Intrepid Anime

Spring 2023 is Gonna Be Big Winter 2022 draws to a close, but a new season is just around the corner. New Series premiering this Saturday – April 1st! I’m hyped. Though this previous season had a few shows I went into really looking forward to, to be honest, there wasn’t a lot of anime that I was excited to see (outside of Tomo-chan, Farming, Campfire Cooking). However... next season… is nuts. Here’s my hype list for Anime in the upcoming Spring 2023 season, starting with.... TOP 10 1.The Danger in My Heart---April 1st 2. Skip and Loafer---April 4th 3. Insomniacs After School---April 10th 4. A Galaxy Next Door---April 8th 5. OSHI NO KO---April 12th 6. MASHLE---April 7th   7. The Ancient Magus Bride season 2---April 6th 8. Hells Paradise: Jigokuraku---April 1st 9. MSG: The Witch From Mercury season 2---April 9th 10. Otaku Elf---April 7th That's just the top 10. There's a whole 20 or so OTHER shows that are also premiering soon which I&

Hungry for Volume 3 Sorry, I couldn't resist the urge to pun. But for real. When is volume 3 coming out, cus I need another serving of this pronto. (again, I apologize for the food jokes). With that, my thoughts...   ...5/5 by the way. I'll say that up front.  There's your TL;DR if you only wanted to see a score. If you missed my review of volume 1, you can find it here. Manga Review: "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" vol. 1  Book 2 was great. Just great. There were a number of new and delicious looking dishes and each and every one of them made me hungry. Actually, physically hungry. This manga is a feast for the eyes. It's been years since I lived in Japan (I left in 2015 to return to the US for health reasons), but this has me hankering for Japanese cuisines I've not had in ages. Roll Cake, Character Bento, Stollen, Anko. Good lord I need to go order food....  Hopefully listing a bunch of the foods they eat in this volume didn't spoil anything,

I'm getting hungry just reviewing this manga Full disclosure, I'm writing this review after I've already read vol. 2, but I tried my best to review it based on the first impression I got from the first volume when I read it originally. Nomoto is an OL with an Instagram and loves sharing picutres of her cooking, but she has a problem. She's always wanted someone who can really pack it in. She wants to craft mega-sized dishes like bucket-pudding, or giga-pancackes. Huge omelettes. Great overflowing bowls of curry. The urge to just go nuts in the kitchen is welling up inside her. However, she's just one woman, living alone, and not interested in marriage (and especially not interested in becoming a 'good wife' for some random male coworker). Then, one night, Kasuga appears, carrying buckets of KFC... which she will eat. By herself. When trouble happens at work, and Nomoto goes a LITTLE overboard de-stressing with some serious kitchen time; a steak donburi of ep

Reborn to Master the Blade. Becomes Vegeta instead. This is more like what I’m looking for in a isekai power fantasy than most of the shows that came out this season, but there were enough annoying things about it that ultimately I soured on it a little by the end. But not THAT soured. Still kinda recommend it if you're into dumb isekai stuff. The premise behind this one is that of a kind, beloved king, ruler of a prosperous fantasy empire, being reincarnated into another fantasy world, or maybe the same one, just in a different time (honestly I can’t remember which it is because it’s kind of passed over quickly in the early episodes and never comes up as a plot element later on); the king is reborn as a girl, which he adapts to pretty quickly. That plot hook is wasted for the most part and not really played off of at all, though the reincarnated king, in the body of a little girl reminded me of Rudeus from Mushoku Tensei, maybe that’s just me. Since the King isn’t nearly the same

This show was my 80,000th Reason Why On a conceptual level I think this brought enough new ideas to the isekai genre that it was worth watching just for the freshness. Being able to come and go between this world and a fantasy world + having a character predominantly motivated by money + the mc’s super power is a glock = a formula for a good time; sadly the execution here wasn’t great, with some episodes having borderline awful animation. The story had enough bad plot/story developments that it sadly outweighed whatever positive base the premise had going for it. And the worst offender is this series REPEATS. REPEATS EVERYTHING. The MC makes friends with not ONE, but THREE different little girls. The villains in this are almost ALWAYS some random, annoying, greedy old man (literally every single villain except for the monsters is a fucking ugly bastard). I lost count, but I feel like there was at least 5 of them....  thankfully this was a pg-13 mainstream series and not an H title, cus

I mean, at Least Tomokazu Sugita is in it This series was hot garbage. It was mildly fun garbage, kinda like finding a really messed up sofa thrown out by the curb, but at the end of the day, still garbage. The best compliment I can give this series is that I didn’t actively hate it by the end, just felt kinda indifferent to it. Not memorable, but I wouldn’t say it was boring enough to forget. I will remember Malika (Marika?) at least. Tomokazu Sugita [Gintama’s Gintoki], the voice of the main character Dariel was fighting for his life trying to carry this series, but his voice acting alone couldn’t pull it off. I did enjoy his performance though I wouldn’t say it’s his best, or one he’ll probably remember five years from now. Felt a bit like a paycheck show. The title for this series is total BS. There is virtually nothing “Chill” about this series. Dude goes from one conflict to another and gets absolutely no rest, because the girl of his dreams hits like a truck every time she r

This is a STRONG 7. Like... 7.99 I'd say this is well above average in terms of quality isekai series. I generally dislike it when an isekai with a ridiculous premise, such as this one, gets serious, but somehow, I wasn't overly bothered by it here. The plot of this show is pretty much right there in the title. A handyman, named Saitou, ends up being transported to a fantasy world; he joins a party of adventurers who’re exploring a dungeon. He’s good at picking locks, disarming traps, kinda fulfills the role of a rogue in general ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ terms, but without the stealthy backstabbing. I bring up D&D because I could definitely see this entire series being played out on a table-top. It felt like a really whacky campaign, designed by the world’s weebiest DM. For example, one of the biggest, plot-centric turn of events involves a Roomba. So, even when the anime is at its most serious, those bits were balanced out well with laughs and general silliness. It gets prec

Learning what 'Love' is for the First Time The second volume of this manga really helped deepen our understanding of the characters; Hananoi has a decidedly darker past than what I originally expected, and Hotaru has her own trauma to deal with too. I’d say Hananoi’s borderline brooding with how territorial and possessive he’s become, but in a caring/nice way. Waiting for his girlfriend after work, walking her home, it’s all very well-intentioned, but somewhat overbearing the top. Hotaru’s understanding of how love works levels up a bit in book 2 as well. I found it really, really funny watching her friends listen to her and losing their minds trying to get it through to her that the feelings she’s experience ARE love, but Hotaru has to figure that out herself. I’d say that volume 2 improved my appreciation for this series, cementing it as one I’ll actually continue collecting. This couple has some very cute moments together which bring my shriveled up old heart joy. Very curio

  Viva the Yuri Revolution!! Or that’s what I’d say if this series left me feeling excited about it. Sadly I didn’t really enjoy it as a whole. I enjoyed PARTS of this show, but way, way too much of it was bogged down in seriousness and depression. Why can’t I just have a cute little yuri isekai slice of life series???? I dislike series that can’t pick a tone, and this series definitely had that issue. It started off with the hilarious antics of this bloody, wild princess, who steals away her brother’s fiancé to take for herself. It’s very comedic. I was legitimately laughing at how the princess shows up the first time. I need a good laugh these days. Life’s too serious to be serious all the time. But, the problem comes after this, because all of the important obstacles in the story are TOO big, and TOO serious. Really killed the mood. The titular ‘reincarnated princess’ is from our world, by the way, which is never really used as much more than a B-side subplot device to give

This was a very nice little romance anime. The two main characters were really cute and had a fun dynamic. It’s not often you get a series where the male lead is a soft blushing fellow always getting embarrassed and freaking out over his love interest. And the way it’s expressed using his “Yuki-onna” heritage was super fun (especially the snowmen). In fact, the whole ‘fantastical creatures’ aspect of the series, with many of the characters being descendants of famous Japanese mythical monsters (?) was a cool premise. The only problem I really had with this series is focus; I would have loved it if we could have seen much, much more of the main pair, and less of the side characters. The side characters had their own charm, but they weren’t nearly as interesting to me as the main guy and gal. Adult, office romances, are few and far between, and having screen time divided up among all the various office-people caused me to kind of lose interest. Needed them to spend more time on the title

 Ninjas. Ninjas Everywhere. This is a very, very much extended review of "Under Ninja" vol. 1. I posted a shorter, abridged version up to other sites, but I had quite a bit to ramble on about with this one, but for the TL;DR - easy 10/10 or 5/5 on whatever scale you're grading on. I enjoyed it; plan to continue to collect it. With that, let there be ninja. This is not a manga about a dude in his underwear pretending to be a ninja. I really don’t know where I got that idea from… I’m sorry. Wait, actually, I do! I very specifically remember seeing someone post THIS random frame on twitter, totally out of context, from this first volume where the main character tries on a woman’s bra; from that I somehow formulated a weird, twisted idea of what I thought the manga would be about. I formulated an image in my head of something like “Hentai Kamen” or “Raw Hero”. This was definitely no “Hentai Kamen”. That being said, just because I was expecting it to be something completely di

For a manga about two characters with Insomnia, they certainly seem to sleep a lot This is a really charming book. It belongs in that wonderful niche slice-of-life genre called ‘Iyashikei’ [healing type]. Ganta Nakami and Isaki Magari are both high school students suffering from terrible insomnia, but they find themselves able to sleep, together (not in a dirty way), at school, in the old abandoned observatory. They revive the astronomy club in an effort to secure themselves some much needed rest. The vibe in this series is really great, reminding me of Call of the Night to some extent, just without all the vampire business. The characters are very average looking, maybe a bit frumpy even. I felt at ease watching them doze off in the middle of the day. It feels really weird saying that I was HYPED UP to read this series, especially when the energy level in it is beyond low. It’s chill. Unassuming. Just a nice little volume to help you relax. Will definitely look forward to volume 2 and

  Season 2 improved the Nagatoro formula in a big way IMO. Senpai grew a spine and became much less of a wimp. Nagatoro’s bullying got more flirty and endearing. As a whole, Season 2 was really, really cute. As far as the things I think make up an anime adaptation: Voice acting was still just as on point as it was in season 1, with the addition of a new member to the cast in Sayumi Suzushiro, who was also excellent. I think they actually improved the music too for this season. I ended up downloading the OP for a mix tape. The animation was also just as good as season 1, with amplified wiggle-taro. Now, why do I rate this season higher than season 1? I think for me it mostly comes down to the stories in this arc. They’re much, much more fun than the stuff that happens in season 1. When there’s teasing, its way more playful and flirty and less mean/bullying. I think maybe season 2 is really where the author got into their groove with plotting, jokes, etc. The payoffs are really gre

  I’m finishing Nagatoro season 2 right now and realizing I haven’t reviewed season 1 yet, so here we go. Adaptation rating. Very Good. Voice acting was great. Sumire Uesaka (Nagatoro) does a fantastic job with all of her characters and she’s certainly a great Nagatoro. Daiki Yamashita plays Senpai a little too weak for my tastes, ends up channeling early My Hero Deku… I’m not sure I had senpai pegged as being quite that soft, but I suppose it works. The music was good. OP ED were fine, but not really the kind of songs I’d buy to play in the car. The animation of the cute, wiggly bits, certainly worked great. That being said, there’s a couple reasons why I score this one pretty low as a series (low for me at least, romcom's are usually an easy 10/10). Though I eventually turned into a Nagatoro fan after buying the manga, the first season of the anime didn’t really help me with that. I think this series as a whole gets better as things go and season 2 was definitely an imp

This was a great adaptation of the source material. No complaints. Very faithful.  The only problem I've got comes down to figuring out which season of Attack on Titan this is, but sadly, it's gotten fairly complicated, transcending the very nature of seasonal anime. So I'll break it down into parts. I had to open up all the MAL tabs for each of the different AoT entries to see which "Part" this actually is, given how complicated it is, but I'll omit any side-story entries for sake of my own personal sanity. Shingeki no Kyojin - Season 1 would of course be part 1, but with it being seperated into 2 cours, would we also count this as part 1 and 2?? I'm going to say that s1 was actually p.1 & p.2 because of the two-cour nature. Hm... Season 2 was just a single cour, so no confusion there. Let's call this p.3. Season 3, was actually 22 episodes long, and broken up into two parts as well, despite MAL listing it with only 12 episodes. So let's call

This was the first fully CGI series that I think looked better in CGI than I could have imagined it looking with traditional animation. ‘Duke of Death’ came close for me, but this really did it. Honestly, the only way I think the animation could have been done better would have been to take an entirely different approach to it, with a different director and studio – maybe gone the way of Masaaki Yuasa turning it into more of an artsy production. That said, I adored what studio Orange pulled off here. The music, voice acting, cinematography, action, animation – all of the things that make an anime adaptation were perfectly well done. The only problem I have with it is that it was so damn incomplete. You ended it there??? 12 episodes??? Season 2 when????? (I actually wonder now how much of the manga had been completed when this came out… perhaps I’ll need to compare publication and air dates. When all is said and done. 10/10. Wait… do I actually have to elaborate on what makes the se

The premise for “My Clueless First Friend” is very cute and simple. There’s a girl in class with a bit of a dark and gloomy appearance, who’s being bullied by the other kids in class. They make fun of he, in typical fifth grader fashion, calling her names like ‘grim reaper’. Takada, the new kid in school, who moved in from the country, is a complete airhead, and doesn’t understand she’s being picked on – only that Grim Reapers are A W E S O M E!!! So, he’s quick to befriend her, and constantly presses the fact that he finds her wonderful in all different manner of ways. This series is super formulaic. XYZ happens which triggers Takada to say something completely outrageous that embarrass Nishimura, causing her to blush like wild. This is played out every chapter. It definitely can get a bit repetitive if that’s not your thing, but for the most part, I enjoyed this book. That said, not sure how I’ll like it after 7 more omnibus. Will definitely peep the anime though. TL;DR - It's a

This volume was exceptional. It’s very hard to talk about what happens in it though without spoilers, so I’m going to keep this review pretty short, but elaborate on things down there, near the bottom of the review, so if you don't wanna be spoiled, leave after the cover art. There was a point in this book that I literally jumped out of my chair from a combination of shock and hype (I'll talk about what part that is down below). The way that Kotoyama does the paneling in this is a thing of beauty. It’s weird to praise a cover, but I’m gonna do that too. That ALL WHITE cover is just so damn clean. This series remains pretty firmly in my top 10 ongoing manga at the moment (position fluctuates based on my mood) despite the fact that the tone of the series has changed dramatically from the first few volumes. What started out as a more laid-back, romcom has evolved into a much more serious series with very dramatic twists and a good deal of action. I’m not sure it’s an improvement,

I Really (x5) Love This Book I really, really, really, really, really love this series. So, don’t go into this review hoping for something profound. It’s just a silly little harem comedy. It’s gone so far past parody at this point that it’s just pure joy. I don't quite understand why this series is released under the 'Ghost Ship' label that SevenSeas has going right now? That label, from what I understand is reserved for explicit series featuring lots of nudity and sex, but this series is much more wholesome. This volume in particular - SUPER wholesome. The cuteness level is over the top in parts.  Girlfriend Count in this volume +2. They’re both great, and the arcs we get introducing them are both great. But, let’s face it, all the girlfriends in this series are great in their own way. I think we may need to develop a stat power rankinkg system like in pokemon for his girlfriends by the end of this. Each of them has their own personal strengths and weaknesses. Shizuka has

 This film was terrible. It took everything I loved about the two seasons of Isekai Quartet and tossed them out the window in favor of creating a very serious story almost completely devoid of jokes or humor with a couple movie-original characters that we're now meant to care about for some reason. Sorry to the Megumin-golem girl, but we came to see the original cast in new, whacky situations created from them being all mixed up together, not to see your relationship struggles with Vera. Very, sorry to say you're defintely the least likeable part of this movie. Maybe you would have been fun if we'd gotten to know you better first in the Tanya the Evil series. Like... if you were that wild Zelot Mary. We could have done without her in Tanya. I'd have taken you over her any day of the week... but, sadly, you're new to this universe, and after this film you'll be forgotten about as just another random girl who's had her panties stolen by Kazuma. The only reason