Yukiya and Miku, who are about to become high school students, have a game. It started several years ago with saying “I love you,” but has expanded to the point that now they just generally flirt with each other and try to provoke a reaction from the other. The loser of the “game” is the… Read More First Impression: I Want to End This Love Game
At Rigarden Magical Academy, Will Serfort (a master swordsman unable to actually do proper magic) continues his studies and scores perfectly on his graduation exams. We’re also reintroduced to his friends and various other characters. Will’s goal is to catch up to his childhood friend Elfaria, who is a member of the supreme council of… Read More First Impression: Wistoria: Wand & Sword Season 2
Juzo Ogami is a legendary assassin who has made it to the ripe old age of 39, which is something to be very proud of in that profession. However, when he reflects back on his life, he’s generally not very satisfied. He has done nothing more than kill people—which he doesn’t particularly like doing. And… Read More First Impression: KILL BLUE
In the year 199X, the world had been mostly destroyed by nuclear war. Water, food, plants, and humanity have almost gone extinct. This leaves the remaining people to fend for themselves, piliging and murdering just to get basic sustenance. Everything seems to be a desolate wasteland with nothing but ruins and dust. Ken, a wandering… Read More First Impression: Fist of the North Star: Hokuto no Ken
Shizuku’s father was a renowned wine critic with a collection worth a bazillion yen, and now he’s dead. In his will, the father declares a challenge between his son Shizuku and his adopted son (as of one week prior), the elite wine critic Tomine. They must correctly identify thirteen wines, including the eponymous “Drops of… Read More First Impression: The Drops of God
Botan Kamiina is an earnest, cheerful girl. When Ibuki, the RA at her dorm, goes off by herself during the girls’ visit to Hitsujiyama Park, Botan goes after her, only to discover that Ibuki is purposely drinking alone. Botan, however, asks to join, and Ibuki soon discovers that Botan becomes a little less quiet and… Read More First Impression: Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk
Arata Kouda is on his way home from school when he sees a strange penguin/alien-looking creature stealing coins from a vending machine. He is mildly surprised, but quickly makes friends with the eponymous Russian bird. His parents and older brother are a little less accepting, at least initially, of Kujima. In particular, Suguru, the older… Read More First Impression: Kujima: Why Sing, When You…
“Is there any point in reaching the top by stepping on other people?” first-year Wakana asks her new roommate Kinue, to which the older girl responds, “Platitudes won’t get you anywhere.” The world these girls have entered is a difficult one. Wakana, Kinue, Wakana’s new friend Momoko, and others are attending Awajima Opera School, where… Read More First Impression: A Hundred Scenes of AWAJIMA
Three students, all on the precipice of adulthood, all contemplating their futures: Koichi, who despite his parent’s objections, wants to pursue the arts—possibly as a graphic designer; Sayuri, who sees a glimpse of something special in Koichi, but doesn’t want him to dream and doesn’t allow herself to either; and Eren, an angry artist whose… Read More First Impression: Eren the Southpaw
After getting hit by a truck, followed up by a meteor, the unfortunate and unnamed protagonist of this story gives up the ghost. Death isn’t quiet and peaceful for him though—quite the opposite. Like many others who have died before him, he must reincarnate. Luckily, he gets to have a say in what kind of… Read More First Impression: My Ribdiculous Reincarnation
Takuya Seo is a loner student who sits in the familiar left-back corner of the classroom. His classmates don’t know much about him, and he prefers it that way. This is because if they were to know that he’s a huge fan of Glittermon, a girl’s anime, he’s sure they would make fun of him.… Read More First Impression: Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku!?
The long battle for the city of Priestella is now over, but the wounds inflicted are here to stay. The victims of the Archbishop of Sloth have forgotten everything, or have been forgotten by everyone. The former happened to Lady Crusch Karsten, one of the claimants to the throne, and as the cliffhanger with which… Read More First Impression: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Season 4
When she was seven years old, Sunao Aikawa created a replica of herself. She needed someone at the time to take her place, to take action when she wasn’t strong enough to do herself. After this first intervention, she has called for Nao’s (the name of her replica) help multiple times, but over time Sunao… Read More First Impression: Even a Replica Can Fall in Love
Gero is a master assassin. As a son of the Poison Clan, he uses his knowledge and abilities to carry about assassinations (though he only targets “human scum”). He has a problem, though, and it has nothing to do with contract killings—it has to do with marriage. His grandmother intends to make either Gero or… Read More First Impression: MARRIAGETOXIN
Rinko is a twenty-four-year-old otaku. Her apartment is her book-and-anime-focused sanctuary from the world. She makes it through the work day with hope of recharging off anime that evening. Unfortunately, her mysterious neighbor Usada pounds on the wall whenever she tries to watch most anime. Her other neighbor, Satsuki, is very kind and friendly. Somehow… Read More First Impression: Pardon the…
Maehara Maki hates spring. High school, for him, is nothing but loneliness. Newly transferred from a neighboring prefecture, living with a mother who works too much, he hasn’t had a friend in his life. The only thing he has to look forward to is his video game/movie evenings, with cola and pizza. Even worse, he… Read More First Impression: I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class
18-year-old Nao Kanzaki is the kind of girl who goes to the police and returns a coin she found on the street. Honest to a fault, she is accustomed to hearing she’s dumb, but she does not care much. Instead, her priority is honoring the teachings of her father, a cancer patient now living his… Read More First Impression: Liar Game
Togo Sakuradaimon is a hyper-serious class monitor who sincerely strives to enforce school rules. Poem Kohinata is a girl who pushes the rules to their limit when it comes to things like hair color and skirt length. They don’t get along…until they both end up in supplemental math lessons. Poem is good at math and… Read More First Impression: The Klutzy Class Monitor and the Girl with the Short…
It’s 2045, and technology has made life very comfortable and, seemingly, better. But with all the advances, there’s one restriction that’s quite unusual: People are outlawed from singing, playing, or even composing music. That’s why Seria finds it so unusual to hear someone in an alley singing a tune. Chasing down the voice, she instead… Read More First Impression: GHOST CONCERT : missing Songs
What if the future becomes the past? Imagine that riots, plagues, and international war bring about the collapse of civilization. Imagine the “Japan Era” becomes a memory, and samurai like those of old battle it out among decaying skyscrapers. Aoteru Misumi, an agricultural planner, lives in such a world, the world of the Sangoku period.… Read More First Impression: NIPPON SANGOKU: The Three…
A lot happens in this first episode, so buckle up. Our story opens at a rakugo (traditional Japanese storytelling) cafe in Tokyo, where a 30-something man is giving a performance. We quickly learn that this man’s name is Tohru Osaki, stagename Shinta Arakawa, and his performance…has room for improvement. We can tell he’s under a… Read More First Impression: Akane-banashi
In a world where social media is the determining factor for success in the world, OMGkawaiiAngel—also known as KAngel—is the ultimate “Internet Angel.” Her charming pastel presence and addictive music have gained her ten million followers. Her streams are like an injection of hope for her followers who live in a depressing existence of work… Read More First Impression: Needy Girl Overdose
Nanoka Kiba is a normal third-year middle schooler—well, normal except for the intense trauma she’s gone through. She was found by rescuers at the bottom of a sinkhole, bloody and not breathing; her family had fallen in while driving when she was a first grader. Now, all these years later, Nanoka finds herself at the… Read More First Impression: Mao
Minato, who can see benevolent spirits but not wicked ones, becomes caretaker of an abandoned house that belonged to a distant relative. As he cleans up, he unwittingly drives out the negative spiritual energy infesting the place. Soon he also meets Yamagami, a mountain god in the form of a large talking canine creature. The… Read More First Impression: Kusunoki’s Garden of the Gods
Yuru and Asa, “the children dividing day and night,” are twins. One of them was born at the end of the night, the other with the first light of day (so far, we don’t know which is which). Consequently, their fates are as different as can be. Asa now spends her life indoors in a… Read More First Impression: Daemons of the Shadow Realm
Ascendance of a Bookworm season four starts with a quick recap of Myne’s life prior to becoming a noble, before she moves into the home of her new father, Lord Karstedt. It’s a packed home: Rozemyne will also be living with his wife and sons, and she prepares for her second baptism. Thankfully, all three… Read More First Impression: Ascendance of a Bookworm: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke
Winter has come. Over the campus of Babyls, the school for demons, a trumpet plays a jazzy tune. But who is playing? As we return to the scene that season three ended on, we find Iruma—secretly the lone human at Babyls—and his classmates in the midst of their shock at discovering that they have had… Read More First Impression: Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 4
When, during their introduction, Bertia Ibil Noches tells her fiancé, the genius 10-year-old Prince Cecil Glo Alphasta, that she is a villainess who will “rip Your Highness and the heroine away from each other,” his response is one of interest and confusion more than incredulity or shock. He’s even further intrigued when Bertia explains herself:… Read More First Impression: An Observation Log of…
Outsuki Sakuya, the son of the greatest detective in history, is not quite as renowned. In fact, his father doesn’t even recognize him as a detective. Nonetheless, he confidently takes on cases with this assistant, Lilithea, at his side. The newest case involves following a film producer on a cruise ship to see if he’s… Read More First Impression: Killed again, Mr. Detective.
In 2025, when intergalactic kaiju started to invade and ravage the Earth, the Anti-Kaiju Defense Force (E-RDE) struggled to protect the Earth against them. But a savior for the planet stepped in. Piloting the robot Snowman unit that his father had invented, which he’s named Yukio, Tetsuo Yabusame provides hope for the Earth. Over the… Read More First Impression: SNOWBALL EARTH