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“Armor Shop for Ladies & Gentlemen” is what happens when fanservice and a fever dream fave a baby.

Slapstick comedy is a real hit or miss for me. There are gags that I find funny and then there are those that I have no idea when is the moment for laughter. I guess that’s why someone invented the canned laugh that’s used in a lot of shitty american sitcoms. The slapstick in this show… is a miss for me. I honestly didn’t find any of it funny and one episode even irritated me because it just looped the same sequence over, and over again. Not something ... I would expect in a 4 (actually 2) minute episode show.

Normally I would talk about the writing, its flaws and strengths but to be honest there isn’t much to talk about. I would have to spoil the plot of every episode and I want to avoid that. The show isn’t totally episodic, the order of the episodes does matter if You want to make sense (as little as there is) of them, but there is no overarching plot or even a story here. Everything that there is here is plot ( the surface events), no one changes during those 12, short episodes.

The worst part is that the premise itself is pretty awesome. A seemingly “normal” and “innocent” young man starts working in an armor shop that sells sexy (at least one I would call lewd) armor. His boss is a pervert and he has a crush on his coworker. That’s not a bad setup. But unfortunately instead of giving us something like “a weird customer of the week” be mainy see the internal conflicts of the store and its residents. It’s all so… boring.

The show takes classical fantasy tropes and dials the absurd to about 9, sometimes 10 but I would say that happens only once. The idea of making something we saw a million times in fantasy anime to an extreme absurdity is a good one. But 2 minutes aren’t enough for the jokes to land. The show only gives them some time to breathe not because the writing is good but because the episode ended.

It’s a terrible waste of potential because I think the premise is awesome.

As it stands I can see someone watching it as a curiosity, after all it takes about 48 (24 if You skip the intro and outro) minutes to complete this show. But if You expect competent writing, or even something that will make You laugh on a regular basis, You will be disappointed.

“The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases” is what happens when a lack of writing skill is paired with lack of imagination.

This show is a classic example of wasted potential. It has some good ideas story wise and absolutely butchers them with incompetent almost infantile or cringe writing and predictable plot.

Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:
“What ... happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

Let’s start with the story. It actually has potential, at least on paper. A reincarnated hero, who struggled in his heroic life, has a chance to live in peace. It has potential. In the hands of a competent writer this could actually be a good psychological drama (with a happy ending) or even a slow life, slice of life show. But because it was written by a cringy 13 year old it’s a pathetic, boring, predictable and ultimately pointless show. Whatever it had to say was destroyed by its own setup. Let me explain.

We have a reincarnated person, who lived for 15 years with his new family. A family of some importance and influence, it would appear. Instead of making sure he can leave to live as he pleases (as the title states) he just… fucked around and did nothing. His father lost the woman he loved, basically his reason for being sane and doing his damn job, and Alan (our MC) did nothing. He had experience from his previous life (yes, he has all his memories from that time), it would make sense he'd met people in similar situations and interacted with them. He could have helped his father to cope with his loss but he chose to let the man suffer. One hell of a hero. His inaction is the reason the first big arc even happens. He even acknowledges it in a half assed way but doesn’t give two shits about it. I guess when You die a hero, You get to be reborn as a prick. Why should we root for him?

The same thing with his own younger brother. When their father started to turn to the dark side and wanted revenge, he started treating his children as resources and mentally abused them. Alan didn’t give a fuck because… why should he? He’s the almighty hero that doesn’t even care about this family. His brother? Yeah. That’s a different story. He wanted to be accepted. Thanks to that he started seeing his own brother as nothing more than a failure and continuing his downward spiral into darkness. Darkness that could have been easily avoided if Alan gave a shit. But no, our hero couldn't be bothered, after all he just knows this family for 15 years, that’s obviously too little time to develop any kind of feelings or attachments. The only thing he said to his brother is that if he would succumb to the dark path he would stop him. The fuck? Alan saw the state his brother was in and did nothing. I guess he really wanted to kill his own family. Can we stop calling him a hero now, or do we need more?

Let’s talk about the exile itself. WHY THE FUCK DID HE HAD TO BE EXILED? I mean, I know why, he fucked around and did nothing so it does make sense to get rid of him. What I mean is that why the writers decided he needs to be exiled? He could just do what was expected of him, keep his standing for some time, make people accept him and see him as a good person and then just refuse to be part of the “family business”. What would they do to stop him? Threaten to exile him? It’s not like he is exiled without a good cause. He literally did nothing, he didn't give a shit about the mental, or any other, state of his family. That doesn’t make him a victim of some sort of external evil, it makes him an asshole that the show wants the viewer to cheer for. Eff off, just… Eff off.

It doesn’t get any better when our protagonist is “set free”. Because someone thought that a reincarnated asshole should have all his powers from his “hero years” there are no stakes and it is shown in episode one. He dispatches creatures that almost killed his friend and her bodyguard. Granted we don’t exactly get the scale of their threat because there is just one bodyguard, for some reason, and a whole pack of regenerating adversaries. That said, the fact that they can regenerate is a nice testament that they can be dangerous. Not for Alan, a protagonist of a shitty, self insert, power fantasy, reincarnation (at least it’s not an isekai) lazily written show, having actual challenges? Perish the thought. What do You think this is, a competently written show?

Ok, let’s talk about something good. The fact that the first BBEG is the family of the protagonist is a very good idea that I haven't seen utilised much. It has potential to be an amazing clash of ideals and morals. Alan’s father has a solid reason to be the villain of an arc. He even has a point in his actions. He saw a flaw in the state the world operates in, that people are benignly denied true free will thanks to their gifts that could hinder their dreams. That is good. That is a very good idea. We have a villain that has not only a reason to hate the world but also a solid reasoning why others should join him in this hate. Give that idea to a competent writer and we can have at least 26 episodes only about that.
Unfortunately, as You might have gathered, there wasn’t a competent writer anywhere near this script. What we get is a cartoonishly evil villain that uses lame, badly thought out plans that are destroyed with ease by Alan and the whole arc ends in 5 episodes. Everything is rushed and basic. Alan practically kills his father and brother without anything that could be mistaken for trying to rescue them. He just shows up, destroys their plan and then kills them without a second thought. Why? This could have been an amazing moment when Alan tries to save his family, make them see the error of their ways (something he should have done when he was still a kid and living with them) and, failing that, have a gut wrenching moment when he kills people he (at least should) love. But no. We get a pathetic, badly choreographed sword fight that ends in two moves basically. Just how incompetent were the writers? They took something good and turned it into a mindless parody. Something that could, and should, have been an introspective moment for Alan, that could have ended in him doubting himself, ends as a damn super sentai episode - monster killed, everythings fine, let’s move on. I effing hate the writing in this shitshow.

If You are hoping that the supporting cast at least picks up the tab and is a highlight of the show… oh my sweet summer child. They are barely characters. They are more like temporary side quest givers for Alan. When he’s done helping them, they follow him like good NPCs, contributing nothing to whatever comes next. Of course, because this is a show with lazy writing, all of his companions are women and all (maybe, very maybe, except for one) would like to ride him like Mario rides Yoshi. How original. There isn’t even anything more I could tell You about them, they are just that bland and forgettable.

Almost everything that happens in this show happens because the plot demands it and not because of any kind of logical cause and effect. Once a plot point is resolved it rarely has any kind of consequences on future events. Saved a blacksmith? You get a follower, that does nothing. Stopped an assassination? You get a follower that does almost nothing (seriously, she has maybe one scene when she is actually useful). Saved a kingdom from an evil plan of Your family? You get a follower that does nothing. I actually thought that he didn’t get a follower after defeating the dragon as a good idea. Alan joined forces with someone and they parted ways after the problem was resolved. That was good. If that would remain the case the show would only be better for it. Alan doesn’t need followers and he isn’t interested in planting roots anywhere so him being a solo wanderer has much more sense and gives more options for his development than him just traveling the gettin into trouble with a pack of women.

At the end of the day this show sucks. The plot doesn’t serve the story in any kind of way, it’s there because a powerful character must use his power, even when it shouldn't be needed. The story itself isn’t a bad idea but it is executed horribly.

I don’t think there is any kind of enjoyment to be had from watching this show unless it’s Your first time ever seeing an animation and even then I pity You. Avoid at all costs.

“Requiem from the Darkness” is what happens when a horror story takes LSD

Let’s get the obvious out of the way, the art style, more often than not, is like a fever dream and I love it for it. It gives a surreal and dissociated feel that is more than fitting for a show like this. A show about how twisted people can be.

Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions ... for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

The show is mostly episodic in nature and apart from the last 4 episodes the connection between them is almost non-existent. The only connection is the group consisting of Mataichi, Ogin and Nagamimi, and of course the person whose POV we follow - Momosuke Yamaoka aka sensei.

Every episode is it’s own self contained story. It has its own plot, story and consequences for Yamaoka. If I had to name a theme that combines every episode it would probably be “People are scumbags”. Every story shows us another way a person can be twisted, cruel, opportunistic, cowardly and greedy. A lot of the time all of those at once and trust me, some are pretty inventive.

Episode plots concentrate on ghost and monster stories from Japanese folklore. I couldn't verify all of them but most indeed have their origins in their mythology. They start out as supernatural events only to be revealed as just people being scumbags and using the superstition either as an excuse or a tool used by Mataichi and his group.
They are written very simplistically and that is both their strength and weakness. The pro of this approach is that the episodes can concentrate on the main point with little to no distractions. The con is that a lot of episodes get resolved in an unsatisfying, almost deus ex machina way. I would prefer a more analytical approach where viewers are given clues to piece everything together. Don’t get me wrong, we do get that here but in 90% of cases the antagonists aren’t very subtle so You don’t get a proper katharsis when You solve the mystery before it is spelled out for Momosuke. There are also episodes where we don’t get anything useful so we are at a loss with Yamaoka.
Maybe that was the point. This supernatural world is new to him, he lacks experience in it and thus doesn’t exactly know what to look for. His lack of skill is translated as lack of clues for the viewers… Maybe… or maybe I just give too much credit to the writers. Eughter way there are episodes, especially in the beginning that start off as a well introduced mystery and end as if someone just used a solution to a game.

There is an interesting plot point however. A few early episodes rely mostly on sheer coincidence when it comes to Momosuke interacting with Mataichi’s group. Normally it would be annoying AF but in this case there is an explanation. Not a great one but I would call it solid and beat the tired trope of “Oh what a coincidence” over and over again. Yamaoka want’s to write 100 ghost stories so it makes sense he travels to places that have weird rumors going around, and it just so happens that those rumors are the effect of either the antagonists doing or just Mataichi using local folklore for his own goal. Either way it’s a solid way to bring all the cast members together.

Each episode has its own story but there is an overarching story here. A story about a young writer being sucked to a world of darkness. Man made darkness mind You. Our protagonist Momosuke starts out as an almost innocent person with pretty idealistic views and beliefs and as the show goes on he becomes more and more (but still not so much as to matter in the long run) disillusioned about people. It only shows up a couple of times but there are moments when he is an active participant in the final fate of the episode antagonist. Despite that he doesn’t really change in a meaningful way, even him committing a murder isn’t used in any kind of meaningful way, only once to show him as a bit of a hypocrite. I guess it’s better than nothing but I would prefer him having an existential crisis over it. Oh well…

The other cast members don’t change at all. They use Momosuke when it is convenient for them, they talk to him as an acquaintance but they make an active effort to keep him at a distance. This part is actually good. They don’t want to corrupt him. Make no mistake, they present themselves as fighting the darkness but at the end of the day they kill people most of the time. Having a coterie like that make an effort to save a naive young man is a solid idea. Shame that that effort comes down to only telling him not to get involved. Something Momosuke never does. I guess the one person that seems to care (and I use this term extremely loosely in this case) about him is Ogin, but we never really get anysort of confirmation if it's as a potential lover, a sibling or she sees him as a child. To be honest I lean more towards the last option.

Because of its episodic nature I really can’t say much about the plot without getting into spoiler territory and I try to avoid that.

At the end of the day it is a solid show, with a rather original idea, awesome artstyle and despite touching some serious subjects doesn't really preach to its viewers like some other shows that use gruesome and cruel scenes. Unless You are hoping for a happy ending to every plot and don’t mind rushed conclusions I believe this is a solid investment of Your time.

“My Wife Has No Emotion” is what happens when You combine writing suited for a child with subjects and themes aimed at adults.

In 1973 “Soylent Green” was released. A dystopian, detective thriller with Charlton Heston playing an opportunistic but ultimately good detective. I’m not going to go deep into that movie but it is worth watching. In “Soylent Green” some people are considered furniture - basically enslaved poor that are “paid” in food, shelter and other things people nowadays would consider normal. The protagonist of the movie even uses one of those women-furniture to satisfy his urges. Despite being human they are treated as nothing ... more than items.
For some reason the premise of “My Wife Has No Emotion” had me thinking about those furniture and that the authors of the show just inverted the main premise of the interaction. Instead of dehumanizing a human they gave humanity to something not human.

Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

I’m gonna be honest I simultaneously like and hate the writing in this show. I like it because it touches on some pretty important and mature subjects like loneliness, morality when it comes to AI and even what are the limits of love (I was a therapist so You don’t really want to know the true answer to that one, trust me), and I hate it because in most cases it does so in a very naive and childish way with a lot of deus ex machina resolutions. Despite some pretty good setups that could lead to some really heavy hitting brain teasers, the most this show does is “It will work itself out”... and in almost all cases it does.

I’m not sure who is supposed to be the target audience. It is classified as seinen, but to be fair the writing is a bit too childish for this group. The main hero - Takuma, is an adult and not some teenager, has a job and presumably all other responsibilities that come from being a living alone adult. He even has two different sides to him. He is a pretty well adjusted young man in public, even willing to help those in need as was shown with his first interaction with Super Mina, and can act like a spoiled child when alone with his robot-wife - Mina. I actually like that. Different sides for different occasions. I would consider this pretty solid writing. Most anime and manga don’t really bother giving characters more than one side of personality, so credit where it’s due. It could give You hope that there will be more of this level of thought. Oh my sweet summer child…
Don’t get me wrong, having simple writing isn’t a bad thing, especially when You want to serve mature subjects, like this anime does, to a wider audience. There is “simple”, and there is “childish”. This show has problems balancing that. Unfortunately the pacing and messaging suffer for it immensely.

Now, there is the problem with the world itself. Despite Takuma and Mina going into public places the world feels empty. The only moment when the world felt a bit organic was when they went for a picnic and some (probably) highschool girls commented on Mina. That is the first and only moment when the world seemed, for a lack of a better word, real. Something unusual happened so of course some people will comment on that. Unfortunately no such event took place when they were at the park itself or when they went to the beach.
The beach episode is actually one of two that shows how empty the world is. Without getting into spoilers I will just say that Takuma and Mina get separated and help two different people. The problem? None of them think to ask other people on the beach for any sort of help. Why? That would probably speed up their tasks a lot. No one even comments on seeing a robot with a lot of visible metal in a swimsuit. Nothing. It’s almost like the setting was just a poor excuse to have our MCs meet some new semi useful, plot demanding NPCs.
Unfortunately that ends up being the case. Super Mina even becomes the reason for a terrible info dump about Mina’s past. The same info dump could be used as a set up for something more but it isn't. It’s not exactly forgotten, there are moments later that are consequences of it but it’s not a payoff per se.

The second episode that showed how empty the world is, showed also that the writers didn’t exactly have a solid idea about Mina herself. First the world. Mina and Mamoru (I’ll get to him) find themself in an unnerving situation. Her GPS doesn’t work and they don’t know how to get home. Now any normal person would just ask for directions. Especially that Mina knows her home address. The problem? There is no one to ask. They end up walking, for what seems like a few hours and meet no one. They live in a city. Before this incident it was even shown that there were people around. Not the case when they get into trouble. The solution that they find isn’t exactly a Deus Ex Machina since it is a logical step and doesn’t use elements that weren’t shown before, but there are some problems with the whole situation:
1. The fact that a robot that mostly acts logically wasn’t able to record it’s path, or even ask anyone for direction is just lazy writing to create a situation where Mina has to work together with Mamoru
2. Why didn't the solution come to Mina earlier? It’s logical, simple and easy. That should be, if not the first, the second option she would take into account.
The whole episode just showed me that Mina, despite being a robot is incompetent and probably shouldn't be out on her own. She’s the “wife” and yet she acted without thinking, she was worse than a child at that point. I actually liked Mina as a character up until that point but after that episode my sympathy declined.

Mamoru - the “child” of Mina and Takuma, is a good idea but with terrible execution. His eyes and reactions remind me of Inko - a parakeet from “Toradora” (not the worst association if You ask me). The idea of a “child” for Mina and Takuma isn’t a bad one. They should have something like that at some point to give Mina new challenges in her role as a wife so turning her into a “mother” is solid. Takuma also could benefit from something like that to add character development, something he really needs.
The problem? It’s way too soon. Neither Mina nor Takuma are in the state where that could be beneficial to the story. They still have a long way to develop as a couple. There is no need to add another element to that. I would first like to see some sort of crisis in their relationship. Maybe have Takuma meet a human woman and become friends (just friends) with her. Get Takuma to go with her for some drink or dinner. Normal things that friends do. Let that not sit well with Mina. Have her have a few days of treating Takuma cold and acting capricious. She is capable of that, that much was shown early in the show. Let them find a solution the adult way. By talking and explaining things.

The last two episodes really annoyed me. They were set up for something great. A real hit with reality for Takuma. Takuma visits his parents with his “wife”. The beginning is good. They don’t see her as a family member and treat her 100% as a house appliance. It was nice. I thought that maybe now Takuma will have some sort of crisis. Maybe he will rethink his “marriage” and the way he treats Mina and Mamoru. Maybe he will have a pause and think that he’s just projecting and both of them are just a pair of robots with unusual programming and that they don’t love him back. Maybe we will get a proper, meaningful conflict. Yeah… no. Everything works out great with little to no effort. The amount of potential that was destroyed within those two episodes is astonishing. That could have been an amazing ending to the season. What we got was… abysmal to say at least.

I think the best part, with the exception of that one episode I mentioned, is Mina herself. Despite being a robot with programmed functions she often acts in ways that clearly weren’t intended by the corporation that mass produces her model. That makes her unique and perfect for someone like Takuma. During the info dump with Super Mina, we get to know the reason for that but… I don’t really think it worked in the story’s favour. Without that knowledge Mina was unique, one of a kind, something that, we could speculate, happened only because of her encounter with Takuma. After the revelation… it lost a lot of its charm. Turns out that yes, she probably still is one of a kind, but it kills the speculations that it was because of Takuma.
From Takuma’s point of view very little changes, he doesn’t even get to know the info that the viewers get, Mina is still his wife and his remedy for loneliness. From the viewer pov however a lot has changed. Mina doesn’t act abnormally from her programming. She is acting like she should. Still the program has to deal with a lot of subjectivity and she’s doing rather well so maybe there is something more to this.
Nonthe less almost every episode shows some new “human” actions of Mina. She defends having a wedding ring, is fussy, gets annoyed and even gossips with the girls. It’s actually interesting and keeps You wondering what else she will do.

I really wanted to like this show. The premise is awesome, the story is good but the plot destroys much. If the show slowed down a bit and gave some more thought to the plot point it could have been a good show. As it stands… It’s just bad. I still liked the ending song and animation for it.

“A Playthrough of a Certain Dude's VRMMO Life” is what happens when You want to write an isekai but the higher ups force You to make it a video game one.

It may be the fact that I’ve seen a lot of garbage anime recently, but I don’t think this one is a travesty. The quality of writing varies from episode to episode but it does get better, especially when it comes to characters playing off each other.
It’s not bad but it’s not good either. It’s a very middle of the road plot with absolute garbage world logic and little to no story.

Before we start I ... would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

The most infuriating thing in this show is the whole “game” shtick. There is a lot, A LOT of bullshit in this department.

How the fuck does the smell and taste work in this VR system? If You eat something in game does it trick Your brain into not feeling hungry? If yes then can You use it to starve IRL? If not… What's the point? Well… I don’t really see the point even if You can use it to stop feeling hungry… maybe some sort of effed up diet? We saw that Earth was moving his hands during character creation so it’s not like the deep dive system in SAO wich means it doesn’t affect Your brain and You don’t have a mask of any kind so how the fuck did people smelled the food he was making let alone taste it?.

The Fairy Queen - what the hell is her deal? It’s an NPC that acts like a person. Demands food, attention and even forces Earth into pseudo marriage. She also complains about handing out crystals to new players and writing emails. Yes. Writing emails. In a game. That has procedurally generated dungeons, pop up windows in the sky and whole menu system. Why the fuck is she even doing that? It’s a game, the devs write it once and set up an auto send. Why the hell would she write them? You could make an argument that since she’s an AI her responses and reactions are the result of learning and analysing player data but why make it for only one player? What’s the point? What happens when Earth won’t log in for a long time or quits the game all together? Will she run amok? Have depression? It’s just so dumb and plays into the whole, overused “chosen one” cliche. At least it’s not as bad as “Bofuri” in that regard. Small victories I guess.

Another thing is with crafting. After a night (in game) of crafting Earth declared that his hands hurt. Why? It is obvious You don’t swing Your hands to play this game. So why the hell would Your muscles be sore? The only thing I can think of is that they are getting way into roleplaying.

Other, smaller bullshit could be chucked up to Earth having certain items or skills but it is still bullshit because it favours one player and locks other players out of those profits. Bad game design at its finest.

All that sums up to a very lazy world that had little to know thought put into it. It could work as a fantasy world, but not a game world. There are things that make sense in games but not real life. I doubt even if people had the tech to create such realistic VR game worlds the developers would implement half of the bs this show serves as “game world”.

It’s pretty obvious this shouldn't be a game world show (I am not sure if this could be callen any kind of isekai) if the writer put those systems in. It should be a standard fantasy or isekai. At least I wouldn't have so many questions about why this game has so many redundant systems. It’s like Bethesda and Ubisoft had a baby. All that’s missing are microtransactions. We don’t even see Earth out of the game so what’s the point?

Apart from the worldbuilding being absolute crap it’s actually a solid slice of life fantasy show. Nothing groundbreaking but it can be rather enjoyable. My gripe is with the fact that the hero is OP and at some point the show layers on the “chosen one” cliche really thick. Despite being OP it’s a nice change to actually see him fail. That said, we don't see that often. I think 2 times in the whole show but it is still nice that the show admits it’s own hero can fail. If we would see him fail more often and in more critical situations I think that would be a benefit both for the plot (everyone loves a revenge story) and the main character's appeal. I would even stomach the fact that the mofo killed a boss designed to be fought with a party if at the first try he would get his ass handed to him on a silver platter and go through the whole planning and preparation phase after. As it stands he’s a bland character that the world bends over backwards for.

That said, the writing does get better (not by much I will take small blessings in this case) as the show progresses. It manages to balance its comedy with drama and adventure aspects pretty well. There are even scenes in the later episodes when characters play off each other well which provides a nice dose of comedy.
The downside is that it suffers from the same thing most slice of life shows suffer from - lack of focus and story. Because there is no main goal or overarching plot the writers can go wild with their shenanigans. It’s not necessarily a bad thing as long as there is a story there. Unfortunately there is no story. Earth doesn’t change in any meaningful ways, doesn’t help others to change, does not grow or learn anything in any meaningful way and is more often than not a very reactive character.
Surprisingly the later episodes have some really good ideas and in the hands of a more mature writer those ideas alone could carry the whole season or even two. Especially the missing person quest or the visit to the fairie territory. Both have layers to them that are mostly ignored and resolved in a very lazy way that shows the writers didn’t think things through.

All in all this is a very safe show with a plot that is mismatched to the genre. There is no real benefit or reason for this to be a game. It would work much better as a fantasy of isekai. The fact that it’s a game doesn’t bring anything to the table and the type of plots it shows us are ill suited for it anyway. I think You can still enjoy it, just don’t expect much.

“A Nobody's Way Up to an Exploration Hero” aka “Mobkara” is what happens when a cliche idea is butchered by amateurish writing.

This show is a rare gem. Indeed, rarely do I see something so badly written, devoid of charm and utterly boring. 99% of what we see is plot with little to no reverence to the story.

Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa ... Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

Oh boy. I really wish I had something positive to say about the writing but it’s absolutely atrocious. From the very first episode we get to see that this show will have absolutely no stakes. The world bends over backwards for the MC - Kaito from the get go. We barely see anything about his “before” state (the state of his life before his adventure begins), we do get some exposition through his inner monologue but it’s vague and not really interesting. He’s weak and has an obsession with the dungeon. That’s actually a good starting point. Which is destroyed in the very first episode when he finds his first (yes, FIRST) OP AF servant. The worst part? He just finds her. He doesn’t get her as a reward for doing something that would show us his morality. He just finds her as a drop. Above that he was contemplating selling her and had a moment that he regretted not doing that. Hell of a hero.

From that moment on we get 99% plot in which the world bends over backwards like a cheap whore for Kaito and 1% story. Which is much more than I thought given how bad the first episode was.

Without getting into too many spoilers he ends up with two walkin nukes in cute, loli forms. One angelic and one demonic. I can live with that. At least there shouldn't be any harem ecchi shit with that setup. He even becomes more confident and proficient (told You we get 1% story) which is a nice bonus. But there is something that is poorly explained and makes no logical sense. At some point he is invited to join a party. Their first pairing is explained pretty well. They wanted to take part in an event. Ok. That's good. But… after the event he is invited for more regular exploring and he accepts. Why? There is no need for that. His two loli-nukes are way more powerful than the girls that invited him and, because they are in his servitude, they won’t betray him. Something that’s always on the table when dealing with humans. I fail to see the logic of him joining forces. Especially that his loli servants end up rescuing everyone more than once. What's the point of the party? Oh yes, we need the male, boring protagonist to be surrounded by women that are far more interesting than he is, so they can develop a crush on him. Although why would a college student have a crush on a high schooler is beyond me.

Apart from that the last two episodes have the best story of the whole show. Not only Kaito’s personal story (which is boring as hell) but albo one of the girls from his party. We get to see how devoted he is when it comes to helping his friends (we don’t know if that extends to people that he doesn’t know because the first episode was garbage when it comes to character introduction), the fears of the whole party and even something I did not expect. A real crisis for Kaito. That was surprising in a good way. But we can’t have good things in a show as bad as this so his “crisis” is resolved with one conversation with no long term consequences.

Most episodes feel like some took an idea for one episode and stretched it to last at least two. I’m not even joking. The amount of useless joke conversation Kaito has with his servants is astonishing. Most of those are the devil girl asking for more “food”. I don’t need to see that after every fight.

This show is unwatchable. It has lazy writing, an unlikable protagonist, poorly choreographed fight scenes, no stakes and a world that bends over backwards for our “hero”.

“Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian” is what happens when an interesting shtick is destroyed by bad writing.

This show surprised me in to major ways:
1. That it destroyed its own shtick right from the get to in favour of… practically nothing because nothing comes of it.
2. How boring and devoid of story this show is

Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa ... Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

If I had to tell what kind of story telling method this show utilises it would be “and then that happened”. About 90% of what happens in the show's 12 episodes happen because the writers decided to show a cliche scene that You saw a million times (with better execution) before and had no idea how to organically implement it.

I’m gonna be honest, the first episode is rather solid for what it’s supposed to be. Get an overall view of what we’re working with. The main characters (Kuze and Alya), supporting cast (the most important of which would be Yuki), their relationship and interactions and the great view of the main “conflict”. It’s not exactly a surprise, the title gives it away from the get go. Alya speaks Russian sometimes, mostly to confess her feelings towards Kuze, and thinks the boy doesn’t understand her. But he does and we even get an explanation for that. On top of that the explanation works also as a setup for something that could (wink, wink) happen later. It’s also a bit misleading of the type of way Alya teases Kuze. It’s much more ecchi than the rest of the show. I don’t know if it's bait for the viewers or someone just managed to hide this scene from the higher ups.
As far as first episodes go this one is a solid one. It fulfils its function pretty well. It’s mostly downhill from here unfortunately.

The problem is there is very little story to this show and what story there is is mostly shown in the last 3 episodes. Everything (well… 90%) before that is just plot. If You want to argue that it’s a story about two people getting close to each other, go right ahead, but their relationship doesn’t change in any meaningful way. They start as friends with one having an obvious crush and they end as friends with one having an obvious crush. The second is an idiot, I’m not counting him for anything.

Something I’m not quite sure why was made is giving Kuze the ability to understand Russian. It destroys a lot of mystery from the plot. If he wasn’t able to understand Alya we would have an element of mystery (You could even leave tha translations for the viewers), as we all know, mysteries are sexy. It would add a lot of tension and drama to their interactions. Something that they lack in the finished product. As it stands Kuze is an asshole. He knows the girl is into him. It’s not a guess, she declares her feelings and urges on multiple occasions. If he wanted to, we would have a relationship between those two in episode 3 at the latest. He allows this relationship to be stuck in limbo. I call that being an asshole. It’s not like he is opposed to the idea of a relationship with her either. If he was he wouldn't have those over the top, pseudo-comedic reactions he has everytime he hears her declaring her feelings in russian. I fail to see the reason why the writers would play it that way. They just created a MC that is really hard to root for, because he’s just an asshole.

Listen I get it, the name of the game in rom-coms (and romance in general) is the “Will they - Won’t They”. But in most cases it’s based on insecurity and unknowns from both parties or on some sort of conflict that prevents the characters from getting together. In this case we don’t have any sort of unknowns. We, as well as both parties, are more than aware of the fact that Alya is into Kuze. So we should get some sort of conflict as a counterweight, right? Yeah… no such luck. Kuze acts like an idiot and we really don’t get a good reason why. Even in later episodes we are still left in the dark.

There is also very little I would call a proper romance set up. This is a rom-com but the “rom” is silent for most of the show. Yes Kuza and Alya have a lot of interactions but they are not what I would call romantic or even pseudo-romantic. Out of all 12 episodes I think there are only 2 scenes that could work as a romance set up, that is if they weren't destroyed. Once by a cheap joke of stunned background characters who clearly have too much interest in other people's interactions. The second time by a fanatical attendant coming by. Those were the only scenes I would call proper for the “rom” part of rom-com. Mostly everything else focuses on comedy.

Which is a problem all by itself because even in straight up comedies You need contrast. You need to give jokes room to breathe and sink in. You want to have a lazy joke? Go for it but contrast that with something full on romantic or dramatic. You can’t just feed the viewer only lazy comedy and expect them to not feel fatigue. Granted this show isn’t as aggressive as something like “Grand Blue” but it still has too many jokes and instead of giving contrast by showing scenes more attuned to drama or romance it gives us… nothing. An anime equivalent of a “Please Stand by” screen. Most scenes between are just filler that leads nowhere. It’s all just plot and lazy at that.

The only reason I was able to watch this show (apart from having OCD and Asperger) was Yuki. Probably the only character with personality. Her switching between a perverted otaku sister and a proper Young lady working for the student council was actually enjoyable. I wouldn't mind if she was the protagonist of this show. Listen. Not all MC’s have to be blank slates. In most cases it is better for a protagonist to have an established personality and traits. For fuck’s sake Spike from Cowboy Bebop is far from a tabula rasa and is one of the greates MCs in history. Same goes for the kids in “Grave of the fireflies”. I have no idea why the anime industry insists on having bland, tasteless, white bread as protagonists but this shit needs to stop. It destroys their ability to tell actual stories and leaves them with nothing but plot.

As it stands this show isn’t a total travesty or an example of how to fail at a rom-com (well… maybe a little) it’s just so damn safe and full of cliches that I see no reason to watch this over any other rom-com on the market. There are moments when the show tricks You into thinking that it will be better. The last 3 episodes are actually better both with plot and story but it’s too little too late for my taste. The worst part? We don’t get any kind of payoff. We watch 12 episodes of this show, how Alya admits to herself about her feelings and Kuze starting to act like he has a spine and… we end with nothing. Everything seemingly returns to status quo so the authors can pretend to know what they are doing all over again in the next season.

“The New Gate” (finally a short title, I missed those) is what happens when an overused idea meets subpar execution.

I’m getting really tired of writing this but… this show is another example of no story and all plot with no long lasting consequences to anyone or anything, and a world that bends over backwards for the MC. Above that, it's so generic that I really couldn't tell You much about the plot or world without being certain that I’m not mixing things up with another show. It's devoid of originality that much. It’s just another self-indulgent fantasy of a cringe 13 year old. That’s me ... being nice to the show by the way.

Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

The first episode left me with more questions than answers and not in a good way. It's prologue is actually the most lazy thing I’ve seen in a while. In short it’s Sword Art Online with even less sense and charm, if You can believe that. I call that an achievement. For starters how the fuck did the “If You die in game, You die in real life” worked? I give shit to SAO for being lazy with its writing but even that had an explanation, not a very good one but still, for its deaths. “The New Gate”? Nope. It uses the words of st.Todd Howard: “It just works”. At this point “The New Gate” should have “Made by Bethesda” slapped on somewhere. Eff off with this. If You can’t make it logical just fucking don’t do it. It’s not like the game world really matters in the grand scale of things. You could bring Shin - the MC, to the isekai part in a million other ways.

Second thing and this is the thing that most, both isekai and vr death games, share: Why would he want to go back? Seriously. We don’t see his “before” state. We have no idea if he has a family that worries about him, a girlfriend or even a damn cat. He has nothing as far as we know. And since we are on the subject, how long did the death game last? WHo is taking care of his body? Is his body still in his world after the isekai? Did his body disappear? If his body disappeared will he even be able to return home? Will he have his “new” body in the real world? If yes, what about his stats and skills? He’s just gonna show up one day, practically a demigod and work at mcdonalds? I can actually accept that he doesnt think about it, he’s an idiot in a lot of ways, but even his companions, who knows the truth of his situation? The damn NPC that got sentient, that knows about the game, the systems, the other players don’t even think about that? Even the one NPC that is in love with him? No one?

On top of that, what the fuck are the other “players” doing? I assume they also have their skills and stats from the game, which implies most, if not all, of them are far more powerful and knowledgeable than the inhabitants of the world. We later see that there are a few of them in the world and not one of them was a psycho killer, a tyrant or at least someone who created a nation with advanced magic and technology to resemble his home world? Everyone just thought “Hmm… maybe I’ll do nothing. I just survived a death game, why would I even want to have some sort of cosy life after that”, or even “Cool, the game is now real. Time for a killing spree!”?

Let’s go deeper. The author has no idea how time works. 500 years have passed. 500 yers. Let that sink in. Really sink in. It took humanity less than 100 years to have 2 world wars, develop an atomic bomb, send people to the moon and create the internet. These fuckers had 500 years and yet they still treat in game mechanics made real like “lost technology”. In 500 there was no one who could have had an obsession with those items and magic? No one who had the vision, intelligence and imagination to create even a pseudo version of them for anyone to use? Of course not. What am I thinking? That would make too much sense and our MC wouldn’t be that special. My bad. This isn’t a testament of Shin’a uniqueness but of the world's incompetence.

Seriously, eff this world. It has nothing to do with an actual, organic world and everything to do with dumb game logic that pauses everything until the MC shows up. I can’t believe I’m writing this but I think I miss Sword Art Online, it at least pretended to have a living world and some things were actually done without Kirito.

At least we get to see from the start what kind of person he is. He put’s himself in danger for others (I am not touching the idiocy of a solo player killing a raid boss, fuck that, it’s too stupid) and pretends it was nothing. Later we even see something that could actually be called a personality trait. Too bad it happens only on 2 occasions in the whole show and nothing really comes from that. He’s just another flavourless, nice gyu MC that gets all the babes. How original. Well ok, I’m not totally fair. In his case we do get a reason why he isn’t interested romantically in any of them. The problem? We get that in the last episode in the last scene. Too little too late for me to change my mind about him being an idiot.

If I had to name some good parts of this trainwreck… I mean show it would be a former NPCs. They actually have personalities and did something when Shin wasn’t around. Yes, the best looking one - Schnee took over his place, but despite that became a respectable combatant that most nations would love to recruit. It’s stated that some even used underhanded tactics to get her. This is something I would like to see. Not her acting like a love stricken moron that serves Shin. I want to see Schnee as an adventurer dealing with her own shit.
Same goes for Girard. He created a nation and lived far beyond the age range of his species. On top of that he’s so proud that he wants to die in battle against his friend and former master. This is someone who could have been an awesome MC. But what does the show do with him? Makes him an unimportant in the grand scheme of things background character for Shin to have a semi deep talk that changes nothing for him or the viewers.

Both Schnee and Gigard would work as amazing protagonists to show Shin around the new world. Leave Shin as a deuteragonist for 4-5 episodes. He’s so bland it wouldn't change much. He can regain his protagonist status after he’s up to date and only after he learns new respect for his former followers. The fact he created them means nothing in this case. They made something of themselves when they were left alone. He didn’t have a chance for that. Put the mofo in his place. Even if he is all powerful there are struggles that can only be done without violence. You just need to think about it a little. My favourite example that I really think more writers need to know about is “Superman: Peace on Earth”. There You see Superman - practically a demigod failing. It’s not a small failure either. He fails to help an entire nation. He is given a choice where there is no happy ending. In both cases innocent people will suffer. The difference is the degree of that suffering. This is how You should challenge an almighty being. Give him a struggle in which his power is the problem. I don’t want to see Shin soloing an entire horde of enemies, the fucker defieted tha last boss of a death game, You can’t top that, give him something that no matter what he does someone will suffer. Make him live with that. Make him live with the fact that it is his fault. That someone is suffering because he is what he is. All powerful, full of good intentions and absolutely naive to the world.

Sorry, I went into teaching mode by accident.
As it stands this show is about nothing. There are no consequences to anything and the only thing that does change is the number of busty chicks that would like to ride him like Mario rides Yoshi. The most competent, and yet still lazy, arc is the Gigard arc. It’s almost like when writers had a good idea and for some strange reason even skills to write something that is a start to a competent story. That didn’t last long and we got back to brain dead writing pretty fast but it is proof that there is potential in this. Shame a competent writer never got to work on it.

I'm giving it a 4 because I've seen worse shows. Far worse.

“Loner Life in Another World” is what happens when a good idea meets incompetent writing.

From the very first episode You know this will be a master class in lazy, subpar writing. It’s actually amazing how fast we see the world bending over backwards for the MC. Even the garbage “Re: Monster” waited 2 episodes for that.

Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as ... Lisa Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

I’ll start with this. The story has a lot of potential. A loner that wants to be alone is forced to be part of a pretty large group and every time he wants to leave he is stopped in one way or the other. It could work both as a comedy and as an action adventure. But “Loner Life in Another World” fails on all fronts from episode two.

The first episode is absolute garbage. I really didn’t think that any show could beat “Ishura” when it comes to bad first episodes but here we are. Not only we don’t see anything that would make us root for him, we don’t even see what kind of person he is. The only thing we do see is that he avoids people or rather he declares that he wants to avoid people. That’s all. Because he is already proficient with his skills we don’t really see him struggle much. He even gets new skills the first day. It all feels unearned. I don’t mind if he starts with some OP skills (and despite what the show is trying to tell You, they are OP) but having more or even levelling them should be earned, not given for almost nothing. We don’t see his long term goal, any sort of plan or even any kind of moral stand. In short, we see jack shit. Listen, I know that there are a metric shit ton of OP AF MC shows out there but most of them (at least the good ones) give us something. At least show me the idiot has a goal (no, being alone is not it) and an early stage of a plan. Morality can wait but I really don’t give a damn about a protagonist that just waits around and grinds low level monsters. Granted we do get to his morality in the second episode but for fucks sake, that’s one of the most important things about protagonists and we have to wait a whole, boring, useless episode for that.

On top of that, worldbuilding is atrocious. We do get the general idea about skills and leveling up but that’s just game logic. Something I truly despise. Seriously, is it that hard to make an isekai without this shit? Anyway, Apart from the skills we don’t really get much about the world. There are monsters, there are levels and killing monsters and using skills allows You to level up. How original. To be totally fair we don’t see in the first episode even what kind of world this is. Yes, the MC - Haruka, ends up in a forest with clothes that do look a bit medieval-ish but for all we know outside of the forest there might be some sort of steampunk civilization. For fucks sake, give me at least a skeleton with appropriate armor or weapon to help make assumptions of what state of technology this world has. I don’t think I’m asking for much. Of course it ends up being a pseudo european medieval world because of course it is. At this point I’m not expecting originality in any way, shape or form from this show. The skill system itself is also an issue.

About half way through the season we get our first true BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy). The fight itself is horrible, it’s just pulling skills and tricks out of the combatant's asses. If You are generous You could say there is a little bit of a setup for that but… it’s so incompetent that I wouldn’t. First of all, The BBEG has a skill to copy other skills. Why? How? When He was summoned he chose a skill that is an interference skill and he doesn’t seem to have any magic items granting him this skill so… why? Did he get it while leveling up? That makes no sense since it’s stated he had his big, bad plan from the beginning, including stealing skills. How was he supposed to do that without the copying skill? It’s a pretty big plot hole and it destroyed the whole fight for me.

Of course, this being a badly written isekai, there are no stakes. The whole shtick is that Haruka is stuck with “bad” leftover skills but anyone who ever played any kind of RPG would tell You that they are fucking usefull as hell. But that’s not what bothered me the most in this set up. Everyone can pick a skill but there doesn't seem to be any kind of description prior to picking them so how the hell the first BBEG knew that one of the skills is OP AF and had a murder boner to get it? Haruka could only guess what the skills do by their names. Only after leveling he learned what all his skills do so WTF? Of course they end up useful and OP because having stakes in an isekai would be horrible. I think that’s what killed it for me. I really don’t mind power fantasies but they have to have stakes. This one had none.

There are only two moments when the show tricked me into thinking there would be any stakes. The final fate of the second BBEG (not exactly BBEG but I’m gonna call her that to avoid spoilers) and the potential drama of the relationship between Haruka and his childhood friend / class rep. The first one could have been an amazing moral dilemma. I’m not even saying that the result we’ve got should change but the set up to it should. The second example is just wasted. Class rep has some obvious feelings about Haruka leaving to live in the woods alone with a girl but does nothing about it and even lies to herself that it’s for the best. That’s just bad writing. Have her confront him. I’m not saying they should change the outcome but for fucks sake don’t make the class rep such a pathetic character at the very eng of the season. After all the crap she went through those 12 episodes with Haruka and others she deserved better.

When it comes to the plot… yeah… oh boy. It’s even worse than the story aspects if You can believe this. A lot of things happen because the plot demands it and not because of any kind of logic. Delinquents are the bad guys because… I have no idea. The Jocks leave the girls alone because… I guess Haruka needs to be surrounded by only women. Haruka has “bad luck” with leaving everyone in secret to return to his lone life in the forest because… the show needs him to be in the city and make a running joke of his wanting to be alone. It’s really idiotic. It is especially painful in the last arc when he falls to the bottom of the dungeon. Everything from his motivation for going to the dungeon, to the outcome of the fight with the dungeon emperor is just lazy writing. It’s like some had some ideas using the rule of cool but had no idea how to connect those ideas and it shows.

This show is one of the worst examples of wasted potential I have ever seen. Apart from Haruka himself, everyone else from his class is either incompetent, does really dumb things or gets late to the party. It’s visible in the case of the first BBEG. Haruka fights him alone. Why? At this point his classmates have a solid grip on their powers and skills and could help him. Even if we factor in the fact that he cares about class rep and want’s to make sure she’s safe it makes no sense. The only reason I see why we get a dumb one-on-one between them is that the writers didn’t have the skill to write a proper, logical fight with stakes in any other way or just wanted to use the rule of cool thinking that it will make Haruka more cool. It didn’t.

I can’t recommend this show. It’s just lazy, banal and has horrible worldbuilding.

“Chaika -The Coffin Princess-” is what happens when You only use the “and then that happened” style of telling Your plot and forget about the story.

I’m gonna be honest, watching this show was like watching someone creating scenes and having little to no idea how to logically connect them. There is a story here but it’s sparse and scattered.

Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and ... “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

The show is mostly plot and the worst kind of plot. The type that happens because it needs characters in a certain state or place and not the type that uses internal logic. Simple example: At some point we get a pretty good fight with a Dragoon. That part is solid, even if the fight itself could be a bit longer to show us the extent of skills and powers on both sides. But how did we get to that pretty good fight? Our protagonists (Chaika, Tooru and Akari) go there… because an enigmatic, obviously powerful, informer tells them that they will find one part of their quarry there. Just like that. No one questions that, no one asks why he is just giving them this info. Nothing. We don’t even see him getting any kind of pay for the info. I get that this is a very simple story but for fuck’s sake, there’s “simple” and there’s “moronic”. Tooru and Akari are supposed to be trained soldiers and they just go with it?
I’m not even getting into the fact that the reason why Tooru and Akari join Chaika is absolutely stupid.

The second not so well written thing is the worldbuilding itself. The show uses a lot of words that are poorly, or not at all, explained. For the most of the time You could deduce what they mean but it’s never confirmed. Even the “character class” of Tooru - “The Saboteur” isn’t properly explained and leaves more questions than answers. You could take it, as we do IRL, as someone who “deliberately destroys, damages, or obstructs (something), especially for political or military advantage” but it’s not a perfect match for him.

I actually like the fact that “magic” in this world is much more like just supernatural engineering than classical D&D style of magic. The problem I have with this is that it really is not practical. “Wizards” - people who use those magical tools walk around with damn sniper rifles to use magic in combat. Why? They are big, cumbersome and require some time to “load” a spell. No one thought of creating an assault rifle version, shotgun or even a simple revolver? Hell, I’ll even accept a sort of a jury rigged pipe gun. Is there a reason why it has to be a sniper rifle? A problem with miniaturization? Give me something. Above that there are moments when people use magic without any type of medium or catalyst. Most notably the moment when Chaika saved Tooru in the last episode. What’s up with that?

The world building is also absurd and laughable at times. One of the antagonists verbally states to Chaika that the brain is always the weak spot of the Dragoon. Seriously? No shit! Do you know anyone that survived having his brain destroyed? What’s next? They are going to tell me that water makes things wet? It’s almost as stupid as “People die when they are killed”.

It's a shame because the story idea is a solid one. A story about a girl on a quest to gather her father’s remains that were scattered by people who killed him. I call that a pretty nice starting point. The story also has its twists that are actually good ideas but the writing just makes them tolerable. There is no exploration of them. Well, that’s not true. We do get some exploration into Chaika but it’s almost exclusively done by the antagonist and it’s still just surface level even after the fact that one of his subordinates asks valid questions about her. It’s almost like a different person, the one who almost knows about writing, wrote those parts. If we got more into the things that they are doing and not the boring plot that the protagonists have, this show could have been a solid action-adventure-mystery. But as we stand it’s just a middle of the road adventure with not exactly competent fight scenes. Don’t get me wrong, some of them are pretty good but they are few and far between.

Do I think this is a bad show? A bit, but mostly I think it’s just safe. It takes no risks, does not expand on the genre and isn’t even concerned about its own world building and internal logic. I can see why people would like it, a gothic lolita with a magical sniper rifle does sound and look cool but that’s about it. There is no depth here. Only surface level writing, flat characters and a lot of wasted potential.