Managing attendance at two conventions in as many weeks is a tall order for me. Though I didn’t have any responsibilities at SGDQ during the last week in June, the late nights and intense emotions of the event definitely wore me down more than I expected them to. This weekend was CONvergence, where I sat on 4 panels while also juggling a day of work on Friday and several anime premiere impressions here at the blog (I really don’t want to end up too far behind this year…). All of the time away from home, the crowds, and the stress of speaking in front of people (among other things), ended up becoming overwhelming, and I skipped out of the last day of CON to recuperate. While it’s disappointing to miss part of something you’ve looked forward to all year, sometimes mental health has to be a priority. The up-side is that being at home gave me the time to continue this watch-along rather than delaying it a day or two (while also trying to dig into all of the high-profile new anime series that premiered this weekend). Life is all about blessings in disguise.
The Marchionesse has a bone to pick with Annerose. All Screencaps from Hidive.
Note: This post contains spoilers for episodes 11-13 of the series.
Akira Ōno is a regular guy who works at a company that manages an online game. He often plays the game as his character “Maō” (Dark Lord). But one day, when he logs on, he is whisked into the game’s fantasy world as his character. There, he meets a one-legged girl, and begins his adventures alongside her. But as he is a powerful “Dark Lord,” various nations and holy maidens journey to defeat him, and he stirs up trouble everywhere he goes. – ANN
Episode Summary: Akira is just about to shut down the server of the online game he manages. It’s been a good 15 years, but it’s time to move on. Just as the clock strikes midnight, Akira sees a flash of light. When he comes to he finds himself in another world, dressed suspiciously like his character Hakuto, the Demon Lord of legend.
He meets a little girl named Aku as she’s being chased by a demon. Hakuto’s skills are such that he makes short work of the beast. He sees Aku as a benefit to him – since she’s a local, she can help him navigate the landscape. He makes a try at finding a way back home; unfortunately the wishing shrine he finds is almost out of juice, and his wish to go home turns out to be invalid anyway. The shrine’s Idol does leave him with a frightening tool, however; a ring filled to the brim with evil power. After closing off some loose ends in Aku’s village, the two start making their way toward the capital.
In the year 2063, travelling through space has become commonplace. Eight students from Caird High School, along with one child, set out for a school camp on a nearby planet. However, the students are then mysteriously transported 5,000 light years away from home, with no way to call for help. Aboard an abandoned spaceship they call the Astra, these nine students slowly try to make their way back and figure out why they were transported in the first place. – ANN
Episode Summary:The first episode is double-length, but I’ll endeavor to keep the summary succinct.
Aries is excited to be attending space camp, but that doesn’t mean her scatterbrained ways are in check at all. After almost forgetting her passport, she dumps her suitcase at the spaceport and ends up getting her bag stolen. Luckily a kind stranger, who she learns is a boy named Kanata from her high school, helps her out. After she and her classmates gather, they board the ship for camp. They’ll be spending a week on Planet McPa, a nature preserve where they’ll be relatively safe. No sooner does the group set down on the surface than they’re confronted with a strange spherical object. Their curiosity turns to horror when the entity begins to engulf the group one-by-one.
Hi all, I’ll keep this brief. While J.C. and I were on several panels this year, only one – Shiny New Anime – had any quantifiable amount of material to go along with it. Both the handout and the PowerPoint slide deck are below.
Please note: there aren’t any huge differences between the version of Shiny New Anime we presented a few months ago at Anime Detour, and this one; I mostly just cut items due to our more typical time slot at CONvergence, and added a clip for Sarazanmai. There are a few more additions to the handout, however.
As usual, these are yours to have. If you use any of the material for your own presentations, blog posts, or what-not, please credit me. I put a lot of work into these materials (even if they’re fairly straightforward).
When a friend cruelly calls Hibiki fat it’s like a knife stabbed into her heart. The high school girl loves to eat but decides to go on a diet to be absolutely thin by summer vacation, but she doesn’t know how to exercise properly on her own. Hibiki finds herself in front of a training gym and joins. Once there, she meets her beautiful and charismatic student council president Akemi Sōryūin and steps into the intense yet enjoyable world of weight-training. – ANN
Episode Summary: Hibiki is a growing girl with a healthy appetite, but when a friend of hers comments on her expanding midsection and overall plumpness, she decides that it’s time to slim down. She joins the Silverman Gym, and discovers that a classmate of hers, Akemi, is planning to join as well. As it turns out, Akemi has a bit of a muscle fetish, and this gym is packed to the gills with bodybuilders and their bulging muscles. Hibiki feels out of place, but decides to try to get her money’s worth anyway.
Akemi is old hat at strength training, but Machio, their personal trainer, is encouraging and helps Hibiki push herself to complete more reps than she might on her own. She learns how to do bench presses and squats during her first week. When Akemi asks how many times a day Hibiki eats, Hibiki gets ready for another scolding, but Akemi is simply impressed; with such a strong appetite, Hibiki has almost infinite potential to bulk up her muscles.
Tejina is cute, weird, and loves stage magic. She also has crippling stage fright. The nameless male main character first meets her practicing parlor tricks in her club room alone. His high school requires that he join a club, and for some reason he can’t take his eyes off Tejina and her fruitless attempts at magic. – ANN
Episode Summary: Protagonist-kun (he’s literally unnamed) needs to find a school club to join, since his school requires it of all students. He plans to join the literature club so that he can slack off, but hears some enthusiastic dialog coming from an open door and decides to peek inside. The source of the speech is Tejina, a pretty upperclassman with a love for stage magic. Unfortunately, her skills at maintaining illusions leave something to be desired. Somehow protagonist-kun gets roped into becoming her assistant, though his main duties involve playing the straight man and cleaning up after Tejina’s mistakes.
Because of a plane crash a group of students are spending their lives on a desert island where there’s nothing available and they’ll have to make it themselves. The students will show to eat cicadas, how to build traps, a simple allergy test, how to eat hermit crabs, and more. – ANN
Episode Summary: If things had gone the way they should have, Homare, Asuka, Shion, and Mutsu would be kicking back at a hotel with their classmates, enjoying the first evening of their class trip. Unfortunately, their plane crashed into the ocean, and after fighting through dehydration and shark-filled waters, they’re now stranded on a small island in the middle of the ocean. Luckily Homare knows a thing or two about survival skills due to her father’s teachings, but it might be an uphill climb to ensure that all four members of this unwilling adventure party survive to see their own rescue.
Ahoy! I’ve been tagged by Crow of Crow’s World of Anime (thank you for the tag!) to share my ideal anime pirate crew. While I’m always up for something fun, as we all know these sorts of prompts often turn into a serious thought experiment for me. I always want to come up with the best possible answer that I can (and maybe give a shout-out to some of my favorites in the process).
Below are the rules for this particular blogging challenge:
Display the My Pirate Crew logo and add ‘My Pirate Crew’ as a tag.
Thank the blogger who nominated you and post a link to their blog
Select seven anime characters and give them a position on the crew. These are the positions you can to fill. Warrior, sniper, chef, doctor, scientist, navigator, strategist, mechanic, entertainer.
Nominate 5-10 bloggers.
Set sail and rule the seas!
I don’t know that I’ll be able to fulfill rule #5, since from what I can see most of the bloggers that I follow have already done the challenge. But if you’re reading and want to take it on unprompted, by all means please do! I’d love to see what you come up with.
Warrior – Hyakkimaru from Dororo
Hyakkimaru blends the killing potential of demons with the strength of the human heart.
Hyakkimaru had a rough start. Sacrificed by his father in exchange for prosperity, he barely survived infancy. Now, as he seeks the parts of his body stolen from him, he utilizes special extra-sensory perception to identify malevolent enemies and dispatch them using the swords he hides within his prosthetic limbs.
There were a lot of good options for this position, but having just wrapped up Dororo, I feel like Hyakkimaru is a good match. Not only is he a skilled swordsman (using multiple blades), his senses straddle the human and demon worlds. While his drive for revenge might be frightening at times, in his heart he walks the path of humanity.
Sniper – Ogata Hyakunosuke from Golden Kamuy
Ogata is an incredible shot. Just be sure to stay in his good graces.
Ogata is a man with skills and accuracy honed during the Russo Japanese war. While his loyalties are often in question and he may switch factions at any time, if you can keep him on your team you’ll have a definite advantage.
I somehow became a big Golden Kamuy fujoshi over the past few months, and I just had to slip in one of the characters here.
Chef – Furio from Ristorante Paradiso
Furio creates Italian delights with ease.
I’m a big fan of food-based anime and manga, and while Ristorante Paradiso is a drama first and foremost, there’s still plenty of opportunities for food porn. As Casetta dell’Orso’s resident culinary expert, Furio puts food on the table with elegance and grace. It certainly doesn’t hurt that he, like all the other restaurant employees, are easy on the eyes, too.
Doctor – The Medicine Seller from Mononoke
He can cure your physical and spiritual ills.
I’m all about multi-tasking, and the Medicine Seller really embodies that ideal. While his cabinet full of herbs and tonics can help to cure physical ailments, he also has the skills and know-how to defend-against and exorcise supernatural threats as well. He also has a history of defending ships against seafaring demons – very helpful!
Scientist – Professor from Nichijou
She’s smart, but her maturity level might become an issue.
The professor might seem like any other little kid, but having created a sentient robot and a way for animals to speak, it’s clear that she’s a genius beyond her years. I think I can count on her to invent and discover all sorts of interesting things, while also getting into loads of zany situations. Her professed love of sharks is a bonus out on the high seas.
Navigator – Luca from Bodacious Space Pirates
Her persona is a little offbeat.
I was going to try to get through this challenge without obtaining the services of a legitimate pirate, but I just couldn’t resist drawing from a series that I really enjoy, Bodacious Space Pirates. Luca’s personality and her perception are somewhat offbeat, but I think that’s a plus. Having a psychic on my crew will give me an advantage if I have to outrun any interlopers.
Strategist – Togame from Katanagatari
She claims to be a strategist for the government, so why not have her prove it?
Togame is a self-proclaimed strategist, and while her clumsiness and emotionality may call that into question at times, she’s goal-oriented to a fault. At the very least, having her on my team would definitely ensure that things stay lively.
Mechanic – Mogura from Redline
That’s the face of experience.
If anime has taught me anything, it’s that crusty, curmudgeonly old dudes tend to make the best mechanics. Mogura managed to tune a hot rod so that even a lowly human had a chance to win an interstellar death race, so I image that he’d be able to keep my ship in tip-top condition at the very least.
Entertainer – Aijo Karen from Revue Starlight
Karen is ready to impress.
Revue Starlight is full to the brim with character who are ready to entertain their audience, but Karen is the one who ultimately takes her performances (and her fate) into her own hands. Not only that, she’s an incredibly loyal friend and ally – always a plus when you’re engaging in pirate-like activities.
As I said, I’m faltering on who to tag, but if you feel like putting together your own crew, link back here and let me know!
During a protracted civil war that pitted the North against the South, the outnumbered Northerners used dark magic to create monstrous super-soldiers called Incarnates. Now that the war has ended, those Sacred Beasts must learn to make their way in a peaceful society, or face death at the hands of a Beast Hunter. Nancy Schaal Bancroft, the daughter of an Incarnate, turns to hunting the hunter herself. But once she catches up with her quarry, she discovers hard truths about the lives of these Sacred Beasts – ANN
Episode Summary: In the young country of Patria, a competition for resources pits the armies of the North and South against one-another. The North is vastly outnumbered, but they have a special tool at their disposal – the Incarnates, unholy fusions of man and beast that have unimaginable power. This helps tip the scales to the side of the North, and hopefully, eventually toward peace.
When one of the Incarnates goes rogue, the downside of this incredible power becomes apparent. Eventually, their human souls become unable to fight off the beast personas within, and only death can stop their rampage. Elaine, the doctor who created the Incarnates, plans to kill them one-by-one to prevent anything bad from happening. Unfortunately, after she fires a fatal shot at Hank, captain of the squad, she’s murdered by Cain, one of her creations. Hank miraculously awakens two months later and learns that the war has ended, but the leftover incarnates are causing trouble across the land. He becomes a hunter of these rogue incarnates, in order to stop them from murdering the populace.
Perpetually behind and painfully aware of it is how I tend to live my anime lifestyle. With tons of other events going on lately it’s been easy to forget about the fact that a new anime season is almost upon us. Yikes! I’m still catching up on Spring series (and there weren’t that many I planned to watch). But, as usual, here are the list of some upcoming series that have caught my interest. As usual, the proof is in the pudding; I could be way off the mark with any of these predictions and I know there’ll be a few surprises in the mix.
