Reviews: Hundred, Yuuki Yuuna, Upotte!!

Last year, I opened up the blog for commissions: an offer to review anything. I’ve rarely written reviews, so this felt like a good way of motivating me into the practice. Sadly, a lot of frustrating things IRL took me out of my comfort zone for blogging for quite a while. I never want to publish anything I haven’t been able to focus on properly, especially if it’s been commissioned by a fan of the blog, so these pieces are coming out a lot later than intended. 2021 is a new year for UEM! though, and a new year for me. It’s high time we got back to talking about anime here.

With all that said, let’s get to it.

Yuru Camp: Out of the Clubroom, Into the Campfire

Many shows have their blissful moments, but some anime dedicate themselves entirely to bringing the viewer to a state of peace. Iyashikei, or ‘healing’ anime, build themselves upon a foundation of wanting the viewer to feel stress-free, and better in touch with themselves and the world around them. It was no surprise that Yuru Camp, one such show about a group of young girls finding fulfillment by camping in the great outdoors, proved to be hugely popular when it aired. But Yuru Camp goes beyond mere bliss in what it can inspire in its audience, and in how it encourages us to break down the limits we can set around finding peace in our own lives.

Impressions! Spring 2016, Week Two

High School Fleet’s maiden voyage is a success! But Mayoiga misfires as it reaches its destination.

KonoSuba S1: An Unnecessary Review

(this review contains spoilers – you have been warned!)

The ‘stuck in an MMO’ story, on the back of SAO’s commercial success, has been repeated enough to become a genre in itself. Give Studio Deen that story, however, and they turn it on its head. If they truly are ‘saving anime’ with shows like Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, it fits that they’ve revitalised the tropes of fantasy harem anime all over with their second project of the Winter 2016 season.

Seven Steps to Scripting a Fantastic Fanservice Episode

What good is a fanservice episode, that trope-to-end-all-tropes of every slice-of-life series, that doesn’t disgust your audience and degrade the fairer sex to the point that they’d be better represented in pay-per-view porn?

Gakkou Gurashi! – 12 (Super-Sized Final Review)

When a series is this good, you want it to go on forever. But if we allowed that, our girls wouldn’t be able to graduate. School must end, the wider world awaits, and so we have the ending the School Living Club deserves.

Charlotte – 12

Yuu’s hospitalization gives all the important members of our cast some final moments to catch up with him. It could probably have been meaningful if any of it mattered.

Gakkou Gurashi! – 11

Bye bye, Megu-nee. ;_;

Gakkou Gurashi! – 10

It’s a terrible day for rain.

Charlotte – 10

How do you solve a problem like Ayumi? In half an episode, apparently.

Gakkou Gurashi! – 09

Even the swimsuit episode is more than meets the eye.

Gakkou Gurashi! – 08

The Club’s dreams may be floating in the air, but the reality of their situation has only just been unearthed.

Charlotte – 08

Yuu, after bouncing back, comes to terms with some important truths, all courtesy of a blind woman who, in typically ironic fashion, sees more of life than he does.

Gakkou Gurashi! – 07

Delicious cooking, an existential crisis, and balloons. This week was as quietly chaotic as Yuki’s mind, and it resounds all the better as a warning that we’ve reached an turning point.

Gakkou Gurashi! – 06

Miki’s back-story is wrapped up (at last) with her introduction to the school living club, and something far more unsettling that the undead she’s faced: Yuki’s traumatic disorder.

Charlotte – 06

Did I say the structure of this show was disintegrating? Well, now it’s outright collapsed.

Gakkou Gurashi! – 05

Concluding a two-part flashback, the School Living Club gathers supplies, tries on clothes, and picks up a lonely girl and an over-excitable dog in the process.

Charlotte – 05

A hunt for a power user becomes an extended camping trip, which in turn becomes a great way for Charlotte to get back on track with making its cast engaging.

Gakkou Gurashi! – 04

It was Miki’s turn to take the spotlight this week, as Gakkou Gurashi! continues to make every character’s backstory a heart-stopping and heartbreaking experience.

Charlotte – 04

It’s a baseball episode – what else is there to say?