in a rare appearance of only one anime at a time, i am going to be watching the first episode of Prétear. full disclosure, i am doing this because i saw the album cover of its soundtrack on Tumblr and i was intrigued, and i have not watched anime nor blogged about it in a very long time (obviously).

let's begin!

apparently, this is a Snow White retelling, and i'm fully expecting shoujo/mahokka shenanigans. the art style is pretty gorgeous, which doesn't surprise me for early 2000s anime, but i'm still impressed. the character designs are also fanservicey in a way i can appreciate, i.e. bishounen and NOT panty shots. i LOVE the design of the main character, Himeno. it's feminine and tomboyish at the same time, and immediately memorable.

actually, the longer this goes on, the more i love ALL the character designs. i guess that makes sense, since that's what grabbed me in the first place. THEY DON'T HAVE SAMEFACE SYNDROME!! IMAGINE THAT!!!

okay, okay, the gorgeous art, we get it. how about the writing? so far, i'm enjoying it. the characters feel so surprisingly...deep. i am SURPRISED by how much i like Himeno. she is that archetype of like, uncouth headstrong shoujo protagonist, but there's something special about her, a kind of elegance and capability, that feels different from your common Stupid Anime Girl. like, this anime has the female gaze written all over it. i love it!

aside from the character writing, the story is pretty standard. can't tell much from the first episode, of course, but the Snow White similarities are pretty....not there. which is fine, that's not what i'm watching this for. but it's like, there's a thing about snow, and she's the chosen one, and there's seven guys....and that's pretty much it. she has the whole evil rich stepfamily thing going on for her, but that sounds more Cinderella than Snow White to me. ANYWAY. she's the chosen one, it's a shoujo anime, the world is in danger, she's going to save it, blah blah blah. magic and shenanigans ensue. it's nothing i've never seen before, but i like the characters a whole lot.

will i continue watching? hell yeah!! i'm interested! i want to see how Himeno's relationships develop, and i want to see how she develops into her own, too. she's really smart, capable, foul-mouthed...this is kind of unheard of for mahokka. i guess this is aimed at an older audience than most magical girl anime, but it lacks the stupid-ass ecchi factor that a lot of teen anime skew toward. i don't know why i haven't heard of this anime before, but i'm glad i have now!

i recently asked my tumblr followers to give me anime recommendations so i can do another one of these first episode thingies. because as it turns out, it's really fun to try out new anime this way!

Cells at Work 
recommended by @missrainbowsheep (and @professor-glasses, technically)! now, before i watch this episode, i must disclose that i have Personal Beef with this anime. mainly, when i was really young and first learned what blood cells were, i 100% made my own version of this. and as far as i know, that was BEFORE Cells at Work came out. which means that i think they stole my idea. and thus, since everyone LOVES this show, they owe me hefty royalties.

but perhaps i will come around after giving it a try. without further ado, i give you...what i think of episode 1.

ok. ok. i forgive them now. this show is very cute and silly. and i would be lying if i didn't love the little educational popups that appear. if i watched this back when i was attending that biomedical magnet school, i might have cried less over my biology exams. i was originally not very impressed by the art style, but the rest of it is charming enough that i forgive the animation.

this first episode has a VERY good plot. excellent introduction of the premise, excellent way for the main characters to meet and work together for the first time, all around the kind of thoughtful and soulful execution i adore and find so little of in most anime. also, the humor is great. it's very...cute. this whole anime is just. Cute. and i'm LEARNING!!!

will i continue watching? YES!! the writing is fantastic and i care about these little cells so much. it is exactly as dramatic and fun as my 7-year-old attempt to personify immune system processes. plus, it doesn't look like it's too long of a series, so i can see myself watching this to the end. i see why everyone loves this one DFKJNFG

Bungou Stray Dogs
ok. i've been meaning to watch this anime for ages, because the art style is my idea of the Perfect Anime Style (well, maybe not anymore now that i've seen Little Witch Academia, but...i still like it). when @professor-glasses got into it, i thought i'd get into it sooner, but uhhhh...i got hung up about how much it reminds me of H/etalia but with literary figures instead of countries. anyway, whatever. they recommended it to me, so now i HAVE to watch the first episode. at least. so maybe i WILL like it as much as i originally thought i would.

my "first impressions" are gonna be weird, because like...my friends watch this show and i've gained knowledge about it through dashboard osmosis. like, i've already drawn akutagawa, i've got one foot in the fandom already.

somehow i have the feeling that this anime is gonna trigger me. Dazai is beloved and all, but his character worries me FKJNDFJKGN (that's probably another reason why i haven't watched this sooner. trying to make sure my mental health isn't in a ditch, on fire, while one of the main characters is a "suicidal maniac")

i will say this, though. the premise is very cool, the animation is exactly as good as i've always thought it was, and the music rules. the fact that their abilities are named after the author's works? delicious. i feel a little less weird about their namesakes...a little? like, they're not representing the authors they're named after, necessarily, but their characters reflect their opus...idk. still rubs me a little the wrong way, but not enough that it actively prevents me from watching. what actively prevents me from watching is um...the way Dazai is. and Nakajima's little flashbacks. though i'm not expecting the latter to appear much later in the series (at least not as much as in the first episode), so as far as i'm concerned it's only the former that i have to worry about moving forward (of the things that have appeared so far -- according to some meta i've read on tumblr, there is probably more that i have to worry about with regards to certain sensitive topics).

will i continue watching? not until i'm in therapy. but yes, once i feel stable, i'll probably return to this anime. i smell a delicious ensemble cast.

 confession: i actually sort of half-watched the last three episodes in this season last night, so these are not first impressions. but i guess since this is a rewatch, they were never first impressions to begin with? anyway, let's enter the realm of one of my favorite anime finales of all time.



overall rating: 7/10

the verdict is: they took too long to show me kiyama again, but i forgive them because of what's coming.

( full thoughts )

first i'll address all the episodes that came in between this. they were side stories about that one antiskill lady, the dorm mistress, and the tokiwadai dorms which i guess was just an excuse to draw a bunch of girls in maid dresses?? honestly, they were very good filler episodes and they added a lot of development and depth to the supporting cast. plus, you can tell they're planting the seeds for some kind of payoff in the main story, but it's not exactly clear until they actually make it relevant. my only complaint is that putting all these filler episodes in one after another starts to get pretty stale and i got impatient a number of times for something to actually happen.

hallelujah, in episode 20 something finally happens.



uiharu gets a new roommate named haruue eri, who is the girl who lost her locket in the antiskill lady's episode. from what we saw for a brief second in the episode where she was originally introduced, haruue has a photo of the little headband girl from kiyama's flashbacks. she bonds with the main cast, they go to a fireworks display, and the main plot starts kicking in with an explanation for the earthquakes that have been happening. (and THIS is where telestina comes in, my bad.)

overall score: 6/10

uncomfortable moments: like 2

( full thoughts )

summary: judgement investigates an esper-hunting gang known as skillout, a "reckless group of level 0s". 

overall rating: 6/10

uncomfortable moments: 2 (juuuust kuroko)

( full thoughts )

what the hell is this?
i want to get back into the groove of actually blogging (NOT tumblr-style), so i figured since i'm really into watching old anime i used to like, why not start posting about it? a certain scientific railgun was my favorite anime when i was younger, but now it's kind of. eh. but i still feel very strongly about it.

why are you starting on episode 13?
that's just the episode i'm on right now. i really don't want to start over again.



summary: this is. the beach episode. you know, how every anime needs to have one? essentially the entire cast gets invited to model swimsuits. this episode is allllll fanservice.

overall score: 2/10
i almost skipped this one entirely. i could have, with zero consequence. but i didn't, and ONLY because i love uiharu in this episode.

uncomfortable moments: 6 (mostly kuroko being creepy + weird comments about boobs, but it IS the beach episode so i expected this number to be high)

( full thoughts )