How I Attended an All-Guys Mixer

 How I Attended an All-Guys Mixer (合コンに行ったら女がいなかった話) is a 12 episode romantic comedy based on the manga of the same name by Aokawa Nana.  The series originally aired during the Fall of 2024.

    College student Tokiwa is invited to a mixer by a girl from his class maned Suo.  She wants him to bring two other guys.  He invites his buddies, Asagi and Hagi.  Things turn sideways when they arrive at the location to find three well dressed, handsome men waiting for them instead.  After some playful teasing one of them reveals themselves to be Suo.  She lets the traumatized guys know that they work at a drag king bar and decided to come dressing in their work attire for the mixer.  After some alcohol lubrication the 3 kings drag the guys all around town, partying well into the night, continuously playing pranks on them and attracting attention from everyone else.  

    After the night on the town the two groups continue to interact with each outer.  The woman usually while in their drag personas.  From the very start there is chemistry between them, each woman enjoying the compony of one of the guys.  Tokiwa was already attracted to Suo and enjoys the idea of spending more time with her, even if she attracts a dizzying amount of attention as a man.  She is often referred to by all of the girls in school as The Prince.  Suo likes Tokiwa back but is willing to play it slow and wants him to realize how much she likes him.  She also hides her job from everyone so only the three guys know who The Princes really is in school.  Asagi is dimwitted and easy influenced.  He has attracted the eye of the stern and cool Fuji, the shops bartender.  She draws erotic doujinshi on the side and has few inhibitions, taking full advantage of Asagi's gullibility.  The last paring is Hagi and Kohaku, both of who share similar personality defects and struggle to recognize their own feelings for the other enough to act on it.  Hagi himself begins to question everything when he realizes how excited he is when Kohaku is in drag.

    I went into this expecting it to be a bit of a running joke series with not a lot else?  It did continue to run the joke of the three kings outshining the boys.  In all honesty the gender roles really were reversed, even when the women were not in drag.  The boys are easily excited, unsure and cautions.  The woman know (well mostly) exactly what they want and are willing to play games with the boys until they understand whats really going on.  As the series progresses we see the characters getting closer and more comfortable with each other.  I can't stress enough how fun this series was and how unexpectedly delightful and sweet the characters are from start to finish.  I really enjoyed this series and am glad I ended up having to wait to watch all of it until the end of the season.  I just could stop hitting next episode and when it was all done I downloaded Squares manga app to read it!!

    I truly enjoyed this cute and amusing series all around.  The characters are fantastic, the artwork is a lot of fun and it was just a pure joy to watch.  If you are a fan of Ouran High School Host Club, this is the perfect companion piece to that show.  Though this one is just straight loveable comedy, no drama, no tension, no mysteries.  Just amusing anecdotes as the guys fumble around, being played by the savvy kings.

The series was simulcast on HiDive

Whisper Me A Love Song

 Whisper Me A Love Song (ささやくように恋を唄う) is a 12 episode yuri romance based on the manga of the same name by Takeshima Eku.  The series originally aired during the Spring of 2024, with the final two episodes not airing until the end of 2024.

    Kino Himari becomes obsessed with the performance and lead singer of a band made of third year students who perform during the school event welcoming the incoming new students.  Himari can think of nothing else and when she runs into the upper classman later in the day doesn't hold back when telling her how much the performance moved her.  The girl, Asanagi Yori, misinterprets the younger girls words and thinks it was a confession of love for her, not understanding Himari was having difficulty properly expressing her feelings.  Kino is flattered by the forthright attitude of the younger girl and begins to entertain the idea of actually dating her. Himari learns that Yori usually sneaks onto the roof of the school after class ends to play her guitar and sing.  Wanting to experience more of her playing she intrudes on this sacred space.  Yori reluctantly lets her join in, hoping it will allow her to respond positively to the girls confession.

    As they spend more time together Yori quickly learns that she misunderstood what Himari had fallen so helplessly in love with.  Crushed by the misunderstanding, she still holds out hope for building a relationship with her.  Himari admits that she has never really thought about what it means to be in that type of relationship with anyone and feels bad that Yori misunderstood her.  She's glad that she can still spend time with her though and as they grow closer she begins to recognize that a deeper fondness for the older girl is growing with in her.  But not everything is rosy in Yori's life.  She decided to join the school band permanently, replacing the original singer.  One of the bands other members and Yori's childhood friend tries to tamp down her feelings for her new band mate, recognizing they will never be returned.    To complicated things further, the girl who left the band formed a new one and is set on proving to her old band mates that she is superior in every way to them.

    The show started off rather enjoyable but as it progressed into a narrative that didn't follow Hima I started to loose interest.  It also doesn't help that the last two episodes were delayed until the end of the year.  Not that it was bad but I just didn't care enough about the direction the story took.  Though...it did kind of run out of ideas with the original idea of the growing relationship between Hima and Yori.  I am being a bit harsh though.  The story presented an idea that sparked Hima's obsession and then it went on to flesh out that idea beyond being a plot device.  Yori was asked to perform with the bad at the last minute due to its original guitarist quiting.  The second half of the story really digs into why she quit and how Yori and in some ways Hima were a catalyst for it and later developments.

    The series wasn't too bad, it had some fun moments and developed its characters relationships better than a lot of other stories.  It told a complete story that involved more than just the main pairing.  It presented tension and friendship in realistic ways.  I think I just became bored with the story after a while and was only continuing it to see it though to the end...then the production delays set in.  But don't let me faded interest influence anything, it's not a bad story.  Though, the characters design is a bit...much I think.  Or at least some of them are a bit daring sim game like.

The series was simulcast on HiDive.  

A Quick Look at the Winter 2025 anime season

The 2024 Falls season was light compared to the rest of the year for what I was interested in and actually consumed.   The Winter season isn't shaping up to be much better, but it does have a few returning shows that I enjoyed.

 

100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really Love You season 2 (1/12)

    The continuation of the first season, this series is more a criticism of harem anime with a lot of weird humor.  I did enjoy the original and suspect the second season will be just as fun.

Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You (1/9)

    A reverse harem with a cast of K-Pop pretty boys...this probably won't last very long.

Apothecary Diaries part 2 (1/10)

    Podcast co-host David implored me to watch the first season of this series early last year and I don't regret it.  While the mystery of the week style story telling can get a little boring at times the main characters or so enjoyable it makes the bad parts palatable.

Flower and Asura (1/7)

    I think this is going to be a yuri...

 

From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated (1/9)

    I'm not a fan of isekai and I try to avoid them usually, but come on...how could I pass up at least watching the first episode of this one?.

Honey Lemon Soda (1/8)

    Blue Box may have some competition this season with another anticipated romance that probably lacks a ton of substance and complex characters.  Not sure how far this ugly duckling story will last.

I Have A Crush at Work (1/6)

    I am always up for mature romances and work place stories are probably the most frequent, this one looks like it might get a bit spicy though, so we shall see if its good or not.

I'm Getting Married to the Girl I Hate in Class (1/3)

    This has to be better than More Than A Married Couple,  But Not Lovers...that show was a train wreck.  Though this is probably going to be tedious and obnoxious non-the-less.

 

Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms (1/6)

    I'm always up for a romance in which the female lead is the focus of the narrative.  This will hopefully be better than Kaguya-sama, which i don't understand why its as popular as it is.

My Happy Marriage part 2 (1/6)

    The first season of this super natural historical romance had its problems...mostly the super natural part.  The story of the main characters growing closeness had more than enough weight to carry it but there's this terribly under baked battling demons thing mixed in...we shall see how it pans out in this continuation.

Okitsura (1/4)

    A story about a boy falling in love with Okinawa.  Or something like that, expect lots of dialect jokes.

Sakamoto Days (1/11)

    Perhaps the most anticipated new show of the season, this is based on the popular shonen jump manga about a hit man who retired, got married and lives a comfortable live...and then his past keeps showing up?

Tasokare Hotel (1/3)

    A girl finds herself in a strange hotel where the staff help people find themselves, presumably after they die?  Feels a little like  Death Parade...

 

 

Welcome to Japan Ms. Elf (1/10)

    This is a late inclusion on the list...perhaps to wash away the terrible adaption that Plus Sized Elf was earlier in 2024?  It probably won't last long though.

 

Zenshu (1/5)

    What do you get when you mix Shirobako with an isekai?  We are going to find out with this one.  Side note, I hate the depiction of the main character and always covering her face with her hair.

Continuing Series'

Blue Box

    I'm waiting for this to actually get good...its been very inspiring so far and Chinatsu still lacks a personality beyond being favorable and non-intrusive.  Also...a blue box is an old tool used by phone hackers to make free calls on payphones. 

Blue Miburo

    One of the shows picked for the Fall season of The Otaku Network Podcast, this story about the formation of the Shinsengumi continues through the end of this season.  I'm not particularly entertained by the show, but ts better than watching Rurouni Kenshin at this point.

 

Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

    Another hold over from the last season of The Otaku Network Podcast, this is one of the best written anime I have seen in a very long time.  It's such a good story with well developed characters, I need to see how it concludes at the end of this season.

The Fable

 The Fable (ザ・ファブル) is a 25 episode yakuza dramady based on the manga of the same name by Minami Kitsuhisa.  The anime originally aired during the Spring and Summer of 2024.

    Legendarily skilled and prolific hit-man The Fable is forced into a years sabbatical by his boss and handler in order to protect their business from too much unwanted attention.  He and his driver are forced to assume fake identities as siblings and spend the time under the protection of a small yakuza clan in Osaka.  The Fable assumes the name Sato Akira and his driver takes on the name of Sato Yoko.  Neither knows the others really identity or anything about their real lives, keeping things as professional and discreet as possible.  But now they must pretend they are life long siblings among a group of strangers, many of whom do not know who they really are.  Akira has one job for the entire year, don't kill anyone and don't attract attention.

    The only people in the yakuza clan who know that Akira is The Fable are the boss and his right hand man Hiroshi.  Hiroshi doesn't like the situation and looks to test Akira, to see if he will be more of a liability than an nuisance.  He harbors a great distaste for professional killers, equating them to nothing less than psychopaths and degenerates.  What  he doesn't understand is how bizarre and unusual The Fable really is, nor is he exactly prepared for what his suspicions will unlock in the sleeping killer.  Akira kills because hes unnaturally good at it, but isn't particularly blood thirsty or insane.  Its just a job to him, one that lets him do what he wants to do and he excels at.  In reality he's detached from normal humanity but not because he's a killer...he's just plain weird and eccentric in unusual and unpredictable ways.  He has to spend the whole year not working, pretending to be a normal human...or getting close to it to attract too much suspicion.

    The initial concept has been intrigued.  Fable is only good at being a cold killer but lacks the ability to function as a 'normal' human being and barely understands his problem.  He freaks out when he bites I to hot food.  He's obsessed with a hack comedian.  He sleeps in a bathtub.  All around it's amusing to see him move through the world.  Those around him are truly a rogues gallery of misfits and criminals.  One of the best characters is his the woman posing as his sister, Yoko.  She's there to keep an eye on him and remind him of his promise to their boss.  She gets bored rather quickly and begins to entertain herself by abusing weak men.

    The story only has one premise on the surface, be normal for a year, after that anything goes.  Without trying he becomes entangled in all sorts of problems, whether it's Yakuza trying to test him, without even knowing who he is.  Or becoming involved in protecting a woman from a crazy stalker.  The characters flow naturally in and out of the story as it builds a well fleshed out underworld the two cast always find themselves swimming in.  The best arc of the story has to be the last one where a botches job resurfaces by chance.  Over all, this was a wholly entertaining and often times amusing crime story.  Definitely something worth checking out if you want a in-depth story that doesn't involve super natural teenagers fighting monsters.

The series was simulcast on Hulu/Disney+.

16bit Sensation: Another Layer

 16bit Sensation: Another Layer (16bitセンセーション ANOTHER LAYER) is a 13 episode sci-fi comedy inspired by the manga 16 Bit Sensation: The Bishojo Game Made by All of You and I by Mitsumi Misato and Wakaki Tamiki.  The anime originally aired during the Fall of 2023.

    Akisato Konoha is a 19 year old illustrator who spends her days slaving away at a game company making the same repetitive artwork for uninspiring games.  She dreams of being part of the golden age of bishojo games, from when she was barely a twinkle in her parents eyes.  After work one day, wandering trough the back alleys of Akihabara, she stumbles upon a quaint used game store.  She marvels at the treasure trove of iconic titles in the 100 yen discount bin, such as Kanon and Dokyusei.  When she decides to open the packaging for one of the games she finds her self transported to Akihabara in 1992.  While wandering its now unfamiliar streets in confusion she returns to the building that she works at only to find a different software development company called Alcohol Soft.  A boy she encountered earlier finds her lost in front of the building and asks him for help.  She learns that they are a company making bishojo games so she instantly applies to work for them as in illustrator.  But things aren't as easy as she would hope as the technology differs vastly compared to what shes used to and they have to teach her how to do the most basic things.  Her enthusiasm and ideals keep her optimistic and she puts her worries behind her.

    When they finish the game shes has helped with she finds herself back to 2023 and wishes that she could return to the early 90's to continue working on the games she loves the most, being a part of the formation of the industry.  She retraces her steps and ends up transporting back to 1996 this time, after opening another game.  Shes beginning to realize that the games dictate what year she travels to, marked by their release dates.  For her, she has only been gone for a brief time, but when she shows back up at Alcohol Soft to work for them more they are bewildered and confused as to where she has been over the past four years.  She once again helps them and when she returns to 2023 she has a plan to be valuable for them and packs a bag of modern technology to bring with her for the third time.  But she begins to notice that the history shes familiar with isn't exactly the same as it now appears and fears that she may be irreversibly altering her present.

    This was a bit of an interesting series, given that the character of Konoha does not exist in the original manga...so I really need to track that down and read it to see what that story was like.  Anyway.  I am a fan of time travel stories and this was a fun one particularly how much of a love letter to the golden era of bishojo games the story is.  It was fun seeing Konoha have to face the vastly different technological landscape of the 90's as she struggled to prove to the others that she was good at what she does.  Some aspects of the story shared qualities with Otaku no Video I feel.  Ultimately though, Konoha's character is incredibly annoying.  The final arc of the story was...drastically different from the tone of the everything that came before it and a little disappointing to be honest.  I really do need to read the original manga as it is more a telling of the creators history in the video game industry at that time.  That feels like a more interesting story than this quirky time travel story.

    Aside form the anime apparently diverging a bit from the source material and its main character being rather grating, this was a fun series to watch and I sped through it pretty quickly, each ending keeping my interest piqued as to what would happen next.  Over all it is a fun story, even if it ends in a less than satisfying manner...for me anyway.  I believe that a faithful adaption of the source material may have been a better approach as there will always be interest in an anime about the industry especially if its based on real people and events.  Just look at how well received Shirobako was.  Oh well, we can only deal with what we got and until I started doing research I didn't even know the anime diverged from the manga.  Still not a bad story, especially if you are a fan of those classic dating sim games.

The series was released on Crunchyroll.

Goodbye Eri

 Goodbye, Eri (さよなら絵梨) is a one-shot manga by Fujimoto Tatsuki.  The manga was originally published in 2022.

    On his 12th birthday Yuta is given a smartphone as a present but also as the catalyst for a daunting assignment.  His mother is dying and she wants him to record as much of her as he can while she is still living.  He goes about capturing hour upon hour of his families lives, saving candid moments of posterity.  As his mother approaches her end she asks him to make sure he films her death.  On their way to the hospital he refuses to enter let along capture her passing forever.  The scene cuts to him running away from special effects of the hospital exploding and we learn that the images so far have been part of a movie her edited and submitted for his schools talent show.  The reaction from fellow students and staff is one of revulsion and disgust.  They laugh at it and call him strange for dishonoring his mother with the film, unable to understand his grief over her loss.  He decides to record one final moment on his camera phone, his good bye message as he plans on jumping off of the roof of the hospital his mother died in.  But someone stops him while hes on the roof, a girl who tells him not to kill himself here, as it will ruin the places reputation.  Suggesting that he should do it at another hospital in town, where she feels the staff are ass holes.

    Instead of killing himself he follows the girl to an abandoned warehouse and she forces him to watch movies with her.  When he presents her enough about her motivation she tells him that she wants him to make a better movie than the one he showed to the school.  She tells him that he needs to understand film first before he can write a new movie and demands him watch movie after movie with her in what ends up being a year long process.  Once she feels his grasp of cinema and story telling is strong enough she tasks him with beginning to write the new film that he will present again to the school, with the goal of moving everyone to tears instead of ridicule.  Through the girls encouragement and prodding he concocts a new tale, one he hopes will have the ability to elicit the response they both want.

    This manga has been on my want list for quite a while now and I finally picked it up after I watched an anime adaption of another Fujimoto one-shot, Look Back.  On top of my original interest in the manga I was motivated to see if Goodbye Eri was able to impact me in the way that Look Back did.  Chainsaw Man did little to interest me and the first episode offered nothing interesting or new.  Look Back was a phenomenal and powerful story and Goodbye Eri falls in the middle.  I may have expected more out of it than it was able to deliver and set myself up for failure.  That's not to say it isn't a bad story, but there is a weird meta about it that I am not sure if he did intentionally.  The entire manga is presented as if everything is only coming from Yuta's recordings.  The first part, the initial concept of the birthday present to record his mothers last days takes a turn as it ends to reveal that we have been seeing the movie he edited together to present to the school.  We are seeing her peers reactions to it from the point of what his cellphone captured.  The moments he spends afterwards with Eri, sorry, the girls name is Eri, are from the perspective of what he records.  The movie idea he comes up with is the entire make up of the manga up to that point.  The movie is about a boy who fails to move his classmates with a movie he was forced to make about his mothers slow death and then how he is saved from suicide by a weird girl who tasks him with making a movie.  Eri goes a long with the idea that he presents but stresses that something is missing from it, some weird twist that would mark it as something he makes.  In the end...the manga its self deals with the exact same issue...and I don't know if it was good or not.

    Again, its very hard to tell how much of the art copying life aspect that unfolds in the story is on purpose...I suspect it all is.  But the story literally ends in a way that doesn't seem satisfying, which is the dilemma that Yuta faces when trying to make his second film.  I think I need to read it again, it took my less than 30 minutes the first time and I may have artificially rushed the story just to knock it out and get another review out.  I think I need to return to it in a few months and go through it more slowly, digesting it with the knowledge of what transpires in its pages and the fact its layer upon layer upon layer of the same thing through out, its...difficult to really get into detail about how the story truly unfolds without spoiling some twists.  Aside form the writing its self, I am not a fan of his art style, but I can appreciate it the design choices he makes.  I should really just pick up the manga for Look Back to see if the movie had another peoples influences to make it what it was...but I suspect that isn't the case.  Either way...I am interested in other shorter stories that Fuyimoto comes up with.  There is some interesting creativity lurking in his process that may just need to be unleashed more by his editors.

The manga is being published in English by Viz.

Magilumiere Co. Ltd.

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

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

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

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

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

The series was simulcast on Prime.

365 Days to the Wedding

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

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

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

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

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

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Dan Da Dan - Season 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tsuma Shogakusei Ni Naru

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

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

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

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

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

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

In Defense of the Gyagu

    One of my all time favorite genre's is the raucous styling of gag manga.  Largely joke driven instead of plot driven, many times yonkoma formatting and just indecipherable for those not in the know.  Many times the artwork is crude, either to enhance the absurdist nature of whats being presented or because the author is a far better jokester than artist.  Out of all of the genres of manga or anime that see distribution in North America, it may be one of the hardest types to sell, perhaps similar to the difficulty of sports stories to gain traction.

    There are some well regarded titles that sit firmly in the gag camp, Gintama, Nichijou, Lucky Star, etc.  Yet the titles generally have a hard time finding large audiences especially with audiences that are looking for something familiar and/or story driven.  I have long been a fan of the genre, eagerly seeking out the bizarre titles that no licensing firm would ever contemplate bringing to America.  Titles like the fantastic Gag Manga Biyori or Super Radical Gag Family.  America has its own history of absurdist humor and what amounts to sketch comedy.  Its not difficult to make connections between Saturday Night Live and Gag Manga Biyori.  They both deliver short, self contained concepts who's sole intent is to deliver a punchline.  Some gag manga is difficult for Westerners to approach because of the localized nature of the comedy.  This can be especially hard when the comedy is styled on the manzai form of stand up.

    I had initially started to write about my love for gag manga ten years ago and just sat on a partial script until finally scrapping it.  The week of this writing the Netflix exclusive American cartoon inspired by the card game Exploding Kittens premiered and I watched a few episodes of it.  I enjoyed it at first but then noticed a common pattern in American adult animation.  The need for the writers to force a plot in a single episode as a weak support system for the jokes that are the real focus of the writting.  What I enjoyed with the Exploding Kitten cartoon was the absurdist cringe humor peppered through out.  Unfortunately the bulk of each episode was consumed with trying to develop an unnecessary narrative that was both contained in the episode and could be expanded across a larger story.  I believe the product would have been far more satisfying to both the audience and I suspect the writing staff if it compartmentalized its self focusing on the jokes as the most important, in the way Robot Chicken does.

    Even the original source material, The Oatmeal, is self contained jokes and musing with zero over all plot of connectivity.  Yet the choice was made to follow the formula used in all manner of adult cartoons designed for Adult Swim and it turned into something that was an imitation of those other show sprinkling with some amusing biting commentary.  It could have been some much more if it hadn't fallen victim to forced expectations instead of relying purely on the strength of the joke writing.  I have a similar opinion on the Deadpool and Guardians of the Galaxy films.  Both of those series have no need for a structured plot as the joy of the movies is the absurd interactions between the characters.  Trying to force in a grander story or message only gets in the way of the joy.

    Gag manga is a hard sell, even if there are a number of well received titles that have found homes in North America.  It doesn't usually get the attention that other more exciting genres get so large portions of the fan base shy away from something that is so different than they are familiar with.  But all it takes is to find that one title that scratches an itch that's never been scratched before to make someone a believer.

    In conclusion I think my gravitation towards gag manga and anime was laid down as a young child, growing up on sketch comedy like SNL, Monty Python and SCTV.  I'm of the opinion that the greatest comedy movie ever made is The Jerk and its story barely does anything other than to set up all of the jokes.  There is so much gag manga out there that is difficult to get into because of how obtuse the jokes are if you're not familiar with the medium, that and some legitimate cultural differences.  But honestly, thumb through a copy of Life Lessons With Uramichi-oniisan and tell me you didn't laugh.

Look Back

 Look Back (ルックバック) is a dramatic slice of life movie based on the manga of the same name by Fujimoto Tatsuki.  The movie was originally released in theaters in 2024.

 Spoiler Warning: In order to properly discuss the film plot points will need to be somewhat spoiled.  Please be aware of this before you continue.

    Fujino Ayumu draws the 4-panel manga for her school weekly newsletter.  The praises of her efforts by the other students and her teachers carry her through her days.  She sits confidently on top of the world through her artwork.  Another student begins to submit 4-panel manga for the newsletter as well, a girl who doesn't come to school named Kyomoto.  Fujino figures that a girl who can't even attend school on a regular basis might not be able to meet the weekly deadlines.  The first strip by Kyomoto completely devestates Fujino.  The shut in girls highly detailed creations offer a stark contrast to the juvenile nature of Fujino's artwork.  Everyone notices and in an instant her praise and admiration evaporate.  Bulking at the difference in ability, Fujino doubles down and consumes herself with studying art, feverish to improve her abilities.  Time slides by as she does nothing but study and practice, trying to surpass Kyomoto.  Her single minded focus causes her friends to grow distant and her grades to slip.  After so much effort and sacrifice she realizes she doesn't have the ability to surpass the other girl and decides one day to completely give up drawing manga.

    On the day of graduation from middle school her teacher tasks her with bringing Kyomoto her diploma.  Begrudgingly she does only to find her house lifeless.  She creeps in through the unlocked front door and sees piles upon piles of sketch books lining the hallway, to what she assumes is the other girls bedroom.  Angered by everything she grabs a strip of paper and jots down a quick manga, attacking the other girl.  A gust of wind slips the strip underneath the closed door, panicking, Fujino flees the house.  Kyomoto notices the art and realizes who the intruder is and rushes out after her.  The disheveled timid girl yells after Fujino as she briskly walks down the street.  That works and she stops, tuning to see her rival for the first time.  Kyomoto addresses her with admiration and respect, gushing about specific panels Fujino drew over the years that she loved.  When she asks her why she stopped drawing Fujino concocts a lie about changing her focus on creating a manga to submit for publishing.  Kyomoto begs for Fujino to let her read it.  Even though no such creation exists she tells her she will and leaves to return home, propelled by the admiration her rival pours upon her.

    Fujino returns to manga creation as she enters high school, crafting a concept to submit for publication, she decides to partner with Kyomoto, tapping into the other girls abilities.  To their complete surprise their creation is selected for a new artist contest and wins 2nd place.  The success gives them some money to use and a foot in to door to produce more works for the publishing company.  Through out high school the two girls feverishly produce short manga one after another, all getting published.  Kyomoto has dropped out of school, still unable to interact with other people very well and wanting to pursue art full time.  As graduation approaches their editor sets them up to begin a longer series for the magazine.  Kyomoto tells Fujino that she has to step away from the work.  She has a great desire to improve her art and to grow into a more productive member of society by forcing herself into social situations.  Fujino is upset with her decision, relying on her artwork and design input.  Fujino believes that she is all the other girl needs, that she can always lead her into the future.  Kyomoto is determined to improve herself both mentally and artistically and goes ahead with art school.  Meanwhile, Fujino pushes ahead with a serialized manga that gradually becomes successful and popular.  But her success brings problems as her reliance on assistants causes her extra work.  Her world shuts down when a rampage at the art college Kyomoto attends leads to the other girls death, along with many other students.  Fujino struggles to comprehend the loss and believes that the choices she made lead to her friends death.  The story ends with a quiet note of reflection and speculation on Fujino's part as she faces the world without her rival and friend.

    Fujimoto is known for his super natural shonen action hi Chainsaw Man, a series that has never interested me.  This however, has been on my mind since the first preview came out for it.  I absolutely love dramatic retrospective stories and this hits a lot of those beats.  I feel the message that we can take from this story is to appreciate the time we have with those around us as we have no control over how long that time is.  Nothing you can do will change things once they have happened, no matter how much wish crafting we do.  The story telling is poignant, precise and well paced for what it wants to say.  There is really no wasted time and the majority of it is the set up of the relationship between the two girls during their formative years, using a fantastic time lapse of them working on manga during high school.  That said, I still have no interest in Chainsaw Man...even if I can recognize some story telling skill on Fujimoto's end.  This however is well wroth the hour run time.

    A lot of people may bulk at the artwork, which is full 3DCG.  Its not clean or pretty by any definition of those words.  But it fits well with the characters and the story.  At times it felt like it was rotoscope like that found in Flowers of Evil.  With all the uncanny quirks with this style of animation, the production team showed off how it can be used effectively for framing and motion.  But in the end this is a no frills production that focuses more on the dialogue and exposition to tell the story and it does a really good job at that, a fantastic job.  This is a heavy movie that may not be for everyone but it doesn't make the subject material a spectacle.  It doesn't romanticize anything, choosing to be stark and bare in its emotions.  It's been a while since an anime kept me awake at night thinking about it.

The film is currently available in dub and sub on Amazon Prime.  I am going to need to pick up the manga to add to my collection.