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Jun 17, 2022
Rikekoi season 2…. Its kind of hard to write this for me because I went into it with a lot of excitement as I did enjoy season 1 a lot and it just…. Was very disappointing.
I will be covering spoilers so keep that in mind when reading this, also touching on SA topics that were presented.
Rikekoi season 2 follows were we left off in season 1, were Himuro and Yukimura are figuring out their feelings while overlaying all this complicated scientific explanations because they are both STEM nerds and we all know STEM people can’t compute feelings right? That’s the entire gag of the show
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and for the most part during season 1 it was enjoyable and handled very balancedly, including humor while also advancing the narrative presented with the characters and romantic plot of the series.
The problem with season 2 starts from the story, or for better words, the lack of a cohesive line thread that unites the characters like they did on season 1. While most of season 1 we spend following Himuro and Yukimura’s antics while some smaller side plots with side characters were presented, season 2 decided to do the contrary and introduce new characters with a convoluted start to the series that added nothing and as it went along, even more subplots with side characters while our two protagonists were left… Not really shining.
Starting with the two first characters introduced, Chris and Suiu which I honestly found very obnoxious and annoying. They wanted to add more fan service into the series and well, if you are into that its great, but from a neutral standpoint they contributed nothing and we as the audience didn’t get to care for them that much. They never appeared on season 1 and suddenly were thrusted at us this season and…. I really did not care for anything they did. It was just a sexual gag that got old very fast.
Then we had Haru’s plot with Yukimura’s tutoring which… what was the point? Like, if you are adding a subplot with one of the main characters and another character that has nothing to do with the main cast or story, it should be to develop that main character in some way but Yukimura was never developed because of this? We only got to see Haru’s change and while it was nice and heartwarming to see, as the audience, why do we care? The preppy blonde girl suddenly now understands the importance of science but like… We gain nothing new from this, a complete filler into the whole series.
Then there was the Kanade plot which I want to focus a bit because they had a really interesting thread of developing into something and they just completely…. Misused it. I’ve always liked Kanade as a character, I think she works great to balance out all the other personalities within the main cast into this more grounded perspective and I feel like we as the audience are supposed to kind of step into Kanade’s role in the story to roll our eyes at the main two over dramatic antics to admit their feelings. This season however Kanade was thrown into her own character arc were we see how she struggles to keep this façade, trying to fit in and act “normal” because that’s what she grew up being taught. For the most part I thought the message was interesting, I would have love for them to take it into the angle of exploring sexuality for example and maybe something like ace and aro feelings and how Kanade finds a lot of the experiments pointless because she doesn’t really see the appeal on it.
Instead we were fed a storyline of her developing a crush on her school teacher and her feeling bad because she is a girl and does martial arts which seems…. A bit outdated in this age, but I still took the bait and watched through it. And then came the whole Kanade and Naoya plot point and how it led to episode 12 SA scene and I can’t help but think how it all was handled very poorly. SA is a very scary situation and many individuals have been in Kanade’s situation, fear and impotence of the moment when someone has control over you. What does rikekoi do? Because its a gag show that shows STEM people are quirky and different, we are cut through Yukimura entering the scene and trying to dissuade the tension and buy time by going into a scientific explanation of who Kanade is and how being “normal” isn’t something she should worry about. It was very tone deaf and weirdly placed and while I understand that the show was following its usual formula of solving all issues with their dramatic scientific analysis, it belittle the situation and felt timed terribly with the situation we were seeing displayed.
I also think the start of a love triangle at this point is completely unnecessary and a plot device to keep the gag going instead of showing us actual development between Yukimura and Himuro. Why does Kanade’s character who has an interesting struggle and narrative relevancy have to be reduced to a hero’s complex were she now suddenly after 24 episodes of seeing Yukimura as someone she admires and a friend suddenly finds herself in love with him? What does this add to anything when we know Yukimura is head over heels for Himuro and vice versa? It’s just another trope of the third character having to fall for the male protagonist for reasons even though they will never stand a chance in the first place. If this is the set up for a third season I can only see it going even more downhill from there.
The only plot line I did enjoy and wish would have been furthered develop was the romantic interest between Ibarada and Kosuke, two characters that were relevant and important in season 1 and during season 2 they appeared like, 2 or 3 times at most. Those 2 or 3 times however shined through in comparison to the rest of the season and seeing them slowly understand their feelings for each other was really wholesome and I got no complaints about it. The best part of the season by far.
Speaking of plot points and how they were handled, another big disappointment this season was Himuro’s character and her lack of…. Anything. Even though she is one of the main characters writing this I can’t recall a single moment when Himuro shined or was important to any plot line. She was there yeah sure, but she was more of a side character than an actual protagonist and taking into account how much development she was given in season 1 and how interesting she is, she was greatly underutilized. Her and Yukimura’s romance had some advances here and there but unlike season 1 they didn’t have many key moments apart from maybe one episode from the 12 we had. I think Yukimura and Himuro are the most interesting part of rikekoi with their unique premise and seeing them being sidelined for the entire season was very disappointing to see. Don’t get me wrong, the main cast was all still enjoyable as a whole and I think they are still the ones carrying the show , but the lack of cohesion between the group and seeing each kind of doing their own thing, didn’t make them shine as much as season 1 when it really is one of rikekoi’s strongest points.
As for the art and sound it was good, no complaints there I think the opening and endings of rikekoi are very good and this season wasn’t the exception. The enjoyment varied due to my previous points and overall the lack of consistency and focus is what made rikekoi season 2 lose its spark.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 16, 2022
Alice in borderland is a lot of concepts and ideas trying to be encapsulated into one and failing to deliver every single one of them.
Let me start with an overview; I started the manga after watching the Netflix adaptation because I really enjoyed the concept presented and I usually like the death games-esque story settings. I thought the characters seemed decent enough to be further explored in the manga and the potential for an intriguing resolution to the many threads presented throughout the story.
In the end I was left with an underwhelming story with a lackluster cast and plot suffering in its execution due to
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pacing issues.
The story is probably the weakest point of Alice in Borderland, as it often doesn't make sense and leaves a lot of plot holes for the reader to just gloss over. I am normally the type to overlook these things, it's a fictional work and I am not looking for a metaphysical explanation as to everything that happens when I am digesting manga or anime. However, Alice in Borderland tries to sell you these ideas and big twists that are so out of reach for anything comprehensible it just leaves you… Kind of bored and confused.
My biggest complaint (and spoilers ahead, if you want to go into it blind I suggest you skip this review) probably comes with the ending. It's such a bs answer to absolutely everything that we experience and so underwhelming I was left just staring at the last pages like…. Huh… So… That's it? I think the erasing memories plot device is such a cop out and completely diminishes everything I read in the other 86 chapters. If everyone forgot everything, why are they suddenly all changed? How can everyone experience a “character development” moment if they all think their heart stopped for like a minute? The ones who died were simply forgotten and just taken for dead because of a random meteorite accident? Are all the connections, games and bonds we went through 86 chapters just… gone?
As I said, it's very underwhelming for the reader and the story often suffers from these peaks and lows. Alice in Borderland has its moments where you are thoroughly enjoying something going on (for example, the seven of hearts game was interesting and emotional because of what we knew about Arisu’s connections to his friends and the impact their deaths caused) whilst others just left me frustrated and honestly just bored (like that one entire volume with a bunch of random side characters locked up in a venue, i'll touch upon that later).
The games also are a big issue for me. Linking it up to what I was commenting before, the story tries to overly complicate everything to attempt delivering a “deep” and “meaningful” message where there isn't one sometimes. Some of the games seem way convoluted and to be honest by the third or fourth one I stopped reading the explanations because it was more of a hassle than anything else. There are other death game type mangas I've read and this is the first time i've encountered this absolute lack of interest towards what seems at a first glance to be the most interesting part of the story. You are reading a story like Alice in Borderland because you are interested to see the outcomes of these games and how they play out but to me they ended up just being way too confusing and meant to throw the reader into a loop when it really didn't have to.
Moving on to the characters, I also have a lot of things (good and bad) to point out. Starting with the not so good points; I believe when you are delivering a story like Alice in Borderland where you as the reader know that eventually some of your favorites will die, the rushed pacing made this effect very much so “in your face”. Most of the interesting characters or the ones who were starting to get some sort of exposure die off a chapter later so you are left with no real attachments or connections to them. Halfway through the story I really stopped caring for the entire cast except for like 2 characters because what was the point if I was going to be presented with a million backstories, goals and what not if three chapters later they were going to be killed off? There's no gratification nor real interest as the reader to really get to know the characters and that makes it so that the driving force of the story ends up pulling you back even more.
Characters also suffer from what I like to call “moral syndrome”, which means that we get these eureka moments from them to an overly complicated exposition of their mentality and ethical codes that really isn't necessary and adds nothing. Keiichi is an example of someone with a weird overly moral metaphor that defined his entire character that had a conclusion that if you think about it for like two seconds doesn't make any sense. Keiichi’s whole thing revolved around who was worthy of killing and being killed and the measurement of people’s lives but it’s not like he had never chosen to kill before? He must have played games in the past with only one winner where he, wanting to or not, had to kill. Maybe it was not someone in the smart 2000 IQ level as Chishiya but nonetheless another human, therefore making his whole morale speech null. This happens with half of the cast and that's why it makes it hard to think of these people as anything other than plot devices to try and sell you a deep in-your-face story. There are so many side stories to characters that we know nothing about but we are supposed to care/hate that it just becomes very overwhelming, some of them were a hit (I did enjoy the whole king of spades one) while others were a huge miss (the one where they were all trapped in the venue).
Arisu is also a frustrating character but I feel like the narrative is at fault for this one most of the time because they don’t show you his character development, but rather tell it to you and it makes it tedious. The guy had a luminary moment of reflection towards the same two problems he constantly battled with like 20 times throughout and by the 5th one I knew his entire speech by heart. Arisu suffers from poor narrative choices and weak motivations which just makes him kind of forgettable in the end even though he plays the role of main character. I also knew nothing about the villain. I didn't care for her as a person and she didn't compelled me to feel anything at all, I wasn't rooting nor hating on her, Mira was just… There I guess. She said some things and appeared like once or twice without any impact whatsoever, very plain and predictable.
Now onto the better part regarding the characters, we gotta admit that there was not enough Chishiya and Kuina, arguably the best characters on the series by far. Both of them however seemed to have been forgotten and only remembered to be existing like 5 chapters before the end (specially for Chishiya which would have played an amazing moral opposite to Arisu as an antagonist) but alas I did enjoy it when both of them had panels and relevance. Both of them were majorly underused and I wish we had more time to enjoy them but they were well built; interesting motivations and moved the plot along significantly more than most of the other supporting cast members.
To wrap it up regarding the art, it was alright. It's not the most stunning looking manga but I don't think it needs to be, it serves its purpose and some panels were good. Kuina and Mira had probably the best character designs and the rest were alright, nothing outstanding but not really much to critique either. As for the enjoyment, I think it's a give or take, I do enjoy this kinds of stories because they compelled me to keep reading to find out what happen but I just ended up being frustrated more than anything with Alice in Borderland by the way things went down so I guess it kind of depends on what you are looking for when you are reading a story.
Alice in borderland in theory, has a good base idea of what it wants to be. If I had to wrap it into a single sentence I would say “It’s a good concept with a mediocre execution”. I don’t think its the worst manga out there but I do think there are better executions to similar concepts without the convoluted plot and weak characters that try to move the story along.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 11, 2021
I won’t be telling you throughout the review you should read the manga because I think by this point you must have heard that the manga IS much better and that as a matter of fact, you SHOULD read it.
However, I do not think the adaptation is the worst thing to ever be created as many paint it to be and I will explain it throughout the review.
Does it have its faults? Yeah. Is the source material a lot more meaningful? Probably. But from what was adapted I think the studio did a pretty okay job to fit the first arc in as cohesively as
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they could. I don’t think Blue Period is a manga that is easy to adapt if I am being honest, it’s very stylistic and the way art and scenes are drawn in the source material are one of the aspects that really draws you into the story. This is something that is oftentimes very hard to depict animated, animation has a lot of factors and phases to it influencing its execution thus why Blue Period lacked in this department, becoming one of its weakest points.
The story hits home but I don’t think it's a story that everyone will be the target for either. I can't speak for people that dont enjoy art (be it making or seeing it) but I do think it's a story, or at least Yatora’s part, that dwells a lot into the mind of an artist and what it feels like to enjoy, hate, feel and create art. This is one of the things that Blue Period capitalizes on and nails at its core, how much something you feel passionate towards can be something so meaningful and life changing to you while at the same time be an experience that makes you crumble with doubt, self hate and criticism. Art isn't something that is always a “happy” rounded process but it's rather a rollercoaster of emotions that makes you tune yourself to a medium and we really get to see that through the characters, in a variety of perspectives and scenarios that make us know that an artists perspective is always evolving and changing depending on the context and the person in of itself.
As for the characters, Blue Period’s highest point in my personal opinion comes from its very realistic and raw character takes. They are not meant to be a satirical parody to a stereotype or an over exaggerated characteristic; quite the contrary, Blue Period’s characters all feel very real and I am sure that everyone watching can at least relate or sort of connect with someone. Although I do think Yatora’s character development (due to pacing and timing struggles) lacked on the development part, sometimes appearing a bit generic and static (even though I know from reading the manga he is far from that), the best fleshed out character on the anime comes to Ryuuji. Their arc is handled very well, showing us at the right moments their struggles and spacing it out throughout the anime in a natural way that never felt forced. Even though I was scared at first they would rush and butcher their arc, skimming through their struggle with gender, a very important and hardly ever talked about issue in anime, I do believe the execution was done progressively and made Yuka shine above the other characters from the cast.
One thing I do critique in the character aspect that, again, goes linked towards Yatora’s sometimes “rushed” narrative, is the portrayal of Yotasuke. Even though I may be biased here because Yotasuke is my favorite character from the manga and I know this first arc isn't really the one where we delve into his struggles and personal battles, I do think because of the same pacing and animation visual timing moments, his scenes sometimes came off as stiff and that didn't allow the viewer to form a close connection to him as they may have intended to. Yotauske’s character represents a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings with the way we perceive others by their manners and skills, encapsulating someone to a role they might as well not feel comfortable with, and I don't think the theme was quite as successful as it could have been with his portrayal. I enjoyed the relationship he held with Yatora but I do think this is one of the major negative points I would have towards the character aspect.
As for the rest, as I mentioned before, the animation in Blue Period isn't really one of its selling points, and that may deter someone looking for an art focused anime that isn't, well, very artistic. The movements and proportions are sometimes off and this difficults the narrative at times due to the stiffness of it all, but in the end, even with its faults which diminished the effect of certain scenes, I dont think its something unwatchable. The voice acting is pretty good and the music is pretty nice too, fits the themes and atmosphere quite well.
Overall, I don't think Blue Period is a bad anime and it accomplishes its main goals pretty well, which is to bring (hopefully) more attention to the manga and invest viewers into experiencing the beauty within Yatora’s art journey as well as that of the many other characters that create meaningful bonds with the reader as the narrative goes along. I would say, if you have the time to read the manga, go do that first and afterwards come watch the anime and relax watching the moments you enjoyed being animated and the characters coming to life. Blue period anime isn't a masterpiece and I don't think it ever meant to be one, it's trying to tell a story to the best of its abilities and I think for the most part, it was an okay narrative with characters carrying along the tone to its original material.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 3, 2021
Re-main is a show that tries to be everything and still nothing all at once, becoming its downfall at times even with a solid base.
(this will contain spoilers so I advise you not to read this if you want to go in the show without any previous knowledge).
Re-Main is one of those shows that, if you are familiar with sports anime, you know the basic concept of. It's a group of people getting together to form a team in a school where no one believes x sport will succeed and at first they suck but eventually they pull through and all's well that ends well;
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they play in a final match of a competition and we get to see their growth throughout their journey. Re-Main has that concept still within its story but it adds to the mix the element of amnesia where our main guy, Minato, had an accident and lost his memories.
The amnesia plot point in my opinion it's both Re-Main’s strongest suit in making it more interesting and stand out against other typical sport anime while at the same time being its weakest point in terms of pacing. Overall, that was the biggest problem I had with Re-Main; the absolute lack of a coherent pacing for the viewer to follow along at a consistent speed.
From episode 1 I was able to see this was going to be the biggest issue. Look, I don't mind when an anime throws me in a loop with an overly impossible situation without any real explanation, it's fiction and I can overlook those details. But in episode 1 so many things are introduced to us to be later on brushed aside... We see Minato, a guy we know nothing about go through an accident, forget everyone and everything (who we as the viewer still know nothing about) and start school while his old friends and other people don't seem to worry about the fact that, uh, idk, he forgot everything ?? His old teammates appear once and they don't seem to be preoccupied about their old friend losing all recognition but okay we move on from that.
We are later on introduced to our main cast as the story goes along. The characters.... are just fine. They are all stereotypes to some extent like the broody one, the sweetheart, the explosive one…. and while I normally don’t mind that, I feel like there were so many overarching plots and struggles that just when you were starting to like a character the next episode we completely switched to the next and I was left like ‘oh okay I guess see you never’. I will say however, that the best episodes of the series surprisingly come towards the end, because while I do feel that the audience is overexposed to a lot of plot points that get confusing and tangled up at parts, the resolution to most of them were alright (specially Jou and his father and Ushimado’s lack of confidence imo). Although old Minato is a pest and annoying, I did enjoy him growing with the team and while, again, the pacing felt very off putting and Minato’s personality switched back and forth more than I would have liked, it had some cool moments here and there.
Now onto the rivals and “villains”…. Ngl I didn't care for a single one of them. I thought Shuugo’s and Momosaki’s subplot dragged on forever and they tried to make me care about it but I just… Didn't. Which in turn, made it so that the pushing force on the rivaling team and the whole Minato thing felt disconnected and honestly I wished we would have gotten to see more of the rivals struggles. I feel like one of the coolest things when it comes to sport anime is that they tend to show you both sides of the story, while of course you tend to root for the main team and everything, you end up feeling some sort of way for the rivaling parties and it makes it much more interesting to watch as it keeps you on the edge. With Re-Main I felt nothing for any of the rivals and it made matches kind of predictable to watch as I just cared for like one or two characters as a whole so in the end you just root for them. I will say however a positive aspect when it came down to the whole sports thing (which I won’t dwell too much on because I know nothing about water polo) is that the matches dont drag out with dumb plot contrivances. They play for a good amount while having dynamic shots and passes here and there but they don't try to oversell screen time with the sports playing part and I do appreciate that in terms of enjoyability as a whole.
Finally In terms of characters, I would also like to talk about Chinu for a moment. I felt like she was used as a plot device for Minato’s sake and while I thought the whole “reveal” part was predictable and kind of just there to build tension, I did enjoy her as a character and I wished she would have played a more important role. Overall I feel like the best characters came down to her, Jou and Ejiri but most of the time they were cut screen time to feature others like Minato, Shuugo and Oka who in my opinion were objectively…. Kinda boring or annoying.
I will also say the visuals are very good. Again, I don't know technicalities of water polo so I can't comment on that aspect but for the most part it all felt natural and flowing, MAPPA never fails to deliver good animation quality imo. I also really liked the character designs of the main cast (specially Inomata) and that one rival team guy with the blonde streak, they were all pretty recognizable and very matching with their individual personalities. The opening and ending are good too as well as the voice acting.
I would say, give Re-Main a watch if you enjoy sports anime and you don't take things too at heart because even coming from someone who usually doesn't mind big soap opera-esque moments, it was a lot at times. If you can make it through the first middle episodes you get a decent watch for an alright show. If you are looking for extremely compelling characters with heartwarming stories you might get some of that but in the end you are probably gonna be left wanting more from an interesting set of characters that were sometimes sidelined for the sake of other plot points that were… not as interesting. But overall It was not unwatchable and I thought it had its solid aspects to it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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