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Oh boy, here we go.
If I can sum up this anime in one word, it would be "disappointment."
From the predictable plot, to the animation's fluctuating quality, this show goes down the drain pretty hard.

The first episode of Juuni Taisen actually impressed me heavily, to the point of thinking it could be anime of the season. The fight choreography was spot-on, the animation had its own distinct look, characters, and it even had one of the best anime scenes i've probably ever witnessed. (At the end of the first episode, you'll know it when you see it.)

But after that everything is a train wreck. To ... say this anime is predictable is an understatement. You will know when a character will die, always. And there is no suspense because of this. To put this in perspective, it follows the 12 Chinese Zodiacs in order, it shows the entire characters backstory right before they die, and even in the very opening of the show it shows you in reverse order who will die. And that's probably the biggest flaw of the show.

Ignoring other plot points that never really got addressed at the end of the show, my other biggest complaint was the animation. The animation fluctuates CONSTANTLY. In the first episode, it's wonderfully and smoothly animated. Later on, characters lack details like faces , their hands and limbs look like doodles, and at one point for some reason Ox was missing a horn and in the next scene it was back in place. Then, it gets even more inconsistent with the introduction of heavy 3D CGI. Even while characters were standing in place, only moving their mouths, their entire body has been replaced with CG models. I have no reason why this decision was made, but it was a poor one.

At the end of it all, to all of those who died in the show, they all died terribly unsatisfying. Right when you think there will be an epic battle, somebody just gets stabbed and they die. This applies to every single character. They pop in, say their introductions to eachother, then they just die and plop to the ground. It's not a long drawn out battle or even a seat clincher. For a show in the genre of and based around action, there's a significant lack of attention to it.

I can really only recommend this show if you're bored and just need something to fill that gap. But if you are looking for something with substance or even mindless action, you're gonna have to look elsewhere.

It's back, but is it better? Eh, not really. Here's the spicy details with some spoilers, read at your own risk:

Negatives:
-They wear Google Glasses and run around the city like people hunting for raids in Pokemon Go. This is actually a main story telling device. I couldn't get over it.
-They blew the budget at the end of the movie for a flurry of colors rather than something that could have held more impact or meaning.
-You don't really meet the real villain until later, and even after all is said and done, his whole evil plot seemed pretty, well, dumb.
-MINOR SPOILER-Despite endangering many lives, the villain ... was granted immunity for his crimes. (After credits)
-There is a sub villain who physically hurt people in the real world. He somehow managed to evade anyone catching him in the act, despite being surrounded by other players. Also, this future apparently has little to no security cameras.
-SPOILER- Klein, or the rest of his guild, doesn't remember who injured them despite their memories of ONLY SAO being taken.
-When searching for the main villain, there is only a small team of agents in suits, and not entire squads of police despite thousands of people being at risk.
-As usual, the only characters who matter are Kirito and the Villain. Everyone else is secondary and really don't matter.
-The movie starts off with a boring explanation as to what the new headset is. That's just lazy.
-Kirito pulled a Deus Ex Machina.
-SPOILER- Somehow the whole group was able to simultaneously login and Full-Dive to defeat the final boss, but the only ones who were able to Full-Dive were those present in the stadium, courtesy of Yuuna. It isn't explained how they Full-Dived.
-The sound effect for AR booting up is lifted from some other movie or show, and I can't help but notice it each time.

There's some more I could say but those are the major complaints.

Pros:
-Asuna's nipple.
-Kirito seems more human.
-The art is pretty darn fluid. Even in moments of high-frame action, you get a feeling of depth and weight.
-The music is pretty good.
-The fights are nice.
-There's a little more mystery and investigating to it.
-Voice acting is alright.

It's easier to list the negatives of something than the pros. If you enjoy Sword Art Online, give it a watch. You will definitely enjoy it. However, to everyone else who has had mixed feelings about the series or has never watched it to begin with, I say don't bother.

-This review has spoilers. You have been warned.-

Japan has a declining birthrate. To combat this, the Japanese Government thought it'd be a BRILLIANT idea to create a law that forcefully marries two 16 year old kids in hopes that they'd make kids. No mention of riots, arguments about the law, no characters even seem to question the law in general, they just all accept it as it is. So, we're off to a rocky start already.

Our main character, who I will refer to as Paste because he's just a copy/paste character from every other anime, is your average teenager and anime protagonist. Boring as hell ... and no redeeming qualities. Paste somehow fell in love with one of the two main love interests because he shared an eraser with her...i'm not kidding they fall in love because of an eraser. Speaking of this eraser, FOR SOME REASON, they both have treasured this eraser for their remainder of their lives. All the way from Elementary School to High School. This eraser is basically God's wingman. It just has to exist for people to love each other.

Anyway, Paste liked Eraser (the girl) a lot. Before he gets his notice, he confesses his feelings. Turns out they both have the hots for each other. This is when the show reveals its true colors. Eraser MOUNTS Paste on a park bench at night and just starts tongue sucking him in public.

UH OH, it's Paste's birthday, he gets his marriage notice via text. And would ya lookie there, it's Eraser's name! They can straddle each other all they want from now on. But wait, the text for some reason glitched, and suddenly shows another girls name, who will be referred to as Wafer because I could go for a KitKat or something right now.

Reasonably, Paste and Eraser are like "What the heck, this can't be right, what happened to the text message!" (which even if the data got corrupted, hacked, or displayed wrong it would be logged in the phone but the characters aren't gonna question it like everything else in this show.) Next thing you know, you have the Ministry of Hormonal Teens popping up at 12AM at night as Eraser straddles Paste and gives him an official confirmation. Not sure how they found him randomly in the middle of the night, but OKAY, we're gonna move forward and not question it.

Thus begins the "Love and Lie" shenanigans. From this point on it is nothing but Wafer, who is cute as heck but dumb as bricks, putting Eraser and Paste together and watching them kiss/grope each other because it's interesting or something. The show also tries to complicate it by saying Wafer actually likes Paste, and doesn't want to admit she wants to stop making them kiss. Which if you are like me, you probably think that it is stupid.

To make matters worse they introduce a gay character, who is Paste's friend, but also like's Paste. This gay character (who will now be referred to as Bae) is unfortunately the BEST character in the ENTIRE show. He actually has a personality! And he never gets the limelight. This guy actually had to tell Wafer that she liked Paste and maybe forcing him and Eraser to kiss is the reason why she feels bad...

Really, the show just suffers from poor writing. Despite all the characters being on screen, I don't feel like I know any of them. That's probably why i'm using nicknames because I can't remember their names. They just aren't memorable. The show is just a vanilla porn without the porn. I'm not even sure if it classifies as ecchi. I've said this before but the show is just overly hormonal kids getting overly hormonal in sexual situations. It's more awkward to watch than it is entertaining.

For the positives...well, there just aren't a lot. It has a unique visual style. Nothing that i'd probably remember, but something I could maybe recognize.

I'm probably being way too harsh on the show as many other people seem to be enjoying it, but I am finding hard to suspend my disbelief and revel in the world the creators put me in. It's just bad. Go watch Clannad if you want good bug-eyed romance.

If you do watch. Remember, Bae is best character.

TL;DR: Give it a go if you like feelsy shows. Arts good, music's good, story is good, ending is bad, but overall it's nice.

Let me start off by saying the idea for this movie is nothing short of heartwarming and endearing. I've never really seen a side of anime go into the struggles of what those who suffer from disabilities and those around them may go through. It really is the selling point to this anime. The characters are all struggling in some way in order to fight off a bitter past that ate at them for years and years after it occurred but never ... had the strength to do anything about it. Until the right opportunity presented itself that is.

But, despite still to this day being captivated by this presentation, I have read the Manga and my views from it skew my feelings towards this movie. There is plenty of dialogue and narrative that is left out that adds to the experience ten fold. Characters feel more empty, they don't seem to serve as much of a purpose, and most importantly the growth of the characters doesn't seem to be as great.

To be honest I could forgive all of that if they fixed the ending that the Manga left us with. Instead, they gave us something even worse. Much like the manga, it just abruptly ends, a full on stop. And this sudden hault is even more apparent. It just slaps you in the face leaving you dumbfounded. You still feel as if there is several more chapters to go through, several more moments of characters developing, or even more moments of just pure emotion to feel. But it...just ends.

Negativity aside, this show has some great art, and some fulfilling music. If you're looking for a good movie to fill in some free time, this is most certainly the perfect show for you. I'd say everyone who likes feelsy shows should give it a shot, even if it isn't the best out there.

Pros:
1. This is Oreimo 2.0.
2. Sometimes I blew air out of my nose harder than usual, bordering a giggle.
3. The animation gets the job done.

Cons:
1. This is Oreimo 2.0
2. All of the characters ignore the morality and the implications of a step-sibling relationship.
3. Every character has a weak back story.
4. They are trying to convince me these lolis they drew are somehow mature enough to be animated sexually.
... 5. The FBI knocked on my door.
6. A-1 Pictures shoved in random shows they had a part in throughout the entire show as Easter Eggs, I guess in hopes to get last minute sales on those titles. Or brownie points. That's low.
7. Oreimo characters literally show up more than once. Some could call this a continuation, even though it's not.
8. *Spoilery*They introduced a love interest halfway through and she confessed right after being introduced, but she got turned down and they expect me to care. I don't even know this character yet.
9. The best girl doesn't win. Nobody even wins.
10. I watched this all the way through for some reason, and I think I should reflect on my actions for future reference.

If this shows concept interests you in anyway, just watch Oreimo. Same thing by the same people and done better. Otherwise, just avoid it altogether.

(TL;DR : Don't bother watching this show)

I'm not gonna waste your time, so i'll get into the specifics quick. This show is painstakingly average. It feels as if it is trying its hardest not to be different. It doesn't want to break the mold and try something new. Which is a shame because it starts off pretty interesting.

To be honest, this show probably could have been pulled off better if it wasn't for the lackluster animation. In the first episode, it got me pretty hyped up seeing what the show could have been. While the plot instantly comes off as nothing special, the animation ... seemed to reflect a livelier side to it. But the more I watched, the quality dived more and more until it became so noticeable I had to pause it and take a deep breath to appreciate how much the artists screwed up. In the last episode I watched, episode 13, the main characters who are teenagers are barely bigger than oil barrels in the background. Not only that, the flaming fox spirit who is a recurring character is stagnant. Not moving despite being made of fire of all things.

The fights are insanely boring and poorly planned out. You have Rokuro, the main character with an insanely awesome spell that transforms his fist into something that reminds you of a demon or a dragon, only knows how to do one thing. And that's just throw a right punch. There's nothing more than that. Even if it sounds reasonable considering it's on his right arm and he probably doesn't need to know much else, the bigger issue is the animation supporting it. The only variation you see with Rokuro's punches is him throwing a right fist and a close up of his screaming face. The animators don't attempt to make the fight interesting and seemingly gave up in varying the fights or scenes.

The sound also seems to lack impact. Several times an old sound clip from older media you've heard before plays. Like a sword clashing or the standard anime explosion. It doesn't feel unique. Sometimes they even feel too quiet, giving what felt like a big punch or a heavy attack the impact of a pillow hitting somebody. Now, this might be a personal nitpick, but the show kind of has a techno themed soundtrack a lot of the time. In one scene where it got emotional and characters are developing and pouring their heart out in front of an enemy monster (Kegare), it played some high tempo techno, which felt very unfitting. This problem seems to be consistent throughout the show. Some may be a fan of it, but knowing when to hold off for certain scenes should be common sense.

I wouldn't bother watching this show. If you want something better with a slightly similar concept, go watch Tokyo Ravens.

Gather round, scrubs. It's another anime about video games.

Normally when you get a video game anime, it's handled pretty poorly, just look at Sword Art Online. Unfortunately, the same applies here. This show's main flaw is that it tries to achieve too little, effectively being a standard highschool rom-com. Which is a shame, because it seems to understand its audience pretty well and the inner workings of a video game. It's sad to see that such knowledge not to its full potential.

Now that that's out of the way, i'll just sum up the rest of this quickly.

Story- 5/10:
Cut/paste occasionally lewd high school romance with ... little to no closure at the end.

Art- 7/10:
The art can be pretty nice, out of everything, the thing that stands out most is the commercial cut stills which is a photography still with Ako placed somewhere. As for the rest of it, it's decent quality.

Sound- 6/10:
Nothing notable or memorable.It mainly just served it's purpose without being stand-out. Voice acting is about all I can compliment

Characters- 6/10:
The characters are not very unique and you've definitely seen them in some shape or form in other shows. Some might say Ako, but if we're being honest, she's just gonna be a Doujin printing machine for the coming months like Hotaru from Dagashi Kashi.

Aside from that, unless you have broad taste in anime and also enjoy video games, I can't recommend this show. You'd be better off watching something else.

Myanimelist won't let me shove this entire show in a couple of sentences, so, i'll be as brief as I can.

The story is okay, starts off slow and makes you think the show is going to be terrible and then starts rapidly throwing you emotional scenes and dialogue out of nowhere making you interested. Then slows down again and picks back up. This process repeats itself multiple times. If you can't stand that, don't bother with this anime. There's no real end-goal or quest, and kind of wants you to take it as it is. But due to the ending, there's a lot of open ... questions and some things aren't wrapped up. Namely the entire beginning premise of the show hasn't been addressed.

The animation itself is kind of inconsistent. It tries to go with an untraditional art style for the background only to sometimes forget itself. It doesn't come off as overwhelming or nice to look at at times, despite what the producers probably thought when making it. It just leaves an "Eh," impression. Nothing special apart from looking slightly different background wise. And even then, the high-motion scenes are certainly interesting, but don't come off as amazing when compared to even some other shows.

The sound is debatable, for a couple of reasons. And this ties into story a bit. This show LOVES, montages, and I don't mean just "love", I mean it will lick the sound bytes off the floor just to put one together and get its fix. While the songs were pretty nice to listen to, when there's a montage or two EVERY EPISODE when someone or something dies or they have an emotional moment, it gets insanely repetitive and kind of forced. Hell, they even sometimes play for 3-4 minutes of straight montages, that's forever in anime time considering they could be progressing in the story through dialogue.

Characters are kind of cut and paste. None of them are noteworthy but three who have gone through a bit of development. Those three went from misunderstood or whiny little kids, into pretty recognizable characters. But its hard to say I will remember any of them after about a year after watching. They just don't stand out.

Overall I'd say I enjoyed the show. The show definitely shined in some areas, especially presenting the life of monsters and what they will do to defend themselves. They use it as a way to establish an emotional connection to their actions and the actions are definitely conveyed to the viewer. It definitely helps give some variety and life in the world the show presents. And compared to other anime, it uses the monsters as somewhat of a moral "wall" rather than a physical one that the protagonist just has to mow through (looking at you Sword Art Online).

I'm not going to try and be a wannabe reviewer who tries to over criticize to get the cynicism out of people, or am I going to fanboy this show until everyone hates it. Instead, I will give my thoughts on the show in a hopefully brief fashion because Myanimelist won't let me sum this show up in about a sentence or two.

In a nutshell, this show is good, probably better than most shows that have come out in recent years and will definitely get you hyped with each episode. It certainly isn't as bad as the critics on here want you to think, ... and it isn't as great as the fans make it out to be.

Story:
Good. Gets you emotionally charged up and makes you hate/love some characters which is what any good show will do to its viewers. Only problem I had was it didn't focus on some parts I thought would make the experience a whole lot better. Especially later in the show where it just kind of throws stuff at you and you just got to catch all the information in your arms awkwardly because you weren't expecting it so now you gotta figure out what to make of it. And it's kind of predictable to some.

Art:
Okay. Not overwhelming. No god-tier animation or entirely memorable art style. But it gets the job done and has some damn good cinematography. They certainly make the best with what they got and I wish a lot of other anime followed in their footsteps on that one.

Sound:
Sets the mood. Apart from that the only thing you're probably gonna take out of the soundtrack is the opening and ending, which I think were pretty dandy.

Character:
This show had some pretty interesting characters, however, it didn't showcase how really interesting they were. Satoru's mom was pretty notable in my book but I don't feel like they focused on her enough, or presented her well. The same could be said for other characters, some not receiving there spotlight and just disappearing in the show.

Despite me saying negative things about it or just saying its average in some areas, that by no means I didn't enjoy this show. I enjoyed the hell out of it. It was the only thing I had to look forward to this boring anime season. And it didn't betray me in that respect. I was anxious to watch each episode because every episode was a rollercoaster of emotions that had me coming back for more...
That and you don't care about the positives of the show, you only want to read about the negatives. People are pessimistic like that.

Scores don't mean much. I can only recommend you give it a shot and see if its in your ballpark. To me its definitely a break from standard Japanese anime and it kind of felt like watching an American mystery show, which is refreshing

Depending on who you are, this show might tickle your fancy. Or it might be that stale TV dinner you've eaten alone in your bedroom at night for the third time this week. For me at least, it accomplished tickling my feet and making me giggle like a schoolgirl only to have an odd desire to kill something with a spear.

Straight to the point, this show is a good action series with some insane moments. There's always that hair-raising transformation Ushio goes through and occasional demon-like smile that makes the show what it is. Just some good ol action. If you're willing to give ... it a couple of episodes, i'd say this show won't betray you.

The downsides to this show is that it can be a bit repetitive. It kind of recycles similar moments in the show so some encounters seem like deja vu. That and the overly moral nature of the main character can come off as a bit forced and turn you off depending on who you are. This show will just come down to a personal enjoyment factor.

For me, I enjoyed it a lot. It is a hell of a lot better than most recent anime, but it's definitely not an epic everyone will talk about. Just a little above average. For a more fair rating, i'd give it a 7/10. But, because i'm biased for my love of this show, i'll give it an 8/10.