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[Spoiler-free should-you-watch review of the entire series]

86 was honestly pretty dang solid. It wasn’t my favorite anime, but it had some cool themes and mostly attractive visuals. 86 had a story to tell and knew when to end, which I can respect.

As a story, it reminded me a lot of Gundam’s Iron Blooded Orphans, but with a much heavier hand. A bit science fiction, a bit dystopian, some fun military structure, and a very in-your-face sense of moral superiority. The anime is not very smart or subtle, and they really beat you over the head with the commentary—this is where the second half comes in. ... While the first half has some pretty weak writing, the second half does a bit more with the world, asks some more interesting questions, and overall sounds less like it was part of a power fantasy shower argument. In exchange, however, you lose out on the personal dynamics of the first season, so it can feel a bit like two separate shows.

86 suffers from *general narrative nonsense,* and you sometimes have to be satisfied knowing that “this is just the way the world is”, rather than expecting things to be justified or explained. This style of hand-waving is an issue I have with a lot of modern anime, so I don’t hold it too hard against 86 in particular, but the series does suffer a little for it. I mostly just felt robbed of the worldbuilding; most of what’s included in 86 is very surface-level, which is ostensibly an exchange for the importance of their character development, except *that too* leaves something to be desired. All that said, the story is pretty satisfying, if unusually focused.

Appearance-wise, 86 looks quite nice, aside from the heavy use of 3D. The characters are attractive, the environments (when they aren’t big empty fields) are nice, and the non-mech action is perfectly fine. On the other hand, the mech fight sequences are *clean*, but ultimately kind of unappealing and lacking in character. I’ll admit, they do a pretty good job considering how clunky the 3D in other anime usually is, but it still doesn’t feel *right*. I know that some anime studios have figured out how to emulate Pixar-level motion, but they’re still few and far between considering that 3D is usually used as a cost-cutting measure.

So yeah, I’d recommend watching it. It’s short enough to be low risk, and if you really can’t stand the unsubtle morality bait in the beginning, know that it gets a bit more self-reflective in the latter half.

[Spoiler-free should-you-watch review of the entire series]

This show is *very* okay. I wouldn't say it does anything particularly well except for animation--the animation is great, lots of hand-crafted rough edges that make it really interesting to watch. Outside of that, it's a silly anime with a silly premise that tries to leverage its simple plot to evoke an emotional response. It's not bad, but because it's not very strong at anything except for visuals, I don't find myself jumping to recommend it to anyone.

The humor is weaker than One Punch Man, despite the premise being similarly nonsensical, which I found disappointing. There were very few ... times I was truly laughing, it was mostly internal acknowledgements of how silly something was. Because of its premise, Mob Psycho struggles to maintain tension, particularly in the first season, because there just aren't any stakes. It's kind of strange to watch an action/superpower show with the emotional weight of a slice of life anime, which is admittedly quite unique. Over time the plot explores different points of tension, but ultimately Mob Psycho has trouble getting much distance from this core problem.

Does the writing get better? Yes. Overall, it's fine, particularly considering most of the choices seem made with humor in mind. There are some plotlines I liked more than others, but the finale is solid. If Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is "things happening because *something* needed to happen and this might as well be it", Mob Psycho is "things happening because Mob needed an excuse to grow slightly as a character". It's not the best, but it'll do. The finale maintains a consistent feel to the rest of the series, while managing to be a bit more substantial as the plot threads cinch together, and core truths about the characters are explored. Many people would tell you the opposite—that the final season is weaker and more superfluous. Your feelings on this will be up to what you value in the show, and because of the “core problem” I explained above, I think this final season contains some of Mob Psycho’s best narratives.

The animation is awesome, yes. Lots of detailed sequences, plenty of interesting techniques on display, vibrant and colorful imagery… The character designs aren't my favorite, but you can't really blame the studio for that. The opening and closing animations are cool, and the songs are fine--good, even. One of my favorite parts was the unnerving buzzing sound they use; it was effective enough that I never got tired of it. For a premise and plot that didn’t excite me all too much, the studio really pulled their weight in trying to push the anime over the top.

So should you watch it? Yeah, I suppose if you’re already here you’re interested enough. I wouldn’t blame you if you put it down at some point, but it’s good enough to be worth a try.

[Spoiler-free should-you-watch review for both movies]

I’ll be brief, because I absolutely love the Gurren Lagann series, and my review (which I haven’t written yet to date) would probably read something like “I don’t care who you are, stop what you’re doing and just watch it.”

These movies are are fundamentally a retelling of the same story. They are very good, but 90% or more of them are just reused parts of the show. There are some new sequences they added, and some changes in the plot, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend. However, I do *not* recommend the movies as an introduction to ... the story.

In short, these movies don’t have enough time to do many of the characters and plotlines justice. Instead, they work best as a second viewing, allowing you to fully appreciate the changes, and take in the fantastic newly animated portions. These movies are for *current* Gurren Lagann fans, not for *prospective* Gurren Lagann fans. I’ll admit, the show does have a bit of filler that the movies carefully prune, but even still, the series is the superior narrative experience, particularly for first-timers.

So watch the show, and in a year when you’re craving some drill action, watch the movies. You won’t be disappointed.

[Spoiler-free should-you-watch review of the entire first season. HOWEVER: I will vaguely describe this show’s content transgressions. Trigger warning for sexual assault involving children]

Japan, please. Please stop. I can’t handle many more shows with great production and compelling direction that ruin themselves by sexualizing kids and trivializing rape.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a show where I wanted less of the protagonist. My problem with him is my problem with the premise: a 34-year-old shut-in dies and is reincarnated as a baby in a fantasy dimension, keeping his memories and knowledge. So far, this is classic Isekai territory, although I personally find the whole ... “keeping memories reincarnation” part pretty compelling. This show, however, “shakes it up” by making the protagonist an absolutely disgusting human being. I’m not just talking about how I personally find his attempts at humor cringey and lame. The show jumps in an out of plotholes to satisfy his embarrassing nerd culture quips, and while I really don’t like them, I tolerate them. HOWEVER, the protagonist in this show, as a 34 year old mind inside a growing newborn body, actively engages in what I can only describe as the sexual assault of most of its female cast: both adults *and children*. In fact, a scene very early on seems to heavily imply he’s a serious deviant, likely an outright pedophile. His saving grace is that this is unclear, but it’s not much of a saving grace.

He sees a 5 year old girl and thinks “man she’s gonna be hot when she grows up, can’t wait to have sex with her”. *Very* early in the show, he sexually assaults a 9-year-old. In fact, the show heavily features sexual assault for comedic value, and doesn’t even have the decency to pretend like it’s an accident. These characters know what they’re doing, they’re happy about it, and the show celebrates their behavior by slapping them on the wrist and asking the audience “isn’t it funny?”. It’s gross, and it sucks, and it nearly made me stop watching. The *real* saving grace of the show is that as the characters develop and the plot thickens, the pedophilia and rape slows down. But as it stands, no amount of good writing can make up for this.

No matter how old the characters get, Jobless Reincarnation can not outgrow its beginnings about a 34+ year old man in a child’s body fulfilling his sexual fantasies on children and young teens. It’s baffling to me that this anime has something so heinously wrong with it that I don’t even feel the need to mention the child in the succubus outfit, or the upskirts on kids, or the way that kids are told that they’ll grow up to be sex objects. It feels stupid to mention them when the protagonist sexually assaults people with intent and malice. I cannot in good conscience recommend this show to *anyone*. Period. Nothing I say beyond this point will change that.

The slightly lesser crime Jobless Reincarnation commits is that all of this disgusting behavior is completely unnecessary. The parts of the plot that are good are good *in spite* of these trespasses. You could *easily* remove all of that content from the show and it would be substantially better without being much shorter. In fact, the protagonist is two distinct characters haphazardly mashed together: a sweet, intelligent and considerate little boy, and a disgusting 34 year old pedophile. The boy is kind and tender-hearted, but his “inner monologue” is revolting. These two characters do not exist together, and it’s incredibly jarring when they swap back and forth, but the show desperately wants you to believe they’re the same person. They try to garner sympathy for him by showing his past life and how he was bullied and sexually assaulted. So when it happens to a guy, as a part of bullying, we should have sympathy? It should justify his behavior? But when *he* does it by leveraging his situation or his power or someone else’s vulnerability, we’re supposed to laugh it off? They’re not supposed to be viewed as victims, only he is. How can the writing be *that* oblivious?

For a show that heavily features redemption as a theme, it makes sense to have a flawed protagonist, but this is something else entirely. They do a decent job exploring the idea of redemption with other characters, but with Rudy it just completely falls flat. It’s not redemption for him, it’s vindication. He gets everything he feels he was deprived of in his past life, for free, without learning anything, without changing his perspective. He continues to get away with murder (figuratively speaking), and neither he nor the show sees anything particularly wrong with that unless he’s immediately punished for it, *and sometimes not even then*. Rudy is internally conflicted, but the way it’s presented he’s very much still a scumbag, in an unforgivable way. Again, I want him to a scumbag, but it really should not be so much to ask that he’s not an active child rapist. Just no.

The art is fantastic—some of the fight scenes absolutely blew me away with astounding Sakuga. And the pacing is wonderful, I almost never felt like we weren’t learning something important or going somewhere cool. The worldbuilding develops interesting consequences and surprising opportunities for character development, and hell, the dub is great. I am *seriously* impressed by Studio Bind; the production value of this anime was so good that it kept me from walking away when I was screaming at the main character to shut up. But good god is the show disgusting, and that’s what’s so frustrating about this whole situation; the show is a stark mix of *really* good and *really*, *really* bad.

To me, Jobless Reincarnation is two separate shows, just like Rudy is two separate characters: one is a compelling fantasy show with all the positive qualities I just listed, and the other a horrible sex crime show. I feel like an asshole for wanting to see what happens in the first one, because they keep interjecting scenes from the second. It’s almost heartbreaking. I eagerly await the day that someone makes a fancut and trims all the rotten, rotten fat, because the show is bloated with infection, and no one should support that. No one.

Flip Flappers is a strange anime that I bailed on when I first gave it a shot in 2017. I thought it was a mildly interesting anime with great art but completely insufferable dialogue—you will surely notice that the two main characters scream each others’ names back and forth over and over again for large portions of the show.

I came back six years later, and I’m not entirely sure why. Did I feel bad that I didn’t give it a real shot? Did I want it to be better than it was? Well, unfortunately for 2017 me, I stopped on the episode *just before* it ... started getting interesting. I’ll give you this piece of advice: make sure you give it 3 or 4 episodes just to be safe. It’s not that the show *fundamentally changes* or anything, but they really rush you into the premise during the first two episodes, and it takes a while to build up to the meaty bits.

So, what’s good about Flip Flappers? The art is fantastic. The character designs can be a little odd, but it doesn’t take long to get used to. Papika and Cocona explore some *wildly different* environments over the course of the show, and all in all they do a great job keeping everything looking fresh and interesting. The animation is fun, and they really flex their cartooning muscles throughout the series.

In addition, I’d say they do a good job with their mostly episodic plot. Some individual episodes I found to be special and impactful, and they do make a reasonable attempt to tie things together through foreshadowing and metaphor and these intangible themes that carry between episodes. The symbolism and meaning is easily confused for pure irreverence because of how well they’re able to do both at the same time. When it works, it’s great.

I don’t *love* the plot, though. My main criticism is that I wish they did a more consistent job tying the surreal mind-bending themes and environments to tangible truths in their “real world”. They do often, but other times they kind of phone it in and just let it be crazy for crazy’s sake. And this is totally personal preference; if you don’t mind that, then you’ll probably love it. But to me, some things need to be earned, and Flip Flappers takes a lot of narrative elements for granted that I wanted to see them build with honest work. Because of that, I didn’t come away completely satisfied. Also, if you’re watching in English, I’ve never loved Sentai Filmworks’ dubs. They have some good actors, but the direction clotheslines them.

Lastly, hate to bring it up, but I really wish the show didn’t push the sexualization of kids. Look, there are times where the adolescents are sexualized and I *got it*. It felt deserved, like these girls were learning things about themselves, exploring aspects of their personalities that they really hadn’t until now. But then the character designers get kind of greedy and really push it. From there, it rides in that typical anime “these girls are probably too young for this” zone… until the little girl shows up in the high-waisted spaghetti strap v-cut thong with a generous inch of fabric covering her genitals between her otherwise completely exposed midsection and upper thighs. There’s just no need for that, seriously. The show has adults, the show has young teenagers, and then there’s this kid—there is no question as to what’s going on here. It’s not good.

But hey, if you can ignore that last part, it’s a 13 episode series with unique art, and some good themes that they touch on here and there. It’s also a magic girl show so it has that going for it, I suppose.

What a show. Kuuchuu Buranko takes you on a bizarre tour of the mental illness pervading the surprisingly small world surrounding Irabu's hospital. If unconventional art puts you off, this certainly will. If surreal and unexplained metaphorical shifts in an anime's reality would distract or bother you, this is not the anime for you. Kuuchuu Buranko is about desires and fears and things that get in our way, and it takes many artistic liberties when trying to get its point across. The only way I could imagine someone saying it's boring is if they were so overwhelmed that they just tuned it out.

The art direction ... is nuts. If you've seen Mononoke, it won't surprise you that they share a studio. The colors and patterns clash harshly, there are pictures of real places, real human people, anime characters interwoven with pictures of real people, puppets made of pictures of real people, puppets made of pictures of anime characters, nightmarish perspective changes… it is absolutely something to look at. You might hate the style, but you have to respect that they were balls-to-the-wall going for it. It takes a little bit to get fully used to, but after a while it feels natural, and I really enjoyed the visual contrast. The style also supports the narrative quite well; these choices are anything but form-over-function.

Kuuchuu Buranko is almost purely episodic, with minor exceptions. As I mentioned, the world of Kuuchuu Buranko is remarkably small, and there's usually a handfull of tie-ins between episodes, if you're paying attention. Some episodes are more directly related than others, but ultimately they stand alone very well. Although I enjoyed the small nods to continuity Kuuchuu Buranko had to offer, I can't help but compare it to a similar series with a more refined construction: The Tatami Galaxy. Not only do I prefer when the episodes come together a bit more, but Kuuchuu Buranko is also a little too straightforward in the way it approaches its subject matter. I would have preferred a bit more subtlety to complement the artistry.

The tone, the storytelling, the general direction… it's all pretty sweet. They do a great job finding unique ways to convey the experience of these disorders to the audience. Irabu himself is also quite absurd, but the reactions of those around him provide a compelling contrast that grounds the show to reality. You can see his patients having these moments of thinking "well, he *is* the doctor here, maybe there's more to this", allowing them to tolerate his strangeness. It's a great dynamic that helps you contrast his absurdity to his patients' absurdity to the everday person, asking the question "what makes something a problem?". The voice work does a great job accenting this, and the only things I found to be hokey were some of the pictures of real faces.

Who gets sexualized in Kuuchuu Buranko? Mayumi, an adult, human woman. Also a handful of adults in an episode exploring sexual frustration. Love it. There's this fetishy stuff that Irabu does with injections, but it's a totally different animal from your typical anime titillation; its function in the show is almost like an avant-garde magic girl transformation. Luckily it's hard enough to explain that it's also really difficult to spoil.

So yeah, it's a very unique series, and the ending song is a bop. Because of how strongly episodic it is, I think it works very well as an "every once in a while" watch rather than a binge-watch, but you do you. That's really all you need to know. Check it out.

Spoiler-free should-you-watch review:

I try very hard to avoid hard spoilers, but there are some super soft spoilers in here about the general attitude of characters, the types of content that appear in the show, or some introductory information that we get in the first episode. This is also quite a long review. Consider the final paragraph a TL;DR, and skip to it if this bothers you.

When you find a show that's super popular with a great score, but the top reviews are all "not recommended" you have to ask yourself what's going on. After watching the series, and reading some reviews, I've found my answer: ... most people think the show is well made and enjoyable to watch, but they object to some particular aspect. This is usually a complaint that the show is overrated, or an objection to Marin's character being waifu bait. So I'll start my review with this: the show is really well made overall. I find it kind of disingenuous and bandwagony that there are so many negative reviews; if you're rating something a 2 but suggesting you had a good time watching it, you're struggling to be honest with yourself somewhere in there. I don't necessarily disagree with the complaints, but I would say they're a bit tunnel-visioned.

Though I dislike the name of the show--it's a bit on the nose for the male fantasy angle--Dress Up Darling's focus on cosplay is great. I really enjoy the different angles of exploring beginner costume creation problems, but also researching the anime or game itself, and then the different perspectives of dressing up publicly vs privately… I don't think she show is wildly educational, but it's enough to be quite interesting. The characters have their own reasons to care about cosplay, and we get some great moments based around their insecurities and accomplishments. When we get to see the characters working hard for a goal or opening up about what drives them, Dress-Up Darling can be pretty compelling. This is the first core pillar of the show and IMO the thing that makes it worth watching.

I'll admit, the show looks great. Marin's character design in particular is strong; she has a lot of detail but it's still very clear and distinct. There's occasionally a tender, thin-lined airbrushed-ness to the characters that almost looks like they came out of a shoujo or josei anime. I also really loved the different styles they used when showing us the shows and movies within the universe. It was a joy to watch the more expressive and lifelike animated sequences, but the animation is also kind of weird sometimes. Sure, a lazily drawn hand here or there, but what bothers me most is that some of the gestures look distinctively like they were referenced from a robotically animated 3D model. A lot of anime has taken to 3D shortcuts for background characters, and occasionally for strange or super detailed versions of the main cast--MAPPA is the main studio that comes to mind for this. But Dress-Up Darling is different, and perhaps it's just an evolution of the technology; they'll still look like a 2D character, but they'll move like a wonky 3D character. It's a little too noticeable for my tastes. The fanservice is fanservice in a high school setting; it looks good, but I'm mentally scaling up their ages to account for cultural differences. Other than that, it has a modern dub and none of the characters come off as super fake. The translation has Marin using a lot of "hip phrases" that get the point across with minimal squinting, so I consider that a win.

Dress-Up Darling's romantic shtick is obviously nothing new: awkward loner guy is thrust into a friendship of coincidence with a beautiful and popular girl. I hear a LOT of complaints about Marin, and she provides a good framing to talk about the overarching issues with the show, so here goes…

I'm going to start off quite bold here: I really liked how Marin is first presented. The show is pretty transparent about the main characters' relationship from the first episode; they are both extremely dense in their own ways. Gojou has zero self-esteem, and Marin takes advantage of that in a self-absorbed way. She's not a great person. The show doesn't spell it out or point a finger mind you, but it doesn't hide it. If someone *else* is taking advantage of kindness, Marin is brave and says you shouldn't let people do that to you. When it's *her* requests that are presumptuous and invasive, she conveniently doesn't seem to notice. When Gojou is visibly uncomfortable by her behavior, so much so that onlookers are aware and uncomfortable as well? Either she doesn't notice, or it's his fault. From the very first scene Marin was on camera, I recognized her from my own high school: she's the kind of girl that will just strut up and touch you without asking. She's the kind of girl that will (intentionally or not) leverage her sexuality against a socially awkward guy for favors. She will barge into your house and open all the doors, exploring all the rooms uninvited, like some kind of manic pixie dream asshole. The world exists for her and her alone. And I think that's great. I want to see that character grow. To the show's credit, Marin *does* experience some character development based on that angle. Some, but not much.

But let's talk about convenience. Even nonfiction is curated so that you're reading about the interesting parts of someone's life, rather than the mundane. When you have full control over a story as you do with fiction, it is totally reasonable that your narrative elements will conveniently work in harmony. So lets see an example from Dress Up Darling: Marin is the prettiest/most popular girl in the school, but somehow she's also a huge otaku and openly into erotic games. I don't think this situation is inherently unworkable, just unstable. The problem in Dress Up Darling it that there's no support to counteract that instability. *Is* Marin open about her passion of erotic games? This is speculation from my part, but it's only speculation because we don't ever really see her exist outside the context of Gojou. If she's willing to spill her guts about eroge the second time she encounters this random guy, why would she keep it from her friends and acquaintances?

And speaking of, where are her friends? Example number two: Marin is incredibly popular, and has friends she's playing around with when we meet her, yet it feels like she totally abandons them to start exclusively hanging around this random dude she just met. If I had to guess, maybe she does hang out with her friends and we're only watching the days she hangs out with Gojou. But we never see or hear of her doing it. Every once in a while she'll encounter a friend within the confines of school, but that doesn't really count. On one hand, I like when a show isn't afraid to exclude an unimportant detail. On the other, I wouldn't call it an unimportant detail, she is the super popular hot girl, and Gojou hangs out with his grandpa and makes dolls.

Example three: Marin is canonically model-level gorgeous, and very sociable, but her sexuality takes two mutually exclusive forms. When it's time to tease Gojou, she's a seductress. When it's time to get to business, she's a pure-minded maiden that didn't realize undressing in front of Gojou might make him uncomfortable. In terms of fanservice, the show kind of doubles up: the lucky pervert trope is a way to "innocently" titillate the viewer, and yet Marin *also* disrobes obliviously at a whim. Even as fanservice, it feels like too much; as a character trait, it definitely gives you a bit of whiplash. Not to be presumptuous, but I think the answer here is to fully commit to the tease. For pure fanservice, it would explain why she keeps doing it over and over again, and for her character development, it fits her entitled backstory and gives her chances to have regrets to learn from. I'd eat that up.

All of this is to say that Marin is too many things at once. Without Marin feeling like a real person, we're left with a fantasy day-dreamed up by many a distracted teenager: what if the hottest girl in the school got really close to me because she appreciated my very niche skill that nobody seems to care about? It's okay to want that, and it can be really gratifying to make it work, but it's kind of hollow when it works *inexplicably*.

Now, I do take issue with many of the complaints about Marin, because they refuse to recognize Gojou as a big part of the problem. He is unbelievably dense, and you spend so much time with him as the protagonist that the anime feels like it's slowed to a crawl when he's being stupid about something. He sits there worrying and being insecure while the audience already knows he's being unreasonable, we're just waiting for him to realize it. Marin at least requires some consideration to confirm that she's unrealistic; Gojou is sometimes blindingly impossible. He's a teen boy somehow lost in time, satisfied to paint dolls and sew instead of make friends. He has the exact same eroticism problem as Marin, just reversed: sometimes he's painfully aware of how awkward a sexual situation is from the get go, and sometimes he's oblivious and lets it get way too far. Humans aren't consistent, and Gojou gets lost in his passions, I get that. But he's just as much a "godsend" for Marin as she is for him, it's kind of ridiculous. All that said, they still have desires and personality and things that make me want to know more; these are not unsalvageable characters. They just sometimes get overshadowed by their part in a ludicrous fantasy.

No one should be surprised that the show sexualizes the absolute hell out of Marin. The camera gets into all kinds of naughty positions to catch her entire ass or crotch from under her skirt, or looks up past her bare feet at her bikini'd body. It's usually justified as a way to see what Gojou sees, since he follows the lucky pervert trope--it's weak but I'll let it slide. Then the camera starts showing us the underwear and cleavage of people he can't see. Some shows are just horny, that's cool, it should probably be tagged as ecchi but that's beside the point. My problem is that the eroticism ero-des the strength of the story.

It's weird to say, because so much of the show is centered around that sexualization, but it feels tacked-on because they don't commit to it. The whole being-open-about-liking-eroge thing comes off like just another part of the male fantasy rather than something important to Marin's character. And when you have scenes of people obliviously engaging with pornographic content in front of family members, you have to ask: in what world am I supposed to believe this is happening? I love when an anime has something to say *about* eroticism. But this is just fanservice. Why are we staring at this girl's panties during this phone call? Why is this young girl SPLAYED NUDE in front of us right now? Why are the two main characters so fundamentally dense about sexual tension? To titilate the audience, at the expense of what was already going on. There are many sticky, flushed-red scenes where I consciously thought "this could be skipped and the show would be just as good". If the show were actually about sex, I would be overjoyed. Use the erotic content to tell us something about the characters. But no, it's almost exclusively a tool for engagement here (with like one exception), and that's disappointing.

I wish they would pick a lane. When every possible convenience is taken, we call that greed. I really like when the show has direction and stakes, but it always comes back to this untenable status quo fantasy. As the show progresses, we get more scenes from Marin's perspective that hurt just as much as they help. I want to see even more of her as a person, but the show wants me to to hurry up and root for her already. Marin is so close to a compelling character. I really hope I can look back from future seasons and say that this one was just slow. Because I will watch it, there's enough here that I'm interested. But I'm not without concerns.

If a well-made and somewhat heartwarming show about cosplay sounds up your alley, and you don't mind (or are specifically looking for) fanservice, I recommend it. If you find somewhat weak and convenient characters *absolutely intolerable*, yes, you will want to avoid it. But that's a bit dramatic in my opinion.

Spoiler-free should-you-watch review:

Romantic Killer is sweet. It reminds me of Kaguya-sama with its ham-fisted comedic romance premise, but with a stronger grasp on the romance and drama, and a self-aware reverse harem twist. It's light enough to be *very* bingeable, but heavy enough to make you care when it counts. Nobody is objectified by the lens of the show, no children are casually sexualized, and while the protagonist's hardcore gamer personality can be a little cringey, I don't think it is at all fair to call the show tone-deaf. Maybe it isn't the *freshest* breath of fresh air, but it does smell really good.

From reading ... reviews of other series, I know some people don't sit well with the self-aware use of tropes; you can make fun of tropes, or you can use tropes, but you can't have your cake and eat it too. I don't agree with this, and I think Romantic Killer is a great example of my reasoning. The core premise, as I'm sure you've seen, is that a highschool girl is magically put into a "dating sim" experience against her will, surrounded by hot guys. It clearly takes a strong influence from dating sims and harem anime, but despite putting its characters into similar situations, Romantic Killer maintains a fundamentally different attitude thanks to its main character. Anzu is well aware of these tropes because she's familiar with that kind of game, and although the impetus of the plot is kind of ridiculous and handwavy, her spitefulness gives you a window of realism that peeks into both her personality and the world itself. Sure, the "point" of the premise is to convince her to pursue romance like a typical harem protagonist, but the role reversal allows Romantic Killer to maintain its identity even when submerged in harem shenanigans. It works well.

I also have to say, I quite like the art style, especially the main character's design. It is just quirky enough that it doesn't feel generic, but it's still quite attractive overall. The voice acting for the dub was also good, no complaints except for maybe the weird yellow creature, which I could take or leave. Big props to the performer for Yukana, who I thought had an outstanding performace with a ton of nuance.

The story was great. Yes, it's another high school anime. Yes, it's a reverse harem. But those are just words and labels. The fact is, Romantic Killer takes the time to make you care about its characters and understand their feelings, so when things get kind of dramatic, it matters to you. I suspect the perspective of the main character is what sells me on the romantic elements, but the real meat is in the well-developed drama. The comedy and fantasy did a good job of knowing when to give and take, always in good balance without ruining the pacing or plot (a big problem with similar series). I'm also happy to announce that the comedy wasn't just regurgitated anime character overreactions, there was plenty of setup and payoff, and a good bit of understandable absurdity. I watched, I laughed, I felt some feelings, and while I'd be happy to see more, I'm also pretty satisfied with the story ending where it did.

So that's about it, I'd recommend Romantic Killer to just about anybody, bonus points if you're familiar with corny dating sim tropes.

Spoiler-free should-you-watch review:

The title of this series is, unquestionably, very cool. It's intriguing. I would even argue that the idea the anime is named after is also very cool. Dusk Maiden has some provocative and attractive imagery, and the atmosphere is pretty distinct, but it loves to ruin it with thoughtless use of what I'm going to call "anime nonsense" to rope in a more casual audience. I was initially inspired by some of its concepts, but ultimately Dusk Maiden durdles with them for 12 episodes to poor effect, telling a weak story amid a sea of potential. In much the same way that people ... can't see Yuuko the ghost, the creators of this anime seem to be totally blind to the compelling elements around them, satisfied with the staggering adequacy of their work. The overwhelming positivity of these reviews is kind of shocking to me.

The good? Dusk maiden has a cool art direction. It may technically be a "high school anime", but the setting is unusually ominous, and its abandoned appearance is fairly unsettling. It isn't my favorite artstyle, but it's cohesive, and there are some pretty striking shots. The general premise is also pretty strong, even if they don't do their best to showcase it. It starts off kind of aloof, but develops into something that has me asking a lot of questions and making a lot of guesses, in a good way. I'm also just a big fan of somewhat overt metaphors in anime, especially physical manifestations of a character's emotional or mental ideas. It's an avenue that opens up some fun ways to tell a story, and I'm always happy to see it.

Now, I'm well aware that this sounds crazy, but for a 12 episode series Dusk Maiden has way too much filler. The creators confuse plot and character development with seeing characters do silly little things, and you're left with a plot that doesn't actually go anywhere for a long time. Now, don't get me wrong, it all comes down to the kind of story you want to tell; if Dusk Maiden were a slice of life series, I wouldn't have the same critique. But it's not, and I say that pretty confidently for two reasons: 1) it clearly has a story it's focused on instead, and 2) it's just not good at the slice of life content, there's no way that's the point. That said, the first episode has a great structure and is the only filler-ish episode I thought was executed well. When the plot finally does start up, the show assumes all the filler made you care about the characters, but that's just not how it works; the filler doesn't have the emotional depth to develop those feelings on its own, and there wasn't a lot to care about before the filler started. Now, for clarity, most episodes have tiny bits of information that will be relevant later--the "filler" is padding within the episode, not the episode as a whole. That's kind of worse, though. All in all, there are maybe four or five episodes worth of content total. The OVA, if you're wondering, is filler.

So that's not great, but can you still salvage some value from the filler? The answer: eh. If you're desperate for fanservice, this series loves to give the ghost excuses to disrobe, and the the protagonist follows the lucky pervert trope, accidentally grabbing the ghost's boobs all the time. When the filler isn't fanservice, it's one of two jokes: 1) the main character freaking out because of fanservice, or 2) the ghost is a quirky prankster. I wouldn't call this series funny because the humor is generally pretty weak, and I wouldn't call it sexy because the fanservice is transparent and eye-roll-inducing.

Don't get your hopes up, though--once the filler is over, they don't do their own themes justice. The show needs a little more self-awareness, a little more sense carved into the plot, something to ground this strange world to ours. Dusk Maiden does an okay job with its setup-and-reveal style of mystery, where early details that resemble unassuming anime tropes are later explained through the plot. But it's sort of a weird effect, since it starts you off with the uninteresting part. Sure, that's a weird choice, but the worst thing about Dusk Maiden is that it squanders its premise; such a small amount of its interesting concept is explored that you can only be left with disappointment. This is not to say that the show is obtuse, because it's quite the opposite; Dusk Maiden revels in overexplaining its incredibly simple plot. Hell, it spends an entire "story-focused" episode on what amounts to like one minute's-worth of new information. Watching Dusk Maiden is like experiencing a bizarre form of sleep paralysis; you just have to sit there and watch great ideas stagnate. Imagine giving someone a ride in your luxury sports car, but instead of letting them explore any of its luxury features, you keep pointing out basic features that every other car also has. Dusk Maiden's many inspired concepts are staring you down, but the director keeps shoving played-out anime tropes in your face. Again, there are about 4 episodes-worth of an interesting story in there, and they do prod at some compelling ideas, they just don't do anything great with them.

Lack of character development isn't the only problem; they're also pretty uninspired to begin with. You tell me, though, which genre does this sound like? An unremarkable guy with very little personality gets put into a situation where he is surrounded by group of pretty girls (and only girls) that are all romantically interested in him for no good reason. Surprise, it's a harem anime! The girls also fail the Bechdel test pretty hard, and the majority of the show is either the ghost behaving lewdly and flirting with the main character, or the side characters being jealous and wishing their bodies were different to attract a guy. There isn't much that makes them feel like people, let alone different from the side characters in every generic anime ever. The one exception is Yuuko, the ghost. She is the reason this anime exists, and is the only one with an actual story to tell. I don't love her character, but it was easily the best in the series.

Speaking of the romance aspect, would you like to know a big pet peeve of mine that Dusk Maiden suffers from? When a show spends no time developing a romance, but then they want the romantic payoff to happen, so they outsource all the missing character development to something quick and easy like evocative imagery or a loaded phrase. The romance had incredible potential because of the premise, and they seemed to be aware of this when building up the plot. Unfortunately, like I said earlier, the creators seem totally blind to what makes their own plot compelling, and it leaves the series feeling like a weird cash-grab. Why else would they abandon their own ideas for regurgitated content from other profitable anime? The other option is that they genuinely didn't understand their own story, which I find hard to believe. The plot is so weakly justified on a romantic level that it leaves the character motivations as a whole feeling unrelatable.

So yeah. Some cool ideas left by the wayside in favor of boring anime nonsense. Are the 12 episodes worth a watch for what little interesting story there is hidden away in there? No, not really. It is entirely adequate, but I wouldn't say "good", and I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone.

Spoiler-free should-you-watch review:

Elephant in the room: the premise of this anime is that a high school girl has developed feelings for her 45 year old boss. I opted to watch After the Rain after being disillusioned by so many modern anime that sexualize kids and young teens. It seemed like an extreme scenario, one that would be ostensibly indefensible if it happened in the other anime I'd been complaining about. What finally convinced me to look into it were the many reviews that assured me the subject matter was treated well. They were not wrong.

After the Rain's story is like eating pufferfish; poisonous if handled ... improperly, but a delicacy when perpared by someone qualified. After the rain is tender and thoughtful, and it does an incredible job of juggling, just in view of the camera, the clashing perspectives of people with very different life experiences. This series is well aware of the great responsibility it owes its audience when dealing with a story like this, and it does not disappoint. I was never once uncomfortable, except when the show wanted me to be.

I quite like the art style's tenderness, although I think some of the women's eyes are just a smidge too big. Other than that, though, it conveys the mood quite well, and results in some really beautiful shots. Even though the animation can be a little simple at times, it succeeds because their attention to detail makes the world feel alive; After the Rain features some of the strongest wardrobe work in an anime that I've seen, in not just the variety of outfits, but in how they use them to convey mood or desires. Their work with ambient sounds fills out each scene, and the cast for the dub is great, although I noticed (based on the subtitles) that they sometimes left lines out. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, as they were usually extraneous lines and it was probably a deliberate choice to translate the tone, but it's worth noting.

My big gripe with the series is that the story can be a little too spoonfed. While you do need a bit of a discerning eye to see past the premise and to take in the tone from the characters themselves, the series does dissapoint sometimes in how it tries to explain itself to you. There are some heavy-handed metaphors that might be fine left alone, but then a character will narrate it out loud to kind of poor effect. I could see some people really liking that aspect, but I personally thought a more subtle approach to storytelling would have fit the mood better.

I also thought that one perspective of the story felt a lot more relatable than the other. This isn't too surprising given that one of the characters is a 17 year old that makes some rather rash or stubborn decisions. Even so, I would have liked a more well-rounded peek into her romantic perspective. It's tough, because part of that unexplained-ness makes a lot of sense as the plot develops, but I still felt it was missing a *little something*.

But yeah, if you're looking for a soft interpersonal drama about when dreams and reality seem at odds, and you're intrigued by an unconventional theme, please check it out. It was a really nice watch.