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Hesitant to review this but doing it anyway so I can remember when s2 comes out, why I gave this so-called-masterpiece a 5.

To get personal bias out the way - I went into this after hearing everyone badger on about how it's the 'greatest anime of all time', I'd only seen people singing it's praise and a MASS amount of people at that. I have a tendency to always be let down in these kind of cases. And I was let down with Frieren.

Considering it's a classic fantasy, Frieren did very well to subvert the basic tropes by focusing on an Elf who'd already completed ... their main adventure - this is an incredibly interesting premise that isn't widely explored in the genre. But I think the way this story is told completely fumbles the bag. Being a long lived creature, you live to see your friends and family die - this should be incredibly emotional, but Frieren does little to set up or execute any emotionally impacting scenes. Especially regarding her old party members, why are we supposed to care about these people we do not know? The first episode is presented like an extremely emotional one, but there's been 0 time to build a connection to the characters. The old party members are shown through present day meetings and past memories, for about the first 15 episodes? Which in themselves go from 10 or so episodes of 'character building' to a mini training arc. The latter 10 or so episodes follow the Violet Evergarden formula (best example I can think of) where you're supposed to see the characters grow from their interactions with others. But unlike Violet Evergarden, the growth was so minimal and insignificant when the characters are as bland as the ones in Frieren. The show lost me here and it just completely devolved when it turned into a random competition/training arc? It felt so out of place going from a slow supposed character building tone to some basic ass shonen fighting? Wild U-Turn.

Frieren makes sense to be so 1-Dimensional, she's an old ass elf. But why would they show emotional range with her bursting out crying at the start then only have her hint at caring about others in a very lowkey dont notice me, fashion for the entire rest of the show. There doesn't seem to be any development there as it's clear she always cares about the two kids. Her characterisation as also being childish and naive didn't work for me either.

Purple hair girl and Red hair guy were whatever. The same in the sense that they have sad backstories that are mentioned and promptly have 0 affect on their characters after two episodes. They don't grow or develop, they act like kids who sometimes get along and sometimes don't. Nothing more to it. I will note that their hinted romance is very cute and very well done.

The rest of the cast aren't worth saying anything about other than, if the main characters are so bland - these guys are worse.

Animation was fine, standard for a typical shonen.

The OP felt wildly out of place - I'm definitely swayed here as I absolutely loved the mediaval style of Dungeon Meshi's opening that went perfectly with the fantasy theme. I don't know why they chose a generic pop song for this anime, it doesn't connect at all, it feels like they knew Yaosobi was popular so chose her purely based off of that.

Overall I'm definitely jaded by my high expectations. I think the bar is really on the floor when people praise the hell out of this show for literally just not sexualising women - like that should be the baseline, not something that is deserving of praise. Overall I found it boring after the first 10 episodes, struggled to get through it (shoutout to Hades and Euro Truck Simulator2 for keeping me entertained whilst watching it). I can't say other people won't like it, it's highly rated, it just didn't click for me personally - and when you can't connect with the characters in a character driven show, it's obviously not going to work.

GIVE ME SEASON 2!!!!!!!!!

Now that I've shouted that into the void - Kuromukuro is a rarity in the mecha genre. It's a simple show about humans in mechs fighting aliens in mechs. It quite literally doesn't get more complicated than that? It doesn't try to be anything else; it knows it's story and sticks with it, it doesn't get itself lost in trying to be a pretentious Eva knock off.

Starting with my favourite aspect of the show - the characters.
Ken is the star - he struggles with his identity and purpose, a theme which is echoed from many of the characters. His circumstances change rapidly ... throughout the series and each time it forces him to reevaluate his goals and values.
Yukina is meant to be the star alongside Ken but let's be real - she's an audience self-insert. She's your typical timid, clumsy female mc, but it would be a diservice to say she doesn't have her own arc. She struggles with her own purpose in life, starting very much as a lost character with little guidance. But when Ken is introduced, she truly begins to shine.

Ken stands on his own as a character, Yukina helps to bring out his development - challenge his values and force him to rethink his goals. Their dynamic is genuinely so adorable, I don't know what other words to use to describe it but it's one of those that had me giggling n kicking my feet pretty much everytime they were on screen together. They compliment each other so well.

Almost every side character was fleshed out, and had their own struggles which were given enough time to flesh out through their own mini-arcs. Considering how big the cast was, it's a feat the studio successfully accomplished in making each character convey the themes of the show.

I'm now going to dedicate an entire paragraph to quite literally the only reason why I capped my rating at 7. Marina. This character could have been removed and the show would instantly be better...AND THE STORY WOULD BE EXACTLY THE SAME! She serves literally 0 purpose other than being an of-age fanservice pony. I have such a deep hatred for her it genuinely makes me so viscerally angry to think she was literally only included for that???? I hate her character, I need an option to add most hated characters onto my profile so she can be right there, she's literally the only character that has made me feel this way, she was just a completely unnecessary add-on that ruined every single scene she was in.

Anyway back to reviewing, continuing with the negatives: The facilities security.

**SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR THE FACILITY SETTING AND TREATMENT OF CHARACTERS**

This has been mentioned in many reviews so I won't say that much, but you really have to rely on suspension of disbelief when watching a lot of the scenes in the facility regarding how the 'prisoners' are treated. They're escorted from place to place with only two guards and their hands bound? In what world would that be acceptable security measures? Obviously they have to dumb it down so the plot can progress but it gets a bit tiring when the security measures fail again and again, and are so lackluster in what is meant to be a state-of-the-art facility that holds such magnanimously important objects. It makes it feel like it was run by children, makes the leaders seem stupid and dumbs down any feeling of it being an important location.

A more personal gripe I have is with the tone. It never goes down a dark path - despite having everything it needs to do so. It stays safe the entire time. I believe this is to the shows detriment as it holds it back from ever really saying something. This whole point does pretty much contradict my entire first point, but it's still something I wanted to mention in case anyone was expecting something along the lines of Eva, Terror in Resonance or Erased in terms of a deep or serious tone/messaging.

Back to positives as my reviews have to get at least one confusing vote or else I'll feel I would have failed to touch all bases:
Quick firing the generics:
- CG was good, not amazing but definitely very good for 2016 and probably the best I've seen in comparison to all I've watched previously
- Art was fine, standard style synonymous with anime
- Music was great, not amazing but enough for me to add it to my spotify list of songs in animes - both OP's AND ED's, which is a feat as I rarely deem ED's memorable

Overall I recommend people to give this a try, it's an easy watch - 26 episodes long so not too much of a commitment, even if it's on in the background it's easy to digest. I class it as a romance because the MC's chemistry beats MC's from actual romance anime's I've watch, the fighting was great so it's got a bit of something for everyone. It made me stare at my TV at a loss when it finished because it's 8 years old with no sign of another season and now I have no idea what to watch that's going to live up to the mc's dynamic. Did I mention I love the MC's dynamic???

Give us a season 3. Thank you.

Everybody knows the classic Brothers Grimm fairytales, twisted stories of dark minds - most people are probably familiar with a variety of medias that have attempted to adapt the fairytales. This anime is one such media in a long list, so what do they do different? These adaptations come from an Eastern perspective - something which comes through particularly strongly in the first and fourth episodes. The twists (at least to me) are fresh, with the settings being completely different from their original counterparts. This anime is less so a retelling of the original fairytales; it takes the moral message and the main characters then ... spins them into completely new and different worlds.

Whilst all the episodes tell strong stories of their own, the last one is what prompted me to make this review. The animation is fairly average for most of the episodes, with several moments where it ramps up - one such moment being the last half of the last episode. The animators took clear inspiration from studio Ghibli to create a truly beautiful looking spectacle. The sound fits the general old-European backdrop that presets the episodes - with the premise being each episode is the recounting of the brothers to their little sister.

It's only short with six episodes, each being around 40minutes long. And each episode is thoroughly entertaining, some being particularly thought provoking. Whilst it may not be everyone's cup of tea due to the mature and sensitive themes that are on display - I'd highly recommend.

I don't know what it is with anime's these days having such an intriguing plot and meaningful theme but then just completely butchering the specifics. On the surface, Drifting Home is a story of childhood friendships and maturing as you learn to move on. The kids in the film find themselves at an old apartment complex that is set to be torn down - only for it, and them, to be transported into the middle of the ocean.

You'd think that the characters with such a close proximity and nowhere to go, there'd be plenty of opportunity to explore the bonds between the children. And ... you'd be mistaken. Instead, it spends the majority of it's runtime inching towards any sort of character arc. The supernatural elements are explored instead, but in a rather incomplete manner that still leaves more questions than answers. It feels like the metaphor was lost and instead focused on too much practically rather than what could be implied with it.

There's a total of seven children who get stranded, two of which are the main focus of the show. I cannot for the life of me remember their names and I only took a 4 hour break after watching to begin writing this review. So yes they weren't memorable in the slightest. The boy is the mainmain character, we see the events through his eyes almost predominataly. His character arc is incredibly simple, goes in hand with the theme of the show of maturing, but specifically in terms of understanding others. He doesn't really feel like the main character though as the female lead goes through a more interesting arc in my opinion. She has to learn to overcome imposter syndrome, grief, guilt, and ultimately mature and move on by letting others share her burden - opening up. Her arc was more fleshed out but it only really became the focus, or even started during the final act of the film. There's another girl character who has to learn to stop being stuck up, and then her friend who just seems to be a vehicle for stuck-up-girls development. The other two boys are irrelevant and the show would be no different if they were gone. The final boy is just, weird. It goes with the supernatural stuff and the show could've done without it as this gets too much focus and serves as nothing other than a literal metaphor.

The animation and artstyle is incredibly pretty to look at, and the soundtrack was very well made - perfect music for a lot of moments that did make them quite moving.

Overall this movie doesn't really do anything or tell any story. It's should've decided to either keep the supernatural elements a metaphor or fully embrace them - rather than not committing to either resulting in this awkward mess.

I initially thought the main theme of this anime would be about growing up and how futile it is to resist the changes that come with growing into adulthood. It did well to set this up and it makes sense with the setting being a town where you are literally not allowed to change, but instead the story decided to go down a path Sigmund Freud would love with an elektra complex focus for god knows what reason.

To give the film some credit, it has an incredibly intriguing premise - I may have been confused at times but not once was I bored. I didn't ... read a summary other than glancing at the sypnosis which mentioned how people weren't allowed to change - I think if I didn't see that I would've been a whole lot more confused because I didn't understand this had supernatural elements and people literally weren't changing until the third exposition by the main character. These initial expositions clueing the viewer into the situation of the town were done well, it didn't feel like I was being ham fisted the backstory - but again it took a while for it to click with me and I don't think somebody going in blind would get it either until atleast halfway through the film.

The main character didn't really feel like a person to me, he felt very much like a vehicle for the audience to view the world. He has no distinguishable character traits other than...being good at drawing? That was quite literally the only trait he had, his personality was that of a discarded receipt that had fallen into a puddle on the sidewalk. Completely irrelevant and forgotten. This of course creates a problem when this anime is allegedly...a romance.

The main female lead, at least I believe she's supposed to be, is - I can't really say this nicely but she's genuinely an insufferable bitch? Pretty much every scene she's in she's just...being a bitch. No spoilers so I can't back these up but she's just a horrible person to everyone?

Now you can probably imagine why it's hard to believe a romance when the people who are meant to be at the centre of it are a wet wipe and an asshole. Maybe they are suited to each other...but no accidental puns aside the romance is horrifically forced and at no point did I feel like it made sense. I can think of one possible justification as to why they're meant to be the romance partners of this anime which is revealed about halfway through but if that is genuinely meant to be the reason they're in love then it simply creates more questions than answers and doesn't give across the right message in my opinion.

Then there's the child. I can't say all too much because again, spoilers but just...why. They could have genuinely removed this character completely and the anime would have been better, which clearly shouldn't be the case considering she's a vital character towards the premise but it really is. She's meant to facilitate the two main characters arcs but they don't go through an arc so she is literally redundant. Her own...developments are just weird. So weird. It seems the only reason she's there is so they can add the theme of 'love between boys and girls' into the description but this theme just serves to the detriment of the anime.

Spirit wolf, sacred wolf, whatever it is is incredibly confusing and convoluted, I didn't fully understand it either by the end - the film had a solid enough premise without it. Nothing would really have changed if they just did away with that layer of the not-changing world.

Another over-the-top two dimensional so evil he's evil wow evil, villain. What's new, not surprised just disappointed that we continue to get these boring antagonists who are just plot points and serve as anticlimactic stake makers for the main characters.

It's a shame this sucked so bad because I always look forward to watching these stories told by women as typically romances written by men fail to capture any nuance especially with the women characters - here the woman character does have nuance I'll give her that but the plot surrounding her just diminishes it all to nothing. The more I think about this anime the worse it appears to me because it had potential but overall it got lost in what message it was trying to tell.

Writing this with tears still in my eyes, so clearly it was an extremely emotionally moving experience for me. Suzume is a tale of grief and how a person is supposed to move on from such a life altering event. I didn't know until I read some other reviews that this was about the 3/11 disaster in Japan that left many children without a parent. I can't properly talk about this film as the core themes can only be explored by talking about spoilers so this will be a short review.

Suzume is a young girl who lives with her aunt due to the passing of ... her mother when she was young, we're first introduced to her - or her dreams more specifically in which it is made clear that she still very much grieves for her mother. Yet this is not shown outwardly from her character, instead she puts forwards a face of a head strong girl. Throughout the film we see her personality shine through, she truly is a charming character and gives us the perfect viewpoint from the adventure she is going on. To avoid spoilers I can't say much on her character arc but it has an incredibly satisfying end and really teaches the lesson that we are the ones to save ourselves, and carry ourselves into tomorrow.

Souta, the male lead, is a gentle soul. He takes a backstep to Suzume, aiding her in her journey rather than having his own - but he serves his purpose very well. Not to mention he is just a beautiful character in personality as well as looks. This goes for the majority of the cast, they're all people who aid Suzume on her journey - but this shouldn't diminish the fact that they are characters in their own right and feel like real people. The voice acting for everyone is fantastic - standout roles were definitely the va's for Suzume and Souta, it's a breath of fresh air hearing new voices in animated films and they were fantastic.

It's a Makoto Shinkai film so of course the visuals are the standout. CGI and 2d animation are seamlessly woven together to create some stunning sequences that really go to show just how far technology for animation has come these past few years. The camera movements along with the animation created so many well done shots that are harder to do traditionally and create some memorable moments. I don't think I need to gush too much, it's just a visually stunning work, every shot is a piece of art, it's just so breathtaking.

The music was well chosen, especially for some car sequences where the music was put on by the characters in the car for the drive. The ending song only had me crying harder because of how moving it was. Sound as a whole only aided the experience, no qualms there.

In case you couldn't tell I really enjoyed this film. It had a message to tell and it told it, a lesson to teach and it taught it. An empowering one at that. I would highly recommend.

Aico is an anime about what it means to be human. I'd like to say it tackles this question quite well - generally speaking, when it comes to being an interesting piece of media though it really fails to be anything other than mediocre.

For such a theme based around being human, you'd think there would be a focus on making the characters believable people with motivations you can understand and stories you can relate to. Unfortunately it does not do this. Almost every character is forgettable, I only remembered two of their names (the two leads). The two leads do have a fairly interesting relationship, ... I can't say much because that's spoiler territory but they grow well together - my only gripe being the weird 'love interests' thing that seemed to be hinted at. Only Aico was an engaging protagonist. Not enough to make up for the lack of personality with everything else but she was a very good character. She comes across as a more gentle soul, but the show immediately shows that she has a strong will - something that keeps up throughout the entirety, as well as a lot of empathy and protection for others. Her arc is fairly small, she doesn't develop all that much as every choice she makes stays true to who her character is, she may seem like she believe one thing at some points but she does stay steadfast in her beliefs for what she truly wants and chooses to do.

No time is given for any of the other characters really, we're given an exposition dump for a couple of their backstories (exposition dumps are another problem with this) but that's about it. We go on their journey with them, we see how they work well together as a team and how they all do care for each other - but it's just not enough to actually care about them. The main villain is a little bit too cartoony, they're set up fairly well but when they come to the spotlight it is a bit too dramatic, as if they're saying 'look I'm the villain' to really show that they're not a good guy, rather than having any build up to justify their actions.

To understand the plot and what's going on you really do have to be paying full attention to the show. It's only 12 episodes so there are some scenes that are short but a major change occurs, if you weren't paying attention then you're just going to be lost. The latter half definitely picks up the pace, whereas the first half slogs on quite a bit with nothing much happening.

Overall it was an enjoyable watch, it lost my interest in parts and the sad moments didn't elicit any reaction at all out of me due to this feeling of detachment I had towards the characters. But I liked the message and I believe it did quite well exploring it.

screaming, crying, eating my pillow, hurling, doing a 100m sprint, oml finishing this has left me with that feeling when you finish something that is just so godamn good that you get that sadness its over and the despair that you'll never find something like it again. This is going to be one of my less critical reviews because gosh I am simply gushing over this one. I binged it all in one (with a dinner break) sitting and it captured my full attention the entire time.

I went into this knowing absolutely nothing, never heard of it or the manga - I simply thought it ... was going to be another romance anime with a 'quirky' lead like toradora, but oh boy was I in for a ride: Romantic Killer is a parody of the romance genre, it takes the reverse harem trope and puts a unique spin onto it. All with it's own protagonist who, despite being quite stereotypical, still hits it out of the park with her characterisation.

Anzu is pretty much your basic 'not like other girls' girl. She likes video games, hung out with boys over girls growing up, isn't 'conventionally' attractive (in terms of the world), is blunt and stubborn, most importantly: she doesn't want to get into a relationship. But this is out of spite for the pull point of this anime - Riri. It's clear at first that Anzu does find the ikemen attractive, she tries her best to resist their natural charms and fails on many occasions. Moments like these really make her character all the more relatable and pulled me into the anime more: these guys are attractive but she has a solid goal to not fall for them, it's believable for her to turn them down. What stood out the most to me is just how steadfast she is in her beliefs, she unconditionally supports her friends and never fails to show up for them. She also gets along with a lot of people - she's not your loner-loser protag that a lot of these 'quirky mc' romances tend to go.

The animation and artstyle is what really sold this show - the constant references to other pop media like Jojo's and Ace Attorney had me reeling when the comedic timing was perfect, it doesn't take itself seriously for the majority of the time - and it's serious when it needs to be for the actual plot. These types of shows usually have a problem with pacing and pulling together a real story, but this show has no faults in that department, again thanks to Riri. Bonus points for literally no fanservice either, this show was really made for the girls and the gays.

Riri grew on me so much, first off we love enby/genderfluid rep but their character had the most growth by far out of the whole main cast. And they have a very satisfying character arc. The other characters hold their own in their own right: Kazuki and Junta obviously being the main male leads are developed the most (with Kazuki taking the lead), but we're given a decent amount of time to learn about all of the harem participants. I did just wish for the throuple tho im ngl it wouldve been perfect and the vibes were THERE.

Anyway...Kenjiro Tsuda voicing tsuchiya???? hello??? need i say more (they should've made his character a dilf please he deserved more)

My only gripes with the show is that it was too short, I would've preferred more time with each Li but that's just a nitpick because it's satisfying enough with what's there.

I'm also hard coping right now because it appears the creator of the manga has dropped the series which finishes off pretty much the same time as where s1 has ended so...no season 2 and no concrete ending! hopefully in 8 years I can come back to this review and see myself proven wrong :')

If you want to just turn your brain off, sit giggling n kicking your feet for the better half of the day; then this anime is for you. But the second you start actually thinking about it, the problems start to arise.

Every character is incredibly two dimensional. For a shoujo romance this is fairly standard, but considering this one features a disabled lead you'd expect it to be handled with a bit more care.

So, what's the problem with Yuki? Yuki seems like a self insert in every worst way; she's small, pretty, timid, shy, naive. None of these are inherently bad, I personally am just ... sick and tired of this trope of women in anime. Basically the perfect girl with absolutely zero flaws, but also enough of a blank slate for the viewer to be able to insert themselves into her shoes. She has basically no visible family, hardly a past, no memorable life events - it's like she just popped into existence as soon as the first episode started for the viewer to begin vicariously living through her. And that's ignoring the pull point for this anime, the fact that she's deaf. Now I'm not deaf so I can't speak for anyone, these are just my own opinions; but it just feels like she's infatalised because of her disability, not only by the people in the show but by the creators of it. Her disability is only used to give reasons for the men around her to jump in and make themselves appear in a better light.

That brings me onto the male love interests. Itsuomi is, much like Yuki, the perfect guy with absolutely zero flaws. He's tall, pretty, conscientious, considerate, loving, (all things I wish real men would be) he travels, speaks 4(?) languages, is incredibly popular. Despite this anime toeing the love triangle line, it's just so painstakingly obvious he is made to be for Yuki - and by extension, for the viewer. Him having no flaws is such a problem as it just makes him an incredibly boring character; it seemed at times like they were hinting at him having more depth that was waiting to be revealed, but nothing ever happened? Lost opportunity I say.

Oshi is the childhood best friend, the sorry excuse for a part of the love triangle. It is very obvious that Yuki has zero interest in him so to me, he was never perceived as a threat. His only contribution to the story was to infantalise Yuki and pine for her. I'd argue that he was the most fleshed out character in the show, to me it seemed like the only reason he liked her was because he could (and did) learn sign language to communicate with her, something which the vast majority - in fact everyone other than Itsuomi, didn't do. It felt like he had a saviour complex, a flaw! Unprecedented, I know. But it was interesting, it just wasn't explored at all which is an incredible shame.

I can understand that the general theme of the anime was Itsuomi taking this sheltered girl with a barrier to the world, and helping her overcome that - but that again just seems incredibly infantalising (sorry this is becoming a buzz word), why does it take a man to 'save' her and teach her these things? Their relationship just didn't feel real to me, it always felt like they were just kind of pushed together without knowing each other? It really made me struggle to believe they actually went well together, the lack of connection was palpable.

I don't have much to say about the other side characters, the pessimist in me doesn't enjoy how idealistic it all is but that's just the type of anime this is.

Animation is beautiful, I see the art style is devisive but I thought it was incredibly pretty and I didn't think anything else of it a couple episodes in.

The sound is fine, op is okay, no stand out there. Voice acting performances are good, despite the poor international languages which is all too common.

Overall it was an enjoyable watch, just a lot of missed potential that could have been fixed with some better characterisation and even pacing.

Blue Exorcist was one of my favourite animes when the first season came out, so much so I immediately started collecting the manga - which I haven't read so my review is based soley on the anime. I can also safely say I am not blinded by nostalgia as I rewatched all the (canon) media prior to starting s3 - that really set the tone for what I was about to experience.

Season 3 perfectly encapsulates everything there is that is wrong with this anime: boring exposition, confusing character motivations, eye rolling amounts of twists, reliance on shock factor and trying to 1-up the last ... deception in order to keep things interesting. All of these are ever present throughout the 12 episodes. A lot of my problems are very specific, but for the sake of keeping this spoiler free I'm going to talk very vaguely - so my apologies if this is confusing.

Starting with what annoyed me the most; the plot twists. There's around five of them which all happen fairly early on - 2 of them are excusable and contribute positively to the story as they make sense and have been foreshadowed in the prior seasons. The others however seem to only exist to add shock value and provide the characters with something to do. Not only are there far too many of them but they just make no sense, there's no build up or hints as to what the twist is - they just happen completely out of nowhere? To avoid spoilers I'm not going to break these down but oh boy are these revelations handled poorly and significantly degrade the quality as there affects continue to disrupt the following episodes.

Exposition dumps is another feature that, to this seasons credit, isn't used all that frequently - there was just one particular episode that was entirely and exposition dump that irked me the most. It piled 1 characters entire backstory and motivations into 20 minutes, then expected me to care for them? The way it was done was incredibly poor and did absolutely nothing, I did not empathise or feel anything in particular as the way the information was delivered seemed much to like it was telling me how to feel. "Here's this poor character, look at their misfortune, isn't it so sad? are you feeling sad yet?" Overdone.

Through trying to develop characters, this season just butchers them instead. Each character is given something to work with, but every time it just falls flat. By the end of the season there's practically no difference as to how they were at the start - with one exception of differing character relations. Their motivations for their actions made absolutely no sense to me, they just seem like completely different people - or at least watered down versions of how they were in previous seasons. They have barely any actual depth, despite the things they go through that very so should affect them! They act no different and their morals are just up in the air, who knows what they value because they seem to change it every episode.

Rin's character is one I have a very big problem with as well. Having the main character also be the comic relief can work - if handled with care. As you can probably tell by now, Rin is not. I understand that this is a shonen, and me being very much not the demographic I might be expecting too much, but there are plenty of other shonens out there that explore deep themes whilst also balancing light hearted scenes to even out the tension. Season 3 bats you around like a tennis ball with no regard for subtlety or care. One second Rin will be battling with what it means to be half-demon then the next he'll just crack an immature joke. I understand that comedy is his way of coping - that's what I love about his character, he prioritises everyone else's comfort above his own and is such a kind and loving guy who cherishes friends, and he's also literally just a kid who has been through so much trauma...but it's just not handled well. The tonal shifts are like a slap in the face, I don't know whether I'm supposed to be feeling tense during the tense moments when a stupid joke that is about to ruin everything is hovering just a few seconds away. It really ruins a lot of pivotal moments.

Technically that is a separate point I got a bit carried away with, but it's most prevalent through Rin's character - but the tone of the anime is another downside. On paper it very much seems like they're going for a more serious feel with strong themes of generational trauma and familial betrayal, but the fail to ever stick to this. The strong moments are undermined by comedic jokes right after, with no breathing room to let whatever big impactful event sink in. I also think the stakes are non-existent this season, there just isn't an overwhelming threat that feels like it's actually going to cause an real significant long lasting damage.

In terms of animation, it's all been said before. I agree with the majority that the anatomy on the new artstyle makes a lot of the characters look off. but the colouring is gorgeous and somebody really loves Bon because he looked so fine in practically every scene he was in. Bon stans ate.

The sound didn't stand out to me at all, the op and ed are fine nothing special. The effects and background tracks do feel a little corny in places but are unremarkable at best. Voice performances are also fine, on par with the previous seasons and again, nothing special.

Overall I'm incredibly disappointed with what we got, it feels rushed which is incredibly sad considering just how long we had to wait for this. I'm definitely going to go read the manga now because it feels like a lot was left out/underdeveloped, and I really do love this series so I don't want to leave it like this.