collective

Oyabaka Seishun Hakusho (2020)  This is directed by the same man who directed Kyou Kara Ore Wa - Fukuda Yuichi. He's done some popular things in the past - Mr Nietzsche in the Convenience Store being the most popular one that's talked about. I think he does a really good job at letting the actors go with comedic moments, and he also has a really good eye for setting up comedic premises (which I really like).  The show stars Muro Tsuyoshi, also better known as Mukunoki Sensei from Kyou Kara Ore Wa in the main role, and some younger actors as his daughter and the college students. It also features a bunch of the other actors from KKOW in little cameos (I also very much liked this), padding out the rest of the show. (shout out to hayato isomura as the touchy tennis senpai god bless).  The premise is about Obika Taro, an overprotective single parent/one hit wonder author, looking out for his pure and sheltered daughter Obika Sakura, as she finally enters college. As most plac...

To preface this season and the complete lack of shows I watched, I was basically incapacitated for most of the season. I've retroactively watched some of these shows, but it definitely was a binge post-season sesh. Not sure if this affects my thoughts on these, but not having waiting every week does make a minor difference. Less disappointment imo.  Finished  Kuro no Shoukanshi God how do I begin to describe this show. Okay so more or less, Ucchi comes through as the MC Kelvin, who is reincarnated from another world - but in order to become a stronger person, he's given up his memories for extra stats. He's somehow charmed the goddess who reincarnated him (Melfina) and starts his life as a super overpowered summoner in another world.  I mean this is... A generic show? It's not really anything particularly special, the MC is made out to be a 'battle junkie' who thrives on adrenaline but his actual character is pretty much underdeveloped in the whole anime because...

Old Fashioned Cupcake (2022)  Right. This is based off a BL manga which, I have never actually read, I tried to but found the panelling of the manga to be really cluttered and confusing to read. To be honest, i feel like a lot of times when you watch j-dramas you need to be sufficiently divorced from the source material in order to fully enjoy them. You can refer to Cherry Magic, or Coin Operated Laundry, a lot of the time, jdramas take a lot of elements from the original material and change it to fit their ideas - especially narrative wise. This also happens very very obviously in My First Love Mixup - just a lot of changes made to fit a more conventional narrative. I could also talk about the previous few dramas, but I might later. But what I do want to really state, is that BL as a trope is often not given a lot of funding, perhaps from the idea that queer media is still very much a fringe genre, and doesn't have mainstream appeal. As a result, a lot of these shows have actors w...

Finished Healer Girl  This is honestly such a weird show for me because it's not usually one that I would touch at all, but somehow, I was weirdly into this? It's sort of a crossover between a cute girls doing cute things SOL and an idol anime - where the main girls are studying to be healers, but like, they heal people through the power of SONG and sing their way through the ups and downs of their lives.  It's just kinda a really wholesome and sweet anime about girls being a lil gay and going through finding themselves, but also their desires to help people who need it - and even though I'm not a huge fan of the random singing, they're just kinda quaint and adorable and I really like how soft and sweet everyone in this show is. I end up getting really teary at all the parts, and while again, not objectively a good show, there is just some part of me which kinda just ended up really loving this in guilty pleasure but not really guilty way. One of my favorite parts i...