Anime Review Blog: June 2024
Sorry for the delay in this blog folks! I’ve been trying to get my life back to the school grind, and I’m trying to take actual responsibility in my life recently instead of being lazy! Not that it’s landed me a job but… it’s the effort that counts, right? Surely the job market will improve…. copium
Frankly, 99% of you already know what Frieren is about, but for the people still on the edge: Frieren is absolutely amazing. Absolute cinema. It strikes the perfect balance of coziness, wholesomeness, action, story development, world building, and character development, without feeling artificial or forced in any of those areas. To me, it honestly felt like a great game like Witcher 3 or Cyberpunk 2077, except that it is in anime form. The world is rich in a way that western RPGs tend to show off, which is very unique for anime. This is not rich in the same way that Persona 5 Royal or Final Fantasy games are. Yet, it is still very distinctly anime.
Despite how much I’ve gushed about it, and how I absolutely recommend it… I do think it is a tad overhyped. It has become the most popular anime, other than maybe Jujutsu Kaisen, in the past few months… and I’m not sure if there is enough there to justify that placement. It has amazing moments, it was a nice length, there isn’t anything wrong with it, and yet when I looked at my S tier, it felt like a slight step down compared to those shows. And despite how I praised it for being like this, I think it comes down to the similarity to western RPGs that ultimately keeps it out of the S tier for me. I feel like I’ve seen half of the plot devices from games, not even other anime, and I’ve seen the story play out.
Without a doubt still a top tier anime, but I think it will stay at the top of A tier until it can innovate a bit more than it already has. If all goes well, it will end up there when season 2 drops.
Verdict: A+
A real mixed bag show for me, Hokkaido Gals are Super Adorable should be your typical slice of life romcom, but in both good and bad way, it deviates from that mold. While not my favorite in the genre, this show does a great job depicting a harem, mostly by not having them all date the main character at once. This may seem counter intuitive, but unless your name is 100 girlfriends, I think a show having multiple dating partners at the same time detracts from the characters rather than telling an alternate story. In that sense, having 3 characters flirt but not fully commit to a relationship helps give each character enough time to be fleshed out.
With that said, I’m not super impressed with this anime as a whole. The girls are top tier waifu material, but the story is lacking in the entire middle section, and I frequently felt like I was in an ad for a Hokkaido tour company rather than watching an anime. It was less about them showing off everything Hokkaido has, and more about the tone and the way things were presented. Moods would suddenly change because we got food, and we have to show off the food for a whole two minutes! We need every character to say an out-of-character line so they can promote the food, or the skiing, or the festivals more! It’s actually not that hard to incorporate these things naturally, but it is not what Hokkaido Gal’s went for, and it definitely made the show feel like a slog. Also, for whatever reason the anime just has Tik Tok dancing in the opening. I guess I’m getting to be old when I think that new trends like that are cringe, but it just feels so out of place, I dunno.
If this anime incorporates the 3rd grade lesson of “show, not tell”, I think it has some solid potential as a romance and comedy. As it stands though, the story was lacking in areas, and I sometimes feel like I got an unskippable ad in my anime. If you show up for brain off comedy or purely for cute girls though, you’ll have a great time.
Verdict: B-
Our Dating Story: The Experienced you and the Inexperienced Me is just, a horrible name to start off with. There has to be some other way to convey this without using so many words.
With that out of the way, the opening episodes to this anime were really impressive to me. A romance that talks about sex on episode 1? A complex female character?? A guy who is only slightly a pushover??? It was feeling like a new age of romance anime, and for a while it was. The first four episodes felt deep, going further than romance anime has ever gone (not far tbh). And then… huh, episode 6 and 7 feel kind of similar… and episode 9 and 10… 11… okay hold on. Are you telling me that this couple, who are constantly going on about how they are perfect together, break up THREE times in 12 episodes?! What’s going on?
Frankly, I don’t know. All that I know is that the show felt very repetitive, like the same arc repeated 3 times over with slightly different scenarios each time. We start with the cutesy date, and then somebody does something stupid, and then there is absolutely no communication whatsoever, we have drama and gossiping, and then a break up, lonely thoughts, and then 1 episode later they make up. It felt unique and interesting the first time since this is rarely done within anime, but it really got old the third time around. It felt like the writer of the source material had to meet a crucial deadline, and just re-wrote the script slightly and added it on at the end. There are enough changes to make it believable that its a new section, but its so similar that it’s hard to watch.
Maybe a future season can save it, but this first season lost any potential gained from the first couple of episodes.
Verdict: C+
When people were hyped about Frieren, I fully understood it when watching, even when I had moments of feeling like I had seen that scene before in a handful of games. However, the pure uniqueness the The Apothecary Diaries offers really made me feel how most of the media felt about Frieren. And to be fair, most people were also hyped about Apothecary as well, but not quite to the same level. It had the insanely high ratings, but not as much mainstream discussion.
What I liked about Apothecary Diaries more than Frieren was the mystery aspect. Frieren largely follows “The Hero’s journey”, an archetypal formula. It innovates within this formula, but ultimately the show will be about destroying the big bad to save the world. Apothecary Diaries, however, is a mystery anime. A genre vastly underrepresented within the medium. And it is executed to absolute perfection. There is not a single beat of this show that feels out of place, a character that acts out of line, or a frame improperly drawn.
The only things I can really knock Apothecary Diaries for is the gradual, slow burn build up, and the setting. The slow burn build up is what leads to some of the greatest hits, but also can lose some of its audience early on. Some top tier media pieces like Breaking Bad and The Witcher 3 are slow burns, and this leads to them fulfilling a rich drama, and Apothecary Diaries is another added to that collection. But inevitably, some people cannot watch slow burners, and will drop this show. As to the setting, it is not a problem itself, but the Chinese caste system that it is largely focused on can be tough to wrap your head around. There are so many titles and terms that it can lead to some confusion.
Overall though, Apothecary Diaries is a pure masterpiece. I might get some flak for this, but: I rate it higher than Frieren (for now).
Verdict: S
We’ve had some deep hits, so here is a quick one, Konosbua Season 3. I delayed this blog a week in order to catch up on my favorite group of rag-tag adventurers. Needless to say, Season 3 is a huge hit. The spinoff series focusing on Megumin is a mixed bag, but the full party being brought together again is a refresher on just how great the chemistry is between the characters. And the new territory explored within season 3 is a new and interesting direction. Its more amazing, hilarious Konosuba in a slightly different setting. Any Darkness fans will be happy that a lot of the plot centers around her as well!
Verdict: Remains S
Some real bangers this season, huh? Slightly fewer shows this blog, but I hope the more in-depth analysis made up for that a bit. However, a little surprise for people who have made it to the end! That’s right, not just a simple sign-off like usual!
On Friday, July 5th, I will be releasing a blog detailing ever single anime or similar animation (must include to appease Arcane haters) that I have watched. There will be a short summary accompanying it, giving my thoughts in a brief 2 to 5 sentence summary. This is a temporary remedy for the next announcement…
The discord! I have realized that it would be much easier to have all of my followers in one place, instead of having to track you all down indivually… (T_T)
If you are seeing this post on social media or a forum, and are interested, please send me a message or reply on that place in order to get the discord. If you see this on discord, there will be an accompanying discord link. The main reason I’m doing it this way is because if I leave a public discord link out on the internet, we will be overrun with bots and scam messengers. Doing it this way helps keep all of the legitimate viewers in!
What will be on the discord? Well, discussion, a way to easily see my new posts, and maybe… some sneak peaks of something new coming…
