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Coming off of one of the most hyped seasonal anime of all time, Jujutsu Kaisen’s 2nd season was exactly what the mainstream wants; hype fight scenes, crisp and fluid animation sequences and most importantly, sexy Gojo shots. Wanting to appeal to a wide variety of audiences, however, does come with its drawbacks.

Starting off the season with a retrospective arc set the tone for the upcoming conflict pretty neatly, further developing the dynamic between Gojo and Geto and eventually introducing the main theme of this season; value of human life. The Hidden Inventory arc shows Gojo at his weakest mentally, a mindless maniac with no regard ... for human life and its value, contrary to the laid-back mentor persona that was shown in season 1. An unknown side to Geto is shown, seeing him be both a moral compass and a much needed person for Gojo to stay sane. Their relationship slowly deteriorates and their values become changed. Gojo sees the other side of his ways, not killing because he does not have a reason to, while Geto searches for a way to justify his desire to kill humans.

Kickstarting Shibuya was something that was a first for Jujutsu Kaisen, an event on a national scale. World building has never been the main focus of Jujutsu Kaisen but Shibuya is where the lack of attention paid to it really shows. With virtually every country besides Japan being almost completely oblivious to cursed energy, it feels as if the others are just stupid and blind compared to the Japanese and the entire world outside of Japan feels worthless to even pay attention to, which was fine and unnoticeable in previous installations, as the scale of the events themselves was much smaller.

Season 1 set a good base for each of the characters but season 2 fails to expand upon those and instead focuses only on Yuji. Megumi and his convictions are left unexplored and the same goes for others with the exception of Mechamaru who had a very cliche motivation for everything he did. The events that are unfolding are interesting by themselves but their shallowness takes away from the overall impact they leave on the viewer. While a lot of heavily emotional moments take place in Shibuya, they are only as impactful due to the fact that they involve characters who the audience has spent a lot of time with, regardless of how underdeveloped they are.

Yuji and his dynamic with Mahito is what made the season really shine. They are opposite sides of the same coin, Mahito kills humans with no regard while Yuji does so with curses. Mahito was, from the moment he was born, a pure hunter with no empathy towards his prey. He only seeks enjoyment and fulfillment, wanting to find his soul’s true purpose. Mahtio has been a central figure for Yuji and a constant obstacle in his path, essentially becoming a trauma for him. Contrary to their earlier fights, Yuji evolves as both a fighter and a person, managing to instill fear into Mahito not with his rage but his power instead. Yuji is very emotional and his mind is a rollercoaster, however, during most of this season his calmer side is shown, especially in his fight with Choso, but when it really comes down to it, Yuji is still a child. Seeing him crumble and give in to despair shows a human side to him that he seemed to be suppressing. In comparison to the previous season, Yuji manages to overcome both his rage and sadness and come out stronger.

The fights in season 2 were visually astounding and a pleasure to look at but most were devoid of any real substance. Megumi vs Toji had the potential to become one of the most impactful moments for Megumi and to shape the future direction of his character yet it falls flat and ends in an insanely anticlimactic manner. Most of the fights exist to give hype scenes and for eye candy, rather than developing characters and having an actual clash of ideals on top of a physical one.

Power scaling was just weird this season. Toji beats a curse that 4 sorcerers, including 2 grade 1 sorcerers, but is unable to catch Megumi even after he is wounded and gets speed blitzed 5 minutes before by Toji himself. There were many instances where a character would just completely overpower another only to be seen as mere fodder by others seconds later. This further adds to the notion that the main goal of this season was to appear to the mainstream with beatdowns that are the most fun to watch for anyone. Overcomplicating powers of side characters would be okay if the audience was shown the application of those powers in specific situations. Jojo’s and Hunter x Hunter are masters of this concept, having the objectively weaker person often win due to specific circumstances. Jujutsu Kaisen, despite having a complex power system that leaves room for many creative abilities, often just boils down to who has more cursed energy and can blast it at the opponent. Apart from Todo, there are no abilities whose specific applications can be seen in a real battle against a stronger opponent.

Despite many of its flaws, Jujutsu Kaisen is still an immensely enjoyable experience and a joy to witness visually. Gojo has single handedly popularized anime even more, bringing in a large number of fans on appearance alone (proof that getting gray hair is not a bad thing). The show knows what it wants to do and that is appealing to a large number of people and it does so with great efficiency. While not necessarily the deepest and most meaningful the medium has to offer, it is a great show to recommend to someone new to anime and show what it can be about and the heights of animation.

Tomorrow is never guaranteed. The idea that you will always live to see the next day, mostly with younger people, is born from the false sense of security from death simply because of the human race’s technological advancements. When that sense of security gets shattered is when you truly start to treasure each and every moment of your life.

“There’s a limit to our lives. I’ve lived my life so far without thinking about that.” Arisu starts off as a good for nothing highschooler who has been shunned by his father for his lack of academic talent in comparison to his younger brother. Where Arisu shines ... as a character is not some superb development or overwhelming intelligence, it is the fact that he is acting as a real person would in his situation. While someone calm and collected like Chishiya might seem like a better choice for a protagonist on the surface, Arisu feeling like a real person is what makes him the ideal protagonist for a manga that puts heavy emphasis on the psychological aspect of the games. Arisu changes immensely with each game and has a roller coaster of emotions, going through and overcoming all of the stages of grief multiple times, eventually arriving at true acceptance at the end, accepting both his and others’ feelings. At the core of his character, Arisu is a heroic existence in the world of the Borderlands, both for the players and the reader.

Alice in Borderland is a manga that wants to inspire and it tries to convey that message through its character dynamics. Chishiya, someone who wins games because he has no will to live and does not get phased by death, eventually comes to admire Arisu for his indomitability and stubborness. After each tough game, we see the cast members actually suffer from them, instead of just leaving the game with no consequences. Character growth is often overlooked in death game mangas, especially since the cast members tend to die off quickly. In Alice in Borderland, there are not necessarily a lot of important character deaths but once they do happen, it is with clear intention and not just for the sake of the shock factor. Each time an important character dies, the characters change from it, be it for better or worse, and each death has an impact on the cast. The goal of a psychological death game manga should not be to kill for the sake of it, but to kill for the sake of the characters.

Coming up with an interesting premise is tough as is, but utilizing it to its fullest potential is a whole different task that often makes or breaks the story. Alice in Borderland takes the proven formula of revealing info little by little instead of mindless info dumping. It relies heavily on the mystery aspects and does the reveals amazingly and with precision in both timing and execution. A problem with restricted worlds in media is the lack of willingness to explore it. The characters are told that they cannot go somewhere and they simply do not even try. Alice in Borderland uses multiple instances to truly prove that there is no escape from its world and that it leads to nothing but death. The aspect in which Alice in Borderland lacks a bit is the exploration of the games themselves. It often feels like the information the reader has on the games is far more vast than the actual showcasing the games got, and the ones that were showcased, especially the clubs category, were quite repetitive and their twist and hidden meaning was easy to guess after a while.

When a story presents its main themes to be psychological and dark, the ending needs to be consistent with them in order to make the reader satisfied. Alice in Borderland fails to stay true to itself in its ending and ends in quite a “sunshine and rainbows” way for almost all of the cast members. The buildup was amazing and left many options for the final game, what the reader gets instead is a psychological battle which ends in the best possible outcome for everyone except the big bad guy, which makes no sense in a show that has previously done everything to show that sometimes just trying is not enough and that sacrifices need to be made in order to progress in both life and in the games within the world. Increasing the stakes is always a good thing in a story such as this, but when increasing the stakes you also have to sometimes make the good guy lose or make enormous sacrifices to proceed, instead of getting by with a newfound dedication and will to love.

Whilst the art is by far not the series’ strong point, it holds up well and does not hinder the quality of the work. The character designs are mostly simple with some wild ones mixed in that liven up the mostly mundane ways in which the characters are drawn. The paneling was good and the moments that needed to truly be indicated were drawn extremely well.

Alice in Borderland is a manga that I picked up after watching the live action show and being left wanting more. The manga is definitely a step up from the live action and brings new themes while also developing the cast more, instead of filling up time with useless dialogue. Whilst the execution of the premise itself leaves a few things to be desired, the cast and their development is done amazingly, along with a, mostly consistent, base of themes that are repeatedly built upon and explored. Despite its flaws, Alice in Borderland is a show that makes you rethink how you live each day and inspires you to enjoy life.


Tomorrow is not guaranteed, so just live in the moment.

Art. A staple in every culture since ancient times. From cavemen to Van Gogh, humans have been creating art for as long as we have had a free will. Encapsulating many different works of the same art branch has also piqued many different cultures’ interest. How about one that does so for manga?

Shonen Jump has been the go-to source of manga for young boys ever since the first signs of it becoming a popular medium, however, many readers know next to nothing about how the company behind it all, Shueisha, operates. With all of its positives and negatives, a rookie duo of two 15-year olds ... delves deep and tries to realize their dreams, one to fulfill himself, the other to fulfill a promise, naming themselves Muto Ashirogi, a word play on the core characters and themes of the series.

Bakuman takes an interesting approach with the presentation of its story, utilizing the unknown aspect of the manga industry to keep the plot moving forward at all times. With how much detail actually needs to be put into serializing a series and keeping it running, the story basically has endless possibilities on the direction it wants to take, often having the same base plotline branch out into different directions multiple times, however, it does so in a lackluster manner. Introducing those aforementioned plotlines does bring a sense of freshness into the story and allows the author to utilize the same idea multiple times, those same plotlines end up being discarded mostly immediately after being used, despite most of them being big turnarounds for the plot, making them feel unfinished more often than not.

While character depth is not Bakuman’s strong suit, it manages to compensate for it with a wide array of personalities and quirks within the cast, coupled with witty and compelling interpersonal interactions. Having a really big cast of characters is tough, especially recurring ones. Bakuman tries to balance between the cast but ends up having half of the characters it introduces be forgotten within a few chapters and never reappear again, mostly with the same formula; a new character appears, has their one-shot win an award or be runner up, get a new work serialized, make Ashirogi’s work drop a few rank and worry them for a bit, get canceled after a minor timeskip and never appear again. While doing so once is fine, having almost half the cast be just simple “obstacles” for Ashirogi and making them devoid of any personality outside of a single character quirk or a cliche backstory gets repetitive and ruins the otherwise masterful character cast Bakuman has to offer.

Giving the readers time to think and taking a breather once in a while is arguably what makes or breaks a manga. Going full throttle from the get-go to the end can work well in some short series with extremely high quality but in other works it is best to have a relaxing chapter once in a while. Bakuman excels at using simple slice of life scenarios to really get the point and message of the series across. In each arc, the main “problem” of if is usually conveyed through the way manga changes the characters’ everyday life, not just their impact on Jump. Lack of free time, acceptance from family, lack of acceptance, all of those and various other topics are covered in a simple yet effective manner in Bakuman.

Rivalry is, along with battles, probably the cornerstone of every shonen manga. While most other works follow a rivalry through physical efforts and fighting, Bakuman pits the rivals against each other in a fight of creating art. Each manga artist in the series strives for the top, each of them in a different way; brute power, money and influence, calculation, teamwork, however, with the same goal in mind; making the best manga. The simplicity of the core idea of the series is what makes the different approach every character has to achieving it enjoyable to follow.

A manga about manga has to have manga in it. Having to create engaging plots multiple times throughout the series seems like it would lead to their quality deteriorating but in this case, as the story progresses, the quality of the works gets better. The steady improvement in each genre of the stories within the series makes the reader feel as if they are growing with the writers, which is quite hard to accomplish without losing their interest with the first few works. No matter how lackluster the execution is, the core ideas of the manga within the series need to be interesting in order to pull the reader in and this is what Bakuman truly excels at. Almost every story is shown for less than a chapter but they are all full of potential and lead the reader to make their own assumptions on how the story would progress.

Romance is quite a tricky genre to introduce in a shonen series. In most cases, it is dumbed down to comic relief or completely takes over the story, both of which are equally bad for the quality of the work. Finding the perfect balance is hard and Bakuman does exactly that. Showing multiple types of relationships, from coworkers to highschool sweethearts and even a no-date policy relationship, Bakuman strikes the perfect harmony in keeping the romance present at all times but also not focusing on it entirely. The romance is there to remind the reader about the fact that manga artists are also humans and have their needs but also to show growth towards the main goal the protagonists are seeking.

Conflict in a manga is unavoidable. Bakuman explores the characters with conflicts between friends. Most of the time, a character is troubled and needs to have another one point out their flaws to them, while it does work most of the time, there are some instances where it looks out of place and just makes the cast seem dumb, as opposed to showcasing the feeling of comradery between rivals.

Creating art is, at its core, subjective. Some do it to entertain, some to express, some to become the greatest. What matters most is to enjoy the process of creation. Every art piece can be perfect, it all depends on the person consuming it. Encapsulating all of those pieces is art in itself.

Overlord’s fourth installment has finished airing and once again, it is mediocre at best. Similar to previous seasons, the formula it follows is nothing new, except this season introduced some interesting concepts coupled with decent execution that made this season stand out a bit above the rest, however it still pales in comparison to top tier isekai titles.

Our beloved Ainz-sama is back again to show us his strength. As we have not gotten enough of it during the first 3 seasons, his overwhelming power needs to be shoved down the viewer’s throat every second, wasting just as much time as the unfunny comedy of the ... show does. All of us are aware that Ainz is the strongest in the world and will, probably, stay the strongest until the end of the show. Every time a new threat is introduced, he just shuts them down completely within seconds. The show fails miserably at building up expectations since it is clear from the start who will win in the end, despite this predictability, it is still quite fun to see characters actually have hope to beat Ainz, despite him being the ultimate omnipotent harem god.

The comedy of the show is just utter garbage. Not only does it fail at its main purpose, being funny, it also ruins any sign of character depth that might occur. Each time Ainz makes a mistake, it is an opportunity to show the floor guardians that even he has flaws, which might lead to some interesting dynamics with potentially some of their trust wavering, but no, the show just lets him off the hook with the guardians reading too deep into everything, even when he personally admits he made a mistake.

The only guardians with any minor traces of personality are Mare Cocytus and Sebas, apart from these three, the rest are devoid of any character traits apart from getting disturbingly horny each time Ainz-sama is around. There were many opportunities to do something with each of them, since their characters designs and groundwork were all quite unique and left potential for some interesting dynamics, unlike the current one liners between them that have been repeating since the first episode. Each interaction between any two guardians is exactly the same; it literally feels like a time loop where you are constantly spinning around in circles each time any of them are on the screen.

The only aspect of Overlord that constantly changes is the focus of each season. While the former three had separate arcs, most of which were disappointing, this one was entirely focused on conquering the Kingdom and it seems to have raised the quality a tad bit. The whole premise is very intriguing but it all just crumbles down once it dawns on the viewer that it was drawn out for no reason. In every conquest of Nazarick the plan is made so detailed that it makes it seem like Nazarick are the underdogs, when in reality they can just waltz in and destroy it all and in most cases, that is the outcome. To give credit where it is due, the whole plan was very interesting to follow and actually introduced a potential threat to Ainz, which leaves room for speculation and actually gives the sense of a threat. Some notable side characters were also given exposition and room for growth, which was done better than the previous seasons since it was focused on far less characters and more on the overall quality of development, unexpected to say the least. Seeing characters from the Kingdom like Brain, who is undoubtedly the best character of the series, Gazeff and Climb each get a satisfying character conclusion was really nice to see and felt rewarding, seeing as we have been following them from season 2. Whilst their overall characters leave a lot to be desired, they are still above everyone else in terms of character quality.

A problem which often arises in these types of “overpowered mc” anime is that the characters which the main character brings into submission are left feeling like they were filler since their screen time is minimal after their arc. Lizard men for example, were built up quite nicely in their arc and were then left being completely thrown out of the story after they became loyal slaves to our beloved Ainz-sama. The show tends to focus on the previously established Nazarick character rather than adding more to the new ones introduced, which would not be a bad thing if that focus actually produced some results. Instead of that, we get extra comedy scenes and one liner exchanges even more times than ever before!

The whole point of a plot twist is for it to basically make fun of the viewer and leave them shocked. This entire concept falls out the window when you make that same viewer not give a single fuck about your plot twist. Throwing a plot twist that changes absolutely nothing at the end of an arc is quite possibly the dumbest thing someone can do to their story. Throughout this season especially, there were numerous plot twists which just amounted to nothing since they were either insanely predictable or hinted at so massively that a blind person wearing a sleep mask covered in duct tape could see it perfectly.

The floor guardians aside, some character interactions are actually good in Overlord, especially ones regarding each country’s leader. With the introduction of the Empire’s leader, off-brand Gilgamesh, we actually got an insight of what a capable leader should do when faced with the Sorcerer Kingdom. Even against an unbeatable opponent, he managed to preserve both his life and the people of his country, which is a complete contrast to the absolute clown that is his neighbor.

The fight choreography is atrocious. It feels clunky and the same every time, apart from when best boy Brain fights.

OPs are fucking bangers. They are all just a pleasure to listen to, both in choreography and music. Even though you know what will eventually happen, Ainz beating some fodder dumbass, it still makes you hype to see him actually do it, wearing the same outfit for who knows how many decades. Seeing him get some new drip actually made me happy.

All in all, I'm not disappointed with the show itself, just the fact that it met my low expectations. It is part of the worst genre after all, harem isekai, so there is definitely room for improvement. If you are looking for an overpowered main character and have already seen Slime isekai, feel free to skip this as it is just a slightly inferior version with even more annoying characters. I wonder how large Ainz’s cock is though.

Between fulfillment and life, which one do you choose?

Angel Beats! is an anime that has been relevant ever since its release in 2010. An anime original which is often mentioned when the word “emotional” is mentioned and for good reason. Watching the show does not invoke good emotions, however.

The formula of Angel Beats is similar to most modern anime that fall within the drama genre. A self-insert protagonist with no actual character depth or layers changes the perspective on life to a few girls, which are similarly one dimensional and a very minor amount of guys, just so the show cannot be called a pure ... harem. Angel Beats manages to somehow fail in this aspect as well. Normally, when the show has a theme that runs through all of its episodes the ending will be a satisfactory showing of what that theme has achieved, Angel Beats, for some unknown reason, chose to leave most of its character conclusions unfinished with a simple time skip that made the entire message of the show meaningless and hollow. Instead of an emotional moment for each character of the cast, we instead get a one sentence rundown on what happened to all of them, not even a story for each one. With its ending praised as one of the best and most striking in the medium, Angel Beats’ ending was nothing short of a major disappointment and a way to almost mock the viewer.

Having a one dimensional character cast is not a bad thing, if utilized properly. The only area in which Angel Beats somewhat succeeded is the dynamics within the group. Having a large group of characters that are all simple and present a before seen character trope allows the group to have interesting and sometimes even funny interactions and in this case it works especially well since the deaths add an unorthodox aspect to the comedy. The “filler” episodes were actually the best of the show, even though they added nothing to the characters, they were fun and enjoyable, unlike the main plot ones, which did not add to the characters either since there was nothing to be added to them. There was an attempt at making somewhat layered characters in both Yuri and Kanade, Otonashi is not even worth mentioning here since he is so badly executed it is funny. Yuri and Kanade had potential to have a good dynamic and to actually achieve something with dialogue and interactions, instead, it was boiled down to them practically simping over each other in the end and the journey to that was so nonsensical. Kanade and Otonashi’s relationship was tried to be masked as some deep connection that was complex, when you look at it, however, they love each other because Otonashi was the only person that did not want to kill her. Even doing as little as showing the reason every character died as to at least give them a reason for why they act like they do was thrown out the window and the show decided to put all of its hopes onto 3 characters which all flopped horribly.

This anime, at its core, makes absolutely 0 sense. You have a bunch of random highschoolers that have been trying to do the same thing for god knows how long with 0 changing results. What they are trying to do is the equivalent of answering the same each time on a math test and expecting your results to somehow be different. Shooting a person that can passively deflect bullets is just pure dumbassery. What is worse than that is the fact that they are trying to kill Tenshi yet they have 0 reason as to why. Everyone is blindly following Yuri who wants to kill Tenshi because she just wants to. The story was an enormous mess of ideas that looked interesting and promising on paper but were impossible to keep up while also remaining logical. It was very clear that the story was written as they went, opposed to planning it out fully.

Otonashi, the epitome of bad character writing. While all of the characters in the show have one or two defining qualities that they base their personality around, Otonashi doesn’t have those. He has absolutely nothing, no trace of anything beneath his annoying actions. He is a shell that the author intended the viewer to fit into, a god of self-inserting. Having a self-insert character can be done well, as seen in the early stages of the Monogatari series. Araragi is simple, leaves room for the viewer to immerse themselves in the story but also feels like a character, he feels like an entity, whereas Otonashi just exists for the sake of existing. It doesn’t feel like he is a character, he is just there so the anime could have an MC.

The problem with character driven shows is that the characters need to actually be good for the show to have any substance to work with. If you have simple characters and an even worse MC, there is no room for you to make any progression with the story without adding random mini arcs to justify movement within the story. Having a mini arc to serve as a bridge between major events is fine but basing your entire story around having a random character appear gets stale and overused after a while, especially in a short anime where every episodes needs to be utilized in order to close out the story nicely, instead, what we get here, is a heavy action and fast paced episode that moves the plot heavily in one episode and a slice of life episode where we play baseball against the main enemy in the next. Overall, the entirety of the story is a jumbled mess with a good amount of attempts at presenting intriguing ideas, which all sound good at first but fail horribly in execution.

Finally, the good parts of the show. Music and Animation. The music was superb, from the OST and the iconic opening to the actual music which was played in the show. The animation was amazing, from its fluidity to the details and colors, everything was spot on. It is a real shame such quality visual and auditory masterpieces were wasted on a poorly done, shallow story.

Angel Beats was a show that I expected to love. I enjoy a heavily character driven story with a lot of emotional aspects. My expectations were exactly those and I was majorly disappointed in what I got. While it had its fair share of potential, all of it fell flat with poor execution and plot inconsistencies which made the whole experience not a positive one. While the ending will certainly stick with me, it will not be for the right reasons. From an emotional standpoint, it was an absolute disaster. What could have been an amazing show will just be one I remember as very bad and a trainwreck, pun intended.

A life without fulfillment is not a life worth living.

It is finally here, the moment we have all been waiting for. After the Final Season and Final Season part 2 the show is done. Nevermind, there is a part 3.

Plot twists are generally a great device in anime or any medium if utilized correctly. Attack on Titan manages to make the viewer expect the unexpected with the sheer amount of plot twists it has. Ranging from the Armored and Colossal titan reveals to the Ackermann clan actually having an importance, Attack on Titan just keeps throwing these plot twists, which are not necessarily bad, but repetitive in a way, since it makes it painfully ... obvious to predict once it keeps happening every so often. A healthy meal is only healthy if you eat in moderation.

Attack on Titan, through its runtime, has tried to convey its morally gray characters, in a sense that each one has a flaw in their beliefs and that no side is truly right in the show, leaving the viewer to choose their own side. While this was done very well in the previous seasons, mainly with the reveal of life outside the walls and having each character consider their decisions and who the true enemy is, this season repeatedly portrays the fact that Eren is in the wrong, yet attempts to justify his actions which makes no sense when compared to what was attempted previously. Eren’s beliefs just lose their credibility, yet somehow he and his followers, Yeagerists, have quite a large number of people defending their actions in the real world. While that would not necessarily be a bad thing, had they had been portrayed as a morally gray force, rather than purely being used as foil to have the Alliance members confirm their side and show their conviction in ending up on the “good” side of history, this does not include Eren who remains as the biggest threat in the show but with his entire character, which was built up for the entirety of the show, being reduced to a simple “I will destroy the world”, stereotype, which is saddening to see. In this season especially, Attack on Titan butchers its characters and reduces them to simple character stereotypes, completely throwing away any previous groundwork that was laid out for their development, with the exception of a rare few, that being, in this season, Floch and Gabi. Yelena could also be included here but she was thrown away for the bigger part of this season and all we really see from here is her “I want to die” fetish, which also gets thrown away later on.

Touching on the plot twists, this season is no exception to them. While it does have one of the most unexpected ones in the anime medium as a whole, it was reduced to a simple “Woah!”, simply because the volume in which plot twists were used as a device in the show. The twist is quite good on its own, but could have been better if not for the over saturation in the former parts of the show which made it expected to a degree.

Characters were a major problem of this season. They are, simply put, destroyed. While the show’s cast was never particularly outstanding, it still managed to hold its own with a few notable characters being well developed with interesting themes. This season, however, ruins that and leaves much room for improvement, mainly with the members of the Alliance. Almost all of them completely abandon their previous morals in favor of joining the completely opposite side of the spectrum all for the sake of having a strong enough influence on the show’s outcome, as to not make it a one sided Eren beatdown, in terms of both strength and narrative presence. Forming the Alliance was the equivalent of a racially motivated group throwing a party with the race they despise. Character interactions were bland and one dimensional, with a few attempts at making the viewer think about 2 different sides at once in an argument, which only a very small amount managed to do. Most of the dialogue was boiled down to simple one liners and repeating jokes and of course, the best of them all, Mikasa mentioning Eren in every sentence she could. Even with his absence for 90% of this season, she manages to find a way to bring him into relevance, no matter the topic of discussion. The rare exception of the character genocide which was commited were Gabi and Floch. Seeing Gabi’s character progression, with the cycle of hatred coming in full circle, having gone from the one killing out of anger to the one begging for forgiveness was interesting to see, showcasing the different path Eren could have taken, further putting emphasis on her being the same as young Eren. Good job Attack on Titan, you managed to keep a recurring theme relevant, which is what should have been done with all characters. Floch is an interesting case, he does not have spectacular writing or themes or depth or anything really, the guy’s commitment and him being the personification of Erwin’s speech in Season 3 is just admirable. While he did not fully grasp what Erwin would have wanted to do in this situation, which is something no one knows, but he for sure would not have been a Yeagerist, Floch manages to convince himself Eren is right and follows him without hesitation. He, similar to Gabi, had gone full circle, from the only person that was ducking in the march on the Beast titan, to being the leader and arguably the bravest character in the show.

The epitome of stupidity in this season was the meeting of Shadis and Magath, two characters from completely opposing sides, having just met, were instantly best friends and had their moment, completely disregarding all of the previous conflicts established in the previous season, all for the sake of a tear jerking scene which had little to no significance and was just used to fill up time and make you cry for a few seconds.

Animation. It was expected, but it still hurts to watch it. MAPPA has 0 reason to pump out shows this quickly, however, they still do it. Attack on Titan is a relevant anime waiting a year or two would not ruin its popularity by a meaningful amount, yet they decided to do it as fast as possible, a stupid decision. While the actual still drawings are okay, with the darker tone of the shading and the general color palette just being gray and monotone working pretty well, the action scenes are underwhelming and leave a lot to be desired, apart from my boy Floch’s moment, which looked sick and epic and I love him.

The opening was really good but managed to spoil the viewers so much it was funny. The sound and voice acting were good, as usual with Attack on Titan, the only difference being the visual aspect which has significantly decayed with quality, mainly the action scenes which were the show’s forte when it came to the earlier season. Those action scenes which defined Attack on Titan are no more, Levi owning and borderline hate criming the Beast titan will not happen again, we will never see those epic scenes which got you hyped and having chills from the pure madness and hype, because money is more important.

I have never been a huge Attack on Titan fan, but the show still had its good parts which I enjoyed and was looking forward to seeing how the story will play out, unfortunately, it does not seem like a satisfying conclusion is on the way. While a faint hope remains, things are looking grim for the show. It is sad to see a promising series fall apart because of itself, quite symbolical, just like the titans are rumbling over the world, tearing it apart, Attack on Titan is doing that to its viewers.

This season is probably the most mixed one out of all the installations so far. While it does have some general idea of what to do in the first parts of its runtime, the latter part pales in comparison to previous seasons in terms of both character progression and storytelling.

Demon Slayer is not all about animation, or is it? All throughout it’s runtime, which started in 2019, Demon Slayer has cemented itself as a contender for not only the most popular shonen of the “new age” but anime in general. With it’s vast character cast and the raw amount of different personalities derived from the aforementioned cast, it manages to appeal to a broad audience, except for one kind of person. That kind of person would be the one that wants to enjoy an anime without being interrupted by an annoying comedy scene every 5 minutes.

With the considerable amount of criticism the show has ... received since the airing of the first part of Season 2, which was essentially a recap of the movie with some added scenes which all amounted to nothing in terms of character progression and the overall quality of the story, only giving some closure into Rengoku’s past, almost all of which was covered in the latter part of the season regardless, the second part of the season managed to still acquire quite a massive following in terms of popularity and had turned out to be an amazing cash cow to the studio, similar to the former part of this season, except this one actually moved the story forward.

The biggest problem Demon Slayer had up until this arc was undoubtedly the character interactions and the sheer awkwardness in dialogue that was present for almost all of the series, however, that problem completely gets thrown out of the window when you look at the utter clown fiesta the show has done with the plot armor. Now, plot armor is a word that often gets mentioned when criticizing a show. Usually, that is not the case and there is a viable explanation that can be found as to why something happened that seemed like an illogical event, Demon Slayer blows this theory out of the water and just does random things that the viewer is supposed to accept and just move on. What Demon Slayer did is the equivalent of your average Joe who has never been in a fight taking down prime Mike Tyson simply because he got mad or a doctor curing cancer by snapping his fingers. Demon Slayer has had a problem with consequences for its characters for a long time yet this season manages to make that seem like nothing compared to what the author did in this arc. For a show with such a dark setting and a generally menacing atmosphere, regularly implementing elements of horror and gore, having only 1 major figure in the Demon Slayer corps, that being Rengoku, die in the span of 37 episodes and 1 movie is simply horrendous and only further pushes the narrative of what Naruto has done to modern authors and how its influence has both made modern shonen prosper and fail entirely.

Further touching upon the show’s character interactions, it feels as if the characters understand what the other is saying but simply choose to not act on it until it is literally spelled out to them. ”’Score?!’ Did he say ‘score?!’ Did he turn my Blood Demon Art into a song and deflect it?!”. This single piece of monologue is probably some of the most fun you can get from watching an anime. The dialogue is not much better either. It either consists of Tanjiro and the gang laughing at each other for doing the same things they have been doing since they met, including, but not limited to: falling over, being hungry, being a simp towards Nezuko, making a cute face and all of the other generic running gags you can find in other shows, now exaggerate them by around tenfold and there you go, Demon Slayer’s humor.

Now, Demon Slayer doesn’t only have bad things about it, hence it is an above average show, for the most part. The show stays true to it’s themes which, although half assed some of the time, still present some interesting ideas to take from the show. Tanjiro being able to actually kill a demon and accept the fact that a miracle bringing them back will not happen, since of course, demons are the big bad guy and they are not here to get miraculously cured, that is reserved for only the good guys. Nevertheless, Tanjiro’s mindset is quite divergent from the shonen norm, considering his willpower is not only showcased through his unwillingness to give up but also his commitment to truly ending demons, despite showing his respect and kindness to most of them, albeit at the very end of their lives, often leaving quite a bitter taste in the viewers mouth, at least in the beginning of the series, whereas now it is just seen as the norm in his character, which is not necessarily a bad thing, seeing how the show has cemented his moral compass by now, in a relatively short amount of time.

Uzui is just a great character. The rest of the Demon Slayer cast so far has been pretty indistinguishable from the rest of the shonen casts, however, Uzui is a prime example of how the way women write male characters differentiates from how men do it. Male writers are often afraid to make a flamboyant character the center of an arc, especially a character that is not scared to slap an underaged girl on her ass just for the fun of it. The way Uzui is characterized brings to the table a very needed dose of freshness to the cast. Uzui is not afraid to do anything and values aesthetics over anything. Setting him up as this unreachable height in terms of both looks and strength, then having him be crumbled by a demon serves as a required reality check for both Tanjiro and the viewers. However, this is where the problem of consequences comes into play once again. The show has established that Hashira are not invisible beings but having one basically come back to life just because it is shown that they can die is just an illogical thing and serves no purpose. All in all, while his character conclusion could have happened at the end of the arc, serving as foil for further development in both Tanjiro and his companions, Uzui still remains the best, and so far the only, character that was genuinely well done from his visual to his psychological characterization. He is, however, 6’ 6’’, which makes him a big factor in raising the average height of a male in the world, fuck you Uzui.

The visual aspect of Demon Slayer is what makes it really stand out from the rest. Compared to the disappointing paneling the manga counterpart has, the adaptation did the source material more than justice with its amazing shots and superb fight sequences, accompanied with some of the most delightful animation this medium has ever witnessed. All that, for 11 straight episodes is more than any creator could as for when it comes to their work being adapted. Ufotable once again showed why they are regarded as one of, if not the best, studios when it comes to animation. Despite taking a small pool of shows to adapt every single year, they manage to make each of them amazing and pouring their all into this project has shown to be prosperous, seeing how much the show is praised for this one aspect alone. The only real problem the show had suffered from when it came to the visuals was the underwhelming direction. This season was filled with unnecessary digital effects, quick lines of monoluge and quick shots which seemed to be there to fill up time, not immerse the viewer into the scene. I am certainly not an expert when it comes to directing an anime, however, these were just issues that any regular watcher that paid attention to these things would have noticed almost instantly. Despite this, the show still remains visually on par with some of the most regarded of the medium. The Fate series as a whole, particularly the Unlimited Blade Works saga, Violet Evergarden and the likes of those only manage to be slightly better visually because of the direction, animation wise they are completely on par.

Once again our beloved shonen has come back for another run in amassing even more money and breaking more records and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Demon Slayer, while not the most amazing work of this generation, is just a no brain, on some occasions even immersive, journey that you can enjoy while staring at the pretty elements coming out of swords as they clash with one another. While this season especially has had its ups and downs, it did not disappoint and was the best installment of the show so far. I am by no means a huge fan, or a fan at all, even, of the show, but it is still worth a watch as it contains influence from most of the major shonens of the old age and refines some of the things that they tried doing.

It is mostly all about animation though.

Everyone who has ever driven a car or was simply a passenger has encountered an infuriating situation; an insanely expensive car driving slowly on the highway. It feels like such a waste of space as you drive by it, looking at the driver and giving them the “What are you even doing?” look, eventually leaving it behind to fade.

Kimi ni Todoke starts off as a heartwarming slice of life that breaks the stereotype of the quiet girl in school, with exceptional pacing and handling of the school setting as well as establishing groundwork for all of the main cast. As we see Sadako slowly accept ... everyone around her and letting herself truly be herself, the story takes the expected direction but it, however, ruins the outcome of that direction with subpar subplots which get 0 development and no conclusion to them, just to fill up the time, leaving the main romance plot of Kazehaya and Sadako lacking in terms of both content and pacing. Even as the episodes go on, after the initial developments within the main couple’s romance, they stay mainly the same. The only changing thing in the whole show is the challenging of Kazehaya’s positive mentality. Kimi ni Todoke throws major obstacles at Kazehaya, making him question himself and his ideology, yet his static personality helps him overcome these challenges and stay the same. This constant battle within himself is what keeps the show slightly interesting and was sometimes the only pull this anime had to offer.

Now, the main problem of Kimi ni Todoke. It is painfully slow. While pacing is one of the most subjective parts of an anime, seeing how some people appreciate a slower and a more methodical approach to handling of its characters and some just want to lay back and turn off their brains to enjoy a fast-paced action packed show, Kimi ni Todoke takes the slower approach but doesn’t manage to benefit from it. In cases of shows like Hunter x Hunter with its Chimera Ant arc, which is on the slower side of the spectrum when it comes to pacing, the slow approach is used as a catalyst to show how the characters are behaving in each moment and their constant change when faced with an enigma, something they had never seen before. Kimi ni Todoke doesn’t do that but instead just repeats the same things numerous times, leading to nothing new really happening and instead just repeating the same process, somehow expecting different results. Sadako and Kazehaya are shy around each other and just do activities together. This sums up their entire romance, which would not be an entirely bad thing if the ending provided a change of pace within their relationship, instead, we get Sadako saying how much she loves him for 20 episodes with no real movement in her view of Kazehaya or any real attempts at increasing their connection. This depiction of a growing relationship is not necessarily bad and is fairly realistic, yet it is far too slow to be considered organic or real for that matter.

Kazehaya and Sadako are highschoolers, and as such are surrounded by others with similar actions and feelings as them, this leads to many romance subplots being showcased through the show, the core ideas of which were often more interesting to follow than the main couple’s. Giving light to themes such as violence, unrequited love, cowardice and many more, the showcasing of those themes was done incredibly and is one of the highlights of the show. However, while the introduction to the themes and their core ideas were amazing, they were, for the most part, forgotten within a few episodes and were never truly fleshed out. With as much amazing potential as they had, the show just forgetting about them was both sad and infuriating to look at.

Ryu and Chizuru. Besides the main couple, the only 2 really fleshed out characters with an interesting romantic dynamic arousing after Ryu’s character had gotten a bit of light through his interactions with all of the main cast. Ryu is the realest character in Kimi ni Todoke. Putting up a laid back and cold front on the outside, he is the most emotional character in the show. As often happens in the real world, it is incredibly difficult to want to be only friends with someone you have known for a long amount of time. Not to say it’s impossible, just that spending time with someone for a long time will, in most cases, result in one person being attracted to the other, having been with them through their good and bad moments and getting a depiction of them as a person, completely. Ryu’s internal struggle between keeping an amazing friendship and confessing his feelings bother him through the later half of the show and he suffers, similarly to Kazehaya, however, in an entirely different manner. Seeing Chizuru talk about a different love interesting, that being his brother, hurt Ryu to the point where he knew about his brother being engaged but kept it a secret, as Chizuru seeing it in person was more likely to cause her to seek emotional support from him, giving him a chance to confess. With their relationship still not fully resolved by the end of the show, the dynamic leaves open an interesting path for the Second season to tackle and focus on.

Sadako was an interesting concept for a character. Having an outcast adjust to a “normal” way of living after being bullied her entire life could have made for an intriguing way to develop a character. None of that happens though. Sadako is not changed from the person she was in episode 1. The plot is structured in a way that makes Sadako simply interact with the things happening around her in a way that she would, regardless of her being an outcast or not. Sadako has no development, it is simply a cover that, once opened, reveals a static character that has the plot and the world change around them, not them change around the world. She is like the sun in the solar system. The sun constantly shines the same way, the planets revolve around the sun, all of the planets have their mistakes or deformations, but the sun is just a bright glowing sphere, with no real mistakes. Sadako is crafted as a perfect character, meaning that she has no real character flaws which could spark development. She is the same girl, however, with a surrounding that acknowledges her existence and actively pushes her to the main character role.

The dynamic between Kurumi and Sadako was once again, wasted potential, which seems to be something Kimi ni Todoke enjoys doing, Kurumi and Sadako acknowledge each other as rivals and it ends there. Their rivalry never gets more exposition or gets fully fleshed out, it simply ends with Sadako crying, as she likes to do, seeing as more than 50% of her screen time is crying.

Taking into account the time frame in which the show was created, the visuals Kimi ni Todoke presents are amazing. Production wise they are nothing special, but they work exceptionally well in the context of the show. It feels as if they bring a feeling of coziness and warmth within them. It feels as if a gentle fire is burning within each frame and it never fizzles out. The warmth is constantly there, it just wavers at times, similar to Kazehaya and his struggles, the tone can get darker, the art can get sharper and more crude, yet the aspect of warmth is always there, even in slight amounts.

Seeing an expensive car driving slowly can be infuriating and may make you ask yourself what the driver is doing, yet you can still appreciate the car for what it is. The car is amazing, even though its full potential is not realized.

What does it mean to articulate a thought? What does it mean to truly say something you think without taking the opinions of your surroundings into account?

Tackling heavy themes, especially in a school setting, requires extreme care and delicate writing in order to fully capture these themes within the nature of the average teenager that can often be characterized as moody, unpredictable and unstable. Aku no Hana tries to present its dark themes through playing with the regular archetypes of a calm and collected main character simply seeking normality, an outcast girl with an unexplainable interest in him and the nice popular girl. Aku ... no Hana introduces these 3 types in its 3 main characters; Kasuga, Nakamura and Saeki. Upon establishing the groundwork for the characters, Aku no Hana abolishes them completely, showcasing the flaws within each of these characters and it does so in a fairly normal manner with an intriguing twist which sets the groundwork for later character interactions. With the first few episodes presenting interesting themes and the dark groundwork being set decently, Aku no Hana unfortunately flopped later on.

Handling character interactions within a school setting and adding onto the delicate themes that need further exploring but also leaving enough room for the characters to get explored is a difficult task. Aku no Hana fails in doing most of these, leaving only a very lackluster amount of its core themes to be explored and fully dove into by the show. The characters are stagnant for most of the series without any exploration of them whatsoever. This only works in Nakamura’s case since she was made to be a mystery and an enigma to both the audience and Kasuga, putting further emphasis on her archetype. While that does work with Nakamura, the lack of exploration and development heavily hurts Saeki’s and Kasuga’s character, leaving them to be empty characters with futile attempts to add to their personalities. In Kasuga’s case, his character is attempted to be put into the show through literature and some deeper meaning which does not really exist in the show. All it does is put further emphasis on Kasuga altering his archetype with him not fundamentally understanding the literature he is reading.

Kasuga and Saeki have such a mind boggling relationship. It is not really a romance but more so a random thing they decided to start. It is not explored at all throughout the show. All the screentime their relationship and dynamic got were the 2 dates and one house visit they did together. Apart from that, it was nothing more than just a plotpoint which existed for no real reason other than to slow the pacing of the already slow adaptation even more. While it did have potential in the way of putting emphasis on their flaws and overcoming them together or bringing out the dark in each other, it ended up just doing nothing. The show had slow pacing for most of its run time, yet the only part where it truly needed to slow things down and thoroughly explain the deepness of the relationships and the interactions between Saeki and Kasugya, was rushed to the point of it feeling like a random 2 date thing where they did it for fun and not for any sort of attraction towards each other.

Aku no Hana portrays normality as a bad thing. A character having a skewed view on the concept of normality and what it means to be normal is fine, as long as that view is brought to light as a genuine flaw and not used as a way to bring out the core theme of the show. Aku no Hana repeatedly presents normality as the worst thing a human can be. With Kasuga’s main theme being his desperate attempts at being special but ultimately being like everyone else and him truly reaching uniqueness through finding himself within Nakamura whilst Nakamura sees the unique in Kasuga and repeatedly attempts to bring it out. This dynamic works simply because of the wrong message the show is trying to send. Normality is fine and should be viewed as such.

Aku no Hana tries way too hard to be scary. The tone of the show is amazing and portrays how bizarre Kasuga’s and Nakamura’s relationship truly is and it repeatedly manages to put emphasis on the dark side of humans and how flawed our mentality truly is. The atmosphere it sets up, however, fails miserably at following up the tone. With repeated sound effects mimicking a heartbeat, breathing and sweat dropping all comically failing in enhancing the horror aspect of the show, instead just making the scenes feel awkward instead of genuinely creepy like it should have stayed at. Genuine fear is incredibly difficult to showcase, especially within animation and should not be attempted without full focus being put on it. Aku no Hana attempted to enhance the importance of scenes with the atmosphere it sets but it ends up doing nothing.

The animation and art are neither good nor bad. The whole show is done in rotoscope, which is actual actors getting animated, including their mouth movements. The backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous with insane attention to detail within them as well as the music. The music uses subtle noises and tones which serve not to grab the viewer’s attention but to enhance the viewing experience without the viewer even noticing and it does what it intends to do with insane precision and care.

With all of the bad things about Aku no Hana and its characters, the final scene of the show might be one of the best climaxes in animation. With the core themes of rejecting normality and having truly free will, the final scene of the show brings out these themes to their fullest and encapsulates everything Aku no Hana had tried to accomplish in its whole run time. What could have been as amazing as the final scene was, Aku no Hana feels disappointing to look at. It is experimental with both its visual and story aspects which it deserves credit for, but those aspects were not utilized to their full potential. At the end of the day, while it is not entirely bad, Aku no Hana feels like a failed experiment that was meant to achieve great things but fell flat with its weak character writing and the story direction.

To articulate a thought is to truly be free.

How many times have you gone past a river with plain grey rocks residing on the riverside without paying attention to any of them? However, on each of those riversides, there is an exceptional rock. A rock that catches your eye, even for a slight moment. In that single moment, your attention was on that rock. Despite never caring about or seeing that rock again, it managed to divert your attention on itself for an entire moment. All because it stood apart from the regular grey rocks, the ones you can always see. It was a true gem.

The word Phosphophyllite is derived from its chemical ... composition, phosphate, and the Greek word for “leaf”. Phos starts the series as this exact definition. They are nothing but a name, symbolizing a leaf. A simple leaf on a large tree, dashing along with the others as the wind comes and goes, eventually withering away slowly as the winter grows closer. Phos, however, decides to make a change. Instead of striving to survive, Phos chooses the other path; to live. To make a change is to completely throw away what one has achieved in the past, throw out everything unnecessary and focus entirely on the end goal. While being one of the lowest Gems on the Mohs scale, rated a 3.5/10, Phos is repeatedly ridiculed for their small hardness, albeit in a playful way. As Phos encounters new foes, their body changes. Learning what it means to be betrayed, what it means to be helpless, what it means to truly lose someone, what it means to unveil a small secret that leads to a mystery of an unimaginable scale. As Phos grows, so does the world around them.

Houseki no Kuni was a peculiar watch. On the surface, it seems like a playful ride with a plethora of characters and a wide color palette with an underlying dark bottom that was yet to be uncovered in the 12 episodes. Upon taking a deeper look, there never was a playful ride, it was a dark, bottomless pit all along, with nothing but despair laying in wait for the characters. Houseki no Kuni handles its atmosphere amazingly, having the aforementioned atmosphere change, just like the seasons in the show do. The Winter is presented as cold and unforgiving, bloodlusted and dangerous, whilst the Fall is hot on the surface but can become a storm in an instant, fitting for the events that happen during these seasons.

Handling of atmosphere and the central idea of the main character is unfortunately where the positives end for Houseki no Kuni. With the youngest of the Gems, Phos, being 300 years old, the amount of basic things that is unknown to them or the other Gems is simply astonishing and completely ruins the learning experience of the world with the show treating the audience like they are completely unknowledgeable about basic gems. The show feels the need to present Diamond as the most beautiful and hardest Gem, something which everyone that has ever talked to another functioning human being should atleast have a somewhat of understanding on. Having known someone for 300 years and them still introducing themselves as the hardest gem would eventually just make me stop talking to them entirely. How egotistical do you have to be to continue rubbing it in my face? Touching upon the way the Gems are structured again, the audience is somehow expected to not know anything about diamonds but is supposed to have complete understanding of the Mohs scale. In the Mohs scale, even a slight difference of 0.5 can have a huge difference in how hard the gems are, this is not accurately depicted in the series at all. Whilst still having a relatively small hardness, Phos should still be able to withstand a decent amount of pressure before breaking, however, that is just not the case in Houseki no Kuni where Phos is repeatedly broken down in the dumbest ways ever, one of them being literally walking on rocks.

Establishing an idea for the direction of the show but then throwing it away can be extremely infuriating to watch. Houseki no Kuni is a master at this, seeing as it repeatedly does this to the point where it makes me want to jump out of my window. The first 2 episodes perfectly set the ground for a critique on society and how to overcome stereotypes and what it truly means to be unique, not just below average. Houseki no Kuni then just decides to not use that and throws it away. Later in the series, a similar thing is shown when the show is given the perfect opportunity to take a risk and go to an entirely psychological approach, which could have made perfect sense considering the massive potential the psychological side of immortality has and the impact the theme of immortality could have had in Houseki no Kuni.

There are 3 letters most anime fans, mainly Attack on Titan fans, dread the most when it comes to animation. CGI. CGI is repeatedly frowned upon as inorganic, clunky and weird, Houseki no Kuni, however, has some of the best CGI that has ever been seen in anime. It somehow feels deep, yet fluid, sharp, yet smooth. There is this unknown feel to it that makes it a joy to watch.

Houseki no Kuni is in desperate need of one thing and one thing only. A second season. Even with a 2nd season, the show would by no means be perfect, yet, because of the sheer amount of unanswered plot threads and questions, a 2nd season on its own would become great just by answering these questions. As it is right now, Houseki no Kuni is just wasted potential. What could have been a critique on society, what could have been a dive into the psychological side of immortality and is it truly worth to be immortal, what could have been a psycho analysis on Phos and the toll their experiences have had on them, what could have been a fun series with a deeper side, Houseki no Kuni is unfortunately just a plethora of “What could have been?”. In the end, what could have been an amazing series is simply an empty shell with the only thing in it being a trailer for the manga. Whilst by no means bad, it could have been so much better to the point where it is aggravating.