In the Clear Moonlit Dusk – Episode 1
While I remain frustrated with the broader trends this story is tapping into, I think it also has a lot of potential to unfold into a sweet romance about a girl rebuilding her confidence.
Posts by Alex Henderson
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The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife – Episode 1
I’d refrain from stamping Yako with “good representation” or “bad representation” because, you know, we love nuance; but I’d say The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife is off to a decent start with regards to its heroine’s disability and the supernatural romance (and marriage!) that the title foreshadows.
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The Holy Grail of Eris – Episode 1
Being possessed by an already-dead villainess, and having a weird magical partnership with her, is certainly already an inventive setup, so part of me is on board for that alone.
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How Just Like Mona Lisa uses speculative fiction to explore gender norms
Bundled in a melodramatic coming-of-age story, the storytelling sometimes falls into fraught tropes about genderqueer people, but it also raises some sincere philosophical questions and pointed commentary on the real world’s many gender paradoxes.
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Chitose is in the Ramune Bottle – Episode 1
Everything is filtered through the male lead’s patronizing perspective, trapped in an internal monologue that oscillates between musings about the springtime of youth and crude comments about his friends’ boobs.
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Mechanical Marie – Episode 1
The premise is fun, but the big emotional climax feels unearned – and risks playing into the very tropes the show could be deconstructing instead.
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The Fated Magical Princess: Who Made Me a Princess – Episodes 1-3
You can build a villainess story with the same plot progression and sense of conflict, it turns out, by simply giving your protagonist visions of a dark possible future rather than making her a reincarnated gamer.
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Pass the Monster Meat, Milady! – Episode 1
This show is off to a good start, and I’m patiently seated at the dinner table to see how its central relationship progresses… and to see some actual monster cooking!
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Hero Without a Class: Who Even Needs Skills?! – Episode 1
Maybe you’ll enjoy this if you love the trope where anime characters go “tsk… but… how is that possible? My power levels are so much higher than yours!” while glaring, wounded, up at a quietly cocky protagonist.
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Kamitsubaki City Under Construction – Episodes 0-1
These episodes unfortunately throw so much information and stimulus at you that it’s hard to get a grip on what all this means or why it matters.
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See You Tomorrow at the Food Court – Episode 1
Food Court takes us truly back to basics for a “girls doing stuff” anime: no club setting, no central hobby or special interest, just girls hanging out and shootin’ the breeze.
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Detectives These Days Are Crazy! – Episode 1
Detectives These Days is playing on a particular fantasy: a man yearning for his adolescent glory days feels he’s over the hill, but a hot young girl pulls him out of his slump and put his fractured ego back together.
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Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter – Episode 1
Any interesting elements are mushed down by the conventions of the fantasy harem genre that the series is awkwardly fitting itself into.
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mono – Episode 1
It has some big shoes to fill, coming from the same creator as Laid-Back Camp, and it makes a strong start as a hobby show.
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Food For the Soul – Episode 1
Maybe I can’t ask Food for the Soul to singlehandedly cure my existential dread, but I do have high hopes for it as a PA Works original.
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The Gorilla God’s Go-To Girl – Episode 1
On one hand, this is fairly standard “refusal of the call to adventure” stuff. On the other, there’s a gendered element that gives this a different dynamic.
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Your Forma – Episode 1
It’s clearly cooking with all the usual ingredients of a cyberpunk police procedural.
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The business and politics of magic in Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc
When money is a key motivation, ethics and the greater good are quickly abandoned. This theme is apparent in Season 1 of the anime, bubbling away ever-present in the background as Kana learns the magical girl trade, but comes to the forefront in subsequent material when the manga really starts to dig into the politics of the magical girl business.
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I May Be a Guild Receptionist, But I’ll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time – Episode 1
The gremlin girl lead is charming enough to carry what could have been a fairly bland meta-humor fantasy concept, and I have tentative yet high hopes for the show going forward.
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Momentary Lily – Episode 1
There’s a slightly surreal, fever-dreamy quality to this episode that means basically anything could happen and I’d say “sure.”
