- Last OnlineDec 4, 2024 9:10 AM
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- BirthdayJan 1, 1930
- LocationDundalk, Ireland
- JoinedJan 2, 2010
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May 9, 2019
This really is completely incoherent garbage. The story makes no-sense, it starts in media res with no information on how things came to be nor about the world the story takes place in. If both the viewpoint character and the reader were ignorant of these things it would work, but in this case the characters clearly have information to make sense of the situation while the reader has none. The plot development is a jumbled stacatto mess with violence slammed up against slice of life comedy leading into pointless tragedy and on the next page theres tits everywhere. It's almost impossible to follow the story
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well enough to call it bad. Then you have the usual power fantasy nonsense, which is admittedly par for the course. But its hard to take here when its mixed in with enforced rape played for laughs and child molestation. There are hundreds of isekai series out there you can afford not to read this trash.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Sep 7, 2018
Even for an Isekai this one is pretty rough. The main cast, who as the title would tell you, are all incredibly overpowered before they arrive in a new world and when they get to said new world they just basically fuck it up using their nonsense abilities and technologies. All done with the most juvenile reasons, the lead character, the "Ultimate Politician" is particularly unconvincing. For superhumans they end up in a lot of unfortunate situations, which they dont see coming and then use absolute nonsense to escape from. It's not their power level I have a problem with, its how poorly explained everything
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is and how "advanced technology" becomes a standin for handwavium magic to explain everything. The premise of this is interesting and I was happy to swallow the "big lie" of their superhuman competency. But the terrible execution squanders the premise.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 5, 2018
The entire thing is blatant and creepy paedophile wish fulfillment. The main character is repellent. In his "original" incarnation he's a loser who refuses to take any responsibility for how his life has turned out or the misery he inflicted on his family. In his re-incarnated form he is a 34 year old man in full possession of his previous memories in the body of a five year old child who gets sexually excited by and sexually preys upon his "peers" i.e. children. In addition to this he facilitates the various moral failings of the adults around him while manipulating a growing number of children
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into his proto-harem. All the time excusing his behaviour with self serving juvenile nonsense. Isekai as a genre is generally plagued by being unrepentant power fantasies, the better entries in the genre rise above this but there is nothing interesting about this to make it anything other than mediocre and the problematic elements are impossible to ignore.
I totally understand people enjoying different things. But considering this offers nothing interesting and is preoccupied with paedophilic titillation I genuinely don't understand why anyone would praise it. But then again people like Re:Monster so what do I know.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Mar 5, 2018
K&M is almost aggressively average. It is in many ways a victim of its genre. The "isekai" i.e. reincarnated in another world genre tends to have a ubiquitous and critical flaw. The main characters are generally ridiculously (too) powerful. The better ones avoid this entirely or in part, or they account for it and use it as the basis for the story. Unfortunately K&M does neither. Which reveals the shows biggest flaw. A complete lack of tension, there is never any fear of defeat and it robs the action sequences of anything beyond interesting spectacle.
"Interesting" is probably the best word to describe the series,
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well, perhaps not the series but the setting. The idea of codified magic is surprisingly rare, or at best given lip service, but to its credit K&M goes all in on the "magic as a programming language for reality." Now it's not the first to do it, Rick Cook explored similar territory in his 1989 book "Wizard's Bane". But again its rare enough so it deserves kudos for that. It is also a fairly acceptable explanation for how and why the protagonist becomes so powerful so quickly. Though apparently it should have made it more explicit as it seems to have escaped several other reviewers, or perhaps more charitably they arent familiar with how programming works? In short general coding concepts are eminently portable from one language to another.
Unfortunately beyond the setting and the exuberant love for giant robots this show doesnt have a huge amount to offer. Which is perhaps unsurprising given its origin. As the name of medium explicitly informs you light novels are meant to be an idle diversion and that phrase sums up Knights & Magic perfectly. It's a light distraction, it won't change your life but it also wont waste your time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 3, 2018
If I had to describe this series with one word it would be "workmanlike" if you pushed me to two words the second would be "nonsensical." Ultimately the series is what it is, a by the numbers slightly ecchi action series. It's a typical genre piece that does little to expand or flaunt the genres confines. If you enjoy those kind of shows then you'll get a comfortable three or four hours of entertainment out of this. If you don't then I wouldn't bother watching it. The show knows what is is and it achieves its aims, which is perhaps laudable even if the final
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product is not.
I suppose the one thing that rankles is that the setting is complete nonsense. It seems to be set in the school just so they could use the visual trappings. The theme is pasted on at best. You could effortlessly transport this to any other setting and not a lot would be changed or lost. Even if you swallow "the big lie" after a few episodes you can feel your suspension of disbelief straining under the weight of murder, eyes being sliced (I am un chien andalusia) and various other acts that come largely out of left field. The show has an odd tonal dissonance that can be offputting at times.
All the same, at its worst its mediocre, there's plenty of room for criticism so its a little sad that some reviewers feel the need to fabricate failings for a show that has so many you could harp on e.g. complaining that the antagonist was an old friend of the protagonist when it is explicitly clear this isnt the case.
Anyhow, at the risk of repeating myself, if you're a fan of the genre and you want something to burn some time then give this a watch. If not, then move on. Ultimately it serves its purpose, and likely its creators intent, as entertainment.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 16, 2016
Netoge is ultimately harmless entertainment. It'll occupy a few hours and that's about it. It's probably not going to have a lasting impact on your life. But after all it's not intended to, it's a genre piece that sets out to entertain fans of the genre and it does a fairly admirable job of that. Unfortunately that's all it does. It isnt a show that is trying to, or is capable of "converting" people who arent already fans of the now fairly formulaic "highschool comedy ecchi harem" genre. You can of course criticse it for not being particularly believable (it's not intended to be), for
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presenting an obviously fictional and somewhat idealised take on teenage romance (as intended), of trivialising serious commitments like marriage (like comedys tend to) and so on. But the point I'm, laboriously, getting at is that these criticisms can be leveled at nearly any entry in this genre, and at the end of the day miss the mark by condemning these shows for not living up to an arbitrary standard they were never aiming for. Is the criticism valid? Well it's as valid as any criticism is, but its also not very useful. So by now you should have a good idea if this is the kind of show you can stomach or not.
If it does fall within your bailiwick you may wonder what does it have to offer? Well the animation is surprisingly well done. It also makes some clever use of intertwining the reality of the players playing the game and how they imagine the game taking place (most anime seem to only use the latter, as its more visually engaging). The characters are familiar but have the odd little twist here and there that does provide a bit of interest for even the more jaded fan. The show does a good job of presenting the MC as a fairly average, if otakuish, nice guy. He has friends and seems to fit in fairly well with his peers, he also doesnt take advantage of Ako's psychological issues. Sometimes MC's in shows like this can come across as milquetoast's who are unbelievably resistant to the charms of girls their age. But there's a reason for his hesitance in this case and it feels like he goes about trying to make a real relationship with Ako, "the right way". The harem is also amazingly shallow, if its there at all, the show has one main relationship and all the characters seems fully aware of it. VA and sound design in general is solid and the story moves along at a fairly decent pace. At the end of the season it manages to make you feel that you've seen a somewhat complete story but also leaves the way open for a possible sequel.
I do think they could have done more with the premise, after all plenty of the people in the real world have met and got married in online games and then transitioned that relationship into the main world. But a more dramatic take on the subject matter wouldnt have suited what this set out to be, a fairly by the numbers highschool romantic comedy. They do sort of dance around how emotionally damaged the two main characters are, but the drama is generally kept fairly light, if you were feeling generous you could suggest it adds a rather dark undertone to the whole thing (but I think thats probably reading a bit too deep)
This may seem like its damning with faint praise but ultimately it is what it is, which as I stated in my opening line is harmless entertainment. If its your kind of thing I dont think you'll regret the three or four hours you spend on it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 24, 2016
ReMonster started out ok, it was a bit boring but it moved along at a decent pace and the development of the civilisation was interesting. The protagonist got rid of the goblin's rape camp and life generally improved for them. Then within literally three issues it descends into harem group sex and the main character capturing humanoids to turn into drugged up sex slaves to be raped. Apart from being generally repellent it comes entirely out of left field as the MC has spent a big chunk of time removing that system. Its also at this point you realise every issue is the same story
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but at a slightly higher power scale. Pity, it could have been good.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 13, 2014
The first few volumes are quite enjoyable and while the middle volumes do stray from what seemed to be the series' premise (and ratchet up the melodrama) they werent terrible, just something of a departure. But then they decide to introduce the rapist of a 14 year old girl as a sympathetic character, who receives no punishment for his crime, who is forgiven by everyone and who goes on about how he loved his victim. The forgiveness angle would have been bad enough if he had to work for it, but the entire package and the way its presented just makes it feel not only
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vile but entirely, laughably actually, false and artifical. It shatters any suspension of disbelief and really ruined the series I think.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 4, 2010
In retrospect, and because I seemingly have an incurable urge to compare things, Darker than BLACK is reminiscent of a grimmer, anime version of Wild Cards (the books). While there are no superheroics, and even contractors (the super powered characters) are relatively rare, the sheer range of the various powers as well as the odd remuneration that their use demands reminds me conceptually of the jokers from Wild Cards. While on the surface Darker than BLACK is a grim action series it also examines some fairly complex issues, such as what exactly it means to be human. But it does so without the heavy handedness
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or the awkward self consciousness that other similar shows have exhibited.
The main characters in Darker than BLACK are also extremely well realised and believable, while not all of them are likeable, nearly all of them are entertaining to watch. Also for those interested in such things the world that Darker than BLACK presents would be eminently playable as an rpg setting and should I chose to run non-traditional supers at some point in the future I would be sorely tempted to use the setting presented here (possibly seasoned with some material from Kaze no Stigma).
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 4, 2010
I don’t think my irritation with over enthusiastic Studio Ghibli fans is any secret and I'm sure I have in the past got into arguments with various people in the pub because I didn’t like Spirited Away and they took offence (rightly enough) at my rather ad hominen deconstruction of Spirited Away's appeal. That’s not to say I think Studio Ghibli's output is bad, they have produced some phenomenal works such as Grave of the Fireflies, and some less amazing but still enjoyable stuff like Mononoke Hime (also as a random factoid a number of the people who went on to create Studio Ghibli were
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involved in the creation of Flight of Dragons). Really my dislike is of Studio Ghibli's western fans rather than the studio itself. Particularly fans who's exposure to anime primarily consists of Studio Ghibli's movies or Manga Entertainments early nineties rubbish and Studio Ghibli. Because it is rather grating to hear "Oh wow X is the greatest ever I’ve never seen anything like it before", because I’m sure if I had spent my life wiping my arse with sandpaper that I would think corrugated cardboard is the greatest thing ever and the pinnacle of arse wiping technology when more informed people would realise Andrex was the lord of rear end cleaning comfort (no idea why I went with such a scatological analogy). Now if you have tragically read the paragraph above I would like to apologise for (but am probably incapable of rectifying) my dickishly elitist attitude.
Anyhow Mushi-Shi, if you liked Spirited Away because it was "like a fairy tale" or something similar then I would urge you in the strongest terms to watch Mushi-Shi, which from the very first note of the opening song on the very first episode draws you into a whimsical, fantastic world overflowing with the kind of other-worldly appeal that the best faerie-tales create. It also present a much more nuanced and adult view of the interaction between the fantastic and the mundane and the price it can cost each side. While it does whang of purple prose I would say that it’s a rather beautiful show, both in content and delivery (The anime series won grand prizes in the categories of television series and best art direction (for Takashi Waki) at the 5th Tokyo Anime Award competition held at the Tokyo International Anime Fair in 2006). Its always engaging and often moving, it’s probably one of the most memorable anime I’ve watched in some time
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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