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My Happy Marriage, at the outset, feels like the 1000th remake of Cinderella. It has the evil stepmother, the family abuses the MC, and she gets “saved” by a strong, powerful man. It’s a bit more than that though, as it’s a largely character driven story with the main female character, Saimori Miyo, trying to find her self worth after years and years of people telling how useless she was, as shallow as the reasons were, in that she supposedly lacked the abilities that her family members had. She is married off to a man named Kudou Kiyoka, who was known to be a cold-hearted, ... insensitive man who dismissed his previous fiancées, likely in an attempt to get rid of her and have her suffer more. Obviously, as you would expect, Kiyoka treats Miyo in a way she doesn’t expect, and the relationship builds from there.

Then what makes this anime stand out, if it just feels like another Cinderella story? The first thing would definitely be the visual presentation. The animation overall is very fluid, while being rather simple in its designs. There are great looking action scenes, the character expressions are worthy of praise, and the soundtrack by Evan Call, who worked on Violet Evergarden, complimented it a lot. Virtually no issues from the production side of things. I dare say it might have been one of the best produced shows of the summer season. It has strong attempts at characterization, with directing and symbolism that I really enjoyed, as there was a level of nuance there to develop Miyo and Kiyoka’s relationship throughout the story.

What unfortunately holds it back from being in the upper echelon of shows from this season for me is the shallow writing, especially outside the main duo. In that way, it might feel more like Cinderella, in that the characters are very “fairy-tale” like. They’re evil for the sake of being evil, with malicious intent that goes over the top at times. Sure, there are a lot of political aspects in play especially in this setting, with families all thirsting for power, doing whatever it takes to gain reputation, but some of the actions that the Saimori family took early in the season just felt a bit much, perhaps a bit melodramatic at times.

The supernatural aspects were interesting for sure, and I’m sure will be developed in the future, with the upcoming OVA or perhaps in future instalments of this series if it ever happens, but I felt it somewhat took away from the more grounded relationship with Miyo and Kiyoka. The supernatural parts do give the series more flare and pizzazz, but I question whether all of it was necessary, as especially in the second half, where I felt the lore and the presence of Grotesqueries, besides being haphazardly implemented at points, also limited the time that could have otherwise been spent on developing the romance aspects a bit better, as well as Miyo’s character.

The cast of characters was fine, but besides a couple characters outside the main duo, the rest were forgettable. A lot of scummy characters for sure, and I do see that popping up a lot in shoujo series. Miyo’s character was frustrating at times to watch, but she had some very good developments as well at the climax of the first half, and the aforementioned symbolism really helped with that. Kiyoka I had more interest in, especially in his abilities. I liked how he treated Miyo, and how his attitudes changed towards her throughout. You can basically say that Miyo and Kiyoka bring the best out of each other, as Kiyoka helped Miyo break out of her self-deprecating nature and stand up for herself, while Miyo helped Kiyoka open up more as a person.

My attention was always there when the relationship was being developed, but like I said, outside of that, it was an up and down ride. The first half was very strong and at that point had the potential to be the best anime airing this season, but the second half was markedly weaker in that I felt the romance could have been prioritized a bit more, and the supernatural aspects executed in a more meaningful way. Overall, it was still a high quality anime, but just missed the mark a little bit for me to say it was truly incredible.

Season 5 of Bungou Stray Dogs continues to directly build upon the events of Season 4, though in a much less character driven way this time, which paved the way for a more fast paced, action packed season that also had many twists. That comes with the positive of keeping me at the edge of my seat in suspense for what was to come, but gave me less to think about after each episode ended, as it wasn’t as full of depth as the previous season was. It also did what few anime do nowadays, pass the current chapter of the manga to the point ... of having a finale episode that covered scenes not seen in the source material. Seeing the fact that no one knew what the end had in store was definitely an exciting time, and it was overall once again another thrilling season.

The plot builds upon the finale of Season 4 at the Sky Casino, and continues with the Detective Agency trying to clear their name, with the Hunting Dogs hot on their tail. Their goal was to capture Kamui, the leader of the Decay of Angels, but it turns out a familiar face is the one behind it all. The thing that impressed me the most with this season was that the stakes felt higher than ever before, with the fate of a lot of the characters genuinely uncertain, and with that uncertainty, it does a great job in creating that feeling where I was actually scared if a character would be killed.

The one thing that was the source of some frustration to me was the one of the villain’s ability, as it was so overpowered that no one could stop him. However, as these stories tend to go, it would seem like he would have to be defeated at one point, and I felt however way the protagonists ended up winning would be through a deus ex machina. That said, I really liked the villains, as they were very crafty (especially Fyodor), and twisted enough to make things very interesting to watch. The story might not always be written at a very high standard, but it gets the job done in an immensely entertaining way, despite the flaws.

Production wise, much like the previous seasons, it was very consistent, and the soundtrack continued to be solid, along with an excellent opening and ending song.

The focus on the characters was not that balanced this time around, with some characters being virtually absent for the entire season, but the cast of characters that were present were about as good as before, though this time around, it wasn’t as emotional as last season, which had numerous backstories that really fleshed out the characters. Like I mentioned before, it was more of an action packed season, along with a lot of mind games in the form of twists. It was great to see the return of Aya though, as she was a nice character that appeared in one of the OVAs before.

Overall, another extremely thrilling, enthralling roller coaster that had me looking forward to each subsequent episode, and while it was less emotional, with some notable negatives and some poor tonal shifts, it still got the job done. We likely won’t see another season since the anime has passed the recent manga chapter, but whenever a sequel happens, I’m sure I’ll be there yet again to witness it.

April 1, 2022. It’s April Fools’ Day in Japan, and we’re all rolling our eyes at the 82392nd joke about No Game No Life Season 2 being announced, and I’m sure many were also thinking the Masamune-kun sequel was also fake. Turns out they trolled us hard, and here we are with Season 2 of the dumpster fire that is Masamune-kun’s Revenge. I hated Season 1 a lot, because I thought it could be good, but it just ruined every possible good, or heartfelt, emotional moment with some stupidity. Season 2 has these problems as well, but it turned out to be more entertaining this ... time around, due to the numerous twists that this anime throws at you. Feelings change, and the plot actually progressed quite a lot, and while the road was pretty rocky, it got some enjoyment out of me, and I’ll honestly take that over Season 1 any day.

Revenge is still the theme of the this season, at least at first. I never really liked the revenge aspect of this anime because it was pretty obvious that Masamune was never really going to get revenge, and would probably end up falling in love with Aki anyway. I do like how Season 2 explores these feelings, as well as the motives and feelings of the other characters as well. This season is a bit more than just revenge, it does have some drama. Is it good drama? Yes and no, but the twists were what kept me going in this season.

Animation wise, it didn’t look all that great at points with off model faces and goofy eyes and all that, but it was pretty standard for the most part, a slight downgrade from Season 1, but still acceptable.

As with many romance shows of this nature, the main couple was frustrating to watch, though there were some cute moments mixed in there. If only they actually communicated with each other am I right? Or am I asking for too much from a romance anime? Yoshino, the maid, had the best moments in my opinion, just like in Season 1. She honestly carries the show, and possibly redeems it from being utter garbage. The other characters don’t have huge roles, apart from the villain, and they have their respective moments to shine, but they turned out to be forgettable.

In the end, is the story good? No. Did I hate it though? No. Why didn’t I hate it? I don’t really know. I was overall pleasantly surprised that I somewhat enjoyed this season despite hating the first season, and was surprised at some of the developments this season. If you enjoyed the first season, you’ll probably have a similar level of enjoyment to the first season, most likely. In the end, should this have stayed an April Fools’ joke? You tell me.

Years of waiting for a No Game, No Life Season 2, and people were thinking this would be similar to that. Well, let me just say, if you thought NGNL was stupid, this will be some abyss fiction to you. With a title like Liar, Liar, you’d expect that it’d be all about cheating and lying through games, and while there’s plenty of that in this anime, it’s done in a very underwhelming way, with contrivances up the wazoo. Powers come out of nowhere, twists come out of nowhere, and in the end, it’s just a trashy harem show with no real spice whatsoever. I’m ... not usually a fan of ecchi, but I’m not gonna lie, maybe some more ecchi could have at least kept my attention on the screen more.

The premise in a nutshell is that Shinohara Hiroto goes to Academy Island, where everything is settled through games, with the strongest student having the ranking of “seven stars”. Hiroto beats the strongest student on his first day, and took the name away from her, becoming the strongest himself, albeit in a fake sense, thus the anime name. The anime started out decently, as something I could call dumb fun at least, but as the show went along, it became heavily contrived and overly complicated, yet bland because of the numerous info dumps throughout the show. That said, the explanations and the world building just wasn’t up to snuff, as sometimes the games just contradicted themselves or an extra rule would be thrown in last minute. It kind of reminded me of Classroom of the Elite, with the rankings and competitions, but just infinitely more stupid.

The production quality looked fine at first, but like the plot, declined in quality as the show went along as well. The animation was mediocre along with the character designs, and the voice acting had some hiccups too at points, as some of the louder, more epic lines (with big mouth flap movements, mind you) were delivered in such a lackluster way, like the VAs were just bored out of their minds reading their scripts. The best part of the entire show was probably the OP and some of the music, in terms of the technical aspects go.

Character wise, they were very tropey and one-note. You got the tsundere, the OP protagonist, and a maid. Harem hijinks ensue. Whoop-dee-do.

Overall, this anime was exactly what I feared it would be, though I was coping that after a very solid premiere episode, it would keep up the fun times, but unfortunately, it fell off relatively quickly due to the poor writing and characterization. Just another schlock suspense anime that will be forgotten quickly, not even turning off my brain was able to allow me to enjoy it, though in my opinion it is still minimally watchable for anyone who enjoys the premise and has a high tolerance for buffoonery.

Insomnia is something that plagues many people, and this sleep depriving condition arises from many reasons, for example, fearing what tomorrow will bring, negative thoughts, stress, and general anxiety. While insomnia isn’t something that affects me personally, for many people, seeing the two main characters who deal with insomnia, and tackle it together by pouring their restless, sleepless time into something positive like astrophotography, must have been relatable, and to me, a very solid concept. Along the way, there was some romance in the air, but it wasn’t a huge focus until near the end of the season, which I actually liked, as the characters ... didn’t just spend time with each other, but made some fond memories with their other friends as well.

The story material was generally a strong part of the show, and it was very character driven. While the focus is obviously on the two leads in Ganta and Isaki, I really liked how it highlighted the life struggles of a lot of the cast members outside of the main characters. It allowed me to get invested in most of the characters, and their interactions together. The two leads though, are very endearing, with some relatable moments regarding their insomnia and their struggles. Their dynamic together felt pretty fresh, among the large amount of romcoms we have nowadays.

The thing about the storytelling that unfortunately holds this adaptation back is that even as an anime-only for this show, it was pretty clear to me that some key moments from the manga that would serve to flesh out the characters were skipped, and thus, made some of the more dramatic scenes a bit awkward as we lacked some context to make those scenes hit harder. Even so, I did find quite a few of the scenes emotional and hard hitting, though it could have been better.

The production behind this show was a mixed bag in my opinion, as while some of the nighttime backgrounds were very beautiful, the overall animation quality was very average, with some errors here and there in character expressions. Studio LIDENFILMS has not ever really been known for stellar animation, other than in Call of the Night, but that was largely due to Monogatari director Tomoyuki Itamura making that show shine. While this show was not directed poorly at all in my opinion, it didn’t live up to some of my expectations.

Overall, this was a very fine show, with moments of brilliance and relatability, but I just wish it could have looked even better visually for more impact. The characters are endearing, the story material is well done, but as an adaptation, I’m not sure what manga readers think, but I feel it could have been adapted a bit better. That said, I found a decent amount of enjoyment nonetheless from this, as the good parts still outweighed the mediocre ones, and I’m hoping for bigger and better things to happen in the future, if it gets a sequel.

First of all, a quick writer’s note, as I’m writing this, it is June 30th, and it’s late at night, and I’ll be heading to bed right after I write this. The final episode of Hell’s Paradise airs in around nine to ten hours, and I’m just starting on my review. I did this intentionally though, to imitate a MAPPA style of production, rushing and submitting the work just a bit before it’s due to see how poorly this review will turn out.

Studio MAPPA has been known for taking on big name action or shounen titles as of late, with the likes of Jujutsu Kaisen, ... Attack On Titan, Chainsaw Man, Vinland Saga, and now Hell’s Paradise. They've taken on so much that they have become a popular name amongst anime fans. While their shows generally look decent, it is clear that because they’ve taken on so much, their production schedule has been a literal hell, with very overworked staff, and poor working conditions. Of course, I’m sure many other studios experience these kinds of things too, but MAPPA has been brought into the limelight due to how many popular titles they’ve done recently. Clearly, Hell’s Paradise was not their favourite child, as this show looked considerably worse visually than their other shows.

But before we get to all the production things, let’s talk about the story. On paper, this looks like a somewhat generic action shounen, with a death convict in Gabimaru being tasked, along with the rest of the death row convicts to find the “Elixir of Life” on an island called Shinsekyo, in order to escape their death sentence. Obviously, the convicts fight amongst each other, as only one can have this elixir to evade death. This island looked very interesting and colourful, with some scary creatures around them, all around a very intriguing, perhaps a unique setting. However, what this anime fails at is the most important narrative technique, which is “Show, don’t tell”. Time and time again, we are told about what this environment is like, the religion aspects, the creatures, how the world works, but we don’t really get enough showing of the environment itself, either through simple background shots, or just cutting back on the expository dialogue. There is no need to spoon-feed the viewers every single narrative detail about what is going on, people can figure things out. There was solid potential in what the environment could bring us, but I wasn’t really invested due to the overly saturated dialogue.

The characters felt interesting at first, but slowly also devolved into being rather gimmicky or generic. Gabimaru is the typical protagonist who starts out cold but ends up warming up to people and becomes more kind. For the female characters, there is a sense of empowerment that they were trying to go for, especially with Sagiri looking to escape gender norms and become a samurai, instead of the “norms” that this anime instills upon women. While on its own this would be a cool concept, the fact that all the female characters were so sexualized, and somehow getting saved via princess carry, defying all logic of physics by the men just felt a bit hypocritical to the potential message the show was trying to convey. Furthermore, people died before we could even really have a chance to know them, and adding a sad backstory to try and make us feel emotions just felt like such a weak way for characterizing them. At least the backstories weren’t too saturated after the first few episodes.

From a production standpoint, the show looks fine, but disappointing by MAPPA’s standards. Some of the fight scenes were genuinely very decent and tense, but the other moments of the show had this very weird filter where the characters didn’t really “fit in” with the background art. The compositing was awful at some points, and characters went off model a lot. It was clearly the product of rushed production, as most episodes were outsourced to between ten and twenty different anime studios and animation directors, which signalled how poor the production schedule was. It more or less just felt like MAPPA gathering up all their buddies to finish their homework just as the teacher was coming to collect it every week. This might feel a bit harsh and nitpicky, but if we’re comparing it to other MAPPA works, this is probably one of their worst productions, but from a wider perspective outside of MAPPA, the show looks average to fine visually.

Overall, there is decent entertainment value to be seen here, but it could have been so much better with more time spent on production, and more showing instead of telling. This will undoubtedly get more seasons, so I just hope the next time this show comes around, it’ll be a much improved product compared to what we got this time around. MAPPA, you just got to chill with the amount of projects you got.

Parody anime can be a hit or miss. Tropes of various settings in anime or live action settings are made fun of, but in order to stand out, it has to nail its comedy, and while comedy is always subjective, this one just didn’t nail it, all the time. It obviously is an attempt at parody of magic academies like Hogwarts, but unfortunately, it just fails to stand out at all in most ways. Perhaps you’ll think I’m “taking a parody anime too seriously”, but when most of the characters are the most stuck-up jerks with little meaningful depth, there just wasn’t much to enjoy. ... To be honest, this kind of feels like a generic isekai or fantasy anime in a way, with the main character having none of the powers that the people around him have, but still ends up overpowering everyone in some way or another. Way too predictable and frustrating to watch at times, though it’s still watchable with some moments of goodness.

The premise centres around Mash Burnedead, a boy in a magical world, but without any magic power of his own. People without magic are persecuted and captured, so Mash has to blend in with his environment, and pretend to know magic as he attends a magic academy. Mash’s specialty is having huge physical strength, which allows him to overpower his enemies with sheer force rather than magic. I haven’t watched One Punch Man myself, but I assume that’s what the comparison comes from, along with Mash’s overall deadpan, quiet personality. The story plays out like any shounen would, the baddies come along, and Mash and his friends conquer said challenges. Not anything special there.

The animation isn’t bad, but it felt disappointing considering what A-1 Pictures has done in the last few years. This was probably the product of rushed production, mainly due to the poor schedules of Aniplex, which has resulted in many issues and delays in this year of anime already. It had a couple episodes with more standout animation, but otherwise, it wasn’t all that stellar, just okay.

Shounen anime mostly have similar formulas, so the characters are huge part of how one can stand out from the crowd. Other than Mash, the rest of the cast was very forgettable, with generic archetypes and poorly written villains. In terms of its comedy, it was funny at times, but it wasn’t enough to make me dismiss the poor writing. The deadpan humour worked more than the some of the other comedy that was attempted.

Perhaps this was just the beginning, and it gets better down the road, but for now, this anime hasn’t done much to keep me invested beyond a couple chuckles here and there. It’s a very light hearted anime, so maybe you’ll find some enjoyment in that though. It just wasn’t my cup of tea, but it might be yours.

If this anime was an advertisement for cream puffs though, it most certainly succeeded, as I got a box of cream puffs last week.

There is no doubt that Oshi no Ko was one of the most popular anime this season, and it’s easy to see why. There is some realistic commentary of the idol and entertainment industries, especially the dark side, which made for an interesting watch. Through all the mystery and dark subject matter, there was also a bit of comedy mixed in, which I will admit was hit or miss at times, but it all boded well for me in the end, perhaps due to the high production standards of this anime.

Now, I know the reincarnation subplot has some people up in arms, and I do ... understand that can be the weak link of the show, but anime in the end is a medium that has a lot of goofy ideas in it, and this was one of them. I would also agree to some extent it wasn’t a particularly strong way to start the show, but that didn’t really hamper my enjoyment too much.

Like I mentioned earlier, the real hook of the series is the commentary on the entertainment industry. Streamers, vtubers, actors, models, idols, and many other people in the online sphere face a lot of the issues that this anime talks about. The idea that the entertainer has to be “pure”, especially if they are a female, can bring about a lot of online hate once said entertainer is found to have a relationship. Viewers feel betrayed and hurt, so they try to cancel them, threaten them, and that can cause major ramifications to the entertainer’s mental state. If there’s one thing to take away from this anime, even if you don’t like it, is to be wary on the Internet, and to simply be a kind person, to not be so desperate for the one moment of Internet clout. Unfortunately, cyberbullying due to these events is very common, and to be honest, unlikely to ever go away, but does that mean we should stop trying to stop the behaviour? Definitely not, but in this day and age, one also has to have thick skin to handle such toxic words. People, just remove likes/retweets on replies to tweets or Youtube videos, not the dislike button entirely.

I did appreciate the comments on the industry a lot, and it’s clearly issues that the author, Aka Akasaka is trying to point out to people, but I do think there wasn’t really enough of that throughout the series, as the series shifted its priorities quite often, with other themes like the mystery and idol performances taking over. Not to say that wasn’t a good thing, as the other parts of the anime have their own respective charms, but I did enjoy the industry talk the most.

The characters offer a variety of personalities, and I think it’s fair to say that many viewers may find themselves relating or resonating with a certain character, and for everyone, that might be a different one. The cast is solid overall, and it was clear to me how much the production staff love Kana Arima, the famous child actress that struggled as she grew up. I found myself resonating with her character the most, and having fun watching her interactions with the rest of the cast. She has a foul mouth with snappy comments, but in the end, she cares about the people around her a lot, and wants them to succeed, to not face failures like she did after her child actress days were behind her. A lot of the time, I felt she was the voice of the main message of what the author, Aka Akasaka wanted to convey, with the information around the industry and how people have to act. For many, I’m sure that Akane Kurokawa, the actress who had her fair share of struggles in this series to say the least, will be their favourite character. While her character moments led to much discourse among viewers, I feel her arc was resolved a bit quickly, though it was still very impactful. Mem-cho, the Vtuber/Youtuber had some humorous moments as well, and had some relatable things to say. The supposed two main characters in Ruby and Aqua felt like the weakest in the show, especially Ruby, who didn’t have much to do after the first episode, though her positivity and naiveness about being an idol had me a little scared, and Aqua just didn’t feel like a very strong protagonist, as his traits are being manipulative, and having the mind of an adult, not much else. I get that you’re not really supposed to think he’s a good guy or anything, but he didn’t really give me anything to cling on to or relate to. I hope that improves with future seasons.

The production behind this show is definitely something to be admired, with splendid directing, compositing, and beautiful scenes throughout. Props to all the staff behind this, as I could tell this was quite the passion project, with some bias toward Kana, which I have absolutely zero complaints about since she’s my favourite character in the show. The darker moments were handled well to really emphasize how eerie and uncomfortable it felt, especially in Episode 6, while the lighter moments had their charm to it as well. The soundtrack was fine, though mostly highlighted by the popularity of the OP and ED, and especially YOASOBI’s music video on the opening, Idol, which topped the Billboard charts outside the United States. There were various records that this anime broke, and it is just so overwhelmingly popular, and when I went to Japan for a vacation a couple months ago, I saw and heard a lot of things related to Oshi No Ko everywhere, including merch, and the music.

Overall, this show provides a solid, and perhaps relatable look at the entertainment industry, while mixing in themes of mystery, and more light hearted moments as well. If you’re curious and want to watch this show, you’ll know if you like it after the 90 minute premiere, which sets the stage very well. Not everything was perfect, as I did want a deeper look at the industry, but what we got was still an excellent product that will resonate with a lot of anime fans, and also myself, for some time to come.

Remember to be kind to others, especially online. It’s not that difficult to do.

Oh, those elementary school days. When things were so simple, and every day was seen through rose-tinted glasses. The goofiness of those days was so fun, and this anime made me reminisce about those days back then. It’s a rather simple anime, where a quiet girl, who is seen as unlikeable and gloomy, meets a boy so positive, upbeat, and dense that a supposedly derogatory nickname like “Grim Reaper” is just so cool to him.

We all likely had a first friend we made when we were kids, and that person was probably special to us. A lot our time was probably spent in the company ... of that first friend, and perhaps some of our fondest memories came at that point in our lives. For Akane Nishimura, the gloomy girl who everyone calls “Grim Reaper”, her first friend in Taiyou Takada, the most positive guy around, was something special. Someone who found her presence endearing, someone who wanted to be around her and hang out, something seemingly trivial like that can mean so much. It was simply such a wholesome ride seeing their friendship blossom, to the point it made me tear up multiple times throughout the show. Sure, there’s some romance in there, but it’s more innocent and sweet than anything else. It isn’t the most realistic anime out there, especially with its portrayal of bullying, but that’s not to say it isn’t believable, since kids do tend to call either names in elementary school.

Visually, the ceiling was low, but I did like the simplistic art style, with a relaxing colour palette, and fun character expressions. The soundtrack was not hugely noticeable, but complimented the show well. The ED was both great in the song itself and visually, and quickly became one of my favourite endings of the season.

Romcoms can fall into the common theme of staying in the status quo for a long time, and while the male protagonist in this show is dense like you’d see in other romcoms, it’s a very endearing and adorable type of dense, as you’d expect from a kid. Even so, the progression and development of characters was pretty solid, with some “little kid drama” that was resolved without it dragging for too long. The pacing felt pretty well done for some organic and natural interaction between all the characters.

I’ll keep this review pretty brief, this was just such an adorable show that had me smiling (or tearing up) for most of its episodes. For me, it reminded me of my childhood and the goofiness that entailed it. It was a warming, healing experience every Sunday morning, and was one of my favourite anime of the season without a doubt. It was pure sweetness, yet had its share of impactful moments. Highly recommend this one!

The theme of finding hope in a seemingly hopeless or dark world has been done before, in a slice of life way in Girls’ Last Tour, in a lovecraftian horror form in Made in Abyss, or in many other ways of which I haven’t seen before. Tengoku Daimakyo takes this theme, but has a sci-fi mystery backdrop to it, making it quite a unique experience, and one I haven’t really experienced personally.

What do we want from a sci-fi mystery show? Do we want twists and turns, dark reveals, or unpredictability? Tengoku Daimakyo has all of that, but it also has the one narrative technique I ... appreciate the most in media, which is “show, don’t tell”. This anime masterfully handles that by giving us virtually no real direction on the surface, but encourages the viewer to ponder on the events of each episode, pay attention to how the characters act, and recall past events to make a scene or reveal hit that much harder. It’s an anime that can generate a lot of discourse because it is just so mind-bending at times, and confusing, in the most wonderful of ways. It’s not exactly “unpredictable” either, but in order to get the full picture, some thinking must be done — I really appreciate that, as it makes for another level of engagement to the events of the anime. In many media, it’s the author who seems to be the one dumping the information, but in this show, it’s instead the viewers who might try to put two and two together, like a puzzle, to figure out what exactly is going on in the story. There’s no better feeling than when you put two and two together and find out your theory was indeed correct. It’s definitely a breath of fresh air from the constant info dumps in other anime, though there are still some info dumps in this show as well.

To give a gist of the setting and story, it’s set in a post apocalyptic world where human civilization was destroyed, man-eating monsters are all over, laying waste to the remains of the land, and threatening the lives of the survivors. Meanwhile, there is a facility that is isolated from the rest of the world, which nurtures children in a very peaceful setting. It reminded me of The Promised Neverland in a way, with the Grace Field house. The two protagonists, Kiruko and Maru are seemingly looking for this place, which they call “Heaven”, and along the way they encounter many intriguing things, as tales on the inside of the nursery and outside get told. Themes around human nature, companionship, and the search for meaning can be seen in both settings, which made for great parallels and comparisons between both the children and the protagonists of the outside world. It was quite interesting seeing the stories of both the nursery and the outside world being told side by side with one another, not relying on info dumps or conventional flashback sequences to understand the lore of the world.

Not only is it very thought-provoking, it also looks and sounds incredible, with an audiovisual experience that always had me paying attention and sometimes on the edge of my seat. The directing is phenomenal in really setting the atmosphere and the eerie tone in the more important scenes, but also can change into a very light tone in more comedic scenes. The backgrounds show us the backdrop of urban decay, rather than just flat out telling us. The soundtrack contributes to the atmosphere a lot too, as Kensuke Ushio, who composed music for anime like Chainsaw Man, A Silent Voice, and The Dangers in My Heart, did a great job yet again here to convey the occasional emotional gut punch, or to get us even more uncomfortable in a horrifying sequence. Everything about the production overall was at a very high level, and after seeing the staff behind it, I can see why. It was truly a legendary team of people producing a passion project from start to finish, with the art director Yuji Kaneko, numerous elite episode directors and storyboarders in Haruka Fujita, in which it’s her first work outside of Kyoto Animation, Kai Ikarashi, who worked on Cyberpunk: Edgerunners as well as the Turning Point episode of Mushoku Tensei, and also Toshimasa Ishii, who directed 86: Eighty-Six. I would also love to shout out Hirotaka Mori, since it was his directorial debut in the anime sphere.

The characters were quite a strong part of the series as well, with Kiruko and Maru’s relationship and chemistry being quite the highlight of the show. The dialogue between them felt quite natural and organic, like bros just having a great time together, rather than forcing romance into the dynamic in a contrived manner.. That said, as this show has quite a focus on human nature, there is an element of romance there, but it’s more that the show tries to explore human emotions, sexuality, and gender, so how the relationship is handled is quite natural and interesting to watch. They both have past traumas, and I have stated in my past reviews about my disdain for “sob story backstories”— but when an anime can build upon the traumatic past with developments in the present time, it can work well. In this case, it was handled quite well in this anime to create a coming of age narrative for the protagonists, as they tried to find meaning in this mess of a world they found themselves in. The children in the nursery admittedly were quite abundant and difficult to follow along at times, but with some thought, some of them still ended up being very endearing in their own ways along with the protagonists of the outside world.

Among the popular hitters like Oshi no Ko, Hell’s Paradise, and Demon Slayer, Tengoku Daimakyo has gone a bit under the radar, but I’m glad many people gave it a shot. It’s something a bit different, very thought-provoking, emotional, and something that will be quite memorable to me for quite a while. That said, while it’s one of the best anime of this season in my opinion, it’s nowhere near finished, so as the kids say, let it cook, and we may be in for another masterclass when the time comes for a sequel, which I hope we’ll get, even if it takes a while. With time, this may become a modern classic, who knows?

Till next time, see you, bye bye!