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Jul 6, 2026
Kill Blue is an anime about a veteran, middle-aged hitman whose body regresses to that of a middle schooler. Due to this transformation, his boss tasks him with 'investigating' a middle-school to see if it's suitable for his daughter. (incredibly teeny tiny minor spoilers ahead—like all stuff you will learn within the first 2 episodes that is of 0 importance for making the show an enjoyable watching experience)
It's easy, from a glance, to expect a show with this premise to be boring, as the "experienced guy in unexperienced guy's body" trope is a dead horse in anime nowadays, but it surprisingly avoids many of the
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usual pitfalls. Rather than transferring to the school as some broody, attractive, bad-guy archetype, we see the main character struggle, and not just in the usual, shallow way, where the people around him are inexplicably hostile. No, we see this main character struggle in a very realistic way. As you might expect from someone who hasn't been a teenager in almost 20 years, he doesn't even know how to properly act like one. Group chats scare him. His ideals are outdated. The way he talks, dresses, and acts just doesn't feel right to the kids around him. His concept of common sense is all off—as it should be! He's an old-timer after all!
In fact, for a brief time in the early episodes, this anime grabs ahold the seams of greatness. We see our main character have introspective moments where he realizes how much he's missed ordinary things. He loves to study, even becoming addicted to it, as he never got the chance to fully complete school due to his work as a hitman. He loves competing in sports for the same reason. Through a handful of shared experiences and conversations with his classmates, he comes to understand that kids aren't just kids, but are individuals with dreams, troubles, and responsibilities, just like him. He discovers that he can learn a thing or two from them.
With all that said, why do I choose to score this show as only a 6? Frankly, it's because everything I just wrote about the show is all you will end up getting from it. If you continue watching it hoping for a further exploration of those themes, you'll be sorely disappointed. For most of its runtime, it ends up being a run-of-the-mill comedy/action with nothing to really say. The gags are hit or miss, the action is rarely exciting, and the over-arching plot eventually becomes almost stagnant. It doesn't make me happy to write that, it's just the truth.
If anything, other viewers would probably argue that I'm giving the show too much credit. Honestly, maybe I am, but I'm also just happy we can get another show with this regression premise that only tries to be wholesome. It's such a low bar, but, since this is anime, I feel like I have to give the show credit for not randomly sexualizing any of the middle-schoolers. I was waiting for that kind of cringey moment to come, but it never did. Kudos to the creators for that.
Going off it's story and animation alone, I would place this show solidly at a 5. It's not bad at all, but there are simply better options if you wanted to watch a show of this kind. However, I've bumped it to a 6 for the jazzy, thematically appropriate soundtrack. It really carries the atmosphere of the show at times. Also, the opening sequence is a joy to watch and hear.
Overall, this is a fine pick if you just need to blow off some steam and don't want anything too serious. It will make you think, but not too much. It will make you laugh, but not too much. Sometimes, that's just right.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 24, 2026
A show about loss, depression, and rediscovering meaning in one's life. Also some supernatural yokai shenanigans. Unfortunately, the show does not marry these two aspects well and has a serious identity crisis for most of its runtime. To put it simply, although this show has supernatural, romance, and psychological/dramatic elements, if you try to watch it for any one of those things, you'll be disappointed.
Let's start with the supernatural elements of this show. We have a main character who is a yokai, with the very occasional appearance of other trash mobs who try to stand up to her. That's really it. Honestly, with the
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direction the show takes, you could replace every supernatural element with its human equivalent and have the same story. It feels like this part of the show was jammed in to add an extra layer of mystique or intrigue. There are truly entire episodes where the existence of monsters/beasts is a non-factor.
The romantic themes in the show fare no better. Personally, I didn't watch this show for the "Girls Love" tag attached to it, but if I had, I would be very upset. This show only has romantic undertones at best, and that is really stretching the definition for what I would call romantic undertones. Maybe the first and second-to-last episodes are what BARELY qualify this to have the yuri tag, but I wouldn't be surprised if some viewers walked away from this show completely missing that it was supposed to contain that.
Finally, let's examine the drama/psychological element of this show. Although this part of the show is no more fleshed out than the others, it manages to take up most of the runtime. We spend many moments rehashing the same emotional beats with the characters with nothing really changing. This is fine, I suppose, as you could call that a creative choice to demonstrate a character's suffering. In that case, though, you'd need some incredible prose to carry these scenes, but, sadly, that's not what happens here. Here, the story begins to fall flat. You stop caring about motivations. You stop caring about fears. You stop caring about characters. You stop caring, because you've seen the same thing a million times. This is perhaps the most subjective part of the review, but, even as someone who enjoys very slow-burn, psychological/philosophical stories, this just failed to grab me in any way. I think most viewers will start to get very tired of this static plotline by the halfway mark.
To wrap up, this show is just "ok". All things being equal, I would probably score it lower, but, credit where credit is due, the art and music are quite good. Like, seriously, the delicate, bittersweet soundtrack feels like a waste on this show. There are also a few things I didn't mention, like some comedic relief scenes being genuinely funny, where you can tell the VAs were having fun. Overall though, even with a few good things going for it, this show just doesn't manage to break out of the mid category. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, not because it's terrible or anything, but because there's no aspect of it that would make me think "oh yeah, X person would like this show!".
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 4, 2026
Predictably, this show is just one of many slop isekai churned out seasonally. You won't miss anything by skipping it. All of its issues are ones you've likely seen before:
1. An animation style that ranges from decent to good, but is ultimately ruined by a horrible use of CGI.
2. A forgettable soundtrack that sounds like it could have been prompted with Suno. No hate to the composer, I'd put zero effort into a show like this too.
3. A plot that somehow underdelivers on the expected power fantasy sold in the title. Seriously, for a show with the incredibly flashy/buzzy premise of "A super OP
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last boss kicks everything's ass", it is incredibly slow.
4. Inexplicable fan-service episodes in a show that is otherwise devoid of it
If none of that was enough to convince you to skip this, the show ALSO falls into the more recent isekai trend of feigning competence by hiding a "unique" twist later in the story (mind the quotations around "unique"). The problem is, the show is so boring that most viewers won't even make it to where this twist happens, and the creator KNOWS that, so they are forced to foreshadow the twist to such an incredible degree that it loses all the weight it might have had.
Overall, even for a slop show, there are many others more deserving of your time. Although "A Wild Last Boss Appeared" is not the absolute worst thing ever, you'll still be left wishing for a refund on your time spent watching.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jan 18, 2025
This show feels like what would happen if you trapped the best staff in the anime industry in a room with some LSD and told them they had to make a show to escape. Literally everything about the story is nonsense and paced ridiculously, but the talent on show here makes it seem like that almost doesn’t matter. The animation is extremely unique and incredibly competent, the music is equally good and seems to be catered to fit each individual scene, and the VAs sound like they are having the time of their lives playing these characters. Also, the fact that the writers were on
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forty different drugs definitely aids the comedic aspect, as the show gets so bizarre at times that you can’t help but laugh.
Overall Dandadan’s dedication to opposing the status quo definitely succeeds, and makes it something every anime fan should experience.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 14, 2025
As this anime was a new original series from Studio NUT—who have, in my book, a nearly flawless track record—my expectations were high. From the synopsis, I gathered this would be a deep dive into the psyche of someone whose life hits rock-bottom and how they struggle to pull themselves out of their situation. And while the actual show did not exactly hit those emotional beats, containing a lot more wholesome fishing antics than I anticipated, I still found the story and characters compelling.
The animation and music for the show fit perfectly and are what got me to stick around after episode 1. You wouldn't
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think watching someone reel in a fish could be exhilirating, but the stripped-down, groovy soundtrack—usually consisting of just guitar, keys, and some percussion—and incredible direction make it possible. There's nothing flashy going on, but I think it's an intentional choice to make everything seem more authentic.
With that said, the show is at its best in the first and last third. No matter how well the scene is executed, you can only watch someone reel in a fish so many times before the initial charm wears off. Additionally, the main plotline stagnates in the middle of the show as it momentarily seems to devolve into an episodic exploration of each side character's backstory. This comes off as "filler" mainly because the show does such a good job up to that point of getting us invested in the character arcs of the main cast. Luckily, the last three-or-so episodes are not fumbled, and the show gives a satisfying climax and conclusion.
Overall, I'd say this is a good choice if you need a somewhat motivational, feel-good watch on a rainy day.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 10, 2025
This is probably the most generic shonen story possible. A young boy beats up evil bad guys with supernatural strength and the power of friendship. The show doesn’t try to do anything new or interesting, and it doesn’t hide that fact. This is an unapologetically mediocre series that is fine if you really have nothing else to scratch the shonen itch.
I’ve given this a 6 only because the animation for this show is actually exceptional, and often carries the pretty boring plot line. Also, Sawano Hiroyuki does the music, and most of the emotional high points were thanks solely to him.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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