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Jan 7, 2025
So much to love, but Christ, I can't deny how much I hate other stuff SO MUCH.
I won't be the first guy to tell you that. The story is a simple, straight to the point battle royale. Our boy, Mirai, MC, has suffered extreme misery. His family died, his existence is reduced to being abused at a home with his uncles, for a while at school. For a while, you can only imagine “yeah, he'll become a power fantasy, and get corrupted”, but NO, hold the horse this gets interesting.
The story then presents him with a power. He can either make people forcefully
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love him, or kill them. Wings to fly, and an Angel that tries to make him happy, all for the price of fighting to become god. He must fight a certain number of people, or decide who will be god. Right, awesome, battle royale shenanigans ensue.
The MC is AWESOME here. He doesn't use the power to his benefit, or smartly, or ingeniously, no he's a dude who wants to be happy. He never wanted any of this, so he fights for a proper normality. A job, an education, finding love, he's great. Even if his motivations come from a monologue his parents have him that keeps changing, and adding stuff, depending on how the story moves and changes, I like him.
I hate how EVERYBODY screams at the heavens how he's a beta, or a weak-ass protagonist. Nah, I love him, and his development throughout the story is what made me keep going.
The battle royale shenanigans go, villain introduced, and it got really annoying at the start of the whole Super Sentai shebang. The full superhero's thing, it was just insufferable. The end of that arc was pretty great still, even if it was touching that edgy, over-the-top elements. Killing a child in public, mental control rape, “killing all the uglies”, a murdering lesbian, a super deranged girl with an over-the-top costume in yandere style threatening the protagonist with a WORLD VIRUS. It gets insane at points, where it takes you out like a stuntman on wires for the explosion. Yanked right out of the narrative to utter to myself “ha, ha, okay dude, sure”.
That's the first arc, and the BIG SHIFT. It, then, becomes something entirely different. A story about the philosophy of god himself, and his reason to exist. A scholar got this power too. Man with a novel price, outstanding in every field imaginable, holding a certain, cold, and cynical view of the world. Incredible villain, or not even villain, just a character that challenges this notion, whatever the story set up at the beginning changes right here. It becomes a matter of dialogue, and the effects the plot has over the entire world. The public opinion, the government, how they intrude in the situation, their involvement.
It was at this point we're reaching the ending. It got pretty good, while still having glaring issues, which I could forgive if the story was resolved greatly.
I won't spoil much anymore, but I'll be honest. At this point, we have to talk about the bad. The female characters, in all of this story, are written like dog water. Imagine the flattest, most simple depiction of a woman you can imagine, put them in a sexy, catsuit, and call it a day. All of their motivations are love for the guy, gold-digging, or, if by ANY chance they're interesting, wow, homophobic, mentally manipulated, or emotionally stunted to the point of being called “eternally, and terminally stupid”.
Four female characters, all written terribly. One is a mistake, two is a pattern, three is intentional, and four is just rubbing salt in the wound. Right, so, terrible female characters.
I'm still in for the ending, but with high problems. It won't have a great rating, but the ending could argue for a better level. Oh my God, it's time to talk about the abhorrent ending. No spoilers, if you still want to read it.
Think of this. The main character's philosophy, his whole reason to fight, stops existing just for him, and every other character to have a useless monologue about how “well, this sucks, but it was cool while it lasted”. The ending does change what one expects, it does subvert expectations, and the answer to everything is so interesting, but then, it all becomes pointless. The rug is pulled without any meaning, and it invalidates the WHOLE struggle the characters went through. I wanted it to be GOOD BRO, BUT WHY?
First big arc, battle shonen, with insufferable moments, but a great ending. Second arc, a great philosophical debate about the nature of religion, and the world around these characters. The ending, AN ABSOLUTE ASSPULL WHICH INVALIDATES THE WHOLE MANGA. It made the good there was, the reason I stayed, completely irrelevant. This is officially one of the worst endings I've ever seen in a manga.
4/10. Not less, because the rest was pretty great. The MC was so good, and the second half was my cup of tea. That ending will remain in my mind as one of the MOST terrible I've read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jan 7, 2025
I gave it such a big chance, but man, I'll start dropping things a little more early on.
I spent 20 chapters of this story wishing for that depth in a perfect ending, for a lesson that truly takes its time to brew, to deliver that gut punch of reality. It, then, took me 121 chapters to realize the author wasn't doing a sike. There wasn't a gut punch at the end of the story, no proper lesson against the constant cycle of violence the main character was inflicting, nothing learned. It was a bunch of violence, with so many innocents hurt, good people done
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badly, and then the MC unironically calls this “Justice”.
Think if edgy media agreed with its main character. I didn't expect Vigilante to be just another story, since it seemed like a proper critique at so many things. The dialogue was so over-the-top, the characters so mentally insane, and the violent acts so intense. The story convinced me I was watching how the creator critiqued its characters, but then they all get away with their insane acts, except the villains, which I guess is good, but it just wasn't good as a story.
This felt like it was written by a well-informed, edgy teenager who wishes to tell you “these deranged guys are right”. From a deconstruction, to just a perpetuation of the problem. Take the message from “Attack on Titan”, or “I Saw the Devil”, where every character who enacted revenge, justice, as they called it, they still were taken as horrible people who messed it all up, in AOT because the main character “is stupid” said by himself. In ISTD the main character laments its actions because he lost everything while doing horrible acts. Vigilante lost NOTHING.
The main character was just a “Light”-esque character from Death Note who actually gets away with everything, and is hailed as a hero by those who know him. Somebody sacrifices someone very close to him, and he couldn't be happier. No comeuppance, but a sequel, where those who know his horrible actions, still support him as a necessary evil. Cool.
You can tell me I shouldn't have any expectations about the story, but alright, let's take it as that. As a story on its own, without any expectations. The dialogue is terrible, the art is pretty ugly, but the methods that are used to cause violence are creative, and pretty well-informed. How some characters are trained with specific weapons, due to its easiness to kill. I believe they could exist in real life, and that's about as much praise as I can give this train wreck.
I hated every character except three, which are side characters, not even that high in the story. Anybody else was just an insane rambler, with petty justification for how to fix the world. The main character is insufferable, and since the ending exists as it is, it feels like the author agrees with him, or is just telling you “these people can get away with it” which makes the story a little pointless.
Pointless or bad, no matter the situation, a bad webtoon.
4/10. I wish I hadn't invested so much time on it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jan 7, 2025
From perfect to good.
I won't deny, and I don't think anybody can deny, this sequel wasn't entirely necessary. The original was a work of art, a true look into the beginning of redemption, and it did change my outlook into “do killers deserve a happy ending?”. Some other stories constantly contradict the happy idea the original “The Fable” discussed, and I expected this one to challenge that notion. Instead, it's just… more Fable. While the first one works great on its own, you can easily remove this one from the timeline, and there's not much of a change.
Does that make this one bad?
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Not particularly. On its own, Second Contact is about how there's new trouble, stemming from old demons left untouched. There's the action, the comedy, the writing, the atmosphere, all while in the middle of… COVID-19? Wow, yeah, that's legitimately unexpected. It affects the narrative heavily, and explores how the Yakuza is affected by a pandemic, and the killers live in this environment, not only with the narrative happening, but as a background element.
There's something about this mangaka, and his way of delivering lines, and the world around the character's that's so ALIVE. So dumb, yet, so human and relatable. We're talking about a story about super assassins finding a purpose in small-time jobs. Somehow, the comedy bits feel like a warm hug by those friendships you love. More of the same from before, without too many stakes to speak about, at least for the MC, Akira.
The story shifts from the big, and powerful Akira, into challenging the other assassins, and showing if people with a little less skill, can actually follow up the lesson from the first installment.
“Do Not Kill For Any Reason”. However, for as much of a challenge as there was for them, only the last chapters really showed that. It was rushed, no other way to put it. The original had so much time to develop each character to their utmost mentality. Every philosophy, displayed to us the audience, the look into a demented bastard who can't feel fear, or the ex-con who's trying to make it big, or the rapist creep. Each villain had enough time to exist, but these villains are just a gang of demented rapists, all of them. The story did feel like shock for shock's sake at some points, with them CONSTANTLY wanting to rape a certain character. I wish that wasn't the only way to make somebody hateable, since it just becomes “oh, got it, another rapist”, and you kinda shut your brain off whenever they're on-screen.
No depth to the villains, except one or two, too short to justify these villains being there. The writing isn't as sharp and interesting. The lesson isn't challenged and reinforced properly, just reinforced. Rape isn't the only way to add stakes to a situation, Jesus Christ.
7/10. More of Fable, and while it's pretty good, the failures from the ending, and the villains, and the theme, do put it lower on ratings. You should still experience it, since more Fable, is always great.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 9, 2024
Overall, the highest degree of “good” I can think of.
I let this movie sit with me for a while, to see how memorable it actually was. There isn't much to say about it for me.
The split between aspirations, and love, and the hardships to balance it out, while a tragedy is building up on both sides. As a romance movie, it's actually pretty great. The maturity with which the themes of an impossible love are dealt with. We aspire to create, even if such creation contradicts our wishes to not destroy.
In the midst of the army, scientific discoveries, engineering, a man simply wishes to love,
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to create, to follow his passions. It is pretty good, and it juggles the themes well, but then, that's about it. One side of the movie doesn't interest me that much, since sure there's “stakes” if he fails, but I was way more invested in him having his love story. We do need that side of the story, so the other one is a lot greater, but they still want both to be important.
The juggling with the themes worked, where the story ones simply didn't. It leaves me a bit in between. I really liked the characters, I loved the relationship, and the sad, but melancholic nature of the ending worked so well for me. Once you finish your life's work, all left is to love, to experience, and the eventual passing of life.
It all culminates in the great encounters that leave us wanting more, from which we'll get more of, eventually, once we go through the grassy patch, where the wind rises high, and the love remains alive.
7/10. The ending was the absolute best part.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 9, 2024
Killers don't deserve a happy ending.
I've come to discover I love media about hitmen. The psychology of those who take lives, and the context that led to that. This one's about what looks like an adult, but it's no more than a teenager. 16-year-old, brainwashed protagonist, Zwei (two) who knows nothing about anything.
An underground man manages to place him with a previous victim, and trained hitmen, Ein (One), to train him so both become the greatest assassins on planet earth. It's a twisting story about what it means to search for meaning, when it's been snatched from you.
I absolutely adore how the
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story COMPLETELY deglamorizes killing as something cool, or badass. Every other story I've seen, even slightly, glamorizes how easy it is to kill people for these characters. Whether washed hitmen, comedic hitmen, reforming hitmen. Death was a tool, and for as tragic as it could be, killing is made to be action packed.
Killing here is simply a setup. Conditions are met, the shot is there, they take the shot. Done. No cool clothes, the characters scout for cameras, for a place to shoot from, and killing is basically a job at some point, but not one they enjoy. Not overly disgusting, not overly enjoyable, but a piece of the world they live in. Even the fight scenes are short, and not filled with cool moves. You deflect a knife, you kill with the knife, that's it.
The main character kills to live, and as his mental sanity slowly plummets, he finds purpose on each person who tries to love him, only to constantly lose everything. The story is all about that loss, about the constant sadness, and tragedy of not deserving a happy ending. Having a choice to stop, he always tried to do what's best for those he loved, and continued, perpetuating everything around him to continue. A chess piece that attempts to play the game as a third player, but he couldn't ever escape it.
There's another story that asked the same question here, “Barry”. Is our protagonist a good person?
Are killers capable of self-redemption? This show goes the LONG way. The first act being first class in maximum quality for character psychology, villains. The constant schemes of the underground world, and the development of how a hitman should be. Acting classes, the mental contradictions, confronting reality, confronting your crimes and the reasons you commit such crimes.
The ending felt incredibly realistic, and the characters were wrapped perfectly. I love the message, the platonic relationships, and how the series doesn't take the immature way out. Love isn't the answer to these things. Brotherhood, fatherhood, and the caring of the people you wish to see live. I adore seeing a series that doesn't just tell you “oh, they fell in love and this is why they deserve happiness”.
9/10. It's such a great series. Not perfect due to some terrible blocking in some scenes that were pretty important. I get the intent, but there's way better ways to communicate those moments. Otherwise, amazing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Nov 18, 2024
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
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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.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 16, 2024
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
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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.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Nov 16, 2024
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
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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.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 11, 2024
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
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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.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 11, 2024
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
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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.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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