‘Tis the season of mess, whether from characters or writing.
The team split up the three-episode reviews between staff volunteers, with one person putting together a short(ish) review on each series. Like we do with our check-in podcasts, we started from the bottom of our Premiere Digest list and worked our way up.
If we didn’t watch a show for at least three episodes, we skipped it, and we’ve used nice bold headers to help you quickly jump to the shows you’re interested in. We’ve also excluded shows that are continuing on in basically the same vein as our premiere review to conserve space. Unless specifically noted, we will not be mentioning overt spoilers for anything beyond episode three.
We don’t have the time to keep up with everything, so please let us know about any gems we might be missing in the comments!
“Staying the Course” Digest
We’re still enjoying and watching these shows and would recommend them to readers (barring any caveats or content warnings mentioned in the premiere review). However, they’re not doing anything dramatically different in terms of themes, characters, etc., so there isn’t anything new to write about them. Please check out the premiere review for details:
VTuber Legend: How I Went Viral after Forgetting to Turn Off My Stream
Chiaki: Vtuber Legend gets a lot of things right, mostly in how well it hits at the very specific tropes and stylings of vtubing memes and humor polished from being terminally online. However, its enjoyment seems to hinge on one’s ability to stomach that edgy online culture that makes alcoholism a punchline.
Part of what Alex said in their review, and as members of AnifFem’s discord server have reiterated, Awayuki’s reliance on GachiZero—the in-universe equivalent to StrongZero—lends to an unfortunate running-gag that substance abuse makes for good content. Awayuki’s affair with GachiZero defines the show and her unhinged net-persona, going as far as to giving her a new nickname “Shuwa-chan” whenever she is drunk. That’s by no measure a healthy way to be a content creator, and I fully understand that no sensible person should be basing their entire persona around loving alcohol. (And to be fair, they finally get away from the alcohol in Episode 4 to instead focus on Ring Fit Adventure instead, so that’s another kind of suffering to enjoy)
However, I feel a sense of kinship with Awayuki being an indie vtuber myself, and a part-time manager to my girlfriend who is also a vtuber, and dating additional unhinged vtubers. Though romanticized, Vtuber Legend delivers on the vibes of being a vtuber pretty well. And those vibes are: we’re all kinda queer and burnt out, but we gotta keep chasing after the algorithm to keep being relevant.
A great vtuber once said: “you really can’t be sane and a streamer.” That is to say, Awayuki seems to realize that it’s unhealthy to become that unhinged alcoholic streamer, but she is paradoxically trapped to oblige and feed into unhealthy habits to continue fueling her success.
She takes pause when her fellow streamers offer her GachiZero wherever she goes. Most of her fellow collaborating talents wish to get her drunk for collabs and their management is more than happy to enable it. Awayuki, as well, seems to realize she needs to keep drinking: “for the bit.”
The parasociality of vtubers invites performers to bare themselves to their audiences. Part of the way to appeal and connect with them is playing into being unhinged and “real” with their viewers. It’s what drives them to attempt to eat 200 chicken nuggets on a stream, or why mahjong exists. For Awayuki, it’s revealing that she is, under her seiso surface, a burnt out corporate drone who finds solace through the cheapest booze.
And it’s that reality that draws me into Vtuber Legend as well. As much as she is at risk for cirrhosis, Awayuki is relatable and living her best life after escaping a dark chapter of her life. The idea of quitting a hell-job that has thoroughly burnt you out to professionally flirt with funny anime girls online appeals to me in a way that I just might, once again, make some funny life decisions for myself and once again start applying for a new job in the industry.
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian
Alex: In the premiere review, I wondered aloud if protagonist Masachika’s female childhood friend would spark a love triangle plotline and become a romantic rival to Alya. I was… er, let’s say half right. Said “childhood friend,” Yuki, is in fact Masachika’s younger sister. For reasons as yet undisclosed, they’re not telling anyone at school that they’re siblings. Yuki plays up her closeness to and affection for Masachika every time Alya is in earshot, seemingly in a targeted assassination attempt on Alya’s pride and dignity. So, as far as Alya knows, Yuki is her rival in love and a cause for jealousy, but Yuki herself is just Doing a Bit. At least, by God, I hope she’s just doing a bit—it stretches credulity when she’s also over-the-top joke-flirty when she and Masachika are at home alone together, even climbing on top of him to wake him up.
From a couple of brief flashbacks, I have to wonder if all this is a deliberate performance Yuki’s putting on, slipping into the exaggerated language of her favorite soapy romance tropes to mask the vulnerability under the surface—much in the same way that, as the title tells us, Alya sometimes hides her true feelings in Russian. Constructed personas and the emotional nuance beneath them are always an interesting theme to explore, though I personally would prefer if it didn’t involve quite so many jokes about incest.
Meanwhile, it’s implied that Alya’s older sister recognizes Masachika from somewhere—presumably she’s the mysterious, half-remembered childhood crush who taught him to speak Russian in the first place—and harbors feelings of her own. Goodness, who knew that two additional episodes could introduce so many sister-related complications?
Alya Hides Her Feelings is going full-tilt towards rom-com shenanigans (complete with more fan service), but I have to give it credit where it’s due: it’s also giving itself time to linger in those more grounded moments that carry on the surprisingly charming character dynamic between the leads. Episode 2’s sibling-based silliness gives way to a quieter third episode which is mostly from Alya’s perspective, exploring her feelings about the way people both revere her and feel alienated by her determined, overachiever tendencies, and honestly it’s very sweet. It’s clearing a low bar, but it’s nice that the female love interest gets some interiority rather than the show staying anchored in the male lead’s (supposedly universal and relatable) point of view.
I want to say that, overall, this show is maintaining the bits of clever character writing that make the stupid bits much more palatable. Where it will go from here, I can’t say, and after the “actually I’m his sister lol” curveball I’m reluctant to make any predictions—and, oddly compelled as I am personally, I’m certainly reluctant to recommend it.
Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools
Alex: The frustrating thing about this show is the lack of emotionality, interiority, and drive in its heroine—which is not a problem I expected it to have, given how plucky and passionate Dahlia is in the first episode. Episodes 2 and 3 roll down a tonally odd mini-arc about Dahlia getting engaged to her father’s apprentice for business practicality reasons, something Dahlia is willing to go along with because she wants to help her family. Across the next few months (I think—the pacing is hard to track), her fiancé makes increasingly cutting remarks that Dahlia’s hair is too flashy, her behavior too stand-out—he even complains that she’s too tall. Dahlia instantly bends to these negs and dyes her hair, tones down her vibrant personality, and stops wearing her signature high heels. I thought, okay, this sucks, but it’s obviously building to a character arc where she kicks off the pressure to conform, regains her confidence and everything that makes her her, and returns gloriously to her one true love, inventing. Right?
Instead, her betrothed falls in love with someone else and he breaks off the engagement. Dahlia, as with everything else, has very little reaction to this and goes with the flow, eventually thinking to herself “well, that’s sad, but I’ll get on with my life.” It’s an underwhelming emotional arc that gives the audience very little impression of how Dahlia feels or what she thinks about anything, with the brief exception of showing her crying when her father passes away. Things happen to her and she’s tugged along by the tide, and when she ends up single and in a better place at the end of the storyline, it’s not due to any of her own actions.
I think to some degree this is deliberate and the story is trying to make a point. Dahlia muses that she didn’t want to die alone like in her past life (remember the 10-second intro that established this was an isekai?) so she kept her head down and tried to be a people-pleaser, only to end up betrayed and alone; and honestly, there’s something interesting and valuable in that. If only the series itself had portrayed that arc in a way that was interesting to watch! Instead, timeskips and unclear pacing make things difficult to follow, and Dahlia’s characterization is oddly distant and bland, leaving us watching from afar as stuff just kinda happens to her and she reacts with very little feeling. Maybe the show will pick up from here (as many a villainess isekai protagonist will tell you, the cool stuff happens after your fiancé dumps you) but this still represents a dull detour that could have been a much more meaningful storyline centring the female lead’s agency.
Senpai is an Otokonoko
Spoilers: Includes discussion of Episode 4
Chiaki: Senpai is an Otokonoko is a story that makes me want to root for it in all of its queerness, but I can’t help but remain uneasy.
While so many “otokonoko” stories in manga and anime (often written by cishet authors) fall into the trap of otokonoko being all about boys who are just boys who like being femme, this show is soundly queer as Makoto deals with his self image. His relationship with his unaccepting mother drives the story and it’s done so with a heart-warming cast of supportive friends.
While the show has yet to say it out loud and explicitly, there are moments that spoke to me as inarguably trans experiences, citing my own. One such case includes that weirdly euphoric moment when a dude tries to hit on you in public thinking you’re cis girl and you, testing the waters of being out in “girl-mode” in public, feel more excited and affirmed than disgusted that some chud is trying to mack on you (shoutout to the drunk chad I met on an escalator at 2 a.m. in Reno in 2009, you hitting on me inflated my ego in ways no one else has ever managed to in the years since).
Saki remains as intense in her passion to support Makoto, but she seems to have settled into a groove of being a friend first and foremost, which is good. Her pushiness,ever present, lends to the strongest moments of the show in Episode 3.
Overall, the show seems to be treating Makoto’s gender identity with respect, and having read ahead on the manga, I want to assure readers that this series is actually a lot more heart-warming and beautiful than people might get at first glance.
Going beyond the three episodes of the anime I watched to write this review, I’m aware that there are some people disgruntled by how the relationships play out in the manga, some arguing this story isn’t “gay enough” or whatever, but I’d honestly ask people to chill out. The manga isn’t even done yet and vol. 9 just released at the end of July with at least another volume to go before everything can be wrapped up.
I will warn, however, that Makoto’s mom’s issues with Makoto’s crossdressing is difficult to justify in some ways, which is my single-biggest sore spot on why I can’t just give a full-throated recommendation on the series as a whole.
Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!
Caitlin: In order to love Makeine, one must first love mess. One must revel in messy situations created by imperfect characters making suboptimal choices. One must be charmed by teenagers awkwardly fumbling about as they try to figure out the world and their hormones.
Me? I love mess. That made it easy for me to fall in love with the deeply flawed characters of Makeine, to watch them say stupid shit and only feel more endeared. After the first episode, I saw a lot of people expressing their adoration of the self-centered Yamane Anna, who declared, “There are only two types of women: childhood friends and homewreckers,” after her childhood friend began dating a pretty transfer student instead of her. Anna has continued to be just as much of a disaster, now joined by a tanned track star and a shy, stuttering lit club member.
All three girls are eminently lovable as they navigate the messy waters of implicit rejection and heartbreak when the objections of their affections choose another girl. Luckily, the three of them have actually been interacting with one another and forming relationships, when the easiest approach would have been for all of them to develop individual connections with Nukumizu and orbit him, rather than the more complex molecule of interconnected friendships.
There are two kinds of mess at play in the viewing experience: diegetic and non-diegetic. The diegetic mess comes from the characters acting and talking like real dumbasses. The complicating factor is that it’s not just the girls who are messy in this way. In the third episode, the only other male lit club member offers a speech about the difference between school and personal swimsuits, ending it with a proud declaration that it would be an insult not to share. He’s also the author of a popular web novel about an elf slave girl.
Is this an ideal outlook? No, absolutely not. But it’s the kind of thing a teenage boy would say, and he doesn’t at any point actually make the girls uncomfortable, dehumanize them, or commit the kind of low-level sex crimes that have long been lionized or treated as a source of humor in teen sex comedies. In fact, he’s pretty sweet, and his dynamic with the lit club president is fun. If we want messy girls—and I know most of us do—we must allow room for boys to be messy as well.
But then there’s the non-diegetic mess and, well, that’s a lot worse. The low point of the show thus far is in the second episode when Nukumizu is locked in the gym storage room with Lemon. It’s sweltering in there, they don’t have any water, and it doesn’t take long for her to start showing signs of heat stroke, which leads to her… stripping. I guess disorientation is a symptom, but it just seems awfully convenient! I get that part of the idea is Nukumizu finding himself in light novel situations, but it’s not particularly fun to watch and it’s a touch skeevy to see a medical emergency treated as an opportunity to press some boobs up against the protagonist.
ATRI -My Dear Moments-
Vrai: Chiaki was not kidding when she called this a “for your consideration” anime. It’s got spit-polish out the ears from a visual standpoint—post-apocalyptic seascapes have never looked so glittering and vacationable. It also transparently screams “we’re going to kill this little robot girl” with every adorable frame; I certainly can’t wait to see how they’ll bring back her catchphrase, “I’m high performance,” in a tragically ironic context backed by swelling music.
At the same time, the scenes that don’t revolve around Atri being pwecious are compelling. I can’t quite call them “understated” but they’ve got something real to say, helped along by the ever-reliable Hanada Jukki. Natsuki’s disability is a consistent background element of his character, as are his struggles with his worn-down prosthetic. On a grander scale, it’s hard not to see the wounds in Fukushima as the characters discuss scavenging enough to get by and holding onto the last scraps of normalcy they have even as they feel like the world’s abandoned them. There’s a class component too, as the people left on the island are largely those without the means to leave for the mainland (and those who did manage found themselves shunned and resource-poor when they got there). The story has turned toward one about reinvesting in one’s community for the sake of the next generation, and I’m kind of into that.
And then Atri comes back in. She’s not even a terrible character! The cutely arrogant klutz archetype she embodies is rather toned down, and her younger sibling moments with Natsuki and the other characters are even sweet. But she’s dragging a concrete block of Nakige Bullshit behind her that gives me the worst flashbacks to The Day I Became a God. Even without much in the way of fan service, it’s a little bit soul-killing every time Atri mumbles about Natsuki being “naughty” in her sleep or offers her body to him as a way to make him happy—often not long after showing her being emotionally compatible with the island’s grade schoolers (who are about her size) or commenting that she fits well into a middle-schooler’s swimsuit. It’s like the show is worried we won’t care about Atri (and her death flags) unless we’ve been assured she’s a potential sex object, and it does a disservice to the story’s stronger emotional beats. I’m still invested; I just wish I could recommend it a bit more enthusiastically.
Twilight Out of Focus
Spoilers: Includes vague discussion of Episode 4
Toni: Well, it’s happened. The BL gods have come to grant my wish: a BL anime about a couple who fucks and where the sex is all consensual. I’m happy to report that Twilight Out of Focus has remained consistently enjoyable to watch, although it has fallen into a rhythm of slice-of-life mixed with slight eroticism that I sometimes find a bit tedious. Hopefully we get some more juicy drama soon!
In general, the build up of the relationship between Mao and Hisashi is quite relatable. Twilight out of Focus explores the closet and gay identity more than most BL–one of Mao’s internal conflicts early in the series is trying to respect Hisashi’s boundaries and not feel like he’s outing Hisashi by inviting him to play a gay character. It remains to be seen whether this exploration will actually go anywhere. I appreciate that Mao’s realization that he is attracted to men comes from making the film and casual interactions that he has with Hisashi rather than any kind of bodice-ripper assault scene that forces the confrontation with one’s attraction.
The sex is very sweet and not extremely explicit. I’d be lying if I said I found it particularly titillating myself, but I’m happy to see it represented. Very often it feels there is a sharp divide between extremely “wholesome” (read: sexless and slowburn) BL like given and extremely sexualized and frankly unpleasant BL like Dakaichi, and I enjoy this middle ground. (Don’t hate me: I do love given!) The former relationship between Hisashi and his teacher (which is clearly framed as abuse) has largely receded to the background as something that Hisashi is slowly healing from through his relationship with Mao. If he is having lasting trauma from that abusive relationship that isn’t easily fixed with Mao-cuddles, we haven’t seen it.
The direction remains strong, even if it is largely still shots with not much dynamic motion. I’m hopeful that the series will bring some complications to their relationship soon–I don’t want it to remain “wholesome” forever. Let there be mess!
NareNare -Cheer for You!-
Spoilers: Includes discussion of Episode 4
Vrai: I wouldn’t deny, for even a moment, that Narenare has heart. It’s a sports show that wants to be non-competitive while still respecting the athleticism of cheer, and it’s trying to juggle that by telling slice-of-life community stories while also focusing on the other acrobatic disciplines (parkour, gymnastics, capoeira, yoga) that its cast brings to their cheerleading. There’s also elements of idol anime in there, with the cheer performances so far centering around encouraging someone or championing an event. And it also wants to use these one-off arcs to dip into progressive issues (not unlike, in fact, bits of previous cheer anime Anima Yell!).
That’s a lot to juggle! (Or maybe toss?) And the first arc mostly lands on its feet. Kanata’s arc about her sports trauma uses an actual medical condition, and she even talks with a clinician/therapist; her friends are supportive and the writing tries to emphasize that this isn’t something she can just be “inspired” past…but it’s also beholden to the pacing of a sports anime, so almost immediately after this reassurance there’s the weirdest and vaguest timeskip I’ve ever seen so we can get to the point when Kanata is in fact over her yips. They’re trying their best to dramatize an issue that resists easy narrativizing, but it doesn’t quite make it. It also feels a little too soon to make a call on Megumi, who has a vague chronic illness that requires her to attend PT and use a wheelchair when going out, but hasn’t gotten her turn in the spotlight yet.
The current arc is focused on half-Brazilian Anna and her desire to save the record store that’s been an important cultural and personal touchstone in her life. On the one hand, it’s neat that the script is throwing in whole scenes in English (though they’re a bit clunkier than over on MayoPan), and the script touches a bit on casual xenophobia with some of the girls’ nerves about visiting a “foreigner”-heavy shop. But the decision to design Anna specifically around the “overly affectionate blonde foreigner” stereotype has only started sticking out more when neither of her parents are blonde. She’s also notably lighter-skinned than any other “foreign” character we’ve met, which feels like a design decision worth talking about when, as I understand from Lizzie, colorism is an extremely heated topic in mestizaje spaces. And yet, this arc is also clearly building up to talking about the importance of multiculturalism in Japan. It’s an issue better discussed by someone more knowledgeable than I.
I can’t bring myself to dislike this show. It’s still dedicated to keeping fan service out of its many scenes of teen girls doing flips in short skirts, and there are some very cute touches like the flat affected Suzuha having a frantic inner monologue chibi, particularly when she’s mooning over Shion (whether the show will go anywhere with this obvious crush is another matter). The cheer sequences themselves are a little lackluster, often just settling on a mid-shot so all the rigs are visible, but the parkour et al. scenes have a lot of energy. Call it a nice chill-out, but not appointment TV.
MAYONAKA PUNCH
Spoilers: Includes vague discussion of Episode 4
Toni: Mayo Pan is about messy messy girls. But it, surprisingly, is not a messy messy show. It is tightly written, funny, and has the same energy as many PA Works comedies. It is also one of those shows that has very intensely implied to be romantic relationships between girls that are, so far, never confirmed. Let’s unpack this.
Most notable in the most recent batch of episodes is the episode about Fu, the quiet blue-haired one. It is a major tonal shift from the rest of the series, dealing with much heavier themes like grief, struggles to communicate, and lasting trauma. It also is incredibly gay, with Fu’s relationship with her previous bandmate carrying heavy, though never explicitly stated, tragic lesbian vibes. It’s unfortunate that the final song that Fu sings is not translated in the English release, because that seems fairly important to interpreting the meaning of the episode! Any potential lesbian relationship between our coleads is still relatively under wraps. The general queer vibe of the show helps this not feel like a bait and switch, however, so I’m not heartbroken.
The messiest character in the show is not one of our leads, but the heavily gambling Tokage, who will do anything for a little bit more pachinko money. While the jokes about her gambling addiction wear out fast, and her hoarding is a bit concerning, she injects more chaotic energy into the show that I appreciate.
The show keeps a swift clip, with little time ever feeling wasted. This show will not be what some people were hoping for, a show where problematic girls circle the drain making each other worse, but will instead be a show about misfits coming together to form a found family. More Zombie Land Saga than Asobi Asobase. People who want some anime comfort food with a little bit of edge will have an enjoyable time with it.
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