Anime ATM 77 Little Witch Academia {First Cour}

So as I was buckling down to write the review for LWA, V informed me that the first "season" as denoted on Netflix was actually just the first cour. Then I proceeded to google said "cour" and learned that the first twelve episodes are in fact just the first half of the season. But since I had already mentally prepared to write the review, I will just give my thoughts on the first half first. Although it does make sense that the first 12 were just the first half of one season because honestly the last episode didn't seem like an end, it seemed like just a continuation. Why does Netflix have to be so complicated? In all seriousness I picked up this series in the beginning because of V. He said it replaced his current faves, or something like that I forgot the exact wording verbatim hehe, and I was shook. If V says its good enough to rewatch and he had such strong feelings about the cast I knew I had to watch it!

{Spoilers}

I think what makes this series so great is the amazing set of characters. They're all a little bit quirky, but at the same time you've seen those kinds of characters time and time again which makes them seem familiar. For example I see a lot of Yui from K-On in Akko. They're both a bit ditzy and not that into studying the traditional way, but when they've got their mind set on something they don't let anything get in their way. I think this familiar character gives a lot of people someone to connect to. Not everyone can be perfectly selfless and intelligent like Diana, but I think many people can resonate with Akko and her awkward but lovable self. Additionally I love how hardworking and unconventional Akko is. She's not from a witch family and while that's already a big disadvantage, all she can think about is how she wants to become like her idol Shiny Chariot. Personally I can't relate to wanting to be exactly like another person, but the idea of aspiring to become something greater than yourself is a beautiful thing. She's not afraid to break or bend the rules a little bit either. She doesn't let the fear of failure get in the way of her trying things. Episode 12 is a good example of this. Even though she was stuck with the grossest job for the festival, she wanted to do something to help the cursed spirit. It was a desire born of the unselfish desire to cheer up the spirit. And what's even more phenomenal about her character is that she still wants to go ahead with her plan when everyone else thinks she should just stick with the traditional way. Her radical mindset is both an inspiration to the characters in the show, but radical and world-shaking, rule-bending people should be embraced and nurtured in this world. I think that they should be the example we follow in order to change the world to be better. I think I see many parallels between myself and Lotte. She's definitely a fangirl and someone that blends into the background more than anything, but she has firm beliefs and always wants to support her friends. Another interesting character is Sucy. Her obsession with mushrooms is definitely creepy and you get that sort of occult, creepy witch vibe from her, but the episode of Akko in Sucyland really solidified how great of a character Sucy is. In the episode Akko walks through Sucyland and sees all the aspects of Sucy that she didn't normally see. I think that's some great insight into how a lot of these characters and the people around you seem kind of plain or one dimensional, but that's just on the surface. Beneath that is really interesting and surprising aspects of people. I think my personal favorite Sucy was the spit on the world Sucy. It was such an interesting Sucy. I'd definitely recommend that you watch even just for the characters. They seem really familiar, but at the same time it's these types of characters that I find are often extremely relatable and easy to connect to.

Another enjoyable aspect of this show is the different arcs. I briefly touched upon the Sucy episode which was already a masterpiece in and of itself. I like how each episode is kind of its own entity. It's got its own standalone quality that makes it a joy to watch. Another episode I really like is episode 7. It's the episode where midterms are coming around and Akko realizes that the fish that everyone is looking at in class is actually the teacher. Honestly V told me about this episode before I even started the show and without even seeing it I was so hyped. It was super ridiculous, but that was actually the best episode in terms of comedy. It was just a series of mildly unfortunate events that all together accumulated into this great episode. I can't even put into words how truly entertained I was by that episode so I'll just have to highly highly recommend that you watch at least that episode. Another episode that satisfied my hankering for shoujo was episode 10. It was super cute with more slightly unfortunate events consisting of a cupid bee and the Akko x Andrew ship sailing. But honestly the part that had me super ecstatic was when all the guys that were stung by the cupid bee and fell in love with Lotte brushed her off and she was super sad and then Frank came by and swooped in like the amazing and underrated secondary character he is. Honestly I'm so passionate about Lotte x Frank you don't even understand. The ships in this show are real and I'm very moved by them actually. You know when the characters are so cute and so precious that you just want the absolute best for them? My favorite pastime is to root for imaginary characters :').

One thing that almost slipped my mind about the universe of LWA is the role that witches play in this world. They're not revered anymore and magic is starting to fall out of favor in lieu of technology. The school is starting to run out of money which is the whole reason why they decided to accept Akko in the first place. But in fact Akko could be the second coming of the golden magical era. Perhaps she and Diana will band together in an effort to revive magic. One thing I'm worried about though is that if they do end up doing that, what if magic just becomes a parlor trick or something for entertainment? Why can't witches do magic without the sorcerer's stone anymore? It's definitely food for thought and I don't really know what to think. It could be due to the fact that I'm running on not that much sleep because I have zero self control, or because my analytical brain is being drowned out by my animal instinct to just feel distressed and drown in the stress that I brought upon myself. Who knows?

OMG and the episode with Lotte and Night Fall. The Twilight ripoff. LOOOL. Honestly I think if I was more observant then I would be able to see more references heh

And so that was my short little blurb on LWA first cour. I will be back with the full review probably in the next week, possibly two weeks. Overall I'm sure you can tell how absolutely precious this show was. I've got a lot more to say on characters like Diana and Chariot and the whole universe they're in, but I think I'll save that for when I've finished the whole thing. V says the Diana arc is really interesting and will give me a 180 on my opinion about her character and I can't wait. So instead of closing with my final remarks, I'll just say that this was a great start and it'll be bittersweet to finish. I'm not like V, I don't usually rewatch because there's so many things I've yet to watch. What can I say? I'm a novelty hunter.

Disclaimer: The screenshots you're about to see are from V and they seem lowkey blurry but I appreciate that he let me use them. TY V :)))))))))))))

Wow it's me!

From the funniest episode in the series. The face of regret.

Haruhi Suzumiya is that you?

And this was the best shoujo episode. TY again V

Anime ATM 76 Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun

I find that a good portion of my life is spent saying no to people. I say no when they want to go out because of my social anxiety, I say no when they want to play sports because I'm afraid of looking like a fool, I say no when they recommend me anime because I know I shouldn't watch more or it doesn't sound all that appealing to me, but then I end up, for one reason or another, watching it. It's a vicious cycle that I'm trying to ease out of. I'm trying to say yes to more things. I'm trying not to get too in my head about whether people view me a certain way. It's definitely a process. There's some days when I wake up and I'm like wow I'm a terrible person with no good points, but honestly I'm so blessed to even have these thoughts. I'm blessed that I have the time to think about myself, to think about something beyond my survival. I'm so extremely blessed and to think less of that is ridiculous. 

On another note, one thing I'm particularly blessed for is the conversations I've been able to have in college. Because everyone has so much to say. Everyone has such an interesting story and so many layers to them and are so introspective and open to share parts of their souls or their opinions and to justify them that it makes me really appreciate the higher education system which wants you to be a little bit more introspective. But more than that, it's the people that have come into my life and opened up a line of communication, those are the people that make me feel truly honored to have such friends. It's interesting how we can have a lot of different views on certain things, but at the same time they're all so open to hearing opinions and justifications of the other side. I think there's something really beautiful about that.

LOL wow maybe I should just start a lifestyle/introspection blog instead. JK you came here for the animu and the animu I shall review~

{Spoilers}

Originally I put this on my to-watch list because I saw the clip of Umeya quitting judo to pursue his interest in Gotou. It wasn't that big of a deal, but I guess in my mind I thought it would be more of a rom-com? And there definitely are some scenes that could be considered rom-com or at least a parody of it, but for the most part it's just comedy. It's this great sports anime that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's got a variety of people and I love how it doesn't focus just on Aoyama. In fact, if anything, Aoyama is the reason why you start the show, and then as you see all the different episodes featuring different people and the comedic bits they throw in you start to further understand why it's a great anime and why you should keep watching.

Just to further elaborate on my favorite aspect of this anime, or most anime I guess, characters, I really like how ridiculous they all are. They're all super unexpected and a bit bizarre, but if they didn't have such eccentric characters it wouldn't be the same. To start off with the guy who's name is in the title, Aoyama is a complete germophobe. In all the scenes you see him constantly cleaning everything until it's sparkling. He hates people touching him and he hates getting dirty, two things that are inevitable when you play any sport. 

However, in his heart of hearts he can't give up soccer. 

And it's really sweet. Because he's famous for the last five minutes of the game when he loses all inhibition and sacrifices his cleanliness for his desire to win. And while this explanation seems like he's completely self-absorbed, or not as connected to his teammates, what he lacks in physical connection to his team he makes up in his perceptiveness. He can see when his team is feeling down and does whatever he can to increase the morale of his team. In that way it makes him that much more of a complex and admirable character that doesn't leave his team behind in order to win. Maybe it's because of the team aspect of soccer, but Aoyama is an empathetic boy that just happens to show that he cares in a different way. It's also revealed in episode 7 that Aoyama does want to touch people and live a normal life, but he just can't because of his germophobic tendencies. This gave his character so much depth and honestly made me a little bit too sad. Like he wants so much to live a normal life, but he just can't because the world is too dirty. But having a germophobe character is still pretty funny, not to make light of people that do live like that, I'm sure it's a super high stress mindset of everything being unclean and it'd probably distract you from living a "normal" life, but some of the aspects of his character are so ridiculous. Like the reason he came to Fujimi High School was because of the white uniforms and the toilets.

Speaking of ridiculous characters, actually that's not even a good segue because they're literally all ridiculous, is Zaizen. He's our resident rich, spoiled boy. Going off of the OP it seemed like there'd be this really deeply rooted rivalry between Zaizen and Aoyama, but surprisingly there wasn't. Sure there were times when Zaizen would criticize Aoyama for being a useless germophobe, but Aoyama was also the reason they had a chance to progress farther in the soccer competition than ever before. Zaizen is actually a pretty big softie. He gave up the number 10 jersey to Aoyama which I'm sure took a great deal of selflessness, plus the fact that he's also a little bit of a tsundere also makes things a bit more interesting. 

Another funny thing about Zaizen is his family. His dad literally sees money as no object, like he would've paid the soccer coach, who by the way is such a closet soccer anime otaku and doesn't get enough screen time, just to put his son on the starting eleven. And the whole training camp episode was completely and utterly ridiculous, but also tons of fun because of Zaizen and his extra af family. I also really appreciated the small detail of Zaizen always slipping up when referring to his dad. Like he would always start off saying Papa and then revert to old man, which is both funny that he had to put up a cool facade in front of his teammates, but also ridiculous.

Probably the most ridiculous part of Zaizen's character is his mom. Like the way he described her made her seem like she was dead, but actually she was doing charity work for 5 years. Like who is this woman?

Yet another ridiculous character was Umeya. This dude trained his whole life to become a judo champion. And then overnight decides that he wants to be a part of the soccer club over a girl. Who is this man?

And it's so sweet because he understands that Gotou can't love him right now because her heart belongs to Aoyama and instead of being bitter about it and trying to sabotage her love for Aoyama, instead he becomes her wingman. His ultimate goal is to wait it out and for her to eventually fall in love with him which I can see happening, albeit it is a bit of a long-term goal, but it's still pretty sweet. Or maybe I just like the idea of unwavering love. In any case it was a pretty romantic episode.

A particularly large part of the show was actually taken up by the infamous three stooges of the soccer club. They had a surprising amount of screen time, maybe because the creators realized how important goofy characters were in transforming this from a regular sports anime to a comedic sports anime. For example Tsukamoto and his butt keepie uppie seemed like a running gag joke, but it actually got really deep in the episode where he faced the school his middle school bully attended. He was brought back to his childhood trauma and faced this mental block. This could've been the end of Tsukamoto, but Aoyama saw this and used it as a chance to increase his morale. It's times like these that are really important in team sports anime, that raise the feeling of camaraderie and support among the characters. But beyond that they were honestly the most relatable of all the characters. They remind me of me and my friends. Especially the last picture. That's us dissociating.

I saved my absolute favorite to last. I love Gotou Moka. First of all I don't think I've watched another anime where there's a girl named Moka. The name is so cute. I really like how she's kind of creepy, but in an endearing way. Like she got all these tools to unlock the soccer club's clubroom just to clean it and help out Aoyama. The way she works so hard for Aoyama and just wants him to do well is super cute and you can't help but root for her too. But I think my favorite part about her is how she looks super cute and when you see her around Aoyama she's a little shimmering star and then when people threaten Aoyama or do stupid stuff she pulls out the bat with nails, flowers and kittens on it. Like it's actually the best thing. I love how her character has the quality of duality. Like she makes these cute little stuffed animals and is a super kindhearted person, but she's also not a pushover. She knows what she believes in and she's just the best.

Something that made the show extra comedic and easier to take lightly was how often and easily the characters would transition from regular to chibi. It's hard to take them seriously when they look so cute and pudgy. That was pretty random, but I also think it was a good decision to make stylistically to convey the fun, lighthearted feeling that this series exudes. 

If you haven't figured out by now, this show is driven by characters. There is somewhat of an underlying plot of them wanting to get past the preliminaries and maybe even to nationals, but that's kind of lost in everything else. There's definitely a diverse cast and you won't get bored of seeing them do dumb stuff. I could go deeper into each of the characters, but honestly I think you'd benefit more from just watching it. Even if you don't really like sports anime or you think that sometimes the gay ships are too much for you, I think this one has enough slice of life and comedy to change your mind a little bit about sports anime. Not to say that this is like your usual sports anime because it most definitely isn't, but it's still a nice way to dip your toes in the water. Overall it was a great season of a new twist on a sports anime that I enjoyed. The art was spectacular and the OP was super artsy and had a great mood and feeling to it. The ED is a bit more of an acquired taste wit the vintage kind of art style. I know I missed a lot like the mangaka or the fellow clean freak, but I never said I was comprehensive. Teehee~

Some more side characters with interesting quirks lol

I love how they felt the need to add these disclaimers. Like I'm definitely gonna ride my bike like these people now because I saw it in a show

There are so many ridiculous things going on here. Like the three stooges spying on them. Or Umeya making the victory symbol as if Aoyama wouldn't see it. Or the judo captain with some cloth to blend into the wall?

Aoyama is a man of few words which is pretty funny. Like it makes you appreciate when he speaks a lot more. But my friend and I were also talking about whether or not we thought that the voice actor was particularly suited to him and couldn't really come up with a consensus. What are your thoughts? Peep that love triangle though!

And I'll leave you with this sequence because it's perfection. I'm obsessed with the cool tones they used for this show overall. Beautiful aesthetic oml

Manga Match 21 3D Kanojo

Well it's been a hot minute since I've done a manga review hasn't it? *my two readers cringe* It's mostly due to the fact that manga take longer to complete and I gotta wait for the scanlation because your girl can't read any Japanese. So with those two things taken into consideration it's no wonder there aren't more manga reviews.

I find that manga are a great way to kill some time when you get to lecture early, so honestly I'd recommend just finding a completed manga that you don't have to think too hard about and just read it when you have time and need some relaxation.

{Spoilers, but this is your standard shoujo so eh}

The story follows this socially awkward and world worn otaku named Tsutsui. He had a hard time growing up because of his gloomy appearance and introverted nature coupled with the kids in his school always attacking him for watching kiddie anime. He meets this girl Igarashi and has all of these ideas about her because of what all the other kids say at school about her about how she just plays all the boys and is a bit of an unrespectable girl. And then one thing leads to another and he shows off his good points of being like an otaku, but with a secret hero side of him. He sticks up for her without really knowing why and that's really touching. You always think about how the environment really changes you and can really twist your insides, but honestly Tsutsui gives me faith in humanity, that even though the world can be a cruel place that doesn't mean you also have to absorb that cruelty and reflect it back into the world.

As far as the pacing of the manga goes, it was going at a steady pace until the end. I suppose it might've been because I read it all in one go instead of waiting every month or so for the new volume to come out, but it just seemed extremely rushed at the end with a lot of loose ends that were never tied up. Perhaps it was because of how many characters it was and the author was only given a certain number of volumes to complete her story and so she wasn't able to flesh out the ending, but it just seemed a bit off. Because for a while it was a really fluffy story. There were minor setbacks with the different guys vying for Igarashi's attention, like her not-by-blood brother, *side-eyes the whole situation* but overall it was pretty smooth sailing. Although I also have to add that the arc with Tsutsui's parents was wild. Like first of all his dad is a super glue researcher? How is he supporting his family? Japan's really out here supporting every industry or something. And the story between his parents was both bizarre and also kind of endearing. He kept fixing her shoe and was kind of an unsung hero. His dad is definitely an underrated character. What was also eye-opening about the arc was how similar Tsutsui and his dad are. Both of them have self esteem issues and deal with a major lack of self-confidence, but they both have hearts of gold which is both a good thing because that's how they wooed their significant others in the first place and a bad thing because they don't think they're good enough for said significant other which leads to some communication issues.

I think a lot of people can relate to Tsutsui. Like there's not a lot of people that are stunners like Igarashi, but there are a lot of people like Tsutsui, your normal everyday people. That's why I think this is really nice because the guys in this manga are all nice. And there's the cliche, at least predominantly in western culture, that nice guys finish last and girls like bad guys. And I think a lot of people have touched on this like it's society's portrayal of what's attractive in movies and such that give young girls or girls that don't really know what they want an idea of what they should be looking for in a guy. But honestly a guy like Tsutsui would be greatly appreciated.

Ah, back to what I was saying about it being rushed towards the end. There was a lot of points where I was like "wow that came out of left field" or was kind of shook by. I guess the whole thing about Igarashi being sick was alluded to by the fact that she always went to the doctor, but the whole needing brain surgery thing was very sudden, which I suppose is a normal reaction when you're in that situation (don't quote me on that, I haven't been in such a dire situation before), but nonetheless it was quite shocking. But if you look past the shock factor, honestly I almost started crying. Because at the beginning I think the relationship between Tsutsui and Igarashi was born out of curiosity and impulse and continued on like that for a while; it was pretty toxic and unhealthy.

But towards the end, once they realized their feelings for one another was deeper and you saw how much they cherished each other, you could almost tangibly feel how deeply in love they were.

Especially in the scene when Igarashi found the list of things Tsutsui wanted to do with her. The feels were so real.

Also there was the whole ordeal with Ayado and Itou and the question of why did they break up and how bad was it that Itou would try to ask Ayado out again? It was an attempt at giving everyone a happy ending where all three ships sail which I do appreciate and tip my hat to, but it was also rushed.

Overall I'd say it's a good manga to read. It's a decent length at 47 chapters and 12 volumes. There's some nice characters, some doki-dokis, some feels, and a lot of fluffy times. It's relatable if you feel like you're more a side character than an MC if you're being honest with yourself. I get a lot of Golden Time vibes for those of you that've watched that and also The Notebook. It's mostly the amnesia thing I think is what it is and just the tragic love story. It's got some good drama and some wholesome times. There's also the latter part of it that's really fixated on sex, but I'd like to point towards the innocent parts because I feel like a lot of the time sex is used as a plot device like the "final act of becoming super close to one another" when I feel like a good deep life talk would be enough. But maybe that's just me.

Go for Itou honestly, he's so nice and is happy just to support other people like he's such a good best friend and good person

Ayado's arc is definitely underrated and relatable

This reminds me of maybe a year and a half ago when my mom and I had this conversation about what I wanted to do in the future. Honestly I just worked blindly and mindlessly and when I finally popped my head up I realized I had just blundered through life mindlessly without a clear idea of where I wanted to go.

Love me some tearjerker moments

But it's okay because they lived happily ever after

Anime ATM 75 Net-juu no Susume

This was the fourth installment I want to say of my binge before winter quarter started. I saw this on a list of upcoming anime a while back, but I always wait for the season to be over before I pick anything up because I like to binge it all at once. I find that when I binge I'm usually more passionate and involved rather than watching each individual episode and it getting lost in the everyday cycle that is mundane daily life. It's kind of ironic that I would describe life in such a seemingly negatively connoted way since I'm such a big fan of slice of life, but that's just life.

Mostly I just started this anime because it was only 10 episodes long and it seemed like a pretty cool concept. I haven't seen anything exactly like it, though I do feel that I've watched something similar to it at least. And I do like Comico things in general. I think the thing that comes most to mind is Momokuri which has a similarly cute feeling.

Say cheers to this last Anime ATM because I have a feeling I'm going to need to buckle down for a bit. Hope I can keep up the posts once a week though, if only for my own self-satisfaction.

{Spoilers}

Morioka Moriko was unsatisfied with her life. And though most people might stick with their job until they die just for the sake of stability, she decides to take the plunge and quit her job to become a NEET, but not just any NEET. She calls herself an elite NEET because she chose to live that kind of life. The story follows her online life as a super cute ikemen (is that an oxymoron? probably) named Hayashi who games with his guild the At Home Party or something like that. In particular the story revolves around Hayashi and Lily, his partner in game. It sounds pretty mundane and you kind of have to give it a few episodes to really get the feel for what kind of character Moriko is and what the story's going to be around, but it's really sweet once you get into it. As it's said in the anime, the online world is huge, but the real world is very small. Things take an interesting turn when Moriko starts to run into people she knows in game in the real world. And it only gets more interesting when Sakurai, Lily in game, starts to realize that Moriko is actually Hayashi, probably.

The first person Moriko meets is her local convenience store part-timer Fujimoto aka Kanbe, the guild master. And after that the real world just keeps getting smaller. Then she meets Sakurai who happens to be Lily, but doesn't actually find out about it until Sakurai connects all the dots and figures out who Moriko really is. All of these are just a series of coincidences that happen to line up in an extremely satisfying way. Honestly nothing like this would ever happen in real life, but there's something so satisfying about the way the two of them are able to reconnect from that first game as Harth and Yuki, to Lily and Hayashi, to Sakurai and Moriko. Seeing their relationship as true friends even over the internet grow strong and blossom gives me faith in humanity, or at least the MMO community.

Actually, all of the side characters were really precious. Like you didn't see them a lot, and a few of them you didn't even get to see what they looked like in reality, but you could still tell that they were really nice people. Especially Lilac. asdfghjkl; I honestly want to read the manga just for some more Lilac. Also Himeralda and Poko's relationship too.

What was so addicting about watching this anime was how they kept teasing you with Sakurai and Moriko almost getting together all the time, but being driven apart by misunderstandings and awkwardness. Something about all the misunderstandings and their individual awkwardness made it a heartwarming show full of purity and relatable value. The whole mistaken/hidden identity trope and the way it taunts you with the two almost revealing the other's identity really gets me every time actually.

The cherry on top was the socially awkward aspect between Moriko and Sakurai. The two of them together are just absolute cinnamon rolls that need to be protected because their characters are like everyone that has social anxiety or is just introverted in general. You see everything as kind of an attack on you and you see every single situation as something that needs to be overanalyzed.

In the end I think it's really sweet that Moriko realizes that she can't keep living her life as a NEET, no matter how elite she is. It's kind of a sad realization to come to that the traditional way to be satisfied with your life is by abiding by societal expectations, but I think it's also a comfort to have that there are guidelines to follow and as long as you do so you're set.

Overall I'd say this is a really sweet and succinct show. It's got great characters, some nice romance, healthy relationships, and relatable characters. And the OP is super artsy in a way and the ED makes me smile ahhhh Moriko is actually me. Excuse my lack of originality or word choice, school takes a lot out of me. I don't know how some people balance like two part time jobs, 23 units of class, and manage to create comics, write books, apply for scholarships, and exercise. It's a lot.

Just look at Lily wearing the brooch Hayashi gave her on her cape T^T I love them as partners

Just both their poses are me looking at me actually

His face when he sees her in his clothes *screams* I love a good cliche like this ughhhh

They're so sweet I hope they get married and have an amazing life together playing MMOs forever like Poko and Himeralda asdfghjkl;