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Jan 19, 2025
I watched Ex-Arm out of curiousity searching for the worst rated MAL titles. Initially, I gave it a 1/10 after 1 episode and dropped the show as I couldn't even look at the monstrosity of the animation quality and declared that this show would be the benchmark for a 1/10 entry, with completely horrendous animation.
A few months later, I was clearing off my list of dropped entries and decided to just complete the entry, since for me it is better to regret watching something, rather than to regret not being able to watch the show, since I'm watching it on youtube under a licensed distributor's
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channel for free (specifically: Muse Asia), not knowing if the license would expire someday and it might not be renewed. My FOMO basically got the better of me and I watched the remaining 11 episodes across a week.
As an anime-only viewer, I found that the plot is fine, it is an interesting take on the sci-fi genre using the classic good vs evil tropes, it's a fairly average show in this regard, it falls in the "I'll watch this once, rate it a 7/10 and then move on" category. While Ex-Arm might have terrible animation quality, there are signs that the animators actually put in effort to animate this, and learning that it is the studio's first animation project, I felt like I would make an exception and actually not criticize on the animation too much, despite the fact that some of the characters' animation and expressions clearly doesn't match the tone of the voice actor's dialogue.
Does Ex-Arm really deserves a 1/10 score?
If compared to other shows, I honestly felt for me to personally give 1/10 to Ex-Arm is the equivalent of hating on something without seeing the full picture before forming an opinion, it might look absolutely horrendous, but I personally don't think a 1/10 is justified. As at the point of writing, Ex-Arm has been rated by 44.3k users, while a total of 15.8k viewers have indicated that they have completed the show. This suggests that many of the viewers who dropped the show gave it a 1/10, with a staggering 29.0k votes coming from 1/10 itself, due to the poor animation that is difficult to watch.
Note: Mathematically, if 44.3k users rated the show and assuming all 15.8k users who completed it rated a 1/10, this still suggests that 13.2k viewers who are watching or dropped the show gave it a 1/10 score, which I don't think it is realistically possible at all, hence, it is assumed that a majority of the 1s came from viewers who dropped the show.
Conclusion:
Unfortunately, because the show looks a mess despite having a completely decent plot, I'd give it a 5/10. It may look horrendous, but I can feel that it was made with passion, the voice actors did a good job to convey the tone of what the story wanted to tell, it is just lacking on the animation aspects and it is very hard to overlook this aspect.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 12, 2024
This show is a good example of how annoying support characters can make or break a show's enjoyment.
I've watched a number of basic isekai/fantasy shows revolving around the same cliche topics and themes, what made those shows enjoyable for me is the generally positive vibes and easy to follow plot, alongside a main cast that I can root for. Occasionally I might find something with a slightly different template such as Failure Frame from last season with a villainous MC instead.
In short, my interpretation of isekai is like giving the class an essay theme that is open ended, and then reading the student's work to
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see if they are going to go the easy route, or the creative route and create something that isn't commonly seen for the theme.
Coming into the season, my initial rating after the third episode was an 8/10, for giving an easy to follow plot and appreciating the MC's desires to enjoy his isekai life as a loner. Despite it being very generic and following mostly standard isekai tropes, I enjoyed how the class was separated into cliques and I got intrigued and wanting to know and understand more about the class dynamics and how the MC would interact with them.
Then, the show really had to ruin it by introducing the very irritating class rep and her group of female classmates. Every episode with her really got on my nerves with their hypocrisy and holier than thou attitude intentionally putting him into situations that could've been avoided had they just respect his wishes and just leave him alone. For that reason, the middle stretch was unbearable and frustrating to watch.
The ending stretch was great, as I got to see minimal screentime with those annoying female classmates, however, due to how the middle stretch was unbearable to watch, I can only give it a 7/10 for a simple and easy to understand show, but completely ruined by annoying characters.
On the bright side, there is no harem and minimal fanservice in this anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 19, 2024
First impressions when reading the title? It reminds me of Cuphead because of "Parry" and immediately, my mind thinks it is gonna be a show where the MC only knows how to use the parry skill to solve every obstacle that comes along the way.
This is a show with a plot that has been done a thousand times before, using the age old concept that is based on the famous Bruce Lee quote: "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." where we follow a protagonist who thinks he's
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weak because he only trained in the basic skills, but in reality, is very powerful because of his hard work to hone the basics over years of practice.
The MC is probably the make or break factor for most people - the MC's upbringing has resulted in him in being completely oblivious to social norms. For me, I enjoyed watching the MC's reactions when interacting with people that stems from his upbringing, constantly thinking that he's weak and he needed improvement while sending a message to the viewers that humility and hard work overcomes arrogance and inherent skills.
Overall, it is a very simple and straightforward show, and that is exactly what I like to watch - sometimes, the simplest shows are the best shows, just like how in the show itself, the basic parry skill, can be honed and perfected to be as effective, or even more effective, than complex skills.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 16, 2024
Being in my late 20s as of the point of writing, and as a new anime watcher with less than a year of experience. I always wondered, had I started too late to do anything, be it trying a new sport or experience, when comparing to people who started in their teens or younger and have tons of experience?
This show is a good example of a simple concept show that is inspirational and shows that hard work overcomes born talent. While the concept is definitely done a thousand times by now, what make the show stood out for me is the use of an over
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30s main characters to drive the message and it couldn't have aired at a better time.
When I was watching this, I was on a (as of writing) 6 month hiatus of not skateboarding, because I just felt like I'm just terrible as compared to people who are younger than me, or people who are older and had way more experience and I couldn't help but keep trying to make excuses to think that it's because I started late and I don't have the talent.
Three episodes of this is enough to make me tear up because the message the show sent was genuine, it is not about how much talent a person have, it is the effort, and I want to treat this as a way to keep pushing myself and to stop making excuses. For a person who only teared up twice previously in his short 1 year watching anime, this is one of the best anime I've seen, not because of the concept, but because of the strong and powerful message sent.
Overall, I'd say a strong 8 for me so far, hoping the pacing can keeps up and hoping this show will encourage more people who are in their late 20s and older to realise that it is never too late to start anything.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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