The Roundup: Spring 2018 Volume 2

HEY KIDS, welcome to another edition of The Roundup! While I come to terms with the fact that Pikari’s muppet face is terrifying out of context, enjoy another batch of anime episode reviews. Spoilers: Hinamatsuri is really good, Tada-kun is really bad.

The Roundup: Spring 2018 Volume 1

We’re back! The Roundup returns to its regular format with Real Girl, Last Period, Steins;Gate 0, Tada Never Falls In Love, Wotakoi, Himamatsuri, and Amanchu. No fights to the death this time, just good ol’ fashion anime mini-reviews.

First Look: Jushinki Pandora: LAST HOPE

The development of revolutionary energy technology led to a mass apocalyptic event created by “Evolution Fields,” which have caused biological organisms to merge with technology, leading to monstrous evolution and devastation. In the wake of this apocalyptic event, humans desperately fight against both these monsters and each other for survival.

First Look: Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory

Jumping in right where we left off 13(!) years ago with The Second Raid, Kaname Chidori is once again the target of various military conspiracies and PMC ambushes. Teletha “Tessa” Testarossa’s estranged brother, Leonard, has returned to kidnap Chidori and do various shady bad guy things. Once again, Chidori’s bodyguard/classmate/boyfriend Sousuke Sagara steps up to the plate to deal with it all, preferably while in a giant robot.

First Look: Doreiku – The Animation

The SCM is a device that lets its wearer enslave anyone also wearing an SCM, lest you defeat them in a competition first. While Eiya Arakawa enters a bizarre contract with a Yuuga, a thrill-seeking weirdo keen to try out the device, a girl named Lucie uses hers to serve the man who raped her his just desserts. Yup, this is that kind of show.

First Look: Steins;Gate 0

After failing to save Makise Kurisu, Okabe Rintarou hangs up the white labcoat and determines to live his life as a normal student. This has caused him to drift from almost all his former friends, but has given him the stability his foray into time travel robbed of him. However, new work in artificial intelligence will draw him back into the world of mad science.

First Look: Butlers X Battlers

J is the popular top-grades president of Sparkleboy High… I mean Koyomi Academy. There he is surrounded by an ecclectic band of pretty boys all vying for screen time to the point that no one feels particularly important. However, beneath the surface, J is the guardian of a Blood Spirit who happens to be his sister, though the two have become separated. It’s probably the worst thing I’ve watched all season.

First Look: Golden Kamuy

Sugimoto “The Immortal” Saichi is a veteran of the Russo-Japanese War who’s desperate to make some quick cash to help his deceased friend’s widow. Hearing a rumor about a stash of hidden Ainu gold in the Hokkaido wilderness, he teams up with a young Ainu girl named Asirpa on a bloody quest to find it. But they’re not the only ones after the gold. Between mutinous army platoons, political revolutionaries, and the most violent and dangerous criminals Northern Japan has to offer, the duo have their work cut out for them.