Beneath the Tangles

a crowd of people including a girl wearing a hat Alt: a crowd of people including a girl wearing a hat

Hey guys!

Let’s exercise some grace and patience with others in the fan community, especially those who might be younger or new to the genre!

The anime fandom is not an exclusive gated club open to a few.

It’s a community.

The more fans we welcome in with love and grace the better it can be!

It pays the bills?

Probably should've been watching "Dr. Stone" instead!

"..if you’re a fan of detective stories, then this one will be right up your alley…but don’t go into it thinking this is going to be something new. The setting may have changed, but the characters and tropes that plague most detective anime are still the same."

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Winter 2025 Anime First Impressions New Year’s Day is a bit of a sad holiday for many of us—Christmas is over and the promise of a new year isn’t always that hopeful. Well, one thing that’ll surely help the malaise …

And those were just a TASTE of First Impressions we did! If you wanna see more of what the Beneath the Tangles crew had to say about the Winter 2025 Anime season, check out the link below! And toss us a like and retweet so we can get the word out there!

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First Impression: Zenshu Natsuko Hirose is a young hotshot animation director who skyrocketed to fame with her first production—one that was so relevant it became a cultural phenomenon. Her next series is set to take the w…

"... I’m excited to see how this series will explore the power of art to transform and bring hope, and I’m also giddy with anticipation for all the little Easter eggs for anime otaku and sakuga geeks that this series is destined to deliver..."

- Claire

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First Impression: My Happy Marriage Miyo’s Dream Sight may have awakened now, but she’s only just beginning to learn how to make sense of what she sees. To help her, the new head of the Usuba clan is…joining them for breakfast? Kiyok…

"Ramping up the intrigue and magic gives the story a new lease on life, while bringing in Kiyoka’s absentee family adds a whole new layer of tension and melodrama to the interpersonal side of the story as well."

- Claire on "My Happy Marriage"

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First Impression: Momentary Lily In a world where almost all humans have been wiped out by robotic invaders, a small group of girls have managed to survive. They live day by day and don’t seem to be very intimidated by these dange…

"I’m not a big fan of the genre, so I probably won’t be watching the entire season. However, I wouldn’t mind watching more because there were enough positive elements, especially visually, to keep my interest for a little while."

- Michel

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First Impression: The Apothecary Diaries, Season 2 Spring has come to pseudo-medieval China. We check in briefly with a bunch of established characters, and get some goofy interactions between our favorite eccentric apothecary, Maomao, and our favo…

"...This was a pretty chill opening episode. If you’re not familiar with the series, would it help to say Maomao is sort of like Sherlock Holmes, if the great detective were a young woman in medieval China?"

- JeskaiAngel

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First Impression: Babanbabanban Vampire Mori Ranmaru lives and works at a bathhouse, and has done so for ten years now, ever since he fell in love at first sight with the five-year-old son of the house. Uh huh. He’s waiting until the boy…

"...If you’re looking for a BL romance or comedy, keep looking; this one is neither. Gonna go sweep out my Netflix account now and get rid of the bad taste left in my queue."

- Clare on "Babanbabanban Vampire"

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First Impression: The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really REALLY Love You! (Season 2) The adventure continues with the Rooftop Casanova of Ohananomitsu High School, Rentaro Aijou, and his trope-filled baker’s dozen of girlfriends! As a reminder, our boy Rentaro has been blesse…

"...this show embraces its completely bonkers premise and approaches it with a lot of heart and endearing (if a little trope-filled) characters and tells the audience “Turn your brain off and just have a good time,” makes me respect it in some weird way.

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First Impression: I’m Living With an Otaku NEET Kunoichi!? As everyday salaryman Tsukasa Atsumi walks home from work one night, he looks up, startled by a loud noise, and sees steel beams falling from atop a construction site. Thinking that this is it for …

"...This anime has a really heavy dose of old-school romcom corniness to it; with early 00s character designs, an old-man narrator, and spacy sound effects and music, it feels more like it should have aired in 2005 than 20 years later."

- TWWK

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First Impression: I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class Two high school students are married, and they don’t like it. Rewind. Akane (girl) gets on Saito’s (guy) case for sloppy work on the daily class record. They bicker until their classmate Himari (gi…

"...I think this show has a lot of potential to be cute, funny, and maybe even thought-provoking. Unless you’ve seen shows with similar premises and just hated them, I definitely recommend giving this one a try. I plan to come back next week."

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First Impression: Sakamoto Days Silver-haired Sakamoto was the coolest of all hitmen. He could take on twenty men at once, John Wick style, and leave a mountain of bodies behind. Every hitman, young Shin especially, looked up to …

"...There is a gentleness to the show and its protagonist that brings it close to series like Mob Psycho 100 or Trigun, celebrating the joy of normal things and the beauty of little moments..."

- Gaheret on "Sakamoto Days" #SakamotoDays

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First Impression: Okitsura: Fell in Love with an Okinawan Girl, but I Just Wish I Know What She’s Saying Teruaki Nakamura is a high school boy whose family just moved down from the Japanese mainland to the sunny southern island of Okinawa, and even in that short time, he’s fallen in love with a bubbly…

"...What will become of these kids living out the springtime of their youth on the island of endless summer? Well, it’s too early to know for certain, but I’m certainly going to be along for the ride."

- WacOtaku on "Okitsura"

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First Impression: Honey Lemon Soda If you’re going to change the things you don’t like about yourself— the things that led to relentless bullying during your middle school years and kept you from making meaningful connec…

"...I’m going to stay tuned because of the high quality of the production, the potential for growth in the leads, and most of all, the friendships, which already feel like they’ll be the high point of the series..."

- TWWK on "Honey Lemon Soda"

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First Impression: Dr. Stone: Science Future The Kingdom of Science is back and two of its leaders are at loggerheads! If you’ll recall, the intrepid crew of the Perseus is on its way to America to collect materials to fuel a rocket shi…

"...plain and simple, if you’ve ridden with the crew for this long, you owe it to yourself to see it through! Trust me, when certain characters get introduced, and when certain events and revelations come to light, you will NOT be disappointed."

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First Impression: Aquarion: Myth of Emotions “Perched above the yet oceanless ocean, there was once a dreamer. The dreamer dreamed about all the things in the world.” A beautifully illustrated creation myth of sorts begins to unfo…

"So, is it interesting? Somewhat. I think I could get invested in the story of the three chibi kids if it slows down a little, but I’m not a fan of the pulpy-looking glimpses of the “wings” world..."

-Gaheret on "Aquarion: Myth of Emotions"

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"...I’m NOT falling in love with this anime, and I can’t think of any reason for anyone else to watch it."

- JeskaiAngel on "Anyway, I'm Falling In Love With You"

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"..if you’re a fan of detective stories, then this one will be right up your alley…but don’t go into it thinking this is going to be something new. The setting may have changed, but the characters and tropes that plague most detective anime are still the same."

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GOOD AFTERNOON EVERYONE! It's the last day of First Impressions for the Winter 2025 Anime Season! Here's a rundown of what our writing team thought of this season's offerings to help you decide if you should check it out or pass it on by! Here we go!

Head to our site to check out this week's RC—we cover the latest volumes of Dandadan, Fool Night, Zom 100, Agents of the Four Seasons (manga), Insomniacs After School, and more!

Dreading that Post-Holiday malaise? Need something to look forward to in 2025?

The Crew at Beneath the Tangles got you covered! We're about to jump off our First Impressions of the hot (or not) new shows for Winter 2025!

STAY TUNED!

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You have our deepest prayers for peace and comfort for you and your family during this time good sir. Please let us know if there's anything we can do for you or your family during this time.

"You'll be visited by Three Spirits"

The Three Spirits:

Your very merry Christmas out-of-context anime screenshot of the day!

Source: Kimi ni Todoke

As we celebrate together the Christmas festivities and the turning of a new year, become the individual you’ve always imagined being.

If that means you are perceived as nothing more than a Kaiju, then consider that the face of a warrior!

12 Days of Christmas Anime, Day 1: Martian Successor Nadesico’s Epiphanies It’s the year 2199. The bright future of humanity is frustrated when alien invaders unleash radioactive meteorite bombs, poisoning Earth. But a message arrives from Mars: There’s hope for salvation…

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The 12 Days of Christmas Anime Begins Saturday! Christmas is just a couple of weeks away and that means it’s time for our annual tradition: the 12 Days of Christmas Anime! For those new to it, here’s the wrap—we count down the days t…

What's going on, BlueSky Tangles Troupe! How are you feeling today?

SATURDAY we kick off our 12 Days of Christmas Anime Extravaganza! Each day, we highlight our favorite Christmas-Themed Anime Episodes from anime past and present! Be sure to check it out!

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Welcome to the Skies that are Blue ma'am! We hope you have an awesome time here!

And of course Goku is always looking for someone to train with--

He's chasing after the Kung-Fu Panda Balloon!

No Goku! No! No fighting on Thanksgiving!! #MacysParade #MacysThanksgivingParade #DragonBallZ #KungFuPanda