New anime seasons come around quicker and quicker, and we've just started the 2022 Winter season. Which means this week, I have mostly been watching anime. Generally first episodes, except for one very obvious exception.
Attack on Titan - Ep 75-77
Managed to accidentally start watching with the last episode of the first "final season", but honestly that was probably a good thing, since it's been almost a year and I'd forgotten a lot of it.
Obvious spoilers ahead for the first umpteen seasons of Attack on Titan.
Very much the endgame here, as we've got the hopefully final showdown between Eren and Reiner, as well as the mopping up of the plot threads about Eldia, Marley, and all of the Titan nonsense. It's been a rather frustrating journey, as the series spent a very long time not telling us much, and then plowed in loads of exposition at high speed last season.
Still, I'll watch it just to get it finished off, but also because there's still the occasional moment of "what the hell" that turn up. Looking at you, Levi. Otherwise, nicely gritty view of war, with the bodycount racking up. No one is coming out of this well in the end.
My Dress Up Darling - Ep 1, 2
One my partner suggested after she watched the trailer, this follows Wakana Gojo, an apprentice maker of dolls and their clothes, working under his grandfather, who is essentially co-opted into making cosplay outfits for Marin Kitagawa, a massive nerd.
In particular, she wants him to make an outfit of the main female character of her favourite game, Saint ♥ Slippery’s Academy for Girls – The Young Ladies of the Humiliation Club: Debauched Miracle Life 2. ...Yes, it's looking like that sort of anime.
Kitagawa is essentially built to be a nerd's dream, being the otaku who has no problem getting naked, and has great fun playing all of the porn games. You know, that old stereotype.
Which is where the humour comes in, given that Gojo takes the usual MC energy of inept with women up to 11, by being literally afraid of her being sexy. (And also slightly blunt about the things he's passionate about.)
Has a tendency to indulge in fan-service (especially given that the entire second episode is about taking measurements), but there's possibly some interesting things going on with power dynamics here that are a bit more complex than we normally see, and it has managed to thus far be hilarious, with some excellent reaction shots, especially from the grandfather.
World's End Harem - Ep 1, 2
Continuing with the pervy theme, in this one, our main character has an unfortunate medical condition that results in him having to be put into cryogenic storage while a cure is found. During which, a disease wipes out every male who isn't in storage. Leaving it a world of women.
Luckily (and entirely unpredictably) it seems that the particular condition he had means that he can produce children who are immune to the disease. It's a shame then that apparently in vitro fertilisation doesn't work. He's going to have to have sex with a lot of women. Did you want Y: The Last Man but porn? Well, here you go.
Slightly entertaining though that obviously it has been created as porn, and since Crunchyroll is slightly prurient, everything has remarkably distracting black censor bars over it. It's offputting enough that even if I were interested in the rather limited plot, I'm not sure I could cope. Probably one I'll drop at this point.
Life with an Ordinary Guy who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout - Ep 1
Okay this one is just offensive. Isekai, where a couple of colleagues get transported to a fantasy world after a night out drinking. One of them is tall, handsome, self-assured (essentially romance anime material), and the other one is not. The one who is not is sufficiently drunk and rambling that an unfortunate choice of words has him turning into a tiny cute girl when isekai'd.
And then he makes the mistake of pissing off the goddess who transported them, resulting in a curse of mutual attraction. Will these two friends be able to avoid falling in actual love? God knows, but it may be entertaining to find out.
Under duress though, since a lot is made of them being "old men".
They are 32.
I can only assume I am ancient.
Love of Kill
Finally, even more romance, although in this case it seems a bit more Happy Sugar Life. Son Ryang-ha is an assassin, making his cheerful way through Japan, murdering people on request. Chateau Dankworth is the bounty hunter trying to find him and bring him in.
Nice and simple, except for the part where Ryang-ha is generally better at everything, knows exactly who she is and what she's doing, and would really like to date her.
I wasn't sure where this was going to sit at first, thinking it could be a bit Batman and Catwoman-ish, but nope, he's full yandere. There's a lot of creepiness here in terms of his manipulating her into getting what he wants, usually by threatening someone. And since he wants is for them to share a cake, or maybe stay overnight at a hotel, it's very squicky. He's possibly some sort of sociopath.
It's going to be interesting to see whether this falls into the Stalking is Love trope, or if it has her take a more proactive agency and deal with him.
Oh and I do not know what's going on with her assistant. He's drawn without a mouth. It's very weird.