Tag: Funimation

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – The Case Study of Vanitas

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: TBA (a second cour has already been announced)

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: The vampire Vanitas was born under the inauspicious sign of the blue moon, causing others of his kind to shun him. In order to seek revenge, Vanitas created a powerful grimoire with the goal of eliminating other vampires. Noé, a young vampire, travels to Paris in search of this grimoire when it suddenly falls into his lap (in a manner of speaking). As Noé attempts to help a young woman who has collapsed on the deck of the airship he’s riding to his destination, he’s attacked by a young man in black who comes crashing through the windows of the airship.

The woman is a vampire who’s been attacked by a malady that steals vampires’ true names, thus corrupting their power. The brash young man in black uses the power of the grimoire he holds to heal and return control of her body to her. He claims to be a vampire doctor operating under the name “Vanitas,” although he was given this name and the grimoire from his master who formerly held both. Is Noé’s encounter with this Vanitas fate or luck working its magic? As Vanitas hassles Noé to become his meat shield, he wonders just with whom he’s become involved.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Scarlet Nexus

Streaming: Funimation (the version I watched was the premiere version posted early on their YouTube channel, and includes a message from the Oral Cigarettes, the band who sings the theme song).

Episodes: TBA

Source: Game

Episode Summary: Yuito and his friend Nagi are about to join the ranks of the “Other Suppression Force” or “OSF,” who are individuals with psionic powers who defend the populace from invasion by Others, brain-eating entities that attack with little warning. Yuito was inspired to join because a member of the OSF saved his life when he was a child, but both his father and older brother are high-ranking members of the organization as well. As he navigates the entrance ceremony and meets the new comrades in his platoon, Yuito struggles with the knowledge that his psionic abilities are on the low end. Being the member of a well-known family certainly has its downsides when information like that gets passed-around.

As Yuito, Nagi, and the other recruits are sent out to handle an attack by several Others, Yuito is confronted by a situation that echoes his own so many years ago. He breaks rank to help rescue a straggling child, but when the situation becomes dire he’s rescued by Kasane Randall. Kasane feels very familiar to Yuito; they may have a history that Yuito just can’t put his finger on.

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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 First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Sonny Boy

Streaming: Funimation (the version I watched was a limited-time free preview on their YouTube channel; the “real” release date is July 21st)

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Due to an unknown phenomenon, a school and several students have been transported into a black void. Without their teachers or the outside world to dictate what should happen, the student hierarchies begin to manifest themselves more strongly with the student council attempting to take control of the situation by creating rules and doling out punishments. Complicating this is the fact that a sub set of the students also developed super powers after arriving in the void world, and many of them aren’t inclined to listen to orders from their former peers.

As the void slowly consumes the building and the power struggle between the student council and the superpowered students plays out, Nozomi, a transfer student recently returned to Japan, and Nagara, a quiet, somewhat aimless guy, play out a very different, more emotional power struggle among themselves. Nozomi’s inclination to take risks and walk her own path may turn out to be the key to helping the group navigate this strange, new world.

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Anime Reviews Reviews Short Takes

Spring 2021 – A Couple of Sequels

Though I’ve attempted to branch out over the years in terms of what I write about here, I think I’m still somewhat known for my first episode/premiere reviews of anime. In the past I’ve struggled with this, and tended to go back into hibernation after finishing those first impressions because I just had no idea what to do with myself after my quest was complete. Now I’m making more of an effort to put into words the anime-related thoughts that come to my mind on a regular basis.

That said, this isn’t a post with any sort of deep reflection on what I’ve been watching. But I did want to make some space to talk about a couple of the sequels I’ve been looking forward to this season, and some of the aspects of those episodes that I look for when coming back to a series after a long hiatus.

Note: I’m also planning to watch the second part of Moriarty the Patriot, but since that was more of a split-cour situation, I felt it didn’t really warrant any additional attention at the moment.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Horimiya – Snapshots of a Relationship

What’s important in a relationship? I think most people would answer something like “communication” or “shared interests,” and I think we can all agree that those are at least some of the basic things that make for a successful partnership. I might be tempted to ask a different question, however – what moments are important to a relationship? That’s a much more difficult question to answer, because as a rule our brains don’t always keep track of memories that, at the time, might seem insignificant.

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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 – Super Cub

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Story Summary: Koguma lives alone and doesn’t have much money or any friends. Her hours pass by wordlessly as she spends the day at school and then rides her bike home. But she’d give almost anything not to have to huff and puff up the hill on a manual bike, and when she notices some classmates riding to and from school on scooters, she decides to check out the local bike shop. Almost every new scooter and motorbike for sale is way outside her meager price range, but the old shop owner shows her a refurbished model – an old Honda Super Cub he’s willing to sell her for 10,000 yen (around $100). She takes him up on the offer (once she’s gotten her license, of course), and suddenly a whole new world of freedom opens up to Koguma. Getting to school is no longer a chore, and she can ride to the convenience store without the same hassle of a bicycle. But she still has some lessons to learn about her new motorized companion; luckily the user manual can help with some of that.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Battle Athletes Victory RESTART!

Camaraderie in action.

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Story Summary: When Kanata was young, she witnessed the crash of a spaceship near her rural home. Thrown from the ship was a young white-haired girl who implored Kanata to train and take her place in the tournament to decide the Cosmic Beauty. Kanata’s farming skills turned out to be a major boon during the qualifiers, giving her the strength to represent Earth in the finals. But after arriving at University Satellite, an orbiting city where the competition takes place, she discovers that not everyone is quite as friendly and outgoing as she is. Still, despite her lack of social graces, Kanata’s true and pure heart begins to win over her fellow competitors. She becomes roommates with Shelley, the competitor from Venus. After finalizing her registration, Kanata is surprised to see what she believes to be a familiar face among the students.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Shadows House

Kate and Emilico are like mirror images.

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 13

Source: Manga

Story Summary: High atop a hill in a mansion lives a noble family of Shadows. Each member of the Shadows family has a living doll that serves as their “face” because the soot they emit themselves obscures what they look like. Mistress Kate comes of age and receives her living doll counterpart, a bubbly, blond living doll with a bit of a clumsy streak. Though their personalities seem completely opposite, the doll’s genuine, kind attitude begins to grow on Kate. Kate finally decides on a name for the doll – Emilico, named after the heroine of a book Kate enjoys. It’s soon after that when Emilico notices other members of the family and their dolls, who may not be quite so friendly and outgoing as she.

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