First impressions: A depressed girl and her equally depressing replica, and a graffiti artist tries to gatekeep

In Even a Replica Can Fall in Love, Sunao can create a replica of herself known simply as Nao. Whenever Sunao is feeling depressed and listless, she has her replica take her place at school. They’ve never run into any problem until now, because the replica has never deigned to step out of line. But when Nao starts befriending a male classmate — and we already know from the title that she’s destined to fall in love with the guy — things start to get a little complicated for the two girls. Will the original come to resent her replica? It sure seems like we’re headed in that direction. The whole episode is a downer in general, because Nao keeps insisting that she merely exists for Sunao’s benefit. You just know that as her relationship with the boy progresses, the existential dread will become louder and louder until disaster strikes.

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First impressions: Ragebait disguised as a romcom, and Hitch if Will Smith was an anime cross-dresser

So often, I watch anime where the main characters are children, because that’s just the nature of the beast. Anime caters to a younger audience, so the protagonists tend to skew on the younger side of the age spectrum. Just to mix things up, however, let’s watch a couple of shows starring adults — working adults with responsibilities.

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I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class Ep. 1: A little uncanny

High schoolers overreact too much. Right off the bat, our protagonist Maki thinks he’s destined to a life of loneliness, because he was a bit awkward when introducing himself. Oh no, I was shy and timid, and I revealed that I like to watch B-movies! The horror! Bro, it ain’t that serious. Nah, what’s holding him back isn’t his interests or even how he delivered them. Rather, it’s his defeatist mindset. Maki is only acting this way, so he doesn’t have to try. Welp, no point in putting in any effort to make friends, because I just know I’m already doomed!

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First impressions: Polar opposites but terrible, and an old man bullies one of his mentally impaired former students

First up is The Klutzy Class Monitor and the Girl with the Short Skirt. Maybe you watched a certain show last season and thought to yourself, Y’know, I kinda like polar opposites! I want more of that! Well, Togo and Poem (yeah, that’s her name) are kinda like polar opposites, but in the least interesting way possible. The girl is your old school tsundere. All you gotta do is compliment her, and she’ll melt in your hands like chocolate. Unfortunately, she also gets very, very violent. Oh man, it’s so funny when the girl socks her love interest in the stomach. Peak 90s or 00s romcom antics! But in all seriousness, there isn’t much else to say about Poem. Uh… I guess she’s decent at math?

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Witch Hat Atelier Ep. 1 & 2: Magic has a heavy price

A few days ago, I finally cracked open the first volume of Witch Hat Atelier, which I had bought a while back when it was on sale. It’s a decent read, but I haven’t fallen in love with the series yet. Nor do I can tell if I ever will. After all, despite it ending on a cliffhanger, the first volume didn’t exactly make me jump and buy the second volume. Why? Well, a couple things bother me.

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