Guest Post: Unearthed Baubles with Firechick – Air (Visual Novel) 68/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews

Nostalgia can be a funny thing. One of the first anime I watched fansubbed was Air, and back then, I didn’t know it was based on a video game. I didn’t even know what visual novels were at the time. I did really enjoy the anime for what it was to the point where I bought the DVDs for it, and even though it’s been years since I’ve last seen it, I remember it pretty vividly. But the original visual novel was never localized in English in any official capacity, but there were a few fan translations that were made over the years. As of now, I’ve managed to play one of them in its entirety, specifically the PSP port thanks to finally learning how to use emulators on my PC. Though in light of the fact that after almost 25 years, Key announced that Kanon is finally getting released in the US in English, I think it’s only a matter of time before Air gets this treatment since most of Key’s other games were released in English as well. Plus, I have been curious about how the original visual novel for Air is compared to the anime, especially since games tend to be longer than their TV adaptations, resulting in a lot of things getting cut. Now that I’ve finished the visual novel…well, let me put it this way: As you grow up, you can find yourself either liking something you watched/read/played just as much as you did back when you were a kid, realize it’s not as good as you thought it was, or appreciate it even more than when you first encountered it. Air as a visual novel is an interesting piece of gaming history and an important game in Key’s legacy but…honestly, it made me appreciate the anime adaptation much more.

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Summer 2024 Season Preview

by SuperWooper, posted in Seasonal Previews

Lenlo: Hello all, welcome to our first Season Preview since my retirement from consistent content! I told you things would still happen, just not on a weekly schedule. Well this is the first of that! And as if in celebration, both Amun and Wooper are here to help me out. So go ahead and take a look at what you can expect from the Summer 2024 season!

Wooper: Poll’s at the bottom this time, folks – it’s cleaner that way! Once you’ve voted, don’t miss Lenlo’s post on what else you can expect from the blog in the coming weeks and months.

 

Middling Expectations

Quality Assurance in Another World

Studios: 100studio, Palette
Director: Kei Umabiki
Series composition: Shougo Yasukawa
Source: Manga

The Premise: A debugger attempts to fix a poorly programmed JRPG from inside the game, even after all his co-workers have given up.

Wooper: I am a board-certified isekai hater, but something about this show caught my eye as I was combing through the upcoming seasonal chart. At first it was the poster, with its stocky red-haired protagonist and nightmarish blob monster, both of which are nice departures from the genre’s myriad Kirito lookalikes and Dragon Quest-aping slimes. Then it was curiosity about the director, whose experience working on comedies like Gintama and Iruma-kun may serve him well on a series that, based on the PV, understands just how silly it is. Unfortunately, the same PV reveals Quality Assurance to be a visually modest affair, so if the writing fails to elevate its “stuck in a video game” premise, this thing will swiftly be forgotten. I’m hoping, though, that the conceit of someone trying to debug a crappy MMO from within will allow for some amusing metacommentary. Usually I’m punished for my optimism when it comes to this subgenre, but maybe this time will be different?

Lenlo: Like Wooper, this being an Isekai has caused it to immediately lose most of my interest. And unlike Wooper, I’m actually not a fan of Gintama and Iruma-kun, so the director didn’t catch my interest much either. But watching the PV… That “dragon” design, and the world at large, did. It doesn’t feel like Quality Assurance is taking itself too seriously, is willing to have some fun with it and not have all the usual isekai tropes, which is probably for the best. I’m not expecting much, but like Wooper, it’s at least earned me checking it out.

Amun: Iruma-kun catching strays (I still love you). I’ll be watching this.

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What’s Cooking

by Lenlo, posted in Special Articles

Hello everyone! It’s been a while since my last post here announcing my semi-retirement. Now that we’ve all had some time to digest that, and I’ve been able to rest and get some of my energy for writing back since I’m not stuck doing 4 posts a week, I wanted to let you know about a few things coming down the pipe. I know some of you were worried that the site would end entirely, so let this be a public notice that we’re still here, and I’m still writing. Just not weekly.

Within the Week

First up is something I’ve seen a lot of people clamoring for and hoping we keep doing, and that’s the Seasonal Previews. Well don’t worry, because we’ve actually almost got the Summer 2024 Seasonal Preview ready to go, with only a few more blurbs left to write. You can expect that sometime this weekend most likely, early next week at the latest. Additionally, I do still plan to cover the First Impressions of the Summer season. It’s a lot, but that’s actually pretty fun for me and I’m looking forward to it. I assume Wooper and maybe Amun will join me on that as per usual, so look forward to that as well when the Summer season starts.

2-4 Weeks Out

After the Season Preview I also have a few reviews I’m working on for a couple of Spring shows. Since I’m not writing weekly posts, I’m actually able to prepare these in advance, meaning I should be able to get all 4 (That’s right, 4) out in a pretty reasonable time. You can probably expect one a week once the season has ended. I won’t spoil what shows these are, since that’s part of the fun, I’m just letting you know that they are on their way!

1 Month or More

Finally we have the long term posts, the sort of unique articles I’ve been wanting to do for a while but never had the time for. These are akin to the I watched Black Clover so you don’t have to post I made back in 2020, big, chunky things that don’t really fit into our normal content. Because these are big and chunky, as well as hyper specific, they take a tad more time to write. As such, I don’t really have a set date for when you can expect these to go up. Suffice to say though, I’m actively working on them between reviews. As for what those posts are, here are my working titles for the two I have in production right now:

My Hero Academia – The Life of a Super Hero (Series) – A look back at how My Hero Academia started, what inspired it, where it went, and the author behind it all, Kohei Horikoshi

The 4 (8?) Forms of Ancient Greek Love, Using Anime – Analyzing the various words/forms of Greek love using anime, as inspired by Vinland Saga

Both of these posts are still in the preproduction phase for me, I’m blocking them out and researching them. I expect the Greek love one to be done first, simply because it requires much less research than the Horikoshi one, but who knows. Don’t hold your breathe on these, I’m still figuring out how long it takes me to write this sort of stuff. Just know they are out there being worked on.

So yeah, the blogs not dead! I promised it wouldn’t be and that we would instead be shifting to more irregular content, and I’m sticking to that mission statement. Thanks for coming along for the ride and I hope you enjoy what I have cooking!

Guest Post: Unearthed Treasures with Firechick – Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette (95/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews

The year was 2007. It was around that time that I was really starting to dip my toes deeper into the anime fandom beyond just Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, or whatever was airing on TV. I was browsing some anime websites, and a promo picture for a new anime called Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette caught my eye. It looked interesting and I wanted to watch it…but at the time, little to no fansubs for it existed, and the few people that saw the anime hated it, dismissing it as a watered down version of the original novel right out of the gate. Back then, I wasn’t familiar with the original Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables, but I watched the few episodes that received subs and I liked it a lot. But Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette wouldn’t receive completed fansubs until 2011 (Thanks, Licca Fansubs!!), around the time I started college. During that time, I learned that Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette was actually made as an attempt to revive the World Masterpiece Theater franchise, which was notable for adapting Western children’s novels into Japanese animation, from the early 70s up to 1997, then from 2007-2009. Unfortunately, the attempt to revive WMT failed, and since Konnichiwa Anne ended, no new WMT anime have been made. Which is a damn shame in my opinion, because as of this writing, I’ve seen a good majority of the WMT, this anime included. While I do consider Dog of Flanders to be better, I’m thankful that I got to watch Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette, because it introduced me to the WMT as a whole and was one of the anime that helped refine my personal tastes. And because, honestly? Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette is pretty damn amazing. I did review this when the fansubs finished, but looking back, my old review for it is pretty overly fangirly and not up to standard with how my reviews are now, so I’m writing a new one.

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State of the Blog – We need to talk

by Lenlo, posted in Special Articles

Hello everyone, Lenlo here. Lets talks, about the state of the blog, the state of my life, and where things are going. Or well, I’m going to talk, y’all are going to read.

As many of you have noticed, posts have been slowing down for a while now. I’m months late on things like the 2023 Anime of the Year, as well as the Dr. STONE S4 and Undead Girl Murder Farce reviews. Some of you also probably figured out those were never happening. Well I’m here to talk about why, as well as the future of the blog. Simply put, I’m tired. So very tired. I’ve been doing this for almost 7 years at this point, and I’ve enjoyed it a lot! I remember every single series I’ve covered, and I valued every comment. But… I just don’t have the energy for it anymore. Not only can I not handle 3-5 posts a week on top of my  regular life, watching anime in this way, looking for things to praise or criticize, taking notes as I watch it… it’s ruining my enjoyment of them. I can’t do it anymore. So… I’ve decided to follow the rest of the writers and retire, from weekly posts at least.

What does this mean for the site? Well for starters, it’s not necessarily the end. I’ll still write the occasional review or post that interests me, I do still enjoy writing the larger reviews, but I’m going to do it on my time, as I naturally finish a series, without any weekly posts or other deadline considerations to worry about. I’ll also continue to post any guest reviews, such as Firechick’s, for as long as I am able. But basically this means all weekly, almost daily, content is coming to an end for the site. Everything else, we’ll see. As for how long this will go on for, the server is paid for until 2025, so at the very least it will remain up for another 18 months. All the old reviews, all the posts, the comments, those will all stay up until the end of next year. Once that time runs out I’m going to evaluate where we’re at and decide whether or not to pay for the server for another year.

So yeah… That’s the news. I talked it over with the other writers in the discord, and they support my decision. They understand that some day, all things must end. That every dreamer must wake. And while I tried to put it off, I held on to this place as best I could, it’s my time. Effective immediately, for the sake of my own mental health as I finish this last busy summer semester of my Master’s degree, I am retiring. I apologize for the series left half-finished, for the incomplete weekly roundups. I might, hell I probably will, write a review for a couple of them. But those will come out on my own time. So until then, chat with you in discord whenever I can, and I’ll see you around space cowboy.

Ranger Reject – 7 [The Zigzag Road to the Final Exam!]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Ranger Reject

Welcome all, to another episode of Ranger Reject! This week continues the exam, revealing the true secret behind it and driving our cast to conflict, meanwhile in the background a greater threat is beginning to arise. Pretty ominous right? Well lets dive in and talk about it!

Starting with the test itself, the reveal that this wasn’t actually designed to test pairs of two but full teams of five was really interesting. Suddenly a seemingly impossible test designed to fail everyone instead becomes a measure of leadership, team work, and judgement on who you team up with. I still wouldn’t call it perfect, the way Ranger Reject presented it last episode was still very flawed, but this episode was a valiant recovery and may end up saving the arc for me. Shion’s betrayal despite everything Fighter D did for him yesterday, the way Fighter D is slowly building up his team of rejects to steal back the keys they need, as well as everything else going on in the background, was all around pretty good. It still suffers a bit from pacing, but not nearly as badly as the previous episode.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S4 – 3 [Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome all, to another week of Kimetsu no Yaiba! For how simple the premise is, how little promise the arc seems to have, I’m enjoying myself a shocking amount. It’s nice coming back and seeing these characters again, spending time understanding who they are and what they think of the current situation. It’s what the series needed! I just can’t believe we actually got it. What do I mean? Well lets dive into the episode and find out.

All things considered, this was a pretty straight forward training episode. Tanjiro returned, we caught back up with Uzui and saw what he was putting the Demon Slayers through, had a motivational speech, then moved on to the next Hashira. Nothing big happened, no fights or major revelations, just Tanjiro getting to show off how far he’s come and how great the difference is between him and a regular Demon Slayer. So why am I so happy with it? Well that’s simple, Yaiba executed a basic premise very well. Rather than being about empowering our lead, making him stronger, it was about how our lead can empower and raise up those around him. It showed us the nameless, faceless mooks and made it clear that, even if we don’t see them at the final battle, they will be there. Doing their part.

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

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Weekly Summary

Hey all, quick note at the top here, apologies for all these delays. Wrote it in the Nana post but I’ve been pretty sick since Wednesday and have been catching up these past few days. That’s all.

Dungeon Meshi – 21 [Egg/The Golden County]

This was an interesting episode of Dungeon Meshi, as we start to expand our scope beyond the dungeon and into the wider world and its history, as well as all the consequences that brings. On the surface, this means we get to meet the Fantasy Cops AKA, the Elves. This squad is… interesting. Every single one of them looks like a sociopath, from Mr. “Covered in magical tattoos” to “I had a stroke and I’m still better than you”. Honestly it’s a pretty cool looking cast, I like how varied their designs are and I’m looking forward to their role in the story. They are obviously gonna be bad guys, we were warned about how the Elves react to Ancient/Dark Magic back when Marcille was doing her thing. So there’s not a doubt in my mind they are going to end up fighting our main party. The question is just whether or not we inevitably team up with them to take down the Mad Mage, or if we fight them after the Mad Mage goes down to secure Marcille/the loot/Dungeon Lordship. Should be interesting! Meanwhile underground we get some history, meeting some more of the ghosts, learning about their Curse Of Immortality, and the source of his power, the Winged Lion, kept further down. We have a goal, a weakness, and a prophecy now! Things are ramping up! All in all a lot of fun, I’m enjoying the slow escalation of the story, it feels like a fantastic home game of D&D with just the right mix of action and comedy. The fact that Dungeon Meshi is a complete story gives me a lot of hope too, I wasn’t aware of that before now.

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Nana – 7/8 [Yasu Appears! Room No. 707/Strawberry Glass and Ren-Lotus Flower] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Nana, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to a late post on Nana! Sorry about that, I’ve been rather sick since Wednesday and have only just recovered. Doesn’t help that this was a rather dull week, giving me little motivation to write about it. Nana has some interesting characters, interesting ideas, but it feels like it isn’t doing a lot with it just yet and we’re about 15% through. Friends keep telling me it’s great, so maybe it’s just taking its time to set everything up and kick off. I don’t know. Whatever Nana is doing though, I hope it starts to liven up a bit soon. Anyways, feeling better, able to write, now onto the episodes!

First up is episode 7, “Yasu Appears! Room No. 707”. All about introducing Nana and Ozaki to each others friend groups, as well as some Nana insecurities, this was easily the more disappointing of the two we’re going to cover this week. The core idea is fine, Ozaki and Nana get to meat each others friends, they start to intermingle and our cast slowly comes together. And when that’s happening it’s good! I enjoyed seeing Jun and Shoji’s reactions to Ozaki and Yasu, seeing who Yasu has become in the past two years and finally progressing things a bit. The issue though is that basically the entire episode was either Nana making up her own issues with Shoji or them standing in the doorway of Nana’s new apartment and then leaving. It was like a first-impressions mixer, where neither side really engaged with each other beyond the surface level. A real missed opportunity if you ask me.

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Ranger Reject – 6 [1 Plus 2 Equals… Threat!]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Ranger Reject

Welcome all, to the halfway point of Ranger Reject This week is another fast one, blazing through content in way I’d rather Ranger Reject didn’t. That’s right, this is another 4-5 chapter episode, meaning we have a lot to talk about and not all of it is good. Lets dive in!

As I said, this episode moved fast and covered a lot. Ranger Reject was running a mile a minute this week as it speeds its way through the Final Exam. And you know what? I can’t say I’m particularly happy about it. We went from just meeting these people, these other cadets, to immediately getting thrown into a big exam where most of them are probably going to fail. The exam itself also serving as our proper introduction to the 2nd-in-commands of the various squads as they act as the “obstacles”, letting us meet characters like Hisui properly. This kind of sucks, because I was hoping we would get more time training and getting to know this large cast of new characters. That the final exam would be the climax of the season rather than the mid-point. Maybe Ranger Reject can make it work? But I’m starting to worried.

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