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."

Links:


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 SessionsWhich 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: