Summer 2023 Anime Review Round Up

New anime seasons don’t always interest me. I usually look through the new releases on various streaming platforms, but I don’t follow the release schedule. I don’t use MyAnimeList or anything of the sort. Usually, I read through the descriptions of new releases and give the first episode a watch if the description grabs my attention. Now, I have a high tolerance for bad films. I grew up watching Mystery Science Theater, and few anime approach MSTK’s level of bad stories. Sometimes I will watch a poor story because an anime is experimenting with animation in an interesting way, such as The Girl I like Forgot Her Glasses. I tend to watch these shows while doing other tasks since the stories don’t hold my interest. This past summer had quite a few continuations and standalones that snatched my attention. Most of the time, I watch two or three new releases: about an hour’s worth of watching each week. My habit is to make my own version of Toonami on Friday or Saturday nights. This allows me to build some anticipation rather than watching as each episode releases. As a conversation starter: what’s your viewing habit?

In any case, instead of writing a long-form review for each show, I decided to combine my thoughts into this single article for a change of pace. This list is in no particular order, and these are all the stories I watched to the end. I dropped a few others after giving them a fair try.

Mushoku Tensei II

I never thought I’d see erectile dysfunction as a plot point. I have mixed feelings toward Mushoku Tensei. I dislike Rudy as a protagonist, yet I watch because the story offers hints that he will mature. He makes some progress time to time. He is a realistic character with his self-absorption and foibles. Even though I tend to dislike him, he’s interesting. After he finally gave his V-card to Eris in the previous season, he realizes he hadn’t changed as he thought he would. He now has even more heartbreak to carry around, which makes him fear women more, which leads to his ED. Rudeus joins a magic school in an effort to rid himself of his ED and to learn more about magic. He continues to cling to his panty fetish and other immature behaviors, but he does make a little progress toward maturity in the season. Mushoku’s world continues to be interesting. Mushoku is one of the few isekai stories that comes close to pure sword-and-spell fantasy that I enjoyed as a kid.

Horimiya: Piece

Horimiya sits on my list of enjoyable rom-com anime in recent years. It came out during the COVID pandemic, offering a warm escape for people who were socially isolated. I’m sure many will remember the series fondly in part because of this. Piece revisits the story with scenes the original anime didn’t cover from the manga. The season is framed as reminiscences by the characters. Horimiya offers amusing and thoughtful character interactions without relying heavily on the social and emotional denseness rom-coms usually do. The story feels fresh because of this, and Piece offers a pleasant revisit. The series captures a sense of nostalgia and warmth, even for those like me who have no high-school memories.

My Happy Marriage

This story offers a good example of strength in softness. Get ready for a lot of crying in this one, just like in Horimiya. Set in an interesting and alternative Meiji period, this story follows family dynamics in a world where inherited supernatural powers determine social standing. Miyo is born without any apparent spiritual gifts. She’s treated poorly by her family. My Happy Marriage is a retelling of Cinderella. Eventually, she’s forced into an arranged marriage with Kiyoka, a soldier from one of the most powerful families. Kiyoka has a reputation after scaring off all his other matches, but Miyo has been held under boot for so long that she stands out. The story follows the development of their relationship and Miyo growing into a quietly confident woman. My Happy Marriage does a good job in capturing how strength appears in many forms, and how water-strength is stronger than fire-strength, the usual strength we see shonen characters chase.

Masamune-kun’s Revenge Season 2

Masamune-kun’s Revenge is one of those hate-to-love stories. Masamune believes his childhood friend, Aki, rejected him and so decides to go from chubby to muscular heartthrob so she would want him. He would then dump her so she would understand the pain he had felt. The plan gets complicated as the supporting cast of girls falls for him, and he genuinely falls in love all over again with Aki. Masamune’s character development, along with the female cast, keeps this story interesting. This story has a junk-food quality to it, but it kept me watching for two seasons. This isn’t a harem despite the large female cast aiming at Masamune. They function as red-herrings for the story along with complicating the dynamics of the plot.

The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses

This is one of the series I half-watched because I found the animation interesting. In the first several episodes, the studio goes overboard with its 3D animation camera pans, floating dust motes, and other hijinks. They were playing a bit too much with their new toys. Fortunately, the camera pans and their dizziness reduces. The story follows the on-and-off romance between middle-schoolers Mie and Komura. Mie forgets her glasses and so has to get up close to Komura to see his face. It’s amazing the number of situations the writer dreamed up with such a simple premise. As for the animation, the studio often recycles stills and various crowd scenes. However, this does capture the mundane routine of going to school. You can tell the animators were having fun with Mie and Komura’s character models. Mie’s hair gets lavished with attention. Mie and Komura’s facial expressions are also interesting in their variety. As 3D anime go, this one isn’t terrible, but the bar is also quite low. It has cute moments, but Komura is dense even for a middle schooler.

The Dreaming Boy is a Realist

This season was stacked with rom-coms, or perhaps my tastes have shifted toward them because they offer a little better character development over recent action-anime. Sajo stalks and pesters his crush, Aika, who keeps rejecting him. After a flying soccer ball opens his eyes, he gives her up. He then works at improving himself, such as taking on a part-time job, and detaching more from what he has no control over. Since this is a rom-com, Sajo’s walkback from Aika and self-improvement attracts attention from other girls. Aika soon believes he had come to hate her. Sajo’s abrupt change of thinking takes time for him to even understand, though he accept it. His development made me think of various Zen stories where people have an everyday event wake them up. It offers a good modern-day version of these types of stories.

Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon

Just when I thought isekai couldn’t come up with anything new, we get a vending machine lover reborn as a magic vending machine in a JRPG fantasy world. Boxxo can morph into any type of vending machine from our world, and he has a magical barrier that can’t be penetrated by anything in the fantasy world, at least in the first season. He pairs up with a girl named Lammis who has the Blessing of Might, allowing her to carry him around. Boxxo is able to provide food for Lammis and the other adventurers who are trying to clear each floor of a dungeon. Boxxo is overpowered, but in a fun and different way. He’s limited in his ability to talk. He can only speak in canned vending machine sound bites, such as “Thank you” and “Please insert coin”. As he develops a relationship with the characters, especially Lammis, they learn how to read what he’s trying to say. It’s quite a fun and creative story. If you are tired of the usual isekai fare, you will find this one refreshing.

The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen

Here’s another isekai where the protagonist is reborn in a fantasy world she’s familiar with. This one is a dating sim where she’s reborn as a villain. The villain rebirth story has become a subcategory of its own with how many stories fall into it. This one is another junk-food story. Pride wants to avoid the villain’s death in the sim-story, so she acts super nice and looks out for everyone. In several scenes she asks her friends and family to kill her if she ever turns evil, much to their shock and surprise. There’s not much here. The plot follows Pride helping and being nice to people and using her knowledge of the sim to improve the “endings” of the supporting cast. More tears in this one.

The Great Cleric

And the last isekai of the summer season. Whenever I play MMORPGs, I play as a healer, so this story grabbed my attention. A young businessman is reborn as Luciel and blessed with healing magic. To avoid dying again, he joins the Adventurer Guild where he learns how to fight in return for healing wounded adventurers. In the story’s world, healers demand high payment for their services and wield a lot of political power. Luciel’s low-price of a single silver per heal and his willingness to heal anyone undermines the system. The church soon hears of this and drafts him into their ranks to use for their own purposes. This comedy has some good jokes–nowhere near as good as Horimiya’s–but as a healer player who heals as Luciel does, this was a fun watch.

There you have it!

Did you watch any of these stories? What did you think of them? Most of my weekly TV time was spent on these stories. If you skip the opening and ending themes, you can watch 3 in about an hour, which fits into my schedule. I know, I know. Skipping opening themes and ending themes is frowned upon by many. I don’t normally watch so many in a season. Most don’t appeal to me, or I wait until I can watch the entire season on my own time.

Do you want to see me go forward with this round-ups? If a story really grabs me I may still do a deep dive. After posting every week for over 10 years, I look for different approaches and for ideas to fill in my posting schedule.