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Sep 20, 2023
On the one hand, I think this portion of the manga gets a lot more hate than it deserves, on the other hand, I also have my own fair share of criticisms, which kept me from enjoying it as much as any of the other 4 main manga series before it.
Like the prior installments of Baki before this, Baki Dou (2018) has many great fights and cool moments. I liked seeing many of the regular mainstays of the series return and have some cool victories. The fights and the great artwork are really what Itagaki Keisuke excels at the most. Although, I don't think
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this section of the manga had any singular "great fight" like in many of the previous series, just a lot of little fights.
My main issue with this manga was the storytelling, it was very underwhelming compared to Baki's previous series. Nomi was a decently cool character, but I don't think he was anywhere cool enough to be the focus of this entire series. Even if he's comparable to some of the top-tiers in pure strength, he's doesn't have the overwhelming presence of a character like Pickle or Musashi Miyamoto. That, and starting after his fight with Yujiro the story totally gave him the Muhammad Ali Jr treatment, with him being pummeled and humiliated by character after character, until literally being one-shot by Baki in their final fight. The rest of the sumo characters were a complete waste of time, besides being an excuse to show off the current power of the main cast. Kehaya in particular was a complete joke, there was no good reason to even include him. The whole sumo arc just ended up feeling very pointless and anticlimactic, like it really could have been cut out entirely without losing anything, besides maybe Katsumi's new arm.
I did like how the last 40-ish chapters built up Jack’s character, though. If there's one thing this manga did well, it's hype up Jack's redemption arc in the new sequel manga, Baki Rahen. However, it has yet to be seen whether this will end up being a good thing or another disappointing sequel, so we'll have to wait and see. I'm at least excited and hopeful, it seems like a refreshing departure from the direction the story has been going before this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 20, 2023
This was an okay yuri movie, overall.
The background art was very pretty, and the cinematography was handled really well. Little moments like where Yi Gyeong draws using the moisture on the window when it is raining, or when she plays with the light reflection from her watch, add a surprising amount to the experience. The music was also pleasant, it added to the scenes without being overpowering.
So what didn't I like so much?
As the other reviews have mentioned, this movie portrays a very realistic relationship, but that's all. Personally, I think realism is a very overrated aspect when it comes to storytelling. Realism
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isn't bad, but there has to be a lot more to a work to keep me interested than just realism; I don't care for realism for its own sake. A good romance story should have a compelling romance and memorable characters, this doesn't really have either. It's much more of a drama than a romance. [Spoilers after this point] The characters get together very quickly at the beginning with very little romantic development, and the rest of the movie is spent with them having relationship troubles. The drama wasn't half-bad, and I'm not inherently against a "falling out of love" story either, but it didn't give me much reason to care about their romance in the first place (besides yuri). The reasons for Yi Gyeong and Suyi breaking up were also very vague and confusing to me. At first I thought it may be because Yi Gyeong was maybe having feelings for that one nurse woman at her school, but they stopped meeting together after Yi Gyeong kept talking about her girlfriend, it didn't really seem like their relationship was going anywhere. So was their reason for breaking up just some sort of vague dissatisfaction? The movie was unclear about this, and they seemed very emotionally distraught about breaking up with each other; I find it hard to believe they didn't still like each other. To me, it felt like the creators just wanted to have a sad ending, but they didn't do enough to properly justify it.
This wasn't terrible overall, and if a realistic yuri-drama sounds like it may interest you, then it is probably worth giving a shot. I just think it was decent as a drama, but not very good as a romance.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 2, 2023
This was a fairly entertaining take on the isekai genre. The characters were simple, but they managed to be pretty entertaining. The MC in particular could be quite clever at times, using his knowledge of how the video game world works to trick the other players. The story was fun for the most part, although the section where they hunted down marten pelts for a few episodes around the middle of the season was kind of boring. (Minor Spoiler) I would have preferred if they kept the MC as a skeleton monster the whole time. Giving him a powerful human form after the first few
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episodes made the story a bit less fun and unique, plus it kind of defeats the purpose of him being reborn as the weakest monster, which was the initial premise of the show.
Some viewers may not like the CGI visuals, but I think it was pretty well done. The visuals didn't bother me at all, and it worked quite well for some of the character designs. I also liked the music in the ED, it had a nice beat that synced well with the visuals.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 14, 2023
I'm not particularly a fan of dancing or performing arts anime, but this was decently enjoyable. It was a pretty simple story about the protagonists chasing their dream and overcoming some hardships that get in the way. You could probably replace "hula dancing" with anything else and the story wouldn't be very different, beyond the aesthetic of the film. Nevertheless, a movie about a group of girls becoming professional hula dancers was unique enough to keep my interest.
Overall the characters were alright, but I do think the story could have done a better job fleshing out their motivations. That would have helped me root for
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them and care about them achieving their goals more. For instance, the MC's main reason for wanting to be a hula dancer was because her sister was one, but it would have been better if the movie also explored why it was personally something she wanted to do for herself. If her goal were more personal it'd help me feel more invested in her achieving it, and more dismayed by her setbacks. The other girls in her dance group could have also had their motives explored more.
The visuals were nice and colorful, they complemented the Hawaiian theme of the setting well. I also liked the hula dancing itself, it was pleasant. A couple of the dance scenes did use some CGI, but it wasn't very bad. The hula music they used in most of the dance scenes was good, but the music in the their dance scene at the hula competition wasn't really hula at all. It was just generic idol music, which felt out of place.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 8, 2023
This was another very enjoyable season, I even think I liked it slightly more than the first season.
The visuals are the same quality as last season. The background art and food porn is illustrated very well, plus I appreciated the unique art style of the character designs. The stories in each episode were good, despite only being one or a couple episodes each they managed to feel very real and compelling. My favorite was episode 2. I liked all the new characters, and grew more attached to the two main characters Lee Link and Xiao Lu. The OP and ED were also nice.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 19, 2023
Firstly, I should preface that this show will probably only be enjoyable to people who have already seen the earlier series and who want more Di Gi Charat. This show's main appeal is to returning fans who already enjoy the franchise, it doesn't give new watchers much of a reason to care.
As someone who really enjoyed the original Di Gi Charat series and who's watched everything in the franchise, my feelings on this latest installment are mixed. Compared to the other installments in the franchise, it was pretty mid. It wasn't the worst installment so far, but I don't feel this show did the
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best job at capturing the spirit and humor of the original series. In particular, most of the first half was spent simply re-introducing the various characters from the earlier series (plus a couple new characters, who I didn't really care for). Most of these episodes were bland and not very funny. However, I do think this show got better in the second half, with more of the episodes being closer to the goofy comedy of the original series.
Overall, I mainly just enjoyed seeing all the characters again. If you're like me and want more Di Gi Charat, this show may be worth giving a shot, but I can't strongly recommend it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 17, 2023
Although I enjoyed the main series, my main problem with it was that every episode followed the exact same formula, with pretty much no variance in how the story plays out. In contrast, these specials manage to do a much better job telling a unique and interesting story in every episode. I'm sure this is partly due to the longer run time of each episode, but nevertheless the original series could have been much better if it took an approach more similar to what was done in these specials. My only real complaint is that we only got 8 of these specials, compared to the
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main series' 103 episodes; I would've liked to have gotten more.
If you enjoyed the original series, you'll probably like these specials even more. If you didn't enjoy the original series for similar reasons to what I describe above, then perhaps you may find these specials to be more interesting of a watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 16, 2022
Story - 5/10
With less than a 9 minute run time it seems unfair to criticize this show too much, but even as someone who enjoys watching short-form anime this wasn't particularly appealing. It wasn't a horrible show, but it's not really worth watching either; you'll probably be better off watching something else. This short animation is pretty much just a tourism commercial for the Ryukyu islands and their history (brought to you by Urasoe City, Okinawa), it's not much of an actual story.
Characters - 4/10
There isn't much characterization in this short, the characters are very basic. We're introduced to our modern teen girl protagonist
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who likes social media and dislikes learning about history, but that's really it. There's also the king of Ryukyu Satto and the tourist Masato, but we don't learn much about them.
Art & Animation - 7/10
The visuals are decent, I don't have any complaints here. However, it didn't blow me away or anything; the visuals didn't make up for the lack of story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 4, 2022
This was a pretty good donghua, one that I hope gets more attention and a second season.
The action sequences are definitely the greatest strong-point of this show, they were very fast-paced and exciting. For this reason I'd highly recommend people give this show at least 2 episodes before deciding whether to continue or not, as the action sequence in episode 2 is very good. The "Power Word" magic system used by the characters in the series features some interesting super powers, but more than that the main character Qiancong really makes the fights interesting with how he uses his own cunning to make up for
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his (initial) lack of a Power Word ability.
The CGI character animation may initially be off-putting to some, but I think it works well for the show. The CGI character animation allows for much more fluid movement, making the fight scenes much better. Furthermore, the animators tried make the character models look as close to 2D as possible, through the use of cel shading. Overall, this show is a fairly good example Chinese CGI used well. The music was also always pleasant to listen to.
The cast of characters were decent for the most part. Some of the secondary characters were goofy or unremarkable, but the main two leads were pretty good, particularly the main character Qiancong. I enjoyed Qiancong's crafty style of fighting, I always appreciate shows where the protagonist relies on strategy over simply having the more overpowered ability. When he does eventually unlock his own Power Word ability, it is definitely the most interesting ability in the show. Furthermore, Qiancong is a very headstrong and passionate protagonist, I found it easy to root for him.
My main problem with the story is that the show never clearly defines what the "Qiancong Guardians" are. From the context clues it's apparent they are some sort of peace-keeping organization, but beyond that little is explained about how their organization works or what their role in the world is. The story revolves around this organization and our group of protagonists trying to become members of it, so this was a significant issue I had throughout the story. For a comparison, it's kind of like watching Naruto or Bleach, but if the stories never explained what the purpose of the Shinobi or Soul Hunters are.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 6, 2022
Like the previous season, the plot of this movie is a revenge story. This time it is centered around a different protagonist, who was framed for his father's murder in a conspiracy to wipe out the "Canal Gang" which he commands. The story in this movie is good, but not quite as compelling as the previous season. That said, the movie more than makes up for this with the plethora of great fight scenes throughout the film, the entire film is almost nonstop action.
The visuals and animation are as good as the previous season. The fight scenes are all very exciting, with fluid animation and
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great choreography. Although I generally prefer 2D over CGI, this show does a good job with its CGI. The CGI is really essential for making the fight scenes as good as they are.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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