Anime That I've Been Watching (10/14/2022 - 10/29/2022)

 

It was fun doing the first post of this, so might as well do another. Stress and anxiety prevented me from watching as much as I would've liked, but still watched a pretty decent amount. As before, the order is chronological, I do tend to bounce around shows though, so its chronological to first episode watched during the time period (the dates in the title). As its October did watch some things that fit the mood of the season, as well as finally exploring more historical (and revolutionary) lolicon anime. As before will include some neat anime trivia and such in these.

Tezuka Osamu no Don Dracula
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=4853

This is the anime that's sampled in my new song DRACULA DISCO (listen here: https://soundcloud.com/himeko_katagiri/dracula-disco ). Don Dracula is a pretty interesting show for many reasons. The first is that the show was incredibly short lived, it got cancelled after a mere eight episodes, and a lot of Japan only ever got half of that. This is an oldschool gag anime though, and in the 80s these would often run quite long, at least 40 or so episodes, but many being far longer (such as Dr. Slump and Urusei Yatsura). The show too really stands out aesthetically, its from the 80s but looks incredibly 70s, and this 70s anime styled Western interpretation of Dracula in a goofy 80s gag anime is such a trip to watch, yet it totally works. I actually had started this anime before my previous anime post, but finally got around to finishing it recently. The first few episodes were pretty rough, but the rest of it was actually pretty good if you're into old gag anime. Its whole aesthetic and vibe, combined with being binned so quickly, make it a pretty interesting watch. Also, it has a cute vampire loli.

MM! Specials
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=9581

I watched MM! a looong time ago, its a really fun femdom themed ecchi anime, so totally up my alley. I never got around to watching the specials though, and finally did. They're a mix of voyeuristic shorts as well what feels like outtakes from the main anime. There's no story here, its all just pure fan service, but I enjoyed them.

Bishoujo Comic Lolicon Angel: Mitsu no Aji
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=3649

Ok, finally got around to starting to watch these. First of all, for hentai, I watch a lot of hentai as normal anime, and there are a lot of hentai which really are legitimate anime, such as La Blue Girl and Dream Hunter Rem. When I talk about hentai here, it will only be stuff I'm watching as regular anime. Lolicon Angel, along with a few other OVAs, are some of the first ever hentai OVA ever made, and are also some of the first lolicon hentai animations ever made as well (also yes, early hentai OVA had a lot of lolicon, this was during the "lolicon boom"). The OVA itself is very cool from a historical standpoint, but it doesn't offer much. Is very cheap looking 80s art, and no real story or anything, just some sex scenes strung together of people trying to locate some stolen money. The carousel scene though was hilarious. If you want to explore historical lolicon animation then watch it, but if you don't then don't.

Jashin-chan Dropkick X
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=42994

Watched the new Jashin-chan season (this is the 3rd season now, but I won't spoil anything). I watched the Mame Anime alongside it but there's not much to comment on for that. I enjoyed the new season, but I feel it was the weakest season so far, still good, just not as good as the first two. It felt a lot less extreme, Jashin-chan still got injured/killed a decent amount of times, but it wasn't the constant gorefest slapstick comedy of the first two seasons, and a pretty sizeable amount of this season was more slice of life. There was also a pretty long arc where it suddenly became a tourism anime showcasing various parts of Japan, I know some folks didn't care for this but I didn't mind it. What I did mind though is that the new vampire girls barely appeared, I was really looking forwards to the vampire loli!! Vampire girls are ultimate!!

PriPara
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=23135

PriPara is one of my favorite anime ever and I'm already super far into it. I was taking a break from it for awhile though as I recently watched a ton of it when I got sick awhile back, but finally back to it. Only watched a bit but I love this show so much. Also, was funny it was a Christmas episode, super poor timing for that. This reminds me I want to write a post about these really long anime, I should do that sometime.

Dr. Slump Movie 09: Arale-chan N-cha!! Wakuwaku Hot no Natsuyasumi
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=7158

I've been slowly watching the Dr. Slump "movies" (out of order), and since its October, watched the 9th movie as its Halloween themed. As with many of the Dr. Slump movies, its basically just a glorified episode, but it was a fun watch regardless. It really hit that classic Halloween vibe, and I loved seeing 80s anime interpretations of classic monsters.

This is a bit of a tangent, but that reminds me Dream Hunter Rem had an old school anime interpretation of Frankenstein's monster as well, but their one doesn't stand out as much to me as the one in Slump. Also, if you haven't seen Dream Hunter Rem, watch it now, its one of my all-time favorite anime ever made.

Ochamegami Monogatari: Korokoro Pollon
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=3136

Ok, finally watched this, this is another historical lolicon anime. It was made by Hideo Azuma, one of the most influential people in the anime industry who never gets talked about. The dude invented lolicon back in the late 70s. Obviously loli characters existed before then in shoujo and kids shows, but he's who really turned lolicon into a thing and elevated the lolis to greater heights. This obviously permanently changed anime, with tons of lolis appearing in all kinds of shows across genres, eras, and audience demographics, as well as whole lolicon orientated anime coming into existence (and this is just talking anime, don't forget the likely thousands of eroge and other otaku media with lolis, as well as lolicore). Anyways, the man is absolutely legendary publishing lolicon doujinshi all the way back in the 70s, and my favorite genre of music wouldn't exist without him.

He has produced two anime, Pollon and Nanako SOS. I still need to watch Nanako SOS, but I did finally start Pollon. Pollon is another 80s gag anime with a unique setting, it takes place in ancient Greece and follows Greek gods, with the main girl Pollon wishing to become a goddess. The show is top notch 80s gag anime, I love the unique setting, the pacing, and the jokes, its a really awesome show. Sadly only a bit of the anime seems to be subbed currently, I've watched raws before but I still prefer subs as my Japanese is still rather limited. I only have a few episodes left of what's available, but its a really awesome show. Additionally, you can really see his old school 70s shoujo influences in the designs and artwork, its really nice. Also yes, you can see him sneak in some lolicon stuff into the show, based.

Rosario to Vampire Capu2
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=4214

I talked about this one before in my previous post, finally finished it. Was pretty fun and much better than the first season, Kokoa really elevated the show with her vampire loli charms and the general energy and comedy she introduced to the show. Its just a dumb 00s harem ecchi anime, but the heavy focus on vampire girls and pantsu is based.

Zekkyou Gakkyuu
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=15891

Three one minute horror shorts with a very Halloween-y vibe. Show was very vague and honestly didn't offer much, felt more like one of those animations that are made to just promote a manga, and I'm pretty sure that's what this is.

Yume-iro Pâtissière
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=6586

I've been wanting to start some more long anime to gradually/casually watch, and ended up starting this one. I only watched a little bit of it, the personality of the show was different than what I expected and wasn't much in the mood for it at the time of watching, will return to it when it fits my mood. Also, anime with non-bootleg McDonald's. Which reminds me there's a yuri manga that got in trouble for real McDonald's, only MgRonald's is real.

Minami-ke
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=2963

I started this back in 2016 but got caught up in other shows and never finished, finally got back to it this week (and decided to just restart it, despite still remembering what I already saw). I remember this show was recommended to me by ファズファゲット, he said it was similar to Ichigo Mashimaro. Ichigho Mashimaro is total perfection and hard to stack up against, but Minami-ke is quite good and it actually is rather reminiscent of Ichigo Mashimaro, just not as loli-centric (but still has lolis). Also, one of the girl's literally wears the same shirt as Miu sometimes, also interesting how my favorite characters from each show did this.

First I thought maybe they were by the same person, I looked, and aren't. I have yet to go through writers and directors and stuff yet, but there has to be some kind of reasoning for this, they are both by the same studio so that might be it, but I feel like there could be more. Either way though, its a fun anime and has a surprising amount of seasons, I still have a bit left of season one though, but will def keep watching.

Also, I have to address the elephant in the room, its insane how much she looks like my wife Azusa. I somehow never considered anime doppelgangers existing, but wow, this is proof of that, its crazy how much they look alike.

Anime I've Been Watching (9/11/2022 - 10/2/2022)

 

Lolita Catacombs is basically just a place for me to ramble about nerdy things, so might as well talk about the anime that I've been watching the past few weeks. I didn't watch much this week though since was busy with music and video games instead, but was watching quite a bit the previous two weeks. MAL history goes as far back as 3 weeks, so guess I'll do these posts like every 2 - 3 weeks, wont be weekly. These will be listed in chronological order of first episode watched, but I tend to bounce between shows. These aren't reviews or anything, just thoughts, and is much inspired by Abra's blogs. I also watched an assortment of shorts and such that wont be listed here.

Virtual Star 2000
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=22561

I found this one awhile back and finally got around to watching it. This was after over a week of being super sick where I was just binging stuff like PriPara, PreCure, Powerpuff Girl Z, and so on, so needed something that was really leftfield to prevent a burn out (if I watch too much of a similar idea/the same thing I will get annoying burn out). Anyways, this was hardly really a show, was mostly just music videos in dated CGI and super cheesy 90s dance music. Old CGI anime are cool, if you want to watch one with an actual story I suggest Malice@Doll. There are some other related anime to Virtual Star 2000 but I haven't watched them yet.

Tetsuwan Birdy
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=566

I used to watch 80s and 90s OVA anime constantly, its been quite some time since then so picked out Tetsuwan Birdy to watch. This was a pretty fun 90s sci-fi show with a space cop and a lot of body switching and stuff. It was weirdly slow for an OVA, but I enjoyed it, also the main girl's hair is interesting with the old Trix yogurt split going on. This anime actually got a reboot/remake in the 00s, but I don't know when, or if, I'll watch that.

Cream Lemon: Lemon Angel
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=3205

Finally watched this, it was in my PTW for a million years. This is one of those short episode shows, but from the 80s, and based on the real world idol group Lemon Angel. I really enjoy Lemon Angel, and I can go on endlessly about kayoukyoku idol pop, but Lemon Angel was quite an interesting group. Back then a lot of idols were still trying to be seen as pure maidens, no boyfriends allowed, you know the drill. Well that wasn't always the case though, as you had erotic idols of the 70s like Reiko Ike and Yukiko Kuwabara, you also had ones in the 80s (though usually not quite as pornographic). When I think of the 80s ones I think Lemon Angel and an armpit fetish idol who's name escapes me right now.

Lemon Angel were interesting as they really tried to appeal to the lecherous otaku market which was really developing now in the 80s. This ecchi anime was created, and a few computer games for a variety of Japanese PCs were developed as well (up into the 90s even!). I have sadly yet to play any of these games, but they look super cool, so some images:

Its pretty neat too how you can see their anime versions are very different in the 80s release as it just barely pre-dated the anime. Anyways though, the actual anime was sadly rather sub-par. Its basically over 30 episodes of just the generic "sad romance" stories found in idol music videos of the period, but with lots of nudity and scenes of the girls masturbating. A few episodes really stood out, like the one that was a parody on ecchi action OVAs of the period, but a lot was just so-so. I mostly watched this here and there over the weeks, a few episodes in the morning, then some scattered throughout the day. Also, if anyone remembers the old DJ Nonstick Cookware mixcloud, a Lemon Angel was/is in my kayoukyoku idol mix on there.

Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=11763

I actually dropped this one. I was hoping it was going to be like Keijo!!!!!!!! or Ben-To, but it wasn't. Basically its just ryona fetish porn, and that's it. I'm fine with adult anime like that, since a lot will have cool stories, awesome old art, and so on, but this just felt really pointless to watch. I dropped it pretty early on.

Slayers: The Motion Picture
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=536

Slayers Next
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=535

Combining these into one section. I watched season 1 of Slayers earlier this year and absolutely loved it, is such an awesome 90s fantasy show (I live for stuff like this). I tend to watch things in chronological order of release, so next up was the first movie, which is a prequel. The movie was an absolute blast, I really enjoyed it, and Naga is such a funny character that I'm surprised she's not used more in the main anime. Slayers Next is the 2nd season, I only watched a bit, same fun as before but I'm really early into it still. The new enemy girl with the drills is cute. Also this reminds me I really need to play the Slayers Sega Saturn game I have.

Ishuzoku Reviewers
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=40010

This show got a ton of hate when it came out, but I think that's mostly due to newcomers not experiencing a proper ecchi anime yet. This was quite an awesome ecchi anime, I feel over the years the ecchi anime market gradually became replaced with isekai shows, so its really nice when we get new ecchi anime (and them bringing on an ecchi show with a fantasy setting was pretty smart considering how popular isekai are). This is basically a show for folks who like monster girls, so if you liked Monster Musume, this is def worth watching. Also, the main girl is a futanari, super based, and very cool futas are finally entering normal anime world. The show is a pretty intense ecchi show as its a group of goons reviewing brothels, but they weirdly don't have a lot of classic monster girl types, like lamias. There are though like a million different monmusu featured, which was cool.

Mahoutsukai no Yome
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=35062

I still have a few episodes left on this, and I've also been watching MahoYome alongside it. Its a very cool show though, and it tries to do a lot with blending mystical slice of life, drama, romance, and even action (with a pretty decent amount of blood at times). Its doing a lot but totally makes it work, and I really love that some of the episodes gives me some Aria vibes, but like, in the UK and with magic and demons and stuff. I also really love it when anime use real world locations that are outside of Japan, it always gives it such a unique vibe, and I really love the whole English countryside thing they have going on here. I still have to get around to finishing this show, only a few episodes left, but really liking it so far.

Rosario to Vampire Capu2
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=4214

I watched season 1 earlier in the year, and finally got around to watching season 2. I honestly would've stopped watching after the first season, but Kokoa is so cute I had to give the second season a try, and I'm happy that I did as its been much better than the first season so far. I didn't really like the whole pattern and forced drama of season 1, but season 2 so far has done away with all of that and just lets the show be dumb ecchi, just like it should be. Also, watching Rosario to Vampire is part of my mission of finally watching some of the classic ecchi anime that have been sitting in my PTW for a literal decade now. I only have a few episodes left, and it being spooky month is a good time to be watching. Also, I really love that special Halloween-y look anime stuff does, like Soul Eater and such, always has looked awesome to me. Also, VAMPIRE GIRLS ARE ULTIMATE AAAAAAA

Hataraku Saibou Black
https://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=41694

Remember that show years ago with the loli cells and stuff and it totally blew up for awhile? This is that but dark. I remember watching the first season of the original shortly after it finished airing and it was like, alright, felt very confused to me. I'm very early into this Black version, the dark spin on the concept is quite cool (and also cool that it hearkens back to when anime would sometimes have alternate versions and such, keeping the tradition alive). That said though, despite being so early in, I am already seeing some of the same things that I disliked about the original cropping up, so will see how it goes.

New Himeko Song And What I've Been Working On / Upcoming Projects

 

So, this was a longer gap between posts than I intended, but I've been super busy, so it happens (and likely will happen again lol)

First things first, NEW HIMEKO SONG OUT NOW: https://soundcloud.com/himeko_katagiri/hey-this-isnt-baseball

The song is titled, Hey, This Isn't Baseball, and its part of my upcoming dark lolicore revival album. I've always really loved the dark side of lolicore, and its so uncommon now these days, so that's the whole idea of the album, to remind people that this sound exists (and explore actually making it myself). Technically, I actually started this album quite a long time ago, but I have so many projects it can take awhile for an album to actually reach completion, but this is one of my main focuses as of now as I'm having a lot of fun with it.

A bit about the song, I was playing shitty eroge as I often do, one was baseball themed, and it gave me a wild idea of making a dark lolicore song with a baseball theme. I could hear it in my head so I knew it would work, so ripped some eroge vocals, gathered some baseball samples (organs and SFX), and made the tune. This track was actually made live on Discord, it was fun, might do again (maybe on Twitch even, we'll see). Anyways, I really love how this came out.

As for other projects, I've been back to hyperactive, but a lot of it can't be shared just yet. There's a lot of freelance composition work happening, I made music for an upcoming VRC event (details TBA), am working on another game soundtrack (which is coming out really awesome so far, but game wont be out for two months tops), and a lot more projects, both personal and freelance. There's a lot of upcoming Himeko albums and EPs too, got a lot in progress, and stuff is actually being worked on all the time now. Its really awesome being back in the groove, was burnt out for super long barely making stuff.

Anyways, that's all for now~~