juliko25 | Entries tagged with 2022

Man, 2022 really went by fast, didn't it? To be honest, personally, 2022 has been a pretty good year for me, all things considered. I got transferred to a new position at my job which made my work not only a lot easier, but my boss and coworkers are awesome, with one of said coworkers actually reaching out to be my friend, something my coworkers at my previous position didn't do. I got involved in other fandoms and got to meet some great people thanks to that, along with getting even closer with the online friends I still have (If you guys are reading this, you know who you are! <3). Some great anime and games came out this year that I really came to love, with more on the way in 2023. I finally got around to getting my fourth COVID shot (Though I wound up getting some side effects from it but those went away fairly quickly), and unlike 2021, we didn't lose any family members this year. Though admittedly this past Christmas was kind of rough, but that didn't really put a damper on 2022 as a whole for me.

Though 2022 may have been a good year for me, it may have been different for others, and that's not even getting into current events. Trump's usual shenanigans, volcanoes erupting and killing people, Russia's war with the Ukraine, Queen Elizabeth II's death, Shinzo Abe getting shot and killed, and women basically losing the legal right to have abortions because some idiots in the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and decided getting abortions for any reason is now illegal. Not even sexual abuse victims are allowed any sympathy, which is absolutely disgusting that a bunch of regressive lawmakers think they can stick their noses in other peoples' business and change things for communities because they hate them. The world lost a lot of influential people, several of whom died fairly young, and I already named a few in one of my 12 Moments of Anime posts, so I won't go into detail about them here. Though I'm still sour about what happened with Billy Kametz in particular.

But with 2022 now behind us, one can only hope that 2023 will be different. 2023 will be pretty significant for me because I'll be turning 30 in June of that year, and there's already a lot of other things I'm lookng forward to in the coming months.

Come on, did you really think I wasn't going to put this at number one? Discotek Media is a company that's dedicated to putting old, forgotten classics on home video here in the US, but restoring them to the best of their ability. This year, they really went all out in rescuing titles that were either left behind or assumed to never be brought over here: Saint Tail, Kamen Rider Black, GaoGaiGar, Urusei Yatsura, Ninja Robots, Digimon Adventure (Including the Japanese version!), the Japanese version of Sonic X, Ultimate Muscle, and so on. But get this: Remember a little anime movie called The Flying Phantom Ship? Yeah, that was never brought over here until Discotek announced they got it in May of 2022. Not only that, Discotek was even able to dub it into English, and the only reason they were able to do so was because Toei, who produced the movie, actually had the wherewithall to preserve the music and effects track, which is needed to make a dub, and preserving those wasn't a common practice during that time. Some staff on Discotek have mentioned that there are titles that they'd like to dub, but can't because the M&E tracks have been lost or were never preserved, which is pretty common with older titles, but Flying Phantom Ship is the exception here, even though that movie was made in 1969.

So yeah, glory to Discotek, and here's hoping they manage to get more cool stuff in the future.

I'm still bugging them to license the 1997 Dog of Flanders movie. Get on that already!!

Moment #1: The various licensing miracles Discotek Media pulled off in 2022.

Witch Hat Atelier, I feel, is one of the best manga to come out in the 2010s. It has impeccable artwork, a unique, well-thought out setting that continues to be built upon, amazingly three-dimensional characters, and a rich story that's still evolving, since the manga is still ongoing. I've been avidly collecting and reading the manga since I first heard about it, and seriously, I am DYING to review it at some point, but I don't like to review stuff that's incomplete. Naturally, fans of the manga, myself included, wondered what the story would be like if it were adapted into an anime. Many have come to the conclusion that it'd be pretty hard to adapt Kamome Shirahama's detailed art into the medium of animation.

Then in April of 2022, Anime News Network announced that Witch Hat Atelier is indeed going to get an anime. Seriously, words cannot possibly describe how happy I am that this is happening. I only pray that it gets treated well, unlike what happened with Bibliophile Princess or Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. There's no confirmed release date yet, but I'm sure that'll be announced in the near future. But God dammit, I'm gonna watch the anime as soon as it comes out, because why the hell would I not?!

Moment #2: The news that Witch Hat Atelier is getting an anime adaptation for the future.

Current Mood: ecstatic
Current Music: Tomori Kusunoki - Tori no Uta

It seems like every year, we lose important people in the anime industry and community, with this year being no exception. Sadly, many of those we lost this year died fairly young, never being allowed the chance to live the rest of their lives to the fullest. In 2022, we lost the following people: Angela Lansbury, Mia Ikumi, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Ichiro Mizuki, Kevin Lillard, Norihiro Inoue, Shizuru Otaka, Manabu Ohashi, Kevin Conroy, Jason David Frank, Kazuki Takahashi, James Caan, Pat Carroll, Motomu Kiyokawa, Hitomi Suzuki, and the most unexpected of all, Billy Kametz, who had only just started becoming popular in the anime English dubbing scene and seemed destined to do great things, only to lose his life to colon cancer. I'm sure there are others that I missed, but all the people who lost their lives in 2022 will never be forgotten. Their legacies will live on forever. May they rest in peace.

Moment #3: The loss of beloved figures in the anime community in 2022.

Some time in 2021, Sony, FUNimation's parent company, acquired Crunchyroll from AT&T, and in March of 2022, it was announced the entirety of FUNimation's library would be merged with Crunchyroll, with the FUNimation brand being phased out. As of now, FUNimation's streaming website is still active, with no concrete shutdown date as of yet, but other than simulcasts of shows they already licensed previously, no new stuff will be added to the website. So basically, Crunchyroll ate FUNimation up and has a pretty strong monopoly over anime and anime licensing. This merger sparked quite a bit of heated discussion, and many fans, myself included, were worried about what this will mean for the anime industry. This is especially relevant due to investigations showing that Crunchyroll doesn't exactly have the best business practices, such as underpaying its workers and deceptive marketing. Do I even need to go into the High Guardian Spice debacle here? Not only that, Crunchyroll built their own recording house in Texas, and hairs really got bristled when CR announced that not only were they going to dial back on remote recording, but were going dial back on outsourcing their dubs to lot of LA studios like Bang Zoom and Studiopolis to focus more on the Texas talent. And I don't think I need to go into the whole Mob Psycho 100 season 3 dub debacle in regards to how they treated Kyle McCarley.

If you've been living under a rock since 2020, anime dubbing studios had to get creative when it came to putting out English dubs of anime that were being produced between February 2020 and March 2022, which resulted in voice actors building their own home recording booths and studios making use of dubbing remotely. Studios went wild with all sorts of creative castings for a lot of English dubs that never would have been possible in the decades before, as detailed in this Twitter thread here. New actors from all over the US, even outside the country, were being hired to work on anime when it was never possible for them to do so before. Even studios that haven't received much in the way of work in years, such as New Generation Pictures and Central Command Studios, got to make new dubs for new shows thanks to remote recording and other things. Granted, some studios that CR outsources their dubs to haven't exactly stopped doing remote recording, and I know companies like GKids, Eleven Arts, and even Discotek have begun to embrace it too, since they've been working with studios that make use of it too, so remote recording isn't gone completely. But the fact that CR is dialing it back doesn't exactly set a healthy precedent for what's to come. So yeah, for all of FUNimation's issues, it's going to be sad to see the brand disappear in the coming months or years, especially since they're one of the main reasons anime gradually became widely accepted in the US in the first place. Furthermore, LA studios like Bang Zoom and Studiopolis, while they still get work, aren't going to receive the opportunities that they used to because of CR's bullheaded decisions...which is especially weird because CR used them to dub a LOT of their anime, like Isekai Cheat Magician, 86, Odd Taxi, Ascendance of a Bookworm, and so on. Granted, CR is using some LA studios for some currently airing dubs right now such as the second season of To Your Eternity and Kingdom, but that'll likely only be until their shows end.

That being said, not everything about the merger has been bad, I feel. Sure, the negatives do outweigh the positives, but I'm not gonna throw the positives by the wayside. Since the merger, a bunch of shows from CR's backlog have since received new English dubs. Given, Laid-Back Camp, Sing Yesterday for Me, Remake Our Life, Higehiro, Girlfriend Girlfriend, and other shows that initially didn't get dubbed on their first run have finally received them, with the most recent announcement being that Place Further Than the Universe is finally getting not only a dub, but a US home video release in 2023, and through a British company, no less! But nothing, I mean NOTHING, will ever beat the immense joy I felt when it was announced that of all shows, Natsume's Book of Friends would finally get an English dub after years of nothing.

No one can really be sure what the future holds, but let's hope whatever changes come next will be positive ones...though knowing CR, I doubt it.

Moment #4: FUNimation merging with Crunchyroll and what resulted from it so far.

Come on, did you really think Pokemon wasn't going to put out a new generation this year? Every three years, Game Freak and Nintendo put out new generations of Pokemon games. In this case, it came in the form of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Naturally, I bought both games, as a diehard fan, and honestly, I'm pretty pleased with them. Though...the games came out pretty glitchy. I mean it. There are soooo many glitches and basic performance issues. None of them deterred my enjoyment of the games, sure, but many fans thought the games needed more time in the oven before getting released, and I'm inclined to agree. Nintendo has mentioned that they'll release patches for the game later on, with one having been applied not long after the games' release, so who knows? Eh, I'm happy with what I have. Also, I'm just happy I finally get to have Deerling in a Switch game now since Sword/Shield didn't put it in previously!

Moment #5: Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's release.

In May of 2022, some people that worked for the manga licensing company Seven Seas Entertainment banded together to form a union so they could campaign for better working conditions, higher pay, stable benefits, and so on, as detailed here. Their reasoning is that since the company grew a lot during the pandemic and made a lot of money with the popular manga and light novels they license, that there was no reason for the company to not give their employees the benefits that the publishing industry usually provides, leading to overwork and little pay. Basically, they want Seven Seas to treat their employees fairly and provide things like PTO, reasonable workloads, secure employment status, healthcare, and so on, as detailed on their website here. At first, things seemed to be hectic for a while, as initially, Seven Seas hired a union-busting lawyer, but thankfully, not long after that, Seven Seas voluntarily recognized its workers' union. This doesn't mean that Seven Seas itself has gone union, but now that Seven Seas recognized its workers' union, they are in the process of negotiating with them so UW7S can receive everything that they're asking for. It's not perfect, but it's a good first step.

Now if only Crunchyroll would do the same.

Moment #6: Seven Seas Entertainment recognizing its workers' union.

In my experience, anime conventions have been great places for me to attend and have fun. I've been to quite a few conventions since 2005, and all of them have been great experiences for me in one way or another. But this isn't always the case for others. Anime Matsuri is a convention held in Texas, and...it's become infamous in later years for things like bad business practices, poor treatment of its guests of honor, and sexual harassment on the part of one of the con's founders, among many other crimes, to the point where the hashtag #BoycottAnimeMatsuri became a thing on both Tumblr and Twitter. This past July, Anime Matsuri tried their hand at licensing and dubbing two short anime films. Now, normally, this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing...if it were any other convention. But not do people already know about the convention's controversies, one of the people who spearheaded these dubs in particular was the nail in the coffin for some: Vic Mignogna. Yeah, I don't think I need to tell anyone about him and his crimes, but after he was rightfully kicked out of the anime industry, he tried to worm his way back into it. Since there's been absolutely no discussion of the actual films he and AM dubbed, nor have said dubs even appeared on the internet, I think its safe to say that his attempt to put himself back in the spotlight failed.

Moment #7: Vic Mignogna's attempt to get back into the industry and failing miserably, and rightfully so.

Not every anime gets an English dub for whatever reason. Some anime are either too old to justify dubbing them, not popular enough, or in the case of some, the assets that are required to dub an anime no longer exist. In this new age of simuldubs, where various new anime receive dubs right as they are, there are some anime that don't receive English dubs right off the bat, or didn't get dubbed when they first came out. For example, NIS America once held the license for AnoHana but chose not to dub it into English, and it wasn't until 2017 that their license expired and it got sent to Aniplex of America did it finally get a dub. But AnoHana isn't the only NIS licensed anime that would be rescued and receive a new English dub, but more on that in a bit.

Once Crunchyroll began dipping their toes into both streaming, licensing, and dubbing anime, there were many titles that they had the rights to but for some reason just didn't dub, even when the shows were popular enough to justify giving them dubs. Shows like Laid-Back Camp, Given, Sing Yesterday For Me, Remake Our Life, A Place Further Than the Universe, and Keep Your Hands off Eizouken, while very popular in the time they came out and still are to an extent, CR didn't seem to want to dub them. While, unfortunately, there are a lot of anime fans that don't like dubs for whatever reason, there are just as many who would have loved to see those particular shows, among many others, receive English dubs since those would give them better exposure in the West.

Luckily, 2022 has proven to be a relatively good year in that respect, as CR decided to step up and give a lot of those shows I mentioned new dubs right out of the gate, and within a pretty quick time span, to boot. Hell, just this past year, Anime Limited announced at the Anime NYC convention that they're bringing A Place Further Than the Universe to the US, along with producing a new English dub for it, something fans of the show, myself included, have wanted for years. Now that dream is finally coming true, and fans of the other shows I mentioned are happy too. Still waiting on that dub for Eizouken, CR or Sentai. But there was one anime CR decided to go back and dub, one that I had believed would never ever receive one.

Seriously, the second I read the news that Natsume Yuujinchou, one of my favorite series of all time, was finally getting a dub after years of nothing, I SCREAMED with joy, and right in the middle of a work meeting, no less! I and so many others had long since given up hope for the show ever receiving a dub since NIS America had licensed it, but as of now, it seems the license has gone back to CR. The fact that this is happening gives me hope that other shows might receive this treatment, too. I am so beyond happy about this, but more than that, it's great that certain shows are finally being put back into the limelight for new fans to see.

Moment #8: Certain popular anime finally receiving English dubs after so long.

Man, when Digimon Survive was first announced, I was super excited to eventually play it whenever it was due to come out, because early information revealed that it was going to be a darker take on Digimon Adventure's premise. Being a huge Digimon fan myself, I couldn't wait to play it. And then news broke that it got delayed. And it got delayed again. And again. And again. Naturally, some people got fed up, while others continued to wait for it while pursuing other things. But finally, after four years since its announcement, Digimon Survive finally came out in late July of 2022. So my wish to play the game got granted and I already talked about my overall feelings on it in my review, but tl;dr, other than being a bit of a slog and some other flaws that didn't sit right with me, I still really enjoyed Digimon Survive. Plus, as of this writing, Bandai-Namco announced that Digimon Survive sold 500,000 copies worldwide which, while not necessarily huge compared to other games, is considered unthinkable for a visual novel, as most don't even break 100K in sales. I do have to wonder if a lot of that has to do with the game being on sale on Steam. But nonetheless, as someone who has looked forward to the game since its first reveal, I'm glad Digimon Survive finally came to fruition, and I hope that the game's success convinces Bandai-Namco to make more games like it.

Also, please don't dismiss the game just because it's a visual novel. If you're not a fan of VNs, fine, but I've seen people dismiss VNs as "not a real game genre," which is blatantly untrue. Visual novels are just as much a valid, versatile gaming format as other game genres are. Not every video games need to be an action-packed open world. Just because VNs aren't your preferred genre doesn't give anyone the right to dismiss VNs as a whole.

Moment #9: Digimon Survive finally releasing after a four-year delay.

In March of 2022, an article on Anime News Network appeared saying that English voice actor Daman Mills was accused of engaging in sexual misconduct with a minor, with said minor claiming that Mills had sexually assaulted him years prior. The anime community blew up upon hearing this news, with fans denouncing Mills and turning their backs on him the second the news dropped. But several days later, the accuser in question, who went under the name Duncan, retracted his statements, claiming that his accusations were completely fabricated, complete with the proposed evidence also being doctored. Why this person chose to accuse Mills of sexual misconduct, we'll never know. Basically, the whole thing was a huge mess all around, practically bordering on bad soap opera, and even the person who was reporting on it, Lynzee Loveridge, was getting discombobulated about how things were playing out. Since the whole thing got cleared up, Mills has returned to voice acting, but this paints a pretty sad picture about people's lack of critical thinking. Not on the part of the reporters, as they did all they could to clarify things whenever people tried to spread misinformation, but on the people who just look at something and just believe the whole thing at face value, without bothering to really look into if what they're seeing is real or doctored. Rape accusations, whether proven true or false, ruin lives. In this case, Mills' name was cleared, yes, and the accuser admitted his guilt, but the fact that there's so many of these incidents makes it harder for people who have actually been sexually assaulted to receive justice, contributing to the already persistent culture of victim blaming and letting the actual culprits get off scot free. Seriously, moral of the story here: DO YOUR RESEARCH AND ACTUALLY ANALYZE THINGS!!

Moment #10: The wild and crazy Daman Mills false rape accusation fiasco.

(Don't worry, I swear the next few moments will be positive ones! It won't be all doom and gloom!)

Hey kids, remember those awesome PokeToon shorts that got pumped out last year? Well, TPCI finally decided to dub them into English and bring them to the US! Surely this is cause for celebration, right?...but then word started coming out that the dubs in question are...really bad. I've only seen two of the shorts in English and...I'm sad to say that they're right! The English dubs for them are so lifeless and poorly made, doing a complete disservice to the shorts! I'm honestly scared to watch Yume no Tsubomi in English based on this one Twitter thread that somebody who did watch it made. Seriously, the PokeToons deserve better. I kind of hope somebody does fan dubs for them.

Moment #11: PokeToon's US release and their not-so-great English dubs.

Hey, it's December now! Guess what that means? It's time for my personal top 12 moments of 2022!

Buuuuut we're unfortunately going to start off on a sour note, on something that while not technically associated with anime, does reveal a lot about the state of the animation industry as a whole and how people who don't understand it tend to treat it.

One day, on August 17th, 2022, a crap ton of animated shows were randomly removed from the HBO Max streaming platform with zero warning. Infinity Train, OKKO Let's Be Heroes, Uncle Grandpa, Summer Camp Island, Victor and Valentino, the list goes on. Not just whole shows, but certain episodes of other shows that hadn't been released would likely never see the light of day. Hell, even stuff that was due to be released on HBO Max but wasn't yet was getting axed. But this wasn't the end of it. The removed shows, and everything related to them—commercials, pilots, promotional stuff, short episodes, and so on—were being flat-out removed EVERYWHERE. There was even a point that their DVD releases were flat-out stopped, with no word on whether they'd remain in print. There are some people who even lost all the assets they made for said animation because they hadn't been given enough notice so they could actually make the effort to preserve them! Many assumed that this was the result of Warner Media and Discovery undergoing a merger and bringing in new management.

With one name in particular being responsible for all of it: David Zaslav. He was appointed the new CEO of WarnerMedia around that time, and as this article can tell you, he's pretty much ruined a lot of things for not just HBO Max and Discovery, but the people who wanted their creations brought into existence. Oh, but it only gets worse. Apparently the REAL reason 70% of HBO Max's animated shows were removed from there was so Zaslav and Warner/Discovery wouldn't have to pay residuals to the people who worked on those shows in favor of easy tax write-offs and shitty reality TV shows! All so they can apparently save money and get out of debt! And keep in mind, animators don't exactly get paid a whole lot of money. In fact, there's a movement going on to try and convince higher-ups to allow animators to unionize so they can receive better pay, health insurance, and job security! That's not even getting into the fact that Warner Bros. basically built their whole legacy on animation as a whole. Hello, remember Looney Tunes? That was their bread and butter! There are reasons why people still love Looney Tunes to this day, both the old and new versions of them! And now this idiotic boomer just wants to nuke animation out of every Warner-owned platform he can think of just so he can make more crappy reality shows and not pay the animators who worked their butts off? Uh, no. That's fucking unacceptable. But don't take my word for it. This video also goes into more detail about this. Just read the comments and see just how terrible the whole fiasco is.

This, unfortunately, isn't necessarily anything new. Animation as a medium has always been considered unappreciated and treated like a second-class citizen compared to live-action stuff. Corporate bigwigs have always been quick to dismiss animation as just babysitting fodder for kids, or see any cartoons as children's shows or low-brow adult comedies on the level of Family Guy and South Park, refusing to acknowledge it as the amazing, versatile art form that it is. Dismissing and devaluing animation as a whole as just direct-to-DVD fodder to babysit kids or little more than gross-out fodder is doing a massive disservice to the medium as a whole, along with the artists who pour their hearts out trying to create wonderful movies and series for people who love them. Hell, one of the reasons I review a lot of anime, cartoons, and video games, is to highlight the good and even underappreciated ones to whoever cares enough to even seek them out, because I feel they deserve more love and appreciation than they wound up getting. Animation is capable of so much more than live-action is. That's not to say all live-action stuff is bad, far from it, but to devalue a very versatile art form and the people who create it just because it's not 90 Day Fiance or The Kardashians, to the point of actively refusing to pay them for their hard work because you can't be bothered to treat them the way they deserve to be treated is fucking unacceptable.

Moment #12: The Warner Media/Discovery fiasco and the uncertain future of the removed shows in question.

Summer is nearing its end, with autumn worming its way in. With its cool breezes and colorful leaves, autumn always has something new to bring. The same goes for new anime airing in that season as well. Personally, I'm not interested in the more highly anticipated titles such as Chainsaw Man, season 3 of Mob Psycho 100, or the newest My Hero Academia season. Plus, there's been some recent news about MP100's upcoming English dub that really set the anime community on fire, and I'd rather not go into it right now. But surely there's some shows I'm interested in airing this season, right?

New:

1. Raven of the Inner Palace
I'd never heard of this light novel series before now, but based on what little I've read and seen on the internet, it does seem very interesting. Plus, since light novels have mostly just been stock isekai fare, it's great that more genres are starting to come back into the fold, and the artwork for this looks sumptuous. I'm not sure why the main character is listed as having two different names, but I'm sure there's probably an in-story explanation for this that I just haven't found. The premise looks intriguing, so I might check this out and see if I like it.

2. Spy x Family Part 2
Come on, it's Spy x Family. How can I not want to watch it? I liked the first season, as silly and dumb as it could be at times, and as someone who hasn't read the manga, I'm not informed on how faithful it is to the source. From what I've heard, some later arcs, some of which this part is going to adapt, are well known for being pretty good and introduce some new characters. I'll be damned if I'm not gonna watch this nice bit of popcorn entertainment. Plus, I'm always down for more Anya!

3. Bibliophile Princess
I'd read good things about this light novel series, though haven't gotten around to reading it myself. But it's great that shoujo stories are starting to come back into the limelight. The premise seems interesting, and the artwork I've seen for this looks really beautiful. But depending on how the series is executed, it can either succeed or fail horribly. I'll watch it and see how it plays out, but consider me intrigued.

4. Legend of Mana: The Teardrop Crystal
A Mana game being adapted into an anime? Has that even happened before? Somehow, I doubt it. I've played the first three games in the Mana series, but not Legend of Mana, and I've heard Legend is pretty divisive in the Mana fandom. Some consider the game to be amazing while others think it's really cluttered and terrible. Still, of all the Mana games to adapt into an anime, why pick this one? Not that I'm complaining, as it's great that we're finally getting some more pure fantasy anime these days. Plus, the creators have said that the anime is going to adapt one particular story arc from the game, which is a pretty good decision on their part, as it'll prevent the anime from trying to tackle too much in too little time. I'm gonna see how this plays out.

I'm still watching some holdovers from the previous season, both old and new, so there won't be much on the old section.

Old:

1. Link Click
Huh. Never thought I'd find myself watching a Chinese TV show (or donghua, as they're actually called). But it just received an English dub, and one of the voice actors involved in said dub (Who I follow on Twitter) was praising this up the wazoo. I was bored and decided to watch it. Now I'm halfway through the show, and I'm genuinely surprised at just how good, intriguing, and heartfelt this is. It doesn't try to be anything super complicated yet its rules and lore are pretty consistent without suspending one's disbelief too much. I can't wait to watch the rest of this, and knowing there's a season two on the horizon has me excited!

2. Kurau Phantom Memory
An older BONES sci-fi anime from the early 2000s that I've seen quite a bit of people praise, including a former blogger I once followed. I'm about 5 episodes in right now, and it really is surprisingly good. I kind of wish I had watched this years ago. I'm definitely going to watch this all the way through. Plus, the soundtrack absolutely slaps!

3. Kamichu!
An old slice-of-life anime from 2005. I've heard good things about this one, and after watching the first episode, I have to say its pretty cute! I'm gonna watch more of it!

Summer's here, along with some new anime to watch.

New:

1. Tokyo Mew Mew New
Hell yeah! The Mew Mews are back, yo! I've made no secret of the fact that I have a sentimental attachment to Tokyo Mew Mew, my criticisms of both the anime and manga aside. I grew up with the series, so I was hyped as hell for the new anime. Two episodes are out now, and I'm actually very intrigued by how its diverging hard from the manga and the 2002 anime, and I mean this as a compliment. But I also hear it might only be 12 episodes long, and I hope this isn't the case because this anime deserves way more than just a piddly 12 episodes to tell its story. Regardless, I'm watching the hell out of this and you will not stop me!

2. Love Live Superstar Season 2
Welp, looks like now I'm on the Love Live train now. I genuinely liked Love Live Superstar, a few nitpicks notwithstanding, and since the second season is coming out, I just know I'm going to watch it. Though I do have to question if the series can handle having four new characters added to Liella's roster, especially since the second season of Love Live Nijigasaki did suffer from having too many characters that bloated it. But who knows at this point? I'm still gonna watch season two...though now that the English dub for season one finally appeared on Crunchyroll, I might hold off on season two until I finish that.

3. Prima Doll
A new anime by Visual Arts/Key? Sure, count me in! But two episodes in, ehhh...I don't know. As much as I like the ideas this show has, it's so saccharine and treacly that it hurts. More so than Healer Girl wound up being if you can believe it. Chiyo's voice is painful to listen to, Haizakura is very annoying as a main character, and the whole series seems to be trying way too hard to make you feel sad for these pwecious uwu girls without doing anything to make its drama feel genuine or even earned. But I'm gonna watch more and see how it plays out.

Normally, I also set aside some old anime to watch that aren't in the current season. But I haven't been doing a lot of that lately, as I still have anime I'm watching and trying to finish, but keep putting off for some reason, so I want to at least get those done and over with.

Old:

1. Mrs. Pepperpot
Where the hell did this anime come from?! Discotek randomly picked this up and put it out on subbed BR, the first time Mrs. Pepperpot has ever gotten any subbed release at all. It never even got fansubs! I'm 60 episodes in (It has 130 episodes, all of which are ten minutes long), and it's surprisingly cute and fun! The characters are pretty endearing most of the time, the art style has a nice Western charm to it, and the stories are pretty nice. It helps that since the episodes are pretty short, I can watch a batch of them every day and not feel like I missed anything.

Rating: 85/100

It's no surprise by now that Siuil a Run: The Girl From The Other Side, I feel, is one of the best manga to come out in recent years. With its rich, intentionally messy artwork, compelling storyline, intriguing characters, and solid worldbuilding, the manga resonated with a lot of people, enough for it to get a short 10-minute OVA, which anyone who's read my review of that will know I absolutely love. So when it was revealed a second OVA was going to be made, a much longer one and with voice acting, I was hyped as hell, as were many others. It took a long time for it to come out, as the blu-ray containing it was bundled with one of the manga volumes in Japan. While it was released in March, only in April was it more available outside of Japan, and Crunchyroll even announced they're going to stream it later. So you can imagine my excitement when this finally came out. But then I saw reviews coming in saying that it deviated a lot from the manga, and arguably not for the better. I wanted to withhold my judgment until after I saw the OVA, and now that I've seen it...they're right. However, just because it deviates from the manga a lot doesn't mean the short film doesn't have any redeeming value.

At first, the OVA tells how Shiva and Teacher first met and how they come to live together as a little family before the latter starts getting concerned about Shiva's overall safety, should she continue to stay with him. After the thirty minute mark, the OVA becomes about Teacher trying to either find a human settlement where Shiva can live in peace, or trying to save her from the curse. So yeah, it's true that the OVA really starts deviating from the manga. Like, a lot. On one hand, this is somewhat understandable, as it'd be impossible to adapt an 11-volume manga into a one-hour-long OVA, so I can respect Wit Studio's wish to not bite off more than they can chew. They say less is more, after all, if stuff like the first OVA or even The Chronicles of Rebecca have anything to say about it. But I really do have to question a lot of the OVA's adaptational choices in regards to a lot of Teacher's decisions, even if the reasons for said decisions are understandable. I don't want to spoil anything, but having read the original manga, nowhere in the manga does Teacher ever consider abandoning Shiva in any way, not even out of concern for her safety. Plus, the OVA depicts some events happening very differently than in the manga, to the point of causing confusion about how they happened and why, and even has some original content that doesn't exist in the manga at all.

That being said, the characters themselves are fine, and they're mostly true to their characterization from the manga, save for Teacher suddenly wanting to send Shiva to a human village. Shiva doesn't act too cutesy moe or overly saintly like some anime children tend to act, and her voice actress honors that characterization. But Shiva herself doesn't really have much to her here other than liking Teacher and her surface-level trauma, and Teacher gets much more spotlight here, though a lot of it is spent on angsting about the curse. Other minor characters appear, but they're barely given much in the way of significance. The voice acting is fairly well done too. Not much else to say there.

Similarly to the first OVA, The Girl From The Other Side thrives on the experimental nature of its animation and the desolate atmosphere it conveys. And really, the animation alone does the OVA justice, not only to the manga itself, but Nagabe's art style. The OVA retains the shaky lines from the 10-minute short, making them more polished, the backgrounds are beautifully painted with loving detail, and a lot of the effects that this film uses—water filters, the muted color palette, jittering shading and outlines, ink blots, manipulating light, and others I don't have names for—are all used to great effect, conveying both the desolate environment they live in, and the two characters' emotional and mental states, all with a kind of ethereal beauty that only The Girl From The Other Side can convey. The soundtrack is also much more muted and ambient, doing its job impeccably, only playing when needed, and mainly restricted to just piano pieces.

In terms of which adaptation of the original manga is the best, I'd say I recommend the 10-minute silent OVA, as that one does its own thing without deviating too far from the manga, is true to the heart of the story, and narrows its focus to just showing a day in Shiva and Teacher's life. That being said, that's not to say the 2022 OVA doesn't have redeeming value. Significant deviations from the manga aside, I think the 2022 OVA is better seen as either an alternate continuity or a separate entity from the manga, similar to how the 1997 Ie Naki Ko Remi anime deviates significantly from the original Sans Famille novel and the 1977 Ie Naki Ko anime to the point of being its own entity. Plus, even The Girl From The Other Side's original manga has some issues, particularly as it gets closer to the end. The best way to watch this 1-hour OVA is to not have your expectations too high in regards to faithfulness to the manga, because it's clearly trying to be its own self-contained story, though it makes some missteps in doing so. Or, on the other hand, you can use it as a way to get people who aren't familiar with anime into it for the first time.

In the end, the 2022 The Girl From The Other Side OVA, while very ambitious and experimental with its animation, deviates a lot from the original source and doesn't make the best decisions in doing so. But at its heart, its still a nice way to kill an hour, especially if you want to watch it as just an experimental art film or take it as just a long advertisement for the manga. Plus, I'd still take this over all the shitty ecchi and light novel isekai anime any day of the week. I kind of hope some company like GKids or Eleven Arts dubs it into English and puts it out on DVD/Blu-Ray, along with the 10-minute OVA as well. That would be great!

Spring is here! Flowers are blooming, the sun is out, birds are singing, and after a barren winter season, there are actually some anime coming out this season that I'm excited about!

New:

1. Love Live Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Season 2
Seriously, I never would have expected that I'd ever be a Love Live fan. But I wound up watching the first season of Love Live Nijigasaki a few years ago on a whim and was pleasantly surprised. Also, there's no boob grabbing scenes!! Woohoo!! So yeah, I'm super happy about this and definitely looking forward to season 2!

2. Healer Girl
There isn't a whole lot of information on this one, except that it's about cute idol girls healing people by singing, which...isn't exactly the most original premise, and somebody I know think it's just something shilled out by a corporation to bank on the idol craze. But the opening song is great and well sung, and it does look cute, so I might check this out and see if it's any good.

3. Delicious Party Pretty Cure
In case I didn't make it clear, I felt that Tropical Rouge Pretty Cure was a huge disaster and one of the absolute most disappointing Precure seasons to come out in recent years. Thankfully, Delicious Party Pretty Cure got off to a good start so far and seems intent on rectifying TroPri's issues. Unfortunately, Toei got hacked recently, and as a result, DeliPre, along with other shows they're working on, got delayed by a few weeks, so we have to wait longer to see more Precure (and more Digimon Ghost Game, which makes me mad because I love Ghost Game!). Oh well. I just hope DeliPre doesn't make the same mistakes TroPri did when it gets further into its run. Also, Cure Spicy is best girl so far!

4. Deaimon
I know literally nothing about this, other than it's about a guy owning a sweets shop in Kyoto and being tasked with taking care of a little girl. But the art style does look cute, and the show itself kind of gives me a Sweetness & Lightning vibe since it's about a man taking care of a child. I wonder how it'll turn out? I'll try it out and see.

5. Spy x Family

I haven't read much of the manga, but I did like what I did read, and the anime looks like it'll be pretty good as well. I'll check it out and see if it holds up, though CloverWorks has a bit of a reputation for...overextending itself. Like, a lot.

As far as old shows go, I'm still watching some holdovers such as Oniisama e and Konnichiwa Anne, and I put others on hold such as Aquatope, which is stressing me out because of the weird direction it's going in. I've also been binging the Pokemon Sun & Moon anime since Netflix revealed they're taking it off at the end of March, even though I am NOT a fan of those particular seasons. I have been able to finish other shows such as Tsurune, Hakumei & Mikochi, and Haibane Renmei. But as far as old shows go, here are the ones I'll be watching.

Old:

1. Bloom Into You
Yeah, I missed out on this when it first aired, due to being really stuck in anime burnout at the time. Though now that I've managed to claw myself out of it, I think it's time I watch it. I'm 2 episodes in and I like what I'm seeing so far. The animation is beautiful and I do like the budding romance between Yu and Touko. I'm curious to see how it turns out.

2. Talentless Nana

I didn't watch this as it came out, as I thought it'd just be a rehash of My Hero Academia. But then I heard about the beginning plot twist...and later heard that one of my favorite newer English voice actresses, Michelle Marie, would be playing Nana, I decided to give it a shot. The dub itself is great, and the show is kinda...ehhh, but I don't think it's bad or anything. I'm 5 episodes in so far and I like it, though I wish the plot didn't make Kyouya so blind to Nana's true intentions.

3. Sasaki and Miyano
I wasn't sure if I would want to watch this, as nothing in the 2022 winter season really appealed to me, and I wanted to focus on watching or rewatching older stuff first. But then I read a review of the first episode was like, and...I waited for the English dub to come out. It's cute to watch, but it doesn't really have much else going for it. But I'll watch the rest of it as it comes out.

4. Ai no Gakko Cuore Monogatari

Hell yeah! An old WMT-style show finally being subbed after years of nothing! A fansub group I follow just started giving this English subtitles, and honestly, this show is right up my alley! I've only seen four episodes so far and I really like it! I can't wait to watch the rest of it!

Spring is here! Flowers are blooming, the sun is out, birds are singing, and after a barren winter season, there are actually some anime coming out this season that I'm excited about!

New:

5. Spy x Family
I haven't read much of the manga, but I did like what I did read, and the anime looks like it'll be pretty good as well. I'll check it out and see if it holds up, though CloverWorks has a bit of a reputation for...overextending itself. Like, a lot.

As far as old shows go, I'm still watching some holdovers such as Oniisama e and Konnichiwa Anne, and I put others on hold such as Aquatope, which is stressing me out because of the weird direction it's going in. I've also been binging the Pokemon Sun & Moon anime since Netflix revealed they're taking it off at the end of March, even though I am NOT a fan of those particular seasons. I have been able to finish other shows such as Tsurune, Hakumei & Mikochi, and Haibane Renmei. But as far as old shows go, here are the ones I'll be watching.

Old:

2. Talentless Nana
I didn't watch this as it came out, as I thought it'd just be a rehash of My Hero Academia. But then I heard about the beginning plot twist...and later heard that one of my favorite newer English voice actresses, Michelle Marie, would be playing Nana, I decided to give it a shot. The dub itself is great, and the show is kinda...ehhh, but I don't think it's bad or anything. I'm 5 episodes in so far and I like it, though I wish the plot didn't make Kyouya so blind to Nana's true intentions.

4. Ai no Gakko Cuore Monogatari
Hell yeah! An old WMT-style show finally being subbed after years of nothing! A fansub group I follow just started giving this English subtitles, and honestly, this show is right up my alley! I've only seen four episodes so far and I really like it! I can't wait to watch the rest of it!

The winter 2022 anime season is...actually pretty sparse. None of the new anime that are out right now interest me in any way, save for just one, and that could change depending on how said show turns out later on. One anime I thought I'd like wound up not only being super dull, but just a single, 15-minute long episode, that's it. I think I'll just use this season to rewatch old anime and review them on here.

1. Now And Then, Here And There
This anime is both famous and infamous for being one of the absolute darkest isekai anime ever made (Yes, I consider this an isekai) in the nineties and for its focus on war, child abuse, comfort women, and what being a child soldier can really do to a child's psyche. I remember watching this years ago, and I've owned the DVD set for a while, but I never got around to watching the dub. I think it's time I do so, even though I'm aware that the voice actors make the characters sound way older than they should. Besides, I know this is a hell of a lot better than 90% of the boiler-plate isekai that have been churned out since the mid-2010s.

2. Future Boy Conan
Hayao Miyazaki's only TV series and directorial debut finally got put on home video in the US after several decades, and since other shows I was watching...proved to not be up to snuff, I thought I'd give this a try. For a series that was made in the seventies, it's surprisingly solid. Granted, it often eschews logic in favor of action, really wants the audience to stretch their suspense of disbelief way farther than it should, especially in regards to the main character Conan, and its premise and all its associated tropes have been used countless times since then, but I can see why this is a historic series. It's way better than Fena: Pirate Princess, that's for sure!

3. Heartcatch Pretty Cure
This was the series that got me into Pretty Cure, yet I never actually sat down and reviewed it, even though I attempted to do so years ago. If Delicious Party Pretty Cure turns out to not be worth watching, I might just rewatch this, because Heartcatch is what every Pretty Cure series, and even all magical girl shows in general, should aspire to be. Heartcatch respects its viewers' intelligence and doesn't talk down to its audience, has a great ensemble of characters, all of whom are fantastically well-rounded, relatable, interesting, and multi-dimensional rather than one-note stereotypes, awesome action scenes, vivid animation, a story with substantial stakes and conflict, and actually wanted to break boundaries and go against the grain.

4. Oniisama e... (Dear Brother)
A blogger I follow really liked this anime, and when Oniisama e was announced to be streaming on RetroCrush, and put out on Blu-Ray by Discotek, I decided to watch it. Basically, take the concept of Mean Girls, put it in a ritzy 90s all-girls school in Japan, ramp up the bitch fights, teenage angst, and melodrama, and have it directed by the late great Osamu Dezaki. That's basically Oniisama e in a nutshell. I'm normally not into these kinds of shows, but Dezaki and his team really manage to make this show good in every way possible, from the characters' development to the surprisingly fluid animation for its time (1992!). But don't go into this series expecting a light watch. If you're not into teen girl angst, melodrama up the wazoo, vicious bitch fights and storylines ripped straight out of soap operas, with very little in the way of comedy or a breather, this isn't for you.

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Risa Ohki - Wanderer of Time

So, 2021 has come to a close. On a personal level, 2021 has been mostly good on my end. I got to go to an anime convention since I couldn't do so last year, I got moved to a new position at my job, I actually managed to finish a fan fic I've been working on for years (For now, at least), I got both COVID vaccines—booster included—and I managed to do so much more than I did last year. Of course, it wasn't all great. Two of my family members died this year, my grandmother and a great-uncle, and I came dangerously close to losing my dog Penny. She survived, thank goodness, but if she had died, so soon after losing my grandmother, I don't know what I'd do. But I'm forever thankful to the family and friends, real life and online, who supported me during those hard times and continue to do so now. I can't possibly convey how much your kindness means to me, and a simple thank you doesn't feel like enough.

On a worldwide level though, 2021 hasn't been much better than 2020 for most, and it got off to a pretty bad start. I mean, do I even need to talk about the capitol insurrection on January 6th and how utterly awful it is? There's also faltering supply chains and cargo ships being stuck at ports for whatever reason, chip shortages as a result, the mass withdrawal from Afghanistan and the people who've been left behind, and many other things that didn't go well in the grand scheme of things. It's been hard to not pay attention to all that's happened over the past two years, because COVID has affected everything that's been going on in our lives to an extent, big or small. And with the new Omicron variant on the warpath, the pandemic has no intention of stopping any time soon. With this being the case, it's highly likely that we'll just have to truck through 2022 doing what we did last year: Getting the vaccine, continuing to use masks, and practicing social distancing so we can at the very least lower the spread.

And honestly? I'm okay with this. As far as how 2021 affected me personally, even with the massive bumps in the road, I still feel 2021 was pretty good for me, and we can only hope that 2022 will be better. It might, or it might not, but we'll see.

Current Mood: restless
Current Music: Risa Ohki - Wanderer of Time