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Feb 4, 2023
After putting it off for a while, I finally got around to watching the anime adaptation of the story line I read nearly years ago at this point. Before writing this review, though, I did a marathon of the series using the dubbed version of the entire series, so this is more like a review of all three seasons up to this point rather than just this season alone.
And it was freaking fantastic. The dubbed voices really brought the characters to life in a way only the dub of Gurren Lagann has ever done for me. The timing of the comedy, which has only ever
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even partially worked in Saiki K. on a dubbed front, are so on-point that it kind of makes me feel bad for putting down dubbed works all this time.
But in terms of how season 3 evolves the story we already know? Fantastic.
Everything's been building to this season, with the final arc of the season giving us satisfying moments for every character we can expect to return on a continuous basis. But even before that, the show was giving subtle hints that its ambition for more serialized storytelling was growing, like how we get a quick cut of Shirogane and Fujiwara practicing their rapping three or so episodes before the plot line comes back around. The events of the series have always been chronological-leaning, but its attempt to combine all their set-up threads for a final clash of relevance and punchlines is only matched by the best of Shonen series I've read.
The comedy only gets funnier, with new forms of presentation seeming exactly like staff members personal highlights to produce and animate, from the sound effects coming from video games to the whole music video that was the rap battle, and even the almost cinematic presentation of what's supposed to be a background play in one of the final episodes, where great cinematography is almost depressingly being covered up by a punchline several episodes in the making.
Just as the comedy rises, so does the drama. Every character gets put through the ringer this season, with our main two 'combatants of war' getting final scenes together that perfectly put into words why they as characters work so well on any level the original author presents them at. Ishigami's growth from the last season is astounding, only paralleled by Iino's slow growth into loving what the Student Council is and what it represents.
The climaxes of this season are only beaten by my personal nostalgic bests in all of the comedy series I've watched, and if that isn't glowing enough of a review to watch the series' third outing or even rewatch it dubbed, than I don't know what it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 19, 2022
'Toradora!' was a series for me that was slightly better than the sum of its parts. Nothing was spectacular for me, and it held several clichés that brought down the overall experience for me, but by the end of the last episode I just had a bright big grin on my face.
For reference, I'm giving the overall series a 7/10, which is decent enough in my books. A 5/10 for me is the bare minimum where I can watch a series to enjoy what it really is, without mocking it for being bad in this way or another. A 10/10 is a masterpiece, where every
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episode is packed with passion from the creators, and that passion is directly understood through my mind and my emotions. I didn't cry watching Toradora!, but I did while watching a series like 'March comes in like a lion'.
But I didn't need to cry watching 'Toradora!' As of right now I still haven't even looked up what the title actually means, or could fully comprehend the deeper themes of the series, but I know that I decently enjoyed the majority of the ride that I went on.
Along with that, the ride (for me personally) only got better as it went along. The emotions got stronger, as you would reasonably guess from people who are getting to know each other for a long length of time. The upside to your classic high school anime is that it gives your characters real reasons to grow along each other, and I think this is one of the best examples that I've seen of that yet. The only ones that compare for me are 'Saiki K.' and 'Mob Psycho 100'.
If you enjoy a few clichés, a lot of energetic animation and comedy, and characters that, like real life, take time to fully understand and empathize with, than I'd highly recommend this series. But if you're waning on high-school drama, and can't handle characters that would be a bit harder to sympathize with if they were in the real world (girls beating up guys, unnecessary sass and back-talk throughout a lot of conversations) than you might want to look elsewhere.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 7, 2021
This first season took me over a month to complete, not because it was especially bad or I didn't have the time... but because it was so... average. There were things that I truly enjoyed about 'Working!!', but each one was counterbalanced by a bad decision that left a disappointing taste in my mouth. This is the first time I've experienced the anime equivalent of an equally balanced scale, equally bad and great.
The story is your run-of-the-mill slice of life, which to give it credit, was what I was looking for, and what I got. After several heavier series I watched this year such as
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Steins; Gate among others, I just wanted something with a bit of charm and took things nice and easy. The overall cast, while varying in my affections, had some real standouts in both characters and voice performances that kept me coming back, and will most likely keep me going to the rest of the anime to find out how their stories conclude.
Speaking of the cast, my personal favorites were Satou and Todoroki, both with simple personalities that get fleshed out and have a lot of interesting scenes as the series progresses. Sadly though... they aren't the main coupling this series has to offer, with that esteemed title going to Takanashi and Fujita. Takanashi has an absolutely god-awful design, with these glasses and greasy, parted hair that makes him look more like an alien than a male protagonist. Fujita, on the other hand, had such a frustrating personality that I guessed her quirk right from the introduction: that she impulsively hit guys, and that it was supposed to be some kind of gag.
While I could see a world where a character like Fujita is done correctly, the lack of explanations as to why she acts the way she does, and the ridiculousness of the situation that she's in, combines into me having absolutely no sympathy for her, and respecting the main character's position that she's more like a one-trick dog than a romantic interest, a position I'm positive I wasn't supposed to take based on how the show's produced.
But what's good about this slice-of-life style is that the cycle of characters is always revolving, and even if I don't like what is happening in one scene, I have the next one to look forward to for a new surprise. It's as simple as anime comes, but the comfy nature of the 'Wagnaria Family Restaurant' and the familial staff working together to deal with their own problems and insecurities is as endearing as it could be for not being ambitious in the slightest.
My props do go to some cuts of animation, and the opening and ending themes. While the songs are both cast sing-a-longs, the voices aren't too bad and feel like the characters have gathered together for karaoke more than anything. And the animation is better than I was expecting, with scenes going out of there way to showcase characters in fun poses or faces.
Overall it didn't have me on the edge of my seat like some of the best comedies I've watched, or tearfully-engaged like some of the best slice-of-life shows I've watched, but it wasn't poorly-produced or lacked any heart in production. It just lacked ambition, and with so many adaptations coming out these days, I couldn't really blame it for not comparing to some of the greats when it wasn't trying to be. Right in the middle of the road is the rating I'd give it, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth a watch: just know what you're getting into if you've watched some more mature or fleshed-out anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Aug 9, 2021
I... have no words.
I watched this series for two reasons: 1, based on a recommendation from TheAnimeMan, believing that even if the whole series was absolutely awful, I might get some, well, 'enjoyable' moments from it for later use. 2, I've wanted to just watch a ton of anime lately, but I've already watched a lot of big names, so I'm just going through old seasonal charts for series that look interesting, and this happened to be in the Spring of 2010.
Kiss x Sis was pretty infamous back in the day, and I remember, probably with a lot of people, seeing that weird 'chocolate lipstick
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scene' on a youtube clip somewhere and just being like 'I hope that isn't his sister or anything'. Oh, how poor and naive I was...
The show is basically about a middle school boy (yes I said middle school) getting sexually harrased by his two older sisters, and basically falling into a Stockholm-style infatuation with them. While that might seem like a harsh description, it's pretty apt, as the real description is that his sisters 'distract him' as he's studying to enter the same high school as him. There's even a really unintentionally funny scene in the last batch of episodes where the sisters pride themselves on helping their brother study, then cutting to clips where they were intentionally using their revealed bodies to distract him from studying.
The main character I found to be surprisingly the best part about the program. While most characters of this ilk seem like pessimists who only get in the way of the show's goal of showing off their female leads for no good reason, you can tell this kid just wants to study, knowing he's not the best nor brightest. Despite that, this cavalcade of women just start going to town on him throughout the series, and while he can get horny at times, you can tell he's just trying to make the best out of an awkward situation.
The two 'sis's' on the other hand... I couldn't stand them. They're the basic, 'I want to spend every waking minute thinking about the main character's dick' kind of characters, to the point that I never even learned which sister was which. There was no point, as while they might have different characteristics, their personalities were exactly the same: I love my step-bro.
The supporting harem are also some of the worse I've seen in a series like this, including but not limited to: a loli character who's main characteristic is flashing the main character, a high school teacher who's main characteristic is being a domination-loving otaku, and a classmate of the main character who... pees a lot.
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I wish I was making up that peeing part, too. There is one scene where the main character walks into this girl peeing in the woods during a fireworks show, and he watches it happen... for like 30 seconds. It at least felt like 30 seconds, because I was so uncomfortable watching a middle school girl peeing in the woods that I skipped forward like twice, only to realize the scene was still going on and hadn't hit its climax.
The opening and ending aren't bad, though. They're extremely generic, but at least the ending has some nice pep and catchy English lines that make it stick out against the sea of other shows just like it.
And that's a great description for the show as a whole: it stands out from the crowd... just not in the best ways possible. It's certainly something that hadn't been done much before, and something so intensely attractive to a niche audience that it would last long after.
But yeah, I could barely get hard watching this series, -1/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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