Arum Journal

Sparks of Tomorrow is about how 20th century Japan is slowly revolutionizing, but they’re still relying on gas. Electricity is still a niche and novel concept, but Seiroku Sakamoto is  intrigued by it so he takes his little brother Kihachi to a busy street with his two friends to showcase the marvel of electricity. Four years later, Seiroku gets drafted into war and is never seen again while Kihachi has become obsessed with electiricy, but has a bit of disdain towards his brother due to his disappearance and that he took the Electric Catalog with him, so he’s just stuck tinkering with electricity on his own without his brother’s notes. However, it seems that the book was in the Momokawa household all this time and there’s another person who has set his sights on it.

Just a heads up, this is an alternate reality version of Meiji era Japan. Honestly, this was a good first episode in that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a steampunk story set in Japan. It feels a little odd seeing Japanese attire and mechanical steampunk machinery, but that’s just me who’s more used to Western steampunk stories. It does make me wonder how electricity will factor in a story where the steam engine is still king.

I don’t know if it’s a KyoAni thing, but I do feel like their camerawork has improved a lot! I honestly loved the part where Inako was walking through the furniture to get to where Kihachi was. The color scheme feels a lot vibrant too! It’s definitely a feast for the eyes.

The characters are interesting. Kihachi and Inako are absolutely hilarious with how both are yappers when it comes to a specific trigger; for Kihachi, it’s machinery and for Inako, it’s anything that she takes in face value. The way Kihachi’s mouth elongates as he yaps is super funny and the way Inako calls him a weird person when she’s weirder is also funny. I feel like I’m going to like this duo; I just hope Inako won’t turn into a moe blob character that’s only there to look cute.

However, the standout character is definitely Yosuke who is flamboyant and also very creepy. Look at the man’s face when he was approaching Noriko. That’s a psychopath if I ever seen one. However, I do wonder if Yosuke is the same person as Seiroku’s friend with the long bangs in the prologue. They have the same eye color and voice, but not the same hair color. He also addressed Kengo when he saw him at the Momokawa estate as Kengo was there in the prologue—he was the guy pedaling the bike. On top of that, we don’t know what happened to the long-bang friend after he fell back from slipping on a banana peel. My theory is that Yosuke is either his brother or a villainous transformation after Seiroku disappeared; in any case, that man definitely does not give off stable vibes.

Seiroku is also a big mystery because he went off to war, but the story frames it as he disappeared. So, did he disappear while enlisted or did the war finish and then he disappeared? I wonder what sort of relationship he has with the Momokawas that they had his book…

The voice cast is great! Yuma Uchida stars as Kihachi and Sora Amamiya stars as Inako. There’s also Koki Uchiyama as Yosuke, Daisuke Ono as Seiroku, etc. If you’re familiar with KyoAni anime and also know names of voice actors, a lot of them have been in past KyoAni works, so it’s like a gathering of all stars in a way. I think the casting that surprised me the most was Ayahi Takagaki as Tome, the granny maid. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her voice a grandmother before and she’s too young to start voicing grandma roles—she’s only in her 40’s. Still, I didn’t know it was her until I saw the credits, so credits to her for the range!

The dub cast is great too! Hunter McCoy stars as Kihachi; he voiced Ace in Twisted Wonderland and Fox McCloud in the new Star Fox game for Switch 2. I’m not too familiar with Audrey Hsieh, but she was in Medalist as Suzu Kamoto. Jonathon Ha voices Kengo. Yosuke is voiced by Paul Castro Jr who is also the new voice of Yosuke Hanamura in Persona 4; I find that super funny.

Anyways, I feel like I’ll be enjoying this due to the amount of theories I can make from the characters. I just hope it stays consistent from beginning to end. However, I do want to mention that this is a light novel series written by Hiro Yuki and the author did express his disappointment that KyoAni was changing a lot of elements from his story for the anime; he later deleted it, so I don’t know how much of it is truly credible. It does make me feel a little sad as an author myself… Anyways, let me know your thoughts on the episode!

The story is about Lara, born as the sixth princess of the royal merfolk family and the chronicles of her life. She was a nonchalant baby at first but slowly grew an interest in humans despite her father and sisters telling her to stay away from them due to their vile nature. When she finds a human prince drowning at sea one day, her curiosity for them only grew bigger to the point that her father had to lock her up in a dungeon due to breaching of customs. However, a secret meeting with her estranged aunt Grace has her going to the human world and falling in love with the prince. However, when her true form got revealed, it turns out that the prince doesn’t feel the same kind of true love as she does with him, hence the choice of her choosing to die, but managed to be revived due to her father giving a bit of his power into him. When she returned to the merfolk kingdom, it’s all in ruin due to her actions. Her family aren’t dead yet completely. Grace gives her a chance to be able to bring them back if she’s able to go through another trial, which will be to return to the human world once again, but this time, she’s in 2026 and meets Mari Otsu whom she was about to crash land onto but she stops her by…punching her.

Because this is an original story, each week will only be filled with anticipation and worry. I’m mostly worried because I don’t have the best track record of original anime. Some I’ve watched are great, but some were either mediocre or outright terrible. I hope Goodbye Lara is on the scale of as great as Buddy Daddies and not godawful like Marginal Service or Moonrise.

I honestly love the coloring of the episode! They all look like watercolor; is it because they’re underwater? Anyways, the artstyle does give off that retro 90’s shoujo vibe but mixed with modern art techniques. The scenery looks so much like a storybook! I honestly enjoy it so much!

Regarding the characters, I really like Lara as a protagonist. She’s morally gray in a morally white way, if that makes sense. What I mean is that she doesn’t view the world as black or white like her fellow merfolk but sees the good in the world above and its inhabitants, even if the prince did turn his back on her. Instead of faulting him, she blames herself for being vile. I see a lot of potential from her in a way. I think the standout character in this episode is Grace. She’s not outright evil, but is also Lara’s biggest motivator in a way. I feel like she could be the story’s biggest dark horse.

The voice cast is actually pretty good in both English and Japanese. Lara is voiced by Hana Hishikawa who voiced Cure Precious in Delicious Party Precure in Japanese and Brianna Knickerbocker in English. Hishikawa does a great job despite not having a lot of lead roles after her Precure stint; I feel like this could be her biggest non-Precure break. Brianna Knickerbocker is actually a great voice actress! I really liked her role as Yahna in Unicorn Overlord and she’s announced to be Yukiko in Persona 4 Revival! Grace is voiced by Rica Fukami who is a prolific veteran voice actress. She voiced Jessica in Banana Fish, Sailor Venus in the 90’s Sailor Moon anime and also Fran in Final Fantasy XII. Lara’s family also got a lot of good voice actors in Japanese. Rowan the father is voiced by Masaki Terasoma who voiced Shiguma Arakawa in Akane-banashi and Hidan in Naruto Shippuden. The sisters are voiced by a lot of known voice actresses but the issue is that aside from Luna and Lisa, I don’t know who is who for the other three sisters. Luna is voiced by Honoka Inoue and Lisa is voiced by Minami Tsuda.

Anyways, I can’t wait to see what sort of shenanigans Lara will get into now that she’s a 249-year-old girl trying to blend in the modern society. However, I’m most curious about why the heck Lisa is also in Japan. I guess it’ll be answered as the story progresses… Let me know your thoughts on this episode and the premiere!

The story is about Yuri who is enjoying her ordinary life. She finally got a boyfriend and her family life is unproblematic. However, one day, she gets pulled into the past and ends up in Anatolia (which later becomes Turkey in the modern day), specifically in the Hittite Empire in the 1600’s BC, all because of Queen Nakia’s plan on sacrificing her for her plans. Fortunately, she gets saved from death by Prince Kail. However, Yuri desires to go home and the biggest question is whether she can…

I do like the premise in that Yuri doesn’t get hit by a truck or accidentally dies; instead, she gets sucked into a water portal. At first, Nakia’s attempts failed, but she later succeeded by pulling her into a puddle; at least it wasn’t a bathtub where she was naked… As someone who’s afraid of deep water, that would honestly be a terrifying way to get isekai-ed, even more than truck-kun.

However, I do wish I’d learn more about Yuri before she gets isekai-ed. She has a good family life and also has a good boyfriend in Himuro, but what else? Given how she’s good at running away from those soldiers until she got caught, she does seem to have some athletic prowess. Was she a good student or not? What made Himuro attractive to her? It’s unfortunate that none of these questions I have will get answered as the story does seem to focus more on Yuri trying to stay alive in Anatolia. Oh, and she does seem to have knowledge of Egyptian history, so maybe she’s a history buff? Anyways, I do hope Yuri’s life before the time travel isekai does get explained.

By the way, I saw a clip on Twitter that the foreign language the Anatolians spoke was actually reversed Japanese and there is proof that it is such the case. Well, it would be hard to get Japanese people to speak the Anatolian language and not butcher it, so they had to get a safe alternative. I don’t think they had the budget to hire someone to speak it because it’s a very ancient language at that.

I guess my biggest gripe with the anime so far is that the animation does seem a little lackluster. The animation studio is Tatsunoko Productions who has been around for a long time. Some of their works include Psycho-Pass 2 and Ping-Pong; a lot of the anime they’ve worked on has been co-produced with another studio. Maybe the animation will get better later on. I did like the scenery, though…

The voice cast is alright? I feel like I’ve seen enough anime to know good and mediocre voice acting by now… Yuri is voiced by Mirai Tachibana who mostly voiced supporting characters; this is her first lead role. Kail is voiced by Wataru Kato who’s mostly known for voicing Rentaro in 100 Girlfriends. Nakia is voiced by Aya Uchida who voiced Parona in To Your Eternity, Komaru Naegi in Absolute Despair Girls and Io Nitta in Devil Survivor 2; maybe it’s just me or Nakia sounds a little too young for a Queen, let alone a villainous one like her…maybe she’s younger than she looks… The King Suppiluliuma is voiced by Masaki Terasoma who voiced Shiguma in Akane-Banashi. Kikkuri is voiced by Tomohiro Ono who mostly voices supporting characters; I know him as Odawara from Yohaji.

On the topic of voice actors, here’s a nice trivia: Yuri’s parents are voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue and Minami Takayama, who voiced Yuri and Kail in the Red River drama CD! I seriously do like it when anime does this. Also, Yuri’s older sister Mari is voiced by Umeka Shouji who voiced Cure Noble in Hirogaru Sky Precure and Eri Kanan in Appmon. Eimi is voiced by Maki Kawase whom I’m not too familiar with, but some of her roles include Xueyi in Honkai Star Rail, and Tiara in the upcoming Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave. Himuro is voiced by Hiroki Nanami who is also the narrator; her roles include Saho Hirose in Go For It, Nakamura and Joka in The Apothecary Diaries. 

So yeah, the first episode is alright, but I do hope it gets better. I honestly like the shoujo/joseimuke renaissance we’re having, so I hope it keeps up. Let me know your thoughts on this episode and premiere!

Anyways, Julia makes an appearance in this episode as she decided to study abroad in Japan for a month! Coincidentally, the school she’s attending is St. Blossom Academy, which is the school Rio goes to—and also coincidentally, Julia is staying at her place for homestay. I feel like adding in Julia to the plot makes it a lot fun; she’s a fun character in that she’s Mizuki’s biggest wingwoman and can defend herself against f*ckboys like Nanba and has an instant animosity towards Nakatsu. The way she trolls Nakatsu by pretending to be Mizuki’s lover and riling him up is hilarious. If you’re wondering why she doesn’t like him; it’s because she’s a SanoMizu shipper and doesn’t want a third party butting in. I think the best part of the episode was towards the end where she decked Nanba so hard. He honestly deserved that.

I guess a minor conflict would be Nakatsu being more open about his feelings towards Mizuki which is troubling her. She’s in love with Sano, so she doesn’t know what to do with Nakatsu’s feelings as he doesn’t know she’s a girl. While Umeda’s advice is ambiguous, I do wonder how this is going to be resolved. I just hope Nakatsu takes it like a champ when the time comes. Also, Umeda, Nakatsu isn’t straight as an arrow; he’s bi.

Julia is voiced by Yuko Natsuyoshi, who voiced Kaguya in Cosmic Princess Kaguya. The fact that she sounds different from my sweet Kaguya shows off her range; coincidentally, Anna Nagase, who voiced Iroha in that same movie, voiced Sano’s ex-girlfriend Rika who showed up back in Season 1. Rio is voiced by Nao Toyama who voiced Cure Arcana Shadow in Star Detective Precure, Suma in Demon Slayer and Aoi Sakamoto in Sakamoto Days. Sano’s mother is voiced by Aya Hisakawa who voiced Sailor Mercury in the 90’s anime, Kero in Cardcaptor Sakura and is the current voice actress of Bulma in the Dragonball franchise.

Next episode definitely starts the school trip arc and I’m excited to see what sort of shenanigans Mizuki and her classmates will get into. Will they meet Sano’s family? Will he visit them? Let me know your thoughts!

Anyways, the story is about a world that’s constantly in war. A school enrolls orphans aged 10 to 17 to become weapons for these wars. Death is such a common thing that no one gets emotional or concerned about them, aside from Sheena Totsuki who just lost her roommate the other day. After being tasked to clean her stuff out, she decided to eat her dinner late when she meets a girl covered in blood. She is later revealed to be a famous elusive student named Mimi Kagari who is rumored to be a secret weapon trained by secret faculty.

Right off the bat, the world building is great. It does give off ominous vibes because no one knows what sort of war they’re in. Who are the enemy faction? Why is there a war? None of those questions are answered right off the bat, which only accumulates the mysteries. The fact that they have a military academy for superpowered orphans and make them go to the frontlines is insane, but that’s what fantasy dystopia does… Also, the fact that when these orphans die, they disintegrate into light, hence why they have no corpses in their caskets. It does make me wonder if there’s a hidden conspiracy underneath all of this… Maybe the bodies don’t actually disintegrate and are hidden away to be tested on or letting the orphans escape…

I do wonder what Sheena’s deal is. She can’t conjure up her wand, which is a necessity at the school. Does she suck at magic or is she not in a good mood due to the stress of having her roommate die? I do wonder what sort of power she has and if she’ll ever go to the front lines. So far, Sheena has been the weakest character presentation-wise, but I await her growth. Mimi is definitely the most interesting as she’s a famed secret weapon and she has the appearance of a ten-year-old despite being fourteen. Let me guess… she was experimented on and she doesn’t age after she was ten or her aging got slower? I know how these stories work… Seiran and Ari also seem interesting because they’re one of the few instances where same-sex relationships are shown and seems to be allowed as Sheena did witness two girls…*ahem* “using restorative magic” on each other. It all depends on compatibility too, so maybe Seiran and Ari got really good compatibility and now they can’t take their hands off of each other. But it’s kind of bittersweet because what if one of them gets sent to the frontlines and die? Do all these pairs count as doomed yuri or something?

Animation-wise, there isn’t much action. However, there are a lot of small details that are fluid like the teacher summoning a giant book with her wand and how each character move around smoothly. The studio in charge is Roll2, which is a small studio; one of the anime they’ve worked one was Love is Indivisible by Twins which came out backing Summer 2024. The music is alright? Nothing too noteworthy for now.

The cast, though… This yuri anime got a good cast. Sheena is voiced by Rie Takahashi who voiced Hikaru Koragi in Akane-banashi, Ai Hoshino in Oshi no Ko and Megumin in Konosuba. To be honest, I didn’t recognize her voice until I saw the credits. Mimi is voiced by Rina Hidaka who voiced Ririchiyo in Inu x Boku SS, Kaede Kaburagi in Tiger & Bunny and Cure La Mer in Tropical Rouge Precure; she’s also the wife of Yuma Uchida. Seiran is voiced by Asami Seto who voiced Shisui in The Apothecary Diaries and Nobara in Jujutsu Kaisen. Ari is voiced by Yui Ishikawa who voiced Lihua in The Apothecary Diaries, Mikasa Ackerman in Attack on Titan and Shiori in This Monster Wants to Eat Me—is she slowly becoming the yuri queen or something? The teacher Omi is voiced by Ai Kayano who voiced Cure Finale in Delicious Party Precure and Claudia Ashley in Secrets of the Silent Witch, The nurse Fran is voiced by Yumi Uchiyama who voiced another purple-haired doctor in Dr. Sakurazawa in Demons of the Shadow Realm and also voiced Rudeus in Jobless Reincarnation. Sheena’s late roommate Laura is voiced by Sora Amamiya who voiced Aqua in Konosuba, Kasumi Yoshizawa in Persona 5 and Elizabeth in The Seven Deadly Sins.

Speaking of Fran, why does she look like Camilla from Fire Emblem Fates? Anyways, I checked this anime out because my moot on Twitter was raving about it. I’m honestly hooked. I can’t wait for more. Let me know your thoughts on this episode!

The first episode has Kodo Iwamoto, a middle school student on a mission to seek out supernatural occurrences on the behalf of his principal Kirijo. His objective is to seek out rumored black snow in a small village where he meets a rather beautiful but isolated boy named Shizuma Aonuma who is a talented apothecary but lives in seclusion due to grief and other reasons.

First off, I’m surprised that Iwamoto is a middle schooler. Middle schoolers are looking super old in this universe. If he’s in middle school, that would be he’d be around 15 at most. I get that it’s in different times, but come on…does this boy look like he’d be the same age as freaking Tanjiro Kamado from Demon Slayer? Also, to be honest, I mostly tuned in for the femboy Shizuma. However, judging from the opening, he doesn’t seem to have much of a significant role after this one, but I could be wrong.

Another thing that drew me to this anime was the supernatural premise. You know how much I love supernatural stuff… Iwamoto fights using supernatural abilities, which mainly consists of making spider lilies bloom and then explode. There’s also supernatural elements regarding the medicinal stuff that can heal things swiftly and painlessly. Since Shizuma makes them, would he be considered a witch doctor?

The voice cast is pretty good, though. Taito Ban stars as Iwamoto; he voiced characters like Sung Jinwoo from Solo Leveling, Shizusumi Yagi from Given, and Ayukawa from A Star Brighter Than the Sun. Shizuma is voiced by Takuma Nagatsuka who voiced Miya in SK8 and Auch in Unicorn Overlord. I feel like I don’t see Nagatsuka’s name all that much in anime, so I’m glad he was able to get a good role due to how soft and pretty his voice is. The principal Kizujo is voiced by Akira Ishida which feels so fitting due to the white hair and suspicious nature—an Akira Ishida typecast classic.

By the way, this story is written by the same author as Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (Nurarihyon no Mago). It seems to be popular enough as it already has 13 volumes published. I just hope they explain the story in the next episodes because they didn’t do so here… Let me know your thoughts on this episode!

Ivan’s daemons are a pair of swords collectively called Magatsuhi. The shorter one is Shokyo (the sho meaning small) and the longer one is Daikyo (the dai meaning big). Shokyo is more of a yapper as he consistently argues with his Master, calling him monkey and threatening to kill him; Daikyo is a lot quieter. However, as a pair, they both seem to have separate abilities. I think Daikyo has the ability to create the hyperspace teleportation that Ivan does in this episode where he creates a cubic portal and goes inside, exchanging the location of the place he cut. I think Shokyo’s ability is mostly cutting? I don’t know if both can do the hyperspace teleportation or if it’s just Daikyo.

I feel like mysteries of the Higashi Village increase the more is learned about them. The fake Asa is a daemon, but since all daemons must have a pair, her other half has yet to be seen. I think it’s Danji for the sheer fact that he could be a daemon. The fact that he can see Oshira-sama when normal humans can’t does say something. On top of that, daemon pairs have some similarities with each other. Right and Left have similar color schemes from their hair to their clothes. Ai and Makoto are female and male anglerfish. Gabriel are a pair of identical jaws. Yin-yang are color swaps of each other. Danji and the fake Asa both have black hair, so it’s definitely a clue that he’s her other half. Who’s their master? Given that Danji didn’t rush in to save Yamaha despite her being in danger indicates that Kyoka, the kind village lady whom Danji calls mother, might be the true master. Besides, Yamaha did look distraught when the fake Asa decided to go with Ivan instead of staying with her, indicating that Yamaha isn’t her master.

I feel bad for the shaman, though. He had to die like that and get his corpse carved into a letter. I also feel bad for Azami since she’s already traumatized from her mother’s death and is even traumatized more from seeing more deaths. If anyone has a reason to turn into the dark side in the future, it’s definitely her.

Hana’s job is revealed to be a grave digger—well, it was already revealed back in a previous episode. She’s finally seen doing her job on-screen now. It must be a hectic job as she has to be sworn into secrecy from her associates and from Dera regarding his location. Will she tell about the message to Yuru? I think she will?

Despite the episode mostly consisting of tragedy, I did like the light hearted moments like Yuru and Ken bonding over making weapons and Dera getting a television in the apartment! I always enjoy seeing Right’s reaction to technology. By the way, I saw a manga panel that this episode adapts from and they actually play an episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in the background—mostly the Sho Tucker episode.

And speaking of FMAB, Shokyo and Daikyo’s voice actors were a part of the cast there! Shokyo is voiced by Hiroyuki Yoshino who voiced Kimblee and Daikyo is voiced by Misato Fukuen, who voiced Elicia, Hughes’ daughter. In FMAB terms, Colonel Mustang is wielding Kimblee and Elicia. It makes for a funny imagery. Oshira-sama’s Master is voiced by Sakiko Tamagawa who has been in FMA media—she voiced Velza in Fullmetal Alchemist 3: The Girl who Succeeds God, which is a game. Some of her other roles include Emiko Niwa in DN Angel and Mineko Kazama from Crayon Shin-chan. 

With Ivan taking the fake Asa and Azami hostage, who knows how long it’ll take for Yuru to get the memo. I do wonder how long the battle between him and Ivan will take in terms of the two meeting and then duking it out. Oh, since this is the second half, there are new opening and ending songs! Both sound nice, but I like the ending song a bit more while the new opening is a little weaker in terms of song power. However, I do wonder why Akio doesn’t show up in the opening despite being a part of the Kagemori family…hm… Let me know your thoughts on this episode!

The way the family she built up with Fatima just came crumbling down after eight years really is tragic. I think what hurt the most was seeing all the family members die one by one until Sitara is the only one remaining. I think that hurts the most because I’d keep thinking that Sitara would maybe live together with Zumurrud and Anis in the nomad’s town despite the circumstances, but, nope, all hope that she clings onto dies like a candle fire. It’s just sad to see that Sitara could’ve had a future where she married Muhammad and officially became Fatima’s daughter, but that is all but a dream. The fact that Fatima called her her daughter before passing really showcased how close they were… I feel bad that she couldn’t get a proper burial. Though, I do feel like Muhammad might be alive, not only because the historical figure he was based on did live on until old age, but it’s because the boy himself is very intuitive and wise—his intelligence might have helped him escape. By the way, if you think Anis’s sudden death was abrupt, it’s not. She has always been the one to tell Sitara about what slaves can get to decide and she chose her path to die as herself and not as a prisoner to the Mongolians. Yes, it was cruel to leave Sitara all alone after losing Zumurrud a moment ago, but it is what it is.

The Mongolians really are cruel with how they just conquer and pillage. All the history books that detailed it feels very historically accurate. It just makes one hate Genghis Khan and his brethren even more. Though, I do wonder about that Persian boy that was with the Mongolian army. His shoes are similar to Sitara’s, making him Middle Eastern as well. However, he’s fluent in Mongolian and can speak Arabic/Farsi like Sitara (Yes, they’re speaking Japanese because this is a Japanese anime, but they’re technically speaking Arabic/Farsi because of the setting). I wonder what his deal is and why he’s working for them—I’m guessing he’s a hostage or a slave as well? I also wonder about the importance of Euclid’s Elements. Why did the Mongolian soldier seek it out when it’s in a language he can’t read?

Anyways, fun fact of the day: Tolui and some of the Mongolian soldiers are speaking actual Mongolian! The production staff casted Mongolian sumo wrestlers for the Mongolian speaking dialogue. Meanwhile, the Mongolian spoken by the boy Shira is done by Miyu Irino himself. I’m not sure if he can speak Mongolian, but he did take a hiatus a few years ago to study abroad, so he probably studied languages at the time. If you’re not familiar with Miyu Irino, he voiced characters like Tomoro Tenma in Digimon Beatbreak, Sora in Kingdom Hearts and Sugawara in Haikyuu. He’s one of my favorite voice actors, so to hear him in this episode was a real surprise; I did that Leonardo Dicaprio pointing meme when I heard his voice.

I feel like I’m kind of glad that the art style is very cutesy and whimsical because it’d be gorier if it didn’t have that art style. According to a merch picture, Sitara in this episode is around 13 years old. Since there was an eight year time skip back in Episode 1, that would mean Sitara was around 5 in the earlier parts of the first episode. Muhammad was 12 before the time skip, meaning he’d be 20 if he is alive. Anyways, I do wonder where the story will go from here. How will Sitara get the book back and what will her next objective be before she infiltrates the Mongolian Empire? Let me know your thoughts on this episode.

The story is basically about Sitara, a slave girl, who gets employed into a scholarly family and later becomes a successful woman in Mongolia due to her desire to overthrow the nation for losing everything she held dear by them. From the research I’ve done, Sitara is based on a real person named Fatima who was a successful woman in the Mongol Empire due to her intelligence. As you can tell from the names and setting, Sitara’s land is based on Persia which did get invaded by the Mongol Empire back in the 13th century.

Honestly, seeing a Japanese mangaka write a story about Islam and not have it be over exaggerated or romanticized is honestly amazing. Tomato Soup could’ve just used it as a backdrop and concocted some crazy orientalist story, but they didn’t. I’m not Middle Eastern myself, but I can see how much love and care the backdrop is put into the storytelling. The clothes and nuances feel so vibrant. Nothing feels offensive. It’s like a regular story that’s set in Persia. I feel like that’s the ultimate form of respect.

Anyways, onto the characters, the main character Sitara seems like a very witty girl. She has a rebellious side to her as she’s prone to running away from slavers, but ultimately develops a sense of loyalty towards the people who bought her as she understands the importance of knowledge. In a way, this is basically a story of an illiterate girl who later grows into one of the most intelligent women in the century. Still, I do love her wit as she likes to tease Muhammad for his shyness around her, mostly when it comes to her without her hijab.

The people who bought her and the other slave girl Anis are all very good people too. Fatima basically becomes something like a mother figure to her. Zumurrud is like an auntie. Anis is like an older sister and Muhammad is something like a mix of possible brother and possible romantic interest (too bad it’s not going to happen given the narration). The uncle also seems to be a good person too despite his exasperation with Sitara’s reluctance to learn earlier. I do like that they’re all intelligent people, so they don’t treat her like an idiot, but also makes sure she can read. Anis makes a good point about the live of a slave. While she’s being treated kindly by her mistress, freedom could be hard to earn despite pledging for it. Regardless, I do like that they all prioritize Sitara getting education as much as she can in order for her to get more opportunities. They’re all her guides in a way.

The voice cast is also pretty great! Akira Sekine voices Sitara; some of her roles include Sora Harewataru/Cure Sky in Hirogaru Sky Precure, Saki Aoi in Senpai is an Otokonoko and Moonlight Lunacy in Umamusume. Her mistress Fatima is voiced by Houko Kuwashima who is a prolific veteran voice actress; she voiced characters like Sango in Inuyasha, Kie Kamado in Demon Slayer and Presea Combat in Tales of Symphonia. The uncle is voiced by Tsuguo Mogami who voiced Keith Shadis in Attack on Titan. Anis is voiced by Mariya Ise who is also a prolific voice actress; she voiced Killua in Hunter x Hunter, Ray in The Promised Neverland and is going to reprise her role as Mitsuki Koga in the Green Yuri anime.

But there are also names I’m not too familiar with like Jun Saito who voiced Muhammad. He’s mostly an actor and his most notable role is playing Satomi in the live action movie adaptation of Let’s Go Karaoke. Zumurrud is voiced by Farahnaz Nikray who is actually a Persian voice actress and stage play actress based in Japan! I’m honestly surprised with the diverse casting from a Japanese anime in general.

By the way, Jaadugar means Magician in Persian. There are also sources saying that it’s also that meaning in other languages like Hindi, etc. This is also another piece of evidence showcasing how much Tomato Soup did their research. Anyways, the anime has a two episode premiere and I’ll be back to review Episode 2 later. Let me know your first impressions about this anime!