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OreFujo turned out much funnier than I expected at first glance. Like many body-swap stories, OreFujo is about learning to try to understand others as well as not just writing off others' passions, especially when they are so close to your own. But, it puts a fun spin on the body-swap trope through its fujoshi and yuri-ota main characters. Most chapters got a couple of good laughs out of me through humor related to this conundrum; the main characters (mainly Yoshida) suddenly find themselves as more than just spectators in the relationships they covet so passionately, yet struggle with this newfound agency since they still ... retain their prior internal gender identity.

The main two characters are over the top in their emotion and devotion to BL/yuri, but their passion sells the humor, even if their actions are somewhat unrealistic. And, as someone who likes yuri, I understand where they're coming from, and their struggles are entirely relatable. I thought the character art was pretty good, and the mangaka snuck in several references to other manga through their art.

All that being said, the main plot meanders greatly, the body-swap conundrum is not taken all that seriously, and while I think the ending is satisfying for a comedy, do not go in expecting anything too deep. Aside from the yaoi/yuri-loving mindset of the main characters, there is nothing particularly interesting it adds to the body-swap genre. If you're interested, I'd recommend reading a chapter or two, and if you don't find anything funny, then don't read any further.

*MAJOR SPOILERS*

Many of the new reviews are focusing too heavily on the ending, so I thought I'd give my two cents on the manga as a whole. Overall, SnK is an incredibly engaging manga; I always wanted to see what would happen next. I could binge this manga in one day when the final chapter dropped because of this trait. For its whole run, however, the manga had obvious weak parts. So, my expectations for the ending were never that high. For some, the ending made their score go from a 10 to a 1. For me, it probably went from a 6 to a ... 4.

Art: At first, the art is extremely subpar. The lines are imprecise, the character art is inconsistent, the action is confusing, and the detail quality is low. However, the art improves greatly over time, with some of the mid-later titan fights and two-page spreads being quite good. But, there were two big problems throughout the manga. First, characters were not drawn distinctly and consistently enough to distinguish between them. I remember a panel where I could barely distinguish between Mikasa and Sasha. Second, the fights with vertical maneuvering equipment were way too hard to visualize. Personally, I thought the post-time-skip character designs looked way too old, given their actual ages.

Characters: In general, the writing style focused on keeping high narrative tension and making the reader want to discover the various secrets and plot reveals. For me, this writing, while successful in its goals, traded off heavily with character development.

I'll start with the characters I liked. My favorite is Erwin, and I think his arc was spectacular and ended well. The juxtaposition of his personal dream versus everyone else's general desire to protect humanity was interesting. I'm glad he didn't live long enough to get ruined post-time-skip. Besides his comic relief scenes, Reiner's internal conflict and mental degradation were well done. Zeke's background and struggles towards his goal are pretty good (unfortunately, his euthanasia plan could only apply to descendants of Ymir, but his stance on suffering is admirable). For the most part, Levi is pretty compelling. The concept of the weight of his comrades has good payoff panels near the end, even if he is somewhat useless in later fights. Finally, I actually like pre-time-skip Armin. He has a relatable dream and is more well-rounded than Mikasa and Erin. His development, with the help of his friends, into being confident was great. This was topped off by an excellent moment of heroism taking down the colossal titan.

Because of the massive cast and the writing style, I thought most other characters were poorly developed. Mikasa has only one character trait: Eren. The reveal that this is because of her blood makes sense but was incredibly lame. Post-time-skip Mikasa is just *there* until killing Eren and getting some development in the last two chapters. I wish more time had been spent on Mikasa instead of the trainees from Marley. Armin post-time-skip loses all the fantastic development he had undergone. He becomes simultaneously whiny and indecisive while also getting everyone to his side through talking. While I think reviving Armin instead of Erwin worked for me narratively, it never paid off in the end. Historia post-time-skip is sidelined and pointlessly gets pregnant to a random, nameless farmer-kun who used to bully her. Ymir is also incredibly lame; she loves the king for 2,000 years despite being a tortured slave and then disappears off-screen. [On that note, that Ymir, Historia, and Mikasa all have this Stockholm syndrome-ish attachment is somewhat disturbing.]

Finally, on Eren, I didn't particularly like him from the beginning. Through chapter 90, I think he's a decent character, but not too deep or interesting. But post-time-skip, the good elements of his character were ruined. Since the writing focus is on hype reveals rather than internal logic, Eren's development is cryptic, then incomprehensible. In the final arc, his possible motivations range wildly: his motivation could reasonably be freedom, killing all titans, carrying out a subpar Lelouch plan, love for Misaka, determinism, or he actually just forgot? I would be satisfied with any of these as long as it was consistent and made sense. But as it is, none of them are definitively chosen and explained well. The idea of love with Mikasa is particularly absurd. He never previously pursues her and shows almost no chemistry.

Story: The best part of the manga is how engaging the story is. The author superbly teases you with bits of information while setting up enticing mysteries. I binged this manga because I wanted to know what happened next, even if the answers weren't even that good. The worldbuilding up until the time-skip was quite good, and I think the story peaks after the fight for the basement (before going into it). The buildup to this fight and how it played out was honestly great. Someone wrote that they wished the series had ended at the sea, and I definitely agree.

But, the world expanded WAY too much after the time-skip and did not get developed satisfyingly enough. Before the time skip, the detail put into explaining the walls and vertical maneuvering equipment was stellar, and this level of polish didn't exist post-time-skip. Many of the new ideas were also dumb or lackluster. For example, the minority bloodline of the Ackermans is frustrating as an idea and annoying as a plot device. Mikasa also attaches to Eren despite him not being of royal blood. Another thing that makes no sense is how Marley could still exist after 1,700 years of 'ethnic cleansing' or how the Tybur family just kind of controls the whole country of Marley. We also barely know anything about most of the other countries in the world. While these are kind of nitpicky, the general idea here is that the worldbuilding is not as tight, fascinating, and thorough as it is pre-time-skip.

The pacing in the manga is also somewhat inconsistent and too slow at points. Also, I don't like the over-usage of flashbacks. Many parts jump back and forth enough to draw me out of what's happening (like how interspersed the training arc is). Mainly, I hated how the time skip was four years, yet chapters constantly flashed back to parts that happened in-between instead of progressing linearly. [This is the trade-off that comes with the 'mystery' style of writing. In particular, I think Eren's development suffers due to this choice.] Plot armor is also insane; it feels like not enough of the main characters die given how high the general mortality rate is. I laughed when the Survey Corps is down to 9 people, and 6 of them are from the 104th.

Now, onto the ending. I thought it was quite bad, but not bad enough to ruin the entire manga. There are some fairly interesting interpretations of the ending, but the text itself is too contradictory and inconsistent for me. I'll try to list some of the problems I had without including nitpicky stuff:
1. The Code Geass-ish ending doesn't work here for a few reasons. First, the drive to do this is not worked into Eren's character the same way it is for Lelouch. Second, a theme throughout the manga is that conflict between humans will never end, so the plan can't work in this manga. And it doesn't, since after Eren's death, Paradis is still getting ready to fight the rest of the world. Third, Armin and Erin do not have the same character dynamic as Suzaku and Lelouch, so there is no parallel thematic and emotional payoff like there is in Code Geass.
2. As I wrote in the character section, Erin's motivation is all over the place. In particular, Erin's love for Mikasa comes out of nowhere; he doesn't act this way anywhere else in the entirety of the manga. I am okay with this motivation if it was better foreshadowed and developed. I also think Eren breaking down in his last moments and being human is okay, but as it is, his character isn't consistent enough for me.
3. Connie and Jean get a sendoff when they are transformed to Titans, but this is immediately undone, so it feels quite pointless.
4. Ymir's backstory is underdeveloped and kind of disgusting, and she also just kind of disappears. One reasonable interpretation of the end is that everything had to happen this way just so Ymir can see Mikasa kill Eren. I think this could use more exploration, but if true, it also undermines any kind of purpose Erin might have had in the first place since his entire life was just pre-determined. [I think you can read this as decimating Eren's drive for freedom as he never could be free, no matter how much he struggled. This could be an interesting conclusion to the theme of freedom if it was better explained and properly foreshadowed.]
5. I think the time travel stuff is pretty scuffed and confusing. How much power did Eren have to actually change things? Could he have stopped his mother from being eaten? Could he have just controlled the titans back in time to do the rumbling in 845? I think this element should not have been introduced in the first place.

Miscellaneous: The fake previews at the end of each volume are actually hilarious. The previews are one of the best parts of the manga for how creative and genuinely hilarious they are. Certainly, they outdo any of the canon humor.

I actually quite enjoyed reading this manga because of how suspenseful the writing is. There were some great arcs and characters that the ending does not retroactively ruin. If you've read this far, thank you! Feel free to message me if you think I got anything wrong.

Jun is a fun episodic comedy with fairly interesting main characters that, unlike many shows in the genre of this time, manages to fit in some satisfying overarching character development. Nothing stands out as super excellent, but it was a solid comedy.

The story actually takes place in middle school, not college. The premise as written seems like it could be creepy, but I think the show handles the dynamic between Jun and Zero well since the pining is basically just from Jun's side. The series is episodic, but there are a few overarching stories, and over time Zero and Jun grow to understand each other ... and grow up as people. Also, some plot occurrences change the status quo, which was great because the early-middle section of the show was getting stale since characters can't go anywhere romantically. The ending was not as conclusive as I might have wanted, but it was not sudden and coincides with the end of some decent character arcs. Most of the episodes are funny, but many were uncreative and used scenarios I had seen before several times.

Jun was fun to watch and had a cute design. I think the show plays her mismatch of intelligence and naivety pretty well. Kichinosuke is often hilarious, and he was my favorite character (although I'm not a fan of his design). Kichinosuke's societal misunderstandings, teasing Jun, doing whatever he pleases, and his struggles to do the right thing are funny and turn into great character development. Zero is also a fun character, and seeing him gradually get more serious was nice. (His grandma can be funny too.) None of the side characters were annoying or bad, but most were not unique. The "santaro" kids were probably the best side characters, and their gradual friendship with Kichinosuke was satisfying.

I thought the animation was decent. Some scenes seemed to over-rely on motion lines. I enjoyed the backgrounds and color scheme, which gave a unique sense of place with the dock/harbor themes (and I think a lot of anime lacks this sense of place). Character designs for the main characters were good, but side characters seemed pretty generic. Personally, I thought the robot designs were mediocre. In terms of audio, I liked the OP and ED, which were catchy and matched Jun's character well. The OST fit the scenes/story even if it was quite plain. But sometimes Jun's voice was way too shrill and loud when she was screaming or crying.

Overall I'd recommend this show if you're looking for a fairly lengthy episodic show with a few good main characters and decent comedy. As long as you can overlook some of the episode plots being generic and the side cast being forgettable, it's a solid show.

Nanako SOS is an episodic show with a a solid comedy duo and interesting hijinks, that is brought down by one note villains who are too similar to each other.

Story: There is no overarching character or story development, despite the fact that the possibility of learning about Nanako's past is teased. Even though this is the case, changes that happen aren't ignored (ie when they adopt dogs those dogs are around for the rest of the show). The ending is very abrupt, and I don't even think that this was the best episode to end it on if I had to choose. Most of the ... episodes at first were unique but as the show progressed similar scenarios were reused. For example, as the show approached its end every episode made a big deal out of ALL the villains showing up, which was special at first, but got increasingly boring the second time and beyond.

Characters: The main cast of characters is definitely the best part of the show. Nanako, Yotsuya, and Idabashi have great synergy and the comedic duo of the straight man Idabashi and outlandish Yotsuya is especially fun to watch. There is also some good self-aware humor after their traits were established which suited the tone of the series well. Yotsuya's antics kept me wanting to watch more.

The villains, on the other hand, were not so enjoyable. At first they seemed to have some differences in their goals, but after only a few appearances each they all boiled down to 'wants to be with Nanako in a possessive way'. This pining attitude got boring and made the episodes less distinct from each other. Sometimes the villains lusting after Nanako, in my opinion, was pretty questionable with the villains tricking/emotional manipulating Nanako to spend time with them or give them sexual favors. While the power dynamic is always in Nanako's favor since her powers make her nigh invincible, it just felt creepy watching some of these interactions, especially considering that this is a kids show. This only happened a couple times but I thought it was worth mentioning and is probably emblematic of sexist attitudes towards women that although they persist to the present were much worse in the 80s.

Art: I thought the animation was decent (although my frame of reference for average TV shows of the time is still somewhat lacking). The character designs of the main cast and villains were unique and stood out from each other, although the designs were somewhat 'stubby' in their appendages, although this didn't bother me.

Sound: I liked the opening and ending. The OST was solid and had some funny insert songs a couple of times. Nanako's voice can be a little annoying since she mostly repeats simple childish phrases but this is not really the fault of the voice actor so much as the script.

Enjoyment: Despite the story complaints and lackluster villains, my enjoyment was pretty high throughout most of the show. I really liked the main comedy duo, especially Yotsuya, and many of the scenarios and self-aware humor were quite funny.

I would recommend Nanako SOS if you are looking for a lighthearted comedy and can go without an overarching story or interesting villains.

I haven't played the game of Gravity Daze 2 so I'm not sure exactly how this manga ties in. On its own it was a short adventure that while very reactive story-wise and lacking much character depth, was enjoyable enough given its decent art and likable if generic main character.

The Gravity Daze 2 manga follows gravity user Kitten as she is separated from and then tries to re-unite with her friend Kurou. The plot of the manga is basically just Kitten reacting to things that happen to her, one after another. Because of this, the story never gets boring but it is also not too ... satisfying. The powerups Kitten gets in various fights are not explained very well and seem sudden and undeserved (maybe they make more sense to those who have played the game). The ending is not a cliffhanger but not very definitive.

The only character who gets a lot of focus is Kitten, and she is a classic protagonist: courageous, kind, and direct. The supporting cast was passable but maybe too large for such a short manga. The sparse character growth that happened in the story was limited to a couple of side characters and felt more like realizations about other's feelings than the character themselves putting in effort to change. I liked the character designs for Kitten and Kurou, but many of the side cast or background characters did not have enough detail put into differentiating their faces or expressions.

Overall I thought the art was pretty good. Most of the fight scenes were dynamic and well drawn, outside of a few where - partly due to the art and partly due to the nature of the abilities - it was difficult to visualize exactly what was happening. The overarching complaint I do have is that details were often skimpy: the backgrounds, while not too sparse, were usually generic and not too impressive. Furthermore, the artist frequently deliberately avoided drawing eyes even when I thought it didn't fit the page too well.

Being only 2 volumes it was a pretty short and relatively enjoyable read, which I imagine would be more satisfying for fans of the game.

Shachiku Succubus no Hanashi is a short comedy/slice of life manga with excellent artwork, which is unfortunately brought down by a repetitive story and one note characters that overstay their welcome.

Story - While the idea of a succubi interacting with a guy who just want company was at first a decent gag, this one idea eventually made up almost the entirety of the manga and this repetition was uninteresting. Any other plot points that were introduced such as people's declining vitality (which seems like it might impact the main character), are either quickly ignored or never explored meaningfully. This manga would have been much better ... had it been cut in half at the minimum.

Characters - Beginning with the main succubus girl, she is only defined by her tsundere attitude towards the MC, and the lack of depth becomes more annoying as the chapters add up. Many of her tsundere actions also make little sense as at their first meeting she asks with a straight face if he wants to see some crazy fetishes yet is later embarrassed by handholding? Based on the setup I understand if she is embarrassed by more mundane romantic occurences but not anything physical, based on what the story implies the usual dreams of the men she 'works' with are like. Furthermore, it is never actually shown what her job is like with other men, so it is unknown if the MC's purity is actually rare. Given how common loneliness is in Japan I wouldn't be surprised if his desires are not actually unique.
Moving onto the male MC, he is also quite generic, and his only character development feels incredibly underwhelming because both before and after he is an incredibly selfless guy, the only change being that he becomes slightly more proactive. This combination of main characters was okay for the first few chapters but based on the aforementioned complaints they did not hold up for over twenty.

Art - The characters were very attractive and consistently drawn (especially the various succubi), and the expression changes of the main character, even if they didn't fit his personality, were humorous and well drawn. The paneling was easy to follow and had a good balance of light and dark spaces. The backgrounds were often very detailed and not too sparse, which is a nice change of pace from many non-serialized series. The art was definitely the highlight of this manga and the main reason to read it (and where most of my score is from).

Enjoyment - Reading this manga was relatively enjoyable at first between the artwork and decent comedy, but this enjoyment declined over time despite its short runtime due to repetition. If this had been limited to around 10 chapters or so, I would have enjoyed it much more as the same gag and character traits wouldn't have been drawn out too long.

I would only recommend this manga if you are either a fan of the art style or enjoy hot tsundere girls acting embarrassed. On the other hand, avoid it if you are seeking developed characters or engaging story.

Mahou Shoujo Lalabel had the building blocks for a good story about a girl discovering her humanity, but failed because of mishandling its initial setup, being overly repetitive in its episodic stories, and having no character development besides for Lalabel, and even hers was rather marginal.

Story: In terms of overarching narrative the show is trying to tell the story of how Lalabel becomes/realizes she is just a normal girl. However, there is never anything Lalabel does in terms of personality or actions that makes the viewer think she is any different from a normal girl. While she might not know Japanese customs and doesn't think ... of herself as human she still acts like a normal young girl from the get go. Because of this, the development Lalabel makes towards becoming nicer/better a person feels pointless because it doesn't match the level of 'realizing she's human' since any differences outside of magic are trivial. Furthermore, this development of becoming a better person often gets conflated with using magic less or not at all without sufficient reason that would explain why she can't just be more focused or careful with magic. Finally, I think the ending should definitely have been foreshadowed and that doing so would have actually helped to drive Lalabel's growth in a more realistic way that would have mitigated some of my complaints.

On an episodic level, most of the episodes revolved around Biscus doing some trivial scams to get money to buy ramen (which he never seems to have problem buying even before his scams). The second most common story type was Lalabel using her magic for convenience and messing something up which she then needs to fix. The first got boring very quickly because I didn't find most of the scams to be very creative or funny and although the second provided some growth for Lalabel, sometimes (for me at least) the messaged veered to 'don't use magic because it's not your real ability' instead of 'use magic well' without enough justification, because to me it seems that since the ONLY significant difference Lalabel has ever shown between herself and humans is magic, it is actually her ability. This sometimes made the message seem a little forced instead of naturally developed.

Characters: Beginning with the characters around Lalabel, I thought the core cast of two diverse friends and wise but imperfect grandparents provided a well rounded group for Lalabel's growth and these characters are what I meant when I said the show had the building blocks for a better story. Lalabel herself was interesting enough (although not sufficiently established as different than humans), and it is satisfying to see her become a nicer person over time. The rest of the characters never really change, with some even remaining rude after Lalabel helps them multiple times or others not changing when it seems something happens that would elicit change. I don't necessarily think there has to be character growth in an episodic series, but when the episode setups are so weak it is more frustrating. Briefly touching on the villains, Biscus as a main villain was boring and I didn't find his humorous moments funny outside of his incorrect speaking style and his partner was only interesting when he was transformed into an animal or working against Biscus. In episodic series I think it is very hard for just one villain to suffice for multiple episodes let alone ~50 unless they are particularly interesting or well written.

Art: I thought the animation was solid and most of the main character designs were decent. However for some of the background or minor characters the faces looked a little too similar. I also thought the designs for the magic items and art for when magic was being used were pretty uninteresting.

Sound: I personally didn't care for the opening, but thought the ending was catchy. In terms of OST my main complaint is that the music for sad parts was not varied enough meaning that for only minor inconveniences or misfortune there would sometimes be heavy dramatic music that didn't match what was happening.

Enjoyment: My enjoyment for most of the early and middle parts of the series was rather low because of the very repetitive story beats and meager character development, although the core cast of characters interactions were still solid. Some of the later episodes were much more enjoyable, mostly when different story types were experimented with, such as putting Biscus into the role of a good guy, or pitting him against his assistant. Episode 45 with a girl from America in particular stood out above the rest for being hilarious and less repetitive. This show would have been more fun if it had put more effort into diversifying its episode arcs, had more widespread character development for more of the cast, and tightened the main narrative arc by making Lalabel seem more different than just a normal girl, by changing her actions at the beginning of the show and trying to drop more hints of the ending.

Overall I wouldn't recommend this show unless you are an avid mahou shoujo fan and are interested in some earlier stories that do not involve transformations or an Earthling gaining magical powers.

TLDR; Love Position was built around a gimmick tie in to Halley's Comet and had mediocre production values, an extremely messy story, and flat characters.

Story: A hulking terminator-esque villain hunting a beautiful alien who has fallen in love with Earth was in the first place not particularly unique, but it was made even worse by being extremely muddled and hectic in its presentation. The focus jumps all over the place in both time and place between several story threads which all involve different characters (an overbearing father, Vietnam war flashbacks, the looming evil alien, and the main character's journey) all in only ~90 minutes. This ... does not mean the story was hard to follow just that the extreme lack of focus gave me little reason to care about what was happening, created no meaningful themes, allowed for zero character development, and meant there was no escalating tension for most of movie.

Characters: Largely as a result of the aforementioned unnecessary or overdrawn plot threads the main characters all lacked depth and experienced no growth. In particular I think the split focus between the father and son's respective relationships with the good alien was particularly harmful, and that for a movie of this length they should have been combined into one main character. The aliens were also a weak point as neither of them was fleshed out; the evil alien's only traits were walking slowly and killing people by hand (which made him unthreatening throughout the movie), while the good alien didn't communicate much with the cast outside of baby talk or briefly while in a lab.

Art: The artwork/animation was not very good. I have only seen a few anime from the mid 80s, but visually it was definitely not impressive compared to other movies of its time such as Nausicaa or Macross: Do You Remember Love?.

Sound: The OST was generic but passable, and included a lot of Harmonica playing. However, in regards to the sound effects some of the noises during the drawn out fight near the end were quite screechy/ grating on the ears.

Enjoyment: My enjoyment was pretty low because of the terrible story and lack of good characters but it was somewhat funny to watch a third rate terminator meander around along with a pretty hilarious disco dancing scene near the beginning.

Overall I would not recommend this movie unless you have some historic interest in the movie or its creators, as I found it to be extremely lacking in almost every aspect.

There were no reviews for this show at the time of writing this so I thought I'd give some quick thoughts to anyone who happens to stumble upon this show. I know it's made for kids, but I'm of the belief that even kids shows can be watched and critiqued regardless of age.

Story - This is an episodic mystery series, with no overarching story (although the last episode is suitable as a conclusion for a show like this). The cases for the most part are very predictable. The culprits are almost always either random thugs or completely sympathetic with little to no grey area between ... these extremes. Often Angie only solves the case from absolute luck or coincidence rather than intelligence. Many episodes have boring chase scenes on foot or horseback that overstay their welcome.

Characters - Characters are the crux for any good episodic series but they are very weak in this show. The only somewhat interesting character is Angie but every other main and recurring character are defined almost entirely by being either a) just there to take orders from Angie or b) resist her help irrationally. The comedic relief detective is not very funny and usually has weak synergy with the rest of the main cast. This show badly needed more interesting mains or at least semi-recurring villains and rival detectives.

Art - The animation and art style is passable, but many of the character designs throughout the show are quite bland. I have not watched many shows from the 70s so I'm not sure how it compares to its contemporaries.

Sound - I liked most of the instrumental pieces and thought they usually set the mood pretty well. However, the sound design was not as good. Often times certain sound effects were too loud and annoying such as horse hooves or footsteps during chase scenes.

Enjoyment - Overall this show was very mediocre in terms of its mysteries and characters, so it was not too enjoyable. Certain episodes did show some potential, such as a hot air balloon hostage situation, or episode 25 which had rival detectives, a better scenario for the comedic relief detective, and more dynamic chase scenes. However, these moments where the show differentiated itself were very few in number.

Overall I rate this show as a 3 since while the art and sound are passable, the story and characters are both considerably below average. An example that comes to mind for a kids show in the episodic mystery genre (although not an anime) that still holds up and does what I think Angie needed to are many versions of Scooby Doo, which have memorable characters and lean into their goofiness.