Author: Anime23

Spinoff manga launched in 2022

The official Twitter account for The Misfit of Demon King Academy anime announced on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday that the second cours (quarter of the year) of season 2 will debut in 2024. The account shared a teaser visual with the announcement.

The new season is airing in split cours , the first of which premiered on January 7. Episodes 7 and beyond of the anime were delayed due to the impact of the increase in COVID-19 infections on its production schedule. The anime began airing the first six episodes again starting on February 18, and again in July. Crunchyroll began streaming the English dub of the anime season on February 27.

Shin Oonuma (Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, A Sister’s All You Need) returns as the chief director for the anime, and Masafumi Tamura (Two Car, Wise Man’s Grandchild) returns as the director. SILVER LINK once again produces the animation. Kazuyuki Yamayoshi (Chaos;Child) again adapts Yoshinori Shizuma‘s original character designs for animation. Jin Tanaka (Laid-Back Camp) is again in charge of series scripts. Ryousuke Naya serves as the sound director, and Keiji Inai returns to compose the music

The anime’s first season premiered in July 2020. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired in Japan.

The anime is based on Shu‘s The Misfit of Demon King Academy: History’s Strongest Demon King Reincarnates and Goes to School with His Descendants (Maō Gakuin no Futekigōsha ~Shijō Saikyō no Maō no Shiso, Tensei Shite Shison-tachi no Gakkō e Kayō) light novel series.

Shu launched the novel series on the Shōsetsu ni Narō website in April 2017.

The series inspired a manga adaptation, which was cancelled in 2021 due to the artist’s health complications.

Source: The Misfit of Demon King Academy‘s Twitter account via Otakomu

Part 2 of anime aired in July

The games have been played, the news has been announced, and the cosplayers enjoyed one more day of cosplaying at the Tokyo Game Show 2023. Are there some familiar faces? Sure. But why settle for dressing up as one character for two days? Or hanging with the same group for two days. Here’s a highlight of the great cosplay we saw on day two of the Tokyo Game Show 2023.

Left to right: Leon Kennedy and Jill Valentine from the Resident Evil series. Cosplayer (left to right): Wolvie and Roise.

TakemichiHanagaki from Tokyo Revengers. Cosplayer: You.

Left to right: Princess Daisy and Frye from the Super Mario series and Splatoon 3. Cosplayer (left to right): limone and NemuEimi.

Wario from the Super Mario series. Cosplayer: Nakadai.

Left to right: Hunter in Stygian Zin Beta+ armor Felyne in Slagoth armor, and Hunter in Odogaron Beta armor from the Monster Hunter series. Cosplayer (left to right): Kazuha, Ayame, and Ichigo.

Lacus Clyne from Mobile Suit Gundam: SEED. Cosplayer: Arisun.

Left to right: Murrue Ramius and Natarle Badgirel from Mobile Suit Gundam: SEED. Cosplayer (left to right): Aruma and Kasumi.

Minato Namikaze from Naruto. Cosplayer: Kagami.

Left to right: Miku and Ulala from Space Channel 5. Cosplayer (left to right): Aoi and Ryo Haruma.

Link from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Cosplayer: Bakenuko.

Skull Kid from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Cosplayer: Toyo.

Jeanne d’Arc Alter from Fate/Grand Order. Cosplayer: Ren Ueno.

Bradamante from Fate/Grand Order. Cosplayer: Komo.

Left to right: Chun Li, Ryu, and Blanka from Street Fighter 6. Cosplayer (left to right): Meiko, Anonymous, and Josui Chiba.

Cammy from the Street Fighter series. Cosplayer: Soshi.

Son Goku from Dragon Ball Z. Cosplayer: Anko Sakura.

Left to right: Perona and “Red-Haired” Shanks from One Piece. Cosplayer (left to right): RUNA and MASA.

Left to right: Sir Crocodile and “White Chase” Smoker from One Piece. Cosplayer (left to right): Ray and Soma.

Aloy from Horizon Forbidden West. Cosplayer: sck.

Left to right: Yi Sang, Ishmael, and Ryoshu from Limbus Company. Cosplayer (left to right): Shikura, Medaka Samura, and Sana Mizuki.

Left to right: Aerith Gainsborough, Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart, and Yuffie Kisaragi from Final Fantasy VII Remake. Cosplayer (left to right): Michiru, Monet, Chika, and Chan.

Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII Remake. Cosplayer: Miya Shirogane.

Celes Chere from Final Fantasy VI. Cosplayer: Hisawa Midori.

Malboro from the Final Fantasy series. Cosplayer: DATIWAWA.

Left to right: Athena Cykes and Miles Edgeworth from the Ace Attorney series. Cosplayer (left to right): Tomehi and Coyochi.

Baran from Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai. Cosplayer: Yahiro.

Left to right: 9S and 2B from NieR:Automata. Cosplayer (left to right): Chin Ryu and Fuco.

Xiangling from Genshin Impact. Cosplayer: Rei TouUdon.

Tingyun from Honkai: Star Rail. Cosplayer: Misako Yagi.

Big Boss (Snake) from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Maker. Cosplayer: Potato Masher.

Lupin III from Lupin the Third. Cosplayer: Anonymous.

Rika from Pokémon Violet/Scarlet. Cosplayer: KazukiIsshiki.

MisuzuKamino from Air. Cosplayer: Anonymous.

Roll Caskett from the Mega Man Legends series. Cosplayer: Raitaros.

KatsukiBakugo from My Hero Academia. Cosplayer: Mike NekoKyoju.

Left to right: Lilith Aensland and Morrigan Aensland from the Darkstalkers series. Cosplayer (left to right): Kamuko and Yuna.

Left to right: Kazuma Kiryu, Taiga Saejima, GoroMajima, and Kazuma Kiryu from the Like a Dragon (formerly Yakuza) series. Cosplayer (left to right): Zukki, Gun-KYO, Parakin, and Syo.

Anime based on Marvel comic book superheroes premiered in Japan in July 2017

Now that was a finale! As if in response to my misgivings last week, Undead Murder Farce closes out the season with action, deduction, and enough last-minute twists to tie a lovely and blood-red knot on the series. The adaptation dials its strengths back up to eleven, with Mamoru Hatakeyama returning to storyboard the heck out of this conclusion, and the werewolf arc ends on a surprisingly uplifting note for the major players involved (if you ignore all the ones who were killed). It’s an ending befitting of ANN’s nearly unanimous favorite from the summer docket.

Before we get to Aya’s lengthy explanation of the evidence, Murderface (look, I had to call the show that at least once before I wrap up these reviews) treats us to a handful of fun fight scenes. Depending on your preferences, this might feel like eating dessert before dinner. To me, however, this whole episode feels like dessert. Kyle’s demise arrives quickly, but it’s difficult to complain when the finishing blow involves Frankenstein ripping off his arm so he can use it as a ranged weapon. Maybe we could have gotten more visual mileage out of Kyle’s chain technique in a perfect world. I’m also sad to see Alice shot down in her prime. Her projectile-based matchup with Crowley made sense, though, so at least this spunky gunslinger goes down with her pistols drawn.

The true highlight of this opening salvo is Shizuku’s rematch against Carmilla, where the direction and storyboarding go hog wild. Creative paneling and negative space make the most out of limited animation. The glowing red effect pops out of the screen and matches Carmilla’s lips against the blood drawn from Shizuku’s thigh. And when her poison takes hold, the scene turns psychedelically sapphic as the reams of colored cloth coalesce into a kaleidoscope of rainbows and nude women. It’s a perfect example of this adaptation embracing extravagance and often doing so in polarizing extremes. For instance, this scene becomes a gorgeous and intoxicating expression of the eroticism inherent in their conflict. Still, the first thirty seconds of the episode also feature the triumphant return of the garish pixelated chroma key effect. Both, to me, are indelible facets of Undead Murder Farce‘s style.

Once Aya gets talking, the show shifts gears back into detective mode, although the presentation remains just as delightfully ostentatious. Without breaking down every single clue, I’d say overall, the murder mystery comes together in a satisfying fashion. I was glad to see my Jutte = Louise = Nora theory confirmed, although I’d wager that was the most obvious part of this picture. One detail I liked—and didn’t even think about—was how the two villages’ opposing diurnal/nocturnal schedules aided in Jutte’s deception. While it doesn’t take into account the unconscionable amount of sleep debt she must have accrued; it exhibits the degree of convoluted cleverness I want from a story like this. I similarly award points to the presence (or lack thereof) of the underground moth scales, which is another smoking gun I would have never considered.

While Aya correctly fingers (to the extent that a disembodied head can) the culprit in front of both sets of villagers, she falls just short of finding Jutte’s true motive. That revelation ended up elevating this entire arc for me. Like Aya, I had assumed Jutte’s plan was stoking a war of vengeance that would wipe out both sides, but her ambitions were instead emancipatory. She rebels against Wolphinhel’s obsession with creating a lupine Übermensch, and more broadly, she rejects the whole binary supposition that she must side with one village or the other. She chooses instead to side with the other werewolf girls trapped within Wolphinhel’s regressive ambitions, and she gifts them (and herself) a chance to forge a life unbound elsewhere. It made me do a total 180 on Jutte. I wish we got more closure regarding the other girls left in the village, and I would have liked even more perspective on Louise’s role in aiding and abetting Jutte’s plot. Did Louise do so only to atone for what she did to Jutte, or did her own experiences lead her to sympathize with the girls in Wolphinhel? Her arc had to be every bit as interesting as her doppelganger’s.

The episode wraps up with some callbacks to the prior cases and a teaser for the gang’s approaching confrontation with Moriarty. I’d love a second season, but Yugo Aosaki may need to write a few more novels first. In the meantime, I leave Undead Murder Farce with two major takeaways. First, Mamoru Hatakeyama remains one of my favorite storyboarders and series directors in the industry. His unique approach injected an air of artfulness that played wonderfully into the macabre camp of this penny-dreadful detective romp. Second, I love the leading trio a whole lot. Aya, Tsugaru, and Shizuku are all individually strong characters with distinct personalities, but they shine brilliantly as a unit glued together with equal parts affection and adversity. They made these farces a ton of fun to follow, and I hope our paths cross again.

Rating:

Undead Murder Farce is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.

Steve is on Twitter while it lasts. He’s just trying to get ahead in life. You can also catch him chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.

The official website for the television anime of author Howahowa Shiina and illustrator Yamaada‘s Toaru Ossan no VRMMO Katsudō-ki (A Playthrough of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life) light novel series revealed two more cast members on Friday. The new cast includes Hiroyuki Yoshino as Ward (pictured below right) and Mutsumi Kaneko as Myun (below left, character name romanizations not confirmed).

The site is also streaming a preview for the show’s first episode.

The anime will premiere in Japan on October 2 on the TOKYO MX channel at 25:05 JST, and on BS11 at 25:00 JST (effectively October 3 at 1:05 a.m., 1:00 a.m. respectively). The anime will also stream on the d Anime Store, U-NEXT, and Anime Hōdai streaming services on October 2. The anime will then premiere on the AT-X channel on October 3 at 11:30 p.m. Crunchyroll will stream the anime starting on October 2.

The anime’s cast includes:

Yuichi Nakazawa (animation director for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Welcome to the NHK, Accel World) is directing the anime at Maho Film. Touko Machida (Lucky Star, Show By Rock!! Stars!!, Wake Up, Girls!) is overseeing the series scripts, and Yūko Watabe (Glass Fleet, Surgeon Elise) and Yūko Ōba (I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss, My Unique Skill Makes Me OP even at Level 1) are the main character designers. TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND is composing the music.

saji is performing the opening theme song “Magic Writer,” and Miho Okasaki is performing the ending theme song “Kibō no Recipe” (Recipe of Hope).

AlphaPolis‘ Alpha Manga service is releasing the novels’ manga adaptation in English, and it describes the story:

A new type of VRMMO called “One More Free Life Online” is out. He logs in as a young boy avatar called “Earth”. Taichi Tanaka (38, single) has a regular office job and enjoys playing video games in his free time. In a world where the player is free to do as they wish, he decides to master a skill that’s been deemed to be useless! He makes potions that are too much of a hassle to make, cooks food that is excessively too good, and uses bizarre original weapons to hunt monsters… An adventure manga about an ordinary middle-aged man leisurely enjoying his VRMMO sandbox game!

AlphaPolis began releasing the novels in 2014. Shūya Rikudō launched the manga adaptation in 2014.

Sources: A Playthrough of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life anime’s website, Comic Natalie

To call Graduation a movie is a bit generous. Even with the inclusion of the Hirano and Kagiura short, this thing just barely reaches an hour with credits. Since it also inherits the slow, vignette-based pacing of the TV series – along with its visual quality – it’s perhaps better to think of this as an extra-long final episode. While the final lines of this film assure us Sasaki and Miyano’s romance will continue beyond this graduation, this also acts as a pretty tidy capstone to the property in animation.