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As a yuri fan who had never read the manga before starting the anime, Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete is a big surprise to me. Not only am I surprised that the content could be broadcasted on TV (even if some parts were censored), but also that it is much more intriguing than I thought to be. The majority of yuri anime (or anime with yuri as side element) either focuses on development of relationship and how characters struggle with their feelings, or the girls do cute things together (CGDCT). While few of them did show another side of yuri with more intimate elements, but Mahou ... Shoujo ni Akogarete has brought a different execution on handling these elements, which makes audience feel refreshing and interesting.

There were many things that I found unique about this anime. The dealing of characters and plot with great contrast was one of them. All the characters had their contrast to leave deeper impressions to audience: Utena was a shy and passive student, but became a dominating sadist after transformation; Sayo was a calm and helpful person, but was a masochist that enjoyed pain a lot on the hidden side; coupling with Matama, Nemo seemed more tomboyish and cold, but was actually more submissive on bed and hid great feelings for her loved one. It was interesting to see how the characters act differently when they were being put in different conditions. Together with the setting that both sides cannot recognize one other's real identity, there were a lot of amusing interplays. Audience could be crazy over the fact that the girls were so close to each other, while being unable to recognize the true identity.

Of course, ecchi scenes were the main focus of this show. They were well animated and could make you wonder what else could the characters do to embarrass others in the next episode. When next episode arrived, the delivery never disappointed, and so the cycle repeated. I think this happened because of three reasons: firstly, there were many things explorable regarding BDSM, from the simple bondage and spanking, to the baby playing and erotic massage. Secondly, unlike most of the erotic and hentai works, where female characters were drawn with gigantic breasts and hips, the anime illustrated relatively more realistic bodies: different girls had different breast sizes. Even for some girls with larger breasts like Kiwi, Sayo and Matama, their breasts were drawn in reasonable sizes. Thirdly, some of these scenes simply made you feel excited and aroused, but there were also some scenes that delivered more than that, balancing plot, emotion and erotica perfectly. To illustrate there are two examples:

The first example was episode 7. Magia Baiser loved to have fun with Magia Azul and she had been doing this for several times. But when Azul finally got submissive and kneeled to her completely, she did not get aroused, take the advantage and let her be her slave, just like what the audience would expect from a sadist (especially in hentai). Instead, she was so angry that she scolded her for not thinking of the kids supporting the magical girls. This illustrated Baiser's personality well: she was more than just a overly lusting sadist who would torture people just for the sake of her fun. Instead she loved magical girls a lot that she wanted them to overcome her power, not giving up even if there were overpowered enemies.

Another example was episode 10. The episode featured a cliche "a room that can't escape unless having sex", and while the victims Matama (Loco) and Nemo (Leber) did do what the audience expected them to do, the anime had done an excellent job in illustrating Nemo's love for Matama. The anime added a lot of original scenes, such as flashbacks of them being in primary and middle schools, how they joined the Lord, and Nemo being flustered after seeing Matama's breasts. These original scenes had made the later erotic scenes not only arousing, but also heartwarming. They brought the audience pure happiness that the couple could finally face and express their true feelings to each other. This was both a perfect adaptation from the manga, improving the source to a great extend, and a perfect example on depicting a sexual scene with deep emotions.

The voice actresses also worked hard to make the show so intriguing. It was extremely surprising to know that it was only the second anime that Izumi Fuuka had played a role. As a less experienced voice actress, she could deliver the different emotions of Utena perfectly, regardless of her being shy as a normal student, being aroused seeing magical girls get tortured, being angry to a submissive Azul, and being so excited to see her idol. Another surprising fact was that Kazama Mayuko did not get a more important role until she played Sayo here. It was uneasy to play a character who often suffered (with joy), but she delivered the lines unexpectedly well. Other actresses also did an outstanding job: Koga Aoi depicting Kiwi's cuteness and hotheadedness amazingly, Aisaka Yuuka being an expert in singing bad intentionally, Tsuda Minami delivering Nemo's deep feelings so touchingly...

Of course, there were still flaws with the anime. One main thing I would complain was the animation on battle scenes. They were less dynamic than the manga and could sometimes look dull. In some episodes, the proportion of characters could even look weird. Still, all the other aspects were great that they compensate such a demerit.

Overall, Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete was groundbreaking, but it was groundbreaking not only because of the outrageous erotic scenes, but also how the anime blended erotica, emotions, plot and characters together well. It is an anime in which both non-yuri and yuri fans could enjoy.

This review is written based on the view of a Kakegurui fan, who has read and watched almost all the works from this franchise. Despite being excited that Kakegurui Twin being animated finally, I have quite a mixed feeling regarding the adaptation: overall it is okay, but it feels like at some part, the adaptation could have been better and thus been made more memorable.

Comparing to the main series, the story provides a different perspective and contains gambles in which audience can hardly have chances to see in the main series, which is refreshing. For instance, both the coupling party and treasure hunt gambles have ... interesting concepts and strategies, and it is entertaining to see how the participants (espcially the main trio) work out how to beat the game. You would never see Jabami Yumeko, the protagonist of the main series, get engaged in this kind of gambles. Outside of the story, the execution of animation is good with appropriate usage of CGI. The opening and ending are very memorable, in both the animation and music.

Despite all these, there are still some main adaptation problems. One main problem is that the studio directly skips the first gamble, probably because it has the same nature as the first gamble (Yumeko vs Mary) in the main series, both of them featuring an over-confident bully who gets beaten by a transfer student. However, the first gamble is crucial in building up the bond between Mary and Tsuzura, the later one being the former's friend, showing that even if she is unfamiliar with the rules on new campus, poor and does not have good impressions on Tsuzura since she met her in primary school, she would still stand up and help her friend, encouraging her to be braver. Unfortunately, this part has been completely ignored by briefing with simple words, and Tsuzura is already calling Mary as her prince at the beginning of the anime, which feels both confusing and forced. If there were more building up between their relationship, it could feel less forced, and one of the main themes "friendship" could be emphasized.

Building up of the atmosphere is the main problem of the adaptation, even for the gambles. As long as the main focus of Kakegurui Twin is different from the main series and it is meant to be made as a more typical Shounen friendship work with less stressing gambles, there should have been more tension in the adaptation. When I watched the anime, the scenes always reminded me of its counterpart live action adaptation, which has much more tension and the audience could really feel the threats of losing the games with the darker tone of environment as well as more exaggerating actions. In the anime, however, the tension somehow gets missed and most of the time, it feels like they are just playing a game without prices to pay. Even if they say there's a price after losing, the atmosphere does not feel so.

And regarding inconsistence of Mary's personality between Twin and main series, since the Twin manga is still ongoing, we could not comment if the inconsistence is bad writing as the ending of the manga, which could change Mary's personality, is still unrevealed.

Overall, I would still recommend Kakegurui fans watching this anime, but I feel that the live action adaptation does a better work in capturing the tension. As for non-fans, I do not think the anime is suitable as a starter to the franchise and they could watch it only when they are interested in the characters and gambles.

Pui Pui Molcar is not just simply a meme or a generic kid show. When you look into a kid show with a short duration, you would probably think "how is this show being called 'the best anime in 2021', when it's just made for kids and is that short?" But if you look deeper, you would figure out why it is so and start to appreciate the effort made by the director Misato and his team to create this engaging world of Molcars which both adults and kids could find enjoyable.

First of all is the design of the Molcars. Each of them is well ... designed and made with different personalities, being recognizable by the audience. Just like real life pets, they have various personalities, sounds (by real guinea pigs!), fur colors and the need to eat and sleep, meanwhile there are different kinds of Molcars depending on their purposes just like real life cars, e.g. the ambulance, garbage truck and police car. And for one of the main protagonists Abbey, there is a Japanese Beginner sticker on their (his/her? Idk actually) body! The team did not simply design cute characters, but put effort in blending guinea pig and car, while made them have characteristics from both sides without making them look too forced.

Next is the details in various aspects. While stop motion animation takes a long time to move and film an object, the team did not get lazy when it comes to details. In many scenes you could see that even for background Molcars or human audience, they would give proper reactions towards our protagonists instead of standing still, making the whole anime much more vibrant. Moreover, the background contains many engaging details that may get your attention after watching an episode multiple times, such as the anime posters on building, the carpark with multiple stories and toilet particularly for Molcars. The team was not just making an anime. They were making an unique world with many fun aspects that make you wonder, "how does all the things work in this world?"

Finally is the benefits gained by children and adults by watching the show. Let's talk about kids first as they are the obvious audience. Just like other shows for kids, Pui Pui Molcar also has its educational part, but it is always done in a natural way. There are episodes telling kids to act proper, being considerate and not throwing rubbish, while there are also episodes telling kids that actions speak louder than appearances, and all of them are told by the actions of Molcars. As for adults, the team did not ignore them. Instead, there are some references to classics that could make them smile while watching the show, like Akira, Indiana Jones and Back to the Future. Moreover, the shows have made many adults relaxed and happy via discussion. For instance, when the first episode was aired, I could see many discuss that they often faced the traffic jam problem, but watching all the cars turn into cute Molcars is relaxing for them.

Pui Pui Molcar has all the good essentials that make it stand out from other kid's anime (or even anime in general!). It does not take a long time for you to try watching it, but the uniqueness and cuteness would surly stay in your heart for a very long time!

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS

Kamikaze Douga has always been one of my favorite studios because of their excellent 3D animation on Jojo op. Therefore, when I heard that they were making a Batman and federal Japan crossover movie, despite having not immediately watched the show, I was still excited about it and planed to watch it one day. Moreover, it is not very common to see superhero have crossover with historical theme like federal Japan, so it would be interesting to see how the anime blend these two themes together. However, the movie turned out to be a disappointment for me, not in terms of ... the animation, but in terms of the story and character development.

The thing that I appreciate most from the movie is the art. The CGI is unique and in most of the time it does not look off. The several fights were enjoyable under the CGI with smooth actions. During the middle of the story, the animation style has turned into an ink painting style, which is unexpected, but it is entertaining to see how the characters look a lot different from what we used to see.

But the story and character development are shallow, to a point even cringy. It is just some very typical and predictable Shounen (or even Kid) plots where the protagonist fights, loses, then has friends to fight with enemies and then succeeds. The mecha part is especially cringy to me as it is a great mismatch with the background of the story and it pops up from nowhere. Moreover, sometimes the dialogues seem forced and unsmooth. For instance, when Batman feels desperate that his modern weapons are destroyed and he could not beat Joker, he immediately gets cheered up a few seconds later. The ending after the characters return to modern world is cool though.

For the character, as I am neither a DC nor Batman fan, I do not know if Batman is also portrayed in other works just like in this movie, but Batman here seems rather naïve and it is weird to see him get betrayed and tricked several times. Here he is just a superhero who wants to save everyone and get tricked easily. Other characters also have superficial personalities or not enough screen time. Before watching the movie, I was expecting the focus to be superpower and more traditional fights, but the focus turns to mecha suddenly and the superpower has lost the screen time, which is a pity.

Overall, I like the art and character design, but the plot and character development are weak that they have ruined the potential.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

In short: With the good animation of WIT studio, Ousama Ranking could be a very neat anime, but the plot in the later episodes has entirely ruined the show.

Before I started watching the anime, I heard from many people claiming that they cried a river watching it and it could be the dark horse of anime. Out of curiosity, I tried it out. Although I've never shed tear watching it, there're many things that I appreciated about this show:

First, the setting is unique. The Ousama Ranking sounds very mysterious and attractive at the same time - there could be many competitions between ... the kings, and the myth that every champion king has disappeared has much potential to be elaborated. It also features Bojji, who is a disabled prince with no friends and is too weak to be the next king. The other characters also catch my eyes with their varied personalities, from the nice non-stereotypical stepmother Hiling to the evil-looking while family loving Desher. The idea "don't judge a book by its cover" had made me like the characters at the first of the story.

Second, the art is great and fits the story well. The original manga has a simple (some may call ugly) art style, but WIT studio has successfully merged the simplified art style into complicated backgrounds and actions. There're some fights that have astonished me, such as the fight between Apeas and Bebin, and the greatest Bojji vs Bosse. The later one didn't directly portray Bosse as in Daida's body, but make the fight resembled a lot to that between David and Goliath, emphasizing the bravery and strength of Bojji a lot by the size contrast. And the second opening is really a masterpiece with vibrancy.

However, the plot is horrible and is often illogical, especially in the second half part. After the four sinners have been released to the ground, the pace had gone weird and the shifts of positions of characters had started getting annoying. Some may say they reflect the complexity of characters, but actually I could hardly entirely recall a character with good reasons of shifting the positions continuously. Indeed the shifts have made their characters vague and unmemorable. At the end, I could hardly recall the highlights on Domas, who always shifts, but I could clearly recall Dorsche, who is a loyal protector and can fight fiercely.

And sometimes when things are going to be exciting and I was expecting someone dying and something special, there's always deus ex machina who stops the thrill or fights, like I really thought Domas died after jumping from such a height and was surprised that he landed directly onto the ground instead of getting saved. But then he woke up and said he was too strong to commit suicide.

But these things ain't the worst. The worst is the propagandist unrealistic main idea that everyone should be forgiven unconditionally, even if they have committed very horrible sin. A normal person would definitely say no to a villain who has caused a lot of deaths or done a lot of deeds, but in this story suddenly everyone shows unconditional love to Miranjo, who is the mastermind of this entire disaster. Even Bojji and Daida, whose mothers were and almost were killed by Miranjo, forgive Miranjo, and the later one even marries her, which is one of the most unexpected plot twists I have seen! If the target audience are children, then the everyone live happily ever after thing is still fine. But the show is not for children, and the plot could definitely be made better by more elaboration on how the characters should undergo the conflicts between forgive and hate, and at the end choose to forgive, as well as what Miranjo should do in order to repent her sin (maybe using her magic to do good stuff instead?), instead of just lazy writing that because it is a fairytale like story, so everyone has to be nice to a villain that almost destroyed the entire nation and killed innocent people, and she does not even have to do something special to get forgiven.

I enjoyed the first half of the show to be honest and the music is great, but the plot could have been much elaborated and logical.