- Last OnlineFeb 25, 10:09 PM
- JoinedSep 19, 2018
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Jun 23, 2024
This really could have been something special, but whenever it's presented with the opportunity to do something interesting it fumbles.
The setup is great, I really want to see a subversion of sentai shows explored. But the show focuses almost exclusively on action instead of worldbuilding or characters, and that action is undercut by how we're never really told the extent of the Rangers' powers, and the monsters never use their powers in anything approaching tactics save for once or twice.
Are the rangers stronger than normal humans? ...yes? Maybe? Just the leaders or all of them? How and why? To what extent? Why do some of
...
them have laser guns? I'm not talking about the divine arms, those are obviously a mystery for later on, I'm talking about the laser pistols that one guy has that are just never acknowledged. Are laser pistols normal here? Why aren't they all carrying laser pistols? We're never given answers, at least not before I bailed halfway through, so we have no idea what we should expect from one half of the fight equation.
On the other side of things, we've got monsters that can shapeshift their particulate bodies into new shapes. Neat! This is basically never used. How the fuck are these guys getting killed by slow-charging beam attacks when they can immediately scatter any part of their bodies that gets hit, or vanish whenever they want to. Why doesn't the MC go into the rangers lungs and suffocate them? Why doesn't the MC infiltrate bases as dust? This should be an interesting powerset but he basically never uses it. I think he mentions something about it being hard to control his movements with the wind when he's dust, but that's some bullshit, we see him have more control than that regularly. There isn't even any wind in some areas. Oh no, he's going to get discovered in this closet! What do you mean. He can just turn into a pile of dust. Why isn't he turning into a pile of dust.
It's just frustrating. Spent six hours waiting for them to stop wasting their premise before I bailed. There's not *nothing* here, but there's a whole lot less than there should be.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Jun 23, 2024
A surprisingly good show that goes downhill over time. The more it tries for authentic feeling the more it falls flat.
It's better than you'd expect from the description/context in basically every way. Great animation, a creative twist on the isekai premise due to its tone and how it frames the protag, good acting, good comedy. I kept expecting it to trip over common pitfalls and it kept surprising me. When it's gotta give some exposition, it'll do it in a bath scene with a bunch of maids. It knows you're there for a fun time and it delivers.
It does, however, dip significantly around the
...
midpoint. Over time it gets more and more preoccupied with a drama subplot and tries for sincerity where it used to undercut tension. By the end of the season it's basically no longer a comedy and is taking itself way too seriously. The one point it regularly falls short on is its serious character beats, so when we're spending entire episodes hashing out sob story melodrama it's not a good sign.
Honestly? Skip out around episode six when the assassin subplot starts. Do that and it's seriously a 9/10 isekai comedy.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Feb 4, 2024
A tremendously positive show, especially when it comes to portraying adolescent boys and girls. I stuck around season 1 to watch Yamada eat things and cheer for this little idiot to put himself out there. I'm sticking around season 2 because I kind of can't believe they're actually executing on the threads they put down in season 1, and doing a damn fine job of it.
It's building off that strong foundation to become something more than just a gag/romance anime. It's clumsy in places, and not just when it's making a point about middle school awkwardness, but it's still competently tackling subject matter way above
...
anything 95% of romance or drama shows even attempt.
The Dangers In My Heart is not just a good romance anime, it's a Good Romance anime, that doesn't rush things and realistically models flaws and growth. For god's sake it's ACCURATELY PORTRAYING LATE MIDDLE-SCHOOLERS, THIS ISNT SUPPOSED TO BE POSSIBLE IN AN ANIME. It's an easy recommend for just about anyone, and if I had any kids in my social orbit around the characters' age I would be plotting furiously to get them to watch it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jan 23, 2024
I really wasn't expecting this one. I came in for a straightforward gag anime, and it was pretty good, with jokes that land and surprisingly good fight choreography.
Twelve episodes later, I've finished a shockingly nuanced and drama with excellent characterization and elements of psychological horror. The depth given to all the characters in this show, even the side characters, easily beat out the main characters of standard anime schlock I'm forced to trudge through the rest of the season.
Beyond just depth and likeability, I can say pretty much without reservation that this is a *good* show, that encourages compassion and humanity beyond simplistic relationships and
...
gender roles. It wants you to understand the people around you, to see them as more than characters and NPCs. I really, really wasn't expecting the funny ikemen show to have one of the best portrayals of trauma, male abuse and intergender friendships I've seen yet out of the anime industry. And again, it's not simplistic. Even when both characters are intentionally hurtling into the deep friendzone, it says, "yeah, a guy with that kind of history and trauma *wouldn't* have uncomplicated feelings for the person that pulled him out of it."
This show punches way above its weight class. It's hard to think of ways it could improve... I guess it wasn't ha ha funny? Like I exhaled semi-regularly, I wasn't guffawing like I do with some of the really really good comedy anime. I also think there were elements of its horror sections that were a bit rote, the lady would have been a lot scarier if she looked and was framed normally and you only realize something's up when you think to ask why she's there every single day.
Both of which are, in the grand scheme of things, non-fatal flaws. Wonderfully done Romantic Killer, nobody asked you to do this but I'm glad you did anyway. Way to go above and beyond.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jan 22, 2024
A surprisingly high production value unfortunately can't save this anime from using what seems to be its only joke in the first episode, leaving it with almost nowhere to go and a rapidly declining impact each time it tells that same joke again.
TL;DR - It's just not that funny. They tell their one joke in the most straightforward manner possible, and they do it with minor variations four times in a row until their 20 minutes is up. Tune in next week to see us do it again!
The premise is good, the voice acting is good, the animation reaches some highs I really wasn't expecting
...
from this anime, but once you've seen the first five minutes of this anime you've basically seen the whole thing.
Princes captured, demon brings in iron maiden and says "time for torture," they spend 30 seconds being apprehensive, demon reveals the torture to be food, princess is IMMEDIATELY onboard mentally and caves after a minute of emphasizing how good the food is. Talking sword goes "princess?" and the scene is over.
Rinse and repeat and that's the anime. They mix it up with different foods in the first episode, then REALLY shake things up in the second by graduating to pleasant non-food activities. It's still the same joke, told in the same way. The joke isn't even really that they aren't using torture, it's that the princess is so easily swayed.
I fast-forwarded through the rest to see if they do anything interesting. There's a bit more use of the shallow backstory the princess have, nothing remarkable, and one actually funny joke at the end of the third episode. But when you tally it all up I'd have watched an hour of anime and laughed maybe 3 times.
They can't even use the absurdity of the situation effectively because of the tone they set up- this anime would have been much better if the princess didn't give in immediately and the premise was played straight. Demoness walks in, torture is revealed to be eating animal crackers without checking which animal it is. Princess, outraged and dismayed, flinches with every bite, until she can no longer stand it and tearfully reveals a secret, just so she no longer has to witness such an atrocity. Maybe she gets some animal crackers, talking sword reassures her that nobody could have resisted and they vow not to break again, scene done.
Now THAT could sustain some humor for a bit longer. Unfortunately the tension is ruined immediately each time and we instead spend the runtime, uh, watching her eat or play video games? If you're here to watch a girl eat well-animated food, and I know some of you are because it was revealed in the trailer, welp, you're probably in for a good time. If you're looking to laugh? Not so much.
Compare it to a good gag anime like Saiki-K. The premise is usually the same basic setup - Saiki is inconvenienced by classmates, tries to fix it with his psychic powers, but is foiled in an unexpected way - but each time there's something new and unexpected to leave the audience guessing, the characters don't seem brain-damaged for resetting with each gag, and frankly it's just all-around funnier.
EDIT: I tried Romantic Killer after, and the gap between this and moderately funny television is like night and day
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jan 11, 2024
TL;DR - 8/10, a bit of a Made In Abyss filler arc that doesn't feel like it should have been a full season. Better than the movie, worse than the first season. Leans into the worst elements of the story and away from some of the best, but pulls up in the end to be a distinct story that doesn't feel like a total waste of space. The preoccupation with underage sexuality and the scatological that it inherits from the source material has gotten worse, but it eases off as the season goes on and is pretty much gone by the end. All in all,
...
it's no season 1, but the story it tells winds up being effective, and I can't be mad at it.
-
Well, we finally have season 2, and the stakes have never been lower. This really does feel like it should have been a 3 or 4 episode subplot, but we spend the entire season on it. The main story isn't really progressed, we spend almost the entire time resolving a narrative whose elements are introduced in the first episode.
MiA has simultaneously lost its edge and gotten way too much edge. It never really feels like the characters are in danger. Remember when encountering one new creature was a lethal threat, when falling in a hole was a lethal threat? In the first episode Riko falls into a hole that surely would have killed her if Reg didn't catch her and they barely notice. We're introduced to a ton of new creatures, but none of them are really interesting, and by the end of the season they're being used as a disposable army the plot can wave around.
They even try to retroactively pull one of their biggest punches from season 1.
This season really doesn't have one of MiA's best traits, that sense of wonder and exploration. We spend the entire season in one place, basically, and it's a place without any really interesting elements aside from its history and the people in it. We're surrounded by people, so we don't feel isolated and wild like in previous seasons. And that's what's been traded for that sense of wilderness exploration - a story about people, full of child suffering to the point where it will desensitize you.
MiA seems to be under the impression it only has one card to play, "check out the fucked up things were gonna do to this kid," and it gets less effective every time they play it. It was a retread in the movie and it's a retread here. The emotional beats that hit are ironically the ones it does the least setup for, like robo-dad.
And there ARE beats that hit. Pretty much all in the very last double-length episode. They're doing a novel character arc with Faputa, and they do it fairly well, even if being stretched to fill a full season gives everything some pacing problems. I was invested in her and her story, and that why even with all its problems I still like this season. Sitting there at the end, watching everyone interact with stuff resolved, it was good, and I'm looking forward to the plot actually advancing again instead of being in a holding pattern.
Would this have been dramatically better as a 3-4 episode mini arc? Yeah. Is it kind of mediocre compared to season 1? Yeah. But mediocre MiA is still head and shoulders above 90% of the anime that gets put out these days. Decent entry, some wasted potential and some fulfilled potential, looking forward to season 3.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Nov 28, 2023
Showed a lot of promise, with an interesting idea, fun characters, expressive and high-quality animations. The quality drops off pretty precipitously though, and by the midpoint of the season its devolved into generic battles, emotional moments that don't have nearly the setup or payoff that the show thinks they do, and frankly boring plot developments that make me *less* interested in what's going on, not more.
By the time the main character revealed his Dark Goku Transformation to immediately kill the asshole we've spent three entire episodes ineffectually fighting (not in like a clever way, he's just so strong and invincible when he gets long
...
hair) and all these dweebs teleported out of the sky for the most bargain bin of Avengers shots I was was honestly making the Rebecca face, you know the one.
https://tenor.com/view/cyberpunk-edgerunners-rebecca-gif-26758495
The first episode is bombastic, creative, with characters that are interesting on an intellectual level but also just plain fun to watch. Good comedic timing, and the animation is really impressive both in how many frames they're throwing at you and in its direction. The plot and animations never feel like they're wasting your time. First episodes honestly don't get much better than this.
The series caps off the first mini-arc without losing much steam. There are hints that there's more going on in this setting, a decent fight that sets up more interesting fights down the road. Character interactions are good, animations are good. The second fight maintains most of that quality, and drives home that this is a series where the fights are about figuring out the other person's powers, identifying weaknesses, and then doing clever shit to exploit them. Telekinetic? Well she's gotta be breathing somehow in that bubble, so there's probably a hole somewhere hard to hit. Get in there, blow her up, good observation and clever tactics. Not quite as efficient with its time at this point, but it's still ok.
Then things *really* deteriorate. We get a much bigger glimpse into this setting, and... well it's a completely different story than I was expecting. That's fine, I guess, it could still be good. The fights and characters are still very possible in this kind of story. There's a real filler episode about the MC getting clothes, just weird frankly, it can still be good guys, any episode now right?
They get sent on a quest (not a euphemism or anything, they're literally handed a quest, they get points for completing it that's the level of character writing we're at now) to go get a thing that rots people and turns them to zombies. I'm not going to give you the blow by blow, this goes on for like three episodes and has multiple fake climaxes.
They figure out that the zombification is counteracted by... focusing on your dreams. Ok. Well they all focus on their dreams and their zombification timers reverse so they have time to fight. Rot monster still has punches and a disintegration beam, but Chinese hero is revealed by a narrator to have the ability to make people do the reverse of what they intend to (it's fine they had a narrator throw away all mystery to exposit stuff to the audience guys, JJK does it too and that show's really great at some points, right?) so now they can punch the monster into submission or whatever!
Then Chinese hero says that the monster's rot field intensity is actually... based around distance to its body? And that they can't get close? We already figured out the trick to the rot field dude, and we've been getting closer this whole time to no ill effect. Remember two minutes ago when you did that whole thing with your dreams? Whatever, forget about it! The distance intensity thing is never brought up or acknowledged again, we just move on.
Then they speculate that they can counteract the rot by getting rid of the... air? So that there's no bacteria? It's magic guys, and we already negated the rot field remember? Does anybody else remember the whole thing with focusing on your dreams? No? Ok, whatever. We're bringing him to space now.
Despite having the fight totally handled they decide that their only option for some reason is to unleash MC's superpowered evil side in space. He gets long hair, rot hits him with the disintegration beam, but he immediately heals and then chops him to bits with a sword. Three fucking episodes spent on this boring-ass villain just for him to get Worfed. Disintegration beam and rot aura still works in space btw, no idea why we're up here. Guess the author thought it would be cooler in space.
They fall back down to earth and the other guys try to fight him to bring MC back to normal, but when they use their powers on him nothing happens and he says "did you really think a weak power like that would affect me?" and everyone's like ooooooh
You check to see if you've accidentally put on Dragon Ball Z. Nope, still Undead Unluck.
Cue bargain basement Avengers entrance. He shoots his clone bullets at them, they block, then the bullets just... don't make clones? Guess he forgot or something. Why do the clones also have pants? Remember when we spent like an entire episode episode getting him special pants? Whatever, don't think about it too hard.
The avengers do a thing where they ricochet bullets around and he's like "huh. A ricochet attack. I guess you guys aren't bad at this."
They're bullets my guy. You just tanked a laser that killed the statue of liberty why are you worried about bullets.
I'm not even going to get into the problems this show has with pacing or setup and payoff. And I mean... you've seen the writing. It's just confusing. The show still seems to think it's a tactical fighter like JoJos but is now resolving every situation through the most generic turn-your-brain-off anime cliches possible.
The first episode or two of this were really, really good, and I had a lot of confidence it would keep that up. It's just like they say kids; "Never underestimate an anime's ability to inexplicably become garbage."
EDIT: oh, I should say that this is a rare example of an anime handling sexualization well. Yes, a teenager gets moderately sexually assaulted and it's not framed seriously. But it's also not done mindlessly or just for the audience's presumed enjoyment. It's justified in narrative and tells us a lot about both the characters. I'm a perennial hater when it comes to this kind of stuff, looking at YOU, fucking mushokou tensei, but unlike 99% of the time when this comes up in anime, it's neither gratuitous nor distasteful.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Nov 12, 2023
Probably the most unique show airing this season. Sleeper hit with an interesting premise, good execution, the comedy lands very consistently, and in the couple moments thus far where it's taken its setting more seriously it works shockingly well. It's a breath of fresh air, especially for comedy anime, which even when done well rarely try something different stylistically. I'd liken this to a ninja What We Do In The Shadows - dry, understated comedy that lets the fking hilarious situations stand on their own.
Did I mention the surprisingly good fight choreography? The fight choreography is surprisingly good.
I'm not going to spoil anything, this show
...
is definitely worth giving a shot. It's good enough and unique enough that I'm going to look up what else the author has made.
If you're worried about the CGI, don't be. It's only there for one scene and it's fucking hilarious.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Nov 5, 2023
It's got an interesting premise, and even though it was using it to tell a pretty conventional fantasy isekai power fantasy story, it had enough style that I didn't mind. But after the first couple episodes, the pacing slows *way* down, more and more time gets spent on digressions and flashbacks, the premise comes into play less and less.
By episode six, watching honestly has started to feel like a chore. Every episode after 2 or 3 just left me thinking "well, that was ok I guess, maybe the next one is where stuff starts to happen?" Episode 6 just spent the entire runtime to not-finish
...
a fight that started in episode 5. This fight is going to stretch across three episodes and isn't nearly engaging enough to warrant it. I was literally skipping forward repeatedly to see when they stop ineffectually swinging at each other. Isn't this supposed to be a show about a guy finding clever and creative solutions, system exploits that other people wouldn't think of?
Bottom line, while the show had potential it uses its premise in a conventional way that's competent at first but eventually falls victim to terminally slow pacing and fight setups that really don't use the premise at all. By the midpoint of the first season, where I'm writing this, I've basically lost all interest in the show. Seems like the next episode might actually be interesting again, but that's exactly what I said about the last three episodes, and at this point it's really starting to wear out its welcome. You could delete most of the runtime of this show and not only would the output be fine, it would be improved.
EDIT: Welp, I'm done. The setup for interesting character interactions is immediately thrown out the window in the seventh episode to focus on jack shit happening. Animation and fight choreography wildly inconsistent, ranges from 'pretty good I guess' to 'literally an extended slideshow.' Writing still ok at best, pacing still in the gutter.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me four times in a row and I guess I'll stop watching your show
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Oct 28, 2023
I'll be brief - this show is bad in a way that makes you a bad person if you can put up with it. The camera very clearly thinks that you think it's sexy and hot and funny when a middle-aged dude molests a sleeping preadolescent, and for a sizeable contingent of anime fans it's right.
It's an absolute crime that art, music and voiceacting this good are wasted on this garbage. I keep wanting to give it a 1 but then I remember all the rest of the show and can't bring myself to grade it below a 3. When it comes to everything except
...
the writing and directing, this is some of the highest-quality anime out there.
I stuck with this show through a lot. A *lot*. The sexual assault, the grooming, dear lord the sexual assault and grooming. Separate from the crimes I mentioned in the first paragraph by the way, this guy is like a fking machine when it comes to raping children while goofy music plays. Suffice to say, halfway through the season I had lost all confidence that this show could ever handle the content and themes it brings up for anything beyond 'jokes' and fanservice.
Fanboys insist that this is all a setup for some deep, emotional story down the line. It is very much possible to tell compelling and worthwhile stories about heavy subjects. But those stories can't come from nowhere. Six episodes in and the framing of the MULTIPLE EGREGIOUS SEX CRIMES ON CHILDREN this guy commits is played purely for 'jokes' and 'fanservice' (retch), and lays none of the groundwork that would been needed to contextualize them down the line. It's just there so people can watch a preteen girl get groped.
Besides, why would I take their word that it gets better? They're all people that made it through the first season. These are not the people with good or even worthwhile taste.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
