September - Issue 2

Written and illustrated by Osamu Nishi, Mairimashita! Iruma-Kun is an ongoing Japanese manga, published by Akita Shoten in the magazine Weekly Shonen Champion every Thursday. It is available digitally and can be bought from multiple vendors. As of yet, no official English translations exist, but third party translators have made it available in English. The mangaka has written another series before, Hotel Helheim, serialized in Jump SQ. There is one manga spinoff, Makai no Shuyaku wa Wareware da!, which is co-authored by Koneshima and co-illustrated by Atsushi Tsudanuma. It takes place in the same world as that of Mairimashita! Iruma-Kun, but it focuses on the events of different characters not featured in the main series.

The manga is mainly set in Netherworld(Makai), a world separate from that of humans, populated by demons and magical beasts, and filled with magic. Humans are considered mythical creatures and most demons aren’t aware of their existence. Demons are characterised by their compulsion to follow their desire without any caution. This results in selfishness and violence being their dominant nature.

Iruma is a 14 year old human boy who is sold to a demon by his parents. The demon, Sullivan, takes him to the Netherworld where he adopts Iruma as his grandson and he is enrolled into Devil School Babyls. The story is built up around Iruma, his classmates and follows the events which unfortunately make him stand out. Why is it unfortunate? This is due to a little fact that even though humans are considered non-existent, they are heavily implied to be food in demon lore. Iruma, being a human and aware of this, tries his best to not stand out but fails to do so every time. The events are focused on the ambitions of the characters and their struggle as they progress towards their goal. The author has done a commendable job of setting up interesting plot points indicating there is more to Netherworld than what meets the eye till now. The pacing of the story is a bit slow, but on the plus side it gives the author a chance to flesh out the story. As a result, around 200 chapters have been spent only in the first year of Iruma’s school life. From all indications, it seems like this is going to be a very long-running manga as even the Netherworld seems to have been explored barely till now. Though this should not give you the wrong idea that this is going to be a boring story - on the contrary it is actually a very engaging read. What stands out most is the subtle humour present in this manga that lends to a pleasant reading experience.

The manga has myriads of interesting and some bizarre characters with their own quirks. Each demon has their own unique bloodline magic which makes the character more intriguing. The characters closer to the protagonist are given much more development compared to others, but overall even the minor characters explored to some degree.

The art of this manga is good enough. It forgoes the details in artwork in favour of simplicity but doesn’t feel that lacking and gains some of it back in clarity. Panelling in a few of the earlier chapters feels a bit cramped but it quickly becomes better. The flow of dialogues is easy to follow for the most part, but it becomes a struggle if there are too many speech bubbles on a single page which can be a bit annoying at times to follow.

If you are a person who enjoys a long-running manga and has a knack for fantasy and isekai themes, you should give it a try. As of now, the story is still being molded and with a lot of hard work from the author combined with a bit of luck, it might turn out to be a fulfilling one to follow!

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

A light hearted and simple anime, yet filled with adventure to the brim. This anime depicts the life of a human, who reincarnated into a slime, in his adventure of building a kingdom and climbing the hierarchy of strength to become one of the strongest beings in the world. This anime offers good character development, not neglecting the supporting characters. With exceptional sound effects and good animation, you are sure to enjoy this anime.

I'm Standing on a Million Lives

A strange plot with annoying protagonists, along with a ridiculous setting, this anime combines all these sub-par elements to deliver something surprisingly good. With the characters going through their own sets of problems and identity crisis, they are forced to be the heroes tasked with saving a world from impending doom. The narration deeply focuses on the various factions involved in each adventure, be it the allies of the heroes or their enemies, sometimes to the point where you feel sad for the fate of the losing party. This show emphasises on the values of morality and the consequences of actions.

Seirei Gensouki

A typical isekai anime with a decent plot, detailed theme but somewhat shallow character development. There is excessive plot armour, evidently seen when things proceed way too smoothly for the protagonist, or he comes at the last second to save the day. Every other girl that he meets ends up falling in love with him, while he densely keeps his distance from them. More often than not, you will feel the turn of events to get cringy. Still, this is an enjoyable anime, with a decently good animation.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom

An isekai with a unique concept, focused on strategy and politics rather than action or adventure, this anime is about the story of a summoned hero from Earth who uses his ingenuity and wits to change the fate of a kingdom on the road of economic collapse to making it one of the strongest bastion of humanity. A lighthearted and calm anime for most of its duration, it is definitely a must watch if you are looking for a change of pace.

Girlfriend, Girlfriend

Two words are enough to describe this anime: absolute cringe. With a stupid, dense yet dedicated protagonist, we get to see his ventures as he openly two-times with his girlfriend while the three hides their peculiar relationship from their peers and try their hardest to progress in their romactic endeavours. The protagonist is so gallantly stupid that you'll feel like digging a hole to hide yourself in it on watching this anime even if you are alone. It's so purely cringy that it's hilarious.

The Dungeon of Black Company

Overall, this anime is nothing exceptional, but I still strongly recommend you to watch this. This anime is a complete satire on corporate life and many of you might find this already relatable. The protagonist with a ruthless and genius business mindset gets isekai'd and is stuck as a corporate slave. His various ventures to strike it rich, while always ending up bankrupt, with the rock bottom luck of the protagonist added to the fray, this series is rather fun to watch.

The Detective is Already Dead

With well defined characters, a couple of secret organisations, and a lot of adventures, all shrouded in a dark veil of mystery, this anime offers every element you expect from a detective based anime. The backstory and pasts of the various characters are so intrinsically linked, or rather, mingled, that you can't help but feel exasperated by it. Sometimes, it even gets awkward, but only to the point which can be expected from a detective anime.

Brief Summary

The story centres on a young woman named Shirayuki, who is well known for her work as a herbalist and her red hair. Nobody in her country of Tanbarun has such red hair, and this makes her the centre of unwanted attention. When the moronic Prince Raj falls in love with her and wants to make her his concubine, she refuses to let herself be subjected to a cruel fate, so she flips him the middle finger by cutting her hair and runs away to the next kingdom, Clarines, as she has nowhere else to go. While traversing through the forests, she finds herself befriending the crown prince of Clarines, Zen, who offers to let her into his kingdom to protect her from Raj. She isn't quite sure what his intentions are, but she does want to pay her debt to him, so she becomes a court herbalist in his castle. With this, her adventures in the Clarines kingdom begin.

Characters

The relationships between the characters are what this show is all about. Or well, to be more accurate, they are what makes the show special and great to watch. Shirayuki is completely different from the heroines that are commonly in this type of demographic. She's very clever, independent of what she does and holds responsibility for what she does and tries to repay any favour that she may hold to anyone. She is not there to be saved and protected for romantic moments, she holds her own and tries her best to be in the same line as the male main lead. Her boldness and ability to solve situations on her own is nothing short of amazing! The same falls for other characters. Most of the characters showed how multidimensional their characteristics are instead of being one dimensional character. Character developments are thankfully still open for the continuation of this series.

Art & Animation

The art and animation of the series is incredibly exquisite, as expected from a studio that is well known for its gorgeous visuals, Bones. It does not follow the usual colorization that someone would expect from this type of show, yet the animations fit it perfectly. The colours are bright and the animation is slick, smooth and relaxing.

Music

It basically contains relaxing songs. In all it has four songs – two opening and two closing songs in two seasons. My personal favourite is Sono Koe ga Chizu ni Naru by Saori Hayami.

Enjoyment

Akagami no Shirayuki-hime is an anime that is incredibly easy to watch through. It's light and warm. The interactions between the characters are interesting and the dialogue rarely leaves the person to be bored or feel that it is being dull. It may have its moments that feel "cheesy" on book, but the way it is approached is what makes it gorgeous and beautiful to watch. If you're a fan of the Disney-like settings, with a strong-willed heroine, then this show should be right up the alley.

Ratings

The protagonists of this anime are Sora and Shiro, a brother and sister pair, brother being 18 and sister being 11. The anime starts off by showing them being a pair of shut-ins who do nothing but play games all day. Their skills are so incredible that there are urban legends about them across the world of games, they play each and every game, and their genius has let them to never lose a single time.

They get summoned to another world by "God", when they defeat him in a game of chess. This new world is apparently ruled by this "God", who has prohibited any fighting. Everything in this world is decided by games, including things like robbery and national borders. They arrive and see that the human race has been reduced to a small land. Can they become the "saviours" of humanity?

This anime has been adapted from the light novels of the same name. The "ecchi" or explicit content is quite high in this anime with a bit of incestuous elements as well... The 11 year old Shiro has not been spared either, so watch out for it. In fact, this was the reason that No Game No Life was banned in a few countries. Looking past all that, though, the plot is simply incredible. The characters are quite likeable, and the genius of Sora and Shiro never ceases to amaze one. The games they play are exciting to watch and the anime never gets stale.

It has been animated by Madhouse Studios, and the fine animation speaks for itself. The characters other than our protagonist duo undergo a decent amount of character development, while our duo does undergo some character development, it is not enough to show any significant changes in only 1 season. The music is beautiful, the OP gives off the grand and exciting feeling while the ED gives off the wholesome vibe.

The only probable downside to watching this anime is the fact that this anime does not and will probably never have a season 2. You might end up in an endless loop of waiting for it (like me). Though I do suggest reading light novels later on. Give the anime a try, you might end up falling in love with No Game No Life.

MyAnimeList Synopsis

Asta and Yuno were abandoned at the same church on the same day. Raised together as children, they came to know of the “Wizard King”—a title given to the strongest mage in the kingdom—and promised that they would compete against each other for the position of the next Wizard King. However, as they grew up, the stark difference between them became evident. While Yuno is able to wield magic with amazing power and control, Asta cannot use magic at all and desperately tries to awaken his powers by training physically.

When they reach the age of 15, Yuno is bestowed a spectacular Grimoire with a four-leaf clover, while Asta receives nothing. However, soon after, Yuno is attacked by a person named Lebuty, whose goal is to steal Yuno’s Grimoire. Asta tries to fight Lebuty, but he is outmatched. Though without hope and on the brink of defeat, he finds the strength to continue when he hears Yuno’s voice. Unleashing his inner emotions in a rage, Asta receives a five-leaf clover Grimoire, a “Black Clover” giving him enough power to defeat Lebuty. A few days later, the two friends head out into the world, both seeking the same goal - to become the Wizard King!

Black Clover has a simplistic yet complex story that draws us in and makes us invested in the world that the anime has created. The anime at some point becomes predictable but still it doesn't fail to give you chills. It’s amazing how much the author has accomplished when he just started the story with two kids with the same dream to become the wizard king. Besides the protagonists, the author has been successfully able to create an expansive, developed and fleshed out world, with different kingdoms and classes of operatives, the kingdoms fighting each other and the clover kingdom having nine different squads of magic knights protecting the kingdom.

This anime also has an insane character development where each individual character is given a good amount of detail and attention, the side characters have got their back story explained with everyone of them having a proper character development, creating a sense that the show isn’t just about one or two people, which only adds to the world building. Our lead Asta has a clear-cut goal, to never give up and become the wizard king. The show doesn’t let us forget that, or that Yuno is the same, both Yuno and Asta have very contrasting characteristics where Asta being loud, noisy, friendly and dumb and Yuno being quite, smart and way cooler attitude. Still no matter where they are or how different they are, the other is still their rival and best friend/brother. This anime is filled with characters making motivational statements where one of my favourites is Captain Fuegoleon Vermillion stating “being weak is nothing to be ashamed of… staying weak is” which clearly motivates the watchers to overcome their challenges and difficulties in real life.

The animation and art of this anime is quite good at non-action scenes, but it disappoints a little at action scenes. The animation should have been better as expected from a new generation anime, though the animation quality is improving day by day. The latest released episodes have quite good animation compared to its initial episodes’ fight scenes.

Now comes one of the best parts - the music and the OST. Black Clover has one of the best opening songs of all time where every opening is a banger. 13 openings have been released so far, and all of them are excellent. The most popular opening among the fans is currently the opening #10 (Vickeblanka - Black Catcher). One of the qualities of its openings is that it tries to give you very little spoilers of the anime, unlike other anime which spoil some scenes of their arcs in the openings. To make things even more enjoyable, Black Clover has multiple versions of the same opening. The version of opening changes after some episodes, by adding new major scenes from the previous episodes, so that viewers won't get spoiled. The OST playing during the fight scenes completely syncs with the action and lets you experience the emotions of the characters during the scene.

I would like to end by saying that Black Clover is a thoroughly fun show to watch with a simple story. The show as whole gets you hooked up and refuses to let you go. You will find yourself laughing, smiling and getting shivers throughout the show - and enjoying the excitement.