Magilumiere Co. Ltd.

 Magilumiere Co. Ltd. (株式会社マジルミエ) is a 12 episode magical girl series based on the manga of the same name by Iwata Sekka.  The first season originally aired during the Fall of 2024.

    Sakuragi Kana is a recent college graduate who has struggled to find employment.  She puts unparalleled effort into researching each company she applies to but ultimately fails to impress them enough to want to hire her.  At one interview the room suddenly becomes infested with a supernatural being known as a kaii.  In recent years kaii have increased in frequency, causing danger and destruction in their wake.  This has lead to a boom in the magical girl industry, where hundreds of companies taught the series of these specialized women in combating the kaii.  The company she's at that is being attacked have been negligent in their kaii prevention measures and decided to hire a small magical girl business for this extermination, feeling they can be less than open on the level of threat involved.

    Sakuragi ends up assisting the magical girl, Koshigaya Hitomi, as she battles the powerful kaii, showing off hr ability to be flexible and objective under preassure.  Koshigaya tells Sakuragi that she should come work for her employer, Magilumiere Co. Ltd.  Overcome with emotion she agrees to join up, grateful for a job, but is uncertain if she is really cute out to be a magical girl.  Not counting Sakuragi, the company only has 4 members.  Its head, a middle aged gentleman who dresses as a magical girl named Shigemoto Kouji has an unconventional approach to how the business operates and what their goal is.  He's not concerned with being the most profitable, instead he's focused on the aesthetics of the magical girl industry and evolving it to a place where the kaii may no longer be a threat.  Sakuragi adapts to the unconventional ways her employer operates and appreciates it for its vision.  As she gains more experience in her roll she becomes more confident in her own abilities, but something dangerous is lurking in the recesses and there may be a preventable tragedy around any corner.

    I don't really watch magical girl series', as its not a genre that appeals to me very much.  I do however respect the genre and am glad that its fans have so many quality titles to choose from.  I've watched a few over the years, most enjoyable being Magical Girl Ore but was intrigued by the initial concept of this series.  I liked the concept of the world in Magilumiere being one of magical girls being rather common place.  The abilities behind them as well seems to stem from advanced technology instead of super natural elements.  The kaii themselves feel like yokai under a different name.  Honestly...this is pretty much the anime version of Ghost Busters when it comes down to it.  At times the action got boring, with the need to continuously call out attacks, largely made of nonsensical words stringed together that had little standardization.  But that's all par of the flavour in the genre so its not with out its precedent.

    This series is a little unconventional for a magical girl story.  Its really the story of a scrappy group of idealists fighting for their own sense of whats right, against standard conventions.  They all have their own past trauma's that have lead them to their fated union and they are stronger as a whole compared to what they can do alone.  Through out the first season bits and pieces of past events in the world leak out, working as foreshadowing for a greater narrative tension to come.  Like a video game, it slowly ramps up the difficulty as the audience and the main character are exposed to the nuances of the world.  At this point I am invested enough to continue watching it when the second season comes out but I'm not sure if I really enjoy this series over all.  All the while I was watching it I rally wanted to shut it off and re watch the original OAV's for Maho Tsukai Tai instead.  Either way, its a fun change of pace for the magical girl genre that adds an amount of maturity, both with the story its trying to tell and the fact that its characters are adults working in an industry, instead of randomly selected (some would say kidnapped) adolescent girls forced to carry the worlds burden on their shoulders.

The series was simulcast on Prime.

365 Days to the Wedding

 365 Days to the Wedding (結婚するって、本当ですか,) is a 12 episode slice of life romance based on the manga of the same name by Wakaki Tamiki.  The series aired during the Fall of 2024.

    Ohara Takuya and Honjoji Rika are employees at a branch of a nation wide travel agency who keep to themselves and live isolated lives.  When plans for a new branch are finalized to open in Anchorage Alaska, their location is chosen to produce the person who will head the new office as it establishes its self.  No one volunteers for the job when the announcement is made so management informs everyone that they will choose the candidate.  It will be someone who is young, unmarried and without children, so as not to cause a disruption to others.  Ohara has little desire to move to Alaska, particularly due to his efforts to rehabilitate his adopted cat.  Honjoji similarly does not want to be forced into the assignment, having no strong interest in her work, only taking it due to her love of maps and sight seeing.

    In a moment of calculated desperation Honjoji suggests that she and Ohara pretend to be engaged, to eliminate both of them from the transfer pool.  Seeing this as the best way to ensure he doesn't have to move he agrees to the plan.  But how easy will it be to convince everyone around them that its real, instead of an elaborate lie?  Both of them have little interest in the other, preferring the comfort of isolation and solitude.  But they approach the ruse with strategy and meticulous planning.  Their efforts, while somewhat rocky, appear to be working but they continue to get mysterious phone calls from someone claiming they know they are lying.  As their lie grows they find themselves having to do more to make it look convincing and as they are forced to spend more time together they begin to question if there are any legitimate feelings for the other person or if that's something they even want to explore.

     Its always nice to have romances with purely adult characters in purely adult situations.  That is exactly what this delivers, a cute work place romance that centers around two adults who are a little too innocent for their own good.  Innocent may not be the correct way to explaining them.  They are both very comfortable being alone and they struggle with the idea of changing their routines.  They also work to resist any misconstrued emotions related to their get out of being transferred scheme.  The story follows two parallel narratives.  The first is their efforts to maintain their lie enough to convince the people around them its true.  The other is their growing awareness of the other person and their inner turmoil over that growing awareness.  Its not the best work place romance out there, but its heavily grounded in reality with enjoyable characters.  Both Ohara and Honjoji are grown up social outcasts who have decided that its much more preferable to isolate yourself with your own interests instead of being outwardly motivated.  In other worlds, their both introverts who interact with others as little as possible.

    I feel like a broken record but the artwork is passable.  Realistic and believable character designs but nothing to wow the viewer with.  Outside of the inevitable and predictable conclusion of the two main characters relationship, there are a few side stories that show the viewer and the main pair different sides of the world they are only pretending to live in.  One particular episode deals with a younger man who looks to Ohara as inspiration for romance, taking the initiative and putting himself out there on a dating app.  He ends up connecting with a young woman over a shared passion and develop a strong friendship.  When he wants to take it further with her she informs him that she is a single mother and needs him to accept that.  He falters for a moment and she cuts him off, leaving him filled with regret as all of his confidence resulted in a critical moment of panic.  This one episode story line alone is well worth watching this fun and quirky romance.

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Dan Da Dan - Season 1

 Dan Da Dan (ダンダダン) is a 12 episode shonen action series based on the manga of the same name by Tatsu Yukinobu.  The series originally aired during the Fall of 2024.

    Ayase Momo is a stereotypical high school gyaru.  She has close friends and dreams of finding a man that exhibits all of the qualities of Japanese cinema's every-man Takakura Ken.  When her good-for-nothing boyfriend breaks up with her because she won't have sex with him her faith in humanity plummets.  She yearns to expend her frustration and roams the halls of school looking for a target.  She comes across another room where a social outcast boy is being actively harassed by classmates.  She causally intervenes before they can escalate the bullying but reuse to engage her, further frustrating her.  As she returns to prowling the halls the outcast chases after her...but not to express his gratitude.  The boy is an alien otaku and has taken Momo's desire to fight someone as interest in him.  Disgusted by his gross misunderstanding of the situation they begin to mentally battle each other over their beliefs.  Mom, who was raised by her medium grandmother, fully believes in spirits and possession but refuses to believe that aliens exist.  The boy, feels the opposite way and their mutual stubbornness leads them to challenging each other to test their beliefs.

    The evening Mom finds herself wandering a condemned hospital, a spot the boy claims is a hot bed for alien abductions.  He on the other hand finds himself entering an unused tunnel on the outskirts of town, supposedly home to a powerful spirit.  The two remain chat with each other while exploring their own mystery spot, working to understand each other a little better.  The boy encounters a strange old woman who scares him out of his senses and he begins to flee the tunnel.  Momo warns him that he's encountered the spirit known as 'turbo granny' and is she catches him he will be cursed.  The line goes dead and before she can call him back 3 strange men appear before her.  The next thing she knows shes stripped down to her underwear and is strapped to a chair.  The strange men tell her they are aliens who have come to take her reproductive organs in order to reintroduce biodiversity into their species.  Before they can begin the procedure a strange creature expels its self from her cell phone and begins attacking the aliens.  It is the boy, who lost the race and has become cursed/possessed by turbo granny.  Stressed by the situation and the danger the boy and she are suddenly in, latent psychic powers manifest within her and the two of them defeat the aliens, crashing back to the ground in their UFO.  They both admit they believe what the other person believes but are forced to remain together until they can remove turbo grannies curse, as the only thing keeping her at bay is Momo's powers.  Momo is stuck with the weird otaku now...who's name is Takakura Ken.

    If you're one of the few people who have not watched Dan Da Dan, don't worry, the synopsis only covers the rough plot of episode one, the catalyst for the entire series.  At first I was excited for the series, having never read the manga.  Particularly due to it being done by Science Saru.  Then the first preview dropped and I had doubts.  Ken...or as Momo calls him Okarun, refusing to allow him to share a name with her idol, looked like a knock off Bleach character when in his possessed form.  The tone of the series felt like some garbage zero to hero power fantasy that I really had no interest in.  Either way I decided to watch the first episode and the animation exceeded my expectations.  Science Saru knocked it out of the park with the life the breathed into the production.  It felt like they looked at Trigger and their style and said hold my beer bitch.  But I still wasn't fully sold on the actual story with the first episode and felt I should at least give it a second episode to try and sell me.  The second episode did that and each consecutive episode continued to show that it was worth my time.

    On the surface, DanDaDan is a shonen action series where the nerdy outcast kid gains super natural powers and begins battling dangerous foes all while the ladies swoon over him.  Literally the same power fantasy pervasive throughout the genre.  It doesn't stop being that but there is so much more to it.  The series usurps all expectations with each plot line.  The real core of the story is the growing relationship and respect between Momo and Okarun.  Momo is someone who cares about other people but can't be bothered by others.  She feels responsible for Okarun being cursed and does what she can to remove it.  Okarun on the other hand doesn't want to have to rely on her to solve his issues.  He's grateful for all shes done for him, not considering her at fault for his situation, but also desires to let her be free of him.  His ideas don't work well and they are forced to spend a lot of time together, growing closer as they do.  Both kids are really just lost in the world around them, struggling with their lives and have found a weird kinship in their incredibly strange and dangerous situation.  As a final thought, there is some level. of discomfort in the amount of fan service there is in the show but it doesn't always feel out of place or unwarranted, it just seems uncomfortable at times.

The series was simulcast on Netflix and Crunchyroll and season 2 will be releasing in the Summer of 2025.

Tsuma Shogakusei Ni Naru

 Tsuma, Shogakusei Ni Naru (妻、小学生になる) is a 12 episode super natural drama based on the manga of the same name by Murata Yayu.  The anime originally aired during the Fall of 2024.

    Niijima Keisuke lost his wife Takae ten years earlier in a traffic accident.  He was left to raise their daughter, Mai, by himself.  Takae was everything to him and with her gone he sank into a deep despair, moving through life without any focus.  Their house continued to be a dark and depressing place for the decade following her death, both daughter and father living in perpetual mourning.  One evening as they sat to consume a miserable meal from the convenience store the door bell rings.  Keisuke answers it to find a young girl who tells him she is his wife.  Stunned he invites her inside at which point she goes through the process of convincing the two skeptical adults that she really is Takae reincarnated.  She tells them that her old memories began returning recently and something triggered when she passed by their house one day.  She felt it was time to approach them and not a moment too soon, looking at the state of them and their lives

    Keisukei and Mai are overjoyed with this miraculous return of Takae, but she is more cautious.  She is the daughter of a recently divorced single mother and doesn't have complete freedom to spend time with them as they would like.  She starts by telling Keisuke that she will begin making lunches for him a few time during the week.  Takae wants to make sure that her family can move on and live their best life, uncertain why she is back among the living and what it means.  Aside from the strange reality of having the memories and personality of a middle aged mother while living as a ten year old girl, Takae has the difficult situation at her home to content with.  Her mother, Chika, is often neglectful of her daughter, usually away from home, leaving the young girl to fend for herself.  This allows Takae some freedom to spend time with her old family but when she becomes careless her mothers fury unleashes and the young girl finds her self in a precarious position between the old life as Takae and the current life as a girl named Marika.

    Taking this title of this series at face value sets up very different expectations.  "My Wife is a Grade School Student" has a significantly more comedic or potentially perverted quality to it, that absolutely hides the heavy soap opera like drama that the story really presents.  The potential optics of the series is very likely the reason the Japanese name was kept when it was licensed in the west, officially shortened to TsumaSho.  While at first uncertain about what the overall story would be, this became a quality drama with focused story telling and realistically motivated characters.  There are moments where the melodrama becomex too think but the story is compelling and pushes through.  It is both a study on the age old yearning for reconnecting with lost loved ones and a thought exercise of what such a situation would be like in reality.  How do you hide this sort of reincarnation?  It would be almost impossible to convince the authorities about what was going on.  When a 50 year old widower is being overly familiar with a 10 year old girl that he should realistically have no interaction with, the authorities might be a bit...protective.

    As with a lot of slice of life stories, the artwork isn't the focal point of the anime but that doesn't mean its terrible.  The character designs are realistic and believable, something highly appreciated.  The story doesn't dig into the mechanics of Takae's reincarnation until the back half of the story.  As they begin to question why such a thing has happened a potential resolution to the situation begins to come into focus for them.  This adds another layer of drama and tension to the story as the Niijima's face the very real possibility that Takae's reincarnation may not be permanent. What would you do if you could reconnect with a lost loved one again?

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.  Hopefully the manga will get licensed at some point as well!