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It's a Kazutaka Kodaka production, and you can tell. Vibes of his earlier "Danganronpa" are apparent in the stark neon-colorful visuals, a plot twist or two, and the character designs. (One minor character - the fat rich dude - outright recycles a character design from "Danganronpa 2", and at least two others seem like knock-offs of Nagito from the same game.) Furthermore, even without looking up the composer's name, "Danganronpa" fans will immediately recognize the style of Masafumi Takada; some of the (very good) music could be used in a "Dangan" game as-is.

The visual design is top notch. The setting is a balkanized cyberpunk ... city, ruled by gangs that settle turf wars via hyper-violent baseball matches, and the anime gleefully uses this opportunity to make the different gang turfs as visually unique as possible, with over-the-top scenery. Also fantastic are other parts of the visuals, such as the ridiculously advanced Shinagawa technology, replete with sleek cyberpunk motifs and neon lights.

Unfortunately, the main characters, the Minato Tribe, are a mixed bag. Haru is a bland, bog-standard shonen protagonist, who gains faith in himself and the power of friendship and etc. Mita (the little one) and Daimon (the big glutton) are supposed to be the comic relief, but they are more annoying than funny, also because their cartoonish character designs feel out of place. It's not clear why are they even in the cast; they contribute little to the story, and during baseball matches, they mostly get their butts kicked. Arisugawa, the only girl in this gang, is a hair more interesting, but in the end only two members of Minato are really well-written - Taiga, a hotheaded boy who replaces intelligence with strength, and the charismatic leader, Kamiya. Hmm... but wait, I've only listed six names, whereas a baseball team needs nine people. Well, here the authors have resorted to a rather embarrassing solution: the Minato Tribe also includes - as 'filler' - four guys without names and personalities, who are... identical quadruplets (thus allowing to re-use the same character design four times). Bit of a cringe move, and even the lampshade-hanging doesn't help.

My favorite part of the cast is the Ota Tribe, whose members live in the polluted part of the city and therefore look like they've stepped right out of "Stalker" or "Metro 2033". However, the tribe’s leader, the psychopathic Fucho Sonoda, proves to be one of the more irritating characters due to his habit of inexplicably surviving dire situations unscathed. Whether it's getting attacked by a crowd of armed people, or being at the epicenter of an explosion, he always emerges without a scratch, Joker-style.

Despite its visually striking presentation, the story feels cliched, rushed, and badly organized. The writers made a significant gamble with killing off Kamiya early on, which I think did not pay off, as the rest of the main cast struggle to carry the story without him. Furthermore, the show’s inconsistent treatment of death creates confusion about the stakes; one minute we get realistic bloody splatters, another we get characters surviving point-blank explosions without a scratch. It leaves viewers unsure whether to genuinely fear for the characters’ lives or not.

The final episodes feel abrupt, lack proper buildup, and have cliche dramatic scenes come out of nowhere, including Haru confessing his love to Arisugawa despite no chemistry whatsoever between them until then, and a rushed attempt to make the villain sympathetic, with characters literally yelling shonen cliches at him.

Great concept and visual design, but hamstrung by bad storytelling and a weak cast. Mostly recommended to Danganronpa fans who want to see something more in the same style.

The visual design is perhaps the strongest aspect of this series. It's got a bit of a psychedelic, Yellow Submarine look to it. It also reminded me of the quirky Polish cartoons I watched as a kid.

Unfortunately, the storyline doesn't measure up. It feels rushed and incoherent, with missing steps; for instance, the purpose of the programmer subplot is never clarified. The characters are also a letdown; they have quirky designs but lack depth in personality. For example, why does Watson wear the cat mask? Why does Smiley's face look like this? None of this is ever explained. Hack, in particular, is not only ... a very annoying character (what with her yelling nonsense all the time), but also painfully underdeveloped; we learn nothing of her past, despite some intriguing hints.

A bite-sized slice-of-life series (3-minute episodes) about a high schooler living with his four sisters (one older, one a younger high-schooler, and two elementary schoolers), their parents being conveniently absent.

Although it sounds like the setup for a cute series, Danchigai is ultimately disappointing. The humor is very thin, and it's rare that I ever smiled throughout the series. Don't expect clever writing either; the series is rife with cliches, such as characters putting food into their mouth and immediately going "OISHII" complete with obligatory sparkles, or the older sister seeing her brother and younger sister sprawled on the floor and immediately jumping to conclusions. ... ...What? That last one sounds creepy? Then better stay the hell out of this series, because it sure loves its incestuous overtones: the brother gets all blushy around the onee-san, the high-school imouto gets all blushy around the brother.

Don't expect high production values, either. The art is nothing to write home about and the music is forgettable. If I'm to say something positive about this series, it's that very occasionally it manages to have cute moments. It's also short, so even if you watch all the episodes and end up hating it, you won't waste more than a half-hour of your life.

First of all, I haven't played the original gacha strategy game this anime is based on; this is my first (and probably the last) contact with the franchise. The basic plot is that in the future, Griffin & Kryuger (a military contractor, the good guys) are fighting Sangvis Ferri (rebellious AIs, the bad guys), with both sides using "dolls", repurposed civilian robots who all look like cute girls (because Japan). The anime focuses on a storyline about four G&K dolls trying to deliver some McGuffin, getting separated, then reunited.

Apparently, the anime slavishly adapts the gacha game's storyline -- which explains why the story is ... so _fragmentary_. Every episode's plot feels like something out of a random mission generator: "characters go to location, blow up hordes of harmless mooks, a boss shows up, gloats and gets her butt kicked, rinse and repeat". There's no real sense of progression; you could almost air the episodes out of order and nobody would notice.

In the strategy game, players probably don't mind the weaksauce plot, but in the anime adaptation, it's obvious how badly the individual arcs mesh together. For example, in Episode 10, we have a dramatic confrontation between a heroine and an enemy boss... which is randomly interrupted by the story skipping one week ahead. Whole storylines and characters are introduced and immediately forgotten. For example, one of the episodes ends with a G&K sniper doll attacking one of the main girls for no apparent reason, they talk for a while, the whole scene seems to set up the sniper as a rival or something... then she is never mentioned again. What a mess.

Only for fans of robot girls with big guns. Otherwise, not recommended.

A romantic comedy about Aharen -- a speck-sized girl with a quiet voice and inability to grasp social conventions -- and Raidou -- a boy with an overactive imagination and a permanently frozen face. It has a serene, quiet and heartwarming atmosphere and an adorable relation between the two main leads.

The jokes are hit-or-miss, and sometimes repetitive (yes, we get it, Aharen is good at some games and bad at others). Particularly grating is the character of Toubaru-sensei, who is only ever used for a single joke: she sees Raido and Aharen acting romantic, she immediately nosebleeds, roll on snare drum, curtains.

Unfortunately, despite being ... mostly innocent and lovable, the series features some questionable anime tropes: an elementary-school girl accuses Aharen of being a "shotacon", Aharen's little brother likes dressing up in girl clothes for whatever reason, and then there's the weird relationship between Aharen and the girl Mitsuki, which isn't sure if it wants to be friendship or a semi-sapphic yandere obsession.

Despite its faults, the series is ultimately enjoyable as a light, heartwarming comedy.

A disappointing example of wasted potential.

What do we see in the opening sequence? A skeleton dude who smokes cigars, quaffs wine, loves good food, fears no one, and laughs with a good-natured, honest, full-bellied laughter. An exuberant character who drinks life by the gallon, who lets nothing get him down, and who is _fun_ to be with.

What do we get in the show? Generic overpowered protagonist, who never shows his face, always eats alone, talks as generically as possible, and generally goes out of his way to *avoid* being interesting.

The gimmick here, meant to distinguish this from other isekai, is that the hero, Arc, ... cannot show his face because of his monstrous form. Except nothing really comes out of it, apart from a few scenes where Arc dines alone to avoid revealing himself. There's no distrust from his allies, no attempts to find his secret, nothing.

You know what they should've done? Take off the guy's helmet. Have him be the way he is depicted in the OP. Drop the whole "I need to be inconspicuous" gimmick. It wouldn't necessarily make this show good, but at least the hero _would_ stand out from other cookie-cutter isekai protagonists.

Aside from the gimmick, the series otherwise checks every bad isekai cliche. An overpowered protagonist, whose sheer might kills all dramatic tension? Check. Half the dialogue being big-breasted girls marveling at how OP the protagonist is? Check. Villains whose entire personality can be summed up as "Mwahaha! I have no redeeming qualities! I'm gonna rape this child now to make the audience hate me. Huh? Who the hell are you?! (dies instantly, audience cheers)" -- check.

The humor is terrible, and comes at very tone-deaf moments. Ah yes, an extended almost-rape scene (complete with the terrified victim peeing her pants on-screen) is the perfect moment to have the hero casually muse on whether he should save her or not (was that supposed to be funny?). Ah yes, when our heroes are trying to save children being sexually molested in the basement, it's the perfect moment for a joke about how the elf can't fit through a window because of her breasts (complete with silly big booba noises).

In summary, even as cliche isekais go, this one is particularly awful. It might have been more memorable if the writers didn't go out of their way to make the hero as boring as possible.

Don't feel disappointed when you watch the well-animated 1:30 intro... followed by the actual episode being only 1 minute long and drawn in a scratchy style with barely any animation. Disappointingly, despite the title, there are very few "life hacks" shown (which would be a good and original concept); it's mostly old-hat jokes about how Kodama is lazy, enjoys junk food, finds it hard to focus on work, etc. Still, the limited animation is charming at times, the sound effects (all of them made with the voice actress's mouth) are amusing, and some episodes are fairly interesting to watch (specifically those where Kodama actually leaves ... her home).

This is a manga adaptation of Danganronpa 2, advertised as being from Chiaki Nanami's point of view. As far as I know, only the first 14 chapters (first 2 volumes + ch. 1 of vol. 3) have an English fan translation and so I'm basing this review on those.

Simply put, this is a repetition of Danganronpa 2's story. If you're already familiar with the original game, there's little new here (although there are a handful of "extra" scenes that weren't in the original game). In the first volume, Chiaki is indeed made the focus character, and the story undergoes some minor changes to give ... her a more prominent role. By volume two, however, the author has seemingly given up on the concept -- it's an unchanged adaptation of the game's second chapter, and Chiaki's role is as minor as it is in the game. Quite disappointing, since volume one promised some interesting insights into Chiaki's psyche.

Although the extra scenes are a welcome addition, and it's neat to see the characters in manga form, overall this manga doesn't hold much interest if the game's story is still fresh in your mind.