Xuan Yuan Sword offers likeable characters and a brewing drama that’s bound to get messy. Yin and Ning are resillient women and exhibit upstanding bravery in the face of danger. The story will no doubt raise them as heroes against Taibai while their friend Zhou will unknowingly rise against them.
If the purpose of an opening scene is to put a series’ best foot forward, then Forest of Piano is a bit more second-stringer than prima ballerina.
You’d expect the first episode of an anime named after an influential philosopher to either be smug, pretentious pap or full of intriguing, thought-provoking questions about the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. However, RErideD isn’t really either of those things. It’s just kind of… there.
Wow, what a cute, innocent little slice-of-life anime about a girl and her dragon. I’m sure it won’t go terribly awry in some way…
The prognosis for Last Hope, frankly, is not good
Watercolor and slightly melancholy, this is a quiet little slice-of-life series.
I tell you what, it was a bold decision to air the anime of the fall season so far ahead of everything else. Really makes a statement. Also, the rest of the summer season is now cancelled, as we will only be needing more of this.
While it’s a perfectly watchable experience, I’m not sure I’d go so far as to call it a hidden gem.
The summer shows have had some time to stretch their wings, so let’s see how they’re shaping up!
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?
A new season is upon us, which means fresh new anime hot out the oven! There are still a few stragglers this season, but now that we’ve gone through the main premiere rush, it’s time to get them all in one room together.
No, no, no. I refuse to be nostalgic for this.
Theater is a harsh, competitive world. Revue Starlight takes that experience and makes it literal.
We’ve entered what I like to call the “shame shadow” of premiere season.
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.
This is an anime based on a Square Enix game. I suspect that will tell many of you, very quickly, whether or not to proceed further.
I’ll level with you, readers: I’m always a little bit on my guard when war anime come across my desk. I’ve reached an age where I personally don’t have much time for Cool War Hero stories, and we’ve reached an age as a species (again) where it’s time to start being very critically aware of how our media paints nations with bloody, imperialist histories.
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.
While not completely devoid of character, this is a show clearly proudest of its schtick—meaning it’ll probably be a love it or hate it venture for many.
