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Not being a fan of Junji Ito's bibliography I felt offended, I can't imagine how the fans feel.

Uzumaki is the perfect example of why we shouldn't get excited about an American anime production. They gave us an exemplary first episode, giving us one of the best episodes of the year in terms of animation and setting. Using rotoscoping is not easy at all but they made it look so good that you got carried away by the spiral as well. Afterwards the remaining 3 episodes were the production spitting in the face of all the people who had hooked on the first episode.

I don't know ... the problems behind the production, I don't know the reasons or motives for these low quality standards. This was sold as a "PRODUCTION I.G" production when the only thing this studio put on it was the name. The abrupt changes of director, the change of subcontracted studios, is that just by following the minute by minute of the production you could smell that something would go terribly wrong.

Let's assume for a moment that we don't care about the animation, that it's a mere aesthetic detail, that we're here for Junji Ito's story. It doesn't make sense at all. I know that Ito's stories tend to be this way, but I highly doubt that he has so many fans around the world for being so lazy. The anime focuses more on being a show of the grotesque, forgetting that they have to give us some behavioral thread so that we can follow the trail of the story. They throw the story away and simply try to build moments to justify that the most popular panels of the manga appear in the anime.

There are animes that you say, damn, what is this garbage that I just saw. With Uzumaki, something a little different happens. What we say is "Fuck, who the hell made this?", because even if we don't understand the story, we know that it's anything but garbage. Treating it like garbage is a very different case. So once again, an Adult Swim commission showed us that anime can also become a fast food industry.

Monogatari is a franchise that can give me bad stories, good ones, and masterpieces in a single season.

I can't give an opinion of the entire season, because we have three stories within the same one. So I have to break down my opinion into three parts as well.

Nadeko Draw: I objectively understand and appreciate the development that had to be given to a character like Sengoku. Through this arc we saw the maturity of the character, how he accepts his past mistakes to continue growing as an adult who will eventually be part of society. It makes us see all the potential and power that ... a girl who could become a god on a whim has. Personally, this story couldn't interest me less. Nadeko's character is the one I hate the most in the entire work, so 6 chapters of it felt quite heavy. Although in the end you feel like you can make peace with the character, it still doesn't escalate enough to say that I like him now.

Wazamonogatari: I wish I could find words to describe the level of perfection Monogatari reached with these two chapters. You could put it under a microscope and find something wrong would be impossible. The script, the soundtrack, the animation, the direction, the voice acting, the contribution to the lore, it has absolutely everything. Even a person who is more of a Monogatari hater than a fan can appreciate the quality in this arc.

Shinobumonogatari: On paper, this part of the story sounded like it would maintain the level of Wazamono, but it wasn't. With a cast made up of Suicide-Master, Gaen Izuko, Shinobu/Kiss Shot, Acerola, Kagenui, Hachikuji and Araragi you have everything to make a story that will make you fall out of your seat. Despite having everything clear, I don't know what happened that the story didn't fulfill what it promised. The whole issue of the mystery of the mummified girls feels like it's not going anywhere, there's a lot of dialogue that feels more like filler than anything else and the important characters feel more like extras in Araragi and Shinobu's journey. What I do appreciate is the final chapter, all the talk between Suicide-Master and Kie is too good, it's what Monogatari is at its best. Still, that chapter doesn't save the fact that other characters like Gaen or Kagenui have been wasted.

Those would be my general impressions of the stories. I think the season has the same problem as the bulk of the franchise, the thousands of cuts are dizzying and Senjogahara, despite being a main character, appears very little.

A journey through MadHouse chapter #5: a classic tale of pirates and treasure hunts.

Takarajima puts us in the shoes of Jim Hawkins, a boy who will be involved in a journey to find the treasure of the famous pirate known as Captain Flint. A classic pirate story that is still good even today. It has what it takes to keep the viewer trapped in this journey. It has an essence similar to what one saw as a child on a Saturday morning while eating breakfast. It is an anime that can take you back to happier times in your life, because although it is not ... something from our time, it does appeal a little to nostalgia for being a simple and unpretentious story.

The conflict of Jim going to look for a treasure to help his mother and how he will make allies and enemies on this journey. It is a story that knows how to capture the essence of piracy very well, because although monsters may come, even among them there are codes that must be respected. One thing to note is the antagonist of this story, John Silver. He is a person who is physically limited but can still instill fear among the pirates. He is not a brutish and violent antagonist as you would expect from this type of story, but rather a more intelligent and manipulative one who is willing to do anything to find that treasure.

Even though I consider it a pretty good and entertaining story, personally it is not what I was looking for. At the end of the day you can't take away that feeling of Western literature, and I understand that because it is based on an English book, but it is not the kind of feeling I look for in an anime. Maybe I am too used to modern anime and these first encounters with the classics can be a shock, but I don't think that is the case. I am just not used to Western stories in anime.

Bones proving that a studio can love a title more than its author.

This 7th season took us with 0 expectations, due to how unhappy the end of the manga left us. Bones knew how to take that indifference on the part of the fans and rekindle the spark of love that one has for this work. Impeccable animation, highlighting key points of the story and giving us a more memorable narrative, in what is supposed to be the highest point of the story.

Bones knew how to correct many mistakes that the author made in the manga. The biggest problem with the manga was wanting to ... tell many stories on many different fronts. The anime does not decrease the number of stories, nor the number of scenarios, what it does is simply condense the stories. The best example would be the Todoroki family subplot, in the manga it felt eternal, that it was not going anywhere and ended up lengthening the final arc without any kind of grace, it was just one more stone in the road. This same story in the anime was only one chapter long and it ended up being more emotional than its drawn counterpart. By condensing all the stories so that each one could be one chapter or one and a half chapters long, it allows both heroes and villains to shine, because at the end of the day, all the story arcs that had been handled throughout the work are being closed.

Special mention to Uraraka vs Himiko Toga, in the manga it already seemed like a beautiful story to me, but the anime came to improve it even more. The animation, the soundtrack, the work of the seiyuus, everything that an anime can contribute to this type of story, it did it in the best possible way. If you don't want to watch the whole season and you're just curious about this mini story, then do yourself a favor and go watch chapter 20 and 21 of this season.

A season that I felt was only released to fulfill the contract, ended up transforming into a love letter to the story that is told. A love that the entire fandom had already thrown away, but fortunately the most fervent fan was still there to tell us that a good story could still be told with this material. Thank you, Bones, for being that fervent fan.

The rise and fall of a story in the same season.

In the visual section I have no complaints. Doga Kobo made an effort to make this look as beautiful as possible. The play was an arc that is visually imposing, it is beautiful and I think few things in the season can compare to it. The chapter focused on Melt is the best that the season gave us. The choreographies, the transitions, the work of the seiyuus, no matter how hard you look I doubt you can find anything to criticize.

What takes away quite a few points is the final stretch. In this part the ... inconsistency of the story stands out too much. I have always said it and I will maintain it until the end of the anime and manga, Oshi no Ko as a critique of the Japanese entertainment industry is too good, but as a story it is quite irregular. No matter how much effort the studio puts into the visual, the problems of the story are still there. The introduction of the crow girl is the worst thing that could have happened to the story. I think that in an attempt to not leave any loose ends, the reincarnation of the twins is justified, but there are things that work better when they are not explained. The story does not need the reincarnation to be explained, because it was a unique phenomenon, there are no more reincarnated people in history. If it was left to the interpretation of the viewer after showing the background of Aqua and Ruby's previous lives, it would have worked just as well or better. The raven girl arrives to generate a domino effect that ends up negatively affecting the development of the story. She makes the twins exchange roles and gives us a version of both that does not fit with what they initially represented. An Edgy Ruby and an evangelized Aqua does not feel organic and only makes us take a long detour to get to a point that could have been reached faster without the raven girl in the middle.

In the end, this work is a recommendation that is made more for the visual than for the narrative. If you are a person who likes to delight your eyes with colors and plays of light, then this is a work you cannot miss. If, like me, you like to get angry with the script of a story that you really like, this is also for you.

Seeing that it's an Omori story, I was afraid that it would become a Danmachi 2.0, fortunately this was just a fear.

We're not going to exaggerate and say that Omori wrote something completely different from what he did with Danmachi. There are concepts and ideas that were recycled for this story, this doesn't mean that it's a bad thing. On the contrary, I would say that this recycling allowed him to work a little more on his characters and try to make them feel different from any other in one of his stories. The theme of the warrior in a world of magic is not ... something new or fresh, but it is still enjoyable. Especially when it comes to seeing Will running around the battlefield because you give the animation freedom to get creative and give you a game of cameras and explosions that keep you glued to the screen. More than the magic system, the most interesting thing is the entire school credit system that was established to give an attempt at a scale of power and to know how powerful a certain magician or creature is. The character design is more notable for those with the Magia Vander title, who would be the strongest people in this world. The main sextet, I do feel, need something more to give them a good design.

On the negative side, we could put the fights above all the one at the end of the season. The development of the fights is good, they are captivating but their endings tend to be a bit anticlimactic, instead of ending with a great sequence, they end with a powerful blow and that's it. Also the slowness of the story, if you are used to Omori's stories maybe you already know what to expect, but if it is your first approach you could have noticed that this was only an introductory season. It feels like we haven't seen anything of the world and its characters because they focused so much on showing us Will, his potential and the secondary characters along with the beginning of their personal conflicts. So many concepts are mentioned to familiarize us with the world and its system but they are not explored further, because they are things that will be used later.

It's a story that I would recommend, especially if you're looking for something to binge-watch or watch while you relax. A story that doesn't demand much from you and that's why it's so enjoyable.

P.S. I will always be a true believer in Rosty x Will, and I will live in denial even if they reveal the truth about the character to me.

A little-explored topic within the romance genre, unresolved feelings.

Nostalgia, remorse, regret, unrequited love, emotional grief and friendships to heal the pain of a broken heart. Makeine is a work that is appreciated more the further away you are from your school days. Depending on which side of the situation you were on in your school life, you can feel empathy with rejected girls or you can understand the pain of a person you rejected. School life goes by so fast that we never stopped to reflect on our actions and now as adults who have a little more emotional maturity is that we can understand ... these types of situations.

As for the work, the best thing about it are its characters. We have 3 heroines who are totally different from each other but who complement each other very well as friends. Each of them will deal with their pain in a totally different way. Our protagonist, personally, is the best thing about the work. It is an archetype of character that is rarely used within the genre. A character focused on passive listening. Nukumizu will always be indirectly involved in the rejection of each of the girls and although he will try to help them, he will never try to impose his will or force them to overcome it. Nukumizu will only be there to listen to them, to let them vent and in this way allow us to understand all the overwhelming emotions that the girls have in their hearts. This causes the girls to reach a conclusion by themselves, thanks to the fact that they had someone who would listen to them. Many times we give little value to someone listening to us, but most of the time that is all we need. We don't need advice, we don't need them to try to solve our problems, we just need them to lend us a shoulder for a moment.

I know I'm getting too reflective in this review, but this was one of those anime where I never stopped thinking and analyzing too many things at the end of each chapter. Still, to relax a bit, we must add that the comedy is quite effective. I think that many times they use the concept of "my traumas, my jokes" very well, sometimes making us laugh uncomfortably. In the animation, A-1 honestly surprised me for the better. He treated this anime as if it were made of porcelain. He paid attention to every detail, which sometimes makes you doubt that it is the same A-1 that we know. I must also emphasize that even though the last chapter of the anime was an original idea, it did not clash with the canon of the story. The influence and participation of the author in this last chapter is very noticeable. It is appreciated that it was not one of those filler chapters where the studio takes enough creative freedom to ruin the experience.

In the end, Makeine took me back to the times of my school life. It made me reflect on the times I was rejected, on the times I rejected someone else, but above all it made me value how fleeting relationships can be. I appreciate finding stories that try to contribute something new, a different perspective, but above all I appreciate a story that makes me remember memories that I had forgotten.

Sometimes masterpieces just happen upon you.

I've never felt the phrase "Don't judge a book by its cover" so deeply in my being. At the beginning I was hoping to have a story that would navigate a line similar to stories like John Wick. A super lethal assassin who tries to live a quiet life but the business takes him back against his will. The Fable goes a little further than that premise and really tries to give the hitman a quiet life. We see a hitman who really tries to live a normal life, of course being a professional he does this as a mission. ... The mission of living like a civilian, looking for a job and paying his bills. Deepening this conflict of a middle-aged man trying to find the meaning of what is "a normal life" is more interesting than it may seem at first.

This is one of those anime where the narrative surpasses what the animation section can offer you. They could give you a stick man animation and you would still stay because of how well structured the script is. The script always maintains the goal of not breaking with the essence of the character, to do so it has one of the most difficult jobs in this type of story. Having the professional hitman solve the conflicts of the underworld but without killing anyone in the process. The setup chapters and seeing the protagonist's train of thought is a delight for the viewer, as they are showing you many layers of the professional assassin character archetype. Still, the least interesting is the underworld part, what keeps us here is the everyday life part. Seeing how our protagonist strives to get a raise at work, catch up on the soap opera that his favorite comedian is on, or pick out a pet. Those little things in everyday life that we overlook, but for our protagonist it is a completely new experience. With this in mind, the story also gives a new perspective on things that we take for granted.

For a good protagonist to stand out, good villains or antagonists are needed. The work knows this and gave us two villains with an introduction, development and conclusion that is rarely seen, even surpassing the most popular works in the medium. They don't just seek to write a villain, but they take advantage of it to make social criticisms of the least mentioned topics today. Although these topics have zero relation to the protagonist, they serve to build a hateful villain but at the same time make sense if we want to extrapolate it to real life. The villains seen here, it's not that we could imagine them in real life, it's that they are people who already exist in real life, we just don't know about them.

This work is too human, which is ironic because it reflects people who had to leave their humanity behind when they decided to live this life. The Fable is one of those works so unique that it's very likely that we'll never see something like it again. A work made with a lot of love, so much that it will remain engraved somewhere in your person.

A season full of reunions? I didn't know I needed it but I'm grateful that they gave it to me.

In a story focused on politics and world building, this season feels very necessary. They put aside the powers and fights a bit to focus on the present and future of both the nation and the economic block that they want to form. To do this, they did it in the most entertaining way possible for the viewer, which was with a festival. The entire organization of the festival is too interesting, from the invitations to other nations, to the attractions that would be presented. The ... development of fixed tourist attractions to generate economic spillovers and encourage the local economy. The best thing about this season is that you don't need to be an economics expert to understand what is happening. Any concept is first digested and then shown to you so you can understand it regardless of your knowledge in the subject.

The most questionable section continues to be the villains. In three seasons, the story has failed to establish a proper antagonistic figure. Every villain that is introduced either falls too quickly or never represents a real threat. It is understood that everything is being built for the long term and trying to close, perhaps with an impressive clash of forces. Only that until we get to that point, we have nothing interesting to explore. It doesn't feel like there is a real threat to Rimuru's plans, because he can always solve everything thanks to his excessively convenient abilities.

Despite everything, the lack of villains does not overshadow how entertaining it was to watch this season. Tensura never fails to make us understand why it is one of the pillars and references of the genre. Letting us see that things can be done well even within the most oversaturated genre on the market.

A very interesting premise but one that didn't have the necessary space to develop.

A simple premise, a boy who likes to dress as a girl and pretty things. This will lead to an identity crisis and family problems, which would be the driving force of the story. Unfortunately, the story explored this theme halfway and in a very superficial way. The first 3 chapters are a bait where they give you a little of what you came to look for, but the rest of the story is divided into 3 subplots. The friend in love with the protagonist who denies the idea that he could ... like men, the cheerful and energetic girl with family problems and the story of our protagonist begins to develop in a secondary plane. The whole season I saw it more like a Turkish soap opera, since there were many subplots with high doses of drama and exaggerations to lengthen the plot just enough to announce a movie that closes the story.

What is most disappointing is that the protagonist's story becomes blurred during 6 episodes, because space has to be given to the other two stories. Honestly, those stories weren't bad but it's not what one came looking for. The girl's family problems have already been seen in many other media and the boy, although it works for the "romantic" factor that they want to give to the story, it doesn't feel right that they force a relationship when the protagonist is still lost in his life decisions. In the final stretch, the same story remembers who its protagonist was and tries to rush the pace so that everything is centered on Makoto again. Unfortunately, it doesn't end up having cohesion, since in the end everything is resolved with the power of family, love and friends but without really facing the reasons for the rejection that our protagonist suffered at the beginning.

If you just want to watch a soap opera, here you will find them and you may become a little fond of the characters. If you're looking for a story of acceptance and self-love while trying to fight against society's prejudices, there's none of that here. What's more, they're going to try to sell you the idea that society has never made a negative judgment of that magnitude.