If you custom-designed an anime to appeal directly to my comic sensibilities, you’d have a hard time doing better than Hoozuki no Reitetsu.

At this point, I’ve come to accept that my level of affection for Hoozuki no Reitetsu is not going to correlate with most viewers (though it was certainly gratifying – and shocking – to see the first season succeed wildly on disc).  This show is basically a perfect anime comedy – for me.  Nothing in entertainment is more personal than humor, and my sense of humor matches up perfectly with Hoozuki no Reitetsu’s.  The highbrow-lowbrow barn dance, the cultural references, the goofy voices, the sight gags – it basically all works for me.  How a show like that happened to end up being a monster commercial hit is one of those things I’ll never begin to understand.

• Working in a Japanese office part-time and Hell part-time – isn’t that redundant?
• Any appearance from the Miki-Maki pair is welcome – they’ve been a bit underused this season.
• Did anyone notice what brand of notebook the CEO was using?
• All in tall, that first chapter was quite creepy I thought – about as close to straight-up horror as this show ever gets (where the goldfish aren’t involved, anyway).
• I actually like Hoozuki-sama with that haircut.
• That whole bit with Nasubi and Karauri and the hair salon conversation was absolute comic gold for me.
• I wish I had a few more of those opportunities created for me too, Karauri…
• If you want to choose one line which epitomizes everything Hoozuki no Reitetsu is about – its brilliance in distilled form – you’d be hard-pressed to do better than “Frankly, when you have a God for literally everything, most of them will have a lot of free time.”
• All of those “opportunities” being anime tropes was hilarious.  As was Enma-sama being a determined Hoozuki-Maki shipper (I am, too) but sadly for Enma, I don’t think even if you get get Hoozuki to look twice at a woman (good luck with that) it would mellow him out.
• “You don’t work, but you have daughters?  Who are you – Black Jack?”
• Lastly, that preview – such wonderful voiceover work there, especially from Aoyama Touko as Nasubi (a role in which she’s generally superb).