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Jul 18, 2018
I've come across a few anime of this genre, and I can't rack my brains around how they so consistently amass a large following. Whether the premise is confined to a school; the world; a personal journey; a collective journey; comedy; harem or on a more serious tone. Maybe the recently sensationalised marvel universe has enchanted the masses into submission.
Boku no Hero Academia seems to touch on a few of the above mentioned bases without the core themes being disjointed on paper. The problem however, is that the ultimate relay is a lukewarm exploration into topics it clearly took a more juvenile approach to
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and ultimately finds its themes disjointed. Which is why I'd say this is for the younger audience, as I can't imagine this being taken seriously by an older demographic.
Boku no Hero Academia is about a world where 80% of the population is born with quirks, or in other words, some 'super power'. One of the problems I had right away is with the properties of these powers - they were mostly just painfully juvenile and often times lacked any practicality in more or less any scenario. This problem is inevitable if you are going to build a premise of a barrage of characters having said powers. This would have been OKAY if not for the fact that EVERYONE WANTS TO BE A HERO. What's worse, more or less, THEY ARE. To enjoy anime is to often times suspend disbelief, but when you are presented with characters that have lame heroes with powers like climbing walls or shooting balls of goo, it is hard to take seriously. More or less, the majority of other characters also have abilities that any pistol would outdo from a militaristic standpoint. This would have been OKAY if the anime was mostly confined to a comedy genre, but it ISN'T - it tries to take a serious tone with melodramatic and black and white depictions of good and evil.
Which brings me to the other problem; characters. Alot of characters, but few backgrounds explored. And the ones explored are as what you'd expect if you notice the rest of the show - childish. The MC is a pansy kiss ass without any resolve beyond the shows projected fight for its black and white justice.He always wanted to be a hero despite not being born with a quirk and now conveniently has one, thus fulfilling his dream. That's the sum of his character. The blonde haired secondary (forget his name), has probably the worst background to date in anime - he hates the MC despite being friends in the past because the MC asked if he was okay after an accident that had nothing to do with the MC, and now this terrible secondary vows vengeance against him throughout the series. One of the worst narratives I've come across. The rest of the characters are also the lame righteous knights without faults for the most part, and as mentioned, don't have much backgrounds explored, and their overall personalities are just a lot of ''I want to be a hero'', to be well, a hero. No backgrounds beyond that for the most part.
The villains were as you would also expect, the other polar end of the good and evil spectrum. The main antagonist pushes to upset the balance of peace for the sake of destruction and fame. Full stop. Moving on. The only one villain in the show that has any character is 'Hero Killer Stain', whom has an agreeable philosophy to mine - ''there are too many heroes''. The rest of the antagonists seem to just be an extension to the main antagonist with their viewpoints aligned. No individuality to comment on. This union is structurally symmetrical to the hero's society. Bleh.
Story :
The story is just a function of the above mentioned character design. Light vs Dark. Good vs Evil. Beyond the plot, the combat is mildly enjoyable if you can move past the question of practicality,as it is actually rather well choreographed. Beyond this, the actual concepts of their abilities were a bit too juvenile for my taste. They tried to incorporate a strategic front to the combat, but it was often times a little too simplistic or unreasonable even within their own framework. The absence of death or gore to boot only made the show lack suspense. Again, no problem with that, but I find it more for a younger audience.
The art is one thing I can't criticise at all.
Ultimately, I did manage to get through the show without too much struggle, but it's more of a show to simply pass the time rather than take something with you. Put it on the bucket list if a fun combat oriented anime is for you, but probably place it on the lower end.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 15, 2018
This series offered a great deal of potential, with its dark premise and appropriately gritty art. It seemed to me like the next FMA, which I wouldn't have had the slightest issue with seeing another variant of.
However, the ultimate execution of this groundwork falls flat, quickly. The art is the one thing that ultimately maintains a level quality.
The characters are what I found to be most unbearable. They are two dimensional and overly comical - lacking a modicum of depth. We get some insight into their backgrounds, but ultimately I found the endearment lacking, as the investment into the characters are rushed
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or downright melodramatic. Including all forms so of Akuma so far presented. the villains are so superficially callous that it undermines the core dark theme. They seem to relish in evil to be, well, evil, and we are so far never presented with any insight of their core soul's struggles besides some generic animatin showing the soul looking unhappy. Their actual behaviour ultimately delivers a central character without depth. The other side characters so far are terribly bland and forgettable, with resolute character design and an overly comical overtone. The anime seems to pride itself on its dark premise, but this strongly disjoint tone just cripples it into submission. FMA had a similar setup, but its execution was so that the humour was subtle enough to not strongly dilute the dark groundwork.
The MC is just about the worst of the lot. He is desperately constructed to be such a pansy to the point of it being frustrating to endure his screen-time. I guess this operates under the guise of the upbringing he had to endure, but such an offensively great deal of naivety is synonymous with a hollow character with no resolve - rather more so a character built to be overly agreeable or without faults. He will run around trying to save babies; get taken advantage of; be in the process of being murdered by a 'human'; yet in all theses scenarios, will smile throughout and find the most family friendly direction, all without any monologue. One example amongst the endless is when Allan decides to ignore the doctor collaborating with the Millenium Earl, having no resolve to act on the fact that it is not a matter that would be properly handled in a community of normal people whom have no concept of demons let alone believe his role. But killing a human would be too dramatic, so the author tries to go about it in a roundabout and uninspiring way in resolving it without Allen getting his hands dirty. You will find many more examples where Allen just overlooks the blunt atrocities committed by many of the human antagonists, and will sit around moping contemplating how a human can have bad will, all the while allowing the said antagonist to get away, one way or another.
Which brings me to another point : There are Akuma EVERYWHERE at all times, yet NO civilian has any concept of it. They flood the show with the presence of Akuma, yet at the same time want to maintain some sense of mysticism in their existence. A terrible oxymoron in writing.
The story has so far being tediously episodic. It seems every episode that the Akuma get the same intel at the same time as the Black Order, thus they seem to always be in the same place at the same time. This engulfment and simplicity in killing these Akuma really just dulls the drama of their existence, as it becomes more of a triviality. It doesn't offer any headroom for much narrative, compounded by the simplicity in their personalities.
In every corner of the world, in every episode that we are subjected to, there is an Akuma that ends up more or less killed in a rather generic and repetitive fashion. We get no insight through monologue on the combat, and is often inconsistent as they try the same thing. The combat lacks depth, and is made overly obscure and inconsistent in execution as a plot device. How many times does Allan use his explosive cannon to no effect, only to work 12 minutes later? How many times does Allan need to run in front of a line of fire to protect someone, only to serve as a cause for concern in an otherwise obvious outcome? Most the combat is just bright lights / hit and miss effects.
I understand it is still relatively early in the series, but it is a bad execution to have an episodic layout this drawn out and expect to cling to the audience's interest for over 600 minutes with this lack of concentration in substance to serve for any momentum.
As mentioned, there is no depth to the combat, as they just swing their swords or launch a barrage of missiles and miss randomly until the timing is convenient to not miss, or sustain an attack with no damage until the same attack causes damage when, again, it is convenient to be so. I didn't once come across a strategic approach to the combat and you will more or less be faced with seeing a variant technique sparsely throughout the anime, only to never be used again. Most of the time, one or two techniques are just spammed. Not to mention the terrible animation in itself, with clunky choreography and the ancient use of faded out background during an attack. Seeing a barrage of missiles flying everywhere never hitting their target also got quite old. Or even worse, using their arms or weapons that barely cover their bodies as a shield in still frame with bullets just flinging to only that point.
The art was creatively okay and appropriate, but the combat animation was abhorrent.
The sound was mostly forgettable, with exception to the outro and intro.
Ultimately, to be blunt, this is a FMA ripoff that fails to deliver the same quality in its execution. From losing his parents, losing his left arm, having a brutish master whom took him in as an orphan, jokes about his height, the presence of overpowered humanoids that actively fight humanity, and the underlining concept of reincarnation / taboo, it is hard to overlook the blunt attempt at emulation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jul 9, 2018
Rating 0/10 (if I could)
This is undeniably the worst anime I've ever had the misfortune to watch. It was agonising going through this show.
The story has no depth, and thus requires no in depth analysis. This absence is desperately concealed by the gimmick of gore/sex- there is nothing else going for it. Most of the series is episodic; the characters and plot are inconsistent to the point of lacking a modicum of realism, to the point of absurdity.
Story : 0/10
Demons. They're bad. Kill them. They like sex. Alot of nudity. Drama happens that should influence plot but is forgotten about. Demons like
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to party at night for sex and massacre the group present - done so without anyone knowing, even though there are hundreds of people present. 10 episodes yet somehow quite episodic. Humans lack mental faculties to the point of running around with rocks and pitchforks just killing cats and cutting heads off for dramatic effect because of the fear of almighty demons (anyone see the dubious rationale behind this?). Girls love MC and masturbate to him after getting raped and make animal noises. Expect cheesy death scenes. Lots of sex. The 'twists', or I should actually just say twist, is just about the most cheesy, predictable and badly choreographed 'revelation' I've had to witness. It was just the function of another desperate shock factor to make up for the lack of substance throughout. It's like the author said, ''heres just one more thing we can do to make this more shocking''.
As you see, I'm just listing pretty much what you can expect to see - because most of this crude anime is just the sum of independent, nonsensical events like this.
Characters 0/10
They are inconsistent - not sticking to their core character. They shift between being demonic to humanising them on a whim when it benefits the show. You will likely get thoroughly frustrated with the characters, as they shift in behaviour, or are so naive that you will be smacking your head throughout. MC's best friend is an incredibly cliche character that seems to excel at everything. Side characters are forgettable. All the demons seem to love running track - its a big focus. Even after their transcendence, it's the only thing on their minds. Not much beyond this. So don't expect much relation to the characters. MC himself had potential, but terribly squandered and ultimately cheesy. He is so naive that it's painful.
Art 0/10
Now I understand the art can employ varying qualities as a medium for the atmosphere to complement the core concept. But in this case, it simply looks cheap. It is so bad you will have no idea what is going on in the combat scenes. The combat just looks like picture slides from a 1980s karate cartoon.
Sound : 6/10
It seemed so dull at first because of the distasteful anime content. But I reviewed it again, and honestly, it isn't bad.
Enjoyment : 1/10
I offered this generous rating because the gore and sex was to some extent audacious. However, from an objective standpoint, most would be put off by it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jun 27, 2018
Absolutely terrible.
I thought this show had some degree of promise, in both character design / development and comedy. It falls flat abruptly in all departments. There is not one constitution that this anime does well in besides the average art design.
Story :
Rubbish. Fight demon king, does the cliche '' I choose you'' option, picking out the deity presenting the weapons. Who could have seen that coming - clearly not the goddess,as she was obliged to conform to his request whilst in a state of shock.
The adventure begins.
...
The primary focus is the comedy, which like all comedy, is a hit and miss, but at a slightly objective standpoint, the comedy is recycled and often uses juvenile sexual innuendos as the focal point.
Their journey is just doing odd tasks in the most desperately goofy way possible. It mostly feels episodic and not much of anything happens most of the time, as they are busy making their recycle jokes on rewind.
Again, this is nothing but comedy. Recycled comedy revolving around juvenile sexual humour. Don't expect engrossing combat mechanics, character development, or any insight into the characters - they are goofy to be, well, goofy.
If you don't get exhausted watching cheap, juvenile fights, where the characters employ crappy, futile strategies over and over again (doing the same thing), just to be funny, then this is for you. *does an attack* *doesnt work* gets eaten gets saved, does it again. Funny. As for mechanics themselves, it's just bright colours with properties not defined.
There is never really any threat of anything serious happening.
Characters :
The worst attribute. The already lacking story substance is further diluted by the terrible characters.
The characters are all mentally destitute to the point where they sound like broken muppets on rewind. Their jokes became painfully predictable and bland, very quickly. There is no way you can get invested in any of the characters due to their well resolute character design with no development.
As mentioned earlier, they are made so desperately goofy and repetitive that you often don't need to listen to what they say, as 90% of it is a comedic premise you have more or less heard explicitly earlier on the same episode, and the one before that. Yes, the author likes repeating jokes, despite this being a 10 episode anime.
You have the character Darkness, whom is a crusader that loves to get turned on and twist almost any comment into some desperate sexual reference on rewind.She misses all strikes and just stands there as a shield and her clothes rip off. That's the gimmick. Then, there is the character Megumni, whom only uses explosion magic which renders here immobile after one use, despite all logic- cause it's funny. The Goddess Aqua, whom the main character tricked into joining him (again, the cliche ''I choose you'', how could you have seen this coming scenario), uses water party tricks and some bright rays of light that works well against undead. Not that it's used profoundly, its just shoot and it either falls flat for comedy, or it is ridiculously powerful. As for the main character, he acts as a medium to a small voice of reason amidst the nonsense, which was a nice touch. But most of the time, he is just whining about the antics while going through with it, or only adding to it. He is a teenage virgin surrounded by 3 attractive females as a gimmick, and goes through the cliche rejection of any advances, lack of reciprocation of any advances despite strong offerings, all the while being a virgin and having perversions whom acts out his bickering and whatnot with the characters. Not cliche at all. Written this way just not not complicate the stupid-themed anime with any relationships.
Art:
Average
Sound :
Bad. Forgettable.
Enjoyment :
Non existent. 0/10
Don't watch this
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jan 20, 2018
This is just about the worst anime segment I've ever watched. It's astounding there are so few negative reviews.
My take on the show? Absolute rubbish. Having seen the first two seasons of Kuroko, and rating them averaging at 7, I figured this would more or less follow suit.
Wrong.
The first two seasons had their own overly paranormal / logically unsound plot twists/ techniques , but the characters more or less mitigated how silly it was; as we are drawn to somewhat yearn for something to happen. It did have its corny developments, with forced polaric drama of being overwhelmed, then whimsically overcoming without necessarily trying
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anything new, but this season just took it to another level.
Characters 0/10
Concept 0/10
This whole copy concept employed in the anime was overall just so absurd and inconsistent that I could barely bare the prior 2 seasons during the segments including Kise. He can essentially copy anyone, yet isn't winning every single game with ease. How do you justify that? He can mimick any foe hes vsing, and culminate it with his own arsenal. Idiotic. For instance, he could be mimicking a full court 3 pointer...
The whole ''zone'' nonesense going from 80% to 100% is iditotic. Its also idiotic in its explanation of who can use it. 80 to 100 is only a 25% (relative) performance gain. 20/80 = .25 btw...
Yeah I'm kinda dragging on the prior seasons but everything they did wrong they do here and worse.
Edit : he did eventually use Mimorikas throw, tho everything else still stands.
Characters 1/10
First few episodes we are dealing with probably one of the most generic ''antagonists'' in the anime franchise. Each tongue lick induced a cringe sensation as I was overcome with how cheesy it is. The guy has absolutely no depth. One of the cheapest attempts to try to root for the other team. What is this, 1980 Disney?
Art 4/10
Whatever. The motions /techniques employed are quite plain / 2nd rate. Otherwise mostly average.
Enjoyment 0/10
This is the worst sport anime season I've ever watched. I can't believe I wasted the 8 or so minutes to write this, but I figured there'd be many more hours of human hours lost being unproductive watching this filth.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Mar 10, 2017
Warning : spoilers included and very unrefined design - I rushed this review on notepad while watching ep 23 of this crappy anime. I felt the need to as there is only one other negative review listed here.
Characters : 2/10
The worst element to this already terrible show. Sato is
the most detestable character and unfortunately, the
protagonist in this show. His reclusive, fruitless life
is the product of some obscure and fleeting psychological
anxiety/paranoia that are the core of why he is 22 without a job
and a college dropout, have rendered him incapable of going outdoors.
Sadly, this is all rather whimsical, as these supposed
severe psychological
...
issues that wrought this life predicament
are often nullified as he often goes
out when it serves the plot before later reverting
on a later episode - again just to serve the plot. These type of regressions really just deteriorates any significance or realism to his ailment.
The character is also absent of any substance - during his
4 reclusive years at home, apparently he has accumulated nothing
of lingering value or any form of character development, as he knows nothing of games to help
with his newly introduced friend, Yamakazi's, game development; hasn't magnetised any
predisposition of anger, sadness or remorse; knows nothing of
porn despite living alone with a computer as he sits around seemingly so astonished by
the above mentioned friend's semi-nude pics; and has amassed seemingly
no gravitation towards any interest. So what character has he developed
during those 4 years at home? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He has no depth;
no talents; no convictions; and no morale given that he has no issue exploiting and abandoning
the only character who has affection for him without giving us any
insight as to why, on numerous occasions. We gain no insight into this character beyond some
grazed notion of his delusions of conspiracies that lack any articulation and serve as a tepid
comedy medium.
All of the characters in this anime lack any depth or development. His senpai shares
many of the above characteristics. Conspiracy notions, lack of insight, suicidal over a holiday trip who then
reverts when asked to marry her. Reverts again and asks Sato for an affair. Oh yeah, she also spent a few years playing cards with Sato. Their characters are clearly
defined and unweavering for the most part. Naturally there is no dilligent effort to understand these characters. Why
would there be? Their stances are generally 2 dimensional and simply serve as a moral and drama parameter for Sato to conveniently explore.
Not that the protagonist consistently harnesses a moral compass to follow. His character is just without any established direction and overly whimsical.
Misaki is another dull character. She has the cliche, undefined and resolute infatuation with the protagonist against all odds and irrespective
of how badly they are treated. This servers as just a really juvenile approach to appease a target audience with a sense of euphoria that such nonesense
is possible. I don't see how this can be depicted as romance as it is entirely one sided. Despite Sato's unsavoury circumstances, he rejects these opportunities
on many occasions. Sometimes he is satisfied with it, sometimes he overlooks it, sometimes abuses it. Not that we gain any insight as to why most of the time.
Story : 3/10
The story is primarily defined by a series of mini arcs that for the most part don't have too much significance and is very slow paced.
I wanted to blow my brains out after episode 10. From 1-5 the episodes are saturated with decent comedy and a nice premise for the characters hopeful metamorpism. It falls flat
as the comedy progressively deteriorates and when it's established how fatuous the nature of Sato's problems are, given how fleeting and undefined they are.
Basically half the story is trying to build a game that turns out to be crap, Sato developing a gaming addiction and deceptive romance, despite the prospect of a REAL relationship
to offer solace in spite of his 4 years of loneliness. Logic? Not involved. Insight. Not involved.
Next we have the crappy arc of his senpais suicidal arrangement that he gets himself dragged into. He repeatedly states he doesn't want to commit suicide mentally, but follows through with it
to serve the plot. Near the end they are about to jump and yippy the heroes rush in to save the day and the suicidal group of 5 all have revelations at the time and its established how stupid,superficial
and as is the hallmark of this show, whimsical, their suicidal tendencies were. Oh yeah Sato apparently now wants to commit suicide all of a sudden without warning. Don't worry he changes his mind quickly
after Misaki yells out to him. Not that this matters. He later neglects her numerous times. No explanation.
This show attempts to project romance and comedy but falls flat with both rather quickly.
Art : 5/10
Rather contemporary. It isn't choreographed in a noteworthy fashion. Doesn't deserve a better score.
Sound : 5/10 - meh
Soundtrack is very repetitive with a very singular design. Most of the time you won't notice it much.
Enjoyment :
2/10.
Please do not watch this. I feel bad having to invest even further time writing this. But I strongly feel this anime doesn't deserve any praise.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Feb 5, 2017
Involves some spoilers :
Tediously slow paced; complications are few and far between, and very quickly resolved; characters are generally dull and offer very little insight into their thoughts; the romance is hasty and tepid; music not particularly engaging - for the most part you don't even notice it; and finally, the artwork - it is quite decent, to be fair.
The father wolf - the so called last of his kind, attracts the female protagonist with little insight as to why. He is attending Uni for no reason ever veiled or suggestive. They quickly develop relations and have a kid despite him being half wolf.
...
No drama involved whatsoever in this development. We know absolutely nothing about him except that he works part time at a moving company and is a talking Werewolf.
He dies in the most undramatic and convenient fashion so that the protagonist has a hard job ahead (as suggested above, these aren't even particularly dramatic obstacles)
Basically nothing happens after the move in the time it would take me to do a full workout and shower then be ready to continue to watch.
The fork in the road for the 2 characters is the only dramatic event and it gets established in a hasty fashion. Of all things, this dramatic moment is given little time investment.
Conclusion :
Mediocre at best. Artwork is the only decent element here. Ending needed to be more elongated and offer more insight as to why the fork manifested in the first place.
I wouldn't recommend watching this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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