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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2022 First Impressions – Slow Loop

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: When she’s stressed out Hiyori spends her days near the ocean, fly fishing like she learned from her late father. Her meditative silence is broken one day, however, by a girl attempting to leap into the frigid March ocean. Hiyori uses her wits to help avert disaster, and she spends some time fishing with this girl, named Koharu. Koharu is impressed by Hiyori’s way with a fishing rod, and is even more impressed when Hiyori prepares fresh rock fish sashimi right there on the wharf. Hiyori feels drawn to this outgoing girl, and their meeting turns out to be more than just a chance encounter; Hiyori’s mother and Koharu’s father are planning to marry, which will make the two girls sisters.

After their families are joined and Koharu and her father move into Hiyori’s and her mother’s home, some of these big changes begin to make Hiyori feel withdrawn. Yet Koharu’s bright personality seems to be just the thing to help draw Hiyori back out of her shell. Koharu’s enthusiasm toward learning to fish certainly doesn’t hurt, either. As the two new sisters start the new school year, their future looks bright.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2021 First Impressions – Taisho Otome Fairytale

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Tamahiko is the second son of a wealthy family, but when a car accident kills his mother and injures his dominant hand, his father and the rest of the children are all-too-willing to remove him from the family and abandon him to his own devices. Now a dyed-in-the-wool pessimist due to his circumstances, Tamahiko is more than a little surprised when a young lady named Yuzu shows up at his doorstep claiming to be the bride his father has arranged for him.

The situation turns out to be one of debts repaid and not necessarily one with Tamahiko or Yuzu’s romantic interests in mind, but Yuzu takes to her responsibilities in a diligent and kind way in spite of her new prospective husband’s poor spirits. Yuzu knows that this was all essentially a transaction between their parents, but in spite of that she wants to know the real Tamahiko and for them to fall in love with one-another eventually.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2021 First Impressions – Komi Can’t Communicate

Streaming: Netflix

Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: On his first day of school at Itan High, Tadano (much like all the other new students) is struck by the beauty of his classmate, Komi. Her elegant way of carrying herself and her reticence to speak give her a mysterious air that only seems to make her more attractive to those around her. Tadano’s assigned seat is right next to Komi, and this puts him in the crossfire of the other boys. That said, there’s definitely something odd about Komi – she doesn’t seem to want to talk much.

When Tadano finds himself alone in the classroom with Komi after a bout of unconsciousness, he discovers (as she writes it all out on the blackboard in chalk) that she wants nothing more than to make friends, but she struggles with an inability to speak to anyone out loud. This social anxiety has haunted her since middle school, and though she wants to overcome it she believes that no one around her likes her. Knowing this to be completely untrue, Tadano volunteers to be Komi’s first friend, and to help introduce her to even more.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Kiyo in Kyoto: From the Maiko House

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Story Summary: Kiyo and Sumire traveled to Kyoto after middle school to train as maiko, but Kiyo’s clumsiness meant that she wasn’t fit for the kind of graceful comportment required of the job. However, her talent for cooking has allowed her to stay on as the Maiko House’s live-in chef, where she still gets to support her friend Sumire as she furthers her training. Sumire’s talent and work ethic have caused people to start chattering – she may have the skills to become a once-a-century maiko. But Sumire’s work ethic has a downside – she’s been so busy with errands and practicing for her maiko debut that she hasn’t been eating well. Perhaps Kiyo’s squid mince, a dish from their days as natives of Aomori prefecture, will give Sumire the energy to keep up with her incredible drive to succeed.

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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 – Let’s Make a Mug Too

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12 (15 minutes apiece)

Source: Tajimi City Promotional Manga

Story Summary: After her father’s company goes bankrupt, Himeno moves in with her grandmother and her father starts over by opening a café. In the café is an extensive selection of coffee cups with beautiful colors and motifs. After Himeno uses a sample of these cups to advertise the café to her new classmates, her new and very outgoing friend Mika brings her to the school pottery club building. There, Himeno learns that her late mother, a former student, was famous for her beautiful pottery (including the ones in use at the café). Even though Himeno wasn’t previously interested in joining a club, she now feels drawn to the pottery club and its connection to her mother, of whom she has very few memories. It takes a moment for her father to wrestle with the prospect of his daughter following her mother’s footsteps, but he eventually encourages her to take this first step into a new, creative world.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Higehiro

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 13

Source: Light Novel

Story Summary: Yoshida’s love-life is on the rocks after he’s rejected by a coworker. Drunk and unhappy, he stumbles home only to find a high school girl napping beneath a street lamp near his apartment. He tries to shoo her home, but it turns out that “home” is a place far in the North and her reasons for not wanting to return are likely complicated. Her name is Sayu, and in exchange for a place to stay she offers herself as payment. Yoshida wants nothing to do with that sort of thing and realizes that even though housing a teenage runaway without any ulterior motive makes him look bad, he can’t seem to find it in his heart to force her back out on the street. Instead, he offers her a place to stay until she gets back on her feet, and as long as Sayu helps with the chores and promises not to try to seduce him again, she can take her time there. After having dealt with a string of opportunist men, Sayu doesn’t know quite what to do with this fortunate bout of kindness other than try her best to fulfill her side of the bargain.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2021 New Anime – Premieres for Friday, January 8th 2021

It’s amazing how much things can change in a short amount of time. Yesterday during the day I was all geared-up to come home and watch anime, but then before I went to bed I started to feel suspiciously cruddy. Now I’m working from home and hoping that all I have is a case of the creeping crud. Luckily I don’t feel too poorly, but I’m a little irritated that the only places I’ve been for quite a while (aside from work, which is fairly isolated) are “the grocery store” and “the other grocery store” and I still managed to catch something.

On the upside, it does mean I get to use my lunch time to watch a little anime to maybe catch up a little bit (not that I’m stressing). This group of premieres is the largest so far, but if this post gets too long I might split it in two so that I don’t overwhelm folks.

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Re:Stage! Dream Days

The story centers around the first-year student Mana Shikimiya as she pursue her dreams of winning at the Prism Stage, the competition that determines the top middle-school idol.MAL

Streaming: Hidive

Episodes: 12

Source: Mobile Game

Episode Summary: It’s unusual for students to transfer schools right away in the Springtime, but that’s first-year student Mana Shikimiya’s situation. Despite being an oddity, Mana would really like to lay low and not call attention to herself. Unfortunately there’s a school-wide rule that all students must belong to a club or other extra-curricular activity, and so she resigns herself to that reality. After a member of the student council gives her a tour of the campus and its clubs, Mana feels overwhelmed by all the potential choices. By chance, however, she ends up passing a basement room in which the Lyrical Tradition Dance Club holds their meetings.

The president of the club is not-so-subtly looking for new members, and nearly dupes Mana into signing up despite the point of the club being a complete mystery. When Sayu, the only other club member, arrives for the daily meeting Mana learns the truth; despite its traditional trappings, the club is focused around the thoroughly modern art of singing and dancing to pop music. Mana turns out to be a natural, but suddenly insists that she can’t join. It seems she may have some kind of related trauma in her past, and though the club members are sure she’d be a great addition to the team, getting past that trauma may end up being too high a hurdle.

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Wasteful Days of High School Girls

There are three high school girls: Tanaka, nicknamed “Idiot” for her low test scores; Kikuchi, nicknamed “Ota” for her obsession with boys-love stories; and Saginomiya, nicknamed “Robot” for being a genius but emotionless. Together with a colorful cast of characters, the hopeless girls live wasteful days of youth.ANN

Streaming: Hidive

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Nozomu and her friends are about to start their first day of high school, but even with all the big changes that are likely in store for them she really only has one goal – to become popular with boys. That might be an issue, since she’s only now realized that her high school is girls-only, she doesn’t have any childhood friends to hit up, and her two closest friends are a girl with a robotic personality, and an otaku – not exactly experienced in the romantic arts. Even their homeroom teacher immediately quashes any latent fantasies about teacher-student relations – he drastically prefers college women, especially those in business attire interviewing for jobs, and has no interest in getting fired for the sake of a forbidden romance.

Nozomu tries her best to troll for male prospects, approaching strangers in the hallway between classes and asking them to introduce her to their male friends. Of course, she doesn’t endear herself to anyone since she’s given most of them unflattering nicknames already. Still, she has vivid (unrealistic) fantasies about meeting boys and leaving an impression as an “interesting woman.” The difference between her idealized life and her reality earn her the nickname “Baka.”