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Nov 30, 2025
Okay, who here has played Dungeons and Dragons? From a few livestreamed DnD games that I've seen online, I know how chaotic DnD campaigns can be, specifically because of the people playing in that campaign. On my part, I haven't played DnD since high school, but it was years after graduating that I started keeping a list on Anime-Planet of anime that aren't fully available on the Internet in English; finding anime that qualify for that list and making sure it stays updated has been quite an adventure in itself. One long-standing member of that list is "Fortune Quest L", which only has five episodes
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available both subbed and dubbed. As it turns out, this isn't the first anime adaptation of the light novel series it's based on got. Before Fortune Quest L was released, there was a four-episode OVA series that actually did get the fully-English-subbed treatment - one that actually mentions DnD in its description. Can this OVA, "Fortune Quest: Yo ni mo Shiawase na Boukensha-tachi", be what inspires someone to seek out its sequel and make it more widely available? Well....I'm gonna be honest, I'm not sure if I see that happening.
Fortune Quest: Yo ni mo Shiawase na Boukensha-tachi, or "Fortune Quest: The Happy-go-lucky Adventurers" in English (according to the fansubbers, anyway), follows one specific party reminiscent of those found in fantasy RPGs, led by swordsman Clay and including the likes of the thief Trapp and the mapper Pastel. Unfortunately, we do not find them in the best of positions for a party to be in; they're broke and in debt, meaning they can't buy any of the adventure modules to go on a quest. To earn some money, they take on a job to collect hot spring water from a town famous for it, but they soon discover that the water has all dried up. As it turns out, a white dragon dries up the water every ten years until a young boy is sacrificed each time; any time an adventurer sets off to kill the white dragon, they come back evil and cause chaos in the town. Nevertheless, our hapless heroes set off for the nearby dungeon to kill the white dragon....but all is not as it seems regarding this.
As you can see, the Fortune Quest OVA (as I will be calling it from now on) tells a pretty standard fantasy story; I'm sure there are DnD players who have done a campaign exactly like this before. Nothing is really done to make it stand out from other fantasy stories, either. Sure, there are a few plot twists here and there, but anyone with any familiarity with DnD-inspired fantasy stories would be able to see those plot twists coming from a mile away. Granted, I didn't really see the villain's motivation for doing the things he did coming....but that motivation was also so stupid that it's not even funny. Speaking of which, the Fortune Quest OVA is mostly comedic, but while some jokes managed to make me grin a little, nothing really made me laugh. I really wanted to laugh at these jokes, as the fansubbers found the OVA series to be hilarious, but I couldn't honestly do so; that might just be a difference in senses of humor, though.
The characters in Fortune Quest are nothing to write home about, either. I kind of thought Clay was the protagonist at first, given that he's the leader of the party, but he's mostly left on the sidelines throughout the series due to an injury he gets in the first episode; it's probably for the best, though, considering that he's either the least interesting or the second-least interesting of the party. I honestly can't decide whether he or Knoll is the least interesting; it doesn't really help that the latter doesn't get much to do, either, since he had to stay outside of the dungeon due to his large size and sent a bird after his fellow party members in his place. The protagonist actually seems to be Pastel, the mapper (who maps out the locations her party goes to, by the way), and while I wouldn't really say I like or hate her, she does have some fun chemistry with other characters, like Trapp and Shiro. Another party member, Kitton, seems like he could be an interesting character, but while there are some revelations made about him, there's not enough time to really explore it.
Finally, there's the animation and sound, which are both pretty standard. The animation was done by J.C.Staff, who would certainly go on to work on better projects and turn out better results in the years to come; it wasn't terrible overall, but nothing animation-wise really sticks out. There are some illustrations that feel reminiscent of fantasy stories of the time it came out, though, which I liked. This OVA series doesn't have an opening theme, but there are two ending themes that are used throughout its run, neither of which are good nor bad. The first ending theme, "Fortune Quest: Itsuka Kanau Yume" by Rumi Kasahara, does stick out in my mind for having an instrumental remix that one might hear in an old RPG playing at different points throughout the series, though. The voice acting was pretty okay, too, with Trapp, in particular, having a pretty fitting voice provided by Toshio Furukawa. Just a warning, though: Kumiko Nishihara's voice that she does for Rumy might sound a little grating to some viewers due to how shrill it is.
Overall, the Fortune Quest OVA wasn't quite that good, but if someone wanted to watch it, I won't stop them. It might inspire DnD DMs to create a campaign based on the adventure the main characters went on. It might not, however, inspire fansubbers to seek out episodes 6-26 of Fortune Quest L to give them the English-subtitled treatment. Oh, well. Maybe someday.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 23, 2025
Not gonna lie, I'm kind of mad at Netflix. I mean, the anime adaptation of one of the most beloved romance manga in recent years is streaming on your platform, and you wait to license it and cause it to not start streaming until two months after it started airing in Japan? Do you WANT people to pirate it, Netflix?! Well, said anime now has every episode on Netflix, so there's no more reason to be mad, right? I'd say not, as "The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity" is a really cute anime that is good to watch if you want a romance that will
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make you smile.
The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity, or "Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku" in Japanese, lays its scene in Tokyo, where two completely high schools sit next to each other. Chidori High is a public boys' school that accepts low-class delinquents, while Kikyo High is an elite school attended exclusively by noble ladies; like the Montague and Capulet families before them, these two schools have a long-standing feud against each other. When Chidori student Rintarou Tsumugi meets Kikyo student Kaoruko Waguri at his family's bakery one day, though, he comes to find that this doesn't matter to her; she desires to get to know Rintarou and cares more about how kind he is than his scary appearance or the school he goes to. From there, Rintarou and Kaoruko begin spending more time together despite their schools' ongoing feud, perhaps with some romantic feelings blooming along the way.
Despite Chidori and Kikyo's rivalry initially seeming like a major point in the story, it seems to me like it becomes less relevant as time goes on. Sure, there were tense moments pertaining to this such as the scene where Kaoruko is waiting in front of the gates to Chidori in episode 2, but the rivalry seems to be pushed off to the side more and more as time goes on. Instead, we get a lot of exploration into how communication can improve relationships. Most romance anime would let dumb misunderstandings drag out for far too long for the sake of drama, but The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity is more interested in letting their characters talk things out, apologize for their (perceived) wrongdoings, and become closer than before. Sure, some characters go on monologues that make me think they should just get to the point already, but for the most part, I enjoyed what this anime wanted to offer here. I just wish that, in a potential season 2, the Chidori-Kikyo conflict could be expanded on more. Maybe it is in the manga; I don't know.
Regarding the characters, I really liked all of them, although I don't have much I can really say about most of them. Rintarou is an interesting protagonist who goes through a lot of growth throughout the series. Kaoruko doesn't go through quite as much growth, but she's always a delight to see. The two have pretty cute chemistry, and their relationship to each other actually has a positive effect on each others' other relationships; for example, it is Rintarou's relationship to Kaoruko that leads to him opening up more with his friend group, an action that strengthens his bond with them. The members of Rintarou's friend group are also very likable, with Saku Natusawa being a particularly interesting character. Finally, there's Subaru Hoshina, Kaoruko's best friend; she's a very caring friend, even if her early actions aren't exactly great, and I loved seeing her development as she got more comfortable with Rintarou and his friends.
As expected of CloverWorks, the animation is absolutely gorgeous, with a particular scene in episode 12 being particularly beautiful. (Anyone who's seen this anime might be able to guess what scene I'm talking about.) It may do nothing to beat the common assumption that it's a shoujo anime despite being a shounen, but whatever! It looks great! Now, although I watched the English dub and not the original Japanese version, I might have to recommend that you watch this subbed, as the English dub is....not great. Robbie Daymond, Rintarou's English voice actor, was the only one in the English cast who gave a performance that I wouldn't hesitate to call "good" (and in fact, I didn't even realize it was him at first, which goes to show how talented he is); everyone else has voices that fit their characters (except maybe Kaoruko, but I'm probably the only one who thinks that), but their VAs' performances were pretty rough. Most of the cast seems to have had little to no voice acting experience prior to this; perhaps they should get more practice in before taking on more named roles. Where the voice acting falls, though, the music more than makes up for where the sound is concerned; the opening and ending themes - "Manazashi wa Hikaru" by Tatsuya Kitani and "Hare no Hi ni" by Reira Ushio, respectively - are both great songs that match the anime's vibes well. "Hitohira" by Hitomi Miyahara, the second ending theme (which was only used for the last episode), is a beautiful song that made me slowly wave my pencil around as if it was a glow stick!
Overall, The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity is a very good anime. I'd recommend it if you're looking for a romance anime that depicts a sweet, healthy, drama-free relationship. It definitely didn't deserve the Netflix-jailtime it got; hopefully, Netflix has learned their lesson about licensing anime late!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 24, 2025
There are a lot of different types of media that take place during a zombie apocalypse, and anime and manga are no different. Anime fans who also enjoy the zombie sub-genre have gotten to enjoy series like "Highschool of the Dead", "Gakkou Gurashi!", and "Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead" over the years, and at some point in 2026, "#Zombie Sagashitemasu" will be joining the fray. This upcoming anime is based on a three-volume manga created by Katsuwo, who is perhaps better known for moe comedy slice of life series like "Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu"; although #Zombie Sagashitemasu does lean more towards being a
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comedy like their past works, I respect Katsuwo for attempting something new for them. Is that "something new" good enough to deserve an anime adaptation, though? That's what I'm here to find out today.
#Zombie Sagashitemasu, also called "#I'm Looking For Zombie" in English, takes place 13 years after the "Red Day", when the world became overrun by zombies, or "kairi", as some call them; 90% of the human population died from being infected by these zombies, with the survivors breaking off from the more popular cities and living in isolated villages. Aki, Natsuki, and Haru are from the same village and have no memory of the Red Day, but they do have the skills needed to fight against the zombies and survive this world; together, they leave their village and go to Tokyo in search of Aki's father, who had left the village himself years ago and whom Aki had promised to dispatch if he had turned into a zombie. The trio ends up picking up two fellow survivors, Yuu and Sakura, and they all take refuge in a home shopping center, which becomes their base. From there, the group finds clues to Aki's father's whereabouts, meet other fellow survivors, and learn some truths about the zombies and the world they live in.
While I normally talk about the art last when reviewing a manga, I want to talk about that first this time. While I won't say it's breathtakingly beautiful or outstanding in any way, I can't say it's bad, either. The art is cute enough to fit the more comedic aspects of the manga, yet I also feel like it's less cutesy than Katsuwo's other works; it seems like more of a style evolution than anything else, given that the artstyle doesn't seem to fully match that of Katsuwo's earlier works but does match their later works, but I do think it works for the more serious sides of the story. I also like how Katsuwo draws the kairi in this manga; they look pretty unique compared to zombies in other manga of this variety.
Now, as previously hinted at, the story has a comedic side and a serious side to it. And yes, there is an actual story to it; there are things that happen that have a permanent impact on some characters. Unfortunately, the comedic side is more prominent (and isn't always funny, either), and for the most part, the serious aspects are a little on the weaker side; as a result, despite what I said earlier about things happening that affect the characters, there is very little character development that happens among the main cast. No one in this main cast is unlikable - I'm particularly fond of Yuu because of her straight man status among the cast, among other things - but no one really has any depth to them, either (except maybe Yuu). The character who suffers the most from this is probably Haru; all there really is to him is the fact that he's really strong and a sort of connection he forms with another character who shows up later on in the story. Sakura is a close second in that regard, although a certain gag involving her sort of makes up for it. Sort of.
My biggest problem with #Zombie Sagashitemasu, however, is its ending. A few chapters away from the ending, a major reveal pertaining to the manga's world is made that seems like something that could make the story go in an intriguing direction by the time it concluded. What do they do with this development? Great question! The answer is: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. We instead get a rehash of something done toward the beginning of the story, some fireworks, and another potentially-interesting development on the very last page. Plus, thinking back to things that happened leading up to this reveal, it didn't make a lot of sense in general; the reveal really should have been hinted at better. I'm sure I'm the only one who feels this way, but I can't stress enough how disappointing that reveal and the chapters that followed it, including the ending, are.
Despite all of that, though, I can't say that #Zombie Sagashitemasu was a bad manga. Fans of zombie apocalypse stories who want something with more levity might be interested in checking this out, but no one's going to kill you for not doing so. Do I think it deserves an anime? Eh, I'm on the fence about it, but hey, it's getting an anime, anyway! Who knows? Maybe it'll be even better than the manga!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 25, 2025
(WARNING!: This review contains spoilers for the last episode of the previous season and the first episode of this season, so you better proceed with motherf*cking caution!)
About fifteen years ago, the world was introduced to Panty and Stocking Anarchy, a pair of foul-mouthed angel sisters who starred in one of the most uniquely-animated anime series to come out of Japan. Any kids who might have wanted to watch it back then but couldn't because they were too young (as well as those who sneakily watched it, anyway) have grown up to a more appropriate age for viewing now, just in time for a sequel to
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come out. Having watched (and reviewed) the original "Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt" for myself (albeit years after its initial release), I speak for everyone who had watched it at any point before the sequel aired when I say that this sequel was a long time coming. Who would ever think that it would take the P&S crew this long to come up with an explanation as to how Stocking is suddenly a demon? (Seriously, the director, Hiroyuki Imaishi, has apparently claimed to have not put any thought into the original ending, so it could have actually taken him more than a decade to come up with the explanation we get!) Well, even with its original studio, Gainax, not in the picture anymore, we still managed to get a sequel thanks to Trigger, and now, I can follow up my review of the original series with one of its sequel, "New Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt"!
For those who ignored the spoiler warning and don't know what Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is even about, I'll give you the basic rundown. Panty and Stocking are angels who got kicked out of Heaven for bad behavior and now have to kill ghosts plaguing their new home of Daten City in order to earn enough Heaven Coins to buy their way back into Heaven; in the meantime, though, they indulge in their respective obsessions, which is sex for Panty and sweets for Stocking. At the end of the original series, though, Stocking cuts Panty up into 666 pieces, reveals herself to be a demon, and takes off with Corset, the villain of the last couple of episodes. At the beginning of this new season, however, this is revealed to just be Corset brainwashing Stocking into believing she's a demon (which I guess is an explanation that makes sense) and making her cause chaos throughout the city; to stop her, Garterbelt (a priest who watches after Panty and Stocking), Brief (a geek with a crush on Panty), and Chuck (Panty and Stocking's pet), along with Scanty and Kneesocks (two demon sisters from the first season), gather the pieces making up Panty and are eventually able to restore her to her normal self. After a showdown ensues between Panty and Stocking....well, things just go back to the status quo of the original series, with Panty and Stocking gathering up the Heaven Coins needed to go back to Heaven. This time, however, they're joined by Scanty and Kneesocks, who themselves have been banished from Hell and need to gather enough Hell Coins to go back.
Truly in line with the American cartoons that have had an influence on the series (if we're not talking about the more serialized ones that have been coming out in recent years), pretty much any character development the main characters have gone through in the last few episodes of the original is pretty much reset by the second episode of this season. This may be annoying to some, especially those who would have thought Panty and Brief's relationship might have progressed by this time; instead, Panty treats Brief pretty much the same way she did for most of the first season. There's a part of me that doesn't mind, though, as it does allow for the fun shenanigans that we've all come to love from the series. I actually think I've come to appreciate the parody angle that the series has been going for all along even more than with the original series, as I've become more aware of the movies that are referenced, such as "The Fast and the Furious" and "Home Alone". The madlads at Trigger decided to even reference past works from Gainax with a parody of Inferno Cop! Now THAT'S gold!
Speaking of newfound appreciation, I think I've come to find that in the character of Stocking. What can I say? She's a fun character with a cool goth aesthetic! I'll admit that I liked her a little better than Panty this time around, but I do still find Panty to be a good character; she even has some pretty heartwarming moments in this season, such as when she bonds with a ghost cat in one episode. Two more characters I have a newfound appreciation for are Scanty and Kneesocks; they have a cute sisterly bond that gets a decent highlight on it for a few episodes, and they can each be pretty fun when paired with the Anarchy sisters, who they actually have pretty good chemistry with. That's pretty much another point in this season's favor - the introduction of some pretty fun character combinations, which even includes Brief and Chuck. Unfortunately, while the returning characters are as good as ever, I didn't really care for the new ones (except for Gunsmith B*tch; she was pretty fun). The new angel pair introduced in this season, Polyester and Polyurethane, have very annoying attitudes; although I'm sure it's on purpose (and there was one episode that made it seem like they could potentially be likable), I still have an actively unfun time whenever they're onscreen. Seriously, these boys constantly make me think something along the lines of "Kids these days!" when I'm not even sure if I'm even at the age to be thinking thoughts like that! Oh, and there's also this random foreigner character whose name I forgot (if he even has one) who doesn't really have a purpose other than to be a "gaijin" type of comic relief character; he didn't really get that many laughs out of me, though.
Despite the studio change - although with Trigger basically being a successor to Gainax, is it really a studio change? - the animation still looks as smooth and pleasing to look at as ever, with the action scenes being great. The previous season had a lot of sequences of ghosts exploding when defeated, which are still present here and still look cool, although there is a smaller number of them here than I remember there being there. I also thought the little animation sequence present in the ending theme was pretty cute, with a pretty rocking song in "Reckless" to go along with it! Speaking of theme songs, the new opening theme, the very creatively-named "Theme of New Panty & Stocking", is pretty catchy; I've had the "P-A-N-T-Y S-T-O-C-K-I-N-G" part of the song stuck in my head for weeks! Finally, there's the voice acting. Since Amazon Prime got the rights to this season instead of Funimation-which-is-now-Crunchyroll, the voice cast for the English dub (which is the version I watched) has changed. The new cast is decent enough, but I definitely felt the loss of Jamie Marchi as Panty and Monica Rial as Stocking for a few episodes; luckily, Courtney Lin and Cristina Vee are decent replacements, and I got used to their voices soon enough. Is it just me, though, or do the characters in this season speak way faster than they do in the first season? There were times where I had difficulties keeping up with the dialogue because of how fast the characters talked, and I don't recall having that problem with the first season! (It's been over a decade since I watched the first season, though, so that could just be my imagination.)
Admittedly, I enjoyed this season a little less than the original despite all of the praise I've thrown its way, and I'm not even sure why. Still, I can confidently recommend New Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt to fans of the original; it's a pretty good payoff to all of the waiting fans have had to do for over a decade. Well, that about wraps up my review. See you all in 2040 for season three!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 20, 2025
Over the past couple of years, the things I've been looking forward to most during every anime season are the videos different anime YouTubers release going over each anime that premiered that season; some of them have even gotten me to check out anime that I wasn't even intending on watching before! One of those YouTubers is Gigguk, a.k.a. Garnt Maneetapho, with his "In A Nutshell" series. This, along with the several other anime-related videos he has put out in the several years he's been on YouTube, may make one wonder, "What would an anime he made be like?" Okay, I don't think there were
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many people asking that question, but the world still got an answer when Garnt announced his original anime short film, "Bâan: The Boundary of Adulthood", or "Bâan: Otona no Kyoukai" in Japanese, earlier this year. With this answer, there is something I'm sure most people who watch his content were actually thinking: "OF COURSE IT'S AN ISEKAI." No matter where you stand in whether you like or hate the isekai genre, though, I think we can all agree that Garnt has created what is probably one of the more unique isekai stories in the anime sphere, even if it's not perfect.
Bâan, as it shall henceforth be called, is set in two different worlds - Euthania, a fantasy world home to different magical races, and our own world, with the segments of our world being set in modern day Japan. Anyone from either of these worlds can easily cross over to the other through a warp gate and even start a new life in that other world. That's pretty much what Rinrada "Rin" Ratchamanee and Daichi Arai set out to do - Rin travels from Euthania to Japan, and Daichi from Japan to Euthania. From there, we see how their new lives in their new homes pan out.
As I said before, this is probably one of the more unique isekai anime there is out there. I'm not necessarily talking about the isekai part itself; although there aren't many, there are a few isekai anime out there where the person crossing over to another world does so on purpose, such as seasons two and three of Dog Days. The thing that I think is unique about it is how, instead of some epic, grandstanding fantasy adventure that we've seen multiple times (although there is an action scene in the middle of the story that would be right at home in a story like that), it's more focused on how its two protagonists feel as they go through their lives in their new worlds. Homesickness is a big part of the story that is felt from both characters, albeit one more than the other; that's something that anyone who has moved far away from their original home can relate to, and the homesickness Garnt might have felt after moving to Japan is really felt here, even if the only few times I've personally moved in my life has always been within the same area. It has a genuine emotional core to it that I really appreciated.
One aspect of the story that I felt was a little lacking, however, was the worldbuilding, at least on Euthania's side. Euthania is a world that definitely sets itself apart from other isekai worlds by having aspects inspired by Southeast Asian mythology, but it doesn't feel like we get to know the world that well beyond that, which undermines its uniqueness a bit. Personally, if the film was a little bit longer than the 18 minutes we got and had some more scenes with Daichi's adventure in Euthania (with some more scenes of Rin's life in Japan to balance it out, of course), there could have been more aspects of Euthania added to flesh it out. Then again, though, I do feel like the 18-minute runtime does allow the story to not drag itself out longer than it needs to. All in all, I have conflicting feelings on the runtime and how it affected the worldbuilding, but hey, if Garnt got the opportunity to produce a sequel to Bâan that showed more of what Euthania was like, that might address my concerns with it!
Well, even if I feel like the short runtime negatively impacted the story, I don't feel like it impacted the characters and their development, particularly Rin's. I'm not sure if I would rank Rin anywhere on the list of my favorite female anime characters (and I definitely won't draw any R34 art of her, even if I was the kind of person who drew R34 art, which should be a relief to Sydsnap), but she is still a likable protagonist who goes through some relatable struggles. Daichi is also relatively interesting in how he has his own reasons for going to Euthania that isn't necessarily having a grand old fantasy adventure; I won't spoil the reason, but it is something that most young adults will relate to. They also have an interesting relationship to each other that I didn't expect them to have going in; I thought they were just two characters with opposite situations there for viewers to compare to one another and that they wouldn't interact at all! Not many other characters stick out in my mind - and it doesn't really help that there are very few named characters other than Rin and Daichi - but I do want to give a shout-out to An, another Euthania-to-Japan immigrant; she is a warm and motherly character who also serves as a great example of how people who have moved to a faraway place might adapt after a while of living there.
Of course, the story and characters aren't the only good parts of Bâan. The animation studio behind it, Studio Daisy, is a relatively new studio - having been established in 2020 - and while the animation they put out isn't perfect, such as one part where it felt like some inbetween frames were missing, it still looked good and had natural movement for most parts. The character designs were good, too, with clear distinctions between those from Japan and those from Euthania being made. Kevin Penkin also did a good job with the music, with it sounding gorgeous and like it really came from a fantasy anime. On the note of music, the ending theme, "Bâan" by Elspeth Bawden (which you can also hear in the film's trailer), is a gorgeous song; I don't know what else to say about it. Finally, due to me being unable to switch languages, I did have to watch the English dub during the premiere, but luckily, it's a very good dub with some very good voice performances, especially the aforementioned Sydsnap (a.k.a. Sydney Poniewaz, a.k.a. Garnt's own wife) as Rin. It's clear that Connor Colquhoun, better known as CDawgVA, has put his experience "fixing" bad voice acting to good use with his ADR direction here.
Overall, Bâan was a good anime film, and I'm glad Garnt was able to produce it and release it. If you like his content in general or isekai anime in general, I'd recommend you to give it a shot; it's available for free on YouTube, so you have nothing to lose by doing so. Hopefully, the fact that this turned out as well as it did is a sign of good things to come for Garnt as he continues his YouTube career and his life in the home he has found in Japan.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 1, 2025
According to various studies, smiling can improve your mood, even if you have to force it; however, it can be hard to force that smile when everything in your life is negative. If the number of people who take their lives every year is any indication, even trying to smile through the pain just isn't enough sometimes. Even so, sometimes, when someone takes their life, some people who cared about them wonder what they could have done to stop it from happening - how they could have made them so happy that they wouldn't have even thought about it. Unfortunately, there's no way to make
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those who are gone happy now, so the best you can do is bring happiness to those who are still here. From December 2021 to March 2022, a manga about a character who wanted nothing more to bring happiness to people in unhappy circumstances was serialized in Shounen Jump+, and with the combination of its short length and horribly dark themes, no one ever thought that it could get an anime adaptation. Well, I hope no one used a Happy Camera on the day production started on the "Takopi's Original Sin" anime, because it ended up actually getting announced and released, and given how good it ended up being (especially compared to the manga, apparently), we don't need anyone trying to prevent it from happening!
Takopi's Original Sin, or "Takopii no Genzai" in Japanese, begins in 2016, when an octopus-like alien crash-lands on Earth and befriends an elementary school girl named Shizuka Kuze, who calls him Takopi. Takopi has come from Planet Happy with the mission of spreading happiness to others using his Happy Gadgets, and he tries using them to help Shizuka, who is brutally bullied at school and practically neglected by her mother at home. When his attempts to make Shizuka happy end in tragedy, though, he tries his hardest to fix it, only to end up committing an irreversible sin. Thus, this once-innocent little alien has to deal with the consequences of his actions, as well as try to remember something he has forgotten. Meanwhile, we get to learn about the home lives of a few characters other than Shizuka, and trust me, not a single one of them is happy.
I'm just going to say it; the story of Takopi's Original Sin is a very heavy one. It contains fairly realistic depictions of suicide, physical child abuse, child neglect, and parental favoritism, to name a few things; anyone who is triggered by any of those may want to stay away. That being said, it's a very emotional story that gets you to really feel for its characters. The story is also well-paced, with no part of it dragging out for too long. Although I haven't read the 2-volume manga, I do think that the 6-episode length was the perfect approach to this series in order to get the pacing right; a movie would have rushed through the story too quickly, and a standard 12-episode series would have dragged everything out too much. If I had to pick out one issue with the story, though, it's the way it ends; to avoid spoilers, I'm just going to say that it felt cheap.
As I said before, the story of Takopi's Original Sin really gets you to feel for its characters. This includes Takopi himself; he starts off as an innocent little guy who just wants to spread happiness across the galaxy, only to get caught in the middle of a horrible situation that ends up completely destroying that innocence. It hurts to see the world come down on poor Takopi! Even so, though, I did think he was an interesting character who got plenty of development. Shizuka.... well, I've got mixed feelings about her. On one hand, Shizuka's words and actions make her less likable as the series goes on; on the other hand, though, I understand what made her this way and feel sorry for her. Same goes for Marina, the main instigator of Shizuka's bullying; while she does some horrible and unforgivable things to Shizuka, it's easy to see how she ended up the way she did once her home life is revealed. Ultimately, the cast of Takopi's Original Sin is full of complex characters who aren't exactly good people but are in circumstances that caused them to be the way they are. (I don't know what the kids' parents' excuses for being horrible people are, though!) The only exception to the "not exactly good people" thing is Shizuka's dog, Chappy; Chappy is a very good dog.
Speaking of good things, the music and voice acting are very much that. A standout in the voice cast is Kurumi Mamiya, who voices Takopi; the voice she uses for him is adorable and a great fit for the character, even during emotional moments. The ending theme, "Glass no Sen" by Tele, is an emotional-sounding song with lyrics that fit the story well. I also liked the opening theme, "Happy Lucky Chappy" by ano; it's deceptively cute-sounding (if you don't understand the lyrics) and is accompanied by a deceptively cute opening animation that makes one just starting think that things will end up fine just before everything goes downhill. Speaking of the animation, it's absolutely the best part of this anime. Up until now, ENISHIYA has only worked on music videos and short ONAs, and they have used their previous effectively for their first series, giving us animation that is fluid and deceptively cute with some animation sequences that genuinely hit hard. If the folks at ENISHIYA end up animating another anime series, I hope they are able to make something this high-quality again!
Overall, Takopi's Original Sin was a dark yet great anime. If you can handle triggering topics like suicide and different kinds of child abuse, I highly recommend it. Just don't expect to come out of it feeling happy, and if you do....what the heck is wrong with you?
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 8, 2025
It's July 8th when I'm posting this review, but just because Pride Month is over for the year doesn't mean I suddenly have to stop consuming media depicting same-sex relationships. Plus, the last yuri series I reviewed ended up being a bit of a stinker, so I could really use a yuri series that is marginally better (and less problematic). Luckily, the single omnibus volume of the manga "Handsome Girl and Sheltered Girl" happened to be available at a Barnes and Noble I was at recently, and it certainly had the potential to be a worthwhile read. Thus, I bought it, and now that I've
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read it all the way through, I can confidently say that I regret not reading this in June, as despite the romance starting from a misunderstanding, it's so much sweeter and healthier than whatever was going on in Kuttsukiboshi. Just how good is it, though? I'll try to explain in a way that creates no misunderstandings.
Handsome Girl and Sheltered Girl, or "Ikemen Girl to Hakoiri Musume" in Japanese, begins when college student Satomi Okuma is asked to find guys to participate in her class's crossdressing cafe. Luckily, she knows just who to ask: Mizuki Kanda, her handsome classmate who she already has a crush on. Mizuki isn't too enthusiastic about the idea, though, especially since, unbeknownst to Satomi (somehow), she's actually a girl and wouldn't be crossdressing as a result; in an attempt to get out of it, she asks Satomi to go on a date with her in exchange for her participation. To Mizuki's surprise, though, Satomi happily agrees, and soon enough, they're "boyfriend" and girlfriend. Not wanting to hurt Satomi's feelings by breaking up with her, Mizuki continues to date her while hiding her true gender, and over time, she ends up falling in love with her, too.
Ordinarily, the whole "misunderstanding that would be cleared up with a simple conversation takes way too long to get cleared up" trope is very irritating to me; that's exactly what has kept me from watching "Gamers!", despite how cute it looks. In this case, it can be frustrating to see Mizuki go to the lengths she does to hide the fact that she's not a guy from Satomi, but I believe that the manga's two-volume length eases the frustration a little bit; you know that Mizuki will tell Satomi the truth before too long, so you can enjoy seeing these two likable characters start to form a bond without too much stress. Satomi is a very entertaining character, with her happy personality just being too precious; meanwhile, Mizuki has a coolness to her that may make even straight girls swoon, as well as a kind and considerate personality. It's easy to see why they love each other, which makes their relationship all the more pleasant to see unfold.
That being said, though, the short length doesn't allow many things to be as fleshed out as they could have been. For example, it's established early on that Satomi comes from a wealthy household with strict parents - most likely where the "sheltered" part of the title comes from - but I don't feel like the whole "strict parents" part was used effectively enough. One of the ways that they are strict is that, despite the fact that Satomi doesn't live with her parents during the manga, they still give her a strict curfew, but there's never a moment where the curfew feels urgent; even in the one instance where she breaks curfew, all they really do is scold her. (Well, I can forgive it, since Satomi is an adult.) I think a chapter or two revolving around Satomi's background and Mizuki dealing with Satomi's parents directly could have done wonders for developing Satomi more as a character. Another problem stemming from the short length is that while the supporting characters are all likable in their own ways - with a special mention going to Kai for just how much of a bro he is - there's not enough time to really develop them. There are two characters who seem like they could be a side couple, but the manga ends as soon as they meet. Yeah, seriously. Want to see a spin-off about them? Write and/or draw your own! The author and artist seem to want to see fanart, anyway.
Speaking of which, although Mochi Au Lait didn't do a perfect job at telling as much of the story as could be told, majoccoid makes up for it with her gorgeous artwork. There aren't a lot of moments where the characters are chibi-fied, yet they are always cutely-drawn nonetheless. They also have very expressive faces, especially their eyes; it's always cute to see hearts in Satomi's eyes at different points. The backgrounds are pretty nice, too, occasionally giving the manga a shoujo feel despite being a shounen manga. Every aspect of the art adds to the sweetness of it all; no further comment is needed.
Overall, Handsome Girl and Sheltered Girl turned out to be very good for what it is. Anyone looking for a cute yuri manga to read in a day or two may want to consider giving it a try. It's definitely a better piece of yuri media to consume than Kuttsukiboshi, and I didn't even read it during June!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 17, 2025
A common question that people get asked is what they'll do if they learned they only had a short amount of time left. Something that never gets considered, however, is what they'd do if they had a way to prevent this hypothetical fate. Would they try to do the thing that would save them as soon as possible, or would they put it off until the last minute and end up dying, anyway? The reason why I'm pondering this is the subject of today's review, Once Upon A Witch's Death, which I found out about when the anime was announced and thought seemed interesting. It
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seemed heartwarming yet simultaneously heartbreaking, and....well, in some ways, I was right about that.
Once Upon A Witch's Death, originally titled "Aru Majo ga Shinu Made", follows Meg Raspberry, a young witch who is an apprentice to Faust, also known as the Eternal Witch and one of the Seven Sages. On her seventeenth birthday, Meg is given some shocking news by Faust: she only has a year left to live due to a curse that, once she turns 18, will cause her to rapidly age and die. All hope is not lost for our young heroine, however, as there is one way to break this curse; she needs to consume a Seed of Life, which can be created by collecting one thousand (crystallized) tears of joy. Why did Faust only tell Meg about this when there's not a whole lot of time to collect them all? Because Faust knows Meg well enough that she knows that she'll procrastinate on collecting the tears of joy until it's too late. (Man, ain't that a mood....) Anyway, with this newfound goal and a limited amount of time to accomplish it, Meg starts to help the people of her town of Lapis with their problems, forming worthwhile connections with each of them and really coming into her own as a witch in the process.
Look, I really want to say that I really like Once Upon A Witch's Death, as there is quite a bit of it to like. For example, I really liked the character of Meg Raspberry. She has a cheerful personality despite her circumstances and a willingness to help the people around her, no questions asked. I really liked seeing how her character developed. I also kind of liked Faust, although I wish the series explored her character more than it did. A couple of other things I liked were the opening and ending themes, which are respectively "Drops" by Maaya Sakamoto and "Hana-saku Michi de" by Aoi Teshima; I'm not sure if I would go out of my way to listen to either of these songs (okay, maybe I would do that for the opening theme), but they do fit in with the fantasy setting pretty well. The voice acting is also pretty decent, with Youko Hikasa giving a particularly good performance as Eldora, even though her character doesn't appear much in the series.
With that said, however, I do have one major problem with Once Upon A Witch's Death, and it has to do with the way Meg is going about collecting the tears of joy in the first place. It's a fundamentally flawed method, since there's no guarantee that she'll get the correct kind of tears she needs for the Seed of Life, if any at all; in fact, there are a couple of times where she gets (crystallized) tears that aren't exactly tears of joy. Another issue is that going around and helping people with their problems would take a longer time than she'd be likely to have. There is one episode where she actually gets quite strategic with how she does this, but she ends up being told that she's in the wrong for it, and it turns into a lesson on actually cherishing the people she meets and helps. It's a great lesson on paper, but things like that do take some of the urgency of Meg's situation away. The anime also has a "screw you, go read the light novels" type of ending where we don't get to see the end result of Meg's quest, so there's that, too.
What else is there to say....? Well, there aren't any unlikable characters (at least, no unintentionally unlikable characters), but I didn't really care too much about all of them. I thought Sophie's backstory was pretty sad, but other than that, I don't really have any strong feelings about her character. I don't have very strong feelings about the animation, done by EMT Squared, either. The colors and character designs are very good, and there are some gorgeous shots occasionally; however, there are some moments where the characters' movements feel a little stiff. At the very least, it's an improvement over anime that they've done in the past, and given the fact that the studio was working on two other projects that came out this season (including the pretty boring "Unaware Atelier Meister"), it's a good thing that Once Upon A Witch's Death didn't turn out terrible!
Overall, Once Upon A Witch's Death was an okay anime, which is a shame, since I really wanted to like it more than I did. That being said, anyone who likes witches and is really into the fantasy genre in general might get more enjoyment out of it than I did. Maybe some moments in it might make you cry some tears of joy of your own!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 2, 2025
Happy Pride Month, everyone! I don't think I can take pride in the fact that I watched the subject of today's review, though, especially not for a second time. Yes, I rewatched an anime for the sake of reviewing it. I don't remember exactly how I found out about this particular yuri OVA, but I did originally watch it back in 2014 and think it was so-so, apparently. However, I recently decided that it might be a good idea to re-evaluate some of the anime I gave an average score to in the past, and this OVA particularly stuck out in my mind; I didn't
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remember much about it, but something told me that I rated it too highly at the time, especially given the little bit of it I did remember. Unfortunately, I was proven correct; I don't see what it was that made my younger self see Kuttsukiboshi as anything more than....well, not good.
Kuttsukiboshi, or "Stars Intertwined" in English, follows the relationship between two high school girls named Kiiko Kawakami and Aya Saitou. After an accident a year prior, Kiiko gained the ability to move objects with her mind, and the new student Aya just so happened to find out her secret. This leads to them conducting daily experiments revolving around Kiiko's powers; all the while, Kiiko develops a crush on Aya. Aya ends up reciprocating Kiiko's feelings, and soon enough, they begin a sexual (and I guess romantic?) relationship. Things threaten to fall apart between the two of them, though, when Kiiko stumbles upon Aya's own secret.
This OVA series only has two episodes, and between the two, I'm not sure which is worse than the other. The first episode is mostly very boring, establishing a relationship between two characters I don't give two figs about; meanwhile, the second episode has a lot more going on yet is much more frustrating to watch due to the choices characters make and an ending that makes no sense. I will give the writers some props for attempting to foreshadow a certain aspect of the anime's ending in the first episode, but at the same time, that aspect felt very forced. To make up for this poorly-done plot, there is plenty of "plot" to go through (though it's not explicit enough to be a hentai), and.... Well, going into detail would lead to spoilers, but I will say that anyone who was aroused by certain "plot" scenes - specifically in episode 2 - should probably get their heads checked out.
Talking about each of the characters should be easy enough, considering there are only three "real" characters in Kuttsukiboshi. Kiiko is kind of a bland protagonist; aside from her having psychic powers and being in love with Aya, there is nothing to her character that could make her endearing to the audience. Aya is the more developed of the two, but the choices she makes and the way she treats Kiiko makes her very unlikable; the series tries to paint her as a sympathetic character in the end, but the damage is already done at that point. You can imagine just how unpleasant and uninteresting their relationship is when all of that is said. As for the third character, Kouta Saitou (Aya's older brother), his only purpose in the series is to cause drama between Kiiko and Aya; what becomes of him after he has served his purpose is almost laughable. Almost.
The animation in Kuttsukiboshi was done by Primastea, a studio whose only animation work seems to have been for the Issho ni Training OVA series (and even that's only in a producing role). This lack of experience from this studio really shows in aspects like the rough and off-model at times animation and the bland color grading. The sound of this anime doesn't fare much better. Asami Imai, the voice of Kiiko, has done some pretty decent voice acting work before and after this - Chihaya from "The iDOLM@STER" and Kurisu from "Steins;Gate", anyone? - but her performance here left much to be desired; the other two named characters are voiced by people with little to no other voice acting experience, and it shows in their weak performances. (Miku Isshiki sounded kind of cute as Aya, though, even if her voice acting was weak.) Each episode has its own ending theme, but neither are anything to write home about; "Hatsukoi Kasoku Kuukan", in particular, is probably one of Asami Imai's weaker songs.
Overall, Kuttsukiboshi is a bad anime, and I can't even recommend it to the biggest yuri fan out there. That said, if I had a gun pointed to my head and was forced to choose between this and Netsuzou Trap, I'd gladly watch this a third time; at least the yuri couple in Kuttsukiboshi doesn't ruin other romantic relationships (and Kuttsukiboshi doesn't have Fujiwara). In any case, may everyone in the LGBTQ+ community have a good Pride Month, and may I find something that's better than average in any other re-evaluation I do!
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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May 9, 2025
Ever had a day where one bad thing after another seems to happen? What if that day was actually every day, and all you can do is make the best of it? I'm not entirely sure if I could do that, but perhaps that's just because I've lived a rather decent life, with good days balancing out the bad ones. On those bad days, though, I could probably understand what the main character of "Sachiusu" goes through on a daily basis. I don't remember how I found out about Sachiusu, but I do remember thinking that it would be a nice and breezy read, with
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19 chapters packed into just one volume. Well, I wasn't wrong, per se, but it wasn't particularly good, either.
Sachiusu is a 4-panel manga starring Sachi Mukai, a young girl infamous for being very unlucky. All too often, she stubs her toe, loses her things, inadvertently changes the weather just by being present.... All that not-so-good stuff. Her abysmal luck eventually catches the attention of Misako Gokurakuin, her beautiful schoolmate who is the only member of the Occult Research Society. She seems to have very good luck, which she sees as her just having an ordinary and boring life, and starts hanging around Sachi in order to experience her strange "power" firsthand, even going as far as to pester her about joining the Occult Research Society. The manga follows Sachi as she deals with Misako and other occurrences in the series of unfortunate events that is her daily life.
As you can see, this is just a simple slice-of-life comedy with the main joke being Sachi's unluckiness. Unfortunately, the gimmick gets old quickly. There are some funny jokes here and there, sure, but when the punchline for each four-panel comic strip is mostly the same thing, it's hard to laugh a lot at it, you know? Fortunately, the manga's short length works in its favor here; it allows Sachiusu to not overstay its welcome too much. As I mentioned earlier, there are only 19 chapters, with each chapter being about 6 pages in length; I'd argue that that's better than having, for example, 200 chapters of the same joke over and over again. Sachi may be unlucky, but her manga sure is lucky to have not run longer than it needed to, right? Oh, and for fans of Minamo Minamori's previous work, "Waratte! Sotomura-san", that manga's main character makes a cameo in the last chapter, so Sachiusu may be worth reading to completion specifically for that.
On the topic of characters appearing in Sachiusu, none of the characters are too interesting, but none of them are bad, either. As stone-faced as Sachi's unlucky bit may have made me by the 20th time it was played out, I sort of admire how Sachi keeps a mostly positive attitude despite it all. I don't like or dislike Misako, either, but I liked the friendship that she and Sachi formed, as well as her good luck acting as a foil of sorts to Sachi's bad luck. It was also kind of heartwarming how kind Sachi's classmates are to her....yet at the same time, I can't remember any of their names because of how unimportant they are in the long run. One character I feel particularly bad about being underutilized is.... *looks his name up* Kawahara, who has a crush on Sachi. Although it didn't need to be the main focus of the manga, I would have liked some progression in a potential relationship between him and Sachi instead of him just being the butt of every joke he's involved in; maybe that way, I could have remembered his name without having to look it up!
With a slice-of-life 4-koma such as this, cute artwork should be expected, and luckily, Minamo Minamori delivers on that front. It's not breathtakingly good artwork, but the female characters looks cute and anatomically correct; in something like this, that's all that really matters. Uh, what else can I say about the art....? Oh! Minamori-sensei may have used their experience with drawing a manga about a girl struggling to smile to create some unexaggerated yet still effective facial expressions! Yeah, I think I've said enough.
Overall, Sachiusu is cute and inoffensive, but the main joke gets old too quickly for me to say that it's good. That being said, though, I can see those who are into clumsy anime girls getting a lot of enjoyment out of it. Perhaps it'll make you feel better after an unlucky day.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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