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The Demon King's Daughter Is Too Kind!! - When kindness begets evil wherever the source comes from.

Often times, the fascinating world of AniManga presents itself with lots of ideologies from authors who want to make their name known in different ways, and I respect that not everyone wants to go through the hustle that you need to "make it big" to have a product that can be good, and stay consistent in the long run, even when it feels repetitive that one action, eliminates the very key ideal that makes or breaks the series in the long run. Such as is in this rather packed ... Winter 2026 season that thereby, comes in with mangaka Yuuya Sakamoto's first work that is Maou no Musume wa Yasashisugiru!! a.k.a The Daughter of the Demon Lord Is Too Kind!, a work that is strucutrally and most importantly, diabetically sound at a decent 49 chapters in 7 volumes.

Normally, there's something to be said about fantasy comedies that doesn't take itself too seriously, and even more when you add the childcare theme in it, because the Demon King's Daughter for one, Doux, is SERIOUSLY too kind, like a naive but hyperactive child that's the brainchild of her father, the Demon King Ahriman and his wife (which I would not say due to spoilers), plus Jahi the attendant. Together, the trio (by that I mean Ahriman, Doux and Jahi) had to navigate childrearing like never before, the reason for what halted the invasion for world domination for the demons towards the humans. And as a parental figure, having evil thoughts is normal for a demon, but it's AB-normal when it comes to Doux, which she's also a demon, but her kindness, truly leads people to compassion. She's just a bubble of joy to be around, like as if we're her virtual parents watching over her life in animated form. The good and kind-hearted nature like Doux, alongside the father who wishes his own daughter to be evil just like him, but stopped with his demonic "humanity" that it's better just seeing his daughter play and act like a child, I mean...what more could you ask from seeing your own children be happy at what they do, touching the lives of people with one kind action at a time?

At its heartbeat, Maou no Musume may be nothing special, but within the anime adapting about half the manga's material, it's more than enough to show that simplicity is at the heart of everything that's to love about the series. Every episode, coupled with a composed song with Doux's veteran VA Misaki Kuno's rather musical voice that's filled with cuteness, I can't tell you how much it paints a smile on my face (and I hope it does yours too) that childrearing is one of those anime theme "tropes" that I wished we could have more for, especially given the constant changes of the AniManga industry trying to find what's the next biggest thing, which to be frank, we don't even NEED that kind of competition. All you need is a family figure, the guardian childrearer, and other supporting characters that maketh the moments where Doux can present her demonic innocence towards people from all walks of life, in bliss or harsh, in life or sickness, till (literally) death do us apart, because apart from the central trio, the other characters are a lot fun to mingle with, simple as they come, for a plot of this size that doesn't need so much overthinking for some magical stories in the making.

For a show of this sort, having a small budget still works out well, even if it's for 3rd-rate studios like EMT Squared to helm this, because truth to be honest, ANY studio can make this work, but I feel like it's EMT's rather centric vision that makes the show shine possibly brighter than the rest. Even the OST is decent as well, with Kaori Ishikawa's OP and the central trio's ED, which is more than servitude enough.

At the end of the day, you don't come into Maou no Musume wa Yasashisugiru!! a.k.a The Daughter of the Demon Lord Is Too Kind!, with the mission of wanting to see some action. You're clearly here to bask in its sweetness and cuteness that's a vibe of good feels, and if you end your day on a bad note, this show is here to help energize your spirits up to end the day better.

And hey, what better than to settle the "conquering the world" onslaught conquest with happiness and kindness, the way that Doux does? This is a show that one can only dream and hope for, with smiles on everyone's faces.

I have but only one thing to say about this show: DOUX-CHAN YASASHI SUGIRU!!

Hana-Kimi - Is old-school Shoujo finally back from the grave for a modern resurgence? Yes and no...

The "direct but not so direct" opposite of the Shonen genre, the Shoujo genre has its fans too where the former precedes action and intensity, the latter precedes romance, rom-coms and the like. It wouldn't be fair to say that Shoujo is the way it is today without some big names throughout history, and for one such mangaka by the name of Hisaya Nakajo, the late veteran who passed away in late 2023 would become one such figure that would shake the Shoujo genre in the early 90s. Apart ... from her rather short-lived 2-volume manga series Sugar Princess which was serialized in Hakusensha's famous Hana to Yume imprint in the mid=2000s, it's her other work of Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, otherwise known as Hana-Kimi from 1996 to 2004, that finally got an anime adaptation 3 decades later that's seeking to adapt the entirety of its 23 volume, 144 chapter long series. And the first result of that with the premiere season here...it has its good and bad.

It's fair to say that series like mangaka Bisco Hatori's Ouran High School Host Club went viral during both its manga run and its eventual 2006 anime release, not just for what it does as a work on its own, but it's also lessons learnt from works like Hana-Kimi (that was seralized in the same publisher through its follow-up LaLa magazine imprint), which the former was released 6 years later in 2002, and went on to receive its share of fanfare...which I can't exactly say the same thing about Hana-Kimi, which is pure Shoujo romance through and through, at least in terms of 90s style of romance.

As for what Hana-Kimi entails, the plot is simple: imagine being a fan of someone from overseas, and going as far as to stalk the person him/herself so much that he/she becomes a part of their life from the very first day their lives are intertwined by fate. This is the story of Mizuki Ashiya, the orange-haired girl who hails from Japan, but is living in the US after moving there with her parents, and finds one such particular figure of interest: Izumi Sano, a high jumper who has earned awards and medals for his accolades, and is set to be primetime for a future athlete in the making. Mizuki's obsession with watching him on the TV screen, envelops her into an ordeal where she becomes the Izumi Sano encylopedia on what makes him tick, alongside his great performances. There's only one issue that stands in her way: the school that the professional high jumper is attending, is the Osaka High School, which is unforuntately, an all-boys school. Regardless, this does not deteriment Mizuki to convince being brought back to Japan just to attend the same school that he does, it just takes one chest vest to hide her sizable breasts for a rather slim figure, and a haircut which perfectly disguises her as a boy, and she's immediately into the school to seek out Izumi, and the rest of the boys, which she's integrated into a dormitory that's allocated under the sports/academic scholarship for athletes and scholars. From there on, it's getting to know who the all-star professional athlete is in person, and the drama that follows the central couple in the series. And believe me, this 90s work is every bit as pure as it gets for capturing what the Shoujo genre worked at that time.

There's not really any wrong with the story, at least for this premiere season which adapts the first 5 out of 23 volumes, which for some reason, the school's setting is what struck me as the first notable and interesting thing, that's surprisingly better than the story itself. Because you see, the all-boys school itself is huge enough to have dorms allocated for everyone, since most students don't stay around the school area. Even more decidedly, these 3-by-3 grade classes (which count for a total of 9 classes) have totally different cultures according to the dorms they're placed in: Dorm 1 for purely athletical students under a sports scholarship; Dorm 2 (where Mizuki and the other main support characters are) for a mix of atheltical and scholar students under the mix of sports and academic scholarship; and Dorm 3 for students being artists and scholars under a mix of academic and arts scholarships. These 3 dorms operate their own sets of rules, terms and conditions, and inter-dorm rivlary is common and intense especially during key school events like Osaka High's cultural festival (which is prominently shown in this premiere season).

So, with quite the environment about Osaka High, you'd imagine a nobody like Mizuki who dares to step in by infilrating as a guy on a sports scholarship, would get the attention of the regular boys who think of her as a boy and nothing else. However, the adults would be the first to sniff her out and her reasoning for joining the school to want to see Izumi, like the school nurse Dr. Hokuto Umeda, who has the Ikemen looks of a ladies' man and a player, but that he's a true doctor in every part of the detail. Even worse, is realizing that his new roommate (which his room has always been left to by himself alone) is not the boy who he seems, and trying to live on the fact that Mizuki sometimes shed her boy-ish looks to reveal her feminine traits, which Izumi has to always be careful and avoid overstepping his borders to protect her always like a guardian. Even with the other characters in tow, you can already imagine it's like Ouran High School with the harem trope (before it was even a genre at that point) but in an all-boys where looks can be deceiving. This is exactly the case for the support cast, of which includes Shuuichi Nakatsu who's always fantasizing Mizuki with her feminine looks (despite being a true female), her form's Resident Advisory Minami Nanba, as well as her classmates of Senri Nakao and the rest, who became her close clique trying to figure out what is going behind the scenes in Osaka High. And this story and its development, it's not the prettiest picuture for modern standards of the 21st century with its tropes that seem new for the time, but kind of overstayed its welcome with how much they're being recycled on and off. At least it's a TRUE Shoujo romance story, so I'll give this a passable grade.

Hana-Kimi being the first-ever anime that's produced by Hayate, the joint venture of the Sony Music Entertainment Japan-backed companies of both Aniplex and Crunchyroll, you can think of this as the NEW Crunchyroll Originals label that's at least doing a much better job that what the latter did back in its heyday, which to say it was a mess of absolute measures. Normally, any animation company backed by Sony's 2 giants will show improved production quality, though in the case of this show, Signal M.D. is not one of those companies with a track record for good production. It's fair to say that quality was a hit-and-miss, though at least it feels consistent for a good showing.

This is not to mention having famed composer Masaru Yokoyama for the series's OST, on top of Yoasobi helming both OP and ED theme songs, of which "Adrena" and "Baby" are decent hits coming off from one of the biggest names in modern J-Pop. But overall, it's decent and rarely (if not ever) shows up having key moments to define the anime...at least not yet.

Despite the numerous live-action dramas that went before it back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Hana-Kimi may not stand aloft on the top as a show that exist on the minds of the Westerners, and even to the Asians (of which not just Japan, but Taiwan and South Korea getting live-action adaptations of it, that I think frankly is a lot better received), it's a series that...if I may be very frank, just exists as a footnote in Shoujo history as one of the works that has a reputation behind it, but that it feels plain-jane at best despite being decent to good.

Hana-Kimi may not be peak 90s Shoujo, but it is alright and fairly enjoyable, and should be given at least a try. Just try not to be overloaded with modern-day brainrot before coming into this one.

Blue Orchestra, the 2nd String — Not quite the desired effect out of another "warranted" performance, sad to say...

Back when it came out in Spring 2023, mangaka Makoto Akui's award-winning manga Ao no Orchestra a.k.a Blue Orchestra, was a feast not for the eyes but at least in terms of the ears and the feel, especially if you come from a musical background and are able to see yourself in the shoes of its settings and characters. And while it's not in the realm of series like Kono Oto Tomare: Sounds of Life (which preceded it back in 2019), it did just enough to pique ... the interest in the behind-the-scenes drama of what goes on in orchestras and the like, so for any otaku fan who's also a musical nut, there's something worth enjoying about this coming-of-age musical drama series that has both the love and care that regarded Shogakukan's coveted Manga Awards, representing the Shonen category in 2023 (back when Season 1 came out in the Fall of that year).

Season 2, however...feels like a transactional give-and-take, not just that the anime is catching up to the manga that's facing a limbo of its own, but that everything just slows down to a crawl. The end result, however, BOTH excels and hurts the pacing of the season overall.

With Season 2 continuing the adaptation from Volume 7 of the manga, with the moment riding off one of the source material's most important (and IMO iconic) moments with the Regular Concert, Hajime Aono and the rest of the Umimaku High School Orchestra Club now ascend even higher than where they were, with the entire prequel season being the culmination of what's to come for the club and its members. However, this was easier said than done with the outgoing 3rd Year Senpais led by concertmaster Sou Harada, relinquishing their responsibilities to the 2nd Years, of which one name would become the most divisive of them all: Yusuke Sakuma. The expected next-in-line concertmaster to lead the Orchestra Club, but with the reputation that he's notorious for breaking the very foundation of the good soil that Harada has already put in place, not just between the section leaders of the various orchestral instruments. Of course, this causes the central quad-clique between Hajime, Ritsuko Akane, Nao Saeki, and Haru Kozakura to question their beliefs about putting somebody like Sakuma in charge, though this lesson is really learned the hard way hearing from the supporting cast's point of view, like with 2nd violin leader Shizuka Tachibana, whose grievances in the club, coupled with family expectations, can cause one to go berserk if not handled well. Even then so, conductor Ayukawa Hiroaki expects nothing but the finest and best performance from the Orchestra Club, which, if you add in the nonsense that was Sakuma, makes for quite the fiery drama that sets in for the 1st half of the sequel. Believe me, it's fiercer than Hajime's family drama of the rift between him and his prodigal talented-but-disloyal father Ryuuji.

The sequel's 2nd half with the World Junior Orchestra Competition is a rather long arc, and though its development is still yet to be fully fleshed out in the manga (meaning a Season 3 for this show would take years to be realized), what the anime has in mind showing its foundations is stable from the start. Again, new characters do make their appearances, as Hajime and the rest who chose this line of profession in the hopes of going pro for their future careers hit quite the bump that both the outside pressure and external influence will either flesh out or withhold one's potential to not just represent Japan but find their own voice as well in a sea of talented players from all around the country. This is the crux point where playing in the club vs. playing in the junior orchestra makes quite the difference for the central 4 MCs to see where they stand and decide their progress from there, and though we've only seen the bare foundations (as Season 2 presented us here with), it's enough to prove that there's still talent brewing behind the scenes of how far Hajime and the others can go to maturing not just as instrumental players but as their own human selves too.

The coming-of-age drama really shines a lot in Season 2 here, for better or for worse. Hajime is still the same young man he is until the sequel season truly broke him apart and put him back together again, realizing that he must leave the vestige of being Ryuuji's son and develop himself into an orchestral player that he can be proud of. Saeki remains pretty much the same, idolizing Hajime from near and afar, though these two boys have pretty much become frenemies, supporting and rivalling against his half-brother. The girls too also stepped up their game this season, with Haru plucking her courage to go further and step beyond her comfort zone; her idea of her romantic crush for Hajime is to step together with him on the same stage and prove that she's not the same wimpy girl who's afraid of the things that would unsettle her. Akane, however, between the love triangle that is Hajime, Haru, and her, her skills may not have improved a whole lot, but her tenacity to get better has, even to the point that she "made her mark" on Hajime (which is AS CLOSE as you could get to romance in the series). Sure, for all the good ones to be favoured, the bad ones like Sakuma stick out like a sore thumb that "life is not a bed of roses" to be discovered as well. There's balance to be maintained, as it is in an orchestra, right?

Sadly, the overall production remains the exact same as it was in Season 1, though at this juncture, it's not hard to regard the show as a B- or C-tier project of sorts, despite studio Lerche director Seiji Kishi being at the helm and series composer Yuuko Kakihara now being on her own to handle the scriptwriting for the sequel. In fact, you could say that Season 2 offered close to nothing in terms of improvement, and it really shows that not much effort went into elevation mode, as is with the continuous wonky 3DCG (which has gotten better as the series progresses) that Nippon Animation has produced for about 2 years now. Despite that, simplicity is best when key moments need the oomph, and the show has continued to impress, though decidedly with little incentive to go on.

The music still remains the core beat of the series, though the OST leaves a tiny margin for brushing that up, which, unfortunately, goes unnoticed at all. The new theme songs aren't bad, though Galileo Galilei's OP and ChoQMay's ED are somewhat of a downgrade when compared to Season 1, which they were already a high bar to surpass (in terms of music composition).

I don't really want to say that the show suddenly turned a 180 from good to bad, but where Season 1 hits the sweet spot where it could've been just a 1-season done-it-all feature, Season 2 felt like the stopgap season that acts pretty much as a setup for the manga's plot to come. Bear in mind that the manga suffered a hiatus, and the anime essentially adapted close to (but not almost) the serialization of its most recent volumes, so things are still in order here. Still, though, there's a lot to love about the series overall, though Season 2 here...can be an exercise in patience to get through.

The blues of Ao no Orchestra a.k.a Blue Orchestra, are truly turning one's head blue...at least for now.

With You, Our Love Will Make It Through — bestiality love. This is what Twilight is...the animation.

It's wild that even in the 21st century, we are still thinking about ideas of how romantic love can be interpreted, not just between regular humans, but also between humans and demihumans, which is a topic that has been explored before, with the closest resemblance to this being the Spring-Summer 2023 adaptation of Niehime to Kemono no Ou a.k.a. Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts. And yet, for some bizarre reason, we are not privy to otherworldly ideas of how one would marry the traditional idea of romance ... with the rather unorthodox idea of the supernatural. This is where mangaka Chihiro Yuzuki comes in to seal the fate for one such series that is truly the very definition of Twilight, if the sky isn't all dark, and you'll get to see the human girl fall in love with the handsome Ikemen...who's pretty much beastfolk with a sense of human on the inside. This is Kimi to Koete Koi ni Naru a.k.a. With You, Our Love Will Make It Through, a show that's all about anthropomorphic, urban fantasy love, though it has one trait that you'd probably not realize that'll make or break your experience with this anime.

Taking a cue out of the Fall 2025 season's offerings, just as it is when we're sick and tired of seeing humans being Isekai-ed into the fantasy world, where they're treated either like heroes (like most stereotypical OP MC premises, such as Ansatsushi de Aru no Suteutasu ga Yuusha Yori mo Akiraka ni Tsuyoi Nodaga a.k.a. My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's) or like shit (like some rather revenge-centric shows like Mugen Gacha Level 9999), it's the same story if you flip the setting and have demihumans live within the human world to face similar societal prejudices, which in this case are beastfolk. And in the stereotypical coming-of-age setting where a high wall separates humans and beastfolk, one of them comes out of "hiding" to try and integrate himself into the human world, where he is caught being the eye of someone who's both intriguing and fascinating at best. If you haven't guessed quite what the plot is yet based on the series' title itself, yes, your eyes are not kidding you; it's the love story between the human girl Mari Asaka and the canine beastperson boy Tsunagu Hidaka and their attempts at navigating romantic love in a somewhat unconventional way that truly challenges societal norms and perceptions of beastfolk in general. Talk about furry love that people have lots of negative perceptions of and hate, but also having something that's worth diving into its rabbit hole for?

I'm not a fan of these kinds of romantic love when it comes to extreme Shoujo-esque-ness that tries to target not me, but the females instead of a fantasy they wish to have. But while you can judge me as such, there is a disclaimer about this show that I NEED you to be informed about. Yes, if you hadn't guessed it yet, this series serves as the sequel to another manga that the mangaka herself created as a prequel, though its link (or kinks rather) can be best described if you're up for some genuine human-beastfolk bestiality erotica that is ACTUALLY a very nice and condensed read (that I wholeheartedly recommend, even for prejudiced folks). And while I'm not gonna name that series here for obvious reasons to spoil both manga's relations together, you can for sure put two and two together to figure out what the connection does before going into Kimi to Koete.

It's the stereotypical Shoujo-esque romance where it's unknown territory for Tsunagu, as the ONLY beastperson to walk outside of his comfort zone and into the land of the humans who've nothing but stares and glances for someone who's so foreign. And it's not just Mari's job to help get the canine acclimated into their school as a transfer student, but also with the help of her childhood friend Yukihiro Aida, as a trio together to stand strong as the "furry settlement" friendship group that takes care of him against the shenanigans that he might face. And if it's prejudice that Tsunagu got, it's exactly what he gets from the humans being jealous of his beastfolk origins and yet, seemingly enough, also having the traits of a human in his critical thinking, which explains his unique human-beastfolk hybrid. And though the class is pretty much silent about their treatment towards Tsunagu, with some of their classmates like Yusuke Ochi standing out as bullies to put him in his place, it's the work of both Mari and Yukihiro to stand their ground against his bullying, which, apart from his rather gangster-looking self, is actually a nice guy deep within the recesses of his privacy. Even with Mari, her supportive friends Ritsuka Kawashima and Ayano Shitara serving as her guardian angels, it's friends like these who really give both Mari and Yukihiro the motivation to push through getting Tsunagu to be accepted by not just their class but the school as a whole as a societal environment of sorts. This is all despite Mari and Tsunagu's blossoming love; even when the childhood romance trope strikes Yukihiro at best, his determination to support the both of them, as long as Tsunagu's side of the beastfolk spectrum is the same, and you have a romance that truly feels neurodivergent from the usual.

I'm not going to come here and say that Millepensee's production is a work of art, but for what their efforts are going for with in-house director Shin Itagaki and his tutoring of character designer-cum-animation director Hiromi Kimura, this is perfectly suitable and decent for the show's overall presentation that's a hair inferior to the manga source material. At least it looks bright, colourful, and engaging, and that's what matters for a work that doesn't need too much to expand on in terms of animation. The music is also really just alright, and while it doesn't stand out a lot, it also gets the job done OK. And HoneyWorks is going 2-for-2 with Egao no Taenai Shokuba desu, a.k.a. A Mangaka's Weirdly Wonderful Workplace, and this show (featuring CHiCO) for 2 OPs that truly are nice, it's standards and commitments like these that fans expected of their reputation and. It's have come to like and love. The stinker is Yoh Kamiyama's rather monotonous ED; that's a skip...but otherwise, it's overall fine to decent.

I have to put out the word that bestiality is not for everyone, which is a sub-trope that is so far off the extremes of what one would expect, leaning into traditional genres and tropes. In the same way, Kimi to Koete Koi ni Naru a.k.a. With You, Our Love Will Make It Through, is a pleasant watch that'll definitely offend many, but find new fans with anime-onlies of a romance show that does what it needs to do. And to finally see one of the works that I was hyping up so much from the start,many but being a fan of the series' source materials, I can tick off the box for bestiality love...that "realistically" is a lot better than you assume it is at face value.

A Mangaka's Weirdly Wonderful Workplace — Truly, the life of a mangaka has its ups and downs, but it's, by all means, weird and wonderful for a rather hectic workplace.

If you know me well, I love exploring niche topics that are rarely shown in any medium, anime or otherwise. It's just so fascinating to learn from someone else's or some others' POV of jobs or roles that you don't really get to experience as a normie, even if ambitions do get in the way of dreams that have, on one or more occasions, made or broken you at that. And certainly, the lives of authors ... are no different at all, who are at the very creation of the worlds and characters that we can both experience on a love-hate basis. This is especially so for mangakas (i.e. manga authors), whom I feel have the hardest role as compared to novelists, who have only the writing aspect to matter (with the occasional illustrations that are always handled by someone else), with the mangaka having to do double duty with both the story and art itself.

And it's this setting that's the courtesy from the long-awaited return of mangaka Kuzushiro, since the adaptation of the Spring 2014 4-koma Yuri short series of Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, to come back more than a decade later for yet another adaptation, with this Fall season featuring one of his more recent works, Egao no Taenai Shokuba desu a.k.a. A Mangaka's Weirdly Wonderful Workplace. And if you thought that was more than enough, there's the Yuri series of the mangaka's latest work, with Amayo no Tsuki a.k.a. The Moon on a Rainy Night, that's having an anime adaptation in the works, and with the manga having the best reception thus far of his biography, there's a lot to rejoice about for future Yuri anime going forward.

But back to the aforementioned show, where it truly IS the eccentricness of a mangaka's weirdly wonderful workplace...and no, I'm not making this up. A mangaka does not live on an island alone; he/she needs a team of people that can work as buttery smooth as possible alongside the mangaka themselves, because one haywire, and it could send the conveyor belt derailing to quite the catastrophe. This is very much the case for the fledgling mangaka Nana Futami with her shojo-centric manga "To Subaru", which centres around a teenage boy playing shogi, alongside her assistant Mizuki Hazama and her editor Kaede Sato, who supervises her at their publishing company Clover. And to say that there's not one day in which Futami is so overstressed about her own work that it worries both her assistant and/or editor, the Hitori "Bocchi" Goto-inspired lookalike is pretty much her usual personality of a nervous wreck who overcomplicates situations a wee bit too much, and Hazama always has to bring Futami back to reality. But that said, as much as Futami is a competent young mangaka at that, having realized her dream just out of high school alongside Hazama, who's her partner-in-"crime" to follow in her footsteps, these two can harbour quite the yuri relationship that's all hearty and wholesome...lest the lesbian vibes keep coming (since this is a trait of almost all of Kuzushiro's works).

The life of a mangaka is no easy feat at that, and for the many who keep trying, failing, and getting up again, it's one major test of will, to see how long just these people can hang on for dear life, in both the ups and downs through the manga creation journey. And for Futami, having already been defeated once by Clover's other editor, Masayuki Toda, who is devilishly unrelenting for his inflexibility, unsupportive nature, and forcefulness, which relapses her to being taken in charge by Sato, it's truly for the best, as editors are the ones next to the assistants in terms of understanding the mangaka under their belt, and the relationship between Futami and Sato is one like hell on earth but can also be very kind and supportive at times despite her serious demeanour. And like fellow friends in the industry, supporting one another can be the basis of "life and death" of not just the people around them, but their defining mangaka careers as well. One example of which is Arisa Nashida, who debuted before Futami, but like her editor Ren Takizawa, she and the former once worked for her as her assistants during her mangaka days, which, for some reason, were axed and relegated her to being an editor. These two young women also share an "intimate" relationship, but on a bigger scale since Takizawa is said to have been a very popular mangaka back in her young days, but it's also the fall from grace that helped shape Nashida's life as a growing mangaka at that time also, other than her persistent drunkness being a factor of her personality, as well as her cockiness through her complicated feelings that more often than not piss Hazama off. Alongside the other cast of characters that would help define Futami's life as a growing mangaka, the aforementioned "weirdly wonderful workplace" becomes a "she/her" pronoun that is all sorts of fun...if you can embrace the idea and put yourself in the shoes of how mangakas work in the first place.

For only the 2nd mainline production series since its creation in March 2022, the rookie studio Voil still has aways to go, but with this show, they've expanded their reach to delivering quality shows, even at the most bare-bones and miniscule, and it truly shows the calibre and potential the small studio has going forward. Even the music does fit the mood with the OST, and it's all the better for it. And if you know any better, any HoneyWorks Anisong is going to be great, and in this case, the OP featuring HaKoniwalily is just a vibe. Put that together with Sizuk's ED composition alongside Nagi Yanagi for the vocals, and this is a magical ride of a comic book coming to life.

Egao no Taenai Shokuba desu a.k.a. A Mangaka's Weirdly Wonderful Workplace, is a pretty niche show by its mangaka formation standards that'll alienate most viewers even trying to get some media literacy about how the job and roles are for a career that's all about storyboarding alongside arts and crafts. But if you fancy some story creation that's not all just for the Yuri vibes alone, then the anime is definitely right up your alley.

You don't need a plot when you're a mangaka (a la Bakuman); all you need is just a hinge of motivation to keep going and make the story you want to create. And that is the life story of mangakas and the workplaces themselves, which can be quite the uncanny, but delightful place to work in.

Who Made Me A Princess — A trifactor of things that seemingly should not go together, but look at what it did as a form of representation.

Wherever you live on Earth, comic books can come in a variety of forms under different names and even features at that. The only difference is where they are created, and they even come in their various forms that made them look the way they do today. And it's in this case where, very rarely, multiple entities come together to create a work of art that feels somewhat the same, but it has a charm to it. In the ... case of novelist Plutus's Mofa Gongzhu de Xiao Fannao a.k.a. Who Made Me A Princess, though, this is the rare exception that sees 3 countries unified under a single vision: the adaptation of the South Korean Webtoon manhwa series, animated and produced by one of China's animation companies, and Japan producing its own dub version on top of the Chinese sub itself. It truly is an animation series that's like no other.

The Isekai reincarnation trope is not new, regardless of where it came from, because it's ultimately bound by the same formula as a starting point for authors to jumpstart their premise right from the outset. And for this story, the reincarnation of the main character, who clearly remembers her previous life from a story that is pretty much an open-and-shut case, it's not exactly a story that sees her future being bright, but it's a solemn one that results in quite the miserable life as the princess, who was at first adored, then grew up and became the target of assassination by her own family of all people. And now, for the MC of Athanasia de Alger Obelia, this is exactly the case of her redemption by trying to win over her father, Emperor Claude of the Obelia Empire, instead of having to trigger his dark side of ignoring her until proven guilty. Amongst the original cursed storyline, there are other aspects for the princess to uncover and amend its story before it's too late, and that goes for the aspiring girl who has her work cut out for her from the very start.

Athanasia (or Athy, as she's better known) is quite the optimistic girl that's born out of circumstances that lead to the default parent dynamic, which she has to contend with from the get-go. Birthed healthy, which resulted in her mother's early death after childbirth, which wrecked Claude's life upside down to never ever want to hear his own wife's name, Diana, throughout the large palace. The resentment grows and is made known throughout the entire compound of the "Thou-shalt-not-name" person, should someone intentionally want to happy-trigger Claude's nightmarish past to come to life. Of course, since the world is endowed in magic, those feelings also manifest through magic as well, making Claude's relapse into darkness quite the showing that no one risks offending him at all. Therefore, it's Athy's responsibility to grow up to be a fine daughter of his, maintain the status quo as both childlike and in her teenage years, and, if ever on a private approach, try to understand her own father's desperation, while getting better at her magic, because she's inept and needs constant tutelage to get the hang of it.

And it's the people that truly help mark Athy's growth into the daughter that Claude can be proud of and the people of the Obelia Empire to see that Athy can stand up on her own as its next princess. With Claude's aide, Felix Robane is the agile assistant that's closest to the Emperor and is sometimes even requested to protect Athy when it comes to external things beyond his influence. As for the princess herself, she has no shortage of assistants, friends, and even romantic interests, because Athy has to progress with the times as well. Within the four walls of the palace, it's not just her own mother Diana's history that she attempts to unveil; it's also getting her magic up to standard with not just Felix's help but also the dark mage Lucas, who stands conceited against Athy in every way by both assisting her magic learning growth and also teasing her when it comes to the fact of Athy's romantic guises, such as her relations with Ijikiel Alpheus, the white-haired boy with the gentleman charm going for him. However, Ijikiel's relations to Athy also bring into focus the narrative of the original story, of which he's the cousin of Jeanette Margarita, the biological "sister" of the Obelia family who wants fame and power to rid Claude of his esteemed privilege for a hostile takeover.

As you can see, Athy has a lot of plot to ponder since she knows the story inside and out, and this is a stress-juggling ability that'll define her years as the princess who knows not just what the story is missing elements of but also how she can navigate changing its storyline so that everyone lives and no one has to be sacrificed over contemplary matters. In Chinese, I would define her as a 女强人 (Nǚ qiángrén) or strong woman, because she's the only female family royalty in a sea of men, both intimate and supporting from all sides.

The overall production is interesting, because despite its marketing to Japan for its own dub with Kadokawa at the helm, everything else, from animation to production, is all China-centric. Helmed by Quanzhi Gaoshou's director Zhang Yingying over at Coloured Pencil Animation, there's just something to be said about Chinese animation that easily rivals Japanese animation, because China has easily progressed in anime production since the 2010s and has gotten better over time with series like Link Click, To Be Hero, and the most recent, Lord of Mysteries. At least for the show, it truly is a beautiful sight to look at and proves that China is catching up to Japan, and that they too can mass market any series that is a whole can of worms to be opened should it do its marketing in Japan and globally.

The music is plenty fine as a whole and does its job as intended. Between the theme songs, however, both the Chinese sub and Japanese dub have their own set of charms, and I have to admit that as a bonafide Chinese that I am, TOMOKO's OP and Shayi's ED are a hair better, though the Japanese representation with DAOKO's OP and XAI's ED are no less bad and fittingly impressive for their audience.

It would be a disservice to say that China has the upper hand against Japan when it comes to their own productions, because there are still improvements to be had against the faults that made the adaptation less cohesive. With cut content alongside questionable decisions made and acceptable production values that are in line with what's to be expect for Chinese animation, Mofa Gongzhu de Xiao Fannao a.k.a. The Fated Magical Princess: Who Made Me a Princess, is not a perfect product by any means. Still, in the vein of Isekai reincarnation stories, this stands above average for the most part and is an anime that's worth the watch (even when the manhwa is still the superior version of the source material). We'll never get a rare tri-party affiliation like this for eons to come, and for what the anime achieved in its entirety, it's a double thumbs-up pass.

Li'l Miss Vampire Can't Suck Right — If vampires can naturally suck blood, how come this one suck not just blood, but also cute vibes and adorableness!?

For better or for worse, there's always this thing called fiction, which has its other "derogatory" sibling of non-fiction, where stories are made up for the sake of it, but everything is part of its fantasy world and such. And sometimes, it's just better to feel like you're part of its world where fiction IS reality, and that despite the supernatural legends that tell us so, the non-fiction part, where the creatives come to play for a "what if" ... situation, can end up leaving you speechless or otherwise. This is certainly the case for mangaka Kyousuke Nishiki's lone series, Chanto Suenai Kyuuketsuki-chan a.k.a. Li'l Miss Vampire Can't Suck Right, which just wrapped up its serialization in August this year (of 2025), and it'll teach you not just a history where vampires have to "learn" how to suck blood, but a story of humanity as well.

In school-based themes and settings, you have the most popular student, the mob of the background students, and the MC, which is always the average student with nothing noteworthy about him/her. This is exactly the premise that's set up for Luna Ishikawa, the unique transfer female student who's a vampire with a cool demeanour that naturally has the attention of her own class, against the average student that is Tatsuta Otori, who is, quite frankly, a mute and an introvert of all people. However, as with all things within a school for transfer students, getting Luna to learn of how their school intricately works is natural, though what's not is the two-student pairing, of which Otori finds himself paired with Luna for cleaning duty, and it exposes the truth that he's the first to know: the cool demeanour of a popular student is not the calm and collected girl he thinks she is, and worse still, she can't even suck blood even as a full-fledged vampire! Naturally, being the helpful student he is, Otori offers his arm for Luna's practice, for which it took quite a while for her to get acquainted with his blood, but it's progress that he's her only special partner when it comes to the vampiric aspect. Soon after, the mundane days in school begin to take a change for the better for not just Luna and Otori, but the others who would come to learn of the former's ineptness and help her achieve her goal of becoming a full-fledged vampire.

An average student can learn to grow his own circle of friends if he speaks out in ways that other people will accept. But with Luna, Otori essentially is the envy of the class because she understood him better than anyone, not for the blood-sucking goal, but for the usual grumbles of "How come someone average like him (Otori) gets to be close with the class star?" And for a start, the class assumes its defences against Otori until two of the students stand out to know of their relationship as such: Eiko Sakuma and Misa Kusunoki. If anything, these two girls are the "Luna's (motherly) Mama Alliance." When it comes to them learning of the same qualities that Otori first found out about her and deciding to be a part of the vampire's life to experience things of the human world that she otherwise would not have, it's just wholesome and charming to see it as such. Even better is the class cheering on for Luna and Otori and keeping their interactions fresh, knowing that Luna belongs to not just Otori but the class (and the school) as a whole, which essentially puts her in a small celebrity status. This is quite the atmosphere I did not expect to see and is a fresh change of pace from the usual stares of jealousy that have plagued so many other series. And as we've come to learn of Luna's true identity later on, she's pretty much like Otori, who's rather reclusive and not wanting to experience the outside world (for reasons we'll never know), though it was Otori first reaching out to her that significantly changed both of their lives for the better. And that, to me, is humanity, even on a surface level that touches the hearts of kindred people.

It's common nowadays that anime can be produced by the same studio that stretches more than just 1 project within the same season, and for studio Feel to come into the season with this show and Chitose-kun wa Ramune Bin no Naka a.k.a. Chitose. Is in the Ramune Bottle (which the latter show suffered a month-long production breakdown), the quality has significantly dropped once the spring-summer production of Summer Pockets had ended. And for a studio that prides itself in quality, the Fall 2025 season is just "Hell on Earth" to see it struggling to keep up producing 2 shows at the same time, and this is rare to see from such an acclaimed studio like Feel. Though in the case of this series, it just looks fine and is a watchable show in that regard.

The music is really so-so, but the OST by Tomoya Kikuchi, who's done series like Summer 2021's Life Lessons with Uramichi-oniisan and (surprisingly) Fall 2022's Bocchi the Rock!, fares better than I would expect. The theme songs by girl band Hâ–³G (pronounced HAG), both the OP and ED (the latter featuring Luna's VA Minami Tanaka), are just your average Anisongs that serve the decent good, though they're forgettable.

It's totally OK for fiction to be non-fiction at times, and for Chanto Suenai Kyuuketsuki-chan a.k.a. Li'l Miss Vampire Can't Suck Right, to be just that; it truly is an enjoyment to see a vampire be the "same same, but different" from who they are, and this series definitely benefits from that treatment.

All is good for the world...with a lil' vampire's blood-sucking that's all charming and cute.

Tale of Wedding Rings, the 2nd Wedding — Much better this time, though not by much since it's cut from the same cloth.

It's only been close to 2 years since the premiere season started for mangaka duo Maybe's 3rd anime adaptation of their works, of which Winter 2024's Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari a.k.a. Tales of Wedding Rings, was supposed to be their redemption after the rather mediocre Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi a.k.a. To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts, after 5 years. And let's face it, both the original manga source material and MAPPA's Summer 2019 adaptation just didn't really cut it for what was supposed to be ... the stereotypical fantasy with a twist that really looked unique on the outside but didn't have quality going on inside. On the flip side, of the two works that I would rather invest my time in being the better work (outside of Tasogare Otome x Amnesia), the former truly sticks out like a sore thumb, but I can 100% guarantee you that it's a more digestible series than the latter in both good and bad ways. And with the follow-up sequel for Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari, I really have to say that it redeems whatever was bad about Season 1 and amplifies it tenfold for Season 2, but in a decent way that's handled better than expected.

With Season 2 continuing where we left off with the development of the new Ring King Haruto Satou and his Ring Princesses harem, there's a lot of exposition and plot for the developing story to face the Abyss King, though there's even more infighting for the troubles that they have within themselves before they're even strong enough to consider taking down the legend that lost his way. For starters, don't really expect Satou at this point to change a lot (at least for the sequel's beginnings), as he has his hands tied with not just the larger matter of his role as the new Ring King, but also that it's putting his long-term relationship with Krystal "Hime" Nokanatika at risk because the two have been seriously putting off their romance for the longest time. And to add a bit of flavour into the already-muted relationship, comes the only new face in Season 2 — Hime's younger sister, Morion, who tries to force some romance shtick on the couple in order for Hime to reach out and get her romance face on, because she's a lot more expressive than Hime with her little sister energy.

Basically put, Satou and Hime's relationship has always been the one constant being put on limbo since the very beginning of their true reveals and the roles they have to execute, and that has largely remained the status quo. Even in front of the Ring Princesses Nefritis, Granart, Amber, and Saphir, where these 4 are even more ambitious and don't have their pretences when hiding their love for Satou, it's always the key area of frustration when it comes to Hime second-guessing whether she should be serious for Satou. Thankfully, when push came to shove, Hime DID trust Satou all the way to the end and wholly entrusted everything to him, so the harem didn't even faze her in any way possible (well...only albeit minor).

Everything about Season 1's production can be applied to the sequel here, as average as Staple Entertainment-produced shows go, because they generally are just mediocre at best. Even the music is a mixed bag that, ironically, goes hand-in-hand with Season 1. With Sizuk's music featuring AYAME, of the 2 OPs for the season, I have to say that Season 1's OP was a lot better than the sequel's OP, though by no means is it bad. And replacing AliA for Season 1 is Akari Kito's ED, which I swear was inspired by Pachelbel's Canon for a wedding-like feature for the Ring Princesses, which, BTW, IS the plot itself that is better than the former for obvious reasons.

As a whole, Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari a.k.a. Tales of Wedding Rings as a series, is an exercise in frustration trying to take the fantasy and combine it with action and romance, which itself should work for the most part, but it's just somehow dragged on to create a bare-bones impact at the end of it all. This is not to blame the mangaka duo, though their writing skills having to match those of Kemono-tachi since they were in parallel serialization at the same time, severely impacted both series in churning out rather sloppy fantasy stories in the making. This is a warning to authors who try to do too much at the same time, and lest you care about quality, focusing on a sole project as opposed to doing double-duty, you'd end up with two or more projects that are just as equally forgettable as they come.

So, ask yourself this question: Is it worth having a harem to save the world, or having just one girl and making her your world? In the Tales of Wedding Rings, this is perfectly acceptable, though your mileage will vary.

Shabake — Sometimes, it takes a keen mind to be open to the slowest of burns for a good payoff, especially if the mysterious takes precedent.

I will admit this from the outset: the world that we live in nowadays, craves a lot of stimulation for things to happen and react, and especially in a society where answers are needed now more than it's worth waiting for, we forget the essence of how things came to be. This is especially important when it comes to works of mysterious art, where cases not only need both the culprit and the evidence to work together, but the suspense ... itself bridges the gap so that it can make or break content that is otherwise pretty laden and rather taxing to go through.

So why am I bringing this context from the very beginning? As it turns out, you might realize this more than you thought, but in the case of supernatural mysteries, time is needed to flesh things into commonality, and I understand if it goes against the brainwashing of the need to want the answers now. But above all, it's the payoff that really is the star of the overall case that brings the Eureka moment to finally be glad that you stuck it out, no matter how fast or slow burn it can be. And this is exactly the case for one such show this Fall 2025 season: Shabake, the 2nd anime adaptation of novelist Megumi Hatakenaka's works, of which Tsukumogami Kashimasu a.k.a. We Rent Tsukumogami came out way back in Summer 2018 as a canon sequel to this series, which is the first of (as of this review) 23 released novels since December 2001, that finally got its own adaptation a quarter-century later.

To really explain Shabake is to (thank God that I can) describe what Tsukumogami Kashimasu a.k.a. We Rent Tsukumogami, is like. Even back then, the Summer 2018 show was one of a handful of anime in the seasonal lineup that really didn't pop off as big as it hoped (though you have to imagine that it's up against the likes of Shingeki no Kyojin a.k.a. Attack on Titan's 3rd season, and even the now favourites of Banana Fish and Grand Blue's premiere season), though its prevalence can be described best because it would play to what the historical fantasy series is like in a sort-of sequel-prequel setup.

The setup of humans running a shop in the olden traditional days (a la Edo), where spirits called tsukumogami have either latched themselves onto items to live out their being, or are shown in the form of demonic beings (which I can assure you that they're harmless), both beings work hand in hand to solve mysteries and other problems that their community might face. Now take that plot and turn it into a murder mystery affair, which is how you get the setting of one of the largest shops in Nihonbashi, Nagasaki-ya, that is run by the young master, Ichitaro, who, due to his frail health, is taken care of by the tsukumogami around him, namely the inugami Nikichi and harataku Sasuke, in an effort to root out one cruel disaster of a murder. And this murder mystery is by no means easy to figure out, due to the bizarre nature of how the murders are executed one after the other, to reach a conclusion that the journey to get there, is one of the most profound that I have experienced of a supernatural mystery series in the mythological sense.

Unfortunately, if you try to apply the infamous "3-episode rule" to Shabake, I'd heavily suggest that you don't, because this murder mystery, as plain, bleak, and boring as it looks, is a lot smarter than you can imagine. Obviously, the order of murder mysteries should be tough to figure out from the start, and it's not a case where you can get the answers you need immediately, which is why Ichitaro and his supporting tsukumogami by his side face quite the numerous walls of obstruction when they are getting the links to the case. Even with the help of the cast of characters, of which there are many, the few occurring ones, like the yokai of Byobu Nozoki, and even Ichitaro's brother, Matsunosuke, are the ones that I suggest you look out for, even when the stories seem so disconnected that it tries to side-swipe you that it's another case, but that it interweaves itself into the case when the murders strike out. And to process all that, you'd really have to sit through a slog of details that will definitely bore you to tears (I know I did), but I believe that with a little help from Sherlock Holmes, this murder mystery, I hope, will suit your time best if you're up to the challenge of not getting bored with a slow start, where the complaints about how the series goes at a turtle's pace are commonality at best.

For a show of this magnitude, there's honestly no need to go all flashy when it comes to mystery settings, where all that it needs is just some decent production and a well-crafted directorial path, which is what director Takahiro Okawa and his staff team did over at Bandai Namco Pictures that is at least acceptable by modern anime standards. Even the music is kind of so-so, though Kujira's OP and KAFUNE's ED are honestly OK at best, and I kind of like them with a little bit of zing and speed.

If anything, Shabake truly is a show that tests its audience on the one thing that modern society just cannot understand anymore: media literacy. The attention span that the show deserved may be at fault for its writing, but when it's all put together, it's like a well-written book that's a classic open-and-shut case in its own right. I'm kind of both ashamed and proud that I gave this one a no-drop requirement (a la the 3-episode rule drop or continue), because this is actually a fine show that can deliver drama that slowly builds and builds until the case pops wide open to the glee of its audience.

It's boredom...but intentionally woven under the skin and guise of a great story of connections and ploy.

Watari-kun's ****** Is About to Collapse — Help? Can I get a yell on that? Like seriously: HELP!? What's the aforementioned thing that is on the brink of collapse!? Is it MY sanity, or am I going INSANE!?

The typical rom-com, school-based, and/or otherwise. So easy to make the concept for, but oh so difficult to actually write and build its premise upon for the basis of stories that many authors truly thought they had a gem on their hands, until reality set in that it ended up being quite the opposite of that regard. In that sense, I can kind of see and understand why ... ambitious people would try to phrase their works in some kind of psychotic drama for the sake of it, and even, in the ambitions of the infamous rom-com on planet Earth, mangaka Reiji Miyajima's Kanojo, Okarishimasu a.k.a. Rent-A-Girlfriend, go so...SO FAR as to make a statement that love can breed out even the most insane of premises just to lose its virginity through stimulation and contempt that makes people go insane for their one and only life Oshis.

Well, boy, was I damn wrong. There's another series just like it, and even though it's not as lengthy as the aforementioned rom-com series, it was kind of a kink for me back in the day when this manga was released, and I even read it from start to finish, thinking, "How would this get animated on the off chance that this comes to the small screen?" Little did I know that the anime was about to come just when the manga's serialization had just ended its run back in September 2023. And that, my "wholesome" rom-com friends, is Watari-kun no XX ga Houkai Sunzen, a.k.a. Watari-kun's ****** Is About to Collapse, the 2nd anime adaptation of mangaka Naru Narumi's works, 7 years after the CGDCT gourmet comedy that was Winter 2018's Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san, a.k.a. Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles. Talk about a serious whiplash churning out "genre-defining" works that truly baffle the mind.

What comes to mind when you think of childhood romances? Pretty simple, right? Just a boy and a girl living and sharing life together from their young days, and when they come of age, they learn of each other's traits to get to know one another better to merge all of that into pure love that leads to marriage and then a happy family to live into an old ripe age where love transcends all problems. That's the sweet spot when it comes to the aforementioned romance, but for Naru Narumi, it seems that she got the idea of trying to take the rom-com genre and dial it up to 11, and by that I mean your typical romantic love that somehow forces people to overthink so much that it makes them question their every move if it's worth it in the long run. It's seriously and honestly deranged, if you can stomach such a plot from the get-go.

Young childhood love, but with the growing pangs of a garden hoe that ultimately destroyed any hopes for the future. That's what MC Naoya Watari has to contend with, with his sister Suzu and aunt Tamayo, the former of whom is a rather clingy brocon that doesn't want to let go of her brother in all circumstances, and the latter who just treats them like adopted siblings from a failed family marriage. Of course, this is but only the surface of what the Watari family has to contend with, with their assets being the safeguard of the house and a small garden at the back sheds of it, though with one garden hoe and a girl who seemingly is the trouble of where everything all transpired for the Watari siblings, stands Satsuki Tachibana, the girl whom Naoto wants nothing to do with, NOTHING. The trauma beset and "begrudgingly" set up her being the menace that destroyed their old house's farm garden of vegetables and fruits, and it's all the more reason why this rom-com has got quite the thriller drama going for it, as the Jason Voorhees lookalike when it comes to decimating things that are precious to the other.

In a sliver of hope, the story itself sounds every bit as simple, cliche, or whatever is going on in your mind, but it has a progression to it that, true to the series' plot, does not get any better at trying to place both its characters and us, the audience, under immense stress that we'll be constantly pulling our hair strings out for mindless tension. What stands out as a better future for Naoto is trying to get rid of Satsuki in his life and live amongst the other cast of characters that would come to define him as such. It's truly a doozy at how much the pangs of life have for this rather unfortunate MC who's just earnestly trying to live out a life of his own with his family. And as if the romantic aspect isn't enough to begin with, it's the familial drama that sets in for the close contacts trying to get the drift of others, and I'm not one to admit that I'm ashamed at finding myself being relatable to the problems and issues that arise within Naoto's life, to warrant navigating against the current and getting back to the zone that matters. It's basically a textbook example of how people can be so selfish to the point of showing a lack of coherence, and as repulsive as it looks, it's selfish love at its finest to top the very sinful being we humans have to live with: the lack of understanding, and not just within a single party alone at that.

For Naoto though, his troubles truly start at home, with Suzushiro and Tamayo, because he was not given the care that most other high schoolers his age ever got thanks to his own family trauma as well, leaving all the care to Aunt Tamayo, who always chides him to be productive in some form and not mess around, like he did with Satsuki (even if it's out of his consent). As if that's not bad enough, the trauma-inducing follow-up with Suzu because they share the exact same sentiments when it comes to the "garden killer," which was the start of the whole premise of Watari's (family) ****** (peace) collapsing for real, and Satsuki being just not all that attentive to her surroundings, only paints an even worse picture for the lil' sis to become even more protective of her brother. You might even think that Naoto has it easy in school, but the troubles there amplify it ten-fold thanks to the endless romantic drama that cements forth its presence from there on out. Satsuki is one hell of a problem for Naoto, though he has the reassurance of his "bro" through Shigenobu Tokui, who at first glance seems to be the nonchalant one seeing his friend go through so much shit with the garden killer, until he really starts having a hand in Naoto's life to make his life even harder. And one of those ways is through their classmate Yukari Ishikawa, who is your stereotypical girl with the heart of a maiden but someone who gets easily crushed within the weight of her own troubles, having a crush on Naoto but having to fight the uphill battle against the rather spineless Satsuki in fighting for his affection. Even worse, as the series progresses, there's a 3rd girl in play...or rather, she's more like the 3rd party in Naoto's romantic "harem" of all things through the track-and-field athlete Makina Umezawa, who bears the classic "from enemies to lovers" storyline and doesn't even stand a chance against both Satsuki and Ishikawa to begin with.

Truly, no one is sane in this series, and to say that "this is to be expected" of a series that knows no bounds when it comes to obsessive love, you haven't quite seen the worst execution of it yet, that it's "so bad it's good" to digest some rubbish love tactics for the sake of inducing drama that's of a "thriller" level of sorts.

To be frank, I should've known how average the production is from start to finish, not just because of the mediocre workmanship that Staple Entertainment has become, but also because it has links to yet another studio that was the result of a takeover that essentially rebranded itself as such. Can you guess what that studio is? If you've guessed Hoods Entertainment, you're right, because even its in-house director Takashi Naoya has been essentially directing ALL of Staple Entertainment's produced shows since Summer 2022's Kinsou no Vermeil a.k.a. Vermeil in Gold, alongside producer Shinya Ueda as the CEO of the small studio. Both producer and director taking all of Hoods Entertainment's ethos and bringing it into Staple Entertainment should tell you of its rather underwhelming production overall, and to last the allowable max limit of the 26-episode-long, 2-consecutive-cours treatment, is already a miracle, having already done production way ahead of time to compensate for it.

The music, or rather the series' OST, is rather mixed for me, as some are ones that I like, and then others that truly just do nothing other than incite the tremor of the series throughout its run. And to make matters worse, all of its theme songs are just rather forgettable, with Pedro's ED for the 1st cour, as well as Shallm's OP and Yurina Hirate's ED for the 2nd cour. The one consolation, however, turned out to be Yuika's OP, which I really, REALLY love, not just due to how the OP visuals turn out to be quite the strip-unstripped dance hand movements, but also because it's a very catchy song that's everything I love about Yuika's vocals and that also perfectly catches the nuance of Satsuki's early appearances in the source material.

At the end of it all, I find myself in an impasse about Watari-kun no xx ga Houkai Sunzen, a.k.a. Watari-kun's ****** Is about to Collapse's adaptation, even when it is the near-complete adaptation of the original manga itself. Sure, you have essentially every opportunity to reread the manga to see what the anime cut out, but is it really worth going through another round of romantic trauma again? On the other hand, I'm glad that I can finally check the box off for one of the manga that has been in my on-hold list for quite some time, and at the same time, miss the experience of some romantic slop in the process.

For sure, it's been quite the thrill to see the collapse of a romantic series in the making that perfectly captures the semblance of a "psychotic thriller," in a way that real-life imperfect relationships also somehow have similar traits to it. So...bite the hand that feeds your ego, I guess?