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Okay so heres the deal with kaguya sama. I think its important to note that i generally do not enjoy comedies, or slice of lifes. And if i had to name a least fav genre id say comedy, and beyond that a least fav subgenre slice of life romcoms. So kaguya on that level already isnt that enjoyable. Now, being a part of a genre i dont like doesnt inherently mean i wont like it, like urusei yatsura original (NOT the new one) is awesome. Or even to a broader sense of comedy, napoleon dynamite is one of my fav movies. Being in this genre ... doesnt mean its inherently bad, but following that formula (which kaguya does) tends to make it not an enjoyable experience. Thats the first thing i wanna mention. Second, i fucking hate the plot. I know its a comedy so the plot isnt meant to be taken seriously, and i dont, but the plot is so insanely cringey. Like idc abt ur pride or whatever to confess yall being annoying. Which is very much intertwined with my third issue, the characters. Theyre all annoying asl. Kaguya especially. Now i only watched season 1 and ive heard they get dev and depth in season 2 which i believe, but seeing as i hate these chars, even if they get that, im not gonna care. But anyway, everyone is so obnoxious, cringy, and unfunny, which brings me to the next issue, the comedy. On top of not being a big comedy fan, i also hate the standard sense of humor most anime has that non anime watchers often clown on the medium for. And i think, more than any other show, kaguya does this the worst. The overreactions to EVERYTHING and the constant screaming and just trying to force things to be funny when there is simply nothing of comedic value there is so unbearable. Like a lot of anime but namely kaguya does that. The overreaction and screaming feels like a way of forcing a situation to be funny just because. Its like a worse laugh track, and kaguya does this to an insane extent. Ive heard people say they love kaguya and its extremely funny but it just seems to cater specifically to that sense of humor that i hate. And by catering to it to such a high degree, and that in turn making the characters and plot that much worse, i didnt enjoy a second of that show.

0/10

I'm not gonna cover the whole monogatari series or anything here, I just want to complain about how much I didn't like the ending somewhere. And the reasons why I didn't like the ending aren't even limited to owarimonogatari, but even issues throughout the whole show.

Ok so I think a lot of people come to this show for its unique form of direction and storytelling, which I quite enjoy, but holy fuck is it flawed. This show heard the "show don't tell" rule, and tried to ignore it as much as it possibly can. It's SO TIRESOME, even if the content is interesting. I don't ... wanna hear these characters talk about shit, I wanna see them DOING something, which does happen, but not anywhere near as much as it should. Like they'll talk for 2 or more episodes straight and use a fuck ton of words that are long to make themselves sound smarter than they actually are, but it's actually just a bunch of bullshit with SOME relevant stuff in there that loosely relates to the characters. This results in either just confusion, or giving up and not caring, because there is so much useless information it's insane. And even if it's not all useless, it's MULTIPLE straight episodes of pure exposition and explanation. Speaking of distribution of information, this show has an odd amount of characters that know a ridiculous amount of information they have no reason to know, that just so happens to be the perfect far fetched explanation that's constantly required for this show. There is literally a character where her whole existence in the show is just to give the characters the information they need, with all the storytelling shit I hate about the show I listed earlier. And it'll be super private information about a character's life too, that only the character in question should know, but I guess she knows everything so it's excusable. It's fucking terrible. And again, even with all this free information, it still manages to feel really loosely connected. All these problems combined for me in the end to just leave me confused, unsure of what happened, and not wanting to bother at all to figure it out. I understand part of shows like this is figuring it out, I get that. But the show actively discourages it in my opinion with all the problems I listed earlier. It's such a turn off to actually want to look into the show, it sucks. And another thing about the ending, it felt just like the end to any other arc in the show. I know they mentioned something about a reason no more apparitions will come back, but when it's in SEVEN STRAIGHT EPISODES OF DIALOGUE with a LOT of bullshit info and fluff to make them sound smarter, It's just such a waste of my time to go looking for it and I have better shit to do then make up for the shit storytelling with my own efforts. I do wanna clarify there is so much I really like about this show, but that's not why I'm writing this. I do like the show, but the storytelling is absolutely god awful.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS AT THE END

I want to start this review by saying, I don't even know what I wanna score this, so pay no attention to the numbers I gave. Maybe I'll update them in the future. A 5 is good enough for now though, because this show has so much I can shit on, but at the same time, there is quite a bit to enjoy, and they almost equally balance each other out to me. I also think it's important to note that I didn't enjoy the first half, but I did enjoy the second half. I'll explain why later.

Characters: I ... thought that the characters were quite enjoyable and entertaining, or rather characters I could form connections with. Ash was a very grabbing protagonist, partially out of how the audience felt sorry for him and wanted to root for him, but also because he had an entertaining personality. Eiji, who I didn't like at first, due to his relationship with Ash seeming like it started for no reason except the author needed the plot to work, I grew to like, as his relationship with Ash was enjoyable, and seeing him and Ash smile together made me happy. On top of that, in the final scene we see why Ash was so open to Eiji and no one else, which I thought was just beautiful. Max, Sing, and Shorter were cool too, and villains were hateable, though admittedly felt over the top. The characters I think are the strongest aspect of the show, cosnsidering when I first dropped the show after episode 12, the characters along with the soundtrack is what brought me back. Also, I'll say it here since I don't want to dedicate a whole section to it, but the soundtrack is great!

Plot: This is where I think the problems arise. I first dropped the show because it felt as if events were loosely connected, the pacing was too fast, the first half was very repetitive, and there was an overall lack of explanation for many things in the show. I feel like loose connections and pacing, are things that vary heavily from viewer to viewer, but for an example of the pacing being too fast, at the end of one episode Ash and his friends were leaving Ash's parent's house, and in the first second of the next episode, they were already going to visit Max's wife, despite barely mentioning it beforehand if at all. As for being loosely connected, I feel like this links to the lack of proper explanation mayhaps. Like why did Ash and his friends suddenly visit Ash's parents after he was let out of jail? It's not like he was particularly close with them, and I don't even think they knew he was in jail, so it's not like he went to inform them of his release. As an example of being repetitive, in the first 9 episodes the show would spend time doing the exact same thing multiple times: Ash and his friends would be running from Dino, they'd make a new friend, the new friend would die, and we'd be treated to flashbacks of Ash getting raped as a child. On top of being boring, this particular choice of events made the show feel overly edgy, another problem. Granted, I'm aware events like this happen in the real world, so I guess the event choice isn't that much of a problem, but the repetition of it made it feel like they were trying to force rape into the story as much as possible. As an example of lack of explanation, which felt constant, I feel like there was very little coverage of why Lee and the Lee Conglomerate or Chinese Mafia or whatever was involved with the whole case. I constantly found myself asking questions, but it wasn't like other shows where I knew it'd be answered, the show would simply move on, and even if it didn't, whether or not an explanation would actually cover the topic was up in the air. And one last thing, I hate how the writers decided to introduce the plot in episode 1 and 2. I swear to God they said "banana fish" no less than 50 times. The whole point of it in episode 1 was that the drug was hypnotic and made the victims say "banana fish" but after episode like 1 and 2 not a single victim said it again. HOWEVER, despite all my bashing of the plot all that ONLY applies to the first half. The second half was a lot better, pacing was improved greatly, many more things introduced were explained, plot point felt more connected, and it never brought in the repetitive cycle I mentioned earlier, or any others for that matter. Lastly, the relationship between Ash and Eiji was portrayed beautifully, and seeing how much they meant to each other, especially how much Eiji meant to Ash, was quite emotional.

Ending: The ending was...decent. I let out an audible "that's it?" after it ended. I loved the letter from Eiji to Ash, and I loved how the show finally displayed why Ash liked Eiji in the first place. But the way Ash died and the reasoning for why Ash wouldn't go see Eiji was absolutely ridiculous. Ash didn't go see Eiji for fear of being followed, but he took out Dino so who on earth would want to follow him? Especially considering literally everyone else went, it clearly would not have been a problem. Ash's murder was probably the dumbest thing in the whole show, it was so out of place, and clearly catering to the over edginess I briefly mentioned earlier. Ash survived being shot at by like 20 dudes at a time for days straight and falling buildings and was able to sense one person on a giant boat filled with people yet couldn't tell when someone was running at him with a knife on the sidewalk? It wasn't even an attack from behind it was in front! It was clearly forced in to try and get some last minute emotional response from the audience that had no place. I'm not against sad endings, or trying to make the audience cry, it was just so poorly executed that I felt almost nothing. If the ending was better, I'd be a lot more confident giving the show a better score.

Conclusion: Overall, despite all my gripes, I like Banana Fish. Characters were enjoyable, and the plot really stepped up the quality in the second half. The soundtrack is pretty good, and the first ending theme is one of my new favorite songs from one of my new favorite bands. After finishing, I feel like I've only been looking upon the show positively. It's just such a shame the ending was weak, makes me sad how much potential it had. I'm very glad I picked it up again and who knows, maybe I'll watch it again someday.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

This will be a short review especially compared to my others but I don't have a whole lot to say and I just want to go off on a few issues.

First I wanna say that this show is...fine, it's passable. The cast of characters while nothing amazing is entertaining enough that even if the plot is complete ass (main point of the review), the show can be enjoyable. I didn't expect this a whole lot, as the show has an odd sense of humor for me in that it's just either mildly enjoyable or cringe. Notice how I didn't say "funny" ... because it never made me laugh, even in my head. Also the show has a lot of forced narration which is really annoying, especially with character intros. Instead of showing off the characters, Nagisa, the MC, gives us a generic character description and we move on. It feels like such lazy writing and it's not just limited to character intros but backgrounds to setting or how the school works as well.

I think it's important to note that this show is primarily chill, it's not intended to be plot heavy, but in the ladder parts it's 100% plot focused and it works awfully. I swear this makes Naruto look surprising. There were many moments where it seemed the show was trying to build suspense or be like "oh no, the kids could REALLY die this time" but they always have some plot armor to get out of it. I always knew the outcome and never felt even slightly inclined to keep watching to figure out if I was right. Once near the end I guess they were fighting this dude who was really good at listening to where people were, and somehow replaced a kid with a full sized dummy which isn't awful or anything in and of itself. But they do stuff like this every single time there is supposed to be a shred of suspense so instead everything just sorta happens with no actual reason to care or be invested. Also they never did explain how they got that dummy in the first place, they weren't in a scenario where they had access to a lot of gear. Anyway, I'm only about 30 episodes into Naruto right now, but at least Naruto has the balls to make primary characters lose fights like Naruto vs. Orochimaru at the beginning of the Chuunin exams. While I won't call Naruto particularly suspenseful or anything, it does a hell of a lot better than AssClass because at least we know Naruto *could* lose whereas in AssClass no victory ever feels earned and we know they're just gonna win everything. I also find it strange that these amateur assassins can kill 4 trained world class ones back to back but hey I can't say I was surprised. Even when the show isn't plot heavy, the smaller plot lines aren't too interesting and still have this shonen plot armor problem that is somehow worse than most other stuff I've seen. This is all also ignoring that a lot of the plot lines and happenings in the show are stupid even before the plot armor. At the very end of the show (this is a spoiler btw), they fight a dude who has an antidote to cure their friends of a deadly virus. But there was no reason to fight him because they had a loaded gun and could've shot him on sight. I hate when something has an extremely obvious solution and they ignore it. Oh and apparently the whole point of the final arc of season 1, the deadly virus, wasn't even deadly and would've worn off in like a day. And the hired deadly assasins who have killed a lot of people saved the kids from the actual deadly virus I guess??? Fucking laughable, I actually can't beieive someone wrote it.

I know complaining about plot armor in a shonen anime is like complaining about having chicken in a chicken burrito, but I just thought it was handled absolutely awfully here and thought it was worth a mention. It was more like a chicken burrito, but the chicken sucks and the burrito is like 80% chicken, 10% shell, and 10% lettuce, cheese, and other stuff. Again as I said this show is passable, characters are entertaining enough, and I haven't mentioned it yet but the art is super clean. Just how did they make the plot armor this fucking bad?

(SPOILER REVIEW) Kids on The Slope...what can I even say. This show isn't THAT bad I suppose, I mean, the character dynamics are fine sometimes and the OST is great but damn, just damn. That writing is absolute ass. This review is going to be divided by characters instead of plot, animation, etc. because I don't have much to say about anything else and the plot itself is that the show is a character drama so that'd be a waste of space. Anyway...

Kaoru - Ah yes, the MC. Kaoru is the absolute worst. He definitely brings down the quality of the show like 2 or ... even 3 whole points. Where do I even start. He's just an asshole for no reason other than "I was lonely as a child" and doesn't even apologize for the shit he does even if he acknowledges that it's wrong. There are 3 main thing she does that come to mind in this show that I'll cover. Before I do though, a lot of these complaints will be about a lack of resolution/apology. I think it's important to note that early on, Kaoru made a harsh remark at Sentarou about his family life and it being great. This ended up being wildly inaccurate and Kaoru apologized. We know that early on, before these 3 things happen, that Kaoru has the mental capacity and maturity to apologize and make amends for his mistakes. 1.) So early on he was able to observe that another character Ritsuko, liked Sentarou, yet another character. Kaoru the decided to askout Ritsuko, beforehand having an inner monologue about how it'd be fine if she rejected him, as again, she likes someone else. So he gets rejected in probably the nicest way possible and next decides to give Ritsuko and Sentarou the silent treatment...Why? This lasted for a month or something if I recall correctly, and the silence was only broken when Sentarou just kind of forced his way into Kaoru's house to talk to him. Next, Sentarou and Kaoru fuck off to Tokyo for an episode to find Kaoru's mom. When they return, the show completely returns to normal as if nothing happened. They 100% ignored the subplot they had going, there was no apology for the way he treated everyone, there was no resolution, THEY JUST DROPPED IT. I even went back and watched it over again to make sure, I was baffled. "Well surely it gets better from here" I thought. 2.) So Sentarou and Kaoru play jazz together just for shits and giggles and this one kid, Seiji, asks Sentarou to play drums in his band for the school festival just to help him out. Kaoru freaks the fuck out and goes off about how he doesn't wanna be friends with Sentarou and how he's always alone. Immediately afterwards he regrets it and wants to apologize. He doesn't as you could probably tell. He does his silent treatment schtick, somehow gets multiple opportunities to apologize but doesn't, and now Sentarou is pissed at him too. The amp stopped working for Seiji's band at the school festival and as a result, Kaoru and Sentarou play a song together to keep the crowd there and boom. Rainbows, sunshine, and sprinkles everyone, they're besties 4ever again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you're fine with accepting this "apology*********" then be my guest but this is some of the most bullshit cliche shit I've seen in awhile and regardless, barely works as an apology or any type of make-up. Again, they never addressed the problem, they just dropped it. I desperately wanted to see this man aplogize, the show would've been so much better. The solution was so simple! But be careful what you wish for, because part 3 is a doozy. 3.) THANK GOD!!! KAORU FINALLY APOLOGIZED FOR SOMETHING!!! Wait a minute...he apologized for what??? The fact that THIS is what Kaoru decided needed an apology is good, what was done 100% warrants an apology and even more. But also the fact that it takes something of this magnitude to get this man to apologize is absolutely ridiculous. Ladies and gentleman, he tried to rape a woman. I shit you not. Sentarou decides to disappear for zgod knows why and at the same time we get a fun new subplot going. Ritsuko eventually grows to like Kaoru, they get a romance going and he decides to...rape her. She struggles, tells him to stop, everything, but he is only stopped when she has to force him off and knee him in the balls or something. He apologizes, isn't forgiven, and fucks off to college. BUT on the train to college, we are treated to more cliche as Ritsuko goes to forgive him, just misses the train, and chases it as it pulls away. Only positive thing I can say about this is that they actually concluded this subplot, but I don't think rape was the move. But hey! If you don't mind feel free to watch, I assure you, it has no place here. All I could imagine as an excuse is that he was acting out because Sentarou disappeared, but if you think that justifies it then you might wanna get checked out. And remember, as stated at the beginning of this Kaoru rant, he has shown he has the capacity to apologize, so I don't wanna hear shit about learning to apologize being his development. And even if you wanna say that, learning to apologize for rape isn't a lesson that should need to be learned.

Sentarou - Sentarou is cool for a decent portion of the show. His character arc near the end though...yikes. Sentarou decides to fuck off somewhere doing who knows what and tells no one where he's going. Most importantly, why he does this is never answered, though in episode 12 we are shown where he went. We are shown him making this decision, and soon after gets in a motorcycle accident which near fatally injures his sister, but he is fine for the most part. I bring this up because as I said earlier, we are never told why he decides to leave, but staying to support your sister is a pretty damn good reason to stay, but I guess not for him. 8 years later, Kaoru finds Sentarou training to be a priest at some small island church. Well now we know where he went and what he's been doing, priest training! But why did you disappear without telling anyone? The only thing I can imagine is if his family was atheist or something, but they aren't. In fact the show consistently shows Sentarou and his family attending church. So why?!?!?!?!? There is absolutely no reason for his not telling anyone, or even why he decided to travel so far away. Anyway, Kaoru finds him after 8 years, they play jazz together, Ritsuko shows up I guess, and the show ends. What? I can't begin to describe how baffled I was upon seeing the conclusion to his character arc, it was all completely arbitrary and out of place. I can't even think of an appropriate conclusion sentence to this segment to describe the emotions I felt. Upset is the closest I could get, but that doesn't do justice to how strong my emotions were that the ending was this bad. Just imagine a really angry conclusion and me calling this extremely retarded.

Ritsuko - I actually don't have many complaints here. Although I think it's worth mentioning her arc. In the beginning she liked Sentarou, they are childhood friends after all. But after she rejects Kaoru ,she begins to fall for him despite Kaoru being an insufferable asshole a lot of the time. I won't complain too much, maybe she's into that. Maybe I'm missing a lot of relationship development because the way the show portrayed passage of time was indecipherable most of the time, I don't know. But it was just kinda stupid I guess.

Jun + Yurika - I group these guys together because they're subplot is a romance and DAMN this sucks. But first I want to say, Jun is beyond cringe or as I suppose he would say "not a cool cat" or someting like that. Yurika is simply a no name no personality character except her parents are strict or something. Back to actual writing critiques. Atleast with Ritsuko and Kaoru they spent time together, but Yurika saw Jun performing on stage, he kissed her, and now they're running away together I guess. They barely spent any time together, it was ridiculous and felt really unwarranted. But hey, that's just Kids on The Slope, isn't it? A bunch of random ass, melodramatic bullshit dressing up as something trying to be taken seriously. I'm going to use that sentence again later, I like that.

Seiji - So Seiji is barely relevant, in fact he was mainly here as a plot device for that second shit thing Kaoru did. But I wanted to mention him because he is the ONLY example of good writing in this show, even though it's ridiculously basic. He wants to be a star to support his family so he sings. That's it, and this is the best the show has to offer. However, I'd be remisce calling him anywhere near an enjoyable character, in fact he might be the least enjoyable for one reason...his voice. I watched dub, and oh my fucking God, this man needs to shut the fuck up. I mentioned this in my Toradora review, but Taiga and Minorin's voie actor's made me mute the TV and wanna rip my bleeding ears out. This is also prevelant with Zenitsu in Demon Slayer. It was definitely wishful thinking to be under the impression I would never suffer like that again, especially from a dub, but they did it. I can only describe it as an offensive stereotype gay voice but ridiculously annoying. I can't describe it, you need to hear it for yourself. The dub singing was the worst, like at some party in episode 9 I think. Similar to the end of my Sentarou section, I truly can't describe it, it's something one must experience for themselves. I urge you to look into this, at your own discretion of course, it's beyond insufferable.

My main thing with this show is that the writing is absolutely awful. I used to be somewhat analytical when watching shows, but have stopped for the most part awhile ago. But goddamn, I just couldn't leave this one alone. It's so fucking bad. I can't even fathom how it ended up this bad. And even further from a non-analytical standpoint, how do you make a Bunny Girl and Angel Beats fan think something is overly melodramatic!? HOW!?! This show is beyond bad character writing, it just drops subplots with no conclusion. When I need to rewatch portions because I think I missed something, only to find more problems, there is an issue somewhere. Please, never watch this, I legitimately don't understand why this has a high score. I can never get that time back. I can't stress enough the upset inside of me. This show seemed so promising in the first few episodes. Why?! Heed my warning, I haven't exaggerated a word here.

THIS WILL BE A REVIEW OF ALL THREE SEASONS

Minor Spoilers Ahead

Bakuman, to say the least, is an absolute masterpiece. I stretched my watch through over the course of 6 months and after I was done, I felt just like I did after finishing one of my first ever anime, Yu Yu Hakusho. I wanted more, even though the story had a great conclusion. I loved it so much, I just felt empty after watching. This show even inspired me to try drawing, and then start reading manga! It was truly an inspiring tale that was fun all throughout.

Plot - As one will probably already know, ... Bakuman is about these two kids who want to write manga and how they acheive their dream. For as boring as this sounds, it was presented absolutely phenomenally. It took some time to get going, but the writers did a great job of making the show feel just like an action packed shonen anime, although less cheesy and plot-armory. Serialization meetings felt suspenseful, battles for rank pumped up my adrenaline, and brainstorming ideas throughout the show illustrated just how much they grew as writers and illustrators. Not to mention, this show was also very educational about how the manga industry operates and even to an extent, anime.

Characters - Bakuman has quite the wide variety of characters and I must say, each one is damn amazing. They all feel so damn unique. There are so many just plain fun characters in this show that just makes every second a joy to experience. From the characters that just feel like close friends, to the outright crazy and wacky ones, every character is amazing to have on screen. Our main characters, Mashiro and Takagi, are a great pair and watching them work in the studio is a lot more entertaining than it should be. Even with more than just them, I felt as if I was hanging out with my good friends when watching, I wanted to see them succeed, and when their fortune was good, I would be happy right along with them. The writers even managed to make enemies feel just like characters out of your favorite battle series. The writing was phenomenal, making writing comics feel the same as a death battle, amazing! It's not as if they all stayed assholes, they were redeemed, at least for me. Everyone truly felt unique, and the emotions the characters' felt even resonated with me as a viewer.

Bakuman has some of my favorite characters of all time, and one of my favorite plot lines of all time. This show is absolutely worth a watch no matter who you are, although I must warn you, the show can take a little bit of time to get going. Hell it's crazy to think that I almost dropped this show, and now it's on eof my favorite pieces of media of all time. That fateful night I was bored and saw the phrase "from the creator of Death Note" is one I'll always hold dear, what a fateful day that was. Now that it's over I legitimately miss the characters. As sad as it sounds, I feel like I just said bye to some of my best friends and I'm not going to see them again. Bakuman was just fun, nothing that makes you think too much, nothing that's dark, just some good hearted fun, and some of the most I've had at that. This show will always be close to my heart and dammit everyone has to watch, I swear you won't regret it!

Always follow your dreams!

It's hard to come up with an opening sentence, I mean, this show was so unbelievably bad. It was abysmal, mind-numbingly boring, fucking trash. BUT, since watching I have searched for the answer to why people like this show, and I think I've found something. Actually, no I haven't.


Characters - The characters in Toradora are either generic to the highest degree, or they're Taiga, and just might be the worst character in existence. The main characters Taiga and Ryuji have the personalities of rocks. Ryuji is an average nice guy and Taiga is an extreme tsundere, there is basically nothing else to these characters. I’ve ... heard some say that the characters in Toradora are rich with development but all I could see on that front was Taiga finally growing in the last 5 seconds of the show and a side character named Ami learning how to be less of a bitch. Ami’s development was decent at best though I don’t really have complaints about it, but Taiga’s development was executed very poorly. As I said earlier, she is a tsundere, but not just any tsundere! From my experience, Taiga is the most extreme tsundere I’ve ever seen. She beats people up at every turn, and it isn’t even limited to her love interest, she is just the definition of a prick. She remains this way for 24/25 episodes and until 30 seconds near the end of the last episode, she’s finally nice. How sweet. I guess this technically counts as development, but if you want to stick with this little asshole for 24 and ¾ episodes until she actually grows, please do. Trust me, it’s not worth your time. I find it hard to believe people can actually call her cute, root for her pursuit of romance, or most importantly call her a good character. As for the other 3 characters, Kitamura, Minorin, and Ryuji, they don’t get development. I heard that Minorin does, but no one has actually bothered to explain it from the many people that I asked so I can only assume Toradora fans have no clue what they’re talking about. While we are on the topic of Minorin (and Taiga as well) I just want to slide in the fact that no voice actress has made me want to mute what I’m watching aside from these two characters. I didn’t come here to hear annoying orange on helium crack some even shittier jokes than usual.

Plot - The basic plot of toradora is, just like the characters, lacking originality in every way. The 2 main characters go through the trouble of trying to get the other one laid only to realize they wanna get with each other. Everyone is constantly put into a generic and predictable high school romcom situation where basically nothing happens except for small remnants of “rElAtIoNsHiP dEvElOpMeNt”. This results in an extremely predictable storyline with little to no reason to be invested. A big example is when Taiga's dad come to town and she tries to mend her relationship with the help of Ryuji. But nothing actually happened so there was no point at all. If someone read the synopsis and saw the cover art, they’d immediately know most of what they need to do on this show and see how it would end. Don’t even get me started on the pacing holy shit. I guess if you enjoy the shitty and flat comedy then you won’t mind, but I’m not trying to wait 24 episodes to see some romance happen. I’m fine waiting to the end of a 12 episode slice of life, but 25? If it was actually funny I'd understand. I can’t believe that this was green lit. This isn’t even mentioning how rushed the end was compared to everything else. OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Throughout the whole show it’s just generic romcom scenarios where nothing happens. It’s as slow as a snail. Around 24 I think though, now we get going. Taiga and Ryuji finally kiss in a scene I could take about as seriously as I can take an annoying orange on helium kissing someone. Then they get married. Well that went from 0 to 100 fast. As if I already couldn’t take it seriously, now I just thought it was really, REALLY fucking stupid. Like c’mon, they had their first kiss and the natural next step isn’t a first date or maybe making it official, no it’s marriage.

Aesthetics (art, animation, sound) - It was bad. The OST was like everything else, generic. The animation was just bad, the art is about what you'd expect from a 2008 anime from a studio that puts out too many shows, and I think I’ve already covered the worst part of the sound, Taiga and Miorin’s voice actresses. It’s not even an exaggeration to say that I cringed when I first heard them speak, and a few times afterwards (I watched sub btw). Also the openings and endings are just utter shit. Maybe, maybe I could say that the first opening is passable but I can’t lie to myself, it’s far from it.

Enjoyment - I don’t usually cover enjoyment, but I feel like I should in this case because by the time I finished, my emotions toward this show were just so extreme. I tried to stay optimistic, I really did. I kept telling myself it will get better, as did my friend who told me to watch in the first place. Looking back I have no clue why I finished, but I did. Off of a false hope that the show would be good because, honestly, I don’t think I liked a single second of this show, EVER. What started as standard boredom turned into extreme dislike over the course of this show and it would’ve only happened sooner if I didn’t have that hope. Amongst me and my friends, this show has transcended the definition of bad and has just turned into a fucking joke. It is LITERALLY laughably bad. Like if someone called something horrible someone could say that at least it wasn’t Toradora or something like that.

I like to think that I missed something, maybe I didn’t pay enough attention and this show isn’t as bad as I think it is, but that has proven not true. I have tried to find what people like about it but all I get back is stuff like : “It gets development” then when I ask what development they never respond. Or maybe I’ll get, Taiga is cute, which I still can’t quite wrap my head around but hey, whatever floats your boat. Another one is people saying it’s funny which wouldn't even be a bad response, except that the comedy is unbelievably stale. It makes "Friends" look like a masterpiece. At this point I don’t think I missed anything, it’s just a shitty and extremely overrated show. In fact I’d argue the definition of. Thanks for reading!

This was a messy pile of trash.

Yuno Gasai of Mirai Nikki is back everybody, except this time she is a kidnapping pedophile (well I guess she was a kidnapper already). In this mix of horror, shitty writing, and an overload of edge we follow Satou and Shio, the Yuno and victim respectively as they try to avoid any and all uneccasary contact with people other than themselves. What makes this edgy though? The fact that we can't go two minutes in the first three episodes without encountering, a new pedophile, blood/murder, obscured mental trauma, rape and related thoughts, and the most important one, kidnapping. All ... of this comes together to make a laughably over the top horror setting, that was executed very poorly. Next we just add the shitty writing and bam, Happy Sugar Life.

Plot - I basically already described the basic plot which I'm sad to admit is probably the best part of this show. Edginess runs rampant as Yuno Gasai has to keep her loli confined like an unused pokemon. That's about it. The show does get more fucked up though and tries to give the characters some backstory and even incorporate some philosophy. However it all goes down to drain since whoever wrote this is straight incompetent. Only good backsotry goes to the loli who was abused by her family, and she is the not-fucked up character who somehow has the worst backstory. The show plays with the question "what does it mean to love someone". Thankfully the show gives us an answer: completely controlling who you love like a dog. Thanks for the great philosophy that was injected into every piece of dialogue in the show as if we didn't know already.

Characters - Now this is the fun part. Pedophile #1, Pedophile #2, Pedophile #3, Pedophile #4, Pedophile #5, loli, and ONLY 2 normal people. Well you've now seen all there is to see for characters, move along. Jokes aside, these characters were horrible and yes, there really were 5 pedophiles in the show. Every character is a shitty, cringy edge fest trying to hard and there is also a loli with an annoying voice actress. The only way I see the characters being good, is if the viewer doesn't have any problems with pedophilia. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one to be against the idea of an eighteen year old kidnapping a five year old and trying to marry it. Who knows? I'm also not a fan of seeing a pedophilic Yuno Gasai clone, an already shitty character. Her name is Satou and she even has pink hair! There is also a dude who is a rape victim but instead of seeking counseling, turns into a pedophile himself and begins to literally drool over the probably hundreds of missing person posters of Shio. Great character writing I know. As for the loli, there isn't anything particularly wrong with her, but she's just a loli with an annoying voice actress so who really cares. The two normal people don't have anything going for them either. They're the only not edgy characters, but they also don't have much of a personality either. I think the worst character would have to be Satou, the Yuno Gasai clone I mentioned earlier. The show has the need to constantly remind the audience that she loves a child and is crazy, as if we didn't know already. Her backstory is also so basic, her aunt took poor care of her, Big deal. I have a cousin like that but they do't go around kidnapping children. The characters are some of the worst I've seen if not the worst. This show feels like a joke but I unfortunately know it isn't.

Aesthetics (art, animation, sound) - Sound was pretty basic, not much else to say. The animation though, damn. The whole budget was put into the opening theme. Everything else looks like shit. I remember a scene where a kid was punched by his father in a flashback and the hand straight up missed but the kid fell over anyway. Only fun part of the show was that. The art style is basic and not as cheery as I think the director's could've made it.

All-in-all, this show was horrible. Poor character writing, constant edginess, and pedophilia take presedence over an actual story and results in the shitfest known as: Mirai Nikki 2 - without future diaries. Thanks for reading and for the love of all things, don't watch if you aren't a sex offender.

ID:Invaded was certainly....interesting. Like, what the actual hell is this. I was quite confused during this show, but it wasn't necessarily in a bad way. The show played with some unique concepts I have yet to see (I heard it's similar to Psycho Pass though) even though they were presented in a confusing way. Unraveling what was happening was part of the fun for me. ID:Invaded definitely demands the viewer's attention. The characters were also fun to watch and combined with what was already mentioned made for a pretty enjoyable experience.

Plot - The show is a mystery about...well finding serial killers, pretty basic. However what ... sounds like a standard mystery is made unique and interesting with the unique concept of the detective can go into killers' subconscious. It starts episodic with the main character, Narihisago, entering different subconscious to gather clues about the killer's location, methods, and plans while the other main character, Hondoumachi goes out investigating in the real world using Narihisago's data. I won't spoil, but the plot gets more complex, introduces more to its' initial concepts, and everything strings together. The last few episodes didn't end up being a step up in my opinion, but other people seem to disagree with that. Also, the last few episodes is when it started getting REALLY confusing, which isn't a bad thing, just something to note. Also, a lot of the explanations for crimes came across as if the writers weren't trying, and there is a few plot holes occasionly covered up by some guy's "hole" (I won't go into more detail to avoid potential spoilers) that also makes it seem like the writer's just wanted to move the plot forward with no good reason. But hey, I didn't mind!

Characters - The characters weren't amazing or anything. They didn't exactly get much development and for the criminals, a lot of the explanations for the crimes were just plain stupid. However, this didn't stop them from being entertaining, especially Narihisago. Narihisago had a phenomenal backstory that had me invested in his character, along with just being a general badass with a unique character design. Aside from him, there wasn't anything really special about anyone else, but there weren't any bad characters, and Fukuda was quite funny. Everyone was entertaining, but the main character Sakaido is where the show really shines.

Aesthetics (art, animation, sound) - This show seems to have a somewhat unique style. I don't think it looks particularly good or bad, but what it looks like is less detailed and a bit more cartoonish. The CGI in this show wasn't too bad. As for the insert songs, I wasn't a fan of the ones by Miyavi which were used here and there, but otherwise, the music and voice acting were good. The opening theme though, absolutely amazing, probably one of my favorites.

Overall - This show is certainly deserving of a try. It might start off confusing, but as I said earlier, that is part of the fun. The plot was very enjoyable and encapturing, and the characters were good, especially Narihisago. Animation was alright, sound was good, and overall there wasn't much to complain about except some poor explanations sometimes. Also I wasn't as much a fan of the ladder part than the former, but whatever. This show is worth a watch.

Imagine a show about dealing with spirits and finding the cause of one's existence.. Sounds like an action/mystery right? Now what if I told you this was accomplished through the characters talking non stop about the problem and barely doing anything about it, or that it was done by seeing the characters post reddit threads. Well that is In/Spectre, except I can't really say they accomplished anything except boring anybody who dared to watch it.

Plot - Basically a spirit of a dead idol goes around terrorizing people and Kotoko and Kurou, someone who can see yokai and an immortal guy respectively try to figure out ... why this spirit exists. There are some rare occasions where either character actually confront the evil spirit, and when they do, nothing gets accomplished. Instead, they decide to host discussion. But wait there is more! As I said earlier, they eventually move onto posting reddit threads. Amazing right?! This isn't even the worst part though (well maybe it is). When we realize the reason the ghost exists, the show almost becomes impossible to take seriously. I don't think I need to spoil it, but in another show I've watched, the same exact concept was used as a joke, not a full plot basis. Everything boils down to being mind-numbingly boring and can't be taken seriously.

Characters - A lot of people say that the characters are pretty fun in this show, especially Kotoko, but that wears off pretty fast. Kotoko is obnoxious but sweet as well and Kurou is just...silent type. The show mainly just tries to push how far it can go off of having a cute girl, but the characters aren't even that unique in the first place, and it's not like the conversations between them are witty or anything, it's sort of stale. As stated above, both characters have powers, but the girl's powers is seeing yokai, which is in effect the whole time so it's more of a necessity and commonplace thing than something cool, and the guy is immortal and can see the future. So one power is just straight up bland and the other is absolutely busted, not exactly a good combo. One last thing, none of the characters get any development.

Overall - This show just made me want the suffering to stop, thank goodness I watched weekly for some of the later episodes. The plot was abysmal and dialogue never stopped, the characters had stupid powers, no development, and just didn't have a great dynamic as a people say. The art and sound were extremely average as well. This show was just bad and boring in every way aside from maybe its average animation and sound. No one should ever have to watch this trainwreck.


WAIT THERE WAS ONE POSITIVE!!!:
The ghost had some big tits