Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue.
Short Synopsis: An unsociable mystery novelist adopts a cat, which takes better care of him than he does of it.
Aidan’s review:
I stick to my original assessment from the preview that this series is cute. Not the brand of cute that moe show try to peddle by making teenager girls act like five year olds. Instead the kind that warms the soul. Admittedly the first half of this episode from the humans standpoint was less interesting than the viewpoint from the cat but once it switched things got significantly better. This show manages a nice balancing act between being silly and cute with some small emotional gut punches thrown in. Animation and adaption both seem to be quite solid so no problems on that front. It makes for likely the best “healing” show from the season and might make for a good show to brighten things up after watching something more dark and intense, like Promised Neverland. If you are a cat lover it’s certainly a show to stir the soul and should prove for an enjoyable watch.
Potential: 70%
Wooper’s review:
Do you like cats? If so, you’ll probably dig this series; if not, you’re significantly less likely to enjoy it. There’s not much more to Hizaue (the portmanteau used by the official website) than that. The story is certain to incorporate a healing aspect, given the tragic backstories of both the human and feline main characters, and there are other people hanging about for the author to grumpily converse with, but the show is mostly about the relationship between a man and his cat. This episode had a neat POV-based gimmick, telling a simple story from the human’s eyes in the first half, then replaying the same events with the cat as the narrator. There was some reused footage during the latter segment, but not as much as I expected, which was nice. Despite that pleasant surprise, the visuals were plain, with much of their charm coming from stylized stills with thick outlines and exaggerated facial expressions. Still, the cat is cute, which is the most important element of a series like this. I’m in for at least another episode.
Potential: 50%
Mario’s review:
It’s a story about an exclusive writer and the cat and how they begin a relationship together. Well, I’m not at all kidding about what I just said because the show went there. It’s fluffy, but it’s the right kind of fluffy because these two characters are an unlikely duo. The writer’s negative patterns can get on the nerve from time to time, but his interaction with this cat is awesome. What makes this show “special”, is that during the last half it tells the story in the cat’s eye of view (with narration to boot) and that when we get a full picture of two individuals who try to understand each other. This one is a keeper.
Potential: 40%
5-Toubun no Hanayome
Short Synopsis: A boy is hired to teach a family of quintuplet girls.
Aidan’s review:
It’s fine. As far as anime goes this is a decent watch. As far as harem anime go this is above average as it makes much more of an effort besides putting some tits on a screen. What makes the concept work is that our protagonist is someone with an ego and bounces nicely the the varied personalities of the five girls. A snarker like Sakuto from bunny girl but a bit more on the savage and blunt side as he quite literally does not care what anyone has to think. Unfortunately the animation is lesser tier with the series itself not looking too impressive but at least being passable. The comedy of the manga has also suffered immense adaption decay making some of the witter lines fail to land an impact. I say for what it is this is a good show for those looking for something of an in between show that doesn’t really require much of a mental commitment. PS: Miku is still best girl. My Logic is undeniable.
Potential: 40%
Mario’s review:
It’s one of those cases where you don’t judge book by the premise. The concept of a boy and 5 harem girls might allure you to a basic eroge game, but so far it sells its concept with flying colors. The biggest strength of it is that the jokes keep coming at you, mostly based on how each girl bounces off with the main guy, producing endless snappy interactions and they all spark different chemistry to our male lead. The production is on the weak side and I heard the anime so far doesn’t translate quite well all the jokes from its manga source. I do feel the main guy needs to work more to be more than just a self-insert faceless lead, and we can all guess how this story is going to span out, but if it keeps this level of strong chemistry between its cast (and pray that the production value don’t drop significantly), we’ll have for ourselves a comedy of the season here.
Potential: 50%
Circlet Princess
Short Synopsis: A gamer girl enters the world of virtual Esports.
Mario’s review:
Surprise. Surprise. Circlet Princess is a sport show. Well, it introduces a new battle game as sport and it runs all the templates that we’ve seen before in other, better anime. A protagonist who has no idea about the sport who accidentally gets sucked in the game, but somehow she learns all the skills necessary like Mozart learns about music. A story about some students who try to revive a lost club which happens to be that same sport? A sport where these girls wear super sexy armor and a story where it starts right in the middle of random battle and feature many out-of-nowhere fanservice. It’s a textbook story and the characters never raise above their own established tropes. I give it points for some nice action sequences and the scene where girl adjusting her panty (it was really well animated).
Potential: 10%
Wooper’s review:
Watching this show seems to have altered my brain chemistry. Where once I possessed some tolerance for terrible anime, there is now an aversion so strong that I physically can’t sit through a full-length episode. If you’re going to attempt to view this trash, I recommend doubling or tripling the playback speed, as suffering for the full 24 minutes might be hazardous to your mental health. Circlet Princess was so bad that, starting next season, I’m not going to do first impressions for shows that don’t immediately interest me, just to avoid having another experience like this. There wasn’t a single second I didn’t hate, from the holographic arrows that literally pointed the protagonist in the direction of the plot, to the still images laced throughout a combat sequence that was supposed to be intense and fun. The female characters look like they were designed by a newly pubescent boy, and their implausible dialogue is aimed directly at the show’s audience. By the time the mid-episode timeskip rolled around, I was on the verge of giving up, but I pressed on, and my perseverance was rewarded with… nothing. Seriously, why spend time watching, thinking about, or writing about shows like this? Out of some compulsive need to sample every series from every season? That’s a waste of time. I don’t need to be an industry expert to understand that most of the talent is concentrated on a handful of projects each quarter, and everybody else gets the scraps. On balance, though, it’s not the amount of lousy anime getting produced that has me so pissed – it’s the fact that this one failed even to amuse me.
Potential: 0%
