Sara Talks Anime

“Could you hold on a minute before you continue?”

CONTENT WARNING: This post contains mentions (and I think what could potentially classify as discussions) of sexual assault.

Video version:

Text version (AKA just the review picked apart from the more fun stuff in the video, with some original writing):

Initially, I had a whole section to serve as an intro before I went to describing the plot and what not. However, due to that section containing interactions between two fictional characters (meanwhile this blog focuses more on just me), I figured it would be better to cut that section out and instead write something new. This version is going to be cut down word count wise compared to the video, just so that you guys ONLY get the important stuff for the writeup. In future writeups where I utilize my silly little characters in videos, the lore will be disconnected from the Preliminary Opinions, to some extent.

Anyway, I will repeat, content warning for sexual assault, due to that being a plot point in Episode 1 that gets mentioned. Yet again, if that makes you uncomfortable, get off of this post.

There’s this girl who believes in spirits but doesn’t believe in aliens and a boy who believes in aliens but doesn’t believe in spirits. They go to areas considered hot spots for those they don’t believe in to prove the other wrong…and it backfires horribly because, as it turns out, both are real. The boy loses his balls, which as a result causes him to get cursed by the spirit that was chasing him, causing it to…use him as a vessel or something? It’d probably be better explained in the manga.

The girl, meanwhile, almost has to unconsensually have sex (without mind control factored in) because some random-ass aliens that look too similar wanted any female to breed with. But since there’s attempts to mind control (if I’m remembering Episode 1 correctly) Ayase, I’m pretty sure that if it were tagged on AO3, it would get tagged as “dubcon” if it was successful.

The girl, however, awakens her psychic powers and, after doing some sick-as-hell stuff, manages to get out. Somewhere along the line, the boy enters the picture; and during that, the girl, Ayase, discovers that she can hold the boy’s curse back with her powers. Ayase also really likes an actor dude named Ken Takakura…but when she finds out the boy she helped has the same name, she decides to call him “Okarun” because, god forbid some random boy has the same name as your favorite actor.

Right now, the plot is focused on developing the two protagonists as they work to get whatever Okarun lost back. The third episode ends with Ayase and Okarun preparing to challenge the spirit that stole Okarun’s balls.

Science SARU provides animation for the show and the animation fits perfectly with the series’ pacing and is also super smooth. It’s just the kind of animation I’d expect from a Shonen anime. The opening theme for the show is Otonoke by Creepy Nuts, and even though the enjoyment of the song wasn’t the highest for my mother, I love this song.

As for the ending theme, TAIDADA by ZUTOMAYO, while it’s a catchy song that I’ve been looking forward to every week so far, my biggest gripe is that there was an (at the time) unintroduced beckoning cat character (as of May 11th, 2025, when I did these rewrites, I now know who it is) that I didn’t really feel any reason to care about that character aside from what I saw in the ending, and that made me confused. But I enjoy the visuals of the ending!

Just based on the first three episodes, I’d say that it gets the Sara Talks Anime! seal of approval. Does it get it based on the entire first season? …I’m not telling you that, this is the Preliminary Opinion post!

The series streams on Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu in North America, with episodes made available to free users on Crunchyroll a week after they’re available to premium users. Obligatory reminder to research where it streams where you live!