I’ll tackle Journal with Witch‘s second episode in the morning. For now, I want to check out a couple new shows. Somehow, they all revolve around princes.
In the Clear Moonlit Dusk
You usually get a scrawny nerd with a drop-dead gorgeous gyaru or mousy, plain Jane girl with a prince. In this series, however, it’s two straight up hotties blinding us with their combined radiance. Of course, it’s anime, so everyone’s attractive, but Yoi and Kohaku are head and shoulders above everyone else. The problem, however, is that Yoi is supposed to be androgynously beautiful, but I’m not convinced. She claims that she inherited her parents’ masculine face, but I don’t see it. She still looks like a girl to me. Did the mangaka play it too safe with Yoi’s design? I dunno, I just think she could’ve looked more masculine. Plus, if it bothers Yoi so much that everyone treats her like a guy, why does she keep her hair short? Finally, her portrayal as a prince has some odd implications. For example, the story highlights the fact that she’s willing to stand up to some jerk harassing a convenience store worker. But what are we saying? Sure, I don’t expect the average girl to know karate — I don’t expect any average person to know karate — but are we implying that other girls wouldn’t stick up for their fellow sisters?
Meanwhile, Kohaku is your generic shoujo hunk: tall, broad shouldered, strong jawline, etc. Personality-wise, he’s also well within the expected spectrum of acceptable personalities for shoujo love interests. At worst, these boys are major fixer-uppers who start out really toxic and/or clingy. At best, they still tend to be rather pushy and invasive. Kohaku leans more towards the latter, but it’s still a bit much. I mean, why would you ever grab a stranger’s face? Why would you even dare to pick someone up unprompted? Who drags a girl away from her friends just to have lunch with you and you alone? Who then grabs her necktie during said lunch? There’s being confident, and there’s this. But when you reach a certain level of hotness, I guess you can just do whatever you want. But like I said, he’s on the milder end of the shoujo love interest spectrum. I’ve seen worse.
So is that it? Is this just a show about a handsome girl finally being treated like a basic princess for once? That’s how the first episode comes across, anyway. Nothing here blows me away, but to be fair, we haven’t really gotten started. They’ve only just introduced the characters. Maybe Yoi and Kohaku still have hidden depths to them. If that’s actually the case, I would’ve put said depths in my opening episode, but I would never claim to be a good writer. Anyway, my initial plan was to blog this show along with You and I Are Polar Opposites every Sunday, but Journal with Witch kinda blew me away with its first episode. Ideally, I would cover every show I’m interested in. But as someone who still has to work to pay the bills, I have to draw the line somewhere. But I’ll still follow In the Clear Moonlit Dusk. I’ll just do a quick blurb on it in my weekly “Everything else” series.
The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor(ing) Kingdom
Yet another show about a jilted villainess. Our female protagonist is isekai’d into her favorite otome game, check. She is reborn as the villainess who used to bully the actual heroine of the game, check. She was originally set to marry the blond crown prince, but he dumps her at a party in front of everyone, check. A dark-haired prince then shows up out of nowhere and saves the villainess, check. Okay, fine, we’ve seen this all before. The least you can do is execute on your concept. But is the animation good? No. Are the characters charming? Eh. Is the writing at least decent. Honestly, I’m struggling to find anything about this anime that makes me want to come back for more.
According to Wikipedia, this adaptation is based on a novel series that was written back in 2016. So at least we know it’s not AI. Hell, considering its age, it might have even started the trend, but I wouldn’t actually know. I just feel like it’s a bit too late to crash the villainess party with an offering this paltry. The only highlight of this opening episode was our love interest having the most ridiculous name of the season. Other than that, watching this show was like eating plain white bread. Maybe this was impressive back in 2016, but we need something with a little more juice after a decade.
