If you haven’t yet seen the announcement in Moeronpan’s post (down below), please take a look at that to read about what will be happening to the Moeronpan review blog.
Apologies for the delay; I was busy with work and holiday stuff and just wanted a quick break before posting this round-up review. While Moeronpan manages to put out brief round-up reviews, I… unfortunately do not. Sorry.
Mob Psycho 100 (Season 3):
Finally, we get to see the final act of Mob Psycho 100 in anime form, six years after the anime first aired. It’s definitely been a wild ride.
It’s probably obvious that I’ll be giving this series as 5 out of 5 rating—but even a “perfect” series like this isn’t totally free from criticism. I personally thought that the two-parter UFO side arc was a little dull. The pacing of this third season can also feel a little “off” compared to the previous two seasons, as those seasons had incredibly fast pacing, while season three likes to linger on more poignant scenes. And the comedy aspect isn’t as present this time around. Previous Mob Psycho seasons have always had a nice balance of action, comedy, drama, and heartwarming moments; but this final season is much more serious. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however; as Mob/Shigeo (and several other characters) finally complete their character arcs, so it’s expected that these final set of episodes will be much more introspective.
Anyway, the many good things about Mob Psycho 100 totally negate its minor negatives. I have always loved this series for defying tropes—and that continues on here. This is one of the few anime I’ve seen that has so much heart, sincerity, and emotional depth to it. It makes me wish I could have gone into this series totally un-spoilt, as I had (out of impatience) looked up the Mob Psycho ending long before the third season aired. I can only imagine how blown away I would have been if I got to experience the final three episodes without knowing how it all goes down. Even so, I was still awed when watching it, thanks to the spectacular animation and top-notch voice acting.
If you’ve already watched seasons 1 and 2 of Mob Psycho 100, then I don’t need to tell you to go and watch the third season. (In fact, you have probably already done that.) But if you haven’t experienced this series yet, I recommend watching the first episode of season 1 ASAP. Although I’m not a fan of binge-watching anime, this seems to be the best way to watch this series. And now that’s it’s completed, you’ll be able to experience the phenomenal ending as well!
Out of five, for the third season and the series as a whole:
SPY x FAMILY (Season 1, Part 2):
There’s not much for me to say here other than: if you’ve enjoyed the previous 12 episodes that aired in spring of 2022, then you’ll likely enjoy this set of episodes too.
It’s more of the same of what we’ve already gotten, which can be a good or bad thing. I personally found this second batch of episodes to be slightly less enjoyable. Spy x Family is still a very heartwarming found-family series—it’s just that I wish there had been MORE family moments. It seems that the main “family” members (Loid, Anya, and Yor) aren’t given many chances to interact together this time around. There are episodes focusing on each of them, but I really missed seeing them as a trio. Even in the first big arc of Part 2 where they are buying a dog together, the characters are mostly separated and doing their own thing.
I am probably in the minority for this, but I also miss the more stylized OP of the previous 12 episodes. Yes, the animation for the new OP has movie-like animation quality and is absolutely gorgeous. But it kind of feels like just a mish-mash of pretty scenes. At least the new ED is still quite charming.
As a manga reader, I know that the chapters used for these episodes aren’t the strongest in the series. A season 2 and a movie(!) have already been announced for Spy x Family, so I’m sure we’ll get to the more exciting chapters eventually. As far as popular anime/manga series go, Spy x Family is one of the better ones, so I hope its popularity lasts for a while longer.
Out of five:
Raven of the Inner Palace/Koukyuu no Karasu:
Sometimes I wish I could just say: “This anime is real good, please watch it” for my review, and just leave it at that.
I don’t even know why I’m so drawn to this anime, as it has a lot of things in it that I would normally criticize other anime for. There is a LOT of exposition in every single episode. There are a whole lot of characters. The show is rather slow-paced, and mostly consist of characters having conversations with each other. And yet… It was still one of the better anime I’ve seen this year. Maybe that speaks to the strength of its story and writing, that it was able to keep me invested all the way until the end.
I think my tastes in anime are also changing, now that I’m older than the usual target audience of teens/young adults. This anime doesn’t have very many action scenes, and even Shouxue’s magic use is rather subdued in most episodes. But the mystery and supernatural component was compelling enough to hold my attention throughout each episode. I also love the fact that Shouxue’s magic can’t solve EVERY problem—even as a powerful magic user she can’t always fulfill everyone’s greatest wishes or desires. But she manages to heal people (and spirits!) emotionally, by helping them move on from their trauma—which is both parts tearjerking and cathartic to see.
Obviously, I understand that a show like this might not have mass general audience appeal. I also wonder what the show could have been had it had a slightly higher animation budget, as the animation quality in some episodes felt a little… rough. If you’re tired of the typical action-oriented shows, however; and want something different, this might fill that need nicely. Underneath all the political/royal drama, the mystery, and the supernatural elements; Raven of the Inner Palace is a show about people trying to rise above their horrible circumstances. And it’s really heartwarming to see them grow.
Raven of the Inner Palace ultimately ends in an open-ended way, with just enough plot threads sorta-resolved to be satisfying. I hope the final scene we see is a tease at a second season. I would absolutely love to see more of this series.
Out of five:
Do It Yourself!!
While this anime was quite fun to watch, I had a hard time trying to write up a review for this series. There are some things this anime does well, and some things this anime does… not so well. Do It Yourself!! is probably unique for being a show about DIY crafts, but it still ended up falling into using a few typical tropes that go along with the “cute girls doing cute things”/slice-of-life genre. Among the cast, there’s the “foreign exchange student” (whose “American” accent is laughably awful); and the designated “weird” girl (who essentially acts like a cat). My biggest pet peeve anime trope also shows up here, in that there is suddenly some unnecessary and contrived drama towards the end of the series—despite it being a relatively calm and relaxing show up until then.
Apart from the stuff mentioned above, some of the minor relationship drama in the show is frankly a bit… silly. Miku (the main character’s childhood best friend) is probably the most infuriating “tsundere” type character I’ve seen in ages. She gets mad at Serufu for extremely dumb and petty reasons, and stays mad and acts stand-offish for almost the entire series. There is also an unnecessary pervert robot character (it makes sense in context) that contributes nothing to the show except to be annoying.
Despite all its flaws, I still enjoyed Do It Yourself!! for the most part. I think it’s mainly due to the strength of its main character, Yua Serufu. I still stand by my opinion in my First Impression review that she’s one of the more unique female characters I have seen in an anime. The other DIY club members are… not so unique, but their interactions with each other are still charming. It’s really nice to see them build up such a strong friendship over a shared interest/hobby. Speaking of DIY, the show actually does throw in some DIY steps in a couple of episodes—through it’s probably still highly recommended to do more research into the crafts the girls build, as the explanations are pretty rushed. Some suspension of belief is also required for the DIY segments, as the girls build things insanely fast, and more often than not don’t even wear proper safety equipment.
Unfortunately, this all adds up to a show that still feels like an extremely run of the mill slice-of-life anime, despite its rather expressive art style and interesting premise. If you’re looking for more shows in this genre, Do It Yourself!! is a decent one. I just wish it could have moved away from using so many tired anime tropes.
Out of five:
Beast Tamer/Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou Sareta Beast Tamer, Saikyoushu no Nekomimi Shoujo to Deau:
I didn’t think I’d go back to this show after reviewing it for the First Impression reviews. But I ended up watching all of it, so uh. Have a review.
This is probably the most “okay” show that ever existed. It is a blatant wish fulfillment anime, with its main saving graces being that it has a tolerable lead character and little fanservice. While the series is fairly modest by general anime standards, I unfortunately can’t say that it has NO fanservice—there’s a weird scene in episode 8 where the female cast take a break to bathe in a lake, and cliched anime shenanigans inevitably ensue. It was so different in tone from the rest of Beast Tamer that I have to wonder if the producers suddenly went, “Oh shit! We need to garner more views by showing tons of bare boobies!” The entire bathing scene could have been completely cut from the series without affecting any of the plot at all. But I digress.
The main characters in Beast Tamer are pleasant enough, if a little bland. They don’t feel like unique characters so much as “typical anime personality types slapped onto a marketable character design.” At least (as I mentioned in the paragraph above) Rein is an okay protagonist. He’s refreshingly humble despite his powerful abilities, is friendly and kind, and doesn’t ever perv on any of his female companions (thank god). And even though the female cast basically acts as a pseudo-harem for Rein, I’m glad that they’re all mostly amicable towards each other, instead of being catty and trying to fight for Rein’s affections.
The antagonists, on the other hand… All the antagonistic characters in this series are laughably “evil,” to the point that it’s hard to take seriously. They’re all arrogant and seem to act shitty for seemingly no other reason than to make the audience hate them. But I’ll admit, it was still extremely satisfying to see them all get punished for being such massive assholes.
I don’t think many people are watching Beast Tamer because they consider it a masterpiece of an anime. It’s an extremely average anime at best, and a wholly forgettable one at worst. The show is so predictable and tropey that I guess it becomes… comforting? Sometimes you just want to sit down with an anime where there’s essentially no high stakes or drama because obviously the “good guys” will win over the “bad guys” every time. Or, maybe you just want to watch something mindless in between the more dramatic/depressing shows. Whatever the reason, at least Beast Tamer is one of the more inoffensive anime that falls into the “so average it’s average” category.
If you like this anime, I won’t judge—I ended up kind of liking it too.
Out of five:
Odd Taxi: In The Woods
This film seems to be pretty divisive. Reviews and comments I have seen about it seem to fall into two camps: Either people love the movie for being a great recap and reframing of the 13-episode anime; or people hate it and call it a “cash grab” due to all the re-used footage. As for me… I thought it was okay.
I’m glad that I had only seen the entire Odd Taxi anime once way back when it aired in 2021. I think it gave me a much more positive experience with the film, which is essentially a giant recap “episode”. The movie serves as a nice refresher on the series, and there’s a neat framing device (done through interviews with major characters) that helps to explain certain characters’ motivations. It’s a neat bonus/add-on to the Odd Taxi anime, and does help to wrap up some more minor (and one major) loose end.
Although I mostly enjoyed the film and thought it was entertaining, I understand why some people are disappointed by it. Recap episodes in general aren’t well liked by anime fans. And this film is an especially long one, going over 2 hours; with over 80% reused footage. I actually had to watch this in chunks over three days, because of a lack of free time. While the scant new material is nice, with this being a condensed version of the anime and being over two hours long… at that point you may as well just watch the entire 13-episode anime again instead.
Overall… while I don’t regret watching Odd Taxi: In the Woods, I don’t think I’d ever want to sit down and watch it again. How much you like this movie will depend on how much you’re willing to forgive this being a recap film, and whether the new material at the end is worth the almost two hours of (mostly) reused footage that comes before it.
Out of five:
and 1/2
Delicious Party Pretty Cure
This year’s season of Precure was very charming. I think it could best be summarized as a “more improved version of Kira Kira Precure a la Mode.”
This season’s Precure again has a food theme, although they aren’t constrained to just desserts this time (like with a la Mode). There’s a less bloated team, meaning that each main girl gets ample character development. And all the characters actually have a connection to food in some way (with their parents running restaurants, or being food critics, etc.), making the food theme feel less forced. I’m really glad that Delicious Party was able to stay focused on its theme throughout its entire run, as many seasons in the past either had a vague ones (Doki Doki, Tropical Rouge); or just kind of dropped the theme for most episodes (Smile Precure and fairytales, Kira Kira a la Mode with their animal motif).
Delicious Party Precure’s main storyline can be a bit silly, as the main conflict this time around is the villains hating food, and wanting to either have a monopoly on food(?) or make food not exist(???), which really brings up the question of how that plan would work. But I wasn’t so bothered by this as past Precure villains have always had rather flimsy excuses to be evil; and anyway I was way more interested in the other stories that Delicious Party told about food. Delicious Party has some very heartwarming stories about how food—or rather, meals—brings people together, or helps form positive memories, or is just something that can help nourish people or cheer them up. Watching each episode felt very relaxing. And, I don’t know, maybe I’m just a sucker for food-focused shows; as I have always liked looking at anime food.
I also just like Delicious Party overall because of what it does differently. There’s a male character (Takumi/Black Pepper) who has powers about equal to the Precure girls and who helps them out; and there’s a male mentor character (Rosemary) who acts more feminine and isn’t made the butt of jokes for this. Of course, the series has some flaws as well: like Rosemary being immediately de-powered from the start and not being able to contribute much in most episodes; villain motivations being EXTREMELY flimsy and not explained very well this time around; as well as the usual drops in animation in certain episodes. The biggest criticism I have for this series, however; actually concerns one specific character.
I grew quite fond of all the characters in Delicious Party, including the mascot characters (which is rare for me). In fact, all of the protagonists in Delicious Party felt very strongly written—except Yui, the lead Cure. She feels a little bland compared to the other characters, although maybe that’s due to her being a more “normal” character—compared to the super bubbly and passionate Ran, the elegant rich-girl Kokone, and the regretful yet righteous Amane. And maybe Yui’s “normalness” was the point of her character: She’s the lead girl, and (I suppose) meant to be relatable or an audience surrogate. Despite not having as strong of a personality as the other three girls, she’s the one who always cheers everyone up, and is the one holding the team together. I just wish Yui could have been given more character focus—although this might be a byproduct of unfortunate circumstances. Early in 2022, Toei Animation was affected by a third-party hack, which forced Delicious Party Precure to go on hiatus for about five weeks. Which means five about episodes had to get cut from the whole season. I can only wonder if these episodes would have given Yui some more character development.
Overall, Delicious Party Precure is a pretty solid Precure season. I think some may find the finale a little underwhelming, but I think it’s a fitting one for the tone Delicious Party was going for. I would recommend this season to long-time Precure fans, newcomers to the Precure series, or just fans of anime food in general.
Out of five:
(PHEW! This review post was a long one…)
Moeronpan 