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After a months-long hiatus due to sickness, I can finally return to writing these reviews. And to start with this was certainly a decision.

Story: 3
Animation: 8
Sound: 6
Characters: 2
Enjoyment: 2

Total: 3

... Texhnolyze is plain boring. The story is confusing and nonsensical. The characters have zero drive and all but one lack any charisma whatsoever. And the greater struggles between the political groups fall flat and don't contribute to the whole story.

But let go back a bit since a have to summarize to a small degree to further emphasize some points. In the underground mining town of Lukuss humans created a separate society which controls the mining of a flower to allow humans to use prosthetics. This sentence alone is already pretty stupid. Why don't they use normal prosthetics? And why do so many people have them? Do they all get cut off their limbs for one reason or another? Additionally these prosthetics need to have human DNA in them, preferably from a relative, and be in range of an mysterious obelisk which stands at the center of the city.
This is just plain stupid. As a series of devices that should evolve humanity to the next step to have such major issues is clearly the work of a madman. But these restrictions aren't really in effect when you believe strong enough, or come from the surface. To make it short: there is so much wrong with the concept and execution of this story device, which the series is named after, that I won't go over them all in detain as that would take way to much time for that alone.

Instead I'll talk about the story flow, because it is atrocious. First of all the series lack any hooks in the first episodes. I can full-heartily understand when many people drop the series after a few episodes because nothing happens. Because nothing happens. The "plot" really only starts with episode 7, aptly named "Plot", and ends with episode 10 "Conclusion". To contrast this with another series with the same core mechanic: Cyberpunk Edgerunners; David receive his implant at the end of episode 1 as the hook for the next episode. This is further emphasized by the action scene in the beginning of the same episode, as we already know what it is capable of. But the Texhnolyze-Prothesis in this series act like normal arms, legs and fingers with additional hoops. They aren't interesting alone to carry the series. And the rest of the world is very boring. The city and the surrounding are a wasteland. No trees, no greenery, no life. Only humans, stone and metal.

And the less I say about the Characters, the better. As already mention earlier, none of them are interesting. None of them have any drive or desire. Only one of them has any value and he's gone by episode 10. For as the supposed main character, he is an emotional vacuum. He starts in the story by having his limbs cut off. As for why, we don't get an answer for that. Or even his backstory, his motives, anything.

And that is kind of a trend of the series, especially in the beginning. People talk of the phones and we get no dialogue. Only how one person answers the phone with no context. I understand that this should create intrigue and mystery around the characters and the intentions. But this failed in the worst possible way. Mainly because the missing context isn't given to us. But also because there are so many of these phone calls that they all blend together as a no-context-soup.

In the end Texhnolyze is abysmal in its writing. Luckily for it it isn't offensively stupid in that regard. The writing of the story, world and characters all drag down everything else with them. The sound is often very muted and the animation is at least good in most scenes. Sadly, the action is very limited and still is able to overshadow everything else. It also didn't help that the sub I watched was extremely fast with its texts.

Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern flip-flops between perfectly into itself and character-development. Only in the penultimate episode it is able to combine these aspects which is by far the best.

Story: 4
Animation: 7
Sound: 8
Characters: 6
Enjoyment: 9

Total: 7

This anime is very simple about its themes and how it handles them. But first a quick context summary: robot-aliens attack the earth and literally out of nowhere a giant friendly robot protects humanity and allies themself with the military training regiment. The chosen pilot then has to works out his personal safety against his desire to save the world and the corresponding responsibility. And these struggle, and in combination with ... his friendship with a random person he saves from the regiment, aren't delivered very well. They're delivered in a stiff and forced manner.

The core problem of this is, that it entails them complete middle section of the anime. The first two and the last two episodes are leagues above the rest in terms of enjoyment. The comedy comes from the juxtaposition the serious military and the over-the-top forced acting of Bravern. It is clear that they really don't want to deal with his attitude, even tho they have to rely on him for saving the world. But, by the nature of time, they acclimate themselves to his attitude, which in turn reduce the comedic tone drastically.

Additionally, the addition of Lulu to the cast was a major downer for me. I don't like her characteristics at all. However, the lore surrounding her was intriguing. But that only results in another flaw of this anime: the lore doesn't really exist. There are fragments of a lore, but nothing is completed in a satisfying manner.

And that can be said for this anime in total as well. It comes strong in the first episode, establishes the stakes in two and then fumbles forward right until the end. And on the way, it lost its own spark. Which is ironic given the themes of reigniting ones own bravery. The 2D and 3D scenes mesh okay-ish together and that can be said for the animation in general. Nothing groundbreaking. Which is a shame, because they could've gone much further with the scope. But instead they limited themselves to the one trope of one-hitting the enemy.

In summary Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern suffers mostly from not going more into a single direction. Themes, Lore and Characters are spread out far and wide and nothing really develops beyond the surface. If one would reduce the anime to a central statement, it would probably be "The military is useless and trust in a single person."

Violet Evergarden was, in the scope of these reviews, the first one where I considered adding additional subcategories. Namely, execution and theme, either separated or together. Ultimately, I decided against it as it still is part of the story.

Story: 6
Animation: 9
Sound: 9
Characters: 5
Enjoyment: 3

Total: 7

And let's put the obvious out of the way. As a supposed Drama, this Anime fails horribly. I didn't care at all about the main character, her struggles and her journey. She never received any kind of full backstory, and I mean the time before she was given to the Major. She couldn't speak, but understand words, probably(?). Furthermore, she must ... have been born in any way, shape or form; and been cared for. This is where the magic of flashbacks would be perfect for. Yet, it tossed this story away. Which isn't the only one, mind you. But to juxtapose the apathy I feel for Violet, the lone side stories, which were the core of this anime, varied heavily in quality of execution. There were only two episodes who moved me. The playwright and the "letters to the future" episode. Even when the second case was heavily predictable, the execution in that sole case was very well done.

And the issue with predictability is something that plagues this anime to the core. Even in episode 2, the reveal at the end was heavily dramatized without reason. At that point already, I could see that this anime took itself way too seriously. And it doesn't got better. Especially considering the plot holes and theme holes.
I think the hardest example of this is the comet episode. There is a comet who is visible from the planet every 100 or so years. This is obviously meant to invoke Halley's Comet. Yet, the episode frames as if the comet and planet represent two people meeting each other and then never see each other again in their lifetime, but influence each other enough to cause changes, either in perspective or other. But the comet and planet do not interact in any way. Maybe only via the planets gravity.

A similar topic is the core theme of war. It is portrayed as this inevitable force, completely out of everybody hands. But this couldn't be further from the truth. Furthermore, we can see in multiple instances that the war put tolls on everybody. Even when the rebel terrorists attack. Their motivation is never explained, by the way. And "We were suppose to win" doesn't fly with me, when they first attack their own country and then the finished new bridge after the war finished. Just to note, the train went through a mountain and then a bridge. Just spanning a bridge over a river can take a few years, but digging a tunnel with post-WWI equipment? Maybe the same time, depending on the length. That would infer that the grudge from the terrorists was hold for at least a few years. This desperately needed more exploration of motivation.

But the thing I hated most about the themes, was that the characters shamed Violet for writing letters, when she participated in the war. Long story short: Letters connect peoples feelings, according to the story. That is like the whole central theme. And I wished it would take a break from that, as it is just corny. And this ties in of why I didn't care about Violet's story. She kills all those people, rips them from their loved ones, but we should care about her single relationship she's not even able to understand. This gets worse the more you think about it as she is 18 years at maximum at the end of the story. And it is suggested that the war took place 4 years in the past, although I can't remember exactly where I heard that from. So there is a sizable age gap between Violet and the Major. But that is Japan for you. At least Violet grows from that dilemma in a good way.

Here are some other small things I need to take of my chest: Lady Evergarden isn't relevant to the story except to give Violet a surname. And, and I can't stress this enough so that every author injects this into their brain, don't name things new when there are already perfect words for them. "Auto Memory Doll" is just a ghostwriter. They often refer to themselves as scribes. The whole title is just an excuse to dress Violet up in that way. Which isn't improved by the fact that the "uniform" seems to be anything. Like literally. Every other "doll" wears something different. There are no uniforms. Similarly, when you write about letters, don't encode the English language with replacement glyphs. I bet we could decode most written text shown on screen with ease and find numerous grammar errors. In that regard, it is a smart way to hide those. But it makes it a thousand times more awkward, when the frame sits on a sign for multiple seconds.
Lastly, don't use foreign words without researching them. In this case, and most other anime, German: Leiden in Leidenschaftlich. Which literally means: to suffer with/(in) passion. It undermines the whole story.

In total, Violet Evergreen is not content with itself. But this is mostly due to production. Shown subtitles disappear rapidly and dialogue is fast and frenetic. It desperately wants to reach the "feel"-moments as quickly as possible because the time limit of 22 minutes shackles the otherwise well drawn story. Furthermore, it was too drawn out. The story could've finished by episode 9 without a hitch. Everything afterwards feels like filler and doesn't have any satisfying conclusion. Which is exacerbated by the fact that almost all episodes are standalone episodes with barely any story progression to boot, as the story itself has already concluded before the start. Instead, we witness the emotional journey of someone who doesn't know what emotions are. And that is grading. Even when she receives all the support of the world and barely has any obstacles to overcome except herself.

The Vision of Escaflowne was a large part of my childhood as it was one of the first anime for be broadcasted in Germany at that time, especially noteworthy for the last-night timeslot. Now, so many years later, the experience can refreshen itself, but this time in chronological order.

Story: 7
Animation: 7
Sound: 9
Characters: 8
Enjoyment: 9

Total: 8

And I still like it very much. As a progenitor isekai, Escaflowne isn't shackled by the new conventions and cliches. In that regard, the most noteworthy aspect is the desire to return to the original world, even with multiple romances ongoing. As that desire for love is constantly juxtaposed by the ... psychological torment of war. Sadly, the story flops on the fake-return aspect very hard, but still manages the final stretch with some bruises.

But to go back a bit, The Vision of Escaflowne is mainly about a fantasy world actively plunging into a chaotic and massively escalating war between all nations of that world. At the heart are questions about fate, the acceptance of that fate and a resurging theme of redemption, with emotions transcending the hurdles of fate at the heart.

That last bit may come as the most apparent for some, but the relationships vary heavily depending of the daily mood of the cast. Sadly they aren't that consistent. But they learn, given enough time.

I wanted to return to the Vision of Escaflowne for a long time. It is still a very pleasant adventure with a lot of twists and turns. Even if I couldn't experience to my fullest again, but that may be impossible, for me at least. The music design can be very excellent, but the animation isn't that consistent. It still is very fluid for the most part, especially given the time period it was created. But, I still prefer the German OP from Dax Riders - People. It frames everything as an adventure with mechas and love. The Japanese OP makes it into a romance with adventure and mechas.

To say that I hate Sousou no Frieren would be a gross overstatement. I pity everybody involved in this; everybody except the author.

Story: 2
Animation: 7
Sound: 6
Characters: 2
Enjoyment: 1

Total: 3

... Sousou no Frieren has way too many issues. The pacing is abysmal, the main characters are shallow and the story is probably one of the worst I've seen in a long while.

The major issue I have with this one is mainly its theme, that of "Time". It presents itself as that tale of a shy immortal who only 80 years after traveling with the legendary party, for 10 years, realizes what she learned from that. And to do that she travels on the very same path as with the old party. To say that this is uninspired is only slightly supported by the fact that the continent is archetypical fantasy long and thin "Britain square"; same as Westeros and other countries in that vein.
But to come back to the topic of time: Every single showing of character interaction is completely juxtaposed by the time the characters apparently spent together. This was most apparent with the 6 months in snow cabin episode. I'm sorry, half-episode. The sole fact that 6 months fly away in around 10 minutes of episode with zero character development screams bad writing at me. To put that into relation: The priest Sein was only for 4 months, if I recall correctly, in the party before leaving again. Yet we, as the viewer, spent a whole episode on his joining, just to loose him later again.
Another gross example of this bad dynamic are the character relationships. Frieren spent at least 6 years with Fern before stating the sentence "I don't know what she likes" when thinking about a birthday present. The exact same later states Stark about the very same topic. Although he only knew her for less than a year by then. But, and this is the thing I absolutely hate about this series, and with a burning passion, character development does not happen when characters are off-screen. They are only allowed to develop themselves when the camera looks at them.
This is especially the worst in the final arc. The priest left the story shortly before the arc and the warrior is completely absent as he was superfluous in a mage-centered arc.

Now, I would like to focus more on the characters. And this is something that was addressed by one of the characters in-character. "Isn't it odd that we are all awkward and introvert?" You, the author, wrote it that way. You are the sole reason of why the characters have no chemistry. And this is why I do not pity you. You wrote the characters AND the story exactly that way, and you yourself took issue with it through you characters. The only saving grace of all the characters are that the side characters get actual development within the episodes they are a part of.
For the main characters, this couldn't be further from the truth. Frieren is the extremely typical overpowered mage without flaws. Unbeatable and unwavering. Even within the first season her exact mirror-image isn't capable of defeating her. Fern is the very same. Overpowered and gifted, and even probably stronger than Frieren. The warrior Start has the opposite problem. He is the archetypical overpowered coward. The priest was the only one who can be considered of being humane. But he was in the party for like 4 episodes tops. The other mages in the exam arc got more development.

The second to last thing I take a massive issue with, is the non-existent power systems and the explanation of such. Mage spells can be researched, but they can also be changed on a whim? I absolutely do not see a through-line in the system as things are made up on the spot and ignored the very next minute. This is most apparent in the segment with the magical artifact which controls souls, or mana...? I've forgotten. Either way, Frieren left the battlefield without destroying or take possession of the artifact. Whoever created it and for what purpose. Never explained.
Similarly, physics don't seem to be consistent. Warrior gets battered through an entire forest with a single hit. What does he say? "There was no force behind your strike." Boy, you got thrown through multiple trees and what-not. And then you decide to tank the next hit to the belly. In every consistent universe you would be cleaved in half. But plot-armor prevails.

Which brings me to the last point. I hate this generic Japanese-fantasy world. There isn't even a single speck of thought put into it. Every bit of it is completely generic and pulled directly from a JRPG, most likely Dragon Quest. We have character classes such as Mage, Priest, Warrior, Thief as they are pretty common in most RPGs, but only in Japan the class Hero/Yuusha can be found. Furthermore we have the in-character mention of name-honorifics. I wouldn't mind them if they are part of the voice actors to culturally appropriate a dialogue. But the sole fact that they are mentioned by the characters automatically diminishes the would building by a lot. The same goes for bows and prostration.

In all, Sousou no Frieren struggles from a badly paced plot, an ill-conceived world and characters with no chemistry. The animation felt very irregular. Often it looked fine but then it felt like the frames per seconds dropped and the animation felt choppy. But I don't think that it was that. I'm not entirely sure about that. The sound, on the other hand, is completely fine, but the mixing and placing of songs is sometimes very awkward. This is probably only notable because the characters often don't have interesting stuff to talk about and share the screen in silence, especially in the first few episodes.

Noragami is what happens when Bleach and Soul Eater have a baby.

Story: 4
Animation: 8
Sound: 9
Characters: 3
Enjoyment: 4

Total: 5

... Noragami is painfully average. Using existing concepts without adding anything new to the formula. Yet it fails at every corner to address missing story beats, and also fails to establish either meaning, sense or logic.

And everything bad revolves around the characters, which are clearly the crux of this story. We have Hiyori, who's cursed with living between the living and dead zone. Yukine, boy who recently perished and refuses to not break the law. And Yato, quirky and eccentric main character who can become serious fast.

And while being on the topic, and let me address this really fast, being quirky is one half of the main comedy of this anime. I understand that it should work as "playing with expectations", but after the first "quirky" scene, it becomes stale very fast, as more often than not, quirkiness runs through characters without stopping. And it never stopped. And most of it isn't even explained.
The other half of the comedy consists of insults against Yato. Insults are almost never funny, especially not direct ones.

But lets get back to the characters, proper this time. And I'll start with Yukine, because he is by far the most problematic character. First off, I hate him. He is an irredeemable asshat of a character. He's a kleptomaniac narcissist who destroys everything around him when he feels like. Apparently his death was caused by an external factor, but we never see that. Yato is the only one who saw his memories of his life and sympathized with him because of that. Even while being cursed to death by Yukine Yato still wanted to protect him, because "he is something special". But that, we also never see. What makes him so special? Except for cutting stuff, as a sword I might add, everything he does, other people can do better. This specialness is even mentioned late in the anime without ever explaining what it is.
But probably the worst part is his "redemption". I mentioned he was irredeemable, and I stand by that. His redemption was 100% unearned and only saw his way of error when he was about to perish for good. This whole theme should've been handled completely different.

Hiyori, as the human character, is very single-minded but quickly evolves(?) into an one-dimensional character. At first, she only wants to revert into a state were she doesn't accidentally exists her body. But later, she only wants to preserve the new friend group she's becomes a part of. I don't know really much about that character except that she likes martial arts? And that only really comes in handy in the early parts (and in the final episode as a gag).

And similar goes for Yato. He wears a tracking suit, no reason, got a scarf around his neck, no reason, and works everyday minijobs for 5 Yen, this at least has an explanation, but no logic behind it. And all he wants, as a god, is to build a shrine where he can be revered. What for? We don't know. Especially since other gods, like the God of Learning, all have specific purposes. As a "god of calamity" he deals with requests other gods won't do. So he purposefully chose to be the second fiddle. Or was he made for that? Or ascended to that role? We don't know.

And while writing this, it has come to my attention that this anime started when the manga was at chapter 35 of 109. Which is probably why there are so many plotholes. Not to mention that it only recently finished (January 2024). Also, the animes final two episodes aren't in the manga.

This all results in a weird and baffling experience. While one might enjoy the simplistic nature of the story and surface characters, I personally take issue in how unrealized they are. Shallow husks of persons without real ambitions except short-term goals. And in the end, it was probably the studios or publishers fault to greenlight an anime of a monthly manga still in production. Especially since material was added and changed. Still, the visuals are nice to look at, and I especially liked the background music tracks and the mixing of those.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is a classic, and for good reasons. It blends the serializes "Stand Alone" episodes with the story focused "Complex" episodes very well together. And even tho they can be classifies as serial episodes, they contribute to the world and story in meaningful ways; either through tone or details that the complex episodes revisit.

Story: 9
Animation: 9
Sound: 10
Characters: 8
Enjoyment: 10

Total: 9

... The isn't much a have to write about GitS: SAC. The story has many twist and turns I liked, even when I feel that the story felt rushed in the end, especially the resolution.
The animation is solid and blends 2D and 3D very well together, especially for the time period it was made in. Which is kinda ironic considering the opening and how it aged so badly.
The sound has impact and the soundtrack pulls up and down when necessary.

The characters are good by themselves. The biggest issue one might have is that they are veterans and already well developed. There isn't much of character growth to speak of. For most of the time, characters excel in defying expectations of other characters. Which is one part which contributed to the tension of certain scenes.

Nevertheless, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex holds up really well. For its age and for the depiction of a Pre-Cyberpunk-esque world. The setting is more timid and much more down to reality as one might assume from various futures featuring themes of AI, Cyborg, Mechanization and the conflicts inheriting from that setting. But it also has its well share of dark turns into the depths of the abyss of human psychology.

Story: 8
Animation: 9
Sound: 10
Characters: 7
Enjoyment: 9

Total: 8

Migi to Dali has some interesting ideas and it doesn't overstay its welcome in the slightest. And this shifting dynamic between the story elements is what holds everything in a very good light.

But, there are some minor issues within certain sections. First of all, the second episode deals mostly with the imagination of the main cast, but everything falls prematurely flat as none of the imagination is somewhat believable. It surely makes sense in regard of the protagonists being around 12 years old, but the problem arises from the fact that it is drawn out over the whole ... episode. Gladly, this occurrence is unique.

The other episodes are also structured with a single goal in mind. 3 and 4 are about the additional cast/friends and the further we go in, the more it focuses upon the larger mystery. This transition goes pretty smoothly, as the rest of the themes and larger structures at play. Even tho I am still not a fan about the artificial conflicts before the finale. It is a very cliche thing to do and doesn't really add any meaningful tension as 99% of the time it is resolved before the finale. Please don't do this trope anymore.

Nevertheless, Migi to Dali has a good balance between all of its aspects and knows when to dial back certain aspects to make room for the central themes. The animation can be very fluid at times, but the given story doesn't allow for more. The sound design was very notable as especially the twin theme was very well executed.

Story: 9
Art: 10
Characters: 10
Enjoyment: 9

Total: 9

I just wish that Urasawa could actually write a satisfying ending. His previous work, Monster, also struggled with its ending, mostly due to the contrast of the protagonists and the locations inhabitants. But 20th Century Boys flops hard on that front. And its epilogue "21th Century Boys" is more like an anomaly. It clearly stands out for not following precedent structures. Its pacing increased dramatically. And the story took a very weird turn.
I wish I could only write about 20CB, but the epilogue is very much mandatory.

But let's start with the characters first. As per usual with Urasawa's works, ... I pretty much enjoyed almost all of the cast. They all have character arcs and due to the changing perception of active event, they constantly refine themselves. And I very much enjoy this style of writing. However, there is one character were my perception radically changed due to how he was treated, and that is the first protagonist: Kenji. He was gone for the longest time, but what fascinated me most about the story is in how much impact his very few actions had. His very first scene in the very first chapter is the whole pivot the story revolves around. Without his actions, the story wouldn't happen. And that is great. And I love that.

But the biggest issues stem from the massive time skips. There are 4 major time skips. And all of them, except the last, end in a cliffhanger. And while there is purpose in those decisions down the line, one particular event left me deflated. And it was a bit before the final time skip. The mission came to an end and the final stretch could be walked on. But the vision was entirely different. Which made it actually worse? I'm not quite sure as it basically is the same thing that happened in Death Note, but it was executed less worse.

Two different aspects I also didn't like, at all, were both major plot devices to confer new information. Memory/Flashbacks, and the "Attraction". Both serve the same purpose: To give information to the reader and the characters at the same time. There is rarely any moment in the story where the reader knows more than the characters. In is always the other way around to get the reader with the reveals which mostly happen at the chapter ends as cliffhangers. It surely is a necessary tool in the manga industry. But there may be some other tools authors could utilize, especially Dramatic Irony could be used more frequently.

In total, 20th Century Boys excels with great characters and a naturally dynamic story and its progression while also exploring the limits of the premise. Especially in the later stages, it reached way to far out and overdid itself. I personally have the feeling that the final arc wasn't really planned in the beginning and tacked on later. The epilogue kinda reinforces that notion. Personally, I liked his previous work more, simply because it delved further into the human psyche and the relationships stemming from it. Additionally, the handling of plot elements wasn't executed well in most of the cases.

Story: 6
Animation: 8
Sound: 9
Characters: 6
Enjoyment: 6

Total: 7

86 is a mixed bag, primarily made out of clashes of ideas. And this theme of clashing runs pretty much through everything.
Despite being set in the future, the architecture of 1930s Germany clashes with the 22th century it plays in. A nation, probably an AI controlled one, clashes with the humans. Even within the human country, racial tones clash with each other. And so on.
...
And while these clashes contribute meaningful friction for the story, many character heels come out of nowhere and it questions myself if I have watched everything. As in most cases I didn't felt that the context was given properly. And for how often it happens and how often I felt befuddled, it rather shows a certain ineptitude towards this style of writing. You just can't let characters lash out at other characters out of nowhere, especially when they were like best friends for most of the time, and end the aggressive monologue with "I hate you". If you hated her, then why did you spent so much time with her. You even wanted her in your department.
These character heels mostly feels like inconsistent writing to me.

In a very similar vein, the decision-making ability of certain characters is repeatably brought into question by making stupid decisions at the wrong time. This is especially prominent in the last episode, as it basically is the opposite of plot armor: plot stupidity. Furthermore, the plot stupidity very much sets up the future goal of the series and this alone pushes me away from season two as I already can guess what happens. And making your plot predictable because of plot stupidity is probably the worst thing one author can do to their own story.

When I look back at 86, I mostly see a very straight story with confused characters, not really knowing what they should say or do. At least they somehow arrived at the goal albeit being previously lost before. The animation is mostly pretty stable, even though the 3D elements didn't mesh that well with the 2D ones. The sound design, one the other hand, was very solid. And the music took over the right moments and only when it needed to. I just wish the opening wouldn't be that annoying to listen to. Those alarm sirens really destroyed the whole piece.