No.3317
Thanks sushi I was going to make a new thread
but I forgot about it.
Previous thread:
>>18 No.3327
>>3309Have you ever seen Texhnolyze?
No.3328
Forgot to add that seeing the main character lose all hope he had from before and becoming corrupted by other's influence works as well
>>3327That one was actually the one I was thinking of watching just after finishing NHK
No.3329
>>3328Oh nice, hope you try it out. I love it, but it's hard to follow sometimes and certainly pretty dark
No.3374
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33674I watched No Game No Life: Zero. This is the movie sequel to the TV series No Game No Life (henceforth NGNL). Here are my thoughts:
This review will specifically discuss the NGNL: Zero movie, not the franchise as a whole.
First of all, it's been years since I saw the TV anime. I liked it a lot though and rated it 9/10. I really really liked the art style and colour palette, and overall found it a very fun and entertaining show. Much of this review will focus on how the movie compares to the TV series, since that is the benchmark of my expectations.
Although it still looks good, I prefer the colour palette of the TV series. I miss those bright pastel colours; this movie has a comparatively duller colour palette. It still has a lot of visual detail though and is fairly captivating. The visuals are still good, don't get me wrong. In particular, the setting and background frames of this movie look interesting and detailed.
The audio production quality is decent, but I did not like the OST as much as the TV series (Konomi Suzuki sounds amazing in the ED song though as usual). The movie has more of a classical music style; I prefer the electronic OST of the TV anime – it felt much more unique, creative, immersive, and suitable for the anime. Also, for whatever reason I did not like the voice acting of the male MC of this movie.
As is often the case with movies, I find it difficult to feel emotionally invested when I've only known the characters for a few minutes. This movie is yet another example of this – it jumps into strongly dramatic content early in the runtime, and I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed by it. I never felt any emotion whatsoever towards the characters and their story. I don't think this is just me being a stick in the mud either – I think a lot of people would agree the storyline of this movie is weak and unengaging. Overall I would say the story is very mediocre, not to mention barely coherent and poorly directed. The pacing was also too quick for my tastes.
There was a stark lack of world building and exposition. I was often confused by the plot. Random plot-critical facts were often introduced out of nowhere. Barely anything is adequately explained and the story basically just feels like "humans fight in apocalyptic setting because reasons."
Similarly to the TV anime, there is a fair bit of sexualization in this. And it is equally as shameless. If shameless fanservice is something that bothers you (or you can't at least ignore it), then NGNL is not for you. It is a fairly sexualized show, even by anime standards. Personally, I don't really care, but I feel like this is a point worth mentioning. In my opinion, the sexual elements fit in with the overall atmosphere and escapist theme of the show. To me, the sexualization is just one element of NGNL's unique personality. Others will find it off-putting though, so I definitely want to address this point. Also, the fanservice fits more naturally into the playful atmosphere of the TV series, whereas it is somewhat out of place when it interrupts the more-serious moments of the movie. However, I also recall the TV series having an erotic tone more frequently, so there is a tradeoff in that respect as well. Like I said, this isn't a big deal to me either way but I know a lot of readers care about this kind of thing (either positively or negatively) so I thought I should address it, especially for a series like NGNL.
The TV series had a more-lighthearted mood overall, and was way more fun to watch. Overall I found the TV series far more enjoyable, both in terms of story and atmosphere, as well as audiovisuals. Also, unlike the TV series, this movie has little actual game-focused content. I thought maybe this movie would explore the lore of the TV series a little, but it didn't even do that significantly.
My overall rating: 4/10
This movie lacks nearly all the features that made me enjoy the NGNL TV series so much. The main reason I liked the TV series was because of its unique artistic flavour, as well as its creative setting and storyline. And also the simple fact that it was incredibly fun to watch. The movie does not do any of these things nearly as well as the TV series, and so my viewing experience was quite disappointing. The only redeeming features of this movie are the visuals, which are good overall.
I would not recommend this movie to anyone (unless literally the only thing you care about is visuals). It's hard to believe it was made by the same people who created the TV anime.
No.3376
>>3350I love that show so much. I would pay for a second season if I were rich.
I wonder if there is even enough source material for a second season though, the manga releases very slowly.
No.3385
>>3378You have watched some great shows, sushi. What are your thoughts on those?
No.3386
I watched "The Irresponsible Captain Tylor" recently, the dub, which is all available on youtube. I was expecting just a straight comedy but that show was a roller coaster of emotions in the best way. It took me a while to really get into it, but after finishing I can confidently say its a solid 9-10/10. The ending is one of the best endings to an anime I think I have ever seen.
I was recommended it through a youtube video, and was not expecting it to be one of my favorites, but it absolutely is.
No.3387
>>3386I've been making a point to watch anime directed by Mashimo every so often and Cpt. Tylor might be the next one I watch considering I've seen multiple sushi rolls sing its praises
No.3390
>>3378>girls last tourThat's awesome, one of my favorite shows. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did
No.3392
>>3385>>3390Mushishi is fantastic. I love how the stories plod around interested themes without really hitting you with a moral most of the time. The music is so relaxing and so is ginkos outlook. I was a little annoyed with how self righteous he was in the episode with burning weeds, but it's a small grievance.
Bakemonagatari made me uncomfortable with some of its fan service, but the way it told stories, the cuts and sudden changes in art style hooked me. I thought at the beginning that it was doing something with an untrustworthy narrator kind of thing, and letting us know whose perspective we were seeing with the sudden changes in scenery. I still think that's at least partly true, but honestly I was expecting to see more sharply contrasting points of view from araragi. Math girl doesn't count. Kaiki almost does, but there really wasn't much interaction between them. Forgetting that though, the OPs are fantastic, and the character arcs were all really good.
Girls last tour has the nicest calmest feel to it. I didnt like the ending, but I wish it could have gone on much longer just wandering. I guess the world is also very sad, but it feels nice at least all the fighting is done.
Gits sac I first watched as a teen. The major had just as many pants as I remember. It was nice to revisit this. I'm not sure I would have liked it if I just discovered it now, as it's very violence heavy, but there might be something to the dialogue and world building that still would have drawn me in.
Eizouken was great. I really liked kanamori, which surprised me, cause I'm kinda put off by the money side of things, but as a character she was a good argument against that view. Of course the explanation of anime through the medium of anime was delightful. I actually wasn't that enthralled by the crazy world building and outlandish visuals, but they definitely fit well within the context of the anime and it wouldn't have worked as well without them.
Komi cant I found really funny and cute.
No.3393
>>3392>>3390I just rewatched Girl's last tour and that show surely leaves a lot of questions. Did anybody read the manga? Does it contain more background regarding the world and it's past? I once heard what happens at the end of the manga and therefore never read it, I think I wouldn't be able to take it. I would spoiler what happens there but I never figured out how spoilers work.
Anyway I ask myself what those mushroom creatures are. There is a temple dedicated to them, a graveyard with a statue of them and an entire area that is full of those statues. Makes me think if those beings are man-made to clean the devastated place up? They also said that they don't eat living humans, maybe they eat the dead, which explains the lack of bodies everywhere? I wonder why they started fighting anyway but I doubt this was explained.
Well I could go on and on but I don't want to ramble.
No.3394
>>3393Been awhile since I watched it but I was always under the impression that the mushroom people (and Nuko)
were "evolved" from whatever technological singularity type event they showed bits of in the camcorder episode. No.3397
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35639I watched Just Because. Here are my thoughts:
Overall this anime has an unmistakably amateurish and low-budget feel to it. Despite its flaws though, this story plucks at my heartstrings. In a lot of ways, Just Because is a fairly standard-fare highschool romance story. However, I found that the character dynamics and interactions feel very real. The story genuinely feels like something that could happen in real life. The writing is very down to earth and involves ordinary people and ordinary events. It feels very organic and wholesome. The story in this feels like soil between my fingers – it is so authentic, lifelike and down to earth. I found Just Because very immersive because it felt like a genuine depiction of real life. This is not something that can be said for most anime, romance in particular.
I had this show on my mind a lot. Long after each episode ended it would still be creeping into my mind. Despite it being a slow-paced show with mundane events, I finished it in under 5 days (very rare for me, particularly for a 'low-intensity' anime like this). I always eagerly looked forward to watching the next episode and did not want to watch anything else until I had completed this anime; I was quite captivated by it.
This anime has a unique atmosphere to it. It is consistently very calm and soothing – almost hypnotic. Despite there being interpersonal conflict, nobody ever really yells or fights, or even interrupts. Most characters' emotions are conveyed gracefully. The dialogue is nearly always slow and calm. This might sound like a trivial observation, but these qualities are relatively rare for anime. It's also worth noting there is basically zero comedic relief in this, which in ~90% of cases is a good thing for anime, in my opinion.
Although I've praised aspects of the writing above, one of my main criticisms of this show is that the characters are fairly bland, especially the MC(Izumi). Pretty much the entire cast is bland and underdeveloped, with the possible exception of Komiya. I'm not sure this could have been avoided given the size of the cast and the 12-episode runtime, but it is a weak aspect in any case. Of all the characters, I empathized with Komiya by far the most. Another criticism I have is that the plot does seem to rely excessively on coincidences to make things work. Maybe that is an intentional artistic decision though (recall the title of this show).
I don't particularly like the character designs. A lot of characters have these overly blocky square faces; feels like this is a romance in Legoland. In general the visuals are lackluster and unpolished. I found the character animation very lacking overall as well – even with the simplistic character designs it still often looks sloppy. Very often. In fact the character animation is often embarrassingly poor. However, sometimes the urban landscape does look nice (so many trains, yay!). As a whole, this anime looks very low budget and sloppy. The character animation in particular is often dreadful; I am usually quite forgiving about this kind of thing but it was bad enough to break my immersion sometimes.
I didn't like the voice acting for the male MC; it was very dull and unemotive. On the other hand, Komiya's VA does a good job. The OST seemed alright, although admittedly I didn't pay much attention to it; this is a pretty dialogue-heavy show. I do recall there being some okay piano songs. Also, the music consistently fits the calm soothing atmosphere I mentioned earlier; I recall there being few (if any) uptempo tracks.
I should probably mention this: despite having a significant romance component, this show has zero sexualized fanservice. Although I typically don't really care either way, I know that some people might find that a desirable feature. This is one of the many ways this is a wholesome show. Despite involving romance there is pretty much zero sexualization, which I think is noteworthy.
Between the two main male characters, I found the romance arcs involving Izumi more engaging than those of Souma. This is because the female partners for Izumi were more-interesting better-developed characters, and also because their romantic chemistry was much better. I found Izumi's romance arcs much more emotionally engaging – they have a lot of truly precious moments that made this anime a worthwhile experience.
No.3398
>>3397My personal overall rating: 7/10
I have really mixed feelings about this anime. As I've said, it is quite amateurish and low budget. The character animation is sometimes awful. The characters themselves are bland and underdeveloped. However, despite these flaws I still found it a very captivating show and couldn't turn it off. The character interactions felt so real to me and the writing is very down to earth and lifelike. There are some really touching moments in this anime; it invoked emotion in me. I liked the consistently smooth graceful calm atmosphere as well.
There is also the simple fact that this show avoids two very common pitfalls of romance anime: unfunny poorly timed comedy and intrusive tone-breaking sexualization; simply not making these common unforced errors is praiseworthy.
If you like highschool romance then Just Because is worth a try. This anime made me feel strong emotions. I literally sobbed during the last episode; there was one scene in particular that was a gutpunch tearjerker.
SPOILER-ISH COMMENT BELOW:
I think that Natsume's emotions in general were not demonstrated to the viewer as clearly as they should have been, given the importance of her character. I think I would have empathized with her more if the show did a better job of depicting her feelings.
Just for the record, I shipped Komiya x Izumi really hard in this, in case you hadn't guessed already.
No.3404
Just now I realized that the picture of the op is a crossover, mostly likely the creator had the inspiration because of the following; The depicted character is Sora from Sketchbook Full Color's and the uniform and background is from So Ra No Wo To.
I have seen both shows but only realized it today, after the thread being a month old and me visiting daily since it's creation. I honestly feel stupid right now.
No.3406
>>3404I was wondering when I posted it if anyone would know what it was, so your post made me happy
No.3421
>>3409Are you watching anything this season? I find it easy to watch when I really look forwards to new episodes. Also watching with other people is fun, so try that!
No.3483
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34712I watched Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau, also known as Children of the Whales. Here are my thoughts:
I'll begin with discussing visuals, as this is one of the show's best features. This anime consistently looks excellent. Nearly every single frame is screencap-worthy. The art style is unique and has an organic look to it that is quite immersive. There is a lot of variety among the character designs, and most of them look good. The MC is adorable, both in design and personality. Facial expressions are well illustrated and the character animation is consistently good. The creative art style and high visual production quality really enhance the fantastical setting of this show as well.
The setting is another very remarkable aspect of this anime. It is quite unique and otherworldly. It was a major component of my enjoyment. More and more information about the world is gradually revealed throughout the show; it is pretty intriguing and the show does a decent job at worldbuilding for a 12-episode runtime. What I can reveal to you without spoilers is that the show takes place in the middle of a 'sand ocean' aboard some sort of magical ship composed of earthy materials. It is quite cool and fantastical, and the nice visuals really complement it.
Even beyond the world building, there are a lot of mystery elements in the show and hints dropped about things not yet revealed. However, as you might cynically expect from a 12-episode manga adaptation, many of the mysteries alluded to the viewer are never explained. Regardless of some of my questions not being answered, I still often felt a sense of intrigue while watching. The writer clearly had some fascinating ideas. Also worth mentioning is that the ending is not particularly satisfying and leaves a ton of loose plot strings. The last episode indicates an upcoming sequel (and I did watch the Blurays), but at the time of writing this (December 2021) I'm not aware of any sequels.
One of this show's most significant issues is the size of its cast. The enormous cast with this limited runtime is not a good combination, especially in an already plot-heavy show with a lot of exposition. This anime tries to balance way too many character arcs, and none of them are done particularly well as a result. Compounding this issue further is the fact that it's difficult to feel emotions for characters who are not given adequate development, or barely any screentime at all for that matter. A common criticism that I've heard from others about this show is that it is too "melodramatic." I would argue that this feeling of so-called melodrama described by others is the result of phenomena I've just outlined: emotionally impactful events happening to inadequately developed characters. In any case it is true that the show is dramatic. Most episodes involve somebody crying at some point. If frequent tears is something that puts you off then you likely won't enjoy this anime. It definitely lays on the drama heavy (that's certainly not an issue for me personally). Apparently the source material is shoujo demographic, although it felt much more cosmopolitan than that to me. One subtle but praiseworthy aspect of this anime is that it maintains a fairly consistent emotional tone. I was grateful for the absence of comedic relief and minimal 'emotional whiplash' effects.
Beyond the characters, the show tries to tackle a bewildering amount of story arcs, in addition to the already elaborate worldbuilding. Simply put, the show tries to pack way too much story into its runtime, and as a result none of the story arcs are executed particularly well. The divided attention of the viewer and lack of sufficient screentime meant that any resulting emotional payoff from a given story arc was significantly impeded. To me, this is a core reason for this anime's squandered potential. I think you won't be surprised to read that I found the show's overall pacing way too quick, particularly during the later episodes.
Although they weren't present in every episode, I found the fight scenes to be a weak point of this anime. They were fairly lackluster and, even worse, drawn out and soaked up a lot of precious screentime. I'm really not sure why so much screentime was allocated to these fight scenes. Regardless of the execution, it was disappointing to see such a unique creative show devolve into mundane violent conflict. I realize that the kinetic conflict was a mechanism to explore the themes of the writing, but I wish it was approached a different way. However, my opinion on this is definitely biased due to my general distaste for fight scenes. It's possible I'm overstating their significance.
No.3484
>>3483The OST seemed decent but I'll need to listen to it in isolation to evaluate it with greater confidence. I know there were some good tracks, but it was mostly overshadowed by dialogue and sound effects (like sandstorm background noise), at least from my perspective. In terms of voice acting, nobody in this large cast impressed me or stood out (besides Ouni's sexy deep voice).
My overall rating: 7/10
This anime has a truly unique setting along with some intriguing worldbuilding, and it's all presented with a wonderful organic-looking art style. It consistently looks fantastic. Unfortunately, it suffers from unfocused storytelling and poor screentime budgeting. It tries to present far too much story content for its runtime, and sadly as a result none of the story arcs realize their impressive potential.
A lot of this anime's issues could have been diminished if it were two cours instead of a mere 12 episodes. Most of its flaws are common manga adaptation problems.
Despite my criticisms, I think that a lot of people could enjoy this anime. There are a lot of aspects here worth appreciating. I'm surprised it isn't more popular.
No.3494
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34547I watched Shoukoku no Altair, also known as Altair: A Record of Battles. Here are my thoughts:
This is a historical show set in a vaguely medieval time period. Magic does not play a significant role in the show (if at all – I don't recall any magic but I hesitate to promise its total absence), and overall it is pretty realistic. The MC (Altair) does have protagonist plot armour in some situations, but as a whole I found the story fairly believable.
The setting consists of a variety of nations that resemble those of the historical-Mediterranean perimeter. The MC is a high-ranking member of a pseudo-Ottoman nation's government. The MC travels around throughout the show and different nations are featured along the way. Various ideologies of both nations and individuals are explored throughout the story. It is pretty interesting. The show accomplishes an impressive amount of elaborate worldbuilding during its 24-episode runtime. All the different nations depicted in the show were also potent imagination fertilizer.
Overall the story of Shoukoku no Altair is exceptionally well written and clever. The storyline is very intricate and unique. It is complex yet coherent and intriguing. I found the story very interesting and enjoyable. The writing (including worldbuilding and abstract themes) of this anime is its best feature. Most of the plot is related to political and military conflict between (and within) nations.
Beyond the plot, the writing explores themes relating, or at least tangential, to international relations and geopolitics. Themes such as military grand strategy, relations between a nation's culture and its foreign policy, and a wide variety of political themes in general. These themes made the show very interesting. There are often parallels that could be drawn between the story and real-world history.
In addition to being excellently written, the story is well executed. Despite the complexity of the story I never had any difficulty understanding what was happening. Furthermore, the pacing felt perfectly calibrated to me. It is a well-directed show.
One caveat I should mention is that, as you might expect of a manga adaptation, the ending of this anime does not have any finality. Although it does end at a major turning point in the plot, most of the conflicts that the plot is centered around remain unresolved. Personally I don't mind this (and it does signal that the adaptation is faithful) but I know it will bother others. I am very tempted to read the source material to find out how the story continues.
Despite the mature themes explored in the writing, the show does sometimes have a juvenile shounen-ish feeling. It's a very mixed bag though and varies from episode to episode. Generally speaking, I found the earlier episodes felt juvenile more frequently. As the show progresses, the strategy elements start to dominate more and more, and the scale of conflict increases. It takes time for the worldbuilding to develop to a point where the exploration of some political themes is even possible. My numerical rating for this anime increased as I progressed through the episodes.
It's also worth noting that this is not a particularly character-driven show. It is very much plot-driven rather than character-driven. It seemed to me that little attention was paid to depicting the emotions and feelings of the MC and other characters, particularly during the later episodes. This isn't a criticism, just an observation. In a different show this might be an issue, but for a strategy-focused show like this that explores abstract political themes it really isn't. Although there certainly are emotional episodes, some episodes are so devoid of emotion it almost felt like watching a history documentary. Again, particularly during the latter half of the show when the grand-strategy elements really reach their climax. Despite the show's length, there's also not a whole lot of character development, however there is a diverse variety of personalities in the cast, and perhaps more importantly, different sociopolitical attitudes. The show certainly has ideological diversity within its cast.
In a lot of ways the MC does feel like a generic anime protagonist. Although his lack of character development really isn't an issue, perhaps more effort should have been made to depict his ideological attitudes and their development throughout the show. On balance, I have a neutral feeling towards the MC, but I can understand the perspective of people who disliked him. I would agree that this is one element of the anime where there was room for improvement.
In my opinion, the OST is good. Nice OP and ED songs too. The voice acting is adequate but nobody really stood out to me. I thought the voice work for the MC was a little weak.
No.3495
>>3494As for visuals, some of the character designs are nice. Due to the size of the cast and its cultural diversity, a wide variety of outfits are featured in the show. Unfortunately, the character animation is frequently crude and lacking detail. However, the background setting usually looks great (I took lots of screencaps); every episode has at least a few nice detailed landscape frames to admire. During indoor scenes a lot of the pseudo-Arabic architecture and interior decor is neat as well. The visuals are inconsistent overall, but there are certainly moments where things look awesome.
My overall rating: 8/10
This anime is exceptionally well written. The story is interesting and clever, the themes explored are thought provoking, and it contains some of the most elaborate worldbuilding I've seen in a while. It is rare to see anime handle a topic like political strategy so competently. Furthermore, the anime is well executed and doesn't have any major direction issues. Visually, the setting looks good but the character animation is often sloppy.
This is an underappreciated show that would appeal to a lot of people, including those who aren't typically anime fans. I would definitely recommend Shoukoku no Altair to people who like political/military strategy stories. However, I should warn you that I found the first couple episodes comparatively weaker to the rest of the anime. The show feels a little juvenile at the beginning, but it eventually develops an elaborate world with a rich complex story. Don't judge it prematurely based on the first few episodes.
Also, the manga might be a better way to approach this franchise. I haven't read it, but the fact that the anime's best quality is its writing does suggest that literature is the optimal consumption medium.
I liked this way more than Arslan Senki (a similar anime in concept).
>I will never command a unit of attack-falcon-equipped soldiers in a medieval war between civilizations on the Eastern Mediterranean perimeter JDIMSA
No.3526
https://myanimelist.net/anime/10719I watched both seasons (including OVAs) of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, also known as Haganai or I Don't Have Many Friends. Here are my thoughts:
I tend not to like harem shows such as this with a male protagonist and a lot of (typically unfunny) comedy. Nevertheless, I decided to give this anime a chance. The title is certainly enticing and relatable.
I really liked the voice acting for Sena, Yozora, and Kobato; everyone else is unremarkable. The OST is bad, in my opinion.
The humour is sometimes funny. The comedic theme of social ineptitude is a winner. There is also a lot of 'otaku humour' which can be funny as well. Character interactions are sometimes enjoyable. The various activities of the club and the resulting antics of the characters can be fairly amusing. Humour and character interactions are really this mediocre anime's only redeeming qualities. Probably the thing I enjoyed most about the anime was the chemistry (or lack thereof, haha) between Sena and Yozora. The way they play off each other is amusing. Sena yelling "YOZORA AHO" and then running out of the club room will never not be funny. Conversely, I found the other characters (i.e. not Yozora or Sena) to be unfunny. This anime is at its best when it focuses on Sena and Yozora. In fact these two characters are the only reason I kept watching. Seriously, I did not like anyone else in the cast besides maybe Kobato because her chuuni moments were funny. Despite the 25-episode length of this anime, the entire cast has shallow characterization and is often one-note in their behaviour, which can result in the gags and character interaction feeling repetitive.
The writing of this anime feels amateurish and crude. The show has an overarching story that mainly involves Yozora and the main character. The story is quite dumb and I didn't like it (the story-focused episodes are the worst in the series). Thankfully it does not suck up that much screentime. This anime is mostly episodic. I did enjoy how both Sena and Yozora have uniquely flawed personalities in their own ways, which is sort of refreshing compared to the usual idealistic love interests you encounter in typical romance/harem shows.
I don't mean this in an overly critical way, but this show is juvenile even by anime standards, both in terms of the writing and humour. This isn't an objectively bad thing; I can imagine that a teenage boy would enjoy this anime a lot more than I did. It's not that I can't enjoy childish anime, it's just that a lot of the content of this one fell flat for me, and a pervasive underlying reason for this seems to be the juvenile nature of the show. This is coming from someone who generally enjoys the SoL genre. It's difficult for me to articulate this point because it's hard to concisely express why this schoolyard comedy is more juvenile than other schoolyard comedies.
In terms of visuals, the art style in this did not age well. I did not like the character designs (although purple eyes do look great on Yozora — wish that were a more common design choice). The colour palette is also very dull. Animation quality was acceptable — there were 'quality' moments but at least the facial expressions were adequately animated. There's a ton of fanservice as well, which isn't surprising since this is a harem anime.
My overall rating: 4/10
It was pretty bad but amusing enough to keep me watching. This anime did have funny moments, but my average level of enjoyment while watching was fairly low. There were plenty of unfunny skits that diluted the parts that I did enjoy. Yozora and Sena basically carried the entire show — I would have dropped this on episode 1 were it not for those two characters. Also, as I said, the voice acting for some characters (Sena & Yozora) is an outstanding aspect of this anime.
A teenage boy would likely enjoy this anime more than I did.
Compared to season 1, season 2 has notably better animation quality, cinematography and lighting effects. Otherwise, the content is pretty much the same. By the way, the prequel OVA is complete garbage; don't waste your time watching it like I did. Conversely, the season 1 OVA (AKA episode 13) is one of the relatively better episodes.
Somebody should make a compilation of all the times Sena yells "BAKA YOZORA" or "YOZORA AHO". It could be really funny.
No.3528
>>3526I appreciate you confirming my assumptions about this show, which were "I would hate this now in my mid 20s but if I was 14 I'd probably be all about it". Elfen Lied and some other shows fit into that weird arbitrary presumption for me. I always imagined it would be really fanservicey but your review doesn't mention it so maybe I'm mistaken.
No.3529
>>3528Oh I totally know the feeling you're describing.
Also it was quite fanservice-heavy and there was loads of in-your-face sexualization for the female characters (see last sentence of my paragraph on visuals). I didn't elaborate on that aspect since it seemed obvious and anyone who has seen a couple romcom harem shows would know what to expect anyway.
No.3532
>>3530I have rewatched it too, although in November. It is indeed such a soothing show with such a loveable cast.
Kuri appealed a lot to me too, but those two goofballs won me over. Especially the scene where they created a raft, placed a snack on it and sent it down the river cracked me up. As you already mentioned though, all the side characters are so great, that they do deserve more screen time and could easily carry a weaker slice of life on their own. Such a pity that there wasn't an OVA where each character got an episode or something.
One thing that I also liked a lot is how all the people treated Sora. They completely accepted that she now and then has the urge to be alone and didn't think any less of her because of that. It reminded me a lot about Yuru Camp with Rin, the characters know each other and trust each other, which is beautifully shown with subtle acts like that. They take each other for who they are.
No.3533
>>3532Yeah Sora is really cute and it's nice that her friends respect her personality. Her shyness is exaggerated at times but never made into too much of a gag. Overall I think she's one of the better (and to me more relatable) examples of a super introverted character.
My favorite gag from the upperclassmen duo is where they keep telling Kate dumb fake shit about Japan and she believes it every time. OUHHH SOO NAN DESS KERR!
No.3535
I watched Sora no Woto again, probably for the 9th or 10th time now, but it's been a couple years whereas I used to watch it yearly. I'm happy to say it's still one of my favorite shows. The setting and the way it's presented and teased about as the show goes along is excellently done worldbuilding, and still engages me even knowing the show as well as I do. The characters too, are a strong point. There's not a single girl of the main cast who I like much less than any of the others. On top of being well-crafted and likable examples of familiar SoL archetypes, they also go the extra mile in fleshing the characters out to the extent that you can understand why each of them are how they are. Rather than it being "this girl is the really motherly/strict/kuudere one because she just is", Sora no Woto gives you believable reasons and a backstory as to WHY she is the way she is. I wish more shows did this, it really adds to my connection to the characters. Oh and the OST of course is fantastic. It's rare that I watch a show and remember the OST, so when one of them stands out to me it tends to REALLY stand out, and SnW is one of those shows. I still throw on the OST sometimes when I'm baking or cleaning and need to relax a little.
It also does a really great job at communicating its themes in a way that feels honest and without being too preachy, which is something that many anime especially struggle with. The whole episode about Felicia's PTSD and her wish to protect the girls from that will always stand out to me as one of my favorite pieces of anything ever, as will the finale. The scene where they play back Servante du Feu over the Roman version of the legend is just awesome. They connect it visually with both the past and present, to show that it's a retelling of history to some level, and to draw a parallel between how the girls save Aisha and how the Fire Maidens sheltered the wounded Angel. It serves to help you understand the world better and to drive home the message of compassion towards your enemies all in one extremely climactic scene. And of course the final Amazing Grace scene is just iconic.
If I had to criticize the show I would say the pacing is a little bad at some points, and while I personally like him just fine I can think of a lot of ways the villain of the final conflict could have been better or played a bigger role. I think some people might find the fanservice shots or some of sillier parts of the show out of place, but I think to complain about that is to miss what Sora no Woto really is, a CGDCT show that has an actual story and themes at its heart. And for being that I adore it.
No.3536
>>3530i have to agree with you. There are those constant cutaways to the cats who are way less interesting or well developed compared to the main cast, and also not really that funny and i felt like that took away from how great the rest of the show is. If it wasn't for that stuff it would be one of my favourites for sure. Still goated show though.
No.3560
>>3557Girls Last Tour is a 10/10 for me, I love the atmosphere and themes. Glad you're enjoying it too.
No.3583
https://myanimelist.net/anime/23279/I watched Gyakusatsu Kikan, also known as Genocidal Organ. Here are my thoughts:
I feel like military-themed sci-fi media such as this is one of the rare things that Western entertainment does better than the Japanese (or at least used to).
This movie does an okay job of creating suspense. The pacing is fine and it is competently directed.
There were relatively few action scenes. I was expecting this to be a lowbrow sci-fi action movie, but it was slightly more complex than expected. However, you should be warned that there is a female love-interest character in this. Thankfully she does not suck up much screentime, although her presence is influential.
As far as the story goes, it was fairly generic near-future sci-fi. However, I will say that the involvement of linguistics was creative, or at least somewhat unique. Genocide is a significant theme in the story, as you might expect from the title. The movie is pretty morose, and you should expect people dying and a lot of bad things happening. When it does occur, the violence is pretty graphic.
The characters as a whole are pretty generic, and not much character development takes place during the movie. I would have liked to have witnessed more interactions between the soldier characters. The focus on special forces soldiers did appeal to me, and I wish this aspect was examined even more in the movie. This is definitely a reflection of my own biases though (I have been interested in the psyche of SF soldiers for a very long time, and have listened to at least hundreds of their interviews over the years).
In terms of sci-fi elements, there's some cool technology but nothing I hadn't seen before. Some of the futuristic combat technology was sorta neat I guess.
Audiovisuals were adequate. The soundtrack was adequate but unremarkable. Voice acting was at best adequate, although there weren't many opportunities for a VA to showcase their talent anyway. Animation quality was fine, although hardly high-budget blockbuster anime material. Some of the European cities featured in the movie looked okay; otherwise, the visuals were fairly lackluster. Facial expressions were decently animated at least. Also, although infrequent, the action scenes did sound and look decent – not spectacular, but decent. I usually enjoyed them. They are shortlived though, so don't let that be your motivation to watch this.
My overall rating: 5/10
It was adequately entertaining and I never considered turning it off. However, there was nothing exceptional about this movie, aside from perhaps the use of linguistics in the story. There was some neat technology, but nothing much beyond your typical 'future soldier' stuff. As a whole, it felt like a pretty generic sci-fi military-themed movie.
I wouldn't recommend watching this unless you are obsessed with sci-fi or have some strange fixation on genocide. If you are seriously interested in this work, you should probably just read the source material. If you just feel like watching some futuristic combat, scan through the movie and watch the action scenes I guess.
No.3610
https://myanimelist.net/anime/32949I watched Kuzu no Honkai, also known as Scum's Wish. Here are my thoughts:
Basically this is a romance anime, but with multiple romantic pairings and more focus on sexual intimacy than usual – in some ways this show is more 'mature' than your typical romance anime, especially one with a highschool setting.
When I read the synopsis for this anime I immediately felt that I probably wouldn't enjoy it. This is because I usually dislike love triangles (or n-dimensional polygons, in this case) in fiction. Add to that a bland school setting, and I was feeling fairly pessimistic. However, my intuition was wrong. Although I was correct in that the writing of Kuzu no Honkai is literally fanfiction-tier (and that's being generous), it is an exceptionally well-directed show. The poor writing is more than salvaged by the excellent execution. I found the style of storytelling immersive and captivating; they did a good job of depicting the emotions of the characters. The inner feelings of the characters were richly developed and depicted in a deep thorough way, despite the crudeness of the story.
I still did not like the love triangle aspect of this anime (again, this is a writing flaw). However, there were other redeeming qualities that made my viewing experience worthwhile. And although I criticize the love triangle element, I also found that the diverse mix of relationships that are developed in the show created a lot of variety in terms of the chemistry of the romance, which in turn kept the show consistently entertaining. I think a major reason I enjoyed this anime is because it usually explores the perspectives of both parties in the relationships featured in the show; this is often the case for me with romance shows – I usually feel more immersed and emotionally engaged when the feelings of both people in the relationship are demonstrated, instead of just totally one-sided romance (which a ton of anime are guilty of). This anime usually explores the feelings of both romantic partners, and in doing so really enhances its emotional immersion as a whole.
Kuzu no Honkai actually deals with sex in a somewhat mature manner instead of glossing over it as if it isn't a significant component of a romantic relationship (like most other anime). I found this very refreshing. This show does a great job of depicting sexual intimacy (especially by anime standards). Sometimes it's a little cheesy and over the top (expect a lot of exaggerated saliva-heavy makeout sessions), but honestly it fits the atmosphere of the show. Although the sexual scenes can be borderline comical at times, that corniness is nothing compared to the story itself. You really need to be in the right mood for this anime and let yourself be immersed in the atmosphere — an atmosphere which typically swings abruptly between soap opera and raunchy sexuality. If you're not willing to let yourself be shamelessly enveloped by this atmosphere then you won't enjoy this anime to its fullest potential. State of mind is hugely important for appreciating this show, in my opinion.
In some ways, the romance in this seemed like how real-life relationships actually work. Meaning, people settling for someone who doesn't reach their own true desires, often due to loneliness and low self-esteem (remaining in a relationship out of convenience or due to lack of superior options, instead of sincere mutual attraction, might be a theme that some viewers find relatable). The way that some characters use physical intimacy with others purely for their own validation is another example. This kind of realism is something you rarely encounter in anime romance. Furthermore, this anime depicts intimacy in a realistic manner (i.e. with actual sexual intercourse and all the related psychological phenomena such as insecurity and performance anxiety), as opposed to the reluctant hand-holding (etc.) that the audience has learned to expect from this medium. In fact the sexual elements of this are often depicted quite graphically and in far more explicit detail than I'd usually expect from anime.
I say this often but it's especially true for this anime: you need to be in the right mood to enjoy this to its fullest potential. Every episode is raunchy sexualized romance with a soap-opera-tier storyline. Don't watch it unless you're in the mood and prepared to enjoy this kind of thing. If you have the right state of mind, this anime is fantastic. The attitude of the viewer is hugely important for this show. I watched it slowly because I wanted to make sure I was always in the right mood to enjoy it.
I should also mention that there is minimal comedic relief in this, thankfully. The show nearly always maintains a serious dramatic tone, which is something I very much appreciated, even if I was laughing internally at the fanfiction-tier storyline.
No.3611
>>3610Visuals are overall another strong aspect of Kuzu no Honkai. The character designs are terrific – the detailed hair and eyes looked great. Detailed facial expressions are used effectively during the frequent close-up face shots. The cinematography of the show is excellent and enhanced my enjoyment a lot. It's difficult to put into words, but cinematography is employed in sophisticated and creative ways to really elevate each scene, and the screenplay style of the show feels unique. However, arguably the animation quality itself is mediocre. The animation is kinda 'powerpoint-ish' (or, in more-optimistic terms, 'manga-like'), in the sense that stills and minimal in-frame animation are employed. Personally I was fine with this, but others may dislike it. In my opinion, the visuals for this anime are great.
The audio of the show is also solid. The voice acting is good and enhanced many scenes (Hanabi in particular does a fantastic job). Music is skillfully implemented; it is turned off and on at appropriate times, and climaxes in the music coincide well with a scene's emotion. The soundtrack is decent and suited the mood of the show. The audio production quality in general is good; the voices sound like they were recorded on really high-quality microphones.
The incestuous romance in this is somewhat unique in that it is told from the (imouto) female perspective. Furthermore, the otouto is the nonreciprocal party of the romantic duo. I found this element of the story interesting because it's not something I recall seeing before. For anime, any kind of incestuous romance is usually narrated from the perspective of the male, often along with crude wish-fulfillment character dynamics. Kuzu no Honkai is unique in this regard; I enjoyed seeing this unique style of romance explored from a female perspective.
I found the romantic pairings involving Hanabi far more engaging than those she was uninvolved in. For me, this show was most engaging when it focused on Hanabi and her romantic escapades. It was still an entertaining show when she wasn't on screen though – don't get me wrong.
My overall rating: 8/10
I was pleasantly surprised by the way this anime defied my expectations. In multiple respects, the show does have artistic merit. It impressed me in many ways. Going into this, I expected it to be a generic highschool romance; but after watching, I have to say that I see Kuzu no Honkai as a very unique show. The nature of the romance is unique. The cinematography is unique. Its maturity (in some ways) and the way it parses sexual issues is unique. Visually, the show is skillfully crafted. Overall it is quite well directed and a demonstrative example of how bad writing can be salvaged by good execution.
If you're a fan of romance anime you should try sampling this. Don't think about the crude writing too much, just take it scene-by-scene and bask in the emotion.
Lastly, I'm going to say it one more time: you need to be in the right mood to enjoy this anime. The tone and themes of each episode are fairly consistent. Don't rush watching this. Watch an episode when you're in the optimal mood to enjoy it; don't binge watch it. State of mind is really important for savouring this show. I watched an episode every week or so, and when I did I was constantly rewinding and dissecting each scene and savouring every moment. It would take me at least an hour to finish an episode because of this.
No.3616
>>3409Trust me the motivation to watch anime will come again, u just have to wait a little!
No.3621
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36220I watched Itsudatte Bokura no Koi wa 10 cm Datta, also known as "Our Love Has Always Been 10 Centimeters Apart." Here are my thoughts:
This is just a 6-episode anime, so I'll try to be brief. Although you can watch this show on its own with ease, it is sort of a sequel. There is a sorta-prequel movie with the same cast, but the MCs from this anime are minor supporting characters instead (and vice versa for this anime – the movie MCs are supporting characters). The sorta-prequel movie I'm referring to is Zutto Mae Kara Suki Deshita; I didn't particularly like it (for pretty much the same reasons as this anime) and rated it 4/10 when I watched it 2 years ago. Anyway, moving along from this preamble…
As you might guess, this is a typical highschool romance show. I found it quite mediocre. There are a few decent scenes, but it doesn't compensate for all the other lackluster content. My average level of enjoyment while watching was low. There were flickers of emotionally engaging romance (ex. the fireworks scene), but they were infrequent.
The story in general is weak, and the second half of the series is filled with forced drama. Sometimes the actions of the characters don't make any sense.
The characters are, at best, generic. In fact they are borderline unlikable, particularly the male MC. The supporting cast is totally generic and might as well be cardboard-cutout props.
The visuals are adequate but unremarkable, as is the audio in general (both music and voice acting). The character designs are totally generic, although Miou's brown hair/eyes do look nice. I will say that sometimes the facial expressions are well done, but these moments are infrequent.
My overall rating: 4/10
This is a totally generic mediocre highschool romance show with no particularly noteworthy qualities. There were a few decent scenes, but they were not nearly plentiful enough to satisfy me. There is a lot of forced drama, and the characters range from generic (at best) to unlikable.
There is a music group by the name of Honeyworks that has been strongly associated with this franchise. I attentively listened to a bunch of their albums (about 75 songs) and found ~10 songs I liked enough to set aside for future listening. So, although there was stuff I kinda liked, the signal-to-noise ratio was high.
There isn't much of value in this franchise. I recommend avoiding it entirely unless you are obsessed with highschool romance. I tried to like this franchise and gave it many chances, but every single thing I tried was mediocre at best. Your time is better spent elsewhere.
No.3626
>>3624Check out One Pound Gospel OVA. Same director as Ashita no Joe and it is available on youtube
https://youtu.be/-oj_KQ6bieAthough you should definitely watch Ashita no Joe at a pace as it is a classic.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
No.3656
>>3409Have you considered trying to learn japanese? I've been playing VNs like a madman, like 12+ hours a day, since it's easy to delude yourself you're doing something productive.
No.3701
https://myanimelist.net/anime/9289I watched Hanasaku Iroha. Here are my thoughts:
I really wanted to like this anime; at first glance, it seemed like something I would really enjoy. Unfortunately however, my viewing experience was mixed at best and certainly didn't meet my optimistic expectations.
During approximately the first third of the show, my optimism persisted but began to wane, and in retrospect the earlier episodes were the best part of the series. As the story and characters continued to develop, my opinion of it soured, and by the time I was halfway through the TV series I knew I was watching something mediocre.
At its core, Hanasaku Iroha is a character-driven drama much moreso than a typical slice-of-life show. Generally speaking, I like character-driven dramas. Unfortunately, this one has a very weak set of characters as well as quite generic and cliche writing. All the conflicts were things I've seen before in fiction. All the characters were tropes I'd seen before. All the character arcs were, at best, tropey and cliche. The writing felt like a generic character-driven drama that happened to be set in a ryokan. The mediocrity of the writing is a major flaw, especially considering this is a 26-episode(+movie) character-driven drama. The writing of the latter half of the show in particular was very weak and had plenty of forced artificial-feeling drama. The movie-making arc, for example, was absolutely dreadful.
I really want to emphasize my lack of enthusiasm for the characters themselves. Literally the entire core cast is unlikable and/or annoying. It's actually impressive that they managed to create such a consistently off-putting set of characters. By the time I completed this show, I can confidently say that I disliked every single significant character (and there are a lot of them). It really is astonishing how such a character-driven show has such a lackluster cast of characters. Despite it being a drama, I never connected emotionally with any of the characters. Some of the most important cast members felt like exaggerated caricatures – particularly the older characters; the younger staff felt more realistic, although still irritating in their own unique special ways. I think maybe I would have empathized more with the characters if they actually evolved as people and overcame their problems/flaws, but there is barely any character evolution during the 26-episode runtime! Saying that there are character arcs in this show is a misnomer – nobody overcomes anything, nobody achieves any goal, and certainly nobody improves their personality or grows as a person.
The comedy was also consistently unfunny. The consultant woman character was annoying as hell; she was clearly supposed to be used primarily for comedic relief, but she was incredibly annoying and groan-inducing. I dreaded her appearing on-screen.
Alright, up until here I know I have been ripping into this show, but I do want to give credit where credit is due: the ryokan setting of this anime feels very authentic and I appreciated that a lot. In fact I specifically sought out this anime because it was about ryokan employees. The ryokan feels very real and there is lots of attention to detail paid to the setting. This is further enhanced by the surprisingly great production quality. For a 26-episode SoL-ish TV anime in a real-world setting, without any action or anything to justify a large visual budget, that aired in 2011, the visuals of Hanasaku Iroha are rock solid and very well done. Although there isn't much artistic flair, there is not a single blemish to be found. It easily could have passed as a modestly budgeted movie. The setting often looks quite nice; lots of detail is used in backgrounds and the like. The visual style was simplistic but natural and organic-looking and felt remarkably similar to a live-action show. Despite the mundane events of the anime, the character animation is well done. The attention to detail and high production value really enhanced the ryokan setting and made it immersive. I appreciated this aspect of the show.
As for audio, I must say that the voice acting has a ton of variety and nearly every core character has unique distinctive voice work. I liked the voice work for Minko and Nako. Ohana does some good work during some of the more-dramatic scenes. The OST is okay, although a little more variety would have been nice for such a long runtime. The OP/ED songs are good, in my opinion (to those of you wondering: yes, I do like nano.RIPE's vocals but I can understand the perspective of those who don't).
No.3702
>>3701My overall rating: 5/10
I wanted a ryokan-employee simulator and I got a ryokan-employee simulator. However, it unfortunately came with some undesirable features. Although the ryokan setting is very authentic and immersive, and executed with flawless visual production quality, its inhabitants are annoying and unlikable. Furthermore, the writing is as cliche and lackluster as the characters themselves.
Sakura Quest had its flaws too but I enjoyed it more than this; it certainly had way better characters. I haven't seen Shirobako yet but hope to watch it soon.
Here are my comments on the Home Sweet Home movie:
- I should mention that I watched this immediately after finishing the TV anime, and was already feeling pretty burnt out on the series after 26 episodes. It's possible I might have enjoyed it more if I let the TV anime digest in me for longer, although honestly I doubt it.
- Visually, the show was the same but with slightly better production quality. The TV anime already had solid visuals, so there wasn't much room for improvement here anyway.
- I liked the focus on teenage Satsuki. I actually think they did a good job depicting her and her youthful struggles, especially with the limited runtime. I think I would have much preferred her as the MC in the TV series.
- There was not much of an overarching plot and the movie basically just consists of an assortment of mostly SoL-style scenes. I was fine with this; it would have been a mistake to try to cram a serious plot into this short runtime.
- Aside from the scenes that depicted teenage Satsuki, this movie felt just like another TV episode (including the usual flaws).
- My rating for the movie: 5/10
Hanasaku Iroha has kind of a 'live action' feel to it, in the sense that I could easily imagine it being played out with real-life actors. People who typically prefer live-action TV dramas might like this anime.
No.3703
>>3701Hey sushi, I wonder if you could take your reviews someplace else since I feel they kinda clash with the casual vibe of the site. Also it's not like they generate much discussion and giving a rating may repel viewers who could potentially derive more enjoyment from a show. Just my two cents.
No.3705
>>3703I enjoy reading his reviews, it's always nice to see someone go into detail when sharing their thoughts on imageboards. I don't see what's so unfitting about them.
No.3706
>>3703I will throw my voice in the ring and say I like reading rolls reviews. I don't think even a scathingly negative review would be out of place as long as it doesn't devolve into fighting. It's just opinions.
No.3707
>>3705>I don't see what's so unfitting about themThey're big blogposts on an sushi rollymous imageboard and the fact that the reviews are reposted on other IBs doesn't help. I can understand that the reposting is done to get a wider variety of opinions but it could attract uncomfy attention.
No.3709
>>3707Excluding shitchan, the only two other IBs I post reviews on are basically on life support, especially with respect to anime discussion. The only reason I post them on 4/a/ (they usually go straight to page 10) is so it ends up in the archive so when people (like myself) search the shitchan archive they will find my review.
Also I really like the unfiltered feedback (including negative replies) I get in this medium and it's not something that can be replicated elsewhere. I also watch a fair bit of obscure stuff and it can be very difficult to find english speakers with similar interests.
To the people who want me to leave: show me an alternative platform and I'll gladly look into it.
One of these years I may finally launch a serious high-effort blog, but I work a lot and don't have much free time. In the meantime I am just trying to contribute to imageboard culture before it completely fades away.
No.3725
Moved the most uncomfy posts to
>>>/superhell/414Reviews are of course allowed.
Nobody have to like everything, but there is no reason to be mean about it.
Edit: I fucked up when moving the posts. I'll ask Seisatsu to fix ;_;
No.3726
>>3725Yuno is an integral part of the /otaku/ (formerly samachan) experience and it saddens me to see his contributions relegated to superhell…
No.3730
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36038I watched Net-juu no Susume, also known as Recovery of an MMO Junkie or Recommendation of the Wonderful Virtual Life. Here are my thoughts:
In terms of the writing, the characters are a strong point – they are likable and often relatable, particularly the MC (Moriko). However, the plot is cliche and predictable. I don't want to be too harsh on the plot though because it set up a ton of situational comedy and was a fertile source of humour in general. Regardless of the story, the script itself is overall well done; I thought they totally nailed it during some scenes, and it was further enhanced by the voice acting. The dialogue was often funny too. I enjoyed the humour in this a lot, and the script and its delivery was a major component of that. I laughed out loud at every episode.
The voice acting in this is surprisingly good, especially for the female MC. Her voice work definitely enhanced the humour for me in many instances, and she also handled emotional moments well. In fact all the lead characters do a good job. Lily's in-game voicework is great, as is Lilac's. Hayashi does a good job too. The voice acting in this was a significant contributor to my enjoyment. Conversely, the OST seemed like it lacked variety (even for the short runtime) and felt low budget and unremarkable. There is one nice piano melody that is used frequently though.
As for the romance aspect, there are certainly some cute moments but I wouldn't say it's the main appeal of the show. This is more of a romcom (which I know is an off-putting term for many people, myself included). It doesn't play it straight and serious like a typical romance; comedic relief is frequent, including during romance-heavy scenes. Ordinarily I would take issue with this, but I really enjoyed the comedy of this anime and thought it was skillfully implemented. The mixture of sweet and funny feelings made for a really enjoyable viewing experience. It's very rare for me to feel this way about comedic relief, which I think is a testament to how well it's executed in this instance. Overall this is a surprisingly well-directed show.
The visuals are pretty basic and lackluster. Although I will give credit to the fact that the character animation is consistently on-model, which is not something I take for granted (especially with the presumably low budget of this anime). Even so, the visuals are adequate at best and there is definitely room for improvement in this dimension.
My overall rating: 8/10
I was either smiling or laughing while watching this. This show is funny and relatable. The MC is quite likable. The script is usually well written and delivered surprisingly well by the VAs. Although the plot is cliche and predictable, it created a lot of hilarious situational humour. Regardless of its lackluster production quality, this is a surprisingly well-directed show; I was consistently engaged by it and always looked forward to the next episode. This is a really fun anime and I'm glad I watched it.
I would definitely recommend this to people who spend a lot of time in internet communities, or have a significant component of their social life online.
This anime is 10 episodes plus one full-length special sequel episode. Just warning you, that 11th episode is one of the weaker ones IMO, so don't get your hopes up too much. You should treat the 10th episode as the finale.
No.3747
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31240I watched Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu, also known as Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World. I watched both seasons (including both parts of season 2), as well as the two movies. Here are my thoughts:
I should mention that I watched the director's cut for the first season, which supposedly had slightly more content than the original TV series. The first-season director's cut consists of 13 ~50-minute episodes, instead of the 25 TV episodes that composed the original version. For this reason my viewing experience might have been slightly different than others', although I've heard anecdotally that there's not much difference between the director's cut and the TV version.
The setting of Re:Zero is a fairly typical classic-fantasy world, but with a few unusual mechanics thrown in. There are a few cool things (like the flying magical whale), but overall it is pretty standard-fare fantasy stuff.
I'm really not fond of the character designs. Seriously, every single character in this is an eye sore, in my opinion. I just personally don't like the character art style at all. I also found the character animation during season 1 to be sloppy, however that did improve during season 2. Conversely, the setting and backgrounds in the show are sometimes animated well (moreso during season 1). The clash between the detailed backgrounds and poor character animation was impossible to ignore. It is quite stark and there are countless frames that look absurd because of it (again, this is a much more prominent issue in season 1).
I don't particularly like any of the characters, especially the MC. The story is told entirely through the perspective of the MC, and he is pretty much constantly on-screen, so my distaste for his personality was a major issue that seriously impeded my enjoyment of this series. My dislike for the characters (especially the MC) also prevented me from feeling empathy for them, which in turn inhibited my overall emotional engagement with the anime. The MC's behaviour and motivations were often stupid or even incomprehensible, and I frequently felt frustrated by his actions. Simply put, I would have enjoyed this anime more if the MC wasn't constantly behaving like a childish imbecile. His personality really is intolerable. Furthermore, even by isekai standards, the MC comes across as very 'self-inserty.' The rest of the cast is also fairly bland, and most supporting cast members just exist to facilitate aspects of the plot. The story really does revolve entirely around the MC (with the exception of some portions of S2P2).
During some portions of this anime I thought there was way too much unfunny tone-breaking comedy that would totally ruin the tension and emotion in a scene; this issue was most prominent during the first half of season 1, but never really went away entirely. It's really just a symptom of a broader issue, which is that the scriptwriting in this is garbage, at least from my perspective. Everything is overly spelled out so explicitly, the characters might as well be narrators. There is no nuance at all. It sounds like the VAs are reading from a rough draft. Scenes that have the potential to be emotionally impactful are often crippled by clunky unnatural dialogue and/or inappropriate comedy. Another ever-present issue is that the character interaction in this consistently feels unnatural and forced. These issues might be related to the seemingly juvenile target audience (more on that further below). The overly literal and explicit dialogue might be an intentional decision so that a younger viewer won't have trouble understanding anything. Sometimes the dialogue felt cheesy too, although that is just another manifestation of it being overly literal and explicit.
I didn't like the voice acting for Subaru (the MC) or Emilia. This is particularly unfortunate because the MC is near-constantly speaking, either to others or internally monologuing (I will concede that the VAs for both Subaru and Emilia got better during season 2, or maybe I perceived it that way due to the reduction in comedic relief). However, I did like the voice work for the two maid sisters (Rem and Ram), and Garf (introduced in S2) does a remarkable job as well.
The plot is sometimes good, and pretty much the only reason I stuck with this anime. The plot can be entertaining and sometimes the series does a good job of creating suspense. It's fairly easy to watch and the episodes pass quickly (during season 1 at least). If you want a somewhat interesting and complex plot, then this anime might be worth watching for you. It's also noteworthy that the plot is usually fairly coherent and laid out clearly, despite its complexity. There also aren't any major pacing issues (at least not in season 1). Plot execution is done well — and that very easily could have not been the case, so this is praiseworthy.
No.3748
>>3747The OST felt a little generic sometimes although with fantastic production quality. There's a lot of orchestral music – some of it is actually quite excellent. I liked the season 2 OST more than season 1, despite the composer being the same. The composer's style eventually came to grow on me, but it took a while (I listened to the OST numerous times in isolation – not having to hear Subaru's awful voice concurrently likely helped). Regardless of your personal tastes, the OST is far better produced than your average anime soundtrack. Also, all of the OP and ED songs are good, and their respective albums are worth sampling. Music is a strong aspect of this anime, overall.
The first season of Re Zero had a pretty weak start. I think a major reason for this is because Emilia occupies more screentime. This is bad not only because Emilia has the personality of cardboard, but more importantly because Subaru and Emilia have terrible chemistry together. Their whole relationship feels unnatural and forced by the writer (actually, this is the case for all of Subaru's romantic pairings). So, as more characters are introduced as season 1 progresses, Emilia's character presence becomes diluted, and the show becomes more tolerable. Another significant reason that my enjoyment of season 1 increased in its latter half is because the show becomes much more serious, and there is a corresponding reduction in the awful comedy I addressed previously. However, conversely, I found that the feeling of suspense was strongest during the first half of season one. The latter half of the season also contained more action scenes, which I personally didn't find particularly entertaining.
As for the second season, the cast of characters is just as awful. However, season 2 does excel at developing mystery elements. Although there wasn't much linear plot progression, I enjoyed the way new dimensions of the story were gradually revealed during each of Subaru's reincarnations (during part 1 at least). All of my other criticisms continued to apply though, and the overall character of the show wasn't much different from season 1. The second part of season 2 had a weaker story in my opinion. There were also a lot of flashbacks, which I found boring. The supporting cast who received more attention were somehow not any more compelling than Subaru and Emilia, which really is revealing of the author's lack of skill. I found part 2 of season 2 to be the weakest portion of the entire series, and getting through those ~30-minute episodes was sometimes a struggle.
Overall this anime feels targeted towards a relatively young audience, particularly for a (supposedly) psychological thriller show. The self-insert pandering is very transparent — almost obnoxiously so. In fact sometimes the self-insert pandering is so shamelessly excessive that it feels like a parody. Even if you try to buy into the self-insert bait, it's pretty difficult to imagine being as imbecilic as Subaru, unless you have a crippling self-esteem problem. For context, this is coming from somebody who usually isn't bothered by self-insert baiting. Many of the themes in the writing and character motivations are juvenile as well. There's nothing objectively wrong with this, but I feel it's an important observation that this show is likely to appeal more to a teenage male audience.
My ratings are as follows:
Season 1(Director's Cut): 5/10
Season 2 Part 1: 5/10
Season 2 Part 2: 4/10
Re:Zero has a ton of flaws but, regardless, the plot was interesting enough to hold my attention. Furthermore, it is directed competently, at least in terms of plot execution. By anime standards, it's praiseworthy that a plot this complex is presented so coherently. Also, the OST is exceptionally well produced. Season 2 in particular has a very skillfully crafted soundtrack. Aside from the plot and music, nearly every other aspect of this anime is bad; but despite my negativity, I still watched over 4 cours of content, and would consider hatewatching future sequels.
Due to the arguably juvenile nature of the show and its characters, a teenage audience is more likely to enjoy this.
No.3749
>>3748Also here are my ratings for the two OVAs/"movies":
OVA1(Memory Snow): 3/10
OVA2(Hyouketsu no Kizuna): 4/10
I suggest skipping both these OVAs (especially Memory Snow) unless you really care about the franchise. They aren't necessary to understand the TV anime.
The second OVA is focused on Emilia's backstory and does an okay job of humanizing her (in stark contrast to the TV series itself). I wish I had watched it earlier in my viewing sequence (ideally halfway through season 1, certainly before season 2). Also Emilia's VA puts on a surprisingly decent performance in this OVA. Why the low rating for the second OVA then? Because it didn't have the complex interesting plot of the TV series, which is by far the primary reason I've stuck with this anime at all.
I think that Re Zero will not age well and will eventually be recognized as one of the most overrated works from this time period.
No.3751
>>3749> will be recognized as one of the most overrated works from this time periodI actually fully agree with you.
No.3771
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35076I watched Juuni Taisen, also known as Zodiac War. Here are my thoughts:
So basically, as you might have guessed, there are 12 warriors, each of whom are vaguely based on a zodiac animal. They all fight each other to the death simultaneously in an abandoned city because of a battle royale-style competition. It was interesting to see how the various warrior abilities competed against each other (and worked together in some cases). I'm a huge sucker for battle royale-style conflicts such as this.
The actual battle royale plot is easy to watch and makes for suitable binge-watch material. If you just feel like burning through an entire season in one day, this show would be an okay candidate for that, despite its flaws. This is kind of a junk-food show and shouldn't be taken seriously.
This show would be much better if they just entirely cut out the time-consuming character backstories and kept the screentime exclusively focused on the battle royale plot. Instead, literally entire episodes are wasted on inconsequential exposition for characters nobody cares about. None of these characters are compelling or interesting in any way. They easily could have filled an entire cour with a 12-fighter battle royale conflict; I have no idea why they threw away that opportunity to instead waste half the runtime on generic uncreative character backstories that would be better off in an OVA or auxiliary literature. This really was a terrible decision. By far the most boring part of this anime were all these pointless backstories. They spent way WAY too much screentime on this. Nobody cares about the exposition for some one-dimensional character in a huge cast who gets killed off one episode later. I am not watching this anime for character development (although I usually value it in other shows); this is not the situation for it and this show does not benefit from it at all. I don't care about your cliche tragic backstory or that Grug likes opera and long walks on the beach when he's not crushing skulls. I am just here to watch people with cool abilities plot against each other and fight; stop wasting my time with anything that isn't that. Just as an example to illustrate my point: they waste an ENTIRE EPISODE on the utterly generic boring backstory of a character who was killed off SEVEN EPISODES AGO. Right during what should be the pinnacle of the story they pivot to this nonsense – it was utterly ridiculous and totally stunted the show's momentum.
The character designs are overly comical to the point it almost made the show difficult to take seriously. I would have preferred them less pants-on-head retarded. Most characters in this look like they were designed by an edgy 12-year-old boy shortly after he learned about Chinese New Year. This show can be a little over-the-top edgy in general, sometimes to the point of it backfiring and being comical.
Overall the visuals are adequate but definitely not a selling point. The character animation employs this effect that blurs the linework, maybe to make it more organic-looking. I think I would have preferred that these blurred linework effects not be present, but it's not a big deal either way. The character animation was consistently adequate, so I probably shouldn't complain. Overall this show is animated competently but it doesn't excel beyond that. There isn't much of an art style, which is a missed opportunity but also not a flaw. CGI is used during some action scenes, FYI. The fight scenes were quite underwhelming and unimpressive overall. The fight scenes are also usually so shortlived that I hesitate to call this an action show at all; this is not necessarily a bad thing – I would prefer it over the tedious drawn-out fight scenes that plague some other anime. If you go into this show excited for fight scenes, you will be disappointed. The strategy aspect of the battle royale competition was far more entertaining, from my perspective at least.
The OST is generic and unimpressive, and never enhanced my enjoyment of the show (although I did like the ED song). Voice acting was similarly unremarkable, despite the ample opportunity for unique voices. I guess the VA for the necromancer did an okay job. Also I gotta acknowledge the VA (Yuuichirou Umehara) for the ox fighter – that guy has a great voice and I've enjoyed him in other roles.
Often the show plays a character's internal dialogue while they or somebody else is speaking, resulting in the viewer needing to pay attention to both lines of dialogue. I found the frequency of this a little irritating but I suppose it is an effective time-saving technique in terms of getting through dialogue quickly. It's also true that the contrast between what the characters say and think can be quite significant, but maybe it could have been demonstrated better. Having to follow two people speaking at once is cumbersome and I wish this anime didn't force it so often.
No.3772
>>3771One very petty criticism I have: the city they fight in supposedly had a population of 500,000; I gotta say, a city with that population would not have infrastructure as dense as what is depicted in the show, not even in Japan. It looks like a city with a population at least double that (I know this is a silly thing to fixate on).
Yet another example of this anime's appalling waste of screentime is that the final episode consists mostly of the competition winner deliberating over what their 'wish' (the competition prize) should be. This mental deliberation of course takes place over the backdrop of some very dull screenplay, resulting in a viewing experience that is simply not entertaining. It was a very underwhelming season finale.
My overall rating: 4/10
My rating for this would be higher if the absurdly excessive and out-of-place pointless character backstories were removed from the show, or at least their duration were reduced enormously. It's mindboggling how much time got wasted on this. I try not to focus on one single issue when critiquing an anime, but it really is that straightforward in this case. When the show actually focused on the battle royale conflict, it was entertaining and easy to watch. Unfortunately, the screentime of this show was utterly squandered and the cool battle royale plot was heavily diluted by very low-quality content.
Seriously, just skip the flashback scenes. They aren't necessary to understand the plot of the show, and the anime as a whole would be much more entertaining if they were removed. Ordinarily I would be mortified by the thought of skipping content, but the banality of these character backstories is especially egregious and they add nothing of value to the show at all. This is a junk-food show and should be treated as such.
Despite my criticisms, this is still adequate binge-watch material. If you just want something to entertain you for ~5 hours straight, this isn't a terrible choice – you could do worse.
Lastly, I want to be very clear so that nobody misinterprets me: character development is usually a good thing and I have praised it in other shows (or criticized its absence). The difference is that a 12-character 12-episode battle royale action show is not at all suited for it – particularly the sheer amount of time that was devoted to it in this case.
Vague spoiler: the rat warrior's ability is really cool. It's a shame it didn't get more focus. It would have been interesting to see it deployed more from his perspective.
No.3774
>>3751It's got lots of cute girls/boys, with a variety of personalities to suit the viewers' taste. Enough fanservice to keep the waifuists interested, but not so in your face to turn off the broader audience. Story doesn't suck and it's explained clearly enough that almost everyone can follow without having to watch too closely.
Between the broad appeal and being easy to watch, I don't think it's all that surprising that it's popular. Not saying it has a lot of artistic merit, but the general public is probably going to remember it fondly.
>>3748definitely written with teenagers as the primary demographic, as most LN adaptations are.
No.3776
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34543I watched Dive!!. Here are my thoughts:
So, as you might have guessed, this is a fairly typical sports show that is focused on diving. Much of the show revolves around the preparation, and selection, of athletes for the Olympics. Going to the (Tokyo) Olympics is certainly relevant to recent world events at the time of my writing this. Overall this show has a pretty amateurish feeling and seems low budget.
Considerable attention is paid to the technical aspects of diving, certainly moreso than I expected. This is a very unique feature of this anime and one of the main reasons I stuck with it. It was interesting to learn about the sport of diving through this medium. In fact I would have liked to have seen even more focus on the details of the sport (maybe I should've just watched a documentary, haha).
Although it was a little melodramatic, I was grateful for the absence of comedy in the show. I could consistently feel the tension in the show and the pressure the athletes were under. There was a pervasive feeling of anticipation of upcoming competitions. I much prefer this over a comedy-heavy show. So although people complain about melodrama, I just want to point out that the alternative scenario could have been much worse.
Overall the characters were fairly weak and a little underdeveloped. However, I did like the female coach (Kayoko) and the ocean-cliff diver guy (Shibuki). Shibuki was one of the reasons I stuck with this show; he was a cool character. Kayoko was also cool and I enjoyed her presence. Unfortunately the MC was a pretty lackluster character; he didn't have much of a personality and added little to the show. A better MC could have gone a long way to improving this show, or at least somehow making him more sympathetic and likable would. I found the coaching staff more intriguing characters than the divers themselves (there is a fair bit of drama revolving around the diving organization and its members). There is also a lot of focus on the athletes' state of mind – I appreciated this, even though it could have been done better, and would have been augmented by better characters.
The visuals are serviceable but certainly nothing special. There wasn't any discernable art style. Although there were no major visual flaws, the animation is basic and lackluster, and definitely not a selling point for the show. Which is kind of unfortunate because this anime could really benefit from a high animation budget; there was tons of (squandered) opportunity for visual flair. I try not to place too much emphasis on visuals, but there was definitely a lot of wasted potential here in that regard. This anime could have looked awesome if only it had the budget. Also I can't end this paragraph without mentioning those hot muscular slender diver bodies – they are indeed tight and sexy, and there is a lot of fanservice, albeit with lackluster animation. One thing I will say about the fanservice is that there was never ever screentime devoted strictly to it – it was always just incidental and never particularly intrusive. I say this in contrast to so many other shows that basically put a neon sign up saying "THIS IS THE FANSERVICE SCENE" (I'm being hyperbolic) and proceed to jiggle breasts in front of you for the next minute straight with nothing else of entertainment value on-screen; the fanservice in Dive was way more tasteful and nondisruptive than this, which is certainly preferable to the alternative. Also it's just unavoidable that a show focused on male diving athletics is going to have a lot of naked lean muscular men on-screen.
The audio is underwhelming; the OST is not bad but fairly generic, and the voice acting as a whole is quite mediocre. At least the ED song is nice and soothing.
Even though it was amateurish, there was nothing about this anime that was particularly awful. On the other hand, there was nothing about it that significantly impressed me. It is a fairly typical sports show, just focused on diving and maybe with a bit more voyeuristic flavour than usual. A bit more melodrama as well, but I still much prefer that over excessive comedic relief. On the other hand, I wished they focused even more on the sport and experience of competitive diving itself, rather than all the melodrama regarding the Olympic team and its support staff. The last few episodes definitely had some forced drama laid on heavy.
No.3777
>>3776My overall rating: 5/10
It wasn't THAT bad. Although amateurish, it doesn't have any major flaws. It's a little heavy on the melodrama but personally I still prefer that over excessive comedy; I appreciated this anime maintaining a consistently serious mood. This anime doesn't make any major unforced errors, but also isn't particularly ambitious. Although the characters are forgettable, it was an adequate sports show. I was adequately entertained and would watch a second season.
People who like sports anime should consider giving this a chance. It's a shame about the budget – I really think this anime could have benefited from better production quality, moreso than other shows. This definitely doesn't deserve to be one of the lowest-rated shows on MAL.
For the record, at the time of writing this, I have not yet seen the Free! anime (it is often compared to Dive).
I remember a long time ago when I was a child, multiple times I attended a summer camp hosted at a university with an Olympic-style pool. I swam in this giant pool frequently, and I still vividly remember the diving platforms. It was set up exactly like in this anime. It brought back some memories. I've had recurring dreams over the years about being back in that pool. It's a prominent memory in my mind. I remember jumping off those concrete diving platforms. As a kid it was really cool. I still vividly remember the feeling of those concrete diving platforms beneath my bare feet, and the feeling of jumping off them.
SPOILER COMMENT: nobody actually goes to the Olympics…during the show. The last episode takes place before the Olympics, during a preliminary competition from which the Olympic team is determined. Personally I tend not to fixate on plot milestones like this, but I know this will bother other people. The ending isn't entirely unsatisfying though. An Olympics arc would have been nice to see, but I suppose the Tokyo Olympics were still years in the future when this anime aired. As I've already alluded, most of the show's drama revolves around the preparation for the Olympics, not the actual event. So, be aware of that and set your expectations accordingly.
No.3781
>>3778I never finished it but I had a really good time watching it back on /a/.
No.3785
>>3780Well in a way it does
sound similar considering Demetrios and Mars share the same seiyuu, Ono Daisuke
No.3787
i've been watching some non non biyori lately, and i'm surprised at how engaged i am. i never thought an anime about the life of rural japanese kids would be so fun to watch but here i am ending the first season in 3 days. something about this show really resonates with me, it feels like childhood, nature and fun and i really need those things right now so it's perfect.
i'm still very new to the slice of life genre but it looks like i'll be enjoying it more often from now on
No.3788
>>3787NNB is a masterpiece in cozyness and evoking the best parts of childhood. I'm glad you've taken the SoL-pill sushi, there's a lot of great anime in that genre.
Who's your favorite girl? I like Nattsun and Dagashiya
No.3848
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34822I watched Tsuki ga Kirei, also known as The Moon is Beautiful or NyQuil PM. Here are my thoughts:
I tried. I swear I tried. I tried my very best to like this show. I dropped it TWICE – once shortly after it aired, and once again when I gave it a second chance around 2019. I picked it up a third time in 2022 in a desperate effort to see what the hype was all about, yet still I was disappointed, although did finish it. I did my very best to like this show, and watched it in a variety of states of mind only to be met by unwavering disappointment.
For those unaware, this is a pure romance show focused on characters in late Japanese middle school (around 14 years in age I think).
The male lead and his female love interest are both ridiculously boring characters. They both have the personality of a three-day-old bowl of gruel. They have terrible chemistry and their interactions are mindnumbingly boring. I never felt the slightest spark of romance between them, or any emotion at all for that matter (besides boredom and frustration). Their entire relationship feels unnatural and artificial.
The dialogue is painfully boring and tedious, way WAY beyond the point of endearing shyness. This is not the cute reluctant youthful romance I was lead to expect. The two leads are absurdly deadpan – their affect is so flat I thought they were on enough antipsychotics to put a schizophrenic elephant into a coma (and if that doesn't work they should just broadcast this anime in the beast's habitat – this show is so forgettable it could invalidate prior studies on elephant memory). Furthermore, a huge portion of their interaction takes place via phone messages, which maybe is a blessing in disguise because the character animation is so bad. Which leads me to my next point…
The visuals of this anime are poor. The character CGI is awful, and I'm usually willing to overlook this. Seriously, those scenes of the school campus with the CGI-animated students were so poorly done. Besides the rare background frame, this show has poor visual production quality. Also worth mentioning is that I did not like the character designs – those sameface characters with the beady eyes were consistently unpleasant to look at. This is compounded by the bland school outfits and totally boring colour palette. Even outside of the CGI scenes, the character animation is crude and often off-model. Like, I can excuse poor animation if the show makes an effort at some kind of art style, but this show has neither! The colour palette and character designs are ugly and the animation quality is messy. I will concede that there were sometimes nice background frames (the ep.8 festival date is a good example), but that certainly does not excuse the appalling character animation. A lot of the visuals in this look like they took a real-life photo, passed it through an anime-style visual filter, and then added some hideous CGI-animated characters. The visual contrast between the characters and their environment is often quite stark. Even in scenes that take place on the street, the CGI-animated cars look like they belong in a console game released in 2002. Infrequently the focus of a frame is well targeted to create a nice cinematic effect – unsurprisingly these moments don't have any characters in the shot. Also I would be remiss if I did not mention that the ridiculous amount of phone messages in this show resulted in some consistently boring and tedious screenplay. Seriously, when phone screencaps are a central focus of the ED sequence, you can't deny something has seriously gone wrong with this so-called 'romance' anime (and that's not even mentioning the unfunny 'comedy' skits they add after the ED).
The commercial success of this anime is a total mystery to me, but clearly the return on investment must have been great since the animation budget was planned in Zimbabwean dollars (perhaps the elephants really were running the show, with autocratic rule too).
As I already alluded, the voice acting for the two leads is totally catatonic, and because they dominate the screentime and script, the rest of the cast is largely irrelevant. Regardless, none of the supporting cast VAs impressed me. As for music, I remember there being at least one okay insert vocal song, but otherwise the OST seemed fairly unremarkable.
No.3849
>>3848Storywise, the sources of conflict are quite cliche. It was a pretty generic school romance in this regard too. There was nothing in the writing that I found praiseworthy, and the story overall feels formulaic.
Later in the series, competing potential love interests are introduced for both the male and female MC. Ordinarily, I would not enjoy this, but the two leads have such awful chemistry that I actually enjoyed (relatively) the presence of these other potential suitors. Seriously, both the alternative love interests had better chemistry with their respective targets. I think in both cases this was largely due to the pairing of an outgoing extroverted character with a shy soft-spoken romantic target. This is in stark contrast to the original couple, who are both quite introverted and reserved (and boring!). On a similar train of thought, I gotta say that I liked the amusement park episode way more than the others, perhaps mainly for the reasons just outlined. Or maybe because everyone in that episode communicates in-person instead of relying on those awful tedious text messages. In any case, episode 7 when they go to the amusement park, that was probably my favourite episode of the entire series (which isn't saying much).
It's worth noting there is little comedy in this, which is certainly not something I can say about other romance shows. Regardless of all my criticisms, I will always praise the absence of inappropriate comedic relief, particularly here because it's so common in romance shows like this. Similarly, I appreciated how wholesome and pure this show was. There was pretty much zero sexualization at all or so-called 'fanservice'. This anime was consistently innocent and sweet, regardless of all its flaws; it consistently had a 'puppy love' feeling to it. I think this is one of the main reasons it was so well received, but that also illustrates the scale of unmet demand for this kind of thing – I'm sure a show with the same premise as Tsuki ga Kirei but competently executed could be very successful.
My overall rating: 3/10
Tsuki ga Kirei is one of the worst romance shows I have ever seen. I'm mystified by what people see in this show. From my perspective, it brings nothing to the table; I see nothing of artistic worth here. There are some brief romantic moments but they're not nearly enough to compensate for the time invested. The two leads are unbelievably weak characters, and more importantly, they have zero romantic chemistry whatsoever. Additionally, both the screenplay and dialogue are incredibly dull, and the character animation is jarringly dreadful.
What words would I use to describe my Tsuki ga Kirei viewing experience? Exasperating, frustrating, BORING, irritating, unemotional, tedious…
I feel like most of the people praising this anime are just projecting their own memories onto it. Since the show and its characters have zero personality whatsoever, it is certainly a good projection medium (perhaps this is a positive feature for some viewers). I also imagine that this show would be potent self-insert material for some people. Maybe I am the wrong audience for this kind of thing.
Just warning anyone reading: expect a lot of negative reviews over the next few months. I have a lot of garbage in my pipeline and, with some exceptions, I am mainly scraping the bottom of the barrel of 2017 right now. I'll probably be more positive once I wrap up my evaluation of 2017. >>3787I loved NNB (rated it 9/10). You reminded me that I still haven't seen the vacation movie or the third season. I should definitely do that. Might even write a review for it.
No.3851
>>3848>>3849>I feel like most of the people praising this anime are just projecting their own memories onto it.Yeah, that's me. I liked Tsuki ga Kirei because it tapped into that middle school nostalgia. The plot isn't memorable but the tedious, boring awkwardness you hate is what makes it beautiful for me. Tsuki ga Kirei is a more realistic depiction of middle school romance than most anime but understandably not the most capitvating.
No.3852
>>3701Episode 1 of Hanairo made me want to commit suicide like nothing else I’ve ever watched. It’s been a year and I still feel sick when thinking about it.
None of the reviews I’ve read mention how depressing the story is, or how much of a punching bag Ohana is, or how the underlying message is that she deserves it and that abusing your family and employees is great.
…I’m probably weird for thinking it’s a fucked up anime, or for complaining about it after just one episode. Or maybe I’m misinterpreting the point. I don’t know. Just wanted to get this out.
No.3853
>>3852I'm not gonna lie, it strikes me as kinda unhealthy for an anime to have affected you that severely. I watched it years ago and don't remember the first episode being anything put of the ordinary. I'd avoid watching anime in general because there's much worse out there in terms of showing upsetting things.
No.3860
>>3853I see. It might have just hit the right sore spots for me and next to no-one else.
I've watched things that you'd expect would be more upsetting, like Eva and NHK and… Wonder Egg? but those are mostly depressing (or offensive in Wonder Egg's case), not self-harm triggers.
No.3902
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33218I watched Kimi no Koe wo Todoketai, also known as I Want To Deliver Your Voice. Here are my thoughts:
This is just a ~90-minute movie, so I'll try to be brief.
It should be noted that I'm a huge sucker for anything relating to DJing, or radio, or talk shows, or just anything that involves sharing audio with others really. For this reason I thought I might like this movie, and was cautiously optimistic about it.
The plot of this feels kind of unfocused, and most of the movie consists of the various teenage girl characters messing around in this radio cafe place. There is some petty drama among the teenage girls. Throughout its runtime this movie alters between SoL-like scenes (that often involve radio), and various kinds of drama. This movie felt pretty 'family friendly', in the sense that I could imagine both a child and adult enjoying it. There was nothing inappropriate in here for a child audience (well, maybe aside from one character being in a preexisting long-term coma, and a friendly ladyy slap in one scene during an argument among the girls).
The main premise of this movie is cool and promising. Much of the story revolves around the existence of 'kotodama', which are basically word spirits. The idea is that spoken word has the power to influence reality via these word spirits. I thought this was a great idea for a story, but unfortunately the execution in this case is very mediocre. I also wish they spent more time in general developing this aspect of the story. Although there are some good ideas, the actual scene-by-scene storyline of this anime is pretty uninteresting.
This movie feels amateurish as well as low budget, which is kinda surprising since it came out of Madhouse. I really do not like the character designs – they are ugly and overly simplistic. Furthermore, the character animation is lackluster and the facial expressions lack detail. The setting sometimes looks decent, but definitely not above average for a modern anime movie. Overall the visuals are lacking.
Ironically (recall title), the voice acting in this is pretty bad, overall. The MC in particular has really amateurish-sounding voice work, which is unfortunate, especially considering the importance of voice in this movie. Most of the music they play is well-known classical that you've likely heard before; it was pretty underwhelming. It felt like they played it overly safe by sticking to classical music. Also, teenage girls knowing and liking Vivaldi definitely required some suspension of disbelief. I think it was a poor decision to use classical music for this. There is a song near the end of the movie that the girls sing together; their singing actually sounds surprisingly good, especially in chorus. Nice lyrics too. I would have enjoyed this movie more if they included more scenes like that. The vocals in the ED song were surprisingly good as well.
It's worth mentioning that, despite the short runtime, this movie is well paced and the ending is neat and tidy. They didn't bite off more than they could chew. I also want to mention that there is zero romance (or any sexualization at all) in this, which I was grateful for. All the main characters in this are female, and males are barely relevant beyond facilitating the plot.
My overall rating: 4/10
Although its premise has a lot of potential, and there are some good ideas in the writing, the execution of this movie is unmistakably mediocre.
As far as anime movies go, this wouldn't be a bad choice to watch with a kid or young teenager; I think that's one aspect of this that could be a selling point. There aren't many anime movies I could say that about, so I think it's noteworthy. In particular, I can imagine a young girl (like, about age 8-12) really enjoying this due to all the early-teens female social dynamics it contains, and this movie overall has kind of a girly Disney-like vibe to it. In fact the more I think about it, the more I'm realizing that this anime was made with a young female audience in mind. This movie seems like something a mother and daughter could enjoy together.
I've seen multiple people liken this movie to Kimi no Na wa and Koe no Katachi – this assertion of similarity is utterly moronic and not based in reality. Aside from being a drama with a similar title, this has very little in common with those two other movies. Anybody saying this is "the Madhouse response to [KnNw/KnK]…" has meme brainworms and isn't analyzing things objectively. I don't know the reasoning behind this movie's title choice, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a marketing gimmick designed to catch attention and spark discussion due to its similarity to the aforementioned well-known titles. Maybe there's a story to be told regarding that.
>>3852The character dynamics in Hanasaku Iroha were dark and twisted in many ways.
No.3915
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33337I watched ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka. Also known as ACCA: 13th Territory Inspection Department. Here are my thoughts:
I'd describe the world this takes place in as a fascist monarchy. Culturally, it felt like a mix of France and Germany but not overtly Nazi-inspired (aside from the uniforms). It also felt like a mid-20th-century time period but with some modern technology added like cell phones and desktop computers. It was peculiar. Sometimes a random piece of technology would appear in a scene and it would seem very unusual and break my immersion for a moment.
This anime is about a political conspiracy that unfolds painfully slowly over the course of the show. Most of the characters are government officials in the ACCA department and/or belong to the ruling monarchy in some way. There is inadequate exposition, particularly during the early episodes. This anime tries to be 'show don't tell', but this is not the right setup for a subtle conspiratorial political plotline. This is definitely a show that requires world building and background information, and its deficiency in this regard is a major issue. I often felt like I was watching a promo trailer or something because it frequently seemed like I was just randomly dropped into a scene with zero context or ability to comprehend the significance of the dialogue. I wasn't given a reason to care about anything or anyone in this show. Literally, putting a 1-minute exposition blurb by a narrator with visual aids in every few episodes would enhance this show tremendously. There is no broader context to what is happening in the show and it almost just feels like a nonsensical fever dream, particularly during the earlier episodes. The story feels totally aimless for much of the runtime.
Pretty much the entire cast is unlikeable or at least lacking personality. The little sister character is annoying and airheaded. The MC (Jean) is a memorably awful character. He has zero personality at all and resembles a chainsmoking beached fish. He is such an incredibly dull character, and what's even weirder is how he's adored everywhere he goes. There's also Niino, who is chairman of the Jean fan club and is his stalker BF (not quite literally). Other characters include a large number of ACCA organization members, nearly all of whom are underdeveloped. Many of the ACCA members could have been removed from the cast and the story would have worked fine without them; it seems the author needed some extras to use up the remaining silly hairstyles they had sitting around.
The scriptwriting in this is shockingly awful. Mundane comments about smoking tobacco are relentlessly included in the script for seemingly no reason at all (literally the MC's entire personality, aside from being borderline narcoleptic, is that he's a smoker). Also, whoever wrote this show clearly loved sweets and baked goods, because they are constantly inserted into the script AD NAUSEAM. The dialogue in general is incredibly dull and mindnumbing. Everything in the script is so banal and pointless. I really can't stress enough how unbelievably dull and monotonous the dialogue in this show is. It's almost hard to believe it was even meant to be entertainment. It's astonishing this anime even got greenlit, especially with such a seemingly high budget. This script is so torturously monotonous they should have broadcasted it on repeat at Waco (perhaps they will relate to the fascist themes in the story!); even if the Branch Davidians are burning alive, the real torment will come from having to hear another goddamn conversation about smoking.
Throughout the show the MC visits different districts of the kingdom, each of which have different cultures, climate, and are subject to their own unique set of regulations. In theory this sounds very interesting, but the actual product is so lackluster. Usually little of each district is shown during the visits, and not much detail in general is provided. It doesn't take long for the conversations during these travels to devolve into "dude cigarettes lmao." These trips were great opportunities for exposition and world building, but their potential was not capitalized upon at all. It's just shocking because people are constantly talking during these trips, yet the conversations contain so little information! The level of wasted potential is truly staggering. The world building in general for this anime is done very poorly.
No.3916
>>3915Despite this supposedly being a mystery show, it seems like there was zero effort whatsoever put into creating suspense.
Midway through the season, there is a hugely important reveal (I won't spoil it, or specify which episode), but the way it is dropped is so nonchalant and flat. This could have been a dramatic moment but instead it was just randomly inserted into the script as casually as the MC talks about goddamn pastries. It was unbelievably strange. I was so bewildered I had to rewind the scene because I thought I misinterpreted the dialogue.
There are eventually some major plot developments during the final few episodes, some of which were inadequately foreshadowed IMO. Despite the seriousness of these developments, I was still left with a feeling of inadequate payoff in terms of that being the climax. It was dissatisfying and underwhelming, especially after enduring the long dull journey to get there. Much of this is in the execution of these scenes and the overall poor direction of the show. There is zero suspense whatsoever, and there is no feeling of catharthis at all when things are resolved, despite the ridiculously drawn-out build up. The climax of the story, including the final episode, is incredibly underwhelming and you definitely should not get your hopes up for it. Please don't justify to yourself continuing to watch this show because you're expecting some big reveal at the end – trust me it's not worth it.
I would describe the art style as being like retro anime but with a modern polish while also retaining its organic feeling. It was crisp and refined but also somewhat dull and lacking creativity. Although the character designs are unique, I think I disliked more of them than I liked. The droopy fish-like eyes of the MC being one ever-present example. Also having most of the cast wear similar bland government uniforms made for a dull visual experience; they could have had way more fun with the outfits and put more creativity and variety into them. Instead, nearly everyone in the cast wears the exact same uniform most of the time, which just reinforces the relentlessly monotonous feeling of this anime. However, the setting did look decent overall. It appeared fairly realistic but, similarly to the outfits, with not much personality or variety. It would have been nice to have something more interesting and with more artistic flair to look at while listening to the droning dialogue of this show. It is still crisp and polished though, don't get me wrong. There is not a single blemish to be found really. However, even though the production quality is solid, this anime still feels half-baked (and I don't mean the goddamn pastries) due to how poorly executed the story is.
I would say the cinematography was above average overall, although inconsistent. Shot composition often did a good job of featuring the setting. Variable focus effects are sometimes used to give the visuals more depth. That said, the animation in this is not dynamic at all. Stills appear very frequently and it felt like the bare minimum of character movement was used.
The voice for Niino (the MC's stalker BF) is unique and suits his role well. Conversely, I found the voice acting of the MC (Jean) as underwhelming as his personality. Everyone else had unremarkable voice work. As for music, I personally don't like jazz, and there is a lot of it in the OST. It seems well produced but it just isn't my cup of tea. There are a few alright piano tracks though.
Lastly, I want to mention that the consistently low-key calm atmosphere of this show made it suitable for when I was tired or just didn't want to watch anything too high energy – this anime was reliably chill and nobody ever yelled in my ear. I suppose this is a positive aspect – it is the main reason I was even able to watch this show to completion.
No.3917
>>3916My overall rating: 2/10
This anime is literally just videogame-NPC dialogue played over a low-tempo jazz soundtrack. I'm not exaggerating, that's literally what this show is. The dialogue is so dull it's bewildering. Despite this apparently being a mystery show, it fails to induce any feeling of suspense or tension whatsoever, and is overall incredibly boring to watch. The lack of exposition is also crippling, particularly during the first half of the show where there is zero context at all for the events (or lack thereof) taking place. Throughout all this the MC has the personality of a beached fish and pretty much the entire cast is unlikable. Furthermore, although the production quality is high, both the art style and screenplay leave much to be desired. The visuals being quite polished doesn't change the fact that they are boring and dull. This anime doesn't even feel like entertainment.
Regardless of all this, it was reliably chill. There is basically zero high-tempo music and nobody ever yells. So, if you're looking for a show to fall asleep to, this would be an excellent choice for that. Plus, you won't miss anything if you pass out halfway through, I promise!
There is a 47-min sequel OVA which I masochistically hatewatched.
The setting looked nice and the visuals in general were a notch above the TV anime. However, all of the flaws I addressed above persisted. This OVA was just as astonishingly dull as the TV series.
I did not watch the special shorts but I bet they're awful. I did watch the Blurays though for the record.
No.3920
>>3915>>3916>>3917Sorry you didn't like it sushi roll! It's funny to read your review though because that one ended up on my watch list because someone described it as "a calm slice of life with a backdrop of intelligence officers". I watched the first episode now and I think it might not be doing enough comfy slice of life to be a slice of life nor enough spy action or drama, so it's kinda in this weird in between place… which might be really appealing to some people. I think I may watch more of it sometime.
No.3936
>>3393I read the manga recently… the end is totally open ended, ok! Umm… but yeah, I think they actually gave more explanation about the past in the anime than in the manga. It seems like not knowing was one of the themes though. If they explained how the world got how it is, it would undercut the feeling of the girls touring it.
No.4012
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35413I watched Imouto sae Ireba Ii, also known as A Sister is All You Need. Here are my thoughts:
Wow this is complete trash. It was a mistake to feel the slightest flicker of optimism for anything created by the same guy who wrote Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. Despite being about the manga/LN industry and having characters who are slightly older and 'more adult' than your average anime, this show is surprisingly juvenile. The author really channeled their inner 14-year-old boy into this.
There is a ton of sexual humour in this and most of it is utterly moronic, even by anime standards. Furthermore, the amount of time that gets spent on it is ridiculous; it's not just a line or two here and there – they spend entire scenes just for some idiotic gradeschool-tier sexual joke that makes me feel like I'm being lobotomized. The comedy is unfunny in general, but all the sexual jokes are especially atrocious and just so excessive and ever-present. This show often feels like a 14-year-old boy with an awful sense of humour wrote it with his dick in his hand. I'm not even prude or anything, it's just the constant sexual humour was absolutely eyeroll-inducing and none of it was clever at all. Literally it feels like most of this show's script was written by a dumb hormonal teenage boy. The 'siscon' schtick (recall the title of the anime) also wore out its welcome very fast, and the ways it was used were surprisingly uncreative, especially considering how frequently it was invoked.
The MC was such an annoying little pervy worm; I wanted to beat him up, steal his lunch money, and hang his sneakers from the power lines. He was an insufferable little dweeb with zero redeeming qualities. What an awful MC – probably made to resemble the mouthbreather mental-teenager author himself. In fact I disliked the entire cast; all of the primary characters were annoying in some way. For a show clearly made to appeal to young men, the two female leads both had surprisingly off-putting personalities.
Later in the series there is some character drama involving the main members of the cast in some kind of convoluted love-polygon situation, with a cup of jealousy and inferiority complex thrown in. This drama felt even more juvenile than all the sexual humour. It was really stupid and just unpleasant and groan-inducing to watch.
I must admit, the skits with the accountant were actually funny. Same goes for the tabletop RPG episode – that one was sorta funny and relatable too (although still plagued by excessive unfunny sexual humour).
As far as the publishing industry theme of this show goes, they did make some effort to demonstrate the emotional experiences of authors. However, although the concept is promising, I was still disappointed by this aspect of the show – I thought it could have been handled better but also that it deserved greater focus. The screentime of this anime is dominated by all the sexual comedy, and this promising aspect of the show is neglected as a result. Also, the childishness of the writing and characters themselves neutered a lot of the potential this dimension of the show had. It's hard to relate to this awful cast of characters, even if some of their experiences resemble those that real-life writers commonly encounter.
I thought the OST was bad. If I have to hear one more generic saxophone-heavy 'lewd atmosphere' track I am going to flip a table. Of course this kind of music plays frequently due to the prominence of sexual comedy in this show, and it does not enhance the humour at all. Even outside these scenes, the OST never once enhanced my enjoyment of the show. The voice acting for the entire cast was mediocre as well, with the exception of Nayuta – her VA did a good job and sounded cute, although I disliked her character.
As for visuals, they were adequate but mediocre. I didn't like the bolt-on-torpedo-tits character designs of the females, and all the males looked dweebish and unattractive. There is no discernable art style and the visuals were never a source of enjoyment for me. Also they could have had way more fun with the character outfits, considering they're all adults in an informal creative industry, but instead the outfits are boring, uncreative, and rarely change.
I appreciated the craft beer 'food fanservice' in the show. Delicious craft beer doesn't get nearly enough culinary attention in anime, haha.
No.4013
>>4012My overall rating: 3/10
This anime in one sentence: a bunch of unlikable characters (mostly LN authors) hang out together and there is a lot of excessive unfunny sexual humour, and then during the later episodes there's some eyeroll-inducing crummy immature character drama about people you don't care about. The end.
This show is quite juvenile and a teenage boy would likely enjoy it far more than I did. Anybody who wants to enjoy this needs to put themselves in a juvenile state of mind and get in touch with their inner teenage boy. If you, like me, tend to dislike sexual humour (especially in excess) then I would suggest avoiding this anime. Were it not for the (underexplored) publishing industry theme, I would have dropped this very quickly.
No.4025
>>4013Has there ever been a good siscon anime?
No.4042
>>4041Heh, that's pretty cute
No.4061
>>4025Depends 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?)
No.4089
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34881I 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.
No.4161
>>4025I'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..
No.4163
>>3624Ippo 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).
>>3535Sora 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 No.4166
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.
No.4168
>>4166lol 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.
No.4169
>>4166This 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.
No.4172
>>4163Woto love is alive and well!
I appreciate the webm, I saved it.
No.4179
>>4177yeah, 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.
No.4184
>>4179Oh 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 No.4186
>>4184ah, guess I missed out on all those memes. Good to know the track name now though!
No.4191
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34368I 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.
No.4202
>>4201yeah it's pretty lacking when I look at it closely
No.4206
>>4204It'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.
No.4238
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34104I 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.
No.4239
>>4201Pic 2 gives me a strange nostalgia. What could it be?
No.4240
>>4204Haha, 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.
No.4279
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33983I 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.
No.4289
>>4241Watching this on stream was a blast
I love Koume!!!
No.4310
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35251I 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.
No.4311
>>4310Although 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.
No.4313
>>4311ahh, 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.
No.4316
>>4313I 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.
No.4317
>>4316Fair 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.
No.4333
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34934I 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.
No.4334
>>4333My 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.
No.4338
https://myanimelist.net/anime/1535I (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.
No.4339
>>4338I 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.
No.4350
https://myanimelist.net/anime/30375I 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.
No.4351
>>4350>ladyfightShould be "b1tchfight".
Hopefully people are aware of this wordfilter.
No.4352
>>4351Good, 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.
No.4369
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34902I 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
No.4403
ive been watching bleach recently… i feel like i must be missing something its just not grabbed me
No.4405
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.
No.4435
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34028I 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
No.4441
I've been watching Psycho-Pass and now watching Psycho-Pass 2.
No.4443
>>4435that sounds hilariously bad. Should've made like a 2-4 episode OVA instead of a full series.
No.4444
>>4442Finished 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.
No.4468
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.
No.4469
>>4468keep meaning to watch this, it's the only "Isekai Quartet" show I never got around to seeing
No.4565
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31422/I watched Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu (including the Taiwan special), also known as Minami Kamakura High School Girls Cycling Club. Here are my thoughts:
The title of this anime accurately describes the content. There's minimal 'filler' material in here – the screentime is nearly always focused on cycling in some way. I appreciate anime that consistently stick to their theme, unlike so many other highschool anime which devolve into formulaic episodes unrelated to the show's main selling point. Minami Kamakura Jitensha-bu could be described as formulaic as well, in the sense that the storyboard is what you'd expect for a show about novice cyclists, but at least you won't have to suffer through a culture-festival episode or a typical beach episode. I was apprehensive about the highschool setting but thankfully there's barely any classroom screentime in this. As you might expect, various landmarks in the Kamakura region are featured throughout the cycling activities. It does sometimes feel like a thinly veiled tourism advertisement, albeit not overly so and my enjoyment was never impeded by this.
I liked the brief live-action segments that play at the end of each episode. They mostly consist of various cycling-related conversations in a bike shop. These live-action segments are both informative and cute and I enjoyed them, especially because they seemed endearingly loosely scripted. This anime is fairly educational for cycling – although I already knew much of what is explained regarding bicycles, it was still entertaining to see things rehashed. This show does a good job of teaching the viewer about cycling while still being entertaining. This could serve as a kids' show. There's minimal sexualization, and the character interaction is very simplistic and straightforward such that a child could understand it easily. This anime's characters are quite tropey and there's barely any character development.
Minami Kamakura Jitensha-bu comes up short in the production-value department – it could pass as being 15 years older than its actual production year. The character designs are retro, and CG is sometimes used to animate the cycling scenes. The landscape and setting do sometimes look nice though. I found the voice acting mediocre and was also disappointed by the crummy low-budget soundtrack.
My overall rating: 5/10
If I didn't like cycling, I would have dropped this. This anime really doesn't have any selling points aside from the bicycle theme, which it does focus on consistently. This show does the bicycle theme well and is filled with lots of cycling scenes in various contexts, and also informs the viewer about some technical aspects of the activity. The characters and their interactions are tropey and simplistic. Production quality is lacking in many ways, however the Japanese outdoors do sometimes look decent.
People who like cycling might enjoy this anime. It's also suitable for a child audience while still being entertaining for a viewer of any age. I liked Long Riders slightly more than this anime – you should give Long Riders a try first if you're looking for a cycling-themed show.
No.4578
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33378/I watched both the Haikara-san ga Tooru movies, also known as Here Comes Miss Modern. Here are my thoughts:
This anime is about a tomboy who is pressured into an arranged marriage with a half-jap soldier in the Japan army. The story takes place during the first couple decades of the 20th century and has a socio-historic flavour that some viewers may find appealing. It involves a lot of social issues in Taisho-era Japan, mainly involving female gender roles. It is somewhat interesting from a sociological perspective, although the plot velocity and runtime constraints limit the depth to which these themes could be explored. Even so, someone interested in historical Japanese society might appreciate this anime. These movies also incorporate the political nature of marriage in the writing – I found this to be refreshing, as the typically overly romanticized nature of marriage in fiction often doesn't reflect reality. I appreciated this lifelike treatment of marriage, and it meshed well with the other social themes. That said, romance is still a dominant motif in this anime, as is the relationship drama that comes along with it.
This feels like a shoujo-demographic anime, albeit not exclusively so. As you might assume from the title, the story focuses very much on the female MC. The primary male love interest lacks character depth – he's really underdeveloped. In fact the entire cast is tropey in characterization, but I don't think that could have been avoided given the runtime. The story actually reminded me of theatrical works like Shakespeare in the sense that it involved themes such as love and loss, love polygons, tragedy and reunification; it was all quite reminiscent of theatrical writing. Haikara-san ga Tooru feels like it could be a stage play instead of movie anime. Ironically however, I found the scriptwriting itself poor – many scenes in this could have been enhanced by a better script.
Similarly to theatrical writing, the story of Haikara-san ga Tooru demands a lot of suspension of disbelief. It is filled with convenient coincidences used to move the plot along and it felt crude and hamfisted as a result. The second movie in particular is quite bad in this regard and I enjoyed it less than the first. I also found the pacing of the first movie better calibrated than the second.
There are a lot of scenes in which the boorish tomboy MC is placed into situations where elegance and sophistication are expected of her – these scenes are funny and I enjoyed watching them. The sidekick ruffian henchman character (Ushigorou) also has some funny moments. Unfortunately the other sidekick character (Ranmaru), a feminine-boy childhood friend, is kind of annoying.
The visual art style and animation quality are rather lackluster. The visuals are on par with what I'd expect from a modest-budget TV anime – they're nothing special. The character designs are mildly retro shoujo-manga-like. In fact, overall this anime feels retro – if you told me it were 15 years older than its actual production year, I might have believed you. Regardless, the visuals overall feel low quality and fairly amateurish. However, the soundtrack does have some nice orchestral music. Conversely, the voice acting is consistently mediocre for the entire cast, in my opinion.
My ratings for the Haikara-san ga Tooru movies are as follows:
Movie 1 (Benio, Hana no 17-sai): 5/10
Movie 2 (Hana no Tokyo Dai Roman): 4/10
The writing of the second movie is worse than the first, mainly due to forced coincidences in the storyline. Furthermore, many scenes in these movies suffer from weak scriptwriting coupled with underwhelming voice acting. The visuals are lacking the quality I'd expect from movies made in the late 2010s, however the soundtrack is decent and worth checking out if you like classical/orchestral-type stuff. Some viewers may appreciate the socio-historic themes of these movies.
I think that in general a female audience is more likely to enjoy these movies; they kind of felt like Taisho chick flicks.
For the record, I have never seen the original anime adaptation released in the 70s.
These movies reminded me of Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni, in that they are set in a similar time period and deal with similar social themes (i.e. female gender roles in historical militaristic Japan).
No.4587
https://myanimelist.net/anime/32901/I somehow watched Eromanga Sensei to completion, including the OVA. Here are my thoughts:
Basically, this anime has a ton of sexualization and not much else. If you want ecchi cumbrain garbage, here's your jerk material. There's no other major selling point here.
Most of the main characters in this are writers or content creators in some form – I thought this might be an interesting dimension to explore. Unfortunately, this show does not deliver any kind of interesting story whatsoever. The supporting cast, despite being composed of artists, are mostly treated as sex objects, and the scriptwriting reflects this accordingly. I was initially hopeful for the content-creator perspective of this story, but they never really provided anything substantial in this regard. The male MC is a writer, but otherwise he is a spineless idiot with zero personality, as usual. In fact the entire cast is unlikeable for various reasons, as well as lacking character development in general.
Eromanga Sensei has very little entertainment value besides arousing your poor abused weary foul fap-blistered septic basement-dweller chode. When people say they hate anime, this kind of show is what they are thinking of. Frankly, it's the textbook definition of garbage. It has plenty of lewd content though, so it may be able to assist in draining your sweaty hairy sensitive delicious lustful intoxicating voluminous nutritious testicles, which perhaps is an advantage depending on your perspective. There's not much else of value here. Of course, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that; boys will be boys ;)
Seriously though, there are some funny moments, but I wouldn't recommend watching this unless your primary motivation is sexual in nature. This anime really is shameless cumbrain material. Some of the (usually sexual) comedy did get some laughs out of me. Also, if you're one of those people obsessed with shipping and who wins the MC's affections, or someone who sees love triangles as a glorified horse race to place bets, then you might personally find this show entertaining. There are multiple female candidates vying for the male MC's attention. The OVAs in particular focus on this aspect of the story.
I can see why this show spawned so many memes. Unlike the characters themselves, the meme material is quite fertile. There are also a lot of screencap-worthy facial expressions. In some ways, this anime feels engineered to be shitpost material.
Although the soundtrack is nothing special (aside from maybe the OP/ED tracks), the voice acting in this is not bad – I thought all the female leads were distinctive and performed their roles well.
My personal overall rating: 3/10
Eromanga Sensei is utter garbage but it did occasionally get some laughs out of me. Above all else, this is a highly sexualized anime meant to arouse the viewer – if you're into this material then feel free to shamelessly enjoy; I'm not judging anyone. There is also loads of sexual humour in here, which some people may find appealing as well. Furthermore, this show has a lot of fertile meme material and this is probably a major reason for its infamy; all publicity is good publicity I suppose.
No.4712
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34280/I watched Gamers. Here are my thoughts:
Gamers has a serious branding issue, in the sense that the content doesn't match its marketing. This show is like 90% relationship drama, and gaming hobbies are just an excuse to facilitate that. If you go into this expecting gaming-related content, you will be disappointed. On the other hand, if you like highschool romance and relationship drama, you may be pleasantly surprised by this show. I, very selectively, can enjoy these things, and so my initial pessimism about this anime was pleasantly defied. However, people looking for a show about the gaming hobby will likely have the opposite viewing experience (and consequently give it a low rating). I should clarify that when I say 'relationship drama' I'm including the many platonic relationships featured in the show as well. Gamers is a show about relationships, not gaming. Of course there are a lot of gaming-related jokes, but what I'm trying to convey is that gaming is not the central focus here – it's just a theme or canvas upon which the actual story is illustrated.
The writing of all the various relationships and the ways they intersect is surprisingly intricate and well thought out. However, it takes a while to build the foundation for this, and the writing doesn't start to reveal its true potential in this regard until around midway through the series. The story of Gamers takes a while to really start to deliver, but when it does it's really great. This anime is fairly well directed, and does a good job of exploring and fleshing out each character's perspective. The relationship drama in this is quite well done, regardless of the juvenile mechanics it sometimes involves. Similarly, the characters and their interactions are terrific. The plot and character interaction in this feels very down to earth, lifelike and real. Gamers is an excellent 'highschool social-life simulator'. The entire cast is likable as well, including the MC who is a super-cute boy – he is so adorable!
Character animation in this is sometimes quite sloppy. In fact the visuals in general are lackluster and feel budget-constrained. However, some of the character designs are cute, like the boyish MC, and Aguri with her pink hair and cute accessories, and Chiaki with her tomboyish charm and kelpy hair.
The OST is not bad – it enhanced some scenes. There are some cute 8-bit retro-gaming-style tracks. I like the ED song too – it's ultra cute and has a nice melody that was stuck in my head for weeks. I also appreciated the variety among the voice actors in the main cast; every VA sounded distinct and suited their character well.
Just FYI, although the penultimate episode was easily one of the best, I found the finale to be a disappointing weaker episode. Also, as expected of an LN adaptation like this, there isn't any closure or finality in terms of relationships.
My overall rating: 7/10
Although the visual production quality is rough, I really enjoyed Gamers. The character interaction is so real and lifelike. The writing weaves numerous relationships together in an elaborate way, yet the story is coherent and well directed. The entire main cast is cute and likable, as are their relations with one another. Gamers is a show about relationships and it does a great job of it. It really tickled my emotions. This anime is so cute!
If you're interested in a show about gaming, you should watch something else. However, if you like cute relationship drama you should consider watching this. As I said, Gamers is seriously misbranded. On a related counterintuitive note, I actually think a female audience would enjoy this anime, for reasons you can probably infer.
I also want to take this opportunity to say that, despite my low expectations for a new studio, with poor animation quality to boot, I am quite impressed with the direction quality of Pine Jam, at least for these 2017 shows – especially in terms of romance. Both Gamers and Just Because completely smoked my (admittedly low) expectations. I see a ton of potential in this studio and look forward to future works. Even though it looks sloppy, it does a great job at what really matters. This studio has induced the butterflies-in-stomach feeling within me multiple times already, and I really want more.
No.4763
>>4757Berserk's theme is the exact opposite of that and focuses on struggling and creating meaning in the world.
No.5011
https://anidb.net/anime/13153/I watched both seasons of Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e, also known as Classroom of the Elite. At the time of writing the third season has not yet aired. Here are my thoughts:
This anime is about classes of exceptional students who compete with one another for ranking and currency within their school system. The story feels like it was created in the mind of a teenager, but it is watchable and does create suspense. The plot is sometimes impressively intricate and does a good job of weaving together the actions of many independent parties in a competitive environment. That's essentially what Classroom of the Elite is about – the behaviour of people in a competitive situation. There are some interesting strategic dilemmas with regard to the point system used by the school. In fact the elaborate strategic thinking that is effectively presented in this show is its best feature.
Classroom of the Elite is an extremely juvenile show even by anime standards; the target audience is clearly teenage boys. A lot of screentime gets occupied by dreadful childish comedy that is usually crudely sexual in nature – it's barely a step above toddler-tier toilet humour. This anime is quite corny and often hard to take seriously. As you might expect, there is some crude sexualization in this, mainly in the form of tits and ass prominently featured. Most of the female characters have huge bolt-on gattling-gun tits that are borderline comical. Also, I know this is an unreasonable complaint given the title and premise of the show, but I found the focus on exams and academics to be tiresome, mainly because I've seen it done so many times in anime. I find it difficult to care about trivial schoolyard drama.
Everything about this anime feels dated to me – the OST, the art style and character designs, even the plotline feels like a 2000s anime. The second season is overall more modern and well produced than the first season, although neither has impressive production value. Similarly, Classroom of the Elite has some of the ugliest school uniforms I have ever seen in anime, and that's a high bar to clear. The colour choices are just absolutely hideous, good heavens. Yikes honey, like OMG. I thought they were parking-valet elves at the Ritz during the holidays. At least the voice acting is overall decent, albeit sometimes cheesy. The voicework for most of the lead characters is solid and everyone suits their roles. The soundtrack isn't terrible but it does sound dated to me, and not in a charming way.
Despite the large time gap between when the first and second season aired, there is a lot of plot continuity between the seasons. The first episode of Season 2 basically feels like Episode 13 of Season 1 – the story picks up immediately where Season 1 ended. Of the two seasons, I liked the first slightly more. The story of Season 2 just wasn't as compelling as the first. I appreciated the deserted-island story arc in Season 1 – that was the pinnacle of the series in my opinion.
I enjoyed the interactions between Horikita and the MC – they have weirdly good tsundere chemistry and feel very natural together. They are an entertaining duo. Horikita is a good character – I enjoyed her stoic practical approach to the challenges she encountered.
My personal ratings are as follows:
Season 1: 5/10
Season 2: 4/10
Classroom of the Elite has a complex yet well-written story, and the episodes pass quickly. It does an okay job at creating suspense, and the strategic aspects are somewhat interesting, but good lord it is often so absurdly juvenile it's borderline intolerable.
If you're looking for a psychological thriller-type show, Classroom of the Elite isn't a terrible choice. If I were a 14-year-old boy, I would probably enjoy this anime way more. I'd recommend this to teenagers, but someone older than that might have trouble enjoying this anime due to how juvenile it is.
This review probably sounds conceited but I think others can relate to feeling exasperated by the immaturity of shounen-oriented works like this. I know it comes with the territory but I am just being transparent about my viewing experience.
No.5033
https://anidb.net/anime/12318/I watched ID-0. Here are my thoughts:
ID-0 is about a naive astrogeologist girl and a group of space bandits, some of whom are minds trapped inside robot bodies, who engage in illegal space mining. Things go wrong during one of their illicit excavations and the plot spirals from there. All the characters have unique personalities and I enjoyed the chemistry of this motley crew working together.
This show is actual genuine science fiction and frequently invokes intriguing sci-fi concepts such as digital consciousness, robotics and cloning. The story is interesting and engaging; it incorporates mystery elements well and does a good job of 'peeling back the onion' as the plot progresses. As a whole, ID-0 is quite creative and unique; it feels like a hobby project moreso than a commercial anime.
ID-0 also seems to have a budget as low as a hobby project. All of the character animation is CGI, but it doesn't look completely awful and I didn't find the faces to be uncanny or unsettling in ways I've experienced with CGI animation in the past. A lot of the celestial landscapes are cool and the show looks best when it is depicting spaceships, planets and things of that nature. Although they are infrequent, the action scenes in this, especially the space battles, are actually quite entertaining; the CGI looks nice and dynamic. There are also lots of awesome spaceships, and the celestial environment is a nice backdrop. I couldn't help but laugh at the space motorbikes with the decorative-flames paintjobs – they fit the mood of the anime well. In some ways, ID-0 is metal as fuck but also doesn't take itself too seriously; it's a really fun ride overall.
The soundtrack is somewhat unconventional but fits the atmosphere of the show. The OP/ED songs are endearingly cheesy. I liked the voice acting for Grayman and Rick.
My overall rating: 7/10
ID-0 is an endearing passion project with a unique intriguing story, fun likeable cast, and lots of cool creative sci-fi stuff mainly relating to space, robotics, consciousness, physics and the like. If you can overlook its janky visuals, ID-0 is a great sci-fi show.
If you're a fan of actual science fiction (i.e. not space romcoms) then you would likely appreciate this show. I enjoyed it way more than I expected.
No.5047
https://anidb.net/anime/12327/I watched Seiren. Here are my thoughts:
Seiren is the spiritual sequel to Amagami SS. The stories of the two series are apparently unrelated aside from some character cameos. I can't verify this because I've never seen Amagami SS, but I enjoyed Seiren enough to consider picking Amagami up.
Seiren is an anime original but it very much feels like a VN adaptation. The 12-episode series is split into thirds, each of which is devoted to one story arc. These story arcs each involve the male MC making a romantic connection with one of the girls in his highschool. Seiren is a romance show and the vast majority of its runtime is devoted to that purpose.
The MC is your typical meek spineless loser – this is particularly annoying in this context because he never initiates anything and it's nearly always the actions of the girl that move the scene/plot along. It's hard to get into the romance when the MC has the pickup game of a limp noodle (probably not the only area he doesn't perform in). The writing quality of this anime has prominent highs and lows – there are moments when the show really shines, but also some unnatural awkward-feeling scenes. It can be cringe-inducingly corny. Some of the drama in this is totally banal; entire scenes are devoted to insignificant highschool gossip. The story is sometimes convoluted, hamfisted and dumb. However, I enjoyed the romantic scenarios themselves – they felt natural and organic, as if they were a fond memory of your adolescence.
At first glance, Seiren seems like an utterly forgettable garbage anime; my expectations coming in were very low. What surprised me is that the scriptwriting is often exceptionally well done. Although there isn't much explicit nudity, this is a sexually charged show. However, most of that manifests itself through the dialogue. I appreciated that this anime creates eros through the power of suggestion, dialogue and context, rather than lazily relying on sexual visuals like so many other trash anime. In this sense, it is a well-crafted show.
Seiren's greatest strength is the way it sets up romantic tension. It doesn't really deliver the goods in terms of romantic climax, but it does an excellent job of teasing you. It does this with minimal use of fanservice and sexual visuals – it's all in the story and dialogue, which is actually quite impressive. The girls are usually wearing these hideous conservative school uniforms, yet the sexual tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife – this speaks to the impressive scriptwriting and direction quality of the series. The romantic scenarios are lifelike and believable – I've found that's fairly rare in anime, so this is noteworthy.
To be clear, eros is not the only selling point here – Seiren is also sweet, wholesome and innocent in some ways. I often felt like this anime was cuter moreso than romantic; it has a borderline 'puppy love' feeling. Similarly, Seiren never really delivers romantic climax; it just sets up romantic tension but doesn't follow through. This is hardly uncommon in romance anime, but even so, the lack of satisfaction is palpable for most story arcs, and some viewers may find this disappointing.
The visuals in general are low quality. The character animation is pretty bad, and I often felt like the facial expressions lacked detail. However, the character designs are more realistic than typical anime, which I appreciated in this context, although those atrocious pale-yellow sweater vests belong in a tire fire. Similarly, I found the soundtrack to be mediocre and low quality. None of the voice actors impressed me, although some of the character songs are not bad.
My overall rating: 7/10
Seiren has many flaws: an annoyingly meek impotent MC, corny dumb storylines, and overall low production quality. Regardless, there are many exceptional romance scenes in here with excellent scriptwriting and tons of intimate tension. Seiren delivers the 'girl-next-door experience' and feels quite lifelike and believable; it is a great adolescent romance simulator.
No.5058
https://anidb.net/anime/12700/I watched Ballroom e Youkoso, also known as Welcome to the Ballroom. Here are my thoughts:
First of all, let's get one thing out of the way: SENGOKU IS INSANELY WILDLY SMOKING HOT.
…*ahem*
Okay so yeah by the way in other news this anime is an absolute masterpiece.
And uummm
*checks notes*
HYOUDOU IS FINE AS HELL.
I mean, uuhhmmm, actually this is one of the finest works of art ever made.
Seriously though, Ballroom e Youkoso is spectacularly mindblowingly terrific.
This anime is about a teenage boy's journey into the world of competitive formal dance. In some ways it feels like a sports shounen, but also has far vaster appeal than the typical audience for that. The dance scenes are phenomenally captivating. They are so dynamic and well choreographed, with excellent cinematography and screenplay; they are joyfully entertaining and I couldn't help but rewind them over and over. There is an impressive level of detail paid to the technical aspects of dance – you can tell that the author cares deeply for the activity and is knowledgable of it. I appreciated this level of authenticity – it is one reason among many why Ballroom e Youkoso is actually a fantastic sports anime.
The character designs are enthralling. The facial expressions are exceptionally well done. The overall level of attention to detail in the character animation is way beyond what I'd expect from typical anime. The characters in this consistently look fantastic and the character animation is excellent. Conversely, the animation of the backgrounds and setting could have been done better, but this aspect of the visuals is certainly adequate, and the focus is rightfully on the characters anyway. Lighting effects are used well during the dance scenes and take advantage of the point-source nature of the dancefloor lighting. The animation quality of the scenes unrelated to dance is solid but the real spectacle is on the dancefloor. Also, there's lots of dazzling jewelry and so many gorgeous ballroom dresses it's heavenly, OMG!!
Ballroom e Youkoso is one of the best-directed shows I have ever seen. Every episode is packed with emotion, to the point that I could not avert my gaze if I tried. The thrilling excitement of the dancefloor is joyfully contagious. The script is well written and oozes passion and emotion. The cast has a wide variety of unique interesting characters – I found myself wishing that the supporting cast got more attention.
I have mixed feelings about the MC (Tatara). He isn't a bad MC by anime standards, but some of his qualities irked me. At times, I did not like his voice acting. He sounds a little too meek and childlike, although I suppose it fits his character. He often sounds whiny as well. He's just kind of unpleasant to listen to, especially because the show is frequently narrated by his internal monologue. He uses this wimpy tone of voice all the time and it becomes grating to hear after a while. I thought all the other main male voice actors were solid though. The female VAs are a mixed bag but none of them impressed me.
The OST is decent but it could be much better. I definitely felt some squandered potential in this regard. As you can probably imagine, a show focused so much on dancing would certainly benefit from a better OST. The music of this show, although still solid, didn't realize its full potential. I usually wouldn't be this harsh, but a show exclusively focused on dancing should have a strong music component, and it didn't quite rise to the occasion in this respect. Perhaps some of the classical music is iconic and expected for this activity, but I wouldn't know.
No.5059
>>5058Although the entire series is delightful, I enjoyed the first cour more than the second, primarily because the second cour involves the introduction of a new female lead character who is a textbook tsundere, which resulted in a lot of generic cliche character dynamics that I found tiresome and predictable. As much as I adore this anime, I will concede that Chinatsu is sometimes quite annoying; I liked the MC's other dance partners far more than her. However, I do understand why the author added Chinatsu to the story – she is an effective foil to the MC, and they have weirdly compatible chemistry, like opposite magnets attract. Chinatsu's childhood friend (Akira) is also annoying, and I found her entire story arc generic, tedious and predictable. Both those insufferable angsty b1tches need to go catch a dick, shut up and relax.
This might sound counterintuitive, but I think there's a significant possibility that your typical shounen fan would enjoy this show. I say that because there are a lot of 'hype moments' and, even though the theme is ballroom dance, the excitement and adrenaline is reminiscent of more-traditional sports anime that are often celebrated by their target audience. I would urge a potential viewer of Ballroom e Youkoso to give it a chance even if the dance theme is something they ordinarily wouldn't seek out. Fundamentally, this is an excellent sports show, and it follows that your average sports anime fan is likely to enjoy it.
My overall rating: 10/10
This is what the anime medium was made for. I absolutely LOVED it. Ballroom e Youkoso is like a dream come true. I got an immense amount of enjoyment out of this anime; no other medium could have done it better. My only significant criticisms pertain to the excessive b1tchfight drama during the second cour, mainly revolving around Chinatsu, as well as the weak annoying voice acting for the MC. Otherwise, this anime is truly phenomenal and does a spectacularly mesmerizing job of showing the viewer the world of competitive formal dance.
No.5095
I don't suppose anyone has seen UN-GO?
If so, do you have an opinion on when to watch episode 0 (Inga-ron)?
It's a prequel episode but apparently came out in the middle of the airing of the series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRA68JGY_Hghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tneeHgP4Xzk No.5120
https://anidb.net/anime/12647/I watched Yoru wa Mijikashi Aruke yo Otome, also known as The Night is Short, Walk on Girl. Here are my thoughts:
This movie is the spiritual sequel to The Tatami Galaxy (Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei), and I enjoyed this movie much more because it didn't have the awful whiny MC that made me dislike The Tatami Galaxy so much, although other familiar characters are present, such as Higuchi and Hanuki. The art style is also quite similar to The Tatami Galaxy – I appreciated it. The visuals are creative, unique, dynamic, and entertaining to admire; it is a nice satisfying visual feast. Overall this is a very 'artsy' movie that would be enjoyed by those who like avant-garde abstract experimental stuff. That said, the OST and voice acting are nothing special, in my opinion.
There isn't much of a coherent story and I never felt interested in the plot. The dialogue in some scenes is kind of neat, but the overall storyline just isn't engaging at all. Superficially, this movie basically just feels like a series of absurdist scenes mashed together. It seems like a veiled allegory for the brevity of life, or something of that nature. It's up to your interpretation, but there's definitely a deeper message lurking in here. It's not just a series of random mashed-together scenes; there's clearly artistic intent here, but it's up to you to unravel it however you wish. There are numerous scenes focused on alcohol consumption, which I enjoyed. Drinking is a prominent theme in this movie, although ironically it's well suited for being viewed under the influence of cannabis.
My overall rating: 6/10
Yoru wa Mijikashi Aruke yo Otome is quite visually interesting but lacking a substantial concrete storyline. It is abstract in both artistic form and its writing. I found some parts mildly boring but in general this is an entertaining movie if you calibrate your expectations correctly.
Those who enjoyed The Tatami Galaxy would definitely like this, and even those who didn't may find this movie superior or at least redeemable. In my opinion, it lacks many of the flaws that plagued The Tatami Galaxy. Although hardly perfect, this movie occupies a niche unsatisfied by most anime; it is certainly unique.
No.5125
>>5120It also helps to watch Uchouten Kazoku first, explains the nise-Denki Bran a bit more.
No.5852
>>5850I screenshotted this frame yesterday.. had to really think whether this is my post.
Just finished the anime, loved it. I am obsessed with Kukuru. Guys, I will marry that girl.
No.5870
Ive been watching Haruhi recently, its pretty mid so far desu. The finale of s1 has gotta be really good.
No.5871
>>5870It's probably the "Seinfeld isn't funny" thing. I imagine watching K-ON for the first time is probably the same feeling for new people coming into it now.
No.5872
>>5870>>5871You had to be there for Haruhi. Half the appeal was that they aired the episodes out of order so no one knew what was going on.
Also there was just a lot less anime produced at the time, and currently airing series only had fansubs. Smaller community so it was easier to get united behind one thing for longer.
No.5888
>>5885This dude speaks Japanese with an Indian accent which i did not realize at first.
There is something odd when you can recognize an accent but in a completely different language.
No.5894
>>5885>>5888Oh nice, I'm happy to see sushis watching Niea_7, I think it's an underrated show and super charming as well. I adore Mayuko and Niea, in particular Mayuko was a really relatable character for me. The Chiaki J Konaka UFO girl is fun too.
I wrote a whole lot about my thoughts while watching and after finishing the show in the Yoshitoshi ABe thread!
No.6197
I recently watched the film Perfect Blue, and I have decided to collect some thoughts on it
It is, foremost, a finely crafted and engaging piece, which at once has a lot going on, as though they could have moved towards one of many possible alternate focuses in direction, but it is nonetheless comprehensive, at no point is it meandering or does it complicate its storyline any further than is strictly necessary.
One specific point that is particularly effective is its use of orientation and 'clean' editing - compare to something like Natural Born Killers, which uses Brechtian principles and disorienting cuts and angles to create a persistent sense of unease and aggression, whereas PB is mostly of a more traditional form of editing, which I think is of particular effect twofold, the somewhat claustrophobic locales, the apartment and train interior (of which the De Palma influence should be acknowledged also) particularly, which are often established or at least seen through identical shots, creates a sense of familiarity, which is in turn more effectively revoked, as the viewer's understanding and conception is able to be taken away from them, a point which also connects into the story - remembering that Mima does not show the initiative in the career change, there is little indication it is something she truly wants, rather than a point that is forced upon her. Recalling Nietzsche's claim that "a living being seeks above all else to discharge its power", Mima's lack of autonomy is made apparent, within her career for the aforementioned reason, and subsequently within her home life, remembering that it is the sight of her inability to properly establish her autonomy over the fish which causes her to suffer a mental breakdown.
it was a good picture.
No.6960
>>6953true!
for real if any sushis like anime and haven't seen it I highly recommend
No.6963
>>6962The manga isn't finishing, it's already over since last winter, that's the cover of the last volume you posted.
The mangaka has also been posting some SPICY Bunko art since.
No.6969
>>6960I just watched it! My local library has it on DVD, so I checked it out, and I’m gonna watch it all again!
No.6970
>>6953>>6960Thanks for the recommendation, I tried it and I loved it :)
No.6976
what if someone hacks your ftp server and downloads all of your anime girls without your persimmons???
No.7076
>>7073calling it now it will end with
Freiren dying and her reuniting with Himmel in the afterlife. For additional difficulty I will say the knight will reach his hand towards her and as she grabs it the screen goes white. The end. Yeah, I know that is not her name. This spelling suits her better!
No.7079
>>7076lol I made that prediction on episode two and fourth one basically confirmed it, well we will see
No.7142
>>7141I dunno, to me they seemed like very different shows besides the fantasy setting and action.
If you liked the first few episodes I'd lead you to check out some more iyashikei travel focused anime such as Hakumei to Mikochi or Kino no Tabi instead, but if you're thirsting for more fantasy then sure give it a try.
No.7144
>>7143but kino has short black-brown hair and dark eyes….
No.7146
>>7144I probably wouldn't pay attention to the regular boy-Kino, heheh.
>>7145The story of the first city was quite interesting; I liked it. The dated visuals do bother me a bit, especially after Freiren, which was simply beautiful.
No.7147
also watched the first episode of Dungeon Meshi - it was super fun! unfortunately it made me hungry…
No.7149
I've been rewatching Strike Witches, which I haven't seen probably since 2010. I forgot how much I liked the girls in this show, and just how much fun it is. Although it really feels tame compared to the ecchi anime you see now.
No.7259
>>7169>but they say its a boythat's even better!
No.7260
>>7169pure slander, no way elf boys are built like that! (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)
No.7263
>>7262bocchi was fun. could be better if she didn't freak out at every little inconvenience, especially towards the end it got tiresome. my favorite gag was when she imagined her adulthood as a neet.
i like everything that screams "go out there and fight!" and thats how i received the show.
No.7278
today I finished Wandering Witch. i really liked Eleina – distant and self-absorbed, rather a calculating observer than a hero. just like me but in a form of a petite ashen-haired witch.
