Mushroom terrorism – Zoopraxiscope

I watched a few first episodes….

Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department is probably the best and funniest of the shows I sampled. Touka Kuroitsu works in the monster development department of an Evil Organization. Challenges include her irresponsible boss and the whimsical head of the organization. The latter decides that the man-wolf monster that development department has been working on isn’t cute enough and insists on some changes as it is finished. The completed monster does not appreciate the modifications. Oh, and the nice young man who is intrigued by the mysterious Miss Kuroitsu is the civilian alter-ego of the local tokusatsu hero. There are double-entendres and a nosebleed. This could be a fun show if the crew prioritizes comedy over fanservice, and I’ll probably keep watching it.

Komichi Akebi, who lives in a rural area where she was the only student in her grade at the local school, is excited to have been accepted at the high school her mother attended and looks forward to wearing the sailor-suit school uniform that her mother makes for her. Alas, when she arrives on campus she discovers that the school uniform now is a blazer. However, the nice principal allows Akebi to wear her sailor suit. Perhaps there will be some mean girls or obnoxious teachers at the school to spice things up a bit, but even if there are, I doubt that they’ll amount to much. Akebi’s Sailor Uniform threatens to be a relentlessly heart-warming slice of school life. If you like that sort of thing, enjoy; unless there’s more sewing action, I’ll pass.

Jinguji Tsukasa and Tachibana Hinata are a couple of “old” men, i.e., they are over thirty years old. Jinguji is super-competent, handsome, strong and self-centered. Tachibana Hinata is a dweeb whose hair hangs in his eyes. They’re lifelong best friends, which is not necessarily a good thing. Tachibana desperately wants a girlfriend, but women prefer Jinguji, who is not interested. Without warning and for no good reason, a goddess sends them to another world, transforming Tachibana into an irresistibly cute girl in the process. Yep, Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout is another damned isekai. This could be a tolerable farce, or it could be absolute garbage. I’ll watch another episode or two and see how it goes.

I did a fair amount of costuming back in my SCA/RenFaire days, and I might conceivably have experimented with anime cosplay had I discovered the medium when I was young and thin. Consequently, My Dress-Up Darling piqued my curiosity. Wakana Gojo is learning to make hina dolls from his grandfather and is expert at sewing their kimonos. A self-conscious introverted loner, he is terrified when Marin Kitagawa, a popular girl in his high school class, discovers him using a school sewing machine. However, instead of laughing at him or freaking out, she begs him to sew cosplay outfits for her. And I don’t know. If the show spends time on the technical aspects of making costumes it might be interesting. However, there are indications that it will be heavy on fanservice, some distasteful.

Sabikui Bisco is set in a post-apocalyptic Japan. Much of the country is wasteland. There are giant crabs and hippopotami. Mushrooms pop up without warning — giant mushrooms, some as large as buildings, or larger. People are afflicted with “rust,” which shows itself as patches of discolored skin. The main character looks to be Milo, a young doctor with blue hair, who is looking for a cure. Most likely he will need to negotiate a path between the cynical and probably corrupt governor and the “man-eating mushroom” outlaw Bisco. The first episode was spent primarily establishing the setting and introducing the numerous characters. It’s a distinctive world — mushrooms are as alien-looking as insects, giant ones moreso — and the show might be worth watching if the story is as interesting as the setting and the setting given a reasonable explanation. It could also become unintentionally ridiculous.

Kudos to Crunchyroll for consistently inserting commercials at the moments of greatest tension. Genshin Impact also deserves credit for its pretty commercials. I can see why the game has generated an immense amount of fan art and cosplay. The short commercials lose their impact when repeated two, three or four consecutive times, though.