“For Pete’s sake, this isn’t some Mecha anime” - Goto Kiichi
There's a multitude of Mecha shows that are talked about now and before, Gundam, GitS, and with this year we had FranXX, Gundam (again) and Planet With. As is obvious to an avid anime fan, Mecha shows are very big in Japan and as such we see a lot of buzz on such shows. Sometimes though, some shows do not get the love they deserve, especially when they're in many ways superior than most, this is where Patlabor comes in.
Patlabor is perhaps the best sense I found for Mecha, in policing and the law, no,
...
I'm not talking about Code Geass esque law enforcement, Patlabor is far better in showing how and why the Mechs called Patlabor are necessary for the country and the police. Not to fight Klaxosaurs, but to fight crime. And this Patlabor showed us effectively. Despite being a 7 episode OVA that's 30 mins long for each episode, we saw a good amount of information and not a second was wasted, that too despite being a little shorter than a single cour anime, which goes to show length doesn't always factor for quality at least for anime.
Patlabor's biggest selling point is how the police are depicted. They're not gruff individuals who always rush off into life-or-death situations. The police aren't always involved in such cases, but neither are they always in jest. We saw the fun our characters had in the first four episodes along with the crime dealing as well, making for a nice blend of both seriousness and light humour, something less seen since striking a balance is so tough. Light humour obviously brings us to the colourful cast. Since this is a police anime, we see young adults as our main cast and this shows Patlabor is another of those few mechas with an adult cast and not teenagers. Getting into the details, the characters were bright, distinct and amazing in their own way, they felt real. Noa was our female protagonist who was in love with her Patlabor Alphonse, showing she's a cute mechanics lover and she had her fun moments. Though Patlabor is anything but romance, we did get a few nods with Asuma, a fellow police officer. Oota was your average short-tempered gun lover. Kanuka was the fun American transfer student who thankfully knows English and not Engrish (a huge plus point to the Voice Actor for doing well) along with Hiromi who wasn't seen talking much as he's a rather silent individual. Gotou was a relatable depressed looking man who would play an important part as the captain of the group and his role in episodes 4-6 were amazingly done.
The rest of the cast was a playful bunch who was serious when they needed to be and hilarious when the situation demanded it too. Why did I spend so much time on the characters? It's because they were well done, we didn't see any major development over the course of the 7 episode OVA but that could be excused because their establishment AS a character was brilliant. Something else that was brilliant was the OST. The simple but intricate background music complimented the situation effectively and the Opening theme song was something I think will be stuck in my head for a few months, catchy and cute, it is an excellent way to start off a fun show. Since it was somewhat of a semi-slice of life show, the OVA had an episodic nature with the exception of the 2 part “Longest Day” arc which was in episodes 5-6. Despite being episodic, the independent episodes stood up for themselves and were all well done. The first three were an introduction to the Patlabor world and it introduced us to the daily life of the police, combining fighting crime and topping it off with light humour which as I covered above was an excellent blend of both. I never felt out of place with the plot or this approach but it being episodic meant things aren't tightly held up and so we couldn't see a long underlying plot although episodes 5-6 scratched that itch to a certain extent.
Another thing I didn't feel out of place with was the artstyle, despite airing over 30 years ago it's artstyle was something I didn't find hard to watch and actually enjoyed and appreciated the art direction. From the character design to the emotions of the character to the action scenes involved, Patlabor’s artstyle was consistent, easy to watch and attractive despite it's age. As a comedy fan I always look for fun comedy shows to watch but I do step out of the comedy bubble a lot and when I tried Patlabor after a friend recommended it to me, I didn't just get a well done Mecha, I also got some comedy added as well. “Why do you call this a good Mecha?” you may ask. It's because the premise was explained clearly, it wasn't an obscure explanation with any external influences or aliens or whatever, Japanese technology evolved to the point that Labor could be used, but this could be used for crime as well, and so to monitor this, Patrol Labor, therefore Patlabor was implemented. Easy right? Apart from that even though it was episodic, it was a GOOD episodic show because each episode stood up for itself and there was still a small line connecting the episodes together.
A lovable cast, interesting developments and a perfect blend of seriousness and comedy show that Patlabor Early Days is how a Mecha can be made fun, approachable, and funny. I haven't watched enough Mecha as most Mecha fans would but I really doubt I'll find something as fun as Patlabor Early Days. Definitely a show worth trying out, it's shorter than a single cour anime and yet covers a lot, an excellent introduction to the Mecha series and genre!
Story: 8
Animation: 7.5
Sound: 7
Character: 9
Enjoyment: 9
Overall: 8.1
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Aug 2, 2018
Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor
(Anime)
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“For Pete’s sake, this isn’t some Mecha anime” - Goto Kiichi
There's a multitude of Mecha shows that are talked about now and before, Gundam, GitS, and with this year we had FranXX, Gundam (again) and Planet With. As is obvious to an avid anime fan, Mecha shows are very big in Japan and as such we see a lot of buzz on such shows. Sometimes though, some shows do not get the love they deserve, especially when they're in many ways superior than most, this is where Patlabor comes in. Patlabor is perhaps the best sense I found for Mecha, in policing and the law, no, ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 7, 2018
Darling in the FranXX
(Anime)
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***Caution:*** This review contains spoilers for this predictable show. I have specifically and very clearly marked the spoiler sections (there aren't as many as you think, only 3 paragraphs’ worth) so you can still easily read my review and do not need to worry. As for the fans of the show, enter at your own volition since you will not find this review to exalt it in any manner, so to those who consider FranXX a 10/10, keep your temper in and let's begin. If you're a regular reader, please carry on :)
FranXX was hyped a lot. And that's just the short of it, it ... had a huge marketing campaign and had a huge amount of anticipation with people calling it the “Next Evangelion” or a “Spiritual successor to Eva” and so on and so forth. The legendary Yabuki Kentarou was signed on doing the art for the manga adaptation for this unoriginal original and as a matter of fact, that's how I found out about the show in the first place and went in expecting the amazing show the marketing had me believe. Result? Well I can't surprise you since you might have seen the score I gave it. Yes. A mess. A terrible mess. To begin with, the main part that is the reason fans gloss over this show, the characters. They are given little to no backstories and their roles to play are very less. Squad 13 mainly served as a bumbling group of teenagers (hmm… why teenagers in particular?) who don't know jackshit except for the so called “fact” that they must pilot the mechs known as FranXX and defeat these blue magma lover monsters called Klaxosaurs. Let that seep in. Why children? Most likely because they wanna appeal to the target audience of the show, teenagers. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be as fruitful as A-1 and Trigger thought it would because when you've got an idiotic group of teenagers who contribute nothing to character development, I don't think you end up with teenage viewers going crazy over a show. I mean, yes, teens in real life aren't always smart, but if given the chance, I'm sure they'd do something sensible when they need to, but we don't see such a thing at all. Why? All we see is random blushes and such stuff. I mean, these teens are acting like everyday teens, yes, that's fine but is this the premise to do so? A place where people are bombarded by the constant threat of Klaxosaurs? Kids are supposed to have fun yes, but not when you're literally guarding human lives from danger. To move away from the characters for a moment, we move to another problem with the show, its connection. And don't you dare justify it by telling me it's an episodic anime, because it sure as hell is not. In reality, it's just mixed up completely and had too many ideas to implement together and instead of choosing one idea to go with, they probably chose all and excellently failed at all of them. Why? Poor connection. To hold up a plot you need connection, FranXX didn't offer any of that at all. It just dragged on and didn't leave any mention of what happened before and most importantly WHY the situation happened before. What could possibly be the reason behind this? Simple. Bad direction. All it takes to destroy the whole hard work of a show is bad direction. In fact, about 90% of the issues with the anime can be traced back to bad direction. If the show had a good director I suppose the show would have a direction to follow, but this being FranXX, it had to follow all the directions it could and then ended up nowhere. In the first episode I had the show at a shocking 9 and if you look at it now it's fallen pretty spectacularly. This is because of the show's bad direction; events were unconnected and an irritated yours truly almost smashed his screen onto the floor . Random stuff happening here with no explanation, and then random stuff happening there without explanation, was this anime devoid of sense or something? Because I did not find any of it anywhere. And then we've got the problem that follows that the story was unexplained. Why did this happen? Why did that happen? How did this occur? Where did this issue first occur? There were many questions asked by fans, and the answer is that it was clear both studios didn't want quality, they wanted the $$$ And that's me trying to be positive, we got zilch as in reality but eh, gotta act positive. Needless to say, apart from a cliched mess of a story, it's disappointing in almost every other regard (read on for further explanation), serving as a reminder that it only takes one big mistake to spoil the whole effort put into an anime, or anything for that matter. Speaking of mistakes, we come to another part that had the cosplayers, fan artists and others crazy, the romance— particularly the romance between Zero Two and Hiro. First off, our two MCs. Zero Two was introduced as a waifu like character which immediately took the undeserving “deconstruction” tag which was ripped off from Eva (surprise surprise, FranXX ripped off a show) while giving us another useless MC who went by the self appointed name Hiro. Their romance was unexplained until way later into the series, an episode which even I liked, episode 13. They were largely unexplained for most of the anime’s run and it was only in the first episode of the second cour (episode 13) that tried to remedy this. Result? Thankfully good. Episode 13 was regarded as an excellent episode by even the harshest of critics since it explained a lot of the stuff between Hiro and Zero Two and obviously it was a flashback episode, yet despite being a flashback episode it was done well— surprising since this is FranXX. But the problem came afterwards; after that episode was done, we saw a lot of crap follow it in the form of the team getting “mad” at Zero Two for “hurting” Hiro for over dramatic effect and to make me sympathise with the characters. Why would you drag through 12 episodes just to see the one episode that seemed half decent and it goes back to its shitty formula? I loathed it even more.The episodes were cliched, unconnected messes with absolutely no relevance to the plot, just serving to pass time either to focus on Hiro or to make the fanboys go crazy over the fight scenes, which were nothing more than one hit kills and random dashes. Moving on from there all we got were cheesy half hearted lines like “I wanna be with you forever” and all that teenage fantasy (severely paraphrased for ease of comprehensive analysis) and pointless romantic moments that don't have much to do with the plot. Why am I crushing the romance here even though I'm a romance fan? It's because FranXX deployed this romance at the wrong times, I can't even say I'm surprised anymore at this kind of problem. Then we go to the other cast, Ichigo is a character that served as a reminder about the stupidity of fanboys since her voice actor Kana Ichinose received death threats just because of her work as Ichigo. Anno would be proud. Ichigo’s character though wasn't fleshed out (to say nothing of the rest of the cast, especially Ikuno, Zorome and Miku) and her actions were basically “I'm jealous because I love him but can't reveal it to him because I'm shy” and that time when she DID do it, it was enough to even send non romance fans into a fit because it was done in a (dare I say it?) slutty way cause teenagers? I do not know. Then we come to the signature part which had many people divided as well, Kokoro. To delve into this horrible character we must enter minor spoiler territory so if you can't handle looking at a good character being turned into a whore please skip the marked spoiler section. ***Skip this paragraph if you don't want spoilers about this side character and want the relationship as a surprise. Spoilers begin: Kokoro was paired up with Futoshi who liked Kokoro a lot but suffered from the same problem as Ichigo. However, since he's male the fanboys didn't take or notice much issue, perhaps also because Futoshi wasn't made as a cockblocker character and instead was of the “I'll protect her” than a “I want him to love me instead”, only thing is that Kokoro turned out to “betray” Futoshi and instead go for an unlikely character who was largely ignored throughout the show, Mitsuru. She suddenly developed feelings for him and even kissed him for no concrete reason apart from taking the show into an extremely shitty direction because guess what? She wanted a baby. Why? Freakin’ teenagers… this is the worst way to relate to them. Then Kokoro went from a “I am not in love with Futoshi but he's a kind person” to an “I want Mitsuru’s @#$_ inside me". I'm not even joking. This LITERALLY happened. Why am I rambling on about this? Because that's definitely not how you make a show about teenagers because that's not at all representative of the majority. Anyway, then they suddenly want to get married (!?) and we see other crap follow as well without explanation or reason, they just wanna fill time at this rate. With what? Throwing in the notion that Kokoro is pregnant later on. Teenage pregnancy, a very common thing in teens nowadays amiright? Wrong. And you know what worse? The fact that the folks at FranXX.inc pulled the WORST cliche to go with this. Both of them are caught and are “brainwashed” and their memories are “stored” somewhere. If VIRM didn't want to let them regain their memories then why store them in the first place? Why not “delete” them into oblivion? Plot armour I say. Convenience too… this makes many viewers realise that the episode was just existing to pass time and fool the viewers into thinking their time into the episode was worth it? Spoiler end*** This brings us on to the next point, underused characters. Namely Miku, Zorome and Ikuno. Not to mention Goro but he got a little bit of a focus so I'll give him a brief look later. Miku and Zorome were shown as characters who had a rivalry-love which seemed fresh and interesting but that was pulled down along with the anime because they didn't focus on these two at all. What made them attracted to each other? Why are they paired up together? These questions were never answered and I was left hanging, which was disappointing since Miku apart from sharing the same hairstyle as the superstar with the same name (my profile picture character to those of you non-Vocaloid fans) she was one of the few characters who was believable as a teenager. Many people wouldn't notice that these two weren't given enough focus and that was sad because this fresh idea could be explored a lot more and I wouldn't be surprised if I found their rivalry-love better than the two main characters, and don't forget, I liked Miku as a character as well. Leaving us with the last two, Ikuno and Goro. Ikuno was mainly used as fodder for Mitsuru to frown upon so that he could get hooked to the resident slut Kokoro (I don't think I should call her that because she didn't like Futoshi but considered him kind but then I'm disappointed because like Miku, I liked Kokoro, only that love turned to hate since FranXX ruined her) and Ikuno was ignored for the rest of the anime, she wasn't given lines and that one “I want a baby” episode scene where she DID say something, it wasn't explained WHY she stepped forward and did her act. My guess is because since she didn't have any lines, the show didn't want to make her look like a dumbass so they forcefully gave her lines and that was all. Then we enter spoiler territory yet again because Ikuno was given that small 5 minute focus in a later episode. ***Minor Spoiler Begin: Since Ikuno wasn't given a love interest the folks at FranXX.inc thought it's a good idea to introduce some Yuri at the worst possible time and in the worst possible way, as such, the result was never spoken of again, which pretty much explains how the “affair” went. Needless to say, this was a last ditch effort to save her character and it served as the final nail in the coffin for Ikuno. Minor Spoiler End*** We then come to the last character, Goro. Apart from being mildly explored, he served as the third wheel-ish character who was later shown as being in love with Ichigo unsurprisingly, unfortunately he as mentioned wasn't explored much and so was thrown into the sidelines to focus on our main characters, yet another character thrown aside who had a lot of potential to do great things in this mess of an anime. I haven't spoken of any “villains” yet, as this important role was destroyed by the Iotas, who were, like every other thing in the anime, unexplained, unwanted and irrelevant. They served as somewhat of a “backstory” to Zero Two despite not going into detail at all. As mentioned above there was no proper backstory to Squad 13. Some people said it's because sci-fi shows “don't need backstories”. This is plain wrong because if you don't have backstories of your character, there won't be any depth to them (see the word depth again and imagine, if there's no backstory, there's no depth, which means the characters are shallow) and when the characters simply don't develop at all during the course of the anime, you end up with flat characters who fall on their face to the plot. Why am I saying this? Hiro and the others didn't change at all mentally from the first episode to the last. Some might say Hiro’s infatuation with 02 makes him a “developed character” but his rejection of his other members in Squad 13 proves that wrong. Others say that “characterisation is excused in a sci-fi anime”. At first it seemed as a joke to me but when people seriously started talking about this as a defense I got concerned and felt I needed to clarify this. Take arguably the best sci-fi show as an example to that statement: Steins;Gate. It definitely has development throughout the series. How? Okabe starts to realise he can't do anything, and tries even harder, Makise realises she can't do things alone, Mayuri does more tuturus because people around her are sad, or to move from the joke, Mayuri realises that she needs Okabe and he needs her, this is what development in a sci-fi is. FranXX, on the other hand, didn't have any development to the show, its characters, or anything. It felt more like characters felt less real each time they appeared, and I'm not talking about them being realistic and human-like since that's not what an anime’s main target is everytime, I'm talking about them being acceptable as a character which wasn't at all seen. No characterisation is only excused in slice of life anime since we're understandably looking at the lives of the characters and so there's no plot and therefore no development. FranXX isn't a slice of life, it's (terribly weak) progression proved that. Moving back to the MC of our wonderful series, Hiro. I hadn't given him enough attention and will do so now. From the start he was unexplained. Why was he a prodigy? What was he doing before meeting Zero Two? What made him so special? To stand out from the rest of the cast, you need distinctive qualities that set you apart from other characters, Hiro had none of that. He was plain and boring. Many may point out that him being in love with 02 would mean that it makes him different from other MCs but that's wrong because apart from his “love” for 02, nothing else was brought into his character. Although towards the end it was shown that he had become selfish and cared about 02 more than his squad who cared about him, it still isn't the kind of development that makes you go “Oh, that changed my view of him positively” and if you read that line again you'll probably understand why too. Then we come to the point that he named everyone else, which was revealed early on. This surprisingly is a good thing I saw. He named Ichigo and named other parasites as well which gave it a child-like feeling (perhaps the only successful child-like/teenage feeling that was executed properly throughout the anime, bear in mind this flashback was 2 minutes long) although it wasn't explained at all I still felt an iota of warmth. And nothing else I suppose. Going back to the other “villains”, the Iotas. Since they came in at random times and with random half baked reasons, unsurprisingly they served as yet another thing that was meant to be loathed in the anime. Another irritating thing is how they suddenly became buddy-buddy with Hiro and team in the final arc. I suppose now that FranXX has exhausted whatever little “creativity” they had, they wanted to end with a shounen-esque “everyone bands together to fight the enemy”? I mean, not complaining about the trope but was there any sensible stuff going on beforehand? Speaking of insane stuff going on beforehand, FranXX was said to have been in a post apocalyptic world all of a sudden which we were given hints of in the beach episode for about 20 seconds and then later shown in “detail” (I don't even know why I'm so generously awarding that word when it's meaning wasn't followed at all) in episode 19, which to FranXX’s favour, was a decent episode. But until then for the first 18 episodes, it remained largely unexplained and I don't think I can award a show a point for revealing something so important when it's finished about 80% of it's run. Not a good practice and it returns more harm than good which by now is definitely not what I need to calm myself down. Oh youth. But then wait! Youth reminds me that I should yet again cover another important part about the “juvenile” aspect of this show. Spoiler Paragraph (or Spoiler-graph) for the final arc below. Skip this paragraph if you don't want spoilers for the final arc. If you're okay with them, then please continue :) ***Spoiler for last arc begin: The most frustrating part of FranXX is by far the last arc. After pointless teenage melodrama, the FranXX team thought of what “ideas” can be added to “save” the anime and they did what every laughable show tries to do as a last ditch effort. To take the battle into (wait for it) SPAAAAAACEEEEEE. Yes. FranXX pulled THAT trope. What an insult to Star Wars and Star Trek. Anyway back to this show, the sudden shift in tones (first a teenage melodrama, then a clone war, then a space war? Is this a tutorial on how NOT to make Star Wars ripoffs?) and extremely convenient and unexplained reveals (more on that in a bit) coming out of nowhere? I don't think that makes for a coherent plot at all. Add to that another desperate added shounen trope where the enemy suddenly becomes your friend??? And he sacrifices his life for you just a while after you rescue him??? The Klaxosaur Princess was set as the antagonist at around the third quarter of the show and she suddenly joined Hiro’s side and sacrificed her life for him? What happened to her people, the Klaxosaurs? What happened to saving the world? And then suddenly VIRM puts themselves as the villains despite the show trying to establish the Klaxosaurs as the villains and then the aforementioned Klaxosaur Princess as an antagonist? And then their boss is a Power Rangers ripoff??? What even was that last arc?! The industry can do without more Dadolf Scmitlers you know! We've seen enough of this trope! Like when they're losing Papa and the others suddenly give the order to destroy Earth? Nanja sorya??? And then if you thought all this stupidity wasn't enough, we suddenly see YET ANOTHER problem with the show surface, Plot armour. If I hadn't explained this before, FranXX suffered from yet another plot hole in the form of plot armour. The Iotas lost a few of their members but Hiro and team were left unscathed, the only “injury” being Ikuno’s hair being turned white… Throughout the course of the show Squad 13 was met with life or death situations but I was confused since no one died. It can't be a life or death situation if everyone survives, or at least when you have so many life or death situations and no one dies even once I think that's authentically bullshit. Why fill it to the brim with Deus Ex Machina crap then? In the last 3 episodes we saw Hiro and team suddenly band together and go to space, but then the pathetic dialogue in the previous episodes of the anime became even worse, when they're in space they're going “We're really in space huh?” And Mitsuru’s reason for staying being “I wanna stay because I want to”? Even the dialogues took a huge hit and fell even further… Add to that the pointless Mobile Suit Gundam I ripoff battle except FranXX’s was much worse because everyone survived??? Not to mention Zero Two eating Hiro through her teleport to Hiro fro Earth directly in front of Hiro and she eats him and takes him to the dream world only to play hard to get? If you're not understanding at all then you have common sense, because no sensible person could understand WHAT happened and WHY. Let's not add to that horrible reasons to horrible dialogues such as bringing up love when your Squadmate is suffering? And then Hiro and Zero Two immediately go leave the Solar System and the others can't tag along because “it's not possible”? This is the limit of cliches but the studios broke it long long ago. And I want to skip over that last episode since that was the only (remotely) decent (?) part of this arc, but the means done to achieve it wasn't and I spoke enough on that... Spoiler end*** FranXX tries to show us that adults are somewhat tyrants and displays the children’s “struggle” to gaining “independence” even though they're perfectly fine with their lives with no issues. But you know what they say, if you've got no issues, you make them, and that's EXACTLY what FranXX stayed true to. Trying to show us that our teenage cast is “growing” by acting “mature” with examples as “ wanting to have babies” and “doing the kitty” (don't search up on that last one) both of which are related and were attempted by Kokoro and Mitsuru. Yet again you ask. Why? I do not know why the show did it. You can't even tell anymore who they're trying to make the show relatable for. Then we have to look at the teenage drama as well that follows (that I covered above). Spoiler Paragraph (or Spoiler-graph) about a range of questions on things that were unanswered throughout the course of the anime below. Skip this paragraph if you don't want spoilers on these questions. If you're okay with them, then as expected, read on. ***Spoiler questions begin: FranXX as mentioned tried very very hard to be edgy by leaving out some so-called “mystery” feel by not answering the most crucial questions many had throughout the course of the anime. Although episode 13 answered the questions many people had in the first half, there was no such plausible explanation for the second half’s stupidity. What makes me say that? We got weak explanations or no explanations. For example why was the enemy VIRM all along? What was their purpose? Why does Hiro not care about the rest of Squad 13 who he's lived with all his life and why is he so attached to Zero Two despite the above problem? Why are the problems for the characters happening? Who is to blame and why? Despite this being answered (VIRM) there was no proper explanation as to WHY the villains did it? What was their purpose? Why is Ichigo the leader of the group? Why is 02 not explained properly? How does she looks human and how did it happen (also why does she have pink hair when she was a clone of one with white or blue hair)? How are the rejected people treated? What happens to them? What about their memories? Although their memories as mentioned were stored in some place there's no explanation as to why they're stored. Why am I asking that question? When VIRM doesn't want their puppets to regain their memory, why store their memory? And how is the memory stored anyway? Why are teens chosen to pilot the FranXX? Don't tell me it's because their sex organs are most prominent because the teenage years is not the age when this is so. Why are pregnant girls not able to pilot the FranXX? How did the Iotas suddenly be able to join Hiro in the last arc? Weren't they broken or something? Why do Hiro’s group care and still chase Hiro despite him having rejected them for his “one true love” Zero Two? What was the bullcrap about them going to space and space being the important stuff? Like, what was that cop out explanation about VIRM and the enemies being the aliens? Who and what was the Klaxosaur Princess? Who were the Klaxosaurs? No detailed explanations were given. To cover the villains one last time, VIRM. We look again at the Dadolf Scmitler trope that FranXX.inc deployed. To viewers of Grancrest Senki who aren't familiar with the Dadolf Scmitler trope, VIRM is basically the Mage Academy, for the first 20 Episodes we were focused on only one villain but suddenly that villain changes in around the 20th episode and they tell us the real villains were someone else all along? (Surprising how both shows deploy the same cliche in the same episode number. Coincidence? I think not), Why is this bad? This is bad because it makes the viewer question if the time they spent on the first 20 episodes even worth it. I mean, if you really HAD to do this, why do it so late? And instead, why not just make an OVA of the last 6-8 episodes and treat it as the same thing? I'm sure it would get a higher score from me and other disgruntled people if they did this instead because our time was wasted… Spoiler questions end*** With all that's said, eagle eyed readers might have noticed that I haven't trashed the art or the music. That's because it isn't shit. And continue to find out. Since it was a collaboration project with A-1 and Trigger (and later Cloverworks because budget issues?) many expected the art to look amazing and it did actually. They tried to make a world that looked beautiful and mostly succeeded in doing that but you can't award points to a show for “looking good” as with what the “mainstream” gaming critics like IGN often do (“CoD a 9/10 because it looks good?” Have you even seen what they're doing now ripping off Fortnite?) so though the art looked good thanks to the colourful backgrounds and eye-catching scenery from time to time, it was in vain as the show couldn't manage to utilise it well into its plot. Another thing that the show did good was the sound. Even though I've been (rightfully) trashing the show left and right, I have to give credit where it's due, FranXX’s usage of synth tracks are rarely seen in anime and obviously serve for something really good in terms of listening especially when you're using headphones (and not streaming the show). Then we move onto the OP/EDs selection, I felt that the show went lazy and just changed the OP a bit and passed it off as an OP 2, but the EDs were great. If only FranXX used those EDs more in the second half and don't abruptly end the episode I'd have a positive opinion of the show. But I'm guilty of singing “Torikago” from the show so gotta give a point to that I guess? But oh wait, they underused all the EDs anyway. Overall, FranXX is a mess which was over hyped and tried it's best to stay relevant by throwing in useless storylines all of which were riddled by plot holes and Deus ex machinas which were unconnected and not to mention completely unrelated events and random crap here and there (from teenage drama to Star Wars to Power Rangers? MASAKA???), to remain positive, towards the end, I only ever found the two caretakers Hachi and Nana (especially Nana) interesting and likeable since they had an aura of mystery and the 30 seconds they appeared in their few episodes were all great. Miku and Goro too were characters I pretty much liked but weren't explored well since they were thrown aside for Hiro and Zero Two unfortunately. If the show had good direction, I'm sure it would have turned out to be one of my favourite anime of all time and for many other disillusioned fans-turned-critics as well. FranXX sadly will always serve as a reminder to how one big mistake in the form of bad directing can jeopardize the whole premise of a show. Special thanks to TheCobraSlayer for proof-reading the review. Story: 0.5 Animation: 5 Sound: 5.5 Character: 1 Enjoyment: 1.5 Overall: 2.7
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 29, 2018 Not Recommended
Back when I started the show as it aired on January 13 I liked Beatless. It had coloured me with joy and anticipation since it's first episode went so well. Compared to the other anime I started at the time, it felt like it could do a lot with it's premise. Tut Tut. It went out like a light for the whole first half and took a while to set itself on track, and unfortunately not the same track as I felt in episode 1, but hey, it had a direction, so that's already better than FranXX.
Having said that, Beatless is far from perfect, ... despite throwing around it's ideology that robots do not make mistakes (and proving that wrong afterwards) it felt unnatural to see such robots (or hiEs if you may). The plot just kept on throwing random stuff at my face, sometimes Lacia is an idol taken straight from Aikatsu (Aikatsu Robot? Well that's redundant) and sometimes she's a fashion idol that makes Arato’s heart throb, not mine. Needless to say, it was inconsistent. It's inconsistent plot was evidenced in the first 7 weeks of it's run- I mean, episodes (will explain later) as it tried this thing or that. It began very badly after it's first episode and couldn't keep up till around episode 8 or 9 where it decided on one direction and stuck to it. How well that went is for us to judge, and my score can tell that enough. It was horrible in its first half. Aside from these inconsistencies we also had the shocking revelation that the voice acting for a few actors was bad. Namely Shiori and Kengo. They sounded very much fake, or robotic if you love puns as much as I do. Shiori sounded like she was making her debut and failed at it (I will be very surprised if I find out this actually was her debut). But out with that, a huge problem with the anime was it's convenience. Whenever a convenient problem came, Arato conveniently solved it and conveniently everything went according to plan. Not the best thing to do to be honest. Apart from that as mentioned these random irrelevant plot points just came along and made the show feel like a cluttered up mess (trying not to jab at FranXX a second time here). Many times I felt irritated by the show not trying to focus properly on whatever the heck it wanted to be doing but alas, rarely did the rabbit go down it's respectful hole. Moving away from that we come to another massively irritating part of the anime, the villains. Or should I say whatever the heck they tried to be. Let's start with Ginga. Watarai Ginga had a lot of potential since he was the former partner of the creator of the Lacia-class hiEs and his backstory could have been done better, but unfortunately they screwed up what could have been a great backstory and instead, mowed him down in terms of development during the series. He felt plastic. Not unlike cliched shounen villains who have no purpose other than “to destroy”. It was pretty irritating to be able to predict when Ginga would come or what Ginga would do, and though that ultimately let him to his super-predictable defeat (in the most shounen way possible), that's not an excuse especially when that's who you painted as the real villain. But ok, you do you Beatless. After that predictable defeat someone had to take his role of villain and they brought out the randomly created and introduced Erika Burrows, which I think is the most Nippon Western name I could come up with, but anyway, apart from showing how cryogenics can be successful (that's a debate for another day) she proved that Beatless could get a worse villain than Ginga. Her actions were unexplained, her motives were set aside (“I want something interesting”? Pls, you're rich, go get a PC and play games or something) and the way the show painted her personality was far from what I could call decent. I already complained about Ginga, so this can explain how bad she is. You might say she's not a villain, but if that's indeed true, then she has absolutely NO use in this show since she'd just become a nobody. Methode was introduced as that proud hiE who can beat em up and has good taste in sunglasses (trust me, those sunglasses, I need them) but she was pretty much another cliched villain who didn't improve. Although she had the motives, the way she carried it out and her brief appearances altogether shunted the true potential of this Character as well, another character with wasted potential. Now we move from bad villains to bad characters overall, namely our idiot MC, Arato. Arato was your average cherry boy. Apart from predictably falling in love with a robot his actions were as he said it himself, idiotic and uncalculated. In episode 19, they revealed what was the point of this incalculable mess of a character but not in the way you'd hope to call decent yet again. Then we move over to the other hiEs, Kouka was the one with a hard on Onee-san fetish but in all honesty I was rooting for her. She was literally the only character in the show I liked and as such I lost my mind completely in episode 16. If you like Kouka too, her actions in episode 16 will leave you in a fit of rage, since it was unexplained, random and rage inducing. Snowdrop was shown as that Loli robot (great diversity Diomedea) who eats other robots to gain power and can make humans lose their sanity (?) and do weird stuff which was noticed in the first episode just before Arato was rescued by Lacia. To date, I've yet to understand what she was doing and why but eh, let's move on, the last hiE to cover (Methode was covered above) is Saturnus, describing her will be a lot like Erika Burrows, in that it's a bit of a spoiler, although she has nothing to do in the plot I can freely tell you without spoilers that she has no use at all in the plot. Satisfying the maid fetish fans might have (yet again, great diversity Diomedea), all she did apart from that is go “yes” and “let's do this” and “alright”. Those were 80% of her lines for the whole show. Underused? You betcha. Now since I've been spewing all the negatives, let's neutralise with something that is both positive and negative, the sound. First the good, the music was great, the synth tracks used made it only the second show to extensively use synth tracks for it's soundtrack and BGM this year and needless to say it was well done. The OP/EDs as well did not disappoint. Now here comes the bad. Too much focus was kept into the music to do great in the other places. Production and budgeting wasn't done well since it was all about making that soundtrack and licensing the music, sadly this killed off the budget to focus on the other parts and so ultimately led to the downfall of the anime. Speaking of production issues, THE DAMN RECAPS. We had around 4-5 recaps for this 24 episode show. Let that seep in. Should a show get this many? I say no. Why did this show have so many recaps? Budgeting? We'll perhaps never know, but point is, I don't want to have a recap episode thrown at my face after waiting for a week. It's frustrating. For those who are binge watching it as well, the episodes are part of the show so it gets really irritating to see the words “Recap Episode” show up in your news feed. It cuts off from the main action badly. Oh wait, that itself is a fault in the show. It's transition from one scene to another is random and pretty much tiring to watch. I can't tell you how fed up I was of this. And let's not forget the fact that our Lacia-class hiEs were given absolutely NO SENSIBLE EXPLANATION. Apart from very minor dips into their backstories, the hiEs never had their purpose of creation explained apart from one line or the other, lines like “I'm created to help humanity move forward” isn't going to earn an excuse. You need proper explanation which sadly wasn't given. Now it's not all bad though. Apart from being my guilty pleasure of the year it did have good things in it. It's plot improved considerably in it's second half, which although wasn't obviously flawless, it was a nice improvement all the same, as a person who was pissed with the first half even the mediocre-decent bracket it was in felt good to me. Another important thing is that despite it's recaps, Beatless wasn't a rushed show. I never felt that it was rushed most of the time and the pace was pretty good in itself since I could easily watch the show without getting too much information at once. Another important point is that Beatless tried to do something different with it's main heroine, Lacia. Since this showed it's true colours in the last quarter of the show I won't delve in so deeply but it tried to paint her character in it's complete opposite way she was presented to us ever since the show started had mixed results, surprising because I thought it would fall flat on its face. It was well done since it changed my whole opinion of the past episodes of the show and Lacia herself. Kind of like that FranXX episode 13 which made you go “oh so this is why all this happened”, only that, and please bear with me on this one, it was done much better than FranXX. If you asked me to compare FranXX and Beatless’ first episodes, FranXX easily beat it but the answer is the complete opposite if you ask me their overall position. Yes. Beatless is better than FranXX. Despite it's crazed amount of stupidity, Beatless had a direction to follow. FranXX didn't. It took Beatless 7 episodes to find its purpose and the direction it should be following, FranXX on the other hand couldn't at all find what it wanted to do, it kept on changing every episode, therefore butchering it's consistency. If I talked to the Yasaal in January about this he'd have laughed me off the room because both shows certainly didn't show their true colours until later, FranXX with it's terrible attempts at relating to teenagers with a horrible consistency and Beatless’ lame cliches coupled with bad villains, constant recaps but a somewhat proper direction (?). They're close, but Beatless edges out FranXX. Why am I comparing the two? It's natural to compare two shows of a similar level. What started out as a guilty pleasure quickly turned into a show that made me impressed how a lame show can at least attempt at standing up and manage to somewhat achieve that. An E for Effort? You bet, might even give it a D+ if you like, because even though it had a lot of issues, Beatless was in itself a guilty pleasure to watch. Oh, and to satisfy all the fetishes with the hiEs, a responsible older partner (Lacia), the wild girl (Kouka), the proud girl (Methode), the Maid (Saturnus) and the Loli (Snowdrop), Diomedea, you sure have satisfied the fetishes. At this rate I might have a fetish of watching bad shows for guilty pleasure if I don't stop, but to Diomedea’s credit, Good Taste lads. Now we wait for the next few months till those last 4 episodes come out. How unclimactic... Story: 2.5 Animation: 5.5 Sound: 8 (Dat synth, dat expense on sound, dat BGM, dem OP/EDs) Character: 1.5 (Solely because of Lacia last quarter and a few characters [Kouka] here and there is this not a zero) Enjoyment: 4 (guilty pleasure and somewhat decent improvement in the second half compared to first) Overall: 4.3
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jun 29, 2018
Hakyuu Houshin Engi
(Anime)
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Over the course of my anime watching pastime, I was fortunate enough to have been acquainted with anime that were high in both rating and quality and this never experienced a time when I watched an “underrated” anime, one which was a great anime but it's rating didn't justify it at all, or an anime that was not popular and deserved more attention, life isn't always fair, and as such, Hakyuu Houshin Engi was sadly caught under the web of both these unfortunate situations mainly because of the manga purists
Before we begin, I'll cover the external problems Hakyuu Houshin Engi faced before it even ... aired before I review the show because I feel it is necessary to let the readers of the review know that they should understand what the show went through and the unfair problems it had to face and finally that they shouldn't judge this show by its rating and this review will answer all of that. The manga purists of Houshin Engi were quick to outright reject the anime and this isn't surprising because the LotGH purists quickly rejected the remake of the show as well. For Houshin Engi's case, the manga lovers complained that the pacing in the anime is “too fast” (which was true for the first few episodes) and that “it deserves a 1 for doing so” which is definitely something that didn't make sense since they didn't look at the other things in the anime at all or heck, give the show a chance and watch it through, because Hakyuu Houshin Engi did improve considerably from around the end of it's first half and went on. As such, another problem that was unfair for Hakyuu Houshin Engi was that not many people decided to pick it up when it first aired (and before the purists started giving 1s and 2s and the mean broke down completely) since the show was pretty niche outside Japan. Unlike the monstrous popularity of Hunter x Hunter (a show Houshin Engi the manga is comparable to according to people acquainted with both series) which obviously was a great hit among the Western Anime market along with Japan as well and this is largely because the manga was still publishing around the time when the remake first aired and another fact being that Hunter x Hunter (2011) went on for a year with more than a hundred episodes, thus allowing the hype to go on and keep on increasing, Hakyuu Houshin Engi didn't have that unfortunately. It's manga ended long ago, it’s budget was a mere shadow of Hunter x Hunter’s budget and the purists couldn't swarm HxH since it's casual view count steadily kept on increasing thanks to the benefits the famous show had. My point of rambling on about HxH, a show I haven't watched but have spoken to many readers/watchers about? It's that Hakyuu Houshin Engi had a lot of problems to face even before it aired that were against its power or control and this sadly took over and let to the show's drop in rating early on thanks to the manga fans. This ultimately led to casual watchers not acquainted with the series being discouraged from watching the show because of it's unfortunately low rating and again didn't help the show garner the attention it so deserved either. I'm not saying the show is a 10/10 at all, but I'm saying the show isn't worth it's average score on the site and needs a person to have a clear mind when watching this anime. A last reminder, when reading this review, I recommend not having the prejudice about checking back with the show’s mean score and read the review with a clear mind :) To begin with, Hakyuu Houshin Engi has a fantastic world. It's world building is such that I haven't seen most fantasy anime equal at such a scale before. The Sennin World, the Doshi world, the Human World, and the skies above it, and to get into detail, Kongrong Mountain and Yin. There were a lot of places covered in the anime and the way they were represented and created was done with intricate detail and much like other high fantasy shows, it made you think a lot. As such, the fleshed out world didn't feel bland or empty and surprisingly made you feel at home or imagine that there might be such a place far far away, a lot like the Hobbit for you Lord of the Rings fans out there (as an example of course, I'm not comparing it with Houshin Engi mind you). But it had a vibrant feel that such a world could exist, and that it made you dream or imagine it as I mentioned above, which is why I related it to the aforementioned book (once again, it can't compare to the Hobbit but it's amazing in its own right). It also had an amazing set of characters with varied and detailed backstories. Be it Taikobo the MC, Yozen, Bunchu, Genshi Tenson among others. Everyone had an important story to tell. Taikobo’s tragic (and obviously non-cliched) past was a highlight since we've been used to seeing the pathetic MC type nowadays (more on Taikobo below), but then again, the Houshin Engi manga first released in 1996 so we can't say he's a good MC among MCs in this decade (even though he may be close) since his original appearance was around 2 decades ago obviously. Yozen's backstory was interesting since it had a dark feel to it especially when his mere existence is dark for that matter and his backstory is the same. You'd make a huge mistake if you wrote Yozen off as the happy go lucky type. And Genshi Tenson wasn't exactly as good as you might think either. He was involved in some shady dealings which came back to bite him and you'll find out more about this seemingly very good man later on in the show as well. Bunchu as well set a different tone and you couldn't exactly label him a villain as well surprisingly, since he wasn't invading a place for personal gain, he was protecting the place he loved but took a strict stance on protecting it at all costs and the reason behind that has to do with a very important part of his past. All these were examples of characters who do change and have distinct changes within them that set them apart from other shows as well. A villain who isn't necessarily bad? Your master lying to you? Your existence being used for someone else’s gain? These were examples of how deep the story was with it's explanation and representation of it's said characters, and there are a few more of them as well who I can't cover due to them coming later in the show which could mean a spoiler and I'm trying to keep this review spoiler-free. As such, you see the development these characters had as well during the course of the show and how they deal with the questions I gave as examples above. How will you deal with powerlessness? Can you really save the world as you thought you could? Are you prepared for losing companions and friends if there's war? These were all questions Taikobo was faced with throughout the series and boy do they feel unfamiliar since they're rare to see in Shounen shows of today because Shounen today is all about the MC defeating your enemy without any major losses and winning because of the spirit of your nakama and you. Houshin Engi shows us the harsh reality that you can lose much more than you thought in war and that spirit alone isn't enough to win a battle. You need power, and if you don't have it, you lose. Emotional and physical strength both are necessary. As for other characters, we saw Yozen deal with his story and his existence, Genshi Tenson deal with his past mistakes, along with that, Bunchu try his hardest to keep Yin alive, Dakki control over the kingdom. These all are examples of what the aims and efforts of characters were and how they dealt with their problems. As such, development was most certainly seen in the show and I covered this in detail in the paragraph above as well. Despite that, Houshin Engi knew how to cleverly hide a few important details in the beginning and show them in the later episodes, making for a decent surprise. Another thing I want to cover is the art. It being a remake obviously gives it a chance at having a better artstyle than the previous adaptation and so far Hakyuu Houshin Engi does really well for it's time. Character models looked great, the world and backgrounds were great and the fight scenes, arguably the most important, were done well. Speaking of things done well, what was REALLY fantastic was the BGM (BackGround Music to those unfamiliar with the term). It had a distinct Chinese root to it as was the show’s theme for that matter and not once did I feel like it was bland. The same could be said for the OPs and EDs of which a very clever selection of songs were chosen, a hype OP by none other than Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas and peaceful EDs to balance it out and to be honest it wasn't at all underwhelming. It was a fantastic choice of music to go with the brilliant BGM as well. Hakyuu Houshin Engi does a few things that set itself apart from other anime in the genre. Aside from the one I mentioned above, a very important example is that Hakyuu Houshin Engi shows us character deaths. And no, I'm not talking about minor character deaths. We see important characters die. A LOT. After receiving the development they need as a character some of them were killed. Why is this important? It's important because it signifies that Taikobo’s side is not strong. Many Shounen anime try to paint the MC’s side as weak but they don't FEEL weak because they usually win every time with no casualties but Houshin Engi was different. It as mentioned had a set of important characters who died perhaps horrible deaths while some died honourable ones, giving the viewer a sense of gravity that the world of Houshin Engi especially Taikobo's side suffers from. Speaking of Taikobo’s side as well, Taikobo isn't a slacked of an MC either. His tragic past is clearly shown and his past is reflected in the present and as his brother said, it shows in his future as well. He might seem like the happy go lucky type as most other Shounen MCs are but Taikobo’s sudden tense behavior when he's going through a tough time (like for example dealing with the death of a close companion?) isn't something you're gonna see so often in other places. Yeah the bright world is shown as being a colourful and happy place and yeah we have a wide variety of characters but Taikobo is the MC for a reason, and his character clearly deserves to be called a good MC as a result of his actions. He makes you root for him. Not because he has more screen time, but when we see him interact with everyone else and vow not to let more deaths happen you really root for him because you get attached to the vibrant characters as well. That's what Houshin Engi is all about. The world, the characters, the harsh realities of the world as well and of the people involved too. With that said, Hakyuu Houshin Engi isn't perfect by all means. I spent the first paragraphs explaining the manga fans problem and how they overblew the issues with the anime but what is true is true, the anime DOES have it's set of problems (although not to the way the manga fans over blew it) and most of those have to do with the remake more than the actual story, again, it's not as huge of a problem as it may seem to be to hear, else I'd be contradicting myself and the entire purpose of the review, which is to give you an honest look at why this anime should be watched instead of take the easy route and bash it from every angle to the tune of the manga fans. The first half’s pacing was indeed fast. Things happened all to quickly without letting the viewers understand what's happening unless they have the ability to read fast (or watch the dub) and comprehend the situation fast and not need to backtrack. Unfortunately, if you were not a part of that group, you were out of luck. You'd have to backtrack for around the first 10 episodes since their pacing was on the fast side. On the other hand, if you're someone who likes J.C Staff you'd probably be able to handle this C-Station.co Production (the other much more popular show C-Station.co did was Yuru Camp or Laid-Back Camp for you English name fans out there). In contrast, the second half was nicely paced. I think the studio felt that the pacing was fast and decided to cut on the pace which led the speed in the second half to be a huge improvement since everyone could understand what happened and how without needing to backtrack at all which is definitely something to be happy about, now if you're bingeing the anime, the sudden shift from fast paced to normal pace may make you feel like the second half is slow but I can assure you that is not the case, with binging it may seem so but thankfully it's not that big of a contrast. What did seem to be a problem though was that Dakki is largely unexplained apart from a one episode backstory that leaves out some important details. This is something to be concerned about since Dakki is the main villain of the anime and obviously she needs development or at least backstory to make her seem so. As mentioned she DID get an episode solely dedicated to her backstory and it did serve most of its purpose but viewers may realise that a few questions were left unanswered, the biggest being where did Dakki come from? They did show a bit of what she was doing before she became the villain she is known for but they didn't show how she interacted with the world as a child or her as a child for that matter as well. Apart from her though other villains were covered well. Bunchu was sort of like a villain and his backstory was covered and his purpose was repeatedly explained whenever he made his appearance, Ou Tenkun’s backstory was dark and eerie and was a surprise since I thought he'd have more of a villain-like backstory but instead his backstory was interestingly different, which is reflective of the anime since when you expect something you get a different point and it serves as a great idea to keep things fresh. The last problem is a subjective one. Bunchu's obsession with Yin was repeated and reminded a lot and many people could be frustrated with listening to him preach about Yin again and again. But the last arc opened everyone’s eyes on that matter, along with the important fact that we do get to see Yin and its history earlier on in the second half so that's that I suppose. Overall, my purpose for writing this review was very different from my other reviews generally, the purpose of this review was to let the readers know that Hakyuu Houshin Engi isn't a show that should be written off just because of it's mean score since it's mean score isn't affected by casual viewers giving it a low rating but instead the manga fans voicing their frustration because “this didn't happen” and “that didn't happen” as strict manga fans usually do not like anime versions or remakes of what they hold to be the original but I don't see that as a bad thing 100%. It's because if you liked this anime, you'll love the manga even more. That's the most of what I could say which mirrors the manga readers but if I'm asked to offer my personal opinion, try this show without any prejudice on it's mean score and just relax and watch. I'm sure you'll like Hakyuu Houshin Engi, or at least it won't be a “1/10 or 2/10” show as the manga fans describe it and the criminally low mean it sadly has to put up with. It's never a good idea to judge a show by it's mean score since a high rated anime can be bad and a low rated anime can be good (as is the case with Hakyuu Houshin Engi) so to end on a positive note, I hope you get to enjoy Hakyuu Houshin Engi the way the creators intended it to be enjoyed :) Story: 7.5 Animation: 7.5 Sound: 9 Character: 7.5 Enjoyment: 9 Overall: 8.1
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 28, 2018
Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
There's always that one show you find that starts off excellently and you expect it to go to greater lengths and remain consistent if not become better but then that does not happen every time, partly because a show doesn't bring any originality with it and partly because it doesn't strive to make things even a little unpredictable, that is the case with Tada-kun Never Falls in Love.
Right around the first and second episodes I felt it was amazing since it started off so well, showing a bright artstyle not unlike Doga Kobo’s other more popular (and obviously better) anime, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. The characters ... felt cheerful and the whole anime gave you a cheerful vibe, now this vibe was obviously continued in the rest of the anime but the differing point is that it was cliched to the extreme. Don't get me wrong, cliches aren't bad, but they have to be handled properly to make the show watchable and not lazily copy over cliches and skin them with your colour and post it as your anime, this is unfortunately what Tada-kun continued to do and it certainly was heartbreaking for me to see that the show I loved in episode one became a cliche machine by the 5th episode (and I'm talking about myself here, others may have started seeing effects way earlier than me). Being a Slice of Life meant that a concrete plot wasn't exactly on the list of priorities for any anime studio for that matter, so it comes by no surprise that this show as well didn't have one, and since this is very normal and common with most Slice of Life shows in general, I'll make this the one step I'll forgive. But what comes is the rest. One problem only, cliches. Each episode was filled to the brim with cliches, be it a situation, a backstory (not Tada’s), the characters, and unfortunately, the romance. A cliched romance isn't exactly something I'll throw over to the Lions for, but when it's not even trying to add a dash of originality things start to get messy. I mostly went “Oh so in the next episode preview this is going to happen? Then this cliche will be followed” and it killed my enjoyment in the anime as compared to the first episode. And this isn't a hot springs episode thing, sudden bumps, blushes at the same words, a situation being ruined by the characters’ actions, are all examples of cliches that the show followed (forgive me for being vague, as of the time of writing I've been watching a lot of anime this season so my memory is slightly hazy). “Why is this guy focusing so much on the cliches?” you might be asking. To me, cliches were the one biggest problem the show had, if this was fixed, I doubt the show would disappoint me, but then again, improving cliches is very much easier said than done. And fixing them is important because to keep a Slice of Life fun, especially a romance, you need fresh ideas, Tada had none of that. Tada-kun’s characters weren't the most unique of ones but I'll have to give credit, they were cheerful but their personalities were once again riddled by the C word (pretty sure you're as tired of reading it as I am writing it, but then again, this was the biggest problem of the show anyway). Although fans were gleefully picking out the ships right from the first episode going “Alec x Ijuuin” and the like it kinda felt a bit boring. I mean, not trying to act nitpicky but a little bit of a surprise is always welcome in a romance isn't it? “No” according to this anime. Although not having a surprise isn't 100% bad per se but yet again, Tada-kun didn't try to make it work. At best this can remind me that the show felt lazy. Doga Kobo tried to make something fun but a little different but didn't want to make the effort for it and got itself trapped within its own plans. Apart from the cat, every single romance in the show was horribly implemented. Tada X Teresa has got to be one of the most irritating romances I've ever seen because both of them acted so stupidly and their shyness for normal things like talking to each other (especially when they first met) has got to be a pathetic way to go about the “falling in love” step of romances. I mean, I despise the “love at first sight” view and Tada didn't help make it better at all. Pin-head and Representative-san’s romance as well wasn't explored and was left shallow. But then again it in itself was shallow from the start. Him not knowing that his childhood friend is the idol he idolises so much? Could you be any more cliche? Before you answer that, Tada already did. Yamashita Dog and Tada’s sister as well were just a one blush game as well. Coming back to Tada, his “romance” with Teresa was random, pretty much non-existent except for the last 3 episodes maybe if you don't count stupid “Oh I saw you look at me and I don't know what to say” crap as “love”... I'm not saying shy romances are bad, but Tada and Teresa made them look pathetic with their random shyness. Sometimes they're super shy and the other second they're pretty much flirting? People went memeing around saying that the cats had the best romance but funnily enough that turned out to be very much true, until *that* happened. On the other hand the other romances felt average and not out of the box. At many times I found myself predicting what the next situation could be for the characters and when and how the blushes would happen. Perhaps the one romance I could like was of Ijuuin and our secretary Tsundere, Alec (since it is of a cliche I could say I don't have a problem with). The rest meanwhile, were… average like I said. It seemed as if the writers wanted to do something different, they wanted to try to make the show enjoyable in episode one, but the sad contrast in the later episode showed that they were the teenager who after getting bad grades thinks “I'm going to work hard from tomorrow onwards” and right the next day get caught in their usual routine, without any thought or apology for not doing what they promised themselves they'd do. Now, this show isn't filth, far from it, it's not FranXX, but it's average, it's mediocre. Why? It doesn't ruin everything and burn everything to the ground. It is still an anime you could watch in small increments (perhaps once a week to you binge watchers who are going to watch the show after it airs). It's still an anime that can leave most with a normal face, since it's charm is still present, only drastically reduced from what it could have been, perhaps a mere shadow of itself. Is Tada-kun the show I like to call “wasted potential”? Definitely. Although it didn't go it's own way it didn't veer off into the abyss either, therefore putting it in the middle. What wasn't in the middle would be the artstyle, which I've iterated thrice here was cheerful, bright and very much like Doga Kobo. Apart from reminding me about Gekkan Shoujo, it made it's characters look cute and attractive. Be it Hinako, Teresa or Tada-kun himself, everyone looked cute, and that's not to say about the colourful backgrounds and eye-catching scenery either, those were fabulous and my favourite part about the anime. But then again, cute characters and a great artstyle don't make for a good romance. Now something that was almost decent was the voice acting. Although it felt bad in terms of the female voice actors the male actors made up for it. I can forgive the female voice acting only on the grounds that Alec and Teresa’s voice actors aren't as experienced in the field as the males were (but I must admit, Teresa’s high pitched voice was VERY IRRITATING) and to be honest, apart from these two, on the male side I found Ijuuin a bit irritating with his voice, I was absolutely shocked to discover that Miyano Mamoru voiced him as a result. But in the end it boils down to how much you enjoyed the show. I for one don't hate the show (NANI), it's just that I felt let down because again, I wanted the show to continue the direction it had in episode one, if it did, it would be an 8 today or maybe even a 9. But not everything goes your way. There's always that one show that clearly shows the idea the writers had in mind in the beginning but lazy writing can turn the best of starts into an average okay-ish show AT BEST, and it's sad to say but, Tada-kun stays as an example of that. I do hope that we see some improvement in Doga Kobo’s next show, but as of now, I doubt a sequel to this show could carve out something better like Nozaki-kun, although I'd love to be proven wrong. Amaze me Doga Kobo. Story: 4 Animation: 7 Sound: 5.5 Character: 4 Enjoyment: 5 Overall: 5.1
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 22, 2018
Grancrest Senki
(Anime)
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***Caution: This review contains spoilers (the specific spoiler discussions will be clearly marked for you to see) so if you can't predict a cliched anime’s cliches, skip the spoiler sections I've marked. Also, do not read this review if you are a Grancrest diehard because it'll probably trigger you, unless if you're objective. If you're neither of these parties, read on with a free mind!***
Grancrest was the first seasonal I picked up in 2018 (not saying much since it released in Jan 6 anyway) and unfortunately my 2018 mean fell right off the bat. Grancrest stumbled out of the gate and fell flat on its ... face for the first few episodes and took a long time to get it's footing right. There are different places where I found the show good or bad, which is why I don't consider this show absolutely trash (surprise surprise, not FranXX anyway). So it's first episode started off very conveniently in such that Theo appears out of nowhere, beats the Lord after coming out of nowhere, and picks a somewhat scantily clad girl after as mentioned (not unlike most other isekai or fantasy anime, but I'm not complaining, nothing wrong with fanservice I say :P), coming out of nowhere. Sounds like a rant so I'll tone down for the next bit. The show tried introducing it's characters little by little, introducing us to examples like Lassic, Milza among others for the early episodes and introduced others later down the line too. It's always good to see that not all the cast is revealed in its first episode, but unfortunately that didn't help much because we had to make room for our Oh-so-great green haired MC, Theo. Many praised his “badassery” and his “forward-thinking” and him “not being dense and weak” and I was terribly confused since none felt true except for his dense part which was randomly and conveniently revealed in a later episode. That is the problem with the show, it's that it's too convenient. “Oh Theo is gonna die” but something convenient happens and he's saved. “Oh this is gonna happen” but then to benefit Theo’s side it doesn't and the opposite direction is taken. I mean, the show makes Theo out to be like he's the coming of the Messiah or something. He comes, conquers VERY easily, is kind to people (more on that in a bit) and has people serve him in droves. I know it sounds like a rant but to be objective there's nothing wrong with having a righteous MC. It's just that in its current premise I doubt that's what's needed or what makes the most sense. What do I mean? The show is trying to prove that war is dark and to win a war there are sacrifices to be made but Theo goes Yang Wen-Li and wins the war without any well thought out tactics? No thank you. This isn't how you do a war show and definitely not how you make a badass MC. I mean, speaking of Yang, that show excellently shows why war is dark. Where there is war there is loss on both sides and this MC is the complete opposite of that. Is there anything wrong with never losing? I don't think so, I mean, a guy like Yang Wen-Li has lost at least once and Theo never did? Don't joke with me A-1. If you're making your MC win as well, MAKE IT BELIEVABLE. Speaking of believable we've got the laughable “battle tactics”. Once again, it's a show about war so it should have a proper description of what battle tactics are right? WRONG. There is absolutely no mention or any sense in the “battle tactics” involved and it's just “Charge and win” which I doubt is something that works even 10% of the time, especially when you're constantly outnumbered. A simple “We'll attack from here and there to trap them” isn't how a battle tactic works. Sense? No, definitely not. Oh and speaking of no sense, we go back to our MC, Theo. To be fair, he did have a decent backstory, I definitely have to give credit where it's due and Theo’s backstory is one that deserves a clap. Just a clap. Why? It's because it was seldom explored after that one episode and they just threw in a pre-show romantic interest and let's just say “tried to be edgy” by giving her one heck of a bombed send-off. And bombs is not the word here. The battle tactics used there as well were close to zilch I'm sad to say. How can inexperienced commoners beat an advanced army? I sincerely apologise because I do not know. Neither did the show. Then we move to the so called “romance subplot”. It was pretty obvious that Theo would be paired up with Blondie and unfortunately as I expected it wasn't done well. Why does Japan have a hard on for ruining blonde love interests in subplots? (Once again, there are exceptions, we have seen some good blonde love interests in other anime romance subplots before but not as often as one might expect). And this isn't about hair colour here. She was underused and overblown at the same time. She had around 2-3 important lines to say in each episode that were of value, no scratch that, 2-3 important lines every 2 episodes (severely averaged for ease of comprehensive analysis). Her only use was to satisfy the fanboys who already love Theo the “Hero" and want a romance subplot with all the kisses and vows. What if you like me don't like Theo? Zannen-deshoka, you won't be satisfied at all. You might say Siluca herself might be able to stand on her own as a character but unfortunately that's not the case with most of the people in the cast. Why? It's because all the characters are cast as stepping stones for Theo-sama to step on and take this place as the best character and biggest badass in this anime. Result? Let's tone down before I turn this into a rant (“wait, it isn't?” I hear you say :P), disappointing. Convenience and stepping stones was the word here unfortunately. Now that I've spewed enough poison over poison, let's calm our nerves down with the plus points of the anime apart from the sadly less explored Theo backstory, the soundtrack. I'd be lying if I didn't tell you I jammed to the second OP each time it played, oh it was so epic. The music selection was needless to say, fantastic, and that's NOTHING to say of the BGM (that's BackGround Music to those who don't know), it was Grancrest's signature achievement. It sent chills down your spine and made you smile in anticipation of what's to come (spoilers: disappointment) and it pumped you up. The visuals thankfully weren't so bad in the OPs and EDs and on a personal note I loved both the EDs. You obviously may not see eye to eye with me but I loved both of them equally and served as an antidepressant for the earlier events of the episode. Now back to the negatives because I'm out of positives to give, that one scene with Milza and Theo. Since this is a major spoiler so skip approximately 3 lines if you don't want to know about this predictable fight. ***Spoiler begin: The thing is that Milza had given mercy to Theo when Theo didn't ask for it and was about to be killed in the first duel, but in the second and apparently more important one, Theo kills Milza. Nani? Why? What? How? Exactly. I thought they wanted to make Theo look like the next Messiah, what happened here? Well, one could say they wanted to make Theo look badass? I don't even know anymore, needless to say, it was in all literal and figurative sense, a bloody mess. Spoiler end*** Moving back to the stepping stones, the characters. We go with another spoiler section (will not start immediately so hold on), Alexis and Marrine’s “Romeo and Juliet romance”. Pardon me while I vomit. Okay, let's continue, in terms of anime if you've seen my dropped list I've had the Romeo x Juliet anime at a 2/10 so if you like the story of it in anime form, I don't think you'll hate it so much, unless, if you treat Grancrest like it's equivalent. Romeo and Juliet, the Shakespeare play didn't focus on war as much as the romance, because surprise surprise, it's a romance first and foremost, and another important part is that there's tragedy involved. Does Grancrest follow any of these? No. Why is Marrine and Alexis’ romance related to Romeo and Juliet? Blame the fans, but that's not the issue here. It's that this type of romance won't work in a war show. I've said this many times in different situations above, Grancrest does a lot of non-war things in a war show and it ruins many of the existing things relative to war shows as well. Going back to the Romeo and Juliet part, some say the Great Hall Tragedy shown in the first scene of the anime counts as tragedy but to that I say “read the original play”. In a later episode, in the final arc, the “final battle” which was hyped since the first few episodes that too, went with a POOF. And by POOF I don't mean a bomb. I mean “The anatomical juxtaposition of two orbicularis oris muscles in a state of contraction." As described by Henry Gibbons. In other words, a kiss. Nani? What? Why? When? What happened to the deaths and sacrifices of all those who fought leading up to this event? Why did they hype this battle if this was how it would end? What sort of timing is this??? Marriage? Kiss? Love? Unity? Nothing wrong with all these, but the question remains. If you HAD to follow it this way, then what was the meaning of those previous 20 episodes? Were they to waste? Did they serve as bait? Couldn't this series start off at like episode 16 or 18 and be an OVA? So many questions, and little to no answers. And so, jumping back to the “It's a war” excuse, in a war you have major character deaths right? Where did the major characters die? Apart from a few minor characters who were obviously forgotten after the next 2 episodes when did we see the death of a main character? Once again, to be fair and objective, there is absolutely nothing wrong with not having major deaths in an anime, I agree, but if you are indeed trying to show that Theo’s side was weak, then why didn't you have important deaths? Yes, the deaths in the first half did exist and they definitely served their purpose, so that's a plus point, but we didn't see anything after that… Now, a rebuttal to what people might point fingers at my review at, I'll definitely hear the likes of “Almost all your points against the show are targeting the war aspect of it. You don't know how war shows go. This show isn't about war, it's about blablabla”. Except for that last one which will definitely be used by those who don't even know what the anime is about (please, do not misunderstand, most of you aren't a part of this trope so do not worry), This show is all about war, it's called Grancrest Senki. So it's about war. Another example of a “war show” would be Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, which according to MAL in English is “The Asterisk War”. My point? Even though their names include the word war (or at least their English counterparts) none of them actually do follow the principles of a war show, less so in Grancrest, since it's whole premise was based on it and that immediately puts it just above Asterisk. So even though Grancrest is about war it rarely sticks to the proper formula of it and no, don't tell me it's a deconstruction, I'll kill you. Finally, we move on to the last issue of the show which I'll cover, the show’s artstyle. Made by A-1, I expected the show to do okay but it couldn't do that either. Character models looked weak, CGI was used in many scenes (not all), the choreography of the fight scenes themselves were so bad I cringed under my bones and to top it all off, I couldn't find it good at all even at 1080p (yes, I upscaled to 1080p episodes mid-season and still suffered with the artstyle). To go into a little more detail, the character models weren't that eye catchy and to cover for this factor they tried deploying fanservice into the war show to try and make things look attractive (oh fun fact: ever heard of showing your nude body to your army to bolster their morale? Me neither) and I'm not complaining about fanservice (since I love it when used properly) but that it's used in the wrong place and at the wrong time. Perhaps the only “fanservice” that was used at the right time was Siluca’s outfit, which was… attractive :P Apart from that the fanservice used in the show wasn't done well and A-1 after that episode stopped deploying it and went back to CGI war sequences. Once again to make it clear. I don't have any problem with fanservice, I enjoy Ecchi, it's just that they should be done at the right time, many would say that there's no such specific time for fanservice but I’d say otherwise. If it's not an Ecchi show, don't do random fanservice please thank you. Moving back to the main artstyle, it in simple words wasn't done well for the reasons explained above. ***Spoiler begin: One of the most pathetic and biggest cop outs in the anime was how quickly they changed the villain from Marrine to the Mage Academy. It felt like a ridiculous cop out since the previous episode already ended the whole conflict of the past 20 episodes with a single “I still love you” (oh if only life and war was this easy) and as such this obviously leaves a hugely negative taste in the viewer’s mouth. But wait! There were still 4 more episodes! How ever could they fill them? By adding another villain and acting like “they were the villain all along” sort of crap. So, the whole 20 episodes of what you watched was for nothing bc Marrine suddenly became good and the last 4 episodes are important because the Mage Academy were the villains all along? They never showed up in the show before though? No mention of them was made and nothing was talked about. Yet they suddenly and extremely conveniently make their appearance to quickly put an end to the cries of “What was the point of the past 20 eps???” and from what I can see, that failed spectacularly. They continued with this bullish nature till the end… Spoiler end*** For anyone wondering about it's ending, Grancrest’s ending does bring closure. Although on the cliched Shoujo side. It had it's purpose to play. The first half of the episode was as disappointing as you'd expect from the show. But the second half tried to mend those to little avail. Yeah it was cute I could say but such an ending is the same as what happened with the Marrine vs Alexis war… Not something I'd call amazing but eh, it served it's purpose I guess… I guess they wanted to follow the fairytale? Either way, Grancrest left me unimpressed. And so with a heavy heart I must conclude that Grancrest isn't at all what I'd like to call a “good” show this year. It's plot was excrutiatingly convenient, the characters were made such that they were stepping stones for Theo, Marrine and Alexis’ romance was horribly handled and had a ridiculously lame “resolution” later on, the Artstyle wasn't what I expected, the battle tactics weren't at all present, the “final battle” was a laughable cop out, etc. the show had one or two positive points to it namely the soundtrack that was brilliantly done and Theo’s backstory was somewhat decent. This is all I can say to end on a positive note on this semi-rant and semi-review hybrid, not unlike my Dakara boku wa H ga dekinai review which was done in my old format back when the year started. If you made it till here, thank you for taking the time to read this review and if you do decide to watch Grancrest, please don't expect too much of it because the end result is far lower than that. Most of what you expect from Grancrest can be found elsewhere in shows that are actually good anyway right? P.S: ***MAJOR SPOILER: Another show where the Hero restores peace to the land eh… how tiring and cliched. Not that the villain should win but this journey was terrible throughout… MAJOR SPOILER END*** Story: 2.5 Animation: 2 Sound: 7 Character: 1.5 Enjoyment: 2.5 Overall: 3.1
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 22, 2018
Hinamatsuri
(Anime)
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Back when I first started Hinamatsuri in the midst of other shows for the Spring season Hinamatsuri felt different. Compared to the others, it pulled me in and in a different way too. In the first five minutes I was slightly taken aback by the artstyle but when I continued watching it, it hit me with it's wonder. Hinamatsuri is exactly that kind of anime, and it continued to be so till it's end, it calms you down, then immediately rushes out with the comedy and before you know it, you're laughing out loud. Oh and there are tons of heartfelt moments too, what more
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could you ask for such an innovative and hilarious anime? Original Review published June 22, 2018 on MAL
For starters, Hinamatsuri is a fresh take among the many comedy anime we see nowadays. It's not a school romance comedy and thanks to that it pushes out a huge cliche (there are exceptions) right out of the window, add to that it's supernatural nature mixed with clever comedy and you've got a fresh anime that people not only laugh with, but cherish for the coming seasons because you won't see such an anime so common, not every season, not every year either. Hinamatsuri uses tons of elements and jokes in it's run and it was very hard for me to find recycled jokes among them, it was all new and innovative and that says a lot about it's quality as a comedy anime. Oh and by saying it's supernatural you might think it relies too much on supernatural stupidity to tickle your funny bone? No, the best part is that Hinamatsuri can stand even on normal comedy and make everyday situations so hilarious despite having a huge arsenal of supernatural jokes at its disposal but Hinamatsuri uses both of them very wisely with the end result being us viewers holding down our stomachs while we laugh. A huge reason why Hinamatsuri is so incredibly amazing is because it's got various approaches to the comedy, and it almost always nailed them, first off it has a buildup of jokes, the situation starts getting crazier and crazier and you're left laughing at every second. This is common in comedy anime since you can put up over the top situations and make people laugh as well, but Hinamatsuri unlike many others not only looks at that but it also looks at the premise where it's using it in, something surprisingly uncommon in other anime. What am I talking about? Many times we see anime attempt at comedy but use the wrong approach at the wrong time, thus even though the joke was actually funny, the wrong approach didn't give the writers the result they wanted and this anime thankfully crosses that hurdle. Another approach it has to it's comedy is somewhat of the opposite, it sets your expectations low on purpose before hitting you with the punchline, this also has a largely positive effect since if the joke is successful, it can almost equal the hilarity of the previous take and on the other hand serve as an element of surprise to its viewers which as well plays a huge part in making it so funny since Hinamatsuri rarely failed at this as well. Yet another approach Hinamatsuri took was to use the “straight man” principle to effectively. What is the straight man principle you may ask? It's when the characters do something stupid and another character takes the “straight man” role and points out the stupidity in shock and while on paper this may seem unfunny, in reality it's very successful if implemented properly, two of the best and most famous examples of characters using the straight man principle excellently in anime are namely Saiki Kusuo (Saiki Kusuo no PSI Nan) and Shimura Shinpachi (Gintama). Instead of attributing this principle to only one character, Hinamatsuri gives the role to multiple characters depending on the situation and thankfully does it well. Why did I list these and explain the different approaches to comedy? It's because few anime use so many approaches and few of them are successful in doing so as well, and the good news is that Hinamatsuri can use those very well, reason being it keeps them fresh with the comedy and helps keep things varied. Note: The following is a comparison of Hinamatsuri, Saiki and Gintama, if you haven't watched the latter two completely, please skip the next paragraph as you may not understand the references talked about. ***COMPARISON BEGIN: Since comedy shows get compared a lot, why not compare Hinamatsuri with an anime it shares a lot in common with arguably the giant of comedy anime, Gintama along with a relatively recent anime that's also been doing fabulous, Saiki Kusuo, note that I used these both as examples as well above for the straight man principle. First off with Gintama, Hinamatsuri shares the nature of smile+tears, meaning that both anime make you laugh with it's jokes, but it also has it's sad arcs that give you the feels and usually make many cry. Apart from this, both are supernatural anime (along with Saiki of course) that use their premise very smartly and have varied approaches to comedy, not just one. For Saiki, both feature modern-day Earth but retain the supernatural nature along with the occasional school comedy (but good) thrown in. COMPARISON END*** All three feature this element and excellently use their numerous weapons at their disposal wisely along with using one of the best comedy methods as well, unpredictability. You never know what comes next and when it does, you're left laughing your ass out. What does this entail? This entails that Hinamatsuri is an anime comparable to such greats and can stand on its own as well without having to mooch off anything else. Much like the other two, Hinamatsuri also at times jumped straight to the comedy itself without any caution (although this wasn't used much) and served as possibly the best form of surprise it could muster. Moving away from the comparing and looking at the points that set Hinamatsuri apart from the others is that Hinamatsuri uses an outsmarting “lazy approach”, such that when you're watching Hinamatsuri, much like Hina, it looks sluggish and slow and lazy as well but the moment you think that this is how the whole episode will be, it lands in a sudden joke and you're left flabbergasted in laughter (can people be flabbergasted in laughter? Maybe :P) so you'd be dumb to write Hinamatsuri off if you think it's a bit slow at first because there's a huge punch coming really soon as well. Now let's step aside from the comedy for a bit since that's not exactly everything Hinamatsuri offers, we also have the occasional sad arcs. These were usually of Anzu (primarily) and at times a few other characters realising the importance of friendship or a life lesson as well. The reason why people loved Anzu to the point that people very soon ranked her higher than Hina for the best girl of the anime was because her arcs were so damn powerful. Poverty, learning to live as a homeless person, the community you make with them, and many other things beyond that I can't cover since they're spoilers, her arcs have a lot of thought and emotion into them and no person with a heart could not at least get a lump in their throat when they see the way she works hard to do her best for her friends who she treats like family as the feeling is mutual, this is really what should make us smile and laugh, the happiness of a human being doesn't come from being rich, but from enjoying what's next to us, what we have, not what we want, and this serious message was shown through her in these arcs. Getting why the anime is so amazing? On the other side of the spectrum we have the duo who we started with, Nitta and Hina, these two are like father and daughter, despite one being a Yakuza and the other having dangerous superpowers, they went like bread and butter, and for the opposite reasons. If you took them individually, Hina wouldn't be as funny by herself and Nitta could only be used as a straight man if he's not with Hina. The anime is such that not only can Hina and Nitta not live without each other, but their comedy as well can't live without each other, and this is a testament to the genius mangaka behind this. As such, this erases most doubts about people possibly thinking of possibly axing one of the two, but much like Nana and Popo in the Ice Climbers (I s'pose no one will get that NES reference), they both need each other not only to live, but to make us laugh. Needless to say, Hina and Nitta’s sketches leave their mark clearly. Let's move to arguably the most powerful character of the show, Hitomi. Why did I call her so? It's because she highly influences both Hina and Anzu. Anyway, Hitomi is fantastic as a character since she's very relatable thanks to her being given the straight man (or woman if you may) role by handling the BS that her daily life gives her and her arcs as well were hilarious as well as cute. She suddenly gets forced to work as a bartender and surprisingly becomes adept at her job and this is used as a baseline for many of the jokes at her. She also as mentioned played the straight woman for the crap that she has to deal with Hina and sometimes Anzu and her work. The best part is that she's amazing since she's so ordinary in the midst of idiots around her that it's hilarious in its own right and I seriously can't complain when even this is used well for it's jokes. Pretty reflective of the anime itself. The thing is that Hinamatsuri has its own share of flaws as well. Even though it's comedy is almost always on point, if the jokes DO fail, the episode can fall apart pretty quick if nothing is done, and although this did happen once or twice, it pretty much saved itself in the next joke and went on, but this issue does exist and could be done better. And one issue that many point out is that since the anime is named Hinamatsuri, it still doesn't focus much on Hina in the first place. Although Hinamatsuri's purpose is to follow and balance screen time for all characters, many times Hina felt off the mark either because she wasn't given too many lines or she wasn't the person making the joke at that time. This is also a problem since based on Hina’s character, it's hard to bring in new stuff for a lazy brat since a lazy brat doesn't do much in the first place. This shows that you can't do much with the character as you would with others so Hinamatsuri's comedy gets held back at times when Hina doesn't do much. Overall, Hinamatsuri is an anime that does a lot, and a lot of that is different from the usual. Apart from being able to stand on its own legs for support, it is comparable to the legends in its genre and can hold its own to a respectable level. It's truly an all round comedy in part because it makes you cry then laugh in just a span of a minute. Why is that you may ask? It's because comedy isn't just laughing at stupidity, comedy is also trying to find the funny in tragedy and the sad times, that's what Hinamatsuri is all about. And that's what comedy should be all about isn't it? P.S: This season has a multitude of amazing last episodes demonstrating the best of the show’s offerings overall and Hinamatsuri was no exception. The last episode excellently showed us everything that made the show so amazing. A combination of feels, slapstick comedy and recent nostalgia made for an epic end to an epic anime (despite that minor cliffhanger?), and as a fan, I couldn't ask for anything more. It's a fan’s dream come true. Here's hoping we see a season 2 anytime soon! Story: 9 Animation: 10 Sound: 9.5 Character: 9 Enjoyment: 10 Overall: 9.5
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 21, 2018
Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii
(Anime)
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I picked up Wotaku ni koi wa Muzukashii along with 3D Kanojo together back when the show first aired and expected both to be about the same, I gave the former an 8 and the latter a 7 originally if my memory doesn't fail me, and from then on even though both featured otaku (now it's obvious that 3D Kanojo only has one while Wotakoi has it's entire casts as the same but I picked it up together for the same reason) it became clear as day which was fresh garbage and which was the anime that made me dance. Looking at the rating I
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think you know what show turned out to be the one that made me dance, yes. This is my review of Wotaku ni koi wa Muzukashii, ikuze!!!
Let's start with some backstory. My last seasonal romance watch was in Summer of 2017, almost exactly three seasons ago, which is shocking because if you know me, I love romance and always strive to watch it in some way or the other but in terms of seasonals I felt tired and stopped focusing on the genre. To reasons obvious to romance fans I felt Spring would be the best season for a romance fan to return to the seasonal genre and found a lot of romance anime to watch, but none, absolutely none made me fall over them as much as I fell over Wotaku ni koi wa Muzukashii. Not because it's cute, but because it's unique, it's fun, and of course, it's got everything else going for it. I mean, look at it's competition this season (or even the last), what romance anime did we have? Tada-kun started strong but suffered with it's cliche problem shortly after, FranXX continues to be complete garbage in the romance category (and dare I say it every other category), the anime I formerly mentioned, 3D Kanojo almost immediately disappointed me with it's second episode, Grancrest had the same FranXX situation, while Beatless could be considered one slot better than the two mentioned. Leaving us with two romance anime this season that continued to be adored by me, Wotaku ni koi wa Muzukashii and Akkun To Kanojo. The latter was and still is an enjoyable show but being a short, it can't compare to Wotakoi in the same breath. Why? Read on! First off, it's a fantastic slice of life anime. Wotakoi is how you make a Slice of Life Romance work and I can't find any other examples that bettered it till Winter 2017 (when I first started seasonals) and overall I'm sure it'll rank up in my top 5. Yet again you ask why? Because it knows how to captivate it's watchers with warmth. This brings us to the question, why do we watch romance anime? Many would say that it's because it brings them warmth, and surprise, surprise, Wotakoi gives you that. A cute, warm and fuzzy slice of life anime you can cosy up to whether you're single or with your partner. Even though it's centered on Otakus, it's biggest feature is that there's something for everyone. Everyone will find something in the anime worth relating to and laughing at, and I'm just talking about the normies here, if you're a mild anime watcher or a hardcore one, both parties will find lots and lots to laugh at and references to gloss over with this anime. Be it a Dragon Quest reference, a Final Fantasy reference, a Saekano reference, etc etc. There's lots to list and I don't have enough time to list them all for we must move on to the next best part. The soundtrack. I don't think I need to tell you how popular the Opening is especially with it's dance and there's been countless videos on YouTube (some of which were taken down because Sony Music) showing viewers how the dance is done or how they reacted to this marvelous choreography. And that's not to mention the ED as well. Fantastic, cosy and just a joy to watch, it's an excellent example of a testament to the anime. And we've barely scratched the surface. What else makes the anime so fun? The biggest reason why? THE CHARACTERS! I haven't seen such vibrant AND relatable characters in an anime in a very long time and this was just fabulous. I mean, it makes me wanna write on every character. First off, we didn't get one pairup, we got TWO. Then the interactions, motivations, situations, all made for a really cute yet not over the top anime. It didn't overstep its bounds yet created an environment that only Wotakoi could create and excel in. This isn't a Utopia, this is real life, and the real life says Wotakoi is excellent. Speaking of real life, the wonderful staff who worked on this anime. Having renowned VAs like Sawashiro Miyuki and the legendary Sugita Tomokazu himself, this anime wasn't at all short of talent, and the others too did brilliantly. I never for once felt like the voice actors did a bad job, or that the directing or scripting was bad in any way. I might be sounding like I'm fanboying like crazy but let's just say Wotakoi IS that kind of show. It makes you warm and you're left beaming with happiness. Definitely something I'd call a feel-good show. Oh and, another reason why the anime is so amazing? It's got adults. Not high school kids as the main characters and that gives a LOT of room for different scenarios and even though our lovely cast might seem childish, in the first place, being an otaku is a throwback to childhood anyway. And second, we don't have any blushing game of random meetups and random kisses and random blushes and random etc like most high school anime (I already triggered the FranXX fanboys, don't want another group to come after me so I won't give examples now) because from the very first episode itself, everyone is dating. Yes. You read that right. They're dating from the first episode itself and they're adults and they're Otakus. Reasons enough for why it's so fantastic? Still not convinced? How about I tell you that in spite of having such a unique setup, it handles it excellently? Convinced? I sure do hope you are, because I still have more to say. I haven't even gone to the characters in detail yet! Hirotaka might seem like your dense that you see in most high school romance but NO. Do not underestimate him because he is sharp. I mean, the ending of episode 1 changed my view of him from the get go. Surprised? I was too! He continued to be brilliant like the rest of the cast. Narumi on the other hand is fortunately not a flat female character (I just love making that pun) as we see in some romance anime and much like Hirotaka, is just a joy to watch. She's cute, relatable, and is a perfect matchup for Hirotaka. Then we got the polar opposites, Hana-chan and Gintoki- I mean Bakaku- I mean Kabakura. Both were the most loveable lovebirds and sworn enemies, which was a sharp contrast to Hirotaka and Narumi and offered an excellent balance to the aforementioned pair. Though MAL marked them as Supporting Characters they're very much main characters as well since they're a main focus of the anime too! And that's not to mention the other supporting cast too, they're cute too and the biggest part is that even though they're a supporting cast, the brief moments they feature in were all relatable and enjoyable in their own regard and this was me trying my hardest to describe how lovable the cast is, I can't find the words to describe what I feel to the exact point but this should serve as a somewhat great substitute. STILL NOT CONVINCED? Then I can bring up the last of my cards, the artstyle. Many scorned and scoffed at the name of the studio when they first saw it's synopsis since it was made by A-1 Pictures. A studio that is designed for freelancers. What many realised later was that fortunately this was one of those “once in a blue baboon” situations where they turned out to be good, and I'm talking from the perspective of people who don't like A-1 but are objective critics. Me? Well, much like the other fans, I just enjoyed this. I have liked A-1’s many other works before in particular the Working! series and this just adds on to the fun. Coming back to the topic, it's artstyle was unique, vibrant, cheerful and not to mention adorable. There was just that some thing about it that made it such a joy to look at, whether you're watching it in 1080p, 720p, a CR free subscriber, or the 144p master race (is the show even available in this resolution? Maybe in YouTube). Needless to say it's artstyle is YET another plus point the anime had. It's very very tough to find negatives in this anime and the ones I found were that perhaps it's comedy didn't hit me every single time, though it did usually, I perhaps laughed at least once every episode and just longed for the next week’s episode to come out already and when it did, oh the joy I had. Overall, I don't think I need to point this out, but Wotaku ni koi wa Muzukashii is a romance anime that you definitely must watch if you're a fan of the genre or are looking for that fun Slice of Life anime to entertain and cosy up to. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is my pick for Anime of the Year or to the extreme minimum, Romance/SoL of the Year. Romance? Yes. Otaku stuff? Yes, but that isn't too deep for someone to get bored with. End product? Something great that anyone and everyone can watch and enjoy! Yes. Even normies :P You and I might not see eye to eye on the anime, but I'm sure you'll leave the anime with a smile, that is, if you love watching fun shows. Much like with everyone, you'll definitely find out that you struck a chord with a lot of the things in the anime. I mean, we're all Otakus aren't we? P.S: That last episode man. Incorporated everything that was great in the previous episodes and brought out the best from them to make for a fantastic end to a fantastic anime. If I were to describe Wotakoi in one word, it would ironically be that it's inclusive despite it's otaku centered focus. Hirotaka GO!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 20, 2018
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby
(Anime)
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Back when the Spring season originally started, Uma Musume was memed in the anime club I'm at as being “just another beast show” and one that would fizzle out of popularity and quality very soon, I tried the first episode anyway expecting a train wreck, what did I get in return? One of the most fun shows I've ever seen. Period. There's a lot of reasons as to why this show is just so fantastic and I have noted down most of them in this review of a show that defied all odds, all expectations and gave us one hell of an epic anime.
First off, ... one thing the show was excellent in doing was the way it accurately portrayed the original history behind the horse girls. To those of you who are unfamiliar, the names of the horses aren't made up, these are real life Japanese horses who raced in the '90s and have been anime-ified as being horse girls while maintaining a 95% historical accuracy rate. Why 95%? It's because one of the horses had a dark backstory which was toned down in the anime, although you'll see it, it won't be as dark as the harsh reality was which is pretty much understandable because Uma Musume isn't such a show in the first place. Nevertheless, apart from that, from start to finish, Uma Musume maintained a healthy accuracy rate (in fact, it's 100% in terms of who won and lost the race) throughout its entire run. Pun intended. Despite its accuracy, most of the people who watched the show may obviously not have knowledge of the original Japanese horses and their races, so this helps to bring suspense to the table, but this is not all. Uma Musume knows a lot of things, and it knows damn well how to control the element of surprise as well as the suspense it brings with it. What am I talking about? You can never predict who'll win in the race, not even when the race is going on. You might think this is easy but if you look at most sports anime they don't have as much suspense or any suspense at all because they always show the main characters as Shounen as possible who will work hard and defeat the opponents no matter how difficult they are to beat. What Uma Musume makes us realise (that most other sports anime don't) is that hard work and teamwork alone won't give you the win you think you deserved. It shows us the harsh life lesson that hard work doesn't always get rewarded and you won't always win, and this is shown by making the protagonists lose at times. “Is that all? There are a few anime that show the team of character lose” you might say. As with most things in life, losing isn't the end of the story. It's what comes after that. The lessons you learn from it, Uma Musume knows and shows just that, such as by characters coping with their loss, starting to work even harder, not be too overconfident and take proper measures and be grounded. Beware, if you expect this anime to be all wins and celebrations 24/7 you're in for a surprise. This seemingly kiddish show (I really feel sorry for those who think that) has a lot of lessons to teach, like friendship. In particular we got to see the friendship of Special Week and Silence Suzuka build up. At first Suzuka was admired by the rookie Special Week but after becoming roommates it all changed. For the better. Making new friends, interacting with your friends, having fun, this is all the joy of friendship and we saw all of this excellently shown by Progressive Animation Works (or P.A works to you acronym fans). On the other side of the spectrum friendship also brings with itself, rivalry. And this was also evident although not as much. We saw Special Week and Silence Suzuka cheer each other on along with challenge each other from time to time. This is very important to show since most friendships have these (to those of you without friends, please find some and discover the joy of friendship and rivalry) and this ends up as yet another plus point for the show, rivalry isn't always hating each other, it can also mean friends battling each other for who comes out on top and having a nice laugh about it later. That's friendship. That's rivalry. No. That's friendly rivalry. Or wait. That is the true spirit of friendship itself isn't it? Apart from having someone to challenge we also have the hardships. What happened to one of the two was horrifying and though it wasn't as dark as the reality was it still left a crushing impact on most of the viewers and many were devastated (or at least the characters in the anime were). That's where the hardship struck. The friend rushed in tears to save her best friend and neither could function properly since they were so worried about each other. This is what hardships in friendship can be sometimes. And we should support our nakama and try our hardest to overcome the obstacles that lie ahead. Coming back to the previous point of suspense, we got suspense because we saw our favourite characters lose. When we see someone not maintain a 100% win rate, we start to get tense when we see their next race because there's a possibility that they might lose, and this is evident in every real life sport (and a few anime). No team will lose forever, no one will win forever, both will happen to everyone albeit in different ratios. And another important thing is that victory isn't always achieved with working alone, or to be more accurate, it mostly doesn't work. Victory is gained through teamwork, and no, not the Shounen type. Teamwork is helping your friends do better, share your ideas, cheer each other on, encourage friendly rivalries. These are all what makes us achieve victory, and although we can't always win we still learn important lessons and realise that we had fun working with our friends. And this spirit is what people should follow. Uma Musume didn't show us everyone working alone, despite being an anime about racing, a primarily single-person sport, it showed us how all the girls helped each other gain the edge and have fun racing. This is what Special Week embodies, this is what sports should embody. Sports is fun and when it stops being fun, you quickly drop out and this is what was evident with Silence Suzuka. She couldn't find racing fun and Special Week taught how to have fun while racing. On the topic of racing we cover the artstyle as well. P.A Works knocked the ball out of the park with this one (been a long time since I made a sports pun). The bright colourful palette cheered me up and the animation during the races was much like the rest of the plot, serious yet cheerful. Uma Musume might show it's characters being playful and lazy at times as with every sports person outside the field but when you step into the field finally, it's a battle. And P.A Works knew it, which is why the races themselves are taken very seriously. You don't see hilarious stuff happening while the race is going on. You see the characters fixated on that finish line and have to keep moving forward, which is pretty reminiscent of P.A Works’ name itself, to move forward. Think of it like a two sided dish. One has the playful nature of friends meeting each other and messing about and the second, which has everyone become serious because of the situation and obstacles ahead. If it wasn't obvious, the artstyle even while they're racing takes a serious yet excellently designed turn. And speaking of the races themselves, I've never enjoyed watching a race where people run. Car races and the like are fun but P.A Works made running enjoyable, which is also a huge plus point to the show. Despite it's unique aspect and nature of the show (horse girls based on real horses racing), Uma Musume does a fine job of making it's premise easy to understand, heck it's TOO easy to understand. Just run as fast as you can while making sure you don't waste stamina. Train too hard and you lose, train too less and you're unprepared. Finding the balance is what's necessary. And this concept may feel simple because it is simple, it's surprising how many anime haven't done this as easily. To cover another good point and to make another pun about the anime’s plus points, we have the pacing (:P). Surprisingly, it's not fast paced. The pacing is done such that it's easy to understand what's happening without having to go back and on the other hand it doesn't drag on. We saw a race in most episodes and it was a breeze to smooth over them without issues. A large cast left me concerned since I thought not everyone would get development and unfortunately this was what I found as a problem in the anime. The show was too focused on Special Week and Silence Suzuka to focus on even the other Spica horses, let alone Rigil. I felt we could have seen much more if this show was a 24 episode series since that could mean we'd see development for them as well. Another problem I felt was that at times Uma Musume felt repetitive. This was in the earlier stages of the anime, namely it's first 4 episodes before it went with one proper varied formula and stuck to it. As a final point, yet another positive one, the show had a fantastic soundtrack. Apart from the catchy OP and ED, the BGM (or background music to those who don't know) hyped me up and oh the music that played when the races were on, especially the way the tone of the music went even higher in the last corner of the race. It left chills on my spine. Never been so hyped for such a show before. So overall, Uma Musume is a show that started off a bit slow, but it later (after the third episode in fact) steps up and excellently continues it's run to the finish. It teaches us lessons about friendship, hardship, rivalry, loss, teamwork and whatnot, and still manages to hype over it's viewers with it's brilliantly done racing segments and soundtrack. If a bright cheery anime with important life lessons is your type of anime to watch, then Uma Musume will be sure to leave you satisfied and wanting for more. Although the anime was mainly for marketing and engaging interest for the Uma Musume mobile game, the Anime’s quality itself far surpasses what people would expect, all thanks to P.A Works. The Spring season had a lot of interesting anime but only two came out on top for me. Hinamatsuri and Uma Musume. If this review gauged your interest in trying out the anime, please do so, for you are in for one heck of an awesome show at the Starting Gate! P.S: Without spoilers, that last episode has got to be one of the most legendary ones I've ever seen. Why? It's one hell of a FANTASTIC send-off to a lovable series. It embodied everything that made the show great from it's previous episodes. The final race and the end credits made it feel like I was watching a big budget anime movie, and that's exactly how the artstyle was, but it was EVEN MORE EPIC in the last episode. Uma Musume is definitely a show I'll miss a lot.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 1, 2018
Fate/Extra: Last Encore
(Anime)
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“I am not a fake, I will forge my own identity”
There is a saying that goes between the Ufotable Fate series purists, that “Any Fate not made by Ufotable is shit” and that statement was usually right from what I've seen, Fate Loli was as mentioned all about Lolis, Fate Apocrypha was a laughable joke to most and then we have this anime, Fate Extra Last Encore that was made this time by Shaft. The Fate series is popular enough to be adopted by almost every studio and this brings either positive or negative results, and fortunately unlike other non-Ufotable Fate anime series, Fate ... Extra did not disappoint as much. Why? It had a main character even better than Emiya Shirou. And that's saying something. Based off the game of the same name, Fate Extra introduces us to a character named Kishinami Hakuno who is betrayed by his friend Shinji (oh Shinji you are there every time) but escapes death and is chosen to participate in the Holy Grail war, not before getting the most powerful servant of them all, Saber (yada yada same introduction as all other Fates) but this time Saber isn't an elegant King of Knights, oh no, this new Saber is a busty mainly-for-fanservice character whose sole purpose isn't just to attract horny teenagers to get a Saber Figure but this Saber also plays an important part and thankfully unlike Unlimited Blade Works, her backstory is given a proper explanation in a later episode, further fleshing her out as a character (no pun intended). Even though we had 10 episodes we didn't see much action, it was mainly build-up, discussion, backstory and meetings. This Fate wasn't the action Fate, if you want that go to UBW, this Fate’s focus was more in world building and character introductions like Rani who play an important part in the Fate Universe (although she plays a small part in this anime). One of the things I didn't like much about this anime was that mostly adopted a 'villain of the week’ Shounen trope and to be honest it didn't bring as much development as I had hoped, although it’s portrayal was better than many Shounen anime out there it still felt somewhat lacking, either due to my dissatisfaction with the trope or because it wasn't done well. On the other hand the plot progressed smoothly, thankfully the episode number was increased from 6 to 10 mid-season this meant we got much more development especially for our main character Kishinami Hakuno. Many times (or actually every time) it is the male main character who defines an anime for what it is, Emiya Shirou defined the storyline for Fate UBW, Kiritsugu defined Fate Zero, much in the same way, Hakuno defined Fate Extra. Although he had little to no personality in episode 1 (please note that he was still better in character than Shirou, at least to me) the focus and improvement noticed in the second half is what made me appreciate the show a little more, Extra just felt that good that it felt better than UBW and to a lesser extent with Zero (Fate Zero is best Fate, fight me :P). As for the other characters Saber was quite the focus as well even though her relationship with Hakuno felt more like Saber was teaching Hakuno everything instead of them both working together equally (although I must say that also changes later on) but the important fact here is that Nero got her backstory while Arturia didn't. Or at least it was much more explored. So overall for the main characters development was excellent and elegantly done. Now where does that leave the side characters? Unfortunately they didn't get enough screen time or development. Tohsaka came at convenient times and although her fight with Berserker and another friend-turned-enemy (I'm not spoiling it, watch and understand) was amazing she had little or nothing to do with the plot progression which is unfortunate since she could have done much better given the chance. Other than that I could only find Rani a recurring character that too only because she came for 2-3 episodes and not 1-2 for the villains and she didn't get development at all. Her story as well was very brief and felt like an afterthought. As for the other characters we have the villains, only some of which got development and the cameos by Shinji and Kotomine Kirei in the first episode. Pretty disappointing for the side characters but amazing for the main ones. Disappointing and amazing reminds me of the confusing yet amazing yet somewhat disappointing art style of the anime. Animated by Shaft (you know, those Monogatari people?) I made a huge mistake by expecting Ufotable-like art style and instead got an animation below average. It felt horrible at first and I couldn't get used to it at all in the first episode. Fortunately the staff themself might have realised and fixed most of the issues and after episode 3 or so the art improved considerably, especially so in the Dream Land. The Dream Land arc was my favorite since it was so dark and intriguing not to mention mysterious, the Dream Land arc might as well be the only reason Fate Extra is so amazing. If the main characters don't impress you, there's a high chance the Dream Land arc will, so I won't gloss over it much and move on. Something you should gloss over is the soundtrack, because that is amazing and my favorite part about Fate Extra apart from the main characters. As a nod to UBW, the OP started off a lot like Brave Shine and the song itself was just as amazing not to mention the visuals used. Meanwhile something I found much better was the ED sung by none other than Sayuri who sung Tsuki to Hanataba and all you need to do is to go on YouTube, search this song and listen for yourself the amazing power of Sayuri’s voice, if you haven't already heard Sora wa Sore wa Chiisana Hikari no Youna from Boku dake ga Inai Machi (ERASED) and fallen in love with her voice. On the other hand the background music used was unsurprisingly excellent, why unsurprisingly? If you've watched the Monogatari series you'll realise. All in all Fate Extra is an anime that although falls short of beating Fate Zero it does pretty much equal UBW in many aspects which says a lot about it's quality since most other Fate anime made by non-Ufotable studios were either flawed or garbage (very rarely did we see a good non-Ufotable Fate) but Fate Extra has its shortcomings and they measure up on the scale as well. Although this was a show I enjoyed a lot, I can't ignore it's flaws as well, side characters, art style and villains were problems Shaft couldn't fix for the anime and so I felt disappointed to a certain extent but also was amazed too since this quite literally is the best non-Ufotable Fate we have (apologies for repeating non-Ufotable so many times) so we can move forward. What will the next Fate be? Will it be better than UBW (arguably the most popular Fate)? Will it surpass Fate Zero in quality? These are questions only the future can answer so all we can do is wait and see what happens. As for now, enjoy this beautiful anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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