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To paraphrase Jurassic Park, the people making this show were so concerned with if they could adapt the entire Uzumaki manga in four episodes, they didn't stop to think if they should. A typical 25-minute TV episode will follow a single plotline, two at most. The 42-minute US drama format traditionally opts for two plotlines, the A/B story format as it's known. Uzumaki's 25-minute episodes have A, B, C, D, and E plotlines, each originally a separate chapter in the manga, and now spliced together with seemingly no thought given to pacing or structure.

It's a baffling choice. Horror isn't just about the money shots. They ... only work when time is taken to establish the characters and scenario, make us care about the stakes, crank up the tension, and then finally drop the hammer. With only a few minutes dedicated to each story, it frequently rushes through the setup, leaves out important information, and sometimes cuts the payoff short too.

I can only assume the priority was to cram in every single memorable image from the manga, but with so little runtime available it ends up feeling like a handful of poorly-edited recap episodes chopped down from a 12-episode series. The structural problems at least settle down in the final episode, but only because the last few chapters of the manga are one ongoing story, which made that easier to achieve.

It's heartbreaking to see Junji Ito's masterpiece reduced to this, and even more so considering the obvious passion that was poured into the anime version. Ultimately it falls at the same hurdle as the second TV adaptation of Berserk, focusing so much effort on replicating the iconic look of the manga that the whole project collapses under its own weight. Despite all that, the strength of the underlying source material does bleed through at times, and the anime does at least achieve what seems to have been its core objective: bringing motion to some of the eeriest images ever to curse the printed page.

This isn't a horror series, but it hit me with a greater sense of existential dread than anything I've seen before, anime or otherwise. It all comes down to the execution of the main premise. Three siblings are offered the chance to earn a million yen simply by pressing a button. The catch? The instant someone pushes it, that person will be transported to an empty, infinite space where they will be trapped for 500-million years, unable to sleep or die. Once the time is up, their memory of those years will be erased and they're returned to the instant they pressed the button, so ... subjectively it will be as if they never left. The series explores how each of the siblings perceives that deal and its implications, what happens when they push the button, and some variations on the deal that raise other interesting philosophical questions.

If that sounds rather dry, it isn't, since it's mixed in with some goofy comedy sketches. Most episodes hit you with deep questions in the first half and then decompress with the VAs playing weird improv comedy games in the latter half. The first half of each episode it usually the highlight, while the latter half ranges from hilarious to boring from one episode to the next.

It's also worth noting that this is the cheapest, jankiest-looking CG anime ever made. Ex-Arm looking like Avatar by comparison. A lot of it is clearly shot in real-time using VTuber software. It seems to be rendering on a potato, so there is frequent slowdown and models clipping through objects. It's literally the kind of thing that would be more at home on Youtube than Prime Video, and is obviously a one-person show aside from the VAs. The cheapness also doesn't really matter, since it's able to convey the situations clearly, and the surreal style of much of it means the jank just enhances the show's creepiness.

Overall, it's an experience completely unlike any other show.

This had a strong start, thanks to an interesting premise, strong animation, and exceptionally good direction and editing. The early episodes were also solid 8/10 material with a good combination of comedy and romantic drama. The problem is when it started giving multi-episode story arcs to each girl, which is when it becomes apparent that each is more tedious than the last. When it reached an entire episode about a stuttering girl's attempts to read out a few sentences in front of a dozen people, I found myself wondering, "Why is this the story?" As the series goes on, it leans ever more heavily on ... its strong production values to carry it, with some scenes carrying a strong visual impact, only to end with no indication of why that scene even needed to exist.

The other main problem with the show is how often it pushes the trope of all the girls insulting and belittling the cardboard male protagonist who does nothing but help them. Frankly I finished this series understanding why these girls were kicked to the curb. With the possible exception of Lemon, their personalities are lousy. That's successfully played for laughs in Anna's case, but equally often just leaves a poor impression of them as people.

If you're hoping for a cosplay show that lives up to My Dress Up Darling, you will be disappointed. In many ways they are opposites, with MDUD invariably taking the more interesting fork in every road. 2.5D Seduction spends no time on the process of making a costume or improving the related skills, since Ririsa pops up in episode 1 having already made the perfect costume that will capture the heart of anyone who sees it. That's lucky for her because she has no interest in cosplaying as any other characters, so she trots out this costume again and again, while wowing people with it ... again and again. We're occassionally told that she's wearing different costumes for the same character, but they're so close to identical that I couldn't spot any differences. These costumes just pop up fully completed anyway, so it doesn't tell us anything new about Ririsa or her skills. Another major aspect of the show is cardboard protagonist Masamune photographing her, which he does with an expensive camera that Ririsa just happens to already own, so again there's no development arc and no learning. Stuff just happens.

So what does the show spend time on? Mostly it's cosplayers hanging around at cosplay events, silently monologuing to themselves about how they feel about cosplay (including flashbacks to their past cosplay-related traumas, of course). When the show reached a point where an entire episode was just two side characters standing next to each other in a crowd of photographers, silently monologuing to themselves about their cosplay backstories, my eyes glazed over and I dropped the show.

The only reason I'm not rating this show lower is because the early episodes do get some mileage out of the faltering romance aspect of Ririsa cosplaying Masamune's favourite waifu, but that runs out of steam after a while.

In a season filled with romance anime, this was easily the best. In lesser hands, Makoto's titular cross-dressing could have been treated as a cheap gimmick, but fortunately this gentle romantic drama respects its characters and has a strong story to tell. Makoto dresses as a girl at school, but hides it from his mother, fearing how she will react. He hasn't reconciled how he perceives himself or how he wants to live his life, and this causes tension with those around him. Saki develops an obsessive crush on Makoto, which brings her into conflict with his fiercely protective best friend Ryuiji. The early setup ... is something that could have been spun out for surface-level romcom antics ad infinitum, but instead serves as a diving board for a deeper exploration of these three characters, their individual struggles to understand and accept themselves, the lengths they go to in attempts to avoid hurting each other, and the pressures they face from their families and friends.

With the exception of one late standalone episode that throws in another character, the show avoids the frequent single-cour anime pitfall of going off on tangents, instead remaining focused on its central trio. It covers a surprising amount of ground in developing these characters. While it doesn't resolve every plot thread in its 12 episodes, it picks its battles and has a mostly satisfying, self-contained arc. Fortunately a sequel movie has already been announced, which will presumably tie up the remaining elements that the TV series leaves hanging.

This short OAV acts as an epilogue to the movie continuity. It won't make sense if you have only watched the TV series. Primarily an extended musical number, it sets the expectation that it will tie up the one loose thread left at the end of Wings of Farewell, but it ends on a frustratingly inconclusive note. While it does enough to hint how things will play out, that was probably cold comfort for viewers who had a ten-year wait between the movie and this OAV. It ends up being a flashy piece of eye candy with one last reminder about the importance of cultivating ... healthy gut bacteria.

When I finished watching the Macross Frontier TV series, I felt it succeeded at most of the things it tried to achieve, but could have benefited from giving a couple of them more attention during the climax. I came to this movie expecting it to be mostly reused animation from the last several TV episodes with some new scenes that would enhance certain parts of the story. That's not what this is.

Wings of Farewell not only has all-new animation, it's a significant reworking of the events of the series. I don't think it's even a case where you could watch the series up to a ... certain point and then decide to cap things off with either the TV or movie ending, since some earlier events from the TV series have already been retconned by the time this second movie starts.

The good news is that it improves the weak areas of the TV series, making Alto a more proactive and capable protagonist and giving a more satisfying arc to his story. It pays off the romance arc in a more definitive way. It also adds some memorable new action and performance scenes that all have excellent animation.

The bad news is that this comes at the expense of the things the TV series did well. The war and conspiracy story arcs aren't handled nearly as well in this movie. Upcoming developments are telegraphed and too much is bluntly stated in expository dialogue, robbing it of the tension and build-up that were strengths of the TV version. Also the most memorable scenes from the TV climax are missing entirely, since events are playing out differently by that point.

Wings of Farewell is another great ending to Frontier, but just like the TV version it feels like neither is the definitive ending. So much is changed that I doubt it would be possible to splice together a fan edit of all the best parts from the TV and movies versions to reach something that pays off every story arc in the way it deserves. So I'm left feeling that the only way to have the ultimate Macross Frontier experience is to watch both versions and then blend them together inside you head.

A Macross story usually needs to juggle a few different plot elements: space opera war story, pop idol drama, and love triangles. Frontier mostly does a solid job at all three and throws in some conspiracy mystery for good measure.

As a war story, it benefits from high stakes, a dangerous new enemy, and lots of dynamic, well-directed action scenes. Considering it's from 2008, the CG for the ships, valkyrie fighters and aliens has aged well, which is more than can be said for a lot of anime CG from the 00s.

As a pop idol drama, it pits eager newbie Ranka against established star Sheryl to ... great effect. The dynamics of their rivalry evolves well over the course of the series, aided by both having skeletons in their closets.

As a romance, it does a good job of keeping you guessing how events will pan out, though it is here where the the show's main problem becomes apparent: the writers aren't really sure how to develop male protagonist Alto's story arc. That's most evident in a series-long subplot about his history as an actor and resulting conflict with his father, which keeps seeming like it will become pivotal, but is never really resolved in a satisfying way. Likewise, viewers may be unsatisfied with how the romance angle plays out, though this felt more like a conscious story choice and does work with the overall tone.

With the exception of some rather blunt exposition in places, any issues I might have with the story are only things that come to mind in retrospect. While watching the show, the sheer over-the-top intensity of the final episodes does a good job of painting over the cracks. Based on the sheer enjoyment of that first viewing, I was tempted to give Frontier a 9, but thinking back on it I suspect some of that was coloured by this being the first new Macross show I've seen since the 90s. It's a great series on most fronts though, so it's easily a solid 8/10.

Minor points:
While the early episodes open with a brief account of events from earlier in the Macross timeline, it does assume some familiarity with the franchise. The only things I've seen are Do You Remember Love, Plus, and Macross II and I found Frontier easy to follow, with only occasional minor references flying past me.

I loved the scenes in the shopping mall designed for both humans and the giant Zentradi. The ways the fleet's infrastructure has adapted to allow Zentradi to live at either their original size or shrunk down to human scale was a nice touch.

As of writing, the only legal way to watch this show in English is on Disney+, which unfortunately falls victim to their habit of using descriptive SDH subtitles. They're not the most distracting I've ever seen, but it takes a while to get used to them.

Klan's full-size Zentradi form has awakened a weird thirst in me that would be a field day for Freud.

The tricky thing about developing new entries in the Terminator franchise is that they have to contain some pretty specific plot and character elements in order to be recognisable as Terminator stories. Omit the titular robot assassins or drastically alter their purpose and it wouldn't be a Terminator story. But equally, stick too closely to the established elements and you end up with something that feels derivative and pointless. It's a fine line to ride, and Terminator Zero attempts it with varying levels of success.

Your cyborg assassin for the evening is an off-the-peg T800, the premium vanilla of murderbots. The story doesn't attempt any new ... gimmicks with the terminator itself, but it gives a solid showing for the old classic. Meanwhile, a grizzled future soldier is sent back in time to stop it. So far, so "I <3 1984." Fortunately they're not attempting to kill/save a future military leader, so it diverges from formula there, if only a little. The thing that turns Malcolm into an assassination target isn't entirely untrodden ground for the franchise, but at least isn't something that has been done to death in the movies, so it feels relatively fresh.

Coming from Production IG, it's a lavish-looking show with lots of intense and well-animated action. The nature of the action scenes often isn't particularly imaginative though, in one instance being an almost verbatim rehash of a scene from the original movie. On the other hand, I have no complaints about the eerily understated music, which adds a lot to the tension and atmosphere.

On most fronts, Terminator Zero varies from competent to solid. The main place where it falls short is the characters. They're a generally unlikeable bunch, especially early on, which makes it difficult to care about their fate in the first half of the show. Some of them undergo some oddly abrupt personality shifts too. Malcolm's youngest child suddenly changes from selfish, naive brat to mature and contemplative after her first encounter with the terminator. Meanwhile, future soldier Eiko goes from driven to wishy-washy around the same time, and winds up getting so sidetracked that she almost falls out of the story until the climax.

The other thing playing against the characters is the dubtitles, which have the most overt case of fifteening I've seen since Manga Video's 90s heyday. It flat-out changes the personality of some characters, especially Misaki who sounds polite and demure in the Japanese dialogue, but drops F-bombs in the subtitles.

Complaints aside, the show does get stronger and more distinctive as it goes along. Some of the twists are predictable, but they do serve to make the story more interesting. Overall I'd rank it somewhere in the middle of the franchise: above the messy T3 and the derivative Dark Fate, but significantly below the first two movies and The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

What you get out of this movie will depend on what you liked about previous Rascal stories. If you're just in it for the supernatural mystery aspect, this one has very little of that. The supernatural elements defined the nature of the conflict that needed to be overcome in previous arcs. In this one, it acts more as a visual metaphor to accentuate the existing conflicts. You could take the supernatural aspect out and this story wouldn't change.

Sister Venturing Out is about Kaede's attempts to get into high school while struggling with the aftermath of events from her previous arc. If you've seen the TV ... series then you know that's not as simple as it sounds. Though based on a light novel released in 2018, this movie may benefit from coming out post-pandemic, when the idea of what constitutes a normal school life has been turned on its head. The characters are as endearing as ever, so if they are a large part of what you like about the series, there's plenty to enjoy here.

If Sister Venturing Out had a more conventional price tag, it would be an easy recommendation for anyone who likes the series. Unfortunately it comes with a hefty Aniplex tax. The previous arc, Dreaming Girl, is an outstanding 10/10 movie that's worth paying any price to see. That one is the culmination of everything that had been built up during the TV series and is essential viewing. As for Sister Venturing Out, it's more of an extended epilogue to Kaede's arc, and probably won't factor into future arcs that much. Considering that, it's more one for dedicated Rascal fans or people who can stomach paying $50+ for a 70-minute movie without blinking.