Yo TaichiEriko MatsuiNaomi OzoraKaede Yuasa
Tsugu Tsugumomo
Episode 1 also reviewed here: Anime 1st episodes 2020: T
Medium: TV, series
Year: 2020
Writer/director: Ryoichi Kuraya
Original creator: Yoshikazu Hamada
Actor: Eriko Matsui, Kaede Yuasa, Kikuko Inoue, M.A.O, Mami Uchida, Naomi Ozora, Noriko Shibasaki, Riho Sugiyama, Rumi Okubo, Sachi Kokuryu, Shiho Sasaki, Shogo Sakata, Sora Tokui, Yo Taichi, Yukitoshi Kikuchi, Yuko Ono, Yuko Sanpei, Yurika Kubo
Keywords: anime, boobs, fantasy, yokai
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Format: Season Two: 12 episodes + a zeroth OVA
Url: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=22978
Website category: Anime 2020
Review date: 18 September 2022
Tsugu momo
It's a show with a split personality. It's quite a good tale of supernatural battles, weird stuff and likeable characters. At the same time, though, it's also an adaptation of a borderline pornographic manga by an author who loves adding gratuitous fanservice wherever possible. Sometimes this involves characters who look extremely underage, but are really gods, tsukumogami and other ancient beings. The cast includes a goddess who's only interested in little girls. (The TV show massively tones down the adult content, but filth-hunters can always watch the OVA.)
I enjoyed it. I'm hoping they make a Season 3.
Plot summary: Kazuya is a nice boy with a tsukumogami obi belt that's also a girl called Kiriha. (Tsukumogami are ordinary objects that after a century acquire sentience.) Her hobbies include defeating malevolent spirits, masturbating Kazuya and protecting him. The season's first half is a bunch of one-off character stories, but the second introduces a group of sympathetic antagonists who reasons of survival want to assassinate the nicest, cutest character in the cast.
The sleaze is amusing and only a minor part of the episodes. At the same time, though, it's refreshing to see an anime go further than usual for this kind of jolly 1990s-style tease/romp. It's not just nudity. Kazuya and Kiriha have an active relationship and it's surprising to learn in ep.7 that they've never had sex (although they have to discuss technicalities before answering).
Much more importantly, the writing's quite good. Ep.3, for instance, is briefly annoying when Shirou Shiramine's being his usual boob-crazy self, but I ended up liking the episode. The Manaka-Mizushima relationship is more twisted than you'd think, while Shiramine's role is sort of admirable. Similarly, ep.5 is a platonic love story with guilt and a tsukumogami who's about to disappear from a form of despair.
Ep.6 is where the season's story arc starts, though. The antagonists' samurai-era backstory is tragic, but then three of the "baddies" soon start working with our heroes. Their goals are unchanged. They're still trying to kill. Nonetheless, they're being helpful and making friends. This is interesting. (The sleazy questions for baddie siblings in ep.7 are funny.) Eventually, though, things get bad and we learn that the show's more than willing to rack up a body count. People die. Ep.12 might look like a conventional anime battle finale, but it ends up going way beyond that.
Like I said, I'm hoping for a Season 3. I need to see the continuation.
It's a good show. It's fairly silly, but it's using that framework to tell some worthwhile character stories. I like Kiriha and Kazuya. I don't mind the dodgy bits. There's fanservice (with lots of nipples on the Blu-rays), but it's a lot better than its genre usually manages.