Author: SuperWooper

Fumetsu no Anata e

Short Synopsis: An immortal being learns about the fleeting joy and terrible sorrows of living.

Armitage: The reason why To Your Eternity’s biggest litmus test was going to be the adaptation of the manga’s first chapter is because this introduction just carries such a quiet devastation and is so uncharacteristic of modern manga tropes that it’s almost unfair. It presents us with a heartbreaking self-contained narrative which also sets up the premise and tone of the series effortlessly. And while I was always skeptical of Brain’s Base as being the studio in charge of the adaptation, they do actually ‘adapt’ the source material near perfectly here. The one thing they could have chosen to do was to linger on the more poetic moments of the story. Like the being heading out into a wondrous world brimming with the possibility of life, while the boy lies behind him, lifeless. As I mentioned in the Spring Preview, Yoshitoki Ooima’s art cannot possibly be replicated in an anime and Brain’s Base was never gonna be the studio to even attempt to do it. So what we get are a few awkwardly minimal looking backgrounds and wide-shots but that’s about the only negative I hold against this premiere.

The one thing that they do manage to do right is character animation. Fleeting smiles, dejected eyes, trickling tears. All portrayed flawlessly. The OST too is fittingly sombre and melancholic. So, clearly the anime adaptation is going to have contrasting strengths to the manga. Which is fine, as the source material is far too accomplished to be held down by minor technical quibbles. And as long as the anime doesn’t pull a Neverland, this story is going to be one to pull at your heart-strings and then some.

Potential: of breaking your heart.

Lenlo: Fumetsu is freakin weird. Not weird like Odd Taxi, it’s easy to follow and there’s a clear purpose to it. Weird in that I have no idea where it’s going. I wasn’t expecting the Orb to become the MC. I wasn’t expecting this show to open that bleakly. But the way Fumetsu slowly rolled into it, slowly introduced and executed on the idea, was great. Some might call it boring and I don’t think they are necessarily wrong. This was 23 minutes of walking around a bleak landscape with a lonely boy talking to himself, hardly riveting stuff. I think Fumetsu would have really benefited from some better backgrounds to keep us engaged in these snowy plains because what we got are… kinda mediocre. But if you stick around to the end I think the payoff is worth it. It’s a really strong hook and I like how dedicated Fumetsu is to it. I have no idea how it’s going to fill out 20 episodes with this premise. But if they can give me the same kind of emotional catharsis I got from this one then they are gonna be pretty good.

Potential: 70%

Bishounen Tanteidan

Short Synopsis: A quintet of quirky middle school detectives search for a star that their client glimpsed as a child.

Mario: “The first three rules of Pretty Boy’s Detective Club: be pretty, be a boy, be a detective.” How well you take these rules will sum up your reaction to this show, as they’re treated with all seriousness. I’m a fan of both NisiOisin’s genre-bending works and Shaft’s quirky visual style and even then I found much of the dialogue utterly pretentious. Like Wooper mentioned below, it reminds me a great deal of Ouran Koukou Host Club, but while the characters are bland, I enjoy the concept of these boys doing detective work. The visuals are easily the show’s strongest suit, where Shaft handily employs several art styles – the girl’s flashback especially is something to behold. It’s the third collaboration between Shaft and NisiOisin so it’s kinda a household brand at this point. And like any household brand it attracts you because it’s singular. As such, while this episode never fully gripped me you bet I will follow it till the end of its run.

Potential: 60%

Wooper: This episode could be summed up as “Ouran Koukou Host Club by way of Nisio Isin by way of Studio Shaft.” How many of those people/things you enjoy will be a strong indicator of how much you’ll like this series. Personally, I’m fond of maybe one and a half of those three, so while I found a lot to admire about Bishounen Tanteidan, I didn’t particularly like it. What I did like were the overstuffed backgrounds and forays into different art styles, which make the show one of spring’s most visually arresting offerings. The starlit skies, silhouetted architecture, and simulated oil pastel shots were very pretty, which is fitting for a series that revolves around the concept of beauty. What I didn’t like was almost everything else: the pseudo-intellectual opening monologue, the swaths of character-profiling exposition, the camera’s tendency to focus on a middle schooler wearing hot pants, and the list goes on. I’d probably be more charitable if the female lead hadn’t been swept away in the mess, but alas, Haruhi she ain’t. I might revisit this show if the buzz is still good around the midseason mark, but for now I’ve seen enough.

Potential: 30%

Cestvs: The Roman Fighter

Short Synopsis: A Roman slave fights for his freedom by participating in boxing matches.

Wooper: Don’t mess with me like this, Cestvs. Don’t open your show with ugly CG character models, thereby allowing me to brace myself for one sort of badness, and then switch to an even worse hand-drawn style for the remaining 90% of your premiere. Honestly, the move to 2D did this episode no favors, unless encouraging you to stop watching counts. The shift neutered not only the fight scenes, whose fist-body collisions were no more forceful than a primary schooler cracking an egg, but also the anguish inherent in the story. The cries of the fighters as they were struck, their gasps for air and whimpers of pain – none of those sounds were reflected on the characters’ faces, even during life and death bouts. That mismatched quality would have turned Cestvs into a gut-busting comedy had slavery not been an integral part of its premise. Even the injustice and the brutality of slavery couldn’t bring gravity to this production, though. What else is there to say? Spring 2021 truly saved the worst for last.

Potential: 0%

Mario: It feels bad for a show about boxing in an unique setting like Cestvs to be treated like this. The 3DCG is the elephant in the room here. Not only is it ugly to watch, but the facial expressions are nonexistent. Moreover, the punches don’t land any impact, which is a red flag for a show where boxing is concerned. Adding to that, the writing is pretty mediocre as well. The titular character Cestvs doesn’t have one shade of personality, the death of his “best friend” is ridiculous and pointless, and WTF he’s a slave but he has his own coach and apparently he can do some individual training? HE’S A SLAVE for god’s sake!! It’s not the worst premiere this season but there’s very little hope for this to be something worthwhile.

Potential: 0%

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!

Slime Taoshite 300-nen

Short Synopsis: Salarywoman dies of overwork and comes back committed to doing the minimum. And accidentally becomes overpowered.

Amun: For whatever reason, some anime recently have been on a crusade against Japan’s overwork culture. Which strikes me as odd, since it’s well known that animators are overworked. Bit of a disconnect between the medium and the message, you know? Anyways, Slime’s message is “slow and steady wins the race” – which is fine if you’re immortal. Oh yeah, and there are no important males in this world. That’s not saying any particular male is unimportant, there just aren’t any present in this world. I guess those are the points I’m neutral or slightly negative on – the show is otherwise nicely chill. The main character is consistent and committed to taking it easy – no complaints here on that. The introduction of the dragon maid is, well, expected – but not horrid. If you’re looking to turn off your brain (say, as you catch up on the last season of Titan), this is the show for you.

Potential: 65%

Lenlo: I was wondering when I would get to the Isekai of the season. And what do you know, it’s exactly what I expected! Video game logic, stats, levels, slimes, drops and absolutely 0 world building or meaningful character work. Oh there might be something novel in following the “Wise Old Witch” character of the story. See some adventurers visit and ask for guidance, do some Gandalf shit then go to bed. But I don’t expect that to be interesting for more than an episode or 2. Meanwhile any “Save the world” plots are automatically invalidated since our lead is literally an overpowered max level immortal witch. If you want some popcorn entertainment you can turn on and not have to actually engage with, Taoshite is probably up your alley. If you want anything other than to be bored out of your skull though then this is probably a pass.

Potential: 10%

86: Eighty Six

Short Synopsis: Army Management Simulator – The Anime.

Lenlo: I’m getting some serious Ender’s Game vibes from 86 and let me tell you what, I’m in. It’s incredible how much information 86 packed into a single episode. By the end it felt like I had watched 40 minutes instead of 20. Yet the pacing didn’t feel rushed either. It managed to convey just as much information through visuals as it did through its dialogue. Whether it be the homogenized hair/eye color of the citizenry, the debaucherous and trashed “Military HQ” or how District 86 and its inhabitants starkly contrasted both. Combine that with some clever cuts and information dense dialogue and you have more world building in a single episode than a lot of anime get in their entire season. The one way I could see 86 going wrong would be if it abandoned its serious take on war. I need this to be in the same camp as OG Gundam, not Space Battleship Yamato.

Potential: 90%

Armitage: This is damn good stuff right here. 86 was one of the most high profile adaptations of the season, based off of a light novel series that’s highly acclaimed even by people not big on LNs, and being adapted across two cours by A1 Pictures. Safe to say that it does deliver on its promise by presenting us with a gritty war-torn world brought to screen through lush backgrounds and actual good 3D-models not rendered by Studio Orange for once. Outside of the 3D designs too, the animation is nothing to scoff at, with characters having detailed expressive movements even during regular conversations. Coupling all that with some impressive quick-cuts and an uncharacteristically low-key but fitting soundtrack from Hiroyuki Sawano, and 86 just about supplants Vivy as the most technically impressive anime of the season, even with A1’s rather generic character designs. Another aspect in which 86 betters Vivy is the way in which it handles its world-building. While the latter has a better premise overall, 86’s necessary info-dump feels more natural and never gets overwhelming, as it lets its visuals and themes take centre-stage instead. If it can deliver a story along the lines of the very similar and highly impressive Iron-blooded Orphans, we’ll surely end up having one of the highlights of the season on our hands.

Potential: 86% >.>

Shadows House

Short Synopsis: A living doll begins her service as an attendant in a mysterious mansion.

Wooper: Boy, that opening montage was a lot more sinister than anything I read in the manga’s first ten chapters. I like it! There’s all sorts of stuff we can infer from those first few minutes – the train that arrived at the Shadows estate was carrying human slaves, those slaves were served a liquid that likely tampered with their memories, members of the Shadows family are created using humans as models, etc. It’s an interesting premise to be sure, but apart from that early foreshadowing, most of this episode provided more character introduction than intrigue. I’m fine with that, since likeable characters are something every premiere ought to strive for, but it does make it hard to judge just how strong a central pillar Emilyko will be for this story. If you like genki blonde girls, you’re sure to find her an adequate guide, and if you like the ‘dirty canvas’ look of the backgrounds, you’re probably hooked already. I’m mixed on the aesthetic myself – it’s great in concept since it underscores the series’ Victorian influences, but it was clearly achieved with a preprogrammed filter, rather than a human hand. Even though I feel like the art director made the right call here, it’s still a minor distraction – modern anime’s curse to bear, I guess.

Potential: 50%

Lenlo: I’m not sold on Shadows House yet. As Wooper says, the opening montage was very sinister, very different from the rest of the show. If it can fulfill the promise of a mystery that it has made then I can see it being successful. But so far I’m not very engaged by Kate or Emilyko. It was cute enough I suppose and I like what it’s doing with the “Shadow” characters’ designs. I’m just… I’m not interested in a girl playing house for 20 minutes. I’m going to keep watching in the hopes that these “Bodysnatcher” vibes I’m getting pay off. I’m not convinced they will yet though.

Potential: 40%

Fruits Basket: The Final

Short Synopsis: A zodiac-themed family’s infighting results in tears, physical assault, and slumber parties.

Wooper: Here’s your yearly reminder that the Fruits Basket reboot 1) exists, and 2) is highly dramatic. These people can’t go one day without crying, though that’s hardly their fault, as most of them are victims of either tragedy or abuse. This episode carried the burden of catching Tohru up to speed on the Soma clan’s darkest secrets, which is sure to make this the most emotional season yet, given how empathetic she is. The list of things that might upset her is endless, but the headline item has to be the psychopathic tendencies of Akito’s reclusive mother. Now the series has two major villains, whose war with each other is certain to cause untold suffering for everyone around them. If that sounds like your ideal anime but you’re not already watching Fruits Basket, you’ve got plenty of time to catch up before the final season ends in September. Just be sure to pick up a mega-pack of Kleenex on your next Costco run.

Potential: ;_;

Amun: Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket. This show is world class in providing feels. And feels are sure to abound with the new villain’s arrival – but, in true Fruits Basket fashion, you now have feels for our previous main villain! Bah. I can’t believe you’ve done this all in one episode, Fruits Basket. I’m really going to miss this show when it’s done. Also, it seems like every OP is trying to one-up the previous one – I’m loving the use of real backgrounds with anime characters superimposed. But anyways, yeah, if we’re starting the season off with an episode like this, strap in – tear jerker alert for sure.

Potential: 100% sniff

Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou Desu

Short Synopsis: Wrong girl gets summoned to another world and takes up magical essential oils.

Mario: I’m still not buying what Seijo no Maryoku is selling after its first 20 minutes. It has many trappings of the isekai genre: we know next to nothing about the main protagonist as a person before she’s transported to this fantasy world; she takes that fact too well and does nothing to return to her original world; and most importantly, things go a bit too smoothly for the girls so there’s little conflict to watch. You can argue against me on the last point, given that our protagonist is labelled “worthless” and gets dumped by the arrogant Prince, but still, she has her life conditions sorted out rather easily. And isn’t it obvious that our girl has more magic mana than others? I find it hard to believe the others couldn’t figure that out already. Lastly, the final scene is supposed to be the emotional payoff, but I would have believed it much better if our girl had used her healing powers, instead of using a magic potion to immediately heal a critically-injured hero? Now that’s a stretch. For now, the show feels like an otome-isekai with a bunch of handsome boys (akin to Hamefura last year but not half as good), but I really do hope the show doesn’t go the romance route. For audiences that enjoy slower, female-centric isekai (Hamefura, Bookworm), you can have a crack at it.

Potential: 20%

Amun: Unlike Mario, Seijo exceeded my expectations. As with Hamefura and Bookworm that he mentioned, Seijo is putting a little twist on our typical Isekai. Where Hamefura was gardening simulator 3000, Seijo will probably be more “magical essential oils” – fine by me, as long as I don’t have to buy any. There are plenty of generic isekai – and I watch most of them – so I appreciate a show that gives me something a little different. Sure there wasn’t that much conflict, but this was a setup episode – give it some time. Obviously, we’re not looking at “anime of the season” material here, but it should be serviceable enough. Seijo will probably be a less intense Rising of Shield Hero: the characters are fun, the overall story direction is pretty clear – I think we’re in for a nice gentle ride.

Potential: 75%

Super Cub

Short Synopsis: A sad high school girl buys a motorcycle.

Wooper: This show doesn’t just feature product placement – it IS product placement. This first episode is a 20 minute ad for Honda’s line of Super Cub motorcycles, which are the only cure for the female lead’s boring life. The first time she sits on one, the show cranks up the saturation to demonstrate that Honda products restore color to your world. It lingers shamelessly on logos and ends on a line of dialogue so blatantly engineered to sell bikes that my eyes nearly fell out of my head from rolling so fast. And yet, Super Cub is quite restrained in every other area of its presentation. It opens quietly, with scenes of early morning trains rolling gently into their stations and the sun rising on countryside landscapes. Instead of dialogue, the show places a premium on character animation – moments where the main girl butters her bread or scoops rice into a bento box create a placid mood that you rarely get from anime. The series even manages to find interest in a scene where she reads the owner’s manual for her bike, which is probably its biggest accomplishment. I’ve got no interest in watching a weekly advertisement, but I’ll give Super Cub this: its first episode was more artful than I had expected.

Potential: 40%

Mario: Super Cub took me by surprise there. I was expecting a dumb CGDCT entry but this first episode is anything but dumb. There’s no trace of fan-service or girls trying to be cute (well, if you don’t count their Cub-fetish); the show instead communicates with us visually on how a girl gets to meet her titular scooter. The restrained direction is surprisingly well done and we get to know the girl’s personality through her actions, not by her personality quirks like other lesser shows tend to do. This is a show that is comfortable with negative space. There’s little dialogue in this first episode, it’s instead interested in quiet moments like her sitting alone in the classroom while her classmates chit-chat around her, or how she takes her rice from the rice cooker. That’s the reason why we sort of feel precious when she rides the Super Cub or reads the freaking manual, because it does feel like a big step forward. While I have doubts that it has enough juice for the whole season, Super Cub’s first episode is no fluke.

Potential: 40%

Odd Taxi

Short Synopsis: One snarky taxi driver boi faces off with corrupt cops, nostalgic doctors, viral wannabes, plus his own demons. And maybe a teenage girl he kidnapped.

Amun: Wait, what?! On paper Odd Taxi looked like an episodic, character-driven, B-tier comedy with the taxi as the stage and some vague connections tying it all together for the season’s last two episodes. That is not what happened here. This is all killer, no filler – forget some overarching plot, this premiere had more substance than Jujutsu Kaisen’s entire season (yeah, I said it). The character building in such a short time is intense – our leading man is blunt, jaded, and just barely holding on to reality. This is a quiet depiction of someone on the edge of psychosis unlike anything I’ve seen in anime. All the supporting cast have their own stories and struggles, the environment is spot on, the backgrounds look amazing – where did this show come from?! I went back and looked and this studio is best known for Pokemon, the staff are no-names and rookies, and it’s an original work (no public source material). On-screen and off, Odd Taxi is mysterious in all the right ways, and it certainly has my attention.

Potential: 90%

Lenlo: ODDTAXI is weird. I had no idea what to expect going into it. I have no idea what to expect leaving it. Is it another Aggretsuko? Beastars? BNA? What is with Japanese authors and anthropomorphic animal people lately? I can’t answer any of those questions but what I can say is this: I connect with this taxi driver on a spiritual level. He is done with the world and its bullshit. Maybe he turns out to be a psycho murderer, maybe ODDTAXI turns into a Bruce Willis movie, I don’t know. But I’m in and I love it.

Potential: 80%

Dragon, Ie wo Kau.

Short Synopsis: After being disowned, a cowardly dragon sets off in search of a new home.

Wooper: This show’s premise is its greatest, and perhaps only, weapon. A massive yet feeble-hearted dragon wandering a fantasy world in search of a suitable dwelling place? There’s all sorts of comedy built into that idea, especially on the visual end, which this series did its darndest to incorporate. Despite his towering stature, the titular dragon ended up in captivity multiple times, pouting helplessly as his tiny jailers rejoiced around him. There were cute shots, too, like the one of the leaf he used to shield his head during a rain shower (see above). Unfortunately, while a dragon makes for a suitably ironic protagonist in this sort of story, they aren’t the easiest creatures to animate, and this series is proof – any time the big lizard was on screen, the series’ limitations were evident. The fantasy environments were colorful and varied, which was nice, but you’d have to be married to this show to overlook how poorly the dragon moves within them. As a result, I can’t give ‘Dragon, Ie wo Kau’ an honest recommendation, but if your favorite genre pairing is fantasy/comedy, there might be something here for you.

Potential: 30%

Amun: Bah, I’ve been tricked. Dragons have had a string of wins recently – most notably Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid – so I expected something similar in terms of comedy. What “Dragon, Ie wo Kau” brings instead is…magical home shopping when broke. The show’s background art looks great, but the characters’ art doesn’t quite fit. I get the dragon isn’t supposed to be majestic, but he just feels off, visually. The premise doesn’t do it for me either – I’m just not interested in a season long excursion with a magical realtor and a loser dragon.

Potential: 5%

Hige wo Soru.

Short Synopsis: A salaryman gets drunk and picks up a high school girl runaway. And manages not to commit any felonies but gets miso soup for his troubles.

Mario: Hige wo Soru is a show that wants to have it both ways. On the one hand, it realizes that the girl’s behavior is spoiled and unhealthy and the MC rejects her advances simultaneously. The premise of her growing independence is the show’s strongest asset so far. On the other hand, the setup is still obvious romance bait – all of his preachiness about her will amount to nothing if he falls for her at the end, and I’m pretty sure the show is heading that way. And guess what action he takes to fix her men-dependency behavior? You guessed it, having her become a domestic housewife. THAT doesn’t bode well to me at all; it’s still better than the other age-gap show but if it leans too much on the romance side it will lose its impact. Isn’t it better to make the MC the parental figure for the girl instead of the love interest?

Potential: 20%

Amun: I actually think Hige wo Soru’s first episode was as well done as possible – that’s the highest compliment I’m able to give. This is one of very few shows whose source I’m familiar with, so I’m a little biased by knowing what’s to come. Unfortunately, for the clever production and excellent voice acting, Hige wo Soru suffers from an incurable disease – a fundamentally flawed premise. In many ways, this is the spiritual successor to Rental Girlfriend, which was a flub. The problem here is a show that can’t decide between two genres – is this a maid comedy or is this a societal commentary? Even more of a problem is that neither route is embraced fully. Without the innocent charm of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and without the provocative commitment of Scum’s Wish, Hige wo Soru is destined for a journey of mediocrity. A journey I won’t be joining on.

Potential: 1%

Megalo Box S2

Short Synopsis: Seven years after his victory at Megalonia, “Gearless” Joe has become a shadow of his former self.

Lenlo: My biggest gripe with the first season of Megalo Box was that it was just a retread of Ashita no Joe. The entire narrative between Yuri and Joe was just Rikiishi and Joe but in the future. Instead of weight management it was shedding gear, instead of Japanese Championship it was the World Championship. Small changes but overall the anime commemorating the 50th anniversary of Ashita no Joe was, shocker, a mimicry of it.

So imagine my excitement when Season 2 gets announced and it breaks from the Ashita no Joe mold. Gone are the championship bouts, gone are characters such as Sachio, Yuuri and Shirato that are just renamed and reskinned versions of older characters. Now we get Joe’s story and what a sad one it is. The bleak desert landscapes, the dimly lit backroom rings and empty parking lots. Drugs, alcohol and suicide. A lot has happened in 7 years for Joe and Nomad doesn’t shy away from that. I’m engaged, I’m intrigued, I want to know what happened. How did we get here from being at the top of the world? Will we ever get back up? If Nomad can deliver on that then I expect it will be even more successful than the first season.

As for my gripes? Well the weird upscaling is back. I seriously don’t understand why they do this. They downscale the show only to upscale it back again, trying to fake that “older” anime look but all it does is make things fuzzy. It’s a Megalo Box aesthetic but I wouldn’t call it a good one. At least the OST is still fantastic.

Potential: 90%

Armitage: I liked Megalo Box’s first season. It was an exciting albeit by-the-books underdog boxing tale with some crisp animation and a killer soundtrack. From what I can surmise after this premiere, Nomad is more of the same but better. Gone is the hype for an ominous fight, the engaging hook of a climactic battle, the thrill of hard-fought victories. All of that was lost long ago. Now, the place is just sad. Everything dies here. A wolf that refuses to move forward eventually gets trampled on by someone speeding on. You stop running and eventually your past catches up with you. Just like everyone else who lives in this place, Gearless Joe is also tired. His is a journey that has no end-goal in sight and he is unable to let go of all the baggage he carries. A tragic fate. As that seems like such a heavy weight.

Megalo Box is forging its own path away from the one laid out by its previous season and it’s one that I personally believe to be the natural progression for Joe’s story. The only thing about this premiere that had me very briefly concerned was the slight over-reliance on still images outside of the scenes not featuring a fight. I mean, we even get a song performed for a minute to nothing but stills panning about. But there seems to be no signs of the production as a whole being anything less than competent. The world of Megalo Box has always been an utterly fascinating one and something I absolutely felt transported to the first time I watched it. If anything, this premiere reminded me of what I have missed. Welcome back, Champ.

Potential: 95%

Thunderbolt Fantasy S3

Short Synopsis: Ornately-dressed warriors journey through a cavernous lair in search of a sentient sword.

Mario: That was a rushed start up. Even I, who have been following the franchise from the beginning, found it difficult at first to follow the storyline. This third outing still feels like a “Best of” collection as all the favorite characters from previous seasons return, with some fresh faces right at the beginning. For me, the fun of Thunderbolt Fantasy is the set-up stage where big-ass characters get introduced, then seeing how they get to the main thread and witnessing them bouncing off each other. That fun was cut short in this episode as I felt it rushed through the plot. In addition, the grey morality of these characters is undermined as in this season (and season 2), there are clear divisions between the good guys and bad guys. I’m still following this but I really hope it does something different, something fresh like its usual self.

Potential: 30%

Wooper: I’m not caught up on Thunderbolt Fantasy, but even if I were, the amount of exposition in this premiere would have been a slog. Gen Urobuchi still hasn’t taken that screenwriting class, I guess. Not that he needs one to find success – the man has an army of fans who will defend dialogue along the lines of: “Remember when I told you about [W]? Specifically, the three obstacles surrounding it?” “Oh, the three obstacles surrounding [W]? You mean [X], [Y], and [Z]?” That was the gist of over half of this episode, including a five minute explanation of what was essentially a video game’s fast travel system. Just as my sanity was about to expire, though, we cut to a kickass fight scene featuring flashy effects, impossible acrobatics, and a talking pipa who transformed into a sword. The fast cuts and dramatic zooms during these brawls give Thunderbolt Fantasy a style like nothing else on TV, but the question each viewer must answer is whether they justify the show’s copious dialogue. For me, the answer is “not quite,” but hey, at least the show looks cool in motion.

Potential: 50%

Sayonara Watashi no Cramer

Short Synopsis: A high school girl looks for other girls to create a soccer club.

Lenlo: Cramer is such a weird show. On one hand it’s a very interesting subject. Women’s soccer, and women’s sports in general, are indeed looked down on by many, wrongfully so. There’s this belief that the competition is less fierce, that the difference in physicality makes it a “lesser” version of the sport and Cramer seems intent on challenging that. Yet on the other hand the whole premise is that our lead isn’t “good enough” to play with the boys and so should raise the level of girls soccer higher. It reinforces the idea that women’s sports are at a lesser level compared to men’s while at the same time trying to combat that. Cramer is written by Naoshi Arakawa, who also created Your Lie in April, so my hope is that it will find its emotional core before too long.

As for the production I don’t have much nice to say here. Lidenfilms clearly isn’t able to support Arakawa’s designs the way A-1 Pictures did for Your Lie in April and it shows. In close ups they look fine, I especially like the way Arakawa designs lips, but in medium and wide shots they look scratchy and flawed. Similarly the animation is rather lacking. They go for these quick soccer movements, and they occasionally work, but by and large they feel like the ball is magnetized when going from point A to point B. Like it’s snapping into place. Maybe the production can stabilize as it goes but for now I don’t have much hope for Cramer.

Potential: 40%

Mario: Despite being one of the shows that I most anticipated this season, after the first episode I am mixed about Cramer. Writing-wise, Cramer is both daring and contrived in equal measure. It’s a show that tackles women’s sports, a topic that I care about, but then its message towards the participants is that “strong players are allowed to be selfish” and I’m at loss. For every “join the girls’ team because I don’t want to see your talent rot in the boys’ team”, we have conflicting arguments like “if you don’t like the girls’ team you can always leave.” Sigh… The story so far is gathering the core team so there’s nothing about it that stands out. Production-wise, I also consider Cramer as both a beautiful and an ugly show. It keeps the characters’ designs akin to Your Lie in April (a big plus), but the choice of having the fence blurred to highlight the girls’ faces backfires as it looks really off (see one of the screenshots). The animation is sloppy, too – it’s at the level of a slice-of-life show, which has me worried. I will keep watching but there are many elements that I don’t think will work out too well.

Potential: 30%