As an anime-only viewer, I was really getting into NieR, and the stories of 2B and 9S and Adam and Eve looked finally ready to connect. Unfortunately, Covid doesn’t care about narrative momentum or my anime viewing preferences, and so the series has yet again been delayed, with episodes 9 and beyond to air at a later date to be determined.
Thankfully, it’s not a matter of if but simply when the remainder of the series airs. But as nice as it is, far more important than the anime re-airing is the short and long-term physical and mental health of the production staff, so relatively speaking it’s really not that hard to be patient.
Now for some good news: Re:Zero is getting a third season!
Due to Covid-related production delays, episodes 7 -12 of Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible have been delayed until April. So there goes our Tuesday pleasant palate cleanser after Vinland Saga. Alas, it’s good to know it will be back at some point to warm our winter-chilled hearts.—RABUJOI STAFF
We’ll be away on a mini summer retreat starting today, so reviews will be spotty to non-existent for the next week. We apologize for the impending lack of content, but feel free to scan through our vast archives of reviews, including the RABUJOI World Heritage List. Matane!
It might seem silly to drop a show with just three episodes until the finish line, but I had mostly checked out last week anyway. Suffice it to say I know when I’m done with a show, and it’s when I can’t even be bothered to sit down and watch it. Granted, part of that is that the weather is too nice to spend it inside.
That’s not to say Slime 300 is a bad series, just an okay one that’s a good way to pass the time when the weather stinks. It had some nice comic voice work from Yuuki Aoi, a smattering of lovable characters, and some genuine good-natured (and occasionally mildly raunchy) charm, but my interest simply fizzled out. Let’s just leave it at that!
Note: We are NOT dropping SSSS.Dynazeon … this is just a picture of a fine mess
We say it every season: there are too many shows. It’s true of anime series just as it’s true of live-action series, especially in the streaming era. You can’t watch them all—let alone write up to-1000-word recaps and reviews about them.
So it’s always important to remember that we don’t have to watch them all. Koikimo was dropped early, followed by Combatants Will Be Dispatched! Now to separate the rest of the chaff from the wheat. All drops are final, regardless of how much better any of the below series end up.
Jouran: Princess of Snow and Blood has a very neat setting that presupposes the Meiji Restoration never happened and a new energy source enabled Japan’s technological primacy. Unfortunately, neither of those things have any bearing Sawa’s central (and frankly done-to-death) revenge story, which could have been told anywhere at any time in Japanese history, real or imagined. Instead, the alt-historical setting is just window dressing, while the big anti-shogun baddie turned out to be a clichéd mad scientist snake-man. When I was emotionally checked out of their climactic showdown, I knew it was time to say goodbye.—MagicalChurlSukui
Mars Red is probably the toughest of the Spring 2021 series to drop, because it’s a well-executed classic vampire-hunting story with genuine elements of horror and pathos. It also had one of the most striking first episodes, heavily influenced by real-life classic stage theatre. Unfortunately, I must admit that I admire and respectMars Red more than I actually enjoy it, and it was hard to be invested in its ridiculously stoic lead vampire hunter.—Braverade
Full Diveis about a kid who just wants an escape from his shitty high school life, and had found one in his Final Fantasy-style VRMMO. Only when he gave all his money to a bully and couldn’t pay for the newest entry in the franchise, he’s hoodwinked by a merchant who is as disreputable a businesswoman as she is beautiful. So now the game he’s playing is even more unpleasant and stressful in real life. If this were Nobuyuki Sugou getting his just desserts that would be one thing, but this kid doesn’t really deserve to be tortured by a video game.—MagicalChurlSukui
For the list of remaining titles we’re both watching and reviewing, check out the top menu or consult our Spring 2021 Season Guide. A Spring 2021 addition to the Big Board is coming soon. As always, thanks for reading!
We’ve approached the halfway point of the Winter 2021 anime season, which is usually the time for us to start taking a gander at what’s on the horizon for the Spring. The biggest title on our list so far is the third and final season of Fruits Basket, which should be something.
We’ll be watching and reviewing all Bold titles below.
As expected, Hannah and Zane are dispensing with two of the weaker new Winter 2021 anime series this season: Hortensia Saga and The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter, to free up more time for far better series like Jujutsu Kaisen and Wonder Egg Priority.
With the new year comes a exciting new feature to the RABUJOI website that demonstrates our commitment to innovation…a Top Menu!
Now users of both the desktop and mobile versions of the site can more easily navigate to anime reviews from the most recent seasons, instead of having to scroll down a lot. If you’re looking for reviews of anime from further back, use our Search.
We hope this improves the ease of your anime review reading experience while on the go.
We’re about to enter our twelfth year on the interwebz, and it will be hard to top the eleventh for pure strangeness. We’re not sure if we’ll get much snow this coming Winter (we didn’t get much last Winter) but the metaphor of a fresh blanket of snow providing a blank canvas for the year still fits.
As usual, we’re simply listing shows that are either from franchises we follow or new shows that look interesting based solely on the promo art and talent involved. As such, we’ll surely be adding and subtracting from this list as we draw closer to showtime. Recommendations are welcome!
We’re taking a break from normal Thursday operations for a day at the beach while the weather is still relatively warm. Non-Sakura reviews will return Friday.—RABUJOI STAFF
So far it’s slim pickings this coming Fall—not surprising considering the state of the world. Only a handful of new anime are listed on MAL’s Fall 2020 list, and some of those are sequel seasons to shows we’ve either never seen or are too far behind to attempt to catch up.
Regardless of the number of shows we’ll ultimately be watching, we’ll be implementing an all-new 5-star rating system more akin to Anime News Network than the MAL’s 1-10 scale:
While some among the staff have long been proponents of the 1-10 scale, in practice there are rarely any episodes we’d rate 1-5, since it only takes one or two such episodes to cause us to drop the show entirely. We’ll see how it goes.
This list will be updated if and when we pick up or drop any additional shows. If you have any recommendations, let us know in the comments and we’ll take them under advisement. And as always, thanks for reading, and take care!
After five years and 76 episodes, I’m throwing in the towel! BLUE, Noir, Saiba/Suzuki, Erina in peril…it all feels extraneous, as if the anime were continuing for one season more than it should, just because it could.
The fourth season wasn’t the best, but Souma finally managed to reach the top of the Elite 10 like he’d vowed to do from the start, his rebellion overthrew Azami’s authoritarian rule, and he could count God Tongue Erina among the many good friends he made along the way.
It felt like a good place to end things back then, and in hindsight it still does. There’s not much more to say; I’m just not feeling it this season, so I’m moving on. It was fun while it was fun!—Zane
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