Katana Maidens: Mini Toji · review
Like many "anime franchises" that wants to expand, they bring in the comedic anime shorts for a change of pace...Mini Toji is no exception. Mini Toji gives us the much more slice of life, comedic take on the Toji no Miko world, but more in the cases of the main characters as well as the newly introduced Toji no Miko: Kizamishi Issen no Tomoshibi mobile game characters added into the cast. For the most part, the anime shorts gives us the usual dealings with the main characters of the original anime series but taken to flanderization to some of them, such as Kanami want of fighting andbeing chipper about everything, Hiyori's love of choco mint and her flat chest, Mai's attachment towards Sayaka turned into a yandere state and Kaoru ALWAYS being busy and really for a comedic anime short, LA isn't saying the flanderization isn't a bad thing, it actually gives the characters beyond their initial personalities from the original series, even if it's to flanderization state.
LA couldn't say the same about the newer mobile game characters though. Yes, since they are introduced here, the mobile game cast gets to be stereotypical instead and with them having to share screentime that's ALREADY limited to the original cast, trying to get to know them even in a comedic setting becomes hard (heck, even trying to remember their names was hard) and sure mobile game users might have but for people who don't it's still a problem nonetheless. But still the mobile game cast isn't that bad as they have own quirks here and there in comparison to their original cast counterparts, like Kofuki Shichinosato being the polar opposite to Kaoru, Mirja Kitora to Hiyori, Kiyoka Musumi to Sayaka, Chie Setouchi to Mai and Mihono Asakura to Kanami.
The animation now done by Project No.9 has the entire animation in a chibifed state, this is obviously a given but something that not necessarily irked but was weird was that the character designs of the chibifed characters sometimes made their cheeks look "stuffed" in a ways. Not horrible per say but weird and obviously somewhat intentional. The background work is ok but nothing to ride home about.
Voice acting was decent with the returning original cast but the mobile game cast wasn't that bad either and they kinda blended nicely with the original cast. The standouts of the newer voice cast for LA would had been Hiromi Igarashi as Kofuki. Nonetheless a decent voice cast.
Now as the for the timeline of Mini Toji, well LA only brings this up as Yume is somewhat revived in this anime short, and because of this, LA thinks that Mini Toji is just in it's own plain of existence in comparison to the original series as a result *ahem* aka. non-canon. Nonetheless this isn't a bad thing and LA actually liked many of the characters mingling with one another.
Mini Toji is your expected comedic anime short from an anime series with new characters to mingle with and taking already existing characters and playing around with them in different settings. LA wasn't expecting greatness nor was it horrible in it's elements either, it's just an anime short doing it's thing of being comedic with an existing anime series and it did just that.