Winter 2025: The Shows I’m Dropping

I’m Living with an Otaku NEET Kunoichi!?

What a weird anime. Episodes are ~12 minutes but paired for a more normal length, so you see the intro and outro twice. Honestly the weakest fucking premise. The guy is apparently of some bloodline where he now gets target, and a kunoichi (basically female ninja) protects him. When she’s not doing that she’s just a NEET laying about his apartment. None of this actually means anything, nothing really happens in the 4 (or 2) episodes I watched. Her outfit, along with the other kunoichi, is just very tight. But even for ecchi there’s nothing really here. Basically I don’t know who this show is for as it doesn’t deliver anything.

I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons

This anime has a pretty big shift between the first and second episode in terms of tone. The first episode shows Lettie as she suffers through princess lessons to become very refined and poised and all that. At the end of the episode she drops the act due to a misunderstanding, running off to live her life freely. In the second episode then she is much more alive, and also breaks the fourth wall a few times. Now seemingly have escaped the lessons already but not her engagement the title is a little misleading, but “I Want to Escape my Marriage to the Prince” just doesn’t have the same ring I guess. For me to show had no real appealing qualities, and after making it through the third episode I decided to move on from it. The best thing I can say about the show is that I like fourth wall breaks in pretty much anything, but they weren’t redeeming this for me.

Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms

I have to say I was not expecting the character in the title to actually be the guy, with the main character Mona being a girl trying to seduce him. She was born with charisma 100, whether due to looks or personality. These days she’s certainly aiming for her looks, with some of the more egregious fan service being in this anime.

To start off the premise is that Medaka seems unimpressed, perhaps even annoyed, with Mona’s attempts to get him to like her. Now that seems like an interesting premise to start off with. She could learn to develop a real personality and connection, and to be fair in what I watched there wasn’t necessarily anything that ruled that out entirely. However, it seemed very unlikely, with her instead just relying on her looks (again, very fan service heavy) to get what she wants. Our intro also points to us most likely getting a harem show. Now I don’t inherently have anything against harems, and if anything that could be what drives us to the plot I suggest. I just feel if our main character is going to rely on flashing her panties we’re going to see similar strategies, accidental or on purpose, from the other girls. We also have a flawed premise in Medaka, who is for some reason supposed to be celibate, but if he’s inheriting a shrine then wouldn’t his father have had a child? Just seems weird.

Needless to say I dropped this one after three episodes. I could maybe have gotten past the fan service, but it really was already feeling repetitive, not helped by the fact that nearly the same intro plays for the first few episodes. Medaka’s situation is also just weak in its foundation. Had the show perhaps explored that a bit more and given some insight then it might make the show just interesting enough.

Honey Lemon Soda

The weak/shy heroine with the strong/forceful guy is getting a little old. Not that I’ve encountered it too much and there are certainly two ways to view it in terms of sweet vs. taking advantage a bit. I just think A Sign of Affection does this kind of setup better. Overall I just wasn’t as interested in this one. So what made this one less engaging?

Well, for starters the girl in A Sign of Affection isn’t entirely reliant on the guy she meets. She has a life before him, whereas here our lead would be on a path to nowhere. Now again this can be part of the appeal depending on the lens you view it through. Both members of the pairing in Honey Lemon Soda are also just less charming in my view, and I was often tuned out. The setup is also weird, as Miura talks about Uka’s rehabilitation, and as it’s revealed to more people none of them see it as an odd thing. They are charmed by Uka’s odd behavior instead. I guess I just couldn’t really buy this premise, but as a shojo anime maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that I’m not the target, even if others have appealed to me.

Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You.

It’s the first anime set during COVID, which is a little weird to think about. It’s also weird since they don’t seem to have masks, social distancing, lockdown. Many of the classic hallmarks of that era are nowhere to be found, they just talk abut the pandemic happening and how it affects events. It just seems odd since we’re not that far removed, so for the audience watching right now it’s not going to seem as real. Our cast of ikemen isn’t really anything special, but I think what I really wanted is a repeat of the comedy of Romantic Killer since that’s over. I just couldn’t take a similar setting seriously.