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Jan 15, 2018
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai is a show in the slice of life school genre which is focused on a gaming club of people that for whatever reason or another, have some trouble making friends. Hence the name of the show. It's also a rather thinly veiled excuse at a harem romance comedy as well.
With regards to the technical aspects of the show, they are for the most part rather good. This is a well drawn anime with good music and sound effects. The voice actors do a good job with the characters and have a decent range of
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emotions so that this feels like a pretty good production. The fact that it was a light novel adaptation and ended up with a second season says something about the show's success and quality, as many of those do not get reupped.
The show stands slightly above many others in the genre due to the strong personality of the characters. Most of the main characters in the club have difficult personalities that make them hard to get along with. A lot of the fun of this show is watching the characters interact, overreact, and maliciously and jealously push each other's buttons repeatedly. Two seasons is also enough time for there to be some development of the personalities and back story for many of the main cast as well. As much as the main characters have trouble getting along, they do eventually end up becoming if not "friends" at least comrades and their opinions of each other evolve quite a bit. One could make the argument that most of the characters do lean heavily on character tropes, but as the series goes on, there is enough hints of development that it can be overlooked and you begin to enjoy the characters more.
The show doesn't quite make it into the greatness tier because it is held back by taking an interesting concept of a club of misfits and turning it into a harem fantasy comedy as the show goes along. While there isn't anything necessarily wrong about this, the show could have been even better had it stayed a bit more on the topic of terrible personalities trying to navigate social issues and making friends.
At the risk of some spoilers (hint, spoiler alert) While many people discussing the show tend to have a strong opinion on who should win the MC bowl here, I sort of ended up wishing that the main character would ignore all of them indefinitely. Unfortunately, that becomes very hard for him to do.
Beyond my personal opinions of how the romance angle is handled, this show is one of the better entries in the genre. It is genuinely entertaining to watch and is silly enough to make for a nice guilty pleasure or easy to watch show. There is quite a bit of fan service thrown in, so if you're looking for that, you'll find it. Some of it is a little too blatant I think, especially with Sena, the busty blonde, but hey, it's nice eye candy for what it is.
The second season is also a bit stronger than the first season and I found myself really enjoying the show more by making the full investment, even if the ending was a bit abrupt as they didn't catch up to the light novel (which is typical for a show of this type).
Beyond that, there is some value in a show like this in understanding that even people who have trouble getting along with others still seek companionship and relationships, even if forming and maintaining them becomes hard. It's hard to get too philosophical about a fanservicey school rom com through, so your mileage will definitely vary.
Personally, I think that if you're looking for a somewhat better show in the genre and like the misfit friends angle, Toradora is a stronger entry. However, Boku wa Tomodachi Sukunai is entertaining if you can look past its shortcomings. You could certainly do a lot worse.
It's worth a watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 15, 2018
I picked up Servant x Service after watching and really enjoying Working!! which was by the same studio. I found Working!! to be charming and really entertaining as a slice of life show about a rather ordinary type of routine and I saw that they had made a show that was related to office work, and figured that I would really enjoy it quite a bit as well.
I was disappointed that wasn't the case.
Servant x Service is a slice of life comedy show with a little bit of absurdity similar to Working!! The biggest problem is that the characters in Servant x Service
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seem to miss the mark and fall flat quite a bit of the time compared to the far more interesting and entertaining cast from Working!! and frankly, other shows as well.
There isn't much that this show has going for it that makes it stand out. Most of the technical aspects are average. There aren't many risks or interesting lines of character development. It feels like it goes through the motions of a manga or light novel adaptation, serving as an advertisement to try to drum up some interest in the source material.
It's not that a show about working in a government office has to be rather uninteresting. Given decent writing and some more interesting characters and this may have worked. The television show The Office was quite funny and even relateable to anyone who has worked in a cubicle, even if it was a bit exaggerated at points. However, the characters in Servant x Service aren't really that deep and their development never really went in any kind of interesting or unpredictable direction. The main twist at the end was easy to see coming a mile away and was pretty cliched.
It's sort of easy to fall into a trap with shows like this where you end up pushed along watching episodes through sheer inertia to get through the series to see if it's going to be interesting after you've seen how they're going to play things out, only to be disappointed that they take the safe road and keep the characters as punchlines and archetypes instead of developing them. Just as things start taking an interesting direction, the show ends and you're left trying to figure out if it's worth getting into the source material. In this case, most likely not.
While Servant x Service isn't a bad show, even if this review comes off rather negative, there are better shows in the genre to spend your time on. I would watch Working!! from the same studio instead as it does just about everything this show does with better characters, actual character development, and story lines that are interesting.
Bottom line is that this is a very average show, and isn't as memorable as other better entries in the genre. I'd only recommend it if you really like slice of life shows and want something in an office environment.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Nov 21, 2017
OreImo was interesting as a show due to the fact that I initially began watching it thinking that it was going to be about a certain theme, and then ultimately ended up being about a whole different twist that sort of snuck up on me in season 2. That said, this review is on the first season, so I will review it as its own quantity without taking the sequel into account.
Before getting into my thoughts on the story, let's discuss the technical aspects of the show.
The artwork and animation is pleasant and well above par for these slice of life comedies.
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The characters are drawn very well and while the characters do suffer from a bit of similar face style and such, the anime is pleasant to look at and doesn't run into too many instances of bizarre animation.
The sounds and voice acting are done pretty well also. The voice actors do a good job establishing character personality and emotions come out well. The music is also catchy and appropriate for what's going on, I had no real complaints.
With regards to the story, I may go into some slight spoilers here but I'll try to avoid anything major. As I'm reviewing the first season here, I can say that the story was a little bizarre to me at first, but I ultimately liked what I thought the author was trying to do. Taken on its own, the major theme of the first season had a lot to do with fitting into society and making friends when you end up with a hobby that isn't socially acceptable. As someone who in the past has gamed, table top board gamed, and takes an interest in fantasy and science fiction, while working in a non-nerdy field surrounded by people who do not really care for these things and look down on them, I could relate to the struggle of the main character and her hobby.
Granted, the main character, Kirino in this case's, hobby has to do with something far more questionable than playing World of Warcraft on the weekends. While Japanese otaku culture is somewhat different than American nerd culture (though there is obviously some overlap), Kirino's hobby is very socially unacceptable, and definitely raises interesting questions about what's going on in her head (much of which comes to be explained in season 2, which I have additional thoughts on, but this isn't the place).
The series then progresses from Kirino's brother Kyousuke's unwitting discovery of his sister's hobby, and his "life counseling" sessions where he (*against his better judgment) tries to help his sister deal with the ramifications of her "unacceptable" otaku habits, from getting their conservative dad to accept her hobby, towards finding other otakus that she can share her hobby with and fit in.
On its face, the struggle of dealing with two faces, where one has the "public" side and the "private" side is dealt with on this show. On the one hand, Kirino has one life as a popular girl in school with many "normal" friends and hobbies. On the other hand, she spends all her money on otaku merchandise that horrifies her best friend and family. and maintains a second circle of friends sharing these hobbies as well. Season one deals with the balance of these double lives and the relationship with her friends and brother.
Kyousuke, Kirino's brother and the other main lead in the story, ends up going through quite a bit in order to help his sister, who he originally doesn't seem to care too much about. He also learns a lot about this other world of otakus that he didn't have anything to do with, and actually interacts with Kirino's new friends as well, which adds a lot of comedic interactions. Watching his development and attitude shifts is one of the high points of season one.
This is all well and good. There is a subtext with her brother than needs to be addressed, but I will save that for a season two review. For those that only watch season one, it won't come into play too much, but for those who ultimately watch the sequel, it's going to come into play.
It's hard to discuss this series too much more without majorly spoiling everything so I will stop.
With regards to the characters in the show, they are for the most part entertaining, but a little shallow. There is definitely a bit of the harem problem that many of these slice of life shows like to dive into, which is unfortunate. Many of the otherwise potentially interesting female characters end up rotating far too much around Kyousuke to develop strongly. There should have been more male members to play off of to help this along, but as per usual, there don't tend to be any that play more than a bit role.
There is additional character development in season 2 for many of the characters, so it's not totally fair to write them off as shallow. But anyone that only watches season one could definitely make the case that many of the characters only play to tropes and archetype. Season one Kyousuke lacks a strong personality for the most part, and Kirino is a over the top example of a overly bitchy personality as well, which is a little unfortunate as these two are the main characters. There are worse offenders out there in the shallow character department however.
So is the anime actually worth a watch? Is it enjoyable?
Season one I would say is a competent show. It didn't do a lot to wow me, but I found the theme of having to live a quiet life with your hobbies interesting even if I didn't specifically enjoy the hobby that they were trying to hide. Had I stopped at the end of season one, I think I would have said this is a slightly better than average slice of life, comedy, relationship story. Season two changed my opinion of the show quite a bit (not in a positive way) but as I've mentioned, taking season one on its own merits, it's probably worth a watch if you would like to watch an interesting twist on slice of life that explores otaku culture a bit.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 11, 2017
This show came up as a recommendation after watching No Game No Life (NGNL) and was rated fairly well, so I figured that I'd give it a shot as it looked similar and I really enjoyed the premise behind NGNL.
Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? (Mondaiji) definitely feels like a progenitor of sorts for NGNL, as it shares many of the same basic themes.
With regards to the technical aspects of the show, the art is pretty standard, and the animation is as well. There aren't many wow moments, but some scenes are done pretty well and it is nice to
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look at, if a little washed out at points.
The sound and voice acting was also average to slightly above average at most points. The voice actors did a pretty nice job, but nothing stood out as exemplary to me. The soundtrack was serviceable, but forgettable, nothing really stuck with me, but it wasn't annoying.
With regards to the story, what it says on the tin is about exactly what you get. A group of powered up kids end up getting pulled into a fantasy world with a certain set of game rules and factions competing with each other through an elaborate system of game contracts and such.
A premise like this can live or die based on how much they're actually going to dig into the world and actually build it up for you. The problem with Mondaiji is that it is a show that is essentially an advertisement for the light novel and not much else. Ten episodes is just not enough to make this anime really work. We learn precious little about the world, many of the factions, the history, and even the main character backgrounds or motivations. While I'm sure much of this is in the light novel, not having enough time to flesh more of the story out really makes this anime feel rushed and leaving you wishing that you knew more about what was going on. This is an unfortunate pattern with many of these fantasy/isekai shows and isn't limited to Mondaiji.
Mondaiji is even a bit worse in some respects because the way that they presented the ten episodes, there didn't seem to be much of a logical progression of events to get to some of the showdowns either. NGNL, which came after Mondaiji also had the issue of only having one season to lay things out, but the pacing was better and it had a reasonable progression and you understood how you were getting to where they were going. Mondaiji missed the boat on this quite a bit.
I also believe that there should have been a better introduction to the characters and a bit more background for their motivations as well. Spending the better part of an episode showing some detail of how they were dealing with life in their original worlds would have went a long way towards setting the stage and making you relate and or sympathize a bit more with them. Because the show was so short, most of the characters really felt shallow and had very little in the way of character development as well. There's only so much you can do with a short season.
At the end of the day, we're left filling in too many blanks and while Mondaiji isn't a bad anime, it consistently feels like it's missing something that better shows bring forth. It does deliver on what it promises, but could have been better given more time.
Personally, I don't give this a strong recommendation, but it may be worth a watch if you really enjoy Isekai shows. I would watch NGNL before this one, as it is a stronger entry into the genre, and while not perfect, does just about everything better than Mondaiji.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Nov 10, 2017
Everyone seems to have to watch Evangelion at some point, if for nothing else, so that they can wax philosophical about it.
I avoided Evangelion for a long time as I had heard that the director had a lot of mental issues he was dealing with at the time, as well as the anime running out of budget near the end and having a somewhat "interesting" resolution. I was concerned that it was going to end up as too much of a mess to end up making any sense, but after viewing TTGL and a few other Gainax studio mech shows, I figured
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I should take finally take a look.
Well, I finally ended up getting around to watching the series, and I have to say that I'm left at a bit of a loss as to how to properly evaluate it, especially considering my personal reaction was to be turned off by just about everything about it, but also wanting to try to be fair towards what (I think) the show was trying to do.
With regards to the technicals of the anime:
The art is a bit dated, but is actually pretty good for the time. Many of the mechas and angels are unique and interesting to look at. There are issues as the series goes on with reusing things quite a bit, but for the most part, the art is fine.
The sound and voice acting are pretty good. For the material that they were working with, my opinion is that the voice actors did an admirable job. The theme is a classic, and most of the soundtrack choices are nice as well.
As the technicals are done fairly well, it's a shame what actually ended up being presented as a story through the characters just didn't work that well given the issues I mentioned earlier.
There are occasions where art through adversity and stories told through depression make for some interesting looks into the darker side of character development. The problem is that as opposed to creating compelling story material, Evangelion relies heavily on shock factor, faux religious imagery (as the author himself has stated), and self indulgent trips into pointless downward spirals of self pity.
I think that different people are going to get different things out of Evangelion, but as someone who doesn't, and never has for that matter, had to cope with depressive episodes, I don't think that Evangelion was actually written for someone like me.
The major characters Shinji, and Asuka have a host of personal issues and angst that is related to the story, and unfortunately they are surrounded by people and situations that do nothing but enable downward spirals of negative character development for the most part. I was left wondering where the psychiatrists and emotional counselors were hanging out, because it seems like everyone trying to save the world had no business doing so.
Generally speaking, you need something in your heroes to root for, and while heroes are allowed to be flawed, at some point, you expect them to put aside their personal issues for the good of others. Generally speaking, outside of a few acts, this is a show where the heroes never get out of their own selfish, narcissistic, woe is me silliness and things continue to spiral because of it. Having the director going through mental issues during the production no doubt had a lot of influence in this.
My biggest problem with the characters was I kept waiting for the payoff, where the heroes would ultimately step up and become something to aspire to, and I was left with a character study of what might happen if you were to throw psychologically damaged and unstable people together and tasked them with "saving the world". It's a pretty frustrating experience from that standpoint.
Evangelion isn't completely without merit though. As a case study in mental issues and depressive cases, it will likely resonate with people who have suffered or currently suffer from depression or some type of angst. There is a layer of tragedy to the interactions between these broken individuals that could potentially be related to. As I mentioned earlier, as someone without these particular issues, I found it really difficult to get through the series and relate to the characters. I kept hoping for meaningful resolution and growth that never quite got there in the end.
These problems ended up making Evangelion a slog to get through. As the budget ran out and the story took the tone shift into the downward spirals of character development, I was relying on inertia to get me through the final few episodes. Much has been written on the ending to Evangelion, and my general feeling is that I was disappointed with it. Budget issues or not, rehashing the characters problems and trying to add some kind of deeper meaning to the narcissistic self-pity was taxing and in the end, it felt at best a cop out, and at worst a middle finger to everyone who hung around.
Much has also been written about the supposed religious symbolism that the show used as well, but I tend to side with the folks who believe that it really doesn't mean much unless you are trying to insert your own meaning. I tend to view the religious symbolism in much the same way that I view the Galactic Empire in Legend of Galactic Heroes nordic religiousness. It was tossed in there to add a bit of flavor, but not much else. There isn't anything wrong with inserting a personal meaning, as this show leaves you with a lot of questions if you look for them, but personal interpretations are just that, personal.
At the end of the day, I understand why the show is discussed as much as it is, but I'm also disappointed that it's discussed as much as it is as I can definitely see a path towards what happened to more modern anime because of this show.
Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann is a better (albeit cheesier in many ways) mecha story by the same studio. I have rewatched that show after Evangelion and have a deeper appreciation for TTGL reconstructing what Evangelion deconstructed. At the end of the day, I believe that an anime ultimately stands on its entertainment value. Evangelion was a chore to sit through. I didn't hate it, I certainly didn't like it, but I was even happier when I finished it and could check it off the list as I really wasn't enjoying it all that much and was a bit frustrated by how it ended.
It's tough to recommend people avoid something like Evangelion, as it is discussed so much that just about everyone who gets into this medium is going to be exposed to it sooner or later. There is some merit is seeing it if for no other reason than to help connect the dots on how anime was affected by it, but I don't consider this to be a show that I can say I enjoyed.
Best I can offer as a final thought is to go in without preconceptions and see what you get out of it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Oct 29, 2017
Legend of Galactic Heroes (LoGH) is one of my favorite shows in any genre. There can be a tendency for fans of certain anime to overly praise things that aren’t that great as some kind of “too deep for you to get it” masterpiece of writing, so I was a little wary heading in to this one. It turns out that in this instance, the brigades singing a show’s praises are (for the most part) absolutely right.
Shows like this are a balm for anyone tired of the endless parade of cute girls doing cute thing shows; or tired of watching shows where the
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protagonist ends up being a lazy, whiny, good for nothing who just has things in life handed to him or her for no discernable reason. This is a show about galactic history being made and unmade by great men and women and the difficult decisions that accompany all such struggles.
LoGH, when approached with the right mindset, is one of the best space operas that has been put on film. While it’s not perfect (what is?), it is one of the best animated fiction stories that I’ve had the pleasure of sitting through.
There are some problems and challenges with the show, and these may end up making the show tough for some to watch, so I figure I’ll get these listed and out of the way.
1.) The artwork and animation are dated. While I don’t think that this is a show that needs to rely on flashy visuals to tell its story, this is a 30-year-old anime and shows its age.
2.) This is a dialogue heavy anime. There are a great many scenes where major characters sit around drinking, philosophizing, scheming, and occasionally bullshitting around. LoGH tells its story to you through these conversations and doesn’t rely heavily on narrative recaps or other exposition. Exposition is there at points, but this is a show that you have to pay attention to in order to understand what characters are thinking and doing. With the average to subpar art, this isn’t going to be a flashy style over substance show.
3.) This show demands a lot from the viewer. While I think that anyone can enjoy the show if they enjoy a space opera, the more historically educated the viewer is, the more they will get out of the discussions. (Knowing a bit of Prussian history helps a LOT with understanding the Galactic Empire for example). You aren’t going to be pandered to with nonstop flashy action sequences (see problem 2) so it’s a little tough to turn your mind off if that’s what you want to do.
4.) At 110 episodes, this show is an investment of time. While there are a lot of shows out there that go longer than this, those looking for something quick and light to watch aren’t going to find that here. This series takes its time to build up the characters, factions, history, and battles. I feel that this show is worth the investment, but some people aren’t going to like the fact that it’s going to take quite a few sessions to get through this one.
That out of the way, regardless of one’s preconceptions, if you have any serious interest in history, political philosophy, space opera fiction, music and its role in narrative, or heroic character studies, then you owe it to yourself to watch this show. As I said, this show isn’t perfect, but it’s a tour de force that becomes greater than the sum of its parts the more you dive in, especially for those who are students of history. There are other shows that can do certain of the themes I mentioned earlier in this paragraph better than the way that LoGH does, but it’s very rare to find a show so well rounded and constructed that it ends up doing all of these things at such a consistently high level.
Without spoiling anything major, at a broad stroke the series is about the political and military confrontation of an autocratic Galactic Empire and a democratic oriented Free Planetary Alliance group in the major arc. There are other minor political/economic interests that have their own loyalties and diplomatic ties, specifically a nominally neutral trading alliance based between the two major factions, as well as a religious cult that operates behind the scenes and has its own agenda and goals.
What makes the show as compelling to watch as it is has a lot to do with the fact that we’re watching case studies of great men who struggle against their factions decaying political institutions. It feels like you are observing great history in the making, being along for the ride if you will, following interesting characters who very much become heroes in the classic sense of forging their own destiny and trying to remake their world and their place in the universe. There’s a bit of Joseph Campbell in here, as well as Machiavelli and the other greats of history and politics to deal with as well, but it’s up to the viewer to discover the themes themselves.
I think that the beauty of LoGH is that it doesn’t come right out and tell you that one faction or way of doing things is “the correct way”. Much dialogue is spent debating the merits of democracy vs. autocracy and the major players in this historical drama each have their own opinions and are well versed enough to engage in the ramifications of each system and its strengths and weaknesses.
There is also a distinct level of respect and decorum towards the other faction that harkens back to earlier times in our own history where opponents were treated with dignity and honor. This ends up doing the viewer a great service by not reducing the different sides to an obvious paragon of all that is good and virtuous, and their cartoonish villainous counterpoint who manifests all that is wrong and evil and probably kicks puppies for fun.
LoGH doesn’t seek to spoon feed you the answers or give you an obvious team to “root” for. LoGH respects your intelligence and lets you watch and make your own decisions as there are good and bad folks on each side. It also does this in a way that one doesn’t need to be versed in multiple languages to read the original works of the great philosophers and political thinkers to have an understanding of what’s going on either. The show’s dialogue ends up being presented in a way that those who don’t care about reading up on history or politics can easily follow along perfectly well. It can also be appreciated on a different level if one does understand more about politics and history as well. Even having a good knowledge of classical music and how the pieces tie in to the mood and what’s going on screen, while unnecessary to enjoy the show, will open up another avenue of enjoyment that one could explore as well. The show layers this complexity in a way that never reaches the heights of pretentiousness that some other pieces end up wallowing in. There’s very little that’s shown that doesn’t end up building the narrative or fleshing out characters in a reasonable manner.
With regards to the great characters of this show, they are almost too many to list. Yang Wen-li and Reinhard von Lohengramm are great faction leaders. These are great men by deed and accomplishment, but also have realistic and somewhat tragic weaknesses that make them human and in many ways relatable. They are also the two great military minds of their respective factions and watching their strategies unfold is great. That’s not to say that these two steal the show all the time however. There are other great characters that all have their own development and strengths and weaknesses to work through. You’ll have favorites and those who are memorable as the show goes along. The voice acting is great and emotional, and in a dialogue heavy show like this, that’s a blessing. There are a ton of great voice actors in this, and they do a great job of making their characters and their personalities come to life.
LoGH doesn’t pander by having characters act in ways that are outside of their character (at least not very often) for plot convenience. Characters who succeed one show by aggressively attacking may end up being hoisted by their own petard in a later episode by acting in a similar way. Most of the characters follow their principles whether or not it actually leads them to the correct choice or not. Watching the chess games between people trying to outguess each other’s strategies plays out well and you get the feel of watching a giant chess match between great military generals at times, even if on occasion, you do wonder about the success rate of certain characters. It actually ends up making you think even more about what is and is not the right course of action to take in certain circumstances. Some decisions that seem like admirable adherence to principles or really smart at the time actually come back to haunt later in the series as well, adding another layer of depth to the overarching philosophical questions that the show doesn’t spoon feed you the answers to.
There are other minor things that make the show great as well, such as the pacing and world building, which may seem slow at first, but actually works out really well by showing how the major players interact and what’s going on behind the scenes. Occasional episodes will fill you in on the history of both factions, so you eventually become your own historian, and you are never wondering about the background details of the story. You understand how you got here, and where things are going. Coming from some other shows that simply exist as manga or light novel advertisements, where background information is sparse, sometimes nonsensical, or requires you to read novels, manga or wikis outside of the program to understand what’s really going on this is refreshing and makes you feel like you’re watching something where the author actually understood how to tell a complete story.
The soundtrack of classical works always ends up complementing what’s going on screen and captures the mood quite well. You’ll hear soaring themes during battles and major moments, and you’ll hear great pastoral music when characters are off in the countryside. Having a bit of knowledge of the great works isn’t necessary to enjoy the music, but students of music will smile at how well each piece of music’s theme goes along with its scene. A full soundtrack for this show would be deep and broad, as there are generally 6-10 pieces over each of the 110 episodes.
As I said, there is no perfect animated series out there. However, Legend of Galactic Heroes rightly deserves a spot in the upper echelons as a 10-rated masterpiece of an anime. I can’t recommend it enough.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 22, 2017
Konosuba is one of those shows that ends up being entertaining in spite of itself. There have been quite a few shows where the protagonist ends up in an alternate reality fantasy world complete with a harem over the last few seasons and years. Many of these shows are quite mediocre and rely quite heavily on harem tropes and fan service to try to carry the viewers through each episode. Konosuba doesn't shy away from any of this, and by all that is good and true, should end up being just another poor to mediocre entry into the pile.
Yet... Konosuba stands as
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an interesting send up of the entire genre and becomes enjoyable regardless.
Without spoiling the story too much, the basic premise behind the show is that our main protagonist ends up getting "killed" and shipped off to a new life in a fantasy world with one special item/skill what have you facilitated by the goddess he meets after his untimely demise. He decides, much to the goddess's chagrin, that he wants to take her along, and poof! Off the two of them go to their new life in what essentially amounts to a more or less standard fantasy world.
Many shows end up trying to make the main character overpowered and completely able to dominate their new world for... some reason or other, probably related to self-insert fantasies. Konosuba becomes entertaining for the fact that it turns just about every expectation around on you.
The main character is basically a terrible person and quickly finds that his dreams of being an all powerful demigod won't quite work out because by the statistical power rules of this strange new world, he's painfully average and can't take a powerful role that he wants. He also quickly finds out that the goddess that he brings along with him is as terrible and self absorbed as he is and that she's not exactly helpful at all either. The rest of the season is the two of them stumbling through the harsh realities of trying to make a living as adventurers..
Kazuma, our main hero also collects a couple other misfits who don't really fit into standard heroic teams to round out his "harem" as well, including a send up of the all powerful chuuni mage archetype who boasts incredibly powerful magic! That can only be used once... Not the most useful teammate. They also collect a holy crusader character who is in theory incredibly powerful, yet only has usefulness as a meat shield who gets off on being beaten up and treated like a piece of meat often to the detriment of the tactical plan. The rest of the show is basically these dysfunctional, selfish, downright idiotic personalities accepting quests from a job board Fairy Tail style and hilariously making Kazuma's life incredibly difficult.
On paper, Kazuma lives the ideal life of being a fantasy adventurer surrounded by attractive "powerful" adventurer classes, and many of his other acquaintances envy him... yet his life is a living hell of crazy situations. That is the overarching schtick of this show that makes it work.
That, more than anything is why Konosuba is a surprisingly entertaining show to watch. While the art is subpar a lot of the time, and the story is a bit ridiculous, Konosuba succeeds as an entertaining show because the characters interact in ways that just make things funny, even if the jokes are pretty repetitive at times. There is a great sit-com vibe with the show and the voice actors seem to be having enough fun with this to carry things and make you want to watch these goofballs go out and sort of succeed at adventuring despite their sheer idiocy.
While I cannot claim that this show has any great meaning to it, or does something incredible with the genre (really, the isekai genre isn't that great to begin with), or even that it relies way too heavily on its own memes to overcome its mediocre writing, it really was a fun journey through ten episodes.
At the end of the day, the measure of an anime stands on whether or not it entertains you, regardless of its other merits or lack there of.
At the end of the day, Konosuba is not a great show, but it is an entertaining one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 21, 2017
Fist of the North Star was one of the very few anime that I can say really changed the way that I approached life. The character of Kenshiro inspires me even to this day, and when I'm unsure of the right course of action, I generally ask myself two very important questions:
1.) Is this something that Kenshiro would do.
2.) Is this something that would make Kenshiro go on a righteous rampage that would end with my head exploding and him telling me that "you're already dead".
You may be able to slide by if you can't answer question one in the affirmative, and you really
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don't want to fail question two, just in case Kenshiro finds out what you did.
I have on occasion looked at a heavy barbell that I'm about to deadlift, told the barbell that it was already dead, and proceeded to set a personal record.
I watched this show many years ago, probably back in the early/mid nineties, long before the modern tropes and current memes of anime took hold. I've started rewatching it, and I can say that it is as fun and as good to watch as I remember it.
The story is a bit of Mad Max combined with old school Martial Arts flicks. Kenshiro was obviously inspired visually by Bruce Lee. The story itself is one of survival in a world post apocalypse. Rule by the ruthless and the strong is the norm, and the weak are cast aside and exploited. Kenshiro is the main protagonist and the show follows him using his powerful martial arts "Hokuto no Ken" style to basically become a messianic figure of hope for the downtrodden. Kenshiro is also an interesting study in manliness, as he is able to shed tears freely when they are warranted, and while it isn't shown often, has a huge heart. He embodies the paladin in ways that many that carry the title can't quite live up to.
The villains in the story run from run of the mill Saturday morning cartoon villains to more complex men that have their own agendas that may be ruthless, but fall a bit more on the grey end of morality. For a few of the antagonists, a case could be made that given the state of the world, what they are doing, while not nice, would more or less be warranted.
Fist of the North Star, much like Bruce Lee advised us many years ago is best approached with a "don't think, feel" mindset. The show is distilled testosterone and manliness in its greatest form. It's the rise of and fall of powerful men who wish to impose their will on the world instead of just living in it. It's the manly tears that you feel when a sympathetic antagonist falls. It's the feeling of righteous justice that one feels when a horrible villain is given no quarter and, much to his inevitable shock and horror Kenshiro tells them "Omae wa mou shindeiru"(you are already dead). There's something of the pure romanticism in this show behind the overpowered machismo that seems to be missing from modern action/adventure pieces in our postmodern age.
While this show is obviously dated nowadays and is going on 35 years old. It demands to be watched, if for no other reason than to get an understanding of how the shounen genre used to be and where it came from.
This is also a great show to watch to cleanse the palate of all of the pretty boys and cute girls shows that saturate modern offerings and take yourself back to a time where protagonists were not someone that you could simply relate to in their slovenly, yet comforting mediocrity, where things are simply handed to him, but the protagonist was someone that you could aspire and look up to, because they embody an ideal. Then, after watching a few episodes, you use that manly energy to go build something, lift something, or conquer something.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 21, 2017
I took a look at this show because it had an interesting premise and seemed to be getting good ratings. Dragons trying to coexist with humans and do slice of life stuff. I was looking to branch out a little and perhaps see if there was something fun going on with a show that a lot of people were talking about as it was airing.
The show had started out fairly decent if a little silly, and I was curious what they were going to try to do with the characters that they were assembling. After watching a few shows where
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the hero gets sucked into the fantasy world, having the fantasy world come to the "real world" seemed like it could be pretty fun to explore.
Unfortunately, things didn't stay interesting for very long and I ended up very disappointed with this show to the point where I'm pretty exhausted with it after the conclusion.
Before discussing what ultimately made me dislike the show, I will discuss the technicals. The art was slightly below average here. While characters were pretty colorful, there was always something a bit off with the animation and the lines that doesn't quite feel right. It's not an incredibly well drawn show. The sound and voice acting were average. Nothing stood out to me as exceptional, but then, nothing was overly bad either. My main issues were with the story and ultimately the choices made for the characters.
What had the potential to be a character study of breaking out of routine and new ways of looking at things quite quickly devolved into lazy writing of repetitive jokes and fan service of questionable taste and appropriateness. While there is nothing wrong with fan service, there is a point where it can't substitute for writing decent characters.
The main characters are a salary woman and her dragon maid. They have their quirks and their interaction looked to set the stage for an interesting slice of life, learning a new world dynamic. I was actually pretty intrigued the first few episodes as they were interacting.
I actually started liking the show less and less the more characters were being introduced. While one would think that adding new dragons and friends around the neighborhood would add interesting interactions, all too often the writers took the cheap and easy way out of making characters very one dimensional and repeating the same jokes over and over and over again.
One major issue comes with the younger dragon who comes to live with them. What at first seemed like it would be interesting, as these dragons are very old compared to the humans, quickly turned into a relationship with one of her school mates where this dragon in a little girls body does something lewd and her school friend provides an inappropriate surrogate nose bleeding reaction to her. This becomes a running gag in the show.
Another issue comes when a different dragon appears and becomes a guardian of sorts for a little boy. The running gag with these two is that the dragon is an incredibly buxom sexpot who has no issues at all being naked or shoving this little boy in her cleavage complete with bouncy noises while he acts horrified. While this could be funny if it happened once as part of a "cultural misunderstanding", it essentially becomes their whole relationship schtick and the basic gag anytime they show up in the story. It wasn't funny enough to carry the characters.
I could go on about a few other characters but they are similar in that they are one trick gags that get rotated in every so often as the show goes along.
With characters like this, the show's humor end up feeling very repetitive and one ends up feeling a bit creeped out after watching these things over and over. Or not, depending on what you're in to, but that was my reaction. The characters do engage in a variety of activities, but instead of writing new humor, you get the a twist on the same boob jokes or whatever the character joke is over and over in a new environment.
The longer the show went on, the more I felt like I knew pretty much how each story was going to play out, and it really wasn't very funny or interesting anymore.
There are better ways to do fish out of water shows like this. This ultimately felt like a quickly produced cheap show to me, and in the end, a bit of an insult to my intelligence. Granted, I didn't go in expecting a lot here, I was actually looking for a light entertainment show to balance out the deeper stuff I was watching, but still, this ended up being pretty repetitive and way too focused on bizarre attempts at fan service that just felt creepy.
I can't really recommend this show when there are far better options available. There are more interesting examples of shows where humans and other creatures get along, and there are better shows for fan service as well that actually have a more interesting story. I would seek those out and only waste time here if you absolutely have to see what people are making memes about.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Oct 21, 2017
I took a shot on this show as I wanted something light and entertaining. I read the story synopsis and thought that the concept was pretty interesting as I used to play online roleplaying games for years and had some real life meet ups with the folks that I played with which turned into friendships that I maintain to this day. I figured that this show might be an interesting take on this type of thing.
I ended up with mixed feelings about the show.
Netoge (we'll call it this for short) does a pretty good job of humorously exploring the types of personalities that
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one meets and interacts with in an online game and I found many of the characters and situations pretty similar to personalities that I found in my real life gaming experiences, so there was quite a bit of "yup, they nailed that archetype" while watching the show. I thought that the show did a good job of doing various game related activities and challenges that were pretty entertaining if you are into gaming culture. While not as absurd as some shows in the gaming genre (D-Frag comes to mind) there is enough exaggeration to properly lampoon a lot of gaming culture while never getting TOO unbelievable.
Technically the show does pretty average to fair. The art is nothing extraordinary, but is colorful and pleasing to the eyes. The sound and voice acting is pretty good, and character personality shines through pretty well.
Where I thought the show stumbled a bit was in the make up of the main group and some of the characterizations. Coming from a light novel, it's unfortunate that some of the harem tropes carried over, but they are what they are. I think the group dynamic could have used at least one other male supporting character in the main group to make things a little more interesting and add some more possibilities for showing the online gaming culture and life. I was a bit skeptical that many of the guys in the main character's class did not play the game with all the main girls and the lead. I feel this was a bit of a missed opportunity.
Without spoiling too much, I'd say that the characters could have used a little bit more development as the story progressed as well. They play their archetypes well and provide good entertainment, but I feel that many people that aren't as well versed in the ins and outs of online gaming culture may find some of the interactions get repetitive as the show goes on.
Despite my quibbles, I did find the show entertaining, although I think that it has a lot to do with having experience in the subject matter the show is exploring and seeing a lot of humor and relating to the characters. I feel that someone's enjoyment of the show is going to hinge a lot on whether or not they have some experience with gaming culture and can find humor in the character archetypes and the situations.
I'm not sure this show can stand on its own merits as anything above average. It's not a terrible show, but there are better options.
I can recommend this show if you have experience in online gaming culture and don't mind the light novel adaptation scenario. I didn't find this as entertaining as some other shows based around games, but I didn't regret watching it. It had its charm and was one of those "guilty pleasure" type watches.
No game no life, D-Frag, and even to some extent Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai do the gaming in the "real world" concept in a stronger way if you are looking for similar shows about games.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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