We here at oprainfall don’t just love video games: we’re big fans of anime, too. So in celebration of the medium, we’re here to give you our thoughts on what we’ve been watching each week as we watch it. Old, new – anything goes.
Currently Airing:
Komi Can’t Communicate
It’s the day after Valentine’s and Komi is finally coming to terms with the fact she likes Tadano as more than a friend. Cue adorable Komi faces. I love how her mother can tell what she’s thinking; they have such a cute, warm, wholesome relationship, and I love to see it. That being said, we don’t spend too much time on Komi’s realization, since this episode is a bunch of vignettes. In one, Komi gets a rip in her tights and Yamai freaks out over it. I still very much dislike Yamai and her obsessive, creepy nature, but she had one of the most fluidly animated sequences and it was so incredibly well-placed, especially after last episode’s really lackluster production. We’re also introduced to two new characters: Akako Onigashima, who is the sweetest girl in class until she loses her temper; and Amami Sato, who is a complete pushover but has trouble asking others for help. Both have cute but short asides that demonstrate Komi’s social growth. The episode ends with an actual spat between Komi and Tadano regarding a shogi puzzle, and Najimi asking “When did you get so close to fight?” Komi and Tadano’s relationship is growing and I’m so excited for when he finally realizes exactly how much Komi means to him. – Leah
– You can watch Komi Can’t Communicate on Netflix.
RWBY: Ice Queendom
I have admittedly not watched RWBY for several years now, but I was curious to see what Studio SHAFT had done with Ice Queendom, so I gave the first episode a shot. It’s basically a retelling of the girls’ introduction movies but with more fleshing out, so if you’ve never seen the show, it’s easily digestible. For me, though, it ended up falling really flat. There are some really impressive animation cuts scattered throughout the episode, and watching it in Japanese was novel and fun, but the music is completely different and ended up causing a massive disconnect. The music isn’t bad, but it’s not RWBY‘s music, and it’s especially noticeable here because these are retellings of the intro movies. In theory, I should really enjoy Ice Queendom because it focuses a lot on Weiss’ perspective, but watching her fight the giant without her aria as the soundtrack felt wrong on a lot of levels. I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe I’ll give it a try again someday because I do love my girl Weiss and I’m curious to see how they adapt the rest of the intro to Beacon stuff, but I was overall just sort of disappointed here. – Leah
– You can watch RWBY: Ice Queendom on Crunchyroll, YouTube and Rooster Teeth’s website.
Engage Kiss
I’m always interested in seeing if there are any original anime in an upcoming season. Mainly because you can’t read ahead with the source material, so you can really only make guesses on what will come next. Some of my favorite anime are original, such as Psycho-Pass and Darker than Black. And this season we have Engage Kiss, a new anime featuring character designs from Neptunia series artist, Tsunako. The first episode introduces us to our three main characters: Shu, Kisara, and Ayano. They are PMCs, and they take on jobs that the government needs completed. Shu and Kisara work for their own agency while Ayano works for one of the top PMCs, AAA. Shu, however, is most interested in jobs involving Demon Hazards. Because of his job preference and horrible handling of money, he and Kisara are in dire straits financially. Shu, Kisara, and Ayano end up working together on a C-Class Demon Hazard job and we get to see how capable the trio is. We also get to see the rivalry of Kisara and Ayano, fighting for Shu’s affection. In the end, we learn that Kisara is actually an A-Class Demon Hazard, but we don’t know why she is so attached to Shu.
The second episode sees Shu and Kisara’s financial struggles continue. They end up working as a subcontractor for Ayano’s PMC as they work to stop a terrorist attack against Bayron City’s mayor. In this episode, we see that while the mayor paints Bayron City as this big paradise, there is great dark side to it. Big example on why it’s not a paradise, the Demon Hazards that attack the city. In fact, regular citizens don’t even know these Demon Hazards exist. While watching the mayor’s speech, you can see our protagonists’ reaction to his words, and they seemed to disagree with whatever he was saying. In the end, we got to see some nice action sequences and Shu being bad with money again. Big takeaways so far: One, Kisara is a badass but kinda crazy, like yandere crazy. Two, Ayano is bit too much of a pushover for Shu due to her affection for him. Three, Shu is kind of a scumbag for taking advantage of Ayano’s relationship with him to get jobs. After watching these two episodes, I must say I like this series so far. The animation is nice and fluid, character designs are nice, the music during fights gets your blood pumping, the characters themselves have good chemistry, and Ayano and Kisara are total badasses. The opening and ending themes are catchy too. However, if you’re not a fan of fanservice or love triangles, you might want to steer clear of this one. Personally, I don’t mind them, so I’m gonna stick with this series and see how it goes. – Patrick
– You can watch Engage Kiss on Crunchyroll.
Dropkick on My Devil!!! X
The new season starts par-for-the-course for the series: Jashin-chan attempting to kill Yurine and of course failing, followed by a fourth-wall type of skit. Bringing in the different art styles to the characters was interesting, along with the comments getting thrown in with them. I wasn’t expecting the last minute Jojo reference thrown in at the end of the segment, but I had to appreciate it. What’s suppose to be a friendly card game and lunch of course doesn’t go as it should as Jashin-chan ruins things and also briefly robs Hatsune Miku. I’m wondering how often she will be appearing in the season. We get a bit more story going on with the fallen angels, with Pekola meeting another denizen from Heaven who has started losing faith in humanity. Jashin-chan hears and challenges the newcomer and wants to defend humanity. In typical fashion with her character, it is because she would like to protect the parts of mankind she loves; those being pachinko, horse racing, card games, and other forms of gambling. The episode ends with the newest angel getting punched by Yurine, who as anyone could guess was instead trying to punish Jashin-chan. The series is a favorite of mine so I’ll be keeping up with it. – Walter
– You can watch Dropkick on My Devil!!! X on Crunchyroll.
Overlord
Overlord is a series I’ve been following for a while and started the light novels (though I am very behind on them). I am excited to see how Ainz and the others will continue their campaign. Ainz has become ruler of his own kingdom and is attempting to find the best way to lead it. The episode doesn’t have any action in it, but it does show how in depth Ainz and the others look to try and govern. Though Ainz only has a partial understanding of what’s going on and goes off what his NPCs are thinking. Albedo acts in her usual way and attempts to get close to Ainz whenever possible. Her getting jealous of Aura and Mare was pretty in character for her. Pandora’s Actor making an appearance again is always something I like. One of the biggest things that happened was Ainz’s discussing the place of adventurers in the kingdom, with him wanting them to be explorers. One set of characters I always appreciate seeing in the series are the different maids, like the Pleiades with their personalities. So far we have seen some new ones and I did like the one which followed Ainz around in this first episode. I like the large cast of characters in the series and I’m interested to see which ones get a larger focus this season. – Walter
– You can watch Overlord on Crunchyroll.
Anime of the Past:
Trigun
With the recent announcement of a Trigun remake, I had to go back and watch the original anime again. This was my jam back when it originally aired, and it holds up surprisingly well more than 20 years later. Vash the Stampede is an infamous outlaw worth $$60 billion and it’s up to Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson to keep him in line so he doesn’t cause more damage to the desperate communities clinging to life on a barren, desert world. After a series of misadventures, they meet the traveling priest Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who is the best character ever and I love him. I love this whole cast, honestly. Vash is such a well-written character. He’s a bit of a scoundrel with a heart of gold; a pacifist gunman who leaves untold destruction in his wake but who won’t take a life. He’s an absolute dork who completely hides his power level and it’s fantastic to watch. I also love the western aesthetic going on. You can definitely tell Yasuhiro Nightow loves this genre and crafted it with care. I’m honestly excited to see what Orange can do with the IP. As much as I love the original anime and its animation, there are aspects of it that definitely show its age, and I’m curious to see how well this title transfers from 2D to 3D animation – not to mention, I’m dying to know if this version is set to be Trigun‘s Brotherhood, seeing as the original anime aired while Nightow was still writing the manga. – Leah
– You can watch Trigun on Crunchyroll.
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
Trigun isn’t the only anime being resurrected. With Studio TRIGGER’s Anime Expo announcement of a Panty & Stocking season 2, I figured now was finally the time for me to get around to watching the first season. The original Panty & Stocking came out in 2010 when I was on a bit of an anime hiatus, so I missed it the first time around. That has now changed, and I kind of regret not giving it a watch sooner. What a romp. Some of the humor doesn’t really land, but it’s overall such a bombastic, explosive experience that the flaws get kicked under the rug. I love how unabashedly raunchy the show is, and the character designs are fantastic. I also love the mixed-media approach to each episode, with the real life models for the ghosts exploding after each kill. The changing visual design is also a treat. Panty and Stocking are great foils to each other, and it’s so refreshing to see girls being their gross, imperfect selves. If you’re like me and you missed the boat on this one, do yourself a favor and give it a try. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but you owe it to yourself to at least have a sip. – Leah
– You can watch Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt on Crunchyroll.
What anime are you watching? Let us know in the comments!
You can read previous Week in Anime entries here!
