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Tensura has been one of the shows I've enjoyed the most in recent times. Season 1 felt like a non stop fun ride, the development of Rimuru's village and his allies made the backbone of it for me. They followed the rules of isekai to a tea, making it super wholesome and entertaining.

Now, season 2 differs a little bit with its approach. While season 1 felt like a very fast-developing, wholesome monster society, with a big focus on the village's growth, one could argue that there was no real sense of danger through its runtime. The show lacked a main villain, as most encounters felt ... like they were there mostly to advance the village, either its army or economy. This isn't a bad thing, season 1 is still fantastic, but I feel like it could get boring, especially if season 2 had the same formula. Thankfully that wasn't the case.

Season 2 of slime took a step back. There is very little growth to be had here, instead we are met very early with conflicts involving the other nations. This feels refreshing, as now it becomes a matter of managing the village and not expanding. Strengthening political relationships, worrying about the economy and external attacks. There is an actual sense of danger in later episodes. Some characters are developed further, others are revealed their true identity. Rimuru himself feels like a completely different character at the end.

Now, there are still a few problems I had. Animation and OST feel very underwelming, specially as it aired the same season as masterpieces of the department like Jujutsu Kaisen and Mushoku Tensei. This still has mid-2000s animation, devoid of inspiration when it comes to choreography. Character designs are dull, as are the OP and ED. Though overall thats all minor, and can be overlooked.

Overall, I had a lot of fun watching the Slime Isekai. I'd be lying if I said I expected anything else other than easy entertainment. The show is great and a must watch for fans of isekai.

8/10

Argento Soma is as pretentious as it gets. Inspired by EVA and the like, this show is another old mecha garbage, full of plotholes, with a mess of a pretentious ending, not thought out at the start of the series. I don't like writing bibles that wastes people's time, so here we go:

Plot is, in essence, a very obvious attempt at trying to cash in on the EVA train. Every episode, we're introduced to a new alien , the mechas take care of him, episode ends. Sound familiar, right? It's called the monster-of-the-week formula, and corresponds to 70% of the show. Very unoriginal, boring, slow-paced ... (probably because they were stretching it out tbh). But the truth is, no one talks about those episodes, because they mean (mostly) nothing to the plot, apart from the fact that all aliens' paths converge to the same point (familiar right?). Almost all the discourse around Argento Soma rests on the beggining and ending of the show, which infuriates me. MOST episodes are boring and unoriginal, and I do not recommend it to anyone who values their time.

I will be discussing the ending next, so there will be spoilers. I do encourage you to read it because this is all the show has to offer and you'll have to sit through 18 horrendous episodes to get to it. So, SPOILER ALERT.

Let's begin the spoiler section:

I'll individually dissect each part of the twist : first, the pilgrimage point (as in, the point where all aliens were trying to get to), is the house of the first austronaut to ever leave the solar system, Yuri Leonov. First of all, it boggles me that this was a mystery in the first place. Does no one in Funeral know his address before? Did no one do any basic research? I don't understand why, in 2059, simple information like this is not available. Also, why didn't they go there? The place isn't guarded by the military at all.

Second, and this is by far the coolest par of the entire show, Frank is Yuri Leonov, the same astronaut from before. Yuri Leonov, after staying adrift in space, encountered the land of the fairies, a place where beings that transcend our notion live. After encountering those fairies and becoming one of them, he returns to earth somehow (isn't explained) as Frank, the big robot that helps Funeral fight aliens. And the fairies (aliens they were fighting) are the ones trying to rescue him to return to the land of the fairies. This is super cool but is very sloppy as a lot of things weren't explained and may well be my interpretation, since it leaves so much unclear. How did he come back to earth? How did the fairies know where he lived when he was still human? If he is an astronaut, why did he behave so irrationaly at the beggining of the series? Such points are left uncleared and unanswered, probably because this twist was thought after the fact.

Third, Mr.X, the unknown man that helped our protagonist to change identities and join Funeral. Oh boy, I have never ever in the history of anime encountered such a gigantic plot hole my entire life. They were setting him up as a mysterious character that was CLEARLY intended to only exist in soma's head. He teleports and disappears, leaves cryptic messages and has a lot of religious imagery attached to him to represent a devil. That Mr. X turns out to be Leonov's friend called David Lawrence, who should've been house arrested. So, you're trying to tell me that he was never caught in any cameras, no one else saw him ever, nor checked his house to see if he was actually confined? No explaination given at all in any of this points. This exposed exactly what this show is: a quick, uninspired, pretentious, sloppy attempt of storytelling. This makes me believe that this entire "twist" planned afterwards, which is dissapointing as most of the show is a slow paced and boring generic mecha garbage. Final rating is 3/10 and it is in parts due to this, as the generic mecha garbage deserve around a 5/10 for me.

Minor Nitpicks that stack up to lower the grade:

- episode 14: Harriet escapes a military facility and they struggle an entire episode to find her, despite having cameras everywhere.

- episode 2, strange focus given to Harriet's pingent, only to never be brought up again

- animation gets pretty sloppy at times (inconsistency of faces), OST sometimes fails to meet the tone of what's on screen.

- conveniently Soma's girlfriend (Maki) looks the same as Harriet and as Leonov's wife, which is essential for the plot to work. Also Harriet and Maki sing the same song (?). Kinda cringe tbh, as most scenes of Maki usually are.

- The Aliens all look the same (to save budget lol) as also does the mechas, dissapointing considering the character designs look so unique.

- Deus-ex Machina in the form of the excalibur to kill one of the aliens, there are others but that one stood out to me the most.

- Why does Soma think Frank killed maki? He was trying to save her, even in his memory it is pretty clear that Frank didn't even get to touch her, she died because of the base collapsing, not Frank.

END OF SPOILERS

TL;DR:

This show is, at heart, a boring monster-of-the-week generic mecha anime with edgyness. The ending is dumb and pretentious people will try to tell you otherwise.

English is not my first language

Jojo is a tough anime to review, mostly because of what it represents to the community landscape rather than the anime itself. Being hailed as the "return of macho", the fan base that circumvents Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is no short of loving and caring for the show. Now, despite all that, the anime had very clear flaws in its formula, that aren't considered nor talked about on discussions.

First of all, lets talk about part one. Even between long-time fans, it is regarded as the worst part in Jojo's history, for a reason.
Jonathan is by far one of the blandest protagonists ... ever in fiction, while Dio is one of the blandest villains. They act cartoonishly - if that's even a word - with no motivation for their actions, surface-level development, dumb sense of justice and cringy "macho" dialog. The story is very generic shounen, and even childish and dumb at times. Animation is on point but that's about it. Sound is not very noticeable.

Part two is a lot better in many ways, although still very average in the story department. Characters feel a lot more charismatic, and choices have some motivation to a certain extent, though the main conflict comes out of nowhere and is still dumb.

Now, both parts suffer from the same problems. First of all, a lot of exposition. Every single explanation is through expository dialog, which can be very boring at times, even at battle scenes, which totally hurts the atmosphere of the scene. The animation, although very flashy and creative, is still very conservative, dragging out every panel as long as possible.
Also, it is guilty of developing characters right before killing them for increased emotional value.

The real reason to watch this show is for the fights. The powers are very over the top, the fights are very creative and overall very unpredictable. Overall it was more just a montage of fights rather than a full-fledged anime, as those are the only memorable part of the show.

1/10 - Part 1
6/10 - Part 2
3.5/10 - Overall

I”s is the generic shounen romcom experience. A generic loser of a protagonist, a gorgeous girl who likes him for no reason, a childhood love interest and a perverted friend. It does almost nothing original until the second half, which ended up being the worst parts of the manga. It surprises me why it’s so high on MAL and has such positive reviews.

It starts off as it should. Seto is the bland protagonist for boys to identify with. He likes a girl out of her league named Iori and their relationship develops. Except it doesn’t for almost one hundred chapters. Every end of volume ... our protagonist is back to square one, indecisive about wanting either Iori or Itsuki/Izumi. The structure usually starts with a misunderstanding as an excuse for Seto to meet with one of the girls, they chat and then may or may not have a romantic moment, until something else happens with the other girl. Needless to say it gets repetitive, predictable and boring as hell.

The characters are as bland as they could be. Iori is uninteresting and has no personality, her only character trait being she is kinda shy(?) I guess. And has big breasts, of course. Her actions revolve around extending the plot, so Seto can solve her problems for her. Itsuki is the energetic type and says what she thinks. She’s an OK character and her main arc is the best one in the entire manga. Izumi is a copy of Itsuki, except she is in the same school as Seto, and is more obnoxious and cringy than the original. The rest of the cast is irrelevant.

The art is OK though I should say it isn’t used to its full potential considering the story is set on the same place, making backgrounds stale. Character designs are generic and boring, much like the manga itself. The ecchi scenes are well done but the fact that they aren’t happening and are usually the MC’s imagination makes it lose points in my book. Also, those scenes are usually absurd and contain cringe-worthy dialogue.

The comedy is a complete failure. It reuses the same jokes over and over again. Usually starting with one of the girls saying something with a perverted edge, Seto imagines it generating ecchi material, then the girl saying something like: “You actually imagined it you perverted bakka”. Also the “I was just joking lol xD” cliché is all over the place, which makes me want to cut my head off. Didn’t laugh once reading this, despite being tagged as a “Comedy”.

Now, there are severe issues with the pacing and tone in this manga. Not only does it have a never-moving plot, but also it tries to do drama, comedy and romance on the same volume, and sometimes even same chapter. Each part doesn't have the impact they should. Also, the rushed ending feels forced. It has no build up, is very dumb and even childish to a certain degree.

In conclusion, I"s is very bad. Sure, it's entertaining, but if that's your ultimate goal you're better off reading something else. The manga has almost nothing original going for it and should be only read for discussion purpose or writing a review.

Adaptations are flawed by default. No adaptation will ever captivate the same way as its source material. With that said, they are not superior or inferior from the get-go, one clear example being the anime I'll be reviewing today. Ever wondered what would happen if you give a competent staff a bad source material? Well... Nisekoi happens.

This anime is, at its core, a lazy and generic romcom. The premise is a huge excuse to have a bunch of cute girls show up and form a harem. Whoever, despite being so generic, Shaft did an amazing job at this show's art direction and presentation. Needless ... to say it's the main reason why my grade is this high.

The story is weak to say the least, though that's expected from a show like Nisekoi. It's semi-episodic (with short stories taking no more than 3 episodes) starting with a simple excuse for the characters to meet, some kind of misunderstanding or conflict, rounded up by a romantic scene. It needed no more than that, but not much innovation either, very run-of-the-mill.

The characters are a mixed bag. Their designs are interesting and unique and some of them do get development over time. With that said, they are still very simple and stereotypical characters personality-wise. There’s the bland main character for teenagers like me to identify with him, the tsundere, the kind and cute girl, the perverted friend and the energetic girl. Not a single character is in fact original, which is a huge letdown.

The best part about the anime is its artistic approach to direction. Every shot is different, with its unique backgrounds, fluid animation and head turns, classic Shaft signature. It isn’t as absurd as Madoka or Monogatari, but that is a good thing in my opinion. Being a romantic comedy, I don’t think there is any space for that kind of absurd directing. The sound is OK, doesn’t really stand out all that much, though voice acting is on point, Kana Hanazawa’s voice always stands out.

Overall, Nisekoi has little going for it, but its great execution makes up for its flaws and was quite enjoyable thinking back. I recommend it to those who are fans of the genre, or feel like watching just for the waifu material. Either way, watch it purely for the entertainment, it’s not that great.

As well as for most of this community, Sword Art Online (which I’ll be referring to as SAO for the rest of this review) was the anime that got me into anime. Despite its enormous popularity and fanbase, SAO is by far one of the most harshly criticized shows of recent years, which is an injustice in my opinion. I’ll be explaining my reasoning behind my liking of the show throughout this review to try and explain what makes SAO so popular among casuals.

The main reason me and many others have enjoyed this show is because of the appeal. The idea of the VRMMOs are ... nothing but genius since it mixes real life interactions with RPG mechanics and enhances the sociability of gaming, which is still a lacking point in games today. The mechanics of SAO (game), although not as flashed out as I would like it to be, are very plausible for an MMO and also very entertaining in their own rights.
Character-wise SAO has a very diverse cast of unrealistic cute girls with stereotypical behavior and a OP main character which the girls depend on for the entirety of the show. Although this may sound bad, which it is, it also makes it so the show has more time to explore the vast virtual world instead of wasting time developing a cast that, honestly, only needs their physical traits to shine. Also, it is important to remind that developing a character also makes them dislikeable and is a risk that the author chose not to take. Kirito is the dream figure of every male teenager and, as such, contributes greatly to the narrative and appeal.

The SAO production is nothing to make fun of. The animation is top notch and every action scene is well directed and memorable. The soundtrack by Yuki Kajiura, although not closely as good as her past works with the Type Moon series such as Fate and Kara no Kyoukai, still is an amazing atmosferic masterpiece and translates perfectly the vastness of the world and epicness of the story.

SAO is far from being the best thing ever made but even further from the worst. It is a cheap and safe attempt at making a fun and entertain show, and it succeeds in that aspect. Enjoyment is still a key factor to whether or not a show is worth watching and, taking that into consideration, SAO definitely is.

English is NOT my native language


Hoshi mamoru inu is a Japanese term used to describe a person who wants something impossible to have. This meaning comes from the dog that gazes up at the sky, as if it wishes the stars. In the end, we are all dogs, desiring something we can't have, unsatisfied with what we have.

With 125 pages long, Hoshi Mamoru Inu is a manga about an old man that lives a very simple life. After certain events, the man found himself with a car, a dog and a few bucks. It's a very simple story, with high emotional values. The second ... part of the manga is where it lost me, since I honestly couldn't care about the characters anymore when their story is told by another point of view, I would rather that the manga developed the main story until the end instead of ending it very early, that would result in an even more emotionally-packed manga.

Scores:

Story: 6
Art: 7
Character: 5 (second MC is bad)
Enjoyment: 8
Overall: 6.5/10


I would definately recommend this manga for those who are interested in a very enjoyable, quick read, a drama that will make you cry in a few pages.

This is my first review ever. Also english is NOT my native language.


Shingeki no Kyojin also known as Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama is one of the most popular and best-selling manga of all time, it has an anime adaptation by the same name, tons of spin-offs and tons of yaoi fan fiction. Some may say it's a genius work of art, others may say it went too far. Judging by my score, you probably already know my thoughts on it.

The story revolves around our main character, Eren Jeager, in a world where the remaining humans were living surrounded by huge walls, to protect ... themselves from gigantic creatures, known as the Titans. This epic tale is about humanity's fight against the titans to regain the lost territory, while unfolding some of the secrets regarding the Titans along the way.

With such a simple premise and structure, but yet amazing story, SNK relies basically on shock factor to keep its narrative interesting and it's audience entertained, revealing more and more about its world and characters. The story itself is just amazing, world building is perfect, and the steam-punk setting makes it even better, the mysteries and plot twists make the story even more engaging to read. Attack on Titan's story is superb, I can guarantee you that some plot twists will take you by storm.

The characters are simple, but yet memorable. Their personalities can be pretty much resumed to stereotypes (the intelligent one, the energetic one, the cold-blooded one) but they do get proper development later down the line (most of the cast, not only the mains). The emotions of each character are perfectly translated, their goals are established very early on, each one of them has a tragic back story, making the characters pretty memorable. But what I really love about the characters are the plot twists regarding their past, which will shape their personality later on when the story progresses and justify some suspicious and questionable dialogue and actions.

I really can't comprehend what problems people have with Isayama's art, I really don't. The rough artstyle fits the narrative perfectly and, although i must admit that the art may look a bit ugly to look at, it does improve a lot, and it hasn't really bothered me in any way. People tend to say the art is horrendous, but they are just overeacting really.

Loved the series, one of my favorite manga of all time. Most of the plot twist were unpredictable and the way the story slowly escalates and the author reveals more and more information to us about the world and the characters, it becomes a really enjoyable series, and it's just getting better and better at each new chapter.

Go read it, if possible, it definitely will surprise you how amazing this manga really is, every about it pretty much perfect, and although it might have some flaws here and there, it will for sure be an amazing experience.