I’m starting another series on the blog to log the anime I watch because I’ve watched and continue to watch a lot of it—ever since (a) I discovered Tranzor Z on TV in middle school and (b) Blockbuster opened in my neighborhood in 1988 and I could start renting VHS tapes of anime. I’ve already covered my favorite anime ever, so here I’m just going to log the new stuff I’m watching.
My Happy Marriage (Netflix): Ordinarily this is NOT at all the kind of anime I go for. I tend, unsurprisingly if you read this blog, to go for action/adventure or fantasy/sci-fi. I guess this one fits a bit into the latter category, as it revolves around the Cinderella-like character of Miyo, the apparently magic-less scion of a powerful magic family in an alternate Meiji Japan where magic-users are relied on to keep demons and other imperial threats at bay. But the story is more about her arranged marriage with Kiyoka, a powerful and wealthy magic-user who, notwithstanding, can’t seem to land a wife thanks to a personality that’s every bit as icy as his hair color. This seeming disaster turns into an interesting situation of an unlikely couple becoming the perfect remedy, and the evolution of the relationship and concomitant blossoming (cherry trees are a persistent metaphor) of the protagonists’ personalities and magics (turns out that Miyo might not be as big a dud as assumed) is what kept me me watching and will probably get me to tune into Season 2 when it finally shows up on Netflix.
Delicious in Dungeon (Netflix): The title is a bad translation—it should really be something more like “Dungeon Gourmet.” But who cares: Season 1 is still airing, and it’s just getting more delightful as it goes. It’s basically a RPG anime that wonders: what if dungeons existed in the real world? What would they be for? How would they integrate with daily life? And, how would the monsters in them taste? I struggle to summarize the plot b/c it’s largely a set-up for the dishes created in each short episode, like Harpy Egg Omelet and Kelpie Yakiniku. But, there is actually a pretty compelling mystery afoot: who created this dungeon, and what do they want? And will Laios’s intrepid party ever be able to save his sister Falin, who was eaten by a dragon and has now reappeared as a sort of dragon/harpy/girl hybrid that is helping the Mad Mage who created the dungeon search for his lost King? If none of that grabs you, I’d encourage you to give it a chance anyway, just like the Mushroom Monster Risotto: it might be better than you think.
The Rookery 