This has the potential to challenge cultural and gender norms. It also has the potential to be a queer-erasing mess of cliches. And while I want to believe it’ll be the former, I can’t shake the feeling it’ll wind up being the latter.
Hakumei and Mikochi, with its watercolor-inspired art, intelligent but not anthropomorphized animals, and chill forest vibe, reminds me of nothing so much as a children’s book.
There’s an art to premiere episodes, and Violet Evergarden is a masterclass.
Remember when this season started, and there were so many good titles with promising characters and unique premises and the world seemed shiny, new, and full of possibility?
I’m not sure it’s going to be a classic of the genre, but if you’re looking for an adult-oriented mystery this season and don’t mind the gore and frequent low-key victimization of women that usually entails along with the issues listed above, Hakata is probably worth at least a three-episode test run.
The whole thing was so horrifically monotonous, I was hoping he’d stumble onto one of the harem girls from the opening just to spice things up.
It’s nice to know that if Hollywood ever spines up and kicks Woody Allen out for good, he could still find a very fulfilling career in anime.
We’ve arrived at the last female-directed series of the season, and it was like watching twenty minutes of cute kitten videos. It’s all but guaranteed to be this season’s entry into Gentle Comedies about Nice Kids.
I think there might be a funny, clever little magical girl show buried in this premiere. I’m not sure, though—I’m still recovering from the episode’s decision to strip its protagonist naked for the third act, blinding me with shiny, shiny moeblob flesh.
‘Scuse me while I bust out the biscuits, ’cause this premiere was 100% my jam.
Takagi-san is the most “okay” premiere I’ve seen all season. It is utterly harmless. It is profoundly fine. And I have been staring at this stupid post for 15 minutes now trying to think of something else to say about it.
The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done! genuinely loves shogi. And sexualizing children. Reeeeally don’t want to overlook that second part.
Well, this is a premiere that hits the ground running. By the end of the episode there’s been a kidnapping, a ransom demand, and not one but two pretty brutal fight scenes. Also monsters or spirits are somehow involved, but apparently that’s a kettle of fish for a whole ‘nother episode.
I approached School Babysitters with some trepidation—could it nail the chaos of a daycare? The answer, it turns out, is a resounding YES.
I finished Mitsuboshi Colors with a deep sigh of a relief and a cry of “Oh THANK GOD it isn’t lolicon!” Based on this premiere, Mitsuboshi Colors is more-or-less a family-friendly show, albeit one with a saucy streak.
There’s a reason the most iconic image from this series is of the two girls gleefully flipping off the readers.
Give me a minute to strap in, because I feel like I’m wading into a pit of snakes with this one.
I would like to state for the record that this is the first premiere of the season to leave me feeling slightly unclean afterward, as if I had seen someone’s fetish without asking. And the last show I reviewed was DEVILMAN Crybaby.
Sanrio Boys is a shameless toy commercial about cute-boys blatantly targeted at (straight teen girls). It is also, somehow, despite all these obvious marketing calculations, packed with feminist themes and charming as all get-out.
Devilman Crybaby is not for everyone. It’s got a list of content warnings as long as my arm. That said, I’ll definitely be bingeing the rest—they had me at “body horror.”
