Another frenzied half-month of aniblogging has come to a close, with a handful of series emerging as summer frontrunners. There probably isn’t an all-time great among them (though Mario might disagree, given his love of the recently returned Monogatari Series, ranked here for your viewing pleasure). Even without an undisputed classic to spur us back into weekly coverage, however, we’ve got a couple things coming down the pipe. I know Lenlo is still plugging away at his Vinland Saga-inspired Ancient Greek Love post (outlined here), among other things. Plus, we’ll soon be stress testing the phra ..read more

Show of hands, who here has ever heard of this old movie from 1969 called The Flying Phantom Ship before 2022? No? Me neither. I never even knew Flying Phantom Ship existed until Discotek Media announced on their Twitter page that they licensed it in May of 2022. Not only that, they even made an English dub for it because the original music and effects tracks, which are required to make dubs in different audio, were actually preserved, something which wasn’t considered a common practice back in the sixties. This effectively makes Flying Phantom Ship the oldest anime to ever receive an English ..read more

I Parry Everything Short Synopsis: Noor has wanted to be a hero since he was a child, but he was never good enough at anything to do so. After years of training he was only able to learn a single skill, parry. With only one path before him, he takes that skill to its absolute limits. Mario: Well, even though the episode feels familiar, at least the main character is so earnest that it’s hard to hate him. The show spends an entire episode showing us his journey to become an adventurer, from when he’s a teenager until now. Throughout all his hardships, and displaying no talent at all, he still ..read more

The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Short Synopsis: An admitted war criminal and a part time worker face off…and fall in love. Lenlo: On the surface, this seems like a pretty standard magical girl show. Transformation sequence was alright, effects are good enough, girl is sort of cute. The issue with standard magical girl shows though is that you always have to recon with the Precure series, because if you can’t do something better than them, or sufficiently different, there’s no reason to watch your show. That’s just the reality of Precure. So what does this one do to set itself apart ..read more

Na Nare Hana Nare Short Synopsis: Cute girls doing cheerleading, and all the drama behind it. Mario: There are so many strikes against Na Nare Hana Nare that I am surprised that it still holds up so well by the end of this premiere. It’s about… cheerleading of all things. Its 3DCG performance scene is competent but distracting – it features one character who jumps across roofs and street lights like a ninja, and another character whose name is Anna Aveiro Nakamura dos Santos Moreira Cuccittini (no, I’m not making that up). But somehow, it gets off on a strong foot. I reckon its biggest stren ..read more

Isekai Shikkaku Short Synopsis: Osamu Dazai tries to commit double suicide but ends up in an isekai instead! Amun: Honestly, this premiere was everything that I had hoped for. The touchy subject of suicide (integral to our lead character) was kept somber and light hearted at the same time (I actually burst out lauging at Truck-kun being used seriously). The gloominess of the “adventurer” surrounded by a standard fantasy troupe just hits all the right notes for me. Sure, he assembles a somewhat unlikely harem to go find his lost suicide partner. Sure, he has a silly poison effect that is over ..read more

Shoushimin Series Short Synopsis: A girl who loves sweets and a boy who is really trying his best to be normal solve a mystery and (temporarily) get some tarts. Lenlo: It’s funny, despite being slower paced with a lot of wide shots like the Stepsister show, I found Shoushimin to be much more palatable. Maybe it’s the lack of pretentious piano music playing over everything, or the subject matter and soft-spoken dialogue being more engaging, I honestly can’t say. What I can say though is that I kind of enjoyed this episode. The way they solved the crime and found the bag was a bit out there, w ..read more

Monogatari Series: Off & Monster Season Short Synopsis: The new season of Monogatari, covering various side stories not included in previous arcs. Mario: It feels right at home to see these characters back. This is going to be a Monogatari season without Araragi’s involvement – which for me is for all the better. Not that he’s a badly-written character, I do like his narration from time to time. It’s that he has a skewed point of view and it’s often filled with his perverted urges and his hero complex. So telling these stories from the girls’ point of view opens up this world and their c ..read more

The Elusive Samurai Short Synopsis: The would-be inheritor of the Kamakura shogunate flees his birthplace after his family is betrayed by a powerful warrior. Lenlo: Competing with Monogatari, Elusive Samurai is probably the best animated show of the season. It doesn’t quite have the same level of direction and shot composition that Monogatari does, it was actually uncomfortably punched in a lot of the time, making it hard for me to pick which I like more. Still, it definitely moves beautifully, and I love the colors. Narratively… It has promise, but christ is the humor bad. It’s loud and ove ..read more

Giji Harem Short Synopsis: A new drama club member adopts a host of different personas for the amusement of her senpai. Lenlo: I feel like I just watched Saori Hayami have a stroke, in the best way possible. A harem show where every “girl” is the same schizophrenic chick in different hair styles acting like different people to flirt with her Senpai, all while Saori Hayami voices each one of them differently? That’s actually kind of clever. Giji Harem can keep it simple and cute with the MC being in on the joke and playing it up, or it can get crazy and have a love triangle and shit between t ..read more