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Review: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (I'll just be referring to the show as "Frieren" from now on) is a high-fantasy adventure anime following an Elf named Frieren many years after she and her party defeated the demon king and brought peace throughout the land. When attending a funeral for one of her former party members, she is confronted with the fact that she will outlive all of her friends. Frieren then sets out on a quest to collect spells, fulfill the last wishes of her old party, and to uncover the meaning of life. You may have recognized that, at the time ... of this review, Frieren is by far the most well rated show on almost every platform, and I am here to say that that rating is completely justified. Frieren is a work of art that only comes around once in a decade.

Animation:
The animation in Frieren is absolutely breath-taking. Stylistically, it isn't too different from your typical high-fantasy anime, but its so much cleaner. The cinematography is next-level and the some of the action scenes are so jaw-dropping that I can only complain about them not being long enough! The last major fight in the show is so insanely well done, but its so brief that I was left dying for more.

Characters:
Frieren's greatest strength may be with its characters. Everyone in our main cast feels incredibly real and lived in.

Our main protagonist Frieren is an elf that has lived for a thousand years. Her long life has made her rather lazy, as important opportunities that are once in a lifetime for humans are more common for her. She struggles to grasp human emotions and can even be sociopathic at times. Despite this though, her brief experience as part of Himmel's party to defeat the demon king has left a profound impact on her, which immediately strikes you at the beginning of the show. Not even one episode in, and I was already completely invested in her character.

Himmel was the hero of the party who recruited Frieren and defeated the Demon King. He is shown mainly through flashbacks throughout the show. He is perhaps the pure embodiment of the classical hero whose kindness changed the lives of all those around him, especially Frieren. The flashbacks with him and his party are the emotional core of the show.

Fern is a young female human mage who is taken under Frieren's care. Ironically, she is the one who often takes care of Frieren. She is strong willed and seemly stoic, but actually gets easily offended. Her dynamic with Frieren, essentially being her caretaker, is always entertaining and funny, and is why she is a fan favorite.

Stark is a young man who was trained by Eisen, a dwarf warrior from Himmel's party who is still alive. He is very carefree and friendly. He seems cowardly at first, but is internally strong-willed and can confront any foe if he had to. He also shares a really funny and wholesome relationship with Fern. Unfortunately, he is side-lined by the second half of this season to focus more on Fern, Frieren, and a few important side characters.

Story:
Frieren's story isn't anything all that complicated, actually. It simply follow Frieren and her party as they bound with eachother and learn more about themselves. It is rather open-ended, and is used a vessel to explore the emotional fabric of our main cast. This is not to say that the story is weak. Its actually everything it needs to be. There is no filler in the show, and every scene has a purpose. Not a moment feels wasted or unnecessary. Despite being rather long for a season, 28 episodes, the show is still in its early stages, so there is still so much more to anticipate!

Overall:
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, is an absolutely incredible anime that has already become mandatory viewing within the anime medium. Its one of the most accessible shows out there, and practically everyone who has watched it has called it perfect. Frieren is one of the few shows I can easily recommend to everyone.

Final Score: 98/100

Monster is a classic crime thriller anime from studio Madhouse from way back in 2004. The show follows Dr. Tenma, a brilliant Japanese surgeon in 90's Germany who risks his career to save a young boy dying from a bullet wound. Years later, he realizes the boy he saved was a prolific and genius serial killer named Johan. Tenma decides to leave everything behind to track down Johan and bring justice to those affected by his rampage.

This is a long and slow burn, 74 episodes. It took me almost an entire year to finish this anime, slowly chipping away at it every once in a ... while. But every time I sat down to watch, I couldn't keep my eyes away. Monster is one of the best and most suspenseful thriller animes I have ever seen.

Animation:
Animation isn't one of Monster's many selling points. Still, it is more than serviceable. Given than this is a 2004 anime, it's not gonna look as clean nor as "HD" as most anime these days. I believe it is styled to look older than what it is, given the show takes place in the 90s. It definitely has a 90s feel in terms of animation quality, where everything is hand-drawn, but at a lower resolution and a 4:3 aspect ratio. But hey, if you're into that old-school feel, you'll certainly have no issue with what is presented.

Sound and Art Style:
The art style here is extremely grim and dark, which more than perfectly suits the themes and moods that Monster is trying the capture. Don't go in here expecting something bright and colorful. The music is amazing, in my opinion. It adds so much suspense and eeriness and really enhances the atmosphere.

Characters:
Monster offers a massive cast with many storylines that converge as the show progresses. However, only a few characters are consistently followed throughout the show. These include our protagonists Dr. Tenma and Anna Liebert, and undeniably one of anime's greatest villains: Johan. Despite the huge cast though, there are only 2 women who get any screen time, Anna Liebert and Eva Heinemann, and only one of them is likeable (its Anna).

Dr. Tenma and Anna are more than loveable enough to root for, all in due to their strong moral resilience to the decrepit world around them. They don't interact with each other as much as you'd expect though, since most of the time they are caught up in their own separate storylines.

Johan, on the other hand, is perhaps my personal favorite anime villain. He gets progressively more and more terrifying as the show goes on. He is able to meticulously manipulate everyone around him to carry out his murders. His backstory is slowly revealed to us in the perfect manner such that we only ever slightly able to understand his motives and reasoning. Every step forward we get to understanding Johan, the light in the tunnel only moves backwards. You never know what he is planning on next, before it is too late.

There are plenty of other amazing side-characters as well, such as Grimmer and Lunge. Grimmer in particular is a fan favorite, but I think it's best to experience his arc blind.

Story:
The story of Monster is very complex, with many branching paths that converge together in the end. This can be hard to keep track of, but the show will repeat information plenty of times to make sure the viewer doesn't fall too far behind. The show features lots of disturbing subject matter, such as brainwashing, race violence, domestic abuse, and kidnapping, which are used to present powerful ethical questions and implications. There isn't much to discuss here without getting into spoilers. Just keep in mind that this is a slow burner that will reward your patience.

Overall:
Monster is an epic thriller that takes takes its time. It presents us with powerful ethical dilemmas that challenge out moral thinking. It has perhaps one of the greatest antagonists in anime history. I would strongly recommend this anime to everyone who loves crime stories and/or suspenseful thrillers.

JJK Season 2 is the MAPPA's latest season for their shounen giant. If you were a fan of the first season, you will love the this one. If the first season was not your style, I wouldn't recommend continuing, as this season is only going to bring much more of what made the first so popular. Since this is a new season, I will not be going into spoilers here.

Animation:
Once again, MAPPA knocks it out of the ball park with some of the best animated fights I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. Definitive eye porn. It really sucks to know that the workload ... and environment for these animators is unbearable. I hope they are able to be proud of the fantastic work they put together here.

Story:
Perhaps the biggest difference between this season and the last is story. Season 2 is where the show really starts to get into the meat and potatoes.

The first 5 episodes are dedicated to the Hidden Inventory mini-arc, and provides us some much needed backstory on Geto and Gojo's relationship. This is probably the slowest part of the season, but still very much needed.

The rest of the season is entirely focused on the Shibuya Incident arc, and this is where things really ramp up. This entire arc is essentially one huge fight scene, where all of our favorite Jujutsu sorcerers collide with Geto and his gang in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. The scale of this fight is MASSIVE, one of the largest I have ever seen in Shounen anime. The stakes are a lot higher here too, given that this entire fight is within a very densely populated area. If you are sensitive to death, I would actually advise against watching this, as a lot of people get caught up in these fights and do not make it. This season is a LOT darker than what I was expecting. I was honestly getting a little depressed at times watching the slaughter. To make it worse, every episode in this season ends on a cliff hanger. It actually gets annoying if you aren't able to binge watch it.

Overall though, the story was the biggest step-up this season had to offer, and it shows that JJK as a series has plenty more to bring to the table than just well animated fight scenes.

Characters:
There isn't too much to add here. If you loved the characters in season 1, you will love them here. There aren't that many new faces introduced, and most that are, are background characters at best. There is a new pair of sorcerers we get to meet, an older sister and a younger brother. They are a … interesting bunch, to say the least. Perhaps the biggest growth we see in character development is with Yuuji, who goes through some SHIT this season. We also get some much needed backstories, not only with Geto and Gojo (as mentioned before), but with Megumi and Nobara as well. One of my favorite moments in this entire season tho is when we finally get more bromance between Yuuji and Toudou.

Fights:
Its JJK, the fights are amazing, enough said. Especially in this season where the suspense is much greater than last time. Everyone is constantly at threat of death. The villains in this season always seem to have the upper edge, and our protagonists are only able to get by just barely, if at all. The hype when things do go well is INSANE, thankfully.

Overall:
JJK is an amazing follow-up to an already incredible shounen. Season 2 has cemented JJK's place as a shounen giant that will be remembered for a LONG time. Honestly, I enjoyed it just about the same as the first season.

Final Score:
96/100

Review: KONOSUBA - An Explosion on This Wonderful World! (KONOSUBA Megumin Spin-off)

KONOSUBA - An Explosion on This Wonderful World! (which I will be calling "The Megumin Show" from here on out) is a fantasy comedy anime made by studio Drive. The anime is a spinoff of the iconic comedy isekai KONOSUBA - God's Blessing on This Wonderful World, which follows the backstory of the shows most popular heroine, Megumin and her friend Yunyun. This is the first piece of KONOSUBA media we have gotten in a long time, but it doesn't entirely deliver on the hype.

Animation:
The animation is on par with the rest of ... KONOSUBA, albeit a little less expressive, but this might be due to the fact that the shenanigans that take place in this show are less extreme than that in the original.

Story:
The plot of this show is at its strongest in the first half, where we follow Megumin and her shenanigans studying magic at the Crimson Demon village. Here, we get a better look at her family, fellow classmates, and overall culture of the Crimson Demon village. This part of the show is akin to a slice-of-life comedy that I found rather relaxing and best watched while getting some rest. She adopts a stray black cat, which seems to have a strong connection to the Demon King. It is this plot point that connects all the mini-arcs in the show together, as Megumin and Yunyun are constantly pursued by disciples of the Demon King. At the end of this arc, Megumin finally unlocks her explosion magic and graduates from school. You'd think this would be a fitting conclusion to the show, but you realize you are only 5 episodes in and there are 7 remaining. These last episodes are split between 2 mini-arcs that only decline in quality, unfortunately.

The second arc follows the beginnings of Megumin's journey outside of the village, where she seeks work in the city of Arcanletia, the headquarters of the Axis Cult, Aqua's worshippers. However, during this time, the Axis Cult isn't nearly as powerful. Thinking she can something big out of it, she offers to help the Axis Cult spread their influence in humorous ways that foreshadow what we see of them in KONOSUBA season 2. Despite this though, we aren't introduced to anything new so this arc is just kinda alright.

The third and final arc is by far my least favorite. It follows Megumin and Yunyun's first arrival into the town of Axel, where they seek to join and adventurer guild. This entire arc takes 3 episodes and it still feels incredibly stretched and pointless. Half of the time is spent going "looK itS KAzUmA ANd AQua In thE CoRnEr", instead of giving us actual substance. There a final fight with a dark god that has some funny moments, but its not nearly enough to save this arc. It really drags the whole show down, and they should have followed the KONOSUBA tradition of having 10 episodes a season, not 12.

Characters:
Megumin and Yunyun are Megumin and Yunyun. Exactly as we know them. One of the biggest issues with the Megumin Show is that the side characters do not do enough to fill in the void that is left when you remove the other 3 of the KONOSUBA main cast. What made Aqua, Kazuma, Darkness, and Megumin such great characters was their dynamic between each other. Here, that's all gone. There are a lot of characters that are given a bit of screen time, but ultimately don't go anywhere. Bukkorori is a funny weirdo who is obsessed with the village's fortune teller. They hint at him getting character development, but it ultimately goes nowhere. There are a slew of other characters, like Zesta and Cecily, who are only even there to be even weirder.

Comedy:
The Megumin Show definitely has comedy, but its a lot tamer than the original KONOSUBA. It still has most of that original KONOSUBA flavor of slapstick and situational comedy.

Overall:
I may have roasted this show a lot in this review, but The Megumin Show is still a decent comedy that is worth checking out if you are a big KONOSUBA fan

Hell's Paradise is a dark shounen anime produced by MAPPA, and is about group of convicted Ninja, paired with a Samurai to guard each of them, that are sent to a mysterious island rumored to contain a special elixir that can make a person immortal. Whichever pair that returns the elixir earns the Ninja a pardon. Hell's Paradise is considered to be park of the "Dark-Trio", a trio of dark shounen manga that began publishing in Shounen Jump around the exact same time in 2017. The other two are Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man. All 3 of them were eventually adapted into anime form under ... MAPPA. Interestingly, Hell's Paradise was the first of these to start publishing, but was the last to become an anime. Throughout this review, I'll be comparing Hell's Paradise to the other two of the "Dark-Trio".

Animation:
The animation is as you would expect from MAPPA. Very good. No cheap tactics, and barely any CGI in this season. No complaints here. Bless those animators' souls tho.

Story:
The story of Hell's Paradise is quite basic, and is primarily used just to set up fights. The show is much more character-driven than story-driven. The plot is serviceable enough to keep things moving and deliver entertaining fights. Don't expect anything ground-breaking, though. Story-wise, it doesn't match up with Chainsaw Man, but its comparable to JJK in terms of quality (at least, from what I have seen).

Characters:
Like the story, the characters here were serviceable. I found myself enjoying the two main leads the most, Gabimaru and Sagiri. Both of them have their own emotions that they are constantly battling throughout the show. Gabimaru had abandoned his upbringings as a human killing machine to live a peaceful live with his wife (until he was found and thrown into this mess). During the show, he constantly has the fight to maintain his humanity, and not fall back into killing-machine-mode. Sagiri, a female samurai, is constantly up against the tough expectations put against her, and her own lack of confidence. Unfortunately, her character rarely has any time to shine in this season, which sucks since she was my favorite. The others were decent as well, put those two are the stand-outs for sure. Even with a good cast though, I find this cast to be the weakest out of the three. I found JJK and Chainsaw Man to have much more engaging, relatable, and emotional characters.

Fights:
The fights in Hell's Paradise, are, unfortunately the weakest of the 3. Not saying they're bad, they're certainly very fun, but the choreography feels stale and unoriginal. I think that biggest draw-back is due to our cast not having any abilities that make them stand out fighting-wise. Furthermore, Tao, this show's magic system, wasn't even introduced until the last 1/3 of the show. The villains very defintely the most entertaining parts of the fights. On this island, our heroes are forced to fight these genderfluid demigods with crazy shape-shifting abilities. They are extremely powerful, so our heroes are at constant threat.

Overall:
Hell's Paradise is a good dark shounen, but it isn't as good as its counterparts. This first season does seem like mostly set-up though, and I am still excited for next season. That cliff-hanger at the end got me hyped.

Demon Slayer is back with another mini-arc, this one being the shortest one yet, at just 11 episodes. In this season, Tanjiro and Nezuko are sent to the hidden Swordsmith village and unite with Mist hashira Tokitou and Love hashira Kanroji, and once again find themselves defending from a looming threat.

Animation: Animation wise, Ufotable never fails to deliver. Its stellar all around. If you have ever watched Demon Slayer before, you already know.

Story: The story here is just as bare bones as the other 2 mini-arcs we have gotten. Tanjiro and friends need to defend the innocent civilians of a village against two very ... powerful demons, whom I won't spoil. We all watch Demon Slayer for the fights and characters, so I don't expect anyone to be disappointed by this.

Characters: Where this Demon Slayer unfortunately falls flat and disappoints me is its lack of characterization. We are introduced to two new hashira and Genya, a fellow Demon Slayer who has been hinted at and hyped up throughout the show. I was extremely excited about this season, since all 3 of these characters seemed much more interesting than Tengen from last season, who I didn't care for too much. The only character I saw get any real attention and depth was Tokitou, who I was the least interested in. He gets a ton of screen time, probably more than the other two combined, and is characterized entirely through flashbacks. Demon Slayer has become way too reliant on flashbacks to characterize its characters. Gone are the days of seeing prolonged interactions between the characters of the show. All we get now is a few exchanged lines, and fighting. It didn't help that I ended up finding Tokitou to be kinda boring. Genya, despite the hype surrounding him, gets very little depth explored in this season. He does kick some serious ass kicking, but we don't connect to him too much on an emotional level despite maybe a handful of flashbacks, which have become way too repetitive and boring. Kanroji, the Love hashira who I, and the rest of the fandom, were most excited the see gets so little screen time its pitiful. She only gets one flashback of characterization and thats about it. Well, she also gets screen-time in the first episode with Tanjiro, but their interactions are quite basic and not much is explored with the chemistry between the two (and any other two characters for that matter). She also barely gets to fight, since she disappears on episode 2 and only shows up again near the end of the show like supergirl saving the day. One aspect of the characterization I did like was with Nezuko, who gets a good amount of attention this season. She is always fighting now, and has a big emotional twist moment near the very end. Unfortunately though, the moment didn't feel to me as earned as it could have been, since Nezuko isn't given a climatic moment during the fight to hype it up. This is only a minor gripe though, since the whole moment was very emotionally touching, albeit kinda nonsensical at first.

Fights: They were great, as expected from Demon Slayer at this point. I am also really glad I didn't spend a 100 hours watching Tanjiro and friends slowly behead the demons like last season. The demons they fought this time around were really unique and had interesting abilities that shook things up a bit, keeping the fights fresh.

Overall: Demon Slayer Swordsmith Village arc continues what Demon Slayer does best, but the characterization this season was disappointingly lackluster considering the cast. Due to this disappointment, the Swordsmith Village arc is perhaps my least favorite arc so far, but it still manages to squeeze a high score out of me, due to stellar animation, awesome fight sequences, at a really touching finale.

One day, scrolling through MAL, I noticed a peculiarity, a well-rated seasonal Isekai, going by the name of The Eminence in Shadow. My interest was peaked. When I looked it up online, however, most anime critics referred to the show as a so-bad-its-good kind of anime. This didn't match up with its MAL score of 8.34, so I decided to give the show of watch to see what its all about. I was not prepared for what I was about to witness.

The Eminence in Shadow is a satire of the Isekai subgenre. Our protagonist, Cid Kagenou, is a ridiculously over-powered chuniibyou, who restarts life in ... a new world after being killed by our loved Truck-kun. Cid has a desire to be the personification of the hidden hero trope, a hero who disappears into the shadows and only reappears at the most opportune time to save the day. To assist him, he creates a secret organization of called "Shadow Gardern", comprising of him and his massive harem of very powerful women. However, to convince all of these girls to join him, Cid fabricated a fake narrative of a hidden evil organization known as the Cult of Diablos (CoD) who are trying to control the world. The irony of this is that the CoD actually exist, and Cid is completely unaware the entire show.

To enjoy The Eminence In Shadow, you have to be an Isekai enjoyer. The show's purpose is to satirize Isekai. Thus, if you don't understand all of the Isekai tropes and cliches, most of this show is going to go completely over your head, as it did mine. I am not an Isekai fan. The only Isekai I have enjoyed has been Re:Zero, Konosuba, and Mushuko Tensei. These anime are all universally praised and enjoyed by almost everyone, however, and are not considered "trash isekai", as this show is meant to satirize.

What bugged me the most about this show was the fights. The fights have no stakes whatsoever. Our gang of absurdly overpowered protagonists win without a sweat. As a shounen/seinen junkie, I need epic and rigorous fights. Having our MC win everytime without a hint of struggle is really boring. If you are a trash isekai fan, however, you might find more appeal, since the satire of these fights is going to make much more sense to you. I had to search things up to make sense of all the tropes the show was making fun of. Can't complain about the animation, though.

The characters are as you would expect; pretty poorly written (although this may be on purpose). I did find it clever how they pulled off Cid Kagenou being completely unaware of everything around him, yet somehow he still gets the job done. I also noticed that Cid never directly advances the plot, since thats usually done by the side characters and deuteragonists. I found this pretty funny.

Overall, if you are an Isekai fan, check this out. Its very popular amongst the Isekai fandom and you may find much more enjoyment than I did. The jokes will probably make more sense to you. If you are not an Isekai fan, or if you do not watch generic Isekai all the time, you may wanna skip this one. The satire the show presents will most likely go straight over your head