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Dark, twisted, with an atmosphere like no other, my only wish is that it had better animation to go with all the good.



This is just a minor spoiler warning, there’s nothing major but I do talk about the show and certain stories, consider yourself warned.

Horror is notoriously hard to get right with anime, the medium itself is what does it, the style of anime makes horror hard because it all looks, for lack of a better word, goofy, hence why when anime does horror, it’s normally psychological horror (Think ‘The Promised Neverland’…………when it was good in S1), rather than physical horror. So in steps Junji ... Ito Maniac, a compilation of stories from well known mangka Junji Ito (I know shocker) now I can’t comment on the manga as I haven’t read it, so I can’t comment on how good an adaption or how well it adopts his artstyle, which even I know is legendary when it comes to horror.

There lies the show's greatest weakness in my humble opinion, whilst it’s nowhere near as bad as typical horror anime have it, it’s still not perfect, in some parts looks rushed and others looks lazy, the mouths for example don’t always match the words being said. Other parts look lazy, or well, lacking detail, like it doesn’t look horrible, just lacking details.

However where this shines is with basically everything else, the use of light and dark is good, excellent even, in creating suspense, the sound design also helps this, it’s got me creeped out which is what I want from horror like this is really good stuff, this is creepy, horrifying and just all in all what I want from something that says HORROR this does it all so well, which is brilliant, I love the fact that it’s making me uncomfortable, I love the fact it’s creeping me out, if I watch horror that’s what I Want, so THANK YOU.

One thing of note is there’s some that are decidedly less horror than others, the balloon story, FLIPPING TERRIFYING, like that was horrific, I was sitting here just like…….like……….like……….WORDS ARE HARD, it was so good and terrifying, however others are much less scary, the study one, with the room in a room in a room in a room in a room (I think I got that right xD) whilst annoying, and I’d absolutely hate life if I had to deal with someone like Soichi, it’s not scary perse, just annoying, it was honestly annoying to watch as well.

The point of some being much scarier is a trouble the series has, the tone shifts are violent at times, from one story about a creepy tunnel, a classic in Japanese horror, to another about an ice cream van, the tunnel story, ‘The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel’ was horrific, most the way through, starting off on a light bead, it got horrific, to the ice cream story, ‘Ice Cream Bus’ which starts off in such a strange way, and it’s so much lighter than everything else, whilst it ended up pretty horrific, the start led to such a juxtaposition it just gave a shocking case of whiplash. Just swapping these two would’ve been much better with less whiplash, this I understand is an off product of having 20 stories to tell in only 12 episodes, but it’s something where it could be a bit better even by swapping orders and moving stuff around, there’s no real overarching story barring a couple mentions of something else in others.

Something I’d like to note is the show’s use of colours, beyond light and dark, the entire show’s colour pallet is washed out, which is obviously by design, this in part is to alleviate regular anime’s trouble with making horror shows, as the colour pallet is a big reason why it struggles, but this, in my opinion also adds an extra layer of the horror factor, by keeping things dull it doesn’t give you a break in tone, then when it wants something to stand out it can brighten it up, and it really adds to the design of the show.
I also really do love a washed out colour pallet, one of my favourite shows for art design is Mars Red which does a similar thing in keeping things dulled down, so do note this point could very well be a point of preference, but I do think here especially it adds to the show quite a bit.

The sound in this is at points, almost too good for its own good, now I know that may sound odd, like how can something be too good, well this may just be a me thing once more, but in the story ‘Long Hair in the Attic’ there’s a section where the main girl in it, who sadly died (not overly surprising in a horror show tho, let’s be honest) was grinding her teeth, and well, this sound was honestly the absolute worst thing ever, it entered my spinal cords I stg, it was not a nice noise, which honestly, props to the sound people for pulling it off, as much as I hated it, it was brilliant, tho I still hated it xD whilst the balloon story was just the absolute most horrific, for just noise, that’s with the worst, like jeezus.

I will add, this show doesn’t try to break the stereotype of anime just not being able to animate cars, the cares in this are absolutely woeful, they just are 3D things plopped in a 2D world they stick out like a sore thumb in every scene they’re in and don’t look any good at all honestly, I know cars aren’t the easiest thing to animate, but how do anime in 2023 still have trouble with this?

CGI is something this show can’t do at all, which is sad because the general poor animation is something I can overlook, it’s something that doesn’t take me completely out of the show, but when the CGI comes on, it’s rough, it’s really rough, the problem being, unsurprisingly, 3D on a 2D background, I do have hope for CGI in anime in the future and I do honestly think it’s the next step for the medium, but it needs to be done properly, which it sadly isn’t here.

To rank the stories we were told, best to worst, all in my opinion of course



Hanging Balloon
Tomie . Photo
Long Hair in the Attic
The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel
Layers of Terror
Headless Sculptures
Library Vision
Alley
Tomb Town
The Thing that Drifted Ashore
Intruder
Whispering Woman
Four x Four Walls
Unendurable Labyrinth
Mold
The Bully
The Sandmans Lair
The Strange Hikizuri Siblings
Ice Cream Bus
Soichi’s Beloved Pet


In Conclusion, the weaknesses are pretty big, I can’t lie, however it’s more than made up for it with its strengths, I would absolutely recommend this to any anime fan who likes horror, now would it be good to a Junji Ito megafan? That’s a different question and one I’m not in a position to answer, as a horror show this is very good, I just can’t comment on how good an adaption it is.

It’s a solid horror show, I’ll quite happily give it an 7.5 out of 10.

Chainsawman, the perfect case study of how untempered hype can really harm a series for those not on the train.


I’ve kept this as clear as spoilers as I could, however this is a spoiler warning, I do talk about plot points, whilst I try not to go into depth about arcs or major spoilers, there will be spoilers of plot points and beads, else it’d not make any sense whatsoever, so consider this your official spoiler warning so read at your own risk if you’re trying to avoid spoilers, there is a small summary of points right at the end for those who just want ... basic basic basic info, I’ll also have a TL;DR down there.
I’ve tried to keep this as fair to the show as possible, whilst also sharing my genuine criticisms and what I dislike about it, at the end of the day I will be honing in on the negatives more, but that’s down to me wanting to explain my issues properly, I’m not mindlessly bashing the show, but I just want to be as fair as I can be.
One last note, this is a flipping essay, so if you don’t want to read it I won’t blame you, but I thank anyone who takes the time to read it.

Ahhhh, Chainsawman, a series that needs no introduction I’m sure, as it’s all anyone has talked about all flipping year. Now, I know my title has immediately rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and some of those people, it won’t matter what I say, they will hate me, hate this review and call me stupid, but alas, tis the way of the internet, and this review, ain’t for them tbh.

Let’s start by saying, this isn’t a bad show, but it’s not a great show, and when you’re told over and over………and over……….and over……..and over……..and over…….and over………and-...ya know what, you get the point, that it’s the best thing ever, it’s going to be the best thing ever, it’s going to be your new favourite show, it’s all this and when it’s not, it stings just that bit more, because of how much you’ve been told it’ll be amazing, when it’s not all that, it feels worse, it’s a feeling I’m sure everyone can attest to, whether it’s a friend hyping something, the internet hyping something, or what have you, it’s a feeling we’ve all gone through, anime, movies, TV shows, games, we all get it.

But hype trains, something we really should talk about, because Chainsawman is a series where I know for a fact a lot of people have complained about how hyped it was to how it delivered, yes, for everyone who complains there’s likely 2-4 others who think it’s deserving of the hype train, but that aside, why is it that this train felt so much harder than any other hype train I can think of? Both anime and game related, and the only reasoning in my head is most of the time it’s tempered, for games it’s because of how often hype trains fail to deliver, need I mention No Man’s Sky or Cyberpunk, both insanely hyped and weren’t it (tho both have gotten better with updates) but even those 2 hype trains were nothing on Chainsawman’s, and I think this may very well be anime’s first real “oh wait a second'' moment for hype trains, because I really can’t think of anything (at least new) that has garnered this much hype, sure a new season of something may get a massive train, but that won’t disappoint troves of people, as and let’s use an intime example, the new Bleach season, I’ve not watched a second of Bleach, no matter the hype, as I’ve not watched it, I don’t care, so it’s not as big.

But let’s stop talking about hype trains as at this point we all get the point, let’s talk about the anime, and what causes it to be a letdown, there’s a few reasons, first and foremost is the characters, which is another part of the show that was unreasonably hyped beforehand, and like……not unironically, or like our lovable idiots from Konosuba where the whole joke is how horrible they all are as people, these characters were all just hyped beyond belief.

Let’s start with Denji, the main character, our protag, lies more than a few problems, but one thing I really want to touch on is how down-bad he is, now a lot of the humor of the show is brought on by this, but at various points it’s either too much, or feels not in character, especially the whole kiss and such with Himeno, and on that, we absolutely DID NOT need a scene of her vomiting into his mouth, and boy oh boy was I glad that shit was censored, which some people actually complained about jeez. But back to the character in hand, Denji, the down bad nature of him really hurts the show at times, because like many darker shows, or even games, the Fallout franchise would be a good link here too, CSM uses humor to lighten things up, and the juxtaposition of this comedic thing in a show that’s pitch black is also an interesting thing to look at, however the humor being, more often than not “lul, Denji down bad luuuuulllll” really hurts it, FMA(B) has a similar problem with Ed’s (lack of) height, yes it’s fine having a running gag, in fact when done well it can be utterly hilarious, but not when it’s done constantly. As it is here (and in FAM[B]) now it may well be attempting to do the “fail so many times it circles back to being funny” but there’s a big reason that only works as one off gags, imagine an entire show where that’s the joke (that’s rhetorical, because Family Guy does that and it’s crap) but that’s, sadly, what Denji feels like, a character just there to “be down bad” and then whenever it gets a little too dark and a little too serious they hit the “Denji is down bad button” which is really sad because he does have moments of true character, like when he helps Power get her cat back, or how he saves the people whilst also tricking the devil that he doesn’t really care about saving them, which makes it all the more frustrating that he’s got those moments of true character growth, development and just, humanisation, but then 50% of the time he’s just used as the comic relief button.

Now that is not at all to say that comic relief characters are bad, because how many brilliant ones out there are there? I’m sure we’re all thinking of 5, 10 in our heads right now, it also doesn’t mean that a comic relief main doesn’t work, it does, but in a comedy series, think KonoSuba, Highschool DxD or Gintama, it works there cause it’s trying to be stupid, trying to be funny, CSM is too dark and serious to have the comic relief be attached to the literal main character.

The final episode depresses me even more with Denji overall, cause good lord his growth from the training with Kishibi was sick, like, also unexpectedly smart, this is the kind of thing that’s good in battles, a seemingly lost situation being won due to brians, it was honestly brilliant from Denji and I really enjoyed the growth, and the fact he earned his growth, unlike other shows/movies (particularly Western ones) where the growth just sorta………happens, with no work needed, so full marks to CSM for actually doing that.

For this next character I’m completely rewriting this section, because, whilst I felt what I had written made sense, with the new knowledge we had I felt it could be worded better, and in a fairer way to the anime (so don’t no one say I’m just hating cause I ain’t, I want this to be as fair as possible).
Kobeni, Kobeni Kobeni Kobeni, talk about the worst introduction any character has gotten ever, she was completely insufferable, I hated her, I wanted her to die, she pissed me off almost as much as Malty from Shield Hero (SO A FREAKING LOT). It takes effort to cry more than Deku does, but Kobeni somehow did it, now I have to give props to the Voice Actress cause that couldn’t have been easy but god daymn I wanted her to stfu, worse again is she was making the entire situation worse, to the point she had to be knocked out by Himeno just to stop making it worse, then fast-forward to Episode 9 GOD DAMN SHE WAS SICK, like WHERE TF WAS THIS AGAINST THE ETERNITY DEVIL KOBENI??? Honestly the author absolutely did her dirty with her introduction, made her so hateable and just one of the worst characters, she has a long, long, long, long road to recovery, but she’s at least taken the first step, the big key now will be consistency, if her awesome mode it just random, I think she’ll be the absolute worst character in CSM, but if it happens under specific circumstances and it’s consistent, she’ll be up there with the best, but it needs to be consistent, think Zenitsu from Demon Slayer, when he’s so scared he falls unconscious, he’s FRIGGIN AWESOME, but when he’s awake, he’s a sniveling mess, sure he may be annoying at times, but it’s okay because he’s consistent, so the main goal for Kobeni will be to be consistent, if she does that, she’ll be a good character, if not…………..not so much.

I wasn’t originally going to talk about this character, as I thought, like many, they were a non event, but now I need to talk about Himeno, what a nothing character, she wasn’t even the classic character surrounded by “death flags” like in a game or movie where the one going on about their family…..phoooo, they dying, but she came in, was a bit of a nothing burger for a while, threw up into Denji’s mouth, said she loves Aki, does something awesome, dies, all in the space of what? 3 episodes if you’re generous, and I wouldn’t mention it at all if not for the fact, just before she dies, she has that nice moment with Denji about helping each other’s love quests, Denji with Makima, Himeno with Aki, that was only put there to force the viewer to form a connection and it is the lowest branch of low branches.
I can honestly sum up Himeno’s character in a sentence “A shoehorned character who has a sweet moment with Denji to form a cheap connection from the viewer, before being killed off” done, next.

The rest of the characters range from non-events to okay, none are challenging anywhere near my favourites overall, but there’s no other real bad ones, in my honest opinion.
Aki is prolly my favourite of the series, if not Makima (sorry to all the Power lovers, which includes my bestie xD) but overall it’s not got characters I instantly click with, want to protect, or just love, even Aki took 8 episodes before I was going “yeah, you, you’re my fave here” Makima was quicker, but not as strong, hence why I’m undecided on who I prefer.

On the rest of the characters, the introduction of the other devil/fiend members of Special Division 4 was poor, rule 1 of writing, show don’t tell, we just had Kishibe rattling off who they were and what they did to two randos just off screen then it showed who they were and what they were doing, this is far from the worst I’ve ever seen, with some just absolutely telling you exactly who they are, what powers they have and such without even showing them at all, so I can give it props for at least showing us, but it would’ve been a lot more fun, and a lot better introduction if they just popped into the battle and let them show us, none of the exposition, just them being awesome, one of Denji or Power, likely Denji as he’s usually the stupider of the two, as well as being newer to the taskforce, ask “hey who are you” and let them introduce themselves, heck the Angel devil literally did this BUT ONLY AFTER WE WERE ALREADY TOLD WHY TF DID YOU TELL US???? The only time telling even remotely works is when there’s just way too many new characters to introduce thus making showing unviable, think class 1B in My Hero, some were shown, others were told as suddenly trying to show about 15 new characters just isn’t viable, but here it was 4, Shark, Violence, Spider, Angel, done SHOW US, YOU LITERALLY TOLD US THEN SHOWED IT ANYWAY SO DON’T TELL US, LET THEM INTRODUCE THEMSELVES IT’S SO MUCH BETTER THAN JUST AN OLD DUDE RATTLING OFF NAMES AND ABILITIES TO TWO NO NAME RANDOS OFF SCREEN.

One last note for my experience with the characters, whilst I don’t think any are particularly stand outs to this point of time, I do really like the growth, especially what I’d call the main trio, Denji, Power and Aki, seeing them become closer, and the end credits of episode 12 where they’re kinda like a weird wacky family, I really like, that aspect of it was really nice and I did like it, and should this continue it’ll be fun to see how much more they grow as characters, and perhaps one of them can actually live up to the hype bestowed on this show.

The fakeouts the show does for shock factor is already hurting it, it takes all stakes out of the show, yes we understand Makima, Denji and arguable Power are indispensable, and we don’t expect them to die, even in a show that prides itself on “anyone can die” in the form of Game of Thrones can’t kill certain characters, but this is ridiculous considering how early it is, because it’s just making us go “oh they’ll be fine” and when someone does actually die we won’t be able to accept it because they’re always fine. A fakeout of a character that doesn’t feel indispensable can be really good, Shield Hero did this with Filo before she felt indispensable, but it has to be a one off, because if you keep doing it over and over the plot armor wears on viewers.
As viewers we all understand that there’s going to be plot armor, we get it, you can’t just kill the main character, but the trick of good stories is to make you think that they can die, or at least lose something major if they’re not careful, I’d like to talk about MHA as an example here, Deku’s fighting style actively takes a toll on his own body, and it gets to a point where he’s out right told “if you do it again you won’t be able to fight or be a hero” his actions have caused this, that’s a removal of some form of plot armor, it raises the stakes, which WILL NEVER happen if “and then Denji died, BUT HE DIDN’T, then he died again BUT HE DIDN’T and he died again BUT HE DIDN’T” it’s frustrating to watch because the arc at eps 8/9 could be so so so so amazing, but because the stakes have been removed and I’m just left thinking “what bull will they pull to get em out of this”
In episode 10 they at least give us a reason why the fakeouts kept happening, with Kishibe saying “The boy is immortal, the fiend is basically immortal” but this is far too late to set up your rules, especially with something as big as this, however with that knowledge CSM enters a lose lose situation, without knowing the fakeouts are frustrating and annoying, with the knowledge they don’t work at all because we, know for sure that they won’t work, of the two I’d rather know and see a more creative solution to add stress, which we should get now that we know for sure Denji’s immortal and Power is basically immortal, which as I’ll state over and over, gives a lot of promise for a hypothetical second season.
Then it goes straight back to a fakeout death in episode 11, with Aki, right at the end, I mean come onnnnn, get a different thing to raise stakes, don’t just fake out, fake out, fake out, fake out, now Aki does feel slightly more disposable than any of Makima, Power and Denji, but he’s already lived through one fake out, more is just gonna continue taking any stakes and stress from every situation, you can’t just keep putting characters in positions where they should die, or fake out deaths and expect it to just fly on by with no problems, once, great, twice, okay fine, but three times? Four times? Five times? You’re pushing it, beyond the stopping point, way beyond, it’s just not interesting to watch characters “die BUT NOT” over and over and over, when I started writing this around episode 6, 7 I didn’t expect this to be the thing I talk about the most, but good lord it’s bad, just go 5 minutes without a fake out death ffs, there’s so many ways to convey stakes without needing to do this, I’ve already mentioned one from MHA, and I’m sure y'all can think of so many more, but I think I’ve said enough here.

The Animation and CGI vary, from some of the best I’ve seen anywhere, to really poor, now don’t get me wrong here, I’m not one of these elitists who’ll go “WAAH IT’S CGI THAT MEANS IT’S BAD WAAAAAHHHHH” in fact it’s quite the opposite, I think CGI is the next step for the medium, it’s just still in its early steps, but where I do have a problem is when it’s used lazily, it doesn’t have to be fantastic CGI, just don’t be lazy with it, the biggest case of this in CSM, and thankfully the only case of it, in episode 1 where Denji first changes into the Chainsaw and goes crazy killing all the zombies, you can follow along ahead of him because the ones that are moving properly, and the only ones in CGI and not still background images being jittered, are the ones that are going to be attacked, this wasn’t bad CGI by any means, in fact it was fantastic some of the best I’ve seen, just lazy. Outside of that the animation, and CGI, is absolutely fan fucking tastic, like people who know me, know I’m not one to really care about animation most the time, as long as it’s not disgustingly bad (cough Scarlet Nexus cough) I don’t care, and even when it’s good I’m not usually one to notice, but this is like, a whole nother level, like there’s good Animation, then there’s CSM, that’s the levels it’s bringing.

Now I don’t want people to think I dislike this show, there is stuff to like, one moment of complete awesomeness was the Curse devil that Aki evoked, like holy crap that shit was awesome, or later in the same scene, the Ghost thing Himeno evoked, also freaking awesome, really reminded me of the artstyle and animation from Madoka, which I absolutely loved.

The story itself isn’t bad either, it’s not the best I’ve ever seen, but it’s far from the worst, and from what a friend of mine keeps saying (who, as it’s my review, I will keep anonymous), maybe it’s good I haven’t seen Jujutsu Kaisen yet, as she keeps claiming that CSM is “A way worse JJK” now I can’t comment on the validity of that statement, but I feel I can agree with the ethos of it, in CSM’s story feels very much like a fairly generic Shounen story, which, for me, isn’t bad, but for a lot of people, some of who may be reading trying to decide to watch this or not, may want to keep in mind, especially if that means one is more likely to dislike it.

Some other parts of CSM to like include it’s action scenes, they are up there with My Hero and Demon Slayer for some of the best full stop, it’s honestly frustrating because of how good the action is that the bits in between are so poor in comparison, of course no show can be 100% action all the time, else it’d be boring, repetitive and have absolutely 0 story, but a show with such great action still needs something to support it, CSM finally starts adding this late on in the season, it takes a while, but it starts to happen around episodes 8/9 and gets further elaborated on in episode 11, the show was crying out for this sooner, because before this story with the gun devil’s minions, the weird lady who seems to be able to steal powers and her allies (Including Denji with a sword instead of a Chainsaw) it was very much moving from action scene to action scene, which was getting tiring, so I’m very glad to have some more meat, bringing the story behind which I was already slightly invested in, pushing it more to the front, rather than just sitting in the background, and I feel it’s set up beautifully for future story, whilst not being very good in the present season.

One more thing to note is Pochita, he is absolutely adorable, and I will get a plush of him, and it does say a lot that the series mascot is basically gone after the first episode barring flashbacks and Denji’s inner monologue and dreams. That is some excellent character design and promotion to have something that’s in the show so little, be so insanely popular.

This really feels like a show that’s just set up for, well, more show, I think I’d give this such a higher score if it had more episodes (or just less hype in general tbh) but god damn were there some mistakes, like they could’ve done so many small things differently to make it so much better without feeling like it needs more show, if it never gets that more show CSM will forever go down as “overhyped as shit then just shit” but if it gets it, it very well may live up to that hype just a bit, I don’t believe it will ever match the hype surrounding it, but I think it could be a solid 8 or so rated show from me because I can see so much potential, and maybe why some of the hype exists, but it’s really not all that.

I’d like to, just before my conclusion, talk about hype one last time, because I genuinely believe without the immense amount of hype, this review doesn’t exist, the conversations I’ve had with my friend (the one who linked it to JJK) about this show’s flaws and issues don’t happen, I genuinely think that if it wasn’t CSM but Eminence in Shadow, which is a show from this season, with similar types of plot points (not as many fakeouts tho, with there only really being 1 at the point of publishing this, and not only did that fit the character, but also the tone as well as being slightly comedic) but I still like that show, a lot more than this, even with similar problems, which I will freely admit, but the hype of CSM means I feel like I’m noticing all the little things more and more and more, which is snowballing into something a lot bigger than it should have any right to be, because simply, we were all told about how “CSM will be the best show of the year, it’ll be your new fave ect ect ect”

Now a question that I have to myself, how good of an adaptation is it? I feel like this could be a much better manga than anime, where pace is better controlled, characters have more room to grow, and I feel like I will pick up the manga at some point, it’s not an urgent thing for me but I feel like I’ll get enjoyment out of it and through these early parts where I had trouble I’ll be able to live with it better under the better pacing of manga. Also without all the hype surrounding it I can set my own expectations which by default will be a much better time for me.



TL;DR -

Chainsaw Man is a show with way too much hype surrounding it, it’s not all that, except to a very specific group of people, but it is a good show, the hype however killed it a bit for me, it 100% feels like a show set up for a season 2, with the show’s last few episodes being vastly better than the first chunk and everything slowly coming together to actually make you want to keep watching, make a bit of mystery and give you a reason to want to watch it.
There is a lot to like about this show that can not be denied, however there’s also a lot to dislike a lot with how it tells its story and how things piece together, the early parts especially struggle a lot.

I can’t explain perfectly how I feel about this, if it ends here then I’m hollow, but if it gets a second season (which I find quite likely) and continues the upwards trajectory I feel it could be a very good show, and maybe, just maybe, live up to some of the hype it has had, which was this season’s greatest downfall, too much hype, like I said earlier, I feel this is anime’s great awakening to hypetrains, they need to be tempered else they’ll run out of control and make you hate something even if it’s not that bad, if left rampant, the next time won’t be like CSM, it’ll be like No Man’s Sky, something insanely hyped, that ended up being shit, rather than something being good, but the hype making it feel much more average.

One last thing of note, to people who are reading this trying to decide if they should watch it, this is less for the people who like this kind of thing, more for the people who, generally, don’t, if you’re not into Shounen, and you don’t like edgy things, just skip CSM, it’s not worth your time, I don’t say this out of malice for the show, but I like those types of things and really struggled at points, if you’re not a fan of these genres you won’t enjoy it, so watch something you’ll enjoy over this, don’t feel pressured by the hype or how many people love it, watch what you want to.

Final rating: 6.5/10

Would I recommend: Only to the right person, and should it get a season 2 I may be more inclined to recommend to a wider audience.

Best features: The Animation/CGI, barring the moments I delved deeply into

Worst features: The Characters, Certain story points (fakeouts)

This is literally an ad

That is all, there is nothing else to say about it, it's an ad

Now, that's not necessarily bad, Japanese ads can be amazing, just look at Long Long Man
But this isn't Long Long man, I only watched this cause I was curious on wtf it was, but it's basically an ad for "Master of Torque Season 3" aswell as Yamaha, but it does noting except make it "cute anime girls" which are cg and crap, the only even semi decent thing is the sound, because the VA wasn't horrible, but there was music through the whole thing, which jumbled everything up

Basically, ... unless you absolutely must know (like i did) don't watch it, there's no point

There's really not much to say here

This is a recap, for a recap it does it's job very well, and it's not boring, which is very nice, but there's really not much to say.

It's great to watch if you haven't seen season 1 for a while, and just need the refresher before season 2, like I did, but there's nothing more to say

There is no story really, no new story, so that part is NA

the art, sound and characters, all still amazing, with some hiccups in all three, but that's nothing out of the ordinary for anime

Enjoyment, yeah an 8, I did enjoy it, the ... recap was direct and to the point, which is very nice

Overall a 7, nothing crazy, nothing new, just a recap, pretty good for a recap, but for a recap to get anything higher it needs to do something creative, rather than just telling, tho there are risks, and some recaps that try stuff fail, but yeah, the recap was just a summary, quite nice