Spy x Family is a fun romp with a warm heart; endearing, tense, and silly in equal measures. Hopefully the anime can continue to draw out the manga’s charms to create a satisfying adaptation
that will satisfy current and new fans alike.
This premiere is repetitive fluff after the first five minutes, which means that instead of taking plot notes I started overthinking the implications of a show about a depressed, overworked woman whose life is given meaning by the sudden appearance of an idealized toddler. Womp womp.
I suspect this found-family, food/music hybrid show will fly under the radar, but I hope it doesn’t, because there’s a whole lot to like in this first episode.
Ping-ponging between “trash boy comedy” and “bitter boy dramedy,” Quitter Hero really doesn’t seem to know what kind of show it wants to be.
A diverse but overstuffed cast and slightly stiff production combine to form a Crunchyroll Original that isn’t terrible, but likely won’t turn many heads either.
Okay, post-apocalyptic dystopian action series featuring giant mushrooms and rust plague. You have my attention.
In a thus-far pretty dire winter season, I’m thrilled to say that Sasaki and Miyano’s premiere is a sweetly sincere young adult rom-com with likable characters and basically zero caveats. Isn’t it nice to have an easy add to the watchlist sometimes?
Set in 1900 England and steeped in references to both the history and literature of the Victorian era, Goodbye, My Rose Garden draws on turn-of-the-century reality and fantasy alike to highlight the intersectional struggles of queer women of the period.
Does a bromance await Fiction’s Greatest Detective and Greatest Thief? Is Watson still out there hoping his beau will save him? Is Zenigata going to get, like, supes jealous about this new inspector honing in on his man? Stay tuned to this season’s most stylish fanfic to find out!
Inside Taisho Otome Fairy Tale there are two rom-com wolves.
Weaving the many threads of the classic Japanese epic Heike Monogatari into a compelling, cohesive adaptation will be a challenging task, but this premiere is off to an impressive start.
Oh neat, a complex and melancholy anti-war spec-fic series with a messy approach to social commentary and diversity metaphors. And here I was worried that all my reviews were going to be easy this season!
This is a stylish adaptation of an equally stylish game, but the narrative will need to slow down its breakneck pacing if it wants to garner an audience outside of the existing TWEWY fanbase.
One episode isn’t nearly enough time to call this shot, but I’m calling it anyway: Farewell, My Dear Cramer is going to be the lady-led sports anime I’ve dreamed about for years.
If you were expecting this to be “A.I.dol,” you might be a bit disappointed by this premiere. Vivy barely sings at all. She’s way too busy saving politicians from assassination attempts and trying to change the future. It’s a busy first episode.
While fans of SSSS.GRIDMAN will immediately recognize the director/writer duo’s signature style, this premiere is perfectly friendly (and perfectly gorgeous-looking) for newcomers to the Gridverse.
What are your thoughts on alternate histories? Historical fantasies? How about umbrella crossbows, organ-playing snakemen, and mahou murder girls?
Over the years, the number of lady action heroes has slowly but significantly risen. And this is a good thing… for the most part. But the ability to enact violence shouldn’t be the only way we define our heroes, regardless of gender.
Wonder Egg is fabulism meets horror/suspense meets character drama. It is fantastical and grounded in equal turns, with a raw emotionality that pulls no punches but also doesn’t revel in suffering. It is surprising, tense, and stunning to look at, and I am beyond psyched to watch more of it.
The source material has a reputation for being (to put it bluntly) rape revenge fetish porn, but this premiere is mostly a standard dark fantasy with some glimmers of potential that it will almost certainly never fulfill.
