I really wanted to come here and give Saekano Flat a glowing review, especially after the first few episodes, but I just can't.
There are a lot of small things that prevent me from doing so, and I'll get to those, but the biggest drag on this whole anime is the absolutely selfish and unlikable duo that is Eriri Sawamura and Utaha Kasumigaoka. These two rivals are genius talents, both in love with our MC, Tomoya Aki, and willing to go along with his crazy vision simply because they love him so much. Already in the first season, their selfish possessiveness of Tomoya is irritating,
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especially since both of them continuously shit on him in order to convince him to give up and choose one of them as a romantic partner. But, at least it makes some narrative sense. Tomoya in S1 is a bit of a loser (and even that is overemphasized): while he's famous for being an otaku and has a presitigous blog page, he doesn't have any actual useful skills and, more importantly, doesn't cultivate his friendships with others. But, by S2, he's progressed so much: he's now actively contributing a ton to the game, and whenever there's a crisis, he's the first to step up and fix it. In fact, he's so much more willing to take the burden that it's literally a plot conflict with Megumi. You'd think these two genius girls, after seeing their best friend and crush progress so much, would be inspired and both take it to the next level while becoming even more devoted to him for what he's done for them, right? Nope. Instead, the anime makes a point of how much Tomoya's newfound consideration for others is now a drag on their artistic abilities. Even worse, despite neither of them actually draming of becoming game designers and both of them having already successful careers in their dream fields, they BOTH ABANDON Tomoya in order to work on a different game! Admittedly, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but again, they're already successful! They don't NEED to work on this game: it's literally a preference for them, and a newfound one at that! The anime tries its hardest to make you sympathize with them, and they hamfist this line from Utaha about how Tomoya steps up when he's alone, but that's not even true! He steps up when others are depending on him to, and he elevates them as a group: THAT'S LITERALLY HIS WHOLE CHARACTER!!!!!
But wait, I promised to mention other flaws as well. One is the utter lack of involvement from Michiru. The end of S1 as well as the special OVA set her up to be the fourth love interest and an equal part of the circle. Tomoya even becomes her band's manager just to get her to join. Yet, she's COMPLETELY MIA this season. Like literally it becomes a gag. No plot involvement at all. She only shows up in the final episode as a gag. Like did they just forget about her?? Did the anime cut a bunch of her content?? I wasn't her biggest fan anyways since she took advantage of Tomoya, but throwing her aside like that is just lazy writing.
The ending is also pretty mediocre. There's no preview of the new Blessing Software and their work. They also completely drop the ball with the potential rivalry between them and the major project Eriri and Utaha abandoned him to work on. It feels like that would've been a great direction to pivot towards, but instead the new game is literally a deus ex machina just to remove Eriri and Utaha from the scene and cause plot tension.
Alright, rants aside, I do have to praise one thing about this anime. Megumi is such an awesome character. She begins the anime as a "boring" girl with no personality nor descriptive features, but as the show progresses, she actually evolves with it. By this season, you can actually see her working away in the background, being the unsong hero for the whole production. The whole plot point around her being unappreciated by Tomoya and him realizing it was so great! And when she starts to actually become more visibly expressive, it just feels like you watched a character being written right in front of you.
She's the only one who deserves to be with Tomoya, which is why the ending is actually even more infuriating. Not only does the anime's attempt at making you sympathize with Eriri and Utaha also reintroduce them as full-on romantic rivals for Tomoya, Megumi is also given little more progress. By this season's ending, she's Tomoya's closest friend, and her feelings for him become more obvious, but they didn't really give us anything despite it being clear at this point that the show wants Tomoya to end up with her. If there were another season of the anime after this, that'd be fine, but since there's only a movie, this feels like an unfinished ending.
In all though, if you liked Season 1, you should still watch this to its finish. However, just be prepared to be frustrated. In my mind, this show had the potential to be an all-time great, but a few character discrepancies completely derail it potential.
Apr 15, 2025
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata ♭
(Anime)
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I really wanted to come here and give Saekano Flat a glowing review, especially after the first few episodes, but I just can't.
There are a lot of small things that prevent me from doing so, and I'll get to those, but the biggest drag on this whole anime is the absolutely selfish and unlikable duo that is Eriri Sawamura and Utaha Kasumigaoka. These two rivals are genius talents, both in love with our MC, Tomoya Aki, and willing to go along with his crazy vision simply because they love him so much. Already in the first season, their selfish possessiveness of Tomoya is irritating, ... 
Apr 10, 2025
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata
(Anime)
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Saekano is the story of an otaku building a dating sim game with an ensemble of talented genius girls who happen to be in love with him. It's a fairly unique plot concept, and while the show is definitely more geared around the rom-com elements than actual game design, I think it does it well. In terms of its rom-com elements, Saekano does a good job of balancing all of the romantic interests against each other, rather than over or underdeveloping any one girl.
However, there are some flaws with the formula that I can't ignore, mainly with the MC. While Aki is a likable ... 
Apr 4, 2025
Sakura-sou no Pet na Kanojo
(Anime)
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The Pet Girl of Sakurasou is not what it seems at first glance. From the premise and the first couple scenes, you expect it to be a normal rom-com with a heavy focus on the later, leaning heavily into the "lazy pet girl" gag for an easy watch. That couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, The Pet Girl of Sakurasou is a deep reflection on the nature of success versus failure. Characters like Sorata, Aoyama (and Jin to some extent) exemplify the dedicated but ordinary, contrasted against the "flawless" geniuses Mashiro and Kamiigusa. No matter how hard the former characters try, success seems
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Apr 3, 2025
Ameku Takao no Suiri Karte
(Anime)
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Ameku M.D is Sherlock Holmes + House combined into a singular, tsundere anime girl. The premise is simple: a genius doctor investigates and solves unsolvable forensic mysteries. Most of the time, these kinds of shows falter because the writers, being human after all, aren't at the same level as the geniuses they're trying to depict. While there's still a little bit of that in here, Dr. Takao is actually pretty well written. Everything she says sounds far-fetched, until you look it up and it actually is the case.
Obviously there's a lot of anime logic for these kinds of cases to pop up in such ... 
Apr 2, 2025
Time travel is a common trope in anime, but I think this movie did it well. It isn't easily abused, and the main characters are intelligent in how they deal with it. The main characters are both well-developed, though I wish we got a little more out of Hanashiro's backstory since compared to Kaoru, her driving force felt lacking (though I think this was intentional). However, my one gripe with the movie was the ending. Rather than have Kaoru return to when he came, and restore what he lost, he ends up 13 years in the future, with a girl who's now 8 years older
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Apr 2, 2025
Hana wa Saku, Shura no Gotoku
(Anime)
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Flower and Asura is a perfectly fine show. In fact, for what it is, it is an exceptionally good show. The animation is striking, the voice actors are incredibly talented, and the plot is meaningful and makes complete sense. However, there's something about it that is just a bit...boring.
If I have to put words to it, it's a disconnect between me and the concept. The whole concept of Flower and Asura is a high school broadcasting club striving to compete in the national broadcasting competition. Most of the plot revolves around dramatic readings of various texts. These readings are obviously deeper in their meaning, ... 
Mar 31, 2025
Guild no Uketsukejou desu ga, Zangyou wa Iya nanode Boss wo Solo Toubatsu Shiyou to Omoimasu
(Anime)
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This is a strange show to review. Obviously the title conveys that it's somewhat of a gimmicky show, and that's certainly the case. The entire premise and plot driver is "Alina doesn't want to work overtime so she fights powerful enemies" and she's a tsundere voiced by Rie Takahashi, the closest thing anime has to a goddess gracing the world of mankind. Most people probably only watched to hear her lines, and she (as always) nailed them out of the park. The gimmick, with her character Alina being incredibly frustrated with all the bullshit around her, is funny, though it definitely loses its steam by
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Mar 31, 2025
Season 2 of Solo Leveling took Season 1 and injected it with crack cocaine. Everything great about Season 1 has been amplified to the moon. The most obvious improvement has been the animation, particularly with the fight scenes. While Season 1 obviously had some great fight scenes, Season 2's fight scenes were legitimately groundbreaking for the industry. The animation was crisp but clean.
The fight scenes were also improved by a much more developed plot. Season 1 felt a lot like exposition, with Jinwoo fighting mostly by himself to gain the needed power for later fights. Season 2, however, actually puts meaning into these fights ... 
Mar 27, 2025
Dr. Stone: Science Future
(Anime)
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My feelings on this arc are mixed. On one hand, I really like the "scientist vs scientist" idea, and Dr. Zeno is certainly an equal match for Senku. The actial basic plotline is also typical Dr. Stone goodness. However, I'm not a fan of some of the recurring anime logic that they use to advance the story. Like firstly, why did they put themselves in a weak position against Zeno in the first place? Second, the conflict seems easily avoidable, even with the bad introductions. Thirdly, leaving half the crew behind seems less of a tactical decision and more of an excuse for the author
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Mar 26, 2025
If you like Re:Zero, this is the same as always. Great plot, great animation, great characters. A lot of progress was made on the various plot lines introduced in earlier arcs, but none were outright concluded. Because of this, while the stakes seemed huge due to all the involved actors, the actual arc ended up feeling more like a transition arc. If you were sick of Subaru being overwhelmed by his grief (as I was when I initially dropped Season 1!) then you'll like this arc, as Subaru makes even more progress towards being a true MC chad. I will say, the enemy for this
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