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This is a series that has become pretty easy to hate, by the looks of things.


Franxx had the incredibly ambitious idea of reviving the magic of mecha anime's 00s heydays by creating something of a Gurren Lagann 2.0, updated for a modern audience but retaining the charm of humanised robots and fluid hand-drawn animation. Of course, people got hugely excited about this, so it's not surprising that when the inevitable happened and over the course of 24 episodes the series was unable to match its legendary predecessor people got disappointed.


However, it shouldn't be punished for setting the bar so high. Compared to most modern anime, ... even of the same genre, Darling in the Franxx is a very good series.


The animation is gorgeous, and the opening arc surrounding the mystique of Zero Two feels as good as any western YA dystopian story I've seen - really good viewing. The fight scenes are good, and while some of the characters can be grating, for the most part they all play important and separate roles in the story, with plenty of favourite character moments to choose from.

To be fair, there is a lull during the third quarter where the show gets bogged down in backstories that it should have drip-fed through the series, and that really lost me, but as a whole this is a really good effort.

Is it the greatest anime ever? No chance.
Is it the best series this year? Probably not.
Is it a good series? Absolutely!

D-Frag is a great example of an easy-watching anime comedy.

A harem at heart, this show, without ever really doing anything exceptional, ticks so many boxes. The poster character of the series, the diminutive Shibasaki Roka, is a delightful character, while the other characters all fill out clear roles in a cast sheet that would definitely score full-house on a ‘stereotypical high-school comedy characters’ bingo sheet.

The comedy is good, but this is mostly down to the sheer amount of jokes per episode. I believe D-Frag has a mantra that reads ‘If we put one-hundred small jokes in a 24-minute period, then logic dictates that some of ... them have to stick.’ Most of the jokes involve lead character Kazuma shouting at the girls, which gets annoying after a while, but there's not really a single episode that isn't funny.

While appearing like 'just another comedy', D-Frag manages to play on stereotypes while also establishing its own brand of wacky high-schoolers. Very funny, very colourful, D-Frag is a solid high-school comedy that will fill that hole in your watchlist!

Despite looking like a fantasy romance, Natsuyuki Rendezvous has, at its heart, a very mature idea. This is a story about the heart of a widowed woman, about her vulnerability and the emotional baggage that surrounds her, in this case literally.

Unfortunately, this whole series is just a little bland. While there are some very poignant moments with Rokka Shimao, the majority of the series is slow and mundane, lead by a main character in Ryousuke who it is incredibly hard to feel any compassion or connection towards.

The idea is good, and at moments this series is quite touching. But it is not an engaging or ... exciting romance, and the whole ambience of the series is just slow and mundane.

This, ultimately, feels like half of a complete series.

I have long been a fan of the Food Wars series, with it's excellent character sets, great story arcs and fantastically imaginative 'battles'. Food Wars is a wonderfully funny and imaginative action series, but this is definitely the worst season yet - so far.

For me, Food Wars S3 falls down in two specific areas:

Firstly, S3 doesn't seem to have the same level of competition as the other seasons. Yukihira's enemies in the previous seasons are now his friends, and the new opponents feel very lifeless and one-dimensional. Secondly, this is a really slow series, with some of ... the most infuriating cliffhangers in anime - the first and last few minutes of each episode, more often than not, are the only moments with any substance, the rest of each episode feeling really flat.

Food Wars is a fantastic series. However, Season Three is the weak link. If you haven't seen it yet, it might be worth waiting until the story continues in April 2018 and binging the whole lot for a better experience.