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Jun 12, 2026
I was once a teenage girl who dreamed of the stage. For six years, I worked hard at it. I wanted to act. I wanted to sing. By god I couldn't dance but I wanted to do that too. And then after studying it for a term I was forced to accept that I didn’t have what it takes, and that broke my heart.
A Hundred Scenes of Awajima speaks to me. It speaks to the passion that motivates young women to perform. It speaks to the complicated emotions they have at that age regarding their passions, their family, and each other. It speaks to how
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nepotistic the world of performing arts is and how it’s often all give and no take. It speaks to inspiration. It speaks to love.
The setting is grounded and realistic, so the drama is slow, but it’s that very realism that makes it so striking. Granted, this is probably immensely boring to someone who was never a teenage girl, especially so if they’ve never had a passion for the theatre, but hey, this clearly isn’t for them.
Takako Shimura-sensei is an expert when it comes to human emotions and relationships, and it really shines through here. Furthermore, her distinct watercolor-like art is done a lot of justice.
My only critique is that its status as a pseudo-anthology is a double edged sword. On one hand the ensemble cast and bite sized looks into so many lives is compelling, as we get to see how this school and the passion for the arts permeates throughout communities and generations. On the other hand, it’s easy to lose track of the characters (especially so when their designs are all more reflective of real people than of anime characters), and some episodes are much less interesting than others.
Still though, if this interests you, it is absolutely worth a watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 3, 2026
In 2002, Disney asked "what if an anime boy met The Queen of Hearts?" In 2020, Disney asked "what if an anime boy WAS the queen of hearts?"
The existence of Twisted Wonderland is a little bit hilarious. A Disney gacha game that's teetering on the edge of being an otome game where classic Disney villains are redesigned into beautiful but troubled teenage boys. Amazing. No notes.
It's hard to judge Twisted Wonderland because at the end of the day, the ridiculousness of it all is just something you either like or you don't. As such this review is going to be a little more casual
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than my usual ones, more of a dialogue than an essay.
I'll start off by saying I hate gacha games and I think they are evil and should be illegal. Twisted Wonderland is not an exception. The fact that it's made by the mega corporation that owns everything and tries to control art is not lost on me.
However, Disney(tm) is not a person, and the writers and artists who made the game are. They care about it and they put effort into making it good. And I want to be fair to them. Futhermore, most classic Disney movies are just great movies, which similarly were made not by an evil, intangible god of capitalism but by artists who care about it. There's an unfortunate nuance here that prevents judgment from being easy.
So, while the whole Disney gacha game thing will automatically deduct points in its favor, I also want to judge the work of these artists by its own merit.
And. Well.
Firstly let's look at the art. As expected of a Disney project, the animation is really nice, and they even get really creative with it in terms of monster animation. However, if I'm going to be frank, these characters look better when they're not in motion because their designs are all absolutely cluttered with tiny details and accessories. This is very much a gacha game design convention but I don't like it and I think it's bad. My best friend was watching it with me and it was giving him motion sickness.
But that's not as important. Let's look at the most important part, which is what the story is actually about.
So.
Again, the ridiculousness is either something you get or you don't, and considering I enjoy Kingdom Hearts I can't really make a fuss, but some of this just makes me laugh. Redesigning Disney villains as female gaze bishounens is just silly and so is the teen angst and the Harry Potter dormitories. I know that when a character loses control of their emotions and magic and goes on a violent rampage it's very serious for them, but like. Lol.
All that being said, I do love camp, so I can't help but find it charming, if stupid.
The real heart of Twisted Wonderland is the characters, and the characters in this first arc are kind of hit or miss for me. The main focus of the arc is one Riddle Rosehearts, the Queen of Hearts. He is, frankly, extremely obnoxious for most of his screentime. Granted, that's kind of the point, but I found it more grating than anything. I've also read the manga for this arc and it's a lot less annoying, so I think the constant shouting is what makes it kind of a hard watch. All that being said, I did warm up to Riddle in the end, because I could sympathize with his backstory, and after he crashes hard he chills the fuck out and he's a lot more endearing afterward. "Kawaiidorable," as my best friend put it.
The protagonist of this arc is mildly charming, as far as isekai protagonists go, but nothing to write home about. Interestingly, the manga includes a new protagonist for each arc and the other three so far all look way more interesting than this guy.
The protagonist's mascot friend is annoying as fuck. Once again this is very much because of the voice acting, although I also am not particularly fond of his personality.
Ace is fine, if not particularly deep. Cater and Chenya are only in the story out of obligation and do not need to be here. The actual best character is Deuce. Deuce has a really sympathetic backstory and motivation that acts as a good parallel to Riddle. He's a good boy.
That leaves Trey who is in a really odd position. Generally, the point of his character is as such: "if you see your friend lashing out and treating people poorly, you need to call them out on their behavior instead of just letting them terrorize people because you feel bad for them." This is a good message. However the narrative framing is extremely weird and makes it seem like Riddle turning out this way is Trey's fault for not telling him off. Trey is 17.
All that being said Riddle eventually sobers up from his rampage by holding Trey's hand, which was adorable. It wouldn't be a cast full of bishounens without BL subtext.
Actually, the fact that this story very intentionally uses gay subtext and character archetypes without actually including explicit queer content could be an entire conversation of its own, but man. This is Disney Twisted Wonderland. It's not even worth it.
Honestly you're probably better off reading the manga because it comes off less annoying and the storytelling is a little cleaner. But overall I didn't think Twisted Wonderland was very good, but it has its charm and I enjoyed watching it. I'll watch the next arc when it comes out too.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 18, 2026
On one hand, I have to love My Ribdiculous Reincarnation. Isekai as a genre has been eating itself alive for years, so seeing the ways different authors satirize and parody it has been a real treat, and the rib isekai does so with an extremely clever and funny premise. Furthermore, even if that weren’t true, experimental animation is always a win. If there’s anything I recommend watching this anime for, it’s the changing animation style. The second episode has claymation. The third has one of those books where you pull tabs to make the pictures move. Episode four uses cardboard puppets. Episode five uses construction
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paper and rotoscoping.
On the other hand, it does something the worst parodies and satire always do where it just ends up unironically doing the thing.
These main characters are…real annoying.
Despite being such a clever parody in its premise, the main character is just a boring isekai main character who is only marginally more interesting than the rest because he’s got some energy in him. He wants to have a harem because he’s an isekai protagonist, of course he does, but they don’t really do anything interesting with this in terms of character work so it’s just boring. And also not particularly funny.
The goddess is annoying too. A stock character who’s a bit kuudere and a bit tsundere and a whole lot moe. Yawn. He sexually harasses her, she zaps him, but she also clearly kinda likes him. Whatever man.
What’s especially disappointing is that this show can be very funny. When it makes self aware jokes about isekai as a genre or the anime industry, paired with its clever comedic timing and visual gags, it’s quite humorous. But then the main dude makes lecherous comment about the goddess again and she dices him into cubes or something. Boring.
I get a kick out of this as a clever isekai parody with stellar animation, and you probably will too, but these characters are enough to make me consider dropping it. If you watch it for anything, watch for the animation
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 17, 2026
On one hand, I think people are being too unfair to The Drops of God. On the other hand, I understand it.
For an adaptation of such a classic, long-running manga, I wish it had higher production value and I’m surprised it doesn’t. I’m not usually that bothered by animation quality, but not only can you tell this series deserved better, it also makes the story a much more dull watch than it should be considering it’s about mystery and rivalry.
That being said, I quite like the mystery and rivalry. Granted, I do think wine snobbery is entirely made up and I don’t believe anything those
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people say about wine’s subtle tastes or anything, but I can suspend my disbelief for a fictional story, and I can see something beautiful in how these characters see winemaking as a form of art.
The problem is that while I enjoy watching it in the moment, it doesn’t leave a strong impression on me as I walk away from it. It reminds me of the remake of Bartender, which lacked the atmosphere of the original, even if it was apparently more accurate to the manga, or so I’ve heard.
The truth is, if you’re interested in this story, you’re probably better off reading the manga, which I’m under the impression is of much higher quality than this. There was something about this story that captured audiences to the point it ran for over 400 chapters, but clearly a lot of that magic was lost in adaptation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 9, 2026
Eren the Southpaw is all over the place. The first two episodes are set in high school, giving you the impression it might be a school anime. Then there's a time skip. The first episode gives you the impression it will be about street art, then episode 2 makes it seem like it might be about art school, then episodes 3-5 are about working at an ad agency. The titular Eren seems to be the star of the show, but then disappears for three episodes*. So far, the premise described on MAL and Crunchyroll (the protagonist reuniting with Eren after being dropped from a project)
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has yet to happen. Five episodes* of setup, a lack of focus on what kind of art we're talking about, and a title character who just dips out of the narrative for a while. What in the world is going on here?
I've heard that the manga opens at the ad agency and shows the high school stuff in flashbacks later, and if that's true I think it's much more narratively cohesive. That's Eren the Southpaw's biggest struggle. It seems to want to tackle all sorts of plot developments and character arcs but isn't stringing them together in a consistent way.
And this is frustrating, because beneath all of this, Eren the Southpaw really speaks to me. The protagonist was a boy with a dream. He wasn't the best at art but by God he was going to be a designer, and then he was and he realized that the industry does not care about him, and turning your art into profit sucks out your soul. Eren, meanwhile, seemed to have something of the opposite perspective due to the traumatic death of her father, an artist, at a young age. And these two have their lives and perspectives on art changed by knowing each other.
I'm an artist myself. Granted, I'm a writer rather than a visual artist, but the spirit is very much the same. The real meat of this narrative is something that really touches me on a personal level—enough so that I've hung on for five episodes of this.
If you're an artist, I do think this series is worth a watch, in spite of the...well, everything.
*at least, as only five have aired as of when I write this
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 27, 2026
Malice@Doll has a MAL score under 7 (4/26), something shocking to see on this website that really operates on a four point scale even if it's nominally ten points. If an anime scores under 7, that MUST mean it's bad. This is not true for Malice@Doll.
Malice@Doll is scored under 7 because of the rough early CGI animation. What many viewers do not understand is that the CGI enhances the experience rather than detracts.
The characters in Malice@Doll are robots. They have smooth skin and mechanical movements. Their existence is the uncanny valley. This is what makes the CGI serve them. It is a story about what
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the technology we make could become, and the brand new computer generated visuals encapsulate that.
If there was anything Chiaki J. Konaka understood it was how terrifying the rapid advance of technology in the 90s and 2000s was. Malice@Doll is a horror story preying on the truth that the technology we created has the capacity to far outlive us. It is a story about how scary it would be to exist in a world where the purpose you were created for no longer exists. It is a story about how terrifying it is to have a body when true bodies no longer exist. It is a story about inherent horror of being human.
Malice@Doll is about the gross parts of humanity like flesh, sex, and existentialism. The technology we created is going to outlive us, trying to fulfill a purpose it physically cannot, and when you think perhaps it would be better if they were human, able to chase their own emotions and desires, you're faced with the reality that the life of a human is as equally terrifying, just in a different way.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 20, 2026
It's rare for something on MAL to score below a 7, because humans are naturally biased towards high scores. As such, Alien 9 might seem unassuming and skippable. This is wrong.
I'm not going to pretend that I don't understand why the MAL score is so low (6.8 as of 4/26). It requires some heavy suspension of disbelief (if aliens were invading the school why would they enlist children to fight them?*) and some of the plot elements weren't clear. I ended up reading the Wikipedia page just to clear up any confusion (I imagine the manga is much clearer). A lot of people also find
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the main character grating because she spends most of her time crying, and while it doesn't bother me and I think that's a rather unempathetic perspective to take, I do also understand. These are serious points of criticism I have to account for when scoring it.
However, Alien 9 is still an absolute must-watch, especially if you love horror both monstrous and psychological.
Episode one was nothing particularly special, only keeping me hooked by the charming 2000s moe art style they simple don't make anymore. However, by episode two I was hooked. Moe horror is easy to fuck up but always a banger when done well (think Higurashi, Madoka, or Doki Doki Literature Club), and Alien 9 does it not only by showing us some serious "wouldn't it be fucked up if that happened" alien action, but also the severe fear and psychological torment that would result from that. While I do think it's silly these characters would be children from an in-universe perspective, from a reader's perspective it makes a lot of sense because of how frightened our main character is, only 12 years old. The moe art style also does an excellent job of portraying how young the characters are, and as such how traumatizing the whole ordeal is. The brutal alien violence and the realistic psychological trauma make this absolutely worth a watch, especially when paired with the art and animation, which is cute, but also reserved in its choice of color, striking the perfect balance for a moe horror (again, comparable to the original Higurashi).
While I understand why the score is so low, I do still think it's rather unjustified. At the very least, watch to the end of episode 2, because that is when I knew Alien 9 was something special.
*Even considering the twist at the end of episode one, there's no clear reason why it must be children instead of adults, nor why all of the normal people would approve unwilling child combatants.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 15, 2026
Go For It, Nakamura-kun!! is an anime about what it's like to be fifteen and turn stupid around your crush. That is to say, it's an anime I have to pause every five minutes to recover from secondhand embarrassment before I can continue watching.
I am aware that this is entirely subjective. Some people find cringe comedy funny. Furthermore, it's probably less embarrassing if you find it relatable, and my high school years were absent of many of the typical teenage experiences, such as having crushes. In fact, it's even harder for me to buy into this show on account of the fact I've never understood
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crushing on someone you barely know. I am fully willing to admit I'm probably not the target audience, especially considering I don't find Watamote embarrassing on account of the fact I have social anxiety disorder and it feels more like teasing my younger self. So I'm sure former teenage hopeless romantics find this relatable and funny.
However, this review is my opinion. Nothing is truly objective. And in my opinion this is truly an uncomfortable watch.
Now, there are still things I like about it. I love the 80s-esque art. I think the characters are charming (except Hirose, who ironically feels a bit shallow). It does have funny jokes at times.
But man. I don't know how many more episodes of this I can handle.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 1, 2026
"Digital data is absolute! It will all last forever, even after you die! It will all come up if you do a search on Yamada Kenichi! It's all spelled out accurately right there!"
Platonic Chain has a MAL rating of under 6: a rating so low you know it HAS to be bad, considering reviewers tend to rate things above average and review sites operate on more of a four point scale than a ten point one.
For once, the MAL score lies.
Platonic Chain's low score can be chalked up to two things: length and animation. For starters, shorts tend to get lower ratings because there is
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less content there to dig into. They bore. However, Platonic Chain has so MUCH to dig into. People are biased against short runtime, but if you meet Platonic Chain at its level and engage with the shorts, you'll find they utilize their short runtime perfectly, because Platonic Chain is a slice of life, and truly, slices are smaller than the whole. Secondly, people watch anime for the animation. Not only does Platonic Chain use 3D (which anime fans are already biased against), but that 3D is ROUGH. Platonic Chain was made in 2002, and you know what 3D animation looked like then. However, 3D was very much the perfect choice, and I think the roughness makes it all the better.
Platonic Chain is a time capsule that could only have been made in the 2000s. It is about the Y2K rapid advance of technology and the anxieties about what that could mean. So yes, of course the rapidly advancing technology of 3D animation was a perfect choice, and just one look at it tells you exactly when it was made. And for as rough as it is, I don't actually think it's bad to look at. Even if I didn't find low-quality art and animation charming, I actually think the 3D here looks pretty good for its time, all things considered, and is nice to look at.
Platonic Chain is an eerie watch in 2026. It feels corny to say a fictional story predicted the future, but Platonic Chain exists in the same vein that Serial Experiments Lain does where you realize people were right to be cautious about what the internet might be used for.
Platonic Chain exists in a world where technology in 2002 was slightly more advanced than in our own world. And it's not a grand, epic story about a great cyberpunk threat. It's a slice of life. It captures moments from the day-to-day lives of young people, growing alongside the technology, and how they use this self-imposed surveillance state to their own advantage for the little things, like seeing every route your crush has walked or publicly shaming someone you don't like out of existence.
It's a mundane psychological horror. We now have a nebulous, intangible force connecting everyone in the entire world looming over us that everyone can access. It sees everything all the time. Now that it exists, there is no getting rid of it. And life will continue to go on. How? How will life go on now that everything we do can be seen and accessed by everyone around us? Everything filmed and uploaded against our will? And what are the little things we will use it for?
It only feels like a slightly exaggerated version of what actually ended up happening.
Do not be fooled by the MAL score. Platonic Chain is absolutely worth a watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 29, 2026
Niichan is both a case study on the grooming process and the cycle of abuse as well as a hardcore noncon erotica. That is to say it's rather insane.
The story feels much more about the psychological aspect, so even if you ARE into this kink I have a hard time imagining being able to find it sexy (and even though I can enjoy dark romance sometimes, this is certainly too far for me, so I do not find it sexy and that really has to affect my score, objectivity be damned). That being said, the psychological stuff also falls flat because it's in a dark
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romance rather than a horror.
It talks a lot about the cycle of abuse and what it means to be "normal" but even if it weren't pornographic it doesn't do this all that correctly.
Though the grooming process was accurately portrayed, it ends about there. Victims of CSA are statistically extremely unlikely to become child predators themselves, but even if we do go down that route, the whole "I need to do to someone else what was done to me in order to feel normal" or for whatever reason falls flat when the crime was molesting a child under the age of 11. Like, I GUESS I follow the logic but statistically that really isn't how it works.
Child molesters usually have a paraphilia, are exerting power and control over someone vulnerable they have access to, or both.
Again, like, I guess this isn't all IMPOSSIBLE but eh.
I guess I did feel bad for the child molester character because he suffered a lot of sexual abuse himself, but the "happy ending" being what it is was craaaaaaaazy fucking work. I mean, as expected from noncon erotica but I cannot take the psychological stuff seriously when that's how it ends LOL.
I'm sure there is better both noncon erotica and psychological horror out there better worth your time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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