Or not? Do we have to wait till fall? BEGIN SUMMER 2022 MEGA-ANIME (etc) IMPRESSION THREAD. End of spring? thread in QT if you care to revisit (I may add to it) What to start with?

The murderous highschool-girl (child soldiers?) of LYCORIS RECOIL https://youtu.be/PTrQpiRniKc

Ep1 did a good job of paced mayhem and chara introductions. Concept: Orphan girl children (maybe there be boys? not seen yet) are trained as state assassins for domestic crime & terrorrism control. Cute HS(ish) uniformed Girls w. Guns

Add a few adult semi-retired minders off to the side of the Minority Report style mission control bureaucracy and you have a cute cafe where a few "problem children" can go on light duty before they snap. Could get great OR stinky fast. For now, a def Keep Watching

Retro Interlude: Why did I need a foul-mouth yank charicature to inform me of the existence of the 2002 "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi" anime ??? https://youtu.be/M_tMD5bTbLM

There was also a manga adapt., but to my mind the anime does a better job on the atmosphere of the doomed shopping district and the "childhood friends" dynamic btw the 2 main charas. The manga goes too fast into T&A burlesque and ani-paro gags piled one on top of another

The Anime Herald write-up is good bkgrndr: https://www.animeherald.com/2014/09/03/semi-essentials-magical-shopping-arcade-abenobashi/…

Carry over retro anime: Still slowly working my way through HYAKKO (2008) It's not bad, generally enjoyable, just -for me- a few plotting decisions introduce unecessay suck -- which keeps it firmly in the "novel -mid- anime of yesteryear" pile. https://youtu.be/taVYPLeKdps

The ED kinda grows on you: https://youtu.be/iCM5LYg6FJI

Segue to "looks retro but iz new": TOKYO MEW MEW NEW OMG is this shoujo AAF, retro shoujo stylings to 11 !!! https://youtu.be/uQp9pNrC2cU

Not being any kinda expert on magical girls anime but this thing feels OLDSCHOOL HARDCORE, like Cardcaptor or whut. Good that they don't service-out the henshin (yet) And... The "first crush" stuff of our heroine.. almost smothering in intensity. It's dem eyes with dat hair:

Ep1 was efficient setting up the tale -- the two org guys at the end, the ray gun and the cafe were off, almost Team Rocket, will give it a chance... The orig 2002 run had 52 EPS! (plus OAVs plus manga) https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=829…

Often ask myself: "why do I keep doing these impression mega-threads?". Because otherwise IRL shit would break me to pieces. But IRL has undoubtedly influenced what I can tolerate. Frinstance, you may just lurv (or req for catharsis) the latest "Battle Royale" iteration...

Me NOPE. Even power-fantasy Isekai is beginning to strain my "up-with-put" abilities. So I have negs going into somethin like: [Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life: Dai-2 no Shokugyou wo Ete, Sekai Saikyou ni Narimashita]

Espec since it smells like an inferior power-fantasy alt take on Grace of the Gods. At 1st look I thot it was a continuation/ much later, of... (btw, both satarted as webnovels at the same appx time on Narou)

So far, I'll tolerate it, at least until ep3 but c'mon. Gonna do fantasy/ Isekai, need SOMETHING to distinguish it... Like the fun bullshit of Evolution Fruit's over-harem-ing OR... LEWDS !!! https://youtu.be/Z88dmzIH4N0

Vermeil in Gold / [Kinsou no Vermeil: Gakeppuchi Majutsushi wa Saikyou no Yakusai to Mahou Sekai wo Tsukisusumu] Haha. Also onee shota AAF Again, Haha Magic academy, overpowered mana timid MC, childhood friend, sexy demon lady mischief... What could go wrong?

What else? A embarassment of offerings, best to start with the easy ones: YUREI DECO feels like Dennou Coil re-imagined by pop art cultists. Undoubtedly helps shave the production budget.

Imma gonna confess that a full half of what keeps me putting up with the Bakemonagatari franchise is how they manage to WORK that 2.1D flat perspective shit into eye-candy. Works for me, on the same level that got me to watch a few eps of last year's Muteking the Dancing Hero...

before I completely gave up. EYE CANDY! Oh.. here's last fall's impression mega-thread; maybe you find something you skipped/ missed: https://twitter.com/Mudakuntweets/status/1446317333992071168?s=20&t=JwXs1dTRGN1sOwrZbwQZng…

Anyway, a preview, see it if works fer you: https://youtu.be/goFwjg8omBQ

Since I am retrospecting, here's the start of last year's summer impression mega-thread: https://twitter.com/Mudakuntweets/status/1411472870933401612?s=20&t=JwXs1dTRGN1sOwrZbwQZng…

Spring last year: https://twitter.com/Mudakuntweets/status/1386575646709751812?s=20&t=JwXs1dTRGN1sOwrZbwQZng…

The rest got wiped because I didn't want the elongate muskrat to profit off data-mining anything I posted; except anime reviews, but I clumsily nuked those as well. OOOps...

Not anime but amusing: Found an -ahem- source for a subbed version of the 2018 J-drama Miss Sherlock. Ep 1: EXPLODING BELLY PILLS!

Wato-san! The game's afoot!

Back to anime: We all agreed we are gonna hafta watch Yofukashi no Uta/ Call of the Night right? Urrrrrr... I gotta wait till ep2 but something feels... missing Compare this fan-made AMV/PV to the end result Yofukashi No Uta manga PV - Creepy Nuts https://youtu.be/eojyaDZ-mKA

The fan thing uses manga art and is not really that great but still succeeds -inadvertantly- at pointing out what is off, or missing with the anime's Nazuna. It feels like her edges have been sanded down.

Not just the chara drawing accomodations made for getting around technical problems in animating but also the way they move, even interact. The manga had "dynamics" -espec in the first for vols at 9-10. The anime is doing 4-5. Honestly, Vermeil-chan is gaining on Nazuna.

Ko-kun is similarly dulled-down but this is easier to hide, seeing as we supposed to be fixed on N-chan's skinny bod. Maybe trying to telegraph too many things to set up the story in ep1? Also, her room is too clean, dammit! Still must-watch but Imma leetle disappoint!

Given how Call of the Night goes 1st Ep, I am a bit frightened on how HOSHI NO SAMIDERE (A Spring rainstorm of Stars) AKA The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer is gonna play out. Lucifer is a darker and far more complex tale; there is abuse, self-loathing and death o plenty.

I was under the impression that its release had been pushed back to Fall but nope... Here it is: https://youtu.be/0xeF7ECHltI

TRIVIA time for Lycoris Recoil: dat flower: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycoris_radiata… Recall it was the fave of Hell Girl. Poisonous bulbs, planted around graves, etc. Higanbana. Current use appears to be gun-girls saying "Li-co-rise"

Higan is one of the terms for the Japanese equivalent of the river Styx - the one with the ferryman to the afterlife, etc... So "flower of the shores of the river styx" would make for an apt, if stretched localization.

Whut else? The J-Drama "Miss Sherlock" is pretty good: Yūko Takeuchi as Sherlock and Shihori Kanjiya as Wato-san grate against each other and the location-pr0n is tasty enough... I'm up to Ep6. WOWSERS! Is this josei-muke to 11.

Imma guessing that that's the thing about J-Dramas in general but this is massively a "womans world" production. The guys are all NPCs. The two detectives are a hoot, espec the younger butt-monkey. Alt-Mycroft is a middle-aged siscon.

Back to easy-new-stuff-first new anime impressions: Isekai Yakkyoku / Parallel World Pharmacy Bog-standard Isekai, exactly what's on the tin. Inoffensive, mid, harmless. (this is a good thing in these troubled times) https://youtu.be/tS9gMTu2eKo

Next up: EP2 of HOT DEMON MILFS NEAR YOU !!! (yeah; has a problem with noncon but for an ecchi, it remains surprisingly harmless)

Vermeil (in Gold) is still just messing around, She is insanely overpowered and therefore a natural safety net for anything that Mahou Academy is going to throw at the lad. Lad is overpowered as well, tho still a tyro when it comes to deliverables, so she's amused.

Viewers may be less inclined, so the writer had best be ready to wreck havoc on the plotline or this thing is gonna sink fast from -mid- to BORRRRRIIIING. I mean, yeah, she gotta rack. Next?

Next up: a NO-SERVICE entry from the long-running drooling otaku fanservice franchise, BUTT WITC... urrr... Strike Witches. Renmei Kuugun Koukuu Mahou Ongakutai Luminous Witches / League of Nations Air Force Magic Aviation Band Luminous Witches https://youtu.be/MULDcskEm7c

Cute, harmless, no service, no flash pantsu! Idols; so sweet and pure and keep your greasy otaku expectations in check! Go re-watch Strike Witches for your prop leggings and butt shots fix. https://youtu.be/jm6Ten5eKYo

We gonna get some usual idol show shit, but since this is -militarized-, they have the chance for Taka +/or "combat revue" tributes. Auto-fail, despite easing off the service, If they don't.

Had read some of the web-manga " Isekai Ojisan " and it looks like Netflix backed an anime version. Very minimal, animate the panels approach. Has ONE JOKE, endlessly redoes it:

Not even gonna bother with a setup/ synopsis. It's not brilliant but it won't poke your eyes out with a stick, so whatever. https://youtu.be/eXeRKo1LZow

Teppen—!!! Ep2:

LYCORIS RECOIL (eps 2+3) is turning out to be the must-watch anime of the season. Story is simple enough but the setup is excellent. Remember; these orphan girls are trained and licensed to kill by the state.

So we are immediately into the dynamic between the "driven-serious" girl and the loose cannon, furloughed-off "nehhh... don't wanna kill" bullet-dodging prodigy girl. We get a glimpse of this when she does 1st aid on the baddies in eps 1 + 2. Also rubber bullets...

... which she gets mocked for at the "base".

Big child-soldier subtext here. Also lotsa Japan "take-one-for-the-bureaucracy" scapegoat shit. We'll find out later how she personally destroyed the Tokyo Tower (or something). We is not gonna get a cute-girls-with-guns remake of Kitano's 1989 VIOLENT COP. -pity-

I suspect they will tread lightly on how the Lycoris are a a state-sponsored assassins' cult. The next few eps are gonna be obv: they now own the haxn0r who got into their AI and they gotta get the gunz. Lotsa firefights. The chara dynamics will save it from -mid-

Don't think we'll get any overt yuri, even if they are a CLASSIC yuri pair.

Next up Teppen—!!! (eps 1 +3) is gonna confuse the heck out of us outlander viewers. We are not used to Manzai. The closest would be Abbott & Costello routines purposely fucked up because we are all so used to the "correct" versions.

What sets this one apart -- and incidentally makes it a headache is that it looks like the series is gonna spotlight a different comed trio of girls each ep -- at least for the first few eps. Also we missing ep2, cause NICE BOAT. Ep3 is chaos. Includes a "girl zoo" lampshade

The shout-out to the ancient edo-era "stop in the name of the emperor!!!" historical TV crime drama is just plain PURE LOVE. The Ibaraki prefectural nationalism thing; not so much but Ok. https://youtu.be/8W8w8sA0aK4

Teppen !!! could be amazing -- it will prob do well in Japan but I fear us slow outlander types won't be able to keep up. Joshiraku is prob. as fast as we can manage. https://youtu.be/rjvFt-Qk_iU

Ep 2 of Isekai Yakkyoku / Parallel World Pharmacy proceeds apace. Soothing, could pass for Iyashikei. BLINK AND YOU WILL MISS THE EPIC MILESTONE OF 2022 ANIME!!!! https://youtu.be/a1cmT5Lj0gc

Didja catch it?

well?

Didya?

Isekai hero does PPE. "...and so advance the project of civilization!" Masks on, it's airborne.

Not anime or manga but I am enjoying the fan translation of the Isekai LN: "I was reincarnated into another world as an enormous digging machine AI and now I dig dungeons with my slave girl harem" PV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azEvfD4C6ow…

In other news, there's a new OVERLORD anime.

Tokyo Mew Mew New Ep3: Mebe 'cause it is stifling hot, my patience is thin of late. Is this a retro shoujo tribute or is it some greasy otaku simulacrum of the same? Getting harder to ignore. No Liek!

Yofukashi no Uta Ep2: Why does the generic boy band rap sound like the ridiculous transition music on Abema live Sumo?

Amirite, neh? https://youtu.be/xktCirjOV74

Oyagi #2: "So Desu, Neh?"

On that note, further Sumo asides - as I am BORED SPITLESS with current Summer 2022 anime season. If you are up this late, you CAN find live uhhh -fan- re-streams of the 2022 Nagoya Basho (July) - Day 13. Just uh, look for the date, sumo, toggle filters to LIVE.

This is a lot easier than messing with a VPN plus you can down-toggle the resolution if your connection is shit, PLUS, you can rewind if you miss something, then 2X though to catch up.

This feed streams the lower division matches; note the ref gets short outfit and bare feet! And the stadium is pretty empty: is early plus Covid scares. Lotsa Sumo "stables" have dropped out, lotsa default wins.

Some commentariat saying they dragging out the lower div matches to make up time.

As always, you can open another tab for the official Sumo Association page, the matches updat almost in real time. Hit refresh. https://sumo.or.jp/EnHonbashoMain/torikumi/3/13/… WOW.. lookie how small the 2nd highest Juryon division got due to covid pullouts! https://sumo.or.jp/EnHonbashoMain/torikumi/2/13/…

Back to Summer 2022 anime: What to make of Bucchigire! (Shine On! Bakumatsu Bad Boys) ? For one thing, like many outlanders, I didn't have all the Jp war-history stuff in high school, so it's been whatever bits of -huh- picked up from the vernacular. Gintama prob isn't helping

So, let do The Dirty Dozen with the Shinsengumi in 1860's Kyoto. Since all the real ones, save one were wiped out, secretly substitute them with oddball criminals. Good, if cliché shonen adventure dynamic between the rooster-top and the assassin. Almost Kelvin timeline.

Aside: I read Dr. Nyri A. Bakkalian's MA thesis (because she has been might-as-well promoting it - it's a good read so hat tip!) and... Does one of the Northern Alliance leaders make a cross-dressing secret appearance in ep3 ??? http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/7170/

Anyway, the Shinsengumi were a real (if short-lived) thing and the factional politics were so thick as to border incomprehensibility. You can try, start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinsengumi…

To this, Bucchigire! adds mystical/supernatural sword-powers, a lot of over-the-top fight scenes and -surprise- most of the story line remains comprehensible. Not brilliant, a tolerable summer shonen adventure time-waster.

2 weeks later: I am having trouble motivating to continue this season's anime etc., impression thread.

Continue the impression thread: Bucchigiri to Ep5 is, is... like... I dunno, some Kyoto Shinsengumi exercise in 1970's character driven action grinders. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd6nwPahdpQ…

We got Rooster head and Assassin as Kirk/ Spock, Doc and Monk as Sherlock/ Watson and now Sword Girl X Chōshū Drag-Lord are being set up. Ep 5 adds: BROTHERS!

If I had experience with 4 decades of STOP IN THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR! Jp Live historical dramas, I prob would be annoyed by Bucchi. Heck the studio biker thing at the beginning is cringe nuff... However, it remains stupid fun shonen, perfect for summer evening relax.

This anime impression mega-thread is stalling out (again). Just when I summoned enough care to consider a few more posts, some cultish excrement pops up on re-streamer sites. I KNOW they'll grab ANYTHING that looks like animoo, but.... gehhhhhhhhhh.

Shinsengumi Vermeil Boring slime guy Assassin girls Drug-boy isekai Manzai girls Nightwalkers are all doing well enough not to induce retching. I guess that's a good season. Others stalled out, avoided or lost interest. Your mileage may vary.

Lycoris Ep7: Art School/

I re-watched all of Castlevania. Still holds up.

I re-watched the last extant ep of The Witcher. Netflix should make more, even if -the blonde- is annoying.

I am slowly gaining more respect for Lycoris Recoil because they are refusing to get into a further mega-gun-battle with the psycho big-bad. Instead, nervous energy slice-of-life:

In manga: Akane Banashi continues to delight. Find and read!

Not anime, not manga; a western comic style webcomic with incredibly overdone graphics and cosmic scale battles: Kill Six Billion Demons. Just WOW! Wisteria - nice touch. https://killsixbilliondemons.com/…

And now for something... lets be charitable and call it low-mid: Black Summoner. Contrasted to Internal Monologue Slime + Wolf Dude Isekai, this one is... Worse. Harem, slave elf girl in maido outfit, overt game mechanics w/o any "inside a game", dev'd from a Narou LN series.

Ticks off all the boxes. Somehow I had missed it earlier. It ain't great but it ain't "Imma gonna get back at the bitch with my slave-girl fighters harem", so it ain't putrid. Ho hum. Latest episode: Rice get!

I have to catch up on YUREI DECO. The only ep I watched was engaging enough but I never followed through/ "picked it up" Similarly, was excited about Hoshi no Samidere but then something stopped me before I started. Someone remarked how its re-appearance reminded them /

...of their headspace from a decade ago. That made sense. I remember a metric fuckton of self-loathing in the manga and while catharsis is valuable; not what I need right now, espc. if I also have to process the diffs btw the manga and anime versions. Maybe later.

For good news, Teppen!!!, while remaining steeped in Japanese TV comedy traditions - which are a tad opaque to outlanders, is good, ridiculous fun! The Bus time-loop Ep was exceptional!

As well, I just plain lurved that bus to death. Reminded me of the local bus we got on after hiking out of the Jigokudani monkey onsen: wood floors, heaters at max, through partially snow-covered back roads. I miss Japan.

Manga: I was reminded again how intricately GOOD Sōsō no Frieren is. Noted it over a year ago and it has only gotten better since. I believe an anime is planned. Hunt it down and enjoy!

Because I am trying to get back to reading THEORY, I ended up watching the 2019 anime "Meiji Tokyo Renka" Wow! Is this thing an otome game or whut!

You can go through my other posts to latch onto -that- thread, where I was just getting to the influence of the Mori writing clan, father and later daughter, on some of the more ... urrrr... modernist writings in 20thC Japan.

The name ain't that familiar to us outlanders but I am sure that most Jp high school lit classes bore the heck outta students touching upon some of his more <accessible> works. Perhaps not the banned 1909 one, responsible for gifting posterity with "koha" and "nampa".

These two, especially the first are gonna pop up again and again, and will find their penultimate expression in an army office on November 25, 1970 where another writer suicided (in an overdone manner) to the sound of jeering soldiers and helicopters. https://youtu.be/yEDW6ydCkAk

But that's for the theory mega-thread. Suffice it to say that the anime bishie Ougai is more of a fanciful name-recognition re-imagining of the author of "Vita Sexualis" and very nampa.

Koha and Nampa (hard and soft); it's the "soft" dudes -- the clan of the bishies that pursue (and enthrall) young women. "Hard" dudes saw the company of women as a weakening influence: few words, speak with their fists, etc. Some drift is to be expected. https://youtu.be/Qd50nfJ1MEE

As for "Meiji Tokyo Renka", an anime based on an otome visual novel and damn proud of it, the viewer is in for all otome (maiden) all the time, with turn of century famous young culture bois dropped in by the carriage-load. She sees spirits/ ghosts. Magic time-leap. Roll camera:

Watched the Netflix animated prequel to "The Witcher"; "The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf" Mid. CGI-heavy, Ok.

There are parts the just plain "work" but these are almost accidental. Otherwise, the story grinds on and no amount of flashbackies can add any significant depth - only stretch the viewing time. Very Netflix.

A twitter thread informed me that an Oshii-heavy live-action Patlabor sequel existed, so I just had to track it down. Surprisingly easy to find: "The Next Generation: Patlabor"

If anything, this can be seen as the ancestor of Shin Godzilla; very little giant robot fighting, very much Japanese low-level bureaucracy fucking around pointlessly. And very Oshii - he just can't resist a few BFG's (Beautiful fighting girls)

As well; post-post-bubble downer mood. The 0 episode sets the mood. Giant robots were some kind of selfish fancy, obsolete before they were made. Oh well, polish 'em, sing the corporate song, draw your paycheck. Now if I could only find a grey-stream of "Blood Friends"...

A correspondent alerts me to the new Manga Plus series: Ghostbuster Osamu https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/titles/100204 Our JK heroine is a complete fujoshi and game otaku and therefore is the only one who can deal with the frustrated desires of recently passed vengeful (female) otaku spirits.

If ya wanna get technical, this is a shonen manga take on fujoshi; pairing fights become apocalyptic, gatcha otome games, a path to hell, etc. Good opo to segue to this fine fujo explainer -- very well done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZKZWCrj_5M…

Time to stick my nose in thangs that don't concern me. My take on the "fetishization" canard is strategically placed because moi am a straight, cis, old, anglo-euroethnic (who has reasons for my odd hobby of sussing this stuff out): You gonna call fetish on TVTropes shit???

IS THIS COFFEE ACCEPTABLE OR MUST I DENOUNCE IT? You see, as an outside observer, Imma not gonna get caught up in representation/ authenticity/ appropriation of voice arguments because 1) they old; same shit for 60yrs and 2) standing, of which I have not. However,

you can't stop the curious from reading, and what's behind our interest is varied, often instrumental if not frightening. This happens with -fiction- Fortunately, my interest is mundane and boring: the representation of desire in Contemporary Japanese Visual Culture.

Any neat new takes on romance I promise to steal them and maybe even sell them to my het brethren. After all, trad-het has become a mite -hysterical- lately. Lotta bullshit rules and a retrograde trend in laws, in certain jurisdictions.

Back to "fetishization" and why TikTok teens are so frightening. UH... Tropes and clichés and fic and works that burst out to "pro". Tons of shared tropes, build-a-bear simplifications that make for a shit-ton of output. "Everyone an Author" as the Narou site proclaims.

"I denounce the crossdressing maido cafe manga as..." DOWN ARMS! It's a webtoon manga built outta off-the shelf tropes. That's why you get to read it. (free) It was an off-the shelf pile of cliches, which made it possible (not easy) for the tyro mangaka to lash it together.

You want better? One can denounce harmful clichés / tropes and depreciate the worst of them but sooner or later someone has to CONSTRUCT BETTER off-the-shelf goodies. Whining is easy, comedy is hard. Is like you are trying to ban a certain kind of drywall compound.

Theory folks can take this back to Marx and "commodity fetishism" but that would be a bore. The STRUCTURAL counter to the fetishization canard remains, pour moi, the strongest. Like complaining fast-food is fast-food. The Yaoi Shelf arguments are good too.

ASIDE: EIZOUKEN is prolly the best, purest "relationship" work of the last 5 years. The fundamental problem remains: barring law, custom and coercion, why would anyone put up with someone else in their face for any extended period of time? "Nakama des."

In lighter news, read V2 of "Modern Villainess: It's Not Easy Building a Corporate Empire Before the Crash" https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/LightNovel/ModernVillainessItsNotEasyBuildingACorporateEmpireBeforeTheCrash…

I approve! Some folks may MEGO on the intricate financial details and xlated politico stuff; just treat it as "isekai magic".

Special Shout-out for the first Covid-era Public Health isekai: "Isekai Yakkyoku". "it's airborne"

Resuming season's anime(plus stuff) impression mega-thread. Season is coming to a close, some interesting stuff may drop for next. Should do some wrap-up. Also: Star Trek Lower Decks is back w. Season 3.

I laughed. I dunno if making fun of Mariner's dating habits (whoever the fvck she wants to date) is a plus or a minus. Then again LD likes its romcom:

The 'nightmare' conjured by the psychic mines isn't the wolfazoid girlfriend, just that wolf-babe is too CLINGY!

Mariner no do boring.

Mariner fear settle down. Oh well. Get booted out of Star Fleet, open a bookstore with wolfie. Good to have fallbacks.

Been watching Star Treks since I was a kid and gotta say: Lower Decks has been the most pure geek fun of the lot.

I should start wrap-up on the "summer" anime+ impression mega-thread but... I pulled my back again and pain dulls my wits. Will get around to it. Meanwhile, a new otome game isekai anime has compelled me to start the fall thread. Here: https://twitter.com/Mudakuntweets/status/1574913074653437952?s=20&t=X-DYLOThVTxX08oPo82pQQ…

Yofukashi no Uta wrapped up its first season with ep13 and I gotta say: I underestimated this one!

Sheeet! I could do an entire essay post on this one (except my back hurts like stabby stabby heck and I have fallen from grace from the blog). I was distracted/ put off that the anime felt "sanded down" from the manga. In retrospect, an anime needs focus; things get discarded.

Waht the hell; might as well sketch out a few points that could be grinded on: 1) Japanese pop narratives continue to have FUN with musty old Euroethnic vamp lore No more hunting down depraved aristos and staking them before they can exploit peasant (worse, bourgeois) women.

The vampire story is now a romcom, with the focus on >relationships< . Nazuna's skinny bod aside, this one has a truckload of josei in it.

2) Sympathy for the... These vamps are a lot like their domestic audience - in that "relationships" for them are troublesome, formulaic, empty and ultimately elusive. The vamp council looks suspiciously like an Office Ladies' Friday night drinking group.

Ko-kun is a perfect antagonist to them. Not completely aro(mantic), just resolutely confused by the WHY WHY WHY of the whole thing. Anime adaptions tend to zero in on one aspect of a story and ride it hard, lest they flounder all over the place.

Part of me still prefers the chaotic vibe of Yofukashi no Uta's manga but the anime ended up doing its thing very cleanly, so WIN. Later in the manga, we get the reveal on Nazuna and why she is a perfect match and as equally stymied by the relationship thang as Ko-kun.

The office ladies' vampire drinking society puts the spotlight on their concerns - and complaints. The manga will later show us ONE guy vampire, in full MIB-clean-up-messes mode but he's an outlier.

Another "tell"; all those arbitrary year deadlines: One year from meet-up to fall-in-love-get-turned. 10 years without sex and you become a wizard... oops without blood and you turn to dust.

Surprised the manga has yet to give us a modified "Bewitched" couple that the OL-klatch sneer at. The otokonoko vamp's domestic arrangements are a hoot, as well as there to further drive home the point.

Man, they saved all the good shit for the last ep of the cours:

Hatsuka-chan is overcompensating...

For we so seldom...

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