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This is a wildly uneven show.

Trigger is a somewhat polarizing studio, and people are always going to take issue with the formula as it keeps reiterating. And this is certainly an iteration, incredible visuals (mostly), colorful characters, over the top action..... but ultimately a hollow story with middling characters that exists to satisfy no one. But there is more to this edition of Trigger's antics, because, be it from the source material or the genre, there is a germ of something thematic and interesting here. Its a show that's frustrating to watch, with surprisingly poignant highs and despondently low lows. If it were more ... consistent, good or bad, I would be much more satisfied with the show, but it gives you hope that it could be something more than what it seems. And at the end of the day, its the hope that kills you.

First and foremost, the great stuff. Up until things "go over the edge", the animation is pretty much without fault. Its silky smooth, its vibrant, the characters are memorable and expressive, its everything we've come to expect from Trigger. The OP, although kinda western in style, is pretty good, a solid song and simple but effective animation. The ED is excellent, really well animated and a nice song, by the end I hadn't skipped it once. The va work was stellar, I decided to watch the dub for once, having heard it was near natural, and I can't help but agree. A couple of voices needed to be grown into a bit, but the dub dialogue was surprisingly well written and effective, and I'm not sure if its a function of the production or the setting. In any case, its good. The soundtrack is solid, although again somewhat western in application, and most of the violence and nudity is unexpectedly tasteful.

Speaking of, lets expound upon that. Netflix gave Trigger the green light to go, really as far as they wanted, and while there's plenty of head explosions and limbs flying off, there's often an appropriate amount of discretion used. When it comes to the topic of cyberpsychosis and the themes presented within, the more extreme elements are decidedly not awesome, but sobering and melancholic. Until they aren't, at least, but that's a matter for later. Its very cyberpunk the genre, violence not for its own sake but to inform the evolving and dangerous relationship between man and machine. In the first half, imo this is handled almost to perfection, with proper weight and excellent tone, an understanding of the theme and its presentation. The nudity is also handled quite well, contrary to how Trigger often presents its sex appeal. The fan service is not treated as such, because they have the ability to go all the way. Its rarely framed as something horny, but a reality of the setting and existence, characters can just be in the nude, and its not unnatural or drawn attention to, which is quite commendable.

Now, the plot... its a problem. The bones are good, the show has plot has a good foundation and themes, but it over runs itself. Somehow in the limited span of ten episodes to manages to massively and obviously jump the shark, forcing its characters into petty melodrama and progression switchbacks. Characters that were strong in the first half regress in the second and make astounding, in context contradictory choices. Its the murder of a plot progression, unfolding through just 2-3 short episodes. An impressive accomplishment, but nonetheless dumbfounding. At its end, I have trouble seeing who could be satisfied by the ending and how. It truly astounds me that so many people seem to have latched on to the ending and been affected by it, when it feels as if the show tried as hard as it could to forget the lessons learned through its actual good emotional moments and end up as empty as possible. Truly, if it had ended after six episodes, I would have given it an easy 9.

All in all, Edgerunners is a curious property. Simultaneously worth the hype and far overpraised, a poignant statement of the genre and an indulgent piece of trigger animation. It is itself a contradiction, a tale of two halves, a principle in violation of itself. If you're a trigger adherent, you probably don't need to be convinced to watch and enjoy this. Otherwise, know that this is not going to reach the heights that its ratings suggest. Either way, its a much needed shot in the arm for CD Projekt Red's world, and a show that will likely fuel more future development in the setting regardless of its shoddy back half. I give it a point for every good episode, 6/10.

Made in Abyss season 2 is at the very least, a highly ambitious addition to Tsukushi's dark world of Orth and the Abyss. As a function of that ambition though, this season is not, nor ever really could be perfect. That being said, there are many truly exceptional things about S2, Kevin Penkin is yet to miss as the composer for the series, the emotional beats are darkly creative and effective, and Misaki Kuno puts on maybe one of the finest VA performances I've ever seen as the Faputa. Nevertheless, fans of the first season that expect more delving into the depths of the unknowable ... will likely be disappointed, as this season decides to put most everything previously established on the backburner, to introduce a second alien culture and perspective. This creates the key issue within this season, a holdover from the manga: the pacing.

Pacing was naturally going to be a problem with how this arc is structured, and the show does several things to alleviate its effect, but the problem still remains. This narrative is very backloaded, and much of the impact and exploration of the characters doesn't come until about the back quarter of its run. The show does not explain to viewer much of anything that is experienced before that, placing us in the shoes of Riko in trying to piece together the alien context the group finds in the 6th layer, and that can lead to the whole conceit of the arc felling somewhat like a giant waste of time. I can assure you, however, these notions are fully dispelled by the end of the show's run. Made in Abyss tends to run on a bit of a pattern, established at the back half of the first season, where there is always one character who has to be subjected to a fate worse than death before an arc can resolve. First it was Mitty, then it was Prushka, and now the cycle continues, intensifying with every iteration. The truth behind this arc is arguably the grizzliest yet, and produces one of the most interesting characters of the show in Faputa.

Speaking of characters, they're a bit of a mixed bag this arc. If you love Nanachi, you will probably not be too happy, as her arc is easily the weakest we've seen yet, and just exists to take her out of the equation for several episodes so we can focus on other characters. From a writing perspective, its pretty lazy and manipulative, and its one of the weakest aspects of the series as far as I'm concerned. Our existing cast as a whole in fact does not see much movement, Riko and Reg get some new abilities and plenty of time in the spotlight, but they're all far outshown by the new additions. Faputa in particular, is incredible, and needed to be, as the emotional heart of the arc.

Faputa is something new to the series, a being that is not quite human, not quite blessed, not quite animal, in some ways like Reg but far less recognizable, as a function of the alien values introduced this season. She has many quirks, things that really had to be nailed for her adaptation, and the show absolutely blew her out of the park. Kuno's performance is just about pitch perfect, showing the volatility and full range of her being, convincingly animalistic at one moment to soft and childlike the next and regal and weighty the one after. Its emotional, its raw, its angry, its all of what Faputa is, a perfect portrayal of her character and conviction. Her animation is also stellar (although maybe to the slight detriment of the rest of the show), as she is a strange sort of transforming being, wispy at times, with lots of high speed and fluidity. Anytime she needed to look good, she looked great, and that's not something I feel can often said about characters of this importance.

The rest of the animation and voice acting is solid, perhaps not as exceptional as the previous entries, but there are standouts. All of the sages have great voices and put in solid performances, the best of which being the principle villain. The main cast is all more than acceptable, but other than Reg, ultimately not asked to do too much. The animation has some lows and some highs, some CG here and there for some of the more complex and unreasonable creatures, but at the end of the day, its all welcome to properly interpret the confusion that exists in some of the challenges of this arc. The Luring in particular was helped greatly by this, as I don't think I really ever understood exactly what happened in the manga to resolve the issue. Here everything is very clear and effective, and you can actually tell what the creature is and how it works, which is a real plus and boosts that episode from a footnote to a highlight of the first half.

The CG is noticeable, but I think only in one or two instances detrimental. It seems to have been used mostly for scale, and I can't say I fault them for it. The one thing I did expected to fault was CG Magikaja, but truth be told by the end of the show I had fallen in love with it. Magikaja is such a strange and alien being anyhow that it almost makes sense that he would be CG, and it aids his wacky sort of noncorporeal mechanical host concept (if that makes any sense whatsoever). Belaf's CG is something I find much harder to fall in love with, and it feels like he got a bit of the short end of the stick in production focus. The few times when he was 2D (I think) he looked great, and his best moment gets resigned to a bit of slide show, even if it doesn't take much away from its impact. All in all though, you could do much worse with CG. Just ask Mappa.

The last thing to address would be the emotional conflict itself, which is very hard to dive into without exposing it bare and removing some of its sheen. To keep it simple, its fucked. If you thought the last two instances of Tsukushi abyss torture porn were emotionally manipulative, you won't come out of this feeling much different. Its gruesome, its inhuman, and frankly I don't even know how he comes up with this anymore. But if you buy into it, man is it effective. There are few media properties I would say I'm emotionally invested in enough to be able to force me to tears, but this almost had me like 3-4 times in the back half. It really helps that Kuno plays both Faputa and the recipient of the horrors of the abyss, lending an insane amount of emotion that just isn't present in the source through her voice, but its just a really well done descent into inhumanity, that leaves the audience questioning who the real villain is in all this, and what could have been done otherwise. MiA was never the most thematic property, and I think that continues here, but there's just enough meat on the bone to satisfy, much more so in my opinion through Faputa and her development. I've seen people write her off as a one dimensional boomstick of a character, but that really undermines the conflict that manifests at the core of her being and the development she undergoes as the show progresses. Overall, there's some interesting nuggets here, for sure, but the depth is hardly going to knock anyone's socks off.

At the end of the day, its a very solid adaptation of an imperfect source. There are exceptional highs, there are unfortunate limitations, and there are subversions to what an MiA fan who may not have kept up with the series will expect and wish for. Its an ambitious and interesting direction for the series, attaching many new facets onto it as it moves forwards, seemingly now into more familiar exploration type territory (by the latest in the manga). Its a worthwhile watch for any fans of the series, and a fulfillment of the promise it held to manga readers who waited months hanging on every word during Tsukushi's mini-hiatuses. And if you don't like it, you'll have plenty of time to come to terms with it before the next season arrives, trust me.

A healthy sense of perspective comes from constantly reevaluating and examining the things that you like, picking apart and seeing what exactly makes them tick. Happy Sugar Life is a property I frequently try to do this with, because its one that feels like it should not be one of my favorite stories. And so, with a surprise 11th volume coming out, there's not better time for another reread. My point of view is a little bit different than most though, I feel, as not only did I watch the anime before, but I maintain that the anime is actually the superior way to experience ... the story, although that is not to take from the quality of HSL at its core. Nonetheless, I should start into the meat of the content itself.

Happy Sugar Life is both controversial and niche, an intriguing and dangerous concept that by all means kind of should not work. Its certainly a bold story if nothing else, hitting the reader off the top with an uncomfortable ambiguity that isn't resolved really the whole way through, to the story's benefit. At its heart, Happy Sugar Life is a love story, between the clueless, idyllic Shio Koube and our hot and cold yandere protagonist, Satou Matsuzaka. The gist is simple and enticing: Satou kidnapped this kid and holds some unspecified romantic attachment to her, and people are looking for her. Now a dumber story would take that to its natural extremes, having Satou kill and kill until she can't stack the bodies high enough to hide them, or tries to directly assassinate the people looking for her love and get caught. But Satou is much more interesting yandere, I would argue the most interesting I've ever seen. She has an uncanny ability to understand what makes people tick, which she consistently uses to manipulate people, instead of trying to get her hands dirty, as she knows that can only bring her more visibility and danger. She actively enacts restraint and self control as much as she can, demonstrated at the very beginning and reinforced throughout, where one would imagine the typical yandere would get to work and start spilling blood. By making Satou a much more exacting character, not only is she allowed room to develop, but the reader can more clearly see inside her head. This is where the natural comparison to the anime would have to be made, and I will openly admit, I think the anime does it better on every level. But this is where every concept the anime uses is derived from, and from that I give Kagisora much praise.

Another strength of both adaptations of Happy Sugar Life is a refreshing understanding of what it is. Which is not to say it doesn't take itself seriously, to the contrary, there's not much that isn't taken seriously. But it knows what it has to show seriously to make itself work, even if it seems too ridiculous to be played straight. That is why, ultimately, this is a Yuri. Not to speak on Yuri as a genre, I know exceptionally little about it and its typical progressions, but we as the reader don't hold some perspective far above the action, presented with a moral standpoint for or against the action. We ARE Satou, we have to see Shio in the same way to get into her mental headspace, we have to understand how she can brush off murder and manipulation as not only acceptable, but necessary. There are some chapters in particular, for example, when Satou admits her "sin" to Shio, where the concept is so downright ridiculous that if it was played for laughs, it genuinely could be hilarious. But it knows that this can't be played for laughs, because Satou's conviction is not a joke. These things mean things to the characters, a kiss is more horrifying than the most horrific of crimes, a sock can be more precious than the most enticing temptation. That's what makes HSL such a breath of fresh air, its a story about characters with principles, maybe misguided, maybe downright dangerous, but ones that you understand and that they have to justify. Their desperation and desire is painted across each panel, putting you in the situation to heighten the emotional experience. Granted, it also must be noted, that all of these characters are basically crazy. Which makes it all the more ridiculous, or all the more impressive. There is a buy in inherent to Happy Sugar Life as a concept, how much are you willing to suspend to believe that so many people are going crazy over a single child. But that's a personal problem to work out in your own context as a reader.

Again back to concept, Kagisora implements a ton of interesting ideas in how she draws Happy Sugar Life. First and foremost on this front, the art is exceptional. I think the character designs are great, there's a lot of creative framing, and a lot of liberties taken with reality to show character's head spaces. Many times you will not get a presentation of reality, but an impression of an emotion or situation that carries across much more than just that hard truth. Sometimes we're shown something that the character doesn't even understand, placing us in the emotional turmoil of not understanding one's own feelings or history. This is particularly nice in characters like Shio, through whom we slowly gain access to the truth behind what's really going on, the larger emotional context of the story, which does a lot to grant the story a greater message and point.

Speaking of the point, lets get a bit into interpretation. One thing that I pretty consistently look at when I come back to the manga is its meaning in comparison to the show. One thing that I really respect about Kagisora is her decision to step away for a minute after the show jumped the core material and ended, re evaluating how the ending had to happen and what the characters gain from it. Ultimately the manga ending ends up much stronger and well developed for it, adding a significant and interesting internal conflict in Shio that was really only hinted at in the show. Taiyou too, receives much more interesting treatment. He is an odd case, as he is surprisingly, the best part of the show by some margin. His writing and development ends up better in the manga, and I really like where he ends in the source over the show. Its a shame that it seems most of what was cut or extrapolated on post show was either with Shio or Taiyou, but that ends up being the case when your manga is just a bit too long for 12 episodes. In any case, Happy Sugar Life has something of a perfect ending in my eyes, endlessly interpretable and melancholic, a redemption at the end as much as a decision with harrowing and confusing personal implications. I'm not in the business of spoiling perfect endings, even with as foreseeable and necessary HSL's is, but at the end of the day it is proof that HSL is not just a show trying to laud or defend a pedophilic relationship. Satou develops as a character in a way I don't think many yanderes are frankly capable of, and comes to see the error of her own ways through her own means, without outside morals pressed upon her. Which makes her journey not only much more of her own, but far more interesting to experience, as a come to light story through her own borderline context.

At the end of the day, HSL is as enjoyable as you let it be. It will try to sweep you away, carry you with its energy and commitment to its characters to a fault, and you can enjoy it as much as you can be bought by the context. I go back and forth on how scary Happy Sugar Life really is, as it is ostensibly a psychological horror. If that is what you're looking for, I don't know if this is what you want to find, with minimal kills and just as much sweetness to go with the sour. That being said, be it anime or manga, Satou's Aunt is just about the most terrifying character ever. She takes a horror angle to the classic "can't deal with a masochist because hurting them turns them on" trope and runs with it, becoming almost a metaphysical force of evil that should not exist, that its almost more appropriate to leave unnamed. A lot of the horror elements of Happy Sugar Life exist moreso to unsettle the reader, which frankly is more appropriate in a psychological story, but nonetheless not really much of a direct fear.

Ultimately I still think the manga is not quite as good as the show, as really it has no answer to the voice cast. Its very much a worthwhile read though for a fan of the show that wants more, or just someone who wants to experience a very interesting and well crafted emotional story. Happy Sugar Life is a concept that is so bad its good tier elevated to a different height by how its handled. Granted, if you cannot get past the perception that Satou is a pedophile, you should not read Happy Sugar Life, it will bring you no joy.

As strange as it may seem, Happy Sugar Life is a very important anime to me. Not insofar as relation the main cast, or having a personal understanding of the cycle of abuse or domestic violence, but as one of the first expressions in anime that I had seen and could say "this holds up" in comparisons to similar shows or even movies in the same psychological vein. I am a cynic, and I got into anime very late, only around the time this came out in 2018. I didn't know what to think of the medium for a long time, but I came across ... HSL through a yuri account I was following at the time, and very quickly got swept into the show. Frankly, I didn't know what to expect, but what I got was not what was advertised. Happy Sugar Life can be an extremely difficult show to come to terms with on conceptual grounds, as off the top, its very difficult not to see Satou as the immediate bad guy in a bit of hyper exaggerated anime psych horror schlock. But underneath that surface is a a veritable treasure trove, with masterful pacing, a complex and invariably intriguing protagonist, and a show that really commits to the unblemished perspective of its conflicted, albeit exaggerated, main characters.

Story: 9

As far as I am concerned the story is nigh perfect, mostly because of its pacing. Great pacing can patch over a lot of things, and while of course not every little detail is like, true to life accurate, it really doesn't need to be. It needs to work in its context. Now, to the content itself. The central lever of the story is Shio Koube, a wayward child inexplicably left in the care of the unstable and dangerous Satou Matsuzaka, with an undefined romantic element between the two. That is really the entire setup, which off the top presents the audience with the uncomfortably enticing mystery of "what the hell this is?". Is Satou a kidnapper, a murderer, a pedophile, unhinged, holding her for ransom? Now a lotta people would say off the top, there It is, she's obviously a pedophile, as that's the only option that really fits the setup in the wider social context, but those people are missing the point, and disregarding much of the context. But in any case its grey, its a weird and vaguely unethical situation that could not possibly play out positively. In fact that's even explicitly shown from the beginning, the very first shot shows that this can end in nothing but tragedy, but while a worse show would probably make it a much schlockier and violent road to the inevitable heartbreak, Happy Sugar Life is very selective with what it exaggerates and what it tries to approach with some nuance. At the end of the day it is not another over the top pink haired yandere massacre show, but a story that really has something to say about interpersonal bonds and cycles of abuse. I only dock a point because you can really tell that the show jumped the manga with the ending, and as a result the character motivations become a little bit muddled heading into the final episode. But its still excellent and poignant.

Art: 9

I love the look of Happy Sugar Life. It does not have the highest budget, the most creative character design, or the most visually appealing color pallet, but I would argue it has some of the best direction. The show really understands how to get across its points visually, showing emotion and contrast through subtleties within the presentation. Many people peg the show as a psychological horror, but that's really not a correct assessment. HSL is not particularly scary, or really trying to be. But at the end of the day it is undoubtedly psychological. While at times it can overuse the psychological static and spirals, I really think the purposeful sickly sweet color coding of scenes with Shio contrasted with the grittier scenes of Satou struggling with bitterness is brilliant. There's so much focus on the eyes of the characters, in either their design or their presentation, and the show really plays with different ways to show character's states of mind through their eyes. Satou and her aunt are particularly great on this front, there are still shots of the aunt's eyes that instill real genuine panic in me. The best thing that Happy Sugar Life does through telling its story through the perspectives of its characters is the visual presentation of their mental states. The four main characters are all psychologically broken, but each have different ways of visualizing the key to normalcy and the ways that their traumas have effected them. Shio will say that she's spinning, and the attached visuals will make me feel mentally like I'm in just as much of a mental tailspin as her, because I have just as much context as she does as to what the hell happened to her. The telling of the story through the character perspective elevates the story through that perspective, as it twists from an overarching plot to something personal, something driven by these characters with reason. You can really feel the conviction and the desperation in the characters through what the show presents from their worldview, its incredible. I saw the show before I did the manga, and frankly their were some scenes of Satou's mental state that were so effective visually that I didn't even understand how it could've been translated from a source, like they were so well implemented that it felt more natural in animation than it could possibly had been as a manga panel. Its not how the art of Happy Sugar Life looks that makes it stand out, but its in what the show does with it.

Sound: 9

I will not lie, much of the sound within the show itself is fairly forgettable, the effects, in episode themes, and even ED are fine, not bad, just not much to write home about. The OP, however, is absolutely phenomenal on every front, from music to animation to progression, its basically the platonic ideal of what an anime opening should be. The song itself, One Room Sugar Life by Nanawoakari, is an infectious and darkly energetic banger that 100% stands on its own, and probably one of my favorite OP songs ever. Furthermore the OP song and animation sort of tell the story through their progression, they present an intimate understanding of the show in and of themselves. The ED is a bit bland though, I tend to skip it. Past that, the voice acting is truly exceptional. More than anything else, I feel like everyone really went for it. Taiyo in particular, his character is the closest to being used just for comedic effect, but he sounds genuinely unhinged in his pursuit of Shio, it really heightens the character. HanaKana is surprisingly understated in the role of a driven unstable high schooler, but nonetheless her performance is stellar, and very fitting to the role. Her and Shio have great chemistry, and Shio's VA really sells her as just the most adorable angel, its not exactly hard to imagine why all these characters are struggling so hard to reach her, even if all of their intentions are hard to specifically empathize with in a vacuum. Really, if you're going to do an exaggerated reality with exaggerated characters, you need your voice actors to ratchet up the performances, and Happy Sugar Life certainly delivers.

Characters: 9

This is where I think many people would differ. Satou is a very divisive character, you either buy into her conviction and root for her as the protagonist through her faults, or you refuse to see past the fact she kidnapped a child and that's that. Personally I love Satou, I think she's an excellent and far more realized interpretation of the yandere type than anything else I've seen. She's in a constant struggle against her own nature and background, not impulsive, but extremely exact and conniving. For a yandere, her body count is not really that high, and even then its not like she relishes having to take care of business for Shio's sake, its really only out of necessity, when her various failsafes have all for whatever reason been breached. She barely understands her own connection to Shio, only that it keeps away the hollow bitterness that permeates all of her interpersonal relationships (which makes the conclusion all the more impactful). Shio herself is barely a character for much of the show, purposefully, as the show understands that she is, to all of her adherents, a tool. Once she realizes that herself, she develops into a character alongside Satou, with the power to make her own decisions for her own motivations. They make a strong pair of protagonists, but past that is a lineup of largely over the top side characters, Taiyo in particular. Him, Satou and Shio's brother all put forth different interpretations of Shio's value through their actions, and all of them have an even more deranged adult over them that has shaped their own hyperbolic reality. These backstories can be a little bit flimsy, like the case of Taiyo being raped into being a pedophile (sounds like a very strange concept for a character that is the closest thing to a joke the show has to offer, but hey, its used for the effect, not to mock rape victims or something, he's at the beginning of his own cycle of abuse), but the main two are strong, and present valid cases against this grey zone of Shio's custody. The great thing here is that as the story goes along, there's not much reaction from the characters, Satou is actively plotting while the other characters, driven by their own motivations, are seeking their own way to their own objectives. The only character I don't particularly like, controversially, is Shouko, as she is both the most normal, and least driven of the central character group. It pains me to see many people rally behind her as a standout, for the sole point of being the most normal in this hyper normal fictional setting, but that's outside of the context of the show. Nevertheless it has shaped my interpretation of the character, which leads back to the point of social interpretation at large. As much as art at large is subjective, there is objectivity in everything. HSL exists to tell a grey story, with characters who do immoral things based on their unique worldview, without an overarching narrative voice explicitly trying to take a side. You are supposed to be caught up in their psychological perceptions, the representations of their moral and personal strivings. To utterly reject any of these characters, Satou in particular, for a hasty, overarching judgement of their character in totality for fictional wrongdoings that fit their perspective, is missing the point on an objective level, in my estimation. But I digress. I quite enjoy what Happy Sugar Life does with each of its characters, and the consistency they all hold with their perspectives in their actions.

Enjoyment: 10

Happy Sugar Life is not the kind of show I would say you have to turn your brain off to have to enjoy, but it is one where I'd say there's a buy in. You have to suspend disbelief and stop asking why anyone's not calling the cops, because frankly no one wants to see some kinda lame ass shit where Shio gets put in foster care and everyone goes to court. That'd make for a real exciting and engaging piece of fiction, no doubt. Anywho, once you buy in, it is a blast. There are very few shows I binge, not because I dislike television, but just because I ask myself what I could otherwise be doing with my time. 12 episodes, or even multiple seasons, is a very large ask time wise, and really has to be something especially engaging for me to say that "I gotta see the next episode" after every single one. Happy Sugar Life had me so hooked that I told myself I couldn't binge it, and then went back to finish it within like an hour. The pacing is so excellent, leaving you having to know what happens next, where does it all fall apart, WHERE THE HELL IS SHIO, after every episode. Up until the somewhat rushed ending at least, but that's mostly the setup, the ending itself is essentially what I what call perfect. Add onto the pacing that the OP is so good you could put it on repeat for hours and never stop chanting along with the chorus, and time starts to fly when Happy Sugar Life gets rolling. But even as it does so, it is not only one 12 episode season, but a fully contained season and narrative. Everything ends in 12 episodes, with minimal (important) loose ends and no unresolved plot lines. I respect a narrative that has the balls to end itself, and Happy Sugar Life holds no designs on stretching its plot as thin as it could for another season. Happy Sugar Life also has one of my favorite episodes of television point blank, specifically episode 8, where context is finally given to Satou and Shio's state of living. Its obtuse, its tragic, its eyes-glued-to-the-screen content, and you can drink up every second. Its so good that Satou's old flame doesn't even have to speak, which in and of itself is a brilliant and memorable to portray the perspective of a character. I love it to death, simple as.

Overall:

Happy Sugar Life, very strangely, has cemented itself as my favorite show of any genre or medium, a position from which I have tried to dislodge it. I've rewatched it several times, thinking there's no way it could live up to my expectations, and get dragged in every time. I think I could literally talk for days on end about HSL and still have it rattle around in my brain, its a show that really grabs you and refuses to let go. At the end of the day, I am thankful. Happy Sugar Life showed me what anime was capable of, and while there tend not to be many shows in its same exact vein, it has led me to exceptional media I never would have touched without it. Happy Sugar Life was my gateway to the entirety of the medium, and for that it will always hold a special place for me. Alongside the fact that I think its one of the best things ever put to animation, but that's neither here nor there. Happy Sugar Life is more than a simple lolicon Yuri show, or a pink haired yandere psych horror, or a schlocky shounen murderfest. Give it a shot, go with its flow, and it will reward you.

Chainsaw Man is a property I avoided for a long time, in spite of the hype, and at the end of it all I do feel somewhat justified in my misgivings. That being said, it is a very good time, with breezy, action packed chapters and intense action. The basic premise is a unique and grittier power system than most Shounens, humans giving something of themselves in exchange for access to a demon's power in battle. The setting itself, an alternate reality where objects of fear take sentience and wreck havoc on the world, creating an international need for devil hunting as an additional government ... service, is another fresh one, but frequently inconsistent. There are many points in Chainsaw Man where I feel as if the mangaka didn't quite know which direction to go, and what progression he wanted, as a protagonist group is established and then immediately killed, as that a new protagonist group can take its place for the rest of the story. And speaking of deaths, there are many. Chainsaw Man's body count is not negligible, both in named characters and collateral damage, and the kills are invariably creative and explosive. Overall, its an interesting experience, with plenty of entertainment and intrigue, but at the same time many problems.

Story 4:

I'll say it off the top, I don't think Chainsaw Man's story works. Unfortunately, this comes down most of the time as fault of our mentally stunted MC, Denji. Which isn't to say I think his irreverence isn't entertaining, but contextually, the utter shallowness of his character and motivations compared to the tone of what goes on around him completely undercuts the direction of the story. Chainsaw Man works for me on a level of character dynamics, but as a whole its simply a giant mess. The background of Denji and Pochita is never satisfactorily explained or demonstrated, nor is the importance of him to the story. Denji is really just a tool, something he recognizes near the end, but that doesn't change the fact that you could cycle in most any other thing that can rip and tear and the story wouldn't change in much of its run. Things happen to Denji, he swears about wanting to touch boobs, and then he reacts. Often the larger motives and progressions within the story go so far above his head that coming back to him feels completely wrong, a tonal shift that doesn't match the gravity needed for the grittiness of the conflict. Again, on an individual level there are some good developments, and Denji is somewhat passable when he's evaluating his goals against what he sees as necessary to be verifiably human, but it comes back to the patchiness of the setting insofar as we don't understand, and never really will understand, what Denji is as the Chainsaw Man, nor what he means. Makima gives a belated explanation, sure, but even then it isn't really justified why someone as utterly pathetic as Denji should be the Chainsaw Devil, nor why the Chainsaw Devil specifically is this sort of all powerful hero of hell. There are just too many holes in the fabric of Chainsaw Man's narrative for it to be a cohesive product.

Art: 8

I like the art. There's myriad interesting devil designs, a clear aesthetic, and plenty of visually exciting fights. There are times, maybe more than there should be, when the action is somewhat unclear, but you never really truly lose track of the events. That being said, there are definite situations where you lose track of the characters, and I know there's at least one group in the darkness devil/santa/hell arc that I completely lost track of and still don't know what happened to. But tbh they're relatively irrelevant to the continuation of the plot, and it doesn't change the fact that the visuals in Chainsaw man rarely disappoint, whether its in showing you a fucked up devil thing that can decapitate a crowd of people in half a second, or, well, actually there isn't too much else. The base character designs are also pretty solid, although they tend to look a bit goofy in really close panels. In any case, there is good reason that people simp over Power and Makima.

Character: 6

Much of the good in the story is built on solid characters interacting, but it just sucks that so much of the story is seen through the lens of Denji's dumb ass. And here's the thing, I like the dynamic between him and Power, they're both stupid and arrogant, they fit each other. But you can't place a serious narrative on their backs, they're the worst possible foundation for this kind of plot. Rather than ground us in reality in contrast to grand plots to leverage demon power to kill hundreds of thousands of people or attempts to reshape reality, they just blast us off into space and make the plot incongruent. They can't be the only ones completely cavalier and nonplussed by everything coming their way, maybe if the structure was limited to the original team, but once things expand, it just doesn't work. The other cornerstones are okay, Aki is decent, but not better than Himeno, who got struck down far too soon in service of the plot, Makima is very interesting as a concept, but in practice she isn't near as subtle or unique as she's built up to be, nor even consistent with her existence. We never get a clear idea of her powers or her background, really just her manipulation, and even that feels thin near the story's climax. Kobeni is a joke, albeit a good one, but nonetheless still pretty irrelevant. Most of the characters are just vehicles for the plot to ride on rather than drivers that can change its direction, at the end of the day.

Enjoyment: 7

In spite of its flaws, Chainsaw Man tends to stay pretty entertaining. For better or worse, Denji is always up to some sort of antic (at least when he isn't dead), and the fights are pretty constant. Chainsaw Man is not a long read, and that's because many of the chapters are not terribly long, with plenty of fighting panels. I wouldn't say the humor always lands, but Denji's audacity will get you once or twice, and the Family Burger chapters are genuinely some of the funniest I've ever read, they're worth the hype. The stakes are usually high, the action is intense, and the pace is fast. It rarely makes itself uninteresting enough to put down.

Chainsaw Man is a promising property, and one that's worth being excited about for its upcoming anime and manga extension. But its definitely not perfect, by any measure. The primary reason I wasn't sure if this was worth my time in the first place was Denji's attitude, and near the back of the story, I felt like those fears were justified. Denji just doesn't fit here. Its really hard to connect with a guy who's only goals in life are copping a feel when the narrative goes into a more serious direction, and the tonal whiplash is intense. One thing that did surprise me was Makima though. Even if her ultimate goal wasn't all it was cracked up to be, her manipulations are very interesting to see manifest across all of the relevant men in the agency, and even when her goals don't align with her purpose, she does feel like a demon whose power in conjunction with her fear is truly appropriate. Plus she's got the eyes, I'm a sucker for a character whose eyes play into their characterization. But I digress. There's plenty of reason to be excited by Chainsaw Man, and its something that I don't regret reading. But it needs a lot of work on its world and its protagonist if its going to fulfill its potential going forwards from part 1.

Zombieland Saga, although obviously not particularly long lived, has a bit of a special place for me. Having only gotten into anime much a couple of years ago, Zombieland Saga S1 was the first show I watched as it was premiering, and it was a wonderful time. Obviously not perfect, as that's about a 7-8/10 for me, but it was wildly entertaining and different, an audacious concept with solid emotional grounding and good characters. As such, ever since then ZLSR has been one of my most anticipated watches. Does it meet the hype then? Well.... yes and no. ZLSR has a problem kinda integral to ... its run, that being its structure. The whole show is based on a revenge show. Revenge for what? A concert that we don't get to see till the last half of the season, was never alluded to happening in S1, and ultimately feels a bit manufactured to produce a finale. In fact, while I appreciate a lot of the legwork that went into Revenge to produce the finale show, it doesn't come off to me as genuine as much of the work in S1 does, it feels like its placed there specifically for the result, rather than the progression of the girls and their status as idols. Not to get ahead of myself (and there's certainly something to get ahead when it comes to the end), but the lengths they go to to produce a big time finale end up making the overall goal of "revenge" a bit trite and contrived, given the gravity of the situation at that point for Saga as a whole. But I digress, ZLS is about wacky zombie idol antics, and ZLSR mostly delivers on that front.

Story: 5

ZLS is built on the strength of its concept, and honestly as a whole it could be described as a sort of revenge. The first series relied heavily on its character backstories, and set the tone for a sort of cosmic misfortune that the girls, and consequently the prefecture, would overcome. ZLSR undercuts that from the very get go with its basic premise, the off screen disaster that resets Franchouchou's finances, popularity, and status. Which then sets up some fine episodes to claw their way back into the hearts of the populace, and earn respect from their rivals, but at the end of the day its not a necessary development. Furthermore, to make the decision to show the full context only in the final few episodes, to create a final arc feels very strange, and honestly even when watching it it took a few minutes to fully understand that the concert sequence was a flashback and not another failure at the same venue. Past the overall structure, ZLSR also gives Yuugiri her long awaited backstory arc. And..... its the worst one. I'm not the biggest Yuugiri stan, but this was also just a very strange decision, we don't get to see Yuugiri's rise into becoming a legendary courtesan, at the time of the flashback she is already what we know her as. Hell, she's not even the main character in her own backstory, the proto-Producer is. The tone is even all out of wack for that arc, they try to go hyper dramatic against the standard ZLS audacity, and it really doesn't work. For all the good that the story does, I feel like it pretty consistently treads water, and the overall conflict just isn't natural.

Art: 8

ZLS always had good character designs, and that doesn't change here. The most marked change is the improvement on the idol show 3D, and it looks quite good. As far as I know that is the biggest thing that put people off from S1, and its really no longer an issue. Past that, there aren't a ton of new characters, but if I did have a problem, it would be that Maimai is just Sakurai 2.0.

Sound: 8

If you're into an idol show, you gotta be down with the music. ZLS is no different, and the music is great. There are new songs performed, old favorites finally given light in the show, and its all great stuff, I would even argue saga jihen at the end of the Yuugiri arc saved that whole episode. The only real out of the box performances are Lily's broadway remix and the rock concert, and those are great as well.

Character: 8

The groundwork has already been set, and while there isn't particularly much development on top of it, its pretty nice. Tae is always my favorite part of the series, and while bringing her up in terms of character development is a bit backwards, as she's a bit of an anti character, her spotlight episode actually retroactively saves Saki's entire backstory from S1. There isn't much development on the grounds that, y'know, the girls are zombies, but one of the early episodes actually produces a really strong development for Saki on the grounds that she is a zombie, and can no longer follow her own idols as she did in life. Again, I'd say Maimai is a downside, as she's really just a tool to help engineer the finale, but most everywhere else is pretty strong. If you liked the crew before, you'll like them again, they're as charming as usual.

Enjoyment: 7

The good thing about ZLS is that at its core its just a really good time, whenever its following its formula. The problem is, I feel like it doesn't follow it enough this season. I wanted more antics, more goofy Tae moments, more ridiculous Tatsumi monologues, but they're really all just clumped into the middle of the season. But nevertheless, ZLSR does produce the goods. Whenever it goes into a performance after a long, dramatic episode, its enough to lift my spirits and get excited for the next. The OP is a bop, although maybe not as much as S1's, and the performances are more hype now than ever, now that you don't have to get over some visual discomfort. There's always much to like in Zombieland Saga.

So to cap off, there is another point of order to talk about, but to what extent I don't know. There is a lore to Zombieland Saga, bread crumbs to the mystical nature of zombie idols, the calamity that Franchouchou is there to quell, the pre-death connections between the girls and Tatsumi. Its a slow drip, but an interesting one. Circumstantially. The ending ending may have blown all of that out of proportion, but I can't really determine how much I need to reevaluate the show through the lens of 5 second long post credits scene. But in any case.......... I don't know what to think there. To keep things grounded, ZLSR is fun. I'm not sure its as good as season 1, and it introduces problems it doesn't need to, but at the same time it does not mess with its winning formula. If you liked seeing zombie idols fight through adversity and struggle to break into the big time idol scene while hiding their identity in Season 1, not only will you enjoy Revenge, but you'll probably get some closure in it. But if you're hoping the series would really kick it up a notch, other than on scale of idoldom, I'm not sure you'll be satisfied.

Steel Ball Run always strikes me as a very interesting piece of manga, certainly the most interesting Jojo, I feel. Coming directly after the world reset, if there was one Jojo that had to be good for the sake of the series' progression, it would have to be this one. And the fashion in which it does so is without a doubt bold. Ditching almost all of its world building, all of the series' characters, all of what is known as Jojo except the concept of the stand, and even, of course, taking off in a completely new direction and tone as a western structured ... around a great race. Jojo is a perennially, well, bizarre, property, and I must admit this is my first full experience of any part (although not the first time I've dove into the stands or the lore). And honestly, not only did this fulfill my expectations, but it surprised me too. On many levels, Steel Ball Run just works, whether you're a longtime fan or relatively new to the series. The story leverages a smart basic structure to slowly scaffold the bizarreness of stand powers and the reality bending powers of its chief objective, in ways that are both audacious but still thematically sound. Many of the characters are well built, with sound objectives and consistent motives, although strangely the series' Jojo often functions much better as a secondary protagonist to the charisma and gall of the spaghetti western Gyro Zeppeli.

Story: 7

All in all, there's certainly more to it than I expected. All the finer points are built off of the race at its core, which gives most every character in the story a solid reason to be in it in the first place, as well as a consistent element to fall back on and contextualize the more bizarre events to. Of course, on the other hand, it is Jojo, and the frequency and intensity of injuries sustained by the main cast compared with the race commentary and the overarching rule structure could take the reader out of it a bit. But I feel that's what you come here expecting, its not Jojo without the Ringos and the Sandmans dicing our protagonists to pieces every few chapters. Thematically, the wider plot works, which surprised me a bit. Part 7 has a bit of a reputation for its primary villain having somewhat one note and memeable intentions, I feel, but experiencing it there is an interesting line of a sort of irrational idealism against universal utilitarianism at the root of the conflict. In any case its consistent, it pulls the action along nicely, and it sets up solid motivations for most any character when needed. But, I should note that I don't particularly like the final arc of the story. The last antagonist feels a tag tacked on, as he doesn't have the emotional weight or anywhere near the clout to produce a climax like the fight that came before it, and as far as I'm concerned feels like a bit of fan service to wrap up the series.

Art: 8

I have little to judge here. I can't really compare it to any other Jojo, but I can only really say that you should probably know what to expect. Beautiful, stylized, fully colored, and with plenty of wacky designs and ridiculous posing. Your enjoyment of the art will probably depend on how you like the Jojo aesthetic more than anything else.

Character: 8

The main cast is pretty strong. Each of Diego, Gyro, HP, Johnny, and Lucy have about a chapter's worth of extensive backstory, much more in the case of Gyro, that establish quite well their motives and their personalities, and most of them are just enjoyable to watch. I wouldn't say there is really a plethora of truly wacky and interesting villains, but the best examples of them are major standouts. Jojo fights are always some variety of puzzle, and in the best cases will have some ideological clash between the two sides inherent to resolving it. That being said, there are definitely forgettable stands and forgettable villains, but the ones that stick around definitely justify their reasons for doing so. And of course, you can't talk character in Jojo without the main villain. I'd say it took more time than I expected for Valentine to really get going, but once he did he's up there with the best of them. He's menacing, he's scheming, he's dangerous, he's eccentric, he's mildly flamboyant, he's American, he's everything you want in a Jojo villain.

Enjoyment: 9

There are some great fights in Steel Ball Run. Moments that make you forget how long the chapters are and just hunger for more. I finished the 96 chapters in about a day and a half, and it was pretty breezy, even with how meaty it can feel. I had always wanted to read SBR specifically because it had some of my favorite stands, and it was really great seeing them in action. Although without a doubt some characters could have used more time in the narrative, and some stands were certainly underutilized, the really great encounters leave an excellent impression, and the overall narrative structure just makes many of the engagements make sense on a basic level. The nature of the Steel Ball Run itself makes it an acceptable, and maybe even expected, stage for effeminate outcasts with pinstriped cowboy hats to desperately struggle for a chance to fulfill their wildest dreams. Even moving past that, when most of the assassins aren't in the race, the audaciously over the top magical side of the story grounds itself in.... some interesting places, bolstered by generally strong characters and interactions. And of course, there are some creative stand interactions, as per usual, with the main villain. There is a wonderfully confusing and interesting interaction in the back half of the story that's really cool, and serves as the jumping off point for introducing the ever infamous D4C. All in all, its tons of fun.

Overall, Steel Ball Run is pretty worth its hype. I wouldn't quite say its the 10/10 that many claim, as it falls into plenty Jojo tropes and problems. But at the same time, it does feel very fresh, from the lead often not being the titular Joestar, the western tone and aesthetic, and the very interesting source of the stands lying at the root of the story. And in the standard Jojo realm, there are some all timers, confrontations that leave deep effects on the characters and their motivations for the rest of the story. Stands like Civil War and Tattoo You were some of my favorites of the whole franchise coming into the story, and coming out of it as well. Steel Ball Run is a new and entertaining departure from much of the Jojo that came before it, and a western experiment certainly worth experiencing.

I've got beef with School Live. On one hand, I really do commend it, any series that can convince me to read 78 chapters of material has some sort of merit to it. But in the case of School Live, much of that merit is purely hypothetical. I think this was a concept that had a lot of potential on several fronts, but A) didn't understand the themes it initially presented enough to follow up convincingly, and B) didn't understand the draw of the concept in the first place. But I should back up and define that concept in the first place. School Live, as ... becomes immediately apparent after the very first chapter, is a subversive and psychological take on a zombie apocalypse story. Which makes it a bit difficult to talk about, because it becomes one of those things where the initial draw is really valuable to experience and helps draw in the reader. But I digress. The story follows the aptly named "School Life Club", a school club which focuses on, well, living in the school, a psychological framework created by the other surviving girls for the poorly adjusted protagonist Yuki, as they attempt to survive the zombie apocalypse. I think the real appeal of the concept lies within its scale, and its psychological themes, which at the start, it embraces heartily. But as the series goes on, these roots grow weaker and weaker, until School Live is little more of a zombie story than any other, with the caveat of eternally static characters and frustratingly unnecessary tonal shifts.

Art: 7

School Live's art style is generally pretty inoffensive, and the characters are well designed. Kurumi and Yuki in particular I think have very striking designs, and the attire of the school live club embodies their aesthetic nicely. One big complaint I have in the art though, lies in Yuki specifically. For much of the beginning of the series, by design, Yuki is our lens in the world. Of course that's not to say reality isn't shown through the other characters at this stage, but Yuki's frame of reference, her uncorrupted fantasy provides a consistently interesting contrast to the stark and grim reality. But there comes a point where that isn't really a part of the series anymore, which can really be seen in how the zombies are portrayed. For much of the beginning of the series, whenever Yuki is with the group, the zombies have less form, less definition, because Yuki has no real concept of what a zombie is. It doesn't fit into her bubbly world view, so as she she refuses to interact with it. At the end of the first arc, this ceases to be the case, and the zombies at large become zombies, shambling decomposing dead. Granted, I will say that these zombies are largely better detailed and defined than the traditional zombies we see near the beginning, but it nonetheless undercuts its psychological angle. It could certainly be argued that this art change coincidences with a change in Yuki's character, but that is a WHOLE other can of worms. To keep this simply in the real of the artstyle, its good.

Story: 5

This story has problems. There's a point where I feel pretty clearly that the aims of the series and the author change from a short scale, self contained piece, where I would presume its popularity necessitated a development to a much wider scale narrative. This really is almost two different stories, a psychological look at mental stress in extremely hostile, and even futile circumstances, and then knockoff Walking Dead but with a psychological tilt. The main problem here is that this could work, it could be fine if it was always leading to this, but the way the story pivots makes me think that it wasn't really planned from the start. Furthermore, it widens the stakes ridiculously. I am of the opinion, however cynical, that the school life club should have ended in the school. Because once they leave the school, this is no longer school live. The themes it originally wanted to present become dry and hollow in all but very few avenues, and the story warps into something that has no business being as large as it is. Indeed as it goes on, I find much of the conclusions and circumstances leading to, of all things, a happy ending, extremely contrived and silly. Granted, the story tends to remain entertaining, if nothing else, and it plays with ideas throughout that could be of some real intrigue if developed. But it fails to really do so in a meaningful way, in my opinion.

Character: 3

This is the big one, the one thing you want to hinge your psychological story on. If you bill your story as a psychological journey and examination, there must be an understanding of the characters and their development. But. School Live does not contain this. Yuki is nothing but a dead end. And if you like Yuki, like, a lot, you might find solace in this. But it really becomes a problem. Just to expound on this a bit, Yuki is, of course, the impetus for the school life club to even exist. Her fragile psyche and refusal to accept the grimness of reality requires the existence of this veil over the apocalypse, just to keep her alive. The reader can question if this is healthy or not, or if this actively detriments from their survival, but lucky for everyone involved, it becomes a completely moot point. Despite being shown explicitly to struggle between recognization of reality and psychological commitment to delusion, the introduction of Miki marks the end of any psychological intrigue, because through her it becomes clear that these characters have no capability to develop. Miki explicits tries to break Yuki's delusion, and in doing so does not reveal any subconscious or interesting character underneath Yuki's facade. It does nothing but demonstrate that Yuki is.... simply mentally deficient. She comes off as nothing more than stunted and childish, not really creating a veil but almost too undeveloped to even begin to understand her circumstances. And that's the end of it. Although this supposedly "solves" her delusion, she remains the same character, just somehow now without the need to paper over reality, even though nothing in her life or her understanding has changed. Which, as the story progresses, just makes her dead weight. SHE was who needed the framework, once the framework is gone and she continues to treat life like a game, she actively works against the health of the group. It truly boggles my mind how this character was not allowed to develop whatsoever over the entirely of the series. Past that, Kurumi is a fine character, and invariably has the most interesting stuff happen to her, but little is done to expand the really interesting things she experiences. Yuuri is largely static and not terribly interesting, but she does have the best psychological arc with Ruu, probably the strongest aspect of the series past the school. And Miki.... I'm sorry she's just bad. She's cynical and doesn't mesh well with the group, and she has a single, 1 dimensional, character trait: She really feels bad about Kei. She never manages to move past Kei, never has any other development and frankly by the end I was really praying she would bite the dust, because she really just is not interesting. I'll be honest with you I cannot even remember what she does in the university arc, but it was probably wallowing in self pity about Kei. She is the weakest member of the group, she cannot kill zombies because she thinks they might be Kei, and frankly its insulting that she lives through more like like 10 chapters, let along 60. Past that I'm not going to go into any of the secondary university characters, as they do very little except the biologist, but I will say Megumi embodies another problem in the series, namely the inconsistent zombie rules. But while she's alive she's fine.

Its been a whole year since I finished this, and really just thinking about how wasted this concept is still makes me as angry as when I first read it. Almost all the main cast either develop backwards or get written out of the story, the stakes and scale get blown up insanely and without warrant, and all in all the story ends so far removed from what it could (and should have) been. Its really bad news when a zombie series has you actively rooting for the zombies by its climax, and nearing the end of my own reading of this almost everyone but Kurumi was on the hit list. If you're looking to read this, I would recommend never leaving the school, just imagine they get holed up and killed valiantly protecting Yuki's innocence, or accepting the futility of their mission but having enjoyed protecting the remaining vestiges of humanity in the face of the apocalypse. Because frankly I don't think the series understands much of any of why its concept had promise past like chapter 15. If you wanna go past that, you better REALLY like Yuki's attitude, because she never stops. On the whole, School Live, Gakkougurashi, is deeply flawed, and incredibly static past a promising beginning. If you enjoy the characters at the start, there's a chance you could enjoy the same characters by the end. But if you're looking for dynamic and interesting characters, in a well structured and planned apocalypse narrative, I would recommend you look most anywhere else, unless you absolutely must have the School Live aesthetic.

Blame is a complicated piece. For as much as there is incredible in the art and progression of some of the central arcs, the primary issue I have with Blame is that its horrifically unbalanced, and fades away gradually, until, I feel, it gets mercy killed by its creator. Which makes it a strange experience, on the whole, to read. Because Blame is already outwardly an odd piece, as can be gleamed from the early chapters. Narrative structure and background is eschewed from the onset, to focus the manga on an atmosphere and, well, an experience. While that can carry a work for however long, ... at one point Blame ceases to be simply that. But with added ambition comes a promise to deliver, and the goods ordered were lost somewhere in transit.

Story: 3

I give this more than a 1 purely off of promise. There is a clear setup, if a lack of consistent narrative development, and a world built around it that, as a reader, can be very engrossing and inventive. There's a sense of scale and otherworldliness to Blame that invites speculation and answers, but sadly, as the manga continues, it starts to become apparent that the reader has about as much of an idea as to where its going as the story itself does. Promising leads as to where the narrative could be driving are developed to a point of intrigue and then dropped altogether, never to be seen again, until a point where everything blows up in its own face. Blame doesn't stride to the finish as much as it sputters along, broken, yet hurried out of necessity, into a stasis.

Art: 8

The art is great. Its stylized and dark, and carries a distinct sci fi vibe that carries it through its abstract beginnings and is really the pillar of enjoyment in the series.There's diverse and interesting monstrous beings, consistently evocative and interesting designs and wordlbuilding, and it all sets the tone quite well. Even into the late chapters, where a sort of pattern really starts to become apparent in the progression, the design remain something to marvel at. The only real complaint I have is that the abstract structure combined with the aesthetic of Blame makes it such that there are some particularly hectic and massive action set pieces that can very tricky to properly track.

Character: 3

Its difficult to talk about character in Blame, because there are very few. Even among those few, the central figure, Killy, is.... a character only in a very charitable sense. His motivations are limited to the point of nonexistence, and he really only exists to one shot monstrous horrors with his hand cannon. Cibo, who arises as a sort of secondary protagonist, is infinitely more interesting as a character who contains a sort of personality and defined motivation and background. But irregardless its difficult to connect truly to any character in Blame because there are really no stakes. Killy is functionally unkillable, characters that are undeniably killed are resurrected and repurposed to try to give the manga any hope of ending on a coherent note, and most of the interesting intermediary characters don't survive to have a lasting impact or get left in the dust entirely. All in all, its just a grab bag of inconsistency, spearheaded by blank eyed killer who has no emotional connection to the world around him or his stated goals.

I would say that Blame, on a level of actually being a thing that is fun to read, both succeeds and doesn't. Its a tale of two halves, the first is an intriguing build into a unique and stylized world, full of horrific creatures and gnarly kills, but the second dumps it all in the trash. If I had stopped reading at the end of Killy and Cibo's interaction with the Electrofishers, this would probably be an 8-9/10. But those dastardly two ending arcs exist, which really draw out the underlying flaws of Blame and undercut a lot of the fun by becoming inconsistent and formulaic. Its a classic for its uncompromising style and aesthetics, and even its commitment to a blank protagonist and unconventional structure, but as a whole experience, Blame lacks the legs and foresight to deliver on its promises. It wouldn't be a problem if Blame were solely, and consistently, as it is through the first several parts. But there comes a point where it wants to be more. A narrative develops, and the world attempts to make itself understandable. But that process can't be started without an idea of an overall payoff, or even a payoff in the moment. And Blame simply cannot deliver.