Mini Toji (Series rating: 6/10)

So yeah, this is the SD spinoff (?) of Toji No Miko. Not much to say about it. There was also an extra episode on the disc, about our favorite lavender-haired cutie. I translated it because it was really sweet. Rest of the episodes are by HS.

Kemurikusa (Series rating: 7/10)

A desolate world, with little food or water. Anywhere you go you might be attacked by the Red Bugs. Rin, Ritsu and Rina encounter a lost boy while scouting for water. What is this mysterious creature, and what does it want? Does he hold the secret of their survival? Find out.
OK, so Tatsuki made another series. This was actually created before Kemono Friends. It’s his original project, so to speak. The animation is pretty bad, but that’s part of the charm. Now, this is a different type of story then his previous show, so it will take some time getting used to it. I didn’t really enjoy the male MC for the first few episodes, found him very annoying. But I did enjoy the story. And I think you will as well.
Subs from HS.

Wakaokami Wa Shougakusei! (Movie rating: 7/10)

When Seki Oriko’s parents died in a tragic car accident she went off to live with her grandmother. Said grandmother runs a traditional Japanese inn, and wants to train Okko to take over as innkeeper. The training will be hard, but it will allow Okko to keep her mind off her deceased parents. Even more so since the inn is haunted and Okko can see ghosts. Lucky for her that the ghosts are friendly and willing to help out. Join Okko as she tries to become a respected innkeeper in a charming Japanese inn.
OK, so this is the movie version of Wakaokami Wa Shougakusei!. It is not a recap nor a compilation of the shorts. This is all new story and animation. It’s quite charming. Sure, it’s mainly for children, but if you feel tired and need to unwind with some wholesome kids anime, this is for you.
The video source is from the Japanese BDMV. Contains 2.0 and 5.1 Japanese audio. The subtitles are from the official English release, pgs. Enjoy the movie.

The Quintessential Quintuplets (Series rating: 9/10)

Uesugi Fuutarou is a very smart. He gets the top scores every time. But his family is poor. So when he hears that a wealthy family is looking for a tutor he thinks it’s his big chance to make a lot of money. He’s not wrong, but this job is way more trouble then he bargained for. And it’s not just one student that he has to tutor. Enter the Nanako quintuplets. They absolutely hate studying, and some of them absolutely hate him. Before managing to tutor them, he first has to get them to like him. In some cases though, he might succeed more then he thought.
And old-school harem comedy that actually does things right. Each of the girls has her own distinguishable personality. Ichika is lazy, but a hard worker outside of school. Nino is distrustful and cynical, but extremely passionate and a quick thinker. Miku is shy and reclusive, but level-headed and loyal. Yotsuba is pretty dumb, but an athletic wonder and extremely cheerful. Itski is vain and naive, but headstrong and determined. And yes, it’s all numbers puns.
You might have a hard time picking a favorite girl, but there is definitely something for everyone here. By the way, my favorite turned out to be Yotsuba. I have a soft spot for genki.
Subs from HS. Enjoy.

Gundam Build Fighters Try (Series rating: 9/10)

When Kamiki Sekai moved to the city, he was just a martial arts maniac. But an encounter with Hoshino Fumina made him interested in Gunpla. Turns out Sekai’s martial arts is highly compatible with Gunpla battles, and since he loves fighting, he decided to join the club. And so began Sekai’s journey to become champion.
Most people, when discussing the Gundam Build franchise, consider Try as being very inferior to the first season. I am the opposite. I enjoyed Try far more then the first season, mostly because I couldn’t stand Sei. I also think that having a dedicated builder and fighter on the same team isn’t fair. And the “from another world” sub-plot turned out to be meaningless.
But Try? I had so much damn fun with it. The show is pure fanservice. From Shimon, who made the Destiny Gundam so much cooler then it’s own series ever did, to the absolute bat-shit insanity of Tryon 3, basically a super-robot in a gundam universe, to the magnificent final showdown between Transient and Build Burning… I have no words.
PS: Take note, anime industry: this is how you do a childhood friend/girl next door charatcer: Fumina was fantastic.
Subs: 01-13 from nks. 14-25 from Anime-Gundam, OVA from HS.

Endro! (Series rating: 9/10)

Yulia “Yuusha” Chardiet and her party have finally arrived before the Demon Lord, to bring an end to its evil. But they are not strong enough, so Yuusha busts out the super-special-one-hit-KO spell to defeat the Demon Lord. And it works. With the Demon Lord defeated, peace has returned to the land. Short series, wasn’t it?
Nah, now we’re starting over from before Yuusha became the hero. We get to see their adventures from start to finish. But something’s not right? Why is their new teacher a little girl? And why does she have devil wings and horns? Nobody seems to care though, because she’s so damn cute.
This show is adorable. Absolutely adorable. All the girls are great in their own way. Yuusha is a heroic air-head. Fai is an adventurer with a bottomless pit for a stomach. Seira is the voice of reason. Mei is the magic maniac. Rona is the hero worshiper. And Mao? Mao is the most previous creature to even walk the planet. This show put me in a very good mood. And while it is a fantasy SOL type of thing, the designs are pretty… lewd. It took me 6 episodes to realize that Mei’s panties are always partially visible from the sides.

Date A Live S3 (Series rating: 5/10)

So yeah, season 3. This season deals with the 7th spirit, the creation of the 8th, and Shido’s overload. Not much to say about the contents of the show.
So instead let’s talk about JC Staff. They sure knocked it out of the park this time. They knocked it so hard it went around the world and hit them in the back of the head, leaving them in a puddle of their own piss. This season is a MESS. The animation, what little there is, is terrible. The plot was hacked to pieces with huge chunks of it missing. People pull powers out of their ass because the parts where that power was either introduced or foreshadowed was cut. At the cherry on top: last episode is one WHOLE volume of the LN, with everything important that happened in that volume cut for time. Spoiler: while Shido was OP, he actually did some things that matter a lot for the next arc. JC Staff fucked up, just how they fucked up Index 3 (if you haven’t read the LN you will have no clue as to what the hell is going on) and One Punch Man S2 (the animation and pacing were garbage). And this season they are doing FOUR shows: Accelerator, Machikado Mazoku, Okaasan wa Suki desu ka? and Danmachi S2. Can’t wait to see the QUALITY. Fuck you JS Staff, you used to be great.

Ueno-san Wa Bukiyou (Series rating: 9/10)

Ueno is a genius. She makes inventions that can revolutionize the world on a daily basis. From equipment that can create drinkable water out of nowhere to a device that creates life from inanimate objects, Ueno can make them all. Too bad the only thing she ever does with them is make convoluted plans to get Tanaka to notice her feelings for him. Also doesn’t help that most of her plans are perverted: trying to get Tanaka to drink water made from her own urine, having him sniff her leggings so he gets attached to her smell, etc… Tanaka, for his part, seems not to notice. Or does he? Over the course of the series he gets to do things that most people would have to travel to a third world country and pay through the nose to do. So maybe Tanaka is not as dense as he seems.
It’s hard to do anime comedies well. Ueno-san does. It’s so over the top that is actually made me laugh out loud. I kind of feel sorry for Ueno though. She cannot catch a break.Subs from Erai. Enjoy.

Hugtto! Precure (Series rating: 8,5/10)

Nono Hana is ready to have her first day at a new school. She’s made the decision to reinvent herself, and be the cool girl she always wanted to be. That goes about as well as you’d expect of a pink haired Precue protagonist. Hana may not be very bright, or very athletic, or very gracious but she more then makes up for it with her cheerfulness and friendliness. Obviously, she is chosen as a Precure who must defend the world, and the beby Hug-tan from the evil Kurai Company (an obvious jab as companies in Japan who abuse their workers). She is joined by her two new friends, Saaya and Homare, as well as Hug-tan’s guardian, the mouse… I mean hamster, Harry.
Let me tell you, I love Precure. I did not pay much attention to the franchise at first, but I decided to watch Heart Catch Precure because Mizuki Nana was in it. And then I was hooked. Sure, not all seasons are as great, but they are enjoyable as all hell. Sadly, for me, the franchise went down with Happiness Charge. They made some very questionable choices, like adding in 3DCG attacks (they look terrible, but cost a lot less to make) and a final battle/boss that was underwhelming to say the least. It picked back up with Go! Princess, that has a fantastic final battle, but kept the 3DCG attacks. The low point was Kirakira PreCure a la Mode. In the mother of all idiotic ideas, TOEI did away with all close quarter combat for that season, making all the battles repetitive and boring. Also, they had the worst final boss in all Precure series, and I’m counting the giant black hole in Smile.
Hugtto! set out to fix what they broke. CQC was back in full force, the 3DCG was used very little and the final boss, while not having an epic battle due to his nature, was great.
Current season is also knocking out of the park, so the franchise is back on the right tracks.
The only downside to the show is the epilogue, which was, in my opinion, terrible. I know the birth rate is down in Japan, but ending your show with an actual on screen birth is not something I wanted. Also, for a show about accepting the future, Emiru sure as hell got stuck in the past.
The subtitles are from anon, who did a fantastic job. Enjoy the show, it’s great.
PS: Emiru is the best, but is only perfect with Lulu next to her. Those two were adorable.

Mobile Suit Gundam Narative (Series rating: 6/10)

One year after the events of Gundam Unicorn, the world is still not at peace. In fact, the tragedy that is about to unfold started even before the events of the past OVA series.
Cyber-Newtypes. Created through horrible experiments on children by the most depraved and power-hungry divisions of the military. Jona Basta, a survivor of those experiments, is about to set out on a journey that has him find his lost childhood friends. But those friends are not what they used to be anymore.
I enjoyed Unicorn a lot, but this sequel not so much. Stunning animation, great music, fantastic battles… but a very lackluster and quite depressing story. It almost makes everything Banagher and Audrey did in Unicorn seem meaningless. That might have been the point, but I still don’t like it. It ends on a bittersweet note though (?), so it’s not a complete tragedy. But neither did it accomplish anything.
Contains 5.1 and 2.0 audio, Japanese only.Subtitles are PGS from the BD.