I know I’ve changed this menu a lot of times but I promise this will be the last one. Unfortunately I’m bad at keeping my promises. I’ll write new anime reviews after finishing it hopefully.
Fall anime 2022 I’m loving so far and plan on watching
Chainsaw man
Synopsis:
Denji is a teenage boy living with a Chainsaw Devil named Pochita. Due to the debt his father left behind, he has been living a rock-bottom life while repaying his debt by harvesting devil corpses with Pochita. One day, Denji is betrayed and killed. As his consciousness fades, he makes a contract with Pochita and gets revived as “Chainsaw Man” — a man with a devil’s heart.
One of the most awaited animes this fall. Chainsaw man, I just f***Ing love it so much.
BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War
Synopsis: When new Soul Reapers and a new enemy appear in his hometown of Karakura, Ichigo jumps back into the battlefield with his Zanpakuto to help those in need. Meanwhile, the Soul Society is observing a sudden surge in the number of Hollows being destroyed in the World of the Living. They also receive separate reports of residents in the Rukon District having gone missing. Finally, the Seireitei, home of the Soul Reapers, comes under attack by a group calling themselves the Wandenreich. (Source: MAL)
After 10 years, Bleach finally returns for its last season. After finishing the manga, I was really hyped for the season and so far it has not disappointed.
Urusei Yatsura
Synopsis: When an alien race known as the Oni invade Earth, the chronically unlucky and unapologetically lecherous Ataru Moroboshi is selected as humanity’s representative in a duel for the fate of the planet! His opponent is Lum, the Oni’s very pretty princess, and it’s only thanks to Ataru’s unscrupulous behavior that he’s able to scrape out a win in a treacherous game of tag against her. Ataru thinks he’s had his lucky break at last, but when Lum takes a shine to him off the battlefield, the conflict follows him home as Lum invades not only planet Earth, but also the womanizing Ataru’s love life! (Source: HIDIVE)
A remake of the 1981 original, Urusei yatsura has been on my read list for a long time but since this version is more accesible, I’ll be watching this too.
Do It Yourself!!
Synopsis: Building furniture and friendships have a lot in common. Intention, effort, and hard work are needed for both crafts. This is a story of girls in a DIY club building both as they carve out their futures. None of it comes easy, but that doesn’t stop any of ’em. Furniture, friendships, and the future—they’re building it all with their own hands!(Source: Crunchyroll)
Definitely was not on my watchlist, I wanted to read the manga first but I’m kinda curious to see how the anime will be. The synopsis kinda gave me K-on vibes so will be curious to see how it goes.
Romantic Killer
Synopsis: Anzu Hoshino is a “non-heroine type” high school girl who pays no attention to fashion or romance and spends every day playing video games. When the wizard Riri suddenly appears, Anzu is forced to participate in the Magical World’s project to stop population decline. This romantic comedy depicts what happens when Anzu goes from living a life immersed in her three favorite things — video games, chocolate, and cats — to being surrounded by handsome guys. Anzu is steadfast in her claim that she never wanted to live in a dating simulation game. She meets a handsome guy who is so popular it hurts, a clean-cut and athletic childhood friend, and a beautiful rich young guy who is naive about the outside world. By meeting Anzu, they all begin to change gradually. (Source: Netflix)
This anime popped up one trending every once in a while on anilist and I checked it to see what was that about. This is literally your generic rom-com but it had some really good rating so interested in how it’ll develop. This anime came out of nowhere and left me… well pleased. I’m in a few episodes and it’s pretty good.
Kagami no Kojou
Synopsis: In a tranquil neighbourhood of Tokyo, seven teenagers wake to find their bedroom mirrors are shining. At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives to a wondrous castle filled with winding stairways, watchful portraits and twinkling chandeliers. In this new sanctuary, they are confronted with a set of clues leading to a hidden room where one of them will be granted a wish. But there’s a catch: if they don’t leave the castle by five o’clock, they will be punished.
As time passes, a devastating truth emerges: only those brave enough to share their stories will be saved. (Source: Doubleday)
One of the movies I’ll be watching this month and plus that synopsis looks interesting. I gotta say that poster got me, the art looks really great on it. It’s been a long time since I watched a movie so this will be a good time to get back into it.
You must be wondering, just how much anime am I going to watch. I’m looking forward to these animes and I don’t know whether I can watch each and everyone at the same time but I’ll try my best. With this much anime, you’ll be getting a lot of first impression posts.
What happened to shoujo animes?
Is it just me or there aren’t many shoujo animes releasing now?
Okay, but before we get into that what is Shoujo?
Shoujo is the opposite of shonen, translated in English as young girl. Shoujo focuses more on the interpersonal relationship and romance in the story rather than the fighting and action. The series tend to be more dramatic, but also still include the adventure, comedy and action that are prevalent in shonen.
Find more information of genres in my post genres and demographics.
So what happened to all the shoujo animes. If you know me, I’m an avid reader of shoujo but recently there’s less and less and shoujo mangas getting adapted. Last year there were only a total of 10 shoujo animes released which included Fruits basket season 2, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Omoi, Omoware, Furi, Furare and IDOLiSH7 Second BEAT!.
And this year we had the one of the best anime of all time Fruits basket final season(which I haven’t watched yet) , My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! X and backflip!!. Meanwhile shounen’s popularity is just rapidly increasing with demon slayer, jujutsu kaisen and attack on titan.
So What happened to Shoujo animes?
Shounen is now the most popular demographic in anime attracting millions of anime and non-anime lovers all over he world. From one piece to Attck on titan, there’s no complaining about shonen’s popularity but what about shoujo. Shoujo was a top demographic in thhe early 80’sand 90’s with shows like Rose of Versailles, Cardcaptor Sakura, Revolutionary Girl Utena and of course sailor moon.
It’s really hard to come up with shoujo anime names that have 50+ episodes or which has more than three seasons. The only ones I can think of is sailor moon, Fruits basket and Natsume’s Book of Friends. Don’t get me wrong, short and more straight forward adaptations are also really good like Rainbow Days, Maid-Sama!, Yona of the Dawn. Even if it’s just 20 or 30 episodes, with the right elements it would be good show. But what I’m implying is that longer the anime the more fun it becomes, the character development also becomes really good as we don’t see the characters for only 12 episodes or so.
To tell the truth I feel like shounen in general has more cross gender appeal than shoujo. Our whole storytelling tradition leans heavily on male-centered action plots, so no one knows what female characters can and should do. Shonen manga that now have stories that would be exclusively aimed at women in the past. I think there is a change in what people see male oriented manga as these days. Psycho pass, balck lagoon and kill a kill are few example of female main protagonists in shonen anime.
You always have exceptions of titles that could appeal to fans of sports or action shonen anime and manga like Yona of the Dawn or Chihayafuru but when people do think shojo they very much align with the romance genre because that tends to be incredibly dominant. Shoujo anime are mostly based in highschools with such strong romance genre and I think yona of the dawn is a great example of shoujo since it also explores the advernture genre and not only romance and this shows that the adventure or action trope can exist outside of shounen and seinen.
Shoujo animes also have a more limited genre availibilty and most female targeted demographics in general tend to mostly focus on stuff that very much targets mainly women. It does have some genre variety but not as much as shounen or seinen. With such limited genres the shoujo stories are mostly cliched with very few unique tropes.
Pure shoujo nowadays feels so outdated, it just uses the same formula it used years ago,The Never-Ending Back & Forth, Toxic Webs & Love Triangles, The Climatic First Kiss and many more. With all the same things happening over and over again, shoujo has become boring whereas with shounen adventuring idea just becoming stronger and stronger as it’s popularity increases.
We definitely need more shoujo adaptations, even more josei/seinen romances would also be nice because there are some really great shoujo mangas that would make a good adaptation such as Last Game, Hibi Chouchou, Wake up Sleeping Beauty and House of the Sun. I don’t even mind if it was a OVA’s or just an anime with just 12 episodes because the romance genre in anime has been lacking lately. I feel like they’re choosing to do the live-action route more for shoujo/josei these days but I do wish we also got more anime.
I think that shoujo should be diverse in terms of both and social message instead just the traditional romance clash. I wish that shoujo anime would gain more popularity as fruits basket just topped the charts as the best anime of all time and now with yona of the dawn getting a season 2. Till then.
Harem in anime
There was a time I actually used to like harem(when I first started watching anime) but now whenever I see a harem tag, I just skip it. Harem is literally one of the most used tropes in anime and I just got sick of it. But before we get to why I hate harem let’s take a look at some good harem anime(or just my favorites).
Another honorable mentions are Ouran High School Host Club, Masamune-kun no Revenge, Rosario to Vampire and Kiss Him, Not Me!. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying harem is a bad thing, it’s just not meant for me. So why are harem anime popular.
Why are harem anime so popular
Harem anime allow these men to project themselves into the story and to sympathize with the main man. The stories explore the various problems and ways to express attraction. Of course, the stories use comedy to blunt the discomfort they may feel when a scene cuts too close to their own experiences.
Harem relies heavily on fan service and without it the anime is just plain boring. Harem anime’s popularity will continue to grow because of the immense following it has. Harem anime allow these men to project themselves into the story and to sympathize with the main man. The stories explore the various problems and ways to express attraction.
Reasons why I dislike harem
Dumb MC’s
Name one harem anime where the MC is actually smart(or normal for that fact). In literally every harem anime the MC is the least popular in school, no stand out qualities and at end of the day somehow he gets all the girls.
No plot
Nowadays a plot is created for the harem and not the opposite. It’s either the same old boring plot where the MC falls in love with one girl and somehow all the girls fall in love with him. And because of the excessive fan service I can’t even watch it in public. In every harem anime there’s this one episode where the plot goes nowhere, the episode is just about hanging out in the beach, water park, some festival or somehow the MC got stuck somewhere with a girl alone.
Too predictable
Animes with a unique plot are hard to find nowadays. Every harem starts in a high school or in another world(isekai). Falling over each other out of nowhere, waking up in other’s bed somehow, wind blowing over and of course water.
Enough of the disliking harem. I’m sure there are people who like it and I’m not going to judge them. I probably saw a few before realizing how much I dislike it. I actually watched a couple of episodes of Rent a girlfriend because of it’s different plot but at the end it ended up like every other harem anime.
To love ru is one of the very first mangas I’ve read and I’ll never read it again. If you look my rating for it in anilist I’ve given it a 5/5 because that’s how I’ve felt when reading it. I’ve never read anything like it and it was exciting to continue the story because I had no experience in reading harem but now no just no. I really can’t handle it.
There’s very little chance I would ever watch another harem anime but if I were to watch it again, I would want it to be unique. Even if the best girl doesn’t win I would watch it if the anime is unique Kinda like domestic girlfriend. Domestic girlfriend reminds me of the worst type of anime. Harem + NTR. Well let’s keep that for another post.
Genres and demographics
What is a genre? Genre is a style or category of art, music, or literature. So why am I talking about this? Because I haven’t seen anyone talk about this and I have nothing else too talk about. Yes, I have officially run out of ideas. Anyway let’s get to why you clicked on this post. Genres. Let’s get to the question.
How many genres of anime/manga are there?
There’s a lot and I mean a lot so here a few: Comedy, Adventure, Slice of life, Romance, Horror, Drama and etc. There are about as many genres of anime as there are genres for any other form of media such as book, tv show, or movie. Sometimes which is considered subgenre in other media is treated more like a genre when it comes to anime, manga and light novels.
Some anime can be a mix of different types of narratives but they can usually be easily labeled with one or two of the genres. As each anime season passes by, more and more adaptations are released to viewers at one time. With more anime comes more repetitive themes, causing some genres to get more love than others. One good example is when sword art online blew up in 2012 it also inspired a new generation pf isekai anime.
More anime genres in Wikipedia.
Anime demographics
I’m pretty sure people who have taken an interest to anime and manga also know that they are marketed by distinct demographic genres. Now let’s get deeper into that. What is demographics? Demographics is the statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it. Demographic analysis is the study of a population based on factors such as age, race, and sex. Manga are divided into roughly a dozen official publishing categories, mostly based on the age and gender of the intended audience.
Types of anime demographics include: Shonen, Seinen, Josei, Shoujo.
Shonen – Target demographic is teenage and young adult males. This is one of the most popular types of manga and anime and is usually combined with another genre. One of the most popular shonen work is of course One piece.
Seinen – Target demographic is adult males. These works tend to explore a wider range of topic, from action and adventure, to business and politics, to comedy and relationships. Some may also have strong sexual and violent content.
Josei – Target demographic is adult females. A combination of slice-of-life and romance, the plots of josei manga are often realistic and the style is less extreme than that of Shoujo manga and anime. Josei works may have a touch of erotic content than Shoujo.
![ENGSUB} “Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku Series 0” Ep 2 | Comedy, Animation Japan[2020] Full — Episodes | by Vok Em Onluc U | 1.Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku” 00X02 |](https://theksblogs.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/413a9-1qpwz10nwsk-74v1ndj2dlq.jpeg)
Shoujo – Target demographic is teenage and young adult females. Shoujo anime cover subjects that focus mainly on human emotions and romantic relationships and are mostly told from the point of a female lead. The style tends to be much softer than in shonen manga. The girls tend to be cuter or more distinguished rather than overly-sexy.
Shounen, Shoujo, josei and Seinen are also used to describe demographic groups as well as publishing categories; for example, most hobby manga are aimed at the Seinen demographic. Despite this, the publishing categories do not necessarily align perfectly with the actual readership; for example, many Shonen magazines have large female and adult readerships.
Underrated genres and subgenres
There also few genres which goes unnoticed or not given much attention by people. Here are some of the underrated genres:
Historical
Historical anime revolves around events in history and moments of antiquity. Shows of this subgenre are typically set in Ancient Japan and the feudal period. Other settings such as the Middle Ages and medieval period of Europe exist but they’re much more rare in anime.
Parody
A parody anime is one where countless numbers of other anime references are showcased throughout the plot. They often use similar elements from other anime to showcase in their own show.
Mecha
The mecha can be considered to be one of Japan’s most popular exports. It almost always uses a standard formula to carry the plot. As a general trend, mecha is often seen alongside the military, sci-fi, and action genre.
My favorite genres
You guys probably already know my favorite genres but anyways.
Comedy
Slice of life
Romance
Check out these websites for more information:
Personally I love reading/watching comedy, it just takes all the stress out of me for example Gintama or Arakawa under the bridge. Different genres or demographics, as long as it can keep me on my toes, I’m okay with reading it even horror.
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