Other – NMarfoBlogs

My Dress-Up Darling 2nd Season: First Impressions

Posted on July 9, 2025July 9, 2025 by Nmarfo

So, time for the summer of anime. It legit feels like FOREVER since Season 1 came out, in fact, it’s been so long that the manga has already ended! That’s a shame, but I do wish Shinichi Fukuda the best in whatever she decides to do next. However, a new season is in front of us, and god, I hope it’s not the last one. Where we last left off, Marin and Wakana had just gone to a Festival. But what new cosplays will they make? Who will we meet? Can Marin continue to show her love to Gojo-kun? Let’s find out.

We start off with Gojo watching a show about 3 bunny girls who try to take down the Yakuza called “We’re the Tsukiyono Company”, however, he seems to be enjoying himself with. Marin wants him to make the costume of Arisa, a kinda typical bunny girl who Marin is infactuated with because Marin is just any normal nerd when she sees her favourites, she can’t stop talking about them and remembers everything about them.

Marin then lectures Gojo on the history of bunny suits, and how sometimes they are just used for merch, because everyone loves bunnies. I would argue adults also love men and women in swimsuits and fishnets, but hey, that might just be me. Gojo agrees to start working on the designs, since he’s more used to making outfits now, and after some more Marin teasing involving Pocky, she departs to go hang with Nowa, her friend that’s brought up everyone once in a while(I don’t think I mentioned her in the blog post I did a while back), and calms her down by giving her the afformentioned Pocky.

I haven’t talked about the opening yet, mainly because I haven’t had a chance to at a point where it feels natural, but it’s done by Spira Spica again! Although this time, it’s just Mikiha, as the other 2 band members, gitarists Yuuji Teranishi and bassist Masuda were removed as the band got convered to a solo project, but it’s working more in this case, unlike Pelican Fanclub, as her songs are still really good, and this is no exception, as feels very fun and suitable for a charicter such as Marin. The visuals are also really great, though I can’t show them yet, because the Intro played with the credits at the bottom.

Anyways, we cut to Saturday, where Marin is on a train going to see Gojo at his request. Marin thinks that she is about to have a house date, but Gojo just called to ask for help with the bunny suit, since while he has the shape, he can’t stop it from falling down at the front, and he wants to keep the silhouette, so he can’t add straps. Marin and Gojo decide to head to a sewing shop where after a pretty fun bit of the old man who owns the place thinks Gojo is making the bunny suit for himself, he learns that he needs to add “boning” to the jumpsuit and make it a corset, mean no accidents can happen, much to Marin’s gradual dissapointment.

I do like this part for another reason as it shows Gojo’s growing confidence/overconfidence, as usually he looks up how to do things, but this time he felt confident enough to do it himself, which shows his growth as a seamstress, even if that wasn’t the main intention. Marin is able to try the suit on no problem, even though there are some problems. Marin figures them out in time for the photoshoot in a casino… or rather, a studio that has casino-like objects.

While Marin is changing, Gojo thinks about how cosplayers are picky with their sets as they help bring out the charaicters natural charm, which he understands to an extent, since he feels the same way about his Hina Dolls, which I really love because it shows that Gojo makes for a really good behind the scenes person for cosplay given his skill set, even if he doesn’t know it. The photoshoot goes well, though it’s most Gojo trying to keep himself together while Marin does Marin things because she has unwavering trust in Gojo, even telling him about the different types of stockings there are for bunny girls.

Marin invites Gojo to a Halloween Party once the subject comes up, and Gojo heads there with Marin and some of her friends, although Gojo is naturally a bit apprehensive about being around them, even wearing a bunny suit. Marin gets a lot of compliments from her friends, and while most of them are positive, one of them, Morisa Kensei, asks Gojo how he knows how to do makeup, since he’s a guy, but Kashigawa Shiki says that’s totally normal. Marin reveals he’s a Hina Doll artist by day, Morisa actually admires his work, saying that whoever made Hina Dolls is a “genius”.

As Gojo reflects on his life, realising that the now named “Non-chan” is the only person who called him creepy, Nowa, who has been singing her heart on Karaoke the whole time, asks if Gojo and Marin are dating to end the episode. That to be the craziest last minute in an anime episode because dude is just reflecting on things happening and the girl asks if you’re dating someone who seemingly just began talking to you about cosplays.

Overall, this 1st episode was VERY enjoyable, although I will say, I did not expect this cosplay to be done in one episode, I figured it would take a little longer, but it was still very fun, and I can’t wait to see the journey this anime takes us on!

So yea, that was fun. This anime will always have a special place in my heart after the 1st season, which is why I’m writing about it now!

Next time we meet, we’ll be talking about Grapple Dog! That game is a lot of fun. But for now, thank for reading and I’ll see you next time.

anime, Other, Rambles

Rambelling about Welcome to Japan, Ms Elf!

Posted on April 23, 2025April 21, 2025 by Nmarfo

So, what anime have you guys been watching this season? Have you been watching an older anime of a legendary franchise like Transformers: Car Robots? That’s been pretty good. Have you been watching an anime that is a refreshing take on a genre, while being made by a studio that has a lot of passion for the other medium it draws from? I’m writing about that one too, should be a good one! Have you been watching Momentary Lily? It’s a GoHands show. Not too awful, but honestly, for a Cute Girls action show, it could have been a lot better, especially in the 1st half. Or have you been watching something popular like Solo Levelling, the new Season of DR. STONE (I need to catch up on that, I’m at the Ryusei Arc currently) or Medalist?

All of those are valid answers, but I’ve also been watching something very cute and sweet(and also something I learned about thanks to milkynoe over on Twitter. You should follow her, she tweets a lot about anime, but mainly Dress-Up Darling), and I loved it so much, I figured, that yea, I should write about it, you know how things go over here. Let’s just get into Welcome to Japan, Ms Elf!

So the story basically amounts to this: Kazuhiro Kitase is a salaryman who goes to work during, but at night dreams about travelling in another world and goes on adventures with his elf companion, Mariebelle. While he is fluent in many different languages and can fight, he’s not overwhelmingly powerful, and this is shown when one day he goes to fight an arkdragon, and he and Mariebelle get killed. As he returns to the real world, however, he notices that someone is there that shouldn’t be…

I feel we can add “most precious” to this, for reasons we can get into later.

Yeah, Mariebelle ended up travelling to the real world with him, and she spent the day with him before sleeping to travel back to the other world, where they actually managed to tame the dragon with meals from the real world! She transforms into a really good-looking human design, and calls herself Wridia.

And from there, the story is kinda split into 2 parts, the weaker side for me absolutely being the Isekai side, if only because, well, it’s very basic, and to an extent, doesn’t really go anywhere. They save a small catboy with special powers to read stones called Mewi, they find a high-level dungeon they can go and visit, but before that, they have to level up a bit, and earn the permission of Mariebelle’s guild. I don’t think that the plot here is bad, but the problems really come at the end, where after they earn the permission of the guild, Wrida begins to take revenge for something I’ll get into in a little bit… and that’s about it. Wouldn’t be surprised if this got cut due to the episode count, but it does leave things a little flat.

I mean if Tohru can go outside with horns on her head…

The real-world plot is more interesting since it basically revolves around Mariebelle introducing herself to the real-world, including meeting one of Kazuhiro’s neighbours, Ichijou Kaoruko, learning Japanese, eating the food, and experiencing an earthquake while in the shower. Wait what?

Mariebelle, if this freaks you, don’t live outside Japan for a bit.

This scene is actually really funny though, because you have both Mariebelle and Kazuhiro freaking out for different reasons, and then Kaoruko and her husband, Tohru(good name BTW) are just “is it over already? We’re trying to eat here.”

Anyways, this all concludes with a trip to Kazuhiro’s hometown of Aomori in the Aomori prefecture. They also take a Shinkansen train, which Wrida wanted to go on and she was mad about, thus the revenge she wanted, though she does use a cat familiar to at least feel the experiences over there.

The trip it is used to meet Kazuhiro’s Grandfather, who raised him, and does know about the dream world, but Kazuhiro doesn’t know that, leading to him making some tongue-in-cheek references about it.

Man, if you’re gonna say that, just tell him already.

The trip is also used to show Mariebelle around Aomori and develop the romance that’s been brewing, which Wrida has been helping with, telling Mariebelle to take more initiative, because Kazuhiro doesn’t want to ruin his image of her in the dream world. There’s some cute stuff between them, Mariebelle correcting herself when she realises that Kazuhiro is actually called Kazuhiro and not Kazuhiho, foreheard kisses, hugs, it’s all very sweet, though I’ve seen his before, this isn’t Ore Monogatari, so it’s not like their gonna kiss each other and…

Oh. Well… I’m glad it didn’t take long this time.

Anyways, the two are nervous afterwards, but Grandad talks to Marie afterwards, saying that he knows who she really is, and is thankful for the happiness that she’s brought to Kazuhiro’s life, as he used to be very lonely before. So yeah, a pretty sweet story with a lot of cute and heartwarming moments.

The characters themselves are all interesting in their own right, while there’s not a lot of story for them to go through, they are all quite pleasant in their own right, most notably Wrida. We know stuff about her. She has a husband and kids, she knows how to change clothes by herself thanks to her dragon magic, she really, REALLY enjoys the food Kazuhiro brings, and that’s about it. However, I did enjoy her presence, she’s very similar to Elma from Dragon Maid in that she loves to eat and pout, though you can tell she does care about the 2.

Kazuhiro talks about the dream world a lot, and I think that’s because of the situation that he was put in. It’s not known what happened to his parents, but he mentions that he’s been living with Granddad since 5th grade, and barely remembers what his mother looks like, and doesn’t even remember his father. Combined with the dream world stuff, it does make me wonder if he’s okay with his life because the dream world allows him to escape all his problems over there while he’s just hanging with Mariebelle. His powers in the Dream World involve teleportation and warping over short distances, and while he’s not super effective at close range, he can at least fight, which is something.

And now, onto Mariebelle, whose arc in the story is what I would argue is the main focus of the show. She’s essentially a woman who’s come to experience a new world, similar to an outsider having to learn a new culture when they move overseas, and it works! We constantly see her learning Japanese, trying to cook, and being stunned by the advancements in technology compared to her world. It’s something that I always enjoy, and it’s made the focus here, which I think works because they show unfamiler with the conspects she is, and that’s she working through them all the time, compared to something like Dragon Maid, where I feel the focus on is more on them being a family rather than them being unfamiler with the modern world.

Visually, the anime is kinda standard, but I do love that they put a lot more effort lighting-wise into the real world visuals, and it helps us establish the idea that this world is mysterious to Mariebelle, even if it wasn’t the intention. The opening theme is “Pallette Days” by Rico Sasaki, which is nice, but I do really love the ending, Yummy Yummy by Higuchi Kaede and Kanae of Nijisanji, especially since it gives us Marie, Kazuhiro and Wridria in a bunch of different costumes!

Yea I’m glad I watched this anime, it’s exactly everything I love in anime done pretty well, the stories are nice, the characters are amazing, and you should check this out if you haven’t already, it’s awesome, and awesome is the highest praise I can give a series like this.

Yeah that was fun! I’m glad I got to write about anime again, and this time I even used my old writing format! There’ll be more anime stuff this year for sure, especially given how much is coming up that I want to watch.

Before I go, I wanted to promote a few things related to me. 1st, the site that I write for, Rapid Reviews, actually got to preview the Switch 2 and Crimson Desert, coming this year! Both of those can be found on the Rapid Reviews YouTube, or the website. I actually make the thumbnails over there and edit the Highlights from the streams, so go support them!

Secondly, Kim and Pete of Later Levels are doing the #Gameblast24 streams this weekend. They were meant to do it in February, but their cat, Zelda, got sick, and they couldn’t continue for her safety. They want to raise a lot of good money for SpecialEffect, so go support them here, and if you do, say Nana sent you.

But yea, that’s all I got for now. Thanks for reading, and I will see you next time.

anime, Other, Reviews

Rinkai: Review

Posted on July 3, 2024September 20, 2024 by Nmarfo

Hello again! Rinkai was something I knew nothing about before writing about the 1st impressions. I did enjoy that 1st episode, but from there, how did things go? Can Ito survive in this world of professional cycling? Let’s find out.

So the story is once, again very simple when it comes down to it, and things are more on the characters. After the 1st episode, Ito consults her grandma about things, and after some soul searching, she decides that she wants to be a cyclist, which is good for her because Grandma, Sono and her Uncle Tsubo, are also pretty famous cyclists. It’s also helpful that Kurume was actually Sono’s student. From there, training camp starts after a few months and they meet Nana, who instantly locks eyes on Ito to signal they are kinda rivals now.

However, Kuma doesn’t want to be left out, and that’s oddly enough the 1st story arc. The way Rinkai works is as such, things don’t really happen to Ito, things happen around her, and those events in turn affect her, it’s an interesting story format that works, but it does feel like the show is leaving its main character behind at times. Regarding the 1st story arc, she sits back and doubts if she really belongs here given that Kuma is excelling, and Nana is a once-in-a-lifetime prodigy. They end up having a race, also including Midori, the daughter of another famous cyclist, and a few others from the camp, but Kuma fails to beat Nana despite leading for most of the way. After the race when Ito attempts to congratulate her, she says something interesting.

That’s not something you say normally, Nana.

Ok, I guess now’s a good time to address the elephant in the room, the subs. They are horrendous. Apparently, they are just done by a company that is known for not doing very good English subs Called Ani-One Asia, but apparently, they are the only ones doing this show as Crunchyroll and HiDIVE didn’t pick this up. Hopefully, we can get fans subs for this, but outside of that, we are kinda stuck with these subs, where riders are referred to as players for some reason.

Anyways, after the race, Kuma begins overtraining so that she can try to beat Nana in an assessment at summer break, even fainting at one point, however, she learns the consequences of “F**k around, Find out” and ends up getting kicked out of camp. However, this leads to a new door opening for her, as despite being rejected by Tachikawa earlier, Kuma ends up becoming her student so that she’s better prepared next time, and it seems to light a spark in the camp, especially Ito who seems more and more determined to do well and succeed in cycling, especially after Nana also leaves camp to train with the Olympic team.

Nana is interesting in that she’s kinda the benchmark for everyone else, but also kinda shows her love in weird ways, such as giving everyone notes before she leaves camp early. She doesn’t do much else outside of being a bit antisocial, but I like the friendly rivalry between her and Ito. At 1st, she finds it a bit too friendly and instead delegates her rivalry to Kuma, but of course, that doesn’t work out, so it’s back to Ito once again. It’s pretty neat stuff, especially since she doesn’t give her advice and just says “Bonne Chance!” in her letter to Ito, because any advantage given to her is a bad one. That advice doesn’t really work out, as in a race to celebrate graduation, Ito beats Nana, though she was pretty tired from travelling, so there are some question marks there.

Actually, she kinda is, but I get your point.

After that, the 2nd half is where we get more focus on the other characters, sans Kuma who kinda just disappears for the rest of the story besides cameo’s, which is disappointing considering she was the most interesting character up to this point. The 2nd half is where they want to enter the rookie league final, which is basically like the Rising Stars challenge in the NBA, and their struggles to get there. Miko has to deal with the fact that she can’t be the centre of attention all the time, Takamatsu is worried that she might get cut from the league entirely, and Nagoya, due to her unique family situation has to convince her parents that she can make herself a profitable business, it’s interesting stuff. Meanwhile, Ito with a newfound determination, and Nana, being… herself, are winning pretty frequently alongside Midori.

Also a secondary called Hiroshima has a crash, but it’s not really important outside she can’t make the rookie final.

Anyways, the rookie final is set, Takamatsu, Nana, Itou, Miko, Nagoya, the aforementioned Midori, who also has Olympic asperations, and Shizouka, a women who’s been a lower league compared to the others, and is kinda frustrated about. The penulitament episode is about everyone preparing for the last race, but after some interviews, Ito’s indecisiveness returns as she’s not sure she can do well, plus some negative social media comments, but Kurume takes her back to her local velodrome for some reassurance.

While it does help, it’s not enough as Nana is able to take her win back from Ito, and returns the favour in what she said to her before.

But she is that great if she can keep with y- whatever, friendly rivalry and all.

Kuma begins her training anew, and Ito can now proudly declare she’s a cyclist in what is a pretty ok character arc. Again it doesn’t feel like things happen to her, more things happen around her that affect her, but it’s nice to see her destination build and build until she feels that yes, she is worthy to ride alongside this once in generation talent, and can even keep up with her.

I know that visuals are something that people bring up as a negative towards this series, but I found them fine honestly, thought there are some good shots here, especially with Ito and her bike. What is great though is the ending theme, Override, sung by all of the main cast members, and it has no reason to be as good as it is honestly, it’s really cool, especially with the great visuals it has.

Ito’s actress, Kawamura Umino, who is also voicing her 1st ever role, also did a cover of a song that translates to “Poem of 3 Rollers” or at least I think so. I don’t know about the backstory(I sure tried to find some backstory for it, trust me) behind this song, but it’s pretty good honestly.

Overall, I enjoyed Rinkai, there’s a few problems with the show, such as dropping the Kuma subplot halfway, not really expanding on Midori even though she’s kinda always there or there when it comes to races with the group and sometimes not focusing on it’s main character enough. However, I did enjoy a lot such as the focus episodes in the 2nd half, and Ito’s overall arc despite its shortcomings, and while I usually don’t say this, I hope this gets a season 2, or at least an OVA to conclude Kuma’s story.

So I apologise for this being a bit late, it’s mainly because after I did the Highspeed Etoile review, I got slammed with work, in fact, I’m writing basically in between the days I have not working currently but hey, I got it done which I’m glad about considering this anime got little to no attention due to not being available in the west.

Will be taking a small break again, but next time will, I’ll be looking at something cool. What is it? You’ll have to wait to find out.

But for now, thanks for reading, and I will see you next time.

anime, Other, Reviews

HighSpeed Etoile: Review

Posted on June 26, 2024July 17, 2024 by Nmarfo

This just finished up, so it’s time to write about it! In the 1st episode, we got introduced to a lot of things about the series, but now the championship starts. So, how does this year’s NEX-Race series play out? Can Rin find success in this series? How will the two rookies do? Can Alice overhaul Lorenzo to win the big prize?

Let’s find out.

So to start off, the story is actually surprisingly simple when comes down to too it, but that’s what you get when you have a series completely focused on racing. It pretty much focused solely on Rin trying to get her 1st win, which doesn’t start out well. After taking a picture with fellow rookies Kanata and Towa, Rin starts her in 1st race… and spins almost instantly. To add to that, her pace is not very good, as she basically lasts the entire race, and she gets DQ’d for not following race protocol regarding blue flags.

I know she’s a hologram, but Hikari’s braver than me, that’s for sure.

From there Rin ends up meeting Alice in an episode, and it kinda highlights a problem in the early going; Rin is TOO much of a dork. I expected her to be somewhat of a dork because Alice is kinda a badass. at least when it comes to a series like this, but good Lord, her not recognizing Alice at all was frustrating, to say the least.

Anyway, after that episode and meeting Lorenzo in an episode that was similar to the Alice episode, but better because he disguised himself, so Rin’s dorkyness was at least excusable, we end up racing in Monaco. Rin begins to prove herself a bit, though she did get a lot of help from a tuned-up Ami, her tuned-up A.I assistant thanks to Chitose wanting to impress the Owner of the team. However, she did seem a lot better here all things considered, and almost got a podium, but had to settle for 5th in the end.

Actually, that’s one thing I’ll fully defend this series for, the animation is amazing and makes better use of it being fully CGI than most other anime I’ve seen. There are some really good camera shots with the cars here that had me very excited to watch each racing-based episode. And there are some cool moments with the characters, like Rin’s head bouncing when she doesn’t want to finish last and the summer break episode where the characters all get put in the spinning G-Force machine of death.

I do hope that Studio A-Cat, and King’s Creative make a slice-of-life anime with these animations, it would be a delight to see.

Speaking of the summer break episode, Rin uses it as a chance to hang out with Kanata and Towa, who I haven’t mentioned much outside of the picture because sadly they get no development in the show which is a shame because character-wise and design-wise I love them, they are basically polar opposites, Kanata the one with overflowing passion and Towa the one with the more methodical touch. And yes, I am aware there they have a spinoff manga that talks about their time in racing school, no I have not been able to find translations. It sucks for me, because the summer break episode talks about them needing to find their driving style, and Kanata felt like the closest to it. She’s the definition of “checkers or wreckers”. She always goes for the gap if it increases her chances of winning, and of course, it ends up going badly for her quite a lot of the time. She’s the most fun driver to watch in this show for me. Towa doesn’t talk much, but she consistently finishes races in the top half of the field, which ends up netting her some top 5 finishes which is good to see.

Anyways, after an episode where Sophia takes centerstage, we get a nice episode where they pay tribute to the Toyota 2000GT where it’s shown that Rin’s driving style is more akin to manual style, as she gets to grips with the 2000GT, while while ami and Gen make some adjustments to the setup. Sadly, Rin doesn’t get to try it out as the setup suggested by ami is quite extreme, and her car shuts down as the next race starts in Shanghai. This gives us time to focus on Youran who’s a bit more interesting than Sophia, whose episode is nice, but it amounts to the idea she’s blessed by luck and that’s the beginning and end of it. Youran’s episode actually goes a bit into how she was one of the best prospects from China but has been unable to live up to that for the time being, at the end she manages to take a win from Alice, but Lorenzo did retire from the race, as he is not really good at night racing. Every king has their weakness I guess.

In any case, the last 3 episodes focus on an original track in Osaka, where N.E.X Race was born. After some bonding between ami and Rin due to ami setting a time for her in qualifying, the final race begins with Rin towards the back, but she works her way upwards towards the front and even passes Alice for the lead, who is 3 points off the championship. However, Lorenzo after an awful start begins to work his way up the field, and ends up battling Rin… only for a lightning strike to happen, taking out the AI in the cars… including ami.

The race eventually restarts and after a pitstop goes wrong for Lorenzo, he has to catch up to Rin, but Alice refuses to give up, until her tyre blows up, putting her out of the race. What doesn’t make sense is that she pulls over instead of just going back to the pits despite there being only 3 points in it. Though that kinda sums up the 2nd storyline of this show being the whole Alice VS Lorenzo thing, which I kinda wish was the main story, given how nice the friendly rivalry is, but it’s a case of Alice is trying to get to where Lorenzo’s skill level is… but isn’t still quite there, and honestly, it’s just one of those things that needs more time than these shows have to develop that sort of arc.

Speaking of which Alice and Lorenzo are fine character-wise. Alice’s character is that she’s very American… and that’s the beginning and end of her, but she’s at least a fun presence, and Nana Mizuki’s voice acting really helps in this regard. Lorenzo has bit more going for him the fact that he’s the best driver in the series, but he also kinda is tired of not being challenged. I do wonder how much of him wants to be beaten by the rest of the field on a consistent basis, as he does really want to spend more time with his son by the sounds of things.

Plus he likes Kaiju monsters, which is pretty nice to see.

Back to the episode, Rin is trying to fight Lorenzo with everything she’s got but it seems to be not enough… until ami is finally successfully rebooted, and the 2 of them work together in the last corner, and Rin is able to just beat Lorenzo for her 1st win, and keep herself in the series, though the owner of the team wants them to go for the drivers’ championship next.

The ending theme for the show is Fanfare by SCANDAL, which is ok, but visuals really help here, as they change things up depending on the episode. For example in the episode where they do the 2000GT tribute, they have Rin chase that car instead of her race car, it’s neat details like that I can appreciate.

Believe it or not, this is actually a variation.

After the credits of the last episode, Rin discusses with Hikari what her nickname should be… settling on HighSpeed Etoile, due to her past as a ballerina. Also yea, despite being a Primastella, Hikari is still part of the team Rin is on, it’s never explained, but she does give some… interesting motivation to Rin in the last episode.

That’s sure is something to say to you’re driver in a heated battle.

As for Rin herself, while her dorkyness is a bit annoying, as it got toned down more and more, I found her pretty likeable. She’s clearly a bit insecure due to her past, which sadly isn’t brought up much outside of the 2nd episode, but I at least enjoyed every time she was on screen, she’s pretty fun to be around.

In fact, that’s how I would describe HighSpeed Etoile in general. An anime is just very fun to watch. It’s not perfect for sure, there are a lot of characters that are just there because they needed someone to fill that role, the commentators don’t sound excited at all, and some things are just left unexplained. And I do admit, I have a love of racing which probably helps me in liking this anime more, but there’s a lot of good racing animation, the voice acting is really good, particularly for Alice like I mentioned before, but Izumi Fuuka does a great job in her 1st lead role as Rin, you can tell when she happy and sad easily, and the character dynamics are fun to watch on screen. It’s a fun show that I’m sure will leave you smiling.

And that’s that! Good time watching a seasonal, but that’s not the only seasonal we have to talk about, because next time here, I’ll be talking about Rinkai! Should be a good one.

But for now, thanks for reading and I will see you next time.

anime, First Impression, Other, Series

RINKAI! : First Impression

Posted on April 15, 2024April 14, 2024 by Nmarfo

So, spring anime and the Cycling Spring Classics have sprung. And in that spirit, we are going to be looking at a cycling anime! I don’t know much about this, but when I saw it was gonna get an airing slot alongside HighSpeed Etolle in what is already a very stacked Spring Season of anime, I decided, to give this a look, cause I like both anime and cycling. I don’t know much about this, so let’s just dive into this. As always spoilers are abounding, and I’m watching the sub version.

We begin watching a Keiran race with a few girls, who are fans of Kurume Tsutsuji and Tashikawa Remu, and while the two trade the lead for a good chunk of the race, the winner ends up being Mukomachi Miyako. The girls all seem very caught up in the thrill of a bike race, but they decide to meet up at a local hot spring afterwards, with the brown haired girl, named Ito Izumi to take her bike to it. While the others take the taxi.

It’s here where we get our Opening, and it’s ok. Windshifter is a nice song, but the visuals do a leave bit desired in my opinion. After this, the girls arrive at the hot spring, which is actually Ito’s home, and despite riding her bike compared to her getting a taxi, she gets there pretty close to the time when they get there.

Ah, that explains it. She tries to convince her sister to not apologize with a soda, but it doesn’t work.

Ito then narrates that she met these girls online, in a form for fans of Kurume and Tashikawa. Kuma, full name Kumamoto Ai, is the redhead, 17 years old and is in high school, just like Ito. Nago, full name Nagoya Sachi, is a rich 20-year-old, and daughter of the Nagoya Saibazu. Yahiko Miko is the admin of the form and apparently used to be an idol. Takamatsu Kinusa, also known as Takama is the oldest among them all at 26, and is seems to be very reliable.

One thing of note the last names of each character are associated with a certain city that has a velodrome in it. For example, the main character, Ito her name comes from the Ito Keiran Stadium. Kuma’s comes from Kumamoto Keiran Stadium and so on.

After Ito goes to clean her bike, she’s informed that the race actually ended up on the news, which is shown in a room with Kurume, Tachikawa and Mukomachi, who have a talk about how the sport of women’s cycling has struggled, and it’s only thanks to the Rinkai league they are able to compete. Getting on the news is a big deal for them, even though Mukomachi wasn’t mentioned. I do like this aspect, them trying to build something that’s been already dismissed is hard, and they want to use their newfound popularity to build it. The scene in general is also a nice bonding experience.

Erm… you sure those are the right foods, Tashikawa? Even Mukomachi says she bought those in Japan.

We then cut to Ito and her friends relaxing in a hot spring, Kuma goes deeper into her feelings about the race they watched when she suddenly declares that she wants to be a cyclist. Everyone else is on board with the idea for the five of them to become track cyclists, especially Nago, who later to Ito explains that she has to build her own name outside of the Nagoya Zaibau, and feels that this is the best way to do it. However, Ito herself is a little hesitant, despite having the most experience with biking out of the five of them due to how much hard work she feels it would take. However, Kurume is in the bath next to them and says that she races just rides her bike every day, so it was kinda of a natural next step for her, and if she can, do it so can they, hoping to even see them on the track.

This was a good establishment of character dynamics, especially after the convocation between the three seniors, but the way they did the scene is a bit odd to me, Kurume just waking out of the hot spring while they just look on. I get that they are probably just in awe of seeing her, but seeing my idol naked might be one of those experiences that I would want to forget TBH.

She is very pretty though, I can’t lie about that.

Anyways, later that night Kurume leaves, noticing something about Ito’s bike that she wants to tell the others about, while the 5 look into how to become a track cyclist, as they need to pass an exam in October, giving them about a year to train for it. While Ito is still indecisive the next morning, she at least leads the cheer for them all to become cyclists.

While the others all begin their training in the next half year, with Kuma particularly excelling, becoming the prefectural champion, Ito remains indecisive, as she has many choices, one of which is taking over her family shop from her grandmother, while the other is taking the entrance exam, going to University in Tokyo, and a more certain path towards a future. She figures that if she can’t decide, Kurume should decide for her, and write a letter to her about it. Meanwhile, in a Velodrome, a racer named Hiratsuka Nana is riding, with 2 supposedly American scouts describing her as “overwhelming”.

The episode ends with Kurume replying… asking if she likes Dagashi snacks.

The visuals I found pretty good, even if they not anything standout, and honestly, whenever Ito was on her bike, I barely noticed that it was CGI. The music was nothing to write home in the anime, it was kinda just fine.

Overall, this was a pretty good 1st episode. It was, once again, pretty setup-heavy, but context and having some knowledge of the sport did allow me to enjoy this more I think.

So yeah, another anime that I’m writing about this season. I’m gonna try and cover this one cause well, I like anime. In fact, I think I’m the only one who likes the 2 anime I’m currently writing about cause looking in the forms… yea, the reactions aren’t great. Granted I do think my love of both sports gives me some more to work with in terms of making the show interesting, so that just might be me.

Next time, I’ll be looking into a certain Japanese artist’s life and the founding of a new Studio. But for now, thanks for reading, and I will see you next time.

anime, First Impression, Other, Series

HIGHSPEED Étoile: First Impressions

Posted on April 10, 2024June 22, 2024 by Nmarfo

So, I probably should have written about this beforehand but, eh, it can be hard to get English-subbed trailers for anime sometimes. I’ve been following this since it was announced, and every trailer I’ve seen has looked pretty good honestly, With this being an anime that has the backing of Super Formula, Japan’s premiere racing series, and also racing on real tracks that are used in F1 such as Monaco and Bahrain, my excitement was through the roof. But, does it deliver on said excitement? Let’s find out.

We begin at the Osaka Expo, a place where we see a pink-haired girl looking at something called the Hybrid Performance Exceed Reactor, also known as HyPER. This system gave birth to cars that can drive at speeds of up to 500 km/h safely and began a series called the NEX Race series, in which the last race of the season is about to take place.

They then introduced us to the track with the Primastellas, Akari and Hikari, and I was impressed with this, as something like this really helps the presentation value, things acknowledging the track temperature and wind really help with that. What’s interesting is this track is Fuji Speedway(named in the anime as Neo Fuji Speedway), and it seems to be using the old NASCAR Turn 1 that was changed for safety reasons in the 1970s.

We then get an introduction to the 2 main drivers saying that currently, the biggest star of the NEX series is Lorinezo M. Salvatore, also known as “The King” who has won 8 races and the series title before this last race at Neo Fuji Speedway. He’s also the defending series champion currently, having won it for the last 5 years in a row. Oh boy, I can see where this might be going.

However, The “Queen”, Alice Summerwood is slowly closing the gap to her, having won 2 races this season. If she can get a win here, it would serve as a great springboard for next season’s race, especially since she’s been in their series for 2 years now, and has been a constant challenger. She’s also voiced by Nana Mizuki, which is great and also gives me an excuse to talk about the Opening early, which once again, plays at the end.

It’s pretty good! I like how fast-paced the song is and her voice really suits it. The visual do leave a bit to be desired, but there are some good shots once the chorus kicks in, especially towards the end with a nice Akira homage.

Some minor challenges are constantly mentioned during the race, such as Lui Youran, Richard Parker, loyal teammate to Alice, Sophia B. Tokitou and Falk Ogura, who’s retiring after this race. There’s also a good amount of automated A.I racers to fill out the field.

We then get into the majority of what takes up the episode. A 50-lap race, which is nice to see, though the commentators could sound a bit more enthusiastic. The racing is mostly good, and they do some pretty nice shots with the camera, which is something I’m happy about since I felt Overtake was a bit lacking in that department.

In terms of extra power modes, the only thing they really have is Revol Burst, which gives them an extra boost of power for a few seconds, This was an effect I was really impressed seeing, as it looks like the cars are launching into Hyperspace honestly.

During the race, a few things of note are mentioned, mainly that Falk is retiring something 2 blue haired girls Kanata Asakawa and Towa Komachi thing is suspicious of, and Lorinezo feels that Alice is the thing that prevents him from getting bored in this series. Towards the end, Falk ends up catching up to the leaders, but he ends up falling behind and is unable to keep pace, leaving Alice and Lorinezo to battle it out, with Lorinezo taking the last win of the season.

All this time, however, a woman and a man, who was speaking to the owner of the series before, have been talking and watching from the stands, saying a lot of things, including that the team has one year to show results, and that may quit after their 1st year because of how dominant Lorinezo is. The woman, named Kagura wonders if that will be the same for “her”, though the man, named Takasegawa, is hopeful she will turn out like Alice. After this, Falk says farewell to the 2 rookies who have been watching from the garage, handing over the torch to them.

We then cut to round one of the new season, taking place in Bahrain it seems, as the 2 rookies are putting in decent times. We then cut to Rindou Rin, a grown-up version of the pink-haired girl from before, who seems to be preparing to drive for the 1st time, but is a little nervous and has flashbacks to her previous life as a ballet dancer. However, she conquers her nerves, and takes to the track for the 1st time, ending episode 1. After the OP and the preview, we get a small tribute to our retiring friend, and a really nice end card, which I haven’t watched an anime with end cards since… I think GAMERS and that was 6 years ago.

Also fun fact, the person who drew this also did the character designs for the series.

I talked a little about certain parts of the animation before, but it’s honestly pretty good even for CG, and the cars look amazing honestly, helped out on track buy once again some impressive camerawork. It also help that the music is pretty good.

Overall, this 1st episode was very setup heavy for sure, introducing us to all the key elements, though there are some mysteries, but I think the idea the main charaicter is being brought into to kinda save… I don’t want to say a dying series, since they don’t say that but they don’t need to show results soon. But yea, this seems like a fun trip! I’m just here for the ride at this point.

FINALLY, HIGHSPEED ETOLLE IS UPON US. I’ve been excited to write about this for a while. I’m writing this on Sunday when I thought Rinkai would have aired, but it has not aired yet sadly. I’ll be watching that as well, and maybe checking out some other stuff on my list, so yeah, should be a fun season of anime.

Before I go, the London Marathon is in a few weeks, and Kim of Later Levels is running it for SpeicalEffect. Please give her your support if you can! She’s been documenting her progress since she did the ASICS 10K last year.

And that’s all I got! Thanks for reading, and I will see you next time.

anime, Other, Reviews

OVERTAKE! Review

Posted on January 17, 2024January 15, 2024 by Nmarfo

Happy New Year! Sorry for this being so late, but I’ve been away if you can’t tell. But this anime has been very enjoyable to watch, and I’ve been eager to write about it. So, what does the journey for Komeki Motors have to give us. Can Haruka upset the team Bellssriso? Let’s find out. As always, spoilers are abounding, and I’m watching the sub version.

So there is some story to go through, which is mainly driven by Kouya’s desire to try and take pictures again, and Haruka’s desire to win for Komeki Motors. After the end of the 1st episode, Kouya tries to help Komeki Motors find a sponsor, even getting some brands involved, but none of them agree to it after a bad showing at what I think is Autopolis. Kouya says he’ll take his time finding a sponsor that understands Komeki Motors, but Sae finds the photo that Kouya took at the end of episode 1, which helps Komeki land the sponsor Mizuki Beverages. This allows them to buy some new Tires, which combined with some mishaps from the number 2 driver of Belloriso Tokimaru Toshi, allows them to gain 4th place at Twin Ring Motegi, a new personal best for the team., though Haruka is reluctant to celebrate, as he wasn’t able to win.

One thing I will say against this anime as a racing fan is that it feels overly harsh on Haruka’s performances, as for a 1 car team with not a lot of funding, he seems to always be in or around the points positions, which is good, since that’s where the money is for these teams. It would be different if he was running 15th all the time, but always being in the top 10, I don’t feel like they are the biggest backmarkers.

Look at this. Would you say this is a team that wasn’t doing well, challenging one of the top teams drivers?

Anyways, Haruka finds out they used the picture and there’s some tension between them because people seem to only like him when he loses, but he softens after learning Kouya’s backstory, which I’ll get into later, as it involves some other stuff that isn’t talked about at 1st. After an episode with involves the 3 main drivers Haruka, Toshi and Harunaga Satsuki, the latter also from Bellsoriso, go on a charity run, things take a turn for the better, as Kouya begins to take photos of people again, however in a nice play on Rain affected incidents in Suzuka, Satsuki suffers a crash that leaves him out of the car for a bit, promoting Toshi to 1st driver and leaving team leader Ena Noritsune, scrambling for good enough Number 2 to fill in. Haruka ended up withdrawing from the race due to having the wrong tires, but they up losing their sponsorship after that race as Kouya’s past ends up popping up, and while he tries to fight for the sponsorship, it doesn’t work, leading him to dissipate for a bit, while Haruka figures out what’s going on with him.

I’ll talk about Ena now since he doesn’t do too much, but honestly, I like him a lot. He’s very tactically minded. A big moment for me happened during that 1st Motegi race, which allowed Toshi to be the number 1 driver for about half the race, as he figured that around the halfway point of the race, Satsuki would be faster.

Speaking of Motegi, they have another race there, and while things are looking up for Toshi, as he wins his 1st race of the season, things are not good for Haruka and Komaki Motors, as the car from a racing winning position ends up dropping to 8th.

That doesn’t mean he’s not allowed to race you. Satsuki would done the same I think.

Toshki’s arc is pretty interesting as he wants to be the number 1 driver, as he feels that he’s getting up there in age, a realistic concern in these racing series, and wants to start winning more and becoming a true number one driver. While it is pretty basic, it does help to give some character, and his tension with Haruka, who he sees as below him, is pretty good too, though I’m surprised things aren’t as awkward when Haruka ends up trying out for Bellsoriso to become the new Number 2 driver, as the Komaki family grants him permission for that, though, Kota seems hesitant on it. It’s a bit of a thing with him, pushing down his true feelings, to let someone go.

Toshki feels a lot of pressure with Haruka behind the wheel, which he feels is unnecessary, at least for the moment. After that, Haruka has to switch focuses, as he finds a card directing to Iwate Prefecture of Japan, where we finally learn the full extent of Kouya’s past.

Initially it’s said that he posted a photo of a little girl in a Tsunami, and got a lot of backlash for it, mainly people said he could have saved her, but in reality it goes deeper than that. Kouya actually met the girl, named Momo, and her, Grandfather, Shouzou, and they took a photograph together before all of that happened. However, because of the photo, Kouya hasn’t be allowed to visit Shouzou since even as old age slows gets the better of him, but he is allowed to this time and gets some kind of reassurance.

Keep taking lots of pictures, photographer.
Shouzou

After the funeral for Shouzou, Haruka chooses to stay with Komeki Motors to at least win with them, but the 2nd Suzuka race doesn’t go so well as the tires fade, making them fall to 7th in the end. Before the last race a Fuji, the community around Fuji Speedway gathers around Komeki Motors, having decided to give some money to the team, after Kouya asked around in the same episode he tried to get them sponsors. The money they have allows them to buy a lot of new parts during a test session where Satsuki fights to claim the number one driver position back from Toshki, but he can’t do it.

Satsuki arc is the most interesting, as it uses the story of James Hunt, Niki Lauda and the 1976 Nurgenburg Crash. During the charity race, he says his favourite driver was James Hunt because he was lucky to win the 1976 championship, but after his injuries, gets a visit from one of his grid girls, Mitsuzawa Arisu that maybe he should emulate Lauda’s hard work that won him 3 world champions. It’s very well done and really well told, and it’s shown that he took that on board when speaking to his fans in the last episode. Arisu takes it well.

You must REALLY like Satski, huh? Women never get Nosebleeds in anime.

Anyways, the final race is upon us and everyone has their own motivations. Satuski looking to reclaim his position at the top, Toshki looking to become the absolute number 1 driver, and Haruka looking to win for the 1st time with Komeki Motors, and see what’s like on that top step of the podium. The three battle for a bit, but Toshki is forced to retire with front wing damage, leaving the battle between the number 1 star of F4 and the underdog, looking for his 1st win for him, and his team.

And after an intense back-and-forth battle that is really well shot, the pass is made at the last corner, giving Haruka and Komeki Motors their 1st win. Kouya is able to take photos again with no major issues, and yea, that’s the end of the series. Overall, I would say the story is pretty good, and while I do wish there were more teams to go through and learn about their stories, what we did get was pretty good honestly.

That being said, I have a few minor complaints. The opening and ending are pretty bad. The OP itself, called Tailwind was done by a Vtuber called Kanae of NIJISANJI, and it honestly doesn’t feel fitting, and isn’t a great song, which sucks because the actual visuals for the OP are very good! The ending theme is Good Luck by Tasuku Hatanaka, which is ok, but doesn’t really stay in my head at all, and is just drawings of characters on the screen. The animation is mostly fine, though cars do take weird lines at points in my opinion, though that might just be an effect of the CG animation, I’m not sure.

To end off this review, let’s talk about Haruka and his character arc during the Season.

Haruka’s arc mainly revolves around wanting to win a race, not just for him, but for his father, who sadly died while racing for the team that would become Komeki Motors. He feels that he doesn’t need cheered on because he feels that people only cheer someone on for themselves and that him cheering his father on may have caused his death. While I don’t feel it’s as interesting as some of the other arc in the series and is mainly used to help Kouya’s development, it’s still very interesting in its own right.

Overall, Overtake was a very enjoyable show that I had a lot of fun watching week to week. The complaints I do have were very minor, and honestly, I do think you should watch this at least this. It’s a nice look into the world of Motorsports, and I hope this sparks more of them.

Again, sorry this took like a month after the finale aired, but I was away for 3 weeks and wouldn’t have been able to watch the episode. Next time I do seasonal anime, it’s gonna be HighSpeed Etolle, something I’m very excited about, please look forward to that.

Next time I’ll be looking into the lifestream of Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis. But for now, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

anime, First Impression, Other, Series

OVERTAKE! First Impressions

Posted on October 16, 2023October 15, 2023 by Nmarfo

So 1st of all, apologies that this is 2 weeks late. As I mentioned in my last update, we had a family death in June, and the week of the premiere was the funeral, so I didn’t want to do any big projects that might take the focus away from that for me. But I was pretty excited for this anime, and it’s beginning a trend of the anime racing revival, something that has been long needed, as outside of Intcial D, I don’t there’s been a formula-based car racing anime since the mid-2000s in Capeta. There are probably some smaller things that have been attempted, and if you want me to look at those, let me know I’m curious about them.

I was pretty hyped for this, I saw it around the same time as Highspeed Etolle’s trailers, and it looked pretty cool honestly. So, let’s watch and see if what we got is a hit or a miss so far.

As always, spoilers are abounding, and I’m watching the sub version.

I forgot how to give my best a long time ago.

These are the words of Kouya Madoka, a photographer who is on his way to a shoot at Fuji Speedway with his Chief Editor, Yukihira Saeko. They were asked to do a shoot for Super GT, the biggest racing series in Japan. BTW, if you’ve ever seen a race car with Miku on it, that’s the series those cars come from. Kouya is very clearly portrayed as a slacker, but there seems to be a bit more behind it, as we keep seeing be vision of waves every time he’s seen thinking, even struggling to take a photo at one point because of it during the Super GT qualifying sessions.

After reviewing the photos he took in the morning, he ends up stumbling into the garages for F4. A Regional F4 series, such as Bitrish F4 or in this case Japanese F4. is basically the 1st step from go-karting that you can go to take a road to F1. While there, he sees a blank car being rolled to its garage by 2 boys named Kota and Haru. Haru in particular we saw at the start of the episode, delivering papers.

Kouya then meets up with an old pal of his, Ena Noritsune, the owner who gives a quick explanation of what F4 is, and then introduces his team, Bellsorriso, led by star driver,
Harunaga Satsuki with Tokumaru Toshiki as his number 2, who is just there to be a good wingman to Satsuki, even by his own admission. They show off some good knowledge of F4, but the fact remains that the biggest factor is money, as while there are some legit teams, there are just those who want to race cause the have the money, which are commonly known in racing as “Gentlemen Drivers”, though I will say that applies to GT racing more than anything, they just brought up an example of a guy who wants to race cause it’s his dream. However, there are also some that just can’t hang with the top teams, known as “mobile chicanes”.

One of those(alleged, more on that in a bit) is Komeki Motors, a single car entry owned by Komaki Futoshi, with Asahina Haruka, or Haru their driver, with Komaki Kotarou, or Kota, their sole mechanic. A fight nearly breaks out between them after Toshiki dismisses them, but Haru seems very determined to prove them wrong.

I don’t need to be cheered on. I… can race alone
Asahina Haruka

Kouya has a few more flashbacks but is then invited by Futoshi to watch the race with them. Haru has qualified 10th in a field of 36 cars, and in a field where position 1-10 grant points, that’s pretty impressive for underdogs, making it a little confusing to me why they were called “mobile chicanes”. In racing that term is usually used for backmarker teams, that for one reason or another, don’t have the pace to keep up with even midpack teams, and are most likely heavily underfunded, or in the case of a team like Rick Ware Racing in NASCAR, kinda just don’t seem to care.

Haru and Komeki Motors are at least doing decently, with Haru even showing speed, getting up to 4th in the race after a safety car regrouped the field, and making some bold overtakes, including one that was 4 wide for 5th.

They head to Dunlop Corner, where it looks like Haru is gonna make the pass for 3rd, but his tire blows out, bringing Komeki’s race to a sad end. While Futoshi and Kota don’t let it phase them too much, Haru is in tears knowing how close he was, and Kouya takes a photo of the agony in that moment. The episode ends with Kouya asking if he can personally sponsor Komeki Motors.

This was a good 1st episode, which impressed me quite a bit with how knowledgeable the writing was about motorsports. Sure, it’s required but them breaking down how teams are kinda classified beyond the casual level of “top team good, low team bad” is very impressive to me personally at least, in a day and age where people seem to care about that fact less and less. There are some good hints at backstories, such as Kouya with all his flashbacks and Haru at the start of the episode.

The animation is good, but the cars I will say don’t feel fast, which is a shame, give how good some of the other racing anime is. such as Highspeed Etolle. Still, it’s pretty good at least, and that’s all I can ask for.

Overall, this anime is off to a good start. Let’s just hope it doesn’t lose momentum like Vettel’s championship challenges at Ferrari. Sorry Ferrari fans.

Well, this is finally done! Sorry this took an extra 2 weeks from the premiere, but I had a lot of stuff going on. Next time, I’ll be looking at the October Steam Next Fest games. But for now, thanks for reading and I will see you next time.

anime, Other, Reviews

Monster Musume: Review

Posted on December 9, 2022December 9, 2022 by Nmarfo

Man, it’s been a while since I started watching this. As usual, I just take a while watching things, though I hope that changes. Monster Musume is probably something a lot of people would disregard as trashy anime, but I’ve liked and talked about a lot of things that are probably consider trashy. Good examples in include Ulysses, Dragon Maid and Senran Kagura. But what I do I think of this… unique creature? Sorry. Spoilers are abounding, and as always, I’m using the sub version. For this anime as well, I would advice reader discretion.

So usually I would start with the story, but honestly, there is no story here. There are subplots and they are fine(and get better going into the 2nd half of the show) but honestly, a girl is introduced every 3 episodes or so, and with the exception of Mila, Suu and Rachnera, none of them really stand out as characters to me writing wise. Centroia is cool, wanting to balance her knightly desires with her love for “Darling-Kun”, but that’s all there is too her. Papi the Harpy is just Suu, but with none of what makes her good in my opinion, and Lorelei Meroune is just a mermaid obsessed with a tragic love like The little mermaid. May I recommend you watch Bubble from Netflix, ma’am? That film is good, but is as obsessed with Little Mermaid parallels as you are..

I’m also not counting Lala, the grim reaper-esq Dullahan that was introduce in the last 2 episode because she doesn’t do anything beside fulfil an actually kinda cool subplot which I’ll get to later.

Starting with Rachnera, her introduction is actually the most involved one in the show. After a perverted cameraman invades the house after Papi has to lay an egg, because this show is kinda an acid trip at points, we see at the end of the episode that the cameraman is hosting her, and she’s curious in “Darling-Kun” since he threw away a lot of money in order to keep the girls safe. In the next episode she escapes and then captures Darling-Kun, in order to… let’s say investigate him. Due all of the girls unique looks, they all have some heckles to deal with, but they can’t attack them due to rules of the Interspecies Exchange Bill. It also say that they human and mixed breeds can’t have s*x, which I’m putting down to because Harem anime. Rachnera has a lot of contempt for humans because of this, but sees “Darling-Kun” as different due him actually caring a lot about them. After the whole experience, Smith agrees that she can stay at Darling-Kun’s house, so that she doesn’t get arrested and whatnot. And that’s all, really. I will say I feel for her the most, as I can least understand bad experiences leading to resentment and actual hated for people.

She also brings humour in the form of Bondage, and I won’t lie, her lewd humour is probably the most entertaing lewd humour in the show, if only because in the context of the show, it’s not an accident, she just gets kicks out of tying people up with her webs. The scene with Lala is one of the funniest things in this show.

Suu and Papi are the same in terms of they are the “kids” of the group, however my problem with Papi is that she doesn’t much outside of that doesn’t change that much. Suu on the other hand is a slime girl who does is also kinda of a kid, but is at least learning from her experiences, and is also shown to been good at taking the best of each character and trying to become her own person like in the Episode where Darling-Kun catches a cold. She’s also much more caring and at least attempts to try care for Darling-Kun, which is something I like to see. In order to stop being a burden, you must take up the burdens of others. I will say, her humour of getting into… let’s say places that are harder to access, got old really fast, and the only time I found funny was when she did it with a giant tree, and yes, that is a thing that happens in this show.

That did give us a cool Godzilla reference though, so I’ll take it.

Milla is probably my favortate out of the girls, even though she’s kinda just a typical nice girl honestly, but the thing with her is that she always gets the emotional moments, more than anyone, and they seem to hit pretty well honestly, is just a shame that there’s not many of them outside of the 1st 3 episodes. It sucks doubly for me because well, the show is actually good at emotional moments and subtext. The 1st part of the last episode is basically just this if not condensed into one big punch line because Harem Protagonists can’t die. I honestly wish it did this more over the bland, if at times slightly funny ecchi comedy, cause I would up liking this show a lot more because of it.

A good example of this is the D sub-plot that leads into Lala joining the team. Darling-kun, gets a letter saying that he’s dead if he marries anyone, so Smith and her crew, nicknamed MON, decide to help her out in finding out who this is. This leads to Darling-kun going on dates not just with his harem, but the Mon team. I’m gonna mention Zombina because she was the coolest to me, and her using the gimmick of ripping off body parts to put a breast in his hand was actually very funny and unique.

D is then figured out to be one of the team, in a plot organized by Smith to get Darling-kun to go on more dates, but a 2nd letter was sent out by Lala, which confuses the team. This leads to Lala needing to get her head back and the last episode, which I already explained. It’s a good subplot, with some great emotional moments(including one I’m not sure how to put in here), and I wish more of the show is like this.

Now for Kimihito Kurusu. You may have noticed I’ve referred to him as Darling-kun through out the whole show, because well, that’s what they call him most of the time(sans Centoria, who refers to him as master). He’s fine, a bit of a standard protagonist, kind, sweet to the girls, but given how episode 1 went, you can kinda understand why the girls fall for him. He treats them like normal people, which given the context of the show, makes a lot sense. And besides a lot of his head ache doesn’t come from him, it comes from Smith.

I can not tell you the amount of times I just felt bad for Kurusu, because I was yelling to Smith, “DO YOUR F**KING JOB!” Like, for the love of god, she always slacking off, and while this probably was the intent, it makes me feel bad for Kurusu more than like Smith. Like god, I would hate working with this women.

Gotta say, this was a bad choice to be my 1st harem anime. I do think there’s some potential there, but it’s not fully yultized in my opinion. I do think that it’s good, but don’t use this as your 1st dive into this genre, cause it will leave you feeling burned out, as it did me. Next time I do a harem anime review, it will probably be something like, Undefeated Bahamut Chronical, or High School DxD, cause I’ve heard good things about this, but I will say watch this one if you wanna chill with something.

Well this was bit more mean than usual. Still I think it’s worth a watch, just not over a lot of other things. And that’s all! Thanks for reading, and I will see you all next time.

anime, Other, Rambles, Square Enix

Rambelling about My Dress-Up Darling

Posted on September 14, 2022May 16, 2024 by Nmarfo

So yea, I’m writing about this, because I enjoyed it a lot more than I though I would. Hell, I might do a small random thing on why Marin is very cool. My Dress-Up Darling was very popular during the winter 2022 anime season, but I held off on it for a bit due to school, so I ended up watching it around July, and I loved it. So with that be said, let’s talk about it! As always, spoilers are abounding, and I’m watching the sub version, though in this case, the dub version is stellar, and I think you should watch it as well, if just for AmaLee’s great performance.

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