Takato Saijō has reigned as the idol industry’s “Most Huggable” for five years, that is, until freshman actor Azumaya. Takato was always considered brusque while Azumaya’s smile is winning over admirers by comparison. The whole fiasco drives Takuto to over indulge in alcohol and his actions catch the attention of the last person he wants to see. To his surprise, Azumaya uses this new info to blackmail Takuto for physical affection. – ANN
Episode Summary: Takato Saijyo is at the top of his game. He’s coming up on 20 years in the entertainment industry and shows no signs of stopping. For the past five years he’s been voted as the “most huggable” man in a popular magazine poll and expects that his ruthless hard work will land him at the top of this year’s standings as well. However, he gets a rude awakening when Junta Azumaya, a young but popular upcoming actor, upstages him big time, stealing his top spot (and to him, all the glory). Even worse, the two are working together on a new film in which Azumaya has the lead role.
If that weren’t bad enough, Saijyo ends up in Azumaya’s house after a night of heavy drinking (which Azumaya has on video), and Azumaya confesses that ever since Saijyo gave him acting advice a year ago, he’s harbored strong feelings for him. So strong, in fact, that Azumaya tries to make a move right then and there before Saijyo escapes and locks him in the bedroom. Needless to say, the atmosphere gets a little awkward on the movie set the next day, but Azumaya’s try-hard method of acting requires some hardcore correction, so Saijyo finds it in himself to provide some guidance. After a successful day of filming, Azumaya drags Saijyo back to his apartment for round 2, and Saijyo can’t find it within him to resist this time around. But he vows that he won’t have sex with Azumaya again unless Azumaya wins the “best actor” award.
Naples, 2001. Giorno Giovanna is a small-time crook with one big dream—to become a “Gang-Star.” No ordinary thief, Giorno has a connection to the remarkable Joestar bloodline, and possesses a Stand named Gold Experience. His dream starts to become reality when he meets Bruno Buccellati, a mobster from the gang Passione and a fellow Stand user himself. Realizing that they share similar ideals, and both disagree with the gang’s harmful affairs, Giorno reveals his goal to Bruno: with Bruno’s help, he will reform Passione by overthrowing the boss. – MAL
Episode Summary: Naples, Italy is a beautiful city drawing tourists from far and wide, but it has a darker underbelly filled with drug use and crime. Teenager Giorno Giovanni exists somewhere in between, committing petty crime for profit and paying the police to look the other way, but also occasionally also thwarting the efforts of local gangsters. When he crosses Leaky-eyed Luca, a violent gang member after protection money, Giorno uses a mysterious power, called “Golden Wind,” to turn the tables on Luca. The gangster’s defeat draws the attention of his associates and puts a target on Giorno’s head.
In the mean time, Koichi Hirose arrives in Naples on the orders of Jotaro Joestar; he’s been sent on a mission to gain information (and perhaps a DNA sample) of a young man named Haruno Shiobana, who Jotaro believes may be the human son of DIO. After encountering Giorno multiple times (and being duped by him), Koichi is positive that Giorno and Haruno are on-and-the-same; Jotaro agrees, and believes Giorno’s un-Japanese blond hair is likely a symptom of the awakening of his stand powers. As Koichi mulls over how best to fulfill his mission, Giorno is cornered on the trolley by a gangster named Bruno, an associate of Luca and someone with frightening powers of his own.
At Dahlia Academy, a prestigious boarding school attended by students of two feuding countries—the eastern Nation of Touwa, and the Principality of West—Romio Inuzuka, leader of the dorms’ Touwa first-years, wishes for a romance that can never be. For his ladylove is none other than his arch-enemy, Juliet Persia, leader of the dorms’ West first-years. – ANN
Episode Summary: The feud between the Principality of the West and the Eastern Nation of Touwa is played out daily in the microcosm that is Dahlia Academy. Romio Inuzuka leads the Touwa Black Doggy Dorm, while Juliet Persia heads the dorm of the Western White Cats, and they truly do feud like cats and dogs; the confrontations between the two groups occasionally erupt into actual violence, with their passionate leaders at the center of the conflict. Romio has a secret, however – he’s been in love with Juliet since the two were children, but he’s never been brave enough to state it out loud (for obvious reasons).
When Juliet finds herself cornered one afternoon Romio manages to save her from attack, though in doing so embarrasses her so much that he believes there’s no salvaging their potential relationship. Later that night he receives a message from Juliet beckoning him to the school’s fountain, more than likely so that they can hash out their “differences.” When she challenges him to a sword duel, Juliet explains that she’s always considered Romio the rival she wants to beat; she works and trains hard so that she can one day have the power to change the world. Romio lays it all on the line and shares the truth of his feelings as their swords clash. They eventually decide to start dating – but it has to be in secret, for the sake of the school and its tenuous harmony.
Set in the city of Nagasaki, the story takes place in a world where a miniscule amount of magic remains in everyday life. Hitomi Tsukishiro is a 17-year-old descendant of a witch family who grew up with stale emotions, as she lost her sense of color at a very young age. Feeling sorry for her granddaughter’s future, Kohaku, a great witch, sends Hitomi to past, the year 2018. Through exchanges with her 17-year-old grandmother and her club members, the story follows Hitomi’s growth as a person. – MAL
Episode Summary: At some point in her life, Hitomi lost her ability to see color. As a member of a family of mages, this seems to have dulled her magical abilities and has left her feeling depressed and disconnected from the world. Even the festival fireworks, something she loved to watch as a child, don’t reveal their true beauty when Hitomi is watching them. Hitomi’s grandmother, a powerful mage, surprises her the evening of the fireworks with a time-turning device that she’s been bathing in the light of the moon for 60 years. She’s decided to send Hitomi 60 years in the past to 2018, and Hitomi has no time to resist before her grandmother wishes her goodbye and completes the spell.
Hitomi arrives in an unfamiliar room that clearly belongs to a young man – he arrives to change his clothes as she hides underneath the bed. As she crawls out the window, several students her age bear witness to the escape and start the rumor mill running – who’s the mysterious (and beautiful) girl that Aoi was keeping in his bedroom? When the members of the photography club discover that Hitomi is well and truly lost, they take her under their wing and bring her to her family’s magic shop, atop the hill as it always has been. Though her grandmother (her age in this time period) is off studying magic in England, once the rest of the proprietors realize that Hitomi is family, they invite her to stay in their spare room. The next day, as Hitomi searches for a lost item, she encounters Aoi who’s spending his free time drawing. Amazingly enough, the drawing appears to Hitomi in vivid color. Could there be some way to restore color to her world, and bring her magic back?
There’s a rumor about a mysterious phenomenon call “puberty syndrome.” For example, Sakuta Azusagawa is a high school student who suddenly sees a bunny girl appear in front of him. The girl is Mai Sakurajima, Sakuta’s upperclassman and also a famous actress who has gone on hiatus from the entertainment industry. For some reason, the people around Mai cannot see her bunny-girl figure. Sakuta sets out to solve this mystery, and as he spends time with Mai, he learns her secret feelings. Other heroines who have “puberty syndrome” start to appear in front of Sakuta. – ANN
Episode Summary: Sakuta Azusagawa is a bit of a loner. A misunderstanding that morphed into a rumor turned him into something of a pariah among his classmates, so he has very few friends and spends most of his days on his own. One day when he’s in the library, he sees something entirely out of the ordinary – former child star Mai Sakurajima, now one of Sakuta’s upperclassmen, dressed in a bunny suit. None of the other patrons seem to see what he’s seeing. Once Mai realizes that Sakuta is aware of her presence, she orders him to forget everything and leave her alone.
Life doesn’t work out that way, however; the two keep encountering one-another around town. Mai eventually reveals that, since going on hiatus from her acting work, she’s noticed that more and more people are unable to see her. Sakuta even witnesses firsthand when a bakery employee acts as though Mai isn’t there at all. He believes that this might be a case of an urban legend called “Adolescence Syndrome,” if only because he and his sister are also victims – she was bullied and the painful words hurled at her manifested as physical wounds, and Sakuta woke up one day with huge gashes on his chest. Whatever the cause, Sakuta and Mai start to recognize one-another as kindred spirits.
In the future in Onomichi, Hiroshima fish disappear from the sea around the world and only whales live in the ocean. The Ministry of Fishery decides to set up giant experimental Universe Fish Tanks in space. The Onomichi Universe Fishery Union is established and begins to train space fishermen. Female fishermen are in demand due to the strengthening of an equal employment law for men and women. Six new female space fishermen are selected, and the story centers on supporting their growth. – ANN
Episode Summary: One day, all the fish in Earth’s vast oceans disappeared. Because human kind still had a taste for sushi, drastic measures were taken and special tanks were built in space to grow and harvest fish. Special space fishermen were needed to obtain the fish, and thus a new industry was born. Haru Soramachi dreams of becoming a space fisherman, if only so that her grandma can eat her favorite sushi again. She travels to the coast to join a space fishing program where she can eventually join the ranks of the high-flying astronautical fishermen.
Unfortunately Haru’s sense of direction is lacking and she winds up completely off course, stumbling into a heated argument between a couple of girls her age and some men who are already established fishermen. Makiko and Namino claim Haru for their team (her sweatsuit bears the insignia for the space fishing organization, so she must have some idea of what she’s doing), thus forming a proper group of three to fish in space. Haru unfortunately has no experience operating the fishing equipment and needs instruction from the ground up. When she’s told to choose a guardian deity to accompany her, she picks the one known to be most useless. It’s no surprise that the men claim victory over the three girls, and their unauthorized expedition ensures there’ll be hell to pay once they get back to solid ground.
Kakeru, a former elite runner at high school, is chased for stealing food. He is saved by a Kansei University student Haiji, who is also a runner. Haiji persuades Kakeru to live in the old apartment “Chikuseisou” where he plans to team up with fellow residents to enter Hakone Ekiden Marathon, one of the most prominent university races in Japan. Kakeru soon finds out that all of the residents except for Haiji and himself are complete novices. – MAL
Episode Summary: Kakeru Kurehara has fallen on hard times since losing his apartment down-payment to the whims of the mahjong table. He’s been reduced to stealing bread from the local convenience store. Luckily he’s a practiced runner with speed enough to get away with this misdeed. He can’t outrun all of his problems, though; he’s eventually chased down by an energetic man on a bike. Haiji Kiyose is on the prowl for one last person to fill the vacant room in the boarding house he shares with several other young men, and he invites Kakeru to take the final slot.
Haiji has ulterior motives, as Kakeru soon learns. Boarding House Chikuseiso is filled with all kinds of young men, from geeky, to studious, to those with certain vices. Haiji invites them to celebrate the addition of their tenth resident with a trip out of town – namely, to Hakone. It’s his dream to participate in the Hakone Ekiden, a famous annual relay race. With their landlord (a former runner) as their coach he feels that this is their best (and his only) shot. But Kakeru isn’t even sure he wants to stay, let alone tackle this monumental task, especially when the other residents seem hesitant at best.
Ken En Ken: Aoki Kagayaki is based on the 2004 Taiwanese role-playing game Xuan Yuan Jian Waizhuan: Cang zhi Tao, whose story is set in the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history (approximately 770–476 BC). – MAL
Episode Summary: Yin, Ning, and Zhao are three friends who are inseparable until the Taibai Empire’s army arrives and tears their lives apart. Zhao is enslaved by the empire and he believes Yin and Ning were killed as their village burned to the ground. The Empire’s mechanical constructs are now built partly on Zhao’s back. As a quick learner and an insatiable tinkerer, he uses the Empire’s discarded parts to create his own mechanical toys in secret.
Yin and Ning actually survived their village’s destruction. Though Ning lost her arms, she and Yin make a hardscrabble living putting on acrobatic shows as they travel from village to village. One evening as Yin searches for some water, she hears a strange ringing noise from an abandoned house. Inside she’s confronted by a horrifying snake demon and falls through the rotten wood floor to a hidden room. She obtains a mysterious scroll which grants her the companionship of a summoned familiar in the form of a girl named Yun. Yun has considerable power; she’s able to destroy the snake spirit easily. After doing so she disappears. Later, when the village is attacked by Taibai constructs, Yin is able to summon forth Yun and also produce a deadly sword using the scroll’s power; together, they defend the village and destroy the constructs.
In the meantime, Zhao’s illicit tinkering is discovered by the authorities and he and a young girl he’s befriended are taken into custody. Because Zhao was favored by the chief engineer who has since defected to the rebellion, Zhao has now become a suspect. As he faces the empress to receive his punishment, he realizes that she is in fact the girl who became his friend. She grants him a noble title and the all-important task of studying to become the new chief engineer, putting his considerable talents to use for the Taibai Empire.
Living alone and never having had a girlfriend, 37-year-old Satoru Mikami is dissatisfied with how his life has turned out. But after dying at the hands of a robber, he awakens to a fresh start in a new world…as a slime monster. – ANN
Episode Summary: Satoru Mikami has had a pretty decent life so far – he’s got a good job at a good company and generally enjoys how things have unfolded. He is disappointed in his lack of a love-life, however; as a 37-year-old man who’s never had a significant other, he feels as though he’s missed out on one of life’s very important pleasures. He doesn’t have much time to lament this however, since a runaway man with a knife stabs and kills him in the street (and on the way to his favorite meal, too). With his last breath he implores his subordinate to remember him fondly (and to trash his hard drive). As the world fades into nothingness, Satoru feels his body dissolve away.
Unexpectedly, he wakes up in a strange place inside of a very strange body. He realizes after some experimentation that he’s now a slime a-la Dragon Quest, with some fairly cool skills – he can absorb magical materials and store them in his body, he doesn’t feel pain, heat, or cold, and he can regenerate after suffering damage. He realizes, though, that he’s not alone. A stentorian voice beckons to him, and after some back-and-forth Satoru realizes that he’s sharing his space with a particularly powerful and threatening dragon. They make a mutually-beneficial deal: Satoru will be friends with Verudora the Dragon, and Verudora will grant Satoru the power of magical sight. Satoru is a little embarrassed to realize that, even at age 37, he’s still worked up over making a new friend.
What was supposed to only be an urban myth turns out to be very real when high school student Asuka Tsuchimiya and her friends open the door to a parallel world when they perform a ritual. – HIDIVE
Episode Summary: When the skies are clear, a group of five girls gathers at sunset to perform a ritual of their own making. In doing so, they hope to open the gate to another world, but thus far they’ve never been successful. After yet another failed attempt, one of the girls finds an odd crystal on the ground and utilizes it to operate a crystal radio. After a while all the girls swear that they can hear odd, alien noises somewhere within the static. The girls decide to make another attempt at the ritual, even though the skies are cloudy. This time, their makeshift prayers are answered and all five are transported to a strange golden world.
Unfortunately this world is a hostile one; creatures which first appear cute and harmless band together to become a mortal threat. The group is saved through the intervention of another girl who resembles Asuka, their bubbly ringleader. The mysterious stranger defeats the creatures and guides the group back to their dimension, ordering them never to set foot in the Twilight World again. Unfortunately, she collapses before returning to her own world and Asuka is left to take care of her. It takes Asuka a while to realize that this girl, also named Asuka, may be her equivalent from an alternate dimension. The next morning, Alter-Asuka is gone, but she’s left behind a locket with the photo of a young boy inside.
Impressions:The Girl in Twilight was one of the series I was looking forward to this season, if only because conceptually it sounded kind of interesting and I have a soft spot for original anime productions (though this one is also linked to an upcoming(?) smartphone game). The first episode is not necessarily mind-blowing, but it does lay a bit of groundwork for a story that might turn out to be fun and functional.
The group performs the 4:44 ritual.
I should mention that, for ostensibly being an ensemble cast series, this episode spends very little time developing any of the characters beyond Asuka. Asuka seems to be the one who’s central to the story, so it makes sense for her to be the focal point, but I’m left wondering about the other four girls and how most of what we know about them is that they don’t exactly seem to mesh well with one-another. Their dynamic feels like it would be more appropriate for a slice-of-life comedy; each of the characters seems to have a very trope-y personality (or at least an identifiable personality quirk) which is what one would expect for a series taking a lot of moé shortcuts. It’s easy to generate comedy when the characters are all lovable misfits with clashing personalities. This series feels like it’s supposed to be much more straight-laced, however, so the friction and dissonance feels like it’s getting in the way of something that ought to be more harmonious. I’m not sure if the other characters are meant to play equally important roles later on, but I’m left wondering how that will pan out when they don’t feel like they belong in the same anime series.
I do think Asuka is a fun heroine. Her “genki” attitude gives the impression that she might be more of a side character, but in this case her peppy inclination and willingness to believe in the supernatural is what gets the plot moving. She also serves as a sharp contrast to her alternate-universe self, which is obviously intentional; I believe we’re meant to ask what sort of horrible things could have happened to such an upbeat, bubbly character to cause her to become grim and sullen. Clearly her younger brother(?) is gone in both universes; why has she accepted this and gone one to live a typical life in our universe when her alter-self has become so worn-down? I suspect the story may be moving to answer this very question.
The visual style leaves a bit to be desired. The animation quality isn’t bad by any means, but I wouldn’t have identified this as an “Animax 20th anniversary project” just by looking at it. The character animation is somewhat inconsistent throughout the episode, though I do have to call out the fact that all of the characters have enough differences in their facial features that they’re not suffering too horribly from “same-face” syndrome, as tends to happen when multiple female characters share the same anime space. The Twilight realm utilizes some 3D animation which looks fairly decent; in one scene a group of sinister snow bunnies combines to form a multi-headed serpentine creature, and the visual is fairly effective. I feel like it gives those scenes some dynamic movement that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. I do have to question the choice to make the Twilight Realm quite so yellow; I realize it’s supposed to emulate the evening sunset but the effect is low-key nauseating rather than tense and mysterious.
Is there a universe where he still lives?
What I am pretty jazzed about is that this dimension-hopping sci-fi story stars a cast of women. I feel like these types of stories tend to be the purview of young male characters. Steins;Gate and Erased immediately come to mind, as well as this season’s RErideD to some extent. Time travel plotting so often seems to revolve around men and their pain – lost loves, missed chances, the desire to save others. Orange comes to mind as an outlier, but even that dealt much more with character drama than with the details of the time-manipulating mechanic that allowed the heroine’s letter to travel into the past. With the genders (and the gender balance) reconfigured, somehow a series that doesn’t otherwise stand out all that much feels a bit fresher and more interesting. While that’s not a trait that can sustain the narrative all the way through, I think it does provide something unique for the viewer to latch onto; it’s a storytelling angle that’s sorely lacking in a lot of other anime.
I’m definitely not blown away by this episode, but I do find it encouraging in many respects. While I have nothing against slice-of-life anime, it does become a little exhausting when those are the only types of series in which one can typically find several female characters of any importance. Rather than just observing the characters existing, I would rather, sometimes, watch them acting and doing. The selection of this type of anime gets better and more robust all the time, but that doesn’t mean we should stop celebrating it when it arrives.
Pros: The main character is engaging and fun. It’s nice to have a sci-fi story with so many young women.
Cons: The cast thus far are under-developed. There are some iffy aesthetic choices.
Streaming: Crunchyroll
