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Aug 16, 2024
If I had to sum this up in as many words in a review, I'd say that this anime is a pretty mediocre BL and a genuinely really good, possibly incredible if I want to be very generous, supernatural anime that I firmly might place as one of my favourites in the genre (not that there's too much competition in supernatural BL).
Where I went into the anime expecting something rather bad, after episode 1 and 2 being my roughly expected fare I was hugely surprised by the amount of care and writing that had gone into the story and characters aside from the male
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leads. The set up of the narrative is tidily executed, and the twist (though instantly noticed by some eagle eyed viewers) takes the story into an even more addicting spiral until the finale is over and you're sitting with twelve episodes viewed.
The character work I think is also the standout; by the end of the anime, though I liked the leads, my favourite characters were of the side cast and the relationship I was most invested in wasn't even that of the main two. Where it was advertised to me as a somehow darker BL and seemed like it was careening down that direction from the start, what you actually get out of Sankaku Mado no Sotogawa wa Yoru is a supernatural story revolving around themes of the dark side of families and recovery, whether that be with friendship, found family and/or a good old exorcism, with an overall uplifting message.
Of course, the anime isn't perfect, but what it is, in my opinion, is perfectly enjoyable. The animation quality is extremely good and the art style suits the story very well, and though the character's supernatural powers aren't always explained word by word introduction page style, I didn't feel like that needed to be the case for me to enjoy watching it, nor to understand the most important parts of the narrative; the emotional beats.
If you came to this anime looking for something purely BL, you might be disappointed since it functionally requires you to care about more than just the main duo. However, if you enjoy supernatural narratives with a fair portion of mystery and a cast of middling to strong character personalities (featuring a gay couple among them and a couple really great father figures), I really couldn't recommend this more.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 16, 2023
Morally questionable characters. A power fantasy. A look at all consuming revenge. An interest in other people's passions.
That last one is important; the parts where Oshi no Ko shine are where it portrays passion and love for performance and other talents, the investment of the characters in what they do, and why they do it, with an effective foil: someone who does the same thing without their love for the art and a unique circumstance in its place.
Oshi no Ko utilises the entertainment industry as the springboard for its narrative, a passion for performance coupled with dark drama. The corruption portrayed in the
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industry as a whole, to my knowledge, could be called clumsily handled if one chooses to read Oshi no Ko as a nuanced commentary on the entertainment industry and perhaps even overly dark to exaggerate the drama surrounding the narrative as a revenge plot.
Instead, Oshi no Ko is actually an interesting reincarnation power fantasy revenge story. The issue instead: To get to that one needs to also be interested in learning about why these characters are interested in this showbiz and performance and become invested in the successful execution of it in the industry as that is what so much of this manga focuses on. I admired its depiction of that and felt that I could feel the passion for such things coming through while reading. And between that, between this passion as a whole is the overarching revenge plot and the deeply affected characters serving as the motivation for being here in the first place.
To this extent, character foils are executed to an admirable degree. It feels as though the main cast are multifaceted in ways that play off this theme of passion/vengeance well, and they develop in their attempts to better themselves or seize their dreams (or seize said vengeance) - to a majority success. Characters do bad things, and they often retain the vibe that you want to root for them regardless to better themselves or even perhaps to just attain their goals.
Background characters are also given respect in terms of 'screen' time and in some cases even this same development, but the large cast could leave some wondering where some characters are and create confusion in that manner as the tradeoff for this attention given to the wider cast - but the characters as a whole are often easy to root for. There are 'romantic' pairings but they can easily be viewed as an extension of manipulation; it's likely that it could focus more on the romantic aspect in future but as of now that is all that can be said in regards to what is available.
In this same vein, pacing has its issues. Approaching what looks like it could become a critical arc there is a time gap that could feel jarring, and some characters do things that could be construed as perhaps out of character. I'm tentative about the direction the manga will take at the time of reading as well as it seems to be at the precipice of a turning point and I look forward to finding out how it will be executed. But overall it's hard to feel entirely lost in reading Oshi no Ko: the arcs are neatly concentrated within themselves, labelled and upon stutters it is easy to pick back up again and get ont rack.
As a whole, the art is also pretty good. In reading the initial few thirty chapters for whatever reason I felt that everything was a bit off in terms of anatomy and general look. Aqua's hair couldn't decide whether it was short or long, the Pieyon helmet couldn't have possibly fitted Ruby's head, but eventually everything eventually gelled together to become cohesive and very aesthetically pleasing.
6/10. This is a mixed review, but I would recommend checking it out to anybody who has read to the end of this and thought that these points interested them.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 23, 2023
Off the bat, Trigun Stampede is pretty visually astounding. The animation is fluid, the designs are good, the concepts of the world and the characters have all clearly had a lot of love from the team. Each episode has frames that are beautiful. The music also has a lot of depth and is fun to listen to even when I'm not watching Stampede. The combat is gripping and fluid, and displays why this style of animation is a great art form that stands on its own two feet - it also utilises artistic styles you wouldn't expect for immersive feature scenes. I have great fun
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watching it as it's always visually pleasing.
The story and character work are where it begins to become a little divisive. Stampede's new alternative universe-esque plotline introducing more exposition from the start loses the 1998 anime's major focus on being a Slice of Neo-Apocalyptic Wild West's Gunslinger Life, but trades it for a pretty interesting plot line regarding the deeper nuances of the antagonist: the almost sympathetic grey morals of Vash's twin brother and Vash his foil, themes of hope for humanity on a world determined to not harbour life, with a sprinkle of moral quandaries about humanity's worth to live. It is definitely the ideals of Vash and his brother and the original trust they had between them that carry the key conflict and plot of Stampede and make for a compelling main plot line.
The main cast have little set up from entering the show to travelling with each other, but culminate in feeling like a ragtag group of protagonists who really shouldn't be friends but here they are, travelling together anyway. Unfortunately, the excuses set up for the reporters in particular feel a little unnatural considering the lengths that they go to for Vash, and at some points you're left questioning why they stick around other than for the sake of continuing the story.
In relation to the story, the way it's pushed can be a tiny bit fast paced and noticeably methodical at times, in how one part of the story naturally leads to another, but the likeability of Vash's golden retriever energy and the chaos of the main cast mean that it isn't too difficult to feel invested about following along a plot that largely keeps things moving. This, in conjunction with the deeper mystery about the true nature of Vash and his business with Knives and vice versa mean that Stampede has a plot that can be carried pretty well by the stellar visuals, and each episode gives the audience something new to chew on about this apocalyptic desert world that they've been introduced to. It doesn't feel perfect, but it also doesn't feel like it intended to finish with only one season; characters don't feel so much 'underdeveloped' as 'to be covered in future'. It's a pretty good anime as a whole, and I'd recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who's even just interested in the visuals alone as the story isn't difficult to be caught up in.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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