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Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Break Time is the same series of shorts that air at the same time as the current ReZero season. They are simplistically animated, but feature the same voice acting, sound design and writing as the main series. Unlike Break Time (or Petit for the first season) of previous series, where it not necessary to watch them, I *do* encourage watchers of Re:Zero Season 3 to watch these shorts. Additional details, world building, and most importantly, information about the different characters in the cast is revealed in these shorts. These details have obviously been excluded from the mainline series because of pacing and ... time constraints, and are canonical in nature. They're short, easy to watch, and often cute, so I recommend to enhance the Re:Zero experience.

I want to recommend this series. But just like I can't make the series actually good, I can't. Yokai Sensei has the setup and the potential to be a great series; a classroom full of unique students, all with their own powers, hang-ups, and a quirky human teacher with his own secret. It could be a great series like Marimashita Iruma-kun, a delightful blend of comedy, worldbuilding and character development.

However, don't hold your breath. The characters are flat and one-dimensional, and I promise they will not get better. What's most important in Yokai Sensei, more than anything else, is the punchline. Even in the ... 3 episodes that have aired so far, any moment that could have been touching or connects you with the characters in some way is undermined by The Commitment To The Bit. Whether it's sensei's uniform fetish, sudden bouts of unexplainable stupidity, or everything ending in disaster 'just because', things are inconsistent, nonsensical and don't really provide any sense of fulfillment. Perhaps taking things seriously would make things less funny. Whether the series IS funny is something that can only be judged by the individual, but I'm not really amused by slapstick.

The animation is subar, what little style the original manga had has been stripped, and the overall production value is low. While I will probably continue watching it despite this review, (for reasons even I don't understand), I don't actually recommend it to anyone. It's just genuinely not very good. Maybe watch it if you like slapstick, have a high tolerance for bad writing, or, like myself, are just starved for more content on yokai mythos.

I went into Yakuza Fiance with low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised with what I received. Yakuza Fiance has good animation, pacing, and overall production value. The art and animation appear to be incredibly faithful to the manga, which looks and feels like a love letter to older pre-2000 classics. After a barrage of cookie-cutter romcoms that throw the mangaka's artstyle in the bin in the last few years, it's a breath of fresh air to see a series handled with some level of care.

The plot and setup are nothing particularly unique, nor anything that hasn't been done before. In fact, if I ... was playing shoujo bingo, I might just have won a prize by now. The plot beats are predictable, and I can't see this doing anything new or exciting. However, this time you do get a female main character that's actually allowed to use violence and swear, which is fun. Watching her beat a man with a hairdryer was incredibly cathartic, and if there's one thing I hope to get more of from this anime, it's more of her beating the shit out of dudes.

Overall, I'm hoping this anime develops into a perfect junk food show. If it keeps to the current production quality, and allows the MC to punch someone in the face, it'll be a easy to digest guilty pleasure.

"The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies" is a very...strange series thus far. Obviously, this is quite an early review, but I did read ahead a bit to ensure I wasn't jumping the gun too much. What I can say that's positive: the animation is of a decent quality, the OST is not amazing but blends just fine, and the voice acting is pretty standard. The quality is fine in every way.

Story wise, it falls apart. Short version: It's creepy, and the tone is all over the place.

Longer review: Based on the 3 episodes I've watched thus far, and ... the corresponding manga chapters, this series can't seem to decide whether it's a romance or a gag comedy. And while you can certainly pull off both with enough skill, this is not one of those instances. Thus far, I find myself confused and disturbed for most of my viewing. The magical girl is clearly a child, yet she's hypersexualised to the extreme, from the outfits she wears, to the jokingly erotic scenes, to the ML openly oogling her. The ML is obviously an adult man; he's an 'evil mastermind' and yet he falls for her at first sight. This could be a case of mistaken age from an audience perspective, but at the very least it's bad character design if they're both adults and I'm mistaking her as 14 at best.

In addition, the sheer naiveity of the FL makes me uneasy, even as she gains more control over her life. She's ignorant, easily manipulated, impossible to anger, and very, very vulnerable. And again, the ML is an intelligent adult man. If this was a series where the evil lieutenant became protective and cared for someone and discovered his humanity - as a lesson on found family and familial love - or even if it then turned into a slow burn romance - I would like that!
But right after their first meeting, romance is IMMEDIATELY on his cards. He likes her, and views her as attractive. As such, he doesn't so much come across as a protector, he just comes across as a pervert. I don't WANT him to eventually get together with her. I want him to contact child protective services, set up a trust fund, and act like a damn adult and not a weird guy drooling over a teenager that looks like she's ELEVEN.

The setting thus far confuses me. He's from an evil empire literally called 'The Evil Empire' - why is he even working with them? They're literally called 'The Evil Empire' and they're clearly not some ironically named rebellion team. You can't just handwave this kind of world setting away - at least, not with the serious tone that has been set here. Love After World Domination has a similar premise - and yet, the tone regarding the evil organisation, the likelihood of achieving their goals and even how they go about it (small skirmishes in their case) reduce the stakes significantly. In this case, the evil organisation are launching large scale attacks on what appear to be innocent citizens, with actual intent to harm, maim or kill. Even with the 'villain' as our main focal view, we get no insight into how he feels about any of this. This is simply work as usual to him.

Because again, looking at the source material, and what we've been shown; this is basically an overanimated 4-koma masquerading as something deeper and more romantic than it is. There's nothing I find funny here, nor do I find it romantic. It might fit the bill for people more tolerant than I when it comes to romance - and I will not judge you for that, I believe not everything has to be picture perfect. But for a normal, boring person like myself, it just doesn't have anything to offer, and poorly executes everything else.

Giji harem is cute, fun, and heavily carried by the phenomeonal voice acting from some of the industry's most beloved. The story is cute, refreshing, and I leave every episode with a goofy grin on my face. I'm biased towards the story because I've finished the manga, but I will say somehow the adaption is full of so much charm and character it's unreal.

Shikimori-san, Angel Next Door; there's been a trend of giving school romance more animation budget than they frankly need or deserve. Giji harem goes heavily in the other direction. I was very, very skeptical when I saw the studio's track record, ... and I was prepared for a dumpster fire to match the frankly appalling and cash-grab feel the entire studio reeks. And, in a way, they kind of pumped out the exact level of animation quality as you'd expect. Giji harem has what I would call 'bare-bones' animation. The characters doesn't move much, it's choppy enough that I swear I can see the keyframes, and I've seen the same tree asset like twelve times.

**HOWEVER**. And this is a *big* however. The studio has done a phemeonal job of keeping in with the original manga's artstyle. Unusual facial expressions, some purposefully dubious anatomy, a graphite-like line style, pleasantly pastel and gradiated backgrounds - Giji Harem feels like. Well. An adaption of a manga. It feels like someone took Giji Harem, and, directly from the pages, animated and gave life to the most important part of the series - the characters, and their wacky reactions. The series' strongest points are the almost amateurish art style with it's light and funny banter. Taking that, adding some great actors, and the entire story simply comes to life, with no need for fancy effects, or roto-cam, or heartstopping art.

The two protagonists are, of course, the star of the show. It's rare to see a romance where both parties are just so damn attractive and fun to watch. As a girl myself, watching anime women is...frustrating, at the best of times. It's like watching a whole different species walk across the stage, bug-eyed and whimpering 'onii-chan'. At the worst of times, it means dropping the whole series and scrubbing your skin to get the ick off. And even in shoujo romance, the female lead is often a mary sue with no redeeming features other than 'nice'. Nanakura, with her questionable approach to flirting, is surprisngly relatable and a blast to watch. She's likeable, weird, interesting, fun to watch, and she doesn't act like her brain runs on a cracked version of windows vista. The love interest, Kitahama, is also a joy to watch. He's shameless, loud, and a total class clown. He's weird, but in the same way that your class had that one weird kid, or the guy that was too social. He's weird, in a normal guy way. Something that the empty shell of harem protagonists should learn. He bumbles sometimes, but he's kind, considerate, and has surprising depth. He also doesn't treat women as a totally different species.

Watching Giji Harem, you *root* for these two. The simplistic artstyle, excellent adaption of the source material, and the voice acting give it a solid 9/10 for me. It loses a point for a less-than-stellar OST and music choice.

For fans of comedy-shonen series with a side of action, Mission: Yozakura Family is a remedy for the soul. It's not the perfect series; some of the over-the-top slapstick violence and comedy pushes the suspension of disbelief in places, but overall it's a fun and energy-filled series full of characters and relationship dynamics to make you smile.

Despite the first episode, this series is not a romance. It's definitely one that focuses on our MC's, Taiyo's, relationships, but that includes his relationship with everything from his new wife, Mutsumi, to his new family, to making new friends, and even his relationship with himself. It's a ... shonen through and through, and I'm talking the good stuff that makes shonen popular. People don't watch One Piece because they care about actual pirates, they watch it because they love the insane and whacky world, lovable characters, the shonen level-up, and the bond between nakama. Yozakura family, while I won't cross the line and make any direct comparisons, brings those qualities in metric tonnes. It's like the best part of those early 2000's slapstick comedies, but with most of the rougher edges that pissed you off shaved off (such as the harem, and the blatent sexism).

The studio uses bright colours and an attractive well-implemented art style, with a carefully managed budget (actually investing in the action scenes, even if we got a bunch of ugly 3D guns in the opening), as well as great voice acting, and a decent enough OST. No one series will appeal to everyone, but to the majority of anime watchers, I would definitely reccomend a watch, especially if you have a friend and pull up one of those shonen drinking games. You'll have a blast.

A late review on a new but beloved series. Dark Gathering is one of the few fun to watch and well-executed horror anime adaptions of, well. All-time, honestly speaking. Horror in anime has a terrible track record, and while die-hard Junji Ito fans won't find their kicks here, for someone like myself who loves supernatural and paranormal horror, but a (mostly) happy ending, Dark Gathering is fantastic. The music is good, the pacing is decently done, and while some places did fall down in face of the original manga art (the doll scene is much creepier with the realistic hair constrasting the stylised designs), most ... of it, from the colour choice, action, tone and perspectives were very well done. The animators didn't censor any of the more violent scenes, and I even felt a genuine chill down my spine during one of the arcs.

Gnerally speaking, I went into this series with low expectations; as a horror fan, I'm more than used to studios butchering everything from the pacing, to the music, to colouring (side-eyes a recent pastel-coloured addition to the genre) but I was very impressed by the skill and care given to this series.

As for plot and characters, the characters, with their early 2000's style design, actually supplement the rest of the series nicely. More cartoonish designs allow for creativity with the ghosts, a memorable cast, and honestly a bit of nostalgia on my end. And, as a horror fan, large anime eyes mean that emotions such as fear, terror, horror and realisation are much easier to see and evoke, rather than having to go the re:zero route of ugly crying to get your point across. For people who are a fan of paranormal horror and/or shonen battle manga (which is roughly added to the plot for seasoning) it's definitely worth a watch.

To preface this review: I LOVE this show. This series is one of my favourites, and although it might not look like it adds much to the genre as a casual fan, as someone who has followed the manga, and indulged in far too much isekai trash over the years, it's still one I hold close to my heart. The series keeps its worldbuilding consistent, doesn't reach the core of it's mysteries too easily and uses easily digestable familar settings and themes to build a fun and solid story.

That being said, Season 2 of Moonlit Fantasy is TERRIBLE. The first few episodes are certainly ... the best of the season, despite focusing on previously offscreen side characters in the form of the two summoned Heroes. The pacing is great, and the music and composition means that, even with a limited animation budget, it was a fun and engaging story to watch. It also did a great job of portraying and parodying two other 'isekai' routes often taken in the genre - no spoilers.
The series then continues onwards with Makoto, our MC, at the centre. It's fine for a few episodes; a bit slow but watching him show off for once is entertaining.

However, after that, the entire show slows down to a snail's pace. We reach long-running shonen series level of shitty pacing, drawn out dialogue and action, with very little actual action to be seen on screen. The characters almost feel like they're being puppeteered, and each person is politely reciting their required lines in the middle of their 'Acting 101' class. Episodes 7-13 and 13-19 could have been condensed into 3 episodes each. Each week is just another episode of disappointment as I watched the series I love being pulled like taffy, and the action and animation budget squeezed more and more.

Watch this series if you loved moonlit fantasy and interested in the slower political and management side of things. Wouldn't recommend if you were looking for an OP isekai with action.

I really, really wanted to recommend this manga. Collections of horror stories within a shared universe, experienced by a single set of characters? Sign me up! I've been hungry since I finished 'You will hear the voice of the dead'.

I admire the creativity that goes into this series. No two 'part time job' or 'gray job' is the same. Each 'job' usually lasts around 3 chapters, so at 150 chapters, that's a lot of unique content! The art is for the most part consistent, and a bit unsettling (which it should be, being horror!) and the two protagonists are also pretty consistent in their ... characterisation.

That being said, there's something about this series that just misses the mark on a lot of occasions. Good horror makes me take that intake of breath when 'it' finally comes on page. It's the moment of 'oh sh*t' when whatever creature stares at you from the page. It's about the building of tension and the release. Ura Baito, while being incredibly creative, oftentimes does a terrible job at tension building. It's horror, but it doesn't send chills down your spine. It's not scary, just a bit disturbing. It's horror junk food. Not terrible, but not great.

My biggest gripe is the worldbuilding. Oftentimes, a lot of the jobs have too much of an implied lasting impact on the world. For example, a haunted doll will affect one family. An entire product line of cursed dolls, a commerical success, is a completely different level of impact. And that level of impact happens *regularly* in this series. And over and over again, nothing is resolved. There is no satisfaction, no closure. And while that's not entirely uncommon in horror, doing it over and over and over again in a single series, and in a shared universe at that? It's unsatisfying, it's testing my suspension of disbelief. How is anyone is this world alive? How does it operate? When will any of our characters see any growth? The answer is never. The implied apocalyse never happens. The downfall of humanity is put on permanent hold. Our characters never use anything they've learnt from a previous lesson. You could read any of these stories randomly, and it would affect almost nothing.

I can't believe I'm writing a review for this, but I feel as if I need to give a quick warning to whomever is unlucky enough to stumble upon this entry.

There is a strict criteria you need to meet to enjoy this show. Do you think cringe humour is funny? Are you like 12, and discovered s*x jokes for the first time? Do you think inc*st and r*pe is hilarious? Are you looking for an anime SO bad, it makes you cry? If yes, you have come to the right place!

Kyoto Animation, I knew you had obscure, dark roots, but oh my good. This ... wasn't even a 'so bad it's funny' show. Please don't watch this.