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Dec 1, 2020
For the people that can enjoy a carefree shounen romance/harem, Dosanko Gal is a must read.
Dosanko Gal is probably the first harem/romance Shounen series that I actually, genuinely like and would back up if anyone would try to diss about. It's a genre i like to go back to from time to time (for my liking of romance and the easiness in that sense that comes from a shounen-like, carefree love triangle/harem manga), but i always leave acknowledging that it is shallow, unrefined or even vapid.
That is definitively not the case for Dosanko Gal.
Sure, it uses various tropes from that niche, but in a
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flat out better, natural and believable way. For example the Protagonist, Natsukawa Tsubasa, being a relatable person through the pages, but being not nearly as dense as other protagonists from Shounen Romance (almost a sedative quality when compared to some unsuspecting, borderline imbecile main characters), and, actually being believable for other characters to fall in love with him, as he actually HAS qualities, talents and good not-so-exaggerated looks (opposite of plain blank slate characters that girls fall in love just because, that exists for the sake of being boring).
The way Dosanko uses the tropes from the genre by the book, but without making it frustrating or plain stupid, makes even though the series being technically a harem, it still behaves like a romance that flows naturally and not looking like a harem at all. The characters are well built-up with their own personalities, insecurities and desires, all of them visibly developing throughout the story not only as persons, but also romantically developing, a concept that Shounen Romance/Harem pratically doens't know exists. Also, no ''dere spectrum'' crap, so no shortcuts or caricature characters that feel annoying or unfleshed.
The art of Dosanko is kinda fickle, sometimes going from astoundingly beautiful to just regular in some pannels, but it is certainly one of the best in it's genre, mainly in the fashion department: the clothing is, simply put, gorgeous. The outifts chosen by the girls are almost garments used by models, made by fashion designers, the passion of the artist oozing from the pages, something that fits the ''gyaru asthetic'' that would not be so common for normal Highschool Students. That is also present in the character's designs, the main girls being beautiful, full of makeup and stylish - although it fails sometimes, as the main girls are so pretty that when a scene comes when someone else's beauty is acknowledged (specifically for a certain character), it is made lighter and less truthful by the fact that all of them look sensational.
As I said before, the romance in Dosanko Gal flows naturally. The characters really build relationships between themselves that are layered and realistic, those relationships evolving through the chapters. I believe the manga charmed me the most for the fact that, unlike harem/romance shounens, the characters fall in love with each other in believable ways too, taking chapters, activities and self-revision moments for the fall, not a simple ''he is a good guy'' type of bad writting. It is not a slowburn by any means, what is not immediate is how deep they fell in love. I was already sold on it already on the first few chapters and pratically devoured that other thirty.
Dosanko Gal is certainly one of the best, if not the best, light harem/romance Shounen i touched, and it still releasing even.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 23, 2020
Quick reminder that there will be spoilers ahead
So, what made me watch Sing ''Yesterday'' for me was a youtube clip of the last episode, of Rikuo confessing to Haru. I found the moment cute, liked the art and was like ''hey, i can give it a shot, i can appreciate it even more knowing the context and the characters''. The problem is that the opposite happened: having watched all 12 episodes, it made me dislike the scene, even though the couple i wanted to see together happened.
In truth, Sing ''Yesterday'' For Me is an anime about the romance between Rikuo and Shinako, something that
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makes the ending couple Rikuo-Haru shallow and totally out of the blue. We get twelve episodes of Rikuo not giving into Haru's advances and making it clear that he doesn't reciprocrate her feelings while trying to get closer to his actual crush, Shinako. After managing to do that, the two of them break-up when they were finally starting to grow-up, for no apparent reason. At the ending scene, we see that Rikuo says that the way he is approaching Haru looks like he is ''just going for her because Shinako dumped him'', but it doesn't ''just looks like it'' it is literally it. His feelings for Haru appeared out of nowhere except for a single scene of jealousy in the middle of the anime. Literally what was supposed to be a cute scene about Rikuo finally being the one to reach out to her instead of the opposite, with sparkles on top, became just plain fake romance.
As the story is merely the characters developing relationships between them, i wouldn't judge it differently from the characters themselves... the problem is, the characters doens't develop any relationship at all. Rikuo and Haru don't leave the ground they stood in the first episode until the very last minute of the finale, to the point it, like i said before, looks like Rikuo liking her back seems plain false.
Rikuo's relationship with Shinako gives the illusion of development, but in the end they behaved literally the same way they did even before the story started, in their days of college, with Shinako using him so she doens't get lonely and Rikuo being the blank slate that he is and just nervously going trough
And the relationship between Rou and Shinako shouldn't even be of note. They don't change at any moment, Rou continues to be infatuated by her from beginning to end, and she continues to let the cycle of ''QUO-fight-separation-reconciliation-QUO'' go on, without any of the two moving forward from anything
I really expected to like the characters after seeing episode 1 and, until Rikuo stood her up, i actually liked Haru. After she simply forgives him (even tho he literally did nothing) i simply stopped caring about her, that was the only character in the show that i liked. None of them are really captivating nor anything that would make them likeable. Rikuo is a boring blank slate that only does what he likes to get a girl, suddenly knowing what he wants in the last episode. Shinako is literally the same character from her backstory to the point where we left her, meaning she is a broken girl who ends up hurting others because of her indecisiveness. Haru goes from interesting to a side character that Rikuo just puts up to within a few episodes, whom the viewer (me included) just get sad for because her love is doomed to be platonic (until would you look at that, it's not). Last and least, the only thing that i manage to say about Rou is that i like the musics that play when he is on the scene
For some reason, I enjoyed the show until the 2-3 last episodes. I didn't cared about the side characters that were just appearing and disappearing or being thrown away without any deeper connection with the main cast and I didn't found awful how the ''love triangle'' happened, mainly because i knew that Haru was going to end up with Rikuo. The problem arose when, three episodes left to end the anime, Rikuo still didn't see Haru as more than a nuisance. I started to say to myself ''maybe we will get some backstory for Haru, maybe we will get an arc of her and Rikuo getting closer to one another, maybe...''. Of course, none of that happened, and at that point was where i thought to myself that the anime was actually... bad. And it pretty much is. I only put it high on the ''Enjoyment'' cattegory because I didn't had an aneurism watching it confusely and harshely wreck itself to pieces
A lot of content was cut from the manga, wich would expalin the shallow and stale relationships ''developed'' in the animation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Oct 4, 2020
Be warned that the review will have spoilers!!
Unfortunely, Great Pretender has to be one of the most disappointing things i've watched this year. It was pretty nice until halfway the last heist, but after Abby and Cynthia ''died'', it all became just a rollercoaster of nonsense and fake emotions that throwed away everything it tried to build. To be organized, let's go with the usual:
Story: For a heist anime, the heists were pretty mediocre. There was no moment of ''hey, that is in fact really smart'' or any tension on the heists whatsoever, to the point were sometimes it just felt like artificial stupidity
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of the targets. The first and last heists felt totally unearned and simply ''ex-machined'', whilst the second and third were the most interesting. Despite that, the story's quality simply falls off a cliff on the last heist, throwing away literally everything they built till that point to make a ''the father was a good guy all along'' route, becoming simply preposterous. The last heist and ending seemed like a cheap way to discard everything the show tried to create for the sake of a bad plot twist. There was a point on the last heist that everyone already knew how things would play out and it was obvious that it would be bad, but for some reason the show felt the need to instill doubt on the crew that Makoto would do something different, for no reason at all (yeah, they didnt believe that tricking him into thinking they were dead and leaving him at the mercy of a yakuza boss would affect him, they thought he would do something strange because ''that's how he is'')
Art and Sound: The art is, simply put, impressive. Character design is great (altough repetitive, Clark looks like a Middle-eastern Laurent) and everything looks great almost constantly, to the point its simply gorgeous to watch and listen to. Aside from the main jazz that plays through crucial moments, some of the musics really made me tear up
Characters: Design wise, they were really nice and quite unique when you compare them to other anime. Content wise, poor at best. It certainly is nice to see their backstory unfold in every heist, seeing the reason they live their current lifestyle, but a sad backstory does not make a character. Their actions on the present moment are simply going with the plan and we never see them interact outside of their jobs, apart from Makoto, who develops through the heists.
The problem is, come the last heist, this development is thrown to the rats: he never had a say in things and his whole raison d'être was actually a ruse, because his mother never suffered and his father was always a good guy (and, for some reason, that nullifies his hardships to the point his father called that a ''rebellious phase''). ''The Wizard from the Far East'' puts Makoto through a LOT. A HELL LOT. He sees his father again for the first time in YEARS, is betrayed by said father, who procceds to kill Makoto's best friends in front of him, Makoto kills his father and has a mental breakdown. He is so unstable that he began to see the matron of the yakuza, who does child trafficking, as a mother to him. And after two months of SELLING CHILDREN HIMSELF, his father shows up and says that it was actually all part of the plan, that they tricked him into believing he lost everyone because, in some way shape or form, he would spill the beans, outright saying they didn't believe in him, and the crew procedes to doubt Makoto for the rest of the duration of the heist. Makoto's answer? ''Its okay, i'll do the heist, no hard feelings''
Enjoyment: I was sincerely enjoying till half of ''The Wizard of the Far East''. I was pissed that Makoto believed his father, who meddled in child trafficking, but was surprised when the payback came and his father betrayed them. I was awestruck when his father kills Abby and Cynthia and is killed by Makoto, but deep down i suspected it was a ruse: the series hasn't been that good till that point, surely something was coming. I enjoyed Dorothy and Laurent backstory, but every single thing that came after it, including the ''Father was actually a good guy all along'' made me want to puke. Makoto having a nervous breakdown while being feeded by a Yakuza matron, the first person to show him any kindness since his mother PASSED AWAY, after almost guilt starving himself because of the death of his friends, became fake and undermined after the reveal that it was all planned. I was hoping that Makoto would be pissed or show some level of instability towards his crew after putting him through that while they lived the good life. It didn't happened. They were just all happy like nothing wrong ever happened.
OVR: Like i said up there, it was one of my biggest disapointments of the year. I was enjoying a lot of it, but the way the series shifted tones near the end for the sake of false emotions and a bad plot twist made me want to cheer for the f*kng child trafficking yakuzas to win in the end. The characters lacked the real interactions that needed for them to be memorable and, when you look at it by the end of the show, Makoto never really had the competence to be there, he just was because his father was. Somehow Great Pretender manages to get worse with every minute after ''Snow In London'', to the point that even after the credits come up you still have another ''F*ck you'' scene at the end
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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