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Nov 25, 2023
Unbelievably miserable conclusion to the Fusion anime :( If you asked me what made the first two Fusion seasons likable, I would bring up the great protagonist cast (and especially the likability of Taiki,) the constant feeling of progression towards a final battle, in terms of a constant power progression with Xros Heart's army growing and maintaining a consistent, clear end goal, and the clarity of the stakes - every episode reminded you that the enemy was an army hell-bent on destruction. Laying out all those traits like that, it feels like this third season betrays everything that made Fusion likable in service of a
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bland fan-servicey cash grab.
First of all, Tagiru is just...not likable. The series repeatedly paints him as a foil to Taiki, but, like, in a super negative way. It is legitimately hard to root for him for 90% of the series - he's constantly stupid, loud, and unhelpful. The only episode I thought was actually resolved by his own strengths as a person is the FlameWizarmon one. Every other episode, it felt like his attitude and character actively gets in the way of Taiki. The show constantly goes out of its way to nerf Taiki so that Tagiru can do anything. The rules in DigiQuartz, compounded with the fact that the protags essentially are choosing not to just form Shoutmon X4 every single time, feel like the just betray the first two seasons totally. Even the FlameWizarmon episode only happens because Taiki actively lets Tagiru have his moment. There's helping your underclassman shine, and then there's coddling him to no end and doing 90% of the work while he gets to capture every Digimon, and it's so clearly the latter that none of what Tagiru does feels compelling or interesting. He's lazily handed the ability to "save the world" at every possible turn and it feels wholly undeserved every time, with the ending feeling especially stupid. Tagiru a flat bland abstraction of the Digimon protagonist that got shoved into the lead role because...idk Taiki was too much of a Mary Jane and they decided they wanted a super flawed guy to be the lovable hero this time? But it doesn't work if he's constantly just Taiki but worse because you decided to keep Taiki in!! He's just clearly the least likable character of the main cast and it makes watching much worse. Honestly, the bit with the goggles at the end felt like lampshading the Digimon Protag archetype more than anything - anyone can do it with some vague amount of "determination" and some goggles.
One of the worst parts of Hunters is that it's an episodic Digimon of the Week series for 20 whole episodes. Other series started off on the episodic stuff to get their legs before laying out the Plot, but Hunters does not give you even a drop of the Plot before it happens. 19 episodes of running around catching Digimon and then boom, The Plot Happens and its the Biggest Digimon Ever. It's such a lazy ripoff of the Digimon formula that it hurts - there's no interest taken in telling a new story, or exploring the new characters. You get a bunch of defeating the villains of the day followed by the final big battle with absolutely no transition. The plot that does exist is stupid - Quartzmon's whole backstory is muddled and uninteresting and the wrap up sucks. Gumdramon stays the exact same power level the entire show up until the Plot as well - half the episodes it feels like he doesn't even get to explore a new Xros. More than anything the plot highlights how much this show is a cash grab, just lazily rehashing the tired formula and trotting out the fan favorites in a pathetic last gasp for the Fusion franchise. The show gets even worse from there, with the ending being one of the most botched fan-service attempts I've ever seen. Even given how horrible the main legs of the series were I could have maybe gotten some enjoyment out of seeing the protagonists of all of the other, actually good series come together. Getting all of the protagonists and their strongest digimon is a great sell only.... it last for two minutes? And don't we get to see any of the classic Digivolution sequences? Every protag giving it up for Tagiru at the end makes no sense - where do they all go to? The protags are all paraded out so that you can point at the screen and soyface that you recognize the characters without a hint of the actual nostalgia they desperately tried to bait.
Overall the show was just such a horrible blatant attempt to trot out the franchise's corpse for one last ride to farm money, making baffling choice after baffling choice. It's hard for me to see this as anything more than 25 episodes of putting out lazy plotlines with the minimum required effort for anything - storytelling, character development, even power scaling which is one of the core interesting parts of any Digimon story. This will be a waste of hours of your life to see the same shitty protag/digimon pair deal with the dumbest problems ever and then get hailed as the strongest protagonist of all time because Digimon Formula without a single attempt to innovate or do something new, and even the hint of fan-service to excuse the inanity is botched so horribly bad that it feels insulting. Would not recommend!
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 5, 2022
(this review treats this and part two as the same show, which is way more convenient imo)
I will be the first to admit that you can come away from Moriarty the Patriot enjoying it way less than I did. Many characters never get the fleshing out they deserve (Fred and Moran especially.) The pacing was really awful and most of the arcs came out of nowhere and left much the same way. There's very little sense of movement for much of the show, which starts off as episodic for like 6 episodes, before it bothers to introduce the second most important character afterwards.
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For the rest of tbe show it splits time and perspective in a way thats often confusing to the point of frustrating. This show takes a lot of creative license with its approach to plot movement and perspective, and in my opinion the execution was poor.
If you've survived reading that paragraph and are still curious, you might legitimately love Moriarty the Patriot! If you can put up with the cobbled together feeling plot, give the writers the benefit of the doubt on the pacing issues, and appreciate the characters as they are portrayed (largely static,) you will enjoy something nearly perfect in every other regard. The animation is very pretty and stylish, the soundtrack is distinctive and fantastic, opening and ending themes are bangers, the characters are almost magnetic in how likable they are. I know there's quite a list of things you might have to put up with, but if you give this show a chance and give it the benefit of the doubt every so often, you get a fantastic show.
In terms of similarities - the show feels like a mixture of Code Geass, Death Note, and Bungou Stray Dogs. It shares a sense of style and its detective / underworld / government dynamics very closely with BSD, but the questions of politics, equality, and morality are very in line with Death Note and Code Geass. Despite those similarities and the shoe's direct inspiration from Sherlock Holmes stories, it finds plenty of ways to stand out as unique in its own right. Certain big plot points that occur at the start of season 2 are comically insane, but not in a way that breaks your engagement.
Overall, I hope you give this show a chance. The plot and pacing issues may be a complete turnoff, but if you stick with it you get a fun and stylish reimagining of the classic Sherlock story with lovable characters, and a show that balances action with politics and philosophy very well - something you can't help enjoying.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 23, 2022
There will be mild spoilers throughout; nothing major about the ending but some laying out of what happens episode-to-episode
Zankyou no Terror was a deeply disappointing watch purely because the show could have been 10/10 in so many ways. It has everything it needed to be perfect - absolutely gorgeous visuals complemented by an amazing soundtrack, a powerful and original premise, and a really strong stretch of worldbuilding that creates the sense of a world brimming with unresolved complexities and resulting traumas (between Nine and Twelve, Shibazaki, and Lisa who all come at the story from incomparably different backgrounds and are shown symphathetically, something genuinely hard
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to do given their circumstances.) Unfortunately, the show misses out on a true direction, or perhaps the runway to commit to the all the directions it wanted to go, and so by the end it feels like a collection of disappointing "could have beens."
Zankyou no Terror has the trappings to be a smart and mature look into what drives people into making unfathomable choices, but the show's characterization cannot live up to that mantle. All we can see is that Nine and Twelve have been essentially abandoned by society, without ever diving into their real history. Obviously not every trauma needs to be played out to its conclusion on screen to have impact, but Nine and Twelve's motivations drive most of the action and yet we never get any real look into what they underwent, and hence no satisfying explanations for their motivation until the finale. The finale paints their goals in the most simplistic terms, in part because there can be no emotional depth to their goals when we do not understand what they have been through that pushed them to that point. From the way the show treats the matter, and from Nine and Twelve's actions, we are led to believe that they experienced some sort of hell in their childhood, and it is believable that that is the case, but we are never shown or explained that hell. Nine's nightmares often just depict him playing games or doing puzzles, even though the framing makes it clear the psychological toll his childhood had on him. Because of that, we never get a real look into what drives them to their actions. This lack of a backstory for Nine and Twelve prevents the show from being an interesting exploration of the main character's role as societal outcasts and how that plays into their choice to act as terrorists - the audience is simply expected to accept or reject their actions on what the show is insinuating happened, forcing us to accept their motivations and symphathize because we are told we should do so.
The show also has the chance to be a psychological thriller; a game of cat and mouse between two sides that you can't help but feel sympathetic towards, both sides clearly being gifted and intelligent. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to that either: the riddles Sphinx gives are inscrutable to the audience yet also thoroughly dismantled by Shibazaki so quickly that there is no real sense of tension or excitement in their solution. The fact that they boil down to rote memorization of information takes out any of the depth of mental combat that makes shows like Death Note so fascinating. Part of that is clearly intentional, and certainly makes Sphinx all the more symphathetic, but it is hard to excuse how much time is given to these riddles in the first few episodes knowing that they were never intended to be the focus of the show. It feels like a complete waste of time in retrospect. The same goes with the Five arc - there are so many interesting ways that two genius adversaries could face off, but the way their arc is ultimately resolved feels like it comes out of nowhere and suggests that Five only existed to push the plot along rather than act as a fleshed out character. It's even more of a shame, since Five has so much potential to draw out the past from Nine and Twelve, to represent the trauma they all went through, but she instead remains completely unexplainable right up until the end, acting as a pure plot device.
Even without those themes, Zankyou no Terror also could have been a genuine look at how those abandoned by society band together, and of how reasons or passions can be inherited through those bonds. Lisa is in a fascinating position as she transitions from spectator to accomplice to participant, and there's something compelling about her decision to work with Sphinx after the abuse we see her endure. Unfortunately, the show spends very little time with her; there's so many interesting opportunities to explore why she might go along with the plan, so many interesting branching paths with her involvement in something that really doesn't concern her, but she ends up basically being a prop who doesn't undergo real development besides making a connection with Twelve that is given so little screentime it feels like a sidenote. As a consequence, her character motivations comes across as shallow and even partially nihilistic, even though the show clearly wanted to portray her in a sympathetic light. Likewise, Nine and Twelve have all the framework for a fascinating relationship - despite being polar opposites they are closer than brothers, a bond clearly forged by their shared trauma. However, there is nothing done with this concept - the lack of a tangible backstory strikes again here, and the audience is deprived of a chance for some real emotional depth for the story.
When you look at some of the most criticized shows of all time, many of them suffer similar failures. In some cases, pride or arrogance results in a cool central idea being shoved into a collapsing framework of animation, sound, characterization, etc. In other cases, the creators have no or even actively hateful central themes that eat away at the foundation they're built atop. In yet other cases, creative bankruptcy that leads to recycling tropes in the hopes of capturing the same old audience for cheap, basically just shameless pandering. I didn't really get any of that from Zankyou no Terror, which is why it's hard for me to criticize it so much. It felt like a genuine good faith effort; it had an incredible premise and incredible animation and sound framework to tell a beautiful story. It has genuine sympathy for characters you don't expect to symphathize with at a mere glance, and it's all the better for it. It shows the story has heart and soul, and that it came from the right place. Unfortunately, it just tried to fit too much in. This is a show I think could have been one of the all-time greats if it had just a little more time to flesh out its characters, to create more satisfying tension and resolution cycles, to really viscerally create both the threat of the terror Sphinx inflicts and the trauma that causes it. The show feels like it is just one episode from going from a 5 to a 9 for me: one episode that expresses the pain Nine and Twelve and Five went through, and how it shaped their lives and actions, or one episode that explores Lisa's growth and her relationship with Twelve in a more satisfying manner than "they're a boy and a girl duh," or even one episode that really gets at the battles between Shibazaki and Sphinx, and Five and Sphinx and portrays them interestingly and sets up the stakes well. The show unfortunately falls flat on all those regards because of how much it tries to get through in just 11 short episodes without committing to one theme, or taking more time to develop them all, and the sinking feeling I had knowing that there could be no adequate conclusion in the short time I had left with the series really soured the last segment for me. Still, I give it a 5 because Zankyou no Terror isn't an unenjoyable watch, in large part thanks to how stunningly beautiful it is and how much you can see a beautiful story forming just below the surface; just be prepared for a gigantic hole in you that wishes it could have had more after you finish.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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May 18, 2022
Will be ending spoilers here, but it would honestly be good for you if you accidentally got spoiled on the show and chose not to watch it. The only nice thing I can possibly say about this show is that the art and sound did solidly to contribute to the horror atmosphere for the first 10 episodes (the final two episodes are such a parody of themselves that even that goes out the window, though.) Every other aspect of Another is a complete joke.
The characterization is non-existent, so it's hard to imagine why I'd care about the numerous deaths the cast experiences throughout the
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show. Almost none of the characters have any defining traits, because they're designed as vessels to push the plot along, not as representations of real human beings. The main character is seemingly unfazed by all the death surrounding him and the ostracism he faces, because he has no coherent identity besides being the detective at the center of the show. You never get to know anything about Mei besides standard tragic backstory stuff. The show doesn't bother to explain how that shapes her or the ways she acts, it just tells you she's like a sad little puppy dog who's had a rough life. The tsundere girl is barely important or memorable, and she's like the third most important character in the show. She has the dumbest connection to the protagonist ever that is teased for so long, but it's the most pointless and underwhelming reveal ever and it doesn't even have any plot significance. You never really learn anything about her. For the rest - I can barely remember anything else about the other characters, and I finished the show like half an hour ago! The cast really is just there for shock value when they die, but that's completely undercut by two things. First, it's not shocking when you're told constantly that people are going to die, then a character who's appeared maybe twice dies. I don't even watch particularly much horror and the vast majority of the death setups were obvious and unsurprising to me. Second, the deaths are done extremely poorly - minor spoiler for the last episode, but at one point a student has a chandelier fall on him, crawls out from under it, then a pillar immediately falls on him. Most of the deaths would fit better in slapstick comedy than horror. There are only two particularly shocking or gruesome deaths that aren't telegraphed to hell and back - the very first one, and the assistant teacher - but those are nowhere near enough to carry 12 episodes of supposed horror. The rest of the deaths are meaningless to the plot, uninteresting, and either completely predictable or completely pointless.
The plot is somehow even worse. I don't think every world needs to be fleshed out to the extreme, but absolutely none of Another's rules are explained beyond basic ideas of "if you do x thing y bad thing happens." There is no rhyme or reason to these rules, or to the characters' reactions to them. Almost nothing of what happens makes any sense, which is again a symptom of the characters being vessels for the already-decided plot to happen, rather than any realistic representation of a human being that might play a part in a reasonable or realistic story. The plot of Another is so far-fetched that it almost transcends the standard horror trope of entirely preventable tragedies. First of all, everyone stays completely shut up about a 26 year long run of tragedies and it isn't questioned by anyone, anywhere, ever. No one tries to escape or move to another town before 9th grade. No one transfers their students. From the way tsundere girl volunteered to be head of countermeasures, it is clear that people know about the rumors well before joining class 3...so why does everyone just sit there and take it? Putting that aside, it makes no sense to complete keeping Kouichi in the dark and just leave it up to chance that he doesn't fuck up the charm, which he does immediately. Any reasonable possible action that the characters don't take is either completely ignored, or explained away by the most convenient plot contrivances, from "actually the curse also makes it impossible to remember things!" to "it's just an unspoken rule not to do that!" Then you get to the ending, hoping that any part of these things is cleared up, but nope! None of it is!
The ending is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen and the most idiotic examples of plot happening for plot's sake, rather than because it makes sense. Without spoiling too much, Mei has a chance to completely stop the action of the last 2-3 episodes but simply does not do it because a character barges in at the last second to stop the big reveal and she decides it's no longer important. Note that this information would save at least 3 or 4 people who die directly in front of the camera in the last 2 episodes, and a couple more you can presume are dead, and on top of that it would have saved her from almost dying multiple times in those two episodes, as well as Kouichi. She simply...does not do that. It's not really explained why. Then you get to the big reveal of who was causing all of the tragedies and it's, well, the only character it really could be, but at the same time a character who is so sidelined and forgettable that I cannot name a single thing about them. The mechanism behind this reveal is unbelievably stupid and was just completely hidden from the viewer for no good reason. The show never really functioned like a mystery - no one has any idea who the culprit is until Mei uses her bullshit plot powers to figure it out and at that point the show drags on for two more episodes anyways for literally no reason. It's mind-boggling.
Finally, the last scenes are just plain stupid (obviously, some spoilers here.) There's supposed to be some sense that the calamity was stopped early and things are better, but if you pay attention the death count for the students is basically higher than any other year noted. Does it even matter if the calamity was stopped? Further, there's no thought of the future at all. It's clear that more senseless tragedy will happen the next year, which completely ruins any sense of closure for the story. In fact, it's even worse than that - even though the tape telling them how to avert the tragedy was destroyed, they don't do anything to warn future classes on how to survive. Is this some sort of statement about how trying to kill your classmates is worse than letting the calamity happen, and how hearing the tape was bad? If so, why don't the characters say anything about that? Is the ending intended to make us feel happy that bland protagonist and cliche eyepatch girl survived? Well, it's also impossible to think that's the case because nothing that's happened in the anime would make us care about either of them! Their relationship doesn't develop at all, their characters don't develop at all, honestly neither of them have a single relatable human personality trait at any point in the series. You could be forgiven for thinking they're robots or aliens or complete sociopaths by their seeming lack of reaction to the horrible death and gore they're surrounded by constantly as 9th graders. They stay calm and act completely coldly because the plot needs that to keep advancing the "mystery," not because it makes any sense for them to act that way. It's completely alienating and makes it impossible to invest yourself in the story. So, then, what is the point of the ending to this series? It doesn't give closure or hope, it doesn't advance the characters or their relationships, it doesn't properly mourn the dead or lament the tragedies of the series, it doesn't explain anything...what is the point? The show just ends! It is one of the most frustrating and pointless endings I could have dreamed up for a show that is 90% build up to the big reveal, and just further reinforces the point that this show was made to show off how cool and awesome the plot and the gore and the animations were. Everything else - the worldbuilding, the characterization, the themes, the ending - were only a hollow shell to allow the central mystery plot machine to shine. Except, it doesn't even do that! As I've tried to repeat over and over, the plot sucks and is full of holes that it is impossible to accept.
If you want to watch Another because you want in on the mystery - well, you aren't given a real shot at solving the mystery, but at the same time you'll probably figure it out anyways because one character sticks out like a sore thumb. If you want to watch because you love supernatural elements to horror - well, sorry, the only supernatural thing is a completely unexplained curse that manifests in people dying in gruesome, yet somehow completely mundane ways. If you want to watch for cheap scares, the show doesn't even do that particularly well. I can't imagine why you'd want to watch this show unless you really enjoy watching people die in shitty ways and seeing their blood pool under them, because that is the only thing this anime does with any consistency. At the end of the day, the only reason I could possibly recommend Another to you is if you just really really enjoy watching cartoon deaths and cartoon blood and some pretty animations and music once in a while. If you're looking for literally anything else out of this show, you'll be sorely disappointed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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