Intentional or otherwise, the colonial spirit of the heroine’s endeavor—in which an enlightened traveller improves the sorry lives of the locals by bringing them “proper” technology—screams off the screen.
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale is a promising premiere that’s complicated as hell from a feminist analysis perspective.
By their very nature, these series’ protagonists are driven and motivated young women—motivated by something other than romance and men—who experience visible development across the narrative. As a bonus, the relaxed vibe and personal stakes of this genre means that realistic dangers are removed and these characters are left in idyllic spaces where they have autonomy over their time and their surroundings.
While not the most gripping premiere in the world, it’s honestly not bad.
As well as being a bad, dumb comedy, however, it’s a bad, dumb comedy with a disgusting concept at the heart of its “humor”.
More Than a Married couple seems intent on being as dumb as its premise, refusing to use its school-mandated-fake-dating scenario for any interesting commentary or even any interesting character scenes.
Its flavor isn’t gross, it just tastes like nothing.
Your mileage may vary with this one, and whether Hitori feels overly twee or relatable will depend. But I say give it a shot: I found her unexpectedly funny and relatable.
I really wanted to like this one, but it’s off to a disappointing start.
I’ve been hungering for a hobby show this year, and I’m hoping Do It Yourself!! might do the trick.
I’m a bit conflicted on this one, and it mostly comes down to the character of Kazuma Jun.
It’s made more of an effort to establish conflict than other isekai shows that just want everything to be easy for their male leads, which certainly makes it a more engaging viewing experience. It is, however, still falling back on familiar, gendered tropes, with the female characters thus far largely existing to provide motivation and exposition.
The sci-fi setup and superpowered sporting element help Extreme Hearts to stand out. That being said, its combination of genres may lead to a narrative identity crisis that the writing can’t quite support.
Because it can’t convincingly answer the question “Well, why DON’T they just tell each other how they feel?”, it comes off contrived and dull.
It’s competent. It’s fine. It’s nothing to write home about, unless you want to report on the familiar patterns emerging.
In 1969, Edwin Starr asked “war! What is it good for?” His answer, in the next line of the song, was “absolutely nothing.” Many years later, an alternate answer might be “speculative fiction anime starring pretty young women.”
As the fifteen exclamation points in the title might imply, Teppen has ENERGY!
As fiction has told us for many years, no one makes a better assassin than a sixteen-year-old girl.
Spy x Family is a great example of how a story might have queer resonances and queer themes even if it cannot be classed as queer fiction.
I think how you feel about this premiere will largely depend on a few things: how you feel about the “two characters who don’t really like each other get handcuffed together and must go on an adventure” trope (magical edition), how you feel about goofy fantasy comedy, and how you feel about Carla.
