On one hand, this anime is a passion project, since its production started around the arson that Kyoto Animation suffered back in 2019, so the fact alone that it was recovered and exists is inspirational and something to be kinda glad about. On the other hand, KyoAni is likely not the appropriate studio to be in charge of the adaptation. Look up some opinions from source readers and you’ll find that they changed aspects and order of events of the story, details in characterization, and added lgbt bait that goes nowhere as their usual trademark.

Despite belonging to the reduced group of their works that aren’t about cute girls doing cute things with Munto, Full Metal Panic and Violet Evergarden, KyoAni still gave Sparks of Tomorrow their usual flavor. For what’s supposed to be an alternative history drama, the tone is very light, it’s almost like the plot can’t remain serious for more than two minutes without anyone saying or doing something silly, having what it’s supposed to be a funny reaction, or dropping some catchphrase, as both protagonists have one.

The characters are very quirky, the two protagonists with their catchphrases, the antagonist by being over the top and an obsessed gay yandere that randomly drops some English here and there making you cringe a little every time, and the two friends of the main girl making stuff appear when needed and who the series baits to have something going on but does not commit to it, as the studio never does despite baiting on every anime they make.

The characterization itself feels two-dimensional at best, the protagonist who’s big into creating with electricity but it’s also skeptical, the main girl who is naive and very positive talking about miracles, deities, believing in talents and people no matter what and stuff, the two friends that are just kinda there and one is secretly lesbian, the yandere secretly gay antagonist, the side characters that are defined by a role and a quirk. The tall and strong dude compared with a machine, his fiance who judo chops him regularly, and such. Heck, for most of the series the antagonist remains so passive you might not even consider him as such. I gotta say it’s not even consistent, the girl who is supposed to be heart over brain ends up making some of the most important discoveries out of observation, for example.

The writing is a mess, as everything good or bad seems to happen through accidents. It’s not every day that you can criticize something for having not only plot conveniences but also inconveniences for the protagonists. Your usual situation in this anime would play out kinda like this: protagonist-kun and main girl-chan are chased by bad guy-san, who sends side character-dono at them, luckily he trips while running so he doesn’t reach them, but his shoe goes flying and pushes some lever that stops the vehicle the main characters were on, but they go around the corner that he can’t get in so they are fine, but oh no, villain-san is already there somehow. Everything plays out like this. Oh but sometimes the main group reaches out to the bad guy to show him their progress, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?

Heck, even the characters are introduced just as casually, they happen to be in the place the protagonists are in on a scene and episode, they happen to be related to some other known character, and those in turn happened to know about the main plot device of the story and the older brother of the protagonist. It could have easily been solved by having secondary characters introducing other side characters to the main ones by their own initiative, but no.

Even if you disregard the writing, the scenario is not believable. Ok, let’s accept the premise of electricity being invented in Japan, it’s not the worst alternative history otaku work out there, go find mangas and anime about time travel samurais or admirals changing the course of Japanese history if you don’t believe me, I could only watch three episodes of Konpeki no Kantai before dropping it. Still, the speed and way the characters invent things are simply unacceptable, even though they are not Dr. Stone levels of impossible. I mean in six episodes you have the three girls playing jpop death metal as if they were Babymetal by playing shamisens and such instruments. Well, the antagonist made an android with an electro brain of his mancrush near the end, and all of this happens at the beginning of the 20th century.

Even if you accept the writing and the scenario, there are so many ridiculous things happening in most episodes. That one where the antagonist dances with the protagonist while the latter wears a dress is the second worst episode I’ve seen so far from this year after the first of Ghost Concert, and I went with the three episodes rule for Red River, yes, it was that bad in my opinion.

The pacing and narrative are also messy. The setup is kinda steadily presented during the first episodes, but then it becomes semi episodic midway through, only to remember its goals later on, but at least it always retains its continuity. In a single episode you could have the main girl at school, the protagonist getting something he needs, then you’d have both of them on another place doing some other thing, then we see the antagonist scheming something else, but then he appears in front of the main characters from who knows where, then the two guys confront each other, but then the latter sends some side character his way, that one is antagonistic, but then an ally, then goes back to the bad guy. Would it kill this anime to slow the fuck down a bit?

I even have to criticize the sound design a bit, which is usually not an issue with anime made by KyoAni but it is for something from Netflix. The sound effects can be either the best I’ve heard so far from this year, and other times can be weak and go unnoticed. The music is good and does its job fine but again at times can go unnoticed. The opening and ending can be weirdly modern for the setting and the former even features some big change in melody midway, but somehow they also fit the series. Both insert songs ala Babymetal suck in my opinion. The voice acting is ok but I gotta say for the genki character that Sora Amamiya plays and for how good she usually is, her performance sounds weirdly low energy.

Not everything in the anime is bad though. As expected from Kyoto Animation the visuals are good, very solid artwork, well made and thought out backgrounds that reflect the steam in the air in Kyoto, and the contrast when they go to another city. Well rendered and integrated CGI, good motions as usual for the studio, scenes in POVs and in total darkness, which seems to have been kind of common this year strangely enough, and serve to reflect the fear of it of the protagonist. The coloring is darker than their usual brightness and fits the steampunk-like aesthetics well, it’s like I’m seeing the response from KyoAni to Kotetsujou no Kabaneri or something. The character designs mix traditional clothes with usual Kyoto Animation style fine, but man if I don’t feel like I’m seeing Hyouka or Violent Evergarden due to their faces half the time. The main girl does have the prettiest eyes of the year however, surpassing even Akane Osaki, it’s like I’m looking at a lake or something.

And in usual KyoAni fashion, they let some moments with no dialogue nor even sound effects, just music, and in this case show the process to produce electricity without explaining much about it. Even when the protagonist can go all technical about it, the other main girl just chooses to ignore him, thus no moment in the anime features some boring exposition. On the other hand the series does lack needed scenes explaining how these inventions are plausible, but clearly that was not important for the team behind the show.

I’m in no way a fan of Kyoto Animation, even though I love Hibike! Euphonium. I have voiced my dislikeness over the years of Haruhi Suzumiya, K-on!, Maid Dragon, Violet Evergarden, Koe no Katachi, Phantom World and more, and deleted from my ptw lots of other titles from them. Nonetheless I’m kinda glad this anime exists and the studio tried something different than their usual stuff with it, and as far as visuals, directing and exposition goes, they were up to their high standard. The same can not be said about its execution on everything else as writing, pacing and characterization were still pretty expected from them and sucked big time. Only worth giving a shot to see the studio try something other than cute girls, otherwise it’s an easy miss.

This was, no doubt, anime of the year. Yeah yeah there’s still a whole season left to air but how can it possibly match what was shown in here? What, you think the continuation of a well received romance like The Ramparts of Ice, a zombie show made by the author of Hitori Bocchi and Mitsuboshi Colors, the return of Black Clover with that annoying loud Asta, an adaptation of one of the most beloved jrpgs of all time, crazy concepts like Tank Chair and Fool Night, a remake of a CLAMP cult classic, a new season of the remake of the beloved classic Ranma, long awaited adaptations of Shounen Jump and Type Moon, and new entries for the beloved Cyberpunk Edgerrunners and Apothecary Diaries can match up to this? You’re crazy!

Those shows look like all fluff or dumb action or are old stuff thus automatically mid or milking stuff that already finished fine and the last one mixes mystery and politics, that’s boring!

And what, you think the likes of that boring Nippon Sangoku, that downer Ikoku Nikki, that nothing happens Atelier, that Akane-banashi that’s all talking and rakugo, can match up to this? What? Those Science SARU shows? I didn’t watch them yet but nyee those look boring I’m sure they suck. Well I guess opinions are like assholes and everybody has one! But yours is as dirty as Yanikos’ but not as funny!

TS the AOTY bro, peak fiction right here, peak on top of peak among the peak, le peakest of le peaks. Starting with the opening full of references to peak movies and also that boring overhyped Lord of the Ringzzz nye can’t all be perfect, but aside from that it’s like a collection of peaks! You know you are watching peak when the opening is like 30 peaks combined! References are homages to the mediums that made us and Yani Neko is so full of them! You can spend like half an hour pointing out at the screen finding all of them like that DiCaprio meme! Memes are funny and peak! And that gif is from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, more peak! Because it has lots of references so if i make a reference to it while talking about the references in Yani Neko’s opening then that makes me peak! Peak multiplied by three! Peak cubed! Yeh i know math I’m so smart nya. Opening so good even the best girl Kansai Neko uses its melody to parody it and sing about Yanikos’ pussy, so funny! And it’s about the pussy of a pussy! So smart, and it shows that the show knows how lo laugh about itself!

The ending is not as good but still pretty peak, all those psychedelic colors make you feel like flying like the characters do in the clip and in the show because they do drugs, what a way to transmit the feel of the visuals and the same thing the characters go through so well! Peak i tell you. Oh and at episode 11 the singers of the opening and ending are reversed, what a subversion of expectations! And as we anime fans know, subversion of expectations is peak!

But oh the anime, it has cats so it’s peak, because cats are cute and funny, they are peak! And they are also cute anime girls. Everyone knows anime is watched because of cute anime girls and here they are cats as well so peak squared! I’m so smart nya oh and at some point the anime also shows how sexy they are, not like those sissy sanitized western animation afraid of pussys! nyahyahaha I did it again! Kansai joke! But yeah cute sex anime girls that make me wanna CUUUUM so peak, and there are even some milfs, even more peak because milfs are so peak. But oh this anime is not some low level degenerate shit, as it never sexualizes the two girls in the cast that still go to highschool, that’s because it’s peak.

The anime presents bizarre situations for every girl and it’s so funny, but the comedy is a mix of raunchy and toilet humor so a lot of people won’t like it, they are pussys and don’t like humor about pussys nyahyahaha. But the anime is not just silly, it also shows how problematic is what and how the characters consume drugs, so it’s a meaningful and smart anime too, so peak! Yeah it’s not just the protagonist, the screentime is dedicated to a whole bunch of other nekos too, such a well distributed look and insight for everyone in the cast nya, so peak! Not like that other smoking series of the season that only shows two characters and is completely pro cigarette. Oh and even the landlord is shown bizarrely and funny as he secretly faps to the nekos, There’s one episode where he is found out by the mangaka woman and the scene seemed like a reference to School Rumble, peak square! For not only making references but also to School Rumble, one of the most beloved anime comedies of two decades ago, it’s old but not mid, it’s peak!

And the anime also has high production values and everyone is a cat so they drop some nyas when they talk, so cute! So yeah it’s good in animation and sound as well, that’s because it’s peak!

The definitive anime of the year, it has everything, comedy, drama, social commentary, lewd content, cat girls, references, gross humor, character fleshing, good animation and voice acting and the opening of the year and a very good ending too, what more can you possibly want? The best moment was at the very end when Yaniko said I AM THE NEKOS AND IT’S YANI’S TIME while farming aura, because as we know when the main character aura farms its the peakest moment of the anime! And afterwards started to shit tun tun tun sahur turds all over the place and smoke
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cigarette butts at the same time and vomiting all over the face of the landlord marcelo tralalelo frapuccino, what a display of ability! Truli an anime that deserved to be talked about all over social media and that we will keep talking about 24/7 for generations cause it’s the peakest of peaks! But no anime is perfect and this one has an issue, and that’s that there was no impact frames in it, come on! We anime fans know that flashy animation with impact frames is the sign of good anime! But oh well, Yani Nekos wanted to at least give the other animes of the year a chance, anime so peak it even thinks of its rival shows!

It even made me notice the eternal superiority of cats over dogs since forever in animation and awake to all of my new favorites, with this almost perfect show at the top for both anime and manga obviously, followed in anime by Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko the best Makoto Shinkai anime, Chii’s Sweet Home, Bananya, Nekomonogatari Kuro that stars Hanekawa the best Monogatari girl because she is a catgirl, so triple peak! As being from Monogatari already makes her peak. Then My Roommate is a cat the best anime from 2019, Wata no Kuni Hoshi, a rare instance where an old anime is peak and no mid, The Cat Returns the best Ghibli movie, and some recent modern classics such as Yoru wa Neko to issho and Dekiru Neko wa Kyou mo Yuutsu. As for mangas I repeat some of those but also add Tokyo Mew Mew, Asobi ni Iku Yo!, Nekogahara, the second best anime of the year Neko to Ryuu, Neko Majin with Akira Toriyama at his peak and the best Nekopara manga nyahyahaha my taste is so peak!

And now to end the review with the ranking of characters

Kansai Neko the best girl and waifu of the year and of all time.
Yaku Neko as a peak second place.
Saori Tatsuno who is so peak she gets third place despite not being a catgirl.
Imoko Satou for being so caring and devoted to her sister without making it weird, so cute and peak.
Aru Neko, funny alcoholic girl.
Jikaki Neko, an aspiring writer influential for everyone that watches the show.
Penpen Neko who reflects the harsh reality of homeless people in Japan.
Yaniko! Who is so peak she lets others be better characters than her despite being the protagonist.
Shizue Satou cause she is a catgirl milf and that’s so peak.
And Hame Neko who is worst girl but still funny and still peak cause she’s from the peakest anime and fiction of all time.

yani neko
yani neko
yani neko yani neko

Boy that was painful to write, and I guess even more to read, I would be surprised if someone even put through all that shit. So yeah, I think ever since Horimiya that I didn’t see such a mediocre anime undeserving of such controversy and polarizing opinions. On one hand there’s people treating it as such a deep and misunderstood masterpiece and like it was Trainspotting, Traffic or Requiem for a Dream in anime or something. While on the other hand you have people saying it’s the worst most gross anime of all time, which is far from the truth if you know about crude anime like Unko-san, Shitcom, Trap-kun, literal toilet humor anime like Panty & Stocking in Sanitary Box or The Eternal Family, or every anime Onara Gorou was involved with, just to name a few.

In reality it stands in a weirdly disappointing middle of the road, nowhere near as good nor as bad as you would expect from its overblown reputation. To be frank, I do think the first episode of this anime was good and among the best I’ve seen so far from this year, if not the actual best. It’s gross, it’s supposed to be funny, but in a dark comedy kind of way showing the protagonist as the lowest of the low. Addicted to cigarettes, dirty, only working to buy cigarettes and smoke, living in such a dumpster fire of an apartment it makes her own sister suit up in protective gear only to go see her and enter such a vomit inducing filthy place. We see her puke, get diarrhea, notice her trash filled room, get depressed, blame herself, be referred as an “are” which I suppose it could mean either “that one” or “it” from even her friends, and promise to fix her life…but then at the end of the episode she finds a cigarette and smokes once again.

There was potential from that episode to get a show that’s actually about addictions like the movies I already mentioned or The Football Factory, yeah, that’s another one worth recommending, or in anime stuff like Welcome to the NHK, which also was about the degraded mental state of a shut in nini. But the series never follows through with that potential. After that episode we still do see the main character doing disgusting things like eating mosquitos and such, which is meant to be gross and degrading and for many it was a lot and enough to hate and/or drop the show, but because of its tone and most of the characters being cats, it is also supposed to be funny.

From there, the anime never retains that same level of seriousness and drama from the first episode, it abandons it completely for the sake of comedy. The theme of addictions is there and expands to the rest of the cast as well, not just the protagonist. There’s another catgirl, Yakuko, that does more drugs besides cigarettes and another one, Aruko, that’s alcoholic. There are more characters than these and although they do get into bizarre situations, those are not related to addictions.

Jikaki is an aspiring writer in highschool that publishes her work on Internet but can’t seem to get her story going, that’s why she consults Saori Tatsuno, who is a struggling mangaka.

Then we got Penpen who says nonsense about living in harmony with nature and the waves of life and stuff, to basically hide how bad she has it as a homeless person that occasionally breaks into her friends’ apartments.

The last one is Hame who wants to become famous as a streamer and thus films herself and her friends, sometimes raging while playing fighting games, other times trying to be provocative (in a sexy way, not baiting), and sometimes making fun of her friends’ hobbies or timepassers and stuff, that’s why she’s the worst despite not being addicted to anything. Or maybe you could say that she has the vice of devices like a computer or a cellphone and being online and the desire to become famous and hit it big, but there’s no real follow up to that as it happens with everything else in the not story.

Finally we got two of the best girls, Imoko who’s the most normal and moral character that wants for her family to do better, and Kansai Neko whose only bad habit is being a failure of a comedian to the point of cringe. She otherwise hangs out with her friends being the most sane by far, has part-time jobs and even hides her normal self while in university.

The only one who the anime shows somewhat seriously is Yaku, who we see visiting her family on occasions, trying to do something outside, and even has a part-time job. Some people theorized that her drug addictions are the consequence of depression and family issues, but nothing is explored remotely enough to back that claim up substantially. The others are not shown with any attempt at depth nor introspection, which is why I raise my eyebrows when I see comments about the seriousness, depth, insight and meaning of this anime. I mean look at Yaniko’s mother, she clearly has a smoking problem but the series shows it comically every time.

Not even what was shown about Yaniko in the first episode remains consistent, we see her being shown in a comical manner, even when she wants to take part-time jobs and does them atrociously. Plus she sometimes bothers her friends who at times are doing worse than her and mostly to just get cigarettes out of them. It’s like the anime wants you to dislike her since there’s never an attempt to follow through that promise she made in the first episode and for her attitude towards her friends.
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Maybe you’re thinking well duh that’s the point but just beating someone on the floor that is not even actively a bad person can’t count as good theme exploration, at worst it becomes misery porn. Plus like I said, the anime is not consistent about it, as later on not even her sister is suited up while visiting her, but also because at times she appears to be funny or even sexy instead of the disgusting mess and a warning sign that she is supposed to be. For the sake of analyzing the theme exploration or lack thereof within the show, let’s take a deeper look at the narrative regarding that.

After the first episode we see Yaniko doing the most gross and disgusting and desperate and wild shit, but only when she’s alone, her supposed funniest side when she’s with her friends, and only seen as sexy by men of all ages. For the sake of argument, let’s try to see these different perspectives as deep and complex and say that Yaniko’s friends see her as funny out of love and care for her, while men sexualize her through what I believe it’s called a bedrotten girlfriend fetish, one of the most disgusting I have come to know not only for being dirty but for the implied power and control dynamics over a person in such a vulnerable state. Meanwhile Yaniko’s at her worst only when she is alone and seen only by us, the audience. Let’s complicate it by saying that it’s not that the theme is handled inconsistently but rather about outsiders not knowing other people at their worst and in turn how no one shows that side of them to others, Kansai hides her true self in university after all. That would be true for strangers for Yaniko but not her friends and family, as reflected on the very first episode.

Plus the male gaze part of that idea about the themes is lost when the lewd content exceeds the protagonist later on in the series as it becomes a full on ecchi by having the landlord and other older men being closet perverts with a catgirl fetish, and plenty of other catgirls appearing naked at some point. The worst offender was Kame, who despite not appearing naked and being the worst girl for the reasons I already mentioned, being the worst friend in the show, there was no need for her to suffer the sexual harassment and being two seconds away from suffering a sexual assault that she had to go through on episode 11. What I’m saying here is that the sexualizing part of the anime is not some kind of theme exploration, it’s plain fetishistic exploitation as usual.

Even disregarding the themes, there’s kind of no narrative to even talk about here, as there’s close to no ongoing plot nor story nor continuity, not even if you see the series as episodic, as every episode consists of several mini segments of bizarre situations to the point where I can imagine the source material being a 4-koma manga.

So yeah, there’s kind of not much of a story nor characterization worth talking about here so I’m definitely not a part of the crowd treating this anime as serious and deep and meaningful. But it’s not like I think it’s the worst and most disgusting shit ever like some others said, as the examples I named at the beginning of this review prove. Not even the erocomical parts are that different from the usual ecchi stuff. Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu was full of weird perverted freaks that did accomplish in making it a bizarre sexual comedy, here the nudity is just plain old fanservice.

And it’s not like I can say that Yani Neko is bad either, despite wasting the potential of its first episode, as it doesn’t really feel ill intended to addicts and people at their worst either nor like it’s intentionally mocking them like, let’s say, The Big Bang Theory does with geeks and nerds, or well, its idea of super geeks and nerds, you know, people that’s into…super mainstream stuff like Star Wars, Star Trek, 80s action films, Marvel & DC, ugh, and even its comedy is not limited to references like that show. It’s not mean spirited because it also shows the characters in bizarre situations without their addictions taking a part in it. Even outside of the protagonist, the anime seems to portray the rest of the cast as just normal people trying to live their normal lives despite their addictions or vices, definitely not trying to fix them though.

At the same time, that's why I can’t be impressed with this anime either. Okupas and Tres Acordes from my country are dramedies that show people at their worst, either depressed, getting into illegal activities and crimes, doing drugs, or at all once, in a kind of serious way with plot continuity, permanent consequences, lasting stakes (for the former), mixing the slice of life with fantasy and sci-fi elements (for the latter), and some kind of character development and catharsis for the characters, beyond just the funny moments and references.

Speaking of references, I do think that the opening is the best I’ve seen so far from this year. Yeah the clip is completely made of references which makes it seem lazy for some, and I wish the anime had half the stuff happening in it, but the song is good, the lyrics are relevant to what happens in the show and the directing and editing are phenomenal at mixing the visuals and the music. The ending is indeed good stuff with its psychedelic colors and although the song is typical jpop stuff, the lyrics reflect a kind of psychosociological themes that I wished were in the series. The background music was hardly noticeable for me, but the sound effects were good and the voice acting…well everyone talks with nyas and accents and yells so that stands out but it’s not amazing either.

The visuals are very solid in the beginning enhanced by very good directing but they do get worse and more typical as the show goes on. Nevertheless, it’s a solid work of good artwork and backgrounds and even motions for when they are needed. There isn’t much to talk about as far as special effects go and the character designs are just typical catgirls. Even the gross content is chickened out in the visuals by censoring or toning down the shitting and vomiting by either pixelating them or replacing them with rainbows like a typical comedy.

In conclusion, the discourse surrounding the anime and seeing the care that the team behind it put into it to the point where we got to see the seiyuu of the landlord doing actual larping of his character, were more fun and interesting than what the series actually shown. As it is, it stands in a weirdly disappointing middle of the road that’s not as bad nor as good as you could expect from its good and bad reputation. Recommended only for people who likes stoner comedies and bizarre humor as long as they don’t mind toilet humor, or to see what the polarizing discourse is all about, other than that it’s an easy pass as there are a lot of better or more extreme options out there.

Recommended better stuff

-Movies about addicts like Trainspotting, Traffic, Requiem for a Dream or The Football Factory
-Welcome to the NHK for a story about a depressed shut in nini
-Okupas (for those of you with a Netflix account thus you can turn on subs) for a series about a middle class guy falling into the low class and becoming depressed and getting into a life of crime and illegal activities. It’s solid but not as good as I might be making it sound.
-Tres Acordes (but only for ACTUAL Latin American people)
-The Angry Video Game Nerd (toilet humor and crude comedy about reviewing retro video games and there’s even some continuity, what more could an otaku that watched Yani Neko want?).
-Aachi wa Ssipak (Aeni toilet humor and rule of cool action movie with a point, kinda, and what do you know, it’s about exploiting people’s addiction to drugs).
-Dead Leaves (The former if it was made earlier and by Hiroyuki Imaishi, but lacks a point).
-You can also check out the stuff in http:// myanimelist.net/ stacks /85045 for more smoking manga I guess (let this review have this link mods please, it’s relevant).

Not really recommended but more extreme stuff that stands out more

-Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu (bizarre sexual comedy)
-Gross stuff like Unko-san, Shitcom, Trap-kun, Panty & Stocking in Sanitary Box (you need to watch the first season of the main series first), The Eternal Family (there’s kind of a point at the very end), Onara Gorou anime (he likes to make series about living sentient farts for some reason).

Behind the simple premise of two people smoking together, this anime packs a lot of sociological commentary. You see, first it’s about a romance with a big age gap of 20 years between its main characters, with the older one being the man but the assertive one being the woman, thus it’s a spin on usual gender dynamics in romance anime. Second, it’s about the stressful and tiresome working life in Japan that only leaves time of the day to rush to the supermarket nearby to grab some junk that replaces a proper meal of some actual fucking food. Third, it’s about how the only worth things left to live for are the little moments and expressions of human connection, reflected in the main guy brightening his day only by seeing the woman of his dreams smile, and as you may know if you navigate through the Internet, the most beautiful women that walk over this Earth are random cashiers. Related to that, fourth, it’s about how other few things worth living for are the little moments of relaxation, such as sitting down to grab a smoke, and look at how well it’s connected with the theme from before, as that’s another form of human connection, shared between the protagonist and the woman he likes pretending to be another one. Hold on, does that mean that women are liars?? Well I don’t know, there aren’t any of those on the Internet. No, you see, fifth, the girl hides her real identity from the guy to check his intentions and whether he’s a creep or not, so the anime tells about the daily sexual harassment suffered by women. Heck, sixth, even in the past she was targeted by a male customer to complain about her for no reason, so it’s about women being looked down and belittled by misogynists and their power play in mind as well. And as she comments, seventh, she puts up an image in order to seem friendlier and sell more as she was trained to do, it’s capitalism applied to the bodies themselves. And when you look at the dynamic of the relationship between the main characters, eighth, it’s about how people are attracted to an ideal version and image of others more so than their real selves. Ninth, from the perspective of the girl, it is also about being insecure about yourself and being afraid to show your true self to others, even the one you like. But as the man himself says, there’s nothing bad about people being more of what you know of them, finding out more facets of them does not mean they are hysterical and liars, so the viewer knows that he would comprehend her and be fine with her and they would be a good couple, thus leaving us wanting to see when he finally connects the two women as one and they start to go out. So it reminds me of romance series from the past like KareKano, Horimiya or Wotakoi, the latter which did not have a couple only showing their true selves to the others but the protagonist was afraid of people finding out about her otaku self. Tenth, despite the female main character being assertive, she wants the male to connect the dots and find her out, so it’s also about being scared to take a step forward in a relationship yourself and leaving that step and task to the other person. And finally, eleventh, since smoking is a big deal here, it’s also about the changes of public spaces over time, reflected in the changes of public spaces where people can smoke between the current time in the story and the flashbacks we see in the series. Truly a masterpiece of an anime that deserves to be among the most popular and highly rated of its season and year, with only one issue, it’s still ongoing so we didn’t get the ending we all wanted where all these wonderful themes connect and get a closure and the characters find catharsis and love together, thus I can only score with a 9/10.



Nah, just kidding, that was just me overthinking a simple premise to make it a grandiose concept to feel like I’m watching something extraordinary and justify my consumption of meaningful, insightful and valuable art during my limited time on Earth. Ok no that was also a joke, except for the first part, I did think about all of those things while watching the anime but only so briefly, and only by overthinking single lines of script. It could have easily been done by a really annoying kind of anime fans that luckily for this show, instead focused on the other smoking series of the season, Yani Neko, and left this one alone. So yeah let’s see how those things from my long ass first paragraph actually appear in the anime.

First point, the age gap is real and apparently there was a bit of controversy that thankfully didn’t reach me. For once I don’t mind much, it’s a bit weird but I do know a real couple like that. Well they are 15 years apart, not 20, but still. And the woman from the show is an adult and she is the assertive one so I don’t see much to complain about here. Just in case my wording here gives you weird ideas, the real couple I know of are both adults as well.

The second point is the most present throughout the show actually, but since this is a lighthearted romcom with very little drama, even the tiresome working life in Japan is shown more in a comical manner than an actual critique of it.

Third and fourth points are real but way too exaggerated by me. The guy does indeed look forward to see the cashier every day, while she in return is amused to get reactions out of him as her real self, and they do share a good smoke most of the time, but it’s more about sharing time together and talking about their lives than anything else. They sit down, complain a bit, they bent, one of them gives some advice to the other, she teases him, moving on. It’s a nice adult dynamic for a change but not enough to blow it out of proportions like I previously did.

The fifth point is real but appears as a throwaway line at the very beginning of the series, while the sixth does happen during a flashback but is treated more as an isolated case than a general and systematic problem. It’s more about playing the usual card of the main characters knowing each other from way back without realizing, so at that point their dynamic becomes ironic. The woman gets pissed that the man is dense and does not take advances, but she herself does not connect that the guy she likes now is the same she liked in the past, and once again the viewer is hoping for the moment when they notice that they like each other from way back and start going out together.

The seventh point is mentioned but as a single throwaway line at the beginning of the series, just like the fifth, and no mention of the systematic issue and cause whatsoever.

The eighth, ninth and tenth points do appear as an important aspect of the main dynamic, as the man do likes the ideal constructed version and image of the woman a lot more than her real self that he unknowingly also knows about, and that’s why she gets pissed a lot of the times, and other characters did tell her that she should be honest and upfront with him and stop playing third wheel with herself, but once again it’s more of a lighthearted wholesome dynamic than anything else. The dude does tell her those things about people being more than what they show and the audience does want for them to realize it and get together, however. If you do want to see more about romances where main characters do hide aspects of themselves to others, I do recommend checking out KareKano, Horimiya as a weaker alternative to it, and Wotakoi for the otaku protagonists. However, the first and third ones aren’t finished so going for their source materials is also a must, while the second was adapted incompletely once and in a rushed and out of order way the second time, so maybe you would do well to do the same as with the other ones.

The eleventh point appears as a throwaway concept as well, more of a visual gag and the setup for the main space where the main characters interact, but not much else.

As you see, the concepts I attributed to the series are either lies or me blowing aspects of it out of proportion, while in series they appear briefly and just mentioned in a throwaway line with no more depth than they would have on a real casual conversation, because after all that’s what the main thing happening in the anime is.

In reality is another show that labels itself a romance but it’s more about the yearning than an actual development of a couple, like most fiction within the genre seems to be, something which I do not get. What? Does romance die once people get together or why do most authors don’t explore the dynamics of an actually established couple?

What I’m getting at here is that we need either an adaptation of Yaiteru Futari besides the live action one, for the official release or the fansubs to finally catch up with the rest of the manga, or more romance like it everywhere. I mean I guess there’s Tonikawa but I’m personally not fond of it and thus I didn’t even watch its second season nor jumped to its manga. But anyways if you want an actual romance work of an actually established couple and what happens after they get together, I do recommend checking out the wholesome gourmet romcom manga Yaiteru Futari out, once the fansubs or the official release catch up with the 40 or so chapters still left to come outside of Japan.

I already covered the characters well enough but if you want me to say something more of them, they will still feel teen-like somewhat despite being adults. The woman for her long road play and the man for his awkward reactions, very typical romance anime characterization.

There are more characters than those two in the anime but aside from the boss of the woman, none have any importance to them and the one episode that had a secondary character take the place of one of the main ones was rated the lowest everywhere for good reasons. The side cast is not as interesting nor as fleshed out when they take spotlight out of the main couple, to excuse them taking screentime for themselves. Thus we are here to see the two protagonists, not half an episode dedicated to some guy that’s even more spineless than the main one, for a dynamic that’s basically the reverse of the main one (the woman is the older one), but far less interesting, looked into and enjoyable.

There isn’t much to say about the production of the anime itself. It’s basic but serviceable for what it needs, decent artwork with no drops, very limited backgrounds, static animation, whatever special effects, and simple character designs. The real look of the woman did shock a lot of people for having a slight resemblance to Makima from Chainsaw Man for them. That wasn’t exactly the case for me but I do think that Tayama looks closer to fanart Makima than Makima herself does in her official media. The idea of the guy not recognizing the two women being the same was the subject of a lot of jokes and memes and initially did make me think that it would be nonsense, but the Clark Kent effect has shown to work out for a lot of real people so let’s let it slide. I liked both of her designs because they reminded me of the looks of a real woman I came to know about this year but that’s not important so let’s move past on to the audio department.

The sound effects and voice acting are also serviceable, with the only stand outs being that the male main does not sound 45 but a lot younger and not as a smoker at all, Megumi Toyoguchi voicing a side old woman, that did surprise me and I would have never recognized her without checking the staff, and the woman voicing the female main nailing her two types of voices, the fake typical sweet one and her real deeper, smooth and smoker one, even switching from one to another a few times in the series. What’s more impressive is that she’s still very new at it with only a few years and roles in the industry, so good job.

The music does not stand out on its own but it has a relaxed jazz-like feel to it so they do add a lot to the scenes once you notice it. The openings and endings are typical soft jpop stuff but they are fine and fit the show nicely. And yes, there are two of each, as there are two versions of the anime, with the first one being the first half of the show divided into a full course of miniepisodes, with its own opening and ending, and airing a lot earlier than the season actually began, as a marketing idea. And at least as far as the West goes, it sure worked out.

I started this anime out of curiosity and just expecting to drop it within two episodes but I ended up liking it a lot more than what I initially expected, heck it was one of the few anime I liked from its season and year, something which I did not expect at all. Despite that it’s still another not romance piece of fiction that’s more about yearning than an actual romantic development of a couple, so even though you can overthink aspects of it to the moon thanks to the dynamic of the adult main couple, it’s still not much more than a typical fluff wholesome romcom to kill some time weakly, ok to check out to relax to but nothing beyond that.

Recommended stuff

Well I already mentioned them in the review but KareKano, Horimiya and Wotakoi are romances where main characters hide something about themselves.

Yaiteru Futari and Tonikaku Kawaii are romances with couples established early on.

You can also check out the stuff in http:// myanimelist.net/ stacks /85045 for more smoking manga I guess (let this review have this link mods please, it’s relevant).

On a substantial level, Reiwa no Dara-san is a story about revenge, or rather what comes after getting it, but while other shows like Vinland Saga explore the self destructive nature and empty feeling of void that’s left afterwards, this anime instead focuses on the calm and change of attitude of a supernatural entity that achieved it, how she mellowed down after habitating through many eras of peace compared to the era of war, conflict and supernatural exorcisms which she lived and died in, and changed from an entity filled with rage and rancor to one that protects the villagers nearby her from other supernatural beings.

I wasn’t initially interested in this anime whatsoever but an acquaintance on Discord told me that it’s Billy & Mandy in anime so I checked it out of curiosity and I can kinda understand the comparison, as in present time that entity hangs around with two kids that aren’t the tiniest bit scared of her.

In that sense it’s also about the change of eras in the sense that people aren’t that serious now as in past times, and that supernatural creatures and urban legends aren’t seen in the same manner, they are no longer seen as necessarily scary, but rather cool or interesting or even sexy, as the little boy from the pair of siblings that the main character spends time with is turned on by her despite her being a big ass four armed lamia monster with a Kuchisake Onna-like mouth and shark teeth and snake-like eyes.
It could easily be dismissed as yet another Japanese legend being desecrated by manganime media and the Internet, but in the context of the series is a weird way of showing such a creature being accepted instead of rejected and evaded out of fear.
There’s a whole transition over time and through flashbacks of the protagonist being feared, later on respected, and in present time cherished.

In a way I guess it’s also about seeing people for what’s inside of them instead of their outside. In her era, people united to kill her just for believing a web of lies, and was considered the lesser and inferior twin for being ugly, whereas in present time the other two mains accept her and like her, especially the kinda horny younger brother, so I guess it’s also about beauty standards changing over time as well.

And it’s not like the connection between the three mains is random, as the anime builds up through flashbacks the backstory of how the families of the two human mains and others also spiritually charged that are somewhat close to them came to be and form in the first place.

If you see the anime that way, the apparent disconnection between the two time periods is not as such as they connect in a way that makes sense thematically, but the same cannot be said tonally. The backstory is filled with envy, rancor, jealousy, backstabbing, betrayals, anger, rage, revenge, tragic love stories, death, murder, even attempted rape or well the proposition of one, whole villages accepting their women to breed the descendants of one monk, that’s how the clans came to be, straight feudal demonic horror, while the present is all about a goofy comedy with lots of times otaku interests, and even the snake spirit of the protagonist drains spiritual energy in the contemporary Japan, but in a comical way, it turns into a comedy horror type of show.

The two tones clash a lot with each other making you feel like you are watching two completely different series, but at least at times the disparity is sometimes used as a punchline. All this horrible stuff that happened way back in the past, all these warm moments of connection between the protagonist and the mother of the other two mains back when she was a teenager, to end up with this braindead stuff and characters in the present.

Narratively the two stories are disconnected as well, as that’s the weakest aspect of the anime, it randomly transitions between the present and the past and initially with an omniscient narrator instead of letting the scenes speak for themselves. I appreciate that there’s actually a story in an anime that did not seem like it would have one at all, but the way it’s told is not the most competent nor engaging, the mood whiplash can be too much at times. They do connect at the conclusion though not in the best way, more like a rushed final showdown followed by the end of the backstory and more wholesome present time scenes.

Production wise there isn’t much to talk about here. I appreciate the difference in aesthetics between the dark and gloomy looking and serious and low volume sounding past, and the high-pitched, silly acted and bright looking and heavily illuminated present. The artwork is solid with no quality drops and there’s the surprising aspect of the titular character initially and occasionally having her huge bazookas up front with even uncensored big aureolas and inverted #freed nipples all displayed on screen and even more surprisingly in a natural and not erotic nor comical way, but other than that nothing about the character designs, backgrounds, motions or special effects are particularly worth of mention. Opening and ending are comical or wholesome whatever and the music and sound effects do their job just fine.

So, my dear reader, I ask of you, do you like huge tits with big aureolas and inverted #freed nipples on screen?

Yes
Watch the anime

No
Maybe pass on the anime.

Do you mind that they are part of a huge tall half snake, cut mouth, shark teeth, snake eyes woman?

Yes 
Maybe pass on the anime

NoWatch the anime

Do you also want to see that in the anime equivalent to Billy & Mandy?

Yes 
Watch the anime

No
Maybe try to tolerate half of the anime so you can watch the other half

Do you mind if it comes with a classic feudal horror and tragic romance drama as a backstory?

Yes
This anime is clearly for you

No
I’m surprised you’re still here. Thanks for reading all of this

Recommended stuff

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy for the comedy and present part
The InuYasha franchise for the drama and backstory part, particularly the third movie, as it is also about a tragic love story result of jealousy, unrequited love and a human fusing with a demon.

Hey Fred! Gimme a Little Mermaid taking place in the contemporary world, but hold the prince, we’ll make it so the mermaid won’t be in love with him.

Hold the prince?

And hold the evil witch, she’s not really gonna be evil but rather misunderstood.

Hold the evil w-?
Hey Jimmy! Gimme a Little Mermaid with nutn!
Nutting??

Ok no, truth is Sayonara Lara does keep the original story but rushes through it in its first episode, and to be honest it doesn’t do a bad job at it, keeping the basics and even featuring moments of silence, letting the visuals do the job. It’s not like it can’t be done in such a short runtime, Russia did it in the 60s with the most serious tone and the darkest aesthetics out of all the versions I’ve seen of it, which is why I consider it the best of all.

The thing is that there is in fact an older anime version of the tale done in the 70s. Andersen’s Ningyohime (that means mermaid princess) was called, and like the most famous version of all, it was a musical comedy for the most part. By now it’s obviously outdated in terms of both visuals and audio quality, but its short length of barely over an hour and staying faithful to the original tragic ending makes me consider it worth watching it at least once.

Then the Disney version became the most famous of all and distorted the image of the original almost completely, replacing it almost entirely with a musical romantic comedy and even changing the tragic ending for a happy one that led to some very hated sequels. But it also had the best visuals obviously and Ariel, Erick and Ursula had more personality and charisma and were more memorable than the casts of every other version I’ve seen.

So after that, Sayonara Lara asks what would it be like if the mermaid was revived in a contemporary world and society? And she was a fish out of water both metaphorically for a theme, and in this case also literally. Well, that was also done in the past in the Aquamarine live action movie from I believe…2006? But that version was easily the worst of all because it also lacked core elements of the original story, the mermaid adapted to the different world very easily and the plot played out like a typical Usanian highschool comedy with even the group of mean girls bullies, what a drag.

So even though Saynora Lara seems to be the least creative version of all for doing things that were already done in the past, it is also quite innovative in its approach. First for its comedy around the protagonist being lost in a contemporary society, but in a cutesy funny way, instead of a wild funny way like Yuru in Yomi no Tsugai or if you recall it, the protagonist in Kuromukuro, and most likely more that I’m not remember it right now. The same mermaid that was amazed by human creations in the modern era that inspired her to make contact with that species even going against her own, is now scared of the technology, vehicles and houses of the contemporary era.

In that regard, Sayonara Lara also likes to play around with some common anime tropes, and more specifically romcom tropes. For example, at the end of the first episode, the protagonist is about to fall on top of another girl from the sky like in several romance and harem shows, but the latter punches her in the face. Later on the main character comes to find common romance tropes in movies, both happy and sad, and how fiction does not reflect reality, as a love between secondary characters that she thought was destined to be ends up with the two of them going out with other people, it was the classic childhood friend girl not getting with the boy trope done right.

This last part is also relevant for the themes of the show, as Lara learns that her idea of true, destined love is not real or not the way she thinks it is and thus despite desperately trying to find it she is not successful at that no matter how much she tries to force it to happen, things just won’t take form in a fairy tale or just plain fiction-like manner. In that regard, Sayonara Lara is not much like Little Mermaid, but closer to the musical romance comedy drama cartoon and live action hybrid movie Enchanted from 2007. But where that movie chickens out near its end and plays conveniently by the same rules it was poking fun at, and even got a way worse sequel decades later, Lara takes it to another dimension of theme exploration. What if that love, in its forced artificial invention, became harmful, both for the protagonist and the supposed love interest? And I don’t mean that just metaphorically, as said infected love takes the form of a literal fish-like living dagger that attacks others and even grows to a gigantic thing that tries to eat them. So the love that couldn’t flourish becomes rejection and aggression and even makes interacting with others afterwards hurtful due to distrust. At one point it seemed like Lara was the real villainous character of the story and not anyone else, what a concept would have been if the anime followed it through.

On a related note, and since I’ve already mentioned Yomi no Tsugai before, let’s talk about the theme of human and non-human relationship. In that series, the supernatural creatures make a contract with humans to help them and are devoted to them by nature, whereas they don’t comprehend why humans could fight, hurt and betray each other. In Sayonara Lara the merfolks creatures besides Lara fear, despise and reject humans, seemingly with no reason, but as we are shown more backstory then yeah, it’s made clear that they do have a sort of justified reason to feel that way, whereas most humans hate the aquatic species back, and did it first, seemingly just because they are different and non-human. That’s not the case for all of them of course, it’s not like the show tells you that nature is right and humans are a plague or something like that like some supposed woke naturalists and/or activists try to push instead of attacking the real source of the problem which are big corporations, and in turn replicate the ecofascist speech that serves said big companies and go against common people. No, of course and a central topic and theme is that Lara does find worthy of trust, good humans that are not like the rest, and thus not all of humanity deserves to get a resentful attitude, distrust, fear and hate directed towards them.

But let’s not divert much further and go back on track to move away from the themes onto the actual plot and script, that is where the issues begin. Initially Lara is scared to live among humans, the family of the deuteragonist, and tries to run away, breaking a lot of stuff in the process, but gets used to that idea and starts to chase that true destined love and starts working in a bakery, which works in a quadruple sense. First it retains her cute and wholesome side for the audience, second it helps her pay for what she broke, third it serves in making her understand the ways of the contemporary society, and fourth it helps her in her objective to find more people and thus her intended true love, even if that doesn’t exactly work in the end.

It is not related to anything but I don’t have anywhere else to mention it, I liked that Lara lives with a family in a cramped room and the power even goes out during an episode, a rare thing to see in anime full of spacious rooms even if they are set on small or poor houses or the countryside or whatever.

Going back to the script, after the time skip, the supposed villain turns to a pet of the deuteragonist, and if you wonder why no one does something about a girl talking to a fish is because no one knows about that because she is a loner with some drama after losing her mother, hey this is anime after all. And for why the villainess is like that…plot reasons revealed late in the story.

Something that bothered me in the beginning is why Lara would listen to the witch after what happened to her the first time and why would them try to chase love, the thing that destroyed the entire species after failing to obtain it the first time, but it’s not like she has and had other options anyway and that mirror did show the final moments of the merfolks, but it could have been another manipulation of the witch for all the main character knew.

There is a severe lack of reasoning about certain things, like why are the merfolks made of light or why does love produces light stronger and stuff, it’s basically like that because of fantasy, but whatever it’s ok, the series is fantasy, a light one at that, and based on a fairy tale, so let’s let those things slide. So all things considered, there’s an attempt to maintain an internal logic, even with the light and unexplained fantastical elements.

Although what I said about the theme exploration might have made it seem like a pure drama, Sayonara Lara is certainly more of a wholesome comedy during its first episodes and was pretty decent at that. The only parts I didn’t get is what is Mari’s drama and objective supposed to add to the whole story, and why the people move past the occasional but regular destruction of the bridge so easily. This is not Fate where public knowledge can be manipulated nor Yomi no Tsugai where a whole bunch of side characters have supernatural cleaning abilities, the surviving merfolks don’t possess that level of influence and power to explain that, but oh well, it’s Japan, things get destroyed over there regularly due to natural disasters and shit, I guess.

Around episodes 7 to 9, however, you start to notice that every episode seems to want to end with some kind of cliffhanger and build something big to come. Most of the episodes keep being simple and chill slice of life, but all of a sudden it takes a dramatic turn at the end of each episode, with no strong followup afterwards. Lara introspects for a good portion of an episode to decide to find her new love, then almost another entire one to decide that that’s not her true love, well why didn’t we just merge the two of them and save some screentime then?

When we arrive at episode 10, dramatic things happen way too fast all of a sudden, which don’t let the emotional stakes play out organically. This leads me to another big issue which is the next episode, the 11, recontextualizing the witch to be misunderstood instead of evil, and if anything Lara’s father being more of a true antagonist of sorts, which isn’t all that original, as plenty of movies do something similar these days, Disney live action remake of the Little Mermaid included.

The real problem is that she was not fleshed out in the slightest beforehand. You should flesh out a character before you try to twist the information and image of them, and you should do it before you take them out of the plot. It’s a recurrent narrative issue with plenty of anime and manga doing something similar, like Boku no Hero Academia or Kimetsu no Yaiba giving backdrops in the middle of the action thus interrupting the flow of the story for the former and as villains are dying for the latter, or even Hokuto no Ken or Saint Seiya for two old similar examples, as far as this issue is concerned. Even without that, why was the witch acting cryptic and mysterious and refusing to explain anything to either Lara or her father? Why did the writers wrote her as a no real evil villain, when she acts like that throughout the whole series? It feels forced and easily avoidable. And since we are talking about that, why was that whole backstory shown to the deuteragonist through the mirror? It feels as if it happened that way just because the story needed the protagonist to be at another place at that moment.

As an extension to that, there are like two different antagonistic characters at least in theory, but everyone remains passive until the final two episodes, it’s as if no character tries to achieve what they want or prevent from happening what they don’t want, until the show is about to end.

The conclusion suffers from the same thing as the rest of the second half, it has depression, a death, a resurrection, a change of mind and perspective, a realization, the message of the show being directly delivered, and a huge power fixing an ecological phenomena, all in one episode. I wouldn’t say it was bad but definitely would have benefited from lasting at least two episodes. Also, lol at all the yuribait leading to nothing once again. The year was full of actual lesbian anime, go watch those and stop falling for bullshit, people, please. At least it was far more subtle this time, through directing and storyboarding and not the script itself. What I am in favor of is the message, as I got sick and tired of anime and fiction in general acting like love is the only motivation in the world and even then only one type of love, the romantic one. Sayonara Lara says fu-, actually no, it gently rejects its proposal and goes its own way and does its own thing, you love to see it.

What stands out the most from the anime and what made it somewhat known in the first place was the visuals. It is not the first anime in recent years to go for a digital recreation of retro-like aesthetics, but seeing the other ones (Magical Destroyers, My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s, and in this same season, Red River), it is easy to tell that this anime captured the character designs similar to those of old, the warm colors and the darker lighting and shading the best, and without sucking balls completely as an anime. Not only that but everything from artwork to backgrounds and special effects look polished and charming. The character designs are otherwise simple and without much variety, and the animation is not all that good, because the series doesn’t need it to be, but the overall result is very good nonetheless. There were plenty of very well animated and directed shows this year, I’ve been noticing.

The audio department is pretty good as far as sound effects and voice acting goes but the music is the really good thing in here, with its symphonic score. Too bad the anime doesn’t play it much, and instead repeats the little “Lara, Lara” chorus chant considerably. The opening and ending are both pretty in visuals, tell a lot of the story and character dynamics and backdrops without spoiling anything thanks to good storyboard and directing, and even the songs, which I guess would be labeled as symphonic pop, are quite good. Also, you don’t know how pleasant it is to see a band from two decades ago like Ikimonogakari being still around and not making complete trash songs like others in the same boat, hear that Flow? Uverworld? V8? Goddammit. Also I think the last episode used a special opening, and it was a calm, kind of quiet, almost ambience music like tune. I want that released publicly as soon as possible, please.

Bottom line, what seemed to be a mistake of a premise for being derivative was given an original enough spin and with a lovely production and atmosphere, resulted in a pleasant watch in its first half that was thematically more than meets the eye and as far as the message goes, it concluded fine. The problem is the script which in the second half suffered a lot from rushed events and turns and the mishandling of the character colouring, coming up way too late in the story, and a finale that was overstuffed for its own good. If you want an emotional experience, you might be pleased with this anime, if you want something more complete and concrete and well put together, perhaps not so much.

Well would you look at that, a Hiromi Arakawa show that was initially kinda hyped based on its author and didn’t exactly meet its expectations. Some people were expecting the next Fullmetal Alchemist based on name and studio, but the story is quite different and the series never really tried to be the successor of that colossi of a manga. Plus, it’s not like Gin no Saji, Arslan Senki, Hyakusho Kizoku or Moonrise released since…but ok, I get it, the mangaka only designed the characters for two of them, a medieval epic and a failed sci-fi epic, and the other two are slices of life in farms, nothing like the next fighting shounen coming from her.

But is Yomi no Tsugai even a fighting shounen? It is a shounen and there is fighting so it’s definitely an action adventure shounen, but it otherwise doesn’t follow any of the core elements of the genre to be labeled as such, Akane-banashi from its season was more of a shounen than it. Regardless of that, the few people that were reading the manga before the anime knew how different, and inferior, it was to Fullmetal Alchemist.

But anyways let’s move from Brotherhood to the siblinghood of this title, because once again Arakawa focused primarily on the relationship between two siblings, this time a guy and a girl instead of two brothers, and their search for their parents, only this time around it happens in the context of a war between a village in the mountains with a whole net of assassins and cleaners at disposal, and a kind of rich mafia family, each group with several supernatural creatures at disposal, or rather through deals and connections between humans and those creatures. The contracts and the human-supernatural connection is part of the character dynamics and themes. Oh, the siblings are chased because they possess big powers capable of ruling the world or something, according to a prophecy, and chances are they awake said abilities after they have died once.

With all that setup, the beginning confused a lot of people because the twins are seemingly initially enemies and a lot of apparently innocent civilians are killed off mercilessly and why does the girl have such an adoration for her brother almost to the point of brocon. It’s the classic contrast between comedy and action of plenty of shounen stories, and many people didn’t like that, even if the violence was toned down considerably from the manga. Personally I found it initially more tolerable than the source material because over there the art style gets deformed completely in classic Arakawa fashion, and the anime wasn’t as loud and childish as I expected it to be during those moments.

Still, the humour wasn’t exactly good, and I wished it was removed or at least toned down somewhat. The actual comedy though, I’m in favor of, as most of it involves a fish out of water type of concept, premise and character, of which I’m fond of. In this case, the protagonist who has lived his whole life in a village atop of a mountain, goes down to the city below and is confused by contemporary Japan, as he is about everything else really. This aspect is not limited to that alone, as his hunter in the wild-like mentality clashes with what’s legal or not in our world with our rules, so the side characters are constantly trying to keep him out of trouble and keep him underground and without being seen by the common people all around them. I’m not saying it’s amazingly implemented within the plot, as there is no real dealing with real consequences in the real world, and even if there were, the characters have an underground network capable of dealing with that kind of mishaps. It’s not Dai-Guard, but it’s nonetheless a little more elaborated than simply lol look at this clueless guy.

Anyways, past the comedy, the actual story is quite good, as it has all these groups trying to get the siblings to their side by either trust or force, clashing with each other with all kinds of abilities, and even internal differences within their own, hinting at possible traitors amongst them, and there’s even a third antagonistic group that appears near the end of the season to complicate the conflict even more, and as someone that reads the manga, let me tell you that things will get even more complicated from there.

Plus there is some effort put into trying to maintain coherence among everything, from the battles being unnoticed by the common people due to the supernatural entities, the Tsugai as they are called, being able to suppress their presence from normal civilians, and even cleaners of all kinds in charge of erasing evidence of all the fighting and killing, and having all the parties involved being such big groups that can keep the events hidden and unnoticed. The anime even shows the process and how a normal policeman is thought of as being hallucinating due to fatigue and stress when no one believes all the crazy shit he has been witnessing all night long, because there is no trail of it. Hear that Samidare? Fate? And many more.

There are traitor plots within the story and even though I wouldn’t say Yomi no Tsugai is a masterpiece of foreshadowing, it does a good job at building and anticipating reveals, and having the characters prepare some kind of countermeasure. This expands even to the fight choreography, as the cast uses the combined abilities of their Tsugai to capture said traitors, it’s a case of good planning and effective use of abilities in fights making up for otherwise basic abilities and powers. Still, Arakawa once again made good use of martial arts, old weapons, and basic supernatural powers combined, without the need for flashiness and overcomplicated powers nor power ups, so far at least.

With those nice things said, it has to be clarified that not everything makes sense, as there are common people with no fighting ability whatsoever commanding Tsugais, somehow not being killed instantly nor hurt permanently in ways that would make their close ones bombard them with questions. And guns are seemingly useless in this setting, as the gun users either don’t shoot on target as soon as they can or when they do they are less effective than…arrows? Look at Tadera and Yuru attacking Ivan around during the last quarter of the anime, for example.

Speaking of the latter, the protagonist of the show, we already established that he is in a similar case as Lara although far riskier and wilder, and here we have a case similar to Akane Osaki in Akane-banashi, in that he carries the rest of the cast on his shoulders. Initially it’s funny to see him as lost as the audience with what the hell is even going on, but there is some drama around his closest people lying to him his whole life, and the whole of it being fabricated. Plus his hunter-like mentality adds a lot to his fighting style, his interrogation of people, and his distrust of most people around him, instead of the usual naive shounen protagonists that treat any random recently encountered character as trustworthy and a friend. Honestly, I think of him as one of the best recent shounen protagonists.

But it’s not like he is amazing or anything and like I said, he carries all the rest of the cast, who are mostly plot devices throughout most of the series, with only some of them having their backdrops revealed through brief flashbacks and nothing resembling a character arc whatsoever. Not even Asa, the seemingly initial mass murderer with an almost brocon like adoration for her brother, is as interesting and fleshed out as her brother, and that gimmick of hers can be quite annoying with time.

The worst offender is Gabby, a character that seemingly does kill lots of people just because and with no remorse. Eventually it is made clear that she takes it out on them because of what they did to Asa in the past and due to the desire to protect her group, but since her connection with her and them is not explored in the season, nor even in the manga in the 55 chapters I’ve read so far, she comes off as an edgy casual mass murdered for no reason, even more so when later on in the manga she claims to only like Tsugais and hate humanity, what it this character? Plus, as proven on episode 22, she would support generative AI, truly the lowest of the lows.

A big part of this issue comes from one of the genres of the show itself, mystery. As we follow the perspective of the main character, there is a lot of stuff that we initially do not understand, because he is in that same situation, and even aside from him, a lot of the show remains mysterious throughout the series in order to seem confusing and intriguing. It took 22 out of 24 episodes to clear out that Asa is not a mass murderer, imagine that. Thus, the characters suffer from that as well.

That brings us to the other major problem of the series, the pacing. Usually there’s disagreement about whether an anime or manga or whatever is fast or slow paced, what moves steadily for some might be slow for others, and what seems appropriately paced for some might come off as rushed for others. In this case there’s people claiming both things from opposite sides. I wouldn’t be able to name them now but I believe I have talked about series that were both fast and slow at the same time in the past. In this case it’s not much that some elements are dragged so others end up being shown in a hurry or something, but more so that a lot of stuff happens, yet very little actually progresses the plot. Take the beginning and the ending of the anime and it’s clear that most of what is shown in between is dedicated more to clarify to the protagonist and the audience what is happening and what for, rather than actually moving somewhere with it and any character getting closer to what they want to achieve. I don’t know if Arakawa or her magazine and/or editor plan for this to be a long runner or something, but at 55 chapters where I am, it didn’t really get that much better. Characters have died, others took another position, Yuru and Asa became more proactive on their own, but the actual plot is still progressing slowly.

And even though the fight choreography is good, the visuals certainly don’t add much to the action, nor are they that good on their own either. The artwork is solid and with no quality drops, the character designs are good updates of Arakawa’s style to a contemporary setting and society but the usual faces of her are present all throughout the anime. The backgrounds are ok but not much to pay attention to, and they usually look dry, the actual animation is good enough during the fights but isn’t much as a whole, and there’s somewhat weak CGI used here and there for sceneries and special effects.

The audio department consists of serviceable voice acting, sound effects and background music done by Kensuke Ishio. Clearly not at the top of his game but still better than what he did for Agents of the Four Seasons from the same season. The first ending is ok mostly thanks to the visuals and directing but as a song is quite way too calm and kind of boring by itself, the second ending is not bad but not exactly good either,it focuses on Asa’s perspective but since she isn’t explored much as Yuru, it’s a bit whatever, and both openings suck balls.

So, as a whole I think this is a one time worthy action adventure thanks to the fight choreography, the attempt to make most things make sense, the overall story and conflict on a basic level, and Yuru as a protagonist, but it is certainly not very good and among the lowest worth checking out titles of the year for me, despite being one of the titles I liked the most. Also, this is nowhere near Fullmetal Alchemist in terms of characters, themes, plot, pacing, animation, openings and endings, soundtrack and stuff, so I say give it a try if you feel like it but lower your expectations if you expect to see the next best fighting shounen of all times, or you would set yourself up for disappointment otherwise.

For supposedly being the dark horse of the season, Nippon Sangoku didn’t strike as that dark to me but it did have its fair share of horseshit in it. For all the praise I’ve seen of it from both casuals that checked it out of curiosity, and critics/elitists as the hidden gem/best show of its season, I expected a lot more and thus consider it my disappointment of the year so far.

Most of the criticism I have with it has been said somewhere else already. The beginning is pretty meh, the setting has some inconsistencies, the main character didn’t act according to his characterization at first, the characters are kinda plain, and the finale is super rushed. For most of those, we will take a look extensively at the first episode.

This is a retrofuturistic post-apocalyptic Three Kingdoms in Japan of sorts, so yeah the premise is amazing, but the setup is a bit questionable? Or at the very least limited. We know that the superpowers unleashed a nuclear war and that’s how Japan split in three, meaning there’s a whole post-apocalyptic world out there that we’re not seeing but ok, the author chose to focus on a specific place from the setting, within the scenario he created, so it’s ok.

As has been stated, the technological reverting of Japan to such an era isn’t totally explored, why that one specifically and what happened with all the present day technology? It isn’t explored nor explained much nor very well at first. Eventually we do see some modern buildings and even cars that are used for field tactics, but until that happens, the setting feels like quirkiest of the year, and that’s considering that there was a bad CGI Hokuto no Ken remake airing at the same time (the CGI is bad, not the show itself). At the very least there are jobs and activities that drive the economy and funds and resources are addressed and become a plot point used in story for the military tactics, reminiscent of actually existing ones that were used in real life, character roles and dynamics, and buildup for some of its themes. So although more quirky, it does make a little more sense than the alternative. If the explanations and the scenario make sense in a post nuclear apocalypse setting though, that’s a thing for anyone to think about themselves. But still, for the most part it feels like the setting exists the way it does mostly so every few episodes there can a reference to something modern, or some modern day technology or building, a manga or something otaku being mentioned, or quirky villains making silly poses, plus an opening that combines traditional and contemporary music, yet because of the in-story post contemporary regression to traditional, those things don’t feel anachronistic.

For how rational the protagonist is supposed to be, he did a big oversight that could have potentially not prevented the tragedy perhaps, but it would have been better to see him at least attempt to. He knows the officials in his land are corrupt and tyrannical, he knows they are executing people for every pitiful excuse, and knows well his wife offended one of them, yet did nothing about it, didn’t even try to in fact. Well he was very young and tried to avoid conflict as much as he could, a book smarts guy more than a street smarts guy, so maybe the disbelief can be suspended regarding that.

But then there’s the villain, who let him go by the end of the episode, something very common for arrogant villains that underestimates protagonists and that comes back to bite them in the ass later, but the one in here isn’t presented like that. He is arrogant for sure but his impression of the main character wasn’t of someone that posed no threat, but rather of an interesting individual. You could probably say well maybe the antagonist planned to use him? No he didn’t. Well he eventually did something about him but that doesn’t come until the very end of the season and out of screen.

As for the issues in the following episodes, for a show with a premise such as this, the tone isn’t very serious. Like I’ve been saying, it’s very quirky and a good chunk of the characters are as well. Basically the main villain, every minor antagonist or secondary character, and even the supposed deuteragonist, acts or talks silly most of the time, and that clashes a lot with what’s supposed to be the serious dark horse show of the season. About the Movements of the Earth, this is not. It’s not comically homoerotic and over the top like an actual historical title like Golden Kamuy, nor action heavy and manly that’s supposed to come off as cool like Hokuto no Ken either. It’s a weird middle point that makes it for a niche audience.

So after all that, it is safe to say that this show wouldn’t have passed the 3 episode rule as far as I’m concerned. It’s from episode 4 and 5 that the show starts displaying some level of quality, and most stuff afterwards until the second to last episode, the eleventh, it’s pretty good and elevates the whole anime. It’s when another nation and faction and antagonist are shown and made part of the plot and divide the narrative between two perspectives, that the series becomes pretty good. We see internal conflicts between different factions on both sides, inside infiltration and invasion plots from Seii to Yamato, side characters sacrificing themselves and dying, actual field tactics that are direct references to Three Kingdoms are employed, better characters are introduced, like Ryumon, Kaku and Wajima, the latter which is a better character, though not a better antagonist, than Taira, and even some secondary ones like the son of the latter and the emperor either change perspectives or grow a little bit of balls. It’s also when the narrative follows more characters than the protagonist, and he and the deuteragonist are built up to eventually replace Ryumon and Kaku. The aforementioned issues didn’t exactly go away, but are now mixed up with some actual pretty good stuff.

With that said, the deuteragonist is kinda forgotten by the narrative for the most part, and his inner monologues don’t exactly help him either, what the anime did with Kaku wasn’t bad, but did feel unnecessarily sudden due to lack of proper build up. I also have to wonder why don’t the characters that can kill the villain, at least try to do it? Maybe he’s secretly super strong and will show it later. I mean he has a lot of people under his command, true, but kill him off and all that falls apart, at least from what was shown in the season.

And also, when they finally fought on the battlefield, the Yamato side completely stomped on Seii, thus it feels like the only reason why they weren’t winning early was because of the inside enemy, and that there was a big difference in levels all along, and that the narrative is picking a side. Even the strategies and the arguments of the protagonist have been questioned somewhat. Logh, Ravages of Time or Ad Astra, this is not.

And as good as they are as plot devices, and as well as they fit a certain role, such as a Deku-like romanticist analyst for the protagonist, mentors for Ryumon and Kaku, antagonist and the other side of the coin for Wajima, who also wants revenge and follows her idea of justice and unification of the nation in a dictatorial way, contrary to Misumi, at least as far as the narrative is concerned, the cast is still very plain. Again, Logh or Ravages of Time, this is not.

What’s indisputably mishandled is the finale, sorry but that was plain bad. Up until the middle point it was an ok conclusion, but the second half of the final episode had a whole season worth of plot points happening and new characters being presented at an insane speed and weren’t even properly shown but more like told by the narrator, leading to a semi cliffhanger, that was not a good ending at all.

Due to the in-story post contemporary regression to traditional times of the setting, the combination of traditional and modern music for the opening fits the series, and the visual sequence isn’t exactly bad, but the song itself kinda sucks for me. The ending was a lot more static and typical, but the song itself and the voice singing it aren’t bad, the detail of the letters going under the shoe and feet is neat, and the whole sequence reflects the motivation of the protagonist quite well. The background music is better and also features quite some chorus. The sound effects are also good and the voice acting, well, it fits but it’s not that big of a deal.

The real star of the presentation is the visuals, I don’t know what the style is called but the aesthetics seemed manga-like to me and the anime pulled it off like no other title, plus polished artwork, backgrounds, motions whenever it doesn’t use minimum motions for effect, and even good special effects. Even the very obvious CGI was used well for impact here. The directing and storyboard excel, did I praise Akane-banashi and Atelier for that in my reviews of them? Nippon Sangoku surpasses them, something which I did not expect to see in this year, at least regarding the latter, so at the very least, the director is one to keep track of. The transitions, perspective shots and lighting he displayed in this season were unmatched. The only complaint I have is the character designs for its androgynous looks for the main characters and the facial repetition, that would make me mix them with the women if they didn’t talk. Even the older characters have similar facial hair, thus even the characters that look different than the main ones, are similar to each other.

Bottom line, I did not enjoy this anime and don’t really think I’ll be following the next seasons, unless someone told me that all of my issues with the first were fixed or something. Besides my own enjoyment, the beginning was meh, the middle pretty good, and the finale bad, so I think the series is not as great as its reception made me think it would be. Despite all of its flaws, its strong points and the moments it was good, barely managed to save it and make me consider it somewhat worth watching once, but anime of its season, of its year, or a great one, for me, it is not.

There’s this Discord server I’m in where I said that Akane-banashi was a show without much to tell but a lot to write about. Afterwards I proceeded to write 7 word pages about it in the course of three days. Awajima Hyakkei is kinda the opposite, on paper I should have lots of things to talk about it but it doesn’t leave me much to write about. So hopefully this should be one of the short ones. But why does this review even exist then? Well because I already reviewed both previous adaptations of its author so I might as well cover this one too.

This anime wasn’t even under my radar initially and judging from its quantity of viewers it is safe to assume that that was the case for the vast majority of people, which is kinda funny considering how it could appeal to certain niches. It’s the same for everything this woman does and although the previous two have managed to gain some kind of cult niche classics between LGBT themed fiction audiences, this one is just too recent and short to have had the same luck, maybe in the future but not for now.

Anyways, when it comes to Takako Shimura works, I didn’t like Aoi Hana, so that wasn’t an incentive to watch this anime, but I did like Hourou Musuko, so that was an incentive. So the tides were tied for me to watch this title, it was like tossing a coin. Then I have seen and read people comparing it to Kageki Shoujo, which was one of the few 2021 anime that I liked and that were good, so yeah, I had to watch Awajima Hyakkei at that point.

Like that third aforementioned show, Awajima Hyakkei certainly is also about a girls school specified in theatre, stage plays, dancing, singing and everything that comes along with it, but it’s more about the drama of lots of girls attending there, even across many generations. Thus, when it comes to flesh out its characters, it sort of gives everyone a backdrop and a resolution I guess, even if it never manages to give them a strong presence nor personality. At the very least, those personalities are well founded because of those pasts each one carries. In Shimura’s trademark, this work is a lot more toned down compared to anything akin. Despite being about the toxicity of the theatrical world, much like Glass no Kamen or Revue Starlight (both of which I did not watch) or Kageki Shoujo, but it follows the approach of the latter and its author of toning down the characters and make them easier to empathize with at least to a point, even the pettiest and ill intended characters and actions are nothing compared to what you can get on plenty of other anime and fiction in general.

The constant switches in time to show a girl from a different generation and some facial resemblance across some of them makes it somewhat complicated and challenging to follow up to a point, but on the site I was watching the anime, someone shared a Japanese chart which detailed every generation and relation amongst the characters. Not that it helped me one bit but it was a nice detail.

The themes are about people not always getting what they want, in fact that’s the norm in this anime, it’s as if nobody could get exactly what they want, which I guess it’s valuable in itself to talk about how more often than not life takes you to different places or through different ways than the ones you expected. Also, about how a person, any person, is more layered and different with and from the perspective of different people, basically that no one is as simple as you can see and that everyone is a different person than you might think. Also, that you might walk different paths than a close person to you from one moment to another. There’s also a lot of focus in upbringing, even the shittiest character in the show might be the result of the life and family they had or that they left behind for reasons and tried to get away with it. There’s also lots of unrequited love as usual, another trademark of this woman. Unrequited lesbian love at that, so yeah this anime is closer to Aoi Hana in that regard.

As can be noticed, the themes extends to the characters, but again there are no outstanding personalities here and because of the constant switches in narrative from one to another in a segment or anthology-like manner, there’s no real development nor catharsis, especially not because almost no one achieves what they want. On top of that there’s no real closure, or rather, a clear path to a closure, for any character, in the same episode or some following one you get to know what happened to them, but nothing in between. Say what you will about the previous adaptations of this woman, but they had smaller and more focused casts.

And despite there being themes, there’s clearly no plot whatsoever, the narrative moves from a character to another with no clear end goal until the last two episodes and…like, 5 minutes of another one? And it’s the publication of a book and a certain play starring several girls seen throughout the show. One would probably think: well that was the slowly prepared end goal that would tie everything together, but spoilers, not all of the highlighted characters are important for it, and it is never shown in the anime. Unlike its older sister series, this show has an ending, but it doesn’t feel like one, so you might as well consider that it is as unfinished as those other two.

In fact, as far as a theatrical show goes, Awajima Hyakkei is also lacking in that regard, as there’s almost no stage play being played in the series. Imagine making an anime about arts and not showing the arts, and yes, the medium suffers quite usually from that. Even aesthetically Awajima Hyakkei is not all that. It clearly tries to mimic the visual style of Aoi Hana and Hourou Musuko, and although it has a more polished artwork and completed backgrounds with no overdone lighting, it is also quite lacking in the artistic sense compared to those. The special effects are quite lacking for what they intend to do, the blushing one in particular is laughably dated, which is an issue in anime since at least the last decade, and the character figures are as usual simple and with facial repetitions to the point of confusing you, even with the characters chart at disposal. At the very least they have realistic figures especially for their career, and they visually age as they get older throughout the years.

As for the voice acting, it isn’t as realistic and natural sounding as in its older sister series, it’s more typical, and for a show that’s supposed to be about acting, Kageki Shoujo has it beat in that regard. The sound effects are good but the best audio part is the music, which is still quite absent and forgettable after you finished the show. Despite that, even the lowest and slowest theme fits the anime very well. What I said does not apply to the opening and ending sequences, which although helped by the visuals, are the best ones I have seen and heard so far from this year, especially the outro.

In conclusion, I can’t really say that this anime was worth watching nor is it worth recommending, but at the very least it helped pass some time. Managing to handle as many characters as it did and with that type of narrative is worth mentioning, but the sheer amount of the cast didn’t leave it to flesh them out as well as needed and there’s no real sense of plot progression nor closure whatsoever. Is a competently made big whole, but at the same time a big hole of nothing. Both previous works from its author pulled off better results exactly because they had smaller and more focused casts of characters, Kageki Shoujo beats it in theatricals and fleshing out a sympathetic cast, and even in this year, Akane-banashi and Ikoku Nikki are better female led shows. But if you have watched those, or feel like watching something mature with an ensemble cast, this might work for you as a time passer.

Note: Light spoilers ahead. In summary, the protagonist, the directing and the messages carry an otherwise typical, simple and unexciting story and a support cast made up of plot devices rather than full on characters.

Akane-banashi was a surprise in various ways, with the biggest one being that it became my third liked anime of the year, something which I did not expect before watching it, but probably should have, as I didn’t dislike any rakugo or kabuki anime I have watched until now.

But beyond that, what surprised me about Akane-banashi was how it felt almost like an anachronistic work of some kind, and the most conservative in nature anime I have watched in years. I will get to that later.

Even though I was aware of Akane-banashi being a Shounen Jump property, it is easy to forget that the moment you sit down and watch an anime. But then I begin watching it and yeah, a shounen through and through. It follows all the basics of the formula, training, revenge plot, tournament or competition of sorts, antagonistic organizations, rivalries set up early on, getting a high rank or level of something as an objective, semi cliffhanger ending setting more training and potential antagonists or rivals.

And yet, despite following the formula, it likes to mess around with it to some degree. I will not call it a subversion or deconstruction or any fancy word like that, but I find its peculiarities worth noticing and mentioning. First and foremost, in the main magazine aimed at young boys, and following its basic formula, Akane-banashi stars a girl. And no, unlike plenty of other contemporary anime, it does not sexualize nor objectify its main character in any way, so it is not like starring a female main character is just a cover up for the male gaze. It is also about a traditional art such as rakugo, a very rare subject for its main audience. It applies the formula in a slice of life and coming of age kind of way instead of high octane action.

It is certainly not the first shounen with an uncommon topic. Bakuman was about mangakas and was doing its own thing, but was also made by two big authors. Shokugeki no Souma is closer to this anime than any fighting shounen, yet it was imitating them to a tee in very over the top ways for a freaking cooking anime. And for those of you that still remember it, Runway de Waratte was following the formula within the fashion industry of all things, and featured a main girl and a main boy who were a model and a designer respectively. It never felt like a fighting anime but it was trying to build up tension like a sports anime like crazy.

Akane-banashi kind of does the same but without any kind of stakes. Although it never happens on shounen anime, on paper, a mangaka can fail hard to get published, struggle, and go broke. A chef can hurt themselves in the kitchen, and people in the fashion industry…well there are no high stakes over there either, but they could find some cuckoo petty rival out of their way to hurt them and suffer all kinds of gossip on mass media that would affect their lives. What kind of stakes are in rakugo? At most they could get expelled.

In fact, that is the starting point of the anime, the protagonist wanting revenge on who is presented as the main antagonist, for expelling her father six years back. And yet, to that, Akane-banashi says, the man went on with his life, to do something else, see? It is not the end of the world. After that the main character gets motivated to become a rakugoka herself and avenge her father, which in this context means to confront the old man, so it is a revenge plot without edge. That is why the series is also a next generation type of show. It is not that uncommon for shounen these days. Think about Boruto, Mokushiroku no Yonkishi, Yashahime, and even Dodge Danko is airing right now. Oh and there was Saint Seiya Omega more than a decade ago. Those came out way after their previous installments finished, and usually crapped on them. Akane-banashi on the other hand sets itself up to be a first and main series, and that kind of sequel, at the same time.

Did I say parents of the main character? Yes both of them are alive, crazy I know, and somewhat present, quite rare. Do they at least oppose her idea to prevent the same thing happening twice? No, they know about it and support her, also quite rare.

The training in this case implies the protagonist managing to mix well her activity of interest with the rest of her life, it is not that she disregards all the other things completely. Thus, following her fellow older apprentices and teacher’s advice, she works at a bar, decides on her career while mixing it with an apparition on a tournament for students, and even learns the history around one specific performance she has to present. This way the side activities are connected in a way to the main one, and the support characters provide actual good advices, lessons and counseling that are related to what the main character is going through. Thus, there is a feeling of the different pieces falling into place to make a coherent whole, and that stuff is happening and things are progressing even in a “slice of nothing happens” show. Plus, the way the series compares and connects a job based on serving and teaching in a classroom to grabbing the attention of an audience and caring about their enjoyment during the performance made sense and was cool to see.

Those that are presented as the main opposing forces to the protagonist are not even villains nor even actively antagonistic. As we follow the perspective of the main girl, the initial image we have of them makes sense, but as we get to see them outside of said perspective and get to know the tiniest things about them, we learn that they are not like she pictures them as, there are no cartoony nor petty characters in here, and even the closest ones to that are still very sensible, level-headed and grounded for the genre and demographic.

Despite its typical core, I did say that Akane-banashi feels kind of like an anachronistic work, and to justify that I will start with the concept itself. As far as I know there are four rakugo anime and one about Kabuki. Joshiraku uses rakugo just as its premise, it is otherwise about the characters saying fuck you to physics in cartoony ways and making social commentary through puns, it was all in service of the gags with rakugo being just the setup for the setting, not even fully a concept. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu and My Master Has no Tail both use rakugo as means for something greater and more profound. In the former, it was something for the characters to fix their lives with and confront the passage of time and change in eras that was actually endangering their art and profession, and was also a catalyst to face their regrets in life head on. The latter does not do a very good job about it, but it was using rakugo as a form of regaining connection between humans and animals, humans and nature. And both of them were historical titles.

Akane-banashi is set in contemporary times and was honestly kind of a relief to see that the art that the characters from the previous shows were scared of disappearing, is actually still preserved in some way or form. I mean Kabuki-bu was doing a similar thing, as it was about a modern day school club about kabuki, as the name makes it clear, yet that was all there was to it. This anime on the other hand has the preservation of the art in current times as its central theme, but only from the perspective of the antagonists, as the protagonist wants to become a top rank rakugoka herself, and honor the name of her father, something which is noble but nowhere near as grandiose as what the other characters want. In a meta way, it is what the author is doing as well, by making a manga about rakugo now, and I find that commendable.

Even on an aesthetical level, Akane-banashi feels like a show that does not fully belong in our times. The artwork is good and does not suffer from quality drops but not as detailed as other top popular anime tend to have, I mean look at Atelier from its season to compare. The colouring and lighting in this anime also stands out, it is not warm like the anime that imitate retro aesthetics like My Status as an Assassin, Magical Destroyers, the currently airing Sayonara Lara and the likes. it is not dark in an also retro way like Orb or Pluto, but it is also not as bright as anime series are in general now. The special effects and the color speed lines that at times replace the very well made backgrounds for impact effect look like a decade old, yet somehow everything fits together very nicely. The motions are not much because the anime prioritizes impact effect, yet at around the half mark in the last episode it is clear that Zexcs could have filled the series with warm special effects like that striking sunset scene, and detailed body motions like that one where the head down Akane kept moving around while her rakugo teacher was walking around the room to show her her new name. What is done the best is the storyboard, focusing on the details of the expressions and body language of the characters, both performers and audience, while the fiery special effects serve to compliment that aspect. It is a case of good directing making up for limited production values, and well directed rakugo is always a treat to see.

I mean look at the opening, it is not very good because the first half features Akane jumping around and surfing against some kind of wave meant to represent her struggles in sequences that feel like they belong in an action series, while the second has the characters dancing, like almost all openings today do, yet the song is a slow rock sung by a middle age deep masculine voice, it is almost comical how the two aspects do not really fit together. The ending feels even more retro, by going over sceneries in a beach to show one final frame of Akane’s face, with similar vocals on the back, what are these videoclips doing in a 2026 anime?

The audio department is good thanks to the sound effects and voice acting for all the different rakugo performances, and I am particularly surprised by Anna Nagase voicing Akane and nailing all the nuances in rakugo while being so young, but the music is…not even there? It is really forgettable and unlike the other rakugo anime, there is no shamizen accompanying the performances here.

Narratively Akane-banashi is kind of odd as well by going through training, rivalry setups, a competition and ending with a satisfying conclusion in one core, all while featuring rakugo performances taking a good portion of the episodes, not like lots of action series that either spend a whole season in training, like Boku no Hero, end in a complete cliffhanger giving its cour no sense of closure, like lots of series but Bastard!! comes first to mind, or Atelier which suffers from both. In that sense it reminded me of my favourite franchise Hibike! Euphonium which ends each season with a competition and a graduation for the third year members of the club every time, with this anime having the advantage of not sacrificing performance time for training or teen drama like over there. It does not rush through its content either like I don’t know, Jigokuraku, Hokuto no Ken or worst of all, Golden Kamuy, from its year alone. It hits a balanced middle point between the dragged on retro that now feels like a slog to watch and the rushed modern that ends episodes on awkward moments instead of impactful scenes. It is kind of rare for a long and ongoing manga of our times to get an adaptation with a pacing like this, especially in such fast moving times and the era of scrolling, reels, short duration content and entertainment.

But more importantly, did I not say that Akane-banashi is the most conservative anime I have watched in years? How is that possible when it is about bringing a traditional art to modern times, a next generation type of series, and it stars a girl in a shounen? Well, though to its approach in writing and messages.

First, because of its subject matter itself in this era. Second, for both the design and characterization of said girl. Akane might talk in ways that might come off as rude and might not be afraid to hit some guy if needed, but she is not a fake tomboy the likes of which anime is full of. She is very pretty, with her earrings, purple eyes, black and pink hair and ponytail while performing, and is shown to take care of her image, clothing and rakugo etiquette, even while using casual clothes similar to those of Earphone Jack from Hero Academia. She is not a fake gyaru the likes of which are common these days either. On top of it all, she is not a girl boss either, which makes me think that a certain annoying type of fans would have liked her and her anime, if they cared about the subject matter one bit. She learns from all her older fellow apprentices, all of which are men, and respects all of them a lot. Heck, half of her motivation itself is to honor her father, both by confronting the man that expelled him, and by showing him that she is going to be a top rakugoka with that same rakugo from her father that the old man dismissed at the beginning of the story.

Like I said before, nothing in the anime objectifies nor sexualizes the protagonist. Look at her, she is pretty but has realistic proportions, none of that overblown exaggerated figures around here. The rest of the cast, whether cute or not, female or male, fares similarly as well, there’s a lot of variety in character figures in here and all of them fit together nicely. But more importantly, no male character belittles nor underestimates Akane while teaching her something, nor at any other moment. It is traditional, it is conservative in nature, yet not rooted in misogyny, good job.

But most importantly, it is so because of how it handles its formula and messages themselves. I mean think about it and compare it with other titles. An era just finished of fake underdogs like Deku and Asta, that are supposed to have their whole settings against them because they don’t have super powers nor magic respectively, they are given a power or happened to have the perfect counter power, and the first one even got it from the canonically most powerful and important guy in the world, talk about succeeding thanks to connections and luck. And this becomes equally bad if not worse when we think about the big three protagonists, but that was already talked about enough to bring it up in here. I have read defenses of the likes that the point of an underdog story is that the main character eventually stops being an underdog, and to that I say well, there has to be some balance, or else you end up with the Spider-man situation, condemned to be miserable and rebooted forever. But still, Joe Yabuki, Hanamichi Sakuragi, Kaiji Itou, Akko Kagari and even Coco from the same season as Akane, are some examples of people who get small victories without things going their way and their world conveniently working around them.

You would probably think, wait, it is not right to compare action shows with non-action ones. Well then, let's limit it to competition-like series. Hibike! Euphonium did it half right by making the main school lose tournaments a couple of entries despite giving them small victories, because although the main characters are really good at playing their instruments, the same can not really be said about the orchestra as a whole. It would have been better if other schools and performances were shown half as much though, but no, time was needed for teen drama.

From the bad side of examples. Shokugeki no Souma had Souma Yukihira being a “break the norm” and “go against tradition” type of character, what with his unorthodox recipes and always defying the system. Despite being in a non-action anime and manga, he was plot armored with things going his way, avoiding being expelled several times just because, even during rigged matches, getting power up-like moves during his cooking battles, and gaining powerful connections despite being a supposed underdog. Let’s look at Runway de Waratte too, where Chiyuki and Ikuto were at disadvantage within their discipline and setting, essentially being underdogs, yet the anime ruined it by being rushed, having things going their way conveniently, and spoiling its ending like Hero Academia does. You would probably think but well, that is just how real life is, you need connections in order to get somewhere regardless of how good you are at something. Yes, that is not the issue, the issue is that these aforementioned anime are not open nor honest about it, and work conveniently and through nepotism for their main characters.

Now let’s look at what Akane-banashi does through that Karashi Neriyama dude who modernizes rakugo stories and is a people’s pleaser to get results, and that Hikaru Koragi woman who is a pretty voice actress trying to broaden her horizons in order to get more popular and successful…through…rakugo… They are ambitious and want to break the norm, in other anime they would be the protagonists and winners of the competition they participate in during the season, but in this one they are not. Akane is not an underdog, and certainly does not have things going her way just because of connections. She has some but they do not make things easier for her, and the biggest people she knows are against her, through her eyes at least. More importantly she is talented but has also practiced and trained and learned and fixed her rakugo performances since she was little, as we see both in present time and through flashbacks. For a protagonist of her era, and a girl at that, and after the big three 00s era, she feels closer to the Kenshiros, the Seiyas, the Kenshins of old, to a much lesser degree of course, and she also does not only want personal success and not only thinks about performing well, but cares about her audience first, and does something for her father as well, so that goes against the western female leads with daddy issues of now. I tell you, if the annoying conservative chuds would have given a crap about this anime, they would have loved its protagonist.

But also, and more importantly, in an era of short duration and fast paced content and entertainment, and filled with fiction the kind of what I already wrote enough about, what this anime tells the audience through both the protagonist and antagonist, is that just talent and fame will not get you what you want, you need to work hard and consistently for years, not care just about you but also about those around you, both family and partners in career, and to keep alive tradition, history and arts in modern times and against all other kinds of entertainment, in modern ways if you want but respecting what made them what they are in the first place, their essence if you will, and with a respectable level of quality. In the times of cheap productions, remakes that often do not measure up to the originals, and above all, fucking generative AI used in big productions everywhere, I find those messages even more commendable.

But wait, that kind of sucks, does not it? Is Akane-banashi telling the audience that you cannot catch up and that you will not get chances in a type of art or discipline if you do not start up from early on in your life? Well no, as both Karashi and Hikaru get or search for new offers from big schools and masters and room for improvement at the end of the season, despite falling short compared to Akane.

But after all those nice things I’ve written about Akane-banashi, it is not like it is a great anime, and there is also a need to criticize it where it fails. First of all, it definitely tries hard to make the unexciting exciting. Look at all that presentation of ranks, the silhouettes of the rakugo masters, all the other ones and their schools presented at the end of the season, the fiery special effects used from time to time, trying to build up hype and tension around rakugo, and it does not work, it does not hit because it is rakugo, there are not stakes whatsoever. It would be hypocritical of me not to point that aspect out as well, given how it is a common criticism of mine amongst my reviews.

I have nonetheless somewhat praised and rated well enough slice of life shows that also lacked stakes throughout the years (Usagi Drop, Aishiteruze Baby, Ikoku Nikki from this year, to name some). Well those had either more complex and important topics and plenty of explored characters for me to consider them worth watching and reading, some even featured permanent changes and somewhat psychological moments, like Blue Period. Despite its messages being delivered even in some meta ways, Akane-banashi is not really on that level of substance, and no side character is as good as the passionate protagonist, on top of everything else I have already said about her. They at the very least are used very well as plot devices nonetheless.

Another issue is that Akane-banashi still has a very anime and more prominently, shounen problem, the exposition. My man we really do not need all that talk and presentations about rakugo ranks and stories and what the performers are doing and what the audience is feeling, especially not when the directing and storyboard are already doing a good job at that. It is inefficient and redundant. Despite that, I have to say that the exposition done through appendixes in the form of the chibi-like sketches at the end of the episodes are done well, even mixing real life footage for a more interesting visual presentation, and having a different character interacting with Akane each time, sometimes learning from her and sometimes being the ones that teach her something, thus maintaining and respecting characterization and character dynamics. For comparison, My Master Has no Tail from 2022 had the tanuki protagonist all alone, thus with no interesting interactions, retelling details from the same story performed in the same episode, which was definitely redundant, and despite being a seinen title, she was all cutesy and talking in her high pitched voice of hers, what made it feel like she was talking to a younger audience.

The exposition problem even affects the rakugo performances themselves. Even though Akane-banashi is overall better than Hibike! Euphonium at showing the other characters performing, it is still not quite on the level of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu and even the best times of Uchi no Shishou wa Shippo ga Nai as far as the rakugo itself is concerned, because its cuts the performances short, or interrupts them with flashbacks or exposition. As long and tedious some found the rakugo scenes in Shouwa Genroku ten years ago, that one aspect was done better and with a better directing focusing on angles and facial expressions over there. Also no shounen tricks nor exposition. But oh well, like the anime itself says, a performance could last 15 or 20 minutes, and we cannot possibly have that, especially in current times, and would be a pain in the ass for the studio to pull off something like that.

And despite lacking all that power ups, conveniences, silly hype, referential comedy and fanservice nonsense, which makes Akane-banashi better than its peers, it is also what makes it hard to believe that it would be popular and successful among an audience that expects exactly that. Just like I wrote about Aoi Hana some years ago, what gives it a certain level of quality is also what makes it hard for the title to grab the target audience. And for that reason I am genuinely surprised the manga is as big as it is. Long, ongoing, successful and popular, despite everything working against it on paper. Runway de Waratte did not have such luck. I have been informed of some other popular arts and performances with female leads shounen mangas of the moment, so maybe we are in the rise of a female-focused, shounen school coming of age arts era? That would be interesting to see.

And I am also, well not worried nor scared, that would be too much, but a bit concerned perhaps, about something in the season finale, which presents and setups lots of rival schools, rakugokas and alongside something that spoiled myself from the manga, makes me think that Akane-banashi could devolve into something more typical going forward. But at least for the time being that is not an issue present in this season.

Bottom line, normally I would probably not consider this anime more than a well made average title, but due to its protagonist and messages, going against its peers, twisting the formulas enough and well despite respecting them to their core, conveying its message even in its availability for free on YouTube in the era of big companies at the top of their greed (something I did not know about and for what I have to ask for forgiveness of), and for being extremely relevant for its time, without even needing to be topical like Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai was some years ago, I will raise the score probably a little more for the anime than it truly deserves and consider it somewhat worth watching at least once, as a product or better yet a piece of entertainment and art more so than a good story, and hopefully a proof and lesson for a lot of producers and fans out there that you can have good, well intentioned instead of mean spirited conservative in nature fiction, shounen titles that do not need stupid edge, power ups and conveniences and fanservice and objectification of its cast, primarily the girls, to be successful and popular, and that good directing and storyboards are more important than flashy and super detailed visuals and animation.

This anime is based on a work by an author that has previously published a renowned work such as Violet Evergarden, it actually lasted for longer than it so although that could happen even if it was more niche, it also would mean that there is enough public for it to keep going as much as it did. The anime was in charge of a famous and beloved studio such as Wit, the staff was involved in recent fairly popular and praised shows, and even Kensuke Ishio was part of it, who’s a popular and respected composer of our times. It is visually well done and also combines fantasy, contemporary settings, action, comedy, romance and even some queer bait. On paper, it should have had all the ingredients to become an instant success. Well I don’t know how it fared in Japan, but it doesn’t seem to have caught up that much in the West. It’s not that talked about nor promoted and its rating is not that high on any site you search it up, why is that, what seems to be the reasons for that?

1-Too long for it to come out

The light novels and mangas this anime is based on have begun publishing while Violet Evergarden was finishing, so it’s not an issue as far as the source material is concerned. The anime however came out six years after its older sister ended, and as much as that one was one the most beloved and praised anime of 2018, if not the most, it had the misfortune of ending right before lots of more people got into anime during the pandemic.

2-The previous work seems to have fallen off from grace

Despite having some of the most streamed anime openings and endings of all time, Violet Evergarden itself wasn’t exactly hype material to lure newcomers in. You would probably think that it was very dramatic for it to get a lot of traction, but not even that level of cryporn seems to motivate people enough to check it out. Basically what I’m saying here is that people who watched that show as it was coming out still remembers it fondly of course, but for newer viewers, it had become a faded memory of its decade with not much legacy behind it. I blame the movie finale for that, which although it was mostly positively received, it met enough contrarian opinions for its reception to count as divisive, not exactly a glazed piece of entertainment to get more people to watch it.

3-Wit lost people along the way

What was once debated as the best studio of all times by casuals alongside Ufotable and MAPPA due to their animation and involvement on famous works, has lost a lot of respect after delaying and eventually dropping Shingeki no Kyojin and not adapting the second season of Vinland Saga, nor continuing any of their other famous anime from the last decade. In the meantime Kabaneri was mocked as a weak rip off, Great Pretender never managed to become mainstream as it was West flavoured and was initially review bombed by Shingeki’s fanboys, and also the sequel sucked ass, Ousama Ranking met divisive opinions near its end and came and went as far as popularity and praise goes, Vivy met a similar destiny, and Bubbles was one of the few times where pretty animation and famous names wasn’t enough to fool people about underwhelming writing. Their other more contemporary shows were Shikanoko, of which people got tired of, Isekai Suicide Squad, of which you only need the name of it to know it is bad, and Moonrise, which was considered a very disappointing series.

4-Their remaining worthy shows are very different

What carries the studio now is Spy x Family, not exactly a series for action junkies or fans of drama. Its combination of brief action scenes and mostly wholesome family comedy and Annya’s antics helped making it popular and viral exactly at the right time it needed, and even that one has met some more negative opinions since then on its following seasons and source material, and after it was revealed or at least rumored that its author doesn’t even like it nor doing it. Agents of the Four Seasons doesn’t promise that, it promises action, politics, romance and a lot of drama, not necessarily exactly a pleasant time. The other one is the fourth season of Honzeki no Genkokujou, and even then it is not as praised as previous seasons, it is the first season that the studio is working on, thus inevitably being compared with the previous ones, and has met criticisms for using AI in its production.

5-Wit is still not KyoAni

The fans of all the aforementioned shows follow those specific franchises, not the studio itself. It’s what happens with a still relatively new and inconsistent studio. KyoAni on the other hand is older, has a loyal fanbase, a distinctive style and is consistent with its frequency and quality (or lack thereof as far as I’m concerned wink wink). Plus, without intending to romanticize the arson incident caused by a madman that they went through, the fact that they came out from that and finished all their previous works and started other brand new ones while retaining their visual quality, provided them of a very inspirational image and story, thus gaining even more respect from the community, you WANT to support them, even with more with their undisputed visual quality, which brings the next point:

5.2-Wit is still not KyoAni. Visuals

The only thing Wit has KyoAni beaten on is in variety of styles in both visuals and premises. Otherwise KyoAni has a recognizable style, far more polished artwork and detailed motions and body language, not polemic use of CGI, and the likes. Let’s keep the point about visuals going to bring up the next point.

6-Too much competition

As far as visuals and animation go, and despite being an overall good series in that regard, Agents of the Four Seasons doesn’t compare to the level of polish and quality of contemporaries like Frieren or Atelier, nor works with distinctive visual styles like Dorohedoro 2, Jaadugar, or the retro-styled anime that are airing right now, like Ghost in the Shell and Sayonara Lara. And well, there’s Red River too but that one is considered mostly bad on every front. Heck, even a josei show from a previous season like Ikoku Nikki had a very atmospheric style for a slice of life show. Agents of the Four Seasons has a lot more going on but its presentation is more limited and boring somehow. And although I began this point talking about animation, this anime also has too much competition as far as its core elements are concerned. What genres did I say that it combines? Action, fantasy, comedy, romance and drama, in a year with all the aforementioned options and many more, like a new Re: Zero or the dark horse Nippon Sangoku which won the serious and mature anime title of the season, and all the other actual romcoms that Spring 2026 was so full of.

The previous points explain why Agents of the Four Seasons didn’t manage to become as big as it should have been on paper, but doesn’t say much about its actual quality, could it be that despite all of that going against it it is in fact a good show? Well, if my score was to be an indicator, the answer would be no, and that’s because of poor handling.

Not in terms of visuals though, since despite not comparing to the aforementioned competition, it is still a very solid production. The artwork does not suffer from quality drops, the motions are fine, the backgrounds and special effects are well done. The issue is that nothing stands out. Despite the combination of hair colors and clothes, the character designs and figures don’t stand out much, the perspective is so focused on them that you don’t see the sceneries all that much, the action sequences are good but few and scattered, and the seasons theme is underutilized not only in writing but also artistically, how many scenes do you recall where the agents affected the land with their seasonal powers? 10 throughout 14 episodes or something? And even then those are more abilities than change in sceneries and do not always reflect their season all that much nor affect their users in any way. Katanagatari played around with the seasons more and it used the theme as nothing more than a running gag for the backgrounds. So yeah the directing wasn’t the most captivating.

The sound is also ok for the effects and voices but the music is far from Ushio’s best, it’s mostly there. The in-story important songs appear once or twice per agent, that makes 8 times total at most, so it’s another underutilized aspect. The opening and ending are typical jpop stuff, I listened to the full versions a few hours ago while I was writing this and didn’t feel them much, I even had to listen to the opening a second time because I couldn’t remember anything from it after the first time. I prefer the outro by the way, because I don’t like how high-pitched the voice gets at the chorus and end of the intro. The animated sequences for both are fine and they are pretty looking.

The problems come in the form of the writing and pacing and once again underutilizing the genres and elements, and even more during the initial episodes. Although initially the anime appears to follow the semi episodic structure of its older sister series, there’s actually a clearer plot progression in here after the third episode. Solve this one issue here, go there, survive an attack or two on your destination, go on and do your things, which is bringing the seasons across the country but, again, happens on screen like once or twice per agent, thus not even the main element of the story is used much.

There isn’t much of an end goal to claim that there’s progression either, and even if there was, the pacing suffers a lot in the middle to final episodes because like half the series is flashbacks, the main characters remembering a tragic event, which for a rational person isn’t even that tragic because the characters are alive and well and a lot happier in the future, the present time in the anime, essentially coming off as cheap emotional manipulation. Showing sad character backdrops is one thing, filling it with scenes about the characters wanting to die because of how they are mistreated and manipulated, while the audience knows that they will be fine, is another.

Speaking of which, the tone during the initial episodes is quite light at times. The anime uses shoujo-ish comedy and chibi-like artstyle for comedic scenes, about the guardian of the main character being more than honoured to be alongside her agent in a suspiciously more than platonic way, or the quarrels of two sisters. It clashes a lot if you expected non-stop drama like in Violet Evergarden. The middle episodes are a lot more dramatic, too much I would say, with the characters crying and yelling all the time, which doesn’t work on me because I know they are fine and silly in the future.

The series has some really gay lines for two same sex pairs of characters that would make fujoshis and whatever the yuri equivalent of it is go crazy, but then chickens out by forming two cishet couples…with like zero chemistry and on-screen interactions, besides the flashbacks, on which still they barely interact with each other and don’t sell you on their relationship much. Like many romance anime and fiction in general, the actual romance isn’t the main appeal, it’s the yearning, and in this case is freaking boring and scattered.

Even then the series ends with a line so lesbian not even the yuribait moments of KyoAni combined can match. Something along the lines of “despite the love for a boy that I have for him, you’re the girl I love the most and that I always will” or something like that, while the characters hold hands…so what’s gonna be? Are they cheating on the guys? Are they bi? Are they in a polyamory bisexual threeway relationship? Did we forget that the protagonist said she considered her friend her sister 9 episodes before? Are they in a disgusting incestuous relationship? Spiritually and emotionally I mean, not biologically obviously. If so bring out the doujins I mean no, it’s all bait, it’s just the yurishippers on suicide watch for the nth time for wanting LGBT stuff on a bait of a show instead of supporting actual LGBT fiction, as there were some varied examples of in the same season.

So the series with action, romance and queerbait isn’t about anything of the like, and the powers of the characters are underutilized. Is it worth watching for the comedy? Well no, it goes away in the middle of the show for all the drama, which in turn is not impactful because you know from the start that the characters are fine. Plus, as much as we are told (keyword) that the characters suffered a lot and wanted to die because nobody wanted them to live, not only do we see them alive in the future/present, there are no visible effects on them.

I mean the protagonist is heavily traumatized for almost (I think) getting raped, which affected her speaking and made her talk almost like the fucking annoying witch from Goblin Slayer if you remember her, but this girl sounds cutesy, not like that woman that seemed to moan and exhale all the time. But compare that to Violet, who was also a human weapon, and lost both arms, had to learn to use mechanical ones, and was so broken inside that couldn’t even socialize in normal ways, she seemed more like an android than a human. In here, because of how she acts in the present time, whatever happened to Hinagiku does not impact the viewer in the same way, the tearjerker isn’t tearjerking. But I gotta say that’s probably a good thing on her case, poor girl.

But what about the politics? We are told the different ways the villages handle their agents and what they intend to do with them or even if they plan to abandon them, it is supposed to make us think that the agents are used as dehumanized human weapons and make us feel sad but again, the four affected characters combined didn’t have it like Violet. Noticed how I said told instead of shown for a second time? That’s another thing, most things in this anime are told instead of shown, the people behind the villages don’t even get names nor faces, they aren’t given screentime on their own. Whatever we get to know about Sakura and Hinagiku’s families is the same, told instead of shown, and not given much exploring.

Not even the terrorist groups are fleshed out. As ridiculous and pretentious and far worse the terrorists in Darwin Game were, we get to know a lot about them, not in here until near the end, and only for the leader, who by the way gets a reasonable reason to hate the world and men in specific, but whatever compelling backdrop the show tries to give her is lost the moment she speaks pretentiously about killing a god, inexplicably seduces and manipulates men, and worst of all did those horrible things to the protagonist. But ok not every villain needs to be understood, some just want to see the world burn, quite literally in this case, but even so she lacks presence and screentime and her showdown lasts very little before ending and for the buildup as a mastermind she had, she was played around the whole time without even noticing the out of nowhere last moment save until it was too late and couldn’t do anything.

The actual writing is kinda bad and the established rules aren’t consistent and the pacing is too fast in the last episodes. The agents travel alone with their guards, the other security is far away or pretty much useless, the agents need to sing and dance to use their abilities? No, just recite, actually don’t even do that, what for? The character died and is replaced as an agent like it was previously said? No, they get revived within literal 5 minutes. Also near the end there are new plot twists and hidden terrorists with changing motivations at every episode, there’s just no organic presentation and follow up to anything.
The ending is solid for the conflicts presented but the novel is quite longer which makes me question what more is even left to tell, not show.

I already talked about the characters but they are defined by an archetype and have sad backdrops and that’s it, forget about any kind of development. There’s no long term objective to say there’s any kind of catharsis either. On a deeper level Hinagiku has some sort of personality disorder and Sakura is conflicted about her capabilities and feelings, but it’s not like either thing is looked into much, and the latter was hard to watch for most of the duration, until she realized how childish out of jealousy she was but still didn’t get over that as we see at the end.

And that’s how we ended up with a show that isn’t horrible but still pretty bad, and that despite that, it feels like it should have been a success, but ended up on a middle point in the scale of popularity, at best. The only thing I ever liked from this author in anime is the divisive Violet Evergarden movie, and most likely because I watched it back in 2020, when it was easier to like anything that meant doing something that wasn’t an obligation and let you focus on something else than the pandemic, even more so if it was an emotional product like that. But aside from that, I think this author goes into my (not literal) black list of authors not worth checking out anymore and this series is one of my most disliked anime in quite a while. My not enjoyment aside, I still think it’s not worth watching nor remembering because of how much it fails to appeal in any way and how much better competition is out there, without even having to go that back to find it.