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Jun 7, 2020
The synopsis for Caucus Race was slightly misleading. I expected to get the same story as Pandora Hearts seen from different characters' perspectives. However, this new addition to the story was lovely as well. Story wise, there is nothing that interferes with the story in the manga, but the light novel highlights the characters very well and made me appreciate them more.
Caucus Race is a compilation of mini stories that take place with the various characters of Pandora Hearts. From Alice wanting to eat meat, to Elliot and Oz constantly bickering over their favorite characters in novels, and Gilbert being over-protective with Oz while also
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being teased by Break. Surprisingly, these stories mostly contain fun twists towards the end which complements the theme of Pandora Hearts well. And some stories here actually expand on events already present in the manga. We actually learn more about Vincent and Gilbert before they were introduced to Jack, we get a whole story dedicated to Jack and Oswald which really brings out a new angle for these characters. While the author for these stories is not Mochizuki-sensei, they feel very true to the heart that made Pandora Hearts and it was a joy to be able to learn more about this world and its characters.
Pandora Hearts tries to balance between the light-hearted stuff meant to showcase the traits of its characters and the serious stuff to progress its story. In the later parts of the manga, there is a huge emphasis on the story and grand development for a lot of characters. However, there is always a longing to the antics and the banter between the characters. And this light novel provides well in that respect. With its structure of focusing on few characters in each arc, it highlights the traits of these characters and their importance and how they are not just random additions to the story, but each have a role to play. In the grand scheme, Pandora Hearts is heavily plot driven so it is easy to miss out on individual character traits and treat them as plot devices. But this light novel is here to showcase that Pandora Hearts can do both.
It is not a necessity to read this after finishing the manga but it was a joy to revisit a story I hold dear and my favorite manga. Plus Mochizuki-sensei included some manga panels here and there in the light novel so that was a sweet treat.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 19, 2019
I'm a straight male who likes this anime, and I also do not support LGBT, so I think this anime can be accessible to anyone and shouldn't be dismissed for its BL. Disregarding this factor, Given is a really good show.
I'm no expert on this but I know that Yaoi anime tend to focus on the appeal to the audience more than the actual romance, but Given's romance was very realistic and relatable. I found myself able to be in both couple's shoes. Given really takes a new approach to romance; instead of it being the happy world of two people, it depicts its downsides
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and how it can lead to a person's destruction. We see Uenoyama not being at his best while performing due to his love towards Mafuyu. We see Haruki hurting whenever he sees Akihiko so aloof to his surroundings. And this is what happens in reality, love isn't so smooth to occur. These hardships that eventually lead to some development afterwards were very intriguing to observe.
Character-wise, Mafuyu is still very mysterious to everyone. He's a guy who can't describe his emotions well, so he's even mysterious to himself. He doesn't know how to react after tragedy befalls him. Should he live in the past or carry on? Society also seems to have its toll on him and does not allow him to move forward steadily. Uenoyama is also a person discovering himself. He is charmed by Mafuyu and starts to find some unexpected traits in himself. Their relationship build-up was nice and smooth, even weird at moments, but it all adds to the charm. Akihiko is our sage and comedian and my personal favorite. He's very fun to have around, yet is mature and has his own problems too (I think that's more manga territory, though the anime does introduce it). Haruki is also genuinely optimistic and likable.
Art by Lerche was outstanding. They're really an underrated studio and deserve more recognition. And they killed the sound design. The band's first live performance had most people crying and gave me goosebumps (sorry I'm not emotional enough to cry lol). It's a music anime and it nails that genre on its head.
Overall, I really enjoy Given and I even read the manga so I would recommend it too, it's a quick read. It's a realistic, down-to-earth anime and one of the few BL with no over-exaggerated bishounen designs that repel most male audiences. But I believe Given can be enjoyed by anyone.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 18, 2019
One thing I've recently noticed about myself is that I am not a big fan of Sci-Fi (even though my favorite anime is Sci-Fi), but I am a big fan of some sub genres of that genre, and mecha is not one of them. Astra Lost In Space is one of the Sci-Fi shows that I loved and am glad to have caught up on when I missed its weekly episodes.
The story is simple as the title says, a bunch of people are lost in space. Their main goal is to get back to their planet. Along the journey, lots of revelations take place. The
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characters learn the whys, hows, and the whats of all this journey. Why did they get lost? Who are they? Is there a link between them? Each additional plot point will have your mind bobbling at its intelligence and how well it is prepared. Sometimes you'll even think to yourself, "How could I have missed that detail?". It's built up in a way that is very accessible to any audience, yet still hides a lot of secrets behind its obvious plot.
The characters are also very lovable. We have a large cast of characters, each with their own stories to tell, personalities to show, lives to experience. Each character adds something to the show. While Kanata may seem like your usual shounen MC, his determination and sacrifices are just mind-blowing. I usually dislike characters with no depth, but he's really an influential figure to have in the show which keeps the crew going. The other casts are all very dynamic and remarkable and add a lot to the anime, making it really fun and quirky.
The art design is also very smooth, characters look really good, colors are vibrant and full of life, and it all flows smoothly. Black borders cover the frame of episodes most of the time but it was never really an issue. Sound design is also pretty good, though I don't have anything remarkable about it in mind.
Overall, Astra Lost In Space is one of the few shows I have enjoyed so much in a long time. It carries info dump that doesn't overload your brain, so if you feel exhausted, instead of going for a boring ecchi to reload yourself, have a taste of a space anime that is made very accessible, yet at the same time, is a genius craft.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 6, 2019
I expected to like this show, but given how very different its arcs were, it manages to do good on some, and just outright disappoint on others. I'll try to cover most of my issues and what I liked without going too much into spoilers.
The story takes place in a world where people cannot be born, nor can die. Given how unique the setting is, it's bound to be interesting, but they immediately raise a problem to it. Characters can still die, but they live on as "undead" until buried by gravekeepers. The issue here is there is no remarkable difference between the living and
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the undead, so I could not see why there was so much discrimination between them. I think the only defining factor is that the undead cannot age, but other than that, they look completely alive. The first arc does well, I liked its characters, and was shocked by a certain twist at its end. Moving on to the second one, it mainly encompasses living and undead as I mentioned before and adds silly plot points with an abruptly stupid ending which I won't go into to avoid spoilers. Third arc is basically meaningless and just as a setup to introduce the characters of the last arc. Before the last arc, we get kind of an interlude which tries to develop Scar, but they kind of just pushed her into an unnecessary situation just for development. The final arc reminded me of my favorite light novel, HakoMari, with its plot being really similar to its first volume, except handled much worse. It was going pretty well with the explanations given to the situation until the ending which tried to offer a plot twist, but that twist contradicted all prior explanations, albeit being a bit surprising, but the annoyance factor outweighs the surprise factor. Basically a story full of ups and a lot of downs, and could have been rated at least a 7 if it covered its plotholes.
The art is well colored and drawn as evident in the PV and wallpaper, but the character designs seem like your generic loli girl and bishounens. It didn't really bother me but at times you can predict their personalities from their looks, which was kind of disappointing to see how they exactly follow that character trope. Sound design was nice and warm and fit the moments in the show. Hampnie was pretty much the only character I liked, I have an appeal towards Alice too but not too much, and I'm neutral toward anyone else. As I mentioned, their looks gave away their bland personalities, except for these 2 characters.
Overall, I expected more from a show with blatantly obvious plotholes that ignores them so casually. Covering up these plotholes would make this show watchable, but at this rate, don't bother.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 30, 2018
I'm not a fan of the sports genre, I may be missing out on some treats, but I'm not interested in cliche games where the main character always wins. I came across Megalo Box and it proved me wrong, so I thought why not give this a try? It might impress me too... but it didn't.
The story is about a tournament in which challengers play against each other. I guess that's it, that's the most of the story. There's also the unnecessary drama which is also criticized by its fans, but if you dislike the drama, then what do you exactly like about the show?
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The tournament? Is it really something praiseworthy? I'm not here to judge anyone's taste, you can like whatever you want to, but I really want a legit argument as to why this is likable. Anyway, each character has some sort of story with badminton and they're as forgettable as the characters themselves, with the exception of Hanesaki because the anime shoves down your throat that she plays badminton for her mother and you should not forget that. Then her mother comes back to live with her one day and we don't even get any kind of development or reunion scene. She comes back, and the director thought, let's skip to another scene, shall we?
I'm guessing the animators thought they could win over the fans with some good animation for the games and forget that a story or even character designs exist. The characters were so forgettable that I had no choice but to distinguish them by appearance, but even that was impossible because the characters pretty much look the same, just alter the hairstyle a bit, or not, depends on the character. They even forgot how to draw Hanesaki in episode 12 and made her look like she grew 30 years in the time frame of one game. They tried to have style over substance but couldn't nail both. As for the soundtracks, easily best part of the show, they were chill, intense, or anything that was needed. They didn't stand out much but they made the show a bit more enjoyable.
And now come the characters. I mentioned how forgettable they are so I pretty much forgot what I wanna say about them. Hanesaki hates the world for some reason, Nagisa is flat, not her breast though, and she was just... there, possibly to rival Hanesaki. The teacher had Nobuhiko voice him and that alone made him a bit remarkable, he was encouraging I'd say. Other characters had an episode dedicated to them but I can't really recall their names, personality, maybe even their looks, or their motives. They played games constantly and the game were just shortened to add in some irrelevant drama which does not affect the game. Characters keep on playing regardless of their past in their oddly paced matches. But it's notable to say the strategies used in the games were convincing so that's a merit to notice. Anyhow, I kind of lost track on what I was gonna say about them, but losing track is what their personality is best at. They're just bland and present to give you a well animated, oddly paced match featuring characters that look and act the same.
Rant of the day is over. You can now go watch this (or not) and ignore my opinion because this is definitely AOTY.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 20, 2018
All I see is hypocrites praising this show for being entertaining while dissing SAO for the exact same reasons, whereas SAO has no harem nor ecchi in its genres but this show does (at least, the LN of it does). That is not to say I dislike the show, I like it, but I still can't understand how people like this and dislike SAO. SAO is not my topic now so I'll just get into the review.
The story is not anything mindblowing, but I do not necessarily dislike it. MC gets transferred to another world, battles some monsters, saves some girls, meets a loli demon.
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It's not exactly linear, but more like divided into arcs. Usually, I rate any story a 7. The more plotholes and fuck ups and stupidity it has, the rating goes down.The more it impresses me, the higher the rating goes. This story didn't fuck itself up and neither did it impress me, so the story wasn't affected and I don't have any issues with it, so it's enjoyable and watchable. There's fanservice nearly at the end of every episode which may or may not appeal to you, but it was just a treat personally.
Diablo is your OP isekai MC which everyone hates, but surprisingly everyone likes him here. I have to say he's pretty cool though, with his double personality and all. OP MCs are only a problem if they destroy the point of the show (I'm looking at you Hellsing), but he was the highlight of the show. His voice actor was very reminiscent of Ono Daisuke, but at the same time, he was able to pull off the more realistic persona, which is praiseworthy. His voice was really remarkable and I'm hoping to see him in other shows. I was surprised by the number of supporters Rem has, she was a flat loli neko, and it's easy to fool weebs with nekos. Her personality is as flat as her chest, that is until later episodes when she grows to have a slightly cold, but caring, cute side to her. Shera is the better girl, also cute and all, but she's like the cheerful one, and she has oppai. No complaints. Side lolis and loli demon lord aren't that bad either. The girls don't have striking personalities, but I mean, when did weebs ever hate cute 2D girls?
For a studio that I have never heard of, the art was very consistent and visually appealing. Character designs are good, with nice flashy colors, and smoothly animated fights, and all that crap. Soundtracks aren't very memorable but they're fitting of the isekai theme and I really like OST or sound effects that make you feel like you're inside the game yourself.
Another isekai anime has descended following the same tropes of its predecessors. Do you want to watch it? Go ahead.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 17, 2018
All I see on MAL is people praising the hell out of this anime, or hating the shit out of how overrated it is. I'm just here to give my opinion as someone who is in between, leaning more towards liking the show because I can appreciate the effort put into building this galactic universe.
It's hard to exactly sum up what LOTGH is about. It starts off as the Empire and the Alliance battle each other and take control of one another's property. The build up for Iserlohn was good and enjoyable, and judging by how Iserlohn has an important role in the series, the
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build up was needed. After that the plot just goes in all directions, from betrayals, to politics, corruption, deaths, backstories, more space battles, Terrarians, etc... You get background on why the war started in the first place, how Reinhard came to be in his position, the basis of the politics of each party... It is simply and complexly written, with a lot of info dumping that I felt like my brains were fried multiple times while watching. The fans of the series praise the show for exploring politics from all its perspectives; I don't know if I missed anything, but personally I thought that the series was shoving down your throat the idea that democracy isn't always the best solution, as shown in the Alliance where Truniht did not care for his citizens and doubted Yang, and cared for himself before the citizens. Meanwhile, it shows that an Empire isn't so bad, as we can see Reinhard giving utmost treatment to his people, and with the power lying in his hands, he has no limits to how kind or how evil he can be, but lucky for the Empire, Reinhard chose kindness. I probably missed some politics due to the heavy info dump, but this was the main idea they elaborated on, so I didn't feel like the writer explored all sides of democracy and autocracy, he just studied a case which is very evident in real life (corrupt democracy), and showed another side to autocracy, which I can appreciate, but it was a bit predictable. So you can tell that I'm not really interested in the political side of the series, but I was more hooked to the plot progression and character exploring.
Yang Wen-li is the perfect know-it-all person. Some people hate him for being Jesus, but I just can't bring myself to. His arguments are always convincing, his view of life is very laid-back, and he's just a chill person overall. I thought he needed more fleshing out, but I have yet to see the side stories featuring him. On the other hand, Reinhard was a very well written character, with flaws that make him more human and personally more likable than Yang. He had his childhood with Siegfried and his sister, his devotion to his sister, his determination to become Kaiser, his modesty when addressing people of lower rank, and his kindness towards his nation. He was a very well explored character and truly one of my favorite male characters, and definitely the highlight of the show. Oberstein was mysterious and interesting to look into, but his mysteriousness amounted to nothing in the end.. Reuenthal's presence was manly and following through his journey was exciting until the last arc where his character was destroyed. The way he succumbed to the rumors of him being a traitor just so he wouldn't hurt his honor by letting someone spread rumors about him was unbelievable. I really couldn't believe how dumb a soldier can get.
The art looks very detailed for its time, and while many complain that the art is dated, I find it genuinely appealing and I don't have issues with it, apart from it being inconsistent rarely. The soundtracks are praised as classics, and they were indeed a treat to listen to, but since this is an old anime, the use of soundtracks just remained in the background overshadowed by character's voices, which didn't make them very memorable. But the opening and ending songs are soothing to listen to.
Overall, Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu is a legendary space opera who gets too much credit for being a complex show, but I'm fine with that. It is a great series with flaws, and its complexity makes it hard to enjoy it at all times with how much info it dumps at you. The politics in Persona 5 (game) were more convincing than this but that doesn't bring down the whole show, since I can appreciate the series for what it is not how I interpret it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 17, 2018
It's difficult to make a comedy series, mainly because sense of humor is subjective. Nanbaka's comedy was barely noticeable, and even if it was there, it wasn't really funny. But personally, the action and drama parts were better written than the comedy.
The story is mainly as the synopsis says. There's no story progression as such, and there's just a tournament arc filled with games at the beginning, mostly games where comedy can be introduced in. The action part was also mixed in there, the fights were well done, and the flashy artstyle did not interfere. The comedy part was mainly in the first half of
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the series, with some decent jokes, did not make me cringe, made me grin twice overall, was fairly enjoyable, so I'll take it; it was above average. The second half introduces character backstories, but they were really interesting to see. Tsukumo with his road to discover himself, Juugo and Musashi's story concerning the shackles, and how Juugo united the prisoners of Cell 13. The comedy became secondary here, but the backstories were more interesting than the comedy, so I did not have much complaints. Overall, a solid story.
The artstyle is seen to be flashy from the wallpaper itself, which is a feature of this anime. It looked good but it was excessive, even though I can understand that the manga used this style too, so props to Satelight for duplicating it and enhancing the character designs. Soundtracks were noticeable too and fit the scenarios, but I wouldn't call them memorable.
I really liked the chemistry between the characters, and Hajime was a badass and Seki Tomokazu just made him look even cooler. Juugo was the most explored character, the others needed more focus but they were supportive of each other and that was nice to see. Even Musashi is great to see as he rebels against the person who ruined his life.
All in all, I would recommend Nanbaka, but not really for its comedy, unless I'm just not the type to watch this kind of comedy, since others seem to laugh at this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 16, 2018
The review contains spoilers
While waiting for someone to write a positive review about this, I thought I'd wake up because that won't happen, so I guess I should do it myself. I find 7 to be above average, not something I'd recommend, but it's good compared to the hate this show is getting, and I actually like it. So there may be spoilers because no one cares about a show with this low of a rating, right?
The story with its mysteries and use of time travel is stunning, it's all connected and covers up most of its plot-holes (not really all though). The way
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Setsuna wants to save someone, which is later implied to be Rinne, the way the Island repeats itself, the way Kuon is revealed to be the future Rinne. It all felt smoothly connected, believable, and most of all, shocking. Even I was surprised by how an overhated anime can shock me with its twists, but surprisingly it surprised me. But that does not mean it is without issues. The ending where saving Rinne is neglected kind of was off the point, but I can't say after that big shock that I cared enough. It still dropped my scoring a bit, in addition to the Never Island segments having copies of the Island segment, that was hard to believe. Ignoring the flaws, I believe the story is the strongest point in the series, but its minimal flaws make me rate it a 7.
Songs by Rinne's seiyuu are really nice to hear, I love the seiyuu. Insert songs are also well made, no complaints. Art looks nice, which is something even the haters can agree on.
And I bet we all can agree that the characters are flat. They were used as plot devices, and if the plot wasn't good, this series would be as forgettable as School Days. Even though they are bland, I did not really dislike them, nor like them. The 3 main girls are cute with cute voices, and Setsuna with his manly seiyuu, not much to complain about, but I did rate the characters a 5. The show would be an easy 8/10 with stronger characterization.
Obviously after everything I said, I did enjoy the show. Characters do not really affect enjoyment, and enjoyment is the main reason we watch anime, right? So it's not wrong to ignore certain flaws if you enjoyed a show. You do not have to agree with me, after all, I like SAO. But I could name 50 shows better than SAO and Island, so even if they are good in my opinion, you can find better, but you can give this a try.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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