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The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses Season 2 has a lot going for it, but it also has a handful of things that play against it too. I'll assume you've seen Season 1 for the purposes of this review.

Story & Characters: Let's start with the strengths, many of which continue from Season 1. The storytelling is still quite strong. The first arc focuses around a competing café, known as Family. It features a rival owner who hires five girls to run the café for him. There is a minor problem this posses, as it's not the most use of character ... design - each girl resembles and shares characteristics with the current cast. Leaving that out, I actually enjoyed the storyline with that setting quite a bit. It posses a serious problem for Hayato and company and, while it's still a little goofy, they go about their business in trying to find a way to coexist with this new crew. Expanding the setting can only be a good thing considering how much time is spent in Familia anyway.

One character that really starts to shine is Ami. You may recall that each girl got their own mini-arc in Season 1, but Ami did not receive the same benefit. And, like the others in Season 1, it was pretty well told. Much of Ami's character is about this weird, over-the-top girl who always seems so carefree, but introducing a serious problem for her fleshed her out so much more. This actually was really good timing, because you can see her finally develop as a character, especially when you consider the finale. She was great here. This isn't to say the rest of the crew didn't develop either. The other four were still really well represented, though some got more screentime than others. Shiragiku and Akane might have the least here and I'd like to see the two of them developed more if this series were to continue.

As the series carried on, I felt like the second half started to get slightly dull in terms of exciting material. This isn't to say an attempt to continue strong storytelling didn't continue because it remained different. I just didn't think it was quite as interesting. If you liked the weird and over-the-top stuff from before, then you'll still find it here. This, along with the excessive fan service, were probably my least favourite parts of this series, but the latter was at least a little more held back than before.

Aside the new Family cast, there weren't a ton new characters to really sink your teeth into, but at the same time, you don't really need to. There's enough story elements with our current cast that I didn't feel more than a handful of additional minor characters were necessary, and they delivered that here. Hayato, for the most part, remains the same person as before, which I enjoyed for the most part. You can clearly tell that he's starting to feel pressure about who he likes most out of the five girls and if this series were to continue, I hope he starts to form more of a connection with someone. (Story: 7/10, Characters: 8/10)

Art: The series looks more or less the same as the previous season, but in terms of shine and terrible censoring. (9/10)

Sound: I don't have a ton to add here, as everything sounded fine. The OP wasn't nearly as iconic as the first season's, but that's a minor gripe at best. (7/10)

Overall: The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses Season 2 continued to be an entertaining series, even if started to taper off in the second half of the season. Audiences happy with the first season should still enjoy this series and it continues to do right by its characters, which should have been the goal with such a large main cast. If it were to continue, there are things I'd definitely want to see, especially after the developments of the finale, but I'd check it out to feed my curiosity. (7/10)

Story & Characters: Love Is Indivisible by Twins focuses on a pair of twin sisters: Rumi and Naori Jinguuji. They are neighbours, as well as childhood friends of Jun Shirosaki. Having known him for so long, they've basically grown up with him and at the start of our tale, Rumi and Jun decide to start dating. Things go well for a year until, seemingly out of nowhere, Rumi decides to break up with Jun, to his surprise. Her reasoning? So that he could date Naori.

Easily the best part of this series is our trio of characters. I'm a huge ... fan because they bring something different to the table. Rumi is very athletic, where as Naori is more of a nerd. They aren't very similar at all, but both are fantastic together. They're super close, which is Rumi's reasoning for dumping Jun to begin with. She wanted him to date her because she keeps her sister in such high regard. Naori very obviously has a huge crush on Jun too, but she doesn't spend the entire series denying it. Instead, she makes it obvious to him - or at least tries. Jun is a character with decent morals, unlike his best friend Toyoshige. While he keeps questionable company, he's actually pretty normal. No matter what the Jinguuji sisters suggest, he keeps a level head until one of them fluster him. I feel like it's a good balancing act between keeping this series silly and serious at the same time.

Toyoshige is Jun's friend and probably one of the weirdest people in this series - how he got the nickname of "professor" might make it more questionable. He has very firm beliefs about women and tries show Jun what they are - unsuccessfully. Riris is Naori's friend, often being called "chief" by Naori. I really liked her! She's a complete nerd and the friendship she has with Naori is awesome. Shiena enters the picture about halfway through and I thought she was going to be a ditsy boring character. Sure, she's not the most story-heavy character, but she's fun and an excellent mix with our cast. Reira is one of Rumi's friends, but I didn't think much of her.

One of the issues with this series is that I'm just not in love with the framework that the story tries to bring to the table. The series takes very little time breaking Rumi and Jun up, but then spends basically the entirety of the rest of the series trying to figure out whether or not Naori is a good fit for him or not. It can get very dry at times, while others, it feels like the story progression completely halts when we feel like it should be making progress. While I like the idea of seeing if Naori is a good fit as a girlfriend, I feel like story prefers to take the slow-paced approach when it could have sped up a little more than it did.

Another problem - and the MAL synopsis kind of hints to this - is that the series wants us keep in mind how the relationship between the twins and Jun are at all times. The problem? It doesn't spend nearly enough time with the three of them figuring things out in a serious manner. The twins talk to each other a fair bit at the start, which was off to a strong start, but then it was always two out of the three of them, trying to figure things out. The pacing really drags at times like this. Don't get me wrong, it was still entertaining at certain parts of the story, but that's all it was - entertainment. Something can be fun to watch, if you want to turn your brain off for certain story bits. You can be the judge if this series is worth of that. (Story: 6/10, Characters: 9/10)

Art: While the animation held up throughout the runtime without serious quality issues, I'm not entirely sure I remember watching certain scenes and admiring how well they were animated. While romance series never really need to shine as much as action-oriented series, staying in the mediocre range probably isn't doing the studio any favours. (6/10)

Sound: Like with the animation, I wasn't terribly high on the sound either. Nothing spectacular, nothing to be upset about - though I'd be lying if I didn't say Shiena's voice work got a little annoying at times. (6/10)

Overall: Love Is Indivisible by Twins has a strong base to shoot your romance story off of because it's own twist on the romance genre is the appeal of seeing twins interact with the one they love, and grew up with. The problem with that here is that the story never really blooms that into anything more than what we got to see in the first couple of episodes. The characters and the basis for the story there, but I don't feel like this series had enough high points to counter some of the slower moving parts of the story. I could still see this being appealing to those looking for a romance story, but there are others that do a better job, even if they don't have characters that you're quite as engaged with. (6/10)

"Deceive your heart all you want, but if you don't resolve this, it will scorn you. And before you know it, you'll be scarred forever."

Story & Characters: Days with My Stepsister is truly a wonderful anime series to experience, and I'm not sure if I could treasure this more in a controversial topic. It speaks to what happens when stepbrother and stepsister start to have romantic feelings for each other and the obvious complications that come with such a taboo. I, of course, am I talking about Saki Ayase and Yuuta Asamura. The former's mother and latter's father get married at ... the start of this series, and it's here that our characters meet and make every attempt they can to make sure their new family stays as one happy family.

There's so much to unpack as to why I like this series, but I think I'll start with the thing that sticks out the most. That is the tone that series sets at every turn. It takes a extremely mature take on this topic, mirroring the dialogue that an older series known as Love Wind, takes. At first, it's completely about trying to make sure their family meshes. Saki and Yuuta have very strong feelings about how their parents should have the best life, due to the natures of how their previous family broke down. While this isn't dug into too much, we know enough to give us an idea why our characters treasure family so much. As our characters go through their daily lives, they slowly start to realize something is amiss - that they believe they are having romantic feelings towards one another, a taboo in most everyone's minds.

Saki and Yuuta put on very strong fronts, not because they're always headstrong, but because they feel they need to. They have their birth parents - who work tirelessly long hours - who they treasure now that their other birth parents are not in the mix, they have their sibling, who they need to get along with because they're now step siblings, and now they have their step parent, who makes their birth parent so happy. It all makes sense, and they will look for no angle that will sour on their experience as a family. I love this about them because they don't show malice towards their new living arrangement. But what happens when it starts to push too far into loving their stepsibling?

Contrary to the title, Saki feels more like our main character than Yuuta, especially in the second half. As she spends more time with Yuuta, she tries to pull herself into his space, but does so gently, and slowly. It's here that she tries to learn through "experience", to see if her heart is telling her the same things that she thinks, and it's all wonderfully well written. She doesn't have a ton of friends to confide in, and what really only pushes her is someone she meets near the end. I didn't love how this particular scene played out because it kind of bounced out of nowhere, but the conversation at least felt correct for the feel the series is going for. Maaya, a female classmate of Yuuta's, hangs around both of them and somewhat adds a nice element where we have someone that observes both of them, but she's not serious enough to really push the envelope. This is something I appreciated because the overall feeling of the series seeks to stay mostly light. Yuuta fights his feelings his own way too, but is far more outgoing that we start to see something leak out when he talks to colleagues. Shiori is a coworker of Yuuta's and I'm uncertain how to feel about her. She starts to feel like she has the Maaya role near the second half of the series, and feels somewhat redundant because of it. Still, I appreciated that she adds more eyes onto both our main characters because the series is light on conversation as it is. Near the end, Yuuta's classmate at cram school, Kaho, enters the picture and she's excellent for the series. Her backstory is extremely harsh. This really threw me off but she's such a welcome addition. She pushes the story forward and somehow, Yuuta feels very comfortable talking to her calmly.

Where audiences might take issue with this series, outside of the controversial topic, is that issues aren't tackled head on. It's not handled directly until the final few scenes. Our characters withhold their feelings for one another so much, and Saki goes so far to say that she's keeping it "bottled up" and knows that she can't continue to do so without going crazy. The series, overall, retains this
relaxed feeling most of the time, and even when intense dialogue enters the fray, the series depends on us reacting to what's going on screen, when it seems possible that we might not. Some people may go "well, is that it?". I get it, but I was so into this series that this never occurred to me. (Story: 10/10, Characters: 8/10)

Art: The animation was strong is very specific areas and weaker in others. Studio Deen has done some excellent work with series such as Seven Deadly Sins and Sakura Trick. Backgrounds went for a watercoloured shading, though had this weird line pattern through some scenes. Not sure if this was intentional, but you can barely notice it unless you're looking really hard - it's not that obvious on mobile either. Character designs were a mix of strong and different. What I mean by the latter is that they had a habit of showing characters without their eyes at far-off camera shots. While not terrible, I'm not sure what the goal was there. However, lighting made this series really shine (pun not intended) during some of the nicer shots. I was a huge fan of this. Random thing, I was a huge fan of the way they coloured our characters' eyes though. (8/10)

Sound: The atmosphere they go for is to constantly try and remain laid back, and the OST sure did that. The OST is almost entirely light piano tunes and this matches up very well with the series. The OP and ED also do the same job. VA work is strong throughout - I would have liked to see how this series would have panned out with the right English dub actor because there was so much raw emotion that Yuki Nakashima (Saki) put through here that I don't feel like I truly appreciate when it's in a language I don't naturally understand. (8/10)

Overall: Days with My Stepsister was fantastic, and should be a watch for any fan of the romance genre. It doesn't try and be stark like Domestic Girlfriend, but rather, take a more serious approach that Love Wind does. Yes, if you don't care for this subdivision of the romance genre, then this won't be something you'll enjoy. But the story was so well written that I don't think I ever thought twice about not finishing this series. If more were to come out, I'd gladly pick it up. (9/10)

I love what The Dangers in My Heart Season 2 stands for. It was the top rated anime of the season it aired in - beating out titans like Solo Leveling, A Sign of Affection and Classroom of the Elite 3. Which is awesome. I'll assume you've seen the prequel for the purposes of this review.

Story & Characters: We are back with Kyoutarou and Anna, both high schoolers with an obvious mad crush on each other. Now that Season 1 has ended, we're onto the next chapter of this delightful adventure. Now, when I say adventure, I mean we're going ... all over the place with our two main characters, and watching them going all over the place, with or without each other, is probably the biggest appeal of this season. One of my favourites was when Anna needed to go to someone for a photo shoot. It allowed us time to see how she is with non-classmates, what Kyoutarou thinks of them, and how others interact with them. These are the things that drive character-driven narratives such as The Dangers in My Heart Season 2. Another one of my favourites was when Kyoutarou ended up at Anna's house during a rainstorm with her dad. Why is here there alone with this scary 'giant', what does he do next, how does he interact with him? These are all so interesting to me.

Our characters are fundamentally the same, but they have certainly grown since we last saw them. The biggest and most obvious change is that both Anna and Kyoutarou have noticed that they love interacting with each other, but are almost denying how they feel. I'm sure it'll big some anime fans because it'll be the old "just kiss" meme again, but I actually think their approach to their relationship with each other was done very well. Anna isn't quite as goofy and aloof as the first season, but I'm pretty okay with them moving past this fascination. After all, it's those obvious obliviousness that made Anna, Anna, so now, we're ready to see how else she is like. A lot more of her real emotions start to show up, even if she doesn't straight up say it. Kyoutarou is the person we are watching the show through, so we know most of how he feels. I feel like most of his appeal is his funny reactions to how Anna is, or trying to deny how he feels. Most of these end up being fun, but there are some minor misses.

The only real issue I had with this series is the lack of real secondary cast. A lot of Anna and Kyoutarou's friends don't have much of an impact on the series. Yamada's father might have had the best moments for me, even though he wasn't around a lot of the episodes. The way he is is rather unique to romance series, but he's an awesome addition. Shou Adachi still has a mad crush on Anna, but his personality is such a weird mix with the series. He's also completely oblivious to how Kyoutarou is. Kenta is a character I started to like in the first season because deep down, he's a gentle guy who is crushing on Honoka. I really wish they were more present in this series but they could have gone with that idea a few times. Moeko is one of Anna friends, but she doesn't really fit into the "bestie" mold. She's just kind of there, like everyone else.

While I love what most of the story does for our main couple, there are a few characters that don't really do it for me. And that's fine because you're not watching this series for them. The main focus is on Kyoutarou and Anna, and seeing all the different ways for them to try and interact with each other keeps this series as it's best. (Story: 9/10, Characters: 7/10)

Art: Animation here is more or less the same as the previous season, but there a lot slower scenes which make it stick out more. I like these! I'm still not entirely settled on the character art, but we can look past that. (8/10)

Sound: Similarly, sound was solid with, what it feels like, more piano tunes in the OST. The OP, Boku waa..., is an awesome tune and one that's found a spot on my YouTube playlist. The ED is fine, but not likely better than the last one. VO work is excellent, as is the case with anything John Swasey voice directs. Katelyn Barr (Anna) doesn't voice in a lot of softer roles, but she does an excellent job with Anna's up and down emotions of this season. Clint Bickham (Kyoutarou) is really not someone I'm familiar with outside of Bloom Into You, but he also is excellent here. Two others that I liked were Emi Lo (Moeko) and Jay Hickman (Mr Yamada). (9/10)

Overall: The Dangers in My Heart Season 2 is everything I wanted it to be, and more. This is one of the better school romance series around and I'm certainly glad it got a second season. Apparently it covers up to volume eight of the source materially and currently only nine are out, so I can't really see this getting another season, but I would certainly watch it if it became a reality. (9/10)

This season of Demon Slayer with the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc is just kind of what it sounds like at this point - lots of training and not a whole lot else. I got about what I thought I'd get and considering what's been teased at what's coming next, I'm mostly okay with that.

Story: The premise of this season is pretty straight forward - have the Demon Slayer core get as strong as they possibly can in the limited amount of time they have before fighting Muzan. The Hashira, mostly as a group, decide that in order to achieve ... this, each member of the core will go from Hashira to Hashira as they undergo different types of training. For example: Mitsuri Kanroji's training focuses on flexibility. Each Hashira has a different form of training as we mostly follow around Tanjiro as he goes from trial to trail.

There really isn't much to the story, which is this season's biggest downfall, especially because it's only eight episodes long. There were zero fighting sequences with demons, but there were decent action scenes in very brief moments to sort of make up for it. The plot doesn't advanced all that much and it mostly feels like filler content, outside of maybe the first episode, and last episode, the latter of which really hypes you up for what's to come. This is kind of how we know where the story is going to go and as a non-manga reader, I'm exceptionally excited for the trio of Infinity Castle movies that are set to come - though we don't know when yet. (6/10)

Characters: Tanjiro takes on each separate Hashira trial, and it's his work ethic that really sticks out in this episode, even if he's playing it dumb sometimes. He's clearly still adored by the lower-rank core members, which is kind of neat to see. Zenitsu and Inosuke are seen in a few episodes and watching them react to the training was somewhat amusing. Kagaya Ubuyashiki got some screen time too and, assuming everything that other characters said about him was true, then he's far more clever than I originally though. Nezuko was basically absent for this season due to story-related reasons.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that it was nice to check in on the Hashira. We haven't seen a few of them for quite some time, so seeing them all, along with some minor story detail on a bunch of them was likely the best part of this season. Giyuu, Shinobu, Gyoumei were present and even Tengen was still sticking around. They really do create some awesome sequences and if they're all basically involved in the next arc - that's gotta be a let down if they aren't the most fun to see, right? (8/10)

Art: Shocking, ufotable is still the best in the business. Obviously there wasn't as much flash as usual, but this is still a beautiful series. (9/10)

Sound: The OST is basically the same, which is perfectly fine. The OP is fantastic, as My First Story and Hyde team up for both that, and the ending. This might be the most stacked VO cast, even if you're only looking at the Hashira. Johnny Yong Bosch (Goyuu), Erika Harlacher-Stone (Shinobu), Ray Chase (Tengen), Erik Kimerer (Obanai), Kaiji Tang (Sanemi), Griffin Burns (Muichirou), Kira Buckland (Mitsuri) and, one of my favourites of all time, Crispin Freeman (Gyoumei). It's insane. (10/10)

Overall: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc is definitely nothing special outside of the first and last episode. The middle six episodes play off as filler and just kind of acts and both character and physical development for our characters and that's likely not the reason people watch this series. Still, the movie trilogy is probably going to be insane. I can't wait. (7/10)

Add to the pile of "anime that I have a hard time evaluating" because it has a lot of good stuff in there, but there are a handful of little things that sort of get in the way. Still, there are a lot of things that set this apart from other series in its genre.

Story & Characters: Shy takes place in a fairly distance future in which super heroes are in each country and it's their job to help humanity feel safe - whether it's saving people from natural disasters, or fighting the next big baddie that comes to town. Teru Momijiyama is ... a fourteen year old, and goes by the code name Shy. She's not particularly special, but her obvious trait is that she has devastating anxiety around literally any human being - thus the name, Shy.

Evaluating her is such a hard thing to do because that personality kind of defines how everyone in her world sees her. She has an exceptionally hard time talking to people and an even harder time getting people in Japan to accept her as their hero. For context, each country has one hero, so when trouble arises that requires more than one hero, another country's assigned hero needs to assist. Shy's first act of duty is at an amusement park where a rollercoaster has frozen while it's upside down, fifty feet in the air. One of the occupants, Iko Koishikawa, insists that she is saved last, as she wants to see the others on the ride, including her brother, Daigo, saved first. Why does this, but not without some minor consequences to Iko, as she gets a minor injury from the ride.

First, I have to say, I really like how this series sets you up. We have this hero, who wants to help everyone that she can, and right away, she's faced with this situation where she feels like she has failed not just the person in front of her, but the whole country. A running theme in this series is about what you feel with your heart and they incorporate this into the series very well. For a fourteen year old, she takes what she does VERY seriously and for the story to basically tell us that she needs solve her first big obstacle from an accident is excellent. It made this arc extremely compelling, and sets you up with basically everything you need for the rest of the series.

Iko's arc basically becomes central to Teru's first step in character development, and boy, for a non-hero, I love what Iko brings to the table. The greatest thing is that I'm not even sure why I love her so much. It might be that I love the "best friends" approach that a lot of action series has, but that's not entirely her purpose in the series, especially the first arc. After being saved, something mysterious occurs to her, and Iko does everything to tell Teru that she's an inconvenience. What makes this even better is that now, Teru is faced with this situation where someone, whom she just met, is telling her something about themselves that she keeps telling herself. I really wish the series played off of that more than it did, but this situation is basically telling both Teru and Iko to not beat themselves up so much, especially in situations that you can't help.

Stimga is likely the big baddie that is the key player opposite to the heroes that form in this series the series doesn't really do much to introduce who he really is, aside from some brief conversation. Stigma doesn't really say anything to give himself away, but this early in a series where it looks like he could be the main villain is usually okay. Tzveta shows up later in the series in the final arc of the season and her story feels, while solid, somewhat confusing after the initial episode ten story. Still, episode ten is what makes her, as well as Pepesha. Pepesha is the Russian hero, capable of forming clouds (steam?) with her hands and use them as her weapon. She's your typical happy-go-lucky character, but they certainly try and break her in the final arc. The resolution was probably stretched out a little more than I would have liked, as it feels like they went back and form with no real purpose a few times. It stalls what was a decently paced series.

The second arc introduces other heroes, such as Uni-Lord, who oversees all the heroes, the China hero, Li Ming Ming, the Britain hero, David Wonder Jones and the Swiss hero, Piltz Dunant. As a group, they look out for each other, but they do feel unique enough that they didn't really bother me. They weren't really involved in the plot too much except for David, who saw some screen time in the second arc. The arc itself was fine, but again, felt like it went on for longer than it needed to. Finally, Shrimpy is Shy's floating companion who is in the shape of a shrimp. He doesn't do much aside remedial tasks, but having him there gives someone else that Shy is comfortable with and for that, is probably a net positive.

I didn't really know what to expect in a story about heroes, but they had some really strong plot-related ideas that hit really well for me. This series gets very emotional at times, the biggest of which was in that aforementioned episode ten. Teru's far from the best written protagonist and having a weak lead has buried some series before. Still, there's enough here that I feel like she can continue to grow. (Story: 8/10, Characters: 7/10)

Art: While fine, I couldn't say I was the biggest fan of the series animation. It was fine, but definitely not better than My Hero Academia, whose visuals are also not exceptional. 8bit is the studio that handled this series, and my guess is that this series doesn't get the attention that other bigger names that this studio produces, does. These might include That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Blue Lock, Yuru Camp and The Irregular at Magic High School. (6/10)

Sound: Shy gives off a very comicy vibe with it's OST, one that I'm not surprised at. I wasn't the biggest fan of either theme song, but probably match up here just fine. Voice work is equally fine, with one exception. Bryn Apprill (Iko) was easily my favourite of the voice cast here. She goes through so many emotional ups and downs, and my guess is this was one of her better works that I've heard her have. Natalie Hoover (Pepesha) is also worthy of praise here. With Aaron Campbell (David), I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a nature British accent and at least to my untrained ear, it sounded pretty solid. I was just kind of fine with everyone else. Marisa Duran (Stigma) takes a crack at an evil little boy and I think I'll be more comfortable with hearing it more as we go along here. (7/10)

Overall: Shy really surprised me because the stories that it told were done really well. It takes time - maybe a bit too much at times - to tell characters' stories, and try and make audiences care about them. Still, if they can bring this level to the, currently running, sequel, then I think that series will have the same type of success, as long as they mix it up a little, and continue to have Shy and friends grow. This series plays off as a Shounen about superheroes, and anyone interested should feel comfortable with this series. (8/10)

Kaiju No. 8 really deserves all the respect in the world for what it's able to accomplish here. They have all the makings to be the next big "man vs monster" anime. And this first season is a fantastic start!

Story & Characters: Kaiju No. 8's monster of choice are known as Kaiju, gigantic monsters who attack Japan, seemingly randomly, leaving destruction in their wake. The only ones to stop them are the Defense Force. Kafka Hibino and Mina Ashiro, who are childhood friends, make a promise to get into the Defense Force together. Almost two decades later, Mina has successfully ... made it in, while Kafka fails the entrance exams again and again. While waiting for his time, he works on the Kaiju cleanup crew, who basically disassemble any fallen monsters and get them out of the way so that humanity can live once more. Reno Ishikawa joins the group one day, and together, seek to try and join the force together. After an encounter with a random Kaiju, Kafka gains the ability to turn into one of them - dubbed Kaiju Number 8. He uses this newfound power to try and get into the military - all while keeping his secret.

Kafka is a really fun character, who is highly respected by many of his peers. And he really earns it. Because of his background in Kaiju cleanup, he understands the inner workings of the monsters better than many of his peers. He uses this knowledge to do his job more efficiently, even though his physical attributes are at the butt end of many others' jokes half the time. He doesn't care. He just wants to make his way up the chain of command so that he can earn the respect of his childhood friend - Mina. Mina, who has worked her way up, is now a captain in the Defense Force, capable of wielding the biggest weapons in the squad. Her character doesn't really shine outside of this, but I am very eager to see where they take her. Reno also seeks to join the Defense Force, and acts as a bit of an understudy to Kafka. After gaining of mutual understanding of each other, the pair are inseparable after the plot starts to take shape. I am a huge fan of the 'best friend' mantra that a lot of shows have, and these two form that fantastic pair - tons of chemistry, really smart and even funny at points.

Kikoru is shown to be a bit of a protégée in fighting the Kaiju, but unlike Mina, she shows a bit more of her personality in the early going. She has a bit of an ego, but very quickly shows that there's more to her than her physical gifts. Soushirou Hoshina is the vice-captain of the squad, and is a monster in battle. He's fun to watch, and is a pretty entertaining character to boot. I'm glad we got to see him in action too. Other squad members that were shown were Iharu, Aoi, Haruichi, Konomi and Gen and they're all pretty solid. Isao, Kikoru's father is a pretty well written character. He has motives for doing what he does and even though you question his methods, you kind of get where he's coming from. Kaijuu No. 9 also makes an appearance, mostly as the boss-man of the season. He's a bit of a strange one, but obviously very menacing with what he can do. I'm a little worried they showed too much of his powers at the start, but there's gotta be more to him.

The way the story plays out feels a little too comfortable at times, and that's probably the biggest weakness that this series has. You start somewhere near the bottom, but slowly work your way up. The thing with Kafka is that his road to his goal gets accelerated because of his early encounter with a Kaiju. So while it is good to skip a few steps in a series that may otherwise require it, it does make the story feel a little too predictable. The thing that saves it is that it's very entertaining along the way. There's plenty of action, and when there's not, there are either tense moments, or good backstories being told.

One downfall that other series of this type have is that it feels like the writers feel that the story could get bland, so they try and mix things up. While this could theoretically happen with this series, I'm not entirely sold that it will. We're not exactly talking about deep history or another nation like we did with Attack on Titan, a series that got too fancy for my liking on these facts. Instead, we have our characters whose sole purpose is to eliminate mindless beasts and I'm here for it. With another season very quickly announced, I hope they stick this one to the end. (Story: 8/10, Characters: 9/10)

Art: Just like many other series produced by Production I.G, Kaiju No. 8 looks fantastic from start to finish. There is a slightly leaning on CG that people squint at, but I felt like they used it in a way that wasn't too offensive. You really have to be careful because it backfires so often in other series. The OP is actually completely CG and is a nice mixup from seeing spoiler-filled scenes. Action sequences are awesome and even though you're mostly dealing with people shooting each other, they mix it up enough that I'm not bothered by it at all. (9/10)

Sound: The OST is very solid with tense tunes in between the good ones. The OP, Abyss, is a fantastic fit for this series, along with an ED, Nobody, by an American Band, OneRepublic. I've never really seen that before so that's really neat. Voice work is fantastic, and very quickly getting to be a fan of the voice cast that Shawn Gann, the voice director, assembles. I haven't heard much of Hazeeh Tarsha's (Kafka) work, but he was awesome here. I'm basically unfamiliar with most of the cast between Landon McDonald (Soushiro), Abigail Blythe (Kikoru), Adam McArthur (Reno) and Celeste Perez (Konomi). I am happy to hear Alejandro Saab (Kaiju No. 9), Christopher Wehkamp (Isao) and Jonah Scott (Aoi) though. (9/10)

Overall: Kaiju No. 8 is a fantastic watch for another who wants to see a man vs monster series. And it's not just for the action either - there are some strong story bits in here too, back with really high production value. This series got really hyped at the beginning and I was slightly worried it wouldn't be able to keep up - it did. The plot's certainly not deep, so audiences looking for something like that might be disappointed, but I'll definitely be checking out the sequel when it airs. (9/10)

Jobless Reincarnation has gone through some weird changes from season to season, and while the storytelling is still very good, I'm not sure it's really capitalizing on what made it so exciting to begin with anymore. The second part of Season 2 changes this direction once again, but does it do enough to keep it's audiences captivated? I'll assume you've seen all prequels for the purposes of this review.

Story & Characters: Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 2 Part 2 leaves us off with Rudeus, who is now reunited with Slyphiette. Now together, they seek to find a place to settle down and ... call home, but disturbing news seems to pop up not once, but twice in front of Rudeus, so he now needs to fix some wounds in the world, both related to those close to him.

This season starts off on the right foot, for sure. Who wouldn't want to see these two reunited? They bring out the best in each other, and I'm happy to report that the storytelling still remains strong, if not a little predictable. This honeymoon phase takes a few episodes to wrap up, which might be a little too long for my liking. There's every bit of me who wants to see what other crazy things Rudeus can do in battle, and to take a handful of episodes for a slice-of-life arc seems a little light for what Jobless Reincarnation started out as. While you do see a strong amount of growth in Rudeus, especially after his proposed plan with his future during the finale, it still feels like there's some amount of childish in him that needs to be weeded out. Syphie is still the same adorable part-elf that we know and love. Her role in this season takes a bit of a backseat, but is somewhat unsurprising considering the amount of material she had in previous seasons.

The second arc features Rudeus' sister Norn, and half sister Aisha, and what they seem to be doing ever since they got split apart from Rudeus. Neither really have a frame of reference to go off because we haven't seen them since they were barely able to talk, so seeing them again brings a bit of freshness to this series. Norn doesn't seem to be the magical genius that her brother is, and does have some complicated feelings towards her brother when we finally switch to her. I actually really like how they play it out because it connects to some story bits that we haven't been fully exposed to yet, but they really rushed the way it concluded. Correct ideas, just mediocre execution. Aisha, meanwhile, does seem to have a decent affinity with magic, but doesn't seem too keen on using them for much. She has other goals, and she seems really mature for her age. I get that her role can leave her to be kind of forgotten, but she certainly wasn't here. She shares a certain bond with Norn that I respect.

Side characters that pop up in between arcs still remain aplenty here, as Rudeus crew are still ever faithful to him than ever. Zanoba remains his most obedient follower, while Clff seeks to grow as a person continually. Rinia and Pursena have minor roles, but I still like that they hang around Rudeus. Shizuka also goes through some growth in this season and I'm curious where they take her as her studies continue. Roxy reappears in between two of the arcs, and is a welcome addition to our cast after missing for so long.

The final arc launches us into a labyrinth where it's been rumoured that there are sightings of Rudeus' family. This is "easily" the best part of the series and kind of brings us back to what Jobless Reincarnation does so well. It's here that we see the most action and at the season's conclusion, emotion. There's everything you could want in this arc, and what I suspects allows this season's MAL score to float in the mid 8s, as opposed to low 8s. The way it wraps up is absolute perfection, and even more emotional if you find out why Japan delayed the second last episode by a week on purpose. (Story: 7/10, Characters: 7/10)

Art: It might just be me, but it feels like there's been a dip in animation quality since the first season. Studio Bind isn't a large studio at all and even during the stable scenes, it doesn't feel like the quality is top notch. Action sequences also differ with those of previous seasons. They still make it look solid, but it's not the same as with season 1. This might not come as a surprise, but the fan service is basically completely absent in this season, which might be fine because Rudeus continues to grow. (7/10)

Sound: The sound is still strong, with decent tracks in and around the action. I'm a fan of the OP, On the Frontline, by hitorie. VO work is strong all the way through, and certainly didn't falter as the seasons went on. I have to give major props to Michelle Rojas (Roxy), who spent all of June recovering from, what she phrased as "major abdominal surgery" on her X account, also adding that she had to place her "voice differently because (she) couldn't use her diaphragm". I cannot fathom how this must feel, especially with some of the lines Roxy had here. Absolute insanity. I'm really surprised that she didn't ask for a voice match while recovering. Madeleine Morris (Rudeus) loves voicing Rudeus and my guess is that this is one of her most recognized works now. Emily Neves (Sylphie) still remains strong with the cute girl style voice. Bryn Apprill (Norn) has some emotional bits in the finale and, not like I'm surprised, but she knocks it out of the park. (9/10)

Overall: Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 2 Part 2 is still a decent watch with emotional episodes, relaxing episodes, and suspenseful ones all in this season. I'm just not entirely sure this is what made this series popular. We've seen emotional, storymoving bits before with Eris' arcs in the previous season, but there's basically only one real action episode in this entire thing. I'm not sure where they go with the story after the events of this season, but they put so much work into the combat portions in the previous seasons that it'd be a waste to stray to far away from that now. I enjoyed this season still, but hope that it tries to go back to what it was before, before too long. (7/10)

Attack on Titan: Final Season - The Final Chapters is the grand finale of everything we've seen since the original Attack on Titan first aired. What an incredible journey from start to finish. There's certainly been ups and downs as the series went on, but just about everyone should mark this anime series as a success. So let's talk about it!

Story: Attack on Titan: Final Season - The Final Chapters is split into two large episodes. It seems like a fitting ending to series, though it feels like the norm these days. The Rumbling has started and now our Scouts ... must find a way to regroup, and catch up to Eren before all of humanity is crushed to death. That's it. That's literally the story. But how do we fill two and a half hours of this?

The movies start out with a glimpse into the past at when Eren and the Scouts visited some areas on the island across from the sea, and this part was done reasonably well. This would have happened between the time skip and it's nice to see some material in between when things started going into hell (well... more hell anyway). I like what they did here from a perspective of, you're basically watching as a lot of these "kids" (ie: Eren and his generation of Scouts) see the outside world for the first time as, mostly, observers. It starts the movie on a lighter note than most probably predicted, and it starts as warm up to the loads of information they feed you as the runtime rolls through.

I think the question on a lot of people's mind is similar to mine - what on earth is Eren's goal in all of this? I gotta say, I'm really not a big fan of the everything that surrounds his decisions after all was said and done. There's a lot of historical stuff that was included in the series after the time skip and I could never get myself into this sort of thing. Attack on Titan certainly does it better than a lot of others because you're looking at material that's specific to the titans, which are interesting to me, but there's so much to take in after that that you almost want look things up again to get a simpler version. I don't know that audiences want to see this. Obviously Attack on Titan started out as a bit of a revenge tour as Eren wanted to eliminate all titans, but my guess is the author felt that he wanted to include deep explanations for how the past. I get it, and it's certainly deeper than "find the boss, kill titan, win war", but I wasn't fully on board with how they went about it.

That being said, if you want people vs Titans action, boy, are you getting it here. They made sure to cram in as many action sequences as they could, and the fights only got better as they got closer and closer to Eren. It ramps up really nicely. So while the story minus the flashback aren't just action, action and more action, they do a really good job at making sure things flow nicely, and the pacing stays evened out, for the most part.

My understanding is that the way they went about the ending was changed from the source material, and while I don't know offhand how it ended in the manga series, you can't really tell anything feels off here. Which usually means the ending was done justice. And yes, it does feel good. I do think the ending could have used another couple more minutes, as there's not a lot of stuff after the fights are completed, but only really to hammer out some of the minor details, at best. Seriously, the story was done well, outside of anything surrounding Eren's decisions. (9/10)

Characters: There's not really any one character you can hyper focus on as being the main character ever since the time skip, but Armin might be that person now. He is our guide through the final season here and his intelligence allows him to ask more questions than your average viewer. We view a lot through him as he seeks to find the answer to all our questions, including how and why Eren seeks to end the war that they are currently in. It's incredible to see where he started vs where he ended. Mikasa redeems herself slightly after being mostly a pedestrian for most of the time-skip, but she probably doesn't end up being as popular as she once was. She's just not as 'cool' anymore.

Many of the titan shifters play an important roll here and I love the way they let us see their abilities. Armin, Pieck, Annie, Reiner, Falco. They were all fantastic. My one minor qualm is that for being the Armoured Titan, Reiner sure doesn't hold up very well to a lot of things anymore. Levi is still a monster in combat, even with fighting at half strength. I found his conclusion to be one of the funniest. It just seems so random. Hange is still awesome, even if she's not the weird one that we met, back when we first met her. Gabi is still kind of "there". And then there's Eren and Zeke. I've already highlighted my disappointment with Eren's story above, but he really doesn't say much through the conclusion of this series. (8/10)

Art: MAPPA puts out some of their best work, that I've seen, in quite a long time. Attack on Titan deserves it. It looks smooth, steady and always puts the action at the forefront. This is definitely one of the best action series that I've seen in a quite a while. (10/10)

Sound: Equally up to the task, the sound is amazing here. Kohta Yamamoto has taken over the reins for the sound from Hiroyuki Sawano, for the most part here, and it still sounds like the original's work. Splinter Wolf is obviously the best track here. I'm glad they brought back Linked Horizon for the OP, The Last Titan, as Attack on Titan was probably my first exposure to them, outside of the game Bravely Default. The VO work is equally up to the task here. Jessie James Grelle (Armin) is probably the best here, but the cast top to bottom remains elite. (10/10)

Overall: Attack on Titan: Final Season - The Final Chapters is the ending to one of the more successful long-term titles in the anime world in recent history. What started out as pure desperation to fight the titans, until it transitioned slowly about us learning about these beasts, was a bit of a sight to behold. Lots of grueling action, and lots of deeper story for those that want it. If someone new to anime asked for a recommendation for a longer anime, would Attack on Titan come up? It would. Because it's still strong, despite the bumps along the way. (9/10)

Story & Characters: A Condition Called Love is another school-romance, the genre that I love so much that finding weak points is often difficult in my biased brain. That being said, there are some weaknesses that show up early on, even if the back half is actually a lot better. We start out with Hotaru, whose personality is actually showing up in a lot of anime lately - one of those happy-go-lucky girls who don't really know what true romance is. She clearly doesn't have a problem with that and goes about her school life like any other teenager. She eventually ... witnesses a breakup. It's between an unnamed girl, and one of her schoolmates, Saki Hananoi. She doesn't know much about him, and he doesn't know much about him. That is, at least she thinks so. Until he walks up to her one day and asks her out. Shocked by this random revelation, she decides to ask him to try hanging out first, then decide if she wants to date him. And thus, begins a romance between two unlikely classmates.

Hotaru is cheery, basically all the time. That is, until she questions anything regarding being romantic. Due to inexperience, she often questions herself about whether doing something is right or wrong, and whether the action of her partner is equally right or wrong. For her, this is entirely a journey of self-discovery. What makes her feel warm and fuzzy inside, and to what extent. Outside of this, she's actually very close to her family, something that I feel could have been shown more. There is clear evidence that she holds her family extremely close to her heart, and the fact that it almost counters how Saki feels about his family probably should have been made a bigger deal than it was.

As for Saki, though he often went by Hananoi in the English dub, he's a completely veil of mystery. Like with how Haruto is getting to know Saki, so are we. We don't know who he is, how he is, and what makes him click. We get to learn with Hotaru, and that's a perspective that I really welcomed here. The series does a very good job at making us learn who this guy is, and by the end, we've learned so much. That being said, Saki is a very difficult person to like at first glance. His weird personality traits really don't lend themselves well to a pure, good-willed person in the first half and it makes it really hard for us to care about his troubled past. While the point of this is probably to emphasize the idea of learning about him and working past imperfections in your partner, I feel like they were never directly addressed between our main couple at times, which would have made for some better storytelling points.

Side characters aren't really the main focus and most of them don't have a lot of screen time to speak of. Tsukiha and Hibiki are two of Hotaru's classmates, but other than being typical teenagers, I don't feel like they added much to the overall story. And that's one of the series' shortcomings for sure. Keigo, another classmates, is often involved in weird drama bits and he's probably the only character of any significance. It's not a bad thing because what he brings mixes well with the story, but he can't be the only one.

The obvious appeals are both finding out who Saki really is, and seeing how Hotaru experiences dating for the first time. The journey of this discover has its ups and downs for sure, especially in the beginning. Being "this" forward with Saki's character could scare some audiences away, because it's so far and away from the norm. Maybe this serves as a hook to some other viewers, but I could have easily given up on this series a few episodes in.

Something that school-romance anime have issues with sometimes is keeping the plot fresh and unpredictable, but A Condition Called Love really didn't have that issue. Despite lacking significant side characters, Hotaru and Saki always had brand new adventures on their hands. It never got old because of the setting, something that another series like A Sign of Affection did very well. While some of the execution to our couple's problems were somewhat repetitive (ex: putting off a discussion for another day), the process to get there was done well.

The last episode was by far the best one, despite me feeling like a passive audience at certain parts. It's the best at revealing the most to us, in a really great way, and I feel like the payoff was ultimately worth it. I'm curious how this series would go if it continued, but I could make a guess that it would play off of some of the points related to Saki. How do you work past them, and how does he start supporting Hotaru more? They are great questions for another day. (Story: 7/10, Characters: 6/10)

Art: I couldn't say I was bothered by the animation in one way or the other. It was never ugly, but a series like this really doesn't need the highest end animation for it. The art style does look a little similar to Fragtime, another romance series that the studio, East Fish Studio, worked on, but it looked solid throughout. (7/10)

Sound: Like with the animation, sound wasn't too much of a factor in an amazing or terrible way. It was simply fine. I wasn't really hooked onto the OP or ED, but the rest of the tracks seemed fine. Dani Chambers (Hotaru) has put in such good work the last half-decade that always manages to blow be away. She's excellent in romantic roles and this is yet another A+ effort. Most of the rest of the cast are names I'm not familiar with, but they were all solid. (7/10)

Overall: Despite a rocky start, A Condition Called Love still manages to hold my attention because of some strong story parts and an exceptional ending. I can't see this being a big hit with every romance-lover though, as I feel like Saki can rub some people the wrong way. It makes you go "what did he just say" a few too many times, even if there is reason behind it at the end. This series doesn't necessarily go for lovey-dovey, but still manages to pull off a couple cute moments here or there. Anyone interested in this genre might need some patience before they piece parts of the story together, but can still be enjoyed regardless. (7/10)