Overlooked or Deservedly Forgotten? – This Week in Anime

I mean, look, over on Amazon, they’ve got what they claim is the #2 anime: the new adaptation of the legendary Fist of the North Star! I don’t know how that one slipped through the voting, but we oughta see by checking it out!

If Ken’s voice there was meant to be a parody, it might actually be pretty funny, but, uh, it is not. They even pronounce 199X as “One-hundred-ninety-nine X”! That’s beyond parody. There’s a reason so many people thought this dub might’ve been an AI-generated affair when it first dropped. Unfortunately, it doesn’t even have that excuse.

This franchise has been cursed since the latter section of the original Fist of the North Star manga, I tell ya.

There were already shades of it in the premiere, but suffice to say it’s got just as much drama to go with its romantic comedy!

I initially thought the idea of this show might be that Aimi and Nami were the outlying, unhinged characters in an otherwise normal romcom setting, and I’m so glad they’ve kept proving me wrong.

It is too bad Kirio Fan Club is HiDiving under the radar. It’s the sort of show that makes for an utterly joyful (and sometimes sorrowful!) weekly check-in, and probably would’ve been fun to see real-time reviews getting to all its swerves.

And for much of it, it’s very hard to complain about Ribdiculous Reincarnation. I get annoyed when we can’t get one original isekai concept, but this show gives us two new ones per episode! I’m even fond of the handling of the framing device, which feels akin to the between-sketch interstitials in old kids’ shows like Time Squad.

It’s the sort of show I could watch forever, to say nothing of enjoying seeing its styles broken down week-by-week.

But then you see the stop-motion presentation of that piece, and appreciate how so many of these segments go for Pop Team Epic-ass mixed media from a multitude of other studios and creators. My jaw was on the floor for most of the pop-up-book plot from the third episode.

Real Hellshake Yano hours.

It just brings all the creative energy of the preceding entries to a screeching halt. It stings after previous credits showed the love and craftsmanship behind the scenes for these other sketches, you then get to see the actors here, ready to apparently just have the rotoscoping slop filter slapped over them. Insulting.

Okay, I promise I won’t go on about Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk too much so soon after Sylvia and I already did shots of it a couple weeks ago, and I gushed about it back in the romcom column. But come on, this is still probably the biggest WTF from me at not getting weekly reviews after Kirio Fan Club.

Just this latest episode introduced a whole new character who got immediately stuck in the third-wheel unrequited love torment nexus. It’s great!

Ami does really appeal, I’ll confirm. I appreciate her screwing the teacher so hard that she passes out in her debut episode. In a series all about the titular Kanan being a thousand-year-old virgin, someone must get it.

I am amused that you can absolutely tell what the original author was primarily into. But even if they’re budget-friendly bazongas not barely beautifully brought to life, lord knows I can’t fault basic-ass fanservice in this period of actual censorship running rampant.

Plus, you’re right that they do regularly find outlets for some Freak Shit, so hey.

Might still check in on Ami occasionally, though.

And I’m also continuing to check in and keep up with Ghost Concert: missing Songs this season. Which still isn’t quite Symphogear, but man, few things are.

Still, the sixth episode had a solid amount of sauce on it, and it seemingly hates GenAI music, so that’s something! I’ll keep following it to see how some of its odder story skips and swerves shake out. But I admit it would probably be more fun to watch and discuss with a crowd of people. Once again, like Symphogear.