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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – The Promised Neverland

Emma, Norman, and Ray are the three most brilliant children the Grace Field House has produced in decades. Unlike in a typical orphanage, they, and their fellow children, eat well and are given an intensive education. However, despite living in a peaceful environment with fun games and a caring mother, there’s something not quite right. When six year old Connie is “adopted” by foster parents, she forgets her favorite stuffed rabbit, and Emma and Norman sneak out to return it to her. When they arrive at the scene, the two realize exactly why they had always been isolated from the outside world. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hulu, and HIDIVE

Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Emma, Ray, and Norman are three orphans at Grace Field House. Kind-hearted Emma loves all the other children deeply as members of the only family she’s ever known. They’re cared for by “Mom,” a kindly young woman who ensures their safety. The children spend their days learning and playing together among the fields and forests. However, they’re forbidden from approaching the gate or the fence that surrounds the property, because of untold dangers.

When Conny, one of the younger children, is adopted into a foster family, the other children wish her a tearful goodbye and ask her to write them letters before Mom escorts her to the world outside. Emma realizes that Conny left her favorite stuffed animal, and she and Norman rush to return it to her. As they approach the open gate, however, they discover something so terrible that, as the traumatic images begin to settle in, they realize that their only option is to plan an escape for themselves and the other children.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – Dororo

During the 1470s after the Wars of Onin and Bunmei in the Noto Peninsula of the Hokuriku District, Hyakkimaru, who lacks as much as 48 body parts, obtains a fake body and eliminates 48 monsters that were made from his body to retrieve his missing body parts. – ANN

Streaming: Amazon Prime

Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Sixteen years ago, a local lord made a pack with Hell’s demons to obtain power and prevent more famine from befalling his lands. In exchange, upon the birth of his firstborn son, the baby’s body parts were stolen, leaving only a skinless, barely-living husk. The midwife tasked with disposing of the infant takes pity on it, setting it on the river in a boat before being attacked and devoured by a demon, who seems to have a keen interest in the child.

As the years pass the world continues to be filled with conflict and war. A young “entrepreneur” named Dororo makes a meager living selling fraudulent wares while trying to stay ahead of the local authorities. One day Dororo bothers the wrong guys and they’re nearly murdered for it. Dororo is saved by the appearance of a terrifying demon who eats their attackers, and then saved from the demon by a silent, somewhat unusual-looking man with katana blades hidden within his prosthetic arms. Stranger still, after the man dispatches the demon, the mask covering his face falls away to reveal new skin growing over his exposed flesh.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – Mob Psycho 100 II

“Mob” is a boy who will explode if his emotional capacity reaches 100%. This boy with psychic powers earned his nickname “Mob” because he does not stand out among other people. He keeps his psychic powers bottled up so he can live normally, but if his emotional level reaches 100, something will overwhelm his entire body. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama has an after-school gig working for Reigen Arataka, an exorcist of questionable talent with an eye toward making a profit. Otherwise, he’s an unremarkable boy who happens to have access to some of the most powerful telekinetic abilities most people have ever seen. However, Mob’s friend Mezato has reason to help (force?) Mob to overcome his bland existence. Without his knowledge, she’s positioned him as the leader of a budding psychic group, and she needs for him to take on a more impressive stature so that her ruse doesn’t fall through. This is easier said that done, however. Mob makes a run for student council president, but freezes when it’s his turn to speak, destroying Mezato’s dreams.

Unexpectedly, Mob receives a love letter in his locker. When he meets its author, Emi, behind the school, she says that she was so impressed by the courage it took him to get on stage for his aborted speech that she’d like to go out with him. The two spend a week together before Emi lets on that this was all a ruse. As Mob starts to walk home, he discovers Emi being bullied and uses his powers to reassemble the manuscript the other girls tore into pieces. Emi is impressed by his kindness, and makes a pledge to be truer to her own feelings.

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Anime Reviews Film Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – The Night is Short, Walk on Girl

A bold young lady and her university colleague have an incredible adventure as they explore the wild and vivid Kyoto night life. – ANN

Release: Limited Theatrical Release. Available on disc from GKids January 29th, 2019.

Episodes: 1 (film)

Review: Please be aware that this review contains spoilers of the film.

There are some who say that the college years are the best years of a person’s life. While I disagree with that for the most part and wouldn’t trade my adulthood away for anything, I do believe there are certain things you can only get away with doing in your early 20’s. For me, those things involved staying up to all hours and then stumbling to class in the morning with no permanent consequences, eating all sorts of ridiculous junk food, and packing 8 or 9 people into one hotel room when traveling to out-of-town anime conventions. Looking back, it’s hard to see how my body and spirit were able to tolerate those things, but now that I think about it there was probably a little bit if youthful magic involved.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – Pastel Memories

Akihabara is a mecca for otaku culture everywhere. But that culture is on the decline due to a mysterious affliction causing widespread memory loss. Izumi and her comrades hatch a plan to restore lost memories and return “Akiba” to its former glory. – HIDIVE

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Smartphone Game

Episode Summary: Izumi and her coworkers at the Rabbit Shed Shop cafe in Akihabara are some of the few remaining folks who remember what their area was like at the height of the fandom boom. After a strange fog descended on Akihabara one day, most of the manga magazines stopped publication and this created a domino effect where the many colorful book stores, video game arcades and maid cafes of Akihabara shut down for good. When they discover that a previous customer was looking for a particular favorite manga series, the cafe employees tear through their storage area to find a copy. Unfortunately, they only have multiple copies of volumes 2 and 5; not very useful if someone would like to read the entire series. After being joined by some of their compatriots, they all embark on a quest to find the missing volumes at the few remaining used book stores in Akihabara.

It takes some digging, but they manage to find most of them, except the all-important first volume. When everyone’s back at the cafe mulling over their options, another three employees appear out of the blue, having vanquished a memory virus threatening to destroy the very existence of a favorite piece of media from the past. When a new virus threatens the manga series they’re attempting to reassemble, Izumi herself offers to go and ensure that this treasured memory is not lost.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san

A skeleton named Honda works in a bookstore. Hilarity ensues daily in his work at the shop’s manga counter. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12 (11-minutes apiece)

Source: Manga

Review: This review may contain spoilers for the series.

Everyone’s life experiences are different, but if I could name one thing that’s been relatively consistent among the people I know, it’s that they all have some experience working in customer service. Whether, like me, it’s something they did during high school and college to help pay for school or other needs, or whether it’s work they do today, it’s an experience we can all bond over.

When I was in high school thinking of applying for a part time job, I had a mental hierarchy of what I’d like to do. I definitely wanted to avoid food service if I could; I have a weird aversion to getting greasy and wasn’t keen on slinging fries. I ended up working for nearly 7 years at a big-box discount retailer which, like just about any service job, was a good learning experience that taught me the joys and challenges of working to help customers.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – How Clumsy You Are, Miss Ueno

Ueno is the president of the science club at a certain junior high school. She’s a master inventor beyond her years but can’t seem to confess to her crush Tanaka. – ANN

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Necessity is the mother of invention, and Ueno’s greatest motivation is being able to confess her feelings to Tanaka, her clueless crush. Being straightforward about her emotions is too embarrassing for her, so she makes attempts at articulating her feelings by developing strange inventions that put Tanaka in a position to understand just where she’s coming from.

Her first invention is a filter that can take any dirty water and purify it to a drinkable state. She tests its power by filtering her own urine and demanding that Tanaka take a drink from the glass. Tanaka neither sees the point or gets the hint. Later, Ueno develops a device that creates an area of dark matter that obscures whatever it envelopes. She recruits Tanaka for an experiment involving the device, her skirt, and her lack of underwear. The device turns out to be a success, but Ueno’s quest to get Tanaka to see something interesting beneath her skirt turns out to be a dud.

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Meta Personal

What’ll Keep Me Blogging in 2019?

We’re a few days into the new year, and while weeks, months, and years are arbitrary markers (at least as far as what specific days they encompass), there’s something about the darkness, quietude, and chilly nature of this time of year (at least in the Northern hemisphere), that leads one to some introspection. I’ve already posted a little bit about some of the plans and goals I have for 2019, but I read a post from Karandi at 100 Word Anime that got me thinking more about what things sustain me as a blogger, and I’d like to try my hand at answering the question that she was given: What will keep you blogging in 2019?

I think the obvious first answer to the question is “new anime.” From the beginning, my writing has been focused around examining new anime series as they’re released each season, and on being one of the voices that helps other viewers to hone their personal watch list. While sometimes, by the time I get around to them, the anime series aren’t quite so new anymore, I’m always surprised to learn from other people that they don’t independently keep up on what’s available for them to watch, so I feel like this singular purpose can keep me afloat for a while.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – The Rising of the Shield Hero

Naofumi Iwatani, an uncharismatic otaku who spends his days on games and manga, suddenly finds himself summoned to a parallel universe. He discovers he is one of four heroes equipped with legendary weapons and tasked with saving the world from its prophesied destruction. As the Shield Hero, the weakest of the heroes, all is not as it seems. Naofumi is soon alone, penniless, and betrayed. With no one to turn to, and nowhere to run, he is left with only his shield. Now, Naofumi must rise to become the legendary Shield Hero and save the world. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 2-cour (22-26 episodes)

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Note – the first episode is double-length (45 minutes).

Naofumi leads a relatively comfortable life, which he lives while indulging his otaku habits. One of his favorite activities (after spending all his money, that is) is checking out light novels from the library. On a particular day he discovers a book he’s never seen before, which describes 4 legendary weapon-wielding heroes. As he’s paging through it, a glowing light envelopes him and he finds himself drawn into another world. He’s joined by three other young men and discovers that they have taken on the mantle of the 4 Cardinal Heroes described in the novel. They learn from the local king that they were summoned to stop the prophesied “waves” of malevolent attacks that have already begun.

The four Cardinal Heroes enter the picture. Screencap from Crunchyroll.

Naofumi’s three companions seem to have familiarity with this scenario whereas he does not, and he soon discovers that they hail from alternate versions of Japan in which this story is part of a video game environment. Another bit of bad news is that the shield hero, which Naofumi represents, is generally reserved for poor and inexperienced players, since all the character class is good for is defense. Worse yet, word of Naofumi’s naivete has quickly spread, and no experienced adventurers want to join with him to form a party. After some protests he’s eventually joined by Myne, an attractive young woman. She shows him the ropes, helps him kill some low-level monsters, and even eats dinner with him. But the relationship turns out to be a set-up; Myne uses Naofumi’s trusting nature to rob him blind and frame him for a terrible crime.

Left without resources and essentially exiled without aid, Naofumi begins to learn more about the specific power of his legendary shield while contemplating his revenge. The experience has hardened him and he stops trying to make nice with anyone, including vendors to whom he sells his meager earnings. Without a partner on the offensive, leveling-up his powers is essentially out-of-the-question. Learning of his plight, a mysterious man offers him a way to gain a party companion, though it’s a particularly distasteful method of doing so.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – W’z

Yukiya is about 14 years old. He spends his time DJ-ing alone. Due to his father’s influence, he’s listened to house music since he was young, and he uploads videos online. He wants to convey something to someone. He wants to be recognized, and become important. But getting hurt is scary. One day, while trying to get more views, he does something that can’t be undone. And he sees a live broadcast from “that world.” Yukiya believes he can’t do anything alone, but that he could accomplish something if he were doing it together with someone else. – ANN

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 13

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Yukiya is a middle school student with a modest amount of e-fame as a masked DJ “W’z” (pronounced “wise”). He wants to attend a music-focused high school next year, but his father is deeply opposed to the idea. His father has always told him never to hold hands with others. This may be because, when he does so, Yukiya has the ability to enter into an alternate, mysterious dimension; a dimension that could very well hold danger for him and others.

Yukiya confesses to his friend Haruka that he feels stuck, languishing without the kind of online views and fame he’s seeking. Haruka’s positive attitude encourages him, and he invites her to embark on a potentially game-changing move with him. As night falls, Yukiya sets up his DJ equipment in the middle of the city, then asks for Haruka to hold his hand; this transports them into a dimension of color and beauty. Yukiya’s stream starts to light up and things are going well, but then the couple is joined by several other duos who are after a particular goal.

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