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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Night Head 2041

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga (there have also been previous TV and anime adaptations)

Episode Summary: In the year 2041, society has disavowed any depiction of the supernatural. Belief in ideas and entities that can’t be proven is criminalized by the government. The Special Weapons Enforcers work to root out illegal thought activities and arrest those responsible. When they’re assigned to capture a man purporting to be a psychic along with his followers, they assume this will be a straightforward mission, but when brothers Takuya and Yuuya begin to see oddities that the others on their team don’t, it suggests there’s something much stranger going on. Takuya then exhibits a strange power when he tries to rescue Yuuya from being hurt. A huge EMP wave is emitted and they’re suddenly faced with the prospect that the realities of their own minds and existences may not be quite as factually cut-and-dry as they may have assumed.

Meanwhile, brothers Naoto and Naoya Kirihara find themselves freed from the laboratory where they’ve been isolated for the past 15 years. Because they truly do have telekinetic abilities they soon discover that this unfamiliar world they’ve been separated from for so long isn’t the bastion of understanding and acceptance that they had hoped it may have become in the interim. While they’re able to leave their isolation with a few resources at their disposal, they’re about to enter a hotbed of prejudice in which their powers are decidedly unwelcome.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – The Aquatope on White Sand

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 24

Source: Original

Episode Summary: As Fuuka packs her things and prepares to head back to her childhood home, she realizes that this has become the depressing end point to a dream she’s had since childhood. She worked and sweated to become an idol, only to realize that she wasn’t meant for that lifestyle. After giving her blessing to a younger group member and putting in her resignation at her agency, she packs her things and calls her mother to coordinate her homecoming. By chance, however, Fuuka is distracted by an advertisement for a tropical Okinawan vacation, and feeling unsettled by the amount of fanfare the neighborhood group is putting into her return, she makes the last minute decision to head for warmer waters.

Upon arrival she doesn’t really have anything planned or anywhere to go, and dragging her luggage around in a tropical climate is sweaty work. After spending a night sleeping on a beach, she’s approached by a local tour guide and given some water and a few info packets. Fuuka chooses the local aquarium as her destination, and a 500 yen ticket grants her access to what she experiences as a magical world that lays bare some of her deepest insecurities. While there, she meets Kukuru, a young employee of the aquarium and learns that the power of this place is nothing new. But despite its beauty and magic, the aquarium is in danger of closing.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – The Dungeon of Black Company

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Kinji Ninomiya has finally achieved his ultimate dream. After investing his allowance and making money day-trading, he’s made himself into an independently-wealthy NEET. As he looks down from his penthouse apartment on the sorry masses below, though, he’s suddenly sucked into a gateway and deposited in a fantasy world that immediately sets him back to square one. This new world is run by mining demonite, and after Kinji takes out a loan it’s indentures servitude in the mines for him and many other unlucky souls. The mining company assures compliance by working its employees to the bone, and Kinji wants nothing more than to find a way to reestablish his lazy lifestyle.

That’s something easier said than done; money leaves his hands to pay back his loan just as quickly as he receives his paychecks. He works 16 hour days with no days off. But a lucky discovery gives Kinji an idea, and he manages to rope a fellow laborer Wanibe into the scheme. But as they take a shortcut to the lower level of the mine, they’re confronted by one of its guardians – Rim, a hungry dragon. Not to be deterred, Kinji makes a deal with her – if she doesn’t eat them both and promises to defend them from even scarier creatures, he’ll ensure she’s well fed. That becomes a failed scheme, as does another major manipulation that takes advantage of some magic items and Kinji’s coworkers. Kinji’s ideal NEET lifestyle seems farther and farther out of his reach with each passing day.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – D_Cide Traumerei the Animation

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Part of a multimedia project.

Episode Summary: One of Ryuhei’s darkest childhood memories is witnessing the death of his brother under mysterious circumstances. Now in high school, he practices boxing and enjoys a relatively normal life. That all changes when, one dark evening, he’s bitten by an animal in an alleyway, and after that has an extremely vivid dream in which his senses and abilities are heightened and he’s pitted toe-to-toe against malevolent creatures.

But this is all just a weird dream, right? Ryuhei believes so until he’s out walking the city streets and hears some strange, yet familiar terminology being spoken aloud by some kids racing into an alley. Following them he finds a strange porthole that no one else seems to be able to see. As he tries to decide whether to follow the gateway or not, the decision is made for him as terrifying, animalistic entities spill out into the real world. His ability to see these things would typically mean he has the power to stop them, but it takes loads of hassling from the two blond-haired youngsters (or are they?) actually fighting the creatures for Ryuhei to truly come into his own power. After he defeats what’s called a “Desaria,” he learns that it’s somehow the product of human corruption. The victim’s body is marked by a strange symbol – the same symbol found near Ryuhei’s late brother’s body many years ago.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Peach Boy Riverside

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Sally is a former princess whose longing for adventure saw her leave her quiet castle in the countryside in search of stimulation in the outside world. One day during the course of her travels, she discovers Frau, a member of the Harefolk community, whose rabbit-shaped visage betrays their status as a demi human. Sally’s experiences with demi humans is essentially nonexistent, so she’s somewhat surprised and disheartened to find that most people harbor a deep prejudice against them. Even though they have some ability to speak and Frau in particular is very loyal to Sally, they’re still shooed away at every turn by villagers who fear the worst.

And they do have some reason to be fearful, at least in a general sense; the world has been under attack by giant monsters and ogres, and it’s simply an unfortunate reality that this fear of being brutally murdered has perverted into hatred for other races. Even when Frau uses their power to defeat an ogre, there’s very little convincing the villagers who witness it. After defeating the ogre, Sally and Frau are taken into custody by the local knight captain, Hawthorn, but despite his own suspicions he warms up to them quickly. As Sally and Frau seek repayment for their troubles in the form of dinner, the city is brutally attacked by a high ogre and her companion. After witnessing this destruction and watching Frau attempt to fight the ogre alone, Sally enters a sort of trance and comes into some buried physical abilities that are a sight to behold. She may be travelling in search of a boy born out of a peach, but her own special powers are nothing to sneeze at.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Drug Store In Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Reiji Kirio was formerly a salaryman, but now he lives a quiet life as a pharmacist in a fantasy world alongside a friendly ghost and a werewolf. His claim to fame is his ability to create potions and medicines that actually taste good in addition to being effective. Once a local shop starts selling his energy potion, his fame spreads far and wide and things aren’t quite so quiet any longer.

This fame sometimes leads to Reiji getting involved in situations for which he might not be entirely qualified, as assumptions about his expertise mean that, to many folks, he’s the man with all the (medicinal) answers. He accepts a request from a young man whose girlfriend has been reacting in an extreme way every time he interacts with other women. Though relationship counseling is outside his purview, Reiji identifies that her paranoia is likely due to a lack of sleep, so brews a special tea that allows those who imbibe it to feel calm and sleep better. There’s never a truly dull day at this pharmacy, though it’s leaps and bounds more chill than the rat race ever was.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Makoto Misumi leads a decent life. He’s good at archery and his parents are pretty interesting people. But it’s his parentage that ends up causing him problems when the gods come to collect on a debt. It seems that Makoto’s parents came to Earth from another world, and in exchange they offered up the thing that meant the most to them. In this case that means their child, and if Makoto doesn’t go along with the transaction then his sisters might be forced into it in his place. At the behest of the god Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, Makoto is transported away to visit the goddess of this mysterious other world. Unfortunately the goddess is extremely unimpressed by Makoto, and banishes him to the far corners of the other world with only the ability to read, write, and speak the various languages of other races.

Fortunately Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto also secretly helped to protect Makoto with his power, so he isn’t completely helpless. Makoto learns this when he defends an orc girl named Ema from a giant wolf and completely obliterates it. He also seems to have a knack for magic, which comes in handy when he confronts the dragon that’s been causing grief for Ema’s people. The supposedly invincible dragon, Shin, finds herself outmatched. She offers to make a mutually-beneficial contract arrangement with Makoto, mainly because his memories of his previous life are so fascinating to her. Though he may have been banished to the far edge of the world, Makoto’s group of companions is slowly but surely growing larger.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Rio is an orphaned boy living in the slums, biding his time until he can find the means to avenge his murdered mother. One day after experiencing a fever, he begins to remember his former life as Haruto Amakawa, a 20-year-old college student in Japan who was killed in a tragic bus accident. Rio’s past and present lives begin to intermingle when, after an odd encounter with a group of women from the palace, Rio returns to find the group of bandits he was living with murdered. It’s at that point that his innate magical ability awakens, and he’s able to channel his former martial arts training to help rescue the kidnapping victim the bandits had recently brought home.

Rio’s ragged appearance and his proximity to the crime make him the prime subject once the victim, Princess Flora, is retrieved by her companions. After undergoing a round of physical torture, it’s only Flora herself who can manage to clear Rio’s name. This grants him an audience with the king for his heroism – but what might an orphan boy from the slums have to say to the country’s monarch?

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 13

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Uramichi Omota is the host of a children’s program. But as an early 30-something whose talents as a gymnast somehow brought him to this (as he sees it) dead-end, he’s beginning to let his frustrations show through on the air in the presence of the children who don’t yet know any better about life’s many challenges.

Uramichi isn’t the only cast member struggling to manage these dark thoughts, either; a couple of his former underclassmen who dress in animal costumes on the show are wrestling with both their own positions and their complicated perception of the classmate they formerly looked up to, and two of the other human character actors have landed in those jobs after failed music careers. Being a millennial is suffering – or at least it seems that way for Uramichi-oniisan and his crew.

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Anime Reviews Personal Reviews

The Fleeting Beauty of Youth and the Persistent Beauty of Youthfulness – Pretty Boy Detective Club

When I started high school, some friends of mine told me that our school building had a tunnel system that could be accessed from some of the classrooms. When the campus was first constructed in the mid-1950’s, it included a nuclear fallout shelter; that’s what these tunnels were originally for. Calling them “tunnels” was generous, too, because they weren’t meant to accommodate the height of a person standing (I suppose the assumption was, if they were getting used, the folks inside would be huddled heads-to-knees while the bombs went off outside).

When I heard about the existence of these tunnels and saw the few grainy photographs my friends had taken during their time investigating them, I immediately wanted my own opportunity to explore. We all picked a day to stay after school and hoped that there wouldn’t be too many teachers around to thwart our efforts. Unfortunately we seemed to get caught during every attempt we made to poke around shelves and move potted plants in order to uncover access panels, and were continually shooed away. After a while we just gave up on the effort and moved on to other shenanigans.

I’ve never really forgotten about those tunnels and my desire to poke my head inside them, but like so many things that happened (or didn’t) around 9th grade I kind of made peace with the fact that I’d probably never see firsthand what was hidden down there beneath the floor. It was kind of like when I tried out for the fall play and was the only one of my friends who didn’t make the cut, or when my undiagnosed learning disabilities and complete lack of study skills finally caught up with me in math class, despite my aspirations of becoming a “game programmer” – I was forced to wrestle with the reality of what was and wasn’t possible for me to accomplish by my own skills and gained some sobering perspective on my limitations.

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