Tag: Spring 2022

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2022 First Impressions – Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: In his former life, Leon was a typical Japanese adult who happened to have been blackmailed by his younger sister into completing an otome game for her. He does it grudgingly, complaining the entire time. Unfortunately once he completes it he gets little time to celebrate his freedom from the task before taking a fatal spill down a staircase. Having been reincarnated, it takes Leon several years to realize that his new life exists within the boundaries of the otome game that he so despised.

In the world of this game, men are second-class citizens. Rather than go to the academy to try to woo a young woman as his suitor, Leon is tossed into an arranged marriage with a woman 50 years his senior. Rather than sit idly by for this scenario, Leo goes on an adventure using his prior knowledge of the game to uncover a futuristic space ship that he makes his own. Returning to his his father with treasures unimaginable, Leon buys his way into the academy to try his luck there. But searching for love among the elite might be a challenge in and of itself.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2022 First Impressions – Healer Girl

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Kana, Reimi, and Hibiki are three apprentice healers at the Karasuma Voice Treatment Center, which trains individuals in the art and science of treating patients using the power of singing. This form of medicine developed as a compliment to already-existing Eastern and Western medicine. Kana is the newest recruit of the bunch, and though she was inspired to become a healer due to an encounter when she was a child, she often finds that her ability to adhere to her training regimen (as well as the rules) to be a little lacking. When she uses her abilities to heal a boy’s skinned knee, Karasuma, the main healer at the clinic, puts Kana on notice.

The girls live out their days doing administrative work and building up their endurance through exercise and eating healthy foods. As people who love to sing, their down time is often filled with music as well. When the granddaughter of one of the clinic’s patients rushes over after-hours to get help for her grandmother’s condition, however, the apprentices switch into overdrive to retrieve their senpais from a conference. Though Kana knows she can’t use her singing to heal her patient, she realizes that she can use her skills to ease the patient’s mind, which she does. As the others arrive, they witness Kana’s immense skill, which ultimately calms the elderly woman well enough that she can be taken to the hospital.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2022 First Impressions – I’m Quitting Heroing

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Leo Demonheart was once hired to be humanity’s savior. Using his immense physical and magical ability, he and his comrades handily defeated Echidna, the Demon Queen. But rather than a hero’s welcome, upon his return Leo was met with apprehensiveness or, in some cases, downright hostility. The people were afraid of his seemingly demonic abilities and shunned him, leaving him without a place to call home.

With little to lose, Leo makes an unexpected pivot and approaches Echidna with a request for employment. She’s immediately hostile to the proposition, but her four generals are somewhat more open-minded. They agree to hire Leo on a trial basis, but he’ll have his work cut out for him; the demon forces are in shambles after having been both mismanaged and defeated by a hero. Can Leo whip them into shape and gain Echidna’s trust?

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2022 First Impressions – Tomodachi Game

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Yuuichi and his four friends are inseparable in spite of their varying circumstances. Yuuichi doesn’t have much money to his name, but he works extra hard to come up with the fee so that he can join his friends on the upcoming class trip. Soon after the funds are turned in, however, the class learns that the full amount was stolen out of a locker. Following that, the class reps (who happen to be two of Yuuichi’s close friends) suddenly go missing. Some days later, Yuuichi receives a letter from one of them, beckoning him to a late-night meeting outside the school gate.

As it turns out, this is a ruse to get all five of friend group members in one place. They’re kidnapped and taken to a mysterious location where they’re told that they can participate in the “Tomodachi Game” to wipe out their collective debt. This immediately throws suspicion on the group members – could one of them perhaps be the thief? Eventually Yuuichi decides that friendship is more important than the potential for monetary loss in this situation, and the group is brought to the first game room. All they have to do is agree on a “yes” or “no” answer to pass and have their debt erased, but it seems that there’s some kind of sabotage taking place after the group fails multiple questions in a row. As they reach their last chance the group seems poised to figuratively eat one-other alive through suspicion. Can a burst of inspiration from Yuuichi save them all from failure?

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Personal Reviews

S1E1 Week-in-Review – April 17th, 2022

Hi everyone, welcome to another long-overdue week(+)-in-review. It’s been a while since I’ve had anything to include in one of these round-up. Last weekend when I’d normally be doing more writing, I ended up spending large chunks of the day out-and-about at the Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop – an annual event where several Twin Cities local yarn stores participate and provide free patterns, special hand-dyed yarns, and door prizes, among other things. Those of you who follow me elsewhere probably know that I indulge in the fiber arts from time-to-time, so this was something fun to do in relation to that other major hobby.

The event ended up being incredibly popular; I think after cancellations the last couple of years due to the pandemic, people were really hungry to get out of the house and participate in this in-person gathering of hobbyists (if Anime Detour was any indication, this trend is likely to continue on for quite a while). More than half of the stores we visited were already sold out of their special yarns. As a completionist who was hoping to buy all of the yarns/kits for the event patterns, this was a little bit disappointing. On the other hand, I’m hoping that this means the event was a success for all the participating brick-and-mortar stores. While I’m perfectly happy to order my craft supplies online (even from these very stores), there’s just no replacing the experience of visiting them in person and touching/squeezing all the yarn hanks (and also hanging out with friends and traveling to various metro area cities, of course).

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2022 First Impressions – Fanfare of Adolescence

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 13

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Yu Arimura is a member of a popular idol group, but after seeing horse racing for the first time he becomes fixated on the idea of becoming a jockey. After gaining entrance into an extremely competitive jockey-training high school, Yu’s fans and the media immediately begin questioning his motivations. Why not just continue to live the life of a famous idol like his fans obviously want? But Yu is committed to this new endeavor in spite of their protests.

On the day of the entrance ceremony, Yu’s convictions are put to the test. Not only are members of the media ready and waiting to hassle him, a mishap outside the building causes two horses to get loose, leaving the students to try to wrangle them. Yu feels in over his head, until one late-arriving student named Shun, who appears to have a gift for interacting with the animals, comes to the rescue. Shun shows Yu the view from atop a horse, and Yu realizes that he really is in the right place after all.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2022 First Impressions – Love All Play

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Novel

Episode Summary: Ryo is a middle school badminton player who idolizes one of Yokohama Minato high school’s aces, Kento Yusa. While he’d love to play badminton on the same stage as Yusa, his own skills aren’t quite up to the Yokohama Minato level of play. At least, Ryo believes so until the badminton coach from Yokohama Minato reaches out to him directly and offers to get him entrance into the school on a sports recommendation. As it turns out, Ryo definitely seems to have some untapped potential that might end up giving him a leg-up, so-to-speak.

Ryo’s father is unimpressed and very nearly forbids Ryo from pursuing this opportunity. As a college sports player who encountered trouble after physical injury, he knows first-hand what an inconvenience it can be to lose the ability to access the skills required of the program. However, undeterred, Ryo offers to take a more traditional path toward his dream, by entering the school based on academic achievement. Though this is an uphill battle based on Ryo’s mediocre grades, his sister helps him study and it seems as though he might make the cut. After being asked to join a weekly practice session at Yokohama Minato High School, Ryo is excited to meet Yusa, his idol. But sometimes heroes seen from afar turn out to be very different in person.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2022 First Impressions – Estab Life: Great Escape

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Far in the future, Tokyo has been divided up into several isolated areas called “clusters” in which citizens spend their entire lives without the right to leave. Additionally, the denizens of these clusters are often people with particular shared genetic modifications. For those folks who may wish to leave their cluster, they have few options but to call upon hired “extractors” who help facilitate the ability of these unhappy people to start new lives elsewhere.

Equa is one such extractor, who with her team leads dangerous missions to bring their clients to freedom. Their next client happens to be their philosophy teacher, who struggles with the isolating permanency of being a teacher whose heart isn’t in the job. As soon as he signs on the dotted line, the team springs into action, deftly dodging police droids and breaking into security systems in order to send their former educator to his new life in the Akihabara cluster. When they receive some happy photos from him at his new job, the dirty work feels worth it. But after this latest caper, it seems as though the authorities might be taking a keener interest in the extractors’ work.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2022 First Impressions – Ya Boy Kongming!

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: General Kongming, a brilliant military strategist during the time of the War of the Three Kingdoms, wished on his deathbed to be reborn into a peaceful world. He awakens on the street in what he believes to be “hell,” but what is really Shibuya at Halloween. The tides of the crowd bring him to a dance club where he’s suddenly drawn in by the sublime voice of Eiko, one of the club employees and part-time singer. While the rest of the crowd couldn’t care less about what’s happening on stage, Kongming is moved.

Eiko wants more than anything to become a successful singer, but keeps getting rejected by agents. Kongming, lost in this strange futuristic world. knows one thing for certain – Eiko has talent. With his skills as a strategist (and his status as Eiko’s number one fan), Kongming vows to help her gain an audience and achieve stardom.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2022 First Impressions – The Executioner and Her Way of Life

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Menou is both a priestess and an executioner, tasked with protecting her world from the destruction wrought by outsiders summoned from Japan. When the noblesse – the rulers of her country – complete their most recent summoning, Menou spends little time with their latest discarded “Lost One” before discovering that his destructive power has the potential to be extremely deadly. After executing him she learns that he wasn’t the only one pulled through the dimensional gate.

Menou has odd dreams that almost feel like memories, of being in Japan, going to school, and being friends with her classmates. But there’s always one mysterious figure just out of sight that she knows in her heart was her best friend. Even her priestess training never managed to erase these odd partial recollections. When Menou confronts the second Lost One to arrive in her world, the girl seems to be incredibly familiar.

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