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Interesting and unique premise that mixes two different cultures, and totally awesome visuals with stunning animation encoated with a good-looking art style. One would think that a show with these two elements couldn't be bad. Well, Afro Samurai is a model example that they're not enough to make an anime good or even mediocre. Not when all other elements are significantly underwhelming.

All characters, no matter whether we are talking about the main character, Afro, or any other side-characater, were one-dimensional and dull. Those who weren't dull were annoying enough to make a regular viewer cringe and wish they'd just shut up. Going back to the ... characters in general, they felt more like background noise in a pretty much empty story. Their designs were good, but everything else felt shallow and usually was, aside from a few characters with more prominent roles. But even then, they seemed to serve no purpose beyond being another obstacle in Afro's journey of revenge, without offering any real substance.

Here's another issue with Afro Samurai: revenge stories usually follow a well-known model scenario that's pretty basic. This makes them generic and simple, but also safe, as it's hard to make such a story terribly bad. Sadly, this anime falls into the category of badly told revenge stories. Was it even a revenge story to begin with? To avoid spoilers, I will just say that I'm not a fan of messy writing that can't decide on what kind of core element should be pivotal for the story, even if one can find something that can be called as a dominant storytelling element of a plot.

The music is catchy and pleasant at first, but later on, the soundtrack becomes a boring, repetitive symphony of similar beats. I wanted to like it; it wasn't a bad soundtrack by any means. However, it couldn't elevate the other underwhelming elements, despite the marvelous animation and generally decent soundtrack.

Are there any other positives? Apart from what I mentioned in the first paragraph, no, I can't think of any. Are these positive elements enough to watch the show? I don't think so. Even when I tried to just enjoy the setting and brilliant sakuga animation, I still felt bored and unamused. Unfortunately, scenes full of gore and magnificent swordsmanship, as good as they were, weren't enough to elevate the overall enjoyment. Yes, I tried to "turn off my brain and just enjoy the action scenes", but regardless, it still was not enough.

You can't expect much from a short five-episode series, but that doesn't excuse the completely hollow cast of characters and shallow direction that make the whole show a chore to watch at times. So, while this short series offers a visually striking experience with fantastic-looking action sequences, pretty much everything else ultimately leaves much to be desired. Too bad. I really tried my best to enjoy it.

What a shame. After all those years of waiting for a good adaptation of one of the most famous manga created by Junji Ito, we got a show that is, at best, strongly mediocre.

It's a shame, really. Episode 1 was brilliant, after all. Simply beautiful artsy art, smooth animation, great direction that suceeded in building up the atmosphere of uncanyness and mysteriousness... Everything was polished; everything felt top-notch. And then episode 2 was released. A huge quality drop in every aspect, mostly when it comes to animation and direction. I'm tolerant and used to quality drops in long-running series, but come on - Uzumaki anime ... consists only of four episodes, not four hundred. And yet, its second episode was not only painful to watch, but also upsetting, given how good its predecessor looked like. Heck, even the overall tone of this adaptation seemed to change for the worse. Like I said before, I'm pretty tolerant when it comes to that kind of things in anime, so me finding such radical change simply unacceptable and pathetic really makes one think about the intensity of the lack of quality that the discussed thing has.

This anime is faithful to the source material, even if it has some modifications or omissions here and there, which is normal for an animated adaptation of an illustrated series. Too bad that at the same time most of the episodes are simply badly animated. They leave a bad impression, make the whole experience rather unpleasant, and if mixed with rather mediocre direction (too chaotic at times, mostly on the aforementioned ep. 2, but appearing also on episodes 3 and 4).

The only elements that I can't tell anything negative about are those related to the audio side of this series, I mean voice acting and music. The latter is something you'd expect from watching an anime. The voice acting industry in Japan has a lot of very talented and skilled voice actors, after all. As for the latter element, while the soundtrack isn't groundbreaking, it i well-executed and, along with the strong voice acting, helps to mitigate the impact of the poor animation in some scenes, making them slightly more bearable to watch.

Uzumaki anime will surely not be forgotten in the future, after the season during which Uzumaki anime had its premiere ends (Fall 2024). Though, in this case, it's not a compliment. It's better to be forgotten than to be mentioned as an example of one of the biggest anime disappointments of the 2020s decade.

I remember that after seeing the first trailer for this movie, I was genuinely worried about its visuals. The CGI didn't impress me. The next clip, released some time later, looked better, but I was still unsure if CGI was the right choice for a movie belonging to the Dragon Ball franchise, especially after such marvelous spectacle that the Broly movie was. It was quite intriguing and worrysome to hear that the next Dragon Ball movie wouldn't be made in a 2D technique, but would be a CGI movie instead.

Well, it appears that, at least for the Super Hero movie, CGI turned out better than ... good. It looked simply awesome and offered detailed models, smooth animation, a good color palette, and stunning special effects (including those you can see when characters are powering up). I can understand that it might take a while to get used to it (longer or shorter, depending on a viewer's tolerance towards CGI), but at least in my case, it didn't take long to get used to it and stop noticing it, as if the movie was done in the same way as all the previous Dragon Ball movies.

The story focuses on Gohan and Piccolo, offering a refreshing change from the usual Goku and Vegeta-centric narratives. It was a pleasure to see a movie dedicated to other beloved characters, especially those that many fans (including me) have wished to see in the spotlight.
Super Hero's first half might feel a bit slow at times, but such pacing is understandable, given the need to introduce new characters and establish their motivations or goals. While a more dynamic approach wouldn't have hurt, of course, the slower pace was appropriate for setting up the main plotline.

While in general I don't consider this movie superior to the one about Broly, I admit that in terms of soundtrack it's on a slightly higher level. Not that much better, but I could memorize more tracks from it than from the Broly movie, including the main theme. They also felt more fitting to the general vibe offered by Super Hero. Hearing all the effects amplified by speakers at the cinema was simply a fantastic experience.

In terms of fighting choreography, the element that's very important when talking about anything related to this franchise, Super Hero might be the best Dragon Ball movie ever created. The action scenes were filled with intricate details and complexity, whether it was hand-to-hand combat or ki attacks. The well-directed fights, set against beautiful landscapes, were surely a visual treat for one's eyes.

Definitely, Super Hero is worth watching, and I'm saying it as a person who was not initially hyped. With its blend of humor, action, stunning visuals, and a great soundtrack, it's sure to entertain Dragon Ball fans of all kinds. I had fun both while watching it for the first time in the theater and re-watching it at home some months later.

Note: I originally reviewed this movie on September 13, 2022. However, after re-reading it two years later, I decided to make several improvements. As a result, I deleted the old review and submitted this revised version. I consider the new version way better than the old one.

A short but really well-written story that is about grief and acceptance of loss. It presents them in a realistic way, even if, not to spoil anything, one supernatural element is being used as a storytelling tool.

The art is rather alright. Good enough to tell the story properly and entertain the viewer. It would be great if it was actually better, more detailed, with even more expressive facial expressions, but like I mentioned before, it's okay as it is.

I liked how, despite featuring just two characters in such a short story, the readers can easily get a glimpse of their distinct personalities and basic desires. ... All of that blends well with the main storyline.

This manga is surely a quick read due to its length. But I think it's worth recommending for its unique main theme and handling such a mature topic very well.

Writing a review for this anime can be quite challenging, so I will keep it brief. For most of the time, it's a style over substance festival. Very good-looking style, but still the substance feels lacking something.

Beautiful visuals throughout the series, smooth animation with well-executed experimental elements, creative gimmicks, rather likeable characters with various personalities... All is there, accompanied by a good-sounding soundtrack (albeit I can see people who are not into electric guitars simply not enjoying it), even if those guitar riffs might sound tiring to one's ear after a while.

What's the big deal, then? Well, where style shines, it outshines the substance. Likeable ... characters are rather bland and dull. Some of them, like Haruko Haruhara, can totally feel annoying, as if they weren't meant to add anything else to the story but just their own presence and maybe artificially move the whole plot onward in the weirdest way possible. Crazy action sequences might look good, but so what, if they are dominated by wacky sequences, reminding of fever dreams shortly after? Same goes with symbolism. I won't spoil anything, so I will just say that I got what this show wanted to convey. It conveyed it poorly, I need to say. Not because it was unclear, but because it was, just like action sequences I mentioned earlier, dominated by a huge dose of pretentiousness and various other distractors.

It's one of those shows that most will either love or hate. There are also people like me who had fun while watching it, even if they noticed a lot of elements that weren't that good or that felt overwhelming for one reason or another. Hence, "Mixed Feelings" should be one of the best ways of summing up this show. It's certainly worth checking out, even if out of curiosity, but is it essential for every type of anime enthusiast to watch? I don't think so.

"Shin Yaranai ka" OVA is a wonderful tribute to Junichi Yamakawa's works and one of the finest examples of crowdfunded official anime. It offers all the elements that one may call characteristic when talking about Yamakawa-sensei's manga. There's a lot of masculine energy mixed with humor, drama, and bizarre scenes. Everything is enriched by quite unique techniques, such as including real-life footages in the show, using CGI models here and there that look wacky on purpose, or really nice way of censoring things that had to be censored (yes, this anime is censored, but it doesn't take away even for a bit the joy coming ... from watching it). Keep in mind, please, that it has a lot of suggestive moments, so I wouldn't call it a completely SFW anime.

When it comes to visuals, the strongest point of this anime are the close-ups of handsome male characters starring in it, and the overall very faithful depiction of character designs and scenes known from the source material. While it shines the most with static frames, the animation itself is far from something that many would refer to as "sakugafest". To be fair, "Shin Yaranai ka" doesn't need that much complex animation. If we add to it the fact that it's kind of an indie project, then the animation quality is proper, at least in my opinion. Not great, but also not that much terrible to be called a slideshow.

Audio effects are alright. They fit all the scenes they are used in. The soundtrack is good, making this whole OVA even funnier to watch. "Kuso♂Miso Carnival" by Kaito is truly a banger.

Just one word of advice that is definitely worth noting in a review. This anime is a genuine, classic bara experience. That's why it might not click with yaoi fans. Even though I recommend checking it out regardless of whether you are a fan of bara or yaoi, it is recommended to keep in mind that this show prioritizes classic bara over yaoi.

The studio, Anime Tokyo, did a wonderful job in making an anime adaptation that mixes the old stories that are several decades old with fresh ideas. It resulted in creating a new story that is heavily influenced by the other works by Yamakawa-sensei (with the legendary "Kuso Miso Technique" having a priviledged position, making it somewhat a core of the whole story told in this OVA).

I had fun while watching "Shin Yaranai ka". It's definitely an anime I recommend for everyone interested in watching a fine bara full of humor and fancyness.

Ufotable has once again proven themselves to be the perfect studio to adapt Kimetsu no Yaiba. into the anime format.

At first, I didn't expect much from this season. After all, it adapts a short arc focused on character development and heartwarming interactions, particularly with the Hashira (Pillars), instead of concentrating only on action. And yet, ufotable delivered an incredibly entertaining show with exceptional production quality. The animation, art, and music are phenomenal as always, but what truly elevates this season are the creative anime-original moments that seamlessly blend into the story. These scenes offer a delightful mix of humor, wholesome moments, and stunning action sequences ... with intricate choreography.

And that final episode... It just need to be watched. The finale delivered a truly satisfying conclusion. It'd be hard to describe it relatively well without spoilers. All I can say is that the quality it presents is on a whole different level to the rest of the season, and that it's worth of being the episode to end the whole season. It's hard to impress me a lot or to leave me speechless when it comes to entertainment. This season's finale, however, succeeded in both.

Overall, even though this season might not be as action-packed in general as the previous ones, it's a breath of fresh air that retains the signature Demon Slayer atmosphere and, of course, incredible quality. This season is definitely worth recommending to both dedicated Kimetsu no Yaiba fans and anyone who appreciates high-quality, entertaining anime.

"Chii-chan" by Shuuzou Oshimi can be considered an example of a promotional manga done right. It looks very good, it's entertaining to read, it has an actual complete story that is well told, it's short, and it really does a great job in encouraging the readers to at least check out the trailer for the movie this manga is meant to promote ("Doku Musume" directed by Eisuke Naitou").

The art, as expected from Oshimi-sensei, is polished and full of beautiful-looking close-ups, showing characters and their faces in a detailed way. Speaking about its characters, they are alright. There are three main characters who are attending the ... same class: Yuua, Koudai, and Chii. They are different from each other, but all have realistic designs (well, apart from Chii) and represent realistic behavior (well, again, apart from Chii). Psychological elements are very common in Oshimi-sensei's manga. This one has them as well. On a side note, Oshimi-sensei designed the character design for one character, mostly about whom this manga is about (Chii-chan).

The story is full of mysteries, giving off a thriller feel or even horror vibes at times. One could say that the story is as simple as this manga's characters. Well, that wouldn't be far from the truth, but in Chii-chan's case, that kind of narration and story's structure work the best. The manga is a short one, since its length is just 1 volume consisting of 10 chapters. Enough to tell a cool story, but not enough to pretend or try hard to write something more complex. It allowed the "Chii-chan" manga to end up with an entertaining and satisfying work of art without pretending or trying too hard to come up with something more complex and failing in the end.

Like I already hinted at the beginning of this review, this manga is something I'd personally consider a model promotional manga. It was really fun to read, and it made me interested in watching the "Doku Musume" movie. I hope I will have the opportunity to do it in the future. However, if you don't plan to watch the movie, fear not! This manga is worth giving it a try anyway. It's simply a nice one, as simple as that.

If I were to describe "Memories" in just a short way, I would call it an audiovisual feast for every fan of animation. Three different stories, each one directed by a different director, but all done in a truly spectacular way. Beautiful art style with stunning-looking backgrounds, stellar animation, breathtaking soundtrack and voice acting, an interesting and unique approach to storytelling, many themes and genres blending with each other in a balanced way, breathtaking sequences... Everything is there and is polished as much as possible. I decided to make this review rather short. Why? Because I feel there's no need to elaborate a lot and ... mention all the details about each of those three movies, because it's best to just experience this movie compilation by yourself, with having in mind the pros I briefly mentioned earlier.

In conclusion, "Memories" is definitely worth recommending to not only fans of animation in general or Japanese animation in particular, but also to people who love artsy works of art representing high production quality. It's hard to impress me, but this compilation left me speechless. Calling it a masterpiece is definitely a good and proper way to address it, at least if you ask me. I can't even really think of any negative elements that could appear in any of the movies this compilation consists of. It's one of the best examples of grand-looking cel animation.

It's always upsetting to see such a good-looking show end up being all form over substance. Unfortunately, things such as stellar animation, beautiful colours, interesting looking art style, and cool character designs can't carry the overall chaotic direction and extremely rushed, poorly written plot.

"Burn the Witch" offers a very nice and intriguing setting that serves as mere background to a story that's just half-baked. Half-baked, because how would one call a situation when viewers are supposed to care about anything and anyone, when all they learn throughout the show is that "this place exists, this person exists as well"? Why do viewers have to learn ... about presumably important and strong secondary characters, see them saying a phrase or two, and afterwards not hear anymore about most of them, or just see them being somewhere in the background and saying something cryptic that's also not elaborated upon later on? Many high schoolers would write a better scenario, even for such a short animated series. It's even worse if we consider that without knowing the prequel movie, which was released 3 years (!) after the reviewed series, the viewers will have a hard time figuring out what the heck is exactly happening in the story, why do some situations occur, and why do certain characters act like they do. Yup, "Burn the Witch" doesn't offer any introduction, not without watching the "Burn the Witch #0.8" prequel movie.

Speaking about its length, there are three episodes, and each one is 20 minutes long. In theory, that would be alright to tell a cute story. That is, if the writing was at least on an acceptable level. Sadly, like I mentioned earlier, the writing was mediocre at best, but most of the time it was chaotic and messy. The direction was weird as well, as if the show couldn't find balance between more static and more dynamic scenes, but preferred to just mix them up and end up with a rather convoluted mess.

Some might say that it was like this in the source material. Some might say that this show fits the "Bleach" universe in which it is set. I'm neither familiar with the first nor the second thing, so as an anime only viewer, I can't relate to any of them. However, even if I had knowledge about one thing or another, I wouldn't treat it as something positive. If an anime is not labelled as a spin-off series, then it's not unwise to assume that one may enjoy the story without knowing the main series, no? Obviously, a shared universe is not the same as a shared story, after all. And at the end of the day, we're talking about an animated show that is loosely related to an already existing series. The fact that source material was worse or better, or that some elements might make more sense if someone is familiar with said existing series, shouldn't matter, in my opinion.

I was torn between choosing "Mixed Feelings" or "Negative" as the final verdict for this review. I think the former will be more appropriate. I don't regret watching it myself. It didn't take a lot to watch the reviewed show and the aforementioned prequel movie, after all. Although, I can't recommend this show if you care about anything else than its great-looking visuals. Not with all the cons this show has, which I pointed out earlier.