I Want to End This Love Game

Short Synopsis: A pair of high school friends repeatedly confess their love for each other ironically, both hoping the other will admit their real feelings first.

Wooper: Debates about the meaning of the word “anime” pop up from time to time, but many people understand it to mean “animation from Japan,” and in that sense I Want to End This Love Game (Aishiteru Game wo Owarasetai) is just as much an anime as Nippon Sangoku or Witch Hat Atelier. If you take a less technical view of things, though, it’s hard to believe it can be labeled with the same term as those shows, as its appearance and aims are completely different. Love Game opens with a 40 second flyover of its suburban setting for a bit of upfront padding, cuts to a flashback in the main character’s undecorated home to establish its premise (“Kaguya-sama: Love is War without the jokes”), and proceeds to the present without giving the audience a reason to come along. Its teenage leads are clearly in love with each other despite their “joking” confessions, which they’ve apparently been making for four years, and not only have they not tired of their obvious charade, but it’s still entertaining to the employees at their favorite restaurant, too. Our protagonists are the only customers, of course. There’s no need to pay the animators to populate a public space when the show’s one and only goal is to present cute 2D characters struggling with their feelings! I ducked out of this premiere not long after its embarrassing string of opening scenes, so I can’t comment on what low-effort horrors lurked in its second half, but I hope they’re not an omen of the new normal for anime romcoms.
Potential: 0%

Dandelion

Short Synopsis: The Japan Angel Federation is tasked with helping souls pass on to the afterlife.

Mario: I didn’t look into Dandelion’s details prior to watching it, but it isn’t hard to figure out that the show shares the same DNA as Gintama. They have the same character designs for one, but more noticeably, Dandelion has the exact same humor as Gintama. Unfortunately, I never really cared for Gintama’s brand of “scream until it’s funny” humor, and it goes basically the same with this show. The episode does offer some “heart,” though, with the old man finally passing on after he gives his last goodbye to his wife. At 30 minutes it goes a little bit longer than usual, and the extra bit is more about workplace drama that introduces the main conflict of this ONA (raise your quota or get sacked). At just 7 episodes, it could prove to be a quick watch if you are into Gintama. Personally though, this episode is still not enough to convert me.
Potential: 10%

Candy Caries

Short Synopsis: A personified cavity living inside a young girl’s mouth saves her from a cruel dentist.

Wooper: Being a Tomoki Misato production (Pui Pui Molcar, My Melody & Kuromi), I was always going to watch Candy Caries from start to finish, but now that I’ve seen the start, I can honestly look forward to each subsequent episode. This three minute kickoff wasn’t just fun, it was really funny, with exaggerated animation that gave me Cartoon Network vibes. Examples include main character Ame’s cheeks swallowing the rest of her face to avoid a dentist’s drill, or a later shot of the same dentist busting through a wall in fear of Caries, the cavity who lives in Ame’s mouth. Classic gags like the doors within doors that led to Caries’ room or the lazy-tonged boxing glove that sprang from Ame’s throat reinforced that sense of humor, giving me something to smile about every few seconds. The gelatinous plastic used for its stop motion style looked great too – just an all-around big win for short anime this season.
Potential: Sweet!

Kamiina Botan,
Yoeru Sugata wa Yuri no Hana

Short Synopsis: A college freshman flirts with her dormmates and tries various alcoholic drinks for the first time.

Wooper: Kamiina Botan had a good first episode, displaying its solid character acting and animation at every opportunity, but it felt lightweight to me (and I’m not talking about the protagonist’s tolerance for alcohol). The banter between its all-female cast didn’t lead anywhere concrete, the girls’ studies were discussed but not given much weight, and their relationships seemed destined to be confined to their picturesque dormitory. None of that is new for slice of life anime, but the teasing tone of their conversations and the way they unfailingly circled back to drinking made the premiere seem slight somehow. I’m sure my being a non-drinker contributed to that sensation, so putting my bias aside for a moment, this really was a successful first outing. The depiction of Hitsujiyama Park in the opening minutes was quite fetching, the show’s sense of fashion is understated yet attractive, and the while the dialogue wasn’t exactly natural, its lightness made it easy to watch. Also, the eyecatches were superb – it likely wouldn’t be feasible to illustrate an entire TV series with that more detailed approach, but if one ever came along that did, I’d watch the whole thing for the visuals alone. Kamiina Botan’s existing style is perfectly adequate, though, and it’s a bit more grown up than most SoL series. I don’t think I’ll be picking it up, but even if you prefer your anime with a bit more plot, you might like it better than I did.
Potential: 45%

Drops of God

Short Synopsis: The son of a late renowned wine entrepreneur tastes the wines that his father left behind.

Mario: Kami no Shizuku’s main appeal is easy to see: it’s a love letter to wine, wine-tasting and basically everything wine. The premise the show is aiming for is interesting as well: protagonist Kanzaki and his rival have to find the legendary “Twelve Apostles” wines, and ultimately the “Drops of God” wine. It nails many key moments – the 360 degree panning when he pours the wine, for example. What the show doesn’t do well, though, is trying to cram too many plots into this episode. At the moment, Kanzaki is facing multiple different conflicts such as: 1) find out the name of the wine he just tastes so that he can stay in his father’s house, 2) find the replacement to the wine his love interest accidentally drops, and 3) the bigger plot about the Twelve Apostles and the Drops of God. In addition, the 3D liquid animation is far from seamless and even distracting at times. But overall, despite not being the best premiere, I can say that this one is a keeper.
Potential: 40%

Fist of the North Star (2026)

Short Synopsis: A musclebound martial artist saves a civilian settlement from an assault by a biker gang in postapocalyptic Japan.

Wooper: I’ve seen the first few episodes of the 1984 Hokuto no Ken anime, and this episode followed the same beats as the original premiere, so it looks like the franchise is getting a full reboot. You know what else it looks like? Shit, that’s what. TMS Entertainment really gave Fist of the North Star the Berserk (2016) treatment, using CG animation primarily to keep everything on model rather than create complex movements via character rigging. The opening flashforward to Kenshiro and Shin’s showdown lasted 30 seconds, only half of which was spent on mediocre-looking combat. Beyond that, we got a few repetitive kicks and punches as Kenshiro took out Zeed’s biker gang, some of which were abbreviated with black lines cutting through the frame rather than showing people making bodily contact with one another. Even for a story set in a nuclear wasteland, the color design was dire, with a temporary shift to a grayscale fight scene being the only reprieve from its aggressive ugliness. Bat’s hairstyle was manga-accurate to the point of stupidity, many of the non-closeup shots felt empty due to the prioritization of background elements, and the characters’ inflexible facial expressions proved that Japan’s 3D animation wing being stuck in the 2000s isn’t just a meme, at least for this team. I’m not a Hokuto no Ken enthusiast, so my opinion doesn’t count for much here, but I expect this reimagining will appeal mostly to existing fans desperate for more “content.”
Potential: Already dead

The Barbarian’s Bride

Short Synopsis: After suffering defeat on the battlefield, a warrior princess is captured and proposed to by an enemy general.

Wooper: Every new series I’ve seen so far this spring has been watchable at worst (or else so bizarre that your curiosity keeps you going, as in the case of Needy Girl Overdose). Himekishi wa Barbaroi no Yome broke that streak easily, with one of the worst initial showings of an enemies-to-lovers story I’ve seen in years. Based on the level of tact in the final product, the author might as well have used a jackhammer rather than a pen when crafting this script. An imprisoned female knight comedically writhing on the floor while imagining being a sex slave, a ballroom full of nobles laughing at their appreciating wartime investments, multiple lines about women being more suited for aesthetic objectivity than military service – these are the blunt force concepts that The Barbarian’s Bride traffics in.

Visually it’s no better, with character designs that look like someone’s first attempt at “anime style” illustration, a flashback battle scene whose traditionally animated contributions hardly interact with its legions of CG models, and background design that hovers around mediocrity and occasionally descends to outright apathy. The cliffhanger involves the female lead waking up in bed with her hulking male captor, horrified at the sight of his massive penis, which is exposed when he shifts in his sleep – though I suppose it could have been anything beneath that glowing bit of cylindrical censorship. Guess I’ll have to tune in next week to see whether the enemy general truly has a foot-long schlong!
Potential: 100% trash

Liar Game

Short Synopsis: A naive college student teams up with a brilliant con man to seek victory in a twisted finance-themed survival game.

Lenlo: So far Liar Game feels like just another gambling/deception anime that’s going to try and get by on the convoluted nature of its games. There’s some promise in the relationship between Akiyama and Nao, a hardened con-man becoming a better person while a stupidly honest young woman is pulled into darkness is a nice dynamic. But I can’t say I was all that engaged by the first episode. Visually it’s dull, with almost no animation and lackluster designs. It couldn’t even give me any interesting camera angles or visual metaphors like Kaiji used to do. All in all, I don’t think I’m going to bother coming back.
Potential: 25%

Kill Blue

Short Synopsis: A veteran hitman turns back into the body of a teenage boy and attends middle school as his next job.

Mario: I actually enjoyed the first third of Kill Blue way more than when the age-rewinding catalyst kicked in. It has a no-nonsense hitman who kicks ass and is pleased with his way of life… until he’s not. Later, when he regresses into a 14-year-old, the show shifts into a lighter tone that is at odds with the earlier sequences. Juzo, our protagonist, finds himself in a typical fish out of a water story, but he gets used to this new life a bit too quickly (he found studying to be fun, for example, despite being an assassin), and at the end of this episode, his classmates begin to warm up to him too. The show has some dynamic action scenes for sure, coupled with gorgeous background designs, but I can’t help but feel that this new world Juzo is in is flat at the moment. It’s nice to look at, but it leaves very little lasting impact to me.
Potential: 30%

Scenes from Awajima

Short Synopsis: About the lives of several girls who live in the Awajima Opera dorm.

Mario: The only thing I knew about this series coming in was that it’s an adaptation from Takako Shimura, whose works Wandering Son and Aoi Hana I absolutely adore. Just 5 minutes into this show and you can tell it’s based on one of her manga, alright. It’s about the complex web of relationships between a group of young girls as they train to become future entertainers, and at times will have to compete against each other. From what I understand the show is an ensemble piece, and if this first episode is any indication, it will be emotionally charged yet treat its characters with nuance and delicacy. The flashback about the protagonist’s roommate Kinue, for example, shows us a much different version of her than we see her presently: full of contradictions, things never said out loud but like a ripple under the water. While this episode nails it on the character drama, I am a bit two-minded about the show’s presentation. The scenes where it goes for an illustrated style (and there’s quite a few) feel a bit too overboard at times, especially for a show that is meant to be quiet and subdued. It might be just me who is too harsh on this, but regardless, with character writing this adept, I know that I will follow along this season.
Potential: 70%

Eren the Southpaw

Short Synopsis: An aspiring graphic designer takes inspiration from a mural by a generationally talented graffiti artist.

Lenlo: You know, with a name like “Eren the Southpaw”, I was expecting this series to involve at least a little bit of fighting. Who describes a lefty as a southpaw outside of combat sports?! Anyways, the show – it’s alright? I’m a bit of a sucker for series about art, and any commentary surrounding commercial art versus personal art, I write and paint regularly so it’s a topic I enjoy quite a bit. And Southpaw didn’t do a terrible job with it, the leading lady is a bit of a bitch, but she clearly cares a lot and the one piece we saw from her did feel inspired. But Southpaw also has the unfortunate problem of going up against series like Blue Period, which just do it better and are vastly more interesting. It’s also limited by the constraints of animation, just like Blue Period was, where it’s a lot harder to present the subject because it takes so much more work in animation versus manga. My point in all of this is, I’m not sure I’m going to keep watching Southpaw, but I’ll probably give reading it a try, to see if the presentation there better fits the story, rather than this standard anime visual design we’ve got here.
Potential: 40%

Kujima Utaeba Ie Hororo

Short Synopsis: A family with a strained dynamic welcomes a humanoid bird to stay with them until spring.

Wooper: Kujima Utaeba Ie Hororo was the only newly adapted manga I sampled in the lead-up to this season, so I have a decent handle on the areas that received the most focus in bringing it to animation. Number one by far is music, with tons of mellow instrumentation filling out this first episode. The use of melodica to open the show is reminiscent of the Animal Crossing OST, while the recurrence of mallet percussion gives it an intentional oddball feeling – fitting, since the story is about a personified pied avocet that speaks Russian and loves Japanese food. In fact, the soundtrack is really the only production category where this premiere stood out, as the animation and backgrounds were rudimentary, and even Kujima’s shrill foreign enunciation couldn’t elevate him to the level of a breakout character. It’s the show’s quiet tone, periodically punctured by outbursts from its colorful avian freeloader, that creates its niche appeal. I liked what I read of the manga and I liked this episode fairly well, too, but I don’t imagine it’ll garner a major (or even minor) audience. Unless you really love human-bird hybrid characters or marimba music, you may want to give this one a pass.
Potential: 25%