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The Daily Life of a Middle-Aged Online Shopper in Another World — When you have all the power in the world to be the fantasy version of Jeff Bezos but can't even pull a single thing right from the get-go.

Look, we all are allowed a hinge of fantasy to think of what goes into the mix in creating our own imaginary worlds, from the power systems to the kingdom authorities, like for like. I'm not saying that there's a correct or wrong answer; it just hinges on what we feel is "right," and we try to make that right notion work to the very best ... of our abilities.

Well...that's not the case if you're novelist Hifumi Asakura, and after seeing the success that is novelist Ren Eguchi's Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi a.k.a Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, bucking the trend with the whole "online shopping in another world" shtick, as well as being the very first Isekai series that MAPPA undertook back in Winter 2023 (for which a sequel has already been greenlit), there stands to be a chance for yet another show to follow in its footsteps, right? And (un)fortunately, for his lone work that would become Around 40 Otoko no Isekai Tsuuhan a.k.a The Daily Life of a Middle-Aged Online Shopper in Another World, which has been serialized since May 2018, it's not a good follow-up, nor even by its mere strengths either.

For the 38-year-old dissatisfied manga illustrator that is Ken'ichi Hamada, life has been nothing but bad luck, one after the other, and the move back to his country town is the only best alternative he could do. But within a moment's flash, Ken'ichi finds himself being abruptly Isekai-ed into another world with his only "cheat skill" being able to somehow access an online store, which becomes his sole reason for surviving in the fantasy world. By selling modern-day items in the ancient ages as "high-quality" goods and leaning into the "Slow Life in Another World" movement, that's Ken'ichi's notion for having a better life in the fantasy world, though the caveat is that the more things he procures from the online shop, the more his notoriety grows.

And that notoriety starts from the point he tries to make a living, when his very first customer, Primula Mallow, comes around to see his goods in the wealthy merchant town of Dahlia. Through some exchanges with him and her maid buying some clothespins and jewellery, which sparks her interest, the two strike a deal for Ken'ichi to become the Mallow Trading Company's exclusive trader, and barring some inconveniences along the way, a relationship is made along the way, even going as far as to proclaim each other as lifelong partners, much to the chagrin of the other characters that would follow in this similar regard. One of them in particular, the abandoned 12-year-old girl of Anemone, whom Ken'ichi would save from a bandit gang after being sold to them by her impoverished parents, always resents when Ken'ichi would seem to "pick up" a new woman because that would mean quality time away from him and his affections...which becomes quite the recurrence for every new woman introduced to the "harem."

As you can see, if you were to compare Ken'ichi Hamada to TonDemo Isekai's Tsuyoshi Muhokda, you would instantly pick the younger 27-year-old for his much more alluring personality that's fun to watch against the one-note character that is Ken'ichi Hamada just trying to get things by with his rather stoic and straightforward, no-nonsense personality. I don't mind scenarios when they need to get serious due to the stakes at hand, but the show just doesn't do a good job trying to balance both comedy and serious moments, often always choosing to speedrun through what seems like the "passing-by, fleeting" moments. Isn't that the whole purpose of the "slow life" segment, to bask in both the high and low moments, just to take time and enjoy what's on offer at the moment? I sure hope so that what Ken'ichi's doing is to further his "slow life," but the events of its world are not giving him the day to take a break, much less be caught on by the simultaneous events that just push him to the brink.

As if it gets any worse, the anime is literally on speedrun mode because it has no resemblance of a plot, much less its premise being egged on as a way to bring events from point A to B much faster (or rather, just literally leap to point C instead by skipping B entirely). It doesn't help much that storyboarder-turned-director Keiei Yuuzumi just didn't have much experience being a true, full-fledged director, to which his biography of works is diverse, but the majority of them are minor. This show may be his first full-featured debut directorial work, but it doesn't instill confidence that whatever he's doing will shape the anime to be any good.

The production by the lowly studio of East Fish Studio, you can already expect much if you've watched last Spring's Hananoi-kun to Koi no Yamai a.k.a A Condition Called Love, because it's literally just that: 3rd-rate animation, lots of still frames, and poor integration of background art. This is easily one of the worst-produced shows of the season but could've certainly been better if a more competent studio were chosen for that matter.

And as for better, the OST is largely a miss on that front as well. Things go by so quick, you're left with the OST at times to fill in on scenes that can be quickly glimpsed by, and it's just not good at all. I feel bad for both Asaka and Kiminone for their respective OP and ED songs because they're at least decent to good for the most part.

The honest TL;DR I can give you, out of exasperation, the advice to say that Around 40 Otoko no Isekai Tsuuhan a.k.a The Daily Life of a Middle-Aged Online Shopper in Another World, isn't by ANY measure decent at all; you should go watch TonDemo Isekai instead. That show at least has the heart and an author who understands how to write compelling stuff to the point of enjoyment, as compared to Hifumi Asakura, whose writing just reeks of an amateurish attempt.

I just hope that if the author writes another work, may it be better than this one. But for now, it's just dead in the weeds.

Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective — Are we ready for a House M.D. derivative anime drama just yet? I sure hope so...

In the realm of television dramas, I feel that there was a unique area that used to fascinate and blow people's minds ever to grace the small screen, and it's in the segments related to hospitals, medicals, and the like. Sure, you have the all-time favourites of shows the likes of Grey's Anatomy, House M.D., and the lesser-known Scrubs, which is what should be in the minds of anyone who watched the best of the best hospital dramas. Though I'd beg to differ that hospital ... dramas outside of the US do have their popularity as well, namely one of Japan's most consistently highly-rated hospital/medical drama shows of the 2010s, that being Doctor-X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon (if you have not heard of this long-lasting TV drama, I highly suggest you go and watch it; it rivals that of American counterparts being similar and great.)

The reason why I bring up Doctor-X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon, is on the basis of the one show where the hospital/medical drama has made somewhat of a resurgence: novelist Mikito Chinen's Ameku Takao no Suiri Karte a.k.a. Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective, which explores a rather unorthodox and unconventional doctor in the face of hospital politics and diagnoses, just like how Dr. Gregory House (played by Hugh Laurie) played his role to exact mimicry. Though I should give a bit of context as to who exactly Mikito Chinen is, given his rather rich background.

Born in Nanjo City, Okinawa Prefecture, novelist Mikito Chinen is actually a certified physician, having graduated from Tokyo Jikei University School of Medicine and being a certified doctor of the Japan Society of Internal Medicine. That is his realistic profession, but deep down he wanted to become a novelist as a dream from his young days, and this started when he wrote a short detective novel in his high school days, leading to the famous novelist and literary critic Tetsuya Ayukawa (real name Toru Nakagawa) publishing his stories under the Honkakusuiri anthologies of detective novels published between 1993 and 2009. Sure, his interest is in the veins of Edogawa Ranpo's Shonen Detective Agency and the ever-so-popular Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, and it's only until his graduation from the Tokyo Jikei University School of Medicine that he started to write novels earnestly, which saw many of his later works being published, some even nominated and winning awards. Interestingly, the accolades didn't include his most prized notary work, Ameku Takao no Suiri Karte, for which the novel is still in serialization since September 2014.

But back to Ameku Takao, it's clear that Mikito Chinen was inspired by the likes of Doctor-X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon and (especially) the predominance of American hospital/medical dramas like House M.D. to create his own derivative of Dr. Gregory House and his small group of friends, as seen by the titular character of Takao Ameku and her host of contacts in the hospital environment they reside in, full of investigative wonders and medical cases that she can only solve when others cannot.

The titular MC being the director of the Department of Investigative Pathology at Tenikai General Hospital, don't ever underestimate her chibi size for someone easy to be stepped on, because aside from her lucrative role, she is the vice-chairman of the hospital alongside her uncle Owashi, though both cousins always have the "agree to disagree" counterintuitive arguments that never seem to end, with Owashi thinking that she's wasting her time with a department that only specializes in medical scenarios where no case can be diagnosed by any other physician in the hospital. Naturally, the rift between cousins forces Takao to isolate herself, as seen by the weird brick house on the hospital's rooftop, which also serves as her residing office, visited by the people that are closest to her. The first of which is her closest assistant, Yu Takanashi, the man who's always being chided by Takao most of the time under her whims and is the main support of her investigative detective mystery-solving adventures enough for her to nickname him Kotori a.k.a. birdbrain, alongside ER nurse Mai Konoike and her own caring older sister Mazuru. On the police's end, you have the detectives Ryuuya Naruse and Kimiyasu Sakurai, who are always coming into contact with Takao should she need their help when it comes to the mysterious deaths and murders. And they all have to work together like a well-oiled machine because it's their careers on the line that they face judgment of if wrong assumptions are made that result in the outcome of the deaths of the people they're involved with.

I've consistently seen that the one criticism of the series in general is how superlative it feels against the sightings of the cases that Takao got herself into. Be it the medical diagnoses or the detective mysteries, it just doesn't have that realism that's rooted in the "true" Sherlock Holmes style, or that the medical cases are not supervised stringently, considering the workload of the doctors and nurses in typical hospitals. But then again, you have to remember that this is fiction (with the notion of the disclaimers in the episode openings), and the medical drama that goes into it may seem juxtaposed and contrary to real-life operations, but that's the reality of most medical drama-centric series: you can "fake it till you make it", however, medical prescriptions, diseases, and the like still have to sound real enough to induce the drama that comes out from it. It's a thing just to bring out the drama; some will love it, others will hate it, plain and simple.

Admittedly, any production under Aniplex will suffer in the long term, as is Project No. 9 here, with clearly flailing animation that gets worse as the series progresses with its fervent delays and such. It's not the best; it's serviceable at best, but you will certainly see the degradation in quality. To be fair, Loop 7-kaime a.k.a. 7th Time Loop director Kazuya Iwata tried his best, but the circumstances speak for themselves here.

The OST is also decent, though I really didn't notice much of it composed by Fox Capture Plan. At least Aimer's OP song is solid, as is The Gospellers with their ED song alongside Anly.

This is a reality that's harder to swallow, but if you're expecting House M.D. vibes from this, you've come to the wrong place. Against the "genius" that is Takao Ameku, it's clear that Mikito Chinen was hoping to marry both the medical and detective segments together and make it work; the only problem is that the arcs (at least within the anime) can feel like they were played with a fiddle, or just enough medical advice is instilled to the point where it "feels" believable (of course, not forgetting that this is still fiction after all).

Whatever the case profile is, just go into Ameku Takao no Suiri Karte a.k.a. Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective, not thinking that you'll come out a whizz in medical proficiency but rather, savouring a show that is just alright and for the dramaticization purposes alone.

The 100 Girlfriends Who REALLY Love You, Round 2 — Holy wowsers, the harem just keeps getting better and better.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: mangaka Rihito Nakamura's Kimi no Koto ga Daidaidaidaidaisuki na 100-nin no Kanojo a.k.a The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You is the pinnacle of harem anime, by far and bar none. The harem subgenre has never seen such a magnitude of atrocities so blatant yet so off-the-walls full of bullshittery as this show does and praise the man for absolute cinema for whatever Rihito Nakamura's thinking. Because no one, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, can ... ever fathom be reading his mind and knowing whatever he's concocting. This man is pure genius, genuine, and should be praised to God-like levels.

Onto Season 2's newest girlfriends added into the Rentaro Family:

- Girlfriend No. 7 of Kurumi Haraga, a foodie fighter with a high metabolism that causes her to go hungry very easily, with her earphone always on her to avoid being influenced by food talk.

- Girlfriend No. 8 of Mei Meido, one of the Hanazono family's maids, who was found bruised and taken in by Hahari, thereby being exceptionally loyal to her without question. The thing is, the running gag of her going full-on suicidal if orders aren't heeded, and Hahari is the only person who can stop her from the reckless act. Also, her rainbow eyes are not for the faint of heart; that's why she's always presented with closed eyes.

- Girlfriend No. 9 of Iku Suto, the same-year student who's the last remaining member of the school's girls' baseball team, with a fiery passion...for being masochistic and finding pleasure in overworking herself to exhaustion and otherwise being mildly hurt.

- Girlfriend No. 10 of Mimimi Utsukushisugi, a Senpai just like Kusuri but a narcissist who's VERY obsessed with beauty, though being aware that the entity cannot be bought and works hard by earning her own savings to acquire such beauty. Though she and Nano were enemies at first from the school's beauty pageants, they subsequently made up and became friends.

- Girlfriend No. 11 of Meme Kakure, the closest Rentaro could ever encounter, being his classmate in the same class as both Hakari and Karane. The "Komi Can Communicate" shy character who prefers being a background character and a very good knitter who always knits dolls to assert misdirection to slip away when she gets flustered. Like Mei, Meme's bangs cover her eyes due to her insecurities.

Knowing the standards of Season 1 back in Fall 2023, it's clear that the staff team at Bibury Animation Studios, led by director Hikaru Sato, has something very uncommon on their hands, but something that's worth every point to meme about, because 100GFs is just so unhinged at what it does to the fullest degree. You couldn't try to ask other authors to even try to mimic what Rihito Nakamura can do, because their efforts would fail on the basis that this idea is the author's and his alone, being the ONLY person who can pull this all off, and for the 2nd time, this consistency has been largely kept and improved for the better.

I think that the OST for Season 2 has improved a lot, and mostly for the better. Season 1's OP may be now iconic, but while Season 2's OP may not fare the same, I feel that it's a great follow-up song that sounds a lot better than it looks. Even the ED song is a good one, though I'd compare to say that Season 1 was the better of the two.

I need not already mention that if you like/love Season 1 to begin with, Season 2 is pretty much more of the same, with the Rentaro Family of girlfriends counting by the half-dozen and increasing.

May the true gentleman legend never die, serving his queens with utmost respect and sensitivity, which no man in the whole wide world can ever fathom to match with the kind-natured heart and soul of the name...that is Rentaro Aijo.

Shangri-La Frontier, Round 2 — The God-tier game never ceases to amaze, and Challenge 2 Challenge is the perfect animosity for a studio name that never once shuns from giving the audience its hype train that never stops.

What comes to mind when you think of "the greatest game that's ever lived?" There are a lot of games for that matter, so let's dumb it down to just anime depictions of it. Some will say that Sword Art Online still plays a huge precedent, being the franchise that has lasted on a golden platter since its 2012 debut, and that's no question at all being the ... VR MMORPG that pretty much influenced the gaming landscape in terms of anime. And within the last few years or so, the newest contender of mangaka Katarina's Shangri-La Frontier has been going strong since its Fall 2023 debut with studio C2C at the helm, and it's no surprise that we're once again back yet into another Fall-Winter seasonal crossover with the studio's first-ever 2-cour back-to-back sequel series enlisting of a god-tier game that never refuses to say never, because never is NOT enough.

With Season 2 continuing the leftovers from Volume 7 to the middle of Volume 14 of the manga, it's evident from Season 1 that there's no definition of a good stopping point, because from the intents of director Toshiyuki Kubooka, it is meant to keep each and every episode hyped for the next, to the next. And yes, given that Sunraku and the gang have weathered the storm against Weathermon the Tombguard (which was one of the major arcs of Season 1), going into Season 2 with the Ether Reactor arc, where Sunraku would eventually make his own secret Inventoria, only to face inherent difficulty in reckoning switching to yet another game for help and ideas, to then revisit his lifelong in-game nemesis once again to try and remove the initial curse set upon him with the Nightslayer's Shadow arc (which is quite the action-heavy arc), thereby taking a switch with yet another Unique Scenario of the Abyss City arc and the much-anticipated GGC arc that clearly defines what SLF is all about.

If you have to take a gander at how Season 2 does things differently, I will have to say to look out for both Lycagon's revisit as well as the other games that were played in the middle of SLF. Remember, Sunraku started out his journey as a total noob, only to be affected by Lycagon's curse the moment he was about to break the bank of the game's development stage. And because this boisterous creature is so hard to locate, it takes comrades and a well-executed strategy just to find the rare enemy alone to convince it to undo the curse on him. Sadly, as much as Sunraku wants to exact revenge on Lycagon, it backfires and induces him to a fault that everyone, from players to NPCs, will notice the evil aura emitting from him. The GGC aspect, though, really turns SLF into one glorified Gamer's Aura of a video game anime because of the other games in place, like Nephilim Hollow that allow for unlimited parallels of other SLF players in those games to take even more precedent. Once again, remember that when Sunraku met OiKatzo for the first time, it was in the trash game BERP for hardcore trash gamers, which is how he and Arthur Pencilgon a.k.a Towa Amane got into the whole SLF shtick in the first place. And the sequel expands a bit more from the local to the international stage, where eSports is at its height of fame and the hardcore know their skills fully well. It's always the integration of both internal and external factors that makes SLF one of the most tightly confined series I've seen, and it has been proven in Season 1, so it should be in Season 2 here as well.

I need not say that C2C has been pushing themselves like (the once) Studio Bind to pump out only one core source material, and they're continuing to nail flawless production and near-perfect animation prowess even for Season 2. Yes, there have been somewhat of production cuts that are obvious for the sequel, but it is overall still better than the average 3rd-rate studios out there who can't muster much.

OST continues to be just as great, with the tight integration that always works no matter what. The OP/ED set is where I have reservations of a hit-and-miss experience. LiSA's OP and otoha's ED knocked it out of the park for the 1st Cour, but Awich's OP and CVTLE's ED regressed it back for the 2nd Cour. To be fair, the songs are not bad at all, especially for the 2nd Cour with its rather dark depiction and 8-bit stylized features, but I don't think that it held its weight against what we have heard for almost 1.5 years now.

Still, managaka Katarina's Shangri-La Frontier still continues to impress in its consistency, and heck, we're not even anywhere remotely close to done with the adaptation, especially since Season 3 has been in the works for quite some time already. If there's any chance of catching up to SLF, now's the time to respond to the gamer vibes within you and just let loose your gamer bait rage to experience one of, if not, the greatest video game-inspired adaptations out there.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, the 2nd Wonder — Hanako-kun, Hanako-kun, will you grant my wish for a faithful adaptation once more?

It's been 5 long years since we last saw mangaka IroAida's Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun a.k.a Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun on the small screen, though we can all collectively agree that it's more on the love-hate side by showing something that is actually quite unique, which is what makes it loveable, but hating it because the pacing went so awfully whack out of order against the source material at the time. And yet, with the MAL numbers being evident, there's no question about it that the series quickly fell off.

Sadly, ... with the sequel being the continuation of said series, that director Yohei Fukui (taking over from Masaomi Ando) and his staff team at Lerche (or Studio Hibari rather, as the parent company) are putting their heads forward to continue the adaptation of the manga and heed no advice by just reshuffling things back to whence they came to restore the pacing for Season 2, does this redeem the overall look of the series? I'd say that the sequel here fixes much of the problems in the prequel, and it has restored confidence that Hanako-kun CAN actually have a decent adaptation.

With Season 2 revisiting Volumes 5 and 6 (where Season 1 skipped to Volume 7 with the Hell of Mirrors arc) then proceeding to Volumes 8 to 11 in coherent pacing for the season's major arc, I'd say: welcome back, Hanako-kun and the gang, it's been a while since you peeps were last seen. Nene Yashiro is still the lovable daikon girl, as is Hanako-kun being the cheeky Wonder No. 7 apparition and Kou just being the complaining dork of justice. New to Season 2 are the newfound school Wonders of Wonder No. 1 of The Three Clock Keepers, which have the power to manipulate time, and Wonder No. 4 of Shijima-san of the Art Room, where reality and fiction blend into one dream-like trance that it becomes the fight of the one entity to save each other amidst the rouse of coercing people into the dream and living out their deepest wishes without the possibility to get out.

Most particularly, I don't know about you, but concerning the story that is Wonder No. 4 of Mei Shijima, the Picture Perfect major arc that covers Volumes 8 to 11 of the manga (that covers the 2nd half of Season 2), I feel that it can be hard to get your head around the dreams and ambitions of the same person creating an alter ego persona depicting an alternate reality if she was alive and well and could live out her deepest desires, only for the real person to falter on life's struggles, which made up an already bad situation even worse. If you do understand, then all power to you. Just the facts to clarify for seemingly the majority who don't quite understand what's going on in the back-and-forth scenarios.

Otherwise, it's the same Hanako-kun that we know and love, with Lerche giving it the adaptation it deserves, maintaining the same consistency as it had back in Winter 2020. And still to this day, Masayoshi Oishi knows what he is cooking with yet another OP song for the sequel, though Season 1's OP will forever be the superior song. The same goes with Akari Kito's ED coming back yet again for another rondo, and I don't know which I like best, but both songs have their own merits and for the same reason that they're good to begin with.

If anything, Season 2 is the redemption that Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun a.k.a Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun needs but severely lacks the numbers that bring the assumption that mostly everyone largely forgot about it. At this point, I just hope that everyone can give the series a second chance to redeem itself after the back-and-forth fiasco that was Season 1 (which some people still remember to this day).

After all, if there's a wish you want to receive, seek Hanako-kun, and he will give it to you.

Medalist — Simply…Truly, Madly, Deeply: Magnifique.

As a performing arts major, I lament the landscape of the AniManga industry that produces a lot of garbage content and do not go the road less travelled because there is a handful of unique things to cover, especially when it comes to sports and the like. Sure, you have the likes of Haikyuu! and Slam Dunk! when it comes to basketball, or hell, even the Indian sport of kabaddi, which was covered by mangaka Hajime Musashino's Shakunetsu Kabaddi a.k.a Burning Kabaddi. Above all, when it comes to figure skating, we all already know MAPPA's Yuri!!! on Ice as the ... massive and popular series representing the sport, but did you know that there's another new contender in this aspect?

If you're thinking what I'm thinking, then yes, it's the sports drama that is mangaka Tsurumaikada's Medalist, which since its serialization in May 2020, has gone on to be nominated for many awards and even won prestigious ones like the Shogakukan Manga Award in the general category in 2023, as well as Kodansha's Manga Award for 2 years in a row in 2023 and 2024. That should tell you how great of a masterpiece the source material is, at least for Tsurumaikada's first ever work. And when it comes to ENGI's adaptation of the source material this Winter season, I have to say that it's an absolute cinema unlike anything you've ever seen (or since Yuri!!! on Ice).

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe." - Anatole France

A girl whose age is defined as "too old" to participate in a sport that should be cultivated since young and a man whose ambitions of trying his hardest to achieve victory turn short too many times that he's all but given up at this point. This is the remarkable underdog story of 11-year-old Inori Yuitsuka and Tsukasa Akeuraji, whose fate hangs in the balance against the known negatives in their way, where the two words "Give Up" resonate much of their current predicament, just as in Coldplay's song Fix You: "When you try your best, but you don't succeed." But as fate would have it, for the girl who dreams of becoming a world-class figure skater, and whose older sister failed in this once, leaving their mother in distress over plunging her funds into yet another child of theirs with much uncertainty, meets the man so keen on his competitive skating that winning is a bittersweet victory that's hard to come by, forms a partnership where it's a win-win solution for Inori, who is allowed to pursue her dreams before she hits middle school age, and Tsukasa, who against all odds, refuses to back down from fights of negativity and turns them into opportunities for the former to grow extensively. It's your typical underdog story, but it's done with so much heart and soul that you can feel it in your bones, every sense of it.

"A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work." - Colin Powell

In fact, for such an esteemed work like this, you would think that the author him/herself must have the experience for all that's to be attributed to figure skating, right? You would be wrong. Born in Aichi Prefecture, the story takes place in Nagoya, where Tsurumaikada is from, and with no experience in the sport itself, he/she took on a month-long figure skating class held at Nagoya Sporta Centre in Osu in the Naka ward just to understand how the sport works before beginning to pen out Medalist in the way he/she likes it. This is truly motivational for someone going out of his/her way to write a work on something that not most people can or are willing to go to an extent to try out figure skating and, in more ways than one, sums up Tsurumaikada's own underdog story starting from scratch to then becoming the well-known author he/she is today.

"A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality." - Yoko Ono

If anything, Medalist's strongest suit is in its characters, mainly due to the insanity of the strong and perfect chemistry of Inori and Tsukasa. Inori may be "too old" at 11 years of age, but her heart of wanting to be a world-class figure skater is a childhood dream that she's been longing for the longest time, and it instills in the kid within her that nothing is impossible in this world, so long as she can reach out with her hand to reach and fight for it with passion and sheer determination. Inori is like the daughter that most parents would want to have, simply because she's a kid at heart and someone that would chase for her dreams despite the world telling her otherwise. It's that "never give up" spirit that pushes her to the limit to conquer even the most difficult programs and routines that we find ourselves genuinely cheering on her for.

Towards Tsukasa's end, it's in the same way as he sees his young self in Inori, being the young skater who's always on fire for wanting to be better, despite not making it to the podium and finding himself in training after training not just to get by but to prove the point that he still can make it. And this catalyst of Tsukasa is brought down to Inori with an obtuse, cheerful enthusiasm that "sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me." The power of positivity that Tsukasa brings to the table is second to none, and the toxic phrase of "boys will be boys" exudes the now Inori's coach to greater heights, always challenging the perception against people that think that they have peaked and cannot go any further.

Trust me, Inori and Tsukasa are like a father-daughter figure duo who always challenge the notion of "what's normal will never change," as they meet other skaters with reputations far greater than theirs and coaches who want nothing but the best for them, for better or for worse. It's a poignant message that stands the test of time to see the same message but from differing points of view from someone just starting out in the sport and the other having gone through the sport and overcoming his fears from the past to bring fruit to the present with the one who's just getting started. It's one hell of a poignant story with very relatable characters that you can't opt not to take your eyes away from them, not even a glimpse. In other words, any anime with scripts written by Jukki Hanada is a guaranteed masterpiece.

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt

The beauty of a wonderful adaptation is always sublime, that its presentation will stick with you for a very long time. And courtesy of director Yasutaka Yamamoto and the staff team at ENGI, I have to say that this is BY FAR one of the most beautiful depictions of the blend between 2D and 3DCG that the source material has ever gotten such an upgrade translating onto the small screen. More than realizing that Yasutaka Yamamoto had once directed yet another sports series, Fall 2018's Hinomaruzumou a.k.a Hinomaru Sumo (directed at professional sumo wrestling), it's clear that he understood the assignment going into Medalist, and the results speak for themselves.

We used to chide Kadokawa's subsidiary studio ENGI for their depiction of messy and inconsistent 2D and 3DCG ever since the studio was founded in April 2018, but take one look at Medalist, and it shows a rather stark contrast of a passion project through and through, with no restrictions whatsoever. Even more so is the involvement of actual figure skaters choreographing the skating routines, with the help of retirees Akiko Suzuki (2013 Japanese national champion) and Yuhana Yokoi (2-time Japanese Junior national medalist) alongside active skater Hinano Isobe (2011 Triglav Cup winner). This shows how much blood, sweat, and tears went into the production of the anime, and it's such a rewarding payoff for fans of the manga going into the show, only to come out witnessing that the anime is the superior version of the source material.

The OST composed by Yuki Hayashi is very well done and filled with emotions wrecking the very heart of the soul to oblivion. I'll admit that Kenshi Yonezu's OP song is rather fine, even if it fits the thematics of the show very well. Neguse's ED song, however, changes that rhythm into a childlike song with Inori and her love for earthworms (which is very sweet to see), and the song is really good.

"Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream." - Khalil Gibran

To say that Tsurumaikada's Medalist is one of the best Winter 2025 anime by miles and leaps, is just greatly underselling how much this show has done so much for its audience, just by a simple story, very compelling and relatable characters, and a message that while simple, is all the more influential and motivational for anyone being pissed off at life and its mundane records of living. You are what you breathe, and life isn't so limited that options for growth are limitless.

I'll leave you with this quote that sums up Medalist in its tip-top shape:
"Dream and give yourself permission to envision a You that you choose to be."- Joy Page

Baban Baban Ban' Vampire — 'Tis so sweet to drink some virgin, young adult blood, but with a wait time so long...that it's best to experience some comedy firsthand.

Vampires. Love them or hate them, they're here to stay...and willingly sink their fangs into unsuspecting people thinking that they can be subtly thought of as normal human beings. But when these immortal nightly beings trample on everyday life to want to choose their specific targets and, even more, treat them like aged Wagyu beef and sink into a fine-dining experience, it becomes all the more ludicrous to think of such a plot where vampires can wait ... before their blood consumption is fresh, wholesale, and satisfying. This is what you get with mangaka Hiromasa Okujima's Baban Baban Ban Vampire, a show where bloodsucking is an exercise in patience (since patience is a virtue) and will only reap the vampire a big reward when this "rule" is respected. Oh...did I forget to mention that this is a BL a.k.a Boys' Love show?

Vampires, like the irritating cockroaches, can actually go toe-to-toe with how long the species has been around since its inception, but of course, the clear difference is that vampires need blood to survive, or otherwise they'll wither and die if not enough is pumped into them. And in Baban Baban Ban Vampire's story, that setting takes vampires going across the different Japanese eras, from the Bakumatsu era to the modern day, standing at a few hundred years old still looking for fresh blood to pounce on.

And this is certainly the rhetoric for the 450-year-old vampire of Mori Ranmaru, whose goal is to seek the "ultimate taste of the blood of an 18-year-old virgin." However, after wandering around in a previous era, Ranmaru found himself being a helpless person to once again wander around and look for a place to live. As luck would have it, the Tatsuno family chose to take him under their shelter, but of course, nothing is for free, and he has to help out and work in the family's Aoi Bathhouse alongside their only son, 15-year-old Rihito. Of course, with Ranmaru's policy of waiting to devour him until he turns 18, he decides to play along with the family's antics, even if he has to reveal his true vampiric self (that ironically Rihito's family doesn't take seriously).

As if that's not enough, both Ranmaru and Rihito are joined by more characters, which just makes the love polygon even worse (for what should be a straightforward relationship). What are the odds of creating such comedic banter that just only adds to the hilarious confusion much more? For one, you have the love interest of Aoi Shinozuka, whom Rihito falls in love with at first sight through the "running with bread in mouth" trope and is seen as a threat; then her brother Ken a.k.a Franken comes over as a protective older brother who supports his sister's relationship with Rihito (that is soon accompanied by vampire killer Umetaro Sakamoto, whom he has a hardcore yaoi for Ranmaru); not to mention that the group of gals under the leadership of Kaoru Yamada initially had the hots for Rihito but soon found out that she has a desire for Ranmaru instead. It's a love cycle that can be confusing to get your head around, but trust me, as more characters come up, the insanity of the supernatural comedy takes hold to chuckle some laughs.

You're not going to depend on production values to bring you through the show, as studio Gaina's animation is really just average and will fill you more with static PowerPoint-like slides, and opt for more quality if the scenario calls for it. But then again, this is what director-cum-scriptwriter Itsuro Kawasaki has to fend for; for much of his rather unremarkable career, the last notables have been key directorial and/or scriptwriting roles for Summer 2022's Kumichou Musume to Sewagakari a.k.a The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting and last Winter's Oroka na Tenshi wa Akuma to Odoru a.k.a The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil.

Music is also fine, but fairly forgettable by all accounts. That said, Blue Encount's OP song feels a lot like it belongs in some other show and not this one, though it's decent and nothing noteworthy. On the other hand, Botchi Boromaru's ED is great (except the scrolling backgrounds), which is fine...I guess?

I think that the misconception of Baban Baban Ban Vampire being a BL show does kind of limit the target audience to just the yaoi fanatics. But still, while the show COULD do without the BL tag, it's still ultimately a show in said genre, and it's quite evident all over the place, despite being disregarded as so.

It's a comedy show that has hits and misses, and is not great by any means, but is it at least worth your time? I'd say that depends on how you see the show as it is: a half-yaoi and mostly comedic anime.

Blue Miburo — A Rurouni Kenshin-inspired era...that just doesn't quite inspire the same way as history intrigues it to be (at least from someone's POV).

Don't get me wrong, I love history when it's at least interpreted right to a degree of relatability, mixed in with some element of action that keeps the rich tradition alive. Some, like the infamous Rurouni Kenshin author Nobuhiro Watsuki, know Japan's rich history when it comes to the era of the Samurai to merge a story so grand against someone whose ideals of peace create the inevitable conflict that impacts the future of Japan's modernization into the tumultuous period (right ... before World War II). However, there are also people who want to depict a rather different take of the samurai that, though still rooted in history, hopes to be interesting to see from a POV that's unique and a sort-of prequel to whatever we're seeing of Rurouni Kenshin (through the remake) right now. This is famed Over Drive and Days mangaka Tsuyoshi Yasuda coming in with the 3rd anime adaptation of his works, featuring his latest work of Ao no Miburo a.k.a The Blue Wolves of Mibu.

The story setting is adjacent to the history of the Shinsengumi during the terrorizing Bakumatsu era, featuring the Mibu Roshigumi during the Tokugawa Shogunate from October 1862 to April 1863 (before being disbanded to form the Shinsengumi), alongside its prominent members (Kondo Isami and others) that heralded the form from creation to disbandment. And in Tsuyoshi Yasuda's view of creating this from the perspective of MC Chirinu Nio, a white-haired kid living together with his granny helming a family restaurant. His days of living are meaningful and fruitful, but deep down, his sense of justice is just burning for desire. And the turbulent "blue spring a.k.a one's adolescence" meets his match when the ronin of Hijikata Toshizo and Okita Souji comes to the area around his place, which is the infamously hated Miburo, to exact their form of justice to preserve the peace of the land, which aligns with Nio's calling to want to change the world and become the group of ronin that people would come to respect instead of being offended for the longest time. Thus, he joins the Miburo as the 3rd Wolves of Mibu, hoping to instill change and hope for the future with the infamous group of samurai.

In hindsight, you would think that a traditionally rooted story would help the show get on its knees following a rather enthusiastic and charismatic kid journey with the group that would evolve to become the respected historical group who would go on to protect the Kyoto Shogunate. But while that is fine and all, seeing Chirinu Nio progress from being a boy to a man...is quite the stretch, because as a young boy who has been mostly sheltered for all of his life, Nio may have witnessed a fair few of reckless murders, but for the murders to show that his idealist world of peace requires sacrifices to be done, him trying to bawl for most of his act, and being friends with both friend and foe to seek reconciliation, it's just not the way you want to paint your MC when it comes to character development. And yes, despite the Miburo guys trying to help him out to witness that everything requires the "yin and yang" balance of interest, even reminding him at times where sacrifice is needed for the greater good, Nio, at most times, fizzles out and refuses to accept the reality of people being able to live with peace, not after bouts of swordsmanship that will always end up with someone else's death. Sure, if in an alternate reality, this would be appropriate, but given such an infamous era in Japan's history, friendliness is never an option, not at all.

The Miburo accompanying Nio are good guys at that, influential people who have gone through the history of the formation of the Shinsengumi from the time they were the ronin. To see them depicted in the show does give some sense of how they were like, distinguished and goofy as they are. At least they're the authority working for the greater good (that eventually paves their role to be even greater), and I have no issues seeing them being both serious and not to improve their reputation. Stereotypical guys who get the job done; I'll give credit where credit is due.

Being studio Maho Film's first consecutive 2-cour series, I am very skeptical of rookie studios trying to attempt the near impossible when their average 12/13-episode shows just look so trash and unrefined. And to my (unsurprising) fears, the assumption remains true for the most part that the studio just doesn't really have the capability to remain consistent, let alone be assigned to task a project that's running for 6 months straight. Everything just looks so average and drab, and even the action feels minimalistic at best.

Even the music feels somewhat less stellar, which is a surprise given that it's composed by the famous Yuki Hayashi, who's composing for several shows for the Winter season (though to different degrees of varying success). His music is iconic given his reputation on bigger franchises like Haikyuu! and Boku no Hero Academia a.k.a My Hero Academia, but the low-ball efforts here just sadly don't amount to much. Not even the 2 OP/ED song sets are even worth mentioning, between the 1st Cour set of Spyair's OP and The Jet Boy Bangerz's ED, and the 2nd Cour set of Umeda Cypher's OP and Osage's ED (though I'll give the credit to the 1st Cour for making the show stand out more).

Ultimately, I get what Tsuyoshi Yasuda is trying to do with Ao no Miburo a.k.a The Blue Wolves of Mibu and its "full" adaptation (right until Part 2 of the Shinsengumi arc), but for the glaring faults that this show has that unfortunately outweigh the bad more than the good, I'm forced to concede that while the show is good on a historical level, that's just as much entertainment as you're going to get because everything else feels subpar at best.

Maybe give this a try to see if it works for you. Otherwise, there's the one series remake that is doing things a lot better and is definitely worth more of your time than this show.

Übel Blatt — Congrats on conducting a speedrun that'll lose your audience right from the get-go. How did this happen and go so out of hand?

I am a firm believer that when shows present their content in the typical fashion, it needs to be in the 3Cs: clear, concise, and consistent. Yet, some people just don't share that sentiment and proceed to yank the standard that's given in the vein of The Promised Neverland's bastardized sequel, rushing through the source material and providing little to no context; that, at the end of the day, may be what the anime envisioned it to be, but with ... many crucial sacrifices along the way. And in this Winter season, there's one very respected work that got the Promised Neverland treatment so bad that I don't even know where to start: mangaka Etorouji Shiono's Übel Blatt (Evil Blade in German), one of the earliest dark fantasy stories serialized from 2004 to 2019 that saw its success internationally, to the point of being awarded in the seinen category of the Japan Expo Award in 2008 and even making it to France's Top 15 manga at one point.

Let's go from the top: being Clear of the story.

With Übel Blatt being one of the forefronts of the dark fantasy genre, giving way to series like mangaka Daiki Kobayashi's Ragna Crimson (which received Silver Link's adaptation from Fall 2023 to Winter 2024), you can tell that the manga series was at one point a huge influence on people wanting to create stories in the same vein, which is a clear sign that there's a fandom out there for such stories of violence, gore, and sexual predation that are unapologetic and captivating. Such is the likes of author Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo, which is how the revenge story of Köinzell, a half-elf child most distinguishable for the scar over his left eye, is on a quest of revenge against those who betrayed and killed him in the medieval fantasy landscape.

At this point I must warn you that although much of the review's context is from the anime, the manga itself provides so much depth that it's most baffling how director Takeshi Naoya could offer to re-edit much of its story to the point of being unexplainable (please refer to the ANN interview that's done recently).

If you thought that the series' story is just too much of an infodump to understand, the anime started at Volume 1, gravely skipping Volume 0, which provides context for how everything came to be, and it's important context that was sadly missing in the anime. The TL;DR is that there were 14 elite warriors (dubbed the Fourteen Lances) commissioned to deal with the evil nation of Wischtech that manifests itself in dark magic and powerful weapons. But the same group of warriors faltered along the way, losing some to the gravities of the land, leaving only 7 out of 11 heroes who abandoned the quest and the remaining 4 warriors eventually finishing the deed. However, it's at this point that the 7 warriors would ambush and eliminate the 4 to steal their credits and accomplishments and dub themselves the Seven (False) Heroes that supposedly were the ones who defeated Wischtech while branding the 4 as Traitorous Lances who had sold their souls to the evil nation itself, despite being the ones actually credited for the quest completion. And one of them is Ascheriit, a young boy whose potential is seen in swordsmanship to be tuteled from and help out the elite warriors and unceremoniously branded as a Wischtech defector. The years of betrayal lasted for 20 years, which is when Ascheriit came back as the half-elf Köinzell to exact revenge on the Seven Heroes who claimed credit for the work that they did not conduct.

The concise portion is overall done rather subparly, though to the extent of the limited runtime when it comes to anime, it's a much-needed sacrifice, or does it feel intentional to cut content and leave it as it is?

Going through much of Köinzell's revenge story against the Seven Heroes should tell you that he's really out to get their heads, and his half-elf self being able to be empowered by the twin moons of the world for some serious power. The journey that takes him to cities and nations wherever each of the Seven Heroes resides, while being on the chase as the glorified "Hero-Child" alongside his aides of smuggler Wied and underground tavern owner Altea, as well as Peepi, who has been with him from the very beginning, as well as the young and promising girl of Aht, Köinzell can't clearly do his revenge story on his own and needs help from all avenues that he can muster to deal his captors a serious blow.

Director Takeshi Naoya even goes so far as to do a switcheroo around the characters for Köinzell's personal growth, which clearly is evident of the evolution of the MC himself. And yet, because of the extensive focus on him, bringing in censorship to remove all traces of sexual and erotic elements serves as his answer, alongside his idea of using iaido for swordsmanship skills and even going as far as to draw inspiration from his childhood love of Knights of the Zodiac for this. In other words, the de-sanitization of the source material itself...which, as you can tell, is NEVER good to draw out the full potential of the work itself (which is actually doable but omitted for reasons we'll never know).

The consistency, however, brings about all of the negative connotations of why the anime is ultimately inferior to the manga.

At first, I thought that Satelight and Staple Entertainment coming for a collab would help give the series some oomph, but it's undoubtedly clear that little to no effort was put into the anime at all. Sure, Takeshi Naoya did quote the statement of Satelight's involvement being only in the CG department and the artwork being "beautiful, perfectly capturing the fantasy world," for which I'll give credit for the cinematography here. However, that's no excuse for bad production, which in this show, is ALL OVER THE PLACE, and you can't shake it after seeing through the piss-poor animation, especially for a high-octane fantasy series like this one.

At least music composer Shun Narita had the composition alright for the anime, which may still not serve as a sigh of relief given all of the issues involved in other areas. And as much as I can praise GARNiDELiA's long-awaited return for the OP, which is a good song, Hina Tachibana's ED song just left me with mixed feelings of how to be properly engaged for a soothing song in the midst of such violence and gore.

Ultimately, what you get from an Amazon Prime exclusive show is the pandering of expectations with a more-than-complicated story and premise (that's not hard to understand, just interpreted VERY differently from the source material), compelling but unfulfilled characters (that are not explored much), and a production so off the charts that you can't even fathom surviving on the 3-episode rule.

Just read the manga from scratch; the anime should be avoided AT ALL COSTS for being butchered recklessly...unless you're like the director himself to say, "If you can enjoy it, then that's a stroke of luck."….to which I say: "Please don't push your luck."

I May Be a Guild Receptionist, but I'll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time — It's not just adventurers who need their rest time, but pay respect to the people working at the Adventurer's Guild too...they deserve all the breaks.

In the fast-moving pace of reality, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone that tries to say that "I need to work overtime just to finish the never-ending work that's on my desk!", because let's face it: overtime is a bitch, and it'll control your working career until you choose to either ignore it or face the scythe of death a.k.a death stares from superiors ... that you've been slacking on the pile of work that needs to be done. This is pretty much the case for novelist Mato Kousaka and her lone work of Guild no Uketsukejou desu ga, Zangyou wa Iya nanode Boss wo Solo Toubatsu Shiyou to Omoimasu a.k.a I May Be a Guild Receptionist, But I'll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time, which dare I say that while this is not the first time that anime has featured the notorious Black Company standards of overtime, it is the first to put it front and center of its plot, enclosed in a fantasy comedy adventure.

What do you do when you get someone doing administrative work who's on the cusp of being operated in the assembly line for peanuts so much that he/she becomes the victim of money slavery and yet wants to do the ONE thing that will circumvent everything in its place to enable avoiding that one prominent feature plaguing him/her? You'd get Alina Clover, a receptionist at the Iffole town's Adventurer's Guild, who's stuck with the lies of having an easy and secure but vexing job that requires her to deal with narcissist adventurers not understanding that if they've done their due diligence clearing dungeon boss quests correctly, she would not have suffered having to do overtime...but then again, also being screwed over by the same agency that employs her because all the unfinished work is being dumped on her for reasons they spell "shortage of manpower and funds." All of this, plus the unknown power that she can manifest divine skills for some reason, with power barring that of gods, that allows her to basically one-shot all dungeon bosses (which aren't on par with her god-level powers) for the basis of turning in as early as possible. Alina's got the looks and sex appeal, the sugar, spice, and everything nice...if you can read her and manage to do things her way. Try anything else, and you'll face her overtime wrath indefinitely.

Ironically enough, the Iffole town that the show takes place in, for whatever reason, feels like one overcrowded town of dungeons next to it, and with the sheer number of adventurers ratioed to the number of receptionists being so disproportionate and with salaries paid lower than a dog's, counting overtime is nothing but a fraction that's worth more time off than actual pay. Normally in every fantasy setting, you'd have the group of heroes who are praised for their efforts in making peace throughout the city/town they live in, but for the members of the adventurer party Silver Sword, it feels as if they operate based on KPIs that the town executives demand them to achieve; fail that and they'll be replaced with immediate effect. The strongest group that's currently led by shield/tank Jade Scrade alongside his two potential members of the rear-guard mage Lowe Losblender and healer Lululee Ashford, the party of 3, was not like the party that current guildmaster Glen Garia was in his predecessor group. the one who maintained peace within Iffole...but with a sinister past that involves the manipulation of people and the inclusion of dark gods (which Alina is the only one who can combat these humanoid beings).

But back to the current state of Silver Sword. Whenever Alina needs to take matters into her own hands (since the typical adventurers aren't doing a good job at that), her famous pseudonym of the Executioner is the talk of the town as the ruthless one-shot monster killer with no reservations, leaving everyone enamoured of figuring out her identity. That is, until Jade discovers Alina by mere accident and attempts to recruit her into Silver Sword, barring that if she does so, her job as a receptionist is over. So, this well-kept secret remains much of the relationship between the two, though for some weird reason it gives him the chance to woo her after falling in love at first sight, though Alina clearly doesn't give him the day of her life with her constant avoiding and yet too much jealousy when he sees Alina being chased by other men. This secret is also soon known by the few who witnessed her courage to help restore Iffole out from danger, though her privacy is rather well-kept and out of interference.

Still, with this much infodump, there's reason to care enough for Alina and the Silver Sword members, each with their genuine struggles, either coming from past adventurer parties or just not being strong enough to protect loved ones...even the shipping of Alina and Jade as they come to respect and even help out each other (though it's Jade helping out with the receptionist's work as always). The villains are a bit of a joke, though the dark gods are not ones to be trifled with, with their god-level powers trumping just about anyone.

I don't know about you, but I just don't feel that GiriMasu is CloverWorks at its best, being mostly an outsourced project work that was initially scheduled to be released last year, but got delayed to this Winter season. Yes, there is Aniplex at the heart of the problem, and the animation here is not as clean as, say, the studio's usual styling. I'm going to assume that the priority landed somewhere else.

The music feels decent at best, though it really didn't inspire much confidence. 310's OP in movie cinematic quality is fine and all, but at least Akari Nanawo's ED has quite a fun put into it with DDR-esque dance and rhythm.

To become an adventurer or suffer through endless piles of paperwork, that is the question. To see GiriMasu embrace workplace exploitation in a fantasy world that's just as realistic as it gets for cutting costs and manpower, it takes a delicate balance to know if the show is any good or not. Likewise, the anime has its clear issues (like stereotypical villains) and reeks of bad writing, but this is a show that you have to put on a weighing scale to see if the good outweighs the bad (and vice versa).

Relatable, but to a degree that smokes fiction from reality.