First up is Sorry About My Little Brothers. (Reverse) harem? Strike one. The boys are actually the protagonist’s new stepbrothers? Strike two. One of the boys is literally in third grade. Fuck it, strike the whole damn show. Even if this anime was actually wholesome, i.e. not pursuing romance with your freakin’ stepbrothers, the premise is still ridiculous. Ito’s mother introduces her to her stepfather for the first time ever. Guess what both grown ass adults failed to mention? Yep, the fact that her new stepfather has four young sons. Excuse me, how can you just let that slip? I had no plans to watch this show going into the season, and the first five minutes is enough to turn me off completely.
Draw This, Then Die! doesn’t seem like junk. In fact, it actually seems like it has potential to be really wholesome. The plot hook at the very end of the episode is even somewhat intriguing. To set the stage, Ai is a shy girl with a very active imagination. Thanks to manga — and the help of an imaginary robot tanuki…? — Ai understands her own loneliness. She also finds the courage to not only protect other kids from a (cute and friendly) dog, but also make new friends.
Unfortunately, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Ai has a rather strict disciplinarian for a teacher. The woman constantly reprimands Ai for reading manga despite the positive influences it has had on the young girl’s life. She even confiscates Ai’s favorite manga. How can you deride your student like this? Regardless of your own personal beliefs, you should be nurturing your students’ passions (as long as it isn’t drugs or whatever). Manga or not, your student is actually reading. That seems like a win on its own.
Nevertheless, Ai is undeterred. When she learns that her favorite manga’s mangaka will be giving away copies of her latest work — a continuation of the same manga that Ai loves so much — who should she find at Comiket but her mean teacher. Yes, her teacher is the mangaka. Then that makes the woman’s attitude even more galling! Not only was she shitting on her student’s hobby, she was knowingly shitting on one of her young fans! So yes, I’m curious to see what is wrong with Ai’s sensei. Unfortunately, this isn’t really the type of show that I really follow. As intrigued as I am, I don’t think Draw This, Then Die! has a chance of holding my attention in the long run. But I could be wrong, so I’ll add it to the “Everything else” pile for now.
Finally, we have Kamui: He’s Behind You, a show where an exorcist gets rid of evil spirits by fucking them. No, you read that correctly. But the problem here isn’t the sex. The problem here is the nature of it. The spirit screams “No!!!!” when Kamui strips off his clothes. You can try to be charitable. You can try to argue that she’s only denying him because she doesn’t want to be exorcised. And she is a malicious spirit, so something has to be done about her. No… no, I’m not convinced, especially when Japan is full of porn that indulges in nonconsensual fantasies. Plus, the show’s title says it all. He’s not behind you for good, ol’ clean fun. Just call a spade a spade: this is rape. Just because your victims are evil spirits doesn’t change anything. Alright, I’m obviously not watching another second of this shit. And we only made it two minutes into the episode, too.
Wow, what a roller coaster ride today. We went from an incestuous reverse harem — um ackshually, it’s inseki — to a potentially wholesome story about a young girl on the road to creating manga, then finally landing on a show that is essentially about raping ghosts.