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This is pretty much just a fanservice music video for Evangelion and Utada Hikaru fans. If you like both of them, you're probably going to like this.

Using the ending theme for Rebuild of Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone and scenery from the movies themselves is fine and all, but that's pretty much all this video does. Sometimes you'll see still images of the main cast juxtaposed to the buildings with changing light patterns but that's it.

It generally just seems like a cheap budget video used to promote both the song and keep the hype going enough for the series while we await ... the Rebuild series to end.

This isn't an offensive video in any way, it just seems like it didn't need to exist. It doesn't ruin anything, you should just only really bother with it if you're a diehard fan of either Eva or Utada Hikaru.

I'm quite surprised that with the popularity of the When They Cry franchise that Hotarubi has been quite overlooked to the level of it not even being reviewed on this site at all. As of the available chapters in English of Hotarubi no Tomoru koro ni it seems like you'll need to read or watch at least up to the Festival Accompanying Chapter of Higurashi no Naku koro ni and knowledge of Umineko no Naku koro ni isn't exactly required. Unlike its previous two entries Hotarubi strives to accomplish something just a bit different, yet something extremely familiar.

If you've followed the series even ... somewhat you're aware of the basics of a group of people being trapped in a seemingly inescapable scenario that gets way out of hand really fast. Hotarubi follows in the footsteps of Umineko by following a cast consisting of a family going to a remote location and tragedy unfolding - unlike Umineko, however, the family is much smaller and the location is much more realistic. The family in question isn't rich like the Ushiromiya family of Umineko with a mansion, in fact, they're visiting the house of one of their recently deceased family members, a grandmother, to prepare for her wake - we find out her fortune has been drained and she holds nothing left financially for the rest of the family. Quickly, tragedy strikes and it goes from a regular trip for mourning to a survival horror story - our cast finds themselves in a literal Hell on Earth. Returning from the Higurashi cast is Miyo Takano, who helps somewhat guide the family along their way. You won't find the bloodthirsty murderers in this that you saw in Higurashi, instead, you'll find supernatural occurrences that may not look as they seem and may have you second-guessing the nature of everything the cast finds or what happens to them.

Ryukishi07 outdid himself with the story this time - this is personally my favorite among all of the When They Cry entries. I think one of Hotarubi's biggest strengths is actually the idea that is presented that many other isekai series don't. Yes, this is in a way, an isekai as the world around the family is warped and they become trapped within. You see one of the family members, a grandson named Yukito is your obligatory NEET character who finds a second wind in the new world. Hotarubi actually touches upon why exactly does Yukito feel this second wind? Why does he actually feel the need to help others when in normal everyday life he's just reclusive? What drives this man? From arguments within the family to reconciling and realizing that working together is the best - the family holds all kinds of different tensions within them and each is different in their own way: an aspiring actress, the hated stepdaughter, the cool-headed analyst, one who steals with good intentions. Their philosophies on life clash as this world takes them for a turn, what they find will surprise them, the answers they find aren't always going to be the ones you expect. And just what is Takano's role in all of this? Knowing Higurashi, I shouldn't trust her one bit.

Generally, I think survival horror is hard to come by in anime and manga and this does it right and where it has a few bumps it recovers. You have your tried and cliche "kill her, she's not the one you knew anymore" line for example - but in the grand scheme of Hotarubi, that's nothing. The way it handles its world and the actions of each character are both logical and rational. I hope this series ends as strong as it began.

This review will contain spoilers up to the marked chapter.

A modern-day take on the ancient battle of Athens and Sparta with new twists and turns. What happens when one day all of humanity is petrified by an unknown light and humanity must rebuild? Enter your cast of The Brain, the Brawn, the Girl and the Enemy. Dr. Stone starts off strong with an engaging premise that has a ton of potential something that I wish was explored more often in anime and manga - the rebuilding of human society after a mass tragedy. Most of the time we see the after-product without seeing the process ... that was used, the mistakes that were made and the things that were learned. Dr. Stone shows us all of this but that's about one of its only strengths.

I don't believe a lot of what Dr. Stone goes out to accomplish is done well. Our protagonist, Senkuu is a prodigy of the sciences, so much so that he built his own rocket that exited Earth's atmosphere before the tragedy happened. Prodigies are totally acceptable but knowing this creates an aura around Senkuu that just seems like he can find himself through anything. Specifically, in the tournament arc where one of the gags is that the heroes want to rig the tournament in a specific way, of course, they have to rely on chance for it to work out. Luck is against them in every shape and form and the worst matchup happens first. But the story can't just throw out it's most important character of the arc right away right? Of course, so through sheer luck, he wins. While this bit was executed well, it solidified that the aura around Senkuu was strong and I had predicted by this point he would succeed in the tournament and I was correct. I'm a believer in that you need a certain level of predictability in your work so the consumer can understand it, even if it only makes sense in hindsight. However, this isn't the only time Dr. Stone is so obvious. Upon its reveal of antagonist Tsukasa early in the story - his appearance is just so genuinely evil that there's no reason for you to question his allegiances from the moment he's introduced. You just know he's not gonna be allied with the heroes from the minute you see the guy.

Tsukasa and Senkuu create an interesting and philosophical duality. Where Senkuu wants to rebuild the world and Tsukasa wants to purge humanity and create his perfect world. It's nothing new, we've seen it in Death Note, Code Geass, Evangelion, Durarara, JoJo and more by this point. Tsukasa hasn't had his time yet to shine so his character is still very underexplored but this is an interesting part of Dr. Stone that has potential to be great. Likewise, the exploration of science through Senkuu's character is interesting but as smart as Dr. Stone portrays itself with science and philosophy it has a few glaring issues that it doesn't take Newton or Plato to find out.

First, when we learn of the village of survivors, later to be descended from Senkuu's father we know they've passed down 100 Stories known as the Hyakumonogatari, we even get an entire chapter dedicated to the establishment of the stories. But none of these descendants knew how the old world used to be. They passed down knowledge of what foods, materials and other items would be necessary for survival but no stories of the past, where they came from, what they could strive for? It's not like it was out of the realm of possibility for this either. They made 100 Stories, why not 101 where one is just a brief history of the past. Another glaring issue with the Hyakumonogatari is the original generation of surviving humans seemed to gamble on the entire idea that Senkuu would even emerge from this rock slumber. In the possible case that he never awoke, they never took any precautions for that.

Second is a bit of an ongoing issue but it deals with the humor. The humor exists in primarily three ways: sex jokes, facial expressions, and vocal inflections. I don't really need to explain why the first one can get old real fast so let's focus on the latter two. Facial expressions are probably the most common type of humor in Dr. Stone and it's very hit and miss. While the artwork does the expression justice, constant weird face making does not make good comedy. Tell me some good jokes, give me some funny dialogue, both of these are to be found in Dr. Stone but not all that often. Most of the dialogue based jokes kind of fail too, not as a result of poor writing though but because certain lines require an inflection of the voice. While most manga run into this issue Dr. Stone doesn't do much to mitigate against it. Sakamoto desu ga and Watamote were manga that had me laughing out loud, and Dr. Stone has the potential to have some laugh out loud moments. But if all of your jokes in this vein rely on the same kind of drawn out line like Spongebob saying "Reaaaaaaaaaaaaally?" you have a bit of an issue. In fact, I'm sure as an anime, most of the humor would work in general just because of how fluid it would work and the timing it could have. As a manga, Dr. Stone misses out on some of the comedic timing it needs for the jokes it uses, so if it ever gets an anime adaptation I totally expect the humor will improve.

Overall, I'd love to love this series it just has so much potential underneath all its problems. Nothing is extremely standout about it, but nothing is extremely offensive. But as a series based on science and the on-going themes of Brains vs. Brawn and ambiguous evil, there seems to be a huge level of suspension of disbelief I need to not question some of the things that are actually happening. If you've been through the song and dance of 100 shounen before and are bored of the same old same old, Dr. Stone probably isn't for you. But if you're looking for something with a different premise with the same general storytelling techniques you'll like it. But I'd rather go for Death Note or Hunter x Hunter personally both of which contain better twists, better philosophies, less predictable outcomes, and a smaller threshold of things that I need to accept to believe in the world and what's going on. They've also both been published in the same magazine as this so why not just grab those?