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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Vivy – Fluorite Eye’s Song

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 13

Source: Original

Story Summary: Each AI is imbued with a mission, and Diva’s (nicknamed Vivy by a fan) is to make people happy through her singing. After a year of existence, she seems no nearer to achieving that than when she started. Though she attempts to mimic human behavior, she lacks emotion, and the audiences at the amusement park where she works seem to be able to sense that. One day prior to a performance, Vivy’s mind is overwhelmed by some electronic interloper calling itself Matsumoto. Matsumoto is an AI claiming to have come from the future in order to advise Vivy on preventing a major disaster. 100 years from the current day, the world’s AI servants revolt and begin to murder humans; Matsumoto’s mission is to ensure that doesn’t occur. It takes more concrete evidence for Vivy to believe Matsumoto at his word, but time is already ticking; her first assignment is to prevent the assassination of a politician working toward further rights for AI individuals.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – SSSS.Dynazenon

Just another quiet day…

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Story Summary: The world is peaceful on the whole, but in the lives of its inhabitants, there is discord. Minami is a girl with the reputation of being a tease. She asks boys out and then drops them like yesterday’s garbage, leaving in her wake a trail of hurt feelings. Her friend warns her to stop making promises she can’t keep, but Minami’s noncommittal answer tells the whole story. Meanwhile, Yomogi, an earnest kid, meets a strange man underneath a bridge. This oddball, who calls himself Gauma and claims to be a “kaiju user,” is starving, and it’s Yomogi’s leftovers from lunch that rescue him from that fate. Gauma vows to repay the favor. The opportunity comes a few days later when Minami hones in on Yomogi as her next target. Gauma can’t stand to see his new “friend” get toyed with, but whatever words he has for Minami get put on the back-burner when a kaiju starts attacking the city. Gauma’s rantings about kaiju and such turn out to be more real than anyone may have suspected, when he draws forth an entity called “Dynazenon” to fight back against the kaiju. Minami, Yomogi, and a bystander are suddenly embroiled in the fight of their lives.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Burning Kabaddi

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Story Summary: Tatsuya thought he’d left sports behind after middle school. Irritated by the cliquish-ness he encountered as a soccer player, as well as by the undue pressure forced on him by adults, he decided to drop sports all together and reinvent himself as a live streamer. His fan count has yet to reach the double-digits, but Tatsuya remains optimistic. His dreams are interrupted, though, by a first-year named Azemichi, who knocks on his door and begs him to join the school kabaddi club. Tatsuya’s “no sports” policy is challenged once there’s a little blackmail involved, so he’s convinced to check out the club, if only once. One thing leads to another, and the combination of strategy and physicality that kabaddi demands is more interesting than he would have thought. After losing a bet, Tatsuya is forced to become a member of the team.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Those Snow White Notes

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Story Summary: When Setsu’s grandfather and shamisen teacher passes away, Setsu loses his will to play the instrument. His feeling of emptiness prompts him to leave home for Tokyo, where he has no plan and no place to stay, but where hopes to rediscover what his own true sound is and to play the shamisen again. He ends up living as a guest in the studio apartment of a hostess named Yuna, whose quest for show business fame has encountered yet another dead-end after a failed audition. She feels like nothing more than a wallet in support of her boyfriend Takuto’s musical aspirations, and her boyfriend is ungrateful about it. When Yuna and Takuto break up, this causes disarray that threatens one of Takuto’s live shows. It’s Setsu, who’s only just begun to try playing shamisen again, to smooth over the performance. As Yuna leaves town in pursuit of her own goals, Setsu is suddenly approached by a rather terrifying woman.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Joran The Princess of Snow and Blood

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Original

Story Summary: In this alternate history, it is the 64th year of the Meiji era. The Tokugawa Shogunate controls resources and technology, exerting authoritarian rule over the country. There are, of course, groups working in the background to bring about the fall of the regime – as well as those tasked with ensuring its survival. Sawa Yukimura works for an organization called Nue, a group of executioners working on behalf of the government to put down any possible rebellions. Yukimura’s goals are more personal, however; after her brother was murdered by one of the dissident groups, she uses her considerable power in hopes of obtaining her revenge.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Koikimo

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga

Story Summary: Ryo Amakusa is an attractive businessman (and a known womanizer), but he finds most of the women around him to be tiresome and annoying. One morning he nearly falls down a staircase on his way to work, but is snagged by his collar at the last moment by a high school girl. Later that day Ryo discovers that this girl, Ichika, is his younger sister Rio’s friend when he meets her again at their apartment. That’s when the “fun” begins. Ryo becomes infatuated with Ichika, because she doesn’t fawn over him like the adult women he encounters at work and on the street. “By chance” the two keep encountering one-another and Ryo’s persistence doesn’t seem as though it will wane, much to Ichika’s distress. In Ryo’s case, “no” means “keep bothering her until she changes her mind.”

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Mars Red

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 13

Source: Stage Production

Story Summary: Major Maeda returns to Tokyo after several months and is assigned to the task of interpreting whether a captured vampire might somehow be recruited as an ally in tackling the country’s quickly-emerging vampire crisis. Misaki was an actress, killed in a freak accident during a rehearsal, then mysteriously revived as proven by the stigmata on her tongue. Her mind appears to be frozen in place at her time of death, as she portrayed the titular character in “Salome;” her communication is mostly limited to recitations of lines from the play, though she seems to take an occasional direct interest in Maeda. Maeda encounters a mysterious, youthful actor named Deffrot before learning that Misaki has escaped her confinement. He encounters her just as she speaks her final soliloquy and allows herself to be burned to ash in the morning sunlight.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Winter 2021 Check-In, Week of 3/7/2021

Whew, it’s been a while since I’ve felt like writing something about what I’m watching and not about something more abstract (though I enjoy, in my own way, putting my emotions to the page in a way that intersects with anime – I hope readers will continue to indulge me). We’re at that point in the anime season where I’ve settled into a decent-ish routine and I’m starting to look ahead to the future (the new season starts in just a few weeks, folks). I’m also prepping for an online convention, and while I’m only really responsible for about 1.5 panels the one I’m mainly involved in is focused directly on great new anime from the past year, so I’ve got to squeeze in some of the shows I’ve missed somewhere. So obviously I’ve dropped a few things I stopped vibing with, and have put a few other series on hold since I’m fairly certain they won’t make the cut-off for my recommendation panel and so I can finish them later. You know, this almost feels like my typical Spring time cram session. Almost.

I’ll try to stay away from revealing major spoilers for any of these, but in all cases I’m at least a few episodes in, so keep that in mind.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Encountering Turbulence Atop a Witch’s Broom

This post contains spoilers for the anime series Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina. This series is available to Watch on Funimation’s streaming service in the US.

Last December, back when going to the movie theater was still a choice one could make on a whim, my husband and I decided to tag along with some members of the anime club who had planned a group viewing of the film Cats. We pretty much already knew what we were getting into; I’d read several reviews lamenting the truly weird design choices, mis-used A-list actors, and pressure that the animation team was put under to adhere to some unrealistic directorial choices. But I wanted to hang out with my friends, and going out to movies was at that time a pretty reliable way to see a bunch of them at once outside of anime club. The movie was definitely an experience, though I’d say the defining moment for me was near the end of the film where Judy Dench as Old Deuteronomy breaks the fourth wall, turning directly to the audience; I audibly gasped and hid my face (a friend of mine still teases me for this). For the most part, though, the adaptation was just a cavalcade of bad decisions and poor attempts at both humor and drama.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Courting Controversy – A Look at “Interspecies Reviewers”

Oddly un-sexy at times and burdened by several other issues, but a fascinating example of ecchi anime with decent production values, a great sense of humor, and an unorthodox focus.

Streaming: N/A (Formerly on Funimation; AnimeLab in Australia and New Zealand continued to stream the remainder of the series. The show is now licensed in the US by Right Stuf with an upcoming disc release).

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Check out my first impressions here!

Note: some elements of this review may be considered NSFW. This review also contains many general and some specific spoilers for the series.

These past few months I’ve been on a quest to get my anime groove back. Typically I don’t have trouble watching several episodes of a series at a pop, but for reasons that I’ve explained probably too often by now these days are anything but typical. And now, after a couple of anime seasons, my anime queue is looking pretty daunting (luckily there are websites to help one keep track of these things…). For me, having too much to do is a paralyzing feeling that creates more problems than it addresses, so sometimes it pays to stop being analytical and just dive face-first into something ridiculous.

For me, “ridiculous” has always been the marker of something I probably wouldn’t want to watch under normal circumstances, but which might serve as a good palate-cleanser. Years ago I made a habit of watching anime that was distinctly outside of my wheelhouse or even actively irritating to me, just as a way of level-setting and reminding myself of the general competency level of the majority anime. At some point I came to the realization that I was spending a lot of my time watching anime I didn’t really like and getting angry about it, with the added negative side-effect being that my voicing my opinions about gross fanservice or whatever tended to garner a fair amount of abuse; an added burden that I wasn’t emotionally ready to deal with. I can’t say that I was the most eloquent writer back then (nor am I now), but getting told to kill myself just because I didn’t appreciate an overabundance of anime tiddy in my face never seemed like much of an equivalent exchange for the level and reach of my work. At some point it was no longer worthwhile to feel crappy on both the front and back end of an anime viewing, so I decided to focus more on anime that I enjoyed watching.

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