Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Megalo Box S2

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

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

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

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

Potential: 90%

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

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

Potential: 95%

Thunderbolt Fantasy S3

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

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

Potential: 30%

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

Potential: 50%

Sayonara Watashi no Cramer

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

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

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

Potential: 40%

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

Potential: 30%

Shakunetsu Kabaddi

Short Synopsis: Guy gives up on his dream to be a Livestreamer to find joy in touching other guys instead.

Armitage: How about that! I was not expecting this to be anywhere near as good as it was. I’m still left here grinning even after finishing the premiere a while ago. Most of you might not be aware of the existence of this sport called Kabaddi but over here, we all basically invented it. Like literally, look it up, we did. While I have never played it myself (for some reason, most other girls my age were not thrilled by the idea of being grabbed and pulled to the ground. A shame, indeed), I did see the boys at my school play it during recess. And though it was and never has been the most aesthetically pleasing of sports, you gotta admit that there is a great deal of skill required to excel at it. And Burning Kabaddi manages to bring that out so charmingly well. Obviously, this is still a traditional sports anime where a group of guys are gonna learn the value of friendship through team sports but what could have been a sub-standard premiere bogged down by the evidently minimal budget and genre trappings is turned into a fun, light-hearted romp mainly because of a very lovable protagonist in Yoigoshi. The banter between him and the other members of the club forms the heart of the premiere and yes, even with the Kaiji narrator voice yelling StRuGgLe every 2 mins, I just couldn’t help but be on board with what’s on offer here. This one’s a keeper for me.

Potential: 75%

Mario: Like most anime fans, my experience with the rules of Kabaddi games comes purely from a Chio-chan segment, but this premiere did a decent job of introducing the game, with fun, albeit stock characters to boot. So the subject is fun to explore, but judging the show purely from a sports show’s lens it’s as typical as you can get. The main kid gets introduced and then “forced” to join the club, which I didn’t take very well. Everything else is fun (and educational) so I will spend at least another episode to see if I’m up for some kabaddi in my life.

Potential: 30%

Mashiro no Oto

Short Synopsis: A shamisen prodigy moves to Tokyo and gets involved with a cast of eccentric characters [or, Your Lie in December].

Wooper: This premiere isn’t a good litmus test for the series as a whole. Mashiro no Oto is an extracurricular club show, but this prologue never set foot in high school, or any school for that matter. Instead, it followed a wandering teenage dropout through Tokyo as he became embroiled in a bunch of other people’s lives – people who may not reappear on screen for quite a while. There’s a good one-cour anime to be made about that premise alone, but since Mashiro no Oto has to jam so many betrayals and romantic developments into a scant 20 minutes, its first episode left me feeling underwhelmed. The main character involves himself in other peoples’ affairs too easily (despite his otherwise reserved personality), and the background of the cabaret girl who houses him is disappointingly derivative (aspiring actress with a heart of gold). The contrast between them is interesting: he has incredible talent but no drive, while she fails countless auditions but stays motivated, at least at first. If the show had taken things more slowly, their stories could have run in parallel for quite a while, and something intriguing may have come of it. I’ve got no interest in heading back to high school, though, so one hyper-condensed episode is enough for me.

Potential: 30%

Armitage: Man, that is a whole lot of subplots. We have Arima Kousei ver. 2021 grieving over the death of his grandpa, Emma Stone from La La Land, a womanizing guitar player. I mean, slow down show, you’re just getting sta— anddd we’ve got a SWAT team. Brilliant.

Still, even with its million miles a minute approach to storytelling, I actually quite like Mashiro no Oto. And a lot of the goodwill it gets from me is owed to the way it sounds. The soundtrack in itself is fine but all the performance pieces featuring the Shamisen are simply incredible. Maybe a lot of it is due to the fact that I am unfamiliar with the instrument but the show does make its beauty carry through. So, props for that. Secondly, the voice acting. Arima #2 comes from a rural town and the way it shows through in his mannerisms and the influence of the dialect in his voice was a really nice touch which reminded me a lot of Barakamon. Another plus. Lastly, the direction in which the show is headed seems to involve the guitarist boyfriend playing a central role. And while I personally despise infidelity more than anything, I would be interested to see if the show is able to make me care for someone clearly painted in a negative image from the start. So, yeah, I’m intrigued enough to keep watching. But seriously show, slow the hell down!

Potential: 60%

Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song

Short Synopsis: An AI aspiring to be an idol thinks it’s a good idea to trust a talking teddy bear who says he’s from the future.

Mario: If the personnel involved hasn’t suggested this to you already, Vivy is certainly one of the most ambitious anime of the season so far. From Re:Zero author Tappei Nagatsuki and collaborator Eiji Umehara, the double-length premiere establishes a strong hook with urgency and a morally grey premise of an android that has to destroy her kind to save humanity. Diva appears a bit of a wet blanket at first as the robotic version of Violet Evergarden, but by the second half she’s sufficient enough to carry the story. It’s the dynamic between her and the “Bear” that proves to be the most interesting aspect as we can see the difference in how they approach their “missions”, and the tension between them because they have different sets of values in mind. While the world-building suggests many potential plot threads, the main quest is so far strong and inviting, and the production is gorgeous with rich animation. Vivy has a lot of potential to become a breakout hit this season.

Potential: 50%

Armitage: Robot good, Hooman bad? Well, that seems like a disingenuous reduction of the message Vivy seems to be going for but we’ve just had far too many iterations of stories which handle this theme. Though, thankfully, Vivy does manage to stand out and then some. A lot of it boils down to Studio Wit’s stellar production in creating a world that feels like a cross between Guilty Crown and Psycho Pass. The one thing that especially stood out to me is the contrast in movement and how slightly robotic the motion of all the AIs (even the futuristic ones) feels as compared to all the humans. A small touch but impressive nonetheless.

Coming to the story, our lead AI, Vivy, has been chosen by a “Professor” from the future and tasked to kill all of her kind to save the lives of all of his kind. But the catch here is that she has a messenger from the future who’s to accompany her along this noble journey of mass genocide. But what this teddy bear shaped messenger also serves as is the world’s most sadistic history book where the recorded past hasn’t happened yet, and some of it cannot be changed no matter how painful it may be. Therein lies the story’s main hook and frankly, it’s a damn good one. My only gripe so far is that the writing feels a bit too expository but granted that it’s Re:Zero’s writer at the helm, you just gotta make your peace with it. All in all, after the end of the second episode, I like Vivy way more than I did after the first. And if the show manages to keep up with the trend, we might be in for one hell of a ride.

Potential: 80%

Jouran: The Princess
of Snow and Blood

Short Synopsis: Emo magical-girl show set in period Japan.

Lenlo: Everything about Jouran screams that it’s trying too hard. It has this futuristic Tokyo reminiscent of Osaka in last year’s Akudama Drive. But where that leaned into its campy sci-fi setting and story, Jouran is taking itself way too seriously. Everyone is stiff backed and talks as if showing emotion is a cardinal sin. Meanwhile the story throws us right into the middle of some kind of monster espionage, something the Mars Red premiere did far better I feel. At least the background and world building itself is good. Jouran makes good use of bright, rich colors to offset the dark outfits of the leads and dreary outside world. And as janky as it sometimes looks in motion, I do like the breath effect on the monsters’ faces revealing their skulls, it helps sell their otherworldly nature. I just wish… I just wish Jouran knew that it was an alternative history steampunk monster show as much as we did. Because it would really benefit from toning down the grimdark and toning up the characters.

Potential: 35%

Armitage: Sigh. I was so excited for this one. It had all the ingredients for success I look for in a series: Strong female lead, an interesting world brimming with personality, gorgeous character art, yet the whole thing doesn’t ever come together. The story of Jouran takes place in a lovingly crafted Meiji era setting, featuring all the period accurate umbrella-crossbows, lightsabers and shapeshifters. Yet, it somehow manages to make its world feel so very hollow. There is some anti-shady organization, going about some anti-shady mission to stop some shady people from doing some shady thing. You are never given a reason to care for anything. No matter how stylized and pretty the characters look, they just come off as empty husks solely present for plot progression. Jouran is setting itself to be a monster-of-the-week action show but it doesn’t boast the animation chops to back it up and ultimately, its decision to sacrifice on character writing turns it into the last thing you’d expect from a show featuring said umbrella-crossbows, lightsabers and shapeshifters: a generic slog.

Potential: 25%

Shaman King

Short Synopsis: There’s a tournament for spirit mediums to control the fate of the world or something [or, JoJo’s Basic Adventure].

Armitage: Man, them skittles just keep tumbling down on their own. So far two of my highly anticipated premieres from the season have managed to disappoint me. And not in the same vein as shows from last year which were let down by the production difficulties. My main issue with Shaman King (and Jouran) is that it’s built up on a premise and characters so generic that not scrolling aimlessly on your phone during its runtime becomes a monumental achievement. From the talking bobble-head of a sidekick to the run-of-the-mill delinquent baddies to the tediously unfunny comic relief, everything is so drenched in a salad dressing of mediocrity that it’s near impossible to see the healthy stuff underneath. I mean, I really want to like this show as its entire atmosphere just feels so reminiscent of the good ol’ days of early 2000s shounen staples but unfortunately, this premiere just feels like a mere regurgitation of those very tropes. For now, I am going to stick with it since I was informed by the manga fans that this was expected to have a rocky start. But it better git real gud, real soon.

Potential: 15%

Amun: I’ve never seen the original Shaman King, but I heard it was a shounen OG. I came in hoping for the next Hunter x Hunter. What I got was…a worse DragonQuest? The biggest similarity to Hunter x Hunter was the anatomically incorrect humans – missing was the charm, adventure, or, well…fun. Let’s stay with character designs for a moment: these were really bad – even worse than Gee Gee no Kitaro, somehow. The main character is completely devoid of personality….wait, that’s on purpose?! That’s terrible. The comedy is shout until it’s funny…except I’m not even sure it could have been funny. Underneath all of these glaring problems is an insidious, but fatal flaw – the animation was not good. If you’re going to have a weak plot or mediocre characters, you need something visually interesting – Shaman King had nothing. This is a stinker. But I will keep watching until chibi-Winry Rockbell shows up, so you have until then to get it together, Shaman King!

Potential: 10%

SSSS.Dynazenon

Short Synopsis: Random people need to save the world from monsters by using giant, toy-looking mechs!

Amun: Disclaimer: I don’t know this franchise that well – I’ve only seen the modern SSSS.Gridman, so that’s all I have to go off. As with Gridman, the human story here in Dynazenon is fantastic. And the mech battle scene is so incredibly childish, you wonder how they ended up in the same show. Gridman kept me engaged by exploring the characters and the mystery of the show (even if some viewers didn’t feel fulfilled by the conclusion) – I suspect Dynazenon is going the same route, just with a different quirk or cause. But it’s such a tale of two shows – maybe the human element requires the absurd backdrop, who knows. All that to say – I liked Gridman for the characters and writing, and I see quite a bit of that here in Dynazenon. I just scratch my head at the integration of Dinosaur transformer mechs into a serious story.

Potential: 60%

Mario: All I can say is everything about Dynazenon’s premiere just clicked with me. It reminds me of all the best qualities of its spiritual predecessor, Gridman, while still having confidence enough to be its own thing. The show utilizes visual storytelling that drops hints about the interpersonal lives of our main characters before throwing them together to pilot giant mecha and I absolutely love both halves. We see a glance of these characters coping with their inner struggles through smart yet minimal images: Yomogi slips the cash gift from the guy his Mom dates to the donation box, Yume looks at the calendar from her deceased sister’s room, a shot of a messy room more than informs us on the status of shut-ins Koyomi and Chise. In a show where there is always doubt if the world they are inhabiting is real or not, these characters’ insecurities remain both real and relatable. The complete lack of BGM in the opening, the naturalism of the conversations and the smart visual storytelling set up for a bombastic climax that is pretty much in sync with Gridman’s DNA – if you’re a fan of that show (like I am) then this is a must-see. For once, Dynazenon’s premiere is the product of a team at the top of their game. Here’s hoping they can carry this level of quality throughout its run.

Potential: 80%

Koi to Yobu ni wa Kimochi Warui

Short Synopsis: A womanizing salaryman harasses a high school girl after she saves him from falling down the stairs.

Wooper: Spring 2021 is setting the bar very low with Koikimo as its first premiere (not counting a HeroAca filler episode). Its adult male protagonist isn’t just a pervert – he’s a straight-up psycho. After one of his past sexual partners embarrassed him in front of his underage crush, he shoved a napkin in her face and smeared her makeup, then threatened to pluck out her eyelashes. How anyone could find him tolerable after that display is beyond me – not that he was charming beforehand. The little moans he made after getting a phone call from Ichika (the high schooler) were fucking weird, and his indifference toward her discomfort gave off major predator vibes. Ichika got in a few good jabs as she rejected his advances, but she also called him and left a record of her cell number at one point, so defense clearly isn’t her strong suit. I’d want this show scrubbed from my memory even if it were lavishly produced, but it isn’t – the animation is a notch below competence, and the backgrounds are so poorly conceived that they violate basic architectural principles. Stay clear of this one unless you have a May-December fetish.

Potential: 0%

Mario: In order to make an engaging romance story, the leads need to be likeable enough and you need to sell the chemistry between them. Sadly, based on this first episode Koi to Yobu fails on establishing these factors. While I’m not as salty as Wooper, the male lead is unlikable. Even if you look past the age gap, the fact remains that he has absolutely zero regard for the girl’s feelings, which gives off an off-putting vibe. Real life has taught me that when a person can’t take “no” for an answer, they are the most dangerous. On top of that, his sister and Ichika’s parents have no reservations about their relationship, so it looks like an easy route for her coming to “accept him”. The plot so far doesn’t elevate the romance, sadly – the first episode relies too much on “coincidences” to put these two together. It’s not offensively bad (when it comes to romance anime I’ve seen much worse), but if you, like me, are turned off by this “psycho” boy, or by the alpha-male-eccentric perspective, then it’s best to steer clear of this.

Potential: 20%

Godzilla SP

Short Synopsis: A pair of scientists investigate a string of unnatural occurrences that have something to do with Godzilla… probably.

Mario: Such an intriguing mess this first episode was. If it didn’t say it in the title, I wouldn’t have known that it is from the Godzilla canon, and in this instance that ambiguity works for the show’s benefit. This premiere takes its time building suspense by following our leads investigating strange phenomena, as it’s usually the case that monsters lurk beneath abandoned military buildings like the ones here. The characters sound too smart for their own good but for now the expressive character designs are keeping me engaged. Moreover, I am genuinely impressed by the background art, which looks very textured and detailed. So production-wise, this new version of Godzilla looks pretty good. The story is intriguing but feels uneven at times and I have doubts that it can stick the landing safely. As far as the first episode goes, though, you can bet that I am interested.

Potential: 50%

Lenlo: Mario calls this a mess and he’s right, but it’s not one I take kindly to. Not only did we go an entire 23 minute episode of a show named Godzilla without hide nor hair of the titular monster but instead we got saddled with a bunch of technobabble vomiting pieces of cardboard. That might be a bit of hyperbole however I honestly wasn’t engaged by anything they said or did nor any of the mystery-like premise. Maybe it’s my fault for expecting something else but it really feels like Godzilla has found a way to make giant robots fighting monsters boring. I figured that would be Dynazenon’s territory but someone beat it to the punch. Still, Mario is right that character designs are good and the backgrounds are detailed. Maybe Godzilla will stop feeling like a B-movie monster flick now that the monsters are actually arriving.

Potential: 30%

Mars Red

Short Synopsis: It is the 12th year of the Taisho era and vampires stalk Tokyo, both foreign and domestic. Only Code Zero, Japan’s first vampiric task force, can protect the country and find out where these vampires are coming from.

Lenlo: Mars Red started off much stronger than I expected. The animation is choppy and the whole show being made for ultra wide screen, meaning those bars are coming back, are a concern. But the direction was on point. It’s like Director Kouhei Hatano has taken the words “show don’t tell” and tattooed them on his chest. Whether it be clever recurring use of the plays poster, snappy cuts such as on the bridge implying violence without showing it, or a well placed timelapse. For a show where the animation itself can best be described as “rough” I thought Mars Red looked pretty good. Add on to that some stellar VA work, that “Jokanaan” was chilling, and you have a recipe for something good. My major concern at this point is that this was not in the manga, this entire first episode was anime original and so I don’t think it’s going to be indicative of the final product. If they can keep this tone, this directorial style, as Mars Red shifts to a more stereotypical narrative then I will be happy. I’m just not sure it can.

Potential: 60%

Amun: Mars Red is a show I’m cautiously optimistic about – I mean, Violet Evergarden Vampire Edition sounds pretty good, right? Well….there are some problems. For starters, this first episode was a wee-bit contrived; I’m happy to suspend my disbelief a bit, but come on now. I’m also not entirely sure who the main cast is – probably the blonde dude is the vampire, the journalist girl might be the replacement love interest, but it’s unclear yet if the colonel is going to be the lead or if he was just an introductory vehicle. We might see these characters the rest of the season or one more time in passing. Hard to say – wouldn’t be surprised either way. The animation is overly ambitious for the resources available – there were some particularly rough panning shots. I know what they were going for, but they just don’t have the animators for it. If that’s apparent in episode one, I don’t feel great about the prospects for episodes 7-13. That said, the world looks amazing and the episode’s direction and pacing were spot on (plot holes aside). Unfortunately, too many shows start strong only to fall apart halfway (Wonder Egg Priority, anyone?) – and I smell blood in Mars Red’s waters already.

Potential: 40%

Dr. Stone: Stone Wars

Short Synopsis: A science whiz freeze dries ramen to give himself the edge in an impending war.

Wooper: I have to respect Dr. Stone for launching into its second season after the briefest of recaps. Many long-running anime in a similar situation would spend 10+ minutes holding the audience’s hand during the catchup process, or else fill time with a thin side story to remind us who the characters are. Of course, it helps that Stone’s limited animation keeps the per-episode work on the low side, so the story can progress without delay. That’s been this show’s M.O. from the beginning, though, so there’s no sense in docking points for it now. Rather than concern itself with looks, Dr. Stone is all about concepts, and the tactical introduction of freeze dried food and mobile phones into a prehistoric setting is a hell of a concept. I’ve got to shout out the series’ music, as well, which is easily the best component of its production. The soundtrack is not only varied, but well-deployed, bridging scenes by extending and cutting songs at just the right length; the return of that seamless experience is just one of the reasons to be glad for Dr. Stone’s return. I won’t be watching this one week to week, but it’ll probably get the marathon treatment around the mid-year mark.

Potential: 60%

Lenlo: Like Wooper says, Dr. STONE launched right back into the story with a gusto I found impressive. Even the way the recap was done, presenting it as Gen telling a story, was a nice bit of detail. Meanwhile the episode itself did a good job of reintroducing characters while still moving the plot forward. Bringing them in slowly, giving each of them things to do or small lines to remind us who they were. By the end of the episode it felt like the series had never left at all! As for the animation, while it was never Dr. STONE’s strong suit I do think the way it balances between comedic exaggerated gags and serious, sharp linework is praiseworthy. Personally, my only major concern is the shift in focus towards the Stone Wars conflict. Dr. STONE was never an action series, and its combat scenes in the first season prove that. Maybe we will see an improvement here, but if not I fear that we may be in for a bumpy ride anytime the science isn’t front and center. All in all though, if you enjoyed the first season of Dr. STONE then I would wager you are going to enjoy this. It just needs to give us more of the same.

Potential: 65%

Slime Isekai S2

Short Synopsis: A shapeshifting teacher quits his job and re-assumes command of a nation of monsters.

Lenlo: I’ll be honest, I lost interest in Slime about halfway through the first season when it shifted away from a game of fantasy civilization and towards a more action focus. When it does that, Slime has a tendency to abandon all that made it interesting and become just another isekai power fantasy. Sadly, that appears to be what we are seeing here as well, with the episode ending on yet another pointless fight. There might be some potential in the politics focus and maybe we will get to see more development of them as a budding nation, but I don’t have my hopes up. That said, if you liked the end of the first season then it appears you will be getting more of the same here.

Potential: 30%

Wooper: That Long Title Ending with Slime is back for another season of pretty yet patronizing nation-building. This is the only show in the reincarnation genre that I’ve ever managed to tolerate for a full cour, let alone two, but I’m not sure whether I’ll continue with it beyond this point. The backgrounds are still attractive; detailed, geometrically-pleasing buildings and stylized vegetation make Tempest look like a place where you might actually want to be reborn. The characters are also neatly drawn – the series’ motley depiction of goblins and ogres is one of the best things about it. Meanwhile, the tendency to worship its ultra-powerful, meccha kawaii hero continues to be one of Slime’s worst qualities. Rimuru’s strength is essential to the series because it allows him to rule benevolently, I get that, but if you played a “MC gets praised” drinking game while watching this show you’d be dead in a matter of hours. It subtracts from the challenge of raising a country from scratch, a process that looks to be this season’s focus as Rimuru welcomes hostile messengers and sends envoys to neighboring kingdoms. Will the show concern itself more with the intricacies of that process, or push the “slime to win” button and gloss over the things that make it interesting? It’s essentially a coin flip, hence the grade.

Potential: 50%

Log Horizon S3

Short Synopsis: A group of MMO-bound players deal with setbacks in their quest to return to the real world.

Lenlo: I struggled for a long time to figure out what to write about Log Horizon here. It doesn’t feel as if anything has really changed, yet is this a good thing? I still remember the characters fondly, and the general plot along with it. The setting is still nice and I enjoy the continued focus on MMO-style politics. But anime has changed since 2014 but it doesn’t feel like Log Horizon has changed with it. Everything about its production still feels the same as it was 6 years ago and I can’t help but feel underwhelmed by that. Maybe as it goes I will rediscover my passion for the series, but for now I can’t help but look at it and think that my nostalgia might have lied to me.

Potential: 40%

Non Non Biyori Nonstop

Short Synopsis: A shy high school girl travels to the idyllic countryside for some flute practice.

Wooper: Non Non Biyori is often lumped in with “cute girls” shows, but I’ve always viewed it as an iyashikei series first and foremost. You need only watch the first two minutes of this episode to confirm its healing powers; they depict, in near-silence, a series of beautiful rural landscapes, followed by the quiet morning routine of a curious country girl. The show’s habit of implying actions without visualizing them allows NNB to maintain that mood for long stretches of time. For example, the still image of a shrine with a floor pillow in front of it allows the viewer to absorb Renge’s honoring of a family member without pushing the viewer into a sad place. Of course, the show can be humorous and charming, as well, and this premiere was certainly both. The girls’ creation of dolls with toothpicks and tape led to an absurd set piece, and the musical bond that formed between Renge and new character Akane was both comically and tenderly executed. Come for the scenery and stay for the laughs, or vice versa – either way, Non Non Biyori has you covered.

Potential: 75%

Mario: I can point you to the first minute and the last minute of this premiere to highlight the appeal of the Non Non Biyori franchise. The first minute uses a deliberate pace and slowly takes us to the calm, peaceful everyday life of the Japanese countryside before Renge enters the picture with the sound of her recorder. The last minute showcases Non Non Biyori’s sharp comedic timing and punchlines when we realize whom Renge wanted to play music for. The rest of the episode is no fluke, either, as in the first half the girls carry such a strong and natural chemistry and bounce off each other neatly, while the second half focuses on a new character. It has variety, it controls its pacing with grace and it’s always a blast to see these cute girls doing whatever cute things they can think of.

Potential: 70%

Ex-Arm

Short Synopsis: A teenager wakes up as a disembodied brain sixteen years in the future and learns that he was responsible for Japan’s destruction.

Lenlo: I’m not quite sure how to rate this. Ex-Arm is not simply bad. It’s… advanced bad. Ex-Arm is so bad that I can’t give it a 0% without changing my scores for everything else, because nothing deserves to be on the same level as Ex-Arm. The CGI? Terrible. The camera work? Abysmal. Name literally any aspect of a production? I don’t think they even tried. I’ve watched some bad anime for these before, hell I have even reviewed some on this site. Japan Sinks of last year was one such anime, but even it wasn’t THIS BAD. Ex-Arm isn’t even the funny kind of bad either. It’s like someone took the Berserk 2016/17 people and told them to try even less this time. This does not look like it was made by professionals and there are series on Youtube by amateurs better than it in every respect. Makes sense since the man directing it has never made an anime before. At all.

So yeah, don’t watch Ex-Arm, forget about its existence. It’s going to win Worst Show next year and it’s not even close.

Potential: -100%

Wooper: Ex-Arm’s first episode was a truly terrible piece of work, but I’m glad it exists. That’s not because its floaty, disjointed combat sequences made me laugh, or because its piss-poor facial modeling reminded me of Sonic Adventure from 1998. It’s not because the lack of clarity in its script made it a perfect guide for how not to write your dystopian novel’s prologue, or because the show’s blatant ugliness creates a strong case for the superiority of hand-drawn animation. All of those things are true, but none of them come close to Ex-Arm’s greater purpose: showing arrogant anime bloggers the error of their ways.

I’ve been doing this for over three years now: sitting in my ivory office chair, legs tucked under my boring IKEA desk, typing up a storm about the new depths to which anime sinks every three months. Though I’ve never misrepresented my feelings about any of the premieres I’ve viewed, my propensity for hyperbole has led me to make unfair criticisms. It took a show as wonderfully inept as Ex-Arm to show me that. How could I dismiss other shows on the basis of their pandering plots and awful art direction when a failure like this one was just around the corner? All the scornful words and failing grades I’ve given to past series are like rags to me now. I gladly renounce them in light of anime’s newest, most shameful benchmark. May it reign for years to come.

Potential: A Humbling Experience

Wonder Egg Priority

Short Synopsis: A lonely girl is granted a chance to reverse her friend’s suicide by fighting monsters in another dimension.

Mario: How is that for First Impressions? Wonder Egg just blows me away for daring to do things its own way. It has a lot to say though, switching back and forth between the real world and dream world, between the present and the past, between its lighter moments and its heavy themes such as bullying and suicide. I can’t blame the PVs for being vague because basically after this episode I still can’t tell you what just happened or what route it might take (and whether it will crack under its own weight – but hey, it’s an egg), but like Flip Flappers (the show I’m most reminded of while watching this) I can tell you what this show is about. It’s a literal psychological journey of a girl (or many girls) to find their connection and their own self-worth, to overcome their guilt and their shortcomings. The trippy, surrealist visuals are my jam, and the character designs are a delight. Not only does this first episode prioritize visual storytelling (there’s a lot of show-don’t-tell here), they do that in smaller scenes with subtle character expressions and gestures as well. One such scene is where Nagase sits next to our main girl in her tent. It’s a quiet moment that perfectly captures the tension between them. At the end, in a mere 20 minutes, I found myself intrigued, impressed and most of all, touched.

Potential: 90%

Wooper: My experience with Wonder Egg Priority was dominated by perplexed interest, but once I reached the final seconds of the premiere and heard Kanata Aikawa’s final “Tsuzuku!” a huge grin overtook me. This was such an assured start to a series that will inevitably go down as one of the year’s boldest experiments. It deals largely in metaphor, with escalators descending into dream worlds and humans hatching from eggs, which put me in mind of another director whose name I’m sure has already popped into your mind. That’s about the highest compliment I can pay to a first episode, but there’s more to admire here than layered abstraction. Main character Ai Ooto has a modern, Masayoshi Tanaka-influenced look, but the high cheekbones of several other girls seem to stem from Yuri Kuma Arashi’s elegant character designs. The hair animation is really good, too, and it’s tied back to Ai’s nervous curiosity, obscuring and revealing her differently-colored eyes as it shifts and sways. The soundtrack’s use of carnival music is both playful and suspenseful, and the concluding surprises promise a depth of imagination that stretches far beyond a single episode. I can’t wait to see what the next one looks like.

Potential: 85%

Kemono Jihen

Short Synopsis: A spirit detective travels to a quiet country town and meets an immortal half-ghoul child.

Wooper: This was better than I thought it would be. Kemono Jihen’s first episode was a pretty straightforward adaptation of the manga’s prologue, but it did manage to elevate itself in a couple ways, the most obvious of which was the music. I liked SK8’s melodic pop punk tunes quite a bit, but this show one-upped it with ease, drawing on chimes and woodwinds to create a traditional soundbed that matched its country setting beautifully. This is a modern production, so synths and strings came crashing in at the usual points, but the more subdued or playful moments were highlights for sure. The solidity of the character art was quite pleasing, as well, though there was a lack of harmony between people and backgrounds during some wide shots. The narrative setup itself is nothing impressive, and the twist at the end doesn’t carry nearly the impact that the author likely intended, but some good voice performances and a blessedly quiet shounen protagonist have me interested in the series’ future.

Potential: 60%

Mario: There’s something about Kemono Jihen that I’m not sold on yet. Maybe it’s because I am never too hot on shows based on supernatural procedures. Or it could be because I still find the relationship between Inugami and Dorotabo to be weak despite how this premiere tries hard to build up their relationship. Or maybe the characters’ dead eyes just bug me. In any case, the show doesn’t grab me the way it should. All that negative assessment doesn’t disregard many elements that Kemono Jihen did excel at: the production is strong, the show’s themes are intriguing and the twist in this episode mostly works. This is just a prologue for the main story, so the true test will be in the next few episodes. Let’s see if it manages to win me over by then.

Potential: 30%

Idoly Pride

Short Synopsis: A manager at an idol production agency flashes back to his first job.

Mario: Guess what? Another idol show that doesn’t suck. It really says something when the first episode of an idol show doesn’t feature many actual performances (for better and for worse). The bad thing about it is that it’s undeniably cutting corners. As smart as that method is I’m still afraid about its production values, and the ED further confirms my worries with the glaring CG model dance. On the bright side though, it means that its focus isn’t just on the idol industry – they delve more into character development and motivation, which for me is a plus, as by the end I did care about the MC. If Idoly Pride carries the same level of details to its 10 (!) idol characters then we have ourselves a winning show here. For now I remain optimistic.

Potential: 40%

Wooper: During first impressions season, I tend to watch anime with my fingers on my laptop’s pause and screenshot keys. It’s become something of a reflex to capture images I like from new premieres, which is why I was surprised to find I’d taken zero shots of Idoly Pride by the end. Then I thought back on what I’d just watched, and my surprise evaporated. This is a drab-looking show with discount Bunny Girl designs, still montages in place of dance routines, and the same closeup of the main dude’s face repeated around ten times in the span of twenty minutes. The main type of scene between him and Idol Girl involved him being a stodgy realist, then getting taken aback by something cute or inspiring that she did or said as the camera held on his confusion. I know that anime regularly leans on that trope, but Idoly Pride used it with alarming frequency, as though the protagonist’s brain were running a program that couldn’t decode cuteness or inspiration. At least it had a story, though, instead of running wild with all the idols that appeared in the first minute. That has to be worth something… right?

Potential: You tried

Mushoku Tensei: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu

Short Synopsis: A pervert loser dies and is reborn as a…pervert magical baby.

Amun: Ah…everyone okay over there, Mr. Anime industry?  Just wanting to check in and make sure.  Is there some childhood trauma that you guys need to talk about?  Something you need to get off your chest?  I’m here for you guys, and I’m just getting a bit worried – imouto infatuation is weird, but we’re starting to branch out to parents now.  This has been the kink of a few TV anime, and I’m sure some “niche” ones as well.  We’ve got a hentai hikikomori who has full consciousness as a baby and is ogling his mom…Sorry, I’m just going to be stuck on that.  That’s a bit far for me.  The show’s characters are definitely made with love, and the plot is perfectly generic, so that’s as advertised – I’m just a bit concerned about the childhood trauma of this author and his particular tastes.   So the short and long of it – a cookie cutter, decently animated isekai with a mother complex.           

Potential: 10%

Mario: There was a thought that was constantly on my mind while I was watching this episode: “why wasted so much effort for this?” Mushoku Tensei’s visuals are better than at least half of the shows I’ve sampled so far this season, and it all amounts to nothing with a generic story like this. The MC’s death in “real life” couldn’t be more stale, the world-building is overly familiar and the ecchi (to put it very mildly) couldn’t be more creepy. But what is worst for me is the “life lesson” the protagonist comes to learn after all this: he appreciates life and gives it another chance. WHAT? By escaping his very real life and living in this wish-fulfillment fantasy? That message is pretty problematic, doesn’t matter how I slice it up. Plus he gains OP power within the first episode, so what more is there for him to gain except for a harem of girls and recognition that he would never have in his previous real life? It’s just sad, really.

Potential: 0%

Horimiya

Short Synopsis: Two Japanese teenagers have secret identities. Except they’re boring.

Amun: The multi-coloured shadows are weird. Like the anime just randomly T-poses in different colours for some reason. But seriously…for a show I had pretty high expectations for, that premiere was…okay? It felt a bit heavy handed, honestly. Let’s get this out of the way – no one can help but compare it to Toradora. And by that measure, this first episode fell far short. But on its own merit, Horimiya felt…like there’s not much of a ceiling. Either this show is going to continue at a breakneck, break-heart speed or stagnate to the point of nauseam. I felt the characters were painted with heavy lines and don’t feel like they have much room to change – something that Toradora did incredibly well. I guess it might get better, but I’ve got a bad feeling this show has more pretention than performance.

Potential: 25%

Mario: What struck me first and foremost after I finished watching this first episode of Horimiya is how straightforward the setup is. There’s no earth-shattering external events that cause them to stay apart (like in Koi to Uso or every version of Romeo & Juliet), there’s no internal conflict that pulls them apart (not yet), it’s just a simple story of a girl and a boy seeing different, real-er sides of each other and growing closer because of it. Their chemistry is amazing and even with just this one episode it feels more genuine than many other anime that depict romance. In addition, I like the visual motif of these two characters and their shadows, signifying their outer appearances vs their hidden sides. On that note, I found Horimiya laid it on a bit too thick as it repeated that point too many times (at one point even spelling it out to the audience). The production is decent most of the time, and the dialogue for me is delightful… most of the time. On one hand I appreciate the natural exchanges between the two main leads, but at the same time Horimiya has a tendency to overreact. The most head-scratching part, however, lies in its first few minutes with the creepy comments by the teacher, something I hope the show won’t rely too much on. To sum up in one word, Horimiya is a delight.

Potential: 70%

Cells at Work: Code Black

Short Synopsis: One rookie red blood cell encounters the difference between promotional videos and reality.

Mario: Dang, how was I wrong about this? It turns out that the first episode of the original Cells at Work 2 is just better than this one, no contest. While I initially thought that Cells in sick bodies would make a more gripping show to watch, Code Black is guilty of making it heavy-handed and sucks the charm out of its premise. We have the typical set-up of a new Red Blood Cell who soon learns about the harsh reality of the job, we have the oversized-boobs White Blood Cell which makes no freaking sense and we have the typical bullying senpai – this feels like your average high school anime all over again with a different setting. On a positive note, I like the difference in the other cells’ behavior on and off camera – it’s fun to see the disparity in attitude – but like I mentioned above Code Black doesn’t aim for “fun”. That disparity is there for dramatic effect, and as a consequence the initial spark of watching how your cells work in animated form vanishes. Learn to loosen up a bit and have fun, will ya?

Potential: 30%

Amun: Mario wasn’t terribly enamored with the gritty reboot of Cells at Work: Dying Body Edition, but I thought it was…interesting at least. I kind of like the other side of the coin, a body that isn’t healthy. My complaints – I don’t love the weird shadow texture that’s being applied, and the White Blood Cell’s “plots” could be toned down. Let’s be honest – there’s only so much personification a single cell can take, and I think Cells At Work: Black is starting to bump up against that limitation. Still, the ingenious conversion of organs to buildings and clever adaptation of science are all still here – just missing a bit of the levity. I’m still a fan though, even if I feel a little shamed into working out.

Potential: 60%

Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun

Short Synopsis: Japan’s best Smash Bros player takes etiquette lessons from a high school hottie.

Wooper: This show is basically a self-help guide for incels. The first half largely consists of a shaggy-haired gamer’s complaints about attractive people living life on easy mode, while the second confronts him with the idea that he hasn’t put in enough work himself. That confrontation comes courtesy of the cutest girl in his class, who is naturally also a skilled gamer – though not as skilled as the protagonist, of course. We wouldn’t want to get too crazy with our shitty wish fulfillment plots! She takes the main dude under her wing, laying out objectives like “smile more” and “talk to three girls in a single day” for him to achieve. Of course, this rehabilitation project is just a pretense for the anime’s true purpose, which is laid out in the OP: gather a bunch of cute girls around a lonely nerd. “Woman fixes man” is among the worst romcom types in existence, so using that as a framework and then dumping a bunch of feel-good crap on top is insulting. I’m sure this series will have its champions, but they could do a lot better than watching another episode of Tomozaki-kun.

Potential: 0%

Amun: Amun’s liveblog of this premiere: This isn’t very good. Halfway through – I’m pretty bored. I guess it’s supposed to be inspirational or something. There’s just a lot of talking and some super smash hos going on – oh wait, that would have been actually interesting. There is just so much talking. I’m just so bored. Please. It’s still going. Why is this happening to me. Oh look a little sister. And the clubroom from Yahari with sewing machines. It’s over. Upon seeing this, I’m not surprised the birth rate in Japan is dropping.

Potential: 0%

SK8 the Infinity

Short Synopsis: A skater boy introduces a Canadian transfer student to the world of underground racing.

Wooper: The thing I found most striking about this episode was its design work. All the characters were attractive and easily distinguishable from one another, and I mean all the characters – even crowd members were given unique outfits, hairstyles and expressions. That kind of detail counts for a lot when you’re trying to build a world like this one, because SK8’s premise is frankly ridiculous. The show’s midnight races are supposed to be top secret, but the abandoned mine course they’ve built is so brightly lit that you could see it from space. There’s also a snowboarder who duct tapes his feet to a skateboard and slaloms downhill at 60 mph on his first attempt, because all extreme sports are the same, bro. Despite all this stupidity, this anime looks to be a lot of fun because its characters move and speak dynamically. Reki is passionate without being obnoxious, and Langa is cool-headed rather than dull. The former uses big gestures to communicate, while the latter is given life via minute facial expressions – it’s a neat dichotomy that I’ll be observing each week this season.

Potential: 70%

Lenlo: Yuri on Ice did it for ice skating, Hajime no Ippo did it for boxing, Welcome to the Ballroom did it for dancing and now Sk8 is going to do it for skateboarding. This was unironically the best and most entertaining first episode of this season. Someone on this team has a tremendous love for skateboarding and its community, and it shows. The care put into how the characters move, the aesthetic, the in-anime community around the sport. It’s soaked into every facet of this show. Sk8 isn’t just an anime based around skateboarding because it’s cool. Sk8 IS skateboarding. And I loved it. I have a slight worry about the “Cute Boys Doing Cute Things” vibe I sort of get from it, similar to Hyp Mic from last season, but even with that I loved this premiere and will without a doubt be watching it this season.

Potential: 95%

Project Scard: Praeter no Kizu

Short Synopsis: A bulletproof gunman chooses a successor with whom to entrust the fate of a lawless city.

Mario: GoHands has such a bad reputation that everything from them ought to be viewed through a harsh filter. But I’m here to be a contrarian on this one: this premiere about hot boys fighting against the system is pretty solid. Cheesy? Yes, but the sentimental ending works to set things up in the future. What it sets out to do is sell a brief relationship between the “Hero” and our MC – I can’t say it succeeds based on how quickly the plot goes, but I’m not lying when I say that they’re the most interesting characters in GoHands’ body of work (which admittedly is a low bar). We have a setting that immediately establishes the conflict between the hotboi team – or as they term it, “Scards” – and the other organizations. Visually, it’s a GoHands production alright with an over-saturated color palette and those weird white dots everywhere on-screen, but otherwise I don’t take much issue with it. Like Shaft, it has become their in-house “style” so we’re better off just rolling with it. It has some dynamic action scenes, though. I reckon the show will get dull later on, but after this first episode I am willing to give it more tries.

Potential: 50%

Wooper: As the credits rolled on Project Scard’s premiere, GoHands’ logo appeared on screen, accompanied by the slogan “Animation entertainment to advance.” My question is, advance what? The number of eye doctor visits taken by the average anime fan? The blazing light sources and blue-green color filters on display here would certainly accomplish that purpose. Maybe they intended to advance people’s free time, since about five minutes of Project Scard’s first episode involved characters explaining what had just happened in the previous scene. How thoughtful of GoHands to put a skippable segment into their show so we could make a sandwich midway through! Or maybe they wanted to advance the downward trend of people’s expectations for media mix TV adaptations – that would make sense, since this was one of the worst I’ve seen in recent years. There are just so many ways to interpret “Animation entertainment to advance,” but you know, that’s the mark of a great slogan: it really makes you think!

Potential: 0%

Kai Byoui Ramune

Short Synopsis: A girl who cries mayonnaise is treated by an eccentric “doctor.”

Lenlo: So to be perfectly honest, this is just a bad discount Monogatari mixed with a bad discount Great Teacher Onizuka. The doctor solves occult diseases that are based in your emotional/psychological troubles just like Monogatari, except the actual emotions and ways of fixing them are (at least from the first episode) trite and straight forward. Meanwhile its trying for the same sort of wholesome conflict resolution as Great Teacher Onizuka, confronting the parent and having the truth talk and realizing what is really important to you, but it does so in such a superficial “look at me” manner that it lacks all the heart Onizuka had.

If Monogatari was too wordy for you but you still want something occult akin to it, or Onizuka is too dated for you and you are ok with bargain bin heart-wrenching resolutions, then maybe this can be for you. Personally though? All I see is Walmart brand anime where everything in it was done better somewhere else.

Potential: 0%

Mario: The “solving weekly supernatural cases” anime is not entirely new in this medium, with HellGirl and xxxHolic or GeGeGe no Kitarou coming to mind. And even within that sub-genre Ramune ends up at the bottom of the barrel. While the manga was first published in 2017 (and is still on-going), it has the look and feel of a much older anime. And I mean that in a negative way, with the titular doctor being the main offender. First off, his unorthodox method of curing patients is intentionally ambiguous and makes us slightly uncomfortable – but I was more turned off by his “shout-until-it-sticks” behavior. Worse, while I appreciate how the sickly girl’s current issues deal with psychological stress, in the end she’s just a victim of her shouting doctor and screaming one-dimensional mother, so I feel the solution was pretty unearned. Add to that an annoying MC, unremarkable cast and even less remarkable production values, and unfortunately Ramune doesn’t offer much.

Potential: 10%

Beastars S2

Short Synopsis: One wolfie boy cannot decide whether to eat or “eat” a rabbit (why not both?).

Amun: For starters, I love the OP (and ED? I think they’re one song?). Sounds like Billie Eilish, Japan edition – pretty fitting for the amount of angst present. This premiere is angling more towards the horror undertones we were promised in the first scene of the first season and then promptly ignored for the furry love triangle. The production still looks great, and the plot is progressing fine – Beastars is best when it’s toeing uncomfortable lines. I don’t see anything that tells me it’s time to abandon this furry fleet of ships.

Potential: 65%

Mario: It’s business as usual here in Beastland. The second season picks up a few months after the concluding events of the first, and the gang is back to their normal lives. It’s a quite a low-key start after the climax of last season, merely introducing our mains and their new status quo. I’d say that this returning episode is a bit slower than I would have preferred, with Louis and Juno making way-too-brief appearances… Heck, even Haru doesn’t appear that much. It focuses more on old school “mystery” much like the start of the first season, and we are bound to meet new characters, which is always welcome. The visuals keep up from the stellar previous season, and the OP is an eye worm. Although this episode doesn’t really provide a lot of meat to chew on, it’s always great to have Beastars back on board.

Potential: 50%

Soukou Musume Senki

Short Synopsis: A girl gets transported into a mecha world, which she must save by fighting monsters.

Mario: Ho boy this one was bad. Story-wise it clumsily follows two girls in present-day, before clumsily forcing the main girl into the middle of a mecha fight. Visually, the cel-animated part is sparse in animation and looks stiff at all times, but it is still better than the CG battles that look outright horrible. Then there are 2-3 full minutes of transformation scenes, plus the main girl is so out of her wits that it’s painful to watch. This show is just too generic and offers nothing new to the table. It’s exactly what it aims for at the end: A toy advertisement.

Potential: 0%

Lenlo: Is it weird that I liked this show more before the giant robots, mecha suits and 2 straight minutes of transformation sequences? I thought I had finally found one of those shows that’s just girls talking and hanging out that I could enjoy, before it goes full on Symphogear. That said, this does seem better than Symphogear, however low that bar is. I like that it’s already playing with ideas such as what our lead has lost, that they can die in this world, it’s not just a game, etc. I have no idea if it will stay this way or fall into the same traps. But if it can avoid becoming just another terrible season of Symphogear then I might be able to have some fun with this one. Not much, but some.

Potential: 25%

Ore Dake Haireru Kakushi Dungeon

Short Synopsis: A lowborn noble acquires godlike adventuring skills through no effort of his own.

Wooper: This is the early frontrunner for Worst Premiere of 2021. It ticks pretty much every box of badness possible, especially with respect to the cast: Kirito look-alike protag, sister who’s obsessed with him, childhood friend with two massive “personalities,” and goddess who grants the main dude a bunch of powerful abilities on a whim. He already had one super-powerful skill, but it gave him migraines that could only be cured by kisses (I swear I’m not making this up), so he was clearly in need of a few others. Life point counters pop up on screen throughout the episode so we can track his progress, including how much mana it takes him to shrink his FWB’s tits. Armed with these incredible powers, he decides to apply at the local hero academy (cleverly named “Hero Academy”), and ends up shattering their entrance exam’s high score by several orders of magnitude. Oh, I almost forgot the best part: the main character’s name is Noir Stardia. NOIR STARDIA! It sounds like something out of a fantasy-themed porno – come to think of it, I’d rather watch one of those than another episode of this show.

Potential: 0%

Amun: Oh come on now, it wasn’t that bad…wait. It was pretty bad. Pretty sure they’re also going for “kink by committee”, with representatives from the imotou faction, the chains-bondage bloc, and vanilla-childhood-friend party, reporting in. I guess I’m a little more favorable to the visuals, since that was passable, but the story and characters are not great. I’ll give it another episode or two, but this feels like 100-man to me – pretty bland. Go watch the other weird revenge-healer isekai this season if you want something more extreme.

Potential: 1%