It's been a long time since I wrote a summary of new streaming releases and a lot has changed in the UK anime industry! The dedicated streaming services are now limited to Crunchyroll, who get almost everything, and HIDIVE, who get a couple of titles per season (usually isekai fantasies). Disney+, Amazon Prime and Netflix tend to grab a handful of titles between them per season then stream them on a delay, so that there's no point engaging in online fandom due to spoilers and irrelevance.
But overall, we're in a pretty good place after Crunchyroll killed off most of the 'competition' - because I maintain that competition in streaming services is only worthwhile when they're competing on service quality, not exclusive titles. We occasionally get a taste of this when a really big show streams on both Crunchyroll and Netflix, but for the most part artificial competition between streaming services only leads to fans having to pay more or miss out in order to watch their favourite titles each season. The idea that competition is better for viewers falls apart when they're paying for five streaming services at once just to keep up with anime.
I can't justify the cost of HIDIVE when they only go for weaker titles, unfortunately, and at the time of writing Disney+ have raised prices and made advertisements mandatory, so I've cancelled my subscription and am just waiting for it to run out next year. With luck, I'll at least get to see all of Tokyo Revengers before then!
This is looking to be a sparse season for me due to more than twenty sequels airing to shows I didn't watch. There are also several remakes of older titles. Perhaps it's a good opportunity to give the new content more of a chance than usual?
#I'm Looking For A Zombie
#ゾンビさがしてます
This was a very average comedy romp about a trio of country bumpkins who visit the big city for the first time after a zombie apocalypse has wiped out most of the population. They are searching for the father of one member of the group, who may have already been transformed into a zombie (in which case he needs exterminating), and along the way they meet a pair from another village who help fill them in some of the many, many things they don't know about our modern, pre-apocalypse civilisation. Which is fortunate as the main characters are extremely ignorant and happy-go-lucky! There's the workout-obsessed one, the violent one and the kind-of-useless one who is mostly interested in pre-apocalypse fashion. It's a silly series so I can't really fault the characters for being dumb but I think this is one for the zombie fans, as well as people who like young-looking blushing girls caught up in comically violent situations.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 5/10
A Tale Of The Secret Saint
転生した大聖女は、聖女であることをひた隠す
Another middle-of-the-road story, this time about a noble girl who dreams of being a knight, only to catastrophically fail the trial and nearly die instead. In that moment at the end of her life, she remembers a previous incarnation in which she was a powerful, sought-after saint who faced difficult situations as a result of her sacred powers (which made everyone around her act in a comically evil way and mistreat her, of course). After pulling through, the heroine resolves to keep her newly-remembered powers secret this time around and returns from her trial with a new dragon friend and a lot more clout than when she started. It could certainly be worse. But so far, the tepid storytelling isn't what I'd class as entertainment and nothing memorable has happened. The animation is serviceable at best and everyone pointlessly reminds one another of facts about the world (and themselves) in lieu of actual scriptwriting, which makes it difficult to stay interested in the dialogue.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 4/10
Dandivine
獣王武神ダンデヴァイン
I'm surprised that this throwback robot series managed to get an opening song by Nishikawa Takanori; we're getting a lot of heavy hitters creating themes for this otherwise fairly unremarkable season! Dandivine is the story of a world which used to be the setting for a classic clash between a giant robot and hostile aliens (?), only now the heroic titular robot has been mostly forgotten by ordinary people growing up in peaceful times. Unfortunately, the decline in Dandivine toy sales which accompanied that peace has riled up the boss of the local toy company, and three suspicious ladies have appeared just in time for the robot's might to be needed once again.
Everyone was conveniently already prepared for this eventuality, but the robot's aging pilot has taken his dull nephew under his wing - presumably because the nephew is going to have to take over and save everyone in due course. Special powers or not, I found the main character's gimmick of being the blandest, most boring person ever tedious to watch and felt sorry for his emotionally-starved girlfriend, who kept trying to get some kind of engagement out of his empty head in vain. Dandivine is one of those series which is perfectly enjoyable - rubbish main character aside - but not unique enough to stand out from the pack in any way.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 5/10
DARK MACHINE -The Animation-
A game tie-in which I initially thought would be a cool cyberpunk show about people stealing data and dicing with organised criminals, until it turned out to be about teams of esports players stealing data and settling their differences with arcade battles. I'm very confused about the way that the gamers seem to readily ignore the law, risking lives and blowing things up, then meekly comply with agreements to settle their differences over an in-game robot battle. There also seems to be some subtext about futuristic commerce to tie into the real game's cryptocurrency and NFT trading elements. Yuck.
While the end of the episode dropped hints that there's something very wrong with the domineering female lead, I don't feel very interested in finding out more. I also don't love the heavy CG, though at least it's separated out into the game scenes while the real-world content looks good. However, the designs range from average to drab, with only a few characters given unique features; the thug he beat in the first episode looked far cooler than the male lead. It's difficult to imagine the rest of this show improving on its first episode, and it's also difficult to imagine the game that it's advertising actually being fun to play.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 4/10
Dreamland
A French animation project (based on a French comic) about a teen boy who is struggling with nightmares following a traumatic fire in which he lost his mother. Most of the episode is dedicated to showing his daily life at school: the girl he has a crush on, a confrontation with a bully, the really cool alt girl who was easily the best part of the show, etc. Having seen quite a few school series before, none of it was especially interesting. Towards the end, though, Terrence finds himself in another nightmare and this time he faces up to his fear, conquering it (supposedly) and ending up in a strange fantasy world being congratulated by a smug stranger for having mastered the power of fire. The episode ends with all of the main conflicts resolved; presumably Terrence is going to have to go around actually doing things in the dreamland later but none of the plot threads from episode one have me desperate to know what happens next. I watched the first episode in French and found it fine, though it's distractingly clear that the series owes a lot to several of the popular shounen titles which influenced it. Dreamland is far from being terrible, it's just not doing anything to make it stand out either.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 5/10
Even Though I'm A Super Timid Noble Girl, I Accepted The Bet From My Cunning Fiancé
弱気MAX令嬢なのに、辣腕婚約者様の賭けに乗ってしまった
The main character has been living in a painfully generic videogame fantasy land for the first ten years of her life when she suddenly awakens to memories of her past life, where the slimy guy she was dating dumped her (in such a farcical way that it was unintentionally funny) and she lost her life feeling miserable and unwanted. Back then she was addicted to a rubbish-looking 'otome game' which seemed to have more throwaway villainesses than actual love interests, and thus she realises in horror that her beloved fiancé is going to ditch her for the game's heroine later on in their relationship. I don't understand why writers for this genre can only conceptualise otome games existing if they serve as a vehicle for women to make other women suffer. It's nasty.
Anyway, I like that this story seems to avoid the questionable scenario of the reincarnated person apparently taking over some innocent child's body, but because these stories are always about virginal teenagers fussing over betrothals and social status, any flashbacks require all of the characters to be precocious preteens for the first few episodes - and that's what's happened here. I don't especially enjoy watching little kids acting like Machiavellian schemers who are secretly madly in love with one another already; it's weird. Especially as the lead is technically far older than her beau after recalling her past life.
A bigger problem is that the main character is such a melodramatic, miserable wimp that watching her bleating about how awful her life is going to become is painful. She's a quintessential damsel in distress, needing constant reassurance and protection while she rambles about real-world science and fossils (fortunately, everything conveniently works exactly the same in the fantasy world so all her old knowledge is transferrable with zero effort). She's so passive that she can't imagine any destiny other than the one in the game no matter what she does, so when her unsettlingly-young betrothed learns of her fears he offers to remain loyal or pay her off so that she can continue to survive in the deeply misogynistic fantasy world in which they live. At which point he kind of becomes the main character while she snoozes and eats cakes like a pet.
The designs are ok and it's far from the worst example of its awful, cookie-cutter genre, so those who actually like villainess reincarnation stories will probably be well-served by this latest entry. I still have yet to find a story that can change my mind about this type of show, though.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 4/10
Firefly Wedding
ホタルの嫁入り
Hurrah, a decent adaptation of a manga I've been reading! Firefly Wedding is the story of a proud noblewoman named Satoko, who is trying unsuccessfully to find a suitor who will accept her life-limiting (and expensive) medical problems. One day, she's kidnapped and meets Shinpei, a terrifying assassin who is persuaded to help her out in return for a desperate offer of marriage. A series of violent, dramatic and questionably romantic moments follow as the two have to get used to working together if Satoko is to survive. Shinpei is not ok at all and the animated version makes that clear from his casual ultraviolence and freaky expressions. I like how well the lead came across too, standing up for herself and trying to make the most of a bad hand; Satoko and Shinpei are a fun 'odd couple' who develop a plausible dynamic in spite of everything.
Compared to the cheap-looking animation we usually get in shows aimed at a female audience, Firefly Wedding looks good enough that I'm likely to continue even though I already know what's going to happen. So far, so good.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 8/10
From Far Away
彼方から
It's weird to get this one season after Red River, another relatively ancient shoujo story about a girl being whisked away from modern life and (I'm guessing) falling in love with her rescuer. While Red River's adaptation is cheap-looking and awkwardly-paced, however, From Far Away seems to have made the leap to anime far more gracefully. It's definitely not going to win any awards for its technical quality but at least it looks good enough that the visuals aren't a distraction.
Although From Far Away dates back to the early 90s, the story outline follows a similar progression to a lot of the isekai which are popular today; haunted by dreams of a strange, unfamiliar land, the heroine follows a mysterious bird and vanishes in what appears to be an accident. She's somehow travelled to a dangerous forest where everyone is looking for a prophesied figure called The Awakening for their own political purposes, so it's lucky that the first person she meets is a taciturn warrior who takes her under his wing. He's also searching for her but seems to take pity on her useless she is, and as neither of them can understand one another the first episode is mostly about his efforts to keep her safe. The show highlights which character is speaking by putting the other into soft focus when they don't understand what's being said, which is an interesting way of highlighting that they aren't using a common language.
The main character seems very ditzy so far, fumbling her mobile phone into a river and not taking basic common sense into account when trying to communicate with the man who has rescued her. However, I'll give it another episode or two as I quite like the art style when the characters are on model; if I've made it through this much Red River I deserve to see this better-animated shoujo isekai as well. The daft flying dinosaur combats are also fun.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 6/10
Full Clearing Another World Under A Goddess With Zero Believers
信者ゼロの女神サマと始める異世界攻略
When the lead dies along with his classmates they all - or mostly all, though the missing girl is in the promotional artwork - arrive in another world together to live new lives in a generic fantasy RPG setting. Our hero doesn't care about being dead, only about the special skill he's about to receive, so he's utterly deflated when his assigned statistics turn out to be mediocre. Naturally, he decides to become an adventurer to 'full clear' the world anyway, and despite not even bothering to arm himself he manages to get through his first battle intact. That night, a goddess appears before him and recruits him to her cause without saying who she is, but he agrees anyway because he's a gamer and doesn't want to pass up on a chance for self-advancement. He'd previously been rejected by a haughty priestess of a more-popular goddess, and seems to be holding a bit of a grudge. There's nothing new here (I end up saying that a lot for good reason) and the guy has his arm around the haughty priestess in the promotional materials so I guess everything's going to end up going his way no matter how stupidly he acts. Boring.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 3/10
FX Fighter Kurumi-chan
FX戦士くるみちゃん
Huh. This series really is about foreign exchange trading - and despite being set up as a 'cute girls do cute things' show, it's kind of horrific. The first episode opens with a cute girl screaming desperately at her PC, a scene which turns out to be a callback to her mother's disastrous attempt to hit it big trading a few years earlier. The main character had a dreadful adolescence taking care of her neglectful mother and keeping secrets from her mostly-absent workaholic father, and there are several indications that she was carrying a lot of trauma with her even before things became significantly worse.
The series portrays FX trading as dangerous and seductive, but wrapping it all up in a cutesy show starring a bunch of shapely young girls neuters my ability to take it seriously. The subject matter is also extremely dark (when it's not jarringly animating colourful candlestick charts and currency symbols). It's not especially fun for me to watch childlike girls screaming and crying about losing money so I'm not going to keep watching. It gets credit for having silly theme songs and a unique concept, at least.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 4/10
Gensou Suikoden: The Anime
幻想水滸伝
I nearly missed out on Gensou Suikoden, which was initially released on YouTube but region-locked from the whole of Europe other than Ireland, for some reason. As I went to schedule this post, however, I checked the link again out of curiosity and the simulcast region list has been expanded to include the UK after all!
This anime is actually an adaptation of the Suikoden II game rather than the original. I played the game way back when it first came out in Japan (28 years ago, yikes!) so my memory is rather foggy, but if memory serves Suikoden II had more interesting central character dynamics than its predecessor so it makes sense that it earned an animated adaptation. I don't recall much about the story or characters other than the leads, but the project seems to translate to anime reasonably well despite not having the most lavish production values. If I fancied watching another fantasy war anime based on a game this is a decent one, it's just not quite enough to get me to tune in each week (especially with ads on YouTube).
Availability: YouTube
Score: 6/10
Hello, I Am A Witch And My Crush Wants Me To Make A Love Potion!
どうも、好きな人に惚れ薬を依頼された魔女です。
A lonely witch called Rose lives by herself in isolation after her grandmother dies, unable to move to the bustling city nearby because witches are widely despised. Still, the potions that they make are treasured so despite openly hating the outsiders, people still visit Rose's home to trade on a regular basis. She's long been nursing a secret, one-sided crush on a handsome knight she saw speaking up for witches so when he turns up at her door one day, she's understandably mortified to hear that he wants her to make him a love potion. After months (the timeline is a bit vague) of running errands for her, clearly to prolong the completion of the potion, the two have crossed paths several times and settled into a kind of rhythm. But why does he tolerate Rose's increasingly unreasonable delaying tactics? And how far will she go with the brazen compliments about his beauty before he realises what's going on?
Whatever the hero needs his potion for, it feels unlikely to be as obvious as him wanting to non-consensually seduce someone we haven't yet met. I'm guessing that he's helping someone else out. Or trying to flirt with the witch because her love at first sight was mutual (probably not). Or could he be planning on using it on himself to force himself to enjoy an arranged marriage he's not that interested in? In any case, the visuals are great and I might raise my score as things develop later on. This one has some potential so it's earned a second episode, even if Rose looks disconcertingly like a grown-up Anya from Spy x Family now and then.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 6/10
HORROR COLLECTOR
恐怖コレクター
I went into this urban horror series hoping for something like Jigoku Shoujo but accepting that it probably wasn't going to be that good. What I got was lots of screaming schoolgirls and some edgy kids in hoodies, together with a ghost-busting scene which repeated itself twice in one episode. In a Japan where everyone gossips about creepy urban legends, our taciturn hero Fushigi is wandering around resolving ghost stories while his sister, from what I gather, is setting them up elsewhere. Along the way there are a lot of schoolgirls sobbing and crying in mortal terror until Fushigi coldly saves them and leaves. There were some moments with potential which always ended up devolving into screaming and contrivedly poor decision-making. I don't know whether it's an issue with the source material or the adaptation but the pacing wasn't great; it didn't really work as either a horror show or a monster-of-the-week mystery.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 3/10
KERORO☆
ケロロ軍曹☆
A late (and apparently secret) addition to Crunchyroll's selection this season, made even more confusing by listing itself as KERORO☆ but using the localised Sgt. Frog logo. I don't mind what it's called, however, so long as I get to see the show!
As a big fan of the previous Keroro Gunsou it was surprising to see this version jump straight into a full-on adventure with the full cast from the very first episode, and visually it's exactly how I'd want a modern version of the cute military comedy series to look. It was a shock, however, to discover that all of the seiyuu had been replaced, with the newcomers doing a decent job but sounding nothing like the originals in some cases (both Giroro and Kururu have very difficult voices to imitate in particular, with the new versions feeling like pale shadows of their predecessors). I'll keep watching for a few more episodes and hope that the new cast grows on me with time.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 7/10
Magic Knight Rayearth
魔法騎士レイアース
I'm still not sure that I understand why this series is getting a remake after all this time, but as soon as the stirring classic theme song Yuzurenai Negai kicked in for the end of the episode I decided that I no longer cared. I read the manga and bought the DVDs of Magic Knight Rayearth back in the day and while it was never a particular favourite, it's the kind of classic fantasy romp which puts all of the current bandwagon-jumping remixes of the popular isekai formula to shame.
The first episode plays out similarly to my memories of the manga, with teens Hikaru, Umi and Fuu being whisked away to a mysterious fantasy world where Guru Clef teaches them a little magic and sends them off on their quest to save the land of Cephiro. There isn't a single pop-up menu or cynical wisecrack in sight as the girls get to know one another and acclimatise to their new home. It's so nice. And they all compliment one another enthusiastically instead of grousing jealously about every other potential rival they see like the nasty leads in modern isekai. The visuals are true to the original designs and the music, while it has a lot to live up to, sounds good so far with a few typical Kajiura Yuki flourishes.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 7/10
Magic Repo Man: Dumped By My Party, I'll Cash In With A Cute Support Fairy To Become The Strongest!
貸した魔力は【リボ払い】で強制徴収
As is the tradition for this derivative game-inspired fantasy setting, young Lent receives a gift which will strictly determine his future career and aptitude in a religious ceremony during his teens. He's thrilled when it turns out to be 'S-rank' and compatible with the adventuring lifestyle he wants - in fact, most of the roles seem to be adventurer-related for some reason - so he teams up with some of his childhood friends and together they make a party. Blessed with huge amounts of natural MP, Lent's role is to stand at the back dressed as a pauper and mindlessly supply everyone else with MP, which are supposed to be returned to the lender after each battle except that the hero is too conflict-averse to actually ask for them back. I don't entirely understand how this works as it was poorly explained and doesn't seem to hang together mechanically; fortunately, that doesn't matter very much.
In any case, Lent is obviously kicked out of the party as soon as they make it big and become able to replace him with MP-boosting magic items (which of course, they only have because of him). Moments after leaving in shock, though, his special skill spontaneously levels up and a naughty-looking fairy appears with unnecessary immersion-breaking narration. It looks as though those lost MP he loaned out to his ex-party might become relevant after all.
Magic Repo Man is obviously a typical persecution fantasy, though even as ostentatiously evil as the other party members were, I have to say that Lent was just loitering around and not helping in combat so it wasn't as though he seemed to be trying all that hard. Perhaps having preassigned skills discourages anyone from attempting to do anything other than what they're told? In any case, there's nothing new on display other than the (weird) mechanics of Lent's abilities and revenge stories are seldom well-written enough to hold my interest. It could be worse.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 3/10
Magical★Explorer
マジカル★エクスプローラー
A dreary, dissatisfied guy is abruptly reincarnated in the world of a popular adult bishoujo game he's already played through to completion, except rather than being the hero he's stuck in the role of the unpopular male best friend. At first he's thrilled that he's 'finally' had a stroke of luck, then miserable that he's just going to have to watch the player character picking up all of the cute girls while he suffers alone and does nothing. The game itself is a formulaic 'magical academy' setup except that the main character begins his tale slightly before the events of the game take place. He's immediately adopted by a high status, powerful and wealthy woman who happens to be obviously sexy too, plunging him straight into a wish-fulfilment scenario of his own despite his grumbling. And that's fine. I can deal with adult game logic.
The episode ended with the main character encountering one of the game's main love interests during a vulnerable moment, before she falls in love with the normal player character. He eventually leaps in to save her (after standing by uselessly until a man tore her clothes and got ready to gang rape her, in order to appear maximally heroic by swooping in at the last moment), and of course she will now fall hopelessly in love with him, the side character, instead of the intended lead. I can't work out whether the central gimmick is that this side character picks up all of the hot, unavailable girls from the original game or whether he also gets the main love interests too by virtue of getting to know them all first.
Two episodes were uploaded at once but after the first I'd seen enough to know that this derivative show isn't worth my time. Although it could have been really funny if they leaned into the nonsense adult game world-building and made this a horny, comedic romp where everyone was in on the sleazy antics. It's rare that borrowing storytelling elements from adult anime enhances a plot - but without that brazenness this is just another forgettable power fantasy.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 2/10
Overgeared
テムパル ～アイテムの力～
This was the first autumn show to air and the first that I dropped, thanks to a weak first episode which left me wishing I was watching anything else. The main character is a disgruntled, whiny young man who has a chip on his shoulder because he was bullied in school and the girl he liked didn't notice him; nothing new for the genre. He randomly finds an overpowered item while doing a tedious fetch quest in the world-famous immersive VR MMORPG he started playing for fame and glory, and on the spur of the moment he uses it to reset his hard-earned levels and unlock an overpowered class which nobody else has ever played before. The hero then continues to suffer bad luck thereafter, even as the game's staff are scrambling excitedly at an unknown player having unlocked an advanced class years ahead of schedule. As far as I can tell nobody actually made the game, there's just a bunch of gushing executives with their AI system which estimates when notable events will take place over the game's life cycle so that everyone can pantomime shock and amazement. There's clearly a lot of investment involved in marketing the VR game everyone is playing. It looks terribly dated yet requires hefty microtransactions to perform even basic in-game actions, in return for giving successful players real fame and riches if they manage to do well.
There's nothing I liked about Overgeared. It's recycled, unoriginal wish fulfilment where every twist and turn is telegraphed so blatantly that it feels as though nothing even happens. It's ok for a series to borrow from genre tropes if it's going to elevate them but this is just the same old story we've seen a thousand times already. I don't understand why forgettable shows like this keep being made.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 3/10
Paws & Palaces
紫禁・御猫房〜紫禁城猫警備室〜
An oddball donghua action show about a squad of heroic, squabbling cats who jump into fantasy worlds inside cultural artefacts to save them (and the cute spirits which inhabit them) from a villain named Black Owl. They all assume the identities of regular (cat) people within the worlds they jump into and have to quickly get used to their assigned roles while carrying out their mission, leading to chaotic acting and martial arts action.
There's more CG than I would have liked, though the design work is genuinely lovely and the 3D CG is at least blended with 2D artwork wherever possible. The Japanese dub's opening (which Crunchyroll initially played) has a completely different feel to the original Chinese. I didn't love this show but it was watchable enough, with probably one of the most satisfying rosters of anthropomorphic cats I've seen to date.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 6/10
PSYREN
PSYЯEN -サイレン-
An edgy, slightly dated shounen adaptation about a well-meaning but bored schoolboy getting dragged into a mysterious death game via a spooky phone booth. He was only introduced to the 'Psyren' world because he wanted to help his unfriendly female classmate, and now he's getting a crash course in all of the secrets which have caused her to socially isolate herself from her peers. There are some good ideas in this show but I'm not really feeling the art style, and shounen has to be really, really good to hold my interest these days. It's ok.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 5/10
Reborn As A Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting The Strongest Starship!
目覚めたら最強装備と宇宙船持ちだったので、一戸建て目指して傭兵として自由に生きたい
Hiro is dreading his next day at work when he conveniently wakes up in the world of his favourite sci-fi MMORPG instead, piloting an overpowered ship full of riches and opportunity. He is soon attacked and effortlessly beats his opponents before cruising into a settlement and discovering that there are some notable differences between the game he remembers and this new world - but he's so good at everything life throws at him that he doesn't seem too troubled. He quickly befriends the influential-yet-gullible woman in charge of the port (who appears to be in her position through nepotism alone) so the guard trying to give him a hard time is humiliated for no reason.
Another woman then appears before Hiro and helps him register as an official mercenary, and even though he initially describes her as the most beautiful person he's ever seen he repeatedly insults her breast size as though she owes him something. She's also just lazily called Elma (i.e. 'elf mercenary', phonetically) and keeps on hanging out with him for no reason that I can fathom. After Hiro aces the mercenary exam with zero effort he witnesses a young girl (with a more pleasingly large chest) being abused in an alley, leading to an awkward scene where he casually watches the attempted rape with Elma until his morals kick in and he saves the victim. From the credits I'm guessing she becomes a member of his harem very soon and they all go on mindless space adventures with no stakes because Hiro is always going to succeed. I didn't enjoy anything about this show.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 2/10
Romelia War Chronicle
I had high hopes at the start of this episode, which presented a better-than-average fantasy battle between a party with decent designs and a demon. Things went downhill when the party's prince (an actual prince) rounded on Romelia at the end of the battle, only to simultaneously dump her as his fiancée and kick her out of the adventuring party at the same time. It was two different copy-paste story introductions in one, and there's even a not-so-innocent Saint nearby to steal the lead's ex-fiancé!
Romelia proceeds to demurely extract herself from the party when they return to the king, humbly claiming her backpack stuffed with priceless loot as a pay-off. Her idiotic mother is heartbroken to learn of the broken engagement but Romelia gets straight to work saving her family with her brilliant negotiating skills, shaming the local merchants and completely resolving her dad's financial problems. She then heads off to continue her good work elsewhere. Romelia is so ludicrously intelligent, perfect and kind that I found her rather tiring to watch, especially as the show keeps her agenda secret in order to have her cleverly make the best of every situation she ends up in. Although it's not a terrible example of its genre, with no reincarnations or crummy videogame mechanics, nothing especially exciting has happened so far.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 5/10
So What's Wrong with Getting Reborn as a Goblin?
転生ゴブリンだけど質問ある？
This is the same isekai story we've seen a billion times before, quickly establishing that the hero is a well-intentioned, heroic salaryman called Akira who dies prematurely with regrets. He's reincarnated as a little blue goblin in a world where his kind only live for seven days before dying and passing on their special skill. His special skill is being able to live into his 80s, though, so he ends up stockpiling hundreds of skills very quickly as everyone around him regularly dies and bequeathes him their life essence. After randomly obtaining the demon king's power as well through a chance meeting where nothing felt earned, Akira uses his real-world skills (and newfound cheat abilities) to negotiate with the sexily-dressed female knight who comes to exterminate the goblins, and thus establishes political links with the humans. There's also a subplot about the goblins being super horny due to their quick reproduction cycles, which I fear is likely to become increasingly relevant as our hero collects nubile women acquaintances (if the opening is anything to go by). It had a few attempts at creative worldbuilding amidst all of the usual tropes but the show ultimately wasn't very good.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 3/10
Steel Ball Run: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
スティール・ボール・ラン ジョジョの奇妙な冒険
A confusing release pattern dampened the initial excitement around the long-awaited seventh chapter of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, but after the lengthy gap between the extended first episode and the 'second stage' commencing, we're finally able to enjoy a rhythm of weekly episodes. Steel Ball Run isn't a sequel to the other JoJo's series, so it's possible to watch it without keeping up with the rest of the long-running saga. It is, however, intent on being just as bonkers, creative and high energy as its predecessors, and the format - a chaotic horse race across the US during the late 19th century - is a great setup to allow a new batch of sociopathic, super-powered people to relentlessly cheat, attack one another and overthink every single thing that happens. It's classic JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and I'm loving it.
That most of the online discourse at the time of writing has focused solely on the weak ending theme song feels as though it's doing the show a disservice. It's true that the song is a letdown but the series has so much else going for it that I can't really get that worked up about it; even if I skip the ending credits there's still plenty to enjoy in the episodes themselves!
Availability: Netflix
Score: 8/10
Super Psychic Policeman Chojo
超巡!超条先輩
In a season with so many insipid clones of other fantasy stories, this ordinary workplace comedy about a new police officer teamed up with an infamously difficult coworker stands out as a capable comedy which at least has its own identity. Choujou is disliked by his colleagues because he's telepathic and constantly violates their privacy, which makes for an unwelcome combination with his gruff, cynical personality. He also wields powerful telekinetic powers, which are handy in dangerous situations but mostly unnecessary in his patrol district, 'Chinjuku'. In the first episode, young police recruit (and judoka) Ippongi gets tangled up in a bad situation and ends up experiencing Choujou's bad attitude firsthand. It's the kind of comedy which doesn't worry too much about realism and regularly throws in referential jokes about other Shounen Jump titles. Objectively, this isn't a very strong series but in the context of this season it's one of the better non-sequels for now. I like the stylised, cartoony designs as well.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 7/10
TANK CHAIR
TANK CHAIR -戦車椅子-
Appearing on Amazon Prime Video with absolutely no announcement as far as I can tell, TANK CHAIR is a violent tale of a school-aged girl commissioning assassination jobs for her wheelchair-bound brother, Nagi. Nagi used to work as a famous assassin until he sustained a brain injury and was rendered completely unresponsive; however, since his little sister realised that physical threats served as enough stimulation to bring his consciousness back for a time, she's been doggedly trying to rehabilitate him by popping him into a special combat wheelchair and sending him off to fight crime lords to the death. She even accompanies him into battle as a camera/speaker device to help heckle the enemies into showing even more aggression, guaranteeing that Nagi will have enough power to overcome them and hopefully improve his condition.
TANK CHAIR is somehow simultaneously both offensive and sympathetic at the same time. Enemies run up stairs and jeer that they found a way to avoid the combat-wheelchair, only for it to charge straight up the wall after them. Shizuka genuinely seems to care for her brother when everyone else has given up, yet she's completely desensitised to the violence all around them. The scenario is set up to be the perfect schlocky ultraviolent action show - and yet the clunky visuals and lack of gore make it difficult to work out whether that's its true objective.
The ghastly CG is somewhat balanced by the series (so far) having relatively few human characters, so it's mostly just the stiff animation where the medium shows its weakness. The 3D models are relatively decent but I don't think they'll hold up once the other humans (and the tiger?) start to appear, dooming TANK CHAIR to be a disappointment visually. At least we got above-average opening and ending themes from SiM and Daoko, respectively. I didn't hate the first episode but I probably won't be watching more.
Availability: Amazon Prime Video
Score: 5/10
The Apothecary Diaries season 3
薬屋のひとりごと 第3期
A relaxed start for season 3 of The Apothecary Diaries, with new, slower-paced opening/ending themes as the series eases viewers back into the increasingly-complicated storyline. Maomao is no longer living within the palace walls and the characters I've grown to love there barely featured in this first episode, which focuses on our heroine as she goes about her daily life, taking care of the young boy she rescued at the end of the last arc. There are ominous rumblings afoot, however, and Maomao's natural curiosity is likely to bring her back in contact with Jinshi as she learns more about impending harvest problems and the political fallout of her previous adventures.
While it's always fun to see the staff at the brothel near Maomao's home, I'm really looking forward to catching up with everyone else as well. I know I'm going to enjoy this season no matter what happens.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 9/10
The Cold Sato-san Is Only Sweet To Me
塩対応の佐藤さんが俺にだけ甘い
Sato-san has been frosty and aloof ever since she first arrived at the hero's school, so he's surprised to find she's actually sweet when they unexpectedly meet at his family's cafe. It turns out that she's just socially awkward and shy, so being regarded as an attractive beauty at school led to a lot of difficult interactions she repeatedly flubbed. The two end up having a proper chat after the hero rescues her from some horny guys and whisks her away to his bedroom, so when Sato says she wants to use Instagram, the hero mansplains it to her (and the audience...) then criticises her genuinely horrible photography skills while she helplessly and ineptly attempts to catch up to him. It's clear that this is a romantic fantasy squarely aimed at young guys. The animation is ok and the lead isn't too bad but this is far from being a stand-out in its genre.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 5/10
The Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Enjoys A Second Lease On Life
追放されたチート付与魔術師は気ままなセカンドライフを謳歌する。 ～俺は武器だけじゃなく、あらゆるものに『強化ポイント』を付与できるし、俺の意思でいつでも効果を解除できるけど、残った人たち大丈夫？～
I thought this would be a lot worse than it was from the title. Rein is a young man who has the ability to enchant combat equipment to increase its statistics (the entire world operates on videogame logic, sadly). He's employed by a guild and perfectly happy until the managers abruptly decide to make him redundant, in one of the more obvious allegories for modern corporate decision-making that the genre has produced to date. Rein is quite naïve but even he loses his temper at that, and as soon as he's away from the jeering guild - where everyone apparently secretly hated him - he undoes all of the enchantments he'd ever made for them and takes all of the stats back for himself, turning his cheap clothing and tiny dagger into ludicrously overpowered cheat items.
Unfortunately, Rein is not very bright and even though he wants to be an adventurer, he ends up scuttling around uselessly until he's attacked in a dark alley and adopted by a girl from a shabbier guild. His overpowered items quickly get him into trouble but to repay his new debt he teams up with a famous (and tsundere) adventurer girl to head out and slay a dragon. It's all very familiar with nothing new in the story, but Rein having an actual personality instead of being a cynical self-insert makes the whole thing much more watchable. The goofy reaction faces are also pretty funny. If I was forced to watch one of these generic fantasy game shows, this wouldn't be the worst one I could pick.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 4/10
The Seven Knights Of The Marronnier Kingdom
マロニエ王国の七人の騎士
A slow-paced story about seven brothers raised as knights in a fairytale-styled kingdom. Each of them was named for a personality trait at birth, then grew up conforming to that highly-specific descriptor (there's a 'Beast Tamer' and an 'Insomniac', for example). In the first episode, their mother orders the brothers to each visit one of their homeland's neighbouring countries (conveniently, each of the nations has a trait which complements one of the knights) but before that happens, we get to see one of the knights guarding their beloved princess, who has gone incognito for the day.
The distinctive visuals and central plot made me think of ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept., which initially interested me, yet the first episode didn't feel like it at all. Instead, at some points the dynamic between the brothers reminded me of the sextuplets from Osomatsu-san - mostly when they talked about women or princesses. I'm intrigued but not driven to continue watching while the series is tucked away on Prime Video and spoiled by ads. This could either rise up to be something special as each knight learns more about themselves and the lands around them, or content itself with simpler fare.
Availability: Amazon Prime Video
The Vermilion Mask
朱色の仮面
A very uneven first episode, with moments where I considered dropping the show and moments where I was genuinely intrigued. Peru makes enchanted masks which can give the wearer small perks or amazing superpowers depending on the creator's design. Unfortunately, when he was an apprentice he accidentally donned a malevolent mask and murdered a bunch of people, and ever since he's been trying to put things right by travelling the world to destroy his dead master's remaining masks, which are widely considered treasures. Peru carries out his mission by donning different masks with varied powers, effectively becoming an infamous master thief pulling off a series of heists.
Things escalate very quickly and the end of the episode climaxed with a princess in danger in the middle of an intense confrontation. The psychotic enemy soldier who served as the main villain until his boss showed up later in the episode was fascinating to watch. If the series can make its basic antagonists this captivating I'm interested to find out what the other characters shown in the opening are going to be like.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 7/10
The World's Strongest Witch
世界最強の魔女、始めました
After an upbeat, fun opening this first episode felt like watching someone else narrate their way - slowly - through the tutorial of a tedious, generic game. The heroine is cast out by her callous family for receiving an 'SSS-rank' ability during the usual nonsensical ceremony in her teens, which her noble family in the pseudo-European fantasy setting don't realise is better than 'A-rank' because they rely on the conventional alphabetical order and nobody's ever had such an incredible skill. The skill is being able to pop up a menu and use the Internet to look up anything the girl ever wanted to know, which she masters in minutes upon finally deciding to give it a try after she's already been abandoned. Every single problem she has is then irrelevant, as the Internet knows exactly how she can optimally make money with zero effort and how to exploit wandering monsters' weaknesses.
It's never explained how the Internet actually works in a world where nobody else can use it (it still has tailored information describing everything the heroine wants to know in a flash), but as the actual game world makes no sense in the first place it's not really worth worrying about the details. Then, still moments after her expulsion, the endlessly-soliloquising heroine becomes the chosen successor of a passing god after the shortest conversation ever, granting her destructive attack magic beyond her wildest dreams. There are unfunny jokes about believing everything she sees on the Internet but while the series tries to be self-referential in a lighthearted way, I didn't find it entertaining at all. Nothing feels earned or meaningful, it's just a procession of tired tropes dressed up as gags.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 3/10
Uncle's Obsession with Cute Things
おじさんはカワイイものがお好き。
I'm genuinely surprised at how annoying I found this show. A series about an older salaryman fretting over people finding out that he secretly likes cute mascot characters doesn't sound especially offensive. In fact, it sounds like the setup for a bland, heartwarming slice-of-life story that goes nowhere fast enough to hold my interest. Unfortunately, the main character is so exaggeratedly ashamed of his hobby that he allows his wife to leave him over a simple misunderstanding (the poor woman divorces him because he won't tell her what he's keeping from her) and all of his life decisions revolve around keeping his secret, even to the detriment of those around him. It's infuriating!
The main conflict of this first episode is between the foolish main character and a cuteness-hating rival at work, who adores cats but passionately despises anything even slightly cartoony. The art is good and the series is competently directed... but every single scene reeks of toxic masculinity and respectability politics gone mad as the lead employs endless chicanery to avoid simply being honest about his harmless preferences. He's so scared of people thinking him immature that he ends up being childish for a different reason and sets a terrible example to the long-suffering nephew who lives with him. I think this hits too close to home to be funny; I've known too many self-hating nerds over the course of my life to want to watch people who act like them bullying one another (and themselves).
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 3/10
VERTEX FORCE
バーテックスフォース
Against the backdrop of a world in chaos when all technology suddenly fails on a catastrophic scale, youngster Akira is deeply jealous of his sister, who secretly inherited a robot guardian thing from their dad. Who was a secret alien warrior from outer space who went missing, and is now presumed dead. When the kids get in trouble, tough, it turns out that Akira might not be as powerless as he'd always thought. This series is, so far, played straight and it's made up of elements we've seen plenty of times in the past, so it would have benefited from stronger characters than the ones we got. Also, the CG looks crummy and there are a lot of awkward, sluggish motions as a result of it, which really lets the series down. I did at least enjoy Hashimero's ending theme Emerald, and the opening by ClariS was up to par with their usual work. There are some decent ideas in VERTEX FORCE but so far, it doesn't seem capable of doing anything interesting with them.
Availability: Crunchyroll
Score: 3/10
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Here's the usual list of licensed sequels and spinoffs for shows I don't follow; there are an awful lot of sequels this season! I occasionally watch Ranma ½ in passing but as I already watched and read the original versions, this good quality remake doesn't feel as though it qualifies for a full viewing. I will also watch Tokyo Revengers eventually but I'm still halfway through the Tenjiku arc.
- A Certain Dark Item (とある暗部の少女共棲)
- A Returner's Magic Should Be Special season 2 (帰還者の魔法は特別です 2期)
- A Wild Last Boss Appeared! season 2 (野生のラスボスが現れた！第2期)
- Ace of Diamond act II season 2 part 2 (ダイヤのA act Ⅱ Second Season 第2クール)
- Ao Ashi season 2 (アオアシ Season 2)
- As A Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill To Rise In The World season 3 (転生貴族、鑑定スキルで成り上がる 第3期)
- Battle Spirits [Re] Zekkai No Ku (Battle Spirits [Re] 絶界の空)
- Black Clover season 2 (ブラッククローバー 2nd)
- Blue Box season 2 (アオのハコ Season 2)
- Chitose Is In The Ramune Bottle part 2 (千歳くんはラムネ瓶のなか 第2クール)
- Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 (サイバーパンク エッジランナーズ 2)
- Dragon Ball Super: Beerus (ドラゴンボール超 ビルス)
- Hotel Inhumans season 2 (ホテル・インヒューマンズ 第2期)
- Mission: Yozakura Family season 2 part 2 (夜桜さんちの大作戦 第2期2クール)
- Ranma ½ season 3 (らんま1/2 第3期)
- Reincarnated As A Sword season 2 (転生したら剣でした II)
- Sasaki And Peeps season 2 (佐々木とピーちゃん Season 2)
- The Detective Is Already Dead season 2 (探偵はもう、死んでいる。Season 2)
- The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World II (冰剣の魔術師が世界を統べるII)
- The Prince Of Tennis II U-17 WORLD CUP: Final Member Selection Match (新テニスの王子様 U-17 WORLD CUP 決勝メンバー決定戦)
- The Ramparts Of Ice season 2 (氷の城壁 第2期)
- Tokyo Revengers: War Of The Three Titans Arc (東京リベンジャーズ 三天戦争編)
- Tougen Anki: Nikko Kegon Falls Arc (桃源暗鬼 日光・華厳の滝編)
Then the list of shows which are starting late (or streaming late), and consequently missing out on being included even though I intend to watch them:
- Disney Twisted-Wonderland: The Animation - Episode of Savanaclaw
- Fool Night (フールナイト)
- Welsh & Shedar (蒼き伝承 ウェルシュ＆シェダー)
And the titles I'm skipping because I can't afford to subscribe to half a dozen different streaming services (all three are exclusive to HIDIVE and none looks worth the investment):
- I'm Dating a Dark Summoner (ダークサモナーとデキている)
- Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden (凶乱令嬢ニア・リストン 病弱令嬢に転生した神殺しの武人の華麗なる無双録)
- TETSURYO! meet with Tetsudou Musume (てつりょー！meet with 鉄道むすめ)
Finally, the region-locked English simulcast titles which are completely unavailable in the UK:
- Ghost Meets Gal! (ごーすと・みーつ・ぎゃる！)
- Magical Girl Raising Project: Restart (魔法少女育成計画 restart)
- There Is Also A Hole In The Student Organization! (生徒会にも穴はある！)
- With Vengeance, Sincerely, Your Broken Saintess season 2 (傷だらけ聖女より報復をこめて Season 2)
Some of these may materialise later; I'm not entirely sure what's happening with There Is Also A Hole In The Student Organization! and Magical Girl Raising Project: Restart as the English simulcasts were picked up by OceanVeil, who have blocked people in most regions from using their site. I'm assuming that the titles are going to remain unavailable but that might change.
--
So far, I'm anticipating these to be my top three shows this season - though I'm always happy to be pleasantly surprised:
1. The Apothecary Diaries season 3
2. Firefly Wedding
3. Steel Ball Run
And this is how my schedule looks, with the caveat that Link Click is continuing for one more week and some new shows set to air next month:
Monday: Hello, I Am a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion!
Tuesday: Red River
Wednesday: Magic Knight Rayearth
Thursday: -
Friday: Firefly Wedding, Steel Ball Run, The Apothecary Diaries
Saturday: KERORO☆ , The Vermillion Mask
Sunday: From Far Away
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