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Ooh Dungeon Meshi! Please come in, take a seat in our lounge, right next to the graveyard and the Orc feeding grounds. Please relax and have a bite of our notorious monster food that is as bland as our characters! And finally choke it down with one of our patented bug juices flavored with the souls of the damned, welcome to Dungeon Meshi!

I seriously went into this with a lot of hype seeing as it is one of my favorite genres, a fantasy setting with elves and dwarven. On top of it it even is a gourmet anime, another one of my favorite genres, so ... what could go wrong?! Just about everything as it turns out...

First off I want to say that the animations look ok, but are nothing spectacular. The bigger problem is the art style, I don't think the characters look very appealing, most characters are looking a bit dumb honestly, but that's just a personal preference, so nothing that makes or breaks an anime. And I don't know if it's the art style or just a lack of detail, but the food of this gourmet anime (which I have to remind everyone on) doesn't look that great. But let's forget this for now, first let's take a look at the characters.

We have our four main characters whose adventure we accompany in this story. But to be perfectly honest other than Marcille, I couldn't care less if one of them choked on a slime mochi the next moment or not. Those characters just didn't grab me and even Marcille - whom I cared a little about, probably because she is the only half way sane person in this group - I wouldn't shed a tear over.

Other characters I actively disliked, like the brother for example whom I disliked from the first minute. His creepy obsession with eating monsters and him caring more about the food than getting to his sister who is slowly being digested in the stomach of a dragon, just left a bad taste in my mouth right from the start. This being said, he could have redeemed himself, but did he though? No of course not, my disdain for the brother got arguably even worse, as he finally went from eating everything under the sun to save his sister to just eating his sister. And not in the Yosuga no Sora way.
Other characters I just didn't care about. Like the dwarf or the furry that joined them. But of course Laios doesn't stay the only unlikeable character, not when you have a useless thief like Chilchuck around, who is grumpy 24/7 and keeps on berating people despite him being useless for 90% of the time. The remaining 10% of the time he disarms some traps that could probably be disarmed by Marcille if she just learned a spell for it just as easily.

But let's not forget that this is a Gourmet anime so aside from the adventure and the unlikeable characters (Yes Chilchuck, you make the top of the list.) there is also the food. So as a lover of gourmet anime and good food in general I could still be salivating in front of the screen scribbling down some great ideas for tomorrow's dinner, but of course, I got disappointed here as well. Most of the food was either incredibly uninspired or just seemed flat out disgusting, which is a major problem for an anime that is listed and intended as a gourmet anime. And yeah I know "oh but you know, it looking / sounding disgusting was a plot point, you didn't get it at all!" But do you know what? I do not CARE! If a gourmet anime doesn't make me salivate all over my keyboard, it has failed, end of story. If you compare this one with others like Food Wars or Campfire Cooking in Another World from last year, this one just doesn't hold up at all. And that is also partly due to the animation or art style, it just doesn't look as good as the food from other Gourmet anime I have seen.

And not only does it not look as good it just isn't on the same level when you look at the way of preparation either. I mean sure we get some dishes that are prepared with a little bit more effort, but do you know what we also get? Boiled cabbage. Or bread with the most basic of ingredients. Or the "crab" aka mimic they found, which they boiled in salt water! I know, genius right?! SALT WATER! Who would have thought?!
But even the more elaborate dishes are not something you can cook for your next family dinner, or better said WANT to cook. Looking at you Bug Burger and Sorbet with AGAIN BUGS and the souls of the damned. But it's a fantasy world sure, so of course I wouldn't use Basilik meat in my Oyakodon but substitute it with chicken instead. Which is something that Campfire Cooking excelled at and understood to convey to the audience. With the mc telling us that it tasted just like chicken or pork or something, to build a connection with the viewer, so they could try to cook it for themselves but Dungeon Meshi fails to do that time and time again.

Overall I did not like Dungeon Meshi, the animation was fine, the art style I didn't care for and it diminished a core aspect of the anime which should be the food. The music was solid but that can only make up so much for the many downsides this anime has. Before starting this anime this was a safe bet for me since I absolutely love the genres, but in the end the story and the characters were just as bland as the food. 4/10

Can a Yuki Onna descendant get a cold? Of course not. The thought alone is ridiculous! - Almost as ridiculous as the whole show.

It started out interesting with our maincast being a group of human office workers mixed in with supernatural beings. And this is were it stopped being interesting. They did next to nothing with the supernatural element of the show. This could have potentially been very interesting to learn about the quirks of those supernatural descendants, but it was mostly used as a background animation, nothing more. There was no attempt to create some kind of conflict between the normal humans and the ... supernatural ones. This could have been a fun show about a romance that conquers the differences between the two races and maybe misconceptions about each other, but it just went nowhere. The main character calls forth a minor snow storm about three times an episode but nothing is done with it. Not some malfunction of the equipment, not a cleaning lady that is fed up with him or something besides the "hey, you're snowing again". After a few episodes I was as bored of it as the main girl seemed to be for 90% of the show.

Also the romance went absolutely nowhere. As innocent as both characters were it felt like watching a romance about grade schoolers, not young adults that joined the work force and go to a drinking party. The main character has been in love for a year by the end of the season and he is as close to a relationship with the girl as Myanmar is to a healthy economy. It will probably take another 5 seasons for any of the two to confess their feelings and another 3 for their first kiss. To me it was pretty much a waste of time and I'm still struggling between a 3 or 4/10.

The whole concept of this anime is pretty ridiculous, the main character is stuck in his fantasy world where he lives out his dreams of being the ultimate entity that controls the fates of humanity, while in the back of his mind being fully aware that it's a game he is playing. Funny enough everybody else plays along with his fantasy, except for them it is cruel reality and lives are lost along the way. On one side it is a fantasy story about dark machinations, betrayal and people trying to conquer that evil, on the other side it is the ultimate ridiculous chuunibyou fantasy ... with all the typical sterotypes.

I really liked the concept of this anime and it's execution was done well for a good part of the anime, but there certainly were some episodes that could have been shortened or cut all together, the whole story about his group "Shadow Garden" and the "Cult of Diabolos" became a bit convoluted and sometimes along the way as a viewer you are even prone to forget what this whole show is even about, until you remember that the mc just wants to enjoy himself in his ridiculous play as the Emminence in Shadow. Other than the mc most characters are pretty interchangable, they look very much alike and to remember all their names is a nigh impossible task. Half of the girls are just in there for the fanservice anyway, which I don't mind, actually it's rather a plus in my book.

It is a bit difficult though to rate the mc, Cid Kagenou, as a character. It seems that almost anything he does is done for shits and giggles, most of the time he has no reason to fight anyone or get involved into a situation, but he does anyway to create instances that make people question who "Shadow" is. The fights he is involved in are actually pretty badass and the concept of how he uses his weapon and armor is fairly unique. But in the end everything that Cid does is solely done for his persona as the Emminence in Shadow. Which is kinda ridiculous as well since he doesn't seriously plan to control the kingdom or take over the world, it's just a game for him. In fact he is not even aware of how many people are in his organisation or what they are planning in order to take over the world, since everything is done by his harem.

It is kinda like an alternate story of Overlord, in which Ainz-sama pays no attention at all to what his subordinates are actually saying or doing. Cid just wings everything and barely has a plan at all what he is going to do the next day. This makes him a pretty one dimensional but still interesting character that just does stuff at random for his own enjoyment and the viewer never knows what he is going to do next, since he doesn't seem to know himself.

The music was good, especially the opening is pretty catchy. And the animation as well was on the better side of the spectrum, it may not be on a demon slayer level but it was decent. This season and especially the final episode also did a good job of setting up a second season. Some questions of the season were answered and pieces were moved into places to act in a future season. Overall the whole anime was a pretty interesting one with a bit of a tedious part in the middle. But as a chuunibyou fantasy with an overpowered protagonist that is actually aware of itself and what it's portraying this could be the new standard. 8 /10

This god damn anime, breaking my heart apart into a thousand pieces only to glue it back together afterwards. This was truly a wild ride of an anime if I ever had one. I fairly enjoyed the first half of the anime to some degree, thinking it was just another of those trash over the top harem comedy anime, but boy was I wrong. The second half, or especially the last 4 episodes made such a ridiculous turn that it entirely threw me off. I would have never predicted those twists in a million years, this was probably my biggest surprise this year.

After watching ... the whole anime it makes the first half so much better, since it explains why the ridiculous things that happened in the beginning even took place. I would almost go as far as to call it a stroke of genius, since it took up the common tropes for this type of anime and executed them the perfect way one would expect them to happen, only to make a 180° turn and throw off the audience completely. To then end it with some heart wrenching drama and finally lifting up your spirit once again in the epilogue.

The characters in this show are your typical harem comedy tropes that you would expect but only for a part of the anime. The girls and the mc as well have genuine emotions that they go through and are portrayed greatly in the later part of the anime. The music in this one was pretty good, I especially liked the way they played with the ending song in a way that fit the plot, something very ingenious that I have also seen in Akiba Maid War this year. The animation was decent, but what made this anime so great was the unpredictable twists of the story that enhanced everything that came before to a major degree. The finale knows what it does, it pulls at your heartstrings in all the right places and after shattering your soul offers some relieve to leave you with a bitter sweet smile on your face.

In the end I am glad I watched it and hope many people that may have dropped it after a couple episodes will come back to fully experience this. I never would have imagined this anime to be such a wild ride of emotions ranging from laughter and ridiculousness over disbelief to sadness and finally relief. This places ridiculous high on my list, but as I feel deservedly so, I give it a 9/10.

First off the animation looks great and the fight scenes looked pretty badass. Almost everything else though.. I did not enjoy.

Denji is probably the worst mc I have ever seen in an anime. He has no charisma whatsoever. He is not an endearing character we want to protect because of his bad life until the point the story starts. For that to happen he would have to be a better person with a good heart, which clearly isn't the case here. He also isn't a very funny or inspiring character that we enjoy to see because he is amusing or makes us want to ... root for him to fulfill his dreams. And he also isn't a badass cool character every boy dreams to be. No, Denji is just a plain boring character that in most shows would be some side character because he is a little edgy and maybe gets a short spotlight for a cool fight or something.

All those attributes that would make a main character are completely absent in the Chainsaw Man. I often read that he is a very relatable character because of his realistic dreams. Which is utter rubbish! Denji's dream is to have sex with a girl he has somewhat of a crush on. I'm sorry to break this to some people, but that is a side quest. If this is your main goal in life you should think about some changes in your life. That is a fun side activity, not something your life should revolve around. But it is for this mc, which is as mundane as it can get.

This mc has no agency whatsoever, he is just dragged along by his "supporting cast". But I couldn't get into any of those side characters either, because they are either boring or just straight up horrible people, or both and I couldn't care less when any of them died, fake deaths included. In a decent show Aki would have been the protagonist and to be perfectly honest I am more or less convinced that he actually is. He still lacks a bit of emotional depth for that, but he would have definitely been the better choice, since he actually has a goal beyond touching a boob or getting a girl to kiss him. But that's the next thing about the show, almost all of the cast show very little to no emotion. Yeah I get it, "they live in a world with demons around, they had very hard lives and death is only a step away for them at all..." Aah will you shut up?! Yes, they have hard lives, but guess what, so do many others, in the real world and in anime, yet they still possess human emotions. It's like the Katana guy said, Denji has no conscience left, is he even human anymore? Who knows, if he is, he sure as hell isn't showing it.

I really tried to give this anime a chance, considering how hyped it was, hell after the trailer I was actually fired up, but things kept on dragging and just got worse over time. The last couple episodes were probably the best of the anime, which isn't saying much since I was bored out of my mind for most of the show. I cannot comprehend why this show is getting the spotlight it is getting. Not even the setting is very original, they are hunting demons, yeah.. haven't heard of that one before... Everything about this show up to this point just screams average at you. That's already including the good animation, if it wasn't for those this would be far below average.

Overall I think this show has a terrible and unoriginal story with one of the worst, if not the worst mc in anime history. The animation is great, I will give Mappa that but that can't save the boring and lackluster story as well as characters. Chainsaw Man is actually very well represented by it's mc who is a giant simping unlikeable disappointment of a main character with no agency whatsoever. 4/10

God dammit this was just awful to watch, I expected a fast paced mecha anime, but was of course badly disappointed. Well, that doesn't have to be a problem, could still be an interesting anime, but it just wasn't.

Most of the time I was just bored out of my mind similar to the mc's friend with her 5 year old fiancee. Which itself was so ridiculous I didn’t even know what to make of it. Not to mention the god damn cake with fake cream they ate almost every damn episode. Why one would highlight this, is something that escaped my understanding completely.

Maybe to ... criticize the ridiculous society they are living in. Which was basically the whole point of the anime, to criticize society and what the world will come to if we continue like... yada, yada, yada...
The whole damn ordeal felt like a lecture by a social studies professor in which 90% of the students whip out their laptops 3 minutes in and start watching youtube or do some online shopping while they wait for this god awful lecture to end.

Almost all the characters are absolutely forgettable, but luckily you don't have to bother learning their names because there still is a mecha god somewhere hearing my prayers and kills them off one after the other. I was pretty astonished though at how long it took for one of the characters to off themselves, considering I felt like it since the second episode.

The mc could be kind of likeable since she has a strong sense of justice and even is a bit cute. Sadly this is overshadowed by her permanent nagging and call for social justice, leaving the impression she is the model student of the aforementioned lecturer and a proud honorary member in the council of Karens despite her young age.

This anime was pure garbage, after the first half I had to force myself to watch one episode every day, like you would force yourself to do your tax declaration, just to finally get it off my list.

I give it 3/10 since the music was pretty good, the animation was decent and some fight scenes were ok. But apart from that the anime was just as the fake cream on that cake, visually inviting but without any flavor whatsoever.