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I think the rigidity of this anime is both its strength and its weakness. Cells at Work is an anthropomorphic portrayal of the inner workings of your body, where every cell is a person, every bodily process is a machine, and every bacterium is a monster. Every episode is self-contained and teaches a new lesson about how our bodies work.

What this means is that we see very little character development over the course of the series, the episodes sometimes don’t feel connected, and you’re constantly suspending your disbelief about how it all fits together.

However, that also means the episodes are very consistent, the ... writing is rigorous and accurate, and show is always finding real human drama in the ways our real life bodies respond to problems. On top of that, the animation is excellent, the stories are funny, and the opening theme is unironically amazing. I watch the dub and often find myself singing the theme to myself during my day.

This anime does exactly what it intends to do very, very well. If that isn’t what you’re into, I don’t think it will win you over, but if you can meet the show where it’s at it’s a bucket of silly fun with a bit of education thrown in.

Pacing problems, pacing problems, pacing problems. This season should have been 15 episodes or so. In the pursuit of a 24 episode season they stretched the content to the point of breaking.

If you were the list the sequence of events, it would be a very good story. It IS a good story; we have the manga right there as proof. But so many sequences were repetitive, establishing information we already had. It became exhausting.

It’s definitely better to watch this season now that all the episodes have been released, since you can actually power through to the plot lines—simple arcs take 3 or more ... episodes to resolve through circuitous, repetitive story telling. Being able to go from one episode to the next helps some of the pacing issues. There is gold here, but you’re sifting for it.

The animation is gorgeous, fortunately. There is a slight stylistic change between the two seasons (even with their close relationship, WITS and MAPPA are different in style) which makes it somehow even grittier than the first season. Everyone has rough, scarred hands with chipped finger nails. Things are a little dirtier and muddier. But the light is more beautiful and the character design rides the line of realism and anime well.

There is definitely a portion of the audience that is dissatisfied with the pacifist turn of this anime from the first season. Thorfinn’s absolute domination in battle was a large part of the appeal of season one. To see a character like that completely avoid fighting can make you feel like Thorkell, begging for a fight—any fight!—but this is the character growth arc that fits Thorfinn on his journey to understanding what it means to be a “true warrior” and why his father lived the way he did.

If the action was the only thing that drew you to Vinland Saga, season 2 will definitely be a disappointment. If a third season is made, try coming back then: there is a bit more action and little less angst in the events that follow the end of this arc.

However, overall this was still an excellent season of anime. It was beautiful, dramatic, and cohesive. However, you will be forgiven for fast forwarding.

Minor note: I feel that some of the humor of the manga is turned down/removed in the interest of creating crisper drama. I hope that is an adaptational strategy they abandon if more seasons are made. It makes the world feel slightly emptier.

I just can’t get over this animation. This was the wrong series to experiment with this 3D-2D animation style. The characters look grotesque—more so than in the manga—and their movements are stiff and unnatural. It feels clinical and more inhuman than it needs to be. This would have been much better as a traditional 2D animation.

I love the manga—truly one of my top mangas ever—but this anime is just such a poor adaptation. Physically difficult to watch. Also, I’ll never forgive whoever it was who decided that Legosi (named after famous B-movie actor Bella Legosi) should be pronounced “Lego-shee.” I can forgive the original VO, ... but shame on the dub team.

Vinland Saga is a very bingeable anime that lives up to the “saga” in its title. The story is referencing old Norse sagas, more so than history—although real historical figures and events show up.

Though this is largely thanks to the excellent source material, the story does an excellent job remembering and reflecting on themes throughout the season, creating conclusions to thoughts as well as plot lines. Oftentimes anime—particularly action heavy anime—forgets what it is about in the meandering of the plot. In Vinland Saga, when you think they may have wandered too far, they bring it back to a major theme (family, fatherhood, ... revenge, succession, paradise, etc.) to remind you why you are there.

My largest critique of the anime comes from an adaptation decision that was made right at the start: the manga begins en medias res. The first storyline of the manga is the seventh and eighth episodes of the anime. I think that was a big mistake.

If you have browsed the reviews, many of the negative or mixed reviews come from people who wrote them after 6 episodes. So they have yet to make past the preamble, which has a very different tone and pace to the rest of the series. I haven’t read much more of the manga than the first two volumes, but I don’t know how far I would have made it in the anime if I hadn’t known where the story was headed.

(Not to say that all negative reviews are uniformed—the people writing them make some excellent points. This is just an observation I had and I wonder how their sentiments might have been different had the anime started as boldly as the manga.)

Later the anime shows comfort with flashbacks, so I’m not sure why they decided to restructure the series, but I think it was a detrimental decision to an otherwise very good adaptation.

I’d recommend this to fans of series like Historie and Golden Kamuy. Also, if you liked the movie The Northman, this is a very, very similar plot.

This anime is the post COVID zombie series, providing cathartic release to all present and former office drones.

When our lead character realizes that a zombie apocalypse means “I don’t have to go back to the office!” we can immediately recognize that moment during COVID when so many people woke up and said “actually, if the world is ending why am I doing this?”

That’s the sentiment of the show. It asks us to consider the difference between surviving and living. If death is inevitable, how do we spend our time between now and then? If you spend your days in repetitive monotony living for others, ... are you not a zombie already?

Come laugh at the darkness.

The fatal flaw of this anime is that it adheres too closely to the manga. The high rating this show receives is due to the high quality of the source material: Ooku is one of the better manga of the 21st century, a unique and fascinating bit of historical fiction.

The anime works very hard to honor the excellence of the manga by not deviating from it, but the limitations of anime as a medium make it come short. Aside from color, very little is added by bringing this manga to the screen in this manner. By copying frame-by-frame, scene-by-scene, the anime loses the power ... to explore movement and pacing choices. The slower pacing of a manga makes sense for a monthly serialization over two decades. For a 10 episode series, more can be summed up in those frequent VOs to allow for other parts of this excellent manga to make it to screen.

This anime is very good because it stuck close to the source material. But it could have been spectacular if it deviated in a few key ways. All we can hope is that they get 8 more seasons: just enough to cover the manga all the way through to its resolution.

When trying to describe this series to others, I’d say it’s like a Brontë sister’s novel except set in turn of the century Japan and also there is magic.

To be completely honest I was thrown for a loop in episode 2 when it’s revealed that inherited magic powers are suddenly going to be a major plot point of the show. In a way, it’s a ballsy move to bury the lead so heavily: if you go in completely blind like me—I had the Netflix description to go off of and nothing else—the turn towards the supernatural feels out of left field. It also felt ... a little unnecessary, as I was interested and invested without the artifice of magic ability. I didn’t need some allegory around magical abilities to buy into how seriously matchmaking is taken in high society in this period.

Their decision to put that lore on the back burner, however, makes it clear where the story writer’s priorities are: with the characters and their relationships to each other. Instead of spending 3 minutes on a VO over B-roll explaining that this is early 20th century Japan and noble families have magic powers, they jumped straight into the story of our main character, who she is, and why she is the way she is—trusting that audience will learn about and understand the world through its understanding of the MC’s place in it.

That this series is based on a novel is evident from the introspective narration. Much of the story takes place in flashback and internal monologue. It’s also evident in the pacing. The plot moves quickly through major events and covers large periods of time in the blink of an eye.

Regardless of any critiques, this is a solid and above average show. The animation is beautiful, lush, and not overly reliant on CGI. This is a lovely melancholic romance that is satisfying even as it is chaste. The characters show growth and the story beats feel earned. Also, the opening song is very catchy and has a great key change.

I’d recommend it for fans of romance or slice of life genres. If you enjoy titles such as Fruits Basket, Violet Evergarden, or Emma, I’d recommend giving this show a try.

I don't think this review will make me very popular, because I didn't really like Attack on Titan. The first time I tried watching it, I found the first episode so boring and discomforting that I stopped right there. However, as the hype increased and people were hailing it as the best anime of the season, I thought I should give it another shot. The next time I tried watching it, I got to about episode 10 and gave up again. It was too much of a struggle for me. Though after 10 episodes I had started to see the value of the show.

Story: ... 6
I'm sorry, I really am, but there are fundamental structure and pacing issues with AoT. The basic premise is fascinating—a post-apocalyptic world that was ravaged by an almost biblical plague. All of humanity trapped behind walls that are failing to protect them from the monsters outside—but it's execution is lacking. The world, which appears to be richly structured, is never actually elaborated upon: how did they build the walls? What type of social hierarchy exists as a result of the wall? It spends about three episodes on a single battle and then rushes through the training: we go through 5 years in a matter of 3 episodes and then spend another three episodes on what is about a 4 hour period.

There are also some bizarre story telling choices: [SPOILERS] the protagonist is dead for two whole episodes and in that time they decide it's the best moment to do a flashback to a different character's childhood, while we're still in the middle of a battle sequence. I don't care about her childhood and relationship with the main character: all of the characters are currently in mortal danger and the main character is dead. This is simply not the time. [END SPOILER] There are also general pacing issues: it feels slow, yet we aren't given time to get to know the characters so when the inevitably die, it's hard to really care.

The episodes also have a flat out depressing emotional arc. They start with a smidgen of hope that is just continually stomped down until the end of the episode. I'm sorry, but I like my characters to have a win at least SOME of the time.

There is also something lacking in the Titans as enemies. They aren't smart, quick, or focused. Watching battle sequences with them is like watching a bunch of flies swarm around someones head. It's just not very interesting.

Art: 10
The art is outstanding. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. It's gorgeous. The backgrounds are rich, the motion is fluid, and the characters just look good. There is CG, but it's well integrated, and the colors are appealing and appropriate. The only caveat I might have is that it's sometimes a little hard to tell characters apart (but when there as many of them as there in AoT, it's inevitably difficult).

Sound: 9
The soundtrack is appropriate and distinctive, the voice acting is strong, and the sound effects don't sound unnatural. I only knocked a point off because the opening theme is sometimes a bit much (I was skipping it by episode 3).

Character: 7
Eren is just not a very engaging protagonist. He's a jerk from the moment we meet him, and it feels like he's a jerk for no good reason. He then "redeems" himself by deciding to commit his life to a suicidal pursuit of revenge. I found it's tough to appreciate his character, though I did enjoy his inspirational qualities and his defiance of the hopeless state of humanity.

The side character come off as rather flat. They almost all fit into stereotypes that have predictable story lines. I do enjoy Jean, though, and I would be curious to see if he becomes the essential ally to Eren that I suspect him to be.

Enjoyment: 6
It was fun on occasion, but overall it was not very enjoyable or challenging.

Overall: 7
This is definitely a good series—and for those who enjoy dark, battle driven series, particularly fantasy, I highly suggest it (though I warn that I loved Code Geass, another dark, battle driven series, but disliked this). I hesitate, however to call it great.

UPDATED as of 2/23/15 at 24 chapters. Originally posted 7/08/13 at 15 chapters.

When I read manga, I'm often doing it to relax. It's calming; It doesn't take the same concentration a book does, the plots are formulaic and predictable, and they often meander into silly side stories that don't challenge.

I was hoping that Ame Nochi Hare would be one of these stories and I was half right, but it is also much, much more.

The premise is nothing if not bizarre. Four boys, on their first day of school and a prestigious men's academy, are caught in a spring shower. After the rain stops, ... they discover that every time it rains, they turn into girls. Now the mechanism isn't very simple, like it is in other gender-bend series: they don't change immediately after the rain starts, they don't change at the same time, and they don't change after it stops either. They don't even have to touch the rain; they just change like the air changes when it rains. The ridiculous situation is managed quite practically: when it rains, the boys stay in the dorm manager's house on campus. They attend the girls school next door, pretending to be cultural exchange students who are taking supplementary lessons.

This story distinguishes itself from your average gender-bend story in two ways: 1) the fact that they turn into girls isn't played for laughs—it's more like an inconvenience or fresh perspective for the characters, and 2) it does a pretty good job avoiding the formulaic predictability of most shoujo.

There is romance, yes, but it is taking a bizarre path. One character, Hazuki, for example, is in love a female student, whilst her older brother is in love with his female alter ego, Tsukiko. There is a romantic tension between two of the female characters. It walks a line between traditional romance shoujo and shounen/shoujo ai like a balancing wire, which is exhilarating to watch. You want to see where it falls. Though I'm usually able to predict the plots of stories easily, I'm finding this one tough to parse out and I've only been able to foresee 3 plot points that weren't obvious. That makes it more fun for those of us who have read a lot of series and know the common cues. I am in eagerly anticipating the upcoming chapters.

And while all that tension exists, creating intrigue and anticipation—where will the love triangles end up? Will the curse be lifted? Will they find happiness?—the series is, at it's core, wrapped up in the tone of a slice of life story. It's meandering and gentle, like Mushishi or Kimi to Boku., with a pensive, poignant tone. I never feel anxious or angry reading it.

The art is, in a word, gorgeous. The watercolor covers are vibrant and remind me of Yumeka Sumomo (Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan, Nanairo Sekai) and the page to page art is stunning. One thing I particularly love is the subtlety with which the boys are turned into girls. Their features soften slightly, their height changes a little, their hair might lengthen a smidgen, and their frame is a little curvier. That's it though: no enormous boobs or crazy changes. It's never hard to tell whose who. Sometimes it's hard to know if they've changed! If you were to do a google search on the series (I can't use links here), you would be able to find the covers, which often feature the male characters and their female forms together. It is quite stunning, especially with the main character.

I'd suggest this series to anyone who likes shoujo, shounen ai, or a (I know it sounds slightly oxymoronic) a girly seinen. It's relaxed, fun, weird, beautiful, and charming.

I was surprised by Oofuri. I'm not a sports person at all and before I started watching the anime, I knew strike, run, fowl, and that was about it when it came to baseball. However, I enjoyed the series and found myself engulfed in the excitement of the story.

The story follows classic shounen tropes. An underdog team shocks the high school baseball world with it's ragtag gang of lovable misfits whose oddities are their strengths. The main character, the pitcher for the team, wanted to be a pitcher all his life, but he is convinced that he is no good. Similarly to "Suzaku", he ... had a traumatic experience that convinced him of his athletic inadequacy, even though he had a great deal of talent. He attended a middle school that was run by his grandfather, so when he got on the team, the other players assumed it was nepotism and refused to animes play with him. The catcher, in particular, wouldn't signal to him, which resulted in the main character trowing nothing but fastballs for his entire high school career.

When he entered high school, he found out that he was actually an extremely talented pitcher, and this began the long journey to self esteem.

The set up is similar to like Bleach, only instead of battles that last 7 episodes, it's baseball games that last 7 episodes. Unlike Bleach, however, the 7 episode arcs are actually gripping and engaging. You actually cheer and get excited for the characters and I again say that I'm not a fan of sport.