Welcome to Odd Taxi with Amun! After taking a season off, it’s good to be back! We’re here with our favorite taxi walrus Odokawa and his motley – probably criminal – crew. Let’s see how things have gone since that smashing premiere. Continue reading “Odd Taxi – 02 [How to Spend a Long Night]”
Short Synopsis: A high school girl bullies a nerdy upperclassman for her own amusement.
Wooper: I expected to hate Nagatoro-san the same way I did Teasing Master Takagi-san, but the surprisingly competent animation did this show a lot of favors. The way Nagatoro bounces around the screen gives her an impish quality that softens her verbal blows – her dynamic reenactment of the male lead’s manga in particular marked her as a fun-seeker rather than a tyrant. Of course, bullying a schoolmate in your quest for entertainment is unacceptable behavior in the real world, but this is anime, where a story’s presentation makes all the difference. Nagatoro is a mean girl, but she demonstrates both a lasting interest in her target and an understanding that her behavior is wrong (“I’ve been pretty horrible to you”). She doesn’t leave as soon as she gets the pitiful reaction she wanted – she sticks around, probably because a small part of her empathizes with this loser, and she likes that new feeling of empathy. She even smiles in satisfaction after Mr. Loser works up the courage to ask her name, as though she’s been waiting for it. I think there’s more to this one than meets the eye, even if it’s obvious masochist bait.
Potential: 40%
Amun: Ah, this was pretty painful. Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san is another rare show where I’m familiar with the source material. I previewed this show and said something along the lines of “it’ll be okay as long as it’s not too mean.” Well…it’s pretty mean-spirited, honestly. There’s a bit of a moment where our main antagonist feels bad about making the helpless lad cry, but it’s too little, too late. How should they have approached this? I think this show works if they show how Nagatoro is more clumsy, instead of cruel – how her “bullying” is just a lack of understanding how to relate. Instead, it comes off as just sadistic. Maybe I expected too much, but this is a hard pass from me.
Potential: 0%
Short Synopsis: A former delinquent time travels back to his middle school days right before his untimely death.
Lenlo: Revengers is a weird one. Narratively I know I have nothing to worry about. I enjoyed the manga so much I caught up on the entire thing in a weekend and the anime did a decent job overall on that. But not 2 minutes in and LIDENFILMS is already changing small character moments, the sort of stuff that informs you as to who they are. Like making the kids key the car instead of our lead himself doing it, taking away that small moment of rebellion as we get a peek at his inner self. It’s not a big deal but it leaves me asking: What else are they willing to change? Meanwhile the visuals are simply uninspired. They reek of cashing a check, of making an adaptation with minimal actual effort. Hopefully I’m wrong, hopefully Revengers comes back strong and gives me the adaptation I want. But I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t.
Potential: 35%
Wooper: Imagine for a moment that Erased, the time travel anime from 2016, had been delinquent-themed. Now strip away that show’s intrigue, nostalgia, and good looks. Oh, and replace its suspenseful soundtrack with half a dozen lukewarm electric guitar tracks. Got all that? Congratulations, you just saved yourself the time it would have taken to watch the premiere of Tokyo Revengers. I wish I could join you in spending those 20 minutes on anything else, but instead I have to quickly account for my disinterest. I suppose most of it stems from the main character, whose primary thought as he moved through his extended flashback was, “Oh yeah, I remember that.” The guy is far from an electrifying protagonist – his long-awaited reunion with the girl of his dreams was so mild that I thought he might have the wrong person. Not even the plot’s fixation on single-minded teenage punks could make him look complex by comparison. I suppose I should be grateful to Revengers for having such a lousy lead, though, since it quickly signaled that I had one less series to follow this spring.
Potential: 5%
Short Synopsis: Poor preteen’s Fairy Tail.
Amun: Disclaimer: I’ve only watched the first episode for this review, and it was a fansub, pre-air. That out of the way – Edens Zero certainly gets right to it – no OP or anything. I guess I’d forgotten how…silly Fairy Tail was. This episode was certainly that – very silly. The twist was pretty telegraphed, but I appreciate what they were trying to do. The fight scene was mixed – there were some nice after effects, but I’m not sold on the choreography. I’m also a little concerned about the pace – this episode felt like we were on a schedule with places to be (despite the robots waiting something like 100 years…no big). I just wish the first episode had reminded me only of what I loved about Fairy Tail – fun characters, friendship, and bagpipes – instead of the other nagging issues as well (production, pace, and choreography). I’m still optimistic, just maybe not as much as I was.
Potential: 60%
Armitage: Preface: Amun made me do it!
To say that I am a fan of Fairy Tail is a lie. To say that I don’t judge you for liking Fairy Tail is a diplomatic lie. So, I guess Edens Zero had its task cut out when it threw its hat in the arena for trying to vie for my weekly watch time. Needless to say that it failed at the five-minute mark when we got our main 12-year-old looking protagonist fondling the main female lead’s breasts before proceeding to place himself on the ground in such a position that he could get a peek at her underwear. Going into this show, I knew that I was gonna have to overlook a lot of stuff to even be able to get through the premiere’s runtime and I did exactly that… until the high-pitched, unfunny slapstick comedy and every second sentence ending with a “desu ga?” got too overbearing that I had to tap out. But for the sake of being a professional anime reviewer, I willed myself to the end-credits. Still, I must say that I simply don’t like this show. I won’t ask you to not watch it. As art is subjective. What I might dislike, you can end up wholeheartedly enjoying. But I can give you a TL;DR which can help you decide if Edens Zero is for you: “Even Fairy Tail is better than this”.
Potential: Pass
Amun: Wait, why the heck would you watch this if you didn’t even like Fairy Tail?! It has the same characters!
Welcome all to the Spring 2021 season! My name is Lenlo and like usual I get to have the first post of the season. This time brought to you by Megalo Box: Nomad! So without further ado, lets dive in!
And what better way to start off than to talk about the music? Manabu Yamaguchi, also known as Mabanua, has done it again with this OST. Whether it be the ED “El Canto del Colibrí” or the as of yet unnamed festival accordion track or the bar song of episode 1, its great. He has managed to nail that country Spanish twang. I can’t speak to the authenticity of it nor can I speak Spanish beyond a 3rd grade level. But it certainly evokes that imagery, that culture. It makes you feel the setting just as the visuals make you see it. And what’s so astounding, aside from where a Japanese composer found a Spanish singer in Japan, is how different it is from his other works. BNA, Space Dandy, even the first season of Megalo Box. Each have their own unique sounds. And now so to does Nomad.
Continue reading “Megalo Box Nomad – 2 [La desesperación da coraje a los cobardes]”
Short Synopsis: Salarywoman dies of overwork and comes back committed to doing the minimum. And accidentally becomes overpowered.
Amun: For whatever reason, some anime recently have been on a crusade against Japan’s overwork culture. Which strikes me as odd, since it’s well known that animators are overworked. Bit of a disconnect between the medium and the message, you know? Anyways, Slime’s message is “slow and steady wins the race” – which is fine if you’re immortal. Oh yeah, and there are no important males in this world. That’s not saying any particular male is unimportant, there just aren’t any present in this world. I guess those are the points I’m neutral or slightly negative on – the show is otherwise nicely chill. The main character is consistent and committed to taking it easy – no complaints here on that. The introduction of the dragon maid is, well, expected – but not horrid. If you’re looking to turn off your brain (say, as you catch up on the last season of Titan), this is the show for you.
Potential: 65%
Lenlo: I was wondering when I would get to the Isekai of the season. And what do you know, it’s exactly what I expected! Video game logic, stats, levels, slimes, drops and absolutely 0 world building or meaningful character work. Oh there might be something novel in following the “Wise Old Witch” character of the story. See some adventurers visit and ask for guidance, do some Gandalf shit then go to bed. But I don’t expect that to be interesting for more than an episode or 2. Meanwhile any “Save the world” plots are automatically invalidated since our lead is literally an overpowered max level immortal witch. If you want some popcorn entertainment you can turn on and not have to actually engage with, Taoshite is probably up your alley. If you want anything other than to be bored out of your skull though then this is probably a pass.
Potential: 10%
Short Synopsis: Army Management Simulator – The Anime.
Lenlo: I’m getting some serious Ender’s Game vibes from 86 and let me tell you what, I’m in. It’s incredible how much information 86 packed into a single episode. By the end it felt like I had watched 40 minutes instead of 20. Yet the pacing didn’t feel rushed either. It managed to convey just as much information through visuals as it did through its dialogue. Whether it be the homogenized hair/eye color of the citizenry, the debaucherous and trashed “Military HQ” or how District 86 and its inhabitants starkly contrasted both. Combine that with some clever cuts and information dense dialogue and you have more world building in a single episode than a lot of anime get in their entire season. The one way I could see 86 going wrong would be if it abandoned its serious take on war. I need this to be in the same camp as OG Gundam, not Space Battleship Yamato.
Potential: 90%
Armitage: This is damn good stuff right here. 86 was one of the most high profile adaptations of the season, based off of a light novel series that’s highly acclaimed even by people not big on LNs, and being adapted across two cours by A1 Pictures. Safe to say that it does deliver on its promise by presenting us with a gritty war-torn world brought to screen through lush backgrounds and actual good 3D-models not rendered by Studio Orange for once. Outside of the 3D designs too, the animation is nothing to scoff at, with characters having detailed expressive movements even during regular conversations. Coupling all that with some impressive quick-cuts and an uncharacteristically low-key but fitting soundtrack from Hiroyuki Sawano, and 86 just about supplants Vivy as the most technically impressive anime of the season, even with A1’s rather generic character designs. Another aspect in which 86 betters Vivy is the way in which it handles its world-building. While the latter has a better premise overall, 86’s necessary info-dump feels more natural and never gets overwhelming, as it lets its visuals and themes take centre-stage instead. If it can deliver a story along the lines of the very similar and highly impressive Iron-blooded Orphans, we’ll surely end up having one of the highlights of the season on our hands.
Potential: 86% >.>
Short Synopsis: A living doll begins her service as an attendant in a mysterious mansion.
Wooper: Boy, that opening montage was a lot more sinister than anything I read in the manga’s first ten chapters. I like it! There’s all sorts of stuff we can infer from those first few minutes – the train that arrived at the Shadows estate was carrying human slaves, those slaves were served a liquid that likely tampered with their memories, members of the Shadows family are created using humans as models, etc. It’s an interesting premise to be sure, but apart from that early foreshadowing, most of this episode provided more character introduction than intrigue. I’m fine with that, since likeable characters are something every premiere ought to strive for, but it does make it hard to judge just how strong a central pillar Emilyko will be for this story. If you like genki blonde girls, you’re sure to find her an adequate guide, and if you like the ‘dirty canvas’ look of the backgrounds, you’re probably hooked already. I’m mixed on the aesthetic myself – it’s great in concept since it underscores the series’ Victorian influences, but it was clearly achieved with a preprogrammed filter, rather than a human hand. Even though I feel like the art director made the right call here, it’s still a minor distraction – modern anime’s curse to bear, I guess.
Potential: 50%
Lenlo: I’m not sold on Shadows House yet. As Wooper says, the opening montage was very sinister, very different from the rest of the show. If it can fulfill the promise of a mystery that it has made then I can see it being successful. But so far I’m not very engaged by Kate or Emilyko. It was cute enough I suppose and I like what it’s doing with the “Shadow” characters’ designs. I’m just… I’m not interested in a girl playing house for 20 minutes. I’m going to keep watching in the hopes that these “Bodysnatcher” vibes I’m getting pay off. I’m not convinced they will yet though.
Potential: 40%
Short Synopsis: A Zombie Idol group bombs a performance and has to get real jobs.
Amun: I went into this episode thinking, “what else could Zombieland possibly have that we didn’t see in the first season?” Quite a lot, apparently. I still hate the producer – “shout until it’s funny” – but he makes sense, given the end of season reveal about his Sakura connection. However, this first episode was not the steady ascent of an idol group that I expected; it’s surprisingly befitting of the title “Revenge.” I…am actually onboard for this. If it was just a straight trajectory of variety shows and silly local hijinks, I’m not interested. But put the idols in a large financial and emotional hole plus imply that these zombies have a real shelf life? That’s high stakes – sign me up.
Potential: 60%
Mario: Zombieland Saga’s first season for me peaked too soon and fell off a cliff after two episodes, and I have the same sentiment about the franchise’s return here. The intro where the workers sing a propaganda song about squids reminds me of all the qualities that I love about Zombieland Saga – yeah, its biting satire is still there. Sadly, the rest of the episode functions like a typical idol show. They all work part-time jobs in order to do concerts again, they are dismissed by the audience and then saved by their manager Kotaro. Speaking of this dude, boy, I’d forgotten how lousy and annoying he can be. This is supposed to be an episode where we can get into the reasons why he wanted to form Franchouchou in the first place, but we didn’t get a glimpse of that – instead it was just him acting from one extreme to another at maximum volume. Even the girls feel less distinctive this time around. Zombieland Saga works much better as a satirical comedy than an idol show, so as long as it sticks with the former, lightning could strike again. If it sticks to Kotaro, however… (sigh).
Potential: 10%
Short Synopsis: A former baseball benchwarmer joins his new high school’s rhythm gymnastics team.
Wooper: This show really wants to be Haikyuu, man. The chummy club atmosphere, the bird motif, the Yuuki Hayashi score (which sounds like a discount version of his past work), it’s all here. I do want this show to succeed, though, because while it leaned on shiny 3D models for an extended gymnastics routine near the start, there was a rough sort of expressiveness to the rest of the episode. Both the club members and the student body exuded personality during the recruitment scene, and there were smile-worthy moments throughout, like a character doing a somersault into a hallway to make his presence known. Even if Bakuten starts relying more on CG as the season progresses, that’d be alright, so long as it clears its main obstacle – a boring protagonist. Every other character in this premiere outshone him, which was expected, since he functioned as an empty vessel just waiting for [insert sport] to spice up his life. If the show takes quick steps to help him find his voice, Bakuten will have a shot at being the second-best sports anime of the season, but that’s the most it’ll ever achieve.
Potential: 50%
Lenlo: After 2.43 last season I really wasn’t expecting much from this season’s “Pretty Boys do Pretty Things” show but Bakuten surprised me. There was no faffing about with sad backstories, edgy setups or anything like that. It introduced us to a kid who tried a lot of sports trying to find a passion, something most can relate to, and focused on that. The entire episode was him meeting and hanging out with the team, giving us a good idea of who these people are. They are still only stereotypes so far but already we have seen each of them be open and supportive in their own way. Welcoming new people into the group. It’s not the most inventive of openings but I can appreciate its brevity, how it gets us straight to the meat of the story. Hopefully Bakuten can keep up this depiction of passion and teamwork because so far at least I’m in.
Also the 4 minute long full length gymnastics sequence was a ballsy way to start. Nothing but feet hitting pad, diegetic music and some closeup camera shots. CGI wasn’t half bad either. Good job Bakuten.
Potential: 70%
Short Synopsis: A moody amnesiac attempts to clear a death game in a parallel Shibuya.
Wooper: I should’ve known better than to expect anything from a video game adaptation. TWEWY’s characters have to be some of spring 2021’s worst thus far – other than their participation in a virtual death game, they’ve got nothing going on. Imagine a scene where a story’s protagonist is mentally controlled and forced to choke his partner, without whom he has no hope of survival in an unfamiliar world. Sounds tense, right? Now imagine being bored out of your skull while it plays out on screen, because you were only introduced to the characters ten minutes ago and you have no clue who they are or how they arrived in this alternate universe. The premiere only created more questions as it progressed, so the show is likely fine with that state of cluelessness, but I’m not. It fell to the visuals to keep me intrigued, but while the 3D models did lend a convincing virtuality to the experience, the framing of the non-combat scenes was pretty boring, and alt-Shibuya wasn’t nearly detailed enough to keep me rooted in TWEWY’s world. Even the music was forgettable, despite how integral the original game’s soundtrack was to its success. Hopefully somebody out there enjoyed this episode enough for two people, because I liked almost nothing about it.
Potential: 5%
Lenlo: I had some hopes for TWEWY. Not much, but they were there. Hopes for its visual style, hopes that it would break the mold a bit since it isn’t front a Light Novel, etc. But it met none of those! While I love the thick black linework on the characters the CGI monsters, and occasionally CGI leads, look atrocious. Maybe if they all used the same style it would be fine but I can’t help but feel let down. Meanwhile the story is exactly as Wooper describes it: Boring. Within 5 minutes I found my eyes wandering to the timestamps. It took 10 for my phone to come out and by 20? Well lets just say I was glad to hear the ED kick in. Wooper already gave you the detailed point by point rundown of why so I’ll just stick to seconding him on this: Don’t watch TWEWY. There are better shows this season.
Potential: 0%
Short Synopsis: A zodiac-themed family’s infighting results in tears, physical assault, and slumber parties.
Wooper: Here’s your yearly reminder that the Fruits Basket reboot 1) exists, and 2) is highly dramatic. These people can’t go one day without crying, though that’s hardly their fault, as most of them are victims of either tragedy or abuse. This episode carried the burden of catching Tohru up to speed on the Soma clan’s darkest secrets, which is sure to make this the most emotional season yet, given how empathetic she is. The list of things that might upset her is endless, but the headline item has to be the psychopathic tendencies of Akito’s reclusive mother. Now the series has two major villains, whose war with each other is certain to cause untold suffering for everyone around them. If that sounds like your ideal anime but you’re not already watching Fruits Basket, you’ve got plenty of time to catch up before the final season ends in September. Just be sure to pick up a mega-pack of Kleenex on your next Costco run.
Potential: ;_;
Amun: Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket. This show is world class in providing feels. And feels are sure to abound with the new villain’s arrival – but, in true Fruits Basket fashion, you now have feels for our previous main villain! Bah. I can’t believe you’ve done this all in one episode, Fruits Basket. I’m really going to miss this show when it’s done. Also, it seems like every OP is trying to one-up the previous one – I’m loving the use of real backgrounds with anime characters superimposed. But anyways, yeah, if we’re starting the season off with an episode like this, strap in – tear jerker alert for sure.
Potential: 100% sniff
Short Synopsis: Wrong girl gets summoned to another world and takes up magical essential oils.
Mario: I’m still not buying what Seijo no Maryoku is selling after its first 20 minutes. It has many trappings of the isekai genre: we know next to nothing about the main protagonist as a person before she’s transported to this fantasy world; she takes that fact too well and does nothing to return to her original world; and most importantly, things go a bit too smoothly for the girls so there’s little conflict to watch. You can argue against me on the last point, given that our protagonist is labelled “worthless” and gets dumped by the arrogant Prince, but still, she has her life conditions sorted out rather easily. And isn’t it obvious that our girl has more magic mana than others? I find it hard to believe the others couldn’t figure that out already. Lastly, the final scene is supposed to be the emotional payoff, but I would have believed it much better if our girl had used her healing powers, instead of using a magic potion to immediately heal a critically-injured hero? Now that’s a stretch. For now, the show feels like an otome-isekai with a bunch of handsome boys (akin to Hamefura last year but not half as good), but I really do hope the show doesn’t go the romance route. For audiences that enjoy slower, female-centric isekai (Hamefura, Bookworm), you can have a crack at it.
Potential: 20%
Amun: Unlike Mario, Seijo exceeded my expectations. As with Hamefura and Bookworm that he mentioned, Seijo is putting a little twist on our typical Isekai. Where Hamefura was gardening simulator 3000, Seijo will probably be more “magical essential oils” – fine by me, as long as I don’t have to buy any. There are plenty of generic isekai – and I watch most of them – so I appreciate a show that gives me something a little different. Sure there wasn’t that much conflict, but this was a setup episode – give it some time. Obviously, we’re not looking at “anime of the season” material here, but it should be serviceable enough. Seijo will probably be a less intense Rising of Shield Hero: the characters are fun, the overall story direction is pretty clear – I think we’re in for a nice gentle ride.
Potential: 75%
Short Synopsis: A sad high school girl buys a motorcycle.
Wooper: This show doesn’t just feature product placement – it IS product placement. This first episode is a 20 minute ad for Honda’s line of Super Cub motorcycles, which are the only cure for the female lead’s boring life. The first time she sits on one, the show cranks up the saturation to demonstrate that Honda products restore color to your world. It lingers shamelessly on logos and ends on a line of dialogue so blatantly engineered to sell bikes that my eyes nearly fell out of my head from rolling so fast. And yet, Super Cub is quite restrained in every other area of its presentation. It opens quietly, with scenes of early morning trains rolling gently into their stations and the sun rising on countryside landscapes. Instead of dialogue, the show places a premium on character animation – moments where the main girl butters her bread or scoops rice into a bento box create a placid mood that you rarely get from anime. The series even manages to find interest in a scene where she reads the owner’s manual for her bike, which is probably its biggest accomplishment. I’ve got no interest in watching a weekly advertisement, but I’ll give Super Cub this: its first episode was more artful than I had expected.
Potential: 40%
Mario: Super Cub took me by surprise there. I was expecting a dumb CGDCT entry but this first episode is anything but dumb. There’s no trace of fan-service or girls trying to be cute (well, if you don’t count their Cub-fetish); the show instead communicates with us visually on how a girl gets to meet her titular scooter. The restrained direction is surprisingly well done and we get to know the girl’s personality through her actions, not by her personality quirks like other lesser shows tend to do. This is a show that is comfortable with negative space. There’s little dialogue in this first episode, it’s instead interested in quiet moments like her sitting alone in the classroom while her classmates chit-chat around her, or how she takes her rice from the rice cooker. That’s the reason why we sort of feel precious when she rides the Super Cub or reads the freaking manual, because it does feel like a big step forward. While I have doubts that it has enough juice for the whole season, Super Cub’s first episode is no fluke.
Potential: 40%
I’m back with the penultimate episode of Spice and Wolf! Season 1 at least. This is a big episode with lots of things happening. Some I expected, others I didn’t, all of them were pretty good. So without further ado lets dive in!
Before we get to the narrative, and some big things happened let me tell you what, let’s talk backgrounds. Toshihiro Kohama and his team did a great job with these backgrounds. I haven’t talked about them much until now because most episodes take place in a singular location. Even when traveling there’s not that much variety. This week however we not only got to see multiple locations but also those same locations in multiple ways. Whether it be the sunlit fields outside Lamtra, a dark and shadowed forest or wet and drooping pines in a storm, Spice and Wolf looked good. If only it had the animation chops to back these up. I wouldn’t have to use as many wide shots for pictures as I do if they looked good up close. You know one thing that does look good when examined up close though? The narrative.
Yes its a terrible transition but roll with me here damnit.
Continue reading “Spice and Wolf S1 – 12 [Wolf and a Pack of Pups] – Throwback Thursday”
It’s taken years to reach this finale and it’s something I have been looking forward to for quite some time. The Heaven’s Feel movies so far have proved to be the best adaption of the Fate/Stay Night visual novel yet and it was up to the third one to make it a slam dunk. What are my feelings on it? Well, one particular thing I have with Ufotable adaptations is that their work often veers close to perfection yet misses the mark ever so slightly. Heaven’s Feel was close to being an exception to the rule but sadly this movie has a scene that fell short and thus stopped it from being flawless. That statement makes it seem as though I didn’t like this movie but believe me when I say that is most definitely not the case. It’s more the frustrating feeling of a fan who sees something reach for the stars only to fall right before it grasps them. This is the griping of a fan who saw something great and is complaining that it wasn’t a little greater. At the end of the day this is the best adaptation of the Fate franchise due to how it not only represents the source but elevates it. Of course whether it is the best anime the Fate Franchise has to offer will be down to who’s watching it but I have a fair feeling that most will be debating between this and Zero. I will take this moment to state that this review will not be taking the more usual approach of talking vaguely about the anime in order to not spoil things for those looking for an opinion on it before starting. Honestly if you are looking at a review of the third part of a trilogy of movies and haven’t watched the first two then I would say you are quite odd. I will be talking about scenes and spoilers from the movie so if you haven’t watched it I would advice you to not read this review. But if you want my opinion on whether you should watch this or not, well I am a Fate fanatic so of course I am going to tell you to watch it.
Continue reading “Fate/Stay Night Heaven’s Feel – III Spring Song Anime Review – 95/100”
It’s ADAM’s world, and we’re just living in it.
Short Synopsis: One snarky taxi driver boi faces off with corrupt cops, nostalgic doctors, viral wannabes, plus his own demons. And maybe a teenage girl he kidnapped.
Amun: Wait, what?! On paper Odd Taxi looked like an episodic, character-driven, B-tier comedy with the taxi as the stage and some vague connections tying it all together for the season’s last two episodes. That is not what happened here. This is all killer, no filler – forget some overarching plot, this premiere had more substance than Jujutsu Kaisen’s entire season (yeah, I said it). The character building in such a short time is intense – our leading man is blunt, jaded, and just barely holding on to reality. This is a quiet depiction of someone on the edge of psychosis unlike anything I’ve seen in anime. All the supporting cast have their own stories and struggles, the environment is spot on, the backgrounds look amazing – where did this show come from?! I went back and looked and this studio is best known for Pokemon, the staff are no-names and rookies, and it’s an original work (no public source material). On-screen and off, Odd Taxi is mysterious in all the right ways, and it certainly has my attention.
Potential: 90%
Lenlo: ODDTAXI is weird. I had no idea what to expect going into it. I have no idea what to expect leaving it. Is it another Aggretsuko? Beastars? BNA? What is with Japanese authors and anthropomorphic animal people lately? I can’t answer any of those questions but what I can say is this: I connect with this taxi driver on a spiritual level. He is done with the world and its bullshit. Maybe he turns out to be a psycho murderer, maybe ODDTAXI turns into a Bruce Willis movie, I don’t know. But I’m in and I love it.
Potential: 80%
Short Synopsis: After being disowned, a cowardly dragon sets off in search of a new home.
Wooper: This show’s premise is its greatest, and perhaps only, weapon. A massive yet feeble-hearted dragon wandering a fantasy world in search of a suitable dwelling place? There’s all sorts of comedy built into that idea, especially on the visual end, which this series did its darndest to incorporate. Despite his towering stature, the titular dragon ended up in captivity multiple times, pouting helplessly as his tiny jailers rejoiced around him. There were cute shots, too, like the one of the leaf he used to shield his head during a rain shower (see above). Unfortunately, while a dragon makes for a suitably ironic protagonist in this sort of story, they aren’t the easiest creatures to animate, and this series is proof – any time the big lizard was on screen, the series’ limitations were evident. The fantasy environments were colorful and varied, which was nice, but you’d have to be married to this show to overlook how poorly the dragon moves within them. As a result, I can’t give ‘Dragon, Ie wo Kau’ an honest recommendation, but if your favorite genre pairing is fantasy/comedy, there might be something here for you.
Potential: 30%
Amun: Bah, I’ve been tricked. Dragons have had a string of wins recently – most notably Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid – so I expected something similar in terms of comedy. What “Dragon, Ie wo Kau” brings instead is…magical home shopping when broke. The show’s background art looks great, but the characters’ art doesn’t quite fit. I get the dragon isn’t supposed to be majestic, but he just feels off, visually. The premise doesn’t do it for me either – I’m just not interested in a season long excursion with a magical realtor and a loser dragon.
Potential: 5%
Short Synopsis: A salaryman gets drunk and picks up a high school girl runaway. And manages not to commit any felonies but gets miso soup for his troubles.
Mario: Hige wo Soru is a show that wants to have it both ways. On the one hand, it realizes that the girl’s behavior is spoiled and unhealthy and the MC rejects her advances simultaneously. The premise of her growing independence is the show’s strongest asset so far. On the other hand, the setup is still obvious romance bait – all of his preachiness about her will amount to nothing if he falls for her at the end, and I’m pretty sure the show is heading that way. And guess what action he takes to fix her men-dependency behavior? You guessed it, having her become a domestic housewife. THAT doesn’t bode well to me at all; it’s still better than the other age-gap show but if it leans too much on the romance side it will lose its impact. Isn’t it better to make the MC the parental figure for the girl instead of the love interest?
Potential: 20%
Amun: I actually think Hige wo Soru’s first episode was as well done as possible – that’s the highest compliment I’m able to give. This is one of very few shows whose source I’m familiar with, so I’m a little biased by knowing what’s to come. Unfortunately, for the clever production and excellent voice acting, Hige wo Soru suffers from an incurable disease – a fundamentally flawed premise. In many ways, this is the spiritual successor to Rental Girlfriend, which was a flub. The problem here is a show that can’t decide between two genres – is this a maid comedy or is this a societal commentary? Even more of a problem is that neither route is embraced fully. Without the innocent charm of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and without the provocative commitment of Scum’s Wish, Hige wo Soru is destined for a journey of mediocrity. A journey I won’t be joining on.
Potential: 1%