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Ancient anime but this one needs a new review: Game adaptations have been around even longer than you think. This is an adaptation of the Street Fighter II game, which you remember if you’re Gen X. If you’re not Gen X, know this was a very popular game in the 90s, I’ve played it myself (back in college) and am not even a gamer… This is a 30 year old adaptation of the game but it really surprised me. It looks old, the character designs look kind of inspired by American comicbook muscle guys they look HUGE and clunky, with massive square faces, blank white ... eyes, and jaws sharp enough to cut steel, nevermind that Guile’s hair looks like a shoe-polishing brush- the action in this is really good and there were some really surprising scenes. I sort of expected to be bored and just laughing at it, but it was pretty interesting and had a good mix of action and dialogue- decent voice acting; and the visuals are richly colored and the art, the backgrounds are quite good. Even the cars looks accurate- and awesome! There are a couple different 911s, a Shelby Mustang (of course) with New York plates, several detailed Jeeps, an 84 Cadillac, an S-Class Mercedes and incredibly- Ambassador cars in India! A lot of thought and passion was put into this anime and it shows.

The globe trotting was a real delight; they’re in a different city in each segment. My favorite scenes took place in India of all places! I have been looking for an anime set in India forever, and it’s only one segment but it looked surprisingly good and has easily the movie’s cutest character, a little girl who is more moe than moe OMG… I wish we got her name she was so sweet! We need more cute Indian girls in our anime now!!
The main characters in this of course are Ken and Ryu, the two title characters from the game. Other playable characters are also in this like Chun-Li and Cammy… the girls are beefy but also beautiful, I fell in love with Chun-Li after her heroic fight that was very suspenseful.
The soundtrack is mostly 90s elevator music (I felt like midi music was better than most of it), but some of the songs were memorable- like the guitar song that plays in Chun-Li’s apartment.
Of course we can’t forget their magical fight moves! Ken’s HADOUKEN! (“Ha-DOOOO-ken!”) Ryu’s SHORYUKEN! (“Sho-YUUU-ken!”) Oh man I haven’t heard them shout that in almost 30 years! Talk about key jangling…
Another surprise in this: the CGI. Yes- this 30 year old anime actually has some! It’s actually integrated pretty well, and not overused. Back in those days, integrating the CGI with cel animation was actually the challenge. This one does it decently- it won’t amaze you with tech- but it looks fine.
I would say its one weakness is the fights on the mountaintop, that went on a bit too long and the generic background felt like a game scene rather than a movie, and made them less impactful. (Now how do we get down from here?)

Then the American choppers come to take down their BASE. Ahh the base!!
In the 80s and 90s all bad guys had to have a base- when we were little kids after watching our after-school cartoons what ever game you played outside- even hide&seek- the key objective was to capture the opponent's base- the base was everything! And the base this time is in the jungles of Southeast Asia- so with everything it does this anime even manages to give us Americans one last shot at revenge for Vietnam lolol. I really thought that was quite funny!
The ending was okay, then some elevator music plays- but I rate this high for being very entertaining; extremely well made, faithful to the game but given a plot that has high enough stakes you actually care about seeing the next scenes;
If you’re of the slightly older generation that remembers this game, or you are truly curious to see what ancient game adaptations were like in the 90s, this is a must watch. They don’t make them like this anymore- but I sure wish they did.

A Viral Phenomenon: (noun) when a piece of media is viewed and shared by millions of users online, in a short timespan.
When Frieren first started streaming, I suspected its near instantaneous popularity and the memes were just part of some Viral phenomenon…

And after watching, and suffering through its dull, dry exposition and lethargic pacing, its dreadfully boring dialogue and disjointed, directionless storytelling through an excruciating 28 episodes- I can now say my original suspicions have been confirmed with absolute certainty. Watching Frieren the whole way through has been one of the most disappointing, the most baffling, most frustrating viewing experiences of my entire ... life.

It doesn’t even have any redeeming qualities that I could try and point out as a counterbalance to everything that’s wrong with the show- it’s just a painfully dull, boring, unoriginal -and I mean completely derivative- pile of cliches that any viewer of anime, or fantasy, or even Hollywood movies- has seen in any random title hundreds of times before- even Rings of Power does the same character archetypes better than this and at least has visuals far outpacing this show a million times over. This isn’t even good to LOOK AT with the sound off- it looks the exact same as every other generic D&D Fantasy that’s been done in anime since the beginning of time and does absolutely NOTHING different, or better.
Tell me how many archetypes: The Dwarf Warrior. The Healer. The Mage. The Priest. A Demon King. Dragons. Magic. Grimoires.
They aren’t even unique takes on any of these- apart from the slightly puffy round faces like Frieren herself has- and she isn’t even cute or pretty or intriguing to look at in any way- there’s nothing I can say about her character design other than that it’s as frumpy and unimaginative as the show she’s in. The dwarf is by far the worst- looking like a paper cutout most of the time.
But watching this thing- my God- it’s like watching grass grow. Really boring grass. A typical episode has our Heroes slowly walking on paths through the greenery, on their way to nowhere in particular, calmly talking in monotone voices. Not talking about anything interesting, it’s usually Fern just asking Frieren, why does she like this kind of magic? Or why doesn’t she like to eat peanuts or why does everyone in this town walk funny or something… none of the dialogue is captivating. None of it is interesting, informative, stimulating, or necessary. But they talk CONSTANTLY. Entire episodes are literally just that- these characters, slowly walking, and talking endlessly about some relationship or other with a person in her past.

Flashbacks are a well-worn trope that anime loves to use and abuse- and they are most notorious in the Shonen genre- where they can be thrown at the viewer in the middle of an exciting fight- either the protagonist or antagonist is remembering some inspirational thing said to them, or some awful letdown- before scoring a winning blow on the enemy….
But here- flashbacks are literally the entire story.
Look, here’s the problem: A flashback is often used to show a dramatic memory in a character’s past that motivates them (or relates their fear) to make the next move in the plot. When they’re done really well- they actually show scenes that we’ve already experienced a previous episode- in a way to give those words (or that insult) extra meaning by reinforcing it. When used well, and sparingly- flashbacks can really add emotional weight to the story.
But when the story itself never actually began- when you just introduce us to a handful of characters, proclaim that they’ve already won the honors (defeated the Demon King we never saw) and are just standing around talking- YOU CAN’T JUST FLASH BACK TO MORE STANDING AROUND AND TALKING. It doesn’t work!!! It builds no dramatic tension. It just feels tedious.

Like so many new anime these days, this show is in one specific way exactly the same as all those generic isekai’s: it does no setup of its world, and does not introduce the protagonist of the story at the start of their struggle- it just skips over everything.
It doesn’t show us an interesting world, or a battle, or the ruins of a town or city at the end of one. It shows a bunch of archetype characters, skips giving any background, and then just fast forwards into the future- and tries to use flashbacks to relate bits and pieces of the story it never told in the first place. Something is missing- you say to yourself if you’re paying any attention at all- as you watch this show- and the same thing is missing in EVERY EPISODE. Why don’t I care about these characters? Who are they? Why are they? Where’s the moment one of them saved the other’s life? Where’s the pivotal moment???
There isn’t one. It’s post modern is what it is- it’s “deconstructed” storytelling and decided to try just isolate the individual components and show them to you backwards, without proper context- so that the viewing experience is very dry and without meaning. Meaning is something that comes out of CONFLICT and STRUGGLE, followed by understanding. This show decides those three things can be isolated components which it can then just deliver to you individually in reverse- and no, it can’t.

Sosou No Frieren is a masterful failure at storytelling like nothing I have ever seen. And the reason I’m so angry and so frustrated with it is beyond how bad it is. In truth, this show is really not bad on the level of something poorly made (it isn’t), the most frustrating thing about it is the absolutely undeserved praise it has from millions of people who can not POSSIBLY have watched the same show I have! The avalanche of praise this gets, from people who would call a nearly identical anime boring if it had a different title- is maddening.

When the next viral phenomenon shows up- and it will- Frieren will be forgotten in a FLASH. No, nobody 25 years from now (or even 5) will be amazed by this, or feel like it’s essential viewing. It will be forgotten- because it’s too long and it’s not very entertaining. The world and the concept has been done a thousand times before, the characters aren’t very pretty or very interesting, the dialogue is dull, the music is flat, the action is sparse, and the magic system is inconsistent and poorly defined. There is nothing- not character design, nor soundtrack, nor fighting, nor artwork, nor dialogue that I could say was memorable.

The next time a viral sensation like this spreads, the next time an anime shoots to #1 on MAL in just a few weeks- I am trusting my instincts and skipping it. You can have this show. And its boring premise and its dull dialogue- congratulations, it’s yours. I wasn’t impressed. Now I want the 13 HOURS of my life back that I wasted on it!!!

Finding unique and original ideas in anime these days is very difficult, so one could see that with a description like “In the year 1333, the Kamakura shogunate” that alone is very intriguing. The cover art shows a cute character leaping through the air, flames.. looks very flashy- ah a Samurai anime- I decided to take a look to see what it was.

And the very first episode left me speechless.
Not anything else I could say but totally frozen, and speechless. The characters are all very beautiful, and the main one (on the cover) called Tokiyuki and he’s totally adorable and runs around playing ... hide and seek with all the minders at the palace, jumping across rooftops- aw this show looks playful and cute is it a slice of life or something?… his brother joins in and now they’re kicking a ball around- and then flash to the next scene and it’s some guy’s HEAD. Next thing I remember, heads were rolling all over the place and blood was spewing in every direction. Like FOUNTAINS of blood. And my jaw just dropped open.

(After someone gave me some smelling salts) I came back to level- but Jumping James Batman! This anime is BONKERS!

It’s hard for me to explain to you. … you have these cute characters like Tokiyuki, Shizuku the princess, ………..so you have to imagine that, and then you have these warriors who seem kind of clownish, like maybe quite insane? And they slash hundreds of people to death- including women and children- and in the middle of the bloodbath THERE ARE FUNNY FACES. Several of the characters have this comedic disposition, and funny faces. So, this is a Battle Shonen. But it seems even more unhinged than a typical battle shonen.

I understand Japan is a vastly different culture than here in the west; but I’ve seen enough of Japanese culture (not just in anime) and always sort of known- or maybe it’s something we’re all told- the Japanese sense of humor (among other things) is different than ours. Well watching Elusive Samurai reminded me of that, in the most extreme way possible. It was like being slapped in the face with reminders- that what they find amusing is…. uhh different.

My biggest problem with this show was I couldn’t understand who it was made for?
Like the cover art makes it look like a fun shonen anime for middle schoolers. But the level of violence- some of it surprisingly disturbing- just doesn’t seem like it’s for kids. If it really is meant as a kids show then geezus I don’t know what to say. It’s not serious enough for adults- that’s for sure- and the bonkers ED is pretty clearly aimed at young people. The odd mismatch with who the audience is supposed to be was really baffling.

There doesn’t seem to be a lesson, or a morality tale being woven by this story either- like so many Samurai anime are famous for. It seems like a fun Catch-Me-If-you-can shonen with a cast of misfits who elude the goofballs of the Shogunate to fight another day; with no higher purpose than to just entertain (and remind you that the samurai were killers and that Japan’s past was VERY bloody) but here’s a funny face to make you laugh!! Isn't this FUNNY?!? Hahahaha!! SLASH
It’s wild and totally ridiculous, but after 10 of the episodes I really stopped caring about the story and just watched with my brain off. My brain was SO disengaged that I really didn’t care much what was happening anymore… and the ending song actually started to sound interesting.

I can’t really recommend this show based on if you like Samurai anime, or if you have any expectations about story. But if you just want to see pretty characters jump and flip in the air with their beautiful clothing flowing in the wind as they beat up goofy bad guys- then this will dazzle your eyeballs. It might possibly make you laugh kind of out of disbelief. You will definitely get dumber watching this, that’s for sure.

It's been a while since I watched a Shaft anime. DO YOU like black and white stripes? Or black and white tile? Do you like 2D collage backgrounds in eye-gouging gumball colors?
Is a school that looks like the inside of Versailles Palace when Marie Antoinette lived there your idea of good taste?

Do you prefer prettyboys over girls in your anime? If you answered yes to ALL of those questions this is for you. If not, you'll be disappointed.

Shaft is known for a certain, uh, STYLE. IT'S NOT WHAT YOU'D CALL QUIET!!! It's LOUD. It assaults your eyeballs.
The designs of the characters are really sharp, all ... of them look great- although the primary color coding seemed a bit hokey. My favorite was Hyouta, who wears a shorts uniform and well I design nearly all of my own characters with bare legs or shorts that short nearly always, and it's probably the most liberating style I've seen an anime boy wearing in forever so, But all the characters were likable.
The main is actually a girl named Mayumi who wants to join their 'totally secret' not-a-formal-club that has its staff room that looks like another room out of Versailles, she has a special ability that her eyes can see things other people can't. The other boys all have some kind of ability but honestly they seem more like the same old archetypes you see in any anime: The Quiet One, The Cooking One, The Cute One, The Tall & Mysterious One, The Fearless Leader.... you can probably guess their hair colors based on those tropes. And their personalities are just as 2D as the backgrounds- but I get they're supposed to be. This isn't meant to be deep or to break any ground with great animation. There's hardly ANY animation actually, it seems to stay still a lot, and just throws these blaring bright colors at you and every scene looks like you're having an acid trip.
The story... well it started off really strong; there's a mystery about a star Mayumi once saw but can't find again, one where they go to a secret casino that's like a speakeasy (my favorite), but those were the high point- from there it really got kinda boring. They investigate some paintings (all within the school), then some loli shows up and they try to figure her out, and the final arc is terrible. I hated the last few episodes, and it dragged down my rating- I was leaning toward a 6 but should give it credit for the first half being solid and it's cute and fun and different I guess your mileage may vary...

This is a very pretty and well made anime, but there’s something…. missing.

CyGames makes good stuff. I wouldn’t deny that. The last one I really got into was Granblue Fantasy… it’s a good one to compare this to. It looks excellent- nice lines and crisply drawn characters always on-model; beautiful colors and nice filters like for sunset scenes etc; good composition, good voices, and a very nice soundtrack. It's a nice place to be.

Ryza is the star of the show and looks the part. She’s bubbly and hopeful and confident and fun. Her fashion style- Ryza’s tight red shorts and thigh-length sandal-boots + a ... yellow cape that actually hides her short shorts from the back- it’s a great style I love it. It made her famous after all. But…. well, it doesn’t really fit the environment very well. It’s a medieval fantasy world, which is nothing unique- but her clothing clashes so hard with the society she’s in- it presents an odd visual disconnect: and also some interesting questions that go unanswered.

This gets on to what I think is missing from the anime. How did she acquire such odd clothes? Did she make them? If so, she’d have to be a really good seamstress- and that would be her occupation- but it’s not. Her mother chides her for not helping out on the family farm- okay so she’s a farmer- but NOT ONCE does mom bat an eye at what her TEENAGE DAUGHTER is wearing!!!!
Now that’s just totally impossible! This doesn’t appear to take place in California in the 2020s- mothers in the past, especially an era like that, would definitely scold their daughters for going out in sexy clothes! Fathers would object and stop her.
No such adversity exists here. It would present a kind of challenge for Ryza to overcome- to define her character more. Her defiance at her parent’s strict beliefs, contrasted against her determination to do her own thing and show the world who she is. That would be an inspiring story to tell, an origin story of the character.
Instead- you get the kind of dumb arc where she becomes an alchemist (why alchemy? It doesn’t really make sense- and it appears anyone can learn it- oh it’s because she is one in the GAME)
So Ryza learns how to just make anything magically appear by mixing in a couldron- which is shown by her doing this twirl in a blue sealike picture, then she appears back in the room where she is- holding the thing she created.. voila!

She learns the alchemy from a couple of mercenaries named Lila and Empel. Lila is a cutie with heterochromia and that weird crossed-bangs hairstyle you sometimes see. The two of them act a bit annoyed at Ryza’s trio- but after they go to the couple’s hangout, with some pleading- both agree to train Ryza in alchemy. Okay, but why? This takes a lot of their time and Ryza isn’t paying them anything. They teach Ryza, Lent and Tao by basically tossing odd criticisms their way from the couch. It’s not that I dislike Lila or Empel- it’s just that they don’t really come across as strong characters. In fact, no one really does. Lent is just Tank Guy. Tao is just Smart Boy. Lila and Empel are just… there. They sit on the couch looking slightly bored or annoyed, and sigh while giving Ryza and her friends advice. They’re helpful, but there’s no tension here. No reason for them to help, and no crisis that threatens them or Ryza.

In Granblue Fantasy, there was a tension that constantly had the main characters under threat. Everyone was motivated to accomplish something important- or go somewhere to learn from a master who could teach them how. But this show doesn’t have any tension or drama.
It’s just a really pretty lead character and her handsome friends, dreaming of going on adventures but not actually going on one…
This brings the biggest criticism I have of Atelier Ryza- the lack of epic adventure.

If your characters are ‘Adventurers’ and that’s what your show is about- you gotta GO ON ONE. As quickly as possible. You’ve got to get your characters MOVING in an adventure story. Somehow! And here, it just feels dull and flat because they aren’t going anywhere.

It's mostly just Ryza, Lent and Tao's (with Klaudia) wandering around encountering goofy 'monsters' from the game. NONE of them look remotely threatening- seriously blue bouncy balls with smiley faces; cute little fairies... which they kill on sight without asking any questions. It's really hard to feel like the heroes are in danger when they're being chased by a thing that looks like a glittery triceratops with rainbow crystals on its back...
There isn’t enough to get emotionally invested. It just looks good. And that means you don’t feel a strong motivation to watch the next episode. There were no hooks, no cliffhangers, and there was nothing to make you wonder what was coming next. So this would probably delight fans of this game and entertain you for a few episodes, but probably won't fascinate viewers with its world or story since it's mostly kind of generic.
Art- Excellent; Animation; Very Good; Vocals: Good; Music; Excellent; Story: Needs work.

This anime is cute, yea. I mean it’s impossible for it not to be. There isn’t any way for an adorable white-haired girl in a white dress who speaks like a child and apologizes for everything not to be. But I cannot fathom HOW the Japanese constantly succeed at making such neat concepts as discovering an angel in your apartment… turn out SO DULL.
This is exactly like every live-in-maid anime you’ve ever seen before, if you’ve seen one. The last one I recall was Helpful Fox Senko-san… all the ingredients are exactly the same: magical female spirit shows up, starts cooking and doing laundry ... for MC-kun. Is naturally a great cook (wasn’t kidding about those ingredients!) and great at laundry and wants to make MC-kun feel better. He is exactly as bland as is required- grape flavored this time (purple hair and wears a matching tie)
At least in Senko-san the guy was a grown man who worked at a stressful job. Here, the kid looks to be about 15, so naturally he’s in high school (GROAN). And he acts like a terrified helpless baby around girls. The 2nd episode is about how Angel-chan bursts into the bathroom on him constantly, and he screams and panics and turns beat red and slams the door… In the third he walks in on a pretty co-worker changing and “Arghhh!! A GIRL! And she’s changing!” and he spends the next several minutes freaking the fuck OUT. Sighhhhhhhhhhhh

Look I’m not an expert on girls but… if you are one, do you find it attractive for a guy to panic and freak out at the sight of women? Would you throw yourself at him like the chicks do in this anime? (Don’t say yes)

The biggest letdown is the angel doesn’t even look or act like an angel apart from having white hair. She only has wings in a few scenes. She doesn’t have any religious wisdom or pray or tell the MC to worship God or anything- and I’m not asking for a religious anime here but if you have a creature strongly associated with certain religious beliefs it would be a lot more relatable and interesting if she acted like an angel from heaven- even if just for cute effect.
This leads me to probably the biggest issue, which is how many ideas you can come up with for “Angel shows up in apartment”. Some of the situations could be funny, embarrassing, shocking, there’s a whole treasure trove of things you could do with such a concept. And this anime does exactly what you don’t want and nobody needs: it plays it so safe that it’s just dull. A white-haired girl moves in with MC-kun and cooks his dinner for him. Then he meets other pretty girls who are magical (or not) and they like him.

It just doesn’t pay the bills, I’m sorry.
(but it would be funny if SHE did!)

This looks okay the visuals are nicely colored and the characters are decently animated but that’s not much of an accomplishment, in an era where everything is just done on a computer using character-templates. There is no individual style in this at all, no mistakes, no experiments, nothing unique.
Will I actually watch it every week I dunno… if the new episodes keep showing up for me on Sunday morning, probably. Sunday morning is quiet and I’m usually not doing anything in particular.
Sunday morning reminds me of church…
Church reminds me of, angels…? Well the angels in heaven, if there is one and they exist, must be far more interesting than this house-servant girl who cooks food for grape-flavored-protag-kun. That’s a shame really.

Well hello Cyberpunk my old friend. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it.

This is a hard one to review. Modern cyberpunk anime are hard to come by. Especially in this isekai hell we seem to be stuck in these days… Think one of the last ones I watched was DimensionW somewhere in the mid-2010s, Metallic Rouge introduces itself with a bedroom wall poster that immediately captivates. The style of the whole anime is a welcome departure from generic-fantasy world or spaceship/sky 2d background. It has a misty, industrial and concrete aesthetic with lots of warm hues, and at least in the first half was ... not so over-articulated as to assault the eyes, but has a pleasing and soft sheen, like the first thing that came to mind was Tinsel City in Bubblegum Crisis- which itself was strongly inspired by Blade Runner… there are lots of callbacks to classic cyberpunk and in the first episode the lead character transforms into what looks for all the world like a Hardsuit. YES- This is the real deal! I was so excited…

The music fits the world perfectly, it has a really good soundtrack. The opener to this is very early-90s in style, but my personal favorite is the entire ending. The 4 fps animation and the song together just make a great music video. This is one of those anime where I actually look forward to the ending more than the show itself. About that…. well; bear with me.
The characters got on my nerves at first, especially Naomi- and her American voice-over really added to that impression- but the two leads grew on my over time and even though their roles in the story were often confusing, all the characters in this were likeable- even that Vash-looking villain, I actually loved that guy and wished he had more of a role. Every single English VA did a superb job- this is one of the best simuldubs I’ve ever heard, literally ever- it has some of the best voices in the biz and sounds just as pro and polished as the soundtrack sounds and the visuals look.

So you’d think I would have given this all a pretty high recommendation; it’s cyberpunk, it hits all the nostalgia points dead on, it looks good, sounds great, has attractive characters and great music, so what’s not to love huh…. well what about the story?

And that dear viewer, is where this thing falls flat on its face.
In that same first episode a big fight leads to a death that- being in the very first episode and among all the polish and flash should have been very impactful, but even though it looked terrific there just wasn’t anything that made the fight feel moving. And this was a constant problem throughout. They spend the first several episodes setting up a world where people (humans) are using (and abusing) these androids called Naeans (which are recharged by a cerum injection or they die) and throw a bunch of concepts at us- but most of it is delivered through verbal exposition. And a LOT of it. I got sick of the terms they kept tossing around… “Immortal nine”, “Nectar”. “Asimov Code”… using the dreaded Tell Not Show method of world building. Even if you always knew what the Asimov Code was, and its implications for androids, it should still be a major plot-point of the story. And it sort of is in one episode, before the show just wanders away from it and never makes it an issue again. After the halfway point we don’t even see the ordinary Naeans again. It seemed like someone died in every episode, but they would usually be someone we met at the beginning of the episode or who never had a major role. So their departure leaves no feeling at all. Or they ended up doing something so mind-blowingly stupid you can’t feel bad for them. There’s bullets whizzing around all over the place you idiot! Get down! Oh, see, that’s what happens! THAT kind of stupid.

Eventually it tried to weave an origin story for the Naeans that resembles prettymuch every single Mad-Scientist-Dad-Doing-Experiments+Creepyweird-wife-also-scientist-he-murdered plot you’ve ever seen before and every bit as cheesy. It ruined the anime. But even when it wasn’t pulling inexplicable rabbits out of hats or making some convoluted reveal, most of the time it just felt totally lost and nonsensical. By about episode 9 I gave up trying to understand anything that was happening, and probably enjoyed the show more as a result.

Forget trying to like or understand the story, just watch the shiny hardsuit fights (it never explained what those transformations are or why they can do them) and enjoy the pretty pictures and music. Don’t ask any questions you’ll just get more confused. That was my experience of the whole anime. I don’t even know what to make of it.
Was it bad? No. Was it good? Not really. Was it interesting? Well it depends on how you look at it. Should you watch it?
….I’ll leave that up to you.

This is one of the most baffling anime experiences I've ever had. Here is an anime almost nobody knew about, both in Japan and over in America, and this project appears to be this studio's very first anime.
Well they are definitely learning how to make anime in the School of HARD KNOCKS
It's supposed to be a Boy's Choir, though in the very first episode they show dancing, and a routine that more resembles idol performance. There are some bits and pieces that hint at someone in this studio knowing about singing... but it's not much, and the show has a distinct feeling that it ... doesn't really know much about its subject. And then there's the music.... Oh God. For reasons known only to the show's creators they had an ambitious choice of songs but which include a lot of English lyrics. But they apparently didn't have the budget for fluent English vocalists... the singing is by a bunch of amateurs and sounds awful most of the time. And I don't mean mild accents here and there, but such bad mispronunciation that it literally made me CRINGE!!
Speaking of cringe, the opener for this thing is an acid trip. It's one of the most terrible looking openers I've ever seen, made all the more baffling by how much passion was clearly put into it. This entire anime feels like a Case Study for the Dunning-Kreuger Effect.
The plot is pretty basic- smug rich boy failed conductor (Haruo Hibiki, who I called "Maestro") is recruited by his grandmother (better known as Old Hag) who decides that he must coach a boy's choir at the Kawagoe Boy's School that she is headmaster of, and win a National Competition or else his conducting career is over. He first scouts Tenshi, known as "Cardbocci" in the anime, which means Cardboard Box...heh, a very apt description of the impression this anime makes on you. Tenshi is cute, talented, but has stage fright. But it quickly forgets the plot and becomes an after-school music club anime, with all these other oddball boys joining. One who has facepaint like you'd see in Kiss maybe, a couple of twins and a rich kid (who all have the same face), and a big marshmallow guy (Bartleby).
It teases shonen-ai romance but never gets farther than the characters just being nice to each other. The animation is stilted, a lot of scenes make heavy use of stills. The characters all have these prominent eyelids drawn over their eyes that just make them look tired. The direction is all over the place, and the episodes range from pithy, slightly boring inexplicable school antics mixed with character drama- to downright awful. One episode in the middle of the season features the boys moving to another auditorium and somehow getting taken hostage by the worst terrorist in history, while an old guy shows up with a camera and ends up with his pants down... I can't explain, it's just terrible. Other times the direction takes a dark, artsy turn.
Characters are introduced and then forgotten about. Most of the episodes began with Maestro sitting on the sofa in Old Hag's office while she prods him for progress on his choir recruitment while they eat desserts (like PEPPER FLAVORED pudding! BLEGHH!!) Another episode has her ride up to challenge a competing choir group while riding a Segway. I could tell you to just go ahead and watch this just to see for yourself, but you're more likely to be bored to death and that is why I can't recommend it.

Even so, there are moments of true brilliance- sometimes the music is emotional and fitting and very good. Sometimes the arthouse direction actually pulls off a great scene. Sometimes the character IT-kun is actually kind of fun and entertaining. The backgrounds don't look like anything you see in other anime, it's different scenery and shot from different angles than you usually see and gives it an interesting vibe. This isn't a truly bad show, it tries very hard and has a positive message, but its execution is so clumsy and its writing so sloppy, and it's a musical anime that doesn't understand its own subject and doesn't have enough MUSIC!!! And in the world of music anime that's a deal breaker.

First, you should take my recommendation of this anime with a grain of salt… preferably one the size of A BUILDING.

Some people like ecchi and some people hate it. But those who like it REALLY like it.
And so if this genre is your thing, you can’t NOT watch this show… unless there is something physically preventing you from doing so (you have no internet and live too far from anyone who does, your tv exploded, computer exploded, or your prison warden won’t let you, or your phone exploded)
So since that eliminates very few unfortunate people, you are watching this and now it’s only down ... to if the gags (pun intended) are or aren’t your thing. I can’t say, that depends on you. It’s not for everyone. But it’s very lighthearted, and that’s the biggest reason I enjoy the show. SM is not really an interest of mine, but here it’s very lighthearted and not cruel or violent at all. The main girl has an obvious obsession with the magical girls and a strange love for them that shows itself through her desire to put them in awkward situations for her own (and their) enjoyment. Not once does she actually harm them, and gradually the apparent enemies get closer together. If that’s an accurate or inaccurate portrayal of SM I don’t care.

This anime actually loves its whole cast. It’s not just hyperfocused on one character or one side. The Magical Girls, called ‘Tres Magia’ are upright and confident, well mannered and admired- and they’re really great characters too I totally love them. The Bad Girls are delightful, they are this adorable take on What If I Could be a Really Cool and Cute Villain. It seems like a unique and original idea. I’ve never seen an anime exactly like this. I’ve seen ironic takes on Magical Girls before, but none this degenerate. I’ve seen ecchi, and… ...yes this degenerate- Interspecies Reviewers was far worse than this- but
I’ve forgotten where I was going with that thought.

This is completely uncensored (and of course there are still complainers that they aren’t showing enough) So if you’re one of those college age or younger guys who is always complaining about steam and whatnot- then here’s your jam, man. At least hurry up and watch it before the execs who bought the license find out, and clumsy censorship finds its way in.

I never heard of this manga before, and I’m sure it’s completely inappropriate for anyone under 18 to have. If you have this manga, then shame on you. Also, if you’re watching this anime and should not be- then shame on you, I’ll tell your mom.
Just for the love of god don’t let her see it. Because that would be bad!

Honestly this anime started off kind of cliche, and that should have been enough of a warning to avoid it: demon lord/dragon thing that threatens mankind is defeated by “the heroes” yawwwwnnn… but wait! They didn’t quite defeat it- BOOM!!
MC is reincarnated… that canard again. The MC, who is oddly named Desir, has to go back in time with his reincarnation and do it all over again- but this time actually defeat the monster in the end. Okay, that’s not a terrible idea. It puts me in mind of an old movie where a man is tragically murdered, and he’s committed too many sins ... to get into heaven, so he’s told by an angel he has to go back and figure out his own murder…. in both cases this is a storytelling concept that isn’t original but it CAN be interesting if done right.

So the real challenge for the main character- he needs to build the perfect team. And he already knows who the members are that he wants- but going back in time even the slightest change in what you do also changes the outcome- and things don’t go exactly like he thinks they will. All pretty interesting- but only as I summarize it.

In reality this got dragged down by too much fluff and cliches. One of the only things that kept me watching it early on was curiosities like the character Pram- a ridiculously cute blue haired boy who shows up with a school uniform that includes short shorts, and he has a crush on Desir too! His uniform is a unique look that he sticks with, and even adds stockings later. I love characters who wear shorts with stylish uniforms… So with Pram earning a place into my favorites right away, and with the overall story dynamics being interesting- I slogged through this thing through boring training arcs and cgi battle scenes; and endured its stupid “plebs vs nobles” shtick (which clashes pretty hard with the whole ‘humanity’s survival’ plot) all to arrive at: an ending arc that includes more ugly cgi battle scenes.

This anime feels like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. It has bits of magic school, mage battle-royale, training arc, fanservice fluff.. it was really inconsistent. It couldn’t make its mind up about what the plot should be- the time-travel aspect is forgotten right away, and the implications of changing future with every action totally ignored. Instead it goes for this conflict between stuck-up nobles sneering down at ‘commoners’ with often violent hatred; even the whole magic school is organized to give the nobility students all these preferences, and not bother with the commoners… that’s really stupid! If th nobility hated the common folk that much THEY WOULDNT GET TO GO TO MAGIC SKOOL!!!
They don’t actually bother to show what the differences are- this show barely bothers to depict any decent backgrounds and mostly takes place inside generic white or grey rooms so they didn’t have to do any scenery. This gives the whole show a sort of empty feeling… like I know who the characters are, but nothing else. There’s no sense of time or place. There isn’t ANY concept of why saving the world is even important, since we never see people outside the college or the world he’s trying to save.
Mostly what you get here is low-level game-mechanics magic battle with a small amount of characterization. The main character is a little too kind and too flat- he mostly just stands there and smiles at his enemies while defeating them in fights where he mostly stands still. Pram and Romantica are more interesting- at least they have clear motivations. But they mostly just fight too. The standout is Pram, who is the most animated character in the whole show- he darts all over the screen and has the best moves of the entire cast.
But that’s all you get with this show- is some magic battles where the stakes are not very high, the tension is lacking, the characters hardly ever get injured and never really feel like they’re in any kind of danger. The major fight of the season was between Desir and a guy transformed into a ridiculous green lizard monster thing… and the entire time, the entire battle- the harder it tried the more I just laughed at its ridiculousness. And the entire plot is built around having to rebuild the same team of mages that he had at the beginning- all to defeat a horrible looking CGI dragon at the end of another cgi game battle. So unless you're heavily invested in one of the characters or source material, I can't strongly recommend watching this. It's either a 5 or 6 really, but because of Pram I'm totally unfairly rating it 7. Sue me.