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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Fire Force

In the year 198 of the Age of the Sun, Tokyo is a crowded cosmopolis. But the world’s most populous city is threatened by devils that cause people to burst into flame at random. The only ones who can stop it are the Pyrofighters, a team of specialized firefighters. The young Shinra, blessed with the ability to ignite his feet and travel at the speed of a rocket, wants nothing more than to be a hero, and knows that this is the place for him. But he’s not the best at following orders. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 24

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: As a child, Shinra witnessed the death of his mother and younger brother in a horrible fire. As one with pyrokinetic abilities, he was blamed for the accident, but Shinra remembers having seen something terrifying withing the billowing flames. Now, his talents with fire have lead him to join the Fire Force, a group of firefighters who help put to rest the souls of infernals, those inexplicably consumed by flames.

No one knows what caused the appearance of the infernals in the first place, though one of the duties of the Fire Force is to attempt to deduce the cause of these seemingly random fiery transformations. As Shinra goes on his first mission, he begins to experience the parallels between his own experience and the situation at hand. It’s this understanding that allows Shinra to draw upon his pyrokinetic power and put the infernal to rest.

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord.

Dale is a cool, composed, and highly skilled adventurer who’s made quite a name for himself despite his youth. One day on a job deep in the forest, he comes across a little devil girl who’s almost wasted away. Unable to just leave her there to die, Dale takes her home and becomes her adoptive father. Devil or not, Latina is beyond adorable, and the adventurer soon finds himself head over heels with being a parent. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Dale has never had to think far beyond his next mission or his next meal, but when he finds an orphaned devil girl in the forest one day, he’s suddenly forced to look beyond his own day-to-day survival. The girl has one broken horn, marking her as a criminal – but one would be hard-pressed to come up with any scenario in which a kid her age should be banished in such a way. Dale learns that her name is Latina, and he takes her back to his home in the walled city of Kreuz.

After cleaning Latina up, Dale considers his options. He’s barely 18 and his job as an adventurer keeps him away from his home base for days at a time. But the “perpetually under-funded” city orphanage probably wouldn’t be that happy to have yet another mouth to feed. And Dale has a support system in Rita and Kenneth, the proprietors of the restaurant where Dale rents a room. Rather than dump Latina in the hands of strangers, Dale chooses the path toward instant fatherhood, with all its challenges and surprises.

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Dr. Stone

Taiju is about to confess to the girl he loves when a mysterious force hits the Earth and turns every human into stone. Taiju and his friend Senku wake up thousands of years later and begin to rebuild society. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 24

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Senku is a scientific genius, and Taiju is a lovable meathead. But neither boy’s particular strengths allow them to escape the mysterious green light that envelopes the Earth and turns all of its people to stone. By sheer force of will, Taiju holds onto his consciousness and vows to finish his confession to his crush, Yuzuriha, should they ever break out of their stony prison.

When Taiju finally does manage to break free, he finds the landscape almost completely transformed. Senku has been awake for 6 months already, and tells him the news – it’s now 3,700 later than when they were transformed, and the world has essentially been thrust back into the stone age. But Senku has a goal, and with his brains and Taiju’s brawn, he believes it’s a realistic one. He plans to use scientific knowledge and technique to recover humanity’s lost technology, and restore civilization to its former glory.

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts

During a protracted civil war that pitted the North against the South, the outnumbered Northerners used dark magic to create monstrous super-soldiers called Incarnates. Now that the war has ended, those Sacred Beasts must learn to make their way in a peaceful society, or face death at the hands of a Beast Hunter. Nancy Schaal Bancroft, the daughter of an Incarnate, turns to hunting the hunter herself. But once she catches up with her quarry, she discovers hard truths about the lives of these Sacred Beasts – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: In the young country of Patria, a competition for resources pits the armies of the North and South against one-another. The North is vastly outnumbered, but they have a special tool at their disposal – the Incarnates, unholy fusions of man and beast that have unimaginable power. This helps tip the scales to the side of the North, and hopefully, eventually toward peace.

When one of the Incarnates goes rogue, the downside of this incredible power becomes apparent. Eventually, their human souls become unable to fight off the beast personas within, and only death can stop their rampage. Elaine, the doctor who created the Incarnates, plans to kill them one-by-one to prevent anything bad from happening. Unfortunately, after she fires a fatal shot at Hank, captain of the squad, she’s murdered by Cain, one of her creations. Hank miraculously awakens two months later and learns that the war has ended, but the leftover incarnates are causing trouble across the land. He becomes a hunter of these rogue incarnates, in order to stop them from murdering the populace.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – Run With the Wind

Haiji Kiyose is an enthusiastic fourth year student at Kansei University who has been stealthily gathering men for the track and field team of the campus. As Kakeru Kurahara, a snappish first year student, becomes the promising tenth member; Kiyose dreams of participating at the Hakone Ekiden, a famous relay university marathon race. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Hidive

Episodes: 23

Source: Novel

This post was originally written for the April 2019 issue of Mangaverse, the anime, manga, and comics ‘zine published by the National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F) which I am currently in charge of editing. If you are interested in contributing to Mangaverse, please contact me at jessi@s1e1.com. I am always on the lookout for writers and artists!

This post may have been minimally-edited from its original form to correct minor errors and/or include hyperlinks.

Review: This review contains minor spoilers for the series.

Exercise has never been one of my strengths. In elementary school, we were tested every year on how quickly we could run a mile (4 laps around the outdoor gravel-coated track). My best time was somewhere in the 12-minute range, and that was when I was in 1st grade. I think, deep inside, I never saw the point of running when walking was a perfectly serviceable mode of personal transportation. That, or I have always been chronically out-of-shape and unwilling to admit it.

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First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2019 First Impressions – The Wise Man’s Grandchild

A powerful wizard and sage comes upon a baby whom he adopts and names Shin. The baby is actually a man from our world reincarnated into the sage’s world. The sage raises Shin, separated from the rest of society, and teaches him in the ways of magic. It is only when Shin turns 15 years old and sets out on his own journey that the sage remembers that he forgot to teach Shin the common sense and ways of this particular world. And so, Shin goes the capital of the Alsheid Kingdom to enroll in the capital’s magic academy. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: One day, an elderly wizard named Merlin finds a baby in the wreckage from a demon attack. That baby, who he takes in and names Shin, becomes a boy with a special aptitude for magic. Merlin teaches Shin everything he knows, bringing in acquaintances to teach him the ways of the sword and magical garb. Soon Shin becomes a young man with a hold over magic that’s terrifying in its scope.

One of Merlin’s acquaintances invites Shin to attend a magic school in his country. There he can learn how his skills actually compare to those of his peers, as well as figure out some basic skills like buying food and interacting with other people his age. Shin starts to fill in his social gaps once he arrives; he rescues a couple of girls from a group of thugs, and becomes instantly and hopelessly smitten with one of them.

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First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2019 First Impressions – The Helpful Fox Senko-san

Nakano is an employee of an exploitative “black” company, who meets a divine fox spirit named Senko. While she looks like a young girl, Senko is in fact 800 years old. She offers to spoil Nakano as much as possible, and begins looking after him.  – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Nakano’s days are filled to the brim with mind-numbing office work. His workdays are so long that they’re literally beginning to suck the life out of him. He listlessly takes the last train home once again, and stumbles into his apartment only to find the door unlocked and the lights on. Inside is a honey-colored fox girl cooking dinner at Nakano’s stove.

The fox goddess on high has taken pity on Nakano’s plight, and sent Senko-san, one of her demigods, to help set things right. Though Nakano is a bit weirded-out by the presence of the youthful fox spirit, it’s hard to argue with a hot meal, a good cup of tea, and a fluffy tail to pet. Senko-san asks for nothing in return, as her care is literally priceless; she chalks this all up to the whim of an 800-year-old demi-god. But Nakano has the strange sense that he’s been in the presence of this particular spiritual being before.

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First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2019 First Impressions – Sarazanmai

One day, three second-year middle school students — Kazuki Yasaka, Toi Kuji, and Enta Jinai — meet a kappa-like creature named Keppi, who is the self-proclaimed heir to the throne of Kappa Kingdom. Keppi forcibly takes the students’ shirikodama (a mythical organ kappa steal through a person’s anus) and they are transformed into kappa. Keppi informs them, “If you want to return to your former selves, you need to connect in ‘that way’ and you must bring me the shirikodama of zombies.” At the same time, two policemen, Reo Niiboshi and Mabu Akutsu, try to do something at the police box where they are stationed. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 11

Source: Original

Episode Summary: In Asakusa, images of the Kappa yokai abound. But little did Kazuki, Toi, and later Enta suspect that the golden kappa statue within the local shrine housed inside it a real, live kappa. After running into Kazuki again by accident, Toi’s violent defense of his own illegal activities knocks the statue off its base; when they return to the scene of the crime later on, Prince Keppi of the Kappa Kingdom appears before them in a poof of purple smoke. When the boys mistakenly refer to Keppi as a frog, he punishes them by stealing their shirikodama (an organ in the anus housing human desires) and turning them (and later Enta) into kappa.

Their ticket back to humanity relies on their ability to team up and steal the shirikodama of zombies – poor humans consumed by their own artificially-augmented desires. The only catch is that, once doing so, the three boys’ own deep, dark secrets are revealed to one-another. As the trio completes the Sarazanmai, Kazuki’s secret is thrust out into the open. This is embarrassing, but could this be a way for him to seek the connections he desires?

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First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2019 First Impressions – Why the Hell Are You Here, Teacher?

High school student Ichirō’s female teacher Kojima-sensei is famous for being a “demon teacher.” However, in front of Ichirō she seems to be air-headed and clumsy, and he keeps finding himself in perverted situations with her in places like the in men’s bathroom, in the men’s bathhouse, in the pool, at the school infirmary, and elsewhere. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Hidive

Episodes: 12 (12 minutes apiece)

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Ichiro has to use the restroom, and the most private place to do his business is an out-of-the-way men’s restroom on the school grounds. He doesn’t expect to see anyone, but when he opens the stall he’s surprised by none other than his female teacher, Kojima-sensei. The stall locks behind him, and the two wrestle with this uncomfortable reality until neither student nor teacher can “hold it” any longer.

The next week, Ichiro decides to cut class by hiding in the school infirmary, but coincidentally Kojima-sensei is there sleeping off a cold. She sends Ichiro to get her some medicine, but the only fever suppressant left in the cabinet comes in suppository form. Ichiro takes one for the team to help his teacher, but once she discovers that he’s skipping class, she returns the favor in the worst possible way.

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First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2019 First Impressions – Midnight Occult Civil Servants

Arata Miyako is a new government worker assigned to the Shinjuku Ward Office’s “Nighttime Regional Relations” department. Each of Tokyo’s 23 wards has one such department, which were established to solve paranormal and occult-related events. Arata can understand non-human speech that no one else understands, and he encounters a yōkai (supernatural entity) at Shinjuku Gyoen park that calls him Abe no Seimei — the name of a historical Japanese occultist and diviner. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Arata Miyako begins his job without a clear image of what it might entail, but he soon realizes that he wasn’t hired to perform typical government work; the Office of Nighttime Relations is focused on maintaining the order of Tokyo’s many residents – including those of the supernatural variety. Arata begins his evening unaware of fairies and tengu, but soon realizes that the nighttime world is filled with those supernatural creatures, and many others.

The team has been summoned to the park in order to research some odd disturbances, and what they discover is that the tengu and angels are at odds over something. Arata happens to find out the source of the conflict – an angel and tengu have fallen in love, and neither of their families is happy about it. Arata learns this because he seems to have the rare ability to understand non-human language, though it takes some convincing for his colleagues to believe it. Arata is able to help the two groups reach a truce, though no sooner have they flown off into the night sky then he’s approached by an old tengu who calls him by an unfamiliar name.

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