Star Crossed Anime

BUCCHIGIRI?!

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Arajin Tomoshibi’s reunion with his old pal Matakara Asamine takes an unexpected turn when they stumble into a brawl with the toughest guys in town. And just when you thought things couldn’t get weirder, a colossal genie decides to drop in. Brace yourself for the ultimate showdown. It’s the clash of the cool and the magical!

By all rights, Bucchigiri should not be good. It’s over the top, garishly colored, and absolutely ridiculous. Every character is a caricature. It’s everything we’ve seen multiple times before in series like that delinquent harem show from a few seasons back. And yet… It’s so expressively animated that the over the top nature just works, it fits. Every scene, every reaction, every dialogue, is punctuated with these bold and exaggerated animations that I can’t help but love it. And color wise? Everything from the skin to the hair is saturated such that even bright green hair or yellow shirts don’t feel that out of place with the rest of their outfits or skin tones. I’m honestly shocked at how strong this episode is. Maybe this is just me overreacting to one of the few good premiers in a season of mediocrity, but I can’t help but love what Bucchigiri is doing. Even the MCs main desire, to lose his virginity, is played so straight as a justifiable reason to stand up and push back against abuse, that I can’t help but cheer him on. I sincerely hope Bucchigiri manages to keep this up, that the production doesn’t fall off a cliff, that the story doesn’t become just another weekly battle series with a braindead plot. Because right now? This is some of the most fun I’ve had this season.

Potential: 75%

Snack Basue

Short Synopsis (Anilist): The gag comedy manga centers on a bar in Sapporo’s North 24th neighborhood, five stations away from the Susukino business district. There, the bar’s proprietor, junior proprietor, odd regular customers, and its share of walk-ins recount their strange lives.

Something about Snack Basue just seems… off? Is this vector animated? All of the movement feels so… stilted. You kind of get used to it after a while, but it’s definitely not very appealing. And that sort of applies to the show as a whole. It’s trying to be this conversational, talk-show style of comedy, but it relies so much on the awkwardness of this first meeting, on the experience of going to a snack bar, and the absurdity of some of its cast, that I felt more weirded out than I did amused. Ultimately I leave this episode wondering what it was I just watched, and why it ever got animated to begin with.

Potential: 0%

Meiji Gekken: 1874

Short Synopsis (Anilist): By 1874, seven years have passed since the end of the samurai era. A former samurai, Shizuma Orikasa works as a rickshaw driver in Tokyo while looking for his fiancée, Sumie Kanomata, who went missing during the Boshin War. Shizuma thwarts an assassination attempt and joins the newly established police department, where he’ll fight to stop dark forces from overthrowing the government.

Look I love the Boshin war and the beginning of the Meiji era, it’s a fascinating time in history. Between westernization and industrialization, Japanese society changed so much so rapidly that large swaths of the country were left behind. And Meiji Gekken has some of that in its DNA, what with a former samurai MC trying to make a life in this new era. He’s fine! But where it falls short is in its conflict, its villains, the reaction to this new era. To show what I mean, think back to the recent remake of Ruroni Kenshin. There the villains meant something, even if they were only around for an episode. They represented ideals, past ways of life, specters of past deeds, men and women who couldn’t find a place in this new era and were shunned because of it. Here though… It’s this sort of bland “revolution”, like Meiji Gekken is banking on a classic “return to the old ways” sort of narrative. But it muddies the water by also introducing foreigners like the British to the mix, making it no longer an internal struggle for the identity of the nation? I’m reading a lot into it this early, but what I’m saying is that Meiji Gekken feels like its using this transitional period in Japanese history as an aesthetic for a classic battle-series setup, more than as a meaningful setting for its narrative. And that kind of turns me off, despite the MC otherwise being decent. Go watch the Kenshin remake instead.

Potential: 10%

Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern

Short Synopsis: Modern Military Mecha crossed with Tokusatsu, will it be serious or jokey, who knows!

Bravern is… weird. It’s split between this “Modern military mecha against aliens” and “silly tokusatsu mecha”. On one hand, it’s kind of funny how straight it plays it. Characters have no idea what’s going on or why tokusatsu music is blaring from the speakers on the giant robot. That makes the finale work surprisingly well. On the other hand, the buildup to that point, the setup with aliens coming to Earth and killing a bunch of people, that all felt like it came from a completely different show. I honestly don’t think Bravern can balance these two aspects, I don’t think it can simultaneously be Eighty Six and a silly tokusatsu show. It’s going to have to pick one and stick with it. And if I’m being honest, I hope it sticks with the tokusatsu and only occasionally uses the “drama” to set up some jokes. Because there’s no way they are fitting a sentient giant robot that plays its own theme music on blast for the whole neighborhood into any sort of serious narrative. Anyways, while I expect it to flounder as it goes, for now it was kind of fun.

Potential: 40%

Delusional Monthly Magazine

Short Synopsis: Man joins magazine company, gets sucked into weird secret organization bullshit with magic animal people?

There is legitimately no other way to describe Monthly Magazine other than “Boring with extreme prejudice”. Absolutely nothing about this show works together. From the weird “MoPARs” magic items to one of our leads being the most garish tiger-man I’ve ever seen. It even has that thing where every character has a different hair color so you can easily differentiate them rather than giving them any sort of personality. This is one of the easiest skips of the season for me.

Potential: 0%

Saijaku Tamer wa Gomi Hiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita

Short Synopsis: Little girl born in a fantasy world has no special skills and must survive alone. Along the way she meets a little slime, and together they venture forth!

I was actually pleasantly surprised by how decent Saijaku was. It’s still a fantasy world with slimes, skills, healing potions, all that shit. But it’s not an OP MC isekai where the lead is teleported to another world and given a deceptively powerful ability that everyone thinks is weak. So it already has a step up there. In fact I was actually kind of surprised by how cute it was. Ivy talking to the audience, breaking the fourth wall to answer some questions, is obvious but it still feels better than a load of “convenient” exposition. And the whole scene with the weak slime, it being this smiling blob that’s really more of a mascot than a companion, was surprisingly emotional. I don’t know if Saijaku will take this “Weak slime and starless skill” thing and somehow turn it into an OP MC show, I really hope it doesn’t. Because if it can dodge that it might just be a solid and cute fantasy show for the season. For now though, I might stick with it for another episode or two.

Potential: 55%

This is the second of two Impressions posts today, so scroll down for the first!

30-sai made Doutei da to Mahou Tsukai ni Nareru Rashii

Short Synopsis: 30 year old virgin gains telepathy powers, discovers local chad in his office has the hots for him.

Oh the jokes I could make about this show… But for the sake of at least trying to be fair, I’ll refrain. 30-sai looks like a pretty straightforward BL. At the very least it isn’t trying to hide it or queerbait its audience by only implying it and never committing, it’s pretty upfront about the characters feelings from the first minute. For many I figure that alone will make it worth a watch, that community gets strung along a lot. What makes it even better for them though is that 30-sai is actually kind of… wholesome about it all? Like the magic telepathy power seems stupid at first but it’s really only there as a vehicle for the romance, letting the series skip past all the bullshit romance communication tropes of “I’m not sure” and “That comment could easily be misconstrued”. As someone that hates those, I’m thankful! And that’s basically my feelings on the show in a nutshell: I’m thankful that 30-sai is an upfront, no nonsense or weird fetishization, whole BL romance. I won’t watch it, because I’m not interested in BL. But I know that my friend who loves the stuff adores the show. So between that and how I actually finished the episode, I feel pretty comfortable recommending this to fans of the genre.

Also gaining wizard powers from being a virgin for 30 years is just funny, what in god’s name were they thinking with that title.

Potential: 50%

Sengoku Youko

Short Synopsis (Anilist): The world is divided into two factions: humans and monsters called katawara. Despite being a katawara, Tama loves humans and vows to protect them from evil, even if it means fighting her own kind. Her brother Jinka, however, hates humans, despite mostly being one. The siblings are joined by a cowardly swordsman named Shinsuke, who wants to learn how to become strong.

I don’t understand Sengoku Youko’s production. Most of the time it looks washed out, with weird gradients for hair or like someone took an airbrush to all of the colors. Then it randomly gets so much more vibrant, like the bright colors of magic in the action scenes, or that one scene at the river where the girls shirt went from a milky-burnt orange to a much more colorful vibrant shade. What I’m getting at is that Sengoku Youko’s production annoys me, as does its narrative. It really wants to be this fun naive action series with a quirky cast and jokes, stuff like the demon being the helmet the bandit was wearing, but most of it just comes off as annoying caricatures and bad jokes. I can’t think of a reason to watch this over going back to the early 2000’s InuYasha. That did this same sort of stuff but with a far more compelling cast and plot hook. What I’m getting at is that this is all a long winded way of saying Sengoku Youko bored me by the half-way point, and it didn’t get any better by the end. I want to be done writing these first impressions. Help me lord.

Potential: 5%

The Witch and the Beast

Short Synopsis: A mage and a beast hunt the witch who cursed them, seeking to undo it and get revenge.

It’s a little sad how weak Majo to Yajuu’s action is. Everything else feels good, the leads have good chemistry, the world isn’t a stereotypical isekai-style fantasy, it even flipped how I thought the title would go by making the female lead the Beast and the male lead the Witch/Mage. That was nice! I was engaged for most of the episode, the male lead especially pulled me in with his dialogue and VA’s delivery. It’s just the action is… Well between “pew pew” lasers, impactless punches and pretty bland magic (outside the crows, those were cool), it doesn’t look great. This isn’t the worst thing in the world, the action is probably the least important part of the show. But it is a damn shame that despite seemingly having everything else going for it, Majo to Yajuu tripped at the last hurdle. Still, I’ll keep up with it.

Potential: 60%

This is the first of two Impressions posts today, so keep an eye out for the second in case you miss it!

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord

Short Synopsis: A girl is sucked into her favorite otome game as the villain and must do everything she can to win the boy and avoid her fate!

I’ll admit, Villainess Lv 99 actually got me. I hadn’t read the summary and so fully bought into Alicia as our MC and the whole “I’ve been sucked into my favorite Otome game as the protagonist” thing. And you know what? While watching it, it wasn’t terrible. Rather dull, sure, but that’s mostly because this genre isn’t my favorite. But I was actually kind of impressed at the way it used its environment. Take for instance the rooftop scene, I fully expected them to just ignore the window, for it to not matter at all, when logically they should fall as they walk over it. And you know what? They did! That, along with a few others, felt nice to see. And the switch to our primary PoV character after we first meet her assuming Alicia would be our lead? I think it worked. Sure at the end of the day it’s still an Otome game OP MC isekai, lets not set the expectation too high. But if that’s your thing, Villainess Lv 99 seems like a solid choice.

Potential: 30%

Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp

Short Synopsis: Fantasy princess dies, isekai’s to our world, becomes a doctor, dies again, isekai’s back to her own world before her first death, and starts it all over.

Holy crap this is bad. Doctor Elise is an Isekai of an Isekai, where a fantasy princess dies, comes to our world, trains as a doctor, dies again, and then gets sent back to her world 10 years before she died the first time. If you want a story about a terrible person learning to be a better person, why not just… Do that instead of all of this convoluted bullshit? And to top it all off? It doesn’t look good at all. This one is a hard pass, there are better isekai this season. God doesn’t that feel weird to say.

Potential: 0%

Metallic Rouge

Short Synopsis: Mecha tokusatsu on mars. That’s all I’ve got, it really doesn’t explain much more than that.

This first episode of Metallic Rouge felt really really awkward. It’s stuck in this middle ground of being a mecha tokusatsu and a transhumanist think-piece on AI/Cyborgs on whether or not they are truly human. On one hand, it looks cool. That fight at the end was fun, looked great, the 2D mecha designs were fantastic, and the music worked well. On the other hand, this world feels like an amalgamation of many different ideas that don’t really fit together yet, from the “Immortal Nine” to AI being second class citizens basically and needing a special nectar daily to survive, but that nectar is also apparently worth a lot of money and humans can drink it too for some reason? How are these AI affording this while working menial labor jobs and such? And that’s not even mentioning the characters. Can you honestly tell me anyones motivation at any point in this episode? Rouge? Naomi? The weird and mediocre blonde villain dude who dresses like a jester? Because I can’t. Metallic Rouge feels like a show with a lot of ideas that, as of this first episode, it has no idea how to communicate. I’ll give it a shot for another few episodes, see if this was just a really awkward pilot. But I’m not expecting a lot from it.

Potential: 40%

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer

Short Synopsis: A lowly bronze-ranked adventurer travels off the beaten path, gets killed by a dragon, and comes back as a Skeleton. Is this the beginning of his journey to greatness?!

Oops, missed this one when it aired. Unwanted Undead was… Fine? I was sort of hopeful at the start, the idea of an adventurer turned undead, the world passing them by as they decomposed, forced by their status as a monster to clash with those they once called friends, it seemed like a decent enough idea. But then Unwanted Undead sort of just… sidestepped that? Turns out he became a skeleton in only like… 24 hours? And if he kills enough stuff he can level up into greater undead, eventually gaining the ability to speak and act human, etc etc. It feels like the series is taking everything interesting, everything creative about its premise, and slowly but surely writing it off until the series becomes a rather basic OP MC fantasy series. I’m going to give it another episode or so to see if it does anything with it, but I’m not particularly hopeful right now.

Potential: 30%

Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san

Short Synopsis: Event Super Sentai villains need a day off, this one just so happens to enjoy looking at Pandas.

Do you remember that one anime from a few seasons ago about a Super Sentai ranger falling in love with a monster on the opposite side? Well imagine that, take away the romance, and swap the leading role to the villain and you have Kyuujitsu. The entire thing is wholesome interactions built on an intrinsically unwholesome/evil character. And you know what? It’s… Fine? It’s basically the same sort of genre as that Princess torture show I mentioned in the last first impression. The kind where you’re supposed to sit back, chuckle at the absurdity of the situation, and sort of just chill out while absolutely nothing stressful happens on screen. If that’s what you want I think Kyuujitsu fits the bill. Personally it’s not my thing, and even if it was the torture princess show is just better in every way I feel. Maybe pick this up if you want a male lead instead of a female one I suppose.

Potential: 10%

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!

Short Synopsis: When an engagement is broken off a princess must find her own way in life, over and over and over again as she resets to that moment each time she dies.

Where do I really begin with this… On the one hand, having a time loop OP MC with a female lead is kind of nice, it tastes slightly different, like getting vanilla bean ice cream instead of just vanilla. I like that across all her many loops she’s grown a backbone and isn’t hesitating to speak out and push back, it’s appreciated. On the other hand… There’s nothing really new here. Hell, she gets asked to marry the big bad in episode one. I imagine the whole show is going to be about them falling in love and her working to prevent whatever big war he plunges the world into, only for him to reveal the war is necessary for some vaguely good reason that she has to struggle over. I feel like I can already map out all of the arcs it will have. And on top of that? It just doesn’t look very good. I don’t know, something about the lighting, the faces, the hair textures, it all looks off to me. Maybe you can get something out of it, it’s certainly better than a lot of the other stuff I’ve seen in the season and isn’t aggressively bad in any way, it just doesn’t stand out is all.

Potential: 20%

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!

Short Synopsis: Big town Tokyo boy moves to small Hokkaido town, immediately gets picked up by Hokkaido gyaru.

Look, I need to get something off of my chest. I’m not proud of this, but it’s the way things are alright… The lead girl Minami is kind of cute. I don’t understand it, I’m normally not a fan of the blatantly over sexualized blond gyaru girls. And make no mistake, that’s exactly what she/Hokkaido Gals is. Giant breasts, suggestive phrases/poses/situations, it’s complete and total ecchi wish fulfillment. Yet something about this one…I don’t know, it has this odd mix of wholesome interactions and absolute horniness. I think a lot of it is just the novelty of Hokkaido as a setting, because I adore snow and Hokkaido Gals has a lot of it. I doubt I’ll stick with it for the entire season, but if nothing else for now I’m calling dibs on the white hair one we see in the OP. It’s too late, you can’t beat me, I already did it.

Oh and I guess it looks fine. Has that “Knee/Boob blush” thing going on.

Potential: 30%

Hime-sama, “Goumon” no Jikan desu

Short Synopsis: A princess get’s captured by the Demon King and is subjected to all manner of terrible torture! Who knows what delicious food or experience they will tempt her with next in this wholesome and terrible dungeon!

Who could have guessed we would have two food focused series? Or well, maybe it isn’t food focused for its entire run, but this episode sure is. Anyways, Hime-sama is cute, really expressively animated, and I want Tortura to step on me- I mean, looks like a fun time. There’s this fun balance between “This is a serious torture session” and “Lets dance while eating toast”, all without getting weirdly sexual about the eating or the torture like many anime this season would. Tack on that it looks good, and I mean really good, like one of the best animated premier I’ve seen so far, and I think there’s a lot of fun to be had here if you enjoyed series like Sleepy Princess. Sadly I don’t think I’ll stick with it myself, it’s very slow and I have enough waifus- I mean series to keep up with this season as it is. I’m also not a big enough fan of this sort of thing for it to keep my interest for more than an episode or two, even if the one-off is nice. Still, I recommend it to others if a cute, low-stakes, fun series is what you’re after.

Potential: 50%

The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Masatora Akutsu, a demon on a recruitment mission in a human high school, is drafting allies for Hell against the heavenly angels. But when seated beside the captivating Lily Amane, he’s in for a devilishly hilarious celestial surprise!

The biggest mark against Foolish Angel has to be the horniness. Everything else, the girl, the lead, the idea, that all seems fine. Lily is cute and has some nice reactions, Akutsu isn’t a bland faceless self insert and actually has some personality, even if some of it is bad jokes, and the idea of an Angel and a Demon competing to influence a local highschool is kind of clever. It lends itself to a lot of silly situations without going full-blown fantasy ridiculousness. There’s even a decent fight, though I wouldn’t expect there to be very many of those in the future. Everything I’m seeing says this is more of a romance than it is an action series. The only issue is that right at the end, right as it was about to cross the finish line, it chose to go full blown fetish collar horny.

That really turned me off. I was having some fun with it, and maybe this is a one time thing and it chills out a bit as the series continues, but I sort of feel like Foolish Angel has shown its true colors here. This isn’t going to be a cute and wholesome romance, it’s going to be more of a raunchy one, and that’s just not what I’m looking for right now. If you are, give it a try, I think the rest of the show is solid and you’ll probably have a good time. For me it’s a pass though.

Potential: 15%

Solo Leveling

Short Synopsis: 10 years ago portals, and those with the abilities to combat that which came out of them called hunters, appeared in the world. This is the story of the weakest hunter.

So I’m cheating a bit, in that I’ve already read Solo Leveling front to back. I know where it goes, what it does and if it’s any good. And trust me, it doesn’t go anywhere great. For now though, this early on? It looks like a solid adaptation. I really like how Solo Leveling still looks like a Manwa, it hasn’t been super anime-ified or anything. Overall it looks nice. On top of that, it’s changing things up just enough, introducing characters and plot points early, so that it actually feels like it’s building up towards something. That’s something the original Manwa didn’t have for a long time. Makes it feel like some effort is being put in to tighten up the story, which is appreciated. It’s still held back by just how uninspiring the setting is, what with ranks, power levels, goblins and such. But so long as it can nail the action I don’t see why it can’t be a fun weekly popcorn show.

Potential: 45%

Tales of Wedding Rings

Short Synopsis: Isekai protagonist gets powers from marrying and collecting girls. Proceeds to create a harem.

It’s an isekai ecchi harem series with blown out lighting and that weird “blushing boob” thing so many series like to do. What I’m saying is, there’s absolutely nothing here beyond a harem of different girls with unique hair/body type/personality combinations for our lead to marry and then sleep with to gain power. There’s nothing unique or interesting about it in the slightest. Need I say more? I don’t think so. Easy skip.

Potential: 0%

A Sign of Affection

Short Synopsis: Deaf girl falls for local world-traveled tall boy, it’s very wholesome.

This was pretty cute. Affection is straight forward, not really doing much new that I can see, using a lot of classic tricks like “Mysterious world-traveled boy”, “Save them from the random foreigner” and “Pull them out of the way of something”, but it does them all rather well and never goes to far. I appreciated that the foreigner was just a normal dude asking for directions and not some creeper, or that the guy actually seems pretty normal without any excessively dark issues, that sort of stuff. Add on how the Female Lead is a cute, very expressive deaf girl and how she’s able to express herself with her full body while still selling her shyness? It’s pretty good. I’ve been told that the Male Lead gets kind of toxic later, but having not read the manga myself I can’t really comment on that. For now at least, I’m going to keep watching and hope Affection stays a solid, wholesome romance. Hopefully it goes better than Koe no Katachi did for me.

Oh also it looks kinda nice. Yeah.

Potential: 65%

Saikyou Tank no Meikyuu Kouryaku: Tairyoku 9999 no Rare Skill-mochi Tank, Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou Sareru

Short Synopsis: Tank gets kicked out of an adventuring party because they don’t understand how important tanks are, proceeds to create his own adventuring party with Black Jack and Hookers. Ok not really, but that would have been better.

So it’s an MMO style fantasy series in every way, including stats and party compositions and such, except for actually just calling itself an MMO? And we have a stereotypical asshole coming in and kicking out the lead and taking his stuff because… why not? This is literally just a Walmart brand Shield Hero, in that the guy got kicked down by terrible people, or BOFURI, watching a tank use their abilities offensively. Even its production is pretty weak, unable to look good at… well any point in the episode at all. I just don’t see why you would watch this when you have so much stronger fantasy, isekai or MMO fare in this very season.

Potential: 0%