Quick Anime Review

Back Street Girls: Gokudolls (2018) | Rating: 3/5
Before every new anime season, I scroll through MyAnimeList's page of series, OVAs, and movies that are coming out and add whatever sounds interesting to my "Plan to Watch" list. This was one of those series that caught my attention by its shear premise. If you have not watched my First Impression video of this, then you're truly missing out on the wtfery of this series. Coincidentally, around this time, I was watching quite a few series that decided to go outside the box on concepts. Hopefully, I'll do a quick little blurb about them here on the blog. This series was highly entertaining. By no means, it wasn't the best of the best of anime, but the mere concept of three yakuza deciding to fly to Thailand for a sex change and become an idol group is just so out there. I admit the animation is a little lazy and odd at times and perhaps the concept for this show might be considered problematic, but I had a fun time with it to the very end.


DRAMAtical Murder (2014) | Rating: 2/5
I was drawn to this series due to cosplay and maybe a little fanart. I loved the character design and the premise sounded interesting. Fortunately, my job had the DVD set. So, I checked it out, put it in the player, and proceed to trudge through nearly every episode. *sighs* This sadly ended up being a waste. This series is based on a BL visual novel of the same name. To my surprise, and I'm sure to fans of the visual novel, there was no BL to be found. The story was confusing and I had a hard time keeping my focus to push through the last few episodes. One redeeming part of having the DVD set was the bonus footage, "Data_xx_Transitory", which features the bad endings of the game in anime form. OMG! If the series took this serious, darker tone with just the right amount of BL, it would have been hundreds of times better! I have no idea why they took out all the fun parts of this show. Honestly, the bonus material made me want to play the game now and possibly become a fan of this universe. In short, if you enjoyed the visual novel or the BL genre, I'd totally skip out on this one.


Gosick (2011) | Rating: 3.5/5
Here's another series that I was interested to through cosplay. A new friend I made through a mutual was cosplaying the main character Victorique de Blois and she told me a little bit about the show, which made me interested in checking it out. I was not disappointed. I love a good mystery series and this was definitely one of them. This series has a similar feel to Black Butler with a little less supernatural elements to it. I enjoyed watching the duo team of Victorique and Kazuya Kujou solve mysteries together, but moreso seeing their friendship grow and grow over time. I will admit there might've been moments where I thought the story/mystery drag a little too long, but for the most part, I enjoyed the journey and later the destination I ended up with these characters. I don't know many people who have seen this series, but I think people should definitely check this out if you want a European mystery setting.



Hanebado! (2018) | Rating: 3/5
Yes, I still have a slot for sports anime in my anime rotation. I probably always will until I run out of sports anime to check out. This series was different than previous entries as it focused on an all girls team. It also focuses on a sport I genuinely enjoy playing and miss participating in. Anyway, when I first started this series, I wasn't sure which direction it was gonna go, but I was willing to stick with it. I honestly don't regret the journey I went on with these girls. It not only focuses on a badminton prodigy, the aggressive team captain, or their rivalry, but we get to learn about the other teammates' insecurities and relationship with our highly skilled mains. I will admit that the "rival" from another team was...okay. It was a brief moment within a few episodes and I think it could've been executed just a little bit better. I didn't dislike her, but her character tended to hit a couple foreigner beats I've seen in a lot of anime. Nonetheless, I would like to watch more sports anime featuring women in the future.


Happy Sugar Life (2014) | Rating: 3.5/5
If you haven't seen it already, I did do a First Impression video of this series and boy, it was still quite an insane ride to the very end. I am totally on board with anime subverting your expectations for the better and the ones that stand out the most are cute concepts with a dark side. Watching this series was unpredictable with a hint of insanity and I'm totally down for those sorts of things. I enjoyed the unique animation style and color palette chosen to portray uncertainty and pain. The story and characters remained interesting and I had no idea how things were gonna end. Overall, I was not disappointed, but I did have a couple questions with the resolution. Nonetheless, the twists and turns of this story was definitely different from any other anime I've seen. Keep making cute, but dark series, Japan!

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