Reviews

Rule of Three Review: Spring 2018 Anime Digest

We’ve got all kinds of purr-spectives on the latest season.

A blonde teen girl holds a fat gray cat's paws in her hands. They're both smiling.

As has become the new routine, I took part in AniFem’s three-episode check-in post, so I’ll send you over there for all the discussion points. More shows, more voices, and more recommendations for you dear readers!

Oh–and we don’t discuss sequels in these, but I’m also keeping up with Amanchu!, My Hero Academia, and Steins;Gate 0. For how long, though, may be another story.

Click here for the full post on AniFem!

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Panning the Stream: Spring 2018 Premiere Digest

The good, the bad, and the kitties.

A teen boy in a school uniform holds an umbrella, looking unphased. Behind him, a teen girl holding a cat looks at him in admiration, sparkling light bursting around her.

It’s that time of quarter-year again! I got together with fellow AniFem staffers Caitlin and Vrai to review all the premieres for Anime Feminist and help readers find some diamonds in the rough. This was the first season in… gosh, three years?… where I didn’t watch every single premiere, as I trusted my fellow reviewers to help me avoid the real stinkers.

I’ve listed my own reviews below in order of “fave” to “least fave” (somehow I didn’t get assigned any of the really heinous ones this time around) for your perusal. And can also click here for the full digest on AniFem, which includes links to every review!

  • HINAMATSURI: A silly and surprisingly sweet take on the “supernatural girl adopted by unlikely father-figure” subgenre, this one came out of nowhere to be my favorite premiere of the season.
  • Yotsuiro Biyori: a.k.a. Laid-Back Cafe, this is the season’s cozy blanket series. I loved it.
  • Tada Never Falls in Love: Yamazaki Mitsue’s directorial debut is a bit of a mixed bag tonally, but there are good gags, good cats, and the potential for a solid school story, so I’m still hyped.
  • Cute High Earth Defense Club HAPPY KISS!: If you’ve been following me these past few years, you know how much I enjoy this goofball magical boy parody show. Happy Kiss is more of the same, and I’m A-OK with that.
  • Libra of Nil Admirari: An otome VN adaptation with a rad premise and a protagonist who wants to focus on taking more control of her life, but it’s bit, er, lacking in the charm department.
  • GeGeGe no Kitaro: A family-friendly remake of an old classic that’s pretty darn clever with its social commentary. There wasn’t quite enough here to get me to come back, but I still enjoyed it well enough.
  • MAJOR 2nd: This baseball series writes its female characters so well I wound up disappointed that they weren’t the stars of the series.
  • Gurazeni: Money Pitch: The Other Baseball Show, this one focusing on a professional player’s financial concerns and future goals. Refreshing in its uniqueness, but nothing I’m dying to watch again.

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Glancing Upstream: Winter 2018 Retrospective Digest

Oh the weather outside was frightful, but the anime was so delightful…

Two teen girls in scarves and coats look very excited. The one wearing glasses is throwing confetti; the other long-haired girl is pulling a party popper, streamers flying from it.

Another season has come to a close, and this one might have been the coziest yet. Chock full of nice kids and cute pets, Winter 2018 was a sequence of comfy campfires guaranteed to keep you warm and toasty. So let’s talk about it… er, a little. Hit the jump for a sum-up and an explanation.

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Rule of Three Review: Winter 2018 Anime Digest

Warm yourself on these cold winter nights with some quality comedies and healing series.

A girl with fluffy hair wearing a cloak stands in front of an apple cart, smiling and holding a round pink animal with cat ears and fairy wings. The animal says "I'll have three, please!"

Just like last season, I participated in a three-episode check-in roundtable with my AniFem teammates, so I’ll send you over there for all the discussion points. More shows, more voices, and more recommendations for you dear readers!

Oh–and we don’t discuss sequels in these, but I’m also keeping up with The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, and ClassicaLoid. And yes, I am enjoying all three. It’s been a surprisingly pleasant season thus far, so here’s hoping it can keep it up!

Click here for the full post on AniFem!

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Panning the Stream: Winter 2018 Premiere Digest

Heavy emphasis on “digest” this time around…

A boy in front of a blue "doom" background looks back at his two friends with puppy-dog eyes. All three are wearing the same school uniform.

Sorry, team, but the hefty task of both writing  and editing for Premiere Hell over at AniFem has taken its toll, and your humble blogger is burned out. So instead of the usual mini-reviews for Every Single Premiere (and yeah, I watched ’em all again), below is just a super-quick rundown of what’s caught my eye and what hasn’t.

To help you decide if you should try out a new series,  I’ve included links to all the AniFem premiere reviews (some of which I did write, so it’s not like I’ve been sittin’ on my laurels the past couple weeks!). I don’t have exactly the same tastes as the other AniFem reviewers, but I respect and largely agree with their analyses, so I’m totally fine just pointing to them and saying “Yeah, what they said.” Hit the jump for links and a rundown!

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Glancing Upstream: Fall 2017 Retrospective and Review

Who doesn’t love a few surprise twists at the end?

A group of seven people - two women, a girl, and four young men - gather around an iPad that's being held out by an off-screen character. They are all wearing shocked expressions.

To say this season didn’t play out as I expected is a major understatement. Shows I was hyped about early on fizzled out at the end, series I wanted to love didn’t quite win me over, and a show that didn’t even get mentioned in my midseason review came out of nowhere to become one of my favorites of the year. And through it all, there were rocks and composers. Dear, reliable rocks and composers.

Hit the jump for fumbled passes, strong finishers, and dark horses alike.

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Panning the Stream: Fall 2017 Midseason Review

I may have chipped away a few series, but this season still rocks.

An androgynous person with iridescent chin-length hair holds a slug-like creature in their hands and smiles.

Unsurprisingly, given the strength of this season, I’m watching way too many shows. I also wrote way too many words about them. So let’s skip the preamble and dive right in, shall we? Away we go, to mages and musicians and MMOs!

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Review: Anime Supremacy!

Here it is, folks: the SHIROBAKO sequel you’ve been waiting for.

Three women in profile running in the same direction. The first is wearing casual clothes and carrying posterboard and a manila folder; the second is dressed in a sharp business suit and holding a phone; the third is in a nice dress and holding a pen

It didn’t matter if the work was difficult or stressful, or if she hardly earned enough to live on. She didn’t care if she had to live her days as a geek girl or female otaku, with no semblance of a “real” life.

She was never going to stand by and let anyone make fun of her job.

Anime Supremacy!, written by Mizuki Tsujimura and translated by Deborah Boliver Boehm, tells the interconnected stories of three women—a producer, a director, and an animator—working in the anime industry. Not quite a novel and not quite a short story collection, the book is divided into three main chapters, each following one of the protagonists through part of a single anime season.

Click here for the full post on Anime Feminist!

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Rule of Three Review: Fall 2017 Anime Digest

Now with friends!

Four girls and two boys in school uniforms stand around a table covered in boxes filled with what look like blu-ray cases. A pink-haired girl looks startled, while the other seem happy. Subtitle: "We have plenty of time to watch and discuss anime."

Change of pace this season: I participated in a three-episode check-in roundtable with Amelia and Vrai over at Anime Feminist. So instead of doing my usual solo act, I’ll just direct you over there for all the chatter. More shows, more voices, and more recommendations for you dear readers!

Oh–and we didn’t mention sequels, but I’m also keeping up with ClassicaLoid (still a delight), Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond (still weird and entertaining), Hozuki’s Coolheadedness (still uniquely silly), and Mr. Osomatsu (still tastelessly amusing). Truly, my watchlist runneth over.

Click here for the full post on AniFem!

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Panning the Stream: Fall 2017 Premieres Digest

Let the battle for a spot on my watchlist begin!
A blonde girl in a school uniform stands with her eyes closed and one hand stretched out to the side. Beside, her someone in a black suit and gloves stands, their face and most of their torso hidden by a tall stack of what appear to be blu-ray cases.

This. Season. Is. STACKED. Or, at least, that’s how it looks after a deluge of strong premieres. Six shows impressed me enough to earn a guaranteed three episodes, not including the four sequels I’m locked into; and honestly, in a normal season, at least a few of the fence-sitters would have been “guaranthreed,” too. I eventually had to start dropping stuff not because I hated it, but because I was terrified my watchlist would topple sideways under the weight of all those shows and crush me beneath it.

Point being, there’s almost certainly something listed below that will catch your fancy as much as or more than it did mine. So let’s dive right into ’em, shall we?

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