"Summer Pockets" TV Anime x Pop Up Shop event at eeo store collab visual

So, let's see how this works. It's the start of a new season and I have put maybe too many shows on the list to check if they're interesting or not. I'll be experimenting with the format to see how can I make this work. Pretty sure next time I won't be so wordy because I can skip explaining the premise. Or even writing at all, there's weeks where there isn't much to say and once again, I'm not going to do recaps.

(next week)

What was on?

Kowloon Generic Romance

(ep 1,2) One of the shows that caught my eye early on, a (checks title) romance anime set in the Kowloon Walled City that was never demolished between two co-workers at a real estate company. Reiko Kujirai loves new experiences, while Hajime Kudou prefers things as they are. One day she finds herself falling for him, and later finds a photo of them... in celebration of their engagement. It looks quite good, and for so much talk about nostalgia, it does have a certain retro touch to it, almost like a 90s OVA that was lost to time. Judging from the initial two episodes, between the visuals, the intriguing world and the plot mysteries, it's the frontrunner for best show of this spring.

Witch Watch

(ep1, 2) Maybe it's becayse how much I like Kiki's Delivery Service (and maybe I should do a post on it), but the concept of "new witch graduated and must now deal with the outside world" kind of draws me in, that's how I ended up watching Flying Witch, a show I still think of occasionally. Witch Watch however is very much a romcom about Nico Wakatsuki, a witch who ended her training in the witches holy land and is now back in regular society, and picked her childhood friend Morihito Otogi as her familiar, as he's from a long line of Oni. It's looking great if you want something quite silly, her general clumsiness and not knowing the details of spells doing a lot for it. Best joke, the spell to make things lighter she later discovers when used on people turns them into airheads. Then later, they discover things get heavier to compensate, and I'm not going to spoil the joke the episode ends on. Second episode has them going to school, and Morihito's attempt at keeping her identity under wraps doesn't get past her introduction in the first day. I think this is going to be fun, even more knowing it will stay with us until Fall.

Your Forma

(ep1, 2) Right, who's been playing too much Deus Ex before doing their designs for in-brain HUDs? Am I complaining? No, I kinda want to play that game. From the first two episodes, it starts as a murder mystery where Harold, the android partner of Echika Hieda, an investigator capable of diving into said brain implants and also doesn't like robots, is found to be a suspect as he's one of the three models that look like the suspect. It's a bit hard to tell where it's going by now beyond the resolution leading to some tension between the leads, but it's also a bit of a tired scenario by now: brain implants, androids breaking Asimov's laws (no sorry, the Laws of Respect), and I'm sure we're getting into if they have rights in no time. While it has good ideas visually, I've found character design and backgrounds a bit uninspiring, and the story... Yeah, I feel I've been here before. It's distributed by Remow, so check if it's available in your area on YouTube.

Summer Pockets

(ep1) Had this as a "maybe" because the story of a boy who uses his Summer break to help sort his departed grandmother travel memorabilia at her place in a small rural island and clear his head after some swimming related incident and meets four different girls reminds me of a trend many years ago of shows that were technically very pretty, very slow paced and mostly focused on the low drama of the mundane and human emotion, where the main character and the rest of the cast help each other out with their own problems and limitations, as the gentle music plays over the cicadas, maybe with some supernatural element, and then finished on some sort of bittersweet nothing of an ending because the important was the growth along the way or something like that, and... I'm not sure if I'm in for that ride. First episode really didn't do much to quiet that feeling, and since Spring 2025 seems loaded, I'm giving it three episodes to do it. At least it has two things going for it - it looks pretty and unlike Tasokare Hotel I can at least go to the Play Store and see the game it is based on.

Gundam Paper Jam In Tray

(ep 1) So, this comes just days after (finally) watching both Gundam 0079 and Zeta Gundam, and decided to watch it based on my fresh knowledge of maybe 5% of the whole franchise. It's set on a different timeline from the original show where Char Aznable steals the Gundam and leads Zeon to victory, then disappears. It's hard to say that much about it, as the first episode was a bit messy and tried to push too many ideas at once without really giving enough attention to any, but it looks pretty good and should be at least mildly entertaining should it work out a pace at which to tell a story.

Uchuujin MuuMuu

(ep 1) the description - a socially anxious college freshman has to share her apartment with a space cat who's trying to rediscover technology lost to his people - was enough to get a "yeah, maybe" out of me, and while I didn't expect the edutainment parts of it, it may elevate how bizarre everything is. So, the race MuuMuu belongs to blew up their own planet in the middle of a war, but not before killing all scientists and smart cats, so by exclusion, MuuMuu is an idiot, and is now disassembling home appliances trying to figure out how they work, and let's be honest, if cats could do that, I'm sure they would. Unfortunately for him, while Sakurako can search things on her phone, she can't exactly explain how they work, either, which also serves as a comment on how very little we know of things we use every day. I think I'll stick to it, it has the potential to get really weird.

Apothecary Diaries

(ep 2.14) So, after making everyone think about "frogs", it was time for the fan service episode, which opened the way for a new mystery in the imperial palace Maomao has the opportunity to solve. It's not a particularly difficult one for her, but still provided another insight on how Jinshi protects the order in the rear palace, so it was dealt in half an episode. For the second half, it keeps moving towards the finale as Jinshi and Gaoshun discuss when to bring her inside his other (possibly even bigger IYKWIM) secret that she kind of figured out already, but tries not to think about too much.

Food For The Soul

The first show I added to this season "must check" list, it's another cute girls doing cute things, based on the greatest Japanese tradition of showing food, in the same week I watched Wakakozake, so what could go wrong. Well, it *could* be boring, but within the first minutes there's a character trying to pass a bribe to a university clerk to let her start a club with less than 4 members. Gremlin. Yes. At the end we know the main purpose Shinon had to create the club was to have a place to hang out, shattering the dreams Mako had of cooking and going to restaurants together. If it turns out to be group Wakakozake, it's a winner.

Mono Weekend Animation

Right, from one club to another, now the stories of two girls who joined the photo club in their first year of high school, and now are running it. Or, trying to, as Satsuki misses her senpai who graduated and is now in fetal position under the table and An mostly followed her into the club for reasons. Then they meet a mangaka who was burned out after finishing her last work and forgot to send them a camera, and needs inspiration for a new work, and finds the adventures of the two girls just the thing. This is both another cute girls doing cute things anime, with a hint of hobby anime, as you can guess, photography and video. Sure, why not (extends the spring posting window to three weeks).

'Tis Time For "Torture", Princess

(#266) Ah, one of the things this series does best, introducing new characters and making a mockery of expectations immediately, this time the Hell Lord's older brother, who obviously looks as menacing, but is also as considerate as him. Do I want to see this animated in the second season? Yes.

In other news:

Makeine was confirmed for a second season. Kind of surprised but happy with it.

The movie version of Rose of Versailles gets an April 30th release date and English dub, on Netflix (via).

City The Animation by Arawi Keiichi gets a trailer, should be one of my favourites for the Summer season, already hinting it will have some of the "didn't need to go this hard" animation of Nichijou.

Also getting a new trailer, the new Ghost In The Shell adaptation by Science SARU scheduled for next year. It's apparently not following the tone set by the 1995 movie adaptation, but closer to the occasionally goofier source material, which will certainly be a big point of contention for those who see the Oshii version as the standard Major.

Questions?

Anonymous didn't ask, but sent re: Guild Receptionist:

Its funny because the Guild Receptionist anime completely botched the novel because the novel actually has really good pacing and the anime basically deleted half the novel cast off just so they could give Jade more screen time. The first volume goes into depth about why there are bosses and the ancients, also they cut off so many key elements that it feels weird and empty