(AKA: Tenmaku no Jaadugar; A Witch's Life in Mongol)
Anyone who's watching seasonal anime is talking about Jaadugar, and for good reason. When I watched Jaadugar's 2-episode premiere, I had to just sit and stare at a wall for several minutes processing it before I could do anything else. Even when I tried after that to go back to checking out more anime premieres, I kept getting distracted just thinking about Jaadugar, over and over again. It is haunting, in every sense of the word.
Set in 13th-century Persia (modern day Iran) and Mongolia during the Mongol invasion of Khwarazm, this is a story about the horrors of war and imperialism. Sitara is an enslaved girl who's spent her life studying in an effort to gain some control over her life. Just when she finds a pathway to freedom, her home is invaded by the forces of the Mongol Empire and everything she's known and loved her whole life is destroyed in a few ruthless days. But Sitara is not one to sit idly by and let everything be taken from her without consequence: she is smart, she is resourceful, she is a good actress. She vows to endear herself to the invaders, study them, and use this knowledge to exact her revenge.
Science SARU have brought this story to life with the utmost care, with a unique style, detailed art, and a resonant soundtrack. The creative team have given an interview where they go over their research on making sure they accurately and respectfully represent Muslim, Persian, and Mongolian culture, particularly the women within those cultures. It is a marvelous work of art and I can honestly see it ending up in my all-time favorites by the time summer is done. It's a must-watch.
Genre: Drama, Historical
You may like it if you enjoyed: Orb: On the Movements of the Earth, The Apothecary Diaries
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Content warnings: Slavery, war, suicide
🌊 2. Goodbye, Lara
(AKA: Sayonara Lara)
Original anime always get me excited because you never have any idea where the story will go. And no one is better at original anime than Kinema Citrus and the creative team behind Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight, back to create yet another anime-original story that will undoubtedly be talked about for years.
A new spin on The Little Mermaid, still feeling fresh even after the countless times this story has been told. Lara is a mermaid princess who longs to connect to the forbidden human world above the surface, despite a prophecy that promises ruin if she falls in love with a human. This is no Disney story: Lara fails, the prince was not her true love, she turns to seafoam, and the prophecy holds true.
300 years later in modern Shiga, Lara gets a second chance, reincarnated. From another world and another time, she must navigate modern times with the help of a strange human girl offering possibly the truest connection she's ever known. But she's not the only mermaid who's returned, and there's an ominous mystery undercurrenting every episode.
While nothing is confirmed given its nature as an original anime, the yuri subtext here is strong and it's from the Revue Starlight team, so I'm pretty sure where this is headed. But even more than that, the UTTERLY GORGEOUS artistry on display here is the truly marvelous thing about this series. The art, the color design, the animation, the soundtrack, the fact that they use traditional cel animation for select scenes, the effort and creativity put in here is mindblowing.
Genre: Fairy Tale, Urban Fantasy
You may like it if you enjoyed: Cosmic Princess Kaguya!, Princess Tutu, Ponyo
Streaming: Crunchyroll
🎨 3. Draw This, Then Die!
(AKA: Kore Kaite Shine)
Most slice of life anime fails to draw me in, even the objectively good ones. Personally, it usually takes something truly special to keep me invested in a story lacking drama or stakes.
This is something truly special.
Yasumi is a pretty-obviously-neurodivergent teen in a rural coastal town who has trouble picking up on social cues. When she discovered manga as a child, it opened up her world, particularly a 1-volume canceled manga about a robot learning to socialize, which gave her the strategies needed to come out of her shell and make friends. In all her years, she held this manga preciously close to her heart. So when she hears that its author will make her first public appearance in years at a doujinshi convention, she sneaks on a ferry and heads there herself. There, she learns something life-changing: you can make your own manga. Yes, you!
This anime is a love letter to manga and to the act of creation in general. Its second episode made me literally cry. This is a must-watch for any artist, writer, or aspiring creative who wants to remind themself why they do what they do.
Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy
You may like it if you enjoyed: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, Look Back
Streaming: Crunchyroll
🦖 4. Kaiju Girl Caramelise
(AKA: Otome Kaijuu Caraméliser)
In my opinion, the best way to watch Kaiju Girl Caramelise is to do so knowing as little about it as possible. I showed it to a friend without even letting him know so much as the title and it was an amazing experience. If you'll take that advice, go watch it right now. If you need more convincing, read on.
Kuroe is a girl with a strange condition: whenever she feels emotions too strongly, parts of her body start to transform, turning monstrous and scaled. Though she's gone up until now keeping this a secret from everyone but her adoptive mother, puberty is not a good time to have such an affliction, and when the most popular boy in school starts showing a genuine interest in her as a person, her heart leaps with disastrous results: she turns into a giant, Godzilla-sized kaiju right in the middle of Tokyo.
This is a story about teens learning to see past the disparaging comments people in their lives make about bodies and learning to love themselves exactly how they are. Some characters agonize over being skinny or fat, some over sometimes turning into a skyscraper-sized monster, and the two struggles turn out more similar than one might think. But lest you think this romcom will get too serious, Kuroe has two characters vying for her affection: a boy in love with her as a human, and a girl in love with her as a kaiju. (She's my favorite.)
Genre: Romantic Comedy (M/F with a bisexual twist), Tokusatsu
You may like it if you enjoyed: Mob Psycho 100, Sanda, Ruri Dragon
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Content warnings: Body / diet talk
🪭 5. The World is Dancing
Another exceptional historical drama, set a century after Jaadugar and 2,000 miles away in Japan. While 14th-century Japan was wrought with civil war, Sarugaku troupes still traveled the country, dancing and performing theatre. Oniyasha, the son of a Sarugaku troupe leader, finds dance utterly uninspiring and can't imagine what everyone around him sees in it. That is, until he sees a sickly, dying woman performing an erratic dance alone in her house, changing his life forever as he becomes overcome with the desire to see such dancing again.
This anime showcases the childhood of Zeami Motokiyo (known as Oniyasha as a child), the man who revolutionized Noh theatre. For those unfamiliar with Japanese theatre history as I was, while researching him I've seen his accomplishments compared to what Shakespeare did for English theatre, but 200 years earlier. The anime is not afraid to tackle serious topics, and things were not pleasant around this time. But the best part by far is getting to see Cypic (known for The Summer Hikaru Died among other things) do some of their most visually stunning work yet: this is by far the best-animated thing this year, and I just watched Witch Hat Atelier. The way the dance scenes are animated and directed really puts you in Oniyasha's head and shows you wordlessly how he feels when he sees a dance that speaks to him.
As Cypic is fond of doing, there is almost definitely going to be some LGBT history in this anime as well. Zeami Motokiyo was known to have an intimate and romantic relationship with the shogun, and many of the Noh plays he would go on to write would feature male love.
Genre: Drama, Historical
You may like it if you enjoyed: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, The Elusive Samurai
Streaming: Hidive
Content warnings: Rape (offscreen), age gap relationship (12/17) in a historical context
💐 6. I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day
(AKA: Kimishinu; Kimi ga Shinu made Koi wo Shitai)
Tragic yuri! Set in a dystopia at war, orphaned children are brought up at a school designed to hone their magic skills and train them into living weapons. After her roommate dies in battle, Sheena is tasked with befriending a new one: the secretive "legendary weapon" with more magical ability than any student the academy's seen before, who's been racking up countless kills on the battlefield since the age of 10. With her strange demeanor, mysterious past, ultra-destructive combat style, and lack of hesitance toward intimacy regardless in how much blood she might be covered in, Mimi is bound to set Sheena's life veering off-track.
Genre: Romance (Yuri), Dark Fantasy
You may like it if you enjoyed: Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Content warnings: Mild gore
🔌 7. The Ghost in the Shell
(AKA: Koukaku Kidoutai)
Ghost in the Shell has had many anime over the decades since its 1989 release (and even an infamous live-action Hollywood movie), but ALL of them have been based on the massively-popular 1995 film that was more inspired by the manga than adapting it... until now. Science SARU is somehow creating two masterworks this season, this one being the first-ever faithful adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. It's a complicated and cerebral narrative full of political commentary and brought to life with gorgeous animation and soundtrack, and it's got some crazy yuri in it to boot.
Genre: Sci-Fi, Psychological, Action
You may like it if you enjoyed: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Akira, Id:Invaded
Streaming: Prime
🕹️ 8. Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games
(AKA: Tai-Ari deshita. Ojousama wa Kakutou Game nante Shinai)
The more lighthearted yuri of the season (I love that we have multiple yuri anime most seasons now), this one is about two Street Fighter enthusiast girls attending a prestigious school where GAMING is BANNED. In order to indulge their love of fighting games, they must keep it carefully under wraps, and what better way to do that than to let their classmates think their secretive meetups are just about lezzing out instead? A delightful twist on the "secret relationship" plot where the lesbianism is public and the real secret is that they're gamers.
Genre: Romantic Comedy (Yuri)
You may like it if you enjoyed: Rock is a Lady's Modesty, Watanare, VTuber Legend
Streaming: Crunchyroll
🚬 9. Chainsmoker Cat
(AKA: Yani Neko)
A depressing fetish comedy (??) about a catgirl whose nicotine addiction is destroying her life. Not gonna lie, this one has a very niche audience. If you cannot handle grossout things, this isn't for you. If you're into grossout things sexually, you are the target audience! And if you're somewhere in between those endpoints, you may find yourself enjoying it due to the zany cast of characters and absolutely mind-blowing production value.
Even if it doesn't sound like your thing, make sure to check out the OP because it's the best of the season, as well as this video outlining all the references the OP used.
Genre: Dark Comedy
You may like it if you enjoyed: Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, WataMote
Streaming: Netflix, Oceanveil
Content warning: Drug use, needles, sexual content, shit & piss & vomit, implied child abuse
Okay I lied I don't have 10 new anime. Here's a bunch of other stuff to make up for it though:
Upcoming Summer Movies
🎀 The Ribbon Hero is a new film inspired by Princess Knight, a foundational shoujo manga published in the 1950s and adapted to anime in the 1960s. It inspired genre-defining works such as Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sailor Moon, and Cardcaptor Sakura. Instead of being a direct adaptation, this film will be a reimagining of it, a trend with Tezuka adaptations that's caught on in recent years. I adored 2023's Phoenix: EDEN17, a reimagining of Tezuka's Phoenix, so I'm very excited for this too, especially because the animation in the trailers looks incredible!
The Ribbon Hero releases August 8 on Netflix.
🥀 The Last Blossom (Housenka) is the first work from Baku Kinoshita since he directed Odd Taxi, my favorite anime of ALL TIME. It is said to be about a lonely, dying yakuza serving a life sentence in prison, reflecting on his life while talking to a flower. It sounds like it'll have the same sort of introspective quality that made Odd Taxi a masterpiece, and I can't wait for it to tear my heart out.
The Last Blossom has not yet been announced for an English streaming service. It releases on physical media in Japan on August 26 and Netflix Japan on August 29, both of which occasionally include English subtitles and can be accessed by VPN or other means. But even more excitingly, it's coming to U.S. & Canadian theaters for a 2-day run on August 30 & 31! If you live there, keep an eye out!
Sequels
👹 Daemons of the Shadow Realm (Yomi no Tsugai) Cour 2 is more nonstop fun from the successor to Fullmetal Alchemist! Arakawa remains the queen of shounen, this series only gets even better in its second cour. It's not too late to catch up! (Crunchyroll)
⏳️ Re:Zero Season 4 Cour 2 is coming August 12 to finish up the most harrowing arc of the series yet. Even in such a stacked Spring season, this was my AOTS, and it has strong potential to be my AOTS this Summer as well, though it certainly has some major competition. Could not be more excited for (and terrified of) what's to come in this psychological horrorfest of an isekai. (Crunchyroll)
That's all I've got! Hope you find something you enjoy!
This can be found on [tumblr]'s official "how to avoid scams" page. :)
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This image is 100% free to use, no credit needed. Anyone is welcome to send it (and the official tumblr link above) to the scam accounts who are using peoples accounts to try and perform the "I accidentally reported you" scam.
And hey if you want, show me your results via submission!
Sadly these scammers do know there are people who are not aware of this scam, which is unfortunately why people tend to fall for it. :(
So as always,
Stay safe, stay silly, and help others learn and be aware of scams.
Something about the bastardization of the story time and time again proves that nobody in power really cares about the people who would resonate with King’s Carrie White. A girl so ugly and repulsive she’s been removed from her own story. The societal need for women and girls to be constantly perceived as attractive is what fuels a fair amount of her torment in the book, but that person isn’t even allowed to exist on the screen. We cannot empathize with her; it isn’t allowed. It’s fascinating to me.
this is about the death penalty and its also about call out posts about people who have already apologized for things they did a long time ago and it’s also about using ‘toxic’ or ‘abuser’ as if its an immutable class of person, and its also about any other circumstance with permanent consequences or wherein you assume someone is still the same person they were.
killing me that she's getting frisky with bikini babes but they're just talking shop about her specs. this is how a number of women on this website would behave if they got to fuck a sexual style cyborg like the major
also love that it's all happening in cyberspace and their physical bodies are just splayed out on this pillow pile
I didn't realize that apparently most people would interpret the Blue Shoes as Ralsei was wearing them as shoes (normal) I kind of thought that the ribbons of the ballet shoes would be worn as a scarf and then the shoes are dangling on the end and its like a horrible flail? Does anyone see my vision or is my vision bad
You can tell a lot about a person by entering their mind palace and encountering their greatest fears and darkest hopes in a labyrinth reflective of their subconscious thoughts.
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