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Shakugan no Shana manages to be one of the most unbalanced watches I've had in recent memory. It has strong character development, and basically nothing of anything else.

The characters really are great, especially early on in the show. Shana and Yuji are especially good, though some of the side characters also get decently developed. Sure, it's somewhat predictable, but considering that most anime doesn't include any character development, it's easy to praise the show for it.

The villains are significantly less developed and mostly just feel like they're out of a B-movie. They're wacky enough to keep you entertained, but nothing to write home ... about.

The show does drama really well, and manages to create realistic feeling situations where there is interpersonal conflict between the characters. One thing a lot of shows do wrong is bringing in drama by introducing it from outside sources. Having the conflict be between characters you already know and like definitely gives it more a weighty punch though, and it's easier to get invested. It helps that the drama makes sense, mostly.

Unfortunately, this isn't primarily a romance/drama show. The plot and world-building seems interesting at first, but it quickly becomes a complete and utter disaster. I have NEVER seen a show that is so full of plot holes. Literally nothing makes sense. The last arc of the show is ESPECIALLY confusing. I don't know if this is because the adaptation is particularly poor, or because the light novel's were just poorly thought out, but something clearly went wrong here. I think that if fully-realized, the plot could've actually been good.

The pacing is also pretty bad. Too many filler shots of panning over characters faces or backgrounds. There are also a lot of reaction shots, or reused shots that slow things down. The pacing in the last arc is especially bad and certain fights drag on forever when they should've probably ended quickly.

Speaking of the animation, it's bad. The fight scenes look especially ugly. I also noticed that any shot of characters running (that include their legs) looks really unnatural.

Overall the show is kind of generic, but the characters were interesting enough to keep me watching. If you solely want to watch this because the plot sounds interesting, I would avoid it.

Darker than Black can be quickly summarized in two words: electric batman. If that sounds like your kind of show, ignore the rest of this review and watch it.

Unfortunately, Darker than Black doesn’t have much to offer besides its action and fighting scenes. The “story” doesn’t kick in until the second half of the show, opting instead to do mini-arcs in the first half. I frequently mention this, but this style of story-telling is terrible. It’s impossible to get invested in characters that are only around for three episodes, and it feels like the world resets every time a mini-arc ends. Why would ... I care about the tragic death of a character when I’ve only known them for a brief amount of time? It’s practically insulting.

The second half is not much better, either, because of how much it meanders. The story is so shrouded in mystery that it is difficult to tell what the goal is. And, unfortunately, mystery is only interesting when there is pay-off, and I can tell you right now that there is virtually no pay-off for anything that happens in this show. You're going to be left extremely unsatisfied and with dozens of unanswered questions.

The characters barely develop throughout its two cours, mostly staying completely static. I found the MC to be borderline unlikeable, but I see how he could appeal to some.

If I were to suggest how to fix this anime, I would cut the first half of the show entirely. And then I would significantly tighten the focus of the second half. Even then, I think you would need to redo most of the characters to be more developed, unfortunately.

Again, if “Electric batman” sounds good to you, go for it. Otherwise, I would potentially stay away.

The premise of this show sounds like generic isekai fodder: six heroes show up to fight the evil demon king. How many times have we heard that before? The way the show hooks you is by flipping what should be a predictable plot on its head and turning itself into a mystery show. Instead of six heroes showing up, there are seven, and one of them is an impostor.

I would argue that almost nothing about this show is generic or predictable. It constantly subverted my expectations, and I had a great time trying to figure out who the impostor was along with the characters ... themselves. Almost all of the characters come under suspicion at some point and you get a decent balance of action and talking.

The characters themselves are all fantastic and have a good amount of depth, considering this is just one cour. They seem sort of cliche initially, but they develop in exciting ways, and I had a hard time predicting what they would do. If you like well-developed characters, I would watch this for that alone.

If you're worried the MC is overpowered, he isn't. In fact he's probably the weakest of the bunch. This helps keep the conflict constant and the tension high.

I would score this show a 9/10 if the CGI weren't so god-awful. I don't consider myself someone who cares particularly for visuals, but it's some of the worst I've seen. Luckily the hand drawn 2D animation is fine.

As a word of warning, I don't think hardcore mystery fans will like this show for that aspect alone. Rokka no Yuusha is not a mystery/puzzle anime where you are supposed to sit down and puzzle out a solution from a dozen clues. The show isn't designed to make you feel like a big-brained genius. The mystery mostly serves as a vehicle for the plot and character interaction and furthering their suspicion in each other. And the real enjoyment comes from the characters themselves.

The LN's are also very much worth reading if you like the show.

Night on the Galactic Railroad is one of those movies that tries really hard to be deep and meaningful. If you like these sorts of movies, you’ll probably be able to find enjoyment in this one. It’s not entirely on the same level of weird, abstract/surreal as something like 2001 A Space Odyssey, but it’s approaching it.

The characters are dreadful. They don’t react to anything that happens around them, even when insane things are occurring. It’s hard to talk about the characters because they do not do very much throughout the movie. Mostly we see shots of them looking at things and being ... bored. I would say we’re shown their reactions, but as I already mentioned, the characters do not react to anything and have blank, bored looks plastered on their faces.

Did I mention this movie is incredibly dull? Nothing even vaguely interesting happens until around 30-40 minutes in. And a lot of the things that occur before then are just shots of Giovanni walking. There is a lot of reused footage in this movie which contributes to the boredom. I would mention the story, but like I already said there isn’t one because not having a coherent plot makes the film “deep and introspective.” I wouldn’t complain about this so much, but this movie is just not visually entertaining at all. I find it frustrating that we’re shown random things with no buildup and somehow we’re supposed to find this emotional? It just feels like a lazy way of making the story seem “cerebral.”

I liked the soundtrack, though a lot of the music feels misplaced. The animation and art are terrible for something made in the 1980s.

Chuunibyou is a fun, but ultimately very shallow experience.

The biggest problem this show has is crappy characters. The main characters are okay, but the supporting characters are all shallower than a dried-up puddle. One girl's entire personality is that she likes taking naps. And she shows up in almost every episode.

The story is also not very good. The first half of the series is lighthearted comedy, while the second half is more drama focused. The comedy gets old pretty quickly, as the show continually reuses the same jokes. The dull comedy is partially because the characters struggle to evolve in how they interact ... with each other. Once you’ve seen Nibutani and Dekomori interact with each other once, well, that’s how they interact with each other for the rest of the show. It gets repetitive. There are also a lot of bizarre scenes in the second half where we get serious/sad/drama, and then right afterward it cuts to the supporting cast being goofy.

The drama is mostly disappointing. I think the best type of drama is when you get to see the characters you like come into conflict with each other. In this series, there’s a lot of “outside” drama, which is less appealing.
This show also sucks at conflict resolution. Dramatic stuff that the show makes a big deal out of gets blown over and ignored. And that’s not to mention the numerous plot holes and inconsistencies the show suffers from. I was left scratching my head over things that had happened more than once.

There’s also a weird amount of fan-service in this show, especially at terrible times. I don’t think it fits at all.

This review might sound negative, but I didn’t hate the show, and it did feel like there were some hidden gems here and there. The premise is enjoyable, even if it does wear thin by the end of the series.

Plastic Memories is a show that I think could have been great, but it made too many mistakes in establishing the premise of the show, along with some other missteps along the way. I don't think the ultimate result is necessarily bad, but it's not as effective as it could have been.

I get the impression that the writers did not think the premise of this show through at all. There are so many plot-holes, inconsistencies and nonsense that make no sense that it is boggling.

The most problematic one is that the Giftias that have a lifespan of 81,920 hours. This makes absolutely no ... sense because it's such an arbitrary number. Why is it always the same? If you've worked with computers at all, you'll know that hardware can last a vastly different time depending on how it's treated. Sometimes hardware randomly fails too. There also isn't any explanation given as to why the code that makes up a Giftias personality can't just be supplanted into a new body.

My other big complaint is that the show tries to tear-jerk the audience way too much. It takes episodes of character development before I feel sorry for a character. One episode isn't enough time for me to become emotionally attached to a character.

It would have also been interesting if the show had explored romance between and a human and a Giftia being taboo. Some other shows have done this (Time of Eve notably), but I've never seen it done to the extent that I would like.

The actual characters themselves are okay. The two main characters received enough development for me to become emotionally attached to them. The side characters were hit-or-miss. I do think that the show emotionally delivers in the last few episodes, which is why this review is as high as it is.

Let me preface this by saying that I enjoyed the first season of Danmachi. It's a flawed show that a lot of people would probably call trashy, but at the end of the day it's entertaining, and that's what counts.

The biggest problem with this season isn't that there are too many waifus or that the show is trashy or any other complaint I could bring up. It's that the pacing is breakneck, and a lot of essential content from the LN is skipped over. Events that should've taken two episodes were condensed into 1. Characters motivations are made paper-thin because some of them ... are given barely any screen time. Even as an LN -reader, I had a hard time keeping track of all the characters because so many of them are given almost no screen time. The worst part is that the payoff to certain events feels wholly neutered. Some of my absolute favorite scenes from the LN were cut-out entirely or drastically changed, and it ruined moments that should have been climatic. The story's result is the same, but the impact is significantly lessened and makes the entire experience less satisfying.

Now I'm not saying that if they had followed the LN more closely that this season would've been a masterpiece because I have criticisms of the LN's as well. But I do think it would have elevated this season to be at least as good as the first.

I'm vaguely hopeful the second half of this season will be more representative of the original content, in which case I will alter this review to reflect that.

Koe no Katachi is a movie that left me extremely confused about what just happened when I finished watching it. I felt bamboozled like I was promised something tasty and then handed a moldy piece of bread instead.

The characters in this movie are very bad. Shouko is one of the flattest, most 1-dimensional characters I've ever seen. She has no character development throughout the film, which was extremely disappointing for me as I wanted to like her. I kept hoping she would get a lengthy talking scene (with sign language), but she never did. The rest of the characters are not any better, though. Many ... of them made me wonder why they were even included at all. I can only assume that this movie cut a ton of content from the manga. I wouldn't know as I haven't read it.

The plot in this movie also doesn't make any sense. Things just happen, and then you wonder why they happened and why none of the characters are talking about what just happened. Stuff that seems significant is blown over like it's nothing.

The voice acting was fine, and I appreciated they didn't make Shouko sound overly cutesy. I knew several deaf people in HS and I can confirm they talk similar to this, some a bit better some a bit worse.

Overall I was disappointed by this movie. Does not live up to the hype.

I think the reason I love Re:Zero so much is the exact reason so many people hate it. I love that Subaru is a deeply flawed character.

In normal isekai, the MC is generally perfect, extremely powerful, never makes mistakes, all the other characters love him etc. All hallmarks of wish-fulfillment and power fantasy that make for the ideal self-insert type character. People like these characters because it’s fun to live vicariously through them. Subaru is a very bad character to live vicariously through, so I can understand why people would be frustrated watching him when they’re used to traditional isekai fair. But because he’s so ... flawed, it leaves a ton of opportunity for character development and growth, which we see in spades throughout the show. It also makes him a lot more relatable than the typical isekai protagonist, so it's easier to get invested into his story.

The characters are generally appealing, though there is a notable lack of development for some of them. And there is at least one character whose development made no sense to me. Part of the problem is the show ends up introducing a reasonably large cast. I can only assume this is because the first season is an incomplete adaptation of the source-material.

The plot and world-building are excellent. The show sets-up intriguing mysteries and then offers satisfying solutions. Some plot developments did feel slightly rushed or poorly explained. I do think there is a surprising amount of subtlety to what is happening the story, too. Despite being set in a fantasy setting, like a lot of other isekai, the world feels less generic and more fleshed out. I’m excited to see where they go with a lot of this stuff in season 2.

Sound and animation are generally very good. The ending theme, "Styx Helix," is an absolute banger of a song even just by itself. No complaints here.

Baccano! is one of those shows that over-complicates everything in an attempt to make itself look cerebral and intelligent. In reality, I feel this show probably appeals most to the lowest-common-denominator.

Right away in the first episode, we're introduced to so many different characters it's hard to say we learn anything about any of them. I had difficulty keeping the characters straight, and that's partially because a lot of them are very same-y. They feel 1D, shallow, one-note, etc. I guess the series tries to compensate for this by having a billion of them.

This show also massively overuses violence. I don't mind violence, even ... brutal, gory violence. But there is so much over-the-top violence in this show that it loses all meaning. Brutal violence should shock and disturb me. After the first couple of times I saw a guy get beaten to death in this show I just lost interest.

The only good thing I can say about this show is it has a nice soundtrack.