media log #2

11/4/2024

cherry magic! thirty years of virginity can make you a wizard?!

i spend a LOT of time reading BL. so i'm always pleasantly surprised when a BL gets animated and i've never heard of it before. animated BL is how i became a fujoshi, when a dear friend encouraged me to watch sekaiichi hatsukoi in 2012, so getting to enjoy a story with fresh eyes animated is such a treat.

and cherry magic! was definitely a treat! obsession is one of my favourite tropes so listening to kurosawa's inner monologues was so fun. i also love age gaps, and while we didn't get to see quite enough of minato and tsuge's relationship to really satisfy me, i enjoyed watching their developments nonetheless.

i sometimes talk about how good young fujoshis have it today, getting Bls like sasaki to miyano and given animated when back in MY day we watched junjou romantica and love stage and liked it (and i do, but you know how it is,). but cherry magic! kind of felt like a return to that era. with its cheesiness, endless miscommunications, and occasionally wonky art style, it felt like sitting down with an old friend.

watching cherry magic! weekly also made me remember how relaxing and comforting watching anime is, so i formed a habit of watching a few episodes of an anime before bed. starting with...

life lessons with uramichi oniisan

i started uramichi oniisan on a whim. i'd been seeing some clips from this show on twitter so it's been floating around my planning list for a bit, but more so as one of those shows you add and never get around to? but after watching an episode of cherry magic! one night i started scrolling through crunchyroll looking for something to watch and it caught my eye. but i'm really glad it did!

i don't know that all of the humour in uramichi oniisan particularly landed for me, but all the characters are so loveable and watching them interact was so fun. there's really not much for me to say beyond that - its a fun romp full of cynical adults trying to make it through each day working on a childrens tv show. the character design is stellar and the voice acting is incredible. even if some jokes are hit-or-miss, there are definite stand out bits that make it worth watching.

when it comes to anime i've mostly watched shounen and seinen, so i guess i got it in my head somehow that all josei shows would be soft, flowery, shoujo types. but that's my bad, that's on me. uramichi oniisan taught me that sometimes josei is just a bunch of fucked up pretty boys dealing with adulthood.

dungeon meshi (ongoing)

i was kind of dragging my feet on dungeon meshi and if you're in the same boat, stop!!! watch it right now!!!

i wanted to watch dungeon meshi for a few reasons: i saw yuriposting on twitter, i saw old man panty shots on twitter, and i love to see a high fantasy anime that's not a male-centric isekai. and while all of those things are great and true, no one prepared me for laios.

man, this himbo can fit so much freak in him. the concept of "loves something so much you want to eat it" is something i've always loved in media so i pretty much fell in love with laios immediately. he's just so..... freaky........ i love u weird man.........

i also have to pay mad respects to ryoko kui...... not many others have the balls to make a cute male protagonist and a cute girl deuteragonist but they are not romantically linked whatsoever and actually she wants to bang his sister....... ryoko kui your brain is so massive and beautiful

as i write this, i've only seen the first 12 episodes. i'm really excited to see how the second cour goes! i'm a little bit worried about just how many characters there are but i trust where things are heading and it makes sense. after the seasons ends, i'll probably pick up the manga!

frieren: beyond journeys end

as if having one high fantasy anime that's not a male-centric isekai wasn't enough, frieren comes in to provide another. the world is a joyous and wonderful place fr. normally, i would probably find it hard not to compare the two when they overlapped in airing a bit, but i think frieren and dungeon meshi are different enough that they compliment each other instead. i can definitely see why frieren is more popular with the a straight male audience than dungeon meshi is, but for once that isn't necessarily indicative of quality.

it's always interesting to watch something where the presence of a dead character is felt constantly. himmel and heiter are brought up constantly, and time is kept in years since himmel's death. it's the kind of narrative that really reminds you that life doesn't end after you die. not just if you are a hero who is brought up by those your deeds have helped, but in the memory of all those who knew you.

it's also nice to see a show that prioritizes the slow moments as much as the action. actually, i was a bit surprised when the first real conflict arose, expecting the anime to stay more along the lines of a slice of life. but the battle against aura the guillotine and her demons didn't feel out of place.

that being said, i do think the first class mage test arc does. usually i love exam arcs, and i love a lot of the characters involved in the exam, but i feel like the pace doesn't really suit what we've seen so far. it was a bit jarring for me. i also missed stark! and himmel! it feels like we lose himmel's presence a bit amongst it all.

i'll keep watching for sure though and i might still pick up the manga.

my new boss is goofy

i'll be straight up, i watched this for fujobait. and it did not disappoint. i'm still not 100% sure it won't end up becoming an actual BL.

my new boss is goofy hit a lot of the same points that cherry magic! did - i had fun, it was so cute, and i wanted those boys to kiss so bad (only in cherry magic they actually do). i loved all four main boys, and while a character like the section chief would usually annoy me, i found him so endearing.

another thing that usually annoys me but was done nicely was hakutou, the pet cat. animals talking, even if just internally, usually takes me right out. i find it to be a bit cringe, for lack of better word. but i love tsunderes and hakutou's internal monologue was cute enough i didn't mind.

having a canon bi character was so refreshing too! especially coming from fujobait. i'm not really one to care about queerbaiting in media because i'll just be insane in the fandom anyway, but it's always nice to be given a little bit of rep as a treat. God bless 'em, that boy is gay fr.

bocchi the rock!

first and foremost, i love watching cute girls doing cute things anime where 0.3 male characters exist. but bocchi the rock is hilarious because bocchi's dad is pretty significant to the plot, yet they still didn't bother drawing him a face. it cracked me up every time he was on screen. i hope they never give him eyes.

the other thing that stood out to me about bocchi the rock was how it played with animation and presenting the show. bocchi's inner conflicts gave the perfect avenue to play with the medium of anime and the shows team did such a good job. it's a really interesting watch from that perspective and i was always happily surprised when a different style would show up. in this way, as well as in some of its writing, bocchi the rock takes a lot of risks that pay off.

and of course, the show was so cute and so funny. all the characters were loveable too. and i really liked how they portrayed social anxiety, even if it was a bit over the top.

all in all a really great and well rounded show, especially if you like music!

reptilia - the strokes