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:
The Ancient Magus’ Bride
Elias and Chise are back and heading to College! Season 2 of The Ancient Magus’ Bride picks up shortly after the events of S1 as members of the College – a school for sorcerers and other magically-inclined folk to study at – invite Chise to both attend classes and let the faculty study her. As a Sleigh Beggy, she’s already a highly-valuable and sought-after magical being, but she also carries within her a dragon’s death curse and Cartaphilus’ curse of immortality, making her a rather unique specimen. Elias is, understandably, against her attending, but agrees to let her go so long as he can tag along as a faculty member. Most of the episode is setup for the College arc, but we are introduced to a few faculty members, including the head of the medical room, Alexandra Heath, who appears to be half caterpillar and takes quite a shining to Chise. We also meet a couple students, though only one by name: Chise’s roommate, Lucy Webster. She’s a lazy loner whose meeting with Chise involves getting hit by a door. I love her. We end the episode as Chise catches another student as she collapses in a courtyard.
The Ancient Magus’ Bride is one of my absolute favorite manga and I am so excited to see the College arc animated after the long wait from the end of S1. It’s wonderful to get to spend time with these characters again, and I adore how much both Chise and Elias have grown since their encounters with Cartaphilus. Chise is still reckless and doesn’t understand why putting herself in harm’s way is a bad thing, but she wants to learn other ways of helping that don’t involve personal bodily harm. She’s finally taking into account how hurting herself has hurt so many others who have come to love her. And Elias is actually asking Chise her opinions, listening to her, and supporting her conclusions, which is a far cry from when he tried to murder her friends. There is so much in store for them and I can’t wait to see it. – Leah
— You can watch The Ancient Magus’ Bride on Crunchyroll.
Yuri is My Job!
Hime is the picture-perfect high school student everyone loves. She’s cute, respectable and polite – at least on the outside. In fact, she’s just putting up a façade in the hopes of netting herself a high-powered and wealthy husband someday. Unfortunately for her, this penchant to always put on a show for others gets in her trouble when she accidentally hurts the manager of a themed cafe and gets roped into working there part-time until the manager’s wrist heals. Having always relied on her cute looks and charm, Hime finds herself in hot water when her schtick backfires and she upsets the cafe’s star, Mitsuki, in front of paying customers. Mitsuki absolutely hates Hime and makes her dislike abundantly clear, but Hime is determined to make senpai notice her in order to uphold her picture-perfect image.
I was honestly a bit underwhelmed by this one. The character designs are quite good and there’s some nice bits of animation (and I am 1000% here for the height difference, A++ no notes), but Hime’s whole thing is sort of grating. I was honestly rooting Mitsuki on the whole time because I, too, found the other girl’s antics a bit much. This could end up being a cute romance, so I’ll give it another episode at least, but I was mostly bored for this first episode, if not outright annoyed by the main character. Its one saving grace is it’s better than Citrus, which is my current low bar for awful yuri romance, so you know, aim high or whatever. – Leah
— You can watch Yuri is My Job! on Crunchyroll.
My Love Story with Yamada-Kun at Lv999
My Love Story with Yamada-Kun at Lv999 is one of the many new shows gracing us this Spring anime season. I love a good romance anime, so I’m hoping this show will sate my desire. The series centers around Akane, a university student, and Yamada, a high school pro gamer. In the first two episodes, Akane is dealing with a broken heart. Her boyfriend, Takuma, dumps her for another girl he met in the online game, FOS. She ends up venting in-game to her guildmate, Yamada, about the breakup, though Yamada really doesn’t care. She decides to try and get back at her ex-boyfriend during an IRL event for FOS. Things don’t go as planned as she ends up feeling even worse, but she does end up meeting Yamada IRL for the first time. And surprise surprise, he’s hot. Yamada ends up accompanying Akane during her drinking binge at an izakaya and has to take her back to his apartment after she passes out. Once Akane wakes up, Yamada explains what happened the previous night and sends Akane home. Akane realizes her necklace (a gift from Takuma) is missing and tries to contact Yamada in FOS. Yamada ends up scolding Akane about cluttering the guild storage and she logs out. After this, Yamada finds Akane’s necklace and accidentally breaks it. Akane runs into Yamada again after he coldly (and unknowingly) rejects a girl’s confession. He returns the necklace to Akane and lends her his umbrella as it’s pouring rain. Later, as Akane declutters her room, she remembers what Yamada told her about being selective in FOS and is able to part ways with Takuma’s necklace. Hilarity ensues as she runs into Yamada again after a night of drinking, and Akane is able to thank Yamada for being there for her when she needed it.
So far, I’m enjoying My Love Story with Yamada-Kun at Lv999. Akane is very energetic, a stark contrast from Yamada’s stoic and uncaring personality. I do love it when opposites interact with each other. Yamada being uncaring is funny cause he doesn’t even realize he’s being hurtful, he needs to learn more about interacting with other humans, which Akane helpfully points out. I’m glad Akane was able to get over Takuma after the first two episodes, as it would’ve been pretty annoying if she was still fixated on him for any longer. It’s always nice to see some character progression. Other than the two leads, Momo, Akane’s friend and roommate, is a joy. I like how she tells Akane how it is, a good trait for any friend to have. She’s also quite fun when she’s drunk. The characters are drawn and animated nicely, and I do love the opening and ending themes. I’m definitely gonna keep an eye on this one as the season progresses. – Patrick
— You can watch My Love Story with Yamada-Kun at Lv999 on Crunchyroll.
The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses
The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses follows a Tokyo U student named Hayato Kasukabe. He returns to his grandmother’s home and cafe, Familia Café Terrace, after her passing. Hayato plans to tear the place down and build a parking lot in its place to earn some cash. While he’s checking out the old house, he has a chaotic run in with five lovely ladies currently living there: Ouka, Riho, Ami, Kiku, and Akane. Ami actually knocks Hayato out during the craziness, as expected of a karate club member. Learning of Hayato’s plan to kick the girls out and tear down the building, Riho hatches plans to thwart Hayato. Each plan gets increasingly more ridiculous, but they unfortunately all end in failure. After all this and tasting Ouka’s pilaf, Hayato remembers why he wanted to get into Tokyo U in the first place, to help his grandmother. Hayato resolves to help Familia Café Terrace thrive and will not shut it down, for now. If he can’t help resolve its financial issues in a year, he will move forward with his original plan.
For the first half of the episode, Hayato is kinda scummy with how he only cares about money, but as it continues, you slowly see he’s actually a good guy with good intentions. All of the girls seem to each have their own quirks. Ouka is a terrible cook, unless she’s cooking pilaf. Riho is a schemer and can come up with a bunch of ideas, but she also sleeps weirdly. Ami is a dummy, but she’s super athletic. Kiku is probably the nicest of the bunch, but when she gets drunk she gets really wild. Akane is the coolest one and she’s a part of a band. Having all these different personalities under one roof is sure to cause some chaos and fun moments, so I’m definitely looking forward to that. The characters all look nice, and there is plenty of fanservice for those who like it. I really liked the opening theme, it’s very upbeat and catchy. Plus, the female leads all dance in it, which is nice. Good first episode, I will definitely be following this one. – Patrick
— You can watch The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses on Crunchyroll.
Otaku Elf
I’ve picked up a few volumes of the manga before this one was announced, so I was curious to see how it turned out. The series follows Koito who becomes the shrine maiden for her family’s temple as she takes up the responsibilities of the position. Most of it is assisting the shrine’s Goddess, Elda. Elda is actually an elf who was summoned to Japan a couple hundred years previously, and frequently mentions that she doesn’t have any divine powers. Though she does have a few abilities such as speaking with spirits. While popular in town, she is a shut-in who enjoys otaku pursuits. This slice of life comedy isn’t bad, but I would say it does start off a bit slow. For me though, Elda is definitely the main draw. I’m looking forward to how they’ll bring in the other characters. – Walter
— You can watch Otaku Elf on HIDIVE.
What anime are you watching? Let us know in the comments!
You can read previous Week in Anime entries here!
