Category: Other:

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.

Ao no Orchestra

Short Synopsis: A former violinist is conscripted by his gym teacher to teach a schoolmate how to play.

Mario: Adding to the long list of Blue-themed titles (on that note, which one is your favorite? Mine would be “Sweet Blue Flowers”), Blue Orchestra’s first episode, despite walking a familiar path, is a solid episode all around. What this episode did right was providing a main lead worth caring for. Anime is no stranger to portray listless bored male leads, but here he never comes off as boring. Hajime is occupied with his own thoughts throughout the episode, but it provides quite well his internal conflict between his love for violin, the hatred for it because it associates with his Dad. Even when he sees the practice room, he cannot shake his memories of his Dad. The show looks pretty decent, thankfully, but it’s appropriately the sound that makes an impact here. The violin sound from an unknown girl ticks him off and he lashes out at her, the only one time in this episode where he clearly shows his emotions. The ending is where it gets a bit too conventional but the premise where he can play again (this time in an orchestra) is compelling enough for me to follow more.
Potential: 60%

Wooper: I talked down this series’ prospects in the season preview post, but Ao no Orchestra’s premiere wasn’t too bad. It opened with an impressive musical sequence as Aono (first name Hajime) recalled a time when he still enjoyed playing the violin, and slowly provided hints as to what killed his motivation as it progressed. The trouble is, when I say “slowly” provided hints, I really mean it – the pace of this episode was ponderous, with around half the script being given over to Aono’s internal monologue. Director Seiji Kishi seems to have made a lot of good calls in shaping this series, as he punctures the gloomy atmosphere with humorous outbursts from time to time, and the leisurely speed of the story is necessary so as not to overwhelm the middling animation staff. But the tone is still highly dramatic, and I don’t know that Aono can carry such a heavy version of the show with just an Asuka clone and an adult sidekick for support. (I know more characters will be introduced soon, but the guy’s name is a pun on the series’ title, so it’s clear he’ll be the focal point.) Layouts like these also feel uncomfortably vacant, meaning the show has to fight an uphill battle on the visual front. I do want to stress that Ao no Orchestra is better than I expected, though – you may enjoy it more than I did.
Potential: 30%

Summoned to Another World for a Second Time

Short Synopsis: Isekai 2: Electric Boogaloo in Another World (Again).

Lenlo: I’m tired of impressions by this point, so let me just be upfront: This is taking the idea of someone being isekai’d, bringing their whole class with them, and turning them into the most popular and powerful person around. Except this time instead of just having one harem of anime women, now they have two to pull from! I’ll be honest, if this was trying to riff on the idea of Isekai akin to Isekai Ojisan, I might be able to have some fun with it. But I sort of just tuned out the moment the lead slapped a strong female character on the ass and turned her into a domesticated seat. Yeah, no thanks.
Potential: -100%

Amun: Ah you know, what’s a little masochism among old party-mates? Okay, in all fairness, that was a pretty strange (and a bit off-color) twist. However, I didn’t completely hate the rest of the premise – it feels like the isekai genre is trying to evolve, and these various mutations are the means to do it. Summoned a second time? That’s at least something slightly original, so props for that. Now, the implementation from the mediocre animation to the use of a hero as a chair leaves something to be desired, but I think there’s at least a glimmer of hope for an enjoyable show here (the use of magic for the promised haircut was a nice touch too). Now, mind you, it’s only a glimmer – more than likely this devolves into a power fantasy harem, but let me hope here. At least one isekai will exceed expectations this season, right?!
Potential: 15%

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 2

Short Synopsis: Wearing bear related attire gives an adventurer super powers, and there are lots of cute girls.

Amun: This show is a bit of a meme, but it’s a cute meme. Yes, it’s just cute girls doing cute things in a world seemingly devoid of men, but come on – who doesn’t love bear pancakes? There really isn’t too much to think about here, but it is interesting to see our loveable adventure bear getting pulled more into the world’s politics. Also, who knew that a bear’s weakness was fighting other bears? That’ll be interesting to see if Yuna ever has to face off against her own kind – fortunately, that wasn’t this episode. If you didn’t watch the first season, this probably isn’t for you, but if you don’t mind some nauseating cuteness and the bear motifs everywhere – Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 2 is your ticket. I’ll be watching it, but I will certainly forgive anyone who doesn’t want to come along for the ride.
Potential: 60%

Insomniacs after school

Short Synopsis: Two sleepless kids meet at their school’s astronomy observatory.

Lenlo: Insomniacs… Wasn’t bad. Maybe it’s because insomnia is a bitch, and I myself find it difficult to sleep at night. I can connect with that. Two people bonding over it in their little clubhouse for day-time naps is kind of cute. And the show looks fine! The character designs remind me of I Am A Hero, a manga I’ve long enjoyed. Just enough realism to their proportions and structure to feel nice without being prohibitively hard to animate. For all intents and purposes, Insomniacs seems like a solid enough highschool romance. The real question is just if that’s enough. Will it be able to remain interesting during its run, will it hold my interest? Or will I check out by episode 3 because it’s just another highschool rom-dram? Only time will tell, but it’s enough to make me give it a shot. I have a bit of hope though, because the second half as they wandered around during the night was much better than the first half.
Potential: 40%

Mario: It’s interesting to see the differences in approach between this show and last year’s “Call of the Night”. While the vampire show provokes such a distinct feeling of roaming the street at night, “Insomniacs” doesn’t go to night time until the last 5 minutes. Its focus is entirely different, about two sharing the same secrets, that of they both can’t sleep at night, and that they find a place completely their own. At its best moments, “Insomniacs” successfully sells their unusual bond where they can sleep soundly together. But at worst, the show still has its romance / coming-to-age trappings that make it feels more familiar with other romance anime. In fact, “Insomniacs” reminds me more of “Let Me Eat Your Pancreas”, a film with a similar lead girl – hyperactive but sickly girl and a premise of them spending time together “as friends”. Overall, the episode is functional, the show provides good reasons for these two to know and spend more time with each other, but it doesn’t have the nuance that I found in better romance shows like say Skip and Loafer.
Potential: 50%

Magical Destroyers

Short Synopsis: Japan cracks down on Otaku-ism and carts them off to otaku camps. A resistance forms and is…surprisingly successful?

Amun: “Magical Destroyers” is one of the few original works this season, so not much was known about it coming into the premiere. What we’ve got is a “specialized dystopia” (a la Shimoneta or to a lesser extent Kill La Kill) where being a rabid fan of anything is punishable by incarceration. Seems pretty extreme to me, but Japan historically has not been known for public policy moderation. I just wasn’t enchanted so far – the main character designs felt more appropriate for supporting cast, and the enemies feel downright lazy. I do think some of the little jokes are pretty good, like the magical girl transformation where she has to change her shirt manually. This is pretty clearly going to be a love-letter to otaku culture, but I don’t think that’s really enough to carry a full season. We’ll see, but so far, I’m not just not feeling it (although that ED was quite a trip).
Potential: 5%

Mario: There’s just something missing in this premiere that doesn’t click with me. The episode provides a neat backstory of a “post-apocalyptic” world (not really!! But it feels like that to these otaku) where the world is against the otaku population. It also has a vibrant style and a clear love for the culture, which will obviously appeal to some fans out there. However, Magical Destroyers does a very poor job of establishing its characters and their abilities, so there’s a huge gap in-between “2008” and the present-day that I cannot cross. Take Otaku Hero, our… ahem… hero, for instance. He says that he’s tired of the ongoing wars and he wants to quit. Fair enough, except that we haven’t seen one goddamn thing he achieved beforehand. Every member in the resistance keeps saying that “we are totally dependent on him for everything” – but what is “everything”? I don’t see any of that here. The show then attempts to give us some brief slideshow-type flashbacks on how Otaku Hero enjoys fighting with everyone, but for me they function like implant memories because he did next to nothing up to that point from my perspective. Furthermore, we have Anarchy, a magical girl who… doesn’t transform for unknown reasons, and then she has these overpowering skills out of nowhere. I mean, if they stick with real life (2008’s flashback is the world we lived in), then adding anime-power just doesn’t gel at all.
Potential: 0%

EDENS ZERO 2nd Season

Short Synopsis: Guy who was raised by robots and a wannabe influencer with a robot cat are trying to find the celestial being at the center of the universe for fun or something.

Amun: One of my (few) complaints about Edens Zero is the weird non-linear temporal narration. We see it again here in the opening episode, and honestly, it’s just confusing. With Weis’ older/younger self situation, there are way more elements of time travel in this show than there’s any reason to be. Aside from that small complaint, Edens Zero is back to where we left off – the team is off to fight Draken Joe and looking space sexy doing it. It’s pretty straightforward what this season’s conflict will be, and that’s perfectly fine. As long as Edens Zero can avoid wandering into weird future/past paradoxes, I think we’ll be in for another fun ride!
Potential: 80%

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%

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Season 2

Short Synopsis: Season 2 of Gundam Mercury, now with 100% more war crimes.

Lenlo: I will admit, I was a little bit miffed that Gundam Mercury returned to the status quo at the school so quickly after the end of the previous season. I was hoping for a bit more time to deal with the fallout of the attack, Suletta committing war crimes and Miorine generally freaking out. But it looks like Gundam Mercury wants to slow-roll us on that by spreading it out across the season and taking us back to the innocence of school, letting reality slowly bleed into it once more. Will that work? Probably, it worked last season and all Gundam Mercury needs to do is stay the course. But there is a chance it gets lost in this school setting and flubs it all away. After all, Guel is still expelled and we have a war brewing. So long as it doesn’t completely turn its back on the more serious war drama happening in the background though, I expect to enjoy this season a lot. Plus it still looks good, and that ED, man, hair-down Suletta looks great.
Potential: 80%

Edomae Elf

Short Synopsis: Shrine deity is a reverse isekai’d elf…who is an otaku shut-in (and weirdly sensitive about her ears).

Wooper: The best part of this episode was the product placement for Red Bull, the brazenness of which had me laughing as though it were a legitimate meta joke. Elda, the elf from the title, is a game-obsessed otaku, so her Red Bull addiction sort of makes sense – as does her NEET lifestyle, which is a major point of contention between Elda and her shrine maiden Koito. Their odd couple energy wouldn’t be capable of carrying the show by itself, but Koito has a life of her own, attending high school and socializing with the townspeople who live close by the shrine. Her sister and her best friend have already made appearances, her grandfather (the attendant before her) has been mentioned, and Elda’s left field connection to Tokugawa Ieyasu could produce a humorous flashback or two in the future, so the show isn’t limited to making jokes about whatever nerdy fixation Elda is saddled with each week. Now if only the visuals didn’t have such a manufactured look to them – all the streets and buildings in the series’ shopping district feel as though they were arranged by last-gen AI with a penchant for clutter, and virtually none of the furniture on screen appears to have been drawn by the background artists. More and more art directors settle for this plasticky look every year, but it’s especially ill-suited for a series that draws on Shinto aesthetics, even if they’re mostly in the background.
Potential: 30%

Amun: Hey, this was a good premiere for one of the flimsier premises of the season. Main leads are solid, the setting is nice, and what I thought would be a longer mystery was resolved in the first episode. Behind the silliness is a pretty interesting foundation: the one girl in the town who isn’t under the elf deity’s spell is her main attendant. Now that’s something I want to see explored a bit more. Can this fizzle out like last season’s “Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten”? No doubt – we’ve seen it a thousand times. But this was a good start, and I liked it. I’ll have more of this, please.
Potential: 60%

The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses

Short Synopsis: A guy plans to sell an old cafe he inherited from his deceased grandma, only to find out there are five girls who live in it.

Lenlo: Is… Is this just Love Hina for a 2023 audience? Because that’s what this feels like. A more explicit, slightly better produced version of Love Hina. If that’s what you’re into, if you literally just want ecchi bait ass and titty, then Cafe Terrace is probably going to be right up your alley. Personally I’d suggest you just go read/watch some porn, you might actually get off from that. But if you really want to just be edged for 24 minutes with 0 actually engaging story and 0 nipple, then Cafe Terrace will give you exactly that. Personally though? I’m pretty content with the amount of nippleless breasts in my life. I don’t need much more.
Potential: 0.001%

Mario: Boy, talking about starting off on the wrong foot. The main guy walks into the house and finds five girls naked for no good reason. To make it worse, these girls (also known as the Goddesses) are like an inferior non-sibling version of the Quintuplets, and throughout this episode they only have one mission in mind: to seduce this guy into agreeing for them to stay. Yes, the show is self-aware enough to know that these efforts are ingenuine, but when one of the girls got her housemate drunk to send her to his room, I dropped the last bit of my interest in investing in them. The creator Seo Kouji is known for his infamously sappy harem romances such as Suzuka, A Town Where You Live, and Fuuka, so this new one is within his comfort zone and unlikely to improve. If you are a fan of the aforementioned titles, by all means watch this one. I’m once again jumping off this train before it goes off the rails.
Potential: 0%

TOO CUTE CRISIS

Short Synopsis: Upon visiting Earth, an alien inspector is stunned to discover how cute cats and dogs can be.

Wooper: Kawaisugi Crisis is just about the simplest anime I’ve ever seen. The first minute or two, which showcased its conceit of an alien who must decide whether to vaporize all life on Earth, tricked me into thinking that the show would make use of that idea going forward. Instead, the alien (Liza) visits a cat cafe and becomes so enthralled with the kitties that the chance of anything getting atomized is reduced to zero – she may as well be an interstellar tourist for all the relevance her background has to the story. Sorry, did I say story? What I meant was “pattern of cute animals prompting exaggerated displays of emotion,” which is all that this episode boiled down to. Future installments will introduce new animals, and more of Liza’s shipmates will likely get beamed down to Earth to experience the cuteness for themselves, but this show isn’t built for anything beyond that. The ED even throws in the towel and features a slideshow of real life animals, just to be as transparent as possible. This should have been a series of five minute shorts, not a full length anime.
Potential: 5%

Lenlo: Ok so this show is just… An alien discovers cats? Is that the level we’ve stooped to? Just throwing cute girls in shows about cats? Except the girl isn’t even cute because the show doesn’t have the production ability to draw anything cute at all, despite it being in the show’s very name? Yeah no thanks. We’ve reached the point in impressions where I’m tired and have nothing funny to write. The show doesn’t deserve to be a show, like Wooper says.
Potential: 0%

The Legendary Hero is Dead!

Short Synopsis: Idiot farmer tries to lure a monster to a spike fall and instead kills the hero.

Amun: Hmmmm. This is a tricky one for me. The humor didn’t land at all for me (Is anyone else randomly reminded of Blood Lad for some reason?). The characters, especially the main girl, are not great. But I think this premise has a ton of potential, and I tend to like this general story style. It’s just…the radish fetish is where I start to check out. I guess it comes down to animation, and I really don’t think there’s enough horsepower there to make this worth watching. Pity, I was hopeful for this too.
Potential: 10%

Lenlo: Ok I’ll give Hero is Dead one thing, it has an absolutely fire OP. That, plus the premise of the great hero being dead, had my interest for a bit. Then the OP went into a montage about putting thigh-highs on girls and had the MC practice on a radish. Imagine with me, for a moment, an Isekai that attempted an actually serious story without any of these ecchi jokes and perverted characters. One that killed off the Hero and then forced some random shmuck to do the job instead, all the while carrying said hero’s corpse along for the ride. There could be some good stuff! Some good crisis of identity and shit! Instead I get thigh jokes, scantily clad women and a harem but 12 minutes in. Maybe… Maybe I don’t actually like anime anymore.
Potential: 0%

MASHLE: MAGIC AND MUSCLES

Short Synopsis: It’s LITERALLY One Punch Man x Harry Potter.

Lenlo: Welcome to Mashle everyone, a Harry Potter x One Punch Man fanfic. What does that mean? It’s a comedy about an overpowered muscle bro in a school of wizards. Is it funny? Sometimes. Some of its jokes are actually pretty good! Stuff like Mash fixing coins with his hands, or the reactions of animals are kind of amusing. And these stick around for a while until Mashle gets a bit too serious. Other jokes though… Stuff like Mash being to stupid to remember which way to open a door, or his obsession with cream puffs… These are the lowest common denominator jokes that just don’t work. And it’s those, combined with the mediocre dramatized story that eventually comes, where Mashle falls short. Oh and I guess the production is fine too. Nothing terribly impressive, but it’s certainly not a detriment to the show either.
Potential: 20%

Amun: Lenlo’s being a little harsh here – I had a pretty good time. Alright, forgetting how the door on your house works is pretty dumb (“haha, musclehead dumb, amirite”). That’s pretty lazy writing, but the rest of the episode was decent. I don’t think we’ve seen the real meat of the show yet, but I think there are good pieces to work with here! Animation was good, the doting father was fine, and the main stage was set. Basically, Mashle boils down to “can a genius in an underestimated area overcome the world’s common sense?” That’s a good premise, and door jokes aside, I think Mashle did a good enough job showing the potential for me to watch some more.
Potential: 50%

Dr. STONE New World

Short Synopsis: The Kingdom of Science is off to find the source of petrification with plenty of SCIENCE!

Lenlo: It’s baaaaack! God I love Dr. STONE. In one episode it managed to recap how we got here, establish Ryusui’s character for those who hadn’t seen the OVA, show him the hardships of this world and what they are really working towards, and scatter a few absolutely beautiful “Humanity Fuck Yeah” science moments around to boot. Whether it be seashells and wheat, the limitations of fishing as a food source, or just breathtaking views from a hot air balloon. Is it the most beautiful show of the season? No, production was never Dr. STONE’s strong suit. But it’s definitely the most battle tested, consistent show of the season for me. It’s all one giant science-based super-powered game of Civilization and I love it. Dr. STONE would have to screw up really hard for me to not enjoy this season.
Potential: 95%

Amun: Okay, full disclaimer, I haven’t watched this entire episode, because I didn’t realize there was a 1hr special that introduces what seems to be a major character for the season. However, it also didn’t seem like the technological plot had advanced much since the last season, so I’m a bit confused? At any rate, it seems like we’re taking our motley science crew to a new world (hence the name) and meeting other descendants. Will we get closer to the mystery of petrification? No idea. Will we have a ton of random science gadgets along the way? You better believe it. Dr. Stone is beyond far-fetched, but it’s still great fun, and I’ll hopefully be enjoying it all season long. Just have to find that OVA first.
Potential: 90%

KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World

Short Synopsis: The unfortunate son of a cult leader dies and is reborn in a village populated by future human sacrifices.

Wooper: A lot of anime in this subgenre have no reason to exist, but KamiKatsu’s anime adaptation is a notch above “absolutely pointless.” For one thing, its emphasis on comedy breaks up the sea of RPG simulators and revenge fantasies you tend to get from these sorts of shows. The way that the protagonist dies is meant to be funny: his cult leader dad traps him in a barrel and throws him into the sea, all so he can prove himself worthy of becoming the new leader. The way he regains consciousness is meant to be funny: the female lead gives him an unwitting handjob as a means of (a)rousing him, then he meets several of the townspeople in a clear parody of visual novel intro sequences. The show’s presentation is meant to be funny: exaggerated reaction shots and cuts to pixelated sprites prove that the reincarnated hero’s life is more than just leveling up and acquiring harem-ettes. Of course, just because an anime is “meant to be funny” doesn’t mean it’s going to land with every single viewer. Case in point: I found this episode to be intolerably stupid, and that was before it dove into the plot about human sacrifices or introduced the naked loli goddess character. KamiKatsu may have a reason to exist, but after those last two reveals, I’ve got no reason to watch it.
Potential: 0%

Amun: Oof, that CGI monster was not good. The adaptation of the first part of the manga was done…not great. I was hoping that the anime would provide a bit of stability to the rather loose plot control, but that’s not the case. One of the complaints I had with the manga was the breakneck speed of character introduction, and the anime adaptation of KamiKatsu really hasn’t fixed that or the pacing issues. I can’t fault the director for this, since the source material is all over the place, but I really hate to see the negatives magnified without the positives (the manga’s action looked pretty decent). The plot’s stability just goes downhill from here, and I’m just not really excited to see this mess play out in 24 fps. I think there’s a world where this gets an adaptation that elevates it beyond mediocrity, but this incarnation of KamiKatsu is not it. I’m out.
Potential: 0%

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2

Short Synopsis: After nearly getting herself killed last season, Chise decides to… go to school!!

Lenlo: If I’m being honest, I remembered very little of Season 1. I had the basics, I remembered the characters, but a lot of the details eluded me. After watching a recap, and then the episode, I have come to the following conclusion: Why in God’s name are we going to school? Who thought a Harry Potter arc in a fantastical series about magic and learning at the hands of a powerful Fae needed a school? To be fair, Magus’ Bride could make this work. The potential is there with Ainsworth attending so long as it really dials in their otherness in this community. It certainly nailed that feeling of looming dread that I was hoping for from a school that’s predisposed against them. I’m just personally predisposed against school settings in anime at this point. Still, visually it looks nice enough and the music wasn’t bad. I’ll give it a shot and see if it can’t improve upon the previous season.
Potential: 50%

Mario: Like Lenlo, the school setting caught me off-guard. For once, you don’t associate Mahoutsukai no Yome’s fantasy theme with school settings at all, let alone this is in the middle of an on-going story. But this change isn’t an unwelcome one. Chise gives perfect reasons why she wanted to study in the episode. It is not only to advance her own skills, but also to change her mindset permanently: she doesn’t understand why everybody keeps saying she does reckless things, given it’s the only way she knows how. Moreover, this serves as a perfect opportunity for the show to expand its magic roots. The most significant change isn’t in the school settings, however. It’s Elias’s softer treatment of Chise that has others taking notice. I pretty much prefer this new status quo than what we had in the past, and it already looks like Chise will meet all sorts of colorful characters there. It has been awhile but it proves to be worth it.
Potential: 50%

Amun: Random Amun interjection here – I absolutely adored the start of Ancient Magus’ Bride, only to be very disappointed in the second half drop off. Season 2 is looking back on track (for a show so entrenched in Celtic and Anglo mythology, the school setting is on point) – this looks fantastic. 90% potential from me.