Sonny Boy – Episode 1
A take on being “transported” that leans into Lord of the Flies-style horror? Yes, please.
Posts by Vrai Kaiser
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Mother of the Goddess’ Dormitory – Episode 1
Twenty minutes of a group of college students molesting a 12-year-old.
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The Duke of Death and His Maid – Episode 1
There’s a world where this is a very good anime. But there’s a pervasive “not quite”ness that the episode can’t claw free from, and all of its elements fall just short of being satisfying.
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Kageki Shojo!! – Episode 1
While this first episode doesn’t make the most dazzling debut, it does have a few glints of what make this story special
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Girlfriend, Girlfriend – Episode 1
The fact that Girlfriend, Girlfriend’s premise hinges on open communication rather than noncommittal waffling or outright cheating definitely caught my eye, but did it pull it off? Well…
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The Case Study of Vanitas – Episode 1
Look, let’s be honest about how this will go. It’s an exquisite-looking BONES anime with vampires, homoeroticism, and liberal use of paper cutout-style aesthetics. Also, I read the manga.
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My Fave is Problematic: Samurai Flamenco
No one has ever asked whether Samurai Flamenco is good, because the question is a loud and simultaneous “no” and “yes.” But the question of whether it “counts” as queer romance has waged on for eight exhausting years now. Incidentally: yes, it does.
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CESTVS -The Roman Fighter- – Episode 1
On paper, this premiere is heavy stuff. Fortunately, it’s all portrayed with such staggering incompetence that the brutality lands with the impact of a discarded tissue.
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Osamake: Romcom Where the Childhood Friend Won’t Lose
If you’re desperately craving a brand-new romance series, then this one will probably tide you over. If, however, you’re willing to expand your parameters to “a romance released any other time than this very season, currently,” then I can’t muster up a very enthusiastic recommendation for Osamake.
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SHADOWS HOUSE – Episode 1
Here we have a series that hits pretty much every one of my buttons: an anime steeped in gothic aesthetics, themes about identity and perception, visual design that makes heavy use of dark silhouettes against vivid colors, and homoerotic mirror imagery.
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Battle Athletes Victory ReSTART! – Episode 1
ReSTART is a mostly newbie-friendly reboot of a 1990s series with good energy and strong yuri subtext… but my God, this show is obsessed with ass shots.
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Full Dive: This Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life! – Episode 1
It’s not that the whole episode is a waste of time, although in some ways that’s more frustrating than if it was a complete ball of incompetence. It’s just that some pretty novel ideas are buried in a sea of titties and tonal inconsistency.
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Fairy Ranmaru – Episode 1
While there are some bumpy spots that keep this from being an inclusively horny ray of personified sunshine, I did spend most of the episode with a slightly baffled grin.
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BURNING KABADDI – Episode 1
Burning Kabaddi seems crafted entirely to combat the sport’s status as a punchline in Japanese media, going so far as to have Yoigoshi call out the trend before he’s inevitably sucked in. This, my friends, is an imaging campaign.
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MARS RED – Episode 1
A quiet, not-quite pretentious historical horror drama that is extremely My Brand.
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Dressed to Kill la Kill: The overlooked power of fashion’s rebellious history
While Kill la Kill was all about clothes and the way commodification objectifies bodies, it missed the opportunity to talk about the rich history of rebellion using fashion. And moreover, it failed to interrogate the real villains running the show.
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BACK ARROW – Episode 1
It’s familiar, like Gurren Lagann meets Escaflowne—but familiar doesn’t have to mean bad.
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Cells at Work! CODE BLACK – Episode 1
I’ll tip my hat to this first episode: using the overworked cells of a failing body as a vehicle to tell a story about workers being crushed beneath the heel of capitalism is a solid choice.
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LBX Girls – Episode 1
I’m going to go out on a limb and say it probably wouldn’t have taken me six hours to watch this premiere if it hadn’t come out on the same day as an attempted coup, but I also can’t reliably tell you how much of that time was “anxious distracted doomscrolling” and how much was “if they throw any more technobabble into this toy commercial, I will gouge my eardrums out with my headphones.”
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Otherside Picnic – Episode 1
Yuri! And it’s sci-fi! And they’re adults! I KNOW!
