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You remember the movie Deadpool? It was supposed to be a parody of generic superhero movies. How did it do this? By doing the exact same things that generic superhero movies do, complete with a tragic backstory for the hero, a love interest that he saves, coming to terms with his superpowers, etc... Nice parodying there, buddy. Well, Oshi no Ko is kinda like that. It's not exactly a parody, but more of an edgy deconstruction of idol anime, like what Madoka Magica is to mahou shojo and Evangelion is to mecha. Except it ends up feeling just like a normal idol anime by the ... end of the season. When I watched this show, my higher brain was telling me it was an asinine experience but my lower brain was just getting numbed and dragged along for the ride. I can't say I didn't enjoy it, but after finishing it and taking a step back, the cracks were definitely showing.

Pros:
+Great production. Everything in this show is just really nice to look at, and the visuals were half the reason why I was somewhat hypnotized while watching it. Doga Kobo really pulled out all the stops and gave this thing the triple A anime experience - from the first episode being 90 fucking minutes long to the 2nd cour on the way. It's really funny because there was a story arc in this show about terrible manga adaptations and how more often than not manga authors are disappointed with anime adaptations of their work. I guess they must have taken that bit to heart and didn't wanna be the exact thing they were depicting.
+ The characters that are not Aqua and Ruby are actually quite well-written and interesting. Arima Kana in particular was a great look into how child stardom can mess up a kid's psyche and development for the rest of their lives. Hoshino Ai was also quite an interesting character, and so was Mem-cho. The same cannot be said for the two main characters though, and we'll go into that later.
+ Although I am not interested in showbiz in the slightest, I can't help but be drawn in by how this show depicts it. Again, my higher brain knew something was wrong with it, but my lower brain was hooked like a coomer on OnlyFans. I was entertained for most of this show's runtime, and didn't mind watching it to the end. I'll go into why this is in the cons.

Cons:
- The premise of this show is really fucking stupid and stretches suspension of disbelief almost to breaking point. When I first heard about it, I assumed it was another cringy isekai show that relied on shock factor to attract interest, similar to something like Backstreet Girls (not isekai, but you get the idea). It was only when my friend raved about how unique it was that I decided to power through the cringy premise and give it a try. The main problem I have with this reincarnation plot is that it feels hopelessly out of place in an anime that makes a huge deal about how "realistic" it is. This is a show that constantly whacks you over the head about how it's depicting real events that are happening right now in real life show business, so why did it have to start in such a fantastical way? It's something that completely shatters my immersion every time I think about, and that is never what you want if you want the audience to take your story as seriously as Akasaka Ai wants you to take Oshi no Ko.

- The two main characters are actually the low points of the entire cast. Aqua is a 46 year old dude who thinks he's Lelouch. Dude was literally a practicing physician before his death and he seems to completely forget that in his new life, vowing his entire existence to some stupid revenge plot that even a 12 year old would find cringy. What was the point of making this guy a 30 year old who died and reincarnated in the first place if he's never gonna exhibit any trace of who he used to be anyways? Again, he's a 46 year old man who's spent the past 16 years acting like a sulky, edgy teenager. You would think 16 years is enough time for someone to consider other options in life, like picking up medicine again? This is the classic Anime Backstory Syndrome, where an ungodly amount of time has passed since some tragic event, but the characters still act like it just happened yesterday for the sake of the plot. See: Anohana. This aspect of Aqua's character is what sours him as a protagonist to me, on top of the typical dense harem protagonist thing the show is building towards.

Ruby, on the other hand, is a 28 year old woman who thinks and acts like a 10 year old. She literally has no character trait other than wanting to be an idol. That's all I can say about her. She literally has no character. She's not funny; she's not witty; she's not anything. Every time she opens her mouth she talks about wanting to be an idol. Out of this entire cast, it's a shame that the two main leads had to be the most boring ones.

- For a show about criticizing show business and exposing how fake they are, Oshi no Ko turns right around and becomes a standard high school romcom/slice of life about show business after its first episode. The story feels like it pulls a lot of punches and didn't cut as deep as it could have. Aqua keeps monologuing these cold-ass takes about how shitty all of showbiz is, then turns around and gets involved in showbiz literally every other episode. It's like the show is trying its damnedest to tell you "Hey, I'm self-aware, so this isn't cringe, ok?" then turns around to do something very cringe. My guess is that Akasaka Ai wanted to explore the dark side of showbiz but still wanted to make his manga digestible to as wide an audience as possible, so he wrote in a lot of conventional manga tropes that would make it popular, like a harem of cute girls and an edgy self-insert protagonist, complete with romcom antics and some """"comedy"""". But hey, it's an edgy deconstruction of idol anime, so it's not like the other idol animes, right guys?

TLDR: I'll give Oshi no Ko a 6/10. It has fundamental problems with its characters, writing, and premise, but it's watchable. I didn't hate it so much that I wanted to stop midway through or anything; in fact, it managed to keep me entertained throughout its 13 episode runtime (1st ep is as long as 3 eps). Maybe that is enough to make it a good anime? To me, though, I wanted something more out of such an ambitious and somewhat clever premise. I'll see how season 2 holds up. If it manages to fix any of its current problems, then that'll be swell.

When I was a kid I would read countless picture books depicting some of the most famous stories from the Arabian Nights, including the adventures of Sindbad the Sailor, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, and Alibaba and The 40 Thieves. They were some of the most iconic stories that perhaps many people my age will remember fondly. The Arabian Nights, along with some assorted Aesop, Grimm, Andersen, Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese fairy tales made up most of my magical childhood. Later in life, I discovered anime and manga, and once again I was transported into many strange and magical worlds, filled with adventure, life lessons, ... and emotions. It was then that I discovered Magi - a full-fledged shounen inspired by the world of the Arabian Nights. My interest was immediately piqued. After watching the first and second seasons, I was positively hooked. Then, I went to read the manga. Now, there was quite a gap in time between when I finished the second season and when I started reading the manga. However, when I picked the manga up again, I had no trouble remembering why I liked this series so much in the first place. It took one of the best parts of the Arabian Nights - the culture, atmosphere, and setting of the Islamic Golden Age - and combined it with the creativity, storytelling, and excitement that manga as a medium brings.

Setting:
The first great thing about Magi is the uniqueness of its setting and its masterful worldbuilding. There is simply nothing else I've read so far that has a fantasy world like Magi. It simply is one-of-a-kind. It's comparable to something like Dorohedoro or Soul Eater - even after all my years of watching and reading Japanese media, there is simply nothing else like it. The power system and the way magic is cast in general are also very well though-out. This is a common theme. Everything about Magi's world, from the worldbuilding, geopolitics, culture of each country, character backstories, down to the power system and everything in between are all very well thought-out, drawing parallels from real life cultures, religions, and conflicts to craft a very believable fantasy world.


Story:
The story is exceptional. It has a textbook start to a shonen adventure, then kept escalating and expanding its universe and cast with each arc. It starts out with the personal journey of the three main characters: Aladin, Alibaba, and Morgiana, as they try to take their first steps on this grand adventure. Over time, more and more and more characters get added until this is no longer a story about a group of three, but rather, an entire world of people. Arcs started off small-scale, then escalated to involve entire cities, countries, continents, and parallel realities, each with with twists and turns all around. It felt like Shinobu Ohtaka read One Piece, The Arabian Nights, and Romance of The Three Kingdoms/ watched some Chinese historical dramas, then decided incorporate the sense of adventure, mysticism, and political intrugue/war drama of these things into her own manga.

As for the tone and themes that the story explores, it really surprised me for a shounen. It started out fairly light-hearted, with slavery being the only "dark" plot element present. However, it kept one-upping itself with every arc, introducing racism, torture, genocide, wartime atrocities, ethnic cleansing, etc... By the end, the story was grappling with some very lofty concepts about the human condition and the nature of all conflict as arising from the fact that we are human. Mind you, this manga was published in the same shounen magazine as lighthearted series like Hayate no Gotoku, Komi-san, Ranma, etc... so I did not expect it to go so hard into seinen territory, but boy was I pleasantly surprised. The Alma Torran Arc in particular was my favorite, as it was when the story really went from just good to great in my eyes. However, at the same time, I feel that this battle to constantly one-up itself is a double-edged sword. After the insane Alma Torran Arc and Kou Arc, the series couldn't really go any further from there. Its final arc felt like an epilogue more than anything, and I really liked it until it overstayed its welcome. The series should have ended at maybe volume 32. It would have ended complete and satisfying. However, feeling the need to write in a climactic "grand finale" for the series, Shinobu Ohtaka penned some very contrived plot developments and made the series keep going for a few volumes too many. It's not whether you could, but whether you should. By the end, Magi was just rambling. Characters keep talking back and forth about the same things that sound complicated, but really aren't. They scream at each other, fight it out, the world is saved, whoop- dee-doo. After finishing Magi, I am still satisfied with how the story ended overall, but it could have been a lot more succint and less messy. This last leg of the story was the one blemish on an otherwise stellar adventure for me.

Characters:
Magi's characters are the backbone of the manga. For the most part, it felt like a character-driven story. Major plot developments are the direct result of what the characters do. This was kinda true in the first half, and was wholly true in the second half. Alibaba and his friends are likeable enough, and they each have surprising depth, despite appearing generically happy-go-lucky at first glance. As the cast expands, you get more and more interesting characters with depth and personality, and Magi gradually feels like it's telling these side characters' stories just as much as it is telling the protagonists' stories. Shinobu Ohtaka simply writes very expressive, larger-than-life, and entertaining characters to follow.

However, if I had to criticize something, Magi struggles a bit with its villains. In the first half, most of the villains were moustache-twirling shitheads with little redeeming quality. You're given sufficient explanation for why they're the way they are (i.e nobleman is an asshole to slaves because that's simply how he was taught to treat others growing up), but that doesn't make them any more likable. The second half is much better in this aspect, and most antagonists are given more nuanced backstories and redeeming traits to them. They're also a lot more cunning and intimidating than the first half. Their appearance on the page commands fear and respect. However, I think some of their motivations are still unclear and hard to understand, and the confrontation with the final antagonist was just weird. Ohtaka Shinobu kinda lost me at the end, but hey, I already said that earlier in this review.

Art:
Magi's artwork for the most part is drawn in Shinobu Ohtaka's signature style. This style has both its strengths and weaknesses. Its strength is that it is very expressive. Characters' facial expression convey a lot of nuanced emotions through their eyes and mouth. A twitch of the eyebrow; a wrinkle in their smile; or a crease in their forehead; these all come across clearly in Ohtaka's artstyle. In addition, the characters' clothing, the architecture, the Djinn Equips, are all drawn very creatively. They clearly convey their Arabic/Persian/Chinese influences, but also have a unique Magi flair to them. It makes the world of Magi very cohesive and immersive to read.

However, some weaknesses of Ohtaka's artstyle are as follows: the characters tend to get same-face syndrome. As the story goes on and the cast becomes quite massive, it can be hard to tell characters apart from one another by face alone. Many of Ohtaka's characters' faces tend to blur together, with big eyes and a mouth with only the top row of teeth. However, Ohtaka does make sure to give them each other distinguishing features like hair, clothing, accessories, skin color, etc... to help tell them apart, so this is not too big of an issue. Another weakness is that fight scenes are a bit messy. Since there's a lot of spell-slinging and transformations and effects flying all around the page, it can be hard to tell what exactly you're looking at in a fight sequence. But, although the fighting part of each fight is not that good, the flow and outcome of each fight always felt significant and fun to follow. You're usually on the edge of your seat wanting to know what happens next or how the chracters will overcome their enemies.

Conclusion:
One of the reasons I started watching anime/reading manga in the first place was how free-form and creative they felt as mediums. There is an anime or manga for just about any topic or theme that you can imagine, of which the Arabian Nights is no exception. Magi is like a marriage of two things I love from two different eras of my life, and the result is something that is truly unique and surprisingly nuanced for a shounen manga. If you find your curiosity piqued by its Arabic/Persian-inspired aesthetic, definitely consider giving it a try. You'll find something very unique and fun and will be staying for its characters and story instead.

Shirobako is not just an insightful look behind the scenes of an anime studio, it is also a great reflection on the complexities of adult worklife. Imagine an anime about working adults dealing with adult problems - yeah I know, holy shit. No high school. No teenage angst. No moebait too, unlike New Game. Sure, some of the character designs are moe-ish, but nothing too over-the-top. Characters mostly look and dress like people you'd actually find in an anime studio. The focus is purely on the two things that I mentioned previously: the anime-making process, and the worklife of people who make anime. I'll talk ... about each separately.

The anime-making part is good in that it gives you a very detailed look at what the production process looks like - along with anything that might go wrong along the way. And trust me, in this show, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Of course, I'm sure most anime productions are nowhere near as chaotic as the ones depicted in this show. Some might even call this show unrealistic, but without all this crazy stuff going down, there would be no conflict to drive the plot. If anything, the exaggerated way the show presents the anime-making process was a very deliberate narrative choice to show the viewer how every component of the anime-making machine works. Only when you put strain on parts of the machine and break it down can you begin to clearly see how all the moving pieces depend on one another to work properly. That is what makes the anime-making side of Shirobako so compelling.

The worklife side of the show is also quite strong. The show explores some very real growing pains that working adults go through not just in the anime industry but in most professions in general. Characters have realistic dreams, hopes, and fears about their profession. For instance, a bunch of episodes revolved around a traditionalist 2D animator goes on strike because he is afraid of being replaced by 3D animators. Other episodes dealt with a burnt-out production assistant who has had his passion and enthusiasm wrung out of him by the industry. The show also explores a new seiyuu's struggle to find any work at all. Such problems are dealt with and explored in a fairly mature way. No one is a superhuman who is perfect in every way, and no one will swoop in to solve all your problems for you. Sooner or later, you'll have to find a way to solve your problems yourself, but don't be afraid to ask your co-workers and friends for help. That is essentially the show's message, which I liked quite a bit.

Another thing I'd like to praise the show for is how meta it is. This is an anime about characters who are making an anime. During this process, the anime that they are making is edited and redone multiple times for added emotions or detail, etc... In order to make this possible, the studio making Shirobako (P.A Works) had to have complete mastery over all the techniques that they are criticizing about the anime inside the anime. For instance, there is a shot of a character from the anime that the Shirabako characters are making that had to be redone because her facial expressions weren't expressive enough. We are shown what the scene is like before and after it is redone. In order to do this, the animators of P.A Works had to know how to deliberately make a bad take first, then do the good take afterwards, and the good take is actually really good. I felt my heart wrench at the character's expressions in the final take. P.A Works was basically flexing their animation prowess with this whole narrative arc, which, as I said, required that they have complete mastery over the thing they are doing before they can deliberately create a bad take of it. The same also goes for scenes where the Shirobako characters were recording the voices for the anime they were making. The voice actresses in real life had to portray voice actresses in anime doing bad takes. Again, this requires complete mastery on the real life voice actress' part in order to deliberately do a performance that felt "off" but not too overly bad. It's extremely subtle but quality voicework, and I respect the voice actresses for being able to do that.

However, the show still has some flaws. While the problems that the characters face and the way they deal with their problems are handled quite well, the characters themselves are a hit or miss. Some of them are just downright annoying. The show takes a few creative liberties here and there with the characters to make them more "entertaining" to watch, but this also made some of them really immature and unprofessional. It's a wonder how these people are functioning working adults. However, this is not a dealbreaker, as these characters, although annoying and immature as they are, are like onions - they have layers. They can be adults when it comes down to it; it's just that their usual demeanors are really annoying. If you can suspend your disbelief for a little bit, then you'll be treated to a fine show. Shirobako, ladies and gentlemen.

Overall: 8/10

Story: 7/10

The story is just 2 hours of studio Trigger clowning on themselves. With this movie, it's like they've become completely self aware. They're all but parodying themselves more and more with each subsequent work they put out, and strangely, they're better off for it. Yes, that's right. Studio Trigger is at its best when it's not taking itself too seriously. Remember Little Witch Academia and Darling in The Franxx? Remember how miserable and boring they were to watch? Yeah. Promare is the antithesis to all that. It's Imaishi's wake-up slap to Trigger, showcasing what made Gurren Lagann such a timeless classic. "Hey, you remember ... that?" He said. "Let's make more of THAT." He suggested.

That said, Promare's story is not exactly "Gurren la Kill" as some call it. It does come pretty damn close, though. It does just barely enough to differentiate itself from big bro Gurren Lagann and big sister Kill la Kill. Trigger knew comparisons to those two shows would be inevitable, and what did they do? They embraced the meme harder than anyone expected them to. And the result? A drug-addled haze of a movie. A cranium-busting roller coaster of pure fucking adrenaline and hype, but not much else. And you know what? That's all I ever asked for from Studio Trigger. As is standard Studio Trigger fare, the story is extremely over the top and convoluted - hopelessly so for a movie. This is the stuff that 24 episode anime series are made of, not a 2 hour flick. As a result, the story moves at an unbelievably breakneck pace. There is not a single moment to blink or look away. In every shot, there is always something going on, something flying across the screen as the camera pans 360 degrees. Anything that is explained is rushed through without a moment's pause, and anything that is not explained is brushed off in a very flippant and nonchalant manner. Actually, I'm making it sound worse than it actually is. When you're watching the movie, it just works. There is just enough plot for you to actually care about what's going on. There is just enough characterization for you to care about the characters, to want to see them triumph. In exchange for cutting some of these elements a bit short, the movie moves the plot forward and resolves things at such a rapid pace that our attention is held captive throughout the entire movie. And last but not least, this speed demon pacing paves way for the two most powerful ingredients in the Gurren la Kill formula: unending hype and escalation.

In Promare, anyone who's even half familiar with Trigger's and by extension Gainax's storytelling chops should theoretically not bat an eye at anything. But we do anyways. We cannot help but be drawn in. It's everything we've all come to know and love, cranked into maximum overdrive. It's no understatement to say that hype and adrenaline are the glue that makes the underwhelming story and characters stick. There's something strangely hypnotic about a shirtless man with spiky hair screaming about how he'll put fires out with his "burning spirit" as he smashes a button that makes his mech transform into optimus prime but with 6 arms and a giant firefighting umbrella. Escalation is the name of the game. The scale of the story and fights just ramps up and up into absolute pandemonium. That is not to say, however, that the story is bad, or that it relies too heavily on hype as a crutch. But let's just say that, if this movie was made by any other studio, it would have been laughed out of the theaters. However, because this is a Trigger animation, directed by the based god Imaishi, magic happens. Only Trigger can make something both so mediocre and so amazing at the same time.

Art: 10/10

Promare was one of the most visually and aurally intense anime movies I've ever experienced. It makes 99% of all other anime movie look like they were drawn on an Etch-A-Sketch by a dyslexic Parkinson's patient. Every single action scene was so hyper-kinetic; so dynamic but clear-cut and satisfying, that even if you think the story is shit, it's damn worth watching for just the animation alone. Imagine episode 12 of One Punch Man but stretched out to 2 hours. The camera has a will of its own and will change angles once every other frame when it's not doing overhead 360 degree pans around a giant robot flying across the map, smashing through 12 buildings before leveling a mountain as it kicks off said mountain to fly straight towards the space ship it was fighting. The best part is that you can always tell what was happening. Never did Promare lose or confuse me as to what I was looking at. Every single shot transitioned into another so seamlessly and coherently that I really felt like I was moving along with the action, felt every punch, heard every scream from inside the cockpit. In other words, the animation always put me at the heart of the action, a very subtle thing that can make or break action sequences. A lot of shows have amazing sakuga fights but tend to make a clusterfuck of them. Promare, however, never once dropped the ball on that front.

Also, I have not seen this much seamless and clever use of 3D CG since Houseki no Kuni. This is some of the best looking CG animation I've ever seen, and it unarguably enhances the experience in every way, allowing for some camera angles and choreographed movement that would not have been possible to convey with just traditional animation alone.

Sound: 10/10

Many major action sequences in Promare played out like an AMV, in that the action and music were synced perfectly to create a synthesis of the senses that was fun to experience. However, for AMVs to work, the songs had to be good. Preferably, really good. Did Promare's OST fit the bill? Yes and more. It was composed by the same guy who composed tracks for Kill la Kill. If you thought Blumenkranz or Don't Lose Your Way was good, look up "Inferno" and "Kakusei" on Youtube. At least, that was what I immediately did after I finished watching this movie. I'm still humming them as I'm writing this review right now.

There was not a single track that did not fit the mood or did not enhance a scene in any way. Every single track was in top form, especially the ones that played during the major action scenes. Remember the finale of Gurren Lagann with Sorairo Days blasting in the background, or that fight with the huge kaiju with a lot of guns from FLCL to the total bop that is Blues Drive Monster? Yeah. Same energy.

Enjoyment: 10/10

The only way my night could have ended better was if I also got to snort coke off the buttocks of an Amsterdam hooker while getting a lapdance from an actual anime girl. I also have a friend who waited 4 hours in line to get into the premiere and he said it was completely worth it.

Overall: 10/10

Trigger is like that one loose cannon drunk friend that we keep hanging around because in his lucid moments he can be genuinely brilliant and awesome guy to hang around (i.e Kill la Kill, Space Patrol Luluco, Inferno Cop) but when he's drunk he's vomiting subpar material like it's stomach flu season (i.e Darling In The Franxx, Little Witch Academia). His latest flash of sober genius turned out to be Promare and once again we are reminded of why we keep having this love-hate relationship: all so that someday he would shape the fuck up and remind us all again of what made anime such a special medium in the first place, to allow such brilliant works of kinetic art to grace our eyeballs and such passionate screams of men vibrate in our eardrums.

Story & Writing: 10/10
Watching Ping Pong The Animation is like being pegged by an Amsterdam prostitute while role-playing as a conservative MP in denial. It's an extremely unorthodox and bizarre experience, but you can't help but be enthralled, enchanted, mesmerized, and hypnotized by it. You keep coming back for more, unable to resist its beckons. You are glued to the screen; fixed to your chair by a strange energy that emanates from every frame of animation, from every sound effect, every music note. From the follicles of your hair to the soles of your feet you are filled with a strange emotion. It wells up ... within you, bleeds into your senses, and oozes out of your eyeballs. You cry not because you are sad, but you realize that Ping Pong The Animation is not actually an anime about ping pong at all. It is a parable; an anecdote about life.It chronicles the era of youthful self-discovery and exuberance that sleeps inside us all. Some might even call it a "perfect coming-of-age story," and while that is quite a fitting term to describe the true nature of this beautiful show, it does not even begin to encapsulate its artistic merit. I realize that I've literally said nothing concrete about the story, characters, or writing, but that's intentional. Go witness firsthand how relentlessly human and likeable these wonderful representations of real people are. Hero Kenzan. Hero Kenzan. Hero Kenzan.

Art: 10/10
Some might say that art is subjective, and while those very same people may call Ping Pong The Animation's artstyle "ugly," those people are objectively wrong. These are phillistines who understand nothing about artistic integrity and expression. Ping Pong's unorthodox artstyle doesn't make it look bad; it's the opposite. Each frame of animation is dynamic and expressive unlike any other. The characters break model quite often and quite liberally. This allows for some of the most interesting camera angles, screenplay, and directing I've seen in a while. The camerawork and choreography during the ping pong matches are nothing short of superb. It takes no small amount of skill and effort to make PING PONG, of all things, look absolutely exhilarating and breathtaking.

Sound: 10/10
The soundtrack is one of the best things about this series. Every single track fits amazingly well and kicks emotional highs into maximum overdrive. The ED is the single best track in all of the OST. Merengue is basically Japanese Owl City, and their song perfectly captures the energy and emotional core of this show.

Enjoyment: 10/10
It's been quite while since I was this completely enthralled by an anime series. Most shows don't excite me as much as they used to anymore, but Ping Pong managed to turn me into a beginner anime viewer all over again, glued to my seat, completely immersed and impressed by everything. Anime is not dead.

Overall: 10/10 masterpiece

Story & Characters: 10/10

Pop Team Epic's story is a subject of intense speculation and mystery. It's internal workings and deeper ramifications are barely understood, even to the team of neckbearded, waifu-signalling, 4chan-browsing, basement-dwelling troglodytes who conceived it. It is a loose assemblage of obscure pop culture references held together with spit and cum, and the most fitting analogy for the show's humor and flow is a gacha game. Most of the time, you'll be getting shit. But once in a while, you understand an extremely obscure reference or an insanely on-point parody that makes you feel as if the series is counting you in as ... one of the "cool kids." You keep coming back to get that shot of dopamine that makes your nipples tingle like a furry at the annual American Kennel Club. Your enjoyment of this series is directly proportional to how many references and parodies you catch, which is proportional to how long you've immersed yourself in this cesspool we call a pop culture. One thing for sure, though is that anyone who rates this show lower than a 9 is a mouth-breathing, soy-eating basic bitch boomer who has been living under a rock and does not understand quirky random millennial humor at its very best. It is a meme that has transcended all boundaries of reason and logic, has become so """"""ironic"""""" that it is immune to criticism and scrutiny. It doesn't have any proper setup or punchlines because it doesn't need any. It is the beacon of an era; the battle cry of a generation. Just when we thought dank memes cannot get any more obtuse and self-referencing, Pop Team Epic one ups the game by being something akin to a psychedelic social experiment, where the result is a joke that everyone finds funny, but no one understands. Everyone is in on the joke, but no one knows what the punchline is, and I dare not say anymore at risk of ruining the punchline if I haven't already.

The narrative that Pop Team Epic is pushing, while taken at face value, may seem trite and meaningless, but if one were to take a step back and look at the bigger picture, the pieces start clicking into place. In the first place, what is it trying to do? To fuck with the audience at every twist and turn, with every picosecond of its runtime. Why does it fuck with us like this? Because it literally markets itself as an edgy self-aware ironic dank meme. It is an anime that parades and ridicules itself on Twitter with the #kusoanime tag to draw attention to its subversiveness. The key visual for the anime announcement literally has the two main characters saying that the publisher for the manga will regret turning it into an anime. And strangely, this form of marketing worked. Not only did it manage to gather the entire japanese twitter community under its banner of flippant self-awareness, but it has also become something akin to an urban legend on western message boards and forums. It has a nothing short of an abusive relationship with its (ironic) fanbase, where everything it says and does is buried underneath so many layers of irony that its true intentions can never be discerned. Who is in on the meme and who is not? Is the season 2 announcement legit or are they just ironically cockslapping us like they always do? The charm of Pop Team Epic, aka its over-the-top self-awareness, has the mythical quality of being applicable to just about anything it does, suspending fan reactions in indefinite limbo, and fans actually like that. This is absolute genius. Every step of the way was calculated, and the marketing and production committees knew exactly what they were doing, even if the people they were marketing to didn't.

Art: 8/10
Pop Team Epic toes the line between pissing on our eyelids and showing us colors for the first time. Just when you think it's settled on an artstyle, it cockslaps you with something like Hellshake Yano, which, by the way, is one of the most batshit insane things I've ever seen in all my years of watching anime. Some dudes actually had to write, draw, choreograph, rehearse, and perform that shit. It wholly captures the flippant style and spirit of the manga, and leaves me with no complaints whatsoever. Actually, I do have two complaint: the BobbuNeMiMiMi segments look like dogshit, and the producers pussied out on the episode length and each episode is technically only 10 minutes long. But then again, both of those are not weaknesses but are actually strengths of Pop Team Epic, when you take into account what it's trying to do.

Sound: 8/10
Sound is one of the departments where Pop Team Epic really makes the most of its medium. The wildly inconsistent voice acting and sound design kept things interesting, and I actually enjoyed hearing some of my favorite female seiyuus like Mimori Suzuko and Taketatsu Ayana scream, shout, and bark at the top of their lungs for a really expensive shitpost.

Enjoyment: 9/10

Overall: 9/10

Story & Sound: 8 & 10, respectively

"Ah, he who has and he who has not
A man rising up to try and take another's spot
Ah, the pretender and the crown,
Fake or real? Which one is going down?
Ah, two animals going wild out there,
Freedom and soul, the only things they share
Ah, this is where they wanna be
A pair of predators, about to be set free."
...
First off, I want to review Megalo Box's story along with its sound, because to me, Megalo Box's soundtrack is so intertwined with its identity and aesthetic that I cannot consider the two as separate entities.

Megalo Box pulls off everything it wants to do with flair and confidence. It is more than just an homage to the monumental Ashita no Joe; from the very first episode Megalo Box had already taken off as its own stylish and unique story, with a gritty cyberpunk-ish hip-hop aesthetic. Here's where this anime's soundtrack comes in: hip-hop and pop with a little rap and electronic flair. Try to recall a time when hip-hop was not just a musical genre but a social movement, a battle cry of a generation of young adults living in impoverished suburban areas. Now try to imagine the kind of imagery you would see in an 80's hip-hop/rap music video, from the "ghettos", to "life in the hood", to poverty, to violence, and most importantly, to defiance. Why did I bring all this up? Because this is exactly the kind of imagery Megalo Box's soundtrack evokes for me; I felt like I was watching a 4 hour long underground hip-hop music video, complete with some youth rapping about "making it in the game," about hustling and earning respect, and someday becoming someone bigger. Needless to say, I absolutely loved every moment of it. Thematically, I can't think of anything that goes with Megalo Box's classic underdog "came from the mud" story and slum setting better than hip-hop, with its defiant undertones and history with impoverished communities. In other words, Megalo Box's soundtrack makes its story that much more funky, expressive, and empowering. Truly a match made in heaven.

Now that we have the show's thematic associations out of the way, let's move on to the actual story.

As with any good sports series, half of the story takes place outside of the sport itself. Just like Hajime no Ippo, Megalo Box pulls off the character drama outside the boxing ring beautifully. The story is very realistic in that the shady pasts of our main cast follows them throughout the entire show, and their struggles are not just confined to the fistfights inside the ring, but also the outside. The audience is constantly reminded that Junk Dog and co. are not heroes, but rather, a bunch of frauds who managed to crawl their way up from the bottom. Almost each and every episode of Megalo Box is rife with suspense and cliffhangers, as getting inside the ring is just as difficult as winning a fight in it. Why an 8 out of 10 then, if the story is so good, you ask? Well, keep reading.

Characters: 9/10

Megalo Box's characters are immediately likeable and sympathetic. Right off the bat, Junk Dog is a classic underdog protagonist that is the staple of so many great shounen stories. But what seperates Junk Dog from Naruto or that screaming twat from Black Clover is that he acts like a mature adult. He doesn't scream "I WILL BECOME HOKAGE !!1!1!" nor does he act like a buffoon to gain attention and acknowledgement. Instead, he comes off as a relatable human being who's struggling to find a purpose in life, to find something that thrills him and spurs him to keep on living. This struggle is exemplified by the first few minutes of episode one, where he, either consciously or unconsciously, drove his bike through an open wasteland and straight off a cliff, possibly to find some excitement, some emotional stimulus in what is an otherwise pointless and unsatisfying life a fraud who throws matches in an underground ring for a living. One thing I can't give the show enough credit for is that it understands what "show, not tell" is. Much of Junk Dog's character is revealed through his actions and habits, and the same can also be said for Megalo Box's solid cast of side characters, including the troubled boxing coach Nanbu, the urchin Sachio, and the prideful Yuri. Almost every single one of them will grow and develop throughout the course of the story, but since there's only 13 episodes to spare, something had to give, and that something was the boxing matches themselves, which leads me to my next point.

The boxing matches are definitely lackluster.
I've been spoiled by Hajime no Ippo, with its ultra intense balls-to-the-wall mind game boxing matches, each stretched over the span of a few episodes. Megalo Box, however, due to its short episode count, has to resolve most matches within one episode max. The shortest matches can be as short as half an episode. There is a lot of tension and potential for development lost here, as most fights are usually over way too fast. This makes for some very underwhelming and anti-climactic fights, where a single punch from Junk Dog will just suddenly end everything. These are by no means Fairy Tail/ Naruto level "power of friendship/never give up" asspulls, but damn if they don't come pretty close sometimes. It's a real shame, because if these fights were anywhere near the level of Hajime no Ippo's insane fights, The story would get at least a 9/10 from me.

Art: 9/10

Megalo Box utilizes a traditional animation style, with pure sakuga and an old-school coloring style the likes you'd see in an anime recorded on VHS tape. It's an extremely refreshing nostalgia trip, a nice change of pace from the bog-standard modern animation style of most shows nowadays.

Enjoyment: 8/10

A very unique and fun experience. Loved the rap and hip-hop. The short episode count drags the quality of the fights down though. A lot more fun could have been had with the fights, but then again, at the end of the day, even if the payoff aka the fights is lackluster, the buildup to them aka the character drama is great enough to warrant an 8/10 in enjoyment.

Overall: 8/10

"Remember what you said earlier in the dark, Yu? That the afterlife is dark just like that. Maybe these people didn't want to think that, so they made all those statues and bright lights to put themselves at ease."

"At ease, huh... If anything. I felt way more at ease when I found you in the dark, Chii-chan."


Story, Writing & Character: 10/10

Picture a snow-laden wasteland, stretching as far as the eyes can see. Rain falls. The revving of engine stops. Two girls park their Kettenkrad motorcycle outside and take shelter under a pile of rubble. One reads. One collects a bunch of tin cans and puts ... them under where the raindrops drip.
The sound of rain is accompanied by a cacophony of metallic noises.

"Maybe this is what they call 'music'."

A beat and rhythm starts to form. They hum and sing a tune to this beat.

They don't even know what music is.


As you can tell, 70% of this show's story is told through its unbelievably thick atmosphere. Every time I sat down to watch an episode, I would enter into a trance-like state, where a flood of emotions would well up from within, submerging my higher brain functions like noodles in broth. These emotions are not intense, but mellow and tame.
Shoujo Shuumatsu is in equal parts surreal as it is funny and cathartic. Chito and Yuuri just don't give a fuck. With childlike wonder and vigor they ride their motorbike across what remains of civilization, looking for their next meal and climbing to the top of the futuristic multi-layered city.

But.

As soon as you've settled into the show's mellow atmosphere, it nonchalantly slaps you across the face with some grade-A existential commentary on life, death, and how people can keep on living through the worst of times in the most destitute of places. The shadow of the Old World follows Chito and Yuuri everywhere they go in this post-apocalyptic world, and as the show goes on, they will discover that many things about the meaning of life, the human experience, and the bond they have with one another. Never do they wallow in melodrama or angst; they confront these dark themes in a very carefree way, only to then continue on their journey. After all, as Yuuri puts it:

"You can't live if you're afraid of death, Chii-chan."

The sound of rain, a fish, an old camera, and each other's company are a few among the many things that makes life in a cold and dead wasteland not so bad after all.

Art: 10/10

Minimalist, and equal parts cute and lighthearted as it is haunting and beautiful; needless to say, the artstyle of Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryouko is extremely unique. The cute and cartoony design of the two girls starkly contrasts with the bleakness of the post-apocalyptic urban landscape around them, which ranges from derelict buildings to metal tunnels to crashed planes to former warzones littered with weapons and vehicles. The show's color palette also reflects this bleakness by having mostly very dull and dark colors for the backgrounds and buildings, while giving the girls a slightly brighter (but not by much) palette compared to their surroundings. All-in-all, interesting and ingenious art design.


Sound: 10/10

The soundtrack is amazing. First off, both the OPs and the EDs are extremely unique and catchy. They capture the show's innocent and whimsical tone so well that it's baffling. The background music in the individual episodes is nothing to scoff at either - from calming piano and harp instrumentals to angelic vocal tracks. The entire show is jam packed with music from start to finish, making the entire show feel lively and energetic so as to mirror Chito and Yuuri's journey itself.

All-in-all, the soundtrack is amazing: sometimes melancholic; sometimes cathartic; but always maximally atmospheric and fitting.

Enjoyment: 10/10

Every single thing this show does hits all the right notes for me. I don't remember liking a show this much since I watched Re:Zero and Baccano a year or two ago.

Overall: 10/10

The sheer amount of text that I have written about Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryoukou in this review should tell you to how much I liked it. Beautiful, minimalistic, surreal, haunting and all-around sublime; Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryouko stimulates the senses in all the right ways, while still managing to be an unbelievably relaxing show.



Tldr? Just watch it lol.

Story: 7/10

Nearly non-existent; standard moe slice-of-life show fare, which I don't mind. What I do mind though, is the characters.

Characters: 3/10

Cocoa and her friends bored me out of my mind. I could tolerate season 1 but somehow season 2 lost me. I know having deep and developed characters is not the point of this type of show. But for me, I want to be somewhat engaged even when I'm watching a relaxing slice-of-life show, and Gochiusa severely falls short in this respect. Here's why:

Comparing this show to Blend S would make for an interesting case study on what makes a slice-of-life / comedy great. ... In Blend S, the characters are unique, distinct, and above all else, interesting. In addition, Blend S also exhibits a certain degree of wit in its writing. As a result, it's an absolute blast to watch how Blend S' characters react to each other's antics. On the other hand, Gochiusa's characters are bland and generically moe. This makes them very boring to watch. After a few episodes, you've seen them all - Cocoa and Chiya's "airheaded" antics, Rize and Chino's retort, and Sharo's occasional "yuri" outbursts, etc etc etc. On top of that, these characters' reactions are so underwhelming that punchlines usually fall flat on their faces. They don't really react in any interesting way or expand on the joke - they just simply "react" very predictably and then move on to the next joke. I became sick of what this show calls "comedy" halfway into the show.

And so naturally, when the jokes and the character's don't work, what's left to carry the show? The moe. But for me, even the moe is extremely boring. It's nothing I haven't seen before - sickly cute and that's it. Everything feels so incredibly uninspired. For reference, I think the absolute epitome of a good moe slice-of-life show is Himouto, Umaru-chan! I think it's fun, witty, dynamic, and utterly unique.

And so in the end, nothing works for me in this show, which is quite unfortunate, considering how I found season 1 to not be this bad. But that might be because back when I watched it (3 or 4 years ago) my tastes weren't as jaded as they are now.

Art: 7/10

The idyllic setting brings with it some gorgeous scenery and architecture. It's the same old artstyle that season 1 introduced us to. However, I think this style could use some more flexibility and personality. Maybe more interesting facial expressions and more chibi/deformed moments?

Sound: 6/10

Underwhelming. I loved both the OP and ED of season 1, but not this time around. The background music tracks are nice though.

Enjoyment: 5/10


Overall: 6/10

Story & Writing:

The author of Gakkou Gurashi probably hit upon one extremely interesting idea and decided to write an entire series based on that one brainwave. However, he probably didn't realize that an interesting idea ain't worth jack shit if you don't develop and expand upon it. As a result, we get Gakkou Gurashi.

While interesting at first, this show ended up feeling half-assed and lazy. Its more unique aspects are introduced solely as a gimmicky selling point and was never capitalized on as the show waddles awkwardly between cutesy moe and edgy horror. I don't think the show itself even knows what it wants to ... be. It's neither dark, gritty nor realistic enough to be a compelling horror, but neither is it fun and lighthearted enough to be a slice-of-life either. By the end, this entire show feels like one big sloppy mess of somewhat interesting ideas loosely strung together with blood, spit and moe. Absolutely no cohesion nor depth - just novelty and shock factor.

But the depth and development - or lack thereof - is not the only subpar thing about this show. It genuinely could have thrived off of its barebones premise alone if only the characters weren't so goddamn boring and generic.
Even if a show's writing fails to develop on its own premise, it can still be decent provided that its characters are decently interesting and entertaining to watch.

But in Gakkou Gurashi, I do not give a single fuck about any one of the characters.

Not Yuki. Not Yuuri. Not Miki. Not Kurumi. Not even the fucking dog.

They can all go die for all I care because they do not have a single shred of individuality nor charisma about them. I really think that these characters are the ultimate symbol of Gakkou Gurashi's identity crisis, of its internal conflict and indecisiveness towards whether it wants to be a moe slice of life or a post-apocalyptic horror. Even Yuki, the most promising character, was never really properly explored nor developed. Her unique "trait" ends up being just another one-hit-wonder gimmick swept along in the sea of gimmicks that makes up this show. When you boil these characters down, they're all just generic moe tropes who got shoehorned into an oh-so-dark-and-tragic setting. That's it. They don't really do anything. They don't abandon their humanity to butcher zombies nor develop baser human desires for sex nor do they betray one another nor sacrifice themselves or any of that juicy stuff. Not in Gakkou Gurashi. These boring-ass characters are only there just to bitch, cry and whine. It never feels like they're making any kind of radical or substantial decisions, nor are they plunged into any extreme scenarios that would force them to step outside their comfort zones and make decisions they would usually not make. Instead, they just act really laid-back, fucking around on top of the school rooftop like nothing's happening. At the end of the day, no matter how this show tries to fucking hide it, these characters are ultimately just cute girls doing cute things, with maybe a bit of edginess, angst, and melodrama sprinkled on top. This is not really innovative or anything. Angst and melodrama are already ubiquitous enough among slice-of-life shows. What's your excuse, Gakkou Gurashi?

Oh and btw, a certain character acted like a complete retard towards the end, causing contrived angst and melodrama to ensue.
What's worse is that all of this tension and conflict are resolved in one fell swoop through one convenient plot device. This solution wasn't really mind-blowing or anything, and the show could have done it way earlier and save the audience the anguish of sitting through 12 episodes of trashy moe and pseudo-horror clusterfuck. Up to that point, the show has been barely passable with its writing - neither too dumb nor too smart. I was willing to give the show a 6 but because of this dipshit plot development, down to a 5 you go you piece of shit.

TLDR: This show's lazy writing plays it too safe and never wants to push anything, to make anything extreme or interesting. The characters and their emotions; the plot developments; the setting - all of them are ultimately bland and pointless, not worth giving a damn about.

Art:

The art design is slightly above average, boasting a vibrant color palette but bland character design and visual style. Also, it really toned down the more gory aspects of its story, soft-censoring or completely omitting scenes showing blood and violence. In other words, the artstyle is an awkward cross between visceral and cute, neither fully embracing one nor the other. Once again, this just goes to show how half-assed Gakkou Gurashi is, with no real identity or substance to add flavor to its premise.

Sound:

The sound design is surprisingly good. Many of the background tracks are extremely creepy and manages to perfectly set the tone every time. It's a shame, though, that it's wasted on the mediocre writing.

Enjoyment:

5/10

You know what? I just had more fun typing up this review than I ever had in my 4 hours of watching this anime.

Overall:

5/10