Category Archives: Series

Journal with Witch Ep. 1: Passing the buck

Makio learns that her older sister recently passed away in an accident. An older woman (her mom?) quickly tells Makio to take in Asa, her bereaved niece. Makio tries to protest, because her apartment is hardly fit for a child. Hell, I wouldn’t say it’s fit for a grown adult either. It’s a complete pigsty. Sure, Makio might be reserved and introverted, but I assure you we’re not all like that. A good lot of us can keep our domiciles relatively clean. But Makio can’t, and this is one of the many reasons why caring for Asa would be terribly inconvenient. But you know what else is even more inconvenient? Losing your parents. So tough shit, right? At the end of the day, someone has to step up and do what’s best for the child. I’m equally bemused and saddened by the old lady’s casual hypocrisy. “Have a heart for goodness’s sake,” she says. Excuse me? What about you, ma’am? Where’s your heart? You’re passing the child off to someone else in front of the child. How do you think that makes her feel? In fact, look at all these people who have gathered for the funeral. Where are their hearts? I thought we all agreed that it takes a village to raise a child!

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Sentenced to Be a Hero Ep. 1: So far, a solid remix of an all-too-familiar formula

Not only is this show getting a same-day dub on release, we open with an action-packed, hour-long episode. This means it’s good, right? Well, I dunno. Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. The first episode is better than what I expected going in, but the show still doesn’t really excite me. Not yet. Not until we see whether or not these characters have any depth to them. ‘Cause right now, they’re still just concepts — concepts that have been remixed, but concepts nonetheless. What do I mean by this? Well, we have all the familiar terminology, i.e. “heroes,” “goddesses”, “demon lords,” etc. But their usage is slightly different.

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Kaguya-sama: Love Is War -Stairway to Adulthood-: An incomplete picture

This is a really odd special. I enjoyed it, but in a bittersweet sort of way. We open with an adult Kaguya reminiscing through her photo albums; this is essentially our framing device. But as the memories unfold, you can’t help but notice the massive gaps in the story — gaps that would’ve been filled if the powers that be hadn’t oddly abandoned the thought of adapting the rest of the manga. For example, take our first little vignette. Chika wants to tease Kaguya by pretending that she and Miyuki have started dating. Little does she know, however, that Kaguya and Miyuki have already been dating for a while now. Ho ho ho, imagine Chika’s face when she really finds out about them! But when does Chika and the rest of the gang find out? I wanna see her reaction, don’t you? But we can’t. This feels like a story that should’ve been told, but for obvious reasons, it has been left on the cutting room floor. Is the show not profitable anymore? Do we really have to call it quits on adapting every manga series just because it has finished? Like what are we doing if we’re intentionally passing up on quality just because it no longer makes money?

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Tamon’s B-Side Ep. 1: Never meet your heroes, but it’s okay if you’re an anime protagonist

Utage needs money to support her oshi, so she has a part-time housekeeping job. As luck would have it, she gets assigned to the home of Tamon, the oshi in question. Utage quickly learns, however, that her oshi is not quite as confident and outgoing in real life as he is onstage. They often say you should never meet your heroes, because, well, we’re all human. As such, even our biggest heroes are flawed. And boy, do I know it! I often get asked, “Who’s your role model?” I find it hard to answer that question, because so many people I used to respect end up being… well, for a lack of a better term, giant turds. I grew up watching Kobe Bryant and the Lakers win championships after championships. What happened? He was soon charged with rape. Was he ever convicted? No. But shhh, don’t tell Lakers fans this, but he probably did it. What about Clayton Kershaw? In his peak, he was practically a shoo-in for the Cy Young award every year! Unfortunately, he’s probably a huge bigot who’s just smart enough to know he shouldn’t be too open about it.

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The Fated Magical Princess: Who Made Me a Princess Ep. 16: What a downer

So Lucas disappears, and Claude no longer remembers Athy. We’re back to square one, except Athy is a teenager with powers. I guess that’s marginally better than being a baby with no powers, but still, what the hell, man? The worst part is that there’s no need for this. In order to save her father in the first place, Athy had to break through his defensive barrier — his trauma of losing his wife — and thus make him remember that he still has his daughter. So when he still loses his memories of her anyway, it’s like for what? Why rehash this storyline? I can’t help but think that this is just a cheap ploy to keep viewers or readers hooked. No, please, don’t leave! We have more story to tell… uh, Claude doesn’t love Athy anymore! So you gotta stick around to see if she can thaw his heart again! Yeah! The sad part is that we already have an overarching villain ready to go! It’s that evil wizard who created this mess in the first place. It’s that evil wizard who has been in cahoots with Duke What’s-his-face. Future storylines can be about taking him down, so we don’t need to redo the whole Claude bullshit again! So again, what the hell, man?

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