- Last OnlineMar 14, 2024 7:46 PM
- JoinedOct 22, 2018
No friend yet.
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Sep 15, 2023
This series surprised me in more ways than one. It's easy to assume the nature of this series based on the Comedy and Romance tags, but it really should have the Fantasy, Military, Action and Supernatural tags as well. All these aspects are quite well represented throughout the series, and it quickly became one of my favorite chinese anime to date, up there with the likes of King's Avatar.
The synopsis gives a pretty accurate description of the premise, so I don't feel the need to elaborate much more and risk spoiling anything. Instead, I'll just address the 3 main points that I think might prematurely
...
turn some away.
1) Body Swap / Gender Bender
This aspect of the series is extremely tastefully handled, with little to no cringe or weirdness whatsoever. The 2 main characters have complete opposite personalities and physical abilities, the guy is serious but has no combat ability while the girl is much more jovial but is an absolute boss on the battlefield. This lends itself very well to the concept of a body swap. The dynamic is so well portrayed that it becomes very endearing, and I found myself rooting for both their characters regardless of whose body they were in. The difference in gender roles is also explored quite extensively and is done so in interesting and meaningful ways.
2) Animation Quality
This is not the typical bad quality animation that some chinese anime are known for. It is certainly different and may even feel somewhat choppy at first glance. But unlike most low quality, low fps anime I've watched, this one is very much done intentionally as a stylistic choice with no sacrifice to the actual fidelity of the animation. My eyes got used to it within minutes and I quickly started appreciating the beautiful art style and especially the cheeky style switching during comedic moments.
3) Short Episodes
It does not feel short at all from a story density standpoint. You get all the plot you could ask for and more from each episode and there is plenty of great character development for both the main and supporting characters. With both seasons out, this makes for one heck of a bingeworthy series that leaves you feeling very satisfied when it concludes.
Overall this is a heartwarming tale of how 2 characters come together and fall in love, with a healthy dose of comedy and great action/fight scenes. Definitely recommend checking it out!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Sep 6, 2023
This series started out as quite the masterpiece for me, which is kinda contradicted by the fact that I've decided to drop it after episode 10, which is again contradicted by my giving it a rating of 8/10. Let me explain.
I tend to lean more toward action/adventure/fantasy side of things as far as anime go, but I have watched my share of strictly romance stuff and I do enjoy romantic main or subplots in any anime on a whole, provided they are well written, simple and not unnecessarily convoluted. As stated at the start, I really enjoyed this anime initially, even as far as 6
...
or 7 episodes in, I still had it at a strong 8-9 out of 10. The premise is excellent, the story is excellent, characters are well written, almost everything about this series is honestly beautifully done. Unfortunately, as I continued watching further, I found myself getting more and more annoyed with how the characters were developing and to keep it spoiler free, suffice it to say that the direction the plot took in episodes 9 and 10 made me do a complete 180 on the series and drop it.
Now I'll be the first to admit that this is entirely personal preference, which is why I didn't drop my rating despite dropping the series. Some may like overly dramatic romance plots punctuated with constant damsel in distress moments, but there is just too much of it in this series for my liking. Add the whole concept of never saying what you mean and never meaning what you say, "oh... I was actually doing it all for you but never communicated it despite having ample and repeated opportunities to do so"... yea, that's not my cup of tea. I can go along with the typical anime-style blatant miscommunication for comedic value but when such things occur as a driving force behind a serious plot, that just shuts the whole thing down for me.
So yea, good series, I'm sure many will enjoy it and it was good while it lasted but I'm not gonna bother with the last coupla episodes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Aug 29, 2023
Ah... So many of these reviews wreak of rose tinted glasses. The same thing happens all the time in my other hobby, gaming. The original was the best, this one didn't improve on it, therefore bad remake. This one changed the music, therefore bad remake. This one was different from the original in any way, therefore bad remake.
Now I'm not saying I'm immune to the effects of rose tinted glasses myself, but I am very aware of it so I tried to approach this remake with an open mind. For context, the original anime was/is one of my favorite anime of all time, I
...
think I've rewatched the entire thing more than 10 times over the years. So when I heard they were remaking it, I was ecstatic and a little worried at the same time. Finally a higher resolution version with possibly better animation! But... Are they going to change anything? Will they ruin it? Please don't ruin it! All these thoughts crossed my mind while waiting for it to come out. So when it finally did, I dived into it with both anticipation and caution, and after 8 episodes, I'm happy to report that I think this is gonna turn out to be a good remake.
Instead of following the typical review structure of going over each category and giving my thoughts, I'll just list the points I think are most relevant to my conclusion.
1) It is shockingly faithful to the source content, I found myself constantly recalling what happens next and being so happy that it happened exactly how I remember/felt it should.
2) The fidelity of the animation is obviously better and I particularly appreciate that they actually animated the fights rather than keeping the original style of just flashing kenshin around the screen. It's not as graphic as the ova's but it's a good middle ground.
3) The soundtrack is different and I do understand the negativity around it. Having rewatched the original so many times, the original soundtrack just blended with the anime as a single entity in my memory and it is definitely jarring at times to hear a different soundtrack paired with the same scenes. I wouldn't call it a hard negative though, it's just different, it's personal preference.
4) The episodic release schedule feels like it hurts the remake. Anime watching culture has evolved over the years, we have been spoiled by a combination of ultra short and condensed 12 episode seasons and full seasons releasing at one go. This culture affects how most modern anime are put together. We have grown impatient as viewers and modern anime are written to cater to that impatience. So when we have such a faithful remake of such an old anime, retaining the same formula yet being released 1 episode at a time, it can feel like we aren't getting enough substance per episode, making it come across as boring to some.
So my conclusion? This is a faithful remake of the original and I'm very happy with it. It's a visual upgrade over the original with a soundtrack that you may love or hate. It shows no signs of condensing the material or changing the original formula so it may be way too slow for some, in which case I'd advise waiting for the entire season to come out before watching it.
Overall I'd rate it a solid 9 so far, versus the 10 I gave the original. We'll see how it goes as more episodes come out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Aug 27, 2023
Like many others I picked up this series due to the high score and many good reviews. I generally like fantasy isekai so it was going to make it on my list eventually, but the good reviews pushed it up the "watch asap" list. I don't usually write reviews for things I watch, anime or otherwise, so excuse the lack of structure. However, I just felt the need to express my opinion for this one because I have some pretty strong mixed feelings about it after watching all 3 seasons. This series can be summed up as having an interesting premise, a good story but
...
terrible characters.
I won't be commenting on the quality of the animation or soundtrack because I don't care or know enough about drawing and music to be able to responsibly critique it. What matters to me most when I watch an anime is whether it tells a good story and whether i enjoy it overall.
Story:
We of course have a lot of the usual isekai stuff, MC dies and gets reincarnated with powers and quirks etc. Here the MC's power is largely her retained knowledge from her previous life and her quirk is her obsession with books and reading them. That is not to say the MC isn't OP cos it's pretty obvious that she'll only get more OP as the series goes along, it is just not presented in the typical isekai-OP-MC way. The entire series pretty much revolves around the MC using her knowledge to build and change the new world to feed her obsession with books. The world presented is an interesting one and world building is good. We get to see the MC gradually progress through the world, gaining power and influence both economically and politically, the pacing was good in my opinion. There were also no stupid romances or unnecessary fanservice and I came out of it feeling like I enjoyed it overall.
Unfortunately, that is the biggest strength of this series and this is where my mixed feelings come in.
Characters:
The MC is annoying, borderline frustrating. Her personality is extremely inconsistent throughout the series, at times behaving like a child and at times behaving like the adult she is supposed to be(mentally). One could argue that it is to be expected since she is an adult who reincarnated as a child but the personality switches often make no sense. It is hard to express this clearly without spoiling it so I'll just say that a lot of the drama in the series tends to be of her own doing. She doesn't seem to learn from her mistakes, or rather, she learns only from insignificant mistakes but doesn't learn from the meaningful ones that would drive her growth as a character. This results in a lot of time spent setting her up for growth but ultimately ending up with her not growing much at all. She works hard for her goals and they do show her working for it, but she very often proceeds to screw everything up on her own because "I'm suddenly a child", and now others have to fix it for her cos "you'll fix it for me, won't you?" and while she attains the goal eventually, this makes a lot of her achievements feel undeserved and that is a source of frustration for me.
As for the other characters, the series does a good job building a pretty diverse bunch of supporting characters around the MC with some interesting and very wholesome ones, but overall most of the characters are pretty one dimensional and show little growth throughout the series. Most of the cast's core motivations are overly simplistic and sometimes illogical, with many of the key supporting characters clearly existing simply to help the MC "fix" all the stupid unnecessary mistakes she makes.
Overall:
All that said, as mentioned before, I enjoyed it overall, which is the most important thing to me when watching anything and I'd watch the next season if there is one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
