Isekai Shikkaku

Short Synopsis: Osamu Dazai tries to commit double suicide but ends up in an isekai instead!

Amun: Honestly, this premiere was everything that I had hoped for. The touchy subject of suicide (integral to our lead character) was kept somber and light hearted at the same time (I actually burst out lauging at Truck-kun being used seriously). The gloominess of the “adventurer” surrounded by a standard fantasy troupe just hits all the right notes for me. Sure, he assembles a somewhat unlikely harem to go find his lost suicide partner. Sure, he has a silly poison effect that is overpowered. I don’t care, Dazai’s gloominess has won me over, and I’m stoked to spend the rest of the season moping through this!
Potential: 75%

Lenlo: I was… legitimately impressed with Shikkaku. I was fully expecting a mediocre “Using author names as window dressing” show like Bungou Stray Dogs. Instead I get an actually funny, gallows-humor filled Isekai dialogue that I actually want to pay attention to and a lead whose problems aren’t magically solved just by getting hit by a truck and isekai’ed into another world. Yeah it still has a lot of the standard trappings like stats, harems and OP magic powers, and yeah those remain the weakest part of the show. But between the Annette’s slow disillusionment with Isekai Heroes and Dazai’s unreal ability to give every line he speaks the weight of a suicidal man’s last words, which I suppose they are, even those tropes got a few chuckles. Even the truck gag got me, coming out of nowhere mid-suicide attempt. And as Amun says, it’s not like the suicide is played entirely for laughs. It’s somehow able to switch between a legitimate attempt and a joke at will. And it’s pretty damn effective! If Shikkaku could just drop the normal ecchi bullshit that occasionally crops up it could be fantastic. As is I’ll settle for gallows humor I so rarely get and an amusing lead who is absolutely done with everything. And if it happens to go somewhere, to keep my interest across the entire season, then more power to it.
Potential: 55%

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin

Short Synopsis: An intergenerationally wealthy harvest goddess is banished to the human realm after failing to protect her parents’ stockpile of rice.

Wooper: After one episode, the clearest thing Sakuna has going for it is its pretty background art, which mostly depicts floating, interconnected palaces comprising the show’s lofty realm. Many of these shots are set against powder blue skies with wispy clouds, or the pinkish-purple hues of twilight, making them highly memorable – which they’ll need to be, because based on the events of this premiere, we’re about to leave the lofty realm behind. Sakuna’s punishment for allowing a quintet of hungry humans to enter this godly domain and ransack her rice reserves is banishment to a demon-infested island, where her parents disappeared untold generations ago. It’s a nice setup for a coming of age story, as she’ll now be forced to rely on her own survival abilities to get by, rather than her parents’ reputation, but she’ll have the opportunity to search for them at the same time. Still, it’s hard to definitively call this one of the season’s better offerings, since it’s apparently going to spend the vast majority of its time in the human realm, and it hasn’t even set foot there yet. I don’t mind that temporary uncertainty, nor are the kid-friendly character designs an issue for me (as I imagine they are for Very Serious anime fans). I also like the Shinto vibes and the traditional Japanese soundtrack. It’s just that Sakuna doesn’t have a ton of momentum behind it going into episode 2, so it remains to be seen whether it’ll be worth a season-long commitment.
Potential: 50%

Lenlo: I wasn’t very impressed by Sakuna sadly. The childlike, chibi size designs were really unappealing to me, especially when contrasted with the kid-friendly but still adult proportioned human characters in the same scenes. Sure the backgrounds are nice, the Shinto stylings are appealing like Wooper says, and it’s decently animated. But that’s really all it has going for it. I can’t say I care for our lead nor their mission to cleanse a demon-filled island. The idea itself is fine, but the presentation of it feels so… safe? Toothless? There’s nothing to it, no bite, no hook. And that makes this a pass for me.
Potential: 5%

Elf-san wa Yaserarenai

Short Synopsis: A massage therapist deals with fat elves trying, and failing, to lose weight.

Lenlo: You know, this season did feel a little lacking in the ecchi fetish department. Yeah we had the Russian Girl show, the Cosplay show, and the regular isekai bullshit. But this is the first one I’ve watched that really has absolutely nothing going for it outside of its fetish. And what a fetish it is. I can understand big tits, I can understand lolis (to an extent), elves, orcs, yandere, all of it makes sense on some level. But god damn I was not prepared for such an unapologetic fat fetish. I’m talking full gut. What’s more, Yaserarenai is that rare ecchi that somehow got permission to go completely uncensored. That’s right, no steam or convenient camera angles, it’s just full on giant nipples and fat stomachs shoved in your face. I’d be impressed if I wasn’t kind of disgusted.
Potential: 2Fat4Me

Monogatari Series: Off & Monster Season

Short Synopsis: The new season of Monogatari, covering various side stories not included in previous arcs.

Mario: It feels right at home to see these characters back. This is going to be a Monogatari season without Araragi’s involvement – which for me is for all the better. Not that he’s a badly-written character, I do like his narration from time to time. It’s that he has a skewed point of view and it’s often filled with his perverted urges and his hero complex. So telling these stories from the girls’ point of view opens up this world and their complex web of relationships tremendously. Take this 30-minute premiere for example, it pairs up Tsukihi and Yotsugi together – two of the most underused characters out of this harem. Yotsugi is stoic and unresponsive, whereas Tsukihi is dynamite. Yet, it’s hilarious to see Yotsugi attempt to trick the younger sister as a Magical Girl and fail miserably at it. All her encounters with other girls are inspiring and have lots to do with immortality and relationships as well. Funny, heavy on wordplay, visually striking with emotional resonance… If this episode is any indication, we will have an absolute blast this season. My only complaint is that we don’t get an OP yet, but then again nothing can beat Platinum Disco (Tsukihi does that dance in this episode as well).
Potential: ∞ (infinity)

Lenlo: Monogatari is always an exceptionally difficult series to judge. The quality varies so much arc to arc that I can’t make a judgment on the entire season just by one episode. That said, this one episode was pretty good. Visually it’s the best premier I’ve seen so far, both beautifully animated and shot. I know some people aren’t a fan of how out there Monogatari can get, how quickly it cuts, but there was not a single moment in this episode’s entire 30 minutes run where I was not enthralled by the visuals on some level. Seriously, it looks great. Meanwhile narratively, Tsukihi was always one of my favorites, so getting 30 minutes all about her and her involvement in the town was nice. Maybe I’ve changed since the first time I watched Bakemonogatari, but this new season feels… right up my alley so far. Just so long as it can keep a lid on Araragi being a pedophile, I think we’re in for a good time.
Potential: 80%

2.5 Dimensional Seduction

Short Synopsis: Manga club president Okumura is obsessed with his fictional waifu when he meets an underclassman who just so happens to cosplay her, and she wants his help to model all of her new outfits!

Lenlo: Dimensional Seduction feels like it wants to be a passionate love letter to cosplay and geek culture, but it fails to tap into even a fraction of what Sono Bisque Doll did. The leads are both full-on otaku with nothing else to their character but their love for the series, and their interactions amount to nothing more than ecchi-bait and sex jokes. Maybe if the male lead actually brought anything to the relationship it could work, like Gojo’s passion for sewing and the joy he got from dressing people up, but the female lead made her own costume so she doesn’t really need the guy at all. I just… Watching this, it felt like it wanted to tap into that “Sexy girl cosplays” market without caring about cosplay and just wanting to slap a girl with huge tits on the screen. It really feels like an inferior Bisque Doll in every way.
Potential: 0%

Mario: While I applaud this episode for its “go with what you’re interested in” message, this is the kind that short-sells the appeal of being an otaku instead of promoting it. Damn, it features a main character who swears off “3D girls” and shouts in every single sentence. This episode also works as a wet dream for him as well, as a beautiful girl comes knocking on his door, asking to join his club and changing clothes in front of him, and requesting him to take pictures of her? Now, I’m down to have more shows about cosplaying or learning more about it, but the episode doesn’t really delve into the subject – she already has her clothes and garments ready. By the end of this episode where he grabs her (by accident, of course), it just adds a sense of discomfort for me.
Potential: 0%

Tasuuketsu

Short Synopsis: A student finds himself in a game of survival as half of the human population disappears each night!

Lenlo: Everything about Tasuuketsu just feels… lazy? The character designs are the same from the neck down on basically every character, the animation is basically nonexistent, and it can’t pace or properly transition between shots to save its life. As far as the narrative, it’s a pretty straight forward death game. The questions and the fact the majority side of each question will die is kind of interesting, but the existence of special privileges that will break the rules kind of undercut it for me since it means the original rules of the game probably won’t be relevant for long. By the end the only interesting part about it was that the MC seemed to die, though seeing as he’s the lead character and in the OP/ED I would be absolutely shocked if he stayed that way, which of course only raises more concerns if the dead can be brought back to life. In general just not very inspiring.
Potential: 1%

Mario: Tasuuketsu is a death game anime and it’s not a good one at that. In order to build a suspenseful hook you need either a set of clear rules so that you can anticipate how one character will outsmart the others, or well-written characters worth rooting for. Tasuuketsu fails on both fronts at this stage, and it doesn’t help that the pacing is a mess and the animation is lacking. First, none of the characters – that includes our male lead – operates like a human being. They show no concern or empathy towards the people who die, they are way too calm for this kind of situation. Second, the show is purposely vague in its rules – at one point the cast even raises questions about its vagueness – with the only goal being that no matter what question is asked, the majority side will die. But then they have a “privilege” vote – which I think will save our MC – which already breaks the rules that we hardly know anything about? I don’t think I will stick around for this.
Potential: 0%

The Elusive Samurai

Short Synopsis: The would-be inheritor of the Kamakura shogunate flees his birthplace after his family is betrayed by a powerful warrior.

Lenlo: Competing with Monogatari, Elusive Samurai is probably the best animated show of the season. It doesn’t quite have the same level of direction and shot composition that Monogatari does, it was actually uncomfortably punched in a lot of the time, making it hard for me to pick which I like more. Still, it definitely moves beautifully, and I love the colors. Narratively… It has promise, but christ is the humor bad. It’s loud and over the top, often clashing with what is happening on screen and what characters are saying/talking about. The tonal dissonance between an entire clan being slaughtered in incredibly gory fashion while a priest mumbles to himself or smiles and screams over a young boy’s shoulder is insane. If Elusive Samurai can figure that balance out, can cut down on the mediocre humor or at least time it better, then this could be something special. As it is though… I’m unsure if it can stick the landing. I’m going to keep watching it for now at least.
Potential: 50%

Wooper: Between the background information on The Elusive Samurai’s historical period (the early 14th century), the names of various lords, priests and samurai, and the details surrounding the untimely deaths of several characters, there’s a lot to wrap your head around in this premiere. A piece of closing narration informs us that the series’ story will span two years, so we’re not in for Heike Monogatari levels of compression, but it’s likely that audiences will have to be mentally nimble to keep up with this show (or in my case, mainline Wikipedia articles to make up the difference). Even if you’re slow-witted like me, though, Elusive Samurai is absolutely worth checking out for its visuals, which will surely go down as some of the year’s best. Usually I’ll point to either animation or art direction as a series’ strong suit, but in this case they’re equally impressive, as main character Tokiyuki runs, jumps, flips, and parkours his way through background after beautiful background. The more scenic landscapes strike a delightful balance between detail and delicacy, but what’s even more impressive is that shots of manmade structures maintain that same balance, constantly accounting for the ways light might touch a stone wall or a wooden rooftop. I’m less enamored with the show’s overall tone, which goes to some bizarrely glib places for a prologue where the protagonist’s family and future subjects perish en masse. But for an anime like this one with both an intriguing setting and top tier production, I can push past an annoying character or two.
Potential: 65%

Twilight Out of Focus

Short Synopsis: A second year college student wrestles with his emerging attraction to his male roommate, who volunteers as an actor in his film club.

Wooper: My initial thought after watching this episode was, “It’s gonna look pretty bad if I give the BL anime a lower score than the step-sibling anime,” but as long as I’m being honest, I have to say that I enjoyed virtually nothing about Tasogare Out Focus. Everything about it is aimed squarely at the fujoshi market, from broad stuff like the uniformly tall, male and handsome cast, all the way down to the tiniest details, like the male/female coding of the lead characters’ plush birds. The “Let’s shoot a BL movie (no homo tho)” attitude of the film club’s leader is awkward, and his goofball personality feels like it’s designed to handwave that issue. And then there’s the scene where one of the main roommates drunkenly pins down and licks the other (strike one) while mistaking him for his sensei (strike two), but is nonchalantly forgiven the next morning with the phrase “it was just an accident” (strike three). Tasogare is clearly trying to have its non-consensual BL cake and eat it too, and although that’s par for the genre’s course, it doesn’t have to be – the Given adaptation from 2019 is proof of that. I’ll give this show a few points for being fairly well-drawn, but really, this is a gentleman’s zero.
Potential: 5%

Lenlo: Basically everything Wooper said above, this is pretty basic fujoshi bait stuff. The only thing it has going for it is that it looks decent, but unlike Wooper I’ll just give it the 0 it deserves. Honestly it’s actually rather creepy in a lot of places.
Potential: 0%

Senpai is an Otokonoko

Short Synopsis: A first year high school girl befriends a crossdressing boy after unsuccessfully confessing her love to him.

Wooper: You’ll want to brace yourself before watching Senpai is an Otokonoko, but not because of its crossdressing or genderbending themes, which are quite mild (after one episode, anyway). No, the reason you’ll need to prepare your kokoro is the constant swapping between two different art styles, which was more aggressive here than in any other anime I’ve seen this decade. I’m assuming this choice was meant to match the manga’s use of deformed character designs, but it was so distracting that I can’t get a handle on whether the show has any promise apart from its bizarre presentation. There’s a relentlessly genki first year girl whom I might have liked, if only her most impulsive moments hadn’t been depicted in that alternate style, and while the protagonist’s childhood friend didn’t leave an impression on me, he might have had a shot at memorability if not for that same issue. As for the main character, it was really just the quiet final scene (where he changed out of his feminine clothes in a storage shed and bid himself goodbye) that garnered my interest. If I were a ‘three episode rule’ kind of anime fan, I might give the show a chance to display that side of itself in the future, but in terms of first impressions, this was a miss.
Potential: 0%

Lenlo: Wooper is right, the switches between artstyle were really jarring and came at completely random times. Do we really need to swap between them in the middle of the same scene, the same conversation, the same damn shot? Really took me out of what was happening. Aside from that, I can’t say it was very interesting. I don’t see how this makes for a long-term story since the guy’s secret is revealed in the first 3 minutes of the episode. Maybe it works as a gag comedy series or something? But with how ugly and unappealing the chibi art style is, which it uses for every single one of its gags, I don’t see it working.
Potential: 0%

Giji Harem

Short Synopsis: A new drama club member adopts a host of different personas for the amusement of her senpai.

Lenlo: I feel like I just watched Saori Hayami have a stroke, in the best way possible. A harem show where every “girl” is the same schizophrenic chick in different hair styles acting like different people to flirt with her Senpai, all while Saori Hayami voices each one of them differently? That’s actually kind of clever. Giji Harem can keep it simple and cute with the MC being in on the joke and playing it up, or it can get crazy and have a love triangle and shit between the different personalities, who knows! I doubt it will go that far, keep it wholesome and cute, but even keeping it simple it’s pretty fun. The fact that, like the Russian Girl show, the MC is capable of bantering with the main girl without sticking his foot in his mouth or shitting his pants also goes a long way towards making this enjoyable. Pair that with expressive designs, this being about a drama club there’s a lot of focus on their faces and emotions as they talk to each other, and there’s a lot to enjoy. The dialogue is pretty clever as well. Honestly, this is the first show of the season so far that I’m actually going to keep up with after the first episode. This feels fun and cute.
Potential: 75%

Wooper: The challenge of adapting a manga with super short chapters is figuring out how to stitch those chapters into full length episodes. That’s only if you accept the challenge in the first place, though, which Giji Harem definitely did not, at least in this premiere. This was just a bunch of trope-driven vignettes laid on top of each other, then placed into an episode-shaped container, and I had seen enough by the time I was halfway through the stack. It started off well enough, quickly establishing the female lead’s acting chops and introducing her persona-swapping gimmick as a fun way to combat her nervousness around her senpai. We met one of her characters, then another and another, until she’d formed a small stable to draw from. The question then became what else the show might do with them, apart from providing amusement for her upperclassman; no answer was provided, and none likely ever will be. I watched with increasing impatience as the male lead fretted over her facial expressions, snapped pictures of her playing different characters, and requested that she trot out specific impressions at a moment’s notice. By the time senpai-kun started contemplating which outfits he wanted to assign to his kouhai in her various forms, I felt as though I’d developed restless leg syndrome – not exactly an experience I’m eager to revisit.
Potential: 10%

Ramen Akaneko

Short Synopsis: A young woman is hired to work in the back room at a ramen shop run by cats.

Lenlo: Ramen is a very inoffensive, relaxed, nothingburger show. All about a bunch of cats that run a ramen shop and a young girl who somehow gets roped into a job there, despite watching 20 minutes I couldn’t tell you a single thing about what happened in this episode. Yes, it was inoffensive, yes it was chill, but so much so that it never really dared to do anything. It’s just… boring. So much so that I don’t think even Slice of Life fans are going to find much to be engaged by here.
Potential: 0%

Wooper: I’m more of a cat liker than a cat lover, but I still tend to sample all the cat-themed anime that release each year. Unfortunately, Ramen Akaneko made one of the weakest first impressions of all the shows I can remember in that category. My biggest issue here is its habit of switching between hand-drawn characters and 3DCG models, even for rudimentary tasks such as the sole human cast member brushing her feline coworkers’ hair. Combine that with the slapdash background art (especially the hideous establishing shot of the street outside the ramen shop), and it’s clear that this show was produced entirely out of obligation. As far as the writing goes, we learn about human character Tamako’s anxiety surrounding her new job, and witness her difficulty in cooperating with one of the pricklier cats on staff. These stories helped sustain my focus for 20 minutes, but I’d say the show’s flavorless tone is a bigger issue than whether or not it can spin a couple yarns per episode. Its premise is thinner than the noodles served at its in-universe restaurant, after all, so it’ll need a much more distinctive atmosphere if it wants to stay open for business.
Potential: 5%

Days with My Stepsister

Short Synopsis: Two teenagers talk out their soon-to-be sibling relationship after their parents get engaged.

Wooper: Of all this summer’s new anime premieres, Gimai Seikatsu will likely have the fewest amount of cuts. This show likes its long takes, and uses mostly medium shots to create a slow, thoughtful mood. I’m a fan of this style, especially in animation, where close-ups often fly by one after another, so this episode was a breath of fresh air – though it’s adapting a step-sibling romance light novel, so I’m not sure that “fresh” is the right word. I’ve enjoyed other taboo-based anime in the past (Koi Kaze, After the Rain), so it’s not impossible that I’ll find something to like here, but it’s got a mountain to climb despite its pleasant pacing. There was at least one instance of the show reaching for sensitivity a bit too aggressively (a mid-episode montage of the characters unpacking backed by soft piano and crooning vocals), but we also got an effective moment of humor to balance it out (the protagonist’s father clumsily welcoming his fiance and stepdaughter to their new home). The backgrounds are sparse, but characters are usually well-positioned to reinforce the feeling of each scene. To put it simply, I’m mixed on this one, but I’m leaning toward giving it another shot, especially since there are a handful of side characters we haven’t even met yet.
Potential: 50%

Lenlo: I am much less positive on Seikatsu than Wooper it seems, as I found the pacing and presentation rather dull. Wooper is right that most anime cut a bit too fast, with scenes flying by, but jumping to the opposite end of the spectrum like this was not the answer. It feels novel I suppose, relaxed, but that soft piano perpetually in the background felt overly sentimental and like Seikatsu was holding up a sign telling me how to feel rather than actually earning it, so to speak. Credit where it’s due of course, for a gross underage sibling romance Seikatsu actually handled it pretty well. There were no ecchi shots, no fanservice, it didn’t have them walking in on each other in the shower or falling on top of each other naked or anything, though there was one joke involving a bra. It feels like Seikatsu might actually care about the story it’s trying to tell, might actually be genuine, and I’m just not responding well to the over the top sentimentality of it all. If Seikatsu could cut down a bit on all of that I think it could be pretty good. As is though, it’s difficult for me to get invested despite everything pointing in the right direction.
Potential: 30%

The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army Was a Human

Short Synopsis: Literally the show’s title.

Amun: First premiere of the new season, hooray! Usually the first show premiering is a steaming pile of poor animation or fanservice, but is this season any different? The answer is….kinda. Maogun was about as standard a premiere as you could ask for. Truthfully though, that puts it head and shoulders above any other season first premieres that I can remember. Hey, at least it’s not an isekai, right? We have a standard overpowered OP with a dark secret that only the big boobed boss knows….well and this random maid who just found out. Okay, whatever. There’s a pig henchman and then a demon queen who is on about something. I don’t really love the character designs though – there have been more shows that do this, with the heavier outlines. This more comes down to execution and that’s something I am absolutely not convinced Studio A-CAT can continue for a full season. Think of this as an old, used Honda Civic – it’ll be sorta fun to drive until the wheels fall off.
Potential: 25%

Lenlo: While Maogun isn’t quite as bad as I was expecting, I think Amun is overstating its quality a bit. It’s still a rather dull and by the books OP MC fantasy story. I suppose the whole “Hiding his identity” thing would be interesting, if it wasn’t immediately revealed that others are aware of who he is, taking a lot of wind from Maogun’s sails so to speak. Meanwhile visually Maogun is primarily mediocre CGI with poor lighting and a heavy reliance on after effects for the spells. There’s just… very little of interest here, and while that places it above most Isekai slop we get, it’s still not worth my time.
Potential: 10%

Suicide Squad Isekai

Short Synopsis: DC Suicide Squad villains are sent to a new world!

Amun: (Note, I’m only going to discuss the first episode, although I know 3 premiered immediately). Let’s keep this simple: “Suicide Squad Isekai” didn’t have a great start. My complaints: first, Harley’s fight with whoever that ninja was felt really weird – the finishing blow just felt odd in perspective. Secondly, the entire episode felt rushed and confused – tons of time was spent on showing the Joker, only for him to be seemingly absent from the rest of the show (although I love the inclusion of his car). Third, the animation wasn’t as crisp as it needs to be for an action heavy show like this. I KNOW Wit can do better. Finally, and this is probably the most concerning point, I didn’t feel that the tone of the DC Suicide Squad was well integrated with the isekai setting. Suicide Squad is about the irreverent “bad guys killing other bad guys for good reasons” with humor and style. “Suicide Squad Isekai” more felt like super powered prisoners were set free in a fantasy land. And I mean, that would be a fine premise, but we know these characters already – it just felt like hearing a song you love, trying to like it, but they’re hitting the wrong notes just slightly. Maybe the show will improve, but I’m honestly really disappointed.

(Episode 2 update: while the first episode is cheeks, episode 2 was way more fun. Maybe this could turn out okay?)
Potential: 30% (after 2, 50%)

Lenlo: After watching Suicide Squad I feel that it’s safe to say, as a comic book fan, that it’s best to go into this expecting a regular Isekai with a DC aesthetic rather than an actual exploration of these characters in any interesting fashion. If you wanted to see Harley Quinn in a fantasy world in any way other than visually, SSI simply is not for you. It has no idea who they are beyond the surface level and some catch phrases like “Puddin”. However if you just want to watch a hot blonde psychopath and her “friends” make media references and murder their way through a fantasy world, this will probably be right up your alley. And honestly, visually? I don’t think it looks that bad. It doesn’t move that well, like Amun says the animation isn’t very crisp and I’ve seen Wit do better, but I kind of like the designs and how colorful it all is, sometimes at least. If I rate this on a scale of Harley Quinn stories, it’s not shaping up to be very good. If I rate it on the scale of Isekai in general however… Well that’s a much more favorable comparison if you ask me. Suffice to say, I’m going to finish watching the other 2 episodes and probably a bit more before/if I drop it.
Potential: 40%

My Wife Has No Emotion

Short Synopsis: An exhausted salaryman gets a robot maid and swiftly falls in love with her.

Mario: Boy this is tough to sit through. For me, the problematic part of this premise is not about him falling in love with a robot (which of course is a can full of worms), but the very idea that the “perfect wife” image is the one who cooks for you and does the household chores… and refers to you with the honorific “-sama”. It’s just a blatant wish fulfillment cranked up to 11. Adding to that is a very generic male lead whose name I immediately forget as soon as I hear it. He doesn’t have much of a personality, really. Just look at his apartment and you don’t see anything that reflects his hobby or characteristics. But I guess he’s human enough to… have a boner when a humanoid girl sleeps next to him. The fact that the titular robot is emotionless but somehow 10 times more interesting than him speaks to that. Sorry but I don’t buy this relationship at all.
Potential: Nope. Does this show deserve three reviews written for it? Nope nope.

Amun: This premiere was lowkey disturbing. Not on the level of Goblin Slayer or anything, but yeah, this was not enjoyable. I looked into it and the source comes from 2019, somewhat at the beginning of the current AI boom. Given today’s advancements with humanoid robots (props to showing the extensive charging sequences) and LLMs like ChatGPT, My Wife Has No Emotion isn’t a cute comedy, but more of a dystopian nightmare. There was just way too much discomfort and awkwardness this episode, ignoring that this could very well become reality within the next decade. Of course, we have the obligatory ghosts in the machine, where the AI exhibits functionality beyond programmed behaviour – could it be, gasp, alive?! I do have to give props for that clock animation (that’s on point). Plus, there is also no way on earth that having a robot sleep in your bed doesn’t smell like oil. Yeah – this is disturbing. No more of this for me, thanks.
Potential: Absolutely not. Why do they keep making tradwife anime weirder and weirder?

Lenlo: I don’t know what I find more depressing, the idea of live-in tradwife sex robots, or the idea that this guy works what looks to be 12-hour days just to get home, crash, and do it all over again. Anyways, Amun has the right of it in that this show isn’t wholesome or cute at all and instead rather creepy. Weebs and Neets are already too afraid to go outside and talk to the opposite sex, do we really need to encourage it with things like demure robot wives who do anything you say? Maybe the show goes somewhere with it and gives her a personality, does the thing where it chastises him for falling in love with an appliance and that a true and fulfilling romance can only come from another sentient being reciprocating those emotions with their own free will. The emotions bit at least definitely seems to be what My Wife is gunning for judging by this first episode. That’s enough for me to not write it off completely like Amun, as there’s clear potential there. But I can’t say I’m particularly hopeful for it, just going by Japan’s track record.
Potential: 1%

Oshi No Ko

Short Synopsis: Doctor meets his favorite idol who is secretly pregnant, then gets killed, and is reborn as her kid like that day.

Amun: I, uh, yeah, this ain’t for me. One of my absolute non-starters for the “reincarnation” (I guess this isn’t technically an isekai?) is the restart from a baby and all the infant activities done with an adult mind. It’s a bit messed up (there’s a reason your memories wipe around 3). Getting to this behemoth of an episode, the animation is fine and the characters sure do sparkle. Unfortunately, the idol genre is a dish I very rarely enjoy, so it has to be something truly special to keep me interested (pretty much just “Zombie Land Saga”). Full disclosure: I only watched about 25 minutes to where there was some children feeding, but that’s about the length of a single episode, which is all I’m really willing to give this show. I just wonder what the target demographic here is: you need to enjoy reborn shows, but also shows about idols, but also shows about little kids. Seems a fairly small intersection – I guess “Spy x Family” for idol fans? Just a very strange premise. You get the stalker otaku, some murder, some intrigue, bunch of scummy entertainment people, whatever. “Oshi No Ko” just didn’t leave a good taste in my mouth, so I’m sure not coming back for seconds (or even finishing this first gigantic plate).

P.S. I’m no conspiracy theorist, but has anyone else noticed a bunch of anime getting greenlit that involve child-rearing and how great it is? I can only think of “Beelzebub” from back in the day – there couldn’t possibly be an agenda to try and help out the herbivore Japanese population, could there?
Potential: 0%

Mario: Now, this is unusual. Oshi no Ko’s first episode turned out to be a feature length affair, and after going through it, I don’t think it deserves its long, long runtime. Well, the exact phrase should be: it doesn’t deserve 80 minutes of my time since I would normally drop it after 20 minutes. The episode takes a critical look at the idol industry. It’s clearly established how our idol girl/mom Ai is “made of lies.” It also goes to great lengths to hit the point home that the idol industry is an unforgiving place where talent alone isn’t enough. Those are critical observations, sure, but the issue I have with the episode is that it’s also a wish-fulfillment fantasy about a fully-grown adult reincarnated as that idol’s son. That is why he gets a free pass to act in a film, and there are many other instances where I feel like I’m watching a scene from Boss Baby. The writing is blatant at times. There’s a scene where our main guy, still in his adult body, is confronted by an obsessive fan of Ai’s, and his very first reaction was to admit that she’s staying at the hospital where he works. I also don’t get why the show keeps his twin sister’s real identity a secret from him. They are together like… all the time. This review is running long so I’ll cut it short here – despite spending time with these characters the longest, I have very little interest to find out more about any of them or the true killer’s identity.
Potential: Not deserving of its length

A Galaxy Next Door

Short Synopsis: A desperate mangaka hires a proficient assistant who turns out to be a princess.

Wooper: You know how the old saying “write what you know” has resulted in a lot of novels about English professors contemplating adultery? Well, A Galaxy Next Door is cut from a similar cloth, only it took the adage less literally – it’s about an (unmarried) manga artist named Ichiro falling in love with his female assistant Shiori, but she’s also a princess, and also not human, and also her tail acts as a portal to another realm. The show gives her a convincingly human appearance in order to save all these reveals until the last few minutes, and in my opinion they constitute the only interesting part of the episode. Much of the rest of its runtime involved Ichiro fretting over the deadline for his next chapter, talking to his boring family, and passing pages to Shiori or telling her she’s allowed to take a break (she naturally refuses all such offers, this being a Japanese production). I know it’s hard to make a meticulous process like drawing manga seem entertaining, but Galaxy Next Door takes such a grounded approach that it doesn’t even attempt to tackle that issue. The show looks remarkably plain, as well – every single interior shot made me doubt Ichiro’s compositional skills, given the drab state of his building (did I mention he’s also a landlord?), and the character designs are some of the dullest of the season. It’s a shame that one of the few adult romances we’ve received in recent years had to end up this way, but at least last season’s Koori Zokusei Danshi fared a bit better on the production front.
Potential: 10%

Amun: By the way, in case anyone else got confused, this is NOT the anime about the kids with insomnia and the observatory. I also did not realize this was a reverse-isekai either. This premise is weird – but I do appreciate how wonderful it is to find a competent assistant. I also liked how straightforward the characters are here….and then things got a little bit weird. Overall, the visual quality does feel a bit low, but I didn’t hate the characters or the settings. Just kind of a very complicated setup off the bat – there could have been some slow playing all the various parts (landlord manga artist has to raise his two little kids and gets an assistant who is a star princess with a spiky tail who is a fan of his….hey, at least they didn’t use that as the title of the show). I might watch a few more, but since the little kids look like the primary supporting cast (and the inevitable other neighbors in the building), this doesn’t look like it’ll hold my interest for an entire season.
Potential: 40%

Ousama Ranking:
The Treasure Chest of Courage

Short Synopsis: Bojji and Kage get up to all kinds of hijinks…set in the middle of the first season?

Mario: This season is a batch of side-stories from Ousama Ranking, which also means that it’s more of Ousama Ranking without an actual arc. If you are already a fan of these characters (I am), or want to see more worldbuilding (I do), then this season should be a treat!! Well, that’s only partly right. If this first episode is any indication, it will tell heart-warming tales about our Bojji and Kage that should please the audience, but at the same time, it already feels repetitive. That feeling is not from the set-up (which is different enough), but more from its educational message. “Being kind” and compassionate is obviously a theme here, and it’s an important attribute for Bojji to be a great King in the future. I adore Ousama’s Ranking world and characters for sure, but I hope the season provides enough reasons for me to care beyond that.
Potential: 40%

Amun: The rarest of sequels – the mid-quel! I can only think of “Steins;Gate” as an example of this off the top of my head, although there are tons of spinoffs that tell the same story with different characters. And it was good! (well, the OP song was very not good, but the video was fine). This looks to be basically all the filler episodes that weren’t present in the first season – that’s fine with me, since we already know the larger plot. I don’t actually mind that, since it doesn’t interfere with the larger stories and can be all fun no stakes – “Reincarnated As a Slime” did that recently, and I thought it was great. Animation remains top notch, characters are still good, and we won’t have any of the weird Miranjo stuff to deal with (I hope). This may not win any awards, but I’ll watch this.
Potential: 75%

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion

Short Synopsis: A girl dies and is conveniently reincarnated into the world of a novel she’s already read.

Mario: This series is yet another isekai where the isekai-ing itself doesn’t make much sense. Yes, Raeliana retains her knowledge from her past life to change her fate – in a concept similar to Hamefura, only 100% more serious, but the show glosses over the whole concept by her narrating: “… and I was reborn as a character in a novel.” It might sound like a good idea on paper to speed up the established tropes to get to the main points, but right at the start I wasn’t totally convinced on what the show tries to sell me. Raeliana, on the other hand, is an interesting female lead to follow. As she already knows how she would die, she tries her best, to the point of manipulation, to escape that route. That leads to somewhat intriguing conflict, but at the cost of other characters. It is amusing to see how the plot goes from there, now that she narrowly escapes her fated death but might get herself tangled up in a bigger scheme. But at the same time, the other characters are painfully plain at the moment given the fact that Raeliana already “knows” about their personalities, their past and their motives. How it balances that out will determine the success of the show, but for those of you who are already under Raeliana’s spell, there’s a lot to look forward to.
Potential: 30%

Wooper: Sometimes the best way to explain that a TV show is poorly written is to provide a scene by scene summary of a single episode, since every aspect of its script is a misstep of some kind. That’s the approach I want to take with this series, but then I’d end up writing a novel – though on the plus side, I’m sure it would be more entertaining than the novel within which Raeliana now lives. Suffice to say, this series is drowning in expository narration, with multiple scenes grinding to a halt so the title character can explain the political situation of her country, or some piece of court intrigue about which a competent author would write an actual story, rather than inserting a “the story so far” segment into their very first episode. For most anime fans this axe-blunt style isn’t a dealbreaker – I’m just an old crank, so if you enjoyed this premiere, please pay me no mind. I do want to draw your attention to one particularly humorous moment, though, where Raeliana mentally protests her fiance’s clinginess by thinking, “I even read a book for this!” Here she’s referring to “How to Break Up with Your Boyfriend,” a tome whose wisdom fails to produce a clean end to her engagement, leaving her hitched to a man she hates – and the worst part of the whole situation is that she had to read a boring old book, with words and everything. Oh, the humanity!
Potential: Not for me

Dead Mount Death Play

Short Synopsis: After being defeated in his own world, a necromancer known as the Corpse God flees to Earth and takes the form of a young boy.

Lenlo: I will admit, I am a bit curious about Dead Mount Death Play. I thought it was just going to be a standard isekai at first, and in parts it still is. An OP MC transported to another world. But the two things that make it stand out to me are that it’s the villain and that it’s bringing them to our world. Now both of these have been done before, neither are new. But they are both something I tend to enjoy at least a little bit. Combine that with a respectable production, nothing super impressive but definitely better then most of the shlock I’ve had to watch for these impressions. I’ve no idea if Dead Mount will actually end up being interesting, or if it will be edgy shlock, I can see it going either way. And while I would lean towards it just being edgy, as that’s the easiest thing for it to do, I’m going to give it another episode or two and see where it can go.
Potential: 20%

Wooper: You know an anime is in a dire spot when you can only think to praise it for avoiding the absolute worst tendencies of its genre. Backhanded compliments like, “At least this episode isn’t shitting itself with menu screens,” and, “The protagonist might not have a harem for once,” went through my mind as I watched Dead Mount Death Play. I certainly can’t dish out any unqualified praise for this episode, since its action sequences bit off way more than they could chew, and its dubstep/metal soundtrack was surely the result of an aging producer’s midlife crisis. The overreliance on digital effects, such as those used for spellcasting circles and scribbly-looking spirits, couldn’t stop this premiere from looking (and feeling) interminably gray. If this anime were a person, it would have multiple swords mounted on the walls of its living room, wear a cape to the grocery store, and use the word “epic” in conversation at least thirty times per day. The fact that this is one of the better isekai of the season and I still hate it makes me hope that it’s also one of the last ones I ever have to watch. I know that’s a highly biased thing to say, but I’m beyond caring about objectivity at this point.
Potential: 0%

THE MARGINAL SERVICE

Short Synopsis: People dressed as construction workers take down bad NOT “aliens”.

Wooper: The Marginal Service’s appeal lies in just how seriously it takes its dumbass premise, despite cribbing nearly every part of it from American police movies. It starts by ripping off a string of “rebel cop” tropes and applying them to its protagonist, Brian Nightraider (yes, you read that name correctly). He stumbles onto a case that’s way above his pay grade, gets fired for his loose cannon tendencies, refuses to turn in his gun, drinks straight from a bottle of liquor at his former partner’s graveside – the whole nine yards. Then he’s recruited by a secret government organization, where he switches roles and becomes the upstart rookie, partnered with a no-nonsense veteran who clearly resents his new position. Then we go full Men in Black and kill an alien with specialized weapons while keeping the general public in the dark – though in one of the series’ rare differences from its “inspirations,” the Marginal Service agents wear construction uniforms rather than suits (a clear upgrade, if you ask me). All this shameless retreading of decades-old plot beats coaxed a couple smiles from me, but then came the character intro cards at the end, including one for “Peck Desmont,” an angry-looking squirrel who appeared nowhere else in the episode. This caused me to laugh way harder than I had at any moment from the 16 other shows I previewed this season – that’s got to count for something, right?
Potential: 20% for my boy Peck Desmont

Amun: You know, I was willing to give some benefit of the doubt here to this rogue-cop-recruited-by-secret-government-agency show until the construction power rangers showed up. Like, what?! Everything else was pretty by the numbers (except the partner’s death, honestly – that surprised me) and then….might morphin construction time (I guess without the giant robot). I’m honestly kind of stuck on how weird the costumes are, but looking at the other merits of the episode….meh. This lacks the conflict between worlds that made a similar show “Cop Craft” at least interesting. “Marginal Service” instead opts to assemble a misfit ensemble of…anime foreigner stereotypes? To fight “borderlanders” (well, aliens). Huh. UH HUH. I guess the white devil is out of vogue, so we’ve got the black muscle man and the British playboy plus a token slut (those are the actual characters here, don’t judge me). I just sense a bit of message telegraphing with some mediocre plot and production randomly sprinkled with wack construction outfits that make no sense. This is a N-O-P-E from me.
Potential: No thanks.

Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc

Short Synopsis: Tanjiro wakes up from a coma after the events of the last season, and heads to Swordsmith Village to get his sword repaired.

Lenlo: Let’s be honest here, this is Kimetsu no Yaiba, you know what you’re in for. Mediocre and ill thought out comedy, some cool fights, the occasional poignant story beat that hits far harder than it deserves to but never really lasts into something masterful. Even just this episode was a great microcosm of that experience. The ecchi humor surrounding Kanroji, as well as a lot of the Inosuke/Zenitsu jokes, just don’t land. They never have and at this point we just need to accept it as part of Yaiba’s style of humor. Yet on the flip side we also got some cool interactions between our villains, showing us how different they are, as well as an introduction to this mysterious swordsman, and all of that seems pretty cool. And as for cool fights? Well the entire Infinity Castle sequence was pretty awesome. Way over done in places, Yaiba needs to figure out that sometimes less is more and we don’t need the zoom/dynamic flying camera shot closeups of a dude sitting at a table. It was just a bit distracting, despite the otherwise cool parts of the sequence. I honestly think that if Yaiba could learn the meaning of the word restraint, it would really help the show. But this is Yaiba. We both know what we are in for. Personally? I’m going to have fun with flashy lights and pretty animation. And if it manages to give me more, then I will be pleasantly surprised.
Potential: 60%

Mario: My personal attachment to Kimetsu no Yaiba in general is pretty much in the middle. I find the production impressive and the narrative lacking, especially its “scream until it’s funny” humor which frequently puts me off. That being said, this double-length episode does a decent job of establishing the new setting and introducing new sets of woeful enemies. The episode takes its time setting everything up, which I appreciate. It allows the characters, especially Tanjiro, time to breathe and it provides a great opportunity for the show to focus instead on the swordsmith village’s background. This also means that there are more comic-relief moments than usual, however, which do nothing for me. We are going down the list of Upper Ranks now, with number 4 and 5 serving as the main bosses this time. I certainly expect spectacular battles down the line here, but on a side note let me just say it’s not a smart tactic of grand boss Muzan to kill his Lower Ranks (back in Mugen Train arc) and shrink his own manpower as a result. Just look at the sad number of devotees who show up at the Infinity Castle.
Potential: 40%

Rokudo’s Bad Girls

Short Synopsis: A high school loser becomes irresistible to delinquent girls after inheriting a mystical scroll from his grandpa.

Wooper: Did Rokudo’s Bad Girls get unstuck in time or something? Its plot, which concerns a boy who attracts women via supernatural means, feels like something out of an 80s OVA, with a script that establishes its ‘20th century fantasy for sexually frustrated teenagers’ vibe with gems like, “If you didn’t want me to look at your thighs, you should have worn a longer skirt!” The show’s sense of style is even more dated, with the main female character Himawari embodying sukeban fashion from the 70s, when girl gangs wore long skirts to combat the rising hemlines ushered in by the sexual revolution. Himawari wears a frightening amount of mascara (as do all the other girls in the show), and she also kicks a frightening amount of ass, brutalizing adults around town solely to blow off steam. She’d never lay a finger on Rokudo, though – in fact, she lets herself get beaten up after he commands her not to fight, because she’s just that hungry for his Rokudick. Honestly, I sort of enjoyed watching this premiere, since it just got more and more insane as it went on, and the character designs were so far removed from anything I’ve seen recently that it felt like a fresh experience. It’s not campy enough to watch the whole thing solo, but if you’ve got a group of friends who love to get together and shit on bad anime, this show should be prime fodder for hours of nonstop mockery.
Potential: 100% trash

Lenlo: Wooper hit the nail on the head here, there isn’t much more to say.. I feel like Rokudo transported me back in time, and not necessarily in a good way. The plot really is just “Bullied kid gets mind control powers over delinquent women”. Though unlike Wooper I didn’t end up enjoying my time spent watching it. It was fresh, sure, but fresh doesn’t necessarily mean “good” in my book.
Potential: I want a delinquent girl to beat me up/10

World Dai Star

Short Synopsis: A high school girl auditions for a theater troupe in a world where actors are idolized (what a concept!).

Mario: It’s the twist right at the end that bumps this up to 20% for me. Our main girl Kokona’s quest to become a top theatrical actress is something we see too often at this point. While I enjoy the world of theater, I’m certain that it won’t be another Revue Starlight where they do anything exceptional for the genre…that was what I thought until the final reveal that recontextualizes what comes before for the better. Now, there’s something going on within our main girl’s mind that makes her the perfect candidate for acting. Will this twist work more than once? I don’t think so but at least I can congratulate it for striking me when I was least expecting it.
Potential: 20%

Wooper: The twist that my co-writer referenced above went over my head at first – it was only after he pointed it out and I rewatched the final 60 seconds of the episode that I understood what the show was implying about Kokona, its main character. For honesty’s sake, I thought I should acknowledge that failure before delivering the following message: World Dai Star’s first episode was very boring. There was a bunch of table-setting narration at the start about an acting bug having swept the world (as though ‘actor’ wasn’t already a dream job for millions of people in real life), and of course our heroine wants to be the greatest actor of them all. She and the other two main characters were instantly forgettable: genki girl, possessive best friend, snooty foreigner. The one noteworthy thing about this episode was the sheer number of frames it put into its acting scenes, highlighting subtle movements in a way that, ironically, made them blatantly obvious. These scenes didn’t exactly achieve their intended effect, but at least the show tried something cool, and maybe provided some good practice for a rookie inbetweener or two in the process. Other than that, this premiere was a World Dai Snore.
Potential: 10%