Back to OtakuManChild's Profile OtakuManChild's Profile

Wow. I just finished this series minutes ago and felt compelled to leave a review.

Story - 10

This show right here is why 12 episode anime bum me out. A truly great story needs time and care to play out properly. I am very thankful Cross Game was given a 50 episode run and not a 12-25 one. It allowed for a story spanning several years to never feel rushed and for major events to never feel watered down. Cross Game wears a lot of different hats while telling it's story but I think they navigated through each genre well. Romance, Sports, Drama, SoL and ... Comedy all mixed well together. This story had an appropriate ending too unlike a lot of other Rom Coms out there.

Art - 7

I always find this to be a preference thing. Honestly, the art wasn't my thing. A lot of the characters looked very similar to each other and nothing about the animation blew me away even though it's 10 years old. That didn't matter to me though because I blew through 50 episodes in 4 days while working 10 and a half hour shifts. Meaning 100% of my free time was devoted to watching this.

Sound - 10

I thought the voice actors did a great job in this. They conveyed the proper emotions at the appropriate times and I fully admit to shedding tears watching this at certain points. I think that's about as high of a compliment as I can make.

Character - 10

Look, it's 2020. It's going to be rare to come across a cast of characters that feel really original. Anime has goto character archetypes and that's just how it is. Cross Game is no different. It is however different than most in that those characters are really thought out, relatable and memorable. It's easy to care for every character in the story and root for them. Especially Kou and Aoba. Those two had me talking to my laptop at certain points in this because I wanted things to work out so badly for them. The side characters were no different though. They were all given the time to get to know them and their own personal journeys. Some of these characters are going to stick with me for a long time.

Enjoyment - 10

I can't give this anything other than a 10. I loved this show. From start to finish I was hooked. I wasn't sure going in just because I haven't watched a sports anime before but I was blown away by this one.

Overall - 10

It's a great, underrated show that doesn't get mentioned enough when you talk about romcoms or sports anime. Cross Game is a great time. If you're unsure, do yourself a favour and give it a shot. I bet you'll be hooked after the first episode.

Wow. This was genuinely the weirdest thing I've ever watched. There are going to be spoilers with this short review because frankly, I'm ranting.

This started out sweet and wholesome but with an underlying tone of "something doesn't feel right." To the point where I said out loud when the brother first walked through the door, "Wait, is he going to have sex with them or something". Turns out I was pretty close.

See the progression of this story goes like this:

- Girl with "special powers" has crush on another girl
- Other girl doesn't seem all that interested but is still best friends and wants to ... explore special powers
- First girl initiates a kiss while the other is sleeping then stops herself only for the other girl to kiss her instead
- Both girls make out Sakura Trick style
- They take that a few steps forward and have sex all day long all over the school
- Girl meets her crush's brother then leaves but has to come back to get her phone only to see brother and sister having sex
- Girl freaks out and avoids her crush until said crush CHLOROFORMS her from behind then ties her up, chains the door shut and rapes her for SEVERAL DAYS
- Girl smashes crush over the head with a bat and calmly walks away
- Girls avoid each other until they have sex again mutually and the crush leaves the Country the next morning
- Girl TELEPORTS into the plane of the crush and demands they stay together
- Girls teleport to some random dimension or something naked and have sex
- The End

... Huh?

Normally I would never leave a review like this but I can't help myself. This show was off the charts bizarre and I feel dirty after watching it. They could have spread that out over 50 episodes and thrown a bunch of comedy and ecchi scenes in there and I think I would still leave feeling disturbed. Thankfully this was only 2 episodes. I couldn't look away for the worst reasons though. This show made Yosuga no Sora look tame in comparison. They never even address the kidnapping and raping for several days thing! What the hell?

I'd like to start by saying this review takes into account all 17 episodes of Kokoro Connect. And that there will be minor spoilers throughout this.

Kokoro Connect is an anime I've been saving for myself for a while now. I'm a later in life anime fan. I grew up on Dragon Ball Z but beyond that I never really attempted to watch anything else until a few years ago where I dove head first and haven't looked back. I've watched too many shows to remember now and it's become rare for me to watch an anime and fall in love with it like I ... was doing early on. So when I fall in love with a show lately it means a lot more to me. That's what happened this week when I started watching Kokoro Connect.

Story - 10

Some people may think the story of this anime is overdone (Even for when it first came out). The lazy comparison would be Freaky Friday or any other body swapping show/movie you can think of. I disagree whole heartedly with that though. No other show or movie I've seen has explored this topic to the degree that Kokoro Connect does. From episode 1 all the way to 17 I was on the edge of my seat. There was never a moment during this show where I was bored or disappointed in what I was watching. The story wasn't just 5 friends swapping bodies and getting into mischief like we see in a lot of these body swapping shows. Comedy was present here but it wasn't the main focus. The main focus of this story was the ever evolving character development of each of these 5 characters and how they affect each other. You see the best and worst sides of everyone and their journey to becoming comfortable with the people they are.

The body swapping actually only lasted several episodes and then a new phenomenon would start that would test their friendship and most interestingly their sanity. You see a lot of moments during this show where people are broken down repeatedly by what's happening to them. You see their growth through all of this and ultimately you see them come out better people for it. You're not getting any of that with other comparable shows or movies. A lot of the time you're just seeing the comedy behind it and then things magically get resolved. Kokoro Connect explores so much more than that. It makes you feel a plethora of emotions while watching. Most shows can't say that.

Art - 9

Look, this category is always subjective. I thought the art was done well. The animation was never distracting for good or bad reasons. It was just a solid display of what shows looked like around 2012. I don't have anything else to say about it.

Sound - 9

This is another subjective category to a point. I watched the english dub and I thought the voice actors did a good job with it. Taichi's voice actor I've heard a lot and admittedly he's one of my least favourite voice actors for anime but I thought he actually fit Taichi pretty well. Some of the performances were admittedly better than others. I thought Himeko and Yui were especially well done.

Characters - 10

This is the category that usually makes or breaks a show. If you don't have great characters than you're generally stuck in the mud. Kokoro Connect nailed this category beautifully in my opinion. Some may think there are some stereotypical characters in this but honestly I would strongly disagree with that. There are 5 main characters in Kokoro Connect and I think 4 of them were some of my favourite characters in any anime I've ever watched. They had little quirks to their personalities that made them so unique. I'll never forget Himeko, Taichi, Iori and Yui. Each of these 4 characters had so many layers to them. For example, if you're not fully paying attention Himeko is going to come off like a classic tsundere. She certainly shows elements of this but then you discover she's so much more than that. She overthinks everything, she's afraid of letting people down, she's a loner, she's a crybaby, she becomes surprisingly very open to revealing her emotions, she's incredibly awkward in certain situations and honestly I could keep going on and on about her but this review would become far too long. I related so much to Himeko. More so than any other character I've ever seen in anime. And the other 3 I mentioned are similar. Hell, Iori is one of the most complex characters I've ever seen.

The only main character I didn't mention in this regard was Yoshifumi. That is only because it's difficult to fully explore 5 characters with only 17 episodes. The parts of the story that were adapted left little room for him to develop. I'm not saying he's a bad character by any means but he's easily the worst of the 5. I'm sure I'd have a different opinion on him if I had read the light novels because sadly, they'll probably never make another season of this show (Even though they absolutely SHOULD adapt the full story but that's stupidly how the anime industry works. I'll save that rant for another time.)

Enjoyment - 10

Like I said, when I watch a show and fall in love with it these days I find that very special. Kokoro did that for me. I enjoyed every second of this show. It was never boring, nothing ever felt forced, I never stopped watching and came back to it at a later date, I just enjoyed it from start to finish. This show really nailed the romance for me too. Every relationship felt real and never forced. You really got to understand these characters and why they did or didn't end up together. If you didn't than it's because of your own bias towards a character. Rarely in life do you actually fall in love once. Rarely in life do you have everything figured out from the beginning. Usually it takes time and experience to get there. I really felt that happened with these characters and it was special. I'll be thinking about this anime for a long time. I'll absolutely watch it more than once and I'd recommend it to anyone.

If anyone actually takes the time to read all of this, thank you. I hope it inspires you to watch this show if you haven't all ready. Or maybe rethink your stance on it. I've read a few reviews that felt like they watched a completely different show than I did. I feel like that happens a lot on this website.

*No major spoilers written but some stuff might be considered minor spoilers*

D.N.Angel is a bit of a hidden gem. At least in my World. It's not an anime I even heard about until last year when I was diving deep into some of my favourite genres looking for shows to add to my plan to watch list. I don't know how well the show was received or its popularity during the time of its release but in the last 5 years I've seen nothing about it here in the West. That's a shame because there is a fun 26 episode run to be found here ... that's definitely worth your time if you're a Fantasy/Romance fan.

The biggest problem is that it takes quite a while to get to the worthwhile part of the show. If I'm being honest this show was a 7/borderline 6 to me for the first 10-12 episodes. Which is why I couldn't give it a 9 overall even though I really enjoyed it when I had finished episode 26. You have to have some serious patience to sit through a really slow build up and if you watched the dub like I did, some truly poor voice acting. Everything gets better along the way though.

Story - 8

Like I said above, the show is a tale of two halves. The story is a simple one that is a real slow build. Daisuke is a young boy who has been raised to be the vessel of a legendary Phantom Thief. He just wants to be a normal kid and is reluctant to share a body. In order to transform Daisuke is triggered by his heart racing whenever he thinks of his crush or is around her too long (You can guess where a lot of the comedy comes from with this premise.)

A lot of the episodes are episodic in that Dark has to steal something and Daisuke has to deal with something at school involving his crush (who is in love with Dark). Early on the episodes never really flowed. You'd have some character development one episode then the next episode felt like it didn't really carry over. Not until just before the half way point where the main plot shifted to the romance and the action/fantasy played more of a supporting role. From there everything flowed much better and it felt like I was watching a continuous story with lasted character development. This is where I started getting lost in the episodes instead of watching one or two and then watching something else.

Art - 7

Personally I wasn't a huge fan of the art style but it's important to note I watched this in 2020 and it was released in 2003. Of course my preferences in art style have changed over time. In 2003 when I was 12 I would have thought this looked great. It's not bad by any means but the characters just don't express enough emotion sometimes for the feelings they're trying to convey and some of the action scenes early on didn't hit with the impact they were hoping for because of it. I should mention that some of the action scenes later on looked much better though. Especially when you consider the release date.

Sound - 5

It's important to note that I watched the English Dub of this show. So my opinion is based solely on that version of the show. The subbed version might be great for all I know. Anyways, the voice acting in the dub was truly awful early on and only got marginally better by the end. A lot of the actors sounded like they were sucking on helium balloons, the conversations rarely flowed because it sounded like the characters were in different rooms having their own separate conversations, many of the voices sounded similar and often times they sounded emotionless too with only their volume adjusted to convey different emotions. The voice acting was simply bad. I enjoyed the music for the most part but I regret not watching the sub and I very rarely care about that. Usually I prefer a dub if I'm being honest. This time it had me wondering if this is why this show never took off over here in North America.

Characters - 9

Look, none of these characters are all that unique. In fact, none of them are unique even for 2003. That didn't matter to me though. There was something about this group of kids that made me press through the early boring times. They always gave me hope that I was going to be thankful I pushed through and continued watching and that's what happened. Daisuke is your typical male protagonist in this type of show in that he's incredibly kind, very naive, a little clumsy but most importantly, easy to route for. The twins, Riku and Risa are great in their own right too. At first Risa (for me at least) was easy to hate but over time she stepped out of the arrogant popular girl role and became a sympathetic character. Riku is your typical tsundere girl. Hard shell to crack but inside is waifu material in spades. Dark is your typical mysterious bad boy with a difficult past. No one is reinventing the wheel here but everyone plays off each other well.

Enjoyment - 9

What can I say? If you've read up to this point you know what I like and dislike about the show. It was a bit of a slog early on but once I lost myself in the show I really came out loving it. I know the 12 year old in me would have loved this too when it first came out. He probably would have given this a 10 overall but the 28 year old still found plenty to enjoy. The romance brought me back to a time where the biggest issues in my life were what the girl I liked thought of me and what I was going to have to do in school that day. Thankfully I never had the whole Phantom Thief spirit thing to deal with.

Overall - 8

If you're unsure about whether or not to watch this show and you happen to read my review then first of all, thank you for doing that and secondly, watch the show. If you don't like what you're watching early on but there's still a part of you that's curious than stick it out. The show gets better, I promise. What you're left with is a heartwarming story about a young man trying to figure out his feelings while juggling a private life that he can't share with anyone other than his family.

Hatsukoi Limited is a lesson on how to successfully tell multiple compelling stories in a short amount of time. You're not going to see anything you haven't seen done before but everything here is done well and given time to breathe.

Story - 8

Like I said above, you're not going to see anything you haven't seen before but it's all done well and with care. The story focuses on a collection of students ranging from 14-16 years of age and their first experiences with love amongst each other. Every main character (and there are a bunch of them) gets their story told and surprisingly it ... never feels rushed. Some characters have more interesting stories than others but they're all compelling for the most part. This is a bit of a slow build though in my opinion. I found the 2nd half to be a 9/10 and the first half to be a solid 7/10 so 8 felt like an appropriate score to give.

Art- 9

Art is always going to be a very subjective category when reviewing anime but I really enjoyed the art style here. As I'm writing this now the show is 10 years old so I think it's held up well over that time. Is it perfect? Of course not but nothing stood out to me that was distracting.

Sounds - 9

Sounds is either going to be really good or awful. There isn't a lot of in between with this category. I felt like the voice actors did a great job conveying the proper emotion with their lines. There were a few moments in particular that stood out as very good acting but I won't spoil anything.

Characters - 10

This is the part of the show I was so impressed with. Yes, there are a lot of typical character traits going on here but they're all done so well. With such a big cast and so many different love stories to tell it would be easy for some characters to be lifeless but I felt like everyone here could be real. Every character was given enough time to make me care about them and also enough time to experience some personal growth. With only 12 episodes to work with I find that to be very impressive.

Enjoyment - 9

I can't possibly give this anything lower than a 9. Like I said before, I didn't enjoy the first 5 episodes nearly as much as the last 7 but I was never bored once and as the last episode finished I had a big, dumb smile on my face. You really can't ask for much more than that with anime. If this were 24 episodes I could see myself getting a little tired but 12 episodes was surprisingly perfect. Usually I hate when a show I love only has 12 episodes.

Overall - 9

I was honestly giving this show an 8 after episode 10 but I really enjoyed the way this show wrapped up in the last 2 episodes. This show was a lot of fun overall. It's not a game changer or anything but it's definitely something I'll revisit in the future. It left enough of an impression on me to want to write this review at least. For anyone that enjoys a good ROMCOM, you'll appreciate this.

Thanks for reading.