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Isekai Floor Popcorn.

Arifureta: From Common Place to the Worlds Strongest has a lot of problems some of which are not the shows fault entirely. It would be easy to take pot-shots at the poor animation and the terrible, terrible CGI which looks like it was ripped right out of that cursed 1999 PC Pokémon Trading Card game, but when you learn what happened behind the scenes between the original studio and the light novel author it’s a genuine miracle that this show is as surprisingly watchable as it is.

That said, this is a *sigh* light novel male power fantasy isekai in a vaguely medieval european setting with “the Hero(s)” and “the Demon Lord” and “God”,a harem, skills, levels and all the rest of the unoriginal JRPG luggage that seems to come with the genre. However it’s main cast of characters are surprisingly likeable due to the fact that they’re absolutely savage towards each other. I’m pretty sure the author was going for a dark and edgy tone with the story and it’s characters, but it comes off as (unintentionally?) hilarious dark comedy which makes it very entertaining.

The first four episodes are the biggest hurdle to get past. Hajime slowly crawling his way through the dungeon he’s trapped whilst fighting generic monsters is a slow and boring slog with just enough to keep me interested and when Yue the vampire joins up it still doesn’t really feel like the shows actually started yet. Once they leave the dungeon and begrudgingly team up with the bunny girl Shia, the groups dynamic is established, the show picks up steam and it starts getting good(?).

Their overall quest is also much more interesting then other isekai. Where usually a summoned Japanese teenagers job is to “dEfeAt ThE dEmoN LoRd” and save the world, Hajime and the gangs quest is literally to just find a way home with any means necessary. Theirs no fluff or hesitation on him and it’s really refreshing. That other job is left to his other classmates who were isekai’d into the world with him. They have a lot of interesting personalities with clear motivations which… I mean, if you’ve watched So I’m a Spider, So What? you know how important that is. Actually that show is a good point of comparison to show what Arifureta get’s right.

Arifureta is the equivalent of accidentally throwing all your popcorn on a very dirty floor, but scooping it all up and eating it anyway. Those empty calories and bits of unidentifiable dirt taste good and are enjoyable after you get past the fist couple of bites, but you might vomit or have diarrhoea afterwards from it. Through all of the shows many, many flaws there is something enjoyable to be found here if you enjoy watching trash and want to give it a try.

6/10 It’s Okay(ish) *thumbs up*

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Komi is Your God Now.

Look, I know it’s trendy to say that Komi Can’t Communicate is “overrated” or “overhyped” or “not very good” and it’s fine for you to have your very, VERY wrong opinions about the show or it’s manga, but there is a reason as to why this was one of the most anticipated anime adaptations of 2021.

For those who haven’t watched the show or read the manga, Komi is the impossibly pretty class idol in her first year of high school who everyone adores. However, because she is quite and stoic nobody tries to talk to her under the presumption that she is arrogant and stand offish. Tadano, the ordinary guy sitting next to her in class and who is good at reading people discovers that she is none of these things and is just an ordinary girl who is utterly incapable of talking to others thanks to her anxiety riddled communication disorder. After opening up to him and chatting via a chalk board Tadano promises Komi to help her make 100 friends in one of the most touching scenes in anime rom-com history.

For starters the manga was already fantastical written. The story balances a huge cast of quirky, weird, deep and memorable characters who never break their anime/manga rom-com/school/slice-of-life tropes and cliches that have been assigned to them via introduction with a charming, hilarious and surprisingly deep story about growing up, overcoming personal struggles and making the most out of the days of youth. Komi already had a lot going for it even before becoming an anime, but what makes it stand our from other anime adaptations of rom-com/school/slice-of-life manga is that it’s animation doesn’t hinder the stories pacing and comedic bits or make the characters feel flat and uninteresting to watch because of rushed, sloppy animation or slow panels with nothing happening in them except lip flaps, in fact in the case of Komi it’s quite the opposite.

OLM is one of those studios I tend to forget exists which is shame on me because when they’re not making Pokémon they make some of the best anime shows period (that’s not a dig at current the Pokémon anime, I think it’s okay). Komi’s animation levels are off the charts. Every single detail from the manga has been packed into the show which gives it this lively, chaotic yet wholesome ambiance which is just so fun to watch. The characters are ridiculously expressive. From the way they move to the way they talk, everything about everyone is so captivating and engaging. It’s also incredible funny. OLM’s touch of humour made the gags feel new and fresh in a way that I couldn’t have imagined reading the manga. That one scene of Agari running backwards up a flight of stairs saying “Muri-muri-muri-muri” made my jaw drop as I laughed. A celebration of humour and animation flexing that I can’t stop thinking about it. Oh, and the voice acting and music? It’s brilliant. It’s really obvious that everyone really enjoyed working on this show.

The anime has some tiny-winy problems if you squint a bit. There is a lot of reading in Japanese so unless you can read it theres a lot of subbing happening for read lines, Komi’s notebook and boxes of text as well as little words here and there and Netflix’s subtitles don’t quite capture them all. If you’ve read the manga then you’ll probably already know whats going on so you’ll be fine, but if this is your first Komi experience and you want more details then… well I’m not saying that there are better subbed version on the high seas… And there is some censorship here and there and some content from the manga has been cut, but not enough to make this show a deal breaker.

Komi Can’t Communicate is everything I look for in an anime adaptation. It manages to carve it’s own identity from the manga to point where I can recommend reading and watching them both. I honestly don’t think it would be as good as it is if OLM hadn’t have got all out creating it, even with the great source material. Can’t wait for the second season in spring.

10/10 Practically Perfect.

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Paladin-man: Far from Home.

‘The Faraway Paladin’ is the last, but not least light novel fantasy/isekai anime adaptation of 2021 and the first anime worked on by Children’s Playground Entertainment that I have actively enjoyed although, the bar was pretty low considering the only two other anime I have watched by them are ‘Hatena Illusion’ and ‘The Fruit of Evolution: Blah blah blah’ which are both doo-doo faeces.

Faraway Paladin is an isekai power fantasy which shares some DNA with Mushuko Tensei. Our reincarnated main protagonist William earns his strength and abilities through hard work and a dedication to learning rather than getting given a cheat ability that lets him gain everything for doing nothing, and the show goes out of it’s way to flesh out his childhood in detail as he is raised by his undead, surrogate family, a ghost wizard called Augustus, a mummy priestess called Mary and a skeleton warrior called Blood.

There are no “skills” or “levels” or at the time of watching “ThE hErO” or “tHe DeMoN lOrD” that get in the way of and trivialises it’s pure fantasy world like 99% of all other light novel isekai anime. There is a really cool word based magic system which the show spends a lot of time fleshing out along with setting up the shows overall mystery as to why the world seems so abandoned Breath of the Wild-style except for the three undead and their boy. If you’re a lore nerd like I am then you might enjoy unraveling all the context clues the show gives and piecing together the mystery.

Now I made a comparison to Mushuko Tensei earlier, but that’s in it’s fantasy world and vibe only. Unlike Mushuko Tensei and all other light novel isekai there is very little to no weird, perverted content to make your eyes roll (there’s like one scene I can remember that does, but I must stress it’s very, VERY tame compared to some of the other shit you see in isekai) so if you’re someone who doesn’t like ecchi then you are safe here.
William is no Rudeus Greyrat too. He has a shy, but child-like curiosity about the new world he’s been dropped into which fuels his desire to learn instead of his masters panties. He can also be a bit of an airhead which can be rather charming when he leaves home and makes new friends who’re baffled by his power, but he’s never a insufferable doormat for the viewer to project themselves onto. I also really enjoyed the dynamic between Augustus, Mary and Blood as they try to raise and pass down their values onto him. The odd family can be very touching to watch.

This is a Children’s Playground Entertainment show however and although the animation is miles better than the anime they’ve done there is still a lot to be desired. It’s clear that they actually gave a shit about making this show look good and I do really enjoy the art style, but there are a lot of animation and technical problems which drops the immersion. Some movement and running animations and the CG monsters look very… rushed to put it as nicely. Still it’s not a deal breaker though.

‘The Faraway Paladin’ is a nice little antidote to most poisonous rubbish that most light novel fantasy/isekai anime pisses in our faces. It probably won’t cure all ailments and it has a long way to go to crack above the 7/10’s, but for a CPE show it is a good start and I’m looking forward to the next season.

7/10 Good.

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The Anime of 2021.

To finish off 2021 I wanted to talk about the best anime of the year; Vivy. Now obviously (fucking obviously) that is just my opinion and you’re welcome to disagree with me even though you are scientifically wrong (unless you think Odd Taxi is anime of the year to which you are also correct, they’re both practically tied), but ‘Vivy - Fluorite Eyes Song’ is the only anime that has managed to ingrain itself into my mind so thoroughly since I finished it (expect Odd Taxi) that I can’t stop thinking about it so I need to celebrate it in some way before I get too hammered from the wine I’m drinking.

As an original anime Vivy already had a head start over other anime. One of the stories co-writers is the writer for Re:Zero, the only light novel series which I will go on the record to say is a masterpiece, Wit Studio who did the first three seasons of ‘AOT’, ‘Vinland Saga’, ‘Great Pretender’, the currently airing ‘King Rankings’ and 2022’s ‘Spy X Family’ in a colab with Cloverworks, are the animation team behind Vivy and if you haven’t watched ‘Hanebado’ which I highly recommend you do, then me telling you the director of that show is also the director for Vivy won’t mean anything to you, but if it does then you’ll start to understand why Vivy’s power levels are already off the charts before the show has even started.

To stop a violent A.I uprising against humans one hundred year future, the first autonomous A.I Diva (later Vivy) who was given a mission to ‘make everyone happy through singing with all her heart’ is approached by a futuristic, hyper-advanced A.I called Matsumoto who travelled back in time to team up with Vivy so he can complete his mission to ‘stop the future war between A.I’s and humans’ by any means necessary. Obviously this clashes with Vivy’s mission, but she can’t make everyone happy with singing if they’re all dead and so one of the strongest odd couples in anime are born.
Vivy’s emotional, almost humanistic personality contrasts brilliantly with Matsumoto’s cold, calculating, terminator like overconfidence and their character dynamic becomes the shows linchpin between the singularities that are explored across those one hundred years.

And the action! Oh my god the action! From terrorist attacks to one-on-one brawls Vivy’s action scenes are always dynamic, creative and fucking jaw dropping. And the writing… jesus christ the writing it’s so fucking good! The show takes full advantage of the “arc structure” of storytelling that has been established through manga and light novels by using the time singularities, which can span between years to decades to show how Vivy has advanced in her own mission of finding a “heart” to sing with even though she is basically timeless only for Matsumoto to show up and send her up to a space hotel or blow up an island for the sake of his own mission. Meanwhile we can observe how humanity is evolving along with A.I’s. A.I rights, A.I x human marriages are explored in detail and it’s obvious how much thought has been put into these stories.
Oh and music! I haven’t stopped listening to the music all year. Some of the songs are absolute bangers. You can find them all on Youtube or Spotify. Nearly every episode has a new song either sung by Vivy or the one of the other A.I’s you’ll meet along the way and they’re all really charming.

If I had to criticise the show they’d only be minor nitpicks. There’s only one episode which I felt was paced a bit slower than the others, but the story had just hit it’s dramatic midpoint so it’s not really an issue. Matsumoto can speak faster than I could read the subtitles which y’know, is a bit annoying, but also the dub is really good and I would recommend it as an alternative if, like me you have reading troubles.

I just really fucking love this show. From it’s cool beginning to its beautiful ending it pretty much nails everything I look for in an anime, and crosses that threshold that makes it entertainment to legitimate art. It is without a doubt my anime of 2021 (along with Odd Taxi and possibly Komi Can’t Communicate).

If you want to see the rankings of all the anime I have watched this year then check it out on my profile page. Happy New Year everyone.
10/10 Practically Perfect

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That Time I Got Banished From the Realist Hero’s Kingdom as the Worlds Finest Assassin so I Decided to Live a Cheat Pharmacist’s Slow Life Making A Drugstore in the Countryside Whilst Killing Slimes from the Last Dungeon Boonies Only I Can Enter for 300 Years: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made as an Aristocrat in a Starter Town: All Routes Lead to Doom, So What?

‘Banished from the Hero’s Party, etc’ was another pleasant surprise to arise from this fall season’s anime line up. If you’ve been a reading my reviews then you know that I’m not particularly a fan of most fantasy light novel adaptations, but Hero’s Party is another example of how good character and story writing can help a show break away from it’s mediocre contemporaries and into the realms of good, enjoyable fantasy anime.

Formerly known as Gideon, Red was once a member of the hero’s party who was banished to live a quiet life in the frontier and opens up his own pharmaceutical store. Later his old adventuring friend Rit comes across his store by chance and decides to quit adventuring to live with him and help out.
It’s a very simple premise which expands in scope as the season goes on, but one which it does very well in my opinion. Red is a kind, mature, jack of all traits kind of character who is well love by his adopted village, but it’s very easy to root for him thanks to his humble personality and his very active nature. He and Rit have really good screen chemistry and I’m glad the show didn’t try to blue balls me for the entire season with a ‘will they won’t they’ cliche, relationship storyline. However, I will say their relationship can sometimes cross the line from being sweet to a bit cringe. Even though they’re both adults in their 20’s they act more like high school romance manga characters when it come to expressing themselves to each other and Rit makes some… questionable foreplay moves when in the bedroom. But when the show gets the romance right it’s really rewarding to watch the two of them get closer and more comfortable with each other and the romance can be genuinely quite sexy compared to other examples set by other shows. Rit may come across as the most manufactured waifu to end all manufactured waifu’s with big anime tiddies, but she's actually a pretty interesting, likeable character and it’s just as easy to root for her as it is for Red.

One of my favourite things about the show is how it makes the concept of “skills” interesting. Video game-esque “Skills”, “Leveling”, the concept of “the Hero” and “the Demon Lord” and other light novel fantasy/isekai cliches are some of my pet peeves and this show unfortunately has them to various degrees. However, the show manages to take the concept of “skills” and make them a fundamental part of the world instead of a ‘get-out-of-jail’ card for the writer to fall back on. Every person in this world has a ‘blessing’ which can range from being a smith to thief to champion and they have integral effect of how a person behaves, grows up and even their chosen path in life and interests. The concept of “the Hero” is actually just someone with an all powerful skill of the same name that gives them the strength to save the world, but robs them of other things the blessing deems unessential like, taste, sleep and feelings robbing that person of some of their humanity. I like how the show uses “skills” to comment on whether or not your own personal abilities should define who you are and through Ruti the hero, Reds little sister the show explores what it means to be a hero and whether or not a “skill” should define a person as such. I don’t think I’ve seen “skills” have actual meaning in world since Danmachi which is pretty cool.

The art and animation is very nice when the show is going at a slow pace, but as soon as any combat happens it feels like I’m watching characters moving through cement on screen. Movements are clunky and awkward and clashing weapons and magic have no feeling of impact or ‘oomph’. This is a shame. Combat is clearly not the studios strongest area of animation and it really hurts the show, but for the rest of the time it looks great. Vibrant colours and pallets make the countryside look lush and calming and the characters are well designed and expressive.
I also think some of the pacing can be sloppy. Episode 2 was a real offender in this regard as half the episode was dedicated to a flashback to introduce Rit, but we had no context for who she was and her relationship with Red who we also barely knew at that point so it just felt meaningless. However, the pacing issues didn’t come up that often so it wasn’t that much of a deal breaker.

Like the name suggests this is a slow, chill anime which focuses more on people and their relationships rather than on fighting and big battles so if that’s not your thing then it probably won’t be for you, but if it is your thing then I can definitely suggest giving this anime a go.

7/10 Good.

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Redo of Hentai Version 2.0.

So my old review of one of the worst anime of the year, 'Redo of Healer' was taken down today because I only wrote about my dislikes of the series and did not “provide some level of critical evaluation” which is fair enough… I guess.
I would argue that a *sigh* light novel anime which romanticises and fetishises kidnapping, sexual assault, abuse, drug abuse, slavery and vengeful behaviour in an unremarkable and infantile story which takes itself way too seriously for what actually is (which is hentai) isn’t really worth taking seriously or giving serious criticism to. The people who do take 'Redo of Healer' seriously will most likely be the kind of people who are not very receptive of criticism and are probably the kind of people who will post on your wall to call you the N-word and tell you to kill yourself for giving Horimiya a 9/10 (though will quickly delete their post afterwards, the fucking coward) even though Horimiya is factually really good.
However, unlike the last time I reviewed Redo of Healer which I reviewed after exposing myself to only 4 episodes of this trash, I did finish it some time later out of morbid curiosity, my old review was admittedly immaturely written on reflection and my enjoyment of 'Worlds Finest Assassin' did make me positively re-evaluated my opinion of the original writer who also jizzed 'Redo of Healer' all over our eyes this year so… maybe there are some positive things to say about the show after giving it another look.

So lets talk about those positives… um… The animation is pretty good… -ish. Not as bad as say, The Fruit of Evolution, but nothing too spectacle. The plot is so dreadful and full of holes that it does come off as funny at times so it could be enjoyable as good hate watch. It’s actually pretty well paced after you get past the beginning which was surprising and I think there is one scene which I legitimately thought was pretty cool although even that has caveats… and that’s all I can think of. Sorry, but it’s really hard to find positives in show so comically vile and laughably bad.

Honestly, I really don’t think I need to get into why this anime is so bad. The second paragraph of this review is probably enough to give you an idea of what you’re going into if you somehow haven’t watched/endured it yet. If we are to take the story seriously then the most remarkable thing about it is how generically boring it is when you take away all the hentai stuff. Even the hentai stuff is surprisingly tame after you get over the shock of the first few episodes. There is much hotter or much worse stuff out there if you’re horny and willing to search for it.
The main protagonist is so comically evil and stupid that all of the villain’s need to be even more comically evil and stupid in order to justify his actions. This is after all the same protagonist who at one point in the story turns himself into a women in order to get assaulted by his target and whilst he is being assaulted he very seriously inner monologues to himself “So this is how women must feel when they’re assault” (or something along those lines, I’m paraphrasing) yet after that’s over he continues to assault and abuse women, even with this newly discovered contextual experience he can now relate to. Speaking of his powers, he is the worlds greatest healer or the “healing hero”. His healing powers allow him to regrow limbs, transform faces, swap genders, wipe memories, steal abilities, make women stronger when they give him a blowjob and reverse time, but he can’t heal someone who like, passes out and dies over what seems to be minor injuries. 'Code Geass' the "I order you not to die" scene this was not.

'Redo of Healer' is just another awful light novel adaption that uses it’s medieval, fantasy setting to indulge in sexual assault whilst also having a video game like magic and levelling system, “The Hero” and “The Demon Lord” and all the rest of the unoriginal garbage that plagues the anime fantasy and isekai genre. Like I said at the beginning, 'Redo of Healer' is one of the worst anime of 2021 in nearly every conceivable way. I feel sorry for the animators who probably didn't want to work on this turd, but had too for the sake of their jobs.
What I’m saying is, there is literally over a million better ways to have a god damn wank.

1/10 The Worst

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Sir Killalot’s Japan.

I was surprised at how hyped I felt by the end of the first episode of AMAIM. It establishes it world and military problems well, Amou and Gai, a super AI meeting and helping each other even under the reality of becoming terrorists was well set up and animation seemed to be pretty good.
The real problem with AMAIM is it’s pacing. After around the 5th episode the story hops from mecha, military action to a strange mesh between a slice of life and boy scouts genre… thing. It doesn’t really work.

Amou is a pretty okay lead protagonist. He’s shy and indecisive, but he’s not an insufferable idiot like most teen protagonists caught the centre of a military war anime. He’s not Shuu from that piece of shit Guilty Crown is what I’m saying. Amou feels like a typical teenager who has gotten into something way over his head with no way of turning back and he has real flaws to back up those feelings. By the end of the season his character arc is actually quite satisfying. That said, he’s not a particularly interesting character to watch which is the problem. That could be said for the other two lead AMAIM pilots. Gashin is the dark, brooding type who's father was killed by war and blah, blah, blah you’ve seen the archetype a million times before in other, better (and worse) anime and Shion likes to… make pots? Well it’s original at least.
The AI’s can range from silly too annoying. Nayuta is definitely the worst offender, but I actually really liked the chemistry they shared with their respective pilots, especially Amou and Gai. They act like real buddies and it’s kind of cute watching them joke around and support each other.

The animation is pretty good. When the action is low it can get a bit distractingly sloppy especially in the faces, but when the action is happening the show can get fucking awesome! I found myself surprising invested whenever the mysterious, rouge mech Ghost was fighting and the last episode was an absolute blast.

It’s unfortunate that the whole show couldn’t have been as engaging as the final episode of the season. Sloppy pacing, cliche villains and inconsistently interesting main leads means theres a lot holding this show back from being good, but I do think it’s an okay show. When the show hits, it fucking hits and, I mean I watched the whole thing so… there is a lot to like about it too if you’re willing to give it a go.

6/10 It’s Okay *Thumbs up*

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My Senpai is FUCKING HUGE.

My Senpai is Annoying is another really good office rom-com anime along the lines of Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku and… to an extent I guess Aggretsuko although it’s personally not my thing, but I know other people really love it so to each their own.

There’s nothing complicated about the shows story or it’s characters. Futaba Igarashi is an adorable, hard working tsudere who has a very obvious complex about her height and outwardly childish appearance compared to the women around her in the office and especially next her loud, tall, buff, happy-go-lucky senpai Harumi Takeda of whom she has a crush on. The only problem is that he tends to treat her like a child by tussling her hair and obliviously, but loudly saying things that could be taken out of context if heard by others which annoys Futaba… a lot… hence the anime title.
There’s a B plot between two other employees Touko Sakurai a busty, cheerful lady who gets hit on a lot in the office by obnoxious, male colleagues and Souta Kazama, a quiet, man of culture who is basically what Kazama from Konosuba would’ve turned out to be if hadn't died from a heart attack and he grew up to be a mature, normal person of society (sort of).

That’s pretty much all there is too My Senpai is Annoying, but it does those things really well. The animation is lively and expressive, the stories are low steaks, but interesting, the side characters are delightful aaaaaaaand… yeah… Look, I know this is a short review, but it’s a really fun office rom-com and if you’re into these sort of shows you’re highly likely to enjoy it. The biggest question the show will ask (whether intended or not) is how would sex between Futaba and Harumi work if they did get together?

8/10 Great

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The Perfect Waifu Doesn’t Exi-

I’ve been trying to really think hard about why I shouldn’t give Taishou Maiden Fairytale a 10/10 because this probably one of the most underrated, wholesome and sweetest rom-com shows of the fall season NAY, of 2021!

Whilst most rom-com anime take place in a high school and need to rely on gimmicks to break away from it’s contemporaries (unless the anime in question is really well written) Taishou Maiden Fairytale is set in a 1900’s era village in the mountains of Chiba were Tamahiko Shima lives alone in an isolated manor after being exiled from his wealthy family for the crime of being involved in an accident and losing the ability to use his right hand. Riddled with anxiety and depression he spends many sleepless nights wishing he were dead until one day Yuzuki who was sold to Tamahiko’s father to pay off her own fathers debts comes to his home to asset him and to become his future wife. The two start off awkward with each other at first. Tamahiko can’t quite grasp Yuzuki’s positive, bubbly outlook and willingness to help him, but slowly they start to become more accustom to one another as they spend more time together and that eventually ends up leading to a very well paced and very rewarding romance and character development.

There’s not a huge cast of characters to get in the way of the main couple either. Tamahiko and Yuzuki spend a lot of time alone together without interruption and there’s no harem to distract from the main couple.
Yuzuki is the cinnamon roll to end all cinnamon rolls and is a factual waifu. Deciding to make the best from the hand she had been dealt she’s very kind, nurturing, adorable and funny which contrasts well with Tamahiko who is pessimistic and socially awkward after being isolated for so long thanks to his father. After he realises how much Yuzuki is a positive influence on his life he tries to slowly change and be better for her.
The rest of the cast are also just as fun to be around though you have to warm up to Tamahiko’s sister and Ryou after they give really bad first impressions.

The show is also really pretty. Really nice water colour backgrounds give the impression of an 1900’s painting and the characters put in front of those backgrounds are expressive and vibrant. There’s even some light bits of sakuga used to emphasis certain scenes, usually Yuzuki getting flustered over something.

This show is fucking adorable and I love it. If you’re into your rom-coms you’ve got to check this one out. It’s up there with this years Horimiya, Nagatoro and Fruits Basket as a must watch.

10/10 Practically Perfect.

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Diet X-factor.

Being spoiling with Love Live! Superstar! this summer has really backfired on my enjoyment of Selection Project. That’s not to say that Selection Project is a bad idol anime, far from it in fact. It’s nicely animated, the CG and music are good and the characters range from very likeable to… kinda there, but overall it’s just very… okay.

If you’ve seen any sort of singing competition like Pop Idol or X-factor then you already know what sort of general premise you’re getting into. Wannabe idols all over Japan compete to take part in the idol TV competition Selection Project to become the next top idol. We follow Suzune a former bedridden child who wants nothing more than to sing enter the competition and, thats basically the summary.

Unfortunately if you’re someone with at least ten working brain cells then you’ll be able to guess the big plot reveal the show teases in episode one because it’s really obvious. Not that I really minded all that much. It’s not a tense, drama packed soap opera or anything, but it was still very on the nose. That said, Selection Project not being that tense soap opera might be to the shows biggest disadvantage. It is a competition and though the characters to bicker at times it never really feels like the conflicts matter and they’re resolved too quickly or the story actively bends to make sure on one of the girls is left behind which doesn’t help for long term investment. I get that it’s going for light-hearted, feel good girl power, but the show feels stuck between these two ideas thanks to the nature of singing competitions.

I liked most of the characters. They all stick to their cliches very closely to try and differ from each other (there are 9 of them and one of them literally looks like a cat) but I never really felt attached to any of them as characters… expect Mako Tomo… she can step on me… anyway.
One thing I did notice in one episode was that the show (I think) unintentionally shines a light on the idol industries sexualization of young women and the weird, somewhat creepy persona’s they’re taught to forge in order to appeal to certain audiences. I just thought that was interesting.

Selection Project is not the best moe/idol anime out there, but I watched the whole thing and enjoyed it. It’s very chill if thats what you’re looking for, the characters though they don’t really stand out are entertaining and there are some good tunes in there to boot. It has it’s problems and it’s story probably won’t “wow” you, but you might have a good time with this one.

6/10 It’s Okay *thumbs up*

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