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- BirthdayApr 11, 1986
- LocationHixson, Tennessee
- JoinedMay 10, 2019
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Jun 30, 2025
I’ve spent a lot of time with MHA, including reading the entire manga, watching the main line series up to its current point preceding the final season, and yes, reading a good chunk of the manga this is adapted from. I didn’t finish it, and honestly, I can’t explain why not. I just stopped following the manga week to week and fell off, though not because the experience wasn’t good. I am glad I got to see it in this form, though, as I think they’ve elevated the material.
One of my bigger complaints with the main line series is that the anime is significantly less
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visceral than the panels. Horikoshi’s level of detail hasn’t been all that faithfully translated to the screen, and some of the manga’s more violent moments were toned down. That’s not so much the case here.
Another one of my complaints with main line MHA is that the power scaling just got bananas as the series went on. This side story necessarily doesn’t do that, keeping its scale far more local and its characters’ abilities largely simple. It’s also perfectly fine taking an episode or two out to focus on Pop being an idol and having a performance without losing the larger story thread in the process, which works just fine for me.
In terms of what worked well this season, the animation was definitely a big boon, with the comic book style really suiting the series. I like a number of the characters, with Knuckleduster in particular being a stand-out in his role as father to one of the notable villains of the season. I also liked Makoto, as she really stole the spotlight anytime she was on screen. Pop and Kouichi are pretty good, and the unknown (to Kouichi) history between them creating some romantic tension works. Could do with less of Captain Celebrity, but among the mainline heroes, seeing Ingenium this often is a great touch and I don’t mind the other cameos, particularly seeing Aizawa actively doing hero work.
The series thrives in a couple of its story beats, one focused on Stained before he became the antivillain himself. They went pretty raw with him and I was happy to watch it play out on screen. Queen Bee fighting Knuckleduster, though, was easily the highlight of the season with the slow drip of information leading us to their connection as a family, his preparation for the fight coming out in just the right doses at just the right times, and the discovery of the nature of the bee quirk being just excellent. The show pulled that off beautifully with some of the most impressive animation of the season to boot.
This does still feel like a S1, very much a lead in to bigger things as a main villain lurks in the background. I don’t mind that as much as with some series, and there’s a reason this still stands out in spite of that: it never really feels like it has to ramp up to be effective. I enjoyed seeing where this went, and much as this season wasn’t paced particularly fast, it gave us a lot of great character moments and hit hard when it had to. Looking forward to S2.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 29, 2025
When I watched S1 last year, it became one of my favorites of that season. Yes, it had some pacing issues and confining a lot of its plot to a series of training exercises in a parking garage didn’t do it any favors, but the concept was really interesting and the slow build of tension in the background as a boss monster came to the fore and confronted the Blue Dragon Keeper made it worth the wait. Cool fight dynamics across the series involving a three-way fight between two well-established parties and a third party spoiler in Fighter D kept things relatively simple, but made
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outcomes of fights more complicated, and particularly after he aligned with Yumeko Suzukiri, things continued to escalate in a direction that resonated with me.
So I went into S2 with some pretty substantial expectations, and to some degree, it didn’t disappoint. The encounters with boss monsters only got crazier as all three parties clash regularly throughout the season in far more varied ways. Magatia in particular puts on a spectacle through his time looping school, which certainly kept things interesting in the first arc, and Hwalipon maintains a constant background presence before coming to the fore in an interesting fight. Then the series introduced yet another party in the Invader Rights Association, which aligns itself with the monsters (kinda…) and can use their powers via injections. And the Dragon Keepers are far more unstable this season, particularly Red who kills several people brutally over the course of the season. The ingredients are all here for a more bombastic season paced out better than the previous and with a deeper dive into the monsters and the corruption of the Dragon Keepers.
Unfortunately, I can’t say this lived up to S1, at least not for me. A lot of S1 was careful (and not so careful) subterfuge as Fighter D attempted and largely succeeded going undercover with the Dragon Keepers feeling largely in control the whole season and the threat of the boss monsters unknown to them. This season, nearly everything is out in the open. Even Sakurama is back and involved in current events, which should (but largely doesn’t) blow Fighter D’s cover entirely. So the series just becomes a pitched battle in the open with the Dragon Keepers’ powers tested against both the boss monsters and the IRA, which leads to some spectacles in these fights, but little else.
And the inclusion of the IRA largely just clutters up the story. Their leader literally designs his own boss monster in Deathmecia as a fan creation to defeat the Dragon Keepers and it just doesn’t really work for me. There’s some interesting facets to his character, like that he formed a relationship with an ostracized boss monster who wanted to work with humans but was killed, and that his daughter apparently is half monster and inherited some of her powers. But then there’s this whole subplot about how Suzukiri is actually the priestess who bestowed the Dragon Keepers with their powers, and they’ve been cloning her to make more powerful weapons for them. The fighters all decide to take an active role in the final episode for some reason. Angel is revealed to be the vessel of a boss monster, which should really feel like it matters more, but we barely know anything about it or her relationship with her father. And then she falls for Fighter D because… I guess he’s pushed her forward a good deal. It’s a lot to take in, and this season ends up with the opposite problem of its predecessor: it’s just moving too fast and way too busy.
Oh well, at least the clashes with Deathmecia are kind of interesting, even if they feel like typical super sentai BS. It’s at least interesting to see the Dragon Keepers pull out all the stops to take him down, and a distinctive way to kill their unbeatable opponent through a lot of very unlikely cooperation. I think the ideas for this season are good, but their execution left something to be desired. Even the animation seems choppy towards the end. This series has some work to do cleaning all this up if it’s planning a third season because this just continued to lose me all the way up through that post-credits scene. The time loop section of this season is the only reason this doesn't fall to a 5, and it's still close.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jun 29, 2025
I went into this season with such high hopes for this series. No, I didn’t think it would be the second coming of Bebop, but it had a similar vibe on many levels and I was intrigued by a premise that included a ticking clock as humanity counts down its final days in search of Skinner, a man who holds so many lives in the balance. The aesthetics look good from smooth animation including some excellent choreography to a jazzy OST full of songs that pop (even if they end up feeling more like cool riffs than anything that facilitates the scenes they’re in), and
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the colorful cast set this series up to do something wonderful.
Sadly, I didn’t like it. Seems like every season or so, there’s some series where my review ends up being an autopsy of sorts, taking apart a finished work and trying to determine what killed my experience with it. Well, Lazarus, you’re it.
First, the characters. From the outset, everyone had me intrigued in distinct ways. Axel may be exuding a bit too much of the “too cool for school” vibes, but as a serial prison escapee with cool moves and the attitude makes for some interesting interactions with people who are far more mission-driven than he is. Doug, by contrast, comes off as pretty straight-laced and no nonsense, more a foil to him than anything else, but that’s not a bad starting point. Christine is a loose cannon with an apparent connection to Russia and a real attitude that shows itself early and often. Leland very much feels like some random civilian just thrown into the mix because of his skill with drones, but having a neophyte in the group isn’t amiss. And Eleina’s this shrinking violet hacker who can introduce us to a lot of the technobabble and crazy visual design of the series, sort of the woman in the chair. All that combined with a hardass running the show in Hersch and a gentleman over her named Abel and you’ve got the makings of a group that’s hard to rein in, but they’re damn sure going to try.
And as long as those basic archetypes last, I think they work pretty well. I know some people criticized the writing of the show (more on that later) for being a little too Marvel-esque, and while I can see that, I don’t really mind throwing a bit of it into this setting with this eclectic group of thrown-together untrusting allies. It doesn’t do all that well in the humor department, though it sets up a group that can individually do a lot, but end up being less effective together despite their skills.
So what’s the problem? The characters never really get more interesting. They gel more as a group, but we don’t learn much about them and they don’t grow much. Christine is the main exception and it’s no surprise that the two episodes where she takes center stage (4 and 9) are the two best in the series, with the former giving her the opportunity to exact some cathartic revenge against some rich creeps and the latter featuring her backstory with a somewhat deep dive into her Russian roots.
Most of the other characters get exposition dumps to explain their backgrounds with the exception of Leland and Eleina, who get one episode a piece that largely just feels basic and uninteresting. Leland’s being the heir apparent to a rich family and having a jilted sister takes up scant little time in his episode. He does “betray” the group by acting as a spy for much of the show, but that goes nowhere since he’s loyal and supportive anyway and no one gets mad at him. Eleina just belonged to a murder cult, turned against it, and became a hacker because of her prodigious skills. It’s not a lot to work with, and even opportunities to explore the people Eleina left behind when she escaped the cult barely get any time to breathe.
And they’re still both better than Axel and Doug, the latter of whom gets barely any exploration at all, while the former becomes the focal point of part of the story based almost entirely upon an exposited story about his background in prison. The show barely shows any interest in either of their lives before we pick up with them. Characters like Hersche get a scene to explain their background and that’s it. Hardly affects anything going forward.
To be fair, the series also has a relatively large cast of characters beyond this group, many of whom only get single episodes and are decent enough for the purpose. I can’t say the same for Popcorn Wizard, who played a pretty instrumental role in the plot and, let’s face it, just comes off as a “we have Radical Edward at home” situation (frankly, it’s hard not to make the comparison when the series is shoving it in our faces). She’s frustrating to watch, though to be fair, she gets some decent background and character moments in episode 12 after making a name for herself shouting “hardcore!” like it’s going out of style. I can’t say Schneider gets any kind of redemption, though. Dude’s just a frustrating antagonist who gets more frustrating as the series goes on, since he has 0 investment in events surrounding Skinner and is far more personally interested. That might be interesting to me too if I had more than hints on what his subplot entails, but he just comes off as petulant and annoying at the best of times, and an active impediment to the plot in favor of his own personal subplot at the worst.
Second, the narrative. I’ll start this section by saying that there’s a reason I love Bebop, and that’s the rhythm to the story. It takes plenty of side-tracks from the central narrative, but they become easy to appreciate when you realize that it’s all narrative. Taking a winding road to reach their destination and stopping in seemingly unimportant places isn’t a problem for that series.
I can’t say the same for this one. Why? Because of the ticking clock the series sets up at the start. Meandering slowly towards their destination is a confusing choice when you’ve given virtually everyone on the planet 30 days left to live. Side-tracks start to feel like real wastes of time. And it’s not just about the central Lazarus gang, who at least spend the vast majority of the series actively searching for Skinner (in almost entirely the wrong places, but fine, they don’t know). It’s about the weird attitude that everyone around them seems to have, too. The vast, vast majority of people in this world are just going about their daily lives as though they weren’t aware their lives are all in imminent peril. That’s not an implausible response for some people to have, but for virtually everyone to go about their day like it’s business as usual is just unbelievable.
There’s not even a sense of urgency among the main players. The government calls Hersche and Leland into a meeting to discuss shutting Lazarus down when they are down to about a third of their days remaining because the team is making a mess worldwide. Why do they care if everyone’s dying soon? Why is there a whole massive subplot about INSCOM trying to shut Axel up when no one’s going to be alive to learn about it? Why aren’t governments imposing martial law and going door-to-door scanning faces to find Skinner? Why are doctors holding onto confidential information that could lead to Skinner being found?
And speaking of Skinner, so damn much of this story is focused on exploring Skinner as a person through the various places Lazarus visits. He gets more exploration in terms of motives and background than anyone else in the plot, and that might work if he wasn’t in absentia for so much of the time. It’s all just an exploration of why he’d do something like this that, all the way up through episode 12, we still don’t know. If this felt like we were putting the pieces of a puzzle together and really building out the character to better understand him, this might work, but I didn’t feel like I understood him much better 12 episodes in than I did with the basic exposition about his character from episode 1. All we get is some expanded insight into what causes he championed and some choices he made along the way.
*long, drawn out sigh*
There are some really interesting ideas in this series. You can tell from the pacing that this was supposed to be a series that took its time. One of the most interesting episodes in the series for me was episode 7, where we just got to spend some time seeing some of this big, beautiful world Watanabe designed. I’m a sucker for some solid, organic worldbuilding and some excellent visuals, and even with the drop off the pacing, the episode became an opportunity for character building and a more subtle means of showcasing the kind of person Skinner is/was. But every episode ends with a ticking down of that clock and this was no exception, so all I could think on my way out was “they have how long left!?”
And even when the series just went all-in on its choreography and visuals in episodes 10 and 11, showcasing the skills of an assassin clearly taking some cues from Darker than Black, it just felt… empty because there were 5 days left. It mattered to them in this moment, but in the broader context of the story, this felt utterly pointless. Even when the animation shifts to dig into the assassin’s head a bit, bringing with it creepy visuals of the Hundun and the connection to Axel’s necklace, it’s all so late in the game that it can’t help but feel like one last side-track before we get to the real climax of the story.
As for how that climax turned out… well, this series is nothing if not consistently frustrating. We spend a good half of the final episode showcasing some admittedly cool fight scenes and jumping around on rubble as a building crumbles only to be left with basically what we already knew about the assassin: he was trained to be deadly and devoid of emotion, he killed everyone else who either did the training or was trained, became an assassin for hire for… reasons, and then died in this final clash because I guess that’s akin to the Hundun dying 7 days after it got a face gouged into it. Still have no idea why this dominated so much of the story.
Then it’s revealed that all five members of Lazarus were in the airport when Skinner’s biological weapon was accidentally unleashed and all experienced a mutation that ensured they survived it (sure is convenient that they all just so happen to have a particular set of skills that work together well in this team, isn’t it?), which… again, why does this matter? It explains why Hapna isn’t affecting them as it would others and why the group is named “Lazarus,” but that’s about it. We don’t need a delayed, big reveal like this to answer such a relatively unimportant question.
That leaves about 10 minutes for the series to explain why Skinner did everything and it’s baffling. See, since he couldn’t get the truth out when he tried to bring a suitcase to the authorities and it got destroyed at the airport, he thought a global terrorist action putting humanity at risk of near extinction was the only way to prove that the US government was participating in bioterrorism using his discoveries. And… yep, you lost me. Maybe this had more to do with his lost faith in humanity, but Skinner going from philanthropist and humanitarian to putting humanity on the line to leak this information is beyond me.
And the series ends happily for some reason. Skinner gives them a chemical formula that somehow gets mass produced and distributed to every corner of the globe within a few hours since we don’t hear reports of mass death. Skinner dies and Hersche, after all her efforts to stop him, claims she would have gone with him to help in his efforts from the start (ugh). There’s some brief discussion on whether humanity should survive, which is pointless. The Lazarus team have their criminal slates wiped clean and become a permanent team running who knows what errands in the aftermath.
So… yeah, not very good. Beyond the visual presentation and a couple of episodes here and there, this was a mess to watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jun 29, 2025
I’ve always been largely ambivalent about Umamusume. I don’t have a problem with human-animal hybrids in anime, but the concept here just seemed like it was aimed at bringing a certain allure to horse racing that I didn’t care for (one that strangely comes with a lot of outfits that don’t exactly lend themselves to running quickly), and combining that with an idol show put on by the winner of each race didn’t exactly speak to me. The whole thing just didn’t draw me in, so when I heard that this series was airing, it wasn’t high on my priority list and I ended up
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having to shed a few series before I caught up mid-season, largely based on the promise that its high score on MAL and AniList suggested it had.
So, does it live up to the hype? I’d say mostly, yeah. It’s not exactly breaking the mold when it comes to sports anime or even running anime in particular, particularly given that that bar was set significantly higher by series like Run With the Wind. It nonetheless has a strong cast of characters and, perhaps most importantly, beautiful animation to emphasize the motions of these racers throughout the story. It certainly stands out in both regards, with Oguri helming the cast in a way that really overshadows those around her. Every time she’s on screen, she’s either a force on the race course or just an excellent set of faces and actions when she’s not running full steam ahead. She even gets some pretty great emotional moments in the middle of the season.
And this is also what I think holds back the series a bit: Oguri is such a central player that other characters start feeling like they’re playing bit parts in her story. There are a couple of exceptions with March standing well on her own and Kitahara running through his own pretty great emotional journey, but they’re also exceptions that demonstrate what I mean. March is central to narrative for a bit until she’s essentially lapped out of the plot, and while I understand that this is to emphasize Oguri’s talent and show that local competition is not where she belongs, it’s sad that the series cannot seem to find her a real rival for a while after this. Kitahara is essential to Oguri’s early journey and his emotional sendoff in the middle is powerful, but it’s a send-off nonetheless and he’s absent from the plot during a lot of Oguri’s subsequent rise on the national level. Other characters, especially former rivals and allies, largely turn into cheering sections for Oguri. There are other exceptions that appear later with Musaka and Rudolf, the latter of whom has a lot of subtle character writing that I really enjoyed, but a lot of the cast just can’t stay relevant.
And Oguri herself is more of a force in the narrative than anything. I root for her to succeed, but there’s rarely any doubt that she will, just in her early runs and her final race. Tomamo Cross ends up being a very interesting opponent because she’s been built up for a while through the narrative, and you start to support her in her own races before the two are set to meet. They have an interesting rivalry too, both focused on the race ahead of them and seeing the other as incentive to push themselves harder rather than engaging in direct competition as so many of the others do. She ends up making the back half of the series that much stronger for her presence, though the fact that it takes them that long to race against one another makes many of the other races in between feel like appetizers that never quite manage to satisfy.
I don’t think any of this is bad per se, but it does mean that, in a series all about momentum, it does feel like it lags at times. If there wasn’t a major dramatic element at play or some race with an opponent who feels like real competition, I felt less invested. During those moments, though, the series absolutely soars. I personally thought Episode 9 was executed the best in this regard, making it believable that Oguri is in one of the top races due to Rudolf’s efforts, only to dash that hope in the end. Episode 6 also had the strongest emotional beats of the series with only Episode 3 in competition, so it’s no wonder these are among the top rated episodes of the whole series. They just hit, and placing them all 3 episodes apart ensured that downtimes were short-lived. The series paces itself very well, and yes, that also plays out in a climax that feels pretty perfectly positioned to set up for a steeper climb for Oguri next season. I didn’t expect Oguri to win, but it’s all about the execution and this felt like she finally slammed into a wall and now has to pick herself up. Tomamo levels up during the episode, and we see our first view of the world abroad with a new challenger in the US. Looking forward to S2.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 28, 2025
I hopped onto this series a little later in the season, not because I’m not a fan of SoL comedy series focused on high school girls (I’ve loved a number of them), but because it just didn’t seem to stand out all that well. It wasn’t even the only travel series this season, and while the camera shots looked pretty cool and the character designs were cute and eye-catching, nothing else really stuck out to me.
Sitting down and watching it proved I really was missing out.
Mono has a great sense of humor, with many of its most hilarious moments helmed by Haruno Akiyama, a manga
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artist who dominates nearly every scene she’s in and bounces off the other characters so well. She literally drives much of the plot as she drives around and experiences a great deal of beautiful locations in Japan, devours copious amounts of food, all in the name of research for her almost certainly cat-centric manga. The more the series leans into her and the others’ eccentricities, the better it gets, and bringing in other manga artists like Kurokuma to not only give us some background on locations, but dig into some of the more surprising supernatural happenings going on around them (and sometimes in their homes) really makes the series’ world pop in a way other SoL worlds don’t usually manage. We even get some interesting insights into traveling through the lens of Kako Komada on her motorcycle.
The central trio of girls stay pretty fun throughout, though some of their odder elements and, in particular, their aims with their newly formed Cinephoto Club largely take a backseat to travel adventures. It does come up early on and I kind of love the dilemma that got Amamiya into this in the first place - her senpai and the only subject she had graduated, so she literally just lies under a desk incapacitated by that absence. She and the others leave that behind and just enjoy the trip, finding opportunities to take new shots and learning to appreciate their surroundings with some pretty landscape sakuga, but I do wish the series hadn’t entirely left that behind them, as I think that does remove a substantial chunk of what made the series so funny to start. Shikishima ends up being a great travel companion throughout and that girl’s ability to eat is very impressive. And of course, there’s Taishou, who just keeps showing up at various places they go to for no particular reason other than to photobomb and take off. Love him.
I think the series really thrives in its episodes where it gets to do two things: showcase some exceptional animation and give them a unique hook or twist. The travel adventures are fun and all, but only a few of their trips end up standing out. I particularly loved Akiyama’s short-term possession in episode 5, the downhill skateboarding in episode 8 which just popped off on the shots, and the ninja trick mansion in episode 10.
So yes, I absolutely enjoyed riding around with these girls on fun adventures. The quality of the animation wasn’t consistently amazing, but it also didn’t have to be. As long as the photos and videos look great and the series occasionally throws all of its budget into a single shot, those end up popping more as a result, and the backgrounds almost always look great. The humor didn’t always hit for me, but when it did, this was just a grand time to watch. It isn’t breaking the mold on SoL, but it works far better than I expected going in.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 28, 2025
This is one of the series I went into this season with a lot of reason to expect greatness. The manga is pretty highly rated, the visuals (particularly for that first episode) were gorgeous, and the fundamental concept of a Kowloon Walled City having been demolished, but somehow returning to “life” through this device known as Gene Terra that hovers over the destroyed city is captivating. It hooked me early and I was all in to explore the mysteries of this series and see the romance between Reiko Kujirai and Hajime Kudou, strained as it is by the reality that this Kujirai has lost her
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memories and the odd ways Kudou engages with her. That’s a recipe for some really intriguing worldbuilding and potentially an amazing romance.
There are some legitimately fascinating ideas in here as we explore what is and isn’t allowed within the confines of Kowloon, particularly as more human beings from outside the city come in and characters piece together what is required in order to see the illusory Kowloon instead of just the demolished wreck. Learning more about the what and the why of this place was consistently the centerpiece of the show, and some of its characters are absolutely excellent. I particularly loved Youmei’s and Gwen’s roles in this story, just found them consistently interesting to follow.
Unfortunately, much as I think this does succeed in places, I spent much of this season slowly falling out of love with the concept of this series. There is some romance between Kujirai and Kudou, but it’s surprisingly little and muted through much of the series. I understand why to some degree, but the promising start it set up between them just never goes anywhere. Kujirai’s journey through the narrative is one of the more investing ones regardless because she comes into things with about as much knowledge as we have and slowly puts the pieces together, and I did root for her through much of it, particularly as she tries to establish her own identity after finding out what’s going on. However, I feel like we get too little time with Kudou, and considering how essential to this plot he is and particularly the “why” of this place, it hampered my investment because so much of the mysteries just felt random and purposeless.
None of that was really helped by Miyuki and Yulong. I can understand why people would get invested in these characters, but their interests are much less engaged with the world inside Kowloon and they end up feeling very apart from it as a result. Every time they were on screen, I felt like I was disengaging from what was going on within the city to focus on some elements of their individual plots, and Yulong in particular makes himself a pretty central antagonist for reasons that take way too long to come out.
I like this kind of slow burn mystery and there are a lot of parts of this that I think work well, but the narrative failed to keep me invested throughout. It wasn’t until the last few episodes that things started to click into place for me, and by then the story had largely run its course after spinning its wheels for so long. That’s not to say it was bad, though. I think the visual design of this series is among the most intriguing of the season as we see people interacting with shadow versions of other characters and get visions of the splintered reality within Kowloon. And this does have some of the best worldbuilding I’ve seen in this season as well, even if a lot of it is delayed and delivered through exposition.
The series does end up earning some extra points for me in the end by placing the focus on more of a meditation on loss, particularly loss due to suicide. The series always suggests this is the source of Kudo’s regret, but this episode finally did something I was really hoping for throughout: it made the mystery of why Kujirai committed suicide feel less important than the reality that she did. The lack of understanding is a large part of the reason that this new Kujirai even exists and is so distinct from the person she used to be, and Kudo’s regrets that spawned this Kowloon only yielded this result because of his desire to relive this specific summer in hopes of better understanding her and recapturing what he lost. This series works less as a romance and more as a means to put his grief on full display, painting it across every storefront and person he interacts with is fascinating. The entire idea of focusing attention on those left behind by loss is a great one that I rarely see explored well. It does, however, make me regret that the series backloaded the answers to some of its more key mysteries, especially when those mysteries weren’t really the point of the series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 26, 2025
I was blown away by how well this series started. Granted, I had some idea of what I was getting into, but I had no idea just how much I would come to love the toxicity in this group and how the various members thrive on it. Coming off the high of the first episode, I still got a thrill every time Lilisa and Otoha played together and went off on each other (no, not that way… well, kinda…). They’re an impressive central pair, and with Lilisa in particular running a dual life as well as trying to stay under the radar with her sister,
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there’s a thriving bit of drama going on in the background as well, and every time that becomes the focus of the series (loved episode 11), I’ve remained entranced with it. That plus their performances in episodes 3 (my personal favorite), 5, 9 and 13 showcase some great music and visuals.
Despite all this, I can’t say this is one of my favorites of the season. It’s good, way better than I was expecting going in, but with episodes 6-8, the series loses a step. Granted, that’s only three episodes, but for a series that carries a certain momentum to keep viewers onboard, it ends up being a sticking point for me. For those three episodes, the series downshifts into a relatively normal band rehearsal arc, which feels very out of place for the story they’ve been telling so far. Tina’s a fine addition to the team, but being far more trepidatious with so little experience means she can’t really mesh with the over-the-top style of her peers. Lilisa’s efforts to support her are nice and all, but it lacks the energy and fervor of the series prior and reduces everything at that point in the series to a paint-by-numbers music training arc. Tamaki, by contrast, is an amazing musician who clearly is a bit of a masochist who likes being put in her place by Otoha, and she pushes Lilisa relentlessly to improve, so at least there’s a little something more there to bounce off of the caustic attitude of her peers.
Still, the series doesn’t just fall off at that point and there are plenty of good episodes to follow. It’s hard to fault the series for having a few down notes in a still pretty great season, and even if the toxicity loses its shock value over the series run, I still enjoyed watching every second of these girls shouting curses at each other and anyone within a 100 meter radius, and there’s a lot of catharsis to be had in watching it play out.
The bigger issue I have with the show is that its drama largely just remains window dressing. Everyone’s struggles to lead a dual life are apparent enough, but Lilisa in particular have some real teeth to them given the oppressive effect her mother has on her - that woman is chilling every time she’s on screen with that vacant expression. The series just doesn’t go beyond that. Maybe that’s what a S2 would do, but the absence of any kind of confrontation felt a little empty. We know basically nothing about Otoha, Tamaki or Tina’s backgrounds as well, so their character journeys are just “I enjoy (and get off on) this, so let’s jam!” which isn’t the worst place to start, but it leaves this series as more of a vibe than a narrative. The music and attitude kept it afloat, but I wanted more.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 24, 2025
I was not expecting this at all going in, but I absolutely loved this series.
Expectations themselves are a part of that. I got Death Parade vibes coming off the trailers, but the series starts feeling more like Wall-E with friends. Then it becomes a fun romp with an alien guest. Then a sitcom with dirty and disrespectful tanuki guests. Then Dune. Then Bartender. Then Dragon Ball Z. Then Gravity. Then a delinquent anime. Then Three Weddings and a Funeral. Then a Clue-esque crime drama.
…damn, that really shouldn’t work… but it does anyway. Why?
Part of the reason is that the series takes place across such a
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long period of time. Events cover many centuries, and on a planet Earth uninhabited by humans and regularly invaded by all manner of aliens, crazy things will happen. It’s a recipe that rather easily lends itself to the absurd while also providing a sort of level narrative throughline where characters mellow out, form connections and grow up.
Another part is that the cast of characters just lends itself so well to crazy events. Sure, it helps that most of them are robots, which leads to some of the best deadpan humor of the series (Doorman Robo is best boy), but the aliens (particularly the Procione family of tanuki) provide the series with the kind of bombastic absurdity that plays off the robots well.
But I’d say what makes all this work is that the series establishes such a careful balance of tone and holds it throughout. For all the goofs and giggles it pulls off so well, the series has this pervasive melancholy to it that peeks out every now and then. Whether it’s because the alien tanukis learned Human languages from hanging out onboard what was likely one of the last active human spacecraft soaring through the cosmos (which had long since been rendered lifeless), because the world-ending alien who shows up just doesn’t have a civilization to destroy despite his best efforts, or because Yachiyo goes for a day off that takes her through many of the abandoned buildings that once characterized human civilization, there’s a near-constant reminder that, for all the hotel remains a bustling hub of activity, it’s an island on a planet that humans left behind and to which they will almost certainly never return.
Despite all that, the show is rarely sad (beyond that one time Yachiyo was lost in space - I shouted “no!” repeatedly at my screen). That's part of what makes the tone of this series work so well: it's never oppressive. I'd compare this to something like Girls' Last Tour, which had a very interesting relationship to its broader world largely devoid of human beings as well, as there's not really a sense of loss coming from the characters and what is conveyed is done for the audience through lingering shots and an absence. The difference here, however, is that we've seen the world still thriving without us. Plant and animal life is here in abundance. The hotel goes on with its robot staff. Humans were lost, but the decidedly inhuman world is still just trucking along with its alien clientele.
The characters absolutely do a lot of the heavy lifting in this series. I didn’t expect the mechanical lead Yachiyo to be so easy to invest in, but she spends the long years of the series learning. Sure, some of those are “achievements” unlocking minor changes and upgrades for her (including a useful ability to inflict physical violence on some patrons), but as a robot programmed to be a very efficient host at a hotel, she garners a lot of experience you would never expect. She learns to accept that humans aren't coming back, but tries her damnedest to hold onto what little she has of them by running and improving upon a distillery. She forms surprising bonds with new patrons, including quite possibly one of the most powerful beings alive who forms a bond with her in return, thanking her by blasting a hole for their hotspring. She learns to take a day off and appreciate it, how to take on the role of astronaut in a time of need, and even goes through a starkly rebellious phase as a half-tank.
Ponko becomes a great secondary lead as the series goes on, not only helping run the hotel and becoming a great host in her own right, but a willing accomplice to murder-ish. She even gets married as the series goes on in one of the most darkly funny parts of the series as they literally prop her grandmother’s corpse up to be a part of the ceremony. She learns from Yachiyo, but in some ways grows beyond her, not just as a surprisingly knowledgeable astrophysicist, but as someone who has a much more direct line of knowledge and empathy to their patrons.
So, yes, this series that started out as Wall-E with more steps turned out to be my favorite of the season. I really have nothing but great things to say about it. What I expected to be my dark horse of the season proved to be a shockingly great ride from start to finish and easily the most underrated hidden gem so far this year. That final episode send off was amazing, and I particularly love that the series literally sends off its only human (nice to see they're not extinct) with a message to the effect of “how long until you return!?” I doubt this will get a second season, but I was shouting that as the series faded out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 24, 2025
More than anything I’ve watched in recent memory, this review requires context.
Over the last couple of years, I watched a lot of Universal Century Gundam series. That included 0079, Zeta, ZZ, and Char’s Counterattack, as well as a number of series that take place at various points along the timeline. To say my experience was a mixed bag would be an understatement. The Origin rates among my all-time favorite mecha series and I loved Hathaway and Pocket, but I think some of those early entries are overhyped, even if they are foundational to much of modern anime.
I entered into this anime intrigued, but trepidatious. I’d
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heard it was connected with the Universal Century somehow and that Char was involved, but little else. The animation looked colorful and sharp, so why not give this a try?
I was all-in on this after episode 2. Learning that this is an alternative UC timeline where Char took advantage of what was one of my biggest gripes with those early series (the fact that the Federation seemed to have no interest whatsoever in securing their mobile suits, particularly the RX-78-2 Gundam), proceeded to steal it, paint it red, and just dominate the One Year War with a combination of the best tech on offer and his prodigious skills was just the best, even if it ended with him suddenly vanishing in a ball of light.
The series lost me a little after that. It still featured some great fights, the animation and choreography of which was pretty strong as these Clan Battles were ongoing. And the series had some pretty deep references for fans, bringing in the Black Tri-Stars of all people (yes, I remembered them despite their short presence in 0079), Bask, and, most prominently, Challia Bull, a Newtype who got to do scant little in 0079 but has a real presence this season. The season also sports some new characters with Shiiko Sugai being a real stand-out. But these are mostly just references, as is the inclusion of the Psycho Gundam and various other Newtypes. The introduction of Shuji as the new pilot of the Red Gundam was intriguing, especially since the Gundam seemed to talk to him. It’s all beautifully done with Newtype powers being accompanied by the “Kira-Kira” to give it a real glow-up.
Despite some intriguing pieces being thrown into the mix, I can’t say I was really reeled back into this story until episode 9 when the pieces started coming together. Learning that this alternate timeline is somehow connected to others through that Kira-Kira, and that people and items have transited into the GQuuuuuuX timeline is intriguing, but learning who knows about those connections and why is even more so. Lalah Sune makes an appearance as two separate people, one unconscious inside her MAN-08 Elmeth, now known as the Rose of Sharon. In this timeline, she wasn't picked up by Char, and her experience as what was basically a sex slave is made all the more painful by the knowledge that, despite how quickly it ended, her transcendent time with Char was her destiny. I got goosebumps as she was seeing into the alternate life she could have led, the one that would have ended with her death, but one should have vastly preferred nonetheless.
From here on, the story just keeps ramping up. Utilizing the Solar Ray to devastating effect with the Kira-Kira, having Kycelia finally enact her revenge for her father’s death on Gihren only to ignite a massive civil war within the Zeon forces, reintroducing Char and waking up the Lalah from another alternate UC timeline where she did not sacrifice herself for Char all blends into one spectacle of a final episode where the fights both go hard.
That is where some of these higher concepts do end up being frustrating in their execution. Lalah being a special sort of Newtype who can both see across timelines and has ended up destroying several by surviving long enough to see her beloved Char die is interesting, but scaling the threat higher just makes things more absurd and begs the question of why Lalah in particular is such a focal point. For that matter, Shuji ends up being a bit confounding with his timeline-spanning effort to kill surviving Lalahs before they can do their thing and end up taking down a whole timeline with them. It ends up making other Newtypes feel more like sideshows and, like so many of the series before this, leans into the Newtype powers as a crutch rather than using them in a way that feels natural to the plot. Given all this crazy power, having the series end with surviving Newtypes living free on Earth seems a little strange, you’d think they would be hunted and corralled.
Still, I can’t hold it against the series too much, even if the spectacle takes away from what could have been a more thoughtful exploration of the Universal Century as a whole and the choices various characters have made in it. The fights are still cool with some of the best choreography I’ve seen from Gundam among the main trio and Challia vs. Char was an unexpected treat (Char wrecking Kycilia in glorious fashion once again), so at least there were some great payoffs. Still one of the better UC Gundam entries I’ve seen, if still a far cry from its peak.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 21, 2025
I considered just setting aside this series after the first season. There were elements of that first outing that I really liked, including some of the minor mysteries and its visual presentation, but the larger mysteries and the characters just never clicked with me. Looking back on it, I may have been a little harsh on my review, but I do think that the first season in a vacuum was just pretty good, nothing too special.
Season two is a significant step up, and a large part of that is how well it builds on these characters and eschews elements of the series that weren’t working.
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For the latter, even though the series is still called “How to Become Ordinary,” it doesn’t get as much attention as S1 and for good reason: that aim on the part of Kobato and Osanai just wasn’t doing anything meaningful. You could say that their efforts to start relationships fits into that, but… not really. It didn’t seem like either of their aims in finding a partner was to just act ordinary. If anything, I understand this central conceit to be more about how they decidedly aren’t ordinary and never will be.
And leaning into that is part of what improves these characters. It’s not as much present for Kobato who largely takes a backseat in the first arc of this season; he seems largely aimless for a while until his relationship with Tokiko falls apart, then he gets focused on figuring out the mystery of the arsons and his involvement really gets interesting when he’s filling in the mystery with Osanai. If I had to pick one moment that got me from him, though, it’s the cold, unfeeling reaction he gives to Tokiko’s infidelity. Acknowledging that he’s not cut out for a normal relationship like this is a necessary step, and bleeds well into his return to Osanai.
Osanai herself is just excellent. She’s a subtle, guiding force throughout the first arc, and it’s easy to sit there in the same position as Urino wondering if she’s behind a lot of what’s happening. There are plenty of subtle cues that she’s not, and I found myself second-guessing that read, especially as Urino laid out the case. So when she drops the hammer (literally and figuratively), showing just how short-sighted his investigations were and tearing him down mentally, it’s brutal. She’s tearing into the audience’s preconceptions as well, ones that she knowingly fed into. Episodes 6 and 7 are this series just firing on all cylinders, so even when we find out whodunnit and why, that becomes a footnote to everything that went on in the investigations. It’s pretty masterful.
That being said, much as this delivered expertly on the build-up and clues the series doles out, it does feel like the series drags for a while through those early episodes. Osanai draws interest, but most of the other mysteries and character interactions are only meaningful in retrospect. And while that first arc ends in a way that makes the journey worth it, the second isn’t quite as effective from start to finish. In part, I chalk that up to Kobato being the PoV character again with Osanai taking a backseat (largely only appearing in the story through flashbacks and notes until the last couple of episodes, and she still draws more attention and interest from me), and he just doesn’t work as well on his own. I wanted to know who these reckless drivers were and the back-and-forth between the paired mysteries was intriguing, but that’s about the only thing that maintained my interest in the ongoing mystery.
And yeah, that mystery pays off decently and breadcrumbs the answer well enough, but it’s not as engrossing nor does it beg for a repeat viewing as much as the arson case does. There’s a connection to the “becoming ordinary” framework of the show, but it ends up significantly weaker than I’d hoped (the guy he thought he’d driven to suicide survived the attempt, was able to set him straight about the “why” of it, and we only got the vaguest hint of what that reason was) and his nurse’s plan feels particularly convoluted and ill-considered considering he was alive (you’d think they would have talked before she went from 0 to murder/torture).
Still, the show benefits from putting their best foot forward across most of the season’s run, so even though it doesn’t hit as many high notes in its second arc (and both still suffer from pacing issues in the slow build-up their mysteries that continue to hold the show back in general), it’s still a good exploration of Kobato and Osanai’s early history together, a doubling down on their relationship that feels earned and earnest, and a very good watch overall.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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