18if – Episode 1
Sometimes the best way to describe an anime is to say “it’s very anime,” and that’s kind of where I am with 18if.
Posts by Dee
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Convenience Store Boyfriends – Episode 1
If you really need a blandly directed series with snail-like pacing this season, just make it Restaurant to Another World. At least that one has a dragon in it.
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Love and Lies – Episode 1
This is a nightmarish, dystopian premise that’s overflowing with possible avenues for pointed social commentary, and Love and Lies… uses it to tell a milquetoast high school romance?
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A Dream of One’s Own: Finding a home outside femininity in Chihayafuru
Sometimes wrenching but ultimately inspiring, Chihayafuru’s first volume quietly challenges traditional gender norms and offers the hope of a supportive community to anyone who’s ever felt like they didn’t quite fit society’s gendered expectations of who they’re “supposed” to be.
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WorldEnd vs. Hajime no Ippo: When bad frames happen to good people
If fanservice is gratuitous T&A that exists solely to titillate its audience, then the massage scene in WorldEnd is fanservice in its purest and most distasteful form. So how could it have done it better?
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WorldEnd: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us? – Episode 1
This wasn’t just good “for an LN adaptation”; it has potential to be a really solid fantasy series in general.
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Tsugumomo – Episode 1
Tsugumomo’s nifty premise and bursts of charm alternate with its explosions of assault and abuse to create not only the most tonally dissonant thing I’ve seen this season, but also a premiere that is somehow worse than the unilaterally bad ones.
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Hinako Note – Episode 1
With the exception of one totally unnecessary bath tub shot (more on that later), Hinako Note is not bad. It isn’t much of anything, really, and I’m a bit bummed about that.
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The Royal Tutor – Episode 1
We look to have a cast of A+ trash boys on our hands.
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Love in the Time of ClassicaLoid
ClassicaLoid may be first-and-foremost a wacky comedy, but it’s also proven itself adept at quietly challenging cultural norms about gender and sexuality. Guess it’s true you should never judge a book by its cover—or a series by its goofy premise.
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She and Her Cat and Her Story
She and Her Cat -everything flows- is a refreshing take on the traditional female coming-of-age tale, avoiding the typical focus on cishet romance to instead focus on relationships between women.
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Gals of All Stripes: ClassicaLoid and the Girls’ Day Out
In episode 8, “Girls’ Day Out,” the ClassicaLoid ladies take some time off to unwind and open up. With humor, subtlety, and a dash of vinegar, their time together becomes an exuberant exploration and celebration of what it means to be a girl—and their answer turns out to be a happily inclusive one.
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“So That I Could Be Myself”: Gender performance in Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju and Yuri!!! on ICE
While they take place in very different settings, Rakugo Shinju and Yuri on Ice both challenge cultural expectations about how men should or shouldn’t act, and show why it’s important to cast aside restrictive gender roles and play to our own strengths.
