Dimension High School
Short Synopsis: Four students and their teacher are transported into a virtual quiz show world by a talking meteorite.
Lenlo’s review:
You know, I thought when I first saw the PV for this that we would be getting a meta comedy. Sorta like Pop Team Epic was last year. Something the blends reality and anime and makes you question just what anime is. Dimension sorta does that, but not in a good way. Dimension doesn’t make me question the foundation of anime, but rather why someone thought it worth animating at all. It’s not funny, the CGI is worse than Berserk (which if you know me, means a lot), story wise there’s basically… nothing. So the only question I really have for Dimension High is this.
Potential: Is this even Anime?
Mario’s review:
Watching this show reminds me how some of the tropes we can tolerate in anime becomes unbearable when it does in live-action. For example, we seem fine with character overacting in anime but when the Teacher does it in live-action it’s grating to watch. Dimension is also one of the worst production I’ve seen this season: the live action acting is terrible all around the clock, and the full-CG animation doesn’t even attempt to be anything near passable. Then we have a plot of talking rock (in a weird CG special effect) and riddles for Christ sake and you have a full package of bad-anime-please-leave-me-alone.
Potential: bad-anime-please-leave-me-alone
Wooper’s review:
Worse acting than The Room + worse CG than Berserk 2016 = comedy of the year
Potential: AHHHHHHHH
Domestic na Kanojo
Short Synopsis: A hot-for-teacher teenager moves in with his crush and her younger sister (who he recently slept with) after their parents plan to get hitched.
Mario’s review:
Boy, here it finally comes. A melodrama with contrived plots to squeeze out the most dramatic juice. Anyone here who doesn’t find the whole re-marriage affair jarring? It comes out of nowhere (to the main lead himself) and it happens way too quickly. And add that we have him living under the same roof with two cute girls whose 1) he has big crush of and 2) he happens to have sex with and guess what? After 20 minutes I honestly don’t care one iota about all three main characters. Okay, while I’m most certain won’t follow this because I know the direction it’ll ultimately go, there’s still some positive aspects in this premiere. I quite like the moody, heavy-saturated room where he and the little sister sleep with in the beginning. While the exterior scenes can be plain, the interiors feel live in (as appropriate given the title of the show is Domestic Girlfriend). Second, these characters do have some extra-multidimensional level as each other seems to carry their own weight/issues in their shoulder. The comedy bits, on the other hand, totally feel awkward. But it might works for this first episode’s benefits because it has full of awkward moments, from awkward first sex to adjusting themselves to a new relationship to all these awkward confrontations. Anyone who loves soap opera or tearjearker melodrama, this is a perfect healthy dose for you.
Potential: 20%
Wooper’s review:
The premise of this series reads like an elaborate porn setup, which it probably would be if the source material didn’t run in Shounen Magazine. Everything about the story is a ripoff, right down to the main character’s chubby best friend, who exists solely to react with shock to his pal’s sex life. DomeKano doesn’t even earn points for avoiding purity-related tropes, as the protag is the same type of dope that would star in a pruder version of the same show, despite the fact that he’s lost his virginity. The teacher’s character is just a male fantasy, and her little sister is the sexually-open tsundere that you never knew you wanted until now. There’s potential for this thing to go completely off the rails, which might make for an entertaining watch. Maybe the main dude will fuck his new stepmom, too. That possibility has to be worth a few percentage points, right?
Potential: 5%
Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka
Short Synopsis: After defeating an evil lord, a magical girl is dragged into being a spec ops agent
Aidan’s review:
This start isn’t as bad as I was expecting but this really is a story that takes its premise far too seriously. The big thing that I can point out as pretty terrible in this episode was the soundtrack which sounds like a cheap 80s b-movie. The whole idea of Magic girls acting as spec ops after the final battle is over is somewhat an interesting idea but it is rather contradictory to try and make your magical girls badass while making reference to the more cutesy side of it. It’s a bit hard to take PTSD seriously when shes getting it from a mascot costume. The characters are fairly bland with the main being a pretty basic emo whom is so deep and tormented and blah blah blah. It’s clear that the story is going through a number of hoops to try and justify the magical girl aspect which goes for naught when the girls could just be superpowered females without any Magical girl show references and the story to be the same. At the moment I would say this might be fine for some but it has high chance of going down the drain fast. The sunbathing pair of tits at the end seems to promise that.
Potential: 0%
Lenlo’s review:
Once more into the breach of “Dark Magical Girls”, my friends. Ever since Madoka Magica everyone has been trying to ape Urobuchi, and let me tell you, Asuka does not succeed, but it doesn’t entirely fail either. Basically, Asuka is… acceptable. It completely skips the starting point of girls getting powers, and jumps right into the aftermath. From PTSD to disillusioned Magical Girls, Asuka goes for it all. If it can manage not to jump the metaphorical shark, Asuka could be perfectly fine. The big fear here is whether or not it goes a bit too crazy and turns into a trainwreck. For some people though, even that might be fine. After all, I am never one to turn down a good dose of anime suffering.
Potential: 20%
Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka
0:01 Pokemon ripoffs as monsters. And the exposition reminds me of the bad mexican digimon ripoff movie I saw a while ago.
2:00 War is hell, business as usual.
4:00 More exposition.
5:00 Pointless scene telling the obvious.
6:00 A Mexico City mention. When I went to Japan the perception was that its an insecure country. (The capital has protesters and earthquakes and crime but the drug incidents occur elsewere).
7:00 Wickerman PSTD? Could get unintentionally hilarious.
11:00 “It’s been a long time” “Not interested” “One last job” “I’m no longer in service”
14:00 What’s in the box! What’s in the box!
19:00 Shame the crowd shooting wasn’t animated. And weird there isn’t a trail of bodies behind them.
21:00 Save the cat. Checked. That doesn’t sound like an 80s soundtrack. What are the villain’s henchmen doing here?
That was 50% boring and pointless and 50% blatantly stereotypical but restraint in not acknowledging 80s and 90s tropes in regards to action movies. If I’m being honest I think this could work if they ramp the ridiculousness towards the B-movie tropes like old OVAs like Mad Bull 34, or Gunsmith Cats, or Commando. It could be unintentionally hilarious do to the serious delivery and action puns could be the cherry on top. The school friends feel pointless or just as a future shock value to propel the main character (which again, maybe her old colleagues could serve that purpose). I think do to the tone the Pokemon monsters are out of place, I know asking from Go Nagai monster design is much, but could have fitted better. All in all I’m mixed to low on this one.
I actually thought Domestic Girlfriend was pretty fun. I read ahead a bit in the manga after the silly cliffhanger of the first episode, and it kind of reminded me of Scum’s Wish, with how people keep making the worst possible decisions because they’re in love and all that. I also liked how raunchy it can get. Most anime series present love as this platonic affair that ends with a kiss and/or confession, but Domestic Girlfriend is upfront about its sexual features. And as Mario said, the MC has his own goals, over and above boning his stepsisters, and makes some actual progress towards them over the series, which is nice when so many anime protagonists seem to be driven purely by their desire to help the girls around them.
All that being said, unlike Scum’s Wish, which told a focused story with fairly interesting characters and a clear message, this series drags on for way too long, with layers and layers of forced melodrama, has nothing interesting to say and has characters that are entirely forgettable. So it definitely isn’t “good”. But as a raunchy guilty pleasure it’s pretty serviceable, especially in its first act, before getting worse and worse later on.
By the way – spoiler alert – Wooper is probably better off avoiding this series because the stepmom is actually wise enough to avoid entering any love triangles (there go the last few percentage points of potential). The parents’ relationship is one of the few healthy ones in the series.
As I mentioned back in the Seasonal Preview Guide, Domestic Girlfriend certainly reminds us of Scum’s Wish, but ultimately it’s more like Kouji Seo’s works (Suzuka, A Town Where You Live, Fuuka) – a mangaka I’m deeply frustrated about. The difference? Scum’s Wish has thematic depth. This one creates drama for the sake of drama.
Scum’s Wish had thematic depth?
FUCK YEAH!!!!! It *goes deep* into physical desire vs true love.
I also liked its closing message that, no matter how messy teenage romance (and romance in general, I suppose) can get, it’s still worth experiencing because it’ll help you grow as a person and find true love in the end. Most relationships will fail, but that’s fine, because they’ll still help you get to you know yourself, what you want from a relationship, and which kind of people you go well with. It was the perfect bittersweet ending for a series highlighting the “dark” side of love.
Oh I totally agree, this series can get incredibly trashy, and it has no depth to speak of. But watching a train crash unfold can be entertaining in its own way, and I doubt this adaptation will go on long enough to really get on the audience’s nerves. If you go into it with the right expectations (a superficial teenage drama with plenty of raunchy scenes involving horny irresponsible idiots who keep making the worst possible decisions), and make sure not to check out the manga afterwards, I think it can be a pretty fun ride, in a guilty pleasure sort of way.
I can totally see why you’d hate it to death though, with how terrible the writing can get. I can’t imagine what it’s like to follow this dumpster fire of a series on a weekly basis.
Granted, while reading this manga back in the days, I did have some sort of thinking: “what if it gets anime adaptation, how can I improve this story”. For example, I’d put the *BIG SPOILER ALERT* scene where the teacher dragging him into the beach to start the show as a bookend narrative. That scene is one rare authentic moment from the manga for me.
Yeah, I’m hoping for an anime original ending too. Not getting my hopes up too much though, since the anime is meant to promote the manga and all.