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Not your average horror or superpower series, Tokyo Ghoul is a sincere attempt at exploring social prejudice and intergroup conflict with superbly compelling characters and a good enough story to support them. The emotions are often brilliant and strike right out at you, with a touch of realistic psychodynamics. It also happens to be one of the very few anime that at least tries to establish a biological basis for superpowers. Even with all these factors the series falls flat on its face due to the terrible worldbuilding and an extremely one dimensional plot. The problem with trying to tackle real world issues through ... metaphors is that the metaphor itself distorts the picture too much to remain a valid metaphor. I will not get into the logical fallacies or faulty storytelling even though there is a substantial amount of those, and rather focus on the higher narrative problems that this kind of stories inevitably face, and writers continually ignore.

If ghouls were a recent appearance then humans would leave Japan by the hundreds, probably prompting some emergency response by the government. The fact that there was no exodus or mass panic anywhere in the series proves that ghouls have been here for quite some time, with the humans kind of used to seeing them on the news. Yet the measures for preventing ghoul attacks is woefully inadequate- no radars, no constant surveillance, no special sensors that people carry or training that people undergo, not even tasers that so many girls nowadays carry against "normal" humans. This inadequacy points to the fact that ghouls must be a relatively recent phenomenon which hasn't scaled up much and people in general still don't think it can happen to them. Yet ghouls cannot be too recent an appearance either, since they have learnt to control their natures well enough so normal people can't even distinguish them from other humans. So what exactly is happening? And while we are at it what is the international scenario? Are ghouls a worldwide phenomenon? If so then there would be international alliances and task forces dedicated to taking ghouls down. If Ghouls are limited only to Japan then, sorry to say, Japan would just get nuked again. If ghouls are so integrated into human society that they so effectively masquerade as humans then it is highly unlikely in today's world that ghouls would stay limited only to Japan (just look at the Coronavirus), not to mention Japan would probably dominate the world by enlisting ghouls in the military (since as per the show "good" ghouls aren't exactly a rarity; and they can eat all the humans they like without the guilt or stigma). Other countries would keep sending agents to capture some samples for their own sinister purposes which would lead to Japan clashing with the entire world, or trading with them for other gains. All of these factors would significantly change the story but were ignored by the creators.

Let's talk about the metaphor itself. Ghouls and humans are two groups in conflict who, as per the sweet folks of Anteiku, can coexist peacefully. Ghouls overpower humans by physiology and humans overpower ghouls by numbers and modern weaponry (which for some reason ghouls don't use- I mean, sure Kagune is good and fine but grenades help too, man). Now try to imagine this in a faintly realistic world. Ghouls are creatures who eat humans and only humans, not to mention an average human has no chance against them. Why won't humans try to wipe out their entire existence? Ghouls attack humans, some of them binge eat, and even the most pacifistic ones like Yashimura assign hunting zones to ghouls where they can devour unsuspecting humans (ep01 epilogue). Sure Ghouls have feelings too and they have families too, but if you had potential cannibals in your colony who can any day attack your family would you not want them weeded out? If you saw a Ghoul kid attack your own kid would you not kill the Ghoul kid? Yes humans have tamed animals far stronger than themselves but our intelligence is far superior to those animals, something that is clearly not the case with Ghouls. Hence humans' fear and prejudice is understandable and is not merely a "lack of understanding/empathy" problem. The story provides no context or survey of overall Ghoul activity for the viewers to judge whether or not peaceful coexistence is at all possible. Let's try imagining a peaceful relationship between the two- for ghouls to have a regular diet without killing, humans would need to keep dying at a regular rate, and that too not by old age since dried old meat won't be very nourishing (assuming that humans would be okay with their loved ones getting eaten up after death). Ghouls would need to have a tiny population for humans to die off at an acceptable rate while sustaining Ghouls. So should they adopt some 2-child policy like China? Or would they allow cannibalism amongst themselves? And how would humans feel living with creatures who, at the very least, is simply waiting for more and more humans to die off? Even if they lived in gated segregated colonies where Ghouls couldn't reach humans they would still need a steady supply of human meat. Things could have been okay if Ghouls didn't need to eat humans but then viewers would clearly label the CCG as villains (like the Sentinels in X-Men). For viewers to empathize with both sides the writers needed to justify the humans too, but in doing so they ruined the metaphor entirely. This is what happens with all monster/beast stories that deal with social prejudice. What storytellers need to understand is that in the real world (i) the conflicting groups are not fundamentally different from each other, (ii) the marginalized communities do not have an inherent monstrous/carnivorous nature that they should "control" and (iii) there really isn't no justifiable reason for racism, sexism, religious bigotry etc. and the invaders/colonizers/purists/killers etc. are actually fucking assholes. Stop trying to portray both sides as somewhat justified and that neither side are villains when one side clearly is. By portraying the marginalized as monsters you are only adding to the prejudice rather than help reduce it. Watch District 9 for a proper usage of metaphor to portray racism.

As for the second metaphor, which is that people have a monster inside them that they have to learn to control, it doesn't work if the monster is present by birth (as in the case of most ghouls) or if the monster just appears out of a biological event (organ transplant) without any change in beliefs, morals, perspectives or value systems- none of which changes for Kaneki prior to his becoming a ghoul. It implies that the monsters were never human in the first place and cannot possibly ever be human again, because even in their best behaviour the Ghouls still have to devour humans. It could have worked if Ghouls could change into humans with effort but that possibility was not explored. No matter how compassionate Yashimura is he will still need to eat humans, and no matter how sadistic Mado is he will still never be a Ghoul. In the real world everybody is a potential monster and not just a particular race or unfortunate few. As per the story no human can turn into a ghoul without an organ(influence) from the Ghouls, but in the real world appropriate situations can turn anybody into a monster without the influence of any particular race. The show is essentially saying that people should be compassionate even to monsters, rather than exploring how our prejudices delude us into viewing normal human beings as monsters.

Getting into the nature of Ghouls, the facts that Hinami inherited her Kagune from her parents and that Touka and Ayato have similar Kagunes point towards a clear genetic nature. Moreover, it functions like an organ compatible with humans since Rize's organs could be transplanted into Kaneki. Yet the few organs transplanted took over the entire body changing his digestive capacities, his sense of taste and smell, his eye colour (when he's hungry) and even supplied him with Rize's Kagune which he learned to use efficiently in quite a short time (when Nishiki was attacking Hide) without changing the cognitive/personality aspects of his being (once again the creators think that the mind is separate from the body). Even the Ghouls' genetic material is compatible with humans since Yoshimura had a perfectly healthy child with a human. So once again what exactly is going on? And why are humans their only possible diet? This is not simply nitpicking because the implications would have bearings on the story. There are two possible origins of ghouls, first that they are genetically modified organisms who were lab made at first. In that case who made them? For what purpose? And how did they get to proliferate so much and run amok in society? What are the initial creators doing now? How did some of the successful experiments turn out? Due to the total absence of any such "creators" I assume this is not the case. The second possibility is that ghouls are simply a further evolved form of humans, in which case it would be perfectly justified for them to be localized in a specific country (but then all the other factors previously mentioned would appear). Their evolution is of a specifically predatory type (since the Kagunes apparently have no other function than combat) making the humans totally justified in their attempt to wipe out their entire species. If one species becomes significantly more powerful than others it would dominate and oppress all other species. Isn't that what we humans did? If the Ghouls are so similar to humans then they can't be free of human evils either, right?

I have other points to talk about regarding the character design and story itself but maybe I'll do that in the Root A review- this is already my longest MAL review ever. The only reason I can criticize this series so much and get into such depths is because it actually tried telling a good story. I'd rather watch something that tried and failed than something that perfectly told a shit story. For that, thumbs up to Tokyo Ghoul. You may have failed, but at least you didn't sell out to stupid fanservice (of any kind). It isn't pretentious horror, it isn't gore porn, it isn't shitty shounen, it isn't pseudo-psychological thriller, it isn't ecci, it isn't comedy, the characters aren't exactly stupid, and it definitely isn't for passive viewers who just want to have a "good time" without any intellectual investment at all. So all in all, a good watch and highly recommended.

***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***

KNY Mugen Train movie is

i) Irrational - Enmu could have just sliced everyone's throats while they were asleep instead of using weak little kids to find the "core".

ii) Melodramatic - "If I die, that'll make him a murderer."

iii) Stereotypical - The villain brags about his powers (how he has fused with the train) thus giving the heroes clues as to how to fight him. Rather than keeping the heroes guessing he tells them exactly how to kill him.

iv) Shallow- Inosuke and Zenitsu's dreams have been reduced to overused comedic tropes, because why would they have any real issues? They're just comic relief, ... right? Not to mention the dream world and its operations are extremely idiotic and superficial.

v) holds Infantile Worldviews - demons are somehow a different species entirely and that all humans are absolutely "good", including the ones who would kill people just to get their drug (dream, in this case).

vi) has Illogical Worldbuilding - in any faintly realistic scenario all of the Hashiras' swords would be coated with Shinobu's poison and that would win the battle for them, but I guess "honour" and "heroism" are more important than killing upper rank demons, thereby saving thousands of lives.

vii) devoid of any real story element - it's a 2 hour filler episode, with the first 80 minutes being filler within the filler episode. Fillerception!

viii) plain damn ridiculous - Tanjiro targets a specific blood vessel in his body and stops the bleeding by Concentration Breathing yet Akaza is surprised how Rengoku can still stand after his Solar Plexus is destroyed???? This is Shounen, bitch - out here you put the logic up your ass, not in the story.

ix) Crow tears, really????

I can actually go on, but what's the point? Morons will still say that this is the best anime ever made. The actual series was way way fucking worse, so bad that I didn't even care to write a review. And I wrote reviews for Your Lie in April and Violet Evergarden!

***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas joins a long line of films/series where a peppy, good-natured and kind girl teaches a socially isolated and disinterested loner "how to live". A particularly cringeworthy subgenre of this type is the about-to-die girl who looks at life so "differently", and has these brilliant philosophical views on life and human nature that can be found on any pretentious Instagram quotes page.

Within the first 8 minutes anybody with half a brain can figure out exactly what's gonna happen and how things are gonna play out. You literally don't need to watch the rest of the film ... because you can just assume it all in your head and you wouldn't miss a thing! O wait wait! There's a twist, the most useless twist in the history of films, that affects the story not one bit. Nobody is devastated by the murder, nobody tries to find out who the murderer is, how the cops are handling it; or go to the trial or wish for revenge or justice- nothing. Nobody laments about how her short life was further shortened, or how she couldn't even enjoy her last days. They just pretend that getting randomly stabbed in the middle of the street is perfectly normal just because the girl had a fatal disease anyway. The only thing the murder does is edit away the final sick days and goodbyes so that the film can maintain the light-hearted peppy feel till the end and can claim "Look no melodrama, yet a touching movie"- bitch you used a pathetic deus ex machina and couldn't even pull that off!

At no point does KimiSui care to explore why Haruki is such a loner. Not having many friends is standard loner, but not having any friends points towards disorders, especially since Haruki clearly wants to make friends and be in touch with people, otherwise Sakura could never have convinced him to follow her around like a puppy. This kind of steaming bulshit is written by loners who themselves are socially awkward and commitment phobic, yet desperately wish to have friends and be "loved" (stated clearly in Haruki's words, "I wish to be like you"). But instead of actually trying to solve their issues or looking inward for answers they give in to infantile fantasies of some great girl coming into their lives and "teaching" them how to live, while they give back nothing and be absolute jerks to the girls. And how do these writers get these fantasies? Possibly by reading/watching more stories like this. It's a vicious cycle! *sighs*. What makes the impending death trope even more disgusting is that the girl's only purpose is to bring the guy back into life and then just die off without the guy having to stick around her. The guy has to put in zero investment and can just prance off into life with his new found epiphany and social skills.

Zero exploration into Sakura's issues and her attachment needs either. Just a simple dialogue of "You don't overreact" is supposedly enough to explain why Sakura keeps on pushing onto Haruki despite repeated explicit rejections. KimiSui could have been a 100 times better if the story was told from Sakura's perspective rather than Haruki's, but alas, the creators fail to see Sakura as anything more than a plot device in Haruki's life. Make no mistake, the story is about Haruki and not about Sakura. Sakura gets alone screen time only twice, one when she is instructing her mom about handing over the diary to Haruki, and second when Haruki is reading the diary. I won't get into the logical fallacies of the film, because why even expect rationality from such an immature, boring, predictable bullshit of a film? The only positive point of KimiSui is that it is not as cringey as Your Lie in April. Watch Death of a Superhero (2011) for a proper movie on coping with impending death.

Here's what the directors told Menma- "Menma we know you can touch and hold things and even write. But don't you dare do so till 2/3rd of the series is already over, because we are absolutely incapable of creating any drama without everybody disbelieving Jinta."

AnoHana has a brilliant premise- a teenager unable to cope with the death of his childhood friend is now hallucinating about her. He reaches out to their former friends, each with their own separate life now, who reluctantly agree to indulge in his delusions because they too have not entirely gotten over the trauma. The series is in an unique ... position to explore trauma, grief, friendship dynamics, guilt and schizophrenia. But all that is flushed down the toilet as Menma is an actual spirit who comes back to the world to make her unfulfilled desires come true. The series never explains where Menma was all this time or why only Jinta can see her. She literally haunts him to the point of driving him crazy till he agrees to fulfil her wish. Not as innocent as she seems, huh? She has no desire to communicate with her family, even though her mother has clearly gone off the rails, and is satisfied simply goofing off with her friends. She knows that she is dead yet never tries to understand her current nature or exercise her abilities or even figure out whether or not she has any abilities. She just magically knows that she needs a wish fulfilled, a wish that she has no clue of. The series doesn't care to explain how Menma knew she was dead or what her reactions to this are. She has a perfectly functional mind yet the experience of dying and coming back seems to have zero effect on her psyche. Her body has grown yet her "mind" hasn't, proving that the creators have no awareness of modern science.

Now comes Jinta, who keeps on pleading people to believe him instead of just handing Menma something. The rest of the equally idiotic group has no reaction whatsoever to discovering Menma's actual existence. They just accept it without any kind of shock or awe. They don't question the nature of their reality or try to figure out if more spirits are there. They are not even scared of the possible existence of other spirits. Brilliant potential once again wasted. They never try to understand why Menma is still here or how the spirit world operates. They never even ask Menma how exactly she died or how it feels to just come back as a ghost. Just imagine how you would react if a dead friend of yours just came back as a spirit and tried to communicate with you, and you'll realize how absurdly ridiculous all the characters are (unless, of course, you too are absurdly ridiculous). Ditto reaction to learning of Yukiatsu's night-time masquerades as Menma. All of them just wallow in their guilt and try their best to make viewers cry without succeeding even once. In the end they just all bawl together and scream out their feelings because what else are anime characters supposed to do?

The story foregoes any real emotional depth to make all of them into immature, possibly retarded kids who have only two driving forces in life- i) "I killed Menma and I am so guilty", and ii) "I am eternally in love with this person and pledge my life to his/her happiness in the most melodramatic animeish way possible." The characters' emotional reactions are all about crushes and petty jealousy, as if losing a friend to an accident and seeing her ghost is not enough trauma in itself! Menma's only purpose is to get Jinta back on his feet and help her friends rekindle their friendship and get over their trauma. This is Jinta's wishful thinking- that everybody is just as miserable as he is and that someday everyone will reunite and he'll be the leader again. Only, as per the story Menma is not a hallucination, but an actual spirit whose sole purpose for existing is to fulfil Jinta's fantasies. She doesn't even care to say goodbye to her brother who came to the fireworks show, forget her parents. The asshole friends doesn't care to tell him of his sister either. The story is basically Jinta's unfulfilled desires (not Menma's) playing out where he regains all his friends, gets Menma's love, gets to be the leader of the group once again and gets a hold on his life as he rejoins school. Don't you just hate it when an entire series and all the events and characters are designed solely to fulfill the protagonist's (read writer's) fantasies?

Without getting into all the logical fallacies and the total rejection of common sense that the show exhibits, I'll just talk about the world-building a bit. If spirits with unfulfilled desires wander the earth there should be more spirits out there. Can Menma see those spirits or interact with them? Where do the spirits whose wish remain unfulfilled go? Every human has tons of unfulfilled desires, so which desire gets selected as the one to be fulfilled? Do all spirits interact with living humans? How does Menma eat? Does the food vanish into another dimension or can she actually digest, thus being corporeal? Let's not even get into how spirits with memories and emotions is incompatible with modern science. The show doesn't even try to maintain an internal logic. If ghosts do exist then there would be reports and accounts of it. Some people will inevitably come forward with their encounters regardless of how hard they get ridiculed. Why did nobody ever try finding such reports and understanding what's going on? Oh wait, all the characters are idiots!

One thing AnoHana gets right though- the suddenness with which death can arrive. No reason, no mistake, no catastrophe- just a simple slip and fall, and a person is no more. Menma's mother's obsession, her questioning the world and hating other children growing up is perfectly understandable. This side too has been left unexplored for a predictable one-dimensional story. If you wish to see something substantial watch Gakkougurashi.

What Kaukshigoto is- Briliiant. What Kakushigoto also is- Tedious and Immature. Kakushigoto shows two aspects of Gotou's life- the manga artist and the father. While the portrayal of the manga industry is hilarious, the observation into the father-daughter relationship is abysmal.

Kakushigoto successfully parodies the manga industry without once belittling or disrespecting it - no easy task. The frustrations, the deadlines, the parties, the varied assistants, the idiotic pain-in-the-ass editor all seem so very real. It delivers fine comedy without depending on impossible exaggerations or stereotypical characters. Smartly designed situations in line with the characters' personalities and motivations keep this anime thoroughly enjoyable till ... the end. The hilarious depiction of Starbucks is unmatched!

The problem lies in the portrayal of the father-daughter relationship. Let's face it- Gotou's a terrible parent. Almost all of their interactions are driven by Gotou's attempts to hide his profession and Hime's "innocent" reactions to her circumstances. At no point do we see Gotou actually taking care of Hime or acting like a functional father who understands his daughter's needs. We never see them in a normal father daughter dynamic like doing homework, talking about Hime's day, playing or visiting places together. The gap is so huge that Hime couldn't even tell him for 3 days that she wanted fried chicken. Yes, Hime is the actual parent, but her maturation has not been depicted in an organic manner (the creators should have taken notes from Usagi Drop). Kakushigoto had the unique opportunity of portraying a single father raising a daughter while grappling with his wife's loss, but they completely ignored that and began the series when Hime is already 10 years old! Hime's early years, her coming to understand that her life is different from others around her, her growing bond with her father as she switches back and forth from being his daughter to his mother to his friend have all been ignored to focus unnecessarily on the comedy. They don't even talk about Hime's mother or what happened to her, almost as if she didn't even exist. Neither does Hime ever ask about her mother or grandparents or anything like that, even while opening her mother's gifts. Her reactions on seeing her father with a woman (the cooking teacher or the florist) are too placid. Hime is passive almost to the point of surrender, and the fact that her dad doesn't notice it is plain sad. Hime rarely gets to express herself, and the few times she does, it usually works only to get Gotou out of a rut. Talk about irresponsible parenting! As per Gotou the only way to ensure Hime's healthy development is to hide his work-life, which is idiotic and immature. And no, constantly lying to your kid and misleading her "for her own good" is in no way acceptable. There is a difference between keeping certain things from your children and actively deceiving them.

The insistence on slapstick comedy even ruins the best moments in the series, like the dejection Gotou faces on realizing that he wouldn't want Hime to marry someone like him. His overprotective nature, possibly stemming from his wife's unexpected death has also been reduced to a comedic trope instead of the deep seated trauma that it really is. The absence of the mother is depicted only in a logistical way like how to take care of a dog or arrange a birthday party, with the emotional gaps left unexplored. The societal stigma faced by dirty manga artists could have been beautifully portrayed through Hime's experiences at school or random comments by people, but the stigma is nowhere to be seen. In fact, everybody Gotou meets seems quite supportive of Gotou, thereby rendering his fears baseless. The comedy also starts to get stale towards the end with absurd exaggerations and harem tropes. But here's the one that really disturbs me- the scene where Gotou finally remembers his life and immediately tries to hide his manga drafts from Hime could easily have stood out as one of the best moments in anime! But it ditched the real emotions in favor of feel-good smiles. Gotou's desperation to hide while simultaneously processing that his daughter has grown up reaches nowhere near the emotional heights it can reach. By not showing the societal stigma against manga artists the show lacked the buildup required for the scene. In its attempts to not be melodramatic the show cuts down on even the essential drama.

Certain aspects though have been delicately handled like the insecurities of a father who would never want his daughter to read his own work, or how a manga artist lost popularity, then his job, and finally his concsiousness to inhumane warehouse working conditions. Really makes you think about the lives of these people and how we take warehouse workers for granted. Hime finding refuge in Roku as she copes with her father's coma is top tier storytelling, though it would have been better if she had found out about her father's secret on her own rather than some cousin just flat out telling it all to her all-in-one-go in the final episode. The show does a poor job of the reveal, especially after teasing at it in literally every episode and never paying any attention to it till the end. The character interactions though, are relatable enough (both amongst Gotou and his colleagues and amongst Hime and her friends), which, aided by superb character design and voice acting, is what keeps the show going. Kakushigoto is a good watch, and a sincere attempt at refined story-based comedy- way better than the usual farcical stuff that gets peddled as comedy. Only if it had focused a bit more on Gotou and Hime's relationship it could have been a masterpiece.

At this point I have accepted that most anime is just clickbait. Sora yori mo Tooi Basho brings you in with the promise of an Antarctica trip then serves you with a steaming pile of typical Slice of Life/Drama. After two brilliant episodes which gets you all riled up to watch an exhilarating show with adventure, realistic emotions and strong female characters all you do for the remaining 10 episodes is keep waiting for the aforementioned things which rarely make it into the story. The wonder and excitement of the girls though, keep the show the watchable enough to actually finish.

Tooi Basho sports a ... brilliant premise and equally interesting characters that are nuanced and multifaceted. Finally I found an anime where teenage girls are allowed to stay teenage girls and not turned into comedic, sexual or shounen stereotypes. It also accurately portrays the various kinds of "characters" found on research teams, and how they are also normal people with desires, issues and idiosyncrasies. The best thing about the series is the abundance of female role models it provides- from the smart and determined Todou Gin to the subtle and sensitive Kanae to the roguish and hardworking Yumiko to the mature and charismatic Tamaki's mom to the relentless dreamer Takako. At the cost of sounding like a lolicon I am gonna add that Hinata, Shirase and Tamaki are also perfect! Hinata is probably my all time favourite anime girl. I just wish she could have had a different name than the superbly idiotic and useless wife of Naruto.

Where the show goes wrong is that it focuses only on the 4 girls, and by only I mean ONLY, so much so that it compromises heavily with basic logic like the girls going to Singapore and then Fremantle with zero adult supervision (remember 3 of them had never set foot on a plane or in a foreign country before), or Yuzuki's mom trusting the amateur Hinata with the camerawork rather than sending a professional photographer cum caretaker. Almost every plot point is a serendipitous deus ex machina which calls into the question the sincerity of the writers. Large chunks of the girls' approval and preparation have been cut off including getting the consent of the families, or the rigorous pre-expedition training, or how exactly Shirase amassed a million yen only through part time jobs. Does this mean that the show has glossed over mundane everyday stuff to quickly get into the adventure? Nope. Entire episodes are dedicated to boring, unnecessary subplots of Tamaki and Megu's goodbye, Hinata misplacing her passport, the crew preparing to leave and the girls getting through sea-sickness, all of which reach melodramatic conclusions. Nobody gets over sea-sickness in a single evening simply by willpower you idiots!

As the episodic nature of the narrative gets more and more prominent the story starts getting increasingly predictable and the character interactions one-dimensional. It reaches its monotonous zenith with three back-to-back episodes dealing with each of the girl's issues, all of them as animeish as it gets. These goal oriented episodes add nothing to the story or the characters. Had they spread these issues throughout the series along with a steadily progressing story it would have worked so much better. By the way, we never even get a clue regarding Hinata's family or Shirase's dad or basically anything that doesn't require at least one of the girls to be plastered smack dab at the centre of the screen. The only exception is Shirase's mom's story which, needless to say, is any shounen protagonist backstory.

Now let's get to the Antarctica bit. Not only do they take 9 episodes to reach Antarctica in a 13 episodes series they fill those 4 precious episodes with teenage melodrama rather than experiences that couldn't have happened anywhere else in the world! Talk about wasted potential. And no, a few glimpses of the Aurora Australis doesn't count. This, after all the hype of how exciting a trip to Antarctica might be with the opening song continuously teasing of the boundless adventures in Antarctica. So was it about the reaching and not exactly about Antarctica itself? Nope again. They did not care to show the preparations of the expedition organizers, or the trials faced along the way. Neither did the show involve itself with any kind of maturation of the girls that doesn't involve interpersonal attachments. Apparently interested in Astronomy research the crew is never seen to actually engage in any of it or even talk about it. The girls' interactions and bonding with the crew, which could have produced outstanding drama and deep character explorations, have only been hinted at without any real consideration. Brilliant characters done in my immature storytelling.

Episode 12 though handsomely rewards you for sitting through this tedious series. Watching the girls frantically search the base for signs of Tamako tugs at your heartstrings like no other. Finding the laptop, Shirase's hesitation, her turning the laptop on with the girls huddling together outside is top tier drama. After sitting strong through the Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 ending I didn't expect Shirase's story to affect me this much, but it did, and I LOVED EVERY LAST FRAME OF IT. Add to that the last email with the photo of the aurora as Shirase looks at the real one mumbling "I know, Mom" and you have me fighting back tears. Nothing could ruin the series anymore, not even Shirase's stupid goodbye speech or the bizarre event of Megu visiting the Arctic Circle.

Finally, Sora yori mo Tooi Basho is a series that might have had good intentions but could not live up to it. Despite the ending redeeming the show it still remains an average slice of life anime with rare moments of brilliance (by episode 8 I had started suspecting that we'll never reach Antarctica). Kudos to the creators for the unique premise and plethora of female role models. The visual style though, messes with you a bit when you know it is an international expedition and the characters look anything but Japanese; makes it hard to relate to the real world. It remains what most films and series remain: "could have been much better but isn't."

Since when did Shounen with dark colour tones come to be categorized as Seinen?

Tell me if this sounds familiar- a guy unloved since childhood, hated even by peers and teammates, has an incredible power within him and lives his life as a weapon. He finds one person who shows him compassion/kindness and treats him as a human rather than a living weapon and actually loves him. The Weapon becomes indebted to the kind one for life and stays unquestionably loyal to him. The Weapon while being an efficient cold-blooded killer in all respects still has a child-like personality simply because he can play with ... children or get scolded by the elderly. He is committed to the "greater good" and even though is often faced with foes much stronger than him pushes himself to his limits to win and save the day.

Gangsta. is anything but gangsta. It is the same old bullshit that shounen anime has championed for generations. The show could have seriously gained from delving into the background of the Tags- why the Cerebrers were invented, how they were used, how the tags were commissioned, who were selected for becoming Tags, why so many Twilights came and settled in Ergastulum, the situation of Twilights outside Ergastulum, why the 3 laws came into being, and the obvious existence of other tags for secret governmental missions. The series doesn't even get into the history of Ergastulum and its crime families, something that would have been crucial to understanding the conflicts which escalate in the later episodes. The Esminets are plain gimmicky stereotypes of characters (btw no background on them either). It keeps on setting up more and more things without any of it adding up to anything. After keeping up the pretense of a plot for 6 episodes by the 7th episode it starts delving increasingly into Shounen territory and by the 9th deep dives into full-on bullshit with the shit getting smellier with each succeeding episode. They even fail to explore the prejudices and hatred people harbor for the Twilights, as if the only threat marginalized communities face is that of direct massacres. And can we get over the romanticizing of the Mafia already?

The character design though is on point, if only at a visual level. So trailers and AMVs should look good.

According to Ishuzoku Reviewers sex is all about big boobs, big ass, and passive personality-less girls who just bounce up and down and let out high pitched shrieks. Every aspect of the show screams out one and only one thing- IT WAS WRITTEN BY A LONELY MISERABLE 50 YEAR OLD VIRGIN WHO HIDES UNDER A MOUNTAIN OF PORN AND MASTURBATES ALL DAY, forgetting entirely what real girls look (let alone feel) like.

Honestly, I was excited when I heard that a series has boldly pushed the boundaries of Ecchi and is littered with sex scenes with "different" kinds of girls. The premise of the protagonists ... evaluating and reviewing their experiences had fooled me into thinking that there would be actual "experiences" to review. The reviewers going into different kinds of brothels promised some venturing into different fetishes or uncommon kinds of sex, or at least some preliminary insight into brothel life. Instead of any kind of sophistication, maturity or complexity I got pulled into a show born out of a teenager's infantile fantasies whose only exposure to "sex" are the magazines his dad hides under the cupboard.

First things first, the series looks downright ugly, even hentai isn't this ugly. The girls have no character to them and all of them possess either of the only two personalities available- "please be gentle, onii-chan" and "ara ara". All the sex scenes are almost exactly the same- the girls, the positions, the interactions, the camera angles, the colour tones, the treatment, everything. And here's the best part THERE IS ONLY ONE KISS IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING SHOW, that too an yuri kiss between Elza (the only interesting character in the series) and some other girl (don't even remember), because apparently only lesbian sex can be "passionate" and "passionate sex" is the only place where you can find kissing. Could it get any worse? Yes it can. The Ishuzoku world has no female characters other than succu-girls, former succu-girls, or pimps. Even with so many brothels and succu-girls no exploration into the lives of succu-girls ever takes place. Nor does it care to get into the economic or social reasons why an entire country would be so littered with brothels. The only non-brothel girl is Meidri who is the ultimate object of desire precisely because she doesn't have any sex with anybody and is "out of reach". She does have a high libido though as she lays three eggs (supposedly proving her repressed sexual desires) thus elevating her value once she can be accessed. Misogyny much?

The sex scenes are only about innuendos with prolonged buildups and irrelevant conversations with the actual sex scenes reduced to a mere few seconds. The differences between the species and their unique abilities are not brought into play even once except for the Salamander girl who barbecues meat on her pussy. Oh, and the Minotaurs have boobs bigger than the moon (as if the other girls had anything less than gigantic boobs). It's vanilla sex through and through with rarely any foray into kinks or fetishes. The egg-laying show, though a bit kinky, has the same "normal" reactions from the protagonists; ditto with the roleplaying. The episode with the Golem brothel, though, was quite good, starkly defining the boundaries that should never be crossed thus offering some redemption for the show. The guys are equally moronic who can think of nothing other than fucking. An absolute travesty of a show, it fails to deliver even the comedy. Even though it is a perfect example of wasted potential Ishuzoku Reviewers does deserve praise for pushing the boundaries of Ecchi which would hopefully pave the way for better, more innovative series. The absolute lack of characters of the girls though remains the fatal flaw of the show.

Behold! The cure for insomnia has been found!

After weeks of sleepless nights a Kappa arrived in a Cat-bus and handed me a copy of Natsume Yuujinchou. The first two episodes I sort of enjoyed. But from the 3rd episode the series bored me so much that I was fighting to keep my eyes open. Finally, the beautiful ED lulled me into a brilliant sound sleep and I slept like a baby all through the night. I couldn't believe my insomnia could be cured! The only problem was that I was sleeping face down on my keyboard with my PC and headphones on, so I ended ... up with severe neck pain and high electricity bills. Be warned that you will have the same effect even if you are not an insomniac or were chock full of energy just seconds ago.

Natsume Yuujinchou is a one-dimensional monotonous series that really has nothing to show except for "look how lonely everybody is and all they want is for someone to acknowledge them". This is literally what happens in every episode with Natsume almost never meeting any Yokai who has any other motivation or intention. We know exactly how the "mystery" will unfold, how the episode will end, what the moral of the story would be, what the thoughts and speeches of the characters would be and how Natsume would get out of any trouble that comes his way.

The nature of Natsume's or his grandmother's power, or how the Yokai world operates is never explored and remains a blur, though that maybe due to the ambiguous nature of Japanese folklore itself. Even then it fails to even minimally capture the diversity and richness of Yokai folklore and reduces every character except Natsume and Madara into a crying child. Natsume himself has no real motivation or interests and just wades through life half-awake. Not once does he try exploring the possibilities that come with his powers, nor does he try figuring out what exactly is going on. Remember, he can command the Yokai-s to do whatever he wishes them to- guy can build roads and hospitals in seconds, can till acres of farmland, plant forests and make medicines, possibly even clean up radiation or replete the ozone layer- but no, he's too "kind" for all that. Madara is a sorry excuse for comic relief who just eats and cribs while supposedly waiting for Natsume to die, only to rescue him from any situation where he could actually die. The only interesting character is Misuzu who gets too little screen time.

The cringe factor, however, is low and the show does maintain a coherent narrative without unnecessarily cluttering it with pretentious, over the top or plain illogical story elements, which is why I gave such a tiring series a 3 rather than a 1 or 2.

I will never get what pleasure people derive from watching a female character who is virtually capable of anything, yet lives solely for the attention of one man.

Violet is a beautiful, diligent, dutiful, well-mannered, graceful, kind, loving, nurturing, devoted, sacrificial, submissive, passive and hardworking woman who never questions or frowns or raises her voice or gossips or smokes or drinks or looks at guys or desires for anything more than the absolute basic necessities for survival including love and affection. The best part? She would do nothing unless her "master" orders her to (literal orders, in this case) including living and being "free". ... In short she is the perfect fantasy of Victorian "gentlemen" and the remnants of that era who still walk the earth to this day. She would even act as a client's maid shopping and cooking for him while he lays on the couch drinking. She comes into the lives of lonely men like an angel and gives them courage, gets them off alcohol, helps them write and heal their trauma. Her interactions with the females, clients or colleagues, are far less melodramatic with Violet only helping them out rather than teaching them how to live. Violet, conveniently, has no one in the world and hence the one guy that showed her kindness will comprise her entire world- the same guy who takes her in and swears to protect her and not to use her as a tool while conveniently failing to prevent her (she is still an orphaned child, by the way) from getting dispatched into the frontlines. He requires little to no effort (he doesn't even try to find out who she is or where she came from) to come off as the kindest and most compassionate guy ever, because guess what? Violet has never known kindness and hence has no meter to gauge the futility of the Major's "love". Well, even the best of visuals can't hide the disgusting misogyny, and while the visuals are great they are nowhere close to the best. I recommend you watch Princess Mononoke and once again praise Miayazki. They both have almost the same score on MAL proving once more that most MAL users are idiots.

Basically the Hinata that is useful, the show never alludes to Violet's background- Who is she? Where is she from? How did she learnt to fight? What was she doing on Dietfried's boat? Why was she killing all those people? No trace of Violet's earlier life can be found in her behaviour or speech either. If she has lived alone for a long time she would know how to cook (we later find out she can't even make eggs). She can't learn military grade combat all on her own. If she was living with someone else she would long for them too. If she spoke a foreign language doesn't that language have a word for the concept of love? If she spoke no language at all then how did she learn the Leidenschaftlich language so easily and excel at it? The show basically copies the android stories where the highly functional robots were literally born yesterday, but instead of an android makes Violet a human and fails at it miserably. She is an immature infant who has no clue how to interpret emotions while perfectly interpreting emotions and reacting to them at the most opportune of moments. And once again it's an uniquely male fantasy to take an extraordinary girl and treat her as "normal". Gilbert may not want to use her as a tool but he could have recognized how amazing Violet is and communicated that to her instead of just treating her as "normal". When will guys realize that if a girl lives only and ONLY for you it is NOT something beautiful? She is traumatized and needs better care. She shouldn't just want to die just because you are not there anymore. The "never known love" and "he taught me how to live" is one of the most puerile film tropes ever and it's just sad to see it remain so high in popularity.

The story is painfully predictable and melodramatic with the emotions being spoon-fed to you with sad piano sauce. The show skips major parts of Violet's development and expects us to just assume that some time has passed and Violet has evolved while the entire fucking story is about her character development! Instead of focusing on the actual story they just made it episodic. All the side characters are awkward, immature people who have no clue how to handle their emotions. Both the characters and the story are so blatantly one-dimensional and devoid of any complexity that its hurts your brain to sit through it. Iris' story in episode 4 is the only episode where the show reaches any emotional complexity. Luculia's story also good- short, sweet and effective, just like Violet's letters. Also, can we stop it with the idiotic idea that the one who kills is emotionless and once you get emotions you can't kill anymore? It is infantile and inconsistent with the real world. And what's with the metal arms? Why did it need to be in the story? Do we seriously need such visual representations of someone's loss in a show that is all about seeing the invisible emotions of people? When Violet finally learns of Gilbert's death some regression into her former violent self would have been both plausible and interesting, especially since she can feel betrayed that everybody lied to her. But no, Violet is too perfect for all that. The series fails to show Violet, or war, or the lives of letter writers or anything that it claims to show. It does however beautifully portray the importance that letters had in pre-cellphone times.

The authors and directors might believe that he/she hold women in high regards and consider them divine (the playwright literally calls Violet God), but is in reality as much of a clueless asshole as most people.