Tag: Fantasy

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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 – The Duke of Death and His Maid

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: The duke of a certain villa is cursed such that anything he touches dies in his hands. Yet his flirtatious maid, Alice, sometimes gets much too close for the Duke’s comfort, and often acts in a way meant to specifically get a rise out of him. It’s not that he dislikes her attention, but he’s terrified that with one stray touch, the duke might accidentally drain the life away from the one person who seems to want to be around him.

When his childhood fried Phillip asks for a meeting, the Duke is momentarily excited. Phillip was a handful when they were both young, but he also never judged the Duke. Unfortunately over the years things seem to have changed, and Phillip arrives with an entourage of guards and seems terrified to be there. It turns out that he was asked by the Duke’s estranged mother to see if the curse had somehow been lifted; if not, then she plans to pass the family title down to her younger son. The Duke wishes more than anything that he could be normal. Not so much to retain his title, but to be able to live among other people and to put a ring on Alice’s finger by his own hand.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 13

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Kazuya’s grandfather implores him to start a family so that he won’t be alone in life, but once his grandfather dies, Kazuya finds himself without anyone else in the world. As it turns out, his purpose in life may actually exist elsewhere, because he’s summoned to the Elfrieden Kingdom by a powerful spell and deemed its “hero.” Yet, he holds that position in name only, as he’s actually meant to serve as a valuable trade item with the Gran Chaos Empire, which is owed financial aid in the continent’s ongoing war with the demon realm. Having studied to become a civil servant, Kazuya proposes a different solution – he’ll look through the Kingdom’s finances and try to figure out another way of repaying their debts that doesn’t involve his being traded like a pawn.

What Kazuya doesn’t expect is for the king to suddenly abdicate the throne and make him the new leader, along with arranging an engagement to his daughter, Princess Liscia. When Liscia returns from her military duties to protest this situation, she finds Kazuya about to collapse under a pile of paperwork. Kazuya recruits her to his cause and outlines his fundraising plans, which involves selling off some of the kingdom’s treasures in exchange for some short-term financial stability. This goes against Liscia’s military training, but for Kazuya he’s looking toward the long-term – feeding the kingdom’s people and preventing a revolt. His actions may seem unorthodox, but his plans may be what Elfrieden needs to position itself as a stable and resilient land, prepared for whatever the demon lord may bring down upon them in the future.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Combatants Will Be Dispatched!

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Story Summary: The evil organization Kisaragi has nearly fulfilled their goal of taking over the Earth, so they’ve set their sights on various other Earth-like planets next in order to keep their momentum going. With a literal roll of the dice, Kisaragi leadership chooses Agent Six as their representative for this important mission. He seems like an odd choice as he’s irredeemably horny with a lowly number of “evil points” (having spent them all on dubious purchases), but it seems some of the folks in the upper echelons may have a soft spot for him. Agent Six is transported to his destination alongside Alice, an android with the body of a young girl and a deadpan attitude. Almost immediately they get on good terms with a high-ranking local Knight named Snow and Princess Tillis, whom Snow serves, but it turns out that those two are both generally looking out for their own best interests in life and not expressing any sort of altruistic intent. However, Agent Six and Alice repair an artifact important to the country, and thus Tillis hires the two as her personal guard – making Agent Six Snow’s new supervisor.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – To Your Eternity

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 20

Source: Manga

Story Summary: Once there was an orb, sent to Earth, that transformed based on its connection to and stimulation by other entities. It spent time as a rock, as moss, and then took the form of a white wolf named Joaan belonging to a lonely boy living in a small hut among the desolate, snowy landscape. The boy is making plans to leave for “Paradise,” to follow in the footsteps of his fellow villagers. The boy and Joaan leave toward the South, following markings left by people who traveled that way previously. After a tragic discovery, they’re forced to head back, where the boy struggles with the encroaching loneliness. As the hearth fire dies out, the wolf Joaan transforms once more, into a boy.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – I’ve Been Killing Slimes For 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level

A truly just God.

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Story Summary: Azusa is a 27-year-old office worker who keels over and dies one day from overwork. When she arrives in Heaven she learns that God has a soft spot for women, and Azusa is allowed to reincarnate as an immortal witch and live her desired “slow life.” The only monsters she encounters near her highland home are slimes, and she defeats around 25 of them a day to provide herself with money enough to live a modest life. Eventually 300 years pass in this manner, and a verification of Azusa’s strength reveals that she’s now maxed-out at level 99. This is an inconvenient secret that might spell the end of her lazy days at home, but of course rumors being what they are the news of her power soon spreads across the land. Eventually a dragon named Laika shows up at Azusa’s front door, and after a short duel accidentally smashes the home Azusa’s enjoyed for 300 years. Later, Laika returns in human form with repair funds and a request: she wants to become Azusa’s pupil and learn how to become strong like her.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Story Summary: Sei is an overworked office employee who, after being made to stay late yet again, returns home under dark of night only to be magically summoned to an alternate world called Salutania which suffering from the proliferation of a terrible miasma. In this world a figure called a “Saint” is said to have the power to hold back the miasma, but in dire cases where they do not appear organically they are often actively summoned into duty through magical means. Sei arrives with a second woman and Prince Kyle seems to take to her more quickly, whisking her away and leaving Sei to spend her days alone in boredom. But a chance meeting introduces Sei to a magical research institute, where her prior interest in herbal remedies translates very well into the distillations of magical potions. She has a knack for it, too; despite having had no idea how to use magic when she arrived in Salutania, it turns out that her magical abilities are powerful and seemingly bottomless. When a group of knights is attacked by a monster, Sei’s special 1.5-strength healing potions turn out to be a boon.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Fairy Ranmaru

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Story Summary: The Fairy Queen summons a representative from each of the fairy clans to form a heroic team. Their task? To go to Earth and collect “attachments” from humans who are suffering. Fairies have rules of conduct that limit them from experiencing love (physical or emotional) with humans, yet their mission involves understanding the root causes of such things and reacting to them. Ranmaru, of the powerful Light Clan, poses as a quiet transfer student, but he almost immediately identifies a girl who’s being bullied out of jealousy. He rescues this young lady and uses the purity of her heart to put a stop to the tormenter. The Fairy Queen has received her first payment, but are her intentions truly on the up-and-up?

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