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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 ... than him. I think this time gap is way too big for the intended impact since they began as high schoolers. I get that there's supposed to be actual consequences, but I would've done it differently while still having impact.

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, ... and often pair with the characters' own feelings. They also are artistically adapted to convey the emotion of the reading.

However, there's a problem. The VAs are already so talented that, from the get-go, the readings sound fantastic. In other words, whilst the show is meant to show the progression of these characters, they feel perfect from the very beginning. The MC, who is a likeable "Mary Sue" type character, is depicted as imensely talented but not refined, yet by Episode 12 she shoulds virtually the same as always. Sure, her confidence certainly grows, but her actual readings are about the same. In fact, the only person who's readings I actually resonated with was Mizuki, who had immense power and emotion to her voice. Everyone else felt just like professional VAs reading a script, too perfect for their depicted characters.

Now, this by itself doesn't make the show bad: it's perfectly good! But, if I'm being honest, the premise is already a bit boring, so when 95% of these spoken poems are presented with scant emotion and flawless pronunciation, it makes everything feel so...bland. Strangely enough, despite the medium, I actually feel like this is likely better in the manga, as the written form allows for a little bit more imperfection.

Forgive my rambling, but if I had to boil down my long-winded point, I'd say this show played it way too safe, and while its perfectly fine to play it safe, it also hinders it from its true potential.

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 ... the end. If you were going into this show wanting that, and only that, then you'd be perfectly content.

However, while most times I don't give much of a second thought about these kinds of shows because of this simplicity, this one struck me a little differently. Between the promotional material and the first episode, I was honestly expecting a total shitshow with no redeemable qualities whatsoever. But, as I watched, there were so many moments of potential that, one way or another, were squandered.

For instance, the world is PAINFULLY undeveloped. Like, beyond Silver Sword, the adventurers are all incompetent, and even Silver Sword is kinda medicore. This makes the show highly dependent upon the characters for depth, which would be fine if they did it right, but beyond Alina, Jade, and one or two other people, every character is basically a two-sentence bullet point. Even Lowe, a member of Silver Sword, isn't that remarkable.

Another example is the tone: at some points, it seems like it'll get serious with actual consequences for characters to deal with, and they do explore this a little bit, but because the world is so undeveloped, they can't even do that much with it beyond Lululee's character arc. The power system is also completely stale and meaningless, with Jade being the only person who doesn't just blindly regurgitate a single move like a useless Magikarp.

Personally, the show feels a lot like a filler show that, once it got Takahashi on board, kinda rode on the coattails of her talent instead of building the show up to her level. Had they actually put in more writing effort, this could've actually had a lot of potential as a fantasy that explores how normal people view adventurers and the need for guilds. It's still a perfectly fine show, but if you were crossing your fingers and hoping this show would be a diamond hidden within the "gimmicky fantasy trope" coal mine, you're gonna be a bit disappointed.

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 ... beyond the pure power up, and pulls in other characters to actually witness and appreciate Jinwoo's power. The plot improved in other areas as well, such as with Jinwoo's family, potential love interests, and more developed side characters across the board.

I'm only not giving this a 10 because there are some intrinsic flaws with Solo Leveling as a franchise. As Jinwoo gets stronger, the only plot tension at this point is whether Jinwoo arrives on time. I also think that while the animation style was great, the actual still art felt a bit tame compared to comparable manhwa panels. I get that there's a difference between what's on the page and what's on the screen, but this felt less like that and more so like a difference of opinion on how to adapt the artstyle.

These are only minor faults compared to all of the strengths of the season, however. If you were hesitant because of Season 1, force your way through in order to get to this: you WON'T regret it!

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 ... to shift the Perseus' crew. All of these minor anime logic things result in a plot that seems more driven out of long term plot convenience than the actual arc itself. However, I'm still a fan of Dr. Stone, and this arc was still an improvement over the last one, so I'll give them a break on it this time.

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 ... arc was a bit of a letdown in terms of their strength, but I'm confident there were other as-of-yet unexplained factors at play instead of a true power scaling issue. In all, the season was among the best in terms of Re:Zero, but it's clear there's still way more ahead of it than behind it, so to speak.

P.S: The ending of this arc is an all-too familiar gut punch.

Zenshuu is effectively Narnia but the wardrobe is a near-death choking experience. In some sense, it's a traditional isekai where the MC comes and saves the day with her unique powers. However, Zenshuu is somewhat unique in that the plot is already known: A Tale of Perishing is a movie in the real world, and its ending is tragic. This pushes the plot along as each moment is in furtherance of avoiding where the movie fell into despair, making the actions of the MC feel as if they actualy have weight on the isekai world they're in.

Yet, while Zenshuu is a perfectly good anime, ... it has a number of small flaws. Firstly, while it's beautifully animated, MAPPA took some shortcuts at times, and it shows (particularly with the constant reuse of Natsuko's "drawing" animation). Plotwise, Zenshuu focuses far too much on the isekai world, only devoting a single episode to Natsuko's real life (which is a shame because this episode is arguably the best of the whole show). I would've liked to see a better balance in order to give Natsuko a bit more depth, and enhance her character development. The setting is woefully underdeveloped, arguably on purpose as part of the isekai gag, but it does take away from the show, (and in hindsight it makes Unio's dream feel kinda lackluster). Most importantly, the show completely pulls a 180 from the very beginning, making you believe it will be about Natsuko developing her new anime, but instead becoming an isekai out of nowhere.

While the resulting isekai is good, and I do recommend you watch it, I did feel a bit of disappointment at the sudden reversal, and I'm sure many people dropped it at this point. In the end, Zenshuu is a perfectly good anime, but still feels a bit disappointing relative to its limitless potential.

Watching Pluto, I got a sense of why people often compare it to Monster. It has many of the same mystery elements, and it similarly takes advantage of the medium to control our narrative perception of the plot.

In some areas, it's a better anime. Specifically, in terms of brevity: while Monster often dragged on at points, Pluto does a great job at making each scene feel meaningful, a difficult feat for such a philisophically-deep, dialogue-dependent show. It's also fanastically animated, a perk of it being a modern adaptation. The composition of the anime is great, with dramatic scenes often hitting home with maximum effect. ...

However, the format also hurt it in terms of depth. Like, why are these seven robots in particular the world's most advanced? Helena shows just as much depth with her AI, and yet she's effectively ordinary save for a passing comment by some humans. Who's the teddy bear? Further reading shows its Dr. Roosevelt, but in a show with a conclusive ending, I shouldn't have to Google a character to know who they are.

I also think that while this show has a decently suspenseful mystery element, it feels fairly easy to trace once a few of the pieces are introduced, save for the aspects that you simply couldn't deduce due to a lack of information. It's not a detriment for this to be the case, but if you're looking for a Monster-level mystery above all else, you may be just a bit disappointed.

I still recommend this show because these flaws are minor compared to the composition of the show as a whole, but just be warned if you're the sort who fixates on smaller details.

Sakamoto Days, while still a good anime adaptation, is the definition of wasted potential. Compared to the source material, the animation is subpar and falls short of expectations without outright being "badly" animated. For other anime, this level of animation wouldn't be a big deal. However, Sakamoto Days is HIGHLY dependent on its visuals. Being a gag comedy show that often relies on visual humor, the visuals are the top priority. This is even more so in the few moments when the show contrasts the seriousness of the underground against the carefree main cast. Yet, the animation often felt static, generic, and stale. This made ... the show rely a lot more upon the cast and plot than it should have. This isn't a particularly bad thing: the cast is still likeable and the plot, while shallow, is still interesting. But, without the animation to back it up, this anime's origin as a one-shot manga developed into a full-fledged series becomes unavoidably apparent. Sakamoto Days is worth a watch, but I'd sooner suggest picking up the manga.

This anime has its pros and its cons. Beginning with the positives, tt is certainly unique, with a shifting protagonist over a period of decades. The lack of permanence of the characters was refreshing and really pushed the generational nature of the message of knowledge. I also liked the complex layering of philosophy throughout all of the characters and their motives. However, Orb suffered from two main issues. One was visual. Often the dark tones of night scenes weren't properly contrasted, which made everything kinda blur together. The more significant issue was with the plot balancing. Often there were times where philosophical meaning got in ... the way of the plot. Draka's plotline, in particular, felt that way in its ending. I didn't like the "heliocentrism isn't necessarily forbidden" spin, as it contextually doesn't make sense (Count Piast, for instance, treated it as forbidden and he was worldly enough to not be misled by the zealotry of a single bishop). Nevertheless, the pros outweigh the cons, so if you like philosophy and intricate writing, this show is for you.