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Gross approximation of Cyberpunk both visually and conceptually for faux thematic depth, providing little worth beyond surface level intellectual aesthetics. Nice enough art.

Ultimately, the show fails to appropriate any occurring theme within it due to a variety of factors - flat characters, little intellectual inspection, self-indulgent world (i.e., that it wants to say "look at how special our story is", rather than to be a special story) - which leaves it a boring mess, and consequently feels disrespectful to the viewer when it tries to pull at heartstrings with limp wrists.

Visually, the anime serves nicely, but is not the most stunning work done by Studio ... Trigger either.

Tonally, it feels inconsistent with the ending of Gundam I, featuring more comedic moments from dedicated slapstick characters (the three children), and being all together less bleak due to the dramatic change in Amuro's character, who had ended the first film being infected with terrible PTSD, and an inability to define himself outside of his ability to pilot the Gundam. There's a lack of focus which further complicates things, where the first film was heavily focused on detailing Amuro's descent from just an innocent child into a victim of PTSD, Gundam II lacks any specific theme or character to specifically explore in depth.

Not to say ... Gundam II is a bad film, but it is lacking in the overall cohesion and refinement of the first film - it has its moments (a lot of really nice moments), but they all fail to properly go anywhere and are mostly one off moments, and the focus on the controversy around the discussion of Newtypes was a welcome addition to the story. A further thing to note, is that a lot of named characters are easily killed in the film, new ones and old ones, which adds a certain sense of gravity to the war, knowing that the residents of White Base aren't magically saved from death just because they have a name and history to them.

The audio direction also feels as though it is glorifying the combat a lot of the time, rather than being juxtapositional.

Thematically, Nadia involves the embryonic forms of the ideas and concepts further explored with much more depth in Neon Genesis Evangelion, but those are rather small compared to the more traditional concepts of warfare that it sifts through, primarily focusing on the struggle to maintain one's sense of humanity against the overwhelming odds of war's cruel and cold utilitarianism.

The show is marked with the immediately recognisable characteristics of Anno's directorial style, and his importance on the success of the show cannot be understated. Everything, down to the lighting, has his fingerprints all over it, and, most importantly, the writing is filled with his excellent quality ... theatrical speeches and religious reference, and noticeably well written women.

For the most part, Nadia is practically perfect, being consistent in most every aspect, and has a wonderful pacing and tight control of its tone with smooth transition from a lighthearted adventure to a dark and brooding sci-fi. Unfortunately, the infamous Island Arc really is as bad as it's made out to be, taking up about 1/3rd of the total episode count. Before and after it, the show is immaculate, but getting through the Islands Arc, with its noticeable downgrade in everything that makes the series enjoyable, can be a very laborious experience that almost makes you forget why Nadia is so good in the first place. Yet, it is not so bad that it ruins the entire show, as it does eventually end, and a return to form is almost immediate.

Collage dominates the aesthetic direction of Hidamari Sketch, careful use of pop-art patterns, photos, words in place of objects, and flat colours carefully creates a visually distinct appeal to the anime, that becomes its main strength - you could easily watch the anime with no sound and it would be watchable purely for the strength of its visuals alone.

Outside of its visuals, it's standard cgdct SoL fare: the girls all have very distinct personalities from each other, being very cute and likeable, and most of the plot centres around their discussions and interactions with each other. Whilst the events aren't particularly comedic compared to other ... examples from the 2000s such as Azumanga Daioh or Lucky Star, there are a few guaranteed laughs each episode, and the cuteness of the visuals and character interactions are appealing enough in their own right.

It is an anime that simply has some very nice visuals, though it can be said that it doesn't expand upon them enough, and interactions that are definitely enjoyable.

Surprisingly well held up visuals for an anime from 1981, and some real nice sounding audio design. It's lacking in the striking visuals of something like Eva, which comes out much later, but nonetheless remains a visually pleasing piece of work for its time; it sort of has a "rustic charm" to it.

The real star of the film is the characterisation of Amuro and his struggle with PTSD, which grows over the course of the film to excellent pacing, until he's incapable of sleeping or eating almost entirely, barely being animated for anything but the Gundam he pilots. It completely does away with the cultural ... idea that all mecha anime pre-Eva was lacking in any sort of psychological conflict or focus; the image of war is vivid: it's not just Amuro who gets subsumed by the pointless and eternal war, but all of his friends and neighbours, who quickly assume their roles in the military as if it were second nature.

Certainly, the writing is good, excellent, even: Amuro's portrayal of PTSD, and the war he's fighting in, feel grim and real, often lacking in some of the theatrics and eccentricities that come with a lot of anime, but if one thing can be said, it's that the film likes to announce "this is war" just a little too much.

Tamako Market begins very rough, with all of the first half, and a little bit more, being bad and unenjoyable, and by the end does manage to evolve into being somewhat enjoyable, functionally becoming a subpar K-ON - it fails to really meet any reason for existence, when everything makes it so painfully clear that it tries to do what K-ON! does, and fails at it.

Primarily, the show introduces things that it fails to properly utilise, which is the main cause of its failing. The main trio of girls - Tamako, Kanna, and Midori - have some immediate chemistry and charm together, but are rarely ... actually properly used outside of a few moments, there are two love plots (one between Midori and Tamako, and one between Tamako and Mochi) which both remain underdeveloped, and one of them is just swept under the rug as well.

If the show could have focused on its strengths, instead of being mostly directionless, it could have been quite enjoyable in its own right, though always in the shadow of K-ON! unfortunately.

Beautiful visual gags, and expressions, despite an otherwise bland immediate visual impression (being comparable to almost every other anime out there just from a screenshot), do help to elevate Bocchi quite an excessive amount above most of its contemporaries, whilst the actual episodes themselves are fairly competently made, they may not have been something to write home about an excessive amount otherwise.

Of the characters presented, all are fairly distinct from each other, but I felt that the character interactions between the main four (minus Bocchi herself) could have been given a bit more depth - Ryo and Nijika mostly have a fool-straight man relationship, Kita's ... relationship with Nijika isn't too established at all, and her attraction to Ryo is just a part of a joke currently. All of their relations to Bocchi herself are fairly strong however, but it is still a bit noticeable.

However, the way Kita's feelings for Ryo were treated as a joke, turning into genuine feelings for Bocchi instead, felt well handled, and the general yuri-ness of the anime is appreciated, even if it is understated a lot of the time.

Finally, as a show about social anxiety, it's a fun outlet for all of the things you can't do with social anxiety - you can't have breakdowns and theatrics like Bocchi does in real life, but you really wish you could. I'm very glad to have watched this.

The 3d animation in the film adds a certain level of depth to the action, creating a sense of dynamism that would be maybe trickier to do with traditional 2d animation - it's rare for an anime to use 3d in a remotely competent way, let alone in a way that can potentially be considered even a strength.

The choreography is fairly good, and though the action is not going to reach the peaks of classic Dragon Ball, it is quite enjoyable nonetheless and has its moments - mainly, the Cell Max fight drags on quite a bit, and with the way its weak spot is ... handled, it feels almost like a videogame boss fight, but once Piccolo increases his size to fight him mano a mano the action does pick up again.

The writing is still not great, but it is filled with lots of fun throwbacks, and the main appeal of the film is just seeing Gohan and Piccolo take the spotlight once again anyway, instead of the millionth story about Goku and Vegeta. It's definitely worth a watch, but it isn't without some fairly noticeable flaws.

It's functionally a two hour long episode of Cowboy Bebop; it has all of the strengths and motions of a Cowboy Bebop story, but spread over two hours, instead of a 25 minute episode. As always, visuals, choreography, audio direction- all are fantastic. It immediately introduces the striking visuals of the show, both with its directorial vision, and the aforementioned animation quality. The real star of the film is the antagonist, though: Vincent.

He acts directly as an intentional parallel to Spike, both having the detached world view that disconnects them from the reality around them, forfeiting their ability to appreciate the importance of what they ... have - for Spike it's the Bebop crew, functionally his family, and for Vincent it's Electra - until right at the end, just before they die (Vincent does a more literal type of suicide, whereas Spike's is subsumed under the guise of revenge against Vicious). Various pieces of dialogue indicate this parallel, and their action sequences even involve similar movements, but it all comes together right at the end just as Vincent dies.

Watamote is a fairly decent anime, but the OVA is not - it feels a bit thematically contradictory to what actually takes place in the show; Tomoko doesn't deserve to be rewarded with the gift of an implicated destined meetup with a boy just like her, because the whole point is that Tomoko is a terrible person whose incapable of escaping from her world view that's formed from a malicious congealing of her spiteful loneliness and addiction to unrealistic romantic material, fueling her envious perception of the world, where every other woman is a "slut".

Episode 12 might have been a miserable ending to the series, ... but it thematically fit, especially as a warning about the dangers of Tomoko's type of lifestyle and thought processes, which ultimately alienate her from everybody that could possibly help her as she literally runs away from those that want to help her or like her.

It would have made more sense to have the OVA involve Tomoko changing her mindset, even just a little bit; enough to show that she's on the path to a better future.