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.
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.
There’s a slightly surreal, fever-dreamy quality to this episode that means basically anything could happen and I’d say “sure.”
There’s nothing more Halloween-grade horrifying than a fun supernatural slice-of-life premise cursed by an obnoxious protagonist.
The show wants to do fan service capers but it also wants this character to read like a cutesy child and, arguably, represent the protagonist’s childhood. This is, as I’m sure you can imagine, a deeply uncomfortable combination.
She’s his mum, and his housekeeper, and will protect him with her life, but she’s also sooo clumsy and sooo hot and she just needs him to take care of her.
You can absolutely joke around about gender, drag, and attraction without stepping into awkward transphobic (or transphobic-adjacent) tropes, and if it can do that, honestly, All-Guys Mixer could be cute. At this early stage, I have no idea how it’s going to navigate all the ideas it’s playing with.
365 Days is a cute, classic fake dating caper with room for some deeper social commentary.
If all you want is a show that revels in the contrast between pretty anime character designs and gross characterization, hey, you might have a good time.
What do you mean, you’re on a mission to become ordinary? You seem pretty normal to me as you are, kiddo—dare I say bland.
Dungeon People is the story of a woman who has never relaxed in her life suddenly finding herself thrust into the role of protagonist in a chilled-out, cozy fantasy series.
I’m pleasantly surprised to report that despite the tsundere schtick and miscommunication issues potentially baked into this set-up, I found Kuze and Alya’s dynamic quite fun.
16bit Sensation is (unfortunately) a useful case study for what we talk about when we talk about character autonomy, active versus reactive characters, and how a narrative suffers when the agency of its female protagonists gets reduced.
I love a series that presents an interesting premise and then does absolutely nothing with it, don’t you?
Yatagarasu’s focus on the women themselves grants them a little narrative autonomy even if the system itself reduces them to political pawns being gracefully moved around a precarious board.
If this premiere wasn’t so sodden with fanservice I’d be inclined to call this charming and be intrigued for more, but as it is I’m left a little wary and weary.
Sometimes you experience a piece of media that’s just ideologically rancid all the way down, despite it loudly singing that that’s absolutely not so.
It’s slow-going and softly-spoken, which means Spice and Wolf won’t be for everyone. But honestly, for me it’s a refreshing change of pace.
There’s already a lot to unpack from just the first episode of this gritty and stylish fantasy. Witch burnings! Ritual sacrifice! Complicated questions of gender! A shark kaiju!
This is honestly a pretty interesting premiere; I just wonder if it’s actually going to keep the elements that made it interesting as it goes forward.
