Category Archives: Series

You and I Are Polar Opposites Ep. 1: A gyaru learns to speak her mind

On paper, this is just another nerd x gyaru love story. It shouldn’t be anything special, and it arguably isn’t. But as I’ve said elsewhere, I’ve read and enjoyed the manga series mostly because 1) the gyaru makes silly faces and 2) the couple gets together in the first episode. And thank god for that. It turns out you don’t have to read over a hundred chapters before two people officially date. Nor do you have to abruptly end the story when it happens either. I get the appeal of the former, I do. People like to see a relationship slowly develop from the word “hello.” But boy, does the latter piss me off. But I digress. We’re talking about You and I Are Polar Opposites, which is low stakes, fluffy fun. It’s cotton candy. I enjoy it once in a while, but it’s not something I indulge in every day, every week, or even every month. For this cold winter season, however, I’ll let this bright, saccharinely sweet series take over.

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Tamon’s B-Side Ep. 2: Reinforcing the delusion

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Tamon has a meet-and-greet coming up, and he’s naturally freaking out about it. It sounds like he isn’t confident that he can maintain his cool, sexy persona for the entire duration of the event, so here comes Utage with the assist. She shows him the absolute heap of material she has collected and collated over the entirety of her fandom. By studying all the notes she has taken on the character he plays, he can hopefully keep up the facade through the meet-and-greet. In other words, Utage’s helping Tamon reinforce the fabricated side of himself, which she has paid top bucks to enjoy. Isn’t that a bit odd?

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Journal with Witch Ep. 1: Passing the buck

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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

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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

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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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