Are you interested in angels, demons, spirits, ghosts, and monsters? Are you curious about their origins, tales, and influence upon history and on the present day? If so, sit back, relax, and welcome to Southern Demonology, the podcast that explores all of this and more football is back, and so are the predictions.
You'll have to forgive me in advance, but this episode is a little different. I am going to start releasing a new monthly episode for both Apple Podcasts subscribers and Patreons as an extra bonus and thank you. And I want that to be slightly different than my normal content. After all, I don't want to penalize non-subscribers in any way. While having the podcast be profitable rather than running deeply in the red would be a very nice thing.
The last thing I would ever want is for people who tune in regularly for my normal topics, whether that be academic discussions, spiritual warfare, or modern demonology, to feel left out. Plus, in this economy, I know all too well what the death of a thousand cuts feels like. To be completely honest, I hate to even remotely push such things. I'm not a salesperson by any stretch of the imagination. I'm definitely not a marketer. And I do not consider listeners the very people kind enough to listen to my horrible, horrible voice as a revenue stream.
So please forgive me if I bring up subs every once in a while. I promise to keep it short and to the point in the future. In fact, I'm currently evaluating restructuring my entire Patreon tiers to be more in line with Apple subscriptions so they're cheaper. Anyway, consider this episode a pilot for the new content that will be forthcoming. Welcome back to season 3, episode 5 of Southern Demonology. As always, I'm your host, JJ. As any of the scholars who have listened to the podcast for a while is intimately aware of, and yes, regular listeners are now officially dubbed scholars.
I am a complete Nihonkophile or lover of all things Japanese. Well, except for maybe their business culture. But that's a topic for another day. I rarely listen to anything but Japanese rock music and really only watch Japanese dramas and anime. And as you might expect, I follow the anime seasons very closely. Not from a trivia standpoint. I know some fans will memorize Seyu or voice actors, production houses, and other minutiae. And if that's you, then that's great. Everyone will have ways to maximize their enjoyment of something. It's not me though.
All I want to know is if his show is good. There are a few exceptions to that, but that will be a topic for another time, perhaps. I have a best friend named Jeff. We met in high school and have been very close ever since. And even though we've lived in different parts of the country, or heck even the world, since graduating, we've managed to keep in touch and even get together once every year or so. But once every few months we connect over the phone, talk about our lives, and then we get down to business. What's our favorite anime of the season?
Let me tell you that these little talks bring me so much joy. Not only are they a chance to catch up, but they often let us recommend shows to each other that we haven't seen. And in general, just geek out about one of the things that makes us both happy. And so I thought I'd carry on that little tradition and break down the shows that I love the most from this winter season. The ones that I actively anticipated the most throughout the week, in addition to those that were good and kept me watching, but probably are not really worth a rewatch.
Plus, the anime winter season is pretty much at a close now, so it's the perfect time to do a recap. And keep in mind that I don't do top 10 lists or anything like that. Moreover, each tier I'm about to go through is not ranked in any particular order. But before I get into that, I want to talk about something rather important that may help to frame this discussion and let you know a little bit about my own like and dislikes. Every person has them. Obviously, goes without saying. For example, I have never cared for stories or movies that are about spies or pirates.
I have always been more fantasy and horror-oriented. Further, while one of the anime shows that got me into the genre was Dragon Ball Z, I have moved past standard battle anime. I have nothing against them. I am definitely not the kind of anime enjoyer who peers down on others for liking one show, franchise, or production house. With that said, you'll never hear me recommend certain widely popular shows like One Piece, Naruto, Baruto, or Jojo. While I'll support you in whatever you want to watch, those hold no interest for me whatsoever. Alrighty, with all of that out of the way, Ikima Shaw.
For my favorite anime shows of the winter season, I'm going to start off with Pandemo Skill de Isekai Horomeshi, or Campfire Cooking in Another World with my absurd skill. This anime really typifies something that you see at least in its naming convention in a lot of light novels and other anime that have taken to this new trend of having ridiculously long titles. And this one isn't even close to the worst of that list. Modern day Japanese is spoken with as little context as humanly possible. You try to omit as much information as you can in order to keep the sentences that much shorter.
So to see a reversal of that general trend when it comes to naming is just really interesting to me from a linguistic and societal standpoint. This anime straddles two different genres that are popular in the anime world. Essentially, the character or characters are transported from the modern world into another, whether it be fantasy or game-related, and food porn. Shows that detail food and or food prep. The main character, Mikolda-san, 27-year-old businessman, is mistakenly brought to another world with a group of students who all have ridiculous powers.
The only power he happens to have, though, is online grocery and is therefore discharged as a hero to go about his merry way. Come to find out, he's able to summon forth a food shopping website and order whatever he wants as long as he pays for it. So as he beats a hasty retreat from the kingdom responsible for bringing him into this world, he attracts the attention of a Fenrir or mythical wolf creature that is one of the most powerful things in this entire world. And because of his cooking skill becomes responsible for feeding it.
The main character is someone who has almost no presence, to the point where his classmates or a teacher don't even know that he's at school. Yet somehow, this one female classmate, Kubosan, always notices him and begins to lightly tease him along the way. It is so heartwarming and charming that I could not get enough of it. In fact, this show came out on the same day as the first show on this list, which just made the day that much better. Unfortunately, one day it did not release. Sometimes that happens during a season, so I patiently waited for the next week, where it also did not release.
Concerned, I went to my source for anime-related information, animewsnetwork.com. No, it's not a sponsor. And I found out that production had halted after six episodes due to COVID-related reasons. It will come back for this fall upcoming season, though. And even though I may have to sit through the re-airs of the already released episodes, I will still happily watch it. That's how good it was. There were a lot of rom-com type shows this season that were really good. And one more for the list is Kuri Zokusei Danshi no Kul no Doryo Joshi or the ice guy in his cool female.
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This anime depicts a modern office romance, but with a twist. See, in the world in which this anime depicts, there are descendants of mythical creatures and figures who live alongside humans out in the open. Very reminiscent of interviews with monster girls, if you ever happen to watch that one. The main character is in fact a descendant of a Yukiona or Snowwoman. Yukiona are typically shown as being a bit aloof because of the entire ice princess thing. But in an ironic twist, it's this main character that gets excitable.
And whenever that happens, a small blizzard will engulf the area around him, or he'll start producing tiny snowmen. The aloof one in this pairing is actually his romantic interest, another new hire at the same company. The show doesn't break any new ground, but the slowly evolving love interest and how the main character tries to rein in some of the environmental effects he can produce just made it for me. There is also the phenomenal N Spectre, and that's IN slash Spectre. But I cover that one in season three, episode two, as part of three anime that handled the paranormal correctly.
So feel free to check that one out to learn more. The last of the top-tier shows, in my opinion, of course, was Tomo Chanwa Onanako or Tomo is a girl. Tomo Chan is a seriously athletic girl whose family also runs a martial arts dojo, and she's best friends with the next-door neighbor boy named Jun. She's also in love with him, but he doesn't seem to see her as anything but one of the guys. The cast of characters are amazing, and the entire show just exudes charm and hilarity. It also has one of the best EDs or ending songs of the entire season.
They also do something rather fun with it in one episode. If you ever wanted to watch the almost perfect rom-com, then this is the show. Now let's go to the next tier down. Shows that were really pretty good, but were outshone in some fashion by either other shows in the list or by their own limitations. The first is Buddy Daddies. Two hitmen who form the perfect odd couple, one cleans and cooks, and the other one only plays video games, wind up taking in a four-year-old girl due to circumstances, let's say. The girl is cute as heck, and I did enjoy the show a great deal.
However, it also has the distinction of having probably the worst auto-tuned OP or opening song of any anime I've ever seen. And it does get bogged down with some of the interpersonal dilemmas that the two papas or daddies have. Not sure if I would re-watch it, but um I did enjoy my time with it. Next up is By the Grace of the Gods, season two. The title actually means the man picked by the gods, but eh, we're close enough. Now, I absolutely loved season one.
It's about a guy who used to work as an employee for a black company, one that ruthlessly overworks its workers until he died tragically in his 30s. The gods of a fantasy world felt sorry for him, and so they reincarnated him into a fantasy world as a young boy. The first season was about him meeting a Duke's family and being invited to travel with them to the next city, and along the way, he showcases his magical talent and love for slimes. It combines a slice of life anime with an isekai, but it was highly entertaining.
This second season, it was good, but it leaned way too heavily into the Slife of Lice aspect, more so than anything else, which just made it boring. Like some episodes were just downright boring to me. And for an anime, that's kind of like a death knell. A show that I had high hopes for was Nengin Fushin, or Adventurers Who Don't Believe in Humanity Will Save the World. The premise is a good one.
Set in a fantasy world, four adventurers who were each betrayed in their lives come together to form an adventuring party that strives not to only survive, but also make sure that they are never burned again. Some animes. Spend so much time putting quality into the first three episodes in order to lure prospective watchers that they overdo the budget. And the quality takes a nosedive for the rest of the season. And unfortunately, this anime suffered from that phenomenon worse than most I have ever seen.
In fact, a lot of scenes in this anime look like it went from 30 frames per second down to 8. It is really noticeable and pretty bad to the point where it was just painful to watch it at times. This is a show that I wanted to like, but I almost dropped it. And after finishing it, I probably should have, to be honest. Not only in animation quality, but just in general, the story itself also kind of petered out. The next show is a bit of a strange one. Really, it means Big Brother is over, but literal translations are so rarely the final English title. The animation on this show is FANTIC.
For example, in the ending, the ED, the way that the animation of the big brother who's turned into a girl is shown with him hugging a pillow and smiling. It just instantly brings light to your heart. It's a beautiful scene. And that is replicated in so many different areas throughout this anime. It's just a very problematic one, I guess you could say. The main character is a man in his twenties who is a neat, not an employment, education, or training, who calls himself a quote unquote home security engineer.
His sister, though, adores him, and is also a hokuse, literally a scientist or professor, who comes up with the plan to redeem her brother and makes a formula that turns him into, for some god-awful reason, a middle school girl, complete with periods and all. Yeah, let that sink in for a minute. Besides the obvious plot holes and uncomfortable topics, it is all innocent in the end, though the OP does have more than a little fan service in it. I did enjoy the show, but it also left me wondering if I really should have enjoyed the show. There are two more to go, so hang in there.
I hope this isn't boring. Next to last is Tsunlise, or Endo and Kobayashi Live, the latest on Sundede Villainous Lizelote. Yes, that is a mouthful, even in English. This one too had a few animation issues, but the story was so good that I barely paid attention to them. A boy and a girl in the same broadcasting club in high school decide to practice and level up those skills by being announcers for a game that the girl really loves, Magicoi or Magical Love. It's a reverse harem game where the heroine can date and cultivate love interests amongst the many men that surround her.
Like a few other anime that have come out in the past few seasons, the twist is that the villain in the game, the girl who is currently engaged to the prince, is actually a Sundede, a slang word that means hot and cold, and is not evil at all, but just rather misunderstood. The two announcers attempt to get the prince to see the kind of person his fiancee truly is, so that they can set up the best happy endings for them all. Because, come to find out, the save file that they currently are working from actually impacts the game world in real time.
So there is some kind of magical connection going on that is explored throughout the season. There's romance in this anime amongst the two announcers and amongst the uh people, obviously, in the game itself. And the entire story is really well done. And in fact, the ED is just one of the best of the season, too. This one it scored points all the way around, and maybe even better, it didn't make me feel strange for actually having to enjoy it. The last show on the docket is Isekai Nan Virinoka or Farming Life in Another World.
The main character was hospitalized with a major illness for quite some time, and he passed that time by watching farming videos online. When he eventually died at a young age, the god of a fantasy world reincarnated him as a farmer with an almighty farming tool that could grow any type of crop easily. The only catch was that he woke up in the forest of death, a place that was filled with horrible monsters. In spite of that, he's able to start cultivating crops and begins to gather villagers.
This too is a slice of life anime combined with an Isekai, and while enjoyable, it didn't quite have the charm that really made it stand out in any way. The fact that all the villagers, besides some non-humans like lizard men and dwarves, were beautiful women from high and dark elves, angels, vampires, demons, beast girls, and ogre maids, just made it another run-of-the-mill harem anime where the main character played the mythical, upright, virtuous male. It just made it all smack a little hollow for me. And that does it for this inaugural special anime episode.
If you would like to listen to more, then please join as an Apple subscriber or as a Patreon. These will come out once a month and will cover a range of topics from best shows of the current season, trends in anime, and maybe even dip its toes into dramas if you're curious. Regardless, I greatly appreciate you indulging me as I go on ad nauseum on this topic. It's one of my favorites as keeping up with the current anime season is one of the things that bring me a phenomenal amount of joy throughout the week. Thank you for listening to Southern Demonology. Find us online at Southern Demonology.
com where you can find all of our social and podcasting links. Also, if you have a moment, please feel free to rate this podcast and leave any encouraging feedbacks that you may have. As always, I am JJ and it has been a pleasure getting to talk to you today.