Back to akk05's Profile akk05's Profile

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files is a mystery for more than one reason. Not only does the main character Waver spend the series trying to solve cases, but you, as the audience, will also be required to conduct detective work, except this time on the plot and logic of the show itself. You'll analyze each character's nonsensical lines, replay the same section over and over again, and stay up all night pondering the meaning of a single episode, until you feel like a real detective.

Watching this show feels like walking into a fourth year physics class halfway through the semester, while only being a ... first year art student. The teacher presents a scenario and you'll try to wrap your mind around it, but having no prior experience or knowledge you'll have no idea what anything means. Everyone around you will act like everything makes sense, and major details won't be explained because it'll be assumed that you already know them. Unfortunately, this analogy gives this show too much credit, because at least in a physics course things would actually be logical. Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files features a jumbled mess of unclear motives, unecessary personalities, illogical explanations, and finally an incoherent plot. All of the cases involve magic, which is just an excuse for the author to make up whatever they feel like and pretend like it makes sense. It would actually be surprising if they were sobre when they wrote this, because you could not explain the plot of even one episode without sounding completely crazy. For example, in one episode, a man dismembers himself and places his own body parts in specific locations all around his mansion. His heart is placed in the middle, because he believes in the heliocentric model (his family believes in the geocentric model). How does this have to do with anything? It's because the heart represents the sun, obviously. In another case, a few of the supporting characters get stuck in a "bounded field", that is essentially a room that opens in on itself so that no one inside can escape. The characters stand there, pondering the motive of whoever trapped them, and all sorts of deep questions revolving around this mystery. After 5-10 minutes of thinking, one of the characters simply walks into a random hallway, beats up a bunch of their own automated guards, and saves the day. It turns out it was all a misunderstanding and the security configuration of the building had turned against these characters arbitrarily because one of the characters had messed up one of the magical settings within the building. Did that not make sense, even though I said in a matter-of-fact tone? That is exactly what every mystery's explanation is like. And even if you buy into this illogical answer, I can't think of any mystery more riveting than one that's caused by the main character's own absent-mindedness. Once again, it would be surprising (and even more disappointing) if the author was sobre while writing this.

The entire "mystery" aspect of this show is a joke. The real mystery is figuring out what's going on, but nothing makes sense in the first place so there isn't even any point. The characters are okay, but they're not fleshed out enough because arbitrary characters get more screen time than the important ones, and because the show generally doesn't spend much time on characters in the first place. Oddly enough, the characters would be better off in a slice of life/comedy rather than a mystery show, as there are hints of these themes and they are done quite well. The only good thing about this show is the soundtrack, which gives off more mystery vibes than the entire show itself. Just listen to the opening and skip the show, you aren't missing anything.

While Unlimited Blade Works may have some of the best action anime has to offer, even better than that of Fate/Zero, it still lacks in other departments. With Fate/Zero, every character was interesting and had their own separate ideals. Each character had dynamics with other characters, and the fights had meaning. The plot progresses, and we gradually learn about all the different characters and their different motivations for wanting the grail. Each character feels authentic and unique, and it's very hard to dislike anyone. Fate Unlimited Blade Works, however, feels like someone tried to mimic Fate/Zero's style and ended up with a considerably worse version ... of it. The main difference between the two is that Unlimited Blade Works has two main protaganists that it focuses on, while Fate/Zero focuses on every character to give a better sense of what's going on. By only focusing on the two protaganists, the other servants' and masters' backstories, motivations, and characters are rushed and poorly done. The author tries to give everyone some screen time, but it just isn't the same as Fate/Zero. UBW continues with the "ideals" theme from Fate/Zero, but it just feels forced and once again, rushed. For example, you have a cold-blooded killer who has no concept of good or evil. At first, this may seem like an interesting idea for a character. However, they get barely any screen time, and when they do it's even worse because of how emotionless and substanceless they are. In another case, we have a righteous character who wants to save people fighting another character who has forsaken the idea of saving people. Let A represent the righteous character, and let B represent A's enemy. They each harbour hatred for each other because of what the other believes in. There's tons of emotion, intense fighting, and insulting and monologues. B puts down A's ideals and explains to him why they're wrong. It was like the final boss fight in a video game, and the protaganist was fighting someone he had an intense past with. So how could this possibly end? A stabs B, who simply gives in, despite still being alive. In fact, two seconds later, B saves A, who he was just trying to kill. No reason is given for this at all. Even better, after saving A, he dies, and arbitrarily appears later in the show for some unexplained reason. But back to the battle of ideals, what's the outcome? Nothing. A simply rejects B's opinion and that's the end of it. It's also important to note that B is considerably more powerful than A, but is putting himself at a disadvantage because of "honour", even though he literally stabbed the A in the back not too long ago. Why? UBW generally doesn't make sense, and not because it's "confusing". Plot holes are everywhere, and things often just happen "because". Speaking of plot, the plot armour is on another level in this show. The main villain lets the heroes live because he "wouldn't want to get soot" on himself. They then proceed to save the day and ruin all his plans, as well as kill him. The amount of times a servant lets someone go when they could just finish them off right then and there is ridiculous. Fate/Zero at least had good excuses for postponing fights, but UBW doesn't even bother. There's no mention of honour, or of strategic retreat. It's just "you've amused me, so I'll let you live" or "my master's calling, guess I can't finish off the dying guy lying on the ground". Overall, a lot of the attention to detail and genuine care for the ideals theme in Fate/Zero were lost in Unlimited Blade Works, making it feel like a completely different show. It's too bad, because there were some really interesting concepts and ideas, but they either didn't make sense, were rushed, or were barely touched upon. That said, Ufotable once again outdoes themselves with their outstanding animation, making for some absolutely stunning fights.

Everyone says that this isn't your typical cutesy maid anime. That it's gritty. That it's very "out there". That it's over the top. They're wrong. Akiba Maid War tries to be gritty, but all it really is is a failed parody that doesn't take itself remotely seriously. Instead of being a gangster parody with a touch of cutesy maids, it's a cutesy maid show with a touch of gangster parody. It's like someone thought it would be funny to have maids running around with guns, so they gave some maids some guns. It's still cute. It's still wholesome. It's still light-hearted. All that's changed is ... the fact that the maids occasionally resort to random acts of violence. Apparently, throwing violence and blood into a cute show about maids makes it gritty. No, what makes a show gritty is the tone. Akiba Maid War has the exact same tone as a comedy anime about cute maids. This is the worst possible combination of themes, because instead of having a show purely about maids or a show purely about gangsters, you have a show that's an incomplete and mismatched mix of the two in a way that doesn't do either theme justice. For example, there are multiple fight scenes where maids get absolutely slaughtered. Blood splatters everywhere, and you can see maids dying all over the place. Dark, right? No. Because the tone still hasn't changed. It still feels like a light-hearted and cutesy maid show, even despite the violence. It feels like someone gave the maids weapons and said "shoot that maid over there, I guess". The maids still act like maids, just maids with guns. They still have cute voices, cute and clumsy movements, and cute facial expressions. They have no will to fight, and even if they did, they would still just be terrible fighters. It's also very hard to take a fight seriously when every possible detail is meant to be comedic, such as the consecutive falling of bodies, or the constant spurting of blood from a corpse's head. Everything about this show is light-hearted, from the maid's casual interactions to the blatant violence. Of course, there is nothing wrong with the comedy aspect of the show. It is supposed to be a parody, afterall. But once the concept or tone of a parody strays too far from whatever is being parodied, it ceases to be a parody. Elements of both must be mixed together in a way that compliments both genres, and this show just does not do this. The parody element of this show feels very rushed and feels more like a gimmick rather than an actual element to the show. The writer simply threw in elements and tropes from a gangster movie and called it a day. There is little authenticity or effort to represent the parodied genre. As a result, it just feels like your typical cutesy maid anime.

Furthermore, the show doesn't take itself seriously. Fine, it's a comedy, but even comedies need to have some degree of dignity. In one episode, the maids have a baseball game. It's ridiculous, unfunny, and hard to watch. The entire episode is just the maids hurling insults at each other and fighting. It's cliché, boring, and embarrassing. Frankly, it's an insult to the gangster genre. Heck, it's an insult to parodies too. The problem is, the show doesn't know when to take itself seriously and when not to. Every so often, there is an attempt to mimic the gangster genre with an interesting concept that would in theory work well in a parody. However, it's underplayed, ignored, and usually not even done well. It feels all over the place and inconsistent, with no single gangster trope being fleshed out properly. And again, it's all because the author is trying to keep this light-hearted tone, which just doesn't work with a gangster parody. It's like having a gun that's painted solid pink. It's something that's supposed to be scary, painted in a silly color; a parody. But this scary/funny effect is entirely ruined when it turns out the gun is just a water gun. The only thing left is the minute undertone of violence, which is vastly overshadowed by the ridiculous appearance and function of what used to be a frightening weapon.

As for the characters, they're uninteresting and annoying. Each character symbolizes one main character trait, making them 2D characters with no depth whatsoever. Worse still, these single character traits aren't even entertaining or funny. As if it couldn't get any worse, the voice actors speak like it's a chore, and the awkward lines don't help either. Every time a character swears, it sounds like a child swearing for their first time. It's awkward, forced, and out of place. Also, there are so many unemotional characters that it's almost as if they have to be that way because their voice actor simply couldn't care to put in any emotion.

The best part of this show is without any doubt the opening. It's gritty, serious, and intense, with a tad bit of parody at the end. And most importantly, there are no emo voice actors to be heard. If only the actual show had been like this too.

Tanya the Evil is a pretty solid show. It has good animation and fight scenes, good voice acting, a slightly confusing plot, an interesting protaganist, as well as a unique take on combat. The issue is, it's a bit inconsistent. Tanya is the reincarnation of a salaryman into a 1900s-like world where magic exists. However, by the time she's a young girl she's already a loyal and genius psychopath. These are traits that she does not develop, but merely has. Originally being a salaryman, she of course was none of these things. Her character is further contradicted when she repeatedly tries to get out of ... dangerous work and instead live a peaceful and rich life. Is she loyal to her country? Or is she a coward who only cares about herself? It would have been interesting to watch her gradually grow into an evil and loyal soldier, having eventually embraced her new world and her new country. Unfortunately though, she is mostly a static character. There are often times where she contradicts her actions and words, making it unclear how she even sees this new world and how much she embraces its system. Additionally, the base premise is heavily convenient and far-fetched. She is transported into another world by a god simply because she does not believe in god. The god's goal is to make her suffer until she puts her faith in it. Naturally, whenever Tanya overcomes a challenge caused by the god, it just throws something else at her. As entertaining as the show is, this is not a good premise. Because while on the outside it may seem like Tanya is fighting a war, she really is just in a world controlled by a god that hates her (a childish god, at that, who actually admits to breaking its usual rules due to Tanya not believing that it is god). This is essentially just reverse plot-armor. Any time Tanya wins a battle, the god is there to put her back in her place in a never-ending and meaningless struggle. Season 1 may have been short enough to not overuse this constant conflict, but it's unlikely that the next will be able to avoid this repetition. All in all, it feels like the writer really just wanted an evil girl who fights in a war, and lazily came up with the idea of an isekai to make it work. The writer puts zero effort into seemlessly switching the character to a new world, so it feels like the two characters are completely different people, which they theoretically are. One is a loyal, strict, and close-minded salaryman, and the other is a psychotic, cowardly, and intelligent young girl. That said, it was still an enjoyable watch, and while there are a few inconsistencies with the main character and premise, every other aspect of the show was handled quite well.

The entire gimmick of Jojo is that it's intellectual. It's a battle of wits, not pure strength. Sure, it's incredibly bizarre, but that's what makes Jojo so good. Or at least what should. As a watcher, you're supposed to accept that crazy things happen, while having the satisfaction that things at least make sense, in their own crazy way. Obviously stands do not exist, but if they did, Jojo battles would be a good example of what they would be in real life. Now this is a fundamental concept in the writing of fiction. No one likes it when your story makes no sense. It ... doesn't matter what crazy things your story has, as long as it makes sense. And the best part about Jojo, is that it tries to be as bizarre as possible while still making sense. In fact, it embraces that logical perspective because every battle is heavily psychological. The only issue is, Jojo does have holes. Whether it's because they're running out of plausible stand ideas or because they just aren't thinking hard enough, the stands in Part 6 are not only confusing (which is fine, as long as it makes sense) but are straight up contradictory and ridiculous. Stand battles felt like they were supposed to advance the plot, but now they feel like endless nonsensical yelling that drags on for no reason whatsoever. At first I thought I was just too stupid for Jojo, but then I thought about it a bit more, and I realized it's the opposite. Jojo feels like it's straying off the path that gave it its popularity (speaking as someone who hasn't seen all of Jojo). Frankly it's insulting to have to embrace the idea of some random fairytale stand only to have the "good guys" save the day by not only being complete idiots but by breaking every possible rule of the Jojo world. It feels like plot armour, but ten times worse because someone wrote this arc in a day and thought it was "good enough". They could've trashed the whole thing, but they didn't. I can't speak for the entirety of Jojo, but I know it's the same or worse. I can accept the fact that it's logical and psychological and that the bizarreness is just what gives it its charm, but as someone who appreciates logic and psychology in entertainment, this is just sad. Finally, the ending was terrible. It was contradictory, ridiculous, nonsensical, and unsatisfying. Nothing made sense, everything felt rushed, and the ending wasn't even good. It was the sort of ending that fools you into feeling satisfied, but if you really think about what actually happened you'll realize it wasn't satisfying at all.

Despite these complaints, Jojo Part 6 was surprisingly enjoyable and entertaining. The characters were great, the battles for the most part were cool, and the plot was...

It's overrated. Like way overrated. It's basically about this super shy melodramatic girl who's good at guitar and wants to play in a band. But literally any social interaction sends her spiraling out of control. So this other girl asks her to join her band and little after little she becomes less shy (though still shy) and starts to make some friends. They play some songs and people like them and that's about it. It is the most unremarkable anime I've seen after K-on. I can't deny that it was cute and mildly wholesome, but that's really all it was. The songs were good, I ... guess you could say Bocchi improved as a character, and some of the characters were kind of funny. If this was the first ever anime to tackle social anxiety and playing in a band, it would still just be "okay". The characters aren't bad, better than the ones in K-on, but that's pretty much it. The humour was usually just the same "jokes" repeated over and over again, despite not exactly being hilarious the first time. One of the genre tags is "CGDCT" which means "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things". While I won't deny that that is true, it doesn't make the show good in any way. Bocchi the Rock isn't a bad show by any means, but it isn't good either. The only reason it's rated this high is because everyone thinks they can "relate" to Bocchi about being an introvert. Again, just because something is relatable doesn't mean it's good. I guess it's funny watching her die in a million different ways after someone tries talking to her or she realizes she has to do something involving social interaction? Even if it was, the show still wouldn't be that great. I haven't seen that many anime, but every one I have seen has some unique concept that is not only interesting but is also done really well. Bocchi the Rock uses an overused concept (Komi can't communicate, K-on, Kubo won't let me be invisible, etc) and doesn't make it any more interesting than it already is (which it isn't). Every time I think of something to describe this show I think "cute". And "cute" is really the only thing this show is good for. It in no way deserves the ridiculously high score of 8.91 on MAL. I've seen better anime with a score below 8. Overall, I'd only recommend this to someone who likes plain and simple "CGDCT" anime, like K-on. It's not as boring and deathly uninteresting as K-on, but it's nothing special either.

Demon Slayer does a lot of things really well, and others not so much. It has great animation, great soundtrack, great voice acting, and great character designs. But everything else is just meh.

It's basically just a bunch of fights. One fight after another, with some training routines in the middle. And the fights, while animated really well, are definitely not the best. They all feel very one-sided for the main characters, despite them initially having a disadvantage. And that's because the demons don't really change. They repeatedly use the same boring attacks and get angry when Tanjirou or whoever dodges them. Some demons have really ... interesting abilities, and yet you never see them use them to their full potential. All the main characters do is swing their swords, but the demons have actual abilities that could be used to make fights more interesting. Sadly, this isn't the case. Each fight is about the main characters overcoming the initial obstacle posed by the given demon's ability. While the main characters get boosts of confidence and power, the demons simply stay static. There is never a question of whether the demon will win. There is literally a fight where a demon stands 100% still and slaps some drums on his body. Thrilling. Whereas, the fights in Naruto for example are interesting because each side constantly finds new ways to attack their foe, by using their ability in a new way or by using different strategies. Furthermore, the demons are incredibly repetitive. To a point where it's a formula. Demon Slayer actually has the audacity to go in depth into each demon's backstory, but at the same time give each demon the most generic personality and motives. Every time Tanjirou kills a demon, the demon cries because apparently being killed by a nice guy is fulfilling. "Oh, he didn't step on my writing. I can die in peace now!". Or "Oh, he loves his sister. How beautiful". The demons either get frustrated when Tanjirou doesn't instantly die or are cocky all the way till the end. But the worst part about this is that we get a heartfelt and depressing backstory for each and every single demon, but we don't get so much as a mildly different personality or motive. It's like the audience is supposed to feel bad for a villain introduced five seconds ago who has 0 substance. For a show that is purely fighting demons, it would be nice to have a bit of variation. Many demons have a specific and aesthetically-pleasing character design that makes it look like they're either a main character or the final boss, which makes it even more disappointing when it turns out they just feel like eating humans.

Finally, there's also a lack of attention to detail. It feels like all the effort's been put into the fights and none whatsoever into things actually making sense. The writer does not care about the world, the characters, the lore, and especially logic. There are often times where the reasoning behind something is unclear, or purely contradictory. Despite all this, it was enjoyable and overall quite high-quality (in terms of the anime adaptation).

TLDR;
-Animation looks really weird
-Fights are random and anticlimactic
-Terrible ending
-Hanekawa

There was a lot wrong with this movie series, and it reached an all-time low with this final movie. So first of all, the CGI. The animators use a really weird combination of live action scenes, traditional anime style, and objects that for some reason are neither anime-style or live action. That, combined with the blatant CGI gives everything a really clunky and bizarre feel, especially the fights, which also were pretty bad. The fights all felt very random, each in their own way. It felt like someone came up with the villains and then told the ... animators to do the rest. The action (aside from the CGI) felt very anticlimactic and lame, despite the interesting concept. Add the CGI, and it just makes things worse. For example, the final fight of the series. What were they even going for? Comedy? Action? Suspense? An emotional moment? Shock factor? As the fight progresses, each of these themes is presented at random points for seemingly no reason. While it is possible to balance comedy and action, or shock factor and suspense, etc, this fight does not even come close to it. It was a mess of emotions and themes that ultimately provided for a ridiculous fight without so much as a satisfying end. Speaking of which, the end was also terrible. It's almost like they wrote season 1 before the prequel movies and had to come up with a reason for why Araragi was part-vampire. Oh wait, that's exactly what they did. They act like they provided a happy ending to the arc, but really if you look past what they're trying to force on you it's very obvious that the ending is a lot more depressing than it seems. Not only is it depressing, it's also very uncharacteristic of Araragi, which is probably because the writers didn't realize how messed up the ending actually is. Finally, Hanekawa. They pretty much changed her from a collected, mild-mannered girl into an overly-flirtatious and outgoing character...for some fanservice scenes? In the first season, it becomes known that Hanekawa has a crush on Araragi. Initially, one would be surprised, because Hanekawa shows 0 romantic/sexual interest in Araragi. But after watching five minutes of the first movie, you could tell immediately.

All in all, this movie series was no where near as well done or enjoyable as the first season Bakemonogatari, and was quite a disappointment.

The second season definitely felt pretty convoluted and confusing. The anime already has a habit of not explaining things very well or having very unclear and hard-to-follow dialogue, but the whole economic aspect just makes everything worse. There were so many times I had to go back while watching after not initially understanding some random piece of dialogue. Sure, Holo and Lawrence speak in rather unorthodox ways compared to how people speak now, but that wasn't the issue. Many times the dialogue would feel random and unexplained. I'd go to the sub to see if it was any better at explaining and it was just ... blatantly different. On top of the dialogue, the plot was really hard to follow, despite the subpar explanations. Oftentimes characters would randomly do things for seemingly no apparent reason, only for it to be supposedly explained later, but the explanations were hard to understand. Sure, there is value in not directly telling the audience what is happening, but in that case it should be more or less easily deducible, which it was not. On top of that, the plot felt very random and it felt like even the author didn't really know what was going on, but hoped the audience would just go along with it. Despite that, it was still entertaining to watch and most of what was done well in the first season also carried on into this one.