Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Episode Six, Decoy Review: Best Episode of the Show?

Upon starting Episode Six of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Decoy, I was quite excited to see where it would go.
The trailers teased that we would get the face-off teased between Tanya and Mikel, along with Zettour fighting on the front lines.
Well, after watching Decoy, I can say that it more than lived up to my expectations and may very well be my favorite episode of the show.
The episode begins by revealing Weiss thankfully survived his injury from the Federation mage, but said mage is now being yelled at by Mary Sue, who wants to hunt the rest of Tanya’s men down.
This and Mary’s actions later on in the episode continue to prove she has learned absolutely no patience from her prior battle with Tanya.
As for Mikel, I am surprised he seems so loyal to the Party, considering they sent him and his men to gulags.
Tanya is rightfully concerned about the Federation resorting to bringing these mages back, though she does have a funny reaction to Weiss’ injury, “How could you let someone from that volunteer army shoot you down?”
Way to be empathetic Tanya, although I suppose that is not in your skill set.
With Tanya’s forces surrounded, Zettour enacts the next part of his plan, changing the decoy from Tanya to himself.
Taking Grantz for protection, Zettour goes to rescue Tanya’s forces, hoping to draw the enemy to him, thus giving Tanya the chance to escape the encirclement and then team up to take their foes down.
Given Tanya’s past track record for misunderstandings, I would not have been surprised if she misinterpreted Zettour’s plan, leading to a military disaster.
If there is one skill Tanya does have, though, it is her military mind, and she quickly deduces Zettour’s scheme, going to aid him.
She also has Visha act as bait for Mary Sue by pretending to be Tanya.
While Tanya has a strong military mind, Mary Sue appears to lack a brain entirely, and I expect Tanya will use her recklessness to her advantage even more in the future.
Unfortunately for Tanya, Mikel is not Mary Sue, being smart enough to track her down, and so the anticipated fight between the two begins.
What follows is a fight with a great blend of 2D animation and CGI, with the latter going by so fast and being intercut with multiple 2D shots that it all flows together nicely.
With Tanya being delayed by Mikel, Zettour and Grantz find themselves on the ropes, and Zettour proves why he is the second-best character in the show, next to Tanya, demanding the Empire’s flag be risen so the enemy knows he is there.
He even goes as far to allow Grantz to help Tanya, leaving him defenceless.
Zettour reasons that if he, a high-ranking general is killed, it might shake the leadership up enough to show them how dire the war has become.
“The corpse of a soldier must be put to the best use it can,” Zettour says, with two head wounds. “That’s what war is all about.”
In the end, Grantz’s help allows Tanya to break through Mikel’s defences, forcing him to withdraw.
As for Zettour, he and Tanya end up back-to-back on the battlefield, gunning down their enemies in one of the coolest moments of the show.
For a moment, I thought Zettour was really about to die.
His death certainly would have been a wakeup call for the Empire.
But I am glad he is sticking around, and I hope we see more instances of him on the battlefield in the future.
Overall, Decoy was a fantastic episode and definitely the best of the season.
Hell, I would even argue it’s the best of the series so far, with its great action and epic moments from Tanya and especially Zettour.
I am very curious to see if any episode in the rest of the season can top this one.

Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Episode Five, Unlucky Draw Review: Misunderstandings Before the Battle.

I have been enjoying the Second Season for Saga of Tanya the Evil.
That being said, the last few episodes have been focusing more on the logistics of war, rather than the actual combat, so I have not found much to talk about (which was why I skipped talking about Episode Four).
Well, Episode Five, Unlucky Draw, brought back the promise of action, along with the funniest scene of the series up to this point.
Picking up in the aftermath of Rudersdorf caving to the high leadership’s demands to continue the war, Zettour has been transferred to the front lines, while Rudersdorf remains.
I am surprised the two still seem to be on good terms, given how angered Zettour was by Rudesdorf’s decision at the end of the previous episode, but Zettour could just be pretending and now playing the long game.
No matter his plans, he is not the only one dealt an unlucky draw this episode, because it is upon his arrival that Tanya first learns that the war will not be ending soon, and then unintentionally talks Zettour into using her as bait for their next operation.
This is the scene I said was the funniest of the show yet.
Tanya’s constant exaggerated expressions and absurd obliviousness to the obvious never failed to get a laugh out of me.
“I don’t know who he’s referring to, but I feel sorry for them.”
Seriously, Tanya, how do you not know after all that has happened that you are Zettour’s trump card?
It gets even worse for Tanya because what she and Zettour do not know is that there is a spy in the Empire, passing on information about the Andromeda mission.
My money is currently on the not-Italian officer who has been observing Tanya.
And it would not be a Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two episode if we did not get one scene reminding us of Loria’s disgusting lust for our protaganist, right?
He orders Tanya captured alive and we once again get a gross close-up of him licking his lips.
I have to wonder why they decided, of all shots, they chose that one to be animated so well?
I certainly would have rather seen that animation effort put into the charging soldiers, rather than the use of CGI, although its current state is far from bad.
Once the battle begins, Tanya sends Weiss to deal with the artillery, resulting in an explosion which hilariously sends Tanya flying.
It is not all laughs though because, right before the credits roll, Weiss is struck and severely injured (potentially even killed) by Mikel.
Looks like we will be getting the fight between him and Tanya teased in the trailer and OP next episode.
Speaking of, the promo for that episode promises a lot of action, with even Zettour getting involved, so I am quite hyped for that.
Back to Unlucky Draw itself, the episode ends after the credits with a brief gag of Uger telling Rerugen a dirty joke (which we do not hear) only to be coldly rebuffed.
It is a nice bit of humor which will probably be our last for a few episodes, given the action promised for the next one.
Unlucky Draw is another solid episode which delivers on laughs and a gripping cliffhanger.

Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Episode Three, Well-Intentioned Mediator Review: Logic vs Emotion.

Episode Three of Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two begins with narration from our titular anti-hero.
Tanya begins the episode, titled “Well-Intentioned Mediator,” by describing a minor skirmish in the war.
The way this incident was just brushed over so quickly makes me wonder if it was a storyline from the Light Novel that was skipped over.
If it is, though, I am not too bothered by it, considering I still understood the story.
The “Well-Intentioned Mediator” of the episode is the kingdom of Ildoa (alternate universe Italy), which attempts to bring a peaceful end to the war, for their own benefit of course, since ending the war will net them a lot of praise.
We get some foreshadowing to how this plan will fail with the following meeting of the Empire’s General Staff.
Zetour is open to Ildoa, although cautious, while Rudesdorf is hostile, sending Rerugen to observe their supposed ally.
Ildoan Virginio Calandro extends his country’s offer as negotiator, to which Rerugen repays by sending him to observe Tanya.
Ah, yes, the perfect way to make a man regret his life decisions.
Rerugen has his own concerns, however, because he is now taking credit for Tanya’s military success.
He need not worry though because now Tanya has someone who can take the fall for her actions while still owing her.
As for Calandro, Tanya makes a good first impression on him, joking about her small size making her harder to hit.
This impression expectedly does not last, however, because it is soon Calandro’s turn to witness Tanya master the art of technically-not-a-war-crime strategy.
Tanya’s cutesy acting turns terrifying when she has a residential area, including a church, bombed with artillery.
The haunting music playing over the scene adds to this impression.
Typical Tanya misunderstandings follow, as she attempts to assure Calandro that she will accept the generals ending the war, only for Calandro to interpret this as her and the rest of the soldiers prioritizing national interests.
Hearing Tanya’s following inner monologue got a big chuckle out of me.
“I got the war observer to understand that we Imperial soldiers are normal people,” she says, right after we got a scene of said observer giving a terrified report to his commanding officer.
The constant misunderstanding field Tanya emits will never stop being funny.
As per usual, Tanya thinking the war is about to end practically jinxes her, as proven by the arrival of Ugar.
It is here that we see the return of the logic vs emotion theme.
Back in Season One, we saw emotion win over logic, with the Empire logically viewing their enemies beaten, never suspecting they would give in to the emotional motive of revenge.
Now, faced with the logic of ending the war before more are sacrificed, Ugar, Weiss and other soldiers are struck by the emotional drive to keep fighting in the face of a peace they view as no better than surrender.
Even Rudesdorf feels this way, going against Zettour and continuing the war, starting Operation Iron Hammer.
I expect we will learn what this operation is next episode.
Overall, “Well-Intentioned Mediator” was another solid episode.
The highlights for me were expectedly the Tanya scenes, which had plenty of humor, while also showing why she is to be feared.
Season Two’s quality is still good and hopefully that will continue with Episode Four.

Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Episode Two, A Strange Friendship Review: Communists vs Nationalists.

The first episode of Saga of Tanya the Evil‘s Second Season set a solid foundation for the rest, with its action, sound design, and funny misunderstandings.
The second episode “A Strange Friendship” follows this up well with more setup for the future, and some especially humorous moments by the end.
Before discussing the events of the episode, I want to talk about the new opening and outro.
The OP is titled Why? RED Induction and is performed by Myth & Royd, the group who did the OP for Season One.
This may just be recency bias, but I think their new OP easily tops the old, starting loud, before going quiet and sinister, and then going full bombastic with the chorus.
The visuals of the OP also give us plenty to look forward to, especially with the teased two vs one of Tanya facing off against Mary Sue again, along with the mage Mikel.
As for the ED Weiter! Weiter! it is performed once again by Aoi Yuki, who continues to show off her vocal talents.
I also prefer this ED because it actually has visuals, rather than a showcase of light novel covers and illustrations.
Back to the episode, it starts off by once again showing us issues the Empire is having with the war effort.
We see this through talks between Tanya and Visha, and Zettour and Rudersdorf.
The combat units are only receiving weapons rather than basic necessities, and the Empire has to halt its progress due to winter.
Worse still are the partisans in occupied territory, along with the fact that, unknown to the Empire, the Russy Federation is now allowing mages back into its ranks.
We see this with the arrival of Political Commissar Liliya and mage Colonel Mikel at Mary Sue’s unit.
Liliya immediately sets about making friends with Mary, which is absolutely a ploy to manipulate her.
We know Liliya was chosen for being, “loyal to the party and idealistic.”
I expect we will see her push Mary to more extreme ends this season.
As for Mikel, he has been described as “charismatic,” and he will certainly lead by example, as seen by his fight with Tanya in the OP and trailer.
However, I do have to wonder how loyal he really is to the Federation, considering the mages were all put in internment camps.
Perhaps he has a similar mindset to the common soldiers, who believe fighting for the Federation will make them listen and improve the country.
Tanya is horrified to hear this viewpoint from a captive, realizing that she is not fighting communists but nationalists.
This makes the enemy a bigger threat, considering they view themselves as fighting for their country rather than an ideology, which she later explains to Zettour.
Zettour, being described as a “conman” by Tanya, is able to find a work around for this problem with Tanya’s advice.
In a speech to various nationalists from occupied territories, he drives a wedge between them and the communists by turning the territories over to civilian rule.
Given the haunting images of Zettour on a skeletal horse, I doubt this is entirely truthful, but his speech gets the job done, halting most partisan attacks and allowing Tanya’s combat unit to get the supplies they need.
In a humorous final scene before the credits, Visha delights in her new socks, and Tanya lights up in cartoonish exaggeration at the offer of coffee.
Tany’s joy ends when she notices a Being X nutcracker in the house, demanding Visha get rid of it.
The final, funny moment after the ED shows Visha offering Tanya a highchair so she can interrogate prisoners without being looked down on, much to her disdain.
After such a logistical episode, it was good to get a few chuckles at the end.
We will have to see how long the laughter lasts though, as the war continues to evolve over the season.
“A Strange Friendship” is a good follow-up episode to Season Two’s pilot, and I am excited to see what is next in store for Tanya the Evil.

Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Episode One, Salamander Combat Team Review: Welcome Back to the Front Lines.

After nearly a decade long absence, Saga of Tanya the Evil has finally returned with its Second Season.
I quite enjoyed the first season, with its solid action, fantastic sound design, and titular character’s constant hilarious misunderstandings.
Going into the first episode of this Second Season, “Salamander Combat Team”, I had my fingers crossed it would live up to the first.
If this premiere is any indication, Season Two should be just as enjoyable as the original and movie.
The episode begins by setting up our cast of characters.
Front and center, of course, is Tanya, whose personality and goals are spelled out by her intro.
We see her praying to Being X due to brainwashing, before she violently lashes out, shooting the statue representing her enemy.
As Tayna stands before the massive combat unit she was gifted at the end of the movie (much to her horror), we see various characters’ perspectives of her.
Loria views her as his “little fairy”, wanting her captured for depraved reasons.
I am all for seeing great animation, but witnessing Loria suck on his finger in such detail was not something any of us wanted.
I hope Loria gets the same pathetic end the real person he is based off received.
After Loria, we see Mary Sue, who seems not to have learned anything from her fight with Tanya in the movie.
Sure, she admits to acting recklessly, but she immediately justifies it by saying God is on her side.
Finally, we see Lergen, Rudersdorf and Zettour, the former of whom is, as per usual, concerned about Tanya, calling her “a monster in the form of a little girl,” just as he did all the way in Season One.
Zettour wants a monster for the war however, and he finishes Lergen’s sentence as Tanya’s theme kicks in and she addresses her new combat team, welcoming them and us to the front lines.
Unfortunately for Tanya, her Salamander Team prove to be wildly incompetent.
This forces Tanya to step in and hopefully the level of animation and sound design we see here will remain consistent throughout the season because what we got was a fantastic continuation of Season One’s.
To the tune of her theme, Tanya flies through storms and swerves to avoid fire, eventually even destroying one of the planes with her knife.
Over the top?
Definitely.
Cool?
Also, definitely.
There is time for humor as well in this battle, because Tanya’s allies almost kill her with friendly fire, causing her to throw out her fists like child because, well, she is one.
This does not save the last pilot, however, and neither do his prayers to God.
It must have been pretty confusing for him to hear Tanya denouncing God one moment and then praising him the next, due to brainwashing.
The pilot does not have time to ponder this contradiction, though, for he is quickly obliterated by a magic blast from Tanya.
Her job done, Tanya naturally follows this up by chewing her new troops out, before we get a look at what the other nations are up to.
We see Mary lost her friend from the movie sometime offscreen, so I wonder if we will get a flashback to how that happened?
More importantly, Loria seemingly convinces alternate universe Stalin to allow mages back into the army to up their chances of defeating the Empire.
We know this will be a big deal, considering we saw one of these Federation Mages wreck Tanya’s men in one of the trailers.
Not long after Tanya gives her men a dressing down, Visha arrives with news that two Federation infantry brigades are on the attack.
What follows is a tense scene, which constantly makes it feel like Tanya’s forces are about to fall into a trap.
I was half expecting the Federation mage from the trailers to ambush them.
Instead, we got a classic Youjo Senki rug pull, where it is revealed that the enemy forces have been just as poorly trained as Tanya’s and they are easily defeated.
Tanya’s surprised “Eh!?” upon learning this gave me my biggest laugh of the episode, closely followed by everyone’s terrified reactions when she falsely praises them with a childish voice and expression.
She does this in the hopes of building a good reputation with her new troops, just in case the Empire loses and she has to rely on their testimony to stay alive.
In typical Tanya fashion, however, this has pretty much the opposite effect, because everyone is left absolutely terrified of her.
Tanya saying she will have a missing captain executed if he deserted certainly does not help her case.
The final scene of the episode then shows the new captains looking at a propaganda poster of Tanya, freaked out by how much it diverges from their reality.
Overall, “Salamander Combat Team” is a great return for Saga of Tanya the Evil after so many years.
It brought back the classic Tanya misunderstandings, as well as a greatly animated action scene with terrific sound design.
I look forward to reviewing the rest of the season as it releases.
It is good to be back on the front lines… which is something I am sure no soldier would ever say.
Certainly not Tanya.

The Bugle Call: Song of War Review: Already Among My Favorite Manga.

I have a system where, if I hear about a manga that sounds interesting, I will write its name down in a Google Doc.
Whenever I’m bored, I’ll look at that document for suggestions on what to read.
I first added The Bugle Call: Song of War to that list a few years back and it has pretty much been gathering dust since then… well, if something in a Google Doc could gather dust.
Well, after recently coming across the first two volumes in a bookstore and remembering its presence on my to read list, I decided to buy them and give it a shot.
One week later, I was back in the store to buy the rest of The Bugle Call volumes currently out.
When I was done reading those, I immediately jumped online to read the rest of the story.
If that does not tell you how much I enjoyed The Bugle Call, I do not know what will.

The Bugle Call is a more obscure manga, but I cannot recommend it enough.

The Bugle Call follows Luca; a boy raised in a mercenary band.
Although he would much rather be in a literal band, where he can become a maestro who plays the bugle.
What is unusual about Luca, is that he has a tree branch growing out of his head.
When this branch manifests a power allowing him to guide and boost the morale of armies on the battlefield, Luca finds himself recruited by a mysterious Pontiff to work alongside other branched individuals.
Tasked with protecting the kingdom’s giant Spire from other Branched, Luca makes a deal with the Pontiff: If he kills the Branched known as the Garland, he will be free to become a maestro.

Luca’s goal is a sympathetic one, and it is sad to see him get dragged further into the war the longer this story goes on.

If I had to describe my initial impression of reading The Bugle Call, I would say the beginning of the story feels like a mix between Vinland Saga and X-Men, before branching off into a completely different story with interesting twists and turns.
The mangaka Mozuku Sora takes some seriously wide swings with this story, which I am not sure will work for everyone, but worked for me.
The characters are also pretty great.
Luca is relatable and the squad of Branched he finds himself in is also full of interesting characters.
There’s the child-like Zoe, the determined Demi, the timid Miura, the sadist Cora, and many more.

Each of these characters get their own moments to shine.

The bonds Luca forms with these characters are strong and help serve as the backbone of the story.
His strongest bond is with Zoe, but it is here that I have to get into my one criticism with The Bugle Call, that being their age difference.
Luca is 14 and Zoe is 27.
To make their connection even weirder, Zoe has the mind of a nine year old.
This makes sense for her character arc, but it makes the romantic undertones of their relationship even more problematic.
I hope when the anime releases, they age Luca up a bit to make the whole thing less weird.

Thankfully, Luca and Zoe’s connection does not take up most of the focus, so the rest of the story can still shine.

With that criticism out of the way, let me get back to the positives.
As well as our main cast, the antagonists are also well written, with the Garland and the doppelganger being especially sympathetic characters.
The art for the series by Higoro Toumori is also incredible.
I remember multiple times I had to pause reading just to gaze at the artistry of the paneling.

This panel of Zoe fighting the Looking Glass Branched blew my mind.

With an interesting story, complex characters, and great artwork, The Bugle Call: Song of War is a fantastic manga that I wish I read when I got recommended it years ago.
Now that I have caught up, I will read the chapters as they release, and plan to keep supporting the story by buying the volumes.
I will also be there day one when the anime drops.
Speaking of which, it was kind of funny how that turned out.
I had just started reading this story, and then it was announced not long later that we were getting an anime adaptation.

Hopefully, the anime can live up to the manga and will draw in new fans.

If the series gets popular then eventually, we may see the whole story animated.
Fingers crossed that Mozuku Sora will also wrap up their story in a satisfying way when they reach the conclusion.
Time will tell.
Go read The Bugle Call: Song of War if you have not already.
It is definitely worth your time.

Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two: The Most Adorable War Criminal Finally Returns in July.

I have reviewed a lot of anime on my blog.
If I have learned anything in the process, it is that time plays a big part in my opinion.
I will often look back at a positive review I did of an anime and wonder, why did I rate that one so highly?
Not to say that my opinion of these anime have turned negative, but I would say that some of them are not as fantastic as I once thought.
However, there is one anime that I enjoyed and continue to enjoy whenever I revisit it, which is often.
That anime is Saga of Tanya the Evil, and it follows the story of a Japanese salaryman, cursed by a supposed god to be reborn into another world.
Now a little German girl named Tanya, the salaryman must survive an alternate universe World War One, where mages fly over the battlefield.
The anime has a lot of great qualities, the best of which being the titular Tanya herself.
She is a compelling character with her strict mindset, constant hilarious misunderstandings, and rivalry with the god she calls “Being X.”

Tanya’s constant mental battles with Being X were a highlight for me in the first season.

After finishing the anime, I was eagerly anticipating Season Two.
So, I waited… and waited… and waited…until it felt like we were never going to get Season Two.
Well now, in 2026, we finally have our first trailer (that is not just old footage), along with a release date.
The trailer begins by showing that Season Two will pick up from the movie.
Tanya has been gifted a full combat battalion by the military branch; despite the aneurysm it gives one of her superiors.
We get a brief look at all of the characters, including those in Tanya’s squad, two new communist characters and, of course, Tanya’s human rival Mary Sue (yes that is her actual name).
From there, the trailer goes through a series of fast animations, teasing what is coming.
We see Tanya engaging in an air battle, what looks to be some sort of demon and, most disgusting of all, Loria licking his finger.
Loria is based off Lavrentiy Beria, one of Stalin’s chief enforcers, who was definitely a sexual predator and probably also a serial killer.
Given that he obviously has nothing good planned for Tanya, I think we can all agree to pray to Being X that Loria receives a painful end.

I hope Tanya eventually strikes the same fear into Loria that she does to this pilot in the trailer.

But the highlight of the trailer is Tanya’s crazed expressions.
We see these insane smiles while she fights and tells her troops to prepare for war.
It will never not be funny to see hardened soldiers terrified by a little girl who they constantly misunderstand.
Case and point, the final shots of the trailer are everyone looking horrified as Tanya puts on her little girl voice and smiles sweetly.
To be fair, the last time Tanya used this voice was to trick her enemies into thinking an attack was not coming in a way that would avoid war crime charges.

Knowing that, Tanya’s soldiers being afraid of this face is completley understandable.

It will be both interesting and terrifying to see how Tanya schemes her way out of such charges in the new season, now revealed to be airing in July.
I will be watching day one, and plan to review each episode weekly.
Hopefully Season Two can live up to the first and, if we do get a third season, we will not have to wait as long.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc Review: Country Mouse or City Mouse?

There was a rather strange disconnect between English speaking and Japanese viewers in regard to their opinions on the first season of Chainsaw Man.
Many English speakers, myself included, loved the first season, especially with how it paid homage to various aspects of film, which the mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto is a big fan of.
However, the Japanese viewers’ reactions were mostly the complete opposite.
There was a lot of hate directed towards the first season, due to the style being seen as different from the manga, and a few other reasons I do not quite understand.
Therefore, for the movie continuing Chainsaw Man’s story, it was decided a different director would take on the job with a different animation style.
To be honest, I was a bit concerned with what I would think about the new art style, since I really liked the old one.
Today, I got the chance to sit down in a theatre and watch Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc and see this change for myself.

Kind of fitting that the arc chosen for a film has a scene where Denji and Makima go to see multiple movies.

You can imagine my relief when I absolutely loved the new style and actually think it is better than Season One’s.
That is not to sell the old art style short, but the new one has so many unique moments, with many shots looking like a manga panel brought to life.
Along with this, the animation quality is incredible.
Whether the scene was a slow, thoughtful one, a comedic one, or an action extravaganza, I am sure you could pause the movie at any point and end up with a great shot.

Likewise, the music and sound design are top notch, with the sound of explosions being particularly gripping to hear in the theatre.
And then there is the voice acting.
Everyone from the First Season does a great job, as expected.
Kikunosuke Toya brings the perfect mixture of emotion and comedy to his portrayal of Denji.
Tomori Kusunoki makes Makima sound creepy as ever.
Then there is the new voice on the block for Chainsaw Man, Reina Ueda as Reze.
Talk about perfect casting for the character.
Because of her and Toya’s performance, Reze and Denji have great romantic chemistry, making the events that play out later in the film both tragic and epic to witness.

It was a joy to see Reze finally animated.

All in all, The Reze Arc is a fantastic adaptation of the storyline from the manga.
The portrayal of its two leads is excellent, and the animation style, its quality, the music and sound design are all peak.
I am honestly so glad that they chose to adapt the Reze Arc as a film instead of in an episodic format.
Watching Chainsaw Man on the big screen really reminded me of my love for Part One of the story.
I cannot wait to see the rest of this adaptation, whether that be with more movies, or another season.
Unfortunately, we will probably have to wait years to find out which format it will be.
Oh, well, at least Chainsaw Man is still going strong with Part Two, so us fans of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s work are not starved for content.

Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf Review: Wholesome Economics.

Spice and Wolf was one of those anime I heard a lot about, but never really got around to checking out.
So, when I learned there would be a reboot, Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf, I figured watching it would be the best way to introduce myself to the story.
And I am very glad it was my introduction.

The reboot is a great way for new viewers to first experience *Spice and Wolf.*

Based off the light novel of the same name by Isuna Hasekura, Spice and Wolf begins with Kraft Lawrence, a travelling merchant who encounters a wolf deity named Holo.
Taking the form of a young woman, Holo makes an agreement with Lawrence.
As the two travel together, Holo’s knowledge helps Lawrence grow his profits, while he helps her find information about her mysterious hometown, which she wishes to return to.
Over the course of their 25-episode journey, Lawrence and Holo grow closer, often bickering like an old married couple.

Watching these two characters together is never boring.

Their chemistry is sold both through the solid animation and the excellent work done by their voice actors, Jun Fukuyama and Ami Koshimizu.
The latter in particular does an excellent job, with Koshimizu bringing Holo’s charming cheekiness to life.
Lawrence and Holo play off each other so well that I would say the weakest part of the show is the arc where they are separated and we have to spend a long time with Lawrence alone.

The story is definitely better with Lawrence and Holo together rather than apart.

This is only one arc, however, and the payoff to it is pretty good.
Speaking of, charming moments between Lawrence and Holo are not the only payoff we get because Spice and Wolf also does an excellent job of making the economic elements of Lawrence’s trade interesting.
It was always interesting to see how he and Holo would work around their monetary and debt issues with corrupt officials, which constantly plagued them throughout the season.

A lesser show would have struggled to make the merchant aspects interesting, but this is half the fun of *Spice and Wolf;* the other half of course being the relationship between Lawrence and Holo.

What also helped is that the characters the two meet on their journey are likeable, or at least understandable in their motivations.
The real focus is on Holo and Lawrence though, as it should be.
Watching their bond grow, along with their clear romantic feelings for one another, made for a fun watch.
It is clear that many others agree because, immediately after the finale aired, a Season Two was announced.

I look forward to seeing more of Lawrence and Holo’s adventure in the future.

If Season Two is anything like the first, it will be more than worth the watch.
Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf has a fantastic dynamic between its two romantic leads and does a great job of explaining and making its economic nature entertaining.
If, like me, you had not experienced this story before, I would recommend this series as a great way to introduce yourself.

Spy x Family Code: White Review: A Fun Forger Family Adventure.

Tatsuya Endo’s Spy x Family is one of the manga industry’s most recent successes.
I have enjoyed both reading it and watching the anime over the years, even if I never did get around to reviewing the second season.
Well, with the show’s success, it was only a matter of time before it got an anime original movie.
Code: White is the first of potentially many such movies.
Having recently released on Crunchyroll, I decided to give it a shot and, as expected, had a lot of fun.

Like *My Hero Academia, Spy x Family* could be getting a lot of anime original movies in the future.

To recap, Spy x Family is set in a cold war between two rival nations, Ostania and Westalis.
Top Westalis spy Twilight (Takuya Eguchi) has to forge a fake family in the hopes of getting close to a man who could bring both countries back to the brink of war.
Taking on the persona of Loid Forger, Twilight adopts a little girl named Anya (Atsumi Tanezaki), gets into a marriage of convenience with a woman named Yor (Saori Hayami), and adopts a dog named Bond (Kenichiro Matsuda).
However, everyone in this family has a secret, not just Loid.
Yor is an expert assassin named the Thorn Princess, Anya is a telepath, and Bond can see the future.
The only member of the family who has any knowledge of this is Anya, due to her telepathy, resulting in many hilarious moments in the series where she tries to help her adoptive family while keeping up appearances.

Each of the Forgers have their own advantages, which is always hilarious to see Anya play off of.

This is the setting Code: White emerges from, as Twilight takes the Forgers on a trip to a place called Frigis, where he hopes to find a dessert to give Anya an advantage in a cooking competition, which will also hopefully help his own mission.
But, of course, this simple vacation takes a turn when Anya accidentally eats a chocolate containing a microfilm, which in the wrong hands could start the war again.
Code: White’s story is a pretty standard Spy x Family experience, and is used as a vehicle to bring the audience great animation, fun action and wholesome moments.
The latter takes up at least half the movie, with a large amount of focus being centered on the fun the Forgers get up to before the action takes center stage.
This is most apparent with Yor, whose storyline centers around her concern that Loid has a mistress, leading to lots of great humor.

Yor can go from sweet and loving wife and mother to dangerous assassin at the mere hint of danger.

The comedy also continues into the action portion of the movie, with Anya’s being particularly funny, while Loid and Yor get all the cool fight scenes.
All three of their storylines get fantastic animation, creating an especially fun third act.
The only issue I had with with this is the logic issues.
I know Loid and Yor are pretty dense when it comes to recognizing one another’s true identities, but the plausibility that they would not be at least a little suspicious of each other in this movie is stretched a little.

The extent of Loid and Yor’s awareness of each other was a little too oblivious in this film.

Still, this is only a minor problem, in a good filler movie.
Throw in a few cameos from Frankie, Yuri, Fiona and other characters, and you pretty much have a Spy x Family episode, only extended to movie length.
Code: White is a fun experience with a lot of good humor and action, along with excellent animation in the third act.
I hope we get more of these.