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Blade of the Immortal; already so dated, and such a disappointment.

The art, of course, is good. If photorealism was the only quality required, it would be excellent, but that isn't the case; the much rougher art of Lone Wolf and Cub, for example, can often be more expressive and interesting. Lone Wolf never got boring, because it never relied on its plot; from about the halfway point Blade of the Immortal began eking out its main plot with side issues and quickly got boring as anything.

Even the main plot was gravely flawed from the start; the central premise of an immortal swordsman cursed to kill ... a thousand evildoers is something that would not significantly alter the story if it was removed, apart from sparing us the prison arc! Rin's vendetta is an entirely unsatisfying main plot, since Manji does all the heavy lifting for a revenge which he fundamentally has no personal stake in whatever.

The key relationship between Manji and Rin has no development in thirty volumes worth a tinkers cuss. It is furthermore essential that a growing female warrior, an uprooted teenage girl, receives convincing development and a place in society which she absolutely does not get. Rin must grow bigger than her revenge, as Mattie from True Grit absolutely was, to be a character rather than an excuse for a revenge plot; to the end she never does. The whole plot of BOI is the kind of 'Yojimbo-Mad Max-Searchers' story where the eternal samurai walks into town, kills the villains, and walks out of town, because he's a man apart, unable to ever share the peace of the ones he's saved. It makes for a great 90 minute movie, a strong arc of a decent samurai manga, or a very boring and disappointing 207 chapter series with no emotional payoff that survives to the end.

Also, Hyakurin having to bear and raise her rapist's baby was not the happy ending Samura suggested it to be. Even if she imagines it's that other guy's baby, she needs to have a choice, and you cannot hide behind historical realism when you've got warrior women all over the place, and immortal swordsmen. There aren't many ways an action comic by a male writer can deal with pregnancy from rape very well and Samura doesn't; continual belittlement of Makie, the alleged 'strongest warrior' and a persistently ineffectual main female character in Rin allows me to say that this is not a series that treats female characters like they should be. Some unpleasant things happened to women in Lone Wolf and Cub, but that story was less detached from historical reality than BOI. Which attempts or pretends to include a cast of strong warrior women, but in fact depicts women and their problems almost as poorly as Frank Miller.

I've still given this series a seven because of its art, its scale, and its attempt to deal with much more serious themes than the common. However, it was never the next big thing in terms of samurai dramas, and I'd rather like most of my time and money back.

You've probably heard that this show romanticises domestic abuse and lesbian sexual harassment; the nicest commentators have called the abused Hotaru's advances to Yuma a 'cycle of abuse'. This depressingly fails to appreciate the unjust social stigmata, and pressure to seek a heterosexual woman's happiness, that pushes gay teens into denial, dishonest relationships and self-hatred. The massive abuse of society pushed the vulnerable Hotaru into her abusive relationships, and her poor expressions of love towards Yuma. Her dubiously-consensual advances, though wrong, inseparably result from her trauma and her love; moreover they lack the threat of violence, fundamental selfishness and hatred of women in themselves that ... are inseparable from abuse of women by men. Yuma's inability to either consent to Hotaru's advances or outright refuse them, when she's really 'cheating' herself by going out with nice-but-dim-Jim in the first place, are a legitimate result of her supressed gayness. Not the disgusting 'women-want-to-be-raped' tropes at play in straight NTR.
I like a happy lesbian rom-com as much as the next person, and Netsuzou doesn't go as deeply into its themes as it should, but it is a genuine account of the pressures and emotional torments that gay teens are put through by a flawed society. The number of people who condemned this show, while failing to condemn series like Shield Hero and Goblin Slayer for the monstrous abuse of women by men that they do irredeemably romanticise is very depressing.

Regarding domestic abuse, the idea that Hotaru is 'letting' Fujiwara hit her is not a legitimisation, but an expression of the self-hatred that really does fuel abuse cases. It is sadly not unrealistic that a toerag like Fujiwara has friends and girls queuing up to be abused by him; girls already abused by societal expectations, even if they're straight. However, it really should have been noted that fear of the abuser plays a much larger role in domestic violence situations. However genuinely, admirably forthright Yuma was in standing up to Fujiwara, someone as sociopathic as he's shown to be would have the power to mess hers and Hotaru's lives up a great deal more than he does. One of this show's biggest flaws is that it isn't as dark as it could be.

Also, a lot of 'kissing interrupted' soap-opera silliness, average animation, and tasteless, poorly-drawn fanservice. Still, this was a seasonal anime, and one with a more genuine, sympathetic romance than many better plotted and more popular shows.

Plenty of SoL shows put cuteness and fanservice over plot, and don't get as much stick as this show because their yuri is non-explicit. It isn't any more necessary to go into the deep complexities of life and gay relationships (No gay marriage in Japan yet, for a start), when this is simply a charming depiction of lovey-dovey highschoolers who think about each other all the time and keep finding new ways to express their love through kissing. The genuine teenage concerns of love, unrequited love, school not lasting forever and parental expectations re arranged marriage are dealt with in a very rose-tinted and simple ... way, which still puts this series well over dramas that contrive angst, erase the gays or abuse women for fun. Sakura Trick does have more unnecessary fanservice than depth, but is actually far more respectful of girls' feelings and personhood than their bodies; for light and adorable gay teen romance, this is very fair series indeed.

Partial review of first two volumes;

Is the final chapter of this epic Sci-Fi adventure good as what came before? Qualified answer: yes, though perhaps not so good as Alita's very best. Although Last Order wrapped up most of its plot threads rather well, allowing the new series to make a fresh start, there's still such a weight of backstory to Alita that I would recommend reading previous series before this one. Moreover, the assumption is that veteran readers will be so used to elements like limb loss, body regeneration and brain chips/necro soldiers, that Mars Chronicles might as well telegraph that they'll be coming round ... again. It's basically the formula we know and love; tragic war drama, cyborg battles, body horror and cyborg identity crises. The art is as detailed and the story as harrowing as we might expect from Kishiro. Although a few of Alita's escapes from death so far have been a little contrived, the first volume's war story is true grit, and we have bundles of political intrigue (also, fan favourite characters), right from the get go.

One unwelcome change is that the sense of Alita's character and POV are much weaker. With a timeskip disconnecting her from her history, and sharing focus with several characters, the monument of strength and self-awareness that is Alita has yet to really appear. The first major fight with Erika sets up a worthy adversary, but not yet a world-class heroine. Also, we won't get a sense of place for Mars comparable to the Scrapyard or Salem, until we get to know a working community of reasonably ordinary Martians. But hopefully these elements will soon fall into place.

It apparently falls to me to review this fairly old and very by-the-numbers slasher horror from Korea, of which I've only come across the first and third volume of three. The plot is a decently executed but entirely unoriginal I-know-what-you-did-last-summer affair, bombarding the reader's sympathies with as ghastly a sequences of torments as the author can imagine, including a very nasty thread of victim blaming.

The characters are a mob of pleasingly illustrated but distinctly superficial and unlikable rich kids, with typical emo, ice queen, nice guy, bad boy and tragic beauty stereotypes. Attempt to build sympathy for some murder victims fall flat; I predict that ... the typical reader will be glad to see most of them go, and feel sympathy for exactly the same characters at the beginning as they do after the dist has settled from the fairly predictable twist.

Yet I still remember this story a decade later. I suppose from the guilty pleasure of familiar and exploitative emotional notes played straight and played hard.

The gags in this series are sometimes fairly good, with insignificant cultural features of the Gunma region played up as hugely serious business. However there are only one or two gags, on the same note, in each episode, whereas the best three-minute comedies stuff their run with rapid fire gags. There aren't any memorable characters either. The animation is indifferent, especially the walking girl in the end credits, though the giant Buddha looks rather snazzy. So does the real mayor of Gunma, who somehow found time to put an appearance in, though I don't especially feel like touristing only to Gunma now. Basically, this ... is watchable for the overblown mock-horror, but one of the worst watchable shows of the season

Sensational and improbable events come up a lot in anime, and can be very appealing. When an anime starring Japan's first great detective does not include a single real mystery from ep2 onward, but prefers to spout the most lazy and facile justifications for sensational, improbable and vulgar atrocities, while sentimentalising motives of murderers at whole-episode length, what we have is pap. There is not only no mystery, but no tension or suspense, since these would require convincing situations, and no psychology, just vulgar, cynical shocks.

It is a pity; there must have been a good story to get out of the great detective, the phantom ... thief, and the cute young assistant. I believe the original stories made much of Kobayashi's jail-bait charms, and he is an interesting character here, if only his detachment could be analysed critically, and his growing engagement properly explored. The graphics and music for this series are actually not bad, and the minor characters are rather amusing; only the writing is so awful that I had to put out this review for an old series simply to relieve my feelings.

3 minute shorts of warring states period comedy, with a dense but adorable and deadly kunoichi, a very friendly portrayal of Oda Nobunaga, and a cast of other zany characters. This second season is somewhat more serious and focused on history than the first, with the heroes in serious trouble on many occasions. Gags are still a major part of the series, but unfortunately the reliance on repetitive jokes from the first season is even more pronounced. Nobunaga's role also shifts from a serious tsukkomi to a funny-man, with practically every joke sadly based on his love of sweets (though those who don't laugh with ... him risk getting shot).

A notable number of new historical characters are also introduced this season, often very briefly, though this a least provides some new gags. Mitsuhide may have been meant to take over Nobunaga's straight man role, but doesn't get a great deal of screentime. Overall, the humour is still okay, the story is quite decent for 3 minutes, and this is still a fun little historical adventure.

An unconventional war anime, with a small unit of colourful soldiers fighting to heal a post-war fantasy Europe, while combating a corrupt army brass and nobility. The strength of the series is the characters, with a fiery, charismatic heroine, who has flaws to overcome but undeniable strength and spunk. Her supporting officers would do credit to Fullmetal Alchemist's cast. Many stand alone episodes are gems of plotting in a convincing, vibrant world, dealing with serious topics of trauma, unemployment, poverty and corruption. Sadly, the two 4-5 ep story arcs are so slowly paced that I found them almost unwatchable; a shame as they included many ... good ideas. The mysterious plots remain mysterious since the manga is still running, leaving this as an interesting and unsatisfying show.

This high-school anime is much more like a drama, which may be refreshing if you're tired of light novel adaptions. A light, youthful love story is portrayed in a very quiet, low key fashion, without outlandish events, fanservice, or the humour that fills real slice of life shows. Howa and Mami's growing relationship is earnest, at times very touching, and exceptionally believable, but sadly not portrayed with much nuance, or originality in the direction. Character types are clear and distinct, but development is slow and shallow. A 'realistic' drama needs much deeper and more original insight into the real world, or it becomes simply flat ... and uninteresting.

Note that I restricted my critique to Blondie and the Class Rep; 2/3rds into the series, this has NOT been the ensemble show the opening suggests. Ep 7 prodded a secondary couple through an offensive and appalling piece of soap opera. The 'main character' and the Nice Girl have drifted through an uninspired procession of would-be-cute moments, without making a fraction of the progress Blondie and Class Rep make in a single episode. Without good music, cinematography, original characterisation or writing to suggest romantic tension, it's a little sweet, but boring and forgettable. Although the opening song is quite good, the animation is very cheap and the other music, as mentioned, is uninspired.