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Sep 15, 2024
The Strongest mage, to abridge this shows verbose title, is a kingdom building show about a human mage who works for Humanity’s arch-enemy, the Demon Queen. Featuring a cast of Demonic ladies, some of whom are actually adults, the Strongest Mage could have been a refreshingly original show that shows the audience how the other guy lives. The shows premise promised kingdom-building themed take on a fantasy world with a focus on the Demons perspective. Instead, we just got little more than another generic Isekai-esque fantasy series with generic one-note side characters.
As a fan of both Kingdom building
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stories and morally dubious protagonists I really wanted to like this show. However Strongest Mage makes this rather difficult. For example, the main character, Ike, is much like your average Isekai protagonist. He’s Op with both his magic and his intelligence and is never really challenged. Furthermore he has no real personality. Not only doesn’t he emote much but he feels very out of place. He’s a pacifist with a no kill rule but leads an army in battle. Why isn’t really explained that well outside of a generic “I want to create a world where Demons and Humans can live in peace” However one of the most egregious flaws is his mask. A big part of the plot is that Ike has to wear a mask to hide his human identity. This could have been a good plot point. Instead Ike both the Demon Queen and Ike’s immediate superior officer, Cefiro know he’s human and they see him without his mask on in the first feew episodes and nothing happens. What could have been a great “human posing as a demon in order to work for them” plot was reduced to nothing. Ike’s mask, in the plot means nothing. In general, Ike, strongest mage’s main protagonist could have been a great character. Instead he was reduced to little more than yet another generic Isekai-esque protagonist.
Most of the characters in Strongest Mage who are not called Ike receive next to no development or depth and as a result come across as a wasted opportunity. The best example of this is Cefiro. Cefiro is a commander of a Demon Arm, Ike’s superior and a powerful sorceress. She also knows Ike’s real identity and, as of the final episode, has a connection to Ike’s past. However these qualities are rarely shown. Instead, she’s reduced to being little more than fanservice with her two big moments in the show being her essentially as a damsel in distress. In her first, she challenged by another Demon commander and in the second she’s captured by a Human army. In both cases Ike does practically everything. Cefiro gets very little to do despite her rank and the fact she can pull fireballs out of the sky. Literally.
Like the characters, the plot is a wasted opportunity. The story is a kingdom building type story however the details ranging from the OP MC wanting a world where humans and demons can live in peace to his introduction of Muskets feels lazy. The use of Muskets for example comes across less a Genius and more as a cheat code as the plot never really explains how Ike learned how to create Muskets. Furthermore, most of Ike’s enemies and even his Demon allies seem to have never seen a Musket before yet later we’re introduced to Pirate’s who are using what look like Napoleonic era naval cannons. If cannons already exist why is the existence of Muskets a huge shock to anyone?
I really wanted to like this show. The OP is great and the ideas behind the plot and the characters are actually pretty good from the idea of a Human masquerading as a Demon to the Kingdom building theme. Even little details such an important female characters who are actually adults, the ideas behind this series are good. The problem is that the execution is awful. What could have been a great show is reduced to little more than a generic Isekai-esque fantasy series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 7, 2024
In stark contrast to the original season, Roze of the Recapture is sitting on a meagre 6.90 on MAL at the moment. So is it any good? Well, Sort off. The series opens with many interesting plot points including a Britannian remnant state in Hokkaido and a Japanese Lelouch expo pretending to be a Britannian boy who is opposing them with the help of a Britannian knightmare pilot. However, despite this promising start the series begins to flounder as the series goes on. A major reason for this is the runtime. The original Code Geass series has two seasons of 24 episodes. Roze
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of the Recapture has one 12 episode series and it shows. The ending is rushed and many of the characters feel underdeveloped. Most notably the main villain Lord Norland receives almost no backstory and his motivation is never revealed. The show seemed to be trying to make him enigmatic. Instead they made him boring and flat. This is not the only example, main character Roze (real name Sakura Sumeragi) has a geass power very similar to lelouch's and its implied to have come from Lelouch and CC, however this is never fully explained. Finally, the finale is horrendously rushed and as a consequence, is both anti-climactic and unsatisfying.
In general despite its flaws, I actually enjoyed this show. It's was great to watch more Code Geass and the day one dub didn't do it any harm. However despite its promising start, Roze disappoints largely due to its short episode number and disappointing plot resolution.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 18, 2024
Re:Monster manages to do something I’d never thought possible- to create a series that’s actually worse than a typical Isekai series. In theory, Re:Monster should have been more interesting. It features an amoral villain protagonist who is reincarnated as a goblin (later to evolve into an ogre) after being murdered by a Yandere in his original life. Re:Monster could have been a villain protagonist story along the lines of Overlord, but with Goblins. Instead, its just boring.
Re:Monster has all the hallmarks of a typical Isekai. There’s an OP protagonist who rarely faces a challenge and a gaggle of generic and cookie-cutter anime girls
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who fawn over him. However, the biggest problem with Re:Monster is the story itself. Namely, there isn’t one. There is no real plot. In fact, there isn’t even a real antagonist. Instead the protagonist goes from one event to another and “plot” ends up feeling less like a story and more like a conglomeration of events. To make matters worse these events are not even that entertaining in and off themselves,. Instead, the main protagonist narrates everything making the entire series feel less like a proper story an more like 12 back to back recap episodes.
As I’ve already hinted at, the characters of Re:Monster are not much better. The main protagonist for example is so OP that he never faces a challenge. With a protagonist this OP, the fights are dull and predictable. Some shows, such as the aforementioned Overlord, can pull off such OP protagonists with a good plot and characters. Re:Monster does not do this and instead treats to a boringly OP protagonist who easily wins all his fight. Unlike say, Kumoku from So I’m a spider, so what, the protagonist never has to work for his powers. In fact, his powers aren’t even a product of his reincarnation as he had them before his death! He just went from one OP life to another. Worse still, he isn’t even likeable. Even by villain protagonist standards, the main protagonist of Re:Monster is distinctly unlikeable by virtue of him being a rapist. Most villain protagonists will have some good traits that enable the audience to root for them whilst also giving them enough evil traits that allow the protagonist to retain their villainous appeal. Villain protagonist writing then, involves maintaining a delicate balance between your main character being evil enough to be a villain protagonist but still sympathetic enough to root for. Re:Monster fails at this balance by making its main character a rapist.
The other characters in Re:Monster do not fare much better and consist mostly of bland Haremette’s with at most one cliché trait to set them apart from each other. But this is made worse by their names. Up till now I’ve avoided mentioned the characters names and this is for one simply reason- the names change. Re:Monster has an evolution system for its non-human characters and when a non-human evolves, they get a new name. Since most of the main cast are non-human, this means most of the main cast changes name every few episodes. Worse still, their appearance also changes. So for example, the main protagonist is born with the name “Goburou”. When he evolves into an Ogre, he becomes “Ogarou”. His appearance also changes and this rule applies to the other main characters as well with the result that already bland characters are functionally unrecognizable from one episode to the next. With bland, one note characteristics and constantly changing names and appearances, its impossible to care about the main cast of Re:Monster.
Overall, Re:Monster is a badly written show that just isn’t worth your time. If you want a show about goblins building a power base, watch reincarnated as a slime. If you want a show about a well written villain protagonist in an Isekai world, watch Overlord. If you want a show about a monster protagonist working hard to earn their powers, watch So I’m a spider, so what. But whatever you do in life. Don’t watch Re:Monster. Its not so bad its good. Its just bad.
Advice: For those unfortunate enough to have watched Re:Monster, I recommend an immediate viewing of Goblin Slayer as therapy.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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May 10, 2024
Keijo, at first sight, appears to be little more than a fanservice show and to be honest, it is just that, fanservice. There is no hidden depth, no secret meaning or anything, just fanservice. However, Keijo is absolutely brilliant at it. Keijo, roughly summarised is about girls (and only girls) who participate in a martial-art like sport called "Keijo" where participants have to knock each other off floating platforms in a pool called a “land” using only their breasts and backsides. And I must say, they make the most of the premise. In all conceivable ways. Everything from the characters to the action is
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great. Now, I know I said there was no depth or complexity to this anime however it is a surprisingly good action show. It has the feel of an shounen tournament arc or a "sport" anime like Girls und Panzer. In fact, Girls und Panzer is a fairly decent comparison in that both shows have a team of plucky underdogs who go up against stronger opponents in a series of tournaments and use ingenious tactics to do so. And like Girls und Panzer, there are no hard feelings on either side. The antagonists are antagonists without being villains, which, to be honest I find refreshing. In fact the series has little to no "evil" or hateful characters. Its just a fun fanservice show with great (combat) action.
This brings me on to my next point, the fights. The fights themselves are genuinely entertaining as fights. The show creates a surprisingly diverse and interesting array of combat techniques and tactics that create some very enjoyable fights. The fights themselves are never the same and the same can be said for the antagonists. Keijo, despite being a fanservice show, has a diverse range of character body types from the types you'd expect, namely, voluptuous busty ladies to small cuter girls and even muscular and plump girls. And this adds to the diverse and imaginative nature of the fights- characters in Keijo use their body types to their advantage. In all, the fights are great and feel surprisingly well thought out for a fanservice show and the "sport" of Keijo feels quite intelligently designed for fanservice show.
The characters themselves are enjoyable to watch, each with their own unique quirk. Protagonist Nozomi Kaminashi, Kazana Aoba, Sayaka Miyata and Mio Kusakai were particular favourites however the things I liked about them were their relatable goals- Nozomi for example not only enjoys Keijo but wants to become rich. In fact, she has a brief argument with Miyata over wealth. Miyata wanted to buy her parents a golden massage chair, then Nozomi copied the idea. These goals such as "I want to become rich" make its characters far more relatable in comparison to the more power of friendship and morality types we usually get. The protagonists of Keijo feel comparatively down to earth in comparison to others show's protagonists. Finally this show has some great references to other shows such as "Gates of Bootylon" (Fate/Stay Night References) and Buttack on Titan (Attack on Titan). Also, the shows fanservice premise is put to full use with both genuinely hilarious attack names, situations, dialogue and fights. Overall, Keijo is a great fanservice anime that is hilarious and has surprisingly good action. The fanservice itself is actually great and the show is enjoyable. That being said, if you don't like fanservice you won't like this show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 7, 2024
Visions only gets a 7.10 on MAL however I really enjoyed it. Sure, not all episodes were great (cough Tatooine rhapsody cough) but it was still very enjoyable. The series is really just a collection of individual stand alone stories. Most were good, some were brilliant and a few were bland. However it provided a new and interesting perspective on the star wars universe with the traditional Japanese take on the force and the star wars universe working surprisingly well. I also found that the characters were surprisingly well developed for the screen time they received and the stories too were interesting and surprisingly complex
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yet without overwhelming the viewer. Surprisingly, the villains as well as the heroes are developed. The Sith In Ninth Jedi for example feel friendship and camaraderie with each other and Ocho as well with her joining the Empire to protect her family and people.
Of course, as the series MAL rating implies, there are some flaws with the series, namely, its run time. The episodes are short, even by anime standards with some episodes clocking in at a mere 12 minutes with the longest being about 20. Considering that some of these episodes were good enough to deserve their own series (Namely, Ninth Jedi, Twins, Village Bride and Lop and Ocho) this was a real shame. Since each episode is a stand alone story, I'll provide a small review of each episode:
1) Duel (7/10): Duel focuses on a Duel between a mysterious Ronin and Bandit leader. The twist was great and the Duel itself
was good but I wasn't a big fan of the art style though. It was enjoyable but not my favourite.
2) Tatooine (4/10): This episode follows a pop group lead by a Hutt of all people as they try to escape Jabba the Hutt's
attempt to execute their leader. This story is easily my least favourite. It just felt "bleh" and the story itself felt a bit odd for
the star wars universe and I honestly couldn't bring myself to care for any of the characters.
3) Twins (10/10): honestly, I loved this episode. Some fans dislike this episode for its over the top action and for being non
compliant with Canon. This episode was made by studio trigger and anime fans will know them for their "rule of cool"
approach and this episode is typical of their work and I really enjoyed it. The characters, especially Am with her Hammy Sith
Lord routine very enjoyable to watch. Sure the story was comparatively straight forward and the story broke the laws of
physics but it was just so much damn fun to watch. I also think the story is a bit more cannon compliant that it might seem.
4) The village Bride (9/10): another great episode featuring an interesting set up, a cool Jedi protagonist and a great
soundtrack. For star wars fans looking for something a bit more conventional, this might be a good choice. I did think the
villain could have used some more development, but considering the timescale of the episode, this issue is understandable.
5) Ninth Jedi (10/10): A great episode with a brilliant twist and a likeable and intriguing cast of characters. The villains also feel
surprisingly "human" (for want of better term given some of them were non-human) villains. The story already plot and
even a sequel hook. It feels like the writers could easily write a full season on this premise.
6) T0 B1 (5/10): The story is decent but the it just felt "ok" especially when compared with Ninth Jedi or Twins. The characters
were OK, the villain generic and the overall concept a bit too close to Astro Boy. It's not bad. But it doesn't excel either.
7) Elder (7/10): Another episode by Studio Trigger, this one is calmer and less typical of triggers usual work. It features an
interesting pair of protagonists and a good villain and is well worth watching.
8) Lop and Ocho (9/10) Truly great and surprisingly tragic story about a pair of sisters fighting over the fate of their planet,
one of whom favours the Empire and the other is opposed. The story features fleshed out characters with a simple but deep
story that manages to focus on the themes of Industrial Progress, Pollution, Imperialism and Torn Families. Enjoyable,
interesting and slightly tragic. The art for the episode was great, especially the opening shots of the Star Destroyer.
9) Akakiri (7/10): A story of one Jedi's decent to the Dark side. Some commentators Jordan that it told a similar story to
Anakins decent to the Dark Side in the prequels, but was more effective in 12 minutes than the prequels were in 3 films. The
story is interesting with a villain who feels more complex than their appearance suggests however I feel the episode suffered
from its short, 12 minute run time. Also, the art style felt simplistic.
Overall, Star Wars Visions is a great addition to the star wars universe that tells interesting stories with surprisingly well developed characters. Ocho from Lop and Ocho, Am from Twins and "the Jedi" from Village Bride were my personal favourites. Several of the episodes, particularly Ninth Jedi, Twins, Lop and Ocho and Village Bride are easily good enough to warrant their own series. Their are few episodes I felt weren’t as good, specifically Tatooine Rhapsody and TB 01, However the biggest problem I felt was the lack of runtime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 6, 2024
I watched Magical Revolution for the promise of a Yuri fantasy romance and I can happily say it delivered on that count. There's no Yuri Baiting, we get a Yuri romance, complete with Kiss scene in the final episode. However, what set this series apart for me was how the series went beyond that with the political side. Although subtle, the various political realities of ruling a medieval kingdom are addressed. One good example being when the Prince ends his engagement to Euphylia. Most anime wouldn't cover the political side effects, but Magical Revolution does and its details like this that made the world
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of Magical Revolution such a good backdrop to its romance. Finally, the characters themselves are enjoyable to watch and fleshed out. A lot of attention is given to Anisphia and Euphylia but other characters also some attention as well. Anisphia's friend Tilty being my favourite.
The only negative I have is that the final episode felt a bit too quick. It goes from Anisphia and Euphylia being about to duel at the beginning to the their eponymous magical revolution at the end. I think this particular part of the plot should have been a bit longer, specifically the part after the duel. This part, covering Euphylia and Anisphia ruling the kingdom, ending the power of the Nobles and introducing magitech should have been longer. Despite this, Magical Revolution is an excellent and enjoyable Yuri fantasy story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 6, 2024
This series started with a fairly promising premise, namely, that a heroic King who worked hard for his people has died and reincarnated as a woman. In his, now her, new life, she is determined to enjoy herself with her favourite past time- fighting. This premise had quite a lot going for it and could have been very interesting with the twin plot points of a protagonist who worked for others before but now wants to enjoy themselves and the struggle between the two drives- the desire to help and the desire to have fun as well as that of a man becoming a woman.
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Unfortunately, none of these plot point comes up at all. The protagonist has no adjustment time or development. The protagonist also remains completely OP, comfortably out classing almost every opponent. As a result there is no tension. Unfortunately the supporting cast do not take up the slack as they too are forgettable isekai stock characters and the villains mostly generic stereotypically evil villains with no depth or uniqueness. In general, Hero King to Extraordinary Squire is a rather disappointing isekai that had great potential with a unique and interesting premise but failed to do anything with it and instead became a generic isekai story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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May 5, 2024
I must admit, I had rather forgotten about Kakegurui over the past few years and whilst fun I don't remember being as impressed by the second season as the first. Fortunately I found Kakegurui to be a great reintroduction to the series that reminded why I loved the franchise in the first place. The fanservice, the crazy face and the characters interactions are all great. The character are all entertaining and even though there is little backstory given to the characters, they are still great to watch. Mary Saotome does an excellent job as a main protagonist and, despite liking Yumeko Jabami, I never
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found myself missing her. Another strong character was Sachiko Juraku who made for a deliciously sadistic antagonist orchestrating and manipulating affairs from behind the scenes. On the down side I do admit to finding Saotome's friends a bit lackluster. Amidst the entertainingly crazy bevy of rich Lesbians, like Juraku, Saotome's friends feel rather dull and run of the mill. They just fell flat.
The story itself is a prequel to the main series "Kakegurui" however Kakegurui Twin never relies or overly references its parent story and so it did not feel like a series you could only enjoy if you'd seen Kakegurui. In fact, the series even had a helpful explanation of the series premise and setting at the beginning. Kakegurui Twin is only 6 episodes and normally a series with such a low episode count would feel rushed. I never felt that here and instead the series came across as enjoyable, to the point and not too long. As with the main series, the only major problem was that the gambles themselves, the main action of the series, are somewhat confusing. Fortunately the combination of crazy face and character interactions more than compensate.
Finally, a note on the fanservice. Like its parents series, Kakegurui is somewhat fanservicey. In general, Kakegurui Twin lacks the gratuitous random nature that fanservice in most modern anime has. Instead, the fanservice fits in naturally into the story and, given the general crazyness of the story, setting and characters, feels entirely natural.
Overall, Kakegurui Twin was highly enjoyable, with a mostly good cast of characters, a fun compelling and to the point story and just as crazy as its mother series. It also feels like a good introduction to the series and very newcomer friendly. If you dislike fanservice however, this might not be a series you would like.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 5, 2024
The world of Otome Games is tough for mobs, or "Otome Games" as I'll call it for brevity's sake looks like a stereotypical Otome show. It features all the tropes, such as lowborn female characters bullied by her wealthier, higher class fellow students, a set of handsome wealthy male love interests and of course a noble villainess, engaged to one of the male love interests. Otome Games averts this. However stories that avert this are also common. The Otome Villainess genre does this. But, there are so many of these stories that averting these tropes is a trope in and of itself. Fortunately, and much
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to my surprise, Otome Game manages to avert the typical otome tropes but In a new and highly entertaining way. The story focuses on a reincarnated male main character, Leon Bartford who is born as a mob character. The story follows his attempts to remain a mob character and not get in the way. Something he hilariously fails at. The story In general is quite humorous and has a lighter (as a pose to darker) feel to it. However it does not hesitate to explore the darker sides of its world or its character, which gives it a certain depth. In fact, at times it comes of as a deconstruction, for example, the practical effects of breaking of an engagement for love are covered via the actions of Queen. The main action of the story is quite unusual for an Otome story and includes a lot of good action scenes (involving Mechs no less). Overall, Otome Games has an excellent story that is entertaining and has depth.
The characters for Otome Games are similarly entertaining but with a bit of depth. The standout character is Leon himself who far from being a traditional main character is snarky, sneaky and cunning. In essence he's similar to Kazuma from Konosuba and the results are quite entertaining. Leon however is not the only good character a lot of the main characters are both entertaining and get development. One example is Angelica. She fulfils the "Otome Villainess" role but is treated sympathetically and not only does her views on "commoners" develop but she becomes close friends with the original heroine, Olivia. Another example would be the male love Interests who early on are the main antagonists but later on develop as characters, even becoming helpful to Leon. The characters are excellently written as well as entertaining. The Queen was a particular favourite.
Overall a highly entertaining series with enough depth and originality to set it apart from other Isekai and Otome series. A somewhat unique take on both Otome and isekai stories.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 4, 2024
Bastard season 2 continues many of the same problems as previous seasons. Schneider is still boringly OP and what little plot emerges is too little too late. In fact, season 2 actually manages to exacerbate these problems. For example, a large number of new characters are introduced yet they receive little to no characterisation. However one of the most annoying problems with this series was its treatment of the female cast. The show had always been fanservice heavy but its ramped up to eleven in some scenes in season 2, and not in a good way. Fanservice can be done well however bastard s2 is
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not an example of this. One notable example comes in a bathing scene where Tio Noto Yoko is bathing alone. Schenider comes in gets physical with her. She says no. Repeatedly. He continues and receives no real comeuppance or punishment outside of the usual anime comedy tropes. On the subject of badly written women, Arshes Nei, who was introduced in season 1 as an impressive General, a powerful figure in her own right, has since then degenerated into little more than a simp for Dark Schneider who does little other than cry over her relationship with him and pine for him on her own, in forest hut, for two whole years (the series takes place after a time skip) just because Schneider once told her do this, when she was a child!
Overall, the writing and characterisation is just as bad, if not worse, than previous season. If you want a fantasy themed villain protagonist anime that's better written. Watch Overlord instead.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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