- Last OnlineJan 6, 4:01 AM
- GenderFemale
- JoinedJul 16, 2020
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Jul 28, 2022
This take has been seen so many times that it's gotten to a point where it's sickening: the isekai genre is a shameless cash-grab that doesn't prove anything other than the despicable greed and disgust that companies have against their own fans. Well, to be absolutely fair, it is exactly just that. Since A1 Studios got hold of Sword Art Online, most I-have-spawned-in-another-world shows have been the exact same format, had the exact same story elements and had the exact same archetypes of characters that we have seen in SAO across the multiple seasons we have been exposed to as Anime fans. Yet, sometimes, there
...
are gems that shine through the rubble of worthless trash isekais that prove themselves to be less... bad compared to others. Such cases were 'No Game No Life', a wonderful and intriguing universe where everything is settled through games (they literally copied the ESports format as a plot point), 'RE:Zero', a personal favorite that completely sums up how it feels to... well, die and last, but not least, Tate no Yuusha- I mean, Konosuba. I meant Konosuba, I apologize.
Alright. So, what, in essence, made Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari so 'despicable' among fans? I'm inclined to say most people where turned off by the distinguished theme of 'lolis' appearing in the show. Sure, in order to find someone that he could trust, Naofumi, the protagonist, must enslave a poor racoon (that looks very similar to a young girl, I wonder why that is) just to feel something in his heart ever since his arrival. However, that does not excuse the fact that every single other party member Naofumi had afterwards was... a child with magic powers. And a child that could transform into a chicken. I feel like I just entered a Chuck-E-Cheese. But, if that wasn't off-putting enough, we also have the shocking plot point of torture and rape being used multiple times: once used as a ways to arrest Naofumi for attempting to 'allegedly' strip the king's daughter naked, but also in order to further enslave his already almost dead racoon. Honestly, if Naofumi spoke up for himself at least once during these scenes, the show would have lasted about 40 minutes. Also the length of the first episode, coincidentally.
If those things were off-putting to you or simply weird to watch and still be entertained afterwards, then worry not! You are currently descending the rabbit hole that is 'isekai clichés'. Get accused, almost die due to said accusation, recruit party members, level up party members, become a DAD in the process (both in teaching and in genuine parenting), save random cities because no one else is up to the task and repeat. This goes on until the actual events of the show take place. I will not spoil that, however. I will only look into the technical side from now on.
As such, we have the story. I'm going to be honest: for a pattern-based isekai that doesn't really make itself unique to the eye of refined reviewers (which are also connoisseurs in writing), Shield Hero does have its charms. Besides the formula stated above, the show stood true to its colors and kept on pushing the agenda it set in the beginning. In short, the show was consistent enough to keep me watching it. There were no major plot holes that risk ruining the show entirely (there was actually one, but we'll get into that in a second) and the action flowed nicely. Chronology was kept and flashbacks were kept to a minimum (they were only shown when needed, i.e. for Raphtalia's sake). Congrats to the studio for being able to keep the plot as normal as possible! Now, who produced this show again- OH MY GOD, they made 'Made in Abyss' and 'Barakamon'; I must quickly apologize to the studio for praising it so much! Shield Hero is nothing but a copycat of older, better shows produced just so that 6 years later, their format would be plastered all over the internet and people would enjoy it until the end of time! Your vision with this show was almost as shallow as my opinion on it. Congratulations! You made a fuck-up. Basically, stop copying the same shit over and over again. I understand that financially and economically speaking, this is genius marketing (baboon entry level banana trading), but if you make a series that already has its story posted multiple times on Wattpad, then you should find a better manga/light novel to adapt.
The art. Now, shows like these don't need much effort put into them. As long as the characters can be distinguished one from another, it's fine. As long as their details are slightly different from each other, it's mostly fine. Just add an accessory or two to make them look like they're not siblings (depends on the case). Shield Hero has impeccable art (average day-to-day art that you see in shows) that distinguishes itself from other shows (it doesn't) through a unique style of brushing color (false) and through an innovative and groundbreaking contour lining! (also, very false) In all honesty, the art doesn't really matter to shows as long as you can understand what you see and the characters sort of twitch and move when they speak. Make characters move their mouths again!
Sound design! Well, it sure isn't any Hans Zimmer, but it was decent to good. Voice acting was standard, sound effects were up to par and the cicadas are, indeed, present at night. Sometimes even during daytime! Can you believe that?
Now. Onto the good part of this review. The characters! Well, the main cast is simple enough: the protagonist and the girls that participate in the guild. And by girls I meant to say party members; we don't discriminate here, even though Naofumi tends to have a preference for girl slaves and girl royalty. "It's whatever he likes, stop judging!" Kind of off-topic, but I digress. Thus, Naofumi's journey to retribution! I meant revenge! I meant vengeance! I meant... Well, he is after a lot of things after all, including money and, usually, safety, begins! A narcissist soon-to-be empathic person embarks on a journey around ONE country (soon-to-be more!) in order to clear his name and/or escape from the royal guard with a funky and entertaining group of rambunctious little girls that teach him the values of life once his shield gets a little similar to the charcoal which Raphtalia's parents tur- Alright, that's enough about the summary of Naofumi. Frankly, he's a douchebag. However, the good kind of douchebag, meaning that he is a good trader (I will never forget the mangaka for stealing this straight from Spice&Wolf) and usually has his way around with people. Likes to boss villagers around in exchange for coins that could help him buy counterfeit chicken strips for... for... what was that big bird's name again? Right, right... Filo. For Filo. Well, manically enough, he succeeds each time he does a marvelous trade and so proves himself to be a true trader at heart, someone that doesn't usually take no as an answer, but the few times that he does, he forces people to say 'yes' for him. Then comes the deadbeat racoon (is it really that clear that I hate this character?) that almost always has to conveniently save Naofumi at a moment's grace, Raphtalia. She's... well, if you've seen Asuna from Sword Art Online, then you know what I'm talking about. I don't really need to give her a character in-depth analysis since she is already a character archetype. Naofumi was slightly more different, not very accepting of the outside world and he kept proving to everyone that he wasn't seen in the brightest light possible by the people of the nation. Raphtalia is the character made solely to protect Naofumi's reputation (can't even do that for him later in the show, she loses to a man fatter than the continent of Australia) and to, sometimes, appear as Naofumi's guardian angel whenever he would pass out from being too edgy (berserk dragon armor in the latter half of the show). But, sure enough, she (sometimes) gets the job done and her prize every single time is a head pat from the MC. How romantic! I wonder if these two will be together? Calm down, this is still a Japanese cartoon, there's no actual relationships displayed since it would damage the media's ego. Well, I would whole heartily ditch Raphtalia for Filo. At any moment in time I would switch those two and make Filo the first one Naofumi discovers, because Filo is literally the only way of transportation that Naofumi has and is also the only one that genuinely has fighting ability and spirit. Sure, at the start, Naofumi had 0 experience, so he had to gain it using someone that could fight, hence the training arc of Raphtalia, but Filo would be a much bigger help since she could already be deadly a week after she was born. But that's just me! And besides, Filo is simply the perfect archetype for an oblivious child that obeys the orders of their paternal figure. Also knows as Naofumi in this case. But, sure, she's kind of sweet. And there's another child in the crew (temporarily) that poses many question to the audience, many of which are usually referring to her 1800s lolita type of clothing and her very kuudere, yet tsundere way to express feelings. Well, we've all been there, she's royalty so it's normal to see such behavior. Though, she hasn't been of any real help to the protagonist, therefore rendering herself utterly useless and pointless as a character. Her only ploy was a faked assassination attempt that resulted in even more hate towards Naofumi.
Then we have the antagonists. I hate them. With a passion. Fuck the king. Fuck Myne. Fuck the Pope. Fuck Trash. Fuck Bitch. Fuck Slut.
I chose to drop the show at 21 episodes, because after that ending to the episode I questioned myself "What could come after? More adventures?" And so, I have decided to no longer watch it, since the conclusion given at episode 21 is quite nearly perfect. Naofumi escapes the shackles forced upon him by the king and his daughter, his very unknown and bizarre power has an awakening telling him to no longer use it unless in case of a VERY specific emergency and everyone understands and forgives Naofumi for the actions he has never committed. Quite the finale, wouldn't you say? Well, what if I told you there's 4 more episodes after that? You'd feel scammed. You'd feel like you were watching an OVA, or a TV special that only aired in that period. In all seriousness, this show wasn't as bad as it looked. Sure, I critiqued it as such, but it was enjoyable, in the least. It had its moments, then it had THOSE moments, then it had SOME moments... but it's all fair and good between Eldians and Mar-
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Aug 9, 2021
You cannot look into my eyes and tell me that this was in any way, shape or form a good, even remotely decent or slightly below average show. It's very hard to imagine people enjoying the show because it has a good narrative or characters that seem like real people. Any type of good comment on this show is either done by a brainlet or a person that has never watched anything good in their life.
Now that my rant is over, let's actually get into the review side of things. Yes, the experience of 'Tante wa mou, shindeiru' was absolutely dreadful. It's not even over
...
yet, for Christ's sake! It was hard for me to find enjoyment in the couple of episodes that have released. But still, I shall power through it in hope that it will get better, as many of the light novel fans claim (of course, it's very hard for a show to redeem itself when it's this bad, but I can't say it won't do it until it's actually finished airing). There's a ton of spoilers since I couldn't explain why I hated it without showing some examples.
The story is all over the place. From the synopsis, it does seem like an interesting mystery anime. Since I haven't seen too many of those, I thought about giving it a try, plus the fact that it was seasonal. The first episode had a total runtime of 50 minutes, which did feel kind of odd at first but that wasn't enough to make me want to drop it instantly. So the protagonist gets into a lot of trouble because of his coincidental circumstances around very illegal stuff like drug and human trafficking, robberies, murders and so on. On a very eventful day, he gets kidnapped and the kidnappers ask him to deliver a briefcase via plane. While on the plane, all of the sudden one of the flight attendants asks for a detective, oddly enough. As described by the MC, a very beautiful girl next to him claims that she is, indeed, a detective. For some odd reason, she wants him to be her assistant. No reason in particular. They find out about some plane hijacker that was in the same situation as our protagonist (he was basically forced to hijack the plane and make it crash with the girl detective). So he's from an organization named SPES that specializes with super powers (I know, it gets even weirder as the show progresses) which said detective was clashing against at the time. The hijacker is defeated, everyone is happy and, oh man, thank God the plane didn't crash, because if it did, both main characters would've been dead and this series would have never taken place. All is well after the plane landing, until our protagonist is yet again surprised by the detective. She basically asks him to be her assistant again in order to fight against the evil deeds done by SPES. I'm not going to talk about the rest of the first episode, but at the end, after they both solved their second case, it is announced that 3 years later, the detective dies. At this point, I was still intrigued by what the hell all of this was about. The fact that it was all over the place was interesting at first because of it's uniqueness, but in the second episode everything went downhill.
I'd have to guess their budget couldn't pay for another Siesta special folding gun epic shooting scene, but at least they could have not given up on voice acting. The story itself from the light novel is the same as the anime I'm guessing, so the story and character part is entirely the authors fault. So, as for dialogue between characters, I only have him to blame. I swear, every single episode felt like different Oblivion NPC's speaking to each other and repeating the same shit all over again. The show's simplicity isn't affecting the quality, it's the writing itself. So fuck you, dear author, for writing this dumb fucking story. But besides that, for a couple of episodes, the show sticks to the narrative of 'oh yeah, a couple of time has passed and this retard of a protagonist finally becomes the detective himself (NOT)' which is fine, don't get me wrong. It was poorly executed, but not the worst part of the show. Most scenes made no sense (why visit the plane hijacker again in order to confirm the identity of Siesta? and how in the bloody hell did you know where he was locked up??) and the dialogue truly felt like 2 robots clashing over who could beat Alpha Zero and Stockfish in Chess. The essence of human touch is invisible in this show. And, oh Lord how comedic this is, but the shots of the characters when they speak remind me of 'Kingdom Come: Delivery' cutscenes.
After the MC and newborn Siesta solve yet another case, we get a flashback of the MC and actual Siesta around 2-3 years ago in London (for God knows what reason). The flashbacks are made so that they make sense. This one is just here for the sake of it. We are reminded of their old adventures just because they forgot to maintain a chronological order of the events. Why would you waste about 3 episodes of bad to decent content just to go back in time again (with no reason) and show us the events that you were supposed to show earlier? (they could have just removed the 3 episodes and put the rest of their case solving BEFORE those 3 episodes)
Of course, the rebuttal of those events doesn't bring ANY type of case solving back to the series. Now we've got Mr. 'I wish to destroy the world' that follows the same book that Roswaal from Re:zero used to read all the time and Mecha Detective with Mecha Assistant. It's such a breath of fresh air to know that some people compared this show to Evangelion because of episode 6, because now I know that the fans of this show need to redo elementary school. Besides the events of Re:zero versus Evangelion, the show doesn't seem to stop this flashback scene that already lasted 2 episodes since a new girl showed up, and this time she's older than the detective herself! Do I hear "love interest?" Don't mind if I do! Even if displayed for about 10 minutes, the new girl seems troublesome, and by God, she actually has dialogue. I can finally listen to a person speak! Well, she only has like 5 lines that differ between each other, but she still sounds more human than the 2 Mecha Detectives.
The characters are a train wreck. As stated before (repeated many times as well), the dialogue between them is more robotic than our future as a species. Not once have I not found myself pausing at every line to analyze the type of 12 year old dialogue the characters have. They're plain. Way. Too. Plain. Nothing has bored me more than the MC speaking. I was more entertained in the show when nobody was saying anything. When anybody was speaking, it was either an anime trope or just information dump for the viewer to completely process in under the 2 seconds it took for a line to be read. But, to be fair, the MC's long "Urusei, Baaaaaaka" was the cherry on top for the shitshow that unfolded on my screen. The other girls are fine. Still robotic, monotone and boring, but at least the people looking for waifus have a lot of... content to watch.
The story was : Pathetic! a 1.
The art was : Decent and slowly getting worse! a 3.
The sound was : Incomprehensible! No songs to be remembered and the OST will go down as the most forgettable anime OST ever! a 3.
The characters were : Absolute agony! a 1.
My enjoyment : If I could give this a negative score, I 100% would; a 1.
And the score overall amounts to : a measly and very sad and depressing 2 (standing for "absolutely dreadful!")
All in all, Tante wa mou, shindeiru is a flawless masterpiece, the anime of the decade, even century! I have not seen any show that can beat this one in animation, writing, characters, sound or voice acting. Get the fuck out MALs top 10 anime! It is time for you to be dethroned by the mighty "The detective is already dead." And, by God, don't watch this show.
As an end note, I despise the studio for having a Hololive cameo for that dumb fuck of an Idol character. Go fuck yourself Nigojuu (author of light novel) and ENGI for making one of the worst shows of this decade. How do people even enjoy this?
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jun 4, 2021
I have been pleasantly disappointed by this. Possibly spoilers incoming? I'll keep them to a minimum.
As if it's a stereotypical (and casual) occurrence, the second season of this show was awful. The standards were set at a decent bar from the first season, yet they under-performed in the worst way possible. It's not as bad as a 2 or a 3, since the animation, story, characters and songs aren't impossible to bear, but it could have been better.
The story! There's not many spoilers that can really affect the experience of the show, so here we go. After the first season finale, there was a
...
small hint towards a 'villain' type of character. And this season starts off with the entire Cinderella Project being postponed until God knows when by said character. Not a bad plotline. I could argue with a lot of people about how this could be something unexpected, maybe even better than the first season. Only if that villain-type character wasn't a fucking moron.
Idols should be idols by themselves as well. It's only fair for group idols to have singles released, right? Well, individuality isn't a thing anymore, since throwing teams together randomly should increase the popularity, bring new fans over and clearly make profit for 346 Productions. This is, in my opinion, truly idiotic. Being individualized was fine; it was a good pretext for the market and a good way to evolve the idol as a person and, of course, as an idol. But suddenly, Rin and Anastasia are thrown in a band of 6 other idols (the project never gets any attention anyway in the show). Also, why not stress Rin with another idol team formed of 2 new idols (that nobody has heard about) just because while practicing, they sounded 'good' or 'they could gain success'? Mio Honda gets thrown around and starts an acting career (because why the fuck not) and Uzuki is the usual shitty non-protagonist she's ever been. I swear, I've heard the phrase "I'll do my best!" coming from her mouth more than lyrics sang my New Generations. I hate the fact that Uzuki Shimamura never got the 'protagonist' spot she deserved. After hyping her up so much in the first season in the beginning, she's overthrown by all the other idols (even new ones) again, and only cared about for a couple episodes. In the first season it was in the beginning, and now it was in the ending. I think the studio tried their best to make the show circular and seem as if it started where it ended, but why would you do this to an Idol show? You would want to see them grow better as Idols. And they're shown like this at the end of the last episode. So why bother going through the beginning of the show again for Uzuki's sake? The studio never bothered to place any attention on her in the first season, so why now? Honestly, it doesn't make any sense. The story is garbage because of the new shitty main character. Even Producer-san can't save this season.
The characters are... what they are. Bland. Simple. Boring. That's to say the least. New Generations as a whole is completely gone from the show. The only ways they mention the band is if they reminisce about it while boasting about progress in new teams. The other idol teams have dissipated as well. There's no more Love Laika and no more Asterisk. They've disbanded because of 'plot development' and 'character development'. Currently, they're all in different groups. It is for their growth, and their growth only. The new main thought about this being good and useful for the idol company. And yet, it ruined everything. Each idol from Cinderella Girls is worse than in the first season. I felt nothing for any of the characters. Producer-san was completely over-shadowed, and he no longer solves many issues in the idol group. Basically, the studio is trying to say 'they can handle their own problems and they don't need their Producer to handle everything anymore'. Then what is a Producer good for? Publicity and morale boosting? That's all? Producer was there for them in the first season. And in this one, he's probably just too overwhelmed with the pressure from the new main (I can't even call her by name, my God...). Did I say that the new main is absolutely hypocritical and braindead by the way? As for that, she's honestly just a filler episode. She ruins the entire show just by being present. I don't want to say anything else, since it wouldn't really change how you already think of her.
Animation was the same as first season. I've got nothing to add, except the fact that I hate when the only characters that seem alive are the Idols, cameramen and a bunch of glowsticks in the audience. Make the show feel more alive for God's sake. At some point, it felt like I was staring at a poorly made canvas of a city road and some characters waiting for a car to go over them. Making unnecessary people static in a shot is productive, but not imaginative. I hate it when shows do this basic shit. It throws the vibe of the episode off.
Sound was alright. The songs were no different than the rest. The intro kind of disappointed me, but you know how it is with A1. They make something good, and then they stomp on it like it was never supposed to actually exist. The first intro? Masterpiece. This second one? As mediocre as they come. Thoroughly disappointed.
The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls Season 2 clusterfuck was disappointing. I can't believe I expected something like this to be somewhat good. I don't recommend watching this season, as it will ruin your expectations for the rest of the Idolm@sters. But maybe! Just maybe... This season was made to be shitty as in to promote the movie and Idolm@ster Million Live! A great scheme, A1 Productions! Absolutely mental! Now I despise all of your unknown and unpopular works.
Story 5
Animation 3
Sound 6
Character 2
Enjoyment 3
Overall: 4
It was dreadful to sit through this. Don't watch this season if you're not ready to endure pain and agony. Good luck.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Apr 5, 2021
All right. What I am going to say is meant to make people understand that this isn't what they came for, nor will it ever be.
Attack on Titan was very good at the beginning. Even now, it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. It's a good show, but this clearly doesn't make it the best show out there. People aren't salty that their best show is run over and destroyed by "The Final Season". It's simply the fandom. They took over, trolled the reviews, gave FMA:B, Steins;Gate, Gintama, HxH and many more a 1 because why not (because that makes sense)
...
and pushed the fact that this season was the best down our throats as much as they could. I'm sick of the fandom and their religious cult around this show. Many people just don't give a fuck anymore about the series because of some fans' delusions. This is beyond insanity, just like their favorite main character, Eren Yaeger. You haven't learned anything haven't you, AoT fans? A good season is a good season. Pumping it to first place just creates disillusions for other people. I fully understand that the show was full of tension and excitement, but this is beyond complete and utter brain rot. Downrating some of the best shows ever made simply shows that you can't take criticism and actual facts about your show. The Attack on Titan fandom is the worst fandom out there, and a simple person who read until now understands this all too well. Anyone would. I know I'm being salty and toxic, but somebody had to say this. And some of you should accept this fact.
Now that I'm done ranting and yelling at Eren Yaeger fans, I guess I should get into the review. Yes, it contains spoilers.
Attack on Titan is the first name someone would think of when hearing the word "anime". It's so popular that it attracted non-anime watchers and has made itself the so-called "face" of anime. And it sometimes lives up to the hype. The story and the characters evolved as intended, the visuals look nice and I enjoyed most of the show.
Starting with the plot: of course, it follows the manga very well, but it felt very stretched. I suddenly felt like I wasn't watching Attack on Titan at some point. The genre got completely switched from a full-action to a drama, and then back to full-action right at the end. It was meant to explain everything that was happening and evolve the plan of the Yaegerists. The story focused on only the scouts as the revolution began in the background, right behind their backs. It's a very well thought-out concept, but the execution was so poor that I almost died of boredom. 4 episodes were just talking, and talking, and talking, and oh my god, when was it going to end?! But, in spite of the very stretched dialogue and mediocre character development, these 4 episodes set up a good pretext for the revolution. It wasn't bad, nor was it good. It was too long, the characters got random character development and the drama went on and on until we reached the table scene. Other than that, there is symbolism. Like the argument between Nicolo and Sasha's father. The political problems of each country and their hatred took over Nicolo, making him a representation of Marley, meanwhile Sasha's father very calmly wanted to solve the issue, just like Eldians wanted to before Eren Yaeger came into play. It's a sweet little scene that caught my attention, and it was for a very good reason. +1 point for symbolism! Metaphors like this one are all scattered through the show, even if Mappa didn't highlight them as they should've. I'll let you find all of them.
Moving on! My favorite subject: the characters. First and foremost, Eren Yaeger is not the greatest character out there, nor is he the best protagonist to ever exist. He's simply a hollow corpse that shouts "Free will! Freedom! Euthanasia!" whenever he gets the chance, thinking he's a deep and philosophical character. Indeed, he is a very well thought-out character. The transition to a villain (from the Scouts' perspective) was very nice from the mangaka, a nice plot twist that has never been done before (clearly sarcastic). But the biggest flaw that he has is that there's no more substance to him. He has reduced himself to an empty shell, a character without remorse or feeling; basically close to complete insanity, if it weren't for Zeke. He abandoned his friends and the Scouts for the sympathy of a long-lost brother from the Land of Marley. Saving Mikasa from the you-know-what incident back when they were kids was just a front Eren used to put up back then. Now, he woke up to "reality", as he calls it, and chose to fight against his own comrades. A very strategic coup-d'état. But this doesn't obstruct the clear mistakes and flaws in his character. I never wanted to have a husk of a protagonist lead an amazing revolution (and somehow succeeding). I thought the show would have a more complex character for Eren, but I have been disappointed once again. Mikasa and Armin are basically a joke right now. Mikasa grew from never wanting to leave Eren to never seeing Eren again. For a couple of episodes. Armin, now possessing the Colossal Titan, actually got some decent character development; him agreeing with Eren's ideology will probably advance the plot even further, but the difference here is that Armin isn't a husk. The things he believed in before are still there, but the new methods of the Yaegerists infiltrated his mind only to fill him with doubt. At least that's how I feel about the last scene. The one I'm most disappointed in though must be Hange. She went from a complete fanatic that was obsessed with titans, an actual character that I cared about and one of the funniest characters from the cast to just a tool for the revolution. She doesn;t even do her usual skits or random sparks that strike greatness. No smart ideas came from her this entire season. Maybe it was meant to be, but I can't control what the mangaka wants. I just give my opinion on what was good and what was bad, right?
The sound design and animations are very clean. This time, Mappa had to deal with a massive show. The first 3 seasons were a very big milestone to achieve, and a hard one to overcome, but in this category (and this category only), they prevailed. The animations were a nice surprise, and the sound accompanying them couldn't be better. Unfortunately, this is the only side where Mappa actually did a decent job.
As for enjoyment, I guess saying that it didn't really satisfy me is a good conclusion. The story was as expected, with some plot-holes and mistakes (that were usually rare); the characters were a complete disappointment and the sound and animations were above expectations. People come to see a very good show, mostly when they see a (currently) 9.09 score; a show that is very close to number one. But this isn't what they should be greeted with. It definitely deserves an 8.50, maybe even an 8.75, but going as close as Steins;gate and FMA:B is a shame for the anime industry.
Maybe you'll find enjoyment in it more than I did. Maybe you're a Yaegerist reading this review only to flag it because of some harassment you thought I mentioned. Maybe you watched the series and didn't quite enjoy it as people said you would. I recommend we all rejoice and put a fist to our hearts, and one to our backs to say once again: "How in the ungodly fuck do you do a part 2 to a season called <<The Final Season>>?"
Story : 6
Art : 8
Sound : 7
Characters : 3
Enjoyment : 3
Overall : 5
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Mar 20, 2021
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a masterpiece.
I've watched this show across the span of 8 months. A very bad decision on my part. But the fact that I watched every episode, or every few episodes, in a very well-organized (not really) manner gave me a more in-depth analysis to the series. The values of family, love, death and power. Understanding these and how they were portrayed in the show is what it means to understand Fullmetal. Slight spoilers ahead though.
I must clarify this first: I haven't read the manga, nor have seen the 2003 FMA. I entered this show with confidence that it was good, mostly
...
because of it's #1 on MAL, and because of the other reviews I've read. And I can wholeheartedly say that this is one of the best shows I've seen. From start to finish, from the worst battle-scene to the best, from the more inaccurate to the pin-point story telling, FMA:B does not fail to surprise you. Even in the less well produced parts of the show, it sparks compared to other shounen.
Sound and animation are very different from the usual anime style we see everywhere. The intros and endings really accompany the contents of the episode very well. I caught myself casually watching the intro, the episode itself and the ending without being bored, or without ever having a need to skip the intro and the ending. The music and the animation flow very well with how the story is told: fast-paced, in-depth and, of course, in the best way possible. At first, I didn't like how the characters were drawn. I was so used to the main way characters were drawn in mainstream anime that I was taken aback by this new way of drawing characters. But somehow, this also fits in with the show! It's amazing how a series can be so different from the norm, yet so good.
I found myself captivated by the plot of the show. In the first few episodes, everything goes smoothly: plans are being laid out, the main characters discover more and more about their objective and antagonists are laid out one by one. As soon as the Briggs Arc passes, everything goes into full action mode. Suddenly, old characters mentioned in the first episodes become main points of interest. New characters arrive at the aid of the protagonists. The battles become harder and harder, with new waves of brand-new enemies that are ready to destroy everything in their way. With all the info gathered across the episodes, the main characters go into battle with the antagonist, with the slight hope of defeating him, while also following their main objective. Of course, in the end the antagonist loses. Even if it's very generic, his defeat was greatly executed. And so, the protagonist arrive at their objective, and return to their home, where a certain special character awaits them. It's a great story really; I've come across shows that try their best to reach a story like this one, but fail in doing an outstanding job like FMA:B did.
Now, the characters. Oh, the characters... My weakness. In short, they are where FMA:B shines at its best. The main protagonists, Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric are amazing. With a simple objective at hand, they follow the path of justice to obtain their dream. Wait, isn't this a very simple characters build? Haven't we seen Kirito, from SAO, that always follows his objective, while being as close to righteousness as possible? How are two brothers with missing limbs (and one of them missing his whole body) able to compete with Kirito, if they are so similar in character? You're already missing the point. You don't compare Edward Elric's sense of justice and intelligence with one of a guy's trapped in virtual reality. It's incomparable. To me, Edward Elric's character is above most of the protagonists' out there. He easily connects with a certain, possibly evil character. He understands the character. And he acts upon the character as is best. This quote struck me a bit, but in one of his discussions with a "villain", Greed, the villain told him something like this: "'I want to see someone who has died', 'I want money', 'I want women' and 'I want to defend the world' are all things that the heart wants, or in other words, desires. If I had to say, greed is neither good nor bad. You humans get tripped up because you presume to assign value ratings to greed." And Ed said nothing. He felt guilt because of a scene before this discussion, and met Greed in the hallway. Even if there was no discussion needed, Ed still responded until this remark. Because Greed is right. There is no good or bad in greed, and even a villain named after such sin knows this. There was no need for this discussion to be shown, yet it still was. And this is just one of the best examples of how the characters are built and how in-depth the story actually is. I can also talk about Mustang's greed, Envy's reason, Pride's shame and so on. That's why the characters are so much more different than others. You can't simply compare Alphonse's character with, let's say, Leorio's character, a very good main from Hunter x Hunter. Not because one of them is better than the other, but simply because they're both that good.
Story 10
Animation 9
Sound 9
Character 10
Enjoyment 10
I guess now it's pretty easy to see why I've enjoyed Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood so much. It's different and it does very well in that category. I'm very thankful for coming across such a good show, and I hope those who've read my review until now will also watch the show, and possibly enjoy it as much as I did.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Feb 2, 2021
Treat me fairly: this is my first idol anime I've ever watched. It's not even the first in The Idolm@ster series, but compared to the things I've heard, and haven't confirmed yet, from School Love Live Idol Project, it might be a fair series to watch. This review contains minor spoilers and some references from the same anime. This review is more like a criticism note towards A1-Pictures, but I guess it falls in the review category.
The show is a mid show. All things considered, it's made by one of the most well-known studios out there, A-1 Pictures, the studio that made (in my opinion)
...
the great mistake of adapting Sword Art Online. Therefore, I wasn't expecting something EXTRAORDINARY. But I received what I came for. A fair show, with some basic characters and a basic storyline anyone can get behind.
I guess one of the things that burdened me a lot was the "main" character, Uzuki Shimamura. I'm saying "main" because she never was the only protagonist to begin with. In the first episode, she was the first to show up as a character from the idol group (before it was created), so I thought this story would revolve around her, and only her. As soon as the producer was introduced, she practiced a lot, got a ton of screen time, only to be left in the shadow by overly enthusiastic characters like Moroboshi Kirari and Mio Honda, or overly unenthusiastic characters like Shibuya Rin and Anzu Futaba, that I never wanted to deal with in the first place. The story made it seem like everything was around the first group of idols: Shimamura, Mio and Rin; but I, apparently, was mistaken. Maybe it's just because I don't understand Idol shows, or because of my inexperience with plots in this genre. Anyway, I was thrown way off by the writers because of this, so my experience was a little less enjoyable than it should've been.
The simple storyline I mentioned before is... pretty bland and basic. There is drama and conflict between some characters (Mio Honda after her first concert, the cat-girl and the rock-girl etc.), but it was kept to a minimal level, which is good for a show about idols. Other than that, it's a predictable plot (they each get a concert as a team, or solo; they get a big concert with all members; someone has a problem; they easily get replaced; they have a successful concert, and a happy ending with a small cliffhanger), but by all means, it doesn't make the show any worse. I honestly found a lot more enjoyment in the plot than I expected, even if it was as bland as it gets.
Characters are drawn as simple as it gets for a show that wants to imitate real life (in the idol category). Simple, to the point and it gets the job done. The animation is a little wonky sometimes, but you need to focus to see it. Like, some eyes that aren't moving right, dances are a little weird in the first half, but it isn't something that grabs the attention from the plot or the dialogue.
I guess sound is supposed to be the strong point of this show, but it didn't surprise me all that much. As you know, we have idols in real life like Blackpink, BTS and so on, and there are tens of millions of fans around the world that support them and love their songs. And surely, I have some idols I appreciate myself, and their songs are absolute hits that I could put on repeat and still not get bored by. Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls doesn't prove too much with it's songs, except for the intro that never made it into the final concert (something I half expected from an Idol show). The songs are mediocre at best; pop-songs that you hear everyday on the radio, and most of the time, people get sick of them after 2 or 3 weeks are a norm here, so I was sadly disappointed in that regard. Except for Ranko's solo debut song. Even if I heard around 30 seconds from it in the show, it was the only banger that struck a tiny cord in my mind.
Characters are mediocre too. The first three are the focus-point of the series for the first 8 episodes, and the other 8 in the Idol group are just side characters for that period of time. Shimamura is enthusiastic, modest and happy most of the time. She was the only one from the first three that actually wanted to become an Idol and practiced in order to achieve her dream. Rin was just recruited because of her "smile", and Mio was told the same thing. The show doesn't tell us how the other members were recruited, so we'll skim past that. They have their own concert after starring in another Idols show, and conflict appears. Mio is sad because of the number of people that came to her concert, and wishes to quit her job as an Idol. This triggers Rin to also leave, and the other members are left in confusion as to why they both left. And here comes the greatest character of all: the Producer. This man is honestly one of the best-built characters in the series. A businessman that simply takes care of his workers. Sure, he gets in trouble because of this at some point, but he solves Mio's issue with ease. He is described by his secretary as "reliable" and "trustworthy", as well as "he gets any problem solved". And the Producer does deliver, as these qualities are not lies told because of their appreciation, but because they are the true nature of him. He's anxious at first about gathering all the girls, but he soon finds himself surrounded by young idols that appreciate his work. Honestly, the Producer carries this show heavily. After the disappointment I've had with Shimamura, I'm happy to see a great character that shines bright above girls in an Idol anime.
Overall, as a first watch in any Idol anime, I was a little disappointed. The songs were basic as hell, except for the intro and Ranko's single; the characters were blind, except for the magnificent Producer and the plot is bland. I didn't expect a lot, and I can say that I got exactly what I thought I would. It isn't a bad anime, it's just too simple for it's own.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jan 29, 2021
After so many "heavy" shows that have been thrown left and right in 2020 like Majo no Tabitabi, RE:Zero Second Season, etc., Tonikaku Kawaii strikes the anime industry with one of the simplest slice-of-life, romance and comedy series from last year. This review contains spoilers for the first episode and light spoilers for the rest of the series. I might have some grammatical and literary errors, so please excuse me for that.
I was surprised at first by the beginning. Love stories begin with an initial impact. Eye contact, a beneficial situation or many other circumstances offer a great introduction to the protagonist and the love
...
interest. In our case, we see Nasa, the protagonist, getting run over by a truck. I mean... I've honestly never seen a beginning like this in any anime other than Isekais. It's almost unique to the genre and it starts the action of the show with a powerful snap. Right before getting hit head-on by a truck however, a mysterious girl saves him. As Nasa is about to lose consciousness, she approaches him and asks if he's fine. Surprised by her beauty, he instantly falls in love with her. She soon leaves (without worrying about her health, like she wasn't run over too), but Nasa isn't ready to give up this 1 in a million chance he has been offered. After recovering his consciousness, he runs after the girl, hoping there might still be a chance to tell her about his feelings. Luckily, he does find the girl at a bus station. She once again takes care of him, even offering her coat in exchange for his wet, full of blood one. Once he gets settled down, the girl wants to leave again. But the protagonist was prepared to never let her go again. As she leaves, Nasa stands on two feet and gives a glorious speech about how much he loves her. The girl turns away, and tells him: "Fair enough. We can be together... if you marry me."
I've offered an entire paragraph to the first 12 minutes of the show because of how important they are. They represent a simple beginning: a cause, the protagonist's past (which I thought would be better not to mention), the love interest and a small introduction to what the story will be about: a married couple going through the ups and downs of a relationship that slowly get closer and closer together with each day that passes. There's nothing more to be said about Tonikaku Kawaii, and honestly, there shouldn't be. After watching a show with a heavy plot, or some garbage anime that you should have never watched in the first place, Tonikaku Kawaii will surely take you on a short and simple adventure deserving of tons of praise.
I can't talk too much about art since it's also kept to a very simplistic style: characters seem a lot smaller than they should, so they can look cuter than average, the animations are simple and backgrounds are simple as well. Since Tonikaku Kawaii searches for a theme that screams "simple", this mixes very well with the story and the characters. The music and sound effects are simple as well, but the intro is something a little different than what you would expect from a slice-of-life, rom-com anime.
Yuzaki Nasa and Yuzaki Tsukasa represent the perfect couple. Nasa is a loving and caring husband. Tsukasa is a loving and caring wife. Each situation they find themselves in is often shook off as a romantic excuse that makes them feel embarrassed, but because they're married, they don't get bothered by it for too long.
Individually, Nasa is a genius. His name kind of gives the feeling of a smart character because of the similarities with the company NASA, and because of his odd catch-phrase: "I'm Yuzaki Nasa! And I'll reach the speed of light before NASA does!" As seen in the beginning and later in the show, he never gives up on his dreams, or any tasks that come his way. He easily takes care of them for the sake of other people, and for the sake of Tsukasa. A good personality for a good character, am I right?
In addition, Tsukasa is often assimilated with Princess Kaguya. The reason for this is showed right after the beginning scene that I talked about. After helping Nasa, and offering him the chance to marry her, she leaves him for about 2 years, in which Nasa waits for her in hopes that she will come back for him. Nasa never knew if she would come back to him, but he still waited patiently. This is very similar to the story of Princess Kaguya, the story of a failed marriage couple. As Princess Kaguya left for the moon, her adopted father and the emperor were left to hope for her arrival back on Earth. Very similar to the situation Nasa found himself in as he waited for Tsukasa to come back and keep her promise. Alright, that was just a little too deep for a simple show, so let's go back to simple qualities, shall we? Tuskasa is a great cook, in the words of Nasa. She fully trusts her husband, and isn't always dependent on him. She sometimes wants to do things that only married couples would, just like Nasa, so their relationship is on a steady increase constantly through the show.
TL;DR : Tonikaku Kawaii is a short and captivating anime that portrays the problems of a married couple and how well they overcome them. With a humble beginning, and a great, simple story, you will surely be sucked in by the many qualities of this show.
I enjoyed it far more than I expected to, and I cannot wish to see more content from the series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
