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Anime Reviews Reviews

Backlog Busting: “Mob Psycho 100 III”

Back in 2022 there were a lot of things going on in my life. Among other things, after dealing with infertility for multiple years, late that year I got pregnant with my one-and-only child. Probably because of that, mainly the immense fatigue that came along with it, I didn’t have a lot of energy to watch anime. I was really happy that the final season of Mob Psycho 100 was coming out, but I was chronically sleepy and had trouble finishing the episodes I was watching. Around episode 5 I reached a point where I felt like I’d have to re-watch episodes and that’s a difficult prospect for me even in more typical circumstances. So the series sat unfinished from that point on until I picked it up again in early April 2026.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Backlog Busting – “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End”

I wrote recently about my shameful anime backlog situation. To keep myself accountable, I thought it would be good to document what I finish within a reasonable amount of time. This is the first of those.

I have a real issue with finishing the anime I start, which as I’ve mentioned previously has more to do with how and when I’m watching it than the actual quality of the series. With Frieren in particular, I watched the first half of the first season pretty readily (which, looking back, was a miracle considering that I’d just had a baby a couple months prior to when the broadcast started and just wasn’t really in my right mind due to broken sleep and such). I caught up at the midpoint and, unlike previously when it was easy for me to watch a bunch of anime from week-to-week, I lost my momentum and had to prioritize other more pressing matters.

This was always a small point of shame to me; I really enjoyed what I’d already watched, so why couldn’t I just sit down and finish the first season? I think a big part of why it wasn’t that simple and the main reason why a lot of my hobbies suffered at that time was that I’d gone from having some decent coping mechanisms for my lack of executive function (a life-long issue) to suddenly suffering from having both my guts and my neurons rearranged through the experience of pregnancy. My priorities were different and my ability to focus had really changed as well. A lot of my mental energy was being spent caring for my little one and making sure his needs were met, and so most everything else fell to the wayside.

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Anime Reviews Personal Reviews

Dealing with Words Left Unsaid in “Journal With Witch”

For reasons that even I’m not quite sure about, I spent some time a few years ago in the corner of Reddit that deals with navigating toxic family relationships (primarily r/raisedbynarcissists, but also some focused more around other familial and romantic relationships). I wasn’t “raised” by any narcissists, but I think like most of us I’ve dealt with individuals in my life who I’ve suspected had some narcissistic traits, and learning about what that all entails has helped me to unpack some things about the challenging interactions I’ve had.

I think what’s interesting to come to know is that, in many of these cases, the overriding emotion being experienced by the person posting is grief. When dealing with someone whose perception of the world lacks grounding in reality, there’s often not a way to have a genuine interaction with them. Whatever relationship you think you have with them is always filtered through their illness; they often aren’t in a state of mind to see you as an equal existence with your own thoughts, feelings, and desires. The grief comes from mourning a relationship that was never really there, and the reality that you may never get the opportunity to say what you need to say to these people in a way that they will acknowledge. It’s forever suffering a lack of closure.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Shiny New Anime Prep – “Wistoria: Wand and Sword”

Title: Wistoria: Wand and Sword

Episodes: 12

Streaming: Crunchyroll

I often claim that I have very broad tastes in entertainment. I don’t necessarily think that makes me special or a better consumer, but I think my experiences in sampling a large cross section of anime has allowed me to become comfortable when dabbling in many different genres. My criticisms tend to revolve more around the overuse of storytelling tropes, or the use of tropes that just rub me the wrong way. I’m happy to enjoy a fantasy series, but if many of its story beats revolve around slavery dynamics or its heroes are accessing video game style user interfaces, I tend to lose interest, or worse.

However, even stale tropes when wielded by the right hands can become fresh again. What it boils down to, I think, is being able to avoid cynicism when utilizing those story beats and having some amount of respect toward the audience who appreciates them. That, and being able to subvert expectations in other key ways so that the media doesn’t feel like a complete rehash of something else.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Shiny New Anime Prep – “Train to the End of the World”

Title: Train to the End of the World

Episodes: 12

Streaming: Crunchyroll

At the rate that new technologies are developed and released upon the public, it’s natural to feel nervous when yet another miracle invention (which may or may not have been fully vetted by, well, anyone) appears for public consumption. Enter 7G, a communications technology that Japan tech gurus and government leaders alike hope will return the country to the technological forefront. Teenager Yoka finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and is plucked off the street to press the start button for 7G during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. However, immediately after her finger pushes play, reality warps to the point that most places and people become unrecognizable and civilization collapses.

Now two years later the very few settlements that remain are scattered along the Seibu Ikebukuro line, where each stop is now hours or even days travel from its neighbors. Shizuru has spent the last couple of years since the 7G incident living her life in the town of Agano where, due to the effects of 7G, residents transform into animals after they turn 21 years old. Shizuru and Yoka had a falling-out just before the incident, and Shizuru grasps onto any snippet of information she can find about Yoka’s possible whereabouts so that they can hopefully repair their rift. When she by chance sees a newspaper clipping with a photo of Yoka in the now-mutated Ikebukuro, she makes it her mission to pilot an old abandoned train car to make the weeks-long trip into the city. However, she won’t have to make the trip alone – she’s joined by friends Nadeshiko, Reimi, and Akira, who experience this wild new world along with her.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Shiny New Anime Prep – “Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master”

Title: Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master

Episodes: 20

Streaming: Crunchyroll

I’m trying something a little different this year – right now I’m prepping for an upcoming convention, and part of that involves catching up on anime from the past year that I think I may want to include (either featured, or included on our more extensive recommendation list). I’m hoping writing about what I’ve been watching will help me collect my thoughts a little bit better, and treat the media as less disposable – even though I’m watching a lot of in a relatively short time.

The Kingdom of Yamauchi is led by the Kin’u, or golden raven, a singular emperor among a race of Yatagarasu, or three-legged ravens. Though the title is often bestowed down a heriditary line, when the kingdom finds itself in need a true golden raven may be born to help protect Yamauchi and its people.

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First Impressions Reviews

First Impressions: Delicious in Dungeon

Streaming: Netflix

Episodes: 24

Episode Summary: Adventurer Laios and his party find their dungeon crawl cut short when one of their party members, Laios’s sister Farin, is chomped up by a red dragon. As her final act, Farin uses magic to whisk Laios, Marcille, and Chilchuck safely to the surface. Now, having lost most of their supplies and looking at pawning their equipment to get the funds they need, Laios turns to an idea he’s been kicking around for a while. Rather than bringing their rations with them down into the depths of the dungeon, why not just kill and eat the creatures who call that dangerous place home? It would hopefully allow them to reach Farin before she’s digested, at least.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2022 First Impressions – Fuuto PI

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: The city of Fuuto is a mysterious place where it’s very easy for magic to become reality. Shotaro Hidari considers himself a hard-boiled detective (though some would beg to differ) who knows the city like the back of his own hand. However, when a supposed “witch” begins mugging people, Shotaro finds that despite meeting her in person one night and being struck by her beauty, she’s especially difficult to track down. When a victim approaches him to help find her (along with his stolen items) it takes the extent of Shotaro’s information network to simply figure out where she might appear next.

When it becomes apparent that this witch may also have had her hand in the murder of the member of a local crime organization, Shotaro considers leaving the matter to the city’s police. However, the insistence of the client, as well as the nature of his own pride as a private investigator, keeps driving him toward answers. When he and his client are drawn into an alternate version of Fuuto and find themselves under attack, Shotaro finds himself in a pinch. The only thing that can save them is the intervention of Phillip – Shotaro’s literal other half as part of Kamen Rider W.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2022 First Impressions – The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 11

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: After Yuuri’s parents pass away tragically in an accident, he decides to let the servants at his small mansion go to help preserve some of his inheritance. Unfortunately, for a kid with very little experience cooking and cleaning, living life entirely on his own has a steep learning curve. It’s at his moment of greatest need that Lilith, a maid, shows up on Yuuri’s doorstep and offers to work for him in exchange for nothing more than room and board. Though Yuuri finds this suspicious, the alternative isn’t appealing.

Almost immediately, Yuuri finds Lilith’s behavior questionable. She teases him with a familiarity that seems counter to the fact that they barely know one-another. Yuuri often finds her up late at night reading books or cooking up concoctions in the kitchen. He’s sure that she must be some kind of sorceress out to get him. It’s true that her motives run deeper than they may seem to at first, but despite her seemingly playful nature, Lilith wants to wait for the right time to let the young master know more about herself.

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Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2022 First Impressions – Uncle From Another World

Streaming: Netflix

Episodes: 13

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Seventeen years ago, Takafumi’s uncle was hit by truck-kun, and while his earthly body seemed to be in a coma in the hospital, his mind was far, far away having adventures in another world. When his uncle finally wakes up, Takafumi assumes that the weird language he’s speaking is just the ramblings of a crazy person, but once his uncle demonstrates some honest-to-goodness magical ability, Takafumi begins to understand the potential for profit he may have just stumbled into.

While their YouTube career starts as a bit of a slow burn, Takafumi learns more about his uncle’s experiences while his uncle wrestles with catching up with seventeen years’ worth of technological advances and changes in the video game console landscape. While his uncle has always seemingly had issues dealing with real human relationships (his fondest memories are of video games), Takafumi learns that his uncle may have inadvertently become closer to a young woman in the other world than he may have realized at the time. As Takafumi and his uncle try to work out a way of sustaining themselves and their meager lifestyle, could his uncle’s “interesting” past come back to haunt him?