Back to JBuford300's Profile JBuford300's Profile

Peach Boy Riverside can be summed in one easy statement; good episodes, terrible flow. I don’t know what the studio was thinking with this project, but whatever it was, they need to fix the major problem which is just tell the story in order. I do not know why they sabotaged this anime by jumping all over the place, but it’s an irritating decision.

The individual episodes are actually pretty good, but when you get a cliffhanger one week, just to know that it may not be addressed for three more weeks, that makes for a less than enjoyable watch.

I’m going to ... stick this out until the end, because I enjoy the story itself, I’ll just have to take time after the season’s conclusion to address my notes and watch the correct order of episodes

I usually try not to give a show a rating until I see it through its conclusion. But I think I've seen enough of Fruits Basket to give it the 9 I think it deserves.. It's not a masterpiece..in truth hardly anything is... but it's a well told story and an easy to watch series. Does it have its flaws? Yes, what show/anime doesn't. Do those flaw derail the story for me? No. I feel like I can start over from Episode One and see the series through its conclusion over and over again. It's just that enjoyable of a watch. It's a nice departure ... from the watered down Isekai genre, the tiresome battle shonen scene, and overly sexualized rom-com scene. It's a nice easy slice of life drama that invokes a solid range of emotions. The art is fantastic, the characters are great, and the music is very enjoyable.

**light spoiler ahead**

So it finally happened, I dropped a show.. I was enjoying this show early on. Hell, I was one of its defenders telling people to let the story develop before giving it a bad rating. I have never truly dropped a show from watching, but there was just something about the repetitiveness of Osamake that just really pushed me over the edge here. I love Rom-Coms in anime form, but this wasn't it for me.. After a few episodes, I lost the ability to laugh at the show. The characters keep pouring in and now it's to the point where any girl ... our MC "Haru" meets has romantic feelings for him. They might as well throw a teacher in the mix or have his male best friend fight for him as well, just to add to this ever growing harem. It feels like the same episode week after week, there's no real tension here..

I may pick up the remainder of the season after its conclusion, but for now I am stepping away from it. It's barely a binge watch show, I wouldn't personally dedicated a whole season of binge watching to it. It's not the worst thing I've ever watched, but now that I am fully back into anime, I really wish I hadn't already dedicated a month and a half to this show

Sometimes a show can go exactly how you think it will go from Episode One and it will turn out just fine. Was "The Misfit of Demon Academy" a great anime.....neh.....It was alright.. It was a fun watch. It followed every line of OP MC logic you could think of.. For me at least, that didn't take away from the show. It was literally a turn your head off and watch show for me. Will I watch it again, probably a long time down the road to go over shows I gave a positive review to in 2020 retrospect. But for what it was, I ... enjoyed it and I am glad I saw it through the 13 episode arc. If you are diving into this show fresh, just give a couple of episodes to world build...by Episode 4 you should be able to predict the ending.. sit back and enjoy..don't expect any major plot twist or reveals..

So, I read the overly critical AND the most praising reviews of "Your Lie in April"/"Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso" before writing my own. I wanted to see what was so loved and hated about this series. Usually I am able to find the trends between the two groups and dissect them quite easily.. this I cannot.

Those who loved the series loved it out of emotion and story telling. It is something that either resonated with them or touched their heart in some unseen way.. Those who hated it the most seem to either want more story, hate the art style, not understand the ... gravity of emotion, or just can't relate to it.. All of this is fair.

I loved this series for the story and because it is super relatable to my life. I am a musician, I have health problems, I've had my dreams put on hold or snatched away from me due to illness, I fought my way back, and I've been blinded to those around me who cared the most about me. While many found Kosei Arima annoying and weak, others saw his suffering and lack of will to move forward. Many found Kaori annoying because of how pushy she can be and how her mood changes in an instant.. I found myself to be a combination of these two characters. Living on borrowed time AND lacking the will at times to move forward. That's what struck me about this show. I looked past the romance and all of the feelings involved with the different characters and was enthralled by the resolve of Kaori and the growth of Kosei... The ending led to where I knew it would from the moment things went wrong.. but still it showed me a light at the end of a dark tunnel that I should be chasing.

It's not a show for everyone.. there are a great deal of emotions that some people are just not capable of understanding. I definitely wanted more out of this in the end. I wanted to see how the characters moved forward. Instead I am left with my imagination. I wanted to see how the relationships branched off.. where the characters ended up with their schooling.. I felt like that was such a focal point at one time during the series that it could've been touched on a little bit.

I only rated Characters a 6/10 because I felt almost all of the characters were cliche and predictable..It didn't take away from the story, it was just easy to see how they would end up. I wouldn't say it's a masterpiece of a show either, there were some holes left behind... Really I give it an 8.25/10 only because it was lacking and overall character range..

Take a chance on this show if you haven't yet.

REVIEW EDIT:

I picked Re:Creators back up after and realized that the story was a lot better than I gave it credit for.. I don't know what mood I was in at the time, but my writing suggests that I was in a bit of a burnout phase. I think Re:Creators was a lot better the second time around. It definitely hit a strong stride in the second half of the season. And when I put it up against some other shows I have watched, it definitely deserves a higher ranking from me.

The sound/music, while repetitive at times, was pretty good for the type ... of show it was. The art style is great as well. The Story, while kind of lacking in some areas, was solid...The Characters, I still have my qualms about, but they are not as harsh as I previously felt. The biggest issue I had with the characters is the lead MC.. I can't even remember his name, that's how forgettable he is, and how much he really meant to the story for me.. I enjoyed the second watch much more than the first.

----------------------------------------------------------

Original Review

I have not done many reviews on MAL yet but this is my first negative review and hopefully one of my few..

I’ll start by saying the show sort of hooked me in episode one...the set up and premise was promising and I was very intrigued.... the more I watched, the less I cared about it..then at some point characters just stopped making sense.. real world characters (in story) being almost accepting of the crazy shit happening in their world from these fictional characters of games and tv shows, not even questioning how it was possible...just came off so disingenuous...and then the story beats started repeating themselves...I couldn’t continue on.. I read other reviews to see if maybe it was just me who felt this way and it appears that I am not...that is disappointing.

I won’t take a hard shit take on the show because I think it’s worth seeing if YOU would enjoy it for yourself...but it just wasn’t for me..the music was popping at first but then you realize the same songs are being used over and over...really just took me completely out of it...the character designs are great, just wish they developed something for me to care a little more about them..

Try it for yourself, it could very well be your thing....just isn’t mine

This my first review on MAL, but not my first completed anime season. I decided to start with this short review because I have a hard time understanding all of the overhyping AND all of the shit takes on the series so far. For me being an “anime only” viewer, this story is only just getting started.

Let me get my negatives out of the way since they are very small. Personally, I am not a big fan of big time jumps. I feel like there is a lot of story missing in the beginning that could’ve served well for character development. We could have a ... little story to what the family was doing the night of he attack while Tanjiro was still gone..we could have some time with Master Urokodaki speaking with a sleeping Nezuko about protecting humans..we could definitely use a bit more time in the Final Assessment part of the story.. I felt that some of the filler content later in the season could be used to tell these stories with less flashback time..

Overall the story and animation is good, I still feel like there is more to be told here before it becomes a discussion about “masterpiece”, so it’s a TBD situation for me..

The animation is great, the music is solid, I think most of the characters make sense.. I’m not a big fan of comedy mixed in with horror, but Zenitzu and Inosuke provide a little bit of the way in balance to keep it from becoming “depressing”. Their silliness is a little overdone at times, but not enough to turn me off the show.

I am very interested in seeing the story progress from this point.