There are moments when the story shows its age a bit, but the way they're playing with style and color really brings a lot of new life to it as well. Last week felt a little too safe, but this week felt quite a bit more bold and I think it's working out in the show's favor.
glilimith
joined 1 year ago
I've got a couple more premiere reviews for the garbage pile:
Haigakura
A perfectly serviceable action romp about ~~pokemon~~ god trainers running around fighting things with their captured god buddies, but done in by its horrible budget. The central premise of the story is an art that lets you bind gods to your will using song and dance, but they appeared to not have the budget to give the main character a real song or dance to do, preferring panning stills and visual sound effects - like, what's even the point of it being an anime if you're going to cut those kinds of corners. In much better hands, it would have been decent, but as-is it was a 2/5.
Tohai - Ura Rate Mahjong Tohai Roku
I will give this one some credit: they did not do the boring thing and spend most of the first episode trying to teach the audience mahjong. They instead assume that if you've shown up to watch the edgy mahjong anime you are already familiar with the game of mahjong. Now, I am not familiar with the game of mahjong, which made it feel a bit like watching an early Yu-Gi-Oh episode, where the rules are made up on the fly based on whatever would make the most dramatic twist - not a terrible experience, but not really engaging either. I'm also not typically big on edge, and the edginess here is really quite a lot (the first little arc centers a crime group who keep sex slaves and make CP). If the description of "edgy mahjong anime" perked your ears up, honestly, you'd probably have a good time with this (you'd almost certainly be able to follow it better than I did, lol). For me, though, it's a 2/5.
This seems well-made, but I'm a little confused about what it's going for beyond just "demon lord cool, cyberpunk cool, so what if both??"
Like, cyberpunk by its nature almost always has strong anti-capitalist themes, and some elements of the setting do point in that direction. On the other side, though, our hero is a demon lord, a role that carries with it (mostly just implied so far) monarchy/feudalism and racial hierarchy. It just seems very odd to me that they seem to be framing him as an underdog hero (from the proliferation of magic abilities and from the genocide of immortals), when his (current) goals are not really a good counter to the world's dominant ideology.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that a see a lot of questionable paths the story can take from here, and if it treads carefully I think it could be a good story, but I don't really have any reason to trust it yet. I have a friend who picked it up this season, so I think hearing about it secondhand will be enough to sate my curiosity, lol. I give the premiere a 3/5.
Goukon ni Ittara Onna ga Inakatta Hanashi • How I Attended an All-Guy's Mixer - Episode 2 discussion
I don't get is why they can't give Kohaku the extremely obvious tsundere archetype - sort of adjacent to the Ore-sama, but would probably come a lot more naturally.
I feel like Oohara has been too passive with all this
It definitely feels like we're setting things up for Honjoji to be the brains and Oohara to be the heart, and as things drift from scheme to genuine relationship, we'll see him grow and start to be a bit more active. At least, that's my prediction. For now I'm here to see him do his character development, but if they take too long it'll definitely be frustrating to watch.
We got a very different type of fishing this time, so I'm curious if we'll end up seeing a bunch by the end. I remember someone in the first episode with a fly fishing reel so we might see some of that eventually, though our hero is by no means ready for that level of difficulty, lol.
Cleaning fish isn't something I'm really able to do (I'm pretty sensitive to gore and skinning a raw chicken is about my limit), but the casualness our little fishing club had was pretty true to life - most anglers I know think very little of the process.
I had this one written off because the title makes it clear that it's yet another time loop "I'll marry my enemy to prevent myself from getting killed again" anime, but this one seems like it's doing something interesting with it. Since I was going in blind, it got me with the fiance bait and switch, and I do really like Hades' puppydog eyes (I'm a sucker for some gap moe men).
But that brings me to the main problem: the ages. I don't really understand why we have two anime this season with uncomfortable age gaps, but this one is definitely worse, with our leads being 19 and 10, and he says he would have even preferred if she was a few years younger. Now, to the story's credit, she definitely doesn't have the mental age regression some redo protagonists do, and though the description says she's 10 and 16 in the different time periods I definitely would have guessed 2-3 years older. Also, I've heard that his comments are not coming from his "tastes" but rather from some future plot element that only affects girls/women aged 16 and up. For me, I'm willing to decide that the anime is wrong about her age and she's 13/19 and sort of be ok with that (as long as she stays in outfits that makes her look like a teen and not in that dress that makes her look like an elementary schooler), but I just seriously wish anime would stop doing this.
I give the premiere a mixed 3/5. If it leans into the age gap stuff I'll be dropping it real quick, but if it lets me ignore that I expect this will be a good ride.
And so begins General Dante's reign of terror, lol
Youkai Gakkou no Sensei Hajimemashita! • A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School! - Episode 1 discussion
Everything about this gave me Iruma vibes (very much a good thing), but it doesn't live up to any of Iruma's strengths and brings its own weird and bad elements to the table. The thing about Iruma as a character is that he's a coward, but he's good-hearted and compassionate, which makes him a flawed but likeable hero that you want to see grow. Sensei, on the other hand, has his cowardice balanced out by.... a uniform fetish?? One that he claims is somehow not aimed at the students, even though he seems very focused on Zashiki wearing her uniform. Because of that, a lot of the comedy got tied up in him being creepy to his students (either on purpose or on accident), which felt way more uncomfortable than funny. The mandragoras were cute, though. 2/5.
Go watch Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun.
Finally, some slop for the shoujo fans. Even after just about every red flag possible, I'm worried that our heroine will end up falling in love with her terrible fake brother, but I'm ready for it to happen anyway. I'm hoping this has some tricks up its sleeves, especially with the flashforward at the beginning, but I'm ok if it turns out to be the kind of story where it's no thoughts, just doki-doki. After so many "everyone thinks I'm weak, but what if I'm strong instead?" it's nice to get some "what if I'm suddenly a princess?" even without the substance. I give the premiere a 3/5.
Going into this blind, I got a bit of whiplash, lol. I was expecting a bit of an "against all odds" romance where our leads fight for their relationship through yakuza power struggles, but instead we got more of a thriller where Yoshino has to learn to manipulate the men around her to survive, without getting herself on the wrong end of their violence. It has some strong josei smut vibes (though it's apparently a seinen?) but hopefully it doesn't try to redeem our unhinged leading man - if anything, I'd prefer to see Yoshino stoop down to his level and become a walking red flag herself. I'm definitely invested in the horrible mess this becomes, and give the premiere a 4/5.
Ya, if they're not motivations, it makes them feel like their purpose is only to frame him as the "good" guy in the conflict without making him really earn it.