Exploring Winter 2024: Underdogs, Magic, and Nostalgic Returns

Step into the anime arena where the clash of new worlds, unexpected heroes, and magical mishaps collide! We're serving up our hot takes on "Solo Leveling," where an underdog's journey to power grabs hold of our imaginations. But that's just the appetizer; we also unravel the charming enigma of "Seventh-time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Their Worst Enemy," celebrating its refreshing spin on the familiar trope of time loops. Prepare to be spellbound as we predict "The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic" will conjure up a storm in the isekai scene, turning the tables on traditional hero narratives.

Fasten your seatbelts for our anime rollercoaster ride, as we laugh and gasp through the adventures of "The Unwanted Undead Adventurer" and advocate for "The Strongest Tank," a sleeper hit waiting to awaken the fandom. Nostalgia buffs, rejoice! "Blue Exorcist" Season 3 and "Mashle: Magic and Muscles" Season 2 are back, and we're here to discuss why their return spells sheer excitement. Wrapping up with a heart-to-heart on our isekai pet peeves and daydreaming about our ideal otherworldly abilities, we also toss in some manga treats to sweeten the pot. So, anime aficionados and fresh-faced fans, let your curiosity lead you through this animated discussion, and who knows, you might just find your next binge-worthy obsession!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey there and welcome back to rival reviews how you guys doing. I guess first and foremost, the most important thing to say is Happy New Year and happy holidays to all those who were Celebrating the past few weeks and stuff like that. I know I was originally trying to Keep this as best scheduled as possible, so I apologize that I'm a little late with this episode, but I have a pretty full house right now, and Then there was the holidays and everything else like that. So that makes it, you know, makes it a little difficult to get the spare time you need to sit down and just Talk about what you want to talk about. So I thought for this week what would actually fit the bill pretty nicely now that it's a new year.

Speaker 1: 0:50

With a new year comes a new season. So I thought that I would give my first impressions. A lot of the not all of them, but a lot of the first episodes of a lot of things that I was Interested in watching came out, and so I thought I'd maybe give like my first thoughts. I know that, especially when it comes to new things and everything else like that, if you know there's only one episode, it's very, very much an introduction and it doesn't really give too much as to how the story will be, or, you know, by episode 12 of the season or whatever else, it will even end up being good. But I would like to take the time to obviously talk about a few that I Feel started really strongly and ones that I've obviously been looking forward to and so have, I think, a lot of people. So let's get into it. So first things first. I think I'll start with the most obvious One that everybody was probably looking forward to when it was first even announced, and that was the first episode of soul leveling Great introduction. I also really enjoyed the direction that they went, where they kind of like opened up with that Island, with the ants and everything else, to kind of give an introduction to some of the, you know, like the, the exposition, kind of how it is, like why the world the way it it, why it operates the way it does, and Everything else like that. I thought they really did a good job with that.

Speaker 1: 2:23

A lot of comments that I've been seeing online and I would tend to agree with is that they were really hoping that the first episode was going to be an hour long, which I do definitely agree with, because I feel, as if that we got a lot of the exposition and then we were finally getting into, you know, the beginning of, like, when he's gonna, you know, become the crazy OP Main character that we all know and love from the monwa, and we didn't really even, like we got the teaser of the fight to come and then it went black. So that was kind of unfortunate. I do think that it would have been beneficial to, you know, have the episode for the full hour. So you got that exposition and then we also got that final fight and then I thought that it would be a really strong Second episode of him waking up to, like, kind of his new you know form or however you want to put it. I thought that I honestly thought that that's the direction they were gonna go, not what happened, but I'm still obviously looking forward to this one for sure, because if anybody's read solo leveling yeah, you all know that we've we've been waiting forever, ever since we probably first started reading it, that we wanted it to be animated. So at least, hey, we're fine, we're finally here. So I am definitely very interested to see where that goes, coming up next to our one. That I was actually kind of surprised that I Was even gonna be really into which was a Contender for one of the most ridiculous titles of the season to Seventh-time loop.

Speaker 1: 4:07

The villainous enjoys a carefree life married to their worst enemy Though it's not an atomi, is a guy, I guess, to the traditional sense. I do find it really cool though that it's like a regression story, so kind of like how it says obviously in the title this is her seventh life. One way or another she's died in all these previous lives and in all these previous lives she comes back to the same starting point in all these lives and and comes back with the knowledge that she's gained From those previous lives. So I think, like the first one they teased that like she learned how to become like a really good merchant and then a couple of her lives she was also like a herbalist. So she knows how to like Be a doctor basically essentially in this kind of timeframe, and then even like to the previous one that was introduced in the first episode Was her as a knight. So I I'm really looking forward to the way this direction I and, and of course, like the, ended right at the end of the first episode with the. Well, it says right there obviously the vanilla, the villainous, enjoys a carefree life married to their worst enemy. Won't spoil too much as to what happens, but the end is the Proposal from this said worst enemy. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to this one. For sure, I think, and I think it really does look promising.

Speaker 1: 5:38

Next one, which was actually funny enough, one that I've actually read Not too long ago and wasn't even aware that it was getting An anime adaptation until I saw the new, until I, like, literally saw it on country roll the wrong way to use healing magic. This one is the, I would say, probably, probably gonna be the most popular isekai of the season. Most likely, you know, traditional story high school students get warped into a world, get told that they need to save the world. Only in this, in this sense, our main character actually isn't the hero. He was actually a tag long that wasn't even supposed to be Summed in the first place, but he seems to have. Apparently, in this world, healing magic is Rare, so it's discovered that he holds this rare, which is it which I found interesting that like, even and even in reading I found it too that, like, so you're not supposed to be the hero, but you have the rares of the abilities of the three of you that got sent here. So I thought that was interesting and I and like I said, at least from what I've read and I don't even think we'll get close to where I am in the manga from the 12 episodes will probably get in this season, but it is a really fun read. Again, if you're not a fan of reading, I would suggest watching this weekly because the story is fun, the characters are fun and, like I said it, I don't want to give any spoilers, but I I find that the title in itself is just enticing. Like how can you use healing magic in the wrong way? And then, once you Get to know this story and understand the meaning of the title, you're like wow, yeah, I would not have thought to use healing magic that way. So it's it's it's very appropriately titled and the payoff of finding out what the title means is worth it, so I would give it a shot.

Speaker 1: 7:41

Next one that we ended that I ended up watching was the unwanted undead adventurer. Was super surprised by this one because I didn't really hear a lot about it. I just kind of read the description that was on the Crunchyroll and went from there, and I found it very fun that it kind of I've Encompasses different elements from a couple ones that I've read, where, like it was very reminiscent, at least in me, to this monwa that I've read, or I guess I'm currently reading, called the undead ranker, and then kind of mixed it with the ever so popular so what if I'm a spider. I find that it's very reminiscent to both of those. So, essentially, kind of how it all Goes down is that, you know, he's an adventurer and he dies and he wakes up and becomes an undead and he learns that he can actually get Still rank and then still like become stronger by killing, like the, the Things in the dungeon that he died in, everything else like that, and it looks like you can progressively get stronger and even evolve into, I guess, more powerful undead creatures. So yeah, I was actually kind of surprised that this one came out and I was actually kind of weirded out at how similar it was to those two that I just mentioned. So, yeah, I would say that I'm actually kind of looking forward to that one because it's it's. It was an unexpected surprise when I opened up Crunchyroll to kind of see like, oh OK, what am I interested in this this season?

Speaker 1: 9:28

And then the final one that I want to talk about is probably definitely the winner of the most ridiculous title of the season. Here we go the strongest tanks, labyrinth raids. A tank with a rare 9, 9, 9, 9 resistance still gets kicked out. Sorry, resistance skill gets kicked out of the heroes party. Quite a mouthful. I actually really enjoy these type of stories. The whole, like you know, this one, I think, is just going to be like a kind of a mindless watch, so to speak, because it's it's one of those that's going to be very obvious as to where it goes.

Speaker 1: 10:04

Essentially the first one. You know, we open up to a fight with the heroes party and then they're in the guild and then the main hero kicks out this tank because he feels, at least, that he was doing a bad job and he was useless, because all he could do was just tank damage and he wasn't even taking damage properly. So we then learned very quickly that he was actually taking. You know, he was a tank that wasn't only taking the damage that he was tanking for the party, but was also just inherently, with his skill, taking like half of the damage, of the party's damage, that he wasn't tanking. So obviously I think this is going to go down the route that you know the heroes party is going to go in with their new party and learn very quickly that the tank wasn't so useless and obviously hilarity will ensue.

Speaker 1: 11:07

Like I said, I don't think this. You know, I don't, I don't see this anime winning any awards or anything like that, but I do think that it will be a fun read because I actually do kind of enjoy this. I don't know, I guess you can call it an archetype of the whole, like everybody think. You know, the hero thinks that he's useless party members so we kick him out and then, low and behold, discovers that he was actually not useless the entire time. You can probably see these from past other 12 season one offs that you've seen like there was that tamer one a few seasons ago. There's the red mage, one that I think is pretty popular and it all. They all kind of follow the same thing where, like the heroes like, oh, actually you know they were pretty useful and then you know they try to be like pompous and go, okay, I'll let you back in. I guess not actually, like you know, being like a I messed up, but they're fun watches. So if you're looking for something mindless to kind of just add to your queue because you feel like the queue, because I know that everybody kind of feels that in the winter that their cues are a little light, so if you feel that you maybe need a little something else to kind of adds while you're waiting for your other stuff to to load up, I would go ahead and I would. I would add it. It's a fun watch. And then the returning ones that I kind of wanted to highlight, first and foremost, probably blue exorcist. For anybody who was a fan, you know, after us having to wait six years for the second season to come out, after another six years we have now we're now finally getting season three. So I think that's a lot of people are probably excited for that.

Speaker 1: 12:55

Personally, the sequel that I'm most excited for that's coming out this season that already the first episode is out is Mashal season two. This is, as I've kind of equated to in past episodes. I'm a huge Harry Potter dork and I love anime and so if you like both of those things and you also like kind of like the comedy that came from one punch man. This is the perfect anime. It's, it's, it's hilarious. It even has like shout outs to things like Harry Potter. Like there's like I can't remember what they call it in Mashal, but like they have like a very like it's clearly supposed to be quidditch but it's not quidditch.

Speaker 1: 13:35

And for those who don't know what Mashal is, to give a very brief summary, essentially it's a guy in a magical world where pretty much everybody has magic, even if it's like the weakest magic. But he was born without any. But he's a huge, like Gym nut essentially, and so he has like like. This is why I say it's kind of like one punch man. We're like he has worked out so much to the point that he is essentially superhuman, and so the best example that I like to give is there is a scene where he has to fly a broom or whatever, and what he does is that he gets himself in the air and is kicking his leg so rapidly that he's floating. It's like that type of humor and, like I said, especially if you're a fan of Harry Potter and stuff like that, it is so funny. So I, like I said, even if you're maybe not a huge Harry Potter fan, it is still really funny, especially if you're into the whole ridiculousness like such as like the one punch man where, like you know, his workout was what was it like? A hundred push-ups, setups and 10k run for like a year, like years or something, and he became that overpowered. It's very reminiscent to that logic. So if you didn't get to watch season one, I so recommend it. It's so funny and now I'm very happy that season two is is on right now and then, of course, probably on everybody's perpetual On on everybody's watch list.

Speaker 1: 15:07

Perpetually is one piece. You know we're uh, it was just announced that we're moving Closer to the egghead arc. So if you are ahead of like, if you are ahead of the show and watching the manga, that is definitely something to be excited about. So I think I would be reminisce to not Add that to my list. So if I had to shout out a favorite so far, obviously I'm super happy about solo leveling, but I want to give it to the unda, unwanted undead soldier or adventurer I keep saying soldier. It looks super promising and, like I said, it has that feel of like. So what if I'm a spider? And then the monwa that I was talking about? And I enjoyed both of those a lot, so I would say that's most promising, and then I would follow that up with, like I said, mashal, I can't say enough good things. That is probably the thing that I will be looking forward to the most, not just out of new, like just in general. That's probably the thing that I'm gonna be working. I'm gonna be wanting the most every week.

Speaker 1: 16:12

So, as always, I also, like I said, I'm always reading something. So what I'm reading currently is it's called a tender heart. The story of how I became the dukes made a really cute story. Essentially, she gets it's. It's an it. This one is an atomy, is a guy. It's one of those Immersion ones where she fell asleep essentially to reading this novel and then woke up in it as an extra and like the Duke Basically, you know, unloved all his life, everything else like that and this is like the first person because she actually felt for this character while she was reading it and so it's kind of like a you know Duke having a feeling of actually being cared for for the first time and then her being able to take care of her Favorite novel character. It's. It's a good read, like I said, if you're looking for something to read, I would recommend it. It's fun, it's good.

Speaker 1: 17:15

Yeah, so all the questions that I got from last week, I only got two again. That's probably because you know we were on all on vacation so I'm sure everybody had a lot more things to do than Listen to podcasts and such time with families and all that, all that stuff. So first one was what is your biggest pet peeve in in Isakai? I kind of did go over it in the episode but just to kind of reiterate, the biggest pet peeve that I have in basically a lot of Isakai's is especially the ones where they get dragged like they get Summoned or whatever and then they're just thrown the responsibility of saving the world. It's always kind of been a big thing to me because personally for me you know Well one, you're being forced to do something that you didn't want to do to, you got ripped from the family.

Speaker 1: 18:09

You're like your family, your friends, the world that you know, you know a lot of these people and everything else like that are, like you know, high school students. So like you know, they, they, you know they have lives, they have friends, they have part-time jobs, parents, everything else. Like, again, obviously we have. Those stories were like you know they're. I guess life ended up better due to the fact that they were alone and everything else, which I guess is fine if you want to get that way with the majority, or these like normal, everyday High school students, and then they just get ripped out of everything they know into a world that is dangerous to the common man and is like oh, by the way, because we ripped you out of this and that obviously means that you have special powers and you have to use them to save us. By the way, I'm king such and such from country you've never heard of and Again, I'm being a picky, I'm trying to make sense out of a completely thing of fiction, but it's just the, I think it's just the the Thought process behind oh, okay, so that's just.

Speaker 1: 19:15

We're cool with this, that's cool, that's fine and, like, everybody just goes about their day and then, even if, like, the main character in question does want to say something or complains, they, they like, say their piece, and then they're like sorry, and Then everybody moves on and everybody's okay with that. So that's what I find a little silly about and I would say would probably be my biggest pet peeve If you got is a guide, what you want your powers to be whoo, that is a loaded question. Here's how my thought process works. The closest that I will ever be to being is a guide, so to speak, is I've played D&D a few times and I'm really into boulders, boulders, gate three.

Speaker 1: 20:06

Right now, I always find myself being like either driven to like a ranger type of character, like an archer, or a mage. So I think if I could do either one of those things like being overpowered archer with like, maybe like some Magic arrows or something like, maybe like kind of like think like Hawkeyes, like from the Avengers, like he had all those arrows that did different things, maybe, maybe something like that, with, like, I can make Arrows do certain things, like I can have exploding ones, fire ones, ice ones, whatever, I think that might be cool, just because that would put my the two worlds that I normally Clash together in like a D&D kind of realm of thinking and I could put them into one. So if anybody wants to write a webtoon about me, you know, make it a ridiculous title and maybe it can be like the archer with his Crazy arrow abilities I'm I don't know, I have no idea, maybe something like that. I would read the heck out of that. So I guess that's all I have for this week.

Speaker 1: 21:17

I Don't really know where I'm gonna go next week. Usually I try to give like a little teaser, but I do think that I want to start having these weekly conversations about stuff that I'm currently watching indoor reading and I'm gonna try my best to stay to a schedule as well, and then, if, if a topic raises, maybe from questions that you guys give me or Comments about things that I say, maybe I'll just go that front, like I said, because at the end of the day, that's what I want this to turn into is a conversation between me and you. So, like always, twitter, instagram, facebook, rival X reviews if you want to email me, rival X reviews at gmailcom, and I will see you guys next week. Bye, bye.