I’m going to say it straight out: I loved this premiere. I love romances between functional adults with common interests. I love grounded stories about likable nerds. I love relatable characters, and my boyfriend more than once turned to me during the episode and said, “That’s you.” Wotakoi, it seems, was made for me.
Part 2 of the 4-part watchalong of Michiko & Hatchin with Amelia, Vrai, and special guests Lizzie Visitante and Jacqueline-Elizabeth Cottrell! We talk about coding of desirability, particularly regarding thinness and whiteness; swoon over Atsuko, and discuss women in competition (or not).
Another season is upon us, which means a new parade of premieres to watch and review! Now that we’ve gone through every available show, it’s time to gather them all together and see how they stack up.
Mmmmm, you can just feel the shame wafting off this one.
It’s been a few seasons since I laid eyes on something that felt this perfunctory and soulless.
So. Have any of you been missing Slayers?
There are few fictional genres where “it made me sleepy” is considered high praise, but iyashikei (healing) anime and manga have made it one of their primary goals. So please know that, when I say I nearly dozed off halfway through Yotsuiro Biyori, I mean it in the most complimentary way possible.
This week: eugenics, workplace discrimination, and the cost of piracy for manga artists.
Part 1 of the 4-part watchalong of Michiko & Hatchin with Amelia, Vrai, and special guests Lizzie Visitante and Jacqueline-Elizabeth Cottrell! They talk about the cultural context of the series, the fraught issue of on-screen portrayal without diverse casting, and whether the show accurately captures the culture of life in Brazil.
Golden Kamuy has been the darling of certain anime-and-manga circles for a while, and this adaptation might be one of the most hotly anticipated premieres of the season. Given that, I feel a bit redundant as I nod my head and say, “Yup, it’s real good.”
Lord, save me from stories about singular male geniuses.
The creative team behind Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE is trying to turn their magical boy show into a bonafide franchise by launching this second series, HAPPY KISS. With a brand-new cast and Michiko Yokote no longer working as series composer, can Cute High rekindle the flame of clever stupidity that made LOVE so much fun?
We did it, everyone. We did it! Persona5 the Animation looks absolutely incredible, while also remaining faithful to the source material.
Cutie Honey is a huge franchise with live-action films, both shounen and shoujo anime adaptations, and a recent OVA directed by Hideaki Anno. It’s one of those classics I’ve always wanted to check out… and I don’t think this was the way to do it.
Libra of Nil Admirari is built atop a fascinating premise and stars a female protagonist trying to find her own path. That’s a solid recipe for a good series—the question is if Libra can effectively cook it.
This show might be kind of cool! But I have no idea yet, because the first episode has nothing to do with the overall plot.
There are two kinds of “cute girls doing cute things” shows. Some are built on archetypes that bear little resemblance to how real girls act and think. Others portray more authentic relationships and emotions, with care to make them relatable and interesting. Comic Girls and its heroine Kaoruko fall somewhere in the middle, with moments of relatability mixed in with trope-driven comedy.
The sports anime deluge continues! But where MEGALOBOX and Gurazeni were geared towards an older audience (albeit in very different ways), Major 2nd is targeted towards a younger crowd, with all the marks of a classic shounen—for better and for worse.
