Aiue Oka is actually a duo of writers known for their ongoing “Bullied” and “Hypnotic Sexual Counseling” series. This duo has been active since around 2010 and debuted in Comic X-Eros #32. Their debut series “Girlfriend Next Door” gained fan support thanks to its scenes of a sweet buxom woman becoming a porn actress by accident. Bullied is a series of manga revolving around Tasaki, a young man who was caught masturbating in the girl's locker room. He began to be bullied by the three women who caught him, but with the power of hypnosis turns them all into whores who want nothing more than to ride his cock. Each girl has a variety of scenes where they “force” him to have sex. They proudly take his virginity and force him to creampie them. This series even features a final act where Tasaki manages to get all three girls pregnant. Hypnotic Sexual Counseling features an ugly bastard who becomes the sex counselor. This counselor is hands-on with his clients and visits a couple in their home to guide them through having intercourse. Best of all, he gets to take the girl's virginity while her boyfriend watches. Before long, he’s given his client special lessons on how to properly ride a cock.

Nagashima Chousuke has only written one manga series so far. By that, we mean Nagashima found an excellent concept and has written well over a dozen chapters using it. The popular book series is called “The Otaku in 10,000 B.C.” As the name suggests, it’s a strange twist on the isekai genre where the main character is transported back in time to spread his seed. Ota-kun brings his modern-day sex knowledge to prehistoric times. In his very first encounter with a cavewoman, he begins sucking her breasts and puts her in missionary position. Until he arrived, though, there was no boob play, and the world only had sex doggy style. The women tremble from the sexual techniques Oda brings to the past, and together they pave the way for modern-day pleasure. If you like lactation, then this hentai is perfect for you. The breast of the cave women are wonderfully drawn, and all of them squirt milk at the touch of Oda’s fingers. In a later chapter, he even introduces threesomes into the world during the prehistoric villages mating festival.

Not much is known about the artist behind Meme50, but they have brought us many wonderful chapters. Meme50 is known for doing completely original works along with producing some visually stunning doujinshi books based around Fate/Grand Order. Some of the most popular manga from Meme50 are contained in a book called “Limit Break.” In Limit Break, you will find tons of stories of sexy women giving in to their carnal desires. Change My Life is the first chapter of the book. In this chapter, Ari-chan is a nerdy girl who has decided to go out in a revealing outfit to talk to boys. Ari soon finds herself being undressed in the middle of a club and a man playing with her nipples. It’s not long before she starts sucking on his dick before letting him penetrate her in public. Corruption of Morals is another Strong choice thanks to its cast of characters. The ladies of the disciplinary committee can’t let on of their male students start dating. To get him to break-up with his new girlfriend, they proclaim that they will feel his sexual desires. Before long, the protagonist finds himself in a threesome with his cock being teased. These girls are even happy to receive a facial before spreading their pussy lips for his dick.

Komume Keito is responsible for the popular hentai series “The Pollinic Girls Attack!” (Kafun Shoujo) This artist has quite a few great stories under his belt and is just going to keep publishing more great series. Two of his standout manga are “Side Snack” and “School Raid.” In School Raid, a young man goes in to fight a boss who is making all the girls around him horny. In the gym, he finds a beautiful angel who flys over to him, asking to be warmed up. The angel takes the protagonist dick in while the surrounding girls continue to lick the base of his shaft. Before long, she is riding him in every position imaginable to suck out every bit of his cum. The art in Naughty Princess is just fantastic from the very first scene; you're going to love the poses the girls are put in. Naughty Princess opens with three beautiful women sharing one man's dick between their mouths after the princess refused to let him finish inside her. It then moves on to show scenes of the princess having her nipples sucked and fingers being inserted into her vagina. Before long, she’s being rammed from behind while making out with another girl.

Nanase Mizuho is another hentai artist who loves to draw doujinshi. She’s begin around since 2009, but only recently has gained popularity worldwide. She has made parodies of the “Sword Art Online” series and “Granblue Fantasy.” One of her newest works that has quickly grown in popularity is “My Bride is a Demon Lord!?” My Bride is a Demon Lord as it turns out the demon lord and the hero have to have sex to quail her rage. The only way to do this is by using the hero’s sword, which of course, is his penis. After the Demon Lord transfers to the hero’s class she chases him out of the room and they end up in the nurses office. She immediately pounces him and begins slurping on his dick. To entice him further she puts his penis between her pussy lips while giving him a handjob. After he cums, the hero really gets in the mood, he puts the demon lord on her back and begins to pound into her until he cums. Before long the pair find themselves having sex everywhere and even have intercourse in the gym bathroom.

Z-Ton is a favorite on the paid hentai service Fakku. He has had books in both English and Japanese published. Z-Ton became active in 2011 and now has many great hentai that are loved by many. Some of his more exciting work revolves around monster girls. Both the manga “Sheep Shave Slave” and “Milking Academy” Show Z-Tons skills as an artist. In Sheep Shave Slave, a young sheep girl is requested to be shaved down. Happy to help, she agrees, the protagonist whips out a razor blade and goes right to work. He makes sure to lather her tits down with a unique creme. He then starts lustfully shaving the wool away from her pussy before realizing she’s wet. Upon this discovery, he takes out his dick and plunges it deep into her pussy. In Milking Academy, a cow girl rolls in a school of the same name. It’s here she is learned to have her nipples milked by farmers. The manga starts by one of her classmates, helping stimulate her boobs. Before long, the farmers show up, and the cow girls are ready to have there milked sucked out. As it turns out, being milked also makes them extremely horny, and they begin to hold up their tales beckoning the farmers to fill their vacant vaginas.

Hisasi starter out in 2015 and has made his way into the hearts of hentai lovers around the world. So far, Hisasi has even has two english hentai books psychically published in the States. His book “Porno Switch” has just about everything a hentai lover could want all in one. Two standout chapters from this book are “Exploit Me My Dear Tyrant” and “Reoccurring Woman.” Exploit Me My Dear Tyrant revolves around the protagonist and his neighbor Miki. The chapter starts with Miki lecturing and then kicking the protagonist in the balls for being late. She then climbs on top of his bed after exposing his penis. She begins to firmly grasp his cock in between her feet, stroking it violently. As a reward for cumming, she licks his cock clean before proceeding to insert it into her pussy. She rides him while he grabs onto her large breast until they both cum. In Reoccurring Woman, we get a taste of glamour when Seiji meets up with the protagonist at her sister's wedding. The well-dressed girl pulls the protagonist away from the rest of the guests and gives him a blowjob. Later that night, the pair meet-up in a hotel room to Reiko starts to tease the protagonist for having a crush on his sister. Annoyed, he shoves her over on the bed and thrusts his cock into her pussy. Before long, Reiko takes back control and gets on top, forcing him to cum inside her.

Maru Marui started working with hentai in 2008. Maru’s first published work was in “ Girls forM: Vol.01.” Almost all of the works Maru has made revolve around gals. Two manga that especially stands out are “Double Wife Sand❤” and “Let's Kiss With The Lower ♥ Mouth.” In Double Wife Sand ❤, the protagonist Saitou gets ganged up on by two females who want to both be his wife. The girls work together to tie him up and then begin to give Saitou a double handjob. They even share his cock in between their tits while they lick it. The girls put his dick in between their plump butts and begin to rub up and down. Before he cums, though, one of the girls makes sure to put his cock inside so she can take in his sperm. Afterward, they take turns riding him until he cums. Let's Kiss With The Lower ♥ Mouth starts with the premise that a disease made skirts disappear from the world. Now all women walk around with their panties showing. In the first few pages, the protagonist goes to work on the curvy girls, even satisfying three at once. The rest of the chapters are loaded with tons of fetishes like gym shorts and tights.

Even though she hasn’t shown up in the anime yet, Jolyne and other manga-only characters have had a huge presence in video games like All-Star Battle and Eyes of Heaven. It’s rare for a game voice actor to follow their character into the anime, but it has happened for the likes of Daisuke Ono as Jotaro and Wataru Takagi as Okuyasu. Miyuki Sawashiro’s dry wit and casual toughness as Jolyne have endeared her to the fans, and she plays well off of Jotaro in their cutscenes together. We’d love to see her reprise the role, although she may have to change her last name to Ono to keep up the pattern that the last three JoJo voice actors have laid down!

Dio’s first son Giorno got a part all to himself, an amazing design, and a personality that wove together both Jonathan’s sense of justice and Dio’s ruthlessness. By comparison, his younger half-brothers in Stone Ocean definitely get the short end of the stick. Ungalo, Rikiel, and Donatello Versus are wayward souls who grew up unloved by their families and bewildered by their powerful Stands, without the positive influence of a mysterious Mafioso savior like Giorno had. That’s an interesting concept, but unfortunately, it isn’t explored very deeply and the brothers only end up serving as minor villains on the way to main antagonist Pucci. If DavidPro expands these characters’ roles and backstories like they did with La Squadra in part 5, Dio’s sons may finally get their chance to shine.

Ungalo’s Stand Bohemian Rhapsody is one of the strangest in the whole series—it brings drawings of fictional characters to life as sentient paper dolls. Anyone who sees a character that they like has their soul sucked into that character’s original story and is forced to live out the events of the narrative. The Stand has an infinite range, so it causes worldwide panic when Ungalo activates it. We’ve seen that DavidPro can pull off surreal humor with part 5’s torture dance, so we can’t wait to find out how they portray Bohemian Rhapsody. Will they include more famous characters from fiction? Will the art style change out of nowhere? How will the paper dolls move and sound? We need to know!

Main-protagonist musical themes like Joseph’s “Overdrive” and Giorno’s “Il Vento D’Oro” have become irreplaceable aspects of the JoJo mythos. And Jotaro’s theme, “Stardust Crusaders”, has cemented itself as the iconic soundtrack for villains getting a much-deserved beatdown via a flurry of punches. So we’d love to hear that funky bass riff and saxophone as part of Jolyne’s theme when she unleashes the pain on her own adversaries. It could just be a simple easter egg, like in Josuke’s theme or a full-blown remix, but this is just too perfect an opportunity to waste!

The opening songs for parts 1-3 were animated in stunningly stylized 3D CGI by Kamikaze Douga, a studio known for their work on Fire Emblem: Awakening’s cutscenes and the glorious fever dream that is Pop Team Epic. Unlike most CG in anime, these openings were bursting with personality and played to the strengths of computerized effects to portray JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure as the larger-than-life roller coaster that it truly is. Part 6 is the end of the timeline that started with Jonathan Joestar, and so Jolyne is his last descendant. Wouldn’t it be amazing if Kamikaze Douga came back one last time? They could even start with a reverse version of Phantom Blood’s opening—instead of manga panels going backward through the lineage from Jolyne to Jonathan, it could go forward in time and end by introducing Jolyne!

Yuri and Kei are excited to party the night away on Halloween, but their hopes are dashed when the 3WA sends them on a mission to dispatch a rogue robot that’s terrorizing the town. The Terminator-style robot blends into the crowd of costumed partygoers, making it especially difficult for the Lovely Angels to track it down as it sprints through several other crime scenes that the girls blithely ignore in pursuit of their prize. They finally manage to put a stop to its rampage by using the town’s Halloween fireworks as flashy weapons to blast it into tiny pieces. The crowd is delighted by the display, the robot is left as little more than a head, and Yuri and Kei share a drink to celebrate a job well done. Cheers to Halloween night!

Dirty Pair’s version of Halloween seemed more like the 4th of July or New Year’s, but Keroro Gunsou opts for a traditional Japanese matsuri approach to the holiday. Everyone attends the town’s Halloween festival and gets into the spirit of things (the Keroro Platoon wears human disguises to cosplay as monsters, Mutsumi draws little spooky characters that come to life and fly around, the yandere Momoka dons an oddly appropriate half-angel half-devil costume, etc.), but their peaceful night is interrupted when a mysterious girl named Alisa starts attacking the aliens with a shapeshifting cat ear headband. How can the team possibly defeat this strange new threat?

America and England have been pranking each other on Halloween since time immemorial, but England has always won. Remembering how terrifying Japanese horror movies can be, America busts into Japan’s house while the country is trying to take a relaxing bath and shanghaied him into helping with this year’s prank. England shows up with a jolly old fairy to scare America, but ends up spooked himself when Japan and England decide to use the unsettlingly friendly (but secretly dangerous) Russia as a “receptionist” to send their competition fleeing as soon as he opens the door. Now that’s some clever thinking!

True to her lazy personality, Umaru gets into the Halloween spirit several weeks early and dresses up in a “monster” costume (really just a wolf kigurumi) so she can demand that Taihei make pumpkin treats for her and Kirie. Her older brother prepares quite the feast: pumpkin gratin served in the gourd, pumpkin pizza, pumpkin sauté, omurice, soup, and of course a pumpkin pie! Everything is actually made with a smaller green pumpkin variety called kabocha that serves as Japan’s closest substitute to the American orange pumpkin, but Umaru and Kirie don’t mind. They feel like they’ve been transported to a foreign country!

Soul Eater already incorporates Halloween imagery like witches and zombies into its world of teenage demon hunters, so it’s only natural that the holiday itself would be a momentous occasion at DWMA. In preparation for the Halloween festivities, Tsugumi makes adorable little jack-o-lanterns of her friends and shows them off in her dorm room. The sheltered and serious Anya, on the other hand, makes a terrifying jack-o-lantern with a sewn-together mouth and deep-set eyes because she heard that Halloween is supposed to be scary. This cute little moment is cut short when Tsugumi receives a letter that her beloved pet dog is on death’s door, which leads to a series of very somber scenes mixed in with Halloween merriment. The tonal consistency of this show could use some work, but at least we got some precious jack-o-lanterns out of it!

Halloween spirit is in full force in both Heaven and Hell this year, with the lecherous pharmacist Hakutaku enjoying the abundance of cute girls in revealing costumes. Hoozuki, however, forbids any kind of Halloween celebration unless it’s carried out in the traditional Celtic manner with turnip lanterns and a stronger emphasis on demons. This is one of very few anime that chooses to explore the British version of the holiday, if only because Hoozuki thinks that it resembles Obon and thus ties in more closely with Japanese Hell. Hoozuki and the Zashiki twins hatch a plan to recreate the Parade of a Hundred Demons, but it’s doubtful that it would actually be successful...

Continuing on with the theme of Japanese people not really understanding Halloween, this parody spinoff of the Haruhi series shows what happens when the SOS Brigade attempts to celebrate the holiday in their clubroom. With only a single flyer depicting bats and a pumpkin-headed ghost to draw inspiration from, Haruhi cobbles together a monster of her own design. It’s a medical dummy stolen from the science classroom, dressed in a cloak and a carved-out pumpkin, with live bats tied to it with strings and a seaweed snack taped to its chest. Haruhi calls her project “enshrining the original god”.

New York gang leader Ash is in a very bad place emotionally after being forced to commit atrocities just to ensure the safety of his friends and family. Luckily, his closest friend and personal cheerleader Eiji has just the thing to make Ash smile again. He finds it adorable that Ash is creeped out by pumpkins, so he arranges a small Halloween party with the other gang members to prank his friend and force him to spend some peaceful time with them instead of being consumed by grief. Ash wears a genuine smile for the entire evening, deeply touched by Eiji’s gesture of kindness toward someone as broken as himself.

This special movie for Go! Princess Precure, which is split into three mini features, is overflowing with Halloween magic. One segment shows a chibi version of Cure Flora playing with a magic mirror, while the other two tell the story of a pumpkin kingdom that has lost its princess to the evil Night Pumpkin. With the help of their new friend Refi, who has an enigmatic connection to the princess, the Precure girls save Princess Pumplulu from her prison and gain spectacular fall-themed dresses along the way. This movie is just silly, fluffy fun, but it’s so well done that you can’t help but smile.

And going in the complete opposite direction, we have the gritty tale of Blood: The Last Vampire. Set in an American military base in Tokyo on the eve of the Vietnam War, the movie follows a stoic vampire girl named Saya who hunts bat-like monsters named chiropterans at the behest of a secret government agency. On Halloween night, a group of chiropterans descends upon the nearby high school and Saya is tasked with eliminating them before they can suck the blood of the innocent students. Besides being a legitimately great horror movie, Blood: The Last Vampire is also a pioneer in technology and presentation. It’s the first anime to blend 2D and 3D animation techniques, uses a unique mix of Japanese and English dialogue depending on which characters are speaking, and it launched an entire Blood franchise that follows Saya’s adventures in alternate universes. Be sure to experience this classic for yourself!

Now Hyouka’s Halloween special is during a school festival and only has a small focus on Halloween to be honest. In fact, most of the episode is based around a cooking competition. However, you do get quite a few nice snapshots of some awesome costume choices, such as one who takes on Miku Hatsune. Nonetheless, the episode hits its high point when two girls from the confectionary intrude upon the Classic’s Club room. They’re dressed up with massive pumpkins covering their faces and they repeat trick or treat followed by a ‘yay!’. The scene is just somewhat off putting, but more than anything, ridiculous.

There are a few awesome episodes in the Daily Lives of High School Boys where the rivalry between the sexes devolves into a pretty glorious battle. In episode 4, the battle is centered upon whether or not the boys’ haunted house will be able to make the girls scream. This is quite epic for several reasons. First off, battles of the sexes always make for awesome scenes. Secondly, the boys have a surprisingly terrifying house set up. To be honest, the style and graphic nature of the horrors they throw forth is extremely unexpected, considering the humorous nature of the show. Finally, the fact that Ringo, the president of the girl’s school, ends up wrecking the boy’s president, because she walks in on him changing, is perfect.

When you want to see Halloween done right, you need to watch this episode of Gintama. Gintama correctly captures two things about Halloween. The first is that costumes matter. This is something most shows capture as their characters don some type of outfit. However, Gintama does it better than most as each of its characters take on the get-ups of well-known horror stars. Gintoki takes on Jason and Kagura takes on Chuckie and Shinpachi, well Shinpachi didn’t get the memo and dressed up as a generic Yakuza member. However, when they’re forced to take on different costumes, the creators properly show off the last-minute ditch effort that people generally go through. The shows overall nonchalance about the holiday outside of dressing up is essentially what Halloween is for anyone too old to go trick or treating.

Orenchi no Furo Jijou is one of those series that can basically take on any subject with ease and humor due to its styling and short nature. Well, on episode 5 they decided to take on Halloween and they captured the biggest part of it for anyone growing up. The candy. Yep, in this episode, it’s clear that the trio is really only interested in getting candy. However there were two standout moments that are fighting for top scene in this episode. The first is from the get go when Tatsumi asks Wakasa “why are you dressed like a woman?” Now there’s nothing wrong with dressing like a woman in the first place, but Wakasa’s response of “It’s the sad destiny of a blond” is pure gold. Then a little later on, when Tatsumi carves a jack-o-lantern, Takasu becomes the star of the show. He takes the pumpkin and shoves it on his head and begins to experience amounts of pleasure that feel inappropriate to describe.

When you imagine Sunako, what do you imagine her favorite holiday to be? Christmas? Valentines’s Day? Come on, we all know her favorite must be Halloween and this episode makes that fact rather clear. Sadly, the only reason why this episode isn’t higher on this list is because only the beginning and end really focus on Halloween. Outside of those moments, it’s the crew just trying to figure out why Sunako is so sad. However, few events are as awesome as the beginning scene in any anime. What do we have? We have Sunako running with Jason and his lovely chainsaw, her skeleton Josephine, and the two anatomy figures. Her happiness and the creepiness of the entire scene are quite extraordinary.

It’s somewhat surprising that other shows that have a similarly high episode count don’t have a Halloween special. Shows like Naruto and One Piece both fall short in this department, but thankfully Bleach took the time to give us Halloween lovers a special treat. Episode 304 starts off with Ichigo waking up as Frankenstein’s monster and being convinced that he must be in a dream. Then Rukia pops up as a succubus and takes him to a castle, where a good chunk of the gang resides. Well, not too surprisingly is the fact that all of them have been monsterfied in some way. Hitsuguya’s a wolf, Uryu’s a vampire, Rangiku is a witch, Orihime’s a pumpkin ghost, and it’s all quite ridiculous to be honest. However, there are two particular moments that stand out, and they’re pretty close to one another. One is that Uryu refuses to drink blood and so is an anemic vampire and the other is that Rukia has an overt desire to seduce her older brother. Overall, the episode is ridiculous but good for a laugh or two.

Thought not actually terrifying, this Halloween episode captures just about every aspect there is to the holiday. It captures scaring people, epic costumes, as well as lots of candy. One of the main things going for this episode, is simply the overload of Halloween-related items they’re able to fit within each scene. It’s honestly pretty amazing. Admittedly, there are a lot of great scenes to choose from this episode, because the girls are constantly trying to scare one another and there’s even a point where Laala takes a selfie with bat balloons that’s just too much to handle. However, the actual performance part of the episode takes the cake as their outfit transformations are just spot on. The little touches, like bat wings, a witch’s hat, and neko pumpkins, are just amazing.

True to its nature, Doraemon’s Halloween special is actually quite educational. From the get go they discuss how it’s a festival to celebrate the autumn harvest as well as the meaning behind the words ‘trick or treat’. Thankfully, they cover that within the first minute, and from there on they have Goda take the idea of trick or treat too far. Admittedly, Nobi didn’t do a very good job of explaining what Halloween is actually about, but Goda shouldn’t really go about coercing people into giving him free things. Though there are a lot of great moments in this episode, such as Nobi dressing up as a knight by means of newspapers, none are as awesome as the full-on battle that ensues by the end of the episode. Goda, acting as the famous thief Goemon, summons an army of the undead that the crew has to defeat.

Scream challenges and tests of courage have a pretty big role in Halloween. Class 1-A takes on this tradition by splitting up into teams and seeing which team can scare the other better. Enticing each team is the fact that the losers will be featured in the school newsletter with the headline “The Captains of All Cowards.” The whole episode has some pretty epic moments. There’s Honey jumping out with a massive pumpkin on his head, Tamaki seducing girls as a vampire, and the episode finishes up with Nekozawa scaring the entirety of Class 1-A with a shadow of Beelzenef. However, the shining moment of the episode is when Haruhi and Hikaru get caught up in a net and have a rather intimate, if not awkward, moment. It was one of those moments that really gave shippers of the two something to enjoy.

With Shinichiro Watanabe’s love for references within his work, especially ones directed at Western culture, it’s no surprise that a few scenes within this movie (which takes place in late October) have nice little shout outs to Halloween. Though the entirety of the movie isn’t dedicated to the holiday by any means, it still earns nostalgia points every so often with a well-placed pumpkin. In the very first scene, with the robbery, there’s actually a pumpkin balloon in the store. Little touches like that help create an overall nostalgic tone to the movie, which works on multiple levels, considering how the movie in many ways feels like we’re receiving a flashback of the Bebop crew when it was still fully together. Nonetheless, the hat must be tipped to the scene where Ed decides to pretend to be a trick or treater by shoving a pumpkin over her head. Sadly, it’s the day before Halloween so the first person comes out with a shotgun. The second person believes Ed is giving a little more suggestive ring.

In the second half, American viewers can obviously come to the conclusion that a lot of scenes portrayed take influence from ICE’s raids on immigrants who are allegedly in the country illegally. In this series, alleged undocumented migrants are being detained in detention centers, and one of them is Ezekiel, a notable hip hop artist who happens to be a childhood friend of Carole. While imprisoned, he manages to convince the guards to shoot a video of him in a cell, and what we’re saying here more or less explains it all. It’s probably even more powerful than the prison version of Michael Jackson’s They Don’t Really Care About Us. He makes a music video from prison about the system and it’s the ultimate political statement anyone can make through art that you have to see for yourself.

When Carole & Tuesday competed on Mars’ Brightest, Carole publicly shared that she was a refugee from Earth and wanted to reunite with her family. Shortly after her appearance, lots of people were coming forward claiming to be her family hoping they could mooch off of her, but knowing their game, Carole brushed them off. At the laundromat she frequents, she meets a man named Dan, who defended her from these false claimers. Due to how he acknowledged Carole as just a regular young lady, they were able to form a friendship. Eventually, Dan shares his background with Carole and before he can go back to Earth, Carole is able to come to her own conclusions that he’s her father and share a genuine father and daughter moment.

As it turns out, the tradition of the Grammy’s has continued onto Mars and Carole & Tuesday get a chance to perform on the biggest stage with one of Mars’ hottest singers, Crystal! Their song, After the Fire, is another politically driven song in response to Tuesday’s mother’s destructive rhetoric. However, even if things are destroyed, we can learn that we can rebuild and move forward. Granted it has a lot of dark settings, ultimately, it’s an uplifting song about hope and that in the end, everything’s going to be alright once all the bad things pass.

The last episode of Carole & Tuesday can pretty much be the anime equivalent to We Are The World. In order to reach out to Tuesday’s mother, Carole & Tuesday decide to make a New Year’s concert by gathering all of Mars’ greatest musicians to make a song about love. Granted Valerie isn’t the president, anti-immigration policies are still enacted by the incumbent Hamilton administration as they even try to put a stop to the concert! But thanks to the efforts of Gus and concert hall security, Mars’ finest can make the greatest performance in Mars’ history. The song Mother perfectly sums up the themes of this second half of we should do away with prejudice, learn to be accepting of one another, and that a mother should be an example of how we should conduct ourselves.

At number one, we have to give it to the backstory of Flora, an old friend of Gus who happens to be one of Mars’ hottest 20 years prior to the series. While she’s past her prime by the time she’s introduced in the series, many young artists, most notably Carole, still look up to her and say they wouldn’t have gotten into music if it wasn’t for her. What makes Flora very unique is that the background story almost parallels that of Whitney Houston’s. Her singing style, the fact that she performed at the equivalent to a Super Bowl and her unfortunate fall will instantly make you think of their similarities. What makes this scene powerful is that it reminds us that even with all the fame, it doesn’t mean you have everything if you don’t genuinely have love in your life, and that’s what Flora seems to have ultimately lost when you see at her at her lowest. But thanks to Carole & Tuesday showing that people still love her, she finds the courage to keep on living.

It seemed too easy right? Kinro with his “glasses” now seemed destined to win against Magma. Yet, Kinro--being the extremely honest and rule abiding man he is--asked the referee if using said mask went against the rules. Of course, Kinro would have been granted a pass seeing as how the mask didn’t directly hit anyone but Magma attacks our sure win warrior causing the team of science to lose the first round. Things don’t improve when Kohaku loses by default to Senku thanks to her trying to find our young mask wearing girl and thus the odds seem against team science. Magma ends up going against Chrome and obviously as strong as Chrome has become, he’s still no match for the clearly tougher Magma. However, Chrome has shown he’s like Senku, clever and always able to adapt. Using the broken mask and it’s lens, Chrome attempts to set Magma’s clothes on fire. Senku frets due to the various limitations of time and the ability to capture light on the lens but help arrives from an unlikely source, Gen! With some manipulation and playing with the rules, team science is able to buy Chrome time to indeed set Magma’s clothes ablaze and knock him off the edge when he begins to panic. Team science has won and now the tournament will be a battle between friends for bragging rights! Yet, who will ultimately win this tournament and marry Ruri!? We can’t wait to find out and it should be pretty exciting to see in next week’s episode!

Gran and his crew are continuing their adventures across the vast skies, heading to a small island to discover the cause of a strange noise that has been disturbing the villagers. They meet a martial artist named Aliza, and together discover that the Erste Empire has been torturing the primal beast of the island. Gran’s crew subdues the creature, and are on their way to the next island when the Erste Empire stops them to offer a peace treaty of sorts… I am honestly so excited for more of Granblue Fantasy The Animation! Though the new animation style is a little jarring when compared to last season’s, it seems to be just as beautiful in every element that matters, and it was about time that the Black Knight got some CG work, since the design is so difficult to animate. This episode was more like a filler adventure to introduce Aliza and get us back into the setting. As such, the overall plot and battle against the primal beast were pretty straightforward this time around. While this was a little disappointing to start off the season, it was nice to have the small introduction for Aliza, since she might not be back. Both the new intro and the last few scenes of this episode promises a lot more for the plot this season, and we might even find out who the Black Knight is!

So far, Askeladd has presented himself as a capable leader, but one who’s arrogant and greedy at heart. But he does seem to be hiding something, since his right-hand man, Bjorn, only knows the barest details about his life even after serving him for decades. While negotiating with the Welsh army, Askeladd reveals that he’s of mixed Danish and Welsh blood – from his mother’s side, he’s a descendant of the great Brittanian commander Artorius, upon whom Arthurian legend is based. He fights for the Danes out of convenience, but his real goal is to secure a position in the Danish government to protect Wales’ future. Or so he says, anyway. With this new nugget of information uncovered, who knows what Askeladd could really be plotting? Meanwhile, Thorfinn taunts Prince Canute for acting like a sniveling coward when just a few words from his royal mouth could’ve saved the army tons of trouble with negotiation. To the dumbfounded shock of everyone present, the previously silent Canute retorts back that he refuses to speak out of caution rather than cowardice and that Thorfinn would never understand how hard it is being a part of the dog-eat-dog world of the royal family. Now that we know that Askeladd has ulterior motives and that Prince Canute isn’t just a shy little wimp, things are getting much more interesting! What could possibly happen next?

Thanks to his deadbeat parents, Iruma Suzuki has been forced to work his whole life in order to support himself. One day while working on a fishing boat, Iruma finds out he has been sold to a demon named Sullivan, who wants Iruma to be his grandson and attend a demon school. Iruma's first day is anything is easy thanks to his new demon grandfather who just so happens to be the principal of the school. Iruma is forced to give a speech in front of the whole school where he chants a forbidden spell that could have killed and then he is challenged by Asmodeus, one of the strongest demons at the school. Thanks to having lived an unfortunate life, Iruma is able to use his unique skills to handle every obstacle that presents itself as he manages to get through his first day in one piece. Everything about Mairimashita! Iruma-kun is ridiculous and hilarious. Mairimashita! Iruma-kun feels like a very unique anime and it is exciting to watch from beginning to end. However, the battle between Iruma and Asmodeus was by far the best moment in the episode. Not only was it funny, but it was also an exciting action sequence. The whole scene is just so engrossing I was really blown away at just how great it was. There are so many great moments in this first episode that I'm excited to see what else this show has in store for us.

When things get rough, sometimes it’s great to have your sibling close by to watch your back. This is the case for Utsutsu and Yume Hasagawa. The duo has been out and about when they notice a bunch of beautiful red butterflies. As they admire these lovely creatures, little do they know that they carry something deadly and catastrophic, a virus called Pupa. As victims come in contact with the virus, they are mutated into a horrendous beast with an insatiable hunger for flesh. However, Utsutsu experiences partial effects of Pupa. He sacrifices parts of himself to protect his sister and her uncontrollable cravings. Normally, Utsutsu is a friendly guy, but the Pupa part of him makes him violent and destructive, as it wants to assert itself and consume him fully. Regardless of the events that occurred throughout his life, Utsutsu fights to keep his humanity from perishing.

The Empire of Corpses captures the advancements of humankind in a parallel 18th Century, England. Scientists have developed technology that allows corpses to be programmed to service the needs of humans. Leading the charge is Dr. Victor Frankenstein vanished shortly after his revolutionary work on corpse reanimation. As it is known, a body without a soul is completely void of life, however, rumors have circulated that Dr. Frankenstein revived the only corpse with a soul. Continuing Dr. Frankenstein’s research, London medical student John Watson hopes to fulfill his promise to his late partner. As he reviews the notes, Watson learns of the complexities of corpse technology and the lengths he must go to by advancing this knowledge. Watson’s research created Friday as a tribute to his colleague who sacrificed himself in the name of science. However, Friday is nothing like the living version. Like many undead characters, his appearance encompasses what a ghoul would look like: pale, rail-thin, and lifeless. Because of the growth of this technology that designs corpses to become programmable, Friday shares an interesting connection with his friend and master. He has a conscience, but unfortunately, it doesn’t last very long. When Friday loses control, he attacks and consumes whomever is in his way. As Watson hopes to find positive results on reviving corpses, he creates a serum to subdue Friday temporarily.

In a time where humans and human-like beings called ghouls coexist, humans fear becoming prey to the ghouls and the ghouls face the challenge of attempting to blend in. With their supernatural abilities and an appetite for human flesh, the ghouls are mercilessly hunted down. Ken Kaneki, being from both worlds, demonstrates the difficulties and advantages of each species. Originally human, after a near-fatal attack by a cunning female ghoul, Ken Kaneki undergoes an experimental surgery and becomes the first of many human-ghoul experiments. Everything about Ken, including his scent and exotic nature is rare and exclusive. Ken is coveted by both species because he’s key in maintaining the peace and balance between ghoul and people.

The world’s most frightful creatures have emerged because of a mysterious virus. As the horrific monsters devour human flesh, the population declines during a time when the world was just getting back on its feet. Their never-ending appetite has put humankind on high alert, researching ways to get rid of these monsters once and for all. The only way to kill these beings known as "Kabane" is by destroying their steel-coated hearts. It seems easy enough, but if one gets bitten, they will experience pain worse than death, becoming the monster they tried to flee. A collective effort is made and everyone pitches in to help wherever they can. Individuals like Ikoma believe he has the perfect invention to destroy Kabane easily. Unfortunately, testing his weapon comes at a risky cost. In an attack against Kabane, Ikoma is bitten but saves himself just in time from the infection spreading throughout his body. As a human/kabaneri hybrid, he is an undead gem that could be the key to winning this battle.

Long ago, for a decade, deadly parasites called Gastrea rose to the top of the food chain. Unclear of their origin, many speculate that Gastrea were once human. The year is 2021 A.D. In this era, the monstrous parasite killed off most of the population. The remaining few have come to reside in the Monolith walls, a secured area composed of Varanium, the only element that can cripple Gastrea. Second-year student and Promoter Rentaro Satomi is one of many fighting against Gastrea. One Day, in a deadly Gastrea attack, Rentaro lost his right leg, arm, and left eye. While lying on the operating table, Rentaro is given a choice: life or death. A woman scribbles on some paper and is asked a critical question. After countless hours, several doctors saved Rentaro after signing a contract to live. The woman who created this contract becomes a great influence on Rentaro’s life. Some of the conditions he agreed to were to aid in some experimental research. As such, many of the limbs he lost in the attack were replaced with artificial ones made with Varanium. Neither living nor dead according to his human/Gastrea ratio, ghoul boy Rentaro has become a weapon of destruction, and this is why he’s on top of the list.

After their near-death experience with some hungry lions, Senku and Taiju are saved by the strongest middle-schooler pre-petrification. Shishio Tsukasa ends up becoming Senku’s foil and sworn rival, and when it is revealed that they both want to create civilization, conflict ensues due to clashing beliefs. Tsukasa decides that the only way to ensure that his vision for society is realized is for him to murder Senku. He seemingly kills Senku; however, Senku’s brilliance and willingness to bet everything on a single risky factor makes all the difference. Tsukasa goes for the instant kill, aiming for the nape of Senku’s neck; however, Senku had forged a habit of cracking his neck, a habit he’d never had prior to their petrification. When the distraught Yuzuriha and Taiju investigate, they find a fragment of petrification on Senku’s neck and use his revival fluid on the area, hence reconstructing the cells in Senku’s neck and leading to his revival.

Senku decides that his best bet at creating a nation of science would be to continue his work while using his apparent death as a cover. He sends Yuzuriha and Taiju to infiltrate the Tsukasa Empire and work from within, while Senku decides to head elsewhere to start his nation of science. He soon finds a young woman trapped under heavy trees, so he uses his mind to work out a way to free her. Having revealed that she has met Tsukasa, the woman is wary of Senku but after seeing how he helped her out of her predicament with nothing but his mind and the materials around him, she takes an interest in him. She introduces herself as Kohaku, one of a few humans who does not seem to be of the vast human race that experienced petrification. At this point, the Dr Stone world grew immensely.

When Senku and Taiju are working hard to survive, as well as to synthesize revival fluid to bring back the scores of people in their vicinity who were petrified, they are attacked by a group of hungry lions. With no chance of survival, Taiju tells Senku about the legendary middle-schooler said to be the strongest of them all: Shishio Tsukasa. With no alternatives, Senku dumps the little bit of revival fluid they had on the petrified Tsukasa, which revives him. Upon his revival, he calmly asks them, “What is the situation?” before killing a lion with a single punch!

During the early stages of the Village Arc, Senku had managed to convince Chrome to assist him in his science. His goal was to create a generator, one which would provide electricity. He manages to elicit the help of the village guards Kinro and Ginro, and with Tsukasa Empire spy Asagiri Gen in the audience, Senku’s hard work pays off as he makes the stone world’s first ever electric light bulb. The sight of the bright light in the dead of night prompts one of the only genuine reactions from Asagiri that we’ve seen in the series thus far.

Dr Stone presents a tournament arc in the village where Kohaku lives. The winner is to be betrothed to Kohaku’s sister, Ruri, the village priestess. In order to win and gain true leverage in the village for the sake of the nation of science, Senku’s ragtag crew needed to find someone capable of defeating Magma, the strongest man in the village, in combat. Kinro turns out to be their saviour, initially suffering a barrage of attacks due to the simple fact that he is near-sighted. Having had her vision cured by Senku’s manufacturing of glassware, Suika does something amazing – tossing her now glass-eyed helmet in Kinro’s direction. He jumps dramatically and intercepts the helmet, catching it perfectly on his head. With his vision no longer impared, Kinro lays a hefty and satisfying barrage of attacks on Magma, but it isn’t necessarily enough to win…

While there likely had been smaller cultural exchanges beforehand, Halloween wasn’t first properly introduced into Japanese pop culture until 2000 with an event in Tokyo Disneyland. This was soon followed by similar celebrations at other popular theme parks like Sanrio Puroland and Universal Studios Japan and has since become very well-known across the country. These parks, and others, still hold big Halloween events every year but the holiday is no longer strictly centered around them.

Folks familiar with Japanese culture might know about Obon, a Japanese Buddhist-Confucian holiday revolving around the return of ancestral spirits to their homes for their annual visit to celebrate and reunite with their living family members. While for some people Obon is also a time to tell ghost stories, light lanterns, and visit haunted locations, which would seem like a natural connection to Halloween, these similarities are only superficial and the holidays are in fact not related or celebrated at the same time (Obon is usually in July or August, depending on the region).

Obviously, Japan is no stranger to costumes with its well-developed cosplay culture so it’s not surprising that the focus of Halloween in Japan is definitely getting into character with festive outfits. This is where some differences arise. Halloween in Japan is more focused on adults and trick-or-treating, for the most part, just doesn’t happen. Instead, Halloween in Japan mostly involves teens and adults dressing up and going out into the streets for huge public parties, drinking and eating with their friends, and generally “letting loose” in a way that taps into the mischievous aspect of the holiday. Candy and other sweets are still present, of course, as is jack-o'-lantern carving but with the twist of most of the pumpkins being purple instead of orange due to the species usually grown in Japan. In recent years, street costume events have become extraordinary big, especially in large cities like Tokyo and Osaka.

Unfortunately, Halloween has also generated quite a bit of controversy, particularly in how these street events have created large amounts of trash from candy wrappers, drink containers, fake blood spillage, and even discarded costumes, which has become a major headache for locals accustomed to Japan’s usual cleanliness. Thankfully, many people have started voluntary cleanup groups to help with the problem. One stranger phenomenon involves Japanese organized crime syndicates, known as the yakuza. One of the largest yakuza organizations, the Yamaguchi-gumi, has reportedly been regularly giving out generous bags of candy out at their headquarters on Halloween to any children who wanted them. While arguably a publicity stunt, the yakuza have had a long history of doing charitable work including providing assistance to victims of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake when it hit Kobe.