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Studio ENGI and Kadokawa bring yet another adaptation (read: LN marketing) that takes them further off course.

Omission is fine so long as the narrative doesn't break down, adaptation is fine so long as the spirit of the story and characters is preserved, and budgetary sacrifices are fine so long as the staff make use of their limitations.

None of that happened. To call it perfunctory would be an insult. The worst part is even those who haven't seen the source material can tell something is amiss. Don't waste your time with the anime. It won't scratch a fantasy itch due to the disorganized presentation ... of the world; it won't scratch the romance itch, because without hyperbole it amounts to: "let me impregnate you." Not really fitting for a more serious fantasy series, unless you want to be in line with Terry Goodkind or other like-minded writers.

I guess if you're into that, it's great.

Overlord is the worst adaptation I haven't stopped watching. Any content which requires additional effort to adapt is skipped outright or replaced with unsightly crude CG. The evidence of passion put into this series has gradually dwindled away. It was enough to dishearten the original writer and put the series on pause.

Did the pause fix it? Not much.

The threshold for cool and corny is still intertwined at times due to lazy interpretation of the source material or bad animation. Gags which are intended to be respites from heavier moments instead dominate the anime run time due to being cheaper and easier to adapt. This causes ... a tone shift which is divorced from the original work.

Story 6, Art 3, Sound 7, Character 6, Enjoyment 5.

Eiga Daisuki Ponpon-san does not belittle hard work as some shows do. There are makes valid arguments as to why the main characters is qualified to occupy his position, and he works hard to get there.

The movie also doesn't shy away from subtly exposing Hollywood flaws. (While simultaneously being blind to others) The art direction and transitions are fantastic.

This is where the benefits of the show start to run short. Many characters are forced into pointlessness due to clumsy introduction and follow through, and this problem inflates and affects the main beats of the story itself. These flaws are not egregious but make the show ... is disorganized and directionless, which is painfully ironic for a show about a new movie director.

Story 5, Art 8, Sound 7, Character 5, Enjoyment 6.

Monster drowns in its own fat. The story meanders and sabotages the grander story to instead serve the viewer bite-sized parables each episode that are heavily disjointed and inconsistent in quality.

The main story is ambitious and well executed initially, but all tension is lost when the series abruptly transforms to an episodic format. Slowly an ensemble cast is formed, and the struggle to maintain that cast and shoehorn the members into each episode is crude at best.

Eventually Yohan, the primary antagonist is made omnipresent by sheer virtue of timeline discrepancies. Everything is a flashback to some point in his past, where he has somehow ... meddled in everything. The story comes to develop anomalies large enough to tear it apart.

The original author of this series has no grasp of time, neither for plot or viewer. This anime has 74 episodes and it only needed 13 to tell its story. And so I am left with nothing but respect for the man who managed to turn this into a 7 year serialization, but nothing but contempt for the inconsistency of its short stories.

Star Wars Visions is a set of different stories told by different people and is developed by different staff. I will review each episode on its own, but assign a rating for the entire set at the end.

Some episodes are not even worth watching at all, while others tower above the franchise at a height not seen since the days of Knights of the Old Republic games in 2003 or perhaps Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire (The Thrawn Trilogy) published all the way back in 1991.

At the very top of this pinnacle stands episode 5. The storytelling and directing is on point. From ... only a few minutes in, I could tell from the color palette, faces, and camera shots that this was from Production IG and specifically director and writer that worked on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Kenji Kamiyama. Every moment oozes character, an understanding of the established Star Wars Universe's lore, and introduces new ideas that are compatible with it. The story rides the line of unexpectedness and inevitability that all writers strive for and draws on a deep well of experience and creativity. This episode has the highest fidelity and also holds the most promising story out of all the series.

Closely behind are episodes 1, 4, and 8. They are excellent additions that fall only slightly behind when considering story, but have individual qualities which surpass the 5th episode. The 1st has the most intense battles that draw out the tension for most of the episode and is heavily inspired by old samurai films, the 4th has the greatest soundtrack and captures a feeling of magic that none of the other episodes hold a candle to, and the 8th has the highest production value and best animation of the set. These are also worthwhile contributions to the Star Wars Universe and are far above average for what the Old SWU and New SWU had to offer over the last 35 years.

Episode 7 is decent, but does not add enough of its own flavor to be considered in league with the aforementioned 4 episodes.

Episode 9 has a story that I could not care about.

Episode 2 is a musical episode, targeted towards a younger audience and something I am not suited for. From an adults perspective it has very little charm.

Likewise, Episode 6 falls into this same category, only it is more frantic and disorganized.

Episode 3 fails to deliver. Trigger has lost their soul and while their storytelling is clearly identifiable, it is now unchanging and uninspired. They grasp no essence of what Star Wars or its universe is. I daresay they didn't even bother. It reminds me of The Last Jedi, and not in a good way. This is the worst episode the series has to offer, while representing the heart of the mediocrity that plagues so many mainstream anime.

The short of it? Watch 1, 4, 5, and 8. Skip the rest unless you are a die hard Star Wars fan. On the whole, this series is a 6/10 for me, but I would probably rate the stand-out individual episodes a 9/10.

Postscript/Disclaimer:
This is from someone who has fallen in and out of Star Wars fandom over the years and has read over a hundred Star Wars novels from the pre-Disney era. I also have the luxury to enjoy these in the original language. The Disney subtitles for the Japanese audio are insultingly awful. At times they directly contradict what is actually being said or are outright wrong. These are things as severe as reading 山（やま）mountain as 空（そら）sky, something not even an amateur would make. We are not talking about non-literal interpretation, but rather violation of intent.

Perhaps, in the future it would be good to look for fan-subs for these episodes.

Fune wo Amu, a story about compiling words for a dictionary, wasn't too niche. The scope of its message was.

There moments of greatness in this story. The discussions on how people choose to define words are genuinely interesting if you can enjoy the show in Japanese, and one of the later discussions about why its actually good that there are no government funded dictionaries were some of the most impactful discussions in the show.

However these scenes are a rarity. They are not related to the core message of the story, and often the same tricks are re-used like stock photos.

The central defining message ... of what a dictionary is not properly developed, and the story shifts from being character driven to being technically driven. (Technical, as in complications in publishing a dictionary.)

This means that characters which were given development are good, but others functionally barely exist or feel incomplete.

I'm not sure if this 舟 (fune) has run ashore, or drowned its passengers.

6/10

When Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time was released, we were told it was time to say goodbye to Evangelion. That this was the End of Evangelion. But that already happened, way back in 1997. No, the real message is Hideaki Anno is sick of Evangelion, please stop talking about it. (And I don't begrudge him for it either.)

Half a decade was spent focusing on the most absurd 3d fight scenes which add very little besides an impressive budgetary cost to the production.


(Spoilers Ahead)

An obscure manga doujin character becomes the triumphant female lead, and other members of the female cast are either annihilated or ... have their defining traits lobotomized or undeveloped. Ritsuko has no backstory besides just being "really smart", Asuka is cold to Shinji from a place of loathing instead of self-loathing, Rei becomes human in the most trite of ways instead of through suffering and sacrifice to Gendo, Misato gets an above average treatment but its still not enough as her story ultimately renders her a mother who only desires to throw her life away.

Perhaps the greatest bits of the series are also its ironies which were concealed but still obvious in the original series. Gendo is a lot like Shinji. This time we had to be shown it. When taking both series into account, its a nice bit of fan service, but on its own, its unskillful. To this point, every character resolves their troubles, even if that means just simply dying because their lover did. It's disappointing to see completeness just for its own sake.

Years wasted on anime Transformers, quintessential character traits are destroyed, troubles carry far less weight, and even though everything is cleanly resolved this time it's all the worse for it.

Goblin Slayer has garnered a lot of attention recently for its content. The art style clashed with people's perceptions of what content would lie therein, and shock became offense for many.

For me, Goblin Slayer was anything but shocking. I'd even say its par for the course, an average show. Does it have brutal scenes? Yes. Does it execute such scenes to tell a compelling story? No.

The problem with Goblin Slayer lies with its frail storytelling. Storytelling which encroaches too far into Tolkien's legendarium, whilst also being told in a childishly simplistic manner. People were offended by the rape scenes, I was offended by ... the terse dialogue and exposition.

While certain premises of this show are appealing, the lackluster dialogue and abruptness of certain scenes dulls them immensely. The borrowed storytelling feels disingenuous and really takes away from some of the more creative moments.

The animation is largely good but the CGI still doesn't quite mesh well enough with the scenes, despite it being above average. It is a good adaptation which is faithful to the source material, but that is the problem.

Goblin Slayer is an average show. It meets my minimum standards to be worth watching, if only to serve as a cautionary tale.

Violet Evergarden is the best looking show of the new year. Yet, beneath its alluring veneer lies something
grotesque.


Art & Animation: 10/10 ("Outstanding")
The art is stunning and consistent with its pseudo-European world. Hard work has gone into to animating even the most mundane moments, adding brief glimpses of humanity to otherwise lifeless characters.


Sound: 8/10 ("Very Good")
The Orchestral music is apt. Yet at times the music clashes with scenes, taking away from moments are best left quieter. Some of the best moments in cinema and animation have relied on sound effects over dialogue and music.
...

Story: 3/10 ("Poor")
Some changes must happen when adapting a light novel to anime. Yet, the changes made in adapting Violet Evergarden are lackluster and timid. The writers must have recoiled when faced with a story that begins in medias res. (Lit. "Into the middle of things") So instead they altered the flow of events. Even if it was disruptive and even if scenes no longer made sense.


Further, the anime has taken a complete departure from the adaptation. In fact, it would be best to say there is no central narrative. The directors have instead chosen to adapt Violet Evergarden as an omnibus. (By their own admission.) As a result, Kyoto Animation has opted to abandon foreshadowing. These changes have weakened the story on the whole. It has become something that is disposable and lacks character. Kyoto Animation's use of brute force and crude manipulation is unsuitable for a story about post-war recovery.


Characters: 1/10 ("Pathetic")
As bad as the story is, the characters are worse. A weak story makes weak characters. The shuffling and omission of events make attachment to any character difficult. Violet's desire to learn what "I love you" means is too grandiose to empathize with. The scope is too far removed from reality to be the sole string which ties the omnibus together. So, each episode Violet manages to feel less and less human.


To conclude, I find this show guilty. It is guilty of being bad despite the clear hard work and talent that went into it. In some ways Violet Evergarden is a bigger travesty than a bad anime which had no effort put into it. This show could have been great, but it isn't, and nothing after these first four episodes can repair it. This show is a solemn reminder not to judge a show based on the quality of its original content, animation studio, or appearance.

My recommendation is to read the light novel, or watch Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu instead.