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Once in a while you may come across an anime which you'd literally understand nothing about. Either it may be too complex for your brain to grasp at face value, or it may offer little to zero substance at all that you do not really know where to extract the essence of maybe the characters, the plot, or the premise to begin with. You may watch the thing again, adjust the brightness and sounds just a little bit, still understand nothing, wonder if this shit is some sort of a joke or a failed attempt to boggle the mind of the viewers, rate it with ... the lowest possible score on MAL and carry on with your boring life.

Let's cut to the chase. This short animation can legitimately count as one of those aforementioned moments in the entire lifetime of a casual anime viewer. Ai, as it was entitled, features a 7-second animation of nothing but the roughly presented face of what is apparent to be a woman, as she seemingly changes facial expressions until the scene eventually fades into nothingness (The screen becomes black at like half of the entire 7 seconds, which I think is wasted time and could have been exploited better to add "plot" or symbolism or whatever. Either way I don't think it would be enough to make sense of the story though.) It could've even been possible that the creator never made any serious intent in crafting the animation, or it even appears to be a part of a bigger anime perhaps.

I believe that giving it a score of 1 is obvious, if not necessarily imperative. This is precisely because it does not offer any sort of unique identifiable plot, nor even a distinguishable premise at the very least. Like it could be any story about some woman. It wasn't even enough to make it look like an identifiable scene in a bigger story. Because of this, it could be said that the amount of effort put in Ai that the average reasonable viewer can most likely see is very underwhelming compared to other shorts. A defense of this can be attributed to the time frame of mere 7 seconds to wrap things up, which of course is not enough to create an understandable story, but from what the animation offers, I could feel a lazy attempt to even prolong what isn't supposed to be. I felt like the transition of the woman changing gestures into fading away was even poorly paced, if pacing even existed in the anime short. The problem is that every scene frame does not make a significant difference from the other scene frames. In short, Ai can take out the changing of gestures of the woman, condense it into a single scene and automatically transition into black and still make no difference. In essence therefore, 7 seconds can still be shortened and basically retell the same story, proving that the effort to make wise usage of the time allotment was at best mediocre. Another problem I see in the transition is that the changes in the facial gesture of the woman do not really make sense. They weren't progressive, like you do not know whether the woman is gradually showing positive affect or gradually bursting into tears. It does not tell a clear story, really.

But the actual reason why I wrote this review, aside from my justification of giving it a very low score (the lowest, obviously), is that I found several interesting things in the 7-second short. This definitely does not make the animation more entertaining to watch, nor argue a higher rating for Ai. What it does tell me is that the animation is still worth watching and pondering about. This is based on an idea that making a particular anime very, very vague allows viewers to some extent to craft the story themselves, take note of the significance of minute plot details and take a deeper level of thinking, far beyond what an anime actually offers to begin with. Although it may not be primarily intended by the writers, but somehow taking such role yourself to make sense of it and probably fill in gaps in the plot makes your time spent watching it more or less fulfilling in a way.

One of the interesting things I'd like to point out is the title, and might as well include the genre. The animation is entitled "Ai", which means love, and it is in the romance genre. So people may actually question, "Why the fuck is this anime entitled love? Where the fuck is love shown there?" Usually, when people want to connect the title and the actual plot, we utilize the plot to make sense of the title. Like we ensure that the title fits the plot by making certain that the plot dedicates itself to expounding what the title is actually all about. When for example the title is Fullmetal Alchemist, the plot instinctively becomes faithful to justifying that the anime is all about the Fullmetal Alchemist. What's interesting with Ai, in my opinion, is that the plot cannot justify the title, primarily because number one, the plot does not make sense, and second thing is that even when we viewers try to make sense of the story it does not uniquely fit the title because it could be just any other story - story about pain, depression and not necessarily connected to love. I believe, thus, that it is more appealing to use the title to justify the plot. Like here we are presented with the plot and we use the title to try and make essence of the story. So the slow transition of the woman's facial expressions is about love. What kind of love could it be? Judging from the seemingly pained expression, the woman might be a lover, suffering from pain probably attributed to the failure of having her love reciprocated. So in a sense the transition might be to show us how the woman suffered until she died, with the feelings probably slowly fading away as well. It could be any other story, but considering that it was entitled to be about romance, it could necessarily paint a picture relying heavily on instinctive symbolism to become understandable to the viewer.

Another thing that interested me as well is the two seemingly skin-toned stuff diagonally situated at both sides of the screen, because it provides an additional insight to the possible story the short is trying to convey. At best, what I apparently view them are the woman's legs (And yes I am not intentionally imagining things). This may split into two different possible plot routes. They may sound absurd, but if you actually believe in the significance of every plot detail, surely things could probably be plausible in either route. The first thing, which makes sense of the title "Ai" or love, is that the woman could possibly be having sex. It's not in a perverted way but somehow, it could reveal story of a woman being so in love that she is ready to give up even for instance her virginity for the sake of the person she loves. And what is interesting is that her facial expressions somehow makes sense, and the rough transition in a way jives with this premise. The second possible story line, which I personally prefer, is a picture of childbirth. Similar to the first premise, the pain of childbirth coincides with the facial expressions of the mother, and what's even more interesting is how the transition into nothingness reveals a nice argument for the plot. She probably died in the process. It shows how great the love mothers have towards their children, and at what cost they have to pay. Of course mothers do not normally die because of childbirth, but the effort to bear the pain, even at the face of impending death is something commendable and worthy of salute to mothers.

Ai - So what does it basically talk about? It could probably show anything but clarity. But that ambiguity enables the viewers to reflect beyond what the story delivers, even possibly far beyond what the writer intended to begin with. Ai - A demonstration of love beyond the realm of pain, and how much a certain woman is willing to suffer, all for the sake of people who matter.

Taifuu no Noruda was frustrating.

The thing that I like in the drama genre (well, it was stated that this movie is in the drama genre) is how it will always seemingly attempt to become meaningful to its audience, and the way by which it achieves its meaning can to some extent be separated from the actual overarching story. Both superficially and essentially, what makes a piece of artistic medium meaningful is the general story or message it tries to convey. Most likely, when the story fails, the entire medium becomes trivialized and nonsensical and the viewer has to resort to plot devices, which are often ... cliched, in order to grasp some meaning into the story. Primarily, the plot devices that the drama genre utilizes are to me, far more effective in creating meaning than most other genre. Things in drama like cheap feels, even when the main story does not make sense, often tells the viewer that there's something more to the story, and basing from the viewer's perceptions and experiences, symbolism and embodiment of human realities are re-imagined by the viewer himself, even if such things were not even intended by the medium to begin with. This is probably because strong emotions like sadness are the ones associated with those symbolisms. Other genre, like comedy and action, when they become trivialized, and excluding the incorporation of drama in the stories they progress to, are vulnerable to being boring and insignificant. Taifuu no Noruda was cliched with this respect, but nevertheless highlighted this feature of drama rather satisfactorily to me, despite a very poorly presented main story.

So taking the main story into consideration, it could be said that almost everything did not make sense. The pretty obvious explanation was that there was very limited room for story development. But even with that, I feel that some short animated films have done a lot better in terms of building its story, the key is to select obscurities to apply which although will make the story incomplete, will create that eerie atmosphere where the story challenges the viewer to make the interpretations of the events himself, thus still making sense in his perspective. With Taifuu no Noruda however, I think the reason for failing to make sense is that the main story is sci-fi-ish, and sci-fi stories definitely beg for a whole lot of explanation. In fact, the story wasn't only incomplete, it was almost contradictory-kind-of-confusing way. Like Noruda said that she was sent to this world to rebuild it. Yeah, I get it that main questions come to mind of the viewer like, "Who sent you?" "If you're not human, what are you?" "Why did you end up in that school if you are supposed to rebuild the world?" More importantly however, it was kinda confusing whether or not the rebuilding-the-world thing is a good thing, and it felt like she was trying to stop it and even looked happy in the end after the catastrophe (?) was prevented, and she seemed reluctant in doing it. Things like this, I felt, needed to be addressed by the movie to define the stance it takes as it goes along with the story. In terms of the conflict of the two friends however, I felt that it was justified how the actual reason of Azuma leaving the baseball team causing them to have a fight, and only hinted with their conversation later in the story saying something about running away from Saijou. It was a perfect example of obscurity that while seemingly makes the story incomplete, actually adds up to the realism of the story. Furthermore, in my opinion the two major conflicts actually weren't that unrelated at all, in fact it is adequately connected in a prospective manner, like how the conflicts eventually affected each other's crucial details, although I woud personally prefer a retrospective connection of the two.

As what I have pointed earlier however, the drama genre has the ability to convey messages exclusive of the main storyline that still enables the viewer to grasp meaning into the entire medium. As far as my interpretation goes, it seemed to me that Noruda wasn't trying to stop the rebuilding of the world. It was her responsibility, and a big one at that, but she seemed very reluctant at it. As what she stated, she was going to be reborn. She even warned Azuma to stay away from her and leave the place. At that, it could probably mean that rebuilding the world means destroying it and all of its iinhabitants. They were all going to be sacrificed for the "greater good". It was also explicitly stated that she was being controlled by a particular necklace she's wearing. I think that those details create very significant symbolism about creating decisions, like sometimes decision-making isn't for your own anymore, and you have to consider everyone at stake, even if it means taking something to your own disadvantage. And she bravely took that decision by being ready to face her fate anytime. Relating it to the conflict of the two friends, I felt that Azuma was conveyed with the exact opposite of Noruda, like he's always taking things on his own, being selfish when he wanted to leave the school grounds with the incoming typhoon approaching. This is potentially related to the very first conflict which actually really bothered me as it dictated the entirety of events into motion: Why did Azuma want to leave the baseball team? Then he met Noruda, learned her fate, attempted to stop it, and realized that there are things that matter to him (like Saijou his best friend) and he wanted to protect them, probably inspired by Noruda's conviction and bravery. Despite the great sacrifice Noruda had to make, still they ended up stopping the storm, and in the process, stopped the opportunity of having the world reborn, and Noruda in the end was seen smiling. What did it tell the viewer? Probably it means that the world isn't so bad at all, and Noruda from the very start realized it (maybe she was previously an inhabitant of Earth?) or that the way to restore the world is not to start from scratch but rather to continue the good and cease doing evil. Whatever that is, it seemed to me that the ending was satisfying and very symbolic although probably these interpretations weren't really intended by Taifuu no Noruda from the very start.

Once again, I am really frustrated with Taifuu no Noruda. It could've been good, too bad it didn't. Still oddly satisfying to me though.

One of the top things I consider looking into whenever watching a non-comedic anime (or any anime in general) is the overall message that it tries to tell me. Even from the very start of the show, my head tends to make some sort of inferences by which certain specific plot details might convey, and I try to connect those tidbits in order to determine the possible theme or general story line. That's why I always anticipate some sort of symbolism or connection whenever an event, fact, detail or insight is presented in the anime, like why for example a character is portrayed to be ... living under these conditions, or why did one particular character have to experience this way. It's not only for the reason that I want a retrospective explanation from the anime that justifies that particular detail, but more than that, I somehow wanted to think that the story writer perhaps made it that way because without that particular detail the entire plot would have been severely affected, hence making that detail crucial as a plot device for progression and coherence. That's what makes an anime above the average, in a sense, and what contributes to the general message for the audience to grasp.

Kotonoha no Niwa, or the Garden of Words (which is a cool title for me, by the way) started amazingly promising but unfortunately became a bit of disappointment in such mentioned concern.

Undeniably, one of the good points of the movie is how it presented a fresh and different perspective (at least, to me) on romance while maintaining the subtlety of classic straightforward romantic development. Two seemingly different people who got to know each other by staying in an unknown yet familiar place. What I really liked about it is that the romantic development of the two wasn't made "love at first sight" shabby kind of crap, yet not complicated or based on some conflict that they had to address just to make way for character development. The character development for the two was portrayed on a slice-of-life-ish way - moments when these two just talked their hearts out and enjoyed each other's company, which amazingly did its job well and to some extent, was even better than to have a concrete reason for the two to start getting along with each other. It even emphasized how much they are drawn to each other despite not knowing each other that much, and without being with each other for a long period of time - those casual hours of nothing but leisure, by making them detailed and finely portrayed, intensified the realization of one's feelings for each other, and generally just made their relationship personally subtle and enjoyable to watch. What also was very, very commendable (albeit expected coming from my point of view) is the animation. It's just literally breathtaking and the detailed scenery, even simple plot details like raindrops or the trees or the large crowd of the busy city proper was ultimately beautiful. I've had so much enjoyment just watching the two main characters stand out from the beauty in the background. The timid, calm mood of the environment fitted well with the mood of the characters, as well as the story. Overall, the serious tone of the story coupled with good romance and breathtaking animation contributed much to my overall enjoyment of the movie.

While these points were surely commendable and praiseworthy, I felt that the movie did not really exceed my expectations primarily because of what I mentioned earlier. The movie, was very promising in terms of hinting what the story would be all about as it raised some very interesting points to consider, "why was it made that way?" I anticipated so much in the "big revelation" but didn't really sustain the generated interest in me. What made me anticipate that much is that the plot details didn't seem to connect or jive at any logical angle at the superficial level. Now if I felt that it was absolutely just to trivialize the details of the plot, like they were making those stuff just to create an actual plot I'd be pretty sure it wouldn't spark my interest. But in this movie, I had my eyes ogled at the screen for the entire anime because of number one, the mood it sets was very serious and realistic and somewhat reflective that it wouldn't feel being trivialized, and secondly the portrayal of seemingly trivial moments created a very significant impact to the characters. At that, I expected that the anime would successfully convey to me the overall message and story line that would eventually be revealed when the resolutions come to play. While at some aspects the anime was ultimately successful, I felt that at some plot details there was no actual significance for pointing them out, like what the anime justified is how further events happened with that plot detail as a form of justification, rather than retrospectively justifying the plot detail's existence because the plot necessitates that the plot detail should be the case. One example (this is in the synopsis and therefore not a spoiler) is when the anime made Akizuki a shoemaker and justified that the events that would follow would be because he is a shoemaker, but did not justify him being a shoemaker because the plot needed him to be one. Thus, it can be said that Akizuki can actually be portrayed with another aspiration/job without really compromising the overall story line, and therefore can be said to be a bit trivialized. What I felt, from the overall appeal of the film, was that there existed several random details and connected them with a probability-type of plot construction, like these random events connected by chance, and there was no real overarching story connecting such details. I'm not saying that there was no justification for every single plot detail; in fact, some details that were justified later in the story were absolutely amazing, it's just that many promising plot details were left out and could have been utilized to create a single great story connecting those things. That's why I rated it as good - it was amazingly breathtaking at many points, but still had pointers to work on, especially with plot construction.

Beautiful yet bittersweet, Promising yet disappointing. That's Kotonoha no Niwa for you.

Perfect Blue is a perfect example of how I consider anime as a living piece of art (which probably goes the same for other kinds of media). What really captivates me with anime is that it explores all avenues of possible plot progressions, constructs the weirdest yet downright flexible combinations of genres and deviates from the normal spectrum of how a story is told in a visual animated context. I felt that in contrast to what usually appeals to me in anime which more often than not consists of a good plot progression with emphasized tones on climactic moments coupled with good character development, Perfect ... Blue utilized a brilliant combination of imagery, atmosphere transition and mind games that despite what I feel is a lack of fluidity and coherence in the plot itself, allowed me to fully appreciate what the anime is trying to convey. And yep, I was mind-blown. Like literally.

That's why despite being a neophyte in the world of anime, I can't help but think of one word to describe Perfect Blue: Unorthodox. Well yeah anime veterans out there may probably say that it's not like it's totally out-of-the-world, but whatever.

Perfect Blue starts off like the usual dark themed setting of most horror-psychological anime. It doesn't try to lighten up the atmosphere, as emphasized by creepy-looking people, sober tone of the scenes, and the uneasiness and tension building up as the plot went on. In fact, I felt that the overarching story of the movie seemed pretty standard, probably above the average plot construct, as gradually the details start to uncover themselves and coupling them with suspenseful plot devices. What I liked about the plot is that there is a consistency of emotion-building, in this case fear and suspense, as the viewer tries to understand the plot details coming from the most obvious perspective, which is the main character. What's even more appealing is how the fear-building is generated. At times, from a very linear form of storytelling of the viewer, the fear starts to grow steadily to reach the climactic suspense. At times, particularly in plot revelations, the fear is intensified and maintained throughout while forcing an abrupt cut in the tension, then introduces another source of fear and tension. What is commendable about it is that it forces the viewer to pace rapidly between moments of tension, confusion and fear as he tries to swallow up the entire thing. Then suddenly, the tables turn around, and what the main character is perceiving to be true is nothing but a possible creation of her own imagination (more on this later). The scene transition is commendable too, as it fluidly transform the conclusion of one scene into a stepping stone of the emotion-building of the next scene. So all in all, the plot was acceptably okay yet made outstanding by packing a whole lot of tension-building, and satisfactorily conveys that kind of emotion to the viewers.

Another thing to point out, which I believe is the most appealing implication of the movie, aside from generating a good amount of fear, is the way it forces the viewer to reflect and think. No, it's not one of those anime who try too hard to "think outside the box", to raise and discuss philosophical and probably political and social issues yet failed to do such things satisfactorily (Parasyte, I am deeply disappointed.); what it does instead is to present you with a lot of mind games and trickery within the context of the movie, some might be the truth and some might be there to fool you. I felt that it was good to present these mind games to the main character and not only to the viewer, because it actually complements with the tension and fear generated by making the main character feel confused with what is happening around her and allow the viewer to sympathize with her. Then, as what I have mentioned, when the MC and the viewer believe that everything clears out, that's when the tables turn and the fear starts building again. When the plot details seem to come into a conclusion for a particular conflict, the anime suddenly leaves everything hanging and it ends with just... that. What's so good with it is that the details don't give you enough information to come up with a concrete conclusion, they still provide bits and bits of puzzle pieces apt to create speculations regarding the actual plot. Even when there seems to be a logical flow of the story, the anime still gives enough avenue for the viewer to speculate and think to what is more to the story. What is the real truth behind it? What is the ending supposed to convey to us? How is the title conveniently fitting for what the story has offered? Such mind games are literally mind-blowing.

Last thing I'd like to discuss about the story presentation is the fact that it tries to incorporate abstractions in a concrete story line, with the addition that this concrete story line is set up in a very realistic context. These abstractions are in the form of mind games, illusions and hallucinations conjured mostly by the main character, fluidly artistic scene transitions and other metaphoric plot devices personally reminiscent of a mystery supernatural anime. Although abstractions are a major tool in the beauty of the film, and in fact a major form of plot device, I felt that they also compromised the coherence of the story line in general. As viewers might notice, these abstractions majorly aim to present the perspective of the main character, how it gradually becomes messed up and psychologically unable to distinguish truth and imagination. However I felt that it also became harder to decipher what is part of the realistic plot and what is a part of the abstraction. I don't think it inherently is a bad thing, but the lack of logical link of the chains of the real plot kinda hindered the plot to progress, as the anime focused majorly in presenting the abstractions and mixing them with actual plot details rather than developing the plot itself. The result is not the optimal proportion of the elements of the story - there was very, very good character development of the characters, with good toning, with less variation of the plot details. Is it even possible? Yes it is, mate, by actually relying on the same conflict over and over again in order to demonstrate how the main character falls into psychological disturbances. The characterization of the MC throughout the plot is vivid, but the actual plot revolves on the same conflict. Not to mention that the setting is in a realistic context, so these abstractions sometimes become "uncomfortable" when it becomes too "real". Fortunately the film is able to back this up by presenting details which tell you how these abstractions exist in the real world. Therefore, the abstractions are an avenue to serve two sides of the coin, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The animation is amazing especially because of artistic scene transitions, and complements well with the atmosphere of fear and tension. The characters are drawn well in my opinion, and there's just this feel to this kind of animation that the plot's always about horror and suspense shit, I really don't know why but it suits well. The sound is satisfying in my opinion, and the soundtracks are pretty okay. It's not the reason why I liked the anime, anyway.

Perfect Blue is a great way to spark interest in old anime with dark themes, and even in that respect, I can tell you that this anime blows minds more than most of the other respectable anime. I give my highest recommendations, because shit is about to get real.

Get mind-blown in your own right, mate. Watch Perfect Blue.

Hunter x Hunter (2011) boasts of a high mean rating to grab one of the top spots of the rankings of MAL, and while I can most definitely say that the mean rating does not necessarily reflect the quality of the show, having that good impression kinda reflects how a lot of people actually loved the series, for reasons we may or may not know. And I gotta say that HxH did well in proving how it deserves such a good score, and why people would actually become attached to what it can offer. While it followed certain stereotypical "shounen formulas" (and it did well ... in that matter), HxH was able to present intelligent and hard-worked storytelling which when combined with unforgettable characters, amazing story arcs and settings, and great fluidity and logic, was able to form a masterpiece people would probably take a lifetime to forget.

Dividing the entire series into arcs, the dominant style of plot building in HxH is more or less typical of a shounen (and yep, I'm talking here despite having watched only a little of shounen) - it progressively creates its plot from recency, and in a linear manner, builds the story along with the plot events occurring. It does not build its story from puzzle pieces of the past, and rarely hints about some unknown big event in the future to happen. For every story arc, it shows you what it wants, and how the story would progress depends on how the characters in that arc make decisions and take actions, and similarly gives out the facts and information when the plot needs to bring them up. Simple and straightforward - the standard way of storytelling for shounen, I believe. While this is commendable as it makes the story very comprehensible and understandable, I feel that this way of storytelling is challenging because of two things. First is that it risks having an underdevelopment of the plot, like some crucial pieces of events may be disregarded and unexploited, and some details may be trivialized. Moreover, since this kind of storytelling needs to be divided into arcs, the flow of story transition must be coherent and logical; two adjacent yet separate story arcs need to make sense and should not feel forced because the straightforward way of presenting the story makes it hard to proceed to another story arc without compromising the fluidity and without changing the style of storytelling. These two problems are visible in most shounen anime with the same formula as HxH, which is why I really do not enjoy these kinds of shows really much - not to mention my preference to anime plot with a lot of foreshadowing and hinting (screw SAO, I love it for so many unknown reasons).

Guess what? HxH had me interested and hooked the entire time I was dealing with the "straightforward" plot building. The plot, which I mentioned to be risked of getting underdeveloped, was totally developed to the best it can - the key is to make each story arc count and conceptualize it like it was the last thing the story writer would make in his entire life. Each story arc had a lot of shit going on; the arcs definitely aren't boring, they were literally amazing. Each arc was well-thought of, and completely concluded with a blast. The adventure element was definitely there, the plot for each arc forces the characters to involve themselves with the story; it wasn't stagnant. The characters were absolutely memorable and realistic, I almost wanted to become a pro Hunter myself. In addition, what complements well with the straightforward way of storytelling is the vivid and detailed narration of what is currently going on, which started and was emphasized in the later arcs. It was new to me, but it was able to exhaustively provide logical and intelligent explanations to so many stuff, like battle strategies and techniques (the battles are so EPIC), reflective thinking of the characters and the like. What I also liked about it is that it gave the viewer an insight as to what is going on in the head of the other seemingly unimportant characters, making me relate more to them and expanding character development a whole lot better. It is also worth mentioning how HxH discussed heavily different real-life themes like friendship, politics, religion, philosophical issues and the like. It proves how HxH desires to expand its world and covered a lot of different themes imaginable. Moreover, while I said that there is a possible difficulty of making the story logical and coherent and fluid as possible, I felt that the story transition from one arc to another was absolutely amazing, it didn't feel like it was forced for the heck of it. The thing with HxH is that the conclusion of each preceding story arc introduces a problem which of course is related with the preceding story arc, but at the same time becomes a great introduction for the succeeding story arc, without giving the impression of forcing the story and while sticking to the original way of storytelling.

Another interesting thing I want to point out is that aside from the absolute extremes in the world of HxH, the series also discussed "gray areas" in certain matters. Protagonists are not entirely for the "justice of humanity and saving the world crap", instead they present real personal motivations and intentions they need to achieve, and I'm not talking about just fulfilling their long-held dreams; they also include stuff as revenge and other gray areas of real life. In the same manner, antagonists have their own intentions of doing evil actions, and it is literally amazing for HxH to discuss how these villains reflect on their own doings; it gives the viewer more avenues of knowing more of their true character, thus creating more attachment to these villains. Most of these are so badass I almost felt sympathy for them or I almost felt that their actions are justified. Then there are those of pure evil, it annoys me so damn much. Of course these things are present in so many other anime, typical from those with serious and seinen themes, but I feel that it is astounding coming from a shounen, because even if it seemed like it deviates from the typical shounen formula, it surprisingly complemented by making the storytelling more effective and more realistic, without compromising what lies best in a shounen.

The animation is also literally amazing in my opinion, each important character had outstanding designs and outfits, especially the villains in my opinion. The fight scenes were some of the best I've ever seen. What also amazed me more is the fact that HxH didn't stick with the typical "when I shout or I reflect about my struggles I get stronger" of many other shounen. Because as much as I wanted to appreciate the feels, I think it's still bullshit to some extent. The battles of HxH weren't anything like that, everything was based on careful planning and judgment of those involved, and they were a blast. The soundtracks were also a masterpiece in my opinion, I kept finishing them for every episode; they were damn memorable.

Why was HxH a 9 instead of a 10? It was a matter of preference, I'd say. The kind of story building HxH offered wasn't really my thing, but they did it pretty well. There were also some arcs that were kinda slowly paced to me, although how those parts ended were satisfying as fuck. There were also some parts left hanging, and I expected so much from the conclusion of those details. Exceeding expectations of an average viewer and falling short on minor details, it definitely deserves a good well-earned 9.

*insert some memorable HxH quote here because it apparently sounds appealing as a conclusion*
FUCK IT. I LOVE HUNTER X HUNTER.

(There would be some incoming spoilers, but I assure that there's nothing really to expect from this shit of a show.)

Sweet and simple: Boku no Pico is a short OVA about a young boy named Pico and a man named Mokkun.

And here's a sweet and simple, but not-so-new opinion on Boku no Pico:

I absolutely hate it.

Usually I'm having difficulties rating bad anime from 1 to 4, since to me it is quite hard to distinguish appalling anime (a score of 1) and horrible ones (a score of 2). It is apparent in my case that horrible anime are definitely appalling, you know, those stuff that ... make you want to scream in frustration, thinking why you wasted precious minutes of your time into some kind of trash. While I have devised a way to distinguish a score of 3 from 4 (that is, those anime I would have to rate as 4 are those anime which tried to present the story and attempted to convey to the audience the message of the anime, but miserably became a failure at that, hence interpreted as bad, and those with a score of 3 are those who seemed to deliberately make a joke out of the anime by trivializing details of the plot and just made no sense at all), the way that I formulated my scoring system on the basis of giving a score of 1 or 2 was largely influenced by this shitty show Boku no Pico. After reading and hearing so many negative comments about this anime, I realized that no matter how I try to become objective about rating an anime, there would always be subjective biases which I have to deal with, and which I think are absolutely crucial in the appreciation (and depreciation, for this matter) of anime: these are societal standards and norms that viewers live by that make them hate something when it transgresses these principles they hold onto, and in my case such is also true. Thus, I would have to say that I really, really hate Boku no Pico.

There are two major things that I hate about this show.

Firstly is how it trivializes everything in the plot details. Stuff seemed to be loosely put up and joined together for the sake of having a plot, since what it apparently wants to show is the fuck scenes of Pico and Mokkun (oops, spoiler alert). Mokkun is shown to be near the beach looking for someone to lust on with binoculars on, and after wandering for quite some time, his eyes rest on a naked Pico. At that it hinted some possibilities: that he is probably a pedophile, because Mokkun may have recognized from the body that it was a minor's, and would almost not remove his field of vision from Pico. Probably he was stimulated with Pico and not with others he saw because Pico is totally naked compared to others. I felt that it was a generic entrance for a hentai episode to commence, and more or less provides a good insight on what really is Mokkun's motivation towards his actions later on. He chances to see him at Bebe cafe, where, as part of "coincidence", Pico works with a disinterested and lousy grandfather as his guardian. It wasn't really explicitly shown to the viewers what kind of personality Pico's grandfather has, but judging from how he allowed Pico to go with a complete stranger and how he did not really have any impact on the plot, I felt that he just became a sort of plot decoration or fill-in in an attempt to make the plot as realistic as possible. And from there the fun never ended - they fcked the hell out of themselves. What I am absolutely appalled with is that the story just made no sense and just showcased how versatile gay fck can be by concentrating on the sex stuff. It trivialized the fact that Pico is just a boy which is supposed to know a little out of it. It trivialized Mokkun's character motivations from doing those things, and it trivialized the relationship of the two. I was almost hopeful when Pico asked what he is to Mokkun, and created a conflict when Mokkun was unable to answer and made Pico run away. Mokkun tried to search for him everywhere, which is interesting because it questioned me as to why Mokkun became personally attached to Pico, and provides an avenue to reveal more of their relationship. With that it almost felt that there was an attempt to explore their character but how it progressed was absolutely disappointing. How it ended is how typical hentai shows do: they continued fcking like the conflict never happened. The sounds produced by the show didn't help too since it was mostly moans and flirtatious bullshit, and the music was all bouncy and cheerful, which to me is monotonous. The art was okay, but I wouldn't say it was visually appealing, considering the scenes. Overall, the show was a complete joke.

Second thing that I hate about the show is completely subjective, and I think a whole lot would disagree with, but is the main reason why I'm giving this show a score of 1: It is yaoi. And a fcking hentai at that. Honestly I've never watched any yaoi show and I really try to avoid one, but that doesn't mean I think yaoi anime is shit. It's just that I feel disgust in watching those shows because I'm not used to it. To some extent, I can appreciate such shows (that is, if I'm forced to watch another one) if the story is good and has a lot of bigger things going on. But the thing is, yaoi hentai which shows guys doing the fck thing is too much, and besides Boku no Pico was a big joke compared to possibly better yaoi anime out there. Moreover the problem with hentai shows is that they tend to concentrate on the hentai plot details and has the tendency to trivialize the plot a lot. Well, I can't blame them because these shows are characterized to be showing almost explicit hentai scenes, and thus such scenes are said to be their signature. Needless to say however, that for a guy who cannot stand to watch yaoi shows, I cannot really appreciate the hentai. Not sorry for that.

Should people watch it? Yes, it would be fun, I assure. But it's not like you would absolutely appreciate the show. Just beware of getting stimulated bu Pico. Just kidding.

One of the things I have noticed in most Studio Ghibli films I've watched thus far is that aside from the scenic and beautifully created artworks, they tend to give emphasis on the plot progression and base the development of the characters on how the story goes rather than base the story on how the characters are established in the beginning. While that is not necessarily a bad thing, and in fact creates a more creative avenue of stretching out character development, I feel that it becomes more difficult to convey a satisfying plot since the viewer has to get the feel for a certain ... character and justify how he acts towards plot events based on logical reasoning, instead of understanding how he acts based on how he was established as a character in the beginning. Should that fail, the character becomes too plain - without any real character. That being said, one of I believe is important for the plot to succeed is to make the plot as active as possible, to force the characters to undertake decisions and actions that will define how he is as a character in the plot.

These two things, plot and characters, are the very reasons why I cannot totally appreciate the film "The Wind Rises". If I wasn't mistaken, the film is based on real life, and of course, it was truly heart-moving and inspiring as a real-life portrayal of events. But setting that fact aside, objectively speaking, I feel that as a film, it should have been more careful in developing the story and making character development. The story talks about a man named Jirou who dreamed of designing airplanes and how he was able to pursue that path through thick and thin, with his inspiration Mr. Caproni. The biggest problem of such plot is that it doesn't have a real and clear plot. The elements of the plot like conflict, climax and resolution are not properly laid out - the film almost sounded monotonous story-wise. It felt that the events passed by without any real impact to what the story is really trying to achieve. The conflict, which is apparently the struggle of Jirou to pursue his dream is not really seen as a conflict but rather a tool to progress the story further. To me as a viewer the conflict did not really affect Jirou negatively, the plot seemed to just let him have his way. Ofc it was based on real life, and I have absolutely nothing against what happened but as a film, I just hoped that the conflict was emphasized more and heightened its tone and impact to the story. The climax is not clear to me. Nothing seemed to be fit to be called a climax for the plot because everything that happened seemed to be a minor detail that could have been developed more. The resolution wasn't really there, and considering the conflict of pursuing his career, its resolution was already given at the early point of the plot. The story, all in all, was not toned properly and the events just seem to come and go. One thing I would like to point out though is how I love those scenes which do not transition really clearly as to whether not it is reality or a dream. Such scenes give color to the otherwise plain story because it probably reveals how Jirou already senses his dreams as reality and how passionate he is with his dream that he believes in those so much it becomes reality.

Jirou was portrayed as a man with big dreams of designing airplanes. While that was fantastic in a way no character conflict was really seen aside from that, making him the generic good guy MC. As what I have been mentioning, I absolutely have nothing against real-life scenarios (i.e. if the real Jirou is like that then it's totally cool with me, what I am judging is the film). Like what I pointed out earlier, the thing with 'plain' MCs is that the burden of fleshing him out in the absence of established personalities is making the plot as active as possible, and force the characters to make decisions and actions that reveal his character. Well, since the plot wasn't active at all, Jirou wasn't properly developed and stayed the good guy he always is. It's not necessarily bad for a main character not to have a significant change in character as a resolution, and in fact Jirou's consistent personality is necessary in conveying the passion of Jirou in his career and in everything he does, so most probably the main problem is the plot. The other characters were also plain and monotonous too, and they were to some extent mediocre.

Given two challenges that the film has to overcome, plain characters and story, and despite the majestic scenery and animation, I feel that it would be unfair to rate a good score out of this film, based on my standards. Still, it was definitely worth a watch.

To some viewers, 4 minutes of storytelling might seem very difficult to comprehend, and more often than not, to appreciate for such time frame gives very limited avenue of presenting a well-crafted plot, unforgettable characters, and the development of those two elements - which are unsurprisingly the ones that the average viewer wishes to encounter in a series. Therefore, it is not unknown that some anime have ultimately failed in this endeavor (fcking Pupa) by messing everything all over the place and putting rather insignificant and irrelevant plot tools, probably with the hopes of regaining interest in the viewers' dying flames of enjoyment. Therefore the ... most basic premise in formulating an understandable and valid plot within 4 minutes of viewing time is to get to a single story and focus on developing it, crafting every significant detail as relevant as possible to the main storyline.

Yami Shibai definitely does that.

It is a simple collection of stories of the supernatural, varying from ghosts, curses, witchcraft, and other paranormal activities. It brings about the feeling of the unknown, and invests heavily on the elements of suspense and typical horror genre plot devices. What I liked about the series is that each story did not beat around the bush, (which is probably imperative within the given time frame of each episode) and got to the main point of the plot. The mystery element was there, and each story leaves a striking impression by forcing the viewer to think beyond what was shown - which was a key element in mystery. Some people would complain how stuff weren't explained well, but I think it was justified and to some extent, intended. The time frame was four minutes to begin with, and with that limited amount of time, a plot would develop better by focusing more on what happened, rather than why it happened, because what generates the mystery and suspense is not the complicated explanation for what happened, but rather the peculiarity of how events were presented, something that is unconventional and beyond the ordinary. Therefore Yami Shibai's strategic presentation of stories complemented well with the atmosphere it intends to show. Moreover, the episodic collection of stories, aside from continuously sustaining the element of creepiness and suspense, contributes to an overall impression of the viewer by not actually driving the horror from the creepiness and scaring ability of each plot individual episodes, but rather by emphasizing that the myriad of paranormal activities boils down to one thought: that stuff we normally see everyday are not as what they seem to be. Some stories actually are very interesting and mind-blowing, and the lack of explanation for such paranormal activity intensifies each individual episode. The art and sound were also great in complementing with the overall story, the art personally makes me feel that the stories were more of urban legends and forces the viewer to think whether such happenings are possibly true or not (of course they probably are fictional works of art, but that vague feeling from the artwork contributed to my enjoyment so much).

So why did I give Yami Shibai a rating of being average? First of all, while some stories exceeded my expectations, some stories were downright failures in their own ways. Some stories do not make even sense, and instead of presenting a plot-wise progressive horror story, it presented a series of scenes so stagnant it becomes personally boring. Since the quality of stories range from bad to good, I would have to rate them as average. Moreover, some stories present details that as much as I wanted to appreciate, seem to forcefully join plot pieces together it didn't seem naturally fluid and smooth-going; to some extent, I felt that they are irrelevant and did not contribute to overall impact of the story. Finally, I felt that the strong points of the series, were already imperative to be done given the shortcomings of the entire series, i.e. the short length of time, episodic presentation and complete lack of explanation of the paranormal. I also feel that to some extent the horror value it offers is somewhat generic and present in every other average horror anime. Since it did not offer any marginal personal enjoyment because of the lack of development of each story, I would have to rate Yami Shibai as average. Do I recommend this anime? Of course I do.

Personally, one of the most influential elements to rate a fairly good score for an anime is the level by which it intrigued me. Aside from a great story, you know, clear yet unique premises and good plot devices to develop that premise, I want stories to force me to think and reflect, which can be philosophical (like what is my purpose in this world) or psychological (like why do certain people or groups of people act a certain way) or social (like how is a society constructed in a certain context) matters. It may be something implicitly brought up in an anime, or discussed ... as a major plot element, or even barely mentioned at multiple times yet never fully explained in detail, for the motivation by which it makes me think influences me to appreciate certain details in that anime and try to relate them into a realistic context. Sure, I am not knowledgeable of many things in that matter, but the act of thinking makes me more appreciative of the anime itself by becoming more aware of the issues it brings. In Parasyte: The Maxim, such things were easily brought up; the anime was a combination of action and horror with philosophical issues raised. In that aspect, Parasyte was quite a mismatch and considerably a failure for me, although it managed to sustain a significant amount of interest that an average viewer like me needs to finish by generating the thrill from the action, suspense from fear (but it wasn't really that much for me), and at some point, good drama.

In a nutshell, Parasyte was almost my average shounen action anime. In terms of that, Parasyte did a pretty good job. The story in that perspective was clear, there exists a conflict that the MC needs to address: A series of multiple brutal murders has been occurring throughout Japan and is seemingly related to the alleged existence of parasitic creatures who feed on humans. MC becomes acquainted with one of their kind, and revelations to the hidden truths behind the parasites' existence are gradually uncovered, and the MC eventually gets to fight these creatures, whilst struggling to live a normal high school life. I find nothing special with that, it was actually average but compared to other anime, Parasyte was successful in conveying the story clearly and logically. How does it belong in the horror genre? The horror, I feel, in the series is possibly translated into the existence of horrible-looking creatures bearing the fact that they are killing humans for food. The average viewer supposedly fears for the safety of the main characters and the fact that no one is exactly safe for the time being, the parasites serve to be the terrorizing force to human existence while the lack of knowledge upon these mysterious enemies adds up to the fear factor. In my opinion the horror for the anime is not really successful, of course I admire all the visualizations of the monsters, I'd say they would be pretty terrifying if they exist in real life. But the horror in the sense of portraying the hostility and capability of taking out human lives in a flash while emphasizing the mystery behind these parasites wasn't really felt in the entire series. Probably this is because number one, having a parasite who acts exactly as the others do as one of the main characters makes everything explainable and less suspense is expected, or number two the action by which the horror is complemented with makes me, your average viewer, think more of how the MC is going to defeat the parasite instead of understanding the truth behind these creatures. Of course, it could be pointed out that there are certain scenes in the anime that discusses the mystery itself, but given that Parasyte is apparently more dedicated in the action part rather than the horror, I'd have to say that this significantly reduces the horror. Meanwhile, as the series progresses, one could notice a lot of philosophical questions being thrown at the viewer, and I felt that they were literally mind-moving. These questions, while not being constructed in the horror context, are very significant in developing the plot and possibly suggesting any major event that would happen. In this aspect, however, as much as I wanted to appreciate them, I felt that the plot wasn't the proper atmosphere to develop such questions. The plot seemed too basic and simple. Of course, I am not saying that a good anime with philosophical issues raised should have a complicated scheme of storytelling. I just felt that for a teenage guy who goes to school and being normal all the way except for the existence of another creature within him (since that constitutes most of the plot), the most logical philosophical questions (generic, almost) is about protecting his family, the people that he loves, understanding the basic existence of parasites. If the anime had wanted to involve philosophical questions regarding symbiotic relationship between humans and nature (and parasites for that matter), the purpose of humans versus the purpose of the parasites' existence, I wished that they extended the plot to reaching the national government perhaps, or probably a more extensive invasion of these creatures reaching to the point of, I don't know, probably human extinction or what not. I hate the fact that I am now ranting on how the story should have been instead of evaluating how it was presented, I just thought that the story could have more potential by trying to invoke bigger stakeholders. Heck, I even almost felt like the parasites were only a problem in the area the MC was located, since it was never discussed or explicitly shown in the anime how the national government was dealing with the problem. Hence, this is why I felt that the anime was a mismatch. Firstly I personally am not comfortable with horror combined with the shounen-type of action, since for me it ruins the horror factor and does not fit well together in my preference. Secondly the philosophical issues in the story were not really compatible with what the anime offers. So in general, I find the story average but it was still entertaining to watch.

The characters in the story are a combination of some strong, some meh and some wtf-are-you-doing personalities. Shinichi Izumi was the human MC who becomes acquainted with the parasite. Personally I didn't like the character development because it was a fluctuation of being a better individual and being stupid. Although it felt necessary, I disliked how he would always depend on Migi, the parasite, not only on physical strength but also mind stability. I understand that without Migi he would be literally defenseless against enemies, but this dependence, shows that he never really developed as a main character but rather a reactive partner of the parasite he was joined with. I also dislike how he reacts like a scared child every time he realizes that he can't beat the opponent but acts like a strong you-can't-beat-me douchebag if he has the upper hand. This is to think that he resolved to help humanity in fighting parasites. However, it is actually really good to see the environment and events which molded his personality - his mother dying by his own hands, a mysterious woman who loves him dies from a parasite. Tragic events which took the life of people he is closely connected to strengthened his resolve to kill those parasites. The problem, still, is the strength of his resolve versus his fear of being helpless against the enemy. Migi was a surprisingly good character for me, even by his total objectivity and the fact that he lets Shinichi live for the sake of his survival. Much of the character conflict Shinichi harbors in terms of his feelings towards parasites is rooted upon Migi. This relationship actually strengthens the development of Shinichi and provides a valid perspective by which the viewer understands the behavior of parasites. Satomi Murano was a wasted character. She does not really contribute much to the plot except for the fact that she was the person Shinichi wanted to protect, and thus became a drive for the MC's actions and decisions. Tamiya Ryouko was one of the most significant factors that drove the plot into significant events, and she was an amazing character. She raised the flag for philosophical issues, and even if she is just a supporting character, the development of her perspective was amazing and appropriate.

The art was pretty cool and a breath of fresh air from my loli addiction. The designs of the parasitic monsters were completely badass in my opinion. I also like the fact that the anime did not hesitate to maximize the gore element, little details were censored and the blood splatter was terrific. The soundtrack for the opening and ending theme were absolutely amazing for me, and it felt like it also contributes to the story impact. I don't mind the art and sound in rating the anime, honestly.

What makes the anime become rated as good? It did its job of presenting the story clearly. It was nothing special however, but it really did raise significant philosophical questions that motivated my mind to think outside the box. Still, I felt that it had the potential to widen its storyline and tell me that something bigger is going on. For now, I had to rate it as good - it did its job well, but nothing spectacular about it.

Disappointment. That was the overall feeling I got as I finished the second season of the Haruhi Suzumiya series. The first one got me hooked up and I felt that the second season was actually a potential to develop the plot progression of the first season, which meant to answer questions and form resolutions from previously established conflicts, and which unfortunately was one of the big problems back then in the 2006 version, and although the premise and the mechanisms by which the plot was presented was surprisingly valid and interesting, and disregarding my personal bias on Haruhi Suzumiya as my new waifu, it felt ... that the story and the 'mystery' aspect of the series needed so much polishing to make it as coherent and logical as possible while being mysterious at the same time. Having the drive to understand more of the entire mystery going on in the anime, I proceeded on watching the second season, and for the most part, I was absolutely disappointed. Nevertheless, I still love Haruhi Suzumiya and she's still going to be my waifu for life.

I decide to discuss the storyline in two parts - one for each season, mainly because I haven't made any review on the first part since I anticipated so much on the show to continue the plot on the second season and I wanted to voice out my thoughts on the amazing first half of the series but I don't want to make another review, as well as to give a comparison of the two seasons why the discrepancy in the scores I gave for the 2006 and 2009 version is somewhat significant. Moreover, specific details about the 2006 version will be discussed since this review is on the second season and I doubt that people would watch this without watching the 2006 anime.

The 2006 version was the introductory part of the mystery, various explanations to the seemingly godlike powers of Haruhi were offered, and were reflected in the daily activities of the SOS Brigade. For the slice-of-life/school part of the anime, I'd say it did pretty good on simulating real-life situations as it adapted usual happenings in schools and for highschoolers, like going on trips and adventures and the typical sightings in a classroom setting - yes it was cliched to an extent but the plot was on-point - there exists a particular conflict for each story arc and a resolution was made logically and reasonably. The addition of fictional concepts, like capabilities exemplified by Yuki Nagato fitted well with the atmosphere and overall plot. The comedy was also good; I love the sarcastic remarks of Kyon, added with the clumsiness of Mikuru Asahina and the weird combination of being an idiot and smartass of Haruhi. Although these may sound generic, the combination unsurprisingly fitted well. The mystery part of the anime was the best and worst part of the show, I'd say. The good thing about the mystery is it carefully reveals parts of the mystery in a comprehensible manner, the explanations, or rather speculative theories of Koizumi, Yuki and Mikuru were interesting (although I did not bother to understand some parts) as Kyon began with joining the puzzle pieces together. It was also good that Kyon adds up subjective interpretations of the explanation to raise questions necessary to back up the plot and provide an understandable summary of what they are theorizing at. The jumbled sequencing of the episodes was also crucial in building up the mystery, but if you watched the series in chronological order, the mystery becomes less of a thrill but is still existing. However, one of the things that also became a problem for me is the sequencing. I somehow thought that for a mystery anime to be successful, unconventional plot devices (which are usually used in the mystery genre) utilized must be significant to the overall storyline, like when you remove that particular plot device, the story becomes poorly presented - in short, the plot device must be one with the story itself. In terms of the 2006 anime, I am not pretty sure whether the story would have been poor if the jumbling was removed; in fact I felt that the jumbling, as much as it adds up to the mystery, it also adds up to the confusion, and does not really contribute much to the overall story impact whatsoever. I felt no significance in changing the sequencing, because it resulted to an apparent skipping of unresolved conflicts of individual story arcs. Moreover, it seemed that the anime left too much unanswered questions and focused more on the sci-fi slice-of-life theme it largely presents by doing all those typical school scenes, rather than contributing to the overall understanding of the mystery.

In comparison to the former, the 2009 version was a whole lot worse, in terms of plot progression, forming resolutions and continuing the mystery. The Endless Eight, this is a spoiler necessary to bring up to point out the bad things of the anime, is probably the worst story arc I have ever seen in an anime, objectively speaking. It is a pointless eight-fold repetition of a singular episode without literally changing details of the main plot progress. The only things you'd see changing are the clothes, the way the characters deliver their lines which derives the same thought from their previous conversations and some minor plot details. The problem with this kind of repetition is that it does not do anything but excite the viewer who does not literally care about the plot as long as his favorite characters are present. It does not develop the plot or the characters, a viewer might as well skip the next six episodes and proceed to the last episode of that story arc. The repetitions do not even bring up questions to the mystery or offer answers, they just literally repeat the plot of the first episode of the arc. What's even more appalling is the resolution on the last episode of Endless Eight. Since the plot still repeated itself for the succeeding six episodes, why did something change in the last part? No details or hints on this plot progress was fleshed out; in fact for the most part that last episode was still the repetition of the previous episodes. The latter part of the show was not even dedicated to the mystery anymore. The explanations by Koizumi, Nagato and Asahina were just more information fed up to Kyon without trying to solve any mystery. Of course, the comedy and slice-of-life parts were still great. So in comparison, what made the 2009 version worse in terms of story was the grave mistakes committed being worse than the first season.

There was no character development in general which I personally felt was not too bad, I just hoped that Haruhi and Kyon had some character development. The other three main characters were tools in making the story interesting while being logical and realistic, so what they had to have are solid and interesting personalities. I felt that the anime was more of an attempt to present the events which support or back up the abilities of Haruhi Suzumiya, and explain stuff on how the world revolves on her wishes and visualizations. I felt that that kind of premise is valid to some extent, and therefore justifies to some extent why there was very little room for character development. However, the lack of character development of the two main characters, Kyon and Haruhi, by which the world revolves around them, made the two less of an enjoyment factor and even got to the point of dragging the story along, without any real resolutions. However, the portrayal of the personalities of Itsuki Koizumi, Mikuru Asahina and Yuki Nagato were excellently solid and plot-engaging. What I liked about Itsuki Koizumi was his role in being the supportive person of the group, while guiding Kyon into understanding more of the mysterious phenomenon. Mikuru Asahina, the hot clumsy chick of the group, and the center of Kyon's fantasizing, was also significant in pointing out suggestive romantic feelings Haruhi likely harbors towards Kyon, and somehow I was disappointed with that avenue left minimally exploited, because it supports the idea why Haruhi chose Kyon. It was inconsistent at times when Haruhi literally reacts with nothing when Kyon expresses his desires over Mikuru. Yuki Nagato is literally a badass. Her superpowers are essential in maintaining the existence of the group, and her contributions to the overall mystery was astounding and invaluable. Kyon was what I'd like to say a fitting character for a comedy-mystery type of anime. Kyon is amazing in terms of leading the viewers into what the mystery is all about. See, one of my problems in mystery genre characters is that the MC forgets to ask the basic questions. They tend to jump towards the mystery itself, leading to assumptions that would "conveniently" be the case. What's not good with this is that the mystery tends to be manipulated to be the case, and the MC seems to already have an idea of what's going on. Kyon was good in asking such basic questions. However, I don't personally like his laziness and his tendency to become a mere spectator. For the most part of the anime, he tends to observe and make conclusions without doing something to change stuff. Because of this, Kyon lacks character development. He became stagnant and far from being participative. Rather than events happening based on his actions, events happen and his actions become more of a response to the events that happened. To some extent, it felt like he was detached from the show. However, his sarcasm and fantasies on Mikuru actually livened up the anime and added overall entertainment. I also wonder why his full name was never pointed out. I somehow felt that it should have had some significance to the mystery but it wasn't tackled that much. Haruhi Suzumiya, my waifu, is not exactly the best character out there. She had so many inconsistencies in her character and I personally didn't like her abusive tendencies, her bossy attitude and never-listen-to-people personality. I really had hoped that the anime took effort in discussing how she ended up with that kind of mindset. Why she became my waifu, it was totally subjective in nature and the main reason why I took the agony of finishing the second season. In terms of animation and sound, they were pretty decent and I don't really rate an anime based on those criteria.

In conclusion, should you watch Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu 2009? Nope, I don't recommend it. But if you were hyped by the first season and couldn't get enough of it, then watch this and you would enjoy it. Of course you would be disappointed, but for a person so much addicted to any of the characters (Haruhi Suzumiya in my case), you would find it rather enjoyable. Heck, I'm even surprised I finished it, all for the sake of my dearest waifu Haruhi Suzumiya. But objectively speaking, it was lackluster and a total disappointment.