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I had fun with this show! Mainly because I enjoy character focused rather than plot focused series, and this is quite literally “character development- the anime”. However, there were a few pretty big issues in this series.

The good:
Let me start off by stating: The whole “glow up” nature of this show is fun as hell. It’s like the anime equivalent of those makeover shows you see on TV, combined with the typical slice of life Highschool setting. I also enjoyed most of the female characters, especially mimimi and Izumi. The animation was decent enough for this type of show and the excellent voice acting ... definitely carried the show on its back. I also believe in the main message the series tries to convey namely that “life isn’t a game about winning or losing, it’s about having fun and doing your best”....although the way they get to that is admittedly clumsy.

I also liked the few moments when the show felt relatively grounded. For example, the girls and guys being friends and hanging out without it turning romantic. You don’t see that enough in anime IMO.

The bad:
Now. The main problem of the show: the goddamn MC.
He is so. Boring.
I’m sure that if you ask anyone who liked Tomozaki, they’ll say that the goal was to create an awkward, anxious and relatable protagonist. However, the truth is that he is just a classic case of the “let’s make an mc so bland that anyone can project themselves onto him” and I am so sick and tired of that trope. He just can’t carry a scene by himself at all, relying completely on the female side characters (I’ll get to those in a second) to make the series interesting. His one and only personality trait is being a gamer for fuck’s sake. The constant use of cringy language like “noob” “normies” and “bottom-tier” is also unbearable. It’s just hard to care about him when he is so unlikeable.

The fan service also made me deeply uncomfortable. It’s not as obvious as in many other similar series, but it’s definitely there, even in scenes with his obviously underage sister (which, gross)

I stated that I liked the female characters, however, it becomes increasingly obvious that they’re all written to appeal to certain “waifu types”. I could feel that this anime was made by sad, horny men, for sad, horny men (attributes of which only one applies to me - you gotta guess)

Male side characters...exist. There’s not much to say, considering the show does not care about them at all, except to maybe pose them as a threat or romantic rival to the mc. I am also convinced that no one working on that series has ever had a guy on guy friendship, because apparently men only develop personalities in front of women.

All in all, the shows premise was fun enough to pull me in and the voice acting and a few characters kept me invested, buuuuut it’s clearly pandering to a very specific demographic, namely self proclaimed unpopular guys whose greatest dream it is to get into some girls’ pants - this is reinforced by the comments posted under the episodes I watched - if I have to read one more person describing mc as a Chad I WILL simply combust.

TLDR;
An average show with a fun premise and a few really sweet characters. Its worst enemy is the boring, uninteresting MC who’s supposed to be a blank slate for equally horny and sad dudes to project themselves onto. Nonexistent male characters. Slightly cliche female characters. Go for it if you like the premise.

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Listen: this isn’t a good show. Objectively speaking, this is a really really bad show actually. Now. Did I enjoy it? Yes.

Hear me out.

There is a serious shortage of BL anime adaptations. And the ones that get adapted usually only get OVAs or 5 episode seasons. That’s why a 13 episode full length BL is an absolute rarity and it feels difficult to try and rate it, considering how few others there are to compare to it. Which might be why I am absolutely biased rating this a 6.

Story wise the characters are generic, have zero personality and their ethics are uhhhh....questionable at best. ... Consent is an alien concept to everyone in it and the mc gets sexually assaulted by at least 3 men (one of which being the love interest - yuck) and yes, I know that is an unfortunate staple of the genre, but in dakaretai it’s made infinitely worse by the fact that they frame it so creepily. I swear, they start playing horror music and create this threatening shadow when the mains first sleep together. It’s VERY uncomfortable.

The animation is poor and since they cut all the sex scenes (which make up more than half of the story) it also ends up feeling incomplete.

However - I did enjoy it. It’s mindless BL smut and sometimes that’s exactly what you need, so. If you enjoy problematic BL for what it is, honestly go for it. Who cares.

TLDR; as a wise man once said: anything becomes fun, if your standards are low enough. And tbh my standards are on the floor. Terrible show, 10/10 would recommend.

Disclaimer: I have not read any of the manga, so this is an anime-only review.

Every season there is that one shonen series that just completely dominates in popularity. Sometimes these titles live up to the hype, sometimes they don’t. However, It speaks volumes that jjk was airing during the same time as TPN 2 and AOT and still managed to not only compete, but also come out on top of viewership ratings.

The good:
First, I’d like to start off by saying that production wise studio MAPPA blew my mind.
The animation is gorgeous with well choreographed fight scenes that lean on realistic martial arts while ... still maintaining some fantastical elements. The sound design as well, and don’t even get me started on the insane soundtrack. The ops are both amazing and I think we can all agree jjk deserves a prize simply based on that stylish first ending. (I have that song in my shower playlist and god is it a fucking bop.)
Despite following the shonen formula to a T, there’s something uniquely charming about jjk. You can tell that there was a lot of thought put into the magic system and rules of the sorcerer world. I also love that they depict the fights as bloody and tragic at times. I genuinely felt disgusted by some of the demons and it feels like every battle carries a certain weight.

The bad:
However, every show has its share of problems and jjk biggest one (and the reason as to why I’m giving it a 7) is its terrible tendency to switch up the mood way. too. quickly.
They try to balance out sad scenes by adding comedic effects to it, but the jokes just end up feeling misplaced and the scenes less immersive. One second I’m on the verge of tears and the next completely out of it, because jjk decided that the best way to deal with drama is having the characters... not care about it?

Also, this might be an anime only Problem, but jjk strongly relies on the friendship of the core characters but then ends up not actually developing them.
It’s so frustrating to see the characters talk about becoming friends and being told that they spend quite a bit of time together but it never getting shown on camera. How can I believe these people genuinely care about each other when we’re only told that but never get the build up?

I hope in the upcoming seasons they’ll further develop the friendship between the main three because I think jjk has great potential to be an amazing shonen title. It actually IS an amazing show already, still, these little things deeply bothered me and kept it from being an 8 or 9 on my list.

TLDR; Good shonen with cool fights, despite the underdeveloped friendships between characters and a bit of a rushed plot at times, a really emotionally hard hitting anime at its best.

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Talentless Nana falls under a category which I like to call ˋpopcorn entertainment ´. It‘s not a high quality show by any means but I did enjoy it, in a casual, I–wonder–what–batshit–crazy–plottwist–will–happen–next kind of way.

The story starts off strong with a pretty cool premise: An isolated island contains a school full of kids with superpowers who are supposedly being trained to defeat monsters, or as they like to call them „enemies of humanity“; meanwhile one of them is actually a trained killer, tasked with killing them all off while maintaining the image of a mindreader through psychological deduction.
The concept is a struggle ... between brains and superpowers, which will prevail in a fight between life and death?

I was seriously excited to get into this series, but after the hype from the first two episodes or so died down it became...eh.
The characters are all pretty cliche and will at times act completely OUC, the animation is a bit stiff at times, the score is just standard as well and the story is at its best a little contrived and at its worst full of plotholes, but still, there were a few scenes that I really liked, especially when it came to Nana‘s manipulation and schemes.
I watched the first 6 episodes, got tired and decided to do something else but ended up coming back to it out of curiosity how it would end, so take that as you will.

It‘s by far not the best of the season so far, but if you enjoy series where the mc is also the villain (kinda at least) and don’t mind if it get‘s a bit nonsensical at parts, then this might be a show you enjoy.

TLDR; I enjoyed it, but it’s honestly not that good of a show. If you’re looking for something to switch your brain off to and just have fun with, I say go for it.

Oh Promised Neverland... Where should I start with this series?

Something that I've noticed about anime over the years is that the shows that actually make me feel things...aren't always the shows that are good from an objective perspective. In some, the animation might be flakey, the story might be convoluted and dozen other things might be imperfect, but GOD do I love those stupid series nonetheless.

The Promised Neverland is NOT such a show.

The Art and direction are beautiful and atmospheric, the soundtrack is gorgeous and fresh, the characters are well-fleshed out and the story is captivating and just GOOD.

I would even go as far as ... to say this is one of the most perfect shows, I have ever watched. I literally do not know how someone could improve it.
If someone asked me what my favourite anime was, I wouldn't say this show, despite it probably being better than my actual number 1 (Dororo).
But if someone asked me what I thought the best anime was, The Promised Neverland would definitely be one of the first that'd come to mind.

TLDR; Do yourself a favour and just go watch this masterpiece, if you haven't yet. Do it. 10/10

Spoiler-free review:

After finishing the first season of Demon Slayer, I was craving something to fill the hole in my heart that series had left me with. So when I found Dororo it felt like I had hit the jackpot. A dark, samurai-themed story set in ancient japan about a swordsman fighting mythological creatures - This just seemed so perfectly made for me. What I found, on the other hand, was a story, vastly different from everything I'd seen before.

STORY
Since I am a sucker for found family tropes and ancient japan settings, I was already hooked from the beginning. But Dororo kept me invested through careful ... worldbuilding and an intricate web of backstories, along with some of my favourite characters in any anime, ever. Although I usually do not enjoy Monster-Of-The-Week type of storylines, it managed to make me sympathize with each monster and since the slaying of demons was for once actually relevant to the hero's goal, so I did not mind it. At times, especially towards the end, I felt as though the plot was being drawn out a bit, but the pacing quickly recovered to its usual fast-paced fun, making the last few episodes exciting and satisfying.

ANIMATION & ART
Dororo's premise in and of itself is already pretty dang awesome. A deaf and blind boy, searching for his himself, able to weaponize each and every part of his body while fighting all kinds of monsters? That alone promised some creative and fun action sequences. And while Dororo does not disappoint on that front, with every episode having at least one big fight scene, it does from time to time happen that the animation quality dips a bit. Don't get me wrong, some scenes are downright gorgeous and when it depends on it the art style really does deliver, but there are instances where the animation could have stepped it's game up, especially in the scenes where Hyakkimaru utilizes his marionette-like body.

CHARACTERS
Finally, I get to talk about my favourite part of this series: The main characters.
While Dororo may have its flaws in pacing and story, it's the emotional core of the story that truly exceeded my expectations and made me want to write this review.

Listen, I cannot express how emotionally invested I was in the two main characters after only a few episodes. Our two protagonists, Hyakkimaru and Dororo by themselves are wonderful, with flaws and lots of backstory, but it is when they interact that it really gets my tears flowing and my face hurting from all the smiling. I ADORE the sibling relationship between these two. They have great chemistry, balancing each other out and being funny, while always showing how deeply they care for each other.
In a world where everyone has lost so much and death and suffering are almost omnipresent, having these two forge a bond this genuine and deep makes a big difference in balancing out the sadness. Some of my favourite moments of the show will forever be Dororo crying after seeing Hyakimaru for the first time in days and Hyakkimaru breaking his own arms, screaming and hitting his head against a rock until he bleeds because he is trying to save the person he loves most from drowning.
The supporting cast was also incredible. Tomoharu as a villain especially had a lot of depth. I felt conflicted since I understood everyone's motivations and Hyakkimaru's constant fight between losing his humanity or losing his self was deeply moving and compelling.

TLDR; I give this series a 9/10! I sadly couldn't give it a 10 because of its flaws regarding story and animation, but in my heart, I know that these characters will stick with me for years to come, which is not something I can say about a lot of other shows. I recommend it to anyone who cares a lot about a well-written cast and good worldbuilding.