Kanata no Astra – 05/06 [Paradise/ Secret]

I guess we can’t truly escape the beach/pool episode curse, doesn’t matter what anime we see featuring high school kids these days. As such, we have a beach episode with girls in bikinis and boys (briefly) having a hot for each other in a show that clearly doesn’t need ones. I must say that the sheer commitment for Kanata no Astra to embrace its anime tropes is something worth… pointing out for. I was expecting that the journey gets grimmer the more they go, so this Paradise planet/ island really caughts me by surprise, not in a good way. The drama in these two episodes, as a result, isn’t about men vs nature but more about the dynamic between team members themselves and their relatives back in their home planet. In a way, episode 5 is the first time we get a perspective outside of these kids and head towards their parents during the search for their lost kids. They are in a real bind as well as they are considering to go through the process of declaring them legally deceased. Except from Aries’s Mom who opposes the idea, the others are composed, too composed, in fact. There’s certainly something beneath the surface regarding (some of) the parents here, and with many of them have high social status (Ulgar’s dad is a vice-president, Luca’s dad is an infamous senator, Yun-hua’s mom a famous singer, and so on), they certainly can pull something as big as sending their kids for experiments, but for what goals?

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Cop Craft – 04/05 [In The Air Tonight/ Lonesome Vampire]

Even though the production values took a nosedive ever since episode 3 (and still isn’t recovering), and even though Cop Craft still has issues with its overall pacing, I have come to enjoy what the last two episodes have to offer. If you want to peep at the series’s quality in one single episode, all its strengths and weaknesses, there is no better place to look than episode 4, as it wraps up the first arc and quickly opens the door for the next one. My opinion on the first arc remains baffled to say the least. There’s undeniably many strong elements here and there, but when it’s told in that breaknecking-fast manner it fails to leave any impact. For instance, the prior chemistry between Tilarna and the kidnapped fairy, as well as her drive to save the fairy at all costs are all solid character developments. If only Cop Craft would spend more time to properly build-up that thread, the ending where the fairy sacrifices herself for Kei would make a much more powerful punch. Likewise, Zelada is an interesting antagonist, but through this rushed len he comes off more like an one-dimensional evil lord. Kei finds himself on the verge of death is interesting if not for the fact that it only takes mere minutes for him to get saved by Tilarna.

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Kanata no Astra – 04 [Star of Hope]

Even with all the worries from manga-readers regarding whether or not Kanata no Astra can wrap things up in 12 episodes, for me from an anime-only perspective the pacing so far is just about right. This week our group arrives at the second planet in their journey, and I enjoy the fact that this planet is vastly different from the first, and increasingly more sinister as well. Each place they visit the ecosystem varies significantly, and that provides a good opportunity for new experience (hello riding strange animals) and how well these kids adapt to the new environment. Of course, Kanata no Astra also knows its medium so it’s never shy on playing up the character tropes, which personally I can live without. I was crying inside when Quitterie’s first reaction when Zack butts into the bathroom was “I understand how you feel. But now is not the time for this” (seriously, who says that in that situation in real life?) and Kanata’s logic of taking off his helmet to find the medicine shiny mushroom still bugs me. But other aspects of this episode are strong enough to compensate for these missteps.

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Cop Craft – 02/03 [Dragnet Mirage/ Midnight Train]

For those of you who haven’t quite caught up yet, Cop Craft claimed our own “Season Sleeper” prize for its first episode. While at first glance, Cop Craft is a kind of mix between the buddy cop formula of Double Decker and the “multiple races live in the same city” world building of Blood Blockade Battlefront, for me it’s another case of Grimoire of Zero which air few years ago: both have an incredible leads’ chemistry and a mildly-interesting settings. For Cop Craft, the show is not shy on touching dark themes of corruption and racism so you can’t say that it doesn’t have any ambition. The problem with Cop Craft so far is the production values. Mind you, it didn’t even look polished in the premiere, but it still saddens me to see how the production falling apart just 3 episodes in.

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Kanata no Astra – 03 [Meteor]

This week in Kanata no Astra happens almost entirely inside the spaceship, and with that we come to learn more about some characters, the “conspiracy theory” and how once again they need to work together to save their asses. Put frankly, I found the way the discussion turns into a suspect game just based on Funicia’s mistranslation a bit of a stretch, but it does provide a nice mix of tension for the cast. It’s normal for someone like Quitterie to lose her composure for a moment there, after all, it’s never easy to hear that “the culprit is amongst us”. All the guessing game heads towards Yun-hua and Ulgar at the moment, but for me they are simply red-herrings. The thing that makes them suspicious is that we don’t know their motivation/ perspective in the first place so that we (and our cast) can’t entirely trust them. In this case it’s normally the person who appears the most normal is the one behind it, but I don’t want to point any finger at this early stage because it can ruin the mystery fun.

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Carole & Tuesday – 12-14

We finally get to the end of the Mars Brightest contest and the beginning of the new arc (with shining new OP and ED to boost), but narratively it’s not much of a big gap between these three episodes. While we can see how it wraps up from miles away, episode 12 wraps up the best way it can with the conclusion of the final showdown between Carole & Tuesday versus Angela. Turns out, there isn’t really a “showdown” to begin with, as our titular characters are disqualified for the final. Here, the show brings a fair share of pluses and minuses in its package. On one hand, I approve its focus on Carole & Tuesday relationship rather than the Mars Brightest contest. It’s nice to see them reflect on how important they are for each other and how they wanted to team up in the first place. With that, despite the fact that they didn’t win the contest, they still gain something more valuable: their partnership. On the other hand, the plot is simply too thin that it stretches out too much that you can see a lot of holes and inconsistencies. Take Tuesday’s Mom Valerie for example. We see her “abducting” her daughter because she’s in the middle of the campaign, but later on after Tuesday escapes we hear next to nothing about her in regards to Tuesday. So… she just gives up on Tuesday? Is she too busy to even consider Tuesday a threat for her campaign? Likewise, we have a random old passerby who appears just in time to give Carole & Tuesday a lift to the contest, then seemingly vanish without a trace. That’s what I called a clumsy plot device.

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Kanata no Astra – 02 [Wilderness]

Welcome to the first week of Kanata no Astra, aka Astra Lost in Space in English localization. The double-length premiere remains a flawed but decent introduction for me, and this sophomore further underlines the strengths, as well as the potential weaknesses of this show going forward. For instance, many of the anime’s changes baffled me. The ratio aspect makes little sense and visually it looks like it has been cropped out from the original frame, as a result we see lots of shots where part of characters’ head being cut off. It’s a good gimmick once we get into the space where the screen “opens up”, but consider how the majority of time we follow them exploring new planets, the feeling of inside-the-box defeats the purpose greatly. Second, in the premiere, in one dramatic event, the anime decided to alter the source and makes it even more dramatic (the human chain) that it sadly disregards the common sense (THE ROPE). I consider that a manipulating tactic where Kanata no Astra purposely creates unnecessary conflicts in order to make us FEEL rewarding once everyone joins hands to save Kanata and Aries. Well, it just didn’t work for me.

This second episode does excel on another strength, however, and that is the background art. As the group encounters the first planet of their journey, Vilavure, they find the planet full of natural resources. The art alone brings to life the richness of that place, and kudos to the animal/ plant designs that bring so much quirks into this planet: the trampoline trees, the parachute flowers and the turkey-dragons AKA tur-gons. I suspect that each planet they’d go will have some specific traits (like in ACCA’s 13 territories), and it’s understandable that the first planet they step in is more about the thrill of exploring a new place completely different than their own rather than any life-threatening events (although there is one).

This episode also establishes the cast whom is skillful in many areas beyond their age (if you can’t tell if I being sarcastic or not by that sentence, I am). Last week, we learn a kid who already experienced life/death situation and a bloke whose IQ is about 200, this week add to that mix is another boy who has a master-level knowledge of biology and a girl with a photographic memory. Shameless over-the-top-ness aside, it further proves the theory that this string of misfortune event is set-up by someone or some organisation. There’s also a reveal of someone in the cast intentionally sabotage the communication system. This is an interesting development for sure to figure out who the traitor is and what is their reason behind all this.

While I am excited for the upcoming plot of exploring new planets as an A plot and finding out the traitor as an overarching plot, I remain mixed on the characters chemistry and character development so far. The jokes, in particular, are pretty bad with typical anime-humor and exaggeration, which for me simply doesn’t belong to this series. By saying that I don’t expect the show to go full dark like Lord of the Fireflies and the likes, but take the sequence in this week, where Kanata and Quitterie bickering about “leader”, something that has already been sold last week, it’s just a total misfire for me. Yes, characters this age can act childish but why the need to amp it up to 11? For character development, this week we deal with Quitterie and her inability to communicate with other people. While I appreciate the amount of backstory Kanata no Astra focus on her character (and I’m sure the rest of the cast will have their shares), it’s a tad bit obvious that the show reminds us again and again about her issues, by her childhood friend Genius, by her bickering, by her backstory with her little sister, by Quiterrie herself when she admits it later on. Show don’t tell, Kanata no Astra, the less said the greater impact you eventually deliver.

Some Quick First Impressions: Kochoki: Wakaki Nobunaga, Isekai Cheat Magician and Machikado Mazoku


Kochoki: Wakaki Nobunaga

Short Synopsis: Oda Nobunaga in his younger days before making a name for himself.

Armitage’s review:

Oh, yes!! Here we have a completely original story about a historical figure you have NEVER heard of before. Especially, if you follow seasonal anime. That’s right! None other than… drumroll Oda Nobunaga!  Can I get a ‘Hell, Yeah!’ exasperated moans 

Okay, okay. I know. This is just a classic example of anime giving you a sense of Deja vu by re-adapting a story and giving it a modern spin. Sometimes that works out pretty great! That is what I was thinking before I watched the premiere. But I am now here to report that, it was actually just, um…okay?

I mean, you’ve been there, seen it all. This story just follows Nobunaga in his teenage years. That doesn’t really make up a massive difference though. All the characters apart from Nobu-chan himself are going to be forgettable. You know that. The animation is mostly lacklustre but barely competent. That’s to be expected though. It’s being adapted by Deen. Even their best shows like Rakugo and KonoSuba have shoddy animation. You know that. So, it’s up to you really. Would you like to go into this series to experience a story you already know and are familiar with? Or would it be a soft pass so you can watch the better shows airing this season? My recommendation, is for the latter.

Potential: 20%


Mario’s review:

How many times that we see Oda Nobunaga in animated form? And hot young boy on top of it? This premiere focus on him in adolescent age, and put him through some troubles to determine what sort of person he will eventually become. On that front we have an alright execution of him acting against his father’s will. It helps that he’s an interesting character and the confrontation at the end feels somewhat earned, but the rest of the episode feels unremarkable at best. Maybe one of this first episode’s successes lie in the fact that it has little to do with the main overarching arc yet, so instead it lays its focus on developing him and introducing other main characters. For what it set out to do in this first episode, I can say that they did a decent job, it’s the coming events that I’m not sure if I am interested enough to follow.

Potential: 30%



Isekai Cheat Magician

Short Synopsis: Two childhood friends are transported to an alternate world, where they begin their journey as adventurers.  

Amun’s review:

This season must set a record for the number of mediocre (or downright awful) isekai offerings.  Isekai Cheat Magicians may be the best one, but that’s not a compliment – this show is so set on being mediocre, it can’t even make an impression as remarkably bad…just remarkably bland.  I think probably the most original idea I saw was bringing a girl from one world to the other…although I guess Konasuba sort of did that. Other than that twist, this episode is so utterly forgettable, that I’m having trouble discussing anything aside from the jarringly generic textures that were used for any particle effects – did someone just learn how to use MS Paint?  Fan service and overpowered MCs also happened, I guess. This is a pass from me (go watch DanMachi instead).

Potential: 1% (and that would be by accident since I forgot the title)


Helghast’s review:

Isekai shows are a dime a dozen nowadays but Isekai Cheat Magician is like a dozen dimes put together and that’s a lot of dimes. Instead of a single person being magically transported into yet another fantasy, they manage to blow my expectations by having an entire TWO main characters. On top of that, we have the added bonus of the classic character female childhood friend trope which has high potential for some deep character development as these two will no doubt grow in their relationship with each other. Speaking of developmental growing, the character designs may be a little generic but at least all the females are cute and have giant boobies which more than makes up for it as that’s the only criteria for a good show and they deliver in spades. I’m not worry at all about how seemingly overpowered the main characters are or how welcoming all the other adventurers are. This can only mean that as we get further into the show, there will be some really really hard challenges that only the powers of friendship, overpowered cheats and love all combined together will be able to defeat it and I can’t wait to see it.     

Potential: Unratable as no scale can describe how amazing this show is going to be.



Machikado Mazoku

Short Synopsis: The descendant of a demon clan learns of her heritage and sets out to defeat a local magical girl.

Wooper’s review:

This show has one thing going for it, and that’s hyperactivity. It only paused to catch its breath once or twice during this entire episode, preferring to spend most of its time providing raucous self-commentary. Even the opening scenes, which bluntly laid out the entire plot, contain violent commands from a cute demon spirit and lots of fretting over the main girl’s newly-grown goat horns. Characters are constantly interrupting each other and making snide comments under their breath, and screen tone backgrounds are employed one after another in heightening this sense of chaos. When everything about an anime is played for laughs, though, it’s hard to find anything to connect with. The story of a recently awakened demon girl who accidentally befriends her mortal enemy is ridiculous, and the show isn’t wrong to poke fun at itself, but I would have preferred at least a small serving of heart to offset the nonstop gags (which grew tiresome after the first five minutes).

Potential: 15%


Amun’s review:

Magical girls, while not as commonplace as some seasons past, always seem to have at least one offering show up.  Due to the numerous renditions, I think the genre has become a little self-aware – thankfully, Machikado Mazoku at least tries to switch some tropes up instead of doing another Black Rock Shooter (cute edition).  So far, this reminds me of Endro! from a few seasons back, with some slight variations on the characters and themes – the upbeat energy, bright colours, and cute girls are all present as expected. That being said, this show did make me laugh a few times and had pretty good comedic timing and sound effects (for the genre).  If Mahou Shoujo is your cup of tea or if you’re just looking for some light hearted laughs at cute hijinks – this show is for you.  

Potential: 45%

Some Quick First Impressions: Vinland Saga, Re:Stage! Dream Days and Ensemble Stars!


Vinland Saga

Short Synopsis: For a thousand years, the Vikings have made quite a name and reputation for themselves as the strongest families with a thirst for violence. Thorfinn, the son of one of the Vikings’ greatest warriors, spends his boyhood in a battlefield enhancing his skills in his adventure to satisfy his desire for vengeance.

Lenlo’s review:

This is it Wit, this is everything I wanted. Sure I could nitpick that the CGI isn’t perfect 100% of the time. Or that the OP by Survive Said the Prophet isn’t my style of music. But you know what, I don’t care. Everything else is gold for me. From the downright stunning background art, to the great soundtrack and stellar character designs. These detailed designs and backgrounds don’t get in the way of animation either. Wit knows when to focus on what aspects, and I love it. The VA’s don’t always match what was in my head while reading either, but I will chalk that up to vikings speaking Japanese. As is though, Wit have proven themselves with this opening 3 episodes. Going so far as to alter the chapter order to better fit an anime format. This is the kind of adaptation everyone wants. Constructive changes, rather than destructive ones, showing they know and care about the source material. If Wit can keep this up throughout the next 21 episodes, this is easily my AotS, with this being the best premiere in a while for me. The hardest part will be the 3 week break between now and the next episode. My body is ready Wit. Don’t let me down.

Potential: All the %. Infinity %.

Armitage’s review:

Studio Wit has been on a roll lately. With the recently concluded season 3 of Attack on Titan, they already surpassed all expectations fans of that manga would have had from the anime. Yup, they knocked that one right out of the park and then some. But it seems like they aren’t satisfied by just patting themselves on the back. Enter Vinland Saga. A manga, epic in every sense of the word, widely considered as unadaptable because of its godly art (which might arguably be second best only to Vagabond, in the entire medium). A solid adaptation seemed like a herculean task. And what do Wit do with it? Well, they knock it out of the park again! There’s so much to like about this adaptation as a fan of the manga. The lush backgrounds, the choreography of the fight scenes, the impeccable sound design, the choice of the (inevitably japanese) seiyuus. Oh, and did I mention we have best OP and ED of the season? Yup. It’s all here. And it all, somehow, just clicks together so beautifully. For anime only viewers, I can’t sell this enough. It’s one of the most gripping tales of revenge, hope, history and loss, told with a real flair for the epic, by Yukimura-sensei. The kind we rarely come across, anime or otherwise. If you have to watch only one anime this season, make it this one.      

Potential: 100% is selling this short.

Helghast’s review:

Unlike some of the writers here, I’m going into this blind so I don’t have any expectations other than its reputation of it being an epic saga set in the age of the Vikings. With each and every one of their previous shows being well-animated, Studio Wit doesn’t disappoint at all by showing off their trademark rotating action sequence in the first five minutes. From that point on, the action dials down to ease us into a world where ruthlessness and violence is the way of life for the people of nordic countries. So often in anime, violence is used a means to be edgy but it suits Vinland Saga just fine as it doesn’t even bother to tone it down while being historically accurate. If you are disillusioned with how infrequent the Berserk manga updates or its terrible anime counterpart, Vinland Saga is a perfect choice to scratch that itch with its faithful adaptation, a bombastic OP and another great ED from Aimer which I’m sure that fans will love. I can see why they decided to release three episodes in a row in order to capitalize on the hype by quickly reaching the crux of the prologue without rushing the pacing and dragging out from week to week. However, this bold strategy is also a double-edged sword as now we wait for a painful three weeks to see how it all it plays out for Thors and his son, Thorfinn.   

Potential: 85%



Re:Stage! Dream Days

Short Synopsis: A girl transfers to a new school and joins an Idol club.

Lenlo’s review:

If nothing else, Dream Days is clearly the superior idol show between the two I watched for this post. It looked good, the art was clean and the animation better than I had expected. In particular the 2D animated dance sequence that is normally relegated to 3D CGI for Idols. There were also some clever shots and scene decisions made. Such as the OP switcheroo into an actual character introduction that caught me off guard. The worst I can say about Dream Days is that it simply isn’t my kind of show. It was never going to appeal to me because it was a quintessential Idol show. If that’s not your cup of tea, turn back now. However based on what I have watched, I feel comfortable saying its a good fit for anyone who enjoys the genre. Everything it needs to be successful is there. It’s just not my kind of show.

Potential: 25%

Mario’s review:

I give it 20% for animating the dance routine in hand-drawn style, and another 5% for occasionally beautiful shot composition (just look at the second screenshot), otherwise we have a fairly generic set-up of what would be a right-on-average idol show. As it is the case now in almost every idol show, when you get to the performance part, the disastrous CG models stand out in a bad way. Re:Stage (a little sister of Re:Zero and a daughter of Re:Life and maybe distant cousin of Re:Creators) reminds us once and again that it is much more effective when you stick with the traditional hand-drawn. The story department, however, is pretty much formulaic so far. We have lead girl gets introduced to her new school, to her new club and suddenly she can dance very well because “my body just moves by its own”. Fans of idol show will have lots to like it, as the characters are fun to watch and from the ED it looks like 3 more (some of them already appear in the background) will join the club and so far it does make some attempt of fleshing out the main lead. For those who aren’t fond of idol shows or CGDCT there’s not much to see here.

Potential: 25%



Ensemble Stars!

Short Synopsis: A group of low-ranking male students at an idol academy aim to overthrow its draconian student council.

Wooper’s review:

You know, I reserved a tiny spark of hope for this project coming into it. I’ve never seen a good bishounen idol series, but that doesn’t mean they’ll stay bad forever. Unfortunately, Ensemble Stars won’t be the one to snap the genre’s losing streak, as it’s prone to all the same cliches as the rest. The female lead has only two lines of dialogue that aren’t “Huh?” or “Eh?” or parroting something the boys have said. The guys are all super cute, but their sparkly appearances are wasted on stock character types: genki boy, bookworm boy, loner boy, macho boy, etc. There’s no hint anywhere in the series that they’ve lived outside of this school, so the whole production feels one-dimensional. The plot is a familiar mash-up of idol aspirations and student council machinations that left me struggling to care. Only the visuals have any polish, and it’s limited to one combat sequence and a handful of poses. Look forward to those moments only if you’re a fan of idol boys – otherwise, skip this show.

Potential: 5%


Lenlo’s review:

For anyone that has read almost anything I have written on this site, I am sure my opinion on this show is already known. It’s an idol show without even the eye-candy. That’s a rather rude thing to say, but I don’t like Idol Shows inherently, and I find their sole purpose is to put cute girls on a screen in skimpy Idol outfits. It’s a fanservice genre to the end. Ensemble doesn’t even give me that. Instead throwing generic stock male characters into a room, giving them a VA with a decent singing voice. Ensemble is, at its core, a generic anime made for a generic game. That David Production is somehow producing Fire Force in the same season as this confounds me to no end. This is a hard pass for me. The first episode alone was almost impossible to get through.

Potential: 0%

Some Quick First Impressions: Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo, Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files: “Rail Zeppelin” Grace Note and Naka no Hito Genome [Jikkyouchuu]


Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo.

Short Synopsis: A coming-of-age of five high school girls curious about sex and all the awkward and beautiful things that come along with it. 

Mario’s review:

Now, that’s more like it. When you reach a certain age you get into an awkward phase where everything and anything would link you to sexual reference and Araburu so far understands it completely. The fact that it doesn’t make light of this issue, at the same time still manages to squeeze humor out of it, is something of an achievement. Mari Okada is in total command of her story here, although I must note that her works are always better in the beginning than when she wraps it up. What I enjoy the most out of this premiere is how brutally honest it feels, when our female cast gets swept away by hormones and where they find themselves in one embarrassing situation after the next. The scene where our main Kazusa catches her friend in the act is where this episode best delivers its theme of adolescent awkwardness, but Okada has a tendency to go overblown and we also get that in the form of club president’s sudden outburst. The art is also pleasing with round facial designs and soft outlines, which totally works for the show’s benefit. I don’t know how the show will go from here but at least this first episode stands apart by addressing the genuinely honest adolescent experience of coming to terms with their own sexual urges, in a medium where we have plenty of this but rarely dare to dig down deep enough.

Potential: 85%

Armitage’s review:

Yup. No Middle ground here. You are either gonna love this or hate it. Considering it’s an adaptation of a Mari Okada manga, it’s no surprise either. For me personally, the premiere of O Maidens in their Savage Season resonated resoundingly. It’s the kind of story that never sees the light of day, especially in anime. A story brave enough to comment about the hush-hush parts of our society and which dares to go to places only portrayed in other anime for cheap laughs. Yes, to tackle the elephant in the room, this story is about five high school girls and their curiosity about sex. Now, in less able hands, the delicate nature of the subject matter would have led the story to come off as cringy or even exploitative. However, Okada-sensei treats it with utmost care and maturity. These girls are going through puberty. Their bodies are changing drastically and they feel like losing control over it. Sex, which is always an enigma, seems like it’s staring in the face for Kazusa and the other members of the Literature group. One day, they are discussing the one thing they would like to do before dying and one of the girls, Niina, the prettiest in the school, says, ‘Sex’. And that’s what the central hook of this story seems to be. 

The character designs too stand out really well, fleshing out each character’s personality and their quirks. The cast’s chemistry already seems pretty great but it will only improve in coming episodes. The one thing that I feel some people might pinpoint as off-putting is the humor. But I think it is integral for this story to not come off as too heavy or preachy. This episode portrays incidences that tackle bullying, a girl exploring online sex-chat sites (which serves as a harsh reminder of the lack of sex education in teens) and a scene involving a girl walking in on another person masturbating. The latter was such a delicate moment to portray because it’s a tightrope. Even the slightest of missteps and the entire scene would have lost its impact. Yet, it is again handled with such maturity that it almost feels real. The awkwardness, the reluctance to make eye-contact, the shock, the over-reaction. All of it. Sure, moments later, a little humor is infused but that’s only to provide the audience with a sense of ease. And that’s what I liked the most about this show. How it knows that the themes to be explored are going to be uncomfortable. But it wants to tell a story that’s important and necessary. And for that, you can’t help but admire it.             

Potential: 95%



Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files: “Rail Zeppelin” Grace Note

Short Synopsis: After the events of Fourth Grail War, Waver purchases the El-Melloi class and eventually becomes its Lord.

Lenlo’s review:

I have to say, this first episode of El-Melloi works a lot better than the episode 0 introduction we got prior. For one, Waver and Iskander’s relationship was easily my favorite part of Fate/Zero. So I love that El-Melloi is putting so much focus on that. How it shaped Wavers character, his motivations moving forward, how it turned him into who he is for this series. Parts of it are fanservice no doubt, but it’s fanservice I love. Not the usual ecchi variety. El-Melloi also seems to be taking a much more interesting approach to combat. With Waver focusing on winning the war, not necessarily the battle. Knowing he doesn’t have to fight every battle with brute force, etc. It’s the kind of battles I enjoy, knowing there is more to it than increasingly large lazer beams and such. Story wise, El-Melloi is also avoiding one of my biggest problems with the Fate franchise with this focus. That being the sheer ridiculousness/minutiae of parts of its lore, like all of the Alter’s and how every historical figure is just another Saber. El-Melloi instead focuses more deeply on the world surrounding the Grail Wars. All things considered, if your like me and you enjoy the concept of the Fate series more than Nasu’s actual writing, and don’t mind less shounen-ey kind of show, El-Melloi seems like it will be right up our alley.

Potential: 80%

Mario’s review:

This Fate spin-off starts off on a pretty strong note. In a way, this premiere works better as a prologue than the episode 00 did, where this episode focuses entirely on filling the gap on Waver Velvet from when he was after the Fourth Holy Grail War until the present and the pact he makes with Reines as a true successor of this El Melloi family. With that focus, while we don’t have any “case” this week (which I believe to be the show’s true format), we get plenty of backstory from Velvet and the chemistry between him and other characters. It’s a solid trick since this episode successfully establishes Velvet as a compelling character who is in the middle of his own personal crisis. He has an intriguing goal the way he’s still struggling with self-worth provide plenty room for character development as the show goes on. It’s also a neat choice to call back some of the key events in Fate/Zero, although I am not sure if non-Fate/Zero watchers can pick up the details. All in all, this series has the right ingredients for a solid package (at least so far): a main character worth caring for, intriguing side characters that help expanding the Fate world, but until next week should we see if the cases Waver is dealing with are worth it or not.

Potential: 60%

Helghast’s review:

For those who are weary of the Fate franchise going down the route of magical girl spinoffs, gacha game adaptations and confusing extra stories, Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files is a refreshing return to its core narrative. Serving as more of a sequel than anything else to the excellent Fate/Zero, it’s going to follow Waver Velvet, survivor of the fourth Holy Grail War, as he grows into the shoes of his former mentor and teacher of Kayneth. The first episode certainly does an excellent in setting up his progression from being separated from Iskander to being a major player within the Mage Association with all the callbacks to Fate/Zero and its pivotal moments for our main characters. Now, instead of powerful historical servants smashing into each other, I’m excited to see an in-depth look into the politics and inner workings of The Clock Tower that other series have only shown small glimpses of. 

Studio TROYCA, who animated Re:Creators and Sakurako-san, is more than up to the task of making a well-produced show as its look something ufotable would produce minus the crazy special effects and shovel face character designs. Even Yuki Kajiura is back to score the music and that is a good sign that this just might be a show to add in the essential viewing of Fate instead of being another piece of waifu bloatware. 

Potential: 80%



Naka no Hito Genome [Jikkyouchuu]

Short Synopsis: A group of Let’s Players are sucked into a video game, and can only escape once they hit 100 million views.

Amun’s review:

“Trapped in a game world” is kind of an older brother to the standard rebirth Isekai genre – in both cases, worlds and characters are make or break for the show.  Naka no Hito Genome does neither well in the first episode. This looks like a poor man’s Danganronpa, which to me was fairly low on the tier list to begin with. The flaws start with the underlying characters – somehow we have managed to find an archetype less enjoyable than normal shut-in gamers – then move on to the animation (what are those background effects?), choppy direction, and generally sloppy storytelling.  I’m really not that interested in sitting through each character’s back story followed by a nonsensical, poorly animated big baddie with an ambiguous cliffhanger. I might give this another episode to change my mind, but this one is probably a pass from me.

Potential: 10%

Wooper’s review:

Trapped-in-a-video-game series are a dime a dozen. Without fail, the main draw of the genre is the virtual worlds themselves, so it hardly matters how the characters get there. Maybe some malevolent puppet master traps them in a VR session, or maybe they die and their souls wander into the digital realm. Or maybe they sneeze so hard that they end up inside a game, as is the case in Naka no Hito Genome. Sure, that moment may have been preceded by a mysterious email promising to spirit them away, but the most important thing is that the main character closed his eyes to sneeze, then woke up in a virtual world. Things only got stupider from there, with a llama-masked teacher explaining the rules of the game in a shoehorned classroom setting. The show strikes out in terms of characters and visuals, as well. The bargain bin designs and bizarre black streaks peppered throughout the exterior scenes had me scratching my head regarding the appeal of this series. As far as I can tell, the only reason to try Naka no Hito would be that you dream of your favorite IRL Let’s Play person getting sucked into a game. If that’s you, please watch this so I don’t have to.

Potential: 10%