ANIME EXTRAVAGANZA 2023 SUMMER SHOW (YAY)
A few surprises and some pretty good shows this season even though there wasn't much that started off interesting:
ZOMBIE100:
In the zombie apocalypse, the world is fuck. But one Tendou Akira could not be happier. The zombie apocalypse has freed him from his shit, dead-end job, and revitalised his will to live. Can he fulfill his bucket list of '100 things to do before I become a zombie'?
I really like this show. it's visually incredibly pretty. The apocalypse is painted with gorgeous, high contrast, poppy art. Zombie blood being depicted as beautiful splashes of neon paint is a key part of the show's visual identity. The designs do not stray too far from standard modern anime characters, but their movements are dynamic and cartoony while being just real enough to have a gritty, scary feel when that's what the anime wants to emphasise. Ultimately it's just so heartwarming to see people having fun at the end of everything. The fight scenes are cool, the gags are funny, and the stakes are high despite the show's overall demeanor. Every time some depressing Walking-Dead situation happens and Akira shows up with his cheesy smile and saves everybody through the power of fun I cheer out loud. A+ show.
UCHI NO KAISHA NO CHIISAI SENPAI:
This show has been made 1000 times. Cute moe girl with big tits at work is cute and does funny things. This was very clearly made by a guy that saw Uzaki and thought "Lol I can do this too!"
Unfortunately for him he could not do it. The main protagonist is not actually a character. He never has anything interesting to say. No chemistry with the tiny senpai whatsoever. The show tries to make him be a bit mischievous but the things he does are so bland and safe that it makes me want to goad him into taking hard drugs so he can at least have something immoral about him. The tiny senpai herself also sucks ass though!! People don't just like Uzaki because of big tits and moe they like her because she's a funny a character that desperately wants to be haughty and mean but is too stupid to pull it off. The senpai of this show is certainly cute but that's all there is. The comedy is her being cute. The dialogue is her being cute. No gimmick, no other traits, no nothing. This show is fascinating in how banal it is. If anything it's useful because it proves a critical truth. Making all those cute girl wish fulfillment shows takes actual artistry after all. Bad anime.
VENDING MACHINE ISEKAI (NO IM NOT TYPING THE SHOW'S ACTUAL NAME)
I'm sure everyone had the same reaction to this show as I did. That reaction being 'lol haha this is dumb as fuck'. To its credit, the show really does commit to its premise. The guy really is a vending machine. Though he does gain magical powers, there is no 'human form' or 'telepathic communication' or anything lame like that to undermine the premise. A lot of the anime is dedicated to showing the impacts a vending machine would have in a fantasy isekai. That being said this many episodes in the gimmick is starting to wear thin. But I nonetheless respect that this show was way better than I expected it to be. For some reason it also has an insanely good OP, like one of my favourite songs to come out of anime in a long time. Watch this one if you have nothing better to do I guess.
DEKIRU NEKO WA KYOU MO YUUUTSU
So there is an animation studio called 'Gohands'. They're known for recently making bizarre animations that combine otherwise very generic anime art with photography, 3D models, and extremely overexaggerated camera angles and movements. Up until now the kindest praise I could offer their anime was 'unique'. The most honest praise I could offer would be 'nauseating'. But I'm pleased to say they have finally done it. Dekiru Neko looks good! Rather than throwing about their ridiculous animation everywhere, it's now used more skillfully to lend an incredible sense of presence to a scene. Very hard to explain without watching it yourself, so I will recommend you check out the OP just to see what they've done. The show itself is fine. Pet cat grew up very big and smart and now cares for its airheaded owner. I'm not a cat person but it's pretty cute. Oh yeah there's another Gohands anime airing this season about a girl that lost her glasses but that one is bad don't watch it.
SHIROI SEIJO TO KURO BOKUSHI
This show is propaganda. I'm not sure of what though. A fictional religion where priests and nuns are allowed to be romantic with each other is anathema, treif, haram, and everything in-between. This show is also boring as sin (lol). Maybe the real propaganda was the children Japan did not give birth to along the way.
OKASHI NA TENSEI
Bad show. Guy wanted to write a generic isekai but that wasn't selling anymore so he thought 'what if a pastry chef reincarnates instead and uses his cooking skills to make pastry lol?'. Not only is this a lame and stupid gimmick, but the gimmick is almost completely irrelevant to the show itself. This fantasy world is generic and the attempts to flesh it out are so uninteresting that I think a 10 year old could write something better. "In this fantasy world apples exist but they're called 'bonkas' instead" yeah dumbass Tolkien would be proud. The protagonist's name is 'Pastry' which made me laugh out of obligation so that's a point to this show I guess!!!!!!!!!!! Fuck you.
A.I NO IDENSHI
In a world where A.I is fuck, a doctor solves the medical issues of A.I humans (humanoids) all while a bunch of characters narrate the philosophical discussions I had with friends when I was 14. This show has pretty crappy animation and some truly ridiculous looking noses on its characters, but if you get past that you'll find the anime version of Black Mirror. The show is largely episodic with each episode covering a different ethical dilemma with such novel points such as: "If you clone a person, are they the same person?!" and "What if the A.I women are so sexy we fuck them instead of real women???" If you've watched Black Mirror, Plastic Memories, or even some episodes of the Twilight Zone or Kino's Journey, you've seen all this before.
But to the show's credit, it has a handful of genuinely clever storylines. Unlike Black Mirror which is a show made by hacks, whoever wrote this seems to be a real human being that has a grasp on how people interact with technology, so the overall tone and dialogue is much more tolerable. One episode in particularly tackles a very interesting topic in an impressively tactful way.
Even though it's really cheesy, badly animated, and some episodes are so trite I rolled my eyes, I still like this show. Writing a story about philosophy and ethics is hard, and even though it doesn't quite nail it, I have to appreciate the effort.
LV1 MAOU TO ONE ROOM YUUSHA
The great hero has defeated the demon lord, and the world has modernised to now look suspiciously like modern Japan. However the world is still fuck. The original party of heroic demon slayers have broken apart and are now starting geopolitical conflicts. And the great hero has become a pathetic NEET to lazy to do anything about it. Luckily? The demon lord has revived in the form of a cute girl! And he's gonna get the hero back on his feet so he can tell the world to stop the war!
I really like how matter-of-fact this show is. Setting a story 10 years after the typical fantasy ending and making the hero a neet is a pretty great premise, but the way the hero in universe is treated like a celebrity, gets into scandals, and is harassed by media makes for some great comedy. It's also just a lot of fun that all the bullshit tropes of anime fantasy like magical powers, skimpy demons, and legendary weapons are played completely straight in what is otherwise a modern, serious setting.
I like the demon lord, he is very cute and funny. I also like the NEET hero. More anime should have muscular yet pathetic men in their 30s as their protagonists. I also also like that the conflict in this madlibs concept of a show is a fucking breakaway state threatening to start a war and everybody is always having very realistic conversations about it in the background. Nothing about this show at a glance is particularly impressive but the gestalt is very entertaining and I can strongly recommend it.
Dekiru Neko OP
A few surprises and some pretty good shows this season even though there wasn't much that started off interesting:
ZOMBIE100:
In the zombie apocalypse, the world is fuck. But one Tendou Akira could not be happier. The zombie apocalypse has freed him from his shit, dead-end job, and revitalised his will to live. Can he fulfill his bucket list of '100 things to do before I become a zombie'?
I really like this show. it's visually incredibly pretty. The apocalypse is painted with gorgeous, high contrast, poppy art. Zombie blood being depicted as beautiful splashes of neon paint is a key part of the show's visual identity. The designs do not stray too far from standard modern anime characters, but their movements are dynamic and cartoony while being just real enough to have a gritty, scary feel when that's what the anime wants to emphasise. Ultimately it's just so heartwarming to see people having fun at the end of everything. The fight scenes are cool, the gags are funny, and the stakes are high despite the show's overall demeanor. Every time some depressing Walking-Dead situation happens and Akira shows up with his cheesy smile and saves everybody through the power of fun I cheer out loud. A+ show.
UCHI NO KAISHA NO CHIISAI SENPAI:
This show has been made 1000 times. Cute moe girl with big tits at work is cute and does funny things. This was very clearly made by a guy that saw Uzaki and thought "Lol I can do this too!"
Unfortunately for him he could not do it. The main protagonist is not actually a character. He never has anything interesting to say. No chemistry with the tiny senpai whatsoever. The show tries to make him be a bit mischievous but the things he does are so bland and safe that it makes me want to goad him into taking hard drugs so he can at least have something immoral about him. The tiny senpai herself also sucks ass though!! People don't just like Uzaki because of big tits and moe they like her because she's a funny a character that desperately wants to be haughty and mean but is too stupid to pull it off. The senpai of this show is certainly cute but that's all there is. The comedy is her being cute. The dialogue is her being cute. No gimmick, no other traits, no nothing. This show is fascinating in how banal it is. If anything it's useful because it proves a critical truth. Making all those cute girl wish fulfillment shows takes actual artistry after all. Bad anime.
VENDING MACHINE ISEKAI (NO IM NOT TYPING THE SHOW'S ACTUAL NAME)
I'm sure everyone had the same reaction to this show as I did. That reaction being 'lol haha this is dumb as fuck'. To its credit, the show really does commit to its premise. The guy really is a vending machine. Though he does gain magical powers, there is no 'human form' or 'telepathic communication' or anything lame like that to undermine the premise. A lot of the anime is dedicated to showing the impacts a vending machine would have in a fantasy isekai. That being said this many episodes in the gimmick is starting to wear thin. But I nonetheless respect that this show was way better than I expected it to be. For some reason it also has an insanely good OP, like one of my favourite songs to come out of anime in a long time. Watch this one if you have nothing better to do I guess.
DEKIRU NEKO WA KYOU MO YUUUTSU
So there is an animation studio called 'Gohands'. They're known for recently making bizarre animations that combine otherwise very generic anime art with photography, 3D models, and extremely overexaggerated camera angles and movements. Up until now the kindest praise I could offer their anime was 'unique'. The most honest praise I could offer would be 'nauseating'. But I'm pleased to say they have finally done it. Dekiru Neko looks good! Rather than throwing about their ridiculous animation everywhere, it's now used more skillfully to lend an incredible sense of presence to a scene. Very hard to explain without watching it yourself, so I will recommend you check out the OP just to see what they've done. The show itself is fine. Pet cat grew up very big and smart and now cares for its airheaded owner. I'm not a cat person but it's pretty cute. Oh yeah there's another Gohands anime airing this season about a girl that lost her glasses but that one is bad don't watch it.
SHIROI SEIJO TO KURO BOKUSHI
This show is propaganda. I'm not sure of what though. A fictional religion where priests and nuns are allowed to be romantic with each other is anathema, treif, haram, and everything in-between. This show is also boring as sin (lol). Maybe the real propaganda was the children Japan did not give birth to along the way.
OKASHI NA TENSEI
Bad show. Guy wanted to write a generic isekai but that wasn't selling anymore so he thought 'what if a pastry chef reincarnates instead and uses his cooking skills to make pastry lol?'. Not only is this a lame and stupid gimmick, but the gimmick is almost completely irrelevant to the show itself. This fantasy world is generic and the attempts to flesh it out are so uninteresting that I think a 10 year old could write something better. "In this fantasy world apples exist but they're called 'bonkas' instead" yeah dumbass Tolkien would be proud. The protagonist's name is 'Pastry' which made me laugh out of obligation so that's a point to this show I guess!!!!!!!!!!! Fuck you.
A.I NO IDENSHI
In a world where A.I is fuck, a doctor solves the medical issues of A.I humans (humanoids) all while a bunch of characters narrate the philosophical discussions I had with friends when I was 14. This show has pretty crappy animation and some truly ridiculous looking noses on its characters, but if you get past that you'll find the anime version of Black Mirror. The show is largely episodic with each episode covering a different ethical dilemma with such novel points such as: "If you clone a person, are they the same person?!" and "What if the A.I women are so sexy we fuck them instead of real women???" If you've watched Black Mirror, Plastic Memories, or even some episodes of the Twilight Zone or Kino's Journey, you've seen all this before.
But to the show's credit, it has a handful of genuinely clever storylines. Unlike Black Mirror which is a show made by hacks, whoever wrote this seems to be a real human being that has a grasp on how people interact with technology, so the overall tone and dialogue is much more tolerable. One episode in particularly tackles a very interesting topic in an impressively tactful way.
Should a lesbian who is in love with her straight friend, erase her own love to preserve her friendship?
LV1 MAOU TO ONE ROOM YUUSHA
The great hero has defeated the demon lord, and the world has modernised to now look suspiciously like modern Japan. However the world is still fuck. The original party of heroic demon slayers have broken apart and are now starting geopolitical conflicts. And the great hero has become a pathetic NEET to lazy to do anything about it. Luckily? The demon lord has revived in the form of a cute girl! And he's gonna get the hero back on his feet so he can tell the world to stop the war!
I really like how matter-of-fact this show is. Setting a story 10 years after the typical fantasy ending and making the hero a neet is a pretty great premise, but the way the hero in universe is treated like a celebrity, gets into scandals, and is harassed by media makes for some great comedy. It's also just a lot of fun that all the bullshit tropes of anime fantasy like magical powers, skimpy demons, and legendary weapons are played completely straight in what is otherwise a modern, serious setting.
I like the demon lord, he is very cute and funny. I also like the NEET hero. More anime should have muscular yet pathetic men in their 30s as their protagonists. I also also like that the conflict in this madlibs concept of a show is a fucking breakaway state threatening to start a war and everybody is always having very realistic conversations about it in the background. Nothing about this show at a glance is particularly impressive but the gestalt is very entertaining and I can strongly recommend it.
Dekiru Neko OP
