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Tasuketsu: Fate of the Majority - A high-stakes, psychological death game so bad that you'll want to reach out for the "Exit Game" button on your end that has an escape latch.

In the entirety of the AniManga industry, the one genre that it seems to have a tough nut to crack, is the Death Game premise, and seemingly for good reason. You got to have a lot of ingenuity to write a premise that's believable to have a high-risk, high-reward return, alongside characters that would constantly lie and betray, for and against their own kin, just to make ends meet for a victory so sweet ... that lands the remaining one standing: the Survivor, to Outwit, Outplay, and Outlast the competition.

One fine example of this is Spring 2022's Tomodachi Game, which, despite critics from all sides, is still a quality work in and of itself. But for mangaka Taiga Miyakawa's long-running series of Tasuketsu: Fate of the Majority? With just 6 volumes since September 2013, and the series' 4th part just getting started just in December last year, this is a work that, despite being ranked heavily justifiable on AnimeJapan's "Most Wanted Anime Adaptation" back in 2019 (to then fall 5 positions below the following year) based on the popularity of the WN (Web novel), all of these accolades are NOTHING compared to the abstract horribleness that is the anime adaptation being a slob and a slog to sit through all 24 episodes of BS nonsense...that made sense, be it that if you can get what's going on.

The anime itself works like your typical death game scenario, only except that this is more of a strategy puzzle game of wits and brains of a thriller mystery, where its question is the straightforwardness of its game: See the question, answer Yes or No, and the majority dies. But thankfully, just like with any RPG of the sort, it's a collectathon of skills called Rights that just about anyone could weave when integrated together with its user and be used when danger's in the way. But above all, each person has a unique Prime Right that is wholly the individual's alone, and can't be stolen from anyone, unless you're the Emperor that controls this game just before midnight strikes to emit questions daily and cut down the dead weight. Pretty simple, right?

Unfortunately, this is where the anime falters from the manga's writing, which you can think of as laid out in its sequential parts/arcs, that it takes the concept and runs along with it, while leaving the audience with barely any knowledge of what's going on, and forced to follow where the non-stop plot goes until it has time to breathe and explain what just happened back then. To add to the insanity, remember what I said about each person having a Prime Right? It has to be under the correct Attribute in order for the power to be used at its best, which, for the life of me, this is just way too much information just to remember which character has the specific power, that due to the progression of the plot, things could change here and there, that it becomes a whole tangled mess of a webbing.

Simply put, this series has an infodump with lots of characters that, despite inching out who are the real ones in charge (like Saneatsu Narita and Saaya Fujishiro in Part 1, to Raion Ouno leading Tojuro Yagihashi in Part 2), this Tasuketsu death game (if you could even call it that) just seems like an ordinary death game that's beatable under the right conditions, spawned from the cusps of those leading the charge for their own nefarious plans (that doesn't have logic either). The story at the start will put people off, and the high risk of that turning into high rewards at the end, I can confidently say that it's worth the run, though it's up to you to try treading through Part 1's rather mediocre run, to get to Part 2's exhilarating run.

Satelight certainly has seen better days, but over the last 5 years or so, it's beginning to look like the studio has been slowly downgrading into 3rd-rate status with bad animation and lifeless production values that just are like ravens already culling to fly away from whence they're from. For a studio whose Golden Era had been long past pre-Covid, this is the sad deterioration for a studio that is already looking at the finish line long before it started its hellhole down the production pipeline. Getting director Tatsuo Sato for the job, pretty much like its own production on Helck just last Summer, just hampers the success that both series could've had in its 2-cour, 6-month-long run.

The music is wholly forgettable, easily skippable even. Neither the OST nor the 2 sets of theme songs were that good to begin with, and I just find myself easily skipping over them like the plague they are.

In the end, what even is the purpose of this dreaded, lifeless adaptation that seems to drag on for weeks and months on end, for content that will easily disengage just about the equivalance of a TikTok person of small brainsize and have pursuers like myself hoping that the risk to stick with it will pay off with its rewards (which it did)?

Ultimately, the truth of the matter is this: Tasuketsu: Fate of the Majority, is a show that you'd be best to stay far away from if you're looking for a death game to satiate the investment of finite time. While I'd reckon that this is just not it, maybe a try would suffice...?

I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History - Yeah, you go girl, you're carved in history for trying to be the interesting twist in the usual Otome Game villainess market, though it's in the eyes of the beholder if it's any good.

You know the saying: when you see a trope, you'll never be able to look away from it. And this is pretty much true for the new Isekai reincarnation trope that is the Villainess sub-genre, which, since the debut of Spring 2020's Otome Game no Hametsu Flag a.k.a My Next Life as a Villainess, has been spawning countless series like it, bringing ... their own twists to differentiate in the same saturated market where its parent genre came from. And just like the market that it opens the can of worms with one-note authors thinking that they have something unique on their plate, that is ultimately down to the audience to see things as they do fit. Case in point, novelist Izumi Okido and said series of Rekishi ni Nokoru Akujo ni Naru zo a.k.a I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History, a series that, while it doesn't bring anything new to the table of ever-present Villainess tropes, presents a story plot that, in my opinion, is a good contrast to HameFura that it's still as enjoyable on its own.

The best way to describe the anime is in the form of the TL;DR: it may be nothing new with recycled/repeated tropes, but what it chooses to do with everything else is worth its own platter that's worth taking a look into. And this premise starts with MC Alicia Williams, the self-proclaimed Villainess expert who was reborn from a girl playing the Otome Game where she comes from and adores her character to an endless degree, so much so that she got Thanos-snapped into the game as the titular character herself. And with the girl finally weaving her soul into said character, she can finally live her dreams, becoming the villainess that she always has wanted to be, to tackle the game's events, and make it flow just as smoothly as she is plowing through its sequences to get to her good ending.

This is pretty much a nonproblem...until the arrival of the good Saint side that's represented by Liz Cather, the game's heroine. And this is where I feel the series stands out with its depiction of realism in the face of idealism and its rather deep philosophical discussion into the heart of the matters involved. You see, Liz may be the sweet-natured girl who should be the idol of the people; however, it's her rosy mindset and naively narrow worldview, believing that everything can be solved just by "having faith." The girl is thinking that she's Mother Mary, spreading her goodwill in good faith to everyone and letting matters settle on their own with no casualties at the end of it all. This is the exact depiction of HameFura's MC of Katarina Klaes, who has the popularity but doesn't have the heart and brains to know what the hell she's doing to coerce everyone to her side by hook or by crook, inevitably forcing Alicia, at the request of the King, to help her grow outside of her comfort zone, but swapping the tide to becoming the heroine instead while Liz is the evil Saint to force people around them to pick sides in this rather epic battle of wits and valour.

This, in turn, helps Alicia develop her villainess character of note, thanks to Liz's ardent followers needlessly picking fights for everyone to pick a side they lean towards, not realizing that the manipulation exists at the very source of it all. Furthermore, Alicia being a commoner of note (again) proves that the Villainess is quite the softie in her heart, being the attention of the Prince of the Kingdom, Duke Seeker...which, come to think of it, she would be a lot like Katarina's character (when it comes to the love interest(s) at the very least), with her being followed and pursued by Duke after he wears off Liz's curse. And I have to say that for a villainess who doesn't get any more love than she thinks she does trying to play the perfect villain character (aside from Akuyaku Reijou Level 99 a.k.a Villainess Level 99's MC Yumiella Dolkness), it's very clear where Alicia's priorities are, though the edge in her villainy side does give her the much-needed villainess energy that whatever she's doing, it's all for said trope's greatness and nothing else. I respect that of Alicia's character despite the overwhelming challenges that she faces, like raising a village that is the land for the Kingdom's exiled people being kicked out for whatever reasons, and to have the young orphan kid of Gill and the elderly grandfather of Will acknowledge her good traits, they don't really care of she's the Villainess or the Saint; Alicia's a good-natured girl towards their well-being.

For sure, the rat race to stand on either Alicia Williams or Liz Cather's side for all of the bootlicking of the political drama, in hindsight, largely makes enough substance to stand out amongst similar contemporaries, and thanks to Izumi Okido's writing, it doesn't come up short with a compelling twist on the Villainess formula.

For years now, Maho Film has had many attempts at holding up its company vision of "wishing to create magical content that makes dreams," and while some series produced by the now 5-year-old studio certainly had that vision come through, its production values certainly have effectively come to a standstill, to a point that it threads between the fine line of mediocre to good. As it is with its last production of Fall 2022's Akuyaku Reijou nanode Last Boss wo Kattemimashita a.k.a I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss, the overall production barely stands out among the rest as works that just get the job done and nothing much, with no "magic" to offer. It's been that way ever since, and I'm sorry to say that Maho Film will never have something decent going forward when it comes to animation.

Just about any villainess show could be done with the least effort when it comes to music, and the show pretty much substantiated my claims that it just has enough to offer and not more than what was required. That said, while Liyuu's OP and Rin Kurusu's ED are decent songs, to me, it just feels like, yet another OST set that's just OK, but nothing memorable. Quite honestly, it's forgettable.

For a show of this calibre, I'm not saying that Rekishi ni Nokoru Akujo ni Naru zo a.k.a I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History is bad; it just needs time to cook its plot to a point that, like a boiling kettle, it boils over for the meat of the content to stand out in the long term. So, take what you will for a show that starts off slow but picks up steam when things are getting heavy that, at the end of the day, serves a quality Villainess anime in the making that's just right.

Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles, Season 2 - What a dumpster fire of a sequel...how could this be the result of a work that despite being potentially average as it is, sink its teeth into something even worse?

Back in Summer 2021, a little show by the name of Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles came out, and despite all of its inherent flaws, I actually found that if you try to open the can of worms that is all of its cut content from the now 26-volume-long LN, there is an intriguing setup that novelist Yuri Kitayama had set up for the adaptations, let alone Season 1 itself ... which was quite the journey that I had 3 years ago reading both the LN and manga forms (though please dismiss the manga as Season 2's content is not brought there) that had the deepest riches of depth in its storywriting that was elaborately interesting, filled to the brim with potential to come when the anime got to that point.

And so it is, fast forward 3 years later to this Fall's sequel, and while the pacing tactic of the anime adaptation is still the same as the prequel, the content itself...is a whole other story that for better or for worse, was a slog to sit through thinking that the next 12-episode set would provide even more mystery to what Season 1 had perfectly set up towards, only to have it be thrown out into the garbage bin for choices that push more of its audience away from the series.

With Season 2 focusing on Volumes 4 and 6 to 8 of the LN, this part of the LN is unfortunately quite the slow burn as the plot now focuses on the 6 Wise Gods' prophecy of the Heroes being summmoned into the fantasy world. This only meant that Kirito-wannabe Rio a.k.a Haruto Amakawa's friends from Japan have joined him in the fray and not knowing what was going on, to connecting the dots between different groups of people that has or had an influence on his life, Haruto's past life, rather. Ayase Miharu, the Sendo siblings of Aki and Masato, as well as the Heroes of Hiroaki Sakata (assigned to Beltrum) and Satsuki Sumeragi (assigned to Galarc), all of which are primary people for Haruto to trace his past and link them to the present with the group of people that had similar experiences from Season 1 (i.e. Suzune Endo as Latifa), it's pretty much a Grimms' Notes version of the backstories that link everyone related towards Haruto in one way or another.

For sure this piece of the content SHOULD be interesting, but as you know that anime adaptations tend to cut a lot of content, and Season 2 is no different from its prequel, though I'd say that this portion of the story is quite straightforward to understand despite the loosening of the narrative for more down-to-earth moments that still has threats continuing thereafter to bring the wrench into Haruto's plans for the foreseeable future. This part here that Season 2 covers, is unfortunately, not the best it has to offer.

What made things worse is with the entire production itself. Back then, TMS Entertainment wasn't the finest studio around with a big budget to work with, but yet still can create works that don't falter, and are still decent at the end of the day. Even if Season 1 had production cooperation from another studio (which was the somewhat competent WAO World), it wasn't this bad, not even with its own in-house Studio 6 department that can actually churn out shows with good production cycles. Oh boy, not with Season 2 here despite having series director Osamu Yamasaki on the seat, while letting a no-name director handle the reigns for everything else, with the novelist herself having to help out in the storyboarding and series-scripting, all while the production is seriously hampered to the dozen that it bears all the marks of a cheap, low-quality animation.

If anything else, the deteriment follows with the music, as now both Aguri Oonishi's OP and Nanaka Suwa's ED are songs that you can just skip and pretend like they never exist. This is sad because Season 1's OST was virtually perfect, let alone Aguri Oonishi's Season 1 ED which was a great song, miles better than the OP that's found here. Oh, and that dual-audio voiceover language act? It's seriously jarring, and for me to say that Mushoku Tensei did leaps better than this, something's clearly wrong.

Oh, dear God, what did we ever do to deserve this blatant downgrade of a sequel? If Season 1 was already this bad, then Season 2 here is really the nail in the coffin for the series when it comes to its anime adaptation. I held out hope that for much of what the prequel was inherently bad at, there was a silver lining that could get me back to actually liking Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles again. But with how Season 2 turned out, oh boy...you're better off reading the LN instead for good measure.

Simply unbelievable...watch Season 1, avoid Season 2 and read the LN at your own pleasure.

MF Ghost, Race No. 2 - Slow to catch up, but the pace is getting better.

It's no secret that famed mangaka Shuichi Shigeno's MF Ghost was not the direct spiritual successor to Initial D as I thought, but then again, like said franchise, after the series has been given another season to spread its wings, I can finally say that I'm starting to understand the EV evolution to the old, carbureted engines that the sequel series here is going for.

With Season 2 taking the adaptation towards Volumes 6 to 10 of the manga, everything about the sequel season itself largely remains the same as its ... prequel season, with the same racers, same MFG race, with the exception of the octane exhilaration growing as the overall race gets tougher with each course presenting its challenges in a way that begins to separate the drivers by speed to skill.

Of course, Kanata is still the star attraction amongst the Godly Fifteen racers (the minority of which I can remember because of their given screentime) that has slowly become the tour de force that everyone must watch out for, because the English racer of Takumi Fujiwara's racing succession is becoming better in the long run, with his trusty Toyota 86 GT that has seen better days with improvements that make both car and driver the fearsome combo. As is the long run with rivals breathing down his throat, as well as the romance (that sadly Shuichi Shigeno just don't know how to write romance stories that well) between him and Ren Saionji on both the private and business fronts, a monster is in the making here, though the young Englishman still has aways to prove his worth as a man of substance.

The dream project of studio Felix Film adapting the series still remains decent with all of the action from the cars and drivers themselves, and it's largely the same as Season 1, so little improvements can still be done across the board. But the Eurobeat music is quickly becoming a distraction...or is it solely the fact that I'm quite nostalgic for Initial D OSTs to strike here, that still remains the question of its effectiveness. All I can say that Yu Serizawa feat. MOTSU's 2nd OP song here is worse than Season 1, you can't even call this song Eurobeat-intensified as it quickly loses it shine being a rock song more than anything, but on the flip side, Himika Akaneya has improved with her 2nd ED song to immense enjoyability that's on par with Season 1, it's the calm and cool EDs taking the stage for the sequel series, that's for sure.

With Season 3 on the docket, MF Ghost is not slowing down any soon as there's more than enough content to adapt at least 2 seasons' worth. But for now, Season 2 is an improvement over Season 1, but it still needs more to bite my satisfaction to say that the sequel series can finally stand on its own two feet that's separate from the juggernaut birthed from it.

Let This Grieving Soul Retire — Man, haven't I ROFLed so much just for insignificant things that need not be escalated to a degree, but I'm glad that this show did to give its not-so-innovative take to a whole new level of insanity.

Maybe it's high time that we should admit that anime should be unadulterated fun once again? It's too often nowadays that the AniManga industry is selling too much of the seriousness, with series that invoke fun that's in-your-face isn't compensating much against the windfall of the ratio between it and the fun that you get for shows like Fall 2022's Kage no Jitsuryokusha ... ni Naritakute! a.k.a The Eminence in Shadow, providing nonsense in the face of comedy. This is novelist Tsukikage's Nageki no Bourei wa Intai shitai a.k.a Let This Grieving Soul Retire, a series that is very much inspired by said series, that takes place in the usual typical fantasy world, but still has all of the Cid Kagenou traits of BS ideologies that make it stand out.

The story of childhood friends who grow up to become notable adventurers themselves, this is the starting point of Grieving Souls, the group that would grow to become famous as the elite party, each and every member of which would become infamous for their own titular monikers. But in the modern day and age of the matter, where treasure hunters thrive by raiding treasure vaults to find relics all over the world (similar to that of your typical adventurers hunting for monsters shtick), and aside from immeasurable wealth, fame, and power, money is the root of all evil. And one person resides at the heart of it all: Krai Andrey, the 20-year-old man who leads Grieving Souls, as well as the established First Steps clan (that's made up of leaders from elite parties, friends, and foes otherwise) that all matters surround every fiber of his being, related or not. The one problem about Krai: as the title shows, he wants to retire from the profession, but due to his position, he can't exactly have the safe way out. And thus, so begins the level of bullshitery and insanity that this man has on his hands, being like Cid Kagenou to direct people to do things on his behalf, disguising the real fact that he's a blatant weak sucker who used other people to elevate himself to God-like status as the only Level 8 treasure hunter with his "Thousand Tricks" moniker. And I swear, this guy's the real deal when it comes to being a Cid Kagenou impressionist, more than anything.

However, don't be fooled by what the show has to go offering for the cast within Krai's circle of friends, because there are MANY. The First Steps clan may have been on both the receiving and rejecting end of elite adventurers who have come and gone altogether with their various parties, but most of them are no joke at all with their high levels and various expertise that make them the people who they are. The Grieving Souls party consists of people like: Level 4 hunter Tino Shade who has a crush on Krai; the Smart sisters of Level 6 hunter Stifled Shadow Thief Liz and Level 2 hunter Deep Black Alchemist Sitri; Level 6 hunter Thousand Swords Swordsman Luke Sykol (and many more who are not featured in the anime), Each and every member of the Grieving Souls is a force to be reckoned with with their various expertises, so much so that Krai WILL always force himself to avoid his own people as much as possible. Being a Cid Kagenou-like character only meant that Krai will and will not get into the graces of the parties, let alone the First Steps clan of leaders that see him as a vulnerability for his weak traits, aside from the Level 8 status being his "true" form of impression for just about anyone. From the clear yandere-ness (or even quite close to the point of Sadodere-ness) of Liz Smart being obsessed about Krai and undermining her disciple of Tino being the weak-ass sorry trait that doesn't match to her strengths, to the Undere-ness of Tino just being subservient towards Krai that she would do anything for him to accept her unadulterated feelings of love, this man's a meat shield for him and him alone, maybe even the luckiest fella to "swipe left" to almost every situation that he could wipe his dirty hands clean of and let loose himself, because he genuinely doesn't care at all, and wants nothing but love and peace in his life.

The madness of the delusion of Krai is quite up there, but beneath all of the BS in his life, his decisions being the troll that moves people to worship at his feet is quite the hilarity, despite his emotionless facade that's all but hiding most of his ulterior motives. If anything, character development by the masses plays a more important role in this show than the story itself.

The only negative point of the show would be its production; I wished that it could be better, knowing studio Zero-G can actually produce decent series alright. However, the staff team comprising of people whom are a bunch of no-names, that was the biggest fear going into the anime, and I can safely say that despite looking average, it gets the job done for the most part.

The music was something else, though. While it worked for the most part, I can't help but push it to the background, not because it's bad, but because it's distracting at times. This is especially with the use of the narrator (which actually adds to the hilarity of setting up the episode scenarios) that adds to the comedy factor of the show, which I can't quite stand at the very beginning, but ultimately getting used to it since it's used prominently. Both Lezel's OP and Pmaru-sama's ED are decent in their own right, though I can't say that I got invested in the rather eclectic visuals of either of them.

At the end of the day, if Nageki no Bourei wa Intai shitai a.k.a Let This Grieving Soul Retire is a Cid Kagenou impressionist anime, then that's what both you and I are here for in the first place. Despite the initial confusion of the terms (which you have to get used to understanding the larger-than-life "plot"), all is gone when you put the one key factor that'll make the series shine at its best: the manipulator that is Krai Andrey and his BS shmuck tactics that have everyone being trolled for better or for worse.

It's not a perfect show, but for what it is, it's comedy unhinged for the right purposes and typical fantasy on the other to invoke mixed feelings on its execution.

Reincarnated as an Aristocrat, Round 2 — This Isekai has evolved into something better, and I can finally say that this is quality Isekai...though with a set of quirks that still lags it down.

It's safe to say that since Spring of this year, novelist Mirajin A's Tensei Kizoku, Kantei Skill de Nariagaru a.k.a As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World, has actually a lot of things going for it that makes it a quality "Isekai reincarnation" story in the making, though it wasn't fully realized when it seems that the series is taking the split-cour treatment to have ... both seasons air just a season apart so that the quality of the anime can be improved upon. And just after its opening notes of 6 months past, here we are back again on the second inning of the series, which dives straight into the menaces of wartime democracy. The question here for Season 2: Did the Appraisal portion actually improve on this portion of the series? And I have to say that it's a yes, though it's more of a wary "yes" than anything.

With Season 2 focusing much on the Missian war arc, at this point in time, Ars Louvent and the gang, after having the former's father pass away, have a good notion for the son to move on to better things ahead. He and everyone must prepare for the impending war at hand to progress Missian as once an autonomous country that, with the setbacks of its predecessors, divided the land into provinces, each their own, back to solvency and harmony once again. That's quite the lofty goal coming from a reincarnated young boy, who's now a Lord in his own right and leading people beneath him to ensure that friend or foe, everyone deserves a second chance in the pursuit of harmony. The thing is, reality is not so simple as to follow one ambitious dream, as the battle between good and evil has its drawbacks, with sacrifices having to be made as each person sees issues differently, specifically the rivalry between the Salamahkia family, to which the clear divide between brothers Couran and Vasmarque has drawn this war to a stalemate to unite Missian altogether. One must go, and the other will live on to see his dreams be realized once the generals have been culled, once and for all.

You can pretty much take my overall thoughts about Season 1 and apply it here, because they haven't quite addressed any significance about the characters themselves, though in this season, Ars got quite the upgrade that was sorely needed with his Appraisal abilities on the people that he hadn't yet met (which still is the focal point despite all of the war going on). Some people will like to lament that Ars's character development deteriorated because of the wartime subterfuge that he's not used to, and while I agree this to an extent, the son having his father Raven teach him about warfare back in Season 1 being the kicker to prepare for what Season 2's content lies ahead solves only half of the experience as a boy that's the equivalent of a peace treaty paper. But still, you cannot discount that Ars has been given proper development in the face of adversity when innocent lives are on the line from the pledging towards the loyalty of a young one who technically is only half-prepared on his wits for battle, despite his intelligent mindset thanks to his one and only valuable skill. 

Putting the series in a split-cour format only will result in constraints in production, and sadly, Studio MOTHER and series director Takao Kato were wholly underprepared for the amount of time they had to spruce up Season 2 being heavy on the action department. It's very telling when sacrifices have to be made to make the non-stop, endless battles interesting, and it shows when production went sloppy at certain moments of the season. Season 1 looked better by a mile, but that's because the action wasn't as prominent as is the case for the sequel here.

The music, however, took a nosedive here. I don't know what it is, but while the OST remains consistent (as it's ever been), now the OP and ED songs have become boring as well. Not to shame on PassCode and Yuki Tanaka for their efforts, but Season 1 clearly wins this by tenfold.

When all else fails, the story will make up much of the experience, but don't count Tensei Kizoku, Kantei Skill de Nariagaru a.k.a As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World, in the same shoes as a similar show in its regard: last season's Shinmai Ossan Boukensha a.k.a The Ossan Newbie Adventurer. My criticism is that Mirajin A did improve on some things (like Ars's Appraisal skill) that make the series stand out, but like Season 1, it inches on key events to help make the difference that, depending on your outlook, will either shine or wither.

For me to say that Season 2 was pretty much like the first, but on the deteriorating side, I was hopeful that it could be a small improvement to aid what Season 1 had set up, but ended up having mixed feelings about it. It's still as tolerable, with the discretion that your mileage will vary on how you critique the series to begin with.

The Healer Who Was Banished From His Party, Is, in Fact, the Strongest — a potentially good story, wasted to oblivion by all questionable plot conveniences. Please Press X to Doubt.

The "Banished from the Hero's Party" shtick has begun to invade Isekai/fantasy works to brainless chums of one-note authors trying to make a buck to varying levels of success. While many lone work authors do succeed to be given a fanbase that has an affection for the respective works themselves, no matter if the story/premise is good or (mostly) bad, I always question the fact of why executives greenlight works that only add the numbers ... to already oversaturated genres doing the same thing, but better. Such is the case for novelist Kagekinoko's Party kara Tsuihou sareta Sono Chiyushi, Jitsu wa Saikyou ni Tsuki a.k.a The Healer Who Was Banished From His Party, Is, in Fact, the Strongest, which actually has a story premise that works generically decently, but with the decisions of a rookie writer's terms that ultimately just don't quite make any sense at all to elevate his/her own story notes, and comes up being the fantasy work that's full of contradicting idiosyncrasies.

As is with every Hero Banished shtick of this regard, this show is no different in its approach of the MC being weak at face value, where is true self is "extraordinarily" strong. This is the topsy-turvy life of the defective healer Laust, a man so infamous they call him Laust the Ignoramus for his incompetence. First being with a party that's just like Wajutsushi a.k.a Notorious "Talker"'s Blue Beyond, where money and exploitation is the root of the evil, Laust doesn't buy into that idea where adventurers within the same party can still get exploited for the work they've done, only to be paid peanuts for it. And since Laust's so weak, the booting is inevitable to restart his adventurer life, and in comes a blue-haired girl who wants to recruit him into her lone party of herself: the assuming young lady of Narsena who's been watching him from the sidelines. And after some negotiation, Laust agrees to share and teach Narsena all that's to know about adventuring, and thus begins their journey anew,

There's one BIG problem about the series itself: the writing of its characters. Laust can be whatever he wants to be, but the main trait of him being the goody-two-shoes character that he wants to seek moral justice in the form of forgiveness and repentance is that he is honestly too good for the world to forgive evil and let the dust settle as it is to avoid having to raise pointless conflicts and needless executions of bad people. Laust is strong alright, but his mentality veers too much to the fictional side of a true-blue Samaritan, that all people, good or bad, have intentions for good. That's where Narsena comes in as the adventurer who's seemingly new to the profession, not knowing much about monster battles and the like, being the disciple of a not-so-remarkable defective healer that she would defend him and his actions on a level of common sense. She too is also a kind soul to people around her and is one of the better-written characters who actually feels like a logical human being at heart. Even as the tide changes with knowing other notable characters, with getting along together "makes the dream team work", and their bond is unmistakable, if ever too realistic when it tries to incorporate things like love lives and such (which I'll admit that the play on romantic love is one of the better executed moments in the anime). However, as I've mentioned, the host of questionable plot conveniences that should've helped alleviate a bigger problem (say, monsters from labyrinths appearing outside of the cave to attack humans, and with higher-ups knowing about this to not act sooner), this unfortunately is the Kamikaze approach of "let situations naturally happen and see what's the best tactic to execute then and there," which by the time the calamities do get out of hand, it's more than just the warning of procrastination before all hell broke loose, to levels of calamity inevitable to escape from.

Alas, the anime itself is a trainwreck on all levels. The no-name 3rd-rate Studio Elle is back to adapt an unremarkable series, and it's not a surprise when its limited production values hamper what is already a below-average work to begin with. And though the animation here, compared to last Spring's Isekai Shoukan wa Nidome desu a.k.a Summoned to Another World for a Second Time, is a lot better than I remember, being the sum of its many parts. However, still, don't be mistaken that this is still a very limited, budgeted adaptation.

The music is easily forgettable, though I'd not figure for the life of me why VA Hina Tachibana can excel as a normal VA, but not when it comes to theme songs (as is the case for the OP), which is just plain bad. At least Sizuk's ED is better somewhat, though not by much.

For once, for much of its bad writing beneath its layers, I was actually hoping that Party kara Tsuihou sareta Sono Chiyushi, Jitsu wa Saikyou ni Tsuki a.k.a The Healer Who Was Banished From His Party, Is, in Fact, the Strongest, could have its story work out somehow, since some elements of it were actually good. But by the graces of Kagekinoko faltering in the writing side of things, the show becomes yet another number to add to the list of shows that you MUST skip and is not worth your time.

You Are Ms. Servant - I...don't understand the hate for this. But there is one cohesive storyline about this - the anime is certainly: more than meets the eye.

In the AniManga industry, there have always been trends to set the pace for the future, along with trends that buck and break because its relevancy isn't so much needed to suit the evolving "tastes" of the global audience (yes, that includes you, the viewer). And for the combo that is the rom-com genre, having been in the same rollercoaster up-and-down tide for years now, it's getting even easier to distinguish the obvious home runs to the ... failed abominations of ideas working separately (or together) and still managing to fumble up somehow. In the case for mangaka Shotan's Kimi wa Meido-sama a.k.a You Are Ms. Servant, that is more likely the case. Where it falls within both spectrums of generic flaws and considerable strengths, and has the ever-so-slightly unexplainable factor that makes this actually a decent series to experience, I really think that you should give the anime the second chance that it awfully deserves despite the negative connotations of the majority.

The generic rom-com story of a high school boy meeting an unidentified stranger at his house, sent by her former master on a simple request to be his servant, with the issue that she has no name to begin with. The high school part is whatever, but the maid has an interesting story to tell: she's been trained to deal with situations pertaining to assassination; that comes from a group where the mark of an assassin is the pride and duty of their living. The thing is, to rebuild her life back to normalcy is proving harder than most, because the maid has been ingrained with assassination techniques so much that things like knives and the like are her primary nature of protection, so much so that things like housework take time to execute to basic understanding and perfection. But the male MC, being the Samaritan that he is, takes his time with the maid to handle house duties, since he's the only one living in his home that's thankfully not swooped with garbage mess (that in the case of other shows, would be the case). And one fine case of a simple rejection that almost caused the life of the MC, begins the somewhat uplifting and emotional ride that would bring both him and the maid together in the typical romance plot. This is the unkempt love story between Hitoyoshi Yokota and his assassin maid servant of Yuki.

For one, what I consider to be the only negative part of the series, certainly lies with the choice of the MC. The orange-haired 16-year-old Hitoyoshi has next to no notable qualities; he's just your average high school sophomore who just so happens to have a tragic backstory with a fellow family member who seemingly abandoned him during his young growing-up years, and having another stranger that best resembles that loved one to induce nightmares about future prospects with taking her in as the servant who draws a blank state to things and situations that she is not familiar with. Yuki, on the other hand, is clearly the star character of the series. Despite her perfectionist assassin background, she is trying to live life anew, one that's totally separate from what she has grown up with (since modern-day Japan has no need for bodyguards and the like), and to see her antics grow from the house to the outside world (with the comedy part being pretty much ado about her striking but innocent personality), there is a tingling sense of relation towards someone who is not used to the world outside of her bubble. From the hilarity of the hopelessness of Hitoyoshi trying to teach Yuki the ways of life that start from the household chores to the outside world of acting just like how normal regular humans do (and helping to take care of his playful pet dog Agemochitaro), it shows that perfectionism is not always the answer for a second chance at life. For these imperfections add the charm to what is already a mysterious character to begin with, that with the passing of time, slowly warms both Hitoyoshi and Yuki together as the couple that everyone clearly awaits the emotional ship sailing, though the road to romance is the bumpy approach of the two that has them wrestle with the idea of romantic love, something that the two share and make that bond together (that still classifies this as a romance story).

To help break the monotony of Hitoyoshi's character, his lil' younger sister Riko stepping in to be the make-or-break factor in the character department, and I have to say that she's a great support character. The cheerful and lively Riko, with all of her big bursts of adolescent energy, helps alleviate the tense moments and add flavour to the charm of the budding relationship between her loving big brother and the innocent maid. And as if that's not enough, the fellows come in on both sides with the catwoman assassin "Grace" Nitta and yet another relatable person with the pink-haired Naka Hikage being peas of a pod with Yuki due to their upbringing. All of this meant that you have a show that slowly gets better over time with relatable characters, not to mention Yuki herself with the whole assassin story being a mystery that slowly has the keys unlocked about her past that ultimately answers why she was sent to the Yokoya residence from the get-go.

For the first time, studio Felix Film helming the infamy of the trinity of anime projects at once with this show, Wajutsushi a.k.a. Notorious "Talker" and MF Ghost's sequel season, I'm actually surprised that the show has always kept as consistent with its production from start to finish. Maybe it's me, but knowing veteran director Ayumu Watanabe is at the helm handling a show of similar proportions (that would be Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu. a.k.a Komi Can't Communicate), the anime is a topic that he knows very well and thus brings his usual excellent directorship to the table, which I'm very glad for. If this is the result to see of next year's adaptation of the much-anticipated Tongari Boushi no Atelier a.k.a Witch Hat Atelier, then the anime is in very good hands.

The music plays quite subtly, so despite it not standing out much, it executes in areas where it warrants and fulfils the needs of key moments, and that is quite the achievement for music composer Masahiro Tokuda, who hasn't had a hit yet with the projects he was on (at least to my ears, Summer 2020's Deca-Dence was great). Tricot's OP and Dustcell's ED are both decent-to-good songs, but it's the choice for the visuals to go full ham expressive (even if it isn't innovative) that I think contributes well to the theme songs and the direct references to expect from the anime to begin with.

Like I've said, I don't quite understand the hate for Kimi wa Meido-sama a.k.a You Are Ms. Servant. Call it a generic rom-com all you want, but I actually think that this is one of a rare handful of series that, despite its rather simple approach to the genre, still manages to play its story out that still gets to the heart of the matter in an efficient but effective manner. I just love this show, along with the countless times it made me smile, laugh and feel at the same time.

The series is certainly better than what you see at face value and is not recommended for the wimps (though I'll take the chump for Hitoyoshi just being bland to improvement over time) who think that generic love can't be salvaged and turned to be something "generically" special.

Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. - A Mahou Shoujo work focused on corporate management? That's a first.

"A satirical, grounded take on magical girls, where they fight the biggest evil of all: corporate management." That's the comment from the ever-so-popular AniTuber Gigguk, and I have to say that the sentence rings true for mangaka Setta Iwaka's lone series that is a fascinating take on the oversaturated Mahou Shoujo genre that houses within the much-popularized platform of where manga series become huge juggernauts in the process: Shueisha's Shonen Jump+. And truth be told, you can experiment on a genre so much to the point where it becomes stale ... by the dozen (at least when it comes to Isekai/fantasy works), but at least in the case for Kabushikigaisha Magi-Lumière a.k.a Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc., it has a promising hook, on the basis that you have to give the anime a second chance to let it stretch its plot in a slow, but tolerable manner.

In the world of Kabushikigaisha Magi-Lumière, the Mahou Shoujo work is taken as a true profession: a legitimate one because of the creatures that roam around, which can quickly become a nightmarish catastrophe: Kaii, monsters that come in all sorts of ranges that's pretty much like Pokémon with their various types. And for the sole girl that is the new college graduate of Kana Sakuragi headhunting for her first job, she has an excellent depth of memory to offer, but most companies would find it to be more of a liability than anything. That is, until she comes across the Mahou Shoujo of HitomI Koshigaya having to exterminate a Kaii in an emergency situation, and with her depth of knowledge being the prime factor to help the Magical Girl defeat the creature, Kana is immediately signed onto the unkempt start-up company that is Magi-Lumière, where Koshigaya is the company's Mahou Shoujo spokesperson.

For one thing, birds of a feather flock together, and Kana finding herself within an old, rundown building that houses the startup company alongside eccentric people that ranges from the crossdressing Mahou Shoujo fanatic of president Kouji Shigemoto, his able HR secretary of Kaede Midorikawa, alongside magic engineer Kazuo Nikoyama, not one single person is sane in this small startup company. But if there's one thing going for them, their quirks make up the fact that despite having more than 500 Magical Girl companies established for the very reason to exterminate Kaii, Magi-Lumière stands out for its orthodox approach to the standard, typical work that is assigned: to create and assess their aesthetics, as opposed to big corporations like AST Corporation's president Kei Koga and his able-bodied, all-rounder Magical Girl of Mei Tsuchiba, who is the best representation of Japan's typical Black Company culture, putting funds and results first before people. The dynamics of Magi-Lumière being the startup company as it is, they need not conform to hard-and-fast rules that would be the irate response to workers quitting, and instead, can establish themselves as a Magical Girl company operating on their own terms, terms that would not assume or judge people at face value, and the wholly trust by hiring them based on their hobbies and likings that would be future contributions to the company in a good way to help excel the growth into a good reputation. Now that's the mark of a strategic company, especially for Magi-Lumière's status as a small organization willing to experiment on the good and bad and see what works to advance their limitations forward.

The anime being yet another one of J.C.Staff projects for the Summer/Fall seasons, the No. 4 of 8 shows, certainly is the mark of what I would come to expect of a J.C.Staff show, though it's the collab with the smaller studio Moe being its first foray into anime production. While the overall production is a touch above average, it's a thing of beauty to see the classic Mahou Shoujo transformation trope get some much-needed love, with each girl getting a minute or two spliced just for their somewhat heavily elaborate transformation sequence that shows every nook and cranny of their Mahou Shoujo likeness. Honestly, I'd feel that this show has not a single minute wasted on anything insignificant, and even if it does, it's only splashing on the minor stuff, and this is the one extent that the hit-or-miss studio Moe director Shingo Nagai and his no-name staff team got things handled right.

The standout would be music composer Makoto Miyazaki's OST for the anime, and given his repertoire of high-profile works, the likes of One Punch Man, Spy x Family, and the most recent of which is Zom 100, I guess I shouldn't be surprised of a veteran's weight and prowess after all. Even both Mafumafu's OP and syudou's ED are good to great, catchy songs at the very least, and I find myself enjoying both songs quite a bit.

It's easy to get lost in the Mahou Shoujo realm thinking that the genre can flex just like Isekai/fantasy does, but at least it's not to the point where it is run dry and overdue to correct its course too late to its run. At least in the context of Kabushikigaisha Magi-Lumière a.k.a Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc., I think that this is a show that deserves a second look, despite looking average and directionless at the very start to set its paces properly. It does have a plot, but like the story of the hare and the tortoise, it's better to plow through the plot/premise slowly than rush through its paces and end up being a trainwreck of an adaptation.

Of course, there is the original source material of the manga to plow through, but why read when you can watch the show instead? With Season 2 confirmed to focus more on the main story at hand, you have no excuses to not give the anime a shot if you haven't yet already, you won't be disappointed.

Goodbye, Dragon Life — Goodbye, animal god life, return to human and heaps of never-ending mediocrity.

Well folks, it's that time of the seasonal reel once again, where Isekai and fantasy come out to play, and us the audience to have to pick and choose our poison to see how good (or (mostly) bad) the shows will turn out to be. And one constant red flag will be no-name authors who think they know better than to have a blank slate of a premise to work on as they go and expand the story from there, which seemingly adds the number to the quantity, not the ... quality. And for one novelist by the name of Hiroaki Nagashima, his lone series (that's still 20+ volumes and ongoing) of Sayonara Ryuusei, Konnichiwa Jinsei a.k.a Goodbye, Dragon Life, is just that: a fantasy series that goes where he wants his MC to travel forth. And let me tell you: please get out of this worse-than-generic warp before it infects you to the point of feeling stale.

Everyone has the opportunity to write something they wish what they want to write, be it influencing or being influenced by similar works, there is no qualms about that. The bad part about that is the list of ideas that they want to bring forth to add substance to their flare, and while not everyone can be like a certain Rifujin na Maganote (author of Mushoku Tensei) and Tappei Nagatsuki (author of Re:Zero), it's totally fine to start somewhere and work to better things henceforth. Only except for authors like Hiroaki Nagashima, who like to just play it safe and hamfist the reincarnation theme on and on with no end in sight...it's a working formula alright, but that formula is VERY flawed because it adds no originality and defaults to everlasting known tropes and cliches that work just for the sake of progressing a story that on top of having little to no substance at all, keeps on harping to no end.

And you need to look at the root cause of the fault, nowhere else than the premise itself: a centuries-old divine dragon who seemingly is done with its life being the infamous warmonger that has raged wars against countless species, so much so that it wishes to be kicked out and reborn again as a normal human living the slow life, and it got its wish as a young man named Dolan living in a "notable" village that's weird for all the wrong reasons: a young girl having a normal crush on him, and milk that doesn't come from a carton, but rather from an actual cow demihuman. This in and of itself shouldn't be right, but it's the author's weird fetish of ideas, so let's just roll with it. Dolan soon getting more accompaniments through the finding of Celina the lamia, who's on an expedition to find her life partner, as well as Christina the swordswoman from the kingdom lands, initially here to investigate what's going on in the unremarkable Verun Village, to then slowly be appreciative of its unkempt nature...with at least the semblance of the typical normal humans. Dealing with the informalities of life, and the usual "evildoers casually invading lands for a fight", it's just the standard "survival of the fittest" mentality that has the strong Dolan equip Celina, who has been for the most part, helpless and a damsel in distress when things go bad, until he decides to train her to become strong to face off against the regularity of monsters, let alone the strong Demon Army with its general Knights. The irony of which, that each and everyone has a personality pretty much monotone, with nothing special to ever talk about.

As is foretold, this is just about as fantastical as it gets being a rip-off of Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life suru Koto ni Shimashita a.k.a Banished From The Hero's Party, I Decided To Live A Quiet Life In The Countryside, but just being on the level of stale bread so tough to chew and the content being fed to the audience that's even tougher to swallow for its bland, flavourless quirks.

Unsurprisingly, the production values are also quite bad throughout. As much as it goes for the past of studio SynergySP's efforts in the action department, its collab with old studio Vega Entertainment having been experimented with before with Summer 2021's Deatte 5-byou de Battle a.k.a Battle Game in 5 Seconds, it's noticeably even worse than this show would allow its hind feet to keep on walking the rough and bumpy path.

Also, the music is just terrible and, with the snap of a finger, instantly forgettable. K-Pop boy band Lun8's OP just is not a good song (or even fit for anime) overall, and I've had better with EverdreaM's EDs (especially with last Fall's Boushoku no Berserk a.k.a Berserk of Gluttony) than this whatever of at least a nice-sounding ED song.

It's a generic reincarnation story alright, but for the life of me, I just find myself tolerating how bad this series could get, and it's even worse on a binge watch because it sets the expectation to force you to watch the following episodes just to see what would happen next.

Don't fault the anime's staff team for this one (even though they're partly to blame for the bad production); blame Hiroaki Nagashima instead for concocting a series that is more than just generic; it's worse than average and serves its own fanbase to be fed endless mediocrity just to keep expectations abreast.

If you excuse me, I'm going to pray to the gods to awaken me out of watching a nightmare that is the epitome of horrible and give me a reincarnation that's better than what this series serves on its broken and dirty platter.