Fall 2023 Watchlist, Bleach, and Death of the Red Envelope

It’s fall and this blog is back from its summer hiatus! Hope everyone is well and thriving...

While I was off, I published a new book (The Female Gaze: Through a Different Lens), saw some movies, and tried to speed through my Netflix DVD list (more on that later).

If you read this blog, you know that I’ve been feeling a little distant from the anime scene and re-evaluating what anime and manga mean to me. Except for Bleach’s recent return I haven’t been watching anything regularly.

It got worse when I looked at the upcoming fall anime season and saw that there is still a ton of isekai series in the animesphere. I have to wonder: is isekai really that popular, or is it a trend that I simply don’t get the appeal of?

Regardless, I did find a few series that I think I’ll try out.

Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions
(Kamonohashi Ron no Kindan Suiri)

From Anime News Network:

An unusual private investigator and police detective duo team up to solve a series of thrilling mysteries!

From My Anime List:

Despite lacking the skills suited for his role on the Metropolitan Police Department investigative team, Totomaru Isshiki wants to solve murders and help people. Following the advice of one of his seniors, he ventures out to enlist the aid of the reclusive Ron Kamonohashi.

Five years ago, Ron was the most promising detective from the illustrious Detective Training Academy Blue; yet for reasons unknown to the public, he sank into obscurity.

Totomaru expects a well-dressed, composed man; but what he gets is a messy-haired and uninhibited eccentric. After years in solitude, Ron barely resembles his former self and he refuses to even hear out the detective. However, as quickly as Ron rebuffs, he flips on a dime and dives headfirst into the current serial murder case.

The true reason Ron withdrew from the detective world was not from lack of desire, but rather from something out of his control - and Totomaru might just be the key for his return to his former calling. Together, the wide-eyed officer and deranged detective tackle each mystery that comes their way.

My New Boss is Goofy
(Atarashii Joushi wa Do Tennen)

From ANN:

Kentaro Momose’s new job may be stressful, but his new boss is more laid-back than he looks.

From MAL:

Momose, a 26-year-old office worker, recently changed jobs after being harassed by his former boss. He is concerned that his new boss will also use power harassment to make his life miserable. Momose tries to hide his concern about facing a similar situation with his new boss, Shirasaki. To Momose’s surprise, however, Shirasaki’s inherent airheadedness immediately alleviates all of his concerns, giving him a sense of relief.

By the way, there’s no BL overtones at all in that pic - none at all. ;-D

Heaven Official’s Blessing Season 2
(Tian Guan Cifu Er)

From ANN:

Xie Lian reunites with Hua Cheng when he’s sent on a mission in the Ghost City.

... Which reminds me, I still need to finish season one on Funimation. Another first season I need to finish is Spy X Family. The second season starts on Oct. 7, but as of this writing, Crunchyroll hasn’t announced that they have the license yet. I expect that will change soon.

Also, I thought My Hero Academia and Boruto were supposed to return this October. I looked into it and found that My Hero Academia is set to return with Season 7 in Spring 2024, while Boruto has a new manga arc, “Two Blue Vortex,” which began in August. However, no word yet on when the anime will return.

The second cour of Bleach’s Thousand Year Blood War arc, which began in summer, is winding down now, and it’s been great. The episodes have been my only weekly touchstone as far as having a regular anime schedule goes and I’ve had something to look forward to each Saturday because of it. It’s set to end on Sept. 30 with a doubleheader of the two final episodes.

And now for the end of something else. After 25 years, Netflix DVD is closing down its subscription service.

Before Crunchyroll was legit, before almost any anime you wanted to watch was legally available, Netflix DVD was one of the few ways you could watch anime legitimately and guilt-free. For a small monthly fee the whole universe of entertainment that was available on DVD discs could be sent to your door.

I watched more anime movies than series in the early days. (There was nothing worse than trying to binge a series when you had to wait for the U.S. Postal Service to bring you the next disc - it felt like forever, lol.)

But the anime movies more than made up for it. I’m pretty sure I first watched Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal via a Netflix disc, as well as Embracing Love: A Cicada in Winter.

The trend for or against DVDs went back and forth through the years. First, it was streaming will kill off discs. Then it was outsmart the expensive streaming services by rebuilding your disc collection! There was validity on both sides of the argument.

From the FAQ page at Netflix DVD:

Q. When is the last day you'll ship out discs?
A. On April 18th, we announced that after 25 years of shipping DVDs, this will be our Final Season, and we'll ship our last disc on September 29th, 2023.

I found two answers intriguing:

Q. Can I purchase discs from DVD Netflix?
A. We are unable to sell discs from our rental inventory.

Q. Do I need to return any remaining discs after the last shipping day?
A. You will not be charged for any unreturned discs - please enjoy them for as long as you like! If you do choose to return the disc, we will continue to accept returns until October 27th, 2023.

What are they going to do with their inventory of thousands of discs?? My first thought when I heard Netflix DVD was closing down was - Can we buy the DVDs? Apparently the answer is no. I hope that they’ll donate them to libraries, senior centers, retirement homes, etc.

And... “If you do choose to return the disc...” So the last disc is a freebie? I have Doctor Zhivago at home now. If I hurry up, watch it, and return it to Netflix and change my queue, maybe I can get a DVD I’d really like to keep...? I mean... that is what they’re saying, right?

There’s actually a serious consideration here. Besides the doomsday prepper aspect of what if the internet goes down and streaming disappears there’s a certain negative outcome that can be counted on to happen in these situations.

Every time technology changes and a new delivery mode of entertainment takes over, some art gets lost. When cassette tapes replaced vinyl records, not all of the music that was on records got transferred to the new technology. The same when CDs replaced cassettes, and when MP3s replaced CDs.

An example: through the years I’ve rented Kadokawa Mystery & Horror Tales, a series of Japanese short horror tales, from Netflix DVD. Each disc featured several creepy short videos that I would watch with English subs. I’m not saying they were Oscar contenders but I will miss them. Where else will I be able to watch something like this?

It’s not Netflix’s fault. They can close down their business if they want. But the loss of their huge DVD inventory, which included the foreign and the obscure, the indie and the exploitation movies - all the not-so-popular or weird things to watch - will make it more difficult to discover something unusual, or even just something that isn’t American.

Not everything is on streaming. It may feel like it sometimes if you go through Netflix’s or Hulu’s or Amazon Prime Video’s seemingly endless film and video offerings, but everyone who is my age remembers that small indie or foreign film from the 1960s or 70s that you can’t find to watch anywhere now. Maybe it was available on VHS but not on DVD, so it’s certainly never going to be available on a streaming platform. Essentially, it’s gone.

So Netflix DVD closing down isn’t just Netflix closing down its DVD division - it’s a loss of access to certain films and TV series and a narrowing of choice. I really do hope that they don’t simply trash those discs, because even creepy obscure Japanese horror stories have their place.

Summer 2023 Watchlist

Finally summer is here, and I can start watching new streaming anime again...

However, there is nothing that is actually new on my list. There are only new seasons of anime series I’ve watched before. I combed the anime summer offerings for new series I might be interested in and found nothing.

But hey, new episodes are new episodes, and I’ll be glad to have something to watch again each week.

My most anticipated series is Bleach: The Thousand-Year Blood War – Part II: The Separation. This is the second cour of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc. It’s going to be hard to watch because this is where Uryu Ishida parts ways with Ichigo and his other friends in order to side with the Quincy - his own kind.

The production team did a great job with the first cour last year. I’m anticipating another great season of episodes this time as well.

A couple of things here. First, Rurouni Kenshin is an old favorite of mine, and there are still a lot of fans of the story. As you may or may not have heard, manga-ka Nobuhiro Watsuki was charged with possession of child porn in 2017. This brings up the age-old argument of whether one can separate what the artist produces from who the artist is (see Why It’s Difficult to Separate Rurouni Kenshin from Nobuhiro Watsuki).

There’s no easy answer to that question, and each of us has to come up with his or her own personal answer. The second issue is that this is a remake of the original story as opposed to an all-new story. Which begs the question: do we really need to see a remake of the original? The original series was good, and the prequel OVA series Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal was an absolute classic. I’m not sure why they’re remaking something that doesn’t need to be remade. As such, this probably won’t be on my watchlist.

I remember watching the first season of The Devil Is a Part-Timer! (Hataraku Maou-Sama!) back in 2013. Then I don’t recall hearing about it again until now, when I saw that its third season is about to begin. The second season apparently streamed in fall 2022 and I didn’t even notice.

From Crunchyroll:

Foiled by a hero when he’s inches away from conquering the world, the devil finds himself in modern-day Tokyo. With no real-world skills to speak of, the devil is forced to make ends meet flipping burgers at a fast food joint! To stall any further plans of world domination, the hero tracks the devil’s trail and takes on the lowly tasks of a telemarketer.

It’s been many years since I saw the first season, but I remember it as being a very funny show. I’ll have to get caught up with season two so I can watch the new season.

Finally, Yamishibai is coming back.

Yamishibai is one of my favorite weird little series. Each standalone episode is around five minutes long and most are creepypasta-ish slices of horror in modern Japanese settings.

“Yamishibai” is a wordplay based on the Japanese “Kamishibai” or “paper play.” The animation looks like paper cutout figures in motion against equally crude and unreal-looking backgrounds. The effect is remarkably unsettling.

This will be the 11th season. If you’re a fan, you probably remember the final episode of Season 10 in which Narrator-san broke the fourth wall and became a character in the story. That episode was so much fun and such a surprise that I thought Yamishibai was over; that they were ending it on the perfect note.

I’m happy to be proved wrong. Welcome back, Narrator-san. I’m glad to see you and your paper world again. ;-)

Rurouni Kenshin Now Available at Crunchyroll

Crunchyroll is on a roll. In the past few months the streaming site has started its own licensed manga service, began streaming One Piece and Toriko and now it's acquired the classic Rurouni Kenshin series in both sub and dub versions.

Rurouni Kenshin is one of those anime series that's been on my want-to-watch list forever. I've read the first few volumes of the manga and also own the live-action movie.

And then there's the prequel, Rurouni Kenshin - Trust and Betrayal.

If you haven't seen it, Trust and Betrayal is beautiful and well worth your time as an anime fan. It's on my personal Top Ten anime list of all time.

I watched the first subbed episode of the series on Crunchyroll today and though I enjoyed it, I'd forgotten one thing - Kenshin is voiced by a female seiyuu. I'd noticed this when I watched Trust and Betrayal but it didn't stand out as odd or take me out of the story there.

But watching the first episode of the series today, wow. Mayo Suzukaze was a member of the famous Takurazuka all-female theatre troupe before she began voicing Kenshin, meaning she'd done male roles as a theatre actor - but her voice as Kenshin is really noticeably a woman's voice. A woman's voice can work for boy-age boy roles like Naruto and Edward Elric but Kenshin Himura is 28 years old. It's a little trippy, but I'll keep an open mind and maybe I'll get more used to it as I continue to watch the series. =D

Gateway Animes - Luring In the Unsuspecting Newbie

Last week, when I mentioned Crunchyroll's streaming of Voices of a Distant Star, it made me think about which animes would be the best ones to show to anime newbies. I came up with two criteria:

1. The anime would have to make anyone who says "Oh, anime - that Japanese cartoon stuff?" - never be able to say that again;

and

2. The anime would have to invoke deep emotion, as the greatest filmed entertainment does (i.e., the best live-action movies and TV).

Until now, I probably would have considered myself still a relative newbie to anime and not able to fairly judge. But if the records of my anime watching that I keep on MyAnimeList are accurate, I have now watched a total of 145 anime series and feature films. So I think I finally have enough standing to do "best of" type lists. ;)

So in that respect, I thought about "gateway" animes, the animes you'd show someone to convince them that anime can be both great art and great entertainment, and I came up with one OVA, two series, one short OVA series and two feature films.

Voices of a Distant Star, pictured above, was Makoto Shinkai's first work. He wrote, directed, produced and did the animation in this solo tour de force OVA.

The premise: In 2047, Mikako and Noboru are junior high school students. Mikako, the girl, is chosen for a space expedition to fight mankind's alien enemies, while Noboru, the boy, goes on to enter high school. As the years pass, the two send messages to each other but due to Mikako's journey into deep space, the time it takes for her messages to reach Noboru begins to increase, to the point where it takes years.

It's a "gateway" anime for newbies because: At only 25 minutes long, this anime presents beautiful imagery, a compelling and believable love story and a fantastic science-fiction concept: that of time passing at different rates for the girl and boy. I like that it's the girl who goes to space - and the boy who stays behind on Earth. ;) And it evokes a surprising amount of emotion for such a short anime, and different emotions too - sadness, joy, contemplation, but most of all - a deep feeling of longing. It's simply stunning.



Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the anime adaptation of the completed manga series by Hiromu Arakawa, is one of the most thrilling anime series you will ever see.

The premise: In Amestris, a fictional European country in the early 20th century, two young brothers experiment with forbidden alchemy in an attempt to bring their mother back from the dead. The experiment goes horribly wrong and the older brother, Edward Elric, loses an arm and a leg and his younger brother Alphonse loses his entire body to "The Gate," a mysterious doorway leading to the "other side." The two seek to restore their bodies by finding a special "philosopher's stone," and become caught up in political and metaphysical mysteries hidden in Amestris' unexpectedly dark past.

It's a gateway anime because: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has everything: shonen adventure, beings with fantastical powers, compelling characters and a story that draws you in from the start and never lets you go. Despite the story going in seemingly many directions, by the end it all comes together. The climax is perfectly played out and the ending is completely satisfying on an emotional level. The story is too complex to discuss briefly and sound like you're making any sense ;) - but trust me, no one could watch this series and not be moved and deeply impressed.



Death Note is a brilliantly-told suspense tale, a cat-and-mouse story with a supernatural twist.

The premise: Light Yagami, a high school student, finds a notebook dropped by a shinigami that contains the power of life and death. By writing a person's name in this notebook while picturing their face, that person will die.

It's a gateway anime because: Death Note is a dark, cold story, one with an evil protagonist and a good antagonist (L, the detective) and moments of real horror. But it's enormously compelling due to the build-up of suspense, the what-will-happen-next that kept me watching episode after episode, unable to stop. At 37 episodes, the anime series is just the right length for the story it tells. The presentation is cool and contemporary, making it a good gateway anime for teens and young adults.



The movie Paprika is the most visually compelling and easily accessible of the late Satoshi Kon's works.

The premise: A research device called the "DC Mini" allows users to view people's dreams. Dr. Atsuko Chiba, a psychologist, uses the device to help patients by adopting a dream persona, a girl named "Paprika," who enters their dreams to assist them. One of her patients, a detective, has a recurring dream about a murder that he cannot solve. Before the device can be made available to the public, three prototypes are stolen...

It's a gateway anime because: It's a complex story telling the interwoven stories of both Dr. Chiba and the detective, with stylish imagery that makes it a visual feast. A perfect blend of fantasy, mystery, humor and unexpectedly at the end - a little romance - Paprika is a great way to introduce adults who aren't familiar with anime stories for adults to - well, anime stories for adults. ;)



I rented Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen (Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal) from Netflix a few years ago, not knowing anything about it except that I'd never seen any of the Rurouni Kenshin anime episodes before and I was in the mood for a samurai anime. What I saw was an anime I can never forget.

The premise: (This is the prequel to the Rurouni Kenshin anime series.) Ten years before the start of the series, when Kenshin is still known as the Hitokiri Battosai assassin, he kills a bodyguard named Akira Kiyosato. On the run, Kenshin meets Tomoe Yukishiro, unaware that she was Kiyosato's fiancee. A spy is suspected to be in their clan, the Choshu, and arrangements are made to hide Kenshin and Tomoe away in a remote village...

It's a gateway anime because: You can watch Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal without knowing a single thing about the Rurouni Kenshin storyline; it stands alone as a classic Japanese romance-tragedy. Unlike the manga and the anime series, which contain a lot of humor and are somewhat light in tone, Trust and Betrayal is deeply serious and transcendently beautiful. The four OVA episodes comprise, in essence, a two-hour movie. The maturity of the story and the presentation would appeal to any adult-age audience.



Finally, Sword of the Stranger, my favorite anime movie of recent years.

The premise: Kotaro, a young boy, is fleeing from the Ming Chinese, who are seeking him for an unknown reason. Along the way he meets "Nanashi," or "No-Name," a mysterious taciturn samurai who, despite his mild manner, possesses deadly skills. Nanashi reluctantly becomes Kotaro's bodyguard as the mystery of why Kotaro is a target is gradually revealed.

It's a gateway anime because: Breathtaking action sequences, an intriguing story and great performances make Sword of the Stranger an impressive and satisfying anime feature film. Nanashi is played by Japanese live-action actor Tomoya Nagase, who had never done voice acting (as opposed to live action acting) before, and he's wonderful. The child actor Yuuri Chinen also stands out as Kotaro. But it's the amazing action scenes that bring the film alive, including one moment toward the end that threatened to stop my heart (really). Any fan of action movies and good storytelling would appreciate this anime movie.

What would be some of your gateway animes?