First Look: Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari

Hyouma Kunato is heir to the Saenome clan, which is responsible for sending tsukumogami – spirits that can possess physical objects and thus gain physical form – safely back to their own world before harm occurs to either them or any hapless civilians who happen to be caught in the middle. However, due to a traumatic childhood event, Hyouma hates tsukumogami and always responds with violence, regardless of the circumstances. In order to help him resolve this issue, Hyouma’s grandfather sends him to live with Botan Nagatsuki, a girl who lives alongside six tsukumogami and views them as family.

First Look: Buddy Daddies

Kazuki Kurusu and Rei Suwa are assassins who live and work together, a deadly combo despite being polar opposites in personality. However, their lives take a sudden turn when, while working a job on Christmas Eve, they unexpectedly cross paths with a young girl named Miri who is searching for her father – who just so happens to be connected to the mob boss they’re contracted to kill.

First Look: The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague

Newly-minted office worker Himuro may look human, but he’s actually a descendant of a Yuki-onna, or snow woman, which means he inadvertently produces snow or ice whenever he gets especially fired up or emotional. Meanwhile, his human colleague, Fuyutsuki, is an outwardly stoic young woman who is nonetheless very kind and sensitive to others’ needs. When the two meet on their first day, sparks soon fly, leading to a variety of somewhat unusual situations.

A Very GLORIO 2022: Artemis’ Perfectly Cromulent Anime Awards

Realistically, not every series can be a gem, and not every series even strives to be. So, here’s a toast to the little guys – those anime that aren’t great but also aren’t terrible, the shows that got people through seasons full of outright shite, the titles that helped fill in the blanks and got a “well, that was at least okay” seal of approval in return.

First Look: Bibliophile Princess

Eliana Bernstein has always preferred books to beautiful dresses or expensive jewelry, to the point where people refer to her as the “Bibliophile Princess”. However, as a noblewoman of marrying age, it is her duty to find a husband. Luckily, Crown Prince Christopher Selkirk Asherald proposes an arrangement: if Eliana will be his fiancée in name only, she can avoid any further matchmaking efforts and, more importantly, be granted access to the royal archives, where she can read every day to her heart’s content. However, as the years pass, Eliana comes to discover that she is not as emotionally detached from Christopher as she assumed…

First Look: Raven of the Inner Palace

In a fantastical version of ancient China, Jusetsu is a palace consort who, despite her official position, does not serve the emperor or anyone else. Known as the Raven Consort, she is rumored to possess strange powers and, in return for appropriate payment, can locate lost items or even place death curses. When Koushun, the current emperor, visits the Raven Consort to unravel the mystery of a haunted earring, their fates are set to become intertwined.

First Look: Kakegurui Twin

First-year student Mary Saotome has one goal: to rise to the top as the pretty and popular gambling prodigy of the infamous Hyakkaou Private Academy. However, she soon discovers that she’ll need to up the ante if she really wants to gain the attention and accolades of her peers. Now, with an old classmate-turned-housepet by her side, Mary is determined to gamble (and cheat) her way to true fame and fortune – even if that means taking on the student council.

First Look: The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting

Known as “The Demon of Sakuragi,” the violent Tooru Kirishima is the right-hand man of the well-known Sakuragi yakuza family and has a tendency to kill first and ask questions later. To instill in him a sense of responsibility, Kirishima’s boss tasks him with a new job that will challenge him unlike any other to date: take care of Sakuragi’s 7-year-old daughter.

First Look: RWBY: Ice Queendom

In the world of Remnant, humans and human-animal hybrids called Faunus go about their days as best they can with the constant threat of monsters called Grimm hanging over their heads. At Beacon Academy, where teens are trained to become licensed Hunters and Huntresses to destroy these Grimm, the new school year’s most recent arrivals include Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long. Together, they form Team RWBY, and despite their differences, they must study and battle as a unit if they wish to graduate and achieve their dreams.

First Look: Summer Time Render

Shinpei Ajiro is returning from Tokyo to his island home in Wakayama prefecture to attend the funeral of his childhood friend Ushio. Although Ushio supposedly died while saving a young girl from drowning, there were bruises around Ushio’s neck, making the exact cause of her death questionable. Meanwhile, doppelganger-like entities are supposedly haunting the island, and Shinpei keeps experiencing visions of a deceased Ushio asking him to save her younger sister Mio.

First Look: Dance Dance Danseur

After discovering an unexpected passion for ballet as a child, Junpei, now a middle-school student, has forsaken his childhood dream to follow in his deceased father’s footsteps as a more ‘manly’ stunt coordinator. However, his perceptive classmate Miyako, a ballet dancer herself, recognizes Junpei’s talent and is determined to have him perform in an upcoming recital.

First Look: Fanfare of Adolescence

Yu Arimura is a 15-year old boy and former idol who quits his highly successful entertainment career to become a jockey. Enrolling in a prestigious horse racing academy, he meets several other first-year students, each with dreams and challenges of their own.

First Look: Sasaki and Miyano

When high schooler and boys’ love fan Miyano has a chance encounter with a senpai named Sasaki, a delinquent with a heart of gold, sparks fly as Sasaki finds himself attracted to Miyano’s cute face, and Miyano soon finds himself opening up to the older student about his favorite manga genre.

First Look: Requiem of the Rose King

In the Middle Ages, England finds itself at a crossroads, and all-out war breaks out between the House of York and the House of Lancaster, each of which desires to claim the crown. A young Prince Richard III, neither man nor woman, battles his own inner demons as well as (apparently very real) fearsome spirits as he strives to help his family ascend the throne.

First Look: My Dress-Up Darling

Wakana Gojo is a first-year high school student who’s made not a single friend all throughout his academic life because of a shameful secret: his love of dolls and his goal to be a hina doll craftsman, just like his grandfather. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Marin Kitagawa, a trendsetting and popular classmate with an unexpected passion for anime and cosplay. When Marin spots Gojo using a sewing machine in the school home ec room, she unselfconsciously declares her hobby and convinces him to make her cosplay outfits for her.

A Very GLORIO 2021: Artemis’ Nicest Anime Award

When it comes to end-of-year anime wrap-ups, unsurprisingly, people tend to write about the best and/or worst shows of the year. You know, the ones that practically emitted a heavenly glow as angels burst into perfect harmony during the opening sequence, or else made viewers want to hurl themselves into the black, black void, cursing…

First Look: Taisho Otome Fairy Tale

Alternative title(s): Taishou Otome Otogibanashi Manga Adaptation by SynergySP Streaming on Funimation Premise Exiled to a rural villa when he’s ‘crippled’ in an accident that also kills his mother, Tamahiko Shima has resigned himself to living out the rest of his life useless and alone, out of sight of his very wealthy yet incredibly distant…

First Look: Blue Period

Manga Adaptation by Seven Arcs Streaming on Netflix Premise Yatora Yaguchi is in his second year of high school and bored with a life spent studying and hanging out with his ‘bad boy’ friends. However, upon seeing a painting by a member of the art club and trying to express himself with the medium, he…

First Look: The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window

Kosuke Mikado is a bookstore clerk with the ability to see ghosts, which is unfortunate, because they terrify him. When he’s approached by Rihito Hiyakawa, an exorcist who works to help crack mysteries or quiet the undead on behalf of both individual clients and the police, the two end up becoming a pair (presumably in more ways than one), combining their powers to solve unconventional and often gruesome cases.

First Look: Night Head 2041

In Japan, 2041, adherence to or even belief in any kind of religion, spiritual movement, or supernatural phenomena has been completely outlawed. As a security force is tasked with tracking down and incarcerating anyone found guilty of committing such a crime, two brothers have seemingly broken free of a research lab and are on the run, and must keep their psychic abilities hidden for fear of alerting the authorities.