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Dec 28, 2024
I would rather live in sad reality than live in fabricated happiness.
OG Bleach (366) was somewhat decent as a TV series. It had so many cool characters and events that was meaningful, funny and entertaining to watch. However, this new seasons “Thousand Year Blood War” is completely the opposite.
Old Bleach was slow given all the events to build up for the viewer, but now things happen in an instant that just ruined the whole build up and connection for all the fights to unfold and for characters and the story to grace in any way.
Fans after the last episode of the previous
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season of TYBW hyped up Senjumaru like she is the 🐐 and unbeatable. I knew right the way what is going to happen. It is task book Bleach outcome; She gets this super power up to impress everyone, then she gets destroyed by plot as always.
This was indeed the main issue with Tite Kubos writing. He can’t possibly write meaningful and comprehensive stories that has fundamentally driven by the act of the characters. Rather he writes nonsensical and soulless outcomes of the events since these characters like Senjumaru or Ichibei are so powerful that they could have ended the series. So does Aizen in the OG series should have defeated Ichigo with a single move, but Tite tried his best to gave Ichigo 2 years to train in the middle of the story which was hours in the actual timeline so he can somehow makes this train wreck story move forward into.. an absolute madness like it did.
The whole conflict is ridiculous anyway, Quincy’s are just made for being the bad guys that couldn’t get along with the Shinigamis. Obviously someone pulled the strings to make them hate each other, but they are so stupid to just talk through things. It is also way more interesting to put on flashy, but zero effort fights.
The real reason for my dissatisfaction with Bleach is its chaotic emptiness and the lack of any revelatory narrative to tell. Battle on top of battle just consumed this series alive since it has nothing behind its flashy overpowered characters acting battles between each others for years.
Every single Bleach episode now is random fighting against random pop out plot device characters that you will only know for no longer for one episode as the “strongest opponent”. Those who got beaten up and should have died like four times so far are getting stronger and still alive… Those who should have stayed alive are getting killed by plot. Ridiculous..
Lets talk about the battles and powers, because this show possesses the most unbalanced power system and unga-bunga action tactics ever.
All the powers are random and hardly had any foundation whatsoever.
Senjumaru should have killed everyone, but again the plot saved all the Quincy’s… so the story can continue. Not to mention she killed everyone in her Bankai, except Uruyu so HE can be the one who ends her.
Even Bleach fans knows that she is way above the league of Uruyu, but still can’t accept that this series and Tite Kubo is just playing with the viewers with his extremely poor writing. Since no one saying this out loud, he is free to write this mediocre nonsense all day.
Also, since when does Uruyu can use Sasukes Rinnegan abilities? Didn’t know it was their voice actor’s ability all along.
“This is my highest level” until you kill me and I come back stronger Ahh power system.
They are supposedly multiverse level, but in battle they do normal human damage to each other. The biggest attack power is probably small town level, but usually their attacks are building or wall level. However their aura and “spiritual pressure is shaking worlds”. We all know aura is a big deal.
The sad fact is that the whole power scaling is so unbalanced that no strong opponent can last longer than one second against another stronger opponent. They one tapping each other because they are so lacking correspondence to their titles. No worries though, the gap might be large in powers, but they are equally boring in battle tactics.
The villains in bleach follows the trope of evil for the sake of evil without any reasonable or rational justification of their actions or goals. They just want the opposite of what the other group wants. Kindergartners level scrimmage.
Deaths also has no emotional connection since characters dies from one frame to another without any logical connection to the battle or story.
Tite creates these crazy cool characters to appear epic, just for them to die a few frames later. One tap 90%. Also gives random explanations to some new stuff that he pulled out from no where.
The animators had to drag the scenes like “his aura is shaking worlds now” it might look cool and powerful.. but definitely not well written or enjoyable.
When it comes to actual battle, one side acts like they are the strongest ever, then when they don’t have anything else to say gets one tapped immediately. Don’t worry though, they are fine.
Yamamoto: “There is no better protection here than myself.”
Five minutes later: 🥝
Poor Toushirou was humiliated five times and he still alive.
Team Zero were named zero, because you need zero effort to defeat them. (Strongest group in Bleach btw).
Ichigo dies for the fifth time, I guess the training at the dinner table and in the jacuzzi wasn’t enough for him.
“Absolute Cinema” more like absolute Circus.
Considering that all Quincy’s are turning into a Pokemon, it is pretty accurate.
Whenever you hear an anime is called “peak cinema” - run.
Conclusion,
This series in its essence is all smoke, and people acting like there is fire.
Bleach was actually somewhat interesting as a shounen back then on its TV scheduled pacing. Now unfortunately it rock button with its extremely low effort of writing standards and nonsensical unbalanced content that made it look like a random piece of show off that has nothing to offer, but lazy action on top of action without no genuine or valuable content to disclose.
This type of battle Shounen what Bleach TYBW provided has been the most abundant of all action stories I have seen. What starts with a Ban-kai will end with a Ban-kai, eventually.
Everything in the middle is milky-parody.
As a result, Bleach has fallen from its knees to its face with this one. “Bah-ouch”.
Final Score: 1/10 ⭐️
I have a big appetite, but after all these exquisitely plated titles, I am still hungry for quality.
Thank you for taking the time to read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Dec 24, 2024
KAWAII BOKU DEEEEES
Puniru is a kawaii slime and only the one who created her can’t see this fact. Kotarou unfortunately plays the role of the old sculpture character that holds the stubborn/annoying character role for no reason, but for to be mean to the nice little girl.
Despite of the rude main male charcter, this anime brought back the old-school anime experience. It is colorful and super cute. Puniru is so carless and cute that you can’t stop to adore her personality and character. The rest of the cast are also holds some nice and interesting characters and their role is entertaining to follow.
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The animation takes me back to the old days when anime was about being anime and not being a social media sensation. Besides it’s old fashioned art its also references on Sailor Moon by Punirus transformations. Its art was really detailed and colorful as well, very well made and heartwarming.
TOHO animation studio is really can do something amazing, so better looking forward for their next projects.
If you want to see something new that represents the older times of anime days, I highly recommend to watch Kawaii Slime it is a funny and entertainingly cute series.
Final Score: ⭐️ 7.5 - Super Kawaii
Cute of you to read it
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 20, 2024
Welcome to 2024 where there is no such a thing as a bad anime.
Thanks to the fact that anime as a medium has become more mainstream, the Overton window on the perspective of what constitutes a good anime has shifted.
This is because the popular anime of today create a bias for what is expected of the medium. This baseline influences what others think is good.
Dandadan is everything that the current generation seeks. Crazy, colorful, absurd, erotic, and geared towards a low attention span.
It’s perfect.
If viewers of this era would start with any anime from before 2018, they would think it’s boring and slow. As usually
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anime typically handle their settings like this:
Introduction > some conflict > get to know the characters > rising to a climax > action > resolution.
In today’s case Dan Da Dan looks like this:
Intro > //Dan Da Dan Da..// > tiny bit of Introduction > action > more action > nudity > action > nudity > action > more action > end.
It is necessary to understand that the consequences of this aforementioned anime viewing behavior have affected the production quality of anime in general. This has resulted in the mass production of slop anime, that aim to hit the largest possible audience at once.
Regardless that supernatural themes are often hit or miss. The concept about aliens and ghosts are always intriguing and who hates these paranormal concepts anyway?
This statement is only true if it is done right.
The issues with this series started with the plot that progressed way too quickly, making it difficult for me to emotionally connect with the characters and the circumstances. Although I was excited to see the supernatural genre from a fresh angle, it lacked depth and felt like it was just made for cheap entertainment without offering any genuine or valuable storytelling.
So much information is thrown at you in either by a silly conversations or yakety-yak. Not like anything that happens makes a bit of sense anyway.
Shows like this must be funny as the setting is strange and the plot farcically ridiculous. However the jokes and funny moments completely lacked chemistry and since everything else happened so fast, when they tried to squeeze a little funny moment in it, it felt dragged which usually ended up coming off as cringe rather than being funny.
100 romance manga or not, despite the author had to sit through this amount of romance manga to create a strong romantic relationship and story between the two main character. It backfired since they both got along with each other as if they were close friends from the beginning. Not to mention the way Momo falls immediately for Ken just because of his full name and not because of his personality say a lot about the romance of this anime.
The way people are getting emotional after episode seven is the biggest reflection of how low the bar has been settled for standards in this era of anime viewers. I am a type of person that can tear up by just hearing a beautifully composed song or even by listening conversations between 2 characters, but that scene was way too fabricated therefore after six episodes of absolute blather, so it was more funny than weepy for me.
Animation was decent, overall when there wasn’t a lot of movement the art was nice and colorful. However, I can’t say the same to the animation smoothness as often it wasn’t consistent. Although in action scenes you could say it was intentional to be inconsistent to appear quirkier. There were non-action scenes where the animation really lacked and not done on the same level as the opening credits, which tells.
The design of the ghosts is very similar to the Arrancars from Bleach while the UFO’s are just ugly humans who want to rape, actually ghosts also have sexual assault desires. But even fan service became more fake and over exaggerated in modern. The whole “banana scene” and the hot granny.. why does everything and everyone has to be perverted and over-sexualized? Just why?
On last note, I would like to mention the voice actors. As for me personally it was a complete disaster. The two main character’s voice was an absolutely mismatch, didn’t fit to their characters and personalities. Although Hanae Natsuki is one of my favorite VA, he couldn’t make his voice more like an “Okarun” type of person as Ken was. He could have change voices when he turns into a ghost, but he just wasn’t nailing this role unfortunately. Ayase Momo voiced by Wakayama Shion and although she is quite unpopular and this role probably is her first major role, this character just didn’t suit her voice at all. Her voice was way too natural and deep.
Pros and Cons
🔴 Rushed Narrative
🔴 Weak Comedy
🔴 Boring Dialogues
🔴 Shallow Characters
🔴 Predictable Romance
🔴 Unbalanced Story
🔴 No Meaningful or Educational Value
🟠 Decent Background Art
🟠 Opening
🟢 Accessible on Netflix
In conclusion
It is a pity that this new generation of anime can be so highly regarded despite lacking to provide any valuable messaging.
By that means, Dan Da Dan is an absolutely perfect anime for the modern target audience where viewers want a spectacle but don’t care for plot. Unfortunately, it takes more than it gives to those who still have the access to the entire scoring system.
It might work for social media content as it is fictitious and has so many cringe content that some video creators might be able to force out reactions to. However for any normal anime watcher, watching grass grow would bring out more facial expressions out of them than watching this nonsense.
In Summary: For the past few years Anime is on a downfall and it is disheartening to see one of my favorite media in a chaotic dive to decay.
Personally, I prefer meaningful quality content over generic, goofy over-sexualized ones.
Final score: 2/10 ⭐️ Peak cringeworthy.
I’m grateful to you for taking the time to read my review, your feedback is kindly appreciated.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Nov 5, 2024
This doesn’t make any sense.
We can assuredly state now that this type of narrative is unique and might appeal for some viewers. However for me personally who holds respect towards women and true love, this story treated these virtues ungracefully and contradicted their moral principles.
The animation is quite average, but that wouldn’t be a problem for me if the characters or the story would have shown valuable ethics and warmth entertainment. In fact, they portraying the opposite.
After seeing four episodes, I think I will have to drop this despite I hardly ever do that, but it seems my morals are stronger than my
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tolerance at this point.
Although, that long lasting and loyal relationship is started to fade in our society and now it might feel more of a fairytale. I still believe that those original romantic stories are based on genuine feelings.
This one is a toxic, uncomfortable and forced love story that is hard to consume for someone who respects the meaning and the value of true love.
Therefore I highly suggest you to pick some earlier romance anime that genuinely depicted loyalty and love like the followings: Re:Life, Akagami no Shirayuki Hime, Darling in the Franxx or Plastic Memories.
Final Score 2/10 ⭐️
Appreciate your attention!
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Nov 4, 2024
Have you ever cried over a medium because of how beautiful it was?
As a grown man, I couldn't stop crying over an anime that wasn't even sad.
Dear Sisters is a spin-off of the Yuru Yuri series which is based on pure slice-of-life in the; cute girls do cute things “CGDCT” in short setup.
In this movie we get to see the Oomuro sisters in their everyday life and their interactions in a cheerful and peaceful manner. I am sad to realize how unrecognized this genre is, just because people believe it is about cute girls doing cute things and nothing else. However, this
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is a misconception and I really hope someday more people will try this genre out and see for themselves how immerse and heart warming these little stories can be, just about girls everyday pleasant communions.
Dear Sisters, just as all of its kind this story is also straight forward character-driven, portraying intercourses between characters without any defined target in the story. As they have to carry the story by themselves, without any conflict. Maybe this was the reason that I felt it so emotionally human and pure. In such an extant that you not frequently feel or experience in real life. It still not about cuteness, but more of kindness and compassionate of how these characters by their pure interactions represented the moral values of these behaviors.
We all show love in different ways just as the Oomuro sisters, regardless their personalities are completely unalike, they are all alike in being funny, lovely, cute and caring towards each other.
Without any drama this movie was able to show us how warming siblinghood can be. It wasn’t sad, yet I still cried. Cried so many times over some girls doing simple everyday things in of course cute and lovely way. Still, cuteness and loveliness wasn’t the reason for me to cry.
What is so emotional about sisterhood and brotherhood or friendship?
Kindness, compassion, love.
Dear Sisters showed the diversity of these emotional relationships in a way that it felt exceptionally genuine and pure.
Sometimes you argue with your friend, sister or brother, but in that exact moment you feel regret. You feel not to argue and say “those words” you just want to move on and wish for tomorrow so she or he could “apologize”, as you didn’t want to be the first to apologize, but you also just want to hug or talk to her/him in the meantime.
We not always act true to our hearts.
Every single heartbeat feels hurting when we act unkindly as every single time we act with kindness the beat reaches our soul.
It must be real, as this movie was able to speak to my soul.
Dead Sisters is so much more than your average anime. As it depicted the variety of kindness, compassion, love and by their interactions showed us how important and special these feelings for our soul. Even though it was built solely on characters interactions. It delivered at such level that it is not only entertaining, but it was also able to provide higher quality content that no action, mystery, or shounen can even come close to.
On a final note, gratitude is due for Passione and Studio Lings for their stunning adaptation and for all the voice actors performances.
Absolutely beautiful, warming piece of soul-work that deserves much recognition. By that means I can wholly recommend to everyone!
Final Score: Masterpiece ⭐️
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 28, 2024
-Is-It-Wrong-To-Pick-Up-Girls-In-The-Dungeon?-
POV: Is it wrong to decline all love interest in the Dungeon?
If this is not a harem anime, why they chose to go with this title?
If this is an Mc-driven story, why the hell we haven’t seen him develop and become stronger than a penknife thrower?
Bell Cranel is just incapable of picking up girls and level up from a pocket knife. He literally just an NPC since the second half of season one.
This show had the potential to be really exciting and different. It has some nice and interesting characters and even the plot was unique occasionally, but I am just tired
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to see that male Mc’s are acting weakling all the times in a romantic-action type of story like this.
You definitely don’t have to show x-rated scenes, but at least give us something rewarding to believe that this is what the title promised.
So far, it is quite the opposite.
⭐️ 2/10
Thank you for reading!
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Oct 25, 2024
(This story took place in “Return to Sabaody Arc” Ep 522)
One Piece Fan Letter is a piece of tribute to the fans of the series 25th anniversary. Crafted in such fashion that celebrates both fans and its long-running volume by tying us viewers in a little story from the perspective of an ordinary side character, that just particularly deepened One Piece world beyond fiction.
This little tale wasn’t just deep and well executed, but also woven a filler event into its main storyline that actually came out as a crucial turning point in the story.
The Straw Hats impacted the whole world, but now the
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world impacted One Piece storyline in an extent you haven’t seen much of anywhere. By tying the fans and the viewers of the series like they are actually part of the story. They are present in the journey of both the Straw Hats and in the series success.
The way they gave characters personalities and topics to debate on the Straw Hats crew members based on the fans of the series made One Piece already huge world even wider. As it ultimately just brake down the boundaries between fiction and reality. By giving characters fannish-stereotypes and connections to helping the Straw Hats, admiring or hating them. It was all there and it was beautiful, it was emotional.
Everyone is part of the puzzle, everyone is holding a piece of the journey. As the true OG viewers are now invested 25 years of their lives into this fiction, is really a recognition saying; They see us. They acknowledged the fans in such an incredible storytelling, that I have never seen anywhere else before. It definitely could be the best episode of 2024, but I could go even further to say this might just be the greatest episode of all times.
It was truly exceptional. Definitely a piece of work that made me moved, even though I only watching the show since 2023.
Personally, I really loved this type of animation they chose to go with. This loosely and curvy design as it gives you the feeling of freedom, the freedom of art. Which One Piece is all about and although it’s not fancy or super detailed, there wasn’t any static frame, it always had movements and colorful animations, which was also hand drawn by the way.
So hats off to all the people who have worked on this project and may I address my highest respect to Toei Animation Studio for their 25 years of dedication and pure excellence.
As an anime fan, you have to acknowledge greatness and this was: Marvelous
Final Score: 9/10 ⭐️
Thank you for reading!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 30, 2024
Demon Slayer Hashira Training Arc was known as the “calm before the storm arc” where all the demon slayers were trained in the mindset to defeat the demon king.
Only a few people know why this season and the previous season (Swordsmith Village Arc) was lower quality than the prior seasons. This reason is simple and obvious. Ufotable wasn’t used to make multiple anime adaptations in the same time period. Therefore since they accepted to make Genshin Impact adaptation, the Director of Demon Slayer had to either say goodbye to half of his staff (animators) or they had to cut down on Demon Slayer production
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schedule. Either option was a hit back in the expense of Demon Slayer which resulted lower quality.
The only way that they could have remedied this situation if they would’ve delayed the release. They chose to do less animation and less detail and that’s what happening.
I can also understand that people doesn’t like Zenitsu’s crazy personality, for their satisfaction we are not going to see more crazy screaming. We’re also not going to see smiling Muichiro and all these lovely moments were made as happy memories for the viewers. We all got this warming and friendly vibes in which we had a chance to know more about all the hashiras before things turn serious.
Everyone knew the story isn’t that extraordinary or complicated to understand and follow, but still somehow people are getting mad in 2024 that “demon slayer has no story”. Now they are crying for action, because they only watching Demon Slayer for the action.
In conclusion, this is a training arc. Ufotable doing multiple anime at a time, and those who really enjoy Demon Slayer (with all its flaws) hopes that people who now let out their hatred, can found themselves enjoy the final with us. For whatever reason they are still watching it six years in. I believe we all watching it for entertainment, even if you hate it or love it.
I know that this wasn’t on par with season two, but still Demon Slayer is a gem in the shounen genre. That will receive love for its little details and distaste for its greater mistakes. Either way, all viewers are just wants to see the best cinematic action ever created in the history of anime.. as expected to be.
The reputation of this stirring adventure is now in the hands of Ufotable’s team and they better not drop the pen before sun rises.
Final Score 6/10
(This is a balance review to the overwhelmingly numerous negative reviews - rants)
Thank you for reading! See you all in the theaters!
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jun 3, 2024
Why is Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is so highly recognised?
“In this review we will examine it under a magnifying glass, in the task of learning and uncover the mystery behind its remarkable success and to settle all query.”
So don’t judge by a closed book just yet, let’s turn a leaf of what now is an ideal fantasy into actual reality.
Usually, I don’t judge this seriously, although Frieren looks casual, it is far away from being usual.
The methaporic themes and symbolism’s. The significance of existence. Is an important part of Frieren’s story and one major aspect behind its enchanting appeal.
Why is it called
...
the journeys end? Even though the humans she met along her journey was just a portion of her life. They stayed with her until the end of their life’s as for them she was their whole life. Regardless of whether their time amongst the living has come to an end, their journey of remembrance has never actually faded to stay with her. As long as there is someone who remembers us, our journey never really ends.
As we structuring its premise by following a close to 2000 years old elf, Frieren. We slowly learn that time isn’t all that differs between humans and Elfs. Time is indeed precious, the important part of how we use it, what we spend it on and who we share it with. For an Elf, a human life is just months. Elves usually lives ten-times longer as humans do. Which also largely depends on their life conduct and breed. In Frieren case, she was born in a long-lived race which means they can live for close to eternity. What we set to learn from this little tale is to cherish life as much as we can. As Frieren slowly understands that humans from the reason of our short lifespan. We not just do things more quicker and more preplanned, but in the process we approach it with great empathy, giving the time to learn and understand the beauty of even the smallest things. Hereby forming bonds with them in this short period of time. Elves on the other hand are much more slower and their task has no deadline. Frieren learns these things beyond of her former companions journeys end. Reflecting that we only realize how valuable something is, when we can no longer have it.
The Story
The climax of Frieren isn't that extraordinary as many likes to believe. Even though it has 28 episodes, this story could be done in just 12 or else could have reached 600 episodes. As its story is basically just about walking, take a few months or years breaks collecting useless stuff in between. While spending a few episodes riddling on some deep life changing enlightenments on how you should appreciate the most obvious things like time and connections, then continue walking. For this reason it was quite difficult to catch up with this anime as it was airing. Even watching one episode in a month was abundant. It wasn’t the most boring anime, but I never really felt that it was made me want to see them walking again. There wasn’t really anything going around the main cast. Despite that they got into a few fights, just to make it more entertaining. It just made it more confusing, querying its purpose what this show wants to be and what it set to accomplish by forcefully mixing other themes.
Frieren just do things that other titles did in a much more interesting and versatile format, but maybe more people would settle for less in (character personalities), (basic soundtracks), (simple lore), (basic magic), (incomplex plot). I have to agree that there are times when we need outbreeding and anime can be just simple and realistic. Yet, while it does being simple and realistic it can’t forget to be what an anime is all about. Being one.
There are anime like Yuru Camp and Non Non Biyori. Which titles, without having excellent animation or epic fights are able to convey a lot of messages to the viewer. About life and about time. Frieren is confusing, because it cannot decide what it really wants to be other than it wants to be superior. You can make anything to be interesting, travelling can be interesting, like “Somali to Mori no Kamisama” or “Made in Abyss”. Characters interactions for 80% of the episodes, it can be interesting there are “The Monogatari Series” for example. For historical lore centered stories there is the “Fate Series”.
The most interesting thing about this anime is that it made me think about an even more terrifying story concept. About a Maylfy. You can also do a story about a Mayfly which said to not live further than a single day. And it could potentially have the same amount of life experiences as an elf that lives thousands of years. Even before we could realise that we have gone loafer. Shortly after the sun left the horizon and when the first star started twinkle, that little fly, was long gone. This just shows us how mysterious and how beautiful this world truly is.
Story part II
Fantasy genre is probably the safest genre that you cannot go wrong with. In the same way that the current most popular games are fantasy and open world, makes it a very popular choice in anime nowadays by its nature of being Adventure and Fantasy. As based on the fact that this genre is quite rarely seen, a good example for the veterans would be "Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful Word", and for a fairly recent example to this is "Musho no Tensei" which was highly recognized, mainly due to be part of this unique and rare genre. In addition to the fact that Frieren isn’t an Isekai just makes it even more perfect as we know Isekai doesn’t really famous of their reputation.
So why it is working so well? Could it be the reason that it wasn’t Isekai? Would be that simple? Or rather, it was the result of its captivating fantasy setting and its delightful adventures theme? Maybe it is given to its maturity and realistic expositions and sentimental messages? Things doesn’t have to be realistic or mature, an anime isn’t about that. For me, it is about to give something special. Just because it imitates a realistic and mature setting. It doesn’t implies superlative verdict nor provides incomparable entertainment. Similarly just because it’s manifesting sentimental themes and seemingly valuable messages it doesn’t mean it’s suddenly dealing with more nor providing innovative content.
This series is just really smart. First let me mention one positive aspect that really impressed me and caught my attention. I am talking about the Demons nature and their way of thinking. It was quite surprising that the series treated this so earnestly and also involved the antagonists into its sentimental value of its main themes. That was quite unique and interesting. For us humans communication is key to the hart. As a Naruto fan, I know the power of talk no jutsu. Its effectiveness is quite impressive. In Freiern the Demons have used words to convey humans. Although they don’t understand the reason behind the power of communication; Why are Humans weakness is communication? Their weaknesses are not the words though, Humans weaknesses that they have associated words with emotions. That’s the difference between humans and Demons in Frieren which is a positive concept in its story.
This gave a more mature look on the demons and also makes them more unique and matured perception. These things not used to get this amount of recognition due to the lack of their attention and connection to the main plot. It also provided a better understanding of their race and thus made the demons much more than just a stereotype antagonists. In Frieren this was well structured into its main story, which resulted to be noteworthy.
The Story Verdict (5/10)
Frieren on the outside looks nice, seems genuine and smart, acts like an original concept, but in the inside it is barley enjoyable and unoriginal. It’s repetitive and for any erudite individual that wasn’t living under a rock for the past 20 years, I genuinely don’t believe that this series can show or let alone teach something that they haven’t already knew or seen.
It ACTS original, because it is smart. It LOOKS good, compared to all the “trash” coming out nowadays. It tries its hardest to outsmart its audience by giving everyone what they want to see. It plays the role of a celestial being, above everything and everyone, like it has no weaknesses. The key to its success is to keep the audience in the belief that it is what it pretends to be and it “pretends” to be the greatest adventure sol-shounen.
Every anime has weaknesses, and for the case of Frieren weaknesses, is simply my existence.
In its actuality, regarding of the key behind its flawless performance, it lies in what its story symbolize; Time and life. These unheard and extraordinary themes are so egocentrically human-centered that we are mad hooked and enchanted about it. So much so, that I can also use the phrase that we are just mentally distracted from everything. As it is about us and not something or someone else. It’s neither complicated philosophy nor impartial mythology, but self-explanatory. From the reason that we are so selfish, we naturally grasps the “virtues” of these themes.
It is really interesting that all these sentimental themes slowly converted into random epic fights. The mimic’s evolved into epic slay faces.. just to be more “enjoyable“. - Zzz
Fights
It really pulls out all the psychological cards that a starter watcher would likely fall into extrapolating it as a sleek move. Howbeit, for a veteran viewer it is known as a common trick. To make us think that the opponents are way stronger, the author consciously holds back the main cast full potential. To make the viewer believe that they have no chance coming out this situation alive. The author makes the antoganists act like they are unbeatable, and right before they could finish off the main characters, the main cast takes off their fake masks and pulls out their trump-cards for the late win. Then gave the enemies the chance to process their mistakes of underestimating their opponent’s abilities. To make it look more compelling, allowing them to die in a hard-fought battle. It seems more entertaining this way, but in reality it is just exaggerated and dull, especially when the anime plays it out three times in a single episode.
The fight between Frieren vs Frieren is a great final fight for this anime, because it manifests how overweeningly self-satisfied with itself. They are gods compared to anything in their verse, so how would you make it even more satisfying to the viewer? Let the undefeatable face the undefeatable.
Although the fights were animated quite well, it separated the whole anime into two fragments; Slow slice of life and fast paced action which was way too afar from each other. Resulting confusion on what this series genres exactly.
The Animation (8/10)
Giving credits where credits due, in spite of what Frieren’s animation first seemed nothing more than mid-range level, it ultimately established close to par-excellence in its quality. This wouldn’t surprise those who are familiar with its studio in charge of its production, as they should know that they were in for a treat.
Madhouse is a warhorse studio as their production quality is well known to be consistent and well executed. Their art are colorful and vibrant along with their smooth and meticulous animation values. This studio has been producing gold after gold. Their work are extraordinary and much deserved to be recognized. For the early stages of this project, I was really impressed by the background art having a touch of oil-paint brush which wasn’t about being too detailed, but made it more elegant and unique in my eyes. When it comes to the fight scenes, they are also just as amazing, but people now started to compare it to fate animation which is quite embarrassing. It certainly looks good compared to all the trash that comes out nowadays, but anime ten years ago possessed just the same or not better animation qualities.
Overall, its animation is pretty and faithfully represented the anime atmosphere and its historical themes.
Characters (5/10)
Characters personalities felt flat and uninspired. Although they were cute, they weren’t possessed the most vibrant personalities. Snobby personalities sometimes good and can be interesting if there is someone next to them that has the opposite personality traits. Although they had some random personality traits for the jokes, like frieren tends to trap inside chests and act sleepy, or the famous mimic face impressions. She sometimes even pull cat faces..
However, for the most part we have set with 90% of the same low-demanding-emotionless-boring dispositions. Fern and Frieren are like mirrors. Before someone says it’s obvious that Fern got her attitude and personality by growing up next to Frieren. She was always been like this, and not just her. That demon girl, or all the demons factually they all got this low interest look or full narcissistic personality. Which made the show quite repetitive pretty quickly.
From this reason Stark character was a game changer and his appearance made this anime much more entertaining for me personally. As he wasn’t a loner and dull like the rest of the cast. If you would just take a look at the casting pictures , 90% of them are the same natural faces with no smile, no anger, no emotions.
Moreover, the funny expressions and the characters funny sides were became cliche so early. Frieren wasn’t trapped in chests, but she was looking for to be trapped in all sort of things..
It felt forced rather than being natural. In addition this really showed how one dimensional and shallow the cast of this series actually are.
Frieren cast being praised by their development and natural expressions is really strange. As I haven’t noticed any significant development on their characters. It was more of a clishe how they all were just a copy of their teachers. They had the exact same characteristics..
Soundtracks (5/10)
Maybe it is little harsh to compare it to larger titles OST like for example Violet Evergarden that had opera house level of scores. I mean multiple albums that are just incredible. Frieren in its actuality is also hold a pretty decent albums and has some novelty notes that fits its historical themes. The opening and the ending is nice, but I always felt something mandatory about them.
Nothing extraordinary or outstanding which is quite surprising considering the main score of this series. As in my opinion music is one major factor in emotional attraction to the story which in this series wasn’t able to make a profound impression.
Enjoyment (4/10)
Frieren is an easily likeable anime for those people who prefers a slow and simple anime. At the same time it can be found monotonous for people who prefers fast paced and more complex stories. However even if you belongs to this group, after epsiode 6 it gets slightly better. So that’s going to be the bare minimum recommended amount of episode to invest into it.
The thing is that Frieren on its whole 28 course of episodes gave me the same feeling that other titles did in just one scene alone. I have watched it without a single reaction. It couldn’t made me smile or wow a single time. it wasn’t able to make me exited nor produced anything remarkable or unexpected. All these sentimental themes can be found in other titles that have handled them better without being this forcefully and fundamentally obsessed with them. Although there are things which made it look unique like how the demons were portrayed, but that alone wasn’t on par nor executed anything that I have already seen.
We read books and watching anime, because this world is boring. Our reality doesn’t offer the level of exiting things than a fantasy story can. However, this isn’t true to Frieren. I feel that if I would have spent the same time outside or took a book from the shelf would have been much more worthwhile than watching this.
A massage for the lost generation
To answer the first question on why is Frieren so highly recognized.
There was a interesting experiment which tells us what lies within this myth.
In a vine sampling, three different kind of vines were sampled to a group of people. One glass of vine was labeled as 2£ another as 4£ and the third one labeled as 12£. After they’ve tasted each vine samples and gettered all the votes. 85% chose the third one labeled as 12£ as the most delicious vine.
In reality, the most expensive vine was 2£ the middle priced was standard and the expensive 12£ vine was just a cheap store vine.
People are like ants and only a few can act true to itself without being blindly manipulated by circumstances. We are afraid of doing against numbers because we are weak and simple.
“Most people don’t really want the truth. They are just looking for answers that confirm their prejudices. “ - Jim Wilhelmsen
“The human eye is a wonderful device. With a little effort, it can fail to see even the most glaring injustice.” -Richard K Morgan
“It's only because of their ignorance that they're able to be so sure of themselves.”
- Franz Kafka
Epitome
There is no such a thing as flawless anime, even those that are considered masterpieces are not perfect in every inch. Which is completely fine as being perfect in everything isn’t what really makes an anime special. As the real good anime aren’t built to be special or perfect. They makes the viewer feel special and awakens something magical inside them. That conquers all boundaries, by fulfilling our soul with warmth satisfaction and as it merges with cold harrowing nerves recollections that riddles through bones. By the time this mixture of emotions reconciles and reaches our heart, an enlightened sense of peace possesses our mind.
Only a few titles can reach this level of absolute exhilaration and pureness.
“You cannot truly feel the enlightening warmth of the summer without living through the darkling coldness of winter’s.”
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End didn’t even came close to this feeling. Which not surprising considering and truly comprehending its core values. As Frieren has took itself way too seriously and self-persuaded that it is above all things considered. While it is smart and cleverly written. It couldn’t possessed nor was able to show anything remarkable or refreshing that other titles haven’t already did without being so sentimentally intrigued nor had to included even a single fight scene. Neither had to show a millions of flashbacks just to make us feel something.
While people acting like Frieren invented a whole new level of the Sol-Adventure. In reality, it just used the same old formula in a super safe and smartly manner. It presented itself as a superior etiquette while it basically just copied straight away from Violet Evergarden cover picture.
Conclusion
At the end, judging this anime without looking neither of its backgrounds nor its cover and strictly what it provides. I genuinely don’t see the appeal behind its generic and monotonous concept. Perhaps it can be enjoyed by a few individuals, but not for its characters and neither for its story.
It’s impressive that this show was able to convinces the viewer that they’re watching something new, something unique while in reality they are just watched another cliched themes utilized smartly. Because Frieren is indeed cleverly written and executed. Proportionally contains slice of life, sentimental messages and action that visualize a flowing harmony on its surface.
In my view however, I sense great confidence surrounding over it on the outside, overlaying the unfenced emptiness on its inside.
Therefore in my eyes, Frieren is just as close to masterpiece as it is close to pathetic.
Final Score 5/10 ⭐️
TLDR; Frieren is the most shallow, empty and simple anime ever to engross the number 1 spot and officially became the harbinger of an end to an era. The fact that this is going to be the face of the anime is just pure madness.
Thank you for taking the time to read my review!
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Apr 5, 2024
Mashle is the perfect example of those typical type of shows that we say, turn your brain off and just watch it. However even if you just want to watch something for the sake of watching something. There is hardly anything to find that is less entertaining than this.
The story is basic and repetitive. Perhaps if you liked Harry Potter you can give this a chance, because its basically HP and One Punch Man combined. Unfortunately we haven’t seen anything special or unexpected and probably never will. Although it had a promising potential, I just can’t see any signs after watching two seasons that they’ll
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try to even take this a little bit more seriously in the future. Therefore expecting to see something meaningful and interesting after this season is pushing it.
I keep hearing that regardless of how mundane its premise is, it has a decent animation at least.
Let me be clear and honest about this, the animation is trash. Respectfully, this is below the standards of any mainstream media, not even considering that we are already in 2024, but Im sure you can find anime from the year before 2010 that has significantly better animation qualities than this.
Not just the luck of animation what is present, but the artistry of the characters, landscapes and even the backgrounds depiction is really mildly done.
I also have to mention the FPS (frame per second) which is incredibly low as well. Except a few fight scenes where we can see 12-15 fps at best, but for the most part we staring at a pretty low 3-6 fps which is pretty bad.
For comparison anime like this usually rocks between 12-24 FPS. Only crazy studios like Ufotable and Kyoto Animation just for a two examples had produced episodes that were reached 45 FPS or even more. Still, in Mashle’s case it feels like a drag to watch. Not as bad as Majo to Yajuu, but new animes really struggle with production quality, or maybe they just don’t care as much..
(Maybe, it is due to the fact that consumers standards are dropping significantly). As for a lot of people this is going to be the norm standard, no wonder Frieren is “masterpiece”.
Overall, I can’t recommend Mashl to anyone, although it seems everyone is pretty much liking it.. It certainly had a vibrant opening which made use of in some parties recently. Other than that, what is really missing from the new gen anime is the faint trace of real passion and magic, which Mashle has none.
Thank you for reading!
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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