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Previews Reviews

Winter 2020 Anime – What I’m Looking Forward To

As usual, the new anime season kind of crept up on me. In my defense, the holidays late in the year take up a lot of my mental energy, and my job lately has been a real test of my patience (transitioning to a new position, yet still performing many aspects of my old one in addition while trying to learn the new processes). So maybe you readers will forgive me for being kind of absent for the last few weeks. Now that I have a day off and fewer weekend plans for a while, maybe anime can take the top spot on my priority list for a while (at least until Anime Detour prep ramps into high gear in a couple months… sheesh).

As with all my other seasonal previews, some of the things that sound interesting to me on paper may not pan-out at all come broadcast time, while series that don’t sound that compelling might turn out to be instant classics. That’s really the fun of discovering anime series as they appear on the many streaming services to which I subscribe – finding the good stuff where you don’t expect it feels like uncovering buried treasure. Anyway, below are some things that I’m interested in.

Note: As usual I’m using the confirmed/probable English titles of the anime in order to make it easier for readers to locate legal streams of the anime in which they’re interested.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – KONOSUBA: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World – Legend of Crimson

The Crimson Demon village that Megumin and Yunyun are from is facing a threat that could mean it’s ending. Kazuma and his gang follow Yunyun, who returns to the Crimson Demon village intent on saving it when they are faced with their greatest threat yet. – ANN

Availability: Theatrical Release

Episodes: 1 Film

Source: Light Novel

Review: Note: This review contains some plot spoilers for the film.

Sometimes it’s good to go outside your comfort zone; in other cases, it’s good to be reminded why your comfort zone exists in the first place. I had the opportunity to attend a screening of the Konosuba movie recently. To be honest, the extent of what I know about the series comes mostly from memes, gags, and general fandom osmosis, because the original anime adaptation was released when I was at a low point and I never found the time to go back and catch up with it. I assumed it wouldn’t be too difficult to get my bearings, especially since it’s difficult not to have some passing familiarity with the main characters and their foibles at this point in the anime fandom game. That, and when the cold hits in Minneapolis there’s really not that much else to do than join your local fandom friends in a fun indoors activity, so why not?

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Reviews

What I’m Watching – Carole & Tuesday (Eps. 1-12)

Note: This post contains some spoilers for the series through episode 12.

This past weekend I got the opportunity to speak at GalaxyCon, a multi-media fandom convention in my hometown. We capped off our weekend presenting “Shiny New Anime,” a panel where my husband and I share thoughts about and clips of some of our favorite anime from the past year (on a roughly 12-month rolling scale… sometimes stuff a little bit older sneaks in there if it has a second season or we missed it the first time around). In the lead-up to a convention, I generally try to catch up and finish at least some of the series on my plate; my general viewing habits aren’t that great, and while I’m sure I’d get more done if I kept up with anime on a weekly basis, the reality is that aside from a few shows where being caught-up is pretty necessary (Attack on Titan comes to mind), I tend to watch anime in multi-episode chunks after-the-fact.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2019 First Impressions – Shorts

The most horrifying fried rice.

I usually like saving short-form anime impressions for later, since that leaves enough time for a couple of episodes to arrive, offsetting the lack of content. There seem to be far fewer anime shorts this season than in previous ones, so I wonder if the form is falling out of favor with creators or broadcasters. In any case, below are impressions of this season’s selections.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – Promare

30 years ago, a cataclysmic event destroyed half the world in a fire and caused a mutation that created a new race of people called Burnish. Burnish are able to create and control fire.The “Burning Rescue” fire squad put out fires caused by Burnish. The new rookie of Burning Rescue is Galo, a hotheaded man who wields “Matoi-Tech,” named after the “matoi” banners that Edo-period firefighting units used. Galo’s encounter with Lio, the leader of a Burnish terrorist group called Mad Burnish, sets the story in motion. – ANN

Availability: Theatrical Release

Episodes: 1 film + 2 ONA episodes

Source: Original

Review: Note: This review may contain mild plot spoilers for the film.

Theatrical showings of anime films aren’t exactly the “events” that they once were. In the past they were so uncommon that I’d expect to see many of the people I knew from anime fandom in the theater. Nowadays, while anime films still don’t typically get a wide release, there are enough of them shown during limited theatrical runs that I can afford to be choosy and support the ones I’m truly interested in. Still, on occasion, there’ll be an anime film that seems to appeal to a wide enough audience that they manage to capture the electricity inherent in a theater full to the brim with enthusiastic fans. The showing of Promare I attended was nearly sold-out, and the bustle of the otaku fan base definitely added another dimension to the experience of viewing this film, which is definitely what I’d call an “experience” to begin with.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – Given

Ritsuka played guitar but has lost interest in the instrument. One day, he meets Mafuyu, who is holding a broken guitar. Ritsuka unwillingly starts teaching Mafuyu the guitar, but when he hears Mafuyu’s voice, things suddenly begin to change for Ritsuka. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 11

Source: Manga

Review: Note: this review may contain mild spoilers for the anime series.

When I was in high school I played flute in the concert band. I enjoyed it so much that I even took outside lessons and participated in the annual solo competitions put on by the area schools. I didn’t have a great time in school overall, but being able to express myself through music is one of the better memories I have of that time in my life. I came to the realization at some point that when your emotions operate outside what other people are willing to tolerate on a regular basis, it’s life’s other more artistic avenues that serve as an alternative outlet for those complicated, powerful feelings.

Given is the story of a budding relationship between two high school students, a tale it heartily accomplishes through sensitive, slow-burn character development. But it’s also a peek into the life of someone dealing with trauma and the shame that seemed to crop up in its aftermath. Unsurprisingly, it’s music that seems to tie everything together.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2019 First Impressions – Part 6

Well folks, it looks like we made it to the end of this season’s new anime (well, excluding shorts and sequels… of which there are a ton this time!). While I’d say it hasn’t really been a mind-blowing season so far, it’s at least been kind of interesting. But I’m getting ahead of myself – there are still a few more new series to take a peek at before passing any major judgments.

And this is probably something that I should have said at the outset, and definitely bears repeating – these are just impressions based on 1 episode, so by definition can’t necessarily speak for the entire series. However, one thing I always look for is potential, whether that’s the potential to entertain or the potential to offend, and that’s something that can often be gleaned just by determining how a series puts its best (or I suppose first) foot forward.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2019 First Impressions – Part 5

Well folks, now that J.C. and I are finished with convention prep for like… maybe a week or so (we have another one coming up in early November… why do we keep doing this to ourselves?), I’ve got time to hopefully finish up the Autumn seasonal first impressions. I should note once again that these posts don’t include the (many, many) sequels airing this season, nor the Netflix-only series since they’re on their own schedule (at least in the United States). I may do a small sequel round-up at some point (though I don’t intend to review any sequels I’m not familiar with), but that will depend on time and motivation.

In any case, there appear to be six series left to look at, so to avoid awkward-sized posts I’m going to split them up into two groups of three. Look for part 6 sometime in the next couple of days (once I sleep off my convention bad habits).

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – Astra: Lost in Space

The source of the ship's name.

In the year 2063, travelling through space has become commonplace. Eight students from Caird High School, along with one child, set out for a school camp on a nearby planet. However, the students are then mysteriously transported 5,000 light years away from home, with no way to call for help. Aboard an abandoned spaceship they call the Astra, these nine students slowly try to make their way back and figure out why they were transported in the first place. – ANN

Streaming: Funimation and Hulu

Episodes: 12 (episodes 1 and 12 are double-length episodes)

Source: Manga

Read my first impressions here!

Review: Note – This review may contain minor plot spoilers for the series. Because this show presents major revelations in its second half, I’ve done my best to only speak as generally as possible.

Despite the fact that many fans my age were introduced to anime through the iconic science fiction titles that trickled their way over to the West in the early years, it feels as though it’s been quite a while since the sci-fi genre has really been front-and-center. While the surge in slice-of-life anime in the early 2000’s has certainly provided me with many favorite series, and the current popularity of isekai stories is starting to bear more fruit for fans of my tastes, sometimes I just get nostalgic for stories about space travel and the intrepid spirit of humanity. Astra: Lost in Space, a recently-concluded series from this Summer, does a real bang-up job of scratching that itch.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2019 First Impressions – Part 4

So far I think my new system for first impressions has been working out pretty well. Even just plugging along on the weekends, I’m more than half done with the new series already (excluding continuations and sequels… of which there are seemingly a whole ton this season). I’ve even had time to finish watching some of the stuff from last season that I wasn’t able to make time for, which likely means there’ll be some more series reviews on the horizon.

Just to reiterate, the intention of writing shorter reviews at the outset is to give myself more time to follow-up and write on other topics as well. Hopefully this will lead to a more robust blogging landscape around here.

Content Warning: The Blade of the Immortal review includes some violent imagery in the screen captures that accompany it.

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