Back to _Alleria_'s Profile _Alleria_'s Profile

Fall 2022 is one of the most incredibly stacked seasons in... perhaps not that long, but so many shows this season have been an absolute treat to watch. With that said, Bocchi the Rock for me, came out of absolutely nowhere. I hadn't heard much of the manga, besides that it exists, nor had I seen any of the marketing. I happened to pick it up when doing my usual pre-season screening of upcoming shows and it has been an absolute joy to follow. From absolutely charming characters, to creative visual gags to just great music, the team behind this show has knocked it out ... of the park for me. I love K-On! I have a deeply personal relationship with the show due to when it came into my life, I love its music, as cheesy as it is, its cast and its relaxed pace. Bocchi, while perhaps nowhere near as laid-back as K-On! is, is certainly incredible in many other ways.

Bocchi, or Hitori Gotoh herself is a character whose expressions ooze with creativity, who's flaws strike in some ways a personal chord with my own, I have looked at somethings she's done and genuinely laughed remembering times my dumb-anxiety ridden ass has done exactly that. Nijika, Ryou and Kita each wonderfully complement Bocchi as a character. They function in different roles to play off her anxiety and gags, gradually building from confusion at how to deal with her breakouts to just understanding her well enough to know how to supportively get her out of her shell.

At its core, it is a show about acceptance and care. To say that the only focus of the show is to struggle against anxiety would be to ignore the broad cast of characters who go out of their way to try to understand Bocchi and support her. Bocchi herself grows from her general panicky self to someone confident enough to stand by her bandmates and perform. Given that the show is still ongoing I can't fully comment on where the characters and plot will end up, but it has been a heart-warming and hilarious journey so far.

In terms of production, I have no words. The music is great, the opening is great, the performances of the band are phenomenal. The visual gags, my words fail me. It almost feels like a throwback to something like Chowder, definitely not as drop-dead hilarious as the show, but that's beyond the scope of this show anyway. There's so much inventiveness in the gags and confidence that it can pull it off that it does without any of it really falling flat. There's such a wide range of expressions for each character to take on, it's almost like I see a new face every episode. Even simple things like running away from embarrassment are elevated in their depiction in this show. You'll see comparisons to K-On! around, even previously in this review, the music here in Bocchi is definitely grungier and leans more into Bocchi's personality. K-On! was primarily focused on keeping things light and fluffy, and at points had an idol-esque tone to the music, while this feels more traditionally like alt rock, and why wouldn't it, as people have pointed out the cast is loosely inspired around Asian Kung-Fu Generation.

Bocchi the Rock is a warm, hilarious, gorgeous, inventive and deeply layered show. It is definitely a contender for anime of the season, perhaps for the year in my book. While some might find Bocchi a bit too much for their taste, you don't even have to be a fan of cute girls doing cute things to find things to love in this show. I highly recommend it.

I want to add, none of what I'm saying is to detract from the other huge shows this season, there's genuinely so much to love in what is airing right now, I'm struggling man.

I'll be honest, I don't think Sonny Boy is for everyone. It's strange, eerie and feels like you're on a mental trip for a while and for me, I love it. It's paced in an odd way, with goals and conclusions still unclear, bsut it honestly feels like they just want to expand and explore this odd universe they thought up and I am okay with that.

The art is, for the lack of better words, gorgeous. Its reminiscent of 80's cover art of novels or films while also delving deep into weird and wonderful designs. With the animation there's nothing to really complain about, ... stepping up whenever its necessary. A particular scene in episode 5 blew me away in how simple yet beautiful it was. With the characters, I feel a lot of them are slowly layered while some can still at this point, feel a bit flat.

I might be new to this kind of anime, but I've honestly seen nothing really like this and it is a very, interesting experience week to week. The story jumps from weird to disturbing and to serene when it needs to and it does everything effortlessly.

The simplest explanation of how I feel about this season is emptiness. I quite liked season 1, my excitement fell off with the movie, which I felt quite disconnected from, but this season is a little different. I like Tengen, I like art, the sound, the general idea of the story, but something just didn't quite sit right with me. Whether it was the prioritization of flashiness over general choreography in the fight scenes or overly bloated exposition within those fights, something this season kept me coming back but not really excited or hyped to do so. Looking at Mappa's AoT, even with its many ... flaws, I'm still looking forward to the next episode. There's a tenseness between every scene that makes it nail-biting. This is epitomized by my lack of desire to actually be bothered to finish the season. I do definitely plan on finishing the show, very soon, and perhaps my thoughts might change but as of right now this is where they lie.

The action is exciting, explosive and fast paced, but, at the expense of tension. All of the named characters take on explicitly fatal injuries and after a few scenes all spring right back up to keep fighting and some of the explanations given are just... dumb. It messes with the tone and breaks a lot of the pacing. To add to this, there's a particular fight that while very exciting and entertaining initially, I would only see, to quote Girlfriend Reviews, 'diarrhoea Christmas lights' after a point. There were explosions and flashy lights but no real coherency in what was actually happening. Which is striking for a show that spends as many minutes as this explaining exactly what was going to happen. Given all this chastising, the animation itself is slick, gorgeous and exciting. The art is beautiful and its composition into the 3D backgrounds is effortless.

I don't know if what I'm about to criticize is inherently something I missed, but I am going to criticize the progression of power/skill for Tanjiro and his comrades. There is definitely training done between here and the first season, but what I feel like the show is missing is highlighting that connection between their training and actual improvement. It feels very disconnected since we see definitely do see them training at the start of the season but we don't really know what the purpose is for, besides Tanjiro trying to master the breathing technique. Later, we do see lateral improvements to the characters that aren't ever directly highlighted. This I feel is a failing, while I'm doing my best to avoid spoilers there are scenes where they exercise feats that were previously impossible to them. Perhaps it is the way the show handles the passing of time, or the way the show handles the training itself of the characters. Training is a key part of what makes a good Shounen (I shouldn't talk I don't really consider myself a connoisseur of the genre :p). It is a key part of the journey the characters embark on where we see their flaws and how they improve on them. Yet it feels like that aspect is missing if at least, sidelined.

The sound design is very good. Every sword swing, clash of weapons sounds like a dream. Whether it’s Zenitsu's lightning or Tanjiro's breathing it all sounds very good. The music however, while good also feels a little lacklustre. Sometimes generic. The main theme and a few of the tracks stand out but otherwise I barely remember paying attention to the music. So, the music, at least in its implementation, makes it feel like it’s all part of the background noise. Which, funnily enough while writing this bit, I was reminded of scenes from the first season where the music swelled and the excitement grew. I remember that, I don't remember this.

Tanjiro and crew, well they exist. Zenitsu is, a little less annoying in this season. Inosuke is entertaining as ever, Nezuko is cute and, to be honest, I didn't like her onee-sama design very much, boohoo fanservice. Tengen, I feel is a much more interesting and entertaining character than Rengoku. Maybe some fans will kill me, I honestly don't know. He's dynamic, has a variety of motives, and things he wants to protect and it doesn't feel generic. His backstory is interesting and his wives are, well entertaining if a bit stereotypical. The villains are fun, ish. One of them gets a little old quick and the other maintains an air of mystery and while we're unawares of who/what they are it is tense and interesting, but that falls off as we get to know more about them

Demon Slayer: The Entertainment District arc is a show of highs and lows, beauty and shallowness. It does what it does very well, and whatever flaws it previously had seem to be exacerbated. The fights can be tense, high-octane affairs but also flashy and incoherent. Perhaps issues I found with it are negligible and my attitude towards it is purely a result of my own attitude to what I watch, and certainly I don't mean to say that you shouldn't enjoy it for what it is. But in the midst of this explosive and dramatic arc, all I felt was an empty disconnect from the events happening within. By all means this is no average shounen, this is a good show, but it misses a few marks and just didn't capture my attention in the same way it initially did.

It's really sad that the show is being attacked like this on its score when its quite literally the best the franchise has been up to this point. Chihayafuru 3 is a must watch for all Chihayafuru fans and for those interested in the franchise don't be disheartened by its score and please go watch Season 1 and 2 and if you still love this franchise give this season a watch.
Now that aside
Chihayafuru 3 excels at bringing a lot of what the previous seasons built up into fruition. The matches are as tense and exciting as ever with the animation on point providing some beautiful ... visual depictions and plays in matches.
The story is an absolute delight with the Tournaments and Qualifiers so far being a roller coaster to watch. The show beautifully fleshes out Taichi's, Chihaya's and Arata's character exploring more into their desires than we have ever had the chance to before this and does this using Karuta. The romance in the show too is finally building up and so far has created some interesting interactions between characters.
The use of the soundtrack in the show is perfect creating such beautifully crafted moments that are so in tune with the characters and art.

Chihayafuru Season 3 excels at what the show was good at before while giving us even more to explore without sacrificing any of its excellent production values from before. At this point it is the peak of the show. Here's to this momentum carrying out for the rest of the airing.

Fire Force is an interesting specimen for the Summer and Fall seasons.
On the one hand its a returning story from the creator behind Soul Eater and David Production, on the other its direction is questionable at times and rather bad at others.
Let's start with the good shall we,
Firstly I have to mention the opening and ending. Probably one of my favourite this entire year. Especially the ED. The style, the song and the story is personally to my liking. The opening too has a very nice flow and the song is great to listen to, furthermore with what I have heard is supposed to ... be the second opening sounds great. The soundtrack is pretty good, with one track in particular that goes quite well with the action. The sound design is very punchy making the action in the show seem intense and hard hitting, which is... well good for an action show. The animation while can be a little stiff at times really shines in the action scenes and the art is gorgeous, it creates a really interesting environment for the story to take place in. I also quite like some of the symbolic shots that the show uses its moments to create.
Speaking of the story, the plot so far is mildly interesting, at first Shinra's character seemed interesting but he hasn't really developed much, the others haven't much either, but the world has expanded. A personal gripe of mine is Tamaki, I was never really a fan of the trope but Tamaki's is "accidents" are just plain annoying and don't really contribute to her character. She does grow a bit during the show but her quirk's existence doesn't help her case.
The problem right now is that Fire Force is directed incredibly awkwardly I think is the best way to put it. Its not that he's a terrible director. I'd say its more maybe that he's not suited to this kind of show? Whatever the case, this results in a lot of awkward shots that are there for too long or don't really serve any purpose and just take our eyes of the talking characters. Furthermore the pacing is fairly slow. I'm having vivid callbacks to Naruto's pacing watching this show.

Fire Force while confusingly directed has a rather interesting world, remarkably good OP and ED, decent animation and lacklustre characters. It's not a show that's gonna make the season nor is it the worst thing to have ever been created, however it is a little unique in that it's a shounen that isn't really directed like one. I personally am going to keep watching this because I was intrigued by the world and that kept me.

ReLIFE is an anime adaptation based on the web comic. The premise follows a NEET who gets a chance to turn his life around, what's different here is not only how the story is told, but what the story is. Kaizaki Arata is a 27 year-old NEET who takes part of the ReLIFE Experiment, this entails that he go back to High school for a year in an attempt to emotionally reinvigorate him, fix problems such as the inability to socialize, etc. and in return he gets living expenses for the year and if the experiment is successful he gets a job. What I liked ... about the show is how it carefully crafts this story around Arata's friends and how he influences them. One could write this off as subplots and filler, but careful inspection reveals how these incidents with his friends slowly change his attitude toward himself and his surroundings. The change in his personality and attitude is extremely noticeable toward end. He starts off wanting to blend into the background and let the year go by, but lo and behold he is almost immediately involved in something. Whether it be a pack of cigarettes or An trying to seduce him, small instances like this show his character and what kind of person he is. Towards the latter half more attention is given toward Hishiro and it tries to flesh out her character, but due to lack of source material there really isn't much to go on for backstory. Now to Art style, to be perfectly honest, the art and animation isn't all that great and boy do some of those backgrounds look a bit basic. The art itself looks a bit old and the animation is a bit dull. Though the art style is bit old it does it's job and quite well when needed. As far as sound goes a lot of piano was used in the background and while it doesn't provide anything special all the time, it did its job for those tense moments (mind you some of those tracks were quite pleasant as well).
All in all I quite enjoyed the series as a whole and am wanting for a second season, the show handles it's pacing quite well, going slow and building up tension for the climactic points, though if you are a person who likes fast-paced stories this may not be for you, but then again it's your choice and I recommend it. The ending leaves at a bit of a cliffhanger and hints heavily toward either a second season or a read-the-manga ending which is not all that great. I gave this an 8/10, and a recommendation to watch it.