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For Carnby Kim, I agree with most of the concensus. It's his most typical work, but with the original spin.

Carnby didn't change his methods to start a tale. A protagonist, way beyond what most of us can call a good person, or someone who CAN be a good person. Jeon-ji, a complete piece of garbage. Not due to a desire, but as "that's all he has". Modeled with violence, riddled with personal problems, given physical advantages, he was instilled that violence gets results. Violence protects convenient people, helps those around me, gives me control of my life. Allas, he got in a brutal accident, eliminating ... his chances to use all he knew to lead his life, violence.

He's an incredible protagonist, for now, he's put in the hand of God, and must do good-natured missions to not get sent to hell. Contrast, attitude, now equipped with his violence, and an Angel who can infinitely heal him, and accompany him. It's such a fun, slightly light-hearted, but powerful story that can explore people in terrible contexts, all from which an inherent asshole should change with. It was slow, but close to a slice of life, with something brooding in the background.

Now, apart from being fun, interesting, a bit emotional, tense, cool. There's something about the latter half that couldn't reel me in. The beginning premise felt incredibly nice, with a pacing to match it, and slow changes that make us root for the main character. I'd say, they took too much time developing that rhythm, causing the rest of the plot to feel weird after the shift. Rushed? Maybe. It's between rushed and proper. Everything that NEEDED to be there, was there, but not that extra layer that can land everything much nicely.

More scenes with certain characters, more setups and pay-offs. The power system needed more depth. They tease about the existence of legendary weapons, and then they just drop them in the story at the tail end. They drop so many things in the big climactic finale, including a character twist. The story reached over-ambition in a very small amount of chapters. However, the ending, the true end of the story was so good.

Wasted potential isn't the word for it. More like it was a second draft of the story. Polished in many ways, granting a great ending, and setting up many things. However, it needed more revisions, more scenes, more character interactions. If I had to sacrifice a plot-point, to truly land the ending, would be the second fourth of the story. However, we do need that for our protagonist's change to be true. Give it 30 more chapters, not at any particular section, but distributed in each arc, and piece of the story to truly flesh out what needed it.

I still really enjoyed it. The art, the characters, designs, and the plot. There's just something about the fight scenes that you know Carnby wasn't all that accustomed to. He's much more ready when it comes to horror/thriller, so asking great angelic, and demonic fights isn't something perfect for him.

7/10. His weakest work, but hey, for the weakest to have a 7 really says something about the author.

I hate that I'm a One Piece fan.

The big arcs, the big backstories, the characters. There's always something that destroys me with One Piece, and I thought this was just a simple little thing. A fun episode, with great animation, and a great little plot. Like a short-film about the world, but even this little thing can get me crying. 20 minutes, that's all it took.

We don't follow the original crew on this one, but the public perception on their biggest moment. Instead of a grand fight, or a grand moment, we just get people, and how from their simple, and outside outlook ... their lives changed. There's something about Luffy, a hotheaded kid, with an earnest desire to save the ones he loves against unsurmountable odds, which inspired a soldier, to save his brother. Something in Nami, a smart, non-powered human, changing the world with pure wit and tools, which inspires a little girl to change the world.

Each character has that little something, which echoes throughout the world. Their efforts aren't meaningless, their efforts change lives, and motivate those around them. It makes their story not only being important to us, but important for the world around them. They save lives, not only with the actions they take, but with those who look at such actions.

It's so fresh, seeing a positive chain reaction of pure hope. We always get the cycle of violence, the cycle of sadness, and despair. Not many times we get something so hopeful, that makes the world a better place by simply happening. It made me cry not from the tragedy of it all but from happiness. Not a good deal of anime cause that, and One Piece can certainly focus a lot more on the tragedy, but that's exactly what makes this so perfect.

So many tragedies, so much horror in that particular world. For once, we get the glimmer of hope. These people, small, or big, old or young, all of them can change the world, piece by piece, action by action.

Brilliant animation, brilliant characters, and an unmatched fast pacing that tells everything so fast, and so effectively. It was perfect. A perfect piece of One Piece.

10/10. We need more overwhelmingly happy moments like this.

There are loads to talk about in this season, but overall, we know it's superb.

Many others will tell you the hype is extremely unfounded, but even after everything, I had a great experience watching it week by week. We managed to focus way more on the industry, and how that affects your perception of life, as well as the effort you put into something. The tribulations of acting, specially how your personal life can shape your character, and the hit on your mental health. It's riveting, extremely entertaining, and watching it with another layer in terms of adaptation was great.

The whole manga adaptation ... problem, and the characters that come from that part of the series, felt like it didn't waste any second or old character in the mix. We get a return of the author from the TV drama from the first season, the MC from that drama coming back to tell us about being mediocre, and how you can shape up to be better. The murder mystery coming back to haunt us, and the ending changing so much of what we knew.

It's a great season, with incredible plot advancements, while characters are flipping into going back to their terrible mindsets, or moving forwards with their lives. I loved it.

Any criticisms I have, come from the final episodes, which drag just a bit more than they should. In the play, some moments were too exaggerated, even if, yes, it tried to convey emotion with pure visuals, and I applaud it for it, but it didn't stick its landing as well.

There aren't big problems, just small ones that take me out. It's as if everything just came out perfect, with no change in status. People achieved everything, and I don't know if that was the right move. Something's missing, but maybe that's the point. We wrapped that plot-point, hence the third season's about the murder mystery.

I just don't know. It did wrap a big arc, which I like, while setting up the next big thing.

8/10. Not perfect, but damn, it's good.

Coming of age, and the friends we lost along the way.

The manga is one of those slightly hidden ones. You search up a genre, and you scroll through the completed section, without any rhyme or reason. But there it was, an art style I recognized. The author of “Kamisama ga Uso wo Tsuku.”, a manga that's a bit of a phenomenon due to its twisted nature, which you truly don't expect from a manga like it. Intrigued, I checked out the short manga I could find of his, and right from the get-go, we meet a character attempting suicide.

You basically lock into the story ... the instant the themes are apparent, before moving back towards what happened to lead this character down that path. We meet all the main characters. Teenagers, looking for something they had before; a friendship they lost once a character moved away from the town. It's one of those stories that makes you look back at the older times, and wonder if it was worth it to leave, or a tragedy in on itself.

Is it worth it to salvage that which was lost? Or is it better to move on, and understand that people do change, for better or worse?

Definitely an enjoyable read, specially our main character, and the titular one who tried to commit suicide at the beginning. Both have this beautiful chemistry, while they look for meaning in their actions. A small-town story, turns into a little city adventure that slowly evolves these characters.

Those two aren't just the shining light. It's a group of four friends, but the other two, I don't like so much, which links to the biggest problem from the story. In no world, should these characters be okay with the heroic friend, turned bully, sexual assaulter. There's a scene, more or less in the middle of the manga, where he tries to rape the fourth member of the group, and after being rejected, they later reunite with the whole band, and have a group hug. All is forgiven, all is gone. What in the actual hell was the writer thinking? I get they're teenagers, but you NEVER forgive sexual assault.

That plot-point soured most of what happened next, since the story turns into redemption for the four characters, when two of them didn't do anything bad, and the other tried to rape the fourth one. All is good? No, everything is gone. The ending makes no sense with that in mind, and the group should've turned against him. But well, that's it.

The manga ends on a happy note. Everybody changed, even the rapist bully who did it out of jealousy towards people's objectives in life. No, thank you. If you can forget that happened and enjoy the rest of the manga, go for it. I just couldn't.

6.7/10 due to the other character's greatness. They were amazingly written, but that plot-point did ruin most of the ending for me.

Both a miracle, and an absolute sin to have less than an hour to enjoy it.

I've been a fan of the author for a long time, and believe everything he's written since his first big work, to be close to, if not an absolute masterpiece. This movie did not stop tradition, and maintains the incredible, weirdly twisted, and unique sense of storytelling you won't find anywhere else.

Even if it starts as generic as you can imagine, two girls, a popular one that's drawn stories on her school papers for a while, and a shut-in, who one day decides to draw the most beautiful ... piece besides hers. As their rivalry ends in the popular girl resigning, both meet, only to realize, the expert was always a fan of the storyteller herself.

It's one of those curveballs of a story, that doesn't ever follow any cliché in the book. There's the identifiable plot-points, the typical narrative of going up, and down, the conflicts, but suddenly, the movie changes.

I've seen the change done in other movies, and they could go hit or miss with the slight trope, but it hits even harder from the angle of humanity the author touches upon. Instead of an outside perspective, with decide to stick to how we as humans would feel with such a moment. We imagine futures, different pasts, what if's, the maybe's. Stuck in the moment of change for so long, and the movie follows through with those thoughts.

We see every piece of the mental gymnastics, we experience the loss on the faces, not on the dialogue. The happiness, the embarrassment, the sadness. It decides to show how we look back at our worlds, and decide how to move on. To embrace the future, you must accept the past, and forgive yourself for things out of your control. It does without holding back. Sometimes it even brings a sad laugh out of us, but that's how I'd be in that situation.

There's something about appreciating those around us, and to accept how not all people are perfect. Our protagonist is a manipulative person, who lies her way into success for the sake of her happiness, but when confronted with loss, she doubles down on her most negative aspects. She can be horrible, she can be loving, she can be the biggest source of motivation too. Even with all of that, we root for her to accept she shared that happiness with the girl she lied to, even if it's so short-lived.

A beautiful animation, with so much humanity on every line, every trace of the pen, all of it felt so connected to the form of art, and I need more of it. I require more of those scenes of quietness, coupled with an internal scream. Imagine, a hobby you dedicated years to gets thwarted by an absolute master of the craft, and only after you gave up, you realize they were YOUR fan for the longest time. That sort of beauty, anger, happiness, sadness, time wasted, all culminating in a girl, pacing in the rain, not knowing if she should scream, laugh, cry. She runs, with a deformed expression, wondering how the hell she should react. The camera, the angles, the way expressions happen.

So human, yet so theatrical, and so perfect.

The only thing detracting from the film, is how it demands a little more time to cook, or a little less “In your face” emotional moments by the end. I still enjoy it, but it did feel a little manipulative from the writing perspective. That quietness, and how the credits rolled was perfect, and it would've been great if we had ten more minutes of film.

9/10. Amazing, and solid as a story. Probably the safest thing they could adapt from Fujimoto to a movie. The rest is just absolute bonkers.

Avid fan of “NieR:Automata” here. It's good enough.

I'll talk about it on both sides of the spectrum, whether you've played the game, or watched with fresh eyes.

The story depicts the apocalyptic world of NieR. A mysterious landscape, with AI running things from good side and bad side. Both in a never-ending spiral of constant fights, constant horrors, and sacrifices. While the good side is inevitably the most human, there's something about the bad one that peeks into something greater. Some sort of humanity, brewing deep inside.

We follow two androids, the cool-headed power girl, and the bashful and curious dude. Perfect duo, which discovers the ... reality of this world while making their own choices, something not done in a long time by the group they work with.

I enjoyed the setup, the character interactions, and the many scenes giving us a little peer into the stories these people have suffered, as well as developing in the mystery on why the machines started becoming more. However, from the basic setup, and the “First Season Syndrome”, the series really couldn't do much.

Even the original game had that problem, where the beginning portion of the story was a bit dull, maybe a bit by the numbers. It was done with intent, with purpose, since the director Yoko Taro has a beautiful desire to make his audience suffer. Not only with storytelling, but with game mechanics, difficulty, and elements which only work for the medium it uses. The anime can't do that, and as such, it needed to compensate a lot, and create new elements and mechanics just to try to achieve a similar feel.

The game technically was three stories. The first one told with no context, just baseline knowledge. The second one was a retelling, with much more information, changing EVERYTHING. The third one awaits, lying in the second season of the anime. That part of the story being one of, if not the most AMAZING piece of storytelling a game's ever offered to me.

In turn, that itself makes the first anime season practically just the prologue, and it makes the entire sense that it wasn't as well put together as what goes ahead. Hell, I can argue, I wasn't enjoying everything the game was throwing at me, until, the end of what this season adapted, and I'll give this series credit, I care for these people.

The background characters get much needed development, and a character, much relevant to the next one, gets some proper background, and backstory. I love that. It adds to the story, and piles layers onto what is to come, but the MAIN cast is put aside.

I'm a firm believer, this series required at least three more episodes to tell the story in its entirety. The character development, the scenarios, how each builds their opinion on one another. 2B takes decisions instantly after contradicting herself, the feelings 9S, and her develop feel entirely rushed, and the villains didn't have as many more scenes together of their activities. The game managed to give a special pacing to all of this as a drip fed plot that worked perfectly. The anime's pacing doesn't suck, but it's not as remarkable as the game.

TLDR; all my problems stem from adaptation problems. Pacing issues, rushed developments, but at the same time, great background information, world-building, designs, interactions, and dialogue. The robot scenes are great, and the reveal at the end makes me so excited about a good adaptation of what lies ahead, since that's the BEST OF THE BEST NieR has to offer.

7/10. Many problems, but solid enough.

It's difficult to put into words all the series talks about, and it's done with purple balls that explode.

Of course, war being the first thing that pops into mind. It's one of the most outlandish premises I've seen in a while, but it's exactly that outlandishness that makes it so great. It touches upon war, yes, but it does it with something so strangely neutral. These balls, descended upon the earth one day. If you step close, they attack. They divide, and they're fast when done so. Simple as hell, typical as not many things, with some added complexities. It's not the threat that ... makes the story, but the people living against the threat. Kids.

Child soldiers, the tangent theme. The mental toll, their enjoyment of their lives, the effects, how their normal life mindset may set them up for their attitudes in war. North Korea and its symbolism from the greater scope of the story, and the commentary on how war is handled by the country. So many themes, and all projected with a group of kids.

It's a twisted coming of age story, where there's no good future for anybody. It's the looming threat that'll always be there. Doesn't matter if you're alive, dead, it's all the same. Death will always stand on top of you, and no solution can come about. Adults don't know what to do, and the kids much less. However, once the adults need the smaller ones to do their job, is when the humans are nearing their downfalls.

Even with all that tragedy, the story can touch comedy from such a human side of the spectrum. The kids do these interviews that keep us engaged with the characters. Mind you, it's a HUGE group. So huge, in fact, you won't be able to keep track of some. Being one of my complaints, but in a way, that works all the better for the themes of how human lives are disposable when nearing war.

We get to meet these characters, empathize, hate a few, and some may redeem themselves, others might lose their humanity. A cocktail of greatness, but many others who don't stand out. Humans, all of them, who eventually end up, as anybody else, consumed by war.

It's a story attempting to look in the bright side, but reality looking the audience in the eyes, and spiting on their faces. The story has a lesson to tell, and even if the ending doesn't close everything, it never feels unearned. Quite the contrary, it only makes sense to end the way it did.

I was going for an 8/10, but sincerely, I remember so much of it. By the end, whoever learned the most, or whoever died, or lived, stays with you. The ones I hate, or love, stay in my head. Unable to be forgotten to the horrors they lived. The guilt they had, and the intensity of the art, and action sequences.

“Duty After School” doesn't forgive the cast or the audience. It's in fact, one of my favorite apocalyptic stories as of late. A testament to an outlandish setup, running the mile, and achieving a sincerity that not many stories provide. It can get weird, it gets tragic, hell, even funny as hell. All the same, it gets incredible the more you think about it.

9.3/10. Not a 10 from how hard it was to grasp all the character, and scope. In a re-read, probably an absolute 10.

You will never expect the power this story has.

First glance. The simplest of art styles, depicting a boy living on the countryside. The character designs are as simple as can be, with most differences being a line in their hairstyle, or an outfit, the size. Every aspect of the story could fool you into believing it isn't anything else, except a charming slice of life. You couldn't be further from the truth.

Dai, a kid, a very nice kid; lives by the countryside with a sick mother, and an emotionally dejected father. That setup alone gets us in the mind of a child who ... had to mature faster than anybody else. He makes his meals, he pretends to talk while lonely. He appreciates food like nobody else, but doesn't intend on rudeness whenever he acts out, which is extremely rare. See what I mean? You can grab this little kid, from a story drawn as if done by a child's hand, and create a character profile like no other. Not only is he as complex, but absolutely everybody else.

His friends, his mother, his dad, the adults around his friends, and the parents. Such care is given to everything in the writing of this story. It feels like a magnum-opus of pure character drama, from the eyes, and hands of a little boy who's trying his best. His mother, filled with complexities, and his father, containing the most fulfilling character development I've seen in YEARS. The little details, the dialogue, it slowly broke me to pieces.

The story is designed to lower your guard, with pinpoint accuracy. A testament to the power of writing, and simple lines to depict emotion, simple actions to represent reactions. A beautiful, almost perfect story that I can't for the life of me recommend enough.

The very final chapters of the story were difficult to read. I was so invested in every character, and so deep into who they were. I couldn't help but cry each an every chapter. Scared of each panel, fearful for every turn. The ending was a perfect melody, and the culmination of every aspect of what lies in turn for the main character, and those around him. It was perfect.

I realized the story is perfect for me while writing this. I hope you can experience it someday. On Webtoon, buried beneath all the fancy kinds of storytelling. There lies one of my new favorite stories, which inspired me to write something akin to that level of drama. It truly does not leave my mind, and I hope it won't ever do.

10/10. The only little problem you may find, is confusing characters, but eventually that goes away as you get accustomed to the style.

Masterpiece, like no other.

I knew it was coming, that moment that nails your jaw to the floor in awe.

I didn't just enjoy the first season of the show. Absolutely loved it, adored, it. A mesh of concepts that far surpasses the premise it builds. A piece of mixed media that uses a simple, and rather bland genre of anime, to create a soul crushing story, that brutalizes the audience with the power of hope, and the piercing hopelessness of everything.

The unsatisfying ending wasn't unintentional. The story couldn't end happily at all, and it's a show that respects itself enough as to follow what it should do. ... And now, I thought, maybe anything else would've been unnecessary. We know the future, we know what will happen, and suffering may continue, but hope will always prevail. And now, the sequel comes out to properly crush everything we ever hoped to be happy about the bitter-sweetness.

Imagine a world, where love isn't a force of good, but one with the power to obsess, to destroy, to corrupt the world in its entirety. Like a reverse “Interstellar”, and reaching a scale beyond exactly that. There's no force of good, no force of evil, but a bunch of things, wishing to understand the world, or to achieve something apparently unattainable, and how we destroy our happiness for it.

Can we, even after all we sacrificed for the ones we love, be what WE consider, evil? At that point, the side of the story we're in doesn't matter. We stick to our guns, even if suffering's on the other side. It isn't a story of sides at all, but about humanity, and the sadness of that our stubbornness represents.

“Can't bare to know the truth, but unable to not know it”.

Of course, the fights scenes, the perfect animation, the experimental backgrounds and designs. How the artists play with visuals to truly represent what they want to give across. Some shots are so breathtaking, not only for how pretty they look, but the purpose. There are scenes with some of the most masterful editing I've seen in a long time. The dynamic of the characters so clear, that being a piece of the studio's signature.

In terms of anime, some of the best, but Jesus, in terms of filmmaking, this is top tier directing, character development, and a perfectly built world of intrigue, and tragic uncertainty.

I couldn't believe how many beautifully done were the character moments that needed absolutely no dialogue. Visuals can carry a high energy story without explaining everything, even if one moment did do that. I have nothing but praise for this movie, in every sense of the word.

It made me think, it awed me, and it broke my brain just thinking about the sheer scale of the things it speaks about. As much as it, too, overwhelms me with dread to its meaning for the rest of the characters.

9.6/10. As good as sequel movies can get for any anime.

So, that's what a filler Ghibli movie looks like.

Did not care a single bit about whatever plot was happening in this movie. Not from the beginning, not from the middle or end. It's one of those movies you put on the back of dinner. It's dated, cliché'd, more predictable than anything, specially when you establish how plot convenience is the only force working for the movie. Starting off with the main characters.

You've got a walking “damsel in distress” trope. You've got the immortal protagonist that somehow escapes literally every impossible situation with sheer force of will, he's a kid. He can grip impossibly steep ... structures for minutes on end, he can confront people with guns, he has no sense of self-preservation, or he knows he's immortal. Most characters share that.

The typical “don't corrupt things beyond understanding”, with the ambitious villain that somehow is tied by blood to the damsel, which kind of defeats the purpose of his villainy, and reason to be there. The twists don't illicit any change whatsoever in the story, and everything ends as easy as you can imagine it does. Everything goes the way you think it will.

I don't hate stories that have an easy to follow through-line, but at least give me good characters, instead of the flattest of flats. The animation isn't the strongest, either. The typical Ghibli designs, with no flare to the style, no strong art direction, the colors aren't fun, the world isn't interesting to look at, and it's pretty dated in that regard too.

4/10. A product of its time, in every sense of the word. Paused it so many times because I was just bored out of my mind. I really don't recommend it.