bi, trans, poly 🏳️‍🌈
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will either use way too many words or say absolutely nothing
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host of quiz nights & games tournaments
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have agoraphobia & anxiety (as well as sleep problems, caffeine addiction, depression, some undiagnosed stuff...)
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UK-based (unfortunately)


Anime Reviews, but Youtube
www.youtube.com/@YoshiAnimeReviews

The more I watch from (my picks of) this season's anime, the more astounded I am at how neatly they all play off each other in terms of tone and narrative.

Like, this is all the kind of stuff I won't cover much in reviews because it's less about each show individually and more about noticing the details more when they're directly against each other but, to give a couple of examples:


  • A Condition Called Love/Hananoi-kun and Whisper Me a Love Song feel like they're telling the same basic story - someone falls wildly in love in their first meeting with someone who doesn't really get romance - but the ways they're told are so drastically different. The way they handle aromanticism - or not - feels different, mostly in the sense that Himari is constantly affectionate with those around her, to the point of not seeing much of a difference between romance and friendship. In Hananoi-kun, though, Hotaru feels more explicitly against relationships (for reasons that are being explained, for whatever that's worth). Both are somewhat pressured into figuring out their feelings, but the pressure in Whisper Me a Love Song comes entirely from outside factors - Yori is clear throughout that she appreciates the fact that Himari is taking her time to be sure. Hananoi is the source of the pressure for Hotaru, primarily by being completely inflexible and unwilling to actually accommodate her uncertainty. Even the 'love at first sight' is handled differently (which, I'll admit, isn't something I really understand or vibe with at the best of times anyways), in that Whisper Me a Love Song stems from a misunderstanding to set those feelings off, while Hananoi... is going to different (and still somewhat creepy!) places now, but started as a thousand red flags: a chance meeting that instantly turns into Hananoi doing literally everything he can to appeal to Hotaru, talking about how he doesn't need friends or anyone else in his life if she's there, and outright snapping at people near her for being near her - all while being praised for being a nice and caring person!

  • The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio and Mysterious Disappearances both have some issues with pacing, but in completely opposite directions. It's abundantly clear that Seiyuu Radio is turboing through plotlines - what feels like it should be a full arc of character introductions, build-up, suspense and resolution is condensed into just the build and the resolution, and while it's not bad, there's a distinct feeling that I should be caring a lot more about the characters and the events than I am. It feels rushed, which is baffling when the source material is still being released: surely the only potential outcomes here are the rushed adaptation flops, or it still succeeds but now they've caught up to a currently-releasing source material and can't get another season anyways. Disappearances, on the other hand, has entire episodes of filler at a point where most seasonals are doing a good job of cutting out that kind of stuff. When it has the big dramatic resolution episodes, they feel particularly well-handled, but that's happening roughly every 3 episodes. In fact, it feels cyclical right now: one episode of some character, one episode of suspense, and then one of resolution. That'd be fine, maybe, if the character episodes contributed a little more to the mystery side of things, but the fact that it feels so divided between separate episodes - and having Seiyuu Radio to contrast it against - makes it feel slower-paced than it otherwise would be.

  • Sticking with Mysterious Disappearances, the manga is apparently very fucking horny. The anime... kind of isn't? It's had a moment or two, particularly early on, but most of it is spectacularly tame by even the very conservative standards of anime. Meanwhile, Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included is the exact opposite: it's the most conservative show imaginable while also being incredibly horny. It feels a lot like a 90s/early-2000s rom-com in that sense, with a protagonist devoid of personality surrounded by a harem of mostly eccentric characters, and accidentally ending up in embarrassing romantic/sexual situations. It's one of those shows that wants to make it abundantly clear that the characters are thinking about sex all the time, while also being very clear that it thinks sex is shameful and people shouldn't be thinking about it. It's a wild contrast too - I think Disappearances is in an okay spot on this, where it almost feels like a healthy approach to sex without being overtly horny: characters will just talk about sex and sexual fantasies as a normal thing, but the show isn't centred on that. Studio Apartment, though, is pretty frustrating to watch, almost entirely because of this.


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