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It is sad to see that animation of this level is not met with a story that does it justice. (Spoilers ahead)

Demon Slayer and I have a weird relationship. I thought the first season was pretty good, having animation and CGI combined in such a way that it didn't look jarring and added to the overall impact of a fight, making it that much better. The plot of the first season was really interesting as well. It did a great job at introducing the world and how everything works. It had some incredibly emotional moments and some breathtaking fights.

Fast forward to the Mugen Train movie. ... The movie was fantastic. It took everything that made the first season great, and improved upon it and, because they realised that this arc is better suited to be told in a movie format, made a movie instead of a season. However, they then undid that decision for some reason making a season of that same Mugen Train arc. And as I mentioned before, this arc just isn't told in a very satisfying way when it is airing one episode a week.

Now the reason as to why I am mentioning this is that I think similar mistakes were made. The pacing of this season is just not good. Everything moves so slowly in the beginning and it doesn't really get that much better toward the end. This season has similar issues as the previous one, because they haven't found a satisfying way to tell this story in a weekly release format. Each episode ends on a cliffhanger but isn't resolved with real consequences in the end. For example, in the final fight between the 4 Demon Slayers and the 2 Upper Ranks, they constantly pull a uno reverse card, one upping each other every time. Inosuke gets pierced by a scythe laced with poison through his throat, but in the next episode appears to be fine because - he grew up in the mountains? Uzui gets poisoned as well and we even see him, presumably dead, on the ground, not moving, but in the next episode he appears again with a cut off arm and I'm just left to wonder why he was pretending to be dead in the first place when he could've simply cut his arm off and prevented further harm on his allies. It is things like this that consistently distracted me from how great the animation looked.

But my biggest annoyance throughout this season is that a lot of time is wasted with unnecessary elements, most notably the flashback in the last episode, which is the reason this is a 6/10 and not a 7/10. This flashback perfectly shows how off the pacing of the show is and why the animation couldn't save it. Why would I care about the backstory of two character who are in the moment dying and have no further impact on the story in the future. Why wasn't this shown to me some time before the fight so that I at least cared a little about the demons. This could've made that final fight much more emotional because we have at least seen what the demons have gone through and why they now do what they do.

It is these small things that, throughout the show, keep adding up and just make it more frustrating to watch because in the end, this is supposed to be a good show with breathtaking animation but its biggest obstacle right now seems to be its plot.

One-Punch Man Season 2 is probably the most disappointing sequel I have ever seen. One of the first anime I have ever watched was One-Punch Man, and I am not going to lie and pretend that there is no bias and I wasn’t hyped for the second season. To this day, One-Punch Man (2015) is one of my favourite anime and this is why season 2 was this big of a disappointment.

The first moments where I started to question my hype was when I saw that they switched studios from Madhouse to J.C. Staff. I had not seen anything produced by J.C. Staff before and ... I was unfamiliar with what they had done before but in the end, I was still pretty hopeful. Until one fateful day, the first trailer was released. I think the moment I finished the trailer, people around me could hear how the hype inside of me just shattered. Everything in that trailer looked and felt so incredibly flaccid and it was just some lines said by the voice actors meant to sound cool with parts of the anime in the background that were just randomly added to give the trailer some action, which it didn’t really do. Overall, it killed all my hopes for season 2. But I was still going to watch it and see if the final product really is that bad.

So, was it as bad as I expected it to be? Yes, and no. I initially dropped it after the first 4 episodes. I was up to date with the manga at the time and I was hoping they wouldn’t destroy one of the coolest characters added to the Manga, the hero hunter Garo, and when I saw him fight in the anime and I saw how he was handled as a character, I decided that this is not worthwhile.

But, about one and a half years later, still reading the latest chapters of the manga, I started wondering if I was just a bit harsh or if it was actually as terrible as I remember it to be. I picked the anime up where I left it and because I don’t like not finishing things, I persisted through it and watched the whole season. And in the end, I have to say it was still very unengaging. However, one thing changed: I realised that it’s not a bad anime per se, it just felt like it was bad because it was such a drop in the quality from the previous season. The anime isn’t bad, it’s just painfully average. There are some good aspects scattered throughout the entire season. The score is still pretty good and has some very powerful pieces in my opinion and some fights, despite not reaching the standard of the first season, are still well animated. But whenever I thought to myself: “Wow, now they’re really picking up the pace…”, they decided to not carry on that momentum and drop the quality again. The sound design in some scene is phenomenal, until they reuse the sound you liked so much so often, that you get tired of hearing it over and over and over again. I think the best way to describe it is that the animators overwhelmed and underwhelmed you at the same time. It’s like going on a roller coaster, and the carts are slowly moving you to a higher position and you get all nervous and giddy with excitement because you can just feel how much of a good time you’re going to have, just so that they can stop when you reach the peak and slowly reel you back down again to exit the roller coaster again.


If you want, you can also check out my blog, where I'll be reviewing anime, but also other stuff that I come across (eraysedreviews.home.blog). If not, then still thanks for reading the whole review one here!

"What's so interesting about a guy that destroys everything with just one punch? I mean there can't be anything exciting about it right?" - me, after a friend suggested me 'One Punch Man'

"Oh my god, this is amazing it is ... wow!" - me, after I watched 'One Punch Man'

'One Punch Man' is that kind of anime that surprises you because you'd never expect an anime called 'One Punch Man' to be interesting in any way. But it is interesting because it doesn't really focus on the fight or on how strong Saitama is, it focuses on how Saitama gets bored because there is no ... worthy opponent, it focuses on how people react on someone this strong and how other heroes treat him and what they think.
This anime has got everything, awesome fights, a great sense of humour, and of course some love (ok, that's a lie, there is no love ... yet).
The only sad thing about everything is that there are only 12 episodes. But luckily a second season has been announced.

I highly recommend watching 'One Punch Man' because, keeping it simple, it is great.

This anime is amazing. The plot is incredible and, during the last episodes, it has plot-twists in almost every episode. But that doesn't make it bad, but it makes it better (and more complicated). Also there is Fan-Service... do I have to say more? Well... Yes because even though there is Fan-Service, that doesn't make it the main reason to watch the anime. It is the plot combined with amazing fights AND the Fan-Service.
Also the humour of the anime is great. It will make you laugh with every joke, I promise.

In the end all I can say is that if you like great fights, ... a plot that confuses and amazes you at the same time, then you should definitely watch Kill la Kill.

I love Naruto. The plot is almost perfect. The animations are great. The score perfectly underlines every emotion (it almost made me cry (Wind-Akeboshi)). The character development is awesome, they all have a backstory and you really feel with someone because the emotions are brought to you so well that you can understand their feelings.

Now the negative side of it. It has an awful amount of Filler-Episodes and that really is annoying. While some are quite enjoyable, most of them are just boring. Also in the middle it can get a bit boring because of these episodes.

But in the end all I can say ... is that you should give it a try because if you know what is a Filler and what isn't, you'll be able to skip all the boring episodes.


P.S. Just in case you don't know where to get a list of Filler-Episodes, here you go:
http://www.animefillerlist.com/shows/naruto