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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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First Impressions Reviews

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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First Impressions Reviews

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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First Impressions Reviews

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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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – My Roommate is a Cat

A shy novelist adopts a cute stray cat and starts to slowly open himself to the world. Both his and the cat’s point of view are included in each story. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Subaru is a novelist whose parents recently passed away in a tragic accident. Since then he’s become withdrawn and only really interacts with his editor – when he needs to. One day, while visiting his parents’ grave, a stray cat leaps from the shadows and pounces on Subaru’s sashimi, and the author has an epiphany: his next novel will feature a murder mystery where a cat is the culprit!

Subaru brings the cat home and starts to take care of it while continuing to indulge in some of his bad habits as a writer – neglecting sleep, forgetting to eat, and generally just losing touch with reality until the completion of the manuscript. When he passes out from exhaustion, the cat’s presence turns out to be a blessing. In the aftermath, he finds out that he might have eaten some of the cat’s food in his dire state. The cat, for their part, can’t understand why this particular human is so strange.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – Wataten! An Angel Flew Down to Me

Miyako Hoshino is a shy college student and otaku. Miyako’s younger sister Hinata, who is a fifth grader, has a classmate and friend named Hana. When they meet, Miyako falls for Hana at first sight. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Miyako is a college student with a talent for baking and sewing cute cosplay outfits for herself and her younger sister, Hinata. One afternoon, Hinata brings home a friend – Hana-chan – and Miyako is suddenly at a loss for words. Though her otaku nature has always left her shy around strangers, seeing Hana gives Miyako a serious case of the butterflies. Hana, on the other hand, is skeeved by Miyako’s behavior.

Miyako decides that she wants to become friends with Hana, and begs Hinata to invite her over to the house again. Hana happens to be very food-motivated, so Miyako offers her sweets in exchange for her mere presence. This forces Hana to override her strong self-preservation instinct. Miyako eventually convinces Hana to try on some cosplay, which turns into an impromptu photo session. Eventually, Hana decides that she can put up with Miyako’s… eccentricities if there are enough baked goods involved.

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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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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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First Impressions Reviews

Netflix First Impressions – Hi Score Girl

It’s 1991 and the heyday of the 2D fighting game boom. Sixth-grader Haruo spends practically his entire day at an arcade in the seedy part of town, oblivious to the world around him. However, one day at his usual arcade, he encounters Akira, his female classmate with good grades and money. She may look out of place at the arcade, but she is actually a top-class gamer. Akira completely outmatches Haruo in one Street Fighter II round after another, and their relationship develops from this unlikely encounter. – ANN

Streaming: Netflix

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Haruo considers himself a pretty avid gamer. His current favorite is Street Fighter II, which he plays endlessly at the local arcade. Though he typically dominates the standings, one afternoon he suddenly starts suffering one defeat after another. Who could his new opponent be? Surprisingly, it’s his classmate Akira Ono – a quiet, refined classmate of his whose grades outshine Haruo’s by a mile. Haruo simply can’t stand being outclassed by someone who’s so clearly not the gamer “type.”

Haruo and Akira start to encounter one-another around town more often, where Akira continues to impress with her unusually good gaming skills, as well as her ability to shut down naysayers with her fists. After the kids find themselves sharing a Final Fight gaming cabinet after escaping a sudden rainstorm, Haruo begins to realize the extent of Akira’s gaming knowledge, as well as her inability to suffer fools during a heated co-op session. Though Haruo is still sore about his many fighting game losses, he begins to think he may be gaining a new friend in Akira.

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