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I'll say it again. It's a great anime.

Yes, it is somewhat difficult to watch because of the abundance of characters and all the intricacies between them. However. The animation in this anime is well done. The sound is okay. Apart from that, the design of both the characters and the backgrounds is great. Even the nonames in the environment. Look at the way they're drawn. How much detail there is in the costumes. It's really admirable.

As for the plot. Think about it. Both seasons, 24 episodes in total, essentially introducing the main characters. Yet how much of the plot we've already seen. How many pieces ... of the story have begun to weave into a pattern. In each episode we see the big picture from a new perspective. It really is a huge amount of work for the writer. Countless interactions, hundreds of references, and somehow the author doesn't mess it up. Often writers fail when they have a dozen characters in constant focus. But here, there are tons. And what a revelation. Think of Ogre. You can easily imagine his character, his actions. And the giant. He wasn't given a lot of time, but we understand his character and his motivations. We understand who he's with. Who his friends are, his ideals, his aspirations. And there were no boring five-minute monologues. Everything is shown through action. Each episode is like a piece of coloured glass in a huge stained-glass window.

I like that sort of thing. In my opinion, it deserves a high rating because of the originality of the presentation. A lot of people will find this anime strange, incomprehensible and drawn out. Not their fault. The complexity is hard to comprehend. Not all anime is easy viewing for dinner or a beer.
I look forward to the sequel.

In short, it's a dumpster fire. If you want to familiarise yourself with "Arifureta", read the manga or the light novel.

I don't even know where to start with this one. When I first saw that White Fox were making this anime, I was naturally excited and eagerly awaited its release. White Fox had done a good job with other projects I've read and seen, and so far they haven't let me down. There were some minor plot changes, of course, but I fully appreciated them - manga and anime are designed for different audiences. So I was prepared for something to change, but what I ... saw... This is a real betrayal by White Fox. I'll give the floor to three imaginary critics.

Good:
The anime has a great, clean voiceover. The voices are matched to the characters just perfectly. Opening is great and very energetic, for what settled in my playlist.

Bad:
Compared to the manga, Hajime has been completely remade. Before, he was a deeply traumatised (which is why his hair turned grey after the first monster), angry, violent anti-hero. Here, he's a kind of neutered tragic hero. His image has become completely toothless.
Yue used to be a cheeky counterweight to Hajime's psyche. Here, she has become a playful and affectionate loli whose sole purpose is to exist for marketing rather than plot. This seems like a slap in the face - in the manga, she was about the only thing stopping Hajime from committing mass murder.
And that's what happened to the main characters. I won't talk about Shea and Tio at all, they've just been shoved into the procrustean bed of marketing and are pale shadows of the originals.

Evil:
Whole anime is just ugly. I'm not kidding. Of all the isekai, "Arifureta" stood out with a dark style that emphasised the story. But Hajime looks like a gutless wimp, Yue spends half the time strutting around in a fur towel, and the monsters are made with bad CG. They are completely different from what they were in the manga and look downright pathetic.

In general, if you stumble upon this anime by chance, not knowing anything about the original, you might watch it without enthusiasm and then say: "Oh, it's okay." But if you've read the light novel or manga, and you came here to enjoy the work of a proven studio (like me), then leave. Leave this anime with a bitter lament and reread the light novel or manga again.

"Psycho-Pass" could hardly have gotten any better after the first season, but this movie trying to prove us wrong, making the problems more and more acute and giving a completely pessimistic assessment of our society, yes, so that works of neo-Marxists fade in comparison.

Well, everyone knows that Inspector Akane Tsunemori has been assigned to travel outside of Japan, something that neither civilians nor government employees have been able to do in the past decades. She's looking for Shinya Kougami, an old frenemy and now international criminal. Suddenly, the outside world is not so nice and friendly: in Shamballa Float, where the cop goes, a ... military operation is unfolding to destroy the revolutionary terrorists. And in the conditions of civil war, a real apocalypse under foot, it is no longer possible to think about the color of psycho-passports, the theory of social consent and other not very necessary things. The scale of the tragedy is quite different, especially when in some still wild, unspoiled by "Sibyl" country a rite of democratization is taking place, and political factions destroy each other with rapture in order to lead the human herd.

And the task of "find, interrogate, capture/destroy" turns out to be a political science course for the inspector, where instead of lectures there are shootings and raids, and it is impossible to understand which side is right and acting legitimately. The screenwriters constantly play with Tsunemori, and thus with the viewer in her person, trying to show different ideologies and political programs that supposedly lead to freedom, security and prosperity. But in reality, Japan is the only country in the world where guns do not rattle, people are not killed en masse, and genocide is not practiced on a large scale (discrimination and forced treatment, yes, but not extermination).

The movie isn't beautiful in terms of story, but it's better in terms of graphics. It's incredibly dynamic and vibrant, with super-saturated colors, wizened high-tech landscapes, and not so terrible 3D animation that brings the digital society of the future to life and naturalizes it. The fights are staged and drawn in a decent way: we have before us one-shot dynamic scenes with high accuracy of action sequences without many white flashes, close-ups of faces and other things. That's why the action looks at the level of an okayish action movie. And when this visual is overlaid with the familiar music of the first two seasons, it is not bad at all. The animators of Production I.G. did a good job.

Aside from the action, there's not much to see here. If you want to see a terrible picture of the future, you'd better watch the movie "Snowpiercer". With each iteration, this series seems to get worse and worse.

I watched this in its entirety. Overall a very average anime with a lot of flaws. Take away a few flaws and this anime would've been good.

Let's start with animation. It's cheap. There's not much of it. The drawing quality is not the lowest, but it is low. The backgrounds aren't great either, but they're low quality. The character designs, surprise surprise, are also bad. I understand that the budget is small. But compare this to "My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer". Also a low-budget anime. Notice the difference in the quality of the backgrounds. Also note the detail of the ... characters' clothing.

Sound and music. They're there. Sometimes in such titles there's at least a rousing opening or ending. Not in this anime. An example of an opening is "Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers". Nothing complicated. And it's clear that things are much better in the same "Frieren".

As for the plot, the world, the characters, etc. It's all average. The author does not make outright stupidity, but there are questions. For example, mc-kun let two heroes go. Why? Wouldn't it have been easier to at least catch them? No? And there was a reason. And so he left himself a problem for the future. Besides, the mc-kun is almost presented as a saint. Ready to give his last. The author misses an opportunity to show conflict. Mc-kun leaves the healing potions to himself and watches the wounded suffer. He realizes that without him, they are doomed to die. So he decides not to waste the potions and saves them for the coming battle. It could have been, but it wasn't. This is where mc-kun just gave it all away. His logic - you don't need a healing potion if you don't get hurt. So you just have to avoid getting hurt. The elf girl is trying to sacrifice herself somehow. And so are the other characters. There's a logic problem here.

Of course, there is also a slave guild, which is more like an employment agency. I know slavery was different, but still. Is it possible to find a party and a harem not in a slave shop? Also a little depressing is the toilet humor. This toilet humor thing is weird. The author has a weakness for toilets.
The show is not particularly eventful. The characters are not very interesting. The only memorable character is the spider girl.

You can watch it, but this anime will be erased from your memory about five minutes after you finish watching it. Very generic anime. Minimal originality. So-so execution. Not trash, but you can't call it good either.
Some will like it, but most will find this anime uninteresting and boring, secondary.

I watched this anime. It's a pain.

It's a stupid anime of low quality.
The art is cheap. There isn't much animation. There are almost no frames in the animation. Pile of static frames. There is sound. That's all I can say.

The plot is a cock-up. It's stupid, it's contradictory, it's not logical. Take a loli into battle? Yes, of course! Eating fruit not at home in front of the fireplace, but while fighting a dragon? Yes! The necromancer raised the corpse of a summoner and then, surprise, a big bad dragon. The necromancer also killed a bunch of people. Who is she? That's right, a misunderstood, ... poor little girl who just wanted to dance. The mop is also a sword. A master swordsman with super speed is no match for mc-kun with the mop. Mc-kun's skill of robust weaponry? Forget it. Swords break in his hands, and they still do. A guy with a skill like summoning electricity does a lot of things. Summoning summons, casts impenetrable electric armor. All with one skill. And yet, in this world, there are skills like bug defense...

The Necromancer has been forgiven. Killing is okay. Somehow, in the last few episodes, the writer forgot how the first dragon was summoned. And, of course, Deus ex machinas at every turn of the plot. There you are, and artifacts that give skills, and the maiden that just casts from the books...

Do you expect mc-kun to eat fruits? No, he doesn't. He will pop a fruit once during the fight.
But stupid mc-kun will be pumping. He'll get all buffed up. Gobbling up a bunch of skills, no. Bulk up, yes. And the skills are skills that are op.
It's hard to call this anime childish, simple, etc. It's just stupid.
There's no cute stuff. The opening lies. There's no cuteness.
You don't want to watch it. It's just a waste of time.

I Watched It So You Don't Have To.

Overall, it's just a bad anime. The visuals are bad. Minimal animation, bad backgrounds, characters are low detailed. The sound is also generic. The plot here is a copy of "That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime". Only worse. It's a cheap, lazy imitation. Same dragon, same building a city, same making a bunch of servants and familiars. Even Rimuru's stuffy office meetings look more intense than this. Mc-kun does everything with no sweat and no effort. There's not an ounce of suspense in any of the fights. There's no spectacle either. There's just nothing to see. ... One explosion from "Konosuba" is more colorful than the whole anime. Furthermore, the plot is logically flawed and contradictory. Starting with the fact that mc-kun kills the dragon's children and the dragon is happy about it. And what is the teacher of magic, that told all in a few hours to such a genius mc-kun, showed, gave ancient grimoire. And all this after he has seen the boy for the first time in his life. This anime also tries to parasitize on the ideas of others by copying content. Wolfgirl is very similar to Delta from "The Eminence in Shadow" in her behavior. There's harem-ish, but AIs are generating more interesting characters these days. It all looks like a hastily made potboiler, just for show. No idea, no execution.

This is a bad anime. I don't recommend watching it. There are a ton of better titles than this. There's nothing to see here.

As always, there is an argument between fans, or just laymans, about which season was better, whether the second season was as good as the first. Many are saddened by the absence of some characters. But the intention of the writers rarely matches the needs of the audience. And the intention of the first season was continued in the second season, even if not as well as we expected. The viewers, apart from the formal details, will not feel that they are watching a second season. It is a seamless, uninterrupted continuation of the first season, in which the writers continue to develop familiar themes, ... but in the most trivial of ways. What is the judgement of many minds? Can you judge people in groups? How do you judge a group of people with different ratios? Can the Sibyl be judged? Will society survive?

The author's next move is particularly interesting: Sibyl does not judge only the mind, only emotional reactions. It does not scan the brain, it scans the entire human organism in all its manifestations of life. Information is gathered from the functioning of all systems, muscular, circulatory, respiratory, etc., and converted into a quotient. This idea can be continued by anyone who wants to watch the anime and come to some startling conclusions. Sibyl evaluates not the stress of the mind, but the stress of life, which is contained in a billion cells assembled in a person. And from the stress quotient, Sibyl concludes whether life is ready to harm other lives, how aggressive and dangerous it is. But that is a whole nother story as they say.

In the anime, the viewer will find a lot of interesting human tragedies, many characters from the first season have changed dramatically. But the most important and interesting thing that the authors offer us is a reflection on Hobbes' metaphor. The state is a leviathan that will devour a unit of people without question. Or a dozen. Or a hundred. All for the good of the system that has been built. The system is ruthless, makes no exceptions, is completely devoid of flexibility and humanity. Can order be destroyed? Can the system be judged? Although it feels like the system is behaving very differently to the first season.
And all these questions, the search for answers to them, are once again placed on the fragile shoulders of Akane Tsunemori, who has to cope at all costs. And it's moderately interesting to watch, though the character development here is rather pale, and some silly scenes, such as the experienced inspector being beaten up by a decrepit old man, make it seem as if Makishima's case never happened.

These days, you can find a lot of manga and anime dedicated to dystopias. The Japanese are worried about the future itself. They often seem to be afraid of it. And they have too many reasons to be. The reality of "Psycho-Pass" is Japan, a closed country with excellent advanced technology. They have their own politics, their own logic of economy and social education, and no foreigner can understand it. So the future outlined in this anime is very logical and very possible.

I see "Psycho-Pass" as a treatise on law, on the concept of legitimacy and power. At the same time, it feels like leafing ... through the writings of neo-Marxists on mass communication, the mechanization of society, and the transformation of all people into one-dimensional models.
The anime discusses in detail the phenomena of social networks and anonymity, the genius and unpredictability of the human mind, and the unreadability of the human soul to machines. The theory of chaos is unfolded and presented in color, the impossibility of ordering, evaluating and judging everything is proven.

Here you can fully appreciate the ideas for terrorizing and destroying society in the distant future, very applicable even now.
And that's not all.
The images of the characters leave a contradictory impression, they are ambiguous, their fates are interesting and their decisions are quite unpredictable. I was particularly impressed by Akane's Tsunemori path, her growth and development as a detective. Often unflattering things are said about her, some consider her an impenetrably stupid girl with big eyes. But in a short time this girl became the only person who understood how the whole society works, how this or that cog of this system will act. She realized her role as the guarantor of the existence of law in this society. And she did not break, although she could have, because the burden of responsibility was monstrous.
And such characters are sometimes more impressive than the saviors of the world, chosen and physically perfect, as Shinya Kougami appears.
I recommend this anime to people of all ages and interests, because who knows what kind of world we will live in tomorrow.

Madness & Genius...

A great brother and sister duo under the authorship of Nishioka Kyoudai have created an interesting collection of "Boku Mushi" stories in a unique surreal genre that is uniquely their own. The manga was published in the magazine "Garo", which specialized in underground and avant-garde works. For many, this magazine became a platform that did not restrict and gave freedom to create. One should not bury one's talent and specific genius against the background of templates, should one?

First of all, it's worth putting up a sign that says "Beware! Surrealism!" Although the genre of comedy, which implies humor, is behind it, in this ... context it is completely absorbed by the refinement in the direction of the surreal. Namely, on the ridicule and distortion of the familiar, bringing to absurdity and illogical behavior and in a kind of stupidity. Complete unpredictability of the next frame and content that cannot be predicted. So the humor is very specific, not everyone will endure it on their own. So those who want to immerse themselves in this manga, I advise you to think carefully, so as not to regret in the future.

On this crazy platform, philosophical and life themes emerge, sometimes played with sarcasm, exaggeration, desire and other nuances in the 18+ and minimalist touch. A kind of looking through a distorted prism. There are more complicated stories that are difficult to understand, but they act as charades or rebuses that you want to solve and get closer to the essence. Very positive looking frames for recreation and entertainment, where you have to find the differences, really relaxing and motivating. I liked the drawings, and rightly so, there is something to laugh, wonder, amaze and horrify. I don't know about the rest of you, but I really enjoyed reading it. It's a shame that it's only one volume with 16 chapters. I hope this manga will find its readers.

Can a good story be told in only two volumes? My experience with manga made me skeptical about this question. However, I decided to give the short series a try, especially since it looked really nice!

Plot Summary:
Many years ago, humanity was attacked by some kind of alien "Mimics". Keiji, a new recruit in the Japanese army, is a green rookie. This is the first time his unit has to face the aliens, but the catch is that the human mortality rate on such missions is way too high. Fortunately, the rookies are not thrown to the wolves. The mission will take place in the rear, ... and the main work will go to the American unit, led by an experienced fighter, Sergeant Rita Vrataski.
The landing begins, and as it happens, the battle does not go as planned, as the Mimics attack from another direction. In a matter of seconds, Keiji and his entire squad are destroyed. A moment later, however, he wakes up in his bed in the barracks the day before the landing and realizes that this is not the first time he has died.
Plots based on time loops have long ceased to be something new, every year something with similar themes is released. However, "All You Need Is Kill" plays in this field more than worthy and will find something to surprise you.

The story is characterized by violence and uncompromising attitude towards the main character, due to which it is quite easy to empathize with him. Finding himself in a circle of deaths and rebirths, he realizes that no one is able to help him, and decides to act. The way he tries to understand and change something is quite interesting to watch.
The events are very fast-paced, but it doesn't feel stilted at all. No doubt my inner asshole would have wanted to know more about Mimics, the world outside the Mil Ops, and other details, but within the confines of a narrative similar in spirit to a short story, there is no need for additional information. The pacing is almost perfect.

Despite its brevity, the story does not lose its emotionality. The focus on the two protagonists, without atomizing the supporting characters, suits the format of the work perfectly, because it allows us to get enough insight into their personal drama. Undoubtedly, the characters themselves are rather clichéd, but I see it more as a technique. In this situation, clichés allow you to complete the picture in your mind without overloading the narrative with unnecessary elements. All of this may seem rather watery, but to say more is to risk spoiling something, and in a story that is mostly built on intrigue, that is simply inexcusable.
I'll just say that I really liked the ending and the revelation of the reasons for the time loop. I thought it was quite elegant and logical, even if some people might not like it.

The visuals perfectly reflect the mood of the story. Brutal battle suits, lots of blood and dismemberment in the fights, tough characters and a very green protagonist. The detail and dynamics of the battles are on the highest level. I can easily recognize the style of the illustrator of "Bakuman" and "Death Note". I'll say more, the main character reminded me a lot of Moritaka, and the idea that we're watching his alternate future is even a bit funny. Many people will probably be confused by the image of the warrior Rita. Well, what is a manga without fragile girls? And the story takes care to justify the physicality of the character by introducing exoskeletons that increase physical strength by a lot, so there's no problem with that.

The edition is great. Solid one-volume paperbacks in "Attack on Titans" format. The opening is excellent, each page can be enjoyed in all its glory. I would love to see more manga in this format.
Many may wonder why the book was not published as an omnibus all at once. Sounds fair, but in the context of the story, all 4 covers are important and seem quite symbolic after reading.
The result is a great mix of action and drama, spiced with science fiction. It reads in one breath. What more could you ask for in a story?