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There is interesting interplay between the dynamic of the world and story. the setting focusing on the concubine system or the red light district, built for male pleasure .yet, its able to keep a light tone and share a wide variety of emotion-stirring perspectives from the women in this setting. From the crushing and debilitating reality of needing to sell your body in order to live , to the high concubine perspective of competence and power .yet, jealousy at another person who can freely choose their love. To a courtesan who genuinely enjoys her work waiting for her prince charming and the prince ... charming loving her despite what she does for work. There is some cool shit in here
super +respect for Historical based fiction .even if its loosely based on a period. It takes so much more research effort to actually write

same gripes: how forced the theme of "dont conclude based on conjecture" most of the time its fine but it blunders with lakan. Within the story lakan talks about his thoughts about "forcing himself" onto fengxian followed by the audience learning about pregnancy being a way to lower a courtesan's value. Its obvious what the story wants to make the audience believe. Which doesn't make sense later why Lakan would say that if he genuinely has love for fengxian. The theme felt forced here and blunders a bit of lakan's character
Some of the mystery parts of the story felt a bit uncompelling: it didn't make you care enough. We go from figuring out what's going on with the blacksmith, to the random dude the got poisoned from the seaweed, the warehouse explosion, to the guy with the rashes on the hand. Into Jinshi's life being endangered. These are the weak mysteries often solved with like handholding , things shown to the audience in a very obvious way to tell you that it is the clue. I wish there was more done to feel like it was all connected , only near the end of that conflict did they ever do that.

all that being said i still absolutely love the show, the character dynamics are refreshing. The dramatic mysteries with the other characters are super compelling. The personalities are fun to watch bounce around and that alone makes this show worth watching.
don't get it twisted, Lakan's whole conflict near the end absolutely broke me and i loved how quickly they can turn a character like that in your mind.
+bonuses for how fun maomao is as a character, she feels relatable but is different in ways that make her unique from other characters in the genre.

This show took my heart out and sawed it to pieces with a rusty screw driver. 70% of the episodes had me crying

There is a category of things that automatically evoke empathy and that is children, old people, cute animals, this show takes all of that and then subject them to such heart wrenching hardships. There's a sense of realism in the struggles that the characters go through, like a peek into the hardships of the period they life in. There were weak points in terms of editing. Music choices that took me out of the experience. Moments that should have sat longer but instead ... were too fast and villains that are some of the most boring annoying archetypes. Some parts just felt like tragedy for the sake of tragedy and I feel like this show would have done better if there was some breathing room spent building the bond with the characters. The final part with the goose chase was just so unnecessary and annoying for no reason

I really like the exploration of compassion and friendship. A common theme in a lot of media is " the power of friendship" wins at the end of the day . I love that this show really put some weight behind the sacrifices that the characters make in order to care for their friends. The characters after subjected to so much hardship and pain and seeing the chance for them to free themselves ,yet choosing the choice to stay with the person they love. (spoiler->)Like when remy has a chance to get adopted to a noble family yet she chooses to stay with vitalis because she knows how much he cares for her and is lonely without her. Or how vitalis chooses to leave her at the noble house because he knows that the better choice for her. How remy could've left again to join the 2nd entertainment troupe but she stays with the children or how mattias could've left the orphans to pursue music education. I don't think you need a character development for the main character if what their impact is causes character development around the MC. Seeing the orphan kids slowly stand up to the villain was so sweet. Seeing them slowly become a family and rely of each other for everything was so heart warming.

overall: hidden gem . Ive seen aloooooot of tear-jerker animes, and am an easy crier .I do not say this lightly. This show is easily top 3 of anything that has made me cry. It has it's peak and it has it lows, but the peaks are unforgettable.

A hidden gem, its like opening up an attic and then taking a tab of acid that has been hidden in an old chest

In the jungle, young boy Hare has his world flipped when his mom brings home a little girl to add to the family. Named Guu, she seems nice but within a day she becomes an absolute menace. Apathetic yet chaotic and clueless about human customs, she is like an alien masquerading as a kid. With powers like eating anything whole, her stomach being an extra dimensional space with another world inside, she can also regurgitate anything she eats.
Given the story ,the ... art has this surreal psychedelic nostalgia to it .
You may expect the comedy to consist of just 'hehe xd random humor"But it is actually amazing, somehow the jokes are built over the entire episode. Each episode contains 1-2 joke premises with many silly moments building upon it. each episode somehow influences future episodes yet are able to stand on their own based on comedy alone. However, there are episodes where this isn't true and the comedy just feels random without any substance behind it.
Comedy aside the character dynamics are fun enough to just see them interact with each other. An overly anxious but reliable boy, a drunk and sloppy mom, a demon troll girl with powers. That's even before the side cast of characters.
the characters (mostly side characters) are somewhat flat and can get old quickly, especially Hare is always just doing the same bit where he is surprised and the wild stuff GUU does. however, when they explore the characters and have a sentimental moments, it hits very hard

I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY I LIKE THIS
watching Aria was like going down a calming foggy boat ride. I was never captivated to watch episode after episode. "This show is good for me to fall asleep to" was my thought. Matter of fact it took me 1+ year to get to Origination. Yet at the same time, as the final episodes of Origination came in at the end it was as if the fog finally lifted .I realized I had been stabbed 30 times ,my body on the boat in a wreck , emotional wounds. WHY I WAS CRYING? HOW CAN A CHARACTER TAKING OFF A ... GLOVE MAKE ME CRY? HOW CAN ALLICIA PROMOTING MAKE ME SO SAD? WHEN DID I EMOTIONAL CARE ABOUT THESE CHARACTERS? I just don't understand when this all happened.

Emotions aside this final season focused so much on developing the characters. Understanding their flaws for what felt like personality types we have seen throughout the entire show we see glimpses of the other side. And I think that is why this particular season does so well. The way they make the characters care for each other just warms my heart to tears. I don't get it, because even when I'm typing the reasons it just can't capture the emotion. For example, a reserved and quiet kid Alice seeing Athena singing in the street carefree as an undine she became inspired to wanted to be like that. To the teen Akira learning how to work hard from just because of a random kid(Aika) teaches her that if you aren't lucky in life you make your own luck. And its moments like this after 2 seasons of seeing the girls do random stuff together ,that are strangely so emotional

Aria sets such a good example of how a soft-magic system should work. Creating such an amazing mood of mystery and wonder. The setting or Character dynamics is what sells slice of life shows, and I appreciate Aria having a slow burn on the character dynamics .But the interesting world definitely lured in the audience enough for the slow burn take effect.

Not Peak.
AoT, without its mystery, relied on its characters and battles. With the introduction and killing of many new characters, I found it hard to remember or care about them (two years of not following the series might contribute to this as well). In the end, I felt like they were leaning heavily on standard sob stories to make the audience feel for the characters. I wish there were more humanizing moments in this final part, such as the scene with Annie devouring a pie; this did more for me than the numerous group therapy sessions crying together.

Which leaves the fights. At the peak ... of AOT's fights was excellent. battles where Eren had to figure out how to use BJJ to beat someone who was physically stronger than him. or tactics of Erwin using a distraction to get levi closer to the beast titan. Watching the characters outsmart and eventually defeat something so out of worldly stronger than them was so satisfying to watch. The final battles being left in this spot where excellently animated scenes between a bunch of characters just punching and beating down titans of the past. Like a never ending zombie apocalypse film. And that was where the issue lied, there was no more strategy, there was no battle of wits. It was enjoyable, but not peak.

I had no issues with the ending, I know it diverged from the manga and I appreciate the new message. It left me with the thought, 'Humans will always have war/conflict, but we should try our best.' This was symbolized by the child and dog finding the tree that started Ymir's Titan powers, and the destruction of Paradis Island many years later. However, despite all this, it doesn't stop our protagonists from trying; Levi helping survivors and our former Titan shifters trying to negotiate for peace. Well done
Excellent soundtract, animation,music. But i cant top season 3 part 2

What seemed to be a promising emotional story about a girl who finds self acceptance from a childhood of neglect and trauma from a relationship with a cold yet gentle man. Into a story of saving the helpless princess. It just falls flat.
The soft magic system makes the battles almost feel like plot devices to move the story on as the viewer never really knows the limit's of each character's ability. There is a lack of suspense and the victors seem predictable.
With the exception of Arata using his illusion at the end of his fight.
The idea or message behind her finding self acceptance while ... not being special. Is completely undermined immediately by the story revealing that the whole entire time she was actually super special and is deeply desired by her secret family.
What does this show want to be, a josei/shojo love romance story or a battle shounen story? Not so say that you cannot interweave them together , but there wasn't enough time to properly develop either.

animation and music was great tho!

The most impressive thing about any show that features battle of minds is definitely the magic system and how well it is utilized. Summer time Rendering having a very solid "Hard" magic system rather than a "Soft" magic system. When a hard magic system is utilized to its full potential it is very impressive to the viewer to see. Mechanics such as , copying , memory transfer, time looping, erasing objects; its impressive to gradually show each and every one of them, and eventually see both villains and protagonist use in a clever manner. Moments like copying and deleting all of the air to stop ... a fire. Clever feints and plans. It is definitely exciting to see a clever battle fought without using any internal dialogue to explain what's going on. the only way they could pull this off was the clever ways they did exposition on mechanics of the abilities. Unfortunately a lot of "ass-pull" mechanics were kind of introduced at the end of the series which kind of made the final fight not feel as impactful .

The horror aspect was definitely creepier for a couple of episodes until it kind of swapped over into a battle of wits anime. However the mystery aspect of the show definitely continued. One thing I do appreciate is the feeling that somebody could die. Which I wasn't sure how it was able to do that despite the character being able to change fate. The set backs are definitely felt.

The character dynamics were enjoyable but not anything too wild to standout, Ushio's loud personality was definitely fun to see. I also really love the accent on all the characters, it is impressive that there were some VAs that were from Tokyo in the main cast and still hit the accents nicely.

The biggest disappointment was Shide. There was a chance to explore a somewhat more morally gray villain however , Shide ended up becoming a very typical bad guy in his motivations/behavior . Which for a heroes journey Shonen battle manga, I can understand. However I think there is always a chance to write an interesting villain in terms of personality ,mannerisms ,etc. , this goes for Haine as well. I was able to feel for Haine by the end of the story however I still did not like her at all. It felt a little bit of a plot device to make the viewers care, I wish it was incorporated a bit more earlier. Maybe she could've had moments showing care to some families as it reminds her of what she wants ,etc.

Overall very enjoyable ,I found it hard to not binge

Kaiji is really good, i really enjoy an anime similar in the vain of death note and code geass however having a flawed main character instead of the very cold and perfect main characters that are typical in these shows. and i think the show really displays gambling in a real manner. and i really enjoyed the ending where he ends up broke i think it fits really well with what gambling is all about. Also i love that kaiji is a principled and moral person yet at the end of the day he isnt a big winner. and that is a point of the ... story that i found to be true. Even if you do the right thing that doesn't mean that you will all of a sudden be a big winner. And the show displays that really well with how often characters who are self centered and focused on themselves often end up winning in the end like endou. I enjoyed a lot of the voices and this show could've been rank 8 if it wasn't for the incredible amount of stalling that it does. what felt like 10 episodes with kaiji on the pachinko machine plot points that felt like they were pulled out of the ass to continue the struggle.it felt like they were edging the viewers for so long that they eventually just lost their boner.

Gin on saji takes a solid slice of life about an interesting world that the author has been well immersed in. You can definitely see it with how much knowledge of the farming/agricultural industry that she incorporates into her story. However season 2 takes that and builds upon all the characters that we have been starting to enjoy. Showing so many multiple perspectives about being born with wealth and opportunities and being born limited to what you have to do for your family or what you have to do in order to get by. Being able to see someone who lives so different from you ... yet struggled with similar problems is nice and i think that is cool that the work is able to show this. This is why i love 3-gatsu no lion aswell. Being able to pull a perspective / struggle from an individual who is so much at a different bubble/stage of life and still being able to empathize with them is why Gin no Saji's 2nd part does so well. I found myself crying a lot at Mikage/Komaba's struggles and i also found my self oddly crying at hachiken's relationship with mikage and how it develops into such a supportive relationship. It was cute and was well done for a show where the romance is not the main dish
Its a marker of good slice of life if it can have the characters feel like they are of the setting. The characters here feel like farmers. the feel like people who value this stuff , their different perspectives or interest or quirks you can feel it. their different actions are what they value its feels true to the setting and that's what a good slice of live setting does