It’s a brand-new year, so enjoy our First Impressions of the winter anime season that just started~

Let’s start with the big one this season~

Since I’ve read the light novels and recently also started reading the manga, I can say that I’m very, very happy with the look, sound, and feel of this adaptation. I think they cast the perfect voice actresses for our two main characters, and it even seems as if the admittedly little yuri depicted in the anime, so far (at least in my eyes) comes off far stronger than what I encountered in the novels.

I think the only two things that bothered me a little are the weird changes in animation that happen every now and then and the fact that, so far, I feel like we’re rushing through things. The first few visits to the other side felt like it took the two an eternity, yet in the anime, it’s all over in a few minutes. I guess I would have liked a longer first episode really. With that said, I understand however why they needed to feature all these events in the first episode, I would have just liked it all to be depicted in let’s say 40 and not 20 minutes.

So this is really it, isn’t it? Soon enough, we’re going to have to say goodbye to an old friend, one that’s brought me tons of joy and has become one of my all-time favorite anime. I won’t spoil things, but when the third season finished airing a while back, I was so invested in the story that I started reading the manga. I’ve mentioned a million times how I never do that, but I had to make an exception for Shingeki no Kyojin. When I got to where this final season picks up, I won’t lie, I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I thought I would.

Many new characters were introduced, and they’d never be able to hold a candle to the Survey Corps, so I just didn’t like them. I don’t expect that to change. In earlier seasons, I loved the humans vs. Titans narrative, and the mysteries that came along with that. Where the story is at this season, I don’t feel as interested in this new conflict as I felt in prior seasons, as the military aspects make this feel more like just another action anime. Long story short, at the moment, it doesn’t totally feel like Shingeki no Kyojin to me. I’ve read beyond this (but not all the way), so I have a good idea where the story goes, and I can say that however different this final season feels, it’s still really good.

The change from Wit Studio to MAPPA looks to be a good transition, and from a technical and cinematic perspective, this series still feels top-notch and like it hasn’t missed a beat. I still expect this final season to be great, even if any hope for more YumiKuri is futile. I’m guessing most of the yuri fans checked out a while ago, but I’m going to see it through till the end. Since this started airing last month, we only have around a dozen more episodes left before it’s all over, and I hope this series ends up going out with a bang~

For a while, I didn’t think we’d ever see a second season of Uma Musume. Since season one aired, some real-life race horses whose names were included in the show were put down, and it just had been so long without many updates that I had started to write this series off. But it’s back, though it seems a bit different than the Uma Musume I remember.

I’m going to be critical, for a few reasons. First, unlike the first season, Tokai Teio seems to be the new protagonist. This is pretty disappointing for me, as Teio wasn’t anything more than just another character to me in the first season. It’s only been one episode, but I didn’t see anything that would make me shift my opinion that Special Week is simply a better main character. Special Week is still around, but it feels weird to have everything revolve around Teio. Luckily, Mejiro McQueen seems like she might have a bigger role than last season, and I’m definitely looking forward to that. In season one, Special Week x Silence Suzuka was the show’s main yuri ship, but with Suzuka now in the US, that seems pretty much dead. Mejiro McQueen x Gold Ship was my other favorite ship, and those two are still around, so that’s where all my yuri hopes currently lie.

Something else I didn’t like was how none of the horse girls we got to know in the first season faced off with Teio in the Japanese Derby. It was just Teio and a bunch of nobodies, so the lack of tension was not something I enjoyed. Earlier in the episode, Teio mentions having previously lost to Mejiro McQueen, and to have such a major race exclude someone like her and Special Week makes it seem like Teio’s predictable victory should have an asterisk by it. The racing itself was still entertaining to me, though there seemed to be more CG than I remember, but that’s probably just my memory failing me. Anyway, it’s unclear how much (if any) yuri subtext this season will have, but I’m not getting my hopes up. Teio has a ways to go to win me over, yet it’s not impossible, even though this Teio x Mejiro rivalry doesn’t pique my interest like Special Week x Silence Suzuka did. And where the hell was El Condor Pasa?! Okay, let’s move on already. 😀

Oh my, I don’t really know where to start with this one. After what felt like years (and probably in reality actually was years) of waiting, I was unexpectedly hit with the first episode a few weeks ago. To say I was unprepared is an understatement.

I remember when we saw the first few pictures for the show, then the news of its delay came, and somewhere along the lines I think I lost track of it all. Now seeing the final result left me both confused and shocked, but in a good way. Let’s just say I didn’t expect this to be this all over the place, but I guess you could say it’s actually one of this show’s many charms.

It doesn’t really give you a lot of time to comprehend what is going on and instead overwhelms your senses with all kinds of things. In all honesty, I rather felt like I was watching an anime by Studio SHAFT than anything else, and by all means is this a good thing!

Still, the only things I took from the first episode so far were that it’s about a vampire that pairs up exceptionally well with our blood donation enthusiast oddball of a main character and, of course, the fact that dress regulations are apparently not effective for school nurses…

Can’t wait for more!

Coming into this newest season of WIXOSS, it seemed that the series was adding some idol elements, but in the first episode, that wasn’t really the case. I expecting some singing and dancing, but instead, we got the usual card battles, albeit with some new twists to the familiar formula. Selectors are back, but LRIGs seem to be a thing of the past, with the girls divas themselves taking the virtual battlefield themselves. The battles seem to take place in VR (and in teams of three), and in this first episode at least, there was a distinct lack of despair. I’d guess it’s only a matter of time before that changes, however.

This season sees an all-new cast take the field, and though it’s still extremely early, I think the main trio seemed pretty likable. Aside from a brief comedic moment between Hirana and her best friend, Akino, there wasn’t anything that gets your yuri senses tingling. I’m actually not expecting very much in that regard, but I’d love to be wrong about that. The franchise hasn’t had that many yuri moments overall, but it looks like it’ll once again be a cast of only girls, so there’ll probably be some shipping going on. More than anything, this new season seems like just another opportunity to sell some cards in real-life, but if we end up getting a somewhat entertaining anime out of it, it might be worth it. I said in a past News Update that maybe it’s for the best that the series changes things up, and I’d say that WIXOSS Diva(A)Live is off to an okay start.

I absolutely LOVED the first season of Yakusoku no Neverland, so I was really hyped for the new season, and the first episode is already off to a great start. I can’t talk too much about the story without spoiling everything, but things pick up where season one left off, and it didn’t take long for things to escalate and the tension to rise to unsafe levels.

One of the things I loved about the first season was the mystery involving what exactly is going on, and episode one further complicates matters, so I have no idea where the story is going to go, yet it’s safe to say that I’m probably going to be enjoying the hell out of it. Enjoying the hell out of it, despite what are sure to be some tragic moments involving those kids. I can already imagine what could happen, and I don’t like it one bit. Still, it’s impossible not to root for these kids’ survival, and I’m just happy that I’m able to watch this series once again. Season one is one of my favorite anime of the last few years, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the season two might join it as well~

Yuru Camp△ and serenity, name a more iconic duo. You can’t! The second season has arrived, and just like season one, this first episode doesn’t have a whole lot happening, yet it’s still somehow extremely watchable. Rin, Nadeshiko, and the other girls are all back, but I always enjoyed it more when they would all get together, and that didn’t happen in the first episode. What we did get was Rin seemingly going camping for the first time, and Nadeshiko going about her job delivering letters. It honestly sounds pretty boring, but Yuru Camp△ is more than the sum of its parts, and it was once again pretty enjoyable~

Season one was practically devoid of any yuri, and even though that’s probably going to continue to be the case for season two, I can’t help but wish that Rin and Nadeshiko will at least be able to spend some time together, alone. However, even without that, this series is exactly what the doctor ordered for people who are tired of all the bad things happening in the world. For me, it’s escapism in its finest form, and it’s reassuring to know that we have three months of this to look forward to.