Citrus Service

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Isekai subgenre: Akujo / Reincarnated Damsel

{ Akujo / Reincarnated Damsel }

Love it or hate it, Isekai has become one of the most prominent genres in Anime; having both good and bad, fun and sad themes and motifs. In recent years, I noticed a certain theme blossoming within Isekai that involved your typical villainess (usually the love rival of the main character), with the twist being that our MC is the villainess herself, but not exclusively. This subgenre more generally encompasses female main characters who are supposed to be hated in their world or story. Almost always having the Ojou-sama tag, with the usual royal affairs and sprinkled politics.

I devised this name to encompass all of my favorite Animes of this subgenre and dubbed it Akujo / Reincarnated Damsel. Here is the list:

I refrained from adding every Anime with the word ''vilainess'' in the title to this list; because I either didn't watch it, didn't think it belonged to this list, or simply didn't enjoy it.

List published on 4/15/2025.

Monday, March 31, 2025

Animes of the 2025 winter season

Oh man, another great season came to an end.

Starting with a banger—Dr. Stone: Science Future. This show never disappoints in bringing some of the most hype and fun the Shounen genre has ever produced.

Next is an Anime that I never expected much from, but was pleasantly surprised by—Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four!. It gave me a certain vibe, like it's a fantasy of a many salarymen in Japan: an overworked and unappreciated salaryman that gets reincarnated for his talents and gets appreciation and recognition for his work. Still it was a fun time.

When you say "fiction" a certain feel, or maybe different worlds or ways of thinking start to emerge. However, for me, this Anime—The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You Season 2 comes to mind when I think of "Peak fiction"; due to it's fantastical premise and nonsensical series of events. I adore this series and can't wait to watch more.

I was waiting for this one. Akuyaku Reijou Tensei Oji-san is the latest release of one of my favorite subgenres—Akujo / Reincarnated Damsel, another fun twist on the Villainess trope.

One of my friends has an interesting way of grouping shows that would be disregarded usually. He calls them—Junk food; he would watch these without really committing to them or taking them seriously, and Botsuraku Yotei no Kizoku dakedo, Hima Datta kara Mahou wo Kiwamete mita is certainly one of them. It's kind of a power fantasy Anime, which is a guilty pleasure of mine. It's an OK show.

Magic Maker: Isekai Mahou no Tsukurikata has a cool premise, in which the main character invents and discovers magic in another world. Also has cute siblings with a somewhat of a tear-jerker in this Anime and that's really about it. It's alright.

~Bonus~

This Anime came out before the winter season, but I'll include it here since it is a pretty neat show—Chi. Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite. It's about Europe in the dark ages, when the church ruled and dictated that Earth is the center of the universe i.e. Geocentrism.

(Spoiler) If I were to describe the theme in one word it would be: Succession.

I'll paste here what I wrote back when I was watching it:

"It's an alternate universe(?), in which theocracy dictated the flow and orbit of the heavenly bodies, as; the Earth being in the center of it all. As a result, scholars of astronomy are seen as heretics, due to their adoption of a heliocentric view of the solar system. I'm not sure why they didn't go the route of giving characters their real-life names."

And:

"Episode#6 I can't express, how much I feel so moved by this. Truly God's creation is magnificent, whether here, or up there."

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Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Strawberry Switchblade (1985) and Peel Sessions (1967 - 2004)

Once again, YouTube has decided to throw me something different. And that thing is, the pop duo Strawberry Switchblade!

A Cute and amazing duo. Just look at them dance with there cute outfits in this music video that took me down this rabbit-hole:

Strawberry Switchblade - Since Yesterday (1985)

I really dig their style in clothing and music, it's really charming.

From there, I got recommended and introduced to Peel Sessions. Which are music sessions recorded for the John Peel show on the BBC 1 radio, from 1967 to 2004. They are a great way to discover some great bands and music! The sessions included many bands, who recorded their music live for the show; from what I understood, the method for the show rose from Musicians' union rules that forbade how much music could be played from vinyl records.

"John's show had to air a large amount of non-recorded music. This meant that he was only allowed a certain amount of 'needle time' (referring to 'stylus-on-vinyl' time - the time allotted to playing records on air) due to Musicians' Union rules."

Check out this blog; for more reading on John Peel. There are so many sessions - way too many, perhaps - however, my favorite Peel sessions so far (in no particular order) are:

Xmal Deutschland - Peel Session 1985

Strawberry Switchblade - Peel Session 1985

Curve - Peel Session 1991

New Order - Peel Session 1981

Links:

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Alan Wake (2012)

This game is about Night Springs, and... Coffee thermoses.

My friend has been trying to get me into the Alan Wake sphere for a while, but I kept on ignoring him. Then, one day, I got this music video recommend to me on YouTube, and the results were astonishing.

Overnight, I became obsessed with the song, the lyrics, and the universe of Alan Wake. I came running to my friend pleading: "Why didn't you show me this music video sooner?!" his reply was that, it would have been kind of a spoiler to the first game. To me, the performance made me want to try out this series, and maybe other Remedy games in the future.

I couldn't take my eyes off of this 1972 Chevrolet Impala. It tickles my fancy.

Well met, Mr. Wake.

It's always great; whenever I find one of the Night Springs episodes.

I vibe with this dude.

The game is filled with some stunning vistas, which were depicting some otherwise mundane pieces of infrastructure, intertwined with the mountainous nature of Bright Falls; a logging camp deep in the woods, an abandoned mineshaft cutting through the rocky terrain, a railroad carried across the valley by an deck truss (under-truss) bridge, the mesmerizing mechanism of a swing-bridge, the junkyards filled with 40s cars, the crazy metal concert in that one farm, and many more...

Standee Wake! Stop this insolent mockery, immediately!

Loved shining my flashlight around the environment, it really drew me into the world of the game in an immersive way.

Great music choices in this game; my favorites were Poe - Haunted and Roy Orbison - In Dreams.

Oh and the weirdest coincident ever, I finished the game after it had received an update, which changed the credits song from the legendary David Bowie - Space Oddity! with a song called Strange Moons by Petri Alanko. The new song does capture the essence of the ending pretty well, I'd say. Speaking of the ending...

Sadly, the gameplay gets pretty stale very early on in the game also, I didn't like the ending, I thought it was a let down. I'm however, still in the market for more Alan Wake, who knows when I'll get to the second game though. Sweet dreams, everyone.

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Sunday, February 9, 2025

H.M.S. Defiant (1962)

Also Known as "Damn the Defiant!" in the U.S.

I'm back to my shenanigans of watching classic naval war films, after a long hiatus. I don't have much to say though; it is a film based on the 1958 Mutiny novel, not to be confused with the Mutiny on the Bounty's real incident, and films of 1935, and 1962.

While reading the Wikipedia page for the film– I came across this passage, and wanted to shed a light on it.

" In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "The perennially popular topic of wooden ships and iron men, of eighteenth-century square-riggers, naval martinets and mutineers is handled with the kind of graphic splendor that should set a million boyish hearts aflame ... [Y]ou will know that you've sat through a picture that does not make much psychological sense but has the rich and rosy luster of a blood-drenched seafaring romance. ... So, if you're for naval roistering, here is your cup of rum."

This film had a couple of nice frigates and a ship of the line. As usual, I'll share my favorite screenshots.

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