Back to Mass40k's Profile Mass40k's Profile

Ah yes, My Hero… a show I desperately want to love but just can’t. I will include a spoiler section for those who have already seen the season and would like some further justification for my rating.

I hate to say it, but Season 4 has left me with more frustration than satisfaction. At the end of Season 3 we’re left to believe that we will see some major progression for Deku in the next season. Things are finally picking up, sweet! Right? Deku’s shoot style was coming into form, his legs were growing stronger. We get to meet Lemillion, which looks to be ... quite promising, bringing a new interesting character into the fold. Ultimately, I feel Season 4 fails to deliver on both of these promises of hype. Not only that, the ending of the season leaves you teased with a similar sense of “it’ll be better next time, trust us.” At which point you realize this just feels like an abusive relationship.

First and foremost, Deku makes close to zero meaningful progression as a character over the course of these 25 episodes. At this point, it’s not only frustrating, it’s just annoying being left with such a shallow sense of progression. We’re on Season 4, not Season 2. Lemillion ends up being a rather shallow rip-off of All Might. He’s all smiles, and that’s great but he is not nuanced enough to feel like a new character or one that you have much reason to care about.

One of the better parts of this season is that we do end up getting backstory on Kirishima and Ashido as well as a tiny amount for Jirou. It doesn’t end up holding much significance, but it does help. We still know very little about many of the characters, and if the idea is to throw crumbs at the audience like this over the course of several seasons it feels mismanaged. As a result, this leads me to believe the show truly cannot live up to the expectation of balancing so many unique characters at once.

Another issue I had was with the animation itself. Honestly, a bulk of the action feels rather lazy. For a show that’s this popular, I’d expect a proper budget for these types of things. There are a lot more still frames than there should be. In particular, the band scene for the school festival at the end left a lot to be desired. You could argue that it’s not necessarily a focus, but I’d disagree, as it takes up a lot of attention towards the end of the season. The payoff to all that attention? Well it almost felt like an afterthought.

So, what’s the appeal to My Hero at this point? For me, it’s fun, and isn’t boring to watch but it leaves a lot to be desired. I like the cast of characters, it’s hard not to, most of them are likable. But when it comes right down to it, I have to ask: Are there really that many differences aside from appearance between most of the cast? It’s hard to say, but this is a straightforward hero show that doesn’t want you to ask too much of it. It’s enjoyable, but at this rate it will never be one of “the greats” in my mind.
I’ll be watching Season 5 but my expectations are exponentially lower going into this next season.

-------------------------
!!!

SPOILER TALK:

!!!
-------------------------

1) We get to meet Sir Nighteye, a former sidekick of All Might. We barely get to know this character over the course of the season before he meets an untimely demise. Before there is any chance for Deku to have new meaningful growth and mentorship, Nighteye is just gone. It hurts, especially when the series already has so many problems creating meaningful progression season over season. Consequences are great, I hate shows that don’t take enough risks, but this is not the direction the show needed to go. You could argue there’s a plot hole, in that Eri could have been used to rewind Nighteye and Aizawa could have just turned off the quirk to prevent him from disappearing. However, I understand counter argument is there wasn’t enough time, or Eri simply couldn’t activate it again after the size of her horn shrank from the big battle. I would have preferred if they at least tried using Eri to save Nighteye. In order for a character death to have impact, it needs to occur with someone you’ve come to know in a significant way. I would argue from my perspective, the audience grieves more for Deku than Nighteye when he dies, simply because we lose that connection before it gets to be established.

2) As far as the action, this season’s villainy is based around the Yakuza. In particular, a family called the Shie Hassaikai. The main villain, Chisaki felt like a real threat. His quirk is powerful. I just felt the progression with these villains seemed rushed, and the end fight with Deku vs Chisaki was not only boring, but kind of stupid. For a fight that was meant to be the high point of the season it did not live up to the hype. A villain getting bigger, and bigger, and even bigger for the sake of demonstrating power comes off incredibly shallow. A personal gripe, but I just wasn’t feeling it. The fight with Fat Gum and Red Riot was better.

3) Gentle Criminal amounted to being a useless sideshow that felt meaningless. His story explores the theme of what happens to the failures of the hero world, but failed to allow the audience develop any significant feelings for him or La Brava by making him a sideshow character. A poorly handled arc that arguably was necessary for world building, but terribly mismanaged. A real shame in my eyes!

4) Of course, this is entirely a personal opinion BUT: the finale fight with Endeavor was pretty good until the ending left me feeling… deflated. We’re led to believe Endeavor burns himself up to die in a fiery blaze of glory. But alas, no, he’s alive! Because of course he is. I can’t imagine how blown out I would have been had they actually ended the season with him dying. It would have been incredible, a huge consequence for the hero world that would have made more sense than killing Nighteye. But, no. The show plays it safe yet again. I can’t help but feel bored just thinking about it.


Story - 3
Art - 6
Sound - 5
Character - 4
Enjoyment - 7

Overall - 5

I'll preface this by saying that I have not read any of the manga for this series.

You don't necessarily expect much to happen in a slice of life type show, but with Wotakoi, there is very little payoff. It all ends up feeling incredibly flat; each episode follows its own structure and there isn’t much of an overarching story being built. Everything is just enjoyable enough to keep you strung along hoping that something will eventually happen. And, it’s not to say that the characters don’t sometimes have their moments. There are cute interactions or jokes that land here and there, but the frequency ... isn’t high enough to warrant a higher rating than a 5/10 for me.

The romance is absolutely subdued here, and it doesn't really feel like much of a focus at all most of the time. Essentially, it just feels as though the show doesn't really know what it wants to be. Does it want to be a slice of life about 4 otaku nerds working in the same office? Or does the series want to try to explore a clumsy nerdy romance between two childhood friends? The show never seems to extend very far beyond: “These MCs are nerds! Wow aren’t they awkward and relatable? They’re so interested in vidya, manga and anime, perhaps like you, the viewer?”

Ultimately, where this particular anime struggles is the character development. The characters are likable, but don't expect them to change much at all from the first episode to the last. Other romance anime do a better job of developing the relationship between the primary protagonists. However, this show really likes to emphasize that otaku lack social skills, which accomplishes about as much as you might think. This show truly is a slice of life at its core, and going in expecting more than that may leave you disappointed.
A personal gripe for me was that a side character, Kou, is introduced far too late into the series. I really would have loved to see more of her, but there simply wasn’t enough time in an 11 episode timeframe. It was cute, and a romance could have easily bloomed there.

All in all, this is a very average anime, propped up by largely forgettable, bland characters. But hey, the characters are nice to look at, and most of the voice acting is well done. At least it’s cute!


Story - 3
Art - 6
Sound - 7
Character - 4
Enjoyment - 5

Overall - 5

Tokyo Ghoul was one of the anime I was admittedly on the fence about watching. However, I decided to give it a shot, and what I will say is that it was definitely worth my time, and just might be worth your time as well. To save everybody some reading, I’ll break it down as simply as I can. I’m sure other reviews can give a good enough basis of the plot so we’ll go ahead and skip that.

Not many anime compel me to want to go back and read the manga, but Tokyo Ghoul did. Not only because I had heard the manga ... was better from others, but because the story isn’t as fleshed out as I would have liked. Now I haven’t read any of it yet, so I can only give this review in terms of somebody who has only seen the anime.
I will say that I love the concept; it just lacked the proper amount of time to fit everything in nicely. The pacing feels incredibly rushed, and for the story that lies underneath it all, it definitely deserved more... a lot more. So while it’s an enjoyable experience, it feels like pieces are missing at times, character development falls a little flat, and that dampens the overall effectiveness of the presentation. Again, I still found it to be enjoyable, and not nearly as mediocre as many claimed, but I can understand why manga readers in particular may be upset.

The art style is good, I love the designs and everything is pretty aesthetically pleasing even though I’d say the animation is just about average when compared to some other current anime. Oh, and yes of course it’s better uncensored. The censoring that this anime originally received is what put me off of it to begin with, but now it can be watched in all its original gory glory, the way it should be.

The music is definitely fantastic. It’s probably my favorite aspect to the entire presentation of the show. The intro is absolutely beautiful, and as somebody who generally skips intros to save time I had to refrain from that for Tokyo Ghoul. I’ve found myself sitting through not only the intro but also the end credits of every episode. The voice acting is also great. All of the characters do a good job and at the end of the day that definitely helps keep the viewer engaged in what’s going on. So thumbs up on that!

Overall, will you like Tokyo Ghoul? Honestly I think it’s hit or miss, but it is definitely something you should at least watch a couple episodes of to see if you personally like what it has to offer. I had a hard time giving this a 6/10, it has so many things that are good about it, and yet so many glaring flaws. You may end up being pleasantly surprised like I was. It's a flawed yet worthy adventure. Just remember, if you want the *full* Tokyo Ghoul experience you will have to pick up the manga!