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"Bro, Undead Unluck is actually really funny you just have to watch it bro, please bro believe me. you have to understand the complex humor, bro how are you not laughing he groped a woman for the 500th time please bro it gets better at chapter 150 I promise it's so funny bro"

Need I say anything else? Shounen manga aimed at 13 year olds aren't exactly a "slow burn" sort of series. It's pretty blatantly clear the themes of the show, even if there is a so called "dramatic plot twist" at chapter 990. It's honestly a bit laughable to see people thinking that the ... romance in this show is realistic or something. Hell yeah bro just ignore like the entire first 500 chapters or something and then it gets better. If the foundations are shaky, then how can the rest be good?

I think giving slow pace shows with a lot of dialogue, setup, story, and character development makes sense. Something like Shinsekai Yori. In this show you're just fighting people with superpowers. It really is just super bad version of Jojo. It's got nearly identical concepts in terms of powers and fighting, but rather than our main character just figuring out the enemy's weakness because there's actually some more thought put into the story, they're just dumb as bricks. You can't actually be serious about how dumb some of the antogonists or enemies in the story are utilizing their absolutely broken and OP powers but because it's a dumbed down shounen manga somehow our MC is the only person that's able to abuse mechanics on how powers work. It's pretty apparent that the only reason why fights pan out the way they do is due to plot armor.

At first glance, I honestly thought the show was adapting off a really old light novel series. Just the cover art of the anime exuded 80-90s style. Something like Orphen, Slayers, etc. And I thought that such an old light novel had potential to finally shine since it's finally getting a modern adaptation.

Yeah, can you believe that it's a manga adaptation that was made in 2020? Come on. We're living in the modern era. A show with such a predictably cringe, oversaturated with tropes, and a white bread MC whose only trait is that he's "kind and protects his friends" really doesn't cut it. It's ... even set in a medieval fantasy school world where there are such predictable young arrogant masters trying to get in the main character's way. Plus, sprinkle in a few female side characters that are infatuated with him one way or another, you got a pretty much a formula from the 80-90s.

For such a synopsis and set of characters to actually appear in a traditional shounen manga is not what I expected. It's not even a gag or trying to make fun of the generic fantasy setting. It's literally just a very cliche and old fashioned, brining absolutely nothing to the table other than make yet another boring shounen show.

SHIKA.......NOTSU. If you're not Japanese, you'll still probably understand these phrases after watching the show (not that notsu is an actual word...)

Actually, despite all of the great opening you have, the comically bad but also funny deer CGI, and overall a great premise of Noko being a boke in a gag manga, the actual show is pretty tame. I'd say the show is not the highest production value, but it definitely nails all of the comedic execution. By taking liberties of animation Noko as a blob sometimes, Torako as a chibi when acting as a tsukommi, and a few other shorthands, the comedic value stays ... the same while still providing good entertainment value. I have nothing negative to say about how the anime decided to create multiple sound tracks with only the word SHIKA. By changing the tone of the OST, you go from some generic happy/sad/somber OST to something actually quite entertaining as you're listening to "SHIKA" being sung in many different tones depending on what the OST is.

However, that being said, I just don't find the characters to be up to par. Just the manzai between Noko and Torako is pretty average. However, the rest of the deer club is just abysmal. Despite Anko and Bashame making up half the deer club, you barely get to even see them talk. Most of the time, they're just on screen and not talking, or if they are, they stick to their pet phrases and archetypes without contributing to the comedy, dialogue, or scene. It's very weird since you'd think these major side characters would be on screen more often, but actually the student council members probably have more screen time than them. And even if they don't, frankly speaking, the student council body is a lot more funny than Bashame's one pet trait of eating a lot of rice and Anko being a generic yandere sis-con. There's exactly one scene where Bashame and Anko interact with each other that sort of gives some sort of characterization, but it's way too infrequent and way too late.

Like I said though, just even the manzai between Torako and Noko is pretty average. A lot of the longer gags are just very unfunny, like Noko acting as a shrine maiden for 5+ minutes, or Noko acting as a flower arrangement instructor, to say a few examples. Same thing with a lot of the short ones too. Noko sleeping in class and blowing bubbles out of her antlers isn't particularly anything too funny, and honestly, shows like Nichijou, Joshikousei no Mudazukai, and more have way better gags and funny moments despite them being more grounded in reality. When a bizarre show about a high school deer is less interesting and has less varied scenarios than other shows that are more strictly slice of life, you have a problem. And this can be seen even in the setting. 99% of the show is in the club room and student council room. The lack of interactions in the classroom, interactions out of class, and overall just moving around the area hurts the show a lot. Noko never actually pulls the deer club to some random events or anything.

Overall, I feel like all I said was negative, but still, the animation and storyboarding alongside the sound design are good enough, and pacing is good. The anime features some fun gags here and there despite most of them missing the mark. I give it a high score only due to it literally being my favorite genre of all time. If you're not a fan of gag shows, you definitely won't like this one. Many eclipse this show in all departments.

Moral of the story? Trust the damn tags.

What do I do when I see a lightnovel adaptation? I got to novelupdates and find the novel. What do I see? That its got a harem tag. What do I read from every positive review? that "no it's not and MC is so cool and stuff."

Ok great, so I watch it, and if the anime isn't a harem, it still possesses every single attribute that a harem trope has. You could say it's a "deconstruction of the genre." Bro you can't just throw that term around and hope it sticks and that people find if ... amazing. The main character isn't too uncharacteristic of dense MCs in harem shows to begin with. Just because you slap an observing MC in a harem story and since "technically he isn't with any girl" doesn't count as a deconstruction! Even if I am just arguing semantics and splitting hairs, who says that any "deconstructions of a genre" are automatically good?

The actual character setup in this show isn't necessarily bad. Our main character, Sensei's definitely a peculiar fellow. One that wants to die because nothing in his life goes right, but also because his lover that he wants to commit double suicide with could be in the new world he is transported for. This makes for an actual main character whose personality doesn't just merely consist of "wanting to save his friends," and how "he is kind." Tama and Annette aren't also that bad. They have a fun dynamic with each other and Sensei, despite half of it being kind of just ecchi and fanservice.

If ... the story was good, maybe the characters could have been carried by it. Unfortunately --and I really don't know why-- the story really wants to focus on Sensei playing psuedo psychologist of the week and solving everyone's trauma with his "eccentric" personality and tendency towards suicide. I guess everyone opens up to him due to his unique outlook on life! Nah, but it's pretty boring. You're inserting a character like Sensei who serves much better as a boke or maybe just as an eccentric in a comedic fantasy world with comedic fantasy characters, and then you have him play pretend doctor or psychologist of the week on people whose mentality are so undeveloped that their toddler-like personalities and brains need Sensei's extra push in order to become a human being. And it's not just once or twice, but the entire concept of the show is Sensei playing this weird role.

The comedy isn't exceptional. Even in light-hearted moments, I fail to laugh. Sensei's the only mildly interesting character, and the comedic moments between Tama and Annete --like I said--aren't too bad, but they're also not funny enough to actually be considered comedy. Overall, I kind of just see a formulaic sort of development where Sensei keeps on doing what he's doing and how he keeps on moving onto the next area with yet again cardboard cutouts of boring characters that he has to "analyze and understand."

It's quite blatantly clear that Giji Harem was adapted from a 4 koma. The lack of any actual concrete side characters, focus on activities at hand, and the simplistic nature of the interactions and characters blend together to a 4-koma show. It's not necessarily bad as a 4-koma, but when animated as a full cour show, there's much to be desired.

Depending on who you ask, the relationship and interactions between Rin and Eiji can be endearing. And it's not that bad. Eiji's definitely a sort of carefree doofus that Rin somehow falls in love with. Maybe his bouts of kindness, or how he's funny, the ... junior acting star Rin does in fact like Eiji. It's not that hard to imagine, and the romance and dialogue, while a bit cringe sometimes, makes sense in the context of the show. Eiji whimsically brings up his desire to have a harem, and Rin obliges and somehow that becomes the larger focal point of the show. This is fine and all, but I was hoping for more in-depth interaction, to be honest.

For example, one of the bonding scenes that are important is when Eiji gets sick and Rin takes care of him. This is great and all, but the scene lasts for about a minute and none of the details are really shown. You'd think that Eiji and Rin would be going through more emotion and there'd be a lot to talk about. Eiji apparently being all alone at home and sick while Rin gets to take care of Eiji. A heartwarming scene in a romance show, but it just goes through the motions where Eiji expresses some thanks and Rin gets a bit embarrassed and the scene is over.

That's kind of the theme of the show. While there's a lot of interaction between Eiji and Rin, they are by nature a bit more shallow despite the entire show revolving around their relationship. Again, when Eiji and Rin go shopping, the shopping part is barely shown. Them picking out clothes is barely shown.

While activities are pretty much explained as minimally as possible, so are the side characters. The side characters are honestly quite strong. Rin's little sister and her friends are pretty fun when the show decides to actually give them screen time, and Eiji's classmates and fellow drama club members have good synergy. Yet, because it's a 4-koma, none of the promising side characters are featured too often or very deeply.

Despite a show like Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko! also being 4-koma, because the story is written in more detailed and slower paced manner, the end product looks a lot nicer. While the animation obviously is also simplistic due to it's 4-koma nature and more likely, just low budget, that's not necessarily the reason why the show was worse than it could have been. It's just that the original adaption material doesn't really fit the constraints of a full cour seasonal anime show.

Now, I genuinely hate mentioning other reviews of a show in my own reviews. This is because I'm trying to review the damn show itself, not reviews. However, I did read the first few sentences of the highest rated review currently, and it states that "The pacing, storyboards, and camera angles are on par with what you'd expect from a top-tier studio like Shaft."

I mean, how delusional do you have to be to even have this opinion? It's not even a matter of opinion. The fact of the matter is, is that compared to Shaft's production value, this show sucks. Both shows have a large ... amount of monologuing and mundane dialogue because they're trying to adapt a light novel. When Shaft animates these mundane scenes where the person viewing doesn't have a lot to look at, Shaft MAKES the viewer glue their eyes to the screen. The editing is superb during dialogue. The scene pan, movement, backgrounds, creative storyboarding, and rapid cuts in camera perspective all come together to make for high quality eye candy on an otherwise mundane scene where Araragi is monologuing about getting his driver's license or something.

This show, on the other hand, maybe due to lack of budget, but nonetheless, does not have any editing at all during any scene. When people are talking, the scene has a static camera perspective that may extend towards the 60 second mark. I'm only a few episodes in, but the amount of time I see Yuuta standing still, expressionless, and not even monologuing for tens of seconds on end is amazing. This show features "organic" dialogue, but the timeline doesn't flow properly for an animation. I might even suggest live action and film if you want slower dialogue. Because the fact of the matter is that we are seeing Yuuta standing at the entrance of a doorway for 1 minute and 15 seconds (yes I timed it). while Saki goes ahead and gets a cup of barley tea, all on a static camera angle, with little to no facial expressions, movement, or anything.

The crazy thing is, is that there is nothing that is good about this show when it comes to animation. No one changes their facial expression, the editing doesn't exist, there's constant static angles that you're forced to see, and movement is done in such a simplistic manner. Peoples' faces are not even animated if they are in a far shot, and far shots are aplenty to save budget. You'll have odd angles where you are seeing people's heads instead of looking directly at their face because this way, you don't need to animation the face or mouth movement. You can clearly see the disdain for any desire to make a good viewer experience when you see the beginning of episode 2, where the animation studio decides to have a scene where two random girls are playing tennis in class, and instead of seeing them serve, talk, or show the play, it pans to Yuuta's deadpan face where he's not even talking for about 15-20 seconds. You hear in the background their banter and interactions, but you're stuck to watching Yuuta's face. Amazing.

Beyond that, I do not find the actual characters to exist. While it's clear that Saki suffers from lack of a father figure in a household and attention as a child amongst a myriad of other factors, I really couldn't care. I do appreciate that the show isn't shoving into your face Saki's tragic backstory directly, but that's just the bare minimum I'd say. You can't even say that the characters in this show are even progressing in their relationship at all. Many times, there will just barely be any dialogue between the step-brother and step-sister, to other peoples' dismay. Realistic anime romance shows are rare, but I don't quite think that a show with "realistic" dialogue means it's good. You could animate any person's love life and it'd probably be complete garbage even though it happened in reality. Just as how romance novels tend to be overdramatic, real life romance also tends to be quite neutral and boring. You obviously need to pull the viewer in somehow. Overall, if you enjoy listening to a visual novel level of animation and contrived levels of dialogue and character development, then this is the show to watch.

Well, I do appreciate how the anime depicts actual conflict. I mean, it doesn't take the lazy route where all modern shounen are just good guys vs the evil demons. Oh boy, would it be too difficult to watch humans cutting down other humans, let's dumb it down a little and make the enemies literal demons and monsters so that the audience can understand who are the good and bad guys are!

Yes, this show has people cutting down other people. After all, it's set in a time of wars between provincial lords and successions of people in power. It's the late Kamakura period! It's nice ... to see a historical show -- albeit very loosely I imagine -- when all shounen series tend to be generic power fantasies. However, as always, the show obviously is shounen at heart. The show features some minor magic and superpowers at hand, as well as a nine year old protagonist trying to take revenge over the current administration that threw his clan out of power.

The offputting part of the show, and perhaps the reason people will love or hate this show has to be the comedic and slice of life bits. Even our main character's personality consists of enjoying the thrill of running away. It's a little difficult to take a show seriously when the main character's getting off in a fight to the death. There's plenty of manzai and comedic interactions even when people are fighting. Either way, the show attempts to inject a lot of lightheartedness and humor even in the most serious of times. People can be cutting other peoples' heads off and there would still be a mandatory comedic bit like running out of energy and having to eat a bunch of rice balls in an exaggerated manner. There's one thing for sure: it's not a Gintama. I wouldn't say it was very successful at pulling this sort of dynamic off very well.

Yorishige's the worst of them all, being a running overpowered gag character and also a sort of mentor and father figure for Tokiyuki. While he doesn't possess any actual combat ability, I'd say having such a facetious and light-hearted personality and affecting the entire story with his endless insight of peering into the literal future counts. While Yorishige himself has some obviously more serious scenes, you can't help but think mostly to the comedic bits where he acts as a boke.

I actually don't mind most of the characters, especially the rest of the side characters. Genba's a bit too much of the perverted archetype but the rest of Tokiyuki's retainers aren't bad. The synergy, dialogue, and relationships between each other definitely shines through. If the show treated itself more seriously while still maintaining some slice of life and appropriate manzai when it was appropriate, I'd think the show would be getting somewhere.

Of course, the reality is that actually writing a good story is really difficult. By injecting a lot of manzai interactions, the author is able to keep things light-hearted, maintain the shounen vibes, and still write a relatively competent story. A lot of people maybe would be turned off by a slower paced story, or maybe the author would lose his charm when writing in such a manner. After all, his strength does seem to be in those moments of comedic relief.

The animation is also a huge hit or miss. The beginning especially had some nice animation, but throughout the entire show there's so much cutting corners despite a solid storyboarding and art direction overall. I enjoyed some of the more abstract representations, painting style, and framing of interactions here and there, but the excessive amount of still frames, CGI, and lack of concrete background and even just faces being drawn at far distances does not rank highly. It's these small problems with the animation that ultimately drag it down to an overall mediocre and even unenjoyable experience. Near the end of the season, most fights are still frames and animated with as much shorthand as possible.

Overall, the show attempts to have a similar storytelling with the likes of giants like Gintama, but fails to understand the delicate balance of character personalities when doing so. It's hard to watch gag characters kill people and make me think much of them. Gintoki's most fun traits are things like liking sweet things, being stingy, and being extremely lazy. When Tokiyuki's most fun trait is getting off to battle, you can see the large difference in character development.

Hmm, it does seem just like the most generic shoujo of all time. There's a lot of melodrama, forced confrontations, and whimsical breakups and makeups of all sorts.

While other series like Paradise Kiss do feature a lot of drama as well, it's also packed with actual bonding and relationships. In Cat Street, you're maybe shown just one or two chapters worth of compassion, romance, and bonding. Most, if not all of the chapters are ridden with melodramatic pasts, confrontations, and everything else.

Our main character, Keito is at the center of it all. Being an unconfrontational person in general, she's always being stuck between ... a rock and a hard place in multiple situations throughout the story where she gets bailed out due to good circumstance, friends, or just outright being lucky. Apparently she's an actor, but you're only shown perhaps one or two things she ever works on, and the motif and theme of acting with Keito is largely forgotten other than the fact that you're shown that "acting is her passion."

For anyone thinking that this would be an actual showbiz show like Skip Beat, you'd be sorely mistaken. Most, if not all of the series is melodrama nonsense.

I actually love misunderstanding type comedies. I don't know, something about the comedic execution of those types of series never get old for me. Yet, this show is still kind of mediocre even with my preferences.

The main issue is obviously execution. Yes, the fights are kind of mid, but the main problem is that when characters are interacting with each other and all have a different understanding of what is being said, it's not being conveyed in a very good manner. Conversations have to flow while also giving the viewer a chance to understand the monologues of each character. This is definitely possible, but given ... how the show does it, it's an amateur execution at best.

I can definitely see how some of the scenes in the anime can be quite funny. It's just that the lack of voice acing, pacing, and storyboarding make the potentially funny misunderstandings extremely bland. None of the cadence or prose was very riveting to watch due to how the characters were talking and how the scene plays out. The animation of the characters, the delivery of dialogue, and how they act all suffer major issues.

Overall, despite never having read the original novel, I can guarantee you that the show butchers it. I will go ahead and read the novel, and you probably should too if you enjoyed the anime.