Back to Pennisland's Profile Pennisland's Profile

I'll keep this review short. You can't make a show criticizing the entertainment industry yet have every aspect of the show pander to it and the anime industry. It's like you took all of the surefire hit trends in the anime community and slapped in with a song that's just asking to trend on TikTok.
Why is there a harem? Just why?????? Did we really need a love triangle? Why is there pandering to mommy kinks? I feel like every positive aspect of this show is just nullified by the fact that I just can't immerse myself in the ethos/pathos of the story when it feels ... it is constantly contradicting itself for the sake of commercial success.
Also, the portrayal of suicide in the show left a really bad taste in my mouth. Just everything from how lazily it was set up to how Akane requires a man to redeem her self-worth. Just disgusting.

I was going to write a whole multipage review/thesis about about how Onimai’s use of divisiveness and duality in its tone, theming, and characters is perfect for the coming-of-age, identity searching, otaku-centric story but I scrapped it because what’s the point in trying to convince people to watch a show they will probably hate, so I’ll keep it short, or as short I can feasibly can while I gush over this show.

TLDR: If mild sis-con (or bro-con idek) vibes and a healthy heaping of fanservice are enough for you to turn you off you should not watch this show. If you are a sis-con, bro-con, ... loli-con, or a saw-con you would have probably liked this show even if every other part of it was total garbage. If you lean somewhere in the middle you should give this show a chance.

Onimai has some of the most striking visual direction in slice of life anime, up there with the likes of K-On, Bocchi The Rock, and Akebi’s Sailor Uniform. The color palette has a nice easy tone on the eyes that goes well with the combination of a dynamic “sketch” and smooth, realistic animation. The facial expressions are all beautifully animated. It’s all absolutely adorable.

While I don’t particularly enjoy the fanservice, it properly sets the heavy otaku overtones of the show. Mahiro was a hentai addict young male hikkimori turned into a cute anime girl, and so the fanservice scenes constantly remind you of Mahiro’s inherent male gaze. But you’re alsog etting absolutely adorable character designs/outfits, meditations on the nature of identity, gender or other, and genuinely funny and heartwarming character interactions. Like Mahiro, we are confronted with the perspective of an otaku experiencing the world through an entirely new lens.

Alot of the intrigue of the show comes from Mahiro’s clashing identities that are at odds with the dual nature of her relationships with the other characters. For instance, both Mihari and Mahiro experience how it feels like to be the older and younger sibling in their relationship. As a new older sister, Mihari shows her affection and care for Mahiro in a way that would be out of place as the younger sister to an older brother by teaching them how to navigate the world and showering them with “sisterly” love. At the same time, Mahiro better understands Mihari’s as the younger sister and grows to appreciate Mihari’s love for them. It’s a really interesting way to portray a sibling relationship that was really well done in my opinion.

The other characters also have interesting dual natures to them as well. Is Momiji a tomboy, trans, straight lesbian? Is Kaede an older sister to Mahiro or an “older sister”? Is Miyo asexual, lesbian, a voyeur. I love how the show juggles all of these ambiguous identities in the setting of middle school, a time where everyone is searching for their identity. By turning into a little girl, Mahiro gets a second chance to discover themselves where they previously became a shut-in.

The show is also pretty funny. One of my favorite bits is when Mahiro tries to act like an “older bro” to the boys in their class forgetting that they are physically a girl. Hijinks ensue. It’s not the show’s strongest suit, but I let out a laugh at least once per episode, if not an absolute gigantic grin on my face.

Did I mention this show is absolutely adorable? Watching Momiji crush on Mahiro absolutely melted my heart. And every time Mahiro and Mihari had a sibling bonding moment? I got diabetes from how sweet it all was

There were also SO MANY OUTFITS and all of them were SO CUTE. I don’t care that they sometimes felt forced within the narrative because I loved each and every one of them. As a guy who likes to crossdress this aspect of the show especially resonated with me.

Do I wish that there were no fanservice scenes? Yeah. Do I wish that Miyo and Asahi would just shut up sometimes? Of course. Do I wish that the show would stop depicting these girls going to the bathroom every other scene? Hell yeah. But then the show wouldn’t be Onimai, flaws and all. And I love Onimai just the way it is.

8+/10

Did Chainsaw Man live up to its hype? That seems to be the golden question this season. (Very extremely mild spoilers below, to the point where I'm not sure if they would be considered spoilers)

TL;DR- No, but if you go into the show expecting something that it is not you will be heavily disappointed.

Longer Answer: It seemed as if no matter what Chainsaw Man did it would not be able to live up to its hype. Its combination of big industry names on the staff, the fact that it would be animated by MAPPA, the enormous amounts of praise from the fans of the manga, ... and the 3 years of time between the series being announced and airing meant that every anime fan and their mothers were constantly being told from all angles about how GREAT Chainsaw Man is.

And with hype comes unrealistic expectations. I feel like many came into the anime expecting the next great battle shounen. If you want to watch a battle shounen, watch Demon Slayer or Jujutsu Kaisen. While the story follows that of many battle shounen: fighting numerous bad guys with the overarching goal being to defeat the SUPER bad guy (here it is the Gun Devil), the "main point" of Chainsaw Man isn't the battles.

That isn't to say the battles aren't good. However, in my opinion they are the weakest aspect of the anime. You won't be seeing any elaborate strategies or spirit bombs. Compared to battle shounen, there is not a whole lot of "battling" here. Nevertheless, while the CGI is slightly jarring at times, this is one of the best anime I've seen at incorporating hand drawn, CGI, and rotoscoping animation into its fight scenes, probably only half a step behind Houseki no Kuni (and that is a compliment).

No. Where Chainsaw Man thrives most is off the battlefield. The visual direction is absolutely stunning. It feels like a maturation of the dark style of Jujutsu Kaisen with a better color palette, lighting, and cinematography. The camera perfectly transitions between closeups to accentuate facial expressions and body movements and further panouts to focus more on the interactions between characters. Combined with the aforementioned color design and lighting and the fantastic voice acting, this show absolutely grabbed me by my neck and completely held my attention for each of its incredible episodes.

Whether its Makima manipulating Denji, Himeno drunk seducing Denji, Aki having dinner with Himeno, or any scene from this anime, each frame just OOZES with so much personality. It's no reason why so many people on the internet are entranced by Makima. The show is just THAT good at putting the audience into the same headspace as Denji, even if most of us are aware of her dubious intentions.

This is more impressive when considering how little ACTUALLY happens. I'm anime-only but from what I've heard Season 1 of Chainsaw Man only adapts around 1/3 of the part 1 source material. I feel the love of the cast for this show as every scene is given the respect it deserves. And without an excessive amount of plot or battles to get into the way, the show can focus on its fantastic characters and themes.

Without getting too much into spoilers, the central question of Chainsaw Man is "Why do we live?". Most of the characters have their own answers to this question, which forms the basis for many of their personalities. Some motivations include vengeance, coercion, bloodlust, and duty. And at the center of all of these serious and grave motives we have our main character Denji. What is his motive? Man just wants to live a comfortable life and to touch some breasts. The absurdist nature of his motivation contrasted with the other character naturally brings rise to many of the character conflicts and adds an extra layer of nihilism/existentialistic dread to the story which is a nice touch.

So after all that discussion, should you watch Chainsaw Man? If you're looking for cool fights and a standard battle shounen, you're in for an above average, but not mind-blowing experience. However, if you're looking for a slow burning character-driven drama with fantastic atmosphere, themes, personalities pushed to an 11/10 with plot elements which push the characters to their absolute limits, this is THE must-watch anime for 2022. It's funny, horrifying, heartwarming, and chilling, all handled with an extremely controlled and mature touch. For me at least, Chainsaw Man exceeded all of my expectations.

I really wanted to like Bocchi The Rock!. I truly did. I genuinely enjoy the genre of "cute girls doing cute things while they're in a friend group performing some joint group activity". But what exactly does Bocchi bring to the table? I'm not exactly sure.

Sure, the character designs are not bad for how simple they are, but they're way too basic, especially considering how Cloverworks went fairly light with the animation compared to other shows like Dress Up Darling or Akebi-chan. If I wanted to watch cute girls with simple designs I'd just watch Do It Yourself! this season.

If I wanted to watch ... a CGDCT show with good comedy I'd watch K-On. Why would I watch Bocchi the Rock where 90% jokes are comprised of visual gags of Bocchi being shy and/or socially anxious, when I could watch the same gags executed better with Mio in a show that also has alot of other running jokes? As a result of the lack of jokes each joke is stretched on for way too long. The punchlines are way too simple for them to last longer than like 3-4 seconds.

In fact, this show does a fraction of what K-On does but just way worse. When I listen to a song from K-On it feels like the girls are the ones that are playing the instruments. I don't get the same feeling from Bocchi The Rock. Similarly, the character personalities, while it can be argued have a similar level of depth to the girls in K-On, have nowhere near even a fraction of the chemistry other CGDCT shows like K-On, Yuru Camp, or a Place Further Than the Universe have. To be fair, this show is more focused on how the girls get better at playing as a band, but if I wanted to watch a show with THAT angle I'd just watch Sound! Euphonium, which is a much more realistic portrayal of such struggles.

Before I continue on with comparisons you might think that it might be unfair for me to frame my review by comparing it to other shows in the same genre. I should treat Bocchi the Rock! as its own show instead of it being K-On 2. There's a few reasons why I'd disagree:

1. Whether consciously or not we all compare the media we watch the media we've previously watched. If we didn't then we wouldn't be doing things like numerical ratings or saying "x is better than y". It is human nature to compare.
2. You'll have to take my word for it but I genuinely gave this show and all shows an honest shot. For instance, while I wasn't the biggest fan of A Place Further than the Universe I still respect what it was trying to do. Bocchi the Rock! feels pretty derivative, bland, and uninspired.
3. I wouldn't be making these comparisons if there was more I can find in the show that was either really good or really bad. Everything is meh, but just saying that something is mid without a frame of reference (other shows) is pretty pointless.

And that's overall the biggest problem with this show. Besides some semi-interesting but pointless shot compositions, decent character designs, ok characters, and a sub-par plot/comedy, this show gives me NOTHING. Maybe this is unfair for me to say but it feels like some anime executive saw the success of Komi Can't Communicate and decided to just pump out another anime that relates to the low common denominator of people that would like socially anxious introvert tumblr memes. But even then if I wanted to watch a more relatable and realistic portrayal of social anxiety/introversion I'd watch March Comes In Like A Lion.

On the topic of social anxiety, Bocchi is such a bland, uninteresting portrayal of it. Her backstory is that she locked herself in her room for her love of playing guitars and that because of that she simply never learned to socialize. Humans are inherently social creatures. Typically people who completely isolate themselves from the world due to a hobby usually have an unhealthy relationship, sometimes even an addiction, to it. Besides having good guitar skills, I don't even get the feeling that Bocchi even likes the guitar that much from the show. She's just a normal person with a "socially anxious" label slapped on.

The issue is worse for the other characters in the show. Because the show is from the perspective of our uninteresting Bocchi every other character is even less interesting. We got confident introvert with blue hair, confident extrovert with blonde hair, and unconfident extrovert with red hair (plus bonus unnecessary yuri bait!). It feels like every single character's personality is hinged on how they socialize with others. Compare that with K-On! Ritsu is also a confident blonde extrovert. The difference is that this confidence bleeds into how she teases Mio, how she is the club president who makes all of the important decisions for the club, and even the way she always sits in a chair with her legs spread apart. As a result the other K-On characters view her as a tomboy, which comes into play multiple times in the show in the form of short gags, longer jokes, or general character moments. Compare that to Nijika. Besides forcing Bocchi to join the band initially, what else does she contribute to the show? Absolutely nothing.

The fact that I structured this review around comparing it to other shows perfectly captures my opinion of the show. While watching the show, the only thing I frankly could think of is why I wasn't watching something better.
Bonus:
Oh yeah also if I wanted to watch a show where the main character has some hidden talent but something is preventing them from fully expressing it there are hundreds of shounens/isekais with that theme.

Do you ever feel like something is missing? Like when you try to replicate your grandma's recipe, only for it to taste like 70% of what it SHOULD taste like? Or have you ever been sitting there with everything you've wanted on paper and just thought to yourself, "Why do I feel so empty?". And the thing is that you have no idea what is missing so you question your own sanity on whether you even remembered how things "used to be"? Or you might question if you truly understand what you want?
That's what I feel when watching Season 3 of Welcome to the Demon ... School Iruma-Kun!. Seasons 1 and 2 had some infectious charm. It took the common tropes of shounen and school slice of life and embraced them to their absolute fullest. Every cliche was delivered with a slight wink and a nod to placate my pretentious anime fan mind. "Ok, you're ALLOWED to like this even though it's cliched".
And Season 3 has the same. We have all of the same characters, more or less similar art, and a common shounen training arc. It has all of the ingredients that made Seasons 1 and 2 seemingly great.
The problem is that where Season 1 and 2 embraced these tropes Season 3 hides behind the tropes to make up for subpar writing.
The biggest example I can give is the character development. I'm not going to say that Welcome to the Demon School Iruma-kun has the best character writing, but in my opinion it is pretty underrated. The general format is that the different values between Iruma (human) and everyone else (demons) allows change between both parties as they grow to understand each other. For instance, from the demon power ranking system and Ameri's ambition, Iruma learns to find his own motivation and becomes more assertive. At the same time, Iruma teaches Ameri through their manga reading sessions to embrace her own emotions. This forms the basis of the character development between Iruma and all of the other side characters: Clara, Asmodeus, etc.
And we see the story trying to tackle character development through the same lens with Bachiko. We have Iruma paired up with another strong demon personality that strongly contrasts to Iruma's values. The problem is that it is handled so much worse. Her whole deal is that she used to be caring and patient with others until she lost faith in their incompetence. At the same time apparently after being abused by her for this whole time Iruma wants to impress her to prove her wrong by crafting a bow worthy to her standards. This could have been a much better story if it was tackled with as much care as the first two seasons. Here's a rapid fire of some of my criticisms:
1. Besides Sullivan saying she's strong or something we have no reason to like Bachiko or assume that Iruma would care enough to impress her, even if I like how Iruma's drive here is the immediate consequence of his previous character development.
2. We get really weird pacing by cutting through all of the misfit students which have similarly half-baked realizations/breakthroughs that are even less interesting.
3. The amount of actual character animation has decreased
4. Unlike the other arcs, this one is the most divorced from school activities. Without providing more setting details it doesn't feel like they're at school. It would have been more immersive if they framed this training arcs as after school extracurriculars. I think they were trying to go for kind of a private tutor cram school vibe but it feels way too similar to generic training arcs to feel integrated into the setting.
I could go on and on about my criticisms but the problem is for a show that was good because of how well they executed the cliches. And if it doesn't execute them well? Then it's really just a pile of cliches. Your grandma's recipe without the secret ingredient. Staring off into a dark nothingness wondering how everything disappeared.

I and many others feel a lingering cynicism for the Love Live! franchise and other promotional anime. They don't ACTUALLY want to create something substantial, original, or "with artistic merit", just cloying moe bait to eventually sell merchandise and drive-up streams. And in many ways, Love Live! Nijigasaki (LLN) Second Season perfectly embodies this sentiment. It doesn't offer the character dynamics or attention to detail in animation in K-On. It doesn't offer the compelling drama of Hibike! Euphonium. It doesn't offer the better looking 2D idol performances of Idolm@ster.

What LLN offers is variety in spades. It throws so many characters, ideas, and plots at the ... wall. Some stick, some miss. But there is so much variety that some is bound to hit for each person, and the misses are agreeable enough that they don't interfere too much with the viewing experience.

For instance, the large cast of 12 members is frankly filled with alot of hits and misses. While each person may have differing opinions, generally fans agree that Setsuna, Ayumu, Rina, and Kasumi are the most likeable and developed characters, while Ai, Emma, Karin, and Shizuku could be offering much more to the table. This is where the subgroups come in. Qu4rtz and Azuna allows for the more interesting characters to pick up the slack. You don't like Shizuku? Don't worry, because she has so much screentime with Ayumu and Setsuna. I was surprised to find that there was not a single scene where there wasn't at least one character on screen that I didn't like. I suspect this has to do with the LL franchise being in touch with the preferences of the fanbase and trying appeal to the characters that are the most liked. This approach also allows the less interesting characters to shine in their own ways. Back to the example with Shizuku, I'm not entirely sure what her personality is supposed to be besides liking theatre, but the show uses her love of theatre to create a really fun improv scene between the members of Azuna.

Speaking of complementing characters, the three new members, Mia, Lanzhu, and Shioriko all provide a nice foil to the main cast, further strengthening the characterization and themes of the show as a whole. Each girl represents an opposition to the idea of staying together and supporting each other while also fulfilling individual dreams, such as pride, shyness, and societal pressure. As the main cast helps to make them want to become part of the club, it strengthens their characterization. For instance, Rina helps Mia because she recognizes that Mia is shy like how she used to be. Setsuna helps Shioriko as someone who used to feel the need to have a more serious class president demeanor. Not only do the characters help each other realize their own goals, but the very fact that they are helping each other reinforces the theme that they can help each other while pursuing their own ambitions. While the characters may not be strong on their own, their interactions together create a surprisingly coherent thematic message.

Onto the music performances, there are once again some hits and some misses, with more hits than misses. Eutopia, EMOTION, and Infinity! Our Wings are fantastic, each embodying their own unique styles with that bit of an idol twist. I was especially surprised by EMOTION for pulling off an idol take on the future bass/house/Breakcore. The wide catalog of LLN songs means that I can repeatedly play the ones I like, and forget about the ones I dislike.

The last thing I want to talk about is the art. Personally, I LOVE the character designs. They're a middle ground that's more interesting and fun than "realistic hair", while not too out there that I'm just looking at highlighter hair. Shoutout to the outfits that are also absolutely adorable, both for casual and idol attire. I personally especially love Setsuna's design.

LLN is perhaps the perfect promotion. I mean I regularly listen to the music now and have thought about downloading the game. It gives just enough that is interesting that you want to seek more, while being inoffensive enough where the misses don't interfere with the viewing experience. The plot and characters are admittedly barebone and not quite interesting. At the core, LLN is still a cute girls doing cute things show, which may not appeal to everyone. Nevertheless, for what it is, LLN succeeded. And for someone as cynical to "selling out" as myself, I see that as an accomplish in itself.

Love is mundane yet extraordinary. Love is liberating yet trapping. Love is perfect yet flawed. Love is one of the most complex representations of the human experience, and Bloom into You attempts to tackle it.

A disclaimer for anyone watching this show: it is slow. As such, if you are not invested into the story or characters, it will feel painful to watch. On the other hand, if you are invested, as I was, you will find yourself clinging to every single moment.

What exactly is there to cling to? To start, the direction is absolutely gorgeous. The movements are fluid, the character expressions are perfect, and ... the direction makes you feel like you are right there in the headspace of the characters. I would often forget where I was sitting while watching this show. The animation quality is better than some movies.

The story follows a slice of life drama format similar to something like Anohana. As such, there is a good balance of drama, comedy, romance, and introspection. Each aspect gives each other its own space to breathe and complement each other. The interactions between Yuu and Nanami capture the magic of the mundane conversations with loved ones. Their relationship dynamics had me squealing at how cute they were at points.

On the topic of the characters, the main and supporting characters all get their deserved development. Yuu’s character is extremely accurate to the experiences I’ve heard from LGBTQ friends coming out. Nanami’s erratic nature in her personality brings really dynamic moments to an otherwise slow paced burner. The side characters all bring their own flavor and add to the plot. While I wish Saeki was utilized more, I have a feeling this is explored more in the manga.

The theme this show tackles so well is the feelings of loneliness. A common motif in the story is the juxtaposition of physical closeness with emotional closeness, both with others and even with oneself. Not only do the characters have trouble connecting with each other, they have trouble understanding themselves.

The various arcs and plots are your typical high school anime fare. Think school play, cultural festival, you know the drill. However, this anime took that to the advantage. Even the most typical scenes were dripping with subtext between the relationship development between the characters. The inner dialogues and character animations bring these slice of life moments to life.

Lastly, I’d like to address the problematic aspects of the show. Personally, while I agree that some of what Yuu and Nanami did was not acceptable, it was executed in an extremely tasteful way. In my opinion, problematic media is okay as long as it isn’t the main message of the show. The show does a really good job of portraying that these aspects are the result of the flaws of the characters. They’re awkward and uncomfortable for the viewer because they are also uncomfortable for the two characters as they explore their feelings and sexuality.

In a world of fetishizing yuri hentai and ecchi, overdone harems, and frankly uninspired romance, Bloom into You is a shining beacon that tells a fantastic story through its romance. While this show could’ve been about a male and a female, the yuri aspect makes sense in the context of the themes of the show.

Sitting at a 7.9 on MAL, while not low, this show is still underrated in my opinion, given that I tend to score a bit more harshly than the average MAL user. If you haven’t watched this show, you must. If you are a fan of good romance, drama, or slice of life, you will definitely love this show. If not, give it a try with an open mind. It may not be for you, but it is worth it to give such a high quality work a shot. I may give this anime a 10/10 in the future if the manga delivers on the ending.

Heike Monogatari is the newest work from the iconic duo director Naoko Yamada with music composer Kensuke Ushio, who were most famous for their work on Liz and the Blue Bird and a Silent Voice. Personally, I have loved most of their work together so I was extremely excited to see what was in store for this anime.

This may be the duo's most ambitious project to date. First of all, this is the first historical adaptation of the Tales of Heike Japanese epic. Second of all, the duo is working with studio Science Saru instead of Kyoto Animation. I was even more intrigued by ... what would come from this duo.

Don't be mistaken, this is unmistakably a Yamada Ushio production. From the beautiful musical passages narrating the events of the story sung by the protagonist Biwa to the signature legs shots that Yamada is so well known for, I could tell that there was alot of love that went into the production. The minimalist art style that Yamada used for Liz and the Blue Bird continues here, amping up the details where it counted. While it allowed for more facial expressions and subtle animation to portray the characters, I found the character designs made it difficult to track the many characters that were introduced.

This did not help when the plot progressed at an extremely fast pace. This was an even worse issue when considering the fact that alot of the characters had pretty subdued personalities for anime standards, especially Munemori and Sukemori. While I commend the effort to attempt to make the characters as nuanced and realistic as possible, this is an impossible task in such a short anime that must cover so much plot.

I found it very hard to connect with some of the characters due to the many time skips. The story attempts to tell itself in a slice of life format, once in a while peeking into the lives of the characters in many moments to create a coherent story. While this worked for K-On, which had over 30 episodes to work with, this anime meanders too much for how little time it has. The plot is oversimplified which makes it feel very bare-bones. Nevertheless, the plot was never overly confusing. yes, alot of names are thrown around, but they are never necessary to understand what is going on. I just feel that it hurt alot of the emotional arcs and moments in the show. Still, the symbolism helps a bit to convey the story nonverbally where the pacing might suffer.

Besides these criticisms, I still very much enjoyed this anime. Lady Tokuko feels very much like a Yamada character. I love how she is portrayed as both extremely strong and feminine despite the limited gender roles in Heian Japan. Biwa's arc, while suffering a bit from the pacing, was also quite poignant yet still empowering.

The themes of the story are heavily influenced by Buddhism. I think the story handles them extremely well. It discusses the existentialism of fate yet still doesn't relegate itself to helpless resignation. This theme oozes perfectly from the show, from the direction to the sound direction to the various side and main characters who all thoroughly explore the nuances of these ideas. These ideas culminate into one of my favorite final episodes of an anime series.

If there's one word I'd use to describe this project it would be ambitious. To condense an entire multivolume folk epic into an 11 episode anime is an extremely daunting task. While the anime suffers from this inherent flaw, the direction, sound design, and smart use of characters and story telling all make for a more or less emotionally coherent plot with amazing moments. If you want to learn more about Japanese history or want to see an experimental piece of art I would recommend this show. While it's not for everyone, it definitely has many moments that are extremely rewarding. This show is a 7/10 but it teeters on being an 8.

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is one of my favorite slice of life for its combination of witty humor, introspective heartwarming moments, and fun characters. However, I was concerned about season 2 for a few reasons.

First, alot of the interactions in Season 1 hinged on the dragons being unfamiliar with the human world. This gets old as the characters become more accustomed to the world. More importantly, however, is from the replacing of Yasuhiro Takemoto, who directed season 1 and the Haruhi franchise, with Tatsuya Ishihara, who directed Nichijou and Sound! Euphonium. While I love Sound! Euphonium, I am not a big fan of Nichijou's humor ... and thus was afraid that the series would go in the wrong direction.

Therefore, I'm happy to say that Season 2 meets the bar of Season 1, exceeding it in some aspects.

I will note that the shift is very noticeable from Season 1 and Season 2. From the Nichijou-inspired OP to the fluid fight animations to the patented short, random skits, Kobayashi Maid Dragon S isn't afraid to wear its Nichijou influence on its sleeve. However, where Nichijou was oftentimes too random, unfocused, with many jokes falling flat for these reasons, the fast paced comedic style allows the eccentric characters to shine.

Specifically, the Nichijou inspired animation is a sight to behold: an improvement from Season 1. Where Season 1 introduced the characters through their unfamiliarity with the new environment, Season 2 uses much more traditional sitcom humor style to explore them further. Some highlights include the amusement park, maid cafe, and safety patrol skits. I I grew to like Elma, Lucoa, and Shota, characters that were a bit lacking in Season 1.

Then, there's the introduction of the two new characters, Illulu and Take. While I wasn't crazy about Illlulu in the beginning, she quickly grew on me. She works well in the context of the themes of the story and is unique enough to provide an extra flair of humor. The hands scene had me dying. take also complements Illulu well, similar to the Saikawa Take dynamic. Im excited to see how their relationship will develop in the future.

My only minor complaint is the increase of "screaming matches" from season 1, similar to Tohru's confrontation wit her father. While I do get they further push the themes of the plot, I think the series is the strongest in its more subtle moments, which Season 2 still has, just less of. It's not super badly done, but it needed to be further developed to have a proper emotional impact. I think using more subtle, quiet scenes would work better while keeping the dialogue during physical fights to a minimum.

Nevertheless, Dragon Maid S is a definite step up from Season 1. The slight misstep in the drama barely prevents this show from being a 10/10 though.

I could see not everyone liking the shift into more in your face, traditional comedy, but for me, it was a refreshing change in the Dragon Maid franchise. While I don't typically write reviews in advance, I am fairly confident that this show will maintain its level of quality from how things are going. I want to push this review out ASAP to convince those on the fence to watch this show. From it's combination of fast paced comedy, heartwarming cuteness, and genuinely emotional, introspective moments, it's really a gem in this season.

9.5/10

I want to talk a bit at length about my experience with Weathering with You: first, because it was the first anime movie I’ve watched in movie theaters, which was a great experience, and second, because I couldn’t understand why I really liked it, why I was engrossed by it.

The story is very basic, the former half following a typical “story of success” slice of life where the characters form emotional bonds with each other. Then, in the latter half, some conflict threatens the relationship and all else gained from the former half.

The characters are also unremarkable, from our leads Hina and Hodaka to the ... various supporting characters. I can’t say I extremely like any of the characters to a degree more than “pleased contention”. While each character has some form of backstory they don’t play a huge role in their characterizations.

This is not to say that the characters and story are bad, far from it. However, if you were to look at these two simply and mark off the film as “average”, you’d be doing it a disservice. It’s greatest strength of this movie by far is the world building.

I would liken this film to a still snapshot of the world at a given time. Of course humans would be included in them, but they would hardly be the single focus. Just because we don’t get to know much about the characters doesn’t mean they aren’t realistic. I’d argue that not knowing the characters well makes the movie MORE realistic. Out of every person you know, how many do you TRULY know the ins and outs of? When Keisuke pulls out his cigarette only to rip it apart, we feel his struggle, even if we only have a general sense of his motivations.

That doesn’t mean we don’t get to know any of the characters. We get an insight into Hodaka’s character through how he views the setting. The most obvious would be the rain. Each rainy scene is unique breathtaking, underscoring the emotional connection he has to the weather. The other would be Tokyo, a world with shining lights, and deep dark alleys. Where we are constantly exposed to sin from adults yet are also overprotected from it from the same source. Combined with the massive amounts of crowds, we get a nuanced view of Hodaka’s coming of age from a less intimate, yet nonetheless powerful, view.

Of course I would have to discuss the art style which was absolutely breathtaking. Even in scenes where the characters were undergoing an important conflict, the panning shots gave an equal amount of importance to the surroundings. This story is as much of a story of love and sacrifice as it is a folk-like fable of the environment.

The plot supports this larger than life yet also intimate feeling. As mentioned, the use of perspective when viewing the setting in the former “slice of life” half of the movie contextualizes the experiences of the characters within the larger scene of the world. Hina is the best personification of this feeling, whose actions quite literally impact the entire world. She is the 8th Sunshine girl, and Tokyo is mentioned to have been under water until 200 years ago. Hina’s actions are captured as both significant at the personal level, significant at the city level, yet ultimately inconsequential in the grander scale of the world. The symbol of the dragon supports this. We are at its mercy, only having a human sacrifice to hopefully ward off its erratic decisions on a whim. On the other hand, the use of the various commissions for Hina’s Sunshine Girl service directly contrast this, giving a very human side to the conflict. At the end, the story find a nuanced middle ground, acknowledging the intimacy of human emotions, the omnipotence of nature: the paradoxical significance and insignificance of our actions.

I would continue to write about this movie but I think it’s already turning into rambling. To sum, it’s an unorthodox movie, but it rewards those who are willing to take a step back and look at the big picture.