Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Shinmai Renkinjutsushi no Tenpo Keiei

Short Synopsis: An orphan girl graduates from an alchemists’ academy and prepares to open her own business.

Amun: I mean…yeah. I like the Working!! knock-offs, especially with the mix-in of fantastic and alchemy, but there just isn’t that much to say here. Like, our protag is uninteresting in HER OWN SHOW. That’s a very bad sign – at least make her magnetic to other in-world characters. I feel for her tough upbringing and determination and all…but these kinds of people don’t make interesting stories in reality, let alone in an oversaturated genre. There are nice touches here and there (and the most interesting character is clearly the dashing master). It’s just there’s not that much to write home about here, except that a girl with fanatical effort managed to attract a high level teacher whose strict training made her meet expectations. Then that master sent her off to the countryside to learn something other than books. Yeah, seems super boring on paper…but I’ll probably watch at least half of it – it’s at least cute and calming.
Potential: 25%

Wooper: Why do so many fantasy anime feature schools as the jumping-off points for their main characters? Sure, it’s a familiar concept for teenage audiences (especially in academics-obsessed Japan), but if your work is set in a universe separate from ours, you can go about building it any way you want. Knowledge can be shared within families, passed down from masters to apprentices, or acquired through self-study or trial and error. You can even write stories that don’t require your protagonist to have encyclopedic levels of information rattling around in their heads! That concept is lost on Shinmai Renkinjutsushi, which thought it important to demonstrate its hero Sarasa’s vast alchemical knowledge in this premiere. I don’t know about you all, but I was so proud to see how quickly she recognized cepharantha bulbs, perenalcone sap, filipendula, dryas, woostail, lyratam fruit, apifilliam roots, and armelina fruits during her practical exam. But seriously, this episode was unappealing and tiresome, despite featuring a few cute visual gags (Sarasa’s nose swelling with pride, then snapping off and falling out of frame, for example). It’s yet another medicine-adjacent fantasy show, the bar for which has gotten so low that “there’s no reincarnation element” is supposed to be a selling point. This is an anime for people who are frightened by unpredictability.
Potential: 0%

Futoku no Guild

Short Synopsis: A monster hunter saves several girls from being assaulted by fantasy creatures (but not before the camera captures them at the most exploitative angles possible).

Amun: Oh, I didn’t actually know what this was about. There is legit nothing good here – it’s a playthrough of a Ero RPG. Like, you could go watch one of those Twitch plays (well, I guess not Twitch) of something and it would be more interesting. I regret everything.
Potential: Nah

Lenlo: Aaaaaass and titties, ass ass and titties, aaaass and titties. That’s right, this is your seasonal uncensored, explicit, it might as well be outright porn, ecchi of the season. Is there anything of value or substance here? Does anyone have any personality besides their breast size and fetish category? The answer to those, and similar questions, is no. Like I’m not going to sugar coat it, this show is the seasonal incel wish fulfillment where the MC is a perfect blank slate and the girls exist purely to be sex objects. Even Shield Hero tried harder than this to hide its incel wish fulfillment. I can’t even recommend this show on the basis of just enjoying porn, because at that point you are better off looking up actual porn.
Potential: ⊙⊙/100

Akiba Maid Sensou

Short Synopsis: Two new hires at a maid cafe are tasked with delivering a message to a rival business, but one of them is far more equipped for the job than the other.

Wooper: There’s more to Akiba Maid Sensou than meets the eye, thanks to a theatrical final scene that’s likely to generate a lot of buzz in the coming days (or perhaps it already did, depending on when this post gets published). I’ll refrain from spoiling precisely what occurs in those last few minutes, even though most viewers will be able to sense where the story is headed after the opening flashback, which depicts a maid-on-maid assassination 14 years before the main plot begins. That final sequence is so wild that it will naturally dominate all discussion of this episode, but having seen it, I’m no more likely to watch this show next week than I was before. In fact, the odds of me coming back are lower now than if Akiba Maid had been a dark comedy about a starry-eyed employee getting their soul crushed by a minimum wage job. The show leans in that direction once or twice, but it’s all couched in the knowledge that the girls’ job isn’t what it seems, which detracts from what could have been a decent satirical angle. There is a cute panda at the series’ workplace, though (which is called the Oinky Doink cafe, if you can believe it), so that’s something.
Potential: 5%

Lenlo: You know, I wasn’t sure what to expect going into Akiba Maid Wars. I thought… Are these customer wars? Fighting for market share with silly gimmicks, skimpy outfits and cute girls? And then it opened with a street assassination and I suddenly had no idea what I was in for. Are these actual maid-cafe street gangs? Apparently so cause bitches be dying. To be honest, I had a shocking amount of fun with this. Its stupid, but it feels like Akib knows its stupid. It leaned all in on the Akihabara maid cafe culture with its light-stick weapons and dance routine street fight. As someone who has worked in a maid cafe for 3 years at convention, I appreciated that. I don’t expect Akiba to have much depth to it. It’s going to be weekly maid-themed fight scenes to maid music probably. But that’s more than I expected going into it, and I figure I can have some fun with that. Plus its all about gallows humor, my favorite kind of humor.
Potential: 30%

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury

Short Synopsis: A transfer student from Mercury finds herself engaged after getting mixed up in the mecha duel-based hierarchy at her new school.

Lenlo: So I haven’t watched Gundam in like… 15 years. Not since Gundam Wing was on Toonami over on Cartoon Network. I don’t know what the past 2 decades have done to the series, I don’t know if it’s fallen like the Mecha genre as a whole, I don’t even know what the current lore and story is! But I do know this: I had a good time with Mercury. I’m a little blasé about the school setting, just seems a bit too modern moe anime bullshit for me. But everything else was just… Good. The gundams look and move well, actually getting 2D animation vs the 3D CGI we’ve seen in mecha for years. I absolutely adore the MC, Suletta, with all of her little stutters and ticks, and I’m looking forward to seeing how she grows in confidence via her interactions with Miorine. And on top of both of those, there were some really stunning shots spread throughout the episode that made me more excited for a Mecha series than I have for a long time. I have no idea if Sunrise can keep this up or if it will become a CGI fest down the line. But this first episode surprised me a lot, and I’m here for it.
Potential: 80%

Wooper: After watching the Witch from Mercury prologue episode on Gundam Info, my main reservation had to do with the animation designs for the non-mechanical characters. Their thin, swoopy lineart in particular felt insubstantial to me, creating a fear that the show would hyperfocus on the robots and leave the humans to rot. Now that I’ve seen the first episode proper, that fear has been greatly reduced – the show itself features a much wider range of colors than its prologue, which goes a long way in defining each character. That broad spectrum of color applies to the locations, as well, which stretch from the central school’s sleek facilities to its verdant campus and craggy dueling grounds, most of which look great. The duels themselves look great too, and their function as power-based arbitrations for all student conflicts gives the show a “battle high school” hook without being obnoxious about it. (In fact, its use of robot fights to determine mecha heiress Miorine’s fiance is strongly reminiscent of Revolutionary Girl Utena, whose student characters dueled to claim the hand of the Rose Bride.) It remains to be seen whether head writer Ookouchi can successfully connect that premise to the off-campus politics we glimpsed in this premiere; after a casually-ordered and conveniently-retracted assassination attempt on the school’s principal, we’re not off to a great start. But it’s still early days, and the first episode was certainly entertaining, so I’m in for now.
Potential: 70%

Housing Complex C

Short Synopsis: Strange bad events happen to the small town when a group of foreign workers show up.

Amun: This isn’t my normal genre, so take this with a grain of salt (I also don’t really love dubs). I’ve only done a handful of horror-ish shows (Another, Shiki, and recently the first half Summer Time Render), but from what little I know, Housing Complex C seems to start off well. We have some spooky foreshadowing, a cast of decent (and expendable) characters, plus our main lead who is oblivious and happy. There are some funny jump scares and a creepy basement – what more can you really ask for? Also seems to be a lot of falling, judging from the ED. The framework of the show and the “rules” of the world seem pretty straightforward, so it’ll be interesting to see which side each of the characters are on (I guess it depends on their past life?). Or it would be interesting if I had any intention of watching anything further – however, that’s the genre, not any complaints on quality or execution.
Potential: 0% (but that’s me, not the show)

Mario: There are only two notable things about Housing Complex C you need to know – and none of them have to do with the show’s quality itself. First is that for some odd reasons (most likely because of Adult Swim), it’s in English dub. And second, the character designs are handled by none other than the great Yoshitoshi ABe. Both elements don’t really enhance the viewing: the dubbing is uncanny in a bad way, and ABe’s designs are just so-so. In addition, Housing Complex C aims squarely to horror’s zone, but so far it’s more spooky than outright horror. The tone is over the place as they try to mix the normal, uplift conversations from the town villagers to the uncomfortable feeling of having complete strangers swarm over the town. There’s so much inconsistencies in the characters so far (this by design) that it’s hard to get invested in them: Kimi talks to the “invisible Mom” with an extreme closeup to her face. The big guy is likable but we do get the opening scenes of the citizens trying to kill him off. My guess for now is that it’s the village who holds a dark secret full of rituals and Cthulhu and all that. With only 4 episodes, this should be a quick watch, but then again, I don’t see it appealing to anyone but horror fans who want to enjoy a goofy anime this Halloween.
Potential: 10%

Golden Kamuy S4

Short Synopsis: The gang gets ambushed by a mysterious sniper.

Lenlo: Finally, some good fuckin food. Golden Kamuy has come back just as strong and hilarious as it’s always been. In a single episode it manages to reestablish our lead relationships, introduce 2 separate plot threads, introduce Ogata as a main antagonist without him ever setting foot on screen and give me a hilarious interaction between a mute russian and a guy who mere seconds ago wanted to kill him. Maybe it’s because I’m predisposed to already enjoy the show, but this is easily the most fun I’ve had yet with season premiers. I know some people don’t find the humor up their alley, but at this point they probably tapped out of the series a long time ago. If you are still watching 4 seasons in, then not only do you know what Golden Kamuy has to offer, you bloody enjoy it.
Potential: 90%

Mario: Yeah, that was a great episode. Golden Kamuy has an astonishing ability of placing a humorous scene right in the middle of a climax and still feels like the most natural thing in the world. The credit here should be given to its masterful buildup and then release with a middle finger to your face. In this episode alone it happens not only once but twice, for great effect. In addition, the show introduces some new faces and they are just as interesting as the main cast, as though they were the main characters of their own stories. Can’t wait to see what obstacles Sugimoto and Asirpa are gonna face next.
Potential: 75%

Spy x Family Part 2

Short Synopsis: The second half of Spy x Family Season 1, where a spy, an assassin and a telepath must live together as a family without any of them knowing what the others are.

Lenlo: It’s the second half of Spy x Family, don’t act like you don’t know what this is. Production wise it’s still just as solid as it was before. It’s well directed, well animated, and overall just looks good. I have no idea how that will carry for the rest of the season since Cloverworks is involved, but we can at least assume a good number of good looking episodes. As for the content, this is something that actually surprised me. I didn’t think that Spy x Family would dive back into the plot that quickly, especially not that seriously. At the very least I figured a filler episode, or some kind of fluff piece. Instead we come back to bomb threats, death, and Starlight Anya. It was a shockingly good time! I thought I had grown a bit tired of the show after its first season didn’t really live up to my expectations, but this episode reminded me how good it can be. Hopefully it manages to keep it up!
Potential: 70%

Mario: While watching the first season, I remember feeling odd about the dog plot thread that the show forgot about in the finale. Turns out they saved it for the premiere of the second season and I can certainly say that it’s well worth the wait. Immediately the dog feels like a worthy addition, even though he hasn’t met Loid yet – he’s smart, funny and goofy at the same time – all the qualities the Forger members have. As for the episode, well, I feel that this new return has all the distinctive characteristics that made the first season such a hit: the episode looks polished; all the core characters have their time to shine (my favorite: Yor jumps 2-step into the roof out of panicking); the terrorist plot doesn’t overwhelme the fun of watching these dysfunctional members reacting. I have a lot of fun watching it.
Potential: 75%

Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai! Double

Short Synopsis: Short hair, well endowed underclassman forces her senpai to have fun in college, despite him just wanting to play videogames all the time.

Amun: Woah, pretty rare to see the season’s finale in the opening seconds. Bold move, Uzaki-chan. That bit aside, we have a key improvement here over the previous season: character designs. It’s interesting to see Studio Engis development and growth on their flagship franchise – I hope the upward trajectory continues. The sketches (3 of them this episode) are crisp and self-contained, albeit a bit flimsy in the plot departments (but not the “plots” department, amirite). I wouldn’t expect anything terribly substantial before the final arc, but this show is still amusing enough. I mean, it could be worse.
Potential: 50%

Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou sareta Beast Tamer, Saikyoushu no Nekomimi Shoujo to Deau

Short Synopsis: Nice animal-loving guy gets kicked out of the hero’s party, because they don’t realize he’s carrying all their bags.

Amun: Cool, so we’re now combining two different mediocre genres – adventurers with slaves and monster tamers. I’m a little surprised there isn’t a slime in sight (and this from someone who likes slimes). Nice guys get harems, I guess? I’m pretty sure that isn’t how it works, but I’d have to check with Andrew Tate to be sure (please don’t cancel me, that’s just a joke). You can tell I was very enthralled with the episode – OP catgirls and super species and yeah, other important stuff. I mean, let’s be honest here, ENGI does this every season or so – puts out a B-tier feel-goodish anime to go along with their headliner. It starts off passably, then completely falls apart by the end. I won’t be fooled again! Okay, I might still watch this though, just for kicks – at least until the production inevitably falls apart.
Potential: 15%

Lenlo: And here we have our required seasonal sad-boi fantasy show of the season. Job/Classes with defined party roles and loot? Teammates/characters designed to be nothing more than blanket assholes for an MC pity party? A power that’s initially presented as useless that’s going to become OP by the end? While it may not be an isekai in name, it’s got all the trappings of one. It even has a magical bond that the MC is no doubt going to put on every member of his all female harem of anthropomorphic animal girls by the end. I don’t know when this became the trend, maybe I should blame Shield Hero for this crap, but it’s starting to get annoying. Anyways, the point is that there is nothing in here that you haven’t seen before. Maybe you’ll like the cat girl, or the dragon girl, or whatever, and manage to have a decent popcorn time with it. But I wouldn’t expect anything more than that from what is, for all intents and purposes, seasonal isekai schlock. Only this time without the isekai. So that’s nice. I guess.
Potential: 10%

My Hero Academia S6

Short Synopsis: Both the heroes and villains are gearing up for their largest confrontation yet, one that will decide the future of Japan and the world at large. Can Deku and the heroes save the day?

Lenlo: The most surprising thing about this premier was that it didn’t start with a 100% anime original recap focused episode. Somehow, some way, BONES managed to jump right into the action. I don’t know what that says about the production schedule. It probably helps that this is the first season in 3 years where they aren’t working on a movie simultaneously, but I hope it’s a sign of things to come. That aside though, let’s be honest, its My Hero Academia. We are 6 seasons in at this point, you know if you like it or not. Personally, for me, it’s going to be my popcorn show of the season. I know this is where Hori’s writing starts to get weaker, but there’s also some epic moments in the arc that I now have a bit of hope will actually get the treatment they deserve. If BONES can just deliver on those then I will be satisfied. My god how my standards have fallen for this show since Season 1.
Potential: 40%

Amun: MHA, you’ve changed. Gone is the underdog feel-good high school life – always a step behind, but with good friends and complex enemies. I mean, our main leads had roughly one line each here. This is now a slick, well-animated ensemble of fan favorites, derived over the last couple seasons, fighting a large-scale battle with global ramifications. And that’s fine, in and of itself, but it’s just not the story I fell in love with. I don’t care about the hero society on a macro level, I just want more Midoriya (and Uraraka). It all feels too big, too fast. I know why the story’s developed to this point and I’m not begrudging the plot development, but I can’t keep telling myself everything’s the same. I guess at some point it’s time to accept that this franchise has scaled up and just enjoy any time with our characters that I can get. Still watching it though.
Potential: 100%

Koukyuu no Karasu

Short Synopsis: An Emperor asks the mysterious consort living deep within the inner palace to help him solve a mystery that will overturn history

Mario: This is purely a set-up episode that introduces the main settings and the main characters – so it’s definitely slow paced – but it gets there with just enough indication about the “rules” of the inner palace, as well as the main characters’ motivations. The result is an introductory episode that does just about enough to tell the main leads with interesting back stories and how they partner up for a current mystery. It’s actually the current mystery that is a weak link here, as I still don’t see the good reasons why the new Emperor Xia Gaojun cares so much about this case, nor does the Raven Consort Shouxue. What the show more than makes up for is establishing Shouxue with a distinctive personality that is both mysterious but lovable at the same time. We also learn about Gaojun’s resolve and while I feel it’s a bit too overblown, his backstory still works well. Then we get the reveal in literally the last seconds and I know I will be back for the second outing. It’s a job well done for Koukyuu no Karasu first episode.
Potential: 40%

Lenlo: As far as seasonal chinese-adjacent historical pieces go… This was decidedly bland. The colors are dull and washed out, and the only design of any note is the female lead. Meanwhile all of the line delivery just feels stiff and lifeless. I get that they are going for a sort of… cool nobility to everyone, but there’s no emotion in anything anyone says. About halfway through there was an engaging scene, both visually and narratively, but right after it ended Koukyuu returned to its bland dullness. It’s like… It’s like the mythology surrounding this world is far more interesting than the world or story itself. There might be something here for those willing to stick with it, you might end up rewarded for that devotion. But personally? This 23 minute episode felt like an hour, and that’s not something I want to repeat every week.
Potential: 30%

Pop Team Epic S2

Short Synopsis: How did Pop Team Epic get a second season when it’s such a shit series?

Wooper: What’s up guys? Welcome back to part 15 of my analysis of Endless Love, the smash hit tokusatsu series starring Aoi Shouta! Before we dive into the video, just a quick reminder – only 95 percent of you guys are subscribed to the channel, so if you haven’t already, be sure to SMASH that notification button and RING the bell for more awesome CONTENT like this. Alright, with that out of the way, let’s just jump straight into it! So in the OP for this episode, we can see Shouta-kun teaming up with another version of himself, which may be the alternate universe Shouta first seen in Gal and Dino, and…wait, why have we suddenly cut to an anime? No, it would be wrong to call this an anime, because it doesn’t have a mature, serialized story for mature viewers such as myself. This…is a cartoon. This doesn’t make me feel Japanese at all! And worst of all, it’s not even funny! Oh, I am definitely tweeting about this. I’ll just open up Twitter and…Pop Team Epic? Wait, this is a real thing? And it actually got a second season? Why didn’t someone simply tell the director to make a better, more accessible show? Great, now it’s repeating the exact same scenes from the first half but with disgusting male voices. Who the fuck would purposely watch something like this?!
Potential: COOL TIME

Lenlo: I’ll never know how serious Wooper is with his lampooning considering Pop Team Epic lampoons itself, but regardless he isn’t wrong about how insane this series is. Pop Team Epic continues to feel like a fever dream that somehow got a budget. If you like over the top meta humor that holds absolutely nothing sacred and takes shots at everything via either obscure jokes or real life slapstick, this might be the series for you. There’s no real story, the characters are openly admitting to being gag cutouts, this is about as pure a comedy series as you can get. It’s just 12 minutes of sketch comedy. A week. Personally? I’m going to watch it because I know that one of these episodes is going to end up being right down my alley. The others will probably be mid, not all comedy hits with all people. But you only need the one episode to have a decent time here. Plus it’s not a big time investment so… why not?
Potential: Is this even anime anymore? I dunno, but it’s fun.

Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita

Short Synopsis: A man dies and is reincarnated as a sword in an RPG world, where he learns tons of sweet skills and is eventually wielded by a catgirl.

Wooper: Of all the fantasy anime to abuse the “RPG menu screens” trope, I think this one abuses it the hardest. There were around 25 shots here with no function except to list the abilities and levels of the show’s sentient sword protagonist, which typically required the use of the entire frame. Interestingly, though, this practice didn’t distract much from the flow of the episode, since its story revolved almost entirely around killing monsters and gaining their skills. There’s something satisfying about watching a sword fly through the air and run through enemies of its own volition, especially when the 3DCG used in its animation is so slick. The fun came to a screeching halt, though, during any scenes where his future wielder Fran appeared on screen. A catgirl, former slave, and now devoted follower of some guy who was reincarnated into her world just last week, Fran represents many of the things I dislike about modern fantasy series. It’s great that she’s free of bondage and ready to take fate into her own hands and all, but there’s no way a story this thin is equipped to make her anything more than a mascot. Even if her menu screens go berserk with experience points, she’ll be trapped in an anime that was never anything more than a telepathic sword simulator.
Potential: 10%

Amun: Oh come on now Wooper, this wasn’t that bad. One of my pet peeves on the new influx of slave isekais is how life-long slaves just behave perfectly normally without any trauma – Reincarnated as a Sword didn’t do that. Fran is clearly not reacting to the normal social/comedy cues, and I found myself appreciating that – it felt halfway realistic. Does it make for great dialogue throughout the rest of the show? Of course not, but this isn’t just your typical furry (or elf) maid slave that you’ll find in many other recent isekai. We’ll have to see if that’s a good thing or not. Some positives: the 3D animation was clean and as someone ambushed by the first episode of Goblin Slayer, I loved seeing the Goblin massacre. The story is very simple, but there’s a clear direction to it, so I’ll take what I can get. The biggest positive here is just the premise – a sentient sword off on an adventure is one I can’t recall having seen before. The downsides are pretty clear too. Without a doubt, as Wooper lamented, the wielder Fran is the weak link and will probably provide some quasi-service throughout. I don’t see this being anything other than a novelty show, but given isekai these days have to find some way to set themselves apart, I appreciate the effort. And the animation looks good (for now)!
Potential: 35%

Uchi no Shishou wa Shippo ga Nai

Short Synopsis: A young tanuki draws inspiration from a local rakugo performance after finding it tough to trick humans in the big city.

Wooper: Rakugo anime sure have it tough in the wake of Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. Even when they belong to a completely different genre, as Ushi no Shishou does, their performance scenes will no doubt be compared to the mesmerizing stories found in that modern classic. Cutting away from the rakugoka mid-act to an imagined version of their tale seems like kids’ stuff, but to be fair, children may be Shishou’s target audience; there’s a segment after the ED that breaks down the episode’s (already simple) rakugo story for viewers who had trouble following it, which seems a very kid-friendly thing to do. Main character Mameda is a child, too (of the tanuki variety), and not the grating prodigy type, which might have been refreshing had the show been able to capture a country kid’s amazement at the bustle of early 20th century Osaka. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel it was successful in that task – both the human city of Osaka and the series’ supernatural elements (tanuki transformations, Daikokutei’s flying ship) were depicted rather plainly. There was a lot of emphasis on Mameda’s admiration for her prankster father, which led to her own desire to trick humans, but even that was consigned to flashbacks, and not particularly good ones. That’s the trouble with Uchi no Shisou – even though there’s nothing glaringly wrong with it, there’s nothing glaringly right, either.
Potential: 10%

Lenlo: Wooper isn’t wrong in anything he said. I feel like Shishou’s target audience is children, and it was very simplistic in its rakugo and presentation there of. But while he seems to have been bored by it, I found it a tad endearing. A little Tanuki being more confused and befuddled by the modern world than the humans were her tricks was cute, and the fox girl’s monologue on the passing of time and the old ways being forgotten to history was more poignant than I was expecting. It’s still not great, these totaled about 8 minutes of engagement in a 23 minute long episode. But I’m also not usually the kind of person to go for cutesy stuff, so Shishou had an uphill battle to win me over regardless. So yeah, for someone just looking for a cute, fluffy show this season, I expect you could do a whole lot worse than Shishou.
Potential: 20%

I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss

Short Synopsis: A girl dies and is reincarnated in her favorite otome game, where she must avert her deathly fate by seducing the Demon Lord.

Wooper: I’ve only watched the first of Villainess’s two available episodes, but I doubt the second one will do much to improve my initial impression of the series. It’s the hundredth anime in recent years to use the resurrection gimmick, putting an analog earthling (like you, the viewer) in a digital setting (like you, the viewer, play on your video game system of choice). As such, it has the privilege of skipping storytelling basics like characterization and setting establishment, since its intended audience is already familiar with the sorts of games it’s aping. Only this show seems to have missed the memo that it could skip all that, because it still goes about it in its own clumsy way – namely, tons of internal monologuing from its main character Aileen. These scenes held zero appeal for me, and the spoken dialogue was hardly any better, being ripped from both the reverse harem anime and otome game playbooks. Visually, the show manages to make nearly every one of its scenes a dull disappointment, with lazy brightness effects used in chandelier-lit balls and moonlit exterior scenes alike, and unimaginative layouts that had my eyes glazing over. The only redeeming factor anywhere in this first episode is a talking crow named Almond (voiced by Tomokazu Sugita), whose love of Aileen’s cookies gives him the sort of charm that no other character here can muster. If I were to die and be reincarnated in this anime, the first thing I’d do would be to find Almond and tell him to fly far, far away from this borefest.
Potential: 1%, strictly out of appreciation for Almond

Lenlo: Zzzz… Zzzz… Zzzz… Snrk! What? Where am I? What time is it? Am I still watching shitty video game isekai? Only this one is coached in some kind of period-drama dating sim? Except even with that slightly unique premise it still falls back on fantasy demon lord bullshit? Anime why. You had a shot here to do something new. Just make a video-game isekai but instead of RPG bullshit do a dating sim, complete with all the videogame trappings of the genre. Have some fun with it! Joke about routes, riff on it a bit and have some fun! Instead it just gives me exactly what Wooper says above: A dull, boring, whatever of a series.
Potential: 0%

Isekai Yakkyoku

Short Synopsis: A medical researcher dies and is reincarnated in the body of a young mage.

Wooper: Seeing as I’m forbidden from complaining about this sort of anime for another 18 months, I’ve got to muster what few compliments I can about Isekai Yakkyoku. Let’s see… I guess I “liked” the POV flashback to the main character’s sister in the hospital, asking whether she’ll get better if she takes some medicine and goes to sleep, which was immediately followed by a scene of her funeral. I appreciate when an anime tells me how to feel, and this is one series that will never stop helping in that regard. The newly reincarnated protagonist’s quest to discover his magical powers was another bit I “liked,” especially nifty tricks like cutting to a silver platter (both literal and metaphorical) bearing an assortment of chemical compounds that he’s just generated off screen. What a hard worker our young hero is! The dinner scene where his new father quizzes him on the ingredients of an obscure ointment while his mother and sister sit around and look cute was also “good” characterization – you love to see it. “Best” of all, though, was the revelation that he has unlimited magical power, courtesy of a magical power-ometer that his sexy tutor happened to have on hand during their training session. Could anything be more promising? (Apart from a believable premise or a distinctive visual style, I mean.)
Potential: 0%

Amun: Okay, a former medical researcher is reincarnated with the name “Farma”…that’s a little on the nose, don’t you think? This lad also unironically firehosed out a window all over his maid. Lots of, erm, “symbolism” going on in this episode – Freud would have a field day. While I’m not in love with the character designs, the story itself is pleasant enough. Just don’t look for too much substance or you might hurt yourself. I wonder when a garbageman is going to get reincarnated and somehow use garbage collection to save the word. Still, it’s a passable enough isekai if you’re into that sort of thing – I certainly am. Also, I too recommend not grasping a veiny, throbbing “Divinometer” in front of anyone else…
Potential: 40%

Shine Post

Short Synopsis: A new manager with truth-o-vision partners with an unsuccessful idol trio.

Wooper: Idol shows have been a fixture of seasonal anime schedules for about a decade now, so at this point, unless they have “Love Live” or “Idolmaster” somewhere in their title, they typically need a noteworthy gimmick in order to stand out. We saw Kami Kuzu Idol go the ‘idol doesn’t want to be an idol’ route about a week ago, and now Shine Post is sort of taking the same approach, only instead of illustrating that concept with spirit possession, it’s going with lie-detecting eyesight. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather watch a show about a ghost possessing a guy during his dance sequences than one about a stodgy-looking manager who can see when people aren’t telling the truth. The hook is that one of the three girls in his new group isn’t lying when she says she wants to become a successful entertainer…and that’s it. She actually wants to be an idol, shock of all shocks. What does it say about Shine Post that the unfeigned enthusiasm of its would-be star is the basis of the show’s appeal? For me, it says that I’m entirely comfortable skipping its remaining episodes.
Potential: 0%

The Devil is a Part-Timer S2

Short Synopsis: Mortal enemies Hero and Demon King receive an unexpected Apple Baby to raise.

Amun: It’s been a decade of waiting. The OG reverse-isekai. And after all that time, the premiere…was alright? It was kind of weird, honestly – I watched this a decade ago, and while I’m quite different, their world is exactly the same. Well, not quite exactly – it’s pretty obvious that the visuals are being handled very differently. I’d say the character designs fall into the uncanny valley of similarity – close enough to tell who is who, but just slightly off enough to be jarring. I also was reminded of what I didn’t like in the original: Chi-can. Every second she’s on-screen, the show wanders away from the more interesting dynamic of Hero vs. Demon king. The new season’s premise is interesting enough – joint custody of mysterious portal baby. I’m just surprisingly worried about production and if there’s enough content here to carry an additional season. All in all, I guess I’m underwhelmed, but still happy Devil is back!
Potential: 60%

Mario: Can’t believe that it had to wait this long for a sequel, considering how popular the first season was. For me, I consider the series has one big joke, and the rest kinda repeats the same joke over and over. That is why the appearance of this new kid in a block (literally) is a much welcome change of pace. Not only it steers the show into a direction it has never ventured before (the Devil Lord and the Hero raising a child), the reaction of Yuusha and Maou will have new sparks as well. Visually it looks just standard, but the facial expressions are done fairly well. I’m looking forward for more to come.
Potential: 30%

Call of the Night

Short Synopsis: A disaffected middle schooler resolves to become a vampire by falling in love with one.

Lenlo: Well I found the seasonal waifu y’all, and this time I can say she’s actually kinda hot. People just need to let Kotoyama design all of their characters, or at least the women, because the guy is damn good at it. Beyond Nazuna being a choice cut, the rest of the show doesn’t look half bad either. I’m a fan of the neon color palette of the city night, and the angular features of all of the characters. On top of that, it’s just well directed in general. Lots of interesting camera angles and well paced shots. This is probably, visually, one of the better shows of the season for me. As for the story, I honestly have no idea what’s going on. Not why the night is so off limits, nor the whole seemingly hikikomori deal with our MC, not even the vampire nature of our lead girl. None of it makes sense, we just kind of get thrown into the middle of it. For a first episode that’s amusing enough, the dialogue especially was entertaining. I just have no idea where it’s going to go from here or what it’s going to do. Is this going to become a classic battle series with vampires? Or play it straight as a full on romance between our leads? Or maybe something else entirely?! I don’t know. But I’m intrigued enough to find out.
Potential: 70%

Wooper: There have been (and will be) a lot of disappointments this season, but I allowed myself some hope for Call of the Night (Yofukashi no Uta) upon seeing its Noitamina intro. Plenty of duds have emerged from the programming block over the last decade, but it was something for my optimism-starved brain to latch onto – and wouldn’t you know it, the episode turned out pretty well! I think my favorite thing about it is the restless storyboarding, which pitches a curveball at least once a minute. Claustrophobic fisheye lens shots, ultra wide angles, pushing characters to the edge of the frame – if Yofukashi could use it to depict the protagonist’s perplexity, it did so with abandon. Why was he so perplexed? Oh, romantic troubles at school, having his shoes vomited on by a middle aged man, being dragged back to the house of a strange woman who ended up being a vampire – the usual middle school stuff. I didn’t think I’d like the relationship between the human and vampire leads as much as I did, but he’s strange enough and she’s human enough that I enjoyed their back and forth. She loves the taste of his blood, sure, but she also enjoys the company of a fellow nightcrawler, as evidenced by her willingness to fly him around the city at night – a great final sequence for one of the few successes of the summer thus far.
Potential: 60%

UNCLE FROM ANOTHER WORLD

Short Synopsis: An older man wakes up from a coma, having been a hero(-ish) in another world.

Lenlo: It absolutely pains me to say this but… Isekai Ojisan wasn’t that bad. In fact I dare say I kind of… enjoyed it. The entire premise of the show is riffing on Isekai and their protagonists. Mocking the way they advertise other worlds as being ideal fantasy lands, how deadbeat losers suddenly become suave chads after being hit by a bus, and all the tropes that come with it. Even directly calling out how Tsunderes weren’t an established trope in the 90s, or how the uncle came back probably even worse than he left. Combine that with some clever direction and an artstyle that I really like. I love the thicker, sketchier line work and stark difference in color palette between the fantasy world and our modern one, and you have what might be the best Isekai of the season. That’s a low bar I know, but I’ll take what I can get. I kind of wish the uncle didn’t have magic in our world and the main joke was that he actually imagined it all, but the youtube channel setup with his nephew works too. Isekai Ojisan probably won’t be able to keep this up for its entire season, it’s probably going to screw it up around halfway through and become the very thing it’s mocking. But for now? I actually had fun here.
Potential: 50%

Amun: Isekai Ojisan is a different take on the titular genre. I certainly respect the unique angle, even bringing magic improbably into this world. I just didn’t have that good of a time – I felt bad for everyone involved. From the misunderstood tsundere to the torn apart family – combined with the dreary palette and harsher character designs – Isekai Ojisan felt sad. A bit like squandered youth, I suppose – a world that’s passed the lead character by. Painful nostalgia, I guess. While the subject matter is certainly fair game for anime, I can’t help but feel a bit of a mismatch between the media and the message. I’m interested in seeing where the story takes us, but unlike Lenlo – I didn’t have any fun here.
Potential: 50%

Extreme Hearts

Short Synopsis: An aspiring singer-songwriter trains to participate in a sports-themed variety show… with EXTREME GEAR!

Wooper: This show has some of the most throwaway character designs I’ve seen in ages. They may have some competition for the worst of the year, but they’re almost certainly the worst of the summer. Seriously, can you detect any life within these eyes? Then again, maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh – I’ve got no reason to expect the characters to look conscious when they were drawn by people who don’t care about the story they’re animating. How could they? It’s an original show with a flimsy-ass premise, directed by Junji Nishimura, the Snoop Dogg of the anime world (I’ll leave it to the music fans reading this post to pick up on my meaning). A wannabe singer signs up for an extreme sports tournament in a desperate bid for relevance? And the extreme sports in question are just soccer and baseball with reality-breaking equipment? The only way this could get stupider is if the script were largely made up of people explaining their sappy backstories – which it is. Extreme Hearts did rouse me from my stupor when it introduced a quartet of robot practice partners during one of its training scenes, but that flash of interest was the only thing I felt during its time-warping 24 minutes.
Potential: 0%

Lenlo: So this is… wizard sports? Basically? But they aren’t wizards because they use technology, not magic, but the technology is so advanced that it’s basically indistinguishable from magic? And we are going to tackle every sport at once, because we can’t content ourselves with just one? And they are simultaneously idols? Or is that whole singing bit not going to come back around at some point? This is… fine… I guess? There’s just nothing about Extreme Hearts that I would call interesting. It’s competently animated, and its narrative is so by the books I half think it was written by committee. But that’s kind of the problem. Extreme Hearts feels like a show made to checkboxes, created to sell, rather than because of any one creator or author’s vision and passion. It’s easily one of the most forgettable things I’ve watched so far, despite being nowhere near the worst produced or worst story told. Hell, even as I’m writing this I struggle to think of anything the show did that’s different, beyond the magic sports equipment.
Potential: I can’t even remember what I watched /10

Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World

Short Synopsis: A young man gets teleported to another world with enough equipment to be a hero and earn some money, only to spend it on slaves, whores and sex.

Lenlo: Dear god, it looks like Vermeil has some real competition in the trashy bullshit department. As the title suggests, this is just your regular isekai with sex thrown in, with absolutely 0 effort put in to separate it from any of the others. I’d say it’s trying to be a less edgy Redo Healer or Shield Hero, but even there it fails. It doesn’t even have the bravery to show full on T&A like Reviewers did. Just… don’t watch this. Find a better Isekai. One with decent production, or at least a community and fanbase large enough to find other people to enjoy it with. There’s nothing here of value.
Potential: -10%

Amun: I was actually so bored watching this episode that I quit before it got trashy.
Potential: None

My Stepmom’s Daughter is My Ex

Short Synopsis: A day in life of new step-siblings who used to date each other.

Mario: My mission here is to find out if the show itself is better than what the title suggests (so the bar isn’t exactly high) and it was… for a while. The episode plays out different scenarios of the main characters flirting with their new relationship status: from trying to get the upper hand, to how their peers consider them, to their own romance. It’s clear to me that the second segment works best and the last segment is just trashily bad. The characters don’t harbor any wit in their exchanges, so most of their forth-and-back falls a bit flat, but sometimes you can feel their emotions come through – the kind of hate / love dynamic that is understandable for 15 year olds to have. This show isn’t downright terrible, but it’s not memorable either, making it a bland romance. Rather unfortunate for a title this bold.
Potential: 10%

Lenlo: Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Why is Japan so god damn obsessed with incest. Even when it doesn’t have the balls to actually have them be related, it just says “Step-siblings”. Is it every kid’s dream to screw their sister over there? Is this the only kind of cliche romance they can come up with? Is Japan’s grand plan to solve declining birth rates to make everyone want to have a sister? I just don’t get it. And at the very least if you were going to force a sibling romance into a story, you could at least make it good. Instead we get a trope filled, “Kyaa he touched my boob when we hugged”, piece of garbage. There’s nothing authentic or passionate in this story. It’s just someone cashing in a pay check with “They aren’t blood related” incest bait.
Potential: 0%

Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation

Short Synopsis: Five students at a magical boarding school have tea and scones. Elsewhere, a squad of swordsmen commit genocide.

Lenlo: It took me way too long to figure out why Arsnotoria felt familiar: It has the same character designer as Re:Zero and Granbelm. It’s not a bad look, the designs are good! Now if only the show was remotely interesting to back it up. Arsnotoria took 20 minutes to do absolutely anything, the rest of the time being filled with slice of life fluff that had me constantly checking to see how far I was. When a first episode feels twice as long as it actually is, that’s not a good sign! If that’s supposed to be their hook, their opening salvo where I spend 20 minutes with 5 little girls sitting around eating biscuits and drinking tea, then why should I bother with the rest? Now maybe the show picks up, maybe that ending means something interesting will actually happen. Personally though? I wouldn’t count on it.
Potential: 5%

Wooper: I’ve got no idea how the quaint first 20 minutes of this episode (in which five girls meet for afternoon tea) and the murderous final three minutes (in which hooded swordsmen set fire to a town and kill its European-looking residents) are connected. I do know that my curiosity about that connection is supposed to drive me to watch the second episode next week, but unfortunately that’s not going to happen. There were things I liked about Arsnotoria’s premiere, including a vague sense of mystery surrounding its magical dormitory, bolstered by translucent figures walking along its hallways and references to activity “on the surface,” as though the dorm existed on its own plane of reality. There was some good character animation throughout the episode, and the detail that went into the school cafeteria (staffed by fire and forest sprites) displayed some real imagination. I even liked one or two of the gags that recurred throughout the girls’ tea time – black-haired Alberta sinking deeper and deeper into her pile of cushions springs to mind. Ultimately, though, too many of their discussions failed to support the show in any meaningful way. It was all either pleasantries or banter, with almost no detail or context about their characters being supplied, and the script wasn’t nearly sharp enough to support that approach. The show is sure to become more exciting in future weeks (the action-driven OP is evidence of that), but its premiere didn’t do much for me.
Potential: 5%