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Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko is an example of “execution over originality”. Synopsis may sound uncommon: a tomboy, Tomo, is in-love with her best friend, Jun, who only see her as a “best bro”, so now she has to prove him she’s indeed a girl… But being uncommon doesn’t guarantee quality, as this kind of story still resorts to well-known cliches and tropes. However, what it lacks in originality, it makes up in execution in order to deliver an outstanding and pleasant experience.

One particular thing about this serie is the manga it comes from, more exactly its format; every episode is only one page with four panels ... and usually one single joke, but still follows the central plot. Now, why am I pointing out this in an anime review? Because it’s necessary to understand how it affects the whole dynamic in the anime, more exactly, the comedy: translating that format to anime led to short skits, introducing the situation and then quickly delivering the punchline in the most precise, sometimes unexpected and random moments (case on point: Carol introduction in episode 2), helping to keep the comedy fresh and funny, even if the serie goes through every common romcom trope in the manual (and it sure it does!). This is what I meant with “execution over originality”.

However, at the same time, having those short episodes translated into anime format hurt the plot progression, creating a rushing feeling that luckily became watered down over the episodes, but was still there. Having so many manga episodes for only 13 anime episodes also means leaving a lot of content aside; some good jokes weren’t shown, but also some characters interaction that could contribute to their relationships development and their personalities.

This serie’s Stars are definitely the characters:

>First we got Tomo, she’s pretty much your typical “I like to beat the shit out of you” tomboy, but after realizing she’s in love of his childhood friend Jun, she decides to confess, only to receive the most unexpected response. Tomo isn’t familiar with romantic relationships, but also seems not to be very knowledgeable about friendship either, what drives her to get into situations (mostly embarrassing ones) in order to understand what she’s actually feeling, more exactly: trying to look and act more girly to get Jun’s attention. Tomo is functional as a character, but apart from all the Jun-concerning thing, there’s not much left about her personality-wise. Look, I LOVE tomboys as much as the next person, is indeed my favorite anime girl archetype, and I love the common gap moe of the non-girly girl acting more girly, but having a character completely revolving around this becomes boring after a couple of times, especially when the modus operandi is the same of being “fooled” or “bound” to act as such.

>Next we have Jun; even when he’s supposed to be a main character too, most of the time the serie revolves around Tomo and her thoughts, leaving Jun more than an element than a proper character… or at least it was like this at the beginning. The more we move with the episodes, the more we get to know about Jun, who was acting cool and laid-back about Tomo, but in reality, he was all the time pondering about that. Jun perfectly acknowledges Tomo as a girl, but at the same time sees her as that noisy brat he was never able to beat since they were children, creating confusion about his real feelings, which he was trying to deny at the beginning. Jun becomes an interesting character, but sadly too late.

In order to get both together, the dynamic of the serie is put them in cliches and very common situations in romcoms, like dressing Tomo with “girly” clothes, showing off her “attributes” to Jun, and anything that could drive into fanservice moments, usually ending up in the typical “tsundere-punching” from Tomo to Jun, and after a couple of times this could be very tiresome and repetitive. Worth recognizing that, the more they start to get more confident about their feelings, their relationship starts to slowly move, creating some nice moments without resorting to those repetitive tropes.

Admittedly, both Tomo and Jun aren’t that interesting by themselves, and if the serie would focus only of them it would run out of fuel after some episodes. The real force that sails this ship are the secondary characters:

>First we have Misuzu, Tomo’s best friend, your typical “evil” and manipulative calm-voiced girl. Since Tomo is a blockhead about relationships, Misuzu is the one doing the plans, so those Girly Tomo moments comes from her, in order not to only make Tomo more concerning about her image, but to see Jun’s reaction and making fun of it. Yep, the “I want to see the world burn” character. That being said, there’s more in Misuzu that only this. One thing about her is that she’s mean, I mean, really mean, to any people, and she perfectly acknowledges that, in fact, she’s really concerning about her friendship with Tomo, and how her horrible personality could bring problems to her social life in general, although she doesn’t do much to change the things. She’s also concerning about Tomo and Jun relationship, and her position between them before, during and, in case they do, after they decide to take the next step, giving her some deep to her character, since all her actions during the whole serie have reasons behind them, based on this fact. Don’t get the things wrong, Misuzu is indeed a horrible person, so it’s normal some people dislike her, but as a character she’s very compelling.

>Next we have Carol, your typical fluffy and air-headed girl that seems not to be aware about what is happening around her… except she pretty much is. The perfect word that comes to my mind to describe Carol is “clever”; she can perfectly read the mood in any situation even if she doesn’t seem to, and notice the real feelings of Tomo, Jun AND Misuzu, sometimes acting on her own to make the things spicier, making her unpredictable and more “dangerous” than Misuzu herself. This fluffy and chaotic personality of her also works marvelously for the comedy, adding the randomness quota it pretty much needs not to become so tiresome.

Not only both Misuzu and Carol are interesting and well written characters, but also move the plot forward, and create the perfect setting for anything, being a comedy moment by adding some “chaos”, or more serious moments by showing her inner thoughts. Definitely the best characters. The rest of the cast includes the girl’s mothers, Carol’s cousin and Jun’s friend who is in love with Misuzu, not much worth mentioning about them, but they still add to the serie, and help the comedy not to fall into repetitiveness.

In the audiovisual side, animation and color palette is really simple, sometimes too plain, but it works for what it is, not that this kind of serie needs more. In the seiyuu department, Rie Takahashi delivers a good performance as Tomo, although leaving very divided opinions. I’d highlight Sally Amaki performance as Carol, fully fulfilling the fluffy personality of said character.

At the end of the day, Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko is yet cliché but a very compelling romcom, with an interesting premise, a functional main duo, and strong secondary characters to carry the whole of the serie, delivering a good dose of comedy and cute moments. Not something I would recommend as “excellent”, it could be better with a better pacing, a stronger direction and maybe less repetitiveness, but don’t sleep on this one yet.

Benriya Saitou-san, Isekai ni Iku is quite a serie. Remember watching the initial teaser PV and thinking: “an isekai that will actually focus on its fantasy elements and the development of his main character instead of just being another otaku pandering? That’s something I need to check!”, and surprisingly, it was actually like that… Well, kinda.

Saitou is a handyman, and he’s good at it, but being undervalued led him to be not too confident about his own skills and overall utility, and now, after being given another chance in another world, he has to prove to others and himself what he’s very capable of. More ... than being escapism, it’s about finding our own place where we can feel comfortable with whom we are and what we can do, so it’s normal some people can relate with Saitou in some aspect. A very interesting approach handled in the correct way.

Something very peculiar this serie has is its format, similar to short skits stamped on one single anime episode, very unexpected taking into consideration the initial impression. It’s not that every one of these skits are unrelated from each other like in an episodic serie, they’re still part of one big plot, and they actually worked out in some aspects: first, they helped to set the serie’s overall mood as a more lightweight one, with a pretty big amount of comical situations; and second, they managed to introduce the characters, both mains and secondaries, with enough simplicity to get to know all of them without feeling overwhelmed by the big quantity.

Worldbuilding is also shown in a very straightforward way thanks to this format; it’s not really that different from your typical fantasy videogame world, where levels and classes exist, and people can even die and get revived if they are on time, but the more we get to know the characters, the more we know about their roles and some of the rules of this world, again, in a very straightforward way so it’s really easy to follow.

At the end of the day, this “short episodes” format, while a little controversial, had its good things.

Unfortunately, this is also where the serie’s biggest gripes comes out, because the more we dig into the story, all these aspects start to get thicker, and this lightweight format starts to hinder all this serie’s potential. Sooner than later, after all the introductions were done, the first major threat appears, the series turns into a darker route, and the stakes start to raise, and while they managed to keep it in the correct mood most of the time, the high tension that was built fails to be constant. What I mean by saying this is that the serie was able to set a solid base to a very big plot, focused on its characters, their development and how they interact with the world, but the lack of linearity and a strong narrative prevented these aspects to be as solid as they should.

Look for example episodes 5-7, we got the first linear arc, where some mysteries were established, good actions sequences, there was space for secondary characters to stand out, good chemistry among them and the main cast, and even some character development for some of them; but at the same time we got some very short and forgettable moments of tension, some bad guys with interesting motivations we could barely care (honestly, I would’ve cared more about Kisurugi and Lavella love story, a very lovely and emotional one, if they would’ve… well… talked each other at least one time?), some forced drama, and flashbacks of a major character past… what was so fleeting it didn’t strike as hard as it should, because it feels it was placed there just to fill a quota. This is all due to the serie’s format, that was jumping from one segment to another, which avoided giving any of them the correct time to set a more solid a linear idea.

Now let’s talk about the characters, one of the strongest points of the serie, but also hindered by its problems:

>Saitou is pretty interesting character. When the serie focuses on him, we get to know more about his perspective of this new world customs in contrast to the old one, but also his insecurities and how he struggles to put his skills in service of others. Soon he becomes an important part of the team, either by being a locksmith, carrying equipment and helping with the magic, up to the point that he uses his intelligence to strategize and being a leader. Throughout the serie he goes from “I need to find a way to help my team” to “maybe it’s not much, but there are things that only I can do”, subtlety adopting a more confident yet still doubtful personality, which is nice to see. Problem is, this is not as progressive as it should; by the time episode 3 dropped, there was a skit when Saitou got sick and the rest of the party went to the dungeon without him, having a really bad time, and at the end, they and Saitou realized how important he was for them, almost feeling like the serie already fulfilled part of its purpose, even though there was still more of Saitou development to be shown.

>Morlock, the old mage, which initially seemed to be the comic relief, ended up being arguably the best character in the serie, giving him a strong personality moved by his tragic past and the mysteries surrounding him. It’s a shame that, again, those aspects were touched in a shallow way, with the flashback of his past stamped in the middle of a fraught fight more like a tearjerk than a way to strengthen his character, although it managed to do that in some extent.

>Lafanpan is there just to be a support, both for the team and for every member, either by helping Saitou to gain some confidence or be a friend and a wingman to Raelza. Nothing much to say about her, she’s ok.

>Raelza is the warrior of the group. Although she’s likable and fulfills her role well, it’s sad to say that she’s maybe the weakest character in the main group. Her personality revolves mostly about being the protective guardian and being in love with Saitou for no apparent reason. This is another aspect that got harmed by the serie’s inconsistent format, since we saw how their relationship got more serious and ended up in a pleasant happy ending, but at the same time, we never got shown how they built up this relationship, or how they even felt in love each other. This is not a romance story, of course it doesn’t need to be full focused on a slowly build up, but their interaction was almost non-existent aside for the normal party teamwork and some moments of Raelza simping for Saitou.

With that being said, I think Benriya Saitou-san, Isekai ni Iku is still a good proof of how this kind of stories still work out with the correct approach. I wouldn’t call this serie “underrated” or “hidden gem” thought, because it got the rate it deserves, something that the serie itself acknowledges. The short skit format, which helps in some aspect, also limits some others, but it’s not that the serie is wasting its own potential; it preferred to keep it like that, being a more lightweight story with a deeper background, but scratching the surface. It’s a serie that is perfectly enjoyable for what it is, but hardly will be remembered except for some few punctual moments, and THIS IS PERFECTLY FINE, the serie is fine by itself…but just that, fine, which at the same time is kind of sad.

This show is how an isekai should be made… but at the same time how an isekai should not be made.


Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka doesn’t look very promising at first glance, the premise is pretty much the same as your average isekai anime, with our main character dying and reincarnating in another world with RPG videogames terminology. Not even the fact she revives as a spider monster is something new or original at this point (but at least is more striking than a lame slime!). But what it lacks in originality, it makes up for in personality and self-awareness, while taking enough care of ... important things that other animes of the genre don’t bother to even show. Let’s address it by parts.


Our protagonist, simply and unofficially named Kumoko, was reborn as a spider monster, the weakest monster race, inside the most dangerous dungeon in this new world, while still remembering her previous life as an antisocial loner otaku (of course it should be that way). Sooner than later we are introduced to the main selling point this serie has: Kumoko struggling really hard to survive in this new world, trying not to get devoured in the process, while getting new skills, becoming stronger and learning about the world. All this is done in the most energic, charming and amusing way, thanks to Kumoko charisma and positivism. Now, this is not the only thing we’ll see, alongside Kumoko, her classmates and the teacher died and reincarnated as well, having enough luck to get way better lives.


Don’t let this innocent and rather simple premise taunts you. Which may initially appear just a fantasy story about a spider monster striving inside a cave, turns out to be a way vaster and more convoluted plot as it appeared, borderline on pretentiousness. Outside of the dungeon we see there are factions, nations and politics issues, going for wars between races and churches ideologies clash, which get more fraught as the series moves on, to ancient god and demons scheming over the world origins. Not only that, the skill system by itself, initially just appearing as a hook for RPG fans like in many other isekai animes, ended up being an important part of the mystery of the world, and the reincarnation itself.


Yet those topics are touched in a very basic way, the serie fills up this ambition with a solid narrative going hand in hand with the story. The narrative switches over two different POVs: the inside of the dungeon with Kumoko, and the outside world with a little group or reincarnates. Yes, this isekai does focus on story and worldbuilding, and while these two perspectives are rather different, they actually complement each other really well, sharing information actively, and explaining terminology that is going to be used in the next segment, without feeling forced. Subtlety is well-handled as well, mentioning topics or terms that are going to be important later on the serie in a very natural way (ex: talking about a skill that will be important to explain the MC motivations, or why the skill system by itself can be dangerous). Some people couldn’t notice at the beginning that both perspectives, Kumoko’s and the reincarnates’, are actually from different timelines, considering they were born in this world and the same time, but we see Kumoko from her birth, while we see the reincarnates when they are teenagers, and it’s only later on when the reincarnates’ side mentions Kumoko existence as a kind of legend, without directly telling it’s her; they don’t even cross paths until the very end of the serie. This kind of subtlety and naturality to show and explain important topics in a narrative this ambitious is pleasant to see nowadays.


Story and narrative are very good by themselves to support all the serie, because the rest of it is… not so impressive. Characters, for example, are like day and night:

>On the one hand, we have Kumoko. As previously stated, she’s pretty much the main selling point of the serie: if we search the definition of “charisma” in a dictionary, it would be her. Kumoko is charming, funny and very optimist, always doing her best to survive even with all the rough situations she goes through. Her role in the serie is pretty much acting like a guide to the viewer, constantly breaking the 4th wall and making comedy with a lot of references to popular culture, yet she’s witty enough to be aware about her situation without unnecessary edgyness; this serie touches dark themes in the least dark way, and Kumoko it’s the living proof. For a lot of people she alone carries all the serie over her thorax, but she’s not so perfect, she got little to no development along the serie (it’s not like she needed it) and remained pretty much the same even with all the harsh moments she went through, the things she learned and the power she got. Still the most solid character in the serie.

>On the other hand, we have a little group of reincarnates who were Kumoko classmates (and the teacher). While Kumoko, as plain as she is, can still be described with a lot of adjectives, those guys can be described with just two words: boring and generic. Unlike our eight-legged MC, this group reincarnated as humans (most of them), living in prestigious families, so most of the outside world is showed by them:
-First, we have Shun, we can say he’s the deuteragonist. There’re not enough words to explain how PAINFUL and INSUFFERABLE is to see this guy taking the lead. He’s pretty much your generic isekai protagonist, with all the cliches included in the pack: bland design, lack of personality, cringe hero complex (and yes, he was born in the Hero family, so he got blessed by the power of script) and harem pandering. He’s basically an Emiya Shirou, less pretentious but way naiver. And is this naivety by far the worst part, to the point every time he got the spotlight, the serie handled to make fun of it for being such a silly. He’s so misplaced to the point he got into a war he has noting to do just because “I can’t allow these people to suffer” (yep, even his sentences are prefabricated). Honestly, I can’t blame people for thinking human side is boring just because this dude.
-Katia is Shun best friend in this and previous life, and your typical tsundere chick, with the plot twist that she was a boy before reincarnating. Actually there was a moment when this character faced her inner conflicts and decided to be honest with herself and becoming a full girl instead of a boy trapped into another body…moment that was never well-developed.
-Hugo is your edgy vain and power-thirsty villain who thinks he’s better than anyone else.
-Filimos is the students’ teacher who got reincarnated as an elf (excuses to introduce a loli character it seems). While started as a mysterious and a bit interesting character, later on it’s revealed her motivations, which are very dull, and she’s way naiver than Shun.
-Generic crazy yandere girl is a generic crazy yandere girl who got brainwashed by the church.
-Fei was actually the most decent character in this group. She, like Kumoko, reincarnated as a monster (a dragon), and she was a bully in her previous life, especially with her (she doesn’t know she’s alive living as a spider). She feels guilty, she feels this new life is a divine punishment for her actions, and she was always concerning about Kumoko and wanted to meet her to apologize. Sound like something that could drive to an interesting catharsis… except when she gets a human form and forgets about all of this.


Initially, the serie got a 50/50 split between Kumoko and humans sides, but in the second part of the serie, when the politics themes and war calls became the main focus, human side got more spotlight. If it weren’t because, again, story and narrative by themselves are good enough, this would be really painful to watch because of this bunch of generic character. But at the same time, watching Kumoko getting stronger and destroying any trace of tension would be even more boring (and we don’t want such a thing to happen, right, Rimuru?), so the change of perspective was more a win than a miss. But actually… there is a third side here! Kumoko goes in her way, humans go in theirs, but there are a bunch of character that walk another path, this includes other three reincarnates (only two of them are worth it), some demons, and even Kumoko can be placed here under certain circumstances. What makes this group different from the other reincarnates, is that they were born under different circumstances, which push them to live under this new world rules, instead of being attached to their previous lives like Shun group. This group is by far more interesting that Shun groups, it’s a shame they weren’t fully showed in this season.


Having this ambitious story and this charming MC would be worthy of a decent direction, right? Sadly this was not the case. I don’t really need to explain why this show has a very hideous animation, especially the CGI, everyone can see it, but the direction has to be the worst I’ve ever seen in many years. Not only it was disastrous in action-packed moments, where transitions and cuts were so random that was really hard to tell what was happening, and it seemed director forgot some frames in the middle, but also covering up all the scream with that hideous CGI instead of trying to hide it a little at least with dust or light rays. Even in slower or more serious moments it was a mess, like the catharsis of some characters like Katia and Filimos, they were so shallowed portrayed it’s hard to even care about what they said, even more to care about them at all. Luckily the music was decent enough to partially conceal this, and seiyuus work is really good, especially Aoi Yuuki as our favorite arachnid girl, big part of her charm was there. Yet there were a couple of good action moments with a decent -in this context- direction, like Kumoko vs Alaba.


Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka is how an isekai should be made, with an interesting and promising new approach to an already burned-out genre, focusing on a deep plot with a witty narrative but shallowly developed, and a great main character to carry the serie.

Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka is how an isekai should not be made, with really bad side-characters, going hand in hand with an appalling animation, and a very weak direction that doesn’t do justice to such an ambitious premise.


Even with all its cons still is one of the most decent isekai animes out there, and I'd love to see another season, considering all the potential it has.

“I’m not locked in here with you… You’re locked in here with me!”

The tittle is a big lie, don’t get fooled. Maoujou de Oyasumi is not about a moe kidnapped princess trying to get a good sleep. It is not. Of course not. Absolutely not. This is about a psychopath, serial murder going rampage, mercilessly killing and torturing helpless and unaware demons, without any sort of empathy or regret in her big, star-speckled purple eyes. Her cute, harmless appearance and monotonous, expressionless voice don’t stop her from doing the most atrocious actions, from stealing important army stuffs, torturing people under questionable excuses, or emotionally manipulating ... people with noticeable self-esteem issues… to ripping off bodies to use them as materials, making people explode, flaying alive someone’s skin then wear it, and convincing a platoon to use their leader’s limbs (previously dismembered by her, of course) as building material. There’s no demon, not even the Demon Lord itself, who can run away from her visceral outrage.

Savage. This girl is really savage.

…..

This may sound as a top tier comedy material, but in fact, this is an undertone the serie uses in a very shallow way. As a personal concept, comedy should be more than “it made laugh, hence it’s good”, in a comedy, execution and wit are keys in order to make a joke funny and keep the humoristic mood fresh. if a friend tells me a bad joke, so bad it made me laugh, doesn’t mean he’s a good comedian, but if he manages to pull out expressions or use body language to make the joke a little bit funnier, then he will success. This serie is just that: good and original concept, but rather simplistic and poor execution, wasting most of its potential, and while it is successful to provoke some laughs, it’s not enough to put the whole show in a high place.

The serie format is like a videogame, where every time there is a new quest, with -allegedly- new goals as the difficulty increases. Problem is: this format is almost the same during most of the serie; not the quests by themselves, because of course, the final goal is always the same, but the execution instead. In just one episode can be noticed how the jokes’ sequences are exactly the same most of the time:
1. Hime wants to get something to sleep better
2. “It’s time to go havoc in the castle” *QUEST STARTS!*
3. Maou-sama and crew discuss about attacking Yuusha, usually involving a rare, powerful item
4. “There’s no way someone can come across with that important item lolololol”
5. Hime comes across with that important item
6. “This might be useful, I don’t know how, but I’ll find out even if it kills me, because who needs to breath if I can get a good nap?” (Spoiler time: she got killed a couple of times)
7. Some gratuitous demons abuse in order to get the item to work (the funniest part, actually)
8. Hime gets what she wanted, demon in turn got hurt, and Maou-sama’s plan got ruined
9. “Suyaa~…” *QUEST COMPLETED!*
10. Rinse and Repeat

This is repeated two or three times per episode, and while initially it can be funny, doesn't take too long to get repetitive and dull, especially when she CONVENIENTLY gets the scene to work as she needs it, like coming across with the item needed the moment Demon Lord mentions it, finding the demons (or they automatically coming across with her) with the knowledge or feature just at the moment she requires it, or “accidentally” falling into secret places, making the whole scene feel unnatural and ruining the immersion.

At that point, the show would fall into the “average/mediocre comedy” category, where comedy starts to falling apart when it gets stuck in the same kind of joke without varying the context too much, and characters become more like walking tropes than actual characters… Luckily, the last five episodes (and some segments in the previous ones) were more successful at bringing better and more varied situations, exploiting pretty well the original concept of the serie, and even building some good character interactions. We learned a little bit more about Hime’s past and how demons were able to form bonds with her, even in that unorthodox situation, but still keeping her sassiness which is the main core in this serie humor. It’s sad this came a little bit late, but still saved the serie from falling intro repeatability and complete mediocrity.

Characters are pretty simple and straightforward. Aside from Princess Sya (not surprised if you didn’t remember her name) who already have been talked about; the rest of the cast are just there fulfilling their roles: Demon Lord as the clumsy yet reliable “evil” leader, Big Dog-san as the strict rule lover, Demon Cleric as the caring old man, Alraune as the kindhearted onee-san, and then the rest of demons being the tsukkomis.

Audiovisual aspects are good enough. The whole serie looks charming and colorful, having this Fairy Tale book aesthetic combined with RPG videogames elements, including HP and MP bars, text boxes and pop-up messages; some of these elements are actually part of the world itself, and characters are aware of them, creating some unique style. Character design is cute and fluffy, especially Hime’s; her big purple eyes are like a big abyss: once you look at them, you’re trapped and can’t escape, no matter what you do; cutest design I’ve seen in a while… and that’s why it’s even more shocking when you realize how is she in reality. Demons come in the more varied ways, from just a bunch of ice blocks, going through Teddy bears with little bat wings, to Alice in Wonderland’s Hatter with an arm full-made of scissors. Having this variety of designs it’s good to easily identify each demon… since they don’t really have any other memorable trait, actually. Music is… ok, I guess. Opening is cute, funny and catchy as hell, and that’s enough.

There’s not too much left to be said. Maoujou de Oyasumi can be a little surprise if you expected a typical moe comedy, instead you’ll get a badass princess going rampage and gratuitous demon abuse. Comedy is simple, a little bit repetitive and a lot of bokke-tsukkomi abuse, but it can be quite enjoyable especially when it starts to exploit better its potential and creating different comedic scenarios. Not bad comedy serie, but I wouldn’t recommend watching the whole show in a row, it can be kinda overwhelming; instead watching one chapter by week or day can keep the experience fresher.

This show is getting too much attention for the wrong reasons.


Among the people trashing the whole show just because of Uzaki’s design, the people trashing Uzaki’s haters and overpraising the serie just for being contrarians, and the people trashing people who trash Uzaki’s haters… it seems no one cares about investing time to see if the serie is actually good or not.


Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai became popular some years ago after being part of a tendency of “female character teases her male classmate” series, alongside others like Takagi-san and Nagatoro. Takagi-san bet on a more innocent approach of this, having the two MCs trying to outsmart ... each other, with male MC failing miserably each time and making the serie repetitive in the process; Nagatoro went to the other end, making the tease factor harsher and one-directional to the point it’s almost bullying. Uzaki-chan fell in the middle, having female MC teasing male MC, but with a more lighthearted tone and enough interaction between them to avoid the serie falling into repeatability. It’s far from being revolutionary, but it works enough for setting Uzaki-chan aside from the other two.


At this point you sure are wondering: “what interactions? This serie is just about Uzaki pestering Sakurai and a lot of ecchi jokes about boobs, isn’t it?” And the answer is: yes, it is, partially. Elements should be judged according to how they are portrayed, instead of turning down the whole element by itself. Initially, it seems Uzaki teases Sakurai because she thinks he’s a lonely guy and she’s worried he is not living his life, while Sakurai just respond to her approaches with the common tsukkomi reactions, this is basically their dynamic during the whole serie, but some changes in the way they relate each other are noticeable while the two go through different experiences and we are shown more about them and they learn more about each other. Execution remains almost constant, but context, and jokes based on that context, starts to differ.


That being said, comedy is a hit and miss, especially when the tease remains almost one-directional. Scenes of Uzaki pestering Sakurai and he just going into rage would be almost the same no matter if it is in the college, in the work or the street. What would make the different is the aforementioned context (especially if it involves other characters). A good reaction from Sakurai and then a nice response from Uzaki can make the difference, and this serie has enough wit to make most of the jokes charming even with cliché situations, even some others are just plain boring, pasted with no wit or originality at all. Also, this serie doesn’t have a lot of ecchi jokes as it would seem, yet most of them are about boobs so it can portray the wrong idea of the anime being just about ecchi jokes.


Now, let’s talk about characters, because they’re the most important part, and in this case, they can set the difference between a joke, or even the whole show being funny or dull:

>One of the most common complain people have about Uzaki is that she’s annoying, and indeed she is, she was supposed to be written like that to appeal to the main theme of the serie, so it’s understandable people don’t like her a lot. Uzaki is very energic, and she only wants to have fun, I think this is where a lot of people have misunderstood her; the fact she teases Sakurai is not because she is a bully who enjoys doing it just for the sake of it, or feels sorry for him. With the passing of chapters, we are shown how they met during school and how they formed a bond, even when the first impression wasn’t the best one, so after they met again in college, Uzaki only wanted to rebuild their relation, and even when she enjoys making fun of him, what she really enjoys the most is just hanging out with him doing different things, not only things she forces him to do, also things he likes, such as videogames or sports. So, the relationship is not so one-directional after all.

>Sakurai is the opposite, he’s quieter and more reserved, and he prefers to do indoor activities, yet he can be really explosive if pushed enough. Again, some people seem to misunderstand the real intention with this character; portraying introverts as “freaks that need to be forced into society” was never the goal. Uzaki likes to make a fun of Sakurai for that aspect, though she really doesn’t think he’s a bad person for that; she invades his personal space a lot just because she really likes to hanging out with him, as previously stated, not because she thinks that he needs to change. Then there is Sakaki, Sakurai’s best friend and his perfect opposite, a popular and self-confident guy who reacted a little bid exaggerated about him when he was introduced in chapter 5; in the next chapter we learned that he actually respects Sakurai lifestyle, but he thinks it’s a waste to not going out of our comfort zone once in a while. He really cares about Sakurai, that’s why he wants him to try different experiences during his college life before it’s too late. A relatable and realistic approach, may I say.

>With the passing of chapters Sakurai learns to tolerate Uzaki, and realizes about her intentions, then he tries to give a positive return to that, since at the end of the day, he enjoyed all the time they passed, as himself stated it in chapter 8. Uzaki, on the other hand, starts to be more honest about her feelings and being closer to Sakurai, acting more tsundere-ish while toning down the tease. THIS is what this anime is about.

>Secondary characters are an important part as well, since they complement both the comedy and Uzaki and Sakurai’s relationship in order to make the serie more dynamic. Ami and her father basically represent us, the viewers, as they prefer to stay away from Uzaki and Sakurai and see how their relationship evolves naturally, sometimes acting as narrators, adding some charm to a scene. On the other hand, Sakaki thinks otherwise: it’s better to interfere into Uzaki and Sakurai, adding some “seasoning” and see how the things moves forward, because they do sure move forward very slowly by themselves.


Slowness is actually a bad aspect, because even when we can tell how Uzaki and Sakurai relationship evolves, at the end of the day nothing is concreted between them, and gives the sensation the serie never goes to a clear end. This sure can bring down some people’s motivation to continue the serie, or watching it in the first place.


Audiovisual aspects are nothing too impressive that deserve to be talked about, except for voice acting that nailed it pretty well (I personally was expecting another VA for Uzaki, but Naomi Oozora did a really good job and fit very well) … and of course, there is Uzaki’s design topic. Not gonna discuss if it is realistic or not (there’s a lot of information on Google), or if it needs to be realistic in anime in the first place, but is it consistent with the anime at the very least? Let’s see:

>She’s short, with big eyes and boobs. We can tell this was made like this on purpose by seeing the rest of the cast and noticing how they have a “more normal” design. Uzaki is like a sort of pet for the manga (kuso cat doesn’t count) so her design needs to be outstanding in any way.

>Bouncing big boobs surely are annoying to see, if it’s the only thing the serie bothers to show, which is not the case, since ecchi jokes are a tiny part of the whole comedy. This is also an internal joke, as people watch this short girl, wondering if she’s is a secondary school student until they see the boobs and realize she’s indeed an adult. Funny? after a couple of times of seeing the same joke, not anymore, but the motive is there.

>”She looks like a boy”. I’d like to answer that with the most logic sentence, that it “girls with short hair do exist”, but the lacking of details in the character design of the anime surely lend people (blinded or not by the hate) to think that way. I personally don’t have problem noticing she’s a girl, but that might be I got used to it by the manga.

>The “meat fang” is, ehh… odd, certainly. It’s not the same seeing this in a non-colored manga that in a full-animated serie, yet the commotion around this issue is too big than it should be.

The intention is not to change people mindset about liking or not Uzaki’s design; it’s more about clarifying that design has reasons of being and they should look at them before going rampage about insignificant issues other animes have previously shown.


At the end of the day, Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai, full of controversies for the wrong reasons, is another approach of that “female character teases her male classmate” trope. Simple and straightforward with that it pretends to show, nothing going out of the formula, full of clichés, yet doing its best to make use of its elements and bring a charming and funny serie. Still amazes me how this show got so much attention and a lot of critics, even when there are other animes resorting to the same formulas already seen thousands of times, with the same mediocre comedy and dull fanservice with zero substance, who were well received and even highly overpraised. This is certainly not an excellent serie, but not and horrible one either, just an average one.

So… let’s summarize:

>”Am I allowed to dislike this serie or Uzaki character?” Yes, why not. Comedies are subjective, and Uzaki is certainly someone detestable in some aspects. Just be aware of why you personally don’t like the serie, instead of blindly follow a trend.

>”I really like this serie, why other people hate it that much?” Again, comedies and tastes are subjective. If you think someone has very questionable reasons to dislike the serie, let them be, unless they are open to discuss.

>”I don’t find any joke funny”. It’s a valid criticism, as previously said, most jokes are cliché situations which you could be tired of already. Consider stop watching it if bores you, it won’t get any better.

>”Is this show about portraying introverts as freaks and bad people?” Of course not. And I’m telling you this as an introvert myself; you should not take what you see in anime too personal.

>”Uzaki’s design is really ugly because it’s unrealistic! Worst design ever! People liking this shit have problems and should be erased from earth!” This is not the first time an anime character with such features exists. It’s ok if you dislike it. I just hope you remain consistent and are not telling this with Danmachi, Maid Dragon or Gatchaman Crowds in your Favorites ;)

It’s amazing how this serie improved after that bland first part and that dreadful first season. But what did this serie do to get better in such a way? Simple and straightforward: it started to raise the stakes.


First part ended up with a plot twist: Eldora was a real world, instead of a GBN part, so everything the characters went through was real. Now they have actual reasons to go back and fight, making the main issue as a real threat and changing the mood to a more serious one; but before, they have to overcome their insecurities. This Build serie differs from the rest ... in that it is more focused on characters and plot, so raising the stakes was a big bet that could go wrong in many ways. Fortunately, this was not the case:

First, Eldora NPCs, represented by Freddie, acknowledged the big problem they were into after that catastrophic attack that wiped out a reasonable part of them. Even when they weren’t fully aware of who is behind this rampage and why, they decided to raise and prove they deserve to live in this planet instead of feel sorry, getting some sort of “humanity”.

But characters got the spotlight here. First part did a shallow development attempt by throwing out random flashbacks with little to zero context and called it a day. Here, characters were broken down after facing the reality of being in an actual planet trying to help real people, forced to fight against their demons:

-Hiroto, who started as a boring stoic guy with no apparent motivations, got fleshed out not only as a GBN player, but also in real life by her childhood friend. Hinata described him as someone who likes to help others, but after losing someone special for him in GBN, he lost any motivation. He went through this “secret mission” almost by inertia, but after discover the truth and facing his past, where he swore to protect the world his special person loved, he found the courage of fighting for others, alongside a group of people that share his goal, people that now he can call comrades. Hiroto grew up as a better person thanks to his friend and family in real life, and his comrades in GBN, which whom he formed bonds in real world as well, allowing him to learn to work together.

-Kazami got the biggest perspective change, starting as your typical noisy, arrogant blockhead guy, putting his pride over his common sense. Kazami thought being a hero was just about showing off, and after acknowledging his own weaknesses when he was unable to save real people, he realized the true value of a hero; this got represented by changing his playstyle to a more defensive one, and prioritizing shield usage. Kazami went from the most infuriating character to the most relatable one.

-Parviz resorted to GBN as an escape from the reality, where he was doomed not to be able to enjoy what he loved: flights, because of an accident. Not only that, but now he was invaded by fear, fear that also fed his inexperience in GBN, fear that resurfaced again after discover the truth about Eldora. Parviz was afraid to come back, afraid of falling down again, but he put his own fear under Eldora people’s who were struggling to survive, yet never gave up. He somehow found the courage of flying again.

-May was the simplest one, but not in a bad way. As an EL-Diver, her only purpose was to look after GBN safety; similar to Hiroto, she got involved almost by inertia, but she took this role more seriously than the rest, even was willing to go on alone, but she got a real reason by meeting Alus, the main antagonist, who, pretty much like her, is an artificial being created with a purpose, but after losing said purpose, he lost his way. May took this personal, so she was aiming for “saving” him. For the first time, she wanted to do something by own and pure will, instead of a sense of duty. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to accomplish it by herself, that’s why she started to concern about forming bonds with the rest of the group. At the end, May achieved to develop a sign of humanity.


Not only each of them improved individually, but as a team too. By sharing a common goal, they improved as GBN fighters for the sake of others, and this is portrayed in their constant alterations to their Gunplas and playstyles over time: Hiroto started to concern more about teamwork than do it all himself, and adapted his Gunpla’s armors for that; Kazami started to focus on a solid defense and more strategy, instead of just showing off; and Parviz lost his fear to flying and reconnected his bond with “Morgiana” -his Gunpla-; May also started to resort to her Mobile Doll form when needed. Also, how they went over the GBN boundaries to meeting in real life gave more weight to the group dynamic, and settled the importance this “mission” has for them.


With that being said, the fact this serie was more focused on this serious approach doesn’t mean the action part was set apart. In fact, battles were one of the most well-done aspects. Not only because of the strategic component most battles had, who also showed how well the team dynamic was fleshed out, but also the narrative weight and meaning; every battle had a background implication that cemented their importance. This aspect was never done so well since the first Build Fighters serie. Also, having a full hand-drawn mechanical battle is always a good bonus! Soundtrack adds up to this as well, though is not as memorable as Yuuki Hayashi’s work in the first two Build Fighters series, it is good enough to hit on point when needed, thanks to a good sound direction.


It’s a shame than can’t be told that, as a whole, Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise was a really outstanding experience, because of that first part that, looking in hindsight, worked as a base of a good development; and still lacked of some Heart and energy, compared to the first Build Fighter serie. Even so, Re:Rise 2nd Season could live up to expectations, evidencing that improvement is possible, and raising the flag in the Build franchise to keep it up alive.

Short and simple: this serie is perfect. Why? Because Latina is the CUTEST LOLI IN ANIME HISTORY!!... Yep, that's it. Nothing more.


Let's forget about how shallow the worldbuilding is. This is your typical fantasy world with adventurers, magic, mystical criatures and different races where all of those topics were barely touched because of course, you have seen them thousands times before and you don't need to get them introduced in this story. This is all about Latina!! not about... non-Latina things!!. Now you might be thinking: "Hey! But this is a SoL anime, not an adventure one", and yes, that's true, but you still need ... to develop your world in order to complement characters growth with their environment, especially when one of them is a demon child (a supposedly hated race) and the other is an adventurer (a supposedly important one). But who needs logic and actual worldbuilding here when you have you cute loli eating desserts and wanting to learn how to cook? Latina is such an ADORABLE SWEETHEART!!


Let's forget about how mediocre audiovisual features are. Plain backgrounds, simplistic colour palette, forgettable soundtrack and inconsistent characters design. From facial deformities to shifting heights; I didn't even know if Latina was naturally growing up or chara designer could not decide how old he wanted her to look... But did you see Latina with that bear outfit? She's HELLA CUTE!!


Let's forget about how weak the direction is. This serie suffers from a big plot rushing, even for a SoL anime. One chapter Latina is learning how to talk and the next one she's got an almost full vocabulary. One chapter she is pretty clumsy at serving glasses and the next one she's an expert. One chapter Latina meets some children and the next one they are lifelong friends. You don't have to fully show those trivial things but natural progression is basically non-existent. This is made worse by weak direction where transitions and timeskips are not clear enough. How much time had passed? Just some hours? One day? A weak? Three months!!? We'll never know. But time is a unimportant concept when we have Latina filling up our empty lifes. SO FUCKING KAWAII~!!


Let's forget about how this serie is terrible with mood handling. Comedy and -supposedly- quiet moments are so over-the-top with Dale yelling all the time that end up being the opposite they tried to be. And serious issues like discrimination are so exaggeratedly and superficially portrayed that can't be taken with the correct seriousne- I mean, how dare that stupid bitch to harm Latina like that while doing Kakegurui faces with no subtlety at all!! SHE DESERVES TO FUCKING DIE!!


Let's forget about how bland characters are. Latina is fin- I mean, SHE'S PERFECT!! It's good seeing how she grows up and learns, but of course it's not her fault if the world is so black and white where everyone loves her like a kind of godness or hates her like she was the Demon Lord itself. How did I dare to say our beloved Latina is a kind of mary sue? of course not!! Dale is pretty much your average adventure anime MC, but he's kind of an special hero. What kind of "special"? Who knows, that was never clarified even when his influency was notorious. Then what is Dale's function? I guess being just an important person for Latina. How? I guess being a paternal model who doesn't even act as proper one, because most of the time he's just there yelling "NOT ENOUGH LATINA", but I guess that's enough for normal people to find him as "the most relatable character ever".... Oh right, he calmed down a bit during the traveling arc (actually the best part of the serie when some of the issues like the worldbuilding and characters bond were fixed up a bit) and we finally saw him as a proper character out of the Latina thing and with a -wait for it- 5 seconds flashback!! It's a shame that doesn't count as character development (the sooner people realize showing characters pasts is not character development, world will be a better place).

The rest of the cast? They are... ok... I guess. They are not Latina, that's the only important thing here.


Tl;dr: I CAN'T GET ENOUGH LATINA/10






*Sarcasm ends here*

Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken may be one of the most decent isekai recently released… But please, can we stop pretending this serie is perfect?


The premise of this serie is pretty much the same as other isekais: MC dies and gets transported to a fantasy/RPG game world, but in this case he reincarnates as a slime. Slimes are well recognized to be the most basic and weak creatures in fantasy worlds, but sometimes they have some traits like broken skills, elemental resistances or ailments inmunity, that may make them powerful creatures which shouldn’t be underestimated (Dragon Quest is a well-known example).


Slimes in this world ... are pretty much like that, but since they don't have intellect enough they are not considered as a threat. Here is when our MC appears. MC, subsequently named Rimuru Tempest, wakes up in a cave in this amorphous and gummy body, after a quick review he is informed about his condition by a kind of inner voice just called Daikenja (think of her like those pop ups tutorials in videogames) and without much else to do, Rimuru starts to explore the cave.


Now talking about the serie in general, one of the best aspects about TenSura is the worldbuilding. Yes, this isekai actually HAS worldbuilding. The serie basically explains everything, the current situation, the world and its creatures, terminology, skills, magic effects, you name it. Of course this means there is a lot of exposition, sometimes too much (like in the first chapter), but it is presented in straightforward and concise sentences instead of walls of texts, so it doesn't end up being overwhelming. Most of this exposition comes from Daikenja to Rimuru and hence the viewer, but sometimes Rimuru himself explains the situation.


Slimes have an unique skill called Predator that allows them to absorb, keep and analyze materials and enemies, so Rimuru spends like a month in the cave farming materials and gaining experience, stats and skills, becoming very powerful in the process. Soon he meets a sealed dragon named Veldora, and after a cringe but funny conversation, Veldora helps him to see, gives him a name and they become friends. Rimuru is also told more about the world and how he is not the only person transported from another world. That’s how, after absorbing Veldora in order to eliminate the seal, Rimuru leaves the cave with a new objective: to find more people from his world.


Now Rimuru and the viewer are facing a new world, a… pretty common fantasy world. The serie is honest and doesn’t hesitate to show a normal and lighthearted fantasy enviroment with its typical creatures like goblins, dwarfs, orcs and of course humans. Helped with a decent palette of colors and nice backgrounds, this world feels alive and charming. TenSura is self-conscious about what it’s showing, without pretensions of being what it’s not, the plot is not supposed to be taken so seriously so you can get in the mood pretty easily.


From this point the plot can be summarized in Rimuru getting involved in some races’ problems and helping them solving those problems, either by meritocracy or by force, and in the end making these creatures his subordinates and building a big “family”. Pacing is another positive point, every arc lasts enough to introduce new characters and main problem, it handles to explain all the important information and resolves the situation without rushing or lengthening.


Even so, there is a big issue this series has: Rimuru gets so OP that he gets basically everything with little to no effort at all, even when the serie justifies everything. Predator and Daikenja are very broken tools, not only Rimuru can use all the skills he absorbs to beat all enemies he faces with ease, not only he can stock almost infinite materials and use them without caution when it’s necessary, but he also gets convenient explanations of what he doesn’t know via Daikenja. All of this breaks the tension and makes the serie predictable.


But major issues around the serie are not just because of Rimuru’s powers, it’s the way the plot is too convenient to him that it puts the perfect situation so that Rimuru can solve it very easily. Just look at the first chapters, for example: He CONVENIENTLY appears in a place full of materials and monsters he CONVENIENTLY can absorb with his OP skill, then he CONVENIENTLY meets a powerful dragon that helps him to escape, and after that he CONVENIENTLY finds a goblin village with a problem he can easily solve because of his absorbed skills. Now he has a village of goblins and wolves which revere him, but he needs blacksmiths so he goes to a city to get them, he CONVENIENTLY meets the best blacksmith dwarfs in the city which have a big problem that Rimuru can CONVENIENTLY solve by just absorb a sword, analyze it and make a lot of copies with all the materials he CONVENIENTLY kept from the cave, so now the dwarfs are happy to revere him… Again, the serie at least explains the basics about every individual situation so it’s possible to justify them (like how he was able to make sword copies because he had enough saved materials), this is enough to put TenSura above others of the genre, but it’s not enough justification for all the plot conveniences surrounding Rimuru. This is just a mediocre writting.


This is a big problem especially for action moments because no matter how powerful the enemy is, you know Rimuru and his gang can easily get rid of it without much complication. You know the good guys are going to win against the bad guys, like a shounen, but unlike shounen or actions series in general, here tensión is non-existent because how OP good guys are. Actions scenes are not always supposed to be good because of the sometimes obvious outcome, but the scene by itself, to see how good guys handle to beat bad guys against all the problems they might go through (and even they may lose). Here nothing of that happens, making actions scenes pretty dull and uninterested in the long run.


Since there’s an overall lighthearted mood around, there are comedy moments too, but comedy is a pretty weak aspect of the serie. Most comedic scenes are summarized in dull boke-tsukkomi gags and plain jokes using cliches LNs are plagued of, making comedy in general feel very forced and fail to be funny. This serie is also overwhelmingly cliche, almost every trope of the manual can be found here: lolis, onee-sans, fanservice, bishounens, bouncing boobs, harem elements, and going through typical situations like OP characters wrecking everyone and everything easily, bullying the ineptest guy, harem chicks arguing each other, mortal cooking, onsen, etc. All of those issues aren’t bad per se, but in this case they are just flatly placed onscreen with no subtlety and with the vague intention of being funny. Tropes that have been heavily used and are no longer funny. Even when there are scenes with gags, situations or jokes that at least can make you smile, in regards of purely comedic scenes there’s not creativity, there’s not enough wit to make a genuinely funny scene, just the same well-known cliches reused.


Characters are by far the weakest part of the serie. Rimuru as a character is just ok, at least he has personality unlike other Light Novels MCs, but it’s a pretty basic one. That’s not entirely bad because it fits with the lighthearted mood the serie has and makes Rimuru easy to relate with. Actually the main issue with that is the lack of any depth, making the character plain, and for a MC this is bad because it might make the viewer get bored or lose interest, also limits a lot the character’s potential. It doesn’t have to be a big depth, but something that says Rimuru is more than just your average MC. Also, it’s really hard to believe how someone that basic and limited apparently has so much charm as the serie puts it; just some kind words and a demostration of his powers are enough to convince people that Rimuru “is such a very nice and reliable slime” and instantly they are willing to be part of his family and revere him… That’s the kind of things that make Rimuru look more like your typical Gary Stu light novel MC.


Even all said before, Rimuru is maybe the best character in the serie, but that’s because the rest of the cast are just stereotypical characters who barely have personality (and some of them mainly for “comedy” purposes). Actually there are pretty interesting characters there, but the main problem is that they revere Rimuru so much that they lose any hint of characterization or development they might have:

-Ok, goblins and wolves were just simple monsters so initially they didn’t need characterization at all, but after they evolved some of them were shown with actual personality, but they just kept there as background characters revering Rimuru, with no evolution or something that would make viewer get interesed on them as individual characters, like Gobuta, Rigur or Rigurd. This may also apply to Kaijin or Gabiru who had characterization before becoming Rimuru’s subordinate.

-Ranga actually started with personality, doubts about his father and former leader, but after this latter were defeated and killed by Rimuru he just… accepted him, and became one of his most loyal subordinates, losing basically any trace of personality. I mean, for real? He saw how his father was brutally killed in front of him and he didn’t get mad, sad or decided to take the leadership, he just forgot everything and became so affective with his new leader in a way you can’t believe it. You may blame the fear of see how someone that strong easily kills his leader as a reason to surrender to him, and in fact it is a reasonable justification to that, but not to become so affective and losing any personality in order to be just a guardian dog.

-Onis are where the serie wasted a lot of potential. When I said that there were pretty interesting characters I was referring mostly to them. They are more than simple monsters unlike goblins or wolves, each one of them have different personalities that were kept after becoming Rimuru’s subordinates, and actually they had a goal before that, since they lost their village. So… what happened after they reached their goal and decided to stay as Rimuru’s subordinates? Were their personalities and pasts developed or even exploited? Of course not! Well, they are treated as more than just NPCs unlike goblins and wolves, but most of their interventions are very shallow, like if they weren’t so important as characters. We have the proud leader, the wise old man, the mysterious silent man and the big quiet one just fulfiling those roles, some “comedic” moment and nothing more. The two girls are worse, they are just waifu baits with opposite personalities that the serie uses for the classic “harem chicks arguing about MC attention”, even worse, they are kind of like Ranga when they suddenly became so affective towards Rimuru that you can’t believe it, losing any posibility of individual characterization thanks to that extreme loyality.

-Millim is the loli factor in this equation and your typical “ridiculously powerful but kawaii brainless chick” who allied with Rimuru because plot said so (really, she didn’t have a reason at all) and we need another waifu bait for the weebs. Nothing more worth mentioning.

-You may have noticed I haven’t talked about Shizu yet even when she’s supposed to be important for the main plot, that’s because her characterization was so shallowly shown she can’t even count as proper character, and it’s the main proof this serie is terrible in characterization. This girl is, like Rimuru, another person invoked from his world, and when they met she established their situation is not so uncommon, potentially making this a pillar for the main plot and for Rimuru and Shizu’s development and relation. So what the serie did after that? Instead of giving Shizu an important role and time to develop her, the serie just showed her cruel past when she arrived with excesive victimization, then she “unleashed” her power CONVENIENTLY after meet Rimuru so he could “help her” absorbing her power (becoming more OP) finishing her life in the process and then giving him her “last will” by allowing Rimuru to absorb her body and appearance… All in an attempt to create cheap drama around Shizu, trying to make the viewer empathize with her but in the wrong way because at the end there’s nothing important left to bond with, all that just makes Shizu more a plot device than a proper character. That was actually one of the worst arcs of the show, and it evidences that the serie is bad at dealing with dramas and serious issues, which also affects narrative of those serious arcs.

-Veldora is in a similar situation. After he got absorbed by Rimuru he just stopped existing as a character and more as a plot device, because his absence just worked as a reason to move the plot.

Of course the serie can’t be expected to develop all characters since there are a lot, but at least it should pick the most important ones and give them some depth (especially for story purposes) instead of just treat them like walking tropes.


Then we get to the final arc, which it’s about the other invoked people Shizu talked about, and which I said it might be a pillar for the main plot and for Rimuru’s characterization, so it’s supposed to be a pretty important arc… And what did we get? This arc sums up basically everything that is wrong with this anime: Rimuru’s skills and OPness killing any tensión (now he can assemble spirits too? Are you kidding me?), wasted characters with tiny to no characterization (none of the supposedly important kids’ personalities or pasts were explored, they were just mere plot devices), A LOT of plot conveniences (in just one chapter Rimuru got kids’ respect by killing a dragon that CONVENIENTLY appeared from nowhere, that was seen CONVENIENTLY by a merchant that accepted to do business with Rimuru, and one of his girls CONVENIENTLY knew where Spirit Queen can be found) and otaku pandering. On top of that, a new problem the serie hadn’t faced up to this point: the pacing was very rushed (several weeks of bonding between Rimuru and the kids passed in just a few minutes, for example), making the plot even more convenient than the rest of the serie, and the introduced characters were forgettable. This arc makes clear that this serie isn’t going to improve in any way. It’s a shame.


With everything said above, I just can ask: why is this serie, full of those issues commonly criticized in most LN adaptations, getting a free pass? Why is getting too much praise and high scores even when it falls under the same tropes that mediocre and much more criticized LNs also fall?


But please don’t get me wrong, with all its ups and downs TenSura is a decent serie I pretty enjoyed. But the serie is far from being perfect, and I thought it would be good bringing some criticism to the table pointing out all the good and bad things the serie did instead of just say shallow claims like “it’s good because I liked it and characters made me laugh” or “this is utter crap because Rimuru is so OP and nothing happens”. So yeah, the reason this serie stands out as one of the most decent isekais recently released is more because most of those isekais are pretty bad rather than by its own merits. But hey! It actually HAS merits.


tl;dr: Interesting premise, charming mood and decent worldbuilding, but terrible characters and bad handling of serious issues when tries to be more ambitious. This serie is fine but it’s not a masterpiece or even something close. Please stop overrating and overhyping things, THAT is the real cancer of the community.

After the bunch of generic movies that the franchise was bringing (especially XY's), this film felt like a breath of fresh air, a necessary change and an interesting experience. Even so, it could have been handled much better.


At first, the film was very ambitious, trying to mix classic elements with new elements in a single story with the classic theme of "chosen by the legendary", which is not bad, but that same ambition made the development of the film was very inconsistent: they added key elements of the first season, such as the way Ash and Pikachu became friends, Caterpie's capture and subsequent release and ... the abandoned Charmander, beautiful scenes that contributed to Ash development, but didn't impact as they intended to do (speaking from the perspective of the new generations of fans, which is the main audience to which the film aimed). In addition, the new elements were incorporated in a very superficial way, resulting in a very hasty plot, which handled too much issues: Cross as an antithesis of Ash, Verity and Sorrel, even the same legend of "chosen by Ho-Oh", the old man who wrote the book and Marshadow as an evil being and his world of illusion were treated very superficially. While the subplots were placed "just because", the main plot was developed inconsistently.


The plot is not the only thing that remained half developed, the characters too:

-Both Verity and Sorrel, although they are not the most original characters in the world, they are charismatic and have interesting motivations, respectively: wanting to show your real value and being a professor due to a traumatic experience that made you see things from a broader perspective, each one was introduced with quite remarkable personalities, but once they joined to Ash, all that disappeared, and they went into the background in such a blatant way that it's offensive, giving the feeling of wanting to see more of them.

-Cross and Marshadow were only used as a plot device. The first as the typical edgelord who treats everyone badly, considers that everything is brute force and friendship is useless but without the redemption that differentiates him from others like Paul and Trip, who in the end was the one who unleashed the chaos due to his imprudence. The second as the evil entity that has to stop our characters "just because", if there is a real reason for its participation, this was not very clear or was never explained properly.

-On the other hand we have the same Ash as always, but due to the focus they gave him, his development as a newly initiated Trainer was better appreciated, in the best way that has been seen in the franchise so far, as well as his relationship with Pikachu... But yes, the way he "revived" was one of the most cheeky deus ex machina of all the anime, and don't tell me it was Ho-Oh because he was not present and the Rainbow Wing had disintegrated.


In short: very ambitious plot, mixing new and old elements in a very superficial way, focusing on some things and leaving aside many others, hasty development and interesting characters but very badly used. As I said at the beginning, it was a renewed experience with respect to the last films, and it was pleasant to see, but it doesn't prevent that it could have been better.

People often think that because an idea seems uncommon on paper, it is already good.

No, it's not. A plot may seem to be as attractive as possible, a character may appear to be interesting for not following a common stereotype, but if those are not developed correctly, or at least, they are not well used in the universe that the same serie proposes, then can’t be said they are good. This is the case.


Two things to keep in mind before continue reading:
1. Minor spoilers ahead.
2. This is an ANIME ONLY review.


Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e, also known as "Classroom of the Elite", this ... name already summarizes what the series is about: a prestigious school where only "the best of the best" attends, students are separated by categories (classes) and a score system is managed according to the test results, which are necessary to literally survive on this island/school. Of course the best class usually has most of the points, while the worst, that is, the D class (where the series focuses) have few to none, so the goal of these students is to improve on their exams in order to get more points and survive, even thinking ambitiously and trying to get down the other classes. If we ignore the fact that no one in the D class except the protagonist group was so smart to not see the obvious working of this system that promotes competitiveness and instead they all believed they would earn 10.000 points at the end of the month just for their pretty faces (was not supposed to be a school of elites?), we have a plot that, on paper, sounds very good, and can lead to a story with an interesting development.

Among other positive aspects, animation is very good, has enough fluidity and is very colorful, character design is generic but well done (especially girls design). Soundtrack is not bad but it's very forgettable, and there were few times where it actually stood out, however, the serie has a good handling of audiovisual quality and a decent sound direction most of the time, they really knew how to make the few scenes where the sound is important (intrigue or "revelations" scenes) able to impress and engage the viewer.

And those are the only good things I can say about the serie...


Now, what's the problem with this show, having so much potential? Just the fact that they don't take advantage of that potential, and instead, the series focuses purely on exposure: they show MC analyzing and understanding how the school system works, and then acting when it's required; but not the reason of his acts. They show several background characters moving around and prowling, as if they had some evil plans (even with funeral background music included!); but in the end, little or nothing happens. They show how protagonists pretend to make their class climb ranges; but they are so rough and socially inept that they don't even bother to relate with their classmates, classmates who are shown as mere extras or victims, in order to make protagonists shine even more. This is not a story about "how the D class improves and climbs ranks", protagonists go on their own way, and the rest of the class have little to zero presence in the plot. Then, when the show tries to give them characterization or at least some screen time in the moments where they were meant to be important, it isn't even done well, just extra dialogues that mean nothing and call it a day (Sudo, Ichinose, Sakura, the sensei, etc.). Characters remain plain and dull all the plot.

Another aspect is that most arcs feel disconnected, add little to nothing to the plot, or are unnecessary. In some cases it's not even explained how things turned out like that (survival test arc, for example). It almost feels like most arcs were only introduced to force the plot and create artificial drama, because at this point it's hard to feel something for such a shallow character cast. With all this, the central issue in this serie is practically lost, it's unknown what is the point the serie tries to reach. Everything ends up being boring and disinterested.

The worst part is this: The serie pretends to be a serious and dark story, with discrimination and arrogance from high-ranked classes issues, people prowling in the shadows, and D class being victimized by being the lowest rank. But then, the series resorts to exposure of this arrogance and this "dark atmosphere" (the high-ranked classes bullying Sudo, Ryuuen punishing members of his "gang", the almost rape scene, the president plotting things, cane girl and bald guy talking cryptic nonsenses so they appear to be planning something "interesting", etc.), everything in a really exaggerated and nothing subtle way, to the point where the series ends up being immature, bordering on stupidity, instead of being serious and dark as they would have wanted. Inmature and stupid, for not knowing how to handle such issues with the seriousness they were meant, and instead, the serie just uses them to pretend to be intellectual and interesting, or in the worst case, to "shocking" the viewer and thus disguise the poor writing and development, even resorting to cliches and fanservice situations that just buries even more the serie's real pretentions.

It's not really bad to have cliches and fanservice, as long as you make use of them in a way that are acceptable to see, this is not the case. Hell, even the fanservice is explicit to the point it's just ridiculous! Other series show you subtle, fleeting or according to the situation scenes: falls, wind raising skirts, rays of light coming out of nowhere, etc. Here, they throw out tits in the whole screen just because, without conceal, without having nothing else to show in the scene, not even people talking, and with no other goal but to appeal otaku pandering. Yes, even fanservice in this serie is shallow and dull! The real issue is that this actually creates a contrast to what the series is trying to achieve, and instead of being serious and interesting, ends up being ridiculous. At this point, the serie is just pretending to be something that it will never be, resorting to exposure to hide its failures and showing exaggerated and unnecessarily explicit situations in an attempt to simulate maturity, which ends up being the opposite.

Pretentious, that's the perfect word that describes this trainwreck. Yes, this is a term often used as a "generic argument that people usually use to denigrate a job they do not like", regardless of if it really applies or if those who use it know what it really means, but personally, I wouldn't use it if in this particular case it doesn't apply, and DOES apply. With all the issues previously mentioned, the series insists that those points must be taken completely seriously; despite the big failures in development, despite their cliche characters and exaggerated situations, bordering on ridiculousness; all this creates a big contrast with the heavy atmosphere. If one tries to take the serie seriously, it's not possible, because the atmosphere is very forced and doesn't go according to everything that happens on the screen: complete arcs that contribute little or nothing, cliches in the middle of a plot that tries to be dark, irrelevant characters doing nonsense here and there and "serious" situations so anticlimactic and explicit that they end up being simply stupid, so the seriousness the show tries to transmit is not given. And if one tries not to take the serie seriously, it's not possible either, because the plot tries to convince you that EVERYTHING that goes on screen, including the most insignificant nonsense and the most exaggerated situations, is serious and dark, situations that obviously you can't take as such. They went to far to even try to put comedy, which was so dry, forced and simple that ended up being shameful and cringy. In more than one occasion I ended up banging my head on the keyboard, because I couldn't bear the cringe of those pathetic attempts to be "comic."


Another negative aspect is this series doesn't know the term "subtlety": every time something happens, it is shown in the most crude, explicit and anticlimatic possible way:

—Starting with the same plot. Being an elite school that seeks to mold highly skilled people, a fairly realistic goal, is the highly exagerated competitive environment that even people are talking about "destroying the other classes" so necessary ? Is discrimination so necessary ? Are the "evil" and complicated plans to only expel a single student so necessary? Is a Btooom! style Survival Test in a high school with relatively normal students so necessary? Things that have little or no place in the genres that the series handles, just to forcing the plot and generate dramatic situations that ultimately mean nothing, because arcs development is so random that they don't transmit what they want to show.

—Horikita's traumatic past and her inferiority complex towards her brother, the student council president. This character is so bad written that she changes from a strong willed person to a weakling waifu bait at script conveniences just because of him. Similary, the way they show her brother as an almighty guy whose presence is terrifying, and a sort of evil final boss who even went so far as to almost hurt his sister to "show her that she can never reach him". It's not necessary to exaggerate the situation to that point that it's so unbelievable.

—Kushida's revelation, where she went from a caring and friendly girl to a soulless bitch, and the way she showed it was so cringy: screaming, flailing and threatening MC with rape accusation if he reveal it... There're not enough words to express how stupid this was. If the intentions were to reveal a dark secret, at least, do it maturely, otherwise, it ends up being edgy and ridiculous.

—Constant fights with the other classes, which were portrayed as a kind of mafia that punishes its members when they don't fulfill their duties and always go for the most violent and problematic option possible, as if they were real criminals. Would not it be enough to portray the friction between classes without trying to make the whole situation looked as a yakuza war?

—Sakura's trauma with the potential stalkers, exaggerated to the point that they show a man like a sick and obsessive who almost raped her, which was not necessary to show his problem (just by making it clear that she was being harassed and then doing the pertinent report would've been enough), and shows how the serie handles a serious subject in a very immature way, because of course, all men are disgusting beings whose first thing they do when they see sexy photos of a girl is harass her to try to rape her... Also the fact that she is an excessively shy girl who shows her provocative photos both on the internet and in the middle of a serious trial, supposedly to increase her self-confidence, but then she implies she "doesn't like to show a lot of skin" and being looked in a "lustful way" makes her feel uncomfortable. Is not this a bit contradictory?


Now, let's talk about the other aspect that ends up completely burying this serie: characters. I would like to remind you what I said at the beginning: the fact something looks good on paper or looks different at first glance doesn't imply that it will be good. The fact the characters, mainly the MC, do not seem to be the stereotypes commonly seen in this kind of stories doesn't make them automatically good. Characters are by far the worst aspect of this serie, flat and completely artificial, but with "plot twist" added to make them look more interesting and complex, complexity that doesn't really exist:

—Ayanokouji,the main character. At first he looks like he doesn't care about anything, but actually he is someone analytical, who only observes what happens around him and then he draws conclusions about it, plus he does not want to highlight. In this sense he's very similar to Hachiman, which is the reason a lot of people consider him a good character (Hachiman is not that good to begin with), and in fact, this sounds like a good approach, but, SURPRISE! it turns out that the guy is super smart but he gets mediocre scores apparently on purpose, he is an expert in melee combat because why no? it's something cool for a high school student, and he ends up being surrounded by a lot of girls who "notice how special he is" just by being his boring and personality-less himself. Why is he so skilled? The most silly excuse: he was a laboratory rat created to be perfect; and no, showing a character flashback is NOT characterization or character development if they don't portray how he develops his way of being and thinking from this fact, which they never did, they simply said "MC is perfect because he was created as such, and he's cool!", that's all. Based on this, the main problem with this character is: he doesn't really have a background to make his actions coherent, and then it's evident that he is not boring or doesn't care about anything, he simply has no personality. But even so, the series doesn't waste any opportunity to make him shine, since everything he does turns out well, everyone talks about him, everything important involves him and he seems to be the only character who thinks and acts rationally, basically a perfect example of a self insert character and a Gary Stu. He is with the same face all the time, immutable to everything that happens around him, even his own actions, How can be portrayed that he is living a tense situation (when the president confronts him, for example) if he doesn't express it? Besides, because he doesn't have personality or characterization, it's hard to know what really drives him to act, his actions can't be taken seriously because what motivates him to act is basically non-existent. He only acts because the plot says so. He doesn't move the plot: the plot moves him. Even though his inexpressiveness makes it somewhat unpredictable (despite it's implied Almighty MC-kun will always be there to save the day), which plays to his advantage, that is not enough for make up for all the issues surrounded this character. And this needs to be cleared up once and for all: The fact a protagonist doesn't seem to be your typical dense MC does NOT automatically make him a good character, much less "the best MC of the season".

—Horikita is the typical edgy elitist bitch who believes herself better than the rest, looks down on the whole world because "making friends is unnecessary" and she's all the time with her arms crossed to show superiority over "scum". Currently she is the one that really wants to raise the class despite treating her classmates as trash. Why? SURPRISE! (again), she also possesses a typical traumatic past (which is never explained), an inferiority complex toward her brother, and a lamentable desire to show him that she can be at his level, all in a pathetic attempt to make her see her not so rude and viewer can feel empathy for her. Then, the rude and super serious elitist who tries to do everything for herself (although she knows she should collaborate with others, which she never does) becomes a passive weakling which the MC has to rescue, and a kind of tsundere badly made to justify his mood changes at script convenience. She is the the synonym of inconsistency... And speaking of script conveniences: it's funny how she doesn't trust anyone because she thinks everyone has a double face which can be dangerous, but she fully trusts Ayanokouji who obviously hides many things, just because "he saved her", when all he did was to be in the right place "by casuality" (that is, when the plot told him). Curiously, she was the only one to have something vaguely close to a development (yes, THE ONLY ONE) as we saw how little by little she began to trust and appreciate her classmates more (although she is still rough). Apparently, some of those scenes must have been from another character, and I saw a lot of people complaining and whining about that, but in fact this change was partly a success, mainly because the other character in question (Karuizawa) was never introduced correctly in this adaptation. Would not have been something out of place to give too much screen time suddenly to a character we barely know? Instead, they gave this screen time to a previously established character, so it was not a bad decision at all. As a side note: that Senjougahara-style compass scene was very pathetic, andthe tickle scene was even worse, a bad attempt to make it look more moe. Not to mention the bathroom scene in Chapter 11, because it was clearly important for this dark and serious plot, right?... right?!

—Kushida is the typical cheerful and caring girl, with more breasts than brains, who wants to be friends with everyone, but in such a obsessive way that it's just annoying to see, but SURPRISE! (again, again) it turns out that the girl actually hid a kind of second, darker and manipulative personality, all in a very pathetic attempt to give complexity to the character and to "shock" the audience that perhaps did not expect that. The worst par about this? That second personality was never explained, never showed the background and also had absolutely no impact on everything that happened in the rest of the show, so what was it all for? A cheap way to make a character look interesting and keep people to the expectation.

Now you see why did I say complexity in these characters doesn't exist? All of them are just cliches already seen with a plot twist that tries to fill the void of a real characterization.

The rest of the characters are not worth talking about. Sudo is the typical rude and troublesome boy, Ichinose is another less annoying Kushida, Sakura the typical excessively shy girl who is complexed by his past and/or actions, Hirata the popular, kind and helpful guy (SURPRISE! He also seems to have a "dark" personality), the president the typical evil boss "just because" who is even more elitist than his sister, Ryuuen the gang member, Ibuki the Rem— I mean, the passive dependent girl with no personality, Arisu the mysterious loli THAT DID NOTHING, etc. Do you see how all of them can be described in a single sentence? The worst thing is that no one was given some screen time to even know more about them, in fact, in their respective arcs they were treated more as victims or plot devices than actual characters... And do you pretend I take all your plot seriously with this cast of characters?


Dialogues and interaction between the characters are almost as bad as themselves. To name one of many examples: Chapter 4 was particularly stupid, another "friendly girl" of another class gets a love letter, but since she doesn't know what love is, she makes the only "logical" choice she has: Asks MC, with which she hasn't crossed more than 10 words before, that he pretends to be his boyfriend to reject the girl who sent her the letter... This was so contradictory and senseless in almost any way. How many cliches in such a forced situation, literally a beautiful girl with big tits fell from the sky to our personality-less MC and asked him to be her boyfriend "just because" so that in the end, he gave a her sermon where he was portrayed as a mature guy... a complete situation of self-insertion that also adds nothing to the plot (like almost everything else up to that point). Then in chapter 5 we have our Almighty MC advising a "shy girl" to be honest with herself and only with these simple words that anyone could say is enough to make her fall in love, from this point onward, this character (whose excessive shyness is FREAKING ANNOYING, "Best Girl" my balls) only was dedicated to be fanservice and otaku pandering material by trying romantic approaches with MC... Ah, and let's not forget about Chapter 11 when MC tells Ibuki that he trusts her and immediately she falls in love with these "pretty words" like any Rem— I mean, passive dependent girl with no personality... Of course he is not a self-insert! Similar situations happened throughout the series, which are summarized in boring, out of place and edgy dialogues that are just cringy, and relationships so forced that feel fake. Characters are not related naturally, but because the plot says.


Seriously, why does this serie get so much praise and high scores? At this point more than one may be thinking this review is written by an elitist that "don't enjoy watching anime", but if you look at my list you may notice that I'm someone of simple and irreverent tastes, and doesn't prevent me to enjoy series like this or any other series that even I may consider bad, but in this particular case, when the flaws are so notorious, the plot pretends to be taken so seriously by putting such ridiculous and stupid situations that it's impossible to do so, development is disastrous and characters are so horrible and poorly done, even with low standars (because it would be idiotic to expect a "Mushishi" or a "Rakugo" from series like these, right? The correct thing for these genres is to lower the expectations to have an at least enjoyable experience) the same mediocrity of the series prevents it from being enjoyable.


This BY FAR IS NOT AOTY. And no, it's not that "the show started good and became bad in its second part", the series already started bad and became worse with the passing of the chapters.


I will end with this phrase that summarizes this anime, again: the fact something looks good on paper or looks different at first glance, doesn't imply that it will be good.