teacher Rose, and it's funny. Consider the fact that the first premiere I watched this month saw my ear being assaulted by Hiro Shimono constantly screaming and making me forget he actually has acting talent in that godawful My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered show, and now here I was, watching an isekai show and laughing at all jokes and getting genuinely invested in Usato's story and relationships. Goddamn, it turns out isekai stories CAN be good--all you have to do is give a fuck and try to make something worth watching! Who'da thunk, huh?!

Let this premiere stand as an example to every other goddamn fucking isekai show we get from now on: You don't have to radically reinvent the wheel or massively shake up your premise to be entertaining, you just need to put actual effort, thought and soul into your story and characters, and trust that those connections will keep people engaged. Because that's exactly what happens here--The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic doesn't have some novel twist on this story archetype, it just knows how to effectively establish likeable characters whose personalities and relationships speak for themselves.

Take Usato, for example. In damn near any other isekai show, he'd be insufferable, walking around as the epitome of sad-sack mediocrity until he either gets blessed with ultimate power or is betrayed and THEN gets ultimate power. Instead he comes across as a pretty amicable guy who's maybe too passive for his own good but isn't riddled with bitter insecurity about not being the universe's main character. The fact that he was summoned to Fantasyville by accident, a literal hanger-on to his more accomplished and powerful classmates, could easily be a source of insecurity or mockery from the rest of the cast, but no, his popular classmates are just nice people, and they establish a sense of camaraderie well before anyone gets transported. When it's revealed that Usato was summoned by accident, there's no belittling him, just concern that he got caught up in this mess entirely by accident. It's as if the people in this show are actual characters, capable of empathy and rationality, rather than cardboard cutouts to facilitate a flimsy persecution complex.

Enough about what this premiere isn't though. Regardless of the genre tag, the premiere is charming and funny in its own right, bolstered by a solid production that shines in a few places and allows the characters to be expressive when needed. I like that Suzune is secretly a huge chuuni who's practically salivating at this whole adventure, much to her companions' confusion. I dig that Usato gets immediately dragged into the tutelage of the somewhat intimidating mentor figure you'd find in old-school shonen anime. I love the skate-rock opener that transported me back to 2007 whenever the vocalist growled out the chorus. There's a level of energy and personality that works without the need for caveats like "good, for an isekai" or the like.

My biggest issue is that the world itself is pretty standard, but that's not too big a problem when the cast inhabiting it is enjoyable on their own. Weirdos like Rose and her scary-looking employees add just the right level of zaniness to the fantasy characters while giving Usato a lot of strong personality to bounce off of like a quivering ball of jelly. It's not gonna blow your socks off, but it has all the right elements in just the right balance to be a good time, and it's the first time in awhile that I've genuinely been excited to see more from an isekai adaptation.

In fact, after three episodes, The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic seems like a sleeper hit of the season. Don't come at me, fellow Delicious in Dungeon fans, I didn't say this would be the top show of the season! However, after seeing shit like The Kingdoms of Ruin last season, I am feeling stoked about what's to come with this show. I especially love how our trio came into this world--while Suzune was ecstatic, Usato and Kazuki reacted how normal people would in this situation, whereas most isekai protagonists adjust WAY too quickly to their circumstances. Also, Usato is precious, loveable and self-deprecating, and Suzune is just hilarious--I love seeing a female character openly and shamelessly love gaming and nerdy stuff and not be afraid to show she's boy-hungry at times too. Hell, I spit my Coke out when she suddenly lifted up Usato's shirt! Meanwhile, Kazuki will obviously be the straight-man voice of reason, but we love to see it.

The kicker, however, the character that makes this anime truly worth watching, is Rose. A complete and utter badass. This absolute goddess of a woman strikes instant fear into all. In the first episode, the king and his court can't even get her name out of their mouths, they're so scared of her. She's a virtuoso at using healing magic and is insanely powerful, and lucky for Usato, he's decided to train him for the difficult journey ahead of him. She's gorgeous, blunt and strong, she's a contender for the season's hottest new girl, and I cannot wait to see more from her.

Also, healing magic seems to always be for the weak in isekai shows, so I love that she's a healer but also powerful. She pushes herself and her crew to their physical limits BECAUSE they can heal. Why haven't we seen this before?

The series up to this point has just been setup--we're in the thick of Usato's training arc, but seeing Rose demolish that massive snake and talk about the Demon Lord, I feel like we are in for a wild, fun ride.

25-year-old adventurer Rentt Faina has been hacking away at monsters for a decade. However, without much talent for the job, Rentt finds himself stuck hunting slimes and goblins for meager amounts of coin everyday. Swallowed whole by a dragon, he wakes up a short time later not quite dead, but not very alive either... He's nothing more than a pile of bones. Armed with nothing but his trusty sword, tool belt and ghoulish new looks, Rentt sets off on his quest as a newly reborn skeleton monster to achieve Existential Evolution, hoping to one day return to civilization with his original form.

There were a lot of places that The Unwanted Undead Adventurer could've gone after the somewhat intriguing opening scene that featured its protagonist getting horrifically murdered by a weird angel-dragon-thing and turned into a living skeleton monster. While I briefly held out hope that this was maybe going to result in some fun and wacky hijinks, the show instead opted to make the most boring and predictable choice possible: It spent half of the premiere on a flashback that explains, in excruciating detail, how its protagonist ended up fighting that monster in the first place.

I'm going to take this opportunity to make an open plea to all of the writers working on these RPG-inspired fantasy stories that have been plaguing the industry for so many years: If you're going to resort to plagiarizing the already plagiarized bargain-bin crap that was itself ripped off from the half-baked clones of JRPG fantasy stories that haven't felt fresh or relevant since the early 2000s, then please do not feel like you need to spend time explaining to us how the hero guilds and monster loot systems of your setting work. We all know how it goes by now and the play-by-play has gotten a bit insulting.

Really though, that's more of a general complaint about the industry as a whole. As for the particulars of The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, well, I'd get into more specifics if there was anything "particular" to comment on. We get introduced to Skelly Boy, spend an ungodly amount of time watching as pre-skellified Skelly Boy goes about his mundane life, and then post-skellified Skelly Boy monologues to himself in a dark, ugly cave about how difficult life as a Skelly Boy is probably going to be. He also kills some slimes, I guess, and then evolves into a more ghoulish form for reasons that have yet to be explained.

Of course, I make this complaint with the full understanding that there may not have been a better way to handle the earliest part of this story. It's all very unfortunate, because there are hints at more interesting subjects waiting just ahead. Even though Rentt (which I keep wanting to type as "Rennt") is largely a solo adventurer, he's got people he cares about and who care about him. Early on, he mentions a friend who's a scholar, and later, when he fails to return from his adventure in the Labyrinth of the Moon's Shadow, two people are very obviously concerned about it. Sure, his scholar friend's words could be taken as "I was hoping he'd swing by and make dinner", but she's still remarking on his absence, and Sheila at the guild is also worried about his failure to return. He's a solo adventurer, but he's not friendless. That makes his determination to achieve a higher level of undead form and eventually regain a living one so he can return to town take on a different meaning. He doesn't want to hit "ghoul" and eventually "vampire" so he can sleep in a proper bed, he wants to get back to the people he cares about and where he feels at home. He's also not willing to give up on his dreams of becoming a top-class adventurer, which is perhaps less charming, but no less important when it comes to what seems to be the core concept: Rentt isn't done with life or being human.

But then it feels like 80% of the episode is just endless scenes of a CG skeleton walking down blue hallways and fighting other CG monsters, all scored by his unnecessary narration that needs to explain every single goddamn thing that's happening onscreen. You'd think that would be annoying, but the content and delivery are so dull that they can't even rise to the level of irritating. Rentt's voice actor could be reading the phone book for all it amounts to. I can't even talk about the visuals much because there's barely anything besides blue dungeon corridors and the millionth generic fantasy circle town. Rentt looked like a background character before getting skeletonized, and afterward he looks like a premade Unity asset. And even worse, it's one that can't even emote! There's not even a bone pun or death joke to be found! That's like the one thing every hack writer will lean into when writing an undead character! Where are the damn skull jokes to make me yo-ho-ho-ho?

Told differently, I think this could've been a much more engaging episode. I like that the snippets we get of the town are understated because he hasn't been missing all that long, so they would be concerned rather than panicked right now. I enjoyed the scene of Rentt juggling bread, and I genuinely laughed at his attempts to talk at the very end, so this has some things going for it. I want to see how he interacts with other characters. I want to see how he handles the numerous challenges in his undead life. I even want to see if he regains his humanity and gets to keep living a normal life. Could the show turn out to genuinely be the repetitive, monotonous, boring slog this premiere makes it seem like? Sure it could, but I'm willing to give this a couple more episodes to find out. If you're at all intrigued, this seems to merit the old three-episode test--it may not look great, and the storytelling and humor in this episode are clunky and weak, but it isn't devoid of potential. I hope I'm making the right call, because this season frankly has more than enough shows on the Anime That Will Not Be Remembered by a Single Living Soul When the Season Ends Pile already.

{Note: This was supposed to go up yesterday, I'm just dumb.}


On the second floor of an old building in Most City, Japan is a publishing company that puts out a periodical called Monthly Moso Science, a magazine featuring articles about shocking, bizarre events and inexplicable phenomena that make even scientists throw their hands up in defeat. Its staff consists only of a beautiful editor-in-chief and her one editor, Taro Suzuki, who are joined by gradeschool-age assistant Jiro Tanaka and his dog Saburo. The editorial department is always empty, and Taro, Jiro and Saburo usually hang out at Rock, a coffee shop on the building's first floor. One day, the scientist Goro Sato visits them for a consultation, and therein lies the beginning of an outlandish new story.

Here's a great example of a show that I could love if everything about it were done completely differently. I'm always on the lookout for shows with stories that break the mold a little bit, and a kooky comedy about a bunch of weirdos who investigate supernatural shenanigans on behalf of their chintzy paranormal tabloid is just the breath of fresh air that I'm looking for. To be fair to Delusional Monthly Magazine (whose Japanese title is actually the same as the magazine), it isn't like this premiere was agonizing to sit through, and I can imagine having fun with a one-off episode in the future if the show learns to cool its jets a bit, but otherwise it's managed to be something I don't exactly feel like watching more of.

This show revolves around three guys who are varying degrees of unlikeable and unsympathetic. Taro is a slacker who wants to be a househusband so he doesn't have to work (showing that not only is he not husband material, but he also has no idea how much work housewives do). Jiro is a stuck-up boy who works at a cafe and runs an independent magazine...and also has healing powers for some reason. Goro is a scientist (cosplaying as a leprechaun?) who discovered--for all rights and purposes--a piece of Atlantis. And then there's Saburo, an Afghan hound and the most likeable character so far. Together they talk, shout, be dicks to one another, and make poor attempts at slapstick comedy. This premiere also made me realize that I've seen more Afghan hounds in anime than in real life, perhaps indicating how little this held my interest.

Now, all of this, while bad, is more overwhelmingly boring than anything else. But then we get to the climax with the three humans running away from suited goons driving a bulldozer through a building for some reason, then Taro touches the piece of Atlantis and becomes a huge tiger with super strength and garish makeup who wreaks the bulldozer and... Yeah, I dunno if I can manage this one, fellas.

It probably doesn't help that there's very specific Japanese wordplay we're missing. It's hard not to notice the preponderance of words beginning with the sound "mo", some in English, some in Japanese and some just made up. Why that sound should be so much in favour isn't clear, but I suspect it has to do with "moso", meaning "delusion". This could indicate that the show is poking fun at itself for being "delusional" with a dollop of bizarre, although it made me want to use the sound "mou", an expression of exasperation. There's nothing at all wrong with absurd humor, but this mostly gives the impression of being weird for weirdness' sake. While that may change going forward, it didn't endear this episode to me. The basic premise seems to be that overeager young scientist Goro is deeply invested in studying the equivalent of Atlantis, searching for the sunken Mo Continent and its relics. When academia refuses to publish his paper on the "MOpart" he excavated, he turns to the pulp magazine Monthly Moso Science, which he believes prints more truth than they realize. Then some men in black show up, people turn out to have mysterious powers, and the MOpart turns Taro into a knockoff Thundercat.

More than any of the stiff writing, unenjoyable characters or insubstantial storytelling, however, my gripes with this show largely come down to its presentation choices. The art is just a touch too candy-coloured for my liking, and the animation is nothing special. The direction is about as bitch-basic as it gets. The voice actors are all dialed to varying degrees of obnoxious, and the music... Jesus H. Dick, the music. I am spiritually and morally obligated to say I hate how this show uses its music. Irrespective of the quality of any individual track, the way this show mixes and deploys it is gratingly obnoxious in a way that's rare in professional productions. Seeminglybevery scene, every cut of animation and every line of dialogue has to be accompanied by a plodding, overly loud soundtrack of obnoxious instrumentation, usually in ways that are totally at odds with the tone of the story. A character is explaining esoteric lore about Not!Atlantis? Better have an accordion warming up sporadically in the background, interspersed with synth beats and a chanting choir. Does that make a lick of sense for what's onscreen? Who cares! It's loud and incessant, which must mean it'll keep the viewer's attention!

Unfortunately, that musical sense is emblematic of the rest of the premiere, which mistakes being loud and annoying for being funny and presses both of those buttons as hard as it can at all times. The character designs are garish, their personalities loud and devoid of charm, and the concept feels like the least interesting angle you could take on the setting of an early 20th century pseudoscience magazine's editorial office. Of all the weird, esoteric, quirky things you could do with that setup, we go with off-brand Atlantis, but also the characters turn into furries with bad makeup. There's no cohesion between those two ideas, and with such a loosely defined story, the only thing left is character interaction, which is uniformly boring and hollow. In fact, looking back, it's shocking how little happens from a character angle. Despite most of the episode being dialogues between a small cast, none of it leaves an impression. Taro is lazy and cowardly, and every single thing he does is meant to hammer that in. Goro spouts exposition and is absentminded, and outside of a running joke about having corns on his feet, that's his only personality trait. Jiro is a kid who doesn't like being called a kid. And Saburo is a dog. There are some vaguely defined bad guys, but they accomplish nothing and then just leave after Taro turns into a borderline sparkledog. I've legitimately seen five-minute shorts establish more about their world and characters in their premiere, and they managed to do it without being half as irritating. If that's not an indictment on this thing as entertainment, I don't know what is.

Overall, this premiere was equal parts boring and annoying. It didn't do anything to hook my attention and most of what it did do made me want to quit watching. Hats off to you, Delusional Monthly Magazine, for being the lamest comedy of an already lackluster season.

The knight Laios set out with a skilled party to claim the treasure of a lost kingdom buried deep beneath the graveyard of a small village. Unfortunately, they were bested by the Red Dragon, who ate Laios's little sister Falin. Although the party managed to teleport out of the dungeon, they left their equipment behind and are penniless. Demoralized, the party broke up. Now Laios, accompanied by the elven mage Marcille and the halfling Chilchuck must tackle the dungeon again, and with only one month to save Falin before she's digested.

Ostensibly, Delicious in Dungeon is an adventure comedy about a group of DnD-style adventurers trying to rescue their fallen companion from the belly of a dragon. While that's the driving motivation, the actual meat of this episode is, well, the meat. Specifically monster meat and all the creative, delicious ways you can cook it. There's certainly some comedy to be had from the characters, but the big draw is seeing all the unique ways the show can turn standard fantasy monsters into gorgeously illustrated meals for those characters. I personally love seeing how creative they can get with it. From cutting up a giant scorpion like shellfish to turning slimes into a kind of gelatin preserve or just delineating the different kinds of man-eating plants by how their fruit tastes, this first episode alone is a buffet of deliciously weird cuisine and fake animal facts. That's sustenance for weird nerds like me, but also makes this whole dungeon feel like a real place. Of course people will try eating these weird creatures, that's what real humans have been doing since we first learned to hunt. By building and considering an entire food chain within the dungeon, this whole world feels instantly more grounded than any exposition dump could accomplish. As they quickly discover in the second half of the episode as well, finding something to eat that hasn't already eaten someone is a tall order. Even the plants are carnivorous, and poor Marcille struggles with the idea. On the other hand, Senshi (a dwarf with a passion for cooking who joins the newly reformed party) thinks a little digested human makes it taste better.

The one wrinkle is in the setup. It's hard not to get hung up on the fact that Laios and his party are supposed to be on a mission to rescue his sister and they have a limited time to do so, but most of the time we spend with them is during downtime while much of their progress through the dungeon so far is offscreen. It creates a sense of friction with the audience, where we expect these characters to be moving with urgency but only witness them when they're recuperating and focused on eating. The given justification is that dragons hibernate most of the time, so Falin is "probably" not going to be turned into dragon shit anytime soon, but you still can't shake the feeling that these dummies need to hurry up, make like Tom Petty and free Falin.

Although the creature designs we've seen at this point aren't particularly unique, they do all look good, and I like how the cooking techniques all mimic the real-life foods the monsters sort of resemble--the scorpion functioning like crayfish or lobster is a very nice touch. The food is also where the animation resources were most heavily devoted. While the rest of the episode is solid, carried mainly by the rounded and appealing character designs and overall beautiful environments, the cooking is definitely the star. There are so many sumptuously rendered shots of hands carefully skinning fruit, slicing meat, and stirring pots. There's a concerted effort to make each dish look absolutely mouthwatering. It's more reserved effort than some might expect from a Studio Trigger production, but it's also the right choice for this material.

In fact, know what I love about Trigger more than anything? More than the crew's zany comic sensibilities, impeccable craftsmanship or penchant for very satisfying action spectacle, I just adore the whole vibe that the studio gives each of its productions. Pretty much every time I watch a Trigger anime, it somehow gives me this feeling like I'm back in my younger days, relaxing with some of my old friends and one of my favourite pop brands while we laugh way too hard at our own stupid jokes inbetween watching whatever anime we put on. I'll give you an example of what I mean: There's one specific cut in this premiere that had me laughing unreasonably hard, not because it was the funniest joke of all time, but because I could just see the animator in charge of that sequence grinning like a madman over getting away with it. It's when Laios takes one of his many pauses in the quest to geek out to Marcille about monsters as both fascinating creatures and delicious meal ingredients. Marcille, for her part, has had the unfortunate luck of being a halfway-sane woman who doesn't actually want to think all that much about which way of being killed by a giant plant is preferable. Instead of hamming up her reaction with a comical sound effect or another of the goofy tantrums she had throughout the premiere, however, the camera does a single-frame zoom-in on the incredulous look on her face (yes, not a separate image, literally the same one but closer), and we sit for a single second of perfectly dead silence as the entire show grinds to a halt so we can all contemplate the life choices that Marcille must've made to end up in this conversation.

That's the kind of shit I'D come up with, and that's what made it hilarious. Here's a beautifully animated show featuring an incredibly likeable cast of characters digging into deliciously insane monster meals, all set to music composed by Yasunori friggin' Mitsuda, and the moment that won me over completely was a TerminalMontage-ass visual gag that I legitimately might've missed if I'd sneezed at the wrong time.

That's just what watching a Trigger show is all about though. Every single element of this production has been made with such obvious care and joy that it's easy to let it all wash over you and really savour all of the littlest, stupidest details that were hopefully just as much fun to create as they are to watch. I don't exactly think Delicious in Dungeon is going to stand as Trigger's magnum opus or anything, but it'll certainly be one of the season's premium chill anime.

Merry Christmas to all celebrating it! I hope you all have a wonderful day! ^o^

Today marks a big day for me. As of this morning, I have finally beaten Super Castlevania 4, on the game's 32nd birthday. Equipped with maxed-out hearts and health, a fully upgraded whip and boomerang cross (or as I call it, the Jesusrang), and my own reflexes and wits, I learned Dracula's attack patterns and kept Simon going towards victory. After just five or so tries (and thanking all that is good for Virtual Console save states), I made it past the accursed flames Dracula sends out, and after enough successful hits, ol' Drac became desperate. I took one hit from his lightning pillars due to a bit of overconfidence, but with just one piece of Simon's health bar remaining and a final fateful toss of the Jesusrang to Dracula's head, the deed was done. Dracula was defeated, and I got to watch that glorious ending. Light flooded into the chamber to finish the fiend off, Simon grabbed that one final boss orb, the castle fell and the credits rolled, and all the while, my hands were shaking and I was grinning like an idiot while getting all teary-eyed. And lemme tell ya, it really set the mood for the rest of my day. :'3

Happy Halloween, everybody, and happy birthday to one of the greatest games ever in the Castlevania franchise! Enjoy all the treats you care to eat, watch movies and videos you still need to see before the month's end, play some thematically appropriate games, perhaps take part in your favourite Animal Crossing game's Halloween activities, tune into your favourite streamer's channel, etc.--whatever your Halloween rituals are, have a fun, safe and spoopy day! ^o^

Fuuko Izumo is cursed with "Unluck". She brings misfortune to anyone who touches her, and the scale is proportional to how long they had physical contact. She's saved from a suicide attempt one day by Andy, a strange man who can't die. He hopes to figure out a way to use Fuuko's misfortune to finally bring him death. The unlikely pair team up to complete missions given to them by the Book of Revelations, but if they or any of the other negators in their union fail, the book might punish humanity.

"It gets better, trust me" is one of the most common refrains around Undead Unluck's early goings. I can attest to that sentiment as somebody who's read a good bit of the manga. Several frankly shitty elements in the manga's first couple volumes are quickly excised, disappearing from the material so abruptly and staying gone so completely that folks wondered if this adaptation would just go ahead and alter the start of the story to better align with what the series becomes. That didn't happen, so we're getting the unfiltered Undead Unluck experience, for better and worse.

Undead Unluck is a story that I absolutely would've dropped after the first two chapters if I read it weekly in Shonen Jump. The opening chapters casually blend suicide with handsy groping for laughs as we watch Fuuko get caught up in the violent adventures of Andy, an undead man with a perpetual shit-eating grin. Fuuko is cursed with "Unluck", where anyone who has direct physical contact with her exposed skin is doomed to suffer unfortunate circumstances, which in no way sounds like something out of an American comic book franchise that starts with the letter X. Meanwhile, Andy is very much tired of his immortality and hopes to use her to cause a disaster so catastrophic that there's no way he can come back from it. Additional wrinkles in Andy's plan soon show up, including an explanation as to why both parties have these powers in the first place, but the story's insistence on framing the main duo's relationship as one that could devolve into assault or even rape at any time took all the fun out of it.

Apart from the fact that Fuuko would really rather not die, despite the story opening with her suicide attempt, the main goal here is to get Fuuko to have strong enough feelings for the Undead half of the titular duo that she can slam him with an especially virulent stroke of badness. Because as much as Fuuko would like to not be dead, Andy pretty desperately does. This is entirely because his power is to constantly regenerate from any and all deadly injuries, and after over 200 years, he's about done. Since Fuuko's bad luck is proportional to how long her skin is touched for and how emotionally charged the action causing the person to touch her is, Andy figures that if she falls in love with him and they bang, he'll get slammed with enough badness to finally kill him once and for all. As you can probably guess, this means a lot of Andy groping Fuuko to generate worse luck. Fuuko is perpetually mid-wail about her situation and it's not particularly comfortable reading or viewing, even though it's clearly meant to be funny. That Andy can't seem to keep his pants on is a little more humorous, mostly because of the enormous censor bar that implies an impressive amount of dick, but also because that black panel is basically just part of his character design and practically becomes its own recurring character after awhile. Considering that the rest of his design incorporates such imagery as a sword occasionally plunged through his chest and what looks like a card stuck in his forehead, nudity seems like the least of his concerns.

So yeah, Undead Unluck has one of the worst, most unendearing starts of just about any Shonen Jump series ever, and a lot of that holds true for the anime. I hate the gross way the series indulges in invasive fanservice towards Fuuko, using the nature of her powers as an excuse for Andy to constantly violate her personal space and grope her for cheap gags. I hate how that comedic dynamic means Fuuko's worth as a character gets reduced to her boobs multiple times in this premiere. I hate that the pair's dynamic is essentially Wolverine and Rogue but with 1,000% more sexual harassment. I hate that Andy's design gives him a permanent Dreamworks Face and he's constantly mugging through every last second of the episode. An episode that ends with our heroine making a "comedic" escape from the male lead because he's stripped down and is loudly demanding they have sex.

It sucks because there are some cool ideas even in these early bits. I love the unique way Andy uses his regeneration powers, utilizing the morbid cartoon physics of his very physiology to pull off stuff like turning his bones into weapons, shooting his fingertip like a bullet and blowing off his regenerating feet over and over to make bloody jet boots. Similarly, Fuuko's "Unluck" is a cool concept even outside of its potential in battle, even if it is literally just lifted from X-Men with little alteration, and the way it fuels her self-loathing is an effective emotional hook. I still can't stand Andy in this earlier part of the story (and even after he improves, I still can't stand his one stupid expression constantly plastered on his face), but seeing Fuuko so happy to have her hair cut and finally have somebody she doesn't have to keep her distance from for their own safety is genuinely sweet. Combined with this adaptation's ambitious direction and great animation, there's a ton of potential here to make something unconventional and unique this season.

However, it's hard to tell anyone the show is worth sticking with when it changed nothing about the manga's terrible start. Cool powers and engaging character writing are shallow compensation for sitting through the noxious character dynamic and juvenile groping gags. If those hurdles leave you undeterred, you'll probably have a good time before long. For everyone else, it's probably gonna be a harder call. Unlike so many other shows people have made the claim about, Undead Unluck DOES get better, but it may be too little, too late for the uninitiated.

Is my birfdae! ^o^

Alissa is a witch who lived alone in a forest, until she found an abandoned baby and named her Viola. Alissa raised Viola for 16 years, but Viola grew beyond Alissa's imagination. The series focuses on the parent-and-child relationship where appearances are deceiving as to who's the parent and who's the child.

I'm of two minds on the unexpected double-length premiere of The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch. On the one hand, the second episode was key in winning me over. Everything in episode 1 was fine, occasionally funny and altogether pleasant to watch, but it was the opening of episode 2 that endeared me to this cast and got me invested. On the other hand, this is a style of comedy that's probably best left to watching one episode at a time and letting the pleasant vibes and sensible chuckles digest, because even a second helping felt a bit like overdosing.

This seems to be a season of coincidences--not only did A Returner's Magic Should Be Special and Tearmoon Empire premiere on the same day as each other, but we also got two series premiering on the same day that take place in a fantasy setting where someone finds and adopts an abandoned baby in the forest. That's the only similarity between this show and My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer, however, because unlike Angeline, Viola has exactly zero intention of ever leaving home. She's very attached to Alissa, and apparently it's supposed to be funny that she's such a mama's girl when she looks much older than her 223-year-old parent at 16. People develop differently and have different figures! Ha ha, that's so funny! Let's show Viola's huge breasts a lot so everyone understands how funny that is!

The thing is, this show isn't without potential. Did it need to be a double release of the first two episodes? No, because seeing both at once doesn't dramatically increase the likelihood of knowing whether or not this is a series for you--it's very much a "what you see is what you get" sort of show. And when we set aside how possessive Viola is of her mother, they have a charming relationship. Flashbacks to Viola's babyhood show how Alissa has always been determined to do her best, as well as her reasoning for adopting the little girl herself rather than finding her some kindly human parents (humans and witches are somehow different species in this world): She was worried that humans wouldn't be able to handle Viola's magic power or the fact that she doesn't know instinctively how to control it. She's doing what she believes is best for Viola. Her relationship with her human friend Lira is also really nice, and Lira has always done her best to be supportive, even being Viola's wetnurse, since she was still breastfeeding her own baby when Alissa found Viola. Also, all the points in the world to Lira for ripping up Alissa's outdated-ass parenting books--not breastfeeding Viola herself doesn't make Alissa any less her mom.

Overall, I still enjoyed myself. These are simple gags based around the basic premise of a childlike mother and her very adult-looking daughter getting up to magical shenanigans, and they generally hit more often than they miss. I enjoyed the look of the series, and it got me to laugh several times. Yet even with just one episode, it felt like the gimmick was running out of steam and we needed something besides "Ha ha Viola's got big boobs" to fuel the punchlines. Thankfully, the sequence exploring Alissa's early struggles with parenthood and the support from Lira was earnest and funny enough to refresh me. I also dig that Lira is tall and muscular without anyone making jokes about it.

I'm less enthused with the extended introduction to Fennel. His shtick of crushing on Alissa and Viola constantly interfering got old quickly and just kept going. Similarly, when the show is just rapid-fire skits, it starts to feel like a series of shorts stitched together. Viola's mommy issues start to wear a bit thin too, which isn't a great sign if this isn't your genre in the first place. Viola's summoned phoenix is great if only for the disconnect between his deep voice and the fact that he looks like Uramichi-oniisan drew him. There are some decent sight gags, like Viola's "special" mandrake roots, and the voice cast is clearly giving it their all. This is good enough if you're in the mood for a goofy comedy, and if the camera can leave Viola's boobs alone for once, it may turn out to be straight-up good. If the show can be more like that segment with Lira, balancing comedy and sweet sentiment more evenly, I think we've got a real charmer on our hands. If it can't, well, it gave us some hot girls, so it's still a net positive.