juliko25 | Entries tagged with anime2

The new year is here. I'm not gonna say Happy New Year because we all know it hasn't been one so far, what with world events proving that. But for me there's always anime to look forward to no matter how bleak things get.

New:

1. My Happy Marriage Season 2
Hell yeah, more My Happy Marriage, baby! I can never go wrong with watching more of this!...even though this season is going to cover volume 3 aka my least favorite volume of the series, if only because Fuyu, Kiyoka's mother, is a BIIIIIIIIIITCH and I hate her. I absolutely HATE what they tried to do with Fuyu at the end of volume 3 because I feel it completely goes against the series' ethos, though the anime will likely adapt it as is. That said, I still love this series and I'm not gonna miss this season, if only so I can watch the awesome English dub.

2. The Apothecary Diaries Season 2
Yeah, this one's a no-brainer. Apothecary Diaries is one of the most popular ongoing franchises so far, and its anime was a really good production that actually managed to do it justice. As someone who still hasn't read the novels or manga adaptations, I liked the anime a lot and can absolutely understand why it got the popularity that it did. Plus, who can say no to more of our favorite poison loving gremlin Maomao? And from what I hear, this season covers material that really ramps up the plot, so I'm excited to see what adventures Maomao gets into next.

3. Medalist
The only non-sequel anime of this season I'm watching, a series about a skating coach who helps a young girl enter the world of ice skating, complete with all the highs and lows that come with the profession. I've been reading the manga a bit and it's really good, coming from someone who knows nothing about ice skating, so I'm definitely gonna watch the anime...though the company they hired to work on it, ENGI, has a bad reputation for the quality of their previous works not being very good. Here's hoping Medalist will break that cycle. Don't mess this up, ENGI!

4. Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure 2: Mirai Days
Not the Pretty Cure season I would have picked to get a sequel, but whatever, I guess. I won't lie, I found Mahou Tsukai to be one of the weaker seasons of Pretty Cure because I feel it spent a lot of its time either meandering or shilling Haa-chan to a ridiculous degree at the expense of things like its plot and...well, developing any character that's not Haa-chan. I might check this out, because it seems to be doing the same thing as the Otona Precure sequel to Yes Precure 5...though they did introduce a character who may or may not be yet again connected to Haa-chan. Seriously show, stop trying to make Haa-chan the center of the universe! If this can dial back the Haa-chan shilling, I'll be happy.

Old:

1. Little Witch Academia TV Series
Yes, I know, I'm suuuuuper late to the party on this one. Hey, better late than never, right? After being disappointed by The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Become Magicians, I decided to check this out since I was bored and didn't have anything else to watch. And sure enough, this is a show absolutely eclipses it in literally every way. The characters are fun and likeable, the worldbuilding is interesting, the magic system actually has some thought put into it, and Trigger's animation is top notch. This came out when I was neck deep in anime burnout, but now that I'm out of it, it's high time I watched the rest of this, because it's a joy to watch, even if Akko can be really frustrating at times.

Rating: 75/100

So, let's talk about Hello Kitty! Even if you don't know her name, you've definitely seen her at least once in your life. The official mascot of a company called Sanrio, Hello Kitty is the second most financially successful franchise in human history, only beaten by Pokemon. First created in 1974, Hello Kitty has won many hearts with her cute design and wholesome innocence, and even now, merchandise of her and her family, friends, and cohorts continue to line shelves, as she's one of Japan’s most beloved cultural symbols, an emblem of creativity, community, and yes, cuteness, that has joined the pantheon of global pop culture. But would you believe that it actually took a while for her to start appearing in anime and cartoons? Many think she made her animation debut in the 1987 American cartoon Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater, but that's not true. She did make some non-speaking cameos in Sanrio's early movies like Nutcracker Fantasy, the first Unico movie, and Journey Through Fairyland, but her true animation debut was through a rather...odd stop-motion short film called Kitty and Mimmy's New Umbrella, which was bundled with one of the Unico movies for home video.

I say odd because the summary for Kitty and Mimmy's New Umbrella makes it seem like its titular characters are just spending the episode playing with new umbrellas that their mother buys them. That is a good chunk of the movie's plot...but it also happens to come with weird musical sequences involving talking bugs, flying flowers, puddles that transport the girls into the sky, and scenes involving a mole constantly getting stepped on. No, really. This Hello Kitty movie is weird in the same way that Sanrio's other stop motion movie Nutcracker Fantasy is weird, and I mean that in a positive manner. Then again, the two properties have the same staff working on them, which doesn't surprise me one bit. Kitty and Mimmy's New Umbrella is one half Kitty and her sister just playing around, and the other half is eerie, ethereal, almost psychedelic stop motion animated sequences that I'm pretty sure is a result of the animators being self-indulgent and having fun just because they can.

And really, the animation by itself is really good, especially by the standards of the eighties. Sure, the stop-motion isn't Laika level quality, but it does have a lot of charm to it that you can't easily find in most productions like this anymore. The actual animation is fairly smooth, and the musical sequences are lively and whimsical as they should be, even if the sequence with the dancing bugs feels rather superfluous. There's also some neat little details that add to the experience, like how when Kitty cries, her bow randomly disappears and reappears when she makes her cartoony crying face, among other things...though why is there a bell ringing sound whenever their tails wag? There is one point where Kitty and Mimmy read a letter that's written in rather fractured English, complete with Mimmy's name being misspelled. But the set pieces are really nice for what they are, and it's clear that the animators really put a lot of care into bringing these iconic characters to life.

Speaking of the characters, don't go into this movie expecting there to be a lot of character development. This is clearly aimed at toddlers and preschoolers, and the movie just consists of Kitty and Mimmy playing around and having weird adventures involving dancing bugs, that's it. The other characters are just kind of...there, not really doing anything besides sing or take up space. Or in the case of the mole, being stepped on by the girls all the time. Poor guy. One character only appears at the very end of the movie and doesn't do much, but with the film being as short as it is, it can't really afford to do more than it really has to. Yeah, the characters are kind of vanilla, but sometimes vanilla can be good once in a while. The soundtrack and songs are very nice too, as is the voice acting. This is the first time Hello Kitty has ever been given a voice, provided by the late Fuyumi Shiraishi before Megumi Hayashibara would be cemented as her primary voice actress.

For a short movie that marks Hello Kitty's first full appearance in the animated medium, I say Kitty and Mimmy's New Umbrella managed to hit a home run on that front. It's not going to bring the house down, as it's very clearly a cute movie aimed squarely at preschoolers, and it's content to be just that. I certainly don't mind it, as not only is Kitty and Mimmy's New Umbrella a cute, wholesome, whimsical kids movie, it laid the groundwork for Hello Kitty's animated appearances in the future, so Kitty fans owe the movie that much.

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: Ceui - Stardust Melodia

Rating: 94/100

(According to MAL, this is my 600th completed anime!)

Hell yeah, more Natsume Yuujinchou! You guys know by now that I absolutely LOVE this series, and will gladly inject more of it into my veins like heroin any chance I'm able. And finding out that a seventh season of the show was going to be made? You bet your ass I was hyped as hell! Unlike with seasons 5 and 6, where I was deep in anime burnout and didn't get around to watching them until this year, I actually watched season 7 as it aired this time, and am gonna watch the dub when I have the time. All of this was awesome in and of itself, but it was just announced that Bushiroad is making a video game for the series set for consoles such as PC and Nintendo Switch! I hope to God that gets an English translation (And a good one at that!) or a physical release in the US, because I will eat that shit up! Man, we Natsume fans are eating like kings and queens!

Like with my review for seasons 5 and 6, I'm not gonna go into a plot summary, as you already know by now what Natsume Yuujinchou is about. Why belabor the point? The animation and soundtrack are great as ever, a testament to how consistent both have been since the series' inception. There's really not much I can say about them that I haven't already said in my previous reviews of the last six seasons. I do like both the opening and ending songs, which are well sung and do a great job of conveying the series' atmosphere and aesthetic. Like I mentioned in my previous reviews of the series, Natsume as a series has always put a lot of focus on its characters, but it's only recently that it's started doing more with already established ones, like Taki, Nishimura, Kitamoto, and even Natori. Episode 7 reveals that Taki has an older brother (Who honestly looks like he could be her twin) and is focused on his issues regarding his relationship with their grandfather. The episode after that is told entirely from Nishimura's point of view and shows him dealing with a shapeshifting yokai disguising itself as Natsume while examining what their friendship means to them. Remember that mustache yokai with the big head who's always hanging around the Dog Circle? Episode 5 is an entire episode dedicated to him, giving it a surprising amount of character considering he's normally relegated to being the comic relief.

In my opinion, this season's absolute best episode is the second-to-last one, where one prominent character gets some much needed background: Reiko. The series always established her as being a loner who made the Book of Friends, jump-starting the entire plot, but fans like myself have always wondered just how Reiko even started collecting yokai names, or why her modus operandi is challenging them to games or fights. Not only does this episode heavily expand on Reiko as a person and show how a misunderstanding caused her to become the person she was, that single event singlehandedly started Reiko's whole crusade of collecting yokai names and making the Book of Friends. Not only is it an absolute masterclass in terms of writing and character development, it actually made me tear up quite a bit, on par with earlier episodes like Hotaru's episode in season 1, or the episode in season 3 showing how Natsume came to live with the Fujiwaras. Consistency has always been Natsume's strong point, and even after almost two decades, it never lost its subtle touch and "less is more" philosophy. I mean, what other anime can you think of it that manages to make you care about an origami spirit?

If I could name one issue I have with this particular season, it'd be that it didn't follow up on a pretty big reveal at the end of season 6. I won't spoil what that reveal is here, but if you're going to drop a big revelation like that, at least follow up on it! Though this season did make up for it with explaining why Reiko decided to gather youkai names in the first place. Plus, there is going to be another episode bundled with a blu-ray volume that's due to come out this April. But come on, you know me, that's not enough to kill my love affair with this series. I've been a Natsume fan since 2008, and that's not going to change any time soon. Although now I wonder: Is the series ever going to have a definitive end? The manga's been running since 2003, and from what I've researched, there's still some material left to cover should the anime decide to greenlight an eighth season. I'm more than happy to have my fill of more Natsume's Book of Friends, but as much as I adore the series, I don't want it to be one of those series that just goes on and on forever and overstay its welcome, even with the breaks between anime seasons. And again, you can't jump into this season without having seen the previous six, as it continues to build on what those past seasons established, so you'll be lost if you jump into the middle or end.

But I'm not here to be a negative Nancy, and I still love this series all these years later, this season included. If there's ever more Natsume on the horizon, you can bet I'm ready to chow down!

Anyone familiar with director Mamoru Oshii will likely remember him directing stuff like the Ghost In The Shell movie or the Patlabor series. But before he worked on those, he directed the first two Urusei Yatsura movies before moving to Studio DEEN to do his own thing. There, Oshii created the movie Angel's Egg, with help from Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano, among many other staff members. Angel's Egg is a beautifully animated and atmospheric yet extremely minimalist and strange movie that doesn't adhere to the typical rules of storytelling. It's very much an art house movie with a capital A. I personally love this movie and consider it the best thing that ever came out of anime, especially for the eighties, but it wasn't very well received when it was first put into theaters. In 1988, Carl Colpeart got the rights to the movie, but spliced the footage into a live-action movie he was making, calling it In The Aftermath: Angels Never Sleep, which...I don't recommend watching. The staff admitted they didn't understand the movie, called it incomprehensible, and really shot the live-action parts in an attempt to make it more understandable. Really, they should have just left it alone.

That was the only official American release Angel's Egg ever got, even as people rediscovered it in its original format and began to appreciate it for what it was. Unfortunately, no company seemed to be able to officially license Angel's Egg for any kind of home video release. All sorts of reasons were rumored but not outright confirmed: Copyright red tape involving In The Aftermath, Oshii supposedly losing the licensing contract for it, Oshii himself not wanting to license it out, ludicrous licensing prices, etc. Again, there was no official reason given for why it seemed impossible for Angel's Egg to be exported outside of Japan in its uncut format, though fansubs were, thankfully, abundant, contributing to its cult status. Then, starting in 2022, various companies and film festivals managed to secure the rights screen the movie, with one of them being the Japan Society, which screened a 4K remaster in September of 2023, the first time Angel's Egg has ever been shown in the US uncut. Clearly, something was going on. Had the rights to this movie been cleared at last? Who provided the English subtitles, and who even had the license?

That answer would be unveiled on May of 2024, when GKids announced they secured both theatrical and home video rights to Angel's Egg, alongside a 4K remaster with Oshii supervising it. The movie would be officially screened in the US in 2025 in honor of its 40th anniversary. Seriously guys, this is a HUGE deal. Angel's Egg is considered one of many licensing white whales, one that many considered would be impossible to get. Well, if any company proved they could do it, GKids would be it. I mean, these are the same people who managed to net similar licensing nightmares such as Neon Genesis Evangelion and Future Boy Conan. And considering one of the movies they licensed won an Oscar this past year, they are absolutely rolling in money which I can bet was used to secure this and possibly other titles. GKids, you guys are doing old school anime fans a huge service, right up there with Discotek and possibly the new AnimEigo. What's next, is GKids gonna get Netflix shows like Little Witch Academia and My Happy Marriage next? There seems to be no licensing red tape they can't untangle (Except for securing the rights to use Fly Me To The Moon, and that's a whole other beast they admitted would absolutely kill them), and I'm beyond excited to not only see Angel's Egg legally, but own it. I wonder if they'll give it an English dub? If they do, cool, if not, that's fine too. I'm just happy Angel's Egg is going to finally be legally accessible, and you bet your ass I'm buying that blu-ray and looking forward to what GKids is cooking up next!

Moment #2: Gkids achieving the impossible and licensing Angel's Egg.

Every year, we lose people, and this year is no different, but no matter who they are, they deserve to be honored for the legacies they left behind. In 2024, we lost the following people:

1. Akira Toriyama, creator of the Dragon Ball franchise.
2. Mutsumi Inomata, artist known for her work in the Tales series.
3. Emi Shinohara, voice actress known for such roles as Makoto Kino in Sailor Moon and Mizuki in Cardcaptor Sakura.
4. Taiki Matsuno, voice actor known for roles such as Pegasus/Helios in Sailor Moon SuperS and Tart in Fresh Pretty Cure.
5. TARAKO, voice actress known for playing Momoko Sakura in Chibi Maruko-chan.
6. Eiko Masuyama, the first voice actress who played Fujiko Mine in the Lupin III franchise.
7. Yukihiro Shibutani, background artist for Natsume's Book of Friends.
8. Nicholas Dupree, writer and editorial contributor for the Anime News Network website, commonly known by his username LossThief.
9. Rachael Lillis, voice actress famous for playing Misty in the 4Kids dub of Pokemon.
10. Noriko Ohara, voice actress who played Nobita in the early Doraemon series and Conan in Future Boy Conan.
11. Tom Wyner, voice actor who played many roles in series such as Digimon Adventure, Wolf's Rain, and Ghost In The Shell.
12. Macoto Takahashi, manga artist who popularized the early/classic shoujo manga art style defined by large, sparkling eyes and empathizing outfits in full body styles.
13. Hinako Ashihara, manga artist who created works such as Sand Chronicles and Sexy Tanaka-san.
14. Masayuki Kato, the founder of Nihon Falcom.
15. Michie Kita, voice actress known for playing Nello in the 1975 Dog of Flanders anime.
16. Katsue Miwa, voice actress known for roles such as Unico in the Unico movies and Hirame in Chie The Brat.
17. Atsuko Tanaka, voice actress famous for playing Motoko Kusanagi in the Ghost In The Shell series, among many other roles.
18. Kazuo Umezu, manga artist known for works such as Drifting Classroom and My Name Is Shingo, among many other series.

There are probably many more people who left this world that I haven't covered. But regardless, the sentiment is the same: I hope they all rest in peace, and their contributions to the anime/manga industry, however big or small, will never be forgotten.

Moment #3: The loss of beloved figures in the anime/manga industry in 2024.

Rating: 53/100

Man, it sucks when I can't enjoy something. It especially sucks when it's something you were looking forward to. The subject of today's review, Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians, or Mahoutsukai ni Narenakatta Onna no Ko no Hanashi, actually has a bit of a story behind it. In 2018, a company called Project Anima held a contest allowing entrants to submit ideas in the form of novels, scripts, manga drafts, illustrations, and so on, and the winners would have their pieces adapted into anime. MahoNare, as I'll be referring to it for the sake of brevity, took the grand prize for the contest's fantasy/another world category, and the anime was set to air in 2021, but for some reason was delayed. Luckily, the show was set to debut in October of 2024. And hey, I'm always down for more cute witch/magical girl stories. Unfortunately, MahoNare wound up not being one of the better ones. This one had the potential to be good, but squandered any opportunity it had to rise above being mediocre.

The story centers on a young girl, Kurumi Mirai, who loves magic and wants to be a magician. When she was little, she met a magician who gave her a mysterious notebook, which Kurumi finds out is given to students of the prestigious Letran School of Magic and Magecraft, the only known institution that trains wizards for the International Mage Alliance. Kurumi studies hard so she can get assigned to the Magic Class...only to find that she didn't make the cut, even with her good grades. Kurumi is crestfallen, as she's always dreamed of becoming a magician, but now that that door is closed to her, she's resigned herself to being stuck in the Standard Class, where they study anything but magic...until their homeroom teacher, a strange, tiny woman named Minami Suzuki, announces that she's going to teach magic to everyone in the Standard Class, status quo be damned. But Minami's brand of magic isn't like the magic that Letran usually practices. Is there a chance for Kurumi to finally fulfill her life-long dream after all?

Yeah, this show is pretty much trying really hard to be Little Witch Academia. Let's be real here. Magic school, girl who seemingly can't do magic, a stoic rival with a girl posse who at first hates the MC but later becomes her friend, you've seen it all before. The plot of the differences between ancient and modern magic give off High Guardian Spice vibes, while the side plot of gatekeeping magic brings thoughts of Witch Hat Atelier to me. I will admit, one thing MahoNare does have going for it is its art design. The actual animation isn't much to write home about, and it does its job decently, both the fantastical and the mundane, but its art direction is quite honestly beautiful. It's not the most visually striking show in the autumn 2024 season, but it has a style that's all its own, with charming, watercolor backgrounds straight out of a children's fairy tale, full of whimsy and eye-catching vibrancy. The character designs are fun too, done by Lily Hoshino of Mawaru Penguindrum fame. I have less to say about the soundtrack, though...how in the hell did they manage to get Yoko Shimomura to work on this?! I do not remember her working on anime soundtracks unless they were tied to a game adaptation or something, like Legend of Mana. Though if I'm being honest, this isn't one of her better soundtracks. I couldn't tell you the first thing about it, or the ending theme. The opening song is nice though, and it's done by PuffyAmiYumi. Kinda nice to hear them again. What was the last thing they worked on before this? One of the endings for ReLife, which was in 2016? Dang, that's a long time. Good to know they're still active!

Unfortunately, that's all the positive things I have to say about MahoNare, because everything else about it is a mess. First off, this show has way too many characters. Not as many as Lapis Re:Lights, but 12 episodes is not enough to handle an ensemble cast this big, and they don't get fleshed out beyond their one archetype, so they all come across as extremely bland and one-note. As a result, the series feels really cluttered. A lot of them feel like they're just there to take up space and not much else. Hell, one girl doesn't do anything outside of translate what Minami's pet frog is saying to Kurumi and Yuzu and just disappears, so she comes off like a random plot device than a three-dimensional character. Even the two main girls, Kurumi and Yuzu, are as cliche and bland as white rice. Yuzu just feels like a knock-off of Diana from Little Witch Academia but without everything that made Diana work as a character, and while Yuzu is the only one who gets any real, noticeable development, her change from stoic alpha bitch to Kurumi's closest friend seems to come out of nowhere, feeling more like the writers wanted to change her character when it was convenient rather than actually showing her changing. Going back to Kurumi, as much as I want to like her arc, she honestly feels like a side character rather than the main protagonist. All throughout the series, she hardly ever does anything on her own and spends a lot of her time being indecisive or angsty. There were so many times where I wanted to smack her because she spends so much time whining and unable to act when it matters most. She doesn't manage to do anything noteworthy until episode 10. A character like her might have been fine as a side one, but she fails to deliver as the main protagonist. In all honesty, Minami feels more like the main character than Kurumi does, because Minami is the only character who really moves the plot forward in any capacity. I wouldn't blame anyone if they thought she was the main character, and I feel like the show would be better off if they focused more on Minami than the kids. Also, some of the characters' names are really dumb. Lemone Juicy? Really? Why would you name someone that? Speaking of her, good God her voice is screechy and annoying as hell! Also, there's one point where one of Yuzu's girl posse gets angry at Kurumi for supposedly stealing Yuzu, but this never gets followed up on, so any development she could have had is just thrown out the window.

Though that's not even mentioning how slipshod the story is. MahoNare feels like a longer show that's crammed into one 12-episode season. A good chunk of it just focuses on boring, boiler-plate magic school shenanigans, more interested in meandering and goofing off than actually telling its story. The plot doesn't kick in until a quarter of the way through, but even then its execution falls extremely flat in every way. I have to go into spoilers here because my complaints about the story won't make sense if I don't explain them in detail.

So it's revealed that the principal of Letran, Northern Harris (Seriously? Who names their kid Northern?), designed a magic system that makes magic more convient for himself and anyone he deems worthy, but it comes at the cost of their energy and lifespan, and ancient magic is actually magic from nature itself, which he sealed away for...some reason. Yeah, the show never really explains why Northern hates ancient magic, and his evil plan makes absolutely no sense because of it. Honestly, Northern himself is a terrible villain because not only does the show not go into more detail as to why he believes his cause is better, which definitely would have helped, but he comes off more like an entitled brat throwing a tantrum because boo-hoo how dare they hate his method of doing things. He has no charisma, no flair, nothing to make him stand out from your regular Saturday morning cartoon villain. For comparison's sake, I've been playing Metaphor: ReFantazio recently, and I find the character of Louis Guiabern to be a fantastic villain because not only does he get shit done people's opinions be damned, he's actually smart and charismatic, knows how to persuade others to his point of view, has an understandable backstory that informs who he is without excusing his actions, and absolutely owns his villainy, but has enough nuance, self-awareness, and depth to him that the story actually works with a character like him driving it. Northern is just...a mediocre villain who, in the end even when he gets defeated, doesn't even learn his lesson because the show ends on a dumb cliffhanger revealing that he has other stuff going on. I'm sure MahoNare is trying to go for the message that modern conveniences don't always work when the chips are down, but if you ask me, Witch Hat Atelier handled the whole gatekeeping magic for the elite plot better.

Actually, beyond Northern being a half-baked bad guy, MahoNare doesn't even bother to answer a lot of questions or resolve its plot threads. Why do most of the staff at Letran turn into animals? The school nurse is apparently a cat, but why does he change into a cat? Is it some kind of curse? And what's the deal with that kid who claims to be Kurumi's brother? Why doesn't he ever talk to her? He spends the whole series just standing around and being mysterious, and he never so much as interacts with her. How does he fit into this whole mess? Does Kurumi even know she has a brother? The show never explains this kid's motivations or what his end game is, and the cliffhanger ends with him getting kidnapped. Like...the show has so many questions that it doesn't bother to answer or resolve, and there's no confirmation of a second season right now, so what was even the point of all this? This is what I mean when I say MahoNare feels like a longer show compressed into a format that's too short to handle it. It sets up these plot threads and characters acting in the background but refuses to really do anything with them. Hell, Kurumi never even finds out that Minami is the magician she met years ago (Yeah, I figured this out in episode one because they're voiced by the same person. Minami doesn't even bother changing her tone of voice), nor that her grandmother was a Letran student too.

Tl;dr, MahoNare spends more time goofing off and on a cliche "stop the machine from blowing up and destroying everything" plot than actually answering important questions, developing its characters, resolving important plot threads. God, I really hate that I couldn't enjoy this show, because it does have interesting ideas. But the staff made to work on this were just not the right people for the job, and there are so many other series that tackle this premise or similar ones better, like Witch Hat Atelier, Little Witch Academia, The Worst Witch, The Owl House, and so on. If you want a short, breezy witch girl series to show to your kids, MahoNare is fine, but has nothing of real substance and has nothing to offer beyond its shiny, sugary frosting. Seriously, just check out the stuff I mentioned above, you'll get much more out of them than Stories Of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Konomi Suzuki - Alkatale

I swear, the more I hear about Crunchyroll's business practices as of late, the more I cringe. Crunchyroll is no stranger to questionable business practices and scandals. There was the whole Tower of God mobile game recasting debacle last year. There was the utter shitshow that was Crunchyroll Expo Australia back in 2022. Do I even need to mention Ex-Arm? Not to mention other stuff like not paying their staff, not bothering to credit voice actors and dub staff on their shows anymore even on their home video releases, their refusal to put closed captions on anything that's not their most recent acquisitions, rigging their own awards show so it's nothing but shounen or isekai titles, so on and so forth. Well, time to add another scandal to their ever growing pile of shame, because it's time for yet another Crunchyroll roasting session!

This past October, David Wald, a voice actor and ADR director, noticed that he hadn't received any of fanmail sent to him via Crunchyroll over the past five years. He was especially dismayed to discover that several items from said fanmail were being given away on a company table without his knowledge. Now, here's something you ought to know: Tampering with one's mail is considered a federal crime in the United States, where every individual count can result in you being required to pay a $250K fine, or spend 5 years in prison. Sadly, Crunchyroll is a big corporation, and anything sent to them is considered delivered by default if it reaches its destination, even if it's not to the person it's actually being sent to. This is already unacceptable and unprofessional on its own, but David even mentioned other crimes CR was engaging in, like LGBT/medical discrimination, union busting, and workplace abuse. I'm not even surprised, as CR has been outed as partaking in most, if not all these things, in other incidents, like the aforementioned Tower of God recasting brouhaha, or Leah Clark randomly getting fired from CR on the basis of being autistic. We all know CR no longer utilizes remote recording except for rare occasions, which many disabled voice actors and staff use to work, not to mention refusing to work with dubbing studios outside of their own in-house Texas one. David got screwed over. BADLY. And he really shouldn't have been. Because of how badly Crunchyroll has treated him, he has left the company to the point of not wanting to reprise his roles in recent anime.

Honestly, good on him for leaving. Crunchyroll has proven time and time again that they've become so corrupt and corporate that the higher ups running it see everyone below them as little more than fodder to be chewed up and spit out. Seriously, all of this is completely and utterly unacceptable. David deserves better than what you've been doing to him, as do everyone else you've royally fucked over. He and everyone else that works under you work their asses off for literal pennies because they love the medium of anime, and treating them like this is just...I don't have the words. This is so unprofessional on so many levels, and absolutely illegal!...but we all know Crunchyroll is probably never going to face any real legal repercussions over this because they have money to worm their way out of facing any consequences. David is one of the best people working in the US dubbing industry, and is a champion for minorities and LGBT people, and this is the thanks he gets? And God only knows how many other people this has happened to as well. Currently, he has plans to expose Crunchyroll's corrupt business practices in the future. Seriously, everyone working on Crunchyroll's dubs deserve better. This was a systemic failure on all fronts, and whoever did this to him deserves all the roasting.

Get fucked, Crunchyroll.

Moment #4: Crunchyroll yet again proving they're corrupt as hell and screwing over David Wald.

Update, 12/20/2024: Oh man. This just got even worse. Or better if you look at it another way. Somebody posted a very damning article on Bloomberg exposing more of Crunchyroll's dirty laundry. From hiring execs who couldn't care less about anime to confirming what many have suspected, I really hope this is the beginning of a reckoning for Crunchyroll. But man, the statement about that one exec outright telling his own staff not to promote Dandadan is baffling. Like, why the hell would you actively force your staff not to promote a product you own the streaming rights to?!

Ever since streaming became popular, Netflix has been at the forefront of it, and in recent years, they've become the biggest streaming giant to exist. They've licensed all sorts of anime for streaming, though their practices for actually promoting and streaming those anime are much subject of debate. But on August 6th, 2024, a gigantic leak happened, all of which involved anime that Netflix has licensed. 12 episodes of the new Ranma 1/2 anime, the first three episodes of Dandadan, the first episode of Re:Zero season 3, the new Mononoke movie, the Terminator Zero anime, and unfinished episodes of Arcane and Nickelodeon shows, among many others. The leaked content consisted of proxy files of said content, and for those who don't know, proxy files are intentionally blurry, low quality video with burned in time stamps and watermarks, made for localization purposes in the form of making editing easier. Note that all of these shows were not scheduled to come out until later, and the leaked content was confidental in nature and for internal use only. A few days later, The Northern District of California court issued a subpoena to compel Discord to share information that could help identify users allegedly involved in the leak. Currently, some rando by the name of Jace Johnson (probably not their real name) did an interview admitting responsibility for the leaks...and good lord, having read that interview, this guy comes off like a real arrogant asshole who clearly wants clout more than anything.

This is really bad in that confidential material was leaked long before it was supposed to come out, severely compromising a lot of jobs, livelihoods, and deals, and very likely jeopardizing future prospects for others. Anime companies might not want to deal with Netflix or the dubbing company Iyuno anymore because of this due to fears that their material will get leaked out. And for any idiots who claim "Oh, this isn't going to hurt anyone, what's the big deal?" did you know that there was going to be a different Mexican Spanish dub for Dandadan set for Netflix? Yeah, information about said dub got leaked before it was due to come out, including which studio was involved, Iyuno Mexico. As a result of the leak, the old dub was scrapped, and Netflix did commission a new dub to a different studio, New Art, on the condition that none of the actors involved reprise their roles. So yeah, thanks Jace Johnson or whatever the fuck your name is, your actions resulted in a whole-ass dub for a show becoming lost media, and none of the people involved will ever see the fruits of their labor. And I have to say this because for some reason people believe this and can't be bothered to do their research, no, lost media isn't something that just can't be watched legally. Lost media is when something is completely and utterly inaccessible in ANY capacity, not available on the market, no copies can be found on the internet, nothing about it was preserved, and no official evidence of it even exists outside of...I don't know, being locked in a vault somewhere.

So yeah, moral of the story, don't support piracy of this magnitude. If you need to sail the high seas, do it for stuff that's already out, because if you intentionally leak stuff before its set to air, you're putting people's actual jobs, livelihoods, and careers at risk, among other things.

Moment #5: The great anime leak of August 2024 and the ensuing fallout.

In 1988, two men named Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams III, alongside Robert's wife Natsumi Ueki, started up a company called AnimEigo, with the intent to license anime and put them out on home video in North America. They were one of the first companies to truly bring anime to the West in a legal fashion and were instrumental in making sure their presentation for whatever they acquired was the highest quality possible at the time, making sure they were uncut and uncensored. They pioneered and popularized techniques such as multi-colored subtitles, overlapping dialogue, and explaining things about Japanese culture that Americans at the time had no knowledge of, not to mention including detailed cultural and linguistic liner notes that explained things further. They were an important cornerstone for the early Western anime fandom. I was born in 1993 and didn't go deep into anime fandom until the 2000s, so they were long before my time, but anime fans beyond AnimEigo's heyday wouldn't be here if not for them.

So when the DVD and blu-ray era came around, AnimEigo became less and less relevant outside of the few titles they kept in print, like Otaku no Video or Gunsmith Cats. They never adapted well to anime becoming big business and seldom releases anime any more (although it does retain many of its previous anime licenses, and keeps them in print), concentrating on Japanese live-action samurai films. That said, the fact that the company is still kicking even when anime companies became more consolidated was still something of a modern miracle, making them the oldest surviving anime licensing company in the United States. They did dabble in Kickstarter releases of their older products, all of which brought in a lot of money, which definitely helped financially. But many questioned if AnimEigo would even continue outside of their recent Kickstarters, especially considering Robert Woodhead announced his retirement recently.

Then, on February 15th, 2024, Justin Sevakis, former creator of Anime News Network and president of the video production company MediaOCD, announced that they were acquiring AnimEigo with intent to get back into the licensing business. Normally, people acquiring an already established company is seen as a bad thing, as often times whenever a company is acquired by a bigger conglomerate, it usually results in the acquired company either being erased from existence, as we've seen Crunchyroll do to both FUNimation and Right Stuf, or not being as good as it used to be. However, with AnimEigo is different, because Justin has not only worked extensively with Discotek Media for several years, but grew up when AnimEigo was more active, not to mention his own passion for the anime medium. He's the kind of person who absolutely understands that anime licensing companies are at their best when engaged with the fan community, and so far, things are going well under his ownership. Just this year, they've put out reissues of older titles on blu-ray, updated already existing blu-rays, and have licensed two new titles: Full Moon o Sagashite and Nasu: Summer In Andalusia. Plus, they've already mentioned having made plans to make more announcements in 2025. I think it's safe to say that AnimEigo is in good hands.

I may not have grown up with the old AnimEigo, but I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing what the new AnimEigo has to offer, and here's hoping its future is a bright one.

Moment #6: The Rebirth of AnimEigo and its future endeavors.

Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables book has undergone quite a number of adaptations since its creation: The 1979 anime, the 1985 Kevin Sullivan movie, the 1998 manga by Yumiko Igarashi, the 2017 series Anne With an E, a number of prequels and sequels across all mediums, I could go on. I'm a fan of the book series, and the 1979 anime, I feel, is the best adaptation and one of the best series overall, and I'm not the only one. Many who saw this particular iteration hold it as the gold standard for how to not only adapt a book faithfully, but how to adapt Anne of Green Gables in general. Other than the 1985 Kevin Sullivan movie, no other adaptation of the series has come close to the 1979 anime in quality. That's not to say other adaptations don't have their good points, but the 1979 anime has been so cemented in Japan's pop culture history that the idea of another anime for Anne seems like a pipe dream.

Well, that pipe dream wound up becoming reality when it was announced that the NHK was going to be producing their own anime adaptation of the book, simply titled Anne Shirley. Seriously...was ANYONE expecting this to happen? Like, ever? I know I sure wasn't, but let me tell you, as soon as I saw this news, I SCREAMED. I'm hyped as all hell for this! So far, there isn't much information on it other than a few screenshots, an air date of April of 2025, and apparently Naoko Yamada storyboarding the opening theme. There are rumors that this new adaptation might adapt the sequel novels to some degree, but there's nothing concrete. As happy as I am that Anne is getting another anime, I am a little worried about whether the staff for this anime will do it justice. One of the reasons the 1979 anime is considered a timeless classic is because the team working on it understood the source material and not only took care to adapt it faithfully, but had the freedom to add their own ideas to it without going against the spirit of the series, not to mention the absolutely beautiful cel animation that really brought the series and its characters to life. Granted, these days most people know the 1979 anime for being one of the earliest things that Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki worked on, though the latter's involvement was minimal compared to the former.

Anne of Green Gables is a series that lives and dies by its atmosphere, pacing, and its character development, all of which the 1979 anime excelled at, and many fans are worried that the staff for this new adaptation might cut corners in those aspects. Who knows at this point? But as a fan of everything World Masterpiece Theater, hell yeah I'm watching this new anime! Bring back anime adaptations of Western kids novels, I say! Screw all the bad isekai that get churned out every season! We need more of this! Regardless of how Anne Shirley's overall quality turns out to be, I am beyond happy to see this is happening, and hopefully this means there'll be more anime similar to this in the future. I mean, 2020 did produce that Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm short film. So yeah, new Anne of Green Gables anime?! LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Moment #7: Anne of Green Gables getting another anime adaptation.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Lia - Farewell Song

Seriously, was anyone expecting this series to be involved in some degree of controversy? Based on the hit manga by Aya Nakahara, the anime Lovely Complex first aired in April of 2007. It wouldn't get picked up for a home video release in the US until April of 2013 thanks to Discotek Media. Shoujo fans were pretty happy to finally own the series to some degree, and that was it. But then, in October of 2023, Discotek announced that not only would they be re-releasing the series on blu-ray since they still had the license, but are even giving it a brand new English dub! This was especially surprising since Lovely Complex has 26 episodes, and Discotek, being a small company with little in the way of resources unlike a big million dollar conglomerate like Crunchyroll, could only afford to dub movies and any series that has 13 episodes or less. They hired Sound Cadence to dub the series due in part to its CEO, Amber Lee Connors, being a huge fan of the series, and put together a specialized budget that would allow the company to dub the series over a two year time frame, and the blu-ray would drop in February of 2024.

At first, the dub was pretty well-received, and to an extent still is. People got their blu-ray sets and enjoyed what they saw, so like its first release, it seemed like that would be the end of it. Unfortunately, an utter shitstorm happened when the assistant ADR script writer, Brendan Blaber, known by his internet handle JelloApocalypse, made a post on his Patreon detailing his experiences of working on the show. Normally, stuff like this would be about how the staff enjoyed working on something, their thought processes, how they handled or localized some things to have them make sense from an American perspective, making for interesting food for thought. However, the nature of his Patreon post was...extremely vitriolic. Blaber just went on a strange harangue about how much he hated working on the show, how he saw the female lead Risa as a sociopath, and saying he wanted to make serious changes in the writing process, such as wanting to change a scene of the characters praising a hair stylist serving as a cameo for the mangaka out of hatred for both the series and the author and wanted to "improve" it. Naturally, as many who owned the BR and watched the episode in question found, it was proven that that scene was unaltered, and people above him put their feet down and refused to let him change the series as he saw fit.

Unfortunately, Twitter chuds saw the post, took the whole thing at face value, and decided to be unnecessarily hostile to basically everyone involved in the dub as being complicit in Blaber's ideology, going into the usual anti-localization discourse and claiming that all dubbers/localizers are woke SJW boogeymen who rewrite foreign products and insert their own agendas and ideologies into it and censor them to hell and back 4Kids style. They completely ignore that, 1. Blaber's changes didn't even make it into the final product, as several Discotek employees mentioned that their dubs go through five different layers of approvals with higher ups before hitting the market. 2. Discotek and Sound Cadence themselves have cut all ties with Blaber because of his misconduct and for breaking several NDAs and work policies, and have made very clear that they do NOT approve of what Blaber has done and tried to do. 3. Discotek has always been staunchly anti-censorship, having released several titles such as Violence Jack, Angel Cop, Kite, the Kiss x Sis series and the 18+ Recent My Sister Is Unusual movie completely uncut and uncensored to the best of their ability. But none of this is enough for the perpetually online idiots who get off on harassing people and ignoring all the solid evidence in the world just because they have nothing better to do with their pathetic lives than be pathetic jerks.

This whole shitshow was just stupid, as it could have been avoided if Blaber had just shut his damn mouth, sucked it up, and behaved like a professional. As someone who actually watched someone get fired for talking trash about the company he worked for, with a crap ton of witnesses, INCLUDING HIS BOSS, Blaber absolutely got what's coming to him. If you want to keep your job, don't shit talk your company or something you're working on, especially in public. But it sucks that everyone in Discotek and Sound Cadence is being made to suffer for his actions. While there hasn't been much more information on what went on behind the scenes since then, it has been confirmed that Justin Sevakis won't hire Sound Cadence for any dubs commissioned by AnimEigo due to this. Not only that, this whole brouhaha is just going to be used to fuel more of AniTwitter's anti-localization discourse because the chuds claim this is further proof that all Americans who work in anime are SJWs who change show's to fit their own agendas, which is an idea that has always been under scrutiny because of how few of them there actually are nowadays. Like, remember 4Kids, who went out of their way to cut stuff out of the shows they licensed? Or what about Working Designs' translations for the Lunar games, which shoved in random pop culture references in a story taking place purely in a fantasy setting, including stuff that would absolutely not fly today, and even outright changing certain game mechanics or item locations to make the games harder? What happened with Lovely Complex is small potatoes compared to stuff from the previous era. Seriously, people, we need to move on from cyberbullying people if they take even the slightest liberties with dubbing anime, or just, y'know, if someone provides evidence that something didn't happen, it means exactly that!!!

Moment #8: The Lovely Complex dubbing controversy and all the bullshit that came out of it.

So...Rascal Does Not Dream of a Bunny Girl Senpai. An anime series from October 2018 that, while it didn't exactly break any new ground in terms of romantic dramas, was pretty well received to the point where fans wanted Aniplex to make an English dub for it. For a time, it seemed like Bunny Girl Senpai was going to be relegated to sub only jail. Then, one day, Aniplex of America listed a re-release of the original series collection...listing an English dub. Fans were ecstatic, even if Aniplex's usual prices were still ridiculously expensive. Every website listing the box set listed an English dub...but then it hit the market and it turned out there was no dub. At all. Apparently the listing was erroneous and the Bunny Girl Senpai boxset was sub only as usual. Like...the hell? How in the world did not only every single retailer make this mistake, but even Aniplex themselves make this mistake, on their own blu-ray boxset?!

Things got even weirder when there was a listing in the SAG-AFTRA database for English dubs for the movies Sister Venturing Out and Knapsack Kid by Bang Zoom. Huuuuuh? Why are they dubbing the sequel movies before the series and the first movie?! There was clearly something weird going on. There are rumors that the English dub for the series wasn't going to be done in time before the holidays and Aniplex just shoved the subbed box set out before the dub could be completed, but there's nothing confirming that. Thankfully, an English dub for the series would eventually drop on Crunchyroll on December 3rd, 2024, though it remains to be seen whether this'll come out on home video. Man, the sequence of events for this was wild, but hey, at least Bunny Girl Senpai fans finally got their dub. Take note, Aniplex, maybe next time add this onto your next home video release of this series! You have no excuse not to do so!

Moment #9: The Bunny Girl Senpai series FINALLY getting an English dub after many mishaps.

Hey kids! Remember those PokeToon shorts that were made in 2020 and 2021? Well guess what? There's more now! So yeah, someone high up saw that the PokeToon shorts were pretty well received and decided to give the greenlight for more of them! And man, Pokemaniacs like myself were hyyyyped! I'm always down for more PokeToon! I already explained my feelings about this particular iteration of PokeToon in my review of it, but a tl;dr for anyone who doesn't want to read that: The even numbered episodes are all great, fun, varied takes on the Pokemon universe with their own unique stories, and the odd numbered episodes...are just minute long TikTok style meme videos that are trying way too hard to ride the coattails off TikTok's popularity. Here's hoping there'll be even more PokeToon in the pipeline...as long as they ditch the TikTok video format.

Moment #10: More PokeToon episodes!

So a friend of mine noticed I was lacking an extra moment for my 12 Moments In Anime and decided to write up his own article, even giving me permission to use it. It's super nice of him to do that, so I'm gonna post it here and add it to the collection as an honorable mention, since it's more his moment than mine. Thanks, System Error!

Everything from this point on is all him.

Back in 1972, a manga illustrator and writer by the name of Go Nagai debuted something new in the Shonen Jump magazine. There had been stories about giant robots before, most notably Tetsujin 28, but Mazinger Z was the first to be piloted by a human protagonist. It became an immense success, and would pave the way for the mecha genre. It would be followed up by several sequels, including UFO Robot Grendizer: a sequel (later considered spinoff) series that first aired in 1975. The plot of this 74 episode anime centers around the alien prince Duke Fleed, who flees his home planet of Fleed with the titular robot to escape the ruthless King Vega, who has been invading worlds to expand his empire and find a new planet to settle on after his own becomes uninhabitable. Going by Daisuke Umon on Earth, he hides Grendizer away with the help of a kindly scientist who allows him to reside on his ranch. Two years later, the Vegans attack Earth, and Duke Fleed is ready to pilot Grendizer and save his new homeworld!

Like its predecessors, it was a success in its home country. However, it also went on to become one of the first anime to be popular in Europe (France and Italy in particular) and the Middle East. It was arguably more popular outside of Japan than in it. In any case, as time went on, Grendizer tended to get the short end of the stick compared to Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger. There were rumors that Go Nagai didn't want Mazinkaiser (the upgrade to Mazinger Z, originating in the Super Robot Wars games before being adapted to canon) and Grendizer to appear in the same work, which has since been proven false. It got sporadic media in the modern era, such as a spot on the Robot Girls Z team (a parody anime that reimagines Toei mecha as magical girls), a remake of the original manga adapation called Grendizer Giga, and a video game called UFO Robot Grendizer: The Feast of the Wolves.

But in 2023, a reboot anime called Grendizer U was announced. It would be directed by Mitsuo Fukuda, written by Ichiro Okouchi, animated by Gaina, and featured input from Go Nagai himself. It featured a few changes, such as Duke Fleed having amnesia at first, the Vegans not having the excuse of finding a new home, and Koji Kabuto playing a more active role (including piloting Mazinger), but otherwise was faithful to the original's plot. It even referenced the global popularity by having scenes set in...France, Italy, and the Middle East! The show aired with 13 episodes from July 5th to September 28th 2024. A sequel was also hinted at in the final episode, with the first appearance of King Vega in the show. It remains to be seen whether it will indeed get an animated follow up or if it'll end up like 2009 series Shin Mazinger Z where it will continue in another medium.

Unfortunately as of now, the only dub of the show is in Arabic. The early subtitles were also of questionable quality, apparently due to being translated from Japanese to Arabic to English, which is kind of hilarious because the original Mazinger Z gained memetic infamy for its subtitles from a similar thing (if you've ever heard the term "crabstick subs", Mazinger is where it came from). But whether you like mecha or not, it's hard to argue that Grendizer getting a new anime close to 50 (fifty) years after it first aired isn't a significant moment in anime in 2024.

Honorable Moment: Grendizer's Revival

Anyone here ever watched shows like Air, Kanon, Clannad, and so on? Those were all based on visual novels made by a developer called Key. Said visual novels and games were very popular in their native Japan, to the point of having anime made for them. But here's the thing: While the anime adaptations were brought over to North America, this never happened for the games. Sure, fans would make their own translations of them, but there was no legal way to play them in English. Hell, many of these games are years old and are considered significant in the history of the visual novel medium, with Key's first game, Kanon, being at the forefront of it. So for years, it seemed like Key's portfolio would never be legally available outside of Japan outside of their anime adaptations.

But in 2015, this began to change. Sekai Project got the rights to the Clannad game, and the Kickstarter they set up brought in a TON of money, raising their profile and showing that there was a demand for Key's games. Since then, Key has not only allowed other game companies to license some of their games, they've started putting out their own English localizations by themselves. However, it was believed that Air and Kanon wouldn't be brought to the US because they were considered too old and archaic to justify bringing them over, even with them being ported to modern consoles in their home country.

Then, on May of 2024, Key announced out of absolutely nowhere that Kanon was coming to Steam in the US with a release date of June 20th, 2024. Friends, Key fans absolutely EXPLODED. One of the first visual novels, and the one that helped to popularize a lot of tropes that would become standard in the medium was FINALLY getting an official legal release outside of Japan. And not only that, half a year later, the existing Switch port would receive a patch that added English and Chinese language options. So yeah, I've wanted to play Kanon for years but never could, and now I can finally do so! This is monumental for American visual novel fans, as this would be unthinkable in the 2000s, when VNs were just limited to super niche circles. As of right now, the only games of theirs that haven't been put out in English are Air, Kud Wafter, Summer Pockets Reflection Blue, Rewrite Harvest Festa, the Angel Beats VN, and the Prima Doll kinetic novels. I think at this point it's only a matter of time before Air gets this same treatment.

Actually, a lot of older visual novels have been suddenly getting new leases on life, with several due to come out next year. Katawa Shoujo is out on Steam (Albeit without the 18+ content, though the creators made a patch to fix that), ToHeart and Tokimeki Memorial are getting remakes (No US releases sadly. Boo!), the Another Code series got a remake and brought the sequel to the US...it's been one miracle after another for visual novels and adventure games, and I can't wait for there to be more!

Moment #11: Kanon finally getting an official English localization and releasing in North America.

Rating: 70/100

One of the reasons I love anime so much is that Japan is totally okay with allowing any ideas to become reality? Want a story about children bonding with cute monsters and saving the world? We have a bunch of them right here? Want to play a video game about a little boy spending summer in the countryside doing nothing but catching bugs, exploring, swimming, and making fun memories? Sure, go nuts! Want an anime about girls who sing to heal people's injuries and illnesses? Who cares if it sounds stupid, let's greenlight it! So yeah, not all anime, manga, or games just consist of shounen series that go on for hundreds of episodes and have nothing but flashy fights. Anime is well known by many for its abundance of ideas, crazy and mundane. But whether you're able to execute an idea well is another story. One such story, The Concierge, completely runs with a fun idea and commits to it, which is all well and good...but one part it doesn't do all that well unfortunately really hinders it from being anything other than just okay.

At the Hokkyoku Department Store, animals of all shapes and sizes can shop for whatever their hearts desire—everything from gifts for family members to gourmet dinners. Extinct animals in particular are considered VIPs deserving of the absolute best of the best in terms of service. Yet, what makes this store so great is not just its wide selection of items but its astounding customer service. Beyond the clerks working at each shop, the department store itself features several highly-trained concierges who strive to make each and every customer's experience a pleasurable one. But does Akino, the newest concierge at the store, have what it takes to help all her animal clients with their myriad of problems, or will she be searching for a new job?

Based on the two-volume manga by Tsuchika Nishimura, The Concierge is an equally short one hour movie showing Akino's experiences in her new job at a luxury department store and all that it entails. Not gonna lie, the setting is definitely the most interesting thing about the movie. A department store that caters to animal clients, with extinct ones receiving the VIP treatment is a really interesting idea, one that both tickles your imagination and raises a lot of questions. How were these animals even brought back to life if they're clients at the store? Is this some sort of universe where some kind of science managed to bring them back? How are they able to talk? What's the department store's history with extinct animals? All we really know about the store is that it's run by a Great Auk and that said Great Auk's family founded it around the time of the species' extinction. I really want to know more about this weird setting! The extinct animal angle also adds to just how delicate being a concierge at the store is, as Akino has to be careful not to step on any of her smaller patrons, who happen to be smaller animals like birds or raccoons, and considering how clumsy she is...yeah, she's got her work cut out for her.

Not to mention the animation for this movie is just fantastic. While the character designs are simple and only lightly detailed, for the most part, the fluid and expressive animation makes them come alive. Meanwhile, the department store is highly detailed in nearly every aspect, really making it appear as the magical, high-class store it's supposed to be in the eyes of its visitors. One thing I do appreciate about The Concierge as a movie is that it doesn't follow your typical first/middle/third act structure. It's more like a series of vignettes, each of which revolve around Akino helping a customer either find an item they need or just help with their issues. These are cute and enjoyable—relating to things like connecting with family, finding love, and dealing with the lingering pain of loved ones long gone. Moreover, there is a strong animal conservation message woven throughout as many of the animals shown are extinct—and by human hands at that. The soundtrack is also pretty nice, even if it's not all that memorable. I do help this tofubeats person/group (There isn't much info about them) gets to do more work outside of this and ClassicaLoid, as I'd love to hear more of their stuff.

So yeah, this movie has a unique setting, great animation, a lovely soundtrack, and strong themes about both animal conversation and what it truly means to provide good customer service. I'd have enjoyed this movie a whole lot more...if every character wasn't a one-note stereotype. Seriously, all of the characters in this movie are either just so bland, forgettable, and uninteresting, or rely on their gimmick way too much. Akino herself is your typical overly kind yet perpetually clumsy girl who can never seem to go a day without messing something up, and is so spineless that she literally lets people walk all over her. Hell, when a monk seal Karen (Yes, really) gets mad at her over the store not having a dress in a certain size and openly expressing that she sees store staff as little more than servants, Akino literally gets on her knees and apologizes to her when the fault isn't even hers, allowing herself to be humiliated just before a coworker steps in. Like...girl, put your foot down! Grow a back bone! You shouldn't have to prostrate yourself to a customer just because they're butthurt over an item being out of stock! Not only that, I really didn't like that Todo guy, as he spends all his time being a ridiculously overbearing micromanaging manager who does nothing but berate Akino for every mistake she makes no matter how small, and the few times he does praise her don't amount to much. Is it any wonder she's always so nervous? Hell, one character pops up in the last third of the movie just to tell Akino she sucks at her job and then disappears. I feel like this guy was just shoehorned into the movie for forced third act drama.

Another thing I didn't like about the movie is that all of its problems are solved in ways that feel way too clean and neat. Need a perfume that was discontinued years ago? Well, the former head of the department store oh so conveniently managed to find said perfume after making some calls and reaching out to certain people! Need to actually identify this perfume? Let's have this random bear do it! A kid broke a super expensive ice sculpture that can never be replaced? It's fine, the kid made a cake for the sculptor and all is forgiven! Also, this series seems to believe that a concierge should always strive for perfection and be some sort of magical therapist who manages to solve everyone's issues. I admit, I know little about the hospitality industry and how hard it can be, but there really needs to be some kind of line drawn here. There's showing what it's like to work in the hospitality industry, and then there's idealizing it, and I don't think The Concierge does enough of the former, preferring to do too much of the latter, the aforementioned monk seal Karen notwithstanding. There's also the fact that the movie is only an hour long, and I feel like it would have benefited from being just a bit longer so it could flesh out its characters a bit more. Maybe the manga has more details that the anime left out, I don't know.

Man, it's a shame I couldn't enjoy this movie more, as there is quite a bit to like about it. It fully commits to its crazy idea and has fun with it, and the animators did a fantastic job of bringing the manga to life in ways only they could. It's a nice, cozy movie to watch if you want to kill an hour, but pretty animation can't hide the fact that its cast of characters are as bland and dull as white rice, nor fix it. It's a light-hearted look at the service industry that doesn't break any new ground...but that's all it is.

Rating: 82/100

Man, the 2020s are a great year for fans of Pokemon anime. Not only are there so many more animated properties for Pokemon, they're all very different from one another, and not only that, the main TV anime finally gave Ash the boot and started a new series with a whole new protagonist! Pokemon is really changing things up, and as someone who's been with the franchise since childhood, I'm more than glad for it. Out of the many short Pokemon anime that have come out, my personal favorite of them is the PokeToon series, an anthology series with every episode having different stories done in different animation styles. Some episodes were good, others not so much, but it was a fun time, and I think it'd be a great way to allow different creators, storytellers, and animators the chance to tell their own unique stories in the Pokemon universe, similar to what Star Wars Visions is doing for Star Wars. Pokemon is such a huge, expansive franchise open to all sorts of ideas and I know most people would kill for a chance to play around in as creators. The PokeToon series seems like a great way to do that, though only eight episodes were produced in 2021, with nothing confirming that there would be more.

But then came an announcement in 2024 that PokeToon would be back with eight more episodes, though animated by ZEXCS rather than Studio Colorido this time around. Seriously, as soon as I read that announcement, you better believe I was hyped as all hell!...though my hype dampened when I read about how half the episodes were going to be made. But I'll save that discussion for later. Like the first PokeToon series, this one also has every episode telling a different, self-contained story. The second episode, Angry Primeape Observation Diary, centers on a young boy writing about his Primeape and trying to find a way to make its anger go away. This one is definitely the most stylized and cartoony out of the full length episodes, with bright colors, exaggerated facial expressions, and a lot of slapstick. This one was cute, and I did get a big laugh out of the punchline at the very end. Also, it's nice to hear more Rie Kugimiya doing character types other than the tsundere.

The fourth episode, Ride The Gogoat, is about a boy named Julian who is depressed after both a fight with his friend and getting his leg injured, to the point where he doesn't want to go to school, fearing things will be awkward between him and his friend. A wild Gogoat notices his distress and entices Julian to ride on it. The Gogoat proceeds to take Julian on a wild ride throughout town. The art style for this one is more grounded, and is it just me, or do the character designs look like they came out of a Studio Ponoc movie? Note I specifically mention Ponoc and not Ghibli. Then again, this episode's plot is much more down-to-earth and mundane, and I actually liked this one. It's simple but not cloying or condescending, and I admit I am a little biased because Gogoat is my favorite gen 6 grass-type Pokemon.

The sixth episode, Chansey's Safari Tag Game, which is the longest episode in the entire series, is my favorite out of them, if only because it manages to successfully balance both poignant character development and zany comedy without either one clashing with the other. In this one, an inquisitive young girl named Meg is sent to live with her Uncle Bozly, who runs the Safari Zone. But Bozly is rather gruff, and he's been having trouble with a wild Chansey that seems to be intentionally giving him a hard time. Meg finds herself being friends with said Chansey against Bozly's wishes and learns that these two have more of a history than she thought. This was a very cute, charming, and wholesome story about a family spending time together and solving an external problem, with both characters growing as people, combined with sumptuous animation and a gorgeous soundtrack. Also, it actually explains why a Chansey would be ridiculously hard to catch, and I admit, I got a huge laugh out of the final scene and punchline. My only real gripes with it are that Meg's design comes across as a little too saccharine, and it doesn't explain if this Safari Zone is an already existing one like in Kanto or Hoenn, or a completely original one. I assume it's the latter because you won't find Pokemon like Hoppip, Skwovet, and Maschiff in Kanto, Safari Zone or no. Still, I really loved this one, and I think it's the best episode out of the four full length ones.

The eighth and final episode, Charcadet Childhood Friends, is the other best episode in this anthology in my opinion. Two Charcadet, one shiny and one not, are best friends, but when one of them gets caught by a trainer, they go down very different paths in life until they reunite later on. One lives a comfortable life with its new trainer while the other one struggles to survive in the harsh wilds. This is the only episode animated by Colorido, and they really pulled out all the stops here. This one is a heartwrenching drama about how the two Charcadet become different Pokemon, both personality-wise and once they physically evolve, and how their circumstances change them as time goes on. Not to mention the awesome, well-choreographed battle scenes that are a feast for the eyes, showing just how far the two Charcadet have come since their early days. It's also nice that some characters from the game made some brief cameos in it, and I'm always down for seeing Deerling in any Pokemon anime no matter how brief. This episode was a much better note to go out on than how the 2021 anthology ended with the rather...lackluster CGI Jigglypuff episode. I guess the two week delay really helped this episode.

You may have noticed by now that I've made absolutely no mention of the odd numbered episodes as opposed to the even numbered episodes. That's on purpose, because the odd numbered episodes are literally nothing but glorified TikTok-style short videos, complete with being animated in a vertical short form video format for viewing on phones. I'm not gonna mince words here, I really didn't like these particular episodes. I question even calling them episodes because they're nothing but short music videos trying to cash in on TikTok's popularity, so I'm not even going to bother associating them with PokeToon as a whole. As happy as I am about PokeToon making new episodes again, I really hope this whole short-form video thing they're doing isn't going to be the standard from here on out, because PokeToon doesn't need to chase trends in order to be good or popular, which it's already proven! The only odd numbered episode worth talking about is episode 7, mainly because the main character is designed to look like she came straight out of the 90s (And looks too much like Meg from the previous episode). Seriously TPCI, I love PokeToon and all, but please stop with these short-form music videos. They're going to look dated in the next decade. Hell, the big October Pokemon leak revealed that there were apparently plans to make a 12-episode Pokemon series similar to PokeToon but with half-hour long episodes under the code name Pokemon Reload, complete with Studio Colorido doing the animation. There's no indication of whether that series will ever be made, and if this leak turns out to be true, I dearly hope Pokemon Reload doesn't get canceled, because I would absolutely devour it, as would many other Pokemaniacs!

But on the whole, these are another great set of short films that show different sides of the Pokemon world and the skills of the staff and animators that bring the Pokemon world to life in their own unique ways. While I do think Yume no Tsubomi is still the best PokeToon overall, I'm always down for more PokeToon overall, and the 2024 anthology is no exception. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if PokeToon pulled a Star Wars Visions where they'd have different episodes animated by different studios. Man, I'd kill for a PokeToon episode done by a company like Science Saru, Nippon, or Kyoto Animation. Wit Studio has already proven they have the chops with Hisuian Snow and Paldean Winds. I bet PokeToon would also make for a great training ground for new aspiring animators and writers. I don't know if more PokeToon will be made, but on the chance that there'll be more, I'll devour it like a Lycanroc! Just ditch the short form TikTok video style, that's all I ask.

Current Mood: confused
Current Music: Eufonius - Narcissus

Rating: 30/100

(This is actually a slight rewrite of an old review I wrote on November 4th, 2012. I have no idea why I never posted it here until now)

Look, I like Junichi Sato. I really do, despite the fact that I've only been exposed to a few of his works, and Tamayura happens to be one of my favorites from him. However...I can't believe I watched this piece of trash! It's a good thing it's only four fifteen-minute long episodes like the original Tamayura OVAs were, and whaddaya know! This is supposed to be a car advertisement, like how Hokago no Pleiades is! Ugh, I can't believe I wasted my time on this dumb OVA. It's such a shame, as this could have been a lot better, and the issues it tackled could have been handled more appropriately. This anime is sponsored by Honda Motors...but how do they start off? By bashing bicycles and introducing characters who are such blatant stereotypes that you can tell just from looking at them for a few seconds that you've seen this type of character before somewhere! A lot of people give Tamayura a lot of flak for supposedly being a K-On rip off, which I don't think is true. Heck, if there's a show haters should be calling a K-On rip-off, it's One Off!

The story's nothing special. Basically it's about a girl named Haruno who envies her friends for having dreams and ambitions they want to pursue and thinks she'll never be able to leave the rural town she lives in. Her jobs mostly consist of helping her parents at their restaurant and collecting eggs from chickens. All of a sudden, out appears this random, badly voiced Australian named Cynthia (who I swear to God is a rip-off of Cynthia from Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Look at their character designs! I'm not even kidding!) who does nothing but shout bad English and shove her cleavage into people's faces. You may think me saying that Haruno's life changes after that might be great, but...trust me, it's not.

Is it just me, or is the animation for this anime really blurry? The backgrounds look a lot more faded than crisp, like it was done by someone who couldn't afford money to buy glasses. Not only that, the movement that's there isn't very fluid. But ugh, I need to get this out, I HATE the character designs! Cynthia because she looks like a rip-off of Cynthia from Pokemon, which should be fairly obvious, but the girls' designs I don't like because....one: they look too much like rip-offs of other characters (I swear, Sayo looks almost EXACTLY like Tsuruko from AnoHana, right down to her seiyuu, who does the voice of Tsuruko as well!), two: I hate how the camera pans over the characters' legs in what is clearly meant to be a sexualized veneer! Then again, the characters' proportions, especially around their legs, look really off. It always makes it look like the top part of the leg, above the knee, is longer than the lower part of the leg, below the knee. You can tell just from looking at the promotional pictures alone that their legs are too odd-looking, and their only purpose is for the camera to creepily leer over them. I wish anime would stop over exaggerating female body parts and actually respect realistic human anatomy already! It's driving me up the wall! The only remotely good thing about this show is the music. I definitely liked the opening theme, as it's nice and soothing, and the ending themes are nice too, even though they're both a little dull. The rest of the soundtrack...eh, dull. Nothing ground-breaking or bad. Just...dull. I honestly don't remember. The soundtrack in itself is pretty bland and forgettable. I honestly don't remember one spec of it.

Ugh, the characters. I won't lie, these have to be the most blatant and most shallow stereotypes I've ever seen. None of the characters are properly or appropriately developed, they follow their assigned gimmick way too much, the very little pieces of personality they do have are obviously ripped off from characters from other anime I've seen before, and they're overall shallow and uninteresting. This is made worse by the absolutely abysmal voice acting! Haruno's seiyuu is trying way too hard, and that blue haired girl just refused to shut her freaking mouth! I wanted to mute the audio every time that stupid, annoying as hell blueberry head spoke! All she did as scream and moan about not having a motorbike and squealing over how hot Cynthia is! Someone cut this character out of the show already! She's too much of a rip-off of Ritsu from K-On! The other characters are just bland and uninteresting. Cynthia has to be the worst Australian portrayal I've ever seen. I've never met an Australian before, but none I know talk in such bad English as she did, and none I know go around showing off their boobs (AND SHE DOESN'T EVEN WEAR A FREAKING BRA!!! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!?) to teenage girls! What especially appalled me is that even though she's clearly not right in the head, everyone suddenly likes her! WHAT THE FUCK DID SHE DO TO GET THEM TO LIKE HER?!? Show her boobs, of course! Oh God, even the characters' reactions to Cynthia are inappropriate and unrealistic! If I saw a woman like her showing off her boobs, I'd call the police and get her arrested for public indecency, especially since she's doing this with teenage girls! It appalls me how anime characters love downplaying the flaws of a clearly problematic character and make them into a straight up object of desire for everyone! That must be why the trope Draco In Leather Pants exists. Hell, if anything, I consider Cynthia to be the very in-show embodiment of this trope!...AND NOT IN A GOOD WAY!

The rest of the show is just bad, bland, and downright boring. Even the supposed moral of the story is shallow and dumb, even cheesy because of the way it's executed. Everything else is just bad. The way the characters react to certain events: bad and unrealistic. All the coincidences: totally contrived and convoluted. The characters' voices: UGH MAKE THEM STOP TALKING! The whole girls riding motorbikes in the future. I can't see that. But from what I'm hearing, car sales are decreasing in parts of the world, so I guess it was to be expected that advertising companies would go to drastic measures to sell a product. But can we do it in a way that doesn't involve churning out stereotypes and beating dead horses PLEASE? I took a college class called Effects of Media on Children and one of my assignments involved analyzing how advertisements rely on gender stereotypes to sell a product and how they affect people of all ages. This is NOT a proper way to advertise a product. Just watch this to consider buying a motorbike or kill time. Other than that, give it a miss. It's dumb, contrived, and really not worth your time.

Rating: 80/100

So who here has heard of Junichi Sato? He's a fairly prolific anime director with years of experience under his belt. Even if you haven't heard of him, you've probably seen his work, like the first season of Sailor Moon, Kaleido Star, Princess Tutu, the Aria series, the first Ojamajo Doremi season, and so on. In 2010, he announced that he was making his own original series called Tamayura, starting with a short OVA. I will admit, when Tamayura first came out, I was OBSESSED with it. You've probably read my old crappy review of the OVA and the first TV series. I considered it a masterpiece and one of the best shows ever. But during 2016, the series got four movies, and I didn't see them because I was deep in anime burnout at that time. Plus, it'd been years since I've seen both seasons. One day, I decided to revisit the series on a whim, curious if my feelings on it had changed now that I'm older and more mature, and now that my tastes have changed. After rewatching the first season, Tamayura: Hitotose and the OVAs, I've come to the conclusion that my feelings on it have, in fact changed, but I still enjoy it. Not as much as I did when I was younger, but I still enjoy it, even if parts of it come off as rather stale and annoying.

The story goes as follows: Fu Sawatari is a young girl who loves photography and taking pictures, but had fallen out of it after her father's untimely passing. She finds herself taking up the hobby again in her last year of middle school, right as her family decides to move to Takehara, a town by the Seto Inland Sea in Hiroshima, the place where her father grew up. A shy girl at feart, Fu does manage to make a few friends and even reunite with some old ones: Kaoru Hanawa, her level-headed childhood friend, along with her more boisterous older sister Sayori; Norie Okazaki, a cheerful aspiring baker who adores Fu's younger brother Kou, and Maon Sakurada, a quiet girl who prefers communicating by whistling. Every day brings new encounters, rekindles old memories, and presents all sorts of new experiences and opportunities for Fu to take photos and make connections to others through them. Time moves ever forward one photo at a time.

At the time of Hitotose's production, Hal Film Maker got absorbed into TYO Productions, but the team from the OVA was able to come back to work on this and the later seasons and movies. Just like the OVA, the TV series doesn't cut any corners when it comes to its animation. The backgrounds are crafted with respect for detail, and the actual movement for character actions is fluid and dynamic when needed. I never felt like there were any shots that were off-model or inconsistent. For a series that was made in the early 2010s, it really stands a cut above the rest, even if it's not to the levels of Anohana, Kamichu, or Madoka Magica. This is the kind of series where you can just kick back, relax, and enjoy the scenery, which is what the characters in this series do quite often, and the slow, leisurely pacing helps with this if you're into shows like that.

Similarly, the soundtrack by Nobuyuki Nakajima fits the series like a glove, with soft pianos, woodwinds, clarinets, and oboes further contributing to the show's more peaceful, relaxed atmosphere. I'm kind of surprised he hasn't done any more soundtracks outside of this one, as he's clearly good at what he does. All the songs are really good too, both the opening and ending themes by Maaya Sakamoto and Megumi Nakajima to the insert songs sung by the girls' seiyuus are easy on the ears and are just overall pleasant to listen to. On the audio front, I will warn you that the girls' voices can get very shrill, and if you're sensitive to female voice actresses pushing their voices to sound as high pitched as humanly possible, you'd best back out now. Norie in particular can get really screechy, particularly when she gushes over Fuu's little brother Kou, and as someone who has auditory sensory issues, I can understand people having issues with listening to her. Seriously Yuka Iguchi, dial it back a bit!

Being a firmly slice-of-life show, Tamayura is all about its characters and fleshing them out. On this front, Tamayura does succeed, especially in how it ties the girls' personalities and development to their hobbies and creative pursuits, which range from writing and photography to more unusual activities like making potpourri. To quote another review, most of these hobbies either say something about the individual character or help her to grow as a person; Fuu uses her camera as a way of staying connected to her father while Maon uses music and storytelling to overcome her shyness. Tying character development into everyone's hobbies works fairly well, and the show is able to cover a broader emotional range than most slice-of-life moe shows at this time usually did. Not every series can cover things like grief and self-doubt while remaining upbeat and optimistic, but this one manages to keep everything in balance. The main girls and their immediate families are fine characters, but there are a few side characters who don't evolve past being one-note stereotypes. Sayomi is constantly dragging her sister and friends on little adventures, taking the longest, hardest paths to get there, and often causes them grief in the process. Fuu's friend Chihiro cries A LOT, and I can understand people finding her crybaby tendencies really annoying after the second time around, though even she actually grows up a bit. I mainly found their teacher Dougou to be obnoxious and irritating in how his very first scene involves him needling the girls over their flaws while they're on their lunch break, which he honestly has no business doing, and continues to do so after the fact despite the show wanting the audience to see him as a nice guy. Komachi is a little kid who has a crush on Kou but is constantly antagonizing both Norie and Fuu, claiming they're trying to "use their wiles" on him, even though Fuu is literally Kou's sister! Why did they have to make this girl harass poor Fuu?! It's so unnecessary!

However, one-note side characters aren't Tamayura's only problem. Most of the time the comedy doesn't land, and one gag they constantly re-use over and over again is that Norie, a teenage girl, is obsessed with Fuu's younger brother Kou, which is both annoying and creepy but doesn't really go beyond her gushing over how cute he is. There's also a fluffy pink cat thing called Momoneko who literally serves no purpose other than to be cute, and as much as I love cats, I felt like he was just shoehorned into the show just because Sato wanted to do his own take on President Aria. Furthermore, the TV series expects you to have seen the OVA before watching it, which is easy enough considering the OVA was included in the DVD set that came out here in North America. Finally, this show really likes to misuse the word aggressive. According to this show, aggressive means being more proactive and taking the initiative, even though the correct word is assertive, as aggressive implies that someone is violent or forceful. On a smaller note, this complaint is more directed towards the translation used for the DVD: Who the hell thought it was a good idea to translate "fuwawa" as "floofdoodly"?! The hell? Did you just...make up a word for the sake of it? Because it doesn't work! Don't try to make Tamayura more saccharine than it already is, because it doesn't need to be cutesied up!

Basically, if you're not into leisurely slice-of-life or moe shows, you're not gonna enjoy this. That said, I feel Tamayura, both the OVA and Hitotose, succeed in managing to tell a heartwarming, inoffensive, laid-back show that still manages to respect its characters, themes, and story. Rewatching it again, I don't feel as strongly about it as I did when I was younger, but I still found myself enjoying it for what it has to offer, even if there are other similar shows that I enjoyed more, like Natsume Yuujinchou and Kamichu. Tamayura is definitely one of the better moe shows the 2010s had to offer, and I'm glad to decided to rewatch it as an adult, because it's relaxing, sweet, and pleasant, even to a fault, and it could have benefited from dialing back the saccharineness a bit. Come to think of it, I never did review the second season. I ought to remedy that now that I've finished my rewatch of this season.

Current Music: Fire Emblem Fates OST

Rating: 66/100

Man, it seems like visual novel adaptations are starting to come back. Not a whole lot compared to the previous decades, but the fact that some are still being made is nice to hear. I previously played and reviewed the original game for Atri: My Dear Moments, a little after an anime adaptation was announced. Short version: While I did enjoy parts of the game, I did feel other parts could have been improved upon, but it was a valiant first game for Aniplex.exe to start with. With the knowledge I gleaned from the game, I was curious as to how the anime would adapt it, especially since the game itself is a fairly short 10-13 hours. It's inevitable that long visual novels would need to leave things out in the transition from a game to the TV format, especially a 12-13 episode series. On the whole, I do think the anime adaptation for Atri succeeded in its goal of adapting the game to a TV format, but it did make quite a few changes from the game. Some I liked, some...not so much, and the ones that didn't work are the anime's biggest problems.

In the near future, a sudden rise in sea levels floods the majority of the world and ends human civilization as we know it, forcing humanity to eke a living on what little dry land remains. Natsuki Ikaruga, a boy who lost his mother and his leg in an accident some years earlier, returns disillusioned from a harsh life in the big city to find his old countryside home half-swallowed by the sea. Left without a family, all he has to his name is the ship and submarine left to him by his oceanologist grandmother, and her debts. His only hope to restore the dreams for the future that he lost is to take up an opportunity presented to him by the suspicious debt collector Catherine. They set sail to search the sunken ruins of his grandmother's laboratory in order to find a treasure rumor says she left there. What they find is not riches or jewels; but a strange girl lying asleep in a coffin at the bottom of the sea. The girl, Atri, is a robot, but is so expressive and human-like that she could easily pass for a real human being. As thanks for salvaging her, Atri declares that she'll serve as Natsuki's leg until the end of the summer. The time they spend together over that summer changes the both of them.

I won't go into every single change the anime made from the game, as that'd make this review way longer than it needs to be, and I won't belabor a lot of what I said in my review of the game. I'll stick to my usual format before going into the nitty-gritty, starting with the animation. TROYCA, famous for Idolish7, was picked to do the animation, and while they couldn't quite replicate the finer details of Yusano and Moto4's character designs, they make up for that with kinetic character motion and fidelity to said character designs. They did, however, succeed in bringing the game's backgrounds and setting to life without compromising on the details. I also appreciate that the animators gave characters who didn't have sprites in the game actual designs, so it definitely has that going for it. On the sound front, I definitely appreciate that the anime decided to make its own original soundtrack as opposed to just reusing background tracks from the game, with the exception of a few, with one of them being important to the plot. I wasn't a fan of the overly chirpy ending theme, but as someone who usually doesn't like idol songs, I really liked the opening theme, Nogizaka46's "Ano Hikari." I never skipped it every time I watched an episode, it's that good. Hikaru Akao is still annoying when she sings in her squeaky voice, though.

A lot of the changes the anime makes is rearranging some events to make them happen either earlier or later than in the game, which does make some sense considering this is a 13-episode anime as opposed to a 13 hour game. The characters and their respective development remain the same from the game, even if a lot of aspects that put them on the path to getting it are either changed, downplayed, or cut out. Unfortunately, a few changes I didn't like were removing huge chunks of several characters' backstories, with Natsuki being the biggest victim of this. While his personality and development are the same as in the game, some really important parts of his backstory are cut out completely, such as leaving the Academy due to a combination of his own arrogance and a teacher being ableist towards him, both of which form the backbone of his development. By cutting those parts out, Natsuki comes across as much more needlessly angsty and mopey potato-kun. On the opposite side, Catherine and another character are made to be much nicer, with their more questionable actions watered down compared to the game. The anime seems to speed-run through the slice-of-life parts just to get to the plot faster, and while I can understand why they did this, as many who played the game complained that the plot should have happened a lot earlier, they kind of diluted the parts of the game that were genuinely good, such as the whole arc about the kids building a generator for the school.

There is one change that I definitely liked. In the last third of a game, there's a new character who gets introduced named Yasuda, who hates Atri and wants to kill her. He's universally despised by fans of the game due to a combination of his appearance completely lacking any established build-up or foreshadowing so it feels like he comes out of nowhere, and for being a generic villain whose motivations are really weak and tenuous at best. The anime doesn't change his characterization nor give him more depth and nuance, but it does go out of its way to address the first issue with him in that they add in whole new scenes where he's not only going after Atri multiple times, he even goes after other characters directly and using different methods, whether it be appealing to their guilty conscious or straight up trying to kill them, ranging from shooting them or unhooking Natsuki's submarine to wash him out to sea. While I do wish Yasuda's backstory had been fleshed out more, or given a stronger motivation for hating Atri than what he has, I definitely appreciate the anime's attempts to make him a more constant presence and a genuine threat, and it seems like the manga is doing the same.

But there is one addition the anime made that I really, REALLY wish they hadn't. Remember how in my review of the game, I mentioned that I absolutely hated the scene where Natsuki slips and falls into Minamo's boobs because it felt like unnecessary fanservice? The anime removes that, thank God (As does the manga)...but it also adds in new scenes involving Atri being sexualized or offering herself up to Natsuki in what's clearly meant to be a sexual manner, when she clearly looks and acts like an elementary schooler! Like, TROYCA, did we REALLY need a scene where Atri flashes her nude body to Natsuki several times when she's wearing nothing but a bath towel? I mean, it's at an angle where we can't see her nude, but come on! The game at least kept it limited to Atri jokingly calling Natsuki naughty and jumping to conclusions before she gets conked on the head! It's like the show is worried that we won’t care about Atri (and her death flags) unless we’ve been assured she’s a potential sex object, and it does a disservice to the story’s stronger emotional beats. Who thought deciding to openly sexualize Atri MORE was a good idea?! Because it isn't! Basically, Atri the anime traded one form of unnecessary fanservice for another, and it just makes me cringe into a singularity.

It's honestly a shame the anime decided to implement a lot of those more questionable changes, because I did enjoy the rest of my time with this show, and I want to recommend it to people who don't want to play the game or are unable to for whatever reason. I like the animation, the music, the opening song, most of the characters, and some of the better changes Atri: My Dear Moments made. But the not-so-good changes leave a pretty big black stain on what on paper is still a fairly decent adaptation of Aniplex.exe's first visual novel. Personally, if you want the better experience, I recommend just playing the game, if you're able. The anime is fine if you're into it or can't play the game for whatever reason, but I really wish I could recommend it more enthusiastically.

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Nogizaka46- Ano Hikari

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Winter 2025 Anime Choices, Old and New
Firechick's Anime Reviews: Kitty and Mimmy's New Umbrella
Firechick's Anime Reviews: Natsume Yuujinchou Season 7
11 Moments In Anime 2024, #2: Crack That Angel's Egg
11 Moments In Anime 2024, #3: Rest In Peace
Firechick's Anime Reviews: The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Become Magicians
11 Moments In Anime 2024, #4: What The Hell, Crunchyroll?!
11 Moments In Anime 2024, #5: Let's Net those Leaked Flix!
11 Moments In Anime 2024, #6: The Resurrection of AnimEigo
11 Moments In Anime 2024, #7: The Road To Green Gables
11 Moments In Anime 2024, #8: Keep Your Lovely Complex In Check
11 Moments In Anime 2024, #9: A Wild Bunny Girl Dub Appeared!
11 Moments In Anime 2024, #10: Toon Toon PokeToon!
11 Moments In Anime 2024, Honorary Mention: Who Says There's No U In Grendizer?
11 Moments In Anime 2024, #11: Kanon and Circumstance
Firechick's Anime Reviews: The Concierge
Firechick's Anime Reviews: Poketoon 2024
Firechick's Anime Reviews: One Off
Firechick's Anime Reviews: Tamayura Hitotose
Firechick's Anime Reviews: Atri: My Dear Moments

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