Can you imagine "The Chinese Restaurant" or "The Parking Garage" with little or no humor? Do you want to?
Aug 11, 2024 • Subscribe
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Patron Pick Summer 2024: Shoushimin Series – 08
For me at least the ship has long since sailed on Shoushimin Series being remotely realistic.
Patron Pick Summer 2024: Shoushimin Series – 07
It’s always a bit of a minefield when pure slice-of-life series get serious in their final episodes.
Patron Pick Summer 2024: Shoushimin Series – 04
Was this interesting? I guess sort of, though that's very much in the eye of the beholder.
Patron Pick Summer 2024: Shoushimin Series – 09
Fun fact - the seiyuu playing Kawamata Sanae is named Osanai.
Patron Pick Summer 2024: Shoushimin Series – 10 (Season Finale)
Ironically given the series' title and theoretically its central theme, Shoushimin suffered from nothing about it really being extraordinary.
Patron Pick Summer 2023: Helck – 05
Pairing off Helck and Vermilio was pretty clearly fated to happen, and the possibilities here are obvious. Read more
Patron Pick Winter 2023: Mononogatari – 05
The voters have spoken. Read more
Patron Pick Winter 2024: Dosanko Gal wa Namara Menkoi – 05
This is now a love triangle of sorts, undeniably. But it doesn't bother or even annoy me because of the way it's being handled.
Patron Pick Summer 2023: Helck – 06
Doing the expected in an entertaining way seems to be the order of the day. Read more
Patron Pick Summer 2023: Helck – 07
Wow, that was one hell of an infodump (no pun intended). Read more
Patron Pick Summer 2023: Helck – 08
This was very much an expected return to form for Helck. Read more
Patron Pick Summer 2023: Helck – 13
At long last Helck takes us on a journey to the past - Helck's past, where so much of the foundation of the story takes place.
Patron Pick Summer 2023: Helck – 04
Good choice, Patrons. Read more
Patron Pick Spring 2025: Witch Watch – 05
Congratulations to Witch Watch for winning this season's Patron Pick poll.
Shoushimin Series
Plot: Kobato decides to become an honest, humble citizen after enduring a bitter experience known as “wisdom work.” He forms a pact with Osanai, his classmate with the…
Patron Pick Fall 2024 – Negaposi Angler
We’re still solidly in slice of life mode here and ignoring elephants.
Summer 2024 Impressions: Shoushimin Series, VTuber Legend, Dungeon no Naka no Hito
Shoushimin Series Short Synopsis: A girl who loves sweets and a boy who is really trying his best to be normal solve a mystery and (temporarily) get some…
Shoushimin Series Season 2
Plot: First-year student Urino Takahiko aspires to write something truly original for the school newspaper, Furnado Monthly. Encouraged by his girlfriend, Osanai Yuki —a seemingly average second-year student—Urino…
Patron Pick Fall 2023: Atarashii Joushi wa Do Tennen – 05
This week was probably the most shameless episode of Atarashii Joshi wa Do Tennen yet, and the weirdest too.
Patron Pick Fall 2024: Negaposi Angler (Negative Positive Angler) – 12 (End) and Series Review
Truth be told, I had a pretty strong suspicion that Negposi Angler would reel this one in.
Patron Pick Spring 2024: Bartender: Kami no Glass – 06
In spite of its resolutely realistic settings, Bartender is actually not a series that's trying to be realistic.
Patron Pick Spring 2024: Bartender: Kami no Glass – 08
There are times in this series where it straddles the line between entertainment and commercial.
Patron Pick Spring 2024: Bartender: Kami no Glass – 11
I’ll say this for Bartender, it’s really finishing on a high.
Patron Pick Spring 2024: Bartender: Kami no Glass – 10
Anime don't get into philosophy too often and when they do, rarely rise above the level of a fortune cookie.
Patron Pick Spring 2024: Bartender: Kami no Glass – 09
It would be hard to overstate how much better this worked than the last couple of arcs.
Patron Pick Spring 2024: Bartender: Kami no Glass – 07
Bartender is working better for me when it's quirky and geeky - the drama just doesn't pack the same punch.
Shoushimin Series #16 – Direction Notes
“Consistency” certainly isn’t the most fitting word to describe my production on this blog. That’s especially true for this series of posts aimed at breaking down the direction and…
Patron Pick Fall 2024: Negaposi Angler (Negative Positive Angler) – 10
It’s sort of ironic that an episode about a typhoon was the calm before the storm.
Patron Pick Fall 2024: Negaposi Angler (Negative Positive Angler) – 09
Sooner or later that wooly mammoth is going to have to be acknowledged.
Summer 2024 series poll closed!
Thank you to all who voted in my latest new season poll! The series that will definitely be joining my summer 2024 lineup is:
Patron Pick Fall 2022: Koukyuu no Karasu – 13 (End) and Series Review
I sort of had a feeling this series was going to stick the landing. Read more
Takahiro Obata – Interview on Shoushimin Series
Original interview from Newtype (September 2024 issue), original interviewer: Haruyo Igeta; genga corrections by Keisuke Hiroe. Since the music is used sparingly, the moment the main…
Shoushimin Series #3 #4 – Episode Notes
A one-week break between episodes 3 and 4, followed by the coming of August and thus my summer vacation that took me away from home for a couple…
Shoushimin Series #1 #2 – Episode Notes
It’s 2014, I’m a middle-school student and on my journey getting into anime I stumble across KyoAni’s adaptation of Hyouka. Aside from its contents, which I’m still deeply…
Mamoru Kanbe – Interview on Shoushimin Series
Original interview from Newtype (September 2024 issue), original interviewer: Haruyo Igeta; genga corrections by Keisuke Hiroe. I hope it becomes something different from the usual ~…
Toshiya Ohno – Interview on Shoushimin Series
Original interview from Newtype (September 2024 issue), original interviewer: Haruyo Igeta; genga corrections by Keisuke Hiroe. We have the visuals, so we should trust their power ~ …
Patron Pick Spring 2023: Jigokuraku – 06
That was pretty disturbing on multiple levels Read more
Patron Pick Winter 2023: Mononogatari – 06
Mononogatari is growing into its premise, albeit slowly. Read more
Patron Pick Winter 2023: Mononogatari – 08
The first name thing was a bit of a disaster, but the die is pretty much cast. Read more
Patron Pick Spring 2023: Jigokuraku – 08
For me, once a series has established that plot armor doesn't exist, I'd rather it not revel in demonstrating it ad nauseam. Read more
Patron Pick Winter 2023: Mononogatari – 09
I don’t think it would be inaccurate to call Mononogatari a slow build sort of show. Read more
Patron Pick Spring 2023: Jigokuraku – 09
Talk about flower power. Read more
Patron Pick Spring 2023: Jigokuraku – 12
Sooner or later the humans have to figure out that the entire premise of their presence here is a sham. Read more
Patron Pick Winter 2023: Mononogatari – 11
I've always had the sense that this adaptation was never doing more than skimming the surface of the source material. Read more
Patron Pick Spring 2023: Jigokuraku – 11
That was certainly a dark turn. Read more
Patron Pick Spring 2023: Jigokuraku – 07
Jigokuraku seems to waver between Hunter X Hunter and Monster Hunter. Read more
Spring 2025 Impressions: Shoushimin Series S2, Zatsu Tabi: That’s Journey, Summer Pockets
Shoushimin Series S2 Short Synopsis: Season 2 of Shoushimin, where a bunch of kids solve mundane day to day mysteries around town. Mario: After the bitter end of…
Shoushimin Series (How to Become Ordinary) – 03
Yonezawa is one of those writers that can't help but be a little interesting even when they're writing about boring things.
Patron Pick Winter 2025: Trillion Game – 24
Seriously, this guy is the nitrogen of Japanese actors.