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Apr 6, 2025
Tbh, this gave me really strong vibes of the anime equivalent of watching, like, NCIS or Law and Order: SVU (or whatever the medical equivalent of that is... I guess it'd be Chicago Med?). Just something you have on to have on, you know?
I've heard it compared to House MD a lot and as someone who has never seen House, I wouldn't be able to tell you, but it is a medically-focused detective show.
And it's pretty unremarkable.
Any character that isn't the titular Takao might as well not exist because they're pretty unmemorable. I thought Mai (the other female nurse who is supposedly a gal despite
...
being, like, one shade darker than Takao) would be a part of the main cast but she barely matters and is never like officially part of the gang, anyone but Takao and Takanashi are only useful so far as their parts in the story, it is a two character cast and really, Takanashi's only there as The Straight Man so the waifu of the show can shine.
I thought Takao was entertaining enough, I guess, although she's a pretty stock standard QuIrKy character. Despite being a doctor, she doesn't like her vegetables! Breathtaking.
Something about the artstyle was not clicking with me. The presentation as a whole is kind of dry although the "eureka" moment is one of the worst examples I've ever seen. The brain blast is whatever but the song they picked is godawful and sounds like someone trying out a new beatmaking system not knowing anything about music theory. Not to mention Takao "tracing" in the sky along with that... just ugh.
Aimer cooked with the OP tho, did she know she was making this for Ameku MD: Doctor Detective?
How are the mysteries?
I think this is part of the problem with the show. Since it's centered around medical mysteries, you either have to pick from a handful of diagnoses the average anime watcher would know or you just say fuck it and let your medical knowledge shine and have the anime viewers just kind of passively, helplessly watch on, not even being able to guess what thing you're gonna pull out of a medical textbook.
I kind of figured out a couple of them knowing a little bit of medical stuff but, say, the first mystery (which is where the show peaks but still)? Fuck if I know, man. The last mystery was kind of pissing me off because it was Ace Attorney-level kangaroo court (as much as I like that series) where the police detective could've had Jesus Christ himself laser beam proof that the defendant didn't do it and he's like "erm, well, who DID do it then?"
You're really only here for the (hit or miss) mysteries and Takao herself, there's not much else to see here. The only time it made me actually feel something is when there was literally just a child dying of cancer.
If you want to watch medically-oriented detective cases, it is a perfectly decent watch. Do not feel like you have to go out of your way to watch this though.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 5, 2025
I think the most damning thing for me was sitting down, after it was over, and asking myself what I really enjoyed from this anime.
I liked the OP (although Kai's OP is better) and I guess it was vaguely interesting.
But in the middle of the Time Wasting chapter, I just kind of sat there and was like "do I even give a shit anymore"
And I stopped caring after that.
I concede that a lot of this may be fixed if I watched Kai which I probably won't do (I happened to hear Kai's OP before I watched it, so that's why I know that part) but
...
for being the first half of the story, it's not engaging enough for me to want to know what happens in Kai, which I consider a failure.
They write the teenagers to be outright psychopaths. I get they need to believe in the believe that believes in them or whatever but it's hard to like the characters when they're chasing each other around with deadly weapons and hiding secrets from each other because they might stab each other in the back.
The kids aren't much better. Rika's... fine, I guess, she's just kind of cutesy moebait for me. Satoko is kind of annoying, she's either a haughty brat or clinging onto older brother figures.
Speaking of which, Shion.
I do like myself a good yandere but usually, the darling is at least present in the story? You can question the logic as to why the yandere fell in love with the darling but they're at least THERE? Shion's darling pats her on the head, speaks with her a couple of times, and then vanishes from the story, never to be seen again.
And for someone written like Shion, it doesn't make her very sympathetic.
I wasn't a huge fan of how they ordered the story. I assume there's going to be A Certain Reveal in Kai that makes it make more sense (I have my theories but for the sake of spoilers, I won't touch on it) but it still made it a little disorienting to see.
For example, Keiichi does something in the first chapter that would presumably have lasting effects on the story... and then it just doesn't and it couldn't happen with stuff that happens later on in the story but he still has memories of it?
For a story that was already kind of losing me, it did not help in the slightest to be disorienting.
They DO reveal something in this part though and it absolutely baffled me.
They go into how Oyashiro's curse works. And the first explanation makes total sense! I was a little bummed out but I at least understood and we could move on from there. And then they add something onto that explanation that absolutely ruins it for me because it would have been less of a suspension of disbelief if they just never explained it.
My final note on the story is probably fairly obvious if you are more tuned into Higurashi but if you're reading this and know, like, nothing, this only covers the first 6 of 8 chapters.
This is not a standalone story and you DO need to watch Kai if you want any sort of satisfying conclusion. It's clearly set up so you HAVE to watch Kai so don't go in expecting it to be one and done in 26 episodes.
It does have a lot of disturbing imagery if you're squeamish to that.
I don't necessarily think it's a bad anime. I have a lot of issues with it but I was decently entertained enough by it, I guess. I'm probably being too kind with a 6 to be honest but idk, you might enjoy it.
If you want a good horror anime, you could do worse.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 31, 2025
Tatami Galaxy is a show that deeply frustrates me
If I stopped anywhere before Episode 10, I would have written a scathing review (a lot of remnants of which remain in this one) about how much this show sucks and is overrated.
And then it pulls an 11th hour face turn.
This show has a lot in common with Welcome to the NHK for me, a show which I also didn't particularly enjoy, but it's fascinating to compare them for me.
I'll start with the cast.
...
I hate this cast.
The nameless MC (who I guess is named Watashi according to MAL) is a complete and utter jackass. I am pretty sure the show is aware of it but that doesn't make it more enjoyable. He spends the show joining random clubs for his "rose-colored campus life" so he can get a "raven-haired maiden" (ick) and fucking it up because he's, as mentioned before, a jackass. He then meets Ozu and has a passing glance at Akashi, blah blah blah, then he goes "man, life sucks, I want a redo" and time rewinds.
It is infinitely frustrating to see Watashi's love quest for a Boyfriend-Free Girl because bro, hello? I get the fortune teller was telling him all along to just hit that, but it makes it no less frustrating. Would you want to sit next to some guy going "ha ha, damn, bro, I need me a goth baddie" all while he's getting AirDropped nudes from said goth baddie? It's not like she's ugly or has a bad personality or has some other factor (like she's too young or she's in another country or she's already engaged) at play, he's just a chickenshit.
Not to mention he's such a bitter dick that he goes around trying to break up couples. Opening with the first episode where he and Ozu are actively trying to break up couples ruined any chance of me wanting to see Watashi succeed in his quest. He never really repents for that either, he's just rewarded with Akashi's love for no real reason.
Speaking of Akashi... you'd think for being the biggest person on the poster, she'd actually, you know, BE IN THE STORY. Did Maaya Sakamoto take a piss on Masaaki Yuasa's flowers (ignore the fact that this is based on a novel where presumably the fictional character of Akashi pissed on the author's flowers)? She's hardly in the story except for, like, the cycling episode. Other than that, he's just like "oh yeah, I met Akashi at [place], she sure exists". He literally goes OUT OF HIS WAY to say "oh yeah, you don't really want to see me with Akashi, I wouldn't want to waste your time" like huh???
We have time for you to join a cult and abduct sex dolls but not for you to have an extended interaction with the fucking deuteragonist?
It's so dumb too because he's all whiney about his Love Quest when he has had a BUILT-IN excuse to talk to her for YEARS.
Since she gets so little time, we barely get any time to know her either. She likes the funny Mochiguman mascots, she hates moths... she's called "unsociable but kind-hearted" and I guess unsociable fits given the little we see her but we barely get any time to see her be kind-hearted because she's BARELY IN THE STORY.
Our last "main" character is Ozu. He's an unrepentant piece of shit and takes the "traditional" role of the antagonist, so whatever, fine, I don't mind him. I guess if you put a nuclear bomb to my head, I'd say he's my "favorite" character since he at least has an excuse to be a piece of shit and I do like how he turns out in the last couple episodes. I almost kind of wish he was gay for Watashi but I don't mind where they went with him instead.
I only really want to talk about 2 of the side characters because I don't really have all that much to say about, like, Higuchi or Hanuki.
Jougasaki at least made enough of an impression of me to mention him. Idk, I think they should've picked between "boob fiend" and "clean freak" because the fact that he's obsessed with boobs but also has a love doll because he's a clean freak, it kind of mixed like oil and water for me. You can have a boob fiend (not that I'd like that but, I mean, you can) OR you can have a guy who is in love with a love doll but it never really clicked for me.
The other character I want to mention is, of all people, Johnny.
Fuck this character. I didn't want to hear Uzu Sanageyama himself yelling at top volume about how much he needs Watashi to take advantage of a drunk girl or a love doll (that isn't even his). I saw Johnny in the OP and thought a cartoony cowboy would be so funny but it's just a euphemism for Watashi's junk which whatever.
Not a single character in this cast invoked positive feelings for me and it made the show unbearable to watch.
As such, the WaCkY shenanigans they get up to in the likes of the cycling or softball episodes didn't really land for me. They then spend 3 episodes kind of treading the stomping grounds of the same scenario but from three different angles to the point where 2 of the 3 clubs of those episodes are little more than setups for how he got in a certain situation, even more than the usual throwawayness of the club.
However, around the tenth episode (of 11, mind you), it actually starts turning around.
Near the end of the ninth episode, they get to the point of the show: there is no rose-colored campus life, even if you fail and do some dumb shit, you're still the person you are today and you've gotta live with that.
The tenth episode plays with the nihilistic interpretation of this but the positive interpretation (yeah, you won't and can't have a perfect life no matter what situation you're in, you just have to go forth and make the best of what you can) actually really hit home for me.
I mentioned Welcome to the NHK and while I preferred watching that show if nothing else than because I liked the cast (Misaki aside, although even to HER credit, at least she's IN the story and has a personality and has some sort of reason to fall for the MC, not to mention reasons for the MC to rebuff her advances if he so chose) more, I didn't really "get" anything out of it. Yeah, his life sucked, but it's not like I aspired to be a hikikomori in the first place, not to mention I wasn't really a fan of how that show ended.
With Tatami Galaxy, it kind of hit home as someone who has been to college (not that I think you need to have gone for it to hit home) and, by definition, lived some kind of campus life.
Which is why, despite the low score (which would usually warrant a "Not Recommended"), I'm giving it a Mixed Feelings.
As a side note, I really enjoyed the direction. The visuals aren't exactly "stunning", but they are unique and look good. I felt it enhanced the qualities of the anime more than a more traditional look would have, especially with all the unique stuff Yuasa did. I'll never knock a show for having the guts to have a unique look (although if I don't like the look, I'll still say that).
I loved how the end of the episode looped into the ED, that was just perfection.
But yeah.
I hated watching the vast majority of the show, it was insufferable to get through, but I think the message was worthwhile (even if I do have a couple gripes about how Watashi's life ended up in the end).
I can't in all good consciousness recommend it wholeheartedly because I hated the process of watching it, but I would recommend checking it out because of what it's trying to say.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Mar 30, 2025
Fantastic show with just a couple bumps
I think the cast is very well-done. Tsukasa aside, the coaches are kinda whatever. I liked Ema's coach, Yudai Jakuzure, but tbqh none of the other coaches left much of an impact on me. There's one that has a more "traditional" antagonist role but he just kind of stands there ~menacingly~ for most of the show so *shrug*.
Cast-wise, who I really want to talk about are the kids.
I think Inori's really cute and a nice protagonist. She can be a bit of a pessimist when it comes to her own performances and capabilities but I never found it annoying,
...
especially since Tsukasa is there. She and Tsukasa have a really good, nice coach-student dynamic going on, especially since you can see where Tsukasa is coming from.
Doing shows with little kids in them is hard because you have to make them sound like little kids and not like some adult's writing the words they're saying. I personally never really felt that with Inori, she seemed like she was acting her age.
I think Inori's attitude leads to the first thing that you could hold against Medalist: there's a lot of drama.
I personally didn't mind, I found it a really moving anime, but especially the beginning when Inori has to convince her mom to let her skate can be gutwrenching and potentially even uncomfortable.
I would say I teared up during at least half the episodes, it can be a very emotional anime when it wants to be.
As for Tsukasa, I've heard complaints that in the Japanese dub, he's very screamy. I can see why, it could be annoying if you're particularly sensitive to that. I wasn't annoyed but I can see why someone would be.
I think the side cast has some good characters too.
Rioh comes into his own as a nice, strong character that can stand alongside Inori and Tsukasa. They kind of quickly build him up from "side character C", which is impressive in its own right. Hikaru is a nice, friendly rival and goal for Inori to reach, I like her a lot and think she has one of the best skating scenes in the show. My personal favorite, however, is Mittens (Ryoka Miketa). Her friendship with Inori is cute and I really liked her conflict. It made me really want to root for Mittens, not to mention for her to make stronger bonds with her friends and coach.
Speaking of the skating, I'm kind of between two schools of thought about it.
On one hand, it does look pretty good. I wouldn't say it's the best 3D animation I've ever seen but it looked pretty good and I was always excited to see another skating scene, even if it wasn't necessarily tied to a plot beat I was attached to.
On the other hand, the rest of the show is in 2D. It always kind of threw me off/distracted me to see them suddenly go 3D for the skating when before and after, they'd be in 2D. It kind of announces out loud to the world that they either couldn't or didn't want to adapt the ice skating scenes into 2D. In a certain sort of way, even though I think the 2D animation is perfectly fine, I almost kind of wish the whole show was in 3D so at least the skating wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.
My other big issue is there's a small timeskip which I guess it makes sense story-wise but even a montage covering that middle period would have been better than what they did. It feels like a lot of Inori's development was skipped over so they could hit a nice, clean ending for E13. I mean, she was already a decent skater right before the timeskip but I don't know, I was a little disappointed to see it existed.
I do have my gripes with Medalist and I think there are a few more if you're less charitable to the show but I think it's a cute yet moving show. This was a show I picked out of the depths of the seasonals because it sounded at least a little interesting and it ended up being my AOTS. The kids are adorable and well-written, the skating is fun to see, I thought the drama was well-done (at least I was personally touched by it).
If you're reading this review, I assume you're probably at least a little interested in Medalist. In that case, I say go for it. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 27, 2025
This show is way too short for how much they try to fit in.
Short shows, even shows half the size, have gotten high scores, even 10s from me, but they tended to have a better sense of scope.
A Key work, Kanon (2006) is twice the length and Clannad (in total) is roughly 4 times the length so I get the feeling that they were more used to writing lengthier works than this 13 episode size.
And it shows in every aspect of the story.
There are way too many characters that serve as nothing but warm bodies and occasional comedic relief. TK? Judo guy (Matsushita is his
...
name, apparently, I just called him Five/Fifth)? Takamatsu? Ooyama? I genuinely can't tell you ONE character trait about Fujimaki other than he can't swim and that was a one-off gag.
The story is also held together by tears, glitter glue, and leftover tape.
So, they're in Purgatory, right?
Uh huh.
They're mad at God for giving them crappy lives when they were alive so they're gonna rebel.
Okay, with you so far.
So they're gonna kill this Angel.
Here's the problem.
How did they know this would work?
The main characters cannot die so why would they assume that an agent of God could? Even if she COULD die, why would God not just send more Angels after them?
Their way of trying to kill her is stupid too.
The vast majority of them are carrying around guns, which is a solid strategy... for an enemy that doesn't have a "fuck you, deflect bullets" spell. And their strategy for the entirety of the battle with Angel is to fire guns at her, even though it clearly doesn't work.
Their way of "rebellion" also seems very sketchy.
So, if you obey Angel and have a fun school life, you get "obliterated" and reborn (which is much less of a threat than it comes across as, they bring up the fact that you could be reborn as something totally shitty like once).
Okay, sure, fine.
But you're telling me they're NOT having fun?
I guess they aren't doing their academics but they do a baseball tournament, hold concerts for the "normal students", go fishing, it all seems very convenient that being obliterated doesn't concern any of these things.
The timeline also seems way off.
Our main character wakes up at the beginning of the series as fresh meat, a new entry into Purgatory. But there are people who have canonically died AFTER him who were in Purgatory before him for a significant period of time. What, was God busy the day the MC died or something?
They have to rush character relationships (for the characters they even bother to develop at all, see above) because of the short runtime and it makes it seem so artificial. I'm trying to be as spoiler-free as I can but a lot of the relationships, romantic or not, don't feel that fleshed out because there are like 20 named people in the Battlefront. Why does Noda like Yuri? Hinata claims Judo Guy is his "bosom buddy" but how many scenes do we get with them? Hell, Judo Guy just fucks off to the mountains for a couple episodes, he is so unimportant.
There's this running subplot (well, it's tied in with the main plot but they are their own team within the Battlefront, so I'll call them a subplot) with the rock band and I think it would be cool but Yui is around the main squad so much, she doesn't really feel all that attached to the band. I think that would've been a solid plotline to work off of but even when she talks about her dreams, the band isn't first, second, third, or even fourth. It's to the point where why did they even bother making Yui a part of the band at all?
The last couple episodes were kind of not very good. A show where you are fighting God has to inherently make God a pretty big threat if you're taking it seriously. The problem with Angel Beats is (among other things) that the main characters cannot die and being "obliterated" isn't really that much of a threat. If their soul was DESTROYED or something, that'd be one thing, but they're just being reborn, which seems like a pretty fair deal to me. I can't really say much more about God without spoilers but it's not very good.
I did give this a decent score, so what did I like about it?
As with the other Key anime I've seen so far, the music is pretty good. As mentioned above, there's a rock band and we do get a few songs out of them, we even get LiSA to sing on a couple tracks. The OP is a banger and both the OP and the ED have so many cool little touches as the episodes go by. One of my favorite parts is when they scroll through the Angel Beats logo and you can see a preview of the episode you're about to watch. The opening movie is one of my favorites, it's simple but Kanade playing the piano throughout the OP is just spectacular work.
It can be really funny when it wants to. Some of the characters (like TK and the guy who INSISTS you call him Christ) flop and there are a couple running gags I could do without, but overall, I was satisfied with the amount of laughter I got from the show.
I wasn't sobbing or anything (the final episode especially only got me in the OP at the beginning, the episode itself was kind of a bore) but it did manage to make me tear up a little bit and I suppose that does deserve its props for a show like Angel Beats famous for that.
It has a really cool premise, even if it doesn't really get to flesh it out as much as I would've hoped.
Should you watch it?
I dunno, I was entertained.
Will I forget everyone's name except Kanade's in a week? Probably. Will I tear up remembering this show? I doubt it. Did I enjoy it? I guess so.
This show needed more episodes and more time. As is, it crumbles under the weight of its ambition.
Give the OP a listen though. Best thing from this show by miles.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 21, 2025
--- note: I consider this review to be incomplete without mentioning a certain plot point around Episode 14. I guess spoilers abound but I mean, I couldn't talk about one of the big 3 members of the cast without mentioning it ---
A pretty paint-by-numbers shounen romance with a little sports (and I do mean A LITTLE) thrown in
So, I watch the table of contents for Weekly Shounen Jump, right
Analyze what's on the chopping block, new series to keep an eye on, etc.
For a while, there hasn't been a big sports hit (despite manga I was quite fond of like Martial Master Asumi and Green Green
...
Greens) and one of the reasons that I've heard is that Blue Box might be the "sports" niche.
I kind of accepted that when I wasn't reading it but watching the anime, if that's true, wow, it sure is a suck-ass niche.
Watching Blue Box for the sports is like watching Bleach for the romance (no offense to Bleach).
It's barely even there, more of a backdrop for the romance.
You can tell the level of priority each character in the main triangle (more on that in a second) is given by how much attention their sport is given.
Hina's rhythmic gymnastics might as well not even exist. Chinatsu's basketball is given a little more attention but that's just because there's one character who isn't Chinatsu that you can name from the basketball team. Taiki's badminton is easily given the most focus of the 3 but it's still a very, very mediocre adaptation of badminton.
It never really connects to the romance side either. Like, Hina tweaks her ankle and Taiki carries her once. It technically sets the whole thing in motion because Taiki and Chinatsu are On That Grind together and see each other at practice. But you could easily rewrite this to not be about sports at all and make it about the drama club or the student council or professional Super Smash Bros.
Why they didn't use this as an opportunity to introduce love rivals is beyond me. It'd be one thing if they didn't introduce love rivals at all, but they do and they just do not use the sports to their advantage. They kind of tease it with Haryu for about 0.2 seconds and they technically introduce some basketball guy for Chinatsu but they are absolutely 0 threat and are swiftly resolved.
Idk if the editor is making the mangaka add all these rivals before wimping out but whoever is doing this, stop it.
There's no real excitement to any of the games either. The badminton is really the only one that gets any extra amount of focus, there's like one basketball game and it's interlaced with whatever Taiki and Hina are doing at the time. But I never really got that impression compared to something like Eyeshield 21 or Blue Lock (which, granted, are both team sports, compared to badminton) that there was a lot of thought going on during the games, there's certainly a lot less animation compared to something like Blue Lock S1. They just kinda hit the shuttlecock around until someone wins and yeah, that sure is badminton, but you could try and make it a little more exciting.
The stakes also don't feel as high because it has to share the spotlight with the romance. Going back to Blue Lock, if you lose, your dream's over. You might as well quit playing soccer if you are kicked out of Blue Lock. With Blue BOX, it doesn't really feel that urgent if Chinatsu blows out both her knees and has to retire because Taiki and Chinatsu can just have a happy life as salaryman and housewife or whatever.
If the sports aren't good, how's the romance?
Fwiw, the first few episodes, it was kind of nice. I was a few episodes behind (I think I was on Episode 8 by the end of 2024) but when I was making my anime of 2024 tier list, I gave Blue Box a prospective 9. I kind of liked it.
And then, for some unknown reason, they go out of their way to make Hina a rival.
It's like being handed an empty fishbowl and they're like "oh, but we'll fill it with cool rocks and nice water and some pretty fish" and like yeah, that's cool. We can work with that.
And then they just drag you over to Xzibit's house and you're like "Bro, I don't even know who this guy is" and he's got some pimpin' fishtank, going basically from the floor to the ceiling, and there's some really awesome fish, maybe even some exotic fish, there's Bluetooth speakers playing Kendrick Lamar, tons of bass, and you're taken home and they're just like "oh yeah, we're gonna go to PetSmart tomorrow and get you a goldfish."
Like why did you take me over to his house and show me this cool-ass fishtank only to slap us back to the fishbowl?
To be less abstract, let's talk a bit about the characters.
First, the MC, Taiki. He... he sure is. If you put in your average harem MC and added a dusting of sports anime MC, that's basically what you get. He's not perverted or anything, he's just kind of bland. Nothing wrong with some Raisin Bran but you basically get what you get with these MCs.
Next, the love interest, Chinatsu. Someone in one of these topics during the show's run brought up Kana/Akane from Oshi no Ko and... yeah. I don't think Hina is as much of an asshole as Kana is (as much as I like Kana), Chinatsu is just Akane if Akane went to therapy. Actually, seeing Chinatsu makes me appreciate Akane more because the whole fishtank thing could easily be Kana vs. Akane too but at least Akane has something going on. Chinatsu is the ~mature~, ~~responsible~~, ~~~a little goofy~~~ (you know that meme where it's a woman in a grocery store with a bag on her head and she's throwing up double peace signs and they're like "she's so crazzzzzzzzzzzzzy, love her!"? That, basically.) one. I'm not going to say she's got no personality and apparently she develops in future seasons (which, I mean, I sure hope so) but the only thing they've done in 25 episodes is make me like her less. (also, she throws a spider without looking out of a second-story window and that's a red flag)
She has to "grow" her love in a flowerpot (this time, the analogy is not mine, this is the show) and, like, great, but it also means you're watching a slow, paint-by-numbers, vanilla romance. That kind of shounen romance that ends with the confession and maybe holding hands.
I did say it was a TRIANGLE though.
They did not have to do Hina like this.
So, when they introduce Hina, she's a bratty little gremlin and that is FINE. That is what she could have stayed as. Going back to Aka Akasaka's works, one of the best parts of Kaguya-sama is Chika Fujiwara. She's a girl. But she is just a force of nature, never getting involved in Kaguya and Miyuki's relationship. It allows people who like her to just like her. No waifu wars, no nothing, Chika is Chika is Chika. It allows Kaguya and Miyuki to develop without the threat of "yeah, but I like that person better" because both Chika and the other main character Yu Ishigami have no interest in Kaguya/Miyuki.
And if they just stayed that path with Hina, she'd be a great character. She IS a great character... but then they make an unforced error and put her directly in the Taiki/Chinatsu path. And, like, she's only a little more of a threat than Haryu or Basketball Guy.
I didn't want Hina/Taiki, there are so many characters she could have been with. Why didn't you put her with Kyo (oh, yeah, they're kind of teasing Kyo with this other girl, I don't like her, Kyo deserves better)? Why didn't you do what I said above and have her date one of Taiki's badminton rivals so at least there's SOME tension and bridge between the sports and romance? Hell, you don't have to have her date anyone at all, that's what Chika did.
But, back to the fishtank thing, if you're going to show me a cool fishtank and then give me some hulking, lumbering, one giant eye Solomon Grundy-ass goldfish in a $5 plastic fishbowl, I mean...
What did this plotline accomplish? It only makes Chinatsu look worse by adding a character who is clear and honest and forthcoming about her feelings.
This show would be a lot better if the "Hina likes Taiki" plotline was never added.
Did I like anything about this show?
- It looks very nice. The artstyle is pleasant and there is some great lighting at times.
- Hina's a cute, funny character. Admittedly, these are my biases showing through (for comparison, my favorite Rent-a-Girlfriend character is Ruka) but she carries the show for me.
It's not awful but I also don't plan on coming back for S2 and it's kind of a disappointment considering how much I liked it at the beginning. It even ends on kind of a sour note, which only reinforces my decision.
If you like your romance anime where Nice, Hardworking Guy meets Nice, Hardworking Girl and they Slowly Fall In Love, you will like this. If you are interested in the sports aspect... you probably won't like this.
Kouji Miura, please let us see Chinatsu Ballin'
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 15, 2025
The tone is just completely off for me
I've heard the manga praised consistently for having cool fights and choreography but honestly, I can't take the fights seriously.
It's like Spy x Family if it wasn't funny, cute, and it was instead filled with nominally cool fights that do absolutely nothing for me
It's this hitman show but nobody dies from anything unless they're disposable baddies killed by DA Order or *checks notes* Slur? Are you fucking kidding me? Your main bad guy is named after demeaning epithets?
Sakamoto goes "oh, I can't kill anyone because my wife made me promise" because blah blah, everyone has a family/someone who'll
...
grieve for them and, like, bro, you're a hitman. If you're just killing a politician, that's one thing (technically, you could argue depending on their policies, they are killing people, but for simplicity's sake, I'll just say it's not like they're actively shooting people) but you're fighting people in this show that have no qualms murdering people, throwing bombs at them, trying to kill YOU.
And not only that but Sakamoto does so much shit that should kill people but because it's this kiddy gag manga, nobody dies. He drops an entire refrigerator on someone and they're just fine. People jump like 50 feet in the air and skydive onto roller coasters and they're perfectly fine. Someone is punched from the ground to the top of a ferris wheel and it's fine and dandy. Sakamoto tanks a faceful of bombs and sniper rifle shots (which doesn't even go into how the sniper has such good bullets and aim, he can use ricocheting bullets to cover the entire city and yet not hit any bystanders) and not much happens as a result.
It makes all the fights have little to no stakes when you can take any wound and shrug it off like "lol, guess I'm gonna have to buy some pain ointment at the store later".
I get that pretty much every battle shonen has people taking hits that'd normally kill them but they either 1. Take extended breaks to heal or 2. have such supernatually powered bodies, it makes sense for them to do that stuff. If you're firing laser beams out of your sword against a guy who can summon a million tiny swords, I'm a bit more inclined to give you slack when you tank a couple sword slashes.
Sakamoto Days leans too far into the gag manga realm for me to take its battle shonen fights seriously.
Sakamoto even goes back to his thin form for a couple of fights and, like, WHY? Isn't the whole point of having a tubby fatass as your MC that it's comedic to see him kick ass in that form? Why are you giving him his badass form back? How does that even work? Does his body know to just melt off the fat whenever he's ~serious~? It seems he just rapidly gains the weight back after but how is he losing the weight? Wouldn't that be hell on his body to rapidly lose and then gain weight anyway?
I guess this is a good time to bring up the animation. I personally didn't really have that big of a problem with it usually (although some shots, like when Sakamoto uses pool balls to attack the enemy, it's not all that impressive when they skimp out on actually showing the ricocheting of the balls, it's just kind of pictures with the path outlined) but it's not Demon Slayer or JJK or even the level of some of the lower level shonen like Undead Unluck (not that David Pro didn't cook with that series but it unfortunately did not catch on as much as Demon Slayer or JJK).
The characters are kind of boring. I don't have much to say about Sakamoto or Shin (except, again, the tone. Why is Shin, like, the only supernatural person in the show? There's, like, a human weapon and a guy who basically has Flash Step and really good impersonation skills but Shin is the only one who has like explicit superpowers), Lu Shaotang's just annoying, and... I actually kind of liked Heisuke but he doesn't get nearly as much to do and for some reason, they don't give him a job at Sakamoto's? Like what did he do to not deserve a job?
The villains are weird. We see 4 at the end and their names are, like, Dump, Saw, Apart, and Minimalist. There's a guy named Boiled (with an admittedly cool weapon but an AWFUL gimmick, I hated how he acted in the show), as mentioned before, the main villain is named SLUR. There's a guy dressed as a reindeer but he just takes the mask off when he has to fight so he can be a patchwork weapon so... um... hooray for randomness?
Osaragi has a cool design but she didn't do much during the season so whatever.
I mentioned it up above but it's just not a very funny anime. I get the sense that it's supposed to be funny but it's not. There's a recurring joke about Sakamoto killing Shin in his mind and Shin reading Sakamoto's mind and going, every single time, "why are you killing me in your mind?" Yup, we got it the first time. Not to mention it just makes Sakamoto look like a psychopath. That's supposed to be your ally/friend, why ARE you killing him in your mind repeatedly?
Even the "intelligent" fight where they aren't actually fighting, it's solved through shitty comedy and how Sakamoto plays the game of old maid is what ultimately brought this show down from a 6 to a 5 because it put a sour taste in my mouth. How the fuck do 2 grown hitmen not know how to play poker anyway?
Speaking of which, I've been pretty negative, why does it have a 5?
I mean, if you can ignore the blatant suspension of disbelief, the fights are okay. I couldn't get into them but I guess I can see why some people would enjoy it. I liked Heisuke. The music was decent, the OP's kind of a bop. It didn't actively disgust or offend me. It's just not a very good anime.
In a world where you can easily pick up and find good battle shonen, I don't really see a reason why you'd pick this one unless you were fiending for new content or trying to impress your dad who's never seen an anime in their life and calls them cartoons.
I gave it a Mixed Feelings because if you don't think too hard about it, you'll probably enjoy it more than I did, but I just cannot take this show seriously (but I also can't find it funny) and it kind of ruined my enjoyment of it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 8, 2025
I genuinely don't understand what the point of this anime is. Like, it's an adaptation of a romance VN series but, like, the romance is kind of not the point here?
Judging from Wikipedia, it seems to be one of those "MC goes to New Place and finds a harem of girls for him to woo" VNs and this IS apparently an adaptation of two of those games but, like, how?
Like, the opening gives off a completely different vibe from the series since they're all like "woo hoo, you should come to Hokkaido, it's super super awesome" and it's this super cutesy opening showing you their
...
cute female main characters and then suddenly you have girls getting stalked, someone's dad is dying of brain cancer, another's died in surgery giving her childhood trauma, what the fuck are you trying to convey here
This is an anime from 2004 and I would presume not a very high budget one so it's not very impressive visually but it's not, like, off-putting or anything. You won't be amazed, to say the least.
This anime has six stories, all set in Hokkaido, and each of them have two episodes each.
And surprisingly, I don't hate this. It's kind of like a collection of mini OVA love stories which I think is pretty neat.
It won't blow your mind or anything but if you're in the mood for a bit of a standard romantic VN adaptation from 2004, it's pretty decent.
IMO, in terms of the story:
Kyoko > Akari > Karin > Atsuko > Suomi > Shoko
- Kyoko is really the only one I would say I'd definitely watch a full season of. I was really invested in her story, both in terms of the whole love story thing and her as a character's struggle with perfectionism and the passion for filmmaking. I'm torn on the ending because it ends up getting reversed in the final episode (I mean, he never explicitly goes "I love you, Kyoko, let's give it another try" but, I mean, come on, that feels like the implication to me) and, like, that's what I wanted selfishly but it also makes the ending of her arc less poignant.
- Akari's kind of a weak character but her struggle with what happens with her dad was good stuff. I also liked the male character Kurokawa, he was kinda there I guess but I liked his little story about learning to like making sweets again. It was nice.
- I didn't want Karin to end up with her love interest for obvious reasons but I thought they handled her illness well.
- The final episode kinda made me less favorable on Atsuko although she stayed the same place in the rankings. I assumed she'd end up with The Rich Guy because that's what it looked like it was heading towards at the end of her arc. She's not fond of being arranged married but Rich Guy was a Nice Guy so she could learn to love him. And that was fine. I didn't like her romance with the Older Guy even though he was also a Nice Guy but then it turns out Atsuko ends up with a completely different third person? Maybe I'm just blind but it looks like Atsuko's with some guy whose face we never see and Rich Guy ends up with some generic girl who was more willing to be married off, I guess. And like, fine, sure, whatever, I guess it probably IS better off for everyone involved but that's just straight up not what the arc was implying. At least Kyoko's just involved reversing the decision, Atsuko's was just "swerve!"
- Suomi's is objectively unfinished if I'm being mean and only counting the twelve episodes in the MAL run. Since I did see her second half (see: Diamond Daydreams Special), I'll talk about it here. I thought the first episode was great but then suddenly it has a whole new framing device and it just threw me for a loop. Not to mention having Hanna be so cold and prideful right after the best arc in the series made this arc look worse. It's not, like, terrible, but it's not good either.
- Shoko's just sucked. I liked bits and pieces of it but Shoko's romantic subplot was "oh boo hoo, the guy whose home I'm wrecking wants to spend time with his wife and kids" like maybe don't be a homewrecker, dude. The other plot isn't much better. Having a stalker is interesting but he ends up getting away relatively scot-free? He breaks into both her apartment and the recording studio and the most punishment he gets is a stern talking to by the mall cop officers in her building. He even gets a triumphant speech to reinvigorate Shoko? What the hell is this?
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 8, 2025
I mean... it's Rent-a-Girlfriend. You probably already know what you're getting yourself into.
If you don't, I'll briefly explain why it's not really all that noteworthy.
People who are calling it CRINGE and THE WORST ROMANCE ANIME OF ALL TIME or whatever are kind of overexaggerating but it's a show where, for me, one girl is a clear winner (in my eyes... also in the anime itself but that's besides the point) and the rest are kinda bleh.
The male cast kinda sucks. Kazuya is a big, stinky loser who is the choosiest of beggars. He's supposed to be this big loser that cannot ~acquire female companionship~ and
...
after losing his one opportunity, he rents a girlfriend (he did the thing! He Rented-a-Girlfriend!) and blah blah blah now God and everyone thinks Chizuru is his girlfriend, right
And Chizuru's like "okay, I'll just help you until you find a girlfriend"
And around episode 7, he finds a girl who is just desperate, pleading, BEGGING for a morsel of his attention... and then he just goes "yeah, but I don't like her"
And, like, bro, you're a loser.
You just had your first girlfriend (of a month) ever break up with you and you are renting girlfriends out of desperation and a girl asks you out and you're like "hmm... no, I don't care for it"
She is publicly acknowledged, by Kazuya himself, to be a hottie on the level of the girl he actually wants, so it's not like she's ugly. She's just slightly too possessive. But, like, he even says "shouldn't a guy like a possessive girl?"
It's not like she's a yandere and going around trying to stab people (which would still be based and it would be cringe of Kazuya to deny her), she just wants him to like her social media posts and not ignore her text messages.
Oh no.
The horror.
We see him peeling the banana multiple times and he just is thinking with the wrong head a lot. Like, one of the other girls starts licking some ice cream and he imagines her French kissing him and bro, my guy, LOCK IN
One of the other friends also tries to rent a girlfriend and as soon as Kazuya tries to make something up for him, he rubs it all over Kazuya's face.
I guess the guy who physically assaulted Kazuya was okay?
But let me put it this way, I never questioned why these guys were hanging with Kazuya. Birds of a feather and all that.
But who cares about the male cast in a harem show, how are the girls?
Let's talk about Chizuru first. Clearly the main girl, clearly the author's favorite. Idk, I guess I didn't hate her but other than her design, I don't see the vision. It's kind of like Kirino from Oreimo where I understand why she's being a tsundere bitch to the MC (not to mention Kazuya's a way bigger loser than Kyousuke, especially if you aren't taking Kyousuke's... choice of waifu into consideration) but unlike Kirino, idk, I never really found a reason to like her either.
If you don't like tsunderes, you probably won't care for Chizuru.
That does bring me to another big problem I have with this series, The Lie. Throughout the season, the lie that Kazuya and Chizuru are dating snowballs to where everyone at one point thinks they are dating for real and it's just exhausting to watch rather than funny or cute. It feels more like a forced way to keep Kazuya and Chizuru interacting than anything, which isn't fun to watch.
Next, Mami! I... I also didn't hate her. She was fine. I did not care for her one way or the other, she kind of gets replaced as the "antagonist" of the season for a few episodes and she was already kind of cold for me by that point and by the time she comes back, she's kinda ice cold. She never really presents a serious threat to Kazuya and Chizuru's relationship and the one time she might have, An Event happens and she just kind of pouts and that takes care of that, I guess?
By character introduction order (I guess Mami'd be first anyway), someone else should be next but let me get the last girl out of the way first. Sumi... I literally could not care less. I know I was also cold on Chizuru and Mami but Sumi is just "moe" dandere fluff to me. Chizuru and Mami are nothing but Sumi is AGGRESSIVELY nothing.
Let's talk about the one good character in the show, Ruka!
She's introduced in kind of an antagonistic way but thanks to ~reasons~ (another one of my big issues, let me put a pin in this for a second), she falls in actual love with Kazuya.
Ruka does not fuck around. The only reason Kazuya isn't interested in her is because the marriage would already be consummated by episode 12 if Ruka had her way. It's kind of frustrating to see Kazuya reject her when she is a girlfriend who is willing to be the girlfriend he wants but she can't be the girlfriend he wants because Kazuya doesn't want her because the story demands to go on.
She'll go out of her way to tell Kazuya's family that they're dating, she is willing to cut the crap and she's willing and she's attentive. She has a sort of energy and willingness to be the clingy, possessive, bratty member of the cast and it makes her interesting to watch for me.
I'll admit this is my personal taste climbing in and if you don't like girls like that, you'll probably find Ruka annoying, but Ruka adds at least one point to the score alone, probably more.
However, one thing bothers me about her
Kazuya ends up making both Chizuru and Ruka fall for him by saving them from falling.
Kazuya doesn't attract any of these girls (except arguably Sumi?) through, like, being a nice guy
I know it's a harem and they hardly have the best reasons to date in the best case scenarios but Kazuya seems particularly lame in comparison.
The show looks decent enough, I like the little crayon sketch or whatever you'd call that fuzz on certain objects.
The OP is really good, way better than the other Peggies OP I've heard (although I have to admit Bunny Girl Senpai has a catchy OP, even if I don't particularly like it)
It's just not a particularly good show.
It's not even particularly noteworthy in how bad it is, despite its relative infamy. 3 of the 4 girls aren't very interesting and Kazuya, while bad and a loser, it's not really aggravating enough to be annoying, he's just an unpleasant protagonist.
Even if you like tsunderes or danderes and Chizuru or Sumi do it for you, unless you like all 3 a lot or something, I don't really see why you'd continue watching this, even to hate-watch it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Feb 27, 2025
Tbh everyone's lives seem miserable in this show and it does not make it an enjoyable watch
I actually enjoyed some of the random Zodiac side Sohmas but the problem is the main 3 are some of my least favorite
Let's talk about Tohru first though.
Tohru is one of the wimpiest, spineless...iest, doormats I've ever met. It feels like 90% of her lines are her trying to make someone else's life better at the cost of her own or trying to please someone or some other "nice uwu" thing. I've heard her described as a green flag character and no, no, absolutely not. You meet this character,
...
run the fuck away from her in the other direction. Not only that but if this weren't a shoujo from her perspective and she were in, like, Rent-a-Girlfriend as one of the haremettes, I feel like she'd be considered a male fantasy waifu because she's basically just Jesus Christ
She comes in, makes people's lives better because she's so heckin' nice and aw shucks! It actually started to grate on me how nice and doormatty she was, it was laid on that thick.
As for her friends (who surprisingly get their own episodes)... whatever. I don't really have much to say for Delinquent-chan, her episodes were nice enough, I liked her dynamic with Cat. Psychic-chan, however, why the fuck do you just have an actual psychic in the show? I guess the show already has a supernatural aspect so it's not out of the question but she just... has a superpower and she's just used as fodder to protect Tohru and prove that Tohru is just the heckin' nicest gal you'll ever meet!
Back to the Sohmas! If you don't know, there are 13 Zodiac people, we properly meet 11 of them so I won't comment on Horse or Rooster.
Cat (Kyo): A fucking jackass. I don't really care for tsunderes as a genre even when they are women so he was losing an uphill battle here but he was so unpleasant, he ruined Rat by extension because of how often Rat interacted with Cat. I mean, I get why he's come to be so unpleasant and maybe in the process of his growth, he'll be more pleasant in future seasons but I can only judge what I'm watching and what I'm watching is not good.
Rat (Yuki): On his own, he is Fine. I don't really have an issue with him (although I also don't really care much for him in a positive manner either) until he interacts with Cat and he just becomes an unpleasant douche because he has to be combative with Cat.
Dog: For the most part, he sure is The Landlord guy. He does his part well, I really like his dynamic with his editor, shoutout to Editor-chan, probably my favorite non-Sohma in the cast. However, he (and one other Sohma) has a tendency to flirt with either Tohru or other high school aged girls and, like, aren't you guys in your late 20s? Not to kinkshame shoujos but it left a sour taste in my mouth.
Dragon: He sure is
Snake: I thought he was kinda funny with Rat but he's the other creep, not to mention he and Dog make sexual jokes about wanting to fuck each other no matter who is around them
Boar/Pig: BASED. My favorite member of the cast. Every time she was on screen, absolute cinema. My only problem is, like... that's technically incest? I guess the Sohma family is fucked up enough but there are multiple, multiple counts of incest in this show and like maybe they are branch families and stuff but if this were JJK and I was drawing Megumi x Maki... you know?
Sheep: One of my other favorites. I know I just called Cat a jackass and, like, Sheep is too, but he's funny about it, you know? It's not just "grrr, Grug angry. Grug smash things and yell. Grug storm out.", Sheep is super smart (for a sixth grader) and tries to verbally poke and prod at you. I mention Tohru being a doormat and Sheep FLAMES Tohru over this, so points for that.
Tiger: She sure is
Monkey: It would have been funnier if we didn't meet his mother first. I enjoyed his episode but the moral of the day really spelled out one of my biggest issues with the show which I'll get to once I finish the Sohmas.
Rabbit: Bro's one gimmick is he can speak German. It's annoying because he's like "oh, this is my MUTTI, she has blonde HAAR and loves to go for walks in the STADT".
Ox: I liked him but he was the last of the 11 that came to mind so take that for what you will
" I enjoyed his episode but the moral of the day really spelled out one of my biggest issues with the show which I'll get to once I finish the Sohmas."
What did I mean by this?
Well, occasionally, they hit you over the head with basically "codependency is based!"
Tohru gets sick (in a different episode) and says "Wanting to get better not for your sake but for someone else's, I'm lucky I can feel that way". She also says in the Monkey episode that "I hope I find the reason for living within someone else".
It's not just her either, Rat says "Only when someone says they love you can you start loving yourself"
What if I don't believe the person saying they love me, Rat, huh? What then?
Wanting to have friends and a partner and being able to rely on other people is awesome, that's not what I'm disputing. But if you find your reason to live in someone else, that is a crutch. If you don't want to recover from your illness for YOUR sake but you're trying to get better because, of all things, you don't want to fail a test and let your friend down, that is a crutch. You should have social connections that you don't want to break off, friends you don't want to disappoint, perchance even a lover you want to see smile if that's your jam but you should also be able to find self-motivation.
There's a space between "fuck you, I'm a badass, I'm gonna do everything by myself, DTA, don't trust anyone, fuck the world" and "uwu I'm a coughing baby, save me from the hydrogen bomb, BF-kun!", you know
Speaking of which, this is just a miserable show.
They'll just shove big, thick, warm and mushy spoonfuls of crunchy peanut butter in your mouth, no water, of straight up trauma. Oh no, one of the dudes looks like a fucked up Digimon! Oh no, one of the kids' moms is a dick and got her memories wiped! Oh no, some guy's incest boo had to get HER memories wiped! Oh no, *checks notes* some guy got called stupid!
This whole season is a conveyor belt of people too so it just never stops, even at the end. Since it's always introducing people, it has new trauma to exploit. It even goes out of its way to give Tohru's FRIENDS sad backstories. I'm surprised it had the restraint to not give Rat's fangirls tragic backstories.
I can't say it's the worst show I've ever seen, some of the side Sohmas are cool and funny but, like, they're the side characters. One of them completely vanishes after being introduced. Cat and Tohru in particular are insufferable. Watching Natsuki Takaya punch me in various places trying to aim for my nose for 25 episodes was not a fun experience and I did not enjoy this show.
Maybe it's better in the next couple seasons once they have everyone introduced and settled is better but the juice, as they say, is not worth the squeeze.
Fruit pun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qlCC1GOwFw
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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