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This was by far the most disappointing arc of Demon Slayer yet. While the show continues to be entertaining and extremely well animated, I cannot simply look over the blatant writing flaws and lazy choices made in this arc. I'll start with the non-spoiler stuff first.

When I started this season, I was excited at the concept that this arc would've been a slow burn, with the characters' focus primarily on locating the demon. It unfortunately isn't anything like that. This arc has about 2 or 3 episodes of searching for the demon followed by an EIGHT EPISODE FIGHT. I'm sure this must be super hype ... for some people, but for me this is just way too much. This arc would be so much more enjoyable for me if there was an actual mystery, but the demon in this arc is somehow stupid enough to make themselves obvious to the main cast rather than staying incognito. I don't know if the mystery aspect was kept brief so the writer wouldn't have to go too in-depth about the whole "red light district" aspect of the arc (it's kept vague for some strange reason), but this arc would be so much more enjoyable if they weren't so quick to get into the action.

There's also a great lack of character growth in this arc. Characters only get physically more powerful here. Any actual plot significance or character growth is entirely confined to the first episode, and it's not even that much. Tanjiro and Nezuko only have continued reminders of their trauma (in the middle of a fight no less, so it messes with the pacing), Inosuke is suddenly an extremely competent spy now (even though we never got to see him mature), and Zenitsu is exactly the same; participating in the main demon fight while asleep AGAIN. THESE CHARACTERS JUST DON'T CHANGE. My other gripes cannot be addressed without describing the spoilers in detail, so consider yourself warned.

*SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT*

Now in regards to the lazy writing, I feel like the author didn't even bother to ask the "why" questions when they made decisions for this arc. They decided to introduce these weird "muscle mice" about halfway through this season. The mice in question are really just a gag, but are also a weird writing shortcut to avoid explaining how the characters are managing to hide their swords. Uzui (the mentor in this arc) doesn't even bat an eye at their existence, and neither do any of the other characters. It's just... weird. But this is mostly just a pet peeve of mine. The real problem with the lazy writing is that it tends to interrupt certain critical points with uninteresting copouts.

Demon Slayer has already used copouts in the past. A big example is season 1's episode 19, where Tanjiro (with the help of Nezuko's blood demon art) slices off the head of Rui... only for him to not be dead, and get killed by a Hashira in the next episode. Similarly, but to a lesser degree, they also did this in the Mugen Train arc. Tanjiro actually manages to kill the demon, only for another one to show up out of nowhere. For some reason, they actually do this TWICE in season 2.

The first instance of this is in episode 9, where the main characters are on the losing side, struggling to behead Daki and Gyutaro at the same time (which is a really dumb development in itself). In the end we get a shot of Uzui with his hand cut off and his body getting consumed by poison while Inosuke gets straight up STABBED IN THE HEART. Uzui should at least be down for the count and Inosuke should be in critical condition. BUT NO. In the next episode Uzui just gets up and toughs it out to save Tanjiro (which could still slightly be in the realm of possibility by anime logic) and Inosuke IS JUST FINE FOR SOME REASON. Why is he fine do you ask? Apparently he "moved" his heart just in time "because" he's a contortionist. Does the author even know what contortionists DO? For the record, contortionists cannot "move their organs". They're flexible for various reasons, but the most applicable one here is the ability to dislocate their joints at will. BUT YOU CAN'T DISLOCATE YOUR HEART. IT'S PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE, AND THERE WAS NO PROPER BUILDUP FOR THIS DEVELOPMENT.

The second copout is at the end of episode 10. After finally beheading both demons, Gyutaro "blows up" and basically destroys the entire district in a last ditch effort. We're left to assume that this HAD to have killed someone, but in episode 11 we find out that Nezuko ex machina just happened to use her blood demon art in time to save everyone! If that's not a copout, I don't know what is. Because as far as I know, the only consequences in this arc were the death of a few background characters and the loss of Uzui's hand (which doesn't mean much since he's not going to show up past this arc anyway).

*END OF SPOILER WARNING*

As a whole, this arc was kind of just dumb fun. From a storytelling standpoint, it was pretty weak, but if you're just watching this show for some sweet sakuga and the cool artstyle then you'll get exactly what you're looking for. Don't expect anything groundbreaking. If you're here for the storytelling, you can just watch the first episode and call it a day. I give this season a 5/10.

As far as the Slice of Life genre goes, this anime isn't far from the standard despite its mature setting. If you've read the synopsis on this anime's page, you'd know that this show is set in an urban, business-heavy setting. Most of the characters are fully grown adults with paying jobs, and a decent amount of experience in the real world. So with that, you'd expect a romantic comedy with seinen-oriented humor, right? Well, that's not exactly what you get.

I went into this anime thinking the humor and common struggles would be par for the course office life ... stuff. In reality, this show mostly just feels like another high school slice of life, despite the separate setting. It doesn't exactly go the extra mile to properly use its setting as a driving force for what happens. Most scenes could behave in the exact same way if the characters were high school students rather than office workers. The setting seems less like a drive for the standard antics, and more like an excuse to have scenes where the characters are drinking. Drinking and taking business calls seems to be the only two things even remotely adult in this show aside from the characters' canonical ages.

Genre-wise, this show definitely falls short on the comedy aspect, and a little bit on the romance aspect too. A lot of the jokes in this anime are lacking in comedic timing and some of which don't even have punchlines. I will give it credit for choosing not to rely on purely sexual humor, though. That's one of the biggest weaknesses with this new genre of "teasing romances" like Uzaki chan and Nagatoro. So, good on the writers for mixing it up a bit. As for the romance aspect, it's very unbalanced. The two main characters have the typical "too stupid to understand their own feelings" trope while their two other coworkers are having a side plot with a decent, mature romance (which is more what I expect from protagonists who are full grown adults). Suffice to say, the most compelling thing that happens between the main couple is the back and forth between the protagonist's grandfather and her romantic interest.

All in all, this anime is very safe. it sticks to what people like, maybe a little too much, but it also throws in its own cute moments that are more on the original side. I will dock points for not taking advantage of its setting, and a couple more points for the beach episode and the basketball episode which were extremely hard to get through. Also, kind of uncomfortable how they style the main character to look like a child. It's not hard to make her short AND look her age. With all of that, it's a solid 6/10.

Maybe it's because I set my expectations too high from everyone hyping this show up, but this really was just another standard, formulaic slice of life romantic comedy. It has its unique moments, but like many others, it can't help but fall into the same trap so many other shows fall into. I'll start with my personal peeves and then get into the actual weaknesses the show has.

The animation is definitely above average in this adaptation, but some stylistic choices definitely took me out of the experience. For instance, Komi's mouth is extremely small, and almost invisible most of ... the time. The animators had to do extreme zoom-ins whenever she spoke, which results in really uninteresting shot composition. Another peeve of mine is the intro to each episode. Every single episode starts with a summary of the concept of communication disorders, as if the audience watching is too stupid to already know what that is after it was clearly explained to us in the first episode. It seems like an approach to an episodic format, but really just comes off as redundant.

Now for the more general problems with this anime. There are a few big, glaring issues I have with this show's entertainment loop. The first is this show's lack of dedication to its initial premise. As we know from the first episode and the synopsis, Komi's goal is to make 100 friends, and it's our protagonist's role to help her in this goal and eventually start the whole romance aspect of this anime, and they do a great job kicking this into action.... for the first 5 or so episodes. This anime starts with several episodes of our main cast being introduced to a good number of supporting characters, each with their own run-of-the-mill archetype to keep things interesting. The problem that follows is that the writing is afraid of abandoning these characters in favor of more "whacky interactions". So instead of having an episodic series with natural progression, we get stuck with a group of three predictable protagonists, and a supporting cast of about 10 really annoying archetypes in a bunch of formulaic slice of life activities. And that gets us into the second glaring issue.

The supporting characters are boring, annoying, unlikeable, and actually hinder the show from progressing. I'm fine with having all of the supporting characters represent an archetype, but when they stick around and hog the screen time from the likeable characters, the series becomes less enjoyable, and I actually start to dislike some of the main characters for putting up with everyone else's crap. Some of the slightly likeable archetypes even get pushed aside in favor of this obsessive posse that always follows Komi around. It's extremely aggravating and just results in episodes going nowhere.

As for the third glaring issue, this anime worships Komi way too much. It relies on the idea that we as an audience will gush about how cute she is every single time she's on screen, but after 12,000 shots of Komi holding up her notepad like she's trying to hide behind it, I've just gotten bored of seeing her face. We GET IT. She's shy, we know. The least this anime can do is give her some characterization beyond her communication disorder, but even by the twelfth episode she's still a blank slate.

I'll give this show some points for its art and character designs, but besides that, it's lacking in so many ways. Really makes me wonder why people were hyping it up so much.

After having just finished Higurashi Sotsu, I feel I can accurately portray my thoughts on its predecessor, Higurashi Gou. As a word of advice, If you want to get into the Higurashi series, don't start here. Go watch the Deen series first (that being Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei (Rei is optional)). I have another word of advice as well: If you have finished the original Deen series, stop where you are, and move on. This new series sucks.

Now, before I go further, I need ... to clarify something. When I say "this new series sucks", I am referring to Gou and Sotsu COMBINED, not Gou on its own. This review will cover my opinion on this season alone, and not my thoughts on the story's conclusion in Sotsu. You can read that review elsewhere.

Higurashi Gou, in short is an.... interesting sequel. First of all, I find it strange and somewhat manipulative that this season was advertised as a remake and not a direct sequel to the Deen series. Just a heads up, it is 100% a sequel. Second of all, it's not often that a sequel completely undermines the conclusion of the work that came before it. Third of all, it's weird that Gou completely forgets certain concepts that made the previous conclusion possible. In other words, there are plot holes. All in all, there were some questionable risks taken in this season.

The questionable risks taken here aren't only pertaining to the story, though. The whole show has had a drastic style change compared to the original Deen series. All of the characters are more rounded and bubbly, their skin looks strangely shiny, and the whole color palette is extremely saturated. This style change, in addition to how over-the-top the new killing scenes are, really takes away from the bleak tone and horrible events that transpire.

In short, this season took a lot of risks and made a lot of interesting ideas, but in the end it came at the cost of a lot of strengths Gou could've otherwise had. The horror is less effective and the mystery is less intriguing. But hey, at least it gave me the motivation to experience the thrill of the original Deen series.

As I watched the final episode of this season, I felt I could relate to something one of the characters said:

"I tire of this." -Eua (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Sotsu, episode 15)

Going into Higurashi Gou, I decided to watch through the first three seasons made by Studio Deen (that being Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei). I'll write a review for Gou shortly after writing this one, but I will say, when I finished Higurashi Gou, I at least felt that there were ... some very interesting ideas at play. I'm sorry to say that I felt the complete opposite as I watched through Sotsu.

First of all, the animation this season was less than subpar. Much of it was reused, and any of it that wasn't reused was fairly ugly and far too saturated to look at. Many animation choices were questionable as well, namely the incredulous amounts of blood during kill scenes. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, especially for action shows with shounen pacing, like Jojo, but here it's just a hindrance. Blood gets spattered to such a degree that rather than being grossed out, scared, or horrified by a scene, I end up laughing in disbelief. In other words, this anime no longer classifies as part of the "horror" genre in my book.

Second, this anime is just downright boring. In Gou, the first half of the season consisted of a "retelling" of the arcs that happened in the first season of the original Deen series, but with a good number of changes to create a new mystery. In Sotsu however, we actually have to sit through the same exact arcs AGAIN, but through a different character's perspective. Unfortunately, the amount of changes we see in these 13 long episodes could've been summed up in only 2 short episodes. Believe me when I say, sitting through these episodes is more tedious than sitting through Haruhi Suzumiya's "Endless Eight". And let me remind you that this season was only 15 episodes. If you want to watch this season, be prepared for 13 episodes of waiting for a change of pace. Furthermore, the payoff that you get from the last 2 episodes is miniscule in comparison to the conclusion of the original series.

The last two episodes, without spoiling anything, could be summed up pretty easily. If I could describe it in one sentence, it would be along the lines of, "Two children have a badly animated shounen battle while two other children fight over who's going to give up first". Figuring out which pair of children is which will be the hard part if you're watching this for the first time, but I promise you that it's one of the most boring conclusions I've ever seen for a long running series like Higurashi.

Anyway, after sitting through this dumpster fire, I can avidly say that it was a waste of my time. I think I'm going to give up on any future "When They Cry" adaptations and just start reading the VNs. I hear they're pretty good.

I've watch a good few romance anime, and this one is the one that pushed me over the edge. I've become extremely tired of seeing the same exact formula over and over again. I'm well aware that people say the manga is better, but in this case I feel like it doesn't apply. THE ROMANCE GENRE ISN'T SUPPOSED TO CONSIST OF DOCUMENTARIES ABOUT FICTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS. Let me elaborate.

Horimiya is an anime about a conventionally attractive shy boy (Miyamura) dating a conventionally attractive and uninteresting girl (Hori). Meanwhile, all of their friends are busy having subplots that should've been ... the main plot. Throughout the series we see Hori and Miyamura take further steps in their relationship while they both continue to stagnate as individuals. In a real romance story, you'd expect the relationship to cause the protagonist(s) to self reflect on their issues or to overcome some kind of internal conflict. In Horimiya, however, they just use the relationship as a comedic device, and occasionally slip in one of those generic blushing moments that you see in every romance anime. While all of this NOTHING is happening, the side characters get only a few dedicated episodes to actually have development. Said development is.... okay at best. Certainly not groundbreaking.

At the end of the show Miyamura has a little flash back and says something along the lines of "look at all of the friends I've made". This would be really touching if those friends actually affected him in some way, shape, or form. But, no. They were just kind of... there.

Anyway, with my rant out of the way, I can at least say the art for this show looks nice. I guess the opening's pretty good too. Other than that though, this show was an absolute waste of time.

Now, before I start saying anything, I will say this: I was a huge Godzilla fan as a kid, and I'd say I'm still somewhat a follower of the franchise (both from Japanese and Western media), and I can avidly say that this is by far one of the most interesting and ambitious stories I've ever seen come out of it. If you like science-y confusing stories with lots of terminology being thrown at your face, then chances are, you'll like this one.

With that said, I can get into Godzilla: S.P's strengths. First of all, the soundtrack is ... as good as ever. Aside from the FANTASTIC classic pieces from the original Godzilla series of movies, the opening song ("in case..." by BiSH) is an absolute banger, and the ominous yet enchanting "Alapu Upala" sung by Annette Phillip is a delight every time it appears. Second, I'd like to mention the art and animation. As some people know, Studio Bones is a studio with an outstanding track record. I must say, that the unique art style of Godzilla S.P. feels right at home with the other animes on that list. Furthermore, the collaboration with Studio Orange is an excellent fit. Fantastic CGI as always from them.

Now we can start with the negatives, starting with the characters. I had high hopes for this aspect of the show. All of the characters have very charming designs and are very unique to each other. I just find it a shame that none of them displayed any form of personality. The two main characters are mainly there to just explain what's going on and ask questions to the supporting cast. Their only redeeming personality traits are being smart. Though, I suppose no personality is better than the pseudo, fake personalities from the Western movies. At the very least, they're not annoying, just a little bit lifeless.

My other problem with this anime is the ending. I won't discuss exactly what happens, but if you're worried about getting spoiled anyway, just skip to the next paragraph. In short, I kind of just feel let down by the ending. What they did was cool, but I can't help but consider it a deus ex machina. It kind of came out of nowhere, and for some reason it tied up all of the loose ends despite only being hinted at in a short line of dialogue that no one would expect to be significant.

Anyway my verdict is, if you like complicated science-y stuff, then this is the show for you. Don't expect any character depth, but if you pay attention you'll probably be hooked by the mystery aspect of the show. Would not recommend for people who want to see a lot of fighting. This anime is extremely dialogue heavy, so try not to watch it if you're short on sleep. I liked it though. It was definitely a pleasant surprise for me.

Let's start with story and characters. All in all, the story does an excellent job with its commentary on subjects like nihilism, suicide, the worth of one's life, and redemption. Its strength shines through with its cast of extremely flawed characters, and it is those flaws that they have, that makes their stories all the more interesting. However, the strength that comes from these flaws often outshines their conclusions. I'll elaborate.

After a character's arc is completed, we move onto the next character almost immediately. This would be fine if we ever got to see how the arc ... changed the character, but a lot of the time, we as the audience are left in the dark. Unless we see how an arc effects a character, we don't actually have any proof that the character has grown as a person. Because of this, the show almost feels monotonous. This is especially prominent in the protagonist of NHK, Sato. In each arc of the show, Sato gets stuck in a lot of his own problems. His primary conflict is being a hikikomori, and a lot of his mini conflicts stem from this. As the main driving force in providing a solution to other characters' problems, it makes sense that he should be put his own situation to empathize with them. Unfortunately this comes at a cost. When the main protagonist's story arc is breaking out of their shell as a complete shut-in, it comes off as counterproductive when his problem is consistently getting worse. But that's enough about the negatives.

As I said before, the characters are extremely flawed and the character arcs they undergo have so much realism that it almost makes me worry for the well being of the writers. It's great stuff, it really is. And if you don't count the execution problem that I mentioned in the previous paragraph, each arc can be pretty entertaining despite the uneasy cringe the protagonist's degeneracy gives me.

As for the art, don't bet on it being a selling point. a lot of the stills in NHK can look kind of muddy sometimes and lacking in important detail. The animation isn't much to write home about either. But hey, it was 2006, you can't really blame 'em.

The sound in this show was definitely... noticeable. Don't get me wrong, the voice acting was great, but the music was, in many instances, strange given the circumstances. Some of the sound design was a little jarring as well.

All in all, I give NHK a 7/10. Some may think this is a bit harsh of a score, but I scale my ratings with 5 as an average, so a 7 isn't bad at all.