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I deleted my previous Boruto manga review because I felt like it didn't really reflect my feelings on the manga any longer. A few years have passed and the Boruto fanboy in me has disappeared. I've learned to love what there's good about Boruto, but also I dislike that which is to blame. I won't elaborate much on this review, if you want to see a more in depth review of my thoughts on Boruto as a whole I suggest you read my Boruto anime review, that goes over everything, anime-only and not.

So, TL;DR, for me Boruto is a manga that has a very unappealing ... art direction, with bad panelling, bad art style and underwhelming battle coreography, it has a subpar story with a group of of very poorly written villains and some problems with power scaling. I do think, though, that Boruto does a good job at writing the main characters, namely Boruto and Kawaki. These two characters feel just right from a shonen perspective, and without getting into spoilers, I think their growth and character development throughout the manga is really interesting. There are also some hype moments here and there that make up most of what people like about this manga, namely Naruto using a new transformation, so there's plenty to like in this sequel to Boruto.

I do recommend Naruto fans to give this manga a read, but to keep their expectactions in check, because it is worse than Naruto in pretty much every single way.

* BIG SPOILERS AHEAD *

Buddy Daddies is a touching story between two assassins and a cute little girl. It comes down to a very memorable show that hits most things right but ends up missing a few notes.

The story sees Kazuki and Rei, two assassins that are working for Rei's organization as hitmen. In the first episode their target ends up being the father of a child that gets involved in their life going forward. This child is Miri, and she is the star of the show. The big strength of Buddy Daddies imo is the portrayal of a family that is built from the ... ground up and sees two men in their 20s learn what it's like to take care of a child for the first time in their lives. Seeing the two daddies grow closer to Miri, go through the lengthy process of getting her in a daycare (and waiting in a line for hours), find out where to buy cheap utensils, learn how to cook healthy food and how to take care of a 4 year old is the highlight of the show for me.

For most of the 12 episode run we get an episodic slice of life approach where the three main characters interact among themselves and with others, but also we get some insight into the tragic backstories of both Kazuki and Rei. The losses and harsh chlidhoods that they've experienced make it so their current family situation is that much more important to them.

That's why it's an heartbreak when in the last few episodes they are forced to say goodbye to Miri because it's dangerous to get her involved in the lives of two hitmen. A lot happens, but getting separated from Miri is not enough, as Rei's organization is trying to get rid of Miri in a way to have Rei cut all of the ties he had during his "free reign" living with Kazuki.

Thus, in an effort to save Miri and keep their relationship alive, as they're not able to simply escape, Kazuki and Rei take the fight to the core of the organization, and dispose of the assassins that were trying to kill Miri, ending the story with a nice flashforward to Miri's adolescence.

All in all, I think the story was well done to a point where we managed to feel for the characters and their departure. The backstories were properly spread out and elaborated in order to make us care more about their ordeals. The slice of life and comedy moments were well paced and developed, creating a very wholesome experience. The animation is also really smooth.

There are a few problems in this anime though. The main one are the action scenes. They're very well animated, but are extremely unrealistic. Characters are able to dodge gunfire like they're "the Flash". Battles are laid out in a way that doesn't make any sense. They're pretty scarce, mostly in the first two and then the last couple of episodes, but I still have to point out how poorly designed they are. I also dislike how convenient it is that the main villain patiently waits for the characters to say their "last words" only to be surprised from the back by another character. He also really conveniently makes the typical long speech before killing off someone in order to save time for him to get killed instead.

Lastly, I think the last episode was not laid out in a good way. Mostly due to how the heist took place. Rei and Kazuki invaded the organization headquarters, but what looked like just an attempt at conversing with the leaders quickly turned into a bloodbath. I found it very stupid how Rei and Kazuki had already killed dozens of men, but then they sate to one of the assassins that "they just want to talk". Who is going to believe that after the bloodshed that occured? Makes no sense. Then, after having already killed probably half of the organization, Rei confronts his father who is just patiently waiting in his room. Half of his forces were just murdered, several at the doorside of his quarters, and he's just chilling there like wtf?! Then Kazuki is sent by Rei to "secure their gettaway" and he simply waits at the main entrance with a car. How did not a single person chase him down? Did they actually kill every single one of the members? Didn't seem like it. They were pretty calm considering they could be shot at any moment, I mean they were still in the stronghold of the enemy.

At the end, I still can't not recommend Buddy Daddies. For me it's a great anime that's wheighed down by a couple of big problems that can or cannot be easily ignored depending on the viewer. It still is one of the best anime of the season for sure and ultimately a big hidden gem.

Handyman Saitou-san is a really good anime. C2C keeps releasing bangers and I'm falling more and more in love with this studio. The first time I heard about them was with Majo no Tabitabi. I haven't watched that anime yet but it's on my list. Last fall though, Reincarnated as a Sword aired and it was very pleasant. I didn't enjoy it as much as this one but it was still pretty good. The production values for Handyman Saitou-san however are out of the roof. The animation is consistently amazing, much superior to that of Reincarnated as a Sword.

Setting the studio quality aside, Saitou-san is ... just really fun. What stood out to me at first was how hilarious the show is. The first 4 episodes of the anime take a skit-like approach, taken from the 4-koma manga style of the source material. And thus there are multiple 4 or 5 minute long sections per episode focusing on a specific topic. These 4 episodes introduce us to the main characters but also to several other side characters, in comedy filled situations. After we've been acquaintanced to these characters, the following episodes reunite all of them in a dungeon and increase the stakes, transforming the hilarious sketch formula into a series of dangerous and emotional battles. The comedy isn't entirely discarded, there are plenty of funny moments here and there, but it's noticeable that it was sidelined for the focus of plot progression. We'll see touching character backstories and deep motivations and goals, I just love how they managed to turn the first comedic episodes into a serious battle anime and suceed at doing it.

There are a lot of dirty jokes in this anime, I think that should be noted. There are way too many jokes involving penises and naked characters, and if that's something that bothers you it might be better to avoid this anime, but at the end of the day it didn't bother me or affect my enjoyment at all.

The one thing that did bother me though were some plot inconsistencies. I won't get into big spoilers, but the dungeon arc I mentioned earlier had several characters looking for some artifacts seemingly. At the end of the arc they changed that into a magician. If you watch the anime it does make sense what I'm saying, as a magician does show up but the artifacts are completely forgotten about by every character. There's another instance in the last arc, but I won't talk about it because they're some heavy spoilers.

Anyway, I really enjoyed Handyman Saitou-san. The animation is great, the comedy is phenomenal, the characters, both main and side characters, are all very appealing and well written, and the plot manages to entertain us while shifting between episodic skit-like content and serious, emotional battle anime with interesting villains. So at the end of the day, Hanydman Saitou-san is a 9/10 for me.

I really enjoyed Blue Lock. Even though I haven't watched a lot of sports anime, it's a genre I really like and I'm hoping to delve deeper into it from now on.

The truth is I fell in love with Blue Lock from the very first episode and the reason is simple - the concept. Blue Lock is really interesting because it's not about another sports club on the brink of disbanding that suddenly gets a new member and reaches the nationals all of a sudden. This formula works, and we've seen plenty of sports manga and anime apply it right, but just the fact that ... we get a sports anime, a sports shonen on top of that, that is not focused on a school club is a breath of fresh air. Blue Lock focuses on a group of 300 high school students that are invited to participate in a program where they will train in a facility aiming to become the best striker in Japan. All 300 of the players are forwards and this creates a very interesting dynamic you won't be expecting.

Probably my favourite part about Blue Lock is all the different types of football matches they employ in the anime. In the first episode you get a game of catch with a football. Then the 1st selection has traditional 11v11 matches but none of these players have been used to any position other than forwards, so seeing them fill the gaps and start rotating in the middle of the games is really interesting. Later in the show you see 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 and 5v5 matches, which is also a nice change of pace.

In a tactical aspect Blue Lock is also very interesting. Every character has a different "weapon". Be it jumping really high, running really fast, shooting from mid range and so on. Seeing these characters employ these weapons in the best possible scenarios, the so called "formulas", and evolving their weapons and becoming better players throughout the season is really nice.

Blue Lock has a lot of different characters. Some you'll come to like, others not so much, but the cast is really big and there are all sorts of different personalities. Many of these characters have their own backstory brought up and you start feeling for them. Some join the program because they want to have fame, others want to be the very best and some just want to have fun. That's why when some characters get eliminated from the program you're bound to feel for them. The character designs are also really unique and it's very easy to distinguis and remember all the characters.

If I had to point out the few problems I've had with Blue Lock it's pretty simple:
- the animation is quite lackluster. It's not bad by any means but it's pretty inconsistent and makes use of a lot of CGI;
- there are a lot of monologues throughout the matches, these are meant to explain all the tactics and strategies the players use. But sometimes there's a lot of down time during the matches with these monologues. They work better in manga format but in anime format it's not as good;
- finally there are the metaphors. This is something that started to bother me more so towards the second half of the show. It's not a deal breaker, but there are a lot of metaphors like the players having monsters inside of them, which I think is referring to their desire to become the best in football, or when Isagi deconstructs and then reconstructs himself with puzzle pieces, learning something new about himself or his opponents, or anytime they say "devour" in this anime that kind of pisses me off. Like I said, it's not a deal breaker at all, but sometimes it does bother me and I would just prefer that they would tone it down a little.

All in all I really like Blue Lock a lot, I would say it's one of my favourite sports anime (not that I've watched many). At one point this was a 10/10 for me but a few things here and there made me lower the score to a 9. I still think the anime is amazing and is imo a must watch for any sports anime fan.

This anime is pretty mid for me. Maybe it's because it's one of the first romance anime I've ever watched, and I'm starting to delve into a genre that I was not accustomed to, but I felt this anime was quite corny and cliche at times. It just felt like a generic romance anime, even though I just said I don't really watch romance, but I just felt like it was. It's not like I don't understand anything about love, but as someone that never felt romantically attracted to someone, I just feel like a lot of scenes in this anime are overly dramatic and ... emotional. Like I said, I'm no expert in love of any kind, but I still think that you can express it in a more subtle way than a 5 minute speech about how you're going to treasure your partner for the rest of your life. I just think it's pretty corny is all.

What bothers me the most about this anime though is the very first episode and how everything is set in motion. Imo the first episode was so bad that I was really planning on dropping the show, but then I decided to give it another chance. I feel like every sitaution in the first episode was very conveniently set so that the two main characters could be together. Firstly, Amane gifts a girl he doesn't know from anywhere (at the time) an umbrella because she's in the rain. I thought that was kind of weird, but ok. She returns the umbrella in the following day, and so far so good. But then you find out they actually live right next to each other. What a huge coincidence. Oh, and they both also happen to live by themselves with no family. Makes total sense for 14/15 year olds. How come they never met before if they literally share a wall? They only met, conveniently, after he gifted her the umbrella? Then she decides to cook for him as thanks for the umbrella. Ok, that's a nice gesture I guess. But then she cooks for him EVERY SINGLE DAY from then on, she even cleans his house like just two days after meeting him. Like, the whole house, not just his room. And soon they're pretty much living together and she's cooking for him every day at his apartment. She pretty much doesn't spend any time in her own apartment any longer. It all happens so fast.

I will say that the way their relationship develops is pretty nice and really wholesome. They start off kinda awkward with each other but by the end of the season they're all lovey-dovey and it's pretty nice, but I really can't excuse all the convenient things that happen to set the events.

I think this anime is pretty mediocre, it's quite cliche, corny and cringe at times, with the first two episodes being especially conveniently weird, but I do think the relationship between the two main characters is pretty wholesome, so I won't give this anime a negative score. Maybe one day I'll look back at this anime more fondly, but it just happened to be my first romance watch. If it weren't maybe it would be rated differently.

Wow, what a trainwreck of an anime. This anime managed to disappoint me more than I thought it could, and it turned into the all time worst Digimon series. This show actually had a lot of potential, but most of it was wasted down the drain. Let's break it down.

Digimon Ghost Game starts off pretty well, introducing us to an interesting cast of main characters alongside their equally endearing partner digimon. For the first 10 or so episodes we get an episodic approach where we see the first digivolutions, i.e the Champion/Adult level digivolutions, for all 3 main digimon. We've seen other Digimon anime do ... this, like Tamers and Universe. But what those series did and this one should have as well was to move on from the episodic formula and start to develop the story, even if slowly. Instead, what we got were 64 or so episodes of continuous boring, repetitive "digimon of the week" type of thing. You probably checked the episode count for this anime - 67. That's right. The last 3 episodes of the anime are the ones where the plot actually ensues. For the first 64 episodes literally nothing happens. We get a few teases here and there but nothing more than that. This creates two big problems:

- The first one is that the vast majority of the anime is a boring episodic mess with close to no plot or character development or any meaningful moments other than the digivolutions.
- The second one is how rushed the finale was. I'm not going to get into spoilers for how the story ends, but just know it was one of the most rushed and anti-climatic endings I've seen in any anime. The most frustrating part of all this is that the pieces were all there for a good series/finale, because the last 3 episodes actually have some really interesting plot twists and developments. In the final episode alone we got tons of exposition explaining several of the things that happened throughout the show. The future was even set for a potential continuation or sequel because they introduced a major threat around 4 or 5 minutes away from the end of the final episode. But of course they didn't follow through with that. Instead we got a meaningless, cheap and nonsensical finale that not only felt super rushed but also doesn't even explain how they averted the major threat I mentioned just now.

Digimon Ghost Game does have some good moments, but that mostly amounts to the Digivolution scenes, the digivolved forms of the main 3 digimon which are mostly really well designed, and also to the 2 main insert songs, First Riders and Makuake, which are both pretty hype, especially Makuake. The animation is also generally pretty good. For both Toei and Digimon standards, I would say this is actually the best animated Digimon series, at least in terms of consistency. We never really got any slideshow battle which is a surprise for, like I said, Digimon standards. This makes it feel even worse that the imo worst Digimon show ever is the one that gets the best production treatment.

Like I said at the start, Digimon Ghost Game is a big wasted potential and it turned into a huge flop. It does have some good moments here and there, but the boring episodic nature and the rushed, nonsensical finale turn it into my least favourite Digimon series ever, and as a Digimon fan it really makes me feel bad.

Boruto is finally over. It is going to return, but I can write a review for the first 293 episodes of the anime knowing that my opinion is pretty much not going to change.
I'll TL;DR you right now and say that Boruto imo is a mediocre anime that has some good moments and also plenty of bad ones. I am, however, going to try to write an honest as possible review of the anime of Boruto. I don't consider myself a Boruto fan or a hater, so this review will not pass as a fanatic's odyssey (my manga review of Boruto is pretty fanboyish but ... that review will be changed once the manga ends) but also not as a hater's folly. That also means I'm not going to talk past the events of the anime into the manga exclusive content so far. There will be some spoilers for the anime in this review.

Boruto is a dissappointing follow-up to Naruto. That is not to say that I consider Naruto to be a masterpiece (as much as my profile may lead you to believe that), but I do think Naruto is a lot better than Boruto. I'm not one of those people that immediately dismissed Boruto as a sequel once it started, but I do think it's not the best continuation Naruto could have had. I know a lot of people, even friends of mine, that didn't even give a chance to either the manga or the anime, either because it was "childish", or because it didn't focus on Naruto an co. anymore or for plenty of other reasons. I do think that both the manga and the anime did not do a good job at attracting either Naruto fans or new fans into the series though. That is of course because the manga starts with a 12 or so chapter long recap of the Boruto movie, and the anime starts with around 50 episodes of filler content (I'll get into Boruto filler in a moment so bear with me).

But first I'll get into what I consider to be the good parts of Boruto, so afterwards I can talk about the many bad things.

Firstly, the sakuga moments here and there are really good. It's not that the animation is consistently good, it's a long running anime ofc, but there are a lot of well animated battles throughout the series, many of which rival the best battles in Naruto. Even some filler arcs (again, I will talk about filler more in depth in a sec) have very well done fighting sequences.

One of my favourite things about Boruto, probably my favourite aspect of it, are how the battles are handled. And this is not in an animation perspective, but in a tactical way. Most battles, or at least those in the manga canon, have really interesting tactical insight. This is something that Naruto was known for, especially in Part I, and you can see remnants of that in Boruto, even though Part II of Naruto and ofc Boruto as well has several DBZ levels of combat with big explosions and beams. But there are many battles with interesting outcomes. What Boruto does well in that regard is always making an enemy feel like they're not invincible. They always have a weakness that can be exploited:
- Delta has her eye beams, but overheats after long use;
- Jigen is really strong but has a weak body that doesn't last for long battles;
- Isshiki is almost unbeatable but has a short time limit that expires in a few days;
- Boro regenerates his body but has a small core inside that once destroyed kills him;
- Code is powerful but has limiters implanted on his body;

I think this has actually changed starting with the Code arc, i.e. the last few episodes of the anime, but I'm not going to delve deep into that because that would be getting into manga territory. I will say that I think Kishimoto's return to the writing of Boruto is noticeable, and not exactly in a good way. Like I said, I won't elaborate on manga exclusive content, but I did much prefer the manga during Kodachi's helm. That corresponds to the anime adaptation give or take.

That is mostly what I can praise about the Boruto anime (and the manga really), so now I'll get into what makes Boruto such a mediocre series, that honestly may not even deserve the mediocrity label I assign it.

I'll start with the big elephant in the room: the fillers of course. A lot of different people have vastly different takes on the filler. Boruto fans in particular don't even accept the use of the term filler. They will tell you that Boruto doesn't actually have any filler content at all - it's all canon. I'll tell you this. I will use filler in this review in its original take, which is not to denote what is canon or not, but simply what is taken from the manga. So when I say "this filler arc" or "this filler episode" I'm essentially talking about anime-only content. Because that is what filler truly is. It's not meant to separate canon from non-canon. This means that I'm not going to question the canon aspect of any arc in particular, although there is a certain arc, the Time Slip arc, that if considered canon it actually destroys the continuity of Naruto as a whole.
And let me start exactly by talking about that arc. Like I said, I'm not questioning whether Boruto filler, i.e. Boruto anime-only episodes/arcs, are canon or not. But I need to talk about the Time Slip arc.
The Time Slip arc was an arc that aired in 2019 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Naruto manga (at least that's what I think it meant) and it sees Boruto and adult Sasuke travel back in time to meet 12 year old Naruto alongside many familiar faces like Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru and Choji. The most notable characters that fans were expecting to see were of course the deceased ones, with Neji and Jiraiya, especially Jiraiya, taking a central role in this arc.
This arc was meant to be a huge nostalgia bomb to attract old fans of the series, but it resulted in what is imo the worst arc of Boruto and one of the worst in Naruto history, if not the worst. The reason for that is simple. The plot holes. This arc is filled to the brim with plot holes. Introducing time travel into the Naruto universe was bad as is but what followed was a big mess. Urashiki is killed at the end of this arc, but he doesn't implant a karma into anyone. He could have implanted a karma into Naruto, Jiraiya or Sasuke. We know that because Momoshiki did so to Boruto in his deathbed. So why didn't he do it? Of course the reason is firstly because in 2019 the karma was not introduced fully into the anime yet, but mostly because if that happened it would destroy the continuity of Naruto. What would have happened if 12 year old Naruto had karma, but then adult Naruto in present day doesn't have it? Obviously this creates a huge plot hole. But that is not the only issue. Sakura, Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, Tsunade and others met Boruto as a kid. At the end of the arc Sasuke used genjutsu to delete the memories of Jiraiya and Hinata. Of course, in order to prevent any inconsitencies in the timeline. But so many other characters were not affected, and it is not explained in the slightest how Sakura, Ino, Choji, Shikamaru or any of the other characters that show up in this arc in their younger forms don't recognize Boruto in present day. Because according to this arc, they all met Boruto 20 years before he was born, so why don't they recognize him? So you understand what I mean when I say that fans need to be careful when labeling Boruto filler as canon. But let's move on into other filler arcs.

I won't delve too deep into other arcs, but I'll highlight some that I think are really bad and others that I think are good:
- The Lemon arc, Chocho arc, Steam Ninja Scrolls and Great Sea Battle of Kirigakure are really bad imo;
- Labyrinth game, which is the second to last filler arc in the anime is one of my favourite arcs in the anime, including manga content. The villain is legitimately the best written villain in all of Boruto and the death games are really endearing;
- Hozuki Castle, Mitsuki arc, One-tail escort mission and Juugo arcs are some of the highlights of filler arcs that I really enjoyed.

The last thing I want to talk about when it comes to fillers is the pacing. Ignoring the actual quality of the filler, there is a big problem when it comes to the pacing. The fact that you have batches of 50+ episodes where the plot doesn't progress any further is bad. That needs to be addressed. From summer 2018 until spring 2020, almost two years of constant filler, we had no story progression between the vs Momoshiki arc and the Mujina Bandits. And it's not like the Mujina Bandits did much. We had to wait another full year for the Vessel arc to start, where things finally started to move smoothly.

To finalize this review I'll talk about the general problems of the anime. Those that are shared with the manga.

The villains are really bad. Shojoji and Ao are harldy villains, they're just the introductory punching bags, especially Shojoji. Ao's motivation was expanded a bit in the anime but I still feel like it's lackluster that a literal war hero, that was regarded highly by not just Kirigakure but all villages, decided to work for a random organization that he doesn't even know what the heck he's doing there. He said something like he wanted to feel useful again, so he decided to work for them in exchange for powerful ninja tools. But as far as I understood it, Katasuke was the one that actually fixed him and made him go through rehab, so what did he actually receive from Kara? Nothing but guns pretty much. So he decides to ruin the image and reputation he built for several decades of a war hero only to handle a mini gun, ok.
But the big problem are the main villains. The Otsutsuki are just really poorly written. Both Momoshiki and Isshiki are just really bad. They have no backstory at all. People complained about how Kaguya was a bad villain compared to the likes of Madara, Obito, Pain, etc., but Isshiki and Momoshiki are much worse. At least Kaguya received a backstory in the anime, explaining what she went through after arriving on earth. But Isshiki and Momoshiki are literally just "I want to kill people because it's fun brrr", they're the most generic and boring villains in Naruto history. They have no motivations, goals or backstory other than that the Otsutsuki destroy planets because it's "part of their parasitic nature?". How boring is that? We've seen Otsutsuki like Toneri, Hagoromo and Hamura that have showed us that the Otsutsuki clan can't be reduced to simply a parasitic group of killing machines, so I think the writing is just bad. Code is literally just a copy of Isshiki, but even worse because it makes no sense whatsoever for why he actually likes Isshiki. It's like, he was tortured as a kid, but hey he received powers so he's thankful. Boro is also bad, just like Delta and everyone else.

Another big problem that Boruto has is one that is shared with Naruto Shippuden, or the Part II of the Naruto manga - lack of side characters. It's really unfortunate but there are a lot of interesting side characters in Boruto and none of them actually show up when it really matters. Yes they do show up in filler arcs, and even then only seldomly, but where it really matters are the manga arcs, because those are the ones that have an impact on the plot. So when side characters are relegated to just filler episodes it feels bad. I want to see Shikadai, Inojin and Chocho be useful. Even Tsubaki, Iwabe or Metal Lee and especially characters like Shinki do something, anything at all, but they barely show up even in filler. The truth is you have a couple of side characters, like Sumire and Shikamaru but they don't even do that much in the first place. Sumire is just there to question the decisions of Amado. Sarada and Mitsuki have pretty much been relegated to side characters as well. And Konohamaru, he was supposed to be a main character lol. He hasn't shown up in so long.

The last thing I want to mention is how stupid it is that the kids that are Boruto's age, or at least those that show up in the Boruto manga, i.e. the ones whose parents were Naruto characters, are mostly just carbon copies of their parents. Shikadai looks exactly like his father. Yes, he can use wind style which is cool but he has the same hair style and he's also super lazy. Metal Lee is just Rock Lee 2.0 and the others aren't much better. I mean, it's stupid in the first place that all of the kids happen to be the same age. I never thought about it until recently, but what are the chances that every single one of the Konoha 11 that had kids happen to have them in the exact same year? Did they talk about it? "Let's all procriate in the same year"? It's stupid.

This is my review of Boruto. It's a bit too long but I think I ultimately managed to get the message through. I think Boruto is a mediocre anime with a lot of flaws and a few good things and is a poor follow-up to Naruto. I only recommend watching all of the anime if you're a big diehard Naruto fan, and even then you'll probably not like all of it. My recommendation is to try watching the first couple of arcs and see if you like it or not. If not, try at least watching the manga canon arcs to see if you like it.

-- This review contains some spoilers for the first two seasons of the anime --

This is my review for Demon Slayer. This review will be a review also for the second season, since I don't feel like writing two separate reviews. It's a bit late to make a review of Demon Slayer at this point, but I just thought I would do it since I'm don't know yet if I'll be watching the rest of the anime, that's continuing in spring 2023.

Animation:

Kimetsu no Yaiba was an anime that was very hyped up before release. There was a clear devout fanbase, even though the manga wasn't ... particularly popular before the anime adaptation aired. I partly blame that on the (imo unappleaing) manga art. When the anime came out, being an Ufotable production, it blew everyone out of the water with its beautifully fluid animation. And that for me is indeed the best part about Demon Slayer and the main reason why I watched it for as long as I did (even though I'm not a big fan). Surprisingly, the Demon Slayer hype didn't really catch on until towards the end of the first season's run. It was around episode 19 I believe that the popularity exploded, with the fight between Tanjiro and Nezuko versus Rui. Even though the first 18 episodes were just as well animated and produced as that big battle. This for me is about the extent of the praise I can give to Kimetsu no Yaiba unfortunately (aside from the fact that I do like Tanjiro as a main character actually), and now I will give my honest thoughts about the anime and explain why I don't like it very much.

Story:

The story of Demon Slayer starts out quite interestingly. The setting is Taisho era Japan, which corresponds to the years 1912 through 1926, and unbeknownst to many, demons lurk at night and viciously kill humans regularly. At the begginning of the anime I actually thought it took place before the Taisho era. Only later we see cars and cities matching that time period.

Tanjiro is a young boy that lives with his mother and his siblings in a small house at the top of a mountain. One day, sadly, his entire family is slaughtered by a demon, with the sole survivor being his younger sister Nezuko. Nezuko survives but actually turns into a demon herself. From this point onwards, Tanjiro is set on avenging his family by killing the demons that murdered his family, and also trying to find a way to restore his sister's humanity. For me, the first half of the anime was quite interesting story wise. Tanjiro trains with a swordmaster called Urokodaki in order to become a samurai that can carry out his goals of fighting demons. He later takes on the samurai exam, earning himself the title of samurai and starts going on missions to hunt down dangerous demons. Eventually Tanjiro runs into a woman called Tamayo that helps him in his goal to turn her sister back into a human.

So, the main premise is set. And from here on out the story takes a formula where Tanjiro hunts down demons in order to eventually defeat their mastermind Kibutsji Muzan, while collecting blood from them that will allow Tamayo to be able to revert Nezuko into a human. And for me the story ends up getting very repetitive after this main "prologue" if I can call it that. That's because, like I said, the story takes a formulaic approach from here on out. Tanjiro and the friends he eventually meets are sent on missions to kill demons but the plot doesn't really develop any further. We don't hear about any plans or objectives or any sort of motivation from the demons, and the samurai leaders that send their troops on missions also don't elaborate much, they simply send the samurai on suicide missions forever. I'm sorrry if I'm mistaken, but I believe that the demons in this story are not quite like ghouls in Tokyo Ghoul. The comparison I'm tyring to make is that ghouls could only eat human flesh, which led to a natural attrition between the two species. But here I believe demons can eat anything, so there's not really a reason for them to be hunting and eating humans indiscriminately. The demons and their leader reunite in meetings seemingly planning a big project of sorts but they're just killing humans out of spite for no reason whatsoever.

Characters:

It ends up getting very hard for me to enjoy Demon Slayer, mostly because I don't care for any of the characters in the show. Tanjiro is probably my favourite character, but other than him most characters are just really boring.

Starting with Nezuko, she is essentially just a blank slate for a main female lead. The main problem is that Nezuko doesn't do much, almost anything. She never talks and most of the time she is acting like a small, lazy and goofy child even though she originally was 14 years old as a human I believe. It's also not explained why a demon like Nezuko acts friendly toward humans and also why she doesn't need to eat to sustain herself, sleep suffices somehow.
The two other main characters aren't any better. Zenitsu and Inosuke are both very annoying. Zenitsu is a samurai that for some reason is only strong while asleep. When awake he is close to useless. Something that is also not explained properly. Zenitsu is also very and I mean very annoying. He is constantly screaming and simping for Nezuko. These are clear attempts at comedy but it never strikes home, at least for me. Inosuke, for me, is a slightly better version of Katsuki Bakugo from My Hero Academia. But being a slightly better version of a character that is one of my least favourite anime characters of all time doesn't mean much. Inosuke is constantly raging and seething about everything and anything, that's pretty much his sole character trait, becoming sometimes as annoying as Zenitsu.

I could talk about the villains but there's not much that I haven't said yet. The villains in Demon Slayer are some of the worst villains I've ever seen in any shonen. They have no goals, no motivation and are as bland as they get. They just kill humans for no reason at all and then the anime tries to add some sentimental value to them through a backstory for each of them but it doesn't add much when they're already dead anyway.

Plot armour:

Now I'll get into the category that I like to call "Plot armour". Shonen are often notorious for giving powerups to characters in odd ways. Many shonen aren't able to empower the characters in satisfying ways and Demon Slayer is no exception. This "category" is perhaps the main reason for me to dislike Demon Slayer the way I do. It mostly started with the infamous battle against Rui in the forest. For most people that was the reason they decided to love the anime. For me it was the opposite. It never sat well with me that Tanjro was able to use a breathing technique that he knew nothing about. He clearly pulled it off because the plot demanded him to get stronger in order to defeat the demon. From here on out there's a gateway for characters to do stupid things that make no sense just because the plot needs them to survive and it results in scenarios that end up being extremely hilarious for the wrong reasons. The second season was most notorious for this:
- Inosuke shifts the organs inside his body in order to avoid dying;
- Tengen stops his heart beat in order to stop the poison spreading inside his body xD;
- Zenitsu comes up with a new Lightning form technique while asleep even though he never used it before or was even shown training for it;
- Nezuko powers up somehow and oh, she grows taller and gets bigger breasts, you know because young males love it.

Conclusion:

Demon Slayer started off well, but in my opinion it just derailed into one of my least favourite shonen of the last 10 years, where the only saving grace is really the gorgeous animation. I do understand why people love it though, as nowadays an anime is well received based solely on its animation. You don't really need anything else in order to make an anime popular. Just have beautiful animation and some hype moments, and you honestly don't need anything else.

Story - 5/10
Characters - 3/10
Animation - 9/10
Plot Armour - 10/10
Enjoyment - 4/10

Final Score - 4/10

Yugioh Sevens was actually my introduction to the Yugioh franchise. With that in mind I thought, and maybe you would as well, that I would enjoy this show more as a newcomer than long time fans of the series. And in a way that is true: the first arc of Sevens was actually quite interesting, but then everything just falls apart from then on.

I think it's fair to briefly compare Yugioh Sevens with Shadowverse, and the reason I'm doing so is because both anime aired in the spring season of 2020 and of course they are both card game focused. I watched both anime and ... ended up dropping both at one point. Obviously I went back to Sevens and gave it a second chance, but my point is that Shadowverse's flaws made me enjoy Sevens a little more. The big difference between these two shows is how seriously they take themselves: Shadowverse is an anime that takes itself way too seriously. I remember a punk kid stealing a smartphone from a girl in the very first episode, and instead of reporting it to an adult or whatever they decide to duel over who gets to keep the phone. This type of stupid writing remains throughout the whole show (or at least of what I watched) and my breaking point was when a group of kids were tasked with saving the world by playing a card game, which I clearly found idiotic.

Yugioh Sevens distanced itself from Shadowverse because it didn't take itself seriously at all. Everything was a joke, it was very lighthearted and there weren't even any villains at all in the first arc. It was just a bunch of kids playing a card game for fun, and that was what drew me in to the show.

Unfortunately, starting with the second arc, the problems started to pile up on top of each other. A villain created new rules amidst a duel, which I thought was the biggest "asspull" I've ever seen in an anime. And that was the biggest problem with this show: the villains. Every single villain was essentialy trying to eliminate rush duels, some for stupider reasons than others. And while the concept of getting rid of a dueling format is actually not bad, it was always poorly executed. Not only do I find it stupid that villains (mostly kids) are going the extra mile to get rid of a card game that in no way interferes with their life, but the ways in which they try to do so are dumb. The final villain admits that the only reason why he is trying to eliminate rush duels is because he read a book and he wanted to replicate its story with the dueling format. And then he says that the reason he is doing it is because dueling is "meant for children and it's being controlled by adults". I find this stupidly funny and, well, stupid, but it's also plain wrong. In the whole show there are 2, maybe 3 adults that play the card game, and one of them looks like a child, not to mention that the presidents that oversee and supervise the dueling commpany are also kids, so what does he even mean? For a show that is trying to be lighthearted and not take itself too seriously, its writing is all over the place.

There are other dumb plot inconsistencies, like when the MC is trying to create rush duels, and for some reason the duel disk he is trying to modify allows him 5 tries before he is banned from dueling, as if the company is willing to let him create a new format, but only if he can do it in under 6 tries.

It doesn't help at all that a lighthearted show has very weak comedy/slice of life and also a pretty lackluster cast of characters, most of them being stereotypical characters, like a tsundere female lead, an uptight student council president, an over confident and dumb duelist and the MC is actually not bad tbh. There are also countless characters with annoying catchphrases that really get under my skin.

The only saving grace of this anime is the duels, and it's the only reason why I kept watching it to the end. I think this anime is incredibly mediocre, and that's only because the duels are entertaining, because otherwise, it's bad in pretty much every other way.

I don't think Akane-banashi is bad. The reception has been very positive, both in Japan and outside of it, but unfortunately I just can't bring myself to like this manga.

I read the firsts 9 chapters and thought it was incredibly boring. Maybe it's because I just came from reading Show-ha Shouten, an incredibly dull "comedy manga", and I'm bringing vibes from there to here. Akane-banashi feels to me exactly like Show-ha Shouten. The main difference is that instead of being a comedy duo it's a solo comedian. The "comedy" however is terrible. Just like I said in my Show-ha Shouten review, I understand there are ... cultural and language barriers that may prevent us westerners from understanding many of the subtleties in the rakugo performances, but I can't help to feel bored when every performer in 9 chapters manages to make the audience laugh out loud while I'm looking at my computer's screen with a poker face, unable to understand why those characters, or any international reader for that matter, is so entertained.

I feel like the main objective of Akane-banashi is going to be like this going forward: try to make the readers laugh at the rakugo performances while you shove in small character growth for Akane in the meantime. This makes me believe that nothing will change from the 10th chapter onwards that will make me want to keep reading this manga.

I do want to reinforce that I don't think Akane-banashi is bad. Perhaps it's not even mediocre, but I don't like it at all, I think it's boring. It's just not for me.