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If you consider yourself an anime fan, you'll probably like this. But if you're like me and think that 90% of anime produced is unwatchable garbage, this will probably bore you out of your mind—at least the first half will. The second half is a bit more engaging, but as a whole, this show is just a bunch of uninspired tropes. Not a single character is unique or interesting; they're all the most basic anime stereotypes imaginable. The plot is kinda interesting? But the show spends way too much time introducing me to characters I don't care about, which drags on the story to the ... point that I'm uninterested in what is happening, especially in the first half.

This is a Mecha show, so I assume that the appeal for most people watching this is the Mecha fights, but I found them unbelievably boring to watch. The choreography is practically nonexistent, and the end result of every battle is predictable after episode one. The animation is technically impressive, but the choreography isn't appealing or interesting to look at, and none of the characters are compelling enough for me to have any emotional stake in the outcome of any battle. Also, the fights just don't seem real. It doesn't feel like a giant robot is punching and shooting lasers; it instead feels like I'm watching someone play with action figures. There's no gravity or power behind anything happening. The only fight where this was done well (and the only fight in the show that I actually liked) was in episode 3, and it wasn’t even a Mecha fight.

At the end of the day, this is one of the most boring and generic anime I've ever seen. How far Gainax has fallen. You'll like this if you watch shows like "Reincarnated in another world with my girlfriend but I'm level 100000 and she's my pet" or some shit. Though I can't recommend it because of the gross fan service. Leave it to Japan to degrade and objectify women.

Bastard! is another show that sucks and only exists to show boobs. That being said, if you watch this drunk with your friends it's really good to make fun of, so it's not complete garbage. Dark Schneider is another main character that is just a self-insert for incels to have a power fantasy to. The funny part is how pathetic a character Dark Schneider is. He's such a Redditor, maybe it's just in the dub but Dark Schneider sounds like the biggest loser. They tried to make him sound cool, but he has a hilariously stereotypical reddior/incel voice. The story is also bizarre. It's kinda ... a Berserk ripoff; Guts, Casca, and Griffith are all here for some reason. But Casca and Griffith are wizards and Guts is a ninja. All the women are, of course, just there to have their clothes ripped off and moan and all the other shit incels goon to. Especially the Yoko character, who is ONLY FIFTEEN. Kinda disgusting. If you unironically like this you're a pedophile. HOWEVER, if you come into Bastard! knowing that it's stupid and for incels, you can have a good time making fun of how bad it is.

The best part of this manga is the atmosphere. The feeling of following these characters down endless hallways, tight tunnels, and other unrecognizable environments of twisted technology never gets old. It perfectly captures both the sense of curiosity from viewing these highly detailed and infinitely encompassing landscapes, as well as the sense of dread of what lies within them. It's that thriller element that keeps you turning the page, even without much of a story and hardly any dialogue.

A little confusing at times, but worth the uncertainty. If anything, you're as lost as the characters are. The main character especially has the most deadpan, ... slightly confused face for the entire manga. Even in fights, his face reads "Why am I here, why am I doing this?" And not even in an existential way; he's genuinely just as confused as to who his enemies are. We'll get some lore dumps from other characters, but they rarely ever seem to matter to the main character. He just keeps walking.

Just keep walking. Just keep walking.

Just complete corporate slop. Shippuden also had lame episodes and filler, terrible pacing, corny dialogue, etc., but there would be a cool fight or plot point in Shippuden every now and then. Even through all of the boring bullshit, there was still an interesting story and interesting characters, but Boruto has none of that. The new characters in Boruto are boring as hell and just copies of their parents. The returning characters are just lamer versions of what they were in Shippuden, and half of them shouldn't even be here. Why are episodes dedicated to characters like Choji or Shino or Ino; they shouldn't have ... even survived part 1 of Naruto. I only watched the first 34 episodes and you can tell they have no good idea where the story should go and are just wasting time. When I got to the fishing episode I had to stop. I just can't watch churned-out corporate slop anymore. I'm amazed how stuff like this is still getting made; it's not 2004 anymore. Either animate the manga or take a break until the manga can catch up. Just feels outdated, juvenile, and boring. I'd rather have the Naruto franchise laid to rest than be revived and dragged out like this. Maybe the manga is better but I just don't care anymore. Soulless.

Dragon Ball is awesome dude. Kinda the most awesome thing you can watch/read. Is the plot kinda mid? Yeah. Is there much character development? Not really. Does the series have a profound message? Nope. But none of this matters. Dragon Ball is fun, and that's all it needs to be. It has awesome fights, loveable characters you can root for, comically evil villains, and some great humor and jokes. Dragon Ball isn't trying to be deep or smart by overcomplicating its story, or giving its characters huge existential questions; it knows what it is and stays in its lane, which is why it's so effective. ... It was great to read this right after watching Monster; I didn't have to think and could just enjoy seeing Goku be cool and beat up bad guys. This is where the huge difference lies between Dragon Ball and other shonen like Naruto. Naruto tries to be deep and smart, but in doing so just overcomplicates its story and bores the hell out of its audience. Dragon Ball plays it straight, and does it better than almost every other shonen on the market.

I don't think it's a hot take to say that the anime is WAY better than the manga in this case. The FLCL manga is VERY hard to follow and figure out what's going on, not just from a plot and story standpoint, but the paneling and art itself. If I hadn't watched the show beforehand, I would've been completely lost reading this (not that I wasn't confused regardless), so I pity the wretch that goes into this manga blind. Even if you are a fan of the FLCL anime, I can only recommend this manga to the utmost fans of the show. The manga ... is basically just a worse retelling of the events of the show, with a few interesting, yet minor, changes; at the end of the day this only serves as a novelty or a footnote for the series as a whole. Cool to check out, but doesn't have much value.

Whoever made this watched Evangelion and said "I want to do that but only the last two episodes."

One theme in the story that really resonated with me is memory. If no one remembers it exists, then it never did! How many memories have been lost to the passage of time, or even due to malicious human involvement? Just like how Lain uses the internet to shape reality in the show, we have to deal with false memories and realities on the internet in 2024. Just insane how much this show foreshadowed.

Bizzare. And insane. And kinda creepy. Honestly wish it was maybe 6 episodes shorter? ... I feel like maybe it would have been a lot more effective if the story was more tightly packed. Regardless, "Serial Experiments Lain" is a genius look at identity, and is prophetic to the information age that we live in today.

If you honestly like this there is no way you know what a shower is. One of the most disgusting and terrible shows I've ever seen. The story is about a bunch of male sexual predators (the main characters) being put in prison (rightfully so) for trying to SA their female classmates. Why would anyone want to watch this. This is literally just porn. This has no purpose but for losers to jack off to.

Defenders of this show like to talk about how "funny" it is. Every joke in this show is just a character attempting to SA some girl and then they get ... beat up for it. Thats it. That's the only joke in the show. If you think SA should be something played for laughs, you're a terrible human being. Even worse, the show attempts to show the main characters in a sympathetic light. How are people comfortable watching a show that attempts to justify and play down SA? If you watched this show and weren't disgusted by it you need to be put on a watch list.

The main character in this show is presented as being more innocent than the others, because he only indirectly tries to SA girls, and only indirectly goes along with the other's plans. This character is obviously a self-insert for the terrible people who watch this show to identify with so that they don't feel that bad about what's going on because they're (the main character) only doing all this indirectly. This doesn't work. Being complicit in SA still makes you a terrible person. You're not fooling anyone.

Final nail in the coffin about this show is that it takes place in a high school.

All of these characters are underage.

Anyone who likes this show is a pedophile.

The most comedic, crazy, action-packed, weird, quick-paced, banger of six episodes I’ve ever witnessed. It’s not a long and tragic masterpiece like Berserk, or a multi-media, avant-grade experiment like Neon Genesis Evangelion, but an explosion of ingenious ideas and limitless creativity that lasts only for an instant.

That sounds impressive and important, but at the end of the day, I think it’s cool and funny—emphasis on the funny. Very few anime have actually gotten me to laugh out loud, but FLCL is hilarious. I think my favorite character has to be the dad. His VA (make sure to watch this dubbed; the sub doesn't do ... this masterpiece justice) delivers every line SO well; he takes the spotlight in most of the show for me.

NO fan service, NO terrible pacing, NO people standing around and over-explaining shit that doesn't matter, NO boring flashbacks, NO stupid power systems or ass pulls, NO cringe self-insert male main character, NO lifeless and boring female characters only there to make that main character look good, NO pervert character that SAs characters and its played for laughs; basically nothing that's in 95% of anime. Which is what makes it a masterpiece.

You forget Monster was set in the 90s. Like Johan could've been bumping Radiohead for all we know.

If you're watching a show and it doesn't make you go back and re-read Nietzche, is it even worth watching? The main characters' (and even side characters') struggles with their own morality are brilliantly set up, tested, and manipulated until it all comes crashing down in the climax. Johan is one of the most menacingly and complexly written antagonists in fiction and makes a great contrast to Doctor Tenma. The plot is also insanely well put together, and every new piece of information revealed about the past, or ... even the present, completely changes your understanding of what's going on. Some characters appear in an episode or two and are never relevant again, but for the most part, no character is left behind. Every single one is essential to the plot in one way or another. Beautifully put together. It's a shame that the Guillermo Del Toro live-action adaptation never got anywhere. If done right, an American production of Monster could have the potential to be the next Breaking Bad or The Sopranos.