This was quite a solid line-up for the season and eventually had some unique shows coming up at the end of September.
Now for the tier and yes, you probably noticed by now how there hasn’t been a single anime being put on C, D or even E like I had in the last few years and you would say that I’ve gotten beyond biased with this, but lately I’m feeling like the shows I’m watching nowadays aren’t so mediocre to warrant being put on C, D or E, everything I’ve been watching has been pretty good so far, which this is probably the best year of anime I’ve watched yet. Anyway, here’s the tier:
Now, into the reviews:
D_Cide Traumerei The Animation
The AOTS was originally going to be Higurashi Sotsu, but I had to give D_Cide Traumerei the top spot and you’ll soon find out why.
Coming from BanG Dream and D4DJ, Bushiroad delivers a new franchise that it’s not music related but being completely action packed totally works!
Sanzigen continues to deliver some pretty good CG animation, and unlike Bandori and D4DJ, this is a bit different, even if the style is for the most part the good old Sanzigen you know, what stands out above the rest is that the series has this interesting color grading, well, it isn’t much of a big deal but this use of color grading is something I haven’t seen in recent Sanzigen anime.
The story is also a nice balance between the serious action moments and a bit of serious issues at the beginning combined with some really funny moments, and I like the direction of the story. Oddly enough part of the story kinda made me think that I was watching like an anti-drug PSA or something.
The voice cast is also excellent, with many new names, one being the seiyuu of Arisa from Bandori and even seeing names like Aoi Yuuki and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka which is definitely rare for me to see these big names into a Sanzigen anime, let alone coming from Bushiroad which they mostly use newer talent.
Now, will D_Cide Traumerei become a new Bushiroad franchise I might actively follow? As of the publishing of this post, they released a brand new game in Japan, I haven’t payed too much on it but the game doesn’t look a bit like much my cup of tea and I’m not sure if I would be interested to play it (Also because I don’t have any space on my phone), but if they do end up releasing an English version (which I hope it doesn’t take forever or no English version at all), I would definitely check it out.
Although one thing I would say about the game is that perhaps it could give Randou and Eru a bit more of a backstory to them since the cast of The Animation were the main focus.
For a while because D_Cide Traumerei had two other companies attached to the project other than Bushiroad, I had a bit of diffculty figuring out whether this was actually a Bushiroad IP, but the two other companies that also produce the project, Sumzap and Drecom, are the developers for the game. At one point I randomly checked the Bushiroad Global Online Store and they had this Bushiroad Game Festival banner on the main home page and it features D_Cide Traumerei, so I guess it is part of the Bushiroad family? But despite that… They didn’t have much merch in the category other than Randou and Eru pins.
I’m publishing this post before the final episode comes out, but I have to ask the big question: Should it get more anime? As a new Bushiroad property (or at least part of it), I would normally expect they would indeed make more anime, starting with a short series a la Garupa Pico and Petit Mix, but more seasons and movies? Depending on how will The Animation end, it depends on whether or not more seasons or movies are needed.
Although one thing I’d like to see if they do plan to make more anime is introducing the characters from the game into anime. I really like the characters from The Animation (Especially Eri because she’s my favorite) but looking at the project trailer, there are other characters I like their designs and I wish I’d like to know about them, so maybe the game could be the only option if they don’t end up planning on making more anime.
But overall, it was a pretty good experience, I had a lot of fun with it and , it may sound biased because Bushiroad and Sanzigen, but it’s definitely my AOTS!
Star Wars Visions
This one was quite a surprise and it was an absolute eyecandy.
I’m not a huge Star Wars person but after almost 6 years, I’m now living in a post-sequel trilogy world where every Star Wars fanboy despise the sequel trilogy so bad to the point that it might have affected their future interest on Star Wars for good (Like, come on, is it really that bad? Even compared to the prequel trilogy?), as someone who never grew up with Star Wars as much with only having a toy lightsaber, a Lego set and watching some Lego Star Wars shorts on Cartoon Network when I was young, I want to give the sequel trilogy a chance but I’m going to get crucified by pretty much anyone if I say anything about it.
Out of the blue, they announced this anthology series with big names like Trigger, Production IG, Studio Colorido, Studio Geno, Kamikaze Douga and Science Saru, sounds like an absolute slam dunk. And then watching the series: Even if I were somewhat familiar with the studios, they just really went all out with the animation quality that makes me think the studios I’m all familiar with are completely unrecognizeable! (Except Trigger’s The Twins because Hiroyuki Imaishi directed this and it has the same style as Promare, makes me think that could be Imaishi’s new style at this point) There’s just something about the studios’ hard work into these stories that I feel like they’ve seriously been held back by television anime airing deadlines which the quality can definitely become mediocre.
One other cool thing that I like about Star Wars Visions’ stories is that some of them lean into the more Japanese side of things which goes full circle on the fact that Star Wars was inspired by Akira Kurosawa movies which is an amazing feat.
Because this is an anime anthology, I had to watch the entire series in Japanese dub for a true weeb experience, though I did rewatch The Twins and The Duel because seeing names like Neil Patrick Harris and David Harbour in anime is a first for me.
Now, with the announcement of this Star Wars anime anthology, the first and main thing that came to my mind is: If this ends up being successful and popular, I REALLY want them to make a similar series with Marvel! I’d REALLY love to see more Marvel anime in my life because the recent ones that came out a few years ago are mainly for a younger target audience and they all look like shit, they’re NOTHING like the edgy Marvel anime that came out 10 years ago and I’m still mad that Madhouse, the same studio that did the cooler Marvel anime a decade ago, did the last Marvel anime for kids being Future Avengers! Forget Marvel’s What If which the visuals look generic, I want a Star Wars Vision styled Marvel multiverse series!
I was a bit worried that this was going to be a weekly series, but they did release all the episodes in one so I managed to binge the series at day 1 just in time to include it in this review which still counts to be in the summer season.
Now, here’s my ranking of every episode, because why not:
- The Twins
- Lop & Ochou
- The Ninth Jedi
- The Village Bride
- Tatooine Rhapsody
- The Duel
- The Elder
- Akakiri
- T0-B1
After watching all these episodes, I’d really LOVE to see a new season, if not, stick to the Marvel anime anthology like I pitched.
One last note, this series definitely delivers some of the best Jedi and Sith girls I’ve ever seen in my life.
Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Sotsu
This one I had a huge debate on how would I review this because as much as this was my most anticipated series of the season, throughout my journey on watching this, it’s rather complicated.
First and foremost, the repetition of going back through the same arcs over and over almost kills my interest in watching Sotsu for good, the only difference this season makes is adding brand new perspectives. I couldn’t help but complain every time I watch an episode like “Why do I have to rewatch these arcs again?” but then at one point I thought this is the spirit of Higurashi and then someone told me that I either haven’t played or watched the OG Higurashi anime then, which I did the latter, I binged everything but it’s literally been a hot minute and I completely forgot about everything.
Pretty much for the entirety of the series I had really huge mixed feelings but then with the new perspectives and up to the last few episodes to the long awaited Rika vs Satoko fight, my impressions have finally changed for the better.
Now that we finally got the finale (Just in time to watch it before I published this post), I have to say, the ending was pretty sweet and this kinda makes me think that this SHOULD be the definitive ending to Higurashi for good, or maybe not because there’s still going to be more Higurashi stories anyways (Such as the recently announced manga that takes place in the Reiwa era), and the best part of last week’s episode and today’s finale is definitely the Rika vs Satoko fight which is something I’ve been dying to see in forever and this would definitely be the best anime fight of the year.
Although one thing I’m pretty salty about was Eua because she certainly was the biggest disappointment of Gou and Sotsu, I wasn’t very happy with her at all. Her introduction was a bit disappointing enough, but right up until the finale, I was seriously expecting there would be like a twist reveal to the character at the end but the series ultimately failed to deliver. You could say that I had my expectations somewhat misguidedly high and you’re right, but it’s just that we learn particularly nothing special about Eua at all in the series that really makes the character overhyped and underwhelming.
I guess Ryushiki07 definitely wants to keep us in the dark about Eua’s origin forever.
Now that Higurashi Gou and Sotsu is over, where does that leave in the future of Higurashi anime going forward?
I would say that Passione definitely killed it in these seasons in terms of the visuals to the point that I’d love to see them be the new definitive studio for Higurashi anime content going forward, it’s kinda sad to see that DEEN is no longer doing any new Higurashi anime on this day and age but it’s for the better, DEEN was a studio for their time. One small complain I have about Passione’s visuals though is that there’s way too much blood than it needs to be and even the most brutal moments, even though I’m a huge fan of blood and gore but something about Gou/Sotsu’s blood that makes it feel weird, not to mention the cheap blood splat effects they threw in.
As much as I’d like to see it happen, I probably don’t expect any new OVAs that are either mostly comedic or the more serious arcs like DEEN’s series of OVAs have anytime soon.
One more retrospect on watching Gou, I said this before and I’ll say it again: Gou is definitely not the best Higurashi anime for beginners, but I’m glad that I eventually binged all of the anime content.
Now that we’re done with Higurashi anime for now, would you expect to see an Umineko reboot anime? I heard a lot of negative things about the original anime, but on this day and age, a reboot should be needed in order to fix some plot points or whatever, I never watched the Umineko anime and I’m pretty sure you’re definitely gonna tell me not to watch it at all and you definitely wouldn’t like to see another anime either. (VN purists)
Dragon Maid S
It’s been a few years since I watched the first season that I don’t completely remember anything, let alone the animation but knowing Kyoto Animation I wouldn’t be surprised for its smoothness, but I feel like in this season, I feel like the animation quality got really buffed up, or at least I thought it was on the first episode with the action scenes but the series overall still looks pretty sweet.
Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai!
There’s not much to say on this one but it is quite pretty hilarious and I would definitely continue watching until the second cour. The visuals aren’t what I expected since I was only familiar with Prisma Illya and the Chaos;Child anime, but it still looks decent enough on its own.
I preferred hearing Aoi Yuuki as Jahy-sama but I think I like Naomi Ozora’s performance better because there’s something about Jahy’s screaming that makes the character even better.
Scarlet Nexus
I was expecting this to be like some sort of a small prequel to the game or something like that, but nope, after finding at least one comparison video on YouTube, THE ANIME FLAT OUT SPOILS THE GAME! I’m not sure if my impressions for the Scarlet Nexus anime might apply to the game in terms of the story or not, but here goes.
First things first, the animation is done by Sunrise, which is pretty rare for them to do non-mecha anime every once in a while as far as I know, but this looks more like it was done by another studio and the animation quality here is decent at best but definitely not the most memorable from Sunrise which is shocking coming from a studio specialized in mecha anime, especially when you look at Gundam Hathaway which I’m not really a Gundam person but it does look beautiful.
The series also does the same thing The World Ends With You The Animation did where the action scenes would have the characters go full CG fighting against already CG Others, at least when the characters are transformed anyway which is off considering their designs already look a bit detailed enough for them to be full CG, though it mostly have to do with their masks which it won’t translate well to hand drawn. One thing I have to say about the CG fight scenes is that it definitely looks better than TWEWY did because the aesthetic blend well and everything.
The story is… weird. About 3/4 of the story it went from killing down Others to have a conflict against Seiran and stuff which is split into two perspectives on two different teams, which is kinda like Captain America: Civil War in a way, which is really interesting and it’s way better than just killing Others all the time, I’m a sucker for stories where the real conflict aren’t the monsters, but evil humans. That plotline is really interesting but at the same time it gets weird with… Some scenes about time travel?
Call me apologist, but I still think the Scarlet Nexus anime is alright on its own, so I don’t really have the mentality to shit on it for no reason. As for the game, here’s what I have to say about it given with how little I’ve seen with watching the trailers:
The game looks sick, I like how it looks, I like the character designs (I ESPECIALLY love how they have the black and red color scheme), but I would have prefered if the game was made by the developers of God Eater and Code Vein with similar graphics and had Ufotable animated cutscenes and you get a Bandai Namco JRPG with the usual formulas God Eater and Tales have. Although the game is fine on its own, it’s just that I’m making random “What If…?” fantasies that doesn’t make sense, as for Scarlet Nexus’ graphics, the way the shading looks almost reminds me of Fire Emblem Three Houses with the way how the characters’ faces are shaded or something, so I’m probably asking too much on the game’s identity.
As for whether or not should you watch it, I’d definitely best recommend you to play the game first and watch the anime afterwards for comparison, or for an authentic video game adaptation experience, just wait for about 2 to 3 years to watch the anime (I’d be hella surprised if you’d actually wait that long to do that), or if you’re the type of person who HATES video game adaptations, and I normally don’t condone this, but if you want, don’t watch this at all.
One last thing I’d like to say about the game is that don’t want to hear my Filipino friend ranting about the game ever again and it’s the last time I want to see him rant like the way he did where he criticized the game’s story and characters and it just makes me mad.
Shockingly the series is going to continue for ANOTHER COUR, which I guess that means the game is really long. This kinda makes me feel like watching Phantasy Star Online 2 Episode Oracle all over again.
Magia Record season 2
I had trouble deciding on which should be the dead last anime of the review as my bottom tier if it would be the Scarlet Nexus anime or Magia Record season 2, but I think I’ll go with Magia Record season 2 for one crucial thing that I’ll talk about.
Before I start talking about my review for the season, there’s something I completely forgot to mention in my Spring 2021 review post: 2021 is the 10th anniversary of Madoka Magica, so if season 2 of Magia Record were to come out on 2022, it would have been a waste for this year (or so I thought). And second of all, there’s actually going to be a final season (Yet another “final season” this year) that’ll be released by the end of the year, so this season isn’t the conclusion for Magia Record just wait, so we’ll have one last Magia Record season for the end of the year and throughout 2022.
Anyway, now onto my review for Magia Record season 2, in short: The plot continues to be really interesting but the amount of episodes shocked me a bit (But even Cells at Work season 2 had about the same length), although this is probably for a good reason.
There’s not much to say about the plot but I do think it’s really interesting so far and I really like how the cast from the OG series return to team-up with the new girls at the end, but the animation is definitely the biggest issue I have and I’m not sure if I remember correctly but I think it even goes all the way back to the first season where it just doesn’t feel the same as the original Madoka Magica series, Shaft’s animation downgraded a bit, but in THIS season specifically, it’s a whole different story and it’s not very good.
The animation this season is TERRIBLE! The way the characters move and feel almost look half-assed, though not insanely horrible, and there’s some weird awkward cuts and offscreen moments where characters do or say something and out of nowhere comes a frame with a piece of a background or someone and it’s just akward, it’s got a bit of good sakuga moments, but at the same time the sakuga can be way too much and it’s extremely hard to follow what is happening.
I guess this is probably why Shaft decided to announce the second season being in production when the first season ended, and even though I didn’t want it to be released in 2022, I think it really would have been better off delaying this season because it feels like they really rushed the production with half-assed animation and have the season be only 8 episodes. Although even Shaft has had its fair share of visual monstrosities.
So this season of Magia Record, even if the story could redeem it a little bit, the rushed animation gave me a sour taste in my mouth and that definitely becomes the worst anime of the season, I really hope the final season can make me feel better.
Honorable mentions
D4DJ Petit Mix (Finale)
The series ended on July 30th and you would probably think I would have made a review about the series here, but because it has ended relatively early in the summer season, it would have taken forever until late September for you to see my thoughts on Petit Mix, so I had to make a separate review talking about the series and even predicting the future of the D4DJ franchise, which the first anniversary of the series (or most likely just about the game Groovy Mix from what I heard) will happen soon!
This is the first standalone review I did for an anime show, though I do remember writing an episode review of Kemono Friends 2 episode 6 on my old Tumblr but that’s a completely different story, this D4DJ Petit Mix review is about the series as a whole which doing separate reviews like these isn’t something I normally do because I like doing these review posts you’re reading right now in order to compile everything I watched.
Ganbare, Douki-chan & Getsuyoubi no Tawawa season 2 – Early Fall 2021 anime first impressions
Two new challengers approach!
We’ve got two special shows that came out on September 19th, though this is going to be more like a first impressions review for Douki-chan and Getsuyoubi no Tawawa season 2 as they’re going to be broadcast throughout the entirety of the Fall season.
Ganbare, Douki-chan
I don’t have much to say about this one mainly because I never pay too much attention to the picture series, but one thing for sure is that because this is a comedy series that focuses on the titular character’s struggles and stuff, I’m for sure going to like this series A LOT better than Miru Tights because this doesn’t focus TOO MUCH on the foot fetish like Miru Tights did.
For a long time I hated Miru Tights because I’m mainly biased to stockings (or knee-highs), but in reality, looking back into Miru Tights, the series is basically Yom showing off his foot fetish, which the series has A LOT of foot fetish in case you didn’t know or forgot. I’m definitely aware that’s basically that Yom Tights or Miru Tights is all about the foot fetish with pantyhoses, I wouldn’t mind a little bit of feet, but the way how Miru Tights does the foot fetish, it just doesn’t work and it quickly killed my interest.
Not to mention TRUSS’ poor handling of the series’ streaming on YouTube which is something I’m the most pissed off about, basically they always released every episode in a limited weekly basis despite having a global target audience with English and Chinese subtitles in mind, completely kills the accessibility and you can’t watch every episode of the series anymore. In fact, looking at the playlist now, they’re ALL deleted! Every episode except the first one were privated, but now TRUSS decided to delete ALL of them!
Sorry about the Miru Tights rant. Anyway, back to Douki-chan.
The animation looks pretty nice too which they do recreate the Yom art style nicely, although it’s not as near as Miru Tights which even though I hate the series, I admit the visuals was the only best part of the series, although I feel like the movements in Douki-chan can be awfully slow but it looks nice.
Getsuyoubi no Tawawa 2
This just came out of nowhere. It’s been 5 long years since the first season came out and now they happened to finally make the second season but without any prior announcements or anything, they just flat out announced that this is a thing and that’s it, which is something I like.
I have quite a lot to talk about from watching the first episode alone.
For starters, the season’s being handled by a completely different studio. Previously it was PINE JAM that did the first season as well as “Just Because!” that actually had Kiseki Himura (The creator of Tawawa) involved in it, remember that show? This season’s being handled by Yokohama Animation Lab which they did Miru Tights, and there’s a lot to talk about it.
When I first watched the season, one issue I had with the visuals is that the character designs looked a bit off from Kiseki Himura’s art style because I thought the eyes looked a little closer, the way the heads are shaped and the nose is drawn differently, so then I had to go rewatch the first season and there’s quite a few gray areas that PINE JAM did with the first season:
First of all, the first season had a slightly blue color grading, which the second season lacks and has a normal color grading, and looking back at the actual animation, it’s a complete mixbag. In some frames, the character designs looked far more faithful to Kiseki Himura’s art style, but in other frames, it can get really awful. And then looking at Just Because, which came out A YEAR after the Getsuyoubi no Tawawa anime, even by having Kiseki Himura do the original character designs, the animators kinda did a better job in replicating Himura’s art style, but it still falls apart a bit when the characters move and other frames.
So I give points for PINE JAM for the blue color grading which is close to how the covers of the tankobons (volumes) of the Getsuyoubi no Tawawa doujin series look like, but the more I looked closer at the character designs and everything else in season 2 so far as with the first two episodes as of the publishing of this post, they definitely nail Kiseki Himura’s art style far better than the first season did. (I still kinda don’t like the noses, though)
I gotta say, I definitely have high hopes for Yokohama Animation Lab because even with two episodes in so far, they deliver far better animation for Getsuyoubi no Tawawa than PINE JAM with very smooth animation, yes, even the boob physics are hella smooth (I love the button popping scene from the first episode so much), even if the season doesn’t have the blue color grading like the first season had. But then again, the serialized manga doesn’t have color… Which even that still has a blue version anyways.
Also, notice that I mentioned the doujin versions of Getsuyoubi no Tawawa, this is because, if the “season 2” name wasn’t enough, this is still an adaptation of the Twitter series (like the first season had which basically came out a year after the series started) and not the serialized manga adaptation that came out a few months ago, which I had this funny feeling that they would have made an anime adaptation of the serialized manga version in about 2 or 3 years and it would be like a reboot adaptation than the first season, but now that we have season 2 with excellent animation that still adapts the doujin picture series, I don’t really think an anime adaptation of the manga version is needed at all.
Anticipated releases for Fall 2021
One of the top anticipated releases could have made this list is Shield Hero season 2, but sadly the delay to April 2022 robbed it. It was delayed due to the state of emergency in Japan back in July, man, poor Japan won’t ever catch a break with COVID-19 ever. Not only that but if they were having problems with the production, that’s reasonable.
But anyway, let’s proceed with my anticipated titles for this season, which it’s looking to be the best season of the year.
(And as usual, expect the same tiring talks of which anime’s coming out in my birthday)
Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc – December 5th
Kimetsu no Yaiba finally returns with a new season after seeing the Mugen Train film a few months ago, and… This new season might as well be considered Anime Of The Season AND Best Anime Of Winter 2022, because the season is going to start with a new TV version of Mugen Train coming out in October 10th with a brand new first episode and completely new scenes and music… What?
Yeah, that’s probably the biggest setback of this season to the point that I think without counting the TV version of Mugen Train, the season overall would be less than two cours or something, or maybe it will still be two-cours long.
At first I wasn’t really sure if I really need to rewatch Mugen Train in the form of TV series only for the extra episode and new scenes, but at the same time, it’s been months since I watched the film and I kinda completely forgot about it.
It was a great experience and my Cinépolis theater got these cool holographic tickets and it was the first time I got like anime movie merch in my theater, but the more movies I watched right after, the more I kinda forgot about the experience or something.
I’m not sure if people would definitely skip watching TV Mugen Train and jump straight to Entertainment District, or if they would still rewatch Mugen Train anyways. I would definitely rewatch it. I may not rewatch Ufotable’s gorgeous animation on the big screen again, but it would be better to enjoy it at home and rewatch the funny moments from this arc.
So despite this season overall coming out in October, the season is definitely going to be a contender for anime of the season Winter 2022, and predictably it would definitely be AOTY material.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean – December
We got another contender for anime of the season Winter 2022 and best of 2022.
I don’t have much to say about the Stone Ocean anime in terms of the story and characters (Though I have to say that I’m as usual disappointed with the voice cast changes, but it was expected) other than I’m definitely looking forward to it, but the most surprising thing about this anime I’m dying to talk about the most is that it will be released ON NETFLIX of all places, so RIP Crunchyroll that has been traditionally been streaming all the 5 parts for years. I guess it’s due to having the first three parts and the Rohan Kishibe series, I guess there was no choice but to release it on Netflix, and hey, it’s not going to be region locked hell!
One gripe I have about the series is that apparently it’s going to be “monthly,” meaning that every episode is going to be monthly. Well, I guess I’m gonna have to pay for Netflix for the entirety of 2022 and even 2023, though I really hope they would release at least like 3 episodes a month or something.
From one anime to another coming on December, which since it’s around early December, it isn’t too bad and for the most part it still counts being on Fall season, but the next show and so on are definitely going to be shows coming in October!
Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu – October 21st (Netflix)
Oh yes, it’s finally happening!
For a while I might have seen a few people who wanted this Komi-san anime to be animated by Kyoto Animation, now it ultimately didn’t happen which would disappoint some but whether it’s animated by Kyoto Animation or not, this anime already looks gorgeous!
I do remember reading the manga but I can’t remember what chapter have I finished reading until now and I’m not sure if I would like to because there’s already over a hundred chapters that it’s really hard for me to keep up at this point.
One small gripe I had about the series is the release schedule. First it’s going to be broadcast on Japanese TV on October 6th, then it’s confirmed to be released outside on Netflix but it’ll be released on October 21st, so it’s definitely two weeks and three episodes behind the regular broadcast, but the best news is–IT’S FINALLY A WEEKLY RELEASE! Thank god, Netflix! You really should have been doing that ages ago!
I’ve become somewhat of a Netflix purist at this point but I prefer this way instead of torrenting like I normally do (Which are always Crunchyroll/Funimation rips), but because fan subbers would take ages to make the subtitles and watching every episode raw and rewatching it with said subs just burns me out and I want to watch something on aclera schedule.
Besides, I can definitely wait for October 21st, it’s not very far compared to waiting for the entire season to finish and release it as soon as it’s over like Godzilla Singular Point, or worse, wait for MONTHS like Beastars season 2.
Mieruko-chan – October 3rd
Passione’s killing it again!
I remember seeing the first chapter of the series when it was posted on Twitter which has an insane amount of likes and retweets, I don’t know historically much about its beginnings but I guess that made the series an instant hit and because of the popularity, it might have become serialized. And then 3 years later, we finally got an anime, that was pretty quick.
This is a series I really don’t know much about the story and I haven’t payed too much attention other than the monsters and the cute main character Miko, but in my opinion, this is a series that you would find fascinating mainly for the monsters. Speaking of the monsters, one monster I’d LOVE to see animated the most is this one, this one has the best desgin I’ve seen.
Since it comes out a day before my birthday, this would definitely be both a great pre-birthday anime and, if I’m motivated to do so, the perfect anime to rewatch on my birthday.
World’s End Harem – October 8th
This took quite a while to hear news abou this series again and I was worried it would come out in 2022, but here we finally have it.
I kinda have heard the name about it before, I might have seen some people meeming on it because of its plot, but looking at the fanservice scenes, I’m definitely intrigued.
Because the series is coming to Crunchyroll and I would normally expect ecchi anime to be heavily censored, and I said that I was burned out from watching weekly Netflix anime like Kakegurui and Beastars, but ecchi anime might be an exception because either I would rewatch every episode uncensored, or just plain watch the uncensored episodes with fansubs which the last anime I did that was Ishuzoku Reviewers.
This might be a rather dumb and simple reason why I would watch World’s End Harem would be because of the small bit of familiarity, but mainly for the fanservice. It’s always for the fanservice.
UPDATE – October 7th 2021: Well, shit. The series got delayed to January 2022 A DAY before the series came out. Seriously? Not to mention the reason why is to “closely examine the anime’s production,” like, for what? What are they talking about? Don’t tell me there might be another GoHands from Tokyo Babylon where World’s End Harem could have potential plagiarism or something? Because I would be shocked and pissed if this were to be cancelled.
If this does ends up being cancelled, then I’ll read the manga instead. Or I would rather prefer for the series to be reanimated from scratch from another studio, although it may end up looking mediocre, so in that case, I’ll stick to the manga instead but PLEASE DON’T CANCEL THIS ADAPTATION!
October 8th 2021: Actually, the series still premiered the first episode anyways. Even if the entire series is delayed for Winter 2022, at least we get to see the first episode before the worst case scenario happens.
End of update.
Lupin the 3rd Part 6 – October 9th
It’s been 3 years since I watched Lupin the 3rd Part 5, and now after 3 years of having OVAs and the CG movie in-between, now we’re finally towards Part 6, and this one seems pretty interesting, instead of going with the blue jacket like the previous two parts, Lupin’s returning to his classic turquoise jacket, which I kinda started to think the continuity might be a little different or non-existent to the previous parts but I’m sure it’ll still be intact if the characters from previous parts like Rebecca and Ami can return or something.
And here’s another thing that may be kinda sad, the voice of Jigen, Kiyoshi Kobayashi is going to retire from the character for good with Akio Otsuka being his replacement from this point on. I mean, the fact that Fujiko and Goemon are voiced by modern seiyuu like Miyuki Sawashiro and Daisuke Namikawa respectively doesn’t surprise me as much, but it’s still sad to see the one and only voice of Jigen is now leaving, but the man is quite old and he’s been voicing the character for 52 years, this is quite a record of a seiyuu voicing the same character for the longest amount of time (Except there was one OVA where he didn’t voice Jigen).
You can still hear his performance one last time in episode 0 which comes out 3 days prior to episode 1, and after that you’re going to hear Akio Otsuka’s voice immediately. It’s going to be a really weird transition of voice from one episode to the other almost simultaneously.
I wonder if Lupin’s seiyuu will be next and I kinda don’t even want to imagine about it because I’m not sure if Lupin might sound the same without Kanichi Kurita.
Anyway, I’ve rambled too much about Jigen having a new seiyuu, it is important in some way, but not too big. As for the story, I don’t know much but I remember seeing an Anime News Network headline that it might tease Sherlock Holmes, I’m not sure if it’s the character or Holmes elements into the story. This is probably something I don’t want to look further until I watch the series, so let’s wait and see.
Actually, I now remember the series is going to be themed about mystery, I dont’ know what that means but I guess it’s part of the Sherlock Holmes theme that I talked about earlier or perhaps it has something to do about the mysteries of Lupin and his gang or something?
Also, both Lupin and JoJo have part 6 coming out, what a coincidence.
BanG Dream! Garupa Pico Fever – October 7th
D4DJ has sucked the life out of me to the point I feel like I can hardly go back to BanG Dream. It’s been over a year since the last Garupa Pico season, Ohmori, which I didn’t like it as much, and it’s been a few months since D4DJ Petit Mix ended, now we just happen to have another season of Garupa Pico to continue the madness to our lovable musical franchises.
I’m actually surprised they’re making a new Garupa Pico season this year, I thought I would wait for 2 years like how there’s the 2 year gap between the first season and Ohmori, but now we happen to get a new season of Garpua Pico a year later AND to be broadcast on October. I was seriously expecting to be around November since the first season and Ohmori came out in May, which is a monh after April where the Spring season begins and most anime would come out, but I’m seriously surprised they’re gonna release the series this early in October.
The one thing I have to say about the series is that FOR SURE they’ll redeem RAISE A SUILEN this time, make them have their own dedicated episode and have more screentime! Because Ohmori disappointed me so bad with how little screentime RAS got, maybe not too bad if you count the episodes where some of the members get featured in a few episodes, but still, come on. I feel like RAS and Morfonica were almost last minute additions because before the series came out, I noticed that Ohmori was advertised to have the usual main bands, but at some point, they finally happen to add RAS and Morfonica, but now this season, looks like they’ll be a lot more regular than when they first appeared in Ohmori now that they’re more prominently featured.
With new season of Garupa Pico, that also means that it’s time to sacrifice sleep again and try to watch every episode when they’re premiered on the official YouTube channel!
Fate/Grand Carnival #2 – October 13th
Sadly we didn’t get to see Fate/Grand Carnival this summer season, but wait a minute, wasn’t it gonna come out on September 29th and now it’s coming in October? That baffles me as much and I guess they couldn’t finish animating the OVA in time but with the September 29th delay, I heard it was about production setbacks, so I guess the same thing happened here.
I’m not sure how this one’s going to resonate me as much with the first one (Well, mainly for the second half because I’m biased for Jeanne Alter), but even so, the main thing that matters is that I’m still going to have a great time with all the laughs with how crazy the series gets.
I just wish that this was a full-fledged series just like how the original Carnival Phantasm series was instead of literally just two OVAs. And now that Tsukihime Remake is finally released (and destroyed sales that puts No More Heroes 3 to shame and that depresses me to death), maybe the characters can appear in the OVA, even though it would defeat the purpose for the series being specifically named and focus on Fate/Grand Order.
Also, I’m having a hard time deciding whether or not I should include this OVA in this summer season tier because the first one came out in June and in my opinion, it still counts being part of the Spring season when the summer season starts in July, although I had planned to include Fate/Grand Carnival in this summer tier if ONLY the second OVA wasn’t delayed, so I guess there’s no choice but to still include the first OVA in this tier and I would include it again in the next tier anyways.
Gokushufudou Part 2 – October 7th
The yakuza husbando is finally back!
There’s not much to say other than the animation which certainly hasn’t gotten better like many people may have wanted, but hey, I never had any problem with it in the first part, so it’s not totally unwatchable, and as a reminder: The only thing that matters best is the comedy which the first part didn’t disappoint, combined with Kenjiro Tsuda’s performance, the series will continue to rock! Even though it’s not perfect and many people would be better off watching the live-action series, which I still haven’t gotten to do so, oops.
I was actually going to pay for Netflix again for JoJo Stone Ocean, but I might as well do it for this one and Komi-san.
takt op.Destiny – October 5th
When I was watching the MAPPA 10th anniversary livestream from months ago waiting for the Chainsaw Man trailer, they showed off trailers of this and it looked interesting, but the biggest kicker is the MAPPA AND Madhouse team-up, that’s seriously a team-up I never would have thought to ever see! Because for the longest time I always thought MAPPA was trying to be the new Madhouse (Considering MAPPA was founded by a former producer of Madhouse) or osmething, but now they’ve stepped up and actually decided to collaborate!
At the time I was a bit impressed by looking at the trailers and of course the MAPPA x Madhouse team-up is my biggest selling point, but as of now I’m not sure if my interest has held up for all these months now. I might still check it out anyways, but if it doesn’t convince me, I might as well drop it which is something I normally NEVER do but when it comes to anime to watch on my birthday, it’s where I definitely decide I wouldn’t watch the series entirely based on the first episode alone and that has happened a few years ago, even though tak op.Destiny is coming out a day later.
Speaking of my birthday…
Cardfight!! Vanguard overDress season 2 – October 4th
Cardfight!! Vanguard is of course a Bushiroad property, one that I’ve been hearing a little bit for a while, and most recently, there was even a collaboration in D4DJ Groovy Mix (only at the Japanese version as of the publishing of this post), a game and a franchise that I’ve fallen in love in over a year.
The first season of the recent Cardfight!! Vanguard series, overDress, came out in the Spring season and I haven’t watched it–Until now and… I SERIOUSLY DIG IT! I seriously wish I had watched it sooner because I already love this! It’s hilarious, weird and fun and that’s all the things I love! There was one other anime coming out in my birthday that I was planning to watch but now that they announced season 2’s release date being my birthday, I decided “You know what? Fuck the other anime coming out in my birthday, Cardfight Vanguard is the real shit!”
Literally the one thing that convinced me to binge Cardfight!! Vanguard overDress is the fact that the second season is coming out in my birthday of all things, and based on my impressions on the first season, my birthday’s finally gonna be blessed with something great once again.
Now, overDress is far from over, in the very same day they announced the release date for season 2 (which was September 14th, by the way), they also announced seasons 3 and 4. Had I slept on overDress until all four seasons ended, and had season 2 not come out on my birthday, it would have taken me forever to binge all four seasons and it would make me hella exhausted, so I’m really glad I took the opportunity to finally watch overDress now.
One thing I wonder for this second season is if the series will go in a more episodic direction based on how the first season ended now that Tohya is the leader of Team Blackout and everything, but I still hope there’s still some funny moments in-between.
One of the best things that made the series great is the inclusion of music bands from Bushiroad’s music franchise BanG Dream! First we got Roselia doing the opening theme song, and we got TWO bands from Argonavis, first is Argonavis doing the main series’ ending theme and then we got GYROAXIA doing the ending theme of episode 6. Man, I seriously love it when Bushiroad use their musical talent into their other properties! I hope they keep this trend going, maybe they can pick groups from D4DJ (Yes, I’m heavily biased) like they did with D_Cide Traumerei as mentioned earlier as well, but if they don’t pick more bands from their music franchises, I’m gonna be so disappointed.
I think this is pretty much the ONLY Cardfight Vanguard series I’m going to watch because the others don’t look appealing to me as overDress. And I just realized,
Man, this is such a great line-up and this is why 2021 continues to be great in terms of anime, though Shield Hero season 2 would have been a nice addition to this line-up, I think it’s better off without it.
I for the most part had a lot of stuff from this review written down, but today which I’m publishing this post, I kinda had to start rushing through (Especially because of the Higurashi Sotsu finale) because I normally posts these reviews on the 30th and I wouldn’t like to delay these posts until the 1st of the next season or whatever, I need to keep my consistency.
By the way, here’s a small bonus!
This was a thumbnail I was gonna use but because of my impressions with Higurashi Sotsu, I ended up scrapping this edited thumbnail and went back to the traditional thumbnail of a frame of my AOTS’s opening.
Also, let me know if you’d like to see edited thumbnails like these or stick to my traditional thumbnail. (Although I do plan to have a new thumbnail format for all my future posts at this point)
XTREME DESPAIR 