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Sep 17, 2019
Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e is yet another disappointment of the season. Or perhaps it's not, since I never had any expectations to begin with.
The basic premise of the show is as follows: A war over territory and power is waged on a newly-found continent of Patria. The sides in this war are the North and The south. The North is losing, so they create a squad of mutant supersoldiers to turn the tides in their favor. And they do. But now the mutants, or as the show calls them "Incarnates" are losing their minds and are going berserk, so their former leader Hank
...
Henriette steps up to kill his former comrades.
Sounds interesting? Well, I got some bad news for you. The execution of this idea leaves a lot to be desired.
Story.
I'll start with the story, since it's already outlined previously. The show follows the Monster of The Week premise for the majority of the episodes. In each of them the MC finds, fights and kills one of the Incarnates, while Schaal, his frienemy, stands around and does nothing. Episodes lack substance, both visually and narratively. If you've seen one of them, you've seen them all. I can't stress enough how few surprises they actually pack. Will Hank kill that guy? Yes, he will. Will any other character do anything? No, they won't. It's like that for about 10 of the show's 12 episodes. The finale is underwhelming ever compared to the rest of the ordeal, cleary suggesting that there will be a sequel. Because of that it lacks any sense of resolution.
Characters.
The protagonist Hank Henriette, who looks like someone's furry OC (don't steal) is the only one of them who actually does things. He kills all of the Incarnates, save for one (and even that is up to debate), he makes moral choices, he moves the story forward. He does so much, that this show could literally only have one character and nothing would've changed. That is not to say he's a good character. He's honestly decent. Compared to the rest of them, at least. Design-wise, his human form looks like your typical mid 2000s edgelord. You know the one. The coat-wearing, haircolor-changing, revolver-wielding sadboy, burdened with the loss of a loved one. I couldn't help but thinking that the authors were a decade late with this design.
The other protagonist is Schaal Bancroft. She's the worst character in this anime season, let alone this show. Throughout the show she does NOTHING. She is a daughter of one of Hank's pals he had killed earlier, so it's understandable that she despises him. Or should despise him. Upon meeting the MC she almost instantly forgets she's supposed to hate him, and follows him religeously instead, while sometimes saying that like "killing the incarnates is totally bad, maybe let's not do that?". And yet she does nothing to stop it. And when you think she's finally about to do something useful, syke, think again! Well, at least her design is nice, I'm really into it.
The others. I'm just gonna put the rest of the cast here, since they're equally useless, but not actively bad on their own. There's a big tiddy lieutenant and I think I have a pretty good idea of how she even got the rank in the first place. Outside of being a butt of most jokes, she does nothing. We never see her fight, and never even see her command the troops on the battlefield. Why does she even exist? Beats me.
Claude Withers, who is the main villian's younger brother, is yet another character only pretending to do something. And to be fair, a couple of times his actions led to some consequences. Not bad, concidering what show he's a part of. But most of the times he's led by the plot, and saved countless times by the one and only Main Character.
There are also two old dudes with mustaches, I can't differentiate between the two, so there's that.
Cain Mudhouse. Or maybe Madhouse, the sub isn't sure about that one. The antagonist of the story. He believes that the Incarnates have been had by the govt and in reality should be the ones who rule over the country. It's pretty standard stuff, but it makes sense. As a character, he's a mustache-twirling bad guy, with no redeeming qualities. If there's a puppy to kick, you can be sure he'll kick it. His abilities are (do not steal) teleporting behing you, exloding peoples's heads, mind control(?), turning into some kind of red mist, making copies of himself, being invincible, (except for when the MC hits him like really hard). He is utterly OP and yet we have no way of knowing the extent of it, making the fights lack any sort of weight, as the audience has no idea what is even capable of hurting him.
Sound. It's alright.
Animation. This is one of the ugliest shows of this season. The characters are often misshapen, they look like stickfigures when more than 5 feet away from the camera, sakuga is almost non-existent. The perspectives are often warped to the point that at certain times everything looks like it was drawn by a school kid. Not often, but it does happen. Oh, and the incarnates themselves look like they came out of a saturday morning cartoon, both design-wise and animation-wise.
So, is it worth watching? Hell no.
Is it worth watching ironically? Well, there's this one moment, when Schaal's father comes back from the war as a FUCKING DRAGON. She stares at him for maybe 5 seconds, he extends his claw to her, she touches it. And then she's instantly cool with the idea. Hell, she seems to be loving it. It was surreal. But outside of that one thing, this show's not even "so bad it's good". If anything, it's so bad it's bad.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jul 29, 2018
(Edit) The season went exactly like I've expected, so I don't even have to change anything.
This review might be edited or even changed completely depending on how the rest of the season plays out.
I usually dislike preliminary reviews, yet here I am, writing one myself. Why? I will explain that in a moment. But first, let's talk about what makes a superhero story good, and by extention, what makes a shounen good. If you said "story", you're wrong. Main characters? Wrong again. All these parts can be secondary, but one thing just must be good. And it's the villains. The protaganists are boring by nature:
...
they're either good and want to play by the rules, good, but don't want to play by the rules, or, if the show's wrinting is a bit better than average, some of them are morally gray. And that's it. If a character is described as being a hero, he must follow these 3 categories. Villians, however, come in different forms and shapes. While the counterparts of the 2 hero archetypes are certenaly popular, there are much much more variations to them. But all that talk about villians is not even the main point. They can be interesting, or they can be shallow, but one thing they can never be.
WEAK. And that is what MHA villians are. Frankly, they're pathetic. Never once a threat to begin with, and now they're even weaker, to the point where the show itself refrains from even showing them in favor of the main cast just, you know, living their lives. The villians don't even look that bad design-wise, and from what we've seen they could've been interesting characters, or not. But I doubt they'll ever be scary. As of now, any single one of them can get their ass whooped by a high-schooler, essentially making them a laughing stock. The only ones who could pose any sort of threat (and not even big threat mind you) are currently out of comission. It feels at times as if the mangaka has written himself to a corner, where the main cast is already overpowered at the start of the story. The media always teaches us to root for the underdog, so I'm rooting for the bad guys.
And that's already the bad outlook for the show. Sure, the Batman villians have more fans than the hero himself, but for a diffirent reason: charisma. Here, I'm rooting for the villians because they're weak and because the protagonists are arrogant. This brings us to the next section
STORY AND CHARACTERS
I've combined these two into one, because there's not much to talk about in terms of the story, and I don't mind. This being a shounen and all, my expectations were low and they're pretty much met. So the world is now a superhero society with 80% of the populus having some sort of a superpower, or as they call it a "Quirk". The MC didn't have one, but now he has it and with that newfound power he aims to be the best hero ever. And to reach that goal he... just enrolled in a hero academy. That's all there is to this story and as I said before, I didn't expect anything more. The characters are much more important.
The characters might all be just repackaged archetypes from the previous shounen series for all I care, as long as they've been done properly. And like many things in MHA, this here is a hit or miss.
Deku -- the MC of the story and as it often is its most boring character. He wanted to be a hero really bad, but in this kind of society it's kind of no big deal. So even his most prominent motivation feels unimportant. His biggest character trait is his constant fanboyism over the greatest hero, All-Might. And everyone loves that one, so once again, even in the setting presented, Deku doesn't stand out. He's also said to be smart, but that's thrown out of the window as soon as the writer desires. But maybe other characters are better?
Bakugo -- he's my least favorite character here, or anywhere, probably. He's always angry, always an asshole to anyone and always shouting for no reason. It feels like they've cut him from AoT and pasted right here for no reason. And no, before you ask, his personality is NOT a foil or a facade, becuase we've seen his entire backstory in flashbacks. He was always a douchebag with no redeeming qualities. Why is this a problem, you ask? Well even if his story arc is him becoming a better person (which at that point it better be), he can only become an average character. Not good, not even decent. His very ceiling as a character is average.
Oh, and he embodies another problem I see with the show, questionable messages. Bakugo is an asshole bully, who everyone calls a Deku's friend, even though AT NO POINT in the story, the two acted like anyone but enemies. No teacher thought to himself "hey, this guy bullies one of the students, maybe we shouldn't put them in the same class at least?". No, they all laugh it off. And honestly, can you see anyone like him making any friends? I could, even the writers would show it to me. But nope, we're just told that him and the other character are now "friends". And that's not even the end of it. Instead of stopping trying to reason with this obviously abusive guy, Deku makes extra sure to try again and again, while also hurting Bakugo's fragile self esteem. Deku knows the consiquences, yet he does it anyway. It's stupid, no sane person would do that, and honestly, it smells of Stockholm Syndrome to me. So what's the message here? Having this syndrome is a good thing? But I digress, since there's a lot of characters to cover. Too many, in fact.
All Might -- the strongest, most overpowered hero, also known as a symbol of peace. That's the only section including SPOILERS FOR THE 3RD SEASON UP TO EP 15 so you've been warned. I always thought he was gonna get killed off for dramatic effect and to rise the stakes, and to affect Deku's character growth. It was an obvious, but effective choice. Exept, they never do that. Even with everyone learning about his true form, he still beat the big bad, and he's still alive to babysit the MC. And with that the only possible dramatic tension is now gone.
END OF SPOILERS
Todoroki -- the best character. Even the MC said it himself, he should've been the protagonist. Even if he's still kinda generic, he's got a decent backstory, and also character flaws. The latter is a rare sight in this show, so he can't help but stand out. That's all fine and good, but he embodies yet another questionable message of the show. Well, not he himself, but his father instead. It's revealed in the season 2, that his father is a domestic abuser, yet the show never calls it out. Todoroki hates him, of course, but the rest of the show never does anything with it, Endeavor is the same "hero" as everyone else. I can't tell if it's intentional or not yet, so I won't comment on it any further.
Iida -- an upstanding class rep of the class 1-a. He's got a decent enough motivation in season 2, but I won't spend my time talking about him, since he just isn't interesting enough to me. The same can be said to the rest of the cast, so here's a quickfire review of some of them:
Uroraka -- a generic love interest with a usless quirk. Had something going for her at the start of the season one, but now does absolutely nothing.
Tokoyami -- even though he has a problem controlling his power, no actual flaws in his character can be found
Asui -- the frog girl. Once again, flawless as a character.
Mineta -- being a total degenerate and a creep is okay, as long as you're on a winning side. My second least favorite character.
Yaoyorozu -- has confidence problems that are never given much attention. Still a decent character.
Shigaraki Tomura -- does nothing
Kurogiri -- also uselss with a weakness obvious even to school kids.
Dobi -- looks the coolest out of the entire cast, but does nothing.
Everyone else -- I don't even remember them.
PRODUCTION
I don't really care about the animation, but in case you're wondering, it's Bones, you know the drill. The fights are flashy, the colors -- vibrant. Class room scenes look like shit though.
Music -- produced by Porno Grafitti, the openings are really good. I don't remember any other tracks from the show.
CONCLUSION
So why am I writing a preliminary review? I truly don't think anything about MHA will change. People seem to be enjoying it, so the writers never feel compelled to lift the status-quo. And they don't need to.
Overall, this is sadly turning out to be just another shounen, if not worse than the rest of the competition. MHA really needs to make its villians more of a threat, or at least make some new ones, if it can't even manage that much. So far the stakes are non-existent and the anime feels more like a superhero-themed Slice Of Life than anything else.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jul 28, 2018
You're probably wondering whether or not I'm being serious about such a low score. Long story short, yes this show is really that bad. Frankly, at times I couldn't believe my eyes while watching this. I hope that after reading this review you'll see just how bad this show is yourself.
STORY
Now, at that point most reviewers would recap the plot of the show, albeit in very broad terms to avoid spoilers and such. But here's the problem: this show has no plot. None. A thing happens, the characters respond to it, then they fight it out. Rinse and repeat. This has been a formula
...
for the second season as well, and surely enough it's back this season with no changes to it being done.
It doesn't go anywhere, and even if character arcs are present, there's still no sign of an overarching narrative to tie them all together. Any story, in its essence can be divided into the beginning, the middle and the end. While Tokyo Ghoul certenaly had a beginning, we don't have a slightest idea if it progresses anywhere. The episodes feel disjointed and abrupt, pacing is all over the place. That is, however, the least of my problems with the series and this season in particular. Moving on to the
CHARACTERS
Unlike the previous section I can at least say something about the characters of this show. While many of them are underdeveloped and bare-bones, it's definately the strongest aspect of the show. And by strongest I mean it's not completely abscent or all around terrible.
Before talking about individual characters I want to adress by far the most outrageous aspect of the show. A lot of the episodes feature characters that were never introduced, but treated by the show like they have been, or like they matter. An episode can literally start with characters framed like we're supposed to care about them or at the very least know them. A lot of them end up dying dramatically, even though the viewer couldn't possibly have cared. I even ended up rewatching the previous episodes' endings to make extra sure I didn't miss an episode or two on accident. I didn't. I don't know if that's because half of the episodes got cut out from the show, or because the writers expect the viewers to be familliar with the source material or any other reason, it's simply unforgivable. With that out the way, let's talk about some of the more prominent characters.
The Main Protagonist -- Is it even a spoiler to just call him Kaneki rather than Haise? I mean it was obvious from the start. And yet I don't feel like calling him by his real name. Why? Because Ken Kaneki is not even a character. They change him up, seemingly at will every single season, to the point where his name doesn't belong to any character. Kaneki from season one and Haise from season 3 are two completely diffirent characters, no matter what the writers want you to believe. Haise himself is incredibly dull, he lacks a character arc and prominent traits, unless caring for his friends a lot counts as one. You knew what was gonna happen to him, I knew what was gonna happen to him, so he really lacks any sort of hook. This guy is really hard to care about on any level.
Urie -- he's the best character this season, but once again, "the best" as in not entirely dull or boring. He has a character arc, complete with a motivation and a goal. Sure, it's all basic, but it exists and I have to commend the effort. His only gimminck of being an egoistical hypocrite still gets old very fast.
Saiko -- the token loli. She's listed as the main character in on the title page, but doesn't do anything. She can usually be found playing vidya or running around aimlessly with that big goofy-looking hammer. She's hinted to have an amazing power, but when she does it, it's kinda meh.
Tooru -- no idea if it's a guy or a gal, either way had a lot of time devoted to him in the beginning of the season, only to be entirely forgotten about in the end.
Shirazu -- the opposite of Tooru. Had nothing going for him at the beginning, only to rapidly develop a storyarc near the end. His only piece of characterization is having shark teeth.
Juuzou -- I'm only talking about him because he was my favorite character of the second season by far. Not only was he the only character to feature a proper arc and any sort of nuance to him, he also wasn't too boring in a fight. However, that was the last season (whitch was almost as bad as this one by the way). Here, Juuzou is a dissapointment, honestly. They skipped his character development to its conclusion, and so this season nothing happens to him. Even his fights have gotten boring.
Shuu -- absolutely irrelevant as a character, despite having a hude arc of his own. I don't really get why I'm supposed to care about anything that's happening to him, he was never even likable to begin with. Since his very first appearance in season one, he wasn't shown to have a single redeeming quality as a character.
Well, that about covers most of the relevant ones, now onto the reason I can't see anyone ever enjoying this show:
FIGHTS AND ANIMATION
Every action-driven anime lives and dies by the execution of its fight scenes. And by execution I mean everything in them, not just choreography and animation. Nontheless, if I had to start somewhere, I'd start with animation in general. It's all over the place, ranging from being legitimately not bad in some fighting scenes to being insulting in more somber moments. The low point to me was in episode 3 or 4, where, durning a conversation, animators used shot-reverse shot in such a way, that the speaking characters' mouth would not be visible. When it was their turn to talk, we'd only see their back, and not their face. I wish I was kidding. That being said, when the action heated up, the animation sometimes followed suit, for the more important battles. And that would even be sort of fun to watch, if not for two reasons:
Firstly, I had a hard time caring about any of the characters because of the reasons described in the previous section. And even without that, I couldn't enjoy the action at the most basic level because, secondly, there was no stakes. Let me elaborate. The ghoul powers are basically never put in any sort of easy to understand but concrete enough to follow bounds. Because of that, the viewer is never sure what's dangerous and what's not. At the writer's whim any hit can hurt the characters badly, or be completely ignored by them.
Is a gaping hole in your abdomen bad? What about being sliced in half? There are no answers to that. It's unknown just how much can the characters endure before going down, so you can't even follow the battles from that perspective. Some can die from a fairly normal looking wound, some can withstand being dismembered. You never know, so naturally, you never care.
With all that being said, I couldn't even enjoy watching this show just to laugh at how bad it was, like I can with some other ones. It was a chore all the way through. I can't, with good faith, recommend this show to anyone.
Oh, and the sound was kind of alright, the OP was even good at times.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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