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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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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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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 25: Den-noh Coil Episode 9 “Miss Michiko From The Other Side”

It’s no secret that I love Den-noh Coil (or Dennou Coil if you prefer the classic romanization of the title). One look at my user icon across the various social media I use on a regular basis would tend to make that obvious. If you know, you know. And like many of the best anime out there, the series is structured in such a way that it deftly balances both the speculative ideas it’s trying to present, as well as the plot and character moments that define its emotional core. The first half of the series is largely spent world-building, laying the groundwork for the more plot-focused second half. Because of that, the first half features a lot of characters, locations, and moods that are tied together by the use of the cyber glasses that the characters wear. And because the first half is so focused on “dabbling,” it’s no surprise that one of the episodes is a great Halloween watch!

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 23: Dorohedoro

So far this month we’ve tackled psychological horror, comedic horror, and horror-adjacent titles and episodes. However, as far as I can see, we haven’t yet looked at the niche-within-a-niche that is “grotesque-yet-humorous urban fantasy where people are turned into meat pies,” so I wanted to make sure we had that covered by featuring Dorohedoro.

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 5: Vampire in the Garden

I feel like I’m starting to get into the groove with parenting my baby (now that I’ve said that, he’s going to start crawling and none of this will be accurate anymore, of course). This week, while I was holding him during his nap, I managed to actually watch some anime! And, of course, because it’s October, I wanted to watch something from my list that I could include on this list. Enter yet another poorly-advertised Netflix exclusive, titled Vampire in the Garden.

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 4: Adam by Eve: A Live in Animation

When I think of Halloween, I don’t always immediately think of music. While Christmas has its share of iconic carols, Halloween’s contributions to the musical canon are somewhat fewer and farther between. Once you get past “Monster Mash” or the soundtrack of A Nightmare Before Christmas, it gets much more difficult to name specifically Halloween-appropriate tunes. If you’re in the mood for a few of my own suggestions, might I recommend “Ghosts n Stuff” by deadmau5, the soundtrack to Over the Garden Wall, and today’s spooky selection, Adam by Eve: A Live in Animation

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 3: Spriggan Episode 3 “The Forest of No Return”

So apparently there was a new “Indiana Jones” film released this Summer. My life’s been a bit hectic the last couple of months, so though I had some mild awareness of it, I didn’t get a chance to go see it. Earlier in the year, however, I did watch an anime series that reminded me a bit of Indy and his archaeological adventures, and I suspect that my time may have been better spent doing so (did anyone see Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny? Was it good? Let me know if I should try to check it out).

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Favorites Special Features

Five Anime to Watch if You’re Short on Time – Round 1

I used to think that I was too busy, and then I went and had a kid. Now I truly know the meaning of not having the time I want to indulge in my various extracurriculars (right now my spouse is out with the baby so I can have some time to myself, and I still spent the first hour of this precious time taking care of house chores instead of settling down to write – I have problems). Along those same lines, the thought of trying to keep up with several seasonal anime series like I’ve done in the past is truly laughable, and I haven’t been current with very many anime series over the last several seasons at least. I’m sure some of you out there reading can share in my frustration.

Luckily, there’s good anime out there for people in our situation. While I definitely won’t be digging into anything of the magnitude of One Piece any time soon (or ever), I know of plenty of bite-sized anime treats to enjoy while carving out some precious free time in between other obligations. I’ll be sharing some of my favorites over several upcoming posts, to hopefully provide something of a lifeline for others just looking for a quick fix rather than something that would take half a lifetime to watch.

Please note: while I encourage folks to seek out official sources for these titles (I’ll be listing availability as appropriate) not everything may have an official US release. Unfortunately, this is simply the nature of being a long-time anime fan who’s watched various series become more and less available over time.

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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?

Categories
Anime Reviews First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2022 First Impressions – Spriggan

Streaming: Netflix

Episodes: 6 (45 minutes apiece)

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: The ARCAM organization is guided by the writing on a mysterious golden tablet, imploring anyone who might read its words to protect the artifacts and technology from the ancient world from being misused. When an altar is found beneath Mount Fuji that seems to have connections to an ancient civilization which had the power to control the volcano’s eruptions, ARCAM seeks the help of young linguistics professor Yamabishi to decipher its cryptic writing.

Of course, Yamabishi’s skill and the potentially limitless power offered by this altar also draws the attention of several other factions, including those out of Russia looking to claim the power for their own world-dominating aspirations. Luckily, professor Yamabishi falls under the protection of Yu Ominae, ARCAM’s elite fighter, code-named “Spriggan.” With his orichalcum body armor and keen fighting sense, Yu is a force to be reckoned with. But Russia has its own elite forces – will Yu’s abilities be enough to prevent the power of Fuji’s Flame Serpent from falling into the wrong hands?