Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy Series Review – An Indulgent But Enjoyable Isekai

Posted on by Karandi
Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy Series Review

Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy is one of those rare anime that made me regret choosing not to watch it weekly. Already having a number of Summer 2021 isekai anime on my watch list I decided to wait and binge it once it was finished. Little did I know that despite fairly generic and ordinary beginnings, this anime would end up being significantly better than either Seirei Gensouki or Realist Hero and despite having a second season announced still managed to deliver a decent climax and enough of a resolution to the end of this first season.

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That said, simply being better than somewhat mediocre competition isn’t really a recommendation, so I’ll follow that up by pointing out that Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy was just kind of fun to watch. While the comedy remained largely situational with over-powered characters accidentally destroying things or extreme over-reactions to dialogue, and the journey the protagonist, Misumi, takes isn’t exactly breaking free of any of the usual isekai trappings, this is definitely an anime where the enjoyment is greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Being consistent and competent work for Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy.

Where I found the opening episodes of other anime from the Summer 2021 season more intriguing (hence why I didn’t pick up Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy from the beginning), Tsukimichi managed to be consistent from its opening. While never exceptionally good, the goddess’ quick dismissal of Misumi and then his journey as he gathered demi-human followers and more or less just tries to find a new way to live in this world he has been cast into ends up creating an interesting setting for the cast and as the series progresses we see the relationships being formed between these characters.

Tsukimichi - Misumi, Mio and Tomoe go to town.

And it is the characters that will hold this fantasy story together. The plot is more or less Misumi journeying at first and trying to figure out the world he’s been dumped in. However, as more characters, and yes most of them are feisty female characters, join him he starts taking on responsibilities and they take on the role of adventurers and then merchants. While we really haven’t seen an overall game plan and the plot never really feels like it is speeding toward something, Misumi is always setting short term goals that keep events feeling like thy are moving along.

If I had to compare Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy to any of the other recent isekai stories, it would probably remind me most of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime in the sense that Misumi is working with demi-humans who are either hated or feared by humans, or discriminated against and slaughtered for seemingly little reason. He’s also building his own settlement and bringing together different races. That said, this anime feels like it is moving at a faster pace and feels a little less laid-back than Slime.

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Like so many other isekai stories though, our monstrous creatures don’t remain monstrous for too long. The dragon Misumi fights and then wins over ends up transforming into a blue haired girl. The giant spider who seems pretty ominous at first transforms into a black haired beauty. Even the Lich, introduced late in the series, ends up being a timid red-haired human guy. It seems like a waste to introduce a monster and then more or less revert them into a human character.

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Admittedly, the rivalry between Tomoe and Mio (the spider and dragon) is pretty entertaining even if it is taken to ridiculous levels at times. Also, the passion with which they absorb Misumi’s memories of Earth (and particularly historical and fictional works) is nicely done.

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However as the cast expands, Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy seems to struggle to find a place for all of the characters. Emma, who is the first girl Misumi really meets, appears throughout the series but seems to serve little purpose at times. Even Tomoe and Mio are at times sent away from the action, probably because it is hard for any other character to shine when either of those two takes to the screen.

There’s also the problem of a lot of the antagonist of the story coming across as very one note. While the Goddess is clearly an issue for Misumi to eventually deal with, given she banished him from human civilisation just because she found him ugly, she’s barely in the story. Instead we get the usual isekai muscle heads with thieves, adventurers on the wrong side of things, and corrupt noble-men for our protagonist to deal with one way or another.

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At times you could almost be forgiven for forgetting about the Goddess as Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy seems content just to deal with immediate issues. Though then the final confrontation of this season would come as a bit of a surprise given the Goddess may not appear but she most definitely orchestrates Misumi’s involvement in it.

And can I just say, that is how you do a season final climatic battle. It may not end the overall story, and the main antagonist isn’t even really involved, but it was a very cool battle-sequence and a great way for the season to come to a close. It was also an amazing character moment for the protagonist and I liked that they do at least indicate some of the future fall out from it without stretching the series conclusion for too long.

Basically if you like magical fights and want an isekai that isn’t taking itself too seriously, Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy might just hit the spot for you. There’s some tense moments but they largely quickly get broken up by silliness and while there are some bloody and gory moments few of these are lingered on.

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Misumi ends up being a pleasant enough protagonist even if he ultimately does little to stand to from the horde of other isekai protagonists and the ensemble cast here actually has great chemistry.

Pretty much if you like the isekai genre, Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy is worth watching. While it isn’t unmissable it is certainly entertaining enough and with another season coming in the future there’s comfort in knowing that we’ll see these characters again.

Images from: Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy. Dir. S Ishihira. C2C. 2021

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Watch or Drop? Is Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy Worth Watching?

Posted on by Karandi
Tsukimichi - watch or drop
Tsukimichi - main character Makoto Misumi

Watch or Drop? Rules

Rules modified for the Autumn 2021 season.

  1. The anime must be new (not a sequel or spin-off).
  2. I’ll watch as much as it takes to make a decisionas to whether the anime will be added to the watch/review list or dropped and forgotten. For good.
Tsukimichi - Giant spider anyone?

First Impressions of Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy

Honestly, I was intrigued by the promotional image of Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy (or Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu) with the protagonist aiming a flaming arrow toward the audience, a busty samurai girl, the dark magic user and then the two glowing figures in the back. I also just loved the way the title was written but that’s one of the weird things I tend to notice about anime sometimes and doesn’t really indicate whether the story will be any good.

And MAL did have this Tsukimichi tagged as a comedy which usually makes me think twice.

With the Summer 2021 season already putting in a plethora of isekai titles and my already being committed to My Next Life as a Villainess, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Seirei Gensouki and How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, I wasn’t entirely sure whether I needed another fantasy, isekai in my life.

Yet I still dove into this one as soon as there were 3 episodes to try.

While the humour for the comedy seems to be either of the overly-exaggerated or overly obvious type, the first three episodes of Tsukimichi were actually pretty charming and they seem to be doing a decent enough job of set-up even if there was nothing particularly remarkable about them.

There’s also been a nice mix of character introductions, attempts at humour, some actual world building and action sequences so far so again, while nothing is really standing out there’s little to really complain about.

Except perhaps that protagonist Makoto Misumi is a trained archer and he does at one or two points create a magical arrow but doesn’t use this ability anywhere near often enough. Though that is probably just me and my ongoing obsession with anime archers.

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Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy Series Positives:

Honestly, if you like isekai stories and don’t mind if they aren’t taking themselves overly seriously, you could do worse than these opening episodes of Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy.

Each of the characters we’ve been introduced to so far has left enough of an impression so even if Makoto is really rocking standard isekai protagonist mode the god and goddess he met during his transition to the isekai world both made their personalities felt and the dragon girl and spider girl have so far proved a decent enough combination.

Tsukimichi - Misumi, Mio and Tomoe go to town.

The world building is pretty standard fantasy fare but I did like the fact that because the Goddess rejected Misumi based on his face we never really found out what the threat was that she was summoning heroes to beat. The usual exposition that explains what is happening in the world and what the threat is was entirely skipped over and instead Misumi is more or less just dealing with whatever comes his way.

Also, while Tsukimichi isn’t exactly a thrill ride to watch, nothing seems to be dragging as we swiftly move from summoning, to meeting characters, into a conflict, before we do some world building and then back into conflict and it all just kind of flows along nicely with no particularly sequence outstaying its welcome (at least not so far).

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Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy Series Negatives:

About the only absolute negative for Tsukimichi in the first three episodes is kind of the feeling of deja-vu that rolls over the viewer. Admittedly, I watch tons of isekai stories and one of the pitfalls is that they do all start looking a little similar after awhile, but Tsukimichi is really struggling to find its own identity right at the moment and yet it also feels like it might if given a little longer.

Tsukimichi - Chased by humans

I particularly found the scene where the dragon girl and spider girl insisted that Misumi give them a name very much felt like I was back watching the early episodes of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Misumi’s basic instruction that the various races don’t fight each other in his village that’s forming did little to break away from that impression.

While all of the characters work here and the combination is actually pretty solid, all of them feel like they could have been borrowed straight out of other isekai titles.

Tsukimichi will hopefully overcome this as it more firmly establishes its own story and world building but the opening act had little that really stood out. Of course if it is walking over familiar paths it is at least doing so competently so how much of a negative a lack of ordinality is will depend on individual viewers.

Verdict?

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Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy is not going to be a super high-priority for me but I’ll probably enjoy it quite enough when it is finished and being able to binge the rest of this story.

My expectations aren’t high but I expect it will continue to be an enjoyable enough isekai story and all things considered it has so far been fun enough.

I’d love to know your thoughts on these opening episodes so if you’ve tried Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy be sure to leave me a comment below.

Images from: Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy. Dir. S Ishihira. C2C. 2021

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Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu Anime Review

Posted on by Karandi
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Not For Me But Not All That Bad

You know that feeling you get when you watch something and you know it is fine there’s nothing technically wrong with what it is delivering, but you just aren’t in to it? That’s the feeling I had for the majority of Hitoribocchi’s run. While I was initially intrigued by the set up because I was also an incredibly shy person going to school and Bocchi’s obvious social anxiety was something I related to I quickly found any connection I had with her dissipating and none of the rest of the cast really grabbed my interest.

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I think part of the problem for me at least was that the anime played each of these characters and their various social issues for laughs and while I found their quirks interesting, I didn’t find them funny. Even exaggerated to such a degree I mostly found these characters in need of support rather than chuckles and largely couldn’t get into what was being played out.

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Bocchi’s social anxiety is actually pretty well presented with her legs shaking and cramping, her voice freezing or stuttering, and when push comes to shove her stomach giving out and causing her to throw up in social settings. However what is less well presented is her manner of dealing with these things. Her list making of ideas that go from idiotic to useless is supposed to be charming I assume but mostly it just made me want to shake her.

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Also, so many characters either not acknowledging her severe anxiety or responding to her antics just seemed weird. While I get that she isn’t friends with every one in the class by the end of the season, Bocchi’s behaviour is erratic at best and you would think there would be more of a reaction to it. Then again, when you see the crowd shots of the rest of the class there are clearly a whole bunch of oddballs in one room (I really wanted to know more about the girl who wears the eye mask every lesson) so maybe Bocchi’s behaviour isn’t that out there compared to theirs.

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When you throw in a couple of characters I genuinely despised, such as the useless excuse of a teacher who is terrified of a student who has never done anything outwardly hostile, then any desire I had to try to connect with the anime as it continued quickly faded away. By around the mid-season mark I was more or less over this one but continued with it to see how they concluded Bocchi’s friend quest.

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Now, despite the negativity of those previous paragraphs, it should be noted that lots of people found Hitoribocchi a truly charming watch and really loved the support cast, particularly Aru. Which really means overall enjoyment hinges on whether or not you find these characters cute and charming and like to laugh along with their antics or whether you find the entire thing really tragic and find the comedy elements intrusive.

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Even for me, I found Nako, the first friend Bocchi makes, to be the most stable element in Hitoribocchi. While she isn’t as exuberant or interesting as some of the other cast members, she routinely gets the best moments as she interacts with Bocchi, consoles her, supports her, and occasionally messes with her just to see the reaction. Between Bocchi and Nako there did seem to be a genuine friendship building over the course of the series and when the anime focused on that relationship I found it to be at its strongest.

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However, the self-declared world’s greatest vice-president Aru is another story. I literally found every scene that focused on her and her poor luck to be the least interesting moments and they were only slightly less frustrating than the stammering teacher. The exchange student who wants to be a ninja ended up somewhere between Aru and Nako as some moments with her were pretty adorable and others were just silly (though whether you find that charming or eye-roll worthy is a personal opinion).

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Realistically the character designs are cute and appealing as many of these cute girl shows are with each character having a distinct enough design. The colour scheme was also pretty nice with some bright backgrounds and accessories.

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There’s nothing wrong with this anime. Those who like cute girl slice of life stories will probably eat it up. For me though, this one was more of a mis-fire and I kind of regretted picking it up by the end of the season.

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Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu Review Episode 11

Posted on by Karandi
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Money Can’t Solve This Problem

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Hitoribocchi Episode 11

It seems weird in the penultimate episode to introduce a new character that within one episode grabs Bocchi’s attention and is befriended but at the same time this episode had a lot of heart so despite the weird timing I can’t really fault it. Hitoribocchi does like its socially awkward characters and the rich girl air-head who is lonely that they introduce certainly fits the mould they’ve been following so far.

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The running joke of the episode is that neight Bocchi, nor the rich girl, have anything resembling an understanding of how the world works. We’ve known this from the beginning about Bocchi in terms of her plans to tell people the class was cancelled or similar rather than facing reality. To see another student join her as a partner in crime and misunderstandings is possibly pushing it a bit.

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Anyway, in order to avoid changing classes the rich girl decides Bocchi should just buy the school and so gets her a job folding paper cranes. Understandably, the job doesn’t pay much and then the two realise that buying the school is more or less impossible given it isn’t for sale. But, friendship forms through the misadventure and ultimately they all decide to use Bocchi’s limited wages to take a photo together.

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There’s a real sweetness to the overall story here and the photo of friends and the courage the girl gains to message her parents and to tell them how she’s feeling are a solid way to end the episode. As much as Hitoribocchi hasn’t really been for me this season I can really appreciate what this episode aimed to achieve.

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Now the question is, what does the final episode do to end the story. I’m assuming they will finish the school year but what will the characters have gained in the process?

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Hitoribocchi no Marumau Seikatsu Review Episode 10

Posted on by Karandi
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The Student Becomes The Master’s Friend

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Hitoribocchi Episode 10

I kind of knew I was over this series when, in a week where I was tight for time, this was one of the first episodes I just skipped watching with the intention of getting back to it. Now the anime is finished and I’m only just watching episode 10 with two more to go and to be honest, I’m kind of indifferent as to whether I finish it or not.

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Oh, don’t look at me like that.

That said, Hitoribocchi did deliver a pretty solid tenth episode where we finally deal with the master-student dynamic between Bocchi and Sotoka after Bocchi makes friends with the pancake girls from last episode and Sotoka gets really jealous. Okay, it’s kind of silly but it does force what little plot we have here forward. It also pushes Aru and Nako into supporting roles that allows them to both operate at their best bringing a few genuine laughs to the sidelines of this episode.

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Outside of the progress on the friend quest, we get the usual high school antics with the closing ceremony, followed by a shrine visit for New Year’s, and morning greetings. There’s nothing overly new to be seen but if you are enjoying the cast than seeing them in the different situations will be fun enough.

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My takeaway was that Bocchi has some pretty incredible origami skills (then again I think most people who can actually do origami are incredible given I tend to get stuck midway through the directions of most creations). Her new style Shuriken are pretty cool and watching Sotoka and Bocchi running from the room to throw it together as friends was very smile worthy.

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Even my cynical self admits that is pretty cute.
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Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Sikatsu Review Episode 9

Posted on by Karandi
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Curry and Pancakes For Friendship?

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Hitoribocchi Episode 9

We’re making pancakes and curry (not at the same time) in this episode of Hitoribocchi. Part of me wonders why anyone is actually staying friends with Bocchi given she seems to have absolutely nothing in her head and her first response to any kind of adversity is to cry (or at least tear up) but I guess that’s neither here nor there. I can get behind characters who are weak or socially awkward, but Bocchi lacks any kind of positive trait that I can latch onto. Unless sheer determination counts, but even then she needs a lot of encouragement to avoid running away.

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There’s also the matter of how self-involved she is. I get they are trying to have her come across as cute and awkward but just watching her interact with the group while cooking pancakes not once does she think of learning anything about anyone in that group. Her every thought is of how they see her and how she wants them to see her. And while this might actually be relatively realistic it just kind of made me feel a little tired watching her.

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I guess basically the premise of this anime never really worked for me, what few points about the lead I found charming got buried under repetition of all the points I don’t enjoy, and given the nature of the anime there’s almost no plot to hide behind. I just don’t find it enjoyable.

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As I was watching this particular episode someone came in and mentioned that the anime looked ‘wholesome’. They came in while the curry tasting section was on. I had to agree. It is wholesome and I can see why many would find it sweet, but at this point I am not clicking with it.

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Hitoribocchi continues to be an anime I hear a lot of positive chatter about and objectively I can see all the reasons people would enjoy this anime with its eclectic group of cute girls, pastel visuals, and standard school silliness framed by a simple goal of shy girl makes more friends, and if I’d connected with the cast at all it would probably be lovely.

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Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu Review Episode 8

Posted on by Karandi
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Another friend quest begun.

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Episode 8

Bocchi is back at school for the second semester in episode 8 of Hitoribocchi.

Most things haven’t changed. She’s still friends with Nako and Aru and the ninja girl is still her apprentice but wants to be friends but doesn’t want to ask. Yet, the contrived goal of this series is for Bocchi to befriend everyone in the class and so begins her latest quest to befriend Kurai, though I’ve yet to see any reason why you’d want to be friends with her given almost every word out of her mouth is a criticism.

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So we get back to the problem of the central premise. As much as slice of life stories about shy girls making friends can work beautifully, the artificial instigation of this friend quest through Bocchi’s actual friend just cutting her off until she succeeded, looms over the entire story. In any class there are going to be people you just won’t get on with or don’t like and yet the condition insists she makes friends with everyone regardless.

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Doesn’t that seem a little forced and more importantly, won’t that make a lot of those friendships fake or shallow?

That kind of makes it hard to get behind Bocchi, as does the lack of development and depth to her character. We get she’s shy and anxious but they’ve given us no reason for the extreme nature of her social anxiety and while I’m happy to concede some people are just socially awkward, the exaggerated nature of Bocchi’s social dysfunction (with no one apparently willing to call her out on it) genuinely makes it hard to get drawn into this story.

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While this isn’t the worst show I’ve continued with this season, it is the one I’m having the least fun watching and the twenty minutes this week was more of the same with the minor highlight of watching Bocchi run away while jumping over imaginary hurdles to psyche herself up. That was actually pretty cute and funny.

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Hitoribocchi Review Episode 7

Posted on by Karandi
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Not quite the summer vacation she’s been dreaming of.

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Episode 7

The summer cliché episode hits us full force as Hitoribocchi ‘dazzles’ us with its less than stellar take on the first summer vacation. Bocchi and her friends decide to hang out and we get a trip to the pool and karaoke with fairly predictable outcomes before they decide to attempt ot drop an emotional bombshell but mostly it just makes me wonder once again about Kai and the challenge she set Bocchi. As much as I appreciate that Kai wanted Bocchi to make some friends, this scene is just idiotic and even if Bocchi gets through the challenge realistically that’s a friendship that has now been left dead in the water.

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On the brighter side, Hitoribocchi continues to give us some incredibly over the top facial expressions and reactions from Bocchi. They are perhaps my favourite part of this episode as she reels from one situation to the next.

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I did also like that her ‘plans’ continue to fail. The final plan to have a conversation with someone before the vacation by removing her tie didn’t go at all according to her simulation and I do think that was fairly relatable. I certainly have tried to think my way through a conversation before having it and then realised about two exchanges in that the rehearsal was completely off-base.

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As a whole package though I’m still finding this one a little hard to take and while there are some amusing moments to be found here there’s a lot that leaves things to be desired and overall it would just be nice if it were a little bit stronger as a story or the characters were just a little more believable. The cute girls doing whatever scenario is workable but this one just isn’t solid enough.

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Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu Review Episodes 5 + 6

Posted on by Karandi
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Can a charming lead overcome annoying supporting characters?

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Episode 5

Aru takes the full focus in episode 5 of Hitoribocchi and I’m going to be honest, that was a detriment to my enjoyment. Aru’s unfortunate gag has already run paper thin and this episode just finished it off entirely cementing her as my least favourite character within this story and largely just boring me in the process.

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We start with her wearing a primary school backpack rather than carrying her middle-school bag. There’s more than a few questions raised by this. For instance, does she actually empty the entirety of her bag each night and then grab an empty bag to fill for school? That seems unlikely. Even more unlikely that she just has her whole primary backpack just lying around ready to be carried to school.

However, even if we toss logic off a cliff, the next steps in the gag are what utterly obliterate any goodwill I might have been willing to give it.

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In an effort to show perfection to the class, Aru keeps volunteering to read and answer questions and things inevitably go wrong. You would think that she’d change tactic and just keep her head down, but she insists on drawing attention to herself.  That was annoying enough, but the following day she apparently manages to dress entirely in a primary school uniform. And not notice until she’s half-way to school.

Forget suspension of disbelief, here you would need to actually paralyse your thought processes to accept that as the groundwork for a joke.

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Anyway, they tediously drag this out for a full twenty minutes with a tennis match thrown in for who knows what reason and then mercifully the episode ends. I just can’t find anything in this episode that was redeemable and on the back of the ninja episode Hitoribocchi is coming perilously close to getting dropped from my watch list.

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Episode 6

While certainly not as tedious as the previous episode, episode 6 of Hitoribocchi certainly isn’t making itself any more endearing by returning some of the focus to the inept class teacher who is still, for reasons utterly idiotic, afraid of Nako. So begins the set-up for the episode with Nako having failed a maths test and the teacher having to give her result back and the follow up concern that now she has to stay for extra lessons and can’t walk home with Bocchi.

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The moments this episode focused on Bocchi and her growing group of friends trying to tutor and support Nako were okay. Not great or laugh out loud funny, but there’s a cute dynamic in the group of odd-balls and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that those parts were better. There were also some cute moments early in the episode where Bocchi was willing herself to get sick in order to avoid presenting a poem.

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However, the moments that brought us back to the teacher were just kind of sad and to be honest I don’t get anything from her character other than a growing sense of annoyance.

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For me, Hitoribocchi is becoming something of a chore to watch so I’m uncertain at this point whether I’ll finish it or not. It isn’t a broken anime that would appeal to no one, but it certainly isn’t appealing to me at this point and the few elements I find cute or amusing are being overwhelmed by elements that I find just kind of stupid, dull or lazy.

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Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu Review Episodes 3 + 4

Posted on by Karandi
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Everybody has their problems.

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Episode 3

Yeah, three episodes in and I’m already struggling with this one. Bocchi isn’t exactly a character I can rally behind. In week one her rampant insecurity worked well enough but in episode three it is just this side of obnoxious as she fears her friends will ditch her after one day absent. The lack of trust she places in the others in actually her single biggest hurdle in terms of actually being friends and I have to wonder why either of them are putting up with it to be honest. That string of texts she sends them is just this side of psychotic.

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Throw in the teacher who is just a complete failure of an educator who runs in fear from her own student, and one who has done nothing to warrant such a reaction, and all and all this episode delivers everything that could go wrong with the set up and little to off-set it that might be charming. I wouldn’t even waste the time screen-capping the teacher because she’s just such a useless character and one who adds nothing to what is fast becoming a fairly uninteresting viewing experience.

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In terms of what the episode does, we don’t really learn anything new about anyone or introduce a new character this week. Rather we have Bocchi trying to strengthen ties with her two existing friends by wanting to walk home with them, and that segues to her inviting them over which leads into her being sick and away from school. It is simple set up situation and milk it for laughs, but the laughs are fairly short in supply and I’m just not sure what to make of the section where she dresses in a bear costume.

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While this isn’t yet a deal breaker, at three episodes in I’d have to say this isn’t an anime I’m going to go out of my way to recommend. It just doesn’t have anything more than its premise and it is already becoming stale so early in the season. Stretching the episodes to full length was probably part of the issue and this one would probably remain more charming as a short.

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ARTFX J POKEMON SERIES 1/8 SCALE PRE-PAINTED FIGURE: LEAF WITH SQUIRTLE

Episode 4

It’s hard to know, outside of the overly long run time of each episode, where Hitoribocchi goes wrong. Or rather, whether it is getting anything actually wrong or if the sum of its parts just can’t collectively be all that entertaining. Bocchi continues to be a problematic protagonist having melt downs just trying to cross the road because she can’t greet the crossing guard but she also continues to try to make friends. That basic premise isn’t overly wrong, but this is neither exaggerated enough to be over the top and amusing, nor dealt with seriously enough to be actually dramatic.

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The end result is something that feels like a slice of life with occasional punch lines, but mostly just lacks weight both in narrative and character development.

Of course, the exchange student who came to Japan to meet ninjas doesn’t help us take this anymore seriously. Part of me wonders if the real punch line here is that everyone in the class is actually completely dysfunctional individually. It seems weird that no one had noticed that this blonde girl was so ninja obsessed prior to this episode given she isn’t exactly going out of her way to hide it.

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The second half of this episode which consists of ‘ninja training’ falls pretty flat no matter how you want to look at it and I definitely found myself checking the clock to see how much more needed to be endured before the end.

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Part of me is curious about whether Bocchi will complete the task of befriending everyone, though at the rate she’s going that seems almost impossible. Otherwise though there is little to keep someone watching this series. If you are after school comedy there are better offers. If you are after slice of life or friendship stories there’s definitely better. Hitoribocchi just hasn’t put anything on the table yet that makes it something that needs to be watched.

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Karandi James