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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 – Girlfriend, Girlfriend

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: After years of knowing each other, Naoya asks his childhood friend Saki to go out with him. Their relationship is very… competitive and passionate, mostly due to Naoya’s extreme sincerity. Naoya may seem like an uncomplicated man, but his situation becomes uncharacteristically messy once a second girl, the quiet Nagisa, also confesses her love to him. Naoya is taken, but Nagisa is so incredibly cute. What’s a guy to do?

Naoya’s answer is to beg Saki to let him date both her and Nagisa, and after some protracted begging she relents. The three then begin living together under one roof (Naoya’s parents are out of the picture). At first things don’t seem half bad – Saki hates chores and Nagisa’s a great cook. But when the discussion turns toward the girls’ sexual expectations, suddenly they find themselves in the middle of another blow-up argument. Is this an arrangement that can actually work?

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Odd Taxi Episode 13 – Truth

Well, friends, we made it. This journey is nearing its end. I’m both happy to be here with the final episode of Odd Taxi in hand, and incredibly sad that the experience of watching it is now coming to a close. I’ve been finishing series here and there over the last week or so; my partner and I just knocked off Super Cub last night, and that journey was its own style of satisfying. SSSS.Dynazenon was great, fully living up to and even surpassing its predecessor in many respects. Fairy Ranmaru was… well, it was something, all right. But Odd Taxi has been the one anime on my list that, week to week, I’ve looked forward to the most. Perhaps because I’ve got a bit of a furry streak, but definitely also because it’s been one of the sharpest-written, most satisfying anime series I’ve had the pleasure to watch in real time.

I don’t want to waste too much time with introductions, so I’ll leave things at that. Below are my posts about previous episodes. I may also write about the series as a whole if I have some time, but I think I’ve captured most of my thoughts fairly well from week-to-week so I might let things simmer for a while before that happens.

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12

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Previews Reviews

Summer 2021 – A Brief Top Five

Earlier this week my partner and I sat down to watch the Anime News Network’s Summer anime trailer watch party, which is something they’ve put together just prior to the past few anime seasons. I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I’m just not keen on doing the extreme amount of research needed for a real seasonal preview (you can read more about that here). Despite that, I decided it wouldn’t be too much trouble to write about the trailers that impressed me, as long as I kept selections to a reasonable number (and comments to a reasonable length). Luckily Summer season seems to be way less loaded than Spring has been (thank goodness, I really need to catch up), so it wasn’t difficult me to trim down my list. Below the cut are my “top five” for this upcoming season; I’ve elected to leave out sequels and continuations, as has been my practice lately.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Odd Taxi Episode 12 – Regret

This past Sunday was Father’s Day in the United States. I love my own father and called to wish him a good day. But I still have trouble navigating some of these “greeting card holidays,” especially the parent and grandparent related ones. My husband and I have been trying to start our own family since we got married nearly four years ago, and as everyone can probably tell we haven’t had much success. These kinds of holidays are a sore reminder that my kind, caring husband doesn’t have the child he deserves, and my parents have no grandchildren.

I think life is full of regrets, and one of mine is that I went for so long thinking that I didn’t want to have children and never looked into whether it would be a possibility for me until I was older and staring down the loaded gun of advancing age. It’s a tough situation to navigate, because I’m used to giving things up; my family didn’t have a ton of money or resources when I was growing up and so I went without sometimes (I also had all my needs met, though, so it feels strange to claim hardship even though compared to other people I know it probably was). But sometimes life isn’t fair and wanting something very badly doesn’t mean that it will eventually appear in front of you somehow.

On that cheery note, let’s get back together with our animal friends for this penultimate episode of Odd Taxi! I have to say, I’m going to miss this series deeply when it’s over. Check out the links below for my thoughts on previous episodes:

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Odd Taxi Episode 11 – Envy

Thursday was the first Summer session meeting of the anime club I attend, and boy was I thankful for the opportunity to revisit some great anime that I’ve previously enjoyed. While I love watching seasonal anime, there’s so much of it that I find it difficult to re-watch anime series from even the recent past, so this weekly appointment with other anime-loving friends has been an real boon to my fandom. Also, having the opportunity to share amazing anime with others is an experience that will never get old for me.

Watching something more than once gives me the opportunity to catch onto details I may have missed the first time around; this is partly why I’ve stopped attempting to write about these Odd Taxi immediately after watching the first time. With so much going on, I find that it’s helpful to watch the episode a second time with my partner and really try to take in what’s happening without also trying to take screenshots and jot down notes. I also like to let the content simmer for a bit too, because sometimes inspiration strikes at odd times.

Once again, Previous entries are linked below.

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10

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