Full Dive Series Review – So I Watched An Anime About A Guy Playing A Terrible Game and Hoped It Would Get Better, Sigh.

Full Dive Series Review

Curiosity killed the cat. In this case, curiosity had me finish watching Full Dive despite a number of concerns I had after the first three episodes when I did my watch or drop post. At the time I put this one as a maybe but curiosity got the better of me and I did the ‘just one more episode’ thing right to the conclusion.

Needless to say, it didn’t get any better.

However, it also didn’t get any worse so I guess if you enjoyed the opening episodes Full Dive is going to work for you.

Full Dive – Doesn’t Pretend To Be What It Is Not

Full Dive - reviewing their own anime.
How many times do I tell characters not to review their own anime?

Alright, so Full Dive, or ‘Full Dive: The Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life!’ is pretty much what you would expect from the premise. The protagonist, Hiroshi Yuuki gets ‘tricked’ into buying the game and then refuses to quit because of the money spent despite going through some fairly horrific situations.

Then he refuses to quit for reasons that don’t quite make sense but occasionally things go well for him, until the next line pulls the rug out from under him and he ends up in either the same or a worse situation than he was in.

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I get the whole anime obsession with never giving up and the power of ‘will’ but even for a comedy Full Dive takes it to an extreme that is just not plausible.

Forget Hiroshi, nobody would play this game.

Actually, I think people would sooner log into Sword Art Online even knowing they’d be trapped there until someone cleared it than play this game.

Full Dive- Hiroshi realising the end is here

Now, I was curious about the idea of a game striving for ultimate realism. I mean, the word ‘ultimate’ makes that sound cool until you realise the reason most people play games is to experience something they can’t in real life. If you only allow a player the skills and strength they have in real life and go out of your way to make the game almost impossible to beat, it really isn’t going to appeal.

But Full Dive takes it a step further and doesn’t even stay true to ultimate realism. Sure, when it is convenient to kick Hiroshi while he’s down they are all about realism. But then we have the guy who moves at lightning speed and the best friend who suddenly becomes a knife wielding maniac who can take down a goblin with a pair of fruit knives.

So we’re watching a character we can’t sympathise with, because he put himself in the predicament, play a game that wouldn’t be any fun anyway, and the game isn’t even consistent with its premise and we don’t meet a single character or player in either the real world or in the game that actually makes this feel somehow worthwhile.

Full Dive - everybody sucks
Everybody, and that includes NPCs, sucks in this anime.

Now, I guess we could just forget logic for a moment and accept this is a comedy and is supposed to exaggerate things and set up absurd scenarios. However, what it seems to have forgotten is making it fun.

What fun is there in seeing the main character beaten down again and again? Not just physically but emotionally. And by his sister, his supposed guide, the walkthrough, and every single NPC. As much as Hiroshi isn’t a likeable character, seeing what he goes through in this anime is actually kind of painful to watch and while he gets a small bit of light right at the end of Full Dive it isn’t anywhere near enough to justify the torture this character was put through.



Nor can I sympathise with him because he put himself in the situation and he literally never improves. He is awful at everything and even after learning that his skills in the game reflect real life he continues to expect to magically improve or have some made sword skills without doing anything to earn them.

Not to mention he literally just screams and shouts every-time anything goes wrong. Literally. Every. Single. Time.

And I guess, potentially seeing a character so traumatised they pee themselves could be considered funny in some contexts but Full Dive certainly doesn’t make it seem like a laughing matter and more just kind of sad.

Full Dive- It's not a joke
Full Dive – Not all that funny.

However, while we’re on the topic of terrible characters, we should discuss Reona. Again, I get that they are using her for comedic effect at times but her personality is all over the place and I don’t think she’s even once actually helpful as a guide.

The standard ‘joke’ in Full Dive goes:

Hiroshi wonders how to overcome some obstacle without actually trying anything on his own first.

Reona, as the fairy guide, offers a ‘helpful’ suggestion.

Hiroshi yells at her that it won’t help or demands more information she never has.

Hiroshi ends up doing the thing anyway.

It ends badly.

Reona makes some kind of quip or shrugs at Hiroshi’s expense.

He either inwardly cringes or shouts at her again.

Rinse and repeat.

Hilarity.

Full Dive - Reona offers help
Thanks Reona, want to offer some useful advice now?

I do fully understand that I’m not hugely into comedy but I’m really struggling to see who the audience for this is. It isn’t slap-stick or good humoured violence but rather quite cruel and disturbing. The characters are scathing to one another and watching Full Dive is like watching awful people emotionally tear each other apart episode after episode and somehow being winked at by the characters like we’re meant to be in on the joke.

You know what really bugs me about all of this?

If they’d not tried to make it a joke and actually just explored what a game that was made to be made with ultimate realism was like and had a main character I could sympathise with as he went through some of these trials, there’s still actually an interesting story and concept here.

It was that interesting concept and potential that kept me watching Full Dive however really this anime squandered every opportunity it had and instead we get a reasonably awful anime of a a terrible character playing a terrible game.

That said, it isn’t unwatchably horrific and ultimately the story kind of works even if it didn’t suit me so this isn’t worst anime ever material. Just not really worth the time it takes to watch.

Images from: Full Dive. Dir. K Miura. ENGI. 2021.


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Karandi James


Hataage! Kemono Michi Anime Series Review

Kemono Series Review
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Pro-Wrestling Meets Isekai Fantasy

While I’m a fan of isekai stories and fantasy I’ve never been much for straight out comedy and I am really not a fan of wrestling so the synopsis for Hataage! Kemono Michi (or Kemono Michi: Rise Up) didn’t exactly fill me with a sense of excitement. Surprisingly, despite some of the comedy not landing for me, the slightly repetitive nature, and visuals that seem increasingly lazy, I can’t say I actually disliked Kemono Michi. For all the things I might criticise about it I still actually had fun watching it most weeks and when you go in expecting nothing that’s actually enough.

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The story is about Genzo, a pro-wrestler known as Animal Mask, who during his ‘final match’ is transported to another world by a Princess who is summoning a hero to defend her kingdom from the demon beasts. Only, Genzo loves animals, including his dog Hiroyuki who was summoned with him, and so he uses his wrestling moves to plant the Princess on her head, exposing her butt to her guards, before running from the palace. After a bit of dithering, he concludes that he is going to open a pet shop in the fantasy world given it was the dream he was working toward before being summoned.

Kemono Michi is more or less as advertised.

And that’s pretty much it. Genzo joins forces with Shigure who ends up being the voice of reason as Genzo does ridiculous things but the two work reasonably well on screen as Shigure berates Genzo about something and Genzo continues to just do whatever he wants. They are also joined by a dragon girl and her vampire servant and other characters such as members of the adventurers guild, a banker, and various others drop in and out of the story usually to bring one gag or another to life. It isn’t exactly deep and though there are a couple of attempts at commentary on the isekai genre, that really isn’t its overall point.

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I really did like that Genzo didn’t just go along with the whole ‘summoned hero’ role. So many isekai stories has a character summoned and whether they do it grudgingly or willingly they step into the hero role without all that many questions. Genzo outright refuses to slay the demon beasts. When pressed later in the season about defeating the demon lord he asks why that’s his responsibility. At no point does he take being the hero particularly seriously. As Genzo points out, he’s a pro-wrestler.

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Another thing I really liked was the inclusion of the giant ant. They never really explain where it came from as it just shows up drinking with Genzo and Shigure and then every episode you see it working in the house or yard with Genzo. The ant is an incredibly valuable character taking care of a lot of the menial work and at times being the most useful member of the crew, but the character never speaks and isn’t really directly acknowledged by the other characters until the final episode where Genzo directly speaks to the ant. The ant appearances each episode were definitely worth watching for.

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The other characters, such as Carmilla and Hanako, are more hit and miss and depending on your sense of humour, mileage will definitely vary. I wasn’t a big fan of episodes that focused on that pair but they weren’t annoying enough to kill the show for me.

What the anime does less well is keep things fresh. Shigure starts out as a pretty amusing character and her ongoing gag of ‘finding’ swords dropped by other heroes (usually after Genzo has thrown them through a wall) was funny enough. She’s also the one really looking out for Genzo in terms of helping him achieve his dream, even when he seems to lose sight of the goal. Yet, by the mid-season, Shigure was definitely getting less screen time and largely that is because other than her standard jokes she didn’t bring anything new to the table.

The anime opted for introducing more and more characters rather than developing the ones it had, but even then a lot of the jokes started to feel repetitive. How many times can someone call Genzo a ‘beast killer’ and be taken out by a wrestling move before that gets old? Again, it depends on how amusing you find it in the first place but by the end of the season I was more or less happy it was done. The story also chooses to summon a rival wrestler mid-season which does at least give the final some direction but again, none of the fantasy characters really get more development beyond their basic trope.

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Another problem is the wrestling itself. Throughout the series they contrive a number of reasons to have wrestling tournaments, which are kind of amusing as we watch this pseudo-medieval fantasy world get introduced to the antics of pro-wrestling, however it is in these sequences that the animation quality lets the show down. While still images of sick moves might work for some viewers given I wasn’t really keen on watching wrestling in the first place I kind of wanted to see some fluid animation rather than montages of moves.

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None of these complaints are deal breakers but they do mean that this anime isn’t exactly packed with rewatch value, nor is it a must see. Basically, Hataage! Kemono Michi manages to be amusing enough without ever being hilarious and it manages an interesting enough gimmick on the isekai genre to be worth a look but does little with it that will be remembered. This will be that ‘wrestling isekai’ and no one will ever really remember the specifics, except perhaps the giant ant. He was memorable.

What might be a a deal breaker though is Genzo’s excessive touching of furry characters. While they establish early on he loves animals, people with animal characteristics being pinned down and petted makes for some uncomfortable moments within the story. They play it off as a joke and have one particular character as the ‘victim’ more often than not but to be honest it really just felt like they pushed that too far. While this settles a bit in later episodes, I’m not entirely sure playing off one character’s trauma as amusement is in the best taste and this may rub some viewers very much the wrong way.

Hataage Kemono Michi

The OP gives you a fairly good idea of what to expect in terms of content, visual quality and characters. Again, it is fun enough but seems to think it is more exciting than it actually is. Still, if you are on the fence about the anime, watch the OP and you’ll probably know whether this one is going to work for you.

As I said at the start, I mostly had fun watching Hataage! Kemono Michi. While I’m on the fence about a lot of things in it, there were few moments that really felt dull or like they pushed it too far. I am glad it is finished though as I don’t think it has much more to say and the characters have definitely run out of mileage. Like a lot of anime, this one is good enough for a watch but that’s about it.

Your turn: if you watched Hataage! Kemono Michi I’d love to know what you thought of it so be sure to share a comment.


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Hataage! Kemono Michi Episodes 11 + 12 Review

Kemono Episode 11 12
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This is War!

If you have watched Hataage! Kemono Michi this far then the final two episodes won’t be any surprise to you. Genzo and Mao do finally have their rematch in a grand arena and most of the characters we’ve met along the way show up as either fighters in other matches or as spectators. There’s little here that we haven’t really seen before in terms of jokes and the like, but the story does at least resolve Mao’s feelings of resentment toward Genzo for ‘running away’ during their match where Genzo was transported to another world.

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However there’s a few issues with these two episodes that keep it from being thoroughly entertaining. Sure you’ll get the odd chuckle from Shigure’s antics and depending on whether or not you enjoy watching Carmilla be the luckless loser you’ll get some enjoyment there, but there’s a number of issues, including the break-neck pacing as we tear through training, set-up and five matches across these two episodes.

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One of the biggest issues would be the visuals. While Kemono Michi hasn’t exactly sold itself on stunning animation, the still frames and montages as we raced through the fights kind of plucked any excitement from them. It was more like watching a slide show of photos from someone who had watched the match with some audio over the top then actually animation. Normally this kind of thing doesn’t bother me when used in small doses, but as a season final it kind of killed the mood.

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Basically Kemono Michi didn’t step things up for its final but delivered more or less what we’ve come to expect from it. For me that means this anime overall remains one that I don’t regret watching but I’ll probably forget it by the time I watch the next season final I’ve got lined up on my watch list. On that note, I should probably draft a whole series review before that happens.

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In terms of the story being finished, Kemono Michi feels complete even though Genzo still hasn’t fully funded his pet shop and both he and Mao are still in the fantasy world. It feels done largely because there just doesn’t seem to be anything more they can do with these characters and this scenario. Even as it is the format was getting a little on the repetitive side. Hopefully this one doesn’t get a season two because then it can remain a fun enough isekai comedy for those in the mood for anime wrestling in a fantasy world.


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Hataage! Kemono Michi Episodes 9 + 10 Review

Kemono Episode 9 10
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This is a Princess?

Princess Buttocks (I really do wish I could remember her real name – I do know it isn’t Catherine) is getting desperate. She’s finally tracked down her summoned hero and, for the purpose of plot convenience, she admits she can’t summon anyone else unless Genzo goes home or is killed, so she needs him to actually go and fight the demon king. Which Genzo has absolutely zero interest in doing until Carmilla convinces him that the demon king has three heads and tentacles (I think eye-beams were mentioned in that wondrous bit of nonsense).

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Fair question – more heroes should ask this.

Anyway, MAO, the summoned demon king, doesn’t care about the whole being a demon king thing as much as he cares about having an opportunity for a rematch with Genzo and so gathers a horde of monsters, who he does nothing with. This is kind of weird given as they approach the orc village he pretty much tells them he’s fine on his own and goes and more or less does exactly what Genzo did and defeats the orcs. The question would be, why gather the army of monsters if you aren’t doing anything with them?

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Also, what is with his face right now?

However despite being aware of the orc village being attacked, Genzo puts a pin in the whole tracking down the demon king mission as something more important has come up; Hiroyuki was kidnapped and sold. Genzo has proven time and again how attached to that pup he really is. Yet, Kemono Michi actually surprised me in this episode as Genzo didn’t crush the new owner but rather agreed to leave Hiroyuki with his new young owner because he thought it might be better for the puppy. That isn’t how things end but it was a more nuanced moment for Genzo’s character that this anime has rarely delivered.

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Of course, it becomes crystal clear why the anime has thrown another spanner in the works rather than getting on and confronting the demon king. With 12 episodes, this one has been trying to time the confrontation and if we’ve felt that the previous episodes might have been stretching the content a bit, that thought probably isn’t inaccurate. We’re now at the business end of the season and episode 10 leads us into what I guess will be the climatic rematch of MAO and Animal Mask – I wonder if he’ll dig out the costume again?

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Even then, it looks like we’ll have a rematch of Carmilla and the other vampire girl before that and I’m not sure I’m all that interested. That flash back wasn’t overly welcome. Still, for an anime about a pro-wrestler getting transported to another world, it kind of makes sense that the conclusion would involve a fairly large wrestling tournament (match/competition/I don’t know what the actual right word is here). I guess we’ll see if they can keep it entertaining as the rest of the season has been surprisingly entertaining given my general lack of interest in wrestling.


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Hataage! Kemono Michi Episodes 7 + 8 Review

Kemono Episode 7 8
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Never Enough in Kemono Michi

While watching episodes 7 + 8 of Kemono Michi I found myself often echoing the words of Shigure in regards to Genzo: What a pain. From the start of this anime he’s done things his own way and his obsession with animals and wrestling are part of his character but in these two episodes he’s just never satisfied regardless of what comes his way including a lizard girl and an entire pro-wrestling tournament. He’s just unsatisfied despite things seemingly going his way.

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However, as a means of bringing all the hunter characters, the people we’ve met around town, and Genzo’s group together, I assume before we get to some kind of confrontation that requires all these people to band together, the two episodes work well. They provide a good reason for Genzo to confront the hunter’s guild leading to the match between the lizard girl and one of the hunters which is ultimately the inspiration for the tournament in the following episode.

Throw in the food stall owners and the humans and demi-humans who fight and we’ve got all the players together. We even get the Princess receiving a flyer of the tournament in case we forgot that she’s the one who drew Genzo into the world in the first place.

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Though while from a narrative point of view this all makes sense and there’s nothing overly wrong with the two episodes, Kemono Michi is definitely starting to lose steam. Even Shigure’s running joke of picking up ‘dropped’ weapons is starting to really wear thin and Hanako provides little outside of the little girl eats lots of food trope. Actually, Hanako and Camilla together add very little in terms of humour or plot and honestly they just seem to slow things down. I’d happily remove both the characters because I think what we’re left with is reasonable from an anime that rides on repeated gags.



I’m also assuming that for those who are watching for the wrestling aspect of this anime, episodes 7 + 8 were quite the treat with a heavy dose of it taking up a fair amount of run time. As someone who isn’t a wrestling fan this wasn’t bad, but it also didn’t add any appeal to these episodes. Though Shigure’s attempt at merchandising was pretty entertaining.

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All and all, Kemono Michi remains one of those rare comedy focused anime that hasn’t managed to make me bored or walk away by the mid-season. While it isn’t exceptional, there’s enough elements that work and are amusing to keep me on board even as there are certain elements I could do without. I am curious as to where this one will finish for the season.


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Hataage! Kemono Michi Episode 6 Review

Kemono Episode 6
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Always a Loser

When I first saw the title of this episode, “Loser x Master”, I assumed that the newly summoned wrestler, Mao, would confront Animal Mask and lose and then we’d go about the usual antics with the group. Turns out that the title didn’t refer to either of the wrestlers but rather the vampire girl who summoned Mao and the dragon girl who is hanging around animal mask. Either that or to dragon girl’s loser of a servant, though it is hard to say.

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However, the problem here is that we then launch into an extended flashback which I guess is trying to justify why the vampire girl cares at all about the hero and is going to the effort of summoning a ‘demon king from another world’ and largely it is because of a rivalry she created in her own head. It isn’t that interesting and it certainly isn’t particularly funny. While previous episodes of Kemono Michi haven’t always made me laugh, I’ve at least appreciated that they were trying to be amusing and that other viewers would enjoy it. Here, I’m just wondering if we’re supposed to think smug, rich girl is amusing or not and I just can’t see it.

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This type of character shows up a lot in school based anime. The smug elite student who seems to think they are better than others and looks down on them. When written well, despite their always irritating introduction, they can sometimes go through some interesting character arcs, but for the most part they are poorly thought out and poorly realised characters who exist just to add some fairly shallow conflict for awhile before they are swatted out of the way. I fear this character is going to be the latter because so far there’s been no signs that they actually want her to have anything resembling a real character.


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The other character who gets a raw deal this week is Carmilla who ends up being the plaything between the two. In order to remain the dragon girl’s servant she needs to win a fight (why is unclear given it doesn’t seem like the dragon girl needs to actually agree to the match in the first place) and it becomes quite obvious that Carmilla is actually just useless. I thought it was because Genzo was unusually strong that Carmilla kept getting shows to be a complete disaster, but it turns out that is just her character. A weepy, pathetic ball of uselessness. I feel kind of bad for her after that.

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Really, this episode wasn’t all that fun to watch and was full of characters who aren’t particularly interesting. I’m kind of hoping next week we get back to the wrestlers and then I realised how weird it is that I think those characters make the show better. And yet, they do. Not to mention, no giant ant cameo this week and I’m a little disappointed.


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Hataage! Kemono Michi Episode 5 Review

Kemono Episode 5
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Do Your Job

This week there seems to be a lot of ‘might makes right’ ideas getting thrown around. Animal Mask, AKA Genzo, is still avoiding any work not to do with animals, the dragon girl is still eating literally anything she thinks taste good, the wolf guy from last week is seeking to kidnap the puppy because he’s a little pathetic, and the wrestler that was fighting Animal Mask when he was summoned is literally just doing nothing because all he wants to do is finish the fight. I wonder what he would have done if he had just run out of money?

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Good insult.

On the bright side, we do get to see some of the response to Genzo vanishing mid-fight. As far as summoning’s to another world go, his was pretty visible and public, and yet while the newspapers seem to be speculating, no one else, including Genzo’s manager, seems to be looking all that hard for him. The person we see most obsessed is Mao, his opponent, and he’s just upset that he never managed to beat Genzo.

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Meanwhile, we have our ‘team rocket’ candidates who are sniffing around and wanting to steal Genzo’s dog as some form of ‘petty’ revenge. Which brings us to our ‘ant’ appearance of the episode when the giant ant beats them up (largely off screen) to save the puppy. Once again, I was actually unable to get a screen cap of the ant but he continues to be the best part of each episode.



I ended up with two important take-aways from this episode. The first is that I really want whatever this demon-beast-puppy-thing is. It’s utterly adorable and I want to take it out of that cage ASAP.

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The second thing I realised is that summoning a hero (which failed anyway) is a stupid idea particularly when the other side will then just summon a demon king (also a failure). And when you’ve both summoned pro-wrestlers with one-track minds your ‘epic’ battle of good and evil is going to be reduced to silliness pretty quickly. Still, I guess we’ll see how it plays out now that Mao has arrived in the other world.


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Hataage! Kemono Michi Episode 4 Review

Kemono Episode 4
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No Lessons Learned

Shigure has her work cut out for her in Kemono Michi. While she seemed like the flaky character when we met her in episode one, Genzo’s vapid nature has forced her into the role of the rational one who is considering how they are going to realise the ‘dream’ of starting a pet shop. Near the start and end of this episode we see Shigure at a bar complaining about Genzo but realise she’s actually really working to try to help him. Now if he’d just try and help himself.

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This episode also reminds us that it was the princess who summoned Genzo in the first place. I’m a little concerned about the competence of her security forces when they can’t track Genzo down. He isn’t exactly keeping a low profile. Still, it was nice to see that despite the basic set-up and punchline nature of this anime there’s an attempt at an ongoing plot that may do something.

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However, the joke this week involves the team going out after griffins. Naturally Genzo is only interested in actually owning one and doesn’t really care what the mission actually is. For once though he didn’t instantly come out on top with the adult griffin. That was kind of nice to see an animal that didn’t just roll over and put up with him.



There’s a very heavy reliance in Kemono Michi on repeated gags. For instance, the ant that continues to just kind of do things in the background this week appeared to serve tea to a guest, jumped into the ‘team’ cheer scene, and later dragged the unconscious Carmilla off and buried her (to help her recover of course). The lack of explanation for why there’s a giant ant in the team is fine and it just never gets old (I’m going to have to work at actually getting some screen shots of the ant because he’s making a play for MVP in the cast). Less effective is Shigure’s ongoing gag with collecting swords after Genzo beats up the hunter who can’t seem to understand that he just shouldn’t mention killing animals to Genzo. It wasn’t particularly funny the first time and with her current role in the team it fits even less.

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One thing seems to be true though and that is that Genzo’s basic nature isn’t going to change. By the end of this episode he hasn’t earned any money and has acquired yet another mouth to feed. If it wasn’t for Shigure I’m sure Genzo and his animals would all be living in the wilderness by now, though perhaps some of the animals would prefer it that way.


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Hataage! Kemono Michi Episode 3 Review

Kemono Episode 3
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Introducing the Dragon Girl

Episode 3 of Kemono Michi: Rise Up is a weird mix of tones and jokes and while some land their mark others misfire and leave us staring awkwardly at the screen wondering just what is going on. Fortunately the nature of this anime is one that doesn’t ask us to take it all that seriously so somehow it manages to pull together for an episode that is kind of alright even if I’ll forget most of it almost immediately after watching.

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I do like that the ideal pet shop hasn’t just magically sprung into being. The demon bests Genzo has captured require feeding and maintenance and at this point, even if the creatures were actually tame around anyone other than Genzo, nobody wants to own one. I do feel some of those cages are a little on the small side for the creatures that are housed in them seemingly on a full-time basis but at least there’s an attempt at looking at the details sitting behind his pipe dream. Also, the random ant character is still just wandering around taking care of chores and none of the characters ever seem to acknowledge him. He’s just there. I’m going to admit, I find that fairly amusing as he wanders through scenes in the background just doing what he’s doing.

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Um… Not sure that’s how it works.

However, on the less pleasant note, we have Genzo meeting one of is furry neighbours and we slip into that awkward and uncomfortable tone that came about in episode one where he forcibly pet the thug into submission. This scene doesn’t go that far but it certainly reminds us that Genzo doesn’t exactly respect boundaries.



However, the introduction of the dragon girl – sorry, half-dragon girl – works well enough. I love that Genzo is continuing to be legitimately convinced by his own words about no one recognising him when he is wearing his mask. There’s a really cute moment when he explains it to the girl and she happily accepts his logic. It is so dumb and yet kind of adorable at the same time.

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Anyway, all this means the episode was pretty much a mixture for me. This anime is definitely watchable but it isn’t really high on my priority list. Though in a season where I’m feeling reasonably indifferent to a lot of the content, this one is entertaining enough.


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Hataage! Kemono Michi Episode 2 Review

Kemono Episode 2
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Don’t Call Him A
Demon Beast Killer

While episode 1 left me very on the fence as to whether I would continue watching this, episode 2 of Kemono Michi ended up being a relatively pleasant, if slightly repetitive, viewing experience. Genzo has now determined that he’s going to open a pet shop and to do that, and to acquire potential pets, he’s going to need to work for the guild to defeat demon beasts.

Kemono2a

The fact that trying to get home hasn’t crossed his mind does not surprise me given he seems pretty oblivious to a lot of things, though given he was summoned there is definitely a question of whether they can just send him back. Though, I was left wondering where the Princess’ guards were. Didn’t Genzo knock the Princess out last week? Did they just give up looking for her assailant?

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Anyway, the running joke this week is that the members of the guild gave him the nickname Demon Beast Killer and every time someone says it to him he takes them out. You would think they’d learn after one example but clearly it takes multiple object lessons before people get it. Also, a stronger team approach him to join up on a quest and then the leader makes the mistake of saying he’ll kill the monster and the end result is him getting thrown across the room. While it is predictable it isn’t exactly unpleasant to watch either.



Anyway, Genzo and the random girl he saved last week complete a bunch of quests acquiring a small menagerie of animals, pay off part of her debt and attempt to start up a shop but they are still a bit short of cash. Even if they start a shop I don’t think it is going to end well given nobody even knows what a pet shop is and certainly no one in this world seems interested in buying an animal. Still, it is kind of cute seeing Genzo happily surrounded by animals.

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There is a final mission this week where he faces off against Orcs. I love that he had no enthusiasm for the mission because it didn’t involve animals, but then when he realised it would help him earn money and get him closer to his dream pet shop he jumped into the mission. Solving the conflict through an impromptu wrestling match, while it sounds ridiculous, actually worked in the context of the show and in the situation and I though this episode wrapped up nicely.

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I don’t think this one is going to top my list anytime soon but I certainly found episode 2 had more solid footing than the first episode and I was pretty entertained while watching this. I guess we’ll see what episode 3 of Kemono Michi does.


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Karandi James


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Images from: Hataage! Kemono Michi. Dir. K Miura. ENGI. 2019.