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Apr 25, 2023

Isekai Cheat Magician (Anime) add

Not Recommended

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Alright, so, on its face, this just seems like any other of the average-to-below-average isekai anime about an OP protag and his OP wannabe waifu(s?) going on adventures and having generic fantasy hijinks. I went into this anime knowing it probably wasn't going to be AMAZING, but I wanted to watch something that might let me turn my brain off and just go with the flow.

In my first night, I only watched up to ep 4, and it was alright. Everything seemed about the level I expected, but I was able to breeze past the sometimes bad dialog and dumb or generic scenes. It was ... nice to relax with. But, OH DEAR, I was wrong. I was so wrong.

As I got closer to the end of the anime's season, I found myself less and less able to not think about things. Too many things were stacking up, and it became harder and harder to just call it an average 'junk food' anime. I'll be honest, I really don't want to hate on the anime, so I won't talk at length about anything that's typical isekai fare, or that is just average. I'll just bring up the points I have for and against the anime that is specific to it. Obviously, some spoilers ahead.

So, I'll start with the pros. I've already poisoned the well a bit here, but oh well. Isekai Cheat Magician is a basic isekai power fantasy; if you like the most common tropes of the genre, you'll probably* be able to vibe with it (I'll address the asterisk in a sec). The visual style for the most part isn't bad, and the sound direction is basically good. Main characters stay moderately the same throughout and don't have sudden or out-of-the-blue changes in character, so at least the writing is consistent. Even when the conspiracy plot comes around, the anime is happy to make things constantly very simple for the audience, so no deep thinking required; essentially, easy to zone out to.

Now, the cons of the show, and there are MANY.
As you get further in, things start to stack up, as I said before, and things that seemed minor and easily overlooked become more like something that seems overlooked by the makers of the show themselves. Right off the bat, I can think of multiple things that feel completely forgotten or neglected by the animators and writers. (1) The Guildmaster talks in quite a few episodes, but has no facial animation a good two-thirds of the time he speaks. We're essentially sitting on a completely still image of a character speaking out loud without any animation for it. Very jarring for me personally, since sometimes he does indeed move his mouth. Inconsistency is more noticeable than most other oversights. (2) Similarly, in the inconsistency department, there are a lot of times when main characters' weapons are drawn drastically differently. A good example is Rin's staff, which even in shots focused directly on her looks different often enough that I started noticing it in different shots of the SAME SCENE. Even a bad anime can have consistent art direction and animation quality (even when bad), but it's the inconsistent quality that makes it harder to ignore. (3) Some characters shout the name of a spell when using magic, but will say completely different spell names when using the same ability throughout the series. Similarly, characters are frequently amazed at OP protagonist using magic without an incantation, but normal characters do the same thing all the time.

So, inconsistencies out of the way, now we get to the meat of this. Forget the nitpicks above, here's the real annoying stuff. There are too many things that come together to make the scripting of the show terrible. Throughout the show, characters will use spells that don't do anything. Literally, one character constantly uses (differently named) spells in battle, and the result is always just a visual effect on her sword. Supposedly, her sword is on fire, but she still fights the same, the fire never does anything fire or heat-related, and she never actually uses it. It is very literally just a visual effect.

While I'm talking about visual effects, I might as well mention that. The effects and abilities of an OP protagonist's moves and skills are one of the main reasons power fantasy anime work so well and make their audience feel so hyped. This anime will most definitely not scratch that itch. The effects in this show are weak and extremely underwhelming except for maybe two times. The mage protag makes a literal water-bomb the size of a city block using pressurised heat, and what do we see after she activates it? It pops and we see a bigger version of a basic dust cloud, from a long distance away, making it look overall unimpressive. The protag uses his Grand Spirit of Wind to clear a massive spell? No, he shoots a little light at it and it shimmers away. Protag explicitly says he's going to use wind to completely change the weather's pressure system and blow away a thunderstorm? No, he shoots a tiny bolt of light at the sky and the clouds just disappear. (And, again, for the record, his magical spirit ability is wind; where's the holy light coming from?) And the whole anime is like this.

That brings me to the final nail in the coffin of this power fantasy isekai. Nothing feels powerful, and nothing feels weak. Every fight feels like both the combatants are of equal strength and the one who wins just got lucky or had some extremely basic idea of tactics. Swordplay is underwhelming from all characters. Magic effects are underwhelming for most characters most of the time (including OP protags). And despite all this, despite BOTH our OP mage and the basic mage adventurers using magic that looks identically underwhelming, we're constantly told by the characters that the protags are super powerful. And I mean, constantly. Power fantasies do that a lot, because the protag is OP and we know it. But if you can't show something that makes the protags actually LOOK OP, then constantly telling us we're supposed to think that is just undeserved and annoying.

Beyond all my reasons for thinking this show has terrible script-writing, animation direction, and effects, my most damning point against Isekai Cheat Magician is that it is an isekai, but no more. This power fantasy will underwhelm and bore. After episode four, even points of intrigue are kinda unsupported. You're told what to think about the anime and characters, without really being shown why you should. It's a bottom-barrel isekai, and nothing more.

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Aug 4, 2021

Dragon, Ie wo Kau. (Anime) add

Mixed Feelings

I'll be honest and say that I liked the concept and jokes in the show. I laughed a lot. Unfortunately, that didn't really translate to my enjoyment of the show itself. Sometimes, good jokes or references just aren't enough to hold up a whole season of a show. Hopefully, if a second season comes out (or if there's already one I haven't noticed yet), then there's a bit more foundation to it.

---Starting with Cons---

While I liked the idea, it really irked me that Letty didn't ever change even a little until about the last ten minutes of the season. I am not a person who ... thinks every character needs a major arc or anything like that; I just think that, rather naturally, a person even with Letty's personality would at least become partially more used to the people around him, the situations he tends to literally always get into, or the environments through which he travels. I enjoyed the end specifically for this, however it was too little and too late. If there is ever a second season, I hope they focus a bit of effort into giving Letty some character development. Even slight development over the course of a season would be enough; I just don't like completely one-dimensional characters. Until that slight change at the end of the last episode, though, I never saw even the slightest change to him. In the episode when he's trying to protect the egg, he seems like he's gonna actually maybe change a bit or grow a bit as a character, but he regresses almost immediately after that episode. The last episode's last 10 minutes contain the only real change I've seen. Just a little step in growth, and really, that's all I wanted to see, here or there, throughout the show. I think Letty, the protagonist, was the very reason I couldn't rate the show very well.

The other main thing that bugged me is something that has always put me off from specific anime other people consider worth the watch. I don't like shows that constantly depend on "unlucky character who can't handle themselves just got into bad situation and doesn't know what to do". Here and there, I get it; played for a laugh or two sometimes, I get it. Every single episode, though, makes it hard to get into. Hell, even when he's dropped into a situation that's fine at first, it's still often treated the same. It becomes boring and repetitive, which is why I focused so much on the characters rather than story (and found them lacking as well). Honestly, I enjoyed a lot of the side characters that only popped up once or twice more than I did the protagonist. If you're going to depend on a nearly formulaic approach to every story in an episodic series, there have to be things that make each episode different either character-wise or plot-wise. While the show overall isn't bad, I mainly only kept watching it because I was hoping to see some kind of progression, which only slightly appeared at the tail-end.

Any other cons for me are minor. Things like the following don't really need more than a sentence or two.
-Character design for Letty felt like it was constantly switching between two or three different variants even just between normal scene or position changes. It felt inconsistent.
-Honestly, the little bit of backstory we got for Dearia was interesting, and his story probably could have made a better show, or at least a good side story.
-The show feels like it's filled with Deus ex Machina. Often, Dearia only finally appears to REALLY help once there is no other possible avenue of rescue, making payoffs feel cheap.

---And now the Pros---

So, mostly, the show is a pretty casual watch. If you don't have a huge problem with sympathetic awkwardness or embarrassment, then you probably won't mind Letty's character. The anime, in that case, is a very chill experience, and could be nice to relax with or joke about. While I won't say the show makes great use of satire or parody, it does often make funny jokes about modern anime or game tropes. One of the main reasons I ever tried the show out was because I saw a gif of the joke about people building homes out of blocks.

As for the sound design, it's decent as well. No complaints, and it often fits the situations well.

Side characters are probably the most fun I had watching this anime. While that is kind of throwing shade on the main cast, I enjoyed the background characters a lot. The gnomes were a cute and funny addition, and the non-human characters we often see really did tend to rouse my interest. I liked how this show portrayed a lot of fantasy races we often think of as only the bad guys or the hostile monsters. A lot of the characters we only see once or twice actually make me interested in the world and it's worldbuilding because I can't tell if it's very shallow or very well-done and subtle. The show doesn't always just focus on Western fantasy creatures or Eastern mythical creatures, either; it often shows a good set of both. I was especially happy to see a sphinx in there, as (other than some of the Ancient Egyptian deities themselves) Egyptian mythical creatures are so poorly represented in a lot of fantasy. Anyway, a little bit of a con for the main cast, but a big pro for the sideliners.

---TLDR---
The anime isn't bad per se, but I can't say it's great, either. I think a lot of poor choices were made that make it feel boring and bland, despite hints here and there that there were probably a lot of good ideas behind the scenes. Whether that means that some good writers were sidelined, or that a lot of good ideas just weren't executed well, I could not rightly say. If you don't have problems watching characters in awkward or embarrassing situations, and you don't mind a lack of any real arcs or story, then this is a fine watch. Very chill and very easy to just sit down, watch, and zone out with. If you're looking for something interesting or character-driven, or even plot-driven, though, you probably don't want to watch this one.
Overall, I'd give it about a 5.5/10 if there were decimals. Points for the good ideas nestled in there, but fully outweighed by poor execution.

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Jun 28, 2021

Fruits Basket 1st Season (Anime) add

Recommended

I watched the original Fruits Basket when I was still a young otaku, but I enjoyed it a lot. Kyo's arc especially was something that made me feel so content with its resolution, and there was nothing that stuck more powerfully in my memories of the series than him.
That being said, I never heard many people talk about Fruits Basket. I figured it had become one of those lesser known classics, not considered all that significant in the annals of the most essential anime to watch. I, however, found it lovely, and I have rewatched it multiple times. Perhaps I had left it mostly in ... my past, though.

With the announcements of the remake, I had my doubts. In a time when so many things I enjoyed as a young one were being poorly remade, I was afraid that this would only sour my memories and make the anime I loved seem even less valuable to a newer audience that perhaps did not know the original anime.

I am so proud to say that the 2019 version was extremely faithful to the original anime. While I realise these were adapted firstly from a manga, I never have read it. I love the remake as much if not more than the original anime, though. They didn't really change much, but they lovingly put in more lore and backstories for the characters, making me find my love for them all over again. That said, I have only so far watched the first season of the remake, so I can't say anything for the second.
With this reiteration, I must say I loved so much of it and found only a couple problems. The updated graphical styles, while still faithful to the original, were made with an obvious love and attention to detail. The sound design was impeccable, and the opener and closer songs both (specifically the ones used in the first half-ish of the season) melt my heart with their love and warmth. For such a sentimental and love-driven anime, they fit so beautifully.
The characters are mostly the same as the original, but the added time taken to go into depth on the backstories of some characters who did not originally have them in the anime was especially praise-worthy. While it pads the season's runtime a bit and feels rather like filler, it made the anime somehow stronger by its inclusion.

Lastly, the only gripes I had with the first season were these:
I preferred how Momiji was depicted in the original anime. While Momiji seems more intelligent as befits their age, the german accent really threw me off. While I really still enjoy Momiji, the garish German accent just feels like it appears out of nowhere. While it makes sense for his mother to have it, Momiji was not seemingly even raised in Germany, so the accent is rather doubly out-of-the-blue.
The other gripe I have is more just a personal opinion. The opening song which begins the season should have been carried through for the entirety of the season's episodes. It very much fits the tone of the show's story arcs, and it was a lot more sentimental. It emphasised much of the loving and warm tones of the show, while seeming to carry a subtle melancholy which again fit the show very well. I felt the overly happy, more generic opening later in the first season was a poor decision. I never once had the inclination to skip the first opening, yet skipped the second every time.

The bottom line is that, despite my two small problems, I can very well say this anime blew my expectations out of the proverbial water. A classic anime, revitalised for a newer audience and older audience alike to enjoy, this remake is most certainly worth the watch. Whether you've seen the original or not, there is no end of joy one could receive from this show, as well as wonderful advice for relationships of all kinds. If you saw the original, this will be a blast of nostalgia that refreshes you like a splash of cool water on a hot day; you will be so happy you re-watched it as a remake, and thankful for the small tweaks here and there. If you have not seen the original, you aren't going to miss anything, though; this remake very well tells the original story, with more than was actually originally included.

TL;DR:
This remake of Fruits Basket is a huge recommend from me! So rarely do I give even my favourite anime so many 10s, and nothing below an 8, too. Whether you're new to this anime or not, I have to tell you that you should NOT pass up the opportunity to watch or rewatch it!

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Feb 2, 2021

Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken: Kanwa - Hinata Sakaguchi (Anime) add

Not Recommended

I quite disliked this episode, honestly.

The special is titled "Hinata Sakaguchi"; it's not about or centred on her at all. This is just another recap, with none of the heart that existed in Veldora Nikki to back it up. While that recap episode at least had cute tidbits here and there in seeing Veldora and Ifrit's interactions, this didn't.

It's another cut-and-dry recap, and we see barely anything of the character whose namesake it bears. It tells us that she's part of the Church and is studying up on Rimuru because she thinks he caused Shizu's death. And that -- literally about two or three minutes ...

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