Isekai Beach IV – Summer 2019!

Finally, we get to the final one of these stupid things, the fourth and most important review and recommendation post for the summer of 2019!

It’s been a long voyage (totaling a couple of weeks thanks to laziness and summer illnesses!) so I appreciate you sticking through things with me! So without further disruption, let’s get to this.

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Kanata no Astra

I like this anime because it is optimistic enough to think that not only are we going to all still be alive in 2061 (I’ll only be in my 80s!) but that we will have developed interstellar space travel that’s cheap enough to essentially be a school bus!

Our ensemble of characters all hop on this space bus to space camp where they are promptly stranded. Apparently being lost is a theme of this season. However the crew doesn’t just get lost, they are nefariously lost thanks to someone who is trying to kill them.

Plot twist, the murder is coming from inside the ship.

While I haven’t gotten too far into this season yet, I am 99% sure that the bad guy is exactly who you think it will be, since shows like this never do a good job of hiding their cards and not making the bad guy so blatantly douchey.

Ignoring that, it’s a great show with a great premise and some pretty interesting characters from the wannabe captain who needs to make sure he’s there for the crew, unlike the time he murdered his gym teacher (or something along those lines), the naive girl who’s going into space for the first time and who the wannabe captain is clearly going to end up fucking, to the quiet shy girl who I am pretty sure is the catgirl from Nekomonogatari.

Also, you have to appreciate an anime that’s able to squeeze a beach/swimsuit fanservice episode onto a space drama. I mean, I’m not a hot anime girl, but I don’t even know if I would have thought to bring a swimsuit onboard a spaceship for space camp.

Anime logic.

Astra is available on Amazon!

Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou

I am totally digging Arifureta and not just because the cute blonde vampire spends the first six episodes naked.

The protagonist of the story, Hajime, is part of a class that was transported to another world to save it, as most of these isekai stories tend to go. While the rest of his class gets cool battle skills, Hajime is stuck with the worthless skill of synergist. So while in a dungeon, someone decided that it was worth killing him over, and tries to do just that.

I know you won’t believe this, but it turns out that Hajime is actually pretty fucking awesome and despite some early troubles (like having his arm bitten off), he kicks more and more ass because like Naofumi from Shield Hero, Hajime is able to gain the powers of the monsters he kills. Unlike Naofumi though, he doesn’t get these powers by inserting parts of the creature into his shield, he does it by inserting the monsters into his belly.

And yes, I did try to make you hear Fat Bastard in your head.

Hajime stumbles across the aforementioned naked vampire, apparently as loot, and the pair continue through the dungeon in an attempt to escape.

I’ve been pretty much watching this one every week, and it seems that half the show is about him gaining power and working on ways to escape. I have to imagine that the second half will be about him finding and super-murdering the person who tried to kill him.

It’s a cool show and Yue (the twice before mentioned naked vampire) is adorable as hell. Worth a watch.

Arifureta is on Amazon.

Cop Craft

If you were to imagine the movie Bright, but then imagine the Will Smith character is still a dick, but likable, you’d get the basic gist of this anime. Sort of.

Cop Craft is a wonderful ‘buddy cop’ drama that takes place in a world where there is a space portal to a land where magic and fairies exist. There’s also an island off the coast of the United States which is basically a 1970s New York City of multiculturalism with the inhabitants of Earth and the inhabitants of Leto Semani living in peace and harmony.

loljk about that last part. I did say 1970s NYC. Pimps, hookers, drugs, organized crime, humanfairy trafficking, all the fun stuff is going on in this town.

After his partner is murdered while investigating a fairy trafficking ring, Detective Kei Motoba is stuck with a noblewoman ‘warrior’ from the other world named Tilarna. Like in any mismatched buddy cop movie, hilarity ensues. Til has seemingly no concept of cop procedures or due process and is constantly frustrating Kei who has no desire to work with this alien.

What’s nice is that most of the conflict and tension between Til and Kei come from cultural and class misunderstandings, rather than hostility and racism, something that is a trope in shows and movies like this (like the aforementioned Bright). It’s clear to us that they are both becoming friends, but it’s not clear to them yet, which makes things fun and interesting.

There was an episode that had what looked to be some terrible animation, but it could also have been intentional as the show tries to be very ‘stylish’ and has an ’80s cop anime vibe to it. Other than that it’s well done visually, the OP is perfect for the show, most of the side characters are a hoot, and Til is both badass and adorable.

It’s well worth watching (and ignoring any weird animation). Cop Craft can be found on Amazon.

Joshikousei no Mudazukai

Despite all of the other wonderful anime that has been mentioned over these last four (including this one) posts, my favorite anime of the season is a slice-of-life school comedy.

The story revolves around a group of three… ‘friends’… one of which, Tanaka (a/k/a Baka) gives nicknames to the entire class. Like it or not, that seems to be what the entire class goes by. Baka seems to me to be a slightly more hyped-up and somehow dumber version of Tomo Takino from Azumanga Diaho.

I’m not saying that Joshikousei is a rip off of Azumanga, but I think the similarities in the characters (even the teacher is kind of a perv, but he admits he’s not into high school girls, only college ones) help make this my favorite anime of the season.

The main complaint I have with the show is that Yamamoto, the twin-tailed chuunibyou character is criminally underused. She’s fucking hilarious and steals every scene that she’s in.

I’m not going to describe the plot of the show because there isn’t one. Each episode seems to focus on one of the main or side characters, but there’s no story. It’s just a bunch of girls going to school and being school girls.

It’s a hilarious show. All the characters, even the dumb ones, are loveable and you will laugh consistently throughout.

It also has the season’s best opening song, ” 輪! Moon! dass! cry!” That link will take you to the full version of the song. I am always a sucker for songs sung by the cast. (Another great cast sung opening is from Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru, which I think I forgot to mention when talking about that show in the first recommendation post.)

Joshikousei can be streamed via HIDIVE (which is available if you have a VRV subscription as well!).

There are a few anime that I have started on or am waiting on, but they might be worth a watch if you’re interested!

Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo. – A romance anime where a bunch of girls in the literary club are shocked to find out that talking about sex makes them horny. Also, a girl walks in on her childhood friend during a moment of ‘self-love’. I like what I have seen so far but have been caught up with the other anime I wrote about so I have been slow to watch this one.

En’en no Shouboutai – I am not sure if I like this one or not. It’s got a really interesting premise – supernatural firefighters who are basically religious ghostbusters for fire ghosts – and some interesting characters. I think I would like it more if I watched more of it since I would have a better understanding of what exactly is going on. It’s well animated, that’s for certain.

Kawaikereba Hentai demo Suki ni Natte Kuremasu ka? (a/k/a HenSuki) – I am not sure why I haven’t watched more than just the first episode of this. It’s got all the things I like, plus the main pervert character is a girl, which is a refreshing change. I am sure I will watch more of this when I have a bit more ‘alone time’.

Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darouka: Familia Myth II – The ONLY reason I have not watched this yet, and have not included it in the recommendation posts is that I have wanted to rewatch the first season before starting on this. Hestia is an adorable character and I am certain I will love this season as much as the first.

There is also a Konosuba movie coming out at the end of the month, something that makes me furious I’m not a billionaire who can fly to Tokyo on a whim.

Anyway, if you’d like to see more posts from me that are more frequent than just every couple of days, follow my Twitter account. Feel free to contact me and tell me how right (or wrong) I am!