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[Minor Spoilers]
Gamers is not a good show. I'm honestly surprised that so many people like it. It's almost like they've never seen a romantic comedy before. It becomes very apparent that the show is not about video games, it's about people who play video games. There's nothing wrong with that in itself, but the problem is the main characters in this show are not representations of real gamers. I don't mean to sound like a teen from 2008, but the main characters are quite literally posers. The entire show tries to pose as something it's not. At best, it's a quick comedy to watch, ... one that you may or may not enjoy based on it's humor. The worst transgression of the show is the final episode, but we'll touch on that later.

The story of Gamers starts off good, but after the initial few episodes it loses it's direction and quickly refocuses to basically anything other than games. The mc rejects the heroine's offer to join the Games Club, but instead of trying to make him desperately rejoin the club like you'd think would happen, she just falls in love with him because of his ability to not care about her status in the high school and then doesn't care if he joins the club or not. There's a whole cast of people introduced in the games club, but they're relevant for that single episode, then they're not shown on screen again until maybe six episodes later. Basically, the story forgets the games club exists. Games hold little importance in the show, they're just things the characters like to do in their free time. The reason Amano gives for not joining the club is bullshit as well, but we'll save that for the character section. The story of Gamers is very similar to High Score Girl with a bigger cast and more misunderstandings, except High Score Girl heavily revolved around video games. One hundred percent, High Score Girl was a show about romance and games. Gamers poorly balances romance and games, and instead is 95% romance, 5% games.

The art of Gamers is pretty solid to be honest. The colors are attractive and the girls are as well, though this only applies to the main cast. Every other character is drawn pretty average. One of the good parts of the series are when they show the characters playing games themselves. Obviously you can just look up a YouTube video of the game in action, but it's pleasing when the characters play games then you can actually see them playing the game instead of seeing them hovering over an arcade machine frantically pressing buttons. The execution of how games are portrayed reminds me of High Score Girl as well. The opening animation is good, seeing the characters portrayed in different games is fun. It's nothing new though, just what you'd expect from a show seemingly about games.

I don't rate sound by background music, but by opening and ending songs and voice acting (sometimes). The opening was alright but generic. It's so generic that I can't remember how it went at all, and it's only been a bit over two weeks since I finished the show. The ending I skipped every episode because I didn't like it the first couple of times I heard it, so I really can't speak on it. I watched the dubbed version of the show and I think the casting was done really well. Amano's voice actor was unfamiliar, but he did a good job translating Amano's wimpyness onto screen. I didn't like Tendo's voice actor. Whenever she talks she's whining or being weird. That's more of the character's writing fault than the voice actor's to be fair.

The characters in this show by themselves are really annoying but when they all come together to interact they can be funny. I really dislike Amano as a character though. It's like the writers couldn't decide if he was a gaming addict or just a casual gamer. He says things like he spent three nights in a row playing a game and beating it repeatedly, but he doesn't ever look like he's done an all-nighter. The only game we see him actively playing other than arcade games are that mobile game he plays, which is the only game he shows real dedication to playing. The show tries to portray him like a toned down Keima Katsuragi, but he really isn't. He's just a guy who plays games. He's not a real gamer. Tendo on the other hand seems more dedicated to games than Amano, but we also never see her actively playing games other than one scene here and there. One of the best characters in the cast is Amano's best friend, Uehara. Uehara reminds me a lot of Yuuji Sakamoto from Baka & Test. Uehara engineers a lot of the mischief in the show, and he likes games but he doesn't pose to enjoy them more than he really does, like Amano does. Other than those three, I really don't have much to say about the characters. Uehara's girlfriend is particularly annoying throughout the entire show. She seems to be the idiot falling for all of the misunderstandings, and even contributing to most of them. On the last episode especially, she becomes infuriating...

Which leads me into the enjoyment of the show. Gamers is a mindless comedy to watch. Nothing more, nothing less. Some jokes are funny, others are not. Throughout the show they use gamer terms for real life things and it's simply cringe. For example, they'll say phrases like, "I just got OWNED on my quiz!" or "That quiz has my health super low and I have to eat lunch to heal!" throughout the show. This dialogue needs to go away. It's simply cringe to people who actually play games, as no real gamer talks like this in real life. Even Keima Katsuragi, the God of gal-games, doesn't talk like that in his regular grammar. One of the most unfunny parts of the show is the last episode. For whatever reason, they decided to make the last episode educational, like it was an episode of Sesame Street or something. This is extremely insulting to the audience. After watching the entire series and hearing them mention many "gamer" phrases and terms, they decide to educate us on what DLC is in a filler episode for the last episode. First of all, who does filler on the last episode? Second of all, why would it choose the end of the show to explain terms they've been using during the entire show? The show would've benefitted more if they placed this episode in the middle of the series, then put the second to last episode as the last episode. Even narrative wise the episode makes NO SENSE. Aguri starts questioning why they like video games when there's harmful things like DLC in them, then starts attacking them all as "gamers". This is the end of the series, mind you, and Aguri has already been around these gamers for months at this point, she should not just begin questioning their motive behind loving the genre.

I don't want to ramble on because the show honestly isn't worth it, but I'll say it again: Gamers is not a good show. It is very average. Sure, it's a good watch when you have nothing else to do but I presume it wasn't in any runnings for best anime of the season during it's time, nor will it ever be. I rated the show a 5 Overall. Very average, even amongst the average. It's a poor attempt to copy the cast of Baka and Test, and a poor attempt at an anime. The mangaka should go back to the drawing board

On the surface, Darwin's Game is another addition to the battle royale genre, akin to King's Game and Mirai Nikki, but soon after starting it you begin to see that you were correct in your original assumption. Darwin's Game presents nothing new to the genre, it is quite a waste of time to watch. It will not enlighten your life, nor will it teach you an important lesson. While it is a waste of time to watch, if you're the type of person who has time to waste, then this rant-review will inform you of the ups and downs of the show to decide if ... you really want to waste your time on it.

Story (5): We start with Kaname Sudou as a regular teen who was invited to D-game by his friend who panicked before death and sent him one of those annoying Facebook Candy Crush invitations that your relatives keep sending you, even though you've never played Candy Crush in your life and don't intend to. Kaname decides to actually accept the invite, which propelled him into a game of hell. From the first episode it is apparent that there will be a few story issues with this show. Why on earth did Kaname's friend send him an invite right before he died? Surely he knew he'd be inviting an average joe to a fucking deathmatch, and in the rare case that Kaname immediately adapted to it, he STILL wouldn't be able to come to his friend's aid right at that moment, so Kaname was basically dragged into the game by his dying friend for absolutely no reason at all. This is the biggest problem early on with the story. Another major problem is that about nine of the thirteen episodes in the first season take place entirely within one arc, the Treasure Hunt arc. A lot of the show's relationships are built within it, including Kaname's decision to make his own clan, but I personally was not expecting it to take so much time to get through the arc. By the time it was over, the season had three episodes left. Other than those problems, the story was alright. The twist on the Treasure challenge was interesting to watch and the ending of it was enjoyable.

Art (7): While the show certainly doesn't break any barriers with it's animation, it didn't make the mistake of using CGI or something weird to portray powers, they were animated regularly. Since it avoided the mistake of Big Order, it's doing good already in the art department. The show also doesn't unnecessarily use auras or anything of the sort for powers either, their eyes just glow slightly to indicate they've activated their sigil. It really was a nice call to not wrap Shuka's chains in red mist or some dumb shit, so I appreciate the art direction. Of course, we gotta talk about the look of the characters too. Shuka's design is quite nice, her twin tails match her chains which is slightly ironic. Kaname on the other hand looks completely regular. Later in the show they do some weird shadowing with his body. Like his entire left arm and leg is dark even though he's standing in the light, it's weird.

Sound (6): I'm not a big sound fanatic so I usually just rate on opening and ending, unless there's something to note about the character's voices. I watched in dub and didn't notice anything peculiar about their performances. Then again, Alexis Tipton, my favorite voice actress, voices Shuka, so I'm always pleased with her performance. The opening was bearable to listen to, but nothing I would listen to on repeat or add to my playlist. The ending song was generic, in my opinion. Not good or bad, I just feel like it's what you'd expect from an ending. I skipped it a majority of the time once I heard it a couple of times.

Character (5): It's not easy to talk about the characters in this show without focusing on their flaws. Kaname acts like an idiot while also being smart at the same time, it's unbelievable. He has a great battle sense, but no sense in every other area. He wasn't even convinced D-game was real until the latter half of the second episode, despite his best friend telling him over and over again it was. He's a typical wimp, more obsessed with learning how to end the game than survive it, as if you can easily back out. Has he even seen Sword Art Online? His character does do a 180 once he gets comfortable with the game, with a fair amount of affirmation. He still has his idiot moments though, like when he was given the chance to talk to the creator but instead of having a meaningful conversation, he shouted and was aggressive for a few minutes before calming down and having a civil discussion with him.
One of the most charming characters is the plant man introduced in the tower. However, though about three episodes of the Treasure Hunt arc focus solely on him, he has no place in the opening or ending theme. Why? He is treated as just another adversary to defeat and move on even though he was much more than that, but I won't spoil anything. I do like the powers of the main cast, other than the machine gun man. They all compliment each other nicely, and where Kaname can't cover, another character can come and do it for him, for that is the power of friendship!

Enjoyment (8): Despite my complaints, I enjoyed the show quite thoroughly. It didn't provide much suspense during fights because Kaname wins every. singe. time. in true protagonist fashion, but I did like seeing how he bested his enemies. Each plan was more cunning than the last, and even the adversaries he faced had competent abilities, ones that weren't easily overpowered but did require some ingenuity to beat. I watched the show relatively fast, there were no plot holes that made the show unwatchable and each episode was action packed and made me want to immediately move on to the next one to see what dilemma Kaname and his band would face next.

Overall (6): To reiterate, the show does nothing new. It's barely memorable other than in title. There is some enjoyment to be found while in the moment, but you won't finish the series finding something out about yourself that you didn't know before. If you truly enjoy watching battle royale anime, by all means, watch Darwin's Game. If you're looking for an actual show to make you feel good inside, then look elsewhere. Big Order had a bigger impact on me than Darwin's Game did, but that show is infamous for being bad while this show is just average and won't be going down in the history books any time soon.

I'm kind of surprised that, at the time of writing this, there are no complete reviews for Big Order. The only two that exist are preliminary reviews. I can't blame them either. The manga honestly starts off engaging and strong, but soon fizzles out into a manga of nonsense, time wasting, and idiocy. The story itself spirals into shit almost immediately after like, the second volume. I, however, persevered through the trash, and can proudly say I finished the manga from beginning to end. This is the first "complete" review of Big Order.


Though story is listed first in the scores, let's start off with ... art. The artstyle of the manga is... poor, but average at best. For someone reading and reviewing it in 2020, the art looks outdated. The manga debuted in 2011, yet I've read older manga that have better art styles. Even with this outdated style, there are some choices I can nod to. On almost every scene with Eiji in it, his territory (I will "expand" on this later [pun intended]) is consistently drawn. This was a nice little feature, as it was always a reminder that other order users can always see his territory, and in scenes where Eiji loses his power, seeing there be no territory under him reflected his vulnerability. I did not like how the Orders themselves are drawn. The weird skeleton design they all have looks very bad, and it is reminiscent of the bad CGI of the anime.

Moving on to characters, throughout the manga, it is VERY clear that Eiji's companion, Rin Kurenai, is just a mirror of Yuno Gasai (even down to the hair color, which Esuno didn't even attempt to hide). Eiji Hoshimiya's character formula is also not too far off from Yukiteru Amano, except one (in a Powerpuff Girls-esque incident) got a little bit too much of the crybaby and idiot genes than the other. If you didn't already know, Mirai Nikki and Big Order were created by the same mangaka. These character similarities are NOT a coincidence. Big Order debuted only a year after Mirai Nikki, mind you. Sakae Esuno clearly thought, "If the characters are not broken, don't fix them" because reading two volumes of the manga will show you that Gasai and Amano's personalities were just transferred over to Kurenai and Hoshimiya, but then Esuno realized that they didn't fit well with the story, but it was too late to turn back, so their personalities got worse in an attempt to make them better. Main problem is I really hate how Eiji acts. Even when it is clear to literally everyone in the world that the bad guy is [SPOILER], Eiji still has that "they can still change themselves!" mentality that all protagonists have, except this character is proven evil and cannot be turned good. Eiji even goes so far as to want to kill himself numerous times to potentially save this character, even though they don't give two craps if Eiji dies or not. My secondary gripe with Eiji is that he doesn't fully take advantage of his Order. Eiji's Order is Bind Dominator, which gives him the power to command any living being or inanimate object to do anything. Wherever he walks, that space permanently becomes his territory, and if he encircles an area, everything in the circle is under his control. Honestly, when watching the anime (and at the beginning of the manga) I thought this ability was badass. Even though I hate the series, I do still think Bind Dominator is one of the coolest abilities a character can have. Unfortunately, Eiji only encloses an area once in the series, and after learning what he can do, every other character is smart enough to not get caught under Eiji's dominion. The rare occasions they do get caught, instead of giving them creative commands like, "Become my ally and do not betray or try to harm me" (like he did with Rin) or "Tell me exactly where [spoiler] is right now and how to defeat them" he says something dumb and useless like, "Stop shooting". Bind Dominator has so much potential, but Eiji never quite learns how to use it to its full power. It takes him about seven volumes to figure out he can manipulate air too and create shields from air pressure or whatever. I would have loved to see Eiji find out more about his abilities, but as someone who has read the entire manga, I can tell you, there is nothing.

Okay, now we're getting into the story. There are going to be a couple of minor spoilers here and there, but if you're considering reading this in 2020 or beyond, then you clearly need to do something better with your life. Big Order starts off making no sense. I only stuck around for the action and clung on to the hope that Eiji would use Bind Dominator in a badass way. After being disappointed in both of those areas, I honestly don't know why I kept reading. Probably because I didn't want to leave another manga on my eternal "reading" list. A lot of the things in the novel could have been avoided if the characters weren't so fucking dumb and one dimensional. Eiji literally has nothing on his mind other than to protect his sister for the entire fucking manga. Esuno even tries to incorporate some romantic elements into the series, but Eiji IGNORES the two women who love him and instead pursues his sister more. There is even a very odd scene in volume 9, I believe, where Sena suggests to Eiji that he loves her incestually (which, if you didn't know they were siblings, is totally plausible) but he denies it. The ending is so, soooo stupid. Like, the story is shit in general, but the last two volumes made me want to put the manga down altogether and delete it from my list. Initially, the plot is: Bad man wants everyone to have their wishes granted (Everyone to have Orders) and Eiji has to stop them. Then, it turns into: Bad man wants to turn the spiritual energy of God into the material world and kill everyone, and somehow Eiji must fight God. Yes, you heard that correctly. Eiji Hoshimiya has to FIGHT GOD. Oh, but get this: Yoshitsune Hiiragi just SOMEHOW predicted that the enemy would summon God, and has the perfect plan to combat him. Seriously? How the fuck do you predict someone is going to summon God and fight with him? That's such a random move that no one could possibly predict, nor refute, it. The story is so incredibly stupid, what made Sakae Esuno even want to write this? Surely, this is a bad April Fools joke. There are a hundred things wrong with the story, but that would deserve an entire review itself.

Enjoyment factor is very low, a two. Sometimes it's stupidly hilarious, like so bad it's funny. Other times I just don't want to read it anymore. I won't spend too much time talking about this, because the review is already long as is, but I think you can tell how much I enjoyed it based on the previous paragraphs.

Overall, Big Order starts off very actiony and promising, however, it becomes apparent that it is a Mirai Nikki clone and that Esuno just wanted to cash cow out the same characters in a different story. I'd actually recommend watching the anime over reading the manga. At least the anime ends your suffering after just twelve episodes, but the manga drags on for ten volumes (which is actually not too short but not too long, but this story could have ended way sooner than it did). This is probably the only case where the ANIME is BETTER than the manga. I know, shocking. Anyway, if you've gotten to the end of this review, thank you for reading, and I hope you don't read this manga. Like, seriously, don't read it. Please don't. Save yourself from 10 volumes of misery.

Hmm, I don't know how to start off talking about Hajimete no Gal. The show is definitely not for everyone, that much is clear. I'm an ecchi fan, so I decided to give this show a chance, despite looking average compared to the other shows in its season (I originally started watching this as the show was airing, but fell off after the first episode and I'm now returning to it, nearly 3 years later). If you've been around the ol' ecchi trope block multiple times, this show will not surprise you. It's a good beginner show for people looking to watch more ecchi shows, ... but for anyone who has seen several masterpieces, this show will be disappointing. Nevertheless, it is a good, casual watch for anyone looking for a quick laugh or two, veteran or not.


Story (7): The shows starts off pretty bad, to be honest. The plot is really just Junichi being a pervert, virgin, and idiot (as he describes himself) towards Yame, his girlfriend who-he-doesn't-really-want-to-be-his-girlfriend until he realizes how good a girlfriend can be. In the second half of the show, however, it really turns into something special. The story actually gains substance, and their relationship becomes a lot more than something to laugh at. The problem with the story, however, is that Junichi spends the entire show wondering why Yame likes him and agreed to go out with him in the first place. I think we all started wondering that at some point because of how pure and wholesome her character is. This question never gets answered, though. Not even at the end of the show. When Junichi confronts Yame and says, "Why do you trust me?" or something like that (essentially asking why she still likes him) she says, "That's a secret". NO, that is a fucking sad way to replace maybe an episode from Yame's point of view with an unneeded beach filler episode. There's also the episode before that, where everyone gets a job to pay for the beach. Why? Bus tickets to the beach are not expensive enough to get a job for around 3 weeks for. If parents existed in this anime, they could just pay for them. Once again, a plot hole never addressed.

Art (5): The girls aren't really that attractive, I'll just say it outright. Yame is probably the best looking one, and the other girls are just annoying to look at. The guys somehow pull off looking absolutely bland, yet not too boring at the same time (this might be due to their personalities though). If it weren't for Junichi's generic anime cowlick, if you were playing a classic game of "Spot the Protagonist", you definitely wouldn't be able to see him. He also has this one friend with blonde hair who serves no purpose in the show. He is the most generic looking male on the show, other than Junichi himself, but more on him later. Also, on the last episode, the animation gets really weird. In one scene, Junichi walks unnaturally. In another, the straws they use are double the size of the cup they put it in.

Sound (6): Like I do in my other reviews, I judge sound based on opening and ending themes, unless something else sticks out. For the most part, I have no qualms here. The opening was bearable, but I wouldn't listen to it on repeat. I also don't like the introduction with the phone upside down and the texts appearing on screen. There is one sound problem I've got though. Pink-haired girl's voice- Wait, damnit, I've gotta save that for the character segment too.

Characters (8): The thing about this show I like best, other than the comedy, are the characters, specifically Junichi's band of friends, minus the generic blonde I mentioned before. He serves no purpose whatsoever in the series other than to make an even 2 into an odd 3. Shinpei (I think Mr. Blue Hair is called) sometimes steals the spotlight from Junichi at times, being more comedic, interesting, and adventurous than him. He is a pretty shallow character, though, often only being used for a gag and nothing more. The next guy, who I'll refer to as Loli Ped, or Ped for short, gives me mixed feelings on his character. Ped is meant to be the oddball that no one likes and is often ignored, but some of the jokes he makes are just borderline, unfunny pedophilia jokes, and it makes me question the author's sanity. In the episode with the hot spring hotel, instead of going to peep on the girls like everyone else, he opts to stay in the men's section. Not because he's wholesome, but because he hopes a father will bring their little girl to the hot spring. Seriously, director-san? What the fuck? This, as well as the joke where he gets a job at a daycare and is seen talking to a crying little girl in the corner and says, "I can't express my feelings for you in a way that won't get me arrested" are the most NOT OK jokes on the show. Honestly, all of his other jokes are funny. Funny in a, "What the hell? Hahaha" kind of way. The way Pedo acted in the last episode also made me laugh out loud, but I won't spoil it for you. Next, you've got the pink-haired loli character. Her voice is so damn annoying (I watched the sub), and her very presence is annoying as well. I don't have much to say about any of the other characters. Junichi's band are the most interesting, character-wise.

Enjoyment (9): I found Hajimete no Gal to be very fun to watch once the story got off the ground. There were some subtle references to other works, such as Masou Gakuen HxH and SAO. They even read an excerpt from HxH in one scene, which was very funny to watch play out. Almost every episode made me laugh, whether it was Junichi being a hopeless virgin, Shinpei carrying out a dirty scheme, or Pedo making a... well, pedo joke, the show kept me interesting from the second episode onward. I wouldn't mind if there were a second season for this, though I don't know what plot it would work off of.

Overall (7): I think I've written enough for one review. Plus, it's four in the morning. In conclusion, Hajimete no Gal does not reinvent the wheel, except with the inclusion of a character that should be locked up for the rest of his life, but it is definitely a show worth watching if you've got spare time. If you're trying to decide between watching this and a different show that is known to be good, then I'd go with the latter, and save this for a moment when you're truly bored and need a quick laugh.

I binge watched the first season of Log Horizon (now to be called LH because the full name is a chore to type) over the summer, and I found it quite enjoyable. The action kept me on the edge of my seat, and the MMORPG elements of the show encapsulated me into the world. Every episode felt like another new adventure, another breath of fresh air. The second season, however, did a complete 180 for me. This review is based off of what I saw in the show, because as I explain in the next paragraph, I skipped a couple of episodes.

Story (2): When the ... season first began, it was pretty interesting. It started becoming boring about... the third episode. The raid Shiroe went on came to a standstill, so the story took a break from him and focused on minor issues in the Adventurer City. This wouldn't be a problem if Shiroe was revisited the next episode, and it was shown he figured out how to beat the raid, but unfortunately, this is not the case. The director seems to forget about him, and instead feeds us some incessant nonsense for a couple of episodes that NO ONE asked for. Some characters go through an existential crisis for like, 3 episodes. Seriously, the problems the characters go through are very simple, yet they last for many episodes. The Player Killer problem lasted about... give or take 5 episodes. The story became so boring and predictable, I found it a chore to watch LH2, so I took a break from it for a couple of months. I came back as confused as ever, so I read some MAL reviews on the story, found that many agreed it was insignificant and a dissapointment, so I skipped a... few episodes. By few, I mean I skipped to the last 2 episodes of the SEASON. To my chagrin, other than a couple of characters introduced, I missed out on absolutely NOTHING. If I had watched those 14 episodes I skipped, it would be nothing more than a waste of time, and time is one of the most valuable things a human has. I am greatly offended the director tried to waste mine.

Art (6): Nothing innovative, nothing amazing. Some character designs look very similar, but other than that, there is a nice variety in the adventurer races and such. The action scenes look average, but the way the HUD is shown when transitioning locations or viewing someone's stats brings a charming feel to the show.

Sound (7): I judge sound by enjoyment of the opening and ending themes. DATABASE by Man on a Mission, the same guys who did the Seven Deadly Sins' first opening, is an amazing song. I was, however, disappointed that they just recycled it from season one. To be fair, this is probably because the director thought, "It worked so well, why change it?" The ending, however, I find very boring. It's one of those types where once you hear it about to play in the last couple seconds of the last scene of the episode, you just immediately go to the next episode.

Character (8): Honestly can't judge this because I didn't watch enough of the show, but from what I did see, as much as I hated the tangents the characters went on and the filler episodes the director gave us, there was pretty nice character development going on. Not all of it is good though, like as I stated before, many characters battle with themselves internally for many episodes when their problems aren't that big of a deal.

Enjoyment (2): From what I saw, LH2 does not have much fighting in it. Most of it is politics and characters going on rants about some problem. When Shiroe goes on a rant, it is enjoyable because of his superhuman intellect. When other characters do it, they make it so boring to listen to. No one on the show acts nearly as smart as Shiroe, and he usually solves all their problems anyway. When he's not there, it's like giving a wrench to a four year old and saying, "Fix this car". Like, they just don't. They can't without Shiroe. When the director took Shiroe away from the Adventurer City, this is EXACTLY what happens. They can't deal with a problem by themselves without spending 3 episodes trying to figure out how to even start finding a solution. As for the politics side, the politics are very meh. Shiroe carries the City and the Roundtable Alliance by making all the big decisions, which I don't mind, since it advances the story, but the other characters are subsequently useless.

Overall score (4): If ya boy knew LH2 would be this bad, I would have never watched it, which is why I skipped most of it once I realized (and had been warned) how bad it was. At this rate, I won't even touch the third season, which was recently announced, to my chagrin. Unless some big directing changes happen to the show and it becomes as captivating as the first season, I will unfortunately not make the mistake of wasting time watching it. We shall see, though. Oh, and one last thing. Please, for the love of God, DO NOT MAKE DATABASE THE OPENING AGAIN FOR ANOTHER 24 EPISODES.

Asu no Yoichi started off very strong. I found the first three episodes or so to be hilarious, watching Karasuma adapt to life as a regular teenager. Unfortunately, as the show went on, it gradually went downhill, culminating on the finale, where, as many reviewers have written before, the show really fails to deliver.

The Samurai is a very interesting protagonist, though he doesn't reinvent the classic airhead harem protagonist wheel. Probably the most special thing about him is his odd speech pattern, which was funny the first two episodes. The Ikaruga family was... interesting, to say the least. Kagome is hands down the most useless ... one of them, so I won't talk much about her. Chihaya was bearable when her little character arc came up, but after that, I just found her character to be very annoying, especially during the finale, where she threw an ink bottle at a guy, hit him with a manga, and somehow made him fall off the bridge, then said, "Manga artists can fight too!!!" Like, seriously? That made me cringe three times over. Shut the fuck up talking about manga! We get it, you're a genius mangaka at a young age, can you please have literally any other character traits that make you likable? This isn't the only reference to manga she makes during the finale, she does it twice more. In one of the last shots she's in, she says, "I can make a manga out of this". At that point, if the episode wasn't already almost over, I would have skipped to the ending right away. I cannot STAND her character. Moving on, I don't have much to say about the second daughter, as Washizu calls her. She wasn't the most interesting character, but also wasn't completely boring. The star heroine of the show, Ikaruga, was... pretty average as far as heroines go. Damsel in distress at the end of the series trope, like we've all seen in some harem anime somewhere.

Moving on from the important girls (Pink haired girl and her assistant are too minor of characters), Washizu was one of my favorite characters. The first time he's introduced, the show really portrays him as the one-shot thug who gets his ass kicked and disappears from the show, but he actually established himself in the main cast pretty smoothly. His Washizu Vision moments were hilarious, and his best friend, Torigaya, was a great character as well, albeit getting minimal screen time. I'm glad he didn't get zero screen time, however. There's way too many shows where the protag's best friends before the show begun just... cease to exist. Washizu and Torigaya were together on the show until the very end, though one was more important than the other.

Story is a big meh. I've seen a lot better. The ending was absolutely abysmal. It was your classic "move through the tower, fight the enemies, then go to the top, fight the boss, and win the girl" finale. The finale episode doesn't tie any loose ends, in fact, it creates a lot more plot holes than it closes. I won't speak too much about it, but when Ikaruga gets saved, she doesn't question anything. She doesn't ask where she is, how they got there, etc. She just... takes everything as it is and comprehends the situation immediately, somehow. Also, Samurai finally fought using more than 10% of his strength. This whole show, he's been using the same three techniques (or, strikes, as they're called) to defeat enemies, and I was kind of getting sick of it. In the finale, he uses a lot more strikes, but the way he defeated the main bad guy was a big cop out by the animators. They had a long distance fight... the bad guy threw two moves at Samurai, which he cancelled out with his own, I guess, and then Samurai did one move and BOOM, he wins. Is this really what they wanted the final battle to be? What a disappointment.

In conclusion, Samurai Harem was a show I enjoyed quite a bit. I rated it an 8 in enjoyment, but when you factor the story, characters, art, and sound (opening and ending themes, for me), it comes out to a 4. I am writing this rant directly after finishing the last episode of Asu no Yoichi. I imagine I'll forget about this show, given enough time. It was not particularly memorable, even the opening and ending themes were lackluster. The ending theme is one of those types of themes you skip every episode. I don't think I ever listened to it fully without getting bored or immediately going to the next episode. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed reading this rant-review, have a good day.

"What the hell? This doesn't make any sense!" said Takeshi Nanase in the last episode.
Indeed, Takeshi. This doesn't make any sense. "This" being the series itself. Mahou Sensou, or Magical Warfare, started off... okay. I gave it a 5 at first, but by the end of the series, it degraded to a 2. Why? Because the more of the show I saw, the less of it made sense. Anyone who has watched this show knows that there's tons and tons of plotholes, many characters don't get proper development, and the magic premise of the show was built on terribly.

This isn't going to be a lengthy ... review, a few paragraphs at most. I just have to get some steam off about this anime. First of all, the story is just... bleh. They even threw a filler episode or two in there to wank off the time they had to wrap up the story, so they could instead leave it at a cliffhanger for a season two that will probably never happen. I would go more in depth about the story, but plenty of reviewers before me have done that, so I think you get the point of how terrible it is. Also, the magical factions they mention barely appear in the show, it's just a battle between Ghost Trailer and Wizard's Breath

The art is... kind of okay. I really don't like a lot of the settings, however. Trailer's base is too dark and gloomy, even for the base of the enemy. The Wizard's Breath school looks like every other generic school, I don't know what I was expecting there. When explosions and crap happen, they are waaay over exaggerated. Like, seriously. Near the end of the show, someone did an attack, but it missed it's target, so it slashed through the ground. The camera then moved and there was a giant dust cloud, just to emphasize how powerful the blow was. It was not all that powerful. Hell, near the beginning of the series when Takeshi and his friends weren't powerful at all, when they did an attack the effects flew all over the place.

The sound is one of the better things in the show. The opening was enjoyable for the first couple of episodes, and the ending was performed by nano, one of my favorite J-rock artists, so they've definitely done well there. The music in the episodes, however, is boring and too scarce. Either I never notice it, or there's barely any battle music, there's just slashing, yelling, and pauses in between fighting to talk. In the final battle, instead of having a badass track play, the opening played. What a cop out.

Don't even get me started on the characters and how bad they are. Most of the good guys are all INCREDIBLY WEAK. Like, actually! Kurumi Isoshima NEVER uses her magic until the end of the series, I'm not over exaggerating, she actually doesn't. Hence, she never fights, and is instead fought over. Explosion guy Kazumi is your generic "brawn over brains" character. He talks like a gangster in the subbed version, and his explosion magic is barely used in any of the series. He does fight, however, unlike Kurumi. He also has a little sister, who appears in like three episodes then is never seen again, lol. When she gets kidnapped by Ghost Trailer, Kazumi freaks out, but ultimately, the story forgets about this plotline and soon she's never mentioned or referenced again. Mui appears as a strong character in the beginning of the show, but she quickly proves to be weak, both physically and mentally, like the rest of the cast. Naturally, Takeshi is the only character who grows in the show and becomes stronger, though the way he does it is bullshit. The crew had been training at the magic academy for months in the show! Surely, they would learn how to master magic, by anime logic? Nope! They push anime logic even further, and instead of mastering magic in months, Takeshi masters it in like, two days (the time isn't clear, but it was very short) under the instruction of a monumental person whose identity I can't spoil. His sword, Twilight, is underpowered, and when used, is not even close to as powerful as it's portrayed to be in the legends. The enemy leader of Ghost Trailer wakes up at the end of the series, signifying the second Great Magic War, but he doesn't fight at all, and doesn't participate in the final battle, so why did he wake up in the first place..?
Note: I just noticed that Takeshi, Kazumi, and Kurumi, all sound the same. Very suspicious...

Enjoyment? What enjoyment? I regret watching this show, because every episode had me eagerly wanting more. No, not because I loved it, but because I hated it so much, I couldn't wait until it was over. Thank god it only has 12 episodes, and let's hope a season two never happens.

Overall, it's a 2. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Spoiler Free Review]
Warning: I'm not a professional reviewer, so this is a loosely typed, informal review.

I'll be honest, I like watching bad shows and finding the redeeming qualities of them. For example, Big Order. That show was destroyed by critics, but me, I thoroughly enjoyed the show. The main character's power was desirable, useful, and cool. Touya Mochizuki's smartphone, however, is not, which I will get into later in the review. Isekai wa Smartphone is easily one of the worst bad shows out there, and it is extremely difficult to find a redeeming quality in it.

The story of Isekai wa Smartphone is nothing extraordinary. It's ... about a guy who is killed and transported to another world, and God said he could have one thing and he chose his smartphone. This is normal for an anime of the isekai subgenre. The part where it gets a bit fishy is when it's revealed that not only can his smartphone function normally and never run out of battery, but he has a high affinity with every elemental magic in the new world, as well as null magic (the concept of null magic is confusing too, by the way). He has no restrictions on his powers whatsoever, and every obstacle he comes across in the show is overcame without effort. The story is utterly atrocious. The girls are introduced too fast, some plotlines are dragged out for way too long, and some unnecessary things are thrown in by the creators in an obvious attempt to prolong the plotline, or liven up the show when it gets boring, and it gets boring a lot. Near the end of the show, I began fastforwarding (only about 5 seconds or so until the dialogue was over. Calm down, reader, I still partially paid attention) through their more predictable conversations. I also drifted off near the end of one of the episodes, and instead of rewinding to see what I missed, I just kept watching the show, certain that whatever I missed wasn't important (I was right). To wrap this up, I can't imagine what the creators were thinking when they decided to make this story the way it is. Touya has no end goal to reach, he just spawns in an unknown world, quickly establishes himself as one of the strongest in the world, and badda bing badda boom, end of the anime. Oops, I think I just spoiled the nonexistent plot of the show. Please forgive me.

Next, the art. The art is one of the better things in the show, but it gets very annoying at times. There is waaaaaaay too many chibi transitions between scenes. There's AT LEAST 5 per episode, and no, I'm not over exaggerating. The animators really didn't feel like just cutting to the next scene, there always had to be a chibi transition. It could be something as simple as stepping into a portal. Animation. Everyone assembling in a room? Animation. Walking in the town? Animation. Sleeping? Animation. Meeting someone new? Animation. You get the point. Other than the chibi animations, there was nothing special about the colors used. The world does however always stay bright, and to a certain extent, the characters each have their own unique look.

Next comes the sound. I don't really care about sound effects that much, so sound for me translates into how good the opening and ending theme are. Sound is easily a 1 for me. The opening is your generic anime opening, the song is not interesting at all. Even the animation is generic. Since there is not a lot of action and fighting in the show, the fighting scenes shown are overdramatized, and an eyesore to look at. As for the ending, I've listened to it once or twice. Out of 12 episodes, I've had the strength to listen to it once or twice. Because of this, I can't say much about it other than it's appalling.

Now the characters. I won't spend a ton of time on this because I don't really care for the characters. None of them get the slightest bit of backstory other than Yae, the samurai girl. Not even our protagonist, Touya, gets a backstory. What the hell, creators? None of the girls even got close to asking, "So, Touya, what was your life like before I met you and fell in love with you in the same day?" So for the whole show we know nothing more about Touya other than he's Japanese, cool, smart, dense, handsome, and has a smartphone. After being transported to the world, he never once wonders whats going on back at home, how his mother is doing, or anything of the sort. Touya's smartphone is also a dumb "power", by the way. He doesn't actually start utilizing it until the middle of the show, and even then he finally fully takes advantage of it near the end of the show. The smartphone being what Touya brought with him seems more like the author did less thinking it through and more time thinking about how to resonate with the current generation of teens. Moving on to the girls, the girls (save Yae) follow Touya's introduction pattern as well. They're introduced briefly, maybe a sad or relatable story, then they join the harem and voila, you've got yourself a generic character. Personally, my favorite girl is the princess. I do have a problem with how similar she looks with Sushie (nice name btw), who's her little sister, I think. I really don't know, Isekai wa Smartphone's kingdoms sound similar, look similar, and their royal families are similar. Another character who I have a problem with is the homeless girl Touya recruited for his mansion staff around episode 9 or 10. WE'RE 3/4 DONE WITH THE SHOW, DO WE REALLY NEED ANOTHER CHARACTER? I can't even remember her name, that's how irrelevant she was. I was expecting her to be the daughter of a noble family, or the princess of an enemy kingdom, but no, she legit serves no purpose whatsoever in the plot of the show. I'm pretty sure I commented on this back in the story section of this review too, how some events are completely meaningful and just exist to waste our precious time.

Enjoyment... 5. Yes, a five. Pretty shocking, considering how I just picked and picked at the show for multiple paragraphs. I can't lie, however, I did enjoy the show just a tiny bit. It was amusing yelling at the characters to make a move or to not do something. It was enjoyable trying to predict when Touya would use "Overpowered Moves #9 and #13", also known as "Slip" and "Aport". The show did make me laugh with it's jokes at times, and the various cast of characters livened it up enough to never make it too boring. That's pretty much all I found enjoyable about this show.

Overall, the show gets a 1. I am a man of odd tastes. I like watching bad shows, but this show, I wish I had never watched this show. My life would have been better off not knowing this show existed. The show was so bad, I had to crawl out of review retirement (I made a couple of reviews in the past for shows I liked or disliked) to conceive this review and warn you, the reader, not to read this review. Even though it's been nearly two years since the show first aired and I'm very late with this review, the show still should not be watched. Even if no one reads my review of this show, I am just happy I've been able to possibly warn you in the future to not watch this show.

If you're legit still thinking of watching it even after hearing me say all of this bad stuff about it, godspeed, brave one.

I don't know where to begin with this show. On one hand I think the show is terrible and isn't worth my time, but on the other hand this show is actually enjoyable and is one of those short shows that isn't cringe-worthy (other than the animation) and you can actually watch without wanting to skip any episodes.

Story (2): You can't review what doesn't emerge until episodes 11 and 12.

Art (5): We all know that shorts have terrible animation, but this show turns that terrible animation into something special, so while it does not look good, it still looks good.

Sound (7): The ... voice actresses sounded wonderful, although some girls sounded the same and I couldn't tell the difference.

Character (4): I didn't play the VN of this so I didn't know who all these girls were, but besides that, none of them had a significant part in the story so I often found myself forgetting who was who and where they came from, since new people would arrive out of nowhere.

Enjoyment (10): Goats

I stumbled upon this anime while looking at random shows on Crunchyroll. I had low expectations for it, since I really just wanted something quick to watch. While I was satisfied to a certain extent, there were still some flaws in this show.

I dislike how the intro to most of the episodes is the same explanation that gets shorter as the show goes on. I would understand if they cut it off at about episode 3, but on the 10th episode, do you really need to still explain that you were an average boy living an average life until your Osakan sister came along? I ... also dislike the ending song, if you wanna call it that. Bath tub songs aren't the thing for me. Other than the intro and the ending song, I also hate the pink hair girl. Why is she even included in the show? She doesn't have any character development, and she doesn't even have a dedicated episode. I could have respected her if she had a crush on the main guy, but i'm not even sure of that since she has no special episode.

What I did like about this show was the comedy. Sure, I didn't get every joke, since this anime was geared towards Osakans who wanted to see what they looked like from an outsider's point of view, but the jokes I did get were humorous, although they didn't have me on the floor laughing. I can see a Japanese person laughing though.

Now, individual ratings

Story (3): lol what story
Art (5): I'm guessing they couldn't afford... you know... good animation, but the animation techniques they did use made the show look good.
Sound (6): Main character sounds like a pussy. His sister sounds annoying. Pink haired girl was also annoying.
Character (4): You know what I hate? An anime with a total cast of 3 people. The pink haired girl didn't even need to be included into the anime, she was just a shitty +1.
Enjoyment (6): As I said before, I came here for the comedy and shortness. I was satisfied in those two fields, but the show fails in every other field for me, but I didn't come for that, so i won't include that in the enjoyment factor.

Before you go watch this show (this doesn't apply to you if you've watched the show already and just wanted to see what everyone else thinks of it), make sure you know what you're getting into. You won't get every joke, if you aren't Japanese. If you want to do something better with the ~30 minutes you'll spend watching this show, do it. You can live the rest of your life being satisfied without watching this show. If you are really curious about this show, just know, I warned you.