Back to JustAnotherShiro's Profile JustAnotherShiro's Profile

Solo Leveling was popular long before this adaptation, so when I hear that we are finally getting an anime I expected a lot from it. And maybe that's where I made an error - after all I've never been a fan of manhwa adaptations. On the other hand, this is the first one I actually enjoyed.

Enjoyment.. yes, this is the strongest point of this anime. It was just fun to watch and every week I waited for next episode. The whole concept of leveling, constant progress, a lot of badass scenes and some OP moments are what kept me hooked. It's engaging if nothing else. ... And honestly? That's all I need from my anime.
Another strength of this anime would be art. It's sharp and flashy. Animation is consistent. Really, nothing to complain here.

What is the problem then? What's the reason for my first paragraph sounding so negative? Answer is everything that goes deeper than surface:
Story, despite being such a simple concept, failed to do anything or be interesting at all. Outside of the very beginning when MC gains power, nothing actually happens in this anime. All the background stuff about his family, other hunters or the system could as well not be here. I don't care if it's buildup for future developments - at this time we have 12 episodes and there is no actual story in those.
Situation looks similar when it comes to characters in this anime. I'm used to self insert losers turning Gary Stu overnight, so I won't even complain about protagonist, that's just the kind of story this is. But everyone else? Same as story, they are just excuse to keep action going or to try playing on emotions. Honestly, maybe some characters had potential if we got to see them on screen more. Maybe action just moves too fast, maybe adaptations is imperfect, maybe they will keep coming back in future and actually become meaningful. Maybe. I don't care. I watched this anime now and that's what I feel now. Characters are boring, meaningless and forgettable.

If I were to sum it up, Solo Leveling is a great example of guilty pleasure anime. It looks good and feels good to watch, makes time fly so fast you check if episode was really full length. And for that reason I liked it. But I'd never consider it to be something great or even memorable.

At it's core Jitsu wa Ore, Saikyou deshita is yet another isekai with overpowered protagonist that hides his power for whatever reason. Overused setting can be a bad thing if it repeats cliches or is generally just a reskin of same old thing. But in my opinion this anime doesn't fall under those, so judging it purely on the fact that it's isekai or has OP MC would be unfair.

Overall, Jitsu wa Ore, Saikyou deshita is on lighter side. There is no drama, conflicts get resolved very quickly. Art, from colors to characters designs, to their facial emotions, all seem aimed towards making this a ... comfy and cute type of show. On top of that I found comedy to be pretty decent and refreshing, with some nice parodies. Characters fit nicely too, with all of them being likeable and quirky but not exactly typical archetypes.
On the other hand villains are rather disappointing, being just boring evil guys. Story itself is pretty much nonexistent as far as anime goes - which I don't consider a downside, but I guess some might say it's "boring".

As a relaxing, comedy focused anime I absolutely recommend this one. It's just a great time filler that doesn't pretend to be anything more.

If I were to summarize my thoughts after watching it, the first thing that comes to mind is power fantasy written by a middle schooler: protagonist that has a cool backstory but end up being a kid and behaving as such in many cases (especially with females). Of course he has no personality beyond being a “cool hero who can do anything”.
Such a protagonist is surrounded by painfully one-dimensional characters, whose singular purpose is giving him chances to show off. He is going to tell everyone how to do their job - from his harem to the most important figures in the empire - ... and all of them will gladly take his guidance, making you wonder how that world even functions.
Naturally, villains keep up with this level too. There is no place for clever antagonists with their own ambitions or problems. All the demons and monsters are just evil guys that do evil things because they were born evil. Their role is to be overly confident, underestimate our protagonist and then die shocked by his power.
And you know what? I love watching such things. Stupidly overpowered protagonist, harem and neverending glory is relaxing and enjoyable to watch for me. But not this thing. Even I couldn’t help rolling my eyes and facepalming when watching it. There is a thin balance that keeps usual power fantasy stories apart from bullied teenagers' wet dreams. This abomination of a story (how did such a thing even get picked up by a publisher?) just disregards it and goes all out in the wrong way.

Still, I haven’t scored it a 1, so there must be something that saves it? The answer is Iris. This is a single character that is somewhat funny and the only person in this story that has interactions with Mathias other than making a space for him to show his power or wisdom.
The base premise is good. It alone caught my attention and made me want to watch this anime. One could build a really interesting story from it.
Art also isn’t tragic. It’s not good, but I’ve seen worse. Designs are “normal” and repetitive, colors are bland, details are lacking, animations and effects are meh. It’s simply a boring art with nothing going for it, which is a standard for such titles.
And as I said, I usually like such stories. So even in this case I found some enjoyment in it, although I’ll admit that I had to force myself to finish it, just to be able to properly share my thoughts.

Don't judge a book by its cover - the anime.
If you are here then you have already seen the first season and have some general idea of what to expect, so I won’t waste time writing obvious introductions or descriptions.

After watching the 2018 anime I didn’t feel much. Yet another idol-like anime, just this time it’s horse girls and racing. Some events and race results surprised me and felt un-anime-like, but that’s it. Back then I didn’t know the reason behind them is the fact that it's based on real stories.
Coming into the second season my expectations were mixed: on one hand MAL score makes ... one wonder what is this thing hiding. On the other switching protagonists I got used to with some secondary characters felt wrong. It sure took some time to get used to it. But it was worth the try. Maybe they just picked more interesting horses to follow or maybe learned and made better use of their stories. I don’t know, but I do know the 2nd season worked much better. The fact that we get a more general outlook on everything, like fans, rivals and less important horse girls, helps too.
So back to where I started: don’t judge a book by it’s cover - don’t worry about absurd premise of horse girls racing, don’t think about it being a mobage adaptation - purely the fact that race results don’t follow shounen logic is already a huge boon that turned this anime into one of the more exciting titles I’ve watched. Obviously that wouldn’t work without right directing and character building, which are much better than you’d expect. On top of that they did a really good job at conveying the feeling of characters, their passion and their worries. This “mobile game promotion material” manages to be incredibly emotional and exciting, while also doing its promotional job quite well. I mean, I ended up checking out the game and read stories of all real horses that we saw in anime…

So yeah, if you watched the first season and, like me, didn’t get the hype, I really recommend you keep going and watch the second one. It’s truly a memorable experience.

Looking at synopsis and cover, you’d expect Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi to be yet another battle shounen with all the cliches and predictability that usually brings. But it’s not a shounen. More: it’s a seinen and it shows through nonchalant use of gore and sexuality, while still keeping those at respectable levels that don’t push it into some weird niche. The feeling I got when watching this anime is that author(s) wrote what they wanted without constraining themselves, not caring for censorship or target audience.

Despite a really simple setting and overall not too deep story or characters, I found Itaden to be one of the ... most competent and “complete” works in quite a while. You will surely list many titles that have better stories, characters or art. But not many, if any at all, manage to keep all those elements at such a high level without losing somewhere else. Itaden on the other hand is a super solid all-rounder with no weak points.
As I mentioned earlier, the story is simple. It pretty much follows what you read in synopsis, without some huge twists. It doesn’t try to re-define the genre or deconstruct anything. Instead it’s just a coherent piece of narrative that nicely makes space for characters to shine.
As a side note, comedy is pretty golden too.

Yes, characters… That's the best piece here. Just like the story, they aren’t overly complicated. Pretty much all of them are built around their one or two characteristics. That’s quite a good choice, considering we only have 11 episodes and a large cast of memorable gods and demons. Yup, you read that right: bad guys are memorable too. Itaden managed to make antagonists really likeable - to the point I actually wanted them to befriend good guys shounen-style. What really captivated me about them was the way they were portrayed from the very beginning: not some all-powerful bosses, they actually think about their chances, are afraid for their lives and try to protect those dear to them. Another thing enforcing this feeling is how people on both sides are somewhat morally neutral - I wouldn’t call any of them good or evil, they are all more natural than that, with a mix of good and bad sides.
What’s more, characters aren’t stupid. Yes, very un-anime-like. Both sides do a good job at logical thinking and predicting what the enemy is planning. They generally don’t fall for cheap tricks and do learn from their mistakes. Both gods and demons analyze the others and try to learn about them. There are no annoying or facepalm worthy decisions just to keep the story going.
There are waifus too. I might be too old to get a crush on anime characters, but I gotta admit, one of them made me remember DBZ and Android 18…

Naturally, I couldn’t not mention the art. The cartoonish style works really nicely with quirkiness of characters and not too serious story. Wounds and gore don’t make viewers disgusted, maybe just a bit tingly. Due to the artstyle some skimpy outfits and occasional panty shot also don’t feel too intrusive.
Action scenes aren’t really a focus and I guess the animation in those might not be satisfying to fans of such elements, but they aren’t bad by any means.
The one and only complaint I could have about Itaden is the lack of some memorable insert songs or battle music. On one hand there aren’t really any scenes that needed such “emphasis”, on the other I just like such elements lol.

Reading the above, I think I explained why I scored this anime the way I did. Simply put I find it pretty much flawless. I enjoyed literally every second of it, there wasn’t any moment when I wanted a scene to pass faster or I got impatient with some character - it was 11 episodes of pure enjoyment. Why didn’t I give it a full 10/10? Only because of the ending, or rather lack of it.

Even before anime Horimyia was a pretty well known title. Having heard a lot of good things about it I’ve been looking forward to watching the adaptation. But as it aired, I started seeing quite a bit of criticism, which cooled down my hype. Now that I’ve watched myself I can say that I absolutely disagree with most of it, to the point I doubt some of those people even watched the anime.

But to the point.
Being a shounen romcom, Horimiya is as full of cliche situations as you’d expect. That is also often used as an argument against it. But there is one “but”: it’s ... not cliches that are bad - it’s when using them makes the work bad. Seems like the same thing, but it isn’t. While Horimyia uses cliche situations, like summer cold, misunderstandings or love triangles, it absolutely is not “standard” or “predictable” in that field. Things that normally would be main focus of whole arc here are solved in less than half of episode. Situations that’d end up in long drama turn quickly into comedy. When you see the cliche getting used and get ready for the usual route, they suddenly resolve in reasonable fashion, without unnecessary complications or drama. Mind you, Horimyia isn’t some big-brain deconstruction of genre or anything like that. Author just used cliches cleverly and in a way that doesn’t make watcher annoyed with overused format, despite it still being the same situation.
Romance itself progresses in a satisfying pace, with no sluggish feeling that can appear sometimes if story adds too many filler moments. Still, keep in mind that it’s “just” a romcom. Don’t expect some deep psychology or layered story behind Hori’s and Myiamura’s feelings. It’s cute and fun, that’s it.
Overall, the story is relaxed (slice of life, duh) and heartwarming, with comedy on rather good level. Serious moments don’t take longer than needed for progression, and more importantly, don’t feel forced, nor artificial.

Characters are, in a way, in a similar situation: they are generally rather basic and don’t develop too much. But at the same time all of them are super likeable, with no annoying villains or antagonists. Watching this anime you wish everyone to be happy. One downside here is lack of screen time for side characters/pairs that I got really interested in. It might be due to cutting some content in the process of adaptation, but nonetheless it’s a downside of this anime for me.
It’s worth mentioning that despite their rather basic personalities, many characters manage to behave in less predictable ways - quiet ones sometimes show assertive side, seemingly direct ones can be shy and reserved. To top it all, spot-on voice acting and absolutely great facial reactions (comedic at least) make Horimyia’s cast a very memorable one.

Speaking about reactions, I couldn’t not mention art side of this anime. Unsurprisingly, it’s another strong point. While character design might be more taste dependent, there is no doubt that it’s well done. And so is animation, which is also consistent, with no noticeable drops in quality.

Considering that I already stated my disagreement with most of the criticism I heard about Horimyia, and that you can see my score on this review, I don’t think there is a need for some grand summary. Yes, I do think it’s a great anime and I do feel stupid that I let myself get influenced with such negative opinions, when I normally ignore those.
It wouldn’t be an overstatement if I said that the main reason for this review is a feeling of “saltiness” that, for the most part, I watched this anime expecting flaws that I read about earlier, looking out for them and trying to “find a hole in the whole”. I wasted some part of enjoyment this way and I hope my review can save at least one person from that.

Long story short, Bisoku Zenshin is the real Azur Lane adaptation.
Let's be honest here: it's a gacha game where you gather shipfus and is known for having a lot of fanservice. There is some story, but it's more like something interesting (or not) on side for most players. Slow Ahead manga, and now anime, focus on those "important" parts, which is SoL, comedy and fanservice.

Natural consequence of being a fanservice (in broader meaning, not just sexual) for players of already fanservice focused game, on top of being a short adaptation of 4-koma manga, is that it doesn't explain anything about the world or characters. This ... anime is aimed at people who already know shipgirls. While I'd love it to bring more players to the game, I can't really recommend starting with it if you had no contact with the Azur Lane universe before.

With that out of the way, what can I say about this title? For one, it's actually good. Jokes are funny for the most part and fanservice - be it sexual or just game references - is right on spot. While it could get way more ecchi, I’m ok with the level we got served here.
I'm obviously biased, but characters are the strongest point here, as you'd expect from this kind of anime. Their design, voice acting and quirks are all good and also represent their game counterparts properly.
Art, and especially sound, aren't anything special. Just simple and cute.

In the end, Azur Lane: Bisoku Zenshin is one of those titles that are there simply for promotion, without even trying to seem like a standalone anime. After all it is an adaptation of an official, free 4-koma manga that's promotional/fanservice material in itself.

When looking at this anime on MAL, everyone can easily guess what to expect: it’s half duration ecchi focused series. Even as an ecchi fan myself, I didn’t have high expectations of this one. And yet… Nande Koko ni Sensei ga turned out to be a positive surprise.
Let’s start with the core of this show, ecchi. It was on more hardcore side - borderline-H some might even say. Ecchi scenes were quite good, and while they relied on boobs a bit too much, it didn’t feel like cheap ecchi you usually find in shounens. Camera angles, character positions and their facial emotions worked very well. ... Simply put, it was erotic. Major downside here is that, author went for diverse cast of female characters, but forgot to give them diverse bodies. Really, in this kind of anime you’d expect at least one girl with not-huge (forget small!) breasts. Ecchi scenes also had some repetitive elements - nipple stimulation being the biggest offender.
With all of the above, Nande Koko ni Sensei ga would be in upper part of average ecchi anime. What puts it above average are “story” and characters. I don’t think I need to explain why I put quote marks around story - this anime doesn’t have much of it, but general progress of relationships and event sequences, while often ridiculous, were actually nice and satisfying to watch. More or less the same can be said about characters: they don’t have some deep, layered personalities. But they are cute, fun and play their roles well. I can’t really expect more here. Biggest flaw was short duration and resulting very quick progression.
Final thing that made me enjoy this anime more than I expected was comedy. However banal that might sound, comedy has to be fun. I know it’s more personal thing, and jokes I liked might fall flat for someone else. Nonetheless I rate comedy in this anime to be above average.
Now, when talking about anime focused on showing us women in various states of undress, this anime obviously needs good art. Nande Koko ni Sensei ga art was… ok? It’s nothing special but I also can’t complain about anything in particular. Personally I really liked character designs and I feel like facial emotions added a lot, both in comedic moments and in ecchi scenes.
Overall very enjoyable anime, both as a light comedy and as heavy ecchi, depending on your mood. I'd recomment it to anyone who isn't "intellectual" with a stick in that one place, and doesn't get offended by ecchi.

After really liking Jigokuren I looked forward to this sequel. I'm not disappointed per se, but I expected more. Death Life feels like step down from Love in the Hell.
The world is same, solid, interesting and brutal place that we know from original. Story is less dramatic and instead has some feels and better pacing, but overall it's still just a gory comedy - maybe even a little more gory than previously. One very strong point are cameos of old cast - like an epilogue that we all missed after first manga.
Where the sequel starts falling are characters. Most of them are weaker than ... pevious cast and even without such comparison they aren't that great characters on their own. It's especially noticable on protagonist, who, unlike Rintaro, isn't good source of comedy and rather feels like just a guy around whom the comedy happens.
Art is great as always. One of the best points of this manga. Author's good taste when it comes to body proportions (for ecchi purposes) only makes it better.

In the end, if you read previous title, you will like this one too, and even if I said otherwise, I doubt I'd discourage anyone. It's still a solid sequel, even if not as good as I hoped for.

Azur Lane: Bisoku Zenshin, better known as Slow Ahead manga, is officially released AL web manga in 4-koma format. As you could expect from such thing, it's aimed for AL players. What I mean here, it's made specifically as a fanservice for people who already have had contact with the universe - most shipgirls appear and play their roles without any introduction, assuming you already know who they are. If you haven’t played the game or at least watched anime, there is very little chance you will enjoy this manga.
It’s pretty much a Slice of Life story with Javelin in lead role and rest of ... the starters (Z23, Laffey, Ayanami) as a main cast. Main purpose of their interactions is, as I mentioned before, fanservice and comedy. Manga plays on their in-game lines and quirks to cause some funny situations. It’s lighthearted and quite enjoyable.
Art in this manga is rather basic, be it backgrounds or effects. Character’s design is doing good job at mimicking that from game, although not perfect. Facial emotions are quite important for this kind of manga, and they do their job well.

I probably don’t need to write this, but if you like Azur Lane, you will enjoy this manga too. And, to repeat what I said in the beginning, if you don’t know Azur Lane, I really can’t recommend starting with Slow Ahead.