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So, in a nutshell, it is a pretty good manga. And i mostly hated it. As of the moment i write this, there is no "drama" tag for this. How come? The core of it is melodrama. A pure melo. So, don't go into it thinking it is a shojo adventure romance like... well "Akagami no Shirayuki-hime" for example. Although the comparison is weird and it has nothing to with it, i felt that it was closer to... "the human centipede"... maybe you will understand why if you read the whole review.

And gosh, i am fairly intimidated before writting this review. I am not sure ... if i will manage to do it properly. How can i hate a manga that i felt was good, despite the fact that i could not identify any clear major objective flaws? First of all, as you may guess, your appreciation of this will depend on what you look for. I have no doubts whatsoever that some amongst you will fall hard in love with this manga. I am not one of you though. This review is meant to present the work in a way that will hopefully help you understand its nature. And i will try to limit the spoilers. It's not going to be a sinecure...

So, i guess that i will start with the usual review of stuff, and afterwards, list the reasons why i hated it.

Let's start with the most important: the writing. The setting is a mere excuse to tell a story. There are 4 countries surrounded by more countries. But beyond knowing that there is more than these 4 countries, we know hardly anything about the world beyond. The countries have super random and usual names like "Kou", "Ah", Sou" and "Do". Most of the story revolves around the royal families, almost all refered to by their title rather than a name (Queen Kou, Emperor Do, Prince Sou, Princess Ah, etc). What is more, it is your usual, run of the mill chinese-like setting with hardly anything that makes it unic or different. It is easy to see that the author didn't even try. You absolutely can't make it more generic than that. And no, this is not a reason why i hated it. Because why not? The story is very much character centric. So the setting being bland allows for a strong focus on the struggles of the characters themselves. What is more, bland doesn't mean shallow. And it being bland and strongly inspired from China makes it relatable to a japanese reader, who will feel at home, and understand instinctively all the little codes we may not know in the west (yes the author won't explain everything, and sometimes, some details may be confusing to us westerners. But this is a usual problem with such settings). Using such a bland setting is, too, a massive advantage for telling such a story, because your reader is at home and you don't need massive lore dumps on top of the rest. And so, while the setting is generic, it works well enough simply because using reality as a basis is the way to write a functional fantasy without becoming obnoxioulsy wordy or pretentious.

So, so far, so good. Simple is best. Especially since the story itself is NOT simple. It is pretty much impossible to predict what will happen. This is why i had to reach the end to be fully certain that i hated it. The first 4 chapters are 100 pages long. Most of the rest are around 65. Yes, that means that if you count on the basis of a usual monthly publication, this manga would span 90+ chapters. So, it is not short. It is worth noting that the beginning is a different beast compared to the rest. The first 9 chapters or so feel very much like a shoujo fantasy full of romance subtext and omnipresent fan-service. The situations felt stereotyped and Hakusei (one of the 2 MCs) annoyed me immediately. What is more, as is often the case, you could tell that the author was still testing waters, as her storyboards feel shaky, and characters display emotions that simply feel wrong. Like a big smile for something sad when it should have been a wry smile or something. So, frankly, the only reason i didn't drop it early on is because i was under the impression that there was more to it... And then, after 4 or 5 volumes...

... the hidden beast appears. Mark my words. This is a MELODRAMA in a dramaturgic sense. If you ever read BS like "Hamlet" or any work by Racine, you will get what i mean.The whole work is built around the dramatisation of situations and characters. They suffer, and then they suffer more, they are fated to suffer, and you are told that suffering is what they need, and so, suffering is their life. And mind you, the author does it well. I could tell that she was trying to stress her readers out constently, but she does it decently well. There will be battles, but not that many. It is more the MC who is a victim and fights her victim status to become a winner. More or less. When i warn about the melodrama, i mean that despite the fact that this is shoujo, it is heavy. And despite the fact that the author is a woman, prepare for (almost)rape scenes. While she never goes all out with (almost)rape scenes, and while i fully endorse her respect for her setting (women were objects to be owned like cattle or horses back in the day), it is was still a hard read for me. Especially the way no one ever thinks badly of these guys. Yes, this makes sense with the setting, but be warned that the author is not timid.

Despite being a shoujo, and despite the fact that there are plenty of shoujo filters and shoujo monologues, the content of these monologues oftentimes are... not quite shoujo-like. Actually, beyond the filters and romance fan-service, this sh*t is not a shoujo at all. Overall, the dialogues are good. Frankly, the dialogues tell a lot about the characters, and how they are double-faced. Or triple-faced... It is witty, serve the characters well, and make for interesting dynamics during interactions. Another good thing about the story and the writing is that we explore quite a bit of the 4 Kingdoms. It is not a "country A against country B" classic setting. And when it comes to writing... i have to say a word about the characters.

Again, it's all good. The characters make sense. And despite the author being a woman, she seems to understand men like me pretty well. Some situations reminded me of how i felt with towards some of my ex-gfs. She depicted accurately the differences between men and women when it comes to psychology and understanding of relationships. Reading this reminded me of some cringe i had to go through in real life, and even of some extremely painful feelings i had back in the day. This made me feel terrible. Maybe because it is a shoujo, she doesn't go all the way with this either. I would have been more extreme than the guy, who quite patiently goes through much more than i could. The emperors are depicted as inhuman beings. There is this idea that an emperor is not human. Nothing new right? Except the way it is done there... is quite new. Emperor are refered as dragons. Since they are not humans, you may notice that their faces are hardly ever fully drawned. They become a sort of mask where only the mouth is truly visible and the rest is obscured by the shadow of their hat. This is very interesting honestly. What better way to depict how they are not human and don't have human emotions than obscuring their traits. Traits define identiy. Both trough emotions and looks. Here, they become "vessels". For something inhuman called a "King". This adds to this unease that surrounds emperors in this manga. But overall, it is all cleverly done. This is what i would expect from a japanese mangaka. I so love the intelligence with which they do things.

Ok, the rest now... The least important, so it will be fast. Drawings are good enough. The best part is that while the setting is simple, the backgrounds are generally detailed. Which conforts what i said earlier: plain doesn't mean shallow. The author is not up there when drawing battles though. Probably one would need many assistants to do it correctly. It is enough to have a feel for it, but you won't find an "Arlsan Senki" level of detail of the battles or battlefields. The strategies are... overall decent. It is good enough to be believable most of the time, and so, i guess it is ok. My biggest problem is with the very first battle. This one feels awkward. But the later ones fare better.

So, now, i did praise it quite a bit. So why did i hate it? Ok, here i go, with a list:

1) Early on we are made to hate a guy. And oh is he worth hating. He is the worst, clearly. You will hate him, too. But then... the story takes a turn that makes it seem like this guy was right all along, that wathever he did was right, and that he was a great guy because he had this determination of sorts... and it becomes clear that our MC should aim to be the same kind of person. Because this is the natural way of things for royalty. I mean, i love settings that sort of corrupt characters, from a naïve state of mind to a battle-hardened one. But here, this is something else. The overall mood of the setting promotes a kind of corruption that aims to reach a lower state of existence. Does it make sense? Sometimes, in medias, you have naïve characters that learn to make hard decisions. They grow. They gain charisma. They lose their naïvety, may discover a ruthless side to them, or even break down, but they don't necessarily go against nature. But here, society pressures for the idea that oppressing the weak is morally good if you have responsabilities, and anyone reaching for the throne will have to learn how to do it properly.

Early on, we learn that even if you have a good heart, you may need to be capable of killing your brother without showing emotion. And such a thing is never condemned, never berated, never called evil, and as far as i coud tell, the sole outlook on this i saw was in the line of: "this guy did good and has what it takes". I mean, most characters commit betrayals, atrocities or slaughters to some degree and there is not a single one that will have a problem with it. Unless it endangers the kingdom, but even then... that's not too big a deal. If you are born royalty, you can only be a "monster" (not in the sense horrible person, but in the sense "inhuman"). This is what being a dragon is like. And because this is what being a dragon is all about, even our rebellious MC with have to face this reality one way or another and choose her path in life, since we all know that she was born a princess. And so, the problem is that despite being the MC that we should sympathize with, and that spurs the story forward, she became estranged to me at some point. Because she was born a princess, and because we are told repeatedly what royalty is meant to be like. Your mind will associate the two. She stopped feeling human at all to me, and hence, relatable. There was something disgusting about her that made me want to keep my distances with her, and this is partly tied to the romance aspect i will speak of next. This mix of situations made that once i had lost my involvment with her, it never came back, no matter in which direction she evolved later on. And i ended up looking at her without sympathy as a result, as if she was a beast of sorts, one that should be put down, and i could never accept to redeem her, no matter how she may have contradicted this first impression afterwards.

The author does that deliberately, and she is good at it. But i couldn't stand it and couldn't dive into her story anymore. I believe it is very dangerous to deshumanize your characters. Because we relate to stories' protagonists through our shared humanity. It is because this character i talked about at the beginning of point 1) has no humanity that we grow to hate it in chapter 1. In this same chapter 1, everything i talk about here is already hinted pretty clearly and creates the canvas for the story. But if you write a story about a horse, it will be anthropomorphized and/or humanized ("Uma Musume"? or Dreamworks' "Spirit"?). Humanity is what ties us readers to stories. And once you have deshumanized your protagonist or the expectations your readers will have of it, no matter if the character ends up being humane again, you can't really go back, it is not the same anymore. "Wall-E" is a robot but we can relate to it because it has human reactions. "Madoka" is human in a setting that is not. If she had killed Sayaka at some point, no matter how many people she protects afterwards, she would feel like a corrupted machine to me. Do you get what i mean? The way this setting and story is, pretty much from the start, all about "kings are not humans but dragons"... was a dangerous bet from the start, on the author's part.

2) The romance. The romance is everywhere. I mean everywhere. This wouldn't be a problem normally, since it doesn't impair the storytelling too much, AND it is AGAIN, well done... But... there is a but. This is the classical story of impossible romance due to social status. This makes sense. I don't hate it. But when the authors starts, twice every chapter, to use this to generate more melodrama... however well done it may be, it started to cultivate an array of negativity in me. Again, it is character centric. And psychological. And if you are like me and have no control over your sense of empathy... the suffering of the characters will end up becoming truly yours... So we are repeatedly told in details about how they suffer, what their dilemmas are, why this appears to be hopeless, and we are shown the logic that they follow that, while making sense, at long last makes you want they would just spare you the crap. I can only empathize and relate so much to a character undermining itself and making its own life a pure hell, before feeling like i sink into my own socks. Ok, i understand, i understand i said. I get it. Really i do. Something else to tell me? I get this situation, no need to go into a tear jerking monologue about it 7 or 35 times... I do get it. This insistance on making us feel the miserable despair characters go through end up making these crap feelings stick with you like crap to your shoes... That follows you everywhere. Can you imagine what characters madly in love with one another may do for love's sake in such a setting? Can you? Overall, it was well done, again. But this ended up emphasizing the melodrama around the impossible love with constant "Romeo and Juliet" undertones (i mean, undertones that let you feel like it will end like Romeo and Juliet. I doesn't, by the way, but still. I can't simply be happy feeling like crap all the time). You could do that in a more subtle way where the drama and psychology are boiling in the background. "Song of the long March" is more subtle in every aspect of the storytelling and characters psychology. You feel the situation, even when not told explicitely, and it is not hamfisted. But here, it is very "here in your face". "Get the feels, because i want you too damnit". And, tied to this 2nd point...

3) Yes. The melodrama. The melodrama as a whole is something else. This pervades every pore of this work. The author makes sure from the start that you understand that *any* character may die at *any* moment. This is the exact opposite of "One Piece" where there are no stakes. Here... well. "Everyone will die someday" is stated countless times in the story. And trust me, there is an implicit footnote that is never stated clearly that say "yes, and rather sooner than later". Yes, the author used any situation, any character, any time, and any idea to include more drama. It is not exactly... forced melodrama, since it fits in the story and with the setting, but nevertheless, she never misses an occasion to make you understand that life sucks. She adds small story elements for the sole purpose of making her story more stressful for the reader, and/or dramatic and desperate. "Ah, this is a red flag". "Ah maybe not...". "Ah, it wil probably turn out this way anyway...". I ended up reading this story feeling as if i was spending my time looking anxiously at a mailbox, expecting to receive at any moment a notice of the death of someone close to me. Did i say that i ended up feeling uneasy while reading and stopped wanting to resume reading? Why would i want to read that in my spare time? She deliberately manipulates things to create misunderstandings in her story. Not between characters. But misunderstandings from the readers. She misguides us deliberately. Part is for the sake of introducing more twists, and part is for the sake of drama and melodrama. Honestly, there is one character out there that never ends dying. You will see everything about his death over the span of several hundred pages, the sorrow that accompanies it, the before, the after, how he agonized for so damn long, how he is happy about it, how everyone feels like crap and really should, how people kill themselves as a result because they don't have any purpose for living anymore, or even how killing oneself is actualy a national sport in this, how life is torture, but still, in the end "the world is beautiful anyway"... and so on and so forth... Yes, i will probably regret reading this. I just skimmed really fast through the last 2 chapters without really reading and the one thing i can tell is: good thing i did. I mean, all the metaphysical trip is not something i can take seriously in this particular story. Stop with the tear-jerking stuff to the bitter end. There is no beyond the beyond the reason or purpose of things and people. To me, it was not an emotional bittersweet story. It was only bitter, depressing, and never sweet, and this awful feeling still lingers in my chest. I am going to put just below a criminal spoiler somewhat hidden in random text. If you want to read this manga, i warn you to never read this spoiler. But if you won't... fell free...







[SPOILER]blah blah blah je cause et dépose et blah et blah un peu de spam pour aider à cacher le méchant spoil de chez mémé if you want to read a story where basically the whole damn cast dies by the end then you are welcome oui comme je le disais c'est du melodrama et fouette la mouffette.[/SPOILER]







4) The convolution. Yet again, i never felt that it didn't make sense. But the author very clearly goes by the rule: "surprise your readers at every turn so that they will be left on the edge of their seats for more". I honestly don't know how she could include such an absurd number of twists to her story without making it look ridiculous. Because it works. But... It is f*cking exhausting... You will be thrown for a loop every 10 minutes or so. Scenes are always cut when you actually need to know what happens next, to the point that this time, i actually cringed because of it, and it is a roller-coaster. But worse in my case, it aggravates dangerously the fact that i was feeling more and more like crap while reading... Because anytime something turned out decently, i came to naturally expect another twist to mess it up again for the worse. I feel no joy in contemplating human misery or suffering, i have gone through enough of it myself for several lives, so give me something to hope for... So many twists prevented me from feeling good when i should have, and made sure i felt doubly bad when i was meant to feel bad... And yes, so many twists makes following the story an exhausting endeavor. I felt sort of out of breath, feeling pushed all around the story andl all over the place without my consent, all the time. This doesn't feel like a shoujo at all. Twists constantly cut story threads abruptely and definitely without giving you any time to digest what happened and relax, to suddenly start new ones with a sense of urgency, and then just cliffhanger the whole situation to start telling about something else entirely... This is exhausting, yes. You will probably end up skimming pages to reach a satisfying point before going back to read about the "something else". While the author manages to stuck you to her work, i felt like she had me bound on a seat and forced me to keep my eyes open to go along with her sh*t. This is mechanically very good to create in the reader the "need" to see what follows. But maybe my OCD turned that into more of a torture than it needed to be...

Honestly, are there people out there who seriously feel that it is an endearing emotional trip with a touching romance? Who? Denounce yourself. THe story is good, but i never read or saw such heavy drama. Actually, i tend to avoid this genre... but there was no "drama" tag for this. And so... i expected something different. Make sure you understand what kind of story it is before starting. Don't think it is a "somewhat dramatic but endearing adventure with romance". It is a "filthy and bloody melodrama centered around the concepts of obligation and despair, with a mortality rate definitely higher than in Games of Thrones (or what i heard about it, since i didn't watch it)". In my case, i feel like i have gone through a seriously masochistic phase that i will have to pay the price for down the line. As several days later, images and things from this manga still flash through my mind despite myself, and awake this terrible feeling i am desperate to get rid of.

Overall, this author mostly masters her subject. She is clearly talented. Aside from the first few chapters that feel shaky, she mastered her craft and skillfully managed to reach all the goals i suspect she had with this story. But... it won't be for everyone. At least, it wasn't for me. Is it really a shoujo?

I won't repeat what i said in my anime review. I compared "Juuni Kokuki" to "The Lord of the Rings". This comparison stands.

One review here calls "Juuni Kokuki" a "disordered mess". I am puzzled. The title is "Juuni Kokuki". Why is it that one ends up surprised that the author talks about the Twelve Kingdoms, and not just one of them? Tolkienn did the same with the "Middle Earth". He wrote "Bilbo the Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings", "Tales of the 1st and 2nd Age", and a compendium of mythological stories made into "The Silmarillon" by his nephew (i think). This is what a ... litterary fantasy cycle is meant to look like. Juuni Kokuki works the same way as Tolkienn's works and many other fantasy cycles. Millenia of History, countless characters, and story threads in different eras and times. But each story thread could be adapted in a 30 to 100 episodes anime. So, it is not like stories are truncated or "messy". This is what you would expect of an actual world: it is not about only one character. How many stories are worth telling in regards to even our own world? What of Socrates and how he was executed? What of Darius, the persian king, and his son Xerxès? Of Alexander of Macedonia? Hatchepsout? What of Mulan, or the 1st chinese emperor, what of Joan of Arc, Guillaume the Conqueror, Gengis Khan or Harald? What of the Epic of Gilgamesh written 4000 years ago and the city of Uruk he is meant to have ruled? This is what creating a world from scratch is like. If Ono Fuyumi were to write more, she would probably write more different stories. Because in 2019, she published 4 more volumes that conclude the story of Taïki and Taï. There is no loose ends per say anymore.

I have been feeling conflicted for a very long time now. "Juuni Kokuki" is just so good that i could never have enough of Youko's story. The one i discovered through the anime, the main story of the litterary cycle. But is there really no conclusion? I believe there is a conclusion. She reached the place where she was meant to be. I crave more, but at the same time, my imagination have been working so hard these past 12 years, that i would probably be disappointed by whatever the author may have in mind for a possible sequel, unless she makes her destiny grand. Writing what follows would possibly hurt the story as a whole. The author told us a story, and the epilogue is actually up to us. This is frustrating because i crave for more and always will and can probably never be satiated, but it is probably for the best. I wish i could have the answer to this one question Rakushun asks Youko in En. This one question that is about the future. But again, answering it would probably defeat the purpose of even writing this story.

When thinking of "Juuni Kokuki", i always have an erhu play in my head. This is a millenia old chinese instrument for those who don't know (look it up yourself). I still see myself walking around this place with this erhu music floating in the air. There is a sense of peace to this. A sense of a harsh, simpler, but fulfilling life. I have travelled so much in my imagination thanks to these novels that any actual travel in this world feels less appealing. There is nothing that is "in ya face" in Juuni Kokuki. This is merely a believable world not unlike our own (China), with its imperfections and inherent charm. And destinies that cross one another's path in what is seeemingly en endless cycle. But some threads are meant to last more than others, and this is what makes them remarkable and remembered fondly by the inhabitants of the kingdoms. And what Juuni Kokuki offers is a glimpse at some of those destinies in various times and places.

But quite frankly, if you feel like it, you can simply read the books that are about Youko. There is probably 6 of them. Her story is intertwined with others, too, and maybe reading the Taiki story thread too would be satisfying. You don't need to read everything. I will possibly never read everything. But whether you read these stories or make new ones in your mind, the Twelve Kingdoms are vast and long lasting. You can never be certain what kind of stories may unfold in their legends. And neither the "youma" nor the gods under Tentei will ever show you their world, or tell you of their nature or their truth. And very few are the lucky ones invited to see this world above the Unkai, the "sea of clouds", where gods are rumoured to govern the world from. You will have to walk this path feeling like a mortal to whom some secrets will never be revealed. But we live with it, as they do. Or... you may dive in the retold stories of those in the know. And you will then need a fertile imagination to see and feel what they did. But if you do, there is no telling how much of yourself will remain stuck in the Kingdoms forever, as a kaikyaku trapped for life by a one way shôku.

It is about a world made up of Twelve Kingdoms. With its heroes, villains, myths, culture, values, and time flow. You won't see dragons, waifus, orcs, submissive elves masochists, crass humour, otaku fantaisies, japanese exports everywhere in fantasy land, or anything like that. In many ways, Juuni Kokuki never had this "anime vibe". It always had this "fantasy cycle" vibe instead. Because this is what it is.

Ok. I rated the series 9/10. But this film is bad. Plain and simple. Why you ask? I will try to illustrate why... and i will probably reference what they did with the original series as well as usual japanese tropes and well-known cultural aspects. Because this was done by japanese after all, it is hard to take it out of context for me.

I disabled the spoiler warning because i don't consider what i wrote here to be a problem when it comes to this. But here is a disclaimer anyway. This film is not about the plot, it is about tank battles, brought about ... by a lame excuse of a plot. The synopsis already states how it starts, and we already know how it will end. So, the synopsis will be your biggest spoiler, in my opinion. I will mostly discuss the characters that spur the bland plot forward, and tank battles and their quirks. If you consider these to be spoilers, then read another review. If you need some mild spoilers to determine if you are likely to like or hate this, then read all you want.

Plot: 3
As i said above, there is hardly any plot to spoil. The guy who promised to the council president that Ooarai will not be dissolved if it wins the nationals never had any intention to follow through with his promise, and so, we start from scratch all over again. We will be introduced to the Shimada iemoto and her daughter, Arisu. There will be less plot and less interesting writing. Everything else will be about 'more of it'. The battle will involve more tanks, be more difficult, against an older team, that achieved more. There will be more explosions, more stupid manoeuvers, cannons will become hand guns that can fire much more often, tracks will be much more solid, tanks will become Citroen rallye cars, drivers will all have Sabastien Loeb expertise, so there will be more skidding, more flying stuff, more duck costumes, more destructions, more idiots, more lolis, more evils schemers, and more than anything, more cringe. There are some nice bits here and there, mostly when it comes to Miho and Maho, which is why i rate it 3.

The tank battles are the worst so far. Even 30T tanks are piloted like sports cars and Alston Martin. Every rule they stated and protected in the original series and detailed in 'Shoukai Shimasu' are thrown out the window for the sake of showcasing more 'Oomph': more skidding, more explosions, more shots, more ludicrous techniques. 5 tanks can manage such a heavy fire that you may believe 20 are firing. But no, they simply fire every 3 secondes. Not 20, as was the case before. If you want to see hairy pursuits of tanks on a roller coaster, where they can actually advance and climb steep inclines easily without skidding (how convenient) or even having their tracks making contact with anything, you are welcome. If you want to see tanks flying or throwing other tanks in the airs, or making a 180° skidding half turn on the beach's sand as if it was a skating rink, you are welcome. If you want to see a large and cumbersome tank turning around 360 degrees while advancing and shooting in 3 directions almost like a machine gun while at the same time dodging every attack, you are welcome. By all means, watch this, you will love it. This sh*t is full of this kind of cr*ap.

While the base series asked for a certain degree of suspension of disbelief, there was a consistent level of exaggeration that defined a norm for what we could expect to see. Here, it is all over the place. They stopped trying to make sense. The in-world logic is shattered to bits and you now have to watch not considering how things will unfold depending on the situation, but considering that anything may happen... Because there are no rules anymore. You can't expect a light tank to outpace a heavy tank anymore. Everything here subverts the expectations you came to have when it comes to battles and in-world logic after watching 'Girld und panzers'. In my case, this destroyed my interest for the tank battles so bad that it became a complete chore to watch. I already disliked it when i first watched it long ago, but now... it is beyond this.

Characters: 3
Here, i rate the new characters, mostly. The old ones are just there, and they do their usual stuff. The Morals Committee has a pretty funny screentime at some point, and as i stated above, you can understand much better the relationship between Miho and Maho here. Almost everything else is so bad that i can only rate it below 0. It is not 'Infinite Stratos' level of cringe, but i can't see anything that is any good nonetheless. Obviously, the worst offenders are newly introduced characters. You will have the mysterious, wise finn girl that appears but is all about unanswered riddles for the sake of pretending to be deep. But she is basically only that: the weirdo with her instrument that appears and disappears like Zorro (the actual Zorro, duh). You will have the blue-eyed russian blonde that speaks only broken russian all along but suddenly reveals that she is so fluent with Japanese that she speaks it without any accent, which will be the start of a cringey, tear-jerking moment of utter stupidity that will make you question how Pravda ever won any battle to begin with... But worst of all is the ministry guy and the loli pandering figures.

The ministry guy is a schemer. He is evil. He wants to close Ooarai. He will go far to undermine them. Why? Well... who t** f*** gives a sh*t about why? He is evil, period. Not once his motivations are exposed, or any logical reason is given for him being so stubbornly opposed to something that should hardly be relevant for him. And again, he is never properly retributed despite existing for the sole purpose of being hated. I pity the seyiuu who was given a non-character but still has to suffuse life in this empty, 2D shell. If anything, he comes up with pretty nasty plots. But he is merely there to be the bad guy that gives an excuse for the lame plot to unfold.

As for the loli... it is even worse... Not only the archetype is uninteresting, but it has been forcefully pasted on top of the GuP cast... despite GuP not being K-ON. On top of being much more questionable than K-ON. It does'nt fit GuP because GuP is not a loli anime in the first place. It is an afterthought only meant to have a loli at disposal to use for promotional material. And so, it stands out in the worst possible way as a creep bait. One needs to question why lolis even exist in anime and what a lolicon is. There is nothing wrong in liking cutesy or moe animes. But in some cases... it can become creepy. Arisu is THE loli you have seen in every loli anime, down to the chara design. She is the cute, shy, small type, the type who has a toddler's level of fascination for teddy bears. But there is worse, and here is a major problem i have with Arisu. Oorai is supposed to oppose university students. Meaning, adults. But, you know, adults can't really make for proper lolis when it comes to pandering. Unless she is underage or looks to be underage, it won't work as a loli. So, do you hear the writers here?

Writer 1: "Ah, we have a problem. She is meant to be in university. We want to sell to creeps, but creeps are not aroused by women stronger than them, or adult girls... what should we do?".
Writer 2: "I know... how about we make her a genius girl that skipped high school? This way she will be even younger than Miho. That means, we can emphasise her petite build, her cutesy, and push the genius stereotype we always push in this case: geniuses are shy, they don't speak much and only in a cute voice when they do, and they may love teddy bears like my 3 years old. And on top of that we have an excuse to make her OP during the match".
Writer 1: "Oh yeah... This way we will be able to showcase more of everything. It will be intense indeed. And... our customers will be allowed to fantasize over a university student instead of a grade schooler. We will be able to protect them from sad feelings of guilt. As japanese, we need to consider others' feelings after all... And... well... anything that makes money is not a waste."

The one good new character here is Bocco. The Teddy Bear character. That is honestly genius concept. Except that it is only good as a concept. If they were to make more out of this, it would become cringe, since the base idea behind is: 'Bocco is weak, Bocco is cocky, Bocco can only fail because he is Bocco, and Bocco is cute because he is Bocco, so he can never win, never change, never evolve. Rince and repeat'. But as a teddy bear background character, this is a great success.

Sound: 6
Sound related stuff is pretty good. Hirano Aya continues to be fantastic as Arisa. Izawa Shiori makes a miraculous performance with the Morals Committee. Whoever voiced the ministry guy did a good job making this non-character almost feel like one. Fukuen Misato, as the council prez, is the same genius she always was.

They tried to give sound to every last thing in there. There are countless different sounds in battles that give what you see the weight of matter. Most are good. Some, though, are plain weird. Some cannons sound like laser rifles. Some tank machinery sound like futuristic power plants. Now, there is a great variety, so, despite it being slightly disctracting at times, i will still say it is pretty good. But... The noise of cannons is rather inconsistent. Most sound like airsoft rifles... and it doesn't work at all. Battles that have no music do rely on immersive sounds to work and convey intensity. If you want an example where it is well done, watch 'Strike Witches - the film'. No music, great impact. I loved it. On the other hand, if the sound is too muffled and inconsistent, the whole battle scene ends up suffering. And quite a few battle scenes suffer from this in here. This is made even worse by the VA that sound cheerful anytime there is a high tension moment. Remember this when the biggest cannon in the battle fires. Yukari destroys every incentive to build a tense atmosphere around shock. In the original series, Miho was put under heavy stress, and the series showcased it. Naturally it would be stressful. The situation felt stressful. But not so much here.

When it comes to music and sound, there are two occurences i thoroughly enjoyed. The first one is the sound (or lack thereof) during the Miho/Maho reminiscing scene (definitely my favorite scene in the whole film). The use of sound here totally underlines the oneiric nature of the memory. This is fantastically well done, because we don't need any more, or any blabbering flashback to understand the relationship between the two. The talent to achieve that is sorely lacking is most works. Notably one i watched recently that sucks big time when it comes to this: "Yowamushi Pedal".

The second one is a very original and seemingly out of place music piece centered around the Continuance tank when they assault this 'major ennemy' during the university senbatsu battle. A bass, a stringed instrument i don't recognize, a slow pace, and the action. In my opinion, the action scene is crap (see what i wrote above about this), but the music almost makes it enjoyable. Overall, this film is a prime example of how important sound design is: it can absolutely make or undo something. And in this particular case: sometimes it makes the show, and sometimes, it is the show's undoing. Weird.

Visuals: 6
I don't care too much about visuals. Still, here are two bits... They make the best use of CGI in order to bring to life their battles. But the thing i liked most about the visuals has nothing to do with flashy stuff. It is, again, during the Miho/Maho scene. The use of colors and the fleeting impression the images on screen give off work very well with the sound and writing departments. This scene may be the simplest one in the whole film, but again, it is the best. There are some interesting camera viewpoints. Onboard a tank. From someone's perspective. From a gun's mouth... They use the fact it is 3D to add traveling, rotations, and all sorts of effects that gives the scene this punchy vibe. But, they don't go as far as crappy Hollywood directors who can only use confusing inserts to suggest actions, but don't seem to be capable of actually filming it, for whatever reason. Instead, here, It is punchy, but still understandable, most of the time. Note that i say it is 3D, but mostly what involves tank battles is. The rest is mostly 2D. The same as the series. Still, it is not always nice to look at. The movements and choregraphy work as intended, but as was already the case in the original series, many 3D environements are plain ugly. But again i can't say i care all that much...

Overall/enjoyment: 4
The worst aspect of this film is the tank battles. Actually, if you love explosions and over the top action scenes, you may love it. This film is rated 8.18 at the time i write this, so many sure love it. I sure don't. And i thought i had to provide a different perspective, for the sake of whoever wonders if they should seek this film or not. The base plot relies on the 2 worst characters in the whole series, and since it is weak to begin with, its only good perk is to even exist... This would have been even worse without even a sore excuse of a plot. To me... New characters suck (except Bocco), the plot suck, battles suck, and the only thing that ensures this was not a complete waste of time is the relationship Miho/Maho. If you look for stuff with explosions, over the top, flashy action scenes, and an entertaining Ommph effect above all else, you may enjoy this. If you are into the universe, History, character developement and interesting writting, like me, you will likely dislike this. Or even curse it to oblivion.

This is going to be difficult to review...

Because you know, i am sort of attached to 'Skip Beat'. But at the same time, as of now, it never delivered what i wanted most out of it. And it is not even because the story drags on.

'Skip Beat' has this interesting part about it that its plot is actually twofold. One is the romance. The other is about acting, cinema and stuff like that. I am most definitely NOT in the target audience. I am a guy, and by now, i am much too old to be concerned with the world of high schoolers like Kyoko. ... So, obviously, i was always there for the acting career part.

And this acting part is so damn well done... I mean it is REALLY well done. Nakamura sensei bothered to create actual scripts (good ones) for the roles Kyoko take on. From 'Dark Moon' to 'Box R', and taking into consideration Ren's role in 'Trajic marker', Nakamura certainly went out of her way to give substance to the roles and stories our characters act in. The scripts, the scenes, the characters, everything is there. And to be honest, each of of them is probably better than the script for 'Skip Beat'. Except, they wouldn't work as a Shoujo manga.

But it doesn't stop there. Nakamura-sensei goes into details about how Kyoko creates her roles. How she struggles, why she struggles. She displays acting lessons, acting dilemmas, and she knows what she talks about. The end result is absolutely thrilling. When Kyoko slowly grasps her character more and more, and becomes more and more the character itself... It is almost like watching interviews of Joaquin Phoenix before he started filming 'The Joker'. She takes the mannerisms and expressions of her characters, as if she was only half herself. I was always fascinated by acting, roleplay and everything that entails living countless lives in ones. And 'Skip beat' really provided a massive window for escapism to me. All the more so that the one good thing about Nakamura-sensei's drawing is that she manages to convey very complex emotions by drawings alone. This exceptional talent is absolutely perfect for such a story about acting. And i really, really wish she would make the best out of it.

And you saw the synopsis... Kyoko swore to reach the top. And we are teased about this. Like when Takarada projects to have her start on the world stage at some point. Kyoko meets the right persons, too. For the past 15 years, Nakamura-sensei has teased us about a story where Kyoko's career and her acknowledgement on the world stage would finally skyrocket. That would be very satisfying to me. But as of now, it is still mere teasing. It is not that Kyoko failed. It is that it didn't happen as of yet. She was told she should try for main roles, but she has yet to do so.

But the other part of the frustration comes from one common japanese trope. One i hate with a passion. I mean, i really, seriously despise this trope. It is the 'invisible hero' trope. Kuroko in 'Kuroko no Basuke' is just that, too. But actually pretty much every last japanese main character in History is like this to some extent. Secondary cast characters will make it big, be overly fawned over, photographed, admired, celebrated and all the shebang, mostly in order to emphasize how the MC is super humble in comparison. And the MC will always be at best 'on the verge of succeeding' but never will. Idol animes are a lot like that. 'BECK' is a lot like that. Even Miyafuji in 'Strike Witches' is never even in the background, and however big her achievements, she is stuck fangirling over other characters (generally unsufferable ones). Every last genre is plagued by this trope. I don't understand what the point of undermining characters for the sole reason that they are the MC even is. But it sure is widespread. Maybe this annoying trope is the reason why Kyoko's acting career is dragging so badly.

And i wouldn't be surprised if it were the case. Nakamura-sensei herself stated that she had no interest whatsoever in TV, showbiz, actors or anything. Right now she collects stones. It's great and all, but when i learned this, i started to realise why Kyoko's interviews were always skipped in the story, and hardly mentioned, and why the biggest emphasis is made on her respect of traditional Japan, and why we never really get to understand where her career stands at a given moment. We know when she earns negative points, but never when she earns good ones. Even though the synopsis is all about her 'reaching the top to make Sho regret being an ass', even though this is repeated and emphasized, even though Sho himself acknowledged this and defied her up until very recently... this is, as always in Japanese media... never fulfilled. Kyoko is never recognized in the street. There is even a joke about this where she walks amongst people who talk about a film being made in these parts, and nobody realizes she is part of it, because she disguises herself so damn well for her roles, that even her mommy couldn't tell it was her. 'Invisible Hero' syndrome. Sometimes she is even prevented to go on set by the security because they don't know she is in the main cast...

Overall, at this point, i feel like Nakamura-sensei is disconnected with her story. She is in her 50's after all. Collecting stones and trying to tell us a story about 17 years old Kyoko's romantic life? I don't know if it is because she is disconnected or because of a weird japanese idea that a 'cool japanese' is necessarily the dead-pan type that showcases no emotion because he is so damn cool... but a big development that happened around chapter 293 fell totally flat for me. The whole romance can't involve me at all at this point. And it has to do with the fact i am not the target audiance. But not only. And obviously Nakamura-sensei doesn't seem to really understand what makes an american or russian and a japanese different. Ren becomes essentially more japanese than even japanese. This is part of the reason why learning that she collects stones worries me. I do believe that one needs to widen his/her perspectives, look at the world, look up and around to tell this kind of story. But her hobbies seem worlds apart from the themes that make up her manga. I can tell that she worked pretty hard to gather data about acting and how drama are made. But the more we go into 'Skip beat', the more Kyoko's dreams seem pushed into the background. "The Sacred Lotus in the Mire", Kyoko's last work to date, isn't half as developed as a script as the others were. The role creation was hardly touched upon. And this is a lot about Ren's neverending existential crisis, which i never really cared much about.

On a brighter note, one of the strongest point in 'Skip Beat' is how sensible the character's psychology is. Ren and Kyoko's psychology is masterfully developed. Nakamura-sensei understands the human heart like no other. Because her drawing is as i said above, part of the storytelling comes without dialogues. This is nothing short of impressive. Ren and Kyoko are defined by traumas. They are stuck in systems they made for themselves in order to deal with horrible things of their past. From self-protection to self-hatred, from self-punishment to their crumbling psychology that borders on insanity, each one of them will try to make do and clog holes that open wide in their respective mind's fortresses as events and people unknowingly fire with heavy mortars at them. Each time they manage to make some progress and a wall finally crumbles, a new wall is revealed. And each and every time, i thought... 'Ah yes, this was obvious this other wall was there, it wouldn't make sense if it wasn't'. Sometimes i saw it coming, sometimes, i felt stupid for not seeing it coming. But overall it is pure logic. Some may feel that it is draged on, but still, it completely makes sense and feels totally natural.

The problem lies elsewhere. It lies in the fact that for each given situation that may help move the plot forward, there are generally 2 or 3 possibilities, according to the characters' psychology and personality. But out of these few possibilities, Nakamura Yoshiki will always make her characters chose the one that stalls character development the most. It is logical, it works perfectly well, but once you get used to her logic, you understand that there were other ways that could have worked equally well with the characters. Except these would move the plot much faster. And once you start to see this, you start to realise how mechanical the writing really is. And yes, this reminds me of the stone hobby again.

Nakamura Yoshiki is a master at storyboards. She may hint a detail, barely perceptible... and then another one 3 chapters later... these are build ups. If you just read through the whole thing, you won't notice what she does. She is a master at build ups because she is a master at storyboards. Her story is made of an intricate pattern or intertwined build ups. Some build ups are immediate ones, where she uses a situation she created to hint a sudden misunderstanding that may make the story progress. It always happen at the bottom of a page. I am sure you know how the top of next page turns out. Another build up is the mid-term one. It is constructed over a few chapters to reach a certain situation. Almost all the time, the situation is solved by going back to square one or something equivalent. Except knowledge of the incident will be reminded and may be used as a build up element years later. The last build-up type is a story arc build up. There are story arcs that hint that things can't stay as they are for much longer, and then the situations becomes more and more tense until... not much actually. Because the characters are who they are, the situation stalls not because of a lack of opportunity to make things progress, but because they need things to stall. Understanding that actually deflates the hype a lot... Rince and repeat. The whole thing is made up of intertwined build ups of various lengths and various ranges, and so you always are under the impression that something pretty intense is happening... This is pure genius manipulation. But... the build ups are only of two natures... either something bound to change the relationship between Kyoko and Ren... or a problem of sorts. My gripe is that the acting part is never teased this way, which tends to make me think, again, that the acting stuff is no more than a cumbersome afterthought for Nakamura. Which is really a terrible perspective for me.

But even though i say that things go back to square one, this is not entirely the case. As i said, the memory of the event will be retained. And facts can only be ignored this many times. The story progresses. If slowly. Maybe the most debatable part of the whole manga is towards chapter 240/280 where 40 monthly chapters describe less than a week. And actually, i don't think much time has passed even up to chapter 300. It has been 180 chapters to describe 4 months of the second year. There are always little things that happen that get you hooked... And by the way... As of the time i write this, 'Skip Beat' has been publishing for 20 years. But even so, it didn't drag as much as you may think. 'Diamond no Ace' published the same number of volumes in the span of only 9 years. And 'Baby Steps' in 10 years. It is merely that while Nakamura published 35 pages every two weeks in the beginning, these past few years, she has been publishing only 20 pages (almost) every month. Days seem to never end in the manga, which is why it feels draged on.

Overall, whether you will like it or not will depend. The writing method of the author knows how to hook a reader, almost terrifyingly so. And even at my age, suffice that i read a few pages and i am reminded of why i still look back to it once every year or so. I don't have much hopes to get the development i have been hoping for. Nakamura-sensei really looks to me as the more traditional and conservative side Japan, or at least, this is how she feels to me. I don't expect her to deliver, or go beyond what is expected of her. She already started a manga with a vengeful, possessed MC, which is already pretty gutsy for a shoujo manga. Something tells me that she won't go out of her way to do things she doesn't want to do at this point, and she doesn't care about showbiz (it seems to me that in her world, it is all about Japan, too, which doesn't help considering the overall quality of their TV and TV dramas. And even though her story is meant to be international). My biggest worry here, is to see 'Skip Beat' devolving into a mere, random, generic shoujo romance, deprived of any intent to develop its second storyline about acting. That would make the whole journey taste bitter.

I first watched this on french TV in the late 80's. At the time i wasn't a big fan of this. To be frank, my sister loved it, and that may be half the reason why i craped on it so hard ^^'.

The interesting part is that i really started to like this when i first rewatched it in 2010... What is interesting about this you may ask? Well, it is the fact that this anime is almost as old as me, and there are old animes that make my eyes bleed. What is old is not always like good wine... it doesn't necessarily age ... well. I tried to rewatch "Captain Tsubasa", but it is beyond me... Much easier with "Attacker You".

Story: 8/10

The story may be the best part of this anime. There is one reason why i rate it highly. It was made before all the sports animes stereotypes came to rule japanese animation and drilled into our skull that sports in anime have to be about the Inter High and school. Seriously, how many series did you watch that is just like that?

- MC is a wimp, a blank carpet. The poor sod has no more purpose in life than your average toilet scrub. Fortunately, he/she will find his/her purpose in life through an awe-inspiring senpai that can make taking a shit look so damn cool. Hence, MC will get addicted to *insert any sport* for it provides sense to him being a toilet scrub, and MC will want to become the senpai (not 'like' the senpai, but become the senpai, literally. Talk about bad-ass psychosis).

- The new life goal of our MC, aside from becoming his senpai, is to win the inter-high. It is because it is well known that once you graduate and enter a work life, your very existence will be about spending your life at work, doing nothing but looking good. Hence, you only have time to dream in High School.

- The MC will have plenty of creepy lines about his love for the sports and his nakamas, and how he would sell his dog and grandma to slavers in Roanapur for the sake of going to the inter High with his senpai (all his senpai this time, this is where it becomes ever more creepy). This is the moment i watch with muted sound, personally.

- 100% of the story the author will tell us is set in High School. The summer of the 3rd year sounds like the moment the main cast's death penalty will be enforced.

As of now, i only found 2 sports animes that break this mold (i have watched A LOT of those), and be it as it may, these 2 are my 2 all time favorites in the genre:

- "Baby Steps" (9/10)
- "Attacker You" (8/10)

Because obviously, sports is life too, like work or hobbies are. "Baby Steps" is about Eiichiro trying to become a pro tennis player, and "Attacker You" is basically the same, with Volley-Ball. Having a passion, the sport, becoming a life project simply feels natural, and i can't say enough how these Inter High sports animes feel narrow-minded to me. I wish all sports anime took example on "Attacker You". You (the MC, not U, gullible narcissist :)) will still meet the senpai Hayase, but all the relationships in the anime are at odds with modern standards. Her senpai hates her for she is the senpai due to her longer experience. The coach, Daimon, is violent and abusive. It is spartan, yes, which is a 80's trend, too, but you won't make your diabet worse by simply watching. No excess sugar to be expected.

Characters: 6

I hardly ever go above 7 in this area. If i do, this means i found some genuinely great work. You is stereotyped in that she is a hard worker and live for her purpose, but she is not so obsessive as to forget everything else. She is not the oblivious type of character that won't understand anything. Her character is motivated by more than the mere sports, and the stakes of her life story go beyond Volley Ball. Her overly passionate behavior is not a mere steretoype, it is a plot device that contributes to deepen both herself and the cast surrounding her.

Other characters are what you would expect, but they are always more than the stereotype they may seem to be at first. It is not deep enough to find oil, but deep enough for a sports anime. Actually, the characters in "Attacker You" may be the best out of all the sports animes i have watched. Her father and brother, Nami, Eri, everyone in the cast has something to offer.

Art: 4

This was decent for the early 80's. But it was never remastered as far as i know... Expect some 4/3 blurry screens with sad excuses for backgrounds, reused animations and all that. Aside from that, the animation quality itself is very decent even to this days standards, and aside from the low resolution due to the age, the drawings are fine, too. In short, expect low resolution screens with simple screen composition and decent, if reused, animation. Most younger people will probably dismiss everything as crap, but i like to be thorough. Not everything is crap. Personally i don't mind the old visuals.

Sound: 4

Basically the same as with the visuals. Many sound effects are very 80's (remember this when you hear the ball being hit ^^)... The series was not remastered and thus, the sound is like if recorded on an old audio cassette. Dang, audio cassettes were high tech at the time. But i personally like the VA. The trend for VA was different. It emphasized a more natural feel. Nowadays, it became a true art to add all sorts of gulps, sigh, peculiar tones and such. I like it, too. But i am unsure if one if stricly superior to the other. Still, expect for the sound to give you some genuine 80's vibes.

Enjoyment: 9

You (The MC, not U, dang...) learns about the sports, struggles with her life, decides what she wants for herself and then vyies for it with everything she has. While it may sound stereotyped, it is not that much, as explained above. It is about a life project, and to me, it makes all the difference.

Overall: 8

Maybe the 80's was a time when Japanese weren't that afraid of conflicts yet, and could conceive series where conflicts are a natural part of life. This i can relate with. But that is certainly not the case anymore, which is a source of endless frustrations to me, as i watch anime characters unable to voice anything and authors build all their stories by exploiting the resulting misunderstandings. Stories that could be solved episode 1 if only 2 characters just sat down and talked........ I learned last year that using pronouns like "anata" or "omae" sounded rude and thus are hardly used, and that japanese will hardly ever speak a sentence in its entirety, letting others guess what they mean... Times change. But not always for the best. All the more reason to look behind at times, and to try out old animes like this one.

This is what the isekai genre should be like. It is much closer to my all time favorite "Juuni Kokkuki" than it is to stuff with an expiration date of sorts like "Sword Art Online". Expiration date because i outgrew it with time, while i didn't outgrow "Juuni Kokkuki". I started watching animes in my 20's, 15 years ago. The days when i could easily find animes to enjoy is long gone. But i still manage to find one jewel from time to time that manage to grab and pull along my whole being. "Honzuki" is clearly one such anime to me, to the ... point where i even started to read te novels... in a foreign language (english), and i have read 10 of them (out of 33) when i normally hate reading. I can't really write a different review for each season, so here is one about the whole story. Because i believe it is more relevant this way.

Story: 9

Because "Honzuki" is not your average light novel adaptation. The author said it herself, she simply indulged in writing whatever story she fancied and never cared about pandering to anything except her desires. She posted it on an amateur website as a hobby. To me, this is where creativity really can express itself. As opposed to many stuff that are published these days, the author here didn't try to apply a recipe or to gauge what it was that would sell best, as is unfortunately the case way to often these days. She had a plan. She had a vision. She had an idea. She had an inspiration and a story to tell. And she made her vision a reality without compromising. So, what it is that makes the story and world that good?

First, it is consistent. It is inspired from mostly European Middle Ages, and many things you will see in the anime or the books are things that are historically accurate. Like... how people would crap in a pot an throw the content by the window ^^. The author is knowledgeable, and she masteers the references she uses. Part of those are Asian,too. For example, the way the towns are laid out, with this square wall surrounding them. But all in all, she took cultural aspects from Europe, from China, and added her own fantasy elements. This contributes to make the lore and worldbuilding extremely thick and rich and coherent. However you look at it, if you want to make things coherent, you need general knowledge. And what she creates is actually well done. I really like her depiction of magic, and the concept of the "devouring" illness is simply super clever. The story is about our MC who discovers this world and tries to make some sense out of it, with books as the driving force that makes her move forward in the story. That is really most of it. She will climb the scale of social status, one by one, year after year... And it is a fascinating exploration, that relies a lot on the worlbuilding and the characters.


Art: 8

It is overall pretty well done. The problem with the books is the overall lack of descriptions. The anime actually manages to create a visually cohesive world nonetheless, and this wasn't a simple matter. The animation is fine, and they did a good job at planning their storyboard. We see plenty of this town and the world, and the studio didn't shy away from making everything or almost everything from scratch. This is not KyoAni level of animation, but what matters more is how the world translates on screen. And it translates well enough.

Sound: 8

I don't have any complaint in this area either (although i am generally great at complaining). Again, this is not a piece of art that will be refered to with awe in 3 centuries, but everything is consistent, efficient and does the job. The VA is solid, and Maine's seiyuu manages rather well to translate this contrast in the character between the age of her body and the age of her memories.

Characters: 9

This is the second area where this anime really shines, after worldbuilding. Maine will understand that people do not bow in the world. That her japanese habits just don't work and may even piss people off... like when she can't flat out say "NO", can't understand that she shouldn't give stuff away for the sake of being well behaved, can't say upfront what she wants or thinks, shies away from negociation or disagreement and ends up cowering and accepting everything and anything, and can't seem to make much progress. There is a massive culture schock there where her japanese ways will put her in bad situations in a world that works completely differently from Japan. She will have to muster some courage and stop running away from confrontations with people, and this will be more and more prevalent as story arcs come and go. Note please, that she is never a blank carpet, even in the beginning, so if you are afraid to find one of these noxious japanese stereotypes, you don't have to worry about it (i would never have watched this if it weren't the case). Those people who are curious and learned a bit about how japanese society work will notice plenty of really subtle stuff there that really are a tribute to the excellent writing, like refering to japanese politeness or social manners that simply fall flat in this world. Maine will learn, slowly, making countless times the same mistakes. She will be annoying for that, but at long last she will be forced to question things, and her mindset will slowly and organically evolve to fit her new world. This cultural evolution is, to me, simply the best i ever saw.

All characters are good. Lutz serves as an excellent foil for Maine's ignorance. And Lutz' family as an excellent illustration as to what makes Lutz special. It is not only that each character feels natural, it is that characters reinforce other characters and build up a consistent cast like i rarely saw. They all are muti-faceted, and you will wonder a lot what Beno's actual thoughts really are. He will act as a crook and as someone who don't care that much about money at the same time, to the point where you way wonder where the real him is. There is a lot of stuff for you to think about, and this world feels like you could have lived there. Maybe you will want to travel there and meet these people. And maybe you will feel alone once the series is finished, as i did.

Enjoyment: 10

This world exists on its own. It is confortable to me to think that i can go there for vacations by taking a book or watching a few anime episodes. That is not to say that this world is nice and good. It is grim, as our Middle Ages were. This very vertical society is even worse than how Japan is and will show more and more of its ugly face as the story goes on. The arbitrary noble privileges and abusive whims are pretty much historically accurate. The fact the author masters all this and takes reality to write her cohesive fiction makes for a great experience. I always have a problem when japanese try lazily to reference the world beyond their borders and end up forcing heavy-handedly their cultural biases on everything or everyone, or spreading crappy caricatural stereotypes that don't even make sense in and by themselves. Ignorance is not legit merely because you are japanese or because you write a fiction. Nothing like this here: the authors takes bit here and there, all making sense, and the result is an absolute blast.

Overall: 9

This is what the isekai genre should strive to be. The author uses the isekai excuse to mix and match various cultural things, some that exist, some that don't, and she throws her character in the middle of all this mess. Different world means different norms. Add to this a looming threat (the Devouring illness here) and you have all you need to build a thrilling story. This series is not like all these others where everyone in the world and even in every world use chopsticks, love public bath, and uses public baths and japanese color codes (red for women, blue for men). I have seen this so many times, i simply can't stand it anymore (like, at all). Here, Maine will be completely at a loss and suffer a lot to try and adapt to a completely different world. Because the writer fully understands cultural schocks and different cultures, History, what entail inter-personal interactions in different places, it ends up being almost a masterpiece i can only recommend warmly. All these will really transport you somewhere else.

The only ones i can think of that may not like this are... if you really want some action, a lot of magic, combats, goblins and orcs, or ecchi/fan service. In these particular cases, you will be disappointed, and this may not be what you look for. But if you expect from your isekai to actually invite you in a different world that tries to make sense without feeling the need to reinvent the wheel... You should try this one.

It is time i write a review for this i guess. But first, let me give some clues about who i am. I believe it will be usefull for people reading this, to appraise the context behind this review and have a better idea as to whether they are bound to see this anime the same way as i or not. First of all, i started watching animes as a child in the late 80's and 90's. I grew up with things like 'Dragon Ball Z' or 'Captain Tsubasa'. But it is only at age 25 that i really started watching animes on my ... own. To sum things up: i am not 15 years old anymore, i am originally a fan of cinema, and i tend to have a very critical and analytical way to watch animes. What matters most to me is world building, characters, character growth and identity.

To the meat of it. I discovered this anime while browsing MAL for something to watch in the early 2010's. I discovered a few jewels doing just that: 'Juuni Kokuki' or 'Haibane Renmei' amongst others. 'Juuni Kokuki' has been number 1 on all my tops ever since, and will probably never lose this spot. Amongst the reasons i can see for that, i believe some are objective reasons, and others are more a matter of taste and of what i expect of an anime. Important note: i actually love the books better. The books are more violent, grimmy and desperate and help the reader better understand how Youko will titillate insanity at some point. The anime is more a free adaptation. If you liked the anime, go read the books. Even though the story is the same, it is not the same.

Let's start with the seemingly objective reasons. First, the worldbuilding. Whoever read 'The Lord of the Rings' know how Tolkienn mixed common references with European or Celtic (i guess) mythology and a pinch of personal creativity. 'The Lord of the Rings' is a series of books that are part of a much larger project. It draws inspiration from tales well-know amongst British, depicts environements that mix Scotland-like panorama with out of place mythologic elements. As such, while treading through a random, almost well-know forest, you could stumble upon trolls. In my opinion, the fact he used such common references to introduce his creation helped the reader identify a lot with the setting, and in turn, this developed a certain feeling of intimacy with the story and characters, and immersion as these well-know references would suddenly be the stage for otherworldy situations. Magic exists but is mostly unseen and legendary. Tolkienn never planned to stuff flashy crap in your face. What we are talking about here has just nothing to do with any kind of shounen or light novel adaptation. You won't find any sore excuses for cringe inducing clichés here.

The thing is, Fuyumi Ono used the same kind of strategy to build 'Juuni Kokuki' as Tolkienn did for "the Lord of the Rings'. Her base reference is more China than the UK, and if magic does exists, it is more tied to divine or immortal beings. As such, she managed the imbue her story with the same kind of feel Tolkienn created. It is realistic, believable, relatable and subtle. Much the same way as Tolkienn with Frodo, she used Youko's travels to present more and more of this world: the 'almost the same as at home', the '...but there is no doubt that this is not China', as well as the 'what the fuck is even this??'. One other great thing with using an 'almost like in China' context, is that she does not need to go through very lenghty descriptions because she can ground most of her work upon common knowledge (in Japan at least). She created her own mythology and mixed it with chinese-like middle ages to create a disturbing feel that is both otherworldy and familiar. This tension actually feeds nostalgia of Japan a lot for Youko and ends up being a strong thread of the narrative in the first arc, where it becomes so easy to relate with her growing instable psychology.

This brings us to the second aspect: Youko's character. In the anime's first episode, she is depicted as the extreme stereotype of the spineless japanese. Ono purposefully made her this way, and to us westerners, she is even more extreme since we will tend to think Japanese are already extreme in their own right. So if Youko is extreme even amongst japanese... suffice to say that while watching, i considered dropping the anime pretty fast because it looked to me that Youko was the worst possible MC. But as i said, this is purposefully done. It is explained why Youko showcases no personality and always tries to please everyone, while never stating her thoughts, feelings or anything. She only says and does things she believes others expect of her, and dedicated her life to ingratiating herself towards everyone. As a result, all her relationships are fake and shallow, even with her own family. This aspect is fundamental in Japanese society. Not communicating upfront and not showcasing much of oneself publicly is tied to an everyday reality and Ono merely brought the concept to an extreme. Youko's biggest phobia is failing to make people like her. The books depict her in a somewhat more subtle way. It is shown that she does, in fact, have a strong personality and a temper, but that she keeps every nasty thought to herself in order 'not to give people reasons to doubt her personality'. Her red/auburn hairs are, by the way, a pretty interesting element in the beginning that speaks a lot about Youko's character, since her hair color (not black, as every japanese should have them) makes her teachers doubt her morality, but she doesn't really go out of her way to die them in black. While she does not openly dare refuse to die them (she hasn't the courage, as stated all the time in the books), it is shown how she is constantly annoyed by this crap through her inner thoughts. This aspect depicts well the tension there is between her outward, utterly fake attitude and her inner personality. Ono makes Youko evolve, but she is consistent with her character, which is a sign of great writing capabilities to me. As a side note, there was, actually, a scandal in Japan, a few years ago, where a school forced a student to die her hair black because they weren't naturally black... So, even though Ono uses some extremes, everything is grounded in reality in her work. So, back to Youko... basically, to sum things up, she starts out as a bitch.

And she will suffer a lot because of it. 'Juuni Kokuki' showcases what is, in my opinion, the very best way to present a developing character: a character that seems at best average and doesn't seem to have anything special at first, but which ends up thrown in a turmoil of special circumstances that will feed its growth and unearth what makes the character so special. And god, does Youko grows... It is shown in the anime and the books how her evolution first and foremost is tied to her ever-evolving mental state. The evolution of this mental state feels organic and natural to me, and completely makes sense. Ono uses common references that the readers can easily relate with to manage her goal, as i stated above, and the fact that this world, so alike China at first sight, is really so different at the same time is a constant torture for Youko. She will go through many different stages, she will display many previously hidden (or only not displayed publicly) aspects of herself, and at long last manage to understand who she is, and maybe who she wants to be. In short, Youko's character developement is the best i ever saw in anime or books. She outclasses even other characters i loved in other animes like Ange in 'Cross Ange'.

I could go on like that, but i adressed worldbuilding and character developement and this is enough for me. These aspects maks 'Juuni Kokuki' my all time favorite. I could talk about the music, which is amongst the very best i ever heard (the OP particularly). I can talk about the art and animation which are pretty good and pertain to a time when Japan wasn't in dire straits yet for a lack of animators. Although the style is old school, obviously. I could talk about the rest of the cast, too. Many characters being equally obnoxious at first. By the way, Sugimoto never follows Youko in the books and Asano does not exist. As i said, even though the story is more or less the same, it is not the same. I loved the anime, but i feel that the books are even better. Ono is originally a horror author, so she does not hesitate to depict violence, grim and fitlh as it should be done. If you like the anime, try out the books. If you want to know where to find them in english, feel free to MP me.

Story: 10
Ono doesn't feel the need to reinvent the wheel. The story is about the characters and even though the core plot won't be a revolution, the way the story itself is a lot about the wordbuilding and the characters make for a first rate experience.

Art: 7
Art is not the reason why you should watch that. Still, the animation is ok, and the studio took good care to draw the backgrounds and costumes in a way befitting the setting.

Sound: 10
VA is ok, even though at the time, the trend about VA was different. Youko's seiyu worked hard to change her voice along the series. In Youko's voice timber and tone you can feel her evolution. the ED is great, the OST is great, the OP is legendary to me.

Characters: 10
Some may think there is an abusive number of unsufferable bitches in the main cast. This may be true. Except the 3 bitches share a destiny. They quit being unsufferable pretty fast, and it is hard not to get attached to them. Character growth and development is top-rate. Youko is still my number 1. 10 because i fail to see any other anime that did better in this regard.

Enjoyment: 10
Once i started to read the books, i found out i couldn't rewatch the anime anymore. But anime and books are etched in my soul by now. It is only something like 45 episodes, but they all lasted much longer than that for me.

Overall: 10
Perfection does not exists. And even if it existed it would probably be boring. So, this is merely as good as it could get to me.

Found this one on Youtube. I don't know where it can be seen otherwise.

All in all, it's an ovni in anime world. The story here is really simple. It is about a lonely dog who desperately wants to find someone to play ball with. You see him wander thoughout a desterted Tokyo, and there are hints that something terrible has happened not so long ago. Probably an idea of the end of the world.

His day by day wanderings, on a music by Glay, leads him to meet some automated android, which purpose is unknow.

Even though it's rather simple, it looks more like something you could ... find in short movies. It's only 10 minutes long, but it's a really nice experience. The animation, direction, music, the way this lonely dog is presented, ... everything makes for a touching little story. What really happened? Even though there are some hints here and there, you will find no answer, and it's not the purpose anyway. The whole thing looks like someone suddenly found the urge to make a short movie about a lonely dog in a post apocalyptic world. It's not much more than a whim. But that's probably why somehow, you can feel love in the work.

10 minutes is not long. I would recommend you to give it a try. There are definitely worse ways to spend 10 minutes of one's life. But don't expect me to explain why this is called "Je t'aime". I guess it's one more occurence of my mother tongue being used and abused for some weird reason i can't get at all. Japanese have a really misleaded idea about France and French, overall.

EDIT: I finished the anime and this can't be called a preliminary review anymore, and while some may question the secondary plot in the second half, you probably won't have a problem with it, unless you are american and opiniated. It felt a bit cheesy at times, but years after having finished the anime, i believe that this review can mostly apply to the whole series. My opinion on its qualities never changed in later episodes. The last part has a bit less music (but still quite a bit), and is bit more about using a somewhat stereotyped (but realistic, yes) political context and introduce ... the idea that music can convey "more". Not political opinions, no, but something closer to humans.

/EDIT
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First of all, let's get things straight. I'm one who really often trash animes. I've watched quite a few of them already, i've watched even more live movies, and am in my thirties. So, every crappy detail or lazy crap i see just instantly burn my retina, and easily gets on my nerves. And so, anytime this happens and i see legit reasons to trash an anime, i will do so. Basically, these days, i tend to trash like 80% of the animes i try to watch... Not because i love to rant, but i always know exactly why i do so, even though i really want to like them. But here is one of the few i have seen which turned me into a junkie. When i first watched it, only 17 episodes where out, and i'm trying to wait for the series to be finished right now, but i want more so badly that i can hardly restrain myself from watching it over and over... So why is it that i definitely can't trash this one?

Basically because it brings to me just about everything i would expect from a great anime. It is not perfect, but i can see that the guys behind it believe in it and that they never tried to get some money with some half assed recycled recipe.

Story: 9.

At this point, i believe there are actually two major intertwined stories and some subplots mixed along, but everything actually serves the greater picture. Maybe some will wonder if the anime knows what it tries to be. I believe it knows it perfectly and that both the writting and storytelling are top-notch. One of the two major plot points is related to music and the way Carole & Tuesday will try to claw their way to the top in the old fashioned way in a world that has forgotten everything about it. The other major plot point is related to the over use of AI in every aspect of life. And now, there are political matters, supporting characters with their own histories and struggles. I believe everything will sort of become one in the end.

You may believe that the fact the story is set on Mars in the future is some kind of useless attention grab. Well i thought so at first. It may be a little hard to explain why it is not. But i can tell for sure that even though you don't have this otherworldly feeling of being on Mars and even though Earth looks like something faraway that only has visibility through the news on TV, the fact that it is set on Mars is full of different meanings. The authors won't try to shove in your face "Look, it's Mars, it's super sci-fi". No. When it comes to Alba, the capital, you'll see some very poor places, ressembling somehow the favelas, you'll see intermediate places ressembling some random US towns more or less, and then the very center which is kind of futuristic and where the winners of society live. And now, you learn that the situation on Earth is pretty complicated. And that the one who are still there are pretty much the losers of the game called life.

But Earth has various stakes for Mars. Through Carole and her past, first, through the potical aspect, too, and you'll see various people with various opinions about their good old home. I believe it will play an important role by the end. But all in all, at this point, there are many subtle details in the writting which makes this choice of Mars extremely meaningful to me.

If there were one thing i would dislike about the writting, it is episode 4. To me, it looks like a filler. Not a bad one, but it serves little purpose and there is a hint a the beginning which will make what follows extremely predictable. It's done on purpose. But still, at this point i worried if the series may be full of fillers before actually tackling the story towards the end, like many have done before. Thankfully, the episode 4 is the only useless one, and every episode bears a lot of sense for story purpose afterwards.

Last point is about creativity and how they dared things. I don't want to spoil, but they came up with incredible ideas regarding certain one shot characters in auditions. There is a parodic take on TV shows like "Britain got Talent" at some point, and they completely understood the very essence of these shows, and created some damn funny things with it. Japanese tend to misunderstand western culture a lot, but here, they are spot on everywhere. And it's extremely rare to see it mastered to this point. And they dared a few things they could probably only dare because it's aired à 1.00 in Japan. Look carefully to be sure not to miss anything :).

Art: 9.

Art is never the reason why i watch an anime. Still, the production value is great. Animation is wonderful, colors and chara design are unique and fully serve thir purpose, sets and backgrounds are detailed and inspired. There are scenes where the animation went beyond anything i could have expected, even if it were KyoA (that tells a lot). And through the 17 first episodes, the quality just never drops. There are places where things won't strike you as superb, but even in these cases, it gets a pass. It never ever gets bad. The only thing i dislike is regarding the top views of Alba and certain places in the town. At these moments i feel the colors, setups and overall panels are pretty bland and uninspired, ressembling pretty much all others animes in this regard. Well, with this, you should have understood by now how critic and harsh i can become. So it's a 9.

Sound 10.

Now, it's about music. And here, you will have a hard time finding any crappy idol-like J-Pop. I only found one title in the series so far that is pretty meh. But i have to say that the overall quality of the work on music goes way beyond just personal tastes. I don't rate it 10 because i love the music. I do so because they worked extremely hard to give an extreme depth to the use of said music. You'll see quite a few different bands and singers, and every last one of them will have their own style. They are all performed by real life bands, and since there is no japanese characters here, they are all sang by native english speakers and musicians. No crappy katakana english here.

What is more, it is set in the future, on Mars. You will meet good old music we know, and you will get some "what the fuck" conceptual electro, too. And even styles i never heard about. But nonetheless, they managed to make just everything sound really good. Everything, when it comes to music tells a lot about the band/singer. They worked hard on the characters and their music styles to make sure everything blend together perfectly. Most of the music in this show is music i would never listen on my own, but it always works so damn well throughout the series that the stages are always great moments. And there are a lot of them. Like, a lot.

One more thing i must notice is that (and it's damn rare) some titles will be played and animated on stage entirely. I you loved "Loneliest girl" in first episode and were disappointed to see it cut short once again (1'30'', like in every idol anime), don't worry. Episode 12 will reward your patience, with the full title played over 3 minutes of pure greatness. Since the animation and art is good, the music on stage, in full 2D, bears even more weight.

And one more thing... You should pay full attention to the lyrics. Especially when it comes to Carole & Tuesday's. The reason for that is if you fully understand the weight behind the words, and the emotional and personal situation both characters are in at a given moment, you will understand how great the lyrics can become when they are used at the moment they are used. They say a whole lot about Carole & Tuesday. And this alone gave me the chills more than once. To me, it's proof of master writting, master music composition, master direction, and master use of the music tracks. I have never seen better in this regard. Even BECK can't compare.

Other than that, the sound is overall well designed. Voice acting is excellent, the OST is good, overall sounds are ok too. There is nothing to complain about the sound. And the way music is made and used is master level. 10/10

Characters 9

The 2 MCs are not shallow. Everything about them make sense. All the characters feel extremely human. The characters i don't like, i don't like them because i don't like the humans they are. Not because they are bland stereotypes. What is the greatest is that they managed to make you understand who a character is without even having to give it a lot of screentime, and without even having to use flashbacks or over exposition. Just because the way they talk or act is so natural, just because you will hear others talk a bit about them and their past, you will know. That is how great direction makes use of great writting. It's examplary of how characters should be done. Nothing is pretentious, or over the top. But because the backgrounds of Carole and Tuesday is masterfully done and used, even though it's nothing far fetched or complicated, it will bear A LOT of weight. And the music and lyrics further greatly this point. The chara design, again, works wonders here. Because they never tried to use the good old anime tropes regarding chara design and chose a more natural way to design the characters, everything works way better.

The reason why i won't give a 10 here is because Gus, at the beginning feels like the average idiot. It won't last long. But still. And some other supporting characters don't feel as natural as Carole and Tuesday. Still, it's rare for me to even think of giving more than 6 regarding characters in anime. I can't think ever giving a 10.

Enjoyment 10

Once every two years, on average, i find a great a anime that ends up etched in my mind and heart. These experiences are the very reason why i watch animes. But it is so rare to find shows able to achieve that for me. Over the 350+ series i've watched, less than 10 have managed it so far, during the last 15 years, even though i try to pick carefully what i watch. Carole & Tuesday is one of them.

Now, i just have one worry regarding the last part of the series. I feel like the show may take two different approaches to the ending. One i can't wait to see. And one that would make me feel that the whole series was an excuse for some pseudo sci-fi/philosophical crap. Needless to say which one i would rather see. I will know in a few weeks.

But for now, these 17 first episodes made wonders for me (minus episode 4). These made me a junkie who can't wait for the series to finish airing so that i can waste one whole week end glued before my screen watching it over from episode one until the end. I don't know i anyone here smokes and ended up without cigarettes for two days. But that's how i feel right now.

Overall 9

After all these praises, a 9/10. Because it's not perfect. And i give 10 to less than 2.5% of the animes i watch. Episode 4 is a mistake. Some things could have been handled a bit better, and i feel that at times, the focus is a bit too far from the 2 MCs. Even though they never end up in the background, thanks to a well mastered story telling and storyboard. Still, some tiny details make me think it could have been even better. That's why: 9/10

Conclusion: The best anime i've found over the last few years. It has almost everything. It may even head for absolute greatness depending on how the last third is handled. I recommand this to just about anyone. Even those who don't like this type of anime will get something out of it. It's just this good.

This is a pre-review, after having watched the first five episodes that aired until now. Why a pre-review? Because, for the sake of the peace in the world, for the sake of your brain cells, i ought to put a BIG warning here...

For all of you, whether or not you liked the first season, forget about it. This second season is a totally different beast. One that sucks your brain cells...

In short, it is basically a compliation of advertisements for multiple virtual bands Bushiroad tries to promote. Don't look for any story, any developement, or any sense. It's just a huge mess.

Story 1: What story? ... 7 months has passed since the end of season 1. We learn that girls bands are a big deal now. Glitter Green and Space have disappeared. There is one band that is huge enough to have a TV broadcast. A very "Aikatsu!" like band. An idol unit in fact. With drawings of sweets and pastries all over the stage. Period.

Aside from that... the first 5 episodes are empty. They hardly serve any purpose aside from advertising. Episodes 3 to 5 each feature a new band i don't give a shit about, tell us a shallow story about them to make us grow attached to them (but fail in doing so), and then throw at us their advertisment CGI promo clip, in hope we will buy their crappy CD. They even manage to add other promo clips at the end of the episodes, featuring others bands. Basically that mean that there is no real story, the episodes are almost one-shot promotional OVAs. The 6th episode will be about Afterglow, another band.

Art 3: It is all CGI. Everything in the series that is animated is CGI, and not only onstage. While the CGI is not total crap, the facial expressions and movements still feel sluggish and deformed. It feels unnatural. But it's cheaper to do i guess. All in all, some stages are ok. Actually most of what is related to Roselia is good enough. That's it.

Sound 3: The recordings of Roselia's performances finally make good use of the bass. Their music is something rockin' and not totally uninteresting, their singer don't go into high pitches either. But everything else is just idol crap with crappy lyrics, with nothing else to back them up, unlike almost all other idol animes. "Aikatsu!", or "Love Live !" each had some pretty nice tracks that helped immerse the viewer into the series, even someone who dislike J-Pop as much as i do. This is the power of an OST. The music becomes evocative of something and you may end up loving (maybe even buying) a music style you normally avoid. But "Bang Dream" doesn't even have that. There is not a single track that sticks out for being good.

I tend to feel that the volume of the voices are way too loud compared to the instrumentations, which is a shame since most seiyuu force their voice into a high pitch to look cute. There are inconsistencies in said volume of the voices even outside the stages. Sometimes too loud, sometimes not enough. Oftentimes, they will crush the music under useless dialogues and it even seemingly happens at random, for they had apparently no reason in particular to do so.

Characters 2: Uninteresting. They are just covers for CD sales (or a brand design for a mobile game). Hello Happy Whatever (another lame band name) is probably the most stupid band out there. The characters are even weaker than in your average crappy anime. And i did manage to finish "Infinite Stratos" Season 1 and OVA, that should say a lot.

Enjoyment 1: I'm suffering. Episode 4 was the worst for me so far. I had to pause it many times because of boredom and took 2 hours to finish it... Since they try to make us care for characters that just come up out of the blue with very poor writting, watching this endless filler advertisement is a chore. Only in first and second episodes did i find some parts that, if not exactly interesting, were at least watchable.

Overall 2: Unless you're less than 15 years old and a big fan of shallow advertisement crap, or if you loved the first season and want more that badly, avoid this at all costs. Or hope that the second half of the series will finally try to tell something.

EDIT: in the end, i will drop this. I tried, but i definitely don't have the courage to suffer anymore watching this. I end up with an extremely negative stance towards the whole franchise. I got pretty spicy (to say the least) private messages that tried to explain to me one way or another that one can't appreciate the genius quality of "Bang Dream" if one doesn't play the mobile game. I am sorry but if it is true, i will end up with an even worse opinion on "Bang Dream". An anime series which direction, writing and everything are so unambitious that one can only find worth in it if he is already a fanboy? No way i will answer "Yeah, you are totally right" to this. It is time people question some marketing practices.

Now, if you want actual good music shows, watch, absolutely:
-BECK (Rock)
-Carole and Tuesday (slow paced accoustic i guess?)

Finally, after thinking things through, i will still keep my rating, even though i dropped it. I'm not used to rate animes i have dropped, but this is just how much i believe this will never get better. And from 3/10, i will end up with a 2/10.