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OH MY GOSH MY EYES WHO LOOKED AT THIS AND DECIDED TO HIT RENDER?

After the conclusion of Love Live Sunshine, Bandai-Namco and Lantis have been trying to squeeze as much content out of Aqours as humanly possible before their contract ends. With this in mind, the quality of the media coming out widely varies. At the top we have Genjitsu no Yohane and Ku-Ru-Ku-Ru Cruller. On the bottom we have...this...
Putting aside the fact that the animation in this is worse than:
1- Animated music videos in the PHONE game
2- The previous music video (Kokoro Magic A to Z)
3- Fan animations of the series
this music video ... is still awful because of the simple fact that the song sucks. There's an obnoxious horn arrangement in the song, the singing is off-key, it's somehow forgettable even though the song is bad, and Aikyan's voice (which is generally the best in the group) is genuinely cringe-inducing.
The only memorable thing about this music video is the yuri bait with Mari and Kanan.
Kazuo Sakai, if you want to make Love Live fanfiction, start a youtube channel.

And whoever greenlit this, please never work on Love Live again.
2/10 because I've heard worse Love Live songs. Also horribly rendered Yohane falling into the camera was funny.

I went into Next Sky expecting two things:
The first thing I expected is that it would be bad, like how season 2 of Nijigasaki was, and the second was for the Love Live simps to blindly defend it and to tag any negative review of the series as "confusing" as they've done in the past to try to discredit legitimate criticism.
Neither turned out to be the case.
For the latter point, my guess is that after the disappointing run of Love Live content in the last year and Next Sky being overshadowed by Genjitsu no Yohane, it seems that not many people are talking ... about it.
As for the OVA itself, I was pleasantly surprised. Some aspects like the pacing and the character writing are as bad as ever, but the story is relatively enjoyable, the conflict isn't melodramatic, the animation looks fantastic (good job Sunrise), and we actually got some good character development with Shio-ti (that's Shioriko for all those unware).
If there was one thing I was disappointed in, it was the music. It's decent production quality but I definitely did not enjoy the first song's tune. The other songs are okay. Go Our Way isn't really my cup of tea but the visuals are phenomenal. Outro song is inoffensive but a downgrade from the previous outros.
Next Sky is probably worth a watch if you're a Shioriko fan or a diehard Love Live fan like myself. Otherwise it's pretty unnecessary. There's cute girls doing cute things, Engrish, a bit of drama, some British girl who for some reason has a darker skin pigment than the girls from Japan, and a cameo by Maho from D4DJ's seiyuu as some other British girl.

Oh also Koko Hayashi did a great job as Setsuna in this. And I say this as someone who did not have high expectations for her.

Tomo-Chan is an excellent example of how to properly adapt a manga.
There's a lot to praise this series for.
While there's nothing truly incredible about this series that makes it God-tier, it's just the little things like well written supporting characters, a lack of irritating anime cliches, and the fact that it was a short, sweet, and cute story that I could enjoy in a couple of sittings that made me like it.
The characters: Pretty enjoyable. Jun and Tomo are great complements and there's a lot going on with them. We sort of see their inner struggles and how they grow on each other ... throughout the story. Misuzu was best girl (besides Tomo), she managed to walk a fine line between being cute and an ice queen and stole the side character show for me. Carol, her mom, and Tatsumi are some of the other memorable characters that come to mind.
The Story: It's a solid adaptation. Unlike series that feel the need to drag the romantic elements out for 3 seasons (you probably have a good idea what I'm talking about), the story is sweet, short, and to the point. There's a setup, growth occurs between Tomo and Jun, AND WE EVEN GET TO SEE TOMO AS A PRETTY GIRL. (Which is one of the best scenes). There's some good conflict with the other characters too, I was never bored watching the show.
The Animation: Pretty solid 2D animation. There's nothing crazy about it but it does a good job conveying the story.
The Comedy: There's some good jokes in the series! It's no Kaguya or Urusei Yatsura, but I had several laughs watching the show. If the goal of this show was to be a romantic comedy, it passes in the comedy department. Especially considering the voice acting aided in the comedy pretty well.
If there was one thing I didn't care much for, it was the music. I found both the intro and outro slightly annoying and the OST was forgettable. Small complaint for sure but if the soundtrack was on par with something like FMA, Little Witch, or Kaichou wa Maid Sama I definitely would have bumped it up a point.
If I was an anime director, this series is something that would be mandatory viewing for writing something that is both a solid story and doesn't make many mistakes in its 13 episodes of runtime.
Let's hope Tomo-Chan isn't forgotten to the depths of time and remains beloved for many more years!

If you want to see how bad Love Live can get, look no further.
Zero story, ugly CG art, and 1 character trait per girl.
This is just a cheap cash grab by Sunrise in the same way Attack on Titan Junior High was by Production IG. However this is worse because AOT Junior High had a gimmick in subverting the high school trope and this has nothing going for it.
It was hard for me to sit through the episodes even though they were mercifully short at 2-3 minutes long because they're just so boring.
2/10 instead of 1/10 because Setsuna's episode was actually okay
Please never make ... anything like this again Sunrise.

This show to me is what Konosuba is to a lot of people.
Little plot action, but extremely funny and with a sex-crazed male lead.
However, I'd argue that this show is significantly better than Konosuba in that while both are comedies, I found the humor significantly funnier, the animation better, the characters more enjoyable, and to top it all off, it isn't an isekai. (There's also some limited character development unlike the former).
One of the harshest complains I've seen for this show is that it's not adapting all of Urusei Yatsura. However, I find the limited amount of adaptation acceptable considering the number of episodes that ... would need to be produced for the remake would be in the hundreds.
I do want to disclaim I haven't seen (much) of the original show. While the original show is fine it was very dated and low-budget, so it definitely deserved an update.
This show is hilarious, but it's hard to put into words.
It's hard to review the comedy since
1- it's subjective
2- it's not translated the best through text from its original source
However, I do recommend watching at least a couple episodes if you haven't and seeing if you enjoy it. To give you a general idea, a lot of the humor is slapstick or situational, kind of like a Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry cartoon, both of which I'm quite fond of. This may be my favorite RomCom anime, dethroning even Kaguya-Sama (which is honestly more of a romance drama with some comedy sprinkled in towards the later seasons), because it's significantly more funny than Kaguya and leans more into the comedy than the romance, which I prefer in RomComs.
Final score 9/10
It's not a "perfect" show because the jokes don't have a 100 percent hit rate. However, it is pretty close to 100 and with that and a little more plot progression it would definitely be a 10. It's just a fun show I can laugh at after a long day at work with some great characters. As it stands this is my favorite show of 2022, beating Kaguya Season 3, Spy x Family, and Komi.

This is a show that thinks that it's deep because it has commentary on the social relations of people in society.
In reality, it's not deep and has generic and unlikable characters. Sure, some of the story is good but the problem is that whenever you start to enjoy the series, something puts a bad taste in your mouth.
Whether it's the homo trap character, some character going out of their way to badmouth the mc, fanservice, the little sister character, or the yaoi fangirl, there's definitely something to sour the mood for everyone.
Oregairu has the bones to be great, and because of that, it ... does ultimately get some things right. The summer camp and school festival arcs are very good at progressing the story and achieving the symbolism that the writer and director were aiming for. But those are a few islands surrounded by the sea of mediocrity.
The art is extremely dull. The characters look like lifeless robots and the style isn't the prettiest. The actual movement is fine, it's just that the character designs are an abject failure.
Generally the defense of this show is that "it's leading to something" or "you just didn't understand it."
Well Brain's Base had 13 episodes to lead to something, it just didn't. I understood the story perfectly, I just didn't like it personally. As someone who can identify partly with mc, this show made me hate people more when it supposedly wants to do the opposite.
If I learned one thing from this show as well as Bunny Girl Senpai, it's that people in the anime community have way too low of standards.

Is Lycoris Recoil a good show?
No.
The better question is, will you enjoy watching Lycoris Recoil?
The answer to that is probably yes.
A common trend I've noticed in quite a few bad anime or anime that become bad later on like Attack on Titan is that the protagonists aren't very likable or good people. Lycoris Recoil is somewhat guilty of falling into this trap, not really with the main cast but with DA itself. DA is basically an Orwellian group that covers up all sorts of crime and terrorist attacks in the name of brainwashing the sheeple into thinking that Japan is a safe haven where ... nothing bad happens. DA isn't necessarily shown as being good for doing this, but they also aren't condemned. There's a lot of unfortunate implications from this fact. The main villain so to speak, isn't really any worse morally than DA. He's definitely morally a worse person than Takina and Chisato, but that's about it.
Most of the characters are pretty good. I do enjoy them quite a lot. Except Kusonoki, she just reminds me of one of those teachers you'd have at school who would give you a B on a paper you worked on for a week because it "didn't feel like an A." Chisato wanting to save lives and not take them plus her character development in the second half was really good. Majima is a great villain and honestly a more likable character than the leaders of DA. Mika is such a great father figure character, and even though the backstory with Shinji was kinda gay, I have to admit it was a very interesting plot twist. Takina isn't a super interesting character in the beginning but she definitely gets better as the series progresses. The other girls in Lyco aren't really good or bad, they're kind of antagonistic in the beginning but then after getting shown up by Chisato they kind of just fall in line.
The animation is really good, and I like the character designs a lot. A-1 Pictures really did a great job with it. There's so many action shows with lackluster animation, so having an action show with very fluid animation earns Lyco some credit.
The comedy is really funny. The villain screw-ups and the comedy with Chisato always got a good laugh out of me. This show is really good at balancing emotional, serious, and funny moments.
The action varies a lot in quality. Some scenes are pretty cool and others are pretty cringe. Some people thought the whole thing with Chisato dodging bullets was stupid, but honestly I don't really understand the complaints. Sure it's a bit unrealistic, but that's the beauty of anime. Things aren't realistic. I don't really think Chisato dodging bullets should make or break the show for anyone.

As for what's wrong with the show, I've already discussed the worst part by far, which is DA's malicious control over Japan. The ending of the main conflict is also incredibly stupid and anti-climatic, moreso than Chisato dodging bullets. Bystanders would never buy the claim that the government gave, it goes against human nature. Also the plotholes and characters not noticing things that should have been obvious really bugs me. Pretty much any time Majima is on screen all logic is thrown out the window. Which is a shame because he's a great character, but it somewhat ruins most moments with him.
I also think some of the "mean spirited" moments are kind of cringe. A-1 Pictures has a very obnoxious trend of having an antagonistic character who's mean to the poor wittle defenseless protagonist for no reason just to make you empathize with the protagonist without having to give proper character development. It's really overused and just kind of annoying.
There's also a lot of things especially towards the end with Shinji that just never get explained, I get that the show was just trying to wrap up quickly but not enough was explained for me to entirely understand what was going on with him.

If you do choose to watch this show, you can probably expect to enjoy it, but it's definitely not a "good" show in the way that One Punch Man or Steins;Gate are.

If you don't want to actually use your brain for any critical thinking, then you'll think this season was great! However, for many critical thinkers and myself, the show has left us torn. Unlike the laughably bad other Love Live show that aired this year, Love Live Superstar is at least enjoyable, probably in part to its talented director (Takahiko Kyougoku) who also directed School Idol Project. However, some excellent episodes, kickass music, and a few enjoyable new characters like Wein Margaret don't entirely make up for everything that bothers me.

So what is it that fans don't like about this season?
I think the biggest ... failure with season 2 of Superstar for the fans is the ending. But for me the it's how the new characters were introduced, which is what is to blame for the lackluster ending. Adding new characters was already a major risk, and Superstar's risk did not pay off. Shiki and Mei probably had the best introduction, but it could have gone a lot better. Kinako's wasn't too terrible although she basically becomes a side character after episode 3. Natsumi's episode (technically two) where she joins are quite bad, but I actually really like Natsumi as a character (outside of the times where she faces no consequences for her bad behavior). Wein initially started out pretty good, and I still really like her, but the final episode with her is a disaster, mainly because the writing is so convoluted. She joins the same school as Liella for what reason exactly?
Actually, that's not fair to Wein, a lot of the writing is convoluted. Season 1 had issues with it too like when the school director tells Kanon and Keke their group will have to disband if they don't get first place at a concert. They end up losing to Sunny Passion, but for some reason the director doesn't make them disband their group. With that being said though, you could at least brush off the plot points that never connect in season 1. It's a lot worse in this season. Take for example Natsumi trying to screw over Liella and using them to make money. What is Kanon's idea of how to deal with it? Ask the little troublemaker to join Liella after all the grief she's put them through because...? In another moment of bad writing, Ren gets addicted to playing video games in one of the episodes, and apparently the way to fix her addiction is for the other girls to play games with her because the power of friendship fixes gaming addiction?!? This one isn't quite as bad because Kanon offers to be Ren's vice president to help her out, but I don't quite see how that fixes her gaming addiction, they never actually resolve the issue, they just sort of forget about it. And let's not forget Liella celebrating in episode 3 after they go to the idol competition just for getting an honorable mention even though they lost. Also why is Wein so fixated with Kanon in the first place? I can understand her knowing about Love Live, but Liella didn't even make it to the finals in Love Live, and even if they did and were famous, why is she only fixated on Kanon specifically?!? Just another thing this show never explains.
A lot of the characters don't really get much time on screen because much like Nijigasaki season 2, there's too many characters and not enough time to develop them. Kinako, Shiki, and Ren are definitely the worse. Ren actually GOT an episode but she's genuinely the most boring character outside of that, only being relevant by talking about her dead mom.
There's a few other minor things like the music not tying in very well to the story, or the last episode not making you feel very passionate about Liella winning, or the stupid fake-out ending where Kanon's trip to Austria is canceled. But none of those particularly offend me, although I know a lot of people were upset about the last one. But honestly I didn't WANT Kanon to go to Vienna because she's such a good lead. So dumb anticlimactic ending or not, I can forgive the ending other than the episode being (mostly) wasted.

The Good:
There's actually a lot of good stuff to talk about this season! My favorite part of this season was episode 9, which funny enough was the episode that aired a few days after my original preliminary review. Keke and Sumire admit they care about each other, even though it's clearly embarrassing for both since Sumire is a show-off and Keke is a by the books kind of girl who doesn't like Sumire's prideful ways. But Keke knows Sumire cares about her deep down and would do anything for her, as would she. The passion Sumire has and desire to be with Keke was so touching and cute compared to most of the bland and uninteresting drama in earlier episodes. It's genuinely my second-favorite episode in the entire franchise, only behind You's episode in season 1 of Sunshine, which is similar but focuses more on loyalty and friendship than the obvious light yuri Superstar is sprinkling on with Sumire and Keke. The voice acting was some of the best I've ever heard in anime, and it was awesome to see Kanon actually in the driver seat and passionate about something instead of standing around with a generic smiley face going along with everyone else. Episode 4 is also pretty good, and so are the first couple, even though they're soured a little by knowing that Kinako's basically not getting any character development when they're over. There's also a ton of funny moments with Natsumi that made me really love her as a character, like I said, she's one of my favorites even though her arc was stupid and gave her misdeeds a pass. Wein Margaret is a great rival, even though I think the other characters are a bit too forgiving of her, it's nice to see that Love Live actually has a rival who isn't "nice", which is a trope I'm pretty tired of. Tying in with that, it was nice to see Sunny Passion lose. Frankly, they were really weak as a rival group and had sucky music, so it's nice to wrap up their story and focus more on the vastly superior Wein. I was worried that they'd be a major part of the story in season 2 but I was thankfully wrong.
The music is almost all top tier, it's on par with season 2 of School Idol Project. We have Welcome to Bokura no Sekai, Butterfly Wing, Vitamin Summer (my personal favorite), Chance Day, Chance Way!, Edelstein, Sing! Shine! Smile!; and the outro, Oikakeru Yume no Saki De. (The song they sang at the finals for Love Live was okay, but it was no Kira-Kira Sensation and honestly didn't deserve a win. Any of the other songs I listed that were sung by Liella would have been more deserving of a win.
The comedy is also pretty good, and made me laugh quite a few times.

Overall, there's about as much good as there is bad for me, and to top it off the show has a high entertainment factor. I didn't go in with high expectations after Niji season 2 and the announcement of new characters, so I wasn't too terribly disappointed. There's a decent number of problems I have with the series, and I don't think they should be glossed over. Do they harm my enjoyment of the show? Definitely, and it pulls this show down enough to where I can't be a diehard fan of it like with school idol project. But does it destroy my enjoyment of it? Absolutely not. As long as Kanon, Keke, Sumire, Wein, and Natsuuuu can continue to entertain and have somewhat decent stories working off each other, I'll be cautiously optimistic, but not excited, for season 3.

One of the reasons people like Love Live! so much isn't just because it's an idol show, but because there's a lot of drama and really emotionally powerful moments that make you empathize with the characters as if they were real people. Both School Idol Project and Sunshine were able to do this very well, because the directors understood the importance of doing more with the story than just having cute girls doing cute things.
Nijigasaki tries to follow this formula to an extent, but it's not very successful. One of the reasons it fails is because a lot of the characters are very one-dimensional ... and uninteresting. Even when a character is good, their episode generally only focuses on a default trait, instead of looking at another aspect of their personality like with Rin, Nico, or Nozomi in School Idol Project or Dia, Ruby, or You in Sunshine. So in a way, Nijigasaki is only as interesting as the character's personality in the episode is. Sometimes we'll have a decent episode such as Setsuna's but this isn't often the case. Many of the characters are just downright unlikable or cringe, such as Ayumu or Rina. Rina's episode was a disaster largely because of the fact that it was so cartoonishly over the top for something trying to be serious. When Rina draws a smile on the reflection of her face, all I could think of is Joker trying to make himself smile, except it's supposed to be serious. Not only that, but she literally gives up on life all because of something as stupid as not being able to smile, and the way the episode is wrapped up with her scribbling a smiley face on a piece of paper and putting it over her real face is just laughable bad, and it's treated as some sort of amazing accomplishment.
Ayumu's episode (or episodes) are actually far worse though. Ayumu loves Yuu a lot, and is paranoid of other girls stealing her. This is a lot like what happened in Sunshine with Chika, Riko, and You, except in Ayumu's case it's less friendship and more romantic love. This could have been interesting, but it fails horribly because Ayumu is just so toxic and possessive that it would make most viewers genuinely uncomfortable. The episode isn't trying to put her in the wrong though, the way she acts is seen as pretty neutral by the show. You would think that Yuu would be upset or even downright angry by the way that Ayumu acts, but Yuu is horribly bland so instead she just acts kind of surprised, and then goes back to trying to tell Ayumu about her piano playing or something. Another thing that makes the episode bad is just how stupid Ayumu is, Yuu catches Setsuna tripping and somehow it proves that Yuu is in love with Setsuna or something by Ayumu's idiotic logic. At least in Sunshine, it made sense why You was upset, because Chika was neglecting her a lot for Riko, except for when she needed outfits or something, but in this case, Yuu isn't even neglecting Ayumu, simply her talking to another girl is proof that she's in love with someone else. (Also it should be pointed out that Yuu and Ayumu aren't dating, so her reaction is completely childish and stupid even if Yuu was in love with Setsuna).
Outside the bad or just boring episodes that didn't really leave an impact like Kanata's or Emma's, there's some good stuff the show deserves credit for. Both the animation and CGI have come a long way. Chase is a great song, a lot of the visuals including the ones that reference the UR cards are good, and there's some genuinely good moments in the show.
Shizuku's episode is kind of a hidden gem not a lot of people talk about, but it's actually quite good. Shizuku kind of explores the self-doubt within herself telling her she can't become an actor, and the episode actually takes itself seriously in a good way. Self-doubt is a topic that is only really ever talked about in Love Live when talking about idols, so to see it being used to talk about another struggle a character is going through is actually pretty interesting and welcome. Plus her dynamic with Kasumi in the episode and others actually works pretty well.
There's also a lot of good comedy with Kasumi that really improves the episodes that would otherwise be mediocre. She's always scheming and I'm all for it. There can also be a lot of good small moments, like when Rina finds a cat and refuses to hand it over to Setsuna, it's a genuinely good moment and could have been the start of something more interesting as character development for Rina, but it never really goes anywhere. Some of the characters in Nijigasaki have potential, but it's never really utilized. And with the exception of Ai, it doesn't really improve in Season 2. I wouldn't say Love Live: Nijigasaki Season 1 is a pass, but it really depends on what you want out of the series. If you just want some simple stories and cute girls doing cute things, you might love Nijigasaki. If you want something more drama-intense and exciting, then this show doesn't have much to offer for good drama outside of Setsuna's episode, and this may not be the show for you. Your call at the end of the day.

Kyokai no Kanata is perhaps not only one of the most overrated animes in recent history, but is also a good contender for the anime with the worst story and characters of all time. I'm giving this show a 4, and 3 of those points are only for the animation.
Oftentimes when the word "overrated" is used to describe a popular show that people dislike simply for being popular and not suiting their personal interests, such as SAO or Attack on Titan. In this case, the word "overrated" is being used to describe an objectively bad show that people have made to convince themselves is ... good because "action stuff happens" and "animation good." Or they only watched 2 episodes, marked the show as done, and gave it an 8.
The plot is a jumbled mess half the time. Tons, and I mean TONS of plotpoints never get wrapped up, and the world building sucks. The relationship between the human and non-human characters is never really explained, they just talk about it briefly and then move on to something else. The characters are either extremely nasty to each other for no reason, or they're really gross and bizarre. There's a guy who wants to sleep with his sister or something and constantly sexually harasses her, and the main (male) character has some b0ner for girls with glasses and won't stop talking about it. The main girl is also extremely unlikable, I genuinely have never seen so many people enjoy such a selfish and unlikable character who terrorizes others. If she wasn't a cutesy smol girl with glasses and a kid haircut there's no way she'd be getting a pass for what she does in the show.
The episodes don't go anywhere half the time, the idol episode with the floating eye-thingy is probably the worst example, it's just an excuse to have an idol episode because idols were big when this show came out, and the ending is laughably bad and just wastes your time.
There's a level of suspense that this show tries to do. And although sometimes it works; after awhile, you kind of can predict the formula because this show is actually quite repetitive and it kills a lot of that suspense.
The ending is downright horrible, especially when they do a "just kidding" with one of the characters dying. And as an extra screw you, it's never shown how that character survived. You can add that to the list of things this show never explains.
The voice acting, animation, and the intro are the only things that gave this show any level of watchability. If the visuals hadn't been good, I probably would have just dropped it and never would have even bothered to add it on MAL.