Back to DaydreamingRain's Profile DaydreamingRain's Profile

I loved this anime so here are my thoughts,

1) Story - The thing I love about Journey's end is the main focus is on developing the characters each episode and building up their stories through setting and backstory rather than trying to capture its audience through the sole use of action. The effect this creates is one where the average episode is a relaxing-easy watch, with often sentimental and melancholic undertones that eventually builds up to a few scenes where we do get some combat or high-tension scenes that doesn't feel forced on the viewer but natural to the show

2) Combat - The combat scenes ... themselves area incredibly fresh-take relying not on simply 'power levels' but displaying the characters strategy and thoughts as they go face-to-face with one another in duels of intelligence and wit.

3) Characters - Many of the characters have a relatable personalities which help you connect with them. Frieren is modest, introverted and lazy despite being an insanely powerful mage. Fern shows similar traits although is far more hard working, jealous and sometimes a little moody. In essence, it doesn't feel like they are trying to be the 'protagonist' of the show, they feel very human (well Frieren's an elf but you get what I mean) and this makes them very likeable.

One character personality trait which does seem to be apparent with many of the characters is the rather muted/calm reactions they have to shows of power or being in near-death scenarios. I can see this being a negative to some, although I personally really liked this because it's the total opposite to how characters behave in most other anime and in all honesty it just added to the humour for me.

Overall this may be my favourite anime to date. It felt like a breath of fresh air to the fantasy/adventure genre and was just insanely relaxing to watch.

The good:
1) Music - The OP is great and the music in general is fine. If you like singing during your action scenes you can expect it.
2) Animation - The animation is very fluid and done well. Really engaging during action scenes.

The okay:
1) Plot/story/setting - The dungeons themselves are pretty interesting, especially the first dungeon that sets the scene of the show. The actual magic/combat system isn't super complicated. Basically there are letter ranks for each different hunter that measures there power level. Not super engaging but its fine for what it is.

The bad:
1) Protagonist - Sung, Jin-Woo pretty much falls into the typical ... power fantasy character with hardly any personality, incredible attractiveness and having a more 'chaotic neutral' morality compared to your typical heroic shonen protagonist. It is a shame because the actual character starts out fairly interesting and relatable although that doesn't last long. Most side characters are used as a spotlight for the main character. If you like dark and edgy then you'll like Sung, Jin-Woo otherwise you'll probably find him boring.


Overall: It's a nice anime to switch your brain off too and if you enjoy high action fight scenes with good music then you'll love it. Just don't go into this expecting this it to be a unique and fresh entry for action anime. It's darker but otherwise follows the same pattern of a weak guy powering up to become a giga edge lord who shows everyone else up.

An interesting film which brings back nostalgia from some of Miyazaki's more fictional works like Spirited Away and Hal's Moving Castle, the Boy and the Heron is perhaps his weirdest film yet that leaves the viewer with more questions than answers. Certain scenes in the film offer bursts of incredible animation. As standard for Ghibli films, the art style and music draw the viewer into this world of whacky fantasy that for this particular entry seemed particularly apt and drew inspiration from Lewis Carol's, Alice in Wonderland.

Unfortunately, the film goes a little too deep into the weird and wonderful and often leaves the viewer ... lost as to what exactly the purpose or message of the film is. The main character Mahito is fairly bland as far as protagonists go and seems to be shepherded throughout the entire film by other characters who are incredibly hard to distinguish as 'protagonists' or 'antagonists'. It is fun to try and decipher what the message is because it is not as clear-cut as many of Miyazaki's other works, and perhaps it is this confusion itself that the film is trying to portray.

Here is my breakdown:

Story (5): Not much to say, average plot lines which revolve around Boruto (big surprise there) and his classmates mostly in Konoha. Unfortunately, this involves what feels a lot like filler and standard shounen writing e.g. Everyone at Thunder Burger > Bad things happen > X character encounters problem > X character solves problem > Repeat. Occasionally we get a nostalgic throwback to some of the previous naruto characters and how they are doing, in my view, these are some of the better episodes, or the episodes that actually occur outside the hidden leaf.

Art (6): The art is ... very vibrant in colour though not terribly fluid. They go a good job with location design. Worth noting some scenes (though not many) are worked on a lot more. These are worth watching as the animation is very high tier.

Sound (6): Not terrible, fits the scenes well. Just not particularly captivating.

Character (3): EHhhhhhhhhhh... Most the characters just seem to be repeats to be honest or downright annoying. Thankfully mitsuki and sarada are both fine and coincidentally these seem to be the only two characters who have had any real character development but as far as our headline protagonist is concerned you'll have to form your own view. I think he is awful.

The antagonists are dull, egotistical typical shounen villains who have a multitude of opportunities to finish of Bourto for good but because of plot armour and who will be the mysterious character saving our protagonist today scenes this rollercoaster of pain never truly ends.

Enjoyment (5): If this was actually a stand-alone anime, I would have dropped it in a heartbeat, the only reason I continue to watch is because of the old Naruto characters. Thankfully the episodes these characters are featured in are actually rather enjoyable.

Overall (5): I tried to judge Boruto as its own anime trying not to compare it to much with its predecessors and after 140 episodes in here is what I have to say in that regard. Its an average anime at best. Anyone who strongly likes the shounen genre would find many relatable themes and the anime does actually have some good moments of animation.

Comparing it with its predecessors however, It does feel like a watered-down version of Naruto that tries to take a lot of inspiration from it. I can't even compare it to Shippuden which had excellent antagonists, story and music and a feeling of threat to its characters. Unfortunately, Boruto feels so far samey and predictable, on the bright side, it can only really improve from here.

Personally, I found this anime to be good overall, it gives the viewer a greater insight into many of the characters introduced in Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka of the Loki Familia and most importantly develops Ais as a character, helping the viewer to understand her highly introvert nature.

There are plenty of epic moments as well, with ambient sound and build-up music and following not one but two female protagonists provide a nice fresh change of pace.

Having said that the key floor I find to be in this animation is not revolving around our heroes of the story but instead ... the villains. For me the antagonists were dull, poorly explained and left me rather confused so whilst the action scenes themselves were good, I did feel a little disappointed by the motives of the enemy.

Regardless, I enjoyed it overall.

Good anime. (7)