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- BirthdayAug 10, 1990
- LocationWisconsin, USA
- JoinedJan 13, 2021
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Jan 31, 2023
Overall Impression: A short (25 minutes, give or take) full CGI film about a boy meeting and falling in love with an escaped android, whose handlers will do anything to get her back. The CGI is not as bad as you'd think, but there isn't much here that's worth going out of your way for. This could have been more compelling as a full series, but there isn't much time to get to know or care about the characters with so much content crammed into the length of one episode of TV anime.
+ Positives: The CGI here actually looks pretty decent at times. There are
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some parts where it doesn't of course, but it benefits from how the entire thing is in CGI instead of poorly-integrated CGI elements clashing with a traditional hand-drawn 2D aesthetic. The facial expressions are more emotive than I typically expect from CGI as well. Some of the action, in particular the mech showdown in the Buddhist temple (there is A LOT going on in this short film), would have been impractical for a project of this scope without CGI, and some of it even looks pretty good. The pacing is brisk (almost TOO brisk, arguably) and it gives you enough of a resolution to be called a complete story, so it rarely gets boring.
- Negatives: Threadbare love story between Shinichi and Toto that feels like it skips several steps to get to its conclusion in the allotted time. Almost like a speedrun of a Makoto Shinkai film in its heavy-handed use of romcom cliches and implied supernatural tragedy, even though it came out several years before most of his best-known works. CGI character models look odd when viewed in profile instead of straight-on. Muddled setting that allegedly takes place several centuries in the future, but is just modern Japan with robots and holograms for all intents and purposes. Overly tidy and optimistic ending that robs some tragic scenes of their impact. Very rushed overall, there's enough here that it could have been made into a full series of Shinichi and Toto going on adventures while evading Toto's handlers, but most of the promising elements for the future get cut off by the need to wrap it up in 25 minutes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jan 26, 2023
Overall Impression: Re-Kan is a slice of life dramedy about a girl that can see ghosts and her best friend that is terrified of them. It's fairly forgettable, though could have been much better with a few relatively small changes. It's not necessarily "bad" or unpleasant to watch, but the biggest problem here is the kind of cookie-cutter otaku pandering and indulgence in cliches that makes it feel like it came off an assembly line rather than bringing something original to the table.
+ Positives: The positive aspects of the series are carried by the relationship between Hibiki, a lovable airhead who can see spirits, and
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Narumi, her tsundere best friend that tries to keep her distance because she's frightened of the ghostly happenings that surround Hibiki at all times. Their dynamic is cute and full of heart, and their friends (Uehara and Esumi in particular) are just as charming for the most part. The character designs are strong and the animation, while more functional than fancy, is well storyboarded. In contrast to the similar-in-premise Mieruko-chan, the ghosts here are not malevolent or grotesque, and they end up being fun characters in their own right. The show is light-hearted for most of its run, but it does engage with the inherent tragedy of its premise, that Hibiki is mostly interacting with ghosts of children and young people that died far too young. When it does choose to switch gears into heavy drama, most notably in episode 8, it generally does a good job of not trivializing or undermining the necessary dramatic parts with poorly timed comedy. Those scenes can hit surprisingly hard, especially if you aren't prepared for the tone shift. Itou Miku, VA for Narumi, does a solid job of being the "scream queen" of the series when she reacts to the ghosts.
- Negatives: An aggravating overuse of the kind of pervert humor that is unfortunately endemic to comedy anime. Things like the cat that's constantly trying to look up the skirts of the female characters or Kenta's police officer brother openly lusting after underage girls just gives the whole thing this icky vibe that simply did not need to be there. It's not funny, it's just creepy, and I struggle to understand why they think this kind of cringeworthy shit is in any way entertaining. Kenta, likewise, adds nothing, and his single repeated gimmick of yelling and then getting beaten up by Esumi wears out its welcome almost immediately. This all adds up to a sense that you get throughout the show that they could just get rid of a few elements of this series, like the cat and Kenta, and it would be vastly improved, or at least not as groan-inducing. The pacing is also very strange, it's hard to get a sense of how fast time is passing unless it's a holiday episode, but the series covers over a year of in-universe time and it doesn't feel that way at all. Furthermore, the most questionable part of how it's paced is the ending. Episode 12 feels like it's the clear end of the series and then it's just... not. There's a 13th episode after it that's just, like, a random episode, without any of the sense of finality and closure that 12 ended with. It almost feels like an OVA that was tacked on at the end or something. It's a strange decision that makes the ending much weaker than it would have been if it had ended on 12. In general, Re-Kan stays safely inside of its box and regurgitates most of the slice of life tropes you're likely to be familiar with, and not to belabor the point on the pervert humor, but even that feels incredibly derivative. There are a couple bits that feel fresher, like the ghosts of the samurai and the gyaru becoming friends, but it often feels uninspired and rote, like it was written by someone that didn't really have any ideas and just leaned on the kinds of tired cliches that they picked up from a general survey of shounen anime and manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 31, 2022
Mahoraba is a gentle romantic dramedy about a group of people living in a dormitory owned by Kozue, a high school girl with multiple personalities that inherited the property from her deceased parents. The story is framed in some ways around the romance between Kozue and Ryushi, an art student that moves into the dormitory at the start of the story, but in truth it's more of a slice of life ensemble show about all the people that live there, sometimes to its detriment.
There's nothing that's really "bad" about this series, but it lacks impact for a few reasons. One is in the dated character
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designs, which are the kind of mid 00's moe where every character looks, talks and acts like a middle schooler even if they're an adult. That flattens what should be a refreshing, adult setting with mostly older characters into the same sort of high school romcom anime loaded with all the cliches that you would expect. It also doesn't help matters that the main heroine, Kozue, is the least interesting member of the cast, a sort of vacuous but angelic and pure character with little definition. Having multiple personalities is a kind of gimmick for her, which is unique I suppose, but I don't think it's treated especially realistically and it's not interesting or thematically relevant enough to be more than a quirk. That being said, it works as a platform for Arai Satomi to show off some impressive range as Kozue's VA, as she's called upon to voice 5 completely different characters with different voices and mannerisms, so it isn't really a negative as a whole. The series as a whole is also too gentle for its own good sometimes, the dramatic parts often lack bite because it feels like there's a hard limit on how dark it's willing to be.
The key reason why the series lacks impact though is that the central romance itself lacks impact. As mentioned above, this is really more of an ensemble series than a series about Kozue and Ryushi, and as a result, it sometimes feels like Kozue is relegated to being a side character in her own story, as they go deep into side stories about Megumi's overseas romance or Sayoko and Asami's mother-daughter relationship. There's little noticeable progress between the two leads until the 3 episode arc that concludes the series, and at that point I just wasn't invested in it because it felt like there hadn't been any prior romantic moments between the two that made me want to see them get together. Ryushi is the sort of vaguely cringey nice guy beta male that you often see in shows of this type and it feels uninspired and like a poor fit here. You can get away with this to an extent when the characters are 16 year olds, but when a college-aged adult is turning red and passing out from embarrassment over holding hands or calling someone by their given name, it becomes unspeakably lame. This is especially a problem with Ryushi, whose character design and female voice actor already make him look and sound like he hasn't even hit puberty yet even though he's supposedly old enough to drink, which only emphasizes the unfortunate sense of immaturity that seems imposed on every adult character in the series.
There are some positive aspects to the series worth mentioning as well. Framing it and occasionally animating it like a picture book, which Ryushi is writing for his college course throughout the series, is a nice touch and gives it a unique look as opposed to the normal look of the show, which is much less interesting. Some of the side characters (Sayoko and Asami in particular) are also very good and end up being funnier and more interesting than Ryushi and Kozue. Overall though, this is an inoffensive romantic dramedy that is not particularly memorable because of a weak central romance and a pervasive mildness that rounds the sharp edges off of storylines or characters that might stray a little too far from the comforting and gentle formula that this and many other shows before it have established.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 23, 2022
OshiBudo has some nice things going for it. Visually, it's excellent. The series has strong character designs, solid character animation and gorgeous background art. Even the CG used for the dancing is pretty well integrated into the overall aesthetic. The voice acting is also very good, especially Fairouz Ai's theatrics in the main character role as the unhinged Eripiyo. It's apparent that a great deal of care went into putting together this adaptation.
That being said, technical superiority can only cover up so many fundamental flaws, and OshiBudo has enough of them that it's hard to recommend without heavy caveats. For one thing, Eripiyo is very
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annoying as a main character. You have to have a strong tolerance for secondhand embarrassment to like her, and it doesn't help matters that she's screaming all the time. Maina, the series co-protagonist, is a doe-eyed innocent with no apparent interior life beyond feeling insecure. Every other member of Cham Jam, the small time idol group that the series follows, is given a more defined personality than Maina even though she's a main character. In fact, I like most of the interactions between the other 6 members of Cham Jam and this probably would have been a better show if they had been the focus and Maina and Eripyo's whole thing had been relegated to a side story. As is, much of the series is just the same bit played out on repeat, one where Maina feels like she isn't good enough, then Eripiyo's lunatic stalker ways help her overcome her fears, then she gets nervous and can't thank Eripiyo properly so Eripiyo gets the wrong idea and thinks Maina is creeped out by her (which she should be, for the record).
Your mileage may vary and perhaps I'm reading into this too deeply, but in general, I just couldn't help but get the impression that this series sanitizes a lot of gross fan behavior and the exploitative nature of the idol industry. I think there's a better version of this series waiting to be made that looks more deeply into the creepy parasocial nature of Maina and Eripiyo's relationship instead of presenting it as something heartwarming, because Eripiyo crosses the line into behavior that any normal person would recognize as unacceptable on a pretty regular basis, but Maina is always just happy that her fan is so dedicated. This is an industry that often has problems with obsessive fans crossing the line and literally stalking teenage girls, so it feels uncomfortable how positively that sort of behavior is portrayed in this series.
It's not necessarily a bad show and there are certainly things to like about it, but overall it kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's a series that's going to be hit or miss for most people, largely depending on how they feel about idols and the industry surrounding them.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 14, 2022
I will lead off by saying a few positive things about TenKen. First and most importantly, Fran, the preteen catgirl that wields the titular sword, is very adorable. Additionally, the action scenes are quite nicely animated when they put in some effort. The series also portrays slavery negatively and firmly resists sexualizing its 12 year old main heroine, which really should not count as praise, but is far from a given in similar isekai stories.
Beyond that though, there is very little to recommend here. Virtually every character besides Fran and her sword is either annoying or unmemorable. The overarching story (Fran joins the adventurer's guild
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and attempts to rank up) is as lifeless as it gets, but not even in a relaxed "slice of life" way. There are plot things happening, it's just that it's all very uninspired and nothing really matters because the series has no interest in selling the importance of Fran's goal and journey to the viewer. The writing is ham handed even in its best moments and reaches unfathomable lows when the knight lieutenant August Allsand is introduced, banishing the concept of subtlety to another dimension entirely. It's not enough that he just be villainous, he also needs to be morbidly obese and pick his nose and fart constantly to make absolutely certain that you know this is a bad guy that you should hate. This sort of fundamental childishness and inability to depict conflict as anything more than the starkest possible contrast between the angelic Fran and villains with no traits or goals other than being maximally evil and/or disgusting is a line that runs through the writing of the entire series.
However, even the writing is no match for the greatest sin of this series, what should now be familiar to most isekai viewers as the Stat Screen Slog. This is a frequent problem in modern JRPG-based isekai, but TenKen takes it to an entirely new level. It does get less obnoxious over time, but your eyes will bleed in episode 1, where Shishou (the name the sword is given by Fran) spends literally over half the episode's run time grinding against nameless fantasy monsters and flipping through his inventory and stat screens while vomiting exposition about his various capital-S Skills. It's like watching a bad twitch stream for a game you can't even play. The generic video game setting has other drawbacks as well. Much of the lore of the series has simply been outsourced to whatever you know about fantasy video games. There's no attempt whatsoever at worldbuilding here, and the series simply presumes a familiarity with game mechanics and a generic fantasy setting rather than trying to create any of this itself. This becomes a serious problem for the central motivation of the series, that Fran is a member of an oppressed race called the Black Cats and wants to become the first of her kind to Evolve. What is Evolving? Why does it matter? What effect will it have on Fran? None of that is ever explained and it makes her entire journey feel hollow and aimless. The laziness of the worldbuilding, if it can even be called that, becomes a weight dragging down the entire series.
You can absolutely watch this series just to watch Fran be cute and you'll probably have a decent time with it if you ignore everything else. But looking at it as a complete work, it can't be viewed as anything other than a failure given the low quality of the writing and the uninspired setting.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Oct 26, 2022
Rental Magica is a hard series to review and rate because, for the most part, it's a good series, but one beset by baffling creative decisions that may or may not affect your enjoyment of the series. It hits differently for different people, so it's hard to give it an unqualified recommendation in light of that, but it's not so deeply flawed that its various issues are going to be universally hated either.
The series is at its strongest when it decides to just be a straightforward action story. The action is well-animated (if you can find a version with decent video quality in 2022), the
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monsters are well-designed and the battles have a good sense of natural progression, where they deal with larger and larger threats over time, using their experience from previous fights to overcome them. They also do a good job of handling the power of our main protagonist, Itsuki. In a lesser series, he would be ridiculously overpowered and his near-invincibility would suck all the drama out of the big action setpieces, but they do an effective job of placing limits on him to preserve that sense of tension without making it feel like that's what they're doing.
Unfortunately, Itsuki's power is pretty cringey (he takes off his chuuni eyepatch and can instantly see the exact way to defeat any enemy, and issues commands to his team in a very deep voice that contrasts hilariously with his usual Whiny Nerd speaking voice), but that's anime for you. The larger problem though is that it makes for not-very-compelling action once he gets involved. Seeing Honami throwing mistletoe darts and Nekoyashiki using his always-entertaining Cat Magic is fun, but it becomes substantially less fun when it's preceded by a guy doing a bad Lelouch impersonation and reciting the exact list of actions he wants them to take. Hearing a sequence of commands like "Honami, fire your mistletoe 44 degrees to the right and 12 degrees up" rattled off one after another feels like reading off of a spreadsheet or something, which is not the way you want your action scenes to climax.
When it's not building towards an action scene, things become even more hit-or-miss. The characters are mostly pretty good, and I like all of them for different reasons in isolation, but the romcom antics are frequently exasperating. The female leads, Honami and Adelicia, are the primary culprits here, their bickering over who Itsuki likes more is incredibly obnoxious every single time it comes up. It feels very undignified coming from two characters that mostly have their shit together in all other areas of life and doesn't really fit well with the fabric of the rest of the show. Itsuki himself is also too pathetic and cowardly at times. Those issues aside though, the characters are solid overall and the roster of Villains With Pretty Reasonable Motives is actually better than most shows of its type.
Finally, one last issue that bothered me was the lack of continuity. If you aren't already aware, the episodes of this series are intentionally out of order chronologically, and there is no apparent purpose to it other than a thinly-disguised attempt to capitalize on the success of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which aired the year before. Since most of the episodes are standalone rather than telling a single, serialized story throughout the season, you frequently don't even notice that it freely jumps up and down the timeline, and they make no effort to help the viewer orient themselves to "when" an episode is taking place. It's an aggravating way to watch, as character relationships feel like they've regressed or skipped steps from one episode to another, and sometimes characters simply aren't present because they haven't been introduced yet in the objective timeline. For example, Kuroha appears in episodes 1-3 as a regular member of Astral, while episode 4 resets everything to before she had joined and was just meeting Itsuki for the first time, which is about the most confusing way you could possibly present her introduction to the cast. Most of the time it isn't that big of a deal because the case-of-the-week structure often makes it irrelevant when a story is taking place in relation to others, but it's just weird and unnecessary.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Oct 9, 2022
I should lead off this review by noting that I am not typically a fan of idol music in anime, and neither season of Love Live Superstar has changed my mind about that. I mention this to add perspective, because I do enjoy this series despite my lack of interest in the music and I think it often gets pigeonholed as something only fans of J-pop would enjoy. Honestly, it bears more of a likeness to "cute girls in a school club" anime than being specifically about music and, in my opinion, remains highly accessible even to people that don't care for idols or their
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music.
That's all largely unchanged from season one, and that sense of continuity is the greatest strength of season two. There was a fair amount of consternation over the announcement that 4 new first-year girls would be added this season, and I was skeptical at first too, since I thought one of the strengths of the first season was the tight cast and how it gave you time to really get to know the characters. I'm pleased to report that, for the most part, the 4 new girls are well-integrated. Kinako fits in so naturally that you almost forget she wasn't one of the original 5, and Shiki and Mei's introduction to the group, while bumpy at times, ends up being pretty heartwarming in the end. Out of the 4, only Natsumi, the money-grubbing Youtube streamer, felt like an afterthought, and 3/4 ain't bad.
It also remains the case, like season one, that Superstar is at it's strongest when it's doing wacky comedy and often stumbles when it tries to do drama. The comedy is still there in season two, the episode where Ren goes down the Gaming rabbithole was a favorite of mine, but laugh out loud moments aren't as common as in season one. On the flip side, season two also avoids some of the bad drama lowlights from season one, like Ren's attempt to ban the school idol club. The drama is still mediocre with few exceptions, but does at least touch on a few interesting themes, especially with regards to the anxieties of the new girls trying to figure out how they fit into Liella. They aren't as talented or experienced as the original 5 yet, and don't want to hold their senpais back from winning Love Live, but they'll never be on the level of the original 5 if they split the group by class. How to balance the growth and integration of the first years with their ambitions is an ongoing theme throughout the season and they do get a few nice moments out of it, but it often tends to be a bit on the treacly side, like most of the drama in the series. There is also a sadly missed opportunity with a subplot about Kanon wanting to study abroad in Austria that, without getting into spoilers, is resolved in a highly unsatisfying way when it had potential to be an excellent storyline if it had been handled better.
There is also one more addition to the cast that I haven't mentioned to this point, and she ends up being one of the most positive things about this season. That would be Margarete Wien, a solo singer that arrives out of nowhere to become Liella's toughest competition in the Love Live regional qualifiers. She oozes chuuni goth princess energy and her philosophies about music are pretty much antithetical to the bright and shiny teamwork that the franchise lives on, which gives the series a shot in the arm every time she shows up. In fact, one of the weaker points of the season is in how she arrives like a hurricane on Liella's doorstep early in the season and then... just disappears for 4 or 5 episodes. It's a bit of a momentum killer given how immediately magnetic she is. It's also frankly hilarious how much better her operatic songs and theatricality are compared with the candy-colored stages and generic J-pop of Liella. It can actually be difficult to suspend your disbelief at times and think that anyone would vote for Liella over her. While I have little interest in most of Liella's music and find their lyrics cloying, Margarete was an entirely different animal and having her sing music that was not J-pop in any practical sense actually made me sit up and pay attention, something I was glad for since she's quite a talented singer. Her presumptive addition to Liella in the already-announced 3rd season is the thing I am most excited for with the future of the series because she's going to bring something completely different to the table than any of the girls in the group now.
Overall, this was a nice continuation of the series. If you liked season one, you'll enjoy season two as well. It makes a few changes but handles them well for the most part. It peaks with comedy and struggles with drama just like season one, but is more consistent. The highs aren't as high in season two, but the lows aren't as low either. The main cast additions mostly get the job done, the original characters don't get pushed to the margins in favor of shiny new objects as I and others feared they would, and the new rival-turned-ally character shows a lot of promise for the future. All in all, a successful sequel that injects just enough change to keep it feeling fresh without compromising its identity.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 25, 2022
Recommendation: A truly great comedy, but western audiences and casual anime fans may have difficulty getting into it.
Manzai comedy can be hard to appreciate, especially for western audiences. That shouldn't scare you away from Teppen, but you'll want to be aware that you'll need to put in more work than usual to appreciate it. In all honesty, the manzai scenes are consistently the weakest parts of the series, but fortunately there aren't that many of them. This is more of a manzai-flavored CGDCT comedy series about the wacky daily lives of the 5 comedy trios staying in a dorm together than a show "about" manzai.
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The funniest parts usually have nothing to do with stand-up comedy at all and involve escalating idiotic behavior by the girls until it ends in a ridiculous place, like with the house blowing up or Jack Bauer from 24 breaking down their door (that last one is real by the way). There's a subtlety to it that makes it extra funny too, you feel rewarded for rewatching and digging into it to find jokes that you didn't catch the first time around, like Barbra being represented by a barber pole in the Teppen council meeting or Chihori creating the time loop in episode 4 to give Yuina extra time to practice her lines. It feels oddly high IQ for a show like this.
"They didn't have to go that hard" is really the feeling you get in every aspect of the series. It looks from the outside like a cheap cash in on a mobile game that doesn't actually exist, but instead it's filled with the kind of love and care that you'd typically see go into a passion project. The script is densely layered with jokes that aren't always immediately apparent, the animation is far above and beyond what you'd expect (the paintball fight from episode 3 is a particular highlight there), and the characters have tons of personality and are well voice-acted. Even the OP is brilliantly animated, and the song, which features the main cast rapping, is the best of the season by a mile (go listen to it if you don't believe me). It's a show that consistently exceeds expectations in every area.
There is one major caveat to the series though. It is, for lack of a better term, extremely Japanese, and makes zero effort to round off its edges for western audiences. A number of jokes involve wordplay that is simply untranslatable to English, and there are constant cultural references to things casual western audiences would know little about (the group Akudare Kingdom is almost entirely built around stereotypes about Ibaraki Prefecture, for example). This is a series that is badly in need of translator notes and I had to rely on more knowledgeable friends to "get" some of it. It's still broadly funny in ways that will be recognizable to everyone, but some of the best material is only going to be accessible to fluent Japanese speakers or those with extensive cultural knowledge.
This is not the kind of show that everyone is going to enjoy, but it ended up being one of my favorites of Summer 2022 and I have so much respect for the obvious effort that was put into infusing this show with soul and personality when it could have easily been a bloodless corporate tie-in. Even if manzai is a hard pass for you, give Teppen a chance. It will probably surprise you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Sep 25, 2022
Recommendation: A solid mix of action and slice of life comedy with above average animation. Probably won't be remembered as a masterpiece, but it was a very solid and fun show overall.
The success of Lycoris Recoil is built around two things. The first is the relationship between the female leads, Chisato and Takina. The duo have such natural chemistry together that they can carry the series almost with their conversations alone. The characters are excellent overall, but Chisato in particular has the kind of magnetic charisma that makes you want to see her on the screen at all times. The cast is filled out with
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a number of strong and fun personalities such as the villainous and Joker-like Majima and Kurumi the mischievous hacker, but Chisato and Takina are the key to everything.
The second secret to its success is the ability to balance slice of life goofiness with more serious action-thriller scenes with life or death consequences for the characters. A-1's other original anime from this season, Engage Kiss, struggled very badly at balancing these two things, but Lycoris Recoil manages to make it work much more convincingly here. It's hard to pinpoint the exact reason, perhaps because the emotional swings aren't as drastic as in Engage Kiss, but it just somehow works. I didn't feel any whiplash between, for example, Takina inventing a parfait that looks like a turd without realizing it and going viral, and her fighting for her life in a gun battle in the same episode. I think that speaks to a tighter script and more fully realized characters in Lycoris that smooth over transitions that would be rougher in a lesser show.
Additionally, while I don't think it's necessarily a key part of what makes the series good, I do think the animation and action direction are worthy of praise. They do an excellent job of making gunfights very dynamic, and the visual of bullets passing through Chisato's hair when she dodges them looks awesome no matter how many times they do it. The climactic fight with Majima's forces in the radio tower was tense and had me on the edge of my seat. Even outside of action scenes, the attention to detail and grasp of animating gestures is consistently impressive. The eye candy isn't as important as getting the characters and script right, but it definitely adds a lot when it's done at a high level like it is here. It's all the more impressive given that this is all from a first time director, Shingo Adachi, who previously worked as animation director on Working! and Sword Art Online.
It does have a small handful of flaws that I can't close without mentioning though. The main issue for me was in the worldbuilding, and specifically that it never engaged with the inherently dark nature of the Lycoris system. The government snatching up orphans and turning them into a secret police hit squad that takes people out for committing pre-crime is a very troubling concept, but it's simply accepted at face value by the series. There is never any serious attempt to grapple with the fact that DA are objectively the bad guys and Majima has a point about them, even if his "introduce a little chaos" style plans don't always make a ton of sense. There is a lot left out that would be interesting to explore in a future season or film or something (to pick just one, what is the deal with Lily Bell, the all-male counterpart to the Lycoris?), and it's not as though every aspect of its world needed to be explored in a 13 episode series, but a little more fleshing out would have made it not feel so thin on the plot side. Overall though, it was a big success and wrapped up in a satisfying way (not always a given with originals). Certainly one worth taking your time to watch, and a director to keep an eye on for the future as well.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 25, 2022
Recommendation: Trashy, full of plot holes and fanservice, and tonally all over the map. It's like a throwback to anime from 15 years ago and your enjoyment of it will depend on just how fond you are of that era.
Engage Kiss is Anime As Hell basically from the opening moments of the series. The protagonist, Shuu, is a loser that bums money from his demon girlfriend, Kisara, and he fights other demons by sloppily french kissing her to turn her into an edgy one winged goth girl. The love triangle between these two and the protagonist's ex girlfriend, Ayano, forms the core of the early
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series. It sometimes gets tiring watching two cute girls argue over which of them loves a scumbag more, and you learn little about any of them through all this idle bickering. This all leads into a questionable shift in tone that ends up being a constant problem throughout the series.
Around the end of episode 3, the series takes a jarring turn into tragic melodrama as Shuu's backstory and the particulars of his relationship with Kisara start to be revealed. It comes across poorly after 3 episodes of goofy romcom antics, and the series is never able to pick a lane and settle into a comfortable rhythm as it flips between these two modes for its entire run. Several episode-closing moments that are intended to be weighty and emotional are also comically undercut by the chipper opening lines of the ED crashing into the scene like the damn Kool Aid Man.
Overall, I think the show would have been better served by sticking with the silly romcom stuff rather than make frequent half-hearted attempts to Get Serious in a show with a premise that's difficult to take seriously even when it's firing on all cylinders. That is exemplified by my personal favorite character in the series, Sharon Holygrail, the slutty, motorcycle-ridin', hard-drinkin' combat nun. Her mere existence is ridiculous and over the top in the exact ways that I want anime to be. The most enduringly memorable scene of the entire series involves Shuu literally poisoning his own dick and then having sex with her to paralyze her. That is the kind of stupidity I was hoping for from this series, not the kind of mediocre angst that often brings the show's momentum to a stop. Engage Kiss is at its best when it leans into comical excess and doesn't take itself seriously rather than attempting dramatic plot developments. It's very fun in those best moments, but is too inconsistent to give an unqualified recommendation to.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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