Spring 2021 First Impressions: Ijiranaide Nagatoro-san, Tokyo Revengers, Edens Zero

Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san

Short Synopsis: A high school girl bullies a nerdy upperclassman for her own amusement.

Wooper: I expected to hate Nagatoro-san the same way I did Teasing Master Takagi-san, but the surprisingly competent animation did this show a lot of favors. The way Nagatoro bounces around the screen gives her an impish quality that softens her verbal blows – her dynamic reenactment of the male lead’s manga in particular marked her as a fun-seeker rather than a tyrant. Of course, bullying a schoolmate in your quest for entertainment is unacceptable behavior in the real world, but this is anime, where a story’s presentation makes all the difference. Nagatoro is a mean girl, but she demonstrates both a lasting interest in her target and an understanding that her behavior is wrong (“I’ve been pretty horrible to you”). She doesn’t leave as soon as she gets the pitiful reaction she wanted – she sticks around, probably because a small part of her empathizes with this loser, and she likes that new feeling of empathy. She even smiles in satisfaction after Mr. Loser works up the courage to ask her name, as though she’s been waiting for it. I think there’s more to this one than meets the eye, even if it’s obvious masochist bait.

Potential: 40%

Amun: Ah, this was pretty painful. Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san is another rare show where I’m familiar with the source material. I previewed this show and said something along the lines of “it’ll be okay as long as it’s not too mean.” Well…it’s pretty mean-spirited, honestly. There’s a bit of a moment where our main antagonist feels bad about making the helpless lad cry, but it’s too little, too late. How should they have approached this? I think this show works if they show how Nagatoro is more clumsy, instead of cruel – how her “bullying” is just a lack of understanding how to relate. Instead, it comes off as just sadistic. Maybe I expected too much, but this is a hard pass from me.

Potential: 0%

Tokyo Revengers

Short Synopsis: A former delinquent time travels back to his middle school days right before his untimely death.

Lenlo: Revengers is a weird one. Narratively I know I have nothing to worry about. I enjoyed the manga so much I caught up on the entire thing in a weekend and the anime did a decent job overall on that. But not 2 minutes in and LIDENFILMS is already changing small character moments, the sort of stuff that informs you as to who they are. Like making the kids key the car instead of our lead himself doing it, taking away that small moment of rebellion as we get a peek at his inner self. It’s not a big deal but it leaves me asking: What else are they willing to change? Meanwhile the visuals are simply uninspired. They reek of cashing a check, of making an adaptation with minimal actual effort. Hopefully I’m wrong, hopefully Revengers comes back strong and gives me the adaptation I want. But I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t.

Potential: 35%

Wooper: Imagine for a moment that Erased, the time travel anime from 2016, had been delinquent-themed. Now strip away that show’s intrigue, nostalgia, and good looks. Oh, and replace its suspenseful soundtrack with half a dozen lukewarm electric guitar tracks. Got all that? Congratulations, you just saved yourself the time it would have taken to watch the premiere of Tokyo Revengers. I wish I could join you in spending those 20 minutes on anything else, but instead I have to quickly account for my disinterest. I suppose most of it stems from the main character, whose primary thought as he moved through his extended flashback was, “Oh yeah, I remember that.” The guy is far from an electrifying protagonist – his long-awaited reunion with the girl of his dreams was so mild that I thought he might have the wrong person. Not even the plot’s fixation on single-minded teenage punks could make him look complex by comparison. I suppose I should be grateful to Revengers for having such a lousy lead, though, since it quickly signaled that I had one less series to follow this spring.

Potential: 5%

Edens Zero

Short Synopsis: Poor preteen’s Fairy Tail.

Amun: Disclaimer: I’ve only watched the first episode for this review, and it was a fansub, pre-air. That out of the way – Edens Zero certainly gets right to it – no OP or anything. I guess I’d forgotten how…silly Fairy Tail was. This episode was certainly that – very silly. The twist was pretty telegraphed, but I appreciate what they were trying to do. The fight scene was mixed – there were some nice after effects, but I’m not sold on the choreography. I’m also a little concerned about the pace – this episode felt like we were on a schedule with places to be (despite the robots waiting something like 100 years…no big). I just wish the first episode had reminded me only of what I loved about Fairy Tail – fun characters, friendship, and bagpipes – instead of the other nagging issues as well (production, pace, and choreography). I’m still optimistic, just maybe not as much as I was.

Potential: 60%

Armitage: Preface: Amun made me do it!
To say that I am a fan of Fairy Tail is a lie. To say that I don’t judge you for liking Fairy Tail is a diplomatic lie. So, I guess Edens Zero had its task cut out when it threw its hat in the arena for trying to vie for my weekly watch time. Needless to say that it failed at the five-minute mark when we got our main 12-year-old looking protagonist fondling the main female lead’s breasts before proceeding to place himself on the ground in such a position that he could get a peek at her underwear. Going into this show, I knew that I was gonna have to overlook a lot of stuff to even be able to get through the premiere’s runtime and I did exactly that… until the high-pitched, unfunny slapstick comedy and every second sentence ending with a “desu ga?” got too overbearing that I had to tap out. But for the sake of being a professional anime reviewer, I willed myself to the end-credits. Still, I must say that I simply don’t like this show. I won’t ask you to not watch it. As art is subjective. What I might dislike, you can end up wholeheartedly enjoying. But I can give you a TL;DR which can help you decide if Edens Zero is for you: “Even Fairy Tail is better than this”.

Potential: Pass

Amun: Wait, why the heck would you watch this if you didn’t even like Fairy Tail?! It has the same characters!