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I would prefer watching every single show and just combining it all into one uber post, but there are just way, way too many new series to watch. How does one keep up? Well, it helps that I don’t have Netflix. I’m sure there are good shows on that streaming platform as well, but I refuse to pay for it. So yes, maybe Sakamoto Days would blow my pants off, but alas, I can never watch it. Yes, yes, I could sail the high seas like I once did as a broke college student, but I’ll pass. It’s not a moral thing; I’m just too lazy these days. It also helps that I’m currently trying to play through a JRPG called Reynatis, and I think it rather sucks. So for once, I’d rather update the blog than play games. Anyway…
*****
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Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective
I watched the first two episodes, which I found to be kinda dry. In those two episodes, the anime was very focused on the medical mysteries. Ameku is the genius doctor, and she drives the plot. Or to put it more bluntly, she pretty much dominates the plot. Other characters show up to play their roles in keeping the plot moving, but they take backseat in terms of interesting characterization. For example, Kotori doesn’t really do much for the time being other than following the good doctor around (well, they’re both doctors) like a puppy, asking questions to help the audience keep up with the girl’s logic. Ameku herself is played rather straight at the moment: super inquisitive, has an encyclopedic knowledge on medical-related topics, can easily diagnose patients by seeing the finer details, blah blah blah, but that all comes at a cost. She’s also socially inept, blunt, has no respect for people’s boundaries, arrogant, etc. Y’know, your typical detective type. She just comes in a diminutive anime waifu package, so she’s a bit more tolerable to the weebs watching this stuff (your mileage may vary).
I could get into the main mystery itself. Something about a guy showing up with weird color blood (it’s blue, I think? I’ve forgotten already) and his leg oddly bitten off. But the mystery itself isn’t that important. Yes, it’s all very fascinating, but it’s the sort of thing that goes in, gets processed by the brain as “Huh, that’s interesting,” then is quickly forgotten in a week’s time. If you bothered to tell someone else about the neat facts you just learned, then maybe you’ll retain the knowledge for a little longer.
For me, the only bit of compelling drama comes when Ameku’s uncle chastises her for distracting herself with her sleuthing inclinations. You could argue that her uncle is right. All this time spent solving obscure, brain-stumping mysteries could’ve been used on saving patients. A doctor and their skills are rare and specialized; I can’t just pick up a book on human anatomy and start curing people any time soon. Is Ameku really using her time and knowledge wisely? But at the same time, maybe the mysteries are the only things keeping her engaged. Maybe she’d quit the profession altogether if she had to be “normal.” So I dunno, maybe the rest of the series can slowly explore that internal conflict in our doctor while trotting out more weird and bizarre medical mysteries. But judging by the first two episodes, I’m not entirely convinced that I want to devote my nights to keeping up with Ameku.
*****
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Possibly the Greatest Alchemist of All Time
For some reason, this show has a dub already, which is kind of a boon. It certainly makes it easier to consume while I mindlessly grind away in my JRPGs. This is one of those… life-sim isekais? I don’t know if there’s a proper term for this subgenre — this is just the one I came up with. Instead of your standard adventuring nonsense (i.e. picking up guild quests, forming a party, going after the demon lord, etc), our hero goes about setting up his life in the new world like experimenting with alchemy, smithing for the first time, taming his first pet (always female and super cute), yadda yadda yadda. It’s one of those “comfy” shows, i.e. boring. There’s a background plot where other people also got summoned, and maybe the empress is shady. Maybe that will build up to something. In a single cour series, I kinda doubt it. At the time of writing this post, there’s a second episode, but I’ve already stopped caring.
*****
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Okitsura
This is your edutainment anime of the season, maybe? Okitsu reminds me of that other show a while back about gyarus in Hokkaido. Essentially, whenever we run out of plot, the show can start teaching us about a regional culture that isn’t common knowledge. Or maybe the education is the primary draw and the half-baked romance is the side dish. Up to you. Personally, Hokkaido is a setting that doesn’t show up too often, so at least that part was novel.
The issue here is that our boring ass main character can’t even understand what his crush is saying. Falling in love with someone who you can’t even understand is… odd. He has a gist of her personality, but can you really know someone if you can’t even communicate with them? But he’s a kid, so it’s not really love love. It’s just a crush. An infatuation mayhaps.
But right off the bat, the anime introduces a second love interest. Not only does other girl also like the main character — for reasons that are currently unknown to me — she also has to translate the Okinawan dialect for him. Essentially, she’s helping her rival win. Drew the short straw there, especially since the primary heroine is kind of a gimmick at the moment. How self aware is she? Does she not realize that the MC has no clue what she’s saying? Or does she find that amusing so she just keeps yapping at him despite him staring back at her dumbly? Basically, is she even a real character with her own dreams and aspirations separate from being gormless dude’s love interest?
So what sort of regional culture stuff are we in for? Well, for example, you can’t call someone Higa because everyone is Higa. But you can’t call them by their first name, because ho ho ho, as we already know from other anime, that’s too embarrassing. But to make it even worse, when the MC tries to call out to one of the girls, his pronunciation is off and that leads to even more misunderstandings. Y’see, “Kana-san” is apparently a confession of love. God, that sounds exhausting.
There’s more stuff like something about your soul falling out or whatever when you’re surprised. I guess if you’re looking for that sort of enrichment, the show can be comfort food for you. I am sadly not in the mood for that sort of thing. Not again, anyway. I replayed Yakuza 3 in 2024, so I’m something of an Okinawan expert myself.
After the characters helped a lost child, I pretty much started droning out the show. Needless to say, I won’t be revisiting this show in ensuing weeks.
*****
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I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class
I had this show playing off to the side while I was planning out my grocery budget for the month (being an adult rules). Unless there’s hanky-panky, these shows are all the same. The two primary characters are tsuntsun for each other now, but he’ll do some really nice, considerate things for her, so the girl slowly starts to thaw out a bit and fall for him. Along the way, he gets to know a few other girls — maybe a childhood friend, maybe a quiet bookish type to contrast with the popular main heroine — because focusing on a single heroine is lame. And because this is an anime adaptation, there will be no satisfying resolution by the time the season draws to a close. Fans will go, “Will there be a season 2?” only for manga/LN readers haughtily suggest, “Ugh, just read the source material.” Cool beans. Wasn’t there a recent series about a guy having to shack up with a girl? Cuckoo something? Whatever.
*****
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Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms
Essentially, everyone adores the heroine except for the main character. This has been the case since the day she was born. Usually, newborns are ugly as shit, but somehow, our girl managed to captivate everyone right from the get go. As a result, she’s grown up to be a bit (read: a lot) shallow, self-centered, arrogant, etc. It’s like she has a spell over every single person within her vicinity. Even adults, which is kinda weird. The only exception, however, is the male protagonist. As I watched this episode, I couldn’t help but wonder if this is a reaction to all those teasing anime. I briefly read a manga where the heroine was a hardcore tsunderekko that ends up going too far. The protagonist dumps her all within the first chapter, I believe? So finito, right? End of the story, because happy ending, right? Nah, the rest of the story involves her trying to get him back only for him to rebuff her at every chance. It almost feels like a tale of revenge. But who are we lashing back at? All those teasing heroines in other series that aren’t even real. Anyway, this show probably doesn’t have that mean streak in it.
The weird thing is that our heroine doesn’t even hide her bad personality. She’s boldly arrogant, going on and on about how she’s a queen bee, but no one seems to notice. She even throws a tantrum at one point because she just can’t understand why the MC isn’t kissing her feet like everyone else. A literal tantrum like a toddler. So for me, this makes the show seem dumb — like it doesn’t exist in a real world with real people. How do you sustain this for an entire season? When she slammed her head down in frustration after realizing that she was falling for him instead of the other way around, I thought the episode was over. Apparently, I was only at the halfway point.
What makes everything even less interesting for me is that our MC is truthfully just as obsessed with her as everyone else. He’s just hiding it due to silly religious reasons. So yeah, not the least bit compelling. In fact, why spoil the surprise so soon? The story should have kept us in suspense as to why he’s cold to her.
*****
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Promise of Wizard
Couldn’t finish. I guess they tried to adapt a gacha game about wizard bishies. I saw a buncha dudes chasing after a girl, who is then saved by similar looking dudes. But the latter are supposed to be hot and unique unlike the group of generic dudes earlier. Sure.
*****
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I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons
I found this show super depressing. Our heroine is living an idyllic life when she is suddenly forced to undergo princess lessons (“Lettie, you’re going to the castle to learn how to be a good wife”) from a harsh disciplinarian all so she can marry the prince. It just bummed me out right from the get-go, especially when our heroine looked out of her carriage and waved goodbye to her puppy. Her mother even says something like “I have good news! Your future has been decided!” Ew, gross. Gag. She’s a child, man. Obviously, this is the reaction the show wants from us. There’s no subtlety here. Still, it was a hard watch.
Eventually, we get a time skip in order to see that Laeticia is finally acting like a proper lady, but it’s painfully obvious that she’s deeply unhappy. She’s present, but there’s nothing behind the eyes. I doubt this is a mystery to anyone around her either. You can’t be that blind to basic human emotions. My read is that they know she’s sad, but they don’t care. Because it just doesn’t matter. Happiness is not important to being a proper lady. But that doesn’t mean she’s given up. She thinks that if the prince falls in love with someone else, she’ll be freed. So one night, when she sees the prince with another woman at a soiree, she thinks she just got her big break. She starts making plans to return home and all that. And I think that’s where the first episode ends if my memory is correct. But it just feels so futile. It feels like the more she struggles, the more the narrative will push her back towards the prince. At best, she’ll carve out a victory along the lines of falling for the prince, but it’s totally her choice guys so it’s okay!
Just to go on a bit of a tangent, I was not a big fan of Yukiko’s social link in Persona 4, because it had all this build up to her becoming independent, finding her own way in life, so on and so forth… only for her to inherit the inn after all. But it’s her choice so it’s fine.
Anyway, escape from what lessons? Our heroine has already been imprisoned for years.
What’s my beef anyway? This stuff happened all the time back in the day. Hell, you could say it still happens now in some places. So what’s wrong with the show depicting this? My issue isn’t about historical accuracy, but rather that I don’t really want to do this in a TV series. Sure, an anime could hypothetically do this subject matter justice, but my gut feeling is that this show probably ain’t it. I mean, just look at that image above. You can’t convince me that this show has the right tone.
*****
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Honey Lemon Soda
It’s hard to take these romances seriously when the pitiful wallflower is always saved from their doldrums by the most popular — most attractive — member of the opposite sex. Moreover, when the guy is the love interest, he always too cool and detached. Nothing fazes him. He’s blunt and rude with his words. Nevertheless, that rough exterior belies a sensitive soul that only the heroine is able to glimpse! Someone who does nice things without being asked to. Someone so considerate that he immediately predicts that she’ll be mocked for being the only person to wear gym clothes, so he quietly changes into his own gym clothes offscreen! Wowee! Someone who bravely stands up to bullies — kids who find it funny to toss someone’s shoes in the trash — because literally no one else will. Schools are so full of useless people, after all. And there’s nothing wrong with any of the stuff I just listed above… unless, of course, you’ve already seen it a thousand times before. So Honey Lemon Soda doesn’t feel bright and fresh like its name would suggest. It’s just another tepid, flat take to suck down if the first episode is anything to go by.
But I’ve got an even bigger bone to pick, because I’m like dad age now. I’m old enough to be a parent, and that makes me view these kids quite differently. I can’t help but shake my head when our heroine goes, “But today it was Miura who splashed me, so it actually made me happy.” What? Girl, c’mon. But what’s even crazier to me is when we learn why our girl is even at this school in the first place. Y’see, she’s a smart kid. She could’ve gotten into the top prep school (some place called Shinsei, apparently), but she aimed low instead. Why? Because the love interest saw her carrying a stack of prospective schools, and without knowing a thing about her, suggested that she attend his school instead. Fine, it’s not like she’s passing up Harvard. This is just high school. You can still be successful even if you attend a third rate high school. Hell, you can even be successful attending a third rate university. I make a decent living and I attended UCSB, the “party school” of the UCs. But man, don’t change your school just because a guy makes you “tingle” (hey man, her words). Could you imagine your daughter telling you she wants to pass up on a better education because a hot guy was nice to her once? Once?! If they were dating, I could understand. BUT ONCE?!
But it’ll work out, because we know it will. This is yet another one of those shows where the quiet, shy kid slowly makes friends, experiences wholesome moments, etc etc etc. I’m just being mean and cynical, because I can’t help but wonder why can’t she change at Shinsei? Why can’t she come out of her shell there? Why can’t she meet cool friends there? It’s a top school, right? So presumably, there would be a lot of students there who are like her — who may have been loners or picked on at their previous schools like her. But instead, the key to her happy life is a boy she met once on the streets? No one else can teach her how to ask for help? Again, please, do not base your future on boys that make you tingle. But who am I kidding? No one who needs that advice is reading this blog (insert “no one is reading this blog” retort here).
*****
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I Left my A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths!
Not even S-Rank. Pfft. Losers.
Anyway, the show is about a guy who left his former party because he was greatly underappreciated (and under compensated) by, well, everyone. What usually happens in this story is that there’s one or two characters who feel bad for our MC, but not this time around. And if you’re familiar with this plot structure, you will already know that our hero did all the work. Hell, he was the only reason they could function at a high level. Yet somehow, all these A-Rank adventurers who spend all their days doing this stuff as a profession just don’t see it. These shows are revenge or comeuppance stories with extra steps.
Anime isn’t only juvenile because it’s often about shounens saving the world. If anything, the wholesome earnestness of those series are often brief respites from the shitty, cynical, caring-is-cringe reality that we live in. What really brings a lot of anime down, on the other hand, is all the pettiness inherent to some of the non-shounens that are supposedly for an older audience. If it’s not getting your revenge on the cruel goddess who summoned you to this world, bullies from your previous life, or whatever injustice they cooked up — like haha shields are for losers…? — then it’s the arrogant party leader who just can’t see recognize your genius. The persecution fetish and the resulting “I’ll show you” conclusion that just feels so pathetic. There are folks who keep reliving their teen glory days because they peaked in high school. On the flip side of that, however, are folks who can’t keep lashing out at ghosts of their high school days, letting those traumatic memories fester into adulthood. I feel doubly offended because the main character here is a red mage, and I main a red mage in pretty much every FF game that has a job system.
Anyways, it’s always the same dumb setup where everyone (read: idiots) think the main character isn’t strong, but psst he actually is. He has feats such as casting three enchanting spells at a time, refreshing mana (apparently rare in this universe), freezing undead in their tracks, having every useful potion in his bag of tricks because he’s also an alchemist, so on and so forth. To top it all off, he can cook delicious meals which apparently no one else in the new party can do. Why? Shrug. To belabor the point, these MCs are always super knowledgeable, studies the ins and outs of every mob, every dungeon encounter, every map, always knows everything. But at the same time, just a normal dude, y’know? And why did no one else recognize all of these awesome qualities in our MC? Because for these stories to function, everyone else has to be as dumb as rocks.
At some point, our MC’s previous party will struggle. Maybe they’ll come begging for him to return to them. I think I saw that in some show last season about a healer who can only cast basic healing spells or something. I never found out what happens later, but does it really matter? Probably not. And I can probably say the same here.
*****
I’ll try to watch some more shows over the next few days, I guess. If I have enough to write a post, I will.