Back to AnimeIsAMistake7's Profile AnimeIsAMistake7's Profile

I love Orb, probably even more than it deserves to be loved. I have not seen an anime like this in a long time, and if you are looking for an action packed fantasy setting I'll have to suggest you watch the most recent isekais instead. But please don't take that in a sort of pretentious 'this anime is for cultured viewers' way. Orb is a show about the indomitable human spirit, about the unstoppable march of progress, about the nature of dogma and belief and devotion. It describes these things with certain indelible quality of hype that I only tend to find in anime, ... be it the buildup of a tense fight between an overpowered main character and the unkillable villain, or the final match of a sports anime where everything is on the line.

Orb manages to continuously build up that hype and deliver us into the next chapter without fail, as you quickly find out this is a story that spans a century; you will see the characters you like live, grow old if lucky, and ultimately die. The tension, the nerve wracking hype filled anticipation, is in watching their struggle and bearing witness to their death throes as they rage rage against the dying of the light. I have rarely seen the true nature of resolve or hope or optimism laid bare as it is in this anime. The stakes are hardly as dire as they are in other works, the world will not end if this scientific theory is stalled. There are no super powers, no super human abilities, nothing that can give any character an edge over the others unless you are a believer of fate. When someone raises a sword to buy time for another to escape, or resists torture and interrogation, there is nothing to soften these blows, and no actual chance of salvation for themselves. They are destroyed, but alas, "man can be destroyed, but never defeated". just when you think the light has died, the fire has gone out, because of their sacrifices, a narrow and fragile path to the future is opened.

You know the end from the beginning, unless you are a flat earther that denies basic realities about the universe, you must know at some point the scientific theories for which they are persecuted become the new paradigm. Some may wonder what worth is there in a show that tells a fictional tale in a historical setting without actually being historically accurate. It's because Orb is not meant to be a biography. It is a documentary on human behavior in the same way that Shakespeare or Hemingway or any other author is. So many characters in Orb struggled and suffered to make that one moment possible where the day would be saved, trusting that there would be a successor to complete the mission. I love it so much because it is such a great depiction of science, of history, of humanity in general. We stand on the shoulders of giants. If we appear to have achieved any measure of greatness today, its because nameless, thankless, multitudes worked tirelessly, often in vain, often in error, to lay the foundation for the future. There is value even in a wrong answer, there is merit even in failure, there is hope even in defeat. This show was truly beautiful, it moved me many times, left me speechless, had me at wits end, filled me with wonder, astonishment, and despair. But ultimately I come away with it believing in the miraculous splendor of the world, despite its many malices. The people who made this anime really cooked and I hope they feel proud of what they accomplished.

Bartender is an anime that for me I might consider a guilty pleasure. but that is not to say that it is something to feel guilty about watching. Bartender is simply a quaint little anime, offering itself as an escape from the constant humdrum of life and allowing the cast of characters and the audience alike to come into a hole in the wall bar that seems like it belongs in some fantasy setting, cast off their stress, and come out feeling ready to face the world once again. It is absolutely a feel good anime, that somehow sucks me in every time I watch ... it and I suspect it might have that effect on others too. short episodic stories lazily play out on screen, told by a soft spoken narrator, almost as if we were hearing the story from a bartender themselves. It is a slow anime, meant to be savored and enjoyed at a leisurely pace.

I can't say for certain but this anime is probably the best embodiment of the famous Japanese Hospitality that they hold in such high regards. I didn't even care about alcohol when I watched this show the first time, it was just so uniquely captivating in a way no other anime I had watched had managed to do. It manages to emote so many different feelings in such a short amount of time. Its brevity almost makes it feel fragile, as if speaking above a whisper while watching it might shatter the illusion and it might never return. I don't think I would ever call it one of the best anime of all time, but it was undoubtedly an anime worth the time I spent watching.

the only bad thing about this anime is that it will ruin your expectations about what bars and bartenders are actually like; the last one i went to the bartender all but spat at me and said go f-- yourself when i asked to see a drink menu. I really wish there were more Iyashikei anime like this. Peak Cinema.

If you spent anywhere near as much time as I did trying to find where this thing even is online, I doubt you will actually be disappointed, because it means you are very familiar with Handshakers and W'z and therefore know not to expect any amount of quality or entertainment whatsoever from the epic multiverse collab bridging the two. I am a tryhard completionist so I simply couldn't rest until I had suffered through it to its miserable conclusion and this was the final nail that was missing preventing me from closing the lid on this franchise. I hope the person who told me to ... watch this experiences bad things. if you have any sanity, do not bother.

I first heard about flag more than a decade ago at the time of writing this and I put it on my plan to watch and summarily forgot about it. While part of me regrets that decision, another part wonders if I would have truly appreciated it as much as I did when I watched it now. Flag is definitely not an anime for everyone, even beyond the 'just give it a chance' mantra. I feel like this anime was very much made for specific type of people and if you are not them then it is unlikely that you will enjoy Flag as much ... as I have. I will try to explain what about Flag made me fall in love with it and what audiences are probably most likely to enjoy it in the hopes that my review will cut straight to the heart of the matter in helping you decide whether you should watch it or not. If you are a fan of history, war journalism, documentaries, photography, milsims, geopolitics, and found footage, you might enjoy Flag.

History has been one of my main intrigues throughout life, and by the time I was in college I almost considered majoring in it as I was taking several classes each semester despite being a premed. As such, I had spent countless hours glued to a screen watching documentaries or reading books written by historians or witnesses to historical events. the creators of Flag must also have done this because the direction of scenes and content of the animation is a perfect homage to the documentaries made by war journalists and historians. I wouldn't call it an imitation or anything with a negative connotation because the level of detail and obvious extent they went to in order to create this anime shows just how thoroughly they researched and understood the subject matter of their story. The country, conflict, peoples, and stakes may have been entirely original and fictitious but it is genuinely mind blowing how much Flag, an anime made in 2006, mirrors documentaries about the 2003 invasion of Iraq made in the 2010s and 2020s. It shows how well they understood the medium, how well they understood conflict, and how well they understood the nature of those who capture and preserve these stories to immortalize them as history.

Flag's most unique aspect is their bold decision to create what is almost like a 'found footage' film, with our only perspective coming from the photos, recordings, and stock footage edited together by our narrator and 2nd main character, Keiichi Akagi. If you can fully place yourself within the suspension of disbelief, pretend that this is not an anime, this is not a tv show, but this is a real documentary being played out before you, then Flag is really something incredible. As an amateur photographer it unexplainably caused me to smile whenever I would recognize various settings or camera functions being toggled as if I were watching this unfold through the viewfinder on my camera. How creative or original an idea is does not necessarily mean it is a good one, and maybe that's the case for Flag given how obscure it is, but I don't think in this case it is a discredit to the creators. They made anime feel like such a 1:1 recreation of real life that people didn't like it or people got bored of it because of the same reasons they get bored or dislike the 'live action' counterparts of real historical documentaries. When people think of a military themed game, most will probably think of something fast paced and void of realism like call of duty, whereas people who want a true milsim experience and play things like arma or others know that for every 30 seconds of combat there were 30 minutes of prepwork that went into making it possible. Obviously this is the case for real conflict too. Engagements are often short and over in a matter of minutes, your individual perspective is almost never fully aware of the whole picture, there is an element of powerlessness as you cannot realistically do anything to alter whether or not the ordinance coming your way hits you, and that for most of the time people are sitting around training or relaxing or planning or carrying out obscene amounts of maintenance hours to make the most simplest things youd take for granted function.

Flag, despite technically being a mecha anime, is nothing like most other works in this genre. I wouldn't call other mecha 'pro war', but the way things like gundam or macross depict war as being bad is an entirely different language than Flag. Like, 'genocide is wrong' but btw here are these cool mechs with guns. Flag is unmistakably anti war but in a far more profound way, like it could only be more impactful if this wasnt anime and they were real people suffering on the screen. But in a way they are, because Flag so heavily mirrors reality that I'm not sure if its a case of art copying life or vice versa. 'Peacekeeping force' having to carry out policing duties in a dictatorship nation on the verge of sectarian religious violence and civil war, searching for a specific item under dubious intelligence which is supposed to justify the entire military action in the first place? Where have I heard this one before... But seriously, I am semi-positive that large parts of this anime are a reference to Iraq, with influences from other conflicts sprinkled in when it makes sense as well. Because this is a serious subject matter, there is little in the way of war porn and big mech fan service. The first scene with them being operational is haunting, it was exactly how I've heard drone operators describe the guilt they feel safely erasing a truck full of people with the squeeze of a button from behind a monitor. Flag does its best to make you care for the plight of its fictional people, as constrained by the medium as it is, and I think it did it effectively enough where you feel emotion when someone holds back tears from the camera during a farewell or as a terminally ill woman stoically faces her mortality despite the state of the world around her. They had to walk a thin tightrope between focusing on the larger picture so we the viewer can understand and with focusing on the characters to make us care, and though not everyone is super deep I think if you have empathy you can care about someone you've known for a brief 13 episodes without needing their whole life story. Also to Flag's credit, this work doesn't just shake its fist and say 'war = bad' as if it is some novel concept. They are trying to grapple with the fact that to end war requires battle, to prevent violence requires force. It is something the UN has struggled with, when real life genocides were happening in Rwanda and in the Balkans and the international community took too long to react because they could not bridge the gap between believing that war is bad and acting on the belief that war is bad.

Flag was a real treat to watch, and I am glad I rediscovered this hidden gem at a point in my life where I could uncork a story and let it breathe before finishing it. No distractions, no impatient waiting for a fight, no hype-withdrawal to make me lose interest. It is a slow burn but doesn't leave you with some spectacular firework finale, because it was the aroma it created throughout the entire duration that you were meant to enjoy. If you are a nerd belonging to any of the groups of people I described earlier, there is a good chance you will enjoy Flag too

Am I the only one that watched this and thought 'god is dead and we killed him'? This isn't some brave subversive artistic philosophical anime about the nature of romance, this is an insane delusion. 'Beauty' is just about the farthest word from what I would use to describe it. Anime like these are why we don't deserve good things.

If you've ever watched to catch a predator or any police or journalist interview/interrogation with a pedophile, you will notice how the predators' explanations and justifications sound very similar to the themes and points in this show. In fact, this show was really just ... a pedophile's depraved justifications made manifest. With every subsequent episode it only got worse. They try to argue why an underage person is 'actually really mature for their age', handwave away all the glaringly obvious signs this person is immature, and try their hardest to convince fellow adults to agree with them because what they crave most (after underage children of course) is the approval of other people, as if to convince themselves that they aren't disgusting for viewing and acting towards children the way they do.

Without spoiling anything here are some of the things Koushirou (28 years old btw) does in this anime:
-go through a box of tissues rent-a-gf-style because he found his little sister's bra in the laundry and took a whiff
-visibly reacts to the sight of and sometimes attempts to touch young children be they at a playground or in public
-becomes seething with possessive rage and grips his sister's arm so hard it hurts her because he saw her talking to another boy her age
-says stuff like 'i cant be expected to control myself around her' in regards to his sister

This list goes on, but one of those things I found funny was how mothers were always instinctively sus around this guy, pulling their kids away from them because they clearly were getting pedo vibes from him. People sometimes get this strange sense around people like psycopaths or predators as like some sort of evolutionary 6th sense instinct, that part of their brain has detected something is up with this guy and to be on guard. Well evidently many people who watched this show did not pick it up. Most of the discussion I see seems to be about how this show dared to question whether or not incest relationships are moral and stuff like that, but that is an entire different can of worms. You know what is a lot less morally grey than incest? An adult man sharing a bed with a girl who barely has hit puberty. This is pedophile propaganda.

It does not matter if they are brother or sister, if they haven't seen each other for a decade, it doesn't matter if she likes him back. No human being's first reaction to seeing a girl who looks like she is straight outta middle school should be to go 'wow, what a babe. love at first sight' and spend the next 13 episodes in some disgusting cat and mouse romance with them.

Do not waste your time with this show, do not give it the time of day, and most of all do not fall for anything this anime has to say.

This show literally made my skin crawl and I feel like the FBI should investigate anyone who thought this deserved anything resembling a high score.

Berserk of Gluttony is an anime that deserves to never be spoken of or discussed in any context. It is a complete nothing-burger of a show, that has left me feeling angry at myself for having wasted all this time watching a show that was so mid I can't even pick a specific point of contention to be angry about.

Fate Graphite has as much personality as the graphite in a mechanical pencil. Actually, there is more nuance and complexity to a mechanical pencil, as they can come in different sizes or brands which unique uses. Roxy Whateverhernameis is a painfully generic blonde female waifubait. ... I cannot even muster up enough adjectives to describe her really, because none of the characters have any depth to them beyond just a single word like "nice" or "edgy" ect. Can't forget the necessary 4000 year old loli that existed during those bleak several episodes we would have otherwise been forced to sit through without having a female character to grace us with thigh shots or chest gazes. The antagonists of this show are beyond one dimensional, like there would have to be some sort of dimension below the 1st dimension to describe these goons. A horizontal line has more depth than these guys. Literally evil for no reason other than the fact that they enjoy to kidnap and shoot orphan children, as one does.

Sorry if this counts as a spoiler, but this entire show can be summarized in a sentence. Well, technically it can be described in a single word, and that word is mid. But the plot is basically "guy gets op skill, gets op sword, and defeats every enemy". That is typical for this type of low effort fantasy, but the worst part of this show is that they try to hype it up far more than it ever deserves, acting like christ is weeping for the protagonist who has to bear the weight of so much sin. It thinks it is some sort of edgy masterpiece but never once did anything to convince me that the main character was anything other than a pathetic wimpy simp who cowers in fear at the slightest touch of a woman. If you were to film my live reaction to this show, it would appear as if I have slipped into a coma and died. In fact, I think that would have been preferable than to have spent however many hours subjecting myself to this slop.

This anime has nothing going for it, it has no themes or message worth telling, it has no meaning nor value. There isn't enough substance in any aspect of this anime to discuss. It probably took more effort to write this review than it took to write this show. It isn't even worth hate-watching or making a "so bad its good" list because its just boring.

If you had to quantify how mid this show is, you would quickly find yourself entering the Domain of E

Rating: 1^E-15/10

As i sit here attempting to craft a review for one of the worst cop shows I've ever had the misfortune of watching, I am tempted to abandon the endeavor entirely and never again think of this anime. This show makes me want to retroactively subtract 1 rating point from every anime I've seen as it singlehandedly has diminished the entire medium that is Japanese animation and can be used as supporting evidence to the argument "anime was a mistake".

The vast majority of the effort and investment into this series was likely spent on a collegiate language experts to create an entire fictional elvish ... language, as well as consultations with Tolkein and the writers of Miami Vice. They also threw in a bunch of impressively original but entirely out of place music that never once matched the setting or events on screen. Im talling Arabic-prayer-singing-echoing-through-the-streets-of-2000s-Baghdad-during-a-drug-bust-on-the-island-of-Los-Angeles-2-levels of bad. I don't know who was cooking with this show but clearly they should not be let back in the kitchen again.

They set up plot lines and world building that could very well be decent and interesting but then do not follow it through at all. There's some sort of shadow wizard money gang manipulating things in the background at first but then we abandon this thread to iniect classic tsundere loli elf girl tropes and body swap shenanigans because the showrunners evidently thought fans would not have any interest in the story if it was not dripping with constant fanservice of child-like girls defacating in a litter box. The show is entirely predictable as well, you know right away that the loli elf will continue to be kidnapped and captured and put into these predicaments where the scene is pregnant with the threat of physical assault on her body.

There is a weird and very jarring use of cgi in some instances and in other scenes there's literally no movement for several minutes as they take every step possible to save on having to animate any movement or speech whatsoever. That could have been forgiven if what the show delivered was in any shape or form worthwhile. Of the friends I watched it with most were too appalled and only half were able to stick it out to the miserable conclusion.

The vampire chick was a baddie and the fact that they wasted her presence is also another cardinal sin I will count against this show, she was clearly fixable and it was deplorable how readily the show takes something that could possibly be cool and self sabotage it into the ground.

On October 30th, in the year of our lord 1938, a radio-novella adapted from the writings of Englishman and author H.G. Wells was read aloud by radio narrator Orson Welles as part of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, and broadcasted around the country via the CBS Radio Network. The innovative and gripping story that gripped the attention of listeners and thrusted itself into the annals of history was in no way related to the story that is Byston Well Monogatari. That work of fiction, and indeed all works of fiction, can only dream of reaching the heights of storytelling and fantastical drama that Byston ... Well Monogatari so effortlessly achieved.

This is truly one of the anime of all time. If you are a connoisseur of anime of the isekai variety, then this is the feature for you. Our protagonist, Christopher "Chris" Chiaki, is truly the embodiment of the typical japanese everyman. Chris-chan, if you will, is the part of ourselves we wish to see in the world around us. He is you, he is me, he is all of us. So it is through his eyes, our eyes, that we are abruptly and cruelly taken from our everyday life and catapulted into a world unfamiliar and alien to us, clearly a metaphor for our emergence from the womb and birthing into a reality beyond our control and far from our understanding.

Like Colombus disembarking from his vessel upon a new world, virgin soil, Christopher "Chris" Chiaki sets about acquainting himself to his new surroundings, and finds that he is in the middle of a conflict older than time or space itself. Though the name of this particular war matters not, we know its wretched face all the same; it is the blackness, the evil and vile tar that poisons the hearts of man, tethered to us no matter how far we run nor how many limbs we sever in a vain attempt to escape it. Just as Caine struck Able, just as Sisyphus toiled day after day, the rock that is our suffering follows us through the ages, and this is the real story of Byston Well Monogatari.

Just like the Hebrews of old, enslaved by pharaohs who crack the whip from atop their Pterodactylus antiquus, Christopher finds himself summoned to play the role of a savior, a task he neither wished nor asked for. He is to be their Moses and lead them from slavery to a better land. But the despotic forces of tyranny gather at every turn, conspiring to halt his progress. Thus, Christopher is forced to go from Moses to Mujahedeen, as his fight for freedom in this holiest of holy wars forces him to grapple with the violence lurking dormant within his own heart. Frank Herbert wishes he could have created a story as compelling as this one, but alas we are left with Byston Well Monogatari.

As Christopher battles man and beast alike, the creeping realization that he himself may be a beast far worse than any foe he has yet vanquished dawns on him, and the thin line between savior and enslaver erodes even further. He is no longer Christopher "Chris" Chiaki, he is Garzey's Wing. The tribesmen of Byston Well have long awaited a prophetic figure to lead them to paradise, and as Garzey Wing, Chris-chan becomes this voice from the outer world, playing the role of hero in this fantasy despite his real body remaining tethered in the mundane and tedious existence that is adolescent boyhood in Japan. Powerless though he may be here, Chris-chan gains omnipotence in the world of Byston Well, an obviously symbolic act referencing the dominance of the mind over the body. Chris-chan thinks, therefore he is more powerful. The famous mural of the divine gift on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, often mistakenly believed to be a representation of God creating Man and imparting on him the gift of creation, is actually a reference to Chris-chan's awakening, realizing he is the God of his own world, and that the power of mind is in fact greater than matter.

After having taken in the water of life, Christopher Usul Chris Muad'Dib Chiaki continues to deliver crippling blow after blow to the ruinous powers of King Fungun and his generals, fully embracing his role and the burden he must carry in order to lead his people to paradise. The once holy warrior and savior has become the very thing he swore to destroy. It forces us, the audience, to reckon with the challenges of bringing peace, freedom, justice, and security to our his empire. "Your new empire?" it makes us ask. Would Chris-chan be made to kill even us, if we were to side against him and be labeled as an enemy? The dealing of absolute ultimatums such as this is what defines the most enigmatic fights for freedom, where the once celebrated hero merely becomes the next oppressor, and clearly the writers of Byston Well Monogatari have a complex and intimate understanding of the intricacies of the human mind and heart so as to allude to all of this, and more, within such a short and uncharacteristically poignant animation.

Sound Design 4/10

Animation: 3/10

This anime belongs in a museum

This show has made me feel a lot of different things, and I can't say that I am likely to ever rewatch it. Golden Time would at times feel like its name implies, and at others it was more akin to a goddamn trainwreck. That being said, a lot of the reasons I struggled with watching this show was because of how real the writing felt. It captured some of the best and some of the worst feelings that come with being in a relationship, and the one we were audience to was far from any semblance of something you can call healthy. Its remarkable ... how easily we can wound eachother, especially those we choose to share our most intimate secrets and vulnerabilities with, and unfortunately Golden Time did an excellent job at giving us a front row seat to such events. Sometimes done out of ego or pride that we know what is best for our partner, sometimes done out of guilt or self loathing, and sometimes done out of sheer frustration and anger at the other, there truly is no shortage of motives nor methods for people to fight.

The main pair in this anime are not a healthy couple, at least for the first half of the show. Banri is an easy-going and borderline unremarkable average college student but with a debilitating neurological condition brought on as the result of an injury, and runs from this looming threat to his very existence through nearly the entire show, often through deceit and keeping those he cares about at arms length. Kouko is a beautiful golden haired rich girl who has deep-seeded insecurities and anxieties which drive her to be obsessive, controlling, and generally check off every red flag that should make a potential suitor run for his life.

But soon the unlikely duo hit it off and down the spiral begins. People often praise the first half of the show and say the second half was where it fell off, but I think it was the opposite. It was often played up for comedy, but the first half is full of signs this relationship is in an extremely precarious position. Anyone that has ever been in a toxic relationship will recognize what it means when a partner spends all their waking moments with you, when you check your phone after a short amount of time and have hundreds of missed messages from the same person, or when you find yourself making up lies to excuse yourself for an hour just to hang out with a friend they dont want you to associate with. The rationalizations you tell to yourself to explain why you put up with their behavior, and the way you yourself begin to excuse your own problematic actions since you feel as if you are owed some leniency for 'putting up with' them despite at the very beginning of all of this you promised that being with them will never feel like 'putting up with' them and their problems...

All these problems are very obviously present in the first half of the anime, and I would have written the show off as a loss had nothing changed. However, it often takes hitting rock bottom for people to change their ways or at least begin an earnest attempt to, and that turning point does come. Each of them attempts to restrain their worst aspects and to improve themselves for the other's sake, but more importantly for their own as well. And just like any recovering drinker or addict, there will be bad days where it seems like all the trials and efforts have been for naught. Perhaps it isnt the best message to encourage the "i can fix her" mindset, but in this anime it appears to have prevailed. The only problem that remains... is everything else.

Of the various reasons I've seen people cite to explain why this show is bad and not worth the watch, the amnesia/ghost banri plotline seems to be the most reoccurring. To briefly describe it, a ghost of his former self prior to his memory loss follows him around and attempts to sabotage his current life and relationship as he is still in love with a childhood friend. I'm not necessarily opposed to this plotline, as it could be a personification of our memories the past and the lingering regrets we carry with us. When are we supposed to stop loving someone, when are we expected to have erased those previous feelings like deleting photos from a camera roll, and how do we disentangle complicated feelings and separate them from the things we feel in the present? All of it is worthy of exploration, and this setup made for as decent place as any to try. Some balk at the idea of such a surreal sequence in an otherwise straight laced slice of life romcom. But such things have been successfully pulled off in the past, just think about those dreamlike sequences from Clannad after all. Clearly based on its reception, Golden Time was not a very successful example. The idea could have been promising, but they failed in its execution, along with the pacing and ultimately delivered a half baked product which only furthered the audience's frustration with the anime.

The pacing of the show in general left a bit to be desired. The most egregious parts though seem to be the beginning and the end, where the impact of what should be life changing events is ultimately rushed over far too quickly than it should have been. The enormous weight of what has happened isnt given enough time to really sink in. It would be like if a shounen villain kills the protagonist and everyone cries, only for him to come back 5 minutes later and defeat the villain. Instead of the moment reaching its full emotional potential, it just sort of seems like a cheap trick.

The final issue I think might be worth discussing is the issue of realism. I have seen many criticize this show as having characters that are too stupid or erratic and behaving in an unrealistic manner, and just as many saying that the show's characters are very realistic. Personally I enjoyed most of the side characters; their comedic relief and their struggles felt comforting, harkening back to the time when i was in the midst of my own golden college times. Perhaps most of this debate lies in people thinking they would not act the same in a situation, and that's fair. At the end of the day if a viewer can't distinguish the difference between a character doing something for no reason, and a character doing something because their motivations, doubts, guilt, anxieties, self loathing, depression, or a myriad of other factors drove them to, then it matters not how realistic they are. It is a matter of communication, of how effectively the author is able to portray and convey the subtleties and underlying ideas to an audience. No one should feel like they 'werent paying close enough attention' or 'they should have picked up on this or that' when they engage with a story which promised them entertainment.

What I think is the real underlying cause of the controversy is an undoubted failure on the part of the anime. It isn't enough for an anime to be realistic, it has to be able to captivate and engross you into the story. Golden Time had many interesting components which certainly could have made for a great story, yet they struggled somewhere along the way weaving them together in a way that makes fans unquestionably stick around for the ride. Despite all the criticism I throw around, I find myself at a loss as to what to suggest could have been done differently, what could have been done better, so as to bridge that gap between audience and author. Perhaps there was the best attempt possible to bring this story to life, but at the end of the day I can't fault them for trying, and I ultimately think my time was well spent watching it. Compared to many of the faceless seasonal highschool romcoms that come and go, Golden Time is not something that will be leaving my memory anytime soon, for better or for worse.

This show is either the best written dumpsterfire i've seen or a good idea prepared in the worst way possible. I think the only way to really know if you like it or not is to give it a shot yourself and see.

So a Buddhist, Priest, Shrine Maiden, and a Scientist walk into a bar... Despite this sounding like the setup for a bad joke, Ghost Hunt was an unexpected pleasure to watch. Fans of Mysteries, Detectives, Supernatural, or Horror will almost certainly find something from this anime to make it worth the watch.

Each character is an expert in their respective field, and they all happen to find themselves independently hired to solve the same case. They bicker and squabble yet there is an undeniable camaraderie they begin to develop, and the fact that all of them are sort of dysfunctional in their own way ... makes me all the more fond of them. They form a little cohort of ghost hunters capable of rivaling scooby doo, and their exploits bring them face to face with forces capable of unimaginable violence and cruelty, be they spirits from beyond the grave or the demons that lurk within the hearts of men. It almost reminds me of playing phasmaphobia with a bunch of friends.

The show is well paced and to the point, with 8 or 9 "cases" usually taking more than a single episode to solve. Yet despite this, there is time made to give the characters personality and also weave in clues to solve whatever mystery they are currently investigating. If you're the type that enjoys trying to solve a mystery before the detective character explains it, it is definitely possible with several of these cases. But that's not to say they are poorly written, rather, the author rewards the clever reader, and though your theories may not always be on the mark, there's a certain satisfaction that can be gained from being given the chance to try.

At the end of the day I would describe this as a comfort anime. That it took me a decade of anime-watching to even stumble onto its name shows how popular it is. I think giving it an 8 is perhaps a bit generous, but when I look back to the past two days where I completely binged straight through it, the only real complaint I have after it is all said and done is that it doesn't have more episodes.