May 2022 Patron Newsletter and Staff Picks

Summer is upon us, AniFam! And we're celebrating with a brand new merch lineup: check out our store for water bottles, flip-flops, crop tops, and more! Big thanks to Dee for putting this range together with our cool new logo. 

Now, on to the recs!

May Recommendations

Blood Blockade Battlefront

Format: Anime (sub/dub)

Picked by: Caitlin

What’s it about? Leonardo Watch was just trying to survive life in Hellsalem’s Lot, which was known as New York City until the barrier between the Alterworld and ours broke down, leading to a city full of demons and monsters and all the mayhem and death they bring with them. A case of mistaken identity leads to him getting recruited by Libra, a shadowy organization dedicated to keeping the balance between worlds intact, because he possesses the All-Seeing Eyes of God, which give him a variety of vision-related superpowers.

Content considerations: Body horror, depersonalization, demonic imagery, lots and lots of murder and blood

Why we like it: A huge part of what made the first season of Blood Blockade Battlefront came from director Matsumoto Rie’s creative voice. She takes already-solid source material, adds an overarching plot, and imbues it with an incredible, wild energy that really brings Hellsalem’s Lot and the colorful members of Libra to life. Leonardo is a solid everyman protagonist to begin with, and the addition of the characters Black and White, not to mention his sweet romance with the latter, builds onto the existing material into an excellent character arc.

Unfortunately, the second season, Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond, changed creative teams and became a more faithful, and more pedestrian, adaptation of the manga. However, it being more of an ensemble show instead of focusing on Leonardo as a protagonist, means more time spent developing the female members of Libra, particularly Chain and KK. Chain may look snazzy in a suit, but outside of Libra, she’s a total trash goblin; and while KK’s arc is a fairly typical “working mom trying to balance job and family” story, strong writing makes it work.

The two seasons of Blood Blockade Battlefront are both very different beasts, with their own strengths and weaknesses. I just hope someday they’ll let Matsumoto direct a full series again.

Kiyo in Kyoto: From the Maiko House

Format: Anime (sub only)

Picked by: Dee

What's it about? Follow the day-to-day lives of Kiyo and Sumire at a maiko (apprentice geisha) house in Kyoto, where Kiyo works as a live-in cook and Sumire as an up-and-coming maiko.

Why we like it: Seems like I'm often using these monthly posts as a way to promote comfy series with minimal caveats and, welp, here we are again with a food edutainment anime. Bask in a lovely watercolor version of Kyoto as Kiyo and her friends teach you tasty recipes, culinary history, and geisha trivia in between snippets of their personal and professional lives.

The pace is so relaxed that I occasionally found myself dozing off, though I don't mean that as a negative. Fortunately, each episode is divided into three segments, so you can treat it as a 12-episode full-length show or a 36-episode short depending on how much comfort food you want in one sitting. It's not a riveting series, but it's bright and warm, the cast are all distinct and likable, and you really will learn a lot of fun facts along the way. If you're looking for a new before-bed comedown, Kiyo in Kyoto could be the perfect fit.