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Quan Zhi Gao Shu is nothing short of a phenomenon. In a season with an abundance of great sequels and not that many good new anime, this piece of work was lucky enough to get into the spotlight. It has been praised for being the first anime about Esports, a great step forward for chinese animation and even "an SAO knock-off that does things right"... Uuugh... if only that was the case. Instead, it has been nothing but a disappointment and the amount of praise that it gets in spite of its jarring flaws is baffling to me.

Although i only watched 4 episodes, i ... have a good grasp of what this show is going to be like for the rest of its runtime (i already had a good idea by episode 2, but still watched a bit more to see if anything would change. My hopes were in vain). After all, if a third of a show is terrible, the whole show is probably going to be terrible.

But enough blabbering and let's get right into the meat of things. First i want to talk about GLORY and how it fails at being a realistic, or even believable mmorpg. It is very clear that the intention of the creators was to make the game feel like a real battle more than a game, and in the process they created a game that makes absolutely no sense. There are virtually no limitations to what a character can do in this game. You'll have characters slap the enemy in the face or grab them by the neck, drag them across the ground and toss them into a cliff. This would be cool in a classic battle shonen where there are no limitations to one's power and agility, but in a video game, which is supposed to be bound by its own programming, not so much. And if these absurd displays weren't insulting enough, the show shamelessly tries to cover it up by making up a random name for the "skill" that was just used. "I can't believed he just used "Slap" on that boss!" Slap? SLAP??? ARE YOU SERIOUS??? What kind of game developer would ever think of creating such a dumb and lame skill as Slap?

Anyway, the next aspect i want to adress is the META of GLORY. Every competitive game has a META, a set of tactics and builds that dictates the most efficient way to play the game. In GLORY it is pretty basic: you have tanks, healers, and DPS, which all work together to defeat enemies in the way you would normally expect them to. However, this META is heavily downplayed and basically thrown into the garbage when our overpowered MC enters the stage, takes all the aggro and also deals most of the damage. It seems like strategy doesn't matter when he is concerned, because his APM is so high that he can win consistently even with his crappy non-specialised build. This should NEVER happen. If he can succeed by denying all the well established tactics, then what's the point of even having a META? And if going "classless" was really a good plan, then he wouldn't be the only one using it. This game is supposed to be old and popular, so there must surely be others who have adopted this strategy and succeeded. Where are they? Nobody knows.

People have asked what exactly his weapon is, and the simple explanation is that it's a "f*ck you, i'm OP" weapon. It does everything and is useful in any situation. It's an umbrella, but also a sword, but also... a gun... now a staff? It is needless to say that this kind of weapon has no reason for existing and will never exist in any real game because of how absurdly unbalanced it is. And again, if there is such an OP weapon, why is nobody else using it? Why is MC the only player who knows all the secret win conditions? Nobody knows this either.

Regarding the story, what i can say for now it's that it's terribly paced. It sets up a somewhat intriguing redemption story, but fails to develop on it as it is episode 4 and Ye Xiu is still in that damn cafe fighting lowly bosses and hanging out with the noobs. This part of the story could have been compressed into one episode or a montage and then jump into the competitions. It would have made for a mindless and fun tournament-style anime where we get to see the best players fighting for glory and be bad-ass. Sadly, it can't even be that much, as there is no weight to anything that happens and no strong conflict. It feels mundane and utterly boring.

And i have to mention the dialogue in this anime is completely uninteresting. These people never have any meaningful discussions, about their dreams, about their past, about morals, the only thing they talk about is the game. We also never see any glimpse of their lifes outside of the game, like they are forever tied to this environment and have nothing else going on. It's for these reasons that we never get any proper characterization.

I will delve now into probably the biggest source of this show's failure: its characters. This anime plays a really dirty, but really obvious trick on its audience: it makes the MC look cool by making everyone else seem dumb and useless. When the only way of making a character stand out is by turning all the others into mindless sheep, that is a prime example of bad characterization. If you take Ye Xiu out of context and place him an any anime with a decent cast, he would NEVER stand out, because he is just another Kirito: infinitely good, infinitely strong and always looking cool. However, even Kirto cried when he blamed himself for the deaths of his comrades, which shows a much greater emotional range than Ye Xiu ever does. He literally just wears this smug grin on his face constantly that is basically saying "I'm better than you" (which is generally true, but it doesn't change the fact that it's repetitive and annoying). Everybody else in this anime just watches him in awe and surprise as he effortlessly defeats bosses and orders other people around because they're too dumb to use their own skills properly. And also his motivations make no sense. There is no reason for him to refuse sponsorship and publicity. We at least know that he was helping other players with money, because they couldn't sustain themselves with gaming, so wouldn't it be better to have even more money to share with them? The fact that he refuses an oportunity that would have no negative impact on him is beyond reason.

I actually wish Rou Tang was the main character. She is the only character to show meaningful emotions when she gets frustrated after losing to Ye Xiu. She is a good player, but not the best, and she is motivated to improve after her pride was damaged. It would've been much more interesting to see her develop and become a better player. But sadly, she is cursed with being a side character and admiring the MC without providing anything to the story. This show would never dare develop its side characters, because then the MC wouldn't stand out anymore, and that would be unacceptable. Of course, they could just develop Ye Xiu along with everyone else to make him stand out properly as a well-rounded character, but that would be too much work, wouldn't it?

Probably the most outrageous thing i've heard about this anime is that it has great animation. Animation is the most objective aspect of an anime that you can talk about, and yet so many people fail to realise the difference between great art and great animation and what it means for a show to be well animated. Yes, Quan Zhi Gao Shu is pretty to look at... when nothing is moving. It has beautiful, hyperrealistic background art, i'll give it that. But as soon as things start moving, it becomes almost unwatchable. The background characters are rendered in awful CGI and stand out like a sore thumb. The character designs are just your basic cookie-cutter edgy faces with spiky hair that just scream "GENERIC ANIME", and that god-awful lip-syncing... I never once felt like the voices were actually coming from the characters mouths.

Even people who disliked this show found some enjoyment in the fight scense. I didn't. First of all, because they had no weight or tension, but most importantly for how poorly they were animated and directed. The camera rarely feels like it's in the right place, as it shifts between Ye Xiu's face, his weapon, his ASS, the monster's face, and the side characters cheering for him. Not only that, but you can literally count the frames of each action scene on your fingers, and with each frame you can see the money falling out of the staff's wallets after they used up all the budget on those beautiful, beautiful backgrounds, and now they're desperately trying to make ends meet.

Usually sound isn't touched upon too much, but i feel the need to mention it, because Quan Zhi Gao Shu even managed to mess this aspect up. During fight scenes we get some pretty cool guitar riffs, but outside of that there is just a really generic BGM that you can find in any middle-of-the-road comedy anime. It is annoyingly standard. I also can't get over the contrast between the exagerrated expressions on the character's faces and the comparatively monotone voice acting. I can tell that these actors are doing their best, but it's not enough when you use chinese voice actors on characters that look and act japanese.

Overall, what it boils down to is that this anime has no identity. It doesn't try to be different, in fact, it tries too hard to just imitate japanese anime and fails completely, because it specifically tries to copy the most generic anime style of animation and design. Or maybe i should say it succeeds, because it is exactly that: the most generic anime. However, even the most generic anime can be entertaining if it has high production values. Quan Zhi Gao Shu doesn't even have that. The feeling that it gave me was that of a completely half-assed production. I can tell when the production team is dedicated and puts passion and care into their product, i can feel their emotions through their animation. I did not feel anythign when watching this anime. It is clear that the people behind it didn't have the experience or skill to pull off such an ambitious project.

This is not a step forward for chinese animation. If anything, it is a step back, as the praise it gets will only encourage China to produce more mediocre bulls**t. This anime is the ultimate proof that just because a show tackles an unexplored subject (in this case esports), that doesn't mean it does a good job at it or that it's a good show by virtue of that fact. To be honest, i dint't actually "watch" 4 episodes of this, i sat through them. I hated almost every seoncd of it an no matter how hard i try, i cannot understand what so many people see in this, i cannot find anything appealing or unique about it.

Yo waddup waddup i'm here to bring you some reality checks about this overhyped messy disappointment. This'll probably be a pretty short review focusing mostly on the negatives, but that's only because i don't have much to say about this anime. It's pretty forgettable.

So obviously all the hype comes from the fact that this is from the author of Hellsing, which instantly got thousands of edgy teens to get a hard-on. We expected insane badassery, gruesome fights and a level of cool that would make all the panties drop. Too bad we got none of that, but instead just a faint shadow of the author's ... previous work.

Let's start with the story, ey? So the story starts with (just read the synopsis, you idiots). What really made the story so boring is that you never feel any threat surrounding our main characters. There's a lot of build-up going on, but almost no actual conflict. The guys are mostly just fighting small fry all the time or talking about war strategy or how fascinated they are with the different technologies that were brought into this world. And god damn do they talk a lot! We get it! Y'all come from different times, y'all got different ideologies and ideas about war, just get over with it and go fight some baddies! I think there's only 2 instances where they fight some actually strong villains, but even then there's no tension because you know they're gonna win for sure and i don't really care enough about the characters to give a damn about those fights.

Oh boy, here comes my favorite part: the motherloving characters (i'm not allowed to swear, but you get the point)! What makes the characters so bland and forgettable is that their range of emotions can be summed up into 3 states: grinning, grinning and more grinning. Holy smoking Jesus on a bagel do these guys grin a lot! They grin in the face of danger, they grin when they're talking, when they're sleeping, when they're pooping, like they don't give a damn about anything. And while it's cool and all to not be afraid of anything, it also becomes really stale really fast. Also, this combined with the fact that they all come from different time periods makes them completely unrelatable to the average viewer. You might find some enjoyment if you're a japanese history nerd, but since i'm not a filthy weeb like y'all, i ain't really familiar with it. Turns out Oda Nobunaga wasn't such a big deal, considering how weak and one-dimensional his character is.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but the visuals are also mediocre. At points the show is unbarable for the eyes, and that's for a few reasons: 1. Too much dark! I think every single fight takes place at night, which not only is monotonous as hell, but also hurts my eyes. And it's not like the collor pallet is dark, it feels like the image is forcefully made to look dark with some blak clouds constantly hoveing in front of the image and blurring it. Reality check bastards: Just cause a show is forcefully made to look dark, doesn't mean it's dark. Actually, this is one of the most light-hearted shows i've seen in a while. 2. Bad direction. Lots of weird close-ups to the character's faces, and fights are often uncomprehensible. 3. Sometimes the character's faces look like they're moving independently from their bodies (pretty small detail but still bugs me). The show uses that technique of thick outlines that makes it look like a Madhouse show, but pretty much fails at bringing out the beauty of that style. Hellsing Ultimate looks 10x better even though it was made in the late 2000s.

The sound is pretty damn good if i do say so myself. We've got some pretty epic and stylish BGM that goes well with the tone of the show. Not to mention that opening is insane! In fact, the OP is so good that i would watch it 10 times in a row rather than watch an entire episode.

And one final thing that really breaks the experience: the overusage of slapstick comedy. The show would oftenly go full chibi making you feel like you're watching something completely different, and while Hellsing had a bareable ammount of this, Drifters just has to go into full cringe mode every 3 minutes.
-Hey, how should we animate this part?
-Do a chibi comedy scene.
-But we had one 2 minutes ago and this scene isn't particularly fun-
-I SAID DO A CHIBI COMEDY SCENE!!!

So yeah, nothing really makes this show stand out from its contemporaries. Not saying it's bad or anything, there is some quality and enjoyment to be had, but considering what has been done in the past, this show is far from being up there with the big guys.

The more time passes, the harder it gets to create an anime that truly stand out in their genre and most of them end up being very similar to their predecessors, only less memorable. With that in mind, Tales of Zestiria doesn't even try to set itself apart from all the other fantasy anime and ends up being a story that has been done 1000 times before and 1000 times better.

Let's start with the story. Firstly, the setting couldn't be more generic. At first, it seemed interesting, because it was a village where these mythical beings known as Seraphim live and had some mystical ruins ... that revealed an ancient prophecy. But then the characters travel to a city that you feel like you've seen before, and after that to various locations with no personality (mostly wastelands and forests) that don't feel like they have any significance to the world or story.

The pacing it too slow for an anime like this, and that wouldn't be a problem if the time in between fights wasn't filled with completely uninteresting dialogue that doesn't presentany interesting ideas and just exists so that there wouldn't be silence all the time.

Overall the story is all over the place and doesn't go in any direction. The characters would just travel to random locations and get rid of minor villains in order to make the world better. That might sound interesting to the casual viewer, but to me it's nothing that i haven't heard before. I never felt like there was a huge threat that needs to be defeated or a huge goal that needs to be achieved, and that is something indispensable in a great fantasy series. the conflict needs to feel epic and have a massive scale, i want to feel like the fate of the world is in the hands of these characters. They do talk about a war, which will probably happen in the nex season, but i never felt the urgency of this conflict approaching.

Regarding the characters, where should i even start? Our main character is a typical righteous guy who becomes "The chosen one" and strives to make the world a better place, without having any personality beyond that. Does that motivation sound interesting? Because to me, it doesn't. It is so vague and overused that it's become obnoxious. I can't care for him if he doesn't have a grand goal in his life. Naruto wants to be hokage, Luffy wants to find One Piece, Ed and Al want their bodies back, Guts wants revenge on Griffith and to bring Casca back to normal, why couldn't they give something like that to Sorey?

At first, he seemed like an acceptable character, but only until he dropped the line "We don't have to kill them" (referring to people that turned into evil monsters). That's when i almost lost all hope for this charaacter and realised he's just another righteous MC who tries to save everyone and doesn't understand that victory cannot come without sacrifice. This type of character can be done right, for example in shows like Fate/zero and Magi, by killing an important character and making the MC realise how delusional he was, thus helping with his development. But surprise, surprise, nobody dies in this anime because of the almighty plot armor.

The supporting cast is even less memorable, because they have no personality at all and they are limited to their interactions and relationswith Sorey. They barely express any emotion and even when they do, it doesn't feel real because i don't care about them.

Not to mention the villains are forgettable and not menacing a all, because there is no build-up before any confrontation and they are defeated with ease and no casualties on the side of the good guys.

I have to give some credit to the action scenes. They were beautifully animated, with lots of particles flying around and giving a surreal feeling to the fights, and were mildly enjoyable throughout. However, i couldn't feel any tension during the fights or care too much about them, for reasons that i've mentioned above. I just didn't feel the weight of the situation or the stakes involved.

Undoubtedly the strongest point of this anime was its art style. Not only did it fit the setting, giving it that ethereal aspect of a fantasy world, but it was also detailed and colorful without feeling saturated. The character and costume designs were impressively unique. Ever character was instantly recognisable just from their looks and clothing.

As for the soundtrack, it was fitting and immersive, contributing a lot to the overall atmosphere, but no track really stood out to me. All of the songs could have been used in any other fantasy anime and wouldn't be easily recognisable, unlike the dramatic choirs of Attack on Titan, the oriental music of Magi or the epic guitar riffs mixed with traditional japanese flute from Naruto.

Overall, i found this anime as more of a weekly chore than an enjoyable watch, and i wouldn't recommend it, because for everything that it does, another anime does it better. You want an immersive and fascinating world with unique settings creatures? Watch Magi. You want great characters that can turn even a simple story into an amazing experience? Watch Rage of Bahamut. You want epic and beautifully animated fight scenes? Watch the Fate series. You want all of those in one? Watch FMA: Brotherhood. There are so many alternatives that i don't see why you would watch this instead.

Whenever people recommend Gurren Laggan, they say things like "Turn your brain off" or "You're not supposed to take it seriously", and to that i say (pardon my french): F***ing Bull***t. People seem to misunderstand the nature and appeal of a show like this and often dismiss it as nothing more than a stupid but fun popcorn material in which nothing makes sense. So i decided to write a review to try to explain why it's not such a show, but a well constructed piece of art that not only stays true to its philosophy the whole time, but also backs up its seemingly simple ... ideas with more than stellar execution.

Firstly, let's talk about the story of Gurren Lagann. It is a coming of age story, but more than anythinh, it is also a story about human progress and evolution. The show goes out of its way to constantly reinforce the idea that moving forward and denying the status quo is the only way to progress. This is not only shown through the huge amount of absurd motivational quotes or characters constantly pointing towards the sky, but also through the heavy use of the spiral symbol, which represents the constant need to improve and the spinning of a drill that can only move forward. And the characters follow this philosophy all the way through, even though they might have hated it at some point. Whenever a character deviates from it, they need to be "woke up" by another character saying the famous line "Let's see you grit those teeth!" followed by a punch to the face, and this technique is always successful. Even the concept itself supports these ideas: the main character pilots a robot that LITERALLY runs on fighting spirit (a.k.a "spiral energy"), and nobody questions or tries to explain it, because the show is fully aware of how ridiculous it is.

Another famous quote is "Deny common sense to make the impossible possible." Many people think this is a stupid quote and it doesn't make any sense, but it serves 2 purposes. The first is to remind the audience that anything is possible in this universe and the show is fully aware of that. The second is to remind the characters to always stay true to the nature of the show. This is why, whenever faced with a harsh situation, they will never run away and they will never make the obvious decision. Instead, they will always come up with the most bold and unexpected move, usually involving charging head-fisrt into the enemy, even when the more logical decision would be to retreat. However, these decisions can sometimes lead to the death of an important character, which gives a feeling of consequence and makes the stakes feel more real.

Speaking of death, i also like how this aspect is portrayed. The death of a character has a real impact on the others and always serves a purpose: either to advance the story or to affect the development of certain characters. The message behind this is that victory cannot be achieved without sacrifice and that you need to honor the sacrifices of your fellow men and keep moving forward for their sake.

Regarding the fights, they feel very epic, ridiculous and over the top and they usually end with a flashy finishing move. They perfectly fall in line with the message that Gurren Lagann is trying to send. And as to express and exagerrate the feeling of progress, the villains not only get stronger, but also bigger. This way, the entirety of the show becomes a build-up to an epc climax of unbelievable proportions, which in turn leads to a very satisfying pay-off at the end of the series.

Now let's talk about the characters of Gurren Lagann. The main character, Simon, seems like a typical Shinji Ikari in the beginning, lacking confidence and motivation. On the other side of the spectrum there is Kamina, pobably the most inspirational dude in the history of anime and my personal favorite character from the show. He is a hot headed guy that constantly denies the status quo and doesn't take sh*t from anybody. He is a big brother figure for Simon, but more importantly he is the embodiment of everything that Gurren Lagann stands for. Then there is Yoko, whom many people dismiss as pure fanservice material, but the message that is being conveyed here is that no matter gow big her breasts are, her personality and purpose to the show will never be limited by them. She is a strong female lead that can hold her own, not to mention a true bad-ass in some moments. The supporting cast is very colorful and funny as well, no characters feel out of place, they all serve a certain purpose.

The dynamic between Simon and Kamina is what i find truly fascinating. Kamina constantly pushes Simon's development by urging him to take action and believe in himself, while Simon holds Kamina back from being too reckless. And while Kamina might sometimes disagree with Simon's decisions, he is never mad at him, because he understands his feelings and the importance of keepng a cool head in battle. This balance is necessary for Team Gurren to advance.

Just as much as the characters, the animation is full of style and personality. At first i wasn't fond of the simplistic art style, but then it grew on me and i understood that it actually made the robots feel more unreal and flexible. I also like the use of color in this anme. Each character has their own defining colors and every landscape feels different, from the red tones of the wasteland to the deep blue nuances of outer space. The character and cosume designs are unique and easy to identify, and the effort put into each frame of animation is very apparent (except for episode 4, but we don't talk about episode 4).

The soundtack is, as everything else, awesome. the music fits well with each scene and gives an overall feeling of epicness and adventure. One track in particular, commonly known as Row Row fight the power, is a beautiful blend of opera and rap that not only feels pumping and energetic, but also soothing and calming at the same time. It reinforces the idea that you need to balance a calm mind with the willingness to act and that victory cannot be achieved without sacrifice. As you can see, everything blendsin quite well.

As for enjoyment, what else could i say? There is never a dull moment in this anime and even the occasional filler episode is entertaining, because by that time you already care for these characters so much that you just want to see them relax for a bit instead of fighting an ever more powerful villain. And because of the ever increasing scale of the fights, the stakes feel huge and the pay-off is even bigger.

When i hear the phrase "Turn your brain off" i think of an anme that has no deeper meaning, an anime with lots of plotholes and in which characters make stupid decisions that make no sense in that certain context. Gurren Lagann has no such problems. EVERYTHING makes sense in Gurren Lagann BECAUSE it happens in Gurren Lagann. The reality of this show has it own set of rules and logic, the major rules being that everything is possible and only the most unconventional option is acceptable. And the show never forgets its nature and philosophy. Everything fits in perfectly and serves the purpose of expressing the same idea, and this is what i truly consider brilliant execution. It doesn't matter how deep the themes and ideas of a story are. If the way they are presented is uninteresting and the execution is poor, i will never be able to care about them.

What i hope you'll get out of this review is that the next time you critique Gurren Lagann for its nonsensical action and lack of deeper themes, you can actually understand why the show is that way and why it makes perfect sense for it to be that way. So don't turn your brain off when watching Gurren Lagann, turn it on to the max so that you can truly appreciate this beautiful masterpiece.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Seirei no Moribito is regarded by many as a classic and i understand why it is so highly praised. However, i seem to not enjoy these so-called "classics" as much as everyone else. Cowboy Beebop, NGE, Berserk, Seirei no Moribito are all considered masterpieces of their time, but they all have flaws that apparently didn't bother most of their viewers. However, they did bother me, so in this review i'll mostly be talking about the aspects that i didn't enjoy about Seirei no Moribito, since the strong points of this anime have already been talked about plenty of times.

First of all, i ... will briefly go over what i liked about this anime. The story was very well written and interesting. I liked the fact that it was fairly simple and didn't try to overcomplicate itself by introducing unnecessary characters and plot points. I also like how fantasy elements were slowly introduced into the story, even though at first it seemed like a realistic historical anime. The characters, while being few in numbers, were all memorable and recieved fair ammounts of development (most notably Chagum). Animation was solid all the way and the art style was fitting for the tone of the show. And finally, the music is by far the strongest point of this anime, it really gave me the impression that the story takes place during a mythical age that is beyond time itself. Traditional instruments combined with children voices were the perfect choice for this anime and they truly defined the whole atmosphere of the show.

Now that i've got those out of the way, i will elaborate on the aspects that i didn't enjoy.

1. The action was underwhelming. Maybe it's just me, but i expected a lot more action in an anime that is tagged action/adventute and features a skilled spear wielder as its main character. However, there were only 3 memorable action scenes in all 26 episodes, 2 of which were only flashbacks and din't involve Balsa. This was very disappointing for me because of one reason: i really like Balsa's character. She is a true badass when it comes to fighting, but her fighting prowess was never explored to its fullest. I really wanted to see more from the female bodyguard and i think this anime would've been much better if it was about Balsa's past, when she killed many people while working as a bodyguard. The climax of the series was also disappointing, as i was expecting it to end with an intense battle of life and death.

2. I never felt any suspense. Troughout the entirety of this anime i never felt like any character was in any real danger. Most human to human conflicts were solved without violence, which ties in to my previous problem, the lack of action. And when an entire army being sent to fight supernatural beings, you expect at least a few people to die, but in the end everyone was perfectly safe. the only significant character death (which i'm not gonna spoil) was very lame and didn't make much sense. This lack of death and tension in a series with such a mature premise made me feel like it wasn't taking itself seriously enough.

3. The pacing. I'm not gonna criticize the pacing for being slow, because that would be silly, but in an action/adventure anime, slow pacing is normally used to prepare the viewer for an intense climax that is paced slightly faster than the rest of the show, "the calm before the storm" as one might say. This wasn't the case with Seirei no Moribito. It started off strong but slowed down significantly in the middle and disappointingly didn't pick up the pace towards the end. It took me quite a while to finish the whole series, as i was watching 1 or 2 episodes before losing interest and coming back to it the next week. Considering that the story is fairly simple and the characters are few, i think it could've easily been pulled off in 13 episodes, by removing the filler episodes and speeding up the dialogue and character movements.

And lastly, this is more of a nitpick, but i felt like Chagum's behaviour was unnatural and hard to believe. Given his circumstances, i expected him to whine and complain about every little thing because he was raised in a palace and wasn't used to this new lifestyle. Instead, he was surprisingly calm and well behaved the whole time. It might seem counter-intuitive, but i wish he was more annoying.

Is it worth watching? Of course it is. However, don't expect to be blown away if you're one of those people with short attention spans that prefer intense and dramatic action. I recommend it for more experienced viewers.

I have very mixed feelings about Shinkai Makoto's work. On one hand, he really impressed me with Garden of Words, but on the other hand he really disappointed me with 5 centimeters per second, so i didn't know what to expect from this movie. So after sitting throught the longest 1 hour and a half of my life, i concluded that this movie is even WORSE than 5 centimeters per second. Before you start posting mean stuff on my accound, just try and read my review. It should be less painful than watching the actual movie.

Story: 2/10
I can't even begin to explain how bad the ... story was handled. Let's start with the pacing. Saying it was really slow is a huge understatement. This movie was incredibly boring. The thing that bugged me the most about the pacing is how every single scene starts and ends very abruptly, right in the middle of the "action" (if such thing exists in this movie), giving little to no information about what is going on, so it comes out as pointless, uninteresting and incomplete. Regarding the plot, it was very poorly explained. It's about some nations fighting and two guys wanting to build an airplane and take this girl to a certain tower, and the people controlling the tower try to overwrite this universe with a parallel one. The whole concept of parallel universes is very interesting, of course, but it wasn't explored enough. I couldn't feel the scale of the conflict, because the focus of the movie was constantly shifting between poorly developed plot points. There was even a poor attempt at a plot twist, which felt like it was pulled out of the producers' a-holes and just dumped on us. In fact, everything in this movie is just dumped on the audience. There is no anticipation, no introduction to anything, and that is unacceptable when you're trying to tell such a story.

Characters: 2/10
Another major problem i have with this movie are the characters. Bland, boring, emotionless, one-dimentional, poorly developed, forgettable, and the list could go on if my english vocabulary was larger. I did not care at all about any of the craracters or their motivations. The 3 main craracters (whose names i'm not even gonna mention because i'm too lazy to look them up) get an awfully small amount of screen time, which leads to the inexistence of any character development whatsoever. Their backstories are incomplete and their motivations are unclear. We know WHAT they want to do, but we never find out WHY. I also realised there's a cliche present in Makoto's movies: at the beginning, we hear the main character's thoughts in a vey low and melancholic voice, as they're trying to make me care about them, but it ends up being annoying and making me care even less. It is just a cheap way of characterization that doesn't work at all for me.

Animation: 9/10
The movie was really beautiful, just like Makoto's other works. The colors, the shadows, the tones, the outlines, everything blends in perfectly. the only thing that was lacking a bit were the character designs. Their faces seemed a bit too simple to fit in the beautifully animated setting. It's a real shame that this is more or less the only good thing about this movie. A perfect example of how great animation DOES NOT make a good anime.

Sound: 7/10
The soundtrack was beautiful and fit the overall tone of the movie, even though it was almost inexistent during some scenes. the main problem i have is with the voice acting. I usually don't talk about this, but the voices of some characters were really inexpressive, to the point of becoming annoying, and just added to their already bland and boring personalities.

Enjoyment: 2/10
Did i enjoy this movie? Heck, no! I am actually proud of myself for managing to sit through it. Many times i thought of just dropping it (yes, DROPPING a freaking movie), but i kept telling myself that i have to finish it, that maybe something will happen. In the end it just left me utterly disappointed and almost dead of boredom.

Overall: 3/10
If you are a fan of Shinkai Makoto, you will probably check this movie out, and you will probably enjoy it as well. I just don't understand what people find so good about it. It was a poor attempt at telling a deep story, and i just cringed at its inability to make me care about it. The only good thing was the animation, but sadly that is not enought to redeem such a bad movie. I highly recommend you do not waste your time with "The place promised in our early days".

[MINOR SPOILER ALERT]
Noragami is a very special anime to me, because i watched it back when i was just getting into anime, and i was very impressed with it. I gave the first season a 9/10, but the second one didn't really hold up to my expectations.

Story: 8/10
This season went in a totally different direction from the first one, adding new characters, developing backstories, plot points, plot twists and so on. It was interesting to find out the reason behind Bishamon's hatred for Yato, and all the events related to Ebisu, Nora and Yato were also intriguing. However, i felt like this season tried to ... be more serious, and it didn't work that well for me, since i was expecting a light-hearted action-comedy. Another downfall is the fact that this season didn't expand the world of Noragami, it's like all the phantoms lurking around the city were just forgotten.

Characters: 7/10
The characters sure went through a lot of changes, especially Bishamon, who learnt to let go of her past and her hatred for Yato, and in the end actually tried to save him. Yato, however, took a turn for the worse in my opinion. I enjoyed the goofy, bombastic and overall hillarious Yato of season 1 more than this serious guy with an "i will protect my dear ones no matter what" attitude. Hyori... i guess she didn't really change. Then we have some new characters that didn't really impress me. Kugaha didn't strike me as an antagonist and i didn't get attached to Ebisu, since he was only around for a few episodes.

Art: 9/10
Can't say much about the art and animation, it was consistent, similar to the first season, with lots of vivid colors and details, Bones did a really good job once again.

Sound: 9/10
I felt like this was actually an improvement from the first season, adding new tracks, but being keeping the techno style with the occasional pipe sounds. The voice acting was well done, nothing worth mentiong about it.

Enjoyment: 8/10
Although i expected more action and more comedy, i can't say that season 2 was a boring experience. The ending left me a bit disappointed, as i was wishing for a big fight between Yato and Izanami or at least some fight at all, but they chose to wrap it up in and anti-climactic fashion.

Overall: 8/10
If you have seen the first season you'll probably watch the second season anyway, so i recommend it for all Noragami fans out there. Even though i didn't enjoy it as much as season 1, i am eagerly wating for season 3, witch will probably happen since we got a lot of foreshadowing in the final episode.

I'm gonna say it and i'm gonna say it now: KnB is the most predictable, shounen-like and overrated anime i have ever seen. We all know why it's rated so high: it is very enjoyable and flashy. It's like a weak version of Bleach, with more cliches and totally unjustified powers, since we're talking about basketball, not shinigamis.

The reason KnB is so popular is that it tricks the audience by creating false tension: you're there like "OMG this is so close, i don't know who will win" but actually know who's gonna win (Spoiler, but no spoiler).

And this brings us to my next problem: EVERY ... GAME IS THE SAME, and i'm not even exagerrating. Seirin always has to play from behind and somehow win in the last second by 1 point, obviously dunked by our MVP Kagami. Guess what, you stupid writers: COMEBACKS LIKE THAT DON'T HAPPEN EVERY SINGLE TIME.

This anime doesn't even try to accurately depict basketball. It ignores a lot of aspects. Fouls only happen when the plot calls it and nobody ever misses a shot unless the enemy planned it all along. If somehow they do miss the shot, it is just to showcase a rebound battle (they don't even show the shooter). And don't even get me started on the powers. People told me that these things are entirely possible. I call it bullshit. Only NBA players can do stuff like that, if they're lucky. We're talking about japanese high-school students for god's sake!

Story: 5/10
I couldn't care less about the whole Teiko backstory and even less about the games, since i knew all along who's gonna win. It's not something new at all, just about a team that wants to become the best in Japan. Why am i even talking about this?

Characters: 5/10
You might find them enjoyable, but they completely lack any depth and are very one-dimensional: the ambitious red-head, the silent guy, the other silent guy, the four-eyes and the gentle giant. Most of them aren't worth mentioning, since the whole anime is about Kagami and Kuroko. I also have a huge problem with the "bad guys". Yeah, i called them bad guys, because every enemy of Seirin is depicted as a deuchebag that hates basketball and bullies his teammates. It tries to make you feel that it's right for Seirin to win, which is a really cheap trick if you ask me.

Sound and animtion: 10/10
This is where Knb slightly redeems itself. I cannot argue that the OST is amazing and fitting for this type of show, and all those flashy moves are animated very beautifully.

Enjoyment: 7/10
Despite all the flaws, i did enjoy KnB while hardly trying to turn off my brain as much as possible. It is an anime for everyone and everyone should enjoy it as a mindless piece of fun.

Overall: 6/10
KnB, even though it had a lot of potential, fails miserably at being a sports anime and ends up being a generic battle shounen in disguise. Its presentation makes up for the lack of depth and realism, making it a somewhat enjoyable anime (that is, if you really try not to pay attention to details).