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1 year ago at around this time I wrote my reviews on the previous seasons and even mentioned a far off third season in them, and I never actually expected it, and then it appeared on my Netflix and I was really excited. I didn’t enjoy the original two seasons anything more than a 7 but the show is special to me so I have a soft spot for it. Still though, you could imagine my surprise when I clicked on the first episode and saw it was an hour long. And then the second was an hour long too. And then all of them ... were. They did that intentionally.

I found it really difficult to pay attention. That might just be a problem with myself and my rotted brain, or it could be that the episodes are 1 hour long each without much substance at all. Or it could be that the subtitles were flying around from the top of the screen to the bottom every few seconds. Either way, it was not an interesting anime. As I mentioned there was little to no substance in any of the episodes. In some instances some character growth is seen and K + S advance in their relationship, but it’s only a small percentage of what goes on in the show, and again the episodes are an HOUR long. I really liked the portrayal of the stage in a relationship where you encounter a problem that you don’t really know how to solve, and you drift away, requiring a dramatic maturation to fix the issues. But other than that there is no substance in the show. Honestly with how the relationships of the other characters ended up, it would’ve been better off leaving the story where it was at the end of the second season. They really butchered it with Chizu, and it was hard to be interested in Ayane + Kento but that might just be because I’ve been disconnected from the story for a year.

Updated character art was definitely something that was needed in the show, and the new visuals are certainly better. Though I have to say for something releasing in 2024 they are not up to standard. That doesn’t particularly matter though, and might be a more stylistic choice since the landscape art is still stunning. I can’t complain about the music either, very fitting, nothing exquisite though. This time, the characters acted much more human compared to the first two, it wasn’t insufferable to watch Kazehaya try and speak with Sawako, but you know…that’s a pretty low bar. Happy it was passed though. That might sound weird but it you saw my other reviews you’d get what I mean.

Really everything that could’ve been said was said in seasons one or two. So it was just a lot of nothing. I’m still happy it released as now there’s more content, but really, it was just OVAs. 6 one hour long OVAs……..

How do you write a review for an anime that is 167 episodes? It is by far the longest anime I’ve ever finished. So it’s a real commitment and I’ll get into why that really hurts it later. If you want to skim, just read the last two paragraphs, they’re the most important.

Inuyasha is a vibe. First things first. It’s an adventure anime with stunning background visuals and memorable characters. Heavy on the quality of the landscape visuals again. The music is also very good. It has that old school anime feeling, that adventure feeling and that romance feeling. I don’t know how else to ... describe that, it’s a vibe.

In more detail, the art style is dated compared to new animes but it’s certainly not difficult to look at. The landscapes are some of the best I’ve seen so far, and that means a lot from an anime this old. The character design is very unique, you won’t have difficulty differentiating people, and having good character design goes a long way. The faces and hair can be slightly unattractive at certain moments but again it’s really minor. The voice actors all did well, nothing exceptionally noteworthy but you won’t get angry with anyone, in the original Japanese at least. The music is also fairly good (endings much better than openings). Whilst hearing the same background soundtrack 167 times can get repetitive, the atmosphere music does well to……enhance the atmosphere.

The real review happens when you get into the story though, and this is by far the most important part. The initial idea is excellent. Shattering a sacred jewel with a complicated background and throwing two very different characters together to go and find these shards is a formula for success. It is reminiscent of my most recently watched anime, Cardcaptor Sakura, which also had an excellent story in theory. In practice things went differently though. The addition of extra members to the crew under the common denominator of disdain for the villain worked well, and their blossoming romance was really great to experience. And I don’t think I’ll forget the base story of the thief, Kikyo, Naraku, Inuyasha and the jewel. It’s really excellent writing. The emotional experience of Kagome being a reincarnation of Kikyo, and the love issues that appeared was really interesting, unfortunately they didn’t explore it at a level of “deepness” it deserved.

Enough about the good, there’s ALOT of bad. This is where the most spoilers will be, but what are you doing if you’re reading reviews before watching a show. The first thing I don’t like is the attitudes. It’s not major, but Kagomes behaviour of blaming inuyasha for events he’s not at fault for and the rest of the crew just piling on and acting like its obviously his fault made me angry frequently, but at the same time I’ve had similar experiences with women in the past😅. Similarly, just Shippo. Why is he there? He contributes nothing yet acts like an entitled brat, acting like Inuyasha isn’t doing all the fighting. I guess it comes down to Inuyasha not getting enough respect.

Now the more serious things. The story spirals fast. There are a bunch of subarcs, like anything related to Koga and Sesshomaru. After a certain period of time we just never see Koga again, he feels like an afterthought. In my opinion he shouldn’t have been in the show in the first place. And Sesshomaru held so much potential but again his arc against inuysha just disappeared and was never continued despite the story following Sesshomarus actions frequently. Naraku is also constantly scheming and coming up with new henchmen and plots, it really distracted from any meaningful progress. The story could have been way way shorter, it did not have to be this long whatsoever.

And now the absolute most important thing about Inuyasha. THERE IS NO ENDING. AFTER 167 EPISODES THERE IS NO CLOSURE WHATSOEVER. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT. THE STORY JUST ENDS WITH A CLIFFHANGER, AND NOT EVEN AN IMPORTANT ONE. A “AND WE STILL HAVE A LONG JOURNEY AHEAD” KIND. Naraku is still alive. Kikyo is still alive after being revived for the octilionth time, Narakus many henchmen are still alive, and the story ends, no joke, with Inuyasha and his friends flying off into the distance to continue the hunt for Naraku. One hundred and sixty seven episodes for NOTHING. Maybe this is just a Netflix thing?? I can’t believe I haven’t seen anyone talking about this yet.

It’s about the experience. That’s what Inuyasha is. It’s important to know you don’t get any sort of reward at the end. You’re led along for 1/3 of a year and then dropped off a cliff. But you’re not gonna forget this show, you’re gonna remember the journey. On the merits Inuyasha is a >8.5/10. On the value though, a 6/10 *or below* because of that ending.

You wanted to re-experience Sailor Moon. And you did. You heard the first 2 notes of the opening and were immediately transported back in time. And after the initial nostalgia wears off, you still stuck around, for an honestly quite fun and entertaining show, that remains mildly interesting and enjoyable.

Now- I’m watching this on Netflix, so it’s split into two seasons. I’ve only completed the first one, and so when I’ve finished the second I’ll come back and write the rest. So to be clear, unless stated otherwise, anything written in this review is concerning only the first 46 episodes.

Something the show does really well ... is the characters. They’re not exactly multi-layered, ultra deep characters, but the writers expertly executed their work. The each character is distinct in their personalities, have their own quirks, don’t particularly experience main character syndrome, and are never truly bland. Adding just that little bit of information about Sakuras friends also greatly helps with world building and makes the show feel more alive. The music is also wonderful. Nothing revolutionary, but it’s pure nostalgia in all regards. This goes for the main themes, and also the background music. They really did a great job creating “timeless period pieces”

The story itself is not the deepest and well thought out, but it does have some very good aspects. Despite many episodes being the simple collection of 1 card, you always felt that you were working towards something. The “filler” never felt like filler, it felt like it had purpose, and I really appreciated that, because 46 episodes is a lot of commitment to ask of an audience. (Although, I guess the show was never built for audiences like us, it was made for childrens TV). The show also feels extremely suspenseful at certain moments, by which I mean the suspense was built very very well for the type of show this is. Maybe you won’t fully understand what I mean without watching the show, but you definitely will after you watch it.

Unfortunately all that suspense led to an extraordinary anti-climactic end. I’ll try not to spoil too much. Sakura has been having rather suspenseful and “frightening” (in the way they’re mysterious but prophetic) dreams, predicting a final battle she will engage in under the perfect setting, ontop of this massive tower over the night city, with a massive moon in the background. Then we find out it will happen when she collects all the cards, and then she does. From here, we draw out maybe two and a half episodes. And that’s one of the biggest problems with the ending. If it were done in 1 episode, it would be much better and higher quality. Anyway, Li fails in approximately 4 seconds of extremely underwhelming battle and is just thrown away. This is after all that built suspense is just destroyed by overall bad quality. There’s very little music playing, and so in many instances it’s just completely quiet during what’s supposed to be the climax. The battle scenes are horrible (as I mentioned before) but also janky. The battle doesn’t happen naturally. Yue telepathically lifts the contestant up into the battle, which I identify to be one of the main causes of my dissatisfaction, since this slows down any momentum the scene had, and halts the flow of natural events. All that to say the ending wasn’t natural.

Not all about the finale was bad though. The ending and inspiration for Sakura to keep fighting was really great, and rather deep as well, for the type of show we’re talking about. I came for the nostalgia of a 90s anime about “magical girls” but was more than surprised about how good the writing and overall screenplay was. If you can get past a few of the shows gripes, it really is great. Anyway, I’ll come back when I’ve finished the rest. Bye bye

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!!This section pertains only to all episodes after episode 46!!

I would like to formally retract my statements about the story of the first season, as it is SO much better than the second seasons that it’s quite astonishing the two are even the same show. The second season felt unnecessary almost, or that’s the feeling I have after finishing it. They COULD have built the story around Sakura forming relationships with the cards, starting to grasp her power and position, and with that touch more heavily on her relationship with Li. But instead, they chose to write an entirely nonsensical story about an evil(?) reincarnation of Clow Reed who causes disturbances for no apparent reason for the entire show. I’m still confused as to what happened. A completely terrible continuation of what was a perfect story idea in the first season. If you don’t care for the relationship between Syaoran and Sakura, there is not a single reason to watch this season. And I say that very sadly, because as always, I actually enjoyed the show. The bad writing just makes it nearly unwatchable, as you can’t understand anything that’s happening until the last second, and even then it still doesn’t stand up to the slightest scrutiny. A pure vain of untapped potential is how I would explain it.

Apart from that there aren’t many other things of note. Being that this wasn’t actually a second season for most people, and Netflix just split it that way, there weren’t any significant changes. The opening was really good, the ending not so much, so it looses a point in music….but…I’m still confused about the story man. Another point I could make is about the characters. More specifically the sidekicks of Eriol. They seem entirely useless, and if they never existed in the first place, nothing would change whatsoever. Their existence is never or barely explained, and as I said, they don’t serve any purpose. My final rating will be a 7, the second season was really bad, but the first season was really good, so I’ll criticise the show, but I won’t change my rating.

I hope that everyone who watches this rediscovers those memories you know you’re watching it for, and stays like I did for the new experiences the show offers. However, if you have little to no interest in Sakuras relationship affairs, stop at the end of the first season, as there is no other reason to continue.

Nothing will make you want to see inside the writers heads more than this show. It seems as if they created a beautiful love story and then thought, “how can we make this including f*cking superpowers?” And in the end you have a fantastic 3/4, with genuinely admirable pacing, excellent writing and emotion, but for that extra 1/4 everything just fell apart. Highly recommend.

In terms of general quality, it is very high. The studio clearly invested (and had the resources to) heavily in this project. The visuals are wonderful and stylized, there aren’t any cut corners on character drawings and animations, the music is ... fitting and the story (again, speaking only in terms of the first 3/4) is magnificently executed. This anime is one of those rare gems where the pacing and the events of each episode is so perfectly done that, no matter what happened in that episode, you are always feeling “open” or excited to watch the next one. You feel that you get a lot in each episode, but the story unravels at a proper speed, and nothing is dropped onto your head. And this is something that most animes get wrong. It does take a great deal of skill and effort to get it correct, and this show has achieved that.

But then comes the strange aspects. I’m not sure what happened during the storyboarding phase. I assume that there were two factions, one who wanted to write a love story, while the others wanted a supernatural adventure story, and after they had fought and fought, an exhausted manager said that they could just do both. Because anyone who watches will see how unnaturally inserted the supernatural aspects of the story are. They’re practically ignored for the most part, then become absolutely integral. Of course, this can’t happen normally, since in no capacity whatsoever does the story leave space for these types of events or storylines. So, they just have to be shoved in there. And it makes you sad, seeing such a wonderful piece of media commit essentially suicide.

Lots of other users compared the story to “Cinderella,” and I would agree. But in today’s age, I think that’s exactly what we need. This is one of the only wholesome love stories that is so expertly made, executing the trope perfectly, up until they fall into the “main character trap.” I’ll elaborate. For the entirety of the show Miyo is incredibly soft spoken, she’s not “ambitious” for ambitions sake, she’s not a leader, she lacks any kind of useable ability, she is essentially the model housewife (with some interesting aspects of trauma from her how her family treated her). Yet, at the end, she completely switches. Shes now completely lost her social silence, she gains an ability, she willingly accepts a leadership role in saving her husband without any consideration, but the worst part is that there was nothing to trigger this transformation. If there was, then this would be much more forgivable. But she simply swivels on a dime, and is now the flawless manga main character. Which, really sucked. The ending burns to the ground the mansion of poetics and beauty of the story, instead for a supernatural, shallow, honestly quite useless ending.

In conclusion, as a love story this anime is wonderful, and should be the goal that every studio producing similar stories should try to attain, but as any other kind of story this show fails miserably. They could have still achieved the same excitement and danger by including aspects about political marriages and powerful families instead of supernatural abilities, but alas. I feel as though I speak for every viewer who’s completed this show, just keep it as Cinderella.

It is very important that you know I’m coming to this basically 2 years late. All the TikTok hype is finished, all the emotions have passed, and within that time I managed to not experience enough spoilers to ruin the show for me. So, since it was so highly acclaimed by everyone during that era where every other video on my for-you-page was playing a song from the soundtrack, it seemed inevitable that I watch it. And I would describe it like this. This show is like meeting a friend or relative after not seeing them for a great while. You reminisced nostalgically about your ... moments with them when you were younger, and when you do finally meet them again, yeah sure they’re great, but deep down you feel a bit of a sadness that reality didn’t mimic your nostalgic vision.

As for a legitimate analysis of the show, there are many reasons to sing its praises. Being much higher budget than most productions, the world building was so incredibly superior to nearly all other anime’s I’ve watched so far. In part this could be because cyberpunk was already existing IP, but no matter the reason the world building is fantastic and adds quite a bit of depth that wouldn’t be there otherwise, and would surely lower the rating. Even just the basic insertion of slang that doesn’t exist in the real world is special, especially since it’s a great unique identifier of the show. If you hear someone say “choom” well, you now have a good idea of what they may be talking about. The visuals are high quality, and don’t cut corners on anything. More importantly they also capture the night city style very well. I don’t prescribe to the notion that the characters aren’t deep. They’re very uniquely styled and whilst they may not all being incredibly profound, this is anime we’re referencing. I can’t name any piece of anime media that has ever reached that unattainable level of character uniqueness and deepness that critics on this app expect. Edgerunners certainly does quite enough in terms of characters, and you’re saddened to at least some level watching them die. They seem sometimes disposable, and that nullifies some of the intended effects of killing of characters, but once the notion of inevitable cyberpsychosis comes into play, everything starts to make sense. And that’s a very large and important focal point for the story but I’ll get into that later. The soundtrack was perfectly executed. The English focus does wonders for this, of course being English IP the show is definitely more western stylized and I really enjoy that. The songs themselves are very touching, and being so closely related to the show, the effect on publicity for the show and emotionality for the consumer are expertly done. Hearing a song which, to someone who’s never watched the show is just a sentimental melody that is rather enjoyable, is a very different experience compared to someone who associates immediately the events of the story with the song. This was a key aspect in the trends that followed the shows release, talking about how sad it was with a song from the soundtrack in the background. It’s not instantly realizable that the song is from an anime, it just sounds like a normal song. Maybe I’m not effectively putting my words into writing, but anyone who was around on social media right after the show dropped knows what I’m referencing.

Speaking of the social media popularity, there’s not much that I can say that hasn’t been said already by somebody else due to the large gap between release and when I watched it, and also the sheer popularity of the show. It was very successful and has left a very large impact on the anime community. Often regarded as one of the gems of this time, the fanart, fan creations and other gestures of appreciation by the fan base are very numerous. It is difficult to not find drawings of Rebecca or Lucy or David scattered around anywhere anime related. It also wasn’t completely relegated to the specific anime community, being on Netflix and the social media trends help bring it to a less niche audience and I think they rather enjoyed it too.

Finally I’d like to talk about the story. This is where the majority of the spoiler warning is directed at. To be blunt, it kinda feels like I watched it all for nothing. In the end Rebecca’s dead, Kiwis dead, Maine and his girl are dead, Falco is injured, Rebecca’s brothers gone (sorry he wasn’t relevant enough for me to remember his name) and David dies too. The whole story exists to smash the glass of hope in the readers mind. And I think this is rather brilliant. The trope that everything in night city inevitably leads to the same place and David trying to fight against this but then eventually accepting it is a brilliant way to end a “tragedy.” In the end you gained nothing, but you feel lots. Some YouTube comment I member outlined it as saying that the writers were not afraid to give the story the ending it needed, not the ending we wanted. The constant death makes it sometimes difficult to feel a higher level of emotionality when they’re taken, but this is somewhat counteracted by making the characters very likeable (I’m referencing mainly Rebecca here, you could probably guess). In any case, compared to other titles the writing of edgerunners is brilliant and even if there’s not a happy ending or even an ending that gives you a sense of completion, Edgerunners is much more about the journey not the destination.

Maybe dialogue between Lucy and David is sometimes forced, maybe the gore and bloodiness is unnecessary, maybe maybe maybe. None of that matters. Denying the emotional value of this show is rather pathetic, since it is meaningless to try and deny it. I do have one unresolved issue with the show, and it’s kind of leaving me drifting around endlessly, with a sense of missing completion. I’m very hesitant to use the phrase “wasted potential” when referring to what I mean by this. It is more like, there were so many paths the show could have taken. Was the one it took the best? I couldn’t tell you. Sometimes it feels so, sometimes it doesn’t. But I believe this is a feature of the show. It’s not supposed to be traditionally “complete” and this aspect of “drifting” when thinking about it in hindsight is something rather unique and profound. We are thrown into the exact position of Lucy. We’re drifting around on the moon right now, looking down on earth having witnessed the same things she did, and having the same struggles understanding it all as she is. That is magnificent storytelling.

Maybe the hype was a little crazy surrounding the show. But as a phenomenon, Edgerunners has been emphatically positive in every aspect it’s touched, in the show and outside of it. Despite possible flaws, I’d absolutely recommend everyone to watch this show purely for the emotional value, and the value of watching something that doesn’t have a happy ending. If not for those reasons, then don’t you just wanna see what everyone loved so much? With that I have nothing else to add, except no matter what, Rebecca is still here with us, even if it must be only in our hearts.😭

In the beginning, I loved this show. It has a chill and relaxed air to it and the military setting is something I really love and I think can make for really unique shows when paired with slice of life styling. I guess it was naive to ask for normality from a show based on women piloting dragons from their insides, disguised as planes because when the big final arc comes around the show becomes entirely nonsensical and rather demonic to be honest.

But I’ll start with the good. As I said before, the military setting often creates some of the best animes, and analysis of ... the starting few episodes would reveal that this show was the perfect recipe for success. A great introduction about a high schooler wondering what to do with her life, seeing jets fly by and then joining the JASDF (only to find herself working an office job). Then a change occurs and someone who is woefully unfit for the job is placed in a new position. Really, I thought this was going to be one of my all time favourites in the very beginning.

Let’s talk about characters. Lots of people believe that they’re flat and boring. Each one is essentially reduced to a single trait or personality quirk, and then made to interact with one another. I honestly think this works just fine. Hisones unfiltered speech makes for some funny moments, however later in the show it just falls apart as she develops which I think that is what angered a bunch of people at the personalities, they just didn’t realize why. Hisone became much more “character” like towards the end, dropping her quirk and becoming a boring invincible main character. But the quirk is what we loved about her, going on unhinged rants at authority because she’s tired of the absurdities of life. As for the other dragon pilots, I think they work great together. None of them other than Hisone are actually supposed to be main characters, so then having only 1 possible dialogue option in each situation works well. I really don’t understand the complaint about the personalities. You want in a in-depth emotional being, undergoing pain and drastic change over the course of an….. 10 episode anime about……flying dragons from their insides………….yeah, okay.

In terms of the art, the skies look magnificent although anime artists have become quite adept at drawing beautiful skies over the years. A lot of the side characters look horrendous, with disproportionate parts which is a trend I really dislike but see over and over again in shows. It’s a little angering, but it’s not a unique issue so there’s no reason to criticize this show specifically for it. The planes look nice, the pannel gaps are quite noticeable but I guess that’s cause they’re armour and not the real plane? Either way, pretty close to real life. Not quite the tanks from Girls und Panzer, but definitely good enough.

Okay, now for the negatives. I want you to imagine this. “A show about a girl who is indecisive about her future and decides to join the JASDF. She gets a sudden position change, and the show focuses on her interaction with characters as she goes through life in the Air Force, made interesting by her unique personality traits, in a realism focused slice of life anime.” That’s this show at its very very very maximum potential. Never in your mind, even after the introduction of dragons into the mix, would you EVER guess the show would include an arc of performing a demonic ritual inside a massive flying creature, which must be put to sleep in an exact area or all of Japan will just explode, and this is the entire purpose of like 20 people. All of it is so insane that I’m guessing the whole thing must be a play and modernization on an East Asian legend or something, because I just cannot believe a group of writers actually came up with it. This isn’t the reason we’re watching the show. We don’t want these incredibly weird sacrificial and ritualistic themes in a fun happy show about the Air Force, or even one about a flying dragon. I don’t understand the hypothesis. Why? Why would you do this? Who came up with it? To be quite honest, it ruined the entire show. I want to rate it in half’s, because the first half was great and I loved it, the second was complete garbage and made me ask so many questions. Hence why my number review is so high, but my written one so critical.

That’s really my main complaint about it. Otherwise; it’s a great show and God does it anger all the right people. Even with the annoying dialogue of El Hoshino, and the unspoken lesbian relationship between two ladies in imperial Japan (ouf, good luck trying not to be hung), I still see the funniest things in peoples’ review. Take this for example: (I’m paraphrasing) “It’s riddled with sexism. All the characters make sexist and sexualized remarks about the characters. And get this ‘the primary objective of a woman is love’ that’s an actual line in the show. It sounds like something an evil villain would say.” Truly amazing. We’ve brainwashed our youth so badly; that yearning for the same thing that all women (AND MEN) for all of time have wanted is sexist. It’s mindblowing. LOVE. THESE PEOPLE HATE LOVE. LIKE WHAT. I do apologize; this wasn’t mean to be political but man what a sad world we live in.

In conclusion, this show is exactly like it’s ending. The first bit, focused on the resolution of the dragon pilots love affairs is happy and upbeat and makes you feel good. Let’s be real, we were all celebrating when El Hoshino found love. But the second half, where Hisone somehow comes back from sacrificing herself in resolving maybe the most absurd storyline in all of history, to be met by her lover (who just abandoned the girl he spent is entire life with??). Nonsensical and angering. I’ll always think of the feelings the first bit of this show for comfort though, because I truly believe this could’ve been something great. I can only pray someone makes what would’ve made this show great.

I wish I could rate it higher, but I just cannot. All the issues with the first season are multiplied in the second. Among the notable ones, the length of the season, bad writing, unnecessary characters, unbearable personalities and worst of all; how badly the show lost its vision.

Let’s start with the positives though. The most obvious indicators of low quality work were not present. The issue with the voices was resolved, and it seemed just a little more effort went into the faces and art. Of course some characters still don’t have eyes, but you can’t have it all.

And now the long list of ... negatives. Most notably, how badly the show veered off course. The original feeling of the beginning of season was was just about lost by the end of the first season, and is six feet underground by the end of the second season. The season also draws on for far further than it needs to. So many episodes were just awkwardness between Sadako and Kazehaya with no substance whatsoever (and I heard it’s getting a third season in 2024, there will be more of this!! How!!). The same with Kent, if he were removed entirely from the show, absolutely nothing would change. There was no reason to include him at all, and where they had the idea for his entire character is beyond me. The relationships of other characters (most notably Chizu and Ryu) were also completely disregarded. They got 3 seconds at the end to demonstrate they got together, even though a whole arc was spent on them in first season. It was 10 episodes of Sadako and Kazehaya not being able to speak to each other and in many parts near unwatchable. I stuck around though, because there’s a certain draw about shows like this. The beautiful art and landscapes, and the “feel” of anime when it all looked like this. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t get time to dwell on this, because the writers couldn’t figure out what they wanted to do with the show. The comedy from the last season was multiplied to be completely over the top in the second one. Which would be fine if it didn’t contrast so heavily with the emotional scenes of the show. One minute a badly drawn Pin and Ayane are saying something absurd and the next you’re thrown into a deep emotional scene and it throws off the flow completely. Some comedy is alright, but not like this. Just let us have our, yes, dense and lacking any substance but still very enjoyable, emotional romance without all the extra. That’s all I ask.

Overall, it is worse than the first season. But there’s still something about it man. Sabotaged by bad writing but still immortal I suppose. I would recommend, and with some heavy tweaking I believe season 3 could save it all. I really do, that’s how much hope I place in this series because there is something just so special about it which cannot be seen through the lenses of logical examination.

It deeply saddens me reading some of these reviews on the show. Especially because if the impact it had on myself. In the most cliche of terms, this anime changed my life. By which I mean it changed the way I think about and evaluate anime. By all means it is a bad show, writing wise, generally art wise and everything else. But the feeling this show invokes provides a completely different perspective. And for the first few episodes these two forces were warring in my mind. Ultimately the emotions (although minor) and “feeling” of the show emerged victorious, and taught me to stop examining ... shows through serious and critical lenses. Because if you were to do this, you would completely miss the most important part of the show. You’re always feeling incomplete because you’re missing the piece that can’t be acquired until you stop looking through such lenses, and actually accept that doubt in your mind saying that you shouldn’t be enjoying the show, by all logical metrics it fails, yet you do enjoy it, and you get that exact “feeling” it is trying to invoke. So I do pity those pouring their anger into their reviews, because they haven’t quite had the privilege of thinking the way this anime has taught me to. It often shows by how many episodes they’ve completed. Usually never the full 25 (26). So my ultimate advice is stick to the show. No matter how unbearable it may be. Because somewhere in there is a gem unexplainable by conventional, cynical reasoning and which can only be felt.

In this paragraph I planned to have an explanation of what I meant by “feeling.” But after many attempts, I just couldn’t put it into words. It really is something you must feel. And it won’t blow you away, you won’t have revelations about the universe and life and theology or anything, but you will feel it, and you will notice it.

Now for an actual examination of the show. My main comments are in regards to: the art, low-quality aspects of the show, the writing and finally the veering away from the original “idea.” The backdrops and landscapes are truly beautiful yet the art of the characters lacks detail or any real effort at all. It seems that the animators took a little bit more time with the faces during the later parts of the show, but even so there are still faces which instead of eyes, have just two mildly curved lines where their eyes should be. I personally have no issue with the lack of intense shading and detailing on the faces, it fits with the time the show was made, and also adds to the cozy “almost-retro” style, but when characters start missing eyes is when I start to ask questions.

In relation to low quality, you can clearly see the show didn't get all the resources it needed. A separate example from the art is the voices. I have no exact vendetta against any of the actors, they all did their jobs well, but rather some of the tactics used in recording. For example, you’ll quickly realize that whenever the show had a character yelling from a distance to the characters more directly on screen, they just moved the voice actor away from the mic in the studio and told them to yell. It is so incredibly obvious when this happened, and is really quite the centrepiece in the compilation of evidence that this isn’t a particularly high quality production.

The writing is also quite bad. But absolutely everybody has talked about that so I’ll stay silent on it this time.

My final complaint would be considered more a comment, as it’s not meant to be in a negative light, but not a positive one either. It is about the straying away from the vision of the show. The feel of the first episodes and the last are very different. And you’d think that would happen, that means the story has advanced. But it does feel like you’re watching two different parallels of the same show. Like they chose route 1 in the first part of the show then another in the later parts. I enjoyed both routes, but do wonder what would’ve happened if they stuck to the less comedic, more anemoic or nostalgic feeling of the show in the beginning. I keep saying feeling because it can’t really be conveyed by words. It’s something you can only feel, and I’m sure you will feel it once you start to watch the show and see the backgrounds and the older styling and hear the music. So please please please give it a chance, you will find yourself having a slight smile on your face the whole time you watch if you just give it enough time, and open your heart to an interpretation less routed in cold, hard logic.

I’m going back and fourth on my rating for this. Normally when weighing a show you add up all the elements and get your number, but in this case it seems like all the elements are opposed to each other and can’t be seen together. Like liquids with different densities. My general range would be around 4-6, which is what I rated it on MAL.

Now the details. Firstly, there is very little change at all from the first season. The personalities, the art, the theme, the structure, the tropes, the rampant over the top fanservice, the horrible music ALL OF IT. But this isn’t a ... bad thing. It feels like what it is. A continuation. And in that regard it keeps you interested in an odd sort of way with its lack of change from the first season. I didn’t even write a review for the first season, because literally everything I’m about to say would be the exact same for that too. That’s just about where all the praise ends.

The first complaint is the just insane level of lewdness. Ontop of the constant groping, sexual angles and nudity comes outright sex scenes too. This was present in the first season too, but guys, come on. Do better.

The second is about the characters. There are far too many. Dark Schneider (possibly the worst name in all of anime) and his close circle are all easy to recognize and understand, but by the end of the show there are like 20 something people, all with some kind of role and it’s just completely unnecessary. They just add confusion to the already hard to follow story, and leave you wondering who is who from their generic designs. They’re also completely invincible. If you’re not just a normal human (who the writers love slaughtering) it is nearly impossible to die. The plot armour is at an overwhelming level. Which I understand you need your main characters to be, you know, alive. But instead of having them be completely invincible maybe you could write scenarios in which they don’t always end up in inescapable peril which they manage to survive every time.

The story broadly is very difficult to follow and only gets harder as you get towards the end. The oddly named characters, the very large amount of landscapes and landmarks, all of it. But when you change your perspective, that doesn’t matter. I was viewing the show through a serious storytelling lens which is why I was so negative about it, but about halfway through the second season I realized I was looking at it wrong. When you see it much more as an over the top comedy, you get much more enjoyment from it. And that’s the one thing I’d like people to know above else. DONT TAKE IT SERIOUSLY and you’ll have a good time.

I don’t normally write reviews but I decided to start today. Don’t be mistaken though, I wasn’t swayed to do so by the anime. It’s just not able to elicit that type of response, and that’s by design. There are probably hundreds of anime with formula just like this one. But that’s because it works.

The romance anime formula is deviated from a few times but mainly in the story, which left me feeling like I had whiplash. But not the kind of whiplash from being driven around Silverstone by Max Verstappen in an Aston Martin Vulcan, but the kind you get from your friend ... swerving at 120 mph in a Nissan Altima. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, because you were having a hell of a time in that car. It was strange but it kept me very engaged despite having the flaw of almost any anime, drawing out too long.

The comedy has a slight resemblance to God Troubles Me (if you’ve seen it, if you haven’t you should). It gets very slightly tiring but not enough to leave an effect on the rating, just a slight note in the review.

As for character design and personality, that’s all standard for this type of anime. Boring clothes and stereotypical personalities which lead to some comedic relief. One thing I did notice though was that there was a drastic switch in Anzu’s behaviour. For most of the show she was shy, anxious and uninterested with nearly anything social. Then closer to the end she becomes a social beacon of light, confronting strangers and being very social with friends. It is revealed that she was always like this apparently, from an entire (almost 20 minute) flashback scene, but it’s a drastic change from what we were used to for the majority of the show.

As for any message, there is really none worth writing about. It is really just a unique take on the romance anime formula, and the little (well mildly large) quirks of how they’ve changed it make the show entertaining and enjoyable. For how long each episode and the show is, the writers did a very good job keeping me engaged. Be that through cliffhangers at the end of most episodes and later on in the story suspense, they did a great job at making something unique.