Category: First Impressions

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – Virtualsan: Looking

A TV anime featuring 30 VTubers including Mirai Akari, Siro, Nekomiya Hinata, Tsukino Mito, Tanaka Hime, and Suzuki Hina! In a creative collaboration Anno Hideaki, the six primary cast members will appear in Evangelion costumes. The theme song is composed by producer Nakata Yasutaka, sung by Kizuna Ai in the first six episodes, before being taken over for episodes seven through twelve by the main cast as the special VTuber unit dubbed “Virtual Real”. An original 3DCG animated project with an omnibus format designed to put the personality and charm of VTubers on full display. – Crunchyroll

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Various (various virtual YouTube stars)

Episode Summary: The virtual world is populated by all sorts of interesting folks. The virtual idols, whose viral fame has ushered in an entirely new kind of fandom, spend their days together navigating the strange quirks that their internet existence has to offer.

The series centers on 6 primary idols who perform in the bulk of the skits, while other moments feature various other virtual YouTube idols in supporting roles.

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Winter 2019 First Impressions – Mysteria Friends

Mysteria Academy is a prestigious magic school that teaches magic without discrimination to the three factions (men, gods, demons), who usually are engaged in battle with each other. Two of the academy’s students are Anne, a princess and honor student, and Grea, a princess born from a dragon and a human. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 10

Source: Game (offshoot of Rage of Bahamut)

Episode Summary: Anne and Grea are two princesses who are as different as can be. Anne is confident and talented, with magical powers befitting her high status. Grea is the child of a human and a dragon and a quiet, sweet soul. Together the two form a bond of friendship that benefits from their differing personalities and makes their time at Mysteria Magic Academy much more fulfilling.

One day Anne is dragged away to aid in the quelling of an angry library spirit, and the aftermath keeps her there for some of the cleanup. Loyal Grea waits at their meeting place until the sun begins to set. Anne is surprised and touched that Grea waited, and the two go off to have their evening meal together.

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Winter 2019 First Impressions – Grimms Notes: The Animation

Set in a fairy tale world in which everyone receives a book when they are born. These books determine every little detail of that person’s life. Written by the mysterious storyteller, each book traps that individual into a preordained fate. The story, however, stars a hero without a story, someone free to decide his own fate. But since he has only blank pages he can only wander to find his purpose. Our hero travels to lands and meets characters straight out of the pages of some of the most famous fairy tales. He must work together with the characters he meets to fight to get back his story. – Crunchyroll

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Mobile Game

Episode Summary: Every person is born with a book, its pages telling their life’s story and guiding their fate. What of those whose stories aren’t defined? Ex is one such individual, whose fate and destiny have been left blank. He joins a traveling band of individuals whose purpose is to battle “Chaos Tellers,” enemies who re-write reality and corrupt people’s stories until they become twisted and evil. He hopes to discover what his purpose is as he fights alongside his companions.

As Tao, Shane, Reina, and Ex arrive in Little Red Riding Hood’s world, they discover that she’s gone missing. Eventually they learn that her anxiety over her fate to be eaten by the wolf, as well as her apprehension over the prospect of the Woodsman marrying her mother, have left her open to a Chaos Teller’s corrupting influence. It’s up to this band of fighters, along with their magical fairy tale partners, to set this story straight once again.

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Winter 2019 First Impressions – Bermuda Triangle: Colorful Pastorale

Daily life for mermaids come with everyday issues. Follow the adventures of five young mermaids as they explore their town and the world around them in this delightful slice-of-life series that takes viewers to an enchanting world beneath the waves. – HIDIVE

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Original (spinoff of Cardfight!! Vanguard)

Episode Summary: Caro, Serena, Sonata, and Fina are mermaids who live in the quiet undersea town of Parrel. The town is known for its mill-ground coral sugar and fresh hijiki seaweed, but not much else; the people there live a slow-paced life away from the bustle of the big city.

One day the town leader receives a package, inside of which is an orb containing a young mermaid, Canon. Canon has come from the city to live in Parrel for a while, and the girls are happy to treat her like another one of their friends. After a natural phenomenon called the Grand Tide flows through town, taking with it dust and debris and overturning some plant life, the mermaids discover an old building they’d never noticed before. When they go inside, they find a projector and a cine-orb with a film of a mermaid dancing. They wonder what mysteries this forgotten place may hold.

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Winter 2019 First Impressions – Kaguya-sama: Love is War

Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane are two geniuses who stand atop their prestigious academy’s student council, making them the elite among elite. But it’s lonely at the top and each has fallen for the other. There’s just one huge problem standing in the way of lovey-dovey bliss—they’re both too prideful to be the first to confess their romantic feelings and thus become the “loser” in the competition of love. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Kaguya and Miyuki are a perfect match for one-another. Kaguya is the pinnacle of old wealth who approaches life with a regal point-of-view. Miyuki comes from more modest origins, but makes up for that with his top-tier intelligence. Together they’d make a stunning romantic couple, but in an environment where confessing one’s feelings translates to revealing one’s weakness, love is much less a complicated dance than it is an all-out competition of strategic wit and cunning.

The student council office at Shuchiin Academy is the battle ground for these student leaders, who both have feelings for each-other but refuse to show their hand. Their tactics to catch each-other expressing their true feelings range from trickery, to manipulation, to outright desperation. But will this stubbornness ultimately result in unrequited feelings on both sides?

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Winter 2019 First Impressions – Endro!

In the land of Naral Island, a land of magic and swords, humans and monsters live together. Once upon a time, there used to be a terrifying Demon Lord, but long, long ago the first Hero defeated the Demon Lord. The Demon Lord would revive again and again throughout the ages, but every time a Hero would appear to defeat it… Now these young girls attend an Adventurer’s Academy to prepare them to defeat the Demon Lord that will one day rise again. This is the beginning of a laid-back fantasy life with no sign of the Demon Lord for these four who hope to become a party of heroes. – Crunchyroll

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Yulia, the hero, and her three companions soundly defeat the Demon Lord, sending them into a prison of time and space. The world is saved! … or so it seems. In truth, the magic spell that sealed the Demon Lord was a fluke with accidental consequences, sending the near-powerless enemy back in time several years before the final conflict.

The Demon Lord finds her way to Yulia-and-company’s hero school to nip the whole adventuring party thing in the bud before it becomes a problem for her. The issue is that, while the heroes aren’t very competent yet, they seem to have a talent for being lucky. That alone may be difficult for a very small Demon Lord to overcome.

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Winter 2019 First Impressions – The Magnificent Kotobuki

In a barren frontier where people trade goods with each other in order to help each other survive, the Kotobuki Squadron are bodyguards for hire, led by a strict but beautiful squadron leader, an unreliable commanding officer, and a true artisan of a crew chief. Alongside pilots who don’t lack for personality, they take to the air in dogfights, letting the engine noise of their Hayabusa fighters ring out in the skies. – ANN

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Being a pilot-for-hire is a rough job, and because of that there’s some amount of trash-talking and bragging involved in a pilot’s down time. When a young man from the Nazarene Squadron gets full of himself and starts to hit on the young women from the Kotobuki Squadron, he doesn’t realize what he’s getting into. These ladies have seen it all and then some, and don’t have time to play with little boys whose 11 stars don’t stack up to their combined 200.

During a nighttime transport of goods, a transport airship is predictably targeted by air pirates. While the Nazarene Squadron is taken out fairly early in the fight, the Kotobuki Squadron, piloting their Hayabusa fighter planes, manages to fend off the attackers with little collateral damage. Kirie, the group’s hot-headed fighter, notices a familiar insignia on the wing of one of the enemies and decides to engage with it one-on-one, which turns out to be a poor decision. For some reason, though, the enemy leaves her alone after connecting a few warning shots.

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Winter 2019 First Impressions – Dimension High School

One day, on his way to high school, student Junpei picks up an unusual looking rock. Thinking nothing of it, he heads to class. While in the middle of a session, the rock comes to life and transports him and four others to an animated world. To make matters more interesting, the group is introduced to a giant sphinx who is determined to take over the world. Now, to protect their world from invasion, the group must work together as anime characters and real-world humans. – ANN

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Junpei finds a strange rock one day as he’s heading to his physics tutoring session. The teacher’s lesson about the Doppler effect is about as boring as it gets, until the rock that’s stashed in Junpei’s desk begins to take on a life of its own. It is, in fact, no ordinary rock, but a life form searching for some heroes who can help save the world from certain destruction. Junpei and his classmates, along with their professor, seem like they can take up the challenge.

The students are drawn into another dimension where they appear in the form of anime characters. The novelty of their situation wears off quickly when a giant, threatening Sphinx arrives and starts demanding the answers to riddles. It all seems like fun and games until they get a question wrong; the Sphinx then eats their teacher’s spirit. Luckily, their lesson on the Doppler effect turns out to be more useful than they anticipated, because it turns out to be the key to solving the next puzzle. With their teacher back in hand the group returns to the real world, but only until the Sphinx’s next deadly challenge.

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Winter 2019 First Impressions – Girly Air Force

Mysterious flying creatures known as Zai suddenly appear, and in order to fight the creatures, mankind creates fighter aircraft called “Daughters,” as well as the automatic fighting mechanism “Anima,” which are shaped like human girls. The story centers on a young man named Kei Narutani, who yearns to fly in the sky, and an Anima considered to be humanity’s trump card, a girl name Gripen. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: The Xi (rhymes with “sigh”) are an enigmatic, hostile group of aerial fighters currently targeting humankind. Kei Narutani and his adopted sister Minghua are attempting to evacuate Shanghai by carrier ship when they come under attack from a squad of Xi fighters. The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force arrives to defend the civilian vessels, but they’re no match for the maneuverability and speed of the enemy planes. All seems lost until the arrival of a mysterious red-hulled fighter jet that navigates as well as the Xi and shoots them down before crashing into the ocean. Kei exits his evacuation vessel to rescue the pilot – a beautiful pink-haired young woman – who states some incomprehensible words before kissing him and passing out again.

Kei feels like this experience may have just been a dream, and after he and Minghua manage to settle into their new lives in Japan it might as well have been one. Kei can’t leave the experience behind, however, and even begins to research joining the Japan Air Self-Defense Force because of it despite Minghua’s protests. As he’s heading home from the convenience store, Kei swears he sees the mysterious red fighter plane being taken by truck to the local air-force base, so he sneaks out later that evening to see if he can catch a real glimpse of it. Minghua follows him, and they’re both blindfolded and taken onto the base. As it would happen, Kei’s presence seems to be the only thing keeping the animus, the artificial pilot of the experimental jet, from rebooting itself. He’s invited to join the project in hopes of helping to finally defeating the Xi.

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Winter 2019 First Impressions – The Quintessential Quintuplets

One day, a poor high school second-year named Futaro Uesugi comes across a private tutoring gig with good pay, but his pupils are his classmates. In fact, all five are quintuplets, each gorgeous but also on the brink of flunking out of school. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Futaro Uesugi’s family doesn’t have much money, so he’s learned to pinch pennies wherever he can. Luckily for him he’s a pretty smart student, so the fact that most of the other students look down on him isn’t as bothersome as it could be. One day he ends up fighting for a seat in the lunchroom with a girl named Itsuki who he doesn’t recognize. They get off on the wrong foot and sling a few jabs at one-another. It isn’t until later that Futaro learns that she’s transferred into his class, and his father has gotten him a job tutoring her for a very high price.

Futaro soon learns that this is no normal tutoring job – Itsuki is one of five quintuplet sisters, and each of them is in danger of failing their high school classes. Each of the sisters has their own unique personality and they all have their own special ways of weaseling out of Futaro’s study sessions. Once Itsuki gets a taste of Futaro’s living situation (and meets his cute younger sister), her perception of the situation starts to change a bit. This tutoring job may be more difficult than anticipated, but Futaro will make sure that all the sisters pass their classes, if it’s the last thing he does.

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