Category: Anime Reviews

Whew, it’s been incredibly hot lately here in Minneapolis. Today’s considered a bit of a reprieve because it’s only getting into the upper 80’s Fahrenheit (around 32 Celsius). My Scandinavian body doesn’t do very well in this kind of environment (in fact, looking at the average temps in Norway, I can tell I come from that stock… anyway). I guess that makes this an ideal time to stay inside an watch more anime. I think maybe I made the same excuse during the winter during the polar vortex, but whatever, it’s always a good time for anime!

My husband and I actually caught up with SSSS.Dynazenon yesterday evening, and we were saddened to realize that there was only one episode left of the show. This time in the season is always a struggle for me, because the series I’ve enjoyed so much are all starting to wrap up. While there are almost always new anime series to look forward to, it can still be difficult to let go of something you’ve truly enjoyed. As the type of person who tends to settle comfortably into a routine after a while, though, not knowing what to expect from the future, even if it’s from something fun, like a hobby, can always be a little bit uncomfortable. Odd Taxi is another series that I’ll be really sad to see wrap up, even though I’m also dying to see how the story comes to a conclusion. I imagine I’ll be stopping and starting the final episode a few times while I’m watching it; that’s generally what will happen when I just don’t want something to end.

If, somehow, you’ve missed my previous posts on the show, they’re linked below for your convenience:

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

Well, I’m pretty proud of myself; while you’ll be reading this at a later date, as of right now it’s Wednesday, June 2nd and I’m caught up with the series. Not really the biggest of deals in the grand scheme of things, but I think it’s good to celebrate small victories when possible. If that’s the only thing I’ve been able to cross off my to-do list during these couple of days off, well, I can be happy with that.

While I don’t typically participate in online discussions about currently-airing anime (at least in the bigger, more well-known forums), I do occasionally lurk for the purposes of information-gathering. I find Reddit to be fairly good for that sort of thing, because there are quite a few active members there who watch anime for details and clues; I’m more about broader themes and bigger ideas, so I don’t always jot down tiny details in the moment or spend time re-watching a series while it’s airing to pick up on what I’ve missed. If you’ve been enjoying my write ups so far but might be looking for a different perspective, I’d recommend checking out their weekly discussions for more information.

Once again, my previous entries related to Odd Taxi are linked below, so be sure to check them out if you haven’t already!

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

My sibling-in-law and their husband are big film buffs who we’re always trying to get to watch anime. Sometimes it seems as though my husband and I belong to a different world, where we’re constantly talking about the latest, greatest anime yet don’t have the time to watch much Western media, while his sibling is in the exact opposite boat. Recently we went out to eat with them and Odd Taxi came up in conversation as an anime series we thought they’d like, and it’s one of the few cases where I feel like, once the show is done, I might insist on it. As much as I like anime in general, it often feels as though it plays a little fast and loose with stories. How to explain… it’s like sometimes the choices made in adaptation (since so many anime stories are adapted from other media) make the storytelling feel less intentional than it might otherwise. Odd Taxi feels like a story that works well as an anime-first production, for reasons that I suspect are starting to become more obvious… It’s because of that that I think I could probably convince someone who isn’t normally into general anime fandom to watch (and maybe even like) it.

My previous write-ups are linked below as usual. Even if you’ve just stopped by after searching for information on a specific episode, I hope you might feel like sticking around a little bit longer to see what I’ve had to say!

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7

I took a couple of days off this past week in an attempt to regain some sanity after a particularly stressful month or so at work. I can usually tell when I’m due for a vacation, because I’ll start to get really short with people and have a difficult time dealing with unexpected situations. I’m lucky that my job provides me with quite a bit of flexibility and is generous with PTO. I’ve used the time to catch up on a little bit of anime as well. My Anilist is a wasteland of half-finished anime series at the moment, and any little bit of time I can get to chip away at that is welcome, in my book. Of course, Odd Taxi has turned into an extremely high priority series for me in spite of whatever leftovers I have in the fridge from past seasons, so this time away from work has been a good opportunity to work on catching up with that, too.

As usual, below are the previous entries in this series of posts. Be sure to check them out, too!

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6

This weekend was the first time in quite a while that I spent any amount of time out in public simply for the purposes of having fun. I’m not normally someone who longs to be outside, but after spending such a large fraction of time stuck inside over the past year, I was hungry (literally, as it turned out) for some big, dumb event. My state’s state fair organization held a series of mini-events over the past week for folks to spend time on the fairgrounds eating fair food and doing activities, and while it definitely wasn’t the same as actually being at the event (I’m still a little wary of that – our state fair is considered one of the best in the country and attendance numbers will attest to that fact) it scratched an itch that I wasn’t aware needed addressing.

Now that I’m sufficiently sunburnt from that and then spending another couple of hours outside that day caddying for my husband (disc golf, not actual golf), I feel like I’m sufficiently back in the mood for some anime. To any other bloggers reading out there (I feel like that’s most of my audience at this point, lol) make sure you take some time out for yourself to have some fun if you can. It really helps to refresh your brain a little bit after sitting in front of your computer for hours at a time; without nurturing your mental health (in whatever way that means to you) it becomes easy for it to crumble and deteriorate.

As always, this post will contain spoilers up to and including this point in Odd Taxi. Be sure to check out my previous entries for this series, linked below for your convenience:

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5

Originally my goal with these posts was to catch up to the broadcast of this series, but I’m under the impression that I might not be capable of doing so before it finishes up. Timeliness has never really been my strong suit, so c’est la vie, I suppose. Despite my deep urge to watch ahead of my reviews and catch up with all the episodes of what’s turning out to be an extremely compelling series, I think the task of sitting down with each episode and examining it has been helpful for me to really take in all the details of what’s happening. There have been so many call-backs to previous episodes so far and so many seemingly random events that end up being connected to one-another that typing them out (in a form that I hope is slightly better than glorified notes) has helped me in my quest to keep track of everything.

I hope folks have been having a good time reading my episode analyses; no one’s really said anything, so I’m going to continue to forge ahead and assume the best. If you’re interested in catching-up with what I’ve had to say so far, be sure to check out my previous entries linked below:

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4

Now that I’m pretty much done with the rush of reviews, my husband and I have been watching some of the shows he was interested in. I usually give him a run down of everything I’ve enjoyed from a season and show him some premiere episodes, then let him decide what we watch together. I re-watched episodes 2 and 3 with him the other day, and we were both sad that we had to stop there (if I’m writing about a show I prefer my first viewing to be when I’m actually trying to do a write-up, otherwise I feel like it taints the experience for me). Even though I’ve been taking a little bit of a break this past week, I made getting back to Odd Taxi my first priority.

I’ve got a couple of spoilery things to mention about the previous couple of episodes, so I’ll put that stuff below the cut. Before that, though, here are links to the previous entries on this series, in case you’d like to catch up prior to this one:

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3