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Nov 27, 2024
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
I recently watched the first season of 2011´s premier mecha anime “Infinite Stratos” a few months ago, and I got exactly what I wanted out of the show. Sure, the plot is non-existent, the characters are super one-dimensional and the whole setting is just a type of teenage-boy fantasy but sometimes, after watching a lot of heavy action or drama, i need something like this, and i was super excited to dive back into this light-hearted world.
Story – 6/10
My god, going back to this story after watching heavy-hitters like “The Tatami Galaxy” and “Macross” really gives your brain whiplash. Everything that
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i wrote about the first season also applies to the second one. But the one big difference is that this time, the show actually sets up some storylines. Yes, you heard it right, there is actually a story this time around, and it mostly thematizes the Orimura family. We finally have villains in this show, instead of random encounters with remote controlled mechs that merely serve as little disruptions from the rom-com sections of the story. And although they didn´t show any type of motivation (at least so far, but we are already two seasons into the story!) it gave the show at least a tiny bit of a direction. Other than that, this is just your typical ecchi, rom-com. The show definitely shows it´s age here a little bit, but the sections are still a ton of fun if you are able to ignore your suspension of disbelief. Even though there is some action here, this is mostly a fun, light-hearted, highschool show with a little sci-fi twist.
Art – 8/10
This season follows up the already fantastic looking first one and continues to surprise me with it´s technical quality. Like i said, this show came out in 2011, a time where these kinds of shows definitely not receive the same amount of budget as today. Infinite Stratos does still look good. Great characters models, super expressive and fluidly animated. The fights in this season are also a joy to look at. Although the final fight did not have the same amount of emotional weight as the one in season one, it looked great from a technical standpoint. Super solid stuff overall.
Sound – 6/10
The first season has one of the coolest OP/ED combos I have heard in a long time, so the second season had some big shoes to fill in. The new combo is still pretty good, but not outstanding. The sound design is pretty crisps. The variety in weapons of our characters mechs in combination with the sound design makes it so that you can tell apart the different machines just from their sound, which i thought was pretty damn cool. But overall, the BGM is nothing special.
Characters – 6/10
Man, they really went a bit overboard this time around. The show just keeps introducing new characters all the time. We have 5 new characters that play an important part in the storyline who get introduced very fast. The villains are mostly comical. I could not really take them seriously (Like, where do they even have the resources for their insane technical equipment?). The only one that has at least a little bit of mystique around her persona is the third member of the Orimura family. But even that storyline, which should have been the main focus of this season, if you ask me, is severely underdeveloped. Ichika gets a little bit better this time around, but he still makes stupid decisions left and right.
The only character who I thought was done really well this season was Sarashiki Tatenashi, who actually gets a little mini-arc all to herself. She has quickly become my favourite female character in the show (Which is hard, cause there is just one male character in the whole story).
Enjoyment – 7/10
This is the last anime season of Infinite Stratos. We will probably never get a season three after this many years. I am glad i watched this show, because i just love these kinds of stories where you just 100% know what you are getting, and Infinite Stratos has delivered exactly what i wanted. Every ecchi or rom-com fan should check this one out, even if you don´t like mecha as a genre. Everyone else...you know what you are getting into.
- Marco_Yooo
FINAL SCORE - 6/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 25, 2024
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Alright, this is gonna be a big one.
Every generation has an anime that served as their main entrance point into the medium. For me personally, “MyHeroAcademia” was that show, back in the year 2016. Before that it was Attack on Titan. Before that there were the big 3, One Piece, Bleach and Naruto. Right now, as of 2024, “Jujutsu Kaisen” has risen to the absolute top of the anime world. The fantastic first season and the wonderful prequel movie “Jujutsu Kaisen Zero” did a great job at catapulting this show out of the anime community and into the general mainstream.
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This is definitely the one anime that even people who never watch anime normally, got into. The expectations for season two were enourmous, with manga readers hyping up the content that will be adapted in season two to a ridicoulous degree. But did this show deliver on everything it promised? Lets get into this extra long review for the generational Jujutsu Kaisen season two!
Story – 8/10
I just talked about manga readers that already knew what will happen in this season, and i can actually say that i was one of them. I read the manga almost three years ago and as soon as i finished this part, i knew exactly that it was gonna pop off. This season adapts two arcs of the manga that are very different from each other so i will take my time and review both individually here.
Episode 1-6: The Hidden Inventory – Gojo´s Past
This arc was a very pleasant surprise. The show takes us back into the year 2006, and focuses mainly on the relationship of Gojo Satoru and Suguru Geto as they try to protect a highly important character from the ruthless Toji Zen´in. There are a bunch of fantastic action setpieces and the animation is already insane, but at it´s core, this really is the first Jujutsu Kaisen arc that actually laid the main focus on character development instead of action. The tone is much lighter than other arcs and there is a certain 2000s summer feel to the whole storyline. I thought this was the perfect place for the series to pick up after season one. These six episodes were super fun and highly enjoyable. The story of Gojo and Getos friendship actually hit the right emotional spots, especially after watching the Jujutsu Kaisen Zero movie. The final fight of this arc was also one of my favourites in the whole series. We saw Gojo dominate everything in his way for pretty much all of the previous arcs, but here he is truly at his limit for the first time. Really cool stuff.
However, there are issues here that have plaqued Jujutsu Kaisen since the beginning of it´s run: pacing and worldbuilding. I think the whole “world of jujutsu” this manga is set in, is not build up very well. The pacing is just waaaaay to fast. A lot of newer shounen struggle with this, mostly because of their production cycle and the immense pressure on the mangaka to pump out chapter after chapter to retain the hype of the series, making it extremely hard to plan ahead with the story. The whole foundation of Jujutsu Kaisen is pretty shaky at best. The author has to constantly explain the power system, which is just all over the place. He introduces a lot of interesting concepts but there is absolutely nothing that pulls it all together, so most of the fights are more visual spectacle than strategic and well thought out. So, does that mean the show lost me? Absolutely not
Episode 7-23: The Shibuya Incident
This right here is the arc that changed everything. When it aired weekly, the internet was completely on fire. At this point in the story, every single character, both heroes and villains, come together in Shibuya for a showdown that shakes the foundation of the whole world. This arc is absolutely crazy. This really is just a 16-episode, all-out, martial-arts, action-fantasy rollercoaster ride that starts slowly and keeps escalating more and more and more to absolutely insane degrees of hype and excitement. The episodes just flow into each other perfectly, making this one of the best binge-watching experiences i´ve ever had (Keep in mind, I KNEW WHAT WILL HAPPEN). Every single episode is better than the last. The stakes are massive and the fights are as well. Every single character gets his time to shine. I absolutely love the eery, cramped setting in Tokios underground system and all the real-life locations. The villains plot is just so unbelievably cruel and brutal. At this point, the show does not hold itself back in the slightest anymore. People die, not just the villains and the heroes, but also everyone in a radius of multiple kilometres gets pulled into the fight, making this one of the darkest and most destructive scenarios in shounen history.
This also marks the first time that Jujutsu Kaisen managed to touch me on an emotional level. Before this arc, it was just a fun, hype, action-fantasy. But this season had a huge amount of emotional weight to it, especially in regards to our main character, Yuji Itadori.
All of the problems i talked about before still remain a factor in this arc, but honestly, a show does not need to have perfect writing, perfect worldbuilding or perfect pacing to be enjyoable. I am willing to look over these flaws, accepting the show like it is: A fast-paced, hype, action roller-coaster.
This will stand as one of modern animes best story-arcs. Give it like, 5, maybe 10 years and a new generation of anime fans will call this a classic.
Art – 10/10
Studio MAPPA has been infamous for years for their absolutely crazy workload. They are definitely the biggest, most influential anime studio of the modern age, and they just absolutely churn out hit after hit after hit. Their incredible trackrecord now includes shows like “Attack on Titan”, “Chainsaw Man” and many more. However, in recent years, people started to notice that things are getting shaky for the studio. Multiple reports of production issues hurt their reputaion a lot. Attack on Titan was a prime example of that. But with the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen, it apparently got even worse. Working on this show was absolute hell for the animators. The incredible workload, the tight schedule and of course the countless high-intensity action scenes required for the Shibuya-arc absolutely crippled the studio to it´s core. They pulled everything they had into this season. Every single creative idea, every single design choice they had laying around to fulfill the high expectations people had in this arc. And it absolutely shows.
This show does not take a single break. It starts absolutely insane and not only is the animation itself highly dynamic, creative and well edited, the quality also increases with every single episode. Everytime you think that they peaked, the show throws a new animation concept, a new artstyle, new camera angles, new effects and much, much more onto the screen. The scope and scale of the fights get bigger and bigger, and the animation keeps up the pace again and again. This is not like shows like “Demon Slayer” or “MyHeroAcademia”, which mostly reserve the big scenes for the climax: It really is a constant stream of sakuga that grabs you and does not let go up until the final episode.
Sound – 8/10
The soundtrack of JJK is always a treat to hear, and this season started of really strong. The OP of the first part was beautiful and perfectly fitted the concept of the arc itself. The second opening introduces the much darker second arc perfectly. The BGM itself uses a mix of older songs from the previous seasons and a bunch of newer songs. The crazy jazz section that played during Gojos first fight, the gritty theme of Aoi Todo and many more standout moments give the show a lot of personality. The older songs do hit a bit better than the newer ones, and i think there was more room for some vocal tracks here and there. This season probably has my least favourite soundtrack of the whole series so far, but that just shows how consitently good the music in this show really is.
Characters – 8/10
First off, lets talk about Suguru Geto. His role in the first arc was wonderful. From all the villains in this show, he is my absolute favourite, because the show spends a lot of time on his backstory, his relationships and him slowly distancing himself from everyone because of his differing believe system.
Our protagonist Yuji Itadori was another huge standout. He truly goes through the five stages of grief in this season. Being pushed to the absolute physical limit and seeing his friends and companions die, one after another, leads him down a rough path to stay true to his ideals. Super emotional and heartbreaking stuff here. The different side-characters were also a ton of fun. Especially Jogo had an insane amount of screen presence, and his interactions with Sukuna were an absolute blast to watch.The same goes for Nanami, a character i already loved in the first season. Unfortunately, because this is a spoiler-free review, i can´t get into my favourite character moments, because, yes, a lot of them revolve around death (or worse) and other circumstances. Although this show does not spend much time on character development, especially in the second arc, everyone is at least very, very memorable. That is a huge plus, if you think about the crazy amount of characters that play a role in this season.
Enjoyment – 9/10
This experience was absolutely worth it. Altough i always enjoyed diving deep into the ocean of anime to find these rare, exceptional undergroung shows that perfectly fit my personal taste, i still enjoy the absolute mainstream juggernauts of the medium to the same extent. This is a must-watch show for every single anime and non-anime fan and it will be talked about for a long time both in-and outside the community, if you like it, or not.
- Marco_Yooo
FINAL SCORE - 9/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Nov 25, 2024
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Honobu Yonezawa is not just my favourite japanese author, but one of my favourite authors in general. His amazing “Koten-bu” series (Also known as “Hyouka”) drew me in with it´s small scale mysteries, great characters and the overall atmosphere. This season, another famous work of his got an anime adaptation and from the outside it looked like this show will follow up in Koten-bu´s footsteps. But did it deliver?
Story – 6/10
This is eerily similar to Hyouka and it hurts this show a lot. The setting, the characters, the pacing, the structure and everything else feels like another version of something he
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has already done. You just cannot stop comparing the two with each other and unfortunately, Shoushimin is far inferior to it´s predecessor. The little mysteries are constructed with similar effort, but the writing as a whole has taken a step back. It just feels a little bit bland and unrefined. The cases do not get enough explanation and some of them leave questions unanswered. This probably happened during the transition from novel to anime, which is a process that is very hard to do, especially in a genre like mystery, where every little remark or sentence can be of extreme importance. The show starts pretty slow and takes a long time to get going. I also think that there are some issues with the tone of the series. In one episode, our main characters sit at a table and eat cake, and the next episode someone almost gets killed with a knife. If you do not commit to one of these directions seriously, they both just feel out of place.
I know comparing this show to something as beautiful as “Hyouka” is not really fair, but even without doing it, this show has some glaring faults.
Art – 8/10
The art is actually really good. They did this very interesting thing with the aspect ratio, giving the whole show a more cinematic feel. The close-ups are beautiful and the show is constantly experimenting with the camera and the surroundings. They also did this cool thing where our main protagonist envisions himself as the culprit, so he follows their steps himself and even wears their clothes. Nothing here is quite as outstanding though, and most of that is because the relatively small and inexperienced Studio Lapin Track lacks the insane amount of outstanding creativity that Kyoto Animation did. This is still their best work so far, so there is definitely an upswing!
Sound – 7/10
The OP/ED combination fits the show extremely well. I actually think this might be the only time this show out-trumps Hyouka, if even by a small margin. They are animated fantastically and set a perfect tone for the show itself, especially the ED. The BGM however does not hold up as well. A lot of the important scenes lack music, and the show does not have these one or two outstanding little tracks that play during the mysteries.
Characters – 7/10
This is a hard category to rank. First, let´s talk about our main Character, Kobato. i really, really did not like him. His backstory didn´t really speak to me, the way he acts is super unrelatable and i think he is a huge step-down from Oreki from Hyouka. There is room for development so I won´t write him of completely but so far, he really missed his mark.
The same can not be said about his friend, Osanai. She was actually really damn interesting. I always love it when there are characters that don´t seem to fit into one of the established character archetypes that have existed for a long time in the anime community. Osanai is mostly a big mystery, but when the show finally delved deeper into her intentions and she reveals her true demeanour, it gets really interesting. She alone might be the reason for me to come back to this show once season two arrives. Other than that, the side characters were alright. Doujima is always nice when he is on screen, but he did not receive that much development so far. The “villains” were absolutely comedic and could not be taken seriously. This also has to do with the insane tone-shifts that this show goes through during it´s climax.
Enjoyment – 7/10
I definitely see potential here. I just love these kinds of small-scale mysteries to much and it is always a treat when a show piques your curiosity, even just a little bit. Season two has already been announced, and I am willing to give this series a second chance to fully win me over. I really want to love this show…
- Marco_Yooo
FINAL SCORE - 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 24, 2024
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Every once in a while you open Twitter (or any other social media app), just to be bombarded with a sheer endless stream of pictures of this new trending anime girl. After the absolute dominance of Marin Kitagawa in 2022, it seems to happen every single season. So, out of curiosity, and because I was in the mood for a rom-com, i decided to give “Roshidere” a chance. So, what sets this show apart from the rest of it´s genre?
Story – 7/10
The main hook of this story is without a doubt the russian bits. The language is used sparely and either
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serves for comedic or romantic effect. I really liked the whole concept, but in it´s core, it really is just a fun and cute gimmick and nothing more. However, i actually think the story can stand on it´s own pretty well. What kept me coming back was not the main heroine, Alisa, but rather the circumstances of our main protagonist. There is a certain mystery about him and his family that gets introduced and slowly developed over the course of the series. Not the deepest plotline, but it is enough to give the actions of him and his sister more meaning. The main plotline, which mostly centres around student council politics is intertwined with some pure romance episodes here and there that help to lighten things up a bit. There is definitely potential for some drama in the future, and I am eager to see where the story goes next.
Art – 8/10
This is a beautiful show. I absolutely love the bubbly artstyle of these kinds of romance shows. Studio Doga Kobo is slowly making a name for themselves after delivering the outstanding “Oshi no Ko” last year, I would love to see them make something like a fantasy show, their style would really fit something like that! Other than that, the animation is just really good overall, especially the Opening and the 12(!) different endings.
Sound – 8/10
Actually my favourite category here. My god, the EDs of this show just go absolutely crazy. Every episode gets it´s own ending and they are all sung by Alisa´s voice actor, Sumire Uesaka. That is some serious dedication right here! Some of the songs took me by complete surprise: The LEGENDARY “Hare Hare Yukai” was brought back almost 20 Years after it´s first appearance. Other popular songs like “Kawaikute Gomen” (Which is an instant classic-banger of a song) are used perfectly and fit Alisa soooo well. Outstanding job here!
Characters – 7/10
Our main heroine Alisa is of course the cover girl of this show, and I really enjoyed her a lot. The other girls were also great, with Masha being my favourite. Alisa´s character arc, while not being the most unique is pretty compelling, and there is a certain mystery lingering around Mashas past that I really want to see more of. But what truly puts this category forward your average Rom-com are the family dynamics of our main protagonist. There is a lot to unravel here, but I thought they did a great job at setting up for future seasons. If this show decides to shift the focus to that for a while, season two (which is already in the works) will surely be even better!
Enjoyment – 7/10
Checking out the rom-com of the season is always pleasant. This is definitely not my genre of choice because i´d rather have something more serious with emphasis on storytelling (sci-fi, fantasy, etc) or just a full-on ecchi show. But shows like these make me come back to it on a regular basis and i will definitely watch season two. So for now, lets wait till the next anime girl breaks the anime community!
- Marco_Yooo
FINAL SCORE - 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 22, 2024
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Konosuba has had a very solid run so far: The first season introduced a loveable cast of characters witch great chemistry, the second one expanded on that and the movie was probably the funniest anime movie i have ever seen. After some time, we finally got a third season, but can the series still keep it´s momentum after all these years?
Story – 8/10
The story has actually improved a lot structure-wise. While seasons one and two mostly felt like an amalgamation of little mini-arcs, this season clearly splits between two arcs, probably the two light novels it is adapting. This felt like
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a natural follow-up to the pattern we have seen before: After establishing all of our main characters earlier, the author now uses the longer arcs to lay focus on single characters, giving them huge chunks of character development. I really liked the first arc, set in the royal capital, a lot. Konosuba is still considered to be one of the most consistently funny shows in the seasonal anime cycle, and for good reason. The timing of the jokes is perfect, the new characters are a ton of fun and you can absolutely feel that the voice actors really gave it their all. Kazumas magical attacks are so unbelievably stupid, everything about his fighting style is just a joy to watch. The second arc of this season surprised me because it went with a slower, more emotional storyline that actually worked really well, because you can definitely take it seriously, even though the series never lets go of it´s inherently comedic nature. This still feels really fresh, especially for a third season!
Art – 8/10
I actually think the art has probably improved a bit since the beginning. A lot of these Isekai shows kind of always looks the same, and Konosuba is, for the most part, no exception. What sets this show apart from other members of it´s genre are the wide ranges of expressions our characters show. The visuals do soooo much for comedic timing, and make the jokes even funnier than before. I also think that the fights look pretty cool. While not being very dynamic, i think the effects animation is done really well, so is the CGI.
Sound – 7/10
This mostly consists of your typical Isekai OST. The OP is fantastic and catchy. When I saw it the first time, I was instantly pulled back into this shows unique and comedic atmosphere. The ED sounded weirdly nostalgic and was extremely funny. The sound design deserves extra praise here. Whoever had the idea to edit Kazumas voice during his magic chants deserves a huuuuge raise. I never laughed out that loud to a show in a long time.
Characters – 8/10
Kazuma still stands as one of the funniest protagonists ever. The whole crew has an amazing amount of chemistry and their banter is just a blast to hear every single time. Kazuma is still the standout in this season, however, the one who surprised me the most was actually Darkness. She gets a whole arc to herself, giving her some much needed development. The villains, although pretty generic, were a lot of fun as well. There is still room for improvement though: After Megumi got a lot of focus in the movie, Aqua is now the least developed character and it really shows. For the next season, I hope we get an Aqua arc to kinda even things out a bit.
Enjoyment - 8/10
This is one of the most consistently enjoyable shows. I will definitely watch all of the following seasons, and i really hope that this show continues longer, maybe even adapting the rest of the light novels which are already finished by this point. If you just want a good laugh and funny characters, this is the series for you!
- Marco_Yooo
FINAL SCORE - 8/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 6, 2024
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Demon Slayer has been on a wild ride of insane mainstream popularity since season 1 aired back in 2019. Both in Japan as well as in the West, the show is just unavoidable. Will this be another year of Ufotable destroying the competition with their insane animation quality?
Story – 6/10
After the overall solid swordsmith village arc, the show now enters it´s final stretch. This season is different from the others, in that it is not a full fledged story arc with a new setting, but more like a “calm before the storm” segment in the story. It shows Tanjiro training with
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all the different Hashira to further strengthen his body and mind for his fight against Muzan. I like training arcs, and Demon Slayer is really good at showing Tanjiros improvement arc for arc. This season is also very character-driven. We spent a lot of time with the different Hashira that we have not seen a lot of in the previous seasons, as each arc only tended to focus on one or two Hashira at a time.
However comparing this season to the others is a bit unfair. Some episodes felt like little filler, and the whole season moves at a snails pace. This could have easily been cut into a one hour episode with some cool montages, but making this a full fledged season means we have to wait another year for the story to move on.
Saying all of that, i have to give praise to the final episode of this season. My god, they really hit it out of the park with that one. Probably one of the best episodes in the entire series. This alone makes you eager to see where the story is going next.
Art – 9/10
Ufotable is back, and of course they absolutely nailed everything to the core. Every Hashira uses a different type of breathing technique and every single one of them has a distinct and unique look to it. The colours are breathtakingly vibrant and the movement of every attack is fluid and powerful. The character designs are still extremely unique and memorable. The last episode perfectly depicts all of the strengths of Ufotable as a studio: Complex camera angles, insane 3D-CGI and fantastic effects animation. If the next season looks like that the whole time, we are probably in for another 10/10 here.
Sound – 9/10
The OST of Demon Slayer has slowly but surely become one of my favourite Soundtracks in anime. Great orchestral music that perfectly underlines the epic fight of good vs evil. The characters all have recognizable themes. The sound design is great, the use of classic japanese instruments like the Koto is implemented seamlessly into the show. The OP/ED combo is the only little let-down. Demon Slayer usually always has fantastic OPs but this one does not reach the hype of the last few ones.
Characters – 8/10
This season is much more slow-paced and character driven as the others, which was a much needed change. Before the big finale, the show takes some time and fleshes out all of our side characters properly. The big standouts here are definitely Giyu and Gyomei. Giyu has a very interesting character dynamic with the other Hashira and there is a lot of potential for growth in him going into the final season. The other standout, Gyomei, has a truly heartbreaking backstory, which was told in a very concise way, whereas other backstorys, like for example Tokitos, felt a little dragged out.
Tanjiro is great as always (he somehow gets increasingly more buff every single season, I love that). I still am not a big fan of Zenitsu i don´t get why he is so popular, but this season feels like he finally gets his shit together. Inosuke is the Goat.
In the final episode, we get one of the most interesting character interactions so far. I won´t go into who meets who, because that would be a huge spoiler but it was really well written segment, so look forward to it!
Enjoyment – 7/10
This was a mildly entertaining show with an insanely well executed finale. The best thing this season does is build hype for the big final showdown that we will probably get in 2025. I still love this show for what it is. A simple story of a fight of good vs evil executed with perfection. The next season has the potential to be the best so far.
- Marco_Yooo
FINAL SCORE - 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 2, 2024
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
On my quest to watch every Kyoto Animation work, i stumbled over “Full Metal Panic” a show that has been on my radar for a very long time now. This first season however is animated by Studio Gonzo, a studio that peaked in the early 2000s. Going into this show, i wanted classic military mecha action, and that is exactly what I got.
Story – 7/10
The story is a wonderful mix off comedy and action. There are a number of very intense and serious military story arcs which are intermitted by light-hearted comedy episodes. The mix works really well in my opinion.
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i have seen some criticism online from people who say that the story does not know what it is, but i wholeheartedly disagree. The comedy episodes help to know the characters better over time, so during the serious war arcs, we actually care about them. Comedy is subjective, but I found this show to be extremely funny, just because of the way that the comedy is built around our main character. We get school-fests, beach episodes, onsen episodes, all the fun stuff.
The serious arcs however can get pretty damn intense. The show can get extremely dark at times, characters die left and right. These arcs revolve a lot about death, trauma and loss. The one arc that stands out the most is definitely the Helmajistan arc, which introduces a lot of new characters and abruptly seperates our protagonists from all of his friends.
Art – 7/10
The quality of the art is pretty much up to the standards of anime in the early 2000s. Like other shows in that era, it slowly began to incorporate 3D-CGI into some of the scenes, but everything is still very experimental. 2D-Mechs are always a treat to watch, and I also really like the character-designs. The characters have a huge range of expressions, especially our female lead, Kaname Chidori.
However, I think the animation does not hold up pretty well in the action itself. There are a lot of still shots, and the show lacks that one real wow-moment that other mecha shows of that time (Most notably “Diebuster”) definitely had. All in all, nothing looks horrible, but the show definitely shows it´s age.
Sound – 8/10
The soundtrack also seems a little bit more like a 90s Mecha-show OST, but I always thought that sound is not as prone to ageing as animation is. The early 2000s just had a very distinct style of soundtracks and I can´t really put my finger on it. If you are the type of person that vibes with it, this soundtrack will be a blast to listen to. The OP is fantastic, great j-pop song with a certain nostalgic feel to it. The ending is also solid.
Characters – 9/10
The character pool in this show runs quite deep. Of course, our main character is Sosuke Sagara. In my opinion, one of the most interesting protagonists i have seen in a long time. His military persona is super fun in a comedy setting. But where he shines the most is definitely in the serious story arcs. His backstory is really interesting, and although you get to know him better and better overtime, he still has this air of mystery surrounding him. We also get a love triangle with two female leads. First off, Kaname Chidori. She is everything you want from a classic, 2000s Tsundere: Great looks, fun personality and a soft core. The other girl is my personal favourite, Teresa Testarossa has more of calm and serene energy to her personality. She gets to shine a lot during the final arc of the show, and her relationship with her crew is a blast to watch. I honestly think this love triangle is really fun to watch, although it is pretty obvious from the start that one of the girls is a few steps closer to Sosuke than the other one.
Another thing worth noting is our main antagonist, Gauron. He has an insane amount of screen presence during every serious arc. He is ruthless, smart and extremely hard to kill. A lot of anime, even some of the best, lack a truly frightening antagonist, but Full Metal Panic does a great job with his characterization.
Enjoyment – 8/10
This was a very consistently enjoyable, classic military-mecha show with fun comedy thrown into it. I will definitely watch the whole series. If you like the early 2000s anime vibe and are a fan of Mecha, definitely check this show out.
- Marco_Yooo
FINAL SCORE - 8/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 31, 2024
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
„Haikyuu“ was one of the first big Anime franchises that i properly got into after shows like “My Hero Academia introduced me to the medium back in 2016. To this day, i still believe that Haikyuu is not only one of the greatest sports anime of all time, but also one of the best overall anime shows that I have ever seen. Every season was consistently upping the stakes and emotions. 3 Years have passed since the release of “Haikyuu – To the Top” and the community was eagerly awaiting the first of the two movies that are supposed to bring
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this franchise to an end. But does “Haikyuu – The dumpster battle” live up to the hype?
Story – 8/10
Right from the start, the movie introduces you to it´s main theme, which is the famous rivalry between the crows (Karasuno) and the cats (Nekoma). Both teams have been introduced way back in season one. We have seen some character interactions and even some training matches, but the two never faced off in a tournament bracket up until now. Karasuno, coming of a spectacular upset win against the tournaments second seed, Inarizaki, is now poised to finally reignite the old rivalry and beat the cats in Japans national tournament. The build-up over four seasons easily makes this one of the most anticipated duels of the series so far. The game itself was an example of classic Haikyuu-storytelling. Great character moments, suspense and highly interesting tactics makes this game a blast to watch. Everything that is great about Haikyuu is in this movie, so even if you´ve been out of the franchise for a long time, you can easily jump back into it with this film.
Still, this movie is not without it´s flaws. I thought the pacing seemed a little bit off. I honestly think this movie should have been a little bit longer to fully flesh out the tactics, as well as some of Kenmas backstory.
However, the biggest let-down of the movie was the ending. I won´t exactly tell what happens because of spoilers, but the ending itself felt very abrupt, and unsatisfying. Which is surprising because as far as I can remember, Haikyuu always ended it´s matches on some kind of special play or decision-making. This however felt a little bit of, which hurts the movie in the long run.
Art – 9/10
This is easily the best that Haikyuu has ever looked. Seeing these characters on the big screen is a great experience in of itself, but even the quality of the animation has stepped up a lot. The big movie budget definitely helped, so a lot of the very rough artstyle changes during the course of season 4 are completely gone now. The movie also makes use of some fantastic and creative uses of animation. The biggest wow-moment in this movie came right before the end of the match and was one of the best and climatic long-shots in sports anime history, which left the whole cinema speechless for a while. Great stuff here.
Sound – 7/10
The voice-acting in Haikyuu remains some of the best in the whole medium, no questions. But other than that, there is not much to talk about in this category. There is no opening, because this is a movie. Also, to set the atmosphere and tone of a volleyball tournament, the director decided to leave a lot of the scenes completely without music, which is a very interesting stylistic approach in this day and age, because a lot of recent sports anime rely on music a LOT (Especially new-gen shows like “Blue-Lock”). But I think it worked really well for the type of grounded story they wanted to tell here.
Characters – 8/10
They did something really interesting in this movie. During the whole course of the show, Karasuno was always our main team, and Hinata was always our main character. This movie flipped the tables completely. Kenma is the definitive main character of this movie, and we literally see the match through the eyes of him and his team, trying to manipulate, outplay and adapt to Karasuno, and most importantly, to Hinata. It was really interesting to see Nekomas unique approach to the game. Everyone has time to shine but the absolute highlight was the relationship between Kuroo and Kenma, which gets the most screen-time of all the little subplots here. The pool of characters in this show is amazing, and we even get little cameos from earlier seasons like Tendo from Shiratorizawa and of course, fan-favourite Bokuto.
Enjoyment – 9/10
This was a highly enjoyable movie with great characters, an interesting new main character dynamic and fantastic animation. If you like Haikyuu, this is a must see in cinemas. The second movie has already been announced, and if it comes close to this one, it is a definitive must-watch as well.
- Marco_Yooo
FINAL SCORE - 8/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 27, 2024
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Mashle was a pleasant surprise in a rather weak year of anime for me personally. The comedy was on point, the parody aspect was something fresh and the music was unique and exciting. But comedy anime can definitely fall of over time when certain jokes get overused. Is it the same with Mashle?
Story – 7/10
This season changed a lot of the story structure from season 1. While the first season was very episodic and mostly served to introduce the world, the school and the most important characters, culminating in the Magia Lupus arc. This season switched things up and changed the
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structure to a more fast-paced, serialized storyline. The scope and scale of the story gets bigger and bigger during this season and we get our first look at the highest possible power ceilings in the world of Mashle. Saying all this, this is still a very basic, shounen storyline that follows all the known shounen trademarks. This season, it is the famous tournament arc that gets tackled, and it was a lot of fun. The comedy aspect is still the shows biggest plus. Everything just works together so well. The character dynamics are being explored more and more, which is exacerbated by the introduction of a lot of side-characters and villains that have great comedy potential. The timing of the jokes and the whole concept of Mash, trying to solve every problem head on without the use of magic is just fantastic.
The manga of this show has ended after only 162 chapters so I hope we get a full adaption of this story, which would probably only need two or maybe three seasons to wrap everything up.
Art – 8/10
A-1 Pictures is always a pleasure and this season of Mashle is another step-up for the studio. I think they ether raised the budget or the insane fights this season just lended themselves to bring the most out of the animators, but I liked the animation here more than in season one. The character designs are fantastic as well, every new character that is introduced looks fantastic and unique. What I really enjoyed is the visualization of the different magical powers. Of course, the author clearly took some inspiration from stuff like “Naruto” or “Black Clover” but it just looks too cool for me to ignore. The show as a whole has yet to have the one, big “wow” moment in terms of animation, but it also never disappointed in any fight.
Sound – 9/10
My god, this season just hit it out of the park with the sound. First of, we have another huge contender for opening of the season. There is a reason why every corner of the internet seems to have been flooded with Mash´s iconic moves, and the song itself works so well and fits the weird genre mix of the show perfectly. The BGM is also fantastic, the use of rap in combination with EDM is just a blast. The sound-design is also a huge plus, especially in combiantion with the amazing comedic timing. The ED song comes with amazing visuals and a very cool theme, the song also goes hard. One of the most unique shounen soundtracks off all time in my opinion.
Characters – 8/10
Like with a lot of people that I saw online, i´m liking Mash as a main character more and more. He never breaks out of character, his absolute deadpan seriousness and absolutely hilarious lake of common sense is a great mix that I never knew I needed in my life. The side characters are also a nice step-up from season two. Of course Margrete Macaron is the huge standout this season and gets a lot of screen time. But the one who surprised me the most was actually Wahlberg. His complex relationship with the main antagonist, Innocent Zero was explored really well this season and gave everything that happens between them a strong emotional foundation. The other side character are enjoyable too, some standouts are Finn, Rayne and Orter Madl.
Enjoyment – 8/10
Like season one, this is a perfect show to watch when you just want a fun, entertaining ride. You can put this on any time of the day and have a pleasant experience. Seasons 3 was already announced, so more of this magical story is coming to us in the future. I think this season edges out the first season and improved in multiple categories. If you like shounen, this is a must-watch.
- Marco_Yooo
FINAL SCORE - 8/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 25, 2024
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
After two years, i finally got around to watch the second Sword Art Online Progressive movie, „Scherzo of deep night“. The progressive series is a fantastic retelling of the aincrad arc and the first movie was a pleasant return to SAOs most popular setting. But does this movie hold up in the same way the first one does?
Story – 7/10
The story in this movie is a lot weaker than in the first one. The plot skips a few floors, which in itself is not really an issue, but the main plot-line is not really all that interesting, it is just a
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standard boss-fight quest. It is fairly predictable what happens in the end, but the saving grace here is the pacing. The movie never has any downtime there is always a fight or an important piece of dialogue happening to keep the viewers attention. I really like the final fight in this one. This is not your usual loud and hectic anime fight but instead a very strategic one, where finding the opponents weakness is the goal of our main characters, more so than just being stronger or better equipped. The ending really surprised, because it contained a highly intense fight-scene that absolutely came out of nowhere, definitely a hint at later seasons. I am really eager to see what the progressive series will grow into.
Art – 8/10
The animation is a direct continuation of everything the series did with the first movie. Aincrad in itself is just a fantastic setting for a show like this. The floor on which this movie takes place is another wonderful example for that. Great lighting, cool architecture and the show really gives you time to just soak up the scale of the world. The fight scenes are a standout. Great, fluid animation, fantastic effects and actually amazing usage of the ever so dreaded 3D-CGI enemies. This movie is a great benchmark for future fantasy and isekai shows. However, just like in the first film, this movie lacked that one scene that really evoke that “wow” effect in the viewer, unlike the first movie of the franchise, “Ordinal scale”. I think the source material just does not really lend itself to something like that, because the progressive series is inherently meant to be a more smaller scale, slower paced version of the original.
Sound – 9/10
The soundtrack in this one really took me by surprise. Really great stuff here! The BGM is fantastic and unique, perfectly conveying the feel of the desert biome which this movie is set in. The sound design in SAO was always top notch and this movie is no exception. Every sword-skill in this movie is absolute candy for the ears. The vocal tracks are all outstanding. Yuki Kajiura always brings her A-Game to these shows and I really appreciate that.
Characters – 7/10
One of the biggest changes between progressive and the original is the change in main character. Instead of the dark, edgy, girl-magnet Kirito, Asuna takes up the role of the main heroine, just like she did in the original during the “Mothers Rosario” arc. This is a very welcoming change and gives us a whole other perspective on the events of the story. Asuna is a great lead, and her relationship with Kirito is slowly getting built up step for step in this movie. Kirito is just… Kirito, nothing much to say here. The villains are...interesting, but there hasn´t been a lot of development to them, as this movie consists mostly of build-up to their character arcs that will certainly be explored in later movies (If we get more!). The side characters are mostly forgettable, although we do get some cameos (Because of spoiler reasons, I won´t say who it is) from the original series.
Enjoyment – 8/10
This was a very entertaining 90 minute ride, although I have to say that I prefer the first movie over this one. I think the progressive series has a lot of potential and I really want more movies, other wise I might have to check out the original novel series myself. If you liked SAO, especially the aincrad arc, this is a must watch.
- Marco_Yooo
FINAL SCORE - 8/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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