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Feb 16, 2025
Have you ever decided that you weren't going to accomplish a goal until you accomplished another one first? Like, you might have decided that you weren't going to ask someone out until you had done something else that might impress them. For example, beating them at chess....or really, Japanese chess, also known as shogi. Look, I'm no expert at shogi or chess - the one time I can recall playing chess, I tried to play it with the checkers ruleset - but I have seen my fair share of romantic comedy anime. As of the time of me writing this review, the well-liked "Teasing Master
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Takagi-san" may not be among them, but a certain other anime from the same manga artist as Takagi-san is. No, it's not "In The Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki".
Now, dear readers, I must ask, "When Will Ayumu Make His Move?"
When Will Ayumu Make His Move, known in Japanese as "Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru", follows a certain shogi club at a certain high school. Its two members, club president Urushi Yaotome and first-year Ayumu Tanaka, play shogi together at pretty much every club meeting, with the former usually beating the latter. Ayumu never gives up on trying to beat Urushi, though, his main motivation being his crush on her; he has decided that he won't confess his feelings for her until he has beaten her fair and square at a shogi game. Meanwhile, Urushi suspects that Ayumu likes her and, although she's not aware of it, begins to develop her own feelings for him. From there, we get to see the rom-com and shogi shenanigans that these two get up to.
As I said at the beginning of this review, I'm no expert at shogi, and as such, I'm not sure if the moves that are made in the shogi games played in this anime are good moves or not. It might be better to ask someone who is actually good at shogi about things like that. However, it is the game of shogi that connects these two and allows us to see how cute they are as a couple. Their interactions can be a little frustrating as much as they are cute, however. Ayumu has a tendency to tease Urushi in a way that is obviously flirty, and Urushi's reactions make it clear that she feels the same way that he does, even if she doesn't realize it until the end. On multiple occasions, I have thought, "Come on, Ayumu! You might as well just confess now!" I guess I do have to respect him for sticking to his guns when it comes to when he's going to confess, though.
Surrounding Ayumu and Urushi is a cast of likable supporting characters. My favorite is probably Maki, Urushi's best friend; not only are her teasing antics quite fun to watch, but the way she's so supportive of her friend is very wholesome to see. Rin is another character that sticks out in my mind; although she doesn't appear until later in the series, she adds to the group dynamic of the shogi club in a fun way. The supporting characters I especially want to highlight, however, are Takeru and Sakurako, Ayumu's childhood friends and the anime's resident side couple. My feelings for their relationship are pretty much the same as my feelings for Ayumu and Urushi's relationship, as in I think they're cute and fun together and I really felt like they might as well just confess to each other already.
The animation studio behind When Will Ayumu Make His Move is Silver Link, who has had an extensive track record prior to when they released this anime in 2022. Unfortunately, I can't exactly say it's their best work; while the character and color designs were solid, the animation was a bit on the limited side, and even when there was movement, it sometimes felt a little stiff. Maybe "stiff" isn't the right word to describe it, but it just felt like the animation wasn't flowing as well as it could have been. At the very least, though, the voice acting and music make up for the limited animation. The voice acting is all very good with every character being well-cast, especially with Kana Hanazawa voicing Maki. Speaking of Kana Hanazawa, she sings the opening theme, "Kakehiki wa Poker Face", which is a cute song that fits the anime well. The same thing can be said about "50 cm", the ending theme that is sung by Urushi's voice actress, Kanna Nakamura. Even the background music is very cute!
Overall, When Will Ayumu Make His Move is a cute romantic comedy anime. If you want an anime that has at least a bit of a focus on shogi or want more from the manga artist behind Takagi-san, go ahead and give this a try. It will get you wondering exactly when Ayumu will make his move, too!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 8, 2025
Around 2021-2022, I watched an anime called "Blood-C", which followed a girl named Saya who fights against monsters. I'm aware that the description I gave was very basic and boring, but I think that describes how I felt about that anime; despite a very interesting plot twist toward the end of that series and a sequel movie that slightly improved the whole thing, I thought Blood-C was very boring. Despite that, I felt compelled to go back and watch the anime movie that started the franchise Blood-C is a part of, "Blood: The Last Vampire", which follows a girl named Saya who fights against monsters.
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I promise that this Saya and these monsters are different from the ones from Blood-C, but unfortunately, I can't promise that it's any less of a bore. Well, at least it's not so bad that it doesn't make good material for a B-grade horror movie night, right?
Okay, maybe I should go into more detail on what Blood: The Last Vampire is actually about. The year is 1966, and the protagonist - guess what her name is? - works as a hunter of bat-like, vampiric creatures known as Chiropterans. Her latest mission? Infiltrate an American high school as a student and kill the Chiropterans that have been spotted at the air base adjoining it. Oh, and Saya really needs a new sword to do that, because it's been getting as dull as her personality is!
Yeah, as you can see, one of my biggest problems with this film is Saya as a character. Sure, she's cool and mysterious, but we never get to really see why she is the way she is. What are her motivations for killing the Chiropterans? It's never exactly explained. There's also a reveal towards the end of the film pertaining to who Saya really is, but there's not enough time left in this 48-minute film (with 6 minutes being dedicated to end credits, so it's really 42 minutes) to really explore this. The rest of the cast doesn't fare much better, either. Each character is either a Chiropteran for Saya to slay or a human who is....just there, I guess.
So what does this movie have to offer if not compelling characters? Blood, of course; it's in the name, after all! To be specific, this film is so chock-full of bloody action scenes that you almost forget that the story and characters aren't particularly interesting. There are certainly more thrilling action scenes out there, but Production I.G. is able to make use of its previous track record prior to the film's 2000 release to make it look good even in 2025. The character designs....well, the way many characters' lips were drawn were a bit distracting to me, but I didn't feel one way or the other about them otherwise.
Sound-wise....well, I wouldn't say it's any worse than the character development, but the voice acting is another weak point. I do think it was interesting how the Japanese characters in this film spoke both Japanese and English throughout the film, and it didn't sound too Engrish-y, either. However, their attempts to sound fluent in the language causes their acting abilities to take a hit, and the way they deliver their lines makes it clear how much they're struggling to act under these circumstances. The American voice actors don't fare much better; in fact, despite their better grasp on the language, their acting is just awful. I know that it's too late to request they all be recast, but they really should have gotten better voice actors! Well, at least the sound design and the background music are decent. I didn't really care much for the instrumental ending theme, but it did fit the mood of the entire film.
Overall, Blood: The Last Vampire isn't a particularly good film, nor is it any better than Blood-C. It's not too bad if you're a fan of B-grade films and just want to watch cool action scenes and not much else, but this wouldn't be a good choice if you wanted an A-grade horror flick or something film-length. Well, hopefully, I'll experience more enjoyment when I get around to watching Blood+, which I've heard is a better version of the story of a girl named Saya who fights against monsters.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 4, 2025
Valentine's Day is coming up soon, and you know what that means; it's time for the single people of the world to envy the couples of the world as we indulge in candy and love stories! I mean, I'm mostly fine with staying single, but there's nothing wrong with reading a cute little shoujo romance manga, right? As if to fulfill my desire for a love story to read this February, I happened to notice that someone I follow on AniList had just finished a manga with a cute-looking cover called "Hajimete Koibito ga Dekimashita." After reading the synopsis and realizing how short these 22
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chapters must be to be contained in a single volume, I decided to follow his lead and read the whole thing for myself. I might have diabetes now, and I'm blaming the guy who read this before me! (I'm kidding, I'm kidding.)
It's hard to really describe the premise of Hajimete Koibito ga Dekimashita in an entire paragraph, as there isn't really a whole lot of story to describe about it. The first 21 chapters, having originally been published on Twitter (I refuse to call it X), are all around 4-8 pages long, and most of them are small vignettes of the all-too-pure relationship between high schooler Ayumi Yoshioka and her upperclassman, Sumito Iizuka. That's all there really is to it. No drama, no real conflict, just fluffy little slice-of-life bits between two blushing teenagers just trying to make their relationship work.
For some, the relationship between Ayumi and Sumito won't be the most engaging to read. As far as character growth goes, there is a little bit for Ayumi toward the end, but that's about it. What the manga does well with their relationship, however, is capture how giddy and excited one might feel with their first romantic partner. Plus, Ayumi and Shinto are nice, considerate people (even if not terribly interesting characters), so it's easy to wish for their happiness together. The final chapter, made for the published volume and clocking in at around 30 pages, showcases how they met and further drives the point of how good they are together home.
When the manga isn't focused on these two lovebirds, however, we get to watch as another romance unfolds between Nao Kisaragi and Shirou Asano. Nao is Ayumi's best friend and has a cool, calm, and collected personality; meanwhile, Shirou is buddies with Sumito and has an energetic and kind of puppy-like personality. Their differing personalities create a dynamic that is nothing less than fun to see, especially with how adorably in love Shirou is with Nao. Honestly, I wish Nao and Shirou had a spin-off manga to themselves just so I could see their dynamic and overall relationship more. Oh, well!
These two love stories were written and drawn by Yuu Kamena, whose artstyle is pretty standard as far as modern shoujo romances go. For some reason, the artstyle particularly kind of reminded me of Honey So Sweet, another wholesome shoujo romance manga that I've reviewed in the past. My feelings for Yuu Kamena's artstyle here are similar to how I felt about Amu Meguro's art back then; it's cute and simplistic in the right ways and in the right places. It's good art! What else can I say?
Overall, Hajimete Koibito ga Dekimashita is a cute manga. You're going to be disappointed if you want some extra spice in your romance manga, but if you want something short, sugary sweet, and wholesome to read on Valentine's Day, this would be a good choice. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to start begging the manga artist for a Nao and Shirou-centric spin-off.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 3, 2025
It's all too easy to judge people with a black-and-white mindset. This person's good, that person's evil, the whole shebang. In actuality, people are a lot more complicated than that, and you can't really judge a person by their cover. One person could be cruel and antagonistic while also genuinely wanting those she loves to have happy lives; another could aim to get vengeance for those who have been wronged while also letting a crime happen for the sake of "evidence". There is a number of stories that make us think about morality in ways like this, but few of them are quite like Death
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Parade. Okay, the 2013 anime short "Death Billiards" would have counted....if it wasn't where Death Parade even came from, that is. Nearly a decade after I watched Death Billiards myself, as well as nearly a decade after Death Parade's premiere, I've finally watched Death Parade for myself and am ready to give my own judgment to it.
The premise of Death Parade is rather simple. When two people die at the same time, their souls are sent to one of many bars inside of a mysterious tower in the afterlife. The bartenders may serve them a drink or two, but their true purpose is that of an arbiter - those who judge whether a person is reincarnated or has their soul sent into the void. (They are told that they are sent to either Heaven or Hell to make things easier to understand, though.) They make their judgments by having the two patrons of the bar play a game; however, these games have cruel twists to them designed to bring out each person's inner darkness and help with the decision-making process. The series primarily takes place in one such bar, Quindecim, run by the stoic Decim, who works alongside a mysterious, black-haired woman....
In the first few episodes, Death Parade's story is rather formulaic. Two people arrive at Quindecim, Decim gives them the same spiel of how things work around there, a game is chosen, the two people play the game, we learn about who they are, and they get their judgments. There is nothing particularly wrong with the formula; in fact, it helps with the character studying that the series sets out to do. Not only that, but although very few of Quindecim's patrons are seen in more than one episode due to the nature of the series, most of them do make enough of an impact to keep them memorable. A couple of examples are the guests from episodes 8 and 9; their stories were both shocking and heartbreaking at the same time.
At the center of it all, however, are Decim and the mysterious, black-haired woman who serves as his assistant and who remains unnamed until very late into the series; to avoid spoilers, I won't call her by the name she is revealed to have. I will emphasize, however, how important her presence was to the overarching story. With the emotions she displays that Decim is not allowed to have as an arbiter, she often challenges Decim's way of judging people. This is essential to Decim's character development; although his role essentially remains the same from beginning to end, you can see at the very end that her presence did leave an impact on him. If it wasn't for this, Decim would be a rather boring character, with the supporting characters carrying the show all of the way through; that's why I feel like the black-haired woman's presence was important.
You know whose presence in the show I didn't feel was important, though? Mayu Arita. I mean, I didn't feel like many of the recurring characters made a huge impact on the overarching story, but I feel like Mayu was the worst offender of this. Her episode was the only one where a game was overlooked by a different arbiter, which was an interesting change of pace; after that, however, she ends up sticking around until near the end of the series, and it doesn't feel like there was a point to that. The kind of role she played after her episode seemed like it could make the arbiter who overlooked her game get a little bit of character development, but in the end, it felt like he remained largely the same. I wouldn't say that I hate Mayu as a character, but it does make me wonder why she stayed in the series longer than she should have. Her presence did warrant a random cameo from Light from "Death Note", though, which I was more amused by than I probably should have been.
Speaking of Death Note, the animation studio behind that series, Madhouse, is also the one behind Death Parade, and like with Death Note, they did well with the animation for Death Parade. I also liked the character designs for each of the characters, especially that of Decim; his mostly black-and-white color scheme matched his black-and-white way of thinking that he had for his judgments. As for the voice acting....well, due to my desire to legally watch this anime and Crunchyroll not having the Japanese version of this anime, for some reason, I was semi-forced to watch the English dub. I don't have a problem with this, however, as this is one of the better English-dubbed anime there are out there. Each of the character's voices fit their character, and their voice performances were really good, especially Alex Organ as Decim and Jamie Marchi as the black-haired woman.
As far as the music was concerned, the background music was very good and fit each scene pretty well. What I really want to talk about, however, are the opening and ending themes. Before watching Death Parade, I had listened to the opening theme, "Flyers" by Bradio, several times, and I was aware that it wasn't the best fit for the overall mood of the series. It doesn't matter that much, though, as it's a really catchy song that would make a good fit for dancing to at a dance party! However, I had never heard the ending theme, "Last Theater" by NoisyCell, before watching this, and I will admit that while I don't find the song as catchy, it does fit the overall mood better, especially with the mannequin-themed ending animation that accompanies the song for most of the episodes it is played in. You take some, you give some, I guess.
Overall, while Death Parade isn't perfect, I did think it was an excellent anime. If you want to watch an anime that will challenge your perspectives, I'd highly recommend it. While you're at it, you might also want to check out Death Billiards; I don't remember much about it since it's been too long since I've watched it, but I do remember liking that a lot, too!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 20, 2024
I said before in my Zannen nagara Chigaimasu review that if you're going to fall in love with someone, you should take the time to get to know them before deciding that you want to be with them for the rest of your life. I still stand by what I said there, as marriage is a major commitment that will change the course of your life. That being said, some people may be desperate enough to avoid circumstances that they may be pushed into that they'll do whatever it takes to avoid it. Take the main characters of the anime I'm covering today, for example.
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While the concept was far from original, I decided to watch it mainly because it's based on a manga from the same manga artist as "The World God Only Knows", a series that holds a special place in my heart, despite me not being able to confidently say it's one of my favorite anime. Now, let me tell you about a story about a wedding that is 365 days away from not(?) actually happening!
365 Days to the Wedding, known in Japanese as "Kekkon Suru tte, Hontou desu ka", begins when the manager of a travel agency known as JTC announces to the other employees that a new branch of the company will be opening in Anchorage, Alaska, and someone will need to move there in order to get this branch up and running; furthermore, unmarried employees will be considered first in the decision of who it will be. Our two main leads, Takuya Ohara and Rika Honjoji, fit the bill of "unmarried employees" that would be up for consideration, but both of them are introverted and uninterested in moving away, with the former even having a cat to consider in all of this. Thus, Rika comes up with a proposal (pun not intended): she and Takuya will pretend to be engaged so that the company doesn't choose either of them to move. Takuya agrees to this plan, and thus, the newly-formed "couple" have to act like they're in a loving relationship in front of their coworkers and keep the fact that they're not actually getting married a secret. Surprise-surprise, this leads to them gradually developing real feelings for each other.
As I said, the concept of this anime is nothing you've seen before. There are a handful of anime that also tackle the topic of a false relationship, such as Rent-A-Girlfriend and the appropriately-named Nisekoi. However, 365 Days to the Wedding isn't just about a false relationship; it also aims to look at relationships from different kinds of angles. Whether or not marriage is really something that everyone should be hyping up as much as most of the JTC workers are when they find out about Takuya and Rika's engagement is called into question at multiple points; there is even an episode where one supporting character goes through a divorce, and we see how badly it affects him, albeit some parts of his reaction are more comical than one might consider realistic. We also see, however, how love can really make someone grow as a person. In my personal favorite episode of the entire series, another supporting character falls for someone who he decides he wants to marry, but upon finding something major out about that person, he realizes that he's not truly ready; although I truly wish things could have worked between these two characters, as they had genuinely good chemistry, I also acknowledge how mature it was that this supporting character made this realization about himself, despite it not seeming like he would.
That's all great and all, but what about the main couple? At first, despite their personalities being somewhat similar, it's kind of hard to believe that they would be a convincing couple. I mean, it makes sense; up until the start of the series, they barely interacted, even at work. As they interact more, however, you can really see just how much they're starting to fall for each other. Although it seems more like teenagers having crushes on each other than full-grown adults, I don't mind; their interactions are cute nonetheless. Plus, both of them are very relatable characters on their own ways, especially Rika; her tendency to come up with elaborate plans to make the whole "fake marriage" work and to ramble on about things that interest her were both relatable and amusing to me. Also, despite how little he actually appears throughout the series, I absolutely love Kama, Takuya's cat; his personality reminds me a lot of my younger brother's cat.
The animation is done by Ashi Productions, who did a decent job on it. I liked the way everything was colored and how the way the characters were designed for the anime were actually a close match to Tamiki Wakaki's artstyle; however, the animation can look a little bit stiff and awkward at times. I mean, Ashi Productions was also working on "How I Attended An All-Guy's Mixer" this season, so I guess something had to give in that department. I also really liked the voice acting here; Saori Hayami did a great job as always as Rika, and while I'm not too familiar with Kentarou Kumagai as a voice actor, I do think he was a good fit for Takuya. (I just wish Natsumi was more prevalent in the show just so I could hear more of Kana Asumi's voice....) Finally, the opening theme ("Kirakira" by HoneyWorks feat. HaKoniwalily) and the ending theme ("Tsumari wa" by Gohobi) are both cute songs that fit the anime well. I also liked the artstyle used for the ending theme; it was very cute!
Overall, 365 Days to the Wedding is a cute anime, even if it's nothing groundbreaking. I'd recommend it to those who love cute romantic comedies or The World God Only Knows fans who want to see more anime adaptations of Tamiki Wakaki's work. I'm not going to call you and tell you to watch it with an autotuned, menacing-sounding voice, though!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 11, 2024
Although long-form magical girl anime that aren't Pretty Cure have been on the decline in recent years, there has still been a few such shows that have come out that shook up the formula in different ways. One such magical girl anime is this year's "Gushing Over Magical Girls", which is basically about a magical girl fan who unwittingly becomes part of the evil organization that her idols are fighting against. It's an interesting concept, but given that it is also an ecchi anime, it also has a very high amount of fanservice to the point where it could be classified as a borderline-hentai; while
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I still watched it and found some enjoyment in it regardless, there may be some magical girl fans who may want to see an anime with its basic concept but feel alienated by the egregious amount of fanservice. Before I even heard about Gushing Over Magical Girls, however, I had already made the decision to watch an anime that was essentially, as YouTuber Gigguk would later call it in a YouTube video, "PG-13 Gushing Over Magical Girls". Now that "PG-13 Gushing Over Magical Girls" has finished its run, however, I must really ask the question, "Can Acro Trip really be a suitable replacement for Gushing Over Magical Girls?"
I may have described the basic premise of Acro Trip already, but of course, I should go into more detail. The magical girl fan here is Chizuko Date, a middle school student who is staying with her grandfather in Naniga City for a week. This week turns into an indefinite amount of time, however, after Chizuko witnesses a battle between the town's local magical girl, Berry Blossom, and the evil organization Fossa Magna; having become tired of seeing the same things over and over again in the multiple different places she has moved to, she becomes enamored with Berry Blossom and resolves to stay in town so that she can see more of her new idol's battles. Unfortunately, these battles gradually become less exciting to watch because of how pathetic of a villain Fossa Magna's mastermind, Chroma, is. Eventually, Chizuko encounters Chroma, and because of Chizuko's passion to make Berry Blossom stand out more and her ability to come up with ways to make his evil plans actually have a chance of working, Chroma recruits her into Fossa Magna. Although Chizuko initially refuses the offer....well, let's just say that fate has other plans for her, especially since Chroma's base happens to be underneath her grandfather's house.
First of all, I should mention that apart from being a magical girl anime, Acro Trip is mainly a lighthearted comedy. In that department....well, it's just okay. I may have cracked some smiles or even chuckled a bit at some of the jokes Acro Trip tells, but I can't really think of anything that made me laugh out loud. There wasn't too much of a story, either; it was mainly Chroma and Chizuko getting into wacky shenanigans, mostly in regards to the former's "evil plans". It almost doesn't matter, though, as these two characters do have a fun dynamic with each other. I do wish that the series ended in a more satisfying way, though; I feel like whatever story was there could be wrapped up by something better than a standard hot springs episode. The original manga is already complete with only five volumes, though, so if this is also how the manga ended - I don't know if it did, since I haven't read the manga as of writing this review - there isn't really anymore material that could provide a more conclusive ending. Oh, well.
The cast of characters present in Acro Trip are a bunch that can be amusing at times but also feel a bit lackluster. For example, as amusing as he can be as a(n incompetent) villain, Chroma doesn't feel like he has a real reason for why he wants to be the evil mastermind he is. One episode does have a flashback that shows what gave him the idea to become an evil mastermind in the first place, but it's the kind of thing that makes you think, "What? That's it?" I guess it fits him, since he is really not good at being bad, but there are at least some fictional incompetent villains who at least have a concrete reason for turning to the dark side that isn't just, "This guy wants to be an evil mastermind, so I want to be one, too!" Another character who I feel is lacking a bit is the magical girl fighting him, Berry Blossom herself. As cute as her character design is and as relatable as the insecurities she's shown can be, she's just not that interesting of a character overall. It is a little amusing seeing how much Chizuko freaks out when she's in close proximity to her idol, though.
Voil is the name of the animation studio behind Acro Trip. If it sounds unfamiliar, don't worry; this is actually the studio's first project. It does show, however, as while the art is very colorful, the movement can be stiff at times. Well, I can at least praise how well Yone Sawata's unique artstyle was translated into an anime format; it couldn't have been easy! The opening and ending themes - "Fragum" by Inori Minase and "Reversible Baby" by KanoeRana, respectively - are both upbeat songs that fit the mood of the anime well. I especially liked the latter, given its cute animation sequence and the catchy song that has occasionally gotten stuck in my head. The voice acting was also solid, and each character was well-cast. I wasn't too sure if Miku Itou was really a good fit for Chizuko before the anime came out, but she did a decent job!
Overall, Acro Trip is an okay anime. I personally prefer Gushing Over Magical Girls - mainly because it has better animation and a slightly more memorable cast - but if you're someone who likes the basic premise of that series but doesn't want to watch it because of all of the fanservice, I'd say that Acro Trip is a decent replacement. I may be incompetent at writing reviews, but I can at least say that much!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 17, 2024
Gotta admit, I didn’t expect Re:Monster to get an anime adaptation. I mean, sure, I did re:ad a few volumes of the manga adaptation of the original light novel series, but not only did I find it to be just your run-of-the-mill isekai with a re:cycled plot, I also felt that the story structure wouldn’t re:ally translate to anime that well. Given the isekai boom going on, however, I should have re:alized that it would eventually get an anime adaptation. I figured that I might as well give it a watch, and now that it’s over, I might as well write a re:view for it.
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Hopefully, it will help re:aders decide whether or not it’s re:ally worth their time.
Ah, my vocabulary isn’t expansive enough for this! Let’s just get to the review of Re:Monster.
Re:Monster begins when a human named Tomokui Kanata meets an untimely death at the hands of a yandere. He is then reincarnated in another world as a goblin while retaining his memories from his past life. Most isekai anime of this caliber would give its hero an ability that would make him overwhelmingly powerful, and for Tomokui - now named Gobrou - it is an ability he already had in his past life to inherit the abilities of whatever he eats. Using this ability causes Gobrou to rapidly become stronger, eventually evolving into different creatures and even becoming the leader of his goblin tribe. Basically, nothing isekai fans haven’t seen before.
One thing that stands out about Re:Monster, in particular, is its “diary” format. Whenever a day or more would go by within the series, there would be a title card that says “Day (insert number here)” with a short, slightly dramatic jingle accompanying it; there would also be narration of the day’s events provided by the main character. It’s certainly a unique format, as far as I’ve seen, but I don’t think the narration part works very well; I feel like Gobrou’s constant narration causes the “show, don’t tell” rule to be broken too much. I can see it kind of working in the light novel series that it’s based on, and it even somewhat worked for the manga due to the lack of motion with the drawings; however, when you’re watching an anime, you kind of want to see the action more than you want to hear the narrator describe the action, you know? Another problem with Re:Monster’s story structure - which doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with its format - is its pacing. Multiple days pass in every episode, and within those days, so many things happen at once that it gets hard to keep track of it. It’s hard to keep track of all of the abilities that Gobrou gets throughout the series as-is!
Speaking of Gobrou….I wouldn’t say I hate or even dislike him, but I don’t care about him too much. He’s a pretty strong leader, which I liked to see, but his values can be a little dubious. He’ll forbid the other goblins from forcibly impregnating the human women that his tribe captures, but he’ll also bang pretty much any woman who shows interest in him. What? I don’t really care too much for any of the other characters, either, albeit for different reasons; some of their appearances change throughout the series, but most of the characters don’t get any development. They just exist to play off of Gobrou….or in some cases, play with him, if you know what I mean.
The animation, provided by Studio Deen, is….serviceable. Sure, there are a few moments where the characters go off-model, but the action scenes are fine, for the most part. The voice acting was also serviceable; no one in the voice cast gave a particularly outstanding performance, but no one gave a bad performance, either. As for the music….well, the opening theme - “Into The Fire” by CHANSUNG(2PM) and AK-69 featuring CHANGMIN(2AM) - is a song I have mixed feelings about; the rap part of the song wasn’t all that good, but the singing part is catchier than one might think. Finally, the ending theme - “Sadame” by EverdreaM - is a nice song, even if not all that memorable.
Overall, Re:Monster is a bit on the lower side of average. I wouldn’t personally re:commend it, but massive isekai fans might get a kick out of it. As for me, though, maybe I’d get more enjoyment out of That Time I Got Re:incarnated As A Slime, which seems to have a similar concept. Wait, no, I wasn’t supposed to put a colon there-!
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 11, 2024
From my understanding, good parents just want their kids to be happy. I may not be a parent myself as of the time of writing this review, but I do see this in my mother, who supported me and my younger brothers in whatever we wanted to accomplish as we grew up. Although she could be a little probing about it, she has also been at least somewhat supportive of our love lives, whoever we happened to like at that time. I do wonder sometimes about one thing, though; neither my brothers nor I have ever been attracted to anyone who's the same sex as
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us, but if any of us were, would our mother love us the same, in the same way the protagonist in the manga I'm reviewing today loves her own son? No matter what the answer to that question may be, she definitely raised me to be the kind of person happily willing to read a manga about a boy who might be gay.
Ladies, gents, and nons, here is my review of Okura's "I Think Our Son Is Gay", known in Japanese as "Uchi no Musuko wa Tabun Gay" (literally "Our Son is Probably Gay").
I Think Our Son Is Gay is mainly told from the perspective of Tomoko Aoyama, a married mother of two. Her younger son, Yuuri, is a bit of a cool kid who isn't interested in romance, and her older son, Hiroki, wears his heart on his sleeve and is very bad at hiding things. Case in point, one night, he lets it slip that he'd like a boyfriend who could cook, only to frantically backtrack and say he wants a girlfriend instead. This, along with several hints from before and after this particular moment, leads Tomoko to believe that Hiroki might be gay, but she would prefer to wait until he's ready to come out to talk to him about it. In the meanwhile, Tomoko watches over Hiroki as he goes through high school, and in the process, her worldview expands a little more each day.
At the time of this manga's creation, Japan still wasn't too open about same-sex relationships - with same-sex marriages still not being legal in Japan - and that is reflected here. While there are no LGBTQ+ characters being shown physically harassed, there are heterosexual characters who make not-always-accurate assumptions about the community; while people making such assumptions actually happening in real life makes this manga realistic, and while it's made clear that they're not necessarily true, those kinds of moments might not be a fun read for some. With that being said, though, while there isn't a whole lot of LGBTQ+ representation outside of homosexuality (and a little bit of asexuality), the representation that is there is solid. No gay character is shown to be overly campy or stereotypical, and although being gay is an important part of their identity, that's not all there is to them.
To start off talking about this manga's characters, I'd like to talk about the most obvious example of what I just mentioned, Hiroki. Although he's not the manga's viewpoint character, we do get to know about as much about him as we probably would if he was. Although he joins a school club later in the story for the sake of spending time with his crush, he gives club activities his all nonetheless. He also displays feelings of inadequacy and low self-confidence at times, which is painfully relatable. Above all, he's a good kid who cares a lot about his family and friends. He is canonically gay, but instead of a caricature, he's a fully-fleshed character whose mangaka wrote him well.
One could also say that Hiroki's mama raised him well in-universe, and with how good of a person Tomoko is, that'd be easy to believe. She just wants to support her boys and let them live happy lives, and while she does have her own feelings of inadequacy about her parenting abilities at one point, anyone could see how good of a job she's doing with both Hiroki and Yuuri. Speaking of Yuuri, while he isn't the type to show his emotions often, he goes through his own struggles, and chapters focusing on him tend to be interesting. Plus, it's revealed that he also knows of his older brother's sexual orientation, and the little ways he shows support for him are quite sweet. Rounding out the Aoyama family is Akiyoshi, Tomoko's husband and Hiroki and Yuuri's father. While he's not a bad father by any means, he is a little behind on his sons' lives due to his job taking him away from home for lengthy periods of time, and early on in the manga, he expresses some close-minded views toward the LGBTQ+ community, unintentionally hurting Hiroki with his comments. Fortunately, especially with Tomoko's help, he is able to gain a more open mind by the end and also build a good relationship with his son, which is nice.
The members of Aoyama family aren't the only characters in the manga, however. We also get to know about some of the people in each of their lives, such as Daigo (Hiroki's crush), Asumi (Hiroki's childhood friend who has a crush on him), and some of Tomoko's mom friends. One particular character who stands out to me is Touno, Tomoko's co-worker at a bento shop who happens to be gay and living with his partner. Through Touno, Tomoko is able to learn about the experiences of a gay guy who's not her son, which further expands her worldview. I may have lamented the lack of LGBTQ+ representation outside of homosexuality, but it's still nice to have him and a few background characters mentioned throughout the manga around so that it doesn't seem like Hiroki's not the only gay person in its universe!
I spent too much time talking about the characters, so let's move onto the artwork. There isn't really much I can really say about it, though. It's cute, it's simple, and it's a good fit for a slice-of-life story like this one. The character designs are also solid, without a single outlandish design in sight. Yeah, I think that sums up how I feel about the artwork.
Do you know what I think? I Think Our Son Is Gay is a pretty good manga. Those who are in the LGBTQ+ community may enjoy its solid representation (and even relate to Hiroki's awkwardness), and those who aren't may come out of it with a more open mind; either way, it's worth the read. Hopefully, if/when I get married and have kids of my own, I'll be able to follow Tomoko's example, no matter what sexual orientation or gender identity they turn out to have.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 12, 2024
When people fall in love, they tend to try to make themselves more attractive for them. I mean, who cares about your personality or chemistry with someone when the other person thinks you're hot, right? Sarcasm aside, it's a little ironic that an anime movie could put such an emphasis on attractiveness and popularity when it isn't that popular itself. Why is that, though? Exactly what factors led to Kimi dake ni Motetainda being so unpopular that it didn't even get the English fansub treatment until nearly two years after its release? The desire to find answers to that question, as well as the character
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designs being done by Yamako from HoneyWorks, led me to watch it. Now that I have seen it....yeah, I can kind of see why it's not popular.
In the world of Kimi dake ni Motetainda, or "I Want To Be Popular Just For You" in English, there is a contest known as "The Handsome Competition". In this contest, attractive young men compete in groups of five to show off their appeal to adoring female fans in various ways, with the winning group receiving 10 million yen. One such group - consisting of Tokio Furuta, Shigekazu Ashida, Koutarou Tojima, Aki Sahashi, and Shun Gotouda - comes together when the wealthy Sakiko Horinomiya enlists their help in paying off a 5 million yen debt that resulted from a scam she seemed to fall for. (It should be mentioned that Tokio is reluctant to participate at first, but an accidental stain he creates on an expensive carpet coerces him to do so.) As the boys prepare for the competition - cleaning up their acts and all that - and make their way through it, they find themselves falling in love with Sakiko....somehow.
On the surface, the art looks pretty enough; Yamako did a pretty good job with the character designs, making each of the boys look as handsome as they should be. Then, we get into the actual animation, and....oh, boy. It's far from the worst animation I've ever seen, but the characters look off-model and just awkward overall at times. Well, the animation might not be the best, but at least the voice acting was decent enough. Most of the voice cast is full of experienced voice actors, such as Souma Saitou, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, and Yui Ishikawa, and they all do a solid job at their roles. The only exception to this is Rikiya Tomizono, who has done no voice acting work before or after his role as Koutarou, and his lack of experience in that department does lead to a lackluster performance; at least he still has his live-action acting career to fall back on. If I'm going to be honest, I thought that the Handsome Competition was going to be more of a standard idol competition, which makes it rather funny that "High School Princess", the ending theme sung by the main male leads, kind of sounds like an idol song. Not exactly a song that stands out too much among the other male idol songs, though.
The biggest problem with this movie, however, is its length. Within 54 minutes, it tries to tell a story that would benefit more from being a 12-episode series, and the end result is a horribly rushed plot. To give an example of what this short length affects, there's the romantic subplot, because of course there's a romantic subplot; there are enough guys involved for the female lead to have a reverse harem! Unfortunately, these more romantic parts aren't handled too well; when some of the guys admitted they had a thing for Sakiko, I was just thinking, "Wait, really? Since when?" See, if this movie was a series instead, there could have been more time to develop their relationships with her, making them actually seem like they might have chemistry with her. Out of the guys, Tokio seemed like he might have the most chemistry with Sakiko, but the movie doesn't allow for their relationship to be explored to where they could actually have chemistry. On a side note, the short length also affects the development of the characters themselves; we don't get to see why they are the way they are.
Despite all of my problems, though, I can't really say I found no enjoyment in Kimi dake ni Motetainda. With more polished animation and a longer length - preferably as a series rather than a movie - it could have potentially been a more enjoyable experience, as there were some parts of it that were quite amusing, such as Sakiko's naïveté. Give it a go if you want to watch something with hot guys, but I don't expect to see it becoming popular any time soon.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 28, 2022
(WARNING: This review contains MAJOR spoilers. Proceed with a LOT of caution.)
Spend enough time around the anime block, and you’re bound to at least hear about anime that have a particular combination of genres: ecchi and harem. The premise of one guy being involved with multiple girls has been done time and time again and will continue to be done, and most of those times, fanservice will be sprinkled into the mix. A couple of my favorite anime may be part of these two genres, but like many others, I have grown slightly weary of them. For that reason, when I came across a screenshot
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from a certain ecchi/harem anime that had just started airing, I expected it to just be another generic ecchi/harem anime; looking into it, however, led me to discover that it was an original anime (as in, not based on a manga, light novel, visual novel, etc.), and for some reason, that convinced me to watch the first episode. Despite thinking I’d drop it after that first episode, something about it made me feel like there was more than what meets the eye, so I kept watching.
One entire season later, here we are, with me trying not to do a victory dance over being proven that I was right that something was going on with “Renai Flops”.
Although it takes place in a more futuristic setting than most, Renai Flops starts like any other rom-com anime, with our hapless hero, Asahi Kashiwagi, having five different risqué encounters with five different people - Aoi Izumisawa, Amelia Irving, Ilya Ilyukhin, Bai Mongfa, and Karin Istel. When he finally arrives at school, he discovers that Mongfa is his new teacher, and the rest of them are transfer students in his class. To top it all off, these five all confess their love for Asahi and even move in with him. So begins Asahi’s life with these five, with their feelings for him developing more with each episode. Pretty standard setup for a harem anime, right?
Well…. you know what? We’ll get to that later.
First and foremost, I should talk about the technical aspects of this anime, starting with the art. The character designs are pretty solid for the kind of anime this is, the backgrounds are quite pretty, and the animation was nice and fluid. At the very least, it’s easy to see that Passione put some passion into this project! (Cue someone throwing a banana peel at my face.) The voice cast is full of all-stars - such as Ryouta Oosaka and Ayana Taketatsu - who also do a solid job at their roles. The music is probably the best part of the anime, with the opening and ending themes being quite pleasant to listen to; heck, I went out of my way to purchase the opening theme, “Love? Reason why!!” by Konomi Suzuki, on iTunes! One song that stands out in my mind, however, is the insert song that plays during the final episode; as of now, I don’t know the name of the song, but I do know that it’s sung by Miku Itou and that it, accompanied by the scene that it played in, almost made me cry!
Unfortunately, Renai Flops’s story and characters aren’t entirely at the same quality as the art and sound….although that statement might be debatable. At the very least, the first half of the series will take a lot of patience to get through. Not only are there almost all, if not all, of the clichés that can come with an ecchi/harem anime, there tend to be played out in such an over-the-top way that I found myself cringing. There are a few moments that make it stand out among the crowd, but those moments are few and far between. In the first half, the characters are also pretty standard for this type of anime, with not a whole lot to make them stand out among other characters like them. All of this is on purpose, as is made clear later, but even knowing that doesn’t make the first half of Renai Flops any less exhausting to watch.
There is one thing I can honestly praise the first half of Renai Flops for, though, and that is its foreshadowing. From episode 1, there are hints that something isn’t quite right here. These hints range from pretty obvious, like when Asahi fails to remember his “best friend”, to blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-type moments, such as the date on Asahi’s alarm clock inexplicably changing. A conspiracy theorist could have a field day with those hints, and ultimately, by the time episode 7 ends, they would be doing a victory dance over how correct they were all along.
Well, if their theory was that none of your waifus were real, anyway.
To be more specific, Asahi was part of a simulation, and Aoi, Amelia, Irina (Ilya), Mongfa, and Karin were all artificial intelligences. This plot twist is probably a predictable outcome given the anime’s setting and all of the hints that were dropped previously; however, those who aren’t paying close enough attention will be caught off-guard, and even those who are may not be able to predict the full extent. The moment the plot twist is unveiled, the story steadily begins to improve. There is less fanservice, the characters develop in a way that make you care about them more than before, and as I briefly mentioned earlier, there are some nearly-tearjerking moments during the second half. The ending does raise a few questions, but I wouldn’t say it was a bad ending, by any means.
Overall, I think Renai Flops was alright. Fans of the ecchi and harem genres and those who have a lot of patience may find themselves appreciating what it has to bring to the table. Those who don’t like those genres and don’t have the patience to sit through it, however? Sorry, but you’ll probably see this as a flop.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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