Category: Other:

Spring 2024 Impressions: Re:Monster, The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases, Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf

by Lenlo, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Re:Monster

Short Synopsis: Man dies and is isekai’d as a lowly goblin, proceeds to level up Slime Isekai style only worse in every conceivable way.

Lenlo: Look, I get it, you want a “Reincarnated as a monster” Isekai. It’s a slightly interesting twist on the usual OP MC Isekai power fantasy. But just… Go watch Reincarnated as a Slime instead. Seriously, Slime Isekai is better in basically every way. Production, OST, power system, world, civilization-style-advancement, everything. And I don’t mean it’s just a little better. Slime Isekai has Re:Monster beaten by leaps and strides. I swear, after a full episode I don’t even know what the MC’s character is meant to be. He’s just a hyper competent emotionless slab of cardboard. Seriously, don’t bother with this, it’s the most nothingburger Isekai I’ve seen in a long time.
Potential: 0%

The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases

Short Synopsis: Random person is Isekai/Reincarnated as a Duke’s son, sandbags his abilities to get disowned, proceeds to live the life of an explorer building a harem and defeating monsters with his OP abilities.

Lenlo: I swear to god anime can hear what I’m saying and is actively trying to prove me wrong. I started watching this right after I finished watching/writing up Re:Monster above, so these are back to back impressions for me. And boy god have I just hopped from one mediocre, lifeless, creatively bankrupt Isekai to another. At least Re:Monster is trying to follow in a better Isekais footsteps, Banished Former Hero is just a basic ass Isekai in every way that doesn’t even pick a subgenre of Isekai to dive into. The MC is OP from the start, misunderstood by those around him, and instantly pulls three Waifu’s into his harem within 5 minutes of getting kicked out of his home. With Re:Monster I said to just watch Slime Isekai instead. Well with Banished Former Hero, just watch Re:Monster instead, and follow that chain up until you get to something not shit. Dear lord, this season is not looking good. Maybe Spice and Wolf can save me…
Potential: 0%

Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf

Short Synopsis: Remake of Spice and Wolf, Lawrence is a traveling merchant selling various goods from a horse-drawn cart. One day, he arrives at a village and meets a beautiful girl with the ears and tail of an animal! Her name is Holo the Wisewolf and she brings bountiful harvests. She wishes to return to her homeland, and Lawrence offers to take her. Now, the once-lonely merchant and the once-lonely wisewolf begin their journey north.

Lenlo: I can’t quite figure out whether or not I like this Spice and Wolf remake. Visually it’s both better and worse, the modernized character designs losing some of their charm and the colors feeling flatter. At the same time though, it moves way better than the original did, actually feeling animated for most of the episode. Similarly, it feels like it’s suffering from the Brotherhood issue a bit where it tries to blaze through the early story a bit to get to the new shit. It’s of course possible that it’s just a first episode jitters and it will settle down as it goes, that it will figure out its rhythm. That would be nice! Plus I do enjoy hearing Holo’s voice again, I could listen to her whisper to me forever. Anyways to make a long story short, I’m not sold on this Spice and Wolf remake yet but I’m interested enough to keep watching.
Potential: 50%

Spring 2024 Impressions: One Room, Hi Atari Futsuu, Tenshi Tsuki, Gods’ Games We Play, Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku?

by Lenlo, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Welcome all, to the start of the Spring Season! And would you look at that, we have Wooper back to suffer with me help me report on all of these shows! Such a great guy. Gonna get these out as fast as we can for you. We are skipping some, whether they be sequels to shows neither of us have watched or so creatively bankrupt we don’t even need to watch them to know. For the most part though, we’re going to hit all the big ones, so look forward to it. Now lets dive in!

One Room, Hi Atari Futsuu, Tenshi Tsuki.

Short Synopsis: A highschooler living alone wakes up one day to find a hot angel girl on his balcony. What else is he to do but have her move in and get plenty of panty shots?

Lenlo: I dunno, One Room seems cute enough? It’s a pretty standard ecchi-romance built off of an absurd premise that takes every chance it has to either sexualize the lead girl or drop some ecchi jokes like with the magazines. There’s nothing particularly interesting or unique about the series. Could you find some value in it? Sure, probably. Maybe. It’s not terribly produced, and the girl is cute enough, so if all you want is an ecchi rom-com for the season this will probably do you fine. For me though? An easy pass. There’s no substance to One Room. If I wanted ecchi, I’d just go watch porn. Or better yet, use AI and make whatever I wanted that day. Suffice to say, I won’t be watching this.
Potential: 1%

Gods’ Games We Play

Short Synopsis: A goddess recruits a promising rookie gamer to aid her in returning to the immortal realm by clearing 10 straight challenges from the gods.

Wooper: It’s been a while since I’ve participated in a round of Star Crossed first impressions, and shows like Gods’ Games We Play are a big reason why; there are simply too many premieres each season that suck major ass. But I made my bed by offering to pop in for a couple weeks, and now I have to lie in it, starting with this game-themed light novel adaptation that’s heavy on exposition and light on everything else. Gods’ Games is set in an alternate universe where virtually all of humanity is fixated on clearing challenges issued by the gods in the hopes that their wishes will be granted. We’re given glimpses of contestants fleeing alien creatures down tiled runways and being whipped by giant salamanders’ flaming tails, but they merely burst into holographic triangles when they “die.” There’s no risk of such a mild fate befalling our protagonist, of course, because he’s such a famous God Gamer that he has to wear glasses in public to prevent people from recognizing him. He’s swiftly tasked with watching over a goddess (who bears a striking resemblance to his childhood gaming mentor), and they play the world’s most needlessly complicated memory game as an icebreaker. Meanwhile, the show drops something like eight poorly phrased rules about the godly challenges they’ll soon take on, killing any excitement about the competition before it can even begin. After slogging through this premiere, the only game I want to play is one that carries the risk of blindness, so that if I lose, I never have to watch a turd like this again.
Potential: 0%

Lenlo: As always, I greatly appreciate Wooper stepping in and returning so I don’t have to watch shit like this alone. At least with him on board I have someone else to bitch too about it. Plus, he actually writes justifications and long-winded reasonings for why something sucks, freeing me up to be an asshole and make vapid jokes about how lifeless, uninspired and poorly produced the series is. Seriously, does this show even have an AD? I swear to god the characters look different in every scene, and the colors look washed out and dull. Anyways, suffice to say that Gods’ Games is the first completely unoriginal washout of the Spring season. Thanks Wooper, you chose a fun one to return on.
Potential: 0%

Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku?

Short Synopsis: The invention of 7G cellular service shatters reality as we know it and plunges the world into a dystopian future. Will 4 girls be able to traverse this weird and possibly dangerous land inside an old train to find their friend?

Lenlo: Train Girls is… weird? I don’t actually know, or understand, what is happening in this show? And if I’m being honest, I’m not sure Train Girls knows either. On its surface Train Girls seems like a basic Cute Girls Doing Cute Things kind of show, though definitely on the weirder end of them. It’s rather light hearted, colorful, the girls are color coded for your convenience, and the whole premise is built to remove adults from the equation by turning everyone over the age of 21 into animals. At the same time though… There are moments where it gets creepy. Where a bear tries to seriously eat a little girl, played straight, or shots of bloody handprints peppering a dented and beaten armored truck, or the sight of all the different planets in the sky against a blood red backdrop. I could easily see Train Girls turning into another Gakkougurashi. Or, barring that, an advertisement for trains. If nothing else though, it’s clear it isn’t just your bog standard CGDCT anime, though that will definitely have its place. I’m not convinced it’s worth watching in full yet, but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it and may pick it up depending on what people say after it gets a few episodes in. Oh, and it also happens to be the best looking thing I’ve seen this season so far. Not that that’s saying much.
Potential: 40%

Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 12

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Weekly Summary

Dungeon Meshi – 13 [Red Dragon III/Good Medicine]

What is this, 3 weeks in a row? Dungeon Meshi has been killing it lately, and this episode is no exception. The first half was unexpectedly terrifying, “introducing” our new big bad and final goal, the Mad Magician who created the dungeon. This was a really cool twist, and something I think Dungeon Meshi setup well. Everything from the ghosts to the painting to the structure of the dungeon/castle itself feels obvious looking back, but it’s only with the Mad Mage’s arrival that I finally put together that this is the same castle. That some tragedy occurred and, in attempting to divert or undo it, the Mad Mage created this dungeon. Every ghost is a citizen of the kingdom, every monster or trap something created to keep out looters and ne’er-do-well’s. And should one of his bigger pets, like the dragon, get slain? Well he shows up to deal with the problem himself and set things back until he figures out how to save his king. Great stuff, really horrifying imagery, absolutely love all of that. As for the second half, it’s all about our team recovering and realizing they are in way over their head. Chilchuck’s inner conflict of not wanting to see his friends die, but expressing it as his own cowardice, and subsequent conversation with the white orc was really good. Also the white orcs design is great for a one-off, really hope we see more of her in the future. Anyways, it’s a nice way to reset, get them out of the dungeon, gather more allies, and dive back in for another run. All good shit. My only complaint is that Falin’s “kidnapping” feels like a “Your princess is in another castle” situation. Yeah, her getting resurrected alongside the dragon in the same body or whatever is cool, good use of resources/magic. But we literally just got/saved her, can we not spend some time with her before she disappears as a character again? Aside from that disappointment, I thought it was a fantastic episode. Really excited for the second cour.

Continue reading “Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 12” →

Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 11

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Weekly Summary

Hey all! Apologies for the delay on this. Can’t lie, I’ve been caught up playing Dragon’s Dogma 2 plus some grad school work. Hopefully things will relax around May, cause dear god am I busy haha. Anyways, here’s this weeks episodes!

Dungeon Meshi – 12 [Red Dragon II]

First up this week is, once again, Dungeon Meshi. While not as bombastic and action packed as last week, this was still a very emotional and well paced episode. The early tension around resurrecting Falin and Marcille’s “dark” magic, all the preparation putting together bones to make a skeleton, and then the climax of the ritual itself. It was all really good, a nice and satisfying way to wrap up the arc. Dungeon Meshi was even considerate enough to use the second half too cool us down. It spent a lot of time on their reunion and individual relationships with Falin. We got to see once again how protective Laios is of her, how similar the two are in their adventurous spirit and test for food and, most important, the one true OTP of Dungeon Meshi: Farcille! Their scenes were really cute, especially them cuddling in the bed and just talking. The bath stuff could have been a bit much, but Dungeon Meshi didn’t go overboard or do anything to fetishize it, they took a bath together nothing more, so I think it worked. As for what’s next? Well we’ve gotten some setup for Falin being empowered because she was resurrected using dragon flesh, as well as the crazy dark skinned elf from the paintings apparently following, and finally finding, them. Don’t know where those will go, but Dungeon Meshi has earned my trust by this point, I’m excited and looking forward to it. Just give me more Farcille and I’ll be happy, seriously.

Continue reading “Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 11” →

Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 10

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Thanks for the well wishes after last weeks post everyone. Can’t say things are great, in fact I’d say they are falling apart, but this is a nice bit of consistency in the storm.

Dungeon Meshi – 11 [Red Dragon I]

If you’ve seen the episode then it should come as no surprise that Dungeon Meshi is #1 this week. It took everything I love about the show, the detailed world building and ecology, the animation and expressiveness of the characters, even the uncommon bouts of serious drama, and dialed them up to 11. The detail? We got to watch the party skin and butcher a dragon piece of piece, walking us through its digestive cycle and how it breathes fire. The animation and expressiveness? This is the best Dungeon Meshi has looked since Episode 3, everything just moves beautifully. From their expressions even to how it was shot. Just look at any of Senshi or Laios’s scenes across the entire episode and you’ll know what I mean, an absolute powerhouse of dynamic movement and camera work. And the drama? God the second half it… It got me. The building desperation to find even a shred of Falin’s corpse, the flashback to when they were children, and especially the reveal with the skull. Something about it just… It worked, and was simultaneously incredibly dark and yet hopeful, because now they can maybe pay to resurrect her. So as far as climaxes go? This is going to be hard to top, because that was an absolutely stunning episode. Continue reading “Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 10” →

Guest Post: Unearthed Treasure with Firechick – The Yuzuki Family’s Four Sons (80/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews

Alright, let’s get the elephant out of the room, the only reason anyone even heard of The Yuzuki Family’s Four Sons is because of the fact that for some reason, when the first episode went up on Crunchyroll, it was saddled with the most absolutely abysmal English subtitles. No, I’m not kidding. The subtitles were not only extremely literal, with zero syntaxes, punctuations, and sentence structure, there are times when sentences are repeated for no reason, and they even went as far as to straight up translate some characters’ names. It was especially bad because other streaming sites in other regions had their own English subtitles for it, but they were nowhere near as bad as the ones Crunchyroll got. Luckily, the ensuing backlash convinced Crunchyroll to reach out to the original licensor to give it a newer, better translation, and the subtitles have since been updated. It is a shame this is how people had to get introduced to the series, because The Yuzuki Family’s Four Sons is honestly a very sweet, heartwarming, low-key drama that deserves more appreciation than it gets.

Continue reading “Guest Post: Unearthed Treasure with Firechick – The Yuzuki Family’s Four Sons (80/100)” →

Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 9

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Hey all, wanted to let you know real quick here at the top that posts this next week may be late or skipped entirely. Had a death in the family on Friday and it’s been a busy weekend. I need to fly home for a funeral and such. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine, just wanted to give you all a heads up. Now on with the post!

Frieren – 26 [The Height of Magic]

Funnily enough, the most enjoyable part of Frieren this week had absolutely nothing to do with Frieren. Don’t get me wrong, the fight with the clone was cool enough, but it felt very… Flashy for flashiness sake, if that makes sense? What I mean is, compare it to the demon fight back in the mid-season climax. While both are very well animated, the demon fight felt smooth and purposeful, Fern was showing off, you could still make out and understand what was happening. Meanwhile this battle, aside from the very end with Frieren’s mention of “I haven’t had to use that in 80 years”, felt like it relied way more on effects work and bright lights and so just wasn’t as interesting. Still fun and flashy, but not the highlight of the episode for me. So what does that honor belong? Ubel. Something about her flashback, the conflict with Sense’s clone, this addendum to the “Magic is about imagination and visualization” rule showing us just how powerful a sociopath can be. Cause when you think about it, it makes sense. Cloth? Hair? People? Those can be cut, duh. Magic barriers? Well that’s magic, can’t cut that. But a dude in a cape? Sure why not. It definitely runs on some “Rule of cool” logic, Frieren is without a doubt a soft magic system on the Sanderson scale. But it’s presented in a cool manner, and Ubel is this great mix of “Don’t cut me” scary and “Step on me” hot. Still, even with that critique I want to make this very clear: Frieren was fun and definitely the highlight of the week. Just because it wasn’t as good as one of its best episodes doesn’t mean it was bad. Overall, I’d call this 2nd test a success.

Continue reading “Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 9” →

Spring 2024 Season Preview

by Lenlo, posted in Seasonal Previews

Lenlo: Welcome all, to the early days of the Spring season! Boy time sure does fly. And I still haven’t caught up on a lot of my projects. Jesus christ adulting is hard… Let this be proof I haven’t forgotten about them though! Anyways, we have a lot of shows to talk about, most of them looking terrible… So I’m going to skip them and only talk about things that caught my eye! That of course means some things won’t be on this list, from sequels I either haven’t seen the previous season for, like Yuru Camp S3 and Reincarnated as a Slime S3, to ones I actively don’t care about and think are bad, like Mushoku Tensei S2 Part 2 and The Irregular at Magic Highschool S3. There’s also some premiers that don’t get mentioned simply because they don’t look interesting, like The Fable. If something you’re curious about isn’t discussed, post about it in the comments! Tell me why you’re looking forward to it! I’ll keep it in mind when the season starts and I’m watching all the pilots. Until then though? You’ll have to settle for my taste and the shows I think have promise. Now without further ado, lets dive into them!

What will you be watching this spring?
VoteResults

Continue reading “Spring 2024 Season Preview” →

Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 8

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Undead Unluck – 21 [Memento Mori]

It’s simultaneously fantastic and depressing just how good Undead Unluck is when it’s not poorly paced. Seriously, this episode was brilliant. Spending 20 minutes with a young Andy who doesn’t know about his powers? Watching him go from this dour person unable to find joy in life to one strong enough to face tomorrow? That one Fuko line about how learning about Andy meant learning about the numerous farewells, something obvious in hindsight since he’s functionally immortal? I loved all of it. Honestly, between this, Frieren, and the Wolverine comics I’m reading right now, the “Immortal finds purpose through the transient lives of others” trope might be one of my favorites. It’s ripe with potential, and each of them is hitting it in a different way. I also loved that we saw the beginnings of what has been holding Andy back power-wise. How he views death as “The brain stops functioning”, which inherently limits his “Undeath” to negating just that. But if he broadens his mind a bit, views death like Fuko does, as “When you’re forgotten”… What will that do to his negation ability? What will that do to his personality? Only time will tell. And then Undead Unluck just has to cap it off with a beautiful confession scene, tying a nice little bow on one of the best episodes we’ve gotten in weeks.

Continue reading “Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 8” →

Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 7

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Hey all! Real quick, I am aware that I am ludicrously late on both the 2023 Anime of the Year awards and the preview for the next season and some reviews. Don’t worry, I’m workin on them. I have just been… So ludicrously busy outside of the blog and it’s taking everything I have just to maintain what we have now. Hopefully things will calm down soon, but know that I haven’t forgotten about them, or you. Thanks! Now lets check out this week.

Dungeon Meshi- 8 [Raspberries/Grilled Meat]

Another absolutely great episode of Dungeon Meshi this week. Split down the middle between Marcille’s first meeting and budding friendship with Falin and a fight with an Undine, it had a perfect mix of emotional development and action for me. The flashback was great because, so far, Falin hasn’t really been a character. She’s someone we hear about through other peoples stories. And while this is no different, this one is more of a regular day-to-day for her. We get to see how she’s different from the other students, how she focuses more on life experiences and what she learns in the natural world than books. It’s that difference that makes her more specialized, but far more skilled at what she’s passionate about than Marcille’s broader skillset. It’s also just a really cute scene of the beginning of their friendship, and the detail that goes into the environment and ecosystem of this cave is simply brilliant. As for the second half, this looked fantastic. Incredibly expressive, Marcille getting her own 1v1 fight was cool too, from a visual standpoint I loved everything about it. Dungeon Meshi even managed to fit in food in an episode where they didn’t kill anything, cooking meat to help Marcille recover some blood. Just good shit all around, I continue to enjoy Dungeon Meshi a lot.

Continue reading “Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 7” →