We’ve got some action anime here, some cozies, and yes, kids, I watched K-Pop Demon Hunters (see above). These are all going to be super-quick rundowns covering what it’s about (in X meets Y form if apt), what I liked, and what I didn’t like or would change in roughly one sentence each, ending with a stream or skip recommendation.
Action Anime
- Bungo Stray Dogs: Magical mafioso showdown in Yokohama (Durarara! meets Ajin: Demi-Human). I liked the character development; my favorite was the whole side/backstory arc involving Sakunosuke—absolutely loved that character and his story. I decidedly did not love the insinuations of pedophilia and incest involving a couple of characters: I will never in my LIFE understand why these themes are so pervasive in anime or why they’re treated as humorous, even in anime aimed at teenagers. To be clear, BSD is a series aimed at adults, but given there was no graphic content otherwise, these themes felt really jarring and off-key. Skip.
- 86: Eighty-six: Proxy race and class warfare, and unrequited love, in an alternate 20th-century Europe via mecha (manned battle bots). Knights of Sidonia meets Blame! meets Attack on Titan (only for the fascist aesthetic—the story isn’t as twisty/turny). I really loved the first season of this anime: it was directed gorgeously, the character development was compelling, and it ended on a perfect hanging chord that didn’t need resolving. The second season resolved on a Picardy third; shudder. Stream the first season.
- Fire Force: This is by the creator of Soul Eater, Ōkubo Atsushi, so you know what I’m going to say. I freakin’ loved it (still love it, actually—we’re waiting for season 3 to drop in December). Technically, it’s a prequel to Soul Eater, though there are no overlapping characters. Fire brigades are tasked with extinguishing spontaneously combusting humans in an alternate post-apocalyptic Tokyo powered by a mysterious energy source. I love the trademark zany Ōkubo clockwork design of the world and the intricate cosmology that comes with it; I love the characters who are just trying to figure out how to be good people and how the world works when it is literally burning down around them; I love the sound design, which is just so novel and memorable and perfect to the world. I don’t love the tired nosebleed sexism of some of the female character designs and the jokes that come with that, but fortunately they’re marginal to the action and sparse enough that I can ignore them. Stream for sure.
- Gachiakuta: This series is by Ōkubo’s protégé Urana Kei, and it shows. Fire Force meets Soul Eater meets Battle Angel—unfortunately in an on-the-nose kinda way that goes a bit beyond homage to copying. I do love Urana’s art style: it’s very street and fresh. The unfocused, volcanic rage of the traumatized main character, Rudo, also feels authentic and probably relatable for many teenagers. I like the central conceit of magical power arising in this world from the love and care invested in objects over time that turns them into Vital Instruments; on the flip side, I like the fact that the monsters Rudo and his Cleaner buddies fight coalesce from discarded/neglected objects and are animated by that negative energy. I don’t love all the clichés and the borderline plagiarism. Skip: watch the source material instead.
- Sakamoto Days: This dark comedy is like half bloody action series and half heartwarming family sitcom. A retired hitman has found love and really let himself go, but his former employers and enemies are not going to let him off so easily. Way of the Househusband meets Hunter x Hunter. I love the characters (Heisuke and Piisuke for the win!) and the central thesis that assassins are essentially pathologically seeking belonging and connection with other people. I also love that Sakamoto stops yearning for his 30-year-old self and learns to find power in his present age (and girth). I didn’t love the whole JAA academy admission exam arc—it was ripped straight off Hunter x Hunter and got boring pretty quickly as a result. But I will definitely watch the next season when it drops. Stream.
Cozy Series
- The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows: A self-taught and insanely gifted unlicensed healer treats anyone who needs it, regardless of their race or class, and thus gets drawn into political intrigue and a face-off with a powerful enemy. Solo Leveling (the plot, not the tone) meets Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End with a dash of Harry Potter. I didn’t expect to get sucked into this one, and I’m still not sure why I did. The main character’s combination of insane power and compassion is compelling, I guess. Also, the cute female ghoul who pops in randomly to dispense life advice is hilarious. I don’t love some of the other clichéd female characters, and the story has been so slow to develop that with a 13-episode cour under my belt, I’m still not sure what the stakes are. Skip.
- Kakuriyo: A girl with the ability to see spirits finds out her grandfather betrothed her to an ogre (a hot ogre, to be fair) to settle his gambling debts, but Aoi convinces the ogre to let her try to pay off the debt before the deadline by running a dilapidated shokudo (down-home traditional Japanese restaurant) on the grounds of his luxury hotel for spirits in the Hidden Realm. Midnight Diner meets Spirited Away meets My Happy Marriage. I absolutely love this show, and I’m not totally sure why as it’s not super dramatic or original: I suppose I’m a sucker for any story whose plot revolves around cooking for people as a way of solving their problems. But the pacing’s also great, with new mysteries and characters introduced frequently enough to pique my attention but not so frequently that I lose track of who’s who or what’s happening. Plus, I ❤ Ginji, the fox spirit who helps Aoi get her Moonflower restaurant going. Def rooting for Aoi to end up with him instead of with the ogre, who I have to admit is turning out to be a decent guy. What to do, what to do…. There’s nothing I don’t like about this show. Stream immediately.
K-Pop Demon Hunters: Look, the songs are incredibly catchy. And Derpy and Sussie steal the show even though they’re only in it for a minute and a half total (I mean, check out that SIDE-EYE in the pic above: just…epic). But otherwise this felt more like a trailer than an actual movie. You don’t find out nearly enough about the main characters’ backstories to get invested in them or what happens to them, individually or collectively—nor enough about the cosmology of the demons and their hunters to understand the stakes of their interactions. Yeah, I just don’t think I was in the target demographic for this. Watch the Derpy & Sussie scenes on YouTube and the actual singers perform “Golden” on the Tonight Show—that’s my hot take.
The Rookery 