novareviews

[novareviews]

Tomo-Chan is a Girl

Tomo-Chan is a Girl is a 2023 anime that ran in 2023 based off a manga that ran from 2015 to 2019, it follows the life of Tomboy karate master Tomo Aizawa as she tries to get the romantic attention of her childhood friend Junichiro Kubota. Helping her in this goal is her other childhood friend and dark girl Misuzu Gundou and popular girl Carol Olston

Review

Yeah truth be told I don’t think there’s really anything to spoil in a story like this, the very first scene is Tomo confessing her love to Jun…who doesn’t get it and thinks she’s saying she loves him like a friend. From there the show becomes, in my opinion, a mix of Tomo, Misuzu and Carol trying to figure out how to get Jun to notice Tomo in a romantic way, and also an examination on what it means to be a girl. Tomo is a very tomboy person, built muscular enough that people who don’t know her at first think she’s a guy but it’s never taken enough to be an insult as she is still woman shaped. On the other hand she barely dresses in a feminine way and she’s actually too tough to participate in the girls sports and has to participate in the guys side, like Karate or dodgeball. However she still feels self conscious on occasion about not appearing feminine enough

Ultimately the show’s message is that Tomo doesn’t need to look feminine or act feminine to be a girl and ultimately she and Jun do get together. But on the note of Jun, he’s actually not as stupid as the premise implies, he doesn’t actually think Tomo is a guy and is aware the entire time that she’s a girl who confessed to him but he just feels awkward about potentially damaging his and Tomo’s friendship, Tomo is as well but she’s trying to move past it, unsuccessfully due to her own feelings being a whirlwind of contradictions.

At the end of the day, I honestly think this is a sweet and funny little anime that I highly recommend a watch of, with some great voice acting and a cute little story

[novareviews]

Love Flops

Love Flops is a 2022 sci-fi comedy harem anime that aired on HIDIVE that follows the romantic exploits of Asahi Kashiwagi, a high school student who winds up having a very confusing day when he runs into 4 women and a man, all of whom he upsets but after clearing things up they all decide they are in love with him, and thanks to his dad, they are all his bridal candidates as well, including the boy cause dad is open minded...or is that actually the plot?

Where'd I First learn of it:

the youtube channel Mother's Basement has a series he does called Hottest trash of the season where he talks about some shows he cant quite say are great or that they dont have cringe elements and Love Flops ended up in his Fall of 2022 with a later video that brought up what the show is hiding

Spoiler-Free (ish) review:

Oh my an ish added on to my categories in the second review? Well yes because this is a show I highly recommend but it hides what it is very well for a long time so I need to say what I consider the point of the show is, and the major twist in the spoiler free section. I won't say too much but it may help you decide to watch the show.

That said, I think the point of the show, underneath the comedy and harem elements is ultimately a story about grief and lost chances. The show takes place a bit into the future with robots and AI all over the place while asahi tries to live his life and get along with his 5 bridal candidates that live in his house but as the show progresses and gets some crazy additions with secrets the cast has, we keep getting subtle clues that something is off. Small details that make it feel like a lucid dream if nothing else, culminating in episode 7 of this 12 episode anime where the walls come crashing down and we see what the show was hiding, followed by episode 8 where we start to see what the show was actually about.

That’s all I can say without giving spoilers on what the show is actually about so if I haven’t convinced you yet, I recommend reading the spoilers but I do genuinely think this anime told a great story at the end of the day

Spoilers

It turns out that the entire show up to episode 7 hasn’t been real, asahi has been playing a video game for the company that makes AI programs and all the girls in his harem are constructs made by different nations of the world to help the AI learn how to love. We also learn Asahi being picked for this wasn’t an accident because his departed childhood friend Ai Izawa, someone who had feelings for asahi and he also loved but neither said it, is the baseline of all artificial intelligence and ultimately the show ends with Asahi and Ai coming together and finally admitting their feelings for each other so now they can both move on from regrets and at least Asahi can no longer be a shut in, wracked with sadness

[novareviews]

She-Ra & The Princesses of Power

She-ra is a Netflix exclusive cartoon that aired from 2018-2020 following the adventures of Adora and her 7ft tall alter ego She-ra as she and her newfound friends in the rebellion fight to save their planet from the evil Horde, a faction Adora herself was part of until very recently. Along they way they make new alliances, learn the meaning of friendship and all that jazz you know about from kids shows

Where’d I first learn of it:

Well I can’t remember totally where I first heard of it but I remember when it was a big thing, I just never actually went into it on my own until recently because of Netflix’s decision to remove all their dreamworks coproductions from their service

As for why it finally caught my eye, I suppose it would have to be because I knew vaguely about Catra’s plot and I wanted to see it in action

Spoiler-free review

Watching this show did reveal some surprises to me I didn’t expect, like Adora being raised by the horde from the beginning or how much I genuinely loved basically all the characters except for Shadow weaver who I wanted to constantly lose the entire time I saw her. The art and comedy was ok, the world building was great, the character dynamics were fun to watch and overall it was an enjoyable ride that I only wish I went on sooner, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy stories with a sci-fi style and an interest in redemption arcs.

With that said I do have spoiler related thoughts so if you wanna go in blind this is where you hop off, take care and I’ll see you on my next post

Spoiler-Based thoughts

Alright so I don’t know this shows production timetable and while I enjoyed season 5 there were definitely parts that I felt were kinda rushed, specifically Glimmer and Catra’s redemption. This season for them, to me, was in them coming to terms with and apologizing for the actions they did across the whole show or in glimmer’s case season 4 and honestly I’m not too happy that glimmer only got about 1 episode with the Best Friend squad that involved actual guilt being shared for her actions, but it’s also not something I wanted dragged over the rest of the show, I just thought it resolved too quick is all. Catra on the other hand, I would have liked to see more interaction between her, Entrapta and Scorpia but I suppose the show really did only need to show Catra and adora making up.

[novareviews]

An Introduction to how I’m doing this

So despite my blog name, I’m not looking to be an actual reviewer I just want to talk about things that have gotten my interest in one way or another and I’ve decided to express that in this kind of blog, with that here’s about the format I’m looking to do going forward

A brief summary of what I want to talk about

Where I first learned of it, if I can recall, and to explain why it caught my eye

My spoiler free thoughts on the subject of the post

And finally thoughts I have to put under a spoiler

I’m thinking of other ideas already besides just making standard discussions but that will come at a later time