After a couple of episode with a large chunk of the content focused outward, the series turns almost entirely insular as it formally introduces two new (presumably) regular cast members. Twins Maria (left above) and Caria (right above) Elfuur are the exclusive foci of the series’ closer and also make appearances in its opener, but prior to this episode they had only a couple of cameo appearances in background shots of the dark elf encampments. And while they’re starting out as Takuto’s new attendants, every indication points to them eventually playing bigger roles in Mynoghra.
Why they’re getting this much attention is pretty obvious, as they make a striking contrast in both appearance and personalities. Maria is more conservatively dressed, has long hair, and typically has a smile, while short-haired Caria perpetually has a gloomy expression and is more provocatively-dressed; doubtless this was done primarily to show off the skin discolorations that are remnants of a past disease, but it’s still a little edgy, especially considering her suggested age. While Maria comes off as an airhead, this may be at least partly an act, or at the very least a coping mechanism; she may not want to think too hard about things. Meanwhile, Caria is the much more serious-minded one and seems to react to her difficulties by throwing all her support behind her sister.
What makes both of them a bit more interesting is that they are clearly dealing with survivor’s guilt. Their mother is gone in what’s strongly implied to be an instance of cannibalistic self-sacrifice (that the elder doesn’t refute Maria when she chirps that claim out is telling), and they are understandably conflicted about living on at that cost. What’s not completely clear is whether they really did want to die when they attempted to goad Takuto into punishing them (assuming that, as an evil being, he wouldn’t tolerate mistakes) or saw that as a way to test whether they deserved to survive or not.
Whichever is the case, the twins’ efforts lead to one of the oddest explanations I’ve seen in some time for how evil isn’t necessarily bad. This setting seems to take an extreme interpretation of the alignment system used in many RPGs: being “good” or “evil” is as much a status condition as it is a moral position. Furthermore, Takuto’s very creative interpretation muddies the difference between the law/chaos axis and the good/evil axis; what he’s describing about how evil people are free to do whatever, whereas good people have to be rigid, is much more in line with a chaotic-oriented worldview than an evil one. Also, the writing may have been overly ambitious here, as it never felt like the matter with the twins carried the gravitas that should have.
Otherwise, the civilization-building continues apace and with standard game mechanic progression; even if the world isn’t a perfect reproduction of Eternal Nations, most of its structure still aligns with the game. (And I still support the notion that any variations are just the result of random world generation.) Also looks like Mynoghra’s first attempt at peaceful diplomacy is coming up; the cattle-person spellcaster we saw previously was apparently an official of the city Dragontan in the nearby neutral nation, and it’s got both a strategic resource and potentially refugees which could fill out Mynoghra’s work force, so making a good connection to it would certainly be a priority. (As for the thing about Ogres and Goblins being referred to as “Barbarians,” barbarian tribes are a standard element of any 4x game, so it makes sense that they would be fantasy races in a fantasy setting.) The Mynoghra delegation appearing to the Dragontan reps with Takuto’s evil aura could provide some interesting long-term complications.
Overall, the series still isn’t very dynamic or executing at a high level, but it’s mostly giving me what I wanted out of the series so far, hence a slightly higher grade than it may actually warrant at this point.
Come back around the end of this week for the first installment of the Mid-Season Report.
So far this series has largely been able to avoid its relatively weak technical effort hindering its entertainment value, a feat it has accomplished by exploiting striking visual gimmickry. It attempts to do the same in this episode, too, but it can only mask so much when what should be the most action-oriented scene yet just collapses into an unseemly, poorly-choreographed disappointment. It’s to the point that I can’t avoid penalizing the series’ overall grade for the animation quality any longer. However, all is not lost, because this episode provides plenty of interesting content on other fronts.
Much of that involves Atou. The way she behaves when confronting the two Paladins raises the question of whether she’s naturally evil, being influenced by the evil status of Mynoghra, or just getting carried away with acting the part. Most of her behavior suggests that the former is not the case, though given that she is the designated starting Hero for an evil-aligned nation, that still can’t be ruled out. And while she’s definitely getting carried away in the scene where she’s mentally torturing the fatally righteous Paladin, her general ruthlessness would seem to belie that being the only cause for her behavior. Unquestionably, she is having fun letting loose and playing the villain, and given the way the Dark Elves reacted when they came under Mynoghra’s influence, option 2 seems likely to be a contributing factor. Altogether, it provides an interesting dichotomy compared to the more playful way she acts around Takuto. But the brief flash where she sees Takuto like the Dark Elves do seems a bit ominous for the future state of their relationship.
What Atou and Takuto learn about their setting is also interesting and draws more parallels to Overlord. While this setting has distinct structural and mechanical similarities to Eternal Nations, it isn’t the game setting – or at least not purely so, anyway. That doesn’t necessarily mean much since 4X games are well-known for the potential variability of their setting; the map is randomly-generated each time in the Civilization games, for instance, and plenty of game parameters can be tweaked each time. But anytime the parameters change, understanding and exploiting the differences are often crucial for success, and Takuto is clearly thinking along those lines. Atou’s ability-stealing skill seems to work more efficiently here, and entities called Witches exist as major wild cards; I had previously characterized them as possible alternate forms of a civilization’s Heroes, but perhaps they are plot drivers instead?
Whatever the case on this, the series is certainly aiming for some great, creepy facial expressions (which is also very much in the spirit of Overlord):
Though Atou is a Hero in this setting, and was mentioned in episode 3 to be capable of defending the forest on her own for now, she was also described in episode 1 as not being particularly strong to start; a true warrior-type Hero was portrayed as being a 5 strength compared to her 3, with her main advantages implied to be in realms other than combat. However, despite the claim that Heroes can take on armies, we haven’t had a clear sense of how strong a Hero is compared to, say, a trained humans or even a Paladin. With the end of episode 4, we finally have our answer: even a comparatively weak Hero in this setting is, indeed, still capable of slaughtering an entire company of trained mercenaries and putting even Paladins back on their heels.
That more of Atou’s conflict with the Paladins and mercenaries wasn’t animated is disappointing, but that was probably too much to expect from a series which clearly doesn’t have a stacked animation capability. The scene of Lornius waking up on his back and rising to see the carnage still effectively conveys how devastatingly strong Atou is. Referring to her as a Witch suggests that the rumored Witch in the northern lands may also be a Hero type for a different civilization. Certainly the Seven Great Savior Saints mentioned in episode 3 are at least on the same level as well (or at least Saolina is), so they’re probably Heroes as well. That High Paladin Wedrel seems almost panicked before Atou’s true nature suggests that he isn’t on that level and seems to know it, so will he and Lornius back off next episode, or are they going to be the series’ first two named casualties? I’m actually not sure at this point which was the series is going to go on this.
What this episode also clearly reinforces is that the series is not going to remain insular to Mynoghra. I’ve heard that the novels tend to spread the viewpoint around a lot, and we certainly see that here, with nearly half of the episode focusing on the forces sent from Qualia. Combined with episode 3, we’ve now seen a handful of key personalities from that nation, and arguably Werdel and Lornius get more personality development than Ira does. It seems like the writing recognizes both that Ira is not a strong enough personality to carry the series and that the story will be more dynamic if approached from opposing viewpoints. There’s definitely precedents for this in these “building” shows, as both Farming Life in Another World and Overlord leaned heavily on outside viewpoints as they progressed, so this isn’t really a problem. Besides, the series has already established that seeing others react to Ira and Atou is one of its key components.
Getting back to the Hero thing, a giant mantis-like creature is featured prominently in the OP, so that’s probably the Isla, Queen of Bugs that Ira and Atou are talking about summoning. Given what happens at the end of the episode, seems like she will probably make her appearance sooner rather than later. Ira and Atou’s comments about the other Hero options having “horrible personalities” is intriguing, so hopefully we’ll see one or more of them pop up eventually within this season.
We cannot forget the game aspects here, either. I like the visual theme of using old-fashioned game icons to illustrate various troop movements, even when the Qualia personnel are talking about them. Using SD figures or other constructs to represent troop movements is hardly an unusual feature in anime series (Lord Marksman and Vanadis in particular used them heavily), and this also maintains a consistent theme with the old-school game screens used for major developments, like successfully generating units through regular production. And speaking of the latter, even the more complex 4X games tend to greatly simplify what it means to “produce” a unit, so playing up a bog-standard aspect of these games as a miraculous feat is a clever way to handle it.
One negative consequence of the approach that the writing is taking so far is that the story’s overall development is on the slow side, but that’s not really a problem. 4X games always take a while to build up to anything substantial anyway, and the series is offering enough neat little details and fun Atou/Ira exchanges to stay involving enough. Besides, now that Mynoghra has officially started interacting with other civilizations, more complications should be forthcoming.
On paper, this series’ core concept – the protagonist dies but awakens in a setting similar to a game he had mastered – doesn’t seem to stick out much from other isekai series which take place either inside games or in settings utilizing game mechanics as a shell. And indeed, it’s hardly the first series to use civilization-building as a major element; similar aspects can be seen in series like Farming Life in Another World and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (and, to a lesser extent, the second half of I’m a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I May As Well Try Mastering Magic). However, as this one shows more clearly with its second and third episodes, it differs from similar-seeming series in one fundamental aspect: this one is founded on full-blown civilization-builder mechanics rather than RPG game mechanics. Because of that, the series has already shown a propensity to focus more on Big Picture moves than minutiae. As someone who’s played entries in Sid Meier’s Civilization game series for decades, that’s an intriguing enough aspect to warrant weekly commentary.
The series is already showing signs of how this different approach matters in developmental structure. Whether Ira can actually see the game screens the view can is unclear; they may just be abstractions representing what’s going on in game terms. But they’re absolutely the kinds of screens you’d see in old-school civilization-building games, and the steps shown being taken in episodes 2 and 3 – absorbing refugees as new citizens, setting building and research priorities, creating and sending out scout units – are absolutely actions familiar to anyone who’s played that genre of games even a bit. The RPG-styled alignment codification is a less familiar element (at least in Western entries in this genre) and definitely harkens back to ’90s or even ’80s-era games which had heavier RPG influences, but it’s apparently important in this setting, and the way episode 2 showed the dark elves being influenced by shifting to Evil alignment was quite intriguing; I am now very curious to see what effect shifting from Neutral to Good alignment has on a person’s mental state in this setting.
Other practical adaptations of game mechanics are highlights here, too. Episode 3 clarifies that alignment can affect the nature of the civilization’s home territory, and that there are “home ground” bonuses for that civilization which can be penalties for others. Here it manifests as minor buffs for citizens and them not only being able to consume, but even find tasty, water that wouldn’t be potable to outsiders. I especially liked how the writing thought out the visual aspect of this enough to raise concerns about how obvious a shift to dark, menacing woods would be to outsiders, too. Too early to see how that’s going to apply to the Research aspect, but I practically giggled over the semi-sentient “flesh trees” (which sound a LOT dirtier than they actually are!) serve as Mynoghra’s core food source, rather than relying on regular agricultural methods – although the latter does seem like it’s going to be at least partly in play, too. Again, this is good imagination being applied to basic game concepts.
The character development aspect so far impresses much less, but it doesn’t need to do a whole lot with it being anchored by the cute relationship between Ira and Atou. Though the writing has shown no romantic inclinations between them (at least not yet), they have such a wonderfully dorky byplay that the series is almost worth watching for that alone. Amusingly, Ira doesn’t seem to be bothering to try to act the part of an imperious evil ruler (unlike Momonga in Overlord), so I hope the series at some point shows more of how the dark elves interpret the lighter and more playful interactions between such a terrifying-looking leader and a woman who can be quite intimidating on her own. (The scene in episode 3 where they get to see their dark lord scolding Atou for being destructive in showing off her power has to be leaving them mighty confused.) Besides maybe Emle as the Scholarly Type, none of the dark elves are distinguishing themselves much; the two sisters (twins?) focused on in the ED have yet to make more than cameo appearances, much less contributions. But it’s still early and this clearly isn’t going to be a character-driven series.
With episode 3, more of the world outside Mynoghra’s home forest gets introduced. Though she technically appears first at the end of episode 2, episode 3 sees the formal introduction of Saint Soalina of the Holy Kingdom, who theoretically is being set up as one of the main antagonists for Ira and Mynoghra, though there are also seems to be some question about how strong her position is politically. (She’s clearly a Hero-level powerhouse in battle.) But is she just (relative to Ira) an NPC, or perhaps another player? Nothing is specifically pointing to the latter at this point, but it can’t be ruled out, either. We also have some capable Paladins who look like they could be interacting directly with Mynoghra soon. As someone whose default strategy in civilization-building games is to sit back, develop, and avoid conflict as long as possible, this feels like the kind of potential incident which can quickly force a fledgling civilization to switch to a war footing against its will, and Mynoghra isn’t prepared for it; the comments about the look of the forest feel like foreshadowing by the end of the episode.
More could probably be said about the series’ visual aspect, but I’ll delve more into that next time. This one isn’t on a trajectory to be one of the season’s top-quality shows, but it’s still showing enough appeal to reinforce the recommendation I made for the series in the Preview Guide.
Note: My apologies for this being so late. This episode did have the misfortune of hitting on the front end of a ridiculously-heavy weekend of Summer 2025 season debuts, but past a certain point I also just forgot that I hadn’t done this review yet.
With this episode, the franchise concludes its adaptation of the fourth source novel, and thus also its second season. The dramatic climax was last episode, so this episode is left to pick up the pieces and put the final touches on most of the plot threads up to this point. I can’t quite give it a full A grade because the episode falls just a little short of being fully satisfying in dealing with a few certain issues, but it gets plenty enough right to warrant my respect.
First, the matter of the Shi survivors must be dealt with. Every sign pointed to Loulan administering the “dead” children the resurrection medicine, and that does, indeed, prove to be the case. Jinshi has an “out” for not executing them due to the promise he made to Loulan (a fox, indeed!), but they’re still left in a very awkward position. The solution to the problem for most of them is a slick one: they come under the custody of Ah-Duo under different names. It’s inarguably the best possible outcome for the children, it keeps them under the watchful eye of someone both the Emperor and Jinshi can trust implicitly, and Ah-Duo will doubtless look at it more as a reward than a duty, since she never got to raise her own child or have more of her own. Sending Suirei to Ah-Duo is also a best-case scenario, since Suirei’s status is easily the most complicated due to her royal blood. It’ll be a gilded cage for her, but at least she’ll be with most of the kids.
That just leaves Kyou-u, who’s also an interesting case. The amnesia he suffered as a side effect is a good reason to direct him elsewhere; all things considered, he’s probably better off not remembering anything. Sending him to Verdigris is a curious choice, and the only move here which feels like a writing convenience rather than a purely logical play. (Though I suppose one could argue that he’ll be both far away from potential intrigue and under Maomao’s watchful eye there?)
Then, of course, there’s Jinshi and Maomao. Jinshi’s always been prone to being a little aggressive with Maomao, but it certainly seems now like he’s decided not to hold back anymore. The way he’s getting “frogblocked” (as I’ve seen one person describe it) by various random circumstances is practically becoming a running joke at this point, but it’s fun watching Maomao react to his moves. Ultimately the reveal to Maomao on who Jinshi really is hasn’t changed their relationship too much, though Maomao’s acknowledgement that Jinshi’s scar makes him seem more manly (which felt like a genuine statement) holds out hope that she will come around eventually.
There are other matters, too. With Gyokuyou having given birth to the crown prince, she’s now going to be elevated to Empress status. Where that leaves the other two high-ranking concubines is uncertain; will they and the rest of the Rear Palace apparatus and personnel be maintained? Apparently so, since Loumen is now in permanent residence there, though I’m curious to see how much of a change that will make. And where does that leave Lishu with her soon-to-be-born child? Enough time has passed that Xiaolin’s term has expired, but between her education and her bath gig she did, at least, find a relatively good position. I hope we haven’t seen the last of her.
Finally, that leaves the disposition of Shisui. Her actually dying would have been sad but still felt right, but the writing did leave itself an out, and the series certainly rolled with it. This is the other place where the series is fudging a bit; I’m totally fine with having the hairpin stop the bullet which knocked her off the wall, and I can totally buy her not dying from the fall because of a snowdrift at the wall’s bottom. (An avalanche did come through that area just hours earlier, after all.) However, it wasn’t snowing that heavily, so her not having left some kind of trail which could be followed seems unlikely, even if they didn’t know where, exactly, she fell in the darkness. There’s also the moral ambiguity of her getting to live when so many others in the clan didn’t. Still, she’s a good enough character to warrant a second chance, and seeing her finally getting to live her own life (even if under a different name) is heartwarming. Her trading the hairpin for the jade cicada also is a move packed with symbolism; it could be looked at as severing the final link to her old life, or it could be ridding herself of evidence of her previous identity. Either way, it signifies her moving on from her deadly fate, and that she’s considering going overseas suggests she won’t be back for a long time, if ever. That would be sad, as I’m sure I’m far from alone in wanting to see her and Maomao meet again, but it does also allow the story to make a cleaner break before moving on.
So where will the story next? We’ll find out sometime next year, as a season 3 has, unsurprisingly, been green-lit. Overall, it had stiffer competition for the top spot in the Spring 2025 season than I originally expect (see Apocalypse Hotel), but it’s still the top title so far this year in my book.
Except for The Apothecary Diaries, all Spring 2025 series which aren’t continuing into the summer season are complete at this point, so it’s time to do an update on what was and wasn’t working over the course of the second half of the season.
Because of the high volume of titles I followed, covering every one of them here would make this post cumbersome. Hence I am only covering those titles for which I have updated my grade since the Mid-Season Reports and/or have additional commentary to offer. The Apothecary Diaries (still my #1 title for the season) is not being covered here, since it is getting episode reviews.
Other Spring Mid-Season Report part 1 titles which are not getting further coverage here include From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman,I’ve Been Killing Slimes For 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, The Beginning After The End, The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows,and The Unaware Atelier Meister. Please refer to the previous article for evaluations on them.
Other Spring Mid-Season Report part 2 titles which are not getting further coverage here include Makina-san is a Love Bot!?, SHIROHIYO (which I didn’t finish), and Summer Pockets (which is continuing, and so could be reviewed again next season). Please refer to the previous article for evaluations on them.
Featured Title: Apocalypse Hotel
Rating: A-
This is my strong #2 pick for the season, and it’s a lot closer to catching The Apothecary Diaries than I could have anticipated, despite the great, vastly more involved storylines that the latter is telling. That’s primarily because Hotel continues to deliver involving concept episodes, such as one which combines a wedding and a funeral into the same ceremony in a way that not only makes sense but also comes off as surprisingly endearing. Even episodes that seem ordinary in concept, like Yachiyo being forced to take a day off for the first time in centuries, pack a great deal of charm, and the seeming randomness of its episodic themes makes this one of the least predictable series in recent memory. At the core of it all is Yachiyo, who becomes a legitimate Character of the Year candidate for the way all her little idiosyncrasies play out and the way she does (or doesn’t) handle crises, although Ponko also becomes an indispensable second as she ages into adulthood. Technical merits also continue to be a strong point throughout, and the opener will be on my short list when it comes to determining the year’s best. Solidifying its position is an especially strong finale. This one is almost certain to be in my Top 10 for the year.
Bye Bye, Earth s2
Rating: B-
The last two episodes finally explain what’s really going on here and the strange logic behind how and why this setting works the way it does – and, most importantly, how Belle fits into this. That doesn’t totally allay the series’ issues with comprehensibility; this is still a title whose ambitions exceed its capacity to portray them all in coherent fashion, and why Belle was put into the situation that she was is not part of the explanation. Still, the last episodes bring a sense of completeness to this story, of a transition made from Belle (and others) trying to figure out their place to Belle going on a journey confident in her identity, and that is sufficiently satisfying. Not sure that I’d recommend the series, but I don’t feel like I ultimately wasted my time with it.
Go! Go! Loser Ranger s2
Rating: B-
The rating is only this high on the strength of this season’s first half because the second half is a mess. The Monster Society plot becomes increasingly difficult to follow, and some of the revelations (especially the ones about the Dragon Priestesses) just don’t make much sense. So do the constantly-shifting allegiances and what, exactly, Angel is supposed to be, and are there now two different Red Keepers? Why the trap at the end works the way it does is ill-explained as well. There is an interesting character development at the very end, but by that point I’d stopped caring.
I Left My A-Rank Party
Rating: B
Though still not overtly a harem title, its shades much more in that direction as the last quarter of the series progresses, including the ladies in Clover having no qualms with being considered Yuke’s wives as part of a visit to a country where women are allowed less independence (though it hardly seems like Prince Mamar’s wife is subservient to him. . .) and being a bit more flirtatious when it comes to bath scenes. Also, Jamie’s adventuring get-up seems a bit too tailored to sex appeal. The story progresses fine overall, though, including some nice dramatic build-up going into the final episode. Most importantly, even as Yuke becomes “the hero,” the series never forgets that Clover is a team effort rather than an OP individual and his groupies, and that sentiment stays true through to the end.
I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire!
Rating: B-
One thing that has been consistently confusing with this series is the timeline in the intergalactic setting, but that is finally clarified with the last episode, when Liam’s age makes it clear that 50 years have passed in the new setting despite him still looking like a teenager; apparently everyone is space elves without the ears, or else science has slowed down aging. That much better explains some earlier references (such as Christiana’s assertion that she had suffered for “decades”) and how the Banfield territory had progressed so much so apparently fast. Christiana joining the big fight against the pirates also finally rounds out the action back to the series’ starting point. The whole thing is still a quite flippant treatment of both isekai stories and space operas, and is best enjoyed on that front rather than worrying about any of the practical details, though Liam’s loyalty to Amagi in all of this is a little touching. Not a great series, but not a waste of time in the end, either.
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuux
Rating: B
Still think this one will play much better to someone intimately familiar with the original Mobile Suit Gundam, especially given some revelations in the final episode, but it plays pretty well as a space-based mecha extravaganza, complete with robustly-animated space battles and some interesting visual gimmickry at times. It also delves deeply into alternate world theory; this is a literal “what if” scenario, as it turns out, but it’s also not that simple. On the downside, the series is so dedicated to showing off the Big Picture that the two female leads get shoved into reserve roles for close to half of the series. As a result, they are not satisfyingly developed at the end; this is nowhere near on the same level as Witch From Mercury in that regard.
Our Last Crusade s2
Rating: C+
This one still has major flaws, especially with action scenes sometimes more ambitious than its animation effort can keep up with. However, the series is hardly bottom-of-the-barrel in that regard, and the multilayered scheming among the royal families in the Sovereignty is developing surprisingly well. There are also some interesting developments involving Salinger the Demon and the Empire’s Emperor. Most importantly, Alice seems to have matured a bit, especially after getting a flashy rematch with Iska out of her system. While the episode doesn’t quite end on a cliffhanger, it definitely ends in the middle of a major plotline, so here’s hoping that another season will be coming more quickly than this one did.
Rock is a Lady’s Modesty
Rating: B++
This one stands even with Sword of the Demon Hunter and behind only The Apothecary Diaries and Apocalypse Hotel as one of the season’s best, as the more rock-focused shift and the completion of the series’ core quartet turn this into a sizzling affair about how rock music can infuse deep into the soul for those who perform it. The series is at its best when featuring the passion, energy, and fierce determination of Lilisa in particular and how that can draw in and motivate those around her. Of course, part of the fun is still the harsh, sometimes obscene language and gestures Lilisa an Otoha use to convey their passion. The relationship-building between Otoha and Lilisa is also a plus, as is expanding on the way Lilisa’s stepsister gets drawn in by seeing Lilisa be “real.” The animation of the performance numbers, complete with all of the great facial expressions, continues to be a treat, as does the way Otoha infuses sexiness into all of this without the series explicitly resorting to fan service. This had been a fun ride, and I’ll definitely be back if another season is animated.
Sword of the Demon Hunter
Rating: B+
While this one still has some quality execution, I’m lowering my grade on it a notch because of some baffling organizational choices that the series makes. After teasing that the story would advance to 2009 at the end of episode 1, the series finally carries through on that at the end of episode 9 in a neat scene which shows that promises have been kept over the decades even if those in modern times don’t know their meaning. After using a play to reflect on 1850s events, though, the story returns to the 1850s. . . and stays there through the end of the season. Beyond the aforementioned neat scene, what was the point of going forward in time at this point, then? It would have made total sense if the story were alternating between past and present, but we’re not seeing that so far.
Despite that, the series still shines with its quality character development, plotting in its 1850s elements, historical detail, and rigorous use of symbolism, especially in its use of flowers. It also consistently looks great, too. This is one of the season’s most underappreciated series.
Teogonia
Rating: B
This one never got much attention, which is a shame, because it turned out to be a pretty decent shonen-style series. Its strength is in its cultural and world-building sense, though it does also have some interesting battle scenarios and a fair amount of tension as well. I do hope this one gets a continuation, as I’m curious to see where the story goes next.
The Mononoke Lecture Logs of Chuzenji-sensei
Rating: B
I know I’m repeating myself here, but that this series never got picked up for legal streaming is the biggest injustice of the Spring ’25 season. It doesn’t change its format in the second half, with most episodes still focused around a central mystery that usually seems to have supernatural elements to it, but some episodes (especially #11) also incorporate more social aspects which involve numerous recurring cast members, including Chuzenji’s wife and kid sister. Certainly not heavy fare, but as a light mystery series it holds it own if you can find a reliable way to watch it.
The Too-Perfect Saint
Rating: B
Serious animation limitations are forcing me to lower the grade on this one a notch, but the series still delivers on other fronts. Maya’s grand revenge mission (which doubles as a mission to salvage what little hope her kingdom has of surviving how badly the second princes has made a mess of things) keeps things lively and more than makes up for how subdued Philia’s personality is, and watching the latter realize that she may be in love with Oswald is a treat. On any front other than technical merits, it’s still one of the better series of its type.
The Gorilla God’s Go-To Girl
Rating: B
Again, the animation quality really limits how good this one can be, as the more frequent action scenes in the late episodes can hardly be called robust and still shots dominate all too often. However, the series never loses its charm, even as the plot involving the terrorists and their Panther God-blessed leader gets heavier. That the terrorist leader isn’t necessarily wrong – he is firmly convinced that people shouldn’t be beholden to their animal god blessings – is an interesting twist, and he would be a legitimately sympathetic character if he wasn’t being hypocritical about it and aggressive in an off-putting way. The series does explore this aspect a bit, showing even seemingly-lowly animal blessings can still be useful in the right situations, how some can be more than their blessings (see Louis), and how the best way to use a blessing is open to interpretation, even for a seemingly combat-oriented one like Gorilla God. There’s a lot of interesting potential here, but the late episodes rush through it too much. Even so, seeing Sophia stand on her own at the end, making her own decision about the future and still getting the guy, is quite satisfying.
Witch Watch
Rating: B
When this series keeps things light, it’s one of the funniest anime around, so an arc which turned serious and at least a bit heavy was an uncomfortable choice. (And yes, I’m fully aware that anime comedies have a loooong history of doing this.) On the plus side, that arc does formally bring a werewolf into the regular cast and seems to be elevating cat-transforming witch Nemu to a regular rather than fringe cast member. Both of these are positive long-term developments. This series is continuing into its second cour, so more fun is coming.
Yandere Dark Elf
Rating: C
The second half of this series doesn’t really do anything beyond what the first half does or change its MO at all, so I wasn’t originally intending to include this one. However, the series deserves some acknowledgement for properly wrapping up its romantic entanglements and doing so without the expected harem ending; the other two women from Hinata’s former party never show any significant romantic interest in him (though they certainly integrally play into the fan service scenarios), Hinata’s classmate eventually concedes to Mariabell on the romantic front, and Hinata even eventually reciprocates Mariabell’s feelings. There’s even an implication in the final shot that Mariabell finally gets to have sex with Hinata, too. Not a great romcom or fan service series by any stretch, and the censoring is still as irritating as ever, but at least it ends better than most of its ilk.
That’s it for this season! Look for the Summer 2025 Preview Guide to start shortly.
Welcome to my seasonal Guide! (The debut schedule can be found here.)
I expect to cover every full-episode series that will be debuting this season and is available in streaming form, including many of the sequels/returning series. The ones I will NOT be covering (because I’m not caught up on the franchise) are the new seasons of Rent-A-Girlfriend, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, Puniru is a Kawaii Slime, Grand Blue Dreaming, Mr. Osomatsu, A Couple of Cuckoos, Dr. Stone, and the new Arknights installment.
Note: Because neither Harmony of Mille-Feuille or The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity was easily available (even in fansubs!) by the time Let’s Go Karaoke! debuted, they will not be included in this Guide. It is now complete.
As always, the previews are listed in newest to oldest order below.
Let’s Go Karaoke!
Streams: Crunchyroll on Thursdays
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Third-year middle schooler Satomi is the leader of his school’s choir team, but he’s troubled by his voice being on the cusp of changing, a fact that he’s trying to hide from others but his teacher has apparently picked up on. He’s got a new issue, too: Kyoji, a yakuza sub-lieutenant, has taken an interest in him. Kyoji is seeking a coach for an upcoming karaoke contest within his family, which is a big deal because the worst performer each time around gets a tattoo made by the boss’s hand, which is not cool because the boss is an untalented amateur inclined to give tattoos the recipient will hate. Though intimidated by Kyoji at first, Satomi ultimately agrees to help him out in exchange for free food, partly because he seems to see interacting with Satomi as a way to overcome his own doubts.
Not sure if this manga adaptation is intended to go into BL territory, but boy, it’s hard not to read that vibe into the first episode, especially in the very meticulous way the animation emphasizes Kyoji’s aggressive body language and how Satomi’s reaction to it is initially akin to a response to unwelcome flirting. Kyoji’s reasoning for specifically picking out Satomi for his coach also seems very thin and, frankly, a bit creepy. Step beyond that, though, and there are some fairly interesting character dynamics being laid down here. I’m not interested enough in the premise to follow this one, but I am a little curious to find out how this one eventually plays out.
Kaiju No. 8 E-Ex and episode 13
Streams: Crunchyroll on Saturdays
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Kaiju No. 8 is back and now in simuldubbed form!
Sadly, that’s the most hype I can give these two episodes. E-Ex is a very standard “hero’s day off” kind of episode (albeit a Kafka-free one), complete with humorous misdirection as Kafka’s fellow defense force members have various encounters with Hoshina during a day off. It’s a neat time-killer but otherwise disposable; you won’t miss anything significant if you skip it. Episode 13 does have Kafka in it, and a comparatively brief battle against a Godzilla-like kaiju, but not one involving him; it instead features the Defense Force’s First Division and especially its leader, Gen Narumi. He was the guy who appeared briefly in episode 12 with the massive bladed weapon, and it looks like he’s going to be a staple cast member this season, since both Kikoru and Kafka are joining his division. And naturally, he’s a lazy otaku freak who stands on action rather than ceremony, (to the point that his second-in-command has to keep him in line), because this wouldn’t be Kaiju No. 8 without character eccentricities like that.
The kaiju fight does generate the expected bloody mess and provide all sorts of fan service for military otaku, but it’s far from being one of the series’ more dynamic ones. At least the episode does advance the plot by finally giving Kafka his first post-revelation assignment, and the episode’s epilogue indicates that a big crisis is going to be coming up quickly. In other words, this is a fairly standard set-up and transition episode. The technical merits, at least, remain solid for episode 13 (they are a little shaky for the bonus episode), and the simuldub is a big plus (I’ve liked the English dub for this one ever since I first heard it), so there’s a promise of better to come.
Nukitashi the Animation
Streams: OceanVeil on Fridays
Rating: WTF (literally)
Seiran Island is a tropical island where promiscuity anywhere isn’t just allowed and encouraged; it’s codified into law and local social mores. Literally anywhere is a venue for sex, daily sexual activity is expected, and monogamy is considered immoral by the prevailing powers. And yes, all of that includes at school as well. (Presumably just high school, but the first episode doesn’t indicate what the age cut-off is for all of this.) That doesn’t set will with high schooler Junnosuke Tachibana, who was born on the island and is now returning to it to live with his younger sister after their parents’ death. He isn’t necessarily against perversity – he does make his own sex toys, after all – but hates it being expected and enforced, and he may not be the only one opposed to the island’s enforcement tactics or the view that not wanting to constantly have sex is amoral.
This adaptation of an award-winning visual novel is already notorious for its first episode being broadcast audio-only on one Japanese station, and honestly, I’m not even sure how they got away with that much. While there’s technically only nudity in one at-a-distance shot of a nude beach, not even the legendary Interspecies Reviewers can equal this one for the sheer concentration of characters shown engaged in sex acts and the dialog – even the opening advertisement for Seiran Island – is rife with sexual references and wordplay. (The OP that the episode closes with also almost ubiquitously shows sex toys.) The concept of taking pro-sex attitudes to draconian extremes is very edgy in application, and making school as much of a sex-oriented zone as anywhere else is the kind of questionable zone you’d normally only see in doujinshi, so this one has all kinds of potential objectionable points. While the concept is somewhat interesting, its ultimate success could hinge on how successfully the absurdity of it all is played out. It certainly won’t be winning followers on visual quality alone.
Sakamoto Days, episode 12
Streams: Netflix on Mondays
Rating: 2 (of 5)
This series got off to a fairly strong start, but while it still has its moments, it’s settled into the patterns of an ordinary shonen action series. This episode, after a brief recap, continues with the storyline active at the end of the previous episode: a bunch of notorious serial killers have been unleashed to hunt Sakamato and his allies down. The Order doesn’t like this and so is determined to deal with the killers themselves, but of course one of them gets to Shin and Lu while they’re out shopping before that can happen. And of course all of them are colorful sicko freaks. And of course Shin’s encounter with the axe-wielding guy who’s all about making entertaining death scenes forces him to unlock a new level to his abilities.
In other words, nearly every bit of this episode is utterly predictable, and only some mild doses of humor keep the episode from being a complete drag. The action elements this time around aren’t anything special, either. (Although they did feel like they gave Lu too little to do, probably because this is meant to be Shin’s moment.) Honestly, I was starting to find my enthusiasm for this on flagging at the end of last season, and this humdrum start doesn’t help.
With Vengeance, Sincerely, Your Broken Saintess
Streams: Nowhere legally on Wednesdays
Rating: See below
This one is a bit of a special case, as it’s advertised as a “light anime,” which mans it uses very limited animation which often looks like manga panels set in motion. (It’s an effect not much different than what can be seen in manga music videos.) Some will find this distracting to the point of automatic rejection, and while I don’t mind it, it does make the episode hard to rate in a visual sense.
In a story sense, the 14.5 minute episode is more straightforward. Lua is a Saintess Candidate, but her healing powers have a twist: she has to take the injuries upon herself, then heal them. She’s still fairly powerful this way, but things go awry when she risks her life to save a knight captain she’s admired when he is mauled by a monster. She can’t heal herself before collapsing and wakes up a month later to find out that her supposed friend Arianne has done more than just claim credit and romance the captain: she’s dragged Lua’s reputation through the mud to discredit her as well, then laughs at lua over how she’s toyed with her when Lua confronts Arianne about it. That pushes Lua to use an aspect to her power that she’s always held back before: the ability to transfer injuries to others as well. And someone seems amused by this. . .
Overall, this is a pretty standard revenge set-up, but I’m at least a bit curious to see where it goes, and again, the visual style isn’t really an issue for me. I can’t see following this one week-to-week, but it’s quite possible I could check in on it when I have downtime.
April Showers Bring May Flowers
Streams: Nowhere legally on Fridays
Rating: 2 (of 5)
15-year-old Hana Tabata dreams of the kind of romance found in shojo manga but doesn’t expect that she’ll ever experience it, since she’s painfully shy and, by her admission, ugly. (In fairness, her character design is more a plain, somewhat stocky background girl character than outright ugly – unlike Uglymug, Epicfighter – but this isn’t also a case like Maomao or this season’s Betrothed to My Sister’s Ex, where the right clothes and make-up would turn her into a beauty, either.) Contrarily, Classmate Yosuke is exactly the kind of guy who would star as the main male love interest in a shojo manga, and an extrovert as well. Hana becomes alarmed when Yosuke spots her experimenting with using a flower as a hair ornament and expects the worst, but she’s slow to understand that Yosuke is just a decent guy, while he’s slow to understand why she seems so out of sorts around him.
This manga adaptation annoyed me, as Hana is way too young to be worried about never having experienced romance. The story could still redeem itself if it ends up exploring Hana coming out of he social shell and realizing that looks aren’t everything when it comes to romance, but so far it seems to be leaning in a more idealized direction. While this may be intended as an ironic mirror of the shojo manga Hana loves, I’m not convinced yet that the storytelling is that ambitious. The series doesn’t look bad despite using a more muted color palette, but aside from Hana’s atypical design, nothing stands out about it, either. Overall, this one was a bit of a chore to sit through, so I’m highly unlikely to watch more.
Tougen Anki
Streams: Crunchyroll on Fridays
Rating: 4 (of 5)
Shiki is a teenage gun nut and troublemaker who lives with his adoptive father, whom Shiki knows only as a liquor store owner/operator. One day after getting expelled from his most recent school, he learns the truth: he actually has Oni blood, and there’s an organization of individuals descended from the legendary oni hunter Momotaro, and one of them is set on killing him before he awakens – and oh yes, his father is a retired member of that organization, too, one dead-set (rather literally, it turns out) on giving him a normal life. Ironically, Shiki awakens to his blood-based powers as a result of a Momotaro agent coming after him, but there’s also apparently a secret organization which fosters young oni, and Shiki looks primed to be joining a groups of oni-in-training of similar age.
Boy, this one wasn’t on my radar at all, but it is now. Every bit of this opening episode – every characterization, action, and story beat – is bog-standard supernatural shonen action set-up, and the closer (which I assume is going to be the regular OP) doesn’t suggest anything different. What separates this one from the crowd, though, is its sharp visual production. Action animation, while not quite top-tier, is decidedly above-average in allowing for dynamic movement in fight scenes, and it makes impressive use of color and design in creating spectacles like the one shown in the screenshot. (It has to be seen on a large screen to be fully appreciated.) Shiki using his oni power to create guns and even a missile is also, frankly, quite cool. Have no idea if this one is going to amount to anything more than a standard shonen action, but picking up one such title for this season isn’t so bad.
Solo Camping for Two
Streams: Crunchyroll on Thursdays
Rating: 2 (of 5)
In this manga adaptation, Gen is a guy in his 30s who enjoys solo camping because it gets him away from everything (including, it’s implied, people). His latest solo excursion is disrupted when Shizuku, a young woman who has done group camping before, bumbles onto his campsite, her first attempt at solo camping having gone seriously awry (in no small part because she was not properly prepared). Gen very reluctantly helps her out and struggles to resist Shizuku’s insistence both that he show her the right way to do it and that this is really still solo camping, just “for two.”
I think the intent here was to have a version of Laid-Back Camp aimed more at adults (all of the characters featured in the ED look to be at least drinking age), and the first episode does get some of the details right, including the emphasis on campfire cooking and some of the technical details and equipment involved in modern camping. It’s also making a deliberate effort to incorporate some mild fan service (the two first meet with Shizuku in her panties as she dries out some wet clothes) and set up for presumed future romantic developments. The debut has one big problem, though: Shizuku is not at all endearing as a character. In fact, she’s too obnoxious and pushy to even be likable. Gen isn’t the most likable character, either, but he is at least a bit more justified in his behavior, since Shizuku is unquestionably being both pushy and intrusive. (I can also relate to his desire to occasionally isolate himself, since constantly being around people tends to wear me out.) The series’ production is also dropping the ball on another contributing factor to YuruCamp‘s success: scenery porn. This does not look like a keeper so far.
New PANTY & STOCKING with GARTERBELT
Streams: Amazon Prime on Wednesdays
Rating: 4
The original 2010 series was, essentially, studio GAINAX’s take on crude, adult-oriented American cartoons popular at the time on Cartoon Network, and it was definitely a love-it-or-hate-it animal. It featured spectacularly creative animation to go with all the sexual references, gross-out gags, and parodies in a story about fallen angels Panty and Stocking, who live in Daten City with the priest Garterbelt and exterminate ghosts, an endeavor which only occasionally interrupted all manner of indecent behavior. Now GAINAX’s descendant, studio Trigger, has resurrected the series under original director Hiroyuki Imaishi for another eye-popping round of insanity.
It doesn’t really matter if you’ve seen the original or not, as there’s a brief summary at the beginning, and none of this really needs to make any sense anyway. For those who did follow it, this season starts with the startling cliffhanger the first series left off on: Stocking has somehow been influenced into becoming a demon and thus chopping Panty into 666 pieces, all at the instigation of villain corset. That leaves Garterbelt and Panty’s wannabe-boyfriend Brief to try to reconstitute Panty while Stocking drifts over the line into being a full-blown monster. Mass chaos ensues.
Basically, this line of actual dialog from the English dub (which I highly recommend, even if none of the original voice cast returned), which is typical for the series, should determine whether this bold visual experiment is for you or not: “The volcanic vagina of the burning-hot angel bitch herself!” Watch it or avoid it at all costs.
Dealing With Mikadono Sisters is a Breeze
Streams: Crunchyroll on Wednesdays
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Yu Ayase is aggressively average, which wouldn’t normally be a problem, but expectations have always been high for him since he’s the son of a genius actress, so he’s frequently had to deal with others being disappointed in him. When his mother died and he’s taken in by one of his mother’s friends, he finds himself living with three sisters from his school who are each geniuses within their respective specialties: princely Kazuki is a supreme actress, Niko is a champion martial artist, and Miwa is a brilliant student and top-tier shogi player. None of them are happy with having a new adopted brother, but the greatest wish of both Yu and his late mother is to have a normal family life, so Yu sets out to win them over, starting with food.
This manga adaptation, which for inexplicable reasons is getting a two-episode debut, is every bit as stereotypical in execution as the above description sounds, even down to a couple of instances of fan service involving middle(?) sister Niko. It’s also every bit as average on technical merits and character designs as its male lead is, However, it’s still getting a decent score because both of the first two episodes are, at times, genuinely funny, and each of the four main characters so far have shown distinct moments of potential vulnerability. This would probably be a certain keep if it wasn’t coming out on a stacked day in an especially crowded season, but we’ll see how the next couple of episodes go.
I Was Reincarnated as he 7th Prince
Streams: Crunchyroll on Wednesdays
Rating: 3 (of 5)
A few days after the affair with Guisarme was resolved, Lloyd has put the former Assassin’s Guild members to work, with Ren becoming a maid in direct service to him and the others being charged with administering the castle Guisarme used as a base. Lloyd’s interest has been piqued by divine sorcery, so he decides to join the church. Llloyd’s previous visit to the church was not without incident, but surely, no trouble would arise this time, like Lloyd finding himself face-to-face with an angel. ..
Honestly, even though I finished the first season of this one, it was far from being one of my favorites, so it’s borderline for me continuing to follow this season. (Even more so since there are already at least three other solid keepers for me on Wednesdays this season.) If you were a fan of the first season, though, then nothing in this first episode should disappoint. It’s the show getting up to all its usual antics, and with the same level of visual quality, too.
The Rising of the Shield Hero s4
Streams: Crunchyroll on Wednesdays
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
After a year and a half off, Shield Hero is finally back to continue from its dramatic season 3 conclusion, and this time in full simuldubbed form! The story left off with Naofumi and party setting up a trip to Q’Ten Lo to try to resolve the matter of Raphtalia’s supposed succession claim, and that necessitates a stop in Siltvelt to arrange a ship. Siltvelt regards the Shield Hero as a god, which is both a boon and bane to Naofumi’s cause since the country’s high officials seem determined to get Naofumi involved in some kind of internal conflict despite Naofumi’s best efforts to expedite their journey. Meanwhile, a new threat is on its way from Q’Ten Lo, Fitoria wishes to see Naofumi about something, Itsuki and Ren are still recovering from their curses, and Motoyasu is off being Motoyasu – for better or worse.
That this episode was simuldubbed was a surprise (It’s a first for the franchise, I believe), but otherwise the franchise is proceeding apace with a fairly standard “let’s get the next novel started” kind of opening episode. The first episode looks about as good as the series ever has, including one robust martial arts training sequence, and Naofumi’s reception in the palace promises some potentially interesting complications for Naofumi’s journey. For this stage of the story, the journeying party resets to its core of Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo, with Nadia and the tiger twins accompanying them; the latter are present since they’re originally from Siltvelt, but I have to also think their presence is also a nod to them (especially Atla) being popular characters, too, and perhaps this will give the series a chance to explore their origins some. Overall, it’s a solid but not spectacular start to the new season.
Turkey!
Streams: Crunchyroll on Tuesdays
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
Mai is the captain of a high school girl’s bowling club, and most of her fellow members accept that the goal of the club is just to have fun, rather than be serious about bowling. That doesn’t sit will with first-year member Rin, though. She’s a fiercely competitive sort, and so is bothered by how Mai, who’s skilled enough to get a turkey (i.e., three strikes in a row), seems to her to be avoiding trying to win. When Rin forces the issue by threatening to leave the club unless Mai actually tries to beat her, something unexpected happens. . .
Director Susumu Kudo has conventional sports series like Hoop Days and Cinderella Nine in his résumé, so it’s completely reasonable to buy into this original series being a conventional sports tale, too, just about bowling this time. Indeed, that’s exactly how the series has been advertised since the beginning. However, as the last 90 pre-credit seconds and the epilogue scene show, that isn’t the real (or at least full) truth about this series at all. What we get instead is a topical and genre fake-out on the level of legendary first episodes like DECA-DENCE, Ga-Rei-Zero, and School Live! I won’t spoil the surprise here, as you really need to see it for yourself to appreciate how big this barely-hinted-at switch is going to be, but this was shaping up to be a pretty decent basis for a sports series and now I’m really intrigued to see how its whole new genre gets integrated in. It’s the season’s biggest gimmick, by far, and I think it’s going to work.
9-nine- Ruler’s Crown
Streams: Nowhere legally on Saturdays
Rating: 2 (of 5)
Kakeru Niimi lives in Shiromitsugawa, an ordinary college town which has struggled with self-promotion over the years, including a locally-based anime series. During a festival, a minor earthquake happens, causing a Regalia in a local shrine to shatter. From that point on, strange things start to happen, such as objects seemingly moving on their own, a lifelike statue found on a park bench which might be a person turned to stone, and a case of arson at a school which threatens Kakeru’s sister. Through all of this he gradually starts building a relationship with Miyako Kujo, a pretty girl in class who also cosplayed at the festival he attended and is a waitress at his favorite diner.
This one is an adaptation of a four-party adult visual novel series from a few years back, and it bears both that distinctive visual style and the typical structure of opening with the male lead going around interacting with different key girls; two of the four main girls appear prominently in this episode (Miyako as the focal point girl, Kakeru’s sister Sora in a slightly lesser role), while the other two have only non-speaking cameos (one in the diner and one looking uncomfortable while being talked to by boys). The plot is supposedly predicated on individuals gain supernatural powers as a murderer stalks the city, but aside from the girl turned to stone, only minor teases of that happen in the episode. The episode is mostly just about Kakeru starting down the Miyako Path. It’s thoroughly ordinary in that regard, and neither its design elements nor technical merits stand out, either. Maybe this will eventually amount to something, but it’s not looking promising so far.
There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless…
Streams: YouTube It’s Anime channel on Mondays
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
Renako underwent a major image change to overcome her middle school awkwardness and isolation, and it worked; the glamorous Mai became her friend. The first problem, though, was that as much as she had outwardly changed, she hadn’t changed much inwardly, so she struggled to keep up with Mai and her high-tier friend group. The second problem is that Mai isn’t interested in just being friends, and Renako is not at all sure she’s ready to step their relationship up to a romantic level. Faced with the uncanny way things always seem to work out for Mai, Renako issues a challenge: on some days they will just be friend, while on other days they’ll be a couple, and the two of them will see how that shakes out. But Mai certainly isn’t making things easy. . .
This light novel adaptation is a bit refreshing in that the two leads don’t play around on the emotional front; before the end of episode 1, each knows where the other stands. Further, the issue for Renako seems to be not that Mai’s a girl (there are at least a couple of scenes clearly suggesting that she’s capable of being attracted to girls) and much more that things are moving way too fast for her; she’s looking for friends first, which is something that the already-socially-mastered Mai doesn’t seem to fully appreciate. Thankfully, she’s not willing to be forceful about it. This sets up a potentially juicy battle centered on one convincing the other about their proper relationship status, though advertising art and the ED both suggest that Mai isn’t the only girl who’s eventually going to crush on Renako. In other words, we can’t rule out yuri harem territory, and that’s fine, too. There are also indications that Mai really does have some kind of supernatural luck supporting her, and I’m interested to see if that’s just going to be a running joke or if it will amount to something. All-in-all, this is a more involving and less trashy start than I was expecting.
See You Tomorrow at the Food Court
Streams: Crunchyroll on Mondays
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Wada and Yamamoto are both socially isolated at school for different reasons: the former looks like a perfectly stereotypical Japanese girl who is a teacher’s pet (she even prides herself on not standing out), while the latter is a gyaru who seems unapproachable. However, Yamamoto is actually the better student and more responsible one overall, while Wada is actually the shallow, lazy, and more sociable one. Their true personalities show when they meet each day at a local mall’s food court to hang out and talk about inane topics.
Yep, this manga adaptation is almost entirely about the random banter of two very different girls and the curious relationship they have formed despite how much they seem to visually contrast. I’d love to see a future story about how they met and got into this habit, but ultimately that’s far less important than how they play off of each other now. The episode is divided into four roughly five minutes vignettes, so gears always shift before topics get boring, and substantial bits of character development creep in along the way, making this a more involving view than it might sound like at first. I’ve been assured by those familiar with the source material that this one never goes in a yuri direction, but that’s fine; friendship of this sort doesn’t need to have a romantic edge to it, after all. It may not look like much (although Wada does get some amusingly exaggerated expressions at times), but the series has its own charm.
Fermat no Ryori
Streams: Nowhere legally
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Gaku has always loved math and is a top-performing math scholar, but it’s something he’s more enjoyed than seriously strove to perfect. Partly because of that, he blanks on a Math Olympiad qualifier, thus hurting his school and causing him to lose his confidence. While the school’s chairman seeks to punish him for that, young master chef Kai has noticed that Gaku has one other talent that he doesn’t even realize: a very mathematical approach to cooking, one that produces stunningly good results for even a simple dish. And Kai intends to force Gaku to realize this by having Gaku cook the main dish at a dinner hosted by the chairman.
Yugo Kobayashi (creator of Aoashi) has already seen his manga adapted into a live-action Netflix series, and now it’s getting an anime version, too. (Why Netflix doesn’t seem to have this, too, is a mystery, unless they’re planning to batch-release it later on.) As a career math teacher, the idea of taking a mathematical approach to cooking is somewhat intriguing to me, though the the very dramatic approach taken to it here is far less appealing. Still, the cooking details shown are interesting, and it has at least a bit of BL tease if you’re into that kind of thing. In a lighter season, I’d consider following this one.
CITY The Animation
Streams: Amazon Prime Video on Sundays
Rating: 2 (of 5)
Something is always going on in the city. Sometimes it’s utterly mundane things, like contemplating what super-power you’d have if you had a choice. Sometimes it’s not, like accidentally dumping two orders of fried noodles into a customer’s bag in a diner or praying to a rat statue to find one’s missing point card. But there’s always something going on.
The source manga for this series comes from the same manga-ka behind Nichijou, and I’ve heard said that if you were a fan of that one then you’ll probably be a fan of this one, too. I can’t speak to that from experience, which probably contributes to why this one landed a lot flatter for me than it will for many. I don’t have anything against a bunch of slice-of-life comedy vignettes per se, and the cartoonish style certainly makes it one of the season’s most distinctive-looking series, but too few of the gags clicked with me at all. This will doubtless have an audience of loyal viewers, but I won’t be one of them.
Hotel Inhumans
Streams: Crunchyroll on Sundays
Rating: 3 (of 5)
The Hotel Inhumans is a full-service establishment which caters specifically to the underworld. Its two concierges will do everything they can to accommodate any guest’s requests, whether it’s medical aid, laundry services, body disposal, or even finding a lost sibling. The latter is what leads an assassin on the way out to their door. When the new head of the crime family he worked for proved unwilling to keep the promise of his predecessor (i.e., to release his sister from virtual hostage status on her 20th birthday), he had to leave the hard way, but even then, finding his sister was still his top priority. Naturally, combat-oriented concierge Sara and planning-oriented concierge Ikuro would carry out that request.
I saw the first John Wick movie a couple of weeks ago, and couldn’t help but think of the hotel for criminals in that movie as I watched this first episode. Given that this first story was entirely self-contained, I assume that this will be an anthology series going forward, so guests and their particular circumstances will rotate in and out while the concierges remain constant. That’s fine if that’s what you’re looking for, and the execution of the first episode is hardly bad, but it’s not what I am interested in these days. This scenario does come with a fair amount of action, though the animation quality limits how involved it can be. Still, the artistic effort is solid enough.
Uglymug, Epicfighter
Streams: Crunchyroll on Sundays
Rating: 1.5 (of 5)
Shigeru has a self-professed ugly face, but while that’s made it difficult for him with the ladies, he’s otherwise led a mostly satisfying life. That changes when a false train molesting accusation costs him a lot, so he jumps at a chance to get transported to another world when he hears an online rumor about it. In his set-up, he opts to take a huge negative on his looks and other hefty penalties that distance him from women, which results in a massive XP gain bonus and an eye-popping number of bonus skill points. When he finally applies them in the new world, that turns him into a veritable god. Though he initially intends to be alone, he winds up at least temporarily teaming up with three others who came to this world the same way he did.
As isekai power fantasies go, you can’t get more OP than this one, and that’s just the start of the issues I have with this manga adaptation. Stories predicated on deliberately false sexual accusations don’t set well with me in general, and Shigeru’s reactions here in the penalties he takes along that line seem much too extreme to even pass as a joke; it gives the impression that that anime is sending a “involvement with women will ruin you” vibe. I don’t actually think that’s the intent at all, but it’s hard not to think that way when the episode also makes it clear that Shigeru is initially judged on appearance even in the new world, too. I suspect the series will eventually angle for a “looks aren’t everything” kind of message, but its uninspired fantasy setting and average-level technical merits aren’t enough to sustain it. Might give this one another episode, but it’s not looking promising so far.
Gachiakuta
Streams: Crunchyroll on Sundays
Rating: 4 (of 5)
In a floating city known as The Sphere, the land is firmly partitioned between the scrupulously-clean haves and the slums of the have-nots. Teenager Rudo lives in the latter with his adoptive father, since his real father was executed many years earlier for being a murderer – and the people of the slums are plenty aware of that and don’t let Rudo forget it. Rudo tries to get by through raiding trash facilities (which is illegal) and repairing and selling items he finds, but he’s instead ultimately nabbed for killing his adoptive father when he comes across the actual masked killer doing the deed. That means he’s stuck following the path of his father: execution by being dropped into the hell that is The Pit.
This manga adaptation is almost worth watching just for its incredible background artistry, though its technical merits in general are also pretty strong. Character designs favor a baggy clothing style more reminiscent of a shonen action series, but the story is much more typical of a rigidly-stratified sci fi dystopia; I kept thinking of Battle Angel while watching this one. The course of events – even down to Rudo trying to impress the girl he likes – are all bog-standard elements for setting up a Wronged Hero scenario, but the execution and detail work just impress that much. Sundays are super-packed this year, but even so, this one is probably still a keeper.
Cultural Exchange With a Game Centre Girl
Streams: Crunchyroll on Sundays
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Renji is working part-time at a Game Center when he encounters a foreign girl struggling with a crane game. After seeing her try and fail for hours, he decides to help out, but the fact she speaks only English, his English skills are limited, and he doesn’t understand the cultural difference between Japan and Great Britain on what Valentine’s Day means results in him unwittingly making the wrong impression on the girl. Despite the language difficulties, they wind up hanging out together when she returns to the arcade another day. Renji ultimately decides to try to clear things up – and bridge a cultural gap – with a notebook exchange with the girl Lily.
This manga adaptation is probably most notable for how extensively it uses English. Lily exclusively speaks in British-accented English, and hat’s off to VA Sally Amaki (an American-born actress probably best-known for both the Japanese and English dub performances of Carol in Tomo-chan Is a Girl!) for pulling that off in mostly convincing fashion. VA Shoya Chiba also does a commendable job for pulling off Renji’s stilted attempts at English. Despite Lily’s bold declaration at the end of the episode, this mostly looks like it’s going to be a sweet little tale about bridging cultural barriers. Not anything I plan to follow, and the animation can be pretty limited at times, but it looks like it could be a low-key delight for the right audiences.
Nyaight of the Living Cat
Streams: Crunchyroll on Sundays
Rating: Meow!
A nyandemic (yes, that’s what they actually call it even in the original Japanese) has struck! A special virus originally carried by a bioengineered cat has started to spread, resulting in anyone who has significant physical contact with a cat turning into one. That’s an especially big problem for the former workers at a cat cafe, who are now faced with having to dodge the cats they still love and wnat to dote on just to ensure their own survival.
Yes, this one is every bit as silly and stupid in execution as its concept suggests, but I have to give the original manga-ka team and the production staff for running with the idea as much as they possibly can in their clear homage to Night of the Living Dead. While the manga version was heavily criticized, the anime version actually does a decent job of ramping up the tension thanks in large part to a musical score that’s played completely straight, and the episode doesn’t look bad; many of the cats are CG animated, but you sometimes have to look closely to tell. Not sure how durable this concept will be as it (presumably) spoofs more standard zombie apocalypse tropes, but if you need your fix of cute cats this season, this one will certainly do it.
Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra
Streams: Crunchyroll on Sundays
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
Takuto died in his hospital bed while playing Eternal Nations, a turn-based strategy game where he was a top-ranked player due to his mastery of the game’s most difficult starting position: the evil civilization Mynoghra. He awakes to find himself not only in a different world, but also in the presence of Sludge Witch Atou, the hero character for Mynoghra whom he was fond of – and she seems to know him as her master from the game, too! With both unsure where they are or why, they decide to follow the familiar path and start up the civilization of Mynoghra here. Meanwhile, a group of dark elves cast out of their home and desperate for both food and a new place to live come across a strange entity and his female servant deep in the forest, and it grants them food.
The protagonist doesn’t evince much personality so far, and the technical merits aren’t better than mediocre, but I’d follow this one just for Atou, who’s an early candidate for my Best Girl for the season. (That she’s favoring him because she remembers their long association in the game and his loyalty to her, rather than because it’s programmed into her, is also a plus.) Their relationship and mutual enthusiasm is cute, too. This light novel adaptation does offer enough other interesting variations on the standard concept to be worth checking out, however. The absolute dichotomy between how we see Takato and how the dark elves see him is quite intriguing and will hopefully become a regular feature going forward, and I’m fully expecting this one to follow in the footsteps of titles like Overlord and How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord in terms with Takato having to play-act a role to maintain appearances. He’s certainly not starting all-powerful, either, but building from the ground up in classic civilization-building style. Despite not being hugely impressive, this will be in my regular rotation.
Ruri Rocks
Streams: Crunchyroll on Sundays
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
Ruri is a bratty high school girl who becomes enamored with crystals, so she decides to go to a mountain to hunt some down for herself when her allowance proves not enough to afford a crystal necklace. While doing so, she encounters graduate student Nagi and becomes fascinated by some combination of Ruri herself and the whole quest to find neat minerals. Appreciating the younger girl’s budding enthusiasm, Nagi takes her along on a trip to find garnets and teaches her a bit about both minerals and ethical behavior.
Anime has proven over the years that it can make nearly any hobby interesting by getting cute girls involved with it, and this time it’s mineralogy. While I am not at all a fan of the character design style for this manga adaptation, I have to acknowledge how effective this episode is at drawing viewers into the the world of minerals. It makes a dense, heavily technical field approachable while also providing some great (and clearly well-researched) scenery choices and emphasizes responsible behavior without being preachy. Nagi and Ruri make for a likable duo, too, and the understated musical score is remarkably effective at setting the mood. The original artist does seem to favor full-figured women (Nagi is anything but dainty!) and a handful of shots lean in a lightly fan servicey direction, but that is a component which could easily be overlooked. This isn’t for me, but I could see this one finding a small but devoted following.
Dekin no Mogura: The Earthbound Mole
Streams: Crunchyroll on Sundays
Rating: 2 ( of 5)
In this manga adaptation, Magi and Yaeko are college literary arts students who seem to be friends but not a romantic couple. One night they encounter a strange man who’s been hit by a falling book but resolutely refuses medical attention. Concerned about him, they follow, and eventually learn that his name is Mogura. He’s a man in a strange position: he’s been banned from the afterlife. He collects fragments of ghost fire with an eventual end goal of using that to get him to the afterlife, but he can also use that energy to heal wounds and rejuvenate himself. Beyond that, though, he has to live normally. Because of his peculiar situation, he lives off the grid, which also makes it hard for him to earn a living. And as Magi and Yaeko start to notice, those who encounter him start noticing weird things.
Many anime heavily use Japanese cultural elements but are still at least accessible to Western audiences. This one comes in low on that scale, though. You miss a whole series of jokes and references if you don’t know that “Kojien” is widely-regarded as the most authoritative of all Japanese dictionaries, for instance, and consumption tax being cited as Mogura’s greatest fear is a joke that probably will go over the heads of most non-Japanese, too. Beyond that, I’m not sure who the target audience is here; older adults, maybe? It’s clearly going to involve supernatural elements but not in a horror sense and it’s a bit too laid-back to properly be a comedy. It does stand out for character design and general artistic styles that aren’t typical, but when the most compelling thing about the first episode is what Magi has printed on his hoodie on a given day, the series isn’t succeeding. In an extremely crowded season on its busiest day, this is a hard pass.
The Summer Hikaru Died
Streams: Netflix on Saturdays
Rating: 4.5 (of 5)
A few months back, Yoshiki’s best friend Hikaru disappeared on a mountainside for a week. Something felt off to Yoshiki when Hikaru finally return, so eventually, during the height of summer, he pops the question: is he really still Hikaru? When the entity admits that he isn’t, and that the real Hikaru was on Death’s door when the entity found him and decided to copy him, Yoshiki ultimately decides that he doesn’t care that much; he needs his friend around that badly. But others- a cat, an old woman – seem to notice, and there’s also the matter of why Hikaru was being hunted down in the wooded mountain and what some old-timers in the village may or may not have had to do with that. There’s also a secret group out looking for something supernatural, too.
I’ve long felt that horror is the genre anime does poorest, but on rare occasions we do get a winner in that genre. Summer Time Rendering was such a success back in 2022, and now we have this manga adaptation. Admitting just a few minutes into the first episode that the friend has been replaced is an inspired twist which allows for some wholly different angles, such as examining why Yoshiki is so desperate for Hikaru’s company that he’s willing to deal with his double, while also allowing the gradual creep factor as assorted little details are thrown out – nowhere near the whole picture, but just enough to solidly hook the audience and gradually ramp up the sense of dread. Terrific music and sound production also helps here, as does careful use of imagery and the disturbing glimpses of “Hikaru’s” real form. This one is a winner.
Bad Girl
Streams: HIDIVE on Saturdays
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)
Yuu is a model first-year student, but she’s somehow gotten in her head the notion that she can best attract the attention of her crush, third-year Discipline Committee chairman Atori, if becomes a delinquent. She’s too much a good girl at heart for this tactic to be effective, but Atori notices her anyway and finds Yuu irresistibly cute (though maybe not in the same way Yuu sees her). Meanwhile, Yuu’s long-time friend Suzu, who more genuinely conveys the image of a delinquent, seems to be secretly crushing on Yuu.
This completely looks like it’s going to be a yuri-flavored sketch comedy, one likely to lightly tease sexual elements rather than pursue them, but with just enough sauciness to not be completely tame. Normally this is the kind of fare that I’d go for, but for some reason I struggled with this one. It does show at least some potential, as the mere fact that Atori somehow thought dog ears and a dog collar were appropriate friendship gifts for Yuu suggests that she may be more odd than she lets on, and it certainly has one of the season’s best EDs so far. Will likely give this one another episode to try to win me over.
With You and the Rain
Streams: Crunchyroll on Saturdays
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
A young novelist (her name is never given) living on her own comes across an abandoned animal in a box one rainy night and decides to take it home. It’s clearly a tanuki but tries to convince her, a vet, and later a cat-loving man in a park that it’s actually a dog, and she, at least, buys it even though no dog would be able to write on cue cards.
This manga adaptation is a simple, understated work which provides a fair amount of light humor and leans heavily into human fascination with interacting with pets. Whether or not the tanuki has some motive here is unclear, and that may not matter; this is a slow-paced, relaxing kind of entertainment, not one looking to do anything dramatic, and its theme music (from a composer much more known for more dramatic fare) supports that gentle, sometimes playful tone beautifully. It looks remarkably pretty, too, especially for being from an animation studio mostly known for doing cutesy shorts. Not my kind of thing, but it will definitely fin an audience among fans looking for a gentle show to chill out to.
My Dress-Up Darling 2
Streams: Crunchyroll on Saturdays
Rating: 4 (of 5)
Despite being away for more than three years, the series wastes no time in settling back into its usual routine. Marin has taken an interest in the bunny girl outfits worn by the incompetent assassin girls in a particular action/comedy anime, so a black bunny girl outfit becomes her and Gojo’s next project. There are some technical challenges involved in making the outfit work while seeming strapless, and as usual, Marin gets a bit more flirty and flashy than Gojo’s completely comfortable with. The shoot goes great, however, and when Gojo joins her at a Halloween karaoke party, he comes to understand that he’s around people who aren’t going to bat an eye at his skill with make-up and costume-making, even though he’s a guy.
I did not appreciate how much I had missed this particular blend of goofiness, sexiness, technical cosplay detail, and sincerity until I finished the episode, which ends on an especially strong note. I’m also more convinced than ever that it makes a great viewing complement to last year’s 2.5 Dimensional Seduction; while the two cosplay/romance-focused series have significant overlap, this one focuses more on the technical side, whereas that one focuses more on the spirit and motivations behind the activity. The technical details are fascinating, Marin is adorable when she actually stops to think about being flirty with Gojo, and the fan service elements are integrated in smoothly enough that they don’t come off as creepy. Looks like my Saturdays this season will be busy because this one is definitely a keeper, too.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus
Streams: Crunchyroll on Saturdays
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
This series is a sequel to the movies Dreaming Girl, Sister Venturing Out, and Knapsack Kid, rather than directly to the first TV season, so watching those first is essential for making full sense of what’s going on here. Essentially, the first episode serves as a transition point between earlier stories and the next one as the setting shifts to Sakuta at university. Sakuta’s romance with Mai continues apace, Kaede is now well-adjusted and even working (apparently at the same restaurant Sakuta works at), and Shoko, who seems to remember everything, has moved to Okinawa. But among all the mundanity, there are naturally hints that something is amiss. A mysterious singer who wasn’t on anyone’s radar before has become a hit in the wake of the timeline changes Shoko’s situation brought about, and Nodoka’s fellow Sweet Bullet member Uzuki, who is causing some stress in the band because of solo projects, seems to be acting oddly. And there is a girl popping up in a sexy Santa Claus outfit who may be Uzuki. . .
All indications (including the ED) point to Uzuki being the featured Girl With An Issue for the first arc. She had little more than a cameo in the first TV series and a slightly bigger role in Sister Venturing Out, but this would hardly be the first time that the series took a character who originally just appeared in the background and brought her to the forefront. Exactly what’s going on with her isn’t clear yet, but that’s fine. What’s most important is that the episode completely maintains the style of dialog and story presentation which has earned it a dedicated following over the last few years. Its artistic style also remains, albeit with appropriate tweaks for characters getting older. In short, if you’ve been a fan of the franchise to this point, nothing here should be concerning.
Scooped Up By an S-Ranked Adventurer!
Streams: Crunchyroll on Saturdays
Rating: 2 (of 5)
In this newest iteration on the “banished from the hero’s party” gimmick, Lloyd is a young man rescued from devastation by a powerful mage with deep regrets about tragedy resulting from overconfidence, so as she trains him to be a white mage, she makes sure that he doesn’t cocky, even though he shows signs of being a “chosen one.” He eventually leaves home to become an adventurer, but the hero/leader of the party he joins doesn’t understand how much stronger his party has become with Lloyd’s presence, so he eventually sends Lloyd packing. That may prove to be a boon for Lloyd, though, as three days later he’s picked up by a cute, petite adventurer desperate for a white mage.
Double-episode debuts tend to get overused these days, but this one in particularly could have benefited from it. The whole episode is devoted to a combination of showing Lloyd get trained and then get dumped, so getting to the actual meat of the premise looks like it’s getting relegated to episode 2. That may be a fatal blow here, as because of that, we’re left with some dry, forgettable content which only barely hints at more potential: the hero is a completely stereotypical asshole, only one of his party members seems to recognize Lloyd’s impact on the party, etc. Animation is limited and visuals are nothing special, either. I’ll give this one more episode to see if Lloyd joining the new party makes a difference, but at this point, this is not looking promising.
The Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses
Streams: Crunchyroll on Saturdays
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Toto is an ultra-strong hero, but he’s so cripplingly shy that he has trouble completing his dream of forming a party and can pass out when subjected to even mild flirting. Hence he solemnly swears to protect the three ladies who approach him about forming a party. What he doesn’t realize is that all three are targeting him for different reasons. Ciel, the daughter of the current Demon Lord and a master of dark magic, seeks to defeat a hero to prove herself to her father and win her independence. Anemone, an assassin masquerading as a priestess, seeks to improve the world but needs money to do so, and Toto is her next target. Goa, a dominatrix skilled at bewitching and enslaving people, sees him as a worthy challenge for conquest. The problem for them is that Toto is ridiculously strong and tough, and he did save all their lives when Ciel’s summoning spell goes awry. . .
Though I’m not at all a fan of the character design style used for this manga adaptation, the first episode partially won me over because it was just funny enough and is setting up an interesting character dynamic. My very mild recommendation here comes with a big caveat, though: the central joke – that Toto can’t handle the attention of women at all – is already starting to wear very thin by the end of the first episode. If the series makes that only an occasional thing and instead emphasizes other potential angles for humor (which definitely do exist), I can see the series being successful as a light-hearted fantasy adventure tale.
Call of the Night s2
Streams: HIDIVE on Fridays
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
Very tempted just to describe the first episode of the second season as “more of the same.” Nazuna and Ko’s relationship is still a bit ambiguous, and various interested parties are pressing the two for details after finding the two whiling away the night just playing video games. Nazuna’s given a makeover, Ko is pushed to call her cute, and they end up at a zoo after dark. In other words, not a lot is going on here beyond both of them examining their feelings a bit more, but the writing and LIDEN FILMS’ production effort keep it all interesting to watch. You would probably have to go to Spice and Wolf to find a series doing as much or more with less content.
The one negative here is that the new OP and ED are both big letdowns compared to the first season. Granted, they are compared to Epic-level entries (both the OP and ED were among my top picks for 2022), but I still expected a bit more.
Betrothed to My Sister’s Ex
Streams: Crunchyroll on Fridays
Rating: 3
Like last season’s Philia in The Too-Perfect Saint, Marie is the tall, unglamorous sister who’s treated like trash by parents who prefer her perfect-looking sister Anastasia (though, like last season’s Mia, Anastasia doesn’t share her parents’ deprecations towards her sister). Unlike Philia, there’s nothing apparently special about the red-haired, befreckled Marie; she’s well-read enough to recognize and appreciate the cultural background of a nobleman visiting to potentially woo her sister, but that’s about it. That’s plenty enough to catch the attention of young Count Kyros Gardenos, however. Due to a case of confusion about which sister is which, the Count ends up asking for Anastasia’s hand in marriage, but Marie is sent to him instead when Anastasia dies in an accident on the way to the Count. That works out just fine for Kyros, though Marie has trouble accepting that she’s worthy enough.
Historically speaking, red hair has often been regarded with suspicion in European countries where it isn’t commonplace, and that’s the only thing which makes much sense for why Marie is treated the way she is in this light novel adaptation. Granted, she’s not the dainty beauty that Anastasia is, but she looks perfectly fine when dressed up. Will this turn out to be another situation like with Philia last season, where she’s not truly their daughter? Regardless, all the circumstances are set up for a light romance involving a woman doesn’t think she’s worth it and the man she’s won over without knowing it. It’s shown some humorous elements but tends to lean towards the serious side, but the only real twist here is the ethnicity of the Count and his mother and killing off Anastasia, who seemed to have some neat predilections, feels like a mistake. Some fabulous dresses aren’t enough to bolster that. It gets a middling grade because there’s nothing bad about this one, but it’s not doing much to distinguish itself yet, either.
Secrets of the Silent Witch
Streams: Crunchyroll on Fridays
Rating: 4 (of 5)
Monica Everett is on of the Seven Sages of her kingdom, which means she’s recognized as one of its most potent mages. She can defeat a dragon by herself as is the only known practitioner of Voiceless Magic – i.e., magic cast without an incantation. She’s also painfully shy, to the point that she developed Voiceless Magic so she wouldn’t have to speak out loud in front of others and lives in an isolated house in the woods. Unfortunately for her, the fact the she has tried hard not to stand out makes her perfect to be the secret protector of the kingdom’s Second Prince, a job which she’s essentially bullied into by one of her fellow Sages. Even with the help of her talking cat familiar Nero and a grateful young noblewoman who will help her maintain her cover, this is definitely a task Monica is not looking forward to.
This light novel adaptation is one of the most delightful new finds of the season and an absolute keeper, to the point that I almost rated it even higher. It’s almost worth watching just to see Monica’s facial expressions when she’s feeling overwhelmed by communicating with others, but it also greatly impresses in a scene near the episode’s end which shows what, exactly, Monica did to defeat the dragon. Importantly, it also effectively shows Monica’s deep-seeded social anxiety in a comical fashion that still comes across as sympathetic; in this regard, the series excels even over Bocchi the Rock. A well-planned and well-paced first episode is also another bonus, as are the design elements (who wouldn’t want to live in Monica’s house?) and the animation, if not spectacular, is at least good enough. It earns a strong recommendation here.
Watari-kun’s ****** is About to Collapse
Streams: Crunchyroll on Fridays
Rating: 2.5
16-year-old Naoto Watari is a young man caught between three (eventually four, according to the OP and ED) girls: his 10-year-old sister Suzu, whom he must look after since their parents have died (they live with a hands-off aunt); classmate Yukari, who is his dream girl and who seems to like him, too; and Satsuki, a girl whom he was once childhood friends with who has suddenly shown up again after disappearing six years ago. The latter is currently the most problematic, as she tackled and kissed him out of the blue and seems intent on not explaining her odd behavior either back then or now. But Suzu seems to like Satsuki even though Suzu doesn’t normally like her brother hanging around girls.
This one is based on a manga from the creator of 2018’s Ms. Koizumi loves ramen noodles and would seem to be going in the direction of a romcom, though it also has elements suggestive of some light drama as well. It’s trying to draw attention with Satsuki, who has eccentricities like a perpetually-covered left eye, seeking to return a garden hoe after six years, getting grabby with Yukari, virtually suffocating Naoto with a French kiss, and in general behavior which borders on yandere-level aggressiveness even though she does also sometimes back off. Clearly she wants something from Naoto and there’s something going on with her beyond just the usual antics, but so far she’s not a compelling enough character to carry the series. That wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, but Yukari shows nothing beyond being the standard reciprocating love interest who keeps getting the wrong impression about Satsuki, and Naoto is just the standard harried male protagonist. I’m at least a little curious about what’s going on with Satsuki, and it does have one of the more fan servicey of recent OPs, but this one is going to have to show more quick to distinguish itself.
The Water Magician
Streams: Crunchyroll on Thursdays
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)
Ryo died in an accident and is reborn into another world under the guidance of an angel-like being. (Only this time that being is a much more benevolent one than the last role of that type that Takehito Koyasu voiced: the Guide in I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire!) He’s given everything he needs to get a good start on the slow life he wants, including an isolated new home, which gives him a chance to develop his water magic. Over time he’s able to work out how to use it for utility, offense, and defense, allowing him to defeat monsters, duel with a Dullahan he later learns is the Fairy King, and even converse with a dragon. How long that takes is a matter of question, though, since he seems to have the hidden trait of Eternal Youth.
This is based on a light novel series with 14 volumes available in Japan (four in the States so far), so it has had a successful run, but why is hard to tell from this first episode. It feels like it’s condensing a lot to speed the story along to where Ryo meets the young knight who will become his traveling companion (he briefly appears in the episode’s epilogue); why the Fairy King might have interest in him isn’t even hinted at, for instance, and the conversation with the dragon which could have revealed all sorts of useful world-building to the viewer is entirely glossed over. Nothing visually stands out about the series, either. Glimpses of characters Ryo will eventually meet appear in the OP, and that promise might be enough to get me to give the series a longer try, but so far it’s showing little potential to be more than another bland isekai title.
Kamitsubaki City Under Construction
Streams: Crunchyroll on Thursdays
Rating: 2 (of 5)
Kafu has had a tough life. When she was eight years old, a catastrophe called the Blackout caused both playmates and her parents to turn to cinders before her eyes. Eight years later, a monster called a tesseractor slices her adoptive older sister (with whom she had been living) in half before her eyes. But Kafu has a strange ability to destroy the tesseractors with her song, which earns her the title of “witchling” and the attention of a special tesseractor called Laplace, who can take the form of a human boy and is inclined to help and protect her in his whale form. That will enable her to become a key defense for Kamitsubaki City’s rebuilding efforts against the tesseractors which still lurk in the city’s underbelly.
Every bit of this opening episode looks and feels like a video game intro, and indeed, this is the anime side of a “user-participation” multimedia project which has been active since 2019 and includes includes songs, videos, games, and a recently-released VR-capable visual novel. The five main girls are all voiced and sung by members of Kamitsubaki Studio’s V.P.P -Virtual Witch Phenomenon- virtual performer project, and the corresponding characters in the series have similar or identical names and character designs heavily based on their virtual performers’ avatars. The problem is that all that gimmickry isn’t paired with a coherent story. The first episode features Kafu, but put her through unexplained time skips; for instance, at one point she has trouble sleeping after the death of her adoptive sister, but then we see her being woken up by an unidentified girl she’s apparently been living with long enough to have recovered emotionally. The other four girls only have cameos, but presumably they’ll be introduced over the next few episodes, and the thing about being a witchling is only barely explained. The all-CG artistry has some neat effects and isn’t bad as CG goes, but it’s not a look that will go over well with many, either. Overall, the gimmicks the series offers haven’t yet been used well enough to justify continuing to watch it.
DAN DA DAN episode 13
Streams: Crunchyroll on Thursdays
Rating: 4
DAN DA DAN became a smash hit primarily because of its strong cast and animation efforts, and that doesn’t change a bit as its second season picks up where the previous one lets off. Momo has a hairy situation in a hot springs to escape, while Okarun and Jin have to deal with a bunch of creepy women – who, it turns out, happen to be the spouses of the creepy men assailing Momo. The supernatural element comes into play when the trio discovers that both groups have been keeping the local village safe from a snake “god” via periodic sacrifices, and my, isn’t it convenient that our protagonists are around at just the right time?
If you were bothered by the leering behavior of the men in the hot springs towards Momo at the end of last season, this episode won’t allay your concerns one bit. However, the episode is otherwise classic franchise fare: a bit of information-gathering, some intimidating individuals to deal with, and a whole lot of well-staged and well-animated action sequences, including plenty of Momo kicking butt (and groins and heads and other things, too). The new OP and ED are nowhere near on the same level as those of the first season, but other than that, this continuation should not offer any letdown.
Chuhai Lips: Canned Flavor of Married Women
Streams: OceanVeil on Tuesdays
Rating: Hentai
Unlike last season’s Makina-san is a Love Bot!?, this is a true short (at 4½ minutes) and a full hentai experience. The plot is nothing to speak of: college student Tsuyoshi winds up getting frisky with his aunt (by marriage rather than blood) when she visits to check on him and the Japanese lightly-alcoholic beverage chuhai becomes involved. The animation is somewhat limited and the sex scene is relatively brief, but if you’re looking for something that’s more than just a tease on that front and are into more mature women (the aunt is implied to be in her mid-to-late 30s) then this one should satisfy that itch.
Welcome to the Outcast’s Restaurant
Streams:Crunchyroll on Thursdays
Rating: 3.5
The set-up here is quite familiar: a member of a top adventuring party whom any sensible RPG gamer would recognize as a key support player is forced out of the party ostensibly because the leader wants someone who is more DPS-focused, though the implied real reason is because the leader sees the supporter as an obstruction to his romantic designs on the party’s vice-commander. (The one minor twist here is that the supporter is openly known to be the only person in the party as highly-leveled as the leader.) The unfairness of it all aside, the protagonist isn’t too stressed about it because he has a back-up plan: he’s going to open his own restaurant where he can show off his level 99 cooking skills!
That’s the core premise for this light novel adaptation, which looks like it’s going to be a restaurant-themed version of Banished From the Hero’s Party. On the negative slide, it does resort to the “buying a slave girl” angle to explain how protagonist Dennis gets little Atelier as his poster girl/server, but she is at least clearly shown as having her freedom bought rather than still being a slave and the episode at least touches on the trauma of her situation. On the upside, Dennis is a positive, likable type and Atelier suits well so far as Stunted Emotions Girl, and the business about how Dennis is following a published guide for ex-adventurers starting up their own restaurant is rather funny. Overall, this one doesn’t do anything spectacular or original, but it looks like a likable, easy time-killer. I’ll probably follow it.
Hell Teacher : Jigoku Sensei Nube
Streams: It’s Anime channel on YouTube
Rating: 4
Though the original anime and manga runs of Hell Teacher were in the ’90s, this property has never completely gone away, with spin-offs, sequels, and even a TV drama having aired/been published over the years since, including a new manga series this year and an overall manga publication count north of 29 million. This series seems to be a franchise reboot, though it does include updates like the presence of smart phones.
The concept has certainly remained the same: Doumori Elementary School has some issues with supernatural occurrences, but the arrival on the scene of new teacher Meisuke Nueno (aka Nube) promises to shake things up. He always wears a glove on his left hand to hide the fact that he has a supernatural appendage there, but he generally comes across as jovial and is immediately trusted by Kyoko, who seems to know him from some previous encounter. Newer male student Hiroshi is initially less trusting of him and gives no credence at first to Nube’s supernatural drivel, but his own extreme anger issues turn out to be a product of his own supernatural possession. In episode 1 of the two-episode debut, Nube helps free him from that, while in episode 2, Nube saves him from a fox spirit who’s taken too much interest in Nube.
Though these stories focus on elementary school kids and do have light-hearted moments, they actually lean heavily into serious horror elements and can be fairly graphic. (One scene involves a yokai stabbing himself in the face and ripping out his own skull, for instance.) As long as that doesn’t bother you, though, this new version does plenty enough right to be worth a look. It’s well-paced, has respectable production values, delivers on its creepiness factor, and features an evocative musical score courtesy of Evan Call (Frieren, My Happy Marriage). Both its OP and its ED will probably be considered among the season’s best, too. It’s great evidence that you don’t have to be spectacularly original if you just do what you’re doing well.
Onmyo Kaiten Re:Birth Verse
Streams: Crunchyroll on Wednesdays
Rating: 2.5
What if Re:Zero were redone in a high-tech version of Heian-Kyo (i.e., Kyoto back during the Heian Era of Japan), with Subaru being a delinquent meathead and the supernatural elements generating mecha-like shinigami? That’s more or less what the debut of this original series from the director of Keijo!!!!!!!! and the new Urusei Yatsura amounts to, as it is an isekai story with a “time loop when you die” element tossed in for good measure. Takeru is the delinquent meathead who’s seen the gorgeous Tsukimiya plenty of times in his dreams, and he finally gets to meet her in person when dodging out of the way of Truck-kun is what gets him transported to another world. (The irony of this is one of the debut’s most entertaining moments.) There are threats in that world from otherworldly incursions called Black Mist that Takeru seems curiously immune to, and he has an odd ability to armor up in such an environment, but that’s still not enough to save him or Tsukimiya. But it looks like he’s going to get a second chance at that.
Naturally with a setting based on Heian-Kyo, renowned hisotircal onmyoji Abe-no-Seimei pops up and looks like he’s going to play a major role, but this first episode is all about showing off high-energy shenanigans. Its mix of regular and CG animation is all quite flashy, the musical score certainly tried hard to push the quasi-historical feel, and there are all sorts of neat tech-type items in this setting to gawk at. All that being said, there are two main barriers to fully appreciating this one: how much of a hodgepodge construction it feels like (imagine if a teenager emptied his idea book for a new anime all into one production) and a rather annoying one-note protagonist. It has enough neat ideas that I’m not totally writing it off, but this is a probable eventual drop in such a packed season.
New Saga
Streams: Crunchyroll on Wednesdays
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)
With his efforts built on extensive personal tragedy, Kyle leads a final team of heroes on a suicide attack against the Demon King who initiated a devastating new war against the human races. He ultimately succeeds, but only at great cost. In the aftermath, his encounter with a mysterious gemstone sends him back in time to before the war began, before his village was ravaged and those he cared most about were killed off. He vows that history will not repeat itself.
For a non-isekai fantasy series, this light novel adaptation’s plot is about as cookie-cutter as it gets. It is helped a little by slightly better-than-average animation, and a character in the rewind time who’s about as un-archmage-like an archmage as you’ll ever see is a bit different, but the debut does way too little to stand out, and that includes on the artistic front. In what’s certain to be a crowded season, even me sharing a name with one of the major supporting characters probably isn’t going to be enough for this one to make the cut, especially when it’s coming out on the same day as the vastly better Clevatess.
Clevatess
Streams: Crunchyroll on Wednesdays
Rating: 4.5 (of 5)
Old-school fantasy is still alive and well in anime, and this manga adaptation from the creator of King of Thorn and Dimension W is this season’s glorious proof of that. If you’re a hard-core fantasy fan who’s tired of the endless parade of isekai titles which have taken over the genre, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.
That’s partly because this gritty, blood-soaked, double-length debut is easily one of the season’s best-looking and best-animated series. Its action scenes are more fully-realized than most, but it also excels in its character designs; female lead Alicia has a convincingly solid physique for a female warrior while being believably attractive, and it manage the latter despite the ugly scar closing her left eye. Clevatess is suitably impressive in his Great Beast form but also works in the humanoid form he later assumes, too, and the various humanoid races are all given distinctive traits that borrow some from bog-standard fantasy races but aren’t carbon copies. Musical backing is no slouch, either.
The story is more typical but has its own twists. Alicia grew up hearing stories about how the Four Great Beasts restrained humanoid efforts to explore the world, so she sought to defeat one and worked hard to become one of a nation’s 13 heroes on the mission to confront Clevatess. But they managed to both annoy and spark the interests of Clevatess, who was further intrigued enough by a dying mother’s words that he rescues a baby after he destroys the capital of that kingdom. He has no knowledge of how to look after a humanoid baby, so Alicia is revived to serve that purpose and effectively become servant to Clevatess in human form. The extra catch is that the baby may be a royal heir, which means that he may have special lineal knowledge of interest to literally every power in the world. Though the trio starts out on what seems to be a traditional journey, that quickly goes in an unexpected direction.
This one was only barely on my radar, but it certainly has my attention now. It’s an absolute keeper and a strong candidate for getting episode reviews this season.
Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon 2
Streams: Crunchyroll on Wednesdays
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
Rewatching episode 12 of the first season before watching this one is strongly recommended, as the second season debuts by directly referencing and spinning off from the events of that episode. Specifically, the entire Adventurer’s Guild is now acknowledging the Netherlord as an existential threat, so even some older adventurers are coming out of retirement to go after him. Unfortunately for Lammis, Boxxo, and crew, that’s exactly what the Netherlord wants. They put up a good and creative fight which seems to beat the Netherlord, but that’s only the first stage in his plan to have the other layers of the Dungeon left vulnerable by the elite being on the quest.
One of the first season’s biggest joys was always seeing what new stunts Boxxo could come up with to help his allies, and that’s certainly a highlight of this episode, including a reveal of the biggest vending machine ever made. Watching how he works with Lammis is also a continuing delight, as is seeing that the old-timers haven’t lost too much of their edge in a pitched battle. And while this is hardly a top-tier animation effort, it doesn’t look half-bad, either. Essentially, this episode provides everything you’d expect from the franchise, so its return is very welcome.
Necronomico and the Cosmic Horror Show
Streams: Crunchyroll on Tuesdays
Rating: 3.5 or 1.5 (see below)
The concept here is actually a pretty neat one: the Old Gods (implied to be Cthulhu mythos) are slithering their way into our world via an infiltration of VR, and some popular VTubers have been rendered unconscious so their appearances can be co-opted by these malevolent entities. Humanity’s only hope is for a bunch of VTubers who survive a preliminary VR game round to confront them in games in the VR sphere. Young VTuber Miko (aka “Necromico”) doesn’t really care about any of that, however. One of the victimized VTubers was a close friend (possibly even in the romantic sense?), and she’s bound and determined to find a way to get her back from the entity who stole her virtual appearance.
What makes this original series especially cool in execution is the visual approach taken. Not a fan of the 2D real-world character designs, but the 2D animation contrasts sharply with the 3D game animation, hence giving a more realistic stylistic difference between the VR and real worlds. And there’s something cool about the insidious forces lurking behind what otherwise looks like an innocent, cheery game. The whopping big problem here is a sloppy and sometimes flat-out inaccurate subtitle job. There’s even visual evidence that ChatGPT was used for at least part of the German subtitles, which is going to become a big scandal if it hasn’t already by the time you read this. If this aspect can be cleaned up then this could be a pretty neat series, but right now it’s a megalithic barrier to enjoying the series.
Detectives These Days are Crazy!
Streams: Crunchyroll on Tuesdays
Rating: 3 (of 5)
In his youth, Keiichiro Nagumo was a genius detective, but age (and perhaps smoking?) has not been kind to him and the times have passed him by. He’s just barely getting by when Mashiro, a teenage girl enthusiastic about becoming a great detective herself, lands on his doorstep. Despite Keiichiro’s reluctance to take her on as an assistant, she quickly proves her worth, whether it involves getting surreptitious pictures of a cheating wife or mistakenly taking down a yakuza gang after pulling a flamethrower out of her blouse.
Yeah, that last line is the level of silly that this series seems determined to traffic in; there’s even one prolonged joke involving Mashiro putting a long spear back in her blouse. (Doubtless her “storage technique” is going to be a running gag.) Beyond that, this is the fairly standard gimmick of a downtrodden middle-aged guy getting reinvigorated by association with a peppy, much younger girl, and it’s definitely looking to be at least primarily a comedy series. The gags so far are at least mildly funny (although a couple of the visuals involving alternate profiles of Mashiro went over my head), though how improbable it was that Keiichiro could still be a detective and not know what a smartphone is did bug me; perhaps this series is set earlier in the smartphone days? Whatever the case on that, this manga adaptation looks like it could be light, mild fun.
Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter
Streams: Crunchyroll on Saturdays
Rating: 3 (of 5)
In this light novel adaptation, Allen is a young sorcerer who, despite a lot of promise, failed the final exam for his dream job at the royal court. . . or at least that’s what he’s told, anyway, since the timing of a job offer to tutor the northern Duke’s daughter seems a little too convenient. When he gets north, he’s informed by the duke that his actual job is to dissuade the daughter from wanting to attend the Royal Academy, since the duke would prefer to keep his Tina at home to further her promising botanical studies, and Tina does seem to have an insurmountable problem with using magic. (She has plenty of mana, but her spells inevitably fail.) Allen agrees to the job on the condition that Tina be allowed to attend Royal Academy anyway if she sincerely wants to and can overcome her magical issue, even though that will keep Allen away from another Duke’s daughter who seems to have an interest in him.
There is a distinct mystery element here about what’s going on that’s causing Tina’s spellcasting to go awry, and Allen’s relationship with the other, older daughter of a different duke promises to offer some spice, but otherwise this is a standard-feeling effort on technical, storytelling, and character development fronts. It’s all primed for generic good guy Allen to be a Big Brother-type to both Tina and her like-aged personal maid Ellie, and surely the vague fetishy whiffs the first episode gives off are just a coincidence. . . I hope. Too early to tell if this one will amount to anything, so it gets a middle-of-the-road grade for now.
Takopi’s Original Sin
Streams: Crunchyroll on Fridays
Rating: 4.5 (of 5)
“Takopi” is the name given to a cute, octopus-like alien by Shizuka, a downtrodden 4th grade girl who discovers him. He’s from planet Happian and on a mission to spread happiness around the universe. But because he doesn’t understand humans, he doesn’t comprehend why Shizuka is in such a sorry state until it’s too late. Even though he is able to pull a magical-like gimmick to sidestep the worst consequences, he struggles to find the right away to improve Shizuka’s circumstances enough to save her and is not aware of how potent and driven the forces working against her are.
I often think that content warnings on programming are overstated, but this is one of the rare cases where the warnings at the beginning of the episode might even be understated. More so than with any other title in recent memory, know what you’re getting into here, because this manga adaptation isn’t just a brutally frank look at extreme bullying; it’s a damning condemnation of ignorant efforts to help someone through it. Takopi’s full of positivity and idealistic notions about solving conflict through open communication, but when he tries to find a way to avert Shizuka from going down a path to suicide (imagery which pulls few punches when it’s shown happening) via a Groundhog Day-like time travel gimmick, he slams into the brick wall that is Shizuka’s bully and the pain and rage behind why the girl Marina is bullying her. The true fault behind it belongs to parents on both sides, so adults need to be involved here, but the episode also shows that that at least one person who cares can make some difference.
Director Shinya Iino is much better-known for directing Dr. Stone, but this project being an utterly different animal doesn’t hold him back one bit. While it would be a distraction in just about any other title, the rough, sometimes ugly artistry and animation fits the title all too well, and the dichotomy between cutesy mascot creature antics more fitting for light children’s fare and Shizuka’s grim circumstances is every bit as jarring as it should be. This extended-length (37 minute) animation isn’t each to watch, but it’s worth watching.
For the Shi clan, there is no possible happy – or even neutral – ending. At least two of its principle members knew that, accepted it, and so left the stage on their own terms. Meanwhile, the one who didn’t – and couldn’t – accept that falls in disgrace. In many ways it’s a very poetic climax to a storyline which encompasses more of what this series is, what this setting involves, than was apparent at first.
How tragic any of this is can be heavily debated, as there’s plenty of guilt to go around. Much of what went wrong can, to some degree, be traced back to the former Emperor, or perhaps even farther back to his mother, but the cause and effect relationships here are deeply intertwined. Shishou deserves at least some sympathy as a man whose heart was stolen by a woman every bit as much as Lakan’s was, but unlike Lakan, Shisou’s idol could not be satisfied with just him. Her ambitions were greater at first, and even when Shishou later offered her a way out, she couldn’t be content with that in the face of the shame that the Emperor she had pursued passed her over for her lady-in-waiting. She ultimately couldn’t accept, either, that Shishou merely loved her wholeheartedly; as much as he schemed to get her, he wasn’t scheming on that. And so her rage over her circumstances ultimately led her down the path to ruin.
But Shishou wasn’t an innocent, either. He was responsible for the building of the secret path, and at least partly for the expansion of the Rear Palace. (I’ll get back to this.) But he was torn between two priorities: his love for Shenmei and his love for his country. So he helped set up circumstances that would lead to one of two ends: either they would take over the country, or the rot within the Shi clan would be gathered and exposed, allowing the palace to be purified. Thus the Shi clan’s defeat, in a sense, still accomplished his goals, hence how he was able to die with a laugh.
Loulan understood all of this perfectly, and played it through to the very end. The rigged feifa gave her two options until the end: either it would kill Jinshi when he tried to take it from her and use it, or he would cooperate and thus allow her to bring what she felt she needed to do to conclusion. She was, in her way, as much a conniving manipulator as either of her parents were, and that she had some compassion for others – that she was making some effort to make sure not everyone died in this calamity – doesn’t change that. She cut Jinshi’s cheek as much to technically keep her promise to her mother as to insure that his underlings would be incensed, and she slyly used Maomao’s hairpin from Jinshi to try to protect Suirei. (Jinshi had to know what was really going on there, even if he’s not shown reacting to it.) Is it any wonder that Jinshi was fascinated enough by her to let her play out her final dance at the end, even as his guards prepared to gun her down?
The irony of her final dance cannot be overlooked, either. In the last episode of season 1, Maomao danced atop the walls of the Rear Palace (a veritable fortress) against the vista of the star-filled night sky in order to celebrate her biological parents. Here, Loulan is dancing atop a fortress against the vista of a start-filled night sky in tribute, in a way, to her parents as well. But where Maomao’s dance signified her parents coming together to move forward, Loulan’s dance signified the ending of a line and a release from all the scheming. No wonder she’s also smiling as she falls from the wall after being apparently-mortally shot; in that moment her expression is simultaneously both Loulan and Shisui
Let’s not forget what was said about the great expansion of the Rear Palace, either. The sheer size of it – 2,000 women and 1,000 eunuchs – boggled the mind initially, as that seemed excessive even for an institution designed to help the Emperor generate heirs. Even an explanation that it was expanded by the former Empress Dowager to get the former Emperor interested in women never seemed like sufficient justification. Here, finally, we find out why: the parallels occasionally made in the past between slavery and the Rear Palace weren’t idle ones. The Rear Palace is, literally, a replacement for slavery. Its upper-level courtesans may be effective hostages and playing pieces, but the lower-level ones, servants, and eunuchs are mostly a more dignified way to deal with those who might otherwise be sold off through less reputable means. The irony in that is deep as well.
Finally, we can’t forget Loulan’s very specific choice of words when making requests to Jinshi. Those comments definitely seem to further reinforce the use of the resurrection potion on the kids, as she knows that Jinshi will be bound by his assent.
The circumstances do allow at least a slight chance that Loulan might not be dead. As much as her death would hurt Maomao, though, finding a way out of it is not necessary and arguably not even desirable. This was an ending on her own terms, one that had as much dignity as the situation would allow, and hoping for more is unreasonable. Kudos to the series for executing this plot through to the end, allowing next week’s finale to play clean-up.
The point that many fans have been awaiting for ages has finally arrived, the point where Maomao can no longer continue to deny what she’s been trying to keep herself from figuring out: that Jinshi is the Emperor’s (official) brother and thus the Crown Prince. (Or at least he was the latter until Gyokyou recently gave birth.) Rather than play it out as some big dramatic reveal, though, Jinshi is around just long enough to not deny it before taking off to finish fulfilling his duties, thus leaving Maomao to mull it over under Lihaku’s protection. In some senses this is a disappointment, but in other senses it feels right both for the circumstances and for a series which has never ignored practicalities in executing its drama. (And Maomao blandly asking for Jinshi’s protection, or commenting that he’s young than he looks, is a very Maomao thing to do.) After all, there’s an awful lot else going on here.
One of those is a vulnerability for the stronghold that I wondered about when I first saw a map of where it’s located: it being struck by an avalanche is quite feasible, especially if someone is using firearms to try to trigger it after a steady snowfall. That and the gunpowder explosion Loulan caused would throw any defense into disarray. Significantly, that allows the (relatively brief) use of a full-blown battle scene for the first time (albeit a minimally-animated one), and thus also the first time I can recall the series getting truly graphically violent. The production still keeps the scenes on the orgies Shenmei seems to delight in watching heavily toned down, though at least this time it’s more clear that a drug-aided orgy is what’s happening.
Another important aspect of this episode is finally getting inside Shisho’s head and seeing why he has acted the way he does, which fills in some of the final holes in the overall scenario. Him having a child with Taihou’s daughter (and Suirei’s mother) wasn’t a casual dalliance; he was specifically asked to take her as a wife by the former Emperor, who was conflicted by how the girl he never formally acknowledged as his actual daughter had been treated. (As a side point, this means Suirei is undeniably a royal, and thus a big complication for the current Emperor if it ever comes to light.) The leaves Shisho in a bind, since he can’t refuse the Emperor’s request for a number of reasons even though he apparently had his heart set on Shenmei. His predicament, of course, wouldn’t matter much to Shenmei, who would understandably feel betrayed since she didn’t go into the Rear Palace willingly, either – and the fact that Shisho got her freed from the Rear Palace as a consequence of doing it wouldn’t matter to her, given her temperament. Since he really does seem to love (or at least have loved) Shenmei, he’s stuck living his life wishing for a forgiveness which won’t come, which makes him impotent on bringing Shenmei under control. Clearly he wasn’t aware how bad things had become while he was away at court, either. How will he answer his other daughter’s call to “take responsibility”?
Then there’s the crushing scene between Maomao and Shisui. Without saying it, Maomao does seem to understand what Shusui has most likely done with the children; her passive agreement to “take care of things,” telling Lihaku specifically that the children “aren’t breathing,” and the questions she asks about how their bodies will be disposed of all point in that direction. But Maomao now also fully understands that Shisui isn’t expecting to get out of this, nor can she accept just running away from the situation. We know well that Maomao, for all her rationality and careful consideration, is quite capable of reacting emotionally when something she really cares about is threatened, so it would have been out of character for her to not try to stop Shisui. That Jinshi’s hairpin will be enough to keep her alive is a big gamble, and the consequences of her even attempting that could be severe. Even if Shisui did ultimately contribute mightily to thwarting her mother’s plan, she’s been involved in plenty enough else to warrant harsh punishment by this world’s standards. But there’s also something very satisfying about seeing Maomao driven to uncharacteristic desperation like this, as it shows that she’s far less selfish than she gives herself credit for.
Sadly, we’re going to have to wait two weeks to see the resolution of all of this, since a new episode will not air on June 20th. Who’s going to live and who’s going to die here is still very much up in the air here, so it should be an extra-important episode.
The screen shot I’m using here is a bit misleading, as it represents the one humorous part of what is otherwise a very dark episode. However, in some senses it’s also the perfect shot to use, since it reflects the sensibilities of the series as a whole: even in the midst of truly dire situations, Maomao is still Maomao, and supporting characters have learned to take advantage of that.
In this case, Loulan knows Maomao well enough (from her Shisui identity) to know that this form of punishment – called “taibon,” which basically involves locking a victim in a room with a box full of poisonous vermin – isn’t going to faze someone used to testing poisons on herself in the slightest, hence why she diverts her mother to it. Even so, the irony that Shisui and Jinshi’s hairpins are being put to use as makeshift meat skewers is (both figuratively and literally) delicious. Jinshi’s reaction, upon learning of this unintentional bit of help, will be classic if we ever get to see it.
Whether Loulan giving Maomao her hairpin so it could be used like that was unintentional is a whole other story. She’s long proven to be far cleverer than her Shisui persona originally suggested, and she knew Maomao had Jinshi’s hairpin, too, so it’s not at all out of the question that she gave Maomao the hairpin as much as an innocuous tool for self-defense as for a way to symbolize her connection to Maomao. She’s also clearly studied her mother carefully (though primarily as a survival instinct) and so knows the degree to which she can manipulate both her and the circumstances around her, as well as the limitations on what she can get away with. It’s certainly not a coincidence that she’s always in Loulan Mode around her mother.
That also means she’s well aware of where this whole situation is going. She knows as well as Maomao and Jinshi do that this can’t help ending badly for everyone involved, even the children, and the revenge her mother wants isn’t what she wants anyway. The adult men working in the gunpowder factory are nobodies, so she chases them off because they could reasonably get away and blend back into the regular population, but the same isn’t true for the children. History has several notable cases of mass suicides even including women and children as acts of defiance and/or to prevent the children from suffering from enemies (Masada immediately comes to mind here), and poisoned sweet beverages is practically a go-to method in such cases, so what Loulan is doing in the last scene could be viewed as a mercy killing – if, indeed, that’s what is actually going on here.
But it’s probably not. After all, the “resurrection drug” has had a quite prominent role in the series, and Loulan making a point to show this to Maomao when it becomes clear that Maomao isn’t going to flee is extremely conspicuous. It further raises the question of whether Suirei’s development of the drug in the first place was to this ultimate end.
There are two other interesting details here as well. One is the clarification that Suirei isn’t the daughter of Taihou, but rather the granddaughter; her mother, not her, was the baby carried out of the Rear Palace by the doctor. That neatly resolves the timeline issues I mentioned last episode and kills my theory about Shisou having been the doctor in that scenario. But that does mean that Suirei is the former emperor’s granddaughter (and thus Jinshi’s cousin), too, which explains why her character design has always been faintly reminiscent of both Jinshi’s and the late Emperor in his youth.
The other detail involves how Loulan perceives herself. She knows that she was birthed primarily as a tool for revenge, and the indication here that she did, indeed, take abortifacients to prevent having the Emperor’s child is a firm rejection of her mother’s approach; she doesn’t want to be part of a revenge scheme or have a child that will be treated like a doll, like she was. Indeed, she seems unclear herself on what her real nature is; as much as her Shisui personality seems more natural, that could also be the product of artifice, too. That’s why Maomao’s decision to address her as Shisui – even when she’s dressed and made up as Loulan – is easily the episode’s most critical moment, and arguably one of the most important scenes of the second half of this season. Kudos to the production team for the emphasis placed on animating how her face lights up at Maomao’s acknowledgement of who Loulan wants to be, and also for capturing the incongruity of Loulan’s two identities together in a single shot.
Looks like the climactic battle at the stronghold is coming next episode. I’ve long heard that novel 4 was an especially strong part of the series, and that has certainly proven true in the adaptation. There’s still a lot to look forward to.
USA Anime 
