2023 Spring Anime Review

The spring anime season was pretty much a dream for romance lovers like me. Funny thing, I noticed that most of the shows I watched could be joined up into similar pairs. For example, if you enjoyed TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You, you'll probably also like A Galaxy Next Door. If you loved The Ancient Magus' Bride, you might also love Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts. A fan of Skip and Loafer? Check out My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999. Yuri Is My Job! and Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion might not seem too similar at first glance, but both shows feature leads who put on a mask of sorts and lots of manipulation and secrets. Even MIX and BIRDIE WING - Golf Girls' Story - share more in common than just being sports anime (but to say anymore would be a pretty big spoiler for BW).

 

Anyway, onto the reviews!

 

Skip and Loafer - By far my favorite show of the season! It's strange... While y'all know I adore friends-to-lovers plots (and, don't get me wrong, I'm definitely rooting for Mutsumi and Shima to get together eventually), I actually wouldn't be too disappointed if they didn't become a couple, because I'm enjoying their sweet friendship just as it is. I also loved the fact that Mutsumi is still best friends with Fumi, who she grew up with. A lot of the time, when a character moves to a new place, their old friends tend to be forgotten until the character goes back to their hometown for a visit. But Mutsumi and Fumi still call and text each other all the time, and it's clear that Fumi has a life of her own off-screen, too, which saves their relationship from feeling too one-sided as is usually the case. The one weak spot? Ririka. The show does a good job of making you like characters that perhaps start out on the wrong foot (*ahem* Mika), but with Ririka... It's just really hard to feel much sympathy toward her when she really only has herself to blame for what happened to her. I really hope this gets a second season. 

 

My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999 - Like Skip and Loafer, I really loved the focus on friendships in this show, and I appreciated that though Akane notices that Yamada is hot right from the start, she doesn't really start crushing on him until she gets to know him better as a friend. Though some might have concerns about their age difference -- she's a 20-year-old second year college student while he's an 18-year-old senior in high school -- by the time they realize their feelings for each other and make it official, Yamada's about to take his college entrance exams, so he'll only be in high school for a few more weeks anyway. Not a big deal, IMO. Speaking of which, I don't really want to spoil too much, but I have to say the scene in the last episoe when they finally confess their feelings is probably one of my favorite anime confession scenes ever. This cour ended in a perfect spot, but I definitely wouldn't say no to more in the future!

 

Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts - What can I say? I always love a good "Beauty and the Beast"-type story, and this one is a great one. I think it's a cool twist that humanoid beasts actually rule the world and humans are the ones looked down upon, and I'm glad that it's revealed in the very first episode that Leonhart, the current Beast King, is secretly half-human (transforming into one when the miasma surrounding the kingdom is low) and has been releasing all the human sacrifices he receives instead of eating them as believed. Sariphi, the "sacrificial princess" of the title, is a pretty awesome character. No matter what trial and tribulations come her way, whether it comes from Anubis, the king's most trusted advisor, or members of the other clans who hate the idea of the king taking a lowly human as his queen, her kindness and determination always pulls her through. Special shout-out to the crocodile princess Amit, Sariphi's closest friend and ally, whose crush on one of the king's generals is just super adorable. I believe this is continuing into next season, so I'm looking forward to more!

 

A Galaxy Next Door - For those who don't think that asking for consent is "romantic" or "sexy", I present to you this anime, which makes consent pretty much the most romantic thing ever. The plot does start off a bit non-consentually with Ichiro accidentally touching Shiori's "stinger", which in her strange island culture makes them engaged and bonded to the point where they can't be too far apart without feeling ill physical effects. But after that revelation, the two of them are beyond respectful of each other's boundaries, even wanting to end their forced "engagement" despite the fact that they genuinely do fall in love with each other. They want to love on their own terms, not because of some mystical bond they did not consent to, and really, this was just one of the sweetest romances I've ever watched. Ichiro having to take care of his much younger sister and brother after his father's death also played to my love of stories featuring men taking care of kids. It was a bit strange that their mother was never really mentioned after establishing the fact that she left after her husband's death because she didn't want to be a mother anymore, a storyline that seemed ready made for drama, but maybe they'll explore that in another season, if the anime gets one. Though it ended in a good place, I definitely wouldn't mind more in the future!  

 

TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You - Though we get a few more big clues this cour basically confirming that Tsukasa is immortal and probably from the moon, her true origins mostly remain a mystery for now. That doesn't really bother me, though, because the real joy in this show is just watching how cute and sweet Nasa and Tsukasa are as a couple. I also enjoyed the adddition of Tokiko, Tsubasa's "grandmother" who knows all her secrets, to the cast. She was a hoot! Curious that we're getting a four episode miniseries about Nasa teaching a high school class this upcoming season. Seems kinda random, to be honest -- and IIRC, he didn't even go to high school himself, much less college, so why is he teaching? -- but I'll definitely take more TONIKAWA!

 

The Ancient Magus' Bride - I'm so glad this series got another season! This new cour has a bit of a different vibe, with Chise attending school and making new friends with her sorceror classmates, but it still has all the mystical charm and well-researched folklore of the first season. Admittedly, while most of this cour did seem like set-up for a larger storyline, with another cour already announced for later in the year, I'm totally okay with that. Looking forward to what happens next!

 

BIRDIE WING - Girls' Golf Story - - This anime almost makes golf interesting. Or, rather, it's more like the story surrounding the golf is interesting, because let's be honest, nothing can make golf interesting. Sorry, it's the truth. But BIRDIE WING certainly tries its best, which I can respect. From what I've seen online, most fans seem to prefer the first cour, which focused on Eve playing over-the-top underground mafia golf, but I actually much preferred this second cour, which brings Aoi more into the spotlight as the two of them strive for the pros. For me, Eve was too much of a one-dimensional character, only caring about golf and Aoi. (And I guess Klein and the immigrant orphans, although they felt more like plot devices to give Eve a reason to play illegal golf. Otherwise, she doesn't seem to think or care about them unless it's relevant to the plot at the time.) Aoi, on the other hand, felt much more fleshed out, what with her family pressure, the mystery of her paternity, and her serious illness, not to mention her totally obvious crush on Eve. I'm not sure if the ending really hit a hole-in-one, but it's open-ended enough that another season could be made.

 

Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure - Soaring Sky! is really turning out to be the best Pretty Cure series since Healing Good so far! With Ageha joining as Cure Butterfly in Ep. 18, the main team is finally complete, and I must say, the way they've really spread out the Cures' debuts with this series really reminds me of the first season of the original Sailor Moon anime, which is a definite plus in my book. The biggest weakness remains the villains, who are pretty forgettable, but that tends to be the case with almost all the Pretty Cures I've seen, so eh. Still a lot of fun to watch!

 

Yuri Is My Job - Hmm, this anime is a bit difficult to recommend because most of the characters are kinda unlikeable, to be honest, but they're also pretty fascinating. It's both fun and frustrating to watch them interact just because everybody has fundamentally different communication styles, leading to a lot of misunderstandings and drama. Still, I did enjoy it quite a bit, minus Kanako's rather disturbing fixation on Hime. Probably not the show for you if you really hate plots that hinge on misunderstandings, but if you don't mind that, it might be worth checking out.

 

MIX - This wasn't a bad cour, just not as good as the previous ones. With the first season, it was pretty easy to enjoy the story without being familiar with Touch, which MIX is a sequel to. With this cour, however, there were a lot of references to Touch that I think would be more meaningful to those who are familiar with that series (which I am not), especially the amnesiatic man who starts living with the Tachibanas. He seems to be a character from Touch, but I just couldn't bring myself to care much about the mystery of his identity which took up quite a lot of screentime. And they barely played any baseball at all! At least it seems like a tournament is coming up next, continuing into the summer season. Hopefully that means the focus will swing back more toward the Tachibana siblings and the current baseball team, rather than the previous generation.

 

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion - There's no denying that this anime is not going to winning any animation awards (even though the character designs are very pretty), but at least the characters and plot help make up for some of the animation deficencies. Unfortunately, with very little of story's various mysteries solved by the end of the season, the whole thing comes off rather unsatisfying. Definitely felt like it was just made as an advertisement to read the original manhwa, which to be fair is true for a lot of anime series, but most at least try to end on some kind of conclusion to an arc (see My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999 and A Galaxy Next Door, which pulled this off beautifully). Raeliana feels like it just...ends. Still hoping we get another season, though, because I am interested to see where the story goes. 

 

Next season, I'll be continuing with the TONIKAWA miniseries, MIX, Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure, and Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts, along with watching the new seasons of Horimiya, Jujutsu Kaisen, Rent-A-Girlfriend, and Bungo Stray Dogs. Unfortunately, My Happy Marriage and Ooku: The Inner Chambers, the only new series that really caught my eye, are on Netflix, so I'll just have to wait and check them out whenever I resubscribe to watch Sailor Moon Cosmos (assuming they again get the movies). If Crunchyroll gets Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence, I may give that one a try, but, eh, it's just not a very exciting season.