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Thank you, MAPPA! Once again do you bring hope to modern anime with this adaptation. Dorohedoro was just what I needed. It´s gruesome, it´s gory, it´s violent, it´s absurd, it´s cool, it´s funny in a very sick and dark way, and absolutely freaking enjoyable. Fair warning dear new watchers do under any circumstances eat mushrooms before or during this watch. End warning. So, let me take you on a fangirl rant of this awesomeness called Dorohedoro!

It´s been a while since I wholeheartedly enjoyed a seasonal anime this much. In an ocean of trashy Isekai and cute anime girls doing cute things for no reason, Dorohedoro ... rises like a paradise island. It has everything that the ocean has not; substances, solidity, interesting and weird mammals, and let´s not forget mushrooms.

Hayashida (author and artist of the manga) has some sick and brilliant imagination. He has created a completely unique setting and characters. Sorcerers with creepy masks and magic in the form of smoke, magical experiments, hierarchy systems, gangs, two sided conflict, a lizardman with amnesia, gloriously fished up characters, violence so explicit that Hellsing looks like it´s Dorohedoro´s cute little sister and lots and lots of mushrooms *shivers*.

It´s no good and evil, it´s just survival and loyalty to the yours and mine. It´s no deep messages of society’s problems, just an insane portrayal of something like it. Sorcerers with creepy power that uses non-sorcerers as giny pigs for social climbing. A dude with a lizard head looking for the sorcerer motherf*cker that messed him up by kicking their ass and letting the guy living in his mouth take a look at them, and finally transform them to shish kebab together with his awesome friend Nikaido. Oh, Nikaido. You are as welcomed as a female lead as spring after winter, a cold beer after a day´s hard work, and a warm cosy bed a cold night. Especially after suffering through 7 whole episodes of Plunderer*shudders*. She is badass, super cool and can cook the best goyza´s. She is the best girl of the year, no contest. She and Caiman (lizard dude) are the best tag team ever. Creepy wizard in the Hole, stay clear or you will have a triple bad day ending in tiny bloody slices.

And guess what? The supposedly bad sorcerers gang members are also super cool and fished up! Except En,He is just super-duper creepy freaky. I just say mushrooms *shudders again*. But hands up for the tag team Noi and Shin! Noi is so far away from any female stereotype that she creates a whole new category. Shin is also a crazy badass which you can´t help but love, the dude has suffered and raised a top. I actually adore Noi´s and Shin´s partnership, they have each other’s back, everyone should have that kind of a friend! And #shipping and stuff.

MAPPA has done excellent work (once again I might add). The art is faithful to the artist, the animation spot on. I might have mentioned that Dorohedoro is slightly violent? Well, violence and gore fall flat without great animation. MAPPA has cut no corners. The action scenes are totally awesome, no censoring the gore and violent story, and the amount of detail in the backgrounds are staggering. Cuddos cuddos cuddos! Truly talented people <3

The voice actors are awesome, they play their mental characters brilliantly, and brings it all to life. Arigato!

Dorohedoro made me excited, happy and slightly disgusted, just like I like it! Every episode was an insane, ludacris, slightly nauseating ride which I looked forward to every week. And in all this insanity it was – wait for it – a red thread! Or threads, neatly woven together which created a solid platform for this violent mushroom trip. Recommend to all that was vomiting on all washed out contributions these past seasons and has a solid stomach. And remember, eating mushroom during the watch is not recommended (even if I highly suspect that Hayashida may have popped a couple of magic ones when creating his work).

I almost skipped right over Cop Craft (CC) due to the poster picture (at the time a loli in skimpy clothes and an older dude with a gun – lame!), but the synopsis was enough for me to give the first episode a chance. And I am glad it did that, I almost missed one of the best shows this season, because CC is without a doubt the underdog of the summer 2019 season. CC is the typical show which gets overshadowed by more hyped shows such as Dr. Stone and Enen no Shouboutai, but if given a chance is one of the best contributions ... this season. Sure, the animation is below average, but what it lacks in visuals it makes up with witty dialogue and character dynamic. Because CC has the best main duo seen in anime in quite a while, and they carry the show brilliantly. So, let me break it down to you why you should give this underdog the chance it deserves.

CC is basically a classical buddy cop show with the setting in American inspired city called San Teresa. The vibe is dirty and gritty, showing much of a large city´s most depraved corners with prostitution, drugs and other illegal activities. It has a nice twist though – 15 years ago a gate to another world opened and now humans and aliens co-exist in this city of sins. Kei Matoba is your classical rough and handsome chain-smoking detective, who solve crimes his own way in the city of sins. After his human partner is killed in a drug bust, Kei is paired up with the alien Tilarna, who is a noble from beyond the gate to solve the case. At first, they don´t get along at all. Kei has a hostile attitude and preconceptions towards aliens and Tilarna has a condescending approach towards Kei. But after working together for a while, the two starts to grow a mutual respect and like for each other.

You don´t watch CC for some new and ground-breaking story, or great animation – you watch it for the dialogue and dynamic between the characters, and most for the dynamic between Kei and Tilarna, it´s witty, and both function as way to further the plot and to develop them as characters. CC is an easy entertaining show, with no deep messages beyond the usual mixing of races problematics. Which was very enjoyable, it didn´t try to be more than it was and did what it supposed to do without fail. It delivered the 2-3-episode cases with some nice character development and character interaction without railing of track and try to do more complicated stuff.

CC biggest short coming is without a doubt the animation. If you heard about the studio Millepensee before its probably because they are the studio behind the Berserk sequel attempt. Yeah, the Berserk that got famous for the absolutely horrendous use of CGI. Luckily, the CGI isn´t that terrible in CC, but now we know why they used so much in Berserk. The regular animation is certainly below average, and the is most noticeable in the action scenes which practically are still frames. Which is a shame, because the set up for them is great and would have added a nice layer to the story. The colour palette is however fitting for the show, with toned done colours and a lot of scenes in the cover of night.

The soundtrack doesn´t consist of any award-winning pieces either but suits the show and its atmosphere nicely with some bluesy jazz tracks. The VA´s is however great, which performs very well and are matched well with the characters.

With a current score of 6.96 I think CC is a very underrated show in terms of entertaining content. I enjoyed it a lot and is the only show that ended this season besides Demon Slayer that got a score of 8 or above from me. Given an honest chance with the premises it has, it’s a good show that actually has some believable dialogue and delivers what it promises to.

Wow. That was BAD. No, correction, that was beyond BAD. The words unworldly uninspired, cliché and generic are not enough to describe this sad attempt of show called Kenja no Mago (aka. Wise Man´s Grandchild). My eyes hurt after all the eyerolling I been doing, and I believe I dumbed down several notches due to loss of braincells just sitting through this crap. I would have dropped it if I had not added it on my “Anime Watching Challenge 2019” - list. I´m seldom this harsh on any show, but I will walk you through why I dump so much frustrations on it. I had ... absolutely zero expectations going into this show, since fanservicey isekai directed to teenage boys usually isn´t what I go for. But even with the non-existing expectations I was amazed how completely empty and uninspired an anime 2019 can get.

Isekai has been a theme for a long time in storytelling, and actually have endless possibilities. C. S. Lewis used it in his famous Narina chronicles, and it has been present in anime since the 90´s and early 2000´s with well-known shows like Escaflowne, and The Twelve Kingdoms. But in later years the genre seems to be completely absorbed by stories about geeky men (young and old) with boring and empty lives who get transported to another world where they get super epic powers, and all the other men want to be them and all the girls want to bang them. There seems to be at least one of this type of isekai anime coming out each season the last couple of years, and there only seems be an increase of these self-insert wish fulfilment stories in the LN universe. So, of course with that, some very typical and generic tropes have formed for this particular part of the genre and are used in different ways and combinations in the existing works. Which with the degree of imagination from the author could be more or less appreciated by the readers/audience.

Well, it seems like the author of KnM just took the most basic and simplest generic tropes, characters and story direction from the manual and put it together in the most uninspired way possible. More like, he cut them out from mentioned manual, than pasted them together, and then happily nodded to himself for good days work and went for a beer. He probably had a mental check list going something like this:

 Geeky man with boring life gets hit by a car and dies – check
 Is reborn as the most powerful and talented magician EVER in another world – check
 Make the MC so naturally talented so his super powerful and famous grandparents have a hard time to keep up with him and fawn over how he can invent sooooo many new things that no one else in this magical world had ever thought of before such as transport portals – check
 Why not have a magical school? Where the MC basically could be the highest professor since he so good at magic – check
 Why not add a school study group which the teacher begs the MC to lead so the rest of the class can be super impressed 5 times an episode over how AMAZING the MC is – check
 Have the MC save a big breasted chick with blushing issues and a meek voice and personality in episode one (and then again and again in later episodes) – check
 Have all the high school girls dressed as sluts (the young men just love that)– check
 I probably can squeeze in a hot spring episode where some of the girls can group each other (because that´s was girls do at hot springs) – check
 And why not a beach episode, I bet I can squeeze in one of those as well, who doesn’t love busty anime girls in bikini - check
 No need to give the characters actual personalities, just give them some quirks, different hair colours, titles and give some of the girl’s big tits that can be zoomed in here and there, that should be enough – check
 Make every other character so extremely less powerful, intelligent and significant compared to the MC so there is absolutely no doubt who´s boss – check
 The kids like romance now days, right? Let´s have a super constipated and forced romance between two teenagers that barely can hold hands without stammering and blushing to death – check
 Mmm, and of course the story needs a villain, all the other isekai has one. Let’s get one with the most generic reasons so the story don´t get to complicated for the youngsters - check
 Oh, and yeah, let it be clear early in the story that the evil guy has shitload of respect for the MC´s powers, it would be awkward if anyone doubted that the MC had the slightest threat - check
 Am I forgetting anything… Hmmm.. Oh yeah! A magical training camp where the MC can be the cool trainer, and everyone can live together so some grouping moments can come to pass – check
Or something like that.

KnM actually doesn´t even need to be an isekai, so little is referenced to the main characters past in the other world which was like the two first minutes of the show. He even got reborn and would logically have no memories of his past life, but since he is a special baby, he remembers his past life. The first episode actually gave me some hope that this could be a fun parody of the genre, but unfortunately it really tries to be a fun, easy going but legit isekai, which it in my eyes fails in every aspect. The comedy is dumb at best and is only amusing if you think a grandma yelling at someone, or friend tease you for your crush is funny. The magic system barely exists and are so poorly explored that it basically only exists so the MC can do cool stuff. The main conflict (if you even can call it main since the kids is off somewhere and goofing around for the most time), bare no tension or stronger emotions at all, its just there so the MC can be the hero and have people fawning over him. The dialogue is so stereotypical and generic that it almost gets comedic, especially the conversations between the good and evil guys, which could go along the lines;

Good guy: “Why are you doing these evil things?”
Bad guy: “Because I was treated badly, and now I got power so I want to destroy the whole world, mohahaha”
Good guy: “Then I have to stop you with my much stronger magic, which the MC teached me!”

I actually laughed in those situations, but for all the wrong reasons. I will tell you though, at this point I was totally on the bad guys side and wanted them to crush the MC and his little fan club. Because that is what all the side characters are – the MC´s fan club. There are other listed as mains but in reality, they are just the groupie and fan club leader.

The art and animation are barely decent, with some very generic character designs and lazy drawn backgrounds. The animation and “fight” scenes are lacklustre at best and bad at worst. Shows like Fairy Tail can get away with that, since it´s already established and is a long running show but short shows like KnM has no excuses. If the budget is that bad, don´t even bother in the first place thanks.

I don´t even remember the music, must have been so bland or overshadowed by the death of my braincells that it completely escaped my mind. The OP I remember on the other hand, and it’s quite fitting. It is ridiculous and super-duper silly, so it actually fits the show pretty well.

This turned out to be a 1000+ word rant about how bad I thought the show was, but hopefully you got the gist of it and if this is something in your taste or not. I do have one positive thing to say about KnM though, at least it wasn´t a harem.

Even before its airtime, Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (The Rising of the Shield Hero), was like the new kid arriving to class. It had people’s attention, looked like something new and fresh in the bunch of ordinary stuff, and was shrouded in a certain amount of mystic. Like the new kid in class, it held the potential to be the new exciting thing this year. Because just like a normal high school class, where almost every character and stereotype are known, just as known are the tropes and clichés in the isekai genre. But with each new contribution, there is the hope that it ... will be something fresh and different from what you watched/known before. So, how did TnYnN preform as the new kid in class? Well, many things was like most other seen and known before when introduced, the news got old fast and everyone had seen most of it before, but some was creative and freshly used and defined it as it own, and actually made it stand out in the crowed in a good way. So, let´s talk about what TnYnN did right and wrong.

For starters, I loved how self-aware TnYnN was already from the beginning. It completely assumes that you are familiar with the most common tropes and wastes no time for unnecessary explanations, it just throws them at you. Like the first part of the first episode where we have our typical MC for this kind of show (enclosed, unemployed, nerdy male in his late teens) going out to get some fresh light novels so he can entertain himself the rest of the week. At the library he´s looking at a LN and actually points out how stereotypical it is for a LN, with heroes being summoned from another world to fight evil. He even points out that the princess seems like a bitch (he was right). And then suddenly he gets sucked into the book and transported to said other world where three other guys already have been summoned. Even here, Naofumi (yeah that´s our main guy), thinks about how typical this is for a LN. That´s how you use clichés and get away with it. But here TnYnN starts to differentiate itself from most isekai. Because, you see, our Naofumi doesn´t get the most powerful weapon like the sword, spear or bow, no he gets the lame as shield, the least regarded hero weapon in this world. He also looks the same as before, while the other heroes being self-centred pretty boys. So, he basically starts out as the underdog, which seldom happens in this type of show where the MC often is OP from the start. That he gets epically betrayed and shunned pretty quickly as well only further establish him as the underdog. This makes him angry and bitter and turn him in to a pretty harsh and rueful guy, which is one of the best things with the show according to me. I´m so fed up with the nice hero type guy who is going to save all that he meets with a gracious smile. Naofumi will help you too, but for a price and no smiles. Nothing is free, and he takes all he can get. That he actually buys a slave as his first party member was just awesome, zero f*cks given.

Which brings me to the second isekai trope that is used with such assurance and self-evidentness that you just sit there with your popcorn and like “I buy this”. I´m referring to the you-are-in-a-game trope, with levels, EXP´s and unlocking abilities. Yep, that´s a main thing, and it is as natural as breathing in this world. So, a large part of the show is dedicated to Naofumi and his little party (back to them later) to level up and upgrade his shield. This part could´ve been condensed though, it ate a huge chunk of the running time. I would have liked more focus on who the enemy they were fighting was, their reasons for invading, why they only could invade short periods of time, and where they come from instead. But hey, that´s probably what season 2 will provide (if we ever get one, the track record of isekai seasons 2 doesn’t look good).

And as for the third big trope used in TnYnN, the loli-harem aka. The Shield Heroes party, I have mixed feelings. On one side I like them all (Raphtalia, Filo and Melty) as characters, they have personalities, development, a significant role in the party and are cute as candy. On the other hand, why most they all be underaged girls at age ten? Why do all of them have to have a crush on the much older Naofumi? That he has no such feelings back is relieving, but it still leaves me with an unsettled feeling and thoughts of what the hell the author was thinking there. What´s wrong with grown women if you are going to mix love in the picture? I don´t mind a kid or two in the group, it could be a nice dynamic, but come on, let the kids be kids.

As for most of the other characters, they do a good job of provoking feelings. Princess Malty probably will come down as the biggest and most hated bitch in anime history, oh what I wished for her punishment. The other heroes are thick as the largest trees, and most times you just want to shake them senseless, especially the spear hero, and the king is trash bent on messing up Naofumi´s life. There is some light in this darkness though, as the blacksmith Elhart who supported Naofumi from the beginning and the Queen (when she well shows herself), who sets things straight when needs be.

Kinema Citrus has done a good job on the art and animation. Even though the character designs are a bit generic, they keep it clean and nicely coloured. The backgrounds look nice and often properly detailed, and when they want even really pretty. The animation is more than decent, with fluid and coherent motions, good and varied facial expressions, and pretty well executed fight scenes. The magic is displayed detailed enough and never looks out of place, it even has the proper umpf behind it, no complains here.

Honestly, I haven´t noticed the soundtrack that much, which could be both good and bad. I would guess good in this case since nothing has irritated or bothered me. Both the OP´s are suitably generic but good, it fits the show and the atmosphere it has. The VA´s are well matched with their characters, and they preform their role well, no complains in that department either.

I enjoyed TnYnN for the most parts, much to my surprise actually since isekai isn´t my favourite genre and are so overused these days. But the self-awareness, the less than generic MC, and decent story building made this enjoyable. I actually really hope that this wasn´t just a teaser for the LN and Manga, but that they for real are going to dash out a season 2 in the near future.

I´m actually a bit surprised about the amount of hate, negative critique, bashing and low scoring Fairy Gone Part 1 has received both during and after its airtime. I really can´t understand most of the foundations of said hate and bashing either, I thought the show had several good qualities and enjoyed most parts of it. So, I will give my slightly more positive point of view in this review.

Shortly described, Fairy Gone centres around a continental scale political intrigue in a post war society. Before the war several nations existed, which most fought for its independence, but the outcome of the war was the ... unification of the continent under one leader and the war came to be called the unification war. In this world creatures called Fairy´s exists, which has different special abilities and strengths. Humans as they are had found a way to exploit that in the context of war, by taking organs from the Fairies and implant them into compatible humans. The Fairy enhanced humans can therefore summon the Fairy and use it as they please, which was a crucial part of the outcome of the war. After the war ended, these types of human-fairy hybrids became illegal to produce, and the ones left was ordered to work for the government owned agency Dorothea or classed as outlaws. The story takes place some 10 years after the wars end, where a fragile peace is threatened by multiple sources, and we get to follow characters on different sides of the brewing conflict.

In addition to the main political intrigue, there is side themes such the search of a childhood friend, and the mystery about something called the Fairy Tombs which is old texts written by scholars who studied the Fairy´s and collected the knowledge into five books. These books are now highly wanted and valued by many, especially the Black Fairy Tomb, which explores something called “Fairy possession”, which is a rare occurring phenomenon of a Fairy fusing with a human without any surgery.

As foundations, I think these are interesting themes which they use, explore and develop during these first 12 episodes. Overall, this is more a story driven show rather and character driven one, which could be a `yay`or `nej`for some. The pacing is typical for this kind of plot, with some shorter arc format, where we get to know the characters and their connections, the structure and background of their society, and clues to the schemes that brewing in the Empire. I liked this concept and was always looking forward to a new episode and what it would explore. Is this the most unique and well written work ever done? Of course not, but I found it enjoyable in many aspects, and it do build on itself nicely. I much prefer these types of stories from P.A. Works before their slow-paced unrealistic dramas that they usually produce.

Fair waring though, Fairy Gone do demand your attention and focus to understand the connections of all story threads it has going on, geographical places and to keep track of all the characters (there are quite many). So, if you are looking for something you can enjoy while browsing your phone or watching with just half your attention, don´t bother. It will not be enjoyable since you will have no idea what´s going on.

There are some direction issues, where they choose to just show short glimpses of backstory (often non-linearly and geographically hard to place as well) spread out over several episodes instead of having one proper backstory episode were things would been more coherent. Fairy Gone also has so many things going on at the same time, and a large cast, which did not make it ultimately best watched on a weekly basis. I highly recommend watching it as coherent as possible time wise to get a good flow which will allow you to have all the names and places fresh in memory, and the experience will for sure get better that way.

We mainly get to follow Marlya, a teenager who´s village was destroyed by one of the now ruling dukes when she was a child. She was one of the few that escaped alive together with her slightly older childhood friend Veronica. They get separated shortly afterwards, and Marlya has been looking for Veronica ever since. So, to survive alone in the world she joined a mafia group, and during an assignment she runs in to the Dorothea agent Free. During an incident that evening Marlya comes in the possession of a Fairy and joins Free to work for Dorothea.

It is mainly though Marlya and Free and their missions we get to explore the story´s themes. Free is a fairy veteran from the war and carries the baggage that comes with it – lost comrades, the experiences of the battlefield and all the destruction it holds. Marlya is like most young women, slightly naïve in her world view, strong in her believes and emotions, but also struggles with self-doubt and survivals guilt. Even though neither of their characters was super unique or deeply developed I enjoyed them as mains and their dynamic. They form a bound throughout their journeys and starts to trust and support each other with a tenderness rarely showcased in anime. Their interactions were actually one of the highlights of the show for me. There so many more characters, and many still haven´t been explored nearly enough either, such as the more important characters Wolfarm and Veronica, which only have gotten the base exploration so far. But with 12 episodes left in the second cour, I still have my hopes up.

I think P.A. Works has done a great job with the art and animation; it looks good. It also holds the quality along the way, and some parts like the CGI fairies even improves (they looked kind of out of place in the beginning). The characters have their own distinct design which can´t be confused with any other works. The backgrounds are often detailed, beautifully coloured and highlights the scene. Like a golden lit stone cobble street at night, a library filled with books in the light of an open fire or the ruins of a long-abandoned castle, it all looks very good and creates a suiting atmosphere. The fight scenes are fluid and detailed, and the animation overall besides the CGI is seldom jerky or sloppy. Cuddos to P.A. Works for that.

The soundtrack is probably a hit or miss for most people, it contains a lot of vocal tracks. I quite enjoyed, and for most parts I think they matched the music well with the scene. The VA´s was well matched and did their job well, no complains there at all.

I might belong to the minority that actually thought Fairy Gone Part 1 was a good and interesting show and was enjoying it, but I guess I belong to the minority of this site as well (female and 30+). I think it had a lot of good things going on for it with just some miner downsides that I could easily cope with. And with 12 more episodes to go, it still could develop from good to great, depending on which themes and routes they decide to develop. So, I can warmly recommend Fairy Gone to any that can live with conditions I just mentioned and enjoy it for what it is.

MAPPA, you genius. Had someone told me a year ago that I would watch an idol show featuring zombie girls nonetheless, and whole heartedly enjoy it, I would´ve laughed said person straight up in the face. Honestly, I´ve never seen an idol anime before Zombieland Saga (ZS) and will probably never see one again. Because ZS came and rocked my world (yes, pun intended), with what doubtlessly is mostly a great grand parody of the idol genre. MAPPA has gone and done it again, and this time with genres that I for my life never thought I would ever appreciate. So why is ZS the ... only idol anime you ever need to watch? I will tell you right now.

And since the synopsis nowhere near doing the show justice, I will elaborate it a bit.

The fabulous and self-proclaimed zombie girl idol producer Koutarou Tatsumi has a mission, and one mission only - to save the district Saga. Saga´s population is declining; especially young people is leaving to find their luck elsewhere. Koutarou-kun want to fix this ASAP, and what better way to do it then with a Saga idol group, right? And if you can´t find living young girls who´s up for the task, what better way is there than revive a bunch of dead ones and create an idol group of zombie girls?!

You might wonder how the hell Koutarou-kun made them into zombies? To cite the grand man himself when asked; “A little bit of this, a little bit of that and bang, you´re out of the grave, right?! Isn´t that all you really need for zombies?!” So, there you have it.

Sakura were in her teenage prime, with big dreams of becoming an idol. But one day when she is running in excitement with her song-CD to the mail-box, a truck hits her and bang! Sakura is dead, and no more idol dreams for her. At least until Koutarou-kun revives her 10 years later and informs her that she now is Zombie nr 1 and is going to be an idol together his little group of zombie girls to save Saga. Only one problem for Sakura though, she has lost her memories!

What follows is the groups hilarious strive to be THE idol group everyone talks about to save Saga, in an era where the concept of idols is almost extinct. As you can guess, they have to start at the bottom, with all kinds of odd jobs. And all the while they have to hide the fact that they are zombies, which often leads up to violently comical situations. Even if I haven´t watched any idol/music anime, I expected an endless succession of disgustingly sweet love songs and girly group dances. Boy was I wrong. Ok, there are such later on, but the texts and songs actually have personal meaning for the girls, which made it kind of cool, but let´s get to the point. Their first gig is on a local freaking heavy metal event. Has Koutarou-kun prepared his zombie girls for such an event. Hell no. That scene set the bar for the rest of the show for me, and it did not disappoint. I laughed my ass of multiple times during most episode, and I´m no easy to entertain with comedy. Brilliant.

Sure, there is a little more serious moments with what I only can guess is the classic idol show concepts of a striving group towards success and for filling a dream, and of course the girls’ personal issues. But such scenes didn´t ruin the all over mood of the show at all, they just gave more filling to the story and the characters.

Speaking of the characters, such a great bunch of zombie girls!❤️Saki the hardcore ex biker gang boss, Yuugiri the elegant ex courtesan, Lily the sweet little ex child actress, Sakura the kind and positive ex idol-dreamer, Ai and Junko the only revived ex-idols, and let us not forget the LENGEDARY Tae Yamada! No ex- before legendary here, Tae were and is the one and only legendary Tae Yamada. No explanations needed. All the girls get some nice backgrounds and episodes dedicated to them, which explores there past, cause of death and personalities, which often was really entertaining. Koutarou-kun is the best producer, often screaming in the girls faces when asked stupid questions (or often highly relevant questions, but whatever), throwing the group into situations they have no clue how to handle, and is a master at body make-up. He also has a super awesome seductive move, which works on women and men, both living and the dead. Who could´ve asked for more! It´s music on its own to hear him screaming “Ohayōgozaimasu!!!”, “GO GO GO GO GO GO GO!!!”, “YOU STUPID ASS ZOMBIES!!!” or “COME ON!!!” on the top of his lungs.

As expected by MAPPA at this point, they have put their unique touch to ZS. Their trade mark is, unlike many other studies that make all their works looks similar, giving each project their own exclusive look and feeling. In ZS case they used bright and vivid colours, with lots of red, yellow, orange, pink and purple. Great and memorable character designs, with Saki being extra cool. Per usual they play with alternative angles, facial expressions and motion pacing’s, and per usual hit the jackpot. I even found their use of CG pretty inventive.

Since it actually is an idol show, of course it’s a lot of music. As I said mentioned before, the music they performed was a very mixed bag with everything from heavy metal, rap to ridiculous commercial songs. I´m freaking loved the rap battle, Sakura & Co owned it! If not watch the show, I highly recommend you to look up at least that part. Even if the music performance goes more toward what maybe I would´ve expected from a regular idol anime along the way, most of the songs and dances have clever texts and choreography. And the OP is in a league on its own -> LOOK IT UP. The VA´s (Japanese) very all more than perfect for the roles, so arigato gozaimasu!

Since I´ve never ventured into the genre only anime could come up with before, I had almost no expectations. And I was blown away. MAPPA once again has proven that they can do something different, and not only get away with it, but shining while doing it. I had a blast this fall watching the legendary Zombieland Saga and is proud to say that this is and likely will be my only idol anime. Because this is probably completely different from your regular idol show. I can highly recommend ZS to all you good and fine people out there. Take part of the legend!

I had got the impression that Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi (Hidden realm: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits) was more or less a copy of Kamisama Hajimemashita (which I highly enjoyed). Both seemed to have the same premise; a Japanese folk lore setting, a mundane girl in her late teens who are involved with spirits (ayakashi) from the hidden realm, with the potential for a reverse harem and lots of shoujo romance stuff. Which sure can be a very good thing if done as in Kamisama Hajimemashita.

I was both right and wrong. The premise was indeed similar, with our girl Aoi Tsubaki having her life changed drastically ... and are forced to a new life in the Hidden realm, the Japanese folk lore setting, and lots of cute ayakashi guys for a potential reverse harem. Aoi like Nanami looks like your average lead for this kind of show with mouse brown hair and plain features.

But the similarities only go so far. Because, the main theme of the KnY isn´t a reverse harem, or even romance. It´s mainly about food and the importance of food in our lives really. As this can be utterly disappointing for some, I actually grow to highly appreciate KnY for just this reason.

The narrative is mostly episodic with each episode address some kind of problem for Aoi to solve (mostly by cooking delicious food). There is a more overarching plot though, it´s just not the main focus the first half of the show. And those 1-episode stories actually contribute to the overarching plot in the end as well, so the feeling that I wasted my time on filler bs never occurred.

I mentioned that the show focused a lot on food and how it influences our lives. Well, cooking isn´t just a hobby for Aoi, it’s a way of survival. You see, Aoi has a strong spiritual energy and have always been able to see ayakashi. Said strong spiritual energy has attracted hungry ayakashi all her life, and to give her a tool to protect herself her grandfather taught her to cook delicious food that ayakashi like, so she could give them the food instead of getting eaten herself (this isn´t a spoiler, it is established very early in the show). When she gets spirited away by a handsome Ogre spirit and declared as his bride as payment for her grandfather’s debt, she refuses and want to work of the debt instead. And here is where her cooking skills really come to use.

I grow highly interested in the Japanese kitchen during this watch. It´s so different from where I come from, and I really do want to try some of the food she made. But the allure of the food and cooking extended further than just that it looked tasty, it also brought up the spiritual and mental emotions that food can create. Just imagine that you been gone from your home for a long time and then someone cooks a dish that you love from your home town. The nostalgia, the happiness and even safety one can feel at such a moment is really astonishing. Or that you are so bored with food that you pretty much lost your appetite, and then someone places a delightful home cooked meal that surprises all your senses (smell, texture, taste, vision etc.). Or that you just are hangry and get a lovely meal, and what it does for your state of mind. Or how it can connect us, shearing food together and rejoice in the flavours and how satisfied it can make us feel.

KnY brings up all these scenarios and then some. Of course, the show isn´t exclusively about food and cooking, but it is the topic in the spotlight and I aren´t complaining. There is definitely some romance going on but it´s heavily taking the backseat, so don´t expect a full-blown romance to develop fast, because then you only will get disappointed.

The reverse harem theme is also almost absent, even if there are a lot of cute ayakashi guys around. But they have more independent roles than being a harem member, which worked absolutely fine in this case. And there are almost as many female characters present, which many have funny personalities and important roles as well.

Aoi as the female lead does differ a bit from your copy and past persona for this kind of role. She is very ordinary yes, but in the most relatable way, because she has indeed a personality and background as well. She knows her limits and works with what she has – a bone hard determination, a genuine will to understand others and brilliant skills in cooking. She is kind, stubborn, positive and caring, a real goodie good girl but not the least mentally weak. Aoi gets a lot of mean shit thrown at her in the Hidden realm, and copes with it like a boss.

Oodanna (the handsome Ogre spirit) could´ve been portrayed as a real creep, but wasn´t. I have had problems with this type of set up before, the older mystical creature declares young female to be his bride (yes, looking at you The Ancient Magus' Bride). But besides calling Aoi his wife, he does no creepy things like bathing her as a first thing when she arrives to the Hidden realm. He looks after her from a non-intruding angle, gives her the tools and protection she needs, and lets her find her own way in this new strange situation.

Studio Gonzo has done a good job on the art and animation. Not perfect per say, but over my expectations. Vivid colours, detailed backgrounds and environments, and varied and distinct character designs. The food looks yummy, the ayakashi´s magic looks dramatic, and the atmosphere is spot on.

Honestly, I haven´t paid much attention to the soundtrack, but it´s for sure not bad. The 2 openings however are awesome, especially the second one. Certainly, the best in a long while. Recommend you look them up, even if you´re not going to watch the show itself. Voice acting is also top notch, with veterans such as Noa Touyama and Katsuyuki Konishi as the main leads.

This has been my “feel-good” show during it´s airing time, and I enjoyed it a lot, even if the reasons for said enjoyment originate from completely different sources then I first believed. Which is a bit odd since that I´m not even that into the SoL-genre. The setting is a familiar one in anime, but it´s has its own main themes and feeling. I can warmly recommend KnY to anyone that is looking for a Japanese folk lore setting, cosy atmosphere, and a wee bit of romance. And especially if you enjoy food in any way, eating it, cooking it, exploring new kitchens etc. It was a surprisingly stimulating main theme.

After finishing the two previous seasons of Full Metal Panic! about 1,5 year ago, my hopes for a continuation was very low since the last season aired back in 2005. But surprise, surprise, here are we now 13 years later with a new fresh season and I was one of the people who got really excited about it. Actually, Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory (FMPIV) was THE show of spring 2018 I was looking forward to.

Full Metal Panic! Invincible Victory is a direct continuation of Full Metal Panic! Second Raid, and it does assume that your memory is fresh. So, I would recommend you ... to re-watch the other seasons if it was a while ago since you watched them (or read the manga or novel). That will probably make the experience of FMPIV better and more coherent.

After finishing the second season I was on the manga in an instant. It´s still one of my favourite manga to date, and I´m not even that in to mecha (or damsel in distress leads). But the clean and intense art, and the interesting battle plot kept me at the edge of my seat until I had binged it in no time at all. But what you probably wondering now is how Studio Xebec did a good adaptation or not, or if it’s worth the watch.

From what I recall from the manga, they are following the story very closely, so cred for that. Just as in the manga, the turbulent but at times peaceful moments in Japan is over for Chidori and Sousuke. Amalgam is making a serious advancement and are no longer satisfied to just work from the shadows, which sets our main characters on different paths around the world. Here the story takes a bit more of a serious tone as well with bloodier battles, betrayal and cruel deaths (plus in my book), and less relieving comedy. Worth to note is that isn´t a full adaptation of the source material, so don´t expect a conclusion to the story here, its is at least 12 episodes of source material left. So, questions about the whispered and Amalgams end game is still highly unanswered.

Chidori is still the damsel in distress, and Souskue her loyal protector. Events leads up to that they sperate, and Sousuke goes to the furthest length to correct that, because at this stage either he or Chidori denies their mutual feelings for each other. Tessa is really put to the test this season, which focuses more on her as leader instead as potential love interest for Sousuke. Of all the characters, her development feels the freshest and most relevant. The rest of the crew do what they always been doing, my girl Melissa is still there to give people a good ass kicking, and Weber to snipe badies in the head. No major character developments occur in this season though, its more like a build up phase to the grand finale, where the characters have to move along the board to their final destination.

It seems like the art and animation suffer from production issues along the way. Which was one of the biggest disappointments of FMPIV for me. Initially, the art looks good, they do a fairly good job of recreating the manga´s art, even if the animation can a bit lacklustre. The quality unfortunately drops along the way and at the end of the show it´s hard to ignore, it gets that sloppy. The CG looks ok I guess, but the intensity the battles had in the manga is heavily reduced. And if uncoloured still frames can evoke more feelings than an animation, that says something, and it’s not good. The animation started out absolutely decent, but along the way it suffers as much as the art work. The motions of moving characters and objects gets jerky and non-coherent, to a point where you are wondering if the crew where all hangover and lazy at work for the last couple of episodes.

Another disappointment was the soundtrack. If Studio Xebec wanted to learn anything from the prequels it was that 90´s cartoonish soundtrack wasn´t a hit (at least not for me). The second season made a lift in that department but now its back to the 90´s cartoon inspired music again. If a good soundtrack can make a show appear better then it really is, the opposite is true as well, which unfortunately is the case here. Intense or emotional scenes fell a bit flat when accompanied with music that could been from a child approved Batman movie from the 90´s. In some shows that could´ve worked but for an action-mecha-drama story produced in 2018, it didn´t work well at all, and just undermined what was happening on the screen. Besides one track, the ED was the only music that actually highlighted the show. To bad. The VA´s was good to okish (both English and Japanese), but aren´t worth any Oscars.

Despite the let-down of the depletion of the art and animation, and underwhelming soundtrack, I´m still very glad that someone took up the task of trying to finish of the Full Metal Panic! story. I still enjoyed it, they had cut few corners regarding the story and characters, which kept the original feeling intact. To many source materials gets a season or two but are left unfinished. Hopefully, the last part gets a go as well, even under these conditions the show was still enjoyable.

To Be Heroine is a hit or miss kind of show. Either you didn´t got or enjoyed the underlaying darker tones camouflaged in extremely vivid colours and animation, wired plot (babies fighting almost naked and clothes are magical weapons = wired), and the mixed Japanese/Chinese audio. Or you totally got it and/or enjoyed said combination. As you can guess from the score I gave the show I belong to the later category. Actually, I think To Be Heroine may have been spring 2018´s best contribution in my eyes and ears. I started to watch it on a whim after seeing the PV. Worth to note ... is that I usually not go for the combo of Super power and Comedy. But something had peaked my interest, and I was very surprised of how much I enjoyed To Be Heroine.

Somethings can be good to know in advance. In writing moment, the page tells you that its 12 episodes. It´s not correct, only 7 exists. The source material is an original project from Haoliners AL which is a Chinese Studio. You also don´t need to watch the prequel To Be Hero first. Apparently, they are not related plot or character wise, so you can go ahead and watch it as it is. And don´t let the two tags mislead you, I would´ve have labelled this as sienen and drama and maybe romance as well.

Even though only the story only spans for 7 episodes, they have used the time efficiently. It is focused on the important characters, sufficient backstories are provided, and the plot structure is surprisingly detailed. By the synopsis I believe that many can mistake To Be Heroine as a wired Chinese contribution to the Isekai genre, but that would be a wrong assumption. It may appear so for the first 3-4 episodes but evolve much further than that.

Basically, the show evolves in three steps. The first is the establishing platform with a heavy Isekai feeling and you try to figure out what´s going on, failing in figuring out what´s going on, to just sit back and enjoy the ride to see where the they are going to do with all miss mashed craziness (and if you can handle that it switches from Chinese to Japanese audio depending on which “world” our Heroine is in). The second step is the realisation that there is indeed something more going on. Back flashes work both as to get to know the characters and enfolding the next step of the narrative.

And here I need to point out that it’s not random plot points, even the most silly and random scene still service a purpose (even if just for laughs), neither does it do a complete change of story direction. The undertones and metaphors are there from the beginning and done in what I would call a clever way, which made the next step feel natural. Few writers have the talent to really incorporate important details along the way to make the evolution of their story feel like its building on itself smoothly. The third step is the unravelling and conclusion of our Heroine´s story. Because its her story and told from her perspective.

Speaking of our Heroine, I enjoyed her character a lot. In the dub/sub version I watched, her name is Hanaya Futaba. She reminds me of your ordinary high school girl, just living her ordinary life as she always has. Until something happens, and she finds herself in another dimension, summoned by a bold baby with a gold diaper who claims that she is his hero, and that she needs to fight the assassins that the other baby bosses send after him. Like that´s isn´t enough, the babies have the same name as her friends and roughly the same personality in this dimension as in her own. Hanaya first tries to get out of whole ordeal, the whole thing is obviously madness and she want nothing to with it. Use her clothes to summon handsome men fighting for her? What craziness.

I know, you thinking “what the hell?” right now? It is definitely such a moment when first introduced to To Be Heroine. My advice watching this is to just let go and see what it will take you.

Anyway, let me ask you a question. How would you define bravery? I discussed it with a friend a while ago. And of course, the definition will change from person to person. To me is being brave when you go ahead and do things that you are afraid to do, but despite that you pull through when it counts somehow anyway. Because if you feel no fear or hesitation when doing something outside your comfort zone, that´s not being brave for me, then you are just either fearless or stupid.

Why talk about bravery here? Well, because that´s how I would describe Hanaya best. She is brave, not fearless, cocky, arrogant or super powerful as your stereotypical hero. She is a normal girl in unusual situation and deals with it along away. It’s sometimes funny to watch (some of her age girl reactions is spot on). And sometimes its emotional to watch, and sometimes is bloody bad ass to watch.

As other reviewers have been pointing out as well, roughly half of the show has Chinese language and half it has Japanese dub (at least at the time and date when I´m writing this).

I haven’t watch any of Studio Haoliners productions before, but their work on To Be Heroine was very nice indeed. Think a combination of a toned down Kill La Kill and Katanagatari mixed in style and colours. That´s the easiest way I can describe the art style they used. I liked it a lot, it fit the Comedy element in the show, and they knew when to use more neutral colours and animation. Well done. The animation looked great to me, I definitely felt that some love was put into it. Fluid motions, good facial expressions, detailed and lifeful fight scenes, and cool angles. They also get thumbs up for the minimal unnecessary fanservice and the awesome OP.

To summon things up, To Be Heroine is a little jewel that many probably will miss. It mixed comedy, super power, sienen, drama and romance surprisingly well in my eyes. Few can mix those genres together and make it feel natural, but here I think they did a great job. Don´t get me wrong, it´s ludacris at times, but I enjoyed that type of ludacrisness, it was refreshing.

A total score of 5 may seem hard on Nanatsu no Taizai: Imashime no Fukkatsu (The Seven Deadly Sins: Revival of the 10 commandments or simply The Sins S2). Especially according to its high score. But I´m disappointed. I really enjoyed the first season and was glad when I read that a season 2 were coming, and with 24-episodes at that. But my excitement was steadily replaced with disappointment and uninterest. My review will contain minor spoilers to specify why I had problems with this sequel, but they will be heads ups for those (₴).

The biggest let down with The Sins S2 for me was ... the story and character developments. With that I mean a very uninspired story direction and an almost non-existing character development. What I truly loved about the prequel was the goofy but adventures story, filled with small surprises of meaningful meetings and overdramatic but interesting character interactions. I even didn´t care about Meliodas repetitively grouping of Elizabeth. Some shounen tropes were of course present, but it had its own style, feeling and inventiveness. The battles and fights made sense, they had drive and feeling in them, and some were really nice to look at. The mystic and allure of the sins and their past was thick, and some strong friendships and relationships were formed.

And then S2 happened. The far from straight but entertaining story path took a straight battle shounen path, becoming randomly magic/power level face offs, and character interaction became either repetitive, cliché shounen troopy or melodramatic. Let me give you an example, spoiler alert is on ₴. The battles changes from being about enemies facing off each other in creative ways with emotional investment, to be about magic and power levels, tournaments and powerups. Spoiler alert off. Why taking that direction? If this is a faithful adaptation, I think Nakaba Suzuki (the author and artist behind the manga), abandoned the good adventures concept he had established in the first half, for washed out Dragon Ball power level bs. I´m sorry but it is really how I feel.

Let me elaborate. You know the classic battle scene with the top bad asses, where you have proper build ups to get really emotionally invested in it? Well, don´t expect them here. The new threat appears, and in the beginning the whole thing had much potential. A demon clan has been freed (by Hendrickson in the end of the last season), and Meliodas seems to be connected to them. Many potential interesting meetings between the Sins and the Demon clan members, or plot/character developments/interaction as well as background stories. But most of it turned out to be pretty basic shounen trope encounters, with cliché battle speeches and brawly screams of their attacks with cool names such as “Death Breath” and wired mid fight power ups.

I really wanted to like this sequel. I was absolutely a bit enchanted by the prequel - the magical world with all its different inhabitants and magical functions was very enjoyable. I lost that feeling in S2. A few things are easy to pin point out, as the depletion of the story as well as the amount of new characters. In S2 the numbers of characters keep bashing in, diffusing the time and space from a lot of key characters. Some characters like Jericho got some nice development and time even if her Ban fixation could become a bit embarrassing. Ban gets more time as well (his background mini arc was one of the best parts of the show for me), Diane gets a solid number of episodes focused on her, and Meliodas is Meliodas so time has been spared for him as well. The rest? Is mostly neglected for new characters. Elizabeth? Gets less development than both Sakura and Orihime put together.

It felt like the narrative both speed up and slowed down at the same time. The scenes took 1s or 10 episodes. Most things happened to fast or to slow. A crashing battle there, and suddenly is guy 1, 2, 3, 4 and girl 1, 2 in a completely different geographical location, training and unlocking powers to left and right for episodes, for them to next split up and be in like 6 different places, to end up little randomly together at a third place later on. The reasons behind it? Weak at best, and mostly poorly explained. I lost interest in who the demon clan members were and ₴ how in hell they can remember things from 3000 years ago so clearly. I lost interest in the powerups, I lost interest in Ban´s and Elaine’s relationship, and I lost interest in Meliodas grouping of Elizabeth.

And here I think we are reaching the shows main problem. I just lost interest, in my eyes it didn´t carry this “new” direction well. It crumbled away along known and common battle shounen paths and ruining the atmosphere it built up to that point. The new stereotypical shounen approach just didn´t work well for me.

The Sins S2 is as its prequel an A-1 Picture production. If your familiar with the studio, think A-1 on a good day there they are putting some in some effort and money in their creation. The style is simplistic but characteristic, and as most A-1 productions, with some nice colourful backgrounds and with curvy ladies and muscly men. And since A-1 actually put in some effort in it, the animation is more than decent, with some intense battle scenes as the one between Meliodas and Ten Commandments or Escanors swift encounter with the demon Galand.

One of the highlights of the prequel was the solid rock-fantasy inspired soundtrack, which was affect full and well composed. Which they luckily stuck to this time around as well. No complains there.

So, to summon things up, The Sins S2 didn´t get the job done in my eyes and ears, even if I have no complaints against A-1´s accomplishment. I can see why many still love the show, but the magical spell that The Sins S1 had put on me was utterly crushed. Generic battle shounen can absolutely work, but this direction felt cheap, especially since Nakaba Suzuki had established a very magical world which could been focused on instead of long ego speeches on who´s the toughest, strongest, and most powerful fighter. #disappointedatthemediocracy