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Jun 29, 2021
Higehiro is a series that disguises itself as a show with mature content that tackles real life issues with the utmost care and empathy. However, it fails to do that at almost every turn, because it comes off as an erotic fantasy that is thinly veiled by abuse and trauma.
Let’s start with the plot. Yoshida, a 26 year old man, finds a high school girl, Sayu, sitting alone at a lamp post without anyone to take her in. He decides to give her a place to live in exchange for her doing housework. Sayu has been running away from home and living in random men’s
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houses in exchange for having sex with them. It is hinted lots of times that besides her sexual abuse, there must be something terrible that made her run away from home. Yoshida provides her a warm home and a place of respite. The scenario of bringing a cute high school girl home is akin to a sexual fantasy. She is cute, she cooks, she does all the housework, she's basically an incel's dream come true.
The characters are as average as you can get. Yoshida is our main protagonist, and his personality is boiled down to him being empathetic, a yes man and a semi-responsible adult. He is completely oblivious to his co-workers simping for him, despite him being 26 years old. His main contribution in the story is allowing Sayu to stay at his place, supporting her and worrying about her. He has no backstory of his own or a particularly meaningful relationship other than Sayu. The narrative repeatedly tries to hammer the point that he is a great guy simply because he rejects Sayu's sexual offers. The author almost wants us to feel like he deserves a medal for the bare minimum. He says he's not into kids, but then he says he finds Sayu's smile sexy. He doesn't like her that way, but then he blushes and is turned on by her anyway.
Sayu is our heroine, the only one given sufficient backstory or development. She is a traumatized girl who has ran away from her home and tries to build her life anew in Yoshida’s home. Seeing her get a part time job, have fun and make a new friend was a treat.
Other than our main characters, we have Gotou and Mishima, who basically constitute Yoshida’s harem. Gotou is presented at first as a woman who has a boyfriend so she can’t answer Yoshida’s feelings for her, but then we learn that she’s actually a virgin and was simply afraid to open up or pursue a relationship with him. This is the most immature and unrealistic thing I’ve heard in my life. No adult woman ever behaves like this, it makes no fucking sense. Despite these two being well over the age of 25, they act like immature teens. They even discuss her bra size over beers. This is something you’d expect to hear in a middle school banter. Mishima on the other hand, is Yoshida’s coworker who is also 20-something but acts like a high schooler. She stalks him, yells at him, wants explanations for something that really isn’t her business. Naturally, the only time all these adults are acting like responsible adults is when it concerns Sayu, which is a nice change of pace. Apart from that, their personalities could easily belong to teenagers and the only thing that distinguishes them from minors is them drinking alcohol, working and smoking.
The relationship between Sayu and Yoshida is constantly edging towards parental or romantic according to the writer’s whims. Boy, Freud would be having a field party if he were to watch this show. There are parts where it’s portrayed as parental, like when Sayu asked him if she would have a happier upbringing if he was her father; and there are moment where it seems romantic, like in the summer festival that felt straight out of a shoujo manga. It’s like the author was not entirely sure which outcome he wanted, so he kept toying with it for as long as they could. Age gap stories are tricky and can be considered creepy by the majority of the fanbase. But if someone, for some reason, wanted to draw something like that, making their relationship parental is probably the wrong way to go about it. It not only reinforces the idea that it involves grooming of a minor but also comes off as disgusting and plainly uncomfortable. The author should have decided on whether he wanted the relationship to be familial or romantic and leave it at that. Seeing Sayu ask for a parent like Yoshida and then ask him to have sex with her is literally giving me a tonal whiplash.
This series handles the topics of consent, sexual abuse, suicidal thoughts. bullying and depression. But does it handle them well? I’d say that mostly it doesn’t. Sayu being sexually abused by all these men is something that is written with empathy. But instead of following through, we get multiple fanservice angles that sexualize her. We get to see her cleavage and her underwear during important conversations. Why in the goddamn hell do we need to see that? The narrative falls apart when they decide to sexualize the very girl that has been sexually abused. Another disturbing issue arose when someone who had been sheltering Sayu for a while in exchange for sex appeared to be working at her part time job. He blackmailed her into sleeping with him again despite her crying and just tearfully surrendering to not lose the happy life she’d built in Yoshida’s home. This disturbing arc is only resolved by the man apologizing and deciding not to harass her ever again. Sayu then stops being terrified of him and even lets him help her out from time to time. How in the fuck is this a good portrayal of sexual harassment, assault and consent? You can’t go to being friends with someone who’s blackmailed and assaulted you. The way this issue was handled is also shallow, flippant and straight up insulting. It’s like they wanted some cheap, forced drama without handling consent and sexual abuse in a responsible manner. The last point I’d like to mention is Sayu’s past. Her past is written lazily and there are many things that logically make 0 sense but are shoehorned anyway purely for drama. This arc of hers is full of melodrama, cliche scenes you have seen in every work out there and scenes that serve no purpose other than to force the audience to cry. It’s all done in such a perfunctory way that you can’t help but feel disengaged from Sayu’s predicament, her mom’s treatment or her friendship with Yuuko. The author has no clue how actual abusive parents are, how depression and sexual abuse affect a person and how they can be resolved gradually through therapy instead of a 15 minute talk. Well-intentioned or not, it feels like the author watched a movie about said topics and simply incorporated them into his work without researching them first.
Truth be told, Higehiro could have been so much more than what we got. It tries to be mature but the frequent sexualization of Sayu, the one-dimensional writing of the cast as plot devices and the ambiguous nature of the main characters’ relationship give so many mixed signals it ultimately destroys the series’ credibility, seriousness and maturity. It attempts to handle serious real life issues properly but it fails at doing that. I wouldn’t recommend this story to anyone who wants to see a realistic portrayal of these issues or someone who is looking for a parental show like Hinamatsuri.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 23, 2021
It’s no news to anyone that’s strapping in for the final season that Nanatsu no Taizai has been considered to be going downhill after the Commandments arc, both for animation and plot reasons. In my opinion, it’s not so much that this series changed drastically after that point, although that definitely plays a role. I think it has to do with the fact that Nanatsu keeps using the same plot devices and cheap writing choices to keep it going, and the more you look at it, the more you can see the cracks showing. The result is a clusterfuck of plot armors, confusing action and
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forced emotional drama.
**Spoilers**
Let’s dig in the plot of this season. The plot is becoming less and less about this band of powerful fighters we’ve come to love for their unique quirks. The Holy War fight and the 3000 years flashback leave many questions to be answered: Why didn’t Zeldris talk to his father about the vampire clan? How the fuck did Gowther rewrite everyone’s memories about Estarossa with ~magic~? There are so many questions I could add that it could easily fill this text. I don’t even want to get started on Estarossa being Mael plot twist, this was the definition of ridiculously forced drama. He got his name from a puppy... a puppy. Christ.
Just as Estarossa comes to the ‘good’ side, our big baddie is revealed: the terrifying Demon King. You’d think that the final villain should surpass every previous villain’s qualities. However, the Demon King is as bland as dry corn flakes at 6 am. He has no motivation besides ‘more power’, no backstory, no important relationship to understand his character. He’s just the shallowest villain you can get that only says the same generic quotes about defeating the MCs. As the final arc progresses, the author repeatedly makes you think the story is wrapping up, only to say ha gotcha!, and prolong it even more. The fight with the Demon King is prolonged three times at least, but it has no weight. The Demon King is actually a pushover who is easily defeated by the main crew without them breaking a sweat. There are no stakes in this final fight, no suspense, nothing. Each time, the Demon King is defeated only to come back because the author wanted to milk the series to its last fucking drop.
One of the biggest advantages of Nanatsu no Taizai is the author’s boldness in his decision to include romance in a shonen series. Most shonen series shy away from romance and shove it in last minute making it seem out of left field, like in Naruto. It’s clear that almost all members of the Sins have a love interest that motivates them, whether the feeling is reciprocated or not. Exploring the characters’ relationships or feelings and how the dynamics begin to shift, like in Meliodas/Elizabeth’s case, or Escanor's feelings for Merlin for example, is very interesting and refreshing. The problem in this season is that every. single. character. is given the exact same romantic sob story in a very perfunctory way. Estarossa and Zeldris were the newest victims of this modus operandi. Their romantic feelings are shoehorned without properly exploring how their relationship with their loved one is unique or different from the others. We are just told that their goal is to save or be with the women they love. Is that a bad thing? Hell no. However when romantic factors are literally the only motivation to the actions and goals of the entire cast, this writing device feels recycled, boring and lazy. The author also tried to add Meliodas' and Zeldris' sibling bond in the mix, but without any scenes that solely had to do with them in flashbacks, or any development in their relationship it's hard to find this depiction moving in any way.
Watering down the plot and the characters’ goals to romance is not the only thing that is poorly written in this season. The characters are also becoming plot devices to move the story forward. It feels like Holy War is an arc that undoubtedly had to be mainly action, but the fights so tedious you can barely sit through them. Our main crew is receiving power ups out of nowhere only to defeat the seemingly insurmountable obstacle in front of them-- granted with a plot armor of 100 tons of course. You need olympic medal gymnastics to be able to reconcile all these drastic and sudden changes that happen conveniently every time. These power ups are poorly explained and give off the idea that the author couldn’t think of a better solution and settled with the easy options. And it’s not just power ups without build up; The fights are boring both in choreography and inventiveness. That’s no news of course, since Nanatsu has always lacked inventiveness when it comes to action. The characters are using moves we’ve never seen before, and the villains are suddenly turning from invincible to weak when the plot requires it which makes it hard to engage and get invested in anything that’s happening really. Nothing seems much of a challenge or suspenseful when the author keeps making up bullshit to escape the corner he’s written himself into. I never thought NnT’s fight scenes were anything spectacular, but with the action in this season being more prevalent, the poor writing is even more apparent.
Last but not least, the elephant in the room: the animation of this season. As someone who hasn’t read the manga, I recognize that some complaints I’ve had about this season might be the studio’s fault and not the author’s. The artstyle and animation are supposed to elevate the source material, not make it worse. I’m really not a picky watcher when it comes to animation; I barely notice faults others effortlessly take up quickly. Studio Deen’s treatment of Nanatsu has been god awful. The animation is not just bad, it’s practically nonexistent for the majority of the show. The action seems odd and as if in slow motion; the characters’ faces remain emotionless and expressionless because the animators just wanted to use the same frames. When Meliodas was being lied to that Elizabeth was dead for good, his face was literally the :O emoji for a good 5 seconds. My point is, the dramatic effect some scenes could have had falls flat because of the poor animation quality and effort. I understand this is not the studio’s fault and the animators tried their best, but unfortunately the production committee’s decision could only produce a power point slideshow as a result. It’s sad because animation is not even half of what makes an anime good, but when the effort is so low that it undermines the source material you have a problem. The audience can’t engage in the action sequences nor can they feel the dramatic moments the characters are having properly, no matter how excellent the voice actors or the soundtrack are in Nanatsu’s case.
All in all, they say the journey is what’s most important instead of the destination. In Nanatsu no Taizai’s case, I can definitely keep in mind the good things the series as a whole offered us; the quirky characters, the funny moments, the intriguing backstories. But when the destination itself is so bad it washes away what you had in high esteem, you are left with a feeling that this story should have ended much sooner than it did.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 5, 2019
I felt compelled to write this review in order to point out the hidden gem that this manga is. Written by Hagio Moto, A Cruel God Reigns is a tragic story that focuses on the life of Jeremy, a high school boy who is regularly sexually abused by his step-father, until in his fragile mental state, he decides to murder him. His plan is carried out successfully, however by accident he becomes responsible for his mother’s death as well.
Hagio Moto herself said that while in the works, she was pondering how it’s possible for mothers to know of the sexual abuse their kid has
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been subjected to and despite that, do nothing and ignore this in favor of keeping their family intact. This mindset gave birth to this epic story. While not for the faint-hearted, this story expands into something much more than what you would originally expect; it is an introspective and poignant story of recovery, atonement and redemption, which denotes the characters’ dilemmas, traumas and feelings in an incredibly human and emotional way.
The characters are are no doubt one of the most excellent aspects of the manga. First off, we have Jeremy, the highschooler who becomes the victim of sexual abuse. Jeremy’s despair is displayed in excruciating detail; he is willing to go through any kind of horrible torture to avoid his mother finding out about this abuse. His fear of rejection and indifference from his own mother is what seals his lips from speaking out, thus perpetuating his ordeal. Jeremy’s fragile mental health gradually deteriorates, getting to the point of contemplating murder simply to escape from the bottomless despair, shame and helplessness he feels. The cruel irony of enduring his sexual abuse for the sake of his mother, and the fact that he gained his freedom with her accidental murder is a heartbreaking and intriguing theme that is explored frequently throughout the manga.
Secondly, we have Greg. Greg is the stepfather who abuses Jeremy. He is a manipulative, twisted man with pedophilic and sadistic tendencies. He not only violates Jeremy, but he also tampers with his mind, buying his silence in the process. Greg puts on the facade of the model husband and parent, not raising any suspicion whatsoever to those around him. It’s terrifying because it’s realistic.
Sandra is Jeremy’s mom, recently married to Greg. A woman of fragile physical and mental condition, Sandra is extremely happy about her marriage; due to the depression she felt after her late husband’s (Jeremy’s father’s) death, she latches onto Greg and idealizes him and the family she wishes to build. Lost inside her own fantasies, she misses what has been going on under her nose.
Lastly, we have Ian, the second main character. He is the son of Greg, and Jeremy’s step brother. Ian has some clues that Jeremy killed his own father, which makes him discover his father’s disposition and Jeremy’s cruel abuse at his hands. Ian seems like the typical good looking playboy, but in fact he is a boy with a soft heart, who is sensible and tries to help Jeremy at every turn, before and after the murder. He feels guilty for his ignorance over what happened to Jeremy, and perplexed after realizing that the ideal father he believed in was a lie. Torn between the moral dilemma of punishing a criminal and his sympathy for Jeremy, he ends up falling in love with him. The love he feels for Jeremy is passionate, motivating Ian to help and support Jeremy, but also making him wonder if he shares his father’s proclivities. Due to all these tumultuous emotions, he makes extremely tragic and glaring mistakes. However you can’t hate him because he always tries to improve himself, questioning his own selfish behavior, owning up to his mistakes and challenging his beliefs.
Undoubtedly, the best part of the story is the astonishing psychology the author has employed in every page of the manga. Each character’s emotions, doubts, dilemmas and feelings are intensely palpable to the reader and highlighted by the hauntingly poignant art and dialogue. The characters’ inner world is carefully constructed in layers upon layers. A recurring theme is the vicious cycle of how parents’ traumas influence their parenting, thus traumatizing their children, whose traumas in turn influence their personal choices and those around them. For sure, no one is perfect; just as in reality, the characters make mistakes, they repeatedly wound themselves, hurt others, make progress and then regress. It is frustrating, but that’s how life is. In trying to forget our pain, we make mistakes and sometimes hurt ourselves or others along the way.
If you decide to give this a try, then get ready to shed a few tears along the way. The author manages to expertly convey her intentions and put you through an emotional turmoil. The story will make you angry, hopeful, sad, frustrated and optimistic at various different moments. If you want to read a realistic, moving and suspenseful story with fleshed out characters, then this is definitely a series will stay with you for a long time after reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 29, 2018
Goblin Slayer is a perfect example of an isekai without any substance that gets overhyped to hell and back simply because of its genre.
Story:
Goblin Slayer is a pretty simple show. It’s about a dude who just wants to go around slaying goblins. The story isn’t your typical isekai, since it’s in a fantasy setting to begin with, but it features ranks and missions that heavily remind you of this genre. However, the story doesn’t go anywhere. You keep asking yourself, is there a point to my suffering? Unfortunately the answer is no. Through all these episodes, we’re just watching Goblin Slayer going on missions
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to slay goblins with a bunch of forgettable characters again and again. And if there are a few episodes with no missions, there’s literally no plot. We just see some characters wandering around doing nothing, instead of deepening our understanding of the characters. If the characters don't have meaningful interactions or emotional depth during the screentime then you can't seem to care about them or the rest of the guild. There’s absolutely nothing to follow. You just wait for some progression that never comes.
Characters:
HOLY SHIT if you thought the plot was bad then prepare to go even lower. Goblin Slayer, our main character, is so bland it’s comical. He only thinks about goblins, and his vocabulary simply consists of the words ‘’goblins’, ‘’yes’’ and ‘’I see’’. His VA must have had a ball while reading the script! Goblin Slayer is supposed to be a tragic character because his life was basically ruined by goblins. Nonetheless, you simply can’t feel bad for him because his past is described in a very vague and half-assed manner. It’s as if the author was on his third glass of wine like ‘’Oh so the MC has to kill goblins but there needs to be a reason. Hmm what could it be? Let’s write the most generic scenario possible and leave out any details’’. But I digress, let’s get on with the rest of the cast. The Priestess is our secondary main character. She’s the typical meek and mild character, but she proves herself useful with her spells during combat. Another character we have is the Cow Girl, she’s a friend of Goblin Slayer from the past. She lives in a remote farm, and she’s the caring older sister type, who is simply waiting around for Goblin Slayer for days on end. There’s also the High Elf, who is an annoying tsundere with no reason for existing, Guild girl, whose sole role is to gives out quests, Lizardman and Dwarf, who keep arguing with the Elf girl for no reason. As you might have noticed, none of these characters have a personal name. You simply call them by the term that indicates their role, appearance or usefulness. While not intentional, I think this really helps you understand how one-dimensional and forgettable the cast is. I wish I could expand on each character in the guild, but they're so cliche and underdeveloped it's impossible.
Another problem I have with the show is its gratuitous rape scenes. In the series, the goblins are so depraved and hateful that they rape female characters. However, the writing is incoherent in this aspect. If you’re doing a show where you agree that rape is awful, then you should commit to its conseqences by either denoting how traumatizing it is OR by simply not sexualizing girls so much, to the point of trivializing the issue. Hell, there was a rape scene in the first episode, and in the beginning of the second one there was already totally unnecessary fanservice! There's even a female character that was raped by goblins yet she's a walking fanservice-- an extremely seductive character with huge breasts that defy gravity. As a side note, I am not saying fanservice is bad. If you're an anime fan you've seen your fair share of boobs and ass shots, for better or for worse. My issue lies with the particular setting and how lightly it's treated.
Overall:
Goblin Slayer is a badly written show. Even if its theme is supposed to be Goblin Slayer’s humanization through creating bonds, it ultimately falls flat because all characters fail to have a personality or any meaningful interaction with each other. If you can’t like or relate with the characters, you can’t root for them or feel bad for them. The animation and OST are the only redeeming features, although they're nothing outstanding. Unless you’re interested in random combat quests with no regard for the characters, I would recommend staying away from this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jul 2, 2018
A wise man said ''it’s better to burn out than to fade away’’, and this is exactly what sprang to mind throughout this sequel, especially during the last few arcs.
:Re is the continuation of TG, a prequel that offered an intense journey, delving deep in the characters’ psyche. Kaneki, Shuu, Touka, Suzuya, Amon-- they all got a fair share of character development, making the audience care about them, their backstory and struggles. Since the ending of the prequel, :re’s task was to wrap up all the loose ends and offer another side to the story, the CCG’s, ultimately ending in a non tragic way.
While
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I certainly enjoyed reading up until Rose Extermination, it soon became apparent that :re had some fatal flaws. For one, the characters stopped getting any attention. They only served as plot points, vehicles that will move the story forward successfully. Touka was shown fleetingly before becoming Kaneki’s woman, Suzuya is just CCG’s fight tool, Hide is just a person that comes in handy for Kaneki and the CCG. Their rushed treatment erased any kind of nuance and originality they used to have.
A second mistake was Ishida’s obsession with parallels. Foreshadowing and parallels do not necessarily equal good writing. Making parallel arcs in :re that mirror TG’s means ultimately nothing if it seems forced, rushed, inconsequential or involves overused plot devices.
Thirdly, while TG has always had fight scenes, :re was filled to the brim with them-- to the extent of sacrificing character growth and reflection. New characters, new battles, new missions. All of those would be cool as long as you were getting a glimpse of the characters' struggles, thoughts and emotions. That's the only way you can care about whether a character lives or dies. If you don't have that, the battle arcs seem pointless and dull. TG’s brand and originality stem from Ishida’s masterful psychological writing. If you add a really large cast of characters and just put them in fight sequences then, even if you cared about said characters, you will disconnect from them precisely because you’ve stopped seeing what you used to love about them.
Truth be told, there were a few glimpses of excitement in :re, however it winded up a huge let-down for the aforementioned reasons. I can’t help but look back to my 16 year-old self, who was begging for a sequel announcement after TG ch.144 was released. Back then, the story was still vibrant and immersing, full of potential that :re could seamlessly explore. But now, all I see is that this sequel has come at the cost of indifference. As painful as it is, it’s better to see something you love end quickly than to slowly stop caring about everything you used to love about it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Mar 29, 2018
Mahoutsukai no Yome: one of the most popular shows of the past two seasons- and with good reason. At first glance, everything invites you in; the stunning visuals, the intriguing premise, the great OST and the general production. However this is precisely why, despite its tremendous potential, I was ultimately let down.
The premise is quite simple and interesting. Chise is a depressed young girl who is bought by an ancient magus. He declares her his bride and takes her as his apprentice. The magical atmosphere of the show is captivating; there’s so much to explore and every new side character brings along new fascinating information
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through their experiences. In my opinion, this is the series’ strongest aspect.
Unfortunately, I think the story does a spectacular job of creating potentially deep and interesting characters and then making you not give a shit about them. Why? Each character is given a unique past, which is usually sad and makes you sympathize with them. However, as soon as their main contribution is over, they are thrown aside or offered a very one-dimensional role that ultimately cancels out any depth they initially had. Chise becomes just a compassionate, self-sacrificial apprentice; Elias becomes a wise guardian who acts petulantly because of his lack of understanding human emotions; Silky assumes the singular role of a housekeeper. If you offer flashbacks and precious character development, then you should follow through instead of just putting the characters in the background and giving them the blandest role they could have possibly had. Ultimately, this flaw makes most emotional scenes flat and not as moving as they were intended.
Another main problem I had with MahoYome is the way the plot is handled. From the first cour, it is already quite obvious that the plot follows a very distinct and repetitive pattern. There’s trouble---> Chise acts against Elias’ wishes ---> Chise gets hurt [insert ep’s cliffhanger] ---> Chise is fine after all in a very anticlimactic way. I mean, if you want to keep the audience at the edge of their seats then you need to shake things up a bit! If you keep endangering the main heroine’s life then the audience will stop getting shocked or concerned. We literally see this pan out at least in 5 separate occasions.
All in all, I think the show had amazing things to work on; the dragons, the sorcery and generally a more thorough exploration of the setting. Not gonna lie, it is by all means an enjoyable show. But the clumsy way of handling character and plot development will make you lower your expectations significantly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 28, 2017
''Whether you’re a man or a woman, when you truly fall in love, you want to touch the one you love. When you feel their warmth, this [heart] starts to beat.’’
Code: Realize is about a young woman named Cardia who has been living in isolation in 19th century’s London because of a deadly poison that resides in her body. Because of this curse, anyone or anything she touches with her skin rots or melts. As one might expect, Cardia has been shunned by everyone throughout her life so she’s never experienced friendship or romantic intimacy. One day a witty thief, Arsene Lupin, saves her and
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decides to embark on a journey with her to unravel the mystery of this curse and to possibly find a cure. Gathering fragmented clues in every episode, both the characters and the audience start piecing them together to shed light on Cardia’s past.
This sounds like a very refreshing and novel premise, right? I was really intrigued by it having not read the visual novel; loving someone and having friends but not being able to touch them sounds heartbreaking. This show had tremendous potential for greatness despite the record of unsuccessful or dull adaptations of otome games. However it’s exactly because of its potential greatness that I was let down. Being a one cour, Code:Realize unfortunately suffers the same fate as most visual novels’ adaptations do: the pacing is unsteady and in order to skim through the whole plot quickly within the strict time limit of 12 episodes, it sacrifices vital character development, depth and analysis of numerous plot points. In other words, we get no significant insight into the characters’ perspective or feelings other than some fleeting moments at the beginning or end of the episode.
The atmosphere of the show is quite unique and being set in industrial London really compliments the mystery. Cardia, our female heroine, is very kind and sweet. She might seem like your typical dandere at first but her intriguing background reveals that she’s far more than that. Along with Arsene, Victor, Saint, Van and Impey she discovers the warmth of friendship, developing strong bonds, relying on others and being supported. I would have loved to be able to examine her feelings and thoughts more thoroughly, but unfortunately we only got a few (but heartwarming) glimpses at them. Lupin, our main male character, is a very witty and cool guy. He’s romantically interested in Cardia and he has vowed to help her get rid of the curse. He’s the first person to treat her with respect and affection. However his character is not explored any further than the usual caring and fun, boyfriend-material type of guy. The rest of the gang is not given enough screentime either, with the exception of Van Helsing. Lastly, the villain, Finis, is not engaging either because, despite provoking sympathy in a few scenes, he remains a quite bland and forgettable type of villain.
While you want to unravel the mystery and see Cardia fulfill her wish, I’d say the most satisfying and exciting thing during my watching was not the showdowns but rather the intimate, heart-warming moments between Cardia and the rest of the group. And obviously the romance. That being said, it is still an entertaining weekly watch; it gets you interested in getting your hands on the original source, so I think it has fulfilled its purpose.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 7, 2017
Do you value your free time? Do you consider yourself of average intelligence? If the answer is yes to both questions, then you should stay away from Ousama Game. I usually abstain from writing reviews, even more so for incomplete anime, but I thought I should warn any person who might be in false hopes that this anime could be good because it has Miyano Mamoru’s name attached, just like my naive past self.
This anime is basically about a classroom that starts receiving orders from a self-proclaimed King via texts. If they don’t obey these orders then the King punishes them, usually with death.
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If this sounds semi-interesting to you, then prepare yourself for disappointment because this horror premise is basically an excuse for the author to write copious amounts of nonsensical, perverted situations. The orders are basically Fuck or Die with a heavy dose of NTR. There is nothing the King would gain from sending these orders other than to masturbate at the students’ desperation and consensual cuckoldry.
With this premise, I thought I would feel sorry for the characters. However even disregarding their incredibly bland and archetypal characterization, they always do unreasonable stuff that results in their deaths. If that's 50% of the case, then the other half is them being surprised at things that should be a given at any point. No sign of intelligence or reason here.
Frankly I would give this 1 but it has made me chuckle a few times: it really tries to take itself seriously but it’s so forcibly edgy that it's unintentionally hilarious. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone except for those who might want to laugh at how low the anime industry can stoop.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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