Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Granbelm

In a world that long ago featured the existence of magic, but has long since lost that ability. The story begins when the very normal high school student Mangetsu Kohinata meets Shingetsu Ernesta Fukami, who has migrated back to Japan from Germany, on a night with a full moon. – MAL

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Mangetsu is a typical high school student whose propensity toward helping others has resulted in her making lunches for many of her classmates. One evening, as the full moon shines brightly out her window, she realizes that she’s left a lunch box at school, so she goes to retrieve it. As she’s about the leave the school, the world seems to dissolve, leaving in its place an illusory world that’s somehow familiar, but very different.

Outside several girls in magical mecha entities battle one-another, and they wonder why Mangetsu doesn’t seem to have her own suit of armor. One of them, Shingetsu Ernesta, defends Mangetsu until she’s able to hear the truth – at one time, the world was filled with magic, but it was sealed away to save humanity. Now, those from magical bloodlines meet at the full moon and battle for dominance until only one remains. Soon Mangetsu numbers among them as her powers are awakened and she quickly learns to draw upon them.

Continue reading “Summer 2019 First Impressions – Granbelm”
Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Fire Force

In the year 198 of the Age of the Sun, Tokyo is a crowded cosmopolis. But the world’s most populous city is threatened by devils that cause people to burst into flame at random. The only ones who can stop it are the Pyrofighters, a team of specialized firefighters. The young Shinra, blessed with the ability to ignite his feet and travel at the speed of a rocket, wants nothing more than to be a hero, and knows that this is the place for him. But he’s not the best at following orders. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 24

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: As a child, Shinra witnessed the death of his mother and younger brother in a horrible fire. As one with pyrokinetic abilities, he was blamed for the accident, but Shinra remembers having seen something terrifying withing the billowing flames. Now, his talents with fire have lead him to join the Fire Force, a group of firefighters who help put to rest the souls of infernals, those inexplicably consumed by flames.

No one knows what caused the appearance of the infernals in the first place, though one of the duties of the Fire Force is to attempt to deduce the cause of these seemingly random fiery transformations. As Shinra goes on his first mission, he begins to experience the parallels between his own experience and the situation at hand. It’s this understanding that allows Shinra to draw upon his pyrokinetic power and put the infernal to rest.

Continue reading “Summer 2019 First Impressions – Fire Force”
Categories
Personal

A Different Type of Convention Reaction

Another year, another CONvergence. I’ve written here before about the convention itself, and I may have more things to say later about the nuts and bolts part of the convention since it was in a new location this year (spoiler: I thought it was a net positive overall). Today I’d actually like to talk about CONvergence’s panel culture and some specific experiences I’ve had related to that, including some positive and not-so-positive ones I had this year. My experiences aren’t necessarily directly related to CONvergence in all respects; I’ve got some personality problems/mental health issues that make certain situations different for me than they might be for others, but hopefully this will all resonate with others to some degree.

Continue reading “A Different Type of Convention Reaction”
Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Wasteful Days of High School Girls

There are three high school girls: Tanaka, nicknamed “Idiot” for her low test scores; Kikuchi, nicknamed “Ota” for her obsession with boys-love stories; and Saginomiya, nicknamed “Robot” for being a genius but emotionless. Together with a colorful cast of characters, the hopeless girls live wasteful days of youth. – ANN

Streaming: Hidive

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Nozomu and her friends are about to start their first day of high school, but even with all the big changes that are likely in store for them she really only has one goal – to become popular with boys. That might be an issue, since she’s only now realized that her high school is girls-only, she doesn’t have any childhood friends to hit up, and her two closest friends are a girl with a robotic personality, and an otaku – not exactly experienced in the romantic arts. Even their homeroom teacher immediately quashes any latent fantasies about teacher-student relations – he drastically prefers college women, especially those in business attire interviewing for jobs, and has no interest in getting fired for the sake of a forbidden romance.

Nozomu tries her best to troll for male prospects, approaching strangers in the hallway between classes and asking them to introduce her to their male friends. Of course, she doesn’t endear herself to anyone since she’s given most of them unflattering nicknames already. Still, she has vivid (unrealistic) fantasies about meeting boys and leaving an impression as an “interesting woman.” The difference between her idealized life and her reality earn her the nickname “Baka.”

Continue reading “Summer 2019 First Impressions – Wasteful Days of High School Girls”
Categories
Personal

The Disorientation of Unplanned Hiatuses

Some people plan their writing hiatuses, some don’t. I’m obviously the latter type of person. My preference is to post here a few times per week as it suits my schedule, but I’m also quite the slave to my own emotional state. Depression for me doesn’t really manifest as outright sadness a lot of the time. Instead, it bubbles underground as a lack of motivation and exhaustion at the thought of trying to accomplish anything (even something fun – like watching anime and talking about it with my readers and friends). I especially struggle when I compare myself to others who are much more consistent than I am, because I get this nagging feeling that there’s just something wrong with me.

Continue reading “The Disorientation of Unplanned Hiatuses”
Categories
News Site News

Frequently Asked Questions

Hi Friends, I know it’s been a while. I’m sure you’re probably here looking for new reviews, and there should be some very soon. In the meantime, since things have been a little sad in the anime fandom over the past couple of weeks, I switched gears a bit and worked on developing a FAQ for this website. I don’t get many questions online, but I have gotten some in “real life” so I thought I’d try to answer some of them.

You can find the FAQ here, or navigate to it via the “About This Website” menu up above. If you have a burning question, you can ask it via Curious Cat. Maybe it will be immortalized in the FAQ someday!

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord.

Dale is a cool, composed, and highly skilled adventurer who’s made quite a name for himself despite his youth. One day on a job deep in the forest, he comes across a little devil girl who’s almost wasted away. Unable to just leave her there to die, Dale takes her home and becomes her adoptive father. Devil or not, Latina is beyond adorable, and the adventurer soon finds himself head over heels with being a parent. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Dale has never had to think far beyond his next mission or his next meal, but when he finds an orphaned devil girl in the forest one day, he’s suddenly forced to look beyond his own day-to-day survival. The girl has one broken horn, marking her as a criminal – but one would be hard-pressed to come up with any scenario in which a kid her age should be banished in such a way. Dale learns that her name is Latina, and he takes her back to his home in the walled city of Kreuz.

After cleaning Latina up, Dale considers his options. He’s barely 18 and his job as an adventurer keeps him away from his home base for days at a time. But the “perpetually under-funded” city orphanage probably wouldn’t be that happy to have yet another mouth to feed. And Dale has a support system in Rita and Kenneth, the proprietors of the restaurant where Dale rents a room. Rather than dump Latina in the hands of strangers, Dale chooses the path toward instant fatherhood, with all its challenges and surprises.

Continue reading “Summer 2019 First Impressions – If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord.”
Categories
Industry News News

When the World Makes Little Sense at All

Apologies for the sparse updates the past week or so. Being online has been a little bit emotionally challenging for me lately, due to some upsetting anime fandom-related occurrences both local, and now international.

By now I think many/most people are aware of the tragedy that took place at Kyoto Animation’s building 1. In short, an arsonist attacked the production office and set it on fire, killing 33 people and injuring several others. As of this time there’s been no confirmed motive from the perpetrator (who was captured and arrested), although I doubt any sort of reasoning could possibly even begin to make sense of such an inherently senseless act.

Continue reading “When the World Makes Little Sense at All”
Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Dr. Stone

Taiju is about to confess to the girl he loves when a mysterious force hits the Earth and turns every human into stone. Taiju and his friend Senku wake up thousands of years later and begin to rebuild society. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 24

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Senku is a scientific genius, and Taiju is a lovable meathead. But neither boy’s particular strengths allow them to escape the mysterious green light that envelopes the Earth and turns all of its people to stone. By sheer force of will, Taiju holds onto his consciousness and vows to finish his confession to his crush, Yuzuriha, should they ever break out of their stony prison.

When Taiju finally does manage to break free, he finds the landscape almost completely transformed. Senku has been awake for 6 months already, and tells him the news – it’s now 3,700 later than when they were transformed, and the world has essentially been thrust back into the stone age. But Senku has a goal, and with his brains and Taiju’s brawn, he believes it’s a realistic one. He plans to use scientific knowledge and technique to recover humanity’s lost technology, and restore civilization to its former glory.

Continue reading “Summer 2019 First Impressions – Dr. Stone”
Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – O Maidens in Your Savage Season

The girls in a high school literature club do a little icebreaker to get to know each other: answering the question, “What’s one thing you want to do before you die,” One of the girls blurts out, “Sex.” Little do they know, the whirlwind unleashed by that word pushes each of these girls, with different backgrounds and personalities, onto their own clumsy, funny, painful, and emotional paths toward adulthood. – ANN

Streaming: Hidive

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Kazusa and the other members of the literature club start to realize that the world of novels is saturated with adult concepts of sex and sexual metaphors. When news drops of a new novel from one of the club’s favorite authors, focusing on a character who creates a “bucket list,” the girls discuss what sorts of things they want to do before they die. Bluntly, one of the girls says that she’d want to have sex, and this sends the others into a tizzy. While the other girls in their class seem comfortable enough talking about sex day in and day out, Kazusa and company aren’t comfortable with the concept at all.

Kazusa starts to feel like she can’t escape the subject of sex; she and her best friend start to mis-hear sexual words in everyday conversation, and the way some other girls talk about her childhood friend Izumi causes her to react in ways she never expected. When she goes over to deliver a hot meal to Izumi (since his parents are out of town), she walks into the last situation she would have wanted to – she catches him with his pants down, pornography playing on his laptop. Kazusa runs away and wishes that sex weren’t such an overwhelming topic. It’s confusing, a little scary, and completely foreign, and she doesn’t know if she’ll ever be comfortable with it.

Continue reading “Summer 2019 First Impressions – O Maidens in Your Savage Season”