Anime Roundup

We interrupt our wall-to-wall coverage of Hold My Beer-related posts with another Anime Roundup! (warning: mild spoilers)

Chainsaw Man

One part horror, ten parts action, this one is about...well, basically a devil-human hybrid who can turn into a dude with chainsaws for a head and arms. There's a lot more to it than that, but you'll just have to watch it yourself. It does a masterful job of balancing the raucous and gory action sequences with quiet, contemplative moments (like a character silently lighting up and smoking a cigarette for almost two whole minutes of runtime) that, thanks to the juxtaposition, are filled with a sense of dread and foreboding. It reminds me a little of Jujutsu Kaisen (which is produced by the same studio, MAPPA), and even employs a similar "magic trio"-of-protagonists formula (eventually, anyway). It was on my radar for a long time, so I was surprised when I finally got around to watching it only to discover that there's only one 12-episode season out so far. MAPPA, isoide (hurry up) and make more! P.S. - I love, love, love that each episode has a different ending song and visuals, which is what we've planned to do with Glorified when it finally gets made into a show.

Blue Box

A gentle, slice-of-life romantic dramedy about a high school badminton player who has a crush on his slightly older, basketball-playing schoolmate that mostly goes unrequited even as they're living under the same roof (for reasons too complicated to explain here) while, in a classic love-triangle-type of plot, his childhood friend has a mostly unrequited crush on him, Netflix has been slow drip-feeing this to me one episode per week, so I've been watching it for the past nineteen weeks now and there's still a ways to go ("mada mada desu").

I'm Quitting Heroing

This story starts off right after the "usual" ending, with the overpowered hero having triumphed over the evil Demon Queen. But when he finds his efforts unappreciated by the people he's saved, he decides to switch sides and applies for a job with the now-rebuilding demon army. At first, it's a goofball workplace comedy that makes you wonder where, exactly, this is going. But it eventually takes some - spoiler alert - surprising twists and turns that, frankly, become a little dark, before wrapping things up in an ultimately satisfying ending. Or does it? Yes, it does. Or does it??

Murai in Love

A rom-com about a high school student who is in love with his homeroom teacher and cuts/dyes his hair so that he looks exactly like said teacher's favorite video game character in an effort to win her heart (trust me, this is not as creepy as it sounds), this one was a lot of fun, with very Japanese-style deadpan humor and a lot of great voice acting (I lost count of how many times I said to my TV, "this voice actor who plays the homeroom teacher is THE BEST.")

Dandadan

Two high school students! Aliens! Ghosts! Psychic powers! Spiritual possession! A love triangle! A second love triangle! The most unique MacGuffins* I've ever come across! Combine these ingredients with a - spoiler alert - major cliffhanger ending to Season One, and you have the recipe for a show that, like a lot of anime, takes some getting used to, but gets more and more fun as you go along.

* An object, or objects, that the characters are trying to get/find/recover, thus driving the plot. Like the Songshell from Joel Suzuki, Volume One.