Author: Jessi Silver

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2020 First Impressions – Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Summary: As a young girl, Elaina reads stories of a traveling witch’s adventures. She asks her parents if she can become a witch too. If she studies hard and tries her best, her mother says, then she might become a witch someday. Elaina works hard and practices her skills, then becomes the youngest student ever to pass the magic exam. She just needs to find a witch who will take her as an apprentice so that she can be acknowledged as a full witch within society. Unfortunately, the local witches aren’t interested in dealing with a young prodigy, and Elaina worries that she’ll never complete her training.

She’s tipped off to the existence of a mysterious new witch who’s taken up residence in the local forest – Fran, the Stardust Witch. Elaina assumes she’ll have the same trouble with this newcomer, but surprisingly Fran offers to take her on as an apprentice. Elaina looks forward to honing her skills even further, but as the weeks go by her only tasks seem to be running errands and dealing with Fran’s immediate needs. Just as Elaina is about to flip her lid, Fran challenges her to a duel. Elaina is handed a quick defeat, and it’s then that she learns the truth; Fran was hired by Elaina’s parents to teach her a lesson about humility and learning to deal with and accept failure. Now that Elaina has felt failure firsthand for the first time in her life, the Stardust Witch can begin to pass on her teachings in earnest. After a year, Elaina has nothing more to learn and is acknowledged as Elaina, the Ashen Witch. Some time later, she sets off on a journey, much like the witch who inspired her as a child.

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Uncategorized

Autumn 2020 First Impressions – HypnosisMic: Division Rap Battle – Rhyme Anima

The spoken word is mightier than the sword.

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: TBA

Source: Mixed-media franchise

Summary: After the devastation of World War III, the Party of Words takes over the world government and mandates that all traditional weapons be destroyed. In their place are the Hypnosis Microphones, powerful weapons that do not inflict direct physical harm, but instead attack others using the power of rap lyrics.

Some three years later, various factions have begun to crop up across Tokyo, each with the ability to sling devastating words at one-another. As the different groups vie for dominance, certain terrorist groups begin to appear that reject this new world order in favor of the violence-based domination reminiscent of the old system. As these groups duke it out, the leaders of the Party of Words observe from on high. While the different factions are busy fighting one-another, the world government is able to exist comfortably above the fray.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2020 First Impressions – I’m Standing on a Million Lives

Can a loner learn to work as part of a team?

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Summary: Yosuke Yotsuya is a bit of a loner. He lives in Tokyo, one of the most populous cities in the world, and yet his desire to spend his time on his own and play video games has become almost a compulsion at this point. One day after school, he notices two of his female classmates, Shindou and Hakozaki, waiting around and casting glances in his direction. Suddenly the girls disappear and the blackboard Yosuke is cleaning becomes filled with mysterious imagery.

Yosuke finds himself drawn into a mysterious void with Shindou and Hakozaki, where he faces a strange being with half a face who provides him with some difficult-to-parse information about the situation in which he’s now involved. He’s become part of a game – one that echoes the fantasy RPGs that Yosuke likes to play. But his class roll is dismal – Farmer – and his other party members are almost as pathetic in their lack of ability. Their quest to destroy some goblins goes as poorly as it possibly could, and a chance encounter with a giant troll leaves Shindou dead and Hakozaki missing a hand. Unfortunately, the other part of their team’s assignment is to fulfill a quest for the local villagers, and that quest is to destroy the very troll that nearly obliterated the party the previous night. It’s then that Yosuke takes it upon himself to “level up” on his own. If his own playing style is any indication, doing things without others’ help is the way to go.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2020 First Impressions – Assault Lily Bouquet

Girls battle against an alien threat and become partners destined for one-another.

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: TBA

Source: Original (part of a mixed-media franchise based on a line of figurines)

Summary: Half a century ago, Earth was attacked by terrible monsters called the “Huge.” Humanity’s only defense were the powerful Lilies, young women able to fight using weaponry called CHARMS, fusions of magic and Science. Riri Hitotsuyanagi was rescued by a Lily during an evacuation two years ago, and was inspired to become the very thing that she idolized. Unfortunately, her untrained skills meant that her entrance into Yurigaoka Girls’ School, a “garden” that raises future Lilies, was anything but assured. Luckily, she managed to make it off the waitlist and begin onto the path toward achieving her dream.

As Riri makes her way to the campus entrance ceremony, the politics of Lily life become apparent. The girls vie for partnerships with their powerful peers, while also-rans like Riri sit on the sidelines. Soon news of an escaped Huge specimen makes its way to the new students, and those with battle experience are called upon to help. Riri finds herself swept into the action with Kaede and Yuyu – the very girl who came to Riri’s rescue two years ago. Though Riri is inexperienced, her natural talents prove to be valuable and the threat is vanquished. Kaede is suddenly smitten with Riri, while Yuyu is left to ponder some complicated emotions.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2020 First Impressions: Higurashi: When They Cry – New

A totally normal story set in a totally normal town… or is it?

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: TBA (at least 14)

Source: Visual Novel (re-make of 2006 TV anime)

Summary: Keiichi Maebara returns to his home in the tiny town of Hinamizawa following a family funeral. There he reconnects with Rena, Mion, Satoko, and Rika, four girls who form a very informal (but in their minds, extremely structured) after school activity club. Keiichi enjoys his afternoons with the girls, despite the fact that they often make him into the butt monkey of the group.

As he and Rena are walking home one evening, they stop at a garbage dump where Rena goes digging for “treasure.” While he’s waiting, Keiichi meets a photographer who implies that the town may be hiding a few unsettling secrets. However, when Keiichi asks Rena for more information about this, her demeanor changes abruptly and he drops the subject. Over the next couple of days, Keiichi learns a few details about the town’s fight to prevent some developers from building a dam which would have flooded the town upon its completion. Mion insists that there was no violence involved in the town’s eventual victory, but Keiichi’s chance discovery of an old magazine article tells a very different story. It also appears that his friends may have a vested interest in keeping this all a secret.

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Previews Reviews

Autumn 2020 Anime Preview

Now that Summer is over, we’re starting to trudge into the weeds of a few anime series that were bumped later due to Covid-19. Add to that the anime that was meant to premiere during Autumn all along, and we have a pretty healthy crop of new anime series to sift through. There are lots of websites that do very comprehensive rundowns of soon-to-be-released anime; I value their contributions, but I don’t have the time or resources to go all-out in that way. But I do get excited about new anime and enjoy picking and choosing a few of my most anticipated titles to feature here.

As usual, these are just my personal opinions and are limited by the amount of information I have to work with. These are also (mostly) based on what looks cool to me; as always, it’s good to remind ourselves that anime series that look great in preview form might turn out to be mediocre, while those that might not appear to be that interesting might turn out to be more than meets the eye.

Below are the resources I used to help put this together:

  • ANN’s Fall 2020 trailer watch-along (this was a stream on their YouTube page which appears not to be recorded – I suspect they might not have the rights since there were PVs from several different companies and sources)
  • AniChart for Fall 2020
  • MAL chart for Fall 2020
  • The ANN Encyclopedia pages for series and their sources, if applicable
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Anime Reviews Reviews

Courting Controversy – A Look at “Interspecies Reviewers”

Oddly un-sexy at times and burdened by several other issues, but a fascinating example of ecchi anime with decent production values, a great sense of humor, and an unorthodox focus.

Streaming: N/A (Formerly on Funimation; AnimeLab in Australia and New Zealand continued to stream the remainder of the series. The show is now licensed in the US by Right Stuf with an upcoming disc release).

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Check out my first impressions here!

Note: some elements of this review may be considered NSFW. This review also contains many general and some specific spoilers for the series.

These past few months I’ve been on a quest to get my anime groove back. Typically I don’t have trouble watching several episodes of a series at a pop, but for reasons that I’ve explained probably too often by now these days are anything but typical. And now, after a couple of anime seasons, my anime queue is looking pretty daunting (luckily there are websites to help one keep track of these things…). For me, having too much to do is a paralyzing feeling that creates more problems than it addresses, so sometimes it pays to stop being analytical and just dive face-first into something ridiculous.

For me, “ridiculous” has always been the marker of something I probably wouldn’t want to watch under normal circumstances, but which might serve as a good palate-cleanser. Years ago I made a habit of watching anime that was distinctly outside of my wheelhouse or even actively irritating to me, just as a way of level-setting and reminding myself of the general competency level of the majority anime. At some point I came to the realization that I was spending a lot of my time watching anime I didn’t really like and getting angry about it, with the added negative side-effect being that my voicing my opinions about gross fanservice or whatever tended to garner a fair amount of abuse; an added burden that I wasn’t emotionally ready to deal with. I can’t say that I was the most eloquent writer back then (nor am I now), but getting told to kill myself just because I didn’t appreciate an overabundance of anime tiddy in my face never seemed like much of an equivalent exchange for the level and reach of my work. At some point it was no longer worthwhile to feel crappy on both the front and back end of an anime viewing, so I decided to focus more on anime that I enjoyed watching.

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Conventions Special Features

LightCon 2020 – Reflections

Hey folks. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I think we can all agree on the strangeness of the past several months. I’ve given myself a lot of grace lately regarding my depression, accepting that unless I’m really, truly upset about something, it primarily manifests as lack of motivation. I’ve had a really frustrating underlying desire to watch a lot of anime that’s been buried beneath an inability to actually click on any streaming services or grab any discs off the shelf. If that sounds maddening to you, well, welcome to the fun that is mental illness – it’s the endless push-and-pull between what you want to do and your inability to do anything about it.

One thing that usually motivates me is the responsibility I have toward multiple anime conventions throughout the year. Having the looming date of an event on the horizon is usually what prompts me to finish up anime that I’ve been watching and to organize my thoughts into something coherent. 2020 has become the year without deadlines; a mass of unmarked time with no big events to serve as signposts in the fog.

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Personal

Giving it Another Try

Since I’ve been a blogger, my primary focus has been on newer or current anime. Watching newer series has helped me maintain my interest in anime fandom, which is a fandom that often seems to pride itself in bulk consumption – as much as possible and as quickly as one can manage. There are certainly a lot of anime series out there and it can be very easy to get caught up in the destructive mindset of watching as much as humanly possible (I have to say, I do pride myself on the number of anime I’ve completed even though I’m not necessarily proud of having finished everything on that list. I’ll leave that to my readers to guess at which anime fall into what group).

With a near constant onslaught of new anime, it becomes much more difficult to look backwards to the classics. I’ve admitted in the past that I have some large blind spots when it comes to certain famous franchises. I’ve watched very little Dragon Ball (or its offshoots). I don’t have a special connection with older sports anime like Slam Dunk. And, in probably one of the more surprising twists of my life, I’ve never really gotten into the Gundam franchise.

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Anime Reviews Reviews Short Takes

Short Takes – Room Camp

Japan’s most relaxing fetch-quest.

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga. Sequel to Laid-Back Camp

Read my first impressions here!
Read my review of Laid-Back Camp here!

Review: Nadeshiko Kagamihara has now transformed into something of a camping enthusiast after relocating to Yamanashi prefecture and learning the ins-and-outs of roughing-it. Despite her enthusiasm for the outdoors, however, she lacks much knowledge about the local culture. Aoi and Chiaki, the other members of the Outdoor Activity Club, encourage Nadeshiko travel the prefecture to complete a stamp rally, and through doing so help her to gain some familiarity with the locations and culture right at her fingertips.

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