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Crunchyroll Link I guess the first thing I’m supposed to do is apologize? Like, the beginning of February was the original deadline and I just whizzed right by that with a halfhearted apology post. But that post had said a week from then and now it’s a week from then and it’s all really just a mess. Here it is now, though, my review of my Anime Secret Santa gift, Tonari no Seki-kun: It’s cute. That’s it, that’s the review. Okay, okay. If I’m going to do, like, an actual review, I guess I should start with the basic info stuff, huh? Tonari no Seki-kun, or My Neighbor Seki if Japanese isn’t your style, is a manga by Takuma Morishige that started a decade ago, and while Wikipedia says the manga is still ongoing, the most recent volume came out three years ago so take that as you will. It follows Rumi Yokoi, a schoolgirl as she tries to follow along with her lessons if only the boy sitting next to her, the titular Toshinari Seki, would stop fooling around with whatever’s on his desk. In the first episode, it’s simply dominos made from pencil erasers, but as the series progresses, so too does the complexity of Seki’s games. It’s also in the first episode that the dynamic between these two characters is clearly established. Rumi Yokoi is a girl split in two, trapped at the crossroads between Seki’s delinquent play and the instruction of the teacher. She acts as the audience surrogate, the Watson to Seki’s Holmes, explaining and interpreting Seki’s actions to form her own (and therefore, the episode’s) narratives. Seki, meanwhile is almost entirely oblivious to Yokoi’s attraction, only noticing when she gets directly involved in his play (though sometimes not even then). I use the word “attraction” deliberately, of course. While there is never any actual romance throughout the show’s twenty-one episodes outside of a loving couple of shogi pieces (it makes sense in context), the tension between the show’s two leads is certainly noticeable and commented on by the show itself in the form of a second narrator, a classmate named Sakurako Goto, who only gets to sit near Yokoi and Seki during art class, but when she does, hoooo does that ship set sail. One of the most notable aspects of Tonari no Seki-kun (to me) is its brevity. The show is a healthy twenty-one episodes long, but each episode is a nice seven-and-a-half minutes, a runtime that includes the OP and closing credits so really each episode is a compact five minutes in length. It’s a format that I can really get behind, honestly. Each episode has something it wants to present or an idea it wants to portray through Seki’s games, it says it, and then it gets out to some groovy percussive beats. Outside of the OP and ED themes, the soundtrack is suitably melodramatic and matches the tone, but not all that memorable (the robot song is the exception that proves the rule here). The emphasis in the story and sound design is clearly in Yokoi’s narration, which makes sense given it’s an adaptation of a manga. Yokoi, meanwhile, occasionally comes off as overeager, which, again, melodrama, and while I’m here for that, I don’t think I was always as here as Yokoi was. Goto, when she shows up, has similar problems, but given that her episodes have the conceit that she’s comedically reading too much into things, it didn’t quite grate as hard. Plus, Goto’s reaction shots are cuter. There, I said it. It’s all in the pigtails. Overall, the art is as can be expected for TV series anime on a TV series anime’s budget. The most time is spent on Seki, of course, because he’s the one doing the unique thing each episode, which leaves Yokoi to only occasionally pop into frame with cartoonishly dramatic lip flaps when her physical reaction is necessary for a joke. That being said, some of Yokoi’s reactions dip a bit into the uncanny valley. this girl has seen things It isn’t all bad, of course, nor is it all generic. Several episodes have imagine spots where Seki’s games literally come to life, turning his desk into a fantasy realm. I don’t know enough about the animation process to know if this other style actually costs more money to produce (especially since it mostly consists of still frames) but it certainly was a style choice I appreciated. Some shots are obviously CG as opposed to animation, but it was never anything to immersion-breaking. I know I said I disliked “that animation style where it's clearly all 3D models but it's trying to pretend that it's 2D” but first, that’s not what I meant, and second, this would probably be an outlier anyway. Most of the movement that would require computer graphics anyway is left offscreen anyway; part of the charm of the series is Yokoi looking back at Seki’s desk and discovering just what has been gone in her absence. The other part of the show’s charm is in how it plays with diegesis. Most of Yokoi’s narration, and even many of her reaction shots, is non-diegetic, or not part of the universe of the show. To put it another way, we, the audience, are the only ones that can hear it. But occasionally, she’ll slip up and say something in diegesis, out loud to her classroom. It’s a single joke, and I could see it getting old for some viewers, but it put a smile on my face each time, so I guess it worked. What did get old for me, though, was in how Yokoi was treated whenever she inevitably gets caught snooping. Most of the time, she just blusters out an apology and the instructor continues with the lesson, but occasionally, she tries to point out Seki’s antics, but each time, of course, Seki has already put everything away, and she just looks crazy. I found this similar to Cadance’s antics in Phineas and Ferb, and had a similar takeaway: it’s a bit malicious on the creator’s part and makes me feel like they’re gaslighting their characters, driving them mad. There aren’t too many (onscreen) consequences for this, but you just know Yokoi’s going to question her subjective reality one day this girl has SEEN things Wow, that ended a bit too heavily for how down-to-earth slice-of-life this anime really is. I think I covered almost everything I said I wanted and didn’t want to see in an anime, though, so let’s just talk about the final part. “I like pretentious writing because I am pretentious,” I said. And I meant it. I admit was a little disappointed in my initial viewing of Tonari no Seki-kun because, well, it did initially seem so straightforward. But then I realized one could easily make a basic Freudian analysis of the show’s two main leads, comparing Yokoi to an individual’s superego and Seki to their Id, how through that lens, the show presents the superego as always desperately trying to take control, but always failing to completely suppress the base desires of the Id. Choosing to go down that route, also leads to quite a few puns. For example, the ending credits literally splits the screen in the middle, separating the characters, and Goto, who one might (charitably) read as the ego, wants to “marry” the Id and Superego concepts. The fact that this wordplay even exists only supports my theory that this was an intentional part of the anime’s design and not just a coincidence I came up with after a few minutes of skimming Wikipedia. To be fair, you have to have a pretty high IQ to understand Tonari no Seki-kun… I don’t want to give Tonari no Seki-kun a score, because, as an English major, I don’t believe in numbers, but I did enjoy my time watching it and I’m glad to have participated in the Secret Santa event. To those who want to follow in my footsteps and give the series a try, I will say that the third episode, Desk Polishing was when things really started to click for me, and getting there is just about the length of a normal episode of anime anyway. If you do like it past that point, I’m glad my review could help in some way, and if it doesn’t click, well, you’ve lost less than an hour of your time. Thanks again to my secret santa for the recommendation, and I’ll see you all on the forum, -radio414 Crunchyroll Link

"Nah, don't worry about it, but thanks so much!" Yu watched with awe as the horned girl dusted her soiled uniform and made light of the deep trench she had made in the ground, acting as if she had simply just tripped over a crack in the pavement. The fact that her abilities could be just as destructive as his own brought him both comfort and a slight unease. At the very least, he would not be the only one who would need to learn to control his Quirk. Would all of his classmates have to manage such power? "Pleasure's all mine, gentlemen! Name's Kohaku Shinobu! You must also be attending here, so could that mean you're my classmates?” "Yeah, I guess we are going to be classmates. You can call me Akuma." “I am Yu Minami. It's very nice to meet such a friendly classmate so soon!” Yu said, bowing to the two as deep as he could make without tipping his cargo over. As he looked back up, he saw that another classmate had busied herself filling in the trench using her Quirk. As she finished delicately filling the trench, Yu could not help but feel slightly disappointed that nothing was planted to take advantage of the freshly tilled soil. With no hesitation, Kohaku walked up to her and greeted her like a long cherished acquaintance, which contrasted starkly with the pink-haired girl’s timidity. "Oh, where are my manners?! Guys, this is... uh, what was your name?" "Y-yin. F-fu Lan Yi-" "Yin!!" "H-h... hi." Yu gave a polite bow to Yin, only to hear yet another pair of voices from behind him. "Hi everyone! My name's Hioni Miyu, but you all can just call me Miyu! Let's all be good friends! Why don't we all walk to class together!" “I agree. Doro Midome by the way, pleased to make your acquaintance. Shall we move someplace drier?" Yu could not believe his luck. In a matter of minutes of arriving at school, he had already met five new friends, all of which must have some kind of Quirk like he did! The possibility of becoming bullied for having a Quirk was quickly becoming a silly afterthought. “School is going to be great!” Yu thought to himself as a wide smile grew on his face. “Yes, getting to class would be a good idea Miyu-san! I would really like to put down my things. This [zamioculcas zamiifolia] of mine would definitely like to get out of all this rain!” -- Following Akuma’s dramatic entrance that nearly caused the door to fall out of its frame, Yu entered the classroom to see that most of his fellow classmates had already found their seats. The classroom was simply furnished and appeared to be already well used, but to Yu, it was all very exciting to finally get to have the proper school experience. Spotting a seat by the window, he quickly moved to claim that spot for himself and his plant. Finally letting down his burden, he placed the potted plant on the windowsill. While the sill was narrow, it was just wide enough for it to fit, bringing some much needed life to an otherwise sterile room. As he turned back to his desk, Yu was shocked to see that the stuffed bear had walked halfway across the room, heading straight towards the open door. Trying to keep his cool, he jogged out of his seat to catch up to the runaway toy, which was now climbing up the desk of another student. Much to his dismay, Yu realized that the boy’s delinquent state of dress suggested trouble, which might cause the bear to act...unpredictably. He approached the boy just as the bear had made it onto his desk top. “Sorry about that! With all this excitement, Theodore tends to get himself into trouble,” Yu said as he snatched the bear, which struggled against his grip. After a short grappling match, Theodore acquiesced, falling limp into Yu’s arms. “Eheheh...Sorry again!”

"Well, that's probably good for today. But, aside from that, the only other thing I'd like to cover is critique. More importantly, critique that isn't my own. So, Captains... feel free to chime in with your own thoughts." Within moments of Clara's statement, Charlie had put on a pair of eyeglasses and a pointer, adjusting the glasses so that a small shine came off of them. "Thank you, Miss. For Peter, you made a pretty major misplay with Maiden. You targeted her with Master's effect and sent her to the GY... But she could have used her effect at that time. You would likely have not needed to resort to Chaos MAX if you had done that. In addition, the way you play is a bit too rigid. Competitive or not, it's still a game." Turning their attention to Makoto, the captain continued, "As for Makoto, you need to relax a bit. You also misplayed at the end, though not as noticeably, and I think you realized it. You have Ancient Gear Howitzer in your deck, right? Then you could have summoned it in place of Megaton Golem to use effect damage to win the game. Fewer resources used, fewer opportunities for my cards to counter it, and so on." As suddenly as the glasses and pointer had appeared, so too did they disappear, leaving Charlie smiling at the two newbies they had dueled against. "But I do have to say you both did pretty good, overall. Lots of potential between the two of you! Terry and David, you two also did great! Though, I think our boys and our girls are both fairly similar in their flaws... So Peter, David, less rigidity! Terry, Makoto, more confidence!" Charlie smiled warmly at the new recruits as they finished their critique. "Got it?"