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Puniru wa Kawaii Slime is a show which initially frustrated me at with its predictable "insecure anime boy" jokes, though as the show progressed I began to genuinely enjoy the show and I have gained an appreciation for it. The humor, while on its surface is pretty predictable and doesn't really push the envelope much, is always quite well executed and was for the most part enjoyable!What really makes this show's humor click form me is the titular slime herself, Puniru as well as her relationship with Kotaro, her creator. Puniru in general is a delightful character and she really carries the show for ... me! Her cheerful yet abundantly selfish nature is very endearing. She has an air of childlike innocence and naivete which come from her being a slime and nonhuman which comes off as very sweet and makes her feel so genuine in every moment, even when played for laughs. Her obsession with her own cuteness and getting Kotaro to acknowledge said cuteness is as fun as it is kinda depressing xD.

My absolute favorite part about Puniru is how malleable and creative she is as a slime creature! The artists and writers do so many fun and unique transformations with her and utilize the fact that she is a slime in so many cute and imaginative ways! Be it mixing glitter into her body to make a gyaru form or slicing in half like jello, there is no shortage of wonderful visual comedy with Puniru. Its genuinely one of my favorite parts of the show and all of her forms are so silly and fun, seeing what she'll turn into next was a thing that got me excited and I always looked forward to!

Aiding this is the animation! Every time Puniru transforms there is a whole transformation sequence which I never got tired of watching even if it did feel a little over played some episodes. Puniru wa Kawaii Slime has tons of extremely expressive and well drawn character animation that gives these characters so much personality! The effective animation combined with the immensely appealing simplistic art style and character designs with exaggerated shapes and candy colors not only aids the animation, but makes the show a consistent treat for the eyes. There were absolutely times where the animation felt only meh, but never bad and that's a big accomplishment!

On the other hand, Kotaro was a surprisingly interesting character for the archetype he embodies. He is your standard middle school boy who has a girl in his life who he's constantly annoyed with and whom he denies constantly but deep down there is a genuine love between the two. Initially this was all I expected him to be, the same stock character that every anime like this has who's just kinda there for the audience of teenage boys to self insert into. Dont get me wrong, Kotaro totally fits into this categorization but the writers of this show actually go in a really interesting direction with it! You see, the reason Kotaro pushes away Puniru and cute things in general even though he loves them both deeply is because of the deep seeded social norms demanding to him that its wrong to like cute or "girly" things as a boy. That fact alone gives Kotaro genuine depth (even though I wish they pushed it just a little further) and contextualizes a lot of the humor that frustrated me initially! Its a very real issue many middle school boys go through and seeing it acknowledged here in a respectful way is genuinely nice to see.

Some of my other thoughts are that the side characters are functional but often feel one note. None of them are amazing but they serve their roles and function well enough and there were times where I found them genuinely funny. The music was something I remember feeling super unique about this anime, its nothing I'll remember in specific but it gave the show such a spunky and goofy vibe befitting our focal slime girlie. ;P THE ED IS SO GOOD!!!! One of my favorites in a long time, its so unique and captures the charm of Puniru and her series extremely well!

In the end Puniru wa Kawaii Slime is a wholeheartedly comedic and silly series which could have been run of the mill and uninteresting but its saved from this due to its underlying and unabashed sincerity. Even in scenes that are wholly comedic, there is often an undercurrent of sincerity and frustration for not being able to express that sincerity or receive said sincerity back. Puniru as a character oozes this sincerity and it really makes me enjoy the series so much more. Add on top the appealing visuals and inspired use of Puniru'd shapeshifting slime traits and it all makes for an enjoyable time! If you like slime girls this would be worth watching for Puniru alone, she's great!

If I were to give a basic synopsis of Windy Tales, I'd describe it as a simple down to earth slice of life story about maturing, photography, and the wind. All of this culminates in a uniquely ephemeral and dreamlike feeling. Often a feeling as if a strong gust of wind could sweep you off your feet and whisk you far into the sky. This strange and specific atmosphere conjures such a rare emotion I don't often feel that is hard to pin down. Windy Tales puts the viewer in a melancholic trance and leaves you with a certain warm fuzzy feeling in the end, ... not unlike a lot of other SoL anime, simply much more subdued and grounded.

Additionally, there is much more complexity underneath the feeling of nothing of note happening. This complexity is executed in a quite realistic way with lots of subtle messaging about life, philosophy, and our interpersonal relationships with each other as well as the world. The story beacons you to think deeply about these themes and try to understand them which I quite like!

On another note, the characters are very simple but enjoyable. They are not flashy in the slightest, some may even call them boring, but I found myself relating to their experiences. Seeing them slowly mature and progress feels so real and I think they're simply enjoyable characters. They are much more subdued than your average anime fair, but if you look into their psyche there is quite a bit to explore! There are lotsa sweet scenes between the main cast and they have a rather enjoyable dynamic.

The thing that most captivates me about this anime is it's extremely unique art style! Everything about its very airy, loose and heavily stylized look works well for the series and is simply immensely appealing to me personally. A keystone of this show's art is very exaggerated body shapes and facial expressions while staying subdued and grounded in reality. Its quite fascinating and the abstract nature of this show's art really adds to the whimsical and dreamlike tone the story is going for! The art can be quite experimental and the general light and airy feel of the art really enhances the wind theme.

In tandem with the art is the animation, which really impressed me with its attention to detail when it comes to wind. As the name suggests, an immense focus is placed on wind within this show and the animation reflects that heavily. A banner flapping, a girls skirt fluttering in the wind, a person's hair flying every witch way, a cat's fur being pushed back as it flies through the air, even the air itself being depicted with colorful flowing lines, so much observation and thought is put into how the wind interacts with the world. The details are subtle but they radiate a great awareness and love of the wind which both fits the show well and accentuated the experience! Outside of the wind, the rest of the show is animated perfectly okay. I especially like a lot of the character animation! Though some scenes, especially the more artsy and avaunt garde, I find simply beautiful. You can tell there wasn't a huge budget for this show but they allocated those resources where it really mattered and it payed off! All of this combined with occasionally very unique direction makes me appreciate the animation more and more.

In conclusion, Windy Tales is a fairly mundane anime with likeable characters, realistic writing, and a super unique vibe with interesting and well done art to go along with it! Its a shame I couldn't find the show in higher than 480p xD. Its obscure and seems hard to find physically, but Windy Tales is Definitely worth a watch if you like artsy, philosophical leaning SoL stuff like me!

What a whirlwind of complex emotions Princess Tutu was. A show that starts off fairly mundane and ever so consistently spreads its wings to make for a magically enrapturing story. Princess Tutu is genuinely a one of a kind, brilliantly crafted, story about stories. Everything is made with a gentle, elegant touch. Nearly every episode of this series wowed me and kept building up the story as it went on. Piece by piece and I found myself amazed by the plot developments of nearly every episode. Its not the kinda show I was expecting but I am so glad it is the kinda show it ... is.

Princess Tutu genuinely surprised me with how complex and deep the characters became as the story went on. These characters are genuinely excellent and act in a very relatable and human way while still exploring the deep and complex themes of the story. The healing nature of love, the sorrow that comes from love, and defiance of fate. One theme of Princess Tutu that especially resonates with me is the themes of struggling with self identity and general awareness of the self. Every character throughout the show is constantly questioning themselves and their place in the world but in divergent ways. Its such a good driving thread to connect these characters together and makes it even more engaging to understand and compare how these characters deal with their understanding of the self. Outside of the themes associated with the characters, the characters themselves have extremely engaging relationships and contrast off of each other perfectly while still allowing for low stakes comedic moments that still progress the unfolding narrative. Princess Tutu is a great study on how to write layered and complex characters that develop over time but never come off as overly pretentious.

In spite of the often tragic nature of these characters relationships as well as the situations they are put into, Princess Tutu (both as a show and as a character) brings a unique serine and calm vibe to the story. That's why I think the main focus on ballet in this anime is a brilliant decision. The elegant dancing and wonderful stage setting and direction of the show's ballet scenes really accentuate this gentle yet intense feeling. Princess Tutu really gave me a greater appreciation of ballet and I think it was the perfect fit for a show of this nature. The world of Princess Tutu is a strange one, yet that just adds to the intriguing world these characters were written into.

Tutu also does a great job of getting the viewer intrigued with and setting up its mysteries. It is abundantly clear to the viewers and eventually the characters that they are playing roles in a story, but finding out their place in that story, who wrote it and how they may meddle with it opens up so many questions that all get answered slowly but surely every episode. Lots of twists and turns in the mysteries as well as the general meta nature of this anime made this story unbelievably hard to put down and left me wanting to know more every episode. And when the story finally climaxes, the swirl of emotions it pulled up through me was unmatched. I cried a lot the last three episodes xD

On another note, the artwork is very nice! The art style is very stylized and cute and the character designs have that same elegant yet slightly strange touch the show as a whole overflows with. The characters all have lotsa expressive and exaggerated shapes which allows for them to be very recognizable and fits especially well for Ahiru, both as a human and as a duck, who's design is perfect for both her comedic moments as well as more serious plot heavy moments. She is very endearing with her big round eyes and eyelashes! I especially like thing such us Tutu's outfit and such invoking swan imagery and generally being very frilly, it gives off the feeling of being a play well. That can also be attributed to the animation which was also very impressive. Animating a character dancing is hard as shit and the fact that they did so often times with very unique angles is super impressive. All this along with some very striking direction makes me really love the art of this series. The art also facilitates the voice acting which was phenomenal. The VAs did such a great job capturing the shows raw emotions in the more intense scenes. I especially like Ahiru's voice being more hoarse and high pitched and a little awkward and clumsy. Fitting for a duck turned human. ;P

As much as I genuinely would call Princess Tutu a masterpiece, there are a few problems that in the grand scheme don't take away much from the overall artistic experience yet still prevent me from giving it a 10. For example, Ahiru's friends who's scenes mostly act as comic relief and a break from the unveiling plot or sometimetimes to push Ahiru into uncomfortable stations. For filling this role they do fine enough but I found them to be somewhat annoying. They are very one dimensional characters who seem weirdly antagonistic towards Ahiru which gets old. Another comedic character with a similar issue is Neko Sensei. His whole gag is that he reaaaaally fuckin wants to get married and uses threat of marrying his students as punishment if one of them misbehaves. I really disliked how predictable every scene with him was, every time he was on screen its the same joke. They do mix up the execution of the jokes but they all boil down to the same gag which I never really found funny in the first place. I do appreciate the few scenes where Neko Sensei gets to be a genuine mentor who helps Ahiru through her issues though. You get a sense that he genuinely wishes the best for her and the other students who are struggling. That adds a lot of depth to his character which makes him a bit more than a repeating gag. An additional issue is that the first part of the second half of the anime seemed to lose a bit of focus. Though it picked up quickly after and ended with a bang!

In conclusion, Princess Tutu is extremely unique and if you love stories about stories or deep though provoking characters you've aught to watch this. Its an immensely entertaining dissection of storytelling as a whole with lots to look into and leaves you with much to appreciate. I highly recommend it to anyone regardless! It will be a satisfying story to watch unfold and is absolutely worth your time. <3

This anime is very transparent with what it is and who it appeals to, if ya like seeing naked chubby girls then you are likely going to enjoy Plus Size Elf. I am one of those people who likes the squishy girlies, so I enjoyed my time with this anime! Its nice to see a series like this that appeals to an almost never explored demographic. But outside of this niche that the anime was obviously made to appeal to, there is not all that much reason for a general audience to watch this.

If I'm being more objective, wouldn't call Plus Size Elf a ... horribly bad anime by any means but I also wouldn't call it particularly good either. The main structure of the show works well enough. Naoe, a massage therapist, meets various monster girls from another world who happen to have weight issues and he helps them lose that weight (until they inevitably gain it back). Its a fun setup that creates a nice space to play around with exercising different parts of your body and leads to some mildly entertaining banter as well as the expected ecchi of seeing the girls work out. There is also a surprising amount of genuinely useful workout tips that you could apply in real life which is cool (I will not remember any of them xP). The main problem is that once the monster girls of the week's introductions haven happened, they all kinda get thrown to the side and are rarely seen. There are so many girls in this show and it feels like only three ever get substantial attention. ;/ The other girls are all pretty one note and forgettable. They only ever show up for a little bit in the background, never really doing anything outside of their introduction. But the girls we actually get focus on can be pretty entertaining and are pretty likeable for what they are

Another thing about this anime that you will instantly notice is the animation quality. Its pretty okay to subpar in every episode, which I'm honestly not surprised by. I don't imagine an adaptation like this would get much funding sadly. ;c Because of that, much of the animation can be jarring and come off as weirdly uncanny and creepy, like the dance in the OP. Other times the animation just feels kinda empty and utilitarian. Outside of the animation, the visual style is reminiscent of the manga's and sometimes does a surprisingly good job capturing the spirit of the original manga, but more often than not the art lacks that soft feel of line work and a general sense of cohesion the manga had that made it so initially appealing. A nice bit is that the colors in this anime are nice and vibrant which fits the vibe of this very non serious ecchi comedy show well!

As an anime who's main appeal to me and presumably most viewers is the big boobies and big tummy jiggling fan service nonsense, how does the ecchi hold up? It's pretty mediocre unfortunately. There are lotsa scenes of the girls bursting out of their clothes or through some contrived nonsense their shirts tear right at the boob which at a surface level would be sexy right? Supporting this is the full uncensored nudity in this anime, which is awesome, but the anime's more slice of lifey comedy tone doesn't make it feel all that sexy. The monster girls generally don't seem to care about being seen naked which is fine, but it ends up making the anime not feel particularly horny outside of the shallow fact that they are often naked. I don't mind the ecchi not being amazing since I did genuinely enjoy the SoL bits of this anime. That being said, it is nice having some chubby girl fan service for once, its a such a rare thing to see in anime and I'm elated this anime supplies. Its something I've been wishing for forever

Overall, Plus Sized Elf is not worth a watch for the average viewer. But if you enjoy trashy ecchi, bigger girls, or both I think there is definite value here! This is not a complex anime, and the production quality is pretty poor, I wish it was better produced but I found myself enjoying it for what it was. Even outside of my surface level liking of chubby girls, the low stress, dumb fun comedy of this show was enjoyable enough for me to give at least a 5. That being said, my liking fat bitches absolutely made me enjoy this anime more so I'm giving it a 6 xD

Gal and Dino is a delightful little show with a strong main dynamic that it builds off of and makes for a fun time all around. Its a simple premise, a broke gyaru gets really drunk and then somehow brings home a dinosaur. Her and the Dino live together as basically roommates and we get to see their daily lives as Kaede (the gyaru) learns more about her strange new roomie. Its a very silly idea that makes for a surprisingly healthy and chill dynamic between the two and makes for a strong foundation for the show's stories to be told!

I think my favorite part ... about their relationship is how nonchalant Kaede is about all of this. She just treats Dino like any other person and tries to be considerate of them and understand what it likes. And Dino just kinda chillin in their apartment and learning about the world while also being very sweet in a well meaning naive kinda way. It really ends up with Kaede and Dino knowing enough about each other where they can casually talk to others about what they like and I think that makes for such a genuine feeling and fun central character pairing!

The other side characters are overall solid and support the show well. Shouta is Kaede's ex who's desprate to get back together with her and its kinda pathetic, but Dino likes him so she begrudgingly puts up with him to make Dino happy. xD He ends up being a nice guy but was the side character I was least into. Reika is just a chill friend of Kaede who likes hanging out with her and Dino. And Nanami is Kaede's coworker who's sincerely awkward interactions with Kaede were entertaining. They aren't super complex characters by any means but they don't have to be. They compliment the main dynamic really well and I think they add nicely to the show!

The thing that really put this show over the top for me was the multi media approach this anime has. It feels like the artists on this anime had so much fun messing with Dino in so many different mediums of animation! From traditional animation, to many different styles of 3D animation, to stop motion, even to live action, there is so much experimentation with this anime and it gives the fairly simple characters and story so much interest! In fact that simplicity is what makes Dino such a great character for a show like this. The fact Dino is so simple and easy to draw allows the animators to mess around with them and interpret it in so many different ways with different mediums! I absolutely love this show's standard style of animation as well. With its eye candy colors, solid lines, and shifting line art color based on where the light is, it makes for a very unique and striking visual style that is very fun to look at! All of the animation is really cool and enhances the show a lot for me.

The sound design was also excellent, especially for Dino in the animated half of the show. Dino, being mute, can not speak and only talks through body language and facial expressions. This makes Dino a really expressive character and how Dino reacts to things without being able to speak is where a lot of the humor can come from. Because of this the sound design of how Dino moves and expressive themselves is very important and I think the show nails it! Dino's movements sound very bloopy and a lot of the effects they use almost sound like some retro video game sounds. This really adds so much personality to Dino and makes them very expressive even without saying a word!

Most of this review so far has been about the first half of the anime, the animated half. Just as importantly, the second half of the show is completely live action with real actors and a person in a bigass derpy Dino mascot costume. This part of the anime has a distinctly similar yet different vibe to the rest of the show. It starts of much more chaotic and strange than the first half with some intentionally bizarre lore shit going on which I found very funny. xD But as that dies down the tone of the live action bits becomes much more similar to the first half of the show, if a bit more absurd, which I don't mind but I found to be a bit boring. There also seemed to be random ass cameos from what I can only assume to be Japanese celebrities??? Maybe internet celebrities? I have no idea. They just like show up to do silly dumb gags out of nowhere which I found hilarious without knowing the context of who these people are. Intentional or not I laughed really hard at some random Japanese dudes just showing up and doing skits. xD

Another quirk of the live action segments is how they do the sound design on Dino. Instead of the gamey boops and blips of the main animated segment, they use like lightsaber sounds, rubbery balloon sounds, and air horns at different pitches??? Its a strange directing choice but it gives live action Dino a unique identity. Makes me wonder if live action Dino and animated Dino are the same character from different timelines ;000

One other minor thing about this anime as a whole is that its very 2020. One segment is framed like a YouTube video, one gag was about video calls (this was produced during covid19), social media as a minor focus in general, lotsa modern slang and such. This isn't necessarily a bad thing to be apparently modern but I do find it interesting and wonder if it will date the show for future audiences.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this anime! Its very unconventional and strange ,but it has a lot of heart and that unconventional side of it is what makes me like the show so much. Absolutely worth a watch if you are a fan of unique animation or down to earth slice of life silliness with an absurd premise! Such a fun show -v-

Do ya ever hear a joke and you can tell that it was well delivered and would probably be funny but you simply don't have the knowledge to understand the joke? That's how it feels to watch Joshiraku ;/. Much like most other comedy anime, Joshiraku has a lot of humor that is especially hard to translate into other languages, especially English. Japanese wordplay, politics, the anime industry as a whole, and the many nuances about Japanese culture are some of the main focuses of this series' humor. All of this combined with the fast pace of the jokes can make Joshiraku a very alienating ... show, especially to people new to anime or Japanese culture.

Even though I've been a fan of anime for years and have researched Japanese language and culture both for fun and for class, much of this humor flew over my head. I think its the kinda thing where you'd get it more if ya lived in the area. In spite of me having a skill issue, the jokes I did catch were super clever and overall the show has made me laugh out loud a lot! Many jokes aren't one time gags either, they often carry over jokes from previous episodes and play off of them in even funnier ways. I especially like the jokes where some character or random absurd thing is happening and they just don't acknowledge it at all and keep going on with their life. That shit is so funny and is the signature Japanese weirdness that I look for in anime like this. xD

I think I got the most out of Joshiraku's comedy when it focused on poking fun at the anime industry and is self aware of established trends and tropes! For example the first segment of the first episode is about how terrible of an idea adapting a manga about girls sitting in a room and talking into anime is. And while they joke about this there's lotsa subtle jokes like a character talking about how there'd be nothing to animate while they're super over animated compared to everything else so far xD. Or in that same segment a character calling out how people will watch the anime for free and pirate it (;3c). This kind of layered humor portrays an intricate understanding of those who view anime as well as the anime industry, which is what makes Joshiraku so great.

Another thing I really appreciate about this anime is the character design! All 5 of the girls are very distinct and memorable and they use their designs to play into some fun gags. I also really love their casual outfits! Whenever the girls are outside of their room, they are always wearing a different adorable outfit that really expresses their character without saying a word. Doing that kinda thing can be difficult as well as a lot of effort that can be seen as unnecessary. I really respect that and I think that good character design can do wonders -v-

Overall this anime has really well structured humor that you'd get the most out of if you are either Japanese or very knowledgeable about Japan. It also taught me about Rakugo which was a concept I wasn't familiar with before! If your interested in this anime I think you should look it up, it puts things into context and its pretty cool! I desperately wish I knew enough to get most of these jokes because if I got them I think this would be a solid 8 or 9/10. Even though there is a language and cultural barrier here, I think this anime does so much right and I've had a great time with it!

So basically: "This anime is full of ordinary dialogue so that viewers can fully enjoy how cute the girls are."

Pugyuru's entire identity is being extremely strange and being full of absurd comedy that strives to make you laugh through how weird and unexpected the situations the characters go through are. If that's the kinda thing you could see yourself laughing at I think Pugyuru is totally worth a shot! Its whole runtime is like a little longer than your average anime episode so its no huge investment. It made me laugh with the stupid and nonsensical situations and made me say "what the fuck xD" multiple times so I think this anime did what it stood out to do. Cheko's stupid, never changing, face ... and amorphous nature is so funny xD

Technically the anime isn't impressive. The animation is pretty cheap and shitty but the voice acting is surprisingly solid. The voice actors expressive and silly voices really add to the absurdity of all these stupid gags in my opinion. The characters pretty shallow but I think that's fine. As long as they mesh well with the gags I think their one dimensional personalities can be forgiven. You don't go into a 3 minute long dumb gag anime for the deep characters anyway

If you like stupid, weird, shitposty humor I think this anime would be right up your alley! However if you don't like this kinda humor I could see some finding the nonsensical nature of this show off putting and rating it poorly. The anime isn't particularly special or innovative but I'm happy I had a little laugh with it. At the very least the absurdity of it all made me laugh more than some more traditional comedy anime, albeit with less substance to the actual show as a whole.

In a genre often full of melodrama and often times contrived roadblocks to romantic progression, Whisper Me A love song is extremely refreshing in how open and direct the characters are with their feelings. As much as some juicy romantic drama can enhance a show, if done poorly the drama becomes a detriment and is a headache. As of episode 3, this is not a problem with this anime! Very early on these characters have admitted their feelings to each other, and they've been very open about how they feel about their relationship and it all feels so healthy and heartwarming.

Within their openness about ... their feelings comes natural conflict when they realize that their feelings of love for each other aren't exactly the same. And instead of taking 3 episodes to resolve this conflict, they instead give each other some time, talk to friends to sort out their thoughts, and come back to explain to each other how they feel! I really love how love isn't portrayed as entirely romantic in this anime. It goes through the nuances of figuring out loving someone and wanting to go out with them without it having that romantic label and what it all means. I find this acknowledgement that some people don't feel love particularly romantically but still feel strong love for others really relatable. Sometimes love will morph into something we'd call romance, and sometimes it stays as simply love for another, and I think that's really cool. There also seems to be a subtle unrequited love in this series that I'm interested to see play out

As for the art in Whisper Me A Love Song, it's pretty run-of-the-mill. Not amazing, not bad by any means, just perfectly fine and captures the characters emotions well! This anime does this thing where it'll frame scenes in cropped rectangles and have them fade out for a lot of its transitions. While some have criticized this for feeling like a basic function on a video editor, I actually quite like it. These transitions, while simple, give the anime a unique identity and really stood out to me.

So far for the first three episodes I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it! At first, I found Kino's immediate openness about how much she loved Izumi a bit fast-paced, but now knowing how she sees love it makes way more sense! It's excellent, healthy yuri with the characters actually being immediately open about the feelings and hitting it off for once, and that's something I've been wanting for a while. So far, worth a watch!

I'll expand this review once the series finishes airing, I'm hopeful it'll be great -v-

Simoun is a perplexing anime. It's a political war anime with a heavy focus on character drama, usually relating to their relationships with each other.

At the start, the anime throws a lot of terminology and such at you very fast, and it feels as though it's starting in the middle of a story instead of the start. That isn't an inherently bad thing, it can be done in a way to throw the viewer into an interesting situation immediately, but I found it a little jarring and hard to follow for the first few episodes. Eventually you do start to understand what these words ... mean and what's going on, but it took me a few episodes.

While this anime is about a war between two factions, the heavy focus on character drama made what the opposing side was fighting for kinda vague. A few episodes early on focus on the enemy side, but it feels as though their motivations were given less focus to give more room for drama between characters. I don't mind this focus on character drama, but I feel as though that had the consequence of making it very hard for me to get invested in this war when we really only see one side's conflict. Another thing about the enemy faction is that they speak a language the characters cant speak, which they portray with reversed Japanese. I guess this decision gets across that the characters are unable to understand them, but every time I heard the enemy soldiers talk it sounded awful ;/

Speaking of the characters along with the drama, at the start it felt like there was too much of both. Starting with like 10 main characters, and ending with like 13, it became hard for me to get invested and as a result I felt quite bored and confused. But as I stuck with the anime I grew to understand these character's dynamics and became quite invested in most of their drama, especially Aeru and Neviril. They're both deeply flawed people with intriguingly similar yet repellent personalities. Seeing them come together feels quite engaging and very interesting. I think my favorite characters were Rodoreamon and Mamiina. The themes of class disparity and the discrimination Mamiina went through for being lower class made their relationship my favorite. I would have really loved to see more of it TvT.

The anime also has a focus on gender, everyone starting off as a girl and being able to chose your gender once you turn 17. This was the main factor that indulged me into watching Simoun since it's so rare to see any anime with something so overtly transgender, especially from 2006. How is Simoun when viewed from a trans lens? It's intriguing, I think the mere concept alone is a great vessel to tell a story about gender. Early on in the story, it's shown that gender dysphoria is a thing that can seriously harm someone psychologically, but it doesn't really go very deep with that. There are also a few characters in the main cast that don't want to decide a gender, I find acknowledging that possibility at all feels ahead of its time for this anime. It's a shame that the anime doesn't really feel as though being agender as much of a main focus.

Although this anime can also come off as weirdly essentialist when it comes to gender and portrays choosing a gender as an inevitability. Men in this world get better jobs, if a character becomes a man they have to have short hair and boyish clothes and vice versa. Multiple times, characters will say they want to become a man to be in a relationship with someone. As if the show feels two women can't be in a relationship, and that one person must always be a man and one a woman. Which is especially jarring for this anime! The Simoun are literally yuri powered, like they literally kiss and use their connection to each other to make the ship fly properly xD. It's a very odd double standard.

As flawed as the commentary on gender is in this anime, I would have liked to see more of a focus on it within the story. I think even more of a focus on these characters' gender identity and how that meshes with their psyche would have been fascinating, adding an extra layer to these characters and their interactions. Alas, the anime somewhat does this, but it never feels like a main focus.;/ Even then, for 2006 this anime tackles the topic in an interesting and not immediately hateful and stereotypical way and I respect that a lot.

Artistically, Simoun is very apparently low budget and the visual style can be slightly inconsistent. Characters will usually stand around or sit in place, not moving much, and most of the action is shown through extremely dated 3D models of the simoun flying around and drawing symbols in the sky. Despite that I do quite like the look of the characters, especially when they're given varying line weights in their line art, that kinda thing is very appealing to me! The character designs were all around solid, and I grew to appreciate the dated 3D models. As much as they stand out from the hand drawn backgrounds, the ships are well modeled for the time, and I think there's a charm to the slightly shitty mid 2000s CG look!

I also took note of the soundtrack. In many of the fights or preludes to fights, they use these accordion and piano tracks instead of a more traditional battle music. Some have said that this is unfitting and took them out of the fights, but I found this really caught my attention as a unique directing choice. It's as if the simoun are dancing in the sky as they draw patterns in battle, cool stuff imo.;3

In the end, I was very mixed on Simoun. It could have been a lot better in quite a few ways, but I think that there was an okay story and I don't regret my time watching this anime. I wish I could have liked it more

Hidamari sketch embodies and balances its creativity and silly lighthearted nature extremely well, and I believe it's a really enjoyable and soothing slice of life series.

The animation, while feeling a little low budget, works fine but could be better. I find the art style extremely appealing. Verrrrrry 2000s moe cuteness with big eyes and simple designs that express the girls' character well. I love that this anime does the thing where it makes the characters all wide and chibi, but like cranks the WIDE factor to 100%! It's so silly, and I find it so funny and endearing xD.

Being a show set at an ... art school, Hidamari Sketch consistently has a plethora of inspired and unabashedly unique direction that studio Shaft is known for. The show makes heavy use of colorful abstract patterns, solid color as backgrounds as well as imitating Ben-Day dots, those polka-dot patterns on comic books, as backgrounds. Much of the direction of the show is very artsy and bizarre, especially in the dream sequences which happen occasionally. A lot of unconventional camera movement and framing is part of what I think makes Hidamari Sketch so unique. The constant use of real photos of objects in place of a more traditional drawing just adds to the slightly odd and artsy vibe I think the direction is going for. Almost like a collage!

On the other side, Hidamari Sketch is a goofy anime full of dumb gags and humor focused heavily on character interactions at heart. It's pretty standard slice of life silliness, and I love that kinda thing, though it doesn't innovate much on the character front. Still, the characters are all endearing if not a bit tropey and their interactions are fun to watch! Much of the humor is based around Japanese wordplay and puns, some of which I got and others I didn't fully understand. It could be a bit perplexing to those who don't know Japanese wordplay and culture very well.

In conclusion, Hidamari Sketch is a pretty run-of-the-mill yet still quite fun and charming anime with a lot of value to be found! Being a simple slice of life comedy anime about cute girls being silly and doing quirky school and art class things, there is no real overarching plot, and that's okay. If you're watching this anime you're just here for some good vibes and silly banter that is constantly a joy to watch! If slice of life anime is your thing, I think you'd get a lot out of the show and even outside of that, I find the striking direction reason enough to watch ;P