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Jul 17, 2024
Tl;dr: Idk why the comedy tag is missing. While not a full-on parody like Gintama, it is frequently closer to Gintama in tone than a serious story. If you don't take it too seriously you are more likely to enjoy the ride. Solid series overall, but has a few issues that leave me a bit surprised it has such a high average rating score. If you strongly dislike the comedy, story issues, and/or the subtle promotion of capitalism you can safely drop it as it shows no signs of changing those aspects. Otherwise, there is a decent chance you will enjoy the series.
Let's start with
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the negatives:
Story wise things basically always fall into Lloyd's lap perfectly. Either the "system" that put him there is purposefully influencing events as part of "fulfilling his wish" or it's just literally Deus Ex Machina to resolve conflicts that aren't based on Suho's knowledge of events in the novel he has been transported to or his engineering knowledge. Having a gatcha game provide him with the perfect tool to resolve his engineering dilemmas every time he uses it, getting new skills conveniently provided when needed, or surviving an encounter that he should have died from are some examples of this issue. There's still a chance for an explanation that at least explains the system related Deus Ex Machina, but not likely for all of it.
There is also a tendency for Lloyd to have solutions ready for problems he knows little to nothing about as the story progresses further away from the original storyline he is changing. A recent example is when the Queen of his country, Alicia, is informed that the countries at the southern border are being difficult in trade negotiations due to a recent event. She is frustrated about the situation and cannot think of how to resolve it. She is also told immediately afterwards by the same messenger that Lloyd has returned from being gone for a while on a separate quest and seeks an audience. When she speaks with him, he immediately proposes a solution to the problem she was literally JUST informed about, despite being away from the capital for at least several days. It's just bad writing, and while this is probably the most egregious example, expect to see other examples of conveniently provided solutions to problems in the story that cannot be explained away by the system's influence.
I should also mention that the set up for the premise is even worse than average for your typical isekai series, which is saying something with how low the bar is. I'm 142 chapters in and it's just some vague handwaving about a "system" that is probably magic but still remains almost completely unexplained. I'm not asking for much here either, an averageish isekai like Rising of the Shield Hero just had the people of the world summon him with magic there. That was sufficient enough for me to accept it initially with the expectation for further explanation later.
The overused video game system trope is also present and there is no explanation for it yet either. I don't even think it is necessary to tell the story, so it just feels like a lazy writing shortcut. For comparison, the manga The Person in a Villainess has the person that gets isekai'd die and reincarnates as her favorite character in a fantasy Otome video game with the original soul also in the body and there are no video game system mechanics used in the manga. Whereas, Suho gets transported into a fantasy novel that has added video game mechanics to it.
On a random note, the running gag about him having an ugly face compared to the beautiful face of the story's protagonist guarding him feels like a rip off of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (ORV)... It's used comedically, but there is no reasonable in universe explanation for it like in ORV. The problem is that he isn't actually ugly, it's only when he makes certain exaggerated faces that he actually looks ugly. So every time he gets called ugly without making a corresponding facial expression it just feels like beating a dead horse with the joke.
The art itself is right around average for a Manwha. Maybe a little better.
Despite all of these complaints don't misunderstand me that I think this a bad series or anything, just that I was expecting a bit more given its high average rating.
Here are some of the positives:
Despite my complaints about the overuse of the ugly face running gag, overall I found the comedy to be pretty good. Mostly slapstick humor with a few solid running gags that has the novel protagonist Javier play the straight man to Lloyd's craziness.
While the story is fairly predictable overall in how things will resolve positively for Lloyd every time, it is still enjoyable to see how they manage to reach that destination. The pacing of the story is pretty good too, not too fast or too slow.
The characters are also good. The female characters in particular have been much better than average. Plenty of strongly written female characters. Queen Alicia in particular stands out as both best girl and my favorite character overall despite her relatively limited screen time compared to our two protagonists. Speaking of which, both Lloyd and Javier are good characters too. They have great chemistry together as friends. Most of the other side characters are solidly written too. Although the villains themselves tend to be pretty basic. Since there is no major overarching villain the story mostly just cycles through different low level villains until they are either removed or conscripted into service for Lloyd.
There is also some nice social commentary about society in Korea effectively mixed into the story too when it flashes back to Suho's previous life. It's rare enough and simple enough to not be preachy while also giving us some tidbits about Suho's background.
Finally, the civil engineering aspect was interesting to read about. It is an engaging aspect for the story with how it teaches the reader while also showing Lloyd's ingenuity in adapting modern engineering techniques with medieval technology.
Overall, I have enjoyed this series quite a lot thus far. We'll see if things change later but so far, it's just very good, nothing truly special yet. I'm willing to have my mind changed. Biggest swing factor is explaining why Lloyd got transported to this novel world and how that impacts the copious amounts of Deus Ex Machina. If done well the story could improve to a 9. Done poorly and it might drop to a 7. It started out as a 7 for me after the first 40 chapters or so but there have been enough improvements in certain areas that pushed it up enough for a soft 8 right now.
Art - 6
Story - 7
Characters - 9
Enjoyment - 9
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 30, 2024
Weebs are simple people. Give them some amazing animation and sound in beautifully rendered fights for a shounen battle series and they are happy. Mix in some memorable character designs with enough personality to not bore or piss off the audience and you are almost guaranteed a popular hit series. I get it. Most people got into anime from a popular shounen battle series, myself included, and enjoy the spectacle it provides. I do too. But there is a certain bare minimum of quality to the story and the characters I need to not roll my eyes and laugh at how stupid what I am
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watching is too. Ufotable's godly production values don't compensate for an arc that was almost entirely boring filler that could of been either skipped entirely or summarized over an episode or two.
This is one of the worst cash grab anime seasons ever and to see so many people unironically give so many high scores for such a waste of our time is honestly kind of depressing. I'm sorry, but Giyuu's backstory sucked. Between the stupidity of the issue and the ease of resolution, I was left laughing by the end of it. The Shinazugawa family drama was also not properly explored enough for me to care. Don't worry though, it will get explained later in a flashback during the movie trilogy! Same as every other character whose backstory hasn't been covered yet! Why waste time covering that now when we can spend most of our time on training montages with mob background characters that nobody will remember or care about? Himejima's background was the only one that didn't suck, but if you haven't seen the backstory on a character yet you can expect to see it in a flashback during the upcoming movies when they are close to death, as is the norm now for this series.
It is easier to overlook the weaknesses in a series like this when it focuses on the fights. Unfortunately, since this a training arc, the issues with worldbuilding, plot holes, characterization, etc. all become more stark without the distraction of sakuga. Since you cannot turn your brain off and enjoy the nonexistent sakuga, you are left stewing in boredom and disappointment. You could honestly probably skip everything but the last 2 episodes and it wouldn't impact your understanding of the story or the characters in the slightest. That's a pretty damning indictment of this season.
Having said all of that I don't want you to misunderstand, I'm not some dedicated Demon Slayer hater. In fact, I read the entire manga after being intrigued by the first season and enjoyed it quite a bit. But we gotta have a little bit more self respect as weebs and not give this cash grab the praise it doesn't deserve.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jun 30, 2024
As someone new to this franchise I wanted to share my perspective on this season, and on the franchise as a whole, to any readers curious about this series. Having watched everything through to the end of this final season over the past month my conclusion is that this is an all time great series that has some issues that prevent it from being a full on masterpiece. I will go over those issues for this season in particular while also touching on them for the entire series.
Story - 8
A simple coming of age story prefaced around a love for music culminates in the end
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of Kumiko's journey through high school in season 3. While the ending was satisfying, it still felt incomplete. Too many plot points and character stories were left to be summarized by single sentence narration, if they were addressed at all, from our protagonist instead of being shown to us. The cardinal sin of show, not tell had to be broken for the final episode because the story had to rush through to the end in order to fit everything from the source material being adapted. Unlike previous seasons, season 3 didn't show any performance beyond the final one in the last episode. More evidence of inadequate run time allowed to tell the full story. I haven't read the source material, but based on the comments I have read for the anime, it appears that a lot of plot points were shortened/cut or changed. This resulted in some dead end/unanswered questions that left me wondering why they were even introduced in the anime if they weren't going to be given enough time to be properly developed. A rudderless romantic sideplot, infamous yuri bait, and some issues with execution of the drama, are among some of the issues that readers may have with the story. While I thought the much discussed change from the source material for the 2nd-to-last episode was a very good change to the story, a perfect complement to the themes being expressed that added realism to it, other people are sure to disagree. Aside from those issues, I didn't have any other major complaints. There is no deus ex machina, plot armor, or any other negative literary techniques/tropes used that usually detract from the story for me. It's a very good story overall.
Art/Animation - 10
Kyoto Animation isn't so highly regarded for nothing. The art and animation in this season and throughout the entire series is top notch. Better than all but the most hype scenes in any shounen battle series you will find. It maintains that quality throughout the entire run time of the series too. Character designs are simple, realistic, and gorgeous. No moe blobs or unrealistically rendered characters to be found anywhere.
Sound - 9.5
I was very torn between a 9 and 10 for the sound so I am going to split the difference at 9.5. My main issue isn't with the quality of the music, which is superb, but with the lack thereof for this season. Previous seasons that had more music deserve recognition for that compared to this final season. The VAs were also excellent as usual for this season as they were for the entire series. This season also had my favorite OPs and EDs for the series, with a nice callback to the OP for season 1 included in the OP too, hence my indecision between a score of 9 or 10.
Characters - 7.5
This is definitely the weakest part of the series overall for me, including this season. Setting aside the hyperbole of this hypothetical, if the entire town and all of it's characters died in an explosion at the end of the story, the only character whose death I would mourn is the protagonist, Kumiko. Don't get it twisted though, I don't hate the other characters, I wouldn't celebrate their deaths as I would with terribly written characters in other series. They were just too boring or opaquely characterized for me to care all that much about them. That's a pretty major issue for a musically based character drama. Fortunately, the focus is mostly from the POV of Kumiko, whose journey over the course of the story is a joy to follow from beginning to end. For this season in particular, the new character, Mayu, stands out as one with insufficient characterization for me. I could tell she was supposed to be a foil for Kumiko, given how her past issues mirror those Kumiko had earlier in her life, but not enough time was given to fully explore her background to explain her character.
The most difficult thing to balance in a normal school setting such as this is creating characters that are both interesting and realistic. Too boring, and you get characters that the audience doesn't care about. Too quirky, and they feel unrealistic/stupid, ruining the immersion in the story. It's a hard balance to maintain, and at least for me, I felt only Kumiko's character had been executed well in the story. A 10 for Kumiko and a 5 for the others characters average out to 7.5 overall.
Enjoyment - 8.5
This was my favorite entry in the series. After so much time spent with Kumiko watching her grow up before our eyes we get a well-deserved finale that ends her story in a satisfying manner. It's the type of story I believe even non-anime fans would enjoy since it is very relatable and realistically executed. If you enjoy coming-of-age school dramas with a realistic story and characters, you will almost certainly enjoy this series as I have.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 22, 2024
Tl;dr I was right in my original preliminary review to give this show a 10 after 3 episodes. I was prescient in my preliminary score, this is an all time great anime original show. Congratulations to the staff at Doga Kobo on an amazing 50th anniversary anime!
For me, this show was a joy to watch from start to finish. All of the most important aspects to a great show I saw in the first 3 episodes for writing, direction, art/animation, sound, characters, etc. continued through to the end.
I had high expectations going into this series with Yuki Yaku writing the script, and he continues to
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deliver characters that are both realistic and interesting, reflecting all of the complexities of the human condition. The themes, comedy, and drama were all well-done, packaged together into a message of self love that seems very relevant in an increasingly connected digital world where differences are often quick to be "Othered".
I was worried the ending wouldn't be able to successfully wrap everything up going into the last episode, but I thought it stuck the landing. Another of my worries partway through was that I wasn't much of a fan of one of the members of the group, Mei, after her initial character arc was concluded. Fortunately, she was able to shine later in the show in such a way that she went from a character I was fairly ambivalent towards to one that I liked. Outside of that one issue, all of the characters that receive significant screen time were well developed within the time constraints of the series.
A short side note that while the show is not without flaws or above criticism, a lot of the complaints, particularly those about "melodrama" or "forced drama", were honestly stunning for me to read. The conflict in question was foreshadowed since episode 1 and builds throughout the entire series, including the ending. It is neither forced, over the top, or comes out of nowhere. It also fits in well within the themes the story is telling about self-worth. I asked a couple other reviewers I know and trust for their thoughts and they had a similar reaction. Take that for what you will.
My biggest complaint is that I felt that more could of been done with the story itself with more episodes. Instead, the show decided to leave some things as is rather than try to fit more than was possible to realistically cover within the 12 episodes allotted. I would of preferred to see more, but I'm satisfied with the story we received.
The last thing I wanted to give readers a heads up on is that there is some yuri bait/subtext, but I found it tastefully executed. Your mileage may vary.
Here is my original preliminary review for reference:
"What little hype this hidden gem has received thus far has been well deserved. Geoff Thew (Mother's Basement) named it his #1 new anime to watch for the season and an anime of the season contender, comparing it favorably to A Place Further Than The Universe. Gigguk gave it a must watch rating based solely off the trailer and people working on it, the only non sequel/remake besides Kaiju #8 to earn such a rating this season.
Giving an anime original work a preliminary score of 10 after 3 episodes is fairly bold given the risk for things to fall off later, but it only seems fair since each of the first 3 episodes were at least a 9 or 10 for me thus far. We'll see by the end if my score was prescient or premature. With that said, all of the most important aspects to a great show have been present thus far: writing, direction, art/animation, sound, characters, etc. The first episode does a good job of hooking you in and has more organic character growth/development than most anime manage in an entire season. It hasn't let up in episodes 2 or 3 either as it beautifully introduced the rest of the main cast with a similar level of love from the staff at Doga Kobo. This series has a chance to be something special as an all time great anime original show. If you enjoy coming-of-age character dramas you should definitely check this anime out."
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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May 31, 2024
This show feels underrated to me based on it's current low rating. Definitely a hidden gem for the season. A lot of Japanese comedy doesn't work for me, but this show manages to be silly without going TOO over the top that it becomes stupidly ridiculous in an unfunny manner. It successfully balances the straight man reactions with the comedy. It also has a nice message about being yourself and choosing your own happiness over societal expectations.
It's basically a modern sci-fi reimagining of Maison Ikkoku, which remains a classic of the romantic comedy genre after all of these years. The show even references it directly
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in the 1st episode. It is able to maintain the same charm as Maison Ikkoku too, with a loveable cast of characters that are fun to watch. The story is also interesting to follow unfold. Lots of twists and turns as we slowly learn more about what is happening with the plot while simultaneously watching our two leads slowly get closer to each other. The show does a nice job of creating an incorrect impression based on limited information to later subvert for comedic purposes. If you enjoyed Maison Ikkoku you should definitely check this out. The sci-fi elements are mostly for comedic purposes so I wouldn't recommend someone watch it for that part of the show alone. The art and sound are also solid for this type of series. It helps add to the experience while watching it.
Overall, I'm really enjoying this show and I'm glad I checked it out. Hopefully this brief preliminary review encourages you to give it a try as well.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 27, 2024
Man, after so much promise in the beginning the growing number of red flags is becoming concerning for me. Hopefully things turn around going forward because I really enjoyed the premise that was set up initially. Unfortunately, reading the reviews for the manga has left me feeling uneasy for what is yet to come.
The biggest red flag for me is Kafka potentially devolving into a stereotypical middle school male shounen MC with all of his yelling. Part of my interest in his character was seeing a middle aged guy get a 2nd chance at his dream after giving up. If he continues acting too
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much like a child going forward I might not make it through to the end of the season. Children acting like children can get old fast, but having someone that old acting like that is going to get old REALLY fast. He should act more mature than the younger characters, not less so.
I'm also getting more concerned about the world building. Especially that the need for these super soldiers to take out Kaiju won't be adequately explained. Why can't conventional weapons be used against Kaiju more often while being augmented by Kaiju parts? It's still early so an explanation can be coming later, but unless these Kaiju are appearing by magic, or possibly underground, the larger ones should be detected much earlier to prevent them from causing devastation to cities. The only reason these soldiers would be necessary for urban landscapes is to enter areas not easily accessible to helicopters, planes, tanks, etc. that smaller Kaiju infiltrate into. Large Kaiju coming from the sea are easily detectable by sonar and should be intercepted long before they enter a city, same for air based Kaiju via radar. The first Kaiju in episode one literally appeared from a waterway and it was the size of a multistory building. Not exactly undetectable!
Did I mention there is a large domesticated tiger that attacks a Kaiju as big as a house in episode 1? I was hoping it was some kind of domesticated Kaiju they kept locked away, but nope, it just lives in the apartment of the female love interest. Yeah...
Anyways, there is still time for these things to receive an adequate explanation. It is just concerning that the number of questions without answers are rising so fast while the number of questions answered thus far is comparatively low.
Let's do a few positives quickly.
Kafka was mostly good thus far except for the recent aforementioned immature yelling. Ichikawa Reno has been a likable friend thus far. As expected, Production I.G is delivering on the audiovisual aspects of the show. The OP and ED are both bangers. Everything else is mostly still too early to tell right now, so it's not like it's all bad by any stretch. I'm just feeling much more mixed about the series after the 3rd episode compared to the first 2 episodes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 2, 2024
Tl;dr Is it overrated? Probably. Does that make it a bad show? No, it’s still an excellent middle school romance. For me, it was a lot like eating cotton candy, deliciously sweet, but not substantial enough to stay with me long after eating it. If you like sweet things as I do, you’ll enjoy it. If you are expecting something more filling, you may be disappointed.
I’m going to start with a confession: When I sat down to write this review, I realized I had already forgotten what happened in the first half of the show and had to read the episode summaries online to
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refresh my memory. When I read them, I was able to recall the events that happened, but this speaks to the narrative weakness of the show’s story that I had already forgotten so much so quickly.
To be honest, going into season 2 I forgot most/nearly all of season 1 too, other than the characters and their relationships to each other.
If you think I’m exaggerating, forgetful, or being overly harsh, I’ll give you a quick rundown of how much I remember from the first half of each of this season’s anime I watched weekly, with how much I remember of the first half, and if/when I read the source material.
BokuYaba Season 2– Totally forgot – Current on the manga as of last summer.
Chained Soldier – Remember the beginning plus bits and pieces – Current on the manga as of last fall.
Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki 2nd Stage – Remember most of it – Read the LN last December.
Solo Leveling – Remember most of it – Never read it.
As you can see, it is not the overall quality or enjoyment of the show impacting my forgetfulness, it is a larger issue with the story narrative, or lack thereof beyond the love story, to be frank, that is likely the reason I forgot so much of what happened. While Solo Leveling was awful all around, the story does flow smoothly in the beginning from arc to arc to maintain narrative coherence. You get an origin story, a training arc, and the first dungeon after finishing training, all with a beginning, middle, and end with a climax to the story of each arc that resolves the conflict. Allow me to dive into this issue more deeply by discussing the story of BokuYaba itself in the hopes of level-setting expectations for someone curious about the series that hasn’t watched season 1 yet.
Story – 5
This is easily the weakest part of the show, and even putting aside how easily I forgot much of it, there are a couple of other issues regarding realism that need to be addressed. Especially if you haven’t watched season 1 and are expecting a masterpiece as you start the series from the beginning.
Regarding the narrative weakness of the show, because the only “conflict” throughout the story is waiting for the 2 main characters to confess and start dating, the episode planning largely feels like the author was just brainstorming as many ideas as she could to put the “cute idol at school" she wanted to draw, the literal impetus for creating the series (I shit you not), into as many cute situations as possible to interact with the protagonist. There is no narrative story thread underlying almost any of the show. There is just a series of slice of life scenarios designed to push the two main characters together through as many cute and romantic situations as possible. Compared to another popular and well-regarded romance story like Toradora, which has character arcs for Ami, Minorin, and Kitamura, as well as story arcs for the swimming competition, summer vacation, the ski trip, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day, each with its own beginning, middle, and end, I can easily recall many details from each of those arcs because they actually follow a normal story progression involving the resolution of some kind of conflict. With BokuYaba, there isn’t any of that across a similar run time to Toradora besides the speech and the climax of this season. Since there is basically no real conflict, villain/antagonist, or anything else going on in most of the storytelling besides the love story of the 2 main characters, there is no flow to anything that connects 1 episode to the next with some sort of conflict resolution to help me remember what happened after I have watched it.
Beyond the narrative weakness of the story, the other issue that people that haven’t seen season 1 yet should be aware of is the realism of the premise. While each person has their own idiosyncrasies for what they find attractive in falling for a potential partner, there are some basic commonalities among them. To borrow a description from another story: “It’s when dependence, sexual desire, possessiveness, and maybe personal interests coincide”. To be frank, I don’t think any of those conditions were met by the time Yamada liked Ichikawa in season 1. I just kind of shrugged it off and went along with it to continue enjoying the sweet moments the show was creating, but it can be an issue for some people’s suspension of disbelief. Particularly if you usually don’t watch romance shows in general or ones that use the cliche formula of a model with giant breasts falling for another average looking loser/loner guy because of how unrealistic that scenario is in real life. There is nothing this series does differently in season 1 to make it believable. It’s honestly worse than average in establishing why she likes him besides narrative convenience, which is already a very low bar for the genre. The extent to which she throws herself at him during both seasons and his stubborn denial of her obvious attraction to him can also wear thin at times too. Yamada and Ichikawa barely spend any time together before she likes him, and I wouldn’t call stalking her in the library for most of it as “quality time together” either. I would guess Taiga and Ryuuji spent more time together in a single average day in their lives than Yamada and Ichikawa spent together over the 6 months of time spread out over 6 episodes in season 1 it took for her to like him. It is very much another in a long line of formulaic and predictable wish fulfillment fantasy romances. If that bothers you or isn’t your jam, you’ve been forewarned. The only things I found after researching it for why Yamada likes/is attracted to Ichikawa is because his personality and hair remind her of the male lead in her favorite shojo manga, and her father. That last part is pretty icky, but I’m not going to go all Freud on you over this either. There are plenty of infinitely more degenerate things that are popular in Japanese media *cough* Mushoku Tensei *cough*. Having said all of that, if you got through season 1 accepting the premise, season 2 will continue to develop the relationship in an organic way that largely feels believable and real, if not a bit too convenient.
The last thing I will add is that while the romance itself is very well done, the comedy was more hit or miss for me. Probably more miss than hit, but comedy is very subjective, and you can expect more of the same from season 1 to season 2.
Art/Animation – 9
The art, animation, and direction are all superbly done. The production value the studio put into this anime is top notch and deserving of all the praise it gets. The anime definitely elevates the source material quite substantially. There isn’t much more for me to add that other people with a keener eye haven’t already explained.
Sound – 9
The music that plays at the end of each episode before the title card is shown really hits home for the beautiful moments at the end of each episode. It is magical. Really pulls at your heartstrings and adds greater emotional impact to the scene. The OP is also very well done.
Characters – 8
Overall, Ichikawa is an excellent romantic male lead. He is a very realistic representation of a male middle school student going through all the usual foibles of school life as he tries to navigate that and his budding romance with Yamada. Yamada herself is also a pretty good romantic female lead. She has significantly less development than Ichikawa, because the story is told from Ichikawa’s point of view, but she has her own foibles she must work through too. They each have strengths and weaknesses that make them relatable and well-rounded, and they also grow together over the course of the series. They have good chemistry together too as the differences in their personality help balance each other in their relationship. While I like the main characters quite a bit, I don’t love them as I do for other series that I give higher character scores to. They just aren’t that interesting to me. Besides Yamada being an idol, they are your typical middle school kids, nothing more and nothing less.
The side characters were... fine? Outside of maybe Kana, Ichikawa’s sister, the side characters are mostly just background characters that exist to orbit around the focus of Yamada and Ichikawa. They serve their purpose well though, helping to push Ichikawa and Yamada together.
Enjoyment 8
I enjoyed this series for what it was. A very well-crafted version of the same generic formula you find in most romance anime. Outside of an amazing climax, the rest of it is an enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable slice of life romcom. Since there isn't anything you learn later in the series that makes you reconsider how you viewed earlier episodes and the characters and story aren’t interesting enough for me to rewatch it on their own, I am unlikely to rewatch this series. In my rating criteria, that makes it an 8, not a 9 or 10. Having said that, it definitely is fun watching these two adorkable kids stumble along through romance and life together. If you like wholesome romance anime involving awkward kids being cutely awkward together, you are almost guaranteed to like this series, if not love it. If you don’t normally watch romance anime because you don’t like those types of stories but have wandered over to see what all the hype is about, you may feel underwhelmed relative to the hype.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 30, 2024
Tl;dr If you are a looking to escape reality via a self-insert power fantasy or maybe are a sakuga junkie looking for your next hit, this show will probably be your jam. Otherwise, don't bother wasting your time as I did.
I didn't have super high expectations for this anime, but even my relatively moderate expectations for a fun, turn-your-brain-off shounen battle series were left wanting with how generic, boring, and predictable everything has been.
This anime peaked with the origin story for the MC's OP power and promptly fell off a cliff after that. That was the only part I really enjoyed and it's too
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bad the MC's character traits it established were quickly wiped clean for another generic edgy self-insert protagonist.
The only character that matters is the MC and given his exponential rate of growth I doubt any other character will ever really matter before long. It is just another in a long line of generic power fantasies with an edgy protagonist with no personality for viewers to self-insert into with invincible plot armor and convenient deus ex machina. Going from an E rank hunter nicknamed the "weakest hunter in the world" to almost rivaling the handful of S-rank hunters that exist in each country over the course of 12 episodes is insane power scaling. He doesn't even act cautiously as his character was established in the beginning, just recklessly throwing himself into deadly situations because of his plot armor after he gets his OP power that nobody else has that allows him to level up while every other character has a static level of power. Maybe I'm just biased seeing a better version of this same system and story used in Omniscient Reader, but this show was a major waste of time.
As if the insane power scaling wasn't bad enough, I don't care one iota for any of the side characters. They are basically NPCs for the hero to interact with right now. The family of the MC is poor and he's the provider for their family as their mother has an illness that keeps her in the hospital with the treatments being expensive. The sister character is cute and inoffensive, but since she isn't a Hunter she isn't very relevant. She is just meant to serve as an emotional attachment for the protagonist as he slowly is stripped of all personality and humanity. Beyond her, the story has introduced a bunch of other characters, but none of them are likely to matter for long given the power scaling thus far, and they just kind of exist in the background waiting for the MC to appear and garner their notice. I don't even care for the MC at all because he's just another self-insert power fantasy protagonist that's already been stripped of any personality beyond being cool and recklessly throwing himself into danger since his plot armor has already been established as impenetrable. Oh yeah, killing a bunch of actual people for the first time ever, as opposed to monsters, is quickly brushed aside with basically zero psychological anguish, reflection, etc. for the MC. Too cool for any of that either. There is no villain character either that looms in the distance for him to defeat for the season or later in the series, it's just endless generic trash mobs and boss mobs from video games for the characters to defeat.
This dovetails into the lack of stakes for the fights too. Since he's "Solo Leveling" that means he's going to do dungeons by himself so even the potential for the death of a side character doesn't exist. Not that it matters until we are given a reason to care for a side character anyways.
So, if the story, characters, and even enjoyment are all so low right now what reason does someone have to watch?
Well, Hiroyuki Sawano is a genius, so the OST, particularly the OP, slaps. The animation, art, and direction for the fights are pretty well done. The strength of the show is all production related.
Now that I have finished it, I won't watch any further seasons that get made. If you are curious about the series, I wouldn't start it if you aren't already invested as a manwha reader, or are an aforementioned sakuga junkie, because there is nothing unique or interesting about this series. Calling it Korean SAO is probably too generous of a compliment and that's saying something.
If you want to see a similar version of this type of story that is actually well done, I recommend reading the Omniscient Reader novel, or the manwha version of the novel on Webtoon, if you want to see beautiful art or don't like reading novels.
Story - 2
Characters - 1
Enjoyment - 1
Sound - 8
Art - 8
Overall 2
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Mar 27, 2024
If you are curious about this series and haven't watched the first season yet I recommend you check out my review of the first season or the top reacted on review for more information. The tl;dr can be summarized as "great show with interesting characters focuses on character growth/development through a gaming lens." If you enjoy character dramas with well-done romance/comedy and are intrigued by the gaming hook you should give it a try!
I was honestly torn on whether to do a spoiler free review or not. I decided to have my cake and eat it too by creating this spoiler free review with
...
a separate blog post that goes into more details on the show with spoilers.
Story/Plot 9
Continuing from where things left off in season 1, we start with a brief refresher of what happened last season, including the change between Hinami and Tomozaki on their arrangement going forward, with a review of his longer-term goals as well as a new small task for him as part of his continued growth and development. Although, there is a new wrinkle to things now, with Tomozaki pushing back on Hinami’s tasks to clarify that he won’t act fake or make a false confession of love to achieve the tasks Hinami sets for him. It’s a nice callback to the climax of the first season, and a reminder of how things will be different going forward. Expect more pushback from Tomozaki towards Hinami going forward, especially over their conflicting views on ethics. After that, we enter the first arc, the sports festival, as Tomozaki starts gathering information, creating a plan, and then implementing it to try to achieve Hinami’s tasks. Much like the 1st season, while his effort is always there, he manages to succeed and fail in a myriad of ways for all the tasks in season 2. After the sports festival, we get the bullying arc, as Konno starts lashing out in class in the aftermath of the sports festival. Once that is over, we get the longest and last arc of the season, the school festival, with a greater focus on romance as Tomozaki is pushed by Aoi to consider whom he likes so he can decide who to pursue a romantic relationship with as part of his medium-term goal of getting a girlfriend.
While this review is spoiler free, I do want to address the proverbial elephant in the room regarding romance. Whether it is in the reviews and/or comments on MAL, Crunchyroll, social media, etc. you will find a lot of discussion regarding the romantic direction of the show and Tomozaki’s decision for whom to pursue. Such is the plight of a dramatic romcom with multiple love interests. Watch out for that if you don’t want to be spoiled. Also, if you are the type of person whose enjoyment of a show is predicated on your preferred waifu/best girl winning, this might not be the show for you. While romance takes center stage in the last arc, this is still a character drama at heart. Romance just so happens to be the easiest way to add drama to a show given the emotions at play for the characters. I will go into greater detail on this issue with my blog post, so feel free to check it out after watching the show for yourself, or if you don’t care about spoilers. The one thing I will say here is that the decisions make sense to me given the developments across both seasons. I think part of the issue is the 3-year gap between the first and second season has left a lot of people forgetting some important details from the previous season, but it is ultimately a matter of differing opinions.
The other thing I want to quickly note about the plot is that the changes made to the story used in the school festival have symbolic significance to the plot. They may seem irrelevant in the moment, but you will grow to understand their significance in time.
On a separate note, it might just be my own bias since I read the source material after rewatching the first season with the dub earlier this year, but the pacing felt off for me at times this season compared to the first one. For reference, the first season adapted 3 volumes in 12 episodes, while this season adapted 4 volumes in 13 episodes. While the 4th and 5th volumes that make up the first 2 arcs are relatively short, it is clear the director prioritized cutting as much content as possible to end the season with the 7th volume. While I agree with his decision to end it where he did, the climax at the end is beautifully done and had me in tears when I first read it in the light novel, it feels like a little bit too much was lost trying to fit everything into 13 episodes. I thought a lot more of Tomozaki’s internal monologue was needed to help flesh out certain important scenes, including the climax itself. Some emotional depth from the LN was definitely lost in translation in the anime. Another testament to the brutally cutthroat nature of the anime industry? As if we needed more reminders...
Art/Animation 7
The character designs themselves remain gorgeous and stand out in the series. The overall production quality is mostly fine, but since the show is a character driven drama the focus is mostly on making the characters look good and their dialogue. I will note that there are a few occasions where the animation looks abysmal, usually involving hand clapping and characters running. The show does a good job of expressing the emotions of the characters through their facial reactions and body language, which is important given how much focus is on the dialogue of the characters.
Sound 7
Given the continuity with the VAs from the first season over to the second season, both the Japanese subs and English dub remain as good as the first season. Although I want to continue to shout out Ai Kayano again as I do strongly prefer her performance as Kikuchi’s Japanese VA over her English VA.
The anime continues to reuse stock tracks for the sound for much of the season, although there are a handful of times that it elevates an important scene using dramatic pauses in the sound and different music than the stock tracks.
Characters - 10
I really enjoyed the characters in the first season, and they continued to shine in season 2. They remain well rounded and act in a realistic way given how their characters were established in season 1. Mizusawa becomes an excellent best male friend to Tomozaki as he navigates the social hierarchy of school and his drive for self-improvement. Mimimi is the funny outgoing friend everyone either wishes they had or treasures. Aoi is as sadistic as ever as Tomozaki’s taskmaster pushing him onwards towards his goals. Kikuchi is still the adorably shy bookworm whose insights help guide Tomozaki. Tama and Izumi are charming to watch as they navigate their own personal struggles with changing who they are. All these characters mentioned, with perhaps a notable exception for Aoi, receive development this season as they continue their own personal journey of growth during adolescence, inspired in part by Tomozaki. It is a testament to the character writing that I can imagine all 5 of Aoi, Fuuka, Izumi, Mimimi, and Tama as viable love interests for Tomozaki under the right circumstances when Aoi starts questioning Tomozaki about who he is interested in. They have all received enough development, and Tomozaki has spent enough time with all of them over the 6 months that have elapsed since he started changing, to connect with all of them and establish chemistry in different ways, even if most of them will just be friends.
One of the great things about Tomozaki’s character is that despite the improvements he has had made over the past 6 months, he will backslide when confronted with situations that push him too far outside his comfort zone. He has spent too many years believing he is a bottom-tier character in life to overcome that self-doubt so quickly. For me, it is good character writing for him to fall back on his old ways of thinking and behavior in those moments until he starts making the biggest change of all: Changing his perception of himself via his own self-esteem.
Enjoyment – 9
Despite my complaints about a few issues with the show I still enjoyed it immensely. It’s a rare show for me that manages to be dramatic without feeling melodramatic, while also successfully balancing the romance and comedy together. It’s become one of my favorite series that I am happy to rewatch just because I enjoy the characters and story such that even knowing what happens doesn’t impede my enjoyment when rewatching it. That is an exceedingly rare thing for me to have for this genre of show, because too often these types of shows are either too unrealistic, too stupid, too boring, or just drag on way too long as we wait for the couple to finally get together for me to ever consider rewatching them, if I don’t just drop the show altogether. It is also notable that this show manages to stick out positively for me amongst the sea of self-insert wish-fulfilment fantasy shows that populate the genre. The girls are pretty, but they aren’t models with giant breasts flopping around everywhere for fanservice like a lot of shows. None of them are magically in love with the loser protagonist Tomozaki was in the beginning for little to no reason or are part of a harem of love interests. I could go on quite a while with these common lazy writing tropes, but you get my point.
Since the strength of anime as a medium for entertainment lies in its ability to show action in ways that live action series either struggle to replicate, or that require outsized budgets relative to animation studios, finding a show engaging enough to maintain my interest without standout animation or lazy writing tropes carrying it as a crutch is notable. This series could easily function as a live action drama with minimal changes compared to the anime. In a sense, that is the highest form of praise I can give the show: Good enough to stand on its own merits without the usual crutches used in anime that prop up lesser works.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 27, 2024
After seeing so much hype and praise for this series as a classic of the romantic comedy genre I am still left flabbergasted as to how this consensus came about. Is it from the lens of nostalgia? Is the original light novel significantly better? I don't see that in any of the other reviews so I am genuinely confused. This anime certainly wants people to believe it is a deep and serious show... except once you look beyond the surface level you will find a crumbling foundation built upon boring, unrealistic story arcs, with emotionally crippled characters that would of been better off going to
...
therapy to resolve their issues since they still cannot talk through them with each other after 2 seasons.
The entire point of mixing romance and comedy together is to balance each other to improve the experience for the viewer. Comedy can serve as an emotional release valve to the drama of romance and the romantic situations can serve as comedic fodder given the situations the characters will be put in. This is the basic formula for every romcom. Even series that are purely dramatic romance, as opposed to romantic comedies, will add some humor to them for that very same reason. A show doesn't need to be called a comedy to have humor in it. Unfortunately for Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Zoku (SNAFU), this show was both not funny in its humor, AND had zero romantic development for the entire season. Never mind having a balance, this show had neither element at all!
So, what is left in a romantic comedy show that wasn't funny and had basically no romantic development for a SECOND STRAIGHT SEASON? Not much...
Story/Plot - 1
There is no overarching plot beyond what the synopsis states. The 3 main characters are part of a volunteer service club, and the story follows them around as they help with the requests of other people in their school. It can be summarized as an episodic slice of school life. Since it calls itself a romantic comedy there is romantic tension in the show, and it makes it very obvious to the viewer, but this always gets ignored by the MC because if he actually paid as much attention to it as he "reads between the lines" with everything else the show would of ended after the 1st season and you gotta milk that cash cow for everything it's worth! This leaves the audience with little more than unresolved romantic tension and zero romantic development.
My 3 biggest issues with this story are that it is a romcom that I found neither funny, nor romantically interesting, the main character is poorly written, and the requests the group gets are unrealistic in their premise and resolution.
As I stated previously, there is no romantic development, just tension, so there is no character progression with romance. This might of been fine if there was something else going on in the story, but the boring and unrealistic arcs the club takes up just drag things along while we wait for some kind of romance to develop. Beyond the lack of romantic development, the author seems to have basically given up on doing anything more than a little sarcastic humor from the MC and a really dumb running gag with the new character, Iroha. This is actually an improvement from last season, which had such atrociously unfunny comedy that I would of normally dropped it after the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd episodes of the first season were it not for the hype of the series. The biggest offenders last season were Ebina and Yoshiteru. Fortunately, they have transformed into fairly normal characters this season and are no longer eyesores that I want to skip watching entirely.
The author's decision to write a smart MC that is good at reading people continues to be an issue. Hikigaya being good at reading people continues to make no sense in the context of the story. How did the most antisocial character in the show become better at reading people and persuasion than the more socially experienced characters? Magic! You think I'm joking, but that's honestly my best guess. He was terrible at it in middle school, as the show repeatedly demonstrated through flashbacks in the first season, and he is also shown failing at it in high school now too, but through the power of deus ex machina, he is now magically amazing at it! Isn't that how it always works in great story telling? Snarky sarcasm aside, this ruins the story being told, as the basis for resolution for the requests the club gets are based on the MC successfully analyzing social situations and providing a solution for them.
Additionally, the premises and resolutions to the issues presented to the volunteer group have continued to become more unrealistic, much like the last arc in the first season. We get a confession arc between 2 side characters nobody in their right mind cares about. Some more drama about the resolution of the arc between the club members that is apparently impossible for them to talk through because than the drama wouldn't be able to linger on for a major emotional moment later. An arc about the school presidential election in which we have to believe that the only candidate is an unknown underclassman that was put up as a prank (Seriously. Come on!). A short dating arc that I found unrealistic in its execution. The Christmas arc from hell. Lastly, an actually well executed Valentine's Day event.
The recurring family issues in the Yukinoshita family that have been present since season 1 continue to exist, but are never explained. This would of actually been a very interesting story thread to explore throughout the season, but much like all of the other underlying drama, instead of the three main characters talking it out together, it has to be ignored to continue to create friction and drama within their club. C'est la vie.
Art/Animation - 6
I found the art much prettier in this season compared to the first season. The overall production also seemed a step up compared to the first season too.
Sound - 6
The VAs themselves did a decent job with their characters. There is only so much emotional range you can show in a character that is flat or 1 dimensional so the weakness of the characters weakens the VA performances too. This is mostly an issue with the side characters that didn't get any development.
Characters - 5
I was pleasantly surprised to see the side characters level up a bit compared with the first season. Iroha was fairly interesting for a new character. The teacher, Shizuka, stopped hitting/threatening to hit students and served as a good mentor figure to the MC. Komachi remained loveable and Hayato got some screen time to develop a bit. Haruno continued to antagonize things whenever possible, but we still have no idea why. Beyond those side characters, none of the other ones matter.
The 3 main characters experience a little more growth this season compared to the first season, but it is frustratingly slow and remains bogged down by the inability of any of them to speak honestly with each other about anything. I would understand if it was limited to their feelings for each other, as making yourself vulnerable to someone in that way is very scary and difficult to do, but it extends to much less heavier topics which makes most of the drama feel melodramatic to me.
Enjoyment 4
I didn't hate this season as much as the last season. The side characters improved. The main characters were a little more interesting and actually grew some over the course of the season. While the situations that made up the slice of life were largely boring/unrealistic, there was enough there for me to make it through to the end without hate watching it. If the drama didn't feel so melodramatic most of the time the emotional moments would of landed better too.
Going back to my original question of what is left in a romcom show that I found not funny and had no romantic development I am still left with this conclusion: Based on the title of the show, the creator purposefully created a romcom with no romance, while also failing as a comedy, to subvert expectations.
The JoJo metaphor from my season 1 review continues to feel apt. It's as if the author thought up the title first, then decided to create a series based around that subversion, to be different from other series in the genre and stand out. It's like taking the energy from an "It Was Me, Dio!" meme and inserting it into a romcom. Unfortunately for the creator, much like Erina, when I want Jonathan Joestar, and I instead get nothing but Dio Brando the whole time, I'm going to be disappointed, because what I wanted was Jonathan (a good romcom) not Dio (a boring slice of school life that blue balls any romantic development, isn't funny, and feels melodramatic).
I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone that wants romance and comedy in their romcoms, since there essentially is none, so who can I recommend this show to? I'm going to stick with frustrated lonely adolescents that want to feel validated, but if you don't fit that demographic, you will probably feel as disappointed as I continue to be with this series.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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