Animisery – A Blog About Living Miserably with Anime (Among Other Things)

It’s March which means another month has passed into the annals of soon to be forgotten history as the inevitable nuclear decimation waits patiently to wipe us all out. Thusly, I’m once again going to regale you with all the anime that I watched during the month of February! Please clap.

It was the season of love and so I felt compelled to chase romance if only for a very brief period. Much like young love, my romance dive was quick and passionate but ultimately fizzled out because my capriciousness took hold. At least it wasn’t caused by hormones!

KAIJU NO. 8

I’m not a huge fan of kaiju media as I’ve only seen one Godzilla film to completion (that being Minus One if you were curious) so this was a watch based on pure excitement from the anime enjoyers that surround me. I knew the protagonist was older which I can profess did illicit excitement from yours truly as I’m no longer the age to align myself with your typical shonen lead anymore. My joints can simply not believe in myself like they used to. Don’t get me wrong, this is a delightfully well animated show with entrancing kaiju kombat (doubles Ks make everything more fun) and well meaning if slightly hackneyed characters outside of Kafka and I do frankly think the premise did alone succeed at reeling me in even if it’s almost a futuristic Attack on Titan with the titans replaced by kaiju. My draw just consistently managed to be with the somewhat unique Kafka as he essentially girl failures his way through the entirety of this show. He is such a charming MC as he does essentially have a typical shonen protag’s journey set ahead of him as he strives for a goal that we can only assume he will not achieve in any meaningful way until the end of the series or close to it. It’s just his dream is to not be an absolute deadbeat waste and play Cyberpunk Attack on Titan with his childhood bestie. Truly a relatable motivation for all, right? By the end of the series, I wasn’t IN LOVE with the show but I had such a delightfully fun time that I am patiently waiting for the next season whenever that might be. Kaiju No. 8 affirms it’s own identity to me because it’s also a solid Kaiji No. 8 from me, dawg.

DESERT PUNK

This show is a hot dumpster fire roasting in a boiling vat of festering sewage waste and I only watched it for my podcast against my own will and better judgement. The main character, the titular Desert Punk, is a depraved piece of trash who is seemingly written for comedic effect but his schtick is almost always “I’m selfish and I like boobs” which burns his candle at both ends rapidly especially after a particularly damning episode where he attempts to force a woman into sexual slavery and produce his offspring. Stories are not conscripted to make likable main characters to create a story worth telling but they should at least not be absolutely insufferable. I will freely admit that the show did produce a few chuckles from me in the opening episodes and I can also confess that the ending twist would’ve produced a season two hate watch from me but that doesn’t salvage the complete disregard this show had for my already well spent brain cells. This show is such a product of the mid 2000’s that I could only advise you to watch it if you want to chase that high of the time period with dubs that threw in more references than actual jokes and titillation that crept towards pseudo pornographic at times. In the Great Kanto Desert, the people struggle to survive this disaster of an anime that only warrants a 3 out of 10 boob jokes.

PSEUDO HAREM

Big shout outs to my buddy Grenth (and an even bigger shout out if they actually read this) for recommending this show to me because I probably would’ve never given it a chance otherwise based solely off the premise alone. All I had to be told about this show was that it had a proper ending which left me intrigued given the general nature of anime nowadays where it seemingly feels like anime are just products to sell books in some form and not actually tell a concise story to completion. I know there’s a lack of enthusiasm for romcoms amongst viewers by the nature of how prone to vapid wheel spinning they can be as far but Psuedo Harem manages to produce laughs as well as awwwws that never feel at odds with each other. As sure as one moment might render you in giggles at how our couple communicate (the story being that the female lead is an actor who pretends to be different women to amuse and possibly seduce the male lead) there will be another story beat that has you awash in a fit of doki dokis as the love grips your heart. I think what made this show hook itself into me so severely is just how adorable the main couple can be. I think too many stories forget that love is sometimes forged out of friendship and friends clown and mess around with one another which this couple do to each other in troves. The jokes don’t always land with this one as they can become exhausting as our male lead references the other girls over and over for comedic effect but the light heartedness of its welcome never wears out its welcome. This show was essentially a nice large slice of store bought cake on a bad day: it’s probably not going to be special every day but that I might have it but it satisfied my sweet tooth well enough and it blessed me with fleeting joy and that’s special in itself. Pseudo Harem earns itself a good 8 pseudo girlfriends out of 10 for me.

MUSHOKU TENSEI OVA: ERIS THE GOBLIN SLAYER

I watched this in an attempt to get back into Mushoku Tensei as it is one of the select anime that I wanted to finish this year but it didn’t really manage to do much outside of make me read some Wikipedia articles because I had absolutely forgotten a lot of season one. Eris is still my best Mushoku girl (well. barring Ghislaine) and Studio Bind are still making delicious feasts for the eyes so at least we’re consistent. Too bad there’s nothing else to warrant writing about this as it’s just a little story about Eris. Maybe it pays off for season two? I’ll find out eventually. It gets a solid 7 b-b-b-b-b-bakas out of a possible 10.

WOTOKOI: LOVE IS HARD FOR OTAKU

After watching Pseudo Harem, I was really craving a helping of love and humor and found myself running to this show in shame because I originally dropped it on episode 3 way back when. It wasn’t the show’s fault though; I had to watch it on Prime Video and while Amazon can deliver to your house within 2 days with Prime, they cannot deliver on a good user interface. They’re also weirdly picky with what text they’ll translate for the anime in their library which can be nigh infuriating when you see a wall of text and you just know something in that wall is important. Anyways, I love these kinds of anime which resolutely delve into the Japanese otaku scene especially because Momose, our main character, has such a relatable quandary for herself. Her boyfriend dumped her for her hobbies and now she’s resigned herself to a future lack of it because her expected partners just won’t understand. She reunites with her childhood friend Hirotaka and they eventually form an adorable couple and hilarity ensues and I sincerely mean hilarity ensues. Humor is very subjective for sure but Wotokoi never failed in bringing forth a smile in me with each episode. I binged this show in a fever and found myself inflicted with a severe case of the good vibes as the show isn’t very content to make actual progress in our main pairing. That said, it’s so adorable in how it progresses that it easily makes up for any tediousness that might take hold as well as filled with otaku culture references that a person of decent anime knowledge will find rewarding and gratifying to see. I don’t think Wotokoi reinvented the romcom wheel in any capacity but it built a damn fine engine which is enough to have carried me along. I loved this show heartily and wanted more as soon as I was finished which I think is high acclaim in this modern era when there are so many shows to bounce to after you finish one. However, I wasn’t content to do that and immediately acquired the OVAs that Amazon isn’t content to host on their platform and proceeded to not watch the hell out of them. Alas, I’m fickle and prone to distractions. Wotokoi is a delightfully sweet and humorous otaku romp that I think should get 9 doki dokis out of a possible 10.

PSYCHO-PASS (SEASON ONE)

I’m sure that every variety of anime watcher has this but I have quite a list of anime that I’ve always meant to get around to but just haven’t for one reason or another. Pic is very related because I finally got around to watching Psycho-Pass and loved every single minute of it in an absolutely ludicrous way. I’ve always been a fan of Gen Urobuchi’s work as the viciously dark tones always resonate with me as I am a perpetually relapsing edgy teenager who just enjoys the lavishly dark veneer that the Buch (that’s what I’m going to call him now, he and I are friends but he doesn’t know it yet) employs in almost all his works. He can’t even make something as wholesome and happy as magical girls without it turning into genocide. You’re an absolute legend, the Buch. I was in a big cyberpunk kick this month after my romance bloom withered and this anime was thrown at me by a few compatriots and I was absolutely blown back by just the sheer style on display in this anime from episode one. The foreboding and enigmatic aura of the Sibyl system is oppressive and snakes its way into showing how dystopian the nature of the world is and our characters lifestyles and their menagerie of issues only further displays how exploitive this mandated complicity is. The Enforcers are akin to messiah types in how they are contractually obligated to take on the sins of murder and control for the average human being and the state of one’s own soul being gauged by an unknown god in the form of Sibyl is just a wet dream for someone who wants to pour over connecting the dots in every way possible. The show became so cheesy when it delved into two characters quoting philosophy at each other in dark rooms but, at the same time, it was so aligned with what performance Psycho-Pass was putting on stage. Of course two pseudo elites would wax poetic about Donner in a room while our protagonists look at the camera with glum resignation about the hopelessness of the case they’re tasked with solving. It’s unabashedly certified edgy at times with unnecessarily over the top gory indulgences (usually off screen however) and revels in it’s broody atmosphere but I loved everything about this world including our protagonists Kogami and Akane. I know that they are further seasons of Psycho-Pass to sink into if I so choose but with a perfect season like this? I think it’s just better to have Psycho-Pass quit while it’s ahead and ravish in the sheer enjoyment I had with this spectacular first season. This may not sound like high praise but I would show this anime to my mom. Like literally. My mom watches certain anime. She really liked Death Note. This anime was as perfect to me as Akane’s Psycho-Pass was clear; Psycho-Pass is an immaculate salvo to my inner ever brooding Linkin Park enjoying inner teenager. Solid 10/10 for sure.

DIGIMON ADVENTURE (MOVIE)

We’re doing a Mamoru Hosoda themed month on my podcast, the Anime Brothers Podcast, and we’re both big Digimon fans so rewatching these movies was simply leisure when we were doing it. As you may know, the Digimon movie originally came over to American soil in an quite frankly expertly edited format combining three movies into one to make it about the story of one Willis and the best Digimon out there, Terriermon. We’re both well acquainted with that Digimon film so we decided to watch the movies as originally released to the Japanese public thanks in part to Discotek Media’s excellent release of the first three Digimon films to Blu-ray. It even includes the original Digimon: The Movie so you can compare if you want (this is not sponsored content or anything, this release is just honestly that cool, it even has little bonus feature documentaries and everything). So how was the first Digimon Adventure film? Why did I call it film? This isn’t a film. It’s an OVA at best. It’s essentially 20 minutes of what feels like a proof of concept with a kaiju battle and watching a little pal become a behemoth of a dinosaur that fights a huge parrot that shows up out of nowhere with hardly in logic given to any action on screen. It’s a great muscle flex for Hosoda to show what he can accomplish with a sincere execution of a typical kaiju fight but it’s never anything more than just a tease that feels honestly vapid at times. Tai and his sister are adorable as little tiny kids but they kind of suffer from “not designed enough” syndrome as they have tiny bodies with disproportionately sized heads which isn’t cute in that typical chibi fashion. I didn’t think that it was anything special outside of some solid animation and a heart wrenching scene where Tai commands Greymon to fight again using a whistle. Parrotmon got his beak ripped and that wasn’t in the Saban produced film so that was cool! While this movie could possibly be a stepping stone into the larger world of Digital Monsters, I don’t think of it as anything outside of casual nostalgia fuel with a 7/10.

DIGIMON ADVENTURE: OUR WAR GAME!

This was the Digimon film that I was absolutely stoked to watch in full as this section of the English Digimon film was hugely my favorite as a kid. The Digimon fight in the internet against an evil Digimon that wants to nuke the world!? The stakes could never have been any higher as a child watching this on Christmas Eve night. This film eventually became the inspiration for Hosoda’s future film Summer Wars so maybe Digimon movies will never escape the “proof of concept” slander from me but this film is still fun even if it requires you to actually have working knowledge of Digimon. There’s a lot of brilliant usages of animation when the Digidestined start their fight in the internet as this is Toei’s first digitally created film which is only slightly apparent when the Digigang fight the evil Mon in what feels like a large sprawling arena. It’s a visually fun treat to see this film yet it does, at the end of it all, just serve as a another marketable product for the Digimon Adventure IP as it doesn’t work as a standalone and serves to be an epilogue for the series. It fires off well to me, a Digimon fan, especially at the culmination of the long drawn out fight when Tai and Matt help to create Omnimon (or Omegamon, I guess) so I cannot tell you that I’m not blinded by the childhood feelings of spectacle. Omnimon is one of the coolest things on this planet and I will not be convinced otherwise. You can’t fuse and just not amass a huge amount of cool points; it simply is not possible. Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! is a fun feature for Digimon fans and probably not much else but I’m a Digimon fan and blinded by my worship for Omnimon so 8 Digipoints out of 10 Digipoints. I swear I’ll rewatch Digimon Adventure again some day.

With that, it’s another month down! I was watching the Digimon Adventure Tri films and I had FINALLY started Kimi ni Todoke on Netflix but that’ll be for March assuming that I finish them. Winter seasonals will also be wrapping up soon which I have several that I plan to finish so March’s blog post may be insufferably long but I appreciate you regardless even if you just skim it! Hey, I even appreciate you for skimming this! I feel like I have so much to say about a lot of these shows (barring that Mushoku OVA) so maybe this was a lot of overindulgence on my end. Thank you for giving me your time and reading this! Feel free to comment below what anime you enjoyed in February so we can talk about it. I’d love to hear from you!

As always, you can find my talking into the void about anime and anime accessories on the Anime Brothers Podcast (episode 200 and beyond) anywhere podcasts are distributed. Thank you again for reading this! I hope to hear from you soon.