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Bakuten, or Backflip!! (we musn't forget the exclamation marks) was initially just the seasonal sports anime that caught my eye. As a casual sports anime enjoyer, of course I wanted to go check it out.

Initially, I didn't have very high expectations for the anime itself, since gymnastics and such don't have a very good record, but I still wanted to give it a shot anyway. It actually did pass my expectations, and turned out to be a lot better than I first imagined.

Story: 7
Bakuten's storyline isn't really anything special in my opinion, boy wants to join a club after seeing one of their ... performances, the club had limited members, boy joins said club once he transfers to high school and learns the sport. At first, I felt quite bored actually since it was kind of like a template formula sports anime use, especially with the cliche metaphor of the birds "soaring". However, what makes me give this show a 7 in story was that it was unique in a way where the plot didn't need a mysterious or sad backstory for the protagonist/s to keep the audience going. It was refreshing to see just the protagonist, Shotaro Futaba, genuinely have a loving and supporting family. He wasn't this flashy character that had a unique skillset or distinguishing features, and Bakuten handled that type of protagonist well. The show felt down to earth (apart from the extremely fast learning from the protagonist, but that can be ignored) and genuinely felt relaxing to watch. It wasn't too intense, and that's what I like about it.

Art: 9
The art and animation just felt great. It felt great to finally see this type of anime be animated well, where the choreography could be captured in an apleasing manner for the audience. The art uses bright colours and simplicity which matches the positive tones in the show. The CGI performances for the gymnastics choreography was great, I felt some of the choreography felt limited for each performance therefore not making any of them stand out especially, but that is a minor issue that is outshined by the smooth CGI.

Sound: 6
The sound and music was fair, nothing really stood out to me however it wasn't bad either. I would have liked to see a variety of genres of music for each team that performed, but it's acceptable.

Character: 7
The characters in the show don't get too much development, but the one that I felt got a good amount of attention was the coach. (I'll be going into minor spoilers in this section of the review). The coach was definitely one of my favourite characters in the show, I found the joke behind his wife pretty funny and his backstory was definitely interesting. I really like how down to earth the coach is, the message being spread that people can 100% change. It feels like this sort of concept isn't used too often, of course we have Kageyama from Haikyuu, however his character was more focused on changING. The Coach we see in Bakuten has already moved on, and has suffered consequences from his past mistakes. I absolutely love that he then uses his knowledge to teach others and he does care for each of his students. In my opinion, the coach felt like an incredible character, someone who I can say "Yeah, I wish I had a teacher like that". There were other characters that got some development, however I won't go through each one. I do wish the two "main characters" got more development, though there will be more content of Bakuten so I hope to see development there. I can see that Bakuten does attempt to develop some characters, and so far they've done a good job in making them relatable and realistic. Again, I do want to see the main characters have more gradual development.

Enjoyment: 8
Overall enjoyment is the key to Bakuten. The anime was so refreshing to watch, was down to earth, and conveyed positivity in a sensible, non-dramatic manner. The overall dynamic made me happy to continue watching the show every week. However I'm not quite sure if it would be a bingeworthy show since I watched it weekly, but I did look forward to watching each episode and making me feel happy walking out of it.

Overall:
Bakuten probably won't leave a huge impression on me considering the setup of the storyline and the limited focus on the main characters, however I felt good watching it and is worth watching if you enjoy a peaceful yet entertaining watching experience.

Gokushufudou. Otherwise known as the Way of the Househusband.

I absolutely love Gokushufudou's manga, and it was actually the first physical copy of manga I've ever owned, I was looking forward to the anime when it was first confirmed but this adaptation made me feel nothing but disappointment.

Gokushufudou is a comedy, slice of life and follows our main character Tatsu, who's an ex-yakuza and now working as a househusband. He's feared among everyone who's heard his name, and earned the title of the "Immortal Dragon".

It's definitely an interesting story, filled with ironic and unexpected comedy. That's what made the manga hilarious to ... read, it was fun and never met our expectations. So why was Netflix's adaptation not funny at all? Well the main problem was by far the animation, art and effects (the main thing everyone's been talking about).

The main problem was that not only the so-called animation was a legitimate slideshow, but how generally obnoxious it was. Remember in school when kids first discovered they could put transitions in their powerpoints and would always have annoyingly long ones? I wouldn't say this anime was the same as that, but it was the same type of annoyance. Along with the uncomfortable watching experience, we have irritating stock sound effects every time the glorified manga panel changes.

Personally, I find sound very important in anime, but the excessive amount of transition noises started getting extremely agitating the more I watched. It felt a lot of the time the sound was interrupting the jokes and comedy which just lowered the enjoyment even more. Some people may not mind, but all these factors created an unpleasant watch experience.

Though I will say, I don't think Gokushufudou is as terrible as some people are making it out to be.
Was it disappointing and quite dreadful to see from a manga fan like me? yes. Was it an abomination to the anime community and never deserved to exist? no. The voice actors were well casted and it was a hype wait for sure.

Overall I'll give the anime a 3/10, yes it's biased, I know, but this is for the voice actors, since their backs may definitely hurt from carrying this anime on their shoulders.