heavenly_pearl | Entries tagged with horimiya

After several really good seasons, I have to say, this one was kind of a dud, but there were a few bright spots.

Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts: Definitely my favorite of the season, and one of my favorites of the year so far! I’m glad that it got two cours, giving the anime enough time to cover the entire manga.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead: If you asked me a few years ago, I would have said I definitely didn’t care for zombie stories, but after becoming a fan of series like School-Live!, Zombieland Saga, and now Zom 100...maybe I kinda do like them? It’s a shame Zom 100 ended up dealing with some production issues, causing a bunch of delays and the cour to actually still remain unfinished at this point, but the episodes we did get were fantastic. I especially appreciated the artistic decision to colorize the copious amount of blood in this show in rainbow colors. Gore is not my thing at all, so the colored blood really helped make it more palatable for me to handle. (Uh, maybe “palatable” isn’t the best word to use when talking about zombies!) I also loved the way they managed to get Akira’s best friend, Kencho, buck naked (Akira sometimes joins him) at least once in almost every episode since he was first introduced in the show. Never failed to crack me up!

Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure: Still really enjoying this year’s Precue series! I was a bit worried when Princess Ellee joined the team as Cure Majesty, but I liked that they kept her a toddler, only aging her up when she transforms.

Horimiya: The Missing Pieces: This season is a bit unusual in that it’s not a sequel or even a prequel, but a chance to go back and animate all the stuff they cut from the manga during the first season. Filling in the “missing pieces”, if you will. (And, thus, the subtitle.) I have to say, I enjoyed this season more than the first. It helped that most of the episodes focused on the supporting cast instead of the main couple. I’m sorry, but I’m just not a big fan of Hori, and shunting her out of the spotlight for most of the season just emphasized how much more likable the other characters are. Could have lived without the episode focusing on the sleazy teacher, but other than that, I liked it a lot despite the somewhat random nature of the episodes. That being said, I just wish they had done a straight two cour adaptation from the start. I think the series as a whole would have been a lot stronger that way.

TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You: This was just a four-episode miniseries, which I expected to be mostly like your typical OVA episodes. You know, filler-y and fanservice-y, with nothing really important happening in them? So I was really surprised that this little arc with Nasa teaching computer skills to a class of high school girls – still think asking a guy who never even attended high school to teach is strange, no matter how good he is with computers, but they kinda made the premise work – actually had some relevance to the plot, particularly with the introduction of a character who may be connected to Tsukasa’s mysterious past. I imagine she’ll continue to play a role in future storylines, so definitely not skippable material!

Rent-a-Girlfriend: Almost no Mami, aside from a really random, fourth-wall breaking game explanation and a last-second cameo in the final scene? Minimal Ruka aside from the episode dedicated to celebrating her birthday? The addition of a fun neighbor girl who refreshingly doesn’t have a thing for Kazuya (at least, not yet) and would much rather help hook him up with Chizuru? A lot more focus on Chizuru and her relationship with her dying grandmother? See, this show can be good when it tries! This season was sooo much better than the first two. Too bad it doesn’t seem to know when to quit. Seriously, the end of this season would have been the perfect time for Kazuya to tell Ruka he’s just not that into her and get together with Chizuru for real, but apparently they feel the need to drag things on and on and on...

Bungo Stray Dogs: I think my favorite relationship in the entire show is between a young un-Gifted girl named Aya and Bram Stoker, who she affectionately calls Bra-chan. Despite being under the main bad guy’s control and being, well, a vampire, Bram isn’t all that bad himself, and watching him and Aya become friends while she attempts to sneak them out of the airport was quite amusing. The rest of the plot… I honestly think some characters have become way too overpowered, and there are now way too many of them. Of course the good guys won in the end, but not without the help of a lot of deux ex machina. Well, anyway, it seems the anime has now caught up with the source material, so it’ll probably be a while until we get a new season despite the teaser at the end of the final episode.

Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence: This show was...cute. That’s really all I can think of to say about it. It really was just fluff without a whole ton of substance.

MIX: I really should have seen it coming. This series is from the same mangaka who wrote Cross Game, one of the most tear-jerking manga/anime series I’ve ever read/watched, yet...it still caught me by surprise when it happened. Granted, I can’t say it was done as well as Cross Game, mainly because despite having more time with the character, I was never particularly attached to them, but, still, this cour was a definite step up from the previous one.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades: There are a lot of fascinating concepts introduced in this show, but they don’t quite add up to feeling like a satisfying, cohesive whole, if that makes sense. It felt like the show was more interested in world-building than actually forming a coherent plot. I mean, halfway through the cour we learn that main character Oliver is ( Spoilers )...and then it’s barely referenced again after that. (To be fair, this is an extra-long cour with a couple of more episodes left, so maybe things will pick up again when presumably ( Spoilers ), but still!) Like, what? You can’t drop something like that in a story and not do anything with it! From what I understand from comments I’ve read (MAJOR SPOILERS FROM THE LIGHT NOVELS AHEAD), ( MAJOR SPOILERS ) which, fair enough. I don’t expect to get the full story from one fifteen episode cour, but at least build things up, leave clues, prepare plans, reveal more backstory, explore the teachers’ characters, gain allies...really just do ANYTHING with your main freaking storyline!

Jujutsu Kaisen: You know, I’ve come to the conclusion that I enjoy this series so much more when it’s focusing on Gojo and Geto. The first season was okay, but I really liked the prequel movie and the first few episodes of this season, which also served as a prequel flashback. Then after taking a break for a couple of weeks, the show returned to the present and the start of the much hyped “Shibuya Arc”…and I’m back to being “meh”. Seriously, can we just have a spin-off series devoted to younger Gojo and Geto?

As for next season, I'll of course be continuing with Soaring Sky! Precure and Jujutsu Kaisen, which are carrying on into the fall. Really looking forward to the new cours of Spy x Family and Ancient Magus' Bride, and I've already started watching Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and I'm In Love With the Villainess. I'll probably watch the new season of B-Project -- if not now, then at least eventually, since I've watched previous seasons -- but it's not a big priority, and SHY seems like it might be good. Oh, and After School Hanako-kun is a spinoff of Toilet Bound Hanako-kun, so I'll probably watch that, too. Other possible picks, if available on Crunchyroll: My New Boss Is Goofy, Kawagoe Boys Sing, and The Apothecary Diaries.

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.

Current Mood: blah

Long time, no see! I'll hopefully get around to posting a new Merchandise Round-Up soon -- I've got some really cool stuff to show off! -- but for now, let's talk about the winter anime season. At the moment, I'm just going to focus on the shows I watched on Crunchyroll. I've just started a two week free trial at Funimation so I can marathon through the four shows that really interested me this season (Sk8 the Infinity, Skate-Leading Stars, Horimiya, and 2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team), which means I haven't really watched enough to form an opinion on them yet. I'll probably edit this post later with my thoughts when I finish.

Sk8 the Infinity: This is what I meant about making a sport exciting when talking about the surfing anime below. I don't care about skateboarding at all, but, dang, those races were thrilling and cool! Also loved the friendship between Reki and Langa, but ADAM is a world-class creep. Best show of the season by far.

Skate-Leading Stars: Y'all already know how much I love figure skating, so, to be honest, this show wasn't a hard sell for me. *laughs* I did have to turn off my brain a little bit to watch it, though, because the jumps were just so ridiculous. Apparently everybody can do quads in this world, even a guy who quit the sport as a novice in singles and decided to come back years later to compete as part of a skate-leading team. He even tried a quint at one point and landed a quad axel/quad toe loop/quad loop, which is just...impossible. Buuuut, even though I was annoyed that the teams wore the same costumes for both their short and free programs and wished they had showed more of the programs, what skating they did show was well animated, and I just really enjoyed it. No, not as good as Yuri!!! on Ice, but still a fun watch.

Heaven's Design Team - This was probably my favorite of the season -- fun and educational! After almost every episode, I ended up hitting Wikipedia to learn more about the animals featured. I wish they had decided they were going to use the localized English names from the manga for the characters from the start instead of suddenly switching three episodes in when I was just getting used to the Japanese names, but that's my only real complaint.

Horimiya - The first half of this series was fantastic! But starting around the halfway mark, when the titular couple started dating, it seemed to lose its way a little. Apparently a lot was cut from the manga in order to make the whole series fit into a single season, and it showed. I still really enjoyed it for the most part, but Hori became kinda unlikeable with her unreasonable possessiveness and her pushing an obviously uncomfortable Miyamura to beabusive to her in public as part of her masochistic kink
I really think the show would have worked better with another season and more chances to show the good side of their relationship, along with exploring some of the side characters more. (I especially liked the love triangle between Yuki, Tooru, and Sakura.)

Tropical-Rouge! Precure - I don't think I've ever seen such a HYPER magical girl lead. Manatsu can be a bit much to take in at times, but it's fun and colorful, and Laura the mermaid is kind of a wicked delight. It's only been a few episodes so far since it started mid-season, but I'm enjoying it!

2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team - This show really wasn't what I was expecting, which seems strange to say when it's clear from the title that it's a volleyball anime. I just wasn't expecting it to focus so much on volleyball? Especially based on the first couple of episodes. I thought it would focus more on Hajima working to become a better person and team player when his bullying of one of his old teammate resulted in said teammate trying to commit suicide (not a spoiler, BTW), which he does, somewhat, but... It's hard to explain. It doesn't help matters that it turns out thesuicide attempt was actually faked, seemingly absolving Hajima of most of his guilt.Anyway, it was a good series, but I couldn't help feeling that it didn't know what it wanted to be, if that makes sense?

Quintessential Quintuplets - I really enjoyed the first season, so I was looking forward to watching this continuation. Unfortunately, the pacing just felt...off almost all season, and the girls (especially looking at you, Ichika) backstabbing each other to try to win Futaro's heart was disappointing when they mostly avoided that in the first season. There were still some good parts, but, eh, I was left underwhelmed.

WAVE - Let's go surfing!! - Though I tend to enjoy sports anime, even for sports I don't particularly care for, this show really did nothing to make surfing seem exciting. Don't get me wrong; it's not terrible. It's a nice enough show, and I give it props for genuinely surprising me bykilling off one of the main characters early in the series in a surfing accident, but we didn't even find out for certainhe was deaduntil the second-to-last episode. There was really no reason to make it a mystery for the audience, many of whom were hopinghe was alive after allaccording to the comments at Crunchyroll. EDIT: Wait! I wrote this review before actually watching the final episode, and it turns outhe actually is alive? Or maybe he was supposed to be a spirit or a ghost?I don't know! They never really explained why he decided to go surfing during a storm either, when he knew how dangerous it could be. Now I'm really curious and want a second season! Or at least to see the movie this series was apparently based on.

Bungo Stray Dogs Wan! - A series of amusing shorts based on Bungo Stray Dogs, it was good, but mostly forgettable aside from the episode that turned most of the cast into pre-schoolers with Dazai as their teacher. Hilarious!

The spring season is looking to be REALLY good, with lots of sequels to series I already enjoy. Of course I'm going to continue with Tropical-Rouge! Precure, as well as the new seasons of Fruits Basket, Zombie Land Saga, My Hero Academia, and Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun. That doesn't leave much room for new shows, but Those Snow White Notes, The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent, Bakuten!!, and Farewell, My Dear Cramer have all caught my eye. Guess I'll just have to see which ones land on Crunchyroll to help me decide!

Current Mood: geeky

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Entries tagged with horimiya

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