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It's good. Pretty good. There's going to be a lot of inherent discomfort with the premise (12 year old boy and 16 year old girl getting together), but if you look past it, it's a sweet romcom about a girl learning how to love (and be loved). It's really simple. Like it's incredible how simple it is. If you want a feel good story, this is it. No insane plot twists, no being strapped to a rocket and being shot to the moon to defeat the Demon King, Eren Yeager, and the Ass Devil. There's bumps here and there to make it interesting but as ... a whole, the story knows what it is and plays into that strength for a nice decompression chamber of sorts. The art is also godly, Oshima Towa knows how to rock Clip Studio.

So I reiterate. If you you can look past the premise, you'll be in for a pleasant time. If it makes you uncomfortable, that's fine too.

Watch it, it's fucking great. The OST slaps, the opening slaps, the ending slaps, the fights slap, the animation slaps. People gonna hate it because either it was 'overhyped' (it wasn't imo) or it's just reflexive (ie show is popular and hipsters can't like that stuff). Stop reading this and watch it for yourself and make up your own mind. We don't have to agree, just give it a fair shot.

For manga readers, yeah, the manga is better in some regards but it's not a fair comparison, both play to their medium's strengths. If this was a one-to-one, verbatim adaptation it would suck and if ... they changed too much it would suck. As far as adaptations go, it's up there with WIT AOT in terms of overall quality and creativity.

This was a show I was really looking forward to. Having read a fair bit of the manga (which is quite good mind you), I find myself disappointed in this adaptation. This show pretty much forsakes any of the story seen in the manga. This feels more like a loosely connected string of episodes in chronological order rather than a coherent story. It irked me that the vast majority of this is anime original. Where the manga was fairly cute, it didn't just rely on that to tell a fun story. The anime comes off as a copout which had a lot of potential. I'll ... have more to say about this when it finishes airing. Now to actually judge the anime on more concrete factors. The art is good, I enjoy how everything just pops. The sound is okay but the music is fucking annoying, the show would be measurably better if it stopped playing Shikimori's theme everytime she fucking breathes. I do enjoy the show but I get a way more enjoyment out of reading the manga. So yeah, 5/10. Needs a Shikimori-San Brotherhood.

Do you like your time being wasted? Is a snail's pace story seem blood pumping for you? Are manga with no artistic merit other than one good character (that's in like 5 chapters) and decent illustrations on the top of your PTR list? Well boy do I have a manga for you, introducing to you one of the prime examples on why pacing matters, Kanojo Okarishimasu. Fuck this.

If you're like me, you watched the anime when it came out and liked it, cute girls and all. But man, does the story and pretty much everything take a nose dive in quality after a while. Spoilers ... Ahead! Pretty much after Chizuru's grandmother dies is when this manga died for me. I kept reading on, waiting for the story to start back up again. I still clung to the delusion that Kazuya and Chizuru would get together and we'd finally get some closure. 203 chapters in and I just snapped out of it. There is no story. There is no fun to be had, if you want to see some fucking incel simp over a girl, go read a doujin. Those will have a better story and will wrap up after at most, 150 pages and you'll get way more enjoyment out of it. This is shit, the worst of the worst. Miyajima Sensei gave up after a while and stopped trying to make the story happen. It's painful. WE ARE 203 CHAPTERS IN AND PRETTY MUCH NOTHING HAS HAPPENED THE PAST 80 CHAPTERS. You don't read it for the plot I hear you say, I'm here for the girls! WELL GUESS WHAT, THEY SUCK TOO. Fucking 1/10 for the story.

Characters, some of the most dysfunctional and shittiest people you will ever meet. Sumi, Kibe, and Nagomi (Kazuya's grandma) are the only decent characters. Everyone else sucks, everyone. I used to love Ruka until I realized what a fucking parasite she is. Chizuru is fine until you realize she's indecisive and parasitic as well, unable to progress as a character until Simp Mcgee says something impactfully yet contrived only for it to have no impact in the long run. Mami is a demon spawn who likes Kazuya but doesn't but actually hates him but wait, no she wants to help Chizuru but doesn't ask Chizuru what's best for her but no actually, she's just trying to get back together with Kazuya (you see why she's so hated?). Kazuya is awful in everyway, he is the uber horny, simpiest fuck you could ever imagine. His awful blushing face inspire killing urges in everyone who sees it, he's stupid, selfish, and above all else, a contrivance. A self insert for the horny demographic this is targeted for. Again, the only good characters are Sumi (who's barely in the story at all but holy shit is she cute), Kibe who is the gigachad friend everyone needs, and Nagomi because she has to put up with Kazuya's shit (this also applies to Kibe). Everyone is either a one dimensional cutout with one personality trait or the scurge of humanity that needs about 10 years of therapy and a way to reverse their lobotomy. 2/10

Art is the only positive thing I could give this manga, and it's not even all that special. Think of the masterfully crafted backgrounds of Katsuhiro Otomo. The enchanting beauty and flow of the works of Kentarou Miura or Takehiko Inoue. The unconventional style of Tatsuki Fujimoto. All of that good shit. Well, you don't get that here. You get scratchy character designs that always look unpolished, like there wasn't enough effort put into cleaning up the final draft. The backgrounds look fine if it a bit murky. It's sad when the only positive in this manga is mediocre at best.

Enjoyment, you get the opposite of that when you get in too deep. I won't lie and say I didn't enjoy the manga, I did. The movie arc was actually great. Getting to meet everyone for the first time is fun, there's good drama. It's some pretty mid tier stuff on reread but it was fun the first time around. I stopped caring after Chizuru's grandma died and they didn't roll with what could've been a powerful change in the story. We could've seen Chizuru have to grapple with social isolation, have chapters without dumbass rom com shit or even better, without Kazuya. But no, its more of the same. No progress is made, nothing meaningful happens after that movie which was a sick arc. It's just Kazuya being the hateable rom-com protagonist and Chizuru being less and less interesting as she's just more of the same. This manga has gone on too long and I hope to Osamu Tezuka that this doesn't inspire a deluge of other mediocre romcoms that crowd out actual works of art. I hate this manga, quite a lot. A vast change from the fun but lukewarm feeling I had before.

Overall, 2/10. You'd get more enjoyment out of something like Oresuki or Kaguya Sama which take the romcom genre to new heights, if you do want to read this and are really set on it, enjoy the binge. Its not a bad first binge, but do not be numb to the stagnation or laziness. Be as critical as you feel is necessary and make up your own mind. I am but a random user on MAL, I am not an authority nor should you base your opinions on my own. If you can find any enjoyment out of this, then do so.

This review contains spoilers for both Attack on Titan up to the Season 4 (final season is misleading) and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
For a show lauded as the greatest of all time, it lives up to the hype, mostly. I wouldn't go far as to say it's the greatest shonen out there or for that matter, greatest anime. FMAB is for one, overhyped. I cannot in good conscience put this at a 10 and struggled to put it at even a 9. I finished my marathon of the show a few months back to let myself fully put together my thoughts on the show and I ... think I understand how I feel about it.
Promises kept and broken. Let me elaborate. This is one acccessible show, anyone can watch it and get behind it. That doesn't make it bad, just because something is popular does not disqualify it from praise, it's popular for a reason. Its a fun romp through Amestris with everyone's favorite brothers, Ed and Alphonse. The story takes its time before taking off and I gotta say, it gets really good as it goes on. But it's not amazing, the story twists and turns which always keeps you guessing. I like that in shows, what I feel like it misses is the extra bit of kick that's present in Attack on Titan. The Homonculi are a well established threat but they kinda leave Elric alone until the plot decides to move in the direction of Father. On the other hand, the Titan Shifters pose an omnipresent threat to our characters which always leaves the audience guessing as to who's a traitor, when will they strike, and how many will die. It's powerful and adds a kick to the story that leaves you in suspense. I never feared for Ed or Alphonse. Hughes was a surprise death and one of the better parts of the show, but it never pushes you out of your comfort zone. It stands to reason that the big reveal and twist makes up for this, but that's not the case. I like that Wrath is the Fuhrer, I like the whole Philosopher Stone conspiracy, I like that the Dad isn't evil, I like how you can't revive people. Thats the good shit. But again, with the exception of the first two I listed, most of the twists aren't all that interesting or fun. They don't leave you guessing, it spells out everything for you. Arrack on Titan gets the whole twist thing right. Eren dies in the fifth episode, nevermind he's a titan now, one of their comrades is also a Titan shifter and kills a bunch of people, that person happens to be Annie, there are titans in the walls, the wall religion knows more then they let on, the Colossal and Armored Titans are Reiner and Bertholdt (whom the audience and characters have great attachment to), Titans are humans, Eren can control Titans but only once for some reason. Thats how to pull of twist after twist that leaves the audience dazed and confused. It respects your intelligence because it isn't spoon fed to you, it plays out as it gives you everything you need to find it out beforehand, the show just put the information in the most obtuse places that you'll get it once its revealed and then it all makes sense. I love that. The story for FMAB gets an 8/10, good but needs improvement.
Everything else I'll cover here. The animation is great, I love Bones. Soundtrack is alright but forgettable (OPs are good). Characters are on point and the best part about the show, 10/10. I enjoyed the hell out of this show 9/10

Overall, this show has me with mixed feelings. It may seem like I've just bashed it in this review but I genuinely like this show. The story clicks in places (Ishvalan stuff is always welcome) and doesn't in other (pacing drags the show down quite a bit). I compared it a lot to Attack on Titan sort of in spite of the fandom war. FMAB fans love to proclaim their show as the GOAT, the greatest ever. But it falls short in many places. Yeah, I liked it a lot but I can't shake this feeling that its inferior in almost every way to Attack on Titan. They get compared so much, I dont care anymore. I know it isn't fair. It's definitely not deserving of #1 on MAL. Top 50, sure. This show would be a 7 or 8 if I didn't like the characters as much as I do. In conclusion, this is the peak of shonen. It doesn't change up the formula that much, its a safe shonen. If you don't want to be kicked around by a (for the most part) genius writer, watch this. Hiromu Arakawa did a great job on this story and I'd watch it again. I just don't understand the unbridled hype for this show.

This is how you make an anime. This was written after my second go around at the show and let me tell you, it still holds up. I will be keeping spoilers to just the first season (I don't now how you haven't already seen this but alright).

Spoilers Ahead!

Attack on Titan, Shingeki no Kyojin, whatever is quite the joyride of a show. It entirely focuses on the struggle between Titans and Humans. Titans being unintelligent (mostly), all-consuming monsters that resemble humans but lie so well in the uncanny valley that it works to amplify their horror factor. Our main protagonists, Eren, Armin and Mikasa all ... bear witness to the destruction of their livelihoods, home, and pride as in the first episode, titans wreck shit in Shinganshina. Eren's mother is killed in front of him, its a fairly brutal first episode. What follows is one of the best subversions of shonen cliches. We go through a two episode training arc until our characters, after five whole years after Shinganshina got fucked and three years of military training, are stationed in Trost. The mood is upbeat in the fourth episode, where they completed training. You feel like humanity might just start winning with these rookies, Eren in particular. He's the main character! Nope, fuck you. Everything gets their shit kicked in the next two episodes. You're reminded that no one is immortal, flawless, or safe. Eren gets everyone in his squad killed save for Armiin and he himself is eaten and "dies" in the fifth episode. This is genius. Nobody is safe from the titans, nobody. You fuck up, you die. You run out of gas, you die. You miss, you die. Your name is Marco, you die. You get the point, this world has rules and sticks to them. No bullshit. Shonen protag edge won't save you here. The show sets up Titans as tangible threats. The Trost Arc is one of my favorites in the series, it is so brutal and honest. There are rays of hope in this world but you have to see them. Where some cower, others run, some fight, most die. Mikasa internalizes her pain and sends herself on a damn near suicide mission, choosing not to show her grief at losing the last bit of family she had. Her and Eren's backstory gets explained and she realizes that she must live, for him. As she stands up to fight the titan approaching her, a bigger, buffer titan comes in and beat the shit out of it. Eren's back. The rest of the arc covers how they seal up the breach in the wall, Eren learning to control his titan, and the rest of the military learning to trust him (hint, hint, they don't). It's seriously good shit and doesn't overstay it's welcome. I'm really happy this arc happened, if the entire show was just Trost-esque arcs, I would be very bored. But again, it didn't overstay it's welcome and served it's purpose as a great hook and rule setter for the show. There are titan shifters that exhibit intelligence, you will die if you aren't smart, and people die a lot in this world.
The rest of the season is a bit more of a mixed bag. In my opinion, it got better upon rewatching it but it lacks the magic of the Trost arc. What it did do really well was set up characters. You get to meet Erwin, Levi, Hanji, and Levi Squad. This was a lot more character focused than Trost. Unfortunately, these characters don't get the character development that happens in later seasons, this isn't known as the rollercoaster ride for nothing, this show doesn't let you fucking breathe. The scouting mission was good, great learning exercise for Eren and built on the world more. The Annie reveal was really good and led to more mystery in the show going forward. Enough story shit, 8/10, I liked it.

This show looks great, the animation is consistently great. The backgrounds are breathtaking. You get the point, this show is a looker and I'll be damned if I didn't say it greatly helped the show hook me. The ODM gear really allows for incredible one shot action that I haven't seen replicated anywhere else (other than Attack on Titan itself). 9.5/10

The soundtrack ranges to upbeat, frenetic, or absolutely beautiful. Vogel Im Kafig is one of my favorite songs ever. Hiroyuki Sawano composed one of the greatest soundtracks of any anime. Coming from someone who has a distaste for orchestral scores, I think this soundtrack kills it, not in spite of the orchestra, but because of it. It takes full advantage of it all, synth, vocals, and orchestra. And the thing is, he only gets better as time goes on. 10/10.

I really enjoyed this show, like unbelievably so. I wrote it off as a generic show "just about killing titans" and that classic anime was superior in every way. Once I stopped being an asshat elitist, I watched more and more modern anime (beginning with Sword Art Online, I know). I still had my preconception about this show being stupid and popular for no particular reason. I knew next to nothing about Attack on Titan. What caused me to consider watching it was a Dogen livestream wherein he mentioned reading the manga and loving it. That puzzled me. I added it to my plan to watch and then went to bed. Then a few days later, I was watching some YouTubers talking about Attack on Titan the Final Season and how everyone should watch it. Since I liked these guys, I stopped watching the video and proceeded to marathon all of Attack on Titan up to that point (AoT FS Episode 8) totally blind. I seriously doubted they could make an entire show about "killing titans" for four whole seasons while remaining interesting. I was so wrong. Everything I thought I knew about the show was shattered. I never gave it the benefit of the doubt until it was literally before my eyes. I thought the whole show would be like Trost. Couldn't have been more wrong. I found genuine beauty in each and every season. Everyone was right, I was the stupid one. The ride was breathtaking, heart-wrenching, and without a doubt, an experience I couldn't shake. That was just how I felt about Season 1. Without a doubt, my enjoyment was a 10/10, in light of all the story issues (it was a great setup, decent story on it's own), the pacing, and the lack of character for the most part. I had a blast and I hope you will too.

Attack on Titan rightfully deserves it's place in the sun. 8.9/10

This is the peak of animation. Without a doubt, people will be talking about this season for years to come. This is Attack on Titan at it's greatest. The culmination of years of foreshadowing, action, and character development comes to a glorious crescendo in this masterpiece of a season. The series could've gone out here and it would've been a bittersweet but great ending. It feels like Isayama gave it his all here and what we have left is good but I don't think will match this season.

Spoilers Ahead

Let me start with the breathtaking animation. It's what you've come to expect from Attack on ... Titan, fluid and fast paced. The Beast Titan and Levi fight is animated so well, Arifumi Imai was the backbone of the series animation wise. The only problem was the Colossal Titan looked bad and thats pretty much it.
The soundtrack is also what you've come to expect, Sawano kills it with his score and it gives each scene that extra punch to hit hard at home. I love this track and to this day, I can't say anything hits harder than the collective soundtrack of Season 3 and S3 Part 2.

Now the great stuff. The story is all about taking back Shinganshina and finding Eren's basement. Well, Bertolt and Reiner have something to say about it with their good pals Zeke and Pieck. The arc has a very basic story premise but goes so far, take the city at any cost. This arc sees each of it's characters put to their absolute limits here. Erwin has to make a conscious decision to sacrifice himself and nearly all of his men to buy Levi time to attack the Beast Titan. Eren has to learn that he has to lose people close to him to gain victories. Armin makes the ultimate sacrifice to take down Bertolt. Reiner and Bertolt grapple with the fact they must kill their former comrades. Levi continues to suffer his survivors guilt as everyone around him dies. This season put its characters through hell. Then there's the huge basement reveal. The mysteries of this world unravel as Eren is overcome with rage at the mistreatment of his people. He becomes the genocidal prick who put the Eldians in this situation in the first place. This reveal blew my mind the first time I watched it. It still does. Attack on Titan kept throwing you for a loop until it decided it was going to easy on you and dropped on of the biggest plot twists in history. It's so well written, it puts all of the asspulls that follow it and lesser stories to shame. People will talk about this for years to come. Going in blind was the best decision I've made. I love this season specifically for everything it did. Isayama pulled out all of the stops here and wasn't afraid to brutally murder many of his own characters to get you to feel something. Hero is one of the greatest episodes of any show ever. This episode is ethereal in that it exists. Nothing quite matches its beauty, brutality, and raw humanity. I am not watching a show, this is art. This is why animation is so powerful, limitless creativity. This season left me a changed person, I questioned things. Everything felt so natural, so real. Many live action works will never quite achieve the realism of our characters and their actions and their feelings and their struggles, it is quite ironic. The most unrealistic of mediums portrays it's characters so well, your suspension of disbelief is no longer required. I got so much out of this masterpiece of a season. As a whole, Attack on Titan sits at a 9.2 This season is perfect in so many ways, I can only give it a 10/10. 100/100. 9 dead titan shifters out of 9. In my humble opinion, this is as good as television gets.

This manga is quite fun, really fun. But a guilty pleasure. If you're coming in reading this and expect some deep subversion of the harem genre, no. You will only be disappointed. This manga is a turn your brain off and occasionally it gets super interesting with it's characters. Now, with that in mind, my rating makes sense.

Spoilers Ahead

The story is fairly standard, Saotome enrolls in a recently Co-Ed school and is the only guy there. You'd expect either Hentai Protag, Giga-Chad, or socially awkward twink. It's the last one. He gets bullied by the often lecherous girls until Hanoko Kuzuhana (Thicc Gyaru) comes down ... and tells these girls to piss off. She's a legend and looks out after Saotome because reasons. They begin to bond and down the line, the manga starts looking like "My 359 Girlfriends" because it's a harem manga. It's a bit like Nisekoi but there's a ton of girls. Like around 10 girls or so are crushing on MC-Kun. It's insane. The story is probably the weakest part of this manga. A 6-ish.

The characters are mostly fun, Hanako is my favorite. Saotome has some depth but suffers from Shonen-Protag Syndrome where he is unable to read the most basic sign of attraction and is unaware of how embarrassing his actions are to both himself and the girls around him. I can't for the life of me remember the other girls names (Mangadex has been down for the past month or so) but they were all tropey. Hanako is the best character by far and carries the manga on her strong ass shoulder. 6/10

Art is good but the style takes some getting used to but grew on me. It's good all around but rough around the edges. I like manga that forgo homogenization of most manga (you know the style) and this manga has it's own style you can recognize but don't expect anything special here. 8/10

Enjoyment is a 9. it's a fun manga all around that you can probably enjoy too. It's a turn your brain off fun. It's about as deep as a kiddie pool but it's got a fountain and like 8 gyarus there so it's not a bad kiddie pool. Enjoyment is a solid 9.

Overall, this manga is good, 8/10 good. Though the score really depends on how much enjoyment you got out of it, it's not a bad manga in of it's own right. Yeah Gotoubun no Hanayome is a better harem with depth and Oresuki is funnier and also deep, but you can still enjoy it. So if you have like 5 hours, you can binge the whole thing and it's 8 minutes every week.

How do you top the hype and adrenaline of this movie? My only answer is Gurren Lagann. That's it, the only other show to be on the same level of style and hype of Redline. From the first moments, the movie sets anticipation. A full minute of buildup as superbly animated and designed aliens mill about, waiting for the race to come to them. Then the payoff. A whole 2 or so seconds of cars shooting by in a blur. Then we cut to the cars and the movie already shows it's greatest strength, how it handles it's speed. Smooth, fast, punchy, and above all, ... stylish. The Nitro scene at 4:20 sold me on the movie as a whole. The animation blows me away everytime I see it. And from that moment, the movie took me on a Mach 12 Ride straight to Anime Original Heaven. This review will be spoiler free and spoilers, this movie is a solid 9.6.

The story is solid and multi-faceted. It's not the best story around but the lore and world building sell the setting and race. There's fantastic character development in between and during the action which unveils a more complicated interpesonal plot. Not to mention Roboworld and their scheming adding a lot more stakes to the table as well as good political intruige. But don't expect it to be that deep of a story. This movie works by the Rule of Cool. So it's more akin to Gurren Lagann's bro-venture than to some deep and intellectual work like Zankyou no Terror. My only complaint is that the ending felt a bit too soon. Very good story all around, 8/10.

The characters were also really good and fun. You'll really be paying attention to JP and Sonoshee most of the time who are fun characters. You really buy their chemistry. JP is like the giga-chad version of every Shonen protag. So much of a cool guy, violence is overrated for him. All he needs is a sick ride and enough Nitro to blow a small moon to high hell. Sonoshee is a bit 2-Dimensional but she's still a treat to watch. She really becomes interesting after the 1st Act. The rest of the cast is fun, well designed, but still very much feel like background characters that are incredibly fun to look at and watch do their shenanigans. Frisbee and Mogura are both fairly well thought out characters who you buy their drama between each other and JP's demands. There's another subplot between 2 of the racers and a member of Roboworld's military but for the sake of time, I won't go over it. Characters, 9/10.

The art is some of the best I've seen in a movie period. But what sets it apart from modern movies like Kimi no Na wa and Koe no Katachi, and from older movies like Akira (all of which are fantastic and have fantastic animation) is it's style. I have never seen such a stylish movie before. The only other movie I can think of with such a distinct art style is maybe Paprika and that's it. Redline has this stunning aesthetic that forgo the modern neatness so many go with. And it's not quite the hyper detailed animation from the years past. Redline is very much Redline. With super fun coloring on everything and shading that looked like they were ripped from Borderlands 1. Not to mention how fluid everything is and how often they go off model for good effect. And the cars aren't CGI. EVERYTHING about the animation clicks. Quite possibly, the best animation I've ever seen. This movie exudes style that you can't really match. 11/10 (cliche as fuck but I don't care)

Sound is punchy and a fantastic soundtrack to boot. The sound just works to excellent effect. Watching clips without sound is a travesty as the sound adds so much to the experience. Also the dub is fantastic. I recommend watching the dub first time around so you can fully enjoy the animation. 10/10

Enjoyment, yeah. I was losing my mind the whole time. Towards the end, I barely understood what was going on as there was just so much going on and it didn't irk me too much (I was also severely sleep deprived when I watched it so that probably didn't help). I had way too much fun watching this. So yeah, easy 10.

Overall, this is a mindbowingly awesome movie everyone should watch. Virgin Initial D has nothing on Chad Redline, all I gotta say. So yeah, go and watch this movie. It's pretty fucking good.

AoT Final Season, Shingeki no Kyojin, The Second Coming of Jesus Crust. This show's "final season" is quite great, but not nearly as amazing as Season 3 Part 2. For the impatient person reading this, the score is a 9.4/10 for me. Spoilers ahead.



Lets start with where everyone had their problems was with the art. No Arifumi Imai's Red Bull infused action scenes or breath-takingly fluid and bombastic action scenes. There were some good scenes here and there but could never compare to Wit Studio's and Tetsuro Araki's work. The season suffered greatly due to scheduling and time related issues. Wit was overworked by the ... end of Season 3 Part 2 and didn't make all that much money off of it so they handed it to Mappa who scrambled to make it as fast as they could. What we got was good, it's still a good looking show, the CGI was actually good as far as anime CGI goes, and had some really well animated shots. But just good enough didn't really live up to the seasons that came before. I'm grateful that we got this and that it didn't get the OPM Season 2 treatment where it looked horrendous, but I wish it got the true 10/10 treatment we got before. 8/10

Sound was great, Kohta Yamamoto's track is great but it was overused. The opening is one of my favorites. The sound effects are all punchy and good. My only complaint here is some song choices here and there and Ashes on the Fire being overused. 9/10

The Characters were all great, Eren becomes such an asshole and as a result, you are forced to question who you're really rooting for. Mikasa is depressed as for usual (also rip to that ship). Armin and Reiner have become some of my favorite characters, I love the parallels drawn in Armins "Im gonna nuke Liberio" scene. One of the best scenes in AoT period. Gabi was the internet's punching bag and yeah, I hate what she did but she's interesting as fuck. Falco is great if you ask me. Zeke is Zeke but he now gets more than 5 minutes of screentime. Pieck, do I have to say anything? The characters had to drive the first 3 episodes and everything after the Attack on Liberio. So yeah, they all worked. Not as great as Season 3's excellent character drama but still really good. 9/10

The Story is where this season shined. Everything clicked to make this one of the most tense seasons of an anime I've ever seen. But it's not amazing. After episode 8 is buildup for the next part. While it's a good setup I enjoyed watching, it didn't wrap up as nicely as it did with Season 3 where you had more closure before the wait for Part 2. So we have a 10/10 setup that is an 8/10 on its own. This season works on promises. We have to wait to see them pay off, so I can't in good mind give it a 10 without seeing where they go. The story before episode 9 is fantastic. I really did dig the first 3 episodes (I love WW1 themed stories so yeah) and the Attack on Liberio was fantastic Some of the best episodes put to air if you ask me. Overall, the story for this season is a hot 8.5/10.

Enjoyment is a 10. I loved this season. It's fantastic all around, but I doubt it'll hold up for the rest of the year until Part 2 comes out. This feels like Season 2, where it intentionally put the brakes on to build up for a better season. The payoff will likely be worth it in the end so I am optimistic about how things will turn out. So give it a shot if you haven't already.

Overall, the show is good, built on promises kept and promising the world for the next part. While it wasnt the earth shattering season we all thought it was, this show executes parts perfectly and was the victim of its production hell. This would've been the greatest if the show had gone like FMAB and ended along with the manga but timing would ensure that would never happen. I'll wait around for the last part rather than buckle in for the manga so see you in Winter 2022!