Author: Jessi Silver

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Backflip!!

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Story Summary: Shotaro Futaba has been a bench-warmer all three years on his middle school baseball team. After the conclusion of their final game of the season, he happens to wander into an auditorium where a high school boys’ rhythmic gymnastics competition is taking place. Shotaro is instantly enthralled by the leaps and tumbles of the team from Soshukan High School, to the point that he chooses to attend that school the following year. He doesn’t have any experience with gymnastics, but his history with swimming, soccer, and baseball has conditioned his body to be flexible and strong. Though he may be a newbie, he falls in love with the feeling of his body being in flight and chooses to join the rhythmic gymnastics team. And since the team really needs to have six members to compete with other schools, they welcome him with open arms.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Dragon Goes House-Hunting

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Story Summary: No matter how great or small, all creatures need a place to call home. Letty, a red dragon, is left having to find a new one after he manages to let his family’s egg get stolen by monster hunters. After wandering the land and getting into trouble one too many times, Letty finally gets a tip about an elf named Dearia who lives at the foot of Yggdrasil, and seems to have a knack for housing the many fantasy creatures who inhabit their world. Letty wanders for days to find Dearia, only for Dearia to find him; after some so-called heroes hassle Letty, the powerful elf lets loose on them and… neutralizes the threat. Perhaps now that Letty has met the person he seeks, he can finally find a place to call his own.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Farewell, My Dear Cramer

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 13

Source: Manga

Story Summary: Women’s sports are often underfunded and given significantly less prestige than men’s sports; the girls and women who play them sometimes have to navigate additional hurdles to find recognition. Nozomi has played on boys’ teams through middle school because she feels the members of the girls’ teams aren’t serious enough; Sumire has become a one-girl show, rivaled only by her, well, rival Midori. These players and others find their way onto the struggling girls’ soccer team at an unassuming high school, and suddenly against all odds, their competitive spirit starts to find a home. Soon after their year begins, a big name returns to the school to help coach this group into becoming a winning team.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Seven Knights Revolution: Hero Successor

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Smartphone Game

Story Summary: The world was once saved from darkness by heroes chosen by the Goddess. Now that the land is once again haunted by terrible, demonic beasts, individuals called the Seven Knights wield the souls of those heroes. Nemo is a student about to enter Granseed Academy, when his village is attacked by man-eating demons. Luckily he’s rescued by Faria, one of the Seven Knights. As they ride toward Granseed Academy, their train is attacked by a demon and Nemo is summoned by the Goddess to receive the power of an ancient hero. Using the power of succession, Nemo helps rescue Faria.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Let’s Make a Mug Too

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12 (15 minutes apiece)

Source: Tajimi City Promotional Manga

Story Summary: After her father’s company goes bankrupt, Himeno moves in with her grandmother and her father starts over by opening a café. In the café is an extensive selection of coffee cups with beautiful colors and motifs. After Himeno uses a sample of these cups to advertise the café to her new classmates, her new and very outgoing friend Mika brings her to the school pottery club building. There, Himeno learns that her late mother, a former student, was famous for her beautiful pottery (including the ones in use at the café). Even though Himeno wasn’t previously interested in joining a club, she now feels drawn to the pottery club and its connection to her mother, of whom she has very few memories. It takes a moment for her father to wrestle with the prospect of his daughter following her mother’s footsteps, but he eventually encourages her to take this first step into a new, creative world.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Odd Taxi

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Original

Story Summary: Odokawa is a curmudgeonly taxi driver whose sarcastic attitude is a point of minor fame among the people who’ve encountered him. As news begins to circulate about a missing high-school student, the last sighting of which occurred as she got into a cab, suspicions begin bubble up around Odokawa’s involvement and he becomes a person of interest in the case. There are also rumors floating around about a Dobu, a criminal with a violent reputation, and how he may play into all this. Even though Odokawa himself is impenetrable, his cab may contain the evidence needed to crack the case. But what if the police are in cahoots with Dobu?

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Higehiro

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 13

Source: Light Novel

Story Summary: Yoshida’s love-life is on the rocks after he’s rejected by a coworker. Drunk and unhappy, he stumbles home only to find a high school girl napping beneath a street lamp near his apartment. He tries to shoo her home, but it turns out that “home” is a place far in the North and her reasons for not wanting to return are likely complicated. Her name is Sayu, and in exchange for a place to stay she offers herself as payment. Yoshida wants nothing to do with that sort of thing and realizes that even though housing a teenage runaway without any ulterior motive makes him look bad, he can’t seem to find it in his heart to force her back out on the street. Instead, he offers her a place to stay until she gets back on her feet, and as long as Sayu helps with the chores and promises not to try to seduce him again, she can take her time there. After having dealt with a string of opportunist men, Sayu doesn’t know quite what to do with this fortunate bout of kindness other than try her best to fulfill her side of the bargain.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Vivy – Fluorite Eye’s Song

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 13

Source: Original

Story Summary: Each AI is imbued with a mission, and Diva’s (nicknamed Vivy by a fan) is to make people happy through her singing. After a year of existence, she seems no nearer to achieving that than when she started. Though she attempts to mimic human behavior, she lacks emotion, and the audiences at the amusement park where she works seem to be able to sense that. One day prior to a performance, Vivy’s mind is overwhelmed by some electronic interloper calling itself Matsumoto. Matsumoto is an AI claiming to have come from the future in order to advise Vivy on preventing a major disaster. 100 years from the current day, the world’s AI servants revolt and begin to murder humans; Matsumoto’s mission is to ensure that doesn’t occur. It takes more concrete evidence for Vivy to believe Matsumoto at his word, but time is already ticking; her first assignment is to prevent the assassination of a politician working toward further rights for AI individuals.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – SSSS.Dynazenon

Just another quiet day…

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Story Summary: The world is peaceful on the whole, but in the lives of its inhabitants, there is discord. Minami is a girl with the reputation of being a tease. She asks boys out and then drops them like yesterday’s garbage, leaving in her wake a trail of hurt feelings. Her friend warns her to stop making promises she can’t keep, but Minami’s noncommittal answer tells the whole story. Meanwhile, Yomogi, an earnest kid, meets a strange man underneath a bridge. This oddball, who calls himself Gauma and claims to be a “kaiju user,” is starving, and it’s Yomogi’s leftovers from lunch that rescue him from that fate. Gauma vows to repay the favor. The opportunity comes a few days later when Minami hones in on Yomogi as her next target. Gauma can’t stand to see his new “friend” get toyed with, but whatever words he has for Minami get put on the back-burner when a kaiju starts attacking the city. Gauma’s rantings about kaiju and such turn out to be more real than anyone may have suspected, when he draws forth an entity called “Dynazenon” to fight back against the kaiju. Minami, Yomogi, and a bystander are suddenly embroiled in the fight of their lives.

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Reviews

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Review

Good morning! There won’t be a new first episode review today (and likely not tomorrow either) because I’m helping to run and monitor an online event taking place all day today. But if you haven’t had a chance to read my First Impressions for this season yet, here’s a short review of where we’re at so far.

Mars Red – A theatrical (literally) tale of vampires slowly infiltrating the world of Taisho-era Japan. Atmospheric and artful, but can the series maintain that atmosphere?

Koikimo – A misguided attempt at comedy which pits a high school student against an adult stalker. Not for sensitive viewers.

Joran the Princess of Snow and Blood – A pulpy alternate-history urban-fantasy type series about a young woman with supernatural powers helping to defend a corrupt shogunate. Intriguing set up and nice visuals, but hard to tell if there’s depth to back that up.

Those Snow White Notes – A music-focused drama that plays it fast and loose with emotions and convenient story contrivances, but which features some enthralling musical performances.

Burning Kabaddi – A sports series featuring Kabaddi. Does a good job of introducing the sport, but the atmosphere is undermined by annoying characters.

Stay tuned for further reviews as they come! The pace ought to pick up from here since I’ll be finished with two events that have taken up a lot of my time as of late.