Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi

S2E12 (Final) for Season 2 (at least Cour 1) is now on air. Sorry to be blunt and dive straight to the point, but my first main message is: for Season 3, CHANGE ŌDANNA-SAMA’S VISUAL BACK TO S1. This middle-schooler visual does not cut a majestic vibe for the Master of Tenjin-ya. I get it that some readers prefer Ōdanna-sama looking younger, and I respect that, but what we get is not someone who looks like in their 20s. Instead, we get a young school boy, who does not exude the vibe of a Daiyokai Hachiyō, certainly not the way Ōdanna-sama should be depicted. Second, for Season 3, do NOT use New Animate Studio . This animation studio is so NEW that it only had ONE anime series in its portfolio before Kakuriyo, hence the poor performance. Get Studio Paper Cranes and Koeda Animation (their staffs were the Chief Animation Directors in charge of Ep 6) for Season 3. Get this: Studio Paper Cranes was in charge of Apothecary Diaries S2 Ep 4. Koeda Animation also did Apothecary Diaries S2, ...

Ōgondōji-sama o-nariiiiiii!!!   The final episode (Ep 12) stills are out and.... we have Ōgondōji-samaaaaaa!!!! Which means that Ep 12 ends with Vol 8 Epilogue aaaand, we should have Ōdanna-sama as well!!! Oh, and I was wrong about the strawberry snack, and I should've seen it from Vol 8 cover, but doesn't matter!  The  Kakuriyo Anime has this info: 氷狼から逃れた葵と銀次だったが、猛吹雪の中で力尽きてしまう。 大旦那の温もりを感じながら葵が目を覚ますと、そこは雪の中で暮らすあやかしたちの住処だった。 そこで作った料理が導きとなり、窮地を切り抜けるひと匙の光が差し込む。 葵の胸には確かな決意が芽生え、その想いに導かれるように物語は次なる扉へと進む――。 Aoi and Ginji escape from the ice wolves, but are exhausted in the blizzard. Feeling the warmth of Ōdanna-sama, Aoi wakes up to find herself in the home of ayakashi spirits living amidst the snow. The food she makes there provides guidance, and a ray of hope shines through to help her out of this predicament. A firm resolve grows in Aoi's heart, and as if guided by that feeling, the story moves on to the next chapter. So, we will have Ōdanna-sama i...

  S2 Ep 11 is out and it’s quite a pack! As predicted, unfortunately Ōdanna-sama wasn’t in Ep 11. However, the title of Ep 12 is “Towards the Next Stage”, and while I haven’t read Vol 8 Ch 8 in its entirety, it’s definitely ending with Ōgondōji-sama picked up Aoi using the Bunmon airship (you can read my translation of that part before Vol 8 Epilogue here ). Hence, Ep 12 will either end with Vol 8 Ch 8 or… it might end with Ōdanna-sama in the Poppies Villa , reading newspapers that are hurling harsh words at him. I don't think we’ll be that lucky to have him reunited with Aoi… but if we get a nicely drawn Ōdanna-sama burning the newspaper with an empty look, I’d say we’re very lucky indeed… I do have to stop promising that my review will be out at a certain point, because I am late again (due to workload). Will I be able to post my review for Ep 12 by Thursday night next week? Who knows… But I should be able to do that by Friday night next week… Ep 11 seems to be covering at least ...

S2E11 stills are out ! It's centred around Kasuga and Kiyo, but we have Aoi, O-Ryō and Ginji in action as well, oh, and Sasuke-kun is back! Surely we will see our hunk Ranmaru as well, but I don't think this episode has anything Ōdanna-related. And for that, I think my least favourite animation studio New Animate Studio is not in charge of the animation, and we may actually have good full-frame shots and generally well-drawn visuals... How sad is that, for us to have decent animation, we must have no Ōdanna-related scenes when he's displayed in full, not just in aural form or dream sequence... I could be totally wrong and will eat my hat on Thursday morning AEST, but I sadly think I am on the money here. Okay, let's just look at the shots one by one. We first have Aoi and O-Ryō on the front cover (see above). Then we have Kasuga being happy.  Is that because she loves the tiramisu? And that it reminds her of her happy escape time with Kiyo in our world Utsushiyo? If she...

Sorry for the late review, but for the last two episodes, I should be able to publish the reviews in the evening of AEST on Thursdays at the latest. Anyway, thank you for the wait. Ep 10 is great except for some animation issues (and I found the reason why). Still, we are treated with some sibling conversations with Ranmaru and Ginji, so it’s a big treat that spiced up the episode. Most importantly, the oni is out of the bag, because here we learned about Ōdanna-sama’s decision to save Aoi’s life. It’s still not as clear as his own narration in Vol 9 Prologue , but it’s a good start for non-novel readers. We also have O-Ryō with her icy bites, so the episode wraps up nicely. For now, I will discuss my review chronologically while re-watching Ep 10 for the 3rd time.  The first scene on Kasuga’s recollection is sweet. I am  still annoyed that S2 Ep 1 focused too much on Kasuga instead of the orchard date between Ōdanna-sama and Aoi… because this anime is about Aoi and Ōdanna-sam...