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Right off the bat I can honestly say that I had completely forgotten about watching Gege 2018 before I saw this movie listed, it was just another supernatural comedy with an interesting story but not peculiarly memorable.
But upon giving this movie a watch, oh my.
Even if you have not watched the Gege 2018 or don't know anything about this series, both manga and anime, you will be pleasantly surprised.
For me, especially as someone who hates CGI in anime, I was astonished by no CGI in this anime. This contributed greatly to the atmosphere and scenes. I always like the hand-drawn feel more and had ... not anticipated it here.
The atmosphere is great with music deepening the feel and enjoyable characters.
I loved this art style and feel more than in Gege 2018.
If you are thinking about watching Gege please start with this movie. It gives you so much information about the whole world.
Grab some beer and get ready for an amazing movie.

A very simple and easily understandable story that will give you a tear. It has Movie-style animations with intricate moments, each character feels just right yet it comes a long way to take the throne of other amazing movies.
The story is very subtle making sure the viewer understands it even with closed eyes.
What to write to not spoil anything...
This show is heavy on the story part so let's not talk about the details I would like anyone reading it to enjoy it by themselves:
Animation:
In short nice beautiful and classic. I am pretty sure this style will suit a lot of people.
Music:
The background music is ... nice when it matters and gives the environment its unique atmosphere.
Story:
To not spoil anything let's just say that it's very very good. If you liked Kimi no Na was you will definitely like this one.
Characters:
A very likeable set of supporting characters and every character has a personality in their village you don't see that often.
I need to keep this review short because I wouldn't like to give any hints about the environment etc because every single thing in this anime matters and anyone should enjoy it by themselves. You will definitely want to watch this one.

The first season was pretty meh... this season was sadly not a redemption.
I don't get the appeal of the VR MMO genre, yea a lot of anime can make it interesting but if you remove the concepts that make those interesting and make it into a more generic version you get a lot of bad shows like this one.

Like what is the promise of this anime? Where is the action story etc? Even Non-Non Biyori has more actual action than this anime series. Each fighting scene is predictable. The MC does not need to seek help from her allies or anyone else. Everyone is just ... a background character to add some "comedic" value to it. If you liked this anime try remembering a name from any character. The story is pointless, the characters are pointless all we have to focus on is the MC. It is just so boring.
Action in this anime means a very cheap fight where mc always wins after few strikes without any help or tactic.

Lets look at mal-listed tags:
Action:
Ok so let's talk about action, a lot of fighting scenes... but they are boring, one strike second strike enemy down hmm I quess I did beat the enemy by myself but thanks y all for your help *tehe*, tehe me not! What is interesting about that? Yea we got a lot of OP mc characters in other shows but they are actually good shows. The fighting scenes in them are interesting the fight has a reason and I could go on but let me stop here. Lets say its 1/10. A lot of fighting scenes don't mean its any good in your show.
Adventure:
Let's venture into a VR world... Let's make some interesting locations and buildings and and.... maybe not. If it is not a still image of a very typical isekai thing it will not be on our show --- some producers maybe said.
A lot of budget cutting on this one aspect. 3/10 some looked good enough.
Comedy:
Comedy in this anime is it is hmm how to say it. Even British humour has more comedic value than anything said or done in this show. 0/10
Fantasy:
Fantastically fantasylike OP MC and a very fantasy-like city "Hey GPT generate a fantasy image". Wait it looks better than anything in this show. Yeah even GPT could make this anime. But yeah it is fantasy because I don't believe anyone could come up with something like this show. Nah for real now. Yea, its fantasy what else to say *tehe*...
theme Video game:
Let's look at literally any video game theme anime. They are mostly good with interesting elements and technologies. With interesting background around the technology or how the game works with how many normal games work and behave. I don't know if the writer of this show never played any game but making one player even with exploits OP is just a bad design and very unrealistic.

A huge minus is eye ripping 3d, I get it, not a huge budget but at least some shows cut some details so it does not hurt viewers' eyes so much but at the very first episode of second I am not sure, we get a 3d character that is so detailed it hurts your eyes when he moves. I don't know if I've seen something eye-hurting in any other show.

Ok, so the main question is who would quite literally watch this? It has no real value, story or character, action, comedic, slice of life-wise.
It just barely scratches any tag and incorporates it a little. Like a first-time team game jam game project. I am actually surprised this got a second season.

This show is something else. It's so horrible that some people are blinded by its stupidity and say that it's better than SLF. Like bro what were you smoking while writing that? Yeah, I have a problem with both BUT Shangrila at least makes some sense, it's entertaining, has a good MC with supporting characters, and explained game mechanics.
Let's separate it a little.
The absurd technology:
Ok, imagine we have a world where there is a deep dive technology and AI NPCs are more human. Yeah as I said deep dive like in SAO because SAO made those things mainstream in anime/manga. Here our MC goes into ... a deep-dive while sitting. Hmm yeah, a 40-year-old dude sitting on a regular chair while in a comma. I think he must not have any pain after that.
Nonexistent game things:
Hmm, what to do with our game? Let's make only one player enjoy all the great things. Like what game would just make an entire story for one character? Like wtf, that's not MMO that's a singleplayer. Our MC has by pure luck acquired an AI companion exclusively for him he also had storylines exclusively for him. Like yeah, let's say that AI did all those things. Still, an average player would quit because of no interesting content. That is maybe why there is a nearly non-existent player base shown in the show. By the looks, it would be in our time something like a worse version of Nostale or RuneScape.
You can craft everything you want without recipes:
Yea, we are shown that our MC can craft himself all kinds of weird stupid bows but others can't make longswords until it's discovered in the dungeon? Like what? So our MC can craft himself those absurd bows and boots while others can't craft their sword an inch longer? We can see that he can craft anything he wants and also cook whatever meals he wants from irl but others can't. By my assumptions, there are maybe only 10k players and that would be really generous. You don't say that at least 10% picked Smith, another 10% picked Cook and some the potion maker?
Combat:
While trying to have some RPG mechanics it just makes so many mistakes. The author clearly had not played any game in years. Even tho the combat is at least partly watchable. It makes you think wtf is this?
The side characters are good...
Yeah, side characters are at least watchable. Be it the queen or the party. They feel like normal characters.
Mindless stupid nonhuman MC:
Another instance of MC with no real character. You can't even distinctly emphasize with him even tho you were a solo/party player he just doesn't make any sense. Don't say that he is like that because he is Japanese/introvert nah... that dawg is clearly mentally ill. You won't see any character progression or growth.
Non-existent reason to watch:
Ok it's not a slice of life, it's not a fantasy nor an isekai. It's literally about a dude who goes to work(we don't see him too much in irl, there also are not any scenes in the IRL world only his room) and plays for whatever reason games that he clearly can't even enjoy. There is literally zero reason for him to play as well as there is no reason for you to watch this anime. It's not even like SLF where skill matters. Nor does an actual level exist in that game he literally can take down a much higher-level enemy.
Art style:
Very 5/10 meh art style.
Overall 4/10. While it's true it's boring and stupid with non-existent entertainment value so it should be 1/10 BUT we at least have a wolf wifu there.

Arknights is a good animation that meets a horrible story. It is such a boring show because of the no-brainer story that any 5-year-old could write. You don't get any real action, nothing. Most episodes feel so boring and when it comes to action scenes they are the most boring ones I have ever seen. They would be even more enjoyable if they straight-up inserted a tower defence scene from the mobile game. The enemies have such boring personalities with no real character, fights make no sense and on top of it, most of the time you will be more like let's play the actual ... game then watch this.
The only plus about this show is a good-looking animation.
If you enjoyed the previous Arknights series and still can remember anything from them, you will enjoy this one too because it's exactly the same copy-paste boring anime as the previous iterations.

The first episode is somewhat exciting and after watching it you will be sucked into watching the entire anime. I recommend before every episode to be drunk or under the influence of something. In short, it doesn't make any sense. The last two episodes are a complete mess. Well in fact every episode is a complete mess. You have to shut your brain and don't think about anything watching this anime. Fighting scenes look so much low budget. I can imagine myself writing a better story in my teens.
- Below-average story
+ Somehow decent animating with not too much distracting CGI
- Not memorable OST or op/ep
Why ... I can't recommend it to anyone but hardcore anime fans? Because even the most edgy-loving anime fans won't be there to watch the whole 12eps. It just gets boring and stupider. Go watch That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and forget this anime even exists.

The best anime of this season! The intrigue story with a good sense of comedy ah... such a sweet anime. Ja Nai!
What a waste of a budget, time and everything else on anime like this. With every episode it gets "cringeier" that's all. Nothing interesting happens, boring characters and a lot of outright bad things.
Not recommended for anyone who likes good stories, a slice of life, and every other genre there is.
Even hentai has more story then this anime...
Imagine Isekai Shokudou without interesting characters, side stories, settings and originality. You will get this anime.
Even listening to Inaba kumori “ragutorein" looping for 4.8 hours is ... more enjoyable than this.
Can recommend it to everyone who enjoys thoroughly wasting their time.

Saihate no Paladin had a good premise in the first season that somehow made it interesting to watch. It just shouldn't have gotten a second season. Everything is just bad maybe worse than the first season. There is like literally no interesting filler. you get one episode with 1 to 5 minutes of interesting content and then just a boring part.
Tutorial on how to make slow-paced anime interesting: backstories worth being interested in, beautiful scenery and SFX, main character day activities, and bonding characters.
Saihate no Paladin is a disaster. I read the manga and watched the first season and still, I think whoever worked ... on this is inexperienced. From the feel of enjoyment from the first season because I liked the manga I overlooked a lot of bad things. But you can't overlook them anymore they are everywhere.
Saihate no Paladin should have been made by more experienced people like those who worked on Sousou no Frieren.
Animation - bad
Music - unimpactful/Generic
Source material handling: in a bad way
Entertainment level: nah not worth it, should have dropped it after the first episode
5/10 just because of my high copium level

The only downside only one is... Poor CGI, and rushed story, like wtf how tight your budget must be to do this wrong? Just change the scene a little so you won't need to use expensive effects/animations. What is so hard?
You have perfect reference material, one of the most unique and popular webtoon. Yet you rush the story, make fights worse every episode and the last episode does a highlight at the end for at least 6 other episodes completely skipping character development for these characters that will be somewhat important in the second season if there will be. Like really wtf? If you only ... cut it after Desir had that chess match it would have been fine.
Has anyone else read the webtoon? I guess at least some of you reading this review read some chapters. Look how much stuff is in there and how you get to know some of the characters. Our main character is more emotionally affected by seeing his friends and everything.
This anime adaptation feels like a low-budget circus show to promote the webtoon. Nothing more. I am still giving it 8 for my personal enjoyment but if it was another studio it would have been much better.
If you haven't read the webtoon, read the first 4 chapters and then watch the first episode of the anime and please write to me which made more impact on you.
For me, it was the webtoon.
Quick summary: enjoyment 9/10, animation 6/10 maybe less, character design similar to reference, story rushed and altered in a bad way.

Yet another thrilling and entertaining season of Goblin Slayer. The only shame is that it does not reveal any crucial backstory and is rather a series of short stories. With one having an annoying extra character. It's not so deep as a first-season and it looks like they had to cut some mature content that was in a first season the strawberry on a cake. Plus I think the budget was tighter for some reason.
For everyone who enjoyed the first season, I can somehow recommend it. Just don't expect the same feel as in the first season or the movie. Be sure to watch the ... movie first there are some little references to it.
Those who haven't yet seen the first season go for it. It is worth watching.