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Review might contain small spoilers/references. Watched this with the Italian sub. Also never played the game this is based on, so my review judges what I've seen animated and not if it follows the source material.

This show is a mixed bag in my opinion. First, if you dislike fully CGI anime (such as Ajin) this might not be for you. All the characters are done in CGI, it's not bad, but not really good either. Sometimes the movement, especially during walking or talking feels and looks weird. Backgrounds and action scenes are nicely made, car chases care also animated nicely in CGI.

Plot is ... where this show is a bit bad, contains some cliches like Chinese character is bad guy planning to take over the world. Worse is that characters seem to die /sacrifice themselves in impossible to get out from situations but just spring out alive a few episodes later without any explanation as to how they did it. There are a few other inconsistencies all over the show like a scene at an airport where it's full of paramilitary trying to capture someone, yet the someone just walks out in drives off in a taxi.
Characters start to pop out of nowhere in different locations towards the end or enter different locations without any problems, although half an episode is used in the beginning just to make passports, these are largely forgotten later. There are other inconsistencies, and the "world mechanics" are constantly updated towards the end just to fit the plot somehow.

There are some references/similarities to Evangelion, a bit of talk about the soul and human nature towards the end, evolution of mankind, but nothing very deep or that brings some novelty. For example, Darling in the Franxx's commentary about immortality spanning an episode is much better philosophically than what it is presented here.

Characters have little development, they are just there to fit certain purposes. There is no fan service, there is just one female character anyway. The attraction between the leads seems artificial, there is nothing to make you root for them, feel happy or sad in certain moments.

To sum it up, this show tries to be a global conspiracy (similar to Dan Brown's novels or Jason Bourne), involving different nationalities, locations around the world, viewed from a Japanese perspective and using Buddhist references like soul rather than Christian ones. Where it fails is because it relies on ass pulls to move the plot forward (similar to the Rin Tohsaka knife scene in the 2006 Fate, but on a larger scale here) and tries to use the global scene as a backdrop rather than being Japan centric, but the use of it doesnt make any sense especially that towards the end. Action scenes are cool and engaging at ties, car chases, shooting, all done in CGI and with nice sound.

Story: 6
Art: 7
Sound: 7
Character: 6
Enjoyment: 7

TOTAL: 6.6 = 7

Minor spoilers might follow. Picked this up to relax a bit after work and I was not wrong to do so despite its score and some punishing reviews. For example Corpse Party: Tortured Souls edges on the 7 and is much more dumber in my opinion and has much more gore for the sake of gore.

The story looks like a typical cheap Hollywood 90s horror movie, a bunch of students resurrect some zombies who happen to be cute and powerful and get in trouble for it. Would have liked a bit of suspense as to whom gets killed when but its no so, killings ... are brutal and come rather quickly. However the physics involved is quite good, done in CGI, blood is realistic also most of the times.
Beware that if you are not comfortable with splattered brains, limbs being torn off of animal cruelty this is not for you.

Not so fan service oriented here, you have full nudity in detail, no need to wonder whats under for the main character.

Problem with this anime lies in the last part. There's a switch to comedic which I quite didnt enjoy because it unbalances the tone set for the series and the plot twist is a bit Shiki like or Devilman Crybaby like, who is the real evil but done in a superficial way.

Voice acting is good on the Japanese version, there are a lot of famous actors in this. Art is good for the most part, the CGI is also good and character movements are fluid and do not look weird.

I do recommend watching this, not in any rush, just when there's spare time to get the head a bit clear of other anime. Best enjoyed during Halloween, for me it came early this year I guess.

Will contain very minor spoilers.

I started this show with high hopes and watched it every week although I rarely watch an airing show (hate cliffhangers) and was one of the guys that liked episode 1. Thought that it was necessary to move the show forward.

On all levels this has been a disappointment.

Characters act in ways that are not believable, they try to kill each other one moment, the next they're best friends because of plot, plot which get forgotten in the end. Not anything psychological here.

The art and hence the fights are boring. I have the feeling the art quality drops ... from episode 6, in episode 8 or 9 the facial features are not there, the characters look like cardboard cutouts. The fights are boring and some not even animated or not there to be considered a fight. Apart from one in the early episodes (where the dialogue consists mainly of Japanese profanity courtesy of Haruka Yamazaki). The backgrounds are generic with no special art to them.

The plot is confusing, they set a goal, the goal is never expanded upon nor does it have a conclusion. The apocalypse theme doesn't have either, seems to be forgotten by the end of the show. Characters behave erratically sometimes violent, sometimes non violent, mostly to shock the viewer rather than drive the plot forward.

Sound is boring, nothing special during the boring fights either. Voice actresses are mostly newbies, also a good indication of the low budget for this one. As a side note, one of the administrators in episode 10 I think is voiced by Aoi Yuuki, a great performance and an interesting voice change from her part - I guess it's a promotional role to showcase the voice.

And if the show is disturbing for you, if the animal violence in episode one is disturbing for you then the implied male rape scene in the end credits is the cherry on the rotten cake MGS is.

Was really disappointing, was not really expecting Madoka here, or Yuuki Yuna, but at least I was expecting this to be on par with Ikusei Keikaku. Not the case here unfortunately.

Symphogear S1 had bad art, bad plot, but characters were okish in their beliefs and the way they acted. MGS I think is overrated at 6.6 on Mal, 5 something would be fitting. I choose a 4, there was nothing memorable for me here but I will forever remember the sperm ending credits scene. Why?

I started this anime with high hopes judging by other reviews here and on other sites, ended up needing a mental floss in the end with a good anime.

This will contain spoilers as in my opinion, one can't show the flaws of the series without going into spoiler territory. Contains one spoiler for Madoka also and Yuuki Yuna.

What I liked about the show: The soundtrack by Yuki Kajiura and the voice acting.

What I didn't like about the show: Everything else.

The art is 1990s style, guess it worked in 2004, this can be overlooked today on old shows however.

What I didn't ... like is the plot and characters. The show starts on a mystery note, then evolves into a comedy with mystery accents, then transforms into something dark involving character death and ends in a comedy like nothing happened while also ridiculing and forgetting the character sacrifices (or craziness) in the end, like nothing happened. Forget the yanderes tried to kill us (will go back to this one), now we're friends again and laughing.

The characters, most of them are walking tropes, yanderes, tsunderes, you name it. Apart from the main character almost nobody acts out of their trope. They kill because their tropes require it.

I am glad to see that today many anime have evolved from this. Characters are much more likable in many series. In this one it's just appalling to see characters acting funny, then being transformed into killer psychos, then returning to their own selves.

As for the plot, you cant ignore everything that happened in the series and reset it. Maybe its that I don't like characters being brought back to life and I enjoy series like Akame ga Kill, Fate, Madoka where the characters stay dead. I still remember that I thought (with fear) Mami would be brought back to life in Madoka, but it never happened.

I think it's a lack of respect to the characters and to the viewer to invert the story via a WTF moment in the last episode. Not that Evangelion did not have a WTF moment in the end, not that Madoka Rebellion did not have one, or even Yuuki Yuna (multiple of them in fact), but dead characters stay dead and are remembered for their sacrifice (Gin Minowa - in Yuuki Yuna).

From comedy to drama and back to comedy wtf (as you won't be laughing like the characters in the end). I recommend to skip this one.

Non spoiler review ahead. Going to be a short one. Started this series with high hopes and ended with dropping the second season (my first ever dropped series so far).

The art is amazing and a pleasure to watch especially in HD on a large screen, so is the sound, very fitting with the scenes at times. Some comedic aspects are nice, the voice acting (japanese) is amazing and of high quality and professionalism.

Apart from this, the story is confusing, many things are not explained, the plot is non existent. I tried to understand the series, I mean I did understand symbolism in Madoka, ... Evangelion, Yuuki Yuna, plots, themes, references etc, but here it just does not make sense. Why zombies appear, why do they slash them why are they in that part of the city, nothing is explained. All of this is flashed on the screen in flashy and high quality art. Maybe I didn't read the manga, but I don't want to read it to understand a series. Action scenes, again there are a few but end quickly, there is no suspense to them either.

The characters are drawn up nicely, surrounded by great art but that's it, they are very empty to the core. Not even the plot twist at the end is convincing, they are trying to attract sympathy in one episode for a character just because she is a bit more human as a girlfriend (wait, maybe otaku girlfriend, a woman smiling and talking nicely to you does not make it a girlfriend).

I was very disappointing with this series, I expected something else, some sort of plot, at least to make sense near the end. Too bad the art/music and voice acting is wasted.

I wanted to compare with Tales of Zestiria, not that spectacular plot but a lot of eye-candy during battles and static moments, but in the end it would be disrespectful for Tales of Zestiria.

In the Blood Blocade Battlefront it's the eye candy that is bitter for your mind and sweet for the eyes. But how the mind hurts after this one....

This review does not contain spoilers but it will cover all the stories that is Washio Sumi arc, Yuuki Yuna Hero arc and sequel.

Many have compared it to Madoka, but I think this is more a Bokurano and Neon Genesis Evangelion combination(was lucky to decide to see the original Evangelion prior to YuYu). Basically we have chosen girls to become magical girls instead of persons piloting the mechas. The enemies are the Vertex (lets call them The Vertex, could be Vertices also, not a native English speaker). The Vertex are similar to the Angels in Evangelion.

The characters and interactions are complex up to ... a point, however not as complex as Evangelion's characters. in YuYu everything revolves around friendship , dreams for the future, family, but mostly friendship. I guess in our real world we would be lucky to have at least a friend like Washio, Yuna, Fu...
The friendship depicted is strong they almost never argue or have qualms with eachother, that's a bit off and takes from the complexity of the characters. The best explored theme is the Hero theme and this is done nicely and this show in total has made me review what means to be a Hero. Take Superman for example, he is a hero, but why because he fights bad guys, always winning and protecting everyone. Yuna and the others are different, sacrifice, friendship is required to be a Hero and a motive of course like your life, family, etc. Of course here comes the best part - Shinju-sama, the God, the system, the ones that manage the system.

The system is never quite fully explained. What exactly is Shinju-sama, what are The Vertex, what is the world they live in, not fully explained yet the brilliance is there. It's a system, and the author decides to break the 4th wall with the system, it's you the viewer who decides if it's evil or not. By the end of the show you will have not an answer from the author but your own opinion. The Shinju-sama system is brilliant however, and you can see it at work in real life in corrupt states or developed nations alike. Of course if your political system provides all, you will fight for it ti protect what you have, if your system is corrupt but manipulates so yo see it as the provider of wealth (communism for example) you will be forced/manipulated to fight against it. If by any chance you rebel, the system will change enough so that you feel a change but you still are oppressed though you have no idea. Shinju-sama is the single best character of the series! The Vertex, not quite fully explained, but again you can choose what they are and what they represent.
The ending of the series is great and fitting, but requires previous knowledge of the YuYu novels and you need to watch it at least 2 times, once preferably after reading what you've seen as it's hard to understand...but so is Madoka and Evangelion.
What could have been done better is the interaction between our Heros and the system, takes a long time for them to figure what the relationship with it is. But of course, it's a society based on God, can you challenge and question God? Well, a certain character does in a monologue, and he's 5 years old, our heroes should do too!

Apart from this, Shinju-sama is inspired from Shinto beliefs, there are Shinto shrines everywhere in the show. There is something regarding the maiden sacrifice that bugs me though, I have not found any evidence of this happening in Japan apart from "building pillars" - human sacrifices to make certain buildings last. I've seen this very concept in Shikabane Hime, so I'm still investigating the roots of this idea.

The art is great, especially during the fight scenes, CGI and animation is blended nicely. The rest of the show in the normal world slice of life, animation is ok, some details are very nice to look at also. There are certain fan service moments, but not all the transformation scenes include such scenes for example, some episodes skip the transformation scenes altogether.

Sound is my biggest complain for this series, YuYu S1 suffers from it a lot, S2 and Washio have corrected this however. Most annoying are the seyuus, they seem to not have experience with the battle scenes, their cries really overpower the beautiful music in the background, something that does not happen with Kana Hanazawa's character. Also crying in this show is very abundant to the point it gets annoying in the loud pitch that they use.

All in all, it's a great show to watch, it's not for younger audiences because of the general theme , some blood, some drama, but it's a good show to reset your views on what means to be a Hero, what's worth fighting for (total opposite to the Nihilism present in Madoka or depression present in Evengelion).

As long as your world provides everything, you might just fight for it although the leaders have no good intentions for you. YuYu manages to raise a moral dilemma without even being labeled as psychological. Definitely an anime that is underrated, but is a must watch if you generally like Evangelion type stories and some themes that make you think about stuff that surrounds us.

This anime is a great watch, for me it brought up a lot of feels from first love and how it affects your life to preparation for exams and graduation.
Art is great and tends to improve towards the last episodes. Character design is also great and characters act naturally when faced with different life choices .

However where the story lacks, is the time frame chosen for it. Had it been chosen at the end of hischool with graduation and university admission, it would have been more believable. Also it's a story of first love however it should have stopped before the end credits scene. ... The end credits scene should not have been added there, it makes the story less believable. Apart from this, it would have been a 10 in my book, factoring the above it's a 9.

Definitely recommended to watch for the feels depicted, you will definitely find a piece of yourself in this anime.

Non spoiler review

This movie has been an emotional ride for me and I greatly enjoyed it. The art and sound are good but where it really shines is in the story telling and character development.

The characters look believable when faced with the different situations. Plot is good and tragic, also who would believe that roughly 3 years later after the movie was screened, tragedy would strike Japan for real.
The portrayal of the earthquake, its aftermath and the subsequent aftershocks is very well done. You kind of feel the terror of the aftershocks, never knowing when they will strike, if the building you are ... in will collapse. Earthquakes really shake your life, one of the most despicable forces of nature and in this movie it really shakes the lives of the main characters to the core.

This is a movie that will make you tear up and change your views about family and brothers/sisters. There is a lot of realism presented from the search and recovery units of the JDF to the places portrayed in Tokyo.
My biggest complaint about this movie is the length of time it takes the main characters to journey from Odaiba to Setagaya (approx. 15km walk on google maps – let’s say 20km with detours). This distance can be covered in a day once you’ve crossed Tokyo Bay. The other complaint is Mari as a character, although nicely developed, she seems forced, I don’t think there are people that would actually take on helping 2 kids when faced in a crisis situation of their own. If there really are such people, it’s great, the world needs more like that. If put in such a situation, I don’t know what I would do actually. This movie is good at making you question yourself and also in showing how fragile our society is (lack of phone coverage for example in a crisis, how you lose contact with your loved ones, lack of food, shelter, medicines, etc).

Final thoughts, movie is great and underrated in my opinion. Have your paper towels handy for the last episodes, you might need them, ending is quite powerful. Let’s hope that tragedies like in this anime stay in the anime and do not happen in Japan or anywhere else in the world. Japan, more than any other country in the world, knows how to pick-up after a natural tragedy (they had so many so far), life is never the same after that however, the Japanese are good in understanding and showing this through this anime.

Generally spoiler free review, might contain a reference or two about certain events.

This is a discussion on both arcs, Future and Despair, they are meant to be watched together. I have not played any of the games, and don’t plan to since I’ve given up gaming a long time ago, therefore I’m not going to make any parallels.

Both shows are dark, while Despair progressively becomes darker with each episode, Future is dark from the very first minute of the first episode. The art style is similar, pink blood in some scenes, red blood in others, you get used to the pink blood and ... becomes as gory as the red version. Character designs are nice and unique, sometimes confusing as to which is which especially in the Despair arc. There are a lot of characters so that’s why.
The future arc is interesting and ties really well with the despair arc especially in the end, it does have a few plot twists which are interesting, from a psychological point of view it does tackle large organizations and corruption within them if you want.

The despair arc is what I enjoyed the most, especially with the symbolism presented in there. If you watch closely and analyze some Junko Enoshima tactics, you will start to see them in real life (TV brainwashing, manipulating groups, idols that people listen to, etc). For me Junko Enoshima has become one of the best villains In anime, and if you look closely there is a bit of Junko Enoishima close to you every day. I also liked very much how the best guys suffer the most, it usually happens in our societies, they don’t get impaled, hacked of course, but they do get cast aside by the bad guys. I like the symbolism behind despair, it’s brilliant, you can extrapolate it into real life (weather it’s a villainous political entity that wins or a certain event that happens that turns the world upside down, like war, etc). The ending of the Future arc is interesting, makes you think a bit about hope (good), despair (evil) and what is best. Sadly as in real life there is no good over evil or evil vs good winners here, we all kind of loose in some way.
Music is fitting for this kind of show and does set the atmosphere for certain scenes. The art is interesting, quite dark in the Future arc, does give you the horror feel.

Plot is well developed for the Despair arc, I really loved it, the Future arc’s plot however left me with a bitter taste, it was a bit predictable towards the end, and I didn’t quite like part of the ending. I won’t be going into details so as not to spoil it, but I think the decision to bring back a certain character was driven by fear of fans reactions. I did like the character a lot but I would have liked the show more if I would have been depressed by the ending though.

Junko Enoshima-chan, is the best villain. Now go despair and watch the series!

Non spoiler review
I started watching this show expecting an abstract psychological ride and in the end it did deliver that, one could even add wild to abstract psychological. The story is very interesting, however you need to watch with an open mind and very carefully to get to understand the symbolism. Probably in the end you will understand most about the characters personalities and their motives, but the symbolism will leave you wandering.

Symbolism is pretty heavy in this show, refers to Japanese culture and literature and also to Greek literature so it is going to be hard to grasp. This is my main issue ... with this show, it does require a certain literary culture to grasp from the beginning so it’s not for everyone. Worry not though, there are plenty websites offering good analysis on the symbolism.

The characters are nicely developed throughout the show, you will not understand everything about them in the beginning, it does require to watch the whole show to find all about them, most of your questions will be answered in the end. The characters are interesting and have tragic stories dating back to childhood, stories which are nicely portrayed (through symbolism or not). In fact if I want to recommend this movie especially to parents that have a small child or are thinking to conceive one, they might learn how to be a better parent, why love is very important to a small child, how fragile they are and how their parents play such a big role in their development as adults. This is one of the parts that I liked a lot about the show.

The second one was the philosophical discussion about fate, red strings of fate that connects people and how these shape our lives. In the end you will be left wondering if certain things you’ve done throughout your life are related to fate and what would have happened if you had chosen a different path when presented with the possibility (in fact you chose one particular path because it was fate who pushed you in the certain direction).
Sound is pretty great in some scenes, I really enjoyed it, animation quality is good, sometimes you have static images, sometimes the character designs are not consistent throughout the series but the symbolism frames are very well done and detailed (you actually need to scroll back or pause to take a good look to understand).

So why did I rate this as an 8 since I liked the show? Because of the heavy symbolism and the big pack of literature that you need to have read to understand this show. Also there are a lot of metaphors in the show, I never liked metaphors even in classic literature that I studied in high school because it’s open to interpretation, one person can see X, the other can see Y and both are plausible. It’s interesting when you see it in anime though.