Love is Indivisible by Twins

 Love is Indivisible by Twins (恋は双子で割り切れない) is a 12 episode romance based on the light novel series of the same name by Takamura Shihon.  The anime originally aired during the Summer of 2024.

    Shirosaki Jun has grown up with the twin sisters who live next door.  Their families are close and spend a lot of time together.  After being close for over a decade their relationship with each other begins to fluctuate near the end of middle school.  Fraternal twins, Rumi and Naori are very different in personalities and aptitude.  Rumi is well liked, athletic and more of a tom boy.  Naori is highly intelligent, a fan of geek culture and dismissive of everyone around her.  In their final year of middle school Rumi confesses to Naori that she has feelings for Jun, the boy they have spent most of their lives with, through thick and thin.  Jun is close to being a sibling with how close the families are.  Naori encourages her sister to tell Jun about her feeling for him, but suggests keeping it a secret if he reciprocates her feelings.  Jun and Rumi spend close to the next year as a couple, hiding it from most everyone, building deeper memories together.

    In high school Rumi decides to break off the relationship, but largely unfathomable reasons.  Rumi understands that Naori also has feelings for Jun and feels that she is the better match for the studious and intelligent boy.  The break up makes Naori furious and Rumi regrets it almost as soon as she suggests it.  But she is determined to stick with her conviction, believing that Naori will never be able to find anyone if it isn't Jun, due to her prickly personality and how many interests they have in common.  Rumi decides to get the ball rolling and all but forces Jun to date her sister instead.  Jun and Naori are resistant at first, uncomfortable with the situation and the recent past between he and Rumi.  Both soon admit that they have liked each other for a long time, longer than Rumi had been a part of the romantic equation on either end.  They decide to do what Rumi is trying to force them into but things aren't as smooth as she had hoped.  Naori is upset with the meddling of her sister, whom she see's as below her.  Jun struggles with the time spent with Rumi and the feelings he built over that period, clashing with his feelings for Naori.  Their lives are forever interlinked and Jun has to decide if he will make one happy and the other miserable...or is there a third option where he isn't involved with either of them romantically, looking elsewhere for his life partner?

    If you ever wanted an anime telenovela...this may be one of the best examples!  This story is dripping with drama backstabbing and plotting.  The sisters are playing a complicated game of cat and mouse between themselves over the boy they both love.  They are also trying to resolve interpersonal issues based around their entire childhood as shadows of each other.  Jun does his best to not ruffle any feathers, but agreeing to date Rumi in the first place made that impossible.  Given how close they all are and they mutual feelings they developed, it was never going to end cleanly.  But...it doesn't actually end in the series.  There is a lot of development and progress to the over all story.  All of the characters get a good amount of time to develop and tell their story to the viewer.  The stakes of the resolution are well understood but we leave episode 12 feelings like all of this was a prologue to the real story.

    This series was significantly better than I anticipated.  Yet again we have a show that defies the simplicity of the surface concept.  This could have been a ridiculous and absurd comedy full of perversion and lust.  Instead we get an over the top drama about conflict between two sisters where the ultimate prize is the love of their life.  Poor Jun...he's really in a bad situation but hes part of the problem as well, being unwilling to shift the balance to either of the girls.  There is a lot of realism and pop culture references through out the show that enhance its view-ability.  Naori and Jun are pop culture fanatics, Naori especially rattles off all manner of real world things in her frequent tirade and monologues.  Not only does she battle against Jun over sci-fi, fantasy and literature critiques, she frequently belittles her fathers obsession with fandom that she considers pedestrian...refusing to let him know how deep her nerdom goes.  Hands down, if I was Jun...the choice would be easy...Naroi.  But, distractions, Rumi is fine I guess...shes not really an interesting character, shes more there as the catalyst for a lot of the drama as it would be rather boring if Naori didn't have legitimate competition for Juns affection.  Either way...this was an enjoyable series that I am pretty sad about ending.  Time to dig into the light novels.

    The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Days with my Stepsister

 Days with my Stepsister (義妹生活) is a 12 episode slice of life drama based on the light novel of the same name by Ghost Mikawa.  The series originally aired during the Summer of 2024.

    Asamura Yuta is a second year high school student who is doing everything he can to become independent.  After his mother passed away when he was younger, he has had to become more self reliant.  His father, loving as he is, does not have enough time to give his only son the attention he needs and provide for his stability and needs.  As he has grown order his father has become more reliant on his son for supporting the house.  Yuta works a part time job and goes to cram school, all as a plan for his post high school life.  His rigorous compartmentalizing of his life becomes shaken up when his father suddenly announces that he is going to remarry.  With the marriage comes another child into the picture, a girl names Ayase Saki who is the same age as Yuta.  Yuta and Saki initially agree live a cohabitation life without interfering with each other as much as possible.  Laying ground rules that require them to not expect the other to do anything out of obligation but out of exchange.  Saki is looking for employment and Yuta offers to help her find a job, in exchange she offers to prepare more meals through out the week.  The most important is that they recognize how they are truly strangers even if they are suddenly family law and proximity.

    Saki as well has had a lonely and internally structured life.  Her mother is less established in life than Yuta's father, predominantly working as a bar tender.  Her mother has doe the best she can to provide for her daughter but there has been a lot of regret for not being able to do more.  Saki, understanding the burden her existence has placed on her loving mother, is determined to be completely independent as quickly as possible.  Due to her looks though she is commonly considered to be an easy girl willing to take risks.  In reality she is introverted and solemn but does not see the point in changing peoples misunderstandings about her.  She is unsure about the new arrangement but is relieved that her mother has found someone who can help carry the burden for her.  Her new step brother is serious and preoccupied with his own corner of reality to not cause her concern.  Instead she begins to see him as someone she can rely on, a concept long foreign for her and one that brings with it an amount of guilt.  As they weeks pass by and she spends more time with Yuta she begins to develop attachments to him that she is unable to determine the source of.  Is she finally relieved to have someone she can rely on who shares a similar approach to their life or is she developing romantic attachments to this boy who seems so distant and formal.

    Step sister romance has been a long running meme in anime and manga, usually leaning heavily into the lewd and taboo aspects of the concept.  Kiss x Sis, Domestic Girlfriend, Citrus, My Stepmoms Daughter is my Ex, etc.  Days with my Stepsister takes a more dramatic approach with there being very little physical contact between the main characters.  There is one moment that usually would have been thrown in for pointless fanservice but was a pivotal moment showcasing the characters incredible vulnerability and uncertainty.  The step siblings begin as strangers, maintain their relationship as strangers, even as they spend more time together, slowly chipping away at their own walls.  This is a slow burning, low impact series filled to the brim with ambiance and loneliness.  I was unfamiliar with the source material but the ton set in the anime feels right for the tone of the story and the characters  I think my only real complaint with the show is how...unnaturally somber the main characters are.  They are way to proper and reserved to be realistic teenagers.  I appreciate they aren't cartoonish horn balls that are prevalent in more ecchi romance stories.  While this is a romance the story is really more of a drama than anything else.  It hyper focuses on Yuta and Saki's growing interactions and relationship and the actual legitimate romantic portions don't start to take effect until the last few episodes.It grows slowly as they question their feelings internally and and fight as hard as they can to reinforce their relationship as siblings above all else.

    I have long championed the incest romance story Koi Kaze.  Aside from the story  being about blood siblings entering into a romantic relationship with each other, there is a....concerning age difference between them as well.  I have always said the story is written in a manner that is respectful of the audience and the subject.  Choosing to be a nail biting drama instead of way to pander ti people with more subversive fetishes.  But some people might have a problem with the story given its pure incest and pedophilia content...not that the male lead who is 10 years older than his high school age sister is a pedo...but he has some problems regardless.  Why I bring that up is that Days with my Stepsister feels like the perfect series to pick up the torch from Koi Kaze and carry it onward.  Pseudo-incest between step siblings is less of a contentious issue in the west than in Japan.  What makes this less icky to approach is that their status of step-sibling is only a few months by then end of the series, so you erase that concern.  As was heavily demonstrated in the quality but unsettling series Bunny Drop...its hard to reconcile characters who may be unrelated, live and develop into complex humans living as if they are related to suddenly develop romantic feelings.  So....if you want a serious and well thought out, realistic drama about step-siblings navigating the idea of becoming more than siblings, this may be one of the best options for you.  Its not a fanservice spectacle.  Its not going to get you put on some sort of governmental watch list and its not going to give you a rote romance that we've all seen time and time again.  This is a fresh and less tread take on the genre and concepts and was very welcome to the fold.

    The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.

My Deer Friend Nokotan

 My Deer Friend Nokotan (しかのこのこのここしたんたん) is a 12 episode comedy series based on the manga of the same name by Oshioshio.  The anime originally aired during the Summer of 2024.

    Koshi Torako is the ideal high school student.  She's well liked by everyone, exemplary academic abilities, proficient in sports and is the president of the student council.  Yet this is just a cover, a desperate attempt to hide her past as a delinquent.  She desired to turn her life around and become such a dazzling display of perfection in high school that no one would ever suspect she was shady in the past.  The carefully crafted world she now lives in comes under threat with the appearance of a strange new student...the deer girl hybrid Shikanoko Noko.  Not only does everyone gloss over the oddity of Nokotan being a girl with antlers who loves deer crackers, she is welcomes with open arms by everyone around her.  Nokotan has extra sensory perception and knows a multitude of Koshitan's secrets.  Unwilling to be foiled by this strange girl, she relents to her 'demands'.  This leads to the student council president being made the head of the newly formed Deer Club, who's only really responsibility is to care for any deer in the area.  Given that Nokotan is the most local deer around, this means that Koshitan is now responsible for the weird girls safety and security.

    The Deer Club is only the start of Koshitan's difficulties.  As the next year dawns, her younger sister Anko joins the club along with another first year weirdo Bashame.  Bashame is entranced by Nokotan's aura, fully willing to go along with any insane plan the deer girl concocts.  Anko joins the club to be as close to her older sister as possible, harboring thinly veiled desires for the ex-delinquent.  Nokotan does everything she can to contain the absurd realities around Nokotan as she drags the Deer Club into one bizarre situation after another.  To complicate things even further, the vice-president of the student council, Nekoyamada, desires nothing more than to downfall of Koshitan, wishing to usurp the student council.  Nekoyamada drags the other members of the council into her plans only to see them fall victim to Nokotans glamour as well.  What is really going on with this weird being that shouldn't exist in a normal world and why is she hell bent on making Koshitan's life as hectic as possible?

    I set this up to fail it seems.  I was incredibly hyped for this show starting with the first preview, before it was even translated into English.  It just felt like the new insane comedy classic, akin to Nichijou or Lucky Star.  Non stop, intensely bizarre visual gags.  But that's not what the show delivered.  It wasn't bad, it was still weird and funny and unreasonable.  But...I really wanted something to be break neck comedy.  One episode delivered that desire, in that it spit out a serious of 20+ non-sequesters in a manner of 10 minutes.  Which was brilliant and incredibly entertaining.  Then something happened and the writing lost all of its steam.  It recovered near the end but a lot of damage had already been done and the show failed to deliver the quality product I and apparently other anticipated.

   Honestly though the show wasn't bad, it just wasn't as good as I wanted it to be.  The characters and story telling is ridiculous.  The animation is solid with a lot of well delivered sight gags.  The show is peppered with a lot of fun references and lambasts but it doesn't rely on them to carry the comedy.  But in the end the comedy wore thing quicker than it should have in a 12 episode series and I don't know if there is any point in checking out the manga, other than curiosity to see how close the anime followed it.  The strongest thing in the show was the plentiful acts of breaking the fourth wall and that it fully embraces not taking its self seriously.  Its not the best anime of the season, and its not the best comedy over the past few years.  People will probably mostly forget about it in a year or two but it was mostly enjoyable while it lasted.

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Ramen Akaneko

 Ramen Akaneko (ラーメン赤猫) is a 12 episode work place anime based on the manga of the same name by Angyaman.  The series originally aired during the Summer of 2024.

    Yashiro Tamako is a young woman who finds herself applying for a part time job at a ramen restaurant operated and staffed solely by cats.  Her aunt had recommended her to the owners as a good addition to their staff, helping with some of the things that the cats struggle with.  Tamako had left an office job due to the extreme abuse she was enduring from her immediate supervisor and was happy to get any opportunity, though the idea of working for a groups of cats seemed a bit off putting.  The cats misunderstood why she was there when she arrived for her interview, thinking she was a customer.  Tamako, meek and apologetic, finally musters up the courage to tell them why she was there after enjoying her meal.  The cats, having observed her behavior as she was the only patron in the shop, decide to hire her after confirming that shes not a cat fanatic.  Her initial job is to regularly brush the staff, in an effort to keep as much fur out of the food as possible.  As she becomes more familliar with the shop and the cats become more comfortable with her presnece and what they can use her for, she finds herself doing more tasks around the shop, eventually being out in front washing dishes...even though she dons a veil and cat ears while doing so.

    Ramen Akaneko is in a unique position in the world the show presents.  Cats with enough motivation and desire are capable of human speech and complex thought.  The two cats who effectively manager and operate the restaurant, Bunzo and Sasaki, were stray kittens who were rescued by an elderly man running a ramen cart.  Not wanting to care for the cats, he found a home for them with a wealthy business woman.  Bunzo didn't have any interest in staying in the home and returned to the ramen cart, convincing the man to adopt him instead.  Both cats found themselves in situations in their lives that pushed them to become more independent and enter into the human world on more equal terms.  Bunzo learned the old mans trade and took over the ramen cart, encouraging the man to retire.  Sasaki, using inheritance from the woman who had adopted him and passed away, decided to join forces with his old friend and helped to find a more permanent place for the ramen cart.  Together they formed the business with an eye on creating a place for other cats to feel welcome as they too choose to become independent.

    One the surface this seems like a goofy and cute story, but in reality it is a sincere and mostly comedy free work place story.  While there is a lot of attention placed on the unique challenges the cats face in operating a public facing business in the human world, this is really well thought out and believable workplace series.  As the story progresses, the viewer becomes more familiar with the ramen shops' staff and its processes along with Tamako.  Over time the cats warm up to her presence and accept her into their world, understanding that the dynamic of the store and how it faces its customers is always on a balance of collapsing.  The shop has built a family that each member can depend on and the inclusion of a new person into the mix, one who does not share the same world view due to being a different species, could be problematic.  While Tamako is grateful to be given this chance of employment in the face of the terrible past at her previous employer, she is uncertain about how well she can do in the situation.  Low end food service isn't the highest paying or more stable employment and that is more concerning when your paycheck is written out by a cat.

    This was a surprisingly enjoyable and well done series.  The characters and writing was fantastic and one of the best work place stories I have seen.  I have a lot of dislike for the artwork though, as the 3d CG animation is stiff and unnatural in many instances.  Looking at the manga however, the design team worked at capturing the quality of the character designs from the source material, but I feel this series would have been better served with some higher quality design and work.  The story and character writing is so good...that if the artwork would have been upped it would find a lot more fans.  There is always the discussion about what anime to use to introduce people into the medium.  Ramen Akaneko may be one of the easiest anime to recommend for people who are not familiar or comfortable with the medium.  Its a well written drama that doesn't sweep its underlying premise under the rug.  It is devoid of the rote trappings needed to understand a lot of anime.  Its really quite devoid of deep Japanese-ness that makes a lot of anime difficult to approach for the uninitiated.  It also just tells a relatable and easy to understand story that just happens to be about a group of cats who decided to work for a living.  Its just a really good show.

    The series simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian

 Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian (時々ボソッとロシア語でデレる隣のアーリャさん) is a romantic comedy based on the light novel series of the same name by SunSunSun.  The first season, comprising of 12 episodes, aired during the Summer of 2024.

    Kuze Masachika is a slacker otaku in his second year of high school.  He has a crush on the girl he sits next to in class, the alluring transfer student Kujou Alisa.  Alya as her family calls her, is half Russian and has returned to Japan after living in Russia for a number of years.  Exotically beautiful with a strong presence, Alya has attracted the attention of many boys in school, but her icy calculating personality keeps them at bay.  She has grown fond of the boy next to her and frequently flirts with him, saying things in Russian.  Little does she suspect, Masahika knows what she's saying and is a bit confused and flustered by it.  As a young child he learned Russian due to a girl he would play with while spending time with his grandfather.  Both characters have feelings for the other but Alya is too embarrassed to pursue them, choosing to tease him instead.  Masachika is uncertain what to make of the things she says to him in Russian, sometimes very open statements.  He knows its too late to tell her he can understand what shes saying, recognizing how devastating it would be to her to find out.  He is unable to determine if shes just messing with him or if there is some truth to what she says.  Either way he is one of the few people in school who can be considered her friend.

    Masachika gets roped into joining the student council, of which both Alya and her older sister Maria, are part of.  He had wanted to avoid it, desiring to slack off as much as possible in high school, but he struggles to outrun his past.  In middle school he was a successful vice-president of the student council, helping the president to win the election, his estranged sister Suou Yuki.  No one knows that Yuki and Masachika are siblings, a thing they keep secret for unknown reasons.  Yuki has a strong brother complex and see's Alya as a rival for his attention, doing everything she can to make the older girl misinterpret their interactions.  When Alya decides to run for student council president it forces Masachika to choose between her and his sister.  Yuki is running as well, looking to continue the success she has in middle school, given that many of the students filtered into this school from that one and know her quite well.  Feeling drawn to the transfer student he has feelings for, he chooses to back Alya instead of Yuki.  The battle lines have been drawn as Masachika faces off against his sister in his effort to help Alya win the election.  The closeness required from him being the campaign manager strengthens whatever bond they had been developing but neither can be honest about their feelings, all of their attention is on the coming battle with Yuki,

    What starts out as a gag premise quickly evolves into something else entirely.  On the surface I was concerned that the appeal of the series would be short lived if it revolved solely on Alya flirting with Masachika in Russian.  Initially I went into the first episode thinking he didn't understand what she was saying.  When you learn he does understand her and is struggling with how to react to her in secret, the series became significantly more interesting.  I was quite content afterwards to watch this fun series about two characters flirting with each other, testing the edges of their confidence.  Of course they will have to deal with outside interference, whether imaginary or intentional and Yuki's presence and deeply disturbing emotions for her bother, does a good job at adding a complex and playable level of conflict.  On top of that Alya's older sister is another obstacle as its implied that she was the Russian girl he liked as a little kid.  I was looking to nbe an enjoyable slice of life romance with some fun characters and a lot of room for story.  I had kep up to date the first month or so and then didn't catch up until the final episode of the season came out.  To say that the tone of the series from episode 6 onward is different may not be completely accurate.  Yet the weeks that had gone by since I had watched the series lent alot of energy to what felt like a drastic change in the story.

    There is a lot of mystery behind Mashicka and his sister and starting with episode 6 the story begins to delve into that and I feel it changed the tone of the story from being fun and carefree to something a bit...pompous.  Their maternal grandfather is the head of a long revered family who holds all of his progeny to strict and calculating standards.  Yuki has a maid servant and Masachika has been disowned from the Suou line, never allowed to talk about his relation to the family.  Hence why no one knows that he and Yuki are siblings.  His own mother even interacts with him as if he was not genetically related to her.  We don't know why he has chosen the path he is on, but he seems to be content with his choice.  So while the first part of the story focus on the flirting and will they won't they aspect of Alya and Masachika, the second half focuses heavily on the upcoming student council election and the complex game they have to play in order to succeed.  There is still an amount of flirting and cute moments but it really drills down onto the complex relationship between the siblings and how all of their current and past interactions might influence the upcoming election.  The first season ends with Alya working to build recognition and acceptance from the student body as Yuki pulls out all of the deep political stunts to ensure her own success.

    I liked the show, but I liked it a lot more when it was stupid and cute.  he whole Masachika and Yuki coming from stuffy aristocracy spun the tone of the series into a different direction, a direction less believable.  A good point of the story, something that helps to carry it over some rough spots, is the complexity of its characters.  While on the surface they all seem one dimensional, you quickly learn that they all use that outward personality as a defensive mechanism and they are far more complex than you first think.  Alya is perhaps the most well developed and multi faceted character in the story, being both the calculating ice queen on the surface, quite a bit of a tsundere.  Yet when shes alone or feelings comfortable she becomes a much more innocent and vulnerable girl, who really is not as adult as people think she is.  The artwork is pretty good in the series, though the designs for the school uniforms screams dating sim game and there is an unnatural amount of attention put into the eyes.  I don't have a foot fetish but this series has made me a bit of a believer in its appeal....

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll and a second season is pending for a later date.

A Quick Look at the Fall 2024 Anime Season

The Fall season, normally one of the best times for new series, looks pretty sad in comparison to the glut of fantastic titles over the Summer.  What we do have though, are 4 solid titles, 3 of which are continuations and a mixed bag of new shows that may or may not last the entire run.

Uzumaki

     The long awaited anime adaptation of the classic Ito Junji horror manga.  The fact its in black and white is even better!  Embrace the spiral and let it drag you down into a world of bliss.

Tying the Knot With an Amagami Sister

    I am not even sure why I am going to watch this...it seems like a terrible male orientated harem...but here I go, at least watching some of the first episode.  So we shall see if my preconceived notions prove correct or not.  Its about a loser who ends up staying at a shrine and then for some reason having to choose among the three, archetypal sisters, which one he wants to marry.

 

Blue Box

    Not sure how long I will watch this sports themed shonen romance but...I'll give it a try.  Of course as with more titles out of Jump, the animation is pretty solid.  But the story may be too hallow for me, especially given the quality and quantity of romances in the Summer season.  Its about a boy who wants to get closer to a girl in his school who is passionate about badminton.

 

365 Days to the Wedding

    A work place romance about two people avoiding being transferred to Siberia by getting married to each other?  Could be fun, worth a few episodes at least!

 

Is It Wring to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon season 5

    I have surprisingly enjoyed this series since the beginning.  I am hoping that this new season will wash away some of the disappointment that was the 4th season.  One thing that I have enjoyed with the story is the progressive quality of the world building.  But season 4 brought us back to a closed world centered on the dungeon its self, something we hadn't had since the first season.  It took too long to tell the story it wanted to and just wasn't as interesting as season 3 was.  Hopefully season 5 will be better!!

 

Magilumiere Co, Ltd.

    Based on the synopsis this sounds like a goofy work place comedy about a woman ending up getting a part time gig for a magical girl agency.  The previews make it seem like its more action than comedy...so we shall see...it might not make it past episode one.

 

How I Attended an all Guys Mixer

    A guy gets invited to a mixer only to find the women attending it are drag kings!  Not sure how much meat this story will actually have but it at least is worth checking out the first episode.

 

Orb: On the Movements of the Earth 

    This is a historical tale set in Europe or an analog of it just on the cusp of the age of enlightenment as a curious young burgeoning scientist butts up against the oppressive theological society.  I don't typically get into historical stories like this but its an interesting enough subject for me to dip my toe into.

Ranma 1/2

    A fundamental anime from my early years of anime fandom.  Ranma has been near and dear to my heart for a long time.  Its not with out its faults though, as I stopped enjoying the show halfway through season 3.  This is the second Takahashi series getting a remake, following the recent remake of Urusei Yatsura.  The artwork looks great and we have a lot of the main voice cast returning.  I hope this reboot keeps it streamlined and top notch...either way, I am quite excited for this series to find new fans.

Tsuma, Shogakusei ni Naru

    Based on the title and a short synopsis this seems like it could be a terrible pedo-centric story.  But the previews really strive to sell it as a heart wrenching story about loss and reconciliation with emotions.  Plot...middle aged mans deceased wife returns to his life ten years after her passing, reincarnated into a grade school girl, who remembers her past life.

Tower of God Season 3

    I suspected we wouldn't get a single cour with this series return.  The second part of the story is way to long to fit into 12 episodes, we may not see any more past this 3rd cour for a while, if at all, so enjoy it while we have it.

A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School

    Comedy about a teacher getting a job at a school for yokai?  I don't see this doing more than having jokes centered around the common yokai types but this may still prove amusing.  Not sure if it would be better served as a short or full half hour programming.

 

DanDaDan

    One of, if not the most anticipated show of the series...at first glance it looked fun but the closer I look at it and with each successive preview that comes out I am beginning to think this isn't going to be new or original.  At first glance it looked like it was going to be an off kilter comedy about two weirdos being weird, but with each new trailer as more gets shown of the primary boys transformation into a character who looks like an amalgamation of a few things I really dislike...it looks like its going to be annoying and rote shonen garbage.  It pains me though...as I love Science Saru.

Bananya Around the World

    The return of a cute and lovable short form kids show about a group of unlikely cats.  I am super happy this is back after what...10 years?

 

Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary

 Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary (小市民シリーズ) is a 10 episode slice of live drama based on the Shoshimin novel series by Yonezawa Honobu.  The anime aired during the Summer of 2024.

    Kobato Jogoro and Osanai Yuki are high school students who strive to blend into the background and live ordinary lives.  They met in middle school and formed their pact/friendship after suffered peer rejection due to their personalities.  Jogoro in particular is meddling and conceited, interjecting himself into everyone's lives, proud of his intellect and abilities of deduction.  Osani on the other hand is calculating and withdrawn.  As they enter high school together they renew their resolve to resist attracting unnecessary attention through their actions and behavior.  This ruse only lasts so long as a fellow student and childhood friend of Jogoro's, Dojima Kengo, actively courts his abilities for the greater good.  Kengo is an upstanding and respected student, imposing in stature and countenance.

    After Dojima whets Kobato's love of investigation he can't help himself as more and more mysteries demand his attention around him.  Osanai attempts to distract him by focusing on touring their small towns many confectioneries, including a summer long quest to eat the best limited available deserts possible.  While they try to remain simple people the draw of the mystery and the rush of correctly solving them continue to push Kobato to stick his nose where it may not always belong.  Unbeknownst to him, something has been brewing in secret around Osanai that will come to define their summer of sweets and alter their relationship.

    I've come to enjoy a good mystery anime from time to time and this one seemed like it would be a nice return to that format.  I wasn't prepared with how mundane the mysteries themselves would be.  The meat of the story truly revolved around Kobato's uncanny deduction abilities, akin to Sherlock Holmes, yet the things he was putting so much effort towards were mundane and largely inconsequential.  I can't say for sure how long I would have stuck with the series if it was not one of the shows being reviewed for the 2024 Summer season of the Otaku Network Podcast.  But each week I watched every new episode and discussed it at length for the podcast.  I welcomes the mundane aspect of the show though and the final arc of this series brought everything into focus with a quality pay off and a non-ending that will lead us into the second season in the Spring of 2025.

    The writing isn't bad, with interesting is detached main characters.  Based purely on how well the animation and directing lent to the story being more interesting, I am not sure if I would ever be interested in reading the source material.  The artwork is fantastic and the atmosphere of the show is...rare.  There is little background music, no tropes or gags.  It is a straitlaced and by the number slice of life series that leans heavily into realism.  The must unbelievable aspect of the series though is how goddamn calm and collected the main characters are.  They have little joy in their life...well outside of Osanai's concerning addiction to sweets.  Kobato himself seems more like an android than a hormonal imbalanced teenager.  By the end of the show I was glad I watched it, even if that was due to the podcasts content.  While we don't plan on revisiting the show when the second season airs for the podcast, it will be on my watch list when it comes out.

    The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Rascal Does Not Dream Of Santa Claus - light novel

     Rascal Does Not Dream Of Santa Claus (青春ブタ野郎はサンタクロースの夢を見ない) is the thirteenth volume of the Rascal Does Not Dream light novels written by Kamoshida Hajime featuring artwork by Mizogushi Keeji.  The thirteenth volume was originally release in 2024 and in English in 2024. 

     The following synopsis may spoil some aspects of the first twelve novels in the Rascal Does Not Dream series, if you do not want to ruin those stories stop reading until you have.  

Book Twelve: Rascal Does Not Dream of His Student here!

 

    Sakuta finds himself at a concert, the crowd swelling with anticipation after a surprise appearance by Mai.  She announces to the gathered throng that she is the mysterious Kirishima Touko and she and the band kick into one of Touko's songs.  The entire event spirals Sakuta into a state of confusion and he flees the venue, reaching for a cell phone to call Akagi Ikumi.  After asking her to meet him in Yokohama did her realize he was in the middle of a very realistic dream.  He wakes up to find himself still in the hot spring inn he and Mai are visiting during Christmas.  Sakuta tells her all of the details of his dream, concerned for what it may mean.  He is keeping Touko's warning about imminent danger to Mai in the foreground while he combs over the details.  It is only after Mai gets a call from her manager about making an appearance at the same festival he dreamed about that he begins to think about the dreaming hashtag and how this may be prophetic.

    Sakuta soon finds out he was not the only one that dreamed about being at the concert and Mail claiming to be the elusive internet songstress.  There is so much buzz around other people having it and the dreaming hash tag that the news even covers the subject, bringing a lot of public scrutiny on Mai and the possibility of her being Touko.  Sakuta meets with Akagi to talk about his dream, seeing he called her in it.  To his partial surprise what she dreamed that night was her side of the events, further causing him to question if this was really seeing into the future or not.  Much to her displeasure, she is now involved in his investigation.  First step, talk with the real Kirishima Touko.

    In early January he his junior and coworker, Koga, pulled him aside to talk abot the dreaming hashtag and everything surrounding Mai.  She didn't experience the concert event, instead she told him about how Mai was badly injured at an event earlier in the year where she was made police chief for the day.  The accident lead to her being in a coma for a prolonged period of time.  Even more concerned about Mai's safety, with a potentially understood event that put her in danger, he redoubled his effort to reconnect with Touko...but how does one go about looking for a woman who nobody can see and doesn't exactly like being seen when she doesn't want to be?  She came looking for him.  After classes resumed at his college she pulled him out of one of his lectures to ask him to accompany her on a date.  He decides its in his best interest as he can the time of having her attention to pressure her about her real identity and what the dreaming hashtag has to do with the danger to Mai. 

    The date ends up being a shopping trip as she seems to randomly wander through the area using him as her personal assistant.  He and Akagi have been doing some investigating and have learned that prior to Mai attending college, the woman who claims to be Touko was an aspiring model who maintained a healthy internet presence.  The conclusion they draw is her self esteem was obliterated by the arrival of a the most loved young woman in her vicinity.  Sakuta believes the danger to his girlfriend is related to Touko wishing to regain the spotlight and restore herself to visible status.  During the date Sakuta learns that someone close to him knew her very well prior to their life as college students.  Armed with this knowledge he bets on that person to be the key to unlock her 'adolescent syndrome' and keep Mai safe at the same time.

    Unlike the high school arc of the story, the college arc has kept Kirishima Touko as the primary focus for all of the problems surrounding Sakuta.  This volume dives deep into the antagonist herself and see's Sakuta tapping into resources he hasn't leaned on before.  While we are still dealing with a version of 'adolescent syndrome' we have dealt with in two prior occasions, the scope and gravity around Touko's invisibility does not feel like retread territory.  There is even a brief return to Koga's problems year ago with her ability to dream up simulations of the future.  Everything is starting to coalesce around the central threat that is the mysterious Touko and the problems that generate around her, causing Sakuta various levels of mental anguish.  We are edging closer to the conclusion of this fantastic series and all of the cows are coming home to roost and with two more volumes until the conclusion, the story is growing stronger.  The hardest part now is waiting for the next volume to come out...at least we have the return of the series to TV in 2025!  I may have said this with the past few novels, but this one may have been the best so far.  With each addition the story grows in quality and enjoyment.

Dropped Shows for the 2024 Summer Season

 It's a bit past the half way point of the season which has somewhat fallen into a slump across a number of shows.  This season saw me watching an abnormally large number of shows, larger than any season in the past 10 years I would imagine.  But not all of them have survived to the halfway point, quite a few have gotten dropped in recent weeks and here is the rundown of whats been left behind.

2.5 Dimensional Seduction

    I pretty quickly was able to determine that this show was not for me.  It focused too much on the characters perverted tendencies and both of the characters seemed to lack any depth of personality beyond their archetypes.  I keep thinking of it as a poor attempt at copying the concept of  My Dress-up Darling but completely missing the key piece that made that show so good...the heart and realism of the characters.  My Dress-up Darling had some questionable choices in how gratuitous it chose to expose Marin and highlight her dangerous level of comfort but 2.5 D really missed the bar on its protagonists' make up to be worth trudging through.  This was dropped after episode 1.

Plus Sized Elf

    Watching the anime adaptation of a questionable manga I read more of that I probably should instantly reminded me of why I stopped reading it.  While the concept is novel this series offers little more than fanservice.  But at least its thicc girl fanservice which struggles to receive mainstream exposure.  But, its fanservice in the end and I have too little time to spend retreading this 'story' even if its more adult than the source material.  This was dropped after episode 1.

My Wife Has No Emotions

    I have a lot of problems with the concept of 'yamato nadeshiko' the out dated, idealized concept of the dutiful, subservient wife.   This show, about an old model android who's owner attempts to force into an object of affection serves little purpose than perpetuating otaku stereotypes.  Those stereotypes, talking points of conservative politicians in Japan since at least the turn of the millennium, center around adults who struggle or outright refuse to engage in 'normal' relationships with the opposite sex, further exacerbating the countries declining birth rate.  I suspect its not at rampant as many sources will make you believe, but this show doesn't work to dispute that.  This was dropped after episode 3

ATRI: My Dear Moments 

    I have watched a number of anime based on visual novels, some were well done others were annoying.  But ATRI is the first time I can think of where said adaptation felt exactly like watching a play through of said visual novel.  The characters were obnoxious and trite and the story was so purposefully mysterious that it was difficult to generate any interest in its outcome. This was dropped after episode 5.

Twilight out of Focus

    I was hoping to get a good yaoi series to cleanse the palette from the abysmally boring Tadaima, Okaeri.  The first few episode of Twilight out of Focus seemed to do just that.  But then it started to become a situation where the actual developing plot lines were little more than set ups for the characters to have sex.  Then it reset its self and decided to set up another pairing, completely shifting focus and just became rather boring.  I dropped this after episode 6.

The season still have a little more than a month to go and honestly...VTuber Legend might be cut in before I concludes.  It was fun at first but as its progressed its meandered into a world that appears to only appeal to people who are big into VTubing...which I am not.  At this point though, everything else is on course to be finished when the season wraps up and I will have to crank out more than a dozen end of series reviews in the beginning of October.  The Fall season, based on the shows that are known so far, seems to be less interesting than this Summer season has been, which is a bit sad.  If the Fall is lighter for my concur ant viewing, I can probably concentrate more on the back catalog!

The Keirin - a Specifically Japanese Bike Race

The 2024 Spring season saw a sports anime called Rinkai! that told the story of 5 young women who decide to join the semi pro ranks of the national keirin racing league.  While the keirin is an event during the Summer Olympics, it began its life strictly for the purpose of gambling.

 

    Keirin, literally bicycle racing, is one of many race formats that exist in the bicycle discipline known as track cycling or track racing.  Track cycling is a form of bicycle racing that has existed since the 1880's and involves a closed oval track with steeply banking turns.  The specialized bikes used in track racing are unsurprisingly known as track bikes.  Track bikes have a fixed drive train, which means the gear that rotates the real wheel is fixed to the wheel its self, meaning that as long as the pedals are moving so too is the rear wheel.  There is no coasting or stopping pedaling by the rider with out the risk of serious bodily injury.  No matter how big or strong the rider is, the mechanical advantage of the drive train can not easily be overcome, if you try to stop pedaling while riding a track bike there is a very real chance that the momentum of the pedals will throw you from the bike.  Due to the nature of the fixed drive train, track bikes only have a single gear, determined ahead of time by the size of the front chain-ring and rear cog.  Racers will change the size of these gears depending on  their goal for a specific rare.  Usually, the gearing of the drive train is set to be very high, to achieve as great a speed as possible without having to pedal at an impossible rate.  The final thing that makes track bikes different is the lack of any mechanical brakes.  The only ways a rider can slow a track bike down is through gradual reduction of pedal velocity, removing the riders weight off of the rear wheel enough to remove it from the surface allowing the rider to lock the wheel up with their legs or crashing.

    The race course in track cycling is known as a velodrome.  Over the almost 150 years its existed the specifications of velodromes has changed.  The biggest things that have changed are the total length which also helps determine the degree the four corners of the oval are banked.  The track is always two long stretches capped with two banked turns on either end, with varying lengths of much shorter strait areas between each sides two corners.  The total length of the velodrome and the straightaways determine the pitch of the turns.  The modern Olympic velodrome is 250m in diameter with each of the corners usually at a 45 degree pitch.  The banked corners are designed to allow the racers to be able to turn without turning their front wheel, the curve of the track carries them on a technically straight path.  The surface of a velodrome must be free of blemishes and debris to prevent crashes.  The width of the tires used in track cycling is usually between 18 and 23 cm in width and have very little to no tread.  For comparison, the standard width of a mountain bikes tire is around 58-63 cm.  Olympic velodromes are surfaced in specially treated wood planks that are designed to be smooth, featureless and offer a slight amount of traction for the wheels.  The banking of the track decreases near the lower portion of the track, the typical position for the fastest racers.  Riders that are high up on the track bank will normally have to maintain a minimum speed of around 25 kph to avoid loosing traction and sliding down the track.

    Races done on a velodrome are either lap based or distance based.  Keirin is a little bit of both.  Keirin was established in the late 1940's as Japan was beginning to rebuild its self following the lose of the second world war.  Its creation was primarily for the purpose of betting.  This necessitated strict standards and regulations to limit the chances of mechanical advantage by more financially secure racers, limit material failure and to try and curb unconventional cheating.   In Japan, from its inception to the current, Keirin is essentially no different from horse racing when it comes to why most people in the country pay attention to it, its an exciting way to gamble.  

    A Keirin race features eight racers for a heat.  The standard distance of the race is 1.5 kilometers.  The participants begin the race being paced by a motorized bike which will slowly build the field up from 30 km/h up to 50 km/h.  Once the races have reached 50kph, the motorized bike will leave the track and the racers are free to go as fast as they want for the remaining 3 laps/750 meters of the race.  The first person across the finish line wins.  It is not unusual for the racers to hit a top speed over 70 km/h.  The slow build up in the beginning is needed due to the bikes only being a single gear which is set to a significantly large ratio.  Set your mountain bike to its hardest gear then try to pedal that from a dead stop and you're still not close to what the keirin racer is doing when they start their race.

    There exists a multitude of racing formats in the world of track cycling and keirin is one of the few disciplines that has remained one of the few remaining events for track cycling in the Olympics.  It is a quick race, mere minutes instead of hours like road racing, and has a lot of excitement as the racers physically bump each other to gain the best position during the race.  It may be the most physical of all cycling disciplines and well worth checking out!

    Unfortunately, Rinkai! has not yet been made available in North America but you can check out the keirin during the 2024 Olympics as of the week that this post is published.  As with everything, there is a wealth of archived footage of keirin events all over YouTube along with the other track cycling events.  I also recommend another Olympic track cycling event, the Madison, named after Madison Square Gardens (which used to host many track events in its early days).  The Madison is a long distance lap event in which teams of two riders compete against each other.  Both member of each team remain out on the track at all times, but only one of them is accumulating a lap count.  As the race goes on they switch off which member is adding laps and they do so by a physical exchange where the rider who is transferring to be the laping member will be pulled up to speed through a hand grab by the other rider who will be pulling to the top of the track to slow own and rest, a bit of a transfer of momentum at 20+ mile ans hour...while all of the other teams are also racing and doing the same things, its intense to behold!

My Home Hero

 My Home Hero (マイホームヒーロー) is a 12 episode crime drama based on the manga of the same name by Yamakawa Naoki and Asaki Masashi .  The anime originally aired during the Spring of 2023.

    What would you do if your only child was in an abusive relationship that could very well end in her murder?  Tosu Tetsuo, when faced with that very scenario, did what ever he could to protect her and the rest of his family.  He becomes concerned when his daughter Reika arrives for a lunch date with black eyes.  Her avoidance of the situation causes the mild mannered salaryman concern and he heads over to her apartment to talk with her.  He inadvertently encounters her boyfriend, a flamboyant braggart named Nobuto.  He overhears him discussing his abuse with a group of friends but before Tetsuo can learn more a man approaches him.  The man pretends to be scouting for call girl clients but when he gets Testuo in a secluded area he beats and strips him.  The man is looking out for the abuser and takes a photo of Testsuo and his ID for safe keeping, hoping all it takes is a warning to the worried father to keep his nose out of things.

    After spending the night recovering in an internet cafe Tetsuo returns to his daughters apartment, to try and gather clues about her boyfriend.  Before he can formulate a plan, the man enters, oblivious to the scene, belligerently chatting on his cell, visibly intoxicated.   Testuo hides in a closet, overhearing the conversation and becomes convinced that the man will kill Reika once hes been able to extort money from her.  In a moment of panic he sees an opportunity and fatally strikes the larger man with a rice cooker.  At that moment his wife enters the apartment, finding her husband trying to settle his nerves, bloody rice cooker still in his hands.  He does his best to explain the situation to her and she agrees to help him to hide the crime, unwilling to lose the love of her life over protecting their daughter.  Little to either of them understand the difficult task ahead of them.  Nobuto is the son of a man who holds an important position with a dangerous crime syndicate.  He will search the ends of the Earth to find his son and enact any level of retribution he wants.  Testuo, with the help of his wife, must use his lifetime of mystery novel reading to aid him in disposing of the body and preventing the crime from being connected to him.

    I was never able to get past season one of Breaking Bad.  The continuously building tension of a situation spiraling more and more out of the control of the main characters got incredibly exhausting to endure.  My Home Hero is not unlike Breaking Bad in that regard.  The entire plot is 'will Tetsuo be able to get away with this one murder'.  Almost immediately that situation becomes impossible as the criminal syndicate his victim is a part of knows full well that he walked into Tetsuo's daughters apartment and never left.  The person Nobuto was on the phone with before Tetsuo killed him was a man named Kyoichi, who was nearby.  Kyoichi, sensing something wasn't right with the situation, begins to investigate the apartment.  He fully suspects Reika's unassuming father knows what happened to the disliked gang member and wants to use him as a stepping stone to more authority in the syndicate.  The course of the anime roughly follows a week in time as Tetsuo is quickly rounded up by Kyoichi and is given a week's deadline to either be blamed for the murder or find the lost man.  Testuo spends all of his time, being heavily monitored by the gang, working out ways to cover up any last traces of the crime and to manufacture evidence that would exonerate him in any way possible.  Every moment of his life is filled with uncertainty and terror as the malicious criminals he becomes surrounded by offer little sympathy for his situation.

    Aside from the constant stress of the events that transpire from beginning to end leasing to mental fatigue, there are numerous points through out the story where Testuo's successes are aided by deus ex machina.  The story tries hard to remain within the realm of realism but there are a few points where that becomes absurd.  The weakest thing in the story over all is how the audience is supposed to accept Testuo's cunning and knowledge come from his avid interest in crime mystery novels.  Using this knowledge he's able to craft masterful plans to further his artificial innocence.  Aside from the idea that plot points used in fiction are largely realistic and beneficial in Testuo's situation are hard to believe, the idea that he is able to remain as level headed his is being chocked up to his carer as a salesman is absurd.  Its crazy that he has some of the knowledge he does and the means to utilize it in a real world situation.  That and there are a few key moments where he is able to 'perfectly' seize on an opportunity for maximum effect.  There is way too much in the way of plot armor to make the story as satisfying as it could be.  But thats not to say it isn't a finely crafted story with a lot of twists and turns.  It dips its toes into the morality of the characters situations and shows them coming face to face with the reality of whats going on, but that is largely swept away in favor of the continually complicated problems.  Death Note was easier to digest due to the super natural nature of the story, but My Home Hero tries really hard to make us think it exists in the real world that it ignores the unrealistic ways some of the problems resolve.  That said...I may have to pick up the manga as there appears to be a lot more story than was done in the anime...but we shall see.

 

The anime is available in dub and sub format on Crunchyroll.