I tend to be drawn to simple anime premises. Takagi teases Nishikata, Tanaka is listless, Titans Attack, etc. Along comes Vlad Love, which immediately impresses with its gritty retro visual splendo…
Jan 5, 2021 • Subscribe
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Vlad Love – 02 – The Blood Defines the Drinker
It’s been over a month since the first episode of Vlad Love,but five more episodes have arrived just in time for Valentine’s Day. I just wish the episode…
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I mentioned in my Winter 2021 Anime Picks post the Vlad Love team would post an early screening of the first episode. That time has come so let’s…
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“you really have to be an older, more experienced anime fan to get all of Vlad Love’s shtick”
Horimiya – 01 (First Impressions) – Not Just Being Nice
What if there was a rom-com airing concurrently with Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki that did away with game metaphors and meditations on the right way to live? But was instead just…
Jouran: The Princess of Snow and Blood – 01 (First Impressions)
Dark and brooding, stylish and cool, Jouran is the story of a small band of assassins under the employ of the Tokugawa Shogunate. In this alternate history, Tokugawa Yoshinobu…
Anime Review: Vlad Love
Year: 2021 Length: 12 Episodes Genre: Comedy, School, Supernatural, Vampire Studio: Production I.G / Drive Synopsis: Mitsugu Banba is a high school girl who finds meaning in donating…
Vlad Love – Final Review
Vlad Love is one of those comedy shows that makes you wonder what is about. It’s basically a girl meets vampire girl. Yes, it’s starting to sound like…
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Kashiwagi Asahi lives in a spacious apartment with an AI assistant Lovelin (Nanachi again), and while listening to the morning news, his birthday of October 8 (just four…
Vlad Love – 06 – The World’s a Stage, Not at Stake
The title above is essentially the thesis for my review: by not involving combat aircraft or blowing up entire cities and simply focusing on something, Vlad Love’s quirky hyperactivity can…
A fresh female lead: exploring Akari in Love Me, Love Me Not
Most main female characters in shojo manga have little-to-no experience with romance. They’ve never had a boyfriend, have never been kissed, and often have never even had a…
Chained Soldier – 01 (First Impressions) – Not Bad, for a Man
Wakura Yuuki is an unassuming man in a woman’s world, fated to end up in some innocuous dead-end job after high school. But when he suddenly falls victim…
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From its opening moments when it presents a stark futuristic urban landscape a la Blade Runner 2049, then the camera dives into an impossibly lively and kinetic future…
Oshi no Ko – 01 (First Impressions) – Lies are Love
It’s late, and I just finished the epic, nearly 90-minute premiere of Oshi no Ko, and I’m convinced it’s probably one of the best works of anime I’ve…
Love After World Domination – 01 (First Impressions) – Opposites Attract
Aikawa Fudou is Red Gelato, leader of the Freezing Sentai Gelato 5. Magahara Desumi is the Reaper Princess of Secret Society Gecko. They should be mortal enemies, but when…
Vlad Love – 11 – Undead Bait
Here it is: the Vlad Love Beach episode. When the Blood Donation Club requests a “training camp” trip to cut loose, Chihiro brings up the club’s utter lack…
Why Does Vlad Love Exist?
It’s not everyday that you hear about Mamoru Oshii being behind a new anime production. You know, the guy behind the original Ghost in the Shell Film, Patlabor…
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“It was funny – really funny, even – by virtue of great direction and that chipper pacing, but the gags themselves were just okay slapstick”
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – 01 (First Impressions) – New Show, New Foe
After a brief scene with 12th Squad Captain Kurotsuchi observing hollow movements from his giant lab, two Shinigami from the 13th Squad, Shino and Yuki, arrive in Karakura…
Ansatsu Kizoku | First Impressions: So far so good.
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Ranma 1/2 (2024) – 01 (First Impressions) – Love Springs Eternal
Following in the footsteps of Dororo, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Urusei Yatsura comes Ranma 1/2, a full 35 years after it first aired in 1989. The difference between those shows…
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A Condition Called Love – 01 (First Impressions) – No Normal Person
All romance series this season will have to compete with the all-timer that was Dangers in My Heart, along with the pretty solid Sign of Affection from Winter. Like Sign, a…
Shachibato! – 01 (First Impressions) – Zzzzzzz
My impressions of Shachibato are…non-existent. Its world is okay-looking but the characters that populate it are so bland and their adventuring is almost offensively lightweight and low stakes.…
Vlad Love – 05 – Bleed the Parents
First, I must issue a correction: Vlad Love doesn’t forget everything that happens from week to week. That said, it forgets quite a bit, or at least hand-waves it away.…
Vlad Love – 07 – Vla Vla Vland
Vlad Love goes from the “cultural festival play” episode to the “let’s make a movie” episode, with Maki as the director and Mai, Mitsugu and Katsuno starring (Katsuno…
Vlad Love – 08 – The Hematologist’s Lament
Chihiro describes her daily battle as school nurse, Blood Donation Club advisor, night class instructor, and researcher, while gazing at the moon and grasping a bottle of blood…
Vlad Love – 09 – Nuts and Bolts
Going into this episode cold, I spent half the time wondering what the heck was going on and why there was little to know animation, and the other…
Vlad Love – 04 – All Concerned Parties
In a particularly chaotic episode, Mitsugu is captured by the president of the Torture Club for allegedly getting to close to Nami, the Dance Club president, whom he…
Cooking in Narnia #01 — Not So Iron Chef
Is making a sandwich really cooking? Disillusioned Adventurers's second episode was just twenty minutes of dungeon tutorial exposition with horrifically bad animation. Less gross than the first episode,…
The Fire Hunter – 01 (First Impressions) – A Girl and Not Her Dog
Before any narration, we’re thrust right into a battle in the forest, or rather the end of one. A hunter has killed a great black beast to protect…
More than a married couple, but not lovers. – 01 (First Impressions) – Mismatch
Fuukoi, as it is also known, begins with the two female leads meeting at a shrine. The “plain” but cute Sakurazaka Shiori stumbles on the stairs and into…
Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie – 01 (First Impressions) – My Shield and Defender
So many rom-coms play will-they-won’t-they for the entire season (or three!) before the couple officially exchanges confessions or starts dating, making shows like this almost a novelty. Izum…
Loving Yamada at Lv999 – 01 (First Impressions) – Not Just a Band-Aid
Kinoshita Akane (Minase Inori) had a boyfriend who got her into MMO gaming, only to dump her for another girl he met in-game. The guy’s last text to…
Whisper Me a Love Song – 01 (First Impressions) – A Happy Misreading
First-year high schooler Kino Himari joins her longtime friend and classmate Miki to watch her older sister play in a band composed of third-years to welcome the new…
Tokyo Love Hustle – First Impressions
Tokyo Love Hustle is a hilarious slice of life otome game and the latest Love Choice title in Voltage Inc.'s Love 365 App.
SSSS.Dynazenon – 01 (First Impressions) – Battle, Go!!
Like its predecessor Gainax, Trigger is known for ambitious, sumptuous, stylish, and sometimes chaotic action bangers that usually pay tribute or homage to anime history in some way.…
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Gibiate – 01 (First Impressions) – Samurai Pandemico
Okay, this might not seem like the best time for an anime about a goddamn pandemic, but there are times when battling literal monsters seems preferable to the current…
Isekai Ojisan – 01 (First Impressions) – SEGAwakening
Isekai Ojisan (Uncle from Another World) starts off efficiently and confidently. Takafumi’s uncle suddenly wakes up after 17 years in a coma. At first his nephew things he’s…
2.5 Dimensional Seduction – 01 (First Impressions)
Okumura Masamune is a 2nd year high schooler and proud otaku who considers the manga/anime character Liliel his waifu and detests 3D girls, until one of them suddenly…
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Ex-Arm – 01 (First Impressions) – NOPE
Nope. Nope Nope Nope. NOPE.
Higehiro – 01 (First Impressions) – Inadvertent Guardian
Yoshida had the evening with his attractive co-worker Gotou all planned out in his head. They’d have a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant, and if things went…
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Little did I know Butterfly’s Poison was much more than a smutty and taboo romance game. It has a depth I didn’t expect, and is written in such…
Vlad Love – 03 – Quite Unconcerned by Crosses
The zoo fiasco forgotten (like all things from episode to episode), Mitsugu and Mai catch a vampire flick at the movies…and Mai is so inspired she can’t help…
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Blue Period | First Impressions: Great so far.
Second-year high school student Yatora Yaguchi is a delinquent with excellent grades, but is unmotivated to find his true calling in life. Yatora spends his days working hard…
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Itose Yuki is a first-year college student who happens to be hearing-impaired. When approached on the train by someone who appears to be a foreigner, she’s not sure…
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Bounty Hunter Chateau Dankworth (Oonishi Saori) comes afoul of a killer more skilled than she: Song Ryang-ha (Shimono Hiro). He overpowers her, but it’s not her life he…