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I'll say it right away, if you want something like Initial D for motorsport or something like Blue Lock when you see motorsport/sport this is not the series for you. This is closer to a Mitsuru Adachi work where the sport itself is just a back drop to the characters. That being said I initially didn't bother with Overtake! even with it looking decent as I had MF Ghost to satisfy my vroom vroom needs for the season and honestly it was a crime to not pick this up til now. Every synopsis for this series has done it a grave injustice ... for what the series really is which is a character drama. So I'll try and revise the synopsis in a non spoiler version and then leave a spoiler at the end for what it's about really even if what the series is about doesn't even try to hide it.

Story: The story follows Asahina, Haruka a young F4 driver trying to experience what his father another Formula car driver experienced when standing on the 1st place podium and Madoka, Kouya a photographer assigned to photograph F4 cars despite knowing anything about racing as his past left him unable to photograph people. Through meeting each other they push each other forward to confront their own inner demons and help each other move past.

Characters: This is where I have high praise but also complaints. Haruka and Kouya are pretty well fleshed out for the most part and get their arcs mostly completed. You have 2 other racers Harunaga and Tokumaru who have their own arcs too but honestly leave you wanting more as they never really go deep into theirs. Then another character Yukihara who throughout the series is deeply tied to another character but it's never explained what happened between the 2 of them. Mitsuzawa is another character often shown in the series but she doesn't do much other than be a cute bumbling fool which I felt could have tied into another one of the characters arcs better.

Art: Pretty solid overall, even the 3DCGI wasn't bad and flowed naturally unlike a lot of times with low FPS 3DCGI we get.

Sound: I'm not a gearhead so I can't speak on it but the F4 cars sounded nice, the music was consistent and never let down. I found myself honestly turning up the volume during the races because I was enjoying it.

Overall: Very good series I wished I would have picked up when the season started but glad I did get to it. The emotionally rollercoaster of the characters arcs kept me watching nonstop. I give the series a 8.5/10 just because there were some loose plot points that didn't get tied up and some characters do need better fleshing out.
I'll leave some space for those who might want to go in blind on one of the major themes of the show as I feel it might help kick harder for some but others might wanna know a bit more such as myself when I saw a series review on it and in their synopsis they say it and that was enough for me to pick it up. So scroll down at your own discretion.





























It's a character drama largely focused on one of the characters being at ground zero in one of the many regions during 3/11 and seeing first hand how the Tsunami claimed so many lives of the people he had met.

The show is placed in a historical time period I'd say is late Meiji/Early Taisho from aesthetics alone but with a bit of a supernatural twist to the time period. Replace daimyo with families that have special powers to represent political power and you got the setting for what's going on as the powers of both are whither away for reasons in both contexts.

Story: I'll be real here it's gonna be a rough ride for all 12 ep. Not in the writing is bad kind of sense but the "oh god we're watching some terrible shit happen to this poor girl" deal. ... Miyo is literally just a pawn in the power grab game and how families will try and get their hands on her no matter what during this transitional phase in an alternate history. The families with stoop to the lowest possible things to try to get her and do you ever feel the boiling hatred every step of the way as you see those short moments of happiness in-between.

Characters: I'll really only speak about Miyo here because the rest would be pretty spoiler. Reina Ueda and the staff directing her acting for this were 10/10. Miyo feels like a character beaten down to her lowest and would accept what she is told to do. It pains me to hear her to speak half the time its so bad.

Art: I really like the art direction but I'm also a sucker for this era of Japan in terms of aesthetics.


I really suggesting giving this show a watch even if it might be painful.

Honestly I dunno if I was in some fever dream to give the manga version of this an 8/10 where as I think the anime is utter trash or if the anime is just that bad. Legit the only thing I can praise this series for is the opening being great.

Story/Character: I dunno if it's because of manga to anime translation I legit can't stand the characters who are the life line of the story. They're all just so 1 dimensional it its not even funny. It's like the series is trying to be the next Gotobun but it's just falling ... flat. If you can remember some of the worst 1 dimensional tropes of the early 2000's, these girls are that.

Art: Actually pretty solid if you can stand the bland characters.

Overall: it's trying to be the next gotobun but with superior romcom's upcoming just pass on this.

So this is a bit more of a personal review than an overall critical review. I'll come out and say I'm biased and I think this is his best work. This was the least like his usual works and I think that was for the best.

Story: It's no shocker that the main theme is the 3/11 earthquake but all the other event areas were historical disasters and its a travel of Suzume and Souta traveling to these areas to prevent those events from happening again. The people they meet along the way are just everyday people living their lives trying to get ... by and the struggles they have. Each area has had a historical disaster than has left an imprint on Japan and the movie with again the most notable being 3/11's, then you have 2016's Kumamoto landslides and the one in Tokyo which was very political and even to this day the 1923 Kanto Earthquake.

Characters: Honestly this would be the weakest part out of all shinkai films because he tends to focus on the romance of the male and female character but this time it felt not complete. I can't say from what has been going around where he wanted it to be 2 sisters but for some reason didn't? I don't think it was because people were pressuring him as he's literally the biggest film maker name for anime movies in Japan so there has to be another reason? Either way honestly the chemistry between Suzume and Souta was ok at best.

As to why I'm biased to this being his best film. I was in the military when this happened and had orders to go to Japan 4 months before 3/11 even happened and was set to arrive in May. Then 3/11 happened and I wasn't sure I would even go at that point but I still did end up going. After arriving I did drive around Northern Japan and saw what happened. Then after leaving the military I entered University in Japan and a lot of my classes revolved around major events which I recognized all in this film just from the setting and understood the impacts.

Overall this movie is on par with the feelings of the Japanese people about 3/11 and other events as Shin Godzilla was for Fukushima.

So this sort of caught my eye when I first saw it but put it off to the side thinking "eh if I'm bored enough I'll get to it." Sure enough I wasn't feeling watching any of the current stuff I was but wanted to watch something. I decided to take the plunge and gave ep 1 a shot in-between playing FF14. I watched all 3 ep that are out back to back. I wasn't even half way through ep 1 and I was telling friends "I think this might be my favorite of the season."

The art direction with the sky ... is nice but on top of that the character designs themselves are great in my opinion. Just how all the characters look drew me in right away.

The characters are tied to the plot and right away with ep 1 I could feel all of them were unique in their own ways and after ep 3 I can see how they might progress.

My only regret is I did not pick this up right away and almost let it slip by all together. Do yourself a favor if you like SoL or Romance, watch it now.

Hands down the dumbest series of the season. I enjoy it.

Story: I honestly didn't know what to expect going in but MC gets isekai'd and due to the events of EP 1 summons the god his father worshiped and realized "my dad wasn't full of it with his cult after all." Then has to essentially make a cult in a world without religion and using shady practices like cults would.

Character: There's not much to them really and that's fine for now. They all work pretty well with each other.

Art: The biggest fault of the series is the art. The 2D ... looks fine but damn does this series have some of the worst fucking CGI. The monsters in this have CGI so bad that it rivals the Golgo 13 Helicopter scene.

Overall its a dumb series without some profound message to it and the humor is pretty juvenile. It's a fun series to just sit down and turn your brain off to.

If anyone would told me that this anime would have be one of my favorites of the season, I would have laughed at them. I had it on the list to check but every time I would open it early on to watch I would just close it and say "I'm just not feeling it." Finally got around to sitting down to watch it and next thing you know I was at episode 8.

Story: Would say the characters are the story. It's a simple story of girls doing judo and their development as both judo players and people as the story ... goes on.

Characters: Every single character has their own uniqueness to them. Each of the characters play well off each other, even their opponents just mix in well with the others making it fun to watch them struggle and overcome their shortcomings.

Sound: The music really adds to this series I feel. The upbeat tracks when things are going well to the more muted but hopeful tracks when characters find a goal they want to aim for. It really adds to the emotions these girls are feeling in those moments.

As a sports anime its very grounded in the fact that it's not a shonen style series like Blue Lock or Haikyuu so you won't get those over the top moves.

Take it from someone who almost didn't watch it, give this a shot it's well worth your time.

Put this in the winter 2023 season where it's the diabeetus category along with Koori Zokusei. Manage your glucose levels if you end up watching both at once.

This was easily my #1 show this season I was awaiting for in winter 2023, does it live up to what I was hoping for? Most part yeah but that's because I wasn't expecting Koori Zokusei to get me as hard as it has so at very least this is a close 2nd if not just barely ahead.

Story: The story at first and even as it goes feels very light but there's ... hints of deeper stuff going on with our two main characters who use each other as a crutch. There's a lot more that I feel we'll see in the future with these 2 and their pasts. Just sit back and enjoy the cuteness. If you're a big drama type person in your shows it's honestly very light on it so just let this be a warning.

Characters: The main two characters have their own issues and I'll be real its a very slow burn on getting to know what actually makes them who they are but it's just adorable to see them open up a bit more to each other as the ep's progress. I'll say it Itsuki and Chitose are honestly the real champs of the series as they almost in a way force our 2 MC's to be more open with each other and it wouldn't feel right without these two. There's another character that is introduced early on but doesn't have much time with the MC's or friends until later on but I feel like they'll become a solid cast member in their own right.

Animation: Honestly this is where I would say the series takes the biggest hit. Does it look nice? To me yes it does I like how the characters look and such, some might not feel as strongly as me. Where the real issue is the actual animation or honestly should say the lack of animation. The series hinges on using a lot of stills, dunno if this this is a time/cost saving reason as of now we've seen a good chunk of shows be bit with delays that made the early stages of 2020 look like a joke to be honest. What animation we will get feels choppy in a way as if instead of running at the normal 24fps anime tends to its running at closer to like 12 fps.

Overall: Really loving the series, hoping that the blurays will touch up the animation to make it look a bit less choppy. Here's to hoping we're getting a s2.

This series has potential to still be good but something about it just tells me the story won't ever truly improve. The source material is 17 novels long so meaning whatever this ends at with ep 12 will mean there's still a good amount to go but after what I've seen of the anime I'm not hopeful it will improve.

Art: It's decent, there's nothing exceptional to write home about but it's serviceable and the characters look nice.

The real big issue is the characters and story itself. I state this now there will be plot elements and character spoilers ahead.

The main character Ann has ... a goal to be Silver Sugar Master herself but seems to just be woefully ignorant of everything around her. She somehow manages to get herself into some of the dumbest situations possible. The person who she thought was a friend turns out to be a nut case who when he gets rejected by her snaps. He winds up trying to have her killed and stealing her creation to pass off as his own to be crowned the winner of a contest. She manages to make another after escaping the situation she was put in because of the guy and outs him as a fraud. If the character had either disappeared for good as his role was finished or had a change of heart, the series might still be decent but the issue is he returns just 2 episodes later acting as if he did nothing wrong and has his head still so far up his own butt its not even funny. Sure enough he's still a giant piece of crap and forces Ann to do something so he can just run away like the chicken shit he is yet again and I bet he'll keep coming back and ruining Ann's goals over and over. Her 2 companions who are fairies one being an absolutely useless fairy who amplifies drama because he's so useless and then the other honestly being stiffer than a board.

The series could have been nice but it's written in such a way that characters are absolute morons that just frustrates you as you watch the show. Shoujo is known for having manufactured drama to put tension between the female and usually the 2 or so other males who go after her, we haven't even hit them even really thinking about having feelings for the other and we're already drowning in the manufactured drama. Do yourself a favor and sit this one out unless you are that desperate for something to watch.

The Nier anime is Schrodinger's anime. It's both at the same time really good and then really freaking bad. I really want to love the anime of this but I just can't because of various issues which I will get into in a bit. I'm not trying to dunk on this because it's popular and I hate popular things. I've bought this game 3 times at this point. Digital JP because it came out early in Japan but still had all the language support, physical English release and then the Steam version which required a fan patch for years to ... be able to play because SE couldn't be assed into putting out a fix patch for it.

Story: I won't go into detail but it's mixing the games story and the supplemental content together which I really welcome. Yoko Taro has a ton of ideas but a lot either gets cut out because of time/budget from SE or just comes up with it later on. It's always made getting the full story rather cumbersome because you'll have to play the game, read a manga, read like 5 short stories, watch 2 or more stage plays and you better hope you find the fan tl/fansub's of them because none of its officially released in the west. So them at least implementing parts of those into it really helps flesh out the anime.

Music: Typical Studio Monaca stuff literally nothing to complain about.

Animation: I will not budge from this in the least bit. The CGI is crap as a whole and there's nothing you can do to change my mind. Yes the machine lifeform grunts do look pretty decent as CGI but the backgrounds look literally like they took the assets from the game and overlaid a filter on them then called it good. Them slapping 2D animation over the environments feels off in a similar sense when in other anime you would see low res CGI models over 2D backgrounds but at least then it wasn't a majority of the time. Then there's a number of shots where the CGI just looks unfinished and it's not even hidden. They'll draw out things like weapons in 1 shot then do a close up on said weapon in another shot but its 3D CGI and it doesn't look like the person got time to finish the work on said CGI. Then other things like their Flight Units aren't finished either and it looks plain ugly.

Ideally I would say for those who are experiencing this for the first time, stop now and play the games then go search for all that side content but to be real I don't people should be forced to do that. This show to me is just failed potential as of Ep 3. Hopefully the indefinite break this has as of 22 Jan 2023 will allow them to fix at least a majority of the issues with this anime and even redo the first 3 ep at a later season.

Feb Update: CGI Still really bad. They don't even bother trying to make it look like the 2D portion still.