Re:Monster

 Re:Monster is a 12 episode isekai based on the light novel series of the same name by Kanekiru Kogitsugi.  The series originally aired during the Spring of 2024.

    Kanata Tomokui spends the last moments of his life being stabbed mercilessly by an unknown woman, rage filling her eyes.  The next thing he knows he is seeing the world through new eyes, he has been reborn into the life of a lowly goblin baby.  He, along with his clutch are being 'cared' for my an elderly goblin names Gobjii.  The elders child rearing methods have much to be desired but Kanata, now named Gobrou, remembers everything from his life as a human.  Along with his memories, he also retains a peculiar ability he had previously, the ability to eat almost anything and gain skills and abilities from doing so.  In the early days of his development he gains a strong ally in his siblings by earning the devotion of the strongest of the brood, a goblin names Gobkichi.  As he explores the world around him, slowly gaining new abilities and confidence, he also trains Gobkichi to be a versatile and capable companion.  Gobrou's abilities are put to the test when a band of older goblins, some who have evolved into hobgoblins, have returned to their home with plunder and slaves.  Gobrou doesn't take kindly to the stronger goblins attitudes and challenges the groups leader.  Using the abilities he has gained he easily defeats them and subjugates these into his rule, moving the entire brood to work as his muscle.

    With the survivors of the goblins and hobgoblins under his control he looks forward to grander ambitions.  At the same time he continues to hunt stronger prey in the surrounding area, gaining more beneficial abilities.  His benevolence has lead a group of human women who were captured by the hobgoblins to admire the strange goblin (who has now evolved into a hobgoblin himself) to the point where they are intent on staying with this band of demi-humans instead of returning to the human settlements.  After a vicious battle with a strong foe, Gobrou evolves again into an ogre and takes on the name Ogrou.  His increasing powers lead a band of wood elves to seek him out in hopes of coercing him into fighting with them against a growing human threat.  Not willing to take the elves offer of forced alliance sitting down, he punishes all of them, keeping the women as captives.  Another encounter leads hm to rescuing an elven princess.  When he guides her back to her people, her father suggests an equal alliance with Ogrou and his newly formed and formidable mercenary company, united to repel the impending human invasion by the nearby kingdom.  It's time for the ex-human to flex the muscles he's been building and put his attempts are organizing the goblins to the test.

    I only watched this series for the first season of The Otaku Network Podcast as it was the show picked for the Spring season by David.  He thought it would be amusing to watch me suffer through an isekai, well aware of my distaste for them.  Though he wasn't expected to suffer the most as the series progressed.  Re:Monster is a collection of thinly veiled male fantasies.  Gobrou/Ogrou is the ultimate character, he is over powered, increasingly brazen and suffers no set backs or legitimate loses.  The ability to absorb all manner of powers from over coming adversaries drastically improves his ability to defeat stronger and stronger targets, creating a perpetual cycle of powering up.  Realistically, there was only one point in the anime where he was in any real danger, at no other time was there any doubt he would lose, from a narrative point.  Of course he isn't going to lose though, as the writing is designed to always have him be the main character.  Outside of the perpetual power leveling aspects of Ogrou and his crew, there is a secondary layer added that reinforces the target audience, that of the obedient harem.  By the end of the series Ogrou has around ten lovers, all who are willing to do whatever it takes to appease him.  Whats concerning is how many of them were swayed into his bed...through initial sexual encounters that amount to rape in almost every instance.  Ogrou represents a poisonous toxic masculinity that perpetuates ideals from viewers that their alpha male personality fantasies are justifiable and correct.

    Beyond the concerning moral problems the story represents, over all it is rather boring and repetitive.  The vast majority of the story is monologue expositions of how Ogrou and his crew continue to advance their abilities, consistently succeeding with overwhelming efficiency.  As the series nears its end it begins to expand its scope outside of the borders of the goblin clutch but so little attention is given to this there is little point.  Very little happens beyond leveling and fighting.  The fighting that is shown is brief and uninspiring, the story relying heavily on exposition dialogue over flashy combat sequences.  There is little reason to invest any emotion into the characters as they never show signs of struggle or humanity.  Ogrou offers little outside of his status as an avatar for the viewers power fantasies.  His personality is reprehensible and so little is shown of the forces that oppose him, you would suspect no one in this world would be capable of filling the role of hero.  Its hard to understand what deeper justifications the story has beyond wasting time day dreaming about ultimate power, both in fighting prowess and sexual conquest.  In the end, this is a terrible and poorly constructed attempt at writing that brings into question the quality of the vetting process used for turning amateur writings submitted on Shosetsuka ni Naro into published material.

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll and is available in both sub and dub formats.

Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki - 2nd Stage

 Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki - 2nd Stage (弱キャラ友崎くん 2nd STAGE) is the 13 episode conclusion of the series based on the manga of the same name by Yaku Yuki.  This second series aired during he Winter of 2024.

    To recap the first season, Tomozaki, Japans best 'Smash Brothers' player does little to advance in life, assuming he's a bottom tier character in the MMO that is life.  Popular classmate and 2nd best 'Smash Brothers' player, Aoi, challenges him to strive for a better position in life.  She sets before him a series of tasks as if he ws living in an RPG.  The final goal, to have a girlfriend by the third year of high school.  Tomozaki has worked hard to pass all of Aoi's goals.  He has become friends with a number of people in his class and has begun to develop a better opinion of himself.  He still has a long way to go to reach the goals Aoi has set before him.  Now that hes advanced far enough with himself his attention shifts to helping those around him, taking a more proactive approach to things.  When a girl in class becomes to target of bullying at the hands of the most popular girl, Tomozaki can't sit by and allow it to continue.  But this is something he won't be able to do on his own and begins to work with those he has grown closer to in order to find a resolution that won't cause more issues.

    After the resolution of the bullying, Aoi shifts Tomozaki's focus back to himself.  He needs to to begin narrowing his field for a potential girlfriend.  At the same time the class begins to prepare for the upcoming cultural festival.  The class decides to double dip, doing a manga cafe and putting on a play.  Tomozaki suggests doing an original piece and recruits Fuka to provide the script for them to work with.  At the same time Mimimi ropes him into doing a manzai routine.  Fuka and Mimimi are two of the girls he said were in the list of potential girlfriend targets and when Mimimi admits that she likes him, his goals become clouded with internal conflict about what falling in love really means.  He struggles with how to approach either girl and if his intentions are true or not, all while helping both of them to accomplish what they want to do for the cultural festival.  In the background, Aoi sits, observing, hiding her true intentions from everyone, for unknown reasons.

    The second series started from a running position and did a good job of continuing the story.  It did not suffer from the stunted and uninteresting beginning of the story.  It doesn't hurt that the core characters were expanded upon to the point they are all easily identifiable and unique.  The expansion of the story into Tomozaki moving to helping other people showed a logical progression of the story, instead of repeating the same arc's it tread in the prior season.  The bullying arc was relatively satisfying and when it shifted back to focusing on Tomozaki I became concerned that the story was moving backwards.  With Aoi shifting his tasks towards girls, particularly with listing 5 romance targets, it really felt like it was sliding back into being a shitty dating sim story.  That fear was quickly squashed and the final arc went rather well.

    Too many times do high school slice of life stories deal with an awkward play performance.  This story took a better approach and had a well developed original story it was using that really played out as a parallel comparison to the actual plot of the story.  I may not agree with the resolution of Tomozaki's pursuit of romance but it was handled realistically.  In the end I was quite surprised with the quality of the writing and characterizations of this series.  The art wasn't disappointing either, with enjoyable character designs and directing.  It feels like there could be a third part, as there are a few items that surfaced in the course of the second series that should really be expanded upon, but it is hard to tell if this will ever come to pass.  I may need to check out the original light novels, to see how far beyond the story goes.

Both seasons of the anime are available on Crunchyroll in both sub and dub formats.

Lessons Learned from the First Season of the Podcast

 The first season of The Otaku Network Podcast wrapped up with episode 12 and is now preparing to move onto season 2.

    Season 1 was filled with a lot of lessons to learn, some that are still being worked on, particularly consistency in the recording levels of the microphones.  I have dealt with audio and recording for over 25 years now, rather confident in my abilities as a mixer and engineer.  But the podcast is the first time I have ever done any real work with microphones.  We started out recording with a single Blue Yeti...but that was less than ideal.  At times the input level between my and David's input was not consistent and too quite a bit of editing work to make usable.  The very first episode my level was clipping way too much and the gate set up would cut off the tail on some parts too much.  This was eventually corrected by introducing a Rode PodMic mic to the mix.  Allowing us to have our own dedicated audio track.  But that also presented some recording issues since the Rode runs into the computer via XLR and the Blue runs in via USB.  At the moment the Blue has been removed from the equation and a second XLR mic, a 20+ year old cheap Shure condenser mic has been added in addition to the PodMic (which is a fantastic sounding mic).  Though...I still need to get a pop filter for the old Rode, but in all honesty, I just need to get a second PodMic set up.

    The recording was initially set up to be done with OBS, with the idea that David would be joining the session remotely, but every recording session has taken place in my home studio...which has zero treatment for acoustic.  All of the audio I record and edit is direct input from my synthesizer set up or from a DAW, so I have never really felt a need to work in a treated environment.  For those that are unaware, a room treated for acoustics has a series of objects placed strategically in the room to absorb as much random sound waves as possible.  The idea is to prevent the mics from picking up an reflections of sounds from the walls and furniture in the room.  Usually this is done with large panels that can absorb the sound, such as made of foam.  That said, a lot of effort has been put into setting up the mastering for the mic's we use for the podcast to minimize 'hearing the room'.  Which, I think has worked relatively well.  There is still some work that is needed to ensure the gain remains consistent.  I end up having to do a lot of micro editing to the levels in post production, that would be great if I didn't have to do!  The majority of the mic handling is done in OBS, with a series of plug-ins running to help smooth out the incoming audio.

    Even though the recording has never been remote, we still use OBS to capture each session.  With the current limitations of how the set up is currently though I had to use a trick of hard panning my mic to the left and Davids to the right, to simulate two separate audio tracks.  All of the visual cuts for the main podcast episodes is handled live in OBS during the recording.  After its recorded I isolate the audio, bounce it to Adobe Audition and bounce the left and right channels into their own stereo tracks, creating individual stereo tracks for both of our mics.  Those, along with the video portion from the session are loaded into Davinci Resolve, where the real work begins.

    I started using Resolve at the beginning of the year, after using VDSC for video editing for the past 7 years.  All I have to say is Resolve makes this part significantly easier than if I was attempting this in VSDC.  The program is amazingly flexible and easy to navigate and I wish I had learned about it 10 years ago.  Anyways, once I have the video file and both audio track in Resolve its time to edit the episode so that it sounds a bit more professional.  Both of us, being amateurs at this type of thing, are undisciplined when it comes to recording dialogue.  I edit out a lot of pregnant pauses and a lot of the hesitation markers in our discourse.  There is also a significant amount of ancillary discussions and house keeping dialogue that are not needed for the episode or not appropriate for that topic.  Particularly with myself, if I don't like how well I enunciated something I will restart the line after pausing for a second, knowing I will edit out the line I wasn't satisfied with.  Other times we have to look information up if its unknown or we suffer from a lapse in memory.  And ever so often, someone else who lives with me will wander through the recording session and make noise or decide to strike up a conversation.

 

    A typical recording session will capture around an hour or so of footage.  I work to cut that done as close as I feel I can to a 30 minute episode.  Focusing on sticking with discussions relevant to the topic.  Some tangential discussions are isolated and saved to turn into other, shorter videos for the channel.  Once the video is cut down, I add a few more layers of processing to the vocal tracks and the intro/outro and bed audio.  The music heard through out the standard podcast episodes is from a song I wrote years ago in a random recording session.  It has no name and isn't really any sort of complete or structured song and never will be.

    Once all of that is done I render it down to the final video file, preview that if I have the time as well as rendering out the audio track only.  Both of those get uploaded to the YouTube and Spotify channels respectively and set to premier every Wednesday at 10am CST.  Then its on to the next video/videos.  I have a current back log of Side Quest and shorts to work through, but have not devoted a lot of time to completing them, wanting to ensure the main videos are always ready each week.  We typically record a few days prior to the scheduled release, usually working a week behind the broadcast date of the shows.  Editing, due to my pickiness and out bad speaking habits, tends to take be about 4 or 6 hours to get to a 30 or 40 minute episode.  This can be mitigated through better practices on our end though!!

 

    The hardest part though is building the audience, getting the product out to the public.  I've always been shy with self promotion, not wanting to cross the line of being annoying, but I know I should push harder than I do.  Engagement is the game that everyone on the internet with content strives for and there really isn't an easy solution for it.  Much of it comes down to luck with a healthy dose of perseverance.  While its not exactly been the level I desire, we have worked hard from the beginning to present a product that wouldn't immediately turn away the audience.  Though...were close, not quite there, I will keep pushing forward with this knowing it will just take time to get the audience we want.  We just have to keep faith in the product we're making!

    Feedback is always welcome and I don't hear from the audience as often as I would like.  I am curious what your thoughts are on what you have heard or read in regards to this platform.  I'm always open to suggestions ans advice as well, I never want to stop learning things and there is only so much one can learn on their own.

 

   Anyways, we move into the second season of the podcast with three new shows for the Summer anime season and all of the lessons learned from season one.  So look forward to our weekly conversations centered around Shoshimin, Ramen Akaneko and My Deer Friend Nokotan!

Tomo-chan is a Girl

 Tomo-chan is a Girl! (トモちゃんは女の子！) is a 13 episode romantic comedy based on the manga of the same name by Yanagida Fumita. The series originally aired during the Winter of 2023.

    Aizawa Tomo is a girl who takes after her father, large and imposing with incredible strength.  She speaks her mind, rushes into any challenge and generally doesn't let anything deter her.  That is until she starts to realize she has developed romantic feelings for her childhood friend Kubota Junichiro.  The two have spent their entire lives together trying to outdo the other, with Tomo usually coming out on top, regardless of how physically demanding the challenge is.  This has lead to her current problems.  She mustered up the courage to admit to him that she had deeper feelings for him and he blew her off, treating him like one of the guys.  Tomo, who has never considered getting in touch with her feminine side is faced with the challenge of making the boy she loves see her as the woman she is growing into.

    With the help of her other friend, Gundou Misuzu, Tomo struggles with getting in touch with her feminine side, uncomfortable with forcing herself to act in ways shes not familiar with.  Misunderstanding between Tomo and Jun, compounded by the diabolical interference from Misuzu make the situation more difficult than it needs to be.  Unknown to her, Jun has feelings for Tomo and tried to play it cool when she confessed to him out of fear for ruining what they have had since they were little.  He's quick to attack anyone he feels is encroaching on her, such as the captain of the men's karate team, who has his a fiance in the form of ditzy British girl, Carol Olston.  Carol herself, thinks Tomo is trying to take her man and tries to fight her....quickly realizing its pointless and instead becomes friends with all three of them.  What will it take for the two brutes to realize they share the same end goal in their lives?

   This series has way more heart that a short synopsis could ever hint to.  On the surface the idea of a typical childhood friends into romantic partners seems boring.  Then splashing in the trope of the girl being more of a man than the boy makes it seem like a cheap parlor trick.  At first that's all the story seems to have and hits you right away with a lot of well timed humor that draws you in.  As the story continues, buoyed by the the lovable characters and the great physical comedy the depth of it begins to unfold.  In the back half of the series a lot of time is spent digging into the characters history with each other and their internal struggles.  There is a lot of heart in this story that could have been a series of cheap gags and groan inducing situational comedy.

    I was caught off guard with how much I feel in love with this story and its characters.  The story does a really good job of keeping on task without forcibly delaying the resolution that everyone expects.  The comedy is fantastic and punches pretty hard between both the English and Japanese versions.  Both bring their own take on the situations which each delivery quite well.  The story effortlessly swings from ridiculous to sincere to enhance the quality of whats being told.  I really need to pick up the manga for this, even though the ending of the anime resolves in a way that you are not wanting of more.  The best I can say is this story had a lot of heart and was time well spent.  A damn fine example of how a romantic comedy can be put together and executed.

The dub and sub versions are both available on Crunchyroll.

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really Really Really REALLY Love You

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really Really Really REALLY Love You (君のことが大大大大大好きな100人の彼女) is a 12 episode romantic comedy based on the manga of the same name by Nakamura Rikito and Nozawa Yukiko.  The first season of the series aired during the Winter of 2024.

 

     Aijo Rentaro is rejected for the 100th time on the day of his middle school graduation.  Out of desperation he prays for a girlfriend at a local shrine.  The shrines god grants him the wish, but tells him an error was made at the time of his birth.  Instead of finding one true love, he has 100 true loves and he has to love them all equally.  If not, those he does not love as much as the others will die prematurely.  At the dawn of his first year as a high school student he begins his long journey to finds his 100 true loves.  For all of them he expects to experience a noticeable spark of first love and then its up to him to convince them to go out with him as well as be cool with the idea of not being the only one.

    He starts off with girlfriend one and two at the same time, a tsundere named Inda Karane and a buxom beauty Hanazono Hakari.  He is able to convince both of them that its true love, helped along by the spark of love they all felt.  Their love for him is over whelming and so is their competition for his affection.  He does the best he can to convince them that there is no need to compete.  Before the dust can settle, girlfriend number three appears in the form of socially inept loli bookworm Yoshimoto Shizuka.  He quickly wraps the shy girl into his harem and she is quickly accepted by the other two.  The fourth love, kuudere Eiai Nano is a harder nut to crack given her extremely logical and emotionless existence.  She too falls prey to Rentaro's unassuming charm and self sacrifice.  Without skipping a beat, he absorbs another childlike weirdo into his circle in the form of chemistry nerd Yakuzen Kusuri, who also has the ability to become a buxom weirdo.  With this core beginning circle they face challenges together as he collects more loves like hes a Pokemon trainer.

    I tried to ignore this series, uninterested in a harem male fantasy pile of garbage.  I was convinced that the series was heavy on the comedy and more a way to make fun of shonen romances.  Its a little bit of both.  The strong points of the story are the absurd comedic aspects.  It gets ridiculous and out of control a lot of the time.  It bounces back and forth between standard shonen romance tropes to teen approved eroticism.  Each of the girls fits a specific and easily identifiable dating sim archetype.  Don't get the wrong idea, this series is absolutely designed for the immature male fantasy but its comedy and character interactions is rather enjoyable.  It does have little real value as a story though, given the idea that the entire plot is the ever increasing difficulty of him gathering all of his girlfriends.  Sometimes it borders on the plot depth of a porno.

    There is a well defined end point for the story, but given how easily that end goal can be stretch out, there is no really understanding of how long this story can go.  I hate to admit it, but the writing is actually pretty good at least in how easily the story moves and the different personalities of the different girls.  Rintro has about as much depth of character as Kazuya from Rent A Girlfriend but is significantly more likeable. This story does share some similarities with that other harem-lite story but really feels more like Golden Boy than anything else.  I hate to admit it, but I did have fun for most of the first season of this ridiculous anime.  The fanservice, beyond the unnatural character designs (an aspect even brought up at one point by Rintaro), wasn't out of place in most instances.  Given the level of abuse an terrible decisions that could have been made over its course, this was pretty well written...but oh boy is this quite perverted.

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll and is also available in English dub.

Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki

 Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki (弱キャラ友崎くん) is a 12 episode slice of life romance based on the light novel series of the same name by Yaku Yuki.  The series originally aired during the Winter of 2021 and had 2 OAV episodes released later that continued to story as well as a second season that aired in the Spring of 2024.

    Tomozaki Fumiya is a loner second yer high school student who struggles to interact socially and focuses almost exclusively on the platform fighter Attack Families.  His focus in the game is unwavering, which has lead him to be the top player in Japan.  He agrees to meet up with the second strongest player in the country when they find out they live in the same area.  To his terror the person trying hard to unseat him is a popular girl in his class, Hinami Aoi.  While at first disappointed that her rival in Attack Family is her pathetic classmate, she decides that Tomozaki just needs a push in the right direction to better himself.  She decides to set up a series of video game like challenges for him to overcome as a way of building his confidence and social skills, so that he can fit in better with his peers.

    Tomozaki reluctantly goes along with her plan, driven by his obsessiveness with completing tasks.  SHe starts off by forcing him to start conversations with ransom girls in their class, moving on to longer interactions with some of the more popular kids.  As he clears his low level missions, some of the classmates begin to take more notice of him, helping to boost his confidence.  Not all of his interactions are positive though, particularly with a rivalry between him and the top guy in class, Nakamura Shuji.  Nakamura is frustrated at his difficulty in playing Attack Family against Tomozaki, not knowing hes the best player in the country.  Tomozaki begins to build a friendship with a bookish girl in his class, Kikuchi Fuka.  Hinami believes that Kikuchi may be the best target for Tomozaki to try and date.  The end goal she set for him in his training is to get a girlfriend by their final year of school.  He lacks confidence in his ability to accomplish all of the goals she has set for him, but is willing to give it the best try he can, unwilling to compromise.

    This isn't a new style of romance, we have seen this countless times before where the main character is a socially inept loser who tries to change themselves to achieve a new life among their peers.  Tomozaki is yet another listless, self deprecating, anti popularity character.  He's thoroughly convinced that hes never going to be anyone that amounts to anything socially and has little understanding about the need for anything differently.  He goes along with Hinami's plans out of a desire to overcome the goals laid out before him.  Through her guidance and his constant work, he becomes familiar with his classmates and begins to develop relationships with him, but hes really just following her walk-through.  At too many points in the show does it feel like a walk through of a dating sim game.  His classmates have the appearance of one dimensional characters, with easily recognizable personalities and predictable story arcs.  It felt like a lot of what Hinami was having him do was copy the play through patterns for the best girl endings.  

    Then about half way through the show something changed and the story arc become more interesting and believable.  Hinami tasks him with becoming the campaign manager for another girl in class who is running against her for the student council.  The girl, Minami Nanami, is energetic, well loved and outgoing.  A whirlwind of energy and enthusiasm.  While he isn't able to convince her to make him her campaign manager, she recognizes some use in him and makes him a strategist of sorts, build a strong closeness in a short amount of time.  The build up to the election and the fallout after she loses to Hinami developed into an interesting section of the story which carries on into the conclusion of this first season.  Instead of being a series of random, increasingly difficult tasks, that did little to entertain, the second half of the season and the culmination of the built up stories between the characters become more enjoyable.  It difficult through through the course of the story to ignore a hidden agenda that Hinami has and the real possibility that shes doing all of this as a way to craft her rival into her ideal boyfriend.  In the end the story redeemed its self and became an interesting take on a familiar concept, the ugly duckling evolving into the elegant swan.

The series is available in sub and dub formats on Crunchyroll.

Astro Note

 Astro Note (アストロノオト) is a 12 episode original sci-fi romantic comedy written by Ueno Kimiko.  The anime originally aired during the 2024 Spring season.

    Miyasaki Takumi is an out of work chef, desperate to find a meaningful place to work at again.  A help wanted ad in an employment guide for industry professionals attracts his attention and he jumps at the opportunity.  Having come from a high quality hotel restaurant, he is baffled by the location of the interview appearing to be a rundown Showa era apartment.  Before he can turn around he hears cries of help from the side of the house.  Rushing to it, he finds a beautiful young woman hanging precariously from the lip of the roof.  Before he can find her fallen ladder the woman slips and lands on him.  Neither are hurt but immediately afterwards her poodle attacks the bewildered man.  The woman, Gotokuji Mira, brings him inside to tend to his wounds.  Confused he asks her about the advertisement looking for a a chef to focus on breakfast.  As she begins to apologize to him different individuals interject to help explain the situation.

    Mira had placed a misleading ad in the magazine to find someone too cook breakfast for the residents of what is known as Astro Lodge, a share house where the tenants are given breakfast each day as part of their lodging.  Mira had recently become the houses manager, following the death of its long time manager, Tasuke.  Unfortunately for the residents of the house, Mira is a horrific cook.  Takumi decides to take the position for the time being, out of equal parts pity for the residents and a strong attraction to the young manager.  But nothing is as it seems and Takumi has a bigger hurdle to overcome if he is to get Mira's attention beyond his looks and personality.  In reality Mira is an alien princess who has traveled to Earth in search of a key that will allow her to claim her peoples throne and the poodle is a different alien who is her life long body guard.  No one in the Astro Lodge suspects the truth behind Mira's arrival at their lowly house but as her search intensifies things start to get really weird for everyone who lives there.

 

    I was immediately hooked on this from the first preview as it presented its self as a modern take on Maison Ikkoku...perhaps my favorite romance anime.  The show did not disappoint in any fashion.  Not only did it pay significant homage to that classic it also sprinkled in bits of other classic anime.  The only low point in the show is the main character, he really has little in the way of a memorable personality.  Everyone else is a fantastical caricature, who all bring their own unique charm to the story.  Takumi on the other hand, a bit of a push over who goes with the flow, even when things begin to get weird and unnatural.  He barely questions anything around him nor does he show much interest in anything other than Mira.  He has the personality of a closed door, no hobbies, no ambitions, no motivation other than the girl in front of him.

    This is an original creation and the team behind it did a fantastic job.  The character design and animation are fantastic and fit very well with the over all feel and tone of this story.  The story its self is a great amalgamation of older, well known stories that puts a fresh coat of paint on beloved anime.  I can't stress enough how much love and attention was put into this fantastic and surprising anime.  I wish we would get more productions like this.  Not necessarily the style of story, but just the level of care and attention put into it.  We have seen a few other series with the same level of love in recent years, Keep Your Hands off Eizoken comes to mind as one example.  We really need a new crop of talent and love in the industry.  Sadly, I feel this is another one of those rare examples instead of the norm.

The series streamed on Crunchyroll.

The Apothecary Diaries - part 1

 The Apothecary Diaries (薬屋のひとりごと) is a 24 episode historical anime based on the light novel series of the same name by Hyuga Natsu.  The anime aired during the Fall of 2023 and the Spring of 2024.

    Maomao finds herself kidnapped and sold into servitude at one of the Imperial compounds.  She is the son of a lowly apothecary who grew up on the outskirts of the red-light district, under the watch of the woman who work in a particular brothel.  Maomao understands that her existence isn't worth a second thought in her new environment and is content keeping her head down and suffering through her two years of captivity, working as a lowly washer girl.  When the top concubine consorts for the Emperor begin to fall ill, with one of them loosing their young child, Maomao's training at the hands of her father kick in.  Her attempts to remain anonymous as she leaves out clues to the cause of the illnesses/deaths unravels as one of the Emperors top Eunuchs finds her out.  Jinshi is the highest authority in the rear palace, where all the Imperial consorts are housed and commands equal parts respect and envy.  Even though he is a eunuch, he is remarkably handsome and suave, causing all of the women and some of the mens hearts to flutter at his mere presence.

    Through crafty analysis he susses out Maomao as the guardian angel who pointed out the whitening makeup all the women wear as the culprit for the illnesses.  She was familiar with its poisonous properties from her time in the brothels.  After some further investigating, Jinshi learns that Maomao caries a multitude of skills that can be beneficial in other areas of the rear palace.  She has been obsessed with poisons since a young girl and has built up a deep knowledge on the subject and an amount o resistance to them...seeking them out intentionally as if addicted to their negative effects.  Maomao finds herself forced into the position of a lady in waiting for one of the top 4 consorts, one who is struggling to overcome the illness.  While at first unwelcome by the other women of the house, she quickly demonstrates her deep knowledge and abilities.  News of her continued exploits reach Jinshi who begins to rely on her to present an outsiders perspective on seeming frequent mysteries among the palace's residents.  Her natural curiosity, confidence in observation and unusual studies make her known more and more, causing her to regret all of her choices, loosing her easy life as a slave, wanting just to return to her father.

    I have usually don't find interest in historical anime, particularly historical Chinese ones, having zero interest in Chinese imperial court drama's.  While this is not actually feudal China, its close enough to be irrelevant.  The thing that kept me watching the story, especially through the first half of its initial run, was Maomao's personality and the randomly injected humor.  By all means, this could have been a dour historical melodrama but the sprinkled in super deform/comedic aspects frequently broke the ice.  Maomao is by no means the subservient maiden.  Her childhood growing up among the sex workers and destitute residents of the slums made her a realist.  She respects the need to observe societal norms, but only does so out of self preservation.  She is wilful, independent and confident.  The only reason she becomes wrapped in the levels of intrigue she does is due to her uncontrollable curiosity.

    That said, I really did not enjoy the episodic problem of the week formula of the first half of the series.  The conclusions of them did sometimes surprise me with their creativity and unpredictable nature.  What really sealed the enjoyment of the series was how the back half of the second part began to wrap everything that has transpired into one larger story.  The artwork wan't too bad, even if some of the character designs were a little out of realism.  IN the end, with everything wrapped together as well as it was, I don't regret watching the entire first season and eagerly await the continuation and some actual romance developing between Maomao and Jinshi.  A short side note as well, I was very pleased with how the characterization of someone who was portrayed as villainous through the entirety of the story was redeemed and humanized.  It was very well done.

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll and is also available in English dub.

Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night

Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night (夜のクラゲは泳げない) is an original 12 episode coming of age story by Yakui Yuki.  The series originally aired during the Spring of 2024.

    Kazuki Mahiru used to love drawing and was talented enough to be allowed to do a mural of a jellyfish on a side street in the Shibuya neighborhood of Tokyo in middle school.  One day she surprises her friends by taking them to the mural without telling them it was hers.  Their unfiltered and raw criticism of the work dealt a major blow to Mahiru's confidence and she immediately gave up art as a passion.  The now second year high school student, lost without any ambition in life, finds herself at her mural during Halloween.  A small crowd has gathered around a girl putting on an gorilla street performance.  As the song begins another girl from the crowd rushes towards the mural, tearing down the posters put up by the performer.  The punk-like girl yells at the performer for defacing the mural that means so much to her then runs off with Mahiru in tow.

    The girl introduces herself as Yamanouchi Kano and when Mahiru tells her shes the artist that made the mural her eyes light up with excitement.  Kano tells her that the jellyfish artwork has inspired her to take on a new musical project and she wants her to work it her to bring that vision to life, using her artwork as the basis for the visual aspect.  Uncertain if she has the will to resume drawing she is sucked in by the other girls infections charisma.  The goal is to launch and push an anonymous music project titled JELEE with a goal of reaching 100,000 subscribers on YouTube.  Unknown to Mahiru at first, Kano is a disgraced pop idol who is looking to shed her past and perform by her self with the help of the artist who touched her heart.  Now they just need to find someone who can help with the music and who can help with the technical side of things, then its time to take on the world!

 

     Sadly this wasn't something along the lines of Princess Jellyfish.  Fortunately, it went with the core concept of a group of teenage girls struggling with self doubt and complicated interpersonal relationships way better than Wonder Egg Priority.  While Mahiru and Kano are undoubtedly the main characters all four of them are sufficiently developed, each having their own realistic personalities and complications.  Mahiru comes from a loving family who does not pay much attention to her internal struggles.  Since middle school, when her friends unknowingly rejected her, she has lost all confidence in herself and coasts through life with no clear goal.  Kano struggles with her complicated and parasitic relationship with her mother.  Mei struggles with moving past her reliance on using her love of Kano's past idol persona as a crutch for her emotions.  Kiui tries as much as she can to hide the fact that she is  hikikomori from everyone around her.  The series does not get darkly realistic but still retains a high level of believable enough to satisfy the staunchest realists.

    What really sold me for the series was the higher caliber of artwork displayed in the previews, and the series did not disappoint.  On top of the satisfying character design and direction, the story was good at holding interest when there was no real end goal set from the beginning.  Kano's idea of reached an online milestone was more a McGuffin than anything, the meat of the story is their relationships and their individual struggles.  Honestly by the end of it, which is satsfying, it would be nice to continue the story a bit longer.  There is room for more development to take place, especially with some of the secondary characters that were introduced in the second half.  Given that there was a recap episode near the end its easy to speculate that some of the story was sacrificed to wrap up the show in the cour without needing to release anything afterwards.

    The series was simulcast on HiDive.

The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio

 The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio (声優ラジオのウラオモテ) is a 12 episode slice of life industry series based on the light novel series of the same name by Nigatsu Ko.  The series originally aired during the 2024 Spring season.

    Sato Yumiko is a high school student who moon lights as the pop idol voice actor Utatane Yasumi.  In real life she is a flash gyaru type person who is struggling to find voice acting roles with a high profile.  Unknown to her, a classmate that she never interacts with, Watanabe Chika, is the pop idol voice actor Yugure Yuhi.  Chika as well is quite different in real life compared to her bubbly voice actor persona.  She is reserved, gloomy and generally keeps to her self.  Neither girl knows that the other does the same thing and a tense interaction between them in class leads to a great deal of animosity.  Yumiko receives a call from her manager about a new job opportunity doing a weekly radio program.  The producer apologizes about inadvertently learning some personal things about her, which lead to the idea to create the program.  Before he can clearly explain himself, Chika walks into the meeting.  The producer learned that both girls were classmates and decided to create a program in which their voice actor personas would talk about life as classmates and friends, the exact opposite of their reality.

    The two conflicting voice actors must put on the front of getting along for the sake of their careers as they begin their weekly radio program.  Both of their managers hope this will further their career opportunities and profiles.  Chika has no interest in getting to know the flash Yumiko, but the gyaru is determined to make this work, desperate for some ray of hope in her flagging and short career.  Unfortunately, their program lags and when a scandal erupts around Chika and a new voice roll she got, the future of their program and of Chika's career hang in the balance.  Unwilling to let her partners success crumble along with her own potential, Yumiko makes a drastic move to clear Chika's name in the public sphere.  The efforts don't work as planned and instead she exposes both girls for who they really are, sending shock waves through the fan base and the voice actor community leading to a greater threat to their continued careers.  Will they be able to regain the public trust when in their eyes the two bubbly and cute girls have been lying about who they really are this entire time?

    This was the Spring anime I chose for the inaugural season of The Otaku Network Podcast, available on both YouTube and Spotify.  I went into the series fearing it would be similar to the moe trash bin that is New Game!  But was quickly proven wrong when the series presented a serious and realistic look at the characters and their work as voice actors.  The story quickly moves outside of the core concept and focuses on the struggles that the two main characters have in regard to their work.  Their choice to present idealized alternative personalities for their voice actor persona's soon causes them trouble with the aforementioned scandal.  The story gets side tracked dealing with the fallout around the scandal but refocuses near the end to enter on the true core, Yumiko's flailing career.  Through out the series the two girls grow into frenemies and as Chika becomes more open you learn its due to jealousy for the lesser girl and the latent abilities she recognizes.  AS is the case, its hard to see your own value from inside and Yumiko struggles with what everyone else sees in her, lacking the confidence she needs.

    Over all a decent slice of life industry piece that could have had a subtle yuri plot.  The series flows awkwardly through an indeterminable time frame and the artwork its self is quite horrific at times, particularly profile shots of characters heads.  Lets just say there were some questionable design choices made.  It flagged in the middle and had a few moments of awkward and unnecessary fan service but ended strongly, if a bit unrealistically.   It by no means carries the weight and quality of Shirobako but is a good enough submission into the industry category for anime.

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Laid-Back Camp - season 3

 Laid-Back Camp (ゆるキャン△) returns for a third cour of its calming slice of life story.  This 12 episode season aired during the Spring of 2024 and is still based on the manga of the same name by Afro.

    Unlike the movie, season 3 returns the story back to the girls being in high school and picks up where season 2 left off.  This season is split into two multi episode camping trips and then wraps up with more episodic journeys.  The first trip follows Rin and Nadeshiko's childhood friend, Ayano, meeting up for a scooter trip to Hatanagi to camp and explore the myriad suspension bridges among the forests and mountains.  Rin joins them via train and they explore the majestic landscape as Spring approaches and there are minimal other visitors.  Not wanting to be left out, Chiaki, Ena and Aoi go on their own camping trip with the clubs advisor Minami.  

    Honestly there is not a lot to say about Laid-Back Camp, if you've watched season 3 you most likely have seen the show before and understand what the premise and delivery is.  Don't get me wrong, its a fantastic franchise, but there is little to no actual substance.  Instead the series is comfort food.  Once you watch a few episodes you know how the show is supposed to progress and you don't continue to watch it because you want to delve further into mysteries or plot.  You continue watching it because the characters are lovely and their adventures are banal and consistent.

    There was some concern going into season three and it being produced by a completely different animation studio than everything that's come before.  That concern feels unfounded as this season didn't stray from what we have grown to love and expect from this series.  It's hard to see any change in my opinion and I am grateful for that.  When the fantastic comedy series Minami-ke switched to a different studio in a later season the entire flow of the story was changed in a way that made it less enjoyable.  While this season spent more of its focus on 2 outings, that didn't detract from the feel like Minami-ke did.  The characters are just a lovable, the story just as calming and the locations just as mesmerizing and enchanting as before.  The movie teased me with a look at the characters lives as young adult and it would have been great to see season 3 follow suit.  But, given I have not read the original manga, I really have no idea how much exists of them in high school or them as 20 year olds.  All I can hope for is another return to this warm fluffy scarf of an anime in the future.

Laid-Back Camp was simulcast on Crunchyroll, where you can also watch the previous 2 seasons and the movie.

A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics

 A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics (変人のサラダボウル) is a 12 episode slice of life comedy based on the light novel series of the same name by Hirasaka Yomi.  The series originally aired during the 2024 Spring season.

    Sara is the youngest princess in a kingdom that is collapsing through revolt.  In a last ditch effort to protect her line, the girl escapes through a mystical portal with a loyal swords woman, Livia and they find themselves in modern day Gifu.  Travel through the portal split them up and Sara lands on a young private detective named Sosuke.  After blatantly showing off her magical abilities, Sosuke brings her back to his apartment where he can figure things out in peace.  Livia, unsure what happened with her young ward, quickly settles into the life of an unhoused person living on the bank of a river, following the benevolent guidance of an older gentleman named Suzuki.

    Convinced about the strange girls origins, Sosuke decides to let her stay with him for the foreseeable future while she adjusts to life in a new world.  The bright young girl quickly adapts to 21st century Earth life but becomes frustrated that no one else can use magic and they she has to hide her real identity, for fear of arrest by the authorities.  Meanwhile Livia, naive to many things but strong of will and body, does what she can to survive in the harsh new world, without complaint.  Unfortunately her naivety leads her to being exploited from less than scrupulous individuals as she begins to cycle through a series of legally gray jobs while trying to adjust to her new life.  Quickly she crosses paths with her charge but is unsuited to work for Sosuke at his detective agency and is shown the door almost as soon as she gets a roof over her head.  These two lost weirdos take their on paths to adjust to their new and potentially permanent life, far away from the royal courts in the fantasy like home land.

    This series is not unlike the fantastically amusing Hinamatsuri.  Instead of the emotionless and overtly powerful orphan in Hinamatsuri, we get the tale of a weirdly confident magic wielding ex-princess.  Sosuke isn't a push over but for some reason he has a soft spot for Sarah even though everyone else around him could die for all he really cares.  For a brief time Livia was under his employ, out of empathy for Sarah's retainer.  Once she proves to be a burden on him, regardless of how earnest she is, he kicks her back out on the street.  Sarah, being raised as proper royalty, also shows little regard for the woman's' well being, confident she can figure things out on her own.

    The series overall was quite satisfying even with the semi-frequent fan-service around Livia, but this never really seemed out of place.  The artwork is fine enough given this being a slice of life comedy, the real meat of the story is in the characters and their interactions with each other...enhanced by the crazy situations some of them end up in.  I may have to track down the original light novels as the end of the last episode suggests there was/is way more story than they used in the anime, including some characters I don't remember showing up in the show.  While its similar to Hinamatsuri, Salad Bowl was less eccentric even with the crazy cast of characters.  But that doesn't detract from the story or ones enjoyment of it.  Definitely a solid choice to waste some time on.

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Train to the End of the World

 Train to the End of the World (終末トレインどこへいく？) is a 12 episode supernatural original story by the anonymous apogeego.  The series originally aired during the Spring of 2024.

    A young girl finds her self the winner of an eccentric prize hosted by a cellular company.  She is given the 'honor' or pushing a button that will signal the start of their newly developed 7G network, ushering in a new era for communications.  Unfortunately the activation causes reality to warp beyond recognition.  Two years later we meet 4 young high school girls, Shizuru, Nadeshiko, Reimi and Akira, in rural Agano as they navigate the world post the 7G Incident.  The incident has distorted time and space, isolating communities in their own bubbles, cut off and fr removed from each other.  Their only contact with anything outside of Agano is an infrequent delivery caravan that risks life and limb to travel the spaces between communities to deliver good and establish trade.  On this particular visit, Shizuru notices one of the delivered items was wrapped in a recent news paper and in it was a photo of a girl who looked exactly like their missing friend Yoka.  Just before the 7G Incident, Yoka and Shizuru has a fight and Yoku left to visit Ikebukuro to blow off some steam.  Unknown to everyone, Yoka was the unlucky girl who triggered the 7G Incident.  

    Each region was affected by the 7G Incident in  different ways.  The effect it had on Agano was to transform all of the adults into wild animals that slowly lose their humanity over time.  The only adult unaffected by the change is a man named Zenjiro, who has left the city years ago and returned a crippled elderly man who seems to be suffering from extreme dementia.  Shizuru discovers that he reverts to his younger more stable self when an engineers hat is place on his head, but the effect only lasts for five minutes.    Encouraged by the photo, knowing that their friend is till alive and apparently living in Tokyo, Shizuru prepares to head off into the unknown via the Seibu train line with Zenjiro's help.  He shows her how to operate the train and offers her some words of warning around the 7G Incident.  He was forced to undergo non-elective brain surgery in an attempt to stop him fro exposing the truth of the matter.  He hopes that his guidance and Shizuru's persistence can lead to the incident being reversed.  When her three friends find out shes leaving town they board the train into the great and dangerous unknown.  The four girls, with little knowledge of what to expect, head out with Ikeburuko as their final destination, hoping to bring Yuka back and maybe stop the 7G Incident while they're at it.

    This season has been blessed with some high quality and entertaining original series'.  Train to the End of the World is no exception and this was a fun ride exploring different story styles while maintaining an undercurrent of absurdity akin to FLCL.  The post 7G incident world lives by no set rules and each smaller arc runs with that by playing with different tropes.  The story is really about a journey of self discovery and growth into adulthood as Shizuru is driven by her guilt.  Beyond the ridiculous nature of the world and how 7G changed everything, the ability of these four unassuming yet tenacious high school girls to overcome everything they face is a bit out of the bounds of realism.  They definitely succeed based on plot armor instead of actual skill.  They blunder their way forward overcoming the absurd obstacles they encounter largely due to the ineffectual nature of those that have taken control of the disparate regions.

    This original story is enjoyable if at times absurd.  The artwork is unusual, particularly the character designs.  The journey was far greater than the conclusion though as we learn about the characters personalities and pasts while they explore the strange world around them.  The final episode seemed almost to deflate around the joy and build up of the story but in the end it worked well.  Don't expect any sort of major show down in the conclusion as the real goal is reconciliation.  

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Tadaima, Okaeri

 Tadaima, Okaeri (ただいま、おかえり) is a 12 episode slice of life yaoi series based on the manga of the same name by Ichikawa Ichi.  The series originally aired during the Spring of 2024.

    Masaki and Hiromu are a same sex couple trying to raise their young son Hiraki in a world that hangs onto outdated prejudices.  Masaki is an omega, which means he is able to be impregnated regardless of their gender.  Hiromu is an alpha, meaning he is able to impregnate omega's and beta's alike, beta's being standard humans.  The young couple had to move to a different neighborhood to escape societal pressures placed on Masaki purely based on his status as an omega and marriage to an alpha.  Hiromu does what ever he can to protect and nurture his husband and shield him from as much hatred and discomfort as possible.  While the move has allowed them a fresh start in a more accepting environment, they have a harder time removing themselves from the layers of disgust from their extended family.

    Masaki had a difficult childhood due to his omega status, largely sheltered from the world by his parents and shunned by much of his extended family.  After the death of his parents he cut himself off from his relatives but struggles with how little he values himself, relying largely on the support of his husband.  Hiromu, characterized by his alpha status as respected, powerful and authoritative, plays the roll of doting bread earner who has turned his back on his own family due to their disapproval of his marriage to Masaki.  His only concern is the well being of his husband and their son Hiraki growing up in a loving and accepting environment.  It takes a while for them to settle into their new neighborhood but they soon gather a small group of friends who support them regardless of anyone's type.  The world may be becoming less critical of someones type but that doesn't mean reactions from others aren't painful, can the young couple, living in their own way, forge a life together in a way that will defeat the hatred through lover and understanding?

    This series was my first introduction to the literary world of the omegaverse.  In short, its a popular subgroup in net-based erotic fiction that leans heavily into the incorrectly stated concept of wolf pack hierarchical organization.  The stories primarily rely heavily if not exclusively on rigid dom vs sub archetypes.  The whole alpha male concept is pseudoscience at best and deliberately false at worse so I'm not exactly thrilled there is an entire sub genre of erotic fiction that uses this as its focus point.  Beyond the basis of the genre, the story is a benign day to day telling of the struggles the young couple go through living in a world that eyes their union with distrust.  Masaki's personality is that of a lost and bewildered lamb, he is constantly nervous about everything around him, always seeking the reassuring protection of his husband.  Hiromu strides through life with confidence and an easy smile on his face, unwilling to show any trepidation he has, confident everything will work out and all that truly matters if the health and safety of his family.

    The story in general was rather boring, the only thing that kept me watching is was to see how much of the world was going to be explained...which was very little in the end.  The plot lines were sleepy and meandering with very little in the way of an over all plot, beyond the status of the young couple with their respective families.  They gather around them a small group of male friends who are only minimally detailed.  The 11th episode was one of the more interesting episodes but it concluded in a manner that highlighted how damaging the concept the story centers around is.  It reminded me that many stories built in the omegaverse have characters that are closer to animal than human and it just feels like a sexualized power fantasy...something that never sits right with me.  I did not enjoy this series and am hoping a pending yaoi in the 2024 Summer season will wash away the bad taste this series left.  Unless you're a fan of the story style found in omegaverse titles, steer clear of this one.  Its boring at best and insidious at worse.  But the core concept alone doesn't make this an unpleasant viewing experience, the story was really pointlessly boring and meandered too much.

The anime was simulcast on Crunchyroll.