I knew that there was going to be a second season of this series. We had accomplished NOTHING in the main goals that we had set out for the first run, and so we have to continue the fight….as it were. So, the second season of “KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World!” (“Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! ) picks up where it left off, but with a caliber of false crisis. (more…)

It’s the future! I’m glad you made it to Osaka in the year AD20XX. Huh? What the hell year is it? OK, it’s the future; I guess numbers don’t matter in the world of “Hand Shakers”. Let us meet Tazuna Takatsuki (him of the clockwork sword on the right). He is very adept at mechanics and helps out a ton of people with his abilities. However, he gets so mono-minded on the task at hand, he is oblivious to his surroundings and could easily get clobbered by nefarious types or locked behind in the room when the rest of the staff has gone home for the day. (more…)

In a show like this, it is eventually going to be compared to “Monster Girls”, since you are dealing with similar creatures, but in a different manner, and it is those differences that make “Interviews with Monster Girls” (“Demi-chan wa Kataritai”, “Demi Wants to Talk”) potentially less effective than the former. (more…)

Now, there are a ton of shows out there about getting hooked into a video game or being transported to a distant land and place, where you have to make the best of a bad situation. And if anyone can tell me why there is always a medievel flavor to it, I’d appreciate it. My suspicion is that it is the use of magic, which seem connected at the hip with the era. Anyway, this is where we find ourselves in the montropaciously titled “Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu” (“Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World”), and, brother, not only is he starting, he’s starting over. (more…)

I remember, when I was young, and my heart was an open book, maybe sixth grade (it was a long time ago, about when we had to stop hunting mastodons for food), we had to do an assignment, which was write a letter to our future self that would be read ten years from then. Well, I wrote some caliber of nonsense and eventually lost the letter. It was probably a good thing, too. In any case, this is part of the plot for the anime “Orange” (“Orenji”). (more…)

This ended up being a hot-and-cold show, as there was more going on than first revealed and, when the core aspect came through, there was a sense of betrayal. “Flip Flappers” (“Furippu Furappāzu”) is certainly a colorful and boisterous offering, but it seems to be more concerned with action rather than results, but I will explain that. (more…)

I have to assume that anything related to dealing with the spirit or yokai realm is a huge amount of hassle. I guess they are rather unpredictable and since many of them are scary/ugly/hideous (to our scale of thinking) most folks shy away from it or have zero idea as to what is really happening (like being in Washington D.C.). The story we have here, “The Morose Mononokean” (“Fukigen na Mononokean”) elaborates on this theory. (more…)

I have remarked that when you see an uptick in OVAs or short runs of a series that completed its first season, it is a prelude to the release of the next season, but they want to let you know it’s coming with a bit more than a notice on the internet going “The second season is coming! Sale starts on Friday!” It’s just there was a two-run OVA about a year or so ago and now “Nanatsu no Taizai: Seisen no Shirushi” (“The Seven Deadly Sins: Signs of the Holy War”) came out with what they refer to as a TV Special that acts as a prelude to the new season. (more…)

There are two kinds of super heroes: those who are born to it and those who are made. Superman and Wonder Woman are examples of those who were born to it; The Flash and Spider Man are those who were made, by some bizarre accident or event. This show, “Taboo Tattoo”, is about ‘ordinary’ people who possess super powers, granted by a special mark that they receive. (more…)

It’s time to notice new trends! What is the new trend that I am seeing? “Episode #0”!

You may call them ‘one-shot’ or ‘test balloons’ or ‘toss-offs’. They are NOT OVAs, as there has to be a series tied to it before it can be an OVA. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. We can argue that an OVA has honestly nothing to do with any given series, so, in an open sense, it is an OVA. But I have seen them tied to a series, so I consider them part and parcel of the whole series effort and not just some one or two episode escapade to see what can be done with a story. (more…)