The boys are off to GenCon, and there’s not much going on in Asia today, so here is a repost of a review I did a while ago!

Familiarity can be a comforting thing. Children drag their favorite stuffed toys everywhere. Family pets are disturbed by changes in routine. Even adults have their favorite bathrobe, mug or recliner. But familiarity isn’t always good. Take, for instance, the anime Venus versus Virus. Every element of the show has been done before, not once but multiple times in other anime series. V3 is a blend of well-worn ideas, and the result is worse than bad- it’s mediocre.

Sumire is a typical anime schoolgirl- meek, sensitive to the point of near-constant hysteria, kind, apparently orphaned etc. She has recently moved from the dorm of her Tokyo prep school to an apartment behind the antique shop where she holds a part-time job. She lives with Laura, a little girl whose sole joy in life seems to be acting as annoying as possible, and her ice queen boss Lucia (pronounced Loo-see-uh), a beautiful but cold woman with a dark and mysterious past, deeply-buried traumas etc.

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