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Good horror stories are successful not only due to their gruesome nature, but also due to how believable and relatable they are to the readers. Uzumaki has moments of gruesomeness and unease. But the lack of relatable characterisation ultimately results in failure to keep up the creepy atmosphere throughout the entirety of the story.

The narrative structure of the manga is where it fails the most. Every chapter has Kirie, the main character narrating the events in a retrospective manner. It is emotionless, matter-of-fact narration and feels disjointed to the atmosphere the story is trying to create. Her expressions throughout the manga remains mostly the same ... as well. You can tell she is crying in some scenes only because of tears drawn across her cheeks. If you remove it, it looks as if she is smiling. Considering that the art is phenomenal everywhere else, I don't see why Ito didn't put effort into Kirie's expressions. When the character's emotions are masked by the bland narration and expressions, the readers can't empathize with them. If we can't care about the characters in a horror story, it would turn into a complete failure.

Talking about the characters, all of them are straight out of cheap slasher movies. They only exist either to die in gruesome ways or to cause conflict to drive the plot forward. The mc is indifferent to the gruesome events unfolding around her. She never tries to leave the town in the early chapters when the spiral starts affecting her like any other sane person would do. The only character with some sort of common sense seems to be the boyfriend. It seems strange how everything is considered normal by all characters in the beginning of every chapter after all the things that they go through. The characters basically "reset" after every chapter.

Some of the events are just dumb and do not convey any impression of horror. I was laughing while reading some of the chapters. They are there only to increase the chapter count of the manga. Once you finish reading the whole thing, you will realise that the core idea that Ito had is used only in the last five chapters to conclude the story. Everything else up to that point is just a huge waste of time.

Art : 7/10. I would have given a 10/10 for the art if it wasn't for the same expression of Kirie throughout the manga. No matter how much detail is put into the background art, everyone is going to first give attention to the faces of the characters. Whether it is dining with her family or witnessing the death of someone, Kirie has The. Same. Exact. Expression in her face.

I believe plot is more important for a horror story than the art. So I give more weight to the plot in the overall score. It is quite bad. 3/10.

Written by the author of Mushishi, this manga follows an identical episodic formula where the main character Hirota deals with a supernatural phenomenon called as "Flow". These flows are always caused due to one or the other emotions or thoughts people have from time to time. This is quite underrated in my opinion owing to its frequent comparison to Mushishi.

The story is a bit weaker than Mushishi because it only revolves around finding the causes and then reversing the effects of the Flow without much exploration into the concept of Flow itself. That makes this automatically less engrossing giving the feel of an average slice ... of life manga with some investigation thrown in. But the characters are an improvement because we get two recurring characters instead of just one. The constant dynamic between these characters makes them more interesting than one shot characters.

The story takes place in a town of modern times where social media and such exist. Curiously, Hirota's cat plays an important role in each chapter because cats are naturally attracted towards the Flow. This is why the manga has such a name. Hirota comes off as a clumsy but chill dude. He cares deeply for his cat and is a very nice person in general. The assistant has her own bit of a history with the Flow and started working for him as a result. There seems to be an overarching narrative about her within the episodic stories. The manga gives off a workplace story's atmosphere.

The art is clean, with decent background details. But it isn't anything phenomenal. The angles of view are intriguing especially in the front page of each chapter. It does its job well considering that it is not an action manga.

Overall I give it a 7.5/10. There are only 9 chapters out at the time of writing this and from what I have seen so far, it has been entertaining.

"Far beyond the voyage" is a two episode OVA series for Suisei no Gargantia that expands on the worldbuilding of the original series. You could think of it as a movie that is split into two episodes. It doesn't explore the already known cast any further or go into detail about the Galactic Alliance or Hideauze, but does expand upon the waterworld very nicely.

We get to have a glimpse of the daily life inside Gargantia once more and will see what Ledo is doing after the events of the series. Some clues about the history of the Earth before the colonists left it are revealed. ... Meanwhile, we get a flashback about an incident in Gargantia when Chamber was around.

The actual story starts only after these events. It has something to do with the new character, but I won't spoil the details. This storyline is admittedly quite generic, but during its course it allows the viewers to know more about the Earth outside of just the Gargantia. Unfortunately however, it doesn't focus on it too much and only narrates it in a superficial way. But this is still a great thing because the main series never did that and left it only for speculation.

The battles are not many and they don't have the same tension as the main series. Depending on which aspect of the series you liked, it is possible that some may be disappointed with the OVAs. So I say watch it with low expectations.

The animation is gorgeous as always but a slight dip in quality is noticeable in the way the waves are animated during some scenes. The soundtrack is great, calming most of the time. These have always been strong points in the show and this OVA is no exception. The OP and the ED fit the overall atmosphere well.

Overall I enjoyed this more than I expected. Most of the side characters stay shallow, but the interesting world makes up for it. Recommended for the fans and anyone who is interested in seeing more of the world of Suisei no Gargantia.

Deadman Wonderland has over the top characters with absurd motivations and a lot of blood, but still fails to make the plot remotely interesting. This is more of a battle shounen than a seinen or a psychological story. So expect many of those tropes. I don't have anything against shounen, but when you add dark backstories for the sake of being dark and when the fighting mechanics revolve around bleeding, it comes off as edgy.

*** The review contains some vague spoilers ***


I found more bad things than good in this manga. Let me write about all the good first -

The premise is interesting. The protagonist ... (Ganta) is framed very early in the story and is forced to go to a special prison called as Deadman wonderland. There he discovers that people with unique powers who can manipulate their own blood exist and they are pitted against each other in a battle royale. This raises many questions and hooks the reader early on.

A girl named Shiro is introduced soon after Ganta enters the DW. She is always cheerful and has the freedom to wander anywhere she wants within the prison. She gives the impression that there is something about her that is more than what it appears to be. This adds to the mystery.

The plot ties to an event called as the Great Tokyo Earthquake which happened ten years prior to the events of the story. As the story progresses, the events leading to this disaster slowly unfolds in the form of flashbacks. These events are somewhat predictable, but still manage to be interesting. There are some ethical questions tackled briefly even though they are never completely explored.

Unfortunately, that is all the good I can find. So what is wrong with this manga? Let me elaborate -

Clichés after clichés. I don't hate clichés unless they are overused. But that is exactly what happens here. Every situation feels forced. The actual plot gets sidelined untill about midway through the manga in favor of unnecessary battles that do not have many long lasting consequences. It keeps introducing new characters in said battles. But none of them get any character development except Minatsuki (it is "he is nice, I will be nice too" kind of development. So it is not saying much). When you look back after finishing the series, you will find that 90% of these characters didn't have any real impact on the story other than prolonging it. The supposedly surprising developments can be predicted several chapters in advance. There are two main villains in this story. But both are comically evil characters and feel like copies of each other. Their motivations are slightly different, but they act exactly the same way.

The manga fails in its very premise because the way all the deadmen lose blood and keep fighting without suffering any consequences is illogical. Funny thing is that some characters state the problems of losing too much blood at the start of the series. But it is quickly forgotten to get us to the badass action scenes. Ganta's ability is the most unoriginal and boring among the entire cast. Add to that and make him whiny for more than half of the story and you get an unlikable MC.

The plot feels like an NGE ripoff at the begining. We have whiny mc, a mysterious friend who is more than what she seems, and a tragedy that has happened several years back with long lasting effects on society. Adding to that, Ganta has memory loss and doesn't remember his past. (But keeps getting flashbacks at very convenient moments). It gets a decent explanation near the very end of the manga, but the initial half undeniably gives bad vibes about the whole story. The explanation that we get is very similar to another popular manga that I won't mention due to spoilers. It is so similar that you can predict exactly what happened if you know the name of that other manga.

There is some pseudo-science involved in the plot, but it has been taken too far to an extent that it is no longer believable. To give an example, there is an ability where a character can make others think that they suffered an injury and then it happens in reality because "their brain got convinced of that injury". I am talking about characters getting holes in their chest or thrown into walls just because their brain got convinced that it actually happened.

The art looks good, but not the fight scenes. It is hard to follow any fight scene. You can see rubble flying around and explosions, but how characters moved during the fights is very obscure and you are kept guessing. It is a major setback considering that we are talking about an action series.

Tl;dr - I don't recommend this manga unless you don't mind all the clichés and are very much interested in the premise. If you have watched the anime version and are here to finish the story, you will get what you wanted - even though it has the same pitfalls the anime has.

The anime community seems to be split in its opinion on SAO. Half of them ignore everything positive about it and only talk about negetive things. The other half just does the opposite. No other anime has been this controversial for more than 5 years after its original release. Now here is a new season that features mostly different cast from the original. So is it worth watching or not? Here is my analysis:-

**THIS WILL INCLUDE MINOR SPOILERS ABOUT THE OVERALL SETTING **

The story this time is centered not on a game, but around a simulation of civilization. The aim of this simulation is to ... develop highly advanced A.I capable of thoughts and emotions. It brings about some ethical questions about humanity, playing God, and where to draw the line in scientific experiments. This season deals with more of these mature themes than the previous seasons ever did.

The premise is that Kirito finds himself in a medieval world with its own history and lore and journeys with his newfound friend Eugeo to achieve both of their (different) goals. It starts out slow, with a lot of focus on world building. Even though it seems disconnected to the plot of the previous seasons, eventually many plot points from before will make their way into the story. So it is important to watch the last seasons to get a full understanding of the current season.

Eugeo is the focus of these two cours, Kirito just tagging along. He has an innocent, easygoing personality that makes the story work - much like Frodo from Lord of the Rings. He is the embodiment of a common citizen of Underworld. His opinions about himself, others and the society he is in changes throughout the story and the viewers get to experience the same things he does. Alice has not much role in the initial part, but her time for development will come in the 3rd and 4th cours.

Unlike SAO's history, there is pain and blood in the fights. It makes the characters' struggle believable and makes you root for the characters. Later on, the story gets even more darker without resorting to plain bloodshed - in a psychological way. Kirito is not overpowered in this arc. He only has the knowledge of a swordsman and works his way from the bottom up.

The entire story is well thought out and is planned beforehand. There are several questions that arise in the early episodes - the answers are made clear slowly, as the plot progresses. Some of the things happened may seem irrelevant and random, but they make sense eventually.

A large number of new characters are introduced in this season. Most of them influence main characters in various ways. The three main characters undergo some changes throughout the series and get some good character development. But the same cannot be said about the side characters.These characters last only for about 3 episodes and don't make an appearence till the 2nd part of this arc, but the gap is too long.

The review will be incomplete if the villain is not mentioned. It is an ambitious character capable of easily manipulating others for personal gain that ended up turning into a different and dangerous entity due to an accident. Certainly there are better villains in the anime history, but this character is arguably the best villain SAO has seen so far. There is a moral ambiguity for this character.

There are plenty of criticisms that can be offered as well. Some episodes have a lot of talking involved. A lot of exposition is delivered this way. People expecting all out action scenes will be disappointed or bored by these episodes. There is some pseudo-science explanation for the premise. It may not appeal to everyone.

The tower climbing arc is adapted very poorly. The Integrity knights that are supposed to have their own reasons and understandings about the world around them are dumbed down to mere villains of the week. The cliffhangers are conceived in a very poor way. They feel forced and unnecessary because most of the fights are very short.

The anime looks gorgeous with colorful shading - just like Ufotable. But the same can't be said about action sequences. In many action sequences, the frame of animation focuses only on one character. It makes the viewer unable to follow the fights well. The short fights are usually already ended by the time we get invested into them.

The soundtrack is underwhelming compared to the last seasons. Old music is repeatedly used by remixing it. Only few soundtracks are memorable and they don't last long. Some of them sound very similar to Yuki Kajiura's other works. Only new notable music is the Eugeo's theme and the Quinella's theme.

The adaptation of the source material is below average. It is not butchered to Tokyo Ghoul Re's extent, but it is significantly rushed and cuts out a good amount of inner monologues that gives a good understanding of character relations and motivations. Think of the GGO arc that lasted for 14 episodes but now compress it into 8 episodes. That is how much rushed it actually is. Even so, everything that has happened can still be understood with some thought.


Tl;dr - If you liked the previous seasons, it is a must watch.
If you thought that the previous seasons were wasted potential then this is still worth watching as it explores a different theme - in far more detail.
However if you didn't like the original characters of SAO, then better stay away from this season. Chances are that you will not like this season either.

There is still two more cours to come. But that is a different entry in the database. Be informed that the story doesn't end yet.
For me, what is great about this arc are its themes and execution, albeit the poor adaptation.

The Promised Neverland is the type of anime that is better enjoyed by going in blind. It heavily relies on suspense, mind games and reveals. So those who haven't watched the show should stay away from reviews and should only decide to watch it based on the genre and MAL synopsis.

Needless to say, **THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS**

The stakes are set by the end of the first episode and it is clear that one small error can lead to death for the characters. The children need to escape the farm and they should do it without the intelligent Isabella knowing what they are up to. But ... Isabella already has suspicions on them. Hence the story manages to keep the viewer on the edge of their seat as every dialogue becomes important. It is all about mind games. The characters try to get as much information from others as possible in every conversation.

Most of the characters are believable in their actions. The main three characters have different natures - Emma is carefree and athletic, Norman is intelligent and frail, Ray stands somewhere between these two. They are not deep or interesting in any way. But it is expected as they are children. However, the two adults don't really have good characterisation either. Most of the children stay irrelevent for major part of the story. Only the main three, Don and Gilda have roles for plot progression. Phil gets some time in the end. All other children have no role in the narrative.

The soundtrack is nicely done. It goes silent in tense moments and suits the atmosphere well. The melancholic lullaby that is played sometimes is very effective in inducing emotions. The opening and ending songs are good.

The Animation has various shots with creepy angles and perspectives to induce unease in viewers. The way camera moves makes the tension palpable in many scenes. It is very colorful for a horror type but doesn't dilute the tension.

All the praises aside, there are a number of problems with the show -
++Major spoilers - Do not read if you haven't finished this season++


- Sister Krone is a plot device. The kids didn't outwit her and got caught by her. But they were released, given information and assistance too easily because of Krone's ambition. The all important 'pen' was given to kids by Krone. The man at the outside clearly would never have predicted that Krone would give it to kids. So he shouldn't have given out ("accidentally dropped") such an important device to her considering that it can reveal about an outside helper. The other kids were made to believe the truth which otherwise they wouldn't have easily believed thanks to Krone.
So, the escape would have never been successful if Krone wasn't around. As it is revealed near the end, her goals never had any chance of success. So it becomes obvious that she is merely a plot device.

- In the first episode, it is out of character for Ray to send the other two out of the gate to know the truth. There was always risk of them getting found out due to their ignorance. Especially when Emma is around. It would have been much better and practical to explain the situation to them before sending them. Things happened that way to create a sense of shock to the viewers.

- The plan would have fallen apart if instead of Norman, Ray was selected for graduation. (Both are similiarly intelligent and equally good harvest). Then Ray would have to act on his revenge earlier, when all the children were not yet ready to escape. Even if Ray didn't act, Norman would have to take his place later for the escape to succeed. Norman had never prepared to take revenge on Mom via self harm. Mom wouldn't have believed Norman like she did for Ray.

- Norman is "allowed" to explore the wall because he is soon getting shipped out. Isabella took drastic measures to prevent them from peeking outside the wall. But she overlooks Norman attempting the same in the very next day.

- Near the end of the season, Ray is kept in the dark about the real plan for an unnaturally long time. Ray is supposed to be very intelligent and excluding him out of the real plan makes little sense. The real plan is not revealed to Ray and by extension to viewers till he tries to kill himself in the last moment. It is a cheap way build tension.

- Every kid above 6 years of age was informed about the truth and the plan to escape in the course of last two months. But the more people know about a secret, harder it is to keep it hidden (not to mention they are children). So when the all intelligent Mom doesn't pick up anything abnormal just because she was only giving attention to Ray and Emma, it looks very convienient.

These criticisms do not impair the enjoyment this show gives, as long as the viewer is ignorant. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. It is very hard to completely avoid these things in a story that focuses on mind games and mystery. The audience tend to think too much given the nature of the story. Overall easily a 8/10 as it hooked me in and didn't let go till the end.

Great first half, disappointing latter half.

When the otaku mc who had no girlfriend and questionable content in his PC died by the stab of a passerby robber, I thought this was going to be a parody. Turns out it is not. I have always disliked stories where mc dies and gets reincarnated again because the significance of death is lost from that moment. This makes any life threatening situations meaningless - why would you care about someone's death if they might just get reincarnated again? But surprisingly, the story hooks you on despite the cliched start because the struggle of the characters is not merely ... to survive, but to build a country where everyone exists peacefully via diplomacy and talk.

The main character changes his personality by about 180 degrees once he becomes a slime. He is no longer brooding over his past, no regrets in his previous life and becomes a very cheerful character. But that is for the best because his cheerful mood and how he takes most of the things lightly makes the show enjoyable.

But there are many problems that become evident as the story goes on. The characters of this show come off as very superficial. There is a character that serves as the main motivation for the actions of Rimuru. This character gets the most development in the story so far. Rimuru lacks any backstory or personal developments to make him interesting. There is nothing really special about any other characters. The character interactions are interesting but very predictable. They are directly taken from your typical RPG setting with stiff roles. Most of the characters lose all relevence soon after they are introduced.

Somehow all the female monsters in this series end up becoming very cute (even if they aren't initially when they are introduced) - it is as if the anime thinks that we can't like them if they look different. There is also some fanservice thrown around for good measure. Whether that is good or bad is upto the viewers and how they like their anime. But there is no forced romance or harem elements allowing this to be one of the better isekai out there.

**Spoilers from here onwards**

The first half of the season introduces the world Rimuru is in and gives an idea about the various species, their kingdoms and the relationships between them. The Orc Lord story is honestly well done. It tells how some demon lords manipulate entire races for their personal gains. This is what made the show interesting. But once the second half of the season starts, it feels more like filler.
There is Milim - far stronger than Rimuru, but immediately becomes his ally because he gave her some honey and tasty food?! She is in there for so long and has never tasted honey before? It would work as comedy but when her friendship with Rimuru has far reaching consequences for the main plot, it just looks bad. Also how come no other demon lords, known for evil haven't manipulated her till now?
There is the half dragon thing originated from Veldora - only accounting for an unnecessary fight just to show how strong Milim is. But soon after we go to another arc where Milim is not relevent anymore. So till she or the demon lord of animal kingdom become relevent again, it only feels like pointless filler. They could have interchanged these arcs for better continuity.
There is the sky dragon which appeared from nowhere and was defeated even faster than it appeared. All the fights Rimuru was involved till then had some foreshadowing or preparations behind the curtain. This however feels like a disconnected event entirely there for the merchant to like Rimuru.

**Spoilers End Here**

The ending for the season skips some plot points and instead includes a flashback styled AMV and uses two episodes for content that should have been OVA's. The last episode is another recap episode when we already got a recap in 23rd episode. They should have used that episode for better adaptation of main story.

The animation most of the time is good looking and action scenes are great. But sometimes they start using CGI and it really looks bad. The CGI score I would give is a 5/10, barely serviceable. (For reference, 10 would be ufotable or production IG's CGI and 1 would be the berserk CGI)

There are a few memorable ost's, but most of them do not stand out. The openings and endings were good enough that I didn't skip them.

The anime is an above average adaptation. The pacing was great till 8th episode. But the adaptation is slightly rushed beyond that point.

Overall I still find it enjoyable to watch despite the obvious shortcomings. There seems to be a good underlying plot that the author has just started. Season 2 has been announced and it should be better because of all the setups in this season. It is similar to Overlord in many aspects, but far better than watching an emotionless mc slowly and inevitably take over the world.
Overall 6.5/10

When it comes to popular shows, people like to jump on bandwagons. They either absolutely adore it or utterly despise it. Due to the controversy first episode created, goblin slayer has attracted more people than it should have and the result is obvious.

The story takes place in a D&D inspired world where battle between the good and the evil is commonplace. The main character has gone through a traumatic experience in his childhood because of the infamous goblins and has decided to dedicate his entire life to eradicate them. So it is all about how cunning the goblins are and how goblin slayer comes up ... with various methods to deal with them. As such it should be the only thing one should expect before watching the show. Otherwise they may get disappointed.

Even though the premise is simple, it doesn't get repetitive because the situations he finds himself in changes everytime and his methods change as well. There are several classes of goblins, and some of them are significantly powerful. It made matters more challenging for goblin slayer and his party. So I was pretty much entertained throughout.

Many people say that goblin slayer has plot armor. Well what do you expect? The name of the show is Goblin Slayer after all! Just like Naruto, Ao no exorcist, Mob psycho 100 etc. Having plot armor and being overpowered are entirely different things. Having plot armor is not a bad thing. Being consistently overpowered may become a problem because sometimes such a story becomes unbelievable. But GS is not overpowered and he struggles to kill the goblins. He uses unconventional methods to kill them. That is the strength of the show.

The characters are clearly the weakest part of the anime. They are all one dimensional and are only there to help goblin slayer. However, while I would have loved to see some backstory for each character, it doesn't matter as the story is only about GS. Only character to grow over time is Goblin Slayer himself. He initially keeps everyone at a distance and only obsessively cares about goblins. The fact that we can't see his expressions due to the ever present helmet doesn't help either. But by the end of this season, he has slowly changed a bit and is slightly more sociable. I don't know how much more he develops beyond the storyline adapted in the anime. But for 12 episodes, that is a decent progress.
The animation is above average. Sometimes there is use of CGI while goblin slayer walks. It is unnecessary and looks weird. The action scenes are decent. One thing I disliked is the mild unnecessary fanservice. It is not omnipresent throughout the entire show, but the way it is done (with weird physics, unnatural clothes etc) breaks the immersion in the story.

The opening song done by Mili is very good and makes the anime feel like some dark fantasy. It is a shame that it is not really a dark fantasy however. The ED is a bit bland and is not to my liking. The rest of the soundtrack doesn't stand out much either.

TL;DR - Goblin Slayer is a decent anime. It is neither one of the best, nor one of the worst shows out there. It is quite enjoyable if you know what to expect from it.

Since there are no reviews by anyone who has completed the anime, I decided to write one.

This is an anime for children (PG). So don't expect a deep plot. But it does it's job well and I was hooked into the story when I watched it years ago when I was younger. I hadn't watched the last few episodes at the time and couldn't find them anywhere. Then about 2 years ago someone uploaded the last remaining episodes to youtube with captions and I was able to complete the series.

The story is about a fictional future where tournaments are held between robots for entertainment. The ... protagonist wants to become the pokemon master - err I mean to get the Titan Belt by winning the tournaments. He has team of robots that he acquired from his scientist grandfather. Initially it looks like that is all to the plot. But later it turns out that an evil scientist is planning to steal the technology powering the best robot Daigunder. The story then gives more focus on fighting this dude.

What makes it good is that all robots are sentient and have their own personalities. They are able to change their shape and battle capabilities, like in transformers and they are able to fuse with each other to make stronger robots like in gurren lagann.

The animation is subpar even for a 2002 anime. I think they could have done better. But that is the only criticism I can find.

The story completely ends at 39th episode and does feel complete, unlike pokemon. So if you are looking for a PG show, this is a good bet. You can find all episodes in youtube.

**There are NO spoilers in this review**

This is one of the most underpopular manga out there. It deserves more recognition. Hence I am writing this review.

STORY -
The story is about a hypothetical situation that deals with what would happen if part of a person's brain is replaced by another's brain. What makes it interesting is that the replaced part is from someone with a completely different personality. We see how it affects the protagonist ... and how he changes, and what he goes through during this change.

ART -
The art is clear, looks good and is a bit towards realistic style. It suits the mood for the story very well.

CHARACTERS -
There are around six recurring characters in the story. The characters are not very deep, but believable. The interactions between characters is believable and is not exaggerated.

ENJOYMENT -
If you like seinen genre and psychological themes, you will love this manga like I did. It has only 36 chapters - so you can pick it up and finish reading it in a day. It is well worth the time spent. I hope we can get an anime adaptation for it sometime.