Protocol: Rain – Episode 1
A mid-tier but enjoyably (e)sports anime with a few rough edges.
Posts by Caitlin Moore
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Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and the Inexperienced Me — Episode 1
hope you have lots of hangers and storage space, because Our Dating Story: The Inexperienced Me and the Experienced You has a whole cargo hold’s worth of baggage to unpack about sexual relationships.
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Paradox Live THE ANIMATION – Episode 1
The weak music segments don’t quite stand up to the bombastic Hypnosis Mic, but the characters and (slightly) more grounded writing have appeal.
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A Playthrough of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life – Episode 1
A better title for this unimaginative take on VRMMO anime might have been, “A Really Boring Dude Plays an MMO Boringly.”
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Overtake! – Episode 1
Even if cars going zoom isn’t your thing, the intriguing characters and highlight of financial barriers to competing make a good hook.
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Firefighter Daigo: Rescuer in Orange – Episode 1
A refreshing break from stories equating heroism with violence, and a good time too, though hopefully the lone female character gains more prominence.
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Ragna Crimson – Episode 1
A perfectly solid shounen that’s also basically a Fate/Unlimited Blade Works AU.
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A Girl and Her Guard Dog – Episode 1
Leading up to its premiere, most of the chatter around this ~problematic shoujo~ adaptation was about its central relationship between a 15-year-old girl and her 26-year-old guardian. Now that the first episode is out, however, I can’t really see that happening. Not because it depicted the material in a nuanced or sensitive way, but because it was so dreadfully, agonizingly boring that I don’t imagine much of anyone is going to bother watching anything more.
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Sins of Her Fathers, Strength of Her Mothers: How Jolyne Cujoh inherited her foremothers’ legacy
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure presents a very different attitude from the common story of patriarchal family lines. Not only does the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure conclude with Jolyne, the first female protagonist of the saga, but it’s clear that her very survival hinges on traits she inherited from her female predecessors.
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How My Brain is Different allows the neurodivergent to tell their own stories
When manga author Monzusu realized how poorly the general population understood neurodivergence, she sought out the stories of ordinary people with experiences similar to her own, eventually turning some of them into a memoir manga. In doing so, she offered neurodivergent people like her a rare chance to tell their own stories in their own words.
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Brief Connections: A Nobumoto Keiko Career Retrospective
One of the benefits to a creator having worked on so few projects is it becomes much simpler to look through their body of work to find common threads, and Nobumoto undeniably returned to the same themes over and over again. She examined the humanity of those who have hit rock bottom or the end of their lives, and the connections they can make even in moments of pain and loss.
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Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean – Episodes 1-2
I’ve been looking forward to Stone Ocean getting adapted ever since I first dipped my toe into the sea we called Jojo’s fandom. Not only did it star a female protagonist, but the kind of heroine I crave: equally capable of anger and silliness, and prone to vulgarity. I hadn’t met her yet, but I loved her, and knew she was destined to become my favorite Jojo.
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Honda Tohru and the Strength of Nurturing
Female characters who put their energy into caring for others, rather than standing up and fighting, were dismissed as passive doormats who exist only for the male cast’s development. One such character was Honda Tohru. The first part of the remake has made it abundantly clear that Tohru is plenty strong. However, since her strength comes in the form of traditionally feminine roles such as nurturing and protecting those dear to her, audiences tend to disregard her strength because of how these roles are devalued.
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Your Lie in April: An Oedipus Complex and a Manic Pixie Dream Girl have a meetcute
Your Lie in April has high ratings on almost all of the major anime databases. Unfortunately, I, the Feminist Killjoy, am here to say that Arima has an Oedipus complex and Kaori is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
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Deca-Dence – Episode 1
Deca-Dence is proof-positive that sufficiently powerful execution trumps novelty.
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The Misfit King of Demon King Academy – Episode 1
This premiere may not be of any use as entertainment, but as a narcotic? It’s the best thing on the market.
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SUPER HXEROS – Episode 1
I gotta say, if you’ve seen one anime scientist banging a desk and hollering about how humans lose their will to live if they lose their interest in sex, you’ve seen them all. That aside, I surprisingly didn’t hate this premiere. In fact… I kind of liked it.
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Dorohedoro – Episode 1
I’ve heard plenty about Dorohedoro’s wit and charm punctuated by graphic ultraviolence, about the ensemble cast and their dynamics, about just how danged good it is. As of the first episode, it’s hard to say if it lives up to its reputation, but it’s certainly on track to fulfill my expectations.
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Drifting Dragons – Episode 1
Drifting Dragons is a strange series to review. It’s a Polygon Pictures production, the first one that actually uses bright colors instead of a pallet roughly similar to wet concrete and mud. It was just released from Netflix jail, so it’s now entirely available streaming. But the most unusual thing about it is how adding layers of context change the viewing experience.
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Princess Connect! Re:Dive – Episode 1
What’s happening here is that Princess Connect! Re:Dive has a sense of humor about itself. One that goes beyond boob jokes and clumsy moe girls. One that includes the protagonist’s amnesia wiping his memories so thoroughly that he tries to eat a coin instead of pay for things with it. One that’s actually funny.
