Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Ao no Orchestra

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

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

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

Summoned to Another World for a Second Time

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

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

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

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 2

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

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

Insomniacs after school

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

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

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

Magical Destroyers

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

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

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

EDENS ZERO 2nd Season

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

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

Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc

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

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

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

Rokudo’s Bad Girls

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

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

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

World Dai Star

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

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

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

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Season 2

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

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

Edomae Elf

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

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

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

The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses

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

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

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

TOO CUTE CRISIS

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

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

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

The Legendary Hero is Dead!

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

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

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

MASHLE: MAGIC AND MUSCLES

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

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

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

Dr. STONE New World

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

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

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

KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World

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

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

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

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2

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

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

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

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

Yuri Is My Job!

Short Synopsis: A widely-admired high school freshman struggles to get her bearings while working at a yuri-themed cafe.

Mario: I think I get why Hime is such a perfect protagonist for this type of premise. In a yuri-themed cafe, the girls have to act like students of a fictional high school and improvise as if they are on stage. It works double-layered given that their stage persona is vastly different from their real personalities. And in Hime’s case, a triple-layer given that she has been “acting’ all her life. As a result, it’s amusing to see her play as a straight man at first, and then proceeds to change the plots to the dismay of those involved. Despite that, I cannot look past the forced method in which the show brings Hime to this cafe. It might be the manager’s intention all along (given how she fakes her injury), but there’s no way it could happen in real life. All in all, I believe Yuri is my Job has some potential to become something worthwhile here, but it’s best to watch it with tempered expectations.
Potential: 40%

Wooper: At long last, Japan has supplied us with a new feline-themed Amazon logo parody! Prior to 2023, onomatopoeia enthusiasts were stuck with Sonny Boy’s Nyamazon, but with the introduction of Nyanyazon, the meta has finally shifted. Thank you, Yuri is My Job, for bringing some much-needed diversity to this neglected corner of the anime landscape!
Potential: Nyaa/10

My One-Hit Kill Sister

Short Synopsis: Standard isekai setup, except lil bro summons OP sister who loves him lots.

Amun: My One-Hit Kill Sister looked better than expected on the first outing. I don’t hate the sister’s design as a blatant knockoff of Yoko from Gurren Lagen. However, the plot is where I start to lose interest. I guess the pretending to be powerful is interesting, but the whole character complex was overdone – even without the incest angle. It just makes the characters so flat…and honestly, it’s insultingly lazy writing. Look, one plot gimmick does not make an interesting show. Give us something to keep us hooked. And the answer is definitely not the horned rival from the after credits. All in all, this is a pass from me.
Potential: 0%

Lenlo: Interesting… an Isekai I didn’t immediately hate. Is this because of the OP toned female lead in place of a basic-bitch of an OP MC? Maybe. Could it be because the production actually seems kind of nice? Or maybe it’s the slightly less amount of ecchi fan-service bullshit that objectifies every female character in the show. It might even be that I connect to this MC’s desire to have a strong Onee-san beat people up for me. I’m not sure yet. What I do know is that I kind of had fun. I wish the female lead didn’t have an incestuous brother complex but look, I take what I can get. Whatever the case, I’m kind of down for this Ciaphas Cain style of lying bullshit. Could be fun, though probably not particularly good.
Potential: 10%

Opus.COLORs

Short Synopsis: An immersive field of digital art known as “perception art” was developed only a decade ago. Two childhood friends team up to create a masterpiece of said art.

Lenlo: I want to like COLORS. I do. The show is all about art, our perception of it and how it can change as technology improves. But compared to a work like Blue Period, I feel like COLORS is too wrapped up in the novelty of this AR technology and is missing the forest for the trees so to speak. By focusing so much on the technology, it loses focus on what the art actually means to the characters. The few works we see lack the deeply personal touch that we saw in Blue Period. Because of that, COLORS ends up feeling more like a shounen set piece with AR art then anything actually interesting, complete with class separation and different uniforms/class system. On top of that, I just can’t find myself to care about any of these characters. They are all so… stiff, they just don’t engage. Maybe it can pull something off, but I’m not that interested myself.
Potential: 5%

Mario: It’s kind of a novel idea for a show to promote a “new kind of art” and the way the university splits into two separate streams. The art is believable in the way that it connects to the technology advancement, it’s like 3D digital art where it’s not only the visual but all senses are stimulated. In addition, the school settings that divide between “grader” and “creator” allows some friction between the two classes. Sadly, that’s the only thing interesting about this first episode. The show either focuses on info-dumping about said art, or it is too occupied with one character doing everything he can just to get his friend to “notice” him. All the characters are plain and the setup for what to come is uninteresting. Too bad for such a nice premise.
Potential: 10%

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in The Real World, Too

Short Synopsis: An overweight teenager gains six pack abs after traveling through a mysterious portal in his grandfather’s closet.

Amun: As the resident isekai enjoyer, I feel like there were some things about “Cheat Skill in Another World” to be excited about. Door to another world that’s a two way street, transformation of a down-trodden character, etc. This uh…was not great. At least the main character was just unattractive instead of being a terrible person or a pedo. THAT is the bar we’re setting for positives here. The contoured outlines try to disguise the other animation inadequacies…that are dwarfed by the ridiculously flimsy plot. There will be an isekai this season that’s good. This ain’t it.
Potential: 0%

Wooper: This episode came so close to breaking the record for ‘Most RPG menu screens in a single anime episode.’ Alas, that honor still belongs to last year’s Reincarnated as a Sword, which means that I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World is sadly not Unrivaled in the Real World, Too – unless you’re talking about the size of its protagonist, who monologues at length about how everyone hates him because he’s overweight. We’re forced to watch as he receives a bloody beating for defending a girl from sexual harassment, which the scriptwriter apparently thought would be a natural first meeting between the two main characters. Never fear, though – after getting fired from his part-time job and breaking his bathroom mirror in a fit of rage, what should he find in his apartment but an interdimensional door to a fantasy world! There he gains a bunch of awesome skills before traveling back to Earth, magically transforming into a hottie with washboard abs, and meeting the very same girl the next day. (She immediately recognizes him despite the makeover, of course.) While all of this is happening, the episode assaults your eyes with soulless layouts, lots of brightness and blur post-processing effects, and a bewildering color palette that goes all-in on gray, purple and orange. It’s unpleasant to look at and even more unpleasant to think about, especially when you consider how many more Cheat Skills in Other Worlds will receive anime adaptations before this godforsaken fad finally dies.
Potential: NOT GOOD

Kizuna no Allele

Short Synopsis: A girl aspiring to be a VTuber goes to a virtual idol academy and meets new friends.

Lenlo: Man, VTubers really are everywhere now huh? At first Vtubers were just anime waifu’s on YouTube. Now they have come full circle and become YouTubers in anime. Have we crossed a line? Is this where God abandons us? I don’t know. What I do know is that unlike Mario, I was more engrossed by this show when I thought it was just HoloGra but for Kizuna Ai. Making a show about real VTubers and involving them in the whole thing could probably be a lot of fun for their fans and introduce people to real, existing talents. Instead we got something that’s just trying to use Kizuna Ai’s name, and VTubing in general, as the topic for its latest “Cute Highschool Girls Do Cute Things”. Could that work? Yeah, maybe. Will it work for me? No, definitely not.
Potential: 20%

Mario: My mind wanders in the first few minutes as it feels as if it’s a vehicle to promote Kizuna Ai and VTubers – one of the most recent damning trends that has crossed into the anime industry. Then we see our girl logging off the virtual chat, and then we see “Wit Studio” in the OP and I immediately take notice. What’s Studio Wit doing here? My question remains unanswered through the rest of the episode. To its credit, the show has little to do with Kizuna Ai herself, but is more about a new generation that is inspired by her and is aiming to become her successor. It’s a niche angle for sure, but if you take that away, the episode itself does enough to stand on its own. First, Miracle is not a bad lead girl to follow; she has clear objectives and at least she doesn’t get a nosebleed when standing near her crush. In addition, the greenhouse she bumps into, and where she meets another cast member, is so totally devoted to the show’s main setting that it’s actually kind of refreshing. Will that be enough to guarantee a second watch? Probably not, but I’ll give it more credit than others who regard this show simply as VTuber-promotional material.
Potential: 20%

Skip and Loafer

Short Synopsis: A confident yet clumsy country girl shows up late for her first day of high school in Tokyo.

Wooper: It’s nice to watch a “country girl in the big city” show where the lead’s best friend plays a non-negligible role in the story, even though she’s still living in their small town. Skip and Loafer is full of smart touches like that, from main character Mitsumi video chatting with her BFF Fumi to attentive shots of the secondary cast buttoning their uniforms before their first day of high school. There’s a recognizable quality to this episode as a result, and a refreshing one, too, given Mitsumi’s indomitable spirit. She experiences various setbacks on day one, just as many school anime protagonists do, but consistently bounces back through a combination of willpower and naivete. And get this – despite starring in an anime, she’s not socially maladjusted! She’s a normal kid who trades phone numbers with multiple classmates after meeting them in homeroom, with a humorous inner monologue that’s totally free of bitterness. Her character design is refreshingly simple, as well – all the designs are, which makes Skip and Loafer that much more pleasant to watch. The script carved out plenty of room for the cast to grow (especially Sousuke, the aloof yet good-natured male lead), and I’m eager to watch them do it, so I’ll be following the ordinary lives of Mitsumi and friends for a full season.
Potential: 70%

Mario: Skip and Loafer is a truly charming anime that manages to captivate its audience without relying on the over-romanticization of its characters. What sets this show apart is its ability to present its characters, such as Mitsumi, with their strengths and flaws on full display, resulting in a level of authenticity not often seen in anime. The animation is also a major factor in the show’s success, with Mitsumi’s expressive blank stares and carefully crafted mannerisms adding depth to the characters and further immersing viewers in the world of the show. The cherry blossom scene in Skip and Loafer beautifully captures the essence of the series, showcasing the pure joy and youthful exuberance of the two main characters. It’s a testament to the show’s ability to create visually stunning and emotionally resonant moments without relying on heavy drama or complicated plotlines. While it remains to be seen if future episodes will delve deeper into the characters’ struggles and conflicts, this episode proves that Skip and Loafer has the potential to be a truly special and memorable anime series.
Potential: 80%

My Home Hero

Short Synopsis: A father kills his daughter’s abusive boyfriend and now tries to get rid of the body.

Lenlo: The most lacking thing about My Home Hero is its production. In trying to stay grounded in its portrayal of crime, murder and domestic violence, it ends up looking restrained and bland. I don’t hate it, it doesn’t look bad. Just uninteresting and not particularly memorable. Luckily the story seems at least a bit interesting. At its core it’s vigilante justice against organized crime. But I like how it’s also set up as father vs father protecting/avenging their mutual families. None of the characters are particularly noteworthy just yet, but for a 1st episode I’d say I’m satisfied enough to keep going and see where it can go with this little personal war. Part of what will make it interesting for me though will be seeing how our soft salaryman lead evolves over the course of the story, rather than starting as a hardened ex-killer or something. If My Home Hero can nail that evolution, akin to say Breaking Bad, then it should be at least decent.
Potential: 40%

Mario: With My Home Hero, the main hook is definitely there, but I am concerned whether or not this production can make full use of the premise. For example, the visual is pretty bland with a muted and unattractive color palette and lacking in characters’ facial expression. But for me, my main gripe lies within its story, where the tonal shift is awkward and Reika’s boyfriend is too much of an asshole to be taken seriously. Take the scene where, upon seeing Reika’s bruised face, Tetsuo immediately senses that something was wrong (a great moment), but it then proceeds into him begging her to stay, which kills all the buildup from beforehand. In addition, to paint the yakuza’s boyfriend bad deeds, not only does he proudly confirm them in public, but the show has him repeat his intention every single goddamn time. A more subtle approach would benefit this better. My Home Hero is not without its strengths, however. We’re clearly rooting for the killers here, and the episode aptly gives more moral shading to the central murder – Tetsuo’s wife appears to be more convinced that Tetsuo did the right thing than the man himself. The episode so far achieves what it sets out to do – what Tetsuo and his family will do next – but they also need to give us more reasons to care about them.
Potential: 30%

Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi wo Suru

Short Synopsis: A college girl attempts to strike up a friendship with a handsome gamer after her boyfriend breaks up with her.

Wooper: Sasuga Morio Asaka, Madhouse’s shoujo ace. Yamada-kun felt limited by its silly premise in manga form, but under Asaka’s guidance, this first episode successfully exploited that premise for comedy. Timing is one major factor here – take protagonist Akane’s tranquil pauses in between messages from an inattentive online guildmate, for example. The buoyant synth music and quiet sips of tea during her downtime make you wonder when this peaceful mood will be broken, so when she eventually snaps and tells the guildmate to get the hell out of her hunting ground, it ends up being exactly what you had hoped for. That guildmate ends up being the Yamada from the title, whose frosty vibe attracts Akane’s interest once they meet in real life. Her scheme to have him pose as her boyfriend, plus her strategy to get dolled up before attending an event where her ex is likely to appear, create a strong impression; Akane is somewhat shallow, yes, but she also puts a lot of effort into whatever she does, which should contrast nicely with Yamada’s laid back energy as the series goes on. The frequent shift between simpler and more detailed versions of the character designs works well, allowing the show to bounce between bemusement, sadness, annoyance, and any of the other emotions it needs to access. Its only major weakness is art direction, as Yamada-kun’s real and virtual worlds both look a bit flat – but seeing as it’s capable of keeping your attention on the characters from start to finish, that won’t stop it from being a watchable romcom.
Potential: 50%

Lenlo: I will admit, I was really surprised by how charming Yamada-kun was. It’s another one of those wish-fulfillment “Otaku meets hot girl randomly” stories, but there are small details about it I enjoy. Akane’s facial expressions are especially on point. Whether it be the sarcasm and vindictive attitude of “:3” or her complete and utter ignorance of “O.O”. I feel like Yamada-kun actually managed to translate some of those text expressions, and their meanings, well into the show. Yamada also being completely uninterested and actually pretty comfortable on his own was nice too, he isn’t some desperate incel looking for a sex object. Am I sold on Yamada-kun? Not yet, most anime romances are vapid and short-lived whirlwinds. But this one at least has enough potential and charm that I’m going to check it out for a few more episodes. Plus the characters might have gotten laid in the first episode, and I’m curious if Yamada-kun will actually commit to this being an adult relationship.
Potential: 40%

Alice Gear Aegis Expansion

Short Synopsis: A girl enrolls in a group to fight mechanical aliens, and with the help of all the other girls, she passes the test of becoming an Actress.

Mario: Here, at the bottom of the seasonal offerings, we have Alice Gear. It’s an adaptation of an action game where the girls – branded as “Actresses” – fight evil mechanical aliens to protect the Earth, but you get none of that in this first episode. Indeed, this episode is more akin to an idol show, where a girl decides to join the girls group to be near her crush. It serves as a perfect opportunity for the staff to draw her lewd reactions, nosebleed and all that jazz. If it sounds awful on paper, it’s even worse watching it happen on screen. The only novelty to this episode is that it came up with a method to test their “Actress ability” by blowing into a metal horn, just like the way you test your blood alcohol level.
Potential: it gave me a bad nosebleed.

Lenlo: I liked this show better in the few minutes I thought it was just Symphogear in space. And I hate Symphogear. I thought that at least then we could get some fun action and maybe some stupid space drama. Instead Alice Gear whatever the hell exists purely as a lewd reaction gif generation. Is this a bit unfair to the series? Yes. Alice Gear is nowhere near as bad as stuff like Onimai from last season, which made me feel like I should go to jail for just having watched it. The fact remains though, while it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen, it’s also not worth watching.
Potential: Ow

The Dangers in My Heart

Short Synopsis: A high school loner with violent fantasies becomes obsessed with the hottest girl in his class.

Lenlo: What is it with anime and weirdly fetishized middle/high school settings? Like whose idea was it to create a shitty rom-com about an edgy school shooter and a quirky idol? Because whoever it was, I want them fired. Is this the worst rom-com I’ve seen? No, of course not. I’m just getting so tired of these kinds of Incel & Idol shows is all. There’s never any real chemistry between the characters, nothing to actually make them feel like they belong together. It’s just fantasy wish fulfillment for Otakus physically incapable of talking to women without insulting them, trying to convince them that their perfect demure sex-object exists out there. Suffice to say, I’m not a fan, but I’m sure if you liked Nagatoro then this might be for you.
Potential: 5%

Wooper: Male lead characters in anime romcoms keep getting downgraded, huh? From the hapless teasing victims in series like Takagi-san and Uzaki-chan to the epic gamers who require crash courses in hygiene like the guy from Tomozaki-kun, we’ve gotten a lot of bottom tier dudes in recent times. Not wanting to rock the boat, The Dangers in My Heart has crafted what’s sure to be one of the most pitiful romcom protagonists of the year – a vertically-challenged wannabe high school slasher with massive bangs swooped over one eye. Just listening to this guy introduce himself as a “bloodthirsty beast” who wanted to gain possession of his crush’s body by killing her was enough to make me question my temporary return to anime blogging. But I kept watching, and the show settled into a pattern of him stalking the girl in question and narrating the experience with nonviolent language, which I suppose was an improvement(?). Spying on her through the gaps in a library bookshelf, hiding in a store where her photos are on sale in a fashion magazine, trailing behind her as another guy unsuccessfully tries to get her LINE info – these are the scenes that made up the remainder of Dangers’ first episode. Unfortunately, the bar for romcom leads is still a little higher than “stalks girl instead of brutally murdering her,” even in 2023, so there’s no room for this show in my heart.
Potential: 0%

Amun: I want to chime in from having previewed it – the anime adaptation did not solve any of the problems it needed to. While it gets less murdery, it’s unlikely to get less bad. I liked Nagatoro (well, the first season, I quit during the second), but this is a 0% from me.

My Clueless First Friend

Short Synopsis: Excitable transfer student misunderstands classroom bullying and tries to attain Shinigami powers from a very confused shy girl.

Lenlo: What are these designs? And that weird fade in the hair, as if every character had a bag of flour dumped on their head? And this eternal fade into a bright light on most of the backgrounds? Clueless Friend might be the ugliest thing I’ve had to watch so far. Just on those issues alone I have no desire to watch it. But add on to that a wholesome, but ultimately toothless, main plot where an introvert meets an extrovert that we’ve seen a thousand times before, and you just have a boring waste of space in the season.
Potential: 0%

Amun: Okay, let’s keep it real here – the art is really bad (I hate this new trend of weird gradients in the hair and clothes). However! I strongly disagree that we’ve seen this exact formula before: anyone who has been a part of an introvert-extrovert relationship of any kind will appreciate the dynamics going on here. Instead of the borderline bullying that occurs in other shows of comparable genres (Nagato-san, Kubo-san, etc), My Clueless First Friend is about an energetic outsider who doesn’t understand the history of the classroom and looks at things from his fresh perspective. It’s completely anti-bullying – not toe-ing the line for humor but turning what everyone else views as a negative into a positive. That’s what makes this show so refreshing and wholesome. I didn’t realize this was Studio Signpost, but I have great confidence in their making of wholesome stories (Letter Bee, Beelzebub, and Morose Mononokean). Now…it looks atrocious. But I’m onboard with the characters, so this will probably get at least half a season out of me!
Potential: 60%

The Aristocrat’s Otherworldly Adventure: Serving Gods Who Go Too Far

Short Synopsis: Neet gets stabbed protecting a cute girl, Isekai’s into a fantasy world with magic as a Noble with multiple divine blessings. Isekai ensues.

Lenlo: Yes hello, I’d like one order of stereotypical trash Isekai with a side of shitty art-style please? Yes, I’m feeling fat today. Jokes aside, it took me 2 minutes to know exactly what this was and exactly how generic and forgettable it would be. Of course I still finished it, can’t be intellectually dishonest here. But there are probably better Isekai, definitely better adventures, and without question better productions this season. Don’t bother with this.
Potential: 0%

Amun: Oh look, the first isekai of the season! It’s so cute and full of potential…until you finish watching the first episode. Jokes aside, I’m still hunting for my isekai diamond in the rough for the season (last season’s was Handyman Saitou, which was wildly better than expected). At first glance…Aristocrat’s Otherworldly Adventure isn’t it. But that doesn’t make it unpalatable – in fact, this was a nice power-fantasy, low-stakes, harem romp (looks like he’s accidentally snagged a king or something?). If you need some feel-good filler for the season, you could do worse than this. I’ll keep it on my watchlist till something else comes along.
Potential: 40%