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Jun 15, 2020
Well that went downhill fast. I'll admit, I watched the anime first and was entertained. It wasn't a masterpiece by any means, but a decent 7/10 that made me want more. So, I went to read manga. And boy oh boy, that's a mistake I will never repeat again.
The story presentation in anime was leagues better. They cut some content, but now I see why. All the content they have cut was absolutely meaningless filler. Manga focuses way too much on the trashy parts of the story, savoring the moments anime barely pays attention to. And it's just the part that got an adaptation. It
...
gets way, way worse after with even more fillers, even more pointless drama. And it all brings us to one of the worst, most unsatisfying endings that I've seen in my 16+ years of watching anime and reading manga.
The character decisions were never the strong point of this piece. I often say about the characters I love, that you can't not like them. But with Domekano? You can. At some points you will even hate them.
They are told that they act like children, and they immediately go out of their way to prove that point! They are told that they are making a mistake, and they only escalate it from there. They do things that they will never be able to change. Say words they will never be able to take back.
They are wrong. Each and every one of them. But they are immature. So what's the point in blaming them? Every one of us was, or maybe still is like that.
Every character in Domekano is a good person. Not always likeable, not always understandable, but generally well intentioned.
With that said. They do not grow. They do not learn from their mistakes. And it makes watching them a complete pain. You don't sit there thinking "hell yes, now it'll get better!", you think "well, what did you expect?".
If the anime continues, this is the first time ever that I HOPE they change the ending, instead of adapting it faithfully. More drama does not automatically mean better story. Sometimes it is just unnecessary. And Domekano went above and beyond the point where they should've stopped adding more. The ending was so dreadful that it killed what little enjoyment... hell, at that point it was more "tolerance", than "enjoyment"... that I had left for this story. And as much as I loved it in the beginning, and as much good moments that this manga had, I just can't in clear conscience recommend it to anyone after the way it ended. Don't do this to yourself. Don't invest yourself just to be THAT disappointed. Just... don't.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Dec 12, 2019
To be honest, I have no idea how this anime, while being a classic, managed to escape my attention for so long. Nobody ever recommended it to me, I always skipped over it myself. Even though the classic Yuno face is probably known even to people outside the anime community.
So, I only found this anime by accident, randomly clicking through the lists of best anime openings. And yes, Mirai Nikki opening is undoubtedly one of the best I've seen in my life, both in terms of music and animation. Probably in top-3 of all time for me.
But it's the comments under the opening - what
...
made me watch it. The comment section was full of "this anime is trash" with rare, but very passionate "don't listen to them, it's a masterpiece".
I haven't seen this much controversy in a long time, and so I decided to finally give it a watch for myself and see what it's all about.
And before we continue, I just want to say - I really don't want to nitpick this anime. When I start talking about it, it may seem that I hated it. It's not true. In fact, I enjoyed Mirai Nikki way more than I expected. And I can certainly recommend it. But with a very big amount of "buts".
First of all, animation. Once again, animation. Not the art, because by itself it's pretty good. The character design, backgrounds, facial expressions - all of it is great. You can put almost any screenshot from this anime as a screensaver and it will look good.
However, the animation itself is painfully bad. Well... maybe not the worst I've ever seen, but still. There are a lot of static frames, the movement is rough and jerky and it only gets worse as the anime goes on.
While it's not a deciding factor of enjoyment, at least for me, it's still a little disheartening when the best animation in 26 episodes is the animation of breasts of a secondary (and I'm being generous here) character.
The characters for me are comparable to the characters of Black Lagoon or Baccano. They are about the same level of crazy and have about the same amount of development. Which is to say - about zero. They are all amazing (with one exception being the protagonist, but more on that later). Have tragic stories, interesting quirks and you can sympathize with them. By the end, I had almost no questions about their decisions or motivations (considering we are talking about the world of Mirai Nikki full of plot holes as is). Their main problem is not that the authors didn't try to develop them, but that they had so little screen time. It was just not enough to make them fully fleshed out.
Still, I definitely found the supporting characters' stories more interesting and emotional than the protagonist's. Especially Tsubaki. In fact, her backstory put me in depression for days, which does not happen often. It was almost perfect.
Now, as for the protagonist. Yuki. This is one of the most pathetic creatures I've seen in my life. Calling him spineless is giving him more credit than he deserves. There's almost nothing redeeming about him. I mean... there are useless protagonists in anime. Like, say, harem anime, right? Princess Resurrection, Rosario+Vampire, heroes like that. They are weak, useless, the story wouldn't lose anything without them. They are empty.
Then there are protagonists that have a lot of negative qualities. Like, for example, the overly aggressive nail-biting hero of Zeta Gundam, who acted like a spoiled brat, killing people over petty squabbles (at least in the beginning). But usually characters like that grow and evolve as the story progresses.
And then there are protagonists of School Days and Mirai Nikki. They don't evolve. They don't learn. You're actively trying to find anything good... anything at all in them... but... it doesn't happen.
Ok, ok, maybe, just maybe, Yuki is not as bad as School Days protagonist (pardon the use of this word towards that piece of human waste). He has a little bit of character growth in the last few episodes and a few decent actions. But still, 24 out of 26 he is a horrible human being.
Even his relationship with Yuno, who, without a doubt was insane and overstepped any reasonable boundaries, scare me more not because of her actions, but because of his lack of any empathy towards her. He wasn't trying to understand or help her at all. It was honestly rather painful to watch.
I won't talk much about overall story of Mirai Nikki, so that we can avoid spoilers. But sufficed to say, it is full of plot holes and conveniences. To the point where even my suspension of disbelief wasn't enough to ignore them.
And yet somehow, it was still interesting to watch. I'm usually pretty good at guessing plot points, what character will switch sides, stuff like that. But there were quite a few surprises (both pleasant and otherwise) in Mirai Nikki that I had no idea were coming. So, kudos to that.
I know that I don't do this anime justice by talking about all of its faults. But everything I can praise about it is more on emotional level than some objective points.
One thing I'll say is - you MUST watch it with subtitles. Even if you are watching things dubbed, turn them on. Because the diaries and text in them plays an extremely important role in creating atmosphere. Especially Yuno's diary and especially by the end. Ignoring what's written there would be criminal.
This anime is saved by its characters, their tragedy and intrigue, because no matter how many holes I found in any given episode, I always wanted to turn the next one on to see what's going to happen.
I definitely recommend this anime to anyone who, just like me, can forgive a lot for interesting characters.
For everyone else - you can watch it if you have some extra free time and do want to see it, but keep your expectations reasonably low. This way, just like me, you may be surprised by how much you enjoy it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 10, 2019
My history with anime is complicated. I've watched a lot (and I mean A LOT) of stuff as a teenager, and then got overfed with it, dropped it completely and now... now I have a lot to catch up with. A lot of classics, a lot of so called masterpieces, and just things that are probably average or even bad, but sound fun. My catch up list currently consists of over 250 anime and is only growing.
So how do I pick an anime from this list to watch? MAL scores? Reviews? Friend or youtube recommendations? Hell no.
I just thought: hey, I love playing this song
...
in "Bang Dream", what's it called? "This life". Oh, it's a cover? Cool, let's see where it's from!
Sorry, all this off top stuff is my way of saying - the opening in No Game No Life is good. "I want to watch it right now!" kind of good. And yes, both the Bang Dream cover and the original. It's the only reason I started watching this anime and it went into my playlist instantly.
The rest of the soundtrack is fine as well, but it doesn't matter, because they ruined it with one single joke at the beginning. And ruined in the best way possible, because now whatever song plays in the anime, I just imagine it playing on Shiro or Sora's phone. And it's brilliant. I love it. It's probably not true outside that one joke, but I don't care, I think it makes the soundtrack so much more epic.
And speaking of jokes. This anime's humor is what I wanted to get from Konosuba (spoilers, I hate Konosuba). The heroes in No Game No Life are also idiots and sometimes assholes, but unlike Konosuba, they are actually likeable, adorable and never have any malintent.
There are a lot of references to other anime. Laputa costumes, JoJo references, Persona 4, Gal Gun, Stein's Gate, Akiba's Trip and more... and they are made tastefully and fit the actual story without looking jarringly out of place.
Every joke in this anime is carefully planned and placed in a way that they don't ruin the pace and hit you exactly when it's most fitting. Which is why they work. Besides, the jokes themselves are new and fresh, even though they are still targeted at the same old tropes.
Episode 6 just killed me with its fantastic censorship. It was so smart, bravo! To quote Shiro, "Omega good job!" (whatever it means).
No Game No Life is both a feast for your eyes and abuse.
The art is unique and recognizable, you'll easily know this anime when you see any frame from it. But at the same time, it should have a huge epilepsy warning at the beginning. The neon bright images, while unforgettable and undeniably gorgeous, also take attention away from some defects in the picture itself. In rare action moments, the animation is really flashy and flickers a lot, as if it tries to blind you. This anime is very tiring for the eyes, so I wouldn't recommend binge-watching it like I did and instead take breaks.
That said, there isn't much action at all, that's not what this anime is about. So overall, it's not that bad.
The whole idea of a world in which conflicts are decided during games is not new, but I still love it.
The very first episode did what I like most in good stories - defined the rules. It's unlikely that you'll have questions about why something happens.
The pacing is very fast, there is no time to get bored. Although sometimes maybe even too fast. I never skipped opening or ending simply because they let me have a rest and process everything that happened in an episode. And I loved it.
Protagonists are great. They don't give you the same old crap about justice. After all, you're only in trouble if they catch you cheating. If.
There are no fussy and clumsy "I'll protect you!" speeches between them. Instead, without saying a word, Sora instinctively takes a hit for his sister whenever they are in danger, and Shiro knows him so well that she plays along with him without a need for any hint.
They trust each other unconditionally, and watching their relationships is pure joy.
Plus Sora's fantastic speeches. Plus Shiro's mess of a hair. Plus I absolutely love that they call each other "nii" and "imouto" without any suffixes. This just sounds amazingly cute and unique.
Every other character is also great.
Jibril is insanely charming insane charmer.
Izuna is the cuteness itself that needs to be scratched... desu.
Yoko Hikasa as Stephanie is absolutely brilliant. I think this is one of her best roles and it makes the character instantly lovable.
Rie Kugimiya is divine. I mean, she's a goddess. I mean, plays a god. Ah, whatever, any of the above statements are true.
And while we're at voice acting part of this review, I just want to say that the guy who voiced Sora, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, is steadily becoming my favorite male voice actor. Until No Game No Life I only knew him as Kirito from Sword Art Online and Bell from Danmachi, neither of which were particularly interesting. But this time he killed it.
So, in the end, is this anime a must watch? No. Probably not.
But do I recommend it? Absolutely. Without a doubt. It is one of the most fun and enjoyable anime that I've seen.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 26, 2019
I really didn't want to re-watch this anime. I wanted my childhood memories to stay untarnished. R+V was a very important step in my anime life and I wanted to remember it as a cute comedy with pretty girls. But I can't run away from it for the rest of my life. So... let's do it.
Let's start with the music. You can't even imagine how much nostalgia I had when I heard the ending song. It's very strange because I didn't feel it when I re-watched other classics like Death Note, Sailor Moon, Elfen Lied, all that stuff. But here, it hit me hard. And
...
it's still an amazing song.
The rest of the soundtrack also made me happier than I want to admit. It's not a masterpiece by any means, it's just you typical silly comedy tunes, but they are so... idunno... nice. You just can't not smile when you hear their "daba-daba-daaaaa". It's just so positive. I love it.
Unfortunately, this is the only positive aspect of this anime. I'm not kidding you, it took me 5 months to actually finish it - this is how hard it was to watch.
The art in and of itself is good. But boy oh boy, this animation is one of the worst I have ever seen. To the point where sometimes characters speak without opening their mouth. There is really no excuse for this. Even for the time it was made, even for the genre... look at, say, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou - so much better animated...
Story, dialogues... meh... I actually felt like some part of my brain died and will never be the same after listening to them. To be honest, it was that rare, extremely rare moment where having subtitles in my native language helped. Because at least you could laugh at gems like "eat my bittersweet fruit of immaturity!" (and no, that's not what they said in Japanese).
Protagonist is... well... it's a harem anime. So yeah, useless, pathetic and all that jazz. But also, I really hated his voice. It's honestly up there with Dragonball's Goku. Just horrible.
He doesn't have any defining quality except "I'm kind". You know, there are a lot of protagonist in this genre that are at least a LITTLE bit better. Monster Musume had a protagonist who was at least caring enough to read about different species. Majikoi? He was smart and used it to his advantage, even though he was a weakling. Daimaou? Just an overall amazing guy who overcomes the typical tropes. Forget it, even Princess Resurrection had a protagonist who was useful for something other than drinking blood from him. But no... not this guy.
But hey, the rest of the characters were fine. I never had anything against Kurumu and Mizore, but this time I actually enjoyed Moka who I used to hate before. So at least for this I'm thankful that I re-watched R+V.
But let's not beat around the bush. Rosario+Vampire is not a good anime. And I didn't have much hope that it would prove my fears wrong. You can watch it as a kid and it may be fun, but don't come back to it. Not worth it.
However. Everyone who knows me for a long time, knows full well why I even re-watched it.
Mizore-chan. This girl didn't leave my top-10 waifu list since 2008. And I REALLY wanted to know if it's just a childish crush or if she actually deserves to be there. And the verdict is...
It's both.
Mizore-chan is still the best character in this anime and I love everything about her. But don't get me wrong, I'm not crazy. I realize fully that she doesn't have a particularly developed personality or something like that, the writing in this show just couldn't do it. But Mizore is a very special girl who formed my tastes in anime girls for years to come. Quiet short-haired girl with striped stockings.
Yes, she was a very secondary character in the anime, but everything she did was perfect. For example, there was that great moment where every girl, because it's an anime, was arguing about breast size. What did Mizore do? She stayed away from this discussion. Just took a look down her blouse, shrugged and smiled. That was so charming!
And of course, Kugimiya Rie. Sure, it wasn't the first role I heard her in (that honor belongs to Al from Fullmetal Alchemist), but this was the role that made me interested in voice actors in general and made me actually go and look them up when I liked the character's voice.
So yeah, I was very worried that I'd have to say goodbye to Mizore-chan, but no. She's still in my top-10 anime waifus. And this alone was worth watching R+V for.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Nov 25, 2019
My first though was - it's fine. Simplistic, but fine.
You can't really praise this anime as another isekai or fantasy. We've seen all of this before - powerful hero, cute waifu, unnecessary game interface. But if you dig just a little deeper, this anime can pleasantly surprise you.
I have some tiny issues with its animation, but it's not necessarily bad. On one hand, I just wish it was smoother, had more frames per every single animation. But on the other - whenever you pause the animation, every single frame is way more detailed than you'd expect. So I guess it's a fair trade-off.
Maybe
...
because the animation is this moderately-good throughout the series, you never think that they skived at any point during production. I like it.
It also has surprisingly beautiful backgrounds. Oftentimes they are neglected in anime as something unimportant, but in Shield Hero they often stand out as gorgeous art on their own.
Beautiful CGI dragon. Take notes, Overlord. It was actually awesome. And the rest of CGI elements, while still noticeable, are way less egregious than they usually are.
Opening is good. At first I thought it spoils too much. But this anime is fairly fast-paced. So, the first episode didn't have the opening at all, the second did, and what I thought it spoiled - happened in third. So, it's not that bad. I also liked the second ending a lot, which I'm only mentioning because I rarely even notice endings. This one was nice.
Overall soundtrack wasn't something I'd listen to daily, but it was very... how do I put it... non-generic? Various flutes and violins gave it a nice medieval vibe, and it was mixed with, for the lack of better word, very Spanish guitars.
The more I watched this anime, the more I liked the music in it. Maybe not a masterpiece, but quite memorable and pleasant indeed.
Characters are fine. Obviously (well, obviously after you've seen episode one) a lot of them are horrible, vile people that you don't want to have anything in common with. But the thing is - you do. These pieces of... filth... are a perfect allusion to modern society.
Society that doesn't see anything wrong with itself. Hypocritical society that praises its heroes for the same things it hates in its villains. Society that indulges snowflakes, that believes any accuser without proof. And those that don't believe just turn away and stay silent.
Among all this filth, which is best represented by Malty (who is a woman, and therefore can never lie, right?), Ren is probably the best character. I do not absolve him of guilt, but at least he says what he thinks. This is not enough to go against the society, but that's also not his goal. And you can see him genuinely worried about mistakes he makes in this world.
Mirelia... welll... you know, she's a waifu. Totally fits my kink for purple-haired queens that include Hernietta from Zero no Tsukaima and Cornelia from Code Geass. So, you know... she was destined to be loved by me. But also, she is just a badass. I'll never get tired of her.
Melty (not Malty) is amazing. Master of putting people at their place with a kind tone and a smile. Bravo.
Filo is very likely my favorite character in the series and probably one of the best I've seen this year. Literally doesn't give a damn about anyone's opinion. And everything that leaves her mouth is pure gold.
Now, you may have noticed that I haven't touched the most important characters yet. Naofumi, the protagonist, and Raphtalia, his obligatory waifu. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say that I liked them more than I didn't. It's just that the story around them was a little... forced. I especially hated episode 4. But then they fixed the moment that almost made me drop this anime in episode 5, so... I guess all is forgiven. But generally speaking, the ending of episode 4 was... let's just say, the heroes didn't deserve enough of my trust in their relationship for this to work. I hated it.
That said, the fact that I don't like some story around the protagonists doesn't mean that I don't like the story overall. Yeah, some twists are silly and full of plot holes, cliche etc., but I was still invested in it and wanted to see the heroes succeed and the villains to get what they deserve.
It is indeed hard to stop watching this anime. After every episode I immediately wanted more. And what's good is - the episodes were filled with content. One episode of Shield Hero could easily be two episodes of any other show. And that is awesome.
Tate no Yuusha is another anime that exceeded my expectations. I don't think it was incredibly deep, but had way more meaning in it that, say, Danmachi, Tensura, Goblin Slayer or Overlord, all of which I also enjoyed.
While I don't feel incredibly passionate about this anime, I still caught myself smiling a lot when watching it. Which means it did something right, and I truly enjoyed my time with it. And I'm so happy that they already announced seasons 2 and 3, because I watched the episodes of season 1 disappear with dread.
Tate no Yuusha is an anime that I can recommend with clear conscience to anyone who doesn't hate isekai as a genre. I still enjoy it, and I'm sure that this is far from the last anime in it that I will watch and love.
P.S. I'm not above admitting when anime makes me cry. For example, Re:Zero made me cry like a baby, so did Fullmetal Alchemist and Violet Evergarden, I shed a few tears during Koe no Katachi and hell, even some moments of Tsurezure Children made my eyes wet, even though it was mostly too fun to feel sad.
What I'm getting at is - Tate no Yuusha didn't make me cry. All the drama in it was just... not enough.
But... while I wrote that by episode 4, the heroes didn't deserve my trust in their relationships, by 25 - they did. Sure, they were still somewhat rushed and phony, but it was enough for me to shed one single tear when I saw... well... the way this season ended.
And I was happy. It was the most wholesome ending I've seen in a while. Especially considering this is just an ending to the season, not the anime. Just... beautiful. Thank you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 24, 2019
This, my friends, is the best Touhou anime I've never seen!
But ok, jokes aside, this anime is more beautiful than I've expected. No amount of trailers will give it enough justice in that regard.
I love the thick lines, so it's very much up my alley. The animation is simply outstanding. A lot of interesting decisions, like, for example, sometimes it goes first-person for extra immersion. You get used to CGI very fast. It has fantastic, original effects, beautiful intermissions, really creepy demon designs and characters that look unique.
There is blood and gore, which is good. Limbs fly around quite often and blood sprays even more
...
so. Characters don't mind though, they just brush it off without as much as a scream and keep fighting. Oh well... that's just genre conventions.
Some things, however, are censored. Which is weird. Because sometimes censorship is there and sometimes isn't. I just don't know how they decided what warrants it. That said, when it's there, it's still stylish.
So, visually, this anime is absolutely amazing, one of the best I've ever seen, no doubt.
The composer is Yuki Kajiura, so... to no one's surprise, the soundtrack will give you goosebumps because of how breathtakingly atmospheric it is. Nothing else to add here. Masterpiece.
The episodes are a little empty. It's like nothing has happened yet, and it already ended. And that ending is often abrupt, with no cliffhanger or a defined ending scene. I would honestly go crazy if I was watching it as an ongoing instead of binging.
Besides, at this point I'm so used to great anime that don't waste time on typical "previously on..." scenes that just the fact that they were present in Kimetsu no Yaiba was disheartening. I was just sitting there thinking "why did you just waste two and a half minutes?"
Now to the juicy part, story and dialogues.
Oh boy...
They were so poor, I'm not sure words I want to use to describe them will be approved by moderators.
And I really can't explain how infuriatingly dumb they are without going into spoilers, but let's just say I can rant about them for hours and it will get heated, because I hate them THAT much.
I'll give you one example. One dialogue without context, so it's not much of a spoiler, but if you don't want even that much, just skip the next paragraph.
So, one character asks another what year it is. Assuming that he has lost count of time at this point. He didn't get the answer besides the fact that the era has changed (meaning it is a different emperor on the throne now). No dates. Not way of knowing how many emperors have changed. Nothing. And so, literally in the next line he starts saying: "I will never forget that day, 47 years ago..."
Seriously? SERIOUSLY? I mean, come on, this is an extremely amateurish mistake.
There is a lot of exposition and not of a fun variety, just stupid. Explanations like "this sword is made of special metal", "this clothing is made of special cloth", "this mask is protected by special charms" - this all sounds like a kindergartner wrote the story.
There are just too many things like this. Writing in this anime is offensively stupid.
Humor... well... let's just say, it's the same as the rest of the writing. Stupid. And if in the first few episodes it looks kinda cute, later it just becomes annoying. At one point I just started skipping their comedic routine to get back to the main story, because I understood that if I struggled through one more scene like that I just won't be able to finish this anime. It's really that bad.
The characters are one-dimensional and don't go beyond one personality quirk.
Tanjiro, the protagonist, is weirdly enough the best of the bunch. He is not your typical shonen hero. He doesn't scream, doesn't rush and he's very kind. But it's not a stupid type of kindness that stands between him and his mission. It doesn't look phony at all, but instead creates some of the most emotional moments in the series. I also love the way he talks to kids. He manages to make child characters way less annoying than they usually are.
Nezuko... exists. And that makes internet happy. I mean... it makes me happy too. But doesn't make her a good character at all. She has about zero development. But she's undeniably cute. Also, please, put something soft into her box, I just don't want to think how much it hurts inside with all the running, jumping, spinning, swimming that Tanjiro does.
The antagonist is... described by one of the characters the best - he is a coward. And, to be honest, he is quite pathetic. Which makes watching him a really dull experience.
Shinobu is great. I need way more battles with her. I want to know if there are any to be expected from season 2, because this could be the deciding factor in whether I'll watch it or not. She's just that cool.
And then Zenitsu happened. And... I'll be honest, I almost dropped this anime the moment he opened his mouth. His level of annoyance is at the level of the worst One-Piece characters. And I'm saying this as a person who actually enjoys One-Piece. Stupid, loud, whiny comedic relief.
Sure, he has his moments. In fact, I'll go as far as to say he has some of the most epic moments in this anime. But they are way too few to tolerate him all the other time. Which is a shame because he was the character I was most looking forward to the moment I saw his design.
Finally, while I mostly found Inosuke annoying, I just have to give props to his voice actor. He was so good with all the screaming I couldn't believe when I saw his name. It's the same guy who voiced protagonists of Sword Art Online and Danmachi. Like... holy hell... I'm impressed, I would've never guessed it was him. Bravo! I think I found my new favorite male voice actor.
In the end, Kimetsu no Yaiba is an empty show in a gorgeous wrapper. Because of that wrapper and the main idea behind the show, I managed to watch it to the end (of the first season). But at one point it became such a painful experience because of the whole stupidity of dialogues and story, that I couldn't recommend it to anyone else in good faith.
The writer's skill was so poor that it didn't just become an average show with some plot holes and tropes you can forgive. It actively worked against everything this show was doing right. You can see that she (writer) had amazing ideas, but lacked the talent to put them together. These ideas - points A, B, C in the story - are marvelous. But everything between is just atrocious. Sometimes you're watching a moment of unmatched beauty, both visually and emotionally, and are thinking - there it is, fantastic, gorgeous, breathtaking! And everything in that moment of silent visual storytelling is clear without words... but then the moment keeps dragging, they add words: start talking about exposition, backstory, put a completely unnecessary comment from the heroes. And all you can do is sit there and think: "No, please, stop, not now, it was so perfect"... But alas, the moment is gone.
And this is what ruined Kimetsu no Yaiba for me. And I'm just upset that such a potential was ruined. By lack of talent or just lack of experience - it doesn't matter.
The writing quality killed this anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 21, 2019
There's so much I want to say about this anime... I don't even know where to start.
You know, in my personal blog back in the day, I had a post, from 2010, when this anime was just airing. In it, I said the following about it:
"I think, that this is a new masterpiece for my collection. I can't see anything wrong with this anime. OP is fantastic, I'm listening to it for the 3rd day straight. Seiyu are perfect, beyond praise. Girl who voiced Korone is absolutely priceless.
Art is, once again, great. The authors definitely had their own style. Maybe legs are a bit too
...
thin, but whatever.
Music is not particularly original, but is always to the point.
The story is simple, but never boring. And the characters - oh my god - they are the absolute best! And, imagine this, are not over the top crazy. Especially the protagonist. He's not a mumbler, not a pushover, not a loud showoff or a superhero, he's just a normal, decent guy. It's so refreshing, that it alone is enough to call this a masterpiece!"
And so, now I have re-watched this anime, and want to take this "review" apart to see what changed in almost 10 years, now that I have more experience and, hopefully, better taste in anime. So bear with me.
First things first, "OP is fantastic, I'm listening to it for the 3rd day straight."
Absolute truth. Now I can say that I'm listening to it for the 10th year straight. It's one of the best anime openings I've heard in my life.
When I was a kid, I always watched "Darkwing Duck" before school, and to my neighbors' and parents' dismay, always pushed the volume of that opening to a 100%. I'm not doing this often now that I'm an adult, but when Daimaou's opening started, I just couldn't help it and caught myself doing exaclty that. It's just that good.
The rest of the soundtrack is not particularly memorable, but always creates the atmosphere needed. I also liked that it included the variations of the opening song for action scenes.
Next one. "Seiyu are perfect, beyond praise. Girl who voiced Korone is absolutely priceless."
You can't even imagine, how hard I laughed when I've seen this in a 10 years old post. The thing is, I never really cared about seiyu. I knew the most popular names at the time, like Miyano Mamoru, Romi Park, Rie Kugimiya... you know, the big names. But I rarely, if ever, checked the other ones. It was enough for me that it sounds good, I didn't need to know who voiced who. So, noting a seiyu was a big deal for me back then.
So, with that said, now I know that Korone was voiced by, hands down, my absolute favorite seiyu these days, Aoi Yuuki. This is just destiny. I need to make a statue of this girl and pray at it every morning. So, there's really nothing more to add, seiyu in this anime are indeed perfect.
I thought that I may have oversold it when I said that art is great. And maybe I did, it definitely has it's flaws and it's not, say, Violet Evergarden by any means. But if you give it some leeway for it being a harem anime, then compared to its "colleagues" at the time, like Rosario+Vampire or Princess Resurrection, it looks like a masterpiece. Especially the animation. It doesn't look too static (for example, much as I like it, I could only re-watch Princess Resurrection at x1.5 speed, because of how badly it was animated), not too twitchy, it's just good. The backgrounds are sometimes a little meh, but that was never a big deal for me.
Other than that, the picture is bright, the lines are pleasingly thick, it is pretty detailed. Easily passes the test of time and looks better than many modern anime.
There's also almost no censorship. Yay, nipples!
As for the story and characters. Usually, harem anime follows a simple path of one waifu per episode until they show them all. Daimaou was different in that it showed every single character in the very first episode, and then started to develop them only when the story needed them, and not just because a new waifu must happen.
The episodes are full of content, there's barely any downtime at all. There is no time wasted, the episodes are literally just opening, ending and new content. No flashbacks, no "previously, on Daimaou...", nothing unnecessary. However, because of how packed the episodes are, everything moves a little faster than I would've liked and some moments feel rushed and undeserved. Including the character relationships (especially between Acto and Junko) and the series finale.
Acto, the protagonist, is amazing. He doesn't constantly whine, his nose doesn't bleed every time he sees a woman. He's charismatic, looks badass, acts rationally. One of the best harem protagonists to date.
Korone is the best girl. If anything, just because of her "turn off" button. Dream come true. Plus her hairstyle, voice, striped panties... everything that I love, she's still my favorite character in this anime.
And while we're on the topic of panties. This anime has some of the best variety that I've ever seen. Eto has lace, Junko has fundoshi, Soga has a bear print and they are signed so that she doesn't lose them etc.
And speaking of Soga... she's just precious. Every dialogue with her is worth quoting. It's interesting how she manages to be adorable, but in a non anime cliche way. I really miss characters like her in modern series.
Junko is an unfortunate victim of that content overload. If their conflict with Acto was more developed, it would be just perfect. Their arc had a lot of potential. But instead it felt rushed and therefore phony. Still, love her.
Lily is even worse in this regard. Compared to manga, they may have as well just cut her out altogether. Which is unfortunate, because she is easily one of my favorite characters visually. And not just in this anime, but literally one of the favorite ever. I still use her face on avatars in some places. Just gorgeous.
And finally, to touch the last point of my original "review".
"I think, that this is a new masterpiece for my collection. I can't see anything wrong with this anime."
And you know what? 10 years later, I pretty much stand by it.
The biggest problem this anime has is that it only has 12 episodes. But it's 12 episodes with 24 episodes worth of content. On one hand it's great, because there's never a dull moment, the story keeps moving, the relationships fluctuate... but at the same time, it doesn't let you stop enjoy said relationships, develop characters, world etc. They do it, but very hastily. Which only makes me think "what if they had at least 24 episodes..."
Still, I got immense enjoyment out of this anime now, just as I did the first time.
Yes, it's a harem anime. A harem anime, in which the hero respects the girls around him, doesn't spray fountains of blood of his nose, doesn't constantly try to look under the girls' skirts, doesn't focus on one single "main" girl shoved in your face by the story. And they, in turn, have reasonable motivation to be with him, other than "he's the protagonist".
This is a good story, covered in beautiful art with colorful panties flying around from time to time. "Harem" is not the purpose here. It's just some fanservice that a good author can add tastefully. Which is exactly what happened in Daimaou.
Is it the best anime ever? No, of course not. But one of the best in the genre? Very likely. And if I were to make some sort of a top-50 anime list, there's a good chance Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou would end up in it.
P.S. I also recommend the specials. While nothing outstanding, they are still a fun addition if you enjoyed the main series. The animation took a bit of a hit in quality, but not to the point where it's ugly or anything. Very much worth it if you want some extra fanservice and comedy in your life.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 20, 2019
Curiosity is an odd thing. But it doesn't fail me too often. If not for curiosity, I wouldn't for example, know about one of my favorite vidoe games ever. Assault Android Cactus. I mean, come on, it's a stupid name, right? But I was curious to know what it is about, so I bought it. And it's fantastic. And the name make sense. It's literally a game about an android, who assaults a space ship and her name is Cactus. So... everything makes sense.
Anime is a bit tougher in this regard. You can't always understand, why the hell the name is what it is. For
...
example, I'm still waiting for Bell to start picking up girls in a dungeon (or anywhere else for that matter) in Danmachi. And how about Bleach? Like, seriously... Bleach?
Iya na Kao sare nagara Opantsu Misete Moraitai on the other hand is exactly about what it says in its title.
Is there a point to this anime? Nope.
Story? None.
Music? Only a little bit in the beginning to create an atmosphere, like a pop song during a concert, or bells in a church. The main action happens in complete silence.
Voice acting is marvelous, but that's obvious. It almost always is. And there are quite a few actresses that I know. But someone also started their career with this anime, so I hope it doesn't end there. This anime also showed me a different side of the girl who voiced Eve in Bang Dream, who is, hands down, my least favorite voice there. She's absolutely fabulous here.
Visuals are great. But come on, it's 6 episodes, 4 minutes each, and nothing but visuals really matter, so... it is expected.
And I think I should give this anime credit for some originality, with the protagonist being completely silent and it happening in first person. Immersion, yay!
That said, I can't really continue reviewing this anime in a serious manner.
It exist with the only purpose (come on, it only has one tag in its genres) and for a very specific audience. And while I can't really take it seriously, I have nothing against its existence. Sure, I'm not part of that audience, but even I enjoyed watching beautifully animated faces and... well... everything else. Although the first 3 episodes looked better than the last 3. I think they got a little lazy halfway through.
They also aren't bad at teasing before culmination, you do sit there in anticipation, but after the panties are finally out, everything ends way too abruptly. It's kind of a shame.
Do I recommend this anime? Honestly? Yes.
If you are interested in its title theme and have nothing better to do with 24 minutes of your life, then yes, absolutely.
My internet was down and I had nothing else downloaded to watch, so... I enjoyed it for what it's worth. And every time after things like this, I'm so grateful that Japan exists.
Also, they announced a second season.
I mean, Deadman Wonderland doesn't have one. Mondaiji-tachi doesn't have one. No Game No Life doesn't have one. But this anime will. I don't know what else to say... except, I'll be watching it :3
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 23, 2019
This review will have some insignificant spoilers of the first episode. There will be another warning before it.
Pros:
+ Very beautiful animation
+ Adorable characters
+ Pretty nice humor
+ The last episode <3
Cons:
...
- A 19 y.o. girl trying to get under a 10 y.o child's skirt
In-depth:
Why, anime? Why do you have to be like... this...
Wataten is an anime about a 19 year old antisocial girl, Miyako, falling in love with her sister's friend, Hana. She begins, like any hikki, to awkwardly hit on her. Become friends, occasionally touch her etc. It's mostly very innocent, gentle, made in cute pastel colors - everything for a viewer to feel good. And it would be a nice story, except for one fact.
Hana is 10 years old.
Suddenly, it's not cute, it's "WTF? Somebody call the police!"
But of course, since Miyako is a cute awkward girl, nobody thinks it's wrong. Can you even imagine the same story, if she was a guy?
It all started with some innocent "ah, my heart beats so fast when I see Hana" - and ok, I can live with it. Love is blind, but keep it to yourself.
But no, then it escalates into "I want to touch her", "I want to dress her up", "I want to take a picture of her underskirt"... wait... what?
The only thing I can say in defense of this anime is - the author knows how creepy it is. There are constantly situations when the viewer is reminded of it.
And so, Hana... (spoilers, you can skip to the next paragraph if you don't want any at all)
Hana is a smart girl. She actually fights Miyako's attempts, slaps Miyako when she tries to touch her, even wanted to call the police at one point. And after the first interaction, she even didn't want to come back to the house with this "creepy lady" (her words).
But that is of course until Miyako promised to give her sweets, after which Hana decided to allow her to do anything with her... like... seriously... how is this cute? This is creepy as f...
Fine. Enough about this. Let's actually talk about something good. And don't get me wrong, there's a lot this anime does right. It's not nearly as bad as, say Boku no Pico which, to be fair, had a VERY similar premise.
I really loved the way Wataten looks. It's stylized to look like it was hand drawn. The pastel colors are beautiful. The character design is really-really cute. And the animation itself is pleasingly smooth. It is probably one of the prettiest anime I've seen this year.
The music... was there. I'll admit, I didn't pay attention to it, it was just a background. I only remembered that it existed when it stopped playing for comedic effect. So at the very least it wasn't annoying or distracting. Just not something to stand out.
The ending was really fun though. Not my type of music, but I loved the video. A cute dance by cute characters? Yes, please! Always.
I'm also pleasantly surprised by the voices (original). The actresses were, for the most part, fairly unknown. Hana was even the first role for the girl that voiced her. And she was great. None of them were bad. They were all charismatic and sounded good both when they talked and when they had to sing. Great job.
Now, all the pedophilia, and thus, Miyako, aside, every other character is insanely cute.
Although, I also can relate to Miyako a bit. I also hate when consultants in the stores talk to me -_-
And again, to Miyako's defense - Hana is indeed amazing. Her deadpan face, calculating mind and realistic view of the world always made me happy.
Hinata is charmingly obsessed with her sister. She's energetic, brave, generous. And she is a very big liar, but even this is cute, because she believes her lies herself. Plus, girls with fangs are always cute. In anime that is. In real life it's just gross. Still, Hinata is awesome.
If there is a reincarnation, in the next life I want to be born as Noa. Aside from the moments when Hana and Miyako give her existential crisis, she is the most happy, positive, resilient and of course, cute person. You could mistake her for being self-centered and narcissistic, but surprisingly, she's probably the most reliable and selfless character in this show. She saved Miyako countless times. I love her.
Yori and Kanon - OTP. Now THAT'S an adorable relationship. I love that Kanon never lies when she says that she relies on Yori. She doesn't just say it to humor her, she really thinks that. This is the relationship I actually want to see evolve.
Matsumoto is a fantastic karma, since she makes Miyako feel as uncomfortable, as Hana feels about Miyako. But other than that, she's also terrifying.
The story is... kinda non-existent. It's a slice of life comedy, what do you expect? The comedy part is pretty good though. There were quite a few times when I was laughing out loud.
And ignoring Miyako's creepiness, everything in this anime is very cute and relaxing. Every other relationship is adorable. And when Miyako dials down her creepiness, even her relationship with Hana doesn't look THAT bad. But you really have to try hard to ignore how disturbing it is.
In conclusion:
This is a very light, positive and beautiful anime. So overall, it's a decent recommendation if you want to relax and watch something cute. Of course, if you can ignore the pedophilia part.
The last episode had a fantastic first half of it. Even if you don't want to watch everything else, I can at least recommend you watch that part - you don't need context and it is a great, albeit a little cliche, story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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