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Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Summer 2022 Anime First Impressions: Part 1

Luminous Witches:  This is a spinoff of the World of Witches story, featuring witches who sing and dance instead of fight.  Within the story it explains that these witches aren't suited for combat -- they're bad at shooting, can't keep regular schedules, have debilitating injuries or whatever.  This is a nice explanation for what they're doing frivolously in the middle of a war.  Their singing and dancing is spectacular, accompanied by quality animation that makes the scenes pop.  My only complaint is the introduction of magical pets who waste time and serve no purpose, while also being a plot discontinuity because the previous three seasons of witches never had any magical familiars.  Unless they explain this glaring plot hole it's a huge detriment to the show's quality as a whole.  Nevertheless, it's a World of Witches anime and thus deserving of the respect accorded the rest of the franchise as a great anime.  Pass.

Engage Kiss:  What a beautiful girl/demon wasted on what a loser.  This guy who can't do his job properly, can't live in society properly, can't get along with others properly, apparently can't do anything properly, nevertheless has two girls chasing after him who he, naturally, can't properly address or respond to their feelings so just keeps jerking their chains and dragging them along.  And of course there's a plot convenient excuse for why he has to make out with the demon regularly despite not actually dating her -- she powers up with his kisses!  They need her power to win fights!  It's all above board morally sound behavior.  But if the writers didn't invent that dumb excuse it wouldn't need to happen, now would it?  It's a completely unnecessary addition to the plot and sticks out like a sore thumb.  Fail.

Lycoris Recoil:  The best parallel to this show would be Hidan no Aria.  For some unknown reason cute middle school girls are necessary to fight crime in Japan because trained professional men apparently aren't up to the job or whatever.  Also crime is rampant such that the girls can go on exciting adventures nonstop even though this is, presumably, normal modern day Japan.  A land with no crime and no excitement year-round.  Even if you can swallow the premise of this show, the problem is also in the execution.  The girls work at a cafe with a (gay?) black owner for no known reason, even though this is Japan.  The girl with a peppy attitude can dodge bullets at point blank range indefinitely, without breaking a sweat, despite not being a superhuman.  The other girl could hold steady a giant minigun like the freaking Terminator and blast up an entire room with it.  So superhuman strength and agility, but no superhuman explanation for these superhuman traits.  They're just cute middle school girls who can naturally do this for no reason. . . It's too much to swallow.  Not a single portion of this setting is believable.  Fail.

Teppen!:  The first episode was genuinely funny.  The girls are cute.  It's still not enough.  The unrealistic situation like aliens and overly rich ojou-sans are unrealistic.  There are way too many characters for a 12-episode series.  And a gay black man gets half the screen time.  Again, this is set in Nanba, Japan.  Where are all the gay blacks coming from?  Eventually the jokes will stop being funny but the annoyances will keep piling up.  So I may as well stop watching now while I'm ahead.  Fail.

RWBY:  A surprisingly good series given the premise.  Basically four heroes from different backgrounds all come together to form a superhero team that fights monsters and criminals for a living.  The animation of the fights by Shaft is superb.  The character designs are pretty good.  I really have no complaints.  Pass.

Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life:  This show takes a lot of elements from other, better series and weaves them together into a terrible, boring story.  It's completely unnecessary.  Just watch Kamitachi, Slime Tensei and Death March and you'll be totally covered.  Fail.

Tokyo Mewmew New:  A remake of a classic, now with modern animation.  The same composer is being used as Sailor Moon's, and even the look and intonation of their attacks and transformations is like Sailor Moon's.  It's a copycat of Sailor Moon with cat ears.  The protagonist is refreshingly childish and girly despite having entered high school.  This can't go far wrong, but with only 12 episodes planned I doubt it can surpass the original series.  Pass.

Mamahaha blah blah:  This show has appealing art but not appealing characters.  People bent on lying and intentionally hurting each other's feelings are not attractive.  There's no way to gloss that over.  I don't believe in their situation of simultaneously liking and disliking each other, in the exact same way.  In any given ex-relationship there was one person who genuinely loved the other, and one person who suddenly got dissatisfied and broke it off.  90% of the time that would be the girl suddenly abandoning the boy.  So let's say in 90% of relationships only one person wanted it to end, and in 90% of those situations it was the girl.  But in this story both the boy and the girl simultaneously got sick of each other for no good reason, and on top of how unrealistic this 10% of 10% situation we're in, they also still like each other and actually want to get back together.  How rare is that, for both of them to change their minds and dislike each other, such that they mutually broke up, and then for both of them to simultaneously change their minds and like each other, such that they start making out on the couch again.  It's unbelievable.  It's way too convenient and contrived.  Every boy dreams of the girl who dumped him changing her mind and taking him back, but that's not reality.  It's poison that keeps you from moving on.  A poisonous fantasy that destroys the dumped person's life yet further.  Stories that feed into that fantasy are not good for the health of the viewer.  Fail.

Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo:  I knew this would be a good anime because I've read the manga.  Unfortunately, the opening of the anime shows him interacting with a lot more slave girls than he should be, given that I'm deep into the manga and he's only ever met two so far.  What is the anime up to?  So far it's following the manga perfectly and is doing great, but eventually it looks like it plans to deviate from the real story. . .Pass.

Arsnotoria:  The girls and world are drawn well, but that's all I can say in favor of the show.  They're bland, boring people in a bland, boring world.  They spend the entire episode having tea together.  Why not watch paint dry while you're at it?  Fail.

There's still four more series waiting to debut this summer, Prima Doll, Extreme Hearts, Isekai Yakkyoku and Shine Post, but this will do for a part 1.  

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