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“Why Does Nobody Remember Me in This World?” is what happens when an interesting idea is butchered by childish writing and nonsense logic.

I’ll give credit where credit is due, despite having really bad writing in the plot and character departments and just bad in the story department, this show is at least focused. It successfully avoids a lot of crap of being side-tracked, which is a plague of most anime. There are few side quests and those that are here are still connected to the main 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”.

The story is pretty cool. A story about a young man thrusted into a totally different reality that has little to do with the one he was raised in. So far so good. This can, and should have been, a starting point of some really good plot. Maybe give it an existential twist like “Evangelion”, something melancholic like “Girls' Last Tour”, or maybe something more apocalyptic and depressing like “Now and Then, Here and There”? Nope. We get… “Zelda”. Well, that’s not entirely true. We get every boring cliche trope of a “Legend of Zelda” game but without the charm. I have seen a lot of anime that had an amazing story idea but the plot was just awful. “Why Does Nobody Remember Me” is just that. A good idea with a less than mediocre execution and terrine characters that are forgettable at best.

To be honest the first episode is terrible for what’s to come, it would work better as a short flashback than an intro to a new series. Normally the first episode shows us the main hero, some of his backstory, maybe even people he cares about, factions and something about the main conflict / drama. This time we have an episode that gives us very little about the MC and wastes an opportunity to properly develop the relationship between him and his, soon to be gone, friends. There is no reason to give a damn about them (after all the MC doesn’t so why should we?) and so the drama has no weight behind it.
Look, I’m a big fan of efficiency. Not only in anime, but we’re talking about one so let’s focus on the introduction to one. Give me something that doesn’t waste time with unnecessary bullshit, introduce the most important characters and story beats. The problem is, this time the first episode is too succinct. There is supposed to be drama regarding our MC - Kai, losing everything and having to adapt to the new world but… there is no drama in it. We only get 3 scenes with him interacting with his “friends”. Two of those are work related and the third one is a pseudo-date that doesn’t even last 5 minutes and doesn’t show how he exactly feels about the girl.. How the hell am I supposed to care about his circumstances when I have nothing to work with here? I have no idea how close those people are to him. What things they overcome together or even why they are friends. Nothing. Just some plot bullshit to pretend he has a stake in this show. I’ll get to that, don’t worry.

The world building is pretty lazy. First of all we have two human military organizations in two different worlds, with different histories and purposes. Yet they share both the design of their uniforms and iconography. Why? I’m not saying they can’t be similar but exactly the same? Come on. That’s just lazy.
30 years passed and yet demons live in ruined human cities, elves live in forests. I know they are still at war with each other but 30 years is a lot of time to develop new settlements, new technology, new ways to use magic and hell, even a brand new culture. Yet this world is just basic fantasy shit without thought. Simple thing: Why the fuck does the demon hero live in a run down, decrepit old building?

Now for the most… “enigmatic” (I’m gonna use that word, because I was told I use “stupid” too much) aspect. The whole Sid shtick. So… Sid was a human hero who basically soloed everyone and locked them up. Why didn’t he just kill them? I don’t know, maybe he thought humans would get too lazy if they didn’t use teenagers as half-assed guards. After the world changed only 2 people (initially) remember him. Our basic, white bread with no flavour MC and his amalgam companion Rinne. Why? It is implied that Kai’s case might be related to the fact he saw Sid’s sword when he was a kid but if that’s the case, that’s some more lazy writing right there. Furthermore, the big bad non-human bosses get some of their memories back (both about him and the previous world) when they hear his name. Why? Is it because Sid had contact with them? Ok. Let’s go with that. So we have 2 situations when someone might remember him.
1. When in previous contact with the man himself
2. When in previous contact with his… sword. Just a sword? Not like other belongings?
So You’re telling me that in the previous war, nobody on the human side met the man, maybe even saw his sword? Especially not some of the higher ups of the human army? Not one person who might have come in contact with both Sid and his gear? Just the one person who happens to be the MC of a shitshow of logic and lazy writing? Yeah… that checks out.
Secondly, There is no one from the opposite side of the war that survived an encounter with him and who could have had memories of him that would appear when someone used the name “Sid”? No? So everyone, except the bosses are what? Dead? Locked up? Where are they in the previous world?
We get no info about what happened to other races, we don’t know if they were hunted to extinction, which is probably not the case, otherwise why spare their heroes? But the writing is so bad I wouldn't be surprised that the writer wings everything and has no idea about the plot in general.

Ok, let’s talk about stakes. Obviously out overpowered, undeserving MC has none but to everyone who has an IQ higher than room temperature that’s just bullshit. First of all, Kai lost everything. Not just his job, not just his home, not just his friends. EVERYTHING. Think about it. The history he knows is probably useless, the political status quo has changed, the new versions of people he knew don’t know him. He’s basically alone in an unknown land and… he just rolled with it. No crisis of any kind. Oh, everyone I know has changed, I have nothing except my combat knowledge (that is still valid), gear and skill… oh well c'est la vie. Yeah… eff off with that. There is an even more insulting scene later on in the show. He is told that there might be a way to get his old world back, but it would destroy this one. He would get back his old “Friends” but he would have to essentially kill, not even kill, annihilate those he knows now. People he already formed connections with. Connections that have better development than anything we were shown in his previous world. The moffo doesn’t even care. There is no dilemma here, no drama, no one thinks that maybe, just maybe the man that helps them to combat other races will soon become a far greater danger than anything else? His goal is to return home. To do that he would have to destroy this world, kill everyone in this world and no one gives a damn about that? The fuck? Just how lazy is the writer?

As You might have noticed I have zero respect for the story aspect. The writer clearly didn’t care about it, so why should I? That said, the plot is a better aspect. Still a bit lazy and repetitive but better than the story.

From about episode 2 the plot kicks in in full swing and mostly stays that way. That’s probably the only redeeming factor for me not giving this show a 4 or 3 ranking. It’s focused and avoids side-tracking for the most part. There is some side-tracking but it’s surprisingly well woven into the main quest so it’s easy to miss.
The main coterie is on a mission to defeat every other race. Do they do that? Fuck no. Not even close but they do develop some political alliances and I think that works far better in this kind of plot. The main example. After sending the first boss to the great beyond they haven’t really done much to defeat the whose race. There are still plenty of demons to go around and everyone is far more capable than humans. So what do they do? They call a ceasefire and it’s almost logical. Demons have other things to worry about than a human who can kill one of their greatest heroes. Fighting him would cost them a lot of resources and there is a chance he will die dealing with other races so I would say that was a pretty good call long term for both sides.

The rest of the show is really similar in that aspect. Decision making from the non-humans is almost logical. Shame I can’t say the same about humans, there are a lot of dumb decisions that humans make. But You could make an argument that people are petty and dumb so it’s pretty on brand for them but I would still like to see an organised military organization that understands that they are in deep shit and everyone actually works for the greater good. One can dream.
Apart from that the plot is pretty basic with a lot of things happening because they have to to advance it and not because they make sense. That is especially visible in the last 3 episodes. That’s just bullshit fest.

To be honest the plot is so basic that You might just call it a sequence of quests given to our MCs that prove little to no real challenge for them. Go there. Defeat that. Have a few minutes of R&R, repeat. Yes, I know that most shows could be described that way but in this case it is more visible thanks to the blandness of the characters and the world itself.

From about episode 3 You will understand that Kai and Rinne are unstoppable and could probably easily become symbols to rally all of humanity under them. Which would be far more practical than what they are doing right now, both in the case of “saving” humans and returning “home”. But that would require someone who understands both warfare, psychology and politics as a writer.

Honestly? The show is bad when it comes to the story but the plot could be a source of entertainment. It’s focused and shows mostly the things that would be necessary in this type of war tale. We don’t get beach episodes, some kind of dick measuring contest for command (well… we do get that in the second arc but it’s so bad You will forget it in just an episode) or even the traditional chicks in harem are jealous of each other. We get that at the end of episode 12.
If You don’t care about writing and just want to watch something that pretends to know what it is and cosplays it pretty well on the surface this could be a show for You.

“A Journey Through Another World: Raising Kids While Adventuring”, don’t You just love short titles? Is what happens when a mature topic is turned into a meaningless comedy.

I’m gonna be honest. This anime is about 3 in the writing department. I gave it a 4 only because I actually enjoyed watching this trainwreck of logic and nonsense. It uses cheap tricks to make You think You actually give a damn about the characters but somehow it actually worked on me this time. At least up until episode 6. After that the show turns into a repetitive slog. Shame because I actually like the premise. Unfortunately ... this sort of premise requires a writer with skill that far surpasses the author of this show, to make it feel organic and have an actual message. It's not a bad anime, I’ve seen much worse, it’s just meaningless.

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”.

When it comes to the story… there basically isn’t one. You could say that it’s a story about a reincarnate that takes care of two unique children he found in the forest but… that’s not exactly it. They are with him, they accompany him everywhere and he does try to teach them basic skills like math but not much, if anything, really changes due to that. This show is extremely light in the story department. There are 2, 3 if we’re being generous, story beats that actually happen. The rest is just plot.

I’ll start with the world because it’s something that bothered me a lot. As with most isekais from the last, at least, 15 years we have a world that works on game logic. We have levels, dungeons, dungeon drops, adventurer guilds, bosses and all that crappy stuff You saw a million times already in far better shows. When it comes to the world itself there isn’t anything original or brave. It's as safe as safe can be and that makes it forgettable. I don’t think You could distinguish this world from most other isekai / fantasy worlds from the last decade. That itself wouldn't be much of a problem if the story, plot and character were able to do the heavy lifting, but unfortunately… they don’t.

Takumi, our MC, is the embodiment of a Gary Stu trope, I wound’t be surprised if he was supposed to be a self insert for the author. He can do no wrong, has a solution for everything, the very gods of the world bend over backwards for him. There isn’t a thing in the entire show that had a negative consequence for him, be it short term or long term. Everything just goes his way. He even gets solutions for people's plights far in advance without even trying. It’s like watching a fresh Dungeon Master trying to create an interesting NPC without understanding what makes one. He is so overpowered that he’s probably considered a WMD in this world by those who know of his powers. He gets gifts from 3 out of 5 gods and doesn’t really have to try to make use of them. Be it a new skill, new magic or a new contracted beast. Everything for Mr Kakumi.
When it comes to personality… he has none. It’s just the same old, worn out mix of tropes: nice, helpful, tries to avoid conflict ets. If You gave me his description I wouldn't be able to tell him apart from all the other badly written MCs of isekais.

He is supposed to be a guardian to two very young kids. Yes, those kids are power houses by themselves but that doesn’t mean he should just allow them to dive into combat mindlessly, which he does almost every time. There are very few moments when he acts like a proper parental figure and even then it’s only in very trivial matters. I guess he does teach kids to read and do basic math, and those are moments when I actually liked him and the scenes themselves. Unfortunately that's just one scene in the whole show.

When it comes to the kids - Allen and Elena, things are better but not by much. The kids we see at the end of the show are not the same as the kids we see in the beginning. Their metamorphosis is visible, gradual… and unfortunately totally unearned. I really like the fact that they open up, get more bold and even start to express their individuality on 2 occasions but that’s not enough. We don’t really see them trying to overcome things. One moment they are hiding behind Takumi because they're scared, and the next they act like nothing happened. They don’t have real struggles. Same as Takumi, the world bends over backwards for them to the point that the first time they try out water magic they become competent at it in just a few seconds.

Takumi being overpowered and having two overpowered kids under his wings would make sense if he was an actual, well written mentor figure. There is a lot to say about raising kids that in time could become WNDs in their own way. Not to mention that a truly powerful mentor as an MC isn’t something that we see often and can have a ton of plot and stories all by itself. Why not show how Takumi tries and fails in the beginning to teach them that the fact they can do something, doesn’t mean that they should? Let them not understand when he means and through an experience make them understand. Show me how he struggles himself with his image as a parental figure, his doubts about his way of raising them and maybe even show how he is unable to control them in the beginning. Show me something that would make me care about any of those 3. If You think You can write it well enough, make an arc when the kids learn control by hurting Takumi to the point where he’s out of the picture for most of the episode. Make it their fault so we see that they are truly kids with powers that they can’t control just yet. That would be much more impactful and meaningful than just making them stronger, more powerful and competent by the episode. Not to mention earned. I can even accept the fact that all 3 are overpowered but in that case let them have challenges that can’t be solved with fighting or magic. For fucks sake “Superman - Peace on Earth” gave the most overpowered character of all time something he couldn’t do. A challenge he could never overcome. They made him taste one of the most bitter defeats in his comic book history and make it a catalyst for learning. They made Superman, damn Superman unable to help people, to do what he always does. Why not make something similar here? Take those 3 overpowered characters and shove them into a citation they can’t possibly beat using might or magic. It doesn’t need to be anything grande like in “Peace on Earth”, something small and personal would be good, like the kids finding out what kind of asshole their father is and having them break because of it. It’s not very original but it would do the trick.

I get that this is supposed to be a feel good story but it went about it in the worst way possible. A story like this needs contrast in its plot. You can’t just show only good parts in life because it suffocates the story itself. Without contrast the story becomes stale and boring and that’s what happened in this show. The first 5 episodes are pretty nice. Nothing groundbreaking but it works as an intro to something bigger. But the rest of the show is almost exactly the same. Nothing bad ever happens. This is supposed to be a story about raising kids. No matter how much one might try, life isn’t all burritos and strippers, there are bad things in life. Teaching that to kids (ok, maybe not that young but it could still work because of their circumstances) is one of the responsibilities of a parental figure. Those kids had already had a shitty moment in their lives before meeting Takumi giving them some more struggles of different kinds would still fit. But no. All we get for the entire 12 episodes are just good things with no consequences at all when finally something less than pleasant happens. It really annoyed me.

Ok, I know I’m giving shit to the writing and I’m not going to apologize for that. The writing is abysmal, lacks focus and any kind of message. That said, I actually enjoyed watching this trainwreck. I know about every little trick they used to make me think that I care about the story and plot and yet, the first part of the show hooked me. Despite the writing, the execution of those little tricks, like using crying children, comforting parental figure or exaggerated reactions to little things, is actually solid. Yes, they are cheap but there's a reason why they work.

Do I think this anime is a travesty of story telling?
Yes.
Do I think the writers are incompetent?
Yes.
Do I think I wasted my time watching this?
Surprisingly - No. For the first 5 episodes I really had some fun and the later episodes do have at least one thing that was entertaining enough for me to continue watching (apart from me having OCD and Asperger that is).
I wouldn’t recommend this but I also understand why someone who just wants to turn off their brain would find it enjoying.

“Go! Go! Loser Ranger!” is what happens when a pretty good idea is held down by a terrible mismatched mix of genres.

I’m a sucker for genre deconstructions. My favourite story of this type, and in general, is “Miracleman” by Alan Moore. Needless to say that when I read the synopsis for “Go! Go! Loser Ranger!” I was hyped. I thought it would be a Super Sentai deconstruction in a similar way that “The Watchmen” (also by Alan Moore) or “The Boys” were a deconstruction of Marvel and DC superheroes and… to a degree it is. It has some elements of a competent deconstruction but is ... held back by terrible comedy timing and the absurd world it takes place in. Does that make it a bad anime? I don’t think so. It does however make it less than competent deconstruction. I warn You to keep that in mind if You are also a fan of deconstructions. Thing is that episode 2 and 3 work as a solid prologue to an amazing deconstruction and are even played as such. Episode 1 is another beast but I’ll get to 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’m not gonna lie, I like the story. A story about a frustrated, basically slave, that decides to fuck over his tormentors. It’s a cool idea, not a very original one but a cool one. A bonus is that no one in this show has a moral high ground. Everyone is an asshole in one way or another, a sociopath or has less than righteous motives and plans. The MC (Fighter D) is literally a creature created to fight, kill and conquer humanity. He even has a goal to take over the world and be top dog. The drawback to this approach is that there isn’t really anyone to root for. On one side we have psycho rangers, on the other a power hungry idiot. I really couldn't care less about any of them if I tried. Maybe I would feel differently if Fighter D was a man with a plan but the truth is he doesn’t think things through (apart from 3 situations in later episodes) and wings it most of the time. He has a goal. Cool. But has no plan of achieving it.

When it comes to the plot… I’m not a fan of the first half. For the first 5 (and a lot of 6) episodes it’s like the plot can’t decide what it wants to be. There are even moments when Fighter D (I refuse to call him just D. D is an awesome and competent vampire hunter not a poorly written moron. He’s Fighter D of FD from now on) is relegated to the role of deuteragonist, something that should never happen in an anime that has only 12 episodes.
I will give credit where credit is due, there is a lot of “because of that” type of storytelling here. The problem is that the main beats that are the catalysts of this are mostly the effect of “and then that happened” type of storytelling. In this case it’s not as bad as in some other anime, apart from episode 2, that shit is just bullshit, but it still stands out.

It had so much potential as a hero deconstruction and yet it decided to squander that potential for cheap jokes that kill any sort of drama, inconsistent protagonist and a world full of idiots. Granted, if the world had more than a bunch of people with an IQ higher than room temperature this whole show wouldn’t have happened in the way it does. But that’s the curse of anime in the last 15 years… oh well, c'est la vie.

The first episode actually fulfills its function pretty well. It gives us a brief look at both sides of the greater conflict and does some lifting in worldbuilding without being a straight up exposition dump like some other anime do. Don’t get Your hopes up too much, there is still exposition.
It shows us that the Keepers are machiavellian assholes, the fighters are cowardly peons without any sort of long term plan or even a goal. It also shows us that the world is populated by idiots. It has been 13 years since the invaders came to conquer earth. 13 years. In this time the conflicts were transformed from actual war-like skirmishes into a weekly spectacle. It was also 12 years since the last human died due to a monster attack and no one asks questions about this? I may be autistic but I would assume that if something life threatening suddenly turners into entertainment for the masses there would be questions. After 13 years even “The Simpsons” lost some of its viewership. Everyone just accepts that a force that was hell bent on world domination just attacks now in regular intervals, always in the same place, always with just a small unit and a boss, and only attacks the Keepers. There are shit loads of civilians with only a mere squad of security. If there were more of them they could paint the damn stadium red. Yes they do have an arrangement with the keepers but it’s stated that most people don’t know about it. Yet they still come to a place that would have no business being as safe for them as it is, if this was still a real conflict. I can’t even feel sorry for them. If they die, that’s on them. Natural selection wins.
Listen, if I were to only look at its function I would probably give this episode something like 5 or maybe, MAYBE 6. But alas I’m the type of guy that cares more about the plot and story than just function. There is very little logic and believability in this world. How can I take the drama seriously if the whole world is packed full of nonsense and idiots?

Let’s talk about the moment of the enslave… I mean, the arrangement the Keepers made with dusters. The deal was made 12 years earlier. 12 years. Let that sink in. The Keepers look as if they were in their mid 20's. Let’s say they are 25 (I have no idea if their age is stated anywhere so I might be wrong). 13 years ago when the conflict started they would be around 12-13. So now we have a couple of ways of looking at it. Either this is a different team than the one who made the dead, which isn’t very probable since they look and sound the same. Red even has the same mannerisms as he does in the present. Second. The transformations aged them when they were kids. Which is dumb but was made in “Power Rangers Turbo” with Justin Stewart so I wouldn’t be that much surprised. There is also a third option. The Keepers are in their mid to late 30s. Which is even worse because it implies that grown-ass men (and one woman) in their 30s act like spoiled kids. Furthermore, being in their 30’s isn’t old (I’m gonna tell myself that since I’m at the tail end of my 30’s) but it’s past their prime. They have a whole production line of Keepers and yet, not one Ranger in their 20s was able to outdo someone with their 30s? I could believe this in the case of Red, he does seem to have some unnatural level of strength almost like he spends every Dark Souls game using Strength builds, but the rest? I find it hard to believe the Keepers don’t have early retirements if only to keep the illusion of them being all powerful alive. Also, in Your 30s You tend to change Your outlook on life and what You value in it. Yet all of the Keepers are still acting like spoiled children. Mostly Red but Blue is also cocky and pays for it.

Let’s get to the second part of the show. From around episode 7 (maybe 6 but that’s me being nice) the show changes. It becomes more focused. Almost like the writer took some writing classes when no one was looking. It gets better and worse at the same time. It becomes worse because it mostly loses its unique pitch. Yes we’re still in the universe where Power Rangers are psychos, yes most people are still morons and our MC still has a revenge boner but the show stops throwing garbage jokes anytime something serious happens (still does, but not so much so I count that as a win). The drawback is that it becomes just another tournament / exam regurgitated garbage You see in every school anime these days. It became so basic that I couldn’t even tell You why the exam was so dumb. Granted I’m not sure even the people writing this could tell You that but that’s beside the point.

The infiltration and fucking up an organization from the inside is a good idea. Not many anime and even movies do that. But there is a reason why. It’s really tough to write something like that in a way that doesn’t feel cheap. The best example I can think of, of this type of plot is “Infernal Affair” - an amazing movie that uses an undercover cop and an undercover mob member to create suspense and drama. It’s a masterpiece of writing. The thing is, there are 3 movies in the series and only the first one is amazing. It’s that hard to write this sort of plot. It would be hard enough in a realistic setting, adding a Super Sentai fantasy to it makes it even more so, and adding dumb jokes that don’t land ruins it almost entirely. Probably why, the jokes stop at some point and the show gets better because of it.

The exam arc also shows us another part of FD. His thinking and strategic part. Seriously, the second half of the show proves that he can think strategically and on the fly. Why isn’t this mofo the leader? The way he fools the opposing team to get the key, the way he takes charge of the situation when shit hits the fan and the way he plans the fight during the exam are really solid writing.. With few crappy moments but compared to the rest of the show it’s top notch. For 12 years he didn’t think of leading his own kind? With this kind of adaptability he could become a real threat to the world. So why just now? Oh, right… the plot demands it.
The only thing I would call bullshit is that at some point he reveals his identity to convince someone to join his “cause”. It’s dumb and totally unnecessary. He could have convinced him in so many ways that I would spend a day and a half naming them. Ok, the reveal could have been the final method but the dumb ass barely tried anything else.

Ok… this is getting too long for any sane person to read and I’m not even ¾ of the way I wanted on a list of things I wanted to address so…

At the end of the day I don’t think this is a bad anime. The animation and art style are nice and OST is pretty solid as well. My main grype is that it is positioned as a deconstruction and I guess it does have elements of it, but it’s not a very good one. Shame because the idea has potential and I would lie if I told You I did not enjoy the second half of it.

“Goodbye, Don Glees!” is what happens when You have mediocre first two acts and absolutely slaughter the third one.

This movie tries hard to be deeper than it actually is. It’s a coming of age mish mash of ideas and themes topped with really heavy handed and pointless philosophical monologues. Unfortunately it’s another example of a pretty solid story held back by an incompetent plot. Its third act is incredibly disjointed from the rest of the movie and is an example of how not to end a movie.
Speaking of story and plot… 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”.

“Goodbye, Don Glees!” is a coming of age story… and that’s it. Apart from the visuals that are really good and towards the end even very, very good, this movie has absolutely nothing to distinguish itself from the sea of other coming of age tales. Three boys – Roma, Toto and Drop go on a poorly justified adventure. There is no real reason for them to go, the only reason they do is some social media bullshit. They aren’t part of an official investigation by the authorities, their parents are pissed with them, there is only some crap on the bootleg Instagram. When Roma gets back home his parents act like nothing happened. So why the hell would they go and risk their health? Oh yeah… because the plot demands it and the writers are too inept to write something organic. Even when the boys encounter cops, they are not pursued by them. The only reason why they run is their own stupidity.
To be fair that’s not the worst part, I’ve seen far worse justifications to move the plot along. The worst part is… I’ll get to that.

First, the thing I liked, probably the only thing connected to writing, is a setup done at the beginning of act 1. Toto teases Roma about his crush and dials her phone number so his friend could “tell her something”. He dials the wrong number and instead he is connected to a lone phone booth in Iceland. Someone answers that phone call which is demonstrated by the call timer on Toto’s phone. The person on the other side hears Toto’s pseudo motivational speech. I like that it’s a very subtle set up to something that will have a resolution in act three. The movie doesn’t make a big deal about the fact that someone answered the phone. There are no needless zooms on the timer or even a voice from the other side. It’s just there on the side. The frame is concentrated on Toto speaking and treats that as the main point. The only other moment when this scene is referenced is at the tail end of act 3. This is probably the only good and subtle setup of the whole script. It’s all downhill from here.

The characters themselves aren’t very interesting and in a story like this that’s a big problem. It’s just the standard coterie of Toto – the overachiever that walks the path that his parents set for him, Roma – the protagonist that’s the catalyst for most crap and Drop – the newcomer that shakes things up. Nothing really special. There is nothing about them that makes them stand out. You can easily mistake them for any other coming of age squad.
One of the weirdest points of the plot is the relationship between the boys. It’s stated that the OG Don Glees are Roma and Toto and Drop is a newcomer to the squad. Toto met him literally a few hours ago and is still more than willing to spill his guts to him about his problems and fears, despite not being able to do it with Roma – his best friend. He does that right after getting into a fight with Drop and making Roma act like a spoiled brat and walk off.

Now, let’s talk about the worst part of the plot.
The movie blows its load with one of the dramatic beats from the get go. In the beginning Roma speaks about death and it’s inevitability and at the end of act one we get two, heavy handed “clues” (I am being generous now, You can’t miss it even if You tried) about the state of Drop. It’s so obvious it’s almost insulting. Then in act two his fate is blatantly stated with a narration about “his last adventure”. . Add to that some scenes when Drop is an obvious outsider to the group dynamic, topped with zooms on him while having a melancholic or sad face expression. It kills a lot of its drama. Because of it, when we finally got the news about Drop’s death (Yes, we don’t even get to see that) the movie didn’t get any kind of emotional reaction from me.
Another thing that really killed the death part for me is the fact that we don’t really get to know Drop. He has some scenes of interacting with Roma and Toto in both act 1 and 2 but those aren’t really deep enough to let us know him. We know from at least the tail end of act 1 that he’s going to die so why not give something that would consolidate him as the emotional epicentre?

The intro monologue would be pretty solid if it was as in the epilogue not the prologue. As it stands it is just pointless. It’s too heavy handed to work as a proper foreshadowing to the point that it’s just a spoiler. Why? Why would You do that? Wouldn’t it be better to leave it for the last act and let it hit hard as a truck? Let us get to know Drop better in act two, make him likeable and sympathetic and then after we think that everything would be ok, let him die. Make it a dramatic moment of suffering for both the viewers and the rest of the coterie. It would still need some foreshadowing, subtle foreshadowing mind You, but it’s not like it’s an impossible task. The writers prove that they are able to create such elements with the whole phone booth setup.

Now let’s talk about the absolute shit show that is act three. It’s so disjointed from the previous two that it might as well be a part of a different movie. It starts after a pointless time skip. How long? No idea, it’s never stated. We don’t even see Drop’s death. We are just stuck with its aftermath. With Roma and Toto’s pain and even that isn’t shown for long because our coterie gets a new quest from beyond the grave.
From that point on everything the movie shows is created to evoke emotions in the most obvious and heavy handed way possible. The frames, the camera movement and above else the music. Without the music there would only be one scene that could have had a chance to evoke the feeling of grandeur (or any kind of feeling actually) and it would be the one with the waterfall. That is a solid scene. From the background to camera movement and music, everything is almost perfect for a scene like that. On top of that the scene ends with the payoff to a setup we got in act 1. The one with the telephone call.

There is also something that is pretty pointless and never resolved. The crush Roma has on a girl. We get some flashbacks with her, we get a scene where calling her turns out to be the catalyst of the whole movie and we even get her as the last person we see before the credits. Why? Why would we get to see someone who’s so absent from the main plot as the sendoff? Why wouldn’t we get a proper confrontation between her and Roma and maybe some kind of resolution to that plot point. The plot point is set up but we never get a payoff to it. It’s so annoying. The writers could just forget about her after the phone booth scene but no, for some reason we have to see her at the very end. It’s so unnecessary and feels like a pathetic setup for a sequel that will never come.

Listen, I’ve seen worse movies. A lot of them actually, I’m a camp connoisseur so I know my way around bad movies. This one? This isn’t a total travesty. It’s just rushed, has a lot of disjointed elements and treats its viewers like eggs (is afraid to show Drops’ death or any other kind of farm). For that reason it is extremely hard for me to recommend this movie on the basis of its script. I would say You can watch it for the visuals and act 3 for the synergy of visuals and audio but that’s the best the movie has to offer unfortunately.

“Dragon's Heaven” is what happens when You mix “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” with “Gundam”… minus the good story and plot.

Listen, I’m not going to sit here and tell You this is a hidden gem of storytelling with an amazing plot and gripping story. It’s not. To be honest this 24 minute OVA is more like a proof of concept than anything else.

The plot itself is as bare bones as it can get. A young girl named Ikuuru encounters a robot (that for some reason hasn’t been discovered for a thousand years it was there) code named “Shaian”, befriends him, get to ... know him by the ancient way of small talk, teams up with his and fights antagonists that have a conquest and murder boners .Yes. It’s that basic.
To be honest, even for just about 24 minutes this show has a lot of illogical decision making by both the protagonists and antagonists and even some things that maybe make sense to the inhabitants of the world but need more explanation for the viewers. Like why Ikuuru seems to live outside of the city? Why people seem to trust Shaian from the get go or how the fuck did a girl in just a suit, without even a helmet, survived shooting basically a nuclear weapon (or at least a weapon the creates an atomic mushroom) point blank? If this was a full-fledged show that might get me riled up but I can let it slide as it’s just a series of events designed to show off the animation and art style. Unfortunately I’m the story first, art second type of guy.

That said, there is something pretty special here. The art direction. This OVA has a pretty unique, even for the 80s, art. The mechas design, the “evil” once especially, are almost technorganic with their slim torsos and a lot of questionably needed curves. Not, not erotic curves, just curves on the mechas that make them look so impractical for mass production and warfare.
There is some real charm and imagination in the designs, from Shaian being a weird mix of solid geometric figures but attached to a very slim waist, to a pretty massive combat suit the Ikuuru wears at one point that has the weirdest heels that I have ever seen, to the main big bad robot looking like some sort of hammerhead mutated technorganic Treant.
If this OVA was just a slideshow of the concept arts and designs I would be pretty satisfied with it. As it stands it’s, like I said earlier, more of a proof of concept than anything else. I’m not saying it’s not enjoyable to watch, just keep expectations at an appropriate (aka low to mid) level and I think you will have some good time watching this for the 24 minute OVA.

“As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World”(aka Kanseiskill), I guess short titles are out of fashion, is what happens when You play pokemon with black jack and whoo… I mean… with people.

This show at first glance has a unique twist on the isekai genre in the form that our MC isn’t a walking apocalypse capable of one-shotting entire battalions of enemies. I say “at the first glance” because despite the fact he has no combat skills he is absolutely capable of one-shotting entire battalions, just not in the “normal” way. I’ll get to 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. I really like the story. It’s not very original but is solid. It’s a story about a young (reincarnated) boy who steps up to succeed his father in the time of turmoil, despite his very young age. It’s not exactly a coming of age story but it is close. So why did I give it just 5? Well… everything else in this show is pretty much bottom tier. From writing to logic, characters and worldbuilding. Everything is just so subpar.

Let me explain.

The premise itself is pretty interesting. A normal, hard working man dies of a heart attack, probably from overworking, another point for karoshi. Instead of the great beyond or the blessed annihilation he is reborn in another world. Of course, because we can’t have anything original, it’s a fantasy world. In this season it’s a bit more on the low fantasy side of things but don’t worry, there is still magic just not as prevalent as in some other isekais. He also has a special skill, he is able to appraise (I bet You’re shocked, nothing, especially not the title, could prepare You for such a twist) people to find out their… stats. Yes. Stats. Like in a video game. Another game logic bullshit. How original. Still… It appears that only he has such a game related bullshit skill so that’s a small blessing I guess. You don’t get bombarded by RPG crap from every corner. Because he’s the heir to a noble family he intends to use this OP skill to gather the most powerful people to serve him (Do You see why I said he still is able to one-shot everything? Yeah… he gets OP minions that are 100% loyal to him and have no intention to betray him in any way, shape or form). So far, so cliche but it’s not total travesty and I would even say it’s interesting.

For 12 episodes we see Ars - our MC, grow both figuratively and literally, from a kid to a teenager who has responsibilities thrusted upon him. Good thing for his band of diamonds in the rough. Shame they don’t stay in the rough longer, it would make for a far better story and plot. This is my main complaint about the show: It mixes pretty solid, sometimes even very good story beats with a really shitty plot. If I had to give numbers I would say it’s a 7/10 story held back by 3/10 plot.

The first episode (don’t worry I wont be talking about each episode but I need to talk about the first two in a spoiler free way) is actually good. We start from a pretty shitty (for our MC, for the viewer it’s pretty solid) place, yes his father commands a small army but as we later find out it’s not all burritos and strippers. There is a war coming and his troops lack mages and most of them are solid, but not great, as soldiers. We even get a scene where the MC sees that one of the soldiers is terribly miscast as a melee fighter but has pretty high skills in archery. Being a 3 year old child he uses his baby charm to manipulate the soldier to try a bow. It of course goes awesome and the soldier becomes an archer. That is actually a pretty solid scene. We get to see how his appraisal skill works and what kind of stats he actually sees. The thing I’m a bit iffy about is that some stats have numerical values and others just plain old letters (from D to S). Also there is something really badly explained. One of the stats he sees is called “prowess” and appears to be related to combat and has numerical value. But… he also sees proficiencies in things like archer, infantry, navy etc. and those use letters as their value. It’s never explained how those two stats interact with each other. Can someone with high prowess but D in archery be a skilled archer? Can someone with very little in prowess but with S in infantry be a killing machine with a sword? It’s never explained and bugged me every time it was mentioned. Back to our scene with the soldier. Apart from showing us how the skill works it also is used as a way to show the soldiers that Ars is capable of “sensing” someone's talents. I can actually appreciate the show don’t tell approach. The soldiers aren’t told by someone that this 3 year old kid has a knack for telling people's skills. They are shown that. He is even questioned about the incident by his father. It’s a nice piece of setting things up for later. So in the first episode we get a goal for our MC, setting up his reputation for later and in the second half we see how normal people see him and even get the first OP follower - Rietz (an ultimate non-magic weapon in a form of a teenage ex mercenary)for the protagonist and his faction. All in all it’s a solid first episode. If I had to change anything I think I would make the father be more reluctant to test out the teenager that his son brought to join his faction, after all the father seems to be at least a bit racist towards him and I would like that aspect be more explored.

The second episode is both my favourite and ,unfortunately, the episode that heralds the fall of good plot writing. Don’t worry, the story is still there and even has some good moments but plot wise… It’s all downhill from here. Ars visits a nearby city and witnesses the social disparity between the poor and the rest of the denizens. It gives him some much needed perspective on the world and that perspective is even more reassured at the end of the episode. The second thing he learns is that finding people who would actually be useful in his endeavour is hard. Extremely hard. He is able to find a girl with S rank magic skill but she refuses to work with him. I loved that. It gives him something he wants - the girl to join his faction, and a very solid obstacle for achieving that goal - she’s taking care of some young kids on the street. I was actually hoping that making her join would be an arc in of itself. Something to show both her character and his devotion to his goal. Something to make him work for an amazing reward. Yeah… no. That would mean the writers have skill and intellect to actually create something meaningful and we can’t have that in an isekai. He actually recruits her in the next episode after Rietz solos an entire slave organisation and Ars gives a half assed, feel good monologue that is absolutely misplaced in this scene (by the way, slavery seems to be legal, because of course it is). It is there just to show what a good egg Ars is. And just like that he gets an OP mage on his team. Does anyone still harbour illusions that this show will give him any kind of challenge? Back to the mage - Charlotte. Why did she decide to go with them? Because of the save? That’s not exactly a good reason when You are responsible for four very young kids. Both she and those kids are orphans, beggars who live on the street. There were no scenes indicating that those kids are competent enough to be left without a babysitter. Yes, she asks Ars to send her pay to those kids but, send where? The orphanage that we see in a later episode didn’t exist yet. It’s stated that Ars was the one who built it. You don’t build things just like that, there was some time when those kids were left alone to their own devices and with the slavers in town I have a hard time believing they weren’t sold by the time the orphanage was fully functioning. Of course the kids were fine because the world revolves around Ars and his decisions and we can’t have him make a bad one. Even as a goddamn 3 year old child. No. Because he's the MC of an isekai he must be the embodiment of perfect decision making from the get go. Now You understand why I say that the writing goes downhill after this.

Now, for the main problem. The goddamn repetitiveness of the process that’s shown when he recruits someone. It’s the same 3 out of 4 times. He meets someone who has OP AF stats. He wants them to serve him. They start iffy and usually have a reason why they don’t want to. It sounds solid and I would agree but the solutions to those problems are almost all banal and cheap. Plus they rarely solve the main problem, they just mask it with a bandaid but it seems that's enough for people to change their minds. Well… that and a metric shit ton of plot conveniences topped with the fact that 4 out of 5 of his closest allies are far beneath his social status. The only person that is his equal is his fiance but I wouldn’t call her a full fledged member of his coterie. All others are either beggars or just simple people. Why? If it is some kind of effed up social commentary that people below a certain status can be amazing it misses the mark completely because it’s classist in the opposite direction. Apart from his father and maybe 3 more characters, everyone that has a noble status is portrayed as mediocre at best and total waste of space or cannon fodder at worst. Why? Nobles have far more opportunities to train, learn and gain skills. Why would only the poor have OP skill levels? My guess is, recruiting someone who is closer in status to Ars would require a writer who actually knows about logic and has enough imagination to make it believable.

My second gripe with the show is Ars himself. I know I praised some scenes with him and the fact he has a goal. The problem? He has zero plan to achieve it. His idea of creating his naive-ville is to just recruit people with amazing skills. That’s it. I’m not even talking about a long term plan. He doesn't even have a short term one. About half way through the series he becomes the lord of his domain and… changes absolutely nothing. No new edicts, no attempts at social changes, no economic revolutions (something that maybe a little he would know about from his past life). Nothing. He just goes through the motions. When he’s presented with an obstacle he asks his coterie what to do and does that they say with little thought. I get it, it shows that his followers are competent and have skills and insight that he lacks but for fucks sake. He was shown to study hard everything about this world. He should at least present them with his own plan. He is supposed to be a leader, he has to show initiative. Nope. He always acts like a naive moron. He has no personality whatsoever. All he is is kind, and the worst kind of kind. The kind that can do nothing wrong and for whom the world bends over backwards. In all 12 episodes he made zero bad decisions. Every decision he made was ultimately a good one. Even if they were stupid as fuck like assaulting a slavers shop with just one man. Because that man was Rietz it all turned out dandy but the plan itself was idiotic. Without Rietz he would have nothing to “convince” the slaver to “sell” Charlotte.

And that brings me to his coterie. They are absurd. Each and everyone of them is a god-like creature in their expertise. Rietz is basically unrivalled in melee combat to the point where he can just solo an entire slave organisation. Charlotte, despite never using magic, can create an amazing explosion on her very first try. Rosell is intelligent and has knowledge about almost anything. He even taught himself to read. Apart from some artificial crap they all go through when they meet Ars they also have little to no character and are embodiments of perfection. Why? Why the fuck would anyone think that’s a good idea. A character at the end of their journey that is OP AF is a solid choice. Once we see all his hard work. His being OP is a reward for his suffering, hard work and all the tears, blood and sweat that he sheds. Main thing. AT THE END OF HIS JOURNEY (not life mind You). Charlotte, Rietz and Rosell had some inconveniences but we did not see them work for anything they have. They are all just naturals at what they do.
Why not show Charlotte struggling to control her magic? Make her hurt someone, preferably Ars or his father. Let her have a crisis about that and show her struggling with her inner thoughts and feelings. Let her fall and show us how she gets up. She doesn’t have to do it alone. Let Ars help her, but make her do most of the work.
Why not have Ars injured after being assaulted when Rietz is away fighting? Let Rietz have his own crisis and show how he wants to be punished for something that’s not his fault. Let me see how he deals with the fact that he can’t always protect everyone and maybe has a different approach to serving and protecting Ars.
Risell is a kid. A kid who goes to war and sees things that he shouldn’t Give him PTSD.
No. What we get are 3 fully functioning powerful adults in teenage and kid forms. It’s all so… boring. There are no stakes at all. Why would I care about a show that has no stakes?

Like I said. I like the story. A story about a young boy who wants to create something (even if it’s naive) and has to step up in times of turmoil is a solid idea. Hell… the moment when his father shows him how inadequate he is to go to war and command his forces is amazing. It breaks Ars mentally. It proves the point in the most painful way possible. It changes the way our MC sees himself and it’s awesome. It’s a brutal wakeup call, something that he really needed. This is the moment when plot serves the story and it’s damn good. If the whole show had this kind of relation between story and plot it would be amazing. Unfortunately what we got is a story that is mostly separated from the plot. A lot of things use the “And then this happened” and not the “And because of that, this happened” way of telling its plot and story. There is also no good reason for this to be an isekai. Ars previous life never comes up and changes nothing. Despite being an adult trapped in a kid's body he acts like a kid almost all the time.

To be fair I can see why someone would like this show. It’s a bit different at least on the surface to be considered a breath of fresh air in the stale isekai genre. It uses a lot of cheap tricks to invoice emotions in scenes that don’t really deserve them but a lot of people don’t have a problem with those kinds of tricks. I do.

At the end of the day I stick to what I wrote earlier:
It's a 7/10 story held back by a 3/10 plot.

“Video Girl Ai” is what happens when “Weird Science” meets anime.

This is mainly a rom-com in a light urban fantasy setting. Unfortunately it suffers from the same affliction as 99% of rom coms: characters with the conversation skills of an ameba. At least half of this OVA (yeah I know it only has 6 episodes) could be cut if at least one of the characters knew how to hold a conversation and was honest with everyone, themselves most of all. No such luck, oh well c'est la vie.

The plot is pretty interesting (and Weird Sciency). A broken hearted boy is “gifted” (I think this word ... is the most appropriate) with a VHS. After playing it he’s visited by a girl that starts living with him with a goal to comfort him, get Your mind out of the gutter, it’s not a hentai, and help him gain the affection of his love interest.. Still, this being a rom-com and having a boy and a girl living together, yeah we all know how this will end. In this case it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey and oh boy… the last two episodes take You to some really wild lands.

We mainly spend time with two characters:
Youta - our main protagonist. After having heart broken (temporarily of course, it wouldn't be a rom-com if he just gave up) he finds himself in a strange VHS rental store. After playing the cassette he is “gifted” with a video girl. A creature with the sole mission to help and mend his mental state. Despite being a total moron in almost everything, he does have some redeeming qualities, at least according to Ai. Those qualities are just the basic starter set of most anime protagonists: being kind, nice, helpful, all that plain white bread crap. As a bonus he does have a flaw (apart from playing with Intelligence on 1… ok I’ll be nice, 2). He’s a bit of an opportunist. It’s shown in one of the later episodes when he decides that there is no point in pursuing his main love interest. After that revelation (that was obvious from the beginning and at least once in every episode) he says that at least he has Ai. I guess You could interpret it a few ways but the one that resonates with me is that he treated Ai as plan B for most of the time. Something (or someone, depends on how You interpret her existence) to fall back on when plan A inevitably fails. It shows him as a bit of a dick but it also makes him not flat as a character. Shame that this flaw isn’t something he would actively work on but we only have 6 episodes so let’s not be greedy.

Ai - from what the show tells us she is an artificial lifeform created solely for the purpose of helping distressed people and soothing their minds. She declares she’s 16 years old but that’s just her perception. For all we know she might have been created last week. She has two main ways of interacting with Youta: a sweet housewife / steady girlfriend mode and aggressive mode when she uses violence to make her feelings known, so yeah… pretty much marriage. She also likes to tease him, especially in the beginning. It’s suggested that Ai isn’t acting like she should. Probably because the VCR used by Youta was malfunctioning. According to her, that's also the reason why her body and skills changed. Her breast became smaller right before Youta’s eyes and her food, which was supposed to be amazing, turned out awful the first time she made it. She regained her skills in cooking and from the looks of it she did it organically aka practising and not in some data recovery bullshit way. Of course having a teen girl living with You, cooking and even washing Your back has a catch. That is… she’s just a 30 day rental, as she puts it. There is a little bit of sadness in her story. Despite being treated as plan B she actually cares and cherishes moments she spends with him, to the point of covering her own pain just to prolong their date.

Now… this show has a little bit of a problem with conveying the passage of time.
Unfortunately the show is really bad at organically showing us how much time has passed. From the framing, the colours and cuts You might actually think that between episode 1 and 2 just one day has passed but in reality it has been 6 days since Ai started living with Youta.
To make up for it the timer on the VCR has a close up once in a while. At the end of episode one we see how much time Ai has, which is 716 hours, 24 minutes and 19 seconds (displayed on the VCR), which amounts to about 29 days. This counter has two main functions. On one hand it acts as a deadline, the moment when Ai will depart from Youta’s life. It creates a sense of urgency and adds drama to their relationship. On the other hand it works to inform us how much time has passed. Without it we might think that Ai tought herself cooking skills in just a few hours and in even less time fell in love with Youta.

I would say that the first 4 episodes are pretty solid, not really groundbreaking examples of a standard rom-com plot. We see how Youta and Ai’s relationship develops and even how Youta develops (not much but I’ll take what I can get in this case) as a character. Then the last two episodes appear.

Episodes 5 and 6 give off a lot of “Serial Experiments Lain” vibe with maybe just a little touch of “Evangelion”, which was released a few years later but is, from my experience, better known. We even get an antagonist. A tall red haired man who declares himself Ai’s creator. He’s a 100% asshole and his existence creates far more questions than the show has time or willingness to answer.

Let’s start with the obvious. Why the hell did he want to “retire” his own creation just because it developed feelings for her client? Seriously. I’m having “Bicentennial Man” and “A.I.” flashbacks from this. He created her, she deviated from the design. You don’t just destroy something like that. You study it, maybe just observe how the deviation is going. You don’t just pull the plug because something went sideways. I know he’s a redhead but he’s taking the “redheads have no soul” to the extreme here.
Second thing. He’s an asshole. No way around it. The way he acts, the way he treats Ai and later Youta, everything screams “I’m evel because I’m evil” crap. Why would someone like that create an artificial, sentient creature whose mission is to give comfort to those in need of it? He doesn't seem to get paid for that so it’s not a Steve Jobs thing. He has some sort of supernatural powers so maybe he was just bored but then why even interact with Ai after her creation? Is there someone who supervises him? Is it some sort of punishment for him, to create and maintain this twisted therapy system? Why the hell Ai needed to be naked and tied to a cross (now You understand why I got “Evangelion” vibes… which also came out later, interesting)? What exactly is the rental store? Who is the old man working there? Who is the redhead man? What are they? Those are obvious questions that will appear in anyone's mind while watching this. The show doesn’t even attempt to answer them.

I know this is an urban fantasy, some would even call it science fantasy so it can have some unanswered questions. SOME! Not a whole pile of them that are important to the main plot and individual stories of the main characters. As it stands it’s a “Shit happens for no reason” kind of thing. Yes, I know Kafka did something similar but in his case the focus was on the internal struggles of his characters and their outlook on life. You had the main event and that’s it. It happened. It didn’t breed any more new information and questions about it. Event A, done deal, now we’re 100% in the protagonist's head. In the case of this OVA the initial event (the whole rental store thing and Ai herself) breed more and more questions as time progresses and especially in episodes 5 and 6.

At the end of the day I actually enjoyed myself watching this OVA. Apart from the bullshit from episode 6 it’s a solid rom-com with some twists and turns that, even if predictable, are executed properly. it leaves too many things without answers and that's the reason why I can't really recommend it full heartedly.

“Re:Monster” is what happens when someone with no imagination or writing skills tries to write “Tensura”.

Do You know what “Stockholm syndrome” is?
It’s a term from the field of psychology. It occurs when a hostage starts to identify with the captor, starts to justify his actions and sometimes even develops strong feelings for them. It’s postulated that it’s a defence mechanism that increases the chance of surviving a dangerous situation. One theory is that people adjust their feelings toward the abuser when they are shown kindness, especially if it’s over time. That means that if You are abducted, treated badly and once in a while are ... shown kindness, there is a chance You might develop a positive feeling towards the aggressor. Even if You are victim of sexual assault during Your abduction. Yes, it’s almost like in an abusive relationship. Of course this is a simplification, Stockholm syndrome is very rare, according to the FBI less than 8% of abduction victims end up with it. The reason why I’m writing this is to set a frame for the first 6 episodes of this shit of show.

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. There is none. 99.9% of things that happen only happen because the plot demands it. It has nothing to do with any kind of internal logic. It’s just an excuse for a shitty writer to indulge in his jerk fest. The MC starts out as a piece of shit and ends the series as a piece of shit. For some reason the show wants me to buy in that he has a development arc but You really have to be brain dead to believe that. From the very beginning he’s an opportunist and that never changes. The only thing that does is that he becomes a hypocrite as a bonus. Now granted that’s nothing new for isekai protagonists, a good 99% of them are hypocrites, but the way this show portrays some serious subjects is really pissing me off.

Everything in this show revolves around the MC - Rou - also known as Aporou (when in Apostle Lord form) formerly known as Ogarou (when in Ogre form) formerly known as Goburou (when in Goblin and Hobgoblin forms) formerly known as Tomokui Kanata (In his previous world) and always known as a shitty idea. In his previous life he died in a knife attack by a chick who seems to be getting off the fact that she is turning him into a knife holder. To be honest, looking at how this show “evolves” (I’m being really generous here) I’m surprised this didn’t turn out like a scene from “Nekromantik” (If You don’t know this movie… DON’T watch it. Seriously, I just hate myself and love camp). He is reborn as a goblin in a new world and surprise, surprise, he has a skill that lets him be OP from the get go. Never saw that coming in like… almost all other isekai garbage from the last decade. Interesting twist (the only one in this show): The MC was an OP Mofo in his previous life as well. From a cyberpunk or maybe urban fantasy world with dumb game logic systems in place to a pure fantasy world with dumb game logic systems in place. No wonder he feels like home from the get go.
Of course the world works on Game logic, because it’s a lazy isekai. You can’t have an isekai without it. I miss times of “The Vision of Escaflowne” or “Now and Then, Here and There” when isekais didn’t require the hero to kick the bucket and didn’t have a damn cheap RPG-like system woven into its core. You know… the good old times when to be a writer You would actually require any kind of skill.
He gains new skills by eating living creatures because of course he does. That’s the second most lazy way to write a progression system.

From a logical point of view and his tribe strength he’s an absolute idiot. He kills, as punishment because we need to pretend he’s a “good” guy, some of the stronger members of the previous generation of goblins (one being a hobgoblin). There was no real reason to do so. If he really wanted to he could just beat the shit out of them and use instrumental conditioning to train them. This was done only because we needed a reason for the redhead human girl to crawl into his bed.
He’s more or less a piece of shit. Granted in this world, as a monster, being concerned only with Yourself doesn’t seem to be a bad thing but the extent of self-delusion he goes to is impressive. He saves the daughter of an elven chief and hopes her escort rests in peace. Cute. The problem? He could have saved them with little to no problems. There is no real reason for him to save her as well. Except the fact that the show needs an excuse for all other bullshit with the elves that will come later and she’s a woman. At this point I’m gonna assume every woman this cardboard buyout of an MC meets is on his rape list.
I don’t mind evil or opportunistic protagonists. They can actually be amazing, just look at “Overlord”, “Death Note” or “Saga of Tanya the Evil” but don’t make them hypocrites (Yeah, I know Ainz is one but it’s not that obvious in the beginning). If You’re writing an asshole just go fully into it.

There was one moment when the show tricked me into thinking that maybe it will not be a total piece of crap. When Goburou is fighting a red bear he gets his ass handed to him on a silver platter but, because we can’t have logical writing, instead of retreating and preparing with a different approach he just gets a second wind from thin air and wins the fight. As a reward he evolves. If there was ever a show with no stakes this would be it. It’s the second episode and we already know that our MC is unstoppable.

Ok… let’s talk about the elephant in the room - Stockholm syndrome.
The human girls fall for him because he’s nice to them. The show set up an amazing opportunity to explore this aspect of the story. You can show how emotionally, physically and mentally being abducted by monsters who You are pretty known rapists (not that anyone hid it) is. Damn. You could use the boring MC as a catalyst for that kind of a story. It’s not exactly something common so the story had a chance to become something unique. But that would require a writer with skills and imagination. But the show wasn’t lucky enough to have one so it’s just basic shit. The most insulting thing is that this shit show plays it off as cute and “rewards” the MC with a goddamn orgy with 5 human women and one hobgoblin chick.

This show portrait straight up rape almost like a social tool. The elfs don’t want to wear earrings because of their culture? The MC rapes them and suddenly they don’t have a problem with it. Do you need to test the endurance of the newly enslaved prisoners? Rape. It even shows one of them rejecting the idea but potrais it as some sort of quirky “yes”. It’s so juvenile, crude and to be honest devoid of any kind of nuance or taste.
As a former therapist I will only say: FUCK the writer for that!


To be honest I think that skipping this one is actually a profit in itself. The amount of bullshit in this show is comparable with “Berserk of Gluttony”, “Eminence in Shadow”, “The Qwaser of Stigmata” or “Conception”. I feel that a lot of my braincells committed suicide during watching this shit. Save Your brain, avoid this.

“Haibane Renmei” is what happens when a solid idea is held down by heavy handed writing.

First things first. I know this show has a lot of symbolism and uses it with varying success. I don't intend to showcase or explain them. There are a lot of people who already did that and far better than I could ever have. Even more that clearly have no idea what they are talking about and only want to feel special. What I will concentrate on is the writing. The story, the plot, and the holes. I believe that even when using symbolism the writer should integrate it ... into the story to create a solid internal logic for everyone, and everything involved in the creation. Otherwise You are stuck with a medium that demands from the viewer to turn off thinking to make sense. Of course You can always concentrate on just the symbolic parts, or just the plot parts but I was never good at that.

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”.

“Haibane Renmei” is a slice of life fantasy with more mysteries than answers. It’s split into two “sections”. The first one is plot heavy and story light and it introduces the world, its rules and inhabitants. It’s slow and You could make an argument that it overstays its welcome because most things that happen later don’t really involve most presented cast members. The second part is story heavy. There are two stories in “Haibane Renmei”. One of Rakka and the other one of Reki. Speaking of, it’s time to introduce the cast aka the only two that really matter:

Rakka - a newborn Haibane (creature with small ash grey wings, but apart from that resembles humans). She’s our gateway into the anime and it is through her eyes we see 90% of the plot and story. Unlike most of her companions she contemplates her life before this one and wonders who she was sometimes. As a main character… She's awful. She doesn’t have a goal, dream hell all she has is a bunch of side quests. It’s fine in the first half when she’s adjusting to the new environment but it lasts for the whole of the show. She doesn’t ask questions, she doesn’t test boundaries or even try to rebel against rules that are practically forced on her. She just rolls with it like a good little NPC. Even Bethesda’s NPC go off script sometimes. Yes, she gets her moment to shine later, much later in the show when she is determined to help Reki but even that is lazily written and resolved almost immediately. Everything is handed to her. Need info on Reki? She will be told about her from others or find her diary. Need a way to help Reki? No problem, the old wise-man asshole character, who has no problem in leaving a wounded girl in the cold, will give it to her. Apart from resolving her own story she earns very little. Her and Reki’s stories are very similar. They both seek forgiveness (maybe redemption) for something they don’t even remember. The rules of the world are really fucked up in this regard. Oh, You don’t remember Your sin? Yeah… good luck with the whole redemption thing. The difference is Rakka is playing on easy mode. She has help in her journey in the form of a bird. It is implied, and even stated by Rakka, that this bird might be someone from her previous life. That does cheapen the whole process a bit, but thanks to the overall theme of the show not by much and it does give Rakka the “idea” to be this kind of “bird” for Reki.

Reki - The most interesting and well written (well written for this show, that does not mean good in general) character. She’s the intriguing, wild aunt archetype. She cares for others but doesn’t show it unless there is an emergency. She has a tragic backstory because in a show with life, death, rebirth, sin and salvation symbolism we need someone who was fucked more than the rest of the cast. She’s the one who discovers Rakka’s cocoon and becomes a mentor figure for her. A bit of a strange writing decision was made when it comes to her cocoon dream. It’s stated that she can’t remember it, but she does remember fragments of it and has a recurring nightmare that could or could not be related (foreshadowing much?). That’s not the same thing as not remembering but the show needed something to give her, her name and it went with this lazy way. Shame. Her past haunts her and is the main reason for her almost demise but is saved by Rakka in one of the most “we need her saved but have no idea how to do it organically” I have ever seen.

There are three things that work to this shows’ detriment. Those being A slow start, lack of subtlety and a metric shit ton of bullshit logic. And don’t give me that “It’s symbolic” bullshit defence. If things happen only because they have to and not because of shows and characters internal logic it’s bullshit writing.

This show has only 13 episodes. About 6, and some of the 7th, of those are focused on plot, world building and character introductions than anything else. There are moments when a story rears its head but it’s not exactly much and it’s almost all just setups. The problem with world building is that it sets up questions that never get answered. You just have to accept the fact that pretty obvious questions that would be asked by anyone with an IQ above room temperature are just too much for our protagonist, or anyone else for that matter. Everyone just follows the rules.

One of the strangest things that never get resolved are the haloes themselves. Why do they even have them? Haibane aren’t born with them. They are man, or rather haibane made and given to the person. They get wings in an organic (both literally and figuratively) way, they literally sprout out of their back. So why the halos? It’s not for identification, wings are enough for that. They don’t seem to be a tool for control. They are just there. Probably to compliment the wings aesthetic. Also why did Kuu’s (and later Reki’s) halo start to disappear? Was it connected to his “day of flight”? Probably. But why would it disappear as a response to Kuu’s mental or physical state? Why was the halo left behind after Kuus’ disappearance if it was disappearing moments earlier? It’s just so damn annoying, there is no logic to it.

Another thing that’s either rushed, or the writer just didn’t give a damn about logic, is the fact that Rakka, despite hatching just a day before, scolds Hikari about using the halo mould to make bread. Why? Because her halo was the last one made with it? She doesn’t know that for sure and even if, so what? Does that make any difference? She doesn’t have the grasp on the world and rules yet, why would she care about that? It would be different if she had an info dump about haloes, their function and importance, but she doesn’t. For all she knows, at that point in time, the halos might as well be made using normal kitchen appliances and methods. There is no reason for her to have that reaction. It’s done for a cheap joke and to imitate intimacy between them.

Calling this show subtle is like calling Little Boy a farming tool or DOOM a parenting manual. There is very little in this show that I would call subtle. I would even say that this show goes out of its way to make sure You see everything, hear everything and get a solid dose of foreshadowing even if it’s Your first time watching it.

In one of the first episodes Rakka finds Reki on the floor with a clearly scared face. Instead of letting the viewer draw his own conclusions the show serves us a pathetic moment when Reki verbalises (to an empty room mind You) that it’s all the fault of a recurring dream. Why? It’s clear that something is wrong. Why give it away just seconds after setting up a mystery? She does that by speaking to herself after Rekka leaves. It would be less insulting if she just said it to her but that would make too much sense I guess. There is no logical reason for that. It’s just for the viewer to make sure they don’t miss the foreshadowing.

The same was done when Kuu’s halo started disappearing. We had a repetition of just about 3 seconds when that happened with a zoom in for each loop. Why? Do the creators think that little about the viewers?

Unfortunately a lot of the show follows the “And then…” method of writing and not “Because of…”. It makes a lot of both plot and story points seem disconnected and held together with spit and the almighty “the plot demands it” commandment. It’s still an interesting show to watch, just not if You care about logic.

In the end the main focus are the internal elements of Rakka and Reki. The plot points serve their stories and, in this regard at least, they are passable. Yes, they can be (and often are) dumb and make little sense but they at least push the stories forward. This is something I can actually appreciate and commend. The internal struggles of both girls are interesting enough for me to even excuse tha dumb internal monologue that pretends to be deeper than it is, because I actually see how they struggle with their fates and thoughts. That alone is the reason I would say You won’t waste Your time watching this show.

“AD Police” is what happens when old school noir storytelling meets anime.

To be honest this whole OVA feels more like a proof of concept than anything else. It’s related to Bubblegum Crisis and could be considered its loose prequel. It’s dark, gritty and shows the bad parts of a cyberpunk future.

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”.

There are two recurring characters in this OVA. Their role in the episode changes. They are both main characters in the first episode, become support in episode 3 and just background in episode 2. Still, they are important and prevalent enough for me to mention them. They are:

Gina - a stereotypical, hard cop archetype. She’s a member of the AD Police. She’s as 80s as one can be. The hair, the clothes and the no bullshit attitude. She has a “quirk” as she calls it. She gets horny when she sees blood. She’s also kind of an idiot. There is this really dumb scene in the first episode when a boomer is killing one of the AD Police members, Gina wants to help, is stopped by another member, only to wait until the first one is good and dead and only then she attacks the boomer from behind. WTF? Did the guy who got killed owed everyone money or something? If she acted sooner (which she could, she just had to shrug one dude) she would have given her fellow police officer a bigger chance for survival. But no, he had to die because of plot conveniences.

Leon - Gina’s partner. In the first episode he’s treated like a rookie, Gina even calls him that openly a few times. In 2 and 3 he seems to be more experienced. He is competent and seems to have PTSD after being attacked by a boomer but that’s pretty much one of two things we know about him. The other is he has some distrust in cybernetic technology and against one of his acquaintances to replace her eye.

The reason why I treat it more like a proof of concept than anything else is the fact that despite having recurring characters there are differences in their design depending on the episode. Mainly between episode 1 and the other two. The episodes aren't connected in any meaningful way and could be watched on their own. They have their own self contained plots, and that works both in their favour and their detriment.

Episode 1 is also a bit unique in the set. Episodes 2 and 3 bring up a theme of what it means to be human and when a person stops being one. The first episode is concentrated mainly on showing Leon as a character and not much more. It does ask a question: does a synthetic benign created artificially can have feelings, and what kind but doesn’t go too deep into it. Unlike episodes 2 and 3, episode 1 doesn’t have a story, it’s mainly plot. Things happen but nothing really changes. You could make a case that there is a little bit of Leon’s story there but it’s not much.

When it comes to the story department the best one is in episode 3. It shows a steady degradation and depersonalization of Billy. An AD Police officer turned into a cyborg. Because it’s just one episode the pacing is very fast and a lot of things are rushed but it still shows his agony rather well.

I’m not sure if this is the result of the short run or the writer's choice but the show asks a lot of questions but never answers them directly. Normally I love that. I think that movies and shows that want to touch heavy subjects should let the viewer form his own opinion. The problem this time is that it doesn’t really give You enough material to work with. We only see a snippet of the problem and because of the type of show this is the only answer is violence. It works for plot convenience but it doesn’t for story.

At the end of the day “AD Police” won’t break any new ground in the cyberpunk or noir genre. It’s plot heavy and avoids any kind of deep thinking despite playing around with some pretty hard hitting questions. It’s an acceptable watch but nothing more.