“If I were to write a review for Bocchi the Rock, I would become an upvote seeking monster! Like my review!”
- Hitori “Bocchi” Gotou.
Bocchi the Rock is a master class of visual comedy. At first glance, this show looks like a fairly typical CGDCT comedy, without much of a budget at its disposal. Yet CloverWorks and the BtR team scraped together its resources and went absolutely sicko mode, turning it into something truly special. It is easily a contender for Anime of the Year and one of the greatest anime comedies of all time.
Bocchi the Rock is about making social anxiety funny. Some of
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you might say, “Yuni, isn’t social anxiety a serious topic? Lots of people suffer from it, isn’t turning it into a joke kind of offensive?” To that I say “haha don’t worry, laughing about ourselves is our specialty.”
A big part of Bocchi the Rock’s charm comes from how the main character, Hitori Gotou (nicknamed Bocchi) is a “she’s just like me fr” character. She is immensely relatable to us social outcasts, and we get a really good look at her mentality as most of the show’s script is her inner monologues. Despite focusing so much on the main character, the show is not a one trick pony. The comedy isn’t reliant on being relatable and is presented in a way that even extroverted social butterflies can understand and laugh at. The supporting cast of characters are equally charming and contribute to the comedy in their own special ways, meaning the show isn’t being carried on one character’s back. Not all of Bocchi’s relatability is confined to people with social anxiety either. For example, there is a scene about cringing at one’s own past actions. We’ve all done cringeworthy things that our brain constantly reminds us about when we’re trying to sleep, right? Saying that one cringey thing to a crush, waving back at someone who was waving at the person behind you, writing a review on MyAnimeList, we’ve all done highly regrettable things. The joke is then executed with energetic and creative visuals, crisp and clean animation, as well as fantastic voice acting performances.
Bocchi the Rock isn’t afraid to completely change its animation style to emphasize its jokes. You could almost argue adding an Avant Garde tag to this show with how often it will utilize art style changes, live action, strange psychological glitchy effects, and other tricks to support its weird and wacky comedy. They are willing to reject high quality animation and return to MS Paint just cause they can. Perhaps its strongest trick is actually one of its simplest; character facial expressions. What makes this trick work so well in Bocchi the Rock is that not only are the facial expressions incredibly lively and creative, but the low budget actually helps in making them funnier. Deformed face puddles actually look better with less detail and purposefully scuffed. They can then focus on animating those face puddles in humorous ways. Whenever Bocchi is reduced to a pile of incoherent scribbles it makes her freak outs that much more entertaining. This is truly how you play things out with the hand you’ve been dealt. The voice actors did a splendid job in supporting the wacky shenanigans on screen. Bocchi’s voice makes her sound straight up deranged or even insane at times, the raspiness of her voice during her anxiety attacks breathes so much life into the jokes.
A return to the cast of characters, the other main characters are surprisingly lovable and held their own in the spotlight. First things first, the nod to Asian Kung Fu Generation in the cast’s names is cute. As characters, the cast may be quite simple but each of them feel integral to the group’s dynamic. Ryou is probably the most standout of the other main characters, as Nijika and Kita are fairly typical straight man and extrovert characters respectively. Ryou’s aloof nature makes her seem constantly out of it, which makes her a bit unpredictable. She is silly but oddly quick witted, and comes up with a lot of weird shit to help out the band. Her occasional meta commentary helps add some spice to the comedy routine, such as when she talks about characters jumping in anime openings. Nijika and Kita, while being more straight forward characters, act as a very good reprieve and balance for Bocchi and Ryou’s more chaotic antics. Nijika is the only one who truly has a head on her shoulders, many jokes are set up by her suggesting something or announcing something, and then the rest of the cast proceeds to spread chaos. Kita is also a bit of a weirdo, but is overall probably the least interesting of the bunch. She still fulfills her role well and acts like a bright light that Bocchi ends up chasing after in terms of social adeptness.
Behind all the jokes, Bocchi the Rock does tell a simple but heartfelt story about coming out of one’s shell and finding a place to belong. It’s hard not to root for Bocchi as she constantly tries her best to shed her awkward self, with varying degrees of success. Her friends are patient with her and accept her for who she is, even if they don’t necessarily understand her circumstances. They are truly a great group of friends. Bocchi’s development is slow and often at times it feels like she doesn’t change at all, but that’s because she is often subject to completely new experiences one after the other which causes her to panic and reset a bit. Even so, the change is there, and is especially present in her interactions with her friends and her performances. What makes Bocchi’s development feel so satisfying is that it exhausts the shit out of her, and she is also extremely happy with herself whenever she feels like she improved. Part of the social anxiety experience is that you overthink everything, making otherwise simple things a mentally exhausting exercise. Bocchi wanting to go home and sleep after seemingly minor events is super in character because for her, it was a major event. It’s these simple and subtle quirks that truly make this show standout from the other “haha shy girl try to do something” comedies like Komi-san, who borderline fetishize social anxiety as something exotic and cool.
By the way, this is a music anime. Much like most music anime nowadays, the musical elements mainly serve as a backdrop for the comedy and story. However, there is enough musical cache in the writing to give musicians an upgraded experience, even when it’s very minor. For example, when Bocchi starts teaching Kita how to play guitar, the script goes out of its way to make Kita complain about the F chord. For people who never played a guitar before, this scene would just gloss over their heads as something meaningless, but for people who play guitar it’s hard not to smirk at this scene. The F chord is infamous for having an obnoxious finger placement, and someone complaining about it in a music anime was something I wanted to see for the longest time, and Bocchi the Rock delivered. Truly a masterpiece for the ages!
There isn’t much else you can say about Bocchi the Rock in a review. Perhaps a minor gripe with the comedy would be how the joke where Bocchi goes “IF THIS WERE TO HAPPEN, MY SOCIAL ANXIETY WOULD MAKE ME DO THIS” is used quite repetitively. However, even though the setup is used multiple times, the punchline ends up being different enough to combat the staleness. It is a fairly ignorable flaw if you watched the show while it was airing, but it can easily feel like a much bigger deal if you binge the show. Also, even though we see Bocchi’s development progress quite naturally, the development of other characters, predominantly Kita and her guitar playing, either happens quite fast and mostly off screen or they just don’t get any development. As much as I praised the show for not being a one trick pony, it is still not a more balanced character experience like K-On.
It was simply never intended to be one. Bocchi also has moments where she acts extremely cringey, which may put off some viewers, but these moments are honestly some of the best parts of the show because it actually enhances the realism of this otherwise extremely over exaggerated depiction of social anxiety. Those who know will know. Overall, Bocchi the Rock is a heartful show full of equal parts charm and soul, and a weekly experience I will miss dearly.
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Dec 24, 2022
Bocchi the Rock!
(Anime)
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“If I were to write a review for Bocchi the Rock, I would become an upvote seeking monster! Like my review!”
- Hitori “Bocchi” Gotou. Bocchi the Rock is a master class of visual comedy. At first glance, this show looks like a fairly typical CGDCT comedy, without much of a budget at its disposal. Yet CloverWorks and the BtR team scraped together its resources and went absolutely sicko mode, turning it into something truly special. It is easily a contender for Anime of the Year and one of the greatest anime comedies of all time. Bocchi the Rock is about making social anxiety funny. Some of ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 25, 2022
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
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I have come to the unusual, confusing, and downright unfair conclusion that people who like bad anime like Cyberpunk Edgerunners. Naturally, people who like good anime will dislike Cyberpunk Edgerunners. Where did this completely unfounded conclusion come from? Edgerunners is wrought with common flaws that bring down a story; predictability, hurried pacing, and forced conflict. The cyberpunk genre has been done to death, and pretty much all of them tackle the same themes. Condense a high octane story in a rich setting into 10 episodes, then combine it with Trigger’s tendency to drop the ball in the later half of their stories, and you got
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a fun and colorful disaster on your hands. So why do I still like this show? Is it because I like bad anime?
Even though the answer is yes, the way I interpreted these cracks that would normally be fatally detrimental to any storyboard is that of unapologetic, powerful, and more than likely accidental thematic execution. Edgerunners wears its themes on its sleeve like a badge of honor. The animation for the opening theme pretty much spoils the whole show with the most “in your face” display of its themes possible. A silhouette of David, consisting of flashing images of his crew, angrily charges towards an enigmatic figure with flashing images of city buildings. The silhouette’s charge is soon proven to be in vain as it eventually starts disintegrating and is eventually killed. How incredibly futile and almost pitiful was the silhouette’s desperation. And that is pretty much what happens in the show. A very clear presentation of the show’s pessimistic message: You are just one dude in a city. With this in mind and with lots of mental gymnastics, it starts becoming uncanny how the multitude of flaws in Edgerunners actually helps with its thematic presentation. The too fast pacing that gives you no room to connect to the characters; that is indeed how that world works. The characters don’t get a break themselves, they are pretty much overworked by the script. The few scenes of reprise that the characters get feel hollow and meaningless, like one of Texhnolyze’s long shots of nothing at all. The extremely predictable story? The opening spoiling the entire show aside, predictability in a show like Edgerunners is achieved in a different way than in other predictable shows. For example, battle shounens are predictable because their methods of progressing the story are predictable. It has become tradition for shounen MC no.420 to progress from point A in the story to point B through the method of receiving some type of power up. Over the course of the story, you are predicting a constant influx of random bullshit being added as it progresses, but you aren’t predicting where the story is progressing are you? Here’s an example: In order for Gon to grab the pedo clown’s tag during the Hunter exam, he trains to conceal his presence like a true hunter stalking its prey. As predicted, he learns how to do it pretty quick, and as predicted this new skill allows him to progress from point A of not having pedo clown’s tag to point B of having pedo clown’s tag. BUT DID YOU PREDICT THE SHOW WOULD HAVE A PEDO CLOWN TO BEGIN WITH? Edgerunners’ predictability is like if Hunter X Hunter told you at the very beginning, “in this show watch Gon grab the pedo clown’s tag.” You are perpetually aware of what is going to happen. The common cyberpunk themes of technology making you lose your humanity WILL happen, and humanity’s illogical and unhealth obsession with becoming one with technology WILL continue and cause all these forced conflicts to happen. An ominous foretelling of the real world’s future many will say, but to me it’s an acceptance of one’s irrelevancy in the world’s affairs. “Shit happens.” It’s one of the best life lessons you can possibly learn. I won’t pretend my possibly pretentious interpretations excuse these flaws from the show’s quality. They definitely have negative impacts on the viewing experience, especially for those who look for actual quality stories to enjoy. The relationship between David and Lucy plays a major role in the conclusion’s emotional catharsis yet due to the pacing it is underexplored. The side characters may be granted likeable personalities but they mainly serve as catalysts for David’s descent towards hell, something that would’ve had more impact if they were fleshed out more. Being the gajillionth cyberpunk anime means the themes can feel corny for more seasoned watchers, yet the fast pace and lack of world exploration can make the setting feel overwhelming for people new to the genre and haven’t played the games. The visuals may be very impressive on average, and Trigger definitely went sicko mode at times, but there was some wacky looking CGI in a couple episodes. The execution of the actual cyberpunk themes is done in a very basic way with little substance and maturity. Even with cyberpsychosis being a prevalent element, being a cyborg is still depicted as cool and flashy. Whatever that thing Davis uses, Sandal something, holy shit does it allow him to do all sorts of wacky shenanigans. I won’t pretend I’m well versed in cyberpunk stories but being able to give yourself battle shounen powerups like this regardless of the psychological impact seems a bit ridiculous and society destroying. This show really isn’t that great. People who like bad anime will enjoy this show for its spectacle, the absurd amounts of violence, the tragic story and the emotional catharsis at the end. People who like anime that are “traditionally good” will not be able to deal with the domino effect that the pacing has on the story. So what the fuck happened to me? Well, I am definitely not a smart guy nor am I particularly sober at the moment but my strange experience with this show actually gave it quite the profound impact. The very possibility that this interpretation of Edgerunners might exist means that I am inclined to recommend this show to everyone as a thought experiment. This feeling, it’s akin to that slight satisfaction you get when you state the obvious. Sometimes it’s nice to remind yourself how life works.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 1, 2022
Lycoris Recoil
(Anime)
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Midcoris Recoil is probably one of the stupidest fucking shows I have ever watched. I would go into further detail on how absurdly lacking in intelligence this show is but I do not want this review nor my account to be reported for slur usage. It really doesn't have an excuse for being so brainless either. It's not a parody like Gintama, nor is it an embracement of its genre like Gurren Lagann or Heartcatch. Can cute girls participating in armed combat be considered a genre yet anyways? The only true explanation is that it's simply stupid, which means the only way to redeem this
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show is through presentation. Is it a charming, exhilarating, and entertaining type of stupid? Or does it eat glue?
Artistically there is a lot to love about Midcoris Recoil. The animation, character designs, background art, sound and special effects are as polished as modern anime can get, and it retains its quality for most of its run, although not all of it. Combat choreography is on point and full of impact, great camera angles catch the action clearly yet also support the chaotic nature of armed combat. During the slower slice of life segments, body language and facial expressions are animated beautifully, adding a lot of visual insight to the character interactions and their personalities. Solid voice acting adds nuance to what the characters are saying, and the ever so satisfying sounds of reloading guns and shell casings hitting the floor is the cherry on top for the action sequences. Your eyes and ears will really like this show. But one doesn't think with their eyes and ears. To think while watching this show is akin to writing MAL reviews; it'll get you nowhere. A story script as vapid and uninteresting as this one takes talent to write. That's not to say the story is predictable, even though it is. What will happen is predictable but how it happens isn't. Consider the story to be like the most convoluted parkour track ever. It is super obvious what Point A and Point B are, and even more obvious that the story will progress from Point A to Point B, but oh boy will there be a lot of monkeying around during that progression. Was it obvious that the attempt to rescue the hacker Walnut from assassination would be successful? Of course! But was it obvious that it was actually Mizuki in the squirrel costume and the real Walnut was some loli hiding in the suitcase? Maybe not as much, and it was a cool "oh huh" moment during the revelation. But in the end, the thing that was gonna happen happened. To dwell solely on the result rather than the journey is not my intention, as this episode was one of my favorite ones from the show. But the parkour stunts do not get better after this my friends. Had it remained as a show with predictable outcomes through unpredictable means, it would have been quite a good watch. Was it obvious that Chisato was going to get through pretty much every single obstacle thrown at her? No shit Sherlock, can't have the overpowered cute girl die on us! Was it obvious that Chisato and Majima would have not one, but two friendly chit chats and chill together despite being mortal enemies? Probably not, although it makes sense since both characters are mental nutcases. But these nutcases are simply too mental for the benefit of the plot. Perhaps the intent was to invoke some entertainment by having these two dissimilar yet similar idiots have a bonding moment instead of beating each other up. Perhaps the intent was to give the community an excuse to ship the two which is truly cringe. Unfortunately I couldn't help but facepalm at what seemed like a fever dream script making it into the story, and more fever dreams just kept showing up. How the Midcoris were able to continue hiding their organization, how the metal heart subplot was handled, the last few episodes in general were all truly nonsensical happenings that could only be explained by "everyone is really just THAT stupid." I personally do not have a high opinion of the human race but when you paint the masses as being that incapable it really makes you wonder why the Midcoris even bother protecting them. I am not even going to try to discuss the improbability of the setting in general. As stated earlier, the show has probably one of the stupidest "general publics" in media history. Just the idea of a secret military organization consisting of cute schoolgirls that still stand out in public despite school uniforms supposedly being good urban camouflage is idiotic enough, let alone their ability to actually stay secret. No one is gonna defend this anyways so no point. Now that I have affirmed in my head that all the characters, including the main ones, are dimwitted imbeciles, you know what time it is! That's right, main character reviews! You already know my opinions on the two losers, and it only makes sense that I think these two are pretty good and likeable. Once you realize that Chisato is mentally ill, you realize just how well her weird outlook on life and decisions she makes in the story fit her. She WOULD be the type to just chillax and drink soda with the terrorist she's trying to beat the shit out of, that's just how she is. Her diamond clad determination to stick to her ideals 100% of the time even when we the audience would really wish she hadn't is a testament to her messed up brain, and everything about her personality from her annoying friendliness to her "no kill pls" mentality is consistent to her character. When she denounced her talent as an Alan child even though her life was on the line and her partner was desperately trying to save her, that moment albeit frustrating was 100% in character for Chisato. You could say it means Chisato has no character development, and well you'd be correct great job! Takina is the polar opposite of Chisato. In contrast to Chisato, an obnoxious illogical extrovert who couldn't give a damn, Takina is the deadpan logical introvert who has a lot of damns to give. Her initial goal of rejoining DA is ever so predictably trashed due to her getting all fuzzy inside interacting with her braindead partner. Much like Chisato, her decisions throughout the story remain consistent to her character. Her quips are snappy and her tendency to make decisive decisions with results in mind is very like her. She knows what is important to her and will do what she deems to be right in order to achieve the results she wants. While this general mentality of her never changes, unlike Chisato she does go through some major development when it comes to lifestyle, everyday personality, and what she considers important to her. You could say it's the super predictable ice queen warming up to others that we've seen like a bajillion times already, and well you'd be correct great job! How does our lovely duo interact with each other? Quite well, their relationship feels genuine and progresses quite naturally. It's a classic dynamic and it works here as well, the slow slice of life moments are a nice break from the nonsensical bullshit that is the main plot. However I really wish the show would actually focus on this rather than sprinkle it between the cracks of a broken story. I would normally say that the show was never about the plot and it was always about the interactions of Chisato and Takina but there's simply not a high enough ratio of it compared to the story for me to convincingly say that. The major supporting characters and the main villains? I feel like I'm a broken record at this point. They're stupid. If they aren't stupid it's because they are forgettable. How can a master hacker be stupid? I dunno, ask the master hacker who does her hacking using the plane monitors and announces all her hacking commands out loud in a public space. Luckily for her, everyone else is too stupid to notice. Overall this show was a fun enjoyable mess but critically speaking I just can't get over how idiotic it is. This review serves as a really big disclaimer to please, PLEASE, I beg of you, do NOT turn on your brain for this show. Just have fun with the pretty colors and cool action sequences and peeposmile a bit when a funny happens.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Nov 4, 2019 Not Recommended
"Check this; once upon a time, Oregairu and the Monogatari series had an unwanted child. Traumatized by what had occurred, Monogatari fled, leaving Oregairu as a single mother. Eventually, Monogatari found out that Oregairu had been sleeping with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and even had a one night stand with Kokoro Connect. He took one look at the child, and realized that he looked a bit like all of his possible parents. However, realizing that no matter who the real father was, he had some incredible genes passed into him. With a smile, he walked away, knowing the child would grow up to do
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incredible things. That child then proceeded to grow up and accomplish nothing."
"Sounds awful." - Two random guys on the internet. Jokes aside, comparing Bunny Girl Senpai to its predecessors or even straight up calling it a carbon copy rip off is an overdone meme at this point. After all, it clearly didn't copy any semblance of good execution, or any deep and fleshed out characters. All Bunny Girl Senpai did was cram a lot of content and ideas into a 13 episode show, and with anime accelerating its advancement into the main stream around the time of its airing, Bunny Girl Senpai is the first experience that the majority of new anime fans have with this sort of show, and you can't really blame them for being impressed with all of these themes placed in front of them. *There's mild spoilers.* As it goes without saying for this type of show, the characters make or break the entire experience. They are the story, they are the atmosphere, they are backbone, muscle, and skin. They are the contributors of the beginning, middle, and end, and they are also the receivers. So it's quite obvious that the characters are what drag this show down. Surface level likability is fine and all but sticking to it is shallow and leaves little room for any development. Thankfully, Mr. Sakuta is anything but likeable. You ready for a hot take? Sakuta is kind of an ass. Imagine finding this teensie little short kouhai hiding under a desk, she's stuck in a time loop and is clearly confused, distraught, and upset. This is only your second time meeting her, your first meeting consisting of actually kicking her butt full power, so first impressions aren't exactly in your favor. So clearly the best thing to do in this situation is call her useless and snatch away her phone, which also happens to be her strongest stress reliever, like some sort of tiger mom angry that her son didn't get an A on the recent biology exam. Truly through these incredible displays of showmanship and charm is the cute little kouhai really able to trust you. And she does! Well, not like Sakuta was set up to be some charmer and nice guy anyways. He's clearly the dry "omg so savage" type. His responses to anything that annoys him are lines that a middle schooler would imagine in his head that he would've said to his bully if he could rewind time. That's right, it's wish fulfillment savagery. He's the "I would've totally been like that guy" character that all the outcasts daydream about, except they never become that guy because newsflash; people don't act like that. And it's pretty obvious that's all there is to Sakuta's character, which makes in cringey instead of cool. It feels immature, it feels like fan fiction. He's anti social but he's also very socially adjustable and interacts with people no problem when he isn't being an ass, he's so cool that a simple "NO U" deters all aggressors. Mai Sakurajima is the perfect girl that can do no wrong. She's able to deal with Sakuta and aid him, has a flawless body and knows it, is multi talented and able to do anything and everything asked of her. She's super nice, there's nothing really unlikable about her. For a lack of a better term, she's "flawless." Well, the truth about Mai is that she's the safe girl. The show doesn't so much make her as likable as possible, more so it tries to make her as unhateable as possible. They took no risks with her character, she's essentially the same flawless self from beginning to end. She's inhuman, there's no room for a genuinely deep connection to her character. All she has is the surface level likability and that she's a dream girl people wish would exist in real life. Her dialogue with Sakuta is commonly referred to as the best part of the show, yet its fairly basic back and forths as well being pretty repetitive. They talk about their relationship and the current events of whatever arc they are in, it rambles on to Sakuta saying something lewd and/or Mai berating him or stepping on him, rinse and repeat. Tomoe is the most human of the cast, and thus wins the arbitrary title of best girl. She isn't trapped to the confines of just being a likable waifu, she deals with actual problems that bring out a flawed side to her, something for her to work on. She has room for genuine attachment and is someone you could possibly want to root for, and her arc is arguably one of the better aspects of the show, even when its just Endless Eight Lite Edition. Even so, the way her development played out ended up less about her getting over her problems and more about her getting attached to her senpai, which then so happened to solve her problems as a side effect. Love can solve all sorts of things, its just that my suspension of disbelief is at risk when Tomoe is probably the most common victim of Sakuta's shenanigans. He's just mean to her a lot of the time, even if you justify it as "he's just joking, and they are friends," they haven't been friends for long and the things he says to her are just downright creepy and/or rude. A few minutes later, Sakuta is throwing all of his pride into the ground just to help her. Well at least this time, he was being an asshole to an even bigger asshole, so that evens it out I guess? Still quite the display of inconsistency on Sakuta's part. Oh yeah, the opening skit mentioned a bunch of supernatural shows, there's a supernatural element to this show, correct? Indeed there is. Surely there is some sort of explanation for it, correct? Indeed there is, this show presents its supernatural phenomenon with the bullshittery that is Rio. She's this girl in glasses and the only member of the science club, who likes books and is anti social, so she's obviously smart! So logically, the best way to explain these supernatural phenomenon is to pretentiously lecture us about quantum mechanics and physics and all these totally not pseudoscience conclusions about these unexplained supernatural occurrences. Also if you couldn't tell, I was joking. These supernatural phenomenon are not explained at all! Not like it necessarily needs to be, but when it results in padding episode time with unnecessary bullshit explanations, even though the quantum mechanic stuff Rio brings up isn't even anything particularly advanced, all to paint this girl as super smart and reliable, I'd rather the show just come out and say that its all weird teenage magical powers. "Haruhi is actually god!" See, that was easy. Doesn't help that Rio herself is also insanely bland as a character, as a large portion of her screen time outside her own arc is just her playing this "scientific" crap. Her personality is somehow even more nap inducing than Sakuta's. I'll admit, I'm still a sentimental boi who's able to get emotional at all the arcs of a show such as this, even if I am bashing on it quite heavily. Well, all the arcs except Rio's. In the end, the lack of impact that her arc brought to the table was due to how they treated her throughout the story before that, just a boring "smart" girl totally "explaining" the plot with quantum mechanics that everyone either already knew about or couldn't care less about. Nodoka is also a fairly human character, relatively speaking that is. In the end, all she really has is the most basic form of inferiority complex. She's not as good as her sister, all she wants is for her mother to praise her instead of just her sister, you know the deal. What else does she have other than this basic plot point that has been done to death over and over? Well uh, she's an idol I guess? There's basically nothing else to latch onto. Her arc was also concluded rather anti-climatically, it felt like it essentially went nowhere. All we know is that apparently Mai and Nodoka are on better terms, except we don't see the effect that this fix in their relationship has as Nodoka is essentially shelved for the rest of the series, much like every girl except for Mai is after their arc. Kaede is melodrama porn. They really just said "fuck it, let's just try to make people cry over dumb shit again" with her arc. The gimmick of her arc is that she's trying to fulfill a set of wishes and goals before a certain "end" that I will not go into detail. Hmm, maybe Angel Beats should join the opening skit? Either way, this sort of thing definitely has the potential for a massive emotional punch at the end, it's a classic technique of building up the happiness meter so that you can smash it at the end to make everyone cry. Unfortunately, Kaede's arc takes shortcuts. A lot of Kaede's goals are just skimmed over, and the ones that do take the spotlight only have their progress marked by the date going forward and Sakuta narrating "and the next day, she did this." When Kaede gets near the end of her list, she still feels like the exact same character, as if she never developed at all. All they did was change the scenery and the reason why she's here is because Sakuta told you in his narration. Then the big twist happens, and all of a sudden the normally dry Sakuta is wet as hell, crying his damn eyes out. For what exactly? We barely saw what happened. Sakuta is crying because he's the big brother so it makes sense, but why should we cry? We'd only cry because seeing Sakuta cry is a break in character and thus "extra sad boi hours" but we weren't exposed to the proper build up of the arc. The arc was essentially told, not shown. This is not how you successfully write good melodrama. Doesn't help that they also shoehorned a dumb "it's just a misunderstanding" drama tidbit alongside it for basically no reason. At the end of the day, despite the bad writing and execution, Bunny Girl Senpai still has a load of stuff in it. And with a load of stuff, there's going to be at least some moments or aspects that make the show watchable. Tomoe wasn't a bad character, sometimes Sakuta can be kind of amusing when he wants to be, the character designs are great, and the soundtrack is nice. Sure there's also stuff like those goddamn CGI crowds and cars that stick out like a sore thumb, but after watching so many crappy japanese cartoons you get used to it. It's got a lot of themes and ideas while not being hard to understand, which is appreciable. It is definitely not an intolerable experience, and has things to like, especially for newer anime fans. Just keep it away from me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jan 5, 2018 Recommended
DISCLAIMER: A kinda spoilery review that kind of touches on the entire anime series, but of course focuses on YuYuYu season 2. Also yes, I call this anime series weird names, it’s fun.
Yuuki Yuuna is a Filthy Casual, and so am I. I keep telling myself that I hate shows that are predictable, and resort to using friendship powers as a way out and having characters repeating the same cheesy lines over and over again. Yuuki Yuuna is a Filthy Casual has plenty of that, yet for some reason, this series manages to find a way deep inside my heart. However, this season of YuYuYu showed ... me that actually, I’m not a hypocrite: Yuuki Yuuna is a Filthy Casual somehow uses these normally unsavory tropes… well. How is that possible? When viewing Yuuki Yuuna is a Filthy Casual season 1 by itself, it feels like nothing more than a poorly conceived, mediocre shounen series under the guise of mahou shoujo. There was plenty to be mad at: use of lewd fanservice in the transformation scenes instead of embracing the cute side of it, very poor and yelly action scenes that had characters chant their moves (HERO PUNCH!!), and one of those endings that had you like HUH? What a half assed way to go! It wasn’t really until the prequel series, Washio Sumi is a Fuckin Elitist, came out when I, and many others, started to grasp the good qualities that this series had, as well as explanations as to why Yuuki Yuuna is a Filthy Casual seemed so… casual. The truth was… we didn’t know shit. YuYuYu didn’t tell us shit. The YuYuYu franchise has an extremely ominous and mysterious lore behind it, so mysterious and unknown to the general audience that hardcore YuYuYu fans would view the events of the anime completely differently from the rest of us. Upon getting to know the lore and context behind the events of the YuYuYu season 1, we now know that the apparently overly hopeful and cheesy events of YuYuYu were actually hiding copious amounts of despair and tragedy within them, despair that we didn’t even suspect was there in the first place. Washio Sumi is a Fuckin Elitist highlighted this despair perfectly, and Yuuki Yuuna is a Filthy Casual season 2 built off of it tremendously well. All of this was a result of something that I always thought YuYuYu pulled off well ever since episode 1 of season 1: character interactions! No, YuYuYu characters aren’t really interesting. They are quite simple actually. However, they are all 100% believable: Yes, even the legendary hero who destroyed her own bodily functions 20 times in order to save the world is believable (and she’s also a riot to watch, KAGAWA LIFE!) Despite the impossible situations that these girls somehow manage to get through, they all act like normal girls their age. They like to make goofy jokes, they have understandable misunderstandings and are a bit selfish without knowing about it, they are just normal people, hero or otherwise. And while it seems a bit cheesy to say so, the fact that they are able to go through such hardships IS DUE TO THEIR FRIENDSHIP. Believe it or not, having good friends DOES help in getting through hardships, even in real life! However, it is through the flaws in their relationship where these characters shine: episode 5 is the true example of that. Even though these girls definitely care about each other, they still end up destroying each other’s feelings, just like real friends do. And it all seems… real somehow. Yuuki Yuuna, the titular filthy casual of the series, is probably the most normal main character ever made. Loud, energetic, and obnoxious as fuck, her tendency to spout friendship speeches and chant her moves out loud makes her the epitome of annoying shounen protagonist. YuYuYu season 2 changes this however, adding layers of selfishness and misguided self righteousness into the mix, making her a genuinely flawed and internally conflicted character. She isn’t perfect by any means, as her usual skill of reading the mood and acting accordingly fails multiple times and she unintentionally hurts her friend’s feelings over and over again. Of course, there was nothing she can do about it, and that’s because unlike other shounen protagonists, Yuuki Yuuna can’t do everything. Here is where YuYuYu utilizes the "chanting the same line over and over again" trope pretty well. Season 1 had Yuuki Yuuna chanting the hero tenants as a way of powering up, in typical shounen fashion. In this season, Yuuki Yuuna chanting the hero tenants was actually enforcing her self righteous ideals as a hero, which is what caused her to hurt her friends in the first place: it is through her mentality that benefited her in the first season that ended up causing a lot of the conflict in the second season. I thought that twist behind Yuuki Yuuna's ideals was pretty well done on YuYuYu's part. Yuuki Yuuna is a Filthy Casual always suffered a bit in the art department, something that wasn’t improved on much in this season. The character designs are fine, some of the background art is pretty neat or creative, but it’s the incredibly obvious switch to CG during action scenes that just make my blood boil. Of course, YuYuYu was never really about the action, it was always about the slice of life moments and the drama, but since almost all of the drama climaxes and resolutions involve action in some sort of way, the distracting CG plays a role in devaluing what YuYuYu was already infamous for being bad at. However, most of that is made up for the, in my opinion, absolutely beautiful soundtrack. The melancholic, yet somehow epic soundtrack with soothing vocals. Does the name “NieR” sound familiar? This type of OST suits YuYuYu so well, as it perfectly matches the general vibe of the show: extremely melancholic and sad, on a scale of epic and godlike proportions. It is the soundtrack above anything else that hypes the viewer up for the ultimate climaxes in the story. And what a climax it was: Yuuki Yuuna is a Filthy Casual season 2’s 5th episode set up the girls in quite literally the most impossible of impossible situations to get out of. It was set up in a way where the only two options were to save the world or save a friend. In typical YuYuYu fashion, both were saved in the end through the power of friendship, HOWEVER, it’s always the thought that counts. While the rest of the hero club were trying to save Yuuna, the fate of the world was simply in the back of their minds, which clearly showed that these girls prioritize their friend over the world no matter what. They even state to us directly that a world reliant on human sacrifice wasn’t worth saving. This decision to save their friend at the cost of the world, even if the world is saved anyways, shows us a lot about this group of friends, and thus I wasn’t as disappointed at the ending of this season as I was with season 1. And of course, in typical YuYuYu fashion again, we still don’t know the whole picture yet, and thus another sequel is likely going to happen. The opening of YuYuYu season 2 even shows us a little snippet of the characters of NoWaYu, aka Nogi Wakaba is an Anime Reviewer, which is a story about the first ever heroes. This will probably get an anime adaptation, which will expose another secret of the world of YuYuYu, which will then get expanded on further in another season of YuYuYu. In short, despite the expected seemingly cop out ending of this season, the way Washio Sumi is a Fuckin Elitist paved way for this season of Yuuki Yuuna is a Filthy Casual, as well as how there is another prequel that has the potential to flesh out the lore of this world even more to be used in another sequel, combined with how the ending of this season had the main characters make an important decision that defines them as characters, I am extremely excited to see where this series can go in the future. But wherever it goes, expect a happy ending! After all, Yuuki Yuuna is a Filthy Casual.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 30, 2017
Love Live! Sunshine!! 2nd Season
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
*DISCLAIMER: A very unorganized and SOMEWHAT SPOILERY "review" of Sunshine s2 which might ruin your viewing experience, so I'll just say "you're welcome" in advance for saving your time.
The Love Live franchise has a knack for being the defier of expectations. Those who go into the series expecting nothing but cancer usually end up taking something positive from the experience. Those who go in expecting happy rainbows and sunshine only get slapped in the face with the cold reality that is School Idol Hell. Love Live Sunshine s2 is no exception to this rule, for what was set up to be potentially the greatest installment ... in the Love Live anime series ended up being one of the greatest disappointments I've yet to come across. If Love Live Sunshine had one major step up from its predecessor, it would be how it utilizes subtlety. Very rarely does the show tell you how the characters have developed, and if it does, it gives a great presentation to back it up. Love Live Sunshine actually uses the performances of the girls as ways to show you how much the characters have improved: how the choreography slowly improves from performance to performance, how the amount of band aids Chika has increases from scene to scene. There was no need to state the obvious, or to show Chika getting injured: all of that was inferred through some great shots of Chika just trying her best. Did I just give Love Live subtlety points? SORRY GOTTA TAKE THOSE RIGHT BACK because at the same time, Love Live falls back into its old habit of friendship speeches, slow motion eureka jumping moments, repeating the same cheesy lines over and over again, and other tactics to not so subtly remind you that this is a show about friendship! Love live teaches you that you can't solve your problems by shouting into the distance or giving your computer screen your patented GLARE OF DETERMINATION! Instead, shit goes south. Chika goes through a massive identity crisis, hinted through her subtle mannerisms and facial expressions. How is it fixed? By having the entire school yell at her! Through sentimental speeches thrown from floor to rooftop! Do you see the problem? Love Live always sets up these plot points with so much potential: the subtle build up, psychological conflict, and with minimal exposition and drag. Only for it all to be resolved with the usual cheesy sentimental monologues or speeches that make you cringe. There are so many opportunities for these resolutions to occur through the same methods as the build up, but noooooo let's have people yelling their solutions while jumping in slow motion, or have the entire fucking school somehow spit out the entire solution to the problem! These cheap resolutions are buzzkills and lazy lazy lazy ways of resolving drama. Oh course, I won't pretend that Love Live Sunshine s2 is the only installment in this series that has this problem: season 1 had plenty of it, and the OG series too. However, what the OG series did was leave room for potential and improvement, and it actually took the opportunity to improve on a lot of the flaws that it had. This was why season 2 of the original was a drastic improvement, and I can even full heartedly call it good. Love Live Sunshine set up the same opportunity for its sequel to do the same, if not even more. With the way it builds up, it seemed promising at first, but it just devolves back into the same exact thing that made people so critical of the series in the first place. Changes in directorial styles are nice, but there needs to be some consistency. Love Live Sunshine was commonly criticized for being too similar to its predecessor, and while I agree to some extent, my greatest praise for Sunshine was always how Sunshine felt like a sequel to School Idol Project as much as School Idol Project felt like a prequel to Sunshine. To me, there is no one over the other, there is no battle between Aqours and Muse. They exist together under the Love Live banner, as they should. This was due to how the recycled plot points are used as ways to develop Aqours differently than Muse, and how even though both anime series tackle the same themes, each series usually prioritizes one over the other, or they tackle the theme a different way. For example, Sunshine has more emphasis on the girls actually trying to improve as idols, and this is actually expressed fairly well through the slow improvement of choreography presented in the concert scenes. This contrasts School Idol Project's emphasis on the girls bracing for when they have to disband, something that Sunshine still touches on but not as heavily as School Idol Project. While School Idol Project dedicated more episodes to the fate of Muse, Sunshine spent less time on that theme but featured more dynamic and hardcore methods of exploring that theme, featuring a FUCKING FLYING VAN, lots of cheesy group cheering and crying. Whilst School Idol Project took the more subtle approach on the passage of time by showing the girls doing slice of life shenanigans through timed events, Sunshine brought out the big guns immediately by making the girls taste failure and fly vehicles into the moon. Unfortunately, Sunshine s2 did this pretty poorly as flying vans and having the entire school chant Aqours over and over again isn't a very effective way to convey this message. When the hard hitting, tear inducing, heart pounding, and hope brimmed scenes actually make you laugh your ass off, you know that something is wrong. The characters of Love Live are the defining factor and also hold the most potential for growth and change. And yet, some things never change. Yoshiko's comedic antics now are about as funny as they were back then (in other words, not at all.) Yoshiko also still had pitiful development. As you can probably tell, one of my biggest hopes for this season was for Yoshiko to finally get some satisfying development. Needless to say, I ain't satisfied. But some things do change, and they are pretty nice. Dia's arc about wanting to be called "Dia-chan" was light hearted and fun, no unneeded sappiness, just satisfying fluff. Hanamaru turned her sass level all the way up, she ain't holding back anymore. Ruby had an entire arc dedicated to her growing independence in a way that also contributed to the whole "Aqours probs gonna disband" plot point. Did this save her from being worst girl? Nah, but it was still a nice touch. Meanwhile, Kanan actually had some screen time this time around. Riko too gained a decent amount of screen time and her personality was more fleshed out. Chika changed from a happy go lucky "I can do anything" character to one with genuine psychological conflicts, similar to the change granted to Honoka. But in order to grant these characters some quality of life buffs, some other characters gotta be gutted into the ground. Take Watanabe You for example. Formerly an irreplaceable asset and fan favorite of the Love Live Sunshine story line, she was demoted into legitimately the most useless character ever conceived. Even Umi, the sociopathic queen of underdevelopment can't hold a finger to just how absolutely useless You was during this season. If you took her out of the show, nothing would change. This just proves that Sunrise just has no respect for the best girl. An instant flunk! Love Live Sunshine s2, you get a 1/10 for FAILURE! Is what I would say if they didn't give Sakurauchi Riko, the next best thing, a lot of fluff. The dog episode featuring our homie Sakurauchi Riko is not only the best episode of the season, but one of the best episodes of the entire franchise, rivaling the legendary episode 5 of Love Live School Idol Project s2. But one good episode isn't going to sway my consensus that is Love Live Sunshine s2 may be the worst season of love live to date, if not at least comparable to the mess that is season 1 of the original. So how does Love Live's sound quality fair for this new installment? Mirai no Bokura wa Shitteru yo is, in my opinion of course, the best OP that Love Live has to offer, not only on a song quality basis but on a directorial basis as well. It perfectly encapsulates the energetic yet melancholic strive to shine that defines Love Live Sunshine. The sparkling light in the beginning that shines down on the members of Aqours also fits the shooting star motif that's commonly brought up throughout the show. Similarly, the ED is definitely a top tier ED, but that is to be expected from Love Live EDs. The seiyuus are splendid as always: I'm a pretty big fan of the Love Live seiyuu scene, especially the Aqours members. I probably like them more than the series itself. When it comes to OST and insert songs, it's a pretty hit or miss experience. There is one piece in the soundtrack (you know the one) that is constantly played during the melodramatic scenes. While the piece by itself is pretty nice I guess, combined with the already over the top scenes in slow motion and tears that probably took half of the animation budget, it's safe to say that the OST played a big role as to why Sunshine is way too sappy. The insert songs hold a similar problem. Whether or not you like them is down to preference, but as I stated before: I liked how Sunshine used the concert scenes to show the improvement of Aqours when it came to choreography. What I didn't mention is how weirdly weaved in one particular piece of choreography was, that being the Chika cart wheel flip move. A whole episode of build up was dedicated to that one move, yet it was transitioned in so badly during the concert scene, it felt more anticlimactic than anything else, oddly placed with no satisfying transition into and out of the concert scene. Another prime example of decent build up with pitiful pay off. Yes, Chika is finally able to do the move, but her ability to do it was triggered by more friendship speeches and an unsatisfying transition. What does this have to do with the insert song? There was no good timing to insert the transition, and the song they used is somewhat at fault for that too. You may be saying: Yuni, why are you subjecting this random idol anime to unnecessarily high standards and potential that you probably just made up on your own? No one told you to expect a masterpiece, and you shouldn't anally shreck an anime for not being what you expected! I'm just sad that what could have been done right HAS been done right before in the past, so why not now when the possibilities are greater than ever? Love Live is all about change and growth. Love Live Sunshine s2 achieves this change and growth but through the worst ways possible. There's literally an entire episode of build up where the 9 girls inner monologue how they have changed throughout the series. There's no implications, no subtlety, just the girls directly stating "oh becoming an idol did this to me." Similarly, the interactions between the girls evolved only very slightly, not at all, or only evolved heavily after major events and get reset somehow. The slight changes in character interactions where a measure to the development of the characters during the original series, and it's missing or played badly in Sunshine, which is a darn shame. Only a select few characters had a little bit of spice added to their interactions, like Zuramaru and Riko. Sure, this season may have delivered the growth that everyone wanted, but it was done in the least satisfying way possible, a sure cause for disappointment to me, the only one around who actually had such high hopes for a lowly idol anime called Love Live! Sunshine!! Ah yes, and my updated order of Aqours members is: *sigh* It's Pronounced "Yoh" > Rick > Hannah Mahroo > I wanna Dia > Yohane Sebastian Bach > Kanan you not? > Mary > Kan Kan Mikan’t > Gangstarooby
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Sep 11, 2017
Owari no Seraph
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
Owari no Still Frames isn't even close to being the end of still frames, it's got more still frames than you can shake a Fairy Tail guild tattoo at.
Commonly referred to as a gayer version of Twilight, Owari no Seraph is a popcorn show where by the end of it all, the popcorn is the only thing you remember. Generic in every sense of the word, it's impressive how non-hype this series can be at times. Wasn't this supposed to be about slaying vampires? Humanity is in danger, war is everywhere, people are dying left and right! Even if the story sucks, something like this ... should at least be mildly entertaining, yet you know something is wrong when the most entertaining aspect of the show is the sarcastic wit of a midget. Story: Without even diving into the actual story, Owari no Seraph's setting itself is just... I don't know. Why is there a virus? Why does it not affect kids? Why does a vampire noble who is later shown to be completely overpowered get taken by surprise by a kid? How does a kid who got pierced right through the chest not get instantly killed when other kids instantly die from seemingly less extreme injuries? How is a kid able to trot his way towards the exit of the vampire camp when vampires are clearly shown to be much faster? The inconsistency of this story's own setting is mindnumbingly hilarious, yet the inconsistency of said world somehow didn't make the story any less predictable. Now that's an oxymoron to end them all. I went into Owari no Seraph 100% spoiler free, yet I predicted the events of episode 1 with no problem at all. I mean come on. A bunch of kids overly preachy about the whole family aspect, the main kid, normally angsty and anti social, finally accepts the idea that he has a family, smartass yet dumbass blonde friend plans an escape as a family, they are all happy and excited to escape as a family until OH BOY they are finally about to reach the exit! If you can't imagine what happens next, well I don't know what to tell you. After that whole fiasco, main character is the only one to escape, and low and behold, humans are right outside to greet him and, get this, the main officer Guren says that the PROPHECY came true. Yeah, you read that right. The PROPHECY of a kid escaping the vampire camp, this kid is the chosen one! Of course once you get to know Guren's character, you realize that it is very possible that he was just being a sarcastic git like usual, yet this would also mean that he had absolutely no reason to just randomly be there with minimal amount of soldiers in front of a massive vampire camp. So either way, it's a lose-lose dumb-dumb situation. Queue the time skip, and we see our dumb protagonist being dumb and then being put into a goddamn high school situation. Even this part is predictable. Main character ends up sitting near the window, shenanigans ensue, it becomes a high school romcom for a few episodes. Then, we get to the demon contracting part, which is determined by... willpower. Wow, I am really feeling the hype! If I were to give any sort of credit where it is due, it's that Owari no Seraph doesn't drag itself out as much as other shows of its nature do. I'm looking at you, Attack on Titan. The whole reunion of Yuu and Mika was something that everyone was looking forward to, and while yes the story did delay this reunion with some sort of side mission that had basically no impact on the story or character progression, when the main event did happen, it happened. There was no flashback to the past or any bullshit like that, something that AoT was quite fond of, hell, there wasn't even a minor episode recap on that episode. It cut right to the action. Shows of this nature have the tendency to drag out the pacing with unnecessary flashbacks, character monologues, or other filler, or straight up delay the entire event to another arc in order to "leave the viewers on the edge of their seats." Thankfully, Owari no Seraph did minimal time wasting, and the event itself was definitely one of the better ones in the story as well. Art and Animation: Oh man, a huge battle is about to happen. Vampires and humans draw their weapons, they glare at each other, the command to attack is given, and then BOOM! Right into a still frame! The sounds of swords clashing in the background continue as BOOM! Another still frame! Oh, but they added the "intense anime lines" special effects to let you know that they are indeed battling. Owari no Still Frames denies its viewers the hype they crave with some of the most inconsistent animation and art in the world. The animation had moments of goodness. The first spar between Shinoa and Yuu had impact, choreography, and cool special effects. Well, that's all and good right? WRONG, because Shinoa's character design becomes a scrunched up piece of shit as a result! Please Owari no Still Frames, why you gotta give us one over the other? Not to mention, this fight probably has the best animation quality and choreography in the entirety of the first season, yet it's a spar on top of a fucking high school. Meanwhile, the massive battles between the army and the vampires are essentially just manga panels with sound effects. It's a shame that the hype never fully delivers, and the animation and art had something to do with that. At their best, the art and character designs are pretty good though, however they don't really seem to fit the backgrounds. The backgrounds look like paintings, and the characters clearly stand out and not in a good way. It makes it feel like an unprofessional work. However, they aren't grating to the eyes in any way, but of course, that is only when the artwork and character designs are at their best. Sound: For such a hype machine that Hiroyuki Sawano is, his compositions for Owari no Seraph are very mellow in comparison. While many associate his Owari no Seraph soundtrack as one of his weakest as a result, I think it actually kind of fits the hypeless plot of Owari no Seraph in an ironic way. Owari no Seraph is more somber than it is epic, and the more mellow orchestration of its soundtrack kind of supports that feeling. Of course, that means that when it is supposed to get hypey, the soundtrack leaves more to be desired. However, it is still a fairly good listening experience, and the OP is hella catchy as well. On the side of seiyuu things, they are all very good. Their performances all give the viewers a general sense of their character's personality without it being directly stated. For example, you can easily tell that Ferid is the playful yet sinister type and that Crowley is the calm one with a sense of curiosity just by their voice, even before their actions make it obvious. Also hats off to Shinoa's seiyuu for a sassy voice so teasing that it even makes me mad at the character. Characters: First of all, I want to give a shout out to our obnoxious midget Hiiragi Shinoa, the proud winner of my "Favorite Character from my Least Favorite Anime" award! Her sass, her reasoning behind why she is so sassy, not to mention her overall aesthetic of being a badass scythe wielder are all things I can get behind. She's basically one massive middle finger to the usual generic-ness of Owari no Seraph, and I appreciate that more than anything. Congrats Owari no Seraph, you've been saved from an even lower score in the character department and enjoyment department by your lovely yet piece of shit loli. As for the rest of the characters, they are tropes and nothing else. I'm pretty sure everyone knows this, but Yuu is just Eren Jaeger 2.0, and it's not like Eren Jaeger was all that special as a character either. He starts off being the most unlikeable edgy loser who hates people and wants to kill vampires, and nothing else. His friends are Yoichi, a shy guy. What else is he besides a shy guy? Who knows, and who cares? There's also Kimizuki, a male tsundere. What else is he besides a male tsundere? Who knows, and who cares? There are 2 other characters besides Shinoa who hold a shred of interesting qualities. Mika is the deteuragonist, and he is definitely at least way more interesting than Yuu. (Hell, even the Owari no Seraph specials blatantly point out how Mika is way more interesting, as well as how marketable Shinoa is. This is why the Owari no Seraph specials are a masterpiece.) Anyways, he still suffers from inconsistency, especially in his IQ in the first episode. He's a smartass for even planning such a complex strategy to escape, but he's also a dumbass for doing so. There is a scene where he shows extreme compassion for humans when he is a vampire, yet he is still depicted as untrusting and disgusted by humans. Yeah, he's probably just psychologically conflicted due to his circumstances, yet the unfathomability of his circumstances make me just not care. The other interesting one is Guren, for he is one of the only characters that has more about him hidden than what meets the eye. I can tell that there is some juicy back story behind his morals and overall personality, something which I hope gets expanded on in the second season. Enjoyment: Because Shinoa existed, I can't call Owari no Seraph boring by any means. It's dumb and brainless, and nowhere near the most enjoyable anime in the world, but it's also not the most boring thing either. However, while it has moments of mild entertainment once in a while, it lacks any sort of satisfaction, which means I can't recommend this show to anyone without feeling like a time wasting monster afterwards. Overall: Simply put, it's a time waster, but it has Shinoa, so go for it I guess. I can also see it being enjoyable for someone who is brand new to anime, as they aren't as cynical about tropes as the rest of us.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Mar 31, 2017
Texhnolyze
(Anime)
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Recommended
Texhnolyze joins Neon Genesis Evangelion, Serial Experiments Lain, Ghost in the Shell, and Ergo Proxy as another supposedly thematically heavy sci-fi show that has a massive split between those who think it’s a masterpiece and those who think it’s pretentious garbage, and the reasons behind the split are similar to these shows as well. When determining a show’s quality, people take different things into consideration and order their priorities differently, such as a show’s viewing experience and a show’s substance. Texhnolyze falls into the category of having a fairly difficult viewing experience as a result of being packed to the brim with psychological aspects and
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themes, yet it is also these faults in the viewing experience that lead to faults in getting these would be amazing themes across. Texhnolyze boasts some of the least amount of consistency when it comes to the viewing experience, with some episodes being the some of the most tightly written and genuinely enthralling episodes in the medium, while some other episodes you can barely remember upon finishing them. Texhnolyze simultaneously disappoints and satisfies the viewer with its inconsistent yet powerful story.
Is Texhnolyze boring? One thing that I’ve heard many people complain about is how the first 3/4th of the show is a snorefest, full of random shots of nothing. I personally didn’t find Texhnolyze to be as boring as others say it is, but for all the wrong reasons. The things that grabbed my attention first during my watch of Texhnolyze was how Ichise would always punch girls he was having sex with, and I found it highly humorous. Also, I would always snicker whenever Ichise would fall down the stairs, which happens a lot. However, I ended up genuinely enjoying the show, but there were many moments in the show that left me scratching my head in confusion. Not because the show is 2deep4me to understand, but because… why did that person ride a motorcycle straight into a car? Did he really expect the car to stop? Why are these obviously important people walking down a dark street with no protection, especially if conflicts between the groups are commonplace and isn’t uncommon to get shot with no warning? Whenever a show adds fuel to a fire, I always prefer it to add real organic wood, yet Texhnolyze sometimes adds in the cheap man made shit you find in Costco. (My analogies are weird, I know.) For Texhnolyze, the world is the story. The city of Lux (or Lukuss, whatever you wanna call it) is a dystopia so depressing, you wonder why humanity hasn’t gone extinct yet. Despite the extremely weird mindsets and actions some of the characters take, the world still feels like it could exist somehow. Many people believe that a show with such a high sci-fi setting would mean such a story wouldn’t be able to exist. After all, wouldn’t a sci-fi world result in less opportunities for human deaths? Well, it’s the complete opposite for Texhnolyze. Unlike other sci-fi dystopian settings, the technology in Texhnolyze is so underdeveloped, it actually feels like it takes place way back in the past. Texhnolyzation is such an experimental and crude technology, it’s questionable as to why it even exists. Texhnolyze is known for being more of a psychological show, yet it doesn’t need this sci-fi aspect to achieve that. The main purpose for texhnolyzation is to create the main rift between the subgroups of Lux. Other than that, the subplot of texhnolyzation is underexplored and is mainly used as a reason for some expositional scenes, symbolism that doesn’t become apparent until the final few episodes, and contributing to the angst of the main character Ichise. Despite the fact that texhnolyzation wasn’t exactly necessary for the show to get the job done, it wasn’t used in an overly flashy manner and didn’t make the world feel any less believable. In fact, the unnecessity of texhnolyzation could be interpreted as humanity’s desperate yet meaningless desire to go even further, as shown by how the texhnology (is that a term?) stopped working by the end of the series. This symbolized how once you achieve “perfection”, there is no point in moving forward. Texhnolyze builds its world by being enigmatic in everything. The dreary atmosphere, Ichise, Ran, Yoshii, and the setting itself, they all feel very distant from the viewer and aren’t fully fleshed out for the sake of keeping the viewer enticed, or turning away the viewer entirely. Texhnolyze doesn’t lay down the lines between good and evil and doesn’t tell you to feel a certain way. It simply shows you its world and whatever you think about it is up to you. Well, that’s what it does for the most part, since like every psychological show that I have a problem with, Texhnolyze may not distinguish exactly which side of a conflict is right or wrong, but it does distinguish which certain individuals are multi-dimensional or straight up assholes. What Texhnolyze does do that’s a big plus in my book is that it still treats characters equally, regardless of whether or not they are assholes or not. The only thing determining a character’s chances of survival are their importance in Lux, and unlike in other anime, the importance of a character isn’t just given to them, but it feels like they either naturally deserve it or earned it. A multi-dimensional character has the same chance of being killed as an asshole character, and that’s a tribute to how realistic Texhnolyze’s world is. In fact, the world of Texhnolyze makes it so that I was questioning whether or not these asshole characters were really assholes, and maybe they were just killed off before they had the chance to show their other sides. Of course, that’s overthinking, but overthinking is something that Texhnolyze’s setting naturally creates. Texhnolyze is known for being a fairly dialogue free show, and while this is true to some extent, it is only half true. While this leads to some amazing show don’t tell moments that are genuinely unforgettable and mind numbingly powerful, the inconsistent amount of dialogue works as a negative on both fronts. During some of the scenes with no dialogue, the shots are long and hold very little actual meaning other than… being long. There are episodes where it’s just one long meaningless shot after another, and these episodes are some of the most forgettable episodes in the world. In some other scenes, it’s nonstop expository dialogue with, again, very little actual meaning other than a speck of world building or some insight into some random character. These episodes are also forgettable and lack the impact that the great episodes have. Unfortunately, these episodes can be extremely jarring to get through and while I wasn’t as bored as others, I can understand how these immersion breaking snore inducing episodes can completely ruin the series for others. Texhnolyze employs a lot of the cheesy techniques used to extend the length of an episode, such as people falling in slow motion when shot, people talking unnecessarily when at gunpoint, etc. While I implore those who watch the show to be patient and that the amazing episodes are worth the wait, I will not be surprised nor disagree with those who drop the show due to these unnecessary and painful to watch moments. As for the main characters, Ichise is a character who’s angst isn’t hard to understand, yet it’s almost impossible to call his angst “relatable,” since I don’t think any of us see random numbers and bars in our field of vision due to texhnolyzation. However, while we don’t know and probably will never know to what extent these technological enhancements fuel Ichise’s rage, considering his position and his backstory, it isn’t hard to believe that Ichise would at least have some angst built up in him. While not being particularly relatable at first glance, he is easy to empathize with, and he gains more conflicts throughout the story that eventually give a sense of relatability to his character as well. He is also a fairly unpredictable character since he bottles himself up constantly and never really talks, nor do we hear his internal monologue. Instead, we can only assume what he’s thinking through his body movements and facial expressions, which were done very well. Unfortunately, the show uses Ichise as somewhat of a plot device, as he constantly either starts or fuels conflicts with his presence alone. However, what the show also manages to do through stellar directing and the enigmatic nature of the show is to make all of these conflicts through Ichise feel… planned somehow. Even so, Ichise’s convenient habit of jumpstarting plot points and conflicts can break immersion to some degree and can leave you with a bald spot from scratching your head so much. Ran is a complete enigma, and while the power to foreshadow the future is… weird for an apparently supernatural free sci-fi world (then again, the whole “hearing the voices of the city” thing was weird too), she’s the personification of the meaningless struggles that the characters go through. She also subtly shapes the events of the show, and the show doesn’t make it clear whether or not the outcomes she’s involved with are what she desires. Her revelation at the end of the series does bring to light the reasons behind her initial enigmatic nature. Yoshii is the one who initially sparks the wheels of change within Lux, and his charismatic nature is what initially makes him the easiest character to like. He gives off the first impression of someone who is simply curious in the city of Lux. His motives, although unclear at first, were eventually highlighted during the story, and made his character deceptively complex. He doesn’t simply want to change the city of Lux, he wants to change humanity and stir the passions and beliefs of the residents of Lux as compensation for the lack of humanity that he is exposed to. Unfortunately, Yoshii suffers from being too charismatic, as he is constantly shown to just announce his plans to those he is supposedly about to kill like some kind of cheesy villain. His motives for spurring change within Lux label him as downright insane, yet even so, his terrifyingly calm demeanor of carrying out his plans makes him extremely compelling, and he is one of the few genuinely likeable characters in the show. Also, his fairly anticlimactic death also gives his efforts a sense of meaningless, which is perfect for the overall message of the show. Yoshii is then replaced by a, in my opinion, much less compelling villain, Kano. He is complete destruction, and doesn’t have the enticingly charismatic nature that made Yoshii so interesting. Even so, his insanity and some of his actions are actually disturbingly justified so a certain degree, which just shows how fucked up Texhnolyze is. He also hits home the “meaningless” theme, highlighted by his backstory with Onishi, and his eventual death felt meaningless because all the damage he created was done. Something that I did appreciate about the villains is how they matched Lux’s setting so well, as they masked their sanity with their ideals and charisma. As expertly said in the 21st episode, Lux was always a crazy city, pretending to be sane. A lot of people find that developing characters in a show where everyone dies is meaningless, but that’s the point. Everything is meaningless. Hell, even this review is meaningless, I'm probably just regurgitating points that have already been said a million times over. Texhnolyze is infamous for being pessimistic and nihilistic, with the overall message being that life has no meaning. In fact, the inclusion of all these unnecessary developments, expository dialogue, and long shots of nothing could just be a fancy way of saying “these scenes are meaningless, just like life itself.” These scenes don’t harm the overall message of the show, they are simply negative aspects of the viewing experience, which unfortunately plays a major role in how one perceives these themes. However, despite this extremely depressing message, someone once told me that Texhnolyze’s message is actually ultimately positive, and I have to agree. Texhnolyze is actually optimism disguised as hardcore nihilism and pessimism. While Texhnolyze preaches that human development and life itself is meaningless and that there is always room for death and destruction, it also tells us that death and destruction are meaningless and that there is always room for life, hope, and existence. As for whether or not this is pretentious overthinking is up to the viewer, but as I said before, overthinking is something Texhnolyze naturally creates, and that is why despite its disappointments and flaws, Texhnolyze is ultimately satisfying.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 9, 2017
Love Live! School Idol Project
(Anime)
add
Mixed Feelings
Disclaimers: Spoilers, this review covers the Love Live! School Idol Project anime series, which means season 1, 2, and the movie, and this review will be a bit more personal than your typical review. This review is also long as fuck, and there will be a spoiler free TL;DR at the end.
Love Live sucks major balls. Upon viewing my profile, one would probably witness a few Love Live memes here and there, a shit ton of Love Live characters in my favorites list, and possibly a Love Live profile picture, although I constantly change it so it depends. Seems like a typical Love Live fag ... to most people. However, believe it or not, I think Love Live is pretty god damn bad. Or at least, I thought. If anything, the only things that I actively like about it are the characters, usually because they are extremely entertaining, endearing, and lovable (with the exception of one character, which I will get to later.) The story of Love Live is mediocre at best, and one could argue that the story is completely garbage. With cliche and cringey moments, overly sappy melodrama, and with uneven character development to boot, one shouldn’t watch Love Live for a quality story. I can’t really say anything about the music of Love Live, since music is like the most subjective thing in the world, but I don’t like most idol music. There are only a few songs that I can listen to multiple times, but most of the time, I can barely sit through the songs even once. The art and animation are subpar as well, especially when the camera zooms out and the characters become barely recognizable sketches. So why do I still like Love Live so much, despite all the shit that it has? After a VERY lackluster first season, I sat down and reflected on the past 4 hours that I wasted on this show and thought to myself: holy shit, I had a good time. Why is it that such a flawed story is able to leave me in such a satisfied state? No way is it because “it’s so bad that it’s good,” nor is it because “you’re a dirty memer Yuni, and Love Live is full of dirty memes.” I came to the conclusion that it’s because of how memorable Love Live as a franchise is. Despite my cringey experience watching the first season, I found myself thinking about Love Live constantly afterwards, and not about how bad the drama was handled or how gimmicky and cliche the characters were, but of how catchy that one song I actually liked was or how… gimmicky and cliche the characters were, but in a good way! I would then get flashbacks to a random scene, such as Kotori acting like a foreigner, Nozomi fondling little boobs, or Honk Honk doing the seal clap in episode one. Little scenes like that, although usually just comedic skits or filler, gave me such great satisfaction that I felt like it was worth sitting through Honoka dying on stage for no reason. Even so, I still wasn’t ready to say that I liked Love Live at the time. I simply liked a few of the scenes, a few of the characters, and a few of the songs. Everything else was still meh. Then Season 2 reared it’s ugly head and that’s when my heart felt all the doki dokis. When it comes to “sequels that drastically improve the franchise’s quality,” people always think of Clannad After Story, or maybe Little Busters Refrain. I’d like to add Love Live 2nd Season to that list, for I never knew a sequel could change my opinion of a franchise so quickly. Not only was the drama much more tolerable, but it made me fall in love with the cast so hard, that even the ones I borderline hated during season 1 were perfect angels in my eyes. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever loved a cast this much since Aria. And I fucking adore Aria. Then there was the movie, which not only depicted Manhattan pretty goddamn well (I’m a New Yorker), but it also sent off μ's the same way they were introduced to us: with a long drawn out bang. Story: Love Live seems like your typical “AH! Dire situations and sparks of inspiration cause me to drag my friends into something out of the ordinary, something that causes us to start out as underdogs as well slowly rise to the top through the power of friendship!” kind of story, and that’s basically what it is at the surface level. However, by the end of the story, the viewer doesn’t give a fuck about whether or not μ's is gonna succeed in their next concert, instead, they are desperately holding on to their doki doki-ing hearts in anticipation and preparing themselves for the inevitable: Honk Honk, here comes the feels train! This is what causes Love Live to be labeled as a completely clone of K-On, a show where a group of girls are in a similar situation: they want to do something out of the ordinary and strive to improve, however the story really isn’t about that life. It’s all about the passage of time, and Love Live makes it extremely apparent in its narrative that time is not only limited, but running out FAST! This is what separates Love Live from the other passage of time anime, as while K-On and Aria are taking their time sipping tea and rowing gondolas, Love Live is dancing along at a breakneck speed. The thing about passage of time anime is that it’s really only effective if you love the characters. Both K-On and Aria start out with their characters in a very friendly environment, with all of the characters being lovable from the start and the only conflict resulting from the natural clashes between their personalities, such as Azu-nyan being put off by Yui’s laziness, or Alice being mad at Akari’s lack of IQ. Also keep in mind that passage of time anime usually have a manageable cast of main characters, with K On having 5 and Aria having 3 (4 if you count Alicia, and 6 if you count the other fairies). However, Love Live has a massive 9 main characters, some of which were outright hostile cockblockers during their introduction. You would think it would be impossible for a story to take 9 characters, some of which are shown to be bitches, and somehow make them lovable by the end. That’s what I thought too at the end of season 1, where I was only fond of a select few characters. This is a big reason why season 1 was a fairly lackluster season, it failed to properly show that appeal of some of the characters. This isn’t solely due to the fact that some characters were prioritized over others, it also has to do with how poorly the drama was handled. The words that come to mind are: overly exaggerated, sappy, bullshit. The realism in Love Live is non existent, but that is to be expected. Anyone who expects realism in a show like Love Live needs to get a reality check. That doesn’t change how unnecessarily over the top some of the drama during the first season was, as well as how unbelievable some of the drama was resolved. Even if realism is limited, it still has to be believable, or at least, not bullshit. What the 1st season does correctly is a few instances of character drama surrounding a few particular characters, those being Honk, Kotori, Nico, and Eli. For Honk, her extremely typical main character attitude actually works against her in scenarios that other anime would write as beneficial. For example, her focus on competing in Love Live actually ends up damaging her relationship with her friends instead of strengthening them, and while some events surrounding this drama and the resolution are iffy, it still gets the job done. Kotori also breaks the mold when she goes against what her character trope would normally do: hurt her best friend. Usually depicted as the typical friendly deredere, Kotori was revealed to actually be a very conflicted character whose problems end up hurting those she loves, which is contradictory to her normal character. Both Nico and Eli are also fleshed out as characters who chased their dreams and failed, which shapes them into the hostile characters that they were introduced as, and while Nico's hostility was shown to just be natural, Eli's hostility was much deeper, albeit the resolution was stupid. Love Live's major problem in season 1 is that the drama is there, and for the most part it isn't exactly bad drama, but it has absolutely no idea how to either execute or resolve it in a believable way. Hmm, it would appear that Honoka is very ill and not exactly in a good state to sing and dance. What do? The overly protective Kotori and the wiser Umi would stop Honoka from over exerting herself, causing the performance to be cancelled, the fans to be disappointed, and Honoka would learn her lesson and taste what disappointing her fans would be like. That would be some nice development for her character! But wait, that’s not what actually happens. What actually happens is that Honoka insists on performing, so she does. Honk has run out of PP for her dance moves! Honk used Struggle! Honk hurt herself in recoil. Honk fainted. And that leads to Honk being a depressed crybaby, μ's dropping out of Love Live, Honk nearly quitting the school idol thing, only to get bitch slapped by Umi, which leads to Honk not being a crybaby, which leads to literally no one learning anything and Honk continues to do stupid shit cause why not. So Season 1 ends with μ's saving the school, and μ's miss their chance to compete in Love Live. Oh well, beggers can’t be choosers right? At least they completed their initial goal! As a result of her efforts, Season 2 starts with Honk being chosen to be the student council president. While this seemed like an unnecessary thing to do, this was the beginning of Love Live’s redemption! It’s all (mostly) positivity from here on out! Remember when I said that Love Live is a passage of time show? The moment Honk becomes student council president marks the beginning of this theme. While subtle, it did expand on the running out of time problem, as being the student council prez resulted in a lot of schedule conflicts between idol practice and council work. But wait, idol practice? What are they practicing for? A 2nd Love Live has been announced! With saving the school out of the way, μ's can finally focus on their real goal. It is here, pretty early on in season 2, that it is made clear that time is running out. This pressure of time, first mentioned when it is made clear that the 3rd years are graduating soon, is constantly brought up, both within the show itself and within the viewer’s minds. At first it’s through subtle things, such as the previously mentioned schedule conflicts of being the student council prez, resulting in usually humorous but still important bickerings between Honk and Umi. A sense of responsibility is placed on Honok’s shoulders, as a leader of the school and of μ's. Season 2 also makes it clear that time is passing by through the use of specific events, such as Halloween, Christmas, New Years, etc. Many episodes in Season 2 are based around these timed events, and result in a not-so subtle flow of time. By the way, the Halloween episode is one of my favorites, as it has some of my favorite skits in the entire series. Season 2 also uses this time to flesh out characters that didn’t have much spotlight in season 1, and while these moments of character development were touching, it was all the characters and their interactions with each other that made me adore every single member. Time didn’t just flow, it helped the girls grow to love each other. Episode after episode, you could tell that their friendship was subtly growing, and it’s all about the little things. Maki agreeing with Honk sometimes, Eli and Nozomi showing their more innocent and sensitive sides to their kouhais, even the most humorous of skits showed that the teamwork and bond between the girls of μ's were ever growing. While the urgency of time running out is at first caused by μ's trying to do something before a deadline, eventually it became much deeper than that. While the story kept its style of μ's trying to get something done before a specific time, it became clear that both the characters and the viewers were actually bracing for the real deadline: the time when the 3rd years would graduate, and μ's would be split apart. This is what the entire series was building up towards. As the cliche line goes, all good things must come to an end. Even the mightiest of rivers empty out into the calm endless sea. Even a floating leaf in the wind will land someday. Whatever sappy phrase you want to use, this theme is so especially present in Love Live that it’s undeniably powerful. In fact, μ's spent so much of their time bracing themselves for this inevitable end that they didn’t even realize that they were missing an important answer: what do they want their end to be? This is the entire theme of the finale, the movie. The movie is the perfect mix of cute grills doing cute things, cute grills dancing in cute ways, and borderline psychological drama. It even has hints of supernatural elements, which were used in very effective albeit confusing ways. After becoming much more famous than she could ever imagine, with expectations placed on every part of her being, Honk’s internal conflicts were at an all time high. To a normal viewer, the right answer isn’t clear at all. In fact, many people could have different answers when placed in Honk’s situation. There really is no right or wrong answer, and the decision that μ's came to at the end wasn’t right or wrong either. It was simply what they wanted. And that’s how the passage of time works. A very straight forward story, with a not so straightforward and possibly even thought provoking end. Even so, despite the melancholic passing of time and the internal conflicts, the ending was ultimately a positive one, and I can’t help but feel the ultimate satisfaction. Characters: Easily my favorite part of the franchise, as well as probably the make or break for anyone watching Love Live. To some, they are simply gimmicks and memes who are mildly entertaining once in awhile, and to others, they are precious waifus that we must protect from any sort of harm. What do I think? I think they are precious gimmicky memes that are mildly entertaining once in awhile, and must be protected from any sort of harm. So of course I will be going through all of them. Hanayo: Despite the fact that she's at the bottom of my list, Hanayo is probably the most well written character in LL in terms of characterization. The point of school idols is that any normal girl can be one, and that's the whole theme surrounding Hanayo. She doesn't stand out at all, in terms of personality nor appearance. As a result, she views school idols as an unreachable goal and worships them from afar. The fact that Hanayo joined Muse in the first place is a groundbreaking development for the group and idol shows as a whole, for it highlighted the whole point of school idols. Also, her rice obsession is one of the most relatable parts of the show. As a Chinese person, rice is my entire being. Rin: My appreciation for this character is always exponentially increasing. Rin is insecurities personified into a tomboy cat character. Unlike Hanayo, Rin has had experiences of standing out too much, having being teased for her femininity despite her short hair and boyish attitude. This caused Rin to embrace this boyish attitude and energy in order to separate herself from her insecurities. Rin was very hesitant in joining Muse since being school idols is hella girly and she feel like her lack of femininity will cause her to bring the group down. However, her joining the group ends up helping her come to terms with her insecurities, and her episode was one of the most heartfelt episodes in the series. Maki: Maki's tsundere personality comes off less as a mental illness and more of a result of her upbringing. Due to being a sheltered rich girl, Maki isn't a tsundere cause she's mean, but because she's socially retarded lol. However, joining Muse helped her shed her awkward self contained self, and Maki is one of the few tsunderes who returns the favor to those who helped her break out of her shell. After being coaxed out by her senpais, Maki thanks them by helping Nozomi come out of her shell as well, and she made Nico out of all people cry. Her personality is also very similar to mine, as a withdrawn socially awkward yet passive aggressive sasser who isn't afraid to look down on you if you piss her off. I also share some frustrations she has when it comes to songwriting, for I am a songwriter myself, and I also say "what the fuck was that" a lot. Honk: Honk is one of the more well written genki lead characters, due to the fact that her genkiness isn't one dimensional nor predictable. Her genkiness isn't always positive, as some of the time it's actually her own selfishness, and her overly determined nature actually ends up damaging her relationship with her friends. Honk isn't the perfect happy go lucky person she appears to be, as she is almost constantly internally conflicted and ends up coming off as an asshole more often than not due to her selfishness. Of course, Honk isn't the most consistent character, as her IQ switches between 1 and 100 constantly, but she's definitely deeper than what people give her credit. What makes her relatable in this regard is that she means well, and most of the time doesn't even know she's selfish. This also creates GREAT conflict drama between her, Kotori, and Umi, as Honk's characterization isn't just due to her own characteristics, but also her two closest friends. Kotori: Kotori comes off as your typical airhead deredere, except she does what no other deredere is capable of doing: absolutely destroying her best friend's feelings. Her tendency to spoil Honoka is seen as cliche by many, for many think it's cause she's too nice of a character, but it's actually her own selfishness that is causing her to be so nice. Her refusal to hurt her friend's feelings isn't just cause she wants the best for her, but because she is too conflicted and unwilling to break bad news. Due to her selfish refusal of doing the right thing, her niceness actually ends up hurting Honoka even more than she could ever have imagined. Kotori is seen depressed more than people think, and her habit of putting on a deredere demeanor isn't because she cares, but because of her own flaws and conflicts. Umi: Umi on the other hand is the opposite of Kotori. She calls Honk out on her bullshit constantly, and her tough love is a turn off to many. People view her as a sociopath due to her constant bullying of Honoka, but due to being brought up by Asian parents, I see the true intent behind Umi's savage nature. Umi's anger and unstable emotions show me that Umi probably loves her friends more than anyone else. She isn't afraid to completely fuck someone up if it's for their own good. Of course, since Umi is a hardcore dandere, she can have her fair share of selfish moments, but in the end, no one gives more shits than Umi does, even if it looks like she's gives no shits about your feelings. Eli: A phenomenally multi dimensional character, a lot of flaws surrounding Eli are actually the story's fault. Eli is the ultimate cockblock in the beginning, and boy did I hate her. This made her redemption as a character all the more heartfelt, as I ended up loving Eli by the end. While the story portrayed her as a stern white knight, who's reasons for despising Muse is due to her lack of confidence in them when it comes to saving the school, it eventually became clear that Eli's distaste actually stems from her stubbornness and pride. As an ex-professional dancer, she views Muse's activities as mere games and looks down upon them constantly. The flaw behind her eventual opening up is that the members of Muse were way too lenient with her. This bitch thinks y'all are trash and you're gonna forgive her just like that? Yeah. Again, this isn't due to Eli's character, this is due to Season One's atrocious writing. Nozomi: Nozomi takes the spotlight as one of the easiest characters to like, both from a characteristic and development stand point. She's the smug mastermind. Her Washi washi may turn off a lot of people, but hey, the author is a Yuri author. Cut her some slack. What made Nozomi even more likeable was when her past was revealed. Nozomi used to be extremely shy, contrary to her extremely calculative nature we see now. Her friendship with Eli and their close bond is what caused Nozomi to transform into what she is now, and that's just a testament to the canon ship that is NozoEli. Seeing Nozomi open up to the rest of Muse and allowing her true shy nature to slip in once in a while humanizes her exponentially. Nico: Nico is the most controversial character. Very rarely do you see someone who thinks Nico is "alright." Nico will usually find herself on the very bottom or the very top of people's rankings. I'm one of the latter, Nico is one of my best girls, but my reasons for liking this monstrosity is different from most people. My reason doesn't just boil down to "she's funny" or "she's a meme." First of all, let's be honest: Nico is a fucking piece of shit human being. She's the type of person you'd block on all social media outlets. A real life Nico would have no friends, and I learned that the hard way. You see, Nico is a character that chased her dreams with everything she had, and failed. She didn't fail because "the world is unfair." No, Nico deserved to fail. Nico failed because she failed to see how selfish she was, pushing people beyond their limits without them wanting to. She failed because being a school idol is a team effort and she only thought of herself. The reason she failed is nobody's fault but her own. As someone who's been chasing their dreams for ages, experiencing failure after failure and blaming it on the world, only to slowly realize that I'm the one who's failing myself, seeing this part of Nico made me cry. Not gonna lie, this side of Nico destroyed me. It didn't help that when I was younger, I was also very foul mouthed and hot tempered. I'm one of those real life Nicos. Nico's shitty personality persisted throughout the series, such as lying to her siblings to make her look good and disrespecting the rest of Muse. That's because leaving behind your selfish self is hard. Extremely hard. Nico's flaws lasted all the way till the end of the series, and hell, she was still an annoying shitter at the end, but that's cause this is realism. People don't change at the drop of the hat, and some people don't change at all, but Nico still accepted it and tried to change till the very end. Nico's determination is honestly inspiring, and that drew me to her character as well. Nico is one badass motherfucker. A cast full of characters that naturally clash with each other, yet even so, they grow with each other to the point where every single character is irreplaceable. The characters bicker with each other constantly, yet their contrasting personalities somehow work with each other. In fact, the characters themselves realize that their drastically different personalities are what make them stand out from other idol groups, and it is because of how irreplaceable every single member of μ's is that causes them to disband their group at the end of the series. Art and Animation: CG is distracting, and while Love Live’s CG is much better than your typical anime, it’s still, well, distracting. This is especially so during some concert scenes when it rapidly switches between 2d and 3d animation. However, I’ve witnessed some horrible CG in my life, so I grew to appreciate Love Live’s relatively tolerable CG. The 2d animation and art during the actual show isn’t very impressive either. While the character designs by themselves are goofy in their own way and eventually grew on me, the animation and art quality is very inconsistent, ranging from pretty good to downright despicable at times. This is especially apparent during scenes where the camera zooms out, and the characters become barely recognizable sketches, with weirdly scaled facial features and bodies. One thing that Love Live excels at however are the facial expressions. These goddamn facial expressions are golden, and are used to support both comedic and serious situations. There is a lot of emotion behind these facial expressions, and you can tell what a character is thinking just by looking at their face. You can tell when Eli is done with someone’s bullshit just by looking at her unamused stare. Even the characters are able to react to situations based on another character’s facial expression, such as Kotori constantly wrecking Umi in cards due to Umi’s lack of a poker face, or Nico knowing that her boobies are in for a rough time due to Nozomi’s rape face. The majority of Honk’s silly nature is expressed through her facial expressions, such as her seal clapping and her amazing expression after getting flicked in the forehead by Nico. You can also see the build up before someone starts breaking down into tears, first by their obvious attempts at holding back the tears, until finally you are greeted with the ugliest crying face ever. Music: What makes the music in Love Live unique is that only people who watched the show will probably listen to the music. Idol music is very niche and before watching Love Live, I wasn’t into idol music whatsoever. I thought it was too simple and too cringey. While I still think that way about most idol music, there are a few songs that I actually listen to a decent amount nowadays, and not because they are different from the usual idol music in the show, but because of the context behind the pieces. Songs like Snow Halation and START DASH!! didn’t appeal to me by themselves, but once I witnessed the context behind those two pieces in the show, I started to like them. Also, Love Live uses its idol music in ways that if you like the show and the story, you will like the music. Stuff such as using the OP theme of the first season as the encore for μ's’s “final” concert, and using Aishiteru Banzai, a song we heard in the first episode and a personal fave of mine, as the graduation music in the final episode of Season 2. Love Live puts a lot of emotional connection to a lot of would-be average songs, and that’s what makes Love Live’s music memorable in the end. Reflection: Love Live is bad and you should feel bad, but feeling bad has never felt so good. Easily one of the most satisfying series I’ve ever watched, Love Live fulfills a lot of simple wishes, such as seeing a group of friends start from humble beginnings and becoming international stars, seeing even the coldest of bitches open their hearts to become lovable characters, stuff like that. Stuff that has been done over and over again, but for some reason you especially want it to happen to these 9 girls. And then after an emotional scene, they bring it full circle with the first song you ever hear. Stuff like that makes the first time watching it unforgettable, and makes the first time rewatching it that much more spectacular. At least, that’s what happened to me. Not everyone will experience the same things I did, in fact, most of you probably won’t. However, Love Live is definitely one of those shows that has the possibility of changing your life. When you ask for better or worse, I’d probably have to lean towards the latter, for some people then fall into the idol hell known as School Idol Festival, and I hear that there is no escaping that place. And even if you don’t get your life changed, at least you indulged in some top quality memes. TL;DR: Story: Love Live sucks balls, way too sappy and melodramatic. However, it eventually drops this and becomes a passage of time anime to the likes of K-On, and the drama becomes more natural with positive outcomes. Characters: Waifus? Memes? Why not both? A cast of characters that constantly clash with each other, yet eventually become a team where every member feels irreplaceable. Art: CG. And shitty artwork when the camera zooms. Other than that, it’s ok, and the facial expressions make everything daijoubu. Music: Will either make you cringe or cry a river of tears, especially once you know the context behind some of the songs. Individual Ratings: Love Live! School Idol Project: 4/10 Love Live! School Idol Project 2nd Season: 7/10 Love Live! The School Idol Movie 7/10 My favorite part of the show: Characters. My least favorite part of the show: How they handled the drama in season 1. And of course, order of grills (Keep in mind that I like all of them): Umi > Honk > Nico > Kotori > Eli > Maki > Rin > Nozomi > Hanayo. Fun fact! The Love Live franchise as a whole, including Sunshine, has like zero consistency in terms of clothing. Characters randomly change outfits mid scene.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 17, 2016
Katanagatari
(Anime)
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Yo boys, you should totally watch this series!
However, by that point you'll have been torn to pieces. Dear those who want to watch Katanagatari... You may have witnessed a lot of disappointment from those who watched this show. The main reason (and sometimes the only reason) behind these instances of disappointment is the extreme lack of action. People start watching this show expecting high octane martial arts fight scenes filled with badassness, but really, that's not the focus of this show at all. Instead, what people get is talking. At least 90% of this show is just pure dialogue. I was one who knew about this dialogue ... thing before I watched the series, and not because others told me about it beforehand, but because I noticed that this show is the pinnacle of the anime medium, a LIGHT NOVEL ADAPTATION! And who is light novel by? By none other than Nisio Isin, who is well known for the Monogatari franchise. If you keep in mind this fact, starting this show expecting anything other than talking is stupid in its own way. So why do I love Talking: The Animation so much? It's simple. Katanagatari may be the least boring anime that I've ever seen. The Monogatari series makes dialogue fun to watch in its own unique way, and that is SHAFT VISUALS. Through the constant transitions of scenes, imagery, weird poses and head tilts, the dialogue becomes bearable due to the weirdness happening around it. Katanagatari doesn't do this. When people talk, it just shows their lips moving real fast, with a couple of facial expressions here and there to spice things up. What makes Katanagatari's constant dialogue not boring is the sheer quality of the dialogue. Full of wit and borderline Gintama levels of self-awareness, the interactions and conversations that the characters have are just simply... entertaining. There have been moments in almost every anime that I've watched where I had to check to see how much time was left in an episode, even in thrill rides like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Even despite the 50 minute episode length, this has never happened once during my watch of Katanagatari. 50 minutes just pass by in a flash, to the point where I watched 6 episodes in one day and had to force myself to take it slower. Of course, I can't mention Katanagatari without mentioning the incredibly unique artstyle. Katanagatari is drawn like a Japanese painting, and while some may think that this classifies Katanagatari as an artsy show, it really isn't. It's just a simple adventure filled with wonderful character interactions. It doesn't have the incredibly deep themes, mysteries, and other philosophical ideas like other artsy shows, such as the Tatami Galaxy and others. So what is the story of Katanagatari? It's basically a fetch quest. Well, I actually like to call it the epitome of "It's about the journey, not the destination." These are words that I've always lived my life by, and Katanagatari expresses it very well. The fact that the show focuses more on the character interactions, no matter how insignificant, rather than making a complex story, is basically telling you to enjoy all the things in between, not the beginning or the end. The relationship between Togame and Shichika is also a great example of living the present, while putting aside the past and future. I would go into more details, but that's spoiler territory. And what else about our dynamic duo? Well, they are dynamic. In fact, they are probably the most dynamic pair of anime protagonists that I've ever seen. Togame and Shichika have incredibly contrasting personalities, to the point that they are almost polar opposites. This makes their interactions, both little and important, very refreshing and enjoyable. Shichika is emotionless, but not like the Kuudere type of emotionless, but like the innocent child who knows absolutely nothing type of emotionless. He also delivers a lot of punch lines, albeit unintentionally. Togame sets up all the comedy between them with her self centered and confident attitude, only to have her confidence shattered in the most hilarious of ways. Did I mention that this show is self aware? It really is. Togame almost breaks the 4th wall so many times, which I absolutely love. I really can't go into detail about their development together, so all I will say is... I love the way they loved each other. Oh, and that noitaminA opening? Absolutely EPIC!!!!! TL;DR: Cheerio!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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