/otaku/ - Japan / Otaku / Anime

>>4025
Not that I'm aware of.

>>4025
Depends on what you mean by good
Eromanga sensei has good fanservice
Is it a good show? Depends on your tolerance/preference for extremely stupid romcom fanservice shows. (also it's NBR if that's something you care about?)

https://myanimelist.net/anime/34881

I watched Aho Girl. Here are my thoughts:

The episodes for this are under 13 minutes long, so I'll try to be brief. This is basically a silly comedy show that is mostly episodic. In a nutshell, the comedy itself is objectively terrible but the delivery is good.

Most of the comedy in this is either slapstick or sexual, neither of which I'm fond of. Much of the humour in this is just utterly generic school-anime comedy that any anime viewer has definitely seen before. However, the delivery was good enough to keep me watching.

The VAs constantly yell and the dialogue is pretty fast-paced. Yoshiko (the main retard girl with the orange twintails) really carries the entire show – her VA does a fantastic job of enthusiastically yelling all her lines into the mic. This show would literally be unwatchable without her voice work; I'm not exaggerating, this VA carries the entire show, and redeems its bad attributes enough to make it tolerable. None of the other voice actors shine nearly as much as her. Everyone else in the cast is both unfunny and unlikeable as well. However, the male lead, although irritating and shameless self-insert bait, acts as a good foil for Yoshiko, and they play off each other well.

Visuals and OST were both adequate but unremarkable.


My overall rating: 5/10
The fact that this anime is completely retarded is both its worst and best quality. It really is stupid as hell. However, sometimes it is just dumb enough to be funny and entertaining. I also think the execution of this show is good, and this compensates a lot for how mediocre the humour itself is written. The high-energy script delivery and fast pace combined with short episodes are really what make it watchable. Yoshiko's VA in particular basically carries the entire show with how well she manages to deliver such a low-quality script.

I have no idea how the manga for this managed to be successful, because the writing of the show is totally mediocre and recycles a lot of typical anime humour cliches. Maybe the way the manga panels are setup enhances the humour.

I found this show optimal to watch when I had a bad day or I was angry about something because it would reliably lighten me up just by being really silly.

>>4025
I've seen people who loved kiss x sis, but i never watched. I dont think yosuga no sora is so bad, its adapted from VN so they just did each of the girls routes, sis arc is only the last one and its pretty short. I rather have that than random harem and no development.
I started watching oreimo, finishing first season now and its just being a badly scripted painful watch.

Was just retrospecting on pop imouto anime, its kinda dissapointing. Maybe a good sister themed season was nisemonogatari..

>>3624
Ippo is pretty good, haven't watched the entirety of it yet but about the first 30 or so episodes. So far at least it tends to focus on arcs - either it'll introduce a character and explore how they got into boxing and what keeps them driven with the arc culminating in a fight with Ippo. Quite like that structure as it helps you to understand the people which he's fighting against and actually sympathize with them.

Coupled with that you have the overall background progression of Ippo slowly getting better and overcoming challenges and rivals that he formerly struggled against. I'm not into super long series either as I find I can't really keep focus on or commit to a series for 100+ episodes or whatever, but given the structure of the series as long as you remember vaguely where you were you'd be able to come back to it later and be all OK (as long as you don't happen to miss some key character development episodes).

>>3535
Sora no Woto is awesome, as you mention the OST is really good.

>tfw Amazing Grace taken down from youtube due to copyright so have to make my own webm

https://myanimelist.net/anime/34051/

I watched Akiba's Trip. Here are my thoughts:

The plot is mostly episodic monster-of-the-week stuff that is consistently boring and idiotic. Basically, there are bad guys in Akibahara, and the only way to fight them is to strip off their clothes (hence the title of the show). It's as moronic as it sounds, and it stops being funny after about 5 minutes, yet entire scenes are devoted to it, usually multiple times per episode. The fight scenes are boring as hell and drag on way too long. This show overall is frankly just completely retarded, and not in an endearing way either, at least not enough for 13 episodes. My average level of enjoyment while watching was quite low, but every so often there'd be some relatable nerd reference that I'd chuckle at, which is why I didn't drop it.

The art style is somewhat cartoonish and has a strongly saturated colour palette. The animation is simplistic with quality adequate at best. It feels pretty low budget overall. The character designs are also cartoonish; I don't like them aesthetically, but they do kinda fit the theme of the show. Their simplicity made them easy to animate as well, which I guess was beneficial for the action scenes. The characters' personalities are generic and simplistic, as well as annoying in some cases.

As for audio, the OP song is pretty good and has nice peppy vocals. However, the cartoonish OST itself sounds low budget and is sometimes abrasive. The voice acting is also consistently awful. In fact multiple voices in the cast made me want to shove toothpicks into my ears they were so annoying.

Akiba's Trip has quite an authentic otaku-culture theme. The only reason I stuck with this anime was for the truly genuine otaku-culture flavour. Literally nothing else about it was entertaining. These otaku-culture references are diverse too; for example, there are allusions to milsim hobbies, audiophile culture, idol fandom, amateur radio, and PC building. They even have a Yugioh/MTG parody episode, which contains some hilarious moments. I also got the feeling there were obscure references to Japanese Akiba-related pop culture that I probably didn't fully catch.

Aside from the authentic cultural flavour, this show is seriously awful. The only reason you should consider watching it is if a strong otaku-culture theme appeals to you. Even then, I wouldn't recommend wasting your time on this. What I'm writing here may sound appealing, but I really can't overstate how underwhelming this show is in reality. Also, the last couple episodes are filled with groan-inducing forced drama that was painful to sit through.


My overall rating: 3/10
This anime is exasperatingly retarded and often boring as hell (especially the fight scenes). However, it does have an authentic otaku-culture flavour and relatable nerdy references. Akiba's Trip feels like a passion project done poorly.

Seriously, this show is total brainrot material and to be honest I was only able to tolerate it whilst stoned out of my mind.

Lastly, apparently there is a game related to this – for the record, I have never played it.

>>4166
lol didn't know they made an anime out of this.

I haven't played the game personally, but I've heard it's reasonably fun.

>>4166
This premise sounds great. Reminds me of kill la kill. I always get interested when you post reviews, even if you dont like the show you're reviewing. Lol.

>>4163
Woto love is alive and well!
I appreciate the webm, I saved it.

Since I personally thought that the manga would require some mental fortitude that I am currently lacking, I decided to get into Berserk by watching the 1997 adaptation.
I am honestly liking it a lot, the characters for a lack of better words have to deal with a lot things that makes them feel fairly human compared to most of the stuff I watched before. Blood is always a plus, and the music is surprisingly great.
I'll be sure to pick up the manga after I finish this (obviously from the very beginning because apparently this skips a lot of important things) but it's great so far, really really liking it. The only thing daunting is that it's fairly long, but that may mean I'll just have more time to be busy

Oh and this music is crazy good, but I already said that

>>4177
yeah, I also liked that track, thought it was cooler than the OP/ED.

Like this BGM too, not sure of the title but saved it from somewhere a long time ago.

>>4179
Oh yeah, this track has become a bit of a meme as of late because of Miura's death I supposed, but it's very good nonetheless.
Thankfully it's not as overused as one would expect it to be.
That's Guts' Theme btw

>>4184
ah, guess I missed out on all those memes. Good to know the track name now though!

https://myanimelist.net/anime/34368

I watched Vatican Kiseki Chousakan (including OVA), also known as Vatican Miracle Examiner. Here are my thoughts:

This anime is about two religious scholars who travel around investigating the validity of various miracles on behalf of the Vatican. This show has an intense Roman Catholic theme that is quite unique – I really appreciated this aspect of it. However, aside from its strong unwavering commitment to this rich Catholic theme, this show isn't well directed. The actual screenplay and script are kinda dull. Furthermore, as much as I love the premise, the writing is undeniably super amateurish and feels like a novel you'd find in the bargain bin of somebody's neighbourhood yard sale. The plot is so absurd it feels like a kid wrote it. The explanations used to justify the various mysteries in the story are completely ridiculous. As a whole this show is incredibly campy, but that's what makes it fun to watch.

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan is a very unique show. It's so over the top it's comical, yet plays it dead serious at all times. Like, I honestly can't tell whether or not this is all just pokerface satire. This anime has a unique satirical charm that I really enjoyed and think others would as well. On a related note, I definitely got a shounen-ai vibe from the two main characters, which is somewhat ironic to say the least, and also enhanced the parody feeling even more. Plus, they were super cute together.

The two MCs are actually great characters: unique, likeable, memorable, and they complement each other well. Additionally, I liked both of their VAs and thought they suited the roles. Another thing that adds to the show's campy charm is how the many English words in the script are mispronounced by the seiyuus (to the point that referring to the subtitles is often still necessary).

Visually, the show is adequate at best. Some of the character designs are decent, but other than that it is super basic and feels low budget. I think much of the poor visual budget was compensated for by using poor lighting in many scenes. Thankfully, not much character animation is needed to tell this dialogue-heavy story. I do like the seemingly authentic church-like OST. There is a lot of choral music, organs and that sort of thing, which suits the themes and mood of the anime. I'm glad they committed to the themes in this regard as well, instead of using a more-generic soundtrack.

One thing worth mentioning is that the show constantly cycles through supporting characters. The two MCs travel frequently, resulting in the surrounding cast constantly changing (or disappearing because they were killed off). The show is constantly introducing new characters, only for them to disappear within an episode or two. The cost of this constant recurring exposition is significant and is a drain on the show. This is compounded by the fact that some random just-introduced character is usually key to whatever 'miracle' they are investigating at that time, which makes for a sometimes-confusing viewing experience. They randomly throw in characters who are fundamental to the plot and then they vanish and an entirely new supporting cast is introduced – this happens multiple times throughout the show and it is a lot to digest during a 12-episode runtime. I think a fixed set of supporting characters would have been much more suitable for this anime.


My overall rating: 6/10
As much as I adored the premise of this show and really wanted to see it succeed, I can't ignore its very real flaws. Foremost, the writing is unignorably amateurish. It feels like some hack novel that was just barely publishable, although it does have a lot of satirical charm; similar things could be said about this anime's direction and production quality. Regardless, this is still a very unique show and I'm glad I discovered it. A huge portion of my score here is a result of how unique this anime is, as well as the confidence and conviction with which it is presented. The intense Roman Catholic theme of this show is one of a kind and I valued it tremendously. The shortcomings of this anime are unfortunate – it had enormous potential. This appaling waste of potential is a mortal sin indeed.

If Catholicism interests you then you might find this anime enjoyable despite all its flaws. Or if you like (comically absurd) mystery stories, or the unique premise appeals to you for whatever reason. I would love to see the premise of this show executed more-competently.

>>4191
Oh yeah, I watched this back when it was airing. Didn't leave much of an impression I guess, main thing I remember is him playing that "game of fate" or whatever with the hacker.

>>4200
That screenshot is a good example of my point about the animators using low lighting as an excuse to not illustrate anything.

>>4201
yeah it's pretty lacking when I look at it closely

I was thinking about getting some DVDs with the whole Hokuto no Ken anime for my dad. He's in his 60s and always liked He-Man and Birdman, would giving him that be a smart idea?
I just hope it doesn't end like most of the gifts i do to him, trashed somewhere else

>>4204
It's pretty long and a lot more violent and bloody than old american cartoons. Might try getting him to watch a few episodes with you or something to gauge interest first.

Always hard to find gifts for my dad too, he doesn't have a lot of soft wants, either he wants it enough to go out and buy it immediately or he doesn't really want it at all.

https://myanimelist.net/anime/34104

I watched Knight's & Magic. Here are my thoughts:

This anime is about a geeky programmer who gets isekai'd into a fantasy world where he is transformed into an androgynous mecha-fanatic (inb4: wow he's literally me!). The isekai world is like a medieval fantasy setting but with mechs added. Basically, this is a typical isekai show but with a lot of mecha-related content. If you stripped away the mecha theme, this would be an utterly generic medieval isekai. The mecha theme in a medieval setting is the only thing this anime has going for it – there really isn't any other selling point. In general this show feels fun and self-aware of its own silliness.

After the first couple episodes I was feeling cautiously optimistic about this anime, but as I progressed further my enthusiasm declined. I wanted to like this but the actual story is quite dull and boring. The story feels better suited for an LN instead of anime, which isn't surprising since this is an LN adaptation. A large portion of the show consists of the MC tinkering around in the mech mechanic shop, which could be interesting but the execution is so underwhelming (it's probably cooler in literature format). This issue is aggravated by the mechs functioning via some kind of nonsensical magic that isn't ever adequately explained. I think all the tinkering and mechanic shop scenes would have been way more interesting if the mechs operated on physical principles, or at least all the engineering aspects were coherently explained. Anyway, when the mech conflicts do occur they feel totally formulaic. This anime fails to deliver any kind of engaging storyline, and the episodes feel like a slog to get through as a result. I never felt the slightest flicker of excitement or suspense while watching this. It should be noted that I haven't read the LN and can't vouch for the quality of the source material nor the fidelity of this adaptation.

The characters themselves are rather lackluster; nobody is memorable in any way besides the MC. The supporting cast is tropey, generic, and underdeveloped. I liked the MC though – he was fun and his enthusiasm for mechs was infectious. The MC's VA suited him well, and his clingy female companion (Adeltrud) has some cute voicework too. There are all sorts of bastardized western-Continental-European names for everything that are a neverending source of amusement when paired with the Japanese dialogue in this ridiculous show.

Some of the action scenes are decent, although a little crude at times. This is hardly a high-budget blockbuster movie; CG is frequently used to animate the mechs and monsters. Don't go into this anime expecting mindblowing action scenes, you won't get that here. However, some of the mechs are pretty cool, and there's a decent variety of mech models featured in the show. Furthermore, sometimes the setting looks nice; for example, the medieval castles have a lot of aesthetic moments.

Although the OST is nothing special from a musical perspective, it has a unique medieval flavour that suited the setting well (think historic-European instruments like bagpipes and various types of horns). It is a comical juxtaposition to hear music like that playing while the screen is filled with mechs battling.

You probably won't be surprised to hear that this show can be fairly juvenile and generally feels catered to a young audience.


My personal overall rating: 4/10
Were it not for the mecha theme, this would be a boring formulaic medieval isekai. The story in this is not compelling or interesting at all. Most of the characters are underdeveloped and tropey, with the exception of the MC who is fun and likeable. The show in general is fun and playful, and feels like it isn't meant to be taken seriously even though it involves military conflict. There is a ton of 'mech fanservice' in this, and for diehard mecha fans it might be worth watching. Aside from the cool mecha action, I didn't particularly enjoy this anime.

The thing I savoured most about this show was the action scenes, but that's more a consequence of the story, characters, and script all sucking. If you just want to chill out and watch mechs fight in medieval castles and shoot lasers at each other, this show is fine for that. Honestly, you won't miss out on much if you just skip all the duller dialogue-heavy scenes. This isn't an anime you should take seriously.

I'm probably the wrong audience for this. For diehard mecha fans, I think this show is worth a try. Also, boys around roughly preteen age might enjoy this anime.

>>4201
Pic 2 gives me a strange nostalgia. What could it be?

>>4204
Haha, I recently found out my dad is a big fan of Space Battleship Yamato and used to watch bootleg subbed tapes with his mates in the army.

I got him the collection on DVD for father's Day.

I've been watching Taisho Baseball Girls with a friend. Is supposed to be based on the first female baseball team in Japan. Is not historically accurate in the slightest, the viewer can very much figure that out immediately. The female character designs look really good, i wonder why the designer hasn't done more work on that field, maybe because this show probably flopped and didn't feel like doing the same job again. The show is very cute and i highly recommend it if you're into SOL and cute girls doing things.

I've been on a sort of otaku nostalgia kick lately and decided to rewatch Lucky Star, my initial watch was back when I was barely getting into anime and Japanese media in general, and catching a lot of the references to things I didn't back around 10-12 years ago has been adding to experience in a way. It's almost definitely some placebo sort of effect but I really do get some sort of different very "wintery" feeling from a lot of the stuff around this 2000s-early 2010s stuff, it's rather nice even if it does make me sad that I don't get quite the same feelings from anything new now.

>>4258
Related more to Konata when it first aired, related more to Akira when I rewatched fairly recently.

https://myanimelist.net/anime/33983

I watched Onihei. Here are my thoughts:

I dropped this halfway through but picked it up again a few months later and managed to complete it. Overall it was pretty mediocre but did have a couple positive qualities. Foremost, this show does a good job of depicting the 18th-century Japan setting, both visually and from a sociological perspective – many social themes that prevailed during that time period are featured in the writing (ex. caste system, prostitution and infidelity, criminality and law enforcement, gambling and drinking). This anime can be interesting from a sociological perspective. That said, I found the constant focus on burglaries became boring and repetitive, even from early in the runtime. The screentime used to demonstrate the thievery (like sneaking in, etc.) is often quite dull and repetitive, as well as lacking creativity. The low-budget undynamic animation also certainly did not complement these burglary scenes. Although there are many frames in which the setting (ex. building architecture) looks nice, the animation is not dynamic at all – it often feels like a Powerpoint presentation. There are certainly some nice static shots in here, but the character animation feels very low effort, including during the short-lived action scenes.

The plot is mostly episodic with stories that are self-contained within their respective episodes. However, there is a core set of characters who persist across episodes. Unfortunately, these recurring characters are underdeveloped and not particularly likeable or memorable in any way. The episodic plots usually involve the characters reacting to some kind of conflict (i.e. generic burglary scheme #9001 + ratchety hoodrat drama that belongs on Jerry Springer), leaving little room for any kind of character development – this issue is compounded by the large size of the cast. Overall I found the storywriting tedious and repetitive. The episodic plots are quite generic and felt like they came off an assembly line – there was nothing in here that I hadn't already seen many times before in fictional writing. Like, a third of the episodes somehow involve a guy falling in love with some dumpy hooker friendly lady – this gets tiresome very fast, yet the theme gets repeated over and over in the writing; it was eyeroll-inducing.

I personally am not at all fond of the jazz-like OST and this is another major reason why I'm lukewarm on this show. This is a matter of personal taste though, and other people may like it. Also, the voice acting was nothing special, except for maybe the MC himself who has a deep handsome voice.


My overall rating: 5/10
This anime is basically a combination of Cops + Jerry Springer: Feudal Japan Edition. Similarly to these iconic American TV shows, Onihei explores many sociological issues in a highly dignified manner. Seriously though, somebody interested in historical Japan society would likely appreciate this show. Onihei's best aspect is how it depicts its setting, not only visually but in the way that so many sociological phenomena are featured in the writing. Unfortunately, the episodic plots themselves and the characters they involve are nothing special. Much like the animation itself, there are some appreciable moments but the overall execution is repetitive and lacks dynamism.

>>4241
Watching this on stream was a blast
I love Koume!!!

https://myanimelist.net/anime/35251

I watched Sengoku Night Blood. Here are my thoughts:

This is first and foremost a reverse-harem show (it's an otome-game adaptation). If that doesn't appeal to you then you shouldn't watch this. If you don't want to be surrounded by hot vampire werewolf warrior men in a historical Japan setting, then this is not the anime for you.

Unfortunately I think the premise of this show is not used to its full potential; the supernatural elements of the story aren't really explored at all, even though they are what makes the show most unique – definitely a missed opportunity there. Instead, much of the dialogue revolves around the military conflicts between various factions, which sounds like it might be interesting but the execution is underwhelming.

I found the story difficult to follow; a ton of random names (well, many characters are named after historical figures like Nobunaga) are thrown at the viewer from early in the show, and it's difficult to digest it all and keep track of the lore, plus the viewer is never given a reason to care in the first place. I often felt like this anime was designed with the expectation that the viewer already had background knowledge of the lore and characters, which I guess isn't surprising for a niche otome-game adaptation. The story (and its execution) is a weak point of this anime, at least from my uninformed perspective. I often felt confused by the events taking place. This issue is compounded even further by the enormous size of the supporting cast – there are dozens of warriors who interact with the MC throughout the show, and keeping track of all of them and their relevance to the plot is not a simple task. Anybody who intends to watch this should assume that they won't be able to fully comprehend the story if they're otherwise unacquainted with the franchise, particularly during the first half of the anime. Comprehension issues aside, I found the overall writing totally unengaging and dull; I was never interested in the story at all, aside from the romantic context it provided. Additionally, most of the characters feel underdeveloped and tropey. Although the enormous cast size is certainly one factor in this, even the MC herself is lacking in personality, beyond being shy and useless.

At times, I thought the character interaction in this was done well – particularly for the MC and her chemistry with the rest of the cast. Although a little cliche at times, this show shines during the many little moments of interaction between the MC and her male companions. It doesn't rush things either, and seemingly mundane scenes are frequently stretched out to savour these special little moments. As amateurish as this anime feels in other ways, the character interaction is sometimes surprisingly well done. A major component of this is the script: although the scriptwriting is a little crude sometimes, there are also scenes where it feels quite intimate (when the characters aren't loredumping random information). There are some really romantic scenes lurking in here that made watching this anime worthwhile. I'm pretty sure it was an unwritten rule that the MC needed to be princess-carried at least once per episode, haha.

The character designs for some of the men were a little too animal-ish for my tastes. The big wolf ears and big mane-like hair on some characters was a little too much for me. I'm sure other people like that kind of thing though. I found the vampire guys hotter than the werewolf guys. I also found some of the designs a little too bishounen-ish for me and wished a lot of them were more masculine, especially since they're supposed to be fighters. Somewhat conversely, I disliked the mullet-like hairstyle of the female MC. Like OMG honey you need some conditioner. She looks like she should be a greasy rockstar from the 80s, and I don't mean that in a flattering way. She also only wears one boring outfit the entire time, which was disappointing. If those guys (read: animation staff) really treasured her they would get her some nice pretty clothes!

Historical shows are often a good opportunity to exhibit unique outfits, and the outfits in this are fairly detailed, but some are pretty gaudy and aren't always aesthetically pleasing despite the effort put in to animate them. A lot of the outfits are 'overdesigned' so to speak. One small detail I appreciated was how they would include sounds for the sword scabbards shuffling around on the characters' hips. So for example, when somebody would sit down on a wooden floor you could hear the sound of heavy sheathed blades against the wood.

>>4310
Although the animation quality is nothing special, the lighting effects in this, both indoors and outdoors, are often done pretty well and can enhance the romantic feeling of a scene. This show kind of feels like it's a decade older than its actual production year, in terms of visuals as well as the premise, story, and even the soundtrack. True to its title though, the night sky of this anime always looks good.

The voice acting for pretty much the entire cast is mediocre, including the MC. The OST is also nothing special.

The comedy in this is applied very lightly and is not particularly intrusive or frequent – I am grateful for this. The show takes place during some kind of military conflict/stalemate and the tone most of the time is serious. In terms of sexualization, it's not over the top and usually not graphic; a lot of it is subtext related to the supernatural warriors wanting to drink the blood of the MC (which is very erotic to be honest). The warrior men get power by sucking the blood of the female MC – to be candid I found this psychologically super hot and it's one of the main reasons I stuck with the show. In all seriousness, it's a very good idea for a plot mechanism in a supernatural romance story. The MC being a pivotal tool in warfare as well as sexually attractive is hot on like an abstract meta level.


My personal overall rating: 5/10
As much as I like the premise of this show, its execution is mediocre in most ways. Its best feature is the character interaction between the MC and the warriors. What kept me watching were all those little sweet moments between the MC and her adoring warrior companions. Sengoku Night Blood has some uniquely romantic scenes, but you need to tolerate a confusing storyline to get to them.

Hanakanaru Hachiyou Shou has a very similar premise to this anime but does it better; I would recommend you watch that before trying this if a historical reverse harem is what you're looking for. I suppose Akatsuki no Yona would fulfill that criteria as well. I wouldn't suggest watching Sengoku Night Blood unless you've already exhausted the better implementations of the reverse-harem feudal-Asia template.

>>4311
ahh, another Otomate adaptation. I haven't seen that one, but they're usually decent. They certainly know how to tell a serious story instead of getting lost in comic relief.

Sounds like they're drawing on some of the ideas from one of their earlier works, Diabolik Lovers, at least with the erotic blood sucking stuff.

I feel like the MC is usually kind of boring and not too pretty because she's supposed to be the self-insert character.

And yeah, Otomate does like their gaudy outfits. I can see how that might be a little offputting, especially in a story set in a historical era, but I think it's part of their charm.

>>4313
I still haven't seen Diabolik Lovers – I didn't realize bloodsucking was a thing in that too. Maybe I should finally watch it.

The Sengoku Night Blood MC is super boring and self-inserty. She barely even speaks come to think of it. I probably should have elaborated on that in the review since a lot of people hate MCs like that.

On a related note, I just watched the first episode of Code:Realize and it seems promising.

>>4316
Fair warning, Diabolik Lovers has extremely rape-y vibes, like 50 Shades of Grey kinds of stuff.

Code:Realize looks interesting, guess I missed that one because I usually like detective stuff.

https://myanimelist.net/anime/34934

I watched Koi to Uso (including OVA), also known as Love and Lies or Koi to Kuso. Here are my thoughts:

Koi to Uso is about a group of highschool students in a world where marital partners are assigned by the government. Most of the story revolves around the MC's affections being divided between his government-assigned partner and the girl he naturally desires.

My first impulse was to drop this, and for about half a year I did, but I ended up coming back to it out of curiosity. What I discovered is that Koi to Uso is an utterly ridiculous show but it has enough redeeming qualities to be enjoyable. For the record, I have never read the manga.

The story of this literally feels like a 13-year-old's creative writing assignment. Everything has this juvenile logic to it; the story demands a lot of suspension of disbelief. I really can't overstate how cheesy and pulp-fiction-like the story is. Even by highschool romance anime standards, this show is unbelievably corny and ridiculous. Forgive my use of youthful lingo, but this show is another level of 'cringe'. The secondhand embarrassment I felt watching this was extreme. A lot of the character interaction felt unnatural and it was kind of eerie. The way this show treats romance in general feels quite immature and juvenile, although it is somewhat endearing. It's possible that my perception of this is clouded by cultural differences in the courtship process.

The male MC is awful and has zero personality besides being a spineless, indecisive, clueless idiot, like most highschool anime protagonists. However, both the main female love interests have unique personalities and surprisingly a lot of depth to their character that unfolds throughout the show. They are more-thoughtful characters than the typical female love interests of a male-oriented hetero romance (a pretty low bar to overcome).

The thing is, pretty much all the flaws I've discussed above are storywriting issues. If you can look beyond that, Koi to Uso is actually a fairly well-directed show. It does a decent job of setting up romantic tension, and overall kept things dramatic and interesting. The character interaction, although written in an absurd manner, is sometimes surprisingly well executed. There are some romantic scenes in here that absolutely knock it out of the park with great script, music and cinematography. I know I'm showing contempt for this show in this review, but do not be mistaken: there are some scenes in here that made me gush they were so intimate. Furthermore, Koi to Uso is unique – it fully embraces its premise and explores the concept quite thoroughly. I also appreciated the absence of comedy; this show delivers its corniness with a totally straight face and I appreciated that.

As for visuals, I liked the character designs, including the eyes; the characters' eyes are huge and bug-like even by anime standards. I liked the characters' faces but they're definitely a little uncanny and other people may find them off-putting. The character animation is decent for a non-action anime, better than I expected at least. The facial expressions are well animated. During some scenes the cinematography is more sophisticated than I'd expect from a typical highschool romance show. Overall the production value is a notch above your average anime, although the manifestations of this are subtle.

The soundtrack is surprisingly good and felt quite modern and well produced – definitely a much better OST than your average anime. The background music elevated a lot of scenes and enhanced the show considerably. Conversely, I found the voice acting mediocre and none of the VAs impressed me.

I liked that the existence of sex was acknowledged in this. As opposed to so many other highschool romance shows where handholding might as well be our species' means of reproduction. This show is fairly 'sex positive' so to speak, which is somewhat rare for romance anime and might be a desirable feature for some viewers.

>>4333
My overall rating: 6/10
Koi to Uso is SO BAD it's KINDA GOOD. The writing of this is comically moronic, but the execution is good enough to salvage this fanfic-tier story. The show is fairly well directed and decently produced. If you're prepared to endure a weapons-grade level of cringe, this anime is actually pretty enjoyable and entertaining. State of mind is hugely important though – you really need to embrace the corniness of this to enjoy it. There are some surprisingly romantic scenes in here if you have an open-minded attitude. Koi to Uso exceeded my low expectations.

If you're just looking for some ridiculously campy telenovela-tier romance, then this anime is a good candidate for that. It literally feels like some teenager's fanfiction randomly got an anime adaptation. I want to reiterate again how juvenile this show is: I think it would be hard for someone older than 14 to take it seriously. That's part of its charm though – it's so silly that it's fun. For fans of highschool romance, I think this anime is worth checking out, especially if you like this kind of thing served over-the-top ultra cheesy. This is definitely not an anime for everyone, but there is a specific kind of audience that would enjoy it. I'm glad that I gave it a second chance and didn't discard it based on its poor first impression. Also, if you're a drinker, this show is best enjoyed with a little booze to make you more receptive to the cringiness and cheesy romance.

If you are weirdly fixated on the idea of the government assigning you a spouse (I've actually seen this seriously discussed many times on the internet), then you might be interested in this show – it explores that topic quite thoroughly. Also, in case you hadn't inferred already, I think a female viewer is more likely to enjoy this due to the focus on marriage and relationship dynamics.

If you like ultra-cheesy highschool romance, you should give Koi to Uso a chance.

https://myanimelist.net/anime/1535

I (finally) watched Death Note. Here are my thoughts:

I still vividly remember how popular this show was in the Anglosphere during the late 2000s. I remember so many people I knew were super enthusiastic about this show. I remember the merchandise in the anime aisles of the hobby stores too. If you had asked me in say, 2008, to name the title of an anime? I would have said Death Note. And back then I had little interest in anime at all. Still, even as an uninterested bystander, I could recognize the characters of Death Note. And way back then, I still remember thinking the shinigami character designs were creepy as hell! Hahaha

Like most shows that manage to achieve tremendous popularity among a broad diverse audience, the real strength of Death Note is in its plot and story in general. The story is quite intricate and well thought out. Initially, it felt a little cliche and predictable, but as the episodes progress, more and more complexity gets added and it becomes impressively intricate and thoughtful. The writer of this is talented. There are lots of surprising twists and I was consistently interested in the story despite the considerable length of this show (37 episodes). It is an entertaining easy-to-watch anime and the episodes passed quickly.

I think another reason for the widespread success of Death Note is that it's very suitable material for an edgelord's self-insert power fantasy. I won't spoil anything, but just based on the premise alone I'm sure you can understand this point. Similarly, this show was very compatible with the outcast subcultures that prevailed during the mid-2000s, such as goth and the like.

The visuals are adequate but not really a source of enjoyment. Nothing about the visual presentation of this anime impressed me, except in some ways the character designs. The character designs, including for the supporting cast, often looked quite lifelike and I could easily imagine a real-life human equivalent of them. This might be a factor in why so many people unacquainted with anime latched onto this show – it feels a lot like live-action and I could easily imagine it being performed by human actors. Sometimes the facial expressions were done well too, albeit not particularly fluid. Otherwise though, Death Note looked like a generic mid-2000s anime. The animation quality was literally Powerpoint-tier during many scenes. In fairness, this isn't a show that needs visual flair – the vast majority of it just consists of people talking in various urban settings, and you need to pay very close attention to the dialogue to follow the complex story anyway.

During the second half of the show there is a noticeable change in the art style, perhaps driven by the show's success and the resulting impact on its budget. The character animation somehow got even worse, and seemed off-model relative to earlier episodes. I found this change in art style to be unwelcome despite the bar being set quite low in this regard.

I did enjoy the peculiar autism-like body language of L (AKA Ryuzaki, the MC's main adversary). Even little things like the way he holds his phone made me smirk (this is such a meticulous little detail too). In fact I liked his character a lot and wish he were the MC of the show instead, although he does thankfully get a lot of screentime. He is a great character: distinctive and memorable, unique in both his psyche and communication style, and consistently entertaining. Death Note would not be what it is without him; I think he added a ton of value to the show. The best episodes nearly always had him in the spotlight.

>>4338
I thought the soundtrack was actually pretty bad, during the first half of the show at least. There are lots of abrasive guitar-heavy tracks that do not suit the mood at all (as is the case with many anime from this time period). The entire OST sounded low effort and mediocre; it never enhanced my enjoyment of the show. That j-rock OP was awful as well, and I dreaded having to hear it every time I queued up an episode. There is some choral music that fit the show well, but unfortunately it's used infrequently. I will concede that the OST improved during the second half of the show when new background music was added.

None of the voice actors impressed me except for L's (Ryuzaki) VA – he has a distinctive voice that fits his character well. The voice for the shinigami (Ryuk) could have been way better and was definitely a missed opportunity. The shinigami's voice really did not suit his role at all; he sounded literally mentally retarded and it was so out of place. I also thought the voice acting for Misa was very amateurish.

Without spoiling her context in the story, I did not like the main female love interest (Misa) in this. The points in the show where she was most prominent were also the weakest. I had a bad feeling from the moment Misa was introduced that she would herald a decline in story quality. Unfortunately, I was right. I loathed Misa's appearance on-screen almost instantaneously, and continued to do so throughout the runtime. She clashed so much with the mood and themes of the show, and was overall annoying and degraded the quality of any scene she was in. Unfortunately, she gets a ton of screentime, particularly during the middle episodes of the anime. At the very least I would have preferred her personality were completely different. Also, Misa's voicework was consistently annoying as hell. Takada Kiyomi (prominent character near the end of the anime) was a way better love-interest character and I strongly wish Misa were swapped with her.


My overall rating: 7/10
Although the anime production is lacking in some ways, the story of Death Note is an impressive work. It is intricate and thoughtful, while consistently being suspenseful and surprising me often. The praise this author has received is well deserved, and I hope they have continued to produce other stories (that don't include Misa).

If you're interested in Death Note, I suggest you consider reading the source material instead of watching the anime. The story is the selling point here, and if that were disregarded then the anime itself is not particularly impressive. The anime is also 37 episodes long, which is a considerable time investment; reading the manga is probably more efficient. Of course it's up to your personal tastes, but if you like manga then you should consider just reading this instead. Death Note seems well suited for a literature format, no pun intended.

https://myanimelist.net/anime/30375

I watched all three seasons of Starmyu (including OVAs), also known as High School Star Musical. Here are my thoughts:

In some ways, Starmyu is a fairly typical male-idol show; the cast is almost entirely young men. It consists of musical scenes, with singing and dancing, interspersed by varying degrees of forced drama. It literally feels like a live-action musical, and in this regard is a unique show. It has a very large cast – some of the characters are likeable, most are forgettable.

The show takes place in a prestigious artistic school which focuses on theatrical acting and singing/dancing. If you want to self-insert into that kind of scenario, this anime is uniquely suited for that. Much of the plot revolves around the academic activities of the artistic students and related drama. There is a lot of emphasis on kouhai-senpai relationships during every season, as well as teamwork among the various students. Sometimes there is a mild shounen-ai vibe, but it's not that prominent and can be ignored if you're averse to that kind of thing.

To be honest, this has been a go-to 'drunk anime' for me. The combination of musical/dance scenes and forced nonsensical drama made it ideal for watching under the influence of alcohol. Frankly, the storyline is silly and the drama feels quite artificial. You should completely shut your brain off if you want to enjoy this anime. You're better off not even trying to follow the ridiculous storyline, which mostly consists of endless friendly ladyy catfights among the drama-queen cast members.

Visually, this anime is nothing special. I will give credit to the fact that the character designs, although simplistic, are distinct and easy to discern among the very large cast. Some of the guys are pretty cute too. The dancing in the musical scenes is also quite captivating, which is great because each episode has at least one song-and-dance scene.

Musically, Starmyu is quite good. The songs are catchy and stick in your head. The VAs are distinctive and have decent singing ability. The background OST is good too and does an effective job of setting the mood for the incoherent friendly ladyfight drama. I'm looking forward to exploring the musical content more in isolation; I might even buy some albums if I can't find high-fidelity downloads. The musical catalog is quite large as well, which is always a plus.

Among the three seasons, the third was the worst. Although they all lay on the forced drama heavily, Season 3 is by far the most egregious in this respect. The plot of Season 3 is filled to the brim with some of the most forced artificial drama I've ever seen, and the way they dragged it out for 12 episodes was exasperating. Season 3 made fight videos on Worldstar seem Shakespearean in comparison. Season 3 also brought nothing new to the table in terms of content, and didn't improve on anything already depicted in the prior two seasons.


My ratings are as follows:
Season 1: 7/10
Season 2: 7/10
Season 3: 5/10

The writing of Season 3 is truly dreadful and cranks up the forced drama to an unbearable level. Otherwise, I enjoyed this anime. Although the forced drama is excessive, the dancing scenes are captivating, and who can resist imagining oneself as an art-school student or faculty member? Moreover, this show delivers on its most important selling point: the musical content is consistently good.

If you like performance arts, you might enjoy this show – it's basically an animated musical. This anime will let you experience the theater-kid life.

>>4350
>ladyfight
Should be "b1tchfight".
Hopefully people are aware of this wordfilter.

>>4351
Good, ladies aren't b*tches. Although it does seem that the bish -> lady word filter has some issues (see bishy ->ladyy). See no inherent problem with it though.

https://myanimelist.net/anime/34902

I watched Tsurezure Children, also known as Tsuredure Children. Here are my thoughts:

These are ~12-minute episodes that consist of generic highschool romance skits between various student pairings. The characterization of these students is shallow and tropey.

I found the dialogue in this to be very clunky and unnatural. The romance feels quite inorganic and hamfisted, and overall simply not emotionally engaging. The script is seriously awful and a crippling flaw from my perspective. It feels so unnatural it's uncomfortable at times just having to listen to it.

The characters have simplistic same-face designs, and the animation quality is unremarkable. The voice acting is okay but that doesn't mean much when it's wasted on such a clumsy unnatural script.

If you can tolerate its flaws, this show can be mildly entertaining. It is sometimes cute, and some of the romance-oriented humour can be funny. To be honest, I only watched it with at least a bottle of wine in me, mainly because of how cringe-inducing the dialogue is.

Overall this is a very juvenile anime that feels targeted to an audience in their early teenage years. Somebody in that demographic may enjoy this more than I did. Frankly, I can't imagine anyone older than early teenage years enjoying this anime much.

My personal overall rating: 3/10

ive been watching bleach recently… i feel like i must be missing something its just not grabbed me

I started watching chobits again. I dont remember watching it since high school. I dont remember picking up on how heavy the 2d vs 3d themes were, ah ha ha… still not sure if 2d>3d or if I'm cursed. Looking forward to seeing where the themes of escapism and especially chi's identity end up.

https://myanimelist.net/anime/34028

I watched Idol Jihen, also known as Idol Incidents. Here are my thoughts:

This anime is about idol girls who are also politicians within the national Japanese legislative system. Despite some mature themes involved, this show basically feels like a Saturday-morning cartoon meant for a child audience. The plot is mostly episodic and usually involves the simplistic use of some kind of political conflict, such as a scandal or public policy decision. Aside from these political themes, this feels like a generic formulaic idol show; this anime isn't nearly as creative as it could have been. Regardless, the unusual juxtaposition of idols and politics is silly and fun. The absurdity of it got some chuckles out of me. The novelty of mixing idols and Japanese politics is what kept me watching this show, even though the actual scene-by-scene story is quite dull and feels calibrated for a child audience. This anime consistently feels juvenile.

I wish there were more song-and-dance scenes and more musical content in general. All they ever did was recycle the (admittedly quite cute) OP and ED songs for the idol scenes, which was very disappointing and also just another major indication of how low effort this anime is as a whole. They also reused the exact same CG dance animation multiple times. If you want good musical idol content, look elsewhere. At least some of the idol outfits and character designs are cute.

Idol Jihen is a unique cultural artifact, but ultimately it's not particularly entertaining. If you're interested in the Japanese legislative system, you might get a kick out of this anime, but don't expect much in the way of detail or nuance; the treatment of politics here is quite superficial. Lastly, this seems like it would be a fun show to watch with other people and collectively joke about; it has a lot of meme potential, which hasn't been capitalized upon due to its low viewership.

My overall rating: 4/10

I've been watching Psycho-Pass and now watching Psycho-Pass 2.

>>4441
'CAUSE I FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL

>>4435
that sounds hilariously bad. Should've made like a 2-4 episode OVA instead of a full series.

>>4442
Finished Psycho-Pass 2 earlier, going to move on to the movies and then Psycho-Pass 3. I noticed that there was an extended version that was released. Do you happen to know if that's worth watching? I read that it has extra scenes. I did watch the series dubbed and plan on watching the sub as well since I didn't see Psycho-Pass 3 or some of the other movies dubbed.

https://myanimelist.net/anime/32615/

I watched Youjo Senki, also known as Saga of Tanya the Evil. I watched the first season, the OVA, and the movie. At the time of writing, Season 2 has not yet aired. Here are my thoughts:

This anime is about a salaryman who gets reincarnated in pseudo-WW1 Europe as a young orphan girl (Tanya) while retaining their original personality. Tanya has an aptitude for magic and joins the military as an officer in the mage unit. Tanya is sort of an 'anti-hero' main character in the sense that they are highly self-interested and morally ambiguous.

The action scenes in Youjo Senki look good and have detailed fight choreography along with nice sound effects. The audio production quality of this is what I'd expect from a movie – it's pretty nice. In fact, Youjo Senki overall has movie-like production quality. The visuals are a strong point – the setting in particular looks fantastic. The European landscape often looks amazing. Furthermore, the architecture and interior decor feels authentic for the time period and is consistently meticulous and vividly detailed. I could tell there was a lot of attention to detail put into how the setting is depicted. One of my favourite things about this anime was admiring the intricate interior design of each room, and the cinematography does a good job of displaying it! Additionally, the character animation is fluid and well done too, including facial expressions. There is also lots of variety among the character designs, making each member of the large cast distinctive and easy to discern. The visuals of Youjo Senki are excellent.

Although the premise of this show is neat, I found the actual episode-by-episode story underwhelming and very predictable. Speaking more generally, although I found Youjo Senki entertaining, I never found it suspenseful or exciting, which seems like a shortcoming for a violent action-heavy show set in a war zone. The protagonist plot armour is blatantly indestructible, and the stakes never feel high as a result. It is a fun easy-to-watch show though. Despite the war theme, this anime feels best suited for casual viewing – it never feels all that serious. This isn't Saving Private Ryan; it's just a silly isekai anime and you should set your expectations accordingly.

Tanya's VA does an excellent job and is very unique and memorable. Her voicework really enhances this show and deserves a lot of praise. The voices for the various military officers fit their roles well too. The OST seems well produced – it is mostly military themed; it could have had a little more personality I think. Conversely, the ED song sung by Tanya's VA oozes personality (Aoi Yuuki is super talented).


My overall rating: 7/10
Youjo Senki is fun and entertaining, but it is also predictable and lacks suspense. I didn't find the story interesting or engaging at all. However, the production quality is consistently movie-like and the action scenes are well done. The early-20th-century European setting often looks excellent and quite detailed, both indoors and outdoors. Tanya's VA does a memorably terrific job and adds a lot of personality to the anime. The audiovisuals of Youjo Senki are great in many respects.

For anyone fond of the early-1900s European setting, Youjo Senki is worth checking out. Even if you don't like how silly the story is, the setting really does look terrific. I would also recommend this to action fans because the fight scenes are quite captivating. If you're looking for a solid cinematic experience, Youjo Senki can provide that.

Youjo Senki reminded me a lot of Shuumatsu no Izetta, which is another anime that involves flying magic users fighting in WW-era Europe. I liked both these anime but for different reasons; Youjo Senki is more playful and has better visuals and action scenes, whereas Shuumatsu no Izetta is more dramatic and has lots of cute memorable yuri romance.

>>4468
keep meaning to watch this, it's the only "Isekai Quartet" show I never got around to seeing