Anime

Anime Review: Sorcerous Stabber Orphen – Final 2 Seasons

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The last two cours of Sorcerous Stabber Orphen went back-to-back, feeding directly into the other, at a total of 24 episodes (which was the same length as the previous seasons of the show) but with two different subtitles – Chaos in Urbanrama and Doom of Dragon’s Sanctuary. The two series are somewhat mixed in quality, but they go one into the other to such a degree that it’s hard to talk about them in isolation.

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Anime

Anime Review: Oshi No Ko

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If you have followed the anime industry in Japan, and with it have paid attention to Japanese voice actors and the pop singers who do the opening and closing songs of the shows you like, you may have come to the realization that the Japanese music industry kinda sucks, and maltreats people (something that was also previously covered in Key The Metal Idol and Perfect Blue). This past season we got Oshi No Ko, an adaptation of a manga from the writer of Kaguya-Sama: Love is War and also the artist of Flowers of Evil, which gives its own take on this, which I think gives a different spin on some of those beats.

There will be spoilers below the cut. There is some real benefit of going into the show – at least the first episode – completely unspoiled, but if you’d rather not, that’s perfectly okay.

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Anime

Anime Review: The Cafe Terrace and Its Goddesses

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As per usual, a couple times a year I like to watch a fanservice series or so to just sort of gauge the state of the genre. For the Spring 2023 season, I went with the Cafe Terrace and Its Goddesses, to see if it fares a little better than the last fanservice series I watched with Goddess in the title. The answer is very much “Yes”.

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Anime

Anime Review: Heavenly Delusion

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Of the heavier anime series from the Spring 2023 season that I watched, probably the heaviest of them all was Heavenly Delusion (released on Hulu in the US and Disney+ abroad under its untranslated Japanese title of Tengoku Daimakyo). The series was one of the two from this past season that sought to build a couple of mysteries over the course of the season, with a varying degree of success. Also, a content warning for this series – it contains imagery of sexual assault.

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Anime

Anime Review: Tonikawa Over The Moon For You Season 2

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The first season of Tonikawa was a light, refreshing slice-of-life sitcom series that answered the question – can you have a funny sitcom when everyone in the relationship has already said “I Will”, and also they don’t have kids? The answer, it turned out, was yes. The question for season 2 is, “Can this story continue to maintain this momentum?” The answer, it turns out, is also yes.

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Anime Review: Magical Destroyers

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I’ve reviewed several anime series in the past about Otaku getting dumped on by society – Rumble Garandoll & Akiba’s Trip both put their focus on the social stigmatization of Otaku by larger Japanese society. Rumble Garandoll put its emphasis on more conservative elements of culture attacking Otaku based on ablism some of the more progressive themes in some Otaku-targeted works (which is not certainly monolithic – I’ve covered some more conservative works here). Akiba’s Trip’s climax called out the hypocrisy of the Japanese government touting anime and other media targeted toward Otaku as part of the government’s soft-power initiative on one hand, while often the same political party (and same politicians) who champion that initiative demonize otaku (either directly or indirectly) through their policies and their public speeches (like the whole “Herbavore Male” thing that was going on for a while). Magical Destroyers takes a different tack and focuses on otaku self-loathing.

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Anime Review: Tokyo Mew Mew New – Season 2

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First off, hey! That title rhymes! Also, the second season of Tokyo Mew Mew New is a straight continuation of the plot, with the focus shifting with the Aliens no longer shooting for a slower, more gradual monster-of-the-week plan, and instead going for more spectacular plots, threatening Tokyo as a whole. On the mundane side of the plot, Ichigo’s relationship with Aoyama is now getting considerably more serious. And then there’s the whole matter of this new Blue Knight who keeps (Tuxedo-Mask-esque) coming to Ichigo’s aid. There will be some spoilers.

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Anime Review: Vinland Saga Season 2

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The first season of Vinland Saga, which I watched when it was streaming on Amazon Prime, was a very fast-paced and dark period action series with some serious political undertones to it. The second season, which aired in the Spring 2023 season, maintains the dark tone, but with a shift in the focus of the story. There will be spoilers in this review.

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Anime

Spy Classroom: Anime Review

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I’m not entirely sure if Spy Classroom knows what it wants to be. On the one hand, it’s an anime series about a bunch of (cute) teen girl spies going on missions in an alternate-history Europe – in this case, one inspired by Europe in between the World Wars, and before the rise of Fascism. On the other hand, so much of this series is just comedic hijinks, which makes it miss the gravity of something like Princess Principal.

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Ippon! Again: Anime Review

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I’m a fan of Naoki Urasawa, and one of his manga that got him on peoples’ radar (and the anime adaptation that came with it) was Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl. That series was a more conventional sports anime – closer to something like Hajime No Ippo/Fighting Spirit. This year, we got what I believe is our first dedicated girls Judo anime in quite some time – Ippon! Again – a series which follows in the wake of the Cute Girls Doing Cute Things sport anime series of the past (like Pride of Orange), so I was interested to see how this new show bears out.

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Anime Review: In/Spectre Season 2

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The second season of In/Spectre is less dominated by a single mystery for the entire story, and is instead broken up into a series of smaller mysteries – generally not one-and-done cases, as they usually take a few episodes to resolve. However, it does mean that if the Steel Lady Nanase mystery seemed to drag for you in the show’s first season, this might be more your speed.

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Anime Review: Urusei Yatsura (2022-3)

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These past few years have been a time of resurgence for various classic anime & manga franchises – not only with the long-running new adaptation of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, but also with an adaptation of Ushio & Tora, and a sequel to Inuyasha, it only seemed appropriate that someone returned to the manga that put Rumiko Takahashi on the map in Japan – Urusei Yatsura.

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