Spring 2024 Impressions: Henjin no Salad Bowl, Astro Note, WIND BREAKER

Henjin no Salad Bowl

Short Synopsis: The 7th Princess of a royal line is hunted down, only to flee to our world where she ends up living and working with a detective named Sousuke.

Lenlo: It’s true, the Reverse Isekai is, on average, substantially better than the classic Isekai, if only because it’s easier to write someone being new and amazed by our modern world, making it seem interesting again, than it is to write a rich and engaging fantasy world. And so far, Salad Bowl continues to prove that true by being better than any Isekai I’ve seen so far this season. Not by a lot, it still has a lot of the same tropes and pointless ecchi scenes, and Salad Bowl feels like more of a weekly “feel good” show rather than something with a more long-term plot. Its “Princess from another world facing persecution” quickly devolves into “Young girl playing games and doing cute things”. Still, it is watchable! The girls have a bit of personality, and Livia ending up with/as a homeless person was actually kind of funny. I could see Salad Bowl being a solid pick for folks looking for a more wholesome, relaxed weekly anime. It’s not for me, but I think it’s good enough to be for someone.
Potential: 30%

Astro Note

Short Synopsis: A down-on-his-luck chef accepts a part time job at a boarding house full of quirky residents.

Wooper: First things first: if you plan to watch Astro Note, you should grab the [Okay-Subs] release, which fixes an aliasing issue present in the official stream. I downloaded and compared both versions, and the former is indeed much easier on the eyes. With that out of the way, let me just say that I really enjoyed this premiere. Astro Note won’t be a hit with wide audiences – both the speed of its presentation and its florid color design are too in-your-face for that – but as an homage to past anime romcoms, it’s tons of fun. The “beautiful widowed landlord” trope from Maison Ikkoku is the most obvious touchpoint here, as protagonist Takumi falls for the aproned Mira-san just as quickly as Godai fell for the similarly-costumed Kyoko-san in that classic series. Takumi and Godai even share a room number across the two works, but Takumi is thankfully less pathetic than the character who likely inspired him. He’s a great cook, immediately winning over the boarding house’s breakfast-obsessed lodgers, whose physical appearances and personalities are so far outside the box that I already want to know more about each of them. There’s a sci-fi twist here that I won’t spoil, though the intergalactic cold open (which not-so-successfully mimics the look of analog production) serves as a massive hint, so it’s not as though it’s some big secret. Still, the scene where it falls into place is fun for other reasons – and speaking of fun, the 80s-inspired ED (which I assume will become the OP going forward) is a total delight, with sugary female vocals and bouncy percussion playing over a plethora of playful character animation. I can’t wait to rewatch it at the start of each new episode this season.
Potential: 70%

Lenlo: I’m so confused, how did we go from space epic cold open to small quirky breakfast cooking show? And then back to a space epic? What even is Astro Note? Wooper does his best to answer up above, he’s pretty on the money. The cast is quirky and fun without being annoying, the designs are surprisingly expressive, the visuals call back to an older era of anime, and even with the aliasing problem Wooper talked about I found myself enjoying my time with it. The only issue I can see is that Astro Note strikes me as being in a similar vein as last seasons Torture Princess. Something that’s fun weekly, well produced, has a lot of good ideas, but eventually gets stuck in a rut and isn’t able to evolve or keep my interest for the entire season. I’d like to be wrong, maybe it commits to having an actual plot enough to slowly evolve the premise, like maybe Takumi figures out what’s going on eventually and helps out, or the cast each get their individual unique stories, I don’t know. Astro Note has a lot of potential there. But it needs to act on the potential or else it will grow stale, just like Torture Princess. Anyways, for now at least I’m going to keep on watching it each week and see where it goes.
Potential: 65%

WIND BREAKER

Short Synopsis: A highschool full of delinquents search for purpose in a society that rejects them, using their strength to defend those who cannot defend themselves.

Lenlo: I was pleasantly surprised by Wind Breaker. I went into this expecting nothing, surely after Bucchigiri wouldn’t get two decent delinquent shows in a row. Yet right away it comes in with this strong opening scene on the pressures of Japanese society, of the struggle to fit in and suppress your true self. This sets the tone for the entire episode, which is only furthered by our lead’s sort of crisis of identity where he sees himself as a delinquent unworthy of trust or friends because that’s how society sees/treats him. Of a guy trying to find value and purpose in his life through fighting, proving he’s better through force, the only thing he’s any good at. It worked surprisingly well by the end, showing how these delinquents carved a place for themselves while staying true to who they are. I appreciated how the MC didn’t try to hide anything, Wind Breaker made it clear what he wanted and, when presented for a chance at it, he leapt for it immediately, no “Will he join?” bullshit.. And you know what? The fights were actually pretty good too, I liked the full-body continuous shots where we actually got to enjoy some choreography. If Wind Breaker can keep this up, if it can avoid falling into the basic Shounen bullshit trap, I think it could become pretty good. I’m not guaranteeing it, maybe this was just a one-off and it falls into the gutter later. But as far as premiers go, I’ve enjoyed it a lot.
Potential: 75%