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Mar 14, 2025
First thing you'll likely notice about this anime is that it has a kickass dub OP, available in English and German. This alone would be enough to make it stand out among the other shonen adventure series at the turn of the millennium. That and its English dub being exclusive to the Canadian channel YTV. But is this stone truly a hidden gem worthy of obscure anime bragging rights? If you're looking for a good ol' 00's era adventure anime, this band of fighters is worth travelling with.
To be straight, though, this wasn't a groundbreaking series even at the time, and if you've watched enough
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of the genre, you'll recognize the stock character archetypes: the hotheaded shonen lead, the perky ninja girl with a crush on said shonen dude, the bumbling Team Rocket like pirates, the stoic samurai rival, and so on. The episodes themselves can get pretty repetitive: with a good deal of new character introductions following the standard "team visits new town with a crisis that turns out to be instigated by a corrupt authority figure." But their interactions are fun, and there's a surprising depth to lead boy Edward Fokker/Falcon, who starts off as a spoiled, privileged brat but grows to really understand and empathize with others along the journey. His kindness especially makes for heartwarming interactions with the creepy mummy-esque Jack, who gets too little screentime considering how tragic his story is, and his personal idol Valgas, whose true role in the story probably will not be surprising to people who have been watching anime for a while. Still, their interactions make the final episodes an emotional roller coaster that is well worth the journey to get there.
All in all, it's a good way to spend 26 episodes if you're looking for a nostalgia trip.
...oh yeah, there was a Power Stone game, wasn't there? Two of them, in fact.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 8, 2025
Lighthearted, silly show for those who like cartoon frenemy dynamics such as Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf or LazyTown or Team Rocket. Despite the magical girl premise, the real star of the show is the hapless nominal villain Chroma, who is as handsome as Alucard from Castlevania yet as much of a mostly harmless softie as James from Pokémon. But only mostly, as he does win over his enemies every so often, albeit from his own evil organization rather than his supposed enemy Berry Blossom.
In the end, this is not a show that is going to make big changes in the world or anything despite
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misleading initial hype about this heralding a magical girl renaissance. In the tradition of many other gag manga (see also: The Way of the Househusband), all it wants to do is to put a smile on your face with its goofy, outlandish premise. Its roots are quite apparent in the way multiple episodes are really just a few short manga chapters strung together, rapidly jumping from one situation to another with only the thinnest veneer of an overarching plot. So maybe not something that necessarily translates the best to anime format, but it did make me want to check out more of the manga, so I guess, mission accomplished.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 19, 2025
Midway through Season 1, a girl is being brutally abused by her mother when she claims she understands what she's going through because she found out the psychological term for it. This is enough to make her mother stop and break down in tears. This clunky, didactic scene exemplifies Blue Reflection Ray: a well meaning show that wants to say relevant things about teenage girls' hidden issues, but lacks the care and finesse to do so in a convincing way.
To be clear, this is not a Wonder Egg Priority we're dealing with. The writing issues are more its tendency towards convoluted soap opera / RPG
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melodrama than anything offensively bad. But the setup is an interesting one. For those who haven't played the first Blue Reflection game, first, you're not missing much because it's terrible. But Ray is effectively an interrogation of that game's core premise of having magical Reflectors delve into people's minds and understanding their problems to give them advice at the end. All good when it's mostly the petty concerns of well-off high schoolers, but what if they were to encounter more serious, deeply rooted problems? Are inexperienced teenage girls really fit for this level of psychotherapy? Especially when employed by an organization that's unresponsive and bureaucratic? (brilliant satire of the typical "mysterious org that works in mysterious ways," btw)
Enter the Sith Lords, er Red Reflectors, who decide to rid the world emotions so girls will never have to suffer again. Hmm...where have I heard that one before? Knights of the Old Republic II? Tales of Symphonia? Okay, maybe not the most original premise, but it does provide the backdrop for an interesting ideological conflict. But in practice, fights tend to degenerate into lead character Hiori going all talk no jutsu about how precious and important feelings are (hmm...sound familiar? Maybe a certain other series that likes to use "darkness" and "heart" a lot?) Basically, for all its overwhelmingly convoluted, poorly explained world building and overly padded out 24 episode run time, the plot is really a standard "Villains extract Fragments from girls of the week so they can open the door to Kingdom Hearts, er, The Commons." Complain as I may about tropey writing, the final two episodes are such a loving homage to RPG final dungeons that I can't help but enjoy it. If only the rest of the show was exciting as that finale.
Other examples of the show's contrived melodrama: The first arc is about a rich girl whose parents don't understand her, so she tries to get herself run over by a train. Main sisters Hiori and Mio have lost their mom and have waiting a long 5 years for her to return. Somehow, no one intervened in all this time, but it's later revealed their aunt was willing to take them in (sounding way too casual about the situation), but Mio stubbornly refused. (given sequel game Second Light's reveal of her mother's motives, I guess stubbornness and questionable decision making runs in the family?) Edgelord Red Reflector rival Niina constantly carries around a rolling suitcase that her abusive mom claims is their entire life, only to later open it and angrily realize it's nothing, even though she should have noticed how unusually light it felt. And there's a scene where the main villain's powers are revealed...to come from a dark cloud. That's like the Medabots scene where Space Medafighter X's mask breaks off to reveal another mask, except ostensibly not meant to be a joke.
Still, while I wouldn't call it a good anime or an underrated gem by any means, chances are, if you've played a lot of RPGs as the writers themselves have clearly done, you're probably immunized to needlessly convoluted and cheesy soap opera writing, and watching girls fight each other with their friends as their power isn't the worst way to spend 24 episodes. Tone-wise, it's a nice crossroads between the optimistic tone of Sailor Moon era magical girls and the art style and more psychological focus of the Madoka era.
Finally, how much does watching this anime add to the follow-up Blue Reflection: Second Light (which actually is a decent game)? Not much, honestly. If the events of the anime get referenced at all, it's only in broad strokes, and aside from the main characters' mother showing up, Second Light's plot goes in a very different direction. There really should have been better communication between production staff before attempting to pull a Blue Reflection Cinematic Universe on us.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 16, 2025
To paraphrase Roger Ebert's Day after Tomorrow review: "It is such a relief to hear the music swell up at the end of a Makoto Shinkai movie, its restorative power giving us new hope. Millions of people may have died or had to evacuate, but at least the main characters love each other."
So, do I start with the movie's complacency in the face of climate catastrophe or with its obnoxious brat of a lead Hodaka? Both are intertwined in their misguidedness. Obviously, the prospect of entire cities getting flooded in the not-so-far future is a terrifying one, one that we're all going to have to
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prepare for by upgrading our infrastructure, healing our ecosystems, and stop pumping fossil fuels into the atmosphere to at least stem the damage and make the former two things, among others, possible to do. Turning it into a maudlin Titanic-esque love story is as myopic a take as to be expected from the movie industry. That being said, there is a bit of nuance that may be lost on people not aware of Tokyo's history as it references how Japan drained the waters of a city that used to look like Venice. With this in mind, the ending does have a relevant ecological message (in a sense, making the entire movie's premise the product of Tokyo's founders' original sin) and isn't about climate denial as some people have misinterpreted it to be.
Hodaka is still a dick, though. An impulsive brat who constantly puts himself and others in danger, even before his final decision, but it's okay because he loves a girl! Said girl, Hina, is a cliched self-sacrificing Kushi-inada-hime archetype that already exists in countless Japanese fiction stories. I guess she works as a metaphor for how the older generation has sacrificed their childrens' futures in pursuit of profit at the expense of the ecosystem, but she doesn't have much of a distinctive personality outside of that. It's obvious these two are capitalizing on the popularity of Your Name, but lighting doesn't strike twice this time. Though if it hit Hodaka....
In short, this movie represents the worst aspects of blockbuster movie melodrama, and once and for all proves Shinkai is not Miyazaki (a comparison that should never have been made in the first place as their movie styles are totally different beasts). Go pick up Nausicaa or Mononoke if you want actually thoughtful, relevant stories related to the ecological crisis.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Feb 16, 2025
At the end of the day, Love Live exists to sell an idol group. No matter how sincere the intentions of the production staff, which Season 1 wonderfully showed, everything is subservient to this cold hard fact. The sudden introduction of 4 new characters to the group was obviously not a decision made with artistic intent (imagine if Sailor Moon immediately introduced all four Outer Senshi in the second arc rather than steadily growing the cast), and the entire story is poorly thought out, paced, and reeks of rushed production.
To be clear, the newcomers aren't entirely without merit. The first three episodes with Kinako make
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for an interesting conflict between her, who embodies the promise that anyone can become an idol even starting from no experience, and an original generation of five experienced performers who have been pursuing their dreams since childhood. But herein lies the first crack. Shouldn't Keke, who also struggled with poor physical fitness at first, be able to connect with her on a personal level? Instead, the kind, cheerful girl of the first season has been reduced to a sour, miserable caricature of her former self and has to be reminded of their similarity. This character assassination occurred for no apparent reason other than to fill the token Love Live "bickering couple" role with Sumire, who also does almost nothing of note other than serve as the brunt of humiliation by not just Keke, but the rest of the cast.
Remember the promise of the Season 1 finale? One showing five girls who had taken the first significant step to becoming confident performers, but now have higher ambitions to win? Wouldn't you like to see them grow and develop their craft to even greater heights? Isn't that the main reason you're watching this season? Well too bad, because Kanon's Furious Four are barely even in it. Ren only gets one filler episode and may as well be invisible otherwise, with her nominal leadership role being reduced to mere bureaucratic upkeep. Her focus ep is admittedly amusing one, but it's so far removed from her struggles in the first season that one wonders if the execs thought they no longer fit the lighter tone this season went with. Chisato at least does take small steps forward, setting the stage to fully blossom into her own in Season 3, and plays a highly important role in the season finale.
The wonderfully relatable and multifaceted Kanon of the first season has being simplified into a blandly nice Maria von Trapp figure to the new girls while taking a disproportionate amount of the show's screen time. In the final two episodes, Season 1 Kanon does return, and although it still comes at the expense of the rest of the cast, she does receive a significant plot development that serves as a beautiful closure to the story of the girl who has grown so much from her self-hatred and disbelief in her ability to impact the world...except they managed to almost completely screw it up. How such a nihilistic cliffhanger that so thoroughly destroys the credibility of the series' emotional weight managed to pass quality assurance remains a mystery to this day.
In fact, Season 2 has a talent for shooting itself in its own foot. Returning to the new girls, even from a cynical "to sell toys" standpoint, shouldn't the season be a showcase for their unique, admirable traits so people would actually want to buy their toys? Instead, Kinako gets quickly shafted as Mei and Shiki make their simultaneous Liella debuts. Ultimately, they are superfluous as this episode is the full extent of their already shallow motives, with Mei's resting bitch face anxieties never being brought up again and Shiki literally only joining for Mei's sake. Natsumi is more interesting, with her motive of lacking a focused goal in life again contrasting with the dedicated and driven original cast. But again, this is not brought up again after her focus episodes, and it would take until Season 3 where her backstory effectively becomes rewritten from its poorly fleshed out first draft of a Season 2 debut.
Worse, 3/4 of the show's run time is spent comparing them unfavourably to the founding members. Competitiveness is one thing, but you'd think that an idol group of this caliber should have resolved this issue long before the qualifying rounds. Instead, this subplot effectively resolves with the implication that, actually, the original 5 were capable of winning all along by themselves and don't need the newcomers. Oh, did I say "resolves?" Actually, it doesn't resolve anything, as the skill gap between the two Liella generations persists all the way to the final performance, with the only difference being that Kanon decided they should be nicer to the new members.
There is something unpleasantly mean-spirited about this season as a whole. Remember how Season 1 was all about building the girls up and seeing them heal from trauma and failure to become confident performers? Between Keke's bitterness, Sumire's constant heckling, the constant reminders of how weak the new girls are, I fail to see how any of this inspires confidence and self-worth. In fact, if it weren't for the producers giving little thought to having them react to this mistreatment in a realistic way, I'd imagine at least half of Liella would end this season broken and demoralized. How does one so thoroughly miss the point of your own series? What even is the message this season is trying to convey?
One final damning condemnation of this season comes from its final insert song, Mirai no Oto ga Kikoeru (I Can Hear the Sound of the Future). While most of this season's songs are mediocre, with many having only tenuous connections to the story, this one is actually a very touching song that serves as a heartwarming summary and closure to the story of the five founding members (although you have to hear it in full because the anime version does not do it justice). But it primarily works because it almost entirely recaps the story of Season 1, showing how little Season 2 adds to the wider Superstar story as a whole.
It is frustrating to compare this show to Healer Girl, which came out a few months earlier and ended up taking the concept of growing together through singing in an interesting new direction while being more faithful to Superstar Season 1's themes and musical quality than its actual follow-up. That show, like many other non-franchise titles, is unlikely to receive a second season despite the potential for expanding the story. Meanwhile, Love Live is a big enough name for Superstar to get a second chance, and they squandered it. One wonders how much the series could have grown otherwise had it not been constrained by corporate dictates, because I do not believe that anyone directly involved in Season 1 does not care about their work.
Still, despite this season being horribly flawed, it's prevented from receiving a 2 or even a 1 because it's still funny at times and there are elements of a good story in there. It does plant seeds for Season 3 to expand on, and the follow-up also goes some way towards lessening the blow this season inflicted. Those plot elements are unfortunately too important to simply skip this season. But the fact that it had so much of a mess to clean up prevented Season 3 from reaching the heights it could have otherwise.
Is suffering through this season worth it to get there? Only if you love Liella that much, and, well, I guess I watched this season despite bad word-of-mouth. Interpret that as you will.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Feb 15, 2025
This is two shows in one. The first, which lasts until Episode 23, is an awesome show with a kickass lead, entertaining villains, and a dramatic and moving climax that truly reaffirms Sora's heroic strength. The second is a mess of inconsequential filler episodes with boring villains and a main plot hastily infodumped in the last 5 episodes, only for its potentially interesting conflict to be quickly discarded by a cheap Korra Equalist twist.
But even its weaker second half is still watchable due to the chemistry of the main couple: Sora and Mashiro. It is always a rare joy to see a headstrong tomboy lead
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character in a magical girl series, a Pippi Longstocking level powerhouse in a striking and pretty Sky Land dress. Beside her is the gentler Mashiro, whose side story of becoming a children's author is very sweet.
Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is a mixed bag. Tsubasa, the series' first male Cure, is very relatable in his scientific interests, but his character arc is weirdly patriarchal for a series about female empowerment. Ageha, the nursery school teacher with the personality of an excited kids' show host, is very entertaining to watch and I would like to say is my favourite of the bunch...except she gets shafted to supporting roles more often than not. Her sad backstory regarding her parents' divorce is only given a few token nods, denying her the character depth she could have otherwise had and a chance to connect with those who went through similar broken families. And the baby, Ellee, is basically a plot device, even after the awkwardly executed reveal of her true nature.
So is it worth watching? Well, maybe? It's one of those shows that sets up a mystery box for 45 episodes only for its contents to be underwhelming, but if you're just in it for the action and cute character interactions, you could do a lot worse. If this show was more consistent, it could have been a magical girl classic, but as it stands, it falls apart in the second half and we just have to deal with it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 15, 2025
A charming and worthy entry into the magical girl genre. Instead of fighting, magic singing is used to heal, through a magical realist approach where the singers work with the real-world healthcare system. There's a song in every episode, so those who hate musicals can stop reading at this point, but otherwise, the songs are as amazing as one would expect, with the OP being the glorious soaring orchestrated standout (so good that they actually play the full version at one point). The producers also constantly throw in little scenes demonstrating how well-versed they are in music and how much they geek out over it.
The
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cast is a very likable bunch. Kana Fujii is nominally the protagonist, but in reality, it's more of an ensemble cast where each of the main trio gets to star in certain episodes, and this rotating focus even becomes a key plot point late into the series. My favourite is Hibiki, who seems to be the calm, competent one that's good at everything, but then the last few episodes reveal she's just as vulnerable as the other two. It's meta-amusing how the series toys with the "best girl" concept in that final arc, and the message to come out of it is a good one, which makes up for how slow the anime could be through the middle.
Despite its intriguing premise, there's a long stretch where the actual healing takes a back seat in favour of typical anime slice of life shenanigans. While the episodes themselves are still compelling, especially Episode 8 where things take a dramatic turn with Reimi's home situation, and they actually do provide relevant character development for later on, it's understandable to think "When do we get back to the therapeutic music?" The last third does make the wait worthwhile, when their force of nature mentor Ria Karasuma gets more involved in the story, both through showing the immense and beautifully animated power of an experienced adult healer, and revealing some heartwarming connections to the girls' past. Having them reach C-rank at the end is a good way to cap things off, leaving things open to imagine how much more they have to learn to reach Ria's level.
Rival Sonia Yanagi seems like an obnoxious tsundere stereotype, but given the nature of the show, she's actually revealed to be a kind person with a relatable competitive streak, as her syco-friend Shinobu attests to from the beginning. The shy Shinobu is adorable in her own right, being a literal accompanist to the other four girls, and deserved a lot more screen time and exploration of her backstory. It's quite heartwarming to see these two steadily join forces with the main three, and it's too bad this series will likely not get a second season as it would have been amazing to see more of their potential as a five-girl group.
Overall, not the deepest anime, but a chill, relaxing one that will put a smile on many viewers' faces and seeing talented women doing their thing is always a joyous occasion. Also, the book that Ria reads at the end opens the possibility of George Sand's La Petite Fadette being canon to the series. Could Fadette have been the progenitor healer girl? Who knows.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 15, 2025
Five girls overcome their insecurities and self doubt through making music together. This premise, remarkable in its simplicity, sets the stage for one of the most surprisingly heartwarming anime in recent memory, one that touched my heart just as I was becoming cynical about anime in general.
There's no dark magic involved, no convoluted lore. You don't need to know anything about Japanese idols or even the previous Love Live series to dive into this one. Though the story deals with depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues, it is overall an optimistic one that doesn't get any darker than Rosalina's storybook from Super Mario Galaxy.
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Speaking of which, the visuals, Liella's soaring orchestrated vocal songs (Wish Song, ED theme Mirai wa Kaze no You Ni, and Watashi no Symphony being stand-outs), and the charming fantasy-like BGM give this anime a pleasant storybook tone, striking the right balance between being easily understood by younger viewers and having enough nuance for the healing effect to work on even older viewers.
It's clear the production staff learned a lot from their long experiences with not only previous Love Live entries, but also the paradigm-shifting A Place Farther Than The Universe which started a trend of stronger, more ambitious female characters in anime. Despite being first years and having the quirks and issues one would expect from 16 year olds, Liella's cast demonstrate maturity surpassing even some of the third years of previous series. They already had performing arts dreams long before forming the group, giving them a common reason to be there while also making their successes feel more realistic. Unlike previous series, not a single one of the 5 girls feels wasted. They all have their own struggles and contributions to the group, and various fans will have someone they most relate to in their believable anxieties, whether it's not wanting to let down her friends, wanting to prove her independence, searching for a purpose outside of one's predetermined routine, or loneliness impeding one's ability to connect with others. These issues are not resolved by merely a simple "Believe in yourself!" message, but through genuine understanding that disproves their self-doubts and reveals how much more capable they are than they think.
But out of all of them, the lead character Kanon truly stands out for me. Her stage anxiety and performance failure that opens the series ends up being a metonym for her timid approach to life itself, and a lot of the humour of this show comes from her quirky friends trying to get her out of her comfort zone. In one of the most surreal scenes, she even gets kidnapped and tormented by "Gusokumushi. Gusokumushi. Guso-guso-guso. Gusokumushi!" Though this all sounds like a pretty typical "loser protagonist meets manic pixie dream girl who teaches her to appreciate life" setup at first, later episodes reveal there's more to Kanon than her negative self-image. It is so refreshing to see a smart, perceptive girl as the protagonist, a welcome subversion of the common idiot hero(ine). And it all comes together in the climactic Episode 11, appropriately titled "Once Again, At That Place," with a powerful, but well foreshadowed plot twist set to a soothing "Long Journey's End" style BGM track that drove me to tears more so than anything else in the entire Love Live franchise. If it ends up having a similar impact on you, that would make me very happy.
The only thing that prevents me from giving this a 10 is that plot progression can get pretty hokey at times, particularly Episode 8. Luckily, the series is thematically consistent enough that I'm willing to suspend disbelief, but I understand the more critical reviews having a bigger issue with it. Unfortunately, the series also takes a sharp drop in quality in Season 2, with Season 3 being merely acceptable for die-hard Liella fans who are willing to put up with its flaws to see their story to completion. Fortunately, Season 1's story is self-contained with the core conflict being resolved in Episode 11 and Episode 12 serving as a hopeful "adventure continues!" ending, so one can choose whether they want to keep going or just appreciate it as a standalone 12 episode anime.
Whether it be performing artists, music lovers, fans of strong female leads, or just someone looking for a nice slice of life show to relax to, there's something for a wide audience to enjoy, and despite its humble premise, its story is truly magical and unforgettable.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 14, 2025
Let's face it. The primary reason to watch this movie is because Ash gets kissed by a dragon. I mean, they half-assedly try to obfuscate this by suggesting it may have been her human doppelganger Bianca instead, but Ash and Bianca barely have any meaningful interactions throughout the entire movie. In contrast, the relationship between Ash and Latias is a beautiful love story for the ages, as boundary breaking as Donkey and Dragon of Shrek fame. Hiccup and Toothless? Seto Kaiba and Blue-Eyes White Dragon? Eat your heart out. This movie singlehandedly brought world peace to the Pokémon fandom by ending the shipping wars once
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and for all, because who can possibly be more deserving of Ash's final rose than a psychic dragon who also takes the form of Super Crown Luigi? I mean, Pikachu supports this ship. Would you go against Pikachu, Ash's best friend and the only consistent deuteragonist of the entire series?
Okay, so other than the implication of human/Pokémon romance, the movie isn't the most original out there. Generic power hungry villains take over generic world ending machinery using an obvious forbidden MacGuffin in an area that was secret until the protagonists showed up because they had to force a villain into an otherwise pleasant slice of life through not Venice. But Alto Mare sure is pretty, and Madoka's Secret Garden is probably one of the most beautiful Pokémon songs out there. All in all, a decent extended episode of the anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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