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First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2019 First Impressions – Senryu Girl

Nanako Yukishiro is a girl who can only communicate what she wants to say by using senryū (a poetry style similar to haiku more focused on humor). Eiji is an intimidating but kind boy who is a member of the school literature club. The pair have cheerful everyday interactions through 17 syllables. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and HIDIVE

Episodes: TBA (12 minute episodes)

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Nanako is a girl of few words, but those she does share are chosen very carefully. She expresses herself through Senryu poetry, a form that, much like haiku, is presented in 5-7-5 syllable format. While this can create some awkward situations (Nanako especially has trouble when asked a lot of questions in short succession), her friends understand her choice not to speak and enjoy her skill at sharing her thoughts and feelings in this unique way.

Nanako belongs to the poetry club with Eiji, a boy who’s often misunderstood as a bully with a scary attitude. His countenance is sometimes considered frightening, and his attempts at interacting with people are often thwarted due to this problem. He doesn’t seem to have much trouble getting along with Nanako, and the two make a cute pair. In fact, perhaps the two may have feelings for one another… but will they ever be able to properly express them?

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First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2019 First Impressions – Ao-Chan Can’t Study!

When Ao was in kindergarten, she smiled ear-to-ear as she told her classmates how her father (a bestselling erotic author) chose her name: “A as in apple and O as in orgy.” That day still haunts her ten years later as she studies with a single goal in mind: get into an elite university and achieve independence from her father once and for all. She has no youth to misspend and no time to think about boys until her classmate, “King Normie” Kijima, approaches her with a shocking confession of love. She tries to lose Kijima, but he just can’t take a hint and as her mind runs wild with impure thoughts, she realizes her father has totally influenced her. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and HIDIVE

Episodes: TBA (13 min episodes)

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Ao’s life changed forever once she realized that her name, chosen by her father (an erotic author), referred to an “O-face.” Having grown up in an environment where her one male role model was a lecherous old man, Ao decided to point her efforts toward her studying, thus providing her a way to escape her family once and for all. In school she does everything she can to earn top grades, avoiding any kind of socializing.

What she doesn’t realize is that Kijima, a popular boy and the only person who really tries to talk to her, has feelings for her – a fact she discovers after bringing Kijima his school uniform in the nurse’s office. Ao believes all men to be lecherous perverts with one thing on their mind, but despite her best efforts, she can’t seem to get her mind off of Kijima.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – Bermuda Triangle: Colorful Pastorale

Daily life for mermaids come with everyday issues. Follow the adventures of five young mermaids as they explore their town and the world around them in this delightful slice-of-life series that takes viewers to an enchanting world beneath the waves. – HIDIVE

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Original (spinoff of Cardfight!! Vanguard)

Episode Summary: Caro, Serena, Sonata, and Fina are mermaids who live in the quiet undersea town of Parrel. The town is known for its mill-ground coral sugar and fresh hijiki seaweed, but not much else; the people there live a slow-paced life away from the bustle of the big city.

One day the town leader receives a package, inside of which is an orb containing a young mermaid, Canon. Canon has come from the city to live in Parrel for a while, and the girls are happy to treat her like another one of their friends. After a natural phenomenon called the Grand Tide flows through town, taking with it dust and debris and overturning some plant life, the mermaids discover an old building they’d never noticed before. When they go inside, they find a projector and a cine-orb with a film of a mermaid dancing. They wonder what mysteries this forgotten place may hold.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – The Magnificent Kotobuki

In a barren frontier where people trade goods with each other in order to help each other survive, the Kotobuki Squadron are bodyguards for hire, led by a strict but beautiful squadron leader, an unreliable commanding officer, and a true artisan of a crew chief. Alongside pilots who don’t lack for personality, they take to the air in dogfights, letting the engine noise of their Hayabusa fighters ring out in the skies. – ANN

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Being a pilot-for-hire is a rough job, and because of that there’s some amount of trash-talking and bragging involved in a pilot’s down time. When a young man from the Nazarene Squadron gets full of himself and starts to hit on the young women from the Kotobuki Squadron, he doesn’t realize what he’s getting into. These ladies have seen it all and then some, and don’t have time to play with little boys whose 11 stars don’t stack up to their combined 200.

During a nighttime transport of goods, a transport airship is predictably targeted by air pirates. While the Nazarene Squadron is taken out fairly early in the fight, the Kotobuki Squadron, piloting their Hayabusa fighter planes, manages to fend off the attackers with little collateral damage. Kirie, the group’s hot-headed fighter, notices a familiar insignia on the wing of one of the enemies and decides to engage with it one-on-one, which turns out to be a poor decision. For some reason, though, the enemy leaves her alone after connecting a few warning shots.

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Winter 2019 First Impressions – Dimension High School

One day, on his way to high school, student Junpei picks up an unusual looking rock. Thinking nothing of it, he heads to class. While in the middle of a session, the rock comes to life and transports him and four others to an animated world. To make matters more interesting, the group is introduced to a giant sphinx who is determined to take over the world. Now, to protect their world from invasion, the group must work together as anime characters and real-world humans. – ANN

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Junpei finds a strange rock one day as he’s heading to his physics tutoring session. The teacher’s lesson about the Doppler effect is about as boring as it gets, until the rock that’s stashed in Junpei’s desk begins to take on a life of its own. It is, in fact, no ordinary rock, but a life form searching for some heroes who can help save the world from certain destruction. Junpei and his classmates, along with their professor, seem like they can take up the challenge.

The students are drawn into another dimension where they appear in the form of anime characters. The novelty of their situation wears off quickly when a giant, threatening Sphinx arrives and starts demanding the answers to riddles. It all seems like fun and games until they get a question wrong; the Sphinx then eats their teacher’s spirit. Luckily, their lesson on the Doppler effect turns out to be more useful than they anticipated, because it turns out to be the key to solving the next puzzle. With their teacher back in hand the group returns to the real world, but only until the Sphinx’s next deadly challenge.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – Domestic Girlfriend

High schooler Natsuo is hopelessly in love with his cheerful and popular teacher, Hina. However, one day at a mixer, he meets a moody girl by the name of Rui and ends up sleeping with her. Soon after, his father announces that he’s getting remarried to a woman with two daughters of her own. And who shows up in tow, other than both Hina and Rui. – ANN

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Natsuo has been nursing a crush on his teacher Hina-Sensei for quite a while. In his mind he knows it’ll never work out – he’s a student, she’s a teacher, and there are social rules about this sort of thing. But he can’t help but read into each and every one of their interactions. In his fragile state, Natsuo agrees to have sex with a girl named Rui who he meets at a mixer, no strings attached; she’s just interested in knowing what the big deal about sex is. After it’s all said and done, she demands that they treat each-other as strangers going forward.

That turns out to be a promise that Natsuo can’t keep, because his single father has chosen to remarry, and not only does his new wife happen to be Rui’s mother, but Rui’s older sister is none other than Hina-Sensei herself. Their living situation becomes tense for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that Rui happens to catch Natsuo going in for a kiss while Hina-nee is drunk and incapacitated.

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Winter 2019 First Impressions – The Promised Neverland

Emma, Norman, and Ray are the three most brilliant children the Grace Field House has produced in decades. Unlike in a typical orphanage, they, and their fellow children, eat well and are given an intensive education. However, despite living in a peaceful environment with fun games and a caring mother, there’s something not quite right. When six year old Connie is “adopted” by foster parents, she forgets her favorite stuffed rabbit, and Emma and Norman sneak out to return it to her. When they arrive at the scene, the two realize exactly why they had always been isolated from the outside world. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hulu, and HIDIVE

Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Emma, Ray, and Norman are three orphans at Grace Field House. Kind-hearted Emma loves all the other children deeply as members of the only family she’s ever known. They’re cared for by “Mom,” a kindly young woman who ensures their safety. The children spend their days learning and playing together among the fields and forests. However, they’re forbidden from approaching the gate or the fence that surrounds the property, because of untold dangers.

When Conny, one of the younger children, is adopted into a foster family, the other children wish her a tearful goodbye and ask her to write them letters before Mom escorts her to the world outside. Emma realizes that Conny left her favorite stuffed animal, and she and Norman rush to return it to her. As they approach the open gate, however, they discover something so terrible that, as the traumatic images begin to settle in, they realize that their only option is to plan an escape for themselves and the other children.

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Winter 2019 First Impressions – Pastel Memories

Akihabara is a mecca for otaku culture everywhere. But that culture is on the decline due to a mysterious affliction causing widespread memory loss. Izumi and her comrades hatch a plan to restore lost memories and return “Akiba” to its former glory. – HIDIVE

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Smartphone Game

Episode Summary: Izumi and her coworkers at the Rabbit Shed Shop cafe in Akihabara are some of the few remaining folks who remember what their area was like at the height of the fandom boom. After a strange fog descended on Akihabara one day, most of the manga magazines stopped publication and this created a domino effect where the many colorful book stores, video game arcades and maid cafes of Akihabara shut down for good. When they discover that a previous customer was looking for a particular favorite manga series, the cafe employees tear through their storage area to find a copy. Unfortunately, they only have multiple copies of volumes 2 and 5; not very useful if someone would like to read the entire series. After being joined by some of their compatriots, they all embark on a quest to find the missing volumes at the few remaining used book stores in Akihabara.

It takes some digging, but they manage to find most of them, except the all-important first volume. When everyone’s back at the cafe mulling over their options, another three employees appear out of the blue, having vanquished a memory virus threatening to destroy the very existence of a favorite piece of media from the past. When a new virus threatens the manga series they’re attempting to reassemble, Izumi herself offers to go and ensure that this treasured memory is not lost.

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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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Winter 2019 First Impressions – W’z

Yukiya is about 14 years old. He spends his time DJ-ing alone. Due to his father’s influence, he’s listened to house music since he was young, and he uploads videos online. He wants to convey something to someone. He wants to be recognized, and become important. But getting hurt is scary. One day, while trying to get more views, he does something that can’t be undone. And he sees a live broadcast from “that world.” Yukiya believes he can’t do anything alone, but that he could accomplish something if he were doing it together with someone else. – ANN

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 13

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Yukiya is a middle school student with a modest amount of e-fame as a masked DJ “W’z” (pronounced “wise”). He wants to attend a music-focused high school next year, but his father is deeply opposed to the idea. His father has always told him never to hold hands with others. This may be because, when he does so, Yukiya has the ability to enter into an alternate, mysterious dimension; a dimension that could very well hold danger for him and others.

Yukiya confesses to his friend Haruka that he feels stuck, languishing without the kind of online views and fame he’s seeking. Haruka’s positive attitude encourages him, and he invites her to embark on a potentially game-changing move with him. As night falls, Yukiya sets up his DJ equipment in the middle of the city, then asks for Haruka to hold his hand; this transports them into a dimension of color and beauty. Yukiya’s stream starts to light up and things are going well, but then the couple is joined by several other duos who are after a particular goal.

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