Ojou to Banken-kun / お嬢と番犬くん

The parents of five-year-old Senagaki Isaku die in a car accident. Her grandfather, who is the leader of one of the Yakuza group, takes her under his roof. He orders one of his underlings, Utou Keiya, to care for and raise his granddaughter. Years pass, but because of the household Isaku comes from, she has trouble making friends, as everyone is afraid of her, and the parents of other students forbid their children to have contact with her. Everything changes when the girl is admitted to a prestigious high school far from her home. She wants to start a new life this way among people who do not know her. On her first day, however, she learns that Keiya has also been admitted to her school, even though she is 26 years old.

Do I recommend it after the first episode? Yes – I became interested in this series mainly because of the whining of tourists. It would waste my keyboard to dwell on how moronic their arguments are and only show that they are tourists without saying that they are tourists. However, I must thank them at this point. If it wasn’t for the rambling about this series on their part, I probably wouldn’t have this title on my list, as I rarely watch shoujo romances. Either way – a good start. Kitou Akari did a sensational job in the lead role. Character designs also on the plus side. The only thing I could complain about is the animation. It’s a little too stiff in places.

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16bit Sensation: Another Layer

Akisato Konoha is an illustrator who loves cute girls and bishoujo games. She works at a lesser-known visual novel development studio, but dreams of making a successful game in which she will be an illustrator. At the same time, she is aware that she will not accomplish this in her current workplace as a subordinate illustrator, coloring the backs of supporting characters.

One day Konoha gets her hands on a classic visual novel from an elderly second-hand store owner. Thinking back to the golden age of games of this type, Konoha opens the box of the first edition of Doukyuusei and suddenly realizes that the environment she finds herself in is alien to her. Some unknown force brought the girl to the year 1992, giving her a unique opportunity to make a name for herself as an illustrator in the golden age of visual novels.

Do I recommend it after the first episode? Yes – I can already tell that this will probably be my series of the season. Great atmosphere, a heroine with whom I can really relate, and an exploration of some of the most interesting eras, where the theme was the passion of the creators. The first episode itself had so many references (apart from the most obvious ones) that I really can’t wait for the further fate of the main character. The studio where she will come to work creates visual novels under PC-98, that is, hardware where this type of storytelling began to make its mark. The games that were created for this hardware were (and still are) an inspiration for creators in generations to come. I can’t help but wholeheartedly recommend it.

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Keikenzumi na Kimi to, Keiken Zero na Ore ga, Otsukiai suru Hanashi. / 経験済みなキミと、 経験ゼロなオレが、 お付き合いする話。

Kashima Ryuuto is an ordinary high school student who doesn’t have many friends. On top of that, the friends he has are rather phony, and their grades leave much to be desired. Therefore, they decide to screw Ryuuto in their plan to humiliate him. The rules are simple – whoever has the best results on the semester exams will have to do the rest of the group’s bidding no matter what they ask.

As they predicted, Ryuuto scored above-average grades in every subject. So they decide to force him to confess his feelings to the girl he has a crush on. The boy doesn’t want to lose his only classmates, so he agrees to accept the punishment. His choice is Shirakawa Runa. The most prominent girl in the class, who has no problem making contact with anyone. He doesn’t mind the fact that there are various rumors about her, saying that she changes partners like gloves. The next day he leaves a letter in her shoebox. To his surprise, Runa shows up at the indicated place, on top of which she accepts his confession of love.

Do I recommend it after the first episode? Yes – I can’t say that I’m a fan of the mindset of the main heroine. However, something tells me that quite soon her true nature will be revealed, strongly different from the image created in the first episode. This fact alone makes me just want to see what happens next. The comedy part was executed well. I look forward to the further fate of the characters.

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Kanojo mo Kanojo Season 2 / カノジョも彼女 Season 2

Mukai Naoya and Saki Saki have known each other since they were children. Naoya has had a crush on his childhood friend for a long time and finally decides to tell her. Saki accepts his feelings. Soon after, Naoya finds himself in the same situation as his girlfriend. On the roof of a school building, Minase Nagisa confesses her love to him. The boy tries to dismiss her at first. However, when he hears how much effort she has put into getting him to speak at all, and given her personal charm, he comes up with the idea that the two of them should have a relationship. When Saki learns about the whole situation, she becomes enraged. However, he is unable to resist Nagisa’s charm and after lengthy minutes of begging, she agrees to the arrangement….

Season 2

Do I recommend it after the first episode? Yes – Honestly, for these two years after the premiere of the first season, I had already forgotten how well executed the comedy part of the series was. I’m usually not a fan of heavily absurdist humor, but there are exceptions to every rule. Kanojo mo Kanojo is just one of them. Of course, this is heavily aided by the characters and their voice actors. The cast is made up of stars themselves and also some of my favorite seiyuu. Takahashi Rie, Sakura Ayane, Waki Azumi, Taketatsu Ayana, Koga Aoi, Enoki Junya. This couldn’t go wrong. I look forward to the next episodes.

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Kimi no Koto ga Daidaidaidaidaisuki na 100-nin no Kanojo / 君のことが大大大大大好きな100人の彼女

Aijou Rentarou manages to confess his love to a girl before starting at a new school. Unfortunately, he is rejected, making it his 100th rejection in a row. Experiencing another breakdown, he goes to a temple and prays, hoping to finally get a girl in high school. Unexpectedly, the god of the temple appears to him and promises Rentarou that he will meet a hundred soul mates in high school.

Rentarou, initially skeptical, quickly becomes convinced of the veracity of the deity’s words when two of his soulmates – Hanazono Hakari and Inda Karane – confess their love for him on the same day they meet him. However, there was one detail that the god forgot to tell Rentarou during their first meeting – if any of his soulmates did not come into a relationship with him, they would die. After long hours of deliberation, Rentarou decides to enter into a relationship with all of his soulmates.

Do I recommend it after the first episode? Yes – I had read the first few volumes of the manga, so I knew there was plenty to look forward to. The adaptation – at least of the first episode – was executed simply perfectly. Tomita Miyu in the role of Karane perfectly embodied the tsundere character. I look forward to the next episodes.

Do I recommend it after the last episode? Yes – a brilliant adaptation of a great manga. One of the few cases where I can say with a clear conscience that watching the anime will not only not be an inferior experience to reading the original, but the impressions will be further enhanced (mainly by the voice actors). A full review will be posted on the site soon.

Finalny werdykt

Final evaluation

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Hoshikuzu Telepath / 星屑テレパス

Konohoshi Umika is starting high school. Due to her shyness and love for stories about alien visitors, she has never been able to find friends in the previous years of her education. The girl dreams of meeting a real alien, but as the years go by she realizes that this is probably impossible. The day before the inauguration of the new classes, she sees a shooting star in the sky and makes a wish. The next day she meets Akeuchi Yuu in class – an energetic girl who has declared in front of everyone that she is an alien. Umika doesn’t believe what she hears, but quite quickly finds out that Yuu is telling the truth.

Do I recommend it after the first episode? Yes – finally, some decent CGDCT series. Studio Gokumi has already shown several times that they can certainly afford to make a truly brilliant adaptation of manga of this type (such as Kiniro Mosiac, Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san, A-Channel or Saki). It’s no different in this case either. Great characters, brilliant acting and exemplary direction. I didn’t know when the twenty minutes of the episode had passed. I definitely look forward to the next episodes.

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Dr. Stone: New World

One fateful day, all of humanity on the planet is turned into living stone statues. After several thousand years, high school student Taiju emerges from the stone shell covering his body quickly discovering how much the world has changed. Fortunately, he is not alone – he finds his acquaintance from school – the eminent scientist Senkuu, who has been waiting for months for his awakening while developing a plan to bring other human fossils back to life. Continuation of season three.

Do I recommend it after the first episode? Yes – I think that with the third season it is no longer necessary to encourage anyone. If someone liked the previous ones, they will find exactly the same here.

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Kusuriya no Hitorigoto / 薬屋のひとりごと

A 17-year-old girl known as Maomao was kidnapped while harvesting herbs. She was then forced to work as a servant in the emperor’s palace. Despite what befell her, she manages to maintain her inquisitive nature. One day she learns that two of the emperor’s infants have become seriously ill. She decides to secretly take action, using her experience as an apothecary raised in a poor red-light district. She quickly solves the mystery of the children’s poor condition and their mothers. Being confident that she has managed to sort everything out, without revealing her identity – she continues her daily work. However, the talent she possesses is invaluable at the imperial court, so one of the eunuchs begins a search for the person through whom the children survived.

Do I recommend it after the first episode? Yes – For some reason, I skipped this anime when picking out fall series. Fortunately, several people recommended that I watch it, at least the first episode (three were available right away for the release). After just a few minutes of the opening episode, I had no doubt that I would stay with this anime until the end. There are supposed to be 24 episodes in all, and the cast includes some outstanding names, such as Yuuki Aoi, Ishikawa Yui and Kuno Misaki, who are simply incredibly enjoyable to listen to. I really like the song used in the opening. We also can’t help but mention how good a job the OLM studio did in cooperation with TOHO animation STUDIO. The visuals are beautiful.

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