The ultimate payoff for watching through the first season of Queen's Blade is that you're rewarded with this. The animation is even better, the fights begin to matter and have real stakes, the story and characters stand to become legitimately gripping at times. It is in every way an improvement from the previous season.
Queen's Blade truly starts at this point. From here on to the end, it is all about the tournament arc. You get to see all manner of exciting fights in so many cool and different arenas which can either elevate the tension or express awe-inspiring artistry. Each character in the arena brings
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Jul 12, 2024
Queen's Blade: Rurou no Senshi
(Anime)
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Queen's Blade could certainly qualify for being a guilty pleasure anime. It knows what you're here for and it delivers on that front in virtually every episode. Nearly everything about Queen's Blade's premise is to facilitate placing the characters in compromising positions and sexualizing them for the audience's consumption, much to the degree that many outsiders looking in could easily write this off as just pure fanservice.
And yes, while those elements never change, it is possible to look beyond it at times and be able to observe some genuinely good bits of music, animation, and fight scenes. I won't make the claim that any one ... 
May 16, 2024
Corpse Party is by far one of the most earnest attempts I've seen at conveying horror for anime. It's graphic nature is sure to crawl under one's skin and even make you jump during some of the more high-tension moments. The premise is a relatively standard ghost haunting story which is executed rather well by leaning into some of the typical tropes that are usually seen in the genre.
Maybe the short number of episodes could count as a negative, however I still quite enjoyed the show in it's entirety and felt that no part of it was particularly rushed or bloated to take me out ... 
Oct 7, 2023
8th MS Team certainly stands as being one of my favorites of the Gundam franchise that I consider to be a great companion to War in the Pocket. It has the maturity to analyze the nature of conflict in a very sobering way, but didn't set out to emotionally wreck me - which is something that I can appreciate. No, instead this series stands to highlight a very hopeful message and really sell it in the context of the story, which has a very tragic narrative backdrop.
The animation is stellar. Fighting seems very grounded and realistic, by nature of the mechs being on the ground ... 
Aug 5, 2023
Vinland Saga Season 2
(Anime)
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Vinland Saga season 2 manages to adequately stand alongside the previous season as being something incredibly memorable for its philosophical ponderings which ardently force the protagonist to reckon with problems he cannot solve with mere violence. In fact, this story arc serves to meaningfully change the characters we have gotten to know up till now and see them adapt to their growth.
This show offers something mature and intellectually stimulating in ways which probe you to reflect on your own values as a person. The actual animation is incredibly top-notch from it's contemporaries. The fight scenes are both fluid and extremely graphic at times. The set ... 
Apr 28, 2023
Rarely do I end up feeling so strongly about something I've watched, but War in the Pocket manages to really endear you to the characters while also pummeling into you the sheer nihilistic agony that is the reality of armed conflict and how pointless the sacrifices made for it truly are in a harrowing look at individuals faced with situations in which they simply cannot win against due to forces larger than them at play.
This series will demand it's attention and force you to become introspective about some rather sensitive subjects happening in the real world which most would feel comfortable enough to not ever ... 
Feb 21, 2023
Amagami SS
(Anime)
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Probably the most interesting thing about this show is that instead of it being a by-the-books harem anime, it adopts what is referred to as the "omnibus" format, basically meaning that each love interest has an entire arc that ends with them getting together with the main lead - but when the arc ends - the timeline 'resets' and the story and all the character development is brought back to where it is at the start of episode one.
It's maybe a little complicated to wrap your head around at first, but I think it's sort of a genius idea in the sense where all pairings ... 
Feb 21, 2023
Love Plus: Kanojo no Kako
(Manga)
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This manga isn't groundbreaking by any means, but is a pleasant accessory to those who have played the video-game that this is based off of and especially to those who are a fan of Rinko's character. This manga is a prequel and goes over events that only only discussed in passing during the actual game, so it is rather interesting to see Rinko take the main stage for once and be able to see things through her perspective and how she grows over the years.
For people who aren't already a fan of the Love Plus series, this isn't going to be the thing to win ... 
Jan 23, 2023
Chainsaw Man
(Anime)
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Chainsaw Man steals the show of the season it released in and in many ways is well-deserved of the hype it has gotten. It makes me happy to know that the industry is in good hands with studios taking a chance on new creators and fresh ideas, because this anime flips the script in ways that put current anime tropes and conceptions to shame.
The animation is phenomenal, feeling so realistic at times to make me think a certain shot is rotoscoped. And at other points, it dives into artsy abstraction with the opening and *multiple* endings which become thematic to each episode. The characters are ... 
Dec 19, 2022
Fire Punch
(Manga)
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It's with instances like this where I begin to pass the threshold of manga just being entertainment and start seeing that it can also sometimes be art.
Though, it's important to note that there are many valid reasons why someone would likely bounce off reading this manga. It's hyper-violent, confusing at times, and overwhelmingly nihilistic for a story. This in some ways makes me wonder if this manga can be considered the modern Devilman or Berserk - not just in the sense of hopelessness it portrays, but in it's often reflective and existential ponderings on the meaning people have and how the world perceives them. Fire Punch ... |
