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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 13

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Kazuya’s grandfather implores him to start a family so that he won’t be alone in life, but once his grandfather dies, Kazuya finds himself without anyone else in the world. As it turns out, his purpose in life may actually exist elsewhere, because he’s summoned to the Elfrieden Kingdom by a powerful spell and deemed its “hero.” Yet, he holds that position in name only, as he’s actually meant to serve as a valuable trade item with the Gran Chaos Empire, which is owed financial aid in the continent’s ongoing war with the demon realm. Having studied to become a civil servant, Kazuya proposes a different solution – he’ll look through the Kingdom’s finances and try to figure out another way of repaying their debts that doesn’t involve his being traded like a pawn.

What Kazuya doesn’t expect is for the king to suddenly abdicate the throne and make him the new leader, along with arranging an engagement to his daughter, Princess Liscia. When Liscia returns from her military duties to protest this situation, she finds Kazuya about to collapse under a pile of paperwork. Kazuya recruits her to his cause and outlines his fundraising plans, which involves selling off some of the kingdom’s treasures in exchange for some short-term financial stability. This goes against Liscia’s military training, but for Kazuya he’s looking toward the long-term – feeding the kingdom’s people and preventing a revolt. His actions may seem unorthodox, but his plans may be what Elfrieden needs to position itself as a stable and resilient land, prepared for whatever the demon lord may bring down upon them in the future.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Kageki Shojo!!

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 13

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: The Kouka Revue was created in the Taisho era, and featured unmarried actresses in all theatrical roles. The otokoyaku (male performers), with their suave, gentlemanly presentation, stole the hearts of female fans. Eventually an elite school was established to train actresses in this art form, and aspiring students compete each year to be among the 40 lucky few to be accepted.

Ai, a former idol who “graduated” (forced to retire) after a run-in with a fan, is one of those aspirants. Her talent means that she’s a veritable shoo-in and her fame means that most of the other potential classmates already know who she is, but she still doesn’t expect to draw the attention of beanpole (and complete weirdo) Sarasa. Sarasa is loud, goofy, and lacks the typical traits of a Kouka actress, but has a certain something that allows her to stand out from the crowd (and it’s not just her unusual height). She aspires to be a top star and play Lady Oscar in “The Rose of Versailles.” Yet thus far, Ai only sees her as a nuisance.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Girlfriend, Girlfriend

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: After years of knowing each other, Naoya asks his childhood friend Saki to go out with him. Their relationship is very… competitive and passionate, mostly due to Naoya’s extreme sincerity. Naoya may seem like an uncomplicated man, but his situation becomes uncharacteristically messy once a second girl, the quiet Nagisa, also confesses her love to him. Naoya is taken, but Nagisa is so incredibly cute. What’s a guy to do?

Naoya’s answer is to beg Saki to let him date both her and Nagisa, and after some protracted begging she relents. The three then begin living together under one roof (Naoya’s parents are out of the picture). At first things don’t seem half bad – Saki hates chores and Nagisa’s a great cook. But when the discussion turns toward the girls’ sexual expectations, suddenly they find themselves in the middle of another blow-up argument. Is this an arrangement that can actually work?

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – The Case Study of Vanitas

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: TBA (a second cour has already been announced)

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: The vampire Vanitas was born under the inauspicious sign of the blue moon, causing others of his kind to shun him. In order to seek revenge, Vanitas created a powerful grimoire with the goal of eliminating other vampires. Noé, a young vampire, travels to Paris in search of this grimoire when it suddenly falls into his lap (in a manner of speaking). As Noé attempts to help a young woman who has collapsed on the deck of the airship he’s riding to his destination, he’s attacked by a young man in black who comes crashing through the windows of the airship.

The woman is a vampire who’s been attacked by a malady that steals vampires’ true names, thus corrupting their power. The brash young man in black uses the power of the grimoire he holds to heal and return control of her body to her. He claims to be a vampire doctor operating under the name “Vanitas,” although he was given this name and the grimoire from his master who formerly held both. Is Noé’s encounter with this Vanitas fate or luck working its magic? As Vanitas hassles Noé to become his meat shield, he wonders just with whom he’s become involved.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Remake Our Life!

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Please note – the first episode of this series is an hour-long special. I will endeavor to keep the summary to a manageable level.

When the game company that 28-year-old Kyouya works for shutters its doors, he’s forced to move back in with his parents. Through a stroke of luck he meets Eiko Kawasegawa, a director at game giant SucceedSoft, and due to Kyouya’s vast skillset he’s able to land a pinch-hit job working on their 30th anniversary project. But the gaming landscape has changed dramatically in recent years, and despite the reported involvement of members of the so-called “Platinum Generation,” (several well-regarded artists who graduated from art school at the same time), the 30th anniversary project is canceled, as is Kyouya’s contract. When he returns home yet again, he wonders if his life would be any different if he’d chosen to follow his dreams and attend creative arts school. But life doesn’t generally provide many second chances.

When Kyouya wakes up later, he discovers that he’s indeed been granted a second shot at life – he’s inhabiting his body from 10 years prior, only in this timeline he’s accepted the offer from “Oonaka University” to become a student. He goes to live in a shared house with three other students and learns quickly that the arts aren’t all fun and games. But a pep talk from Aki Shino, one of his roommates, gives him the strength to work toward learning his true talents.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Scarlet Nexus

Streaming: Funimation (the version I watched was the premiere version posted early on their YouTube channel, and includes a message from the Oral Cigarettes, the band who sings the theme song).

Episodes: TBA

Source: Game

Episode Summary: Yuito and his friend Nagi are about to join the ranks of the “Other Suppression Force” or “OSF,” who are individuals with psionic powers who defend the populace from invasion by Others, brain-eating entities that attack with little warning. Yuito was inspired to join because a member of the OSF saved his life when he was a child, but both his father and older brother are high-ranking members of the organization as well. As he navigates the entrance ceremony and meets the new comrades in his platoon, Yuito struggles with the knowledge that his psionic abilities are on the low end. Being the member of a well-known family certainly has its downsides when information like that gets passed-around.

As Yuito, Nagi, and the other recruits are sent out to handle an attack by several Others, Yuito is confronted by a situation that echoes his own so many years ago. He breaks rank to help rescue a straggling child, but when the situation becomes dire he’s rescued by Kasane Randall. Kasane feels very familiar to Yuito; they may have a history that Yuito just can’t put his finger on.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Odd Taxi Episode 13 – Truth

Well, friends, we made it. This journey is nearing its end. I’m both happy to be here with the final episode of Odd Taxi in hand, and incredibly sad that the experience of watching it is now coming to a close. I’ve been finishing series here and there over the last week or so; my partner and I just knocked off Super Cub last night, and that journey was its own style of satisfying. SSSS.Dynazenon was great, fully living up to and even surpassing its predecessor in many respects. Fairy Ranmaru was… well, it was something, all right. But Odd Taxi has been the one anime on my list that, week to week, I’ve looked forward to the most. Perhaps because I’ve got a bit of a furry streak, but definitely also because it’s been one of the sharpest-written, most satisfying anime series I’ve had the pleasure to watch in real time.

I don’t want to waste too much time with introductions, so I’ll leave things at that. Below are my posts about previous episodes. I may also write about the series as a whole if I have some time, but I think I’ve captured most of my thoughts fairly well from week-to-week so I might let things simmer for a while before that happens.

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Odd Taxi Episode 12 – Regret

This past Sunday was Father’s Day in the United States. I love my own father and called to wish him a good day. But I still have trouble navigating some of these “greeting card holidays,” especially the parent and grandparent related ones. My husband and I have been trying to start our own family since we got married nearly four years ago, and as everyone can probably tell we haven’t had much success. These kinds of holidays are a sore reminder that my kind, caring husband doesn’t have the child he deserves, and my parents have no grandchildren.

I think life is full of regrets, and one of mine is that I went for so long thinking that I didn’t want to have children and never looked into whether it would be a possibility for me until I was older and staring down the loaded gun of advancing age. It’s a tough situation to navigate, because I’m used to giving things up; my family didn’t have a ton of money or resources when I was growing up and so I went without sometimes (I also had all my needs met, though, so it feels strange to claim hardship even though compared to other people I know it probably was). But sometimes life isn’t fair and wanting something very badly doesn’t mean that it will eventually appear in front of you somehow.

On that cheery note, let’s get back together with our animal friends for this penultimate episode of Odd Taxi! I have to say, I’m going to miss this series deeply when it’s over. Check out the links below for my thoughts on previous episodes:

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Odd Taxi Episode 11 – Envy

Thursday was the first Summer session meeting of the anime club I attend, and boy was I thankful for the opportunity to revisit some great anime that I’ve previously enjoyed. While I love watching seasonal anime, there’s so much of it that I find it difficult to re-watch anime series from even the recent past, so this weekly appointment with other anime-loving friends has been an real boon to my fandom. Also, having the opportunity to share amazing anime with others is an experience that will never get old for me.

Watching something more than once gives me the opportunity to catch onto details I may have missed the first time around; this is partly why I’ve stopped attempting to write about these Odd Taxi immediately after watching the first time. With so much going on, I find that it’s helpful to watch the episode a second time with my partner and really try to take in what’s happening without also trying to take screenshots and jot down notes. I also like to let the content simmer for a bit too, because sometimes inspiration strikes at odd times.

Once again, Previous entries are linked below.

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Sonny Boy

Streaming: Funimation (the version I watched was a limited-time free preview on their YouTube channel; the “real” release date is July 21st)

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Due to an unknown phenomenon, a school and several students have been transported into a black void. Without their teachers or the outside world to dictate what should happen, the student hierarchies begin to manifest themselves more strongly with the student council attempting to take control of the situation by creating rules and doling out punishments. Complicating this is the fact that a sub set of the students also developed super powers after arriving in the void world, and many of them aren’t inclined to listen to orders from their former peers.

As the void slowly consumes the building and the power struggle between the student council and the superpowered students plays out, Nozomi, a transfer student recently returned to Japan, and Nagara, a quiet, somewhat aimless guy, play out a very different, more emotional power struggle among themselves. Nozomi’s inclination to take risks and walk her own path may turn out to be the key to helping the group navigate this strange, new world.

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