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Demon Slayer Season 4 (not really a season) Review

As much as I appreciate the fantastic animation brought by studio Ufotable, It’s a real pity that I cannot disregard how lacklustre the writing is in Demon Slayer. The main reason I say this is how it uses the exact shonen formula EVERY SINGLE TIME without utilising it in a meaningful manner for the characters to actually learn and develop.

Considering the mediocrity of the last season that involved one of the biggest a-pulls I’ve ever seen (sister becomes immune to the sun), it’s only getting worse from here.

Season 4 focuses on the training arc which ... does not serve any external purpose but only to defeat the main antagonist of the series. This is where the MC and other members of his team train alongside the Hashiras. To be honest, it seems strange how these characters are training with them now but not before. How did they defeat the other strong demons in the past without being at least trained by a couple of them? Also, do you expect me to believe that their hard work in just a couple of days would overcome the rest of the Upper Moons? The demons they faced in the last arc were way stronger than the previous ones (this is referring to Season 2), yet they appeared as ridiculous fodders because yet again plot armour and emotional backstory must come in.

The power system is simple yet non-cooperative with what goes on in the fights. According to the Omake chapter which were in the manga, it stipulates that it takes AT LEAST 3 Hashiras to conquer an Upper Moon. Are you expecting me to believe that the main cast are already at that level? THAT WAS EASY! Moreover, could someone please explain to me exactly why on earth do we need to have a backstory for every character in the middle of the fight. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

Whilst I can side with the philosophy of making us understand why their distinctive personality is the way they are, it seems unnecessary considering the timeframe that it is in and what the main purpose of the arc is. For example, In Episode 2 it dedicates a whole emotional filler fest for one of the Hashiras. Imagine this right, you are still upset that one of your friends who trained the MC whilst being a ghost in the first season (yes I know its ridiculous) saved you and was better than you in childhood. Come on now, you have achieved the level of Hashiras yet you don't feel capable of your title at this stage is unbelievable. Forget the past and move on from that, your main goal is to cooperate and face off the rest of the Upper Moons. Additionally, you are supposed to represent as one of the strongest slayers in the series and set an example for the MC and other slayers yet you want us to feel emotional LMAO.

A lot of the characters, whilst the animation support how strong they are visually, come out as cardboard copies of every Shonen character you could imagine. Their personality is so mundane and does not change at all since the first season. Where is the character development in this series? Not a single character really learned a thing or two in the previous arcs. Their power ups that happen across the show are laughable considering the fact that we never see them use it whilst they are ‘supposedly’ training.

Another let-down is the music, I couldn't even care about listening to it as I always skipped it because of how boring it was. It does not even fit the theme of Demon Slayer at all. There is no passion, no effort and no rhythm to it at all. The best music came from the earlier seasons and it's sad to see how they dropped the ball again not only the writing department but in the music one as well.

This whole season should have been made into OVA series instead of it being called Season 4, due to the fact there is no real story progression and parts of this season could have been utilised at a much earlier time.

The downfall of this series starts from here and even though I will be watching the other seasons after this one, It doesn't change how awful the writing is delivered in this show. At least the fights and animation is something to look forward to and be hyped up about I guess.

What a Shame :(

“By the time I was in a state to chase my dreams, I wasn’t at the age to chase my dreams”

Oshi no Ko is a brilliant manga that brings excellent themes of idolism and pop culture into reality. Despite different motivations, Aqua, Ruby and Kana’s key to success in the entertainment industry is the same; to achieve their goals, they need to play the game.

The staff’s passion gave birth to an industry-defying first episode that runs over eighty minutes in length. In recent years, it has not been uncommon to see a season or series premiere for an anime series receive an extended length, ... especially if it's being adapted from a popular light novel or manga series. However, a series with a feature-length premiere episode of over 80 minutes is rather ambitious. That is the length of four episodes or a miniseries right off the bat. The passion the animation production team has for Akasaka and Yokoyari’s manga series is visible in every frame of the premiere episode. They were not willing to make any compromises when adapting the source material. No scenes were cut or rearranged. The anime staff truly brings the intriguing world of the manga to life and sets the stage by establishing the lives of Ruby and Aqua. However, the supernatural twist for these twins is that they were reincarnated from their past lives. Besides faithfully adapting the incredible early chapters of the manga, the feature-length premiere episode does a tremendous job setting up the show’s unique premise. It spends a decent amount of screen time establishing the past lives of Gorou and Sarina. They share a weird connection through their love of Ai Hoshino’s music. Before her tragic death, Sarina dreams of being reborn as the child of a popular idol such as Ai. As one of Ai’s No. 1 fans, Gorou was very protective of her well-being. Now, they’ve been reborn and given a second chance at life as the children of an up-and-coming idol. Learning about Gorou and Sarina as characters, especially Sarina’s tragic backstory, makes the supernatural premise more relatable. The audience gets to know them better as characters before their reincarnations.

OSHI NO KO SYMBOLISES A PROPER ADAPTATION

Some anime adaptations miss the mark in their early episodes because they fail to properly adapt the early chapters of the story and hook the viewers. Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest is the perfect example of an anime adaptation that butchered the source material in its first episode, so it lost a lot of the impact that ran through the rest of the series because it lacked a proper setup and foundation. Oshi no Ko took its time with the early chapters for the anime adaptation, and that properly developed and established the characters. The extra time for the premiere made Ai Hoshino more like a secondary protagonist instead of a supporting player, which strengthens the rest of the season where the reincarnated Gorou, embodying Ai’s son Aqua, seeks to solve the mystery behind his mother’s murder.

OSHI NO KO SHOWS THE UGLY SIDE OF THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

Similar to the premise of The Idol, Oshi no Ko shines a reflection on the darker side of the entertainment industry and the lifestyle of working pop idols, showing its less-than-glamorous aspects, especially the predatory nature of its overseers, the way it exploits young people, and how it can have a devastating effect on their mental health. The series does not shy away from the vapid nature of fan culture, and how fans and social media users treat actors and pop artists as nothing more than commodities who can be discarded at their leisure. After Ai Hoshino is tragically murdered, the social media reactions are callous and startlingly realistic, with people posting nasty fake rumours, hashtags, and memes for the sake of entertainment. After Ruby loses her mother Ai, her viewing of the social media trolling is another devastating emotional blow. The way the show depicts public reactions to tragedies in the entertainment industry rings very true to real life, but adds a layer of authenticity to the series despite the supernatural aspects and premise.

OSHI NO KO PRODUCES AUTHENTIC CHARACTERISATION

Oshi no Ko does a fantastic job with its depiction of its central characters, who are fully fleshed out and realized. Series director Daisuke Hiramaki and writer Jin Tanaka spent a great deal of time developing Ai Hoshino as a fully realized character and a genuine individual with hopes and dreams before her tragic death. The show establishes that while there is a mysterious side to Ai that is yet to be fully revealed, her love for her children was genuine. Another great standout character in the series is Kana Arima. Kana is a child actor who is known as a prodigy for her ability to cry on cue, and the series depicts many events from Kana’s perspective. Kana represents a young person who found stardom at a very early age. Kana continues to act into her teen years, but her career and stardom are waning. Kana showcases childhood stardom's negative effects on a person who is forced to grow up working in a toxic industry. Aqua propels the narrative as he spearheads solving the mystery behind his mother’s murder. His scenes are always entertaining due to his weirdly mature and "precocious" nature since he literally has the mind of an adult in a child's body. He’s even humorously nicknamed "Precocious" by the director Gotanda due to his ability to carry on incredibly intelligent conversations as a three-year-old. Aqua embodies the strong, confident, smart anime protagonist who is laser-focused on his goal. At times, Aqua can come off as a manipulative, cold individual, committing shady, sketchy acts, even if he does so in the hopes of protecting his sister and uncovering his mother’s murderer. Gotanda acts as both comic relief for the series and a mentor of sorts for Aqua. While the show explores dark thematic material, Gotanda provides well-placed humor to lighten the mood throughout the series. Gotanda still lives with his mother, who humorously dotes on him and interrupts whenever Aqua visits.

CONCLUSION

Oshi no Ko is a joy to watch and adds another level of intrigue and drama to the unfolding mystery. The staff clearly shows passion for Akasaka’s work in bringing the manga to vivid life.

Thank you for reading and please check out the manga :)

What is the definition of Peak Fiction?

Answer: Vinland Saga

After the expansiveness of the first season of Vinland Saga, crossing continents as dramatizations of historic figures cross paths, it’s tempting to say that the anime’s second season is of a much smaller scale. But Vinland Saga season 2 feels epic in a different sense, as director Shūhei Yabuta and writer Hiroshi Seko deliver some of the series’ most breath-taking drama within the rather expansive boundaries of a farm. Since the first season, Thorfinn has been enslaved by a wealthy man who has styled himself as a benevolent slave owner, letting his indentured farmhands work off what ... he paid for them and earn their freedom back. The farm is a space that shelters Thorfinn from his past as a berserker. But his friendship with Einar, another slave working the same bit of land, reminds Thorfinn of what he destroyed as a warrior, prompting him to consider how he might stop it from happening again.

This arc of Vinland Saga is lovingly referred to with the tongue-in-cheek moniker “Farmland Saga” by some fans, in part because of its narrative decompression, its smaller scope, and its pull away from warfare in favor of seeing Thorfinn gradually change. It emphasizes long passages of time in his clearing of forest land, and the meditative nature of it — growing something instead of pillaging.

The first season was compelling for how far down it dragged Thorfinn, hollowed by his experiences and commitment to being a mercenary for his father’s killers, tragically destroying himself as he relentlessly pursued revenge on his enemy and paternal figure Askeladd. There’s fun in seeing the show’s fondness for historical drama, its little background details, and the license it takes with character motivations as it adapts Makoto Yukimura’s manga series. But a lot of the most compelling moments come from its continuing engagement with the leading tenets of feudalism and Viking culture (“might makes right,” as a participant in a losing battle puts it). Season 2 is compelling for how it rebuilds him anew, and how long it’s willing to take to do so.

Multiple routes of escape from the ruinousness of Viking culture open up to Thorfinn as Einar draws him out of his shell. There’s Christianity, which gradually plays into Thorfinn’s route to pacifism, overhearing passages and recognizing his father Thors’ idea of a “true warrior,” someone who fights for peace rather than conquest of person or land. And then there’s Einar, who grew up on a farm that was raided multiple times by people like Thorfinn and the mercenaries he rode with. Einar stokes a rebellious and earnest spirit within him — headstrong, and perhaps naive, but synthesized with all those other voices it’s the beginning of an actual future for Thorfinn beyond simply surviving.

The cruelty of the culture that Thorfinn grew up in was always at the show’s forefront as its first season leaned into the ugliness of combat and conquest. Even when it found some thrills in the moment, there was a compelling contradiction in both marveling at the young fighter doing cool battle stuff even as it eroded his soul.Most battle scenes in Vinland Saga are often arduous, with imagery and squishy sound design often in emphasis of the wound over of the action that caused it. Sweeping, painterly countryside vistas become extreme close-ups on injured characters drawn with rugged, realistic detail. It’s still fun to see headstrong brutes swagger around, but the banter always keeps an air of foreboding. The animation of the fights is flashy and often satisfying to watch, but the consequences are laid out punishingly on screen, both in the gory physical results and the emotional fallout — Thorfinn bearing plenty of both in the form of haunted dreams, gnarly scars, and some missing ear cartilage.

In the new season, with the character’s renewed perspective, such violence feels even more meaningless than it did before, especially seeing war treated as sport. It’s easier now to pay attention to the show’s more purely thrilling, bombastic action sequences, the ones it reserves for special cases. Thorfinn’s most purely heroic moment lies in him taking a beating just to find a route to conversation — his passive approach feeling practically revolutionary in a culture where people are measured by how much damage they can inflict. It’s also the clearest illustration of where Thorfinn is now compared to the first season, where committing harm to those who wronged him was his sole focus. The reason he succeeds, however, is also because he stops attempting to simply bury his past, instead embracing what he knows about fighting. To take less harm from the incoming punches, he rolls with the blows: He’s turning the other cheek, but strategically.

It’s one way in which his father’s idealism begins to merge with Askeladd’s and Einar’s pragmatism, and indicative of Thorfinn’s newfound agency. He now clearly knows his long-term goals and a semblance of what methods he could use; he’s a long way from the easily manipulated, violent young man of before.

Thorfinn is hardly the first anime pacifist born into warrior culture; plenty of soft-hearted shonen protagonists have wrestled with violence being the default answer to conflict and desperately sought alternatives (take the most popular example of feudal warfare solved by empathy and a good chat: Naruto and his “Talk-No-Jutsu”). Even the hollowness and existential ennui of a career defined by physical might is the subject of parodic series like One-Punch Man.

Perhaps what sets Vinland Saga apart is the unhurried length at which Yabuta and Seko agonize over Thorfinn’s questions about how to unlearn cultural violence; its second season is more patiently paced than the first in its exploration on how Thorfinn has inflicted violence on himself by committing violence in the world. The farm, for a time, feels like purgatory: isolated from the outside world, with the promise of salvation just out of reach and the ghosts of those that Thorfinn killed constantly threatening to drag him into his own personal hell.

Other characters are also trapped: Take Arnheid, another slave on the farm with Einar and Thorfinn, but with no discernable way out simply because she’s one of the owner’s favorites. Arnheid’s story illustrates one of the better qualities of Vinland Saga: a keen interest in the interior lives of people in Thorfinn’s orbit. There’s fascinating character study that the more patient structure allows to grow even more, as even the would-be villains of the piece feel human, which lends its warrior pacifist tale some more real-world bite.

To both escape his personal hell and to make amends, Thorfinn wants to build a peaceful nation “beyond the reach of slave traders and the flames of war,” in tribute to his father’s dream. Whether or not this is possible remains to be seen, but the season’s long journey to Thorfinn believing in something, getting his agency back, and making violence his last resort rather than his first, feels propulsive. “I don’t have any enemies” might not sound that profound coming from anyone else, but the road leading up to it is Vinland Saga’s most thrilling journey so far.

10/10 Highly recommend this peak series

CHAINSAW MAN REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*

CHAINSAW GOAL: Straight of the chainsaw we see an OVERLY UNIQUE and RELATABLE goal from Denji. He is a 16 year old boy who wants to be with a girl and live a normal life. We already start with a subversion trope already. (9/10)

CHAINSAW PRODUCTION: MAPPA, you are outstanding, 12 endings... 12 ENDINGS to incorporate the theme of every episode, that is such dedication and I love it because and it's chaotic writing and Tarantino-esque action overall is nothing short of phenomenal. (10/10)

CHAINSAW CHARACTERS: Denji is an intriguing protagonist who is masterfully written as a teenager striving for his goal. In ... the very first episode he is killed then saved by a very cute dog called Pochita implementing Peace and Tragedy at the same time. Moving on the other episodes we see the main antagonist Miss Makima who is looking down on Denji. Despite not really doing as much she is indeed a very mysterious woman. I LOVE MYSTERY. I love Aki's powers and the reason why he became a devil hunter. Power is best waifu and has an amazing personality. I don't want anyone to argue even though MAPPA gave us some nice scenes of Miss Makima (Chef's Kiss). (9/10)

CHAINSAW CONCLUSION: After completing 12 episodes I must say Chainsaw Man has been nothing short of fantastic. The story and the way it has been adapted from the already masterful manga is just delightful. Who says this anime needs a remake? ACCEPT GREATNESS. (10/10)

MANGA RECOMMENDATION? YES

WELL DONE MAPPA AN OVERALL 9.5/10 FOR PERFORMANCE

LETS MOVE TO COUR 2 CHAINSAW FANS!!!

CAUTION: This review is based on the last three episodes of Mob Psycho 100 III and some parts of the last two seasons.


"Just because you have psychic powers Mob that doesn't mean you are better than anyone else, it's about who you are as a person from the inside as well as on the outside" - From the so called Greatest Psychic of the 21st Century, Goat Reigen.

QUOTE MEANING: This quote above is the clear message lore of what Mob Psycho is all about. Across the three seasons you will learn about what it means to be a better person and rather not try to ... show off how special you are. You can be the best in sports or in a certain subject but at the end of the day, does that truly make you better than anyone else morally?

PLOT: I don't want to talk in first person but I must say Mob Psycho gives you one of the most unique and immersive plots you will ever read in the shonen genre. Adapted from the legend who did One Punch Man, ONE himself knows how to create such excellent storytelling. It creates in-depth world building within great interactions between the main cast of the series.

ANIMATION: Still some of the best animation you will ever see especially from Studio Bones. Remember the Second Season and that TELEPORTATION SCENE OMG.

CHARACTERS: Great, well-crafted and understandable development. Reigen, despite being a fraud learns from Mob on how 'not all things we can have come towards us'. Mob being the strongest esper learns that 'just because people around you don't have the same antics as you you don't judge them'. Man there are more characters who have developed so much.

MUSIC: Season 1 BANGER, SEASON 2 BANGERR, Season 3 BANGERRR


CONCLUSION: 10/10 From what I've this third season of Mob Psycho is the last season.

'It's a real shame that a series like this one comes to an end'.

Yo Malum how would you describe this third season of Love Is War?


Answer: ULTRA ROMANTIC BABY


The “Love is War” series is a very popular rom-com anime series, and its latest season became a hit right after its first episode.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War sticks mostly to the original manga. However, it occasionally follows its own chronological events in the story. This is due to the manga’s frequent flashbacks to specific events in Kaguya’s and other characters’ pasts, which are then integrated into the anime to allow for more linear storytelling.

However, the final major sections of the manga covered by Season 2 were Chapters 100 and 101, ... which feature the “Cell Phone Arc.” As a result, fans can expect to see events like Chapter 105’s midterm exams, Chapter 108’s rap battle, and probably even the numerous Christmas parties depicted in Chapters 149 to 156 featured in Season 3, along with plenty of other stories thrown in for good measure.

Like Love is War, other seasons of this season also contain plenty of humour that will make you laugh out loud. One of the funniest scenes is when Chika learns rap from Mc Miyuki. This scene is shown in Episode 5, whose segment is “Chika Fujiwara Wants to Beat a Rhythm”. This scene again proved why this series stands as one of the funniest anime to ever exist.

When it comes to the third season’s story, the plot moves along nicely. Because their creator knows when they have to give you a laugh and when they give you heart touching emotions. They very precisely show you emotional scenes that will touch your heart.

The most overwhelming aspects are its characters. Each character is very unique and loves to watch in their own way. Still, if you want to know why you should watch it? How will you forget “Chika Fujiwara”? This one character is capable of making the show worthwhile. Chika Fujiwara is one of the most entertaining characters in anime. So, I personally recommend you to watch this series because it is definitely worth it.

What's the score?

Answer:10/10

Peak Romance Comedy

"Quirky but delightful"

Aharen-san wa Hakarenai is a comedic slice-of-life anime between a tall "scary" guy and a soft-spoken petite gal.

There are a ton of hilarious moments that are out of the cliché slapstick, at the very least I was taken by surprise by how wondrous this show truly is. Overall this anime has been great.

The relationships between both protagonists are really wholesome and I am eager to read the manga to see their journey as countless individuals have been telling me to have a look in my own spare time.

I definitely recommend this anime to anyone who just wants to sit and just experience the ... good old friendship power trope.

A great show nonetheless 9/10

"I have done a lot of bad things in my life whilst being a general
Before I am about to die I wish to reborn into a world filled of peace and not anger.
I want to be a changed man
I want to change the way I see things in life
Please God please I beg of you"

Dies*

Last Words Of Kongming, "The Great General Of Three Kingdoms"

...
Paripi Koumei is an interesting anime that takes the typical formula of 'reincarnation' to a whole new level and makes it 10 times better than it's usual counterparts. In the full cohort of 12 episodes this anime has surprised me not only in terms of character development but also in personality change as well of the main protagonist, otherwise known as Kongming.

The animation and artwork is really good, but not great at some times when they have to used unnecessary 3d for rotation of the characters in this show. Otherwise everything else is great except for this aspect.

The music is really lively and does make you feel like you are in Tokyo which is a very rare thing to do.

The character interactions in this show are top-notch and Kongming is really developing his relationships with other people regardless of what they look like and where they came from. I can already tell that Kongming is a changed man. His ideologies of being a strict General ordering people to kill but in his new life he learns about the modern stuff that exist in Japan and absolutely gets along with these ideals.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the show for what it is and how every character can co-operate to the main MC despite the deeds he may have done in the past.

Paripi Koumei is a great anime an i recommend this show to those who want to see a change in life (but not only be Reborn like Kongming did in this show) but also change the way you view things in nature forthcoming towards the future.

"Trust me this is not another typical reborn show my friend"

9/10

It’s all part of the “ecchi” anime genre. These stories deal with sexually sensitive and scandalous topics, but they do not cross the line into pornography at any point. The anime has a lot of these things and will be fun to watch.

In this manner, it appears that many of the same things will occur as previously iwth the other season as well. There will be turf battles if our main character does not keep them at bay. This is how we maintain order. Watching the spinoff of the series with your lover is probably not a smart idea. In most of the movie, there ... will be fight scenes and shots of young women in revealing clothes.

New warriors desire to join the arena to protect their school from opponents, as they have in every version of “Ikki Tousen.” “Shin Ikki Tousen” is no exception, and in this season a new protagonist shows up and doesn't disappoint at all.

New allies and adversaries arrive with a new heroine. You may always acquire the first four volumes of the manga series, all of which are authored by Yuji Shiozaki, to get a sense of who will likely end up in the cast. It’s also a good time to pick up some of the older “Ikki Tousen” volumes to get caught up before the next anime season of this show comes out.

Good Show Overall!

Review of Summertime Render after EP 7*

Underdog of the season Yay or Nay?

Answer: Yay

Pros:

Ajiro Shinpei dreams of his childhood friend Ushio. In his dream, she asks him to protect her sister Mio. Startled awake, Shinpei falls face first into a large-chested woman on the ferry to Hitogashima with him, who slaps him for his trouble. At home, Mio greets him, but a small bicycle accident give Shinpei a glimpse of her underwear. None of this seems important, but it will be. It will become the first of the signs that something here is not right at all.

We learn about Ushio's death, and the mysteries surrounding ... it, when Shinpei's old friend Sou tries to explain that Ushio may have been murdered. The next morning the family of the girl Ushio saved has disappeared. Strange marks are showing up on the ground in town. And people around him seem not right somehow. Shinpei follows Mio into the hills below the local shrine where he comes across a women he's seen before -the woman from the ferry. Only now, this woman is holding a gun and its trained on Mio! Mio shoots the woman...and then she turns on Shinpei.

When Shinpei comes to on the morning he returned to the island, he knows that whatever is going on has consequences way beyond Ushio's funeral. He can't tell if the people around him are real or shadows. But he knows that every time he is killed, time resets and he has another chance to solve the mystery.

The first seven episodes of Summer Time Rendering is a can't-put-down kind of watch. Once the plot took hold, I knew I was in for the whole journey. As Shinpei comes closer to the truth, the details run ahead of what we know, drawing us into a paranormal story with dark intent.

There is quite a lot of violence in this show as the characters are killed in several ways, most quite messily, but the violence is temporary, as Shinpei's death resets the story once again. To what point, though, we don't find out until the end of the show, which adds yet another mystery.

Both art and story present a nice balance between the people, the setting, the action, and the horror. Heavy line weight in the action and horror scenes lends a darkness to all of the underlying mystery, while the daily life scenes are so innocuous that one could be forgiven for wanting to visit this pleasant little island.

Cons:

The only discordant note is the fanservice. If you are among that percentage of people whom fanservice serves, rest assured that all the main female characters have the requisite amount of T and A in the right places. Girls wear bathing suits and take showers, boobs are big, underwear is striped, God's in his heaven and all's right with the world. If like me, you find fanservice an insistent hand waving in your face while you're just trying to read, dammit, I can assure you that the plot is strong enough that Summer Time Rendering is still worth reading. It's very easy to convince me to read the manga of this show; it's much more difficult to convince me to keep reading after all the major female characters have been pointlessly reduced to breast comments and crotch shots. And ultimately, Summer Time Rendering's combination of mystery, action, and horror kept me reading until I complete this show in one sitting. Shinpei and his friends are driven to learn the truth, and now, I am as well.

Thank you for reading :)