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I'll keep it short. This is an anime where perverts are the focal point of every conflict, hear me out.

Coming from the same author who made Assassination Classroom, you'd be surprised to see how much gore this anime lets out, it's such a drastic change in tone and stakes, yet it does it in such a playful way, the only way to describe The Elusive Samurai is psychotic perverts fighting each other for their own 'fetishes'.

The story starts off like an average coming-of-age plot about a young samurai, but like the title implies, the guy sucks at fighting and he also happens to be a ... shota. If you're familiar with the name 'Nagisa Shiota', this is the author doing the same thing with his protagonist again. From there on, you're introduced to the series' first perverts, Yorishige Suwa, who exhibits every behavior of a stranger trying to groom children, but that's okay since he also has a child and has divine energy emitting behind him, so he has to be a good guy right? This is where you realize that every character introduced here will be a bunch of weirdos from there on. Later on, you get the MC, voiced by an actress, enacting lines of a flushed child who just discovered his fetish of confronting death and 'elusively' runs from it (pun intended). It's an anime about relishing on the desire to live out your twisted fantasies in the sight of the battlefield.

Animation-wise, the anime for the most time looks good since it has CloverWorks name in it but you can tell it has some moments where it feels off. By the time they shifted to 3D animation, it becomes a battle of tolerance. But if you can keep up, it's not that bad. The anime also includes the time to paint antagonists the party has to encounter in the most psychopathic, dubious, and unholy of all expressions to ever exist. You have multiple characters that are recognised by their cartoonish-like characteristics, for instance, enlarged ears that makes a man look like a monkey. A character that looks like your savior-incarnate only to be a vile killer. A man whose eyes are about to pop out anytime and a thief who can literally shape-shifting his face into anyone they want to and make their same behavior.

Speaking of characters, you just entered the lottery, ladies and gentlemen. In this environment of redundant perverts, there are in fact normal characters in this anime and it shows on the face of people who reside with the main character or central antagonist of the anime. Unless for a few exceptions, the story doesn't completely forget how a normal person acts. You're just shoved into the perspective of an abandoned noble meeting an endless amount of perverts that you might worry if the abyss stares back at you. You're never going to find a cast this twisted other than degenerate hentais with dubious roles or fanservice propaganda.

I'm not going to say that the anime is flawless by any means. The pacing for something that is meant to be chaotic and bamboozling ends up feeling slow and predictable. For something that wants to make a mature but playful tone, it ends up getting stale quickly once you know exactly what the characters' antics do. There's rarely any development, since most of that sweet 24 minutes per episode is focused on introducing bigger bad guys in a contest of becoming the incarnate of the Seven Deadly Sins, but only in Japan. And whenever there is one moment of character development, it's only given to Tokiyuki for very little development. The characters might have good design and a reason to exist, but without any reasonable development to grow alongside Tokiyuki, it makes them look like your cast of Naruto's chunin students who were set up to be rivals with different set of skills. Their supporting characters are made to be introduced, act like friends and rarely got feedback for their own growth as well.

It's sufficient in multiple aspects, like a jack of all trades, but likewise it also means the anime doesn't excel in any of them. You'll leave thinking of a decent experience, but you'll find yourself too bamboozled to make words out of the fetishes you were exposed to in this anime.

Thank you for reading.

Mayonaka Punch seems like a weak attempt at trying to portray content creators with their own spin on it. I don't mind a series that wants to be quirky or have eccentric characters take up the spotlight, but sometimes, it can be taken a bit too far when you don't attempt to keep your characters and script up in check, especially when the show is original work. I'm no stranger to P.A Works' blunders, but they have made some good original works in the past which I had fun watching. Unfortunately, this show feels so lackluster compared to the director's previous work on Paripi Koumei, ... proof you can make a show about getting fame in the entertainment industry ENTERTAINING to watch.

The show tries to sell you a story about making content in the nightlife with its vibrancy of colors, the animation and art are consistent and don't take any shortcuts, you get a solid cast with distinguishable characters that have different designs and easy to recognize. It has all of these in check and is usually a good mark to mark a good original show. But how reality often disappoints.

I think the show's problem probably starts from the characters, look at Masaki. A canceled member of a popular NewTube channel because she got caught in 4K punching her friend. How do you make someone who's prone to rude remarks or violence likable to watch? Just put her in a room filled with nutjobs who also happened to be vampires and have her manage that team to become the next sensation of the platform that once canceled her. It's a bold attempt at making someone who actually did something wrong the focus of the show, but making her being in an environment where nobody can really connect to Masaki without resorting to contrived storytelling or deus ex machinas is just a recipe for a bad show. It's difficult to find meaningful moments because of the disharmony between characters exist.

Continuing to the character's problem, I genuinely felt more disappointed because it had a couple of decent characters that I would love to see more, but held back by the series' subpar script and story. Let me focus on Yuki for a minute, she otherwise would appear as a strict vampire who tried to uphold the secrecy of their own existence, but her voice being Kayano Ai and the voice lines she had were pretty good! I would love to have more of her taking up screen time and being more focused other than the script's decision to haphazardly use her as a comic relief for the vampire nutjobs such as Live and her gang. I made an exception for Fuu because her role was just acceptable and didn't have any issues watching her. Live was a giant issue, it hurts for me to watch, because I love the voice actress, but her lines and character role just didn't sit well with me as I had to tolerate her antics in most of the episode. Tokage was genuinely difficult to watch because she's pretty much a gambling addict on paper and barely got development other than her reacting to the weird things the show propelled her in. Ichiko initially was annoying to bear with but got more tolerable as time went on.

Let's talk about the story, it's pretty bland, as if it couldn't be more obvious. Other than a few episodes where the endings change with the VAs singing (which stuff actually does happen on those rare occasions), it's mostly trying to show Masaki's new group producing content to garner views and subs to work on the 1 million milestone, but here I am, trying to ask you this, do NewTubers act like what was shown on Mayonaka Punch? I get other creators act differently than the usual creators we are exposed to like commentators, reaction channels, vlogs, challenges, or music covers, but anything that this show tries to copy, it feels mild at best and mediocre. The execution leaves so much to be desired and I can't help but groan when the only thing the show did right to portray was the comments you sometimes find on your videos or such.

I was hoping for a better portrayal of media creators. But I guess this is where their staff could only do at the end. There's really not much to say other than it being bland and forgettable. Your new run-of-the-mill product by P.A Works unfortunately ends here.

Thank you for reading.

OH MY DEER, this anime is just terrible. I can't stress enough how badly this anime does comedy and over relies on a single punchline repeated for 12 episodes straight. Where else would you find an anime that is called Brainrot other than Shikanoko? It is unfathomable how this anime managed to keep a fanbase after 3 episodes worth. I can't belie-

"And now, while my logical side is rambling, welcome to the intermission break, where we discuss the sheer deer of the deer anime."

Deer Mode: The deer opening is very endeering and by far the most deerlicious part of this anime. The cast brought out ... their A-game to elevate this opening up to an 11. It's also the single reason why my deer booty is watching the deer girl in the first place. Just as voice actress Megumi Han once said, "Don't think, just feel." To top it off, you're given front-row seats to some "Award-winning" ahh performances from Rui Tanabe and Megumi Han, particularly the former. She does the Yandere act so immaculately perfect, that you will be brought back to heaven from a single utter of her voice.

Deer Mode: I must stress further about the clever easter eggs the deer cast has managed to deliver, the deer eyecatchers, the 4th wall breaks, and pop culture as deeeee perfect reference for more laughs and giggles in the anime. In this catering of deer biscuits, we got your favorite memes appearing again in a deer anime, characters behaving normally in a chaotic situation, cults, Koshi Torako being the only sensible person in her group of crackheads. The deer card acts wildly. Maybe the true treasure were the deers along the way.

"Oops, looks like my logical side is getting louder. We'll be back shortly."

Logic Mode: The only good part about this anime is the easter eggs and pop references, anything else this anime has to offer is just complete garbage. The joke itself is so predictable that even a Scientologist can predict the next joke by a mile away, the delivery of the joke is so flat that any laugh you'll let out is just a blood-curdling one that makes you rethink about living life. It is just suffering to watch this anime and expect a single giggle from this anime. When you see Shikanoko open her head and you see the inside is empty, that's how much brain is given into these godforsaken jokes.

Logic Mode: I think the worst part about Shikanoko is that these characters are very inconsistent whenever you go into a new scenario. You can tell the jokes pretty much only focus on Shikanoko being an autistic deer for the entire anime and you have Koshitan watching her impulses going wild like a deer trampede. Any characters involved all act like nothing odd is happening and when you get to the extreme characters like Anko, she is just so tropey that it's exhausting. Nekoyamada and Bashame were acceptable at best because they were pretty adorable to watch. This is not a debate, you'll get some short giggles sure, but it is unlikely that you'll find yourself having a good time watching it from start to finish.

Deer Mode: But... the opening is fun!

Logic Mode: Well that's why you don't believe in the rumor "In every good anime lies a good opening.". I rest my case.

I'm not going to sugarcoat this, I really liked Roshidere. An anime that has vibrant production and character designs doesn't come often, paired up with actual witty dialogue and some good characters. With these strengths, Roshidere could have easily been a recommendation for everyone to take as a fan-favorite rom-com. However, as every episode came later, it couldn't stand to the height of what new romcoms have already achieved. I hoped for it to live up to the qualities of post-modern rom-coms, but sadly it has come to an end.

When you hear a studio like Doga Kobo especially if the anime has a cast filled ... with female characters, Doga Kobo will surely deliver that level of expectation in creating the cutest waifu material you could find in this Summer arsenal. It's bright, but nowhere to the level of being nauseatic, and the animation is consistent and high-quality for the entire run, Such to say in simpler terms, it's a buffet for the eyes. Although most female characters look oddly the same if you disregard their hair color, styles, and apparel, it's pretty much a waifu fest for anyone intending to find a favorite waifu.

Speaking of Waifus, who would have thought the imouto ended up being the best character in this anime? Yuki Suou is easily the best character and has the most personality out of all the waifus the anime shows on a redundant scale. Despite showing up as a talented, high-class lady who's polite and charming, her scenes with the male MC are just the absolute best to watch, the VA did a magnificent job to make her stand out and has so much taste in comparison to other waifus in this anime. To describe her in a single word, she's just BASED. How can you make a character who's so blatantly 'shameless' not cringe and ACTUALLY charming to watch? That's a big plus for anything I've seen trying to portray Otakus. Her dialogues combined with an incredible voice just make her almost impeccable and a top-tier performance to be beholden.

Likewise, the anime's strongest part is the performance of the voice actresses, and that includes the main voice actress herself. Imagine a voice actress who is so dedicated to Russian culture, that she can speak fluent Russian while doing vocal performances for the opening and different endings. You got yourself a reason to like Sumire Uesaka even more if you didn't watch her previous performance in other anime before. It was like the role was specifically tailored for her.

I think it's enough for the performance praise and actually focus on the anime, as such. I find it discouraging to realize there were more flaws than there were strengths in this anime. The list being:

1. Weak supporting cast
- They are mostly decent on first impression and aren't unlikable, but when you have characters like Yuki or Alya being genuinely likable to watch, the cast pretty much looks stale compared to these powerhouses. Masachika is not by all means a bad character, but by making your male character witty, smart, talented, and hang around multiple girls at the same time like how most male characters are written nowadays, you could change him with another similar male character, and the anime would still proceed without any hindrance. The only reason he's viable to be in the cast was simply because of Yuki's sheer existence (the brother to the most BASED character in this anime).

- I'm not trying to say you should avoid tropes, but I think the anime got a bit too comfy with introducing tropes just for the sake of it. Ayano Kimishima and Masha are the characters I'm speaking of, with the latter being the one I'm genuinely more disappointed in. How are they still churning out maid characters? I don't understand what is so endearing about showing stone-faced ladies looking at you, doing your every bid by any means. You would mostly see her together with Masachika or Suou, only to add a little spice of dialogue to the duo, but even then, I don't see much reason to add her other than to be another fanservice for the audience. Turning to Masha however, I was disappointed with her lack of character development despite being the ONLY character to recognize Masachika from his childhood's past. Her development is nowhere to be seen as later episodes go on, despite signaling her attachment to Masachika. She, unfortunately, falls flat from other characters that have received more depth and attention as the anime goes on.

2. Lack of romance development
- Speaking of development, the romance progression is honestly the reason why the anime can't be recommended as a satisfying rom-com by today's standards. If you would compare it to 2010's romcoms, the anime does it by the book, a perfect anime to define one, but it comes in stale compared to new rom-coms that have better or more accurate 'FASTER' romance progressions than what Roshidere has come to offer. It starts as your regular rom-com would normally start;

- You get introduced to an eccentric yet charming girl, she shows her personality, the male character feels a bit off but accepts it nonetheless, somehow finds the chance to rizz her, the girl somewhat reciprocates or blushes, male character blushes too from his actions or vice versa, repeat. It's a standard procedure but very effective when you add more features to the romance, leading to drama or conflicts, it could have been a good romance anime.

- The trouble starts when the anime decides to divide the attention between different love interests that might hit it off or pretty much have different appeals for different audiences. The quality screen time that could have been given to Alya is unfortunately divided by other contending waifus who are defined by their tropes alone. It gives the anime a lot of downtime and is pretty frustrating for anyone who's looking for meaningful screen time between the main couple. Even worse, it decided to show the student council election arc, eliminating the majority of romance for even more characters introduced and causing more downtime for romance later to come. Along with adding Masachika's backstory to the picture, you get lesser romance appeal as the later episode goes on. The only thing that stays consistent in the anime is the comedy and fanservice the anime proudly showcases to you in a silver picture.

It is a shame, that I held it in the regard of contesting favorable rom-coms, but the anime couldn't reach the level of what is considered great in romance terms. If you're looking for some fun personalities in anime portrayal, this one would cater to your needs most deservedly, otherwise, you might not be able to find this romance anywhere diabetic.

Why Makeine might be good for you:
1. Good production quality
- A-1 Pictures just performs exquisitely when making romance or waifu bait anime. Here, the character designs stand out and the background art visually looks great overall.

2. Subversion of ideas
- If you're a guy who likes ideas being subverted for a fresh take, this anime might be your choice. Makeine focuses on the tragic yet comedic fates of these heroines who fail to make a move on their love interests, leading them to the friend zone route.

3. Character interaction
- I'd say it's a plus for this anime thanks to Nukumizu's role as an audience's ... surrogate. He's witnessing the girls at their worst, so you get to find out the funny side of things instead of your usual melodrama crying from utter rejection and such. Because of that, the comedy works pretty well, even though the majority of cast existing are pretty much nutjobs.

Possible issues for Makeine:
1. Tropes are in sight
- The story is eager to explore the fates of the losing heroines, so you're also subjected to their personalities that led them to not being able to get a boyfriend in their school days. As such, they employ tropes you have found in your earlier anime-watching days. Development will come for sure, but you may have to go through a bit of uninteresting quips to find any worthy growth.

2. It's susceptible to disappointment
- When you try to pursue unique ideas, it relies on proper execution and unique storytelling. Other than making a plot for the actual romance plot to happen, this anime is diving into solely subverting the friend-zoned girls arc without any focus on other plots for a safe backseat. This means if the anime sucks at delivering it or has no more ideas left to pursue, it utterly fails on its mark.

I'm at the point of wondering if it might be a good watch or not. So far, it's looking good, you get to see heroines making more expressions than just being a losing heroine. But I'm also worried about the anime just randomly failing by the time it runs out of ideas. Let's hope for the best.

Thank you for reading.

If you're looking for a sleeper hit, look no further than Wistoria, the new addition of this Summer. You might find this anime quite surprising, as it serves as a mark that having good staff can often make a difference in making a good adaptation.

Why you might enjoy Wistoria:
1. Good animation
- If you're familiar with the director of this anime, you'd also know he served as the director of Black Clover. This show had many instances of great animation (unless you're looking for constant quality). In Wistoria however, you are seeing the director's prowess to his fullest, the staff he managed to garner to work ... on this anime is astonishing, so you're blessed with good visuals and characters making multiple expressions.

2. Main character just throwing hands
- An odd character who gains an unlikely power that betrays the foundation of the anime's setting and proceeds to use it to fight against every obstacle he finds? You had me on the word 'odd' because it is precisely that anime. In exchange for superhuman strength, his restriction is to never be able to use magic and have to rely on tools that can pierce through magic itself (reference intended). If you're a huge fan of Black Clover or even JJK, you're going to enjoy this MC throwing hands on his foes anytime.

Flaws found in Wistoria:
1. A formulaic process
- I'm not exactly the person to say that cliche = bad anime, but if you want to resort to familiar premises, you need to spice things up a bit or make the story a bit different for a shot of identity. To me, Wistoria feels like a fan-fiction that was done to commemorate the other great things that have been created before its own, so it means you're going to see plenty of common cliches without twists in them.

2. Tropes confirmed
- Classmate girl who just supports the main character? Check. Headmaster somehow allowing the main character to enroll in a supreme magic school? Check. The main character has a big dream to achieve? Check. So clearly, it further cements the point you're not going to watch something out of the ordinary in plot and originality, it's just an anime that has good animation going for it. Typically like Jujutsu Kaisen in general.

In the end, you should give it a shot if you're a big fan of spicy animation and choreography, which the anime does exactly. I think the story and characters have way more to go than just having animation in its book of merits, but it is the ideal example of what an adaptation should be done. It scores a perfect 10/10 in adaptation in my book.

Here's why you should watch Pseudo Harem:
1. Hayami Saori
- If you're a fan of her, you will definitely enjoy this one. The role she's playing has her utilizing her talent in every corner, so you get to hear every kind of voice aside from the renowned soft-spoken tone you'd hear from her usual roles. Not to mention having her character being an actress, you would get an endless amount of talent just oozing in every second of her screentime. Let's not forget the other guys as well, they do well to commend the character and help make Rin stand out as well.

2. Just Cute
- Like ... the many roles her characters have to strap into, you get many scenarios with the main couple that are enjoyable to watch for romance fans. Blushing, rizzing main heroine endlessly, holding hands out of nowhere, or getting close, it's the whole package for your romance delicacy.

Biggest Downside of Pseudo Harem:
No Build-up/Storytelling
- The anime is only interested in showing you cute scenes and has no actual scenario creation. There's no plot cohesion either, so you're constantly jumping from one cute scene to another without proper build-up or connection between scenes. It may seem like a plus for not having your romance being sidetracked by the other plot, but the lack of plot means there is no chance for character development except for cute moments or random drama it sometimes throws once in a while.

Other than that, you get an experience equivalent to getting diabetes. As much as I would appreciate the anime having storytelling, think of it as a large dose of sugar sweetness that keeps going nonstop without a break. It's a good ride, try it if you want to.

Thank you for reading.

Do you want to know something? Whenever an adaptation of a story that centers around said industry is done, it's always done with the concept that we're supposed to know more about the industry or how the people operate behind it. By nature, you could say it's just a glorified documentary. Still, because it's an anime, it throws in another plot that is meant to balance the core theme of the anime itself, like inserting a harem into a game-making plot or making the focus on Romance surrounding gamers. At its best, you get an entertaining anime that tempts you with its insightful facts and ... keeps you focused on the drama in the story. On the other side, fumbling them is pretty easy if you don't know how to keep the two plots in perfect cohesion, as trying to focus more on the industry plot can lead to a lack of character details and forced plot contrivance whereas focusing on the other plot (can be romance, drama or anything) could make the whole plot completely pointless.

Oshi no Ko is an exemplary anime that excels in balancing both the darkness and brightness of the story. Everything the anime does is almost nigh-perfect. You have eye-candy-worthy character designs with juicy animations, a plot that continues to bring suspense and drive, and top-notch pacing and direction, it's an ideal product of a perfect adaptation. Of course, the story's quality is entirely subjective to you, but the staff continues to bring that incredible quality which makes this season a worthy sequel.

Considering the episodes we have gotten, the quality is consistent and doesn't seem to lose its touch after a year break. Yeah, the anime sometimes throws in those goofy expressions and sometimes the characters don't look the perfectly modeled eye candies in every frame, but nitpicking on it would be a petty attempt because this season is incredible.

Stop reading if you're not a fan of spoilers.

With this, we have reached the end of Season 2 for Mushoku Tensei, and I couldn't be any more pleased than what has been given. Mushoku Tensei continues to bring natural storytelling and drama. Though, it's not without backlash from the attention it has garnered over this course of S2. I wanted to make this review to address the controversy it has created and put it into comparison with the good this course has managed to create. Obviously, this season is nowhere near the level of Season 1's incredible production and animation, since the former had more ... time and staff to polish it other than this season, but Season 2 still delivers a satisfactory performance despite being inferior in general.

Any Mushoku Tensei fans who were waiting for the action, it's been a long wait but Studio Bind has been able to churn out some juicy animation, especially Episode 10 for an incredible experience. You can still notice that the staff had to cut out some corners for the bigger fight scenes, but at least the quality didn't drop to the point of oblivion. It's not only the fight scenes, but they managed to nail a lot of expressions in this series without relying on tropey moe expressions to save time. Ideally, I wish that Mushoku Tensei had more time and budget put into this without the time constraint they had after Season 1 finished airing, they managed to come up with a still-good adaptation of Mushoku Tensei that can sit comfortably as a good sequel.

Let's take another nose dive into Mushoku Tensei's strongest yet most controversial aspect, the characters. It was quite a surprise how they managed to make Paul, one of the most-hated characters in the show's initial run into a tragic character who is fighting for another chance to see his family. To do that requires some talent (and big balls to do so) and it's incredible how they gave Paul more depth into his redemption of being a good family man, despite almost breaking the family apart from an affair with his maid. Similar to its first cour, the fanservice is quite tamed despite Rudy gaining back his ability to edge again, knowing he wanted to make another family, you could finally have some respect for this guy, well until the penultimate episode aired.

You see, Rudy having sex with his love interest served as the show's climax starting from S1 Cour 2, and he did that twice, Eris and Sylphy. They say the third time's a charm, right? His attachment to Roxy is as bright as daylight, he keeps her panties in a shrine for good sake. And her name is constantly reminded throughout the season before they eventually meet. Roxy gets infatuated with Rudeus' looks while Rudeus' has been long infatuated with her since the beginning. It's a no-brainer that he's planning to do IT with all of the three girls and in this cour, Roxy joined the party. However, the way they eventually did IT can be hard to accept.

So what is so controversial?
- Here's the catch. Roxy, out of all the things she could have thought to comfort Rudeus, decided that making him nut would perfectly do just fine, and understandably, it looks like she's taking advantage of Rudeus' vulnerability, despite fully knowing that he's married. It's wrong and not going to lie, it's pretty questionable and there are a lot of things to talk about in the full gist of it, instead of indulging in that and looking into the storytelling, it serves as a key plot point rather than just fulfilling another one of Rudeus' fantasies or accumulating another questionable action on top of each other. Keep in mind, despite Rudeus' perverted nature, all of Rudy's love interests gave consent to doing it and approached him first, though all of them happened in an entirely different context. It's quite a nice subversion of how the story continued with this notion and it's meant to show their reciprocation towards Rudeus' appreciation of them.

Let's go out of topic for a moment.
- Let me also put you in a disclaimer. Just because characters are portrayed differently or have moral ambiguity does not reflect the artists' and readers' beliefs, no matter how offensive said content can be. Straight from the quote "The author is dead", what said content means to you does not exactly mean the same to others. It's a given that the anime continued to bring controversial issues into the topic, but that's not all the anime is about. You may feel the quality is marred by the moral dilemma it showcases, but from my take, it's a further enhancement of the story's immersion. It may be unwanted but it doesn't feel contrived, in fact, many of it was what made the anime surpass my expectations. It took the bad parts of a bad isekai and used them as strong plot points that continued to build from there, which made it able to turn into something I hold dearly. To me, Mushoku Tensei continues to be a touching experience that had many times of heartfelt drama. Well, for you, it's okay to not agree with the main character's actions. I can't really convince you to not hate the actions they do, because it's just more of me praising the anime at the end of what it meant to me.

In conclusion, Mushoku Tensei continues to bring his past memories as a core part of the storytelling, and as a result, it shows the eventual development of a worthless pathetic NEET to become somebody. He may still have a weak mentality and a wracked sense of morality, but the anime evidently shows proof that he's striving to become better with his actions to his family members and teammates. It's easy to call this anime bad when you only consider the worst part of the anime, albeit those bad parts are only few and far between. If you still love Mushoku Tensei, please watch this.

Thank you for reading.

TL;DR
Wind Breaker's only good merit is the action thanks to Cloverworks' production, unless you delve deeper into what the anime is about.

If you know me, most of you would be familiar with me pointing out flaws in character detail since they're mostly the bulk of what makes an anime good. Besides that, I'm just an avid fan of action anime, it's just blatantly obvious that I regularly watch them every year. It's one that I felt most comfortable with, one where many greats were born from it, ones that have made me laugh, ones that have made me cry, but it's also one where ... I have a high standard of, and it's also easy for others to fumble with the action genre, most commonly with animation issues, just being still drawings being dragged in and out of the screen that is supposed to be "action" for the audience. And having Wind Breaker on the radar, I had to personally check it out for myself.

I have a mixed view of Cloverworks in general. They have proven that they can produce good new anime series which are pretty popular mangas at that given time, especially since one of my favorite anime was My Dress-Up Darling from Cloverworks, but whenever they decided to make sequels, they would always discombobulate it to ashes just so they would never have to associate with it ever again. At least that's how I felt when they animated TPN S2 and WEP sequels (well to be clear, they were released a while ago, but ever since then I couldn't trust Cloverworks anymore when it came to hyped sequels.) So when Wind Breaker was announced to be animated by Cloverworks, I went on to assume the former, whereas they will be able to bring good production to this anime and likewise, the anime on the surface looks really good. The choreography looks sick, the visuals are bright and vibrant, along with a good 1st impression in general thanks to the OP being quite fitting with what the anime wanted to portray. But even so, Wind Breaker has a long way to go to reach the gold standard of what a good shonen anime should achieve.

First of all, what is Wind Breaker all about? Well, you could see a whole group of delinquents ganging up together to be acknowledged by everyone, foes and friends alike. Sakura Haruka is the MC who yearns for acknowledgment and it's prevalent to see that in him. I hate to use comparisons but you can deliberately see that his ideals are like Naruto's, only with a more juvenile personality. The only thing he knows is fistfighting, punching the living soul out of anyone who dares to stand in his path, a lone wolf who has been ostracized by his peers and community alike, and you guess it, he wants to attain the crown at the top for himself just so he can be acknowledged by everyone. From there, the MC's development begins from a juvenile lonely Go-haired boy to someone who starts to learn what it means to strive for the top seat.

On the other hand, let's not act like this is an uncommon thing. Teenagers being insecure with their own identity is just common to see in any anime whose majority of the cast are teenagers, but it's difficult to find anime that knows how to portray it without relying on too much melodrama or making up plot conveniences. For instance, show flashbacks for 3 minutes to supposedly bring context to characters' backstory or make the main characters say the right thing at the right time which somehow dealt damage to the adversary's psyche. Not to mention being an anime revolving around high school students, you can tell from a glimpse of it, it was going to be about gaining the respect of the community and beating the shit out of others for treating people ill-willed. The anime is another one of those "make your MC scream their own righteous goal in your face and have their adversary be bamboozled by their screaming" kind of schtick. I may sound like I'm criticizing it for an abundance of cliches, but that's not my point. It's not the idea that any anime should try to always be original or do things out of the ordinary in every aspect, some of my favorites have done these things that I am speaking of, but the anime does nothing but feel like it over-relied on the stereotypes for too long that any form of freshness the anime could produce is just non-existent compared to what the anime commonly shoves in your face.

Besides, it's filled with so many character archetypes and cliches that it further cements the point that the anime lacks its own identity and originality. Even Umemiya's character is basically a knock-off version of Gojo Satoru with the same VA. And it's not just him, it's the whole cast themselves for being so one-dimensional and archetypal. Typically, Sakura has the most depth out of all the different characters, given the fact that he's the main character, and I'm willing to say that even the new adversaries that showed up also have some depth to them. Albeit what he has managed to achieve is just a minuscule scale of what a good character should be. It felt like he had barely touched the surface of many possibilities his character could be. And the cast has done nothing to complement each other but rather more like cheap gimmicks just to arouse your attention.

Nirei is a comic relief that also serves as the show's exposition, but oh no, since the writing is so blatant, you'll see Nirei acting like a narrator who doesn't know how to shut up. Suo acts how "normal" Mahito would do without his psychopathic tendencies. Don't even get me started with the show's humor. When you have characters this bland, you'd have a better chance of laughing at a reflection of yourself than this one, it is cluttered with these archetypes playing random quips just to cue for a laugh, but to no avail. Their connections and dialogues are superficial, none of them has any meaning other than to drive the plot to where it needs to be. To add further, I'm not trying to say a show shouldn't put stereotypes, it can be used if done with care and some creativity behind it. The stereotypes that many found annoying need to receive growth or any form of subversion to serve as a breath of fresh air, but because the show rarely tries to do so for the main cast excluding Sakura, you won't be able to see any ideal growth from them either.

Despite the excessive criticism I'm giving to this anime, there is some merit to what Wind Breaker has managed to offer despite its many blunders. As much as it is an action anime, for the most part, it isn't really bad, in fact, I'd say it's pretty good. It follows all of the ideal ingredients that make a good action anime, and as a result, most of its fights are spectacularly good, well for a couple of exceptions, (of course, I'm looking at you, Umemiya). It's nice how Cloverworks still continues to bring lively visuals and slick animation for their new projects and it definitely shows here. Even when you have simplistic characters or some of the most embarrassing dialogues known to mankind, action isn't particularly affected by it that much, so the action shines like a glimmering light on all of its weaker aspects. The pacing is also nice and it didn't suffer from too much downtime, it's straight to the point, and boom, you get a good action anime. Just not that great on the others.

In the end, Wind Breaker, without a doubt, delivers the action sequences, much of what you should expect from an action show. However, it's difficult to recommend this when you have the weakest cast to support a somewhat decent main character. If you can tolerate archetypes or abysmal characters, you should be able to watch this with particular ease. Otherwise, it will be a painstaking gauntlet to get to the good part, since it spends a lot of time on the cast, and it's just a norm for shonen to have an ensemble cast to appear for most of the show, but when the cast is really bad, it can be quite a downer.

Thank you for reading.