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I started reading The days of diamond after its release on manga plus app.
The story is good with an original approach of talent and what it can cause on others and on oneself, particularly in the extrem competitive field that is sport. The point is that the main character is kind and all he really wants is to have fun, and also that the others around him enjoy themselves. Unlike the majority of gifted characters in sport manga, he doesn't enjoy crushing his opponents and victory doesn't really matter to him. He has a hard time understanding others and no one understands him.
Not the other ... kids. Not the adults (except his mom). They always see him as a menace, for their kids, for their motivation, for their dreams.
But he's 12 y.o. and he wants to fit, to have friends, to do something he likes. So he tries to fit in and I really felt empathy for him because I too don't care about competition. So the main character is the big highlight in this manga for me.

I dropped it after the u12 arc because I ended finding the manga too talkative (but it is common in a drama themed one), I couldn't tell the support characters appart and had trouble remembering their names (not my strong point I confess) and ultimately I always have troubles with what is at stake in sport manga. I get he's OP and that makes him unhappy but then why not just quit sport and try painting or doing music or DIY or whatever. He can't be gifted in every field. Yeah the manga would be over then but the main problem would be solved. He doesn't want to be world champion, he doesn't even want to go pro. Why bother with something that makes you feel like sh*t ?

In summary, it's a good manga with an interesting take on talented kids but it's hard to recommand. It's more psychology/drama oriented than sport. I still wonder how it'll developp and if we'll get to see the hero maturing and finding his path but for now I'm gonna let this manga on the side and maybe I'll come back in a few years.

I came to this anime knowing only this : Batman in Japan fighting the Joker. This simple sentence was promising. I didn't expect a masterpiece but at least a tolerable entertainment. Let's see why it's not.

First the story. It makes very little sense, the basic idea is attractive but as short as 10 minutes into the movie, I was already telling myself WTF. Inconsistencies, japanese clichés and formulaic dialogues were always throwing me out of my willing suspension of disbelief (that's what help you to not scream "but magic/cosmos/alchemy doesn't exist !" when you're watching a show). It's in Japan so I get that ... the staff wanted to show his love for japanese culture (and attract a new public for the franchise) but in the end it's just ridiculous. A giant bats/samourai-monkeys monster fighting a castle-mecha throwing fire ? Seriously ? And no, it's not as fun as it sounds. I felt embarrassed to watch it and relieved when it ended.

A brief summary of other flaws :
The humour is pretty pathetic until it becomes really heavy. Characters are immortal and illogical, music is forgettable (but I admit I usually forget music very fast), sound effects lack... effect, pacing is both too fast and too slow.

To end on a positive note, some fighting choregraphy were good and the art is perfectly acceptable. In fact, a few scenes are really beautiful.

Should you watch it ? No.

Here comes a review with a few spoils of that anime that I'll call "MaGa" to keep it short.

I started watching MaGa knowing the main character was overpowered and I was, all along the show, perfectly fine with that. You know it in the very first minutes of episode 1 anyway.
Anos, the hero, is quite pleasant : he's the strongest lifeform of the whole world and knows it damn well. He never acts shy or modest, he says and does what he wants and uses force when he has to. He's even cruel in a few scenes and my sadistic side liked that.
For the characters ... he encounters, his friends/servants are ok too, although easily predictable. The "adolescent love" was pretty cliché but the worst part of the casting is the main ennemy. Just take the most random vilain you can think of, change "take over the world" with "kill all demons" and here you go. No charisma and intelligence at ground level. Facing the mightiest creature known to man ? Better go alone and bet everything on holy magic, a magic the aforesaid creature can also use.

But here comes the seccond point of my lack of investment : death means nothing. Once you get that, you'll never fear anything for the cast. They'll be resurrected as soon as their bodies hit the ground. I just stayed to see in which over the top way Anos was gonna vaporise his opponents.

The last negative point is the Anos fan song. Cute anime girls singing a forgettable song just for fan service. You hear it 3 times in the anime and it's far enough, it was especially irritating during the last fight scene. It's not supposed to be a musical for god's sake.

In short, MaGa is a generic 2020 show, not intellectual, not really captivating and sometimes ridiculous, but it has the minimum to be a 25 minutes carefree enjoyement.

After many years reading mostly shônen, I decided to dive in the world of shôjo. What could be a better start than "Versailles no Bara" (or "Lady Oscar" as we smartly translated) ?
This 70's manga is known to have brought a whole new dimension to shôjo and I think any reader can see why, even today, even not knowing much about shôjo.

First of all, it's not reduced to a bunch of love stories in Versailles with nobles in beautifull clothes. It has a strong historic context (french revolution) with all ingredients that come with it : battles, conspiracies, bloody deaths, politic, social and economic portrait ... of France at that time. The author adds a bit fantasy but his basis are very solid.

What I chiefly liked was that none of the main characters were depicted as all black or all white : they behave like they do for reasons, which you can agree with or not. There is no empty jug.
The character of Oscar is outstanding as she is educated to act and dress like a man, while her being a woman is no mystery for the whole cast. She is admired, sometimes discriminated, but she remains true to herself and her values. I liked that and I think it played a huge part in what made this manga a sucess and a renewal.

For the cons, I'd say that although characters, clothes and jewels are well drawn, it is not the case for decors. Or rather, that the author knew she was a bit weak in decors' drawing and she consequently drew as few as possible. I remember stairs, windows and doors in close ups but not much. I sometimes felt like the pages were oddly empty.
Also, there are sparkles, lots of sparkles, and some scenes are too syrupy-sweet for me, but honestly you just have to look at the cover to know what you're engaging into.

In brief : yes, I'm glad I read it and yes, I'll recommand it. Versailles no Bara helps to understand the evolution of the shôjo genre. It is refreshing to see something else than a romantic comedy in high school (I know I'm being caricatural here) and as a bonus, you can increase your knowledges of french history. Win-win !

Tsubasa Chronicle, one of the first anime I've seen as a kid. I had vague memories about it so I decided to rewatch it with my newly acquired grown-up wisdom.

First, the soundtrack is as powerful as I remember and the songs really give you the emotion you're supposed to feel. The opening is really good, the ending a bit less but it really is a strong point of the anime for me.
The concept of the anime is great too : we're following Shaolan and his companions on a quest to recover Sakura's memories. They travel trough worlds and I enjoyed watching them discover new life ... styles and resolving conflicts. As you expect, a big bad guy is behind all this with mysterious plans. Those plans aren't revealed in this season but it's no big deal. Action is mixed with humour and some feel-scenes, the whole thing is balanced.

I found myself a bit disappointed about the characters. Sakura is still attaching, Mokona is still cute, Fye and Kurogane are still cool, but Shaolan showed much less emotions than I remembered. It annoyed me as I found he only had 3 states : neutral, concerned about Sakura and determined-but-cold-blooded. Maybe it's just his character but I couldn't empathize with him. I also found that Sakura had A LOT of "princess in distress" moments but I guess it gets along with the anime fashion of the 2000s.

The real default for me was the story's pace. Some arcs could clearly have been one or two episodes shorter. There is a lot of frozen scenes with just the music, recycled animations, flashbacks of what happened literally 2 minutes ago (particularly in the second half of the season) and you can just watch the show at 1,25x or 1,5x speed and still get all of it. Sometimes, I even found the episodes better when accelerated.

For the art, I picked 6 because it was okay at the time but it obviously doesn't stand the comparison with today's art.

In summary, you may enjoy it if you're a beginner in anime world or if you watched it as a kid and have sweet memories, but I don't think it's a great show and it'll probably be boring for others. As for me, I found what I was searching : a clearer opinion about this anime's qualities and defaults, and a reason why it impacted me as a child.

I began watching OPM 2 without hearing or reading anything about the animation studio's change. I found the 2 first episodes OK, I thought it followed the tone of season 1.
The 3rd episode made me change my mind from "OK" to "kind of boring". We started following many parallel plots and despite various fights and new characters introductions, the rythm was really slow and sometimes frustrating. Episode 6 was the pinnacle of disappointment.
Then, episode 7 was the one who stopped this pitiful fall. I suddenly regained interest in the plot. I can't really tell why, maybe it cut less between scenes, Saitama's costume pumped me ... up or something.
The last 5 episodes were pleasant to watch : they surprised me, they made me laugh, they got me excited for fights. Like good old season 1, just less intensely.

Aside from this clear difference of interest between episodes 1-6 and 7-12, I had some problems all along the season. First, I felt 0 empathy with Garou, as his motivations and goals remain unclear for me. I just keep wondering what this guy really want and why. His last fight is still pretty cool, but it doesn't save the character. Second, Suiryu. This guy made me laugh but seriously, you can predict what's going to happen to him since his first appearance but they took sooooo much time to build it up, I felt exasperated.
Other than that, the OST is good, the art is not something to puke for (except that odd metal effect they did on Genos and metal knight for example) and the story took an interesting turn.

They've been far more worst animes and far more better too. I don't think it deserves the hate it gets from some people. It's an average season 2 after an outstanding season 1. Really, it's okay.