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What would be your goal, as a writer? And really, not just as a writer - but as an artist, in general? Think about it for a second. Is it to deliver a story, a message? Is it to make something enjoyable? Or something uncomfortable? And if so, whom should be the receiver? Are you making it for yourself? Or for an audience? Are you reaching out to as many as possible, or maybe only to a select few - to those who can think the same way, who can match the lock with the key? What should it be?

Maybe there's not an answer set ... in stone. Maybe sometimes you want one thing, and sometimes another. Yet artists are usually made distinct by a certain style, some rules they abide to, at least for a period of time. Some opt for character driven stories. Some opt for environmental storytelling. Some prefer for the abstract, the surreal. But, which one of those "styles" is the most universally digestible? History says that characters tell the best stories, and that should obvious. We are humans, and the easiest way to stimulate our senses is through compassion. We relate to others, stories resonate with our realities, clashing with each other, amplifying each other, creating emotions, leading us to new and past realizations.

At last, we reach at an impasse: there are two ways to achieve the aforementioned. There's the easy way, and there's the hard way, with each having their pros and cons. The former, reaching wide, yet perhaps hitting shallow. The latter, maybe restricted to a lesser area - yet it can possibly reach much deeper. Of course, these are generalizations, and not the rule. Well then, between the two, what does Mawaru Pengiundrum chooses? The answer: the IMPOSSIBLE way.

If your goal as an artist is to reach out to as many people as possible, then resorting to the methods of shows like Sonny Boy and Mawaru Penguindrum do truly boggles me. Then again, I believe a wider audience is not their goal. Which in turn, makes me wonder: what exactly is it that makes every positive review on this site drop a casual 10/10 on them? Did this show reach so deep so easily to everyone else? Or is it simply a copious delusion of theirs in an attempt to artificially reach that depth? After all, everyone likes being smart. Allow me to admit then, that I'm a moron - because if you ask me, this show requires extraordinary amounts of mental gymnastics and retrospection for one to be able to reach at the same wavelength this show is broadcasted at. I understand that there's something this show wants to tell me. I understand that if I re-watch this show, maybe I'll get more of it. I truly do. But really, are you listening to yourself reading this? Why on fuck should anyone watch a show a second time to "understand" it? Why should anyone subject themselves to such masochism when there are awesome shows out there that can reach just as deep before they've even finished their runtime?

Maybe, there are some rare cases, where this process could be interesting. Alas, in case you didn't notice, this show kind of pissed me off, and there are two things that almost made me hate it (and I did, at some point): first, it tries to speak with me in MORSE. And not only does it speak in morse, but it does so in a whispering tone, while covering its face so I can't read their emotional expression. Rejoice to anyone who can deal with such a mode of conversation, because I CAN'T. Maybe there's a certain artistic value to choosing this method, maybe its cryptic, or funny, and those who understand it jerk off with each other. However, I prefer something tangible, something that I can understand, at least to some level. I prefer English.

Secondly, and most importantly: in front of everything this show wants to tell me, lies a character set that, after the first quarter of this show, descends to absolute TRAVESTY. From rape to pedophilia, we've got it all, no worries! We have "dramatic" scenes that are plagued by little penguins that excrete gases and read porn magazines, and character inconsistency blowing through the roof. The first episodes are actually exciting and I loved the duo dynamic of the brothers - in any other case though, this show's writing is dogshit, and makes the second half of this show outright unwatchable. But hey, since it's one of "those" shows, an abstract, Avant Garde masterpiece, everyone can excuse it, because come on, you really know that this is not what it means - past all of these, there's actually a message about love and fate!

Where do we draw the line? This is the question of abstract art. To abstract art, horse excrement represents the mysteries of the universe. However, let me be clear: as I said, Penguindurm is not like that. It wants to say something definitive, and I feel that. Among all the absurdity of the characters and the narrative, lie question marks and puzzle pieces. This show has amazing art direction, with colorful backgrounds and beautifully designed assets. Yet it goes out of its way to make some scene utterly ridiculous. Therefore, I understand that I should doubt their literacy - but how much of it is literal and how much of it isn't? Is it morse code, or the phonetic alphabet? Mawaru Penguindrum enlists you to be a cryptographer and comprehend the symbolism, and what character arcs, apples, and naked sisters mean in relation to the context and themes of the anime. Dear writer, then, I'm sorry. Whatever and however deep your messages may be, I'm not going to "decrypt" borderline rape scenes to realize that life is cruel.

So, to all those that dub this anime a masterpiece, I urge to you enlighten me - what exactly did you see in it? Maybe I'm just blind. Maybe I did not look deep enough. Should I be ashamed for not being a good enough viewer? Or should the writing make itself clearer? If you want to know my opinion, I'm not ashamed whatsoever. I respect my identity as a viewer. I am, however, open to other perspectives, if they are based on some rationale. That's why at the end of the day, although my suggestion is that you should avoid Mawaru Penguindrum, maybe you'll see something different. Seeing that so many people liked it, maybe I'm the weird one. Draw a conclusion by yourself, if you want. But I won't be re-watching this anime to "understand" it. The last two episodes made me think for a while, but that's as far as it went.

Sure, maybe the writer has infused this anime with meticulously hidden symbolism, that once you connect the dots, this show becomes utterly profound. But when you make this process so challenging -- not only in terms of difficulty, but in terms of having to deal with miserable writing -- to me, whatever message there was, loses all meaning. The process becomes masochistic, at best, and pretentious, at worst. If that's your medicine, take it, and tell me how it felt. Because to me, it felt like headache.

This review considers R2 as well.

I do this certain thing, every once in a while: I revisit past favourites. The number of entries I've rated with 10/10 can be counted on one hand, and so I want to confirm, to re-evaluate: are they "worth" it? Naturally... this is a supremely foolish thought. My ratings reflect my enjoyment at one point in time - if I enjoy something, I will rate it as much. And I believe that others should, too: trying to "objectively" rate something is stupidly futile. I've seen anime out there that I consider to be pure garbage, yet other people will hail ... as masterpieces, and vice versa. Can I wrap my head around that fact? No, absolutely not, but the fact remains: these shows have been enjoyable to some people, and that is perfectly fine, primarily because this enjoyment is purely temporal. What we like now does not mean we'll like it later, so why shouldn't we enjoy it at the moment being? Even minutes past, retrospection and reflection can alter our opinions. Therefore, a more accurate assessment of what I do by visiting past favourites would be... to check how much I've changed.

Before this philosophy dump gets interpreted into some kind of sophisticated copium, let's see how Code;Geass fared in this sort of "re-evaluation". This anime has been a personal best for a very long time now. It was one of the first anime I had ever watched and rated a 10/10 - it had seriously blown my mind. It was definitely what I'd consider a "masterpiece". And so here I am, plenty a year later, presumably with a slightly more advanced prefrontal cortex, trying to dig up the same enjoyment I had found in the past. Was it still there? Well, hell yeah it was, at least the majority of it since I could still recall major events. But, there were also quite some things I couldn't see when I was younger - remarks I'd seen in reviews but treated with "nah, that's pure garbage". Well, who needs glasses? Turns out the passing of time makes for the best optics.

Code;Geass is one of the most hilariously romantic shows I have ever seen - and I absolutely love it for it. It's an anime that craves for the grand stage and theatrics. It loves black and white, and simultaneously condemns it. It lives and dies on contrast, contrast, and contrast again. Surprise, suspense, drama and tragedy: it is an explosive, colorful cauldron of majesty, that has you constantly on the edge of your seat. It makes for a delicious, very binge-able watch, that is simultaneously long enough to make sense, and compact enough to be impactful. It is a spectacular recipe, with splendid art direction, music, and voice acting, and is a show that I can see myself giving a 10/10, for a lot of reasons. However, as I've grown, I've become more of a boring person, giving greater attention to things like motives, character logic, and consistency. And HOLY MOLY, Code;Geass loves the exact opposite of those, especially the latter. It is, though, a professional at hiding it - and that is probably why it is only now that I can see those things.

Code;Geass has an ambitious, constantly evolving plot. It quickly transforms into a collection of multiple interchangeable story threads: in order for a grand stage to be crafted, Code;Geass introduces many actors and perspectives, many situations that intertwine and clash with each other, inevitably converging into the blazing core of this show: Lelouch Lamperouge, or Zero. On the surface, it's pretty good at doing this. It involves ordinary people, scientists, government officials, family, friends, soldiers, and makes a great attempt at giving most of them a solid reason for being near the blast radius of Zero. Thus, their involvement feels mostly natural. That's really good when you have multiple opposing sides: perhaps, there is no one defined "correct" camp, and Code;Geass tries to implement this mantra to some extend.

This anime, however, struggles to keep up with such a complicated plot structure. When you have SO many people orbiting one man, it becomes progressively difficult to craft reasons for their proximity to him. And characters only end up getting closer and closer to this mysterious figure as the show progresses, both enemies and friends to him alike. So, the writing must keep up not only with characters being close to Zero, but also with them getting *closer* to Zero. Code;Geass is good at keeping everything pretty on the surface and on the short term... once you start looking from further away, however, you will spot the first major flaw of this show: inconsistency.

Code;Geass loves steep slopes. It loves the uphill, and then the sudden downhill; this is the ingredient that makes for exciting, attention grabbing moments. But, it loves them so much that ends up over-relying on them, sometimes failing to establish their logic correctly. There are many, many instances where one story thread will be cut abruptly on a dramatic climax, only for it to be resumed sometime later completely nonchalantly: what do you mean this character was on the verge of death? Last time I remember them, they were chilling eating pizza, lul... Code;Geass, therefore, relies on the moment. As long as what's currently shown on screen is effective enough, it will keep you on the edge and satisfied. Then, when enough time has passed and many contexts have been switched, you'll most probably have forgotten where it was left off. The result: a show that slaps now, but doesn't make sense later... that is, unless you forgot.

If you ever felt that you were not "smart" or "quick" enough to catch up with this show, this is probably the reason. There are gaps in logic; sometimes, they can be big as well. Code;Geass conveniently hides these gaps, by constantly swapping context, and not showing what had happened "previously". Due to the sheer volume of story threads, due to the overwhelming flow of information from all sides, it can be difficult to notice. In this choice, maybe the writers themselves are aware of what is happening. Is it because they *know* there is weak writing and try to hide it? Or is it simply amateur mistakes? Whatever the truth may be, it does not make the situation any better from the viewer's perspective.

This is one kind of glue Code;Geass uses in its effort to keep everything together. Albeit quite lousy when it occurs, it at least does not affect the main plot that much, and mostly manifests in secondary story threads. This is not the only kind of glue the show needs and uses however, and that brings me to the second weakness of this show: character motivation & logic. This affects major characters as well -- some more so than others -- so it can be easier to notice.

When characters in this show aim for such massive changes in their environment, their impact and credibility depends ever so much in the reason behind their actions. For me though, Code;Geass is a little weak in that department... it focuses so much more in the present, and does not take time to establish a background for our characters, to give them some time to grow on us, to make their circumstances believable. Sure, we get constant reminders as to why characters do what they do, but is there really depth behind their thoughts? Given the amplitude of everything happening around them, I expect some pretty convincing shit when it comes to reasoning. But both Lelouch and Suzaku, the two protagonists of this show, are actually disappointing in that regard. I won't elaborate... since I want to avoid spoilers too.

Here's the thing with Code;Geass: imagine, if you will, a theatrical performance. What's shown on stage is actually pretty mesmerizing. The art and music are super well done by studio Sunrise. Their finesse and style is clearly seen through the show, and the result is something truly unique when combined with the themes of the show. I genuinely believe Code;Geass has one of the best anime OSTs to date. Character design, mecha design, animation, are all up there as well. When it comes to impactful scenes? There's no contest: Code;Geass is exceptionally good at creating shock, tension, and drama. The theatrics in scene direction, the voice acting, and the thought behind certain sequences are all there. It's a marvelous show and a feast for both the eyes and ears.

But, here's the catch: as the viewer, you are not forced to watch this spectacle from the front row. Sure, it's the most comfortable. But, you can watch from the sides, too. You can take a look at the backstage. This is the privilege you get when watching anime. All you have to do in order to take these secret peeks is simple: you have to doubt. A show becomes believable and true to our world when it at least *tries* to embrace this skepticism. When you take a look at the backstage, and its not just wooden props and costumes: they're actual people, in the real world, driven by something real to perform admirable and unadmirable acts alike. This is where Code;Geass falls. When you look from the side, everything is held up by duct tape and steel beams. And once you see that, the magic fades.

It's up to you how you decide to watch the show. As for me, I did a little bit of both. Granted, I couldn't look away at the greater picture: this show lacks proper foundations. Although there is evidence of research in the history of warfare, the setting of Code;Geass otherwise floats in thin air; there is no backstory as to how and why everything is as it is. It is plagued by inconsistency. The power of Geass gets poorly developed. Even main characters get poorly developed. This is really confounding, because they get to do so many things in this show. But, their logic remains the same for so, so long, despite the changes in their environment. They get doubted, though. Characters in this show doubt themselves and each other often, and that's absolutely great, and one of the saving graces of Code;Geass. Regardless, everything else mentioned still holds true for me.

But then again, you know what? I still enjoyed this show a lot. I still wanted to watch from the front row. I still knew that somewhere along the lines, Code;Geass acknowledges how absurd it is by itself. I mean, flying mecha lead by an edgy student who is actually a prince dressed in a cape and a mask that has this power which forces anyone to obey and wants to destroy the Holy Empire of Britannia? Yes, that's Code;Geass. Nevertheless, it still performs center stage. It's not afraid to present everything as absolutely serious, believable, and feasible.

This overwhelming confidence in presentation is why my aforementioned complaints are overshadowed, and this show ends up being so universally admired; it's so much easier to just believe what's in front of you. It's so much easier to submit to a romantic story of rebellion, knights, to a grand stage of secret powers, secret identities, and mecha warfare. And I have to emphasize again, that it's easy because Code;Geass makes it so. I recall a certain scene where Lelouch pilots this one mecha and operates it by literally playing a virtual piano and making these amazingly goofy digital sound effects... things like this prove to me how bold this show is in its presentation. It proves to me that, it can perform with such finesse and bravado, that I simply *won't* want to watch it from the sides. And that takes both the balls and the skill to achieve it. It's truly commendable. It's a show designed to be enjoyed - maybe not analyzed that much. Maybe, analysis should be reserved for shows like LotGH. I mean, imagine a merge of these two anime. We would have an anime singularity. The world would end.

Code;Geass still holds a special place for me. As we grow, everything becomes increasingly complicated and multi-faceted. We see and think more, yet... we believe and feel even less. We revisit the past, only to find ourselves enjoying the world with rose-colored glasses. Maybe we should be jealous. Maybe we should be proud. Among all the dichotomies in Code;Geass, the one I felt the most is this. In the end, simplicity is the most beautiful thing in the world. I think that when we find it, we should enjoy it - we don't get much of it after a while.

In conclusion: yep, this is all cope.

Alright. Hear me out.

First, I'm gonna admit it: for the average viewer, there are BIG barriers to surpass before getting into Beastars. The greatest and most obvious one is of course the fact that characters are anthropomorphic animals, which by itself could be enough for many people to write this one immediately off in order to avoid the furry allegations. But even if you do try to watch it, you also have the fact that Beastars is fully CGI animated, something which might be off-putting to some. Add to the mix the openness in exploring otherwise conventional social themes in the context of a school ... campus life (including but not being limited to, SEXual life), in a setting however comprising of animal characters, which can make you uncomfortable, or dare I even say, CRINGE... all of which makes it completely normal for someone to say "that's too much" by the end of episode two (trust me, shit gets wild by that point).

Getting past all of these, though, you might find yourself aptly rewarded: as I see it, Beastars is actually a show with plenty of thought put into it. It is a surprisingly interesting anime, involving engaging characters, a well thought-out world, amazing art and music by studio Orange, and many unique twists in your typical school life genre. I am not sure what my expectations were going into this, and while it is true that some, uhh... "scenes" were unbearably hard to watch, overall this ended up being a great experience (although season two is... slightly less great). It has many things to offer, many, many unique concepts, presented through the unconventional style of studio Orange.

In fact, this studio is probably what originally drew me into this show. Although some find this approach in animation weird, for me, it's so refreshing watching something so vastly different from your typical anime in terms of visuals. I had already watched Houseki no Kuni, so I kind of expected how things would look like: satisfying art direction, high quality on visuals, bright, vivid colors, even when forced to show a lot of white and various light hues due to the nature of this show. Music and sound effects are really good, another defining quality standard of Orange also observed in Houseki no Kuni. The first opening is legitimately one of the best I've ever seen and heard, a gorgeously cute stop-motion with an absolute jam of a song. And of course, the elephant in the room, CGI: I really liked it. It is fluid enough to make characters lifelike and vibrant, and clunky enough to separate them into fantasy, into a setting of anthropomorphic animals attending school.

However, not all is perfect. Things do look kinda awkward when it comes to large, exaggerated gestures, like when some characters are surprised, or in some fight scenes. Sometimes, textures feel too plastic to be good. And as some point in other reviews, it does indeed stray quite a bit from the original artstyle of the manga (point in case, Haru). It's not without its flaws, but I enjoyed most of the assets studio Orange has to offer. It gives me the impression of a studio with actual professional artists working in it. So in technicality yes, it is still CGI, but it is NOT your typical CGI. Trust me, she's just different bro, I'm telling you.

So, with that said, let's get into the meat and potatoes: story and characters. Having also read the rest of the manga, I have the full picture of this work. Overall, my feelings are... honestly, quite mixed. There are great things to point out in Beastars, for sure. The concept of having anthropomorphic characters by itself does not tell us much; it could simply be there just for the sake of being there. Beastars, however, actually expands on the concept of an animal society quite widely. It explores the idea of a mixed herbivore - carnivore civilization, with all of its intricacies and caveats: how do carnivores manage a civilized life together with herbivores? Who are the ones holding positions of power? Is there any discrimination? How is the law system adapted in an animal world? These are all questions this world strives to answer. At the beginning, Beastars starts out as an incubator world of just the Cherryton school, though later on, horizons are expanded as we slowly witness how the rest of society looks like. And there are many things to witness.

Having not just one species of humans, but many many kinds of animal species, from zebras to komodo dragons, makes things much more complex and interesting. Not only does it make every character unique by default, through design alone, but every species also has their traits, both physical and social, and the writing always makes them relevant through one way or another. These aspects of Beastars shows that there is an obvious amount of research done here, and that's nice. That's world building, but what about the actual story and characters of this anime?

Beastars is good at delivering short, meaningful stories. They can capture your feelings, they encourage you to think, and can portray uncomfortably realistic situations every now and then. Even when taken out of context, there are many plot lines in Beastars where they could have meaning and value completely on their own, and that says something. It explores a lot of themes, both unique to the world of Beastars, yet also ones that deal with civilized beings - and in our world, the only civilized beings are us. Carnivores pondering on the ethical considerations of meat-eating, inter-species relationships, discrimination both between males/females and herbivores/carnivores... there are a lot of things to explore here, a lot of themes that can only be uniquely expressed in the world of Beastars, yet can also have their own way of reflecting reality.

These stories follow a great character cast: although way too huge for all of them to shine, there are certain characters that always remain on the forefront, with the main trio being particularly of note. I believe Haru is the best character in this anime, though there are others like Jack that definitely deserve recognition. They reflect real sentiments, they have sick original designs, they contrast and complement each other in beautiful ways, and lay the foundations for an amazing character-driven story... or that would be the case, but character writing ends up suffering. By the end, I couldn't help but feel that many of their interactions felt off, incomplete... they felt robbed of what they *could* have done. And there are reasons for it.

You see, Beastars aims to construct a large scale narrative, and unfortunately... it is not one of the work's specialties. It makes many twists and turns thought its runtime, some of which are both unfounded and unnecessary, to the point where it makes me think that they were solely a display of bravado, there just for shock value, just to make you go "WOWW! PEAK KINO!", which could be my response as well if I suffered from memory disease and forgot the rest of the anime for these instances alone.

Beastars suffers from inconsistency. While characters are consistent at keeping their philosophy, personalities, and values, they somehow feel like they struggle to remain the same. They struggle to retain a consistent logic, or a consistent course of action. They are often found making big choices, with big words, which follow big changes, and comprise "the moments" I mentioned previously. And while one could dub all of these as "character development", I see it more of a "not-so-good writing" kind. There is a fine line between the two. Beastars makes me feel that these writing choices are only there for the sake of progressing the story, and not the characters themselves.

The writing tries to justify these actions through morality and character philosophy. These, however are too overwhelming to feel natural and allow progression to be smooth. Legosi, is of course, the most conspicuous example: for him, morality goes above the law, above the safety of others, and above his very own life. All is fine when he is protected with layers upon layers of plot armor, but without them, it would be hilariously evident how stupid some of his decisions are. Bro is just a teenager, yet he can commit to actions which could put shaolin monks to shame. It is, by all intents and purposes, unrealistic. It's not his struggle that is unrealistic; that is completely understandable, and always exposed in interesting ways. However, his response to that struggle, the actions he takes, his line of thinking... yeah, these make no fucking sense sometimes.

Beastars, in an ironic fashion, shoots its own leg. Instead of capitalizing on its strength, which would be a simple, grounded to earth narrative, it actually goes out of its way to create something grandiose, a story where men of big ambitions make big changes, affecting everyone around them, affecting society itself. I believe Beastars would be so much greater if it focused just on a few characters and something smaller and humble. I found myself engrossed and absorbed in its smaller interactions, in dialogue, in unique characters, and not the overarching plot. Because the foundations for it are weak. It relies on unrealistically pure morals which dictate even more unrealistic actions, it dons a lot of characters in plot armor, and ends up being more a show of theatrics instead of an actual character-driven story. It forces fights between characters when there shouldn't be any, it severs relationships when they could remain stable, it hacks and slashes its way through the narrative to create drama and tension. Here's the thing: that's not necessary for a story to be great! I don't know if the writer knew this, or if they did it on purpose, but it ended up being the reason season two and the rest of the manga felt so silly for me. The foundations for something way simpler yet as much effective were there. Beastars, though, opted for something much greater than it could swallow.

In the end, it still remains a unique experience for me, and it is definitely something that will stick out in memory. I had this weird thing after watching (and reading) Beastars, where thinking about any kind of character made my mind visualize them into animals... I don't know how to feel about that, but for one thing, it at least means that Beastars got into me. While at times it can be unbearably cringe, unfathomably edgy (you can't imagine how many situations are perfect for wolf memes), and unnecessarily bombastic, the combination of the original concept of Beastars with the style of Orange makes for something truly rare nonetheless. It is a great attempt at original world building, especially for a debut work, with unique characters, unique concepts, and... yeah, unique stuff all in all. I think I used this word a lot in this review, so I guess the message has been delivered. It is worth the watch, at least the first season. I rate season one with 8/8.5, season two with 7. Overall, it is a 7/7.5-ish. However, you must be warned: be wary with whom you will watch it, if you do. It might be a matter of life and death.

In conclusion: Pyro would LOVE this!

Aghh.... damn it.

I'm not the kind of person that watches sports anime. I'm not saying it's a bad genre - I'm just not drawn in by their premises. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that there are some incredibly good sports anime out there, and I thought that, perhaps, Welcome to the Ballroom would be one of them. I'm not gonna lie, I got curious. I had a good feeling. The positive reviews, an I.G. production, I said this is it, this looks like a gem. Yet here I am, at episode 11, dropping it... what went wrong, exactly? Well, plenty.

First, kindly allow me to ask: why ... the FUCK is this anime so desperately trying to be centered around dancing WITHOUT showing any dancing? Everybody in this anime is losing their marbles over this legendary entity called "dancing", yet when the time comes for me to gauge it by myself, it... isn't there? Everyone is describing what occurs in detail, going over the moves, watching in awe, while the dancers themselves are dripping in sweat and burning from the heat of passion, yet I'm... not seeing anything? Like, seriously, where is it? Have I finally turned into a schizophrenic? Surprisingly enough, not yet: after a perfectly calm consultation, I've come to the realization that this anime is indeed simply devoid of dancing scenes.

This truly stroke me odd, since Welcome to the Ballroom appears to have high production values. Episode one gave me a flavor of I.G.'s assets, and reminded me why they're so damn great. There's this core design principle of making
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limbs, which does look funky sometimes, but also does many wonders in this kind of setting. Characters can quite literally, become human statues of themselves: everyone looks absolutely gorgeous, especially when they're dancing (or at least... pretending to be dancing). Things were truly looking pretty, and after my first episode, I got wildly eager to see how actual dancing would look like with this kind of animation and these crisp sound effects. But then Kiyoharu and Shizuku's part came, and... yeah, not much there. I said okay, maybe they're just holding out for when Tatara steps onto the stage. And sure enough, he did - yet still no dancing on sight... why?

I'd believe it yesterday if you told me that animating something so dynamic and intricate as dancing can be quite difficult, especially when you're raising the quality standards as high as I.G. does, yet still: how can you call this anime "sports anime" if it isn't even portraying its own sport? I literally had more fun watching a 4 minute video of real professional dancing than I did from my entire 11 episode viewership of Welcome to the Ballroom. I'm not kidding. Eleven episodes of teasing me with something I cannot see? Like, is this some kind of fetish? I literally HAD to look up what professional dancing resembles after my experience with this anime... and I believe that alone speaks volumes of how disastrously Welcome to the Ballroom failed at portraying its main theme, at least visually.

Time not spent on animated dancing has to be spent on something else. To that end, Welcome to the Ballroom concocts a maelstrom of flashbacks, long-winded explanations on things we don't get to see, and a mind-melting repetition of mostly still frames to fill in the gaps (I wish I could count how many times I witnessed that same wide-ass smile of Tatara over and over again. You know the one). All these contribute to a most nauseating experience, going back and forth between characters and timelines JUST so we can progress through one dance that realistically lasts one and a half minutes.

This is absurd. No amount of dialogue would be necessary if we just saw them dancing. I need not tell it myself that dancing is a form of art and an expression of the soul, since Welcome to the Ballroom would have said it before me. Yet, where is the proof? No, the exact opposite is proven instead: EVERYTHING needs to be dissected for a dance to have meaning. Welcome to the Ballroom misses the entire point of dancing: being FUN. How about you all just SHUT UP for five seconds and let me see these two people perform their art? Isn't that the entire point of the performance? For the audience to just look at the effort that is being put forth? I never said there shouldn't be commentary on the dancing - there should be, and lots of it. But you know, commenting on something that doesn't exist also makes the commentary itself meaningless, no?

Okay, maybe though, this anime succeeds in other departments. Yeah. I'm just kidding of course, it doesn't. I wouldn't be dropping this anime if that were true. Don't get me wrong, there is some good writing and presentation to be seen. In my short experience, I did find myself heart-warmed at times (ohmygod Tatara and his grandma), while I could also get reasonably invested into some of the characters' lives. Plus, although I'm not related to the sport, I'd say Welcome to the Ballroom captures the atmosphere of competitive dancing quite well. I seriously got second-hand anxiety when the couples' numbers were being called on stage, which is pretty cool dare I say. However, what about everything else?

Welcome to the Ballroom has a comedy-drama core, and the execution is disappointing. The comedy is immature: childish humor comprising of silly goofs, oopsie whoopsies, and of course fanservice. Like, uncomfortably-shoved-right-in-your-face kind of fanservice. Like, stop. The approach in tension is quite similar: drowned in fantasy and exaggeration. You see, dancers in this anime are these telepathically gifted creatures that can read others' minds and feelings. It was not rare for one character, usually Tatara, to be thinking something, only for the next character to verbalize before him the exact same thoughts immediately after. The "indian soap opera" style here (trust me, this the best description that fits in this context) really elevates these scenes, making every single little eye contact with one another a divine revelation. As you can imagine, this can end up being fucking IRRITATING after a while.

Also, dancers are creatures that, if paired with another partner, are chained for life thereafter. Guys in this anime are cock fighting and about to kill each other for their dance partner like their life depends on it, as if they'll become complete failures if they fail to secure her. Like, chill? To be fair, this hyper-fixation can be "reasonable" given the age of our characters. However, this anime doesn't acknowledge that this mentality is narrow-sighted, and in fact assumes that it is perfectly normal. Guys are literally deciding by themselves who gets which partner, even though the partners themselves are right NEXT TO THEM LISTENING. It would be pretty cool if we could hear what they have to say about this too, no?

Maybe, with adult intervention, situations can be quelled, and lessons can be learned. Adult involvement, however, achieves the exact opposite in this anime. Every one of them acts like a proper asshole to others, and ESPECIALLY towards the students - mocking them, blaming them for their mistakes, putting them into awkward situations, and, you know, literally harassing them sexually for the giggles (seriously, fuck Sengoku).

These thoughts all lead to the same conclusion: target audience is middle-schoolers. Thus, some might enjoy this anime. But for me? Empty. This anime is an empty conspiracy. It writes tomes and volumes heralding this fabled myth referred to as "dancing", praising it as a difficult art, praising dancers as incredible people (who always smile), cataloguing the techniques and formats, things which I wholeheartedly believe hold true in the real world. But in this world? In the world of Welcome to the Ballroom? It's a conspiracy. Something a mad man once wrote to convince his followers. Don't you see it? It's right there, I'm telling you! What do you mean I need a therapist?! I ALREADY WENT TO THEM!

...or did I?

If anime was a limit test, this is it. Ten episodes. Really? A complete story confirmed to be a standalone work, squeezed into ten episodes. Surely, this can't end up good... well fuck me, it's actually pretty good. Perfect? Not a chance. But given the circumstances, this is a superhuman feat.

There are three things that shine for me in this anime: world building, dialogue/general scene direction, and animation. The first one is not even the focus of this anime. It acknowledges that it cannot fit big chunks of lore in a short, heavily action-focused anime, yet it effortlessly infuses detail whenever it can, forming a ... chilling image of the world that is Night City. It's not a deliberate effort, like "oh, robot bad. Look people turning into robots. Big corpos controlling your life. Scary and bad". No, you only witness what is "normal" within Night City... and gauge by yourself the consequences of this new reality, of cybernetic augments, of mega-corporations leading the world, of a dystopian society. The goal of Cyberpunk is not so much the world; rather, it's simply about the adventure of David and Lucy. You can consider myself impressed then, because the world building is amazing. Within a few episodes you have a solid grasp of the socio-economic structure, technology, and everyday life in this city. I guess it takes roots from the original Cyberpunk writing, though I have never played or seen much about this game.

And dialogue. I am wholly convinced that I watched an adult show, without characters being adults. I mean, not all of them at least. David's voice acting can get lackluster for me sometimes (subbed), though otherwise, direction in dialogue and character writing is really good. In an anime where things will, more often than not, get pretty grim for our cast, dialogue sentiment becomes equally repressed, cynical, and ambiguous. People struggling to get the words out. Saying something, while meaning something else. Trust, relationships, sharing and keeping secret. Some scenes hit very well. They capture real sentiments, real situations. This does NOT happen often in anime, and it is perhaps what made me enjoy this show the most. I have to mention that sometimes the subs stray way too much from the actual lines and go wild... they can be pretty funny.

And the fluency in direction does not only apply in one-to-one dialogue. Tension in Cyberpunk reaches flawless levels for me. The menacing, mechanically paced music, the slow-motions, the brilliant pauses, make up scenes for masterclass demonstrations. I literally want to put some sequences into golden frames to decorate my room with.

And that brings me to animation. Well, surprise surprise, studio Trigger. Of course this was going to be a banger in this department. You can SEE that the animators are having a shit ton of fun in this anime. Action sequences are stupidly insane and insanely stupid. Laws of physics? How about suggestions of physics? Action can be very enjoyable when you accept this approach. Cyberpunk is self-aware in this choice, and thus consistent in how action rules work. This anime can be both cool and exciting, but also hilarious and meme-worthy in its more absurd sequences, without outright ruining immersion. Although I'll be honest, it likes riding on the edge ;)

The reason the score is not higher is mostly due to pacing. I see incredible potential in direction, but the amount of time given is so, so small. The last two episodes were too rushed for me. Character absence in previous episodes leads to build-up that doesn't get resolved. I don't want to spoil much... but the last two episodes for me were simply so rushed. It's not that I did not like the ending. It's that it needed a bit more time for it to blossom. Certain scenes felt jarringly inconsistent... like entire seconds of frames were cut out just so everything could fit into the whole thing. Characters were left incomplete. And since Cyberpunk is mostly a character driven show, a show driven by David and Lucy, this hurts.

It's unique, it's fun, it's well-made, and worth the watch. Yet I still see lost potential in it. They had to fit a complete story within 10 episodes... and they did an awesome fucking job, don't get me wrong. I believe they gave their absolute best, and they deserve a lot of praise. I can't imagine what this anime would look like had it been longer. Yet the reality of the anime doesn't change... it's rushed. I truly wish the same crew works on a project with ACTUAL time and not on a juggling performance. Literally felt like the marketing team of Cyberpunk gave them one morbillion dollars and told them "okay, now you're gonna act like clowns for ten episodes", and they instead made the best shit they could possibly make. We live in a society.

In conclusion: Rebecca's VA needs a fucking promotion. NOW.

I will refer to the entire anime in this review, up to and including S2 part 1.

Have you ever wondered what a cosine wave really looks like? Seriously, think about it for a second. Think about its shape. Open Desmos if you have to. Alright, ready? Good, now let's see, if we put Mushoku Tensei right next to... oh my god. I'm literally shivering right now. Can you see it? But of course you can: it's exactly the same. The same shape, the same curves. Science believed it was impossible; yet here it is, despite all odds. What can possibly explain the existence of ... such a peculiar specimen?

There's one thing I can say for certain: there hasn't been a single anime in my experience as a viewer, that has made me develop a love-hate relationship with it to the level that Mushoku Tensei has. It is truly fascinating how this anime can go from mature, well-paced, deliberate, calculated, and even profound, to outright degenerate garbage. It is one of the very few times where the sheer quality difference in itself is actually exciting, a sensation similar to that of riding a roller coaster. In watching the "good" parts of this anime, I often found myself in suspense, in fear of the scene making a head-first dive into utter depravity: "No, no way you're gonna ruin this. Please don't. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!", and then, in subsequent relief of things going as they should... or even better than they should! And that might give you an idea for how I felt. All of which begs the great question: is the show doing this intentionally? I honestly don't know to what extend it does or not. I don't know if it's part of a sophisticated conditioning effort, or simply deranged thoughts oozing through the cracks. Though, instead of me talking in abstract terms, allow me to get a little more specific in regards to the "good" and the "bad".

Much like its sister cosine function, Mushoku Tensei starts its trajectory from high up. Despite being an Isekai, the premise actually managed to hook me in. I had been recommended this anime for being the "progenitor of Isekais" or an "Isekai doing Isekai right". And seeing that the original LN is more than a decade old, I was quite convinced. And I got even more convinced when I found myself straight up enjoying the first episodes. Yes, we get the typical truck treatment, but hold on a sec... when the protagonist teleports to this new world, he actually uses rational thought in an attempt to understand where he is, who he is, and what are the variables of the world? Imagine my shock! It's like what every Isekai show wanting to be taken seriously SHOULD BE FUCKING DOINGGGG!!!!!!

Alas, since NOT being sensible is the norm, Mushoku Tensei was immediately elevated in my eyes. Following the thoughts of our MC as he slowly explored his surroundings was an interesting pilot-copilot experience. Methodically unraveling a medieval world filled with magic, filtered however, by the standards of a modern Japanese citizen. Someone actually exploiting the freedom which naturally comes with modern knowledge and retrograde intuition (acquired through modern fantasy stories set in olden times), yet never compromising to assumptions; the world is still largely unknown, so one ought to always confirm one or another theory, and be mindful of potential cultural taboos: "should I say this, do that, or will I get in trouble?", et cetera. Moreover taking advantage of the mask that is his new body and reversed age, to further accomplish his goals, whether that is getting stronger, or... I don't know, big boobs I guess. Nevertheless, I can't stress it enough how great it felt watching an Isekai story finally MAKE SENSE. A good Isekai, I thought? Impossible...

Writing is just great, all around. His family really feels like a family, and Redeus is treated similarly. The scene where he receives his birthday presents is so simple yet so wonderful. The magic system and the rest of the world is unfolded step by step through books and pure logic. A medium-strength water spell looks fucking awesome given the right context and a touch of extra animation. This is what so many fantasy stories miss: context. A sun-sized ball of flames or similar god-tier spells tell you nothing. It is only a spectacle for the eyes. Given just a bit of writing and patience, anything can appear awesome, and this is just one of the many things this anime does. Uh, we also have the horny. I'm like, okay, lots of horny I see. Surely it's okay haha... wait, Rudeus. Rudeus, that's a child. What are you doing. Rudeus, for WHAT THE F

Haha, so weird. Surely this will never happen again. Anyway, the main setting eventually changes after a few episodes, and at the center of it all, Rudeus remains. Initially, I did not know what this meant for the story. But now I know: a world-spanning adventure with only one protagonist, and that is Rudeus. Mushoku Tensei is an anime of arcs and rotations. It wants you to experience as many characters and places as possible, with Rudeus being the pilot of this journey, no matter what. And this is where the writing of Mushoku Tensei really shines.

Is it cities? Rich design and distinct architecture, no matter the place. Even those that act as simple checkpoints for our characters to stay at, look different from one another. Different materials, different shapes, different sizes, all depending on the region. It feels effortless, really, since its only a visual detail, and is never outright mentioned. Then, is it culture? Every race or tribe you encounter has their own legends, their own traits. Hair color is for once used to distinguish people not because of their character (ok, maybe Eris is an exception), but because of race. I'm not kidding, this is actually true. And yes, this is an Isekai. If you are not amazed yet, wait until you see the fictional languages. I truly admire the use of fictional languages in stories, and Mushoku Tensei does it perhaps the best I've ever seen. It is never afraid to use them. They always remain relevant, our characters' knowledge of them remains relevant, and they're used when they should be used. Plus, they sound great! I absolutely love them.

And characters? I can't say character writing is stellar, yet most of them are still very likeable, so this anime wins me here as well. They remain consistent, they make sense, and act like proper human beings most of the times, which is a substantial achievement given Isekai standards. Rudeus is of course the most rich in writing, and... you can feel many things with him. That's all I'm going to say. Side characters are also pretty good, in that they have proper reasons for existing - more than that, you can feel that they exist. Plus, unlike in most shows, they're not utter caricatures. Even the most clownish and comedic of them all which I'm not going to name, feels refreshing to have on the cast.

And last but not least, CHEKHOV'S GUN. Mushoku Tensei never forgets. It will utilize the potential of even the tiniest of details. Was it some episodes ago? Was it a season ago? Was it solely a visual detail? It doesn't matter. I was pleasantly surprised many many times, and I assure you that you'll be too. And that really does not apply to small details only. The volume of connections, of threads leading from one episode to another, of things you thought you'd forget suddenly being relevant again; well, that has a name, and it's called great writing.

But wait, didn't I say that this anime is a cosine wave? Yep, it is, and it acts like one. These graces of writing do not always apply at full strength. The magic system especially remains stagnant for a big portion of the anime... it is not expanded, all you see is basic stuff thrown here and there, but nothing else really. Without spoiling anything, the second arc of S1 feels lackluster. You don't get the same depth in writing, and this continues on to S1 part 2. Then, the middle of part 2 comes, and the show peaks again. The end of S1P2 is pure greatness and grips you by the balls. Then S2 begins, and it feels bizarre and off-putting, like something has changed but you just can't get your finger on it... and then the second arc of S2 comes, and everything feels great again! This is just my experience with this anime. A roller coaster of quality and... huh. Looks like... the horny did not stop after all... haha, no... IT GOT WORSE. If you cannot handle sensitive topics, skip to the last paragraph.

I couldn't care less about the writing. The worst thing about it is that some scenes can get boring. Yet, they will still remain useful as a source of pure information: characters, places, and most events can be used later as reference to great effect. It is experience. However, if there is one thing I wholeheartedly fucking hate this anime for, it's this: the sexual degeneracy. It is so, SO vile at times. This show walks the rope between both rape and pedophilia, and it is absolutely sickening. Like, I get some of the less harmful horny scenes, and I don't care about them. But some of them are simply NOT EXCUSABLE. And they never end, unfortunately. Certainly, they reduce in frequency as the story progresses. Sure, some of them kind of make sense considering who Rudeus really is, and add some dark layers on his character. However, for anyone using this excuse, it is not only Rudeus... this show could be the same and better with less of this shit. We can understand how perverted Rudeus is without the degeneracy having to unfold in front of our eyes. Some of these scenes made me literally want to pluck my eyes out. Naturally, I won't get into specifics...

And the weirdest thing of all? The contrast. The sheer, earth-shattering contrast. This is an anime where you'll find, at the same time, great depth in emotion. It can actually be... mature? Damn, it can be more mature than you'd ever expect. I'd go as far as to say that it is elegant sometimes. This contrast... I just can't wrap my head around it. You can find delicate, sweet, and emotionally clever scenes in Mushoku Tensei, yet at the same time, you'll find black, repugnant smudges splattered all over it, stains that mark it, scenes that, if shown to me out of context, I'd surely believe they belonged to some garbage tier harem anime that should never exist.

A cosine wave and a paradox. Great writing, tainted by darkness. If I could label one anime as "forbidden", this would be it. I love this anime. It has solid writing, it is rich in detail, it can be deeply resonant. I've grown to really like its story, I've grown to like Rudeus, and my curiosity is wild. I'm eager to see where this anime is headed, exactly because I have faith in its writing. Yet, can I comfortably say that I "like" this anime, or "support" it? No, not when it has literal CRIMINAL shit in it. I've clearly stated it in other reviews: opening the gates to atrocities like pedophilia and suicide is not a fucking game. The scale needs tons of weight to remain balanced, be that philosophical coating, retribution, and most importantly, PRESENTATION. You can't just throw it in there and pretend it doesn't exist... because that's exactly what this anime does! There is one character with a particularly striking attitude: "Everything as usual in my daily routine: studying, getting out on the balcony for some air... oh, and I just have to deal with this silly nuisance here and there (BEING SEXUALLY ASSAULTED)".

So where does that leave me? In a bind. I'm being asked to pretend that this shit simply does not exist in this anime, and turn a blind eye to it. Honestly, more than where the story is headed, I'm interested in the person behind this work. What are they really thinking writing all this? What is the purpose? Do they honestly think it's funny or enjoyable? Is it to attract the twelve year-olds and the ravenous degenerates that need constant sniffs of hedonism to watch a show? Or is it a question? A challenge to accept this, move beyond it, and enjoy the anime for what it is? Or am I simply overthinking it...? Since the frequency of this kind of depravity lowers as the anime progresses, I've leaned towards a more lenient mindset. However, under no circumstances whatsoever am I forgiving it. Just like this anime does not forget details, I'm not forgetting the sewage it has thrown to me as even slightly passable fanservice. And that's why I'll have to give it mixed feelings despite my 8/10. I have the capacity to ignore these instances. To pretend that, amidst the strokes of great writing, someone else stole the pen and infected the script with this vicious plague, for reasons unknown. I just can't believe this is the same person writing all this... though, I can understand that for some people, this is not possible. And I completely and utterly respect that. This is my one and only literal guilty pleasure.

Do I want to keep watching Mushoku Tensei? Certainly. Am I interested in the story? For sure. Is it better than other Isekais? Without second thought; this is the best Isekai I've ever seen. It has everything I've written so far and then give it some. But for the love of god... for the love of all that is fair in this world, I want someone to flood the mailbox of whoever wrote Mushoku Tensei with women's underwear, to the point where it has overflown into their house and on to the street. I want whoever wrote this to, with much love, gently and painlessly drown within their own vices.

In conclusion: I'M GOIN' TO JAIL

I have genuinely impressed myself writing something so long for an anime like this, and resorting to so much profanity, but lo and behold: this is what Kokoro Connect does to a man. If you're in the mood for riding a shitstorm, get ready because this is gonna be a big one. Spoilers for the entire anime ahead, though trust me, you're better off this one. If you want a spoiler-less TLDR, read the last paragraph.

So, Kokoro Connect. Despite its efforts to bring out something convincing, like seemingly solid characters and a decent story setting, this anime unfortunately ends up in a fucking disaster, to ... put simply. Especially when it comes to dialogue and drama, this anime goes way too south. Even for supernatural standards, the actions of our heroes range from unrealistic to blatantly stupid, with the exception of Inaban who, in the majority of our scenes is the only character you can believe is a normal person. A retarded "villain", poor thought investment in some otherwise interesting ideas, and a complete Armageddon when it comes to drama. With that said, let's get a closer look at this disaster.

If this show wanted to impress me with its ideas, it should try much harder. There are anime like Kimi no na wa explore the first concept of the story way better, and even though its characters might be simple, they are nonetheless much more believable than those in Kokoro Connect. Even with the lackluster development our first idea gets in the four episodes it is implemented, it eventually gets abandoned for a rotation of phenomena. Through the anime, our villain, "Heartbeat", uses four different ways to manipulate our characters, ultimately separating the anime into four different mini-arcs. And while the first one is kind of interesting, the rest are just boring, vague, or outright copies of previous ones. All of them though, and exceptionally the first one, are missing a very important element: credibility.

In the context it is presented, this anime wants me to believe that instead of bringing terrible confusion, misunderstandings, and even worse, the body-switching actually brings our characters in a "good" position to resolve their problems and bring them closer and happier like nothing is happening... you want me to believe that everyone just lives with other peoples' parents just fine, although they might not even know their names? Or that they can go on with other peoples' friends? Hell, they presumably don't even know what each others' houses look like to begin with. Yet nothing of the mentioned is ever brought up, let alone discussed. The only "real problems" that occur are things like someone going to the wrong toilet or... I don't know, a man touching the boobs of a female body he's in? And I know that the body switching only occurs temporarily, but that doesn't nullify the fact that major problems are overlooked, while attention is centered on comedy and shenanigans.

If those "major problems" were dealt with even a little, speaking not only for the first arc but every other one, this anime would be much better. It was a huge opportunity to flesh out our characters and understand how and why they are living like they do, things that could also be presented in a rather interesting way because of our body switching. Instead of that though, the personalities of our characters are revealed to us very directly, and the body switching only seems to be the motive for them to open up rather than the cause.

So let's see how that happens in our first phenomenon. It's actually really simple, we have what I like to call a classic "screwdriver" scenario: the girl club members reveal some kind of personal issues, and Taichi, being Jesus Christ himself, goes on to kiss their ass cheeks and damn, everyone is fine suddenly. Keep in mind that Aoki, our only other male member, never had any problems because... I don't know, he's in the male cast, and the only one who even remotely got a chance to help any of the girls was Taichi (same-sex personal advice is pretty gay, miss me). And how are their problems solved, you may ask? Well, for example, Yui's androphobia is perfectly healed by Taichi kicking himself in the balls from her body. Nice!

We also get another nice surprise. I said every girl had some problem, but hey, the anime tells us that Inaban doesn't have any problems; she, instead was born with an INHERENT distrust towards other people. After taking your time to digest what the fuck you just read, you might realize that this was a pretty stupid idea. In fact, this attempt was so cringe-worthy that Inaban herself had to physically say "how can you fix a problem if there isn't one?" And I wasn't going to support this argument any further, but I find this a nice opportunity to connect this point with the aforementioned absence of coherence and credibility in this anime.

So, Inaban tells us that she doesn't trust anyone. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only time I can sense any kind of distrust from Inaban is when she refuses to believe the club members, when they explain the body-switching phenomenon to her. Which is simply common fucking sense. Then again she expresses fears that her friends might do something mischievous with her body, yet we don't get the tiniest glimpse of someone even HAVING THE IDEA of doing something unwanted with Inaban's body, or anyone's body for that matter. In fact, the only time someone is trying to do something remotely bad is the mentioned boob touching, which clearly was for LOLZ XD and did not get picked upon further than that.

And while Yui did have a traumatic experience to make her androphobia serious and believable, and Nagase did have a messy childhood with an unstable family (although we get no insight into either of them), Inaban's problem does not get a pass. Where is Inaban's problem based? Why should she even have a problem like the others in the first place? And why is Taichi the one "fixing" it and everything else? Please note that I'm making these questions from a writer's standpoint, and not from a realistic social perspective. That would be fucked up. In fact, nothing in this anime is realistic, so keep that in mind as I express my ideas.

With that being said, perhaps now is a good time to get a better look at our characters, and what a better way to kick it off other than with our bro, Taichi. This man. Who is he? Probably Buddha himself, everyone pays praises to his shrine daily for fertile crops and many many children. Actually, to say that Taichi resembles God Himself would be an understatement. Guy loves everyone, forgives everyone, and solves everyone's problems. Don't forget that he can, at will, make any girl fall in love with him. Quite the god I'd say.

Any attempts to make this character any short of original were thrown out of the window immediately. The promising "original trait" our bro had was something like a "hardcore" wrestling fan, that was not only cringe but was also 100% discarded somewhere around the middle part of this anime and never brought up ever again (maybe it was for the best). Seriously, it was just cringe, if you exclude a laugh I got from the John Cena poster at the beginning. Everything else about him is unoriginal, bland, and boring. There is nothing interesting about him because he does not oppose anyone or anything, other than himself. His thinking is as white as it can possibly get, and his responses to questions that challenge morality (yes, the show actually has one or two moments where this happens - unbelievable, I know!) are equally ambiguous so as to not ruin his God character. He wants to be friends with everyone, everyone loves him in return and all is good in the world. There is no purpose behind his character besides the "I WILL SAVE EVERYONE!!!" mentality, becoming a "selfless freak" quite literally: it feels as if he dedicated his very existence to saving everyone and anyone, even if he has to kill himself ten times in the process. In fact, he cannot STAND at the thought of someone else getting hurt instead of him, considering this as some sort of medieval torture... like oh god, did he fail to save a flying cockroach because he was unable to body shield it from a train? He will probably commit sudoku from his guilt and regret it as much as possible before he does so. Sounds pretty sound to me.

What is the meaning of such a character? He doesn't live for himself, but for everyone else. He has no ambitions. He puts no value in his life. In the hospital scene, he's the first to offer himself. It doesn't take him more than five fucking seconds to make it his final decision. He becomes literal cannon fodder. Ego death in its purest form. Yet he's somehow our main character, someone our anime thinks should be an exemplary figure? But really, who am I to judge? Our God Taichi does nothing wrong. The only thing that He does not right in the entirety of the anime is to not recognize the "real self" of Nagase, but in reality, no one could. In any other case, His love extends toward infinity. If anyone ever feels even slightly bad for, let's say spilling some of his piss outside the toilet, He won't rest until that person achieves inner peace and spiritual transcendence, and He will tell everyone that he won't so that they can further comprehend the depth of His pure heart and soul. I'd say God bless Taichi, but who am I kidding. He is God Himself.

I'll get Aoki and Yui out of the way fast because they're just useless. Aoki himself is the King of Kings when it comes to filler characters. The only interesting moment for him is when he gets some beef with Taichi, and things could get better for him if... you know, the problem wasn't resolved with comedic relief? The only other characteristic Aoki can be remembered for is his ability to instantly ejaculate whenever Yui does literally anything in his vicinity. Which seriously feels as if he was programmed to do so when he does it to such an extent.

Yui though is a significant upgrade. She gets TWO moments in the anime! Hell yeah, Aoki would be proud. The first one is during our second phenomenon, where she basically locks herself in her home forever. Reason being? She's afraid that her desire to literally kick ass would be unleashed and world peace would be compromised. To be real though, her actions can be justified. The only problem is that the whole thing does nothing to add anything to Yui as a character. She only expresses a normal impulse to not harm others, which is understandable but not a thing to dedicate episodes and characters coming to her home like firemen to get her out. Eventually, she gets roasted by Inaban and this part ends.

The second moment involves the addition of another random character that arrives out of nowhere, to tell Yui that she's not living her life correctly because she gave up on Karate. Nice! Apparently, here's where another one of Yui's traits is revealed, and that is her dependence on others. This was not bad because it connects well with her previous moment as well. If we exclude yet again more pointless whining from her, this was an okay moment for Yui. The epitome and grand finale of her character are near the end of the anime, where she cries about "being a side character" (I'm not joking), she then hugs Aoki and her character is complete.

Nagase is probably the most complicated and the one with the most changes. She gets interesting because in the fourth act she eventually deviates a lot from how we knew her, but things could be done smoother and ultimately much, MUCH better in regards to that. Things had seemingly settled down after the first act regarding her personality issues, but that did not end up being the case. We don't get much of her in the second phenomenon, in the third one we only get bits of her, and in the fourth one shit goes haywire. The problem which our friend Nagase reveals is that she adopts different personalities to please her social cycle according to each one's needs. In accordance with her, her real self is hidden behind all the fake ones, and apparently, once the fourth phenomenon appears, the veil of her fake personalities starts to fade and she goes batshit crazy, not knowing what to do. Things would be fine with her problem if it wasn't for a simple fact: a lot of people are like that! Yes, you heard that right, we are all clowns in the same circus.

It's actually embarrassing that I feel like I have to explain this, so try skipping this paragraph... anyway, it's not the same for all, but everyone adopts some kind of different personality in social interactions. Everyone filters themselves depending on who we interact with. We will act differently with our family, we'll act differently with our friends, differently with our teachers, and so forth. Our brains get hardwired to act more or less restrained and respectfully depending on our familiarity and relevant social standing with the person in question, and different elements of our personality appeal to different members of society. I don't fucking need to explain this, IT'S BASIC HUMAN INTERACTION.

The issue with this, and this is to an extent the same issue that is addressed with Nagase, is the deviance between each personality. Greater divergence leads to a greatly different personality on a fundamental level. That means that we'll have to commit more and more to the defining traits of each personality, eventually putting too much effort and strain to support such an image. That can become tiresome, annoying, and to a greater extent even disgusting and repelling to us: pretending we are someone that we aren't. Now I don't know if Nagase has a personality disorder or not related to that issue, but regardless, it actually makes Nagase the most believable character in terms of personality. Or that would be the case if it wasn't for yet another problem (profanity alert)...

Once she stops assuming her "different personalities", one would normally expect to see what kind of person she really is. And in a sensible fashion, the rest of the cast seeks to do the same: to understand what she really wants to become. They truly want to accept the "real" Nagase or what else, go along, and be friends with her like they've always been. It's totally understandable. Yet what does Nagase do? She proceeds to be the most arrogant bitch she could possibly get. She turns that bitch meter to the MAX, like there is no tomorrow, and if there was a limit she would get past it, aiming to be the QUEEN of bitches. Now why, would a poor soul ask? Every time people ask her what she wants, and what kind of person she wants to become, what does she reply? "You don't understand. You wouldn't get it. No one gets me."

This happens SO many times. She purposely avoids everything, not telling anything about her or what she wants, regardless of how malicious or disturbing that COULD be. She acts as if, you know, actually saying what the fuck she wants isn't the most obvious solution to the problem. Trying to be the worst person for everyone, trying to make everyone hate her, because... reasons? Is that her "real" personality? Of course not. It's just that she was nice to everyone before this, so now she decided to be the biggest bitch for the sake of being a bitch - and so a bitch she became!

People ask her what she wants? She replies with a huge middle finger to everyone. Taichi then, being the absolute sigma male God that he is, attempts to draw the bad reputation of her bitchy personality by telling the entire class that he attempted to rape her. I'll admit, I'm not brave enough to ask how the gears and cogs inside a God's brain work, but for now we can focus on the fact that he committed social suicide to give an external excuse to Nagase's bitchy behavior. And how does Nagase reply to this divine intervention? She actually decides to stand by and watch, and not even speak to him afterwards. No, that wasn't her best friend sacrificing their ass for her, it's just a random loser who cannot understand the depth of Nagase.

But wait! Wait a minute, when Inaban is in a life-threatening situation and NAGASE KNOWS THAT, she will prefer to do nothing but lie on bed trying to figure out if Taichi loves her or not. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. This actually happens. But before you give up on her, wait! Give that poor soul a chance to redeem herself. Because she eventually wakes up from her slumber eons later to save Inaban and be the hero of our story. How can you not be inspired by this? And now, how does she decide to wake up from her hibernation? No, it wasn't because her friend might you know, die or something, or everyone else practically BEGGING her to speak out to them, or Inaban eating her insults for breakfast and then proceeding to be the nicest person to her. It was because she remembered that fucking Taichi, the Ghandi of this anime, told her that he loves the original Nagase or something despite the fact that he had already made that clear like, I don't know, fifty times? Okay, bitch time is over, let's be friends everyone! (Nagase then became friends with everyone).

Case in point... why the fuck did all this have to happen in the first place? No reason whatsoever. They just wanted to make Nagase a bitch, and so they made her. There was no such thing as a real personality ever shown to us. She just hid it forever, and maybe revealed it in the end? Although I don't know how much that varied from her previous one... it's just a mess. Nagase could become a much deeper character and one with greater meaning. Her breakdown in the classroom with Taichi and Iori was amazing, and given a better choice of words and script, this could be a truly original and groundbreaking character. But instead of that, they decided to just make her a bitch. God damn it Taichi, you had one job creating this world! At the end of the day, this was a big waste of my brain cells. Apologies for that big rant but god, did I get mad watching the final act...

Then we get to Inaban. Hands down my favorite character of this anime, for the simple reason of being blessed with common sense, which apparently is a rare idiosyncrasy in the world of this anime. But the best thing about Inaban isn't just her rationality, but the fact that she weaponizes it into aggressiveness. Making those who shouldn't speak shut it, sharp and grounded to logic when everyone else has the intelligence equivalent to that of melons, Inaban surely made me appreciate a character in an otherwise retarded cast. Inaban's confrontations are at the right times realistic and serious, while others can play more on the comedic side. She's really the reason I kept watching the anime up to at least the fourth chapter. When someone says something stupid, she roasts them. When someone does something stupid, she roasts them. It's really great because this also happens quite often. Basically the alpha female of the squad, and not the bark and no bite type: this can be clearly seen in the fourth chapter when she encounters the dudes. She's just epic.

However, there were two issues with Inaban, and honestly, they are so out of character that I almost refuse to believe they're part of her character. First is the aforementioned "problem" of Inaban that I already explained thoroughly. It doesn't really become a problem because it is solved rather quickly. Then we have the romance she is involved in. And it just made me ask the same question as I did with her first issue... why? We learn somewhere in the middle to end of this anime that she is in love with someone. And oh boy, would you guess it? Jesus fucking Taichi!

This pops out of nowhere with zero, and I mean it in one hundred percent of the term, absolutely ZERO previous hints or romantic interactions. I mean, it only got revealed to us by Inaban saying it herself and not prior to that. I just can't stress it enough, there were zero signs in the entire anime. Literally Heartbeat had to force her to concern herself with that issue, as if she had forgot it or something: "Yooo Inaban, what ya got there? A secret, huh? Mind if I tell it to the viewers while you say nothing?", like, come on...

And while we're at it, let's not forget a similar problem, the relationship between Taichi and Nagase: it is completely naked, it has no foundations. We get no clues, no development, they just decided to throw it in there and then call it a love triangle. It just sucks, you never see the romantic side of any of the characters. Literally any of the characters. Even Aoki is just a walking erection that constantly says that he loves Yui, but really... nothing other than that happens. That pretty much sums up the romance in this anime. And just like that, the roasting beast we once knew as Inaban turned into a cute puppy by our lord and savior Taichi. Quite expected to be honest.

And then finally we get to Heartbeat. This character is just... bruh. Quick hint to save you from mental breakdown: do not ever, EVER take this character seriously. It is obviously trolling both our cast and the viewers, intentionally or unintentionally so. But for the sake of this review, let's just try and consider him as a legitimate character. Firstly, even though he is "the villain" of this scenario, his described motive is pathetically elaborated. Any time we try to get some kind of utter motive for the tampering of our cast, we get a very specific answer: "Uhhhhhhhhh... bruuuuuuuuuuuhhhhh", which roughly translates into "you are interesting".

And then you begin to ask: what does he mean by interesting? Is this some kind of experiment? If so why on kids? And plenty of similar questions, that never get answered. Eventually, you give up because he gives zero fucks whether or not you want to know why this happens or who he is. He just acts like a zombie, says "bruh" all the time, announces details of the current phenomenon, and proceeds to play with our characters. And I say play with our characters because Heartbeat has incredible powers when you think about it. He can expertly manipulate humans in that he can enter their bodies, swap their bodies, understand their desires and unconditionally spread them to others. He can also possibly read minds, which should make no surprise. He knew, for example, that Inaban loves Taichi without any social cues present (at least in front of us). This might imply that he can predict and even manipulate the future. Now Taichi finally got some real competition.

Even so, we get no explanation as to what kind of god he is, why he does what he does, or any of that, as mentioned. But later on in the show, we see him personally approach each character and giving them advice on how to progress with some of their problems... why? He could just manipulate them as he pleased, coming to them in person and giving advice shouldn't be so practical... I mean, if he can read people to the point of comprehending their deepest desires, he can possibly predict the responses of our characters to his questions. In that sense, there's no even point in making them. And to add another hole, after a while he starts classifying characters as "not so interesting as I had expected". How can he expect something incorrectly when he knows what they'll do before they've even done it? This character becomes such a complicated mess of holes and unexplained motives... so now you get the "retarded villain" comment at the beginning. And you'll be sure he is when I add this final nail in the coffin.

Here is where our disaster called drama comes into play. The first major dramatic scene is when Heartbeat takes control of Nagase and throws her body into a river. She is hospitalized, and while her friends are out of the operating room, Heartbeat arrives there to tell them that she's going to die. Then he makes an offer: someone can give their body to Nagase, and in exchange, he or she will die in her body on the hospital bed. Eventually, however, no one does. Now this could certainly be a revealing moment for our characters and make the situation actually enlightening, if it wasn't for two things: first, there was no motive to kill Nagase. She just yeeted her body into the river for the funzies. So the only reason I could think for Nagase's death is so Heartbeat can see everyone's reactions in a true goofy Disney villain fashion. Other than that I really can't think of anything else. Anyway, nobody should care at this point.

But here's where it gets better! Heartbeat also gave Nagase the opportunity to convey her final thoughts to her friends, by swapping bodies with others temporarily. And we do not see all of it, but after our characters share with her their pain and sadness, after Taichi confesses his love and gets his first and final kiss with her, Nagase goes on to say goodbye to the world...

Only for Heartbeat to FUCKING TROLL EVERYONE! Nagase is ALIVE bitches, did it feel good? OF COURSE IT DID! Do you feel awkward as fuck because you told her things you thought she'd take in her grave? TOO BAD! Were you prepared for a sad moment full of character growth and redemption? WRONG ANIME! Oh, and after he does what he does, he fucking APOLOGIZES for it. You heard that right, he apologizes and offers fucking donuts to express his regret... how can you not laugh at that?! And when you thought idiocracy has its limits, we later get the same antic AGAIN, A SECOND TIME!!!

This time, he comes to Inaban to tell her "Uhhhhhhhhh hey i think taichi is dead? yeah i think he fell. maybe go check???.... i think he dead tho". Needless to say, no ordinary viewer would believe it a second time, but sadly our alpha female Inaban got baited. Thinking that Taichi fell off a cliff, she ran like crazy with tears in her eyes, only to find that Taichi... fell off a tree. And he was doing what you'd normally expect Taichi to do, yet another Herculean task: saving a poor soul of a cat while putting his life at immense risk. What a hero. What a Legend. That's why we all love Him.

Now... even by pretending that Heartbeat cannot predict the actions of our characters, and instead lies to them to see their true reactions to these events, what do we as viewers get from all this? Here's what we get: absolutely NOTHING! The anime sets up dramatic scenes that eventually end up being memes from Heartbeat, so what do we get? A big fucking slap in the face, that's what. Characters stay the same, the course of the show doesn't change, and we get no exposure to ideas or meaningful lessons. Oh, maybe we learn that we shouldn't trust our hobo-looking teachers who can teleport to our houses and tell us what to do. Thanks! And I never said we should always learn something from anime. Maybe we can, you know, simply enjoy them for what they are. Well in that case, have fun with a banquet of lies addressed specifically to you, dear viewer. Oops! I meant flowers. Here, a compensatory gift with even more lies.

In my most reasonable assumption, I can only see Heartbeat as a disgrace of an excuse to trigger events in our story, in lack of coming up with other, more clever means. A product of lazy, poor, and distasteful writing. And if you didn't agree with me so far, maybe you will when you meet the second Heartbeat. Yeah, there is a second fucker! Why? I don't know! And I'm dead sure even the writer doesn't at this point. So... these were the two main dramatic sequences of the anime. I'm certain you're still weeping. The rest of the drama in this show goes as far as brief banter between each other for minuscule reasons. In other words, this anime is devoid of meaningful drama.

After this abnormally huge review for such an anime, I have only this to say: This anime ended up boring and fucking irritating. I have clearly specified the reasons, and as much as I love Inaban, she alone couldn't save the anime. Just pathetic attempts to create drama, characters were either blank sheets of paper or car crashes and having literally only sex in their heads. An additional troll robbing the anime of any sort of serious plot development, and a big inequality between the scale of the ideas and the corresponding depth they are given. I believe that with a few tweaks here and there, this could be considerably better, but being what it is, it just left me with a bad taste in the mouth. Really curious as to why so many people praise this anime in reviews.

Due to a personal project, I tend to pay a bit of extra attention lately to the structural side of anime I watch, like world building, setting, narrative structure and the such. Needless to say, this here was a very satisfying discovery. I quickly felt from early on that Tengoku Daimakyou was doing A LOT of things right regarding these aspects (at least from my perspective), and it was indeed an insightful piece, both in how a post apocalyptic world with a secretive magic system would or could be, but also in how it explored its powerful themes.

First and foremost, this is a post-apocalyptic story, ... depicting a destroyed Japan. And it does it very well. With clever writing and clean art style, it manages to fluently paint its world with every passing frame. It doesn't need much dialogue to explain how terrible or catastrophic the Great Calamity was, or any other concept for that matter. You just have but to take a look around the places our characters explore in their journey. One should never undermine the importance of collapsed buildings and sprawling greenery, for they tell not only the story of the world's end, but also how people reacted and adapted to it - and Tengoku Daimakyou naturally understands that. The screen is constantly filled with meaningful details enriching one or another narrative, and always solidifying world building. And it is not only visually; many aspects of our character's lives are influenced by the state of the world, in a way that they actually make sense. And let me tell you, one thing that really gets me going watching an anime, is anything making SENSE.

With an apocalyptic world ravaged by monsters, one could expect somewhat of an action survival story (especially in the context of an anime), which honestly, I'm not particularly fond of. And although post-apocalyptic survival was surely a core aspect of this anime, I was primarily absorbed by its main themes of identity, sexuality, and humanity. It might sound weird at first (the end of episode two was truly a "HUH?" moment), but I honestly ended up in great thought and subsequently amazed by the ideas of Tengoku Daimakyou and how it implemented them. I might even go as far to say that this anime innovates, in that it takes one or two preexisting anime tropes and passes them through a realistic psychological filter, converting otherwise eye-rolling scenes into profoundly revealing ones. It questions the meaning of identity in very practical terms, it embraces our humanity, from the corrupting jealously and selfishness seeping into even our most fundamental interactions, to our incredible ability to collectively understand each other without uttering a word, to work together, to help each other, for the simple fact that we share one very intrinsic quality: being human. These themes are instilled into your thoughts effortlessly. Tengoku Daimakyou does not at any moment force you to question them yourself, but through the story and dialogue between characters, these topics do inevitably come up, and in that simplicity, this anime reveals its greatest strength.

Character writing and the production assets from I.G. again truly shine here, greatly enriching the delivery of these themes. This anime is both a post-apocalyptic adventure and a psychological horror, and it performs very well in delivering both. Dialogue and character expression in particular are doing some insane heavy lifting, creating actually convincing interactions between teenage characters in a semi-fantasy setting (I know, unbelievable). It is the most enjoyable aspect of this anime, to the point where I wanted to see characters getting in trouble (or troubled) so as to see how they react. In any case, plenty of your time will be spent following the two protagonists of this story in their adventure, and the good part is that it never gets boring. The fire of their chemistry is constantly burning through the episodes, and it is both amusing and interesting to see them work together. Be it moments of tension (the music here needs to be noted), of a comedic intervention, or scenes of pure horror (which were particularly good), you will find believable reactions both in voice and movement, with writing and screenplay working in unison to absorb your emotion in every one of them. And that's awesome.

At this point, though, I have to make one thing clear: this anime is not perfect, by any means. It elevates its characters, dialogue, and themes VERY high, that much is true. But there are moments in this anime that I simply couldn't wrap my head around. My point being, this anime does get overwhelming, in that it sometimes skips logic, rushes over important details, has literal sexual assault fanservice for no reason (I watched one episode during a flight, and man it was NOT OK), and worst of all, it manages to oversimplify characters, something which I found very confusing. This anime can paint a character in literally four dialogue lines, which is absolutely amazing, and sometime later you find the most cartoonish and goofy caricature in existence. How? I have no clue! But this is a reality, especially taking into account the dualistic approach in narrative: one side being our two aforementioned protagonists and their adventure, and the other being a sort of school which I'll refrain from talking about to avoid spoilers. I will at least tell you however, that some characters in that part of the narrative are... something not exactly fitting with the rest of the cast in terms of quality. It's like a foreign invading species, somehow finding a way into this anime. Sadly, towards the end these problems is greatly exacerbated. Characters and backstories are completely stripped from depth momentarily, creating one or two mini train wrecks, which truly saddened me.

Well, from what I've heard, the manga is not even over yet, and that shows considering the final episode. I was very happy watching this anime, especially the middle of it. But the sudden drops in quality were very nauseating, and I'm very hesitant to give this anything over 9. I would probably give it a 8.5 if I could though. Don't know... the final episodes really made me bitter. Don't take my word for it, though, take a look at it for yourself. For thirteen episodes, this anime is definitely worth your time, and I found myself binge-watching it. Who knows, maybe I'm nit picking, and for the next viewer, this anime could be their new masterpiece. So give it a try. With that much said, see you, and bye-bye...

***Includes a few spoiler paragraphs that are marked***

What can I say, this was a curious experience. Despite having some obvious flaws, it still managed to be impressive by the end, making bold proclamations without shoving anything down your throat. It's an awkward dish made by someone you know and love, that nonetheless tasted home. It forced a smile on me, it made my eyes wet, while I was fully aware that what I was eating is going to fail on a competitive contest. Therefore, I could only grow to treat this anime with love, albeit a tough one. Which is rare, to be honest.

Thematically, this ... anime is incredible. The last five episodes are enough to change your entire perspective on this show, even if you considered everything up until then as mediocre. Among other things, it covers the political and philosophical aspects of conflict, without picking any particular side. It gave me some Legend of the Galactic Heroes vibes, really: just like LotGH, Argento Soma leaves you wondering about the nature of conflict. What does it mean to fight towards a common cause? Who's my enemy, and who's my ally? What's the difference between "my" and "ours"? In the midst of panic and social unrest, we'll quickly dismiss these fundamental questions, in favor of the imminent. Our ability to plan and foresee in these kind of circumstances is severed, and this notion is positively reinforced throughout the anime. In other words, there's a message of caution here, of introspection and self-awareness, of making sure that I know what I want, but also where I am. Discerning what is "right" for me, and potentially for others too - why am I working towards a certain goal? Truly vital concepts, not only in the context of war or conflict in general, but also of a person entering adulthood - a period shrouded by confusion, indecision, and the fear of uncertainty. These themes are portrayed beautifully in Argento Soma.

The preceding ideas are further deepened through characters, obviously. While the anime fails in delivery, its intentions are clear and humble. First thing to note with characters is how everyone is actually at the age they're supposed to be - you know, adults and young adults? This atmosphere can really alleviate viewers who are fed up with mass-produced character sets in other shows; teenagers with stereotypical designs and personalities, furthermore playing in a setting that requires discretion, respect, and above all critical thinking. These depictions simply aren't realistic, but they're so overused in other shows that we've almost grown used to them.

Argento Soma is here to remind you how such a setting ought to look like. You can feel tension in critical situations, character logic is mostly satisfactory, and there's always a sense of connection within our cast; be that in the relations of our main group's members, Funeral, the military, or the government. Consequence is rarely forgotten in character interaction (unless said character is Ryu), providing gravity behind individual action, besides making the world more believable. Needless to say then, I enjoyed Argento Soma's characters. Yes, Ryu too. He had some of the OP essence as with many anime protagonists, but his character arc was rarely inconsistent, even if flawed (morally). With some exceptions, there was no particular reason to disapprove someone, because as I said, their logic is pretty solid; everyone had a reason as to why they were doing whatever they were doing, which was pretty cool.

Out of the cast, commander Ines was probably my favourite. I might be slightly biased here, but I just enjoy the representation of women in "unusual" work sectors, in this case the military. And it wasn't just a display of swagger and raw muscle you'll most often find in other shows. In Argento Soma, there is a genuine political concern for both the official and unofficial approval of women in these positions, a concern voiced by Ines herself: "Was I truly chosen for my skill set?" Her rebellion is not one of upheaval, but of sincere, collected, and justified dialogue, in spite of the recipient being an awfully conservative and pigheaded regime. Also, keep in mind that this show aired on 2000! It was another thin, yet clearly visible layer in an already thematically rich show, one that I personally savored.

As for the quality of this anime, and starting with graphics, they were good. Can't say much more. I liked character design: it felt unique without being presumptuous... if you make a small exception for Ryu. I cannot lie though, Ryu looked pretty cool, and Dan too. Emo vibes? Yeah, totally, but they looked cool, so I liked them, and that's that. Similarly, I liked Ines and Michael, although that guy's mouth was pretty confusing at times... still, I could always admire the unique stylistic approach. In the rare occasions where characters wore non-military clothes, you could take a glimpse of an entire new world of style. Take a good look at characters in the final episode - just gorgeous!

Musically, the anime was hit or miss. It's orchestral at core, and while this really helped to deliver sentimental and some tense scenes, it failed to accompany action. Never going beyond a certain limit in tempo, it lacked sharpness and intensity, elements that are more often than not, obligatory in fast-paced sequences. I always crave for shows to correctly not use music at certain scenes, though Argento Soma was not the brightest example. Let's just say that I wasn't very pleased having music play on top of Harriet singing, more than once. Thankfully, it wasn't disastrous enough to mix different keys, though that alone did not save these scenes. So conclusively, music in this anime didn't make for an exceptional experience, but wasn't bad enough to ruin it either.

***Entering spoiler territory***

At this point, you might have asked: why did I rank Argento Soma with a 7, despite my largely positive remarks so far? Well, there's a reason for that, and I'll have to enter spoiler territory to elaborate. I previously said that the anime fails in delivery, and I stand true next to this belief. While character interactions can feel organic at times, there are numerous occasions where developments were rushed or ignored altogether. Particularly, Lt. Green and David Lawrence were butchered. The former gets criminally little time for backstory (along with Sue), the romance with Ryu comes out of nowhere, and she's outright killed at the last episode time skip... without any explanation whatsoever!

Lawrence on the other hand, is turned upside down towards the end of the anime, without any cohesion in the transition. At first he resembles a villainous figure, almost an imaginary one judging by his spontaneous (dis)appearances. Then he's suddenly an ally of our cast... it's a mess. What are his motives? Why is he asking for Funeral's data from Ryu? Why is he aiding Ryu exact revenge on Frank, if he considers Frank (Yuri) his comrade? Why is the black SARG's pilot turning into tomato juice a reference to him, if he's not even on the government's side? Why is that pilot even killed in the first place? David is a character that, not only makes no sense, but takes the rest of the plot down with him. Oh yeah, and he lives with an injured leg by the end, after being gunned down at point blank. That's peak comedy right there.

Speaking of plot and holes: in the reveal that the aliens have no bad intentions, the show conveniently ignores how they were disintegrating innocent civilians with lasers... it becomes an uncomfortably transparent inconsistency, when the show simultaneously wants to highlight Harriet's past trauma. And speaking of Harriet... can we stop harassing this poor child for one second? She's handled like a ragdoll throughout the show. Yes, the dangers and the dilemma of having a child partake in military operations is acknowledged, mostly by Sue, and occasionally by Ines. But will we still choose to ignore how Ryu harshly mistreats her without consequence? How they chose to put her in the co-pilot seat of a SARG tasked with interception, and not in the much safer transport aircraft? How Ryu's college buddy was salivating over her like it was normal, or how two dudes were literally going to rape her? So okay, we get it - she's an innocent victim of war and the adult world, so can we tone down the unnecessary degeneracy? Needless to say, I was stunned with some of the things my eyes saw... oh, and while we're at it, can the military stop going nuclear every second time? My thanks in advance.

***End of spoilers***

Most of all however, the deciding factor for my rating was pacing, and the overall enjoyability of the first ten or so episodes of the anime. Admittedly, I had tendencies to drop the series at about episode eight or nine, as it wasn't making any essential progression with its episodic structure. It placed some question marks here and there, little pieces to keep some of your interest, though these weren't enough for me. Most of its early focus was placed on character exchanges. As I said, these did indeed have value, but they lacked impact; the anime lacks in delivering character moments. Mecha action wasn't that satisfactory either. Code;Geass, and even Argento Soma's closer relative, Evangelion, had way more enjoyable mecha action - especially the former. The reason is simple: progression. Each fight had something new, a new weapon, a new enemy, unknown variables. Yes, Argento Soma had unique enemy types, but what about their design? What about Funeral's side? Nothing changes. I understand that mecha action isn't the primary focus of this show, though can't the same be said for the two anime I brought up? Argento Soma simply didn't have any spice in its mecha fights. They were not bad per se, though definitely not enjoyable either.

At the end, this anime begged for patience and focus. Was mine, even if forced at times, rewarded? Certainly. More than half of the show's length was used for slowly setting up characters and the world surrounding them, but then effectively utilized them to deliver themes through a surprisingly wonderful story. And there really isn't a better way to describe it other than "wonderful". Although Argento Soma preferred the realm of reality, it couldn't help but get romantic at times, and I loved that. Sure, I wouldn't miss some of Harriet's singing concerts... but the show's ideas came through for the most part. This anime really is a journey towards an enchanted land. The road might be quite rough, but rest assured: once you get there, a wonderful world will unfold right in front of you. The decision lies on you: do you want to take the journey?

Wonderful (as defined in Oxford Languages): inspiring delight, pleasure, or admiration.

What is "elegance" in storytelling? In my opinion, I believe it is something simple: to respect the viewer's ability to understand. Their ability to perceive the emotional context of a specific scene, the thoughts of the involved characters, their feelings. It is purely human for others to assume what someone is thinking or feeling. Sometimes, it is an easy task. Sometimes, things are so much more complicated than they appear on the surface. But this struggle is exactly what makes a narrative engrossing, realistic, and even beautiful. To let the viewer discern for themselves, is to be elegant.

And by all means, 86 is not an ... elegant anime.

I am not going to delve into the source material to verify the accuracy of the adaptation, so I am just going to assume that, at least when it comes to the story and characters, the anime stays true to the original light novel. If so, 86 is still painfully average. And it is painful because at times, it hints me for something greater, a deeper world, and an interesting fantasy setting. At any other time though, it underperforms so much, that I did not even consider watching the second season of this anime.

86 wants to be a war drama, centered in themes of racism and social inequality. Frankly, these themes are already pretty saturated, though I would still absolutely respect a story if it portrayed its ideas in a powerful way, whatever they may be. 86, however, lacks too much gravity for it to succeed. And it somehow does that in every possible facet: be it characters, the story, the action, you name it... it's actually quite spectacular, and I believe a great contributor to this disaster is A-1 pictures themselves.

You see, "elegance" and A-1 are polar opposites. Perhaps, 86 is just unfortunate in that it got adapted by this studio, a studio that is ABSOLUTELY NOT fitted for making a war drama out of all things. In a genre that craves for realism, nihilism, and above all respect both to its characters and the viewer, A-1 replies poorly in every aspect of direction. Is it characters? A wreck that continuously sinks. Their emotional expressions are overly exaggerated and telegraphed. Wherever you'll expect shivers of dread and sadness, you'll instead receive shivers of cringe and awkwardness. You were looking for soldiers in a hopeless and uneven battle? How about a Major that gets horny with the leader of her squadron? Exactly: you're treated with the same red faces and immature comedy you'll find in every other industry standard garbage slice of life. A-1 is NOT fit for a war drama.

Is it scene direction? A literal tragedy. If you thought 86 did not instruct you enough on how to feel with its cartoonish characters, worry no more, because A-1 has you covered with its music. Direction in this studio believes it is a fantastic idea to play music at almost EVERY possible opportunity, music that, at plenty of instances, does not even fit in the context of the scene. In a story that deals a lot with death of related characters, you'll find yourself listening to soft piano beats in what should otherwise be a moment of mourning and silence. A-1 is NOT fit for a war drama.

When it comes to character development, there is no commitment. Initially, 86 surprised me with some interesting chemistry between the main cast. There is indeed some focus on the details of their interactions, the minute aspects of their daily lives, short peeks on their past, and I genuinely thought that all these teased for something great along the way... 86, however, gives up from very early on. It does not allow its cast to mature enough with themselves and the viewer, yet it still believes that you'll be invested in them within literally 2 episodes. That in turn, makes for some truly cringeworthy moments later, as the story BEGS you to care and feel something for one or another character, regardless of what happens to them. I believe this anime would be better if it lasted 18 episodes instead of 11, but either the writer or A-1 could not realize this.

86 portrays its themes with an unusual narrative style. There are basically two opposing forces in this world, the oppressors and the oppressed - the classic idea of class division, and I truly mean the word classic here (the oppressors, named "Alba" are... white aristocrats. They even made their hair white. Wow). Episodes are split in two halves, with each focusing on the lives of one of the aforementioned groups. This can easily create dramatic contrast when context switches so seamlessly, and there are indeed moments when you can feel that. Yet at every other time, there is nothing to solidify the animosity between the two. They call each other pigs, and that's the only thing we ever hear. There is no world building, no history to create a background, and the character cast is absolutely tiny - there is no sense of scale. We never see a government. There is no consequence. We never see the eighty six get oppressed; in fact, they never even refuse to fight on behalf of their so called "pigs". It is baffling how weak the world in 86 is.

I still have a lot of things to ramble about for 86, but the bottom line is, it is not an enjoyable experience. Actually, it is an ironic one. I always prefer quality over quantity in anime, and A-1 delivers the exact opposite. It invests big budgets for expensive animations, CGI, a big set of music scores, many sound effects, and yet somehow the end product is miserable. It would at least make for a cool fighting fiesta, but would you know it, even action is bad. Once again, we are promised depth in the combat in 86, with names for enemy types, some unique battle concepts, and yet again we're treated with nothing. In the end, all you see is 20 FPS CGI spiders with, what I can best describe, Michael Bay sound effects on top of them (it is unironically funny listening to combat sequences). I think I've made it clear that 86 was a promising anime. It was, but it fails to deliver in every possible aspect. At the very least, disaster is spelled so early on, that I did not even get disappointed. So thank you, 86, for at least allowing me to brace myself in advance.

In conclusion: I hate A-1 pictures. If they've ruined the nier automata anime in a similar way, I will commit R3 + L3.