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Mar 31, 2025
Super comfy. Nihon Elf is nice little reverse (kind of) isekai show all about taking it easy and enjoying the world around you. While it does hiccup a little bit, when it plays to its strengths its a really cozy experience.
Nihon Elf has two parts, time spent in Japan and time spent in the fantasy world. The time spent in Japan is more focused on slice of life and character interaction while the time in the fantasy world is a bit more action focused. The Japan focused episodes are far stronger than the fantasy ones as Mariabelle, the elf, makes everything an absolute treat
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to watch. She is absolutely fascinated by everything in Japan and this is utterly palpable through the screen. Every new thing that she encounters just seems the like the most interesting and fun thing ever and it really brings your mood up.
To counter this, the fantasy world episodes are… a little rougher. They seem pulled straight out of your extremely average isekai show and don’t really have much focus. They generally feature Mariabelle and Kazuhiro encountering a problem, returning to the real world to strategize, then returning with the solution. It’s alright but leaves a lot to be desired. The animation isn’t exactly great and everything they encounter ends up being really generic and uninspired. They could have easily gone without this aspect of the show and it would have been much stronger.
Luckily the fantasy segments don’t take up too much of the screen time and instead we’re treated to the development of Kazuhrio and Mariabelle’s relationship. They really embody the awkward new couple aspect and it’s pretty endearing to watch them interact. Kazuhiro’s efforts to show Mariabelle around Japan and them becoming closer and closer as the show goes on is pretty endearing and their relationship doesn’t feel like it’s moving at a snails pace as is the case with most romance shows. Kazuhiro is ultimately another generic anime mc but he puts in more effort than most which can be appreciated.
Although the isekai segments do end up dragging it down a little bit the iyashiki segments more than make up for it. If nothing else Mariabelle alone is enough to give anyone diabetes with her pure nature and fascination with the world around her. Nihon Elf doesn’t break any new ground but it focuses on its strengths enough to make it worth your time, a great way to unwind.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 31, 2025
You almost have to feel bad for Rie Takanashi because she's working triple overtime to make this show far greater than it has any right to be. GiruMasu is the kind of show that stacked all of its chips in one spot and luckily it ended up working favorably for it. What could have been yet another mildly entertaining slapstick monster of the week fantasy comedy ends up being a really fun experience all thanks to Takanashi's talent.
That isn't to say that GiruMasu is fundamentally bad or anything. At its core there's still a fairly decent, albeit very generic, show here. It ends up
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meeting par across the board. Especially with regards to its visuals which are serviceable but a far cry from more higher budget action based shows. Luckily it doesn't spend too much time focusing on conflict and ends up as more in the comedy lane which ends up working out more often than not. It should be noted that the primary running joke is exactly what's on the tin. Alina. Hates. Overtime. And she'll do anything in her power to eliminate it. Naturally this ends up being stronger at the start of the show and grows weaker with time but fortunately they had enough foresight to keep her grievances to a minimum as to not make it oversaturated.
Instead they pivot to more character based comedy which ends up working to a slightly lesser degree, mainly because anyone who isn't Alina is a little too generic. Jade in particular rubbed me the wrong way which actually ends up working in the shows favor because Alina has no qualms with dismantling him verbally at any given opportunity. Laila, Lululee, and Lowe are mostly just there to fill space, they have a little bit of backstory and an alright minor relationship but nothing that stands out. The antagonists end up being extremely generic demons as well. Basically, everyone that isn't Alina is simply there for her to be a target of her rage, fortunately she's more than capable of picking up the slack.
Alina is great, but your enjoyment of this show entirely depends on how much you like her. As mentioned before, Rie Takanashi goes all out at making her as expressive as humanly possible. She must've had a great deal of fun voicing her because every single scene she's in is just full of character. She might not offer as much in terms of depth but what you get instead is this hyper expressive little gremlin that goes through the entire emotion spectrum in a second. There's something so refreshing about watching her completely lash out at anyone associated with the guild or succumb to absolute despair as her overtime piles to unimaginable heights. In an almost meta kind of humor, GiruMasu is almost entirely dependent on Alina but fortunately she's more than capable of handling it.
GiruMasu seemed to know that it doesn't have the capability of being great and instead decided to smartly bet it all on its strongest asset. By focusing almost entirely on Alina it smartly distracts the viewer from its mediocrity and managed to create something really entertaining.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 30, 2025
Wasted potential. Medalist is a show that holds so much potential but ends up fumbling the execution of pivotal moments resulting in an experience that leaves me conflicted. All of the pieces are there. Great characters, an engaging plot, interesting subject matter and drama , if only it were handled with slightly more care it could have been one of the greats.
Medalist features the best rags to riches story that you can imagine. Inori starts from below zero. Her entire life has been defined by belittlement, rejection, and failure. She's outcast from not only society but her own family and completely rejects any meaning
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in her life. That is, until she meets Tsukasa, who is so enamored with her skating ability that he vows to bring her to the top despite what she's been told her entire life. Tsukasa and Inori's relationship is the crux of this anime's appeal. They have such incredible chemistry and love for each other that you can't help but smile whenever they put each other on the highest of pedestals. The value of a positive role model cannot be overstated, Tsukasa is a man who brings out 200% in anyone he sets his sights on. Not through overwork or strict training regimens, but rather through unrelenting torrents of praise and suggestion. And just as he brings out the best in Inori, she brings out the best in him. Through watching her progress, Tsukasa realizes that he isn't the failure that he's deemed himself to be. Their relationship is truly something special and a joy to watch unfold on the screen.
They aren't the only characters in the show of course. For the most part they do fine. Rioh is the strongest, being introduced in the back half of the show and receiving the most development of any of them. Just like Tsukasa and Inori he's deemed a failure because of his inability to shape up to the best of the best. Of course this is entirely self proclaimed and watching Tsukasa work his magic on him, although to a lesser degree than Inori, is very charming and hammers in the importance of positive role models. Hikaru is the virtuoso endgame rival character. She's nice, doesn't really contribute overall but serves well as an end goal for Inori. Mittens is a decent early rival character, she gets better with time. Other characters definitely do exist but ultimately are sidelined to focus on Inori and Tsukasa's relationship which is a good choice as it's easily the strongest aspect. They mostly behave as you would expect children to do, with all of their issues essentially stemming from typical melodrama that you would expect from an immature mind. They serve their purposes well as rivals but don't go much beyond that after their performances.
Speaking about the performances, this is probably the most polarizing aspect of Medalist. I fall slightly in the middle camp although I lean more towards the "it doesn't look great" side, and this is where the majority of my disappointment with the show comes from. On one hand, it's understandable that they would choose to use CG for the figure skating portions. Not only is figure skating incredibly complicated but CG can allow for a much more fluid full body feel as it's generally much more naturally smoothed out. There's certainly good looking CG so it's not an inherently bad decision to use it. Unfortunately, Studio Engi didn't nail it. The models look pretty gross, especially when using their performance outfits. They really stick out on the ice and it creates this very mannequin-esque feel to their movements. Similarly the performances are not all that smooth. This is most apparent whenever they have to perform any kind of spin, which only becomes more prevalent as Inori's skill level increases. Rather than incorporate an entire 360 degree rotation they simply chopped together 4 90 degree rotations and loop it which makes for a very choppy looking experience. The general movement ends up looking fine but whenever they have to perform anything with any technicality it ends up falling short. This severely limits the potential impact of the performances which are the key highlight of the show. Climactic moments are equally hindered as they either rush into them or don't provide them enough time to build tension which also ruins their impact. This is easily the worst part of the show, and it happens to be the most important one.
Similarly, some dramatic moments outside of the rink are handled somewhat poorly. This is more of an issue in the first half of the show rather than the second. Inori and Tsukasa's backstory feels a little glossed over and their relationship develops at lightning speed as they try to get onto the rink as fast as possible. As Inori is someone with massive trust issues and negative self confidence this doesn't really make sense and I would have appreciated it if they went a little more in depth. This can be somewhat excused as they only have 13 episodes to work with and clearly don't want to sacrifice more than they already, clearly, have from Inori's development on the rink. With regards to Tsukasa's backstory it ends up being mostly reduced to a bullet point form and doesn't receive any major focus in the show. This ends up detracting a little from Tsukasa's overall character as it's not entirely convincing why he believes he's a failure but this isn't so much of a major disappointment as it is a source of mild dissatisfaction.
The pieces are there for Medalist, and maybe I'm being a bit too harsh. But when you present something with so much potential and then end up consistently missing the mark when it matters most it creates such a strong feeling of disappointment than if the difference of potential and execution were smaller. Medalist is certainly a fantastic drama, featuring a strong cast who all go through massive growth and a clear love for the sport that it's depicting. If only it were able to nail those pivotal moments.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 28, 2025
Oh jeez what a mess. Momentary Lily has no clue what it wants to do and the result is a complete train wreck. Is this a generic monster of the week show? A generic CGDCT post apocalypse show? A generic sci fi show? A... cooking... show? Well it's technically all of these things at once but without any of the quality control required to make any of it work.
First things first, the visuals. I actually don't mind them and am able to appreciate GoHand's maximalist style for the most part. Although this is almost entirely in regards to the action sequences which, while they
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don't come anywhere close to the top brass, are interesting if anything else. In particular I enjoy the unique camera work and angling of shots, if it were paired with high quality art it would be quite satisfying. However, outside of the action the viewer is subjected to preset visuals which contrast against the character models to such a degree that it looks like they're navigating cheap green screen... despite being animation. Characters have to be in instant movement and so if t hey do much as breathe their entire body mass has to respond in kind. This is most blatant with Erika whose oversized boobs seem to be perpetually bouncing on a trampoline, for the less endowed this is shown through their hair which has the same level of jiggle physics.
The plot is just an absolute mess. For the first quarter you'll expect this to be a generic monster of the week show, maybe even less than generic as the aliens they fight against all look exactly the same and lack any defining characteristics. They must've gotten bored of this though because they suddenly spend the next half of the show on extremely generic slice of life before leading into a not even half baked twist conclusion that doesn't lead anywhere. Every episode more or less plays out the exact same and they seem to be chronically afraid of development (of both plot and character) so when they do decide to let something happen it completely lacks any impact. Every episode also features this weird chibi cooking segment which seems to be included entirely to fill episode time and nothing else. The benefit of an anime original story is that you're allowed full reign of control over the events of the show, meaning that you aren't limited by deciding how much of the plot you're allowed to adapt in order to create a cohesive story. The downside to this is that if your writing team clearly isn't capable of creating a complete story you end up with something like this where every episode ends up being filler or stuck to stereotypes, half assing the entire thing and wasting everyone's time. A story needs a plan and they clearly ran out of ideas past the third episode.
The lack of ideas is equally apparent in their characters as well. They can barely even be called characters as each of them are limited by one or two stock phrases based on their archetype. Renge technically has the most range of them all, she's shy, likes to cook and has amnesia. This at least frees her from not being limited to catchphrases every time she wants to communicate but she is also the one responsible for the episodic cooking segments so even she isn't free. For the rest of the cast it seems that they thought of a catchphrase for each of them and than designed the character after the fact. Yuri is a genki girl who says "don-don-don" all the time. Hina is a gamer who makes gamer references, mostly referring to energy drinks as "buffs." Sazanka honestly doesn't do anything but she makes proverbs every now and then. Erika starts every sentence with "onee-chan's pearl of wisdom" and has big boobs. Ayame is kind of a leader type and says "guilty" all the time as an attempt to be the world's most boring chuuni character. There's nothing else to any of these characters and they don't have any chemistry with each other either. The slice of life segments attempt to fix this by pairing them off and having heart to hearts with each other which reveal a shred of backstory but this doesn't add anything substantial to any of their relationships. It's impossible to care about any of them when every single one of their interactions plays out the same and the depth of their character is as deep as a drop of spit.
It's hard to find qualities of Momentary Lily to praise. If it had simply stuck to one of the many tropes it wanted to play out and ran it through until the end then it could have just been another slightly below average anime with maximalist visuals. However by creating something without a fully formed idea of what to do in the first place naturally the result is going to be a dumpster fire. Even in an era where CGDCT reigns supreme and demonstrates that you can get away without a concrete plot so long as you go all in on character relations they still fumble that element by forgetting to flesh out their cast beyond catchphrases and the most basic of backstories. Momentary Lily can't even be given the benefit of the doubt by assuming they simply aimed too high and came up short because they tried to do too much, because they didn't try to do anything with this in the first place. Disgraceful.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Mar 28, 2025
What a fun little show. Akuyaku Oji-san doesn't push any boundaries by any means, in fact this is about as standard of a school-isekai show as it gets, but it's execution is full of charm and it leads into a fairly enjoyable experience.
Everything about this is about as standard as it gets for an Akuyaku Reijou isekai show. You follow around a semester of her school year as she comically fails upward due to her inherent grace causing everyone to interpret her actions positively. This is fine because the scenarios which are presented, while generic, are offered a slightly different perspective due to the
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Oji-san protagonist. The viewer is subjected to some fairly mature lines of thought and watching Grace fall upwards because of his deep consideration for others and application of life experience is rather amusing, even by the end of the show. Oji-san's understanding of human relations is extremely charming and leads to plenty of fun and somewhat touching moments throughout the show as he clearly understands what his subordinates and peers are going through and how to help them. He's easily the highlight of the show.
The rest of the characters are as standard as the premise. Most of their charm comes from the first half of the show as they have to learn to adjust to Grace's overnight 180 in personality. Since this takes place in an otome game, obviously all of the characters are limited to one or two stereotypical traits and nothing else. Anna is cheerful and the original main character, Lion is strong, Verseau tells corny jokes, Vierge is playful, that's pretty much the entirely of their characters. Luckily they don't actually spend much time on the worse ones, namely the princes, and try to keep the core cast to Grace and Anna. Anna offers some decent comedy as we watch her go from terrified of Grace to borderline obsessed with her but other than that her traits are merely serviceable.
Regarding everything else, it's fine. The production value definitely meets the standards set by the show in that it achieves its goals as well as you would expect it to simply by reading the title. The visuals are alright (the ending is quite nice though), a little better than your standard moeblob at least. Voice acting is also decent, Anna's seiyuu does the best job but they all perform adequately. Nothing really worth nothing here.
Akuyaku Oji-san manages to service an above average but whelming experience across the board. Its gimmick is well done and managed in such a way that it doesn't become tiring but other than that it levels out to a fairly average, but enjoyable, experience. Not a bad way to kill some time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 26, 2025
Don't be fooled by its whimsy, NigeWaka may turn war into child's play but it does so with a mature brutality which perfectly captures the tone of the times. The samurai had an obsession with death, to a point where they will reject life in order to die. For them, your life might as well be defined entirely by how you die and there is no greater honor than to die honorably in battle. NigeWaka takes this notion and spits on it, choosing to follow the story of a boy who is a master of evading death and how it's life, not death, that makes
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for greatness.
Tokiyuki could have easily become another samurai. A boy whose life is surrounded by and defined by death and without much to live for, it's only through his mastery of evasion that he is able to live. Through his journey we watch his worldview change. Initially believing that his purpose is to die with his clan, when push comes to shove he chooses to discard his pride and live instead. While this is partially due to his childish nature and how he enjoys the "game" of evasion, it comes in tandem with the maturity of a true lord that understands that there is no real honor to be found in death. Tokiyuki is a fantastic eye into the world of historical Japan as he begins to usher in updated values to those he leads. He is no great warrior on paper, lacking great swordsmanship or physical prowess (he's 9), but because he places life on the highest echelon he is able to overcome far greater opponents due to this fundamental difference in values.
Just like Tokiyuki this is an anime defined by death. War is a constant and corruption rears it's ugly head at the highest level of power. Beyond it's typically bright colorful aesthetic is a show that isn't afraid to broadcast the brutality of war. Villages are raided, innocent civilians massacred and beheaded. Death doesn't lie around the corner but rather shows itself outright. It isn't necessarily a juxtaposition for it to be broadcast within such normal looking environments because this way of life is what was normal for the time.
The presentation as a whole are this anime's strongest quality. Most clearly this is an extremely beautiful show. Everything is full of color and life, landscapes are well crafted and clearly aim to impress. Action sequences are extremely fluid and equally full of life. Actions are performed with utmost creativity, the way each character moves contains a piece of their identity. Tokiyuki and Genba have this kind of playful energy to their agility as they almost dance their way through the battlefield and evade the clutches of death. Gods of war such as Takauji seem to embody death itself, performing executions as naturally as they breathe. Specialists such as Sadamune have their greatest features (in this case his eyes) exaggerated to the utmost degree to make it seem as though he's channeling the supernatural within this one focal point.
But more so than mere artistic style is the camerawork. The way scenes are composed and operate seem like an accelerated version of real life film. The camera is almost alive, constantly moving about and manipulated by the actions of it's surroundings. Quick cuts and parallelism are used abundantly, a ball falling to the ground is intertwined with a severed head meeting the floor, an action will begin in one location and finish in another. This creates a far more satisfying "live" experience as scenes become more fluid and clever. Paired with the absolutely beautiful presentation and this creates an extremely pleasant and unique viewing experience.
Unfortunately not everything gets to enjoy this same level of polish, most evidently in terms of the characters. Tokiyuki and Takauji work extremely well but the remainder of the cast, both friend and foe, end up suffering. While it makes sense in the grand scheme of things for Tokiyuki's retainers to fundamentally have a kind of master-follower relationship, this does not fall in line with Tokiyuki's character, who is a hyperactive friendly extraverted child. The elusive warriors do have the airs of being friends in arms but because there isn't sufficient time dedicated to developing their relationship this ends up falling short in the back half, especially as the group continues to grow in size. This isn't to say they have poor chemistry or anything, but the characters themselves are lacking. Dedicating some time to Tokiyuki's training would have aided this immensely but that aspect ends up being shelved in favor of missions.
The antagonists are where the show really falls apart, especially when the first impression is Takauji who exerts this commanding aura over all who cross him. In contrast, what we get for recurring villains end up being cartoonish evil, leaning heavily on the cartoonish end, and obnoxious. Sadamune does well in comparison but each consecutive antagonist ends up being less serious than the last which creates a severe case of tonal whiplash, which is another one of this series' glaring issues.
There's a time and place for everything and this NigeWaka generally manages to balance its execution well. However in the final quarter especially the show ends up losing sight of how to properly distinguish between silly moments and brutal combat. One liners and cutaways end up becoming increasingly frequent as you near the end which when paired with the incredibly difficult to take seriously antagonists makes for a very jarring experience when it leads into countless casualties and on screen executions. It's a real shame because they demonstrate that they know how to do this extremely well with Tokiyuki, who finds joy in evading the clutches of death, but ends up dropping the ball with everyone else.
NigeWaka is a supremely entertaining thrill ride featuring masterful visuals and an entertaining cast of characters navigating a world which isn't afraid to kill them at any moment. While it stumbles a little near the end, for the most part it balances the carefree wonder of a child with the mature brutality of war perfectly. A real technical marvel that easily manages to place itself ahead of the pack on all fronts, a truly whimsical experience.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 25, 2025
HanaShura is an anime that understands the interplay of audio and visuals perfectly and uses every tool at its disposal in order to telegraph beauty. The voice is the ultimate instrument, a tool with unlimited potential for expression. With it words become paintbrushes capable of overwriting reality and taking control over the listeners perception of the world around them.
HanaShura is at its best when it comes to sound. Even discarding the main premise of vocal recitation, the anime simply sounds good. BGM is rarely used but in its place comes extremely deliberate noise. Footsteps, chalk, clothing, animals, people, everything has a noise and that
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noise is made as high quality as possible. If you don't think about sound all that often that might seem confusing so I'll try to explain. The difference between high quality noise and low quality noise comes with its capability of expression. Low quality noise blends into its environment without contributing to it, in that its addition or absence plays no significant role in the greater feel of the atmosphere. This is most evident in works which feature either too much noise, which causes it all to mesh together, or unpolished noise, which causes it to lack impact. In HanaShura's case, the general output of noise is low while the quality of noise is high which creates a far more full and deliberate experience. This tangent is important because the core premise of the show revolves around vocal recitation and thus if this is the attention of detail paid to inconsequential environmental noise then it naturally leads you to believe that the performances will also be high quality.
And high quality they are. At first I was worried because Hana's seiyuu (Minori Fujidera) is a greenhorn and so having this be her first major role might have been too much for her to chew. Luckily, she nailed it. From Hana's first performance it's evident that you're dealing with a show of higher caliber. Ignoring the visual representation, her words alone resonate power as she channels Asura's bitter rage and casts it out into the world. The rest of the performances follow suit. While none reach the overwhelming power of Hana's initial performance each character clearly has their own performance style and their words resonate deep within the minds of their listeners. While recitation and dramatic readings are two different things there's still adequate room for individual expression and simply allowing their words to wash over you makes this evident.
Of course, this isn't a podcast, there's visuals as well. For the most part HanaShura operates with a moderately higher budget than you might expect for a slice of life kind of show. The sceneries are very pretty, very nice usage of color and the characters look clean. The main showstopper lies in the performances. The moment one of the members of the broadcasting club starts reciting something you're pulled directly into the world of their words. Every representation is perfectly tuned to whichever work is being read. Ryouko's loneliness takes shape as she stands on the beach under the clear night skies, waiting for her lover. Mizuki's anger manifests as she tears herself apart to a foundational level until there's nothing left of her. Hana's potential manifests as a unrelenting force which she herself is not yet able to fully control, tempesting and crushing all those who fall before her. Most of all is Shura. Her performance matches the potential that the show has attributed her. Her raw talent suffocates the viewer as an endless barrage of her words rain down upon you forcing you into a natural state of submission and you're forced to bear witness to pure beauty. The audio and the visuals work in perfect synergy to create art. I could keep writing but this is something that can only be experienced not described to you.
Unfortunately, HanaShura isn't without flaws. The core cast ends up being a little lacking, especially when compared to Takeda's previous work. Hana is good, she exemplifies the very shy but kind girl that's still breaking out of her shell trope well. This is very much aided by her seiyuu who, just like with the recitations, does a wonderful job maintaining a very timid demeanor through her voice. She comes into her own a bit more by the end of the show which is nice to see but she lacks significant presence. Hana's two main pairings: Mizuki and An are alright. Both receive a little bit of backstory and development but aren't focused on enough in general to comment on in depth. The main issue that all the characters have is simply a lack of points that stick out. To be a bit meaner: they aren't very memorable. They interact well enough with each other, Hana and Mizuki's relationship is quite nice, but not enough to push them into long term memory.
Additionally the show falls victim to having an unsatisfying ending. It's another one of those shows that nails it for the first three quarters and then pushes drama into the final quarter instead of sticking with what works. Rather than doing this they could have easily dedicated more time towards pushing those character relationships forward instead of the fairly awkward episode and a half of nothing that we ended up with. The episodes prior worked well at establishing each of the members of the broadcasting club, giving them each an adequate backstory and motivations, all they needed to do was build off of those a little bit more and it would have made for a much more wholly satisfying experience. While the ending does naturally lead into a sequel, it comes at the cost of a more seamless experience which sours the final impression that it's able to give.
While it does end up stumbling every now and then, HanaShura is undeniably a beautiful anime. It's filled with passion for artistic expression and understands the relationship shared between sound and the mind and how to best translate that onto the screen. Whether you like it or not, you will end up being dominated by the experience as its stories weave their way through all of your senses. If you've never experienced awe, this is a good place to start.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 24, 2025
Oh boy what a mess. Zenshuu is a textbook example of the importance of a thesis. When your show doesn’t understand what it wants to achieve than the entire runtime is naturally going to lack direction and the viewer is left to suffer. So what does Zenshuu set out to achieve exactly? Technically it presents the key idea, your first love, right from the jump but instead of pursuing this idea it spends the remainder of it’s runtime dedicated to filler and references. Desperate attempts are made to mask this with colorful poppy animation but it’s ultimately fruitless as the overwhelming bulk of Zenshuu’s content
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is so lacking that it only exemplifies how annoying the remainder of the show is.
Don’t be fooled by the incorporation of references to the anime industry, this is not a love letter to animation nor is it some kind of passion project. Zenshuu is fundamentally a half baked isekai generic monster of the week show which follows a set formula for the first 4/5 of it’s runtime. Natsuko is thrust into the world of her favorite childhood anime and her presence brings inevitable changes to the script. Every episode then follows as 18 minutes of her frolicking about followed by a 2 minute action sequence at the end of the episode. Rinse and repeat for 10 episodes and rush in a dramatic (used loosely) finale and you have your show.
The issues show themselves early. First, none of the characters are likeable. None of them. Natsuko’s progression follows her going from an extremely entitled egotistical prick to a generic shounen protagonist, is this supposed to be likeable? She lacks chemistry with the remainder of the cast as well which obviously doesn’t bode well. She sort of bumbles her way from plot point to plot point without establishing any likeable or fun personality traits. It’s possible to write characters which have massive egos that are likeable but her arrogance comes across as a normal person LARPing as someone with talent. The fantasy characters are about as generic as it gets and feature no personality traits at all. So your main characters are an annoying brat and a bunch of people that fail to leave any impression at all.
So the plot fails and the characters fail, what about everything else? Well MAPPA is an industry leader and so they have more than enough resources to throw at this to make it look good. And to that degree they manage to succeed, in a very typical way. The art looks good but uninspired. Even in the scenes where Natsuko uses her drawing powers to unleash anime references against the copy pasted mob wave of the week they look… normal. Everything looks normal. The colors manage to pop out and movement looks clean and good, but it’s severely lacking in wow factor. It’s very difficult to illustrate over text but the visuals just look good in a very standard way.
Zenshuu fails because it simply doesn’t know what it wants. Does it want romance? Then why doesn’t it create more chemistry between the characters. Does it want action? Then why does it not measure up to par with other industry leaders? Does it want to be a passion project about the animation industry akin to Bakuman or Imouto Sae but with action focus? Then why does the passion stop at mere references. Zenshuu is a show that dips it’s toes in many genres but doesn’t have the guts to fully submerge itself in any one of them. As an anime original they have the luxury of tailor making the script and show nearly simultaneously but instead it feels as though they had to push it out with only a rough scatter plot of ideas. Simply a mess.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Mar 22, 2025
OkiTsura may not be a genre defining work but it manages to perfectly understand what makes a slice of life comedy show enjoyable. Featuring a nice warm (literally in this case) atmosphere and a fun cast of characters with good chemistry, throw in some trivia on a topic most people aren't well versed in and that's really all it takes to make a more than decent show. Luckily, OkiTsura makes sure to elevate these elements to the highest standard it's capable of and it makes for a really enjoyable experience.
The show is far more interested in Okinawa than it is about the romance aspect
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of things. While there are the standard romcom plot fake out developments that you'd expect, they're generally few and far between and it's much more interested in immersing the viewing in the community as a whole rather than string them along with a relationship that isn't going to go anywhere. Okinawa is a highly communal area and this is perfectly reflected in the show. Nameless characters and pedestrians are generally incorporated into scenes and it helps make the whole place feel alive. The core cast may be small, consisting of mostly 3 characters, but the amount of people in the show is extremely large, feeding into a close knit feel good communal bond.
The main characters are great too. Teru isn't actually a standout guy or anything but he manages to serve his purpose well as someone new to the culture and puts himself out there more than most stock self inserts. While Teru does have a crush on Hina, her friendship with Kana is arguably a more important part of the show than his feelings for Hina. As is expected from an anime like this, Teru isn't exactly proactive in his quest for Hina's affection, but instead of dwelling on this fact (as many anime do) the show smartly pivots into broadcasting how close Hina is with her friend Kana. Kana may have a crush on Teru, which could have easily led into a typical love triangle cast but instead the show attributes it equal importance as her friendship with Hina in order to prevent this sort of development. This feeds into the communal closeness mentioned earlier as Hina and Kana are best friends and multiple episodes are dedicated entirely to their past together as a means to strengthen the kinds of people that Okinawans are. This serves the duel purpose of adding to the show's incredibly comfy atmosphere by displaying a more "natural" Okinawa without Teru requiring explanations for everything, as well as elevating the chemistry between Kana and Hina. OkiTsura actively tries to avoid stagnation and instead wants to envelop the viewer in the Okinawan's warmth by presenting as many carefree moments as possible making it an extremely pleasant watch.
OkiTsura also works extremely well at teaching you about Okinawa itself. This might seem silly to point out but there's plenty of shows which gimmicks such as this which abandon the trivia aspects early on, luckily this is not the case here because Okinawa is quite a fascinating place to learn about. Anecdotally, as someone who knows Japanese, hearing the completely different dialects and unique words for things was extremely interesting, I was just as lost as Teru and appreciated Kana's translations (and the Japanese subtitles as well which were a nice touch). Even in the final episode they set out to throw in trivia about the culture, and although around half of it is presented through cutaways rather than natural dialogue it doesn't take away from the overall experience all that much.
OkiTsura's a pretty safe show in general and plays things relatively fast so there aren't that many notable points which detract from the experience but there are two minor ones which show up every now and then. First, this isn't exactly a technically impressive show. Granted, it's a slice of life comedy so expectations aren't high but for the most part the show keeps motion to a minimum and doesn't aim to have too many visually impressive scenes. There are two major instances of CG being used which ends up looking very unpleasant but it's mostly relegated to the background or shorter scenes thankfully. The other is in regard to the romcom tropes mentioned earlier. On one hand, Kana's crush on Teru is done extremely well and a major highlight of the show but on the other Teru's crush on Hina is done as typically as possible. Kana gets away with it because it's often done in tandem with comedy (also she's just really cute) but Teru's advances on Hina end up playing out in a way that seems to only exist to remind the viewer that he has a crush on her. Every single time it ends up going nowhere and by the end of show they feel much more like close friends than someone with unrequited love. Luckily, just as with the less technically impressive moments, this is only a minor part of the show and it spends the bulk of it's runtime on it's strengths of good vibes and comedy instead.
Overall, OkiTsura is a very pleasant show. It came into fruition with a clear plan and understanding of what both works and doesn't work within it's genre. While it doesn't aim too high, it executes exactly what it wants and needs to do perfectly resulting in an extremely fun experience. You'll quickly find yourself fully immersed and having a great time soaking in the Okinawan way of life, and who knows you might end up learning a thing or two.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 21, 2025
In spite of it's quest for "special uniqueness" Sorairo Utility doesn't manage to stand out in any meaningful ways. While certainly not an explicitly bad show, what's provided is entirely average.
Spin the wheel on any given season's slice of life category and you have very good odds of ending up with a show like this. The main character is unsatisfied with how average her life is and takes up a unique hobby which leads to a path of self improvement. Given this is a slice of life, the uniqueness of the premise (or lack thereof) isn't inherently an issue and choosing golf as the driving
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force is certainly a unique choice. The onus then lies on it's characters in order to carry the blunt of it's quality factor and to this regard to performs... serviceably.
First off you have the main character Minami who is your standard introverted nerd character. Overall she does alright at being a cute little goofball but doesn't manage to bring much in terms of chemistry or quirks to elevate her to memorable. Many of her mannerisms feel stock and while she has the occasional moment it leaves much to be desired. Her companions: Haruka and Ayaka are equally whelming. Haruka is the most fleshed out of the three, given a bit of backstory which feeds into the central themes of the importance of finding something you enjoy quite well. Ayaka has the least presence of any of the characters. She's supposed to be an influencer character but this doesn't really feed into the show all that much aside from an episode and a half of filler content.
Unfortunately since the crux of slice of life anime, especially ones which don't have an extravagant gimmick such as this, comes from the level of chemistry within the core group of characters; Sorairo Utility ends up suffering as a whole because of how basic the cast ends up being. This isn't helped by the fact that the seiyuu, especially for Minami, don't feel as though they're bringing their A-game (or lack experience in general). Minami feels extremely flat or unintentionally awkward in her delivery which ends up limiting any given scene's potential. Haruka and Ayaka end up fine for the most part but as a whole they don't ever deliver anything to elevate the viewers experience. Again, the performances are not necessarily bad, it's just that they're really average.
This rings true for pretty much every other aspect of the show as well. Nothing really manages to stand out, not the artstyle, not the scenarios, not the ost, it's all so very average. So much so that it doesn't leave much to comment on in either side of the spectrum. It's a pleasant little show to kill some time with but because of it's complete lack of distinguishing features it fails to cement itself anywhere on the spectrum but the middle.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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