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If there exists such a thing as the “rule of cool”, you must assume that the same exception is applicable to all genres. Namely, the quality of structure, reason, and cohesiveness can be somewhat foregone as long as the extremities of said title are sufficient enough to keep the work interesting. If a comedy is funny enough, people won’t expect any sort of actual plot progression, and if an action show has breathtaking fights and/or setpieces, little more is expected by the audience.

What I’m trying to say is, that I do not find this scary, which means that you’re left with everything else that the ... show has to offer. Everything that isn’t trying to scare you. And since Uzumaki banks this much on its horror elements, little is left to enjoy once its one selling point doesn’t work. I do not entirely fault the animation for this, after all, I think I would’ve thought the same about the source material, had I actually read it. Horror is a genre I’ve always struggled to get into, but Ito’s vision here is inspirational enough for me to see why his works have garnered as much praise as they have.

But yeah, the production quality leaves A LOT to be desired, especially considering there are only four episodes. Much like many of my peers, I was initially blown away by the first episode and its commitment to the aforementioned vision. The B&W visuals, coupled with some great rotoscoping and fantastically fitting music had me thoroughly intrigued, despite my inherent reluctance of the genre. And while the style and overall atmosphere were still present in the following episodes, the absolute jankyness of it all managed to sour what would’ve been intense, mysterious, or emotional scenes. Just like when cooking, the fewer ingredients you have, the more each of them matters, and when one of them falls flat, the entire dish is ruined. The sheer creativity and interesting concepts from the source material shine through at times, but those moments are very fleeting, and only go to show what this show could’ve been, had it received the love that it deserved.

I was so ready for this to be good, but alas it was once again proven that not everything is meant to be adapted. I think people are being a little harsh on it though, the difference between this and the previous adaptations of Ito’s works is staggering, so if another studio feels like having a go at it in the future, I’ll hope for an equal leap in quality.

The curtains finally close on the latest entry of the Monogatari Series. An installment in the franchise that, before airing, had many fans dreading the potential disappointment that it could’ve been due to recent troubles within the animation studio and the five-year hiatus the show had been on during this.

Thankfully, what we actually got in the end was a continuation of the series that, as far as I’ve understood, surpassed everyone's expectations (mine included). I'll be the first to admit that you could certainly feel the stiffness of the animation at times, but the oh-so-important style and direction of the franchise is unquestionably still ... there. If a couple of janky moments is what it costs to get a production like this, then I’d gladly pay the price any day of the week. It’s inspiring seeing Studio Shaft stay true to their form this far into the game, utilizing the myriad of possibilities that this medium provides you with to make some of the most visually engaging content in the industry.

I believe that it also helps that this season adapts some exceptional stories from the source material as well. I found myself thoroughly enjoying all three of them for completely different reasons, just as you’ve come to expect from this show.

-You get a single-episode story that’s just plain fun in the regular ol’ Nisioisin way.
-You also have a fantastically entertaining, yet deeply thought-provoking character introspective of someone whose story you thought had ended, yet had actually just begun.
-And lastly, the season finishes with a story that takes itself a bit more seriously, which in the process casually recontextualizes basically the whole series… yet again.

Outstanding stuff, it’s all there.

If there’s one last gripe with this season that I have to point out, it’d be the music. While all of the new tracks are genuinely great, they’re almost composed to a point where they kind of distract from the rest of the scene. Monogatari’s score has always been very “BGM:ish” due to its relatively low amount of physical action, and all of the dialogue doesn’t lend itself that well to the loud and attention-grabbing pieces that are heavily featured in these episodes. But that’s a very gratuitous nitpick, I just felt like I should have more to say about the continuation of my favorite anime.

All in all, I can't wait to see what's next in store for this franchise. Hopefully, they keep the ball rolling, and we have multiple seasons of amazing content ahead of us. In the meantime, let's hope they finally get to translating the rest of the visual novels.

I can’t say I was ever the biggest fan of the first outing of the Tower of God adaptation, but it had a lot of stuff worth sticking around for, and I was really rooting for its potential sequel seasons to be great. However, much like a large portion of this show's audience, I’m severely disappointed by how this turned out in the end.

While I don’t believe that the change of studio is the only culprit of the drop in quality of this show, it certainly is the elephant in the room. What once was a visually unique show with a captivating atmosphere that ... managed to capture both the grandeur and the mystique of the setting, has turned into a generic and frustratingly cheap-looking adaptation that undoes all the work previously provided by its predecessor. The quality is, quite frankly, absolutely abysmal, and I can’t think of a single shot or action in these 13 episodes that satisfied me in any sort of way. Stiff, emotionless, and uninspired, are just some of the words I’d use to describe the presentation of this season.

But almost more importantly, I feel the actual content of this part of the story doesn’t really hit the mark as well. The majority of the characters that we knew are almost entirely absent in this season, replaced by a new, dull cast of characters that match the quality of the animation to a tee. I sure hope I’m not the only one finding these designs impossible to take seriously, because everyone looks so unfathomably stupid, no matter what they’re doing. Furthermore, you absolutely CAN NOT introduce this many characters at once and expect us to care about them. What you actually do is you drip-feed the audience with new characters, so that their personality and place in the story is well established before more start being introduced.

I also find it very difficult to recall just about anything that transpired during this season. I feel like nothing happened, all while everything (including the characters, status quo, etc…) changed between the two entries of the show. It’s such a weird way to tell a story and I do not jibe with it one bit. I cannot for the life of me see how the source material got as big as it did if this is how the rest of it is gonna go. I really do think this is a textbook example of “a more complicated story does not equal a better one”. I would’ve been perfectly content with following the previous seasons’ main group of characters for the majority of the story, but instead, it just had to go ahead and try to prove something that, in the end, it just couldn’t. A show like this should slowly build upon its relatively simple foundation, not throw it out the window as a sad excuse for a “hook” and have to start over from a much, much less compelling beginning. I get that maybe this'll come full circle in future installments of the Tower of God adaptation, and the previous characters become relevant again. But I haven't read the source material, and evaluating this as a single season leaves much to be desired.

Music’s still great though.

I don’t know if I was in a bad mood or something when I initially watched the first season of Oshi no Ko, because I was really mean to it for absolutely no reason… (okay maybe a little reason, but not to that extent). Either way, I’m delighted that I can say that I enjoyed this season quite a great bit actually, even though not that much has actually changed from the first one.

The production quality is of course still fantastic, it’s exactly what you should expect from a big-profile 2024 show. It manages to satisfy both criteria of having a recognizable, endearing, and high-fidelity ... art style, all while not having to sacrifice any of the actual animation. On top of having a consistent level of polish, it also features multiple sequences of absolutely stunning animation, some of which can be impressive from either a technical, choreographical, or even an artistic standpoint. Outstanding stuff.

Additionally, it still provides some insight into different aspects of the relevant industries that might’ve otherwise been totally overlooked by us not involved with them, and I think that’s great. It also continues to dabble in the psychosocial difficulties that come with being part of the showbiz world, which, I of course cannot testify to how realistic any of it is, but it makes for some great intrigue and drama. I still think it’s kind of like baby’s first venture into this kind of subject matter, but I digress. It is absolutely nothing new and has been portrayed in much more effective ways many times before, even in this particular medium, but not everything has to take itself that seriously, and it’s fine to not commit 100% to one aspect of your story.

Other than that, I give enormous props to the fact that we get to see Ruby’s and Aqua’s previous lives be relevant again. I really did not expect this to happen (I guess isekai has ruined my expectations), so I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that this is a thing, and that it hopefully can lead to some really interesting stuff in the eventual third season.
The developments in Aqua’s part of the story were also very welcome, even though I still absolutely loathe his guts. He is the half of this show that I have to deal with in order to actually enjoy the rest… I don’t know, maybe I’m just petty I don’t have a girlfriend myself or something. That certainly has affected my opinions on titles in the past and I fear for my journalistic integrity, as amateurish as it might be.

I realize this review might’ve come across as needlessly negative (again), but just know that my thoughts on this season are overall positive. This is just one man’s ramblings about a show he doesn’t even care that much for, yet goes to great lengths to communicate his thoughts about it to the three people who’ll eventually maybe read this.

Unfortunately, this installment of Yuru Camp further proves what’s generally accepted nowadays, namely that it is entirely possible to have too much of a good thing.

After all, there’s only so much you can do with this premise. It’s a slice-of-life show, and a progressive narrative shouldn’t be expected, but this also entails that every episode should have something unique to portray. When the same characters, in the same setting, in the same part of their lives make up the bulk of a story, this much content is never warranted. There are simply not enough situations to illustrate these girls in, and room for growth ... is something we’ve already ruled out.

I find myself feeling that, if anything, it’s turned into a cooking show, more than a camping one. The themes of outdoor activities, connecting with nature, and finding kinship in shared interests are almost completely replaced by the same batch of characters (granted, in different constellations) simply exploring new recipes. In some cases, not even that. Some episodes are dedicated to them just eating, not going through the trouble of preparing the food themselves.

It doesn’t help that the studio change veered the visuals into an unfortunate direction, with almost photorealisticly detailed backgrounds, and what I believe to be inferiorly illustrated characters. Once again, more isn’t always better. The overly detailed environments adds nothing to the show and just comes off as… overly ambitious, if you will.

The saving grace here is that I still very much enjoy these characters. Simply watching them do stuff together is plenty as a selling point for this show, I just wish everything around them turned out better this time around.

5.5, thankfully doesn’t detract from the previous seasons, those are still pretty great.

Upon going through my extensive backlog of shows I eventually want to watch, School Days finally arrived on my monitor, and oh boy did it live up to its reputation.

As much as I hate to say it, the first half of this show was actually kind of fun. Now, I’m not about to say that the characters are amazing, or that the writing is out of this world (I find that most of it is kinda shit actually), but goddamn this show somehow managed to really keep me intrigued. There’s just something about these stupid kids, repeatedly ruining their stupid relationships, while also doing ... other increasingly stupid things that’s more entertaining than I care to admit.

I really couldn’t tell you how the show so effectively invested me, in any other situation I would’ve absolutely hated its guts. Maybe it’s just my monkey brain feeling sad for the shy and cute love interest whenever her war criminal of a boyfriend does anything inappropriate.

Now, of course, this innocent fun doesn’t last for long, as somewhere along the line, the show completely jumps the gun and turns into a harem-fest devoid of anything that I might’ve enjoyed before. I have nothing against a fictional title portraying teenagers exploring their sexuality for the first time, but like, this is officially too much. By the time the notorious ending (which I miraculously hadn’t spoiled for myself until now) came around, nothing really mattered anymore, the show went insane long before the climax.

But it really has many of the individual pieces that you would find in an acceptable show, hadn’t it been too caught up in being the kind of story that it is. Staying on the path it laid for itself in the first half could’ve made for a potentially fine story, but it’s so adamant on having a shocking ending and delivering more than it initially promises that it entirely fumbles and turns into the meme that it is today… for better or for worse.

In short, there are much worse shows out there that don't bring anything to the table, and I’d much rather have something like this, that actually makes me feel something.

5.0, definitely delivers, just in all the wrong senses of the word.

Yuru Camp, one of those shows that makes me really mad about my seldom being able to get into anything from the slice-of-life genre.

Because this show is absolutely perfect, and it really nails everything that it's committed to showing and excels in the areas that it’s supposed to. I have literally nothing to complain about. You can tell this series comes from a place of passion, both from the original mangaka, Afro, and the team behind the adaptation, voice actors, animators, etc... The quality never drops, and almost every episode has something unique to portray that I can’t say you could find anywhere else. ... The medium is also well utilized whenever any outdoor scene is featured, wonderfully capturing the essence of the cold air, comforting soundscape, and the beauty of nature, even the relatively mundane iterations of it.

Needless to say, if you’re into this kind of stuff, you’ll have a great time with Yuru Camp, and I know many of you already have.

7.5/10 is my very biased score, but I totally get people giving this one a 10/10.

Goblin Slayer huh? While I’m always up for giving shows a second chance (the movie doesn’t count), this season of TV proved once and for all that this show just isn’t the stuff.

When writing fantasy stories, I believe it’s of utmost importance not just to change one singular thing about the already existing formula. Multiple unique or interesting ideas/concepts need to be featured in your story in order to distinguish yourself from the exhaustive ocean of run-of-the-mill, lazily thrown-together fantasy shows that this medium boasts. Goblin Slayer, in my opinion, does absolutely not check any of the boxes here, but instead constantly and awkwardly ... falls back on the ONE selling factor that the show has: Goblin Slayer himself.

There is nothing special to the world presented in the series, none of the characters are ever intriguing, and the story never goes anywhere. I mean, the characters are even named “Elf”, “Lizardman”, or “Dwarf”, like Jesus Christ, this just makes it look like the author themself have no respect whatsoever for their own work. In short, the writing is an absolute mess, and it doesn’t really get any help from the team who produces the show, considering the uninspired art style, janky animation, non-existent directing, and forgettable music doesn’t do it any favors.

The one praise I can give the show is that you sometimes get presented with some pretty neat techniques that Goblin Slayer uses in his goblin slaying, as opposed to always resorting to his brute strength, which many other stories would’ve done. This actually somewhat elegantly conveys his expertise and experience in the field, but as soon as you start to take things seriously, “Cow Girl” shows up again and shatters whatever little immersion you had in the story up until that point. Like, am I supposed to take the show seriously, or is this one where you just enjoy the cool fights and move on? The action is extremely lackluster, so I sure don’t hope that’s the case.

Maybe I’m missing something, but I think that it’s really evident that this show still runs on the fumes that the first, “controversial” episode of season 1 produced, not delivering anything new for the consumer or content of value.

I’m not going to pretend like the plot of DieBuster isn’t complete and utter nonsense, but goddamnit I still love it. Just like GunBuster before it, this show embodies many of the qualities that made their respective eras of anime so unique and recognizable and turns them up to 11, making for an exceptionally enjoyable show if you’re into that kind of stuff.

Boasting the now iconic style of modern Gainax, DieBuster’s world is angular, stylish, energetic, and most importantly fun. The protagonist that is Nono exudes exactly the kind of charming stupidity you’d expect from the “lovable clutz”-stereotype, and she absolutely carries the show ... alongside its audiovisual presentation. And while I can’t say much about the rest of the cast of characters, their designs are kind of neat at least, much like all of the machines featured in the show, be that mechas, spaceships, etc…

If there’s one major thing that DieBuster lacks when compared to its predecessor, I think most would agree that it’d be the sometimes genuinely emotional moments. I’m not saying that it doesn’t try with scenes like this (oh it tries alright), but for me, they just don’t land. While I’m sure that some of the few who actually watched this show will disagree with me, the complete lack of groundedness, which most of the time is the show’s biggest strength, also renders me unable to get emotionally invested. It’s not impossible, but it’s goddamn hard to make stories like these and still have the audience take them seriously. Me, I’m fully content with the show just being a really, really dumb and fun time.

7.5 / 10, Gainax better pull their shit together and make Top wo Nerae 3.

I think I speak not only for myself when I say that Attack on Titan has been some of the most fun I’ve ever had following a show. What this series has managed to accomplish, not just within the anime industry, but in contemporary media as a whole is absolutely monumental. Seeing something like this come to an end will always, in one way or another, be emotional, be that in the form of sadness, joy, frustration, or a sense of fulfillment.

Having said that, just like when I initially read the manga, I came out after finishing this feeling incredibly torn on my thoughts ... regarding this ending. On the one hand, I find it painfully rushed, (mostly) emotionally disconnected, and overly ambitious in its thematic subtext. But on the other hand, I can’t help but feel the emotional weight of an entire decade-long title in those last, powerful moments with Mikasa beneath the tree.

It’s like I was given proper closure for one arc within the story, but not for the dozens of completely new ones introduced just a couple of episodes prior. Not only does a plethora of both old and new characters get any closing statements, but in the last few minutes of this show, it desperately tries to present ideas of life itself and illustrates the events of the story as just a small part of a larger tale. While I do enjoy these motifs in other works, they are absolutely not warranted here and shift the focus to underdeveloped themes rather than already set-up characters. And while I think it’s absolutely fitting that Eren dies and realizes his sins in the end, his final scene with Armin is a horrendous assassination of a character that’s been developed over the course of these episodes. It’s something I’d expect to happen in early Attack on Titan, something I personally thought the story had matured from at this point.

This season is one I could go on and on about (I haven’t even gotten into the technical aspects of it), and I’m sure my stance on the ending will fluctuate dramatically during this time of acceptance of the fact that the show is finally over. But honestly, I don’t feel the need to ramble more about a title as giant as Attack on Titan. None of you will read this and have your minds changed (which is a good thing), so make sure to form your own opinion and don’t jump on any stupid bandwagon that might already exist on the internet.

All I can say is “Thank you Attack on Titan, not only for being one of the cornerstones of my introduction to the medium but also for being an almost constant pillar of quality throughout these years that few shows in the industry can match.”