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Recommended for viewers in need of a fresh story, lacking in tropes and recycled content. (Don't be put off by the "josei" tag", I nearly missed it because of that)

The last 15 or so years of the anime industry have been very heavy and insistant on the same story, art and characters, the same technique has been so overused that the line between so many series becomes blurred in the eyes of a viewer that has grown up with the classics, is certainly grown tired of the same droppings, different season, and has a solid base for comparison. The factors for that are many, but ... a major one to mention is the very basic consupmtion = demand = production correlation, so naturaly at some point quantity inevitably overwhelms quality, as in many other products on the market. It's like authors and producers saw a collosal "Unsubscribe from creativity" button and agreed to hit it for good, truly a tragic story for another time and place.

So, anyone who glorifies anime like CSM or Tokyo Revengers, please leave now and take your cry-me-a-river-no-jutsu along, as either: too young/uneducated/biased; or brain cell count is too low to understand why Oooku is actually good! (I'll gratefully take your confused or funny ratings instead).

The story and the characters are not what you would call the buttercream of sophistication but both are multi-dimensional, have various depths, and progress proportionally. Even in a fictional setting, what is done exceptionally well here, and what constitutes the majority of my high appraisal, is the feel of reallity and relatability, where people are both strong and weak at the same time, have morals but also ignore them for the sake of something more important to them, fight to prevail but submit to the more powerful person or situatuon, each has their own motivation, convictions and goal but none is set in stone, and undergoes changes, and while each carries their own trauma and burden, none of those become the driving force behind their actions.

In the end of the day it's just a fictional story and there's so much reality one can expect and demand, but if you've seen enough chosen-ones or 10 year-olds saving the world, regardless how exciting it is, you're bound to yearn for some adults adulting adult stuff, and no, not necessarily erotic (which was by the way nicely included in this gem). If "reason" is your thing, you'll find it here, so there...

What you will not see the character do here is: being over-dramatic/aggressive/stupid/naive/stubborn/the epitome of good or evil. There is no one true "hero" and his respective "antagonist" counterpart, characters are not black versus white, they are sometimes influenced by others, or inspired, think on their own and make decisions, mistakes, learn, grow and change. Males do not fall under one of two classic categories: 1.macho/hero or 2.wimp/incompetent, and neither do the females, respectively: 1.tomboy/over-energetic or 2.damsel in permanent distress/can't think, can't walk or run without tripping and falling.

Complaints are thrown around about the time setting and how it doesn't live up to period dramas, as well as how historically accurate it is or isn't, but was that really the point, and is it really that important? While the When and Where the action takes places does inevitably dictate some narrative, it feels like much less of a centre piece and more of a plot device. The premise is an interesting one, in the same way anime with their own unique worlds have charmed us before, an excellent food for thought and brain excercise in my opinion. Of course it's levels away from being perfect, but serves its role for the development of the story flawlessly. Not to mention what a breath of freshness is the break from school, isekai, harem/ecchi, teenagers overflooded themes/settings.

The ending is really well-rounded, considering the anime doesn't cover even half the manga. You can leave it at that and still have a great, satisfactory, no-bull, completed story with an open to interpretation ending. And considering how little was covered from the manga, plenty of room was left to expand for more seasons, or even your own imagination.

I found a very fulfilling balance in the execution, characters, story and development, setting, and overall was around the 8-9/10 mark, but plot holes, unexplained things and few bits and pieces here and there dropped a point (based purely on objective and constructive critisim, and by no means on enjoyment), which will not stop me from picking up the manga in the future.

It is truly disappointing and frustrating how anime/manga as a medium has progressively grown dumber and brainless over the last years, only to cater to a crowd that has no bar for quality, or any standards for that matter, apart from "art and animation". The newest trends so heavily rely on stupidity as a plot device that if the characters are not dead from the neck up, there would be literally nothing happening in a whole series. The same mindless tropes are overused to a point where finding a show that contains minimum to none of that crap is a physical chore. But that is ... all fine if the art is unique and beautiful, and throw in extra points if the characters have a quircky and distinctive design and/or superpowers, and preferably their clothes explode on impact.

In case you've made it to season 2 of this mess, you would have probably noticed it is one of those numerous overhyped high definition slapstick dramas that studios have been throwing up and spewing recently, it would have been laughable if ti wasn't tragical and deplorable. My guess is, the only reason this cut it to a second season is because the tentalising premise of time travel to fix some horrendous future outcome and saving a powerless damsel in distress seems very temptive and promising. Of course, if done and delivered properly it can generate a masterpiece of a show, but in the case of Tokyo revengers, instead of helping improve this meyhem, quite the opposite, it makes it even more difficult to swallow.

What ruins this series the most, however, is not the plot, or the major lack of such in this case, it's not the painful pace either. It's the characters that have ultimately become the crashing downfall of an idea that could have otherwise made a decent and pleasant show. For one, the sheer count of characters introduced in a short amount of time has made it a struggle to keep up with each and every of them, regadless of how memorable design, quircks, nicknames and unicorn rainbows they've been given. Attempt acknowledged, but as the plot has not been properly developed and unfolds on many stages without a good explanation of what where and when, therefore hard to follow who was who and doing what for what reason, has become a pointless bout against the numbers. But even with that aside, if there was a reason all characters were written in 1 of the 3 categories, "good weak/cretin", "good strong/twat" and the "beginning-of-all-evil invincible bad/braindead", I can only assume it would be a colossal "dumb protagonist" trope recycle and reuse, and even if we turn a blind eye to the whole cast for being stupid teenagers, the MC is supossedly 25 or so, yet somehow he's been written as the biggest imbecile of all. It's a cringe overdose. By far, they are all completely overdone and disagreeble, have questionable if any motivation, little intelligence and conversational capabilities, and no redeeming qualities, justification or depth.

For as long as the consumer has demands only in the art department of new media, the studios and mangaka will keep selling the same bags of dirt, and what was once a must for a show to be considered good: plot, development, narrative, characters, is now only "recommended to have". With examples like Tokyoo revengers, the industry is walking on thin ice and I fear "RIP good anime" is a notion hanging in the near future, but seeing the teenage fanbase scale of shows like this or CSM, I probably shouldn't worry too much for the studios' pockets.

If you're in solely for the art concept, keep watching. But if you expect good plot and development you might want to re-evaluate.

The art here can be arguably considered either great or tragic. I speak as a non-artistic individual, who can appreciate art solely on a "like it" - "don't like it" basis, so as a subjective judge, I found it mostly unusual, a bit overdone at times, but overall pleasing.
The plot also seemed rather intriguing at the beginning, with all the curious elements and concepts and fine-paced world building. That pace, however, drops rather quickly as we are introduced to more side characters and ... their own stories, before they are promptly discarded. Even if considered a necessary plot device, those (adult) characters feel extremely shallow, unmotivated or over-motivated and with very questionable intellectual level, apart from the child protagonists who act way more mature than they should be and than the surrounding them adults.
The plot is divided into 2 storylines, which will pressumably somehow intertwine at some point, and while it is not an uncommon storytelling device, it is by far done well. The slow tempo, jumping between the 2 stories, throwing at moments too much or too little information at the viewer makes this series hard, and at times cringy to watch. The world is filled with fictitious terms, which are often explained with very few words from the protagonists and shown written on a full black screen. Those terms tend to be a non-existent combination of kanji brought together to create its fictional meaning, but even as a Japanese speaker, I found it overwhelming to remember how some/each are pronunced and struggled to figure out their respective interpretations when mentioned later on, although I can see how this contributes to the world building and found some of them rather clever and/or fitting.

Overall, it is not one of those unwatchable shows with only hypothetically existent plots. If one can agree with the art and the slow development, one can surely enjoy this. For my part, I found the story not intriguing and enganging enough to carry on with it, but I can see why some might give it more credit.

Not recommended for deep plot and good pace enthusiasts, but I can see how the laid back, slow pace can appeal to people who enjoy more relaxed shows.

Subjectively, the CGI can and will be off-putting for some viwers, although if one can swallow that type of visuals it is not completely unwatchable for the easy going type.
The plot development is rather slow, with attention to some elements taking unnecessary time of the episode, although not as bad as other recent shows. It is devoid of any form of humour, deep emotion, drama or epicness, but at episode 5 the viewer can figure out where the ... story is going and can decide whether it is a good match for their taste or not.
The world building is also somewhere in the gray zone, as it started fairly well, with some unique hints but soon became one with the background as the story progessed slowly, all the while some elements presented initially evaporated alltogether. That said, I can not contemplate whether it will come back to pick up pace or not later on, as there is still time to achieve a more satisfactory result, if the current affairs are developed better.
Characters tend to be somewhat bland and unimaginative, both as a design and as a personality, which is not by definition a bad thing, actually it fits perfectly with the monotonous narrative and atmosphere so far. While some are presented as relatively realistic and relatable, comparatively others seem oddly irrational with questionable motivation and unfeasible actions, regardless on which side they are.

For someone who places the plot and development above all, and regards everything else as second, this could not bring much pleasure in watching, but depending on what one values most in recreational media, it will certainly be to the taste of some and not so much to others.

One of the greatest disappointments ever seen in anime. Not recommended for good plot/development connoisseurs.

Once people have seen/read a certain amount and variety of any recreational media and have lost the "teen" in their age, they tend to get more genuine and generous with the overall rating, but also that exposure gives them a more critical eye to the media in question.
With the internet becoming a widely and massively accessible platform, and globalisation going full throtle, the popularisation of anime worldwide came in like a storm, the basic principle consumption=demand=more production gave anime/manga a bigger stage to shine on and bigger audience, but that ... essentially became one of its worse demons. It meant that the hungry consumer would eat anything regardless, so the quality bar, in favour of quantity was dropped to unrecognisable levels in the last 15 years, dropped and devolved to CSM level. Not that great anime was not made in those years, however, what once was a condition has now become a bonus. The balance plane of art, music, animation and plot has so heavily tilted towards one side that a great deal of newer anime depends in large amounts on fan service, fantastic art and animation, intriguing or unique character design, and has sadly nearly obliterated the demand for quality world-building, plot/storytelling/narrative and any sort of development or reasonable characters.

CSM anime sees to all of the above, at a whole new level. It is simply badly made, a very poor execution of a series that had great potential based on the first episode, however, crashed miserably with every single one to come after. It has no direction, no purpose, no plot thus far, no narratrive and a catasrtophically failed world-building, so what the viewer is left with is a devastating bundle of anitiheroe-only cahracters, great animation with slightly botched CGI, mediocre music and a distinctive atmosphere but nothing substantial like a good plot or development to keep them all tied together.
The "plot" is so all over the place that at episode 10 out of total 12, the viewer is still to figure out where the story is going, the reason for which largely at fault is the pacing and randomness. The action scenes have no build up, are very sudden, and the viewer's angle dramatically changes too fast to follow, while the non-action scenes are painfully slow, stale, taking up a big amount of time overall the episode and a good count of them contribute nothing to the story (putting the kettle on, dressing up, brushing teeth, making breakfast, brushing and styiling hair, daily life things in great detail and length). The juxtaposition of those scenes creates a significant disbalance in the storytelling and doesn't provide anything of value. It's actually strainful and confusing how the series jumps from one to the other at random before suddenly returning to the previous. This type of animation tends to an audience that has low bar for plot but high expectations/demand for quality art, usually one that is new to anime and certainly has very little base to compare it with.
The characters are arguably some of the shallowest ever created and animated. Disregarding the sex/food/sleep/repeat-driven teenage protagonist of the series, the rest of the characters are adult, yet act and behave on the same level as the aforementioned teenager. Characters are randomely introduced and randomly disposed of, some serve absolutely no reason or puspose and bring nothing into the series. There is no depth, no development, no intelligence, no relief, no justification in any of them, down to the last one flat, unreasonable, half-baked, overdone and forgettable, some are simply cringy.
The only thing that holds the series just so it does not fall below the generous 5/10 average score is the beautiful art, however vision pleasing motion pictures are not enough to redeem a virtually non-existant plot, bad storytelling/ world-building and absolutely disagreable charachters, essentially dismanteling the very prerequisite of anime.
The whole glory of this series lies in it's gore, detailed art and animation, dark atmosphere, fan service and seemingly quircky characters, it has nothing to offer other than that to make it worthwhile, it's just that, average with potential to become even less depending on the last 2 episodes to come.

This is only my opinion, I value story more than anything in a series, animation and art style are irrelevent to how much I will enjoy it, I appreciate well-written characters, fan service is fine in medium quantities as long as it is not a plot device/center piece of the story, I believe pacing is crucial in a series. It doesn't have to be perfectly balanced to be enjoyable but if there is no plot, any recreatinal platform of choice simply becomes meaningless.

A lot of potential wasted on this one, nonetheless still a great series.

The art is absolutely gorgeous, and I don't mean in the sense of fantastic sceneries and jaw-dropping BGs, but as a masterpiece of the animators. It's so detailed, compared to a lot of modern works that I can't but appreciate it, little things that make the characters very real, quirky but still close to the viewer on a somewhat personal level, which don't seem to exist in newer series (for many reasons I suppose).

The sound is great, loved the BGM, the VA selection, and most of all, how adequately the characters sounded (excluding ... one or two). Also, personally I adored Gene's voice

Story, though...for me the first few episodes were a solid 9, so I expected a lot more from this anime. The sotry had so much potential, it was really promising, however, at some point it turned to the episodic pattern. Nothing wrong with that ofcourse, episodes were still fun but the story that the viewer was made to believe will be followed was swept away and was lost until the last few episodes where a lot came together but then ended abruptly. A lot was left unexplained, unaddressed even and to be desired.

Characters could have done with some more development as well. If anything, a bit of a disappointment point was the slight downgrade of Gene's character. He started as a much cooler, level-headed and sober character at the beggining, but ended up the douche or the kid in many cases.

Overall, it's a great anime with outstanding art, humour at level and fantastic characters but it really leaves a lot of questions and much more to be explained. Still, aside from my little critisism of details, I would highly recommend!

I feel so much potential was wasted on this one, it is kind of frustrating.

The anime has nearly all ingredients to make a great shounen: first a good plot concept, then there's youkai and humans and their various relations, yakuza styled youkai syndicate, great art style, nice VAs and BGM, enough space to develop the plot and characters and a great deal of Shinto concepts and ideas....

And then...enter THE characters...

For me personally, the characters ruined a fair bit of what otherwise could've easily been an 8/10 shounen. While I can ignore unrealistic age and pretend they are older than what they're supposed to be in ... the anime, what I can not ignore is their intellectual level. I reckon stupid characters exist in nearly every anime, however, in the case of Nurarihyon no mago, at least 70% of them had about the same intellectual level as my 2 year old nephew. You know, when you tell a child "don't touch the hot iron" and the next thing you know is that is exactly what they're doing.

More than a few characters were simply unnecessary to the story, many conversations were repetitive and shallow, the pace was slow and painful, and the climax didn't really feel like one, whether the conclusion was satisfying is questionable.

These 24 episodes could have been compressed in a 13-15 episode series easily.

Well that was a surprise, 91 days literally destroyed all of my expectations. 8.5 from me

This anime was like the freshly baked bread, still warm, straight out the bakery as compared to the one you usually get in the store, a rare treat.

I'll start with the most important - Story: It's a simple enough idea that you might think will follow a linear pattern, however, as the anime progresses the plot starts deviating from that line, it involves many characters and aspects, it takes unexpected turns and the more you watch the more confused you get and yet the more you actually follow ... the development with a better understanding.

The characters: Complex figures with individuality that does not have to rely on exaggerated features, all of them are portrayed as people who stand for their own and each is righteous in their thinking, none is introduced as the "good" or "bad" guy so the viewer is free to decide for himself whom to sympathize with.

The art is simply exceptional down to the last character. Very rarely have I seen an anime that does not need the emotional condition of a character to be explained verbally. Yes, the art allows the viewer to see how the protagonists feel.

The OST and voice actor selection was also beyond adequate. Beautiful music and amazing VAs, no squeaking, shouting, meowing or quacking, no female VAs voicing male characters or vice versa, pure goodness.

It's not perfect, it had its downsides as any other anime but it was a fresh sip of air that left me charmed and wanting to see more, like manga or continuation, and also disappointed at the same time because probably neither will happen.
Either way, 91 days is 1 of these shows that bring me back faith that anime has not fully become all about oversized breasts, harem, school cliches, moe and tsundere etc...

I was really torn between 6 and 7 for this one but ultimately decided for all the laugh to give it an extra point.

This anime is something you have already seen about hundred times and has little surprises to present. It actually started fresh, promising the viewer to show something slightly different from what already exists but alas, it turned into the typical harem/ slice of life. It included almost all stereotypes one can think of. The Cultural festival, the beach episode, the scary episode, of course all the romance and drama, fair share of misunderstandings and fights in the group of protagonists etc etc ... etc etc (does it sound familiar? Can bet few bells rang). In sense of story development, flow and setting it was disappointing, could not live up to my expectations especially with this high (MAL) score.

That said, however, I didn't give it a 7 for nothing of course. What was quite well done here was the humor (tsukkomi) of the characters. It really had me laughing out loud on few occasions and giggling quite a lot (though not all jokes can be properly translated into English so they wouldn't strike as funny). The references to and parodies of other animes were adequate as well. The art was very pleasing and so was the voice actor selection (except for Kobayasi Yuu - I admit she fits the fujoshi role quite well, but after the unexplained transformation of the heroine, that image gradually started to fade and it just became unpleasant hearing her high pitched voice, just a personal preference of VAs but I think Sawano should have voiced the heroine).

If I have to recommend anime to someone this will not be on my list of recs but if I'm asked if it's any good to watch, I would probably say if you want to waste time go for it, it's not bad, it's just I have already seen this pattern so many times and probably everyone else has too, so why bother watch something you already have watched....

Beware: This is a shounen-ai! And a good one on top of that!

I thought I'd start with that as the genre is not listed on MAL.

As probably most of you have figured out by the name, this is a Chinese animation, the second in my life, but I have to say definitely not the last one!

Overall Ling Qi is a beautifully drawn anime with a deeper story from what you'd expect of 20 short episodes. It engages the viewer straight from episode 1 with its perfectly proportioned combination of sweet humour, action, art, BGM, few parodies of other anime and unexpected development.

While the ... story left many things unexplained(which probably the manga will explain), this did not really ruin the pleasure of watching Ling Qi, I did not feel it left me hanging and questioning plot-holes or scratching the back of my head wondering what it tried to convey.

The Chinese setting/language was a very refreshing break from the good ol' Japanese anime and the characters' behaviour or way of speaking is something I enjoyed immensely as it (especially the voices) felt much less forced than most Japanese animes.
I do pay a lot of attention to voice actors, way of talking etc and I can't hide how much I hate forced voices like in many animes (no normal Japanese person talks like that) and speech in Ling Qi did not strike me as forced or overreacting (I did live with and communicate with a group of Chinese for a whole year)

Overall, 8 from me, very pleasant animation, beautiful artwork, nice BGM, engaging story, and most of all a Chinese shounen-ai.