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why why why why WHYYYYYYYYYYY do mangaka keep resorting to horrible anime pitfalls like is pedophilia really necessary? he's 15 and she's 10. he's her teacher when she's 15 and he's 20 and he's OBSESSED with her. this is SO DISGUSTING. this literally only has stars because of the art and i loved everything else about the school environment what with her trying to stay alive. i just wish jey seek (YES THAT'S HIS NAME LMAO) was never introduced. mystia is a great if not two-dimensional character to follow however if the next few chapters don't improve and stop shoving these awful tropes in the ... reader's faces, i'm dnf'ing because this is trash.

I'm really loving this series so far. My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! is about a girl who's obsessed with an otome game, she dies, is reincarnated as the main antagonist of the game, and does everything in her power to try to subvert the game's bad ending. At first, I was really worried because I found out later that the series was written by a man and men writing teenage girls in isekai is iffy at best, but I'm glad to see that there wasn't any of that ecchi-fanservice-for-men degeneracy often polluting the genre. There are tropes and themes ... that the mangaka pulled off really well (like all the sapphic stuff). It's really wholesome and beautiful.

There are a couple of issues I have with it. Firstly, eating is not a personality trait and people need to stop using it for characters who are girls. The way the trope is used is to show her manners (or lack thereof) in an aristocracy so it's a little more forgivable, but it's unoriginal and beaten into the ground. Secondly, I despise that there is incest in this. It's unrequited and never acted upon as far as I've read...although, he's clingy and controlling and that's not okay. The main character's adopted stepbrother has a growing crush on the protagonist, but I can't imagine how actual people with adopted siblings feel reading this kinda bs all the time. Last, the minor characters lack depth beyond their traumas. For example, all of the other girls in the group are soft and timid making them indistinguishable—two of those girls even have really similar names. One girl being soft and timid is fine, but all of them? C'mon.

My Next Life as a Villainness: All Routes Lead to Doom! is a series with a lot of charm and it quickly became one of my favorites. It's got a lot of tropes I love—like star-crossed unrequited love, sapphic crushes, and the protagonist is alluring as hell. I'd characterize the series as what Fruits Basket wishes it could be: a wonderful story without needing to resort to multiple problematic plotlines, trauma for shock value, and toxic messages for teenage girls. It's a heartfelt love letter, especially to girls who always yearned for an isekai just for them. I hope the genre will open up to welcome more Own Voices women mangaka into the fold.

The art in this anthology is wonderful...and that's about where the wonder stops. Eclair collects stories from various yuri manga creators, most of which fall under the Slice of Life genre. The age choices that too many of these authors decided on were questionable at best. I have no problems with age gaps—like a 35-year-old with a 25-year-old is totally fine. In fact, I wish that were the case for most of the stories in Eclair.

About half of the stories consisted of an age 25-30y/o woman pursuing a high schooler or younger which is wildly inappropriate because they're at different stages in their lives—to a ... normal adult, a teenager is an easy target and a child. It's creepy the way these characters were written as well. The younger characters are shown with an inability to form concrete assessments of what's needed in a healthy relationship due to their lack of experience and the adult characters take full advantage of that. Romanticizing this kind of behavior from adults is a gross misuse of the platform.

Don't get me wrong: I love power dynamics. I can see how certain power dynamics are attractive (ex: professor/student, queen/handmaiden—assuming all are age-appropriate) because ~forbidden love~ but it wasn't handled well in Eclair. Other stories are either cute/fluffy or they have consent issues, manipulation, bullying, etc. Out of all 15 stories in this anthology, only 3 were worth buying (I got the book for Nakatani). Would I buy it again knowing what I know now? Hard pass.

[Spoiler Warning]

This review is coming from someone who read and watched the original run manga and anime.

When I was first introduced to Fruits Basket, it was supposed to be a cutesy, slice of life series with what I thought were realistic themes. Almost 2 decades later, and me having much more experience in the world, I've found that that's not the case. Far from it.

Now that I know the producers are taking the exact same themes from the manga, that makes everything to come so much worse. The author introduced many sexist themes—from matriarchy being a bad thing, to women with mental illnesses being irrational ... and/or violent—this is a recurring theme with almost every Sohma female character. Matriarchy was written like it’s a bad thing—a sexist ideology because it assumes women are incapable of being the head of anything/anyone.

There are unrealistic gender expectations (ex: boys must be hyperaggressive, girls must be selfless homemakers). Kyo and Yuki are violent in their own ways—they manhandle Tohru, they forcefully touch her whenever they feel like it, and they express their emotions aggressively or straight up yell at her altogether. Men yelling at and touching women should not be normalized. Tohru is constantly sacrificing her autonomy for this fuck of a family. She always throws herself in physical danger for the Sohmas, her comfort is always dead last on her list of priorities, and she goes on A LOT of monologues about how she smiles through the pain—she is literally a walking TedTalk for the entire Sohma family. It’s not good to teach girls to be a mother figure to everyone—it’s overdone and it’s exhausting.

In the first episode, it’s established that the family curse consists of members being unable to hold someone of the “opposite” sex so straight sex with people outside of the bloodline without revealing themselves is not possible. Hence, the multiple incest (shudders). All of the themes I’ve mentioned are really dated and doesn’t make for good writing. It’s been so long since I’ve seen an anime that pumps out these archaic ideologies. I thought we had moved past this, but I guess not. The fact that I know the horrifying things coming doesn’t help; I have an expansive list which you can see a link to on my profile (major spoilers). The only positive thing that came from this Furuba reboot are the cast and animators. They did a wonderful job. I will praise them and nothing else.

I don't know why I expected better from a 2019 remake as opposed to the original manga and anime runs. I don't mind these themes being explored but, if you're going to write them, you need to write them with nuance and respect for the subject matter. I really hoped this would improve on the basic idea without all of the convoluted ideologies and violence. It would have been a great series otherwise. It’s the exact same thing as the manga—they took everything verbatim. If any anime should get a reboot or continuation, I have many suggestions. For starters: Chihayafuru, Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun, and Cowboy Bebop. Fruits Basket should have remained buried, along with its outdated themes.

I came into this series knowing nothing about the story. The anime is praised seven ways 'til Sunday but I thought I'd check out the source material before giving the anime a try. Boy, was that a mistake.

The worldbuilding and lore is interesting. A colony of people live in an enormous pit that descends into the planet and it's the size of an entire continent. Explorers, ranked by colored whistles, are chosen to descend and collect relics that could help their society thrive...only to break down relics to be made into white whistles—the highest rank an explorer can get. If an explorer obtains a good ... enough relic, they will earn more accolades and it could put them up for a promotion. The lower the explorers descend, the higher the chances of altitude sickness and death. The design for the environment and the monsters are stunning and creative. The art style, while serviceable and sometimes beautiful, is made up of unpolished pencil sketches. Everything after that is where the series fails.

The manga has a mature rating for something about kids. I thought that was odd and, now that I've read the first volume, I wonder how it was ever greenlit. First of all, the society sends orphans into the pit as free labor so there's a complete lack of regard for child safety and labor laws. That's not even the worst of it. Made In Abyss contains depictions of children in...compromising positions. The main character—a 10-year-old orphaned girl—is shown naked, tied up in rope bondage, with ahegao face, and strung up to be displayed by an adult in the first chapter. You need to draw the line somewhere and that line definitely should not go that far.

Look, I am by no means a prude but I hope we can all agree that it shouldn't be acceptable for an adult to so much as think about drawing and writing underage girls in inappropriate ways. I hope that the anime is nothing like the source material, but I don't know if I can get over my initial impressions.

Honey, or Honey So Sweet as titled by Viz, is about a relationship that blossoms between two high school students: a boy everybody notices because they're afraid of him (Taiga) and a girl nobody notices because she's timid (Nao). The plot is as generic as it sounds. There are plot points that make themselves really obvious and the same type of characters you'd find in any other generic high school romance series, from serious characters to characters who scream a lot.

The series had a really rocky start and gets weird at times because it starts off with Nao having a crush on her uncle. The ... writer plays it off as her having mistaken familial love with attraction (still weird) and, thankfully, doesn't remind the reader about it ever again. Honey So Sweet is steeped in some traditional ideology, like the whole creepy shindig about men promising off their sisters and daughters to each other. There are also small consent issues—like kissing while one person is asleep—and it's acknowledged that there was a consent issue but it gets swept under the rug pretty fast. Just...don't...write it? Especially if it's an issue to begin with. It's not integral to the plot so it's not a necessary addition.

Overall, Honey So Sweet doesn't introduce anything new to the genre. The ending yonkoma were cute additions, especially after the abrupt ending and the lackluster bonus comic of the original concept. While not groundbreaking, this series is entertaining enough to keep the reader occupied for a couple of days.

2023 update: my rating still stands but i've cracked it. i know why this is so popular. it's today's twilight set in a more fantastical regency(?) era. that's literally it. i know i mentioned it in this review 3 years ago, but i'm reminded that that's the only way anyone liking this series makes sense to me. also STOP comparing this to studio ghibli. there's no glorified human trafficking, there's no romanticized abuse, and there's no pedophilia...like the bar is in hell guys c'mon.

I HAAAATE the Studio Ghibli comparisons because this doesn't even come close. There could've been so much to love about Ancient Magus' ... Bride but their entire relationship is predicated on:

1) an older non-human man buying a 15-year-old girl at an auction (in other words, human trafficking),
2) calling her dehumanizing things like “puppy” right after she was sold, lording it over her that she's "expensive," and every character acknowledging she’s a “child” (especially him),
3) invading her privacy and trying to touch and bathe her without her permission (he understood that what he was doing to a child was morally reprehensible as indicated by Angelica),
4) telling her she has no choice in matters but is “free to reconsider”,
5) calling him his bride, and
6) her being a FIFTEEN YEAR OLD CHILD goddammit (pedophilia).

[insert pic of SNL title card reading: "tonight's episode: the writer's barely-disguised fetish"]

Chise and Elias could have been terrific characters in their own right but their relationship is marred by poor choices and bad writing. So many things Elias said reeked of things predators actually say to their victims and romanticizing the abuse gives me the ick. He even admits outright that he's grooming Chise and "raising" her to be his perfect bride. Yamazaki didn't need to make it so that the characters meet via human trafficking and to continue the narrative that a man "saved" Chise—just glossing over the fact that they romanticized human trafficking is gross.

I can't imagine reading this series without watching the "Those Awaiting a Star" OVA because Chise is even more watered down and underdeveloped as a character. She always looks like she's dead inside, even when she's smiling. Considering everything that's happened to her, I don't blame her but it's depressing and constantly reminds me that there's nothing good about being with Elias. Other characters would talk about how special she is because she's a rare, glass cannon mage. However, I never felt her importance come to light. Not to say Chise's experiences are invalid, but she's a child witnessing horrifying things and I felt squicky as an adult reading it. She also doesn't have a personality outside of being a powerful mage. Things are always happening around her or to her and she was just moving with decisions people made for her. Again, she's a traumatized child but these qualities don't help with Ancient Magus' Bride's lack of entertainment value and overall "ick"-ness.

Ancient Magus' Bride reminds me of the Twilight series. Chise is Bella Swan. She's a child who is loyal to an old monster dude who has no respect for her, she suffers from Same Face Syndrome, and everybody immediately loves her despite having no personality. Elias is Edward Cullen. It's his way or the highway and everybody has to bend over backwards to cater to him otherwise he literally becomes a violent monster. Chise made friends with another child 3 years younger than she, and he got jealous that her attention wasn't on him for a day. She returned that same evening, he ran away when she arrived, Chise ran after him, and he TRIED TO CONSUME HER by constricting her entire body to the point where she was almost lifeless. He says he "can't control himself" and warned her that he is likely to cause Chise more physical harm like HUH????? 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩 Elias is abusive and possessive. Much like Bella, Chise sticks around anyway. Another jarring thing is that he's surprised by mundane human interactions despite living among humans for more than a century. Also like Twilight, every supporting character is more interesting than the main characters. They're complex, they're mysterious, they're charming, and they have a tapestry of history that is engaging. The amount of similarities between Ancient Magus' Bride and Twilight is comical. I'm convinced this is Twilight fanfiction.

It's such a shame because the art is beautiful and I personally have a weakness for jersey devil skull monsters. That's the only reason Ancient Magus Bride even has a star. Aside from the poor writing, I'm sick and tired of the stupid anime tropes that keep popping up in manga and anime. Editors need to do better about their creators and keeping their creepy lolicon fetishes in check. I would rather support projects with mangaka who aren’t afraid to create protagonists older than 30—or even 20 (like Wotakoi)—instead of children whose lack of world experience is taken advantage of by predatory adults. Pass.

Ajin is a more violent X-Men but it's nitty gritty without displaying the brutality and crossing the line toward torture porn (if you don't count the X-Men graphic novels). The protagonist, Kei Nagai, is a pacifist yet he's deeply flawed. He calculates every move he makes and, if something doesn't directly effect him, he doesn't care enough to take action. Whether or not the world is in turmoil, Kei just wants to live in peace. As the roster of characters grow, the story develops into a question of whether or not the many is worth protecting—even if it means the same (if not, more) suffering ... for those who are oppressed.

This anime is superb at confronting real world problems such as bigotry, capitalism, and other politics. I love that a lot of the violent sequences is implied instead of illustrating it entirely for shock value. Antagonists come with all kinds of motives and every one of them makes the audience think, "Their actions are more understandable now." Not morally right, but understandable given their circumstances. There are basically no plot holes worth mentioning. Every character has a reason for their actions.

The entire production was masterfully thought out—from the writing, to the animation. I have to give major kudos to the animation team because the art direction is beautiful and seamless. The way Polygon Pictures utilized 3D animation to give their world and characters more life is incredible. Their style makes every movement more realistic and incredibly fluid. This coupled with the sound and music production makes this one of the most cohesive anime out there. Ajin is well paced while keeping up with the high tension. Polygon took tons of risks with plenty of rewarding payback. Strongly recommended!

New Game is like a more comedic Shirobako meets video game developing. There is a large cast of women and all of them have a passion for video games. Because so many people were introduced in the beginning and the audience doesn't have a good grasp on their personalities yet, it was difficult to tell them apart for a while. Around the 3rd or 4th episode, the writers started developing each character and illustrating how well they work together. I love that there's no ridiculous pettiness or rivalries between the girls. It's the exact opposite—there's a ton of really intimate moments in each episode that ... I wasn't expecting!

The girls share each other's passion for video games and truly enjoy spending time together. Each character has something quirky about them but their entire personality isn't centered around the oddity which is good. I also appreciate that there's a brown character among the cast and she's just as quirky and important as any of the others. There were times when a few characters got self-deprecating for the wrong reasons; like they're all skinny and the writers dedicated a whole segment on characters feeling chubby. If there was anything to focus on, I would've preferred it to be the joys and the nitty gritty process of game developing. There were also times when the girls would randomly be sexualized. For example, there's a character who hates wearing pants (I share that sentiment) and she had an ass shot that lasted 5 seconds too long. It was awkward to watch.

There's a lot of ship-teasing between the women which is fine because I enjoy romantic fluff between girls. I can only hope that the ships actually lead to something more concrete in the second season. The video game references are very subtle and fun to spot out. Overall, New Game is a fresh take on the shoujo ai genre. In some ways, it reminded me of Shirobako with how hard they work and how much passion the girls have for game development. It's a strong jumping off point for the second season and I'm excited to see where they run with it!

Food Wars is as simple as this review is going to be. This anime had a lot of potential to be great. I went into it not knowing anything because I wanted to be surprised. I knew it was about food and I'd seen pictures on various social media of the food that comes from this series—it's beautiful! There hasn't been very many anime that centers around food so it piqued my interest.

While Food Wars is definitely surprising—shocking, even—I was extremely disappointed to find that it has no plot, no interesting characters, character development was nonexistent, and it's just an overwhelming amount of gross ecchi-ahegao ... man-service. Within the first 5 minutes of the pilot episode, the viewers had the misfortune of watching an underage child orgasm from eating food the red-haired kid (whose name escapes me; he's not interesting enough to remember) and suddenly get attacked and sexually violated by an octopus...all because the redhead made an octopus dish. I felt my brain liquefy from the stupendous amount of absurdity. I like my anime with a lot more meat on their bones and not just pretty animation of food.