September 25th, 2022
Summer 2022 - Seasonal Round Up Vol.1
Anime Relations: Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo, Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life: Dai-2 no Shokugyou wo Ete, Sekai Saikyou ni Narimashita, Isekai Yakkyoku, Kuro no Shoukanshi
Another Season is pretty much over and with that a lot of shows are ending again. As always, I was watching way too many seasonals and want to say a few little words about them. With how many Isekai shows we had around, let's start with an Isekai round.
Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life: Dai-2 no Shokugyou wo Ete, Sekai Saikyou ni Narimashita
What a mouthful the title of this is, so let's just call this Slime Tamer Isekai (why are there so many Slime Isekai?). While I was entertained, the show isn't too great and the only real highlight are the slimes with their personalities and the great ED, but otherwise it's your typical Isekai with the overpowered hero, who doesn't care to help people, but still does it. The bad guys are pretty useless and he handles every situation by transfering his overpowered skills onto his slimes and most of the times, he just makes things explode. 6/10 for the slimes though
Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo
The softcore isekai. All this dude wants is fight in dungeons to buy new slave girls, so he can bang them, or at least that's what the show tells us it is. Most of that is a frickin lie, since 3 of the 5 girls from the poster appear exactly in the after credits scene. It actually takes our "hero" 4 episodes to get his first girl and the 2nd one is only really a part of the team for the last one. In typical Passione fashion there is still lots of nudity and the sex scenes easily take up to 5 minutes per episode.
If you are up for that, this isn't terrible. A 7/10 from me.
Kuro no Shoukanshi
Black Summoner (or Slime Summoner Isekai if you want it) is pretty similar to the Slime Tamer show, but less slimy and more fun. Unlike the tamer, our hero summons his team mates this time and I heard that the light novel is actually much more pervy, so for you degenerates out there, he even summons himself a little sister. Even with how hard his harem is with 4 girls, it's at least nice that there are some other characters in the team and slime Clotho and the walking armor Gerard are nice to have around.
I'd actually wished for this to have a higher rating and go into the harem stuff, but this is still pretty enjoyable. 7/10
Isekai Yakkyoku
Isekai Yakkyoku is clearly my favorite of these shows. While it's still there, Isekai Yakkyoku goes away from the action and instead gives us a scientist who overworked himself, trying to save the life of his sister and now he uses his medical knowledge in a medieval world. There's some magic involved and stuff, but it's more about him helping people, which is always more of my style with this stuff. Farma (yeah, I know, the name is stupid) is a likeable MC and his team is also made up of great characters, so I actually recommend this one.
8/10
Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life: Dai-2 no Shokugyou wo Ete, Sekai Saikyou ni Narimashita
What a mouthful the title of this is, so let's just call this Slime Tamer Isekai (why are there so many Slime Isekai?). While I was entertained, the show isn't too great and the only real highlight are the slimes with their personalities and the great ED, but otherwise it's your typical Isekai with the overpowered hero, who doesn't care to help people, but still does it. The bad guys are pretty useless and he handles every situation by transfering his overpowered skills onto his slimes and most of the times, he just makes things explode. 6/10 for the slimes though
Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo
The softcore isekai. All this dude wants is fight in dungeons to buy new slave girls, so he can bang them, or at least that's what the show tells us it is. Most of that is a frickin lie, since 3 of the 5 girls from the poster appear exactly in the after credits scene. It actually takes our "hero" 4 episodes to get his first girl and the 2nd one is only really a part of the team for the last one. In typical Passione fashion there is still lots of nudity and the sex scenes easily take up to 5 minutes per episode.
If you are up for that, this isn't terrible. A 7/10 from me.
Kuro no Shoukanshi
Black Summoner (or Slime Summoner Isekai if you want it) is pretty similar to the Slime Tamer show, but less slimy and more fun. Unlike the tamer, our hero summons his team mates this time and I heard that the light novel is actually much more pervy, so for you degenerates out there, he even summons himself a little sister. Even with how hard his harem is with 4 girls, it's at least nice that there are some other characters in the team and slime Clotho and the walking armor Gerard are nice to have around.
I'd actually wished for this to have a higher rating and go into the harem stuff, but this is still pretty enjoyable. 7/10
Isekai Yakkyoku
Isekai Yakkyoku is clearly my favorite of these shows. While it's still there, Isekai Yakkyoku goes away from the action and instead gives us a scientist who overworked himself, trying to save the life of his sister and now he uses his medical knowledge in a medieval world. There's some magic involved and stuff, but it's more about him helping people, which is always more of my style with this stuff. Farma (yeah, I know, the name is stupid) is a likeable MC and his team is also made up of great characters, so I actually recommend this one.
8/10
Posted by kokusu | Sep 25, 2022 11:52 AM | 0 comments
July 10th, 2022
Spring 2022 - Seasonal Round Up - Final Part
Anime Relations: Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san, Kono Healer, Mendokusai, Shachiku-san wa Youjo Yuurei ni Iyasaretai., Spy x Family
Getting to the last part of this, how about we start with my least favorite of the bunch and work up to my favorite of the Season (which I actually didn’t rate the highest though)?
Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san
After the first few episodes I was ready to hate Shikimori-san. While the side cast was fun, the two big main characters were incredibly boring and I always feel like a show about the “cutest chick ever” has to actually make her look that gorgeous. And if the whole thing would have continued like that, I would have rated Shikimori-san a 5 or something like that.
But not only does the show start to rely more on its side cast over time (which already helps, because Nekozaki is the star of this whole show), but they also decided to give our main characters more depth. From giving Shikimori and Izumi their own backstories on what drives them, towards showing how they got together, I actually started to like both characters, which even made their plain romance a bit more enjoyable. Not enough to make this really stand out in a season that was already filled with good romance, but at least to make me be happy with having watched it.
7/10
Shachiku-san wa Youjo Yuurei ni Iyasaretai.
What if you take Dragon Maid and turn every dragon into Kanna? I guess that was the thought process behind Shachiku-san, because there’s not just a little ghost baby (yep our lead is haunted by a dead baby), but also a cat ghost, a little maid demon and a fox spirit and they all look like tiny little lolis.
Similar to Dragon Maid the lead also works for a black company, always working way late and feeling terrible about it, but has her life become better thanks to the little ghost babies (there’s actually a pretty dark message within the whole show and it’s not just a “maybe…”, but they actually say it). 4 Kannas could certainly be too much, but they all come with their own personalities and it makes for an incredibly adorable time, so if you just want to feel good for a moment, these girls are there to make you happy.
9/10
Spy x Family
Wit Studios most obvious 10/10 contender is the story of a spy, who needs to get near a target and as his bosses think that a kid might help with that, he adopts a little girl and finds a woman to pretend to be the mother. The mother is secretly an assassin and the girl can read minds (which no one knows about) and together they still are an incredibly cool and cute family. I don’t really know what to say, what wasn’t said by a million other people, but yeah, this is fantastic.
10/10
Kono Healer, Mendokusai
And with that we reach my favorite anime of the season and it’s a massive surprise actually. Not only did the show hold a rating below a 6 for quite a while, but I honestly only started it as a joke. I thought this would be the next Dragon Goes House Hunting or Uramichi Oniisan, both shows which I hated, but liked to hate on…
But Kono Healer threw a curveball at me and not only had me in stitches the whole journey, it also made me instantly fall in love with the cursed douchebag dark elf Karla. Everyone hates her and she wants a teammate, so everything starts with her cursing the useless adventurer Alvin, who now has to stay within a range of 300m from her or else he explodes. With her use of healing magic often turning lovecraftian, he obviously believes her and together they go on a journey to hunt monsters and befriend them.
Literally every episode had me cry-laugh as I very rarely do, because the comedic timing between Karla and Alvin was perfect and the side cast was very varied and played perfectly together with our two leads.
I really can’t stop praising how much this show surprised me and how much I loved my time with it. Not everyone will love it as much as I do, but personally this is the best anime of Spring 2022 and I will defend it until I die.
9/10
Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san
After the first few episodes I was ready to hate Shikimori-san. While the side cast was fun, the two big main characters were incredibly boring and I always feel like a show about the “cutest chick ever” has to actually make her look that gorgeous. And if the whole thing would have continued like that, I would have rated Shikimori-san a 5 or something like that.
But not only does the show start to rely more on its side cast over time (which already helps, because Nekozaki is the star of this whole show), but they also decided to give our main characters more depth. From giving Shikimori and Izumi their own backstories on what drives them, towards showing how they got together, I actually started to like both characters, which even made their plain romance a bit more enjoyable. Not enough to make this really stand out in a season that was already filled with good romance, but at least to make me be happy with having watched it.
7/10
Shachiku-san wa Youjo Yuurei ni Iyasaretai.
What if you take Dragon Maid and turn every dragon into Kanna? I guess that was the thought process behind Shachiku-san, because there’s not just a little ghost baby (yep our lead is haunted by a dead baby), but also a cat ghost, a little maid demon and a fox spirit and they all look like tiny little lolis.
Similar to Dragon Maid the lead also works for a black company, always working way late and feeling terrible about it, but has her life become better thanks to the little ghost babies (there’s actually a pretty dark message within the whole show and it’s not just a “maybe…”, but they actually say it). 4 Kannas could certainly be too much, but they all come with their own personalities and it makes for an incredibly adorable time, so if you just want to feel good for a moment, these girls are there to make you happy.
9/10
Spy x Family
Wit Studios most obvious 10/10 contender is the story of a spy, who needs to get near a target and as his bosses think that a kid might help with that, he adopts a little girl and finds a woman to pretend to be the mother. The mother is secretly an assassin and the girl can read minds (which no one knows about) and together they still are an incredibly cool and cute family. I don’t really know what to say, what wasn’t said by a million other people, but yeah, this is fantastic.
10/10
Kono Healer, Mendokusai
And with that we reach my favorite anime of the season and it’s a massive surprise actually. Not only did the show hold a rating below a 6 for quite a while, but I honestly only started it as a joke. I thought this would be the next Dragon Goes House Hunting or Uramichi Oniisan, both shows which I hated, but liked to hate on…
But Kono Healer threw a curveball at me and not only had me in stitches the whole journey, it also made me instantly fall in love with the cursed douchebag dark elf Karla. Everyone hates her and she wants a teammate, so everything starts with her cursing the useless adventurer Alvin, who now has to stay within a range of 300m from her or else he explodes. With her use of healing magic often turning lovecraftian, he obviously believes her and together they go on a journey to hunt monsters and befriend them.
Literally every episode had me cry-laugh as I very rarely do, because the comedic timing between Karla and Alvin was perfect and the side cast was very varied and played perfectly together with our two leads.
I really can’t stop praising how much this show surprised me and how much I loved my time with it. Not everyone will love it as much as I do, but personally this is the best anime of Spring 2022 and I will defend it until I die.
9/10
Posted by kokusu | Jul 10, 2022 3:43 AM | 0 comments
Spring 2022 - Seasonal Round Up - Part 3
Anime Relations: Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Ultra Romantic, Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de, Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai 2nd Season, Kunoichi Tsubaki no Mune no Uchi, Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki Yonsatsume
Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Ultra Romantic
Kaguya was always up there when it comes to the romantic teasing anime and yet the 3rd Season somehow manages to improve on pretty much anything. While it gives all of the characters even more time to shine, the most important factor of Ultra Romantic is that there’s a proper storyline following this time and actual goals to achieve. Gone with the typical “it has to be the other one”, we actually have stakes and there is importance involved, which gives Kaguya and Shirogane time to become even better characters, while Chika drifts further and further into her own personal hell. Fantastic Season that improves on the greatness of the earlier show, so there is just one way to go from here.
10/10
Kunoichi Tsubaki no Mune no Uchi
From the author of Takagi-san comes another forehead-centered coming of age anime, but this time it isn’t centered around a boy and a girl, but a girl living in a female-only ninja clan, who still starts to fall in love with the idea of falling in love and especially the idea of what a man might be (having never seen one).
The show is certainly fun and perfectly done when it comes to voice acting, sound design or animation, but personally it falls flat in the story department, as the author seems to think that romantic feelings can only exist between man and woman. There’s also the fact that all these girls run around in the most fan-servicy outfits possible, while jumping between feeling ashamed for someone else getting naked in front of them and asking them why they would be ashamed of getting naked. There is no real consensus on how these characters act and it's more like they act a certain way, because that’s how they should act in a certain situation to make it funnier.
There are many good things about this show, but it honestly is my least favorite of the season. 6/10
Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki Yonsatsume
Time for more short anime! Yatogame-chan is back with its fourth season and for everyone who watched it before, this is exactly the same fun show, so go and continue. For those that have never watched Yatogame-chan, it’s basically a commercial for people to move towards Nagoya, but of all these city/region commercial shows, Yatogame is pretty much my favorite.
It’s very cute and while obviously being centered around Nagoya, all of its characters come from different regions, so much of their comedy comes from the clashing of accents and how things have different meanings for them. The main cast is great, but even the side cast gets wonderful moments, which is a proper feat for 3 minute episodes.
Honestly, if you haven’t checked this out, give at least Season 1 a go. Worst you can do is waste 30 minutes.
7/10
Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai 2nd Season
The Nijigasaki Love Live girls are back with a bang and if you haven’t touched Love Live by now, you probably never will. Tons of girls and their love of singing and Nijigasaki was my favorite, as it focused more on their individuality and not them as a group. With a massive cast, every girl got an episode centered around them and their own song, still coming together as friends on the side and leading to the big group song at the end.
Season 2 introduces 3 more main characters, which gives us a massive main cast of 13 people and with that, you might think that there is less room for the girls and you would be semi-right. Season 2 focuses more on them coming together as a whole, but also as sub groups, so while we still get solos, it is much more about smaller groups of 2 or 3 girls working together as a team.
I might actually like the songs even more and while Ayumu is still the worst Love Live character, this season is still great.
9/10
Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de
Take Power Rangers and add a bit of Romeo & Juliet and you get Koiseka. The leader of a sentai group falls in love with one of the princesses of an evil group trying to take over the world and how they both try to keep the romance a secret within their groups. It’s not only incredibly cute, but the parody elements work perfectly and made me laugh often enough. And then there is the secondary romance between a friggin bear and a chick in an Iron Maiden (not the band, but the torturing device). And Sugita gets slapped by a giant baby.
A great romance show absolutely worth the watch. 8/10
Kaguya was always up there when it comes to the romantic teasing anime and yet the 3rd Season somehow manages to improve on pretty much anything. While it gives all of the characters even more time to shine, the most important factor of Ultra Romantic is that there’s a proper storyline following this time and actual goals to achieve. Gone with the typical “it has to be the other one”, we actually have stakes and there is importance involved, which gives Kaguya and Shirogane time to become even better characters, while Chika drifts further and further into her own personal hell. Fantastic Season that improves on the greatness of the earlier show, so there is just one way to go from here.
10/10
Kunoichi Tsubaki no Mune no Uchi
From the author of Takagi-san comes another forehead-centered coming of age anime, but this time it isn’t centered around a boy and a girl, but a girl living in a female-only ninja clan, who still starts to fall in love with the idea of falling in love and especially the idea of what a man might be (having never seen one).
The show is certainly fun and perfectly done when it comes to voice acting, sound design or animation, but personally it falls flat in the story department, as the author seems to think that romantic feelings can only exist between man and woman. There’s also the fact that all these girls run around in the most fan-servicy outfits possible, while jumping between feeling ashamed for someone else getting naked in front of them and asking them why they would be ashamed of getting naked. There is no real consensus on how these characters act and it's more like they act a certain way, because that’s how they should act in a certain situation to make it funnier.
There are many good things about this show, but it honestly is my least favorite of the season. 6/10
Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki Yonsatsume
Time for more short anime! Yatogame-chan is back with its fourth season and for everyone who watched it before, this is exactly the same fun show, so go and continue. For those that have never watched Yatogame-chan, it’s basically a commercial for people to move towards Nagoya, but of all these city/region commercial shows, Yatogame is pretty much my favorite.
It’s very cute and while obviously being centered around Nagoya, all of its characters come from different regions, so much of their comedy comes from the clashing of accents and how things have different meanings for them. The main cast is great, but even the side cast gets wonderful moments, which is a proper feat for 3 minute episodes.
Honestly, if you haven’t checked this out, give at least Season 1 a go. Worst you can do is waste 30 minutes.
7/10
Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai 2nd Season
The Nijigasaki Love Live girls are back with a bang and if you haven’t touched Love Live by now, you probably never will. Tons of girls and their love of singing and Nijigasaki was my favorite, as it focused more on their individuality and not them as a group. With a massive cast, every girl got an episode centered around them and their own song, still coming together as friends on the side and leading to the big group song at the end.
Season 2 introduces 3 more main characters, which gives us a massive main cast of 13 people and with that, you might think that there is less room for the girls and you would be semi-right. Season 2 focuses more on them coming together as a whole, but also as sub groups, so while we still get solos, it is much more about smaller groups of 2 or 3 girls working together as a team.
I might actually like the songs even more and while Ayumu is still the worst Love Live character, this season is still great.
9/10
Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de
Take Power Rangers and add a bit of Romeo & Juliet and you get Koiseka. The leader of a sentai group falls in love with one of the princesses of an evil group trying to take over the world and how they both try to keep the romance a secret within their groups. It’s not only incredibly cute, but the parody elements work perfectly and made me laugh often enough. And then there is the secondary romance between a friggin bear and a chick in an Iron Maiden (not the band, but the torturing device). And Sugita gets slapped by a giant baby.
A great romance show absolutely worth the watch. 8/10
Posted by kokusu | Jul 10, 2022 3:39 AM | 0 comments
Spring 2022 - Seasonal Round Up - Part 2
Anime Relations: Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari Season 2, Gaikotsu Kishi-sama, Tadaima Isekai e Odekakechuu, Heroine Tarumono! Kiraware Heroine to Naisho no Oshigoto, Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu. 2nd Season, Onipan!
With all of Spring Season being finished and enough stuff over for a 2nd (and even 3rd part), I’m back to talk about even more Seasonals that I finished this time.
Gaikotsu Kishi-sama, Tadaima Isekai e Odekakechuu
When Skeleton Knight started, I felt more like this would be another edgy isekai, especially since the first few episodes always came with a warning for “disturbing content” and we were literally thrown into the first episode with a possible rape. Even later on it feels a bit like the show doesn’t really know if it wants to be lighthearted, as the comedic stuff between our skeletal warrior Arc and his lovely elven sidekick Ariane is pretty cute, or if it wants to be more serious, as there still is a backstory of political intrigue and elves and beast girls being kidnapped for sexual purposes. There are still a lot of good things in here, but sadly it clashes a bit too much, which keeps it from being one of the better isekai (in my shitty isekai-loving opinion). It’s good, but nothing special.
Typical 7/10 show
Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu. 2nd Season
Now if you watched the first part of Komi, this is exactly the same. Komi can’t really talk, unless she really forces herself and wants to make a hundred friends. The only real difference is that they ramp up the romance between Komi and Tadano and make it perfectly clear that both are interested in each other, but too scared to actually come out to say it (one of those staples of romance anime and manga). Some characters get more screen time (Onemine especially) and we finally get to meet Katai, who is one of my favs in the manga… but a certain other person is still missing. I’d certainly watch another season, though I definitely prefer the manga.
8/10
Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari Season 2
I’m one of the people who absolutely loved Season 1 of Shield Hero. It had the right mix of edginess and fun with cool characters and nice waifu material. Similar to other isekai of this type you can’t really keep your hero the big asshole for the whole story. He needs to grow and with that become a better human being. This works great with Mushoku Tensei and partly with Arifureta. Shield Hero also does this, but it isn’t actually the big problem here. His growth as a person is interesting enough, especially when he grows thanks to the people that are important to him, but factors like Bitch or the other heroes are degraded to being mentioned once at the start of the season.
It also doesn’t help that the whole Spirit Tortoise arc, or better said the first half of the Season, is just utterly boring. After that, when the story finally moves forward and opens up a bit more, things get much more enjoyable again and even reach the levels of the first Season, but that’s not really enough and the last episode is just full on filler, so we are pretty much sitting at more than half the Season being just okay.
There’s enough good to look forward to Season 3, but not enough to make Season 2 stand out. 7/10
Onipan!
I love watching short anime and with its 3 minute episodes, typically bundled together to 13 minutes every week, Onipan is great at what it is. Telling the story of 3 Oni-girls, who want to improve the image of all Oni is cute and as this is the first work of our 3 main seiyuu, they do a damn great job with it. They have all the help you might think, as side characters are voiced by “I know that voice!”, but never overshadow the girls. The animation is really well done and Wit Studio actually gives it their all with some of those scenes, showing you what they learned from working on Attack On Titan, just so the three little girls can run through the streets. The title giving Onipants are underpants that help them transform their clothes and are definitely good for a laugh or two and both EDs are great songs. More of this please!
8/10
Heroine Tarumono! Kiraware Heroine to Naisho no Oshigoto
I already said that I loved musicals, when I talked about Healer Girl. Heroine Tarumono brings that back already. Our main girl loves running, but living in a new city, she somehow needs to make money and becomes the manager-in-training for two self-centered idol boys in her class. There are some great characters and the music is awesome, but the drama around the end of the show was a bit too much for me, so LIPxLIP will not get the top rating around here. Give me more of Hiyori, Yuujirou and Aizou, but please get rid of a certain other character if this ever comes back.
PS: I genuinely hated the voice that Inori Minase did for Hiyori at first, but it really fits the character and the further you get into the show, the more you start to like it.
9/10
Gaikotsu Kishi-sama, Tadaima Isekai e Odekakechuu
When Skeleton Knight started, I felt more like this would be another edgy isekai, especially since the first few episodes always came with a warning for “disturbing content” and we were literally thrown into the first episode with a possible rape. Even later on it feels a bit like the show doesn’t really know if it wants to be lighthearted, as the comedic stuff between our skeletal warrior Arc and his lovely elven sidekick Ariane is pretty cute, or if it wants to be more serious, as there still is a backstory of political intrigue and elves and beast girls being kidnapped for sexual purposes. There are still a lot of good things in here, but sadly it clashes a bit too much, which keeps it from being one of the better isekai (in my shitty isekai-loving opinion). It’s good, but nothing special.
Typical 7/10 show
Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu. 2nd Season
Now if you watched the first part of Komi, this is exactly the same. Komi can’t really talk, unless she really forces herself and wants to make a hundred friends. The only real difference is that they ramp up the romance between Komi and Tadano and make it perfectly clear that both are interested in each other, but too scared to actually come out to say it (one of those staples of romance anime and manga). Some characters get more screen time (Onemine especially) and we finally get to meet Katai, who is one of my favs in the manga… but a certain other person is still missing. I’d certainly watch another season, though I definitely prefer the manga.
8/10
Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari Season 2
I’m one of the people who absolutely loved Season 1 of Shield Hero. It had the right mix of edginess and fun with cool characters and nice waifu material. Similar to other isekai of this type you can’t really keep your hero the big asshole for the whole story. He needs to grow and with that become a better human being. This works great with Mushoku Tensei and partly with Arifureta. Shield Hero also does this, but it isn’t actually the big problem here. His growth as a person is interesting enough, especially when he grows thanks to the people that are important to him, but factors like Bitch or the other heroes are degraded to being mentioned once at the start of the season.
It also doesn’t help that the whole Spirit Tortoise arc, or better said the first half of the Season, is just utterly boring. After that, when the story finally moves forward and opens up a bit more, things get much more enjoyable again and even reach the levels of the first Season, but that’s not really enough and the last episode is just full on filler, so we are pretty much sitting at more than half the Season being just okay.
There’s enough good to look forward to Season 3, but not enough to make Season 2 stand out. 7/10
Onipan!
I love watching short anime and with its 3 minute episodes, typically bundled together to 13 minutes every week, Onipan is great at what it is. Telling the story of 3 Oni-girls, who want to improve the image of all Oni is cute and as this is the first work of our 3 main seiyuu, they do a damn great job with it. They have all the help you might think, as side characters are voiced by “I know that voice!”, but never overshadow the girls. The animation is really well done and Wit Studio actually gives it their all with some of those scenes, showing you what they learned from working on Attack On Titan, just so the three little girls can run through the streets. The title giving Onipants are underpants that help them transform their clothes and are definitely good for a laugh or two and both EDs are great songs. More of this please!
8/10
Heroine Tarumono! Kiraware Heroine to Naisho no Oshigoto
I already said that I loved musicals, when I talked about Healer Girl. Heroine Tarumono brings that back already. Our main girl loves running, but living in a new city, she somehow needs to make money and becomes the manager-in-training for two self-centered idol boys in her class. There are some great characters and the music is awesome, but the drama around the end of the show was a bit too much for me, so LIPxLIP will not get the top rating around here. Give me more of Hiyori, Yuujirou and Aizou, but please get rid of a certain other character if this ever comes back.
PS: I genuinely hated the voice that Inori Minase did for Hiyori at first, but it really fits the character and the further you get into the show, the more you start to like it.
9/10
Posted by kokusu | Jul 10, 2022 3:35 AM | 0 comments
June 22nd, 2022
Spring 2022 - Seasonal Round Up
Anime Relations: Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road, RPG Fudousan, Deaimon, Healer Girl, Aharen-san wa Hakarenai
After a way too long absence from the blog, I wanted to write something again. But I’m also sure that I wouldn’t be able to catch up with all the missed rpg stuff, so as sad as it is I am canceling that. So I thought to myself what else I could do and realized that a lot of my AWC entries are seasonals that are going to finish at the moment. And with that it was clear. How about I write my thoughts on the many spring 2022 shows I have watched, as I finish them and give my two cents about them (obviously as spoiler-free as possible). Since I definitely watched a lot, I will keep it to around 5 shows per blog entry.
Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road
Shokei Shoujo is basically Isekai from the viewpoint of a non-isekai’d person. The first episode will make you think very differently and will put you into a very typical isekai-scenario, in a world that was very much influenced by the many japanese people traveling over to that world. Things change with the end of the first episode and turn into a very girls-love heavy story of a nun-assassin and one of the new japanese people to enter their world. I liked the world and characters, though I actually preferred the side characters.
The action was cool and especially the ending was really dope to watch, but I also felt that the flow of the season wasn’t the best and in the end, I would only call it a good show. I’d gladly watch a 2nd season if that ever happens.
A small thing to add: The OP is an absolute banger and my favorite OP of the season. Genuinely great song.
Aharen-san wa Hakarenai
Aharen-san is the next cute high school romance anime in the style of Komi or Nagatoro. What makes it worth less to me personally, is male MC Raidou, who goes above and beyond to have the most ridiculous daydreams on anything. Aharen gained some weight? Maybe she wants to become a Sumo! Aharen looks a bit dirty? Maybe she was attacked by a ninja! While that can be funny, it is way too much and happens multiple times per episode and at some point it simply annoyed me more than it made me giggle.
Aharen-san herself is a very cute character and it’s fun to watch her do her stuff and again, the side characters are great and really help.
I still couldn’t get over the Raidou thing, so for me it’s worse than comparable shows and the best I could give it is a 7.
Healer Girl
When the writer of Kemono Jihen and the director of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood work together on an original anime, I would certainly never think it would turn into Healer Girl. A show that feels like it was inspired by old RPG sessions during which someone loved to play the bard, Healer Girls really is a musical at heart and actually feels like an old school Disney movie in the best of ways. Full on dialogues being sung and spanning different styles of music turn this into the absolute perfect show for me. Not to mention that Healers aren’t simply turned into godlike people who can heal everyone just by singing, but it’s more like they help with the treatment next to a proper doctor… so again more like a bard.
The girls are very likable and I enjoyed the music very much, so this is definitely ending near the top of the season for me. 100% not what I expected going into this, but I’m incredibly happy that it turned out this great. Not perfect, but loving it enough to give out a 9.
RPG Fudousan
I’m not exactly sure how to rate RPG Fudousan, as it feels like the author had no goddamn clue on what he wanted to make. The whole thing starts as a very horny take on GochiUsa with Rakira literally just being Rize and the “slightly” obsessed and dumb lead girl. You surely will say that GochiUsa already could be pretty horny (just like many CGDCT shows), but not only is the loli super into going around buck naked, but the show also loves to look at cleavages. Like a lot.
If it would have been just like that, I would have been totally fine with the show. It’s dumb fun, but worked pretty well like that. Until someone decided that it apparently needed more. So the further you get into the show, the less pervy it became and the more it introduced a darker background around one of their characters to lead into a bafflingly weird subplot for the last third, which to me personally made things fall apart.
Did I still have fun? Sure. But if you want to change things up, do it early and not that far into your show.. This isn’t a dramedy, so establish a goddamn tone for your anime/manga, because this doesn’t feel right to me.
Deaimon
Deaimon tells the story of Nagomu and Itsuka. Itsuka is the daughter of a musician, who left her behind and therefore she has it hard to trust people. Nagomu is a young man, the son of the owner of the japanese sweets restaurant the whole show is pretty much set in. 10 years ago he ran away, as he felt trapped and even though he loved the place, tried to find his own place in life. Having lost himself, he comes back and while he tries to become good enough to someday take over the restaurant, he also becomes a bit of a father figure towards Itsuka.
The show is bittersweet, especially in how it talks about Itsuka’s problems with trusting people, but combined with the happy-go-lucky Nagomu, it makes for a great duo, who you just want to see working out together. This is not a romance show, so don’t even expect anything in that direction. It’s very pure and cute and the characters are absolutely loveable. Please give this one a chance.
9/10
The Future
As said, there are lots of other seasonals for me to finish with spring and as they do, I will do more of these blog posts. I am definitely looking forward to write a bit more again and hopefully there are actually one or two people who like to read them :)
Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road
Shokei Shoujo is basically Isekai from the viewpoint of a non-isekai’d person. The first episode will make you think very differently and will put you into a very typical isekai-scenario, in a world that was very much influenced by the many japanese people traveling over to that world. Things change with the end of the first episode and turn into a very girls-love heavy story of a nun-assassin and one of the new japanese people to enter their world. I liked the world and characters, though I actually preferred the side characters.
The action was cool and especially the ending was really dope to watch, but I also felt that the flow of the season wasn’t the best and in the end, I would only call it a good show. I’d gladly watch a 2nd season if that ever happens.
A small thing to add: The OP is an absolute banger and my favorite OP of the season. Genuinely great song.
Aharen-san wa Hakarenai
Aharen-san is the next cute high school romance anime in the style of Komi or Nagatoro. What makes it worth less to me personally, is male MC Raidou, who goes above and beyond to have the most ridiculous daydreams on anything. Aharen gained some weight? Maybe she wants to become a Sumo! Aharen looks a bit dirty? Maybe she was attacked by a ninja! While that can be funny, it is way too much and happens multiple times per episode and at some point it simply annoyed me more than it made me giggle.
Aharen-san herself is a very cute character and it’s fun to watch her do her stuff and again, the side characters are great and really help.
I still couldn’t get over the Raidou thing, so for me it’s worse than comparable shows and the best I could give it is a 7.
Healer Girl
When the writer of Kemono Jihen and the director of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood work together on an original anime, I would certainly never think it would turn into Healer Girl. A show that feels like it was inspired by old RPG sessions during which someone loved to play the bard, Healer Girls really is a musical at heart and actually feels like an old school Disney movie in the best of ways. Full on dialogues being sung and spanning different styles of music turn this into the absolute perfect show for me. Not to mention that Healers aren’t simply turned into godlike people who can heal everyone just by singing, but it’s more like they help with the treatment next to a proper doctor… so again more like a bard.
The girls are very likable and I enjoyed the music very much, so this is definitely ending near the top of the season for me. 100% not what I expected going into this, but I’m incredibly happy that it turned out this great. Not perfect, but loving it enough to give out a 9.
RPG Fudousan
I’m not exactly sure how to rate RPG Fudousan, as it feels like the author had no goddamn clue on what he wanted to make. The whole thing starts as a very horny take on GochiUsa with Rakira literally just being Rize and the “slightly” obsessed and dumb lead girl. You surely will say that GochiUsa already could be pretty horny (just like many CGDCT shows), but not only is the loli super into going around buck naked, but the show also loves to look at cleavages. Like a lot.
If it would have been just like that, I would have been totally fine with the show. It’s dumb fun, but worked pretty well like that. Until someone decided that it apparently needed more. So the further you get into the show, the less pervy it became and the more it introduced a darker background around one of their characters to lead into a bafflingly weird subplot for the last third, which to me personally made things fall apart.
Did I still have fun? Sure. But if you want to change things up, do it early and not that far into your show.. This isn’t a dramedy, so establish a goddamn tone for your anime/manga, because this doesn’t feel right to me.
Deaimon
Deaimon tells the story of Nagomu and Itsuka. Itsuka is the daughter of a musician, who left her behind and therefore she has it hard to trust people. Nagomu is a young man, the son of the owner of the japanese sweets restaurant the whole show is pretty much set in. 10 years ago he ran away, as he felt trapped and even though he loved the place, tried to find his own place in life. Having lost himself, he comes back and while he tries to become good enough to someday take over the restaurant, he also becomes a bit of a father figure towards Itsuka.
The show is bittersweet, especially in how it talks about Itsuka’s problems with trusting people, but combined with the happy-go-lucky Nagomu, it makes for a great duo, who you just want to see working out together. This is not a romance show, so don’t even expect anything in that direction. It’s very pure and cute and the characters are absolutely loveable. Please give this one a chance.
9/10
The Future
As said, there are lots of other seasonals for me to finish with spring and as they do, I will do more of these blog posts. I am definitely looking forward to write a bit more again and hopefully there are actually one or two people who like to read them :)
Posted by kokusu | Jun 22, 2022 1:34 PM | 2 comments
March 1st, 2022
AWCC 2022 - Isekai Journal: Level 6
Anime Relations: Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou
Killed by stupidity I was forced as a lame RPG character into an even worse isekai world, just so I could kill the Demon Lord
Level 6
Two Girls, One Kettenkrad (Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou)
I wake up as someone hits me in the face.
"Ouch! What you doing that for?"
Opening my eyes a girl with dark hair is in front of me. She slaps me once more.
"Ouch! Stop it!"
We eat something. It looks more like some weird snacks for dogs, but the package calls it rations and apparently they are supposed to be cheese-flavored. Afterwards we get onto our chain bike and start driving through darkness for what seems to be an eternity. I can’t tell if it’s one day or many, as there just never is any light in here. We eat a few times, always the same, but that’s not a good way to decide on how many days went by. We also sleep a few times, but maybe it’s just because it’s always dark, or because we are traveling so much that we are simply tired.
I just want this to end. From the typical darkness of whatever my life now is into this life of driving around in near-perfect darkness. And as I think this, a light appears at the end of the tunnel. It still feels like an eternity with only small changes in how far away the light is, but we seem to be nearly there.
And then I see it. A world in ruins and while I didn’t think about it too much inside that tunnel, I can’t see a single person besides my partner. The world looks like it’s nearing its end and we are here. Alone. And it snows.
"Then darkness.
Congratulations!
You reached the light at the end of the tunnel.
Therefore you level up.
Spirit +1
Lost skill: Good Eater
"
Level 1: https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=873257
Level 2: https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=873297
Level 3: https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=873393
Level 4: https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=873913
Level 5: https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=874020
Level 6
Two Girls, One Kettenkrad (Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou)
I wake up as someone hits me in the face.
"Ouch! What you doing that for?"
Opening my eyes a girl with dark hair is in front of me. She slaps me once more.
"Ouch! Stop it!"
We eat something. It looks more like some weird snacks for dogs, but the package calls it rations and apparently they are supposed to be cheese-flavored. Afterwards we get onto our chain bike and start driving through darkness for what seems to be an eternity. I can’t tell if it’s one day or many, as there just never is any light in here. We eat a few times, always the same, but that’s not a good way to decide on how many days went by. We also sleep a few times, but maybe it’s just because it’s always dark, or because we are traveling so much that we are simply tired.
I just want this to end. From the typical darkness of whatever my life now is into this life of driving around in near-perfect darkness. And as I think this, a light appears at the end of the tunnel. It still feels like an eternity with only small changes in how far away the light is, but we seem to be nearly there.
And then I see it. A world in ruins and while I didn’t think about it too much inside that tunnel, I can’t see a single person besides my partner. The world looks like it’s nearing its end and we are here. Alone. And it snows.
"Then darkness.
Congratulations!
You reached the light at the end of the tunnel.
Therefore you level up.
Spirit +1
Lost skill: Good Eater
"
Level 1: https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=873257
Level 2: https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=873297
Level 3: https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=873393
Level 4: https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=873913
Level 5: https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=874020
Posted by kokusu | Mar 1, 2022 6:06 AM | 0 comments