Category: Comedy

Urusei Yatsura: The Triumphant Return of Some Terrible Bastards

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hisui_icon_4040_round I have to say I’m glad that there are still anime and manga licenses that can surprise me. Despite the number of crazy anime licenses (that are not Macross) that have been announced there is still about one a year that pleasantly surprises me. The one for 2018 was the fact that Viz said they were going to try and release the Urusei Yatsura manga again despite dropping the license twice before. I was generally content with the anime release from AnimEigo from a few years back but I can’t say I was not at least something secretly hoping for a full release of the manga even if it felt highly unlikely. So I was a bit blindsided in the best possible way by the news and have been waiting for the new and improved books ever since then.

This post is less of a review and more of my observations on the first volume. Like with some of my Type-Moon posts none of what I would write would even remotely be considered objective or measured. This has always been a series that I loved and was very important to my early hardcore fandom so to say I look upon this book with rose-colored glasses is putting it kindly. If anything think of this as a look into the thoughts of a super fan.
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Secret Santa Project Review: KonoSuba – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World!

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hisui_icon_4040_round If you were curious my three choices for Anime Secret Santa this year were both seasons of KonoSuba, both new parts of FLCL (FLCL Progressive and FLCL Alternative), or both seasons Blood Blockade Battlefront. For some reason, my Secret Santa seemed hellbent on me watching two seasons of whatever I picked.

I passed over FLCL mostly because while I was interested in watching the series I heard it was extremely disappointing. It was not horrible, or even worse, it just was a pale shadow of the original. It felt like something that would produce a rather limp review. Blood Blockade Battlefront seemed the safest choice. At worst I might find the show dull but it would have to go some really bad places to be hard to watch. KonoSuba seemed to be the show most in the spirit of the Secret Santa Project. It was a show I avoided because it seemed like more of the same isekai nonsense that has been flooding the market. But along with Re:Zero it is one of the few transported to another world series that I actually saw good reviews for. It seemed like a title I might have wrongly prejudged as another wannabe part of the Sword Art Online wave.

To be perfectly honest I also had I plan that if KonoSuba was Texhnolyze bad I could just hit the eject button and review the far safer Blood Blockade Battlefront. I’m not going to suffer THAT much for this project. Once was enough. I’m not that much of a masochist.

Clearly, since this is my Secret Santa review KonoSuba was not total unwatchable trash like The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar but that does not mean it was good. Does KonoSuba rise like cream to the top of the isekai barrel? The short answer is: It’s complicated.

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Manga of the Month: Wakako-zake

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Wakako-zake by Chie Shinkyu

Wakako is a young office worker who understands the pure pleasure of a good bite to eat and good drink to go alongside it. Usually that means popping in an eatery after work, but even at home or at a wedding, Wakako has her food priorities straight.

Short chapters pack a lot of punch with lovingly detailed food shots and Wakako’s wide-eyed face that is made for good reactions. A contented “PSHEWWW” often escapes her lips as she enjoys her meal.

From the simple pleasures of fried chicken and rolled omlette, to the exotic treasures of monkfish foie gras and grilled turban shell, Wakako appreciates all ends of the culinary spectrum.

Often depicted alone, but not lonely, Wakako not only takes great pleasure from eating food but also feels no shame in it. Whether you read a chapter now and then or a whole book at once, you’ll be uttering  a happy “PSHEWWW” yourself.

~kate