Twenty years ago, I fell in love with the Pokemon anime. Now, I think I can finally tell you why: why this strange, silly, sincere show mattered. How it filled the space between “boy stuff” and “girl stuff,” treated both as having value, and challenged why there was a division in the first place.
You ever watch something and then thirty minutes later realize you’ve forgotten almost everything about it? That’s where I am with Z/X Code reunion right now.
Do you like supernatural cop shows? Then congratulations! You’ll enjoy this entertaining and competently made premiere!
You know, maybe it’s just me, but I think the protagonist of this series kinda likes books.
Ahiru no Sora takes its cannon full of bright energy, points it downwards, and blasts itself straight in the foot by making 95% of its cast a bunch of unpleasant dirtbags.
Through its central cast of silly, snarky, kind, anxious, energetic high school girls, Nichijou not only showcases many common (and not-so-common) trials of adolescence, but also expands the narrow image of what it means to be a “normal” teen girl.
Kingdom Hearts’s cast and audience may have grown up, but its tired “boy saves girl” gender politics remain just as outdated as they were when the franchise first launched.
The Team Rocket trio have never been your typical villains. So perhaps it’s no surprise that their special backstory episode defies as many conventions as they do, taking the classic team origin story and turning familiar gendered archetypes cleverly on their heads.
I am extremely annoyed that I had to stop watching Sirius the Jaeger to write this review, which gives you a real good idea of how much I enjoyed this premiere.
Come for the neat animal facts, stay for the charming cast breezily ignoring gender norms.
Congratulations, Karakuri Circus. I don’t know how you did it, but you managed to make Murder Circuses and Puppet Fights boring.
If you’re as much a sucker for air balloons, floating islands, and grizzled lady sorcerers as I am, then give this one a try. You may be as pleasantly surprised as I was.
Please keep your arms and legs inside the review at all times, ’cause Boarding School Juliet is about to take you on a roller coaster ride.
There’s nothing wrong with straightforwardly playing genre beats if they’re played well, and Hinomaru is full of vim and vigor and Fighting Spirit. It’s as solid as its sumo wrestlers. But if you’re looking for something that shakes up the formula, based on this premiere, it’s unlikely you’re going to find it here.
The Promised Neverland begins as a sharply crafted horror story, but it soon reveals itself to be a sophisticated critique on restrictive social practices—including the hellishly limited roles expected of girls.
We Rent Tsukumogami is a historical fantasy based on Shinto-inspired Japanese mythology. It has cute spirits, a great aesthetic, and fun facts about daily life in Edo. It is so squarely in my wheelhouse I was halfway around the bases before I even pressed “play.” So why did this first episode leave me lukewarm?
Take an American frat house movie. Combine it with a Japanese gag manga. Now make them both profoundly unfunny. If you can imagine that, then congratulations! You’ve just seen the premiere of Grand Blue Dreaming.
Holmes of Kyoto is a difficult premiere to pin down. Based on a series of mystery novels, it has the laid-back tone of an iyashikei (soothing) series, the soft-touch aesthetic of a slow-burn romance, and the content of Antiques Roadshow. Full marks for originality, I s’pose?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a show try this hard and so blatantly to be something else—and boy howdy, does Bakabon wanna be Mr. Osomatsu.
Lady Luck looked down and smiled upon me, surprising me with a supernatural mystery series complete with spunky female foreign-exchange students, Gatling-gun-toting waiters, and kickass great-grandmas. Oh yeah. This one has my name scribbled all over it.
