Anime Roundup, Odd Couples Edition

It's time for another Anime Roundup! Warning: mild spoilers to follow.

Beastars

For some reason, I avoided this one for a long time. But then, spurred by rumors of its excellence along with an incredibly catchy opening theme song for its second season that I would constantly hear as part of anime theme song mixes (why are anime theme songs so good? Oh, right), I decided to give it a shot. And I'm glad I did! It's basically what I thought it was, which is a darker - much darker - version of Zootopia (it's hard to say which is a version of which, as they both originally came out at around the same time), where the world is populated by anthropomorphic animals and society is divided along species lines. But there's a lot more to it than that. It's a complex allegory that is subtle, nuanced, and thought-provoking (carnivores have to repress their natural instinct to consume herbivores, and the main character is a wolf who falls in love with a rabbit that he originally tried to eat) while still managing to be entertaining - not an easy trick to pull off. No wonder the manga that the show is based on won so many awards. Netflix has promised "new episodes coming 2026" - can't wait.

The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity

And now for something totally different: a light-hearted slice-of-life rom-com/dram about two teenagers: a sweet, kind girl and an intimidating (but actually mellow) dude who meet in a cake shop owned by the dude's parents. He goes to a lowbrow boys' high school, she attends the neighboring elite girls' school; she's smart, he's average; she's petite, he's tall; etc. Despite seemingly having little in common, do they eventually fall in love? I don't want to give anything away, but if they didn't, then why are we even here in the first place? Like with most romance stories, the question is not "if " (or even "why"), but "how." Anyway, I'm looking forward to Season Two.

Dorohedoro

And now for something totally different: in a strange and post-apocalyptic urban world where magic and demons abound, a amnesiac man whose head was turned into a lizard's head by an unknown sorcerer goes on a search for said sorcerer so that he can get his memories - and his head - back (and also, presumably, revenge). It's a bizarre, gory, colorful, and sometimes unhinged show that nevertheless still has a slight romantic undercurrent to it - namely, the relationship between the lizard-man (named Caiman) and a buff blond woman named Nikaido who helps Caiman with his search and occasionally cooks him gyoza. In what I assume to be typical Japanese fashion, they're always together and seem to care for each other a lot but always emphatically deny being romantically involved whenever anyone suggests it. Overall, I found the show to be an acquired taste (moving it to my evening post-a couple of beers viewing slot helped) that, like a lot of other great anime, got more fun as it went along.

A Star Brighter Than the Sun

And now for something totally different (but similar to the one before that): an athletic, taller-than-average high school girl named Sae has a major crush on her childhood friend Koki, who used to be short but is now even taller than her (by a pretty wide margin) and is apparently considered an ikemen (hunky dude). The show does a pretty good job of keeping up the "will they or won't they?" premise, even introducing a double love triangle involving another hunky dude named Yota along with a queen bee-type named Subaru who is Koki's, um, cousin? Do first cousins date in Japan? I mean, I know there's an anime trope where brothers and sisters are attracted to each other, but this show seems to be more grounded in reality, I think? Tonikaku (anyway)...

5 Centimeters per Second

This one is a feature film (although only a little over an hour long) broken up into three chapters that each follow a period in the life of a boy/young man and his relationships with a couple of different girls/young women. In what I assume to be typical Japanese fashion, it's very understated and bittersweet, and has what I considered to be the perfect ending. Great for fans of Haruki Murakami novels (like me).

Until next time, mata ne!