After a mid first season that at the very least established an interesting premise, setting, and motive for its main character, I thought the second season would provide the meaty goodness of what the first set up. I was wrong.
The rules are inconsistent and stupid. Characters change personalities, emotions, and motives on a dime. The plot is bad. What's frustrating is it has all the ingredients to make a solid show, and leaves it all uncooked.
I had low expectations for the rules given the premise of a hyper-popular game that also serves as a form of income doesn't just favor richer players, it makes players
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broken. Still, there had to be some balance of power, mediating factors, or internal consistency that could ground all the player abilities, rewards in the game, and goals of the game... right? No. Suigin, the main character, has a special scarf that coincidentally BS's him out of any situation. Not only that, he randomly has other convenient abilities like creating an illusion of himself, teleporting, and, I kid you not, summoning a giant wall whose power is determined by his money. He actually uses this money wall power to protect himself from a car whose power is also determined by another player's money but because Suigin had more money his wall successfully blocked the car from running him over. Brilliant. The rules are pretty much Hunter x Hunter's Nen if it were developed by a toddler.
As for the characters... they're stupid. The main character is the main culprit of stupidity. He goes from carefree to serious, confident to insecure, calm to worried, etc. etc. It's not bad that he has human emotions, it's bad because they're so inconsistent with his own personality and the surrounding circumstances, as well as being volatile. What's more is that he is super unlikeable. He gets everything handed to him--literally over a billion dollars in money--a "Guardian" title, and his broken Raven Scarf item. He works for none of it. Is he grateful? Does he do his best to "earn this" à la Saving Private Ryan? No. Things happen to and around him, and he's aggravatingly inactive until he has to react to something. It's a massive pet peeve of mine when a character can do something to solve a problem or move the plot forward *and the character doesn't do anything*. The show also repeatedly commits the cardinal sin of going against a simple rule: there's a time and place for everything. Examples: it's not appropriate for the MC to turn his back on someone else pointing a gun at him; it's not appropriate for the MC to run straight up to a malicious-looking mirror that was conjured by another character that just kneed him in the face; and it's not appropriate for characters to be standing and talking while they're under attack. The supporting characters have similar capricious tendencies that seem determined by the tone and plot rather than what the character was established to be and behave like. Examples: the MC's shapeshifting partner (another BS pseudo-power he has) ricochets between being a ditz and a floozy; a game instructor goes from being a knowledgeable and capable player to an impotent sidekick; and a blood boss thing goes from being an intimidating and aggressive... boss thing, to being a polite and demure exposition-giver. The other player characters and their motives don't make much sense either.
I said the plot is bad, and it is bad. A significant plot detail from the first season involving a rare flower from a game that shut down is forgotten about and I guess served no real plot purpose. This new game that's integral to the MC finding and rescuing his "princess" just throws him into a stage where he is given his "Guardian" stuff for no reason other than the plot demanding he have the title, and this is somehow before he has a chance to learn anything about the game or get through the "beginner" stage which is never explained. Conflict repeatedly arises when characters underestimate the MC in some manner of, "Oho, I have x amount of money, you couldn't possibly defeat me!" and conflict repeatedly resolves in some manner of, "No way! He has more money than I do!? Nooooooo!" Doing it once would be fine, but even then it's unsatisfying for the conflict to resolve by no means of the main character. He just flaunts his money and wins, or has his shapeshifting partner do things for him, or gets some literal plot armor that can tank a ridiculous attack. Speaking of that latter thing, after he gets the armor he has the chance to go rescue the kidnapped "princess" character (due to another character randomly changing motives and deciding to help out) and instead runs off to fight another character who is intent on attacking other players. I guess this was to show the MC is altruistic to a fault, but it makes no sense. They're all players *in a game*. If a player decides to attack others in the game, who the hell cares? His "princess" was *literally* kidnapped, presumably by people who *literally* murdered his grandfather. What makes it more stupid is that the climactic fight between the MC and this lunatic player is deferred because the lunatic suddenly decides he doesn't want to kill the MC and instead fight another player because reasons.
The plot has tons more I could criticize. I didn't even get to the part where the show completely jumped the shark and introduced some nonsensical supernatural element that blurred the virtual world and real world. It was sort of foreshadowed, but it made no sense. Anyway, the animation itself was decent and the soundtrack was whatever. Altogether, it was a frustrating waste of time.
Oct 3, 2024
Gin no Guardian II
(Anime)
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After a mid first season that at the very least established an interesting premise, setting, and motive for its main character, I thought the second season would provide the meaty goodness of what the first set up. I was wrong.
The rules are inconsistent and stupid. Characters change personalities, emotions, and motives on a dime. The plot is bad. What's frustrating is it has all the ingredients to make a solid show, and leaves it all uncooked. I had low expectations for the rules given the premise of a hyper-popular game that also serves as a form of income doesn't just favor richer players, it makes players ... 
Sep 26, 2024
Princess Connect! Re:Dive
(Anime)
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I had the impression this would be a unique story in the way of setting up and fleshing out a cast of characters as the main focus with the apparent MC augmenting each of them rather than the usual routine of the MC taking the primary focus to be developed while being supported by the cast, but it doesn't really do that. In fact, it doesn't really do anything. The MC has no apparent personality and his one defining trait is being selectively mute while the rest of the characters are typical caricatures. The promises set up in the opening episode get lost in disjointed
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Aug 16, 2024
Bye Bye, Earth
(Anime)
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A unique show with a promising premise that loses itself to incoherence.
What's interesting is that while what is going on makes next to no sense it remains engaging. It's like I don't know what I'm watching but I'm somehow still entertained. It's strange. I'm not sure if the final episodes will pull all the pieces together, but I worry that if they do it'll cause the story to look like a patchwork mess. So, while the story and worldbuilding rival the delirium of The Boy and the Heron, the characters are somewhat more coherent. At least, I understand that the MC wants to find a place ... 
Jul 17, 2024
The premise given by the title seems unique--a human not only working alongside demons but commanding their respect--but it nosedives straight into a subpar generic plot.
It's impressive that the anime with the most unique title/premise turned out to be the most generic out of a lineup of fantasy and isekai anime with far more generic titles. Granted, I'm only 4 episodes in, but a lot of the promises that were set up in this anime's story have been broken. Of those promises: the MC who is the human in the demon lord army and who is designated the "strongest" is not shown to be the ... 
Jul 10, 2024
Pretty entertaining throughout, and then ends with what is one of the best single episodes of animation I've ever seen.
Story-wise, it's pretty simple--and naturally so, as if the plot constantly had characters on the verge of death without room to breathe (pun intended) it'd be a pretty unbalanced series. Speaking of puns about breathing, this season was a breath of fresh air after seeing Jujutsu Kaisen S2; I was worried modern anime had dipped in the quality of its storytelling and had placed all its focus on how it looked visually, but this pairs decent storytelling with fantastic animation. Granted, some of the training does ... 
Jun 28, 2024
Season 1 is among my favorites of all anime and season 2 remained strong in terms of my enjoyment. This season felt a bit off while still being overall enjoyable.
In terms of world-building and the magic system, this series is among the best. There's complexity to the story that makes it refreshing despite it involving high schoolers. What initially made this show compelling was the premise of an unrecognized OP character who didn't value recognition which made his motives interesting and every event that involved him revealing more of his abilities entertaining. By season 2 there was still more to reveal about him alongside a ... 
Jun 23, 2024
Jujutsu Kaisen 2nd Season
(Anime)
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This show is unfortunately pretty similar to Demon Slayer in terms of its good points and bad points. What I mean by that is that its animation quality is pretty darn amazing, while its story and pacing are pretty lackluster.
The magic system and fights going on seem thought out and pretty inventive. A decent bit of it went over my head, but I was nonetheless satisfied with the visuals going on to not really question it much. From the start the stakes are high and engaging, though they devolved drastically once the infamous Shibuya Incident was underway. The gratuitous destruction and death quickly evaporated whatever ... 
Jun 1, 2024
It's a thoroughly satisfying under-2-hour movie that is equal parts intense and wholesome. (I wish more movies these days were under 2 hours.)
It's actually rather impressive that it manages to keep the tension up in such a straightforward way. The show itself has at times used unsportsmanlike plot elements like a player cheating or audience distraction stuff, and has also presented antagonistic characters in relatively dislikable ways, but this conflict is just simply... straightforward. There are no dislikable characters, it's just got sheer good-natured competitive fun permeating everywhere. It's fun. Tone aside, the plot is pretty straightforward. Naturally. It's a movie about a singular volleyball game. ... 
May 15, 2024
This is a show whose story and characters are not very good. It does have an intriguing enough premise to potentially warrant pushing through, though for me I could only bear it up to episode 10 before I realized the show had jumped the shark a few too many times for my liking.
Each character is a cardboard character. The MC is the misunderstood good guy; the female lead is the unconditionally good-hearted and naive baka; the other female lead is an alternative version of the unconditionally good-hearted and naive baka; the guy named Jail is basically Javert but with typical mannerisms of anime characters who ... 
Apr 8, 2024
Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha II: Shijou Saikyou no Maou no Shiso, Tensei shite Shison-tachi no Gakkou e Kayou
(Anime)
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This is an entertaining if not entirely coherent second season (part 1). What I chalk its shortcomings up to is a convoluted and overtuned plot. I guess it's somewhat refreshing to have an isekai really emphasize its story compared to others that rush headlong into the common tropes while emphasizing the temporary appeal of magic and action. But I can't say I enjoyed questioning just what was really happening and why several times an episode. As far as the animation and music go, they feel rather standard if not above average. Characters-wise, I can't say that anyone really stuck out as interesting. That's probably thanks
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