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In a sea of isekai titles flooding each season, it's rare to find one that makes me want to follow each week. Yet here we are, with a series that turns the "villainess otome isekai" cliche on its head by reincarnating a 52-year-old salaryman, Kenzaburo, into the role of a young noble lady. And somehow, it works well.

What sets this series apart is the protagonist's characterization. Kenzaburo approaches his new life with the composed demeanor of a veteran office worker rather than typical wide-eyed isekai protagonists. His methodical approach to navigating social situations feels refreshingly authentic - likely because the manga's creator, being in his ... 50s himself, infused the character with genuine life experience.

The series shines in its otaku-culture elements. As a longtime male otaku himself, Kenzaburo's desperate attempts to piece together otome game strategies from fragments of conversations with his daughter are comical. All these references to anime archetypes and genres create delightful meta-humor that resonates especially with veteran anime fans.

Unsurprisingly, the overall plot follows predictable beats - our "villainess" protagonist keeps winning over both male and female characters through charisma, just like every other "akuyaku reijou" series. But the execution with funny, true-to-life details keeps the story refreshing. In a genre often criticized for recycling the same formulas, the show proves there's still room for innovation when handled with the right mix of experience and self-awareness.

Special mention must go to the ending theme - an adapted version of the iconic earworm "Matsuken Samba". This nostalgic choice perfectly complements the series' generation-bridging appeal.

*Medalist* is a heartwarming sports anime that proves inspiring stories can come in small packages. Following the journey of Inori, a fifth-grade figure skater, the show crafts a tale that resonates youngsters and adults alike.

The anime strikes universal chords - whether you've glided across ice or simply pursued a passion, Inori's determination mirrors anyone who has ever chased a dream. The narrative pacing is impressive - it seamlessly weaves between moments of tension, tenderness, and gentle humor, creating a viewing experience that never feels heavy-handed.

While the manga itself was already excellent, the anime adaptation elevates the material to new heights. The restructuring of certain plot ... elements, especially Coach Tsukasa's backstory, demonstrates thoughtful adaptation work that enhances both clarity and emotional impact. The first few episodes alone delivered several tear-jerking moments. One particularly moving scene features Inori's mother's emotional revelation during a competition - realizing her own mistake after seeing her daughter's hidden strength. It's these authentic portrayals of relationships, whether family bonds, friendships, or mentor-student dynamics, that form the emotional core of the show.

Like many anime, *Medalist* portrays a world without true antagonists; instead it is populated by earnest, hardworking characters who embody humanity's better nature. Yet it achieves this without falling into the trap of two-dimensional characterization or sugar-coating reality. Even as it maintains an optimistic tone, the show doesn't shy away from the disappointing part of life, be it coach Tsukasa's financial struggle, or skater's failure during the competition. These scenes only make the show and characters more realistic.

The technical aspects deserve special praise. The figure skating scenes are animated with consistent fluidity that captures the sport's grace and intensity, with no slo-mo fillers - as of you are watching a real figure skating competition. The musical choices, including original music composed specifically for this anime, perfectly complement these scenes.

As the story continues to unfold, I find myself deeply invested in Inori's journey. Regardless of where her path leads, she has already won over my heart with her passion and perseverance!

Kaiju No.8 is a meticulously crafted anime that knows its target audience well. Production IG demonstrates their expertise through grand battle sequences, passionate character personalities, and music (including theme songs) that perfectly complements the plot. After watching the first three episodes, it's clear the studio is in their comfort zone.

However, this polished production comes with a sense of homogeneity. Much like a "decent enough" Hollywood blockbuster, the plot progression feels predictable and doesn't leave a particularly lasting impression. That said, watching Kaiju No. 8 is thoroughly enjoyable, sprinkled with deliberately placed moments of humor throughout.

On the surface, Kaiju No.8 attempts to differentiate itself from typical ... shonen manga. Episode 1 delves into realistic elements (like the detailed handling of kaiju corpses - something rarely explored in monster anime), and the main character has long passed his youth (being over 30). Yet, strip away these settings, and you'll find a quintessential shonen formula at its core. Kafka's age, despite being a unique character trait, bears little significance to the story's development, and the narrative barely touches on workplace dynamics.

So far, Kaiju No.8 shapes up to be an anime that excels in combat scenes while keeping its plot straightforward. While its story might not linger long in memory, it promises to deliver an exhilarating viewing experience.

You are likely in the wrong place looking for a typical nekketsu baseball anime like Diamond no Ace or Ookiku Furikabutte. Boukyaku Battery is probably more similar to Gintama rather than to other baseball animes (for now). It's goofy, boisterous, and often comes with not-so-decent jokes and dumb references, but it's one of the very few recent anime that made me burst out laughing (multiple times).

Despite all the silliness, the anime had surprising expressiveness in baseball related scenes. From the formidable first scene in ep.1, to the first-person view from the ball being hit in ep.2, there were multiple impressive and impactful scenes with ... unique camera angles. The interleaving of such scenes created a nice balance for the anime.

While told in a carefree way, the story itself sounds like a heavy one - making me curious about how it's going to unfold. But before that, I'm more than happy to take this as my weekly relaxation.

YoruKura is a harmless, cute, and easily digestible anime. I liked the theme and vibe for sure, but was disappointed by the screenplay of first three episodes.

YoruKura chose a topic that belongs to this era: the dual identity in virtual and real world. The main characters, who were not happy with their mundane life, acquired new identities through the internet as creators. "If I become someone different, will I get a chance to shine?" This is a topic with so much to explore, yet the first three episodes told the stories of four characters at a surprisingly fast pace that merely scratch the surface. As ... a viewer, I barely had enough time to get to know the characters yet, but was forced to experience their roller-coaster emotion journey: discontent for unremarkable life - emotional for intensified conflict - upbeat for friendship and bright future; and all of these happened within 20 minutes.

Admittedly, it is an energetic and chic “cute girls doing cute things" anime, much like Shibuya at night. Perhaps it’s a representation this era - everything is light and airy, from interpersonal relationships to conflicts. Audiences wouldn’t mind.

The first three episodes was a pleasant surprise. It’s hard not to compare when there are two girls’ band anime in the same season; so far I enjoyed Girls Band Cry more due to its polished screenplay and vivid characters.

Ep.1, serving as an intro, was quite rushed, a bit exaggerated, and somewhat clichéd. I understand that conflict is the heart of drama, but this 24-minute episode crammed in too much! However, the merit of efficient storytelling emerged in ep.2, with a much better viewing experience. The screenplay was so developed that a short dinner scene revealed the distinct personalities of three characters naturally, including new ... character Subaru.

Undoubtedly, main character Nina was the most impressive. I saw the unique vitality of adolescence on her - strayed, naïve, hysterical, yet filled with a contagious power. Her backstory wasn’t uncommon in anime characters, but Girls Band Cry was able to convey the "volume" of her trauma, rather than glossing over it lightly. Her paranoid and sensitive personality made her a "troublesome" character, but this vulnerability was exactly what adolescence looks like. Yelling at a random stranger while flinging a lamp? That’s quite rock’n’roll for a high school dropout. She needed to vent; she needed to make her scream heard. She needed to join the band.

There are some lesser satisfactory (but not detrimental) aspects. First, 3D animation wasn’t that enjoyable - the characters’ movements were unnaturally smooth, and there was always a greasy lighting on the characters. Secondly, Nina’s voice when singing lacked the rage and loneliness as shown in the anime; it was not bad though, I still enjoyed most of the singing scenes.

Hopefully Girls Band Cry will never turn into another “cute girls doing cute things” anime. According to the screenwriter Hanada Jukki, the anime aims to explore the story of young people floating between dreams and reality - and I hope it ends that way.

The baffling opening of Shuumatsu Train greatly piqued my interest - a whimsical way to start, isn’t it?

The anime created an eccentric atmosphere with strong contrast: despite the extremely grim, catastrophic background, the narrative and art were of an unusually light-hearted and energetic style. The main characters embarked on an unprepared, resource-scarce journey, yet they still joke and chatter like regular school girls. Maybe that’s the side effect of a 7G as well? lol

After 3 episodes, the world gradually revealed, and viewers were allowed - or guided - to speculate the metaphorical aspect of the story. Like most road movies, the journey is ... an instrument for MC’ encounters and growth. Each station has its own way of mutating local people (as depicted in the map shown in ep.2), and these mutations seem to represent a form of lifestyle. The MC’s task is to be observers and experience each stations’ lifestyle. Each episode feels like an essay by the creators, making comments on different attitudes towards life, which were exaggerated by the end-of-world situation. It still felt very realistic - I’m sure most people can think of someone around them living in a similar way, even in our modern world.

The character visuals weren’t the best; the design looked simple and movements are often weird since ep.1. But it didn’t bother me, as apparently visual is not the focus here. Background visuals are beautiful; who would hate a deserted but colorful rural view?

Where will this anime go? So far the metaphors were very straightforward, which was somewhat unsettling. After all, I don’t want to watch a creator monologue preaching obvious ideas. However, according to director Mizushima Tsutomu, the first 3 episodes were designed to be simple on purpose; starting from ep.4 it will head towards chaos - really looking forward to it! Hopefully the anime will get as unpredictable as possible.

The first 4 episodes - what an adrenaline rush! Thrilling fighting scenes, shaky camera, and splashes of blood everywhere. But that's about it. With all the violence stripped away, the main plot of Ninja Kamui was just a clichéd revenge story weaved in some bigger conspiracies.

It's easy to see which audience this anime is target for. From theme to characters, everything screams deja vu. Is it Ninja Slayer? Or maybe John Wick? It doesn’t matter - any of the characters showing up could be traced to a number of prototypes.

The biggest shortcoming of this anime is that it still harbored the ambition to tell a ... complicated and cool story. Unfortunately, when the creators tried to cram too many elements and parties into a story, it’d be too easy to gloss over details, or fail to explain the logic clearly. Even those impressive fighting scenes, which were supposed to be a highlight of the anime, “elevated” to some high-tech version when the story progressed - and they just didn’t look as exciting.

Soon after finishing this anime, I might completely forget what the plot was about and why the characters were fighting. It's a good time-killer, but not worth watching if you are looking for a persuasive story.

Like most of Mari Okada's works, Maboroshi is delicate, emotional, and filled with unreal elements. At the same time it's very "small" - overly focused on the love relationships of a few people, some being unnecessary. Both its strengths and weaknesses are evident.

The visual was impeccable. The use of light was particularly pleasing; it gently guided the audiences' attention, while effortlessly conveying different emotions and situations.

The story featured a small town relied solely on the steel industry, where time stood still following a steel mill explosion. The theme had so much explore. Over the past decades, many of such single-industry towns had to experience the ... pains amid industrial transformations (as symboled by explosion of the mill). Becoming isolated and gloomy, they were left behind by the times (literally, time stopped in Maboroshi). Old people carried on in silence, while young people were forced to make the choice: should they leave the hometowns for a different life ("disappear"), or suppress their own dreams to maintain their attachment to the land? Maboroshi depicted exactly such group of high schoolers at a forgotten town, facing the crossroads. To remain unchanged is not only an illusion, but also a fantasy; to change inevitably brings reluctance, fear, and sadness. No matter how painful it is, the youth must move towards the future, and open up more possibilities, just like what the characters did.

This melancholy yet positive emotion is what resonated with me the most in Maboroshi, but it could be less obvious for some audience. Therefore, I feel Okada should spend much more effort than she currently did to help viewers understand and feel it. Unfortunately, the anime spent substantial amount of time depicting the chaotic (or even somewhat immoral?) love stories, greatly diverting everyone's attention and even creating confusion.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think the romance in Maboroshi should be completely erased. Okada excels at illustrating romance, and again she did it skillfully Maboroshi. Her portray of love is tender, vague, yet often filled with wistfulness - we've seen many successful examples in her previous works (remember AnoHana?). She is also adept at creating imaginative and interesting worlds (think of Nagi-Asu, and Maboroshi too). However, she tends to be obsessed over complex interpersonal relationships (especially among a small group of people), and rely too much on romance to progress story and guide character growth. It greatly limit the scope of her creation, building a dense and narrow view on a supposedly broad story. Therefore, Okada's works often leave me with the impression "there is nothing but romance." But that's not true; she should be capable of writing good stories beyond romance (just like "Maquia"), which makes me feel that Maboroshi could be much better than it is today.

To summarize, Maboroshi is still worth watching - for the art, for the world and feelings it conveys, and for the subtle emotions it describes. Nevertheless, it lands on a shallower place than I'd expect, which prevents me from recommending it wholeheartedly.

Bucchigiri is a classic example of starting strong but ending poorly. Ep.1 was the most exciting - the rich and exotic artistic style, the Aladdin reference with a new twist, the lively action sequences...they all led me to believe that Bucchigiri would be an imaginative anime.

More questions arose as the story progressed, and none of them were resolved even reaching the very final episode. What exactly is a "Honkibito" and why Matakara wanted to become one so badly? What was the deal with Senya and Yichiya and why did they hae to settle this through possessing high schoolers? Why was Matakara so fixated on Arajin? ... What was the use of the subplot involving Cat Café and Miss Jasmine?

Moreover, this anime unquestionably failed in character development. The MC, Arajin, was such a simp and hardly outgrew himself; in the first 10 episodes, all of his actions were motivated by a desire for Mahoro's attention (or "losing his virginity", as he would proudly shout before every battle). Amidst the repeated fights among furyō (delinquent) groups, there was no opportunity for him to grow, making the Arajin in the final episode totally out of character. As for the other characters, I can only say that they each have their own craziness; the creators didn't seem to bother treating them as real "characters" with stories and motivations, but rather as a collection of symbols. Frankly I find it more annoying than some simply clichéd plot.