January 1, 2024 / 0 comments

~SPOILER FREE~ SUMMARIZING THE YEAR! 2023

What a busy year 2023 was! I made a game, I made a big ol’ video essay, and I drew far too much. Played some games too, none worth mentioning, not a good year for video games…
All that stuff and more is written about in my Talking About 2023 post.

But let’s focus on anime. When it comes to these posts, I’m always wary to add new categories because it means the scale of these summaries will only creep larger and larger… but I’m kinda regretting not having a best voice actor category. I contemplated it a couple times in the past, once for Hidaka Noriko’s role in Little Witch Academia, and once for Miyamoto Yume’s performance in SSSS.Gridman, but… you know Ueda Reina would’ve swept every other year.
Anyway, this year Yuuki Aoi absolutely killed it. Maomao’s voice in Kusuriya no Hitorigoto is surely going to go down as one of the decade’s best, and her voice was basically the entire emotional backbone of Monster Strike: Masamune, so that’s worth praising, I think.
Voices aside, 2023 was a very special year, but maybe not for the expected reasons. Let’s dig up some stats, because I’m a nerd who uses spreadsheets…
For the past few years, I’ve somehow ended up giving out six 2/10 ratings every year. 2020 to 2022 I kept the streak going.
But this year, I somehow gave ten shows a 2/10 rating! That’s more than double my average! …but it kinda makes sense, because this is the most anime I’ve watched in a single year. 74 anime! I normally watch ~50 per year, so 74 is a big jump.

Taking into account the mean, median and mode of every rating I’ve ever given, 2023 is the worst-performing year in my viewing history… and it’s not close. Well, it’s rivalled by 2019 (48 anime 4.6 mean vs 74 anime 4.2 mean), but even that year was better in some respects.
So yeah… this may not have been a great year for anime on the lower end of things. Fortunately, my ratings for the year managed to peak at 8/10, so it’s not one of those underwhelming 7/10 years again. That sole 8/10, absolutely my show of the year, really kept 2023 alive for me. So… let’s begin by talking about that special show.

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Favorite anime: BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!! – Covered Previously

Surprise surprise, the show I did an hour-long analysis of is my favourite of the year! Who could’ve seen this coming? An anime about five girls who feel lost, MyGO more than deserves a win.
With a flurry of directorial tricks that keep each episode feeling fresh, some wonderful metaphorical language packed into every nook and cranny of the season’s production, and a level of respect given to the audience’s intelligence that is, unfortunately, lacking from most other writers in the industry, there’s so much that could be said about MyGO.

But I don’t want to exaggerate. It’s far from the perfect anime. As I said in my initial review, the source material isn’t the strongest. A dedicated group of creators who case about the things they’re working on can elevate anything into greatness, by which I mean to imply that the actual events transpiring don’t interest me, nor do the characters appeal to me at a base level. If your average studio was given this material, I wouldn’t care.
It’s because the sakura petals fall so wistfully and Sakiko’s bright piano gets lost to another’s electric guitar that this drama resonates with me.
It’s because the colors of Tomori’s lonely walk home through steep sweltering streets perfectly communicate the atmosphere of the moment that this character resonates with me.
It’s because the clunk of Anon’s guitar case as she runs away from an embarrassingly cute conversation with Soyo sounds so good and reflects her clunky actions so well that this resolution resonates with me.

The story isn’t what makes MyGO‘s production so good; MyGO‘s production is what makes the story so good.
What’s most remarkable is that somehow, spectacularly, the script never gets in the way. In many other anime that I’ve praised for camera work or lighting or sound effects or what-have-you, it’s with the stipulation that the messages being delivered are annoying or obnoxious, or that the level of care isn’t equal across the different aspects of production. There’s always a miscommunication, where the people working on it aren’t in sync with one another fully; the soundtrack wants to show off, or the animators want to go wild, with no care given to the overall balance of the work.
MyGO doesn’t have that.

When the director plans a tame build-up episode centred around simple grounded everyday actions, the person writing the dialogue doesn’t cheese it up or try to keep things dynamic and engaging, they just let things flow. The person plugging in sound effects doesn’t shove in a sparkle of happiness or a honk of rebuttal to punctuate the emotions of each character, they just plug in some ambience. The animators don’t spend an eternity on the motion of someone picking up a bottle, or make a show of a character walking through a room, they just keep it focused. That’s the goal of the episode, and everyone is on board. It feels cohesive, and that’s near-miraculous in my books. Teams don’t have confidence in one another, not like this, not often.

MyGO is a show of confidence. Everyone gets it, everyone understands how to communicate what needs to be delivered, and when they don’t, they trust someone else’s vision. As put so well by one of the band’s songs: “It’ll work out, so let’s play together.”
If no one has a vision, something’s clearly going wrong – they understand that. Every little detail has a thought behind it, not always an enormous world-changing thought, but a show of intent is always there. The goal is always in sight.
That kind of environment won’t always lead to spectacular results—nothing will ever guarantee greatness—but I truly believe that this is the best way forward.

We need more of this in anime.

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Least favorite anime: Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers – Covered Previously

Fierce competition this year. My lowest rating of the year (2/10) was shared by ten different shows, all of which I hated very much, so singling out a single one is difficult… but although nine of those anime were pretty anger-inducing, one, in particular, wasn’t. Instead, it was plainly offensive.

Put aside the thoughts of what we need in anime; what we don’t need is Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers. A corporate attempt at cashing in on otaku culture, feigning reverence for all the weird quirks us anime fans have, but lacking any and all respect. It’s an insult, one that boldly says “if we dress up girls in mahou shoujo outfits, loosely reference some mecha shows, and release a gacha game, people will give us money.”
You can only hope some of that money found its way back to the poor freelancers who tried to make a meaningless action scene look interesting at least.

It’s a very cynical take. Otaku spirit can unite people, and it’ll continue forever, so long as others exist to inspire the next generation. But the things you love may change, or even be corrupted. The creators in charge of making what you watch may be idiots who hate their own audience. You may be a merch-obsessed weirdo, and the world may not want you to exist, and you may be arrogant, and rebellious, and you may not fit into society, but…
These are the ideas Magical Destroyers put forth, and if I list them off so rapidly, you might not think too much of them. The people, the otaku, being described (and targeted) by this anime are not real. They’re not even a facsimile of reality.
You’re a consumer, a stereotypical marketing statistic, who will live off passion even if we give you none back. And aren’t you amazing? You, whose eyes light up at the mention of Akihabara. You, unintelligible obsessive. You, who look like this.

Can’t you feel the love this product has for you? Don’t you want to buy their merch?
They claim it to be a criticism of the way otaku are portrayed in media, they claim it to be an anti-capitalist tale, but they don’t refute any stereotypes and they have a lot of stuff to sell you. But come on, the nerds are under threat by society and you need to join us in the fight! Otaku spirit, banzai!

…It’s just gross, isn’t it?

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Favorite moment: BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!! – The Walk Home

Episode 4 of MyGO—a story about a lonely girl whose dream band slash friendship circle fell apart—introduces the emotional reunion of some members of the group. But that’s not what I want to focus on.
Instead, once the band members have split up for the day and began there separate walks home, we’re granted a quiet moment as lonely girl Tomori and affectionate tsundere Taki walk through the night together. A train passes by as piano plays. They step through a streetlamp-lit shopping street populated by the day’s few remaining stragglers. Traffic drives on by, the headlights briefly illuminating the two girls.
That’s it. That’s the moment. Nothing really happens, but the music is great, the artwork is beautiful, it takes great advantage of CG animation in its use of lighting, and the atmosphere of a slightly-bittersweet reunion with friends combined with that emotion you feel during the lonely walk back home after a day of chatter and gossip, all combines to make a wonderful little collection of cuts.
It reminded me a bit of a certain ending sequence in Manaria Friends that I praised in my 2019 summary’s ‘Favorite ED’ section.

Rather than highlight what makes this moment so powerful to me… why don’t I just link to the post where I broke it down frame by frame? Or you could watch the video equivalent. Whichever floats your boat.

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Best guy:  Takada Taiyou – Jijou wo Shiranai Tenkousei ga Guigui Kuru. – Covered Previously

It’d be easy to describe Taiyou—a boy who misconstrues a bullied classmate’s cruel nickname as cool—as dense or unaware, and in some contexts, that’s certainly true… but for his age, he’s keenly aware, and that’s what makes him so pleasant to watch.
It’s a good balance. As a carefree kid would be, he’s not the most observant when it comes to social clues. This leads to some comedy and adds some unintentional positivity to the heroine Akane’s life. His similarly comedic misunderstanding that the “Grim Reaper” nickname given to Akane means that she’s actually a powerful magical entity has a similar effect. By pure accident, he is defending Akane from her bullies and raising her self-esteem… but if their friendship was based on misunderstandings alone, it’d be impossible for anyone to believe it’s genuine.

Taiyou has an immense respect for Akane, not only because she’s a cool magical being, but also because of who she is as a person. He understands which topics are sensitive, knows when Akane needs help, and knows when she’s capable of handling things by herself. He’ll offer a helping hand, but he also believes she’s the stronger one out of the two of them, so his behaviour never feels protective or coddling.

More than anything, he’s respectful. He abides by any boundaries that he’s aware of and asks whenever he’s unsure. He doesn’t insult people for making mistakes, but praises them for fixing mistakes. He doesn’t notice a lot of bad in the world, but he still knows how to combat it, and because of all that, I think he serves as a pretty good role model for younger kids.

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Worst guy:  Inazaki Robin – Tengoku Daimakyou

I think there’s a place in entertainment for an absolute scumbag. I’ve enjoyed watching awful people do bad things, and I will again in future. If it’s entertaining, I’ll eat it up.
Robin isn’t entertaining.

Not only are his scenes hard to watch, but they actively make the show worse, and as the key character of the anime’s concluding arc, he doesn’t exactly leave me wanting for more.
That’s not to say I enjoyed the other main arcs of the show, but they were far more interesting, despite the equally stereotypical foundations.
Robin’s existence is a major reason for why the two characters acting as the protagonists of half of the story are on a journey to begin with. Without him, without the backstory linked to him, that half of the show wouldn’t exist. As harsh as it may sound, that alone would be a major improvement.
Furthermore, it feels tacked on. The concept of setting a story after all of the major disasters have occurred is cool, no doubt, but it only works if the post-fallout setting stands strong in its own right. Robin’s plotline is incredibly weak, incredibly unfinished, and it has that distinct feel of an author making up a mystery plot on the spot, in stark contrast to the other half of the show which feels meticulously planned.

As the main motivating force for the lead characters’ journey, therefore the main reason to continue following the plot, Robin’s location, motives and actions simply aren’t fun to watch or think about. I don’t care about this guy, I don’t care about the guy who cares about this guy, and… boy is the setting they inhabit a snooze-fest. Take me back to the creepo kids, at least they’re unsettling in a watchable sense.

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Best girl: Hououji Akane – Megami no Café Terrace – Covered Previously

A princely working lady who plays guitar, is proactive in her pursuit of love, and is secretly a total dork? Say no more.

The protagonist of this show is a bit of an immature brat at times, particularly during his introduction, as are the many heroines. Amidst a battlefield of childish spats, Hououji Akane sits back, sips some coffee, and sees right through it all.
She treats people in a very toned-down matter-of-fact way, but finds it funny when people lose their composure, and these two traits combine to make the protagonist act more mature in her presence. It feels like a quiet battle of personalities to begin with, as if the protagonist is being toyed with, but it quickly evolves into a pretty open and trusting friendship.
She’s the quieter one who won’t do anything stupid. The person you can hold a normal conversation with without needing to worry about misunderstandings or breaches of trust.

I don’t dislike the other cast members, for the most part. Their sometimes snarky, oft-energetic, drama-fuelled minds make for fun viewing, and the slow-burn growth of everyone learning to trust one another is a key appeal of the story.
But I think it’s very important that such a story gives you a foot in the door. It needs to establish at least one early relationship that reflects the end-goal (or at least, a later stage) of the entire cast’s dynamic. A flash of quick growth that tells you this comedy show will actually be developing things, not falling into a stagnant Love Hina-esque situation for hundreds upon hundreds of chapters.

Hououji Akane isn’t just a handsome, relatively mature heroine; she’s a crucial storytelling device. Just as the protagonist learns to trust her, you learn to trust the writer. These characters’ relationships can grow and evolve, and if you keep watching, they will.

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Worst girl: Manaria Sousse – Watashi no Oshi wa Akuyaku Reijou – Covered Previously

Wait no, I can’t put a handsome lady in the Worst Girl category! That’s impossible! How did this happen!?

Manaria’s role as a plot device isn’t inherently flawed. In fact, if you logically write out what her role in the story is, it makes sense… so long as you ignore any and all context prior to her introduction.
She is that character, you know? The one who gets introduced mid-story and suddenly she’s the most important thing in the world. Everything warps to fit her presence, even if it sometimes feels forced.

Written with a complete lack of subtlety, that’s fine. An unsubtle disaster is attractive to the target audience, believe me.
But it’s the lack of subtlety within a drawn-out progression of events that gets old, fast. I get the point of the character immediately, I don’t need several episodes of slop to hammer it home. It’s made worse, in my opinion, by how unfitting “the point” is for the plot at the stage Manaria is introduced.
Get her in early, blast past her faster, and she could’ve been a fine little tangent. As it is, she’s a season-defining conflict that feels out of place.

When you throw in some of the questionable statements she makes, some of the questionable actions she takes, and the way every character nods along to her nonsense as if she’s oh-so-smart and perfect, you get a show-destroying influence that massively worsens the overall product. And I’ll say it… she’s not even a good-looking prince. The main heroine suited a suit better than Soussey over here.

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Best cast: Goblin Slayer II – Covered Previously

This was an incredibly difficult category to choose for this year, not because there was a lot of competition, but because… I don’t know if there were any good casts this year.
So, keeping in mind this is by far the weakest ‘Best Cast’ award I’ve ever given… Goblin Slayer‘s second season aired this year, and all the best moments involved side characters.

I’ve said this before, but to me, the big appeal of these types of fantasy shows is the interplay between the setting and its society. A big ol’ fantasy adventure is only as fun as the world it’s set in and the people who live there. I’m not going to tout Goblin Slayer as a golden example, but it certainly does a lot of right.
Whether they’re reexamining the classic guild culture from the lens of realistic work acquaintanceships, introducing a new wave of adventurers who the older generation place their abandoned dreams on, or even zooming back in on the core 5-member party relationship and their respective roles during dungeoneering, there are a lot of quaint character moments that serve the setting well.

It really is a matter of environment. Responsibilities are different during daily home life than they are during long travels, and those are yet different from dungeon-delving responsibilities. Even with just the main cast, we have several redefinitions of what their relationship is. At times, friends, at others, workmates. You protect your friends, just as you depend on them to protect you.
But it’s beyond the main cast where the story’s sparkle shines.

I think a strong contender for Best Moment this year came with an unusual trio: three guildmates—the titular Goblin Slayer included—end up drinking at a bar together. They don’t know much about one another (other than that they work as adventurers at the same guild), they have no obvious common interests, and they’ve even had bad blood at times. That bad blood wasn’t cleanly cleared up, to boot… it just got lost to time, diminished as the days and months passed, as all feelings do.
But one thing leads to another, and these three ageing adventurers begin drunkenly talking about their achievements, their worries, and the dreams they held as youths. That’s their common ground. They’re drunk, in the same place, and they’re all getting older… and none of them like to open up around others. They’re men, bold adventurers! Being sappy isn’t the right image for the job, so these three unlikely confidants have a rare heart to heart where no one else will hear.

None of those characters have names, two of them are little more than recurring side characters at best (arguably more towards the ‘background character’ category), and the conversation itself isn’t pressing, isn’t important, isn’t part of a build-up towards an impending conflict. It doesn’t need to be, because that’s not what Goblin Slayer is about.
What is is about… is relationships.

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Worst cast: Oshi no Ko

I don’t think I’ve used ‘Worst Cast’ in such a positive way before, but… hear me out. I really like this show’s characters.
Oshi no Ko is one of those shows that pretends to be edgy while having no justification for it. Similar in ways to Kuzu no Honkai, the cast do a lot of talking about how rotten they are or how corrupt the entertainment industry is, and yet 99% of the characters are the nicest people imaginable. It’s an incredibly generous take on idol culture, being belial while claiming not to be. It’s a strange contrast.

Hoshino Ai—the lifeblood of this fantasy—is an idol who describes herself as being made up of lies. She works in an oft-described industry of lies. And yet, with the way it’s presented, she feels incredibly genuine. She loves being an idol, her moments of exhaustion from acting the part are few and far between, she’s a great mother, and though she may not speak her heart out very much, her actions certainly do. She’s a very honest girl.
Her company’s president is a man who brings a pregnant Ai to a good hospital, prioritizes her desires over his own financial stability, and sticks with her the entire time.
The president’s wife perseveres through a lifestyle that doesn’t match her vain expectations, and resultingly she becomes a smart, caring and resourceful lady who acts as emotional comfort for the two main characters.
Similarly, the initially confrontational (for a brief second) director becomes a reliable mentor figure, no questions asked.
I don’t think it’s possible for them to play a bad character straight for longer than their introduction; every single time, some random plot beat comes along to make that seemingly bad person perfectly kind and friendly.

Whether you’re watching a group of paper-thin pretty boys fail to act, or a bunch of teens on a reality show getting into dramatics, they all end up being nice people. Even at the very beginning, when Ai performs to a studio of people who purportedly lie with a smile to keep things moving, they all get genuinely taken aback when they see Ai perform.

It sounds good, and the cast is loveable (Kana’s my favourite, her outfits are killer) but they really detract from the fantasy that was built up at the end of episode 1. This isn’t a revenge play at all; it’s a teen romcom with some light drama.
I don’t know if that’s the intention or not. When the verbal claim of people lying is disproven by their genuine physical response to Ai’s music, the conflict is clear. The dialogue is tinted by each character’s perspective, it’s their personal outlook, not a description of what the plot intends to be. I can understand that.
But… if that’s the case, the plot is far weaker than it seems on the surface. At least in lying, it had an identity.

With Oshi no Ko, someone has taken the lens that should be used to examine real-world entertainment industries and instead used it to capture a world where a majority of people aren’t walking scum. The message is clear: “it isn’t a great industry, but the people in it are trying their best!” The presentation is pretty disingenuous, and it hurts the show’s identity overall… That’s why, despite liking the cast, I think they’re the worst this year had to offer: they get in the way of the show’s core fantasy: a detective/revenge plot set in the entertainment industry. I would’ve liked to watch that.
But it’s always nice to see good people doing good things, so if you don’t like the first episode, you may enjoy the rest a lot more.

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Guilty pleasure: Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsu Shugisha – Covered Previously

I normally hate these dumb highschool-set Light Novel adaptations where the protagonist thinks he’s different, and the plot is all social interaction, the storytelling has all the tact of a brick to the face, and 14-year-old boys flock to it as if it’s the Holy Bible of life lessons.
Yumemiru Danshi, by all metrics used to generalize and categorize media, should be one of those adaptations… but it’s kinda not.

More than anything, I appreciate how melancholy, how meandering, and how passive the pace feels. The protagonist’s idea of bettering himself is not to engage in games of renown and reputation, nor is it an exercise in changing his true self and pretending to be someone different. He simply takes a break from an environment that’s stifling him and picks up some fresh responsibilities to work through.
It may not be exciting viewing for the young audience this market typically focuses around. Still, it’s certainly more pleasant to watch than something like Toradora or… uh… what’s an example that’s not over ten years old? Oregairu? Aobuta? I didn’t even watch that last one, but I’m sure it sucks.

It’s not really a drama. Sometimes the protagonist helps someone he knows with a personal conflict, but he’s never personally involved in those conflicts. He gives advice, but he’s a pretty distant person. An element of that is the result of his obvious affection: there’s a girl he likes, and nothing will ever change that.
There’s no room to question his heart, but there is room to question the quality of his character. This is a boy who spent years of his life forming his identity around his love for someone else. So here, he’s getting a bit of a late start on the path of self-discovery.
Who is he outside of his relationships?

I’ve said it many times in regards to romance anime: if your characters have no lives outside of the romance, they’re bad characters. Romance isn’t a life-consuming thing. Love will occupy your mind a lot, definitely, but… you have friends, you have family, if neither of those, you surely had interests (plural) at one point in your life. And the person you’re in love with should have had those things too. They don’t just go away the second romance blossoms.
Yumemiru Danshi takes that to an extreme, probably a bit too far, but it makes for an interesting watch. If the main character is already convinced of his feelings, how much screen time does it need to take up? “Very little” is this show’s answer.

But it’s a fun subversion, either way. An anime character realized they had no discernable traits beyond their singular given role, broke out of it, and began to explore what life is. What do I like? What am I good at? What relationships do I have? What do I want to do?
Good questions for anyone to ask.

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Biggest disappointment: Gridman Universe

I don’t wanna beat up Frieren again, not so soon after the previous blog post, so I’ll slot a movie into this section.
I get a deep sense of empathy when watching Gridman Universe. Helmed by the original staff who brought us the great SSSS.Gridman, Gridman Universe is a celebration of the fandom that’s formed up around the franchise in years since. Reigniting old conflicts, reintroducing old characters, and piling in the fanservice… it’s everything a Gridman fan could want! It has to be! We need to give the fans everything! EVERYTHING!
I feel bad for them.

SSSS.Gridman may have not ended on the most solid conclusion, so room for a sequel was always there. There are new places they could go, definitely, and that’s what I was hoping for. The first attempt at succeeding it—Dynazenon—only furthered the worst aspects of Gridman, so I was hoping this return to the original setting would be what the writers need to bring the quality level back up to the lofty heights of the original show.
But new things aren’t fanservice, and it’s very clear to me that the producers wanted fanservice more than they wanted a good movie. Merch is what matters here.

So we have a story that goes against a lot of what SSSS.Gridman stood for, digging up the body of a story that had lived its life, puppeteering it around to perform for the people. The creatives in charge of this project very clearly didn’t want to do this, but they had to, so they made the best of the circumstances. Unfortunately, you can only make so much out of the worst circumstances.

In this lazy repetition of Dynazenon‘s lazy repetition of Gridman‘s best episode, we get a bafflingly high-stakes conflict that abides purely by rule of cool. They answer plenty of questions I didn’t want answered. They bring back all the characters I didn’t want to see again. Half the film is composed of lukewarm action set pieces that build up to big character reveals, each one leaving me asking: “why did you bring them back?”
The story already ended many years ago, but here we are, dragging it back up for merchandising opportunities.

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Favorite OP:  spiral – Mushoku Tensei II – Watch Here

Flashback to a different year. A slightly younger Taka is reading a long series of novels. He’s not smitten with them, but one aspect of them really makes an impact: it’s a story of an individual’s self-improvement, spread out over a 30ish-year growth period, that preaches a message of belief in others’ improvement. Trite, unoriginal, but a message worth listening to nonetheless.
Reading those novels back then, my routine improved massively. My head was a little clearer, my goals were more focused, and my lifestyle was more active. Then I finished the last book, and month by month, I began to regress.

I didn’t love those books, and I don’t love this anime adaptation. I don’t even love this song. But as soon as it plays, my life improves.
I would wake up each morning, look up at the sky, and hear this opening theme. Smartwatch on, hair shampooed and rinsed, stomach filled, and heart pumping; the basic health advice known to Humans for thousands of years would come to me.
Unlike the novels, which left behind nothing but memories and text, the anime brought with it a song, and that song continues even after the episodes have run out.

Once upon a time, a man with more years and more mass on him than I, with more trauma than I’ve ever faced, who has lived two lives across two worlds, got up and started to run.
If anything propels me forward, it’s the desire to be better than others… and if a pathetic little weirdo like Rudy can manage to improve himself so much in two lifetimes, I should be able to do that in a fraction of one.
I should be able to, and Spiral will make sure I don’t forget that. There’s no room in my life for regression.

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Favorite ED: Mukyu Platonic – Isekai One Turn Kill Nee-san – Watch Here

I don’t entirely understand why this show of all shows got this kind of an ED, but I’m in love with it… okay, well not entirely.
There’s some jankyness towards the end, it could definitely be cleaned up a bit, but the bulk of it is amazing. It serves to give backstory for an incredibly important character (the Nee-san in the title!) and it does so in a very effective manner. So effective, in fact, that it massively overshadows the 20 minutes of animation preceding it each episode.

I know it’s easier to make a music video look impressive than it is an entire season of anime, but god damn, some of the cuts in this ED are the pinnacle of 2023’s anime output.
The shot where Nee-san is having a breakdown, crumples up onto the floor, and begins clutching at her head, is sooo good. It matches the beat amazingly well, and then they match cut from her disheveling her hair to the flashback of her younger self hiding under a sheet, and the motion of her surprising her brother by “boo”ing out of the covers matches the disheveling motion. I wouldn’t have thought to match those two motions in a thousand years, but it really works.
Then that’s immediately followed by a match cut between a flashback of her giving her brother a piggy back so he can reach the sky, and her climbing the stairs to a rooftop so she can end it all. What a cool parallel!

That’s not even mentioning the screen ratio change between shots, or the amazing sequencing of the isekai presence into this girl’s dismal environment. The slow pan back through screens to switch between the worlds is so hard-hitting.
And yeah, the song’s good. That’s a nice bonus.

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Late to the show: Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Moto Kano datta

It feels strange to say this, but… Tsurekano here is the first Light Novel adaptation I’ve seen where the dialogue and narration feels like it was written by someone who likes writing.
Our two main characters, a couple of awkward book-loving teens, like to spout cringy dramatic lines to themselves, overdramatizing and poeticising the world around them. That may sound like an insult, but it really isn’t. The justification for why these two are the way they are is incredibly strong, as is the utilization of the overly saccharine dialogue.

The most obvious example (used for comedic effect) is the repetition of the thought: “In what can only be described as a youthful indiscretion, I once had what you might call a boyfriend/girlfriend.” It’s a phrase that shows up often, so much so you will no doubt notice it as a repeated element… but it ties together the philosophy of the show very nicely.
In one scene, the show’s leading lady Yume cries while reading a book. Her tears land beside the stain of someone else’s. The only person who had read that book prior to her was the leading man Mizuto. It’s a representation of their minds aligning. As I so often said in my MyGO!!!!! analysis earlier this year, this is a portrayal of two characters being on the same page.

In the story of these two butting heads, the shared poeticism they both unknowingly use is but one example of the two being similar deep down.
One episode (I believe it was episode 10) gives another quick example. The second half of the episode is a mirror of the first, metaphorically, that is. In the first half, there’s a scene where Mizuto watches Yume’s sleeping expression. In the second half, Yume watches Mizuto’s.
In the first half, Mizuto considers kissing Yume before thoughts of the past snap him out of it. In the second, those very same thoughts hit Yume when she’s presented with the opportunity to kiss Mizuto.

What this lovingly crafted structure supports is the plot of a failed first love. The shattered relationship between Yume and Mizuto being revived by odd circumstances forces them to remember past events, question where things went wrong, dismantle their own ideas of who they are, and eventually has them rebuild themselves with a better understanding of themselves and of the world around them.
An idyllic couple who treated life like a dream—like a perfect piece of fiction—didn’t know how to respond when faced with reality; things aren’t going to be perfect. This slow character piece prioritizes the reasons for why the main couple ended up with that philosophy, explores the fallout of their innocence, and tries to rectify all of that with the present-day events unfolding from episode to episode.
It’s natural that repetition would be such a great tool for presenting this second try at a relationship, and the writers understand that. The structure they utilize fits the themes of the story just as much as the poetic prose fits the personalities of the people narrating this tale. The core concept is incredibly well realized.

I have a bunch of complaints with the show, chiefly the side characters—or more accurately, the impact they have on the show’s focus—but those complaints are boring to talk about.
What isn’t boring to talk about is the presentation. I mean, how cool is it that they managed to make family names more emotionally-powered than given ones?
Traditionally, the main couple calling one another by their first names would be the big progress moment. But here, that’s not true, and it takes a lot of work to reach that point.
It’s in the inciting plot line (the two becoming step-siblings) that erases the heroine’s old surname and replaces it with another. It’s how this forces the two to call one another by their given names.
It’s in the memories of the past, where the heroine’s old name is trapped. It’s in the memories of their idyllic first love, of when they were close, of when they were happy.
And it’s in the careful touch of not making names apparently important. It isn’t a big deal, it isn’t something the two talk about… It’s just a tool the author utilizes, alongside all the other metaphors they set up, all the symbolism they use, all the repetition.

It’s so cool to see a story so blatantly crafted by a writer… and it’s so strange that I’m not used to seeing it in other anime.

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Movie Talk: Boku ga Ai Shita Subete no Kimi e

And to a lesser extent, Kimi wo Ai Shita Hitori no Boku e as well.
I feel like, being the massive Gridman fan that I am, I should really be talking about Gridman Universe here… but that movie was appalling. In this section, I want to talk about things I like, so let’s just focus on the romance flicks.

What we have here with BokuAi is a film about… one boy (technically) who gets wrapped up in a time travel plot. However, that time travel plot is the story of a different film, KimiAi, and as you can imagine, the two films overlap and intersect quite a bit. But KimiAi—the film that focuses on the whys and hows of the time travel mechanics—kinda sucks. It’s clearly the main film, it’s literally the A-plot to BokuAi‘s B-plot. It has the main heroine, and in a Visual Novel it’d be the true route… but I think BokuAi is a far better film, and I’d argue it’s stronger as a standalone than it is as part of a duology. Just watch BokuAi alone.

So, while the A film is focused on the main story, our side attraction BokuAi focuses on… romance, life, and growing old. It’s one of those rare romance stories that begins with childhood, goes through adulthood, and ends with an elderly couple. That alone merits a watch, to me. We don’t get enough proper romance tales in anime.

It has a cool aesthetic with some interesting shots—especially compared to its sibling film—which act as great presentation for this lifetime-spanning love story. Watch a young boy grow up, fall in love, live through the trials and tribulations of life, and die happily after living long. His voice actor is absolutely amateur, but the rest of the cast (crucially the actor of his love interest) make up for it.

That love interest is what sells this movie. She’s a bit of a nerdy weirdo at first, stoic, blunt, she says strange things about time travel… As the years pass, those traits remain, but she slowly opens up and grows up. From the start, she’s the one who seems to know what’s going on best, and for a large chunk of the film, she’s the cool (sometimes drunk) office lady who stands out as a remarkable talent in her field. She’s a leading lady, for sure. Very entertaining to watch.

The main appeal really is in watching these two quirky kids grow into a relationship, but there’s some interesting philosophy to boot. Since time is being messed with throughout the film as a result of KimiAi shenanigans, the question of whether any one person is the same person you knew yesterday is very potent, especially in a romance film.
Is the man you married the same man you were betrothed to? Is your child the same person you gave birth to? How much do the small fluctuations—the inconsistencies in our memories—matter to the big picture? These questions can only exist in a story about time travel, and they can only exist in a story where characters grow old… so they really take advantage of the setting to push their moral messaging.

Unfortunately, the Sci-Fi undercurrent derails this core romance at times, and an interwoven subplot involving BokuAi‘s companion film KimiAi takes over the final act to close out the duology’s story, but I found myself feeling satisfied by what I’d watched, if only for the uniqueness of an anime romance that spans an entire adult life.

If you wanna watch two high school misfits who barely know one another close that gap, fall in love, help one another graduate, find jobs, get married, have children, grow old, and retire… well you don’t have many options, so you should take what you can get. Sci-fi trappings are forgivable.

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Looking forward to in 2024: Nanare Hananare

Ooh, okay, now this is a risky one. This doesn’t look like a show I’ll like by any means, it feels like that usual P.A. slop they’ve been coasting on for well-over a decade now, and there’s very little known about it currently other than a bad voice acting credit and a handful of staff roles… and those staff are a real mixed bag.

We’ve got the episode director of Angel Beats!‘ protag flashback storyline and good ol’ Arpeggio, as well as a writer who did good work on Monster Strike‘s second series. Basic, but cool!
Then we’ve got someone who wrote for Little Busters! (uh…), did the screenplay for a chunk of Digimon Tri (uuuuh…), and had a big hand in Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu (oh no!), so they’ve got a very unfortunate history.
But all of them worked on It’s MyGO!!!!!, so they hopefully have a good influence on one another to make good anime, and hopefully MyGO wasn’t just a fluke.
I won’t be surprised if I’m ultimately uninterested in Nanare Hananare, but if I do end up liking it… yay!

Also Trapezium seems cool, but it’s a movie, so I probably won’t get to see it until 2025. I used to watch Construction back in the day, so a story written by a Nogizaka member sounds fun, and I loved the Sarishinohara series, so the sacrificial idol idea is proveably endearing to me.

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