Anime Review: "Heroines Run the Show"

 

I started watching this when it was airing, but didn’t get around to finishing it until it’s already an entirely new year. Where did 2022 go? I regret putting this off. I wasn’t immediately grabbed by the premise, or how the plot got set up in the first few episodes, but it got so much better and better as things progressed. I don’t want to spoil anything in terms of actual events that take place in the series, but I think it’s OK to say a few things that were NOT in this show.

If you look at the genre tags and find “romance” missing, don’t worry, you’ve not made a mistake. When I saw this pop up in my feed initially I thought for sure it was going to turn into some weird romantic love triangle thing between the country girl and the two male idols, but I was very, very wrong.

Hopefully that’s not a spoiler, just a set of expectations.

“Heroine Tarumono!” is a unique slice-of-life, drama/comedy, and I suppose you’d call it an “Idol” anime, but I’m not too sure how it fits into that niche, since I haven’t watched many shows in that vein before.

What did I like about this show so much? Well, let me tell you…

A lot of it comes from the characters.

Hiyori, the protagonist, was incredibly loveable. I adored her character design, especially the bushy eyebrows. Her accent was great.

The male idols she becomes acquainted with Aizo and Yujiro started off pretty annoying, but they experience ACTUAL character development over the course of the show, just like the heroine does. I ended up liking both of them pretty equally by the end. I would have liked to see a bit more of them to be honest. Feels like there was more there than we got to see, especially with Yujiro and his family’s background.

The plot of the show is also really good. I won’t elaborate further to avoid spoilers. Just go with it.

I didn’t give it a 10/10 for a few reasons. For being an “Idol” anime, which features a lot of music, I found the songs to be the weakest point; especially the OP, which I ended up skipping most of the time. I guess good music and idols aren’t really synonymous… hmm. It also did take 4-5 episodes to really hook me in, which is kind of slow to be honest. Most people will drop something by episode 3 if they’re not all aboard by then.

All that said, definitely recommend this one. Solid stuff. 9/10

You can find the series on Crunchyroll!

Anime Review: "Beast Tamer"

Pretty sure that if you used both hands, and feet, to add up all the isekai series that came out in 2022 you’d have to have at least one friend to help you. ‘Beast Tamer’ which just finished airing last season was certainly an anime of 2022. In this anime, the eponymous “Beast Tamer”, gets kicked out of the hero’s party for being the weakest link, since he doesn’t contribute much in combat. He just does ALL of the legwork, scouting, packing, hauling, etc. He’s basically their scout/errand boy, but they kick him to the curb because he’s “holding them back”. He gets his revenge by building himself a harem of monster girls chosen from the ultimate-species: cat-girl, dragonoid, a couple fairies, and a fox (not a spoiler because they’re all in the credits). I suppose taming monster girls is at least a step forward from buying up slave girls, but still, premise-wise, having the protagonist literally owning his fellow adventuring nakama is kinda weird. Even if they all join of their own volition, because they come to respect and love him, it’s still a strange basis for an isekai.

I had a couple big problems with this series. That’s why I rate it 4/10. The ‘beast tamer’ owning his party of monster girls isn’t really one of them, I just think it’s weird.

The series was really, really forgettable. I finished watching it yesterday and held off writing the review for it until now, but at time of writing this I don’t think I can remember the names of any of the characters… Also, the use of “The Hero is an A-Hole” trope in here gets beaten to death to the point I’m left wondering how anyone would ever think this guy and his companions are the ‘chosen ones’. It would have been one thing if they’d just gone away right at the beginning so we can move, but the fact that they come back, over and over, continuing in their comically rotten ways was borderline Team Rocket level (except without even a shred of lovability).

The anime felt unoriginal, which isn’t really an original thing to say about it I’d imagine, so I’ll just end this review here.

Anime Review: "Bibliophile Princess"

 

I’ve been expanding into a variety of new anime genres recently, and the premise of ‘Bibliophile Princess’ sounded like something I’d like. It *sounded* like it’d have all the elements of a nice cozy series about a girl who loves to read. For me, that’s an easy hook. She loves books. I love to books. We have so much in common. Wham! Easily relatable protagonist. But, ultimately, I found myself just as annoyed with this series as the heroine constantly seemed to be. All she wanted was to be left to her books to read. That’s all I wanted for her too! And yet. And yet… our heroine, a hopeless bookwork, gets continuously distracted by the various episodic problems created by the multitude of other women fighting for the prince’s affection despite the fact that none of them have even the slightest chance with him. 

The prince makes it pretty clear, early on, plainly, in front of everyone in the court, that he's in love with the heroine. Nobody has a shot with him. But, they continue their worthless schemes, struggling away, even though they’ve been utterly defeated by little  miss bookworm. 

Every episode I wanted to scream at the screen. “For fucks sake, Stop! Fucking stop! Let the poor girl read!!” I would have watched an entire series with just the main heroine reading her books and reporting to the prince about the various things she learns. They’d flirt over tea (or coffee). It would have made for an adorable shojo romance. Unfortunately what we’re left with is a series that’s basically a ‘monster of the week’ type thing, but the monsters are just other ladies of the court. Sadly, this left me pretty disappointed. The chemistry between the prince and the princess was genuinely good, but we barely got any damn screen time with them together. I have very mixed feelings about this show. I want to recommend ‘Bibliophile Princess’, but when it comes down to it, it feels like it has too much wasted potential.