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Objectively I know that Lycoris Recoil probably doesn't deserve higher than an 8, but in my heart I feel it deserves a 9 because, screw it, I'm going to be subjective about this one.

The past 13 weeks have been a rollercoaster of emotions for me watching Lycoris Recoil, but above all else, it has been so entirely FUN watching this anime. I can't remember the last time I watched an anime that had me smiling throughout (most) episodes. All of the characters are so incredibly likeable, which always signals to me excellent character writing. The action and fight scenes are well animated and choreographed (and ... this is coming from someone like me who is usually bored by long battle episodes). The tone is lighthearted and funny most of the time, and the anime certainly had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion. The premise, as stupid as it is at times, is lighthearted and fun, and certainly fits the criteria of what I believe is a great summer anime, aka one that is entertaining and enjoyable, but not meant to be taken too seriously.

What impressed me more about Lycoris Recoil though was the times that it DID become more serious. Beyond Takina's overarching storyline as she realizes that life can be enjoyable outside of the DA through her interactions with Chisato and the rest of the LycoReco gang, the tone dramatically shifts in the latter half of the series when Chisato's impending death is revealed. I think this is where the series shines the most brilliantly as characters must deal with powerful issues of morality, and many of the foreshadowed elements from the former half of the series finally come into light. For an anime that had me laughing in the first half, I was near tears for many of these episodes, and it certainly helped that the VAs gave powerful performances to accompany this change in tone.

What obviously stuck with me the most from Lycoris Recoil was Takina and Chisato's relationship. Seeing Takina's affection toward Chisato gradually develop was enjoyable to watch, and at the end, I'm happy to see them become a powerful duo. While not explicitly labeled as a yuri, I'm going to treat it as one. If this anime was queerbaiting, I'm honestly not even upset about it? Sure, there was no kiss, but I felt that the feelings that Takina and Chisato held for each other were raw and real, and I'm not sure how else the anime could've plainly laid out their attraction toward each other. I don't think there was just one meaning when Takina and Chisato often referred to each other as "partners." Still waiting for the day that one of these yuri-esque anime will fully commit, but so far, this is the one I've been most impressed with. I absolutely love Chisato and Takina's relationship and am satisfied with how their character arcs concluded.

While the plot and pacing of this show are sometimes off, I think the writing, character development, and overall tone of this anime are what really brings it home for me. The animation is also BEAUTIFUL (go figure, it's A-1). I was constantly blown away by the artwork of this show. I'm not sure what it is about A-1's original works, but they always suck me in and know how to grab my attention. (Darling in the Franxx was my Summer 2018 obsession, for context). At the end of the day, I applaud this anime's ability to make me become obsessed with it. I was waiting with baited breath for each new episode and even reverted back to writing fanfiction as a result of this anime. That's a pretty big accomplishment. It's been awhile since I've been this enthralled with a piece of media.

Lycoris Recoil isn't a masterpiece by any means, but it's cute and fun and knows when to pull at the heartstrings too. It's entirely impossible to not fall in love with the characters and atmosphere of this show. I'll certainly be thinking about it for a while.

While I do not identify as a trans individual, I am a member of the LGBTQ+ community and am always looking for new queer anime to enjoy. I'd seen this on several queer anime recommendation lists for years and finally decided to give it a try.

For an anime that came out in 2011, I was shocked by how progressive this anime was.

After watching Ouran recently and being disappointed at how poorly it tackled gender, I was thrilled to finally watch an anime that tackled gender and other LBGTQ+ themes so delicately. This feels like a story clearly made for a queer audience. That ... alone made it all the more enjoyable for me. While I personally can't relate to feelings of gender dysphoria like Nitori and Takatsuki, I was very quickly reminded of what it was like growing up as a closeted queer individual and the burden of holding in a huge secret. Beyond Nitori and Takatsuki, I appreciated that no secondary characters faded into the background; they were all well-rounded and each had some form of a character arc (Maho's boyfriend is personally my favorite. I love how deeply he cares for Nitori and how he manages to still undergo a character arc while arguably being one of the most minor characters in the show). While not every character was tackling LGBTQ+ issues, this anime did a fantastic job of balancing slice-of-life themes with queer ones.

Beyond the fantastic character writing, I loved the artwork as well! The soft backgrounds and pastels felt like an appropriate choice in sharing a story about adolescence - as young as the characters may seem, throughout the anime, they are each dealing separately with the consequences of puberty and slowly losing their childlike innocence. This anime really treats itself as a serious form of artwork, and for that, I respect it that much more.

Unfortunately, like most queer anime, the ending is a bit open-ended, and the romance is never fully-developed, but I figured this would be the case going in and am now reading the manga to get a complete version of the story. I wish this anime had come out in more modern times, as I think it would have had a larger following given how much LGBTQ+ rights have exploded in the last decade, but I am thankful for what I received at least.

I definitely recommend this anime to queer individuals! It definitely does not represent the trans experience completely accurately for being an older manga/anime but compared to other LBGTQ+ anime, I didn't find it to be fetishizing at all and thought it accurately portrayed parts of the queer experience. It's definitely on par with other fantastic queer anime like Bloom Into You.

♪ Kiss kiss, fall in...to boredom ♪

I'm convinced the only reason this anime maintains its high rating is due to nostalgia. As someone who did not grow up watching anime and only discovered it turning my early teenage years, I have no sense of nostalgia for this show, but after years of hearing about it, I decided to finally give it a try.

Never have I ever been so bored in my entire life.

I suppose a part of me knew that this show would entirely consist of silly antics, absurd plotlines, and cheap jokes that have aged poorly, but after watching the original Fruits Basket last ... summer, I was hoping that Ouran would be on the same scale. Nope. I sat, episode after episode, watching no plot progress and reaching for binoculars to find the tiniest sliver of character development. What's frustrating is that the few episodes that actually did take the time to unpack the main characters better were thoroughly enjoyable and easily rekindled my interest. Then we'd have another 5 episodes of silly nonsense and my enjoyment would rapidly decline again.

I'm also mourning the fact that this show could have been a great commentary on gender identity and expression (a lot to ask for from an early 2000s anime, I know). Sometimes it felt like they were so close to reaching that point (Haruhi saying she didn't mind being referred to as a boy or a girl in an early episode, for example, was so exciting to see portrayed, especially in an older anime). However, most of the time it felt like your standard transphobic crossdressing jokes (Haruhi's father's character particularly rubs me the wrong way, which is frustrating because he had so much potential!). If this show had treated its characters a little more carefully (which is apparently a lot to ask since they barely get a speckle of character development), Ouran might have had some actually good LGBTQ+ themes, but between the incestuous twins, the lesbians from Lobelia that are clearly represented as being predatory, and the straight up MISOGYNY in this show (don't even get me started on that episode when Tamaki blames Haruhi for getting pushed off a cliff for failing to account for the fact she is a woman instead of blaming the boys who were verbally harassing her and other girls at the beach), I'm just constantly left with a bad taste on my tongue.

It's one thing if you grew up watching this show and have an emotional attachment to it, but for those of us who didn't, this show did absolutely nothing me, and I'm thankful that there weren't more than 26 episodes.

*sigh* Here we go again...

For anyone who read my original review on Steins;Gate, you'd know that while I did end up enjoying the show, there were some major issues I had that lessened my enjoyment of the series overall. Despite my love/hate relationship towards Steins;Gate, I decided to eventually watch Steins;Gate 0 (after a long hiatus of course). A part of me hoped that the alternative timeline would improve some of the issues I had with the original show, and while, in a sense, it did, the negatives FAR OUTWEIGH the positives of this show.

What in the shitty fanfiction did I just watch? I truly ... believe someone could've written a better alternative timeline fanfic because this was just not it. All the OCs, stupid plot twists, and my least-favorite plotline from the original show (WWIII) completed destroyed my enjoyment of Steins;Gate 0. But let's dive into it, shall we? SPOILERS AHEAD.

Initially entering into 0, I was enjoying it to a standard degree. Exploring a timeline where Kurisu died and time went on posed many possibilities for a continuing story. I looked forward to seeing how the dynamic would change between the lab members and how Okabe would evolve in her absence. I think this is where I made my first mistake in watching this show. I stupidly assumed this show would be character-driven and that the plotline would remain relatively simple in having Okabe rally through his grief and attempt to reach the Steins Gate again to set things right.

Once I realized that this show would rather be using time loops and similar plot devices to the original to stop World War III, I should've known this show was not going to progress the way I wanted. World War III was my least favorite plotline from the original (and the stupidest, in my opinion). Thankfully the original show only dealt with the WWIII plotline minimally, but it was the ENTIRE PREMISE of 0. And don't even get me started on the "plot twists" of this series. Not only was the American professor being the villain easily recognizable from the beginning of the show, but his brainwashing of Kagari to follow him through time and force him to capture the time machine was the biggest misuse of a character and the most outlandish plot point I have ever witnessed. What in the deus ex machina was that?!

Speaking of Kagari, that brings me to the characters. Not a huge fan of the original characters at all. While Hiyajo I could tolerate, as she was very much needed to accelerate the plot (although her constant comparisons to Kurisu as second-best were tiring)...what was the point of Kagari? She appears out of nowhere, and, as I stated, offers nothing to the story but to serve as an outlandish plot twist. I assumed she was Kurisu's clone given the physical similarities, but nope...just a war weapon sent to travel through time. I felt no empathy for her whatsoever and could not have cared less when she died. I'm not even sure what the point of having her be Mayuri's adoptive daughter was, either. If it was to service Mayuri's character, it was done in vain. We already know Mayuri is kind and caring. We didn't need her to adopt a war orphan in the future to prove it.

In terms of the characters carrying over from the original series, there is little Kurisu in this series, which I expected and did not mind since I had a few minor gripes with Kurisu in the original. Okabe spends the majority of 0 being lifeless and depressed. Do not expect him to gain back his charisma (the only good thing about his character in my opinion) until the very end of the series. They try to throw in a little character development for Suzuha with that one filler episode where she's trying to get Daru and Yuki to go out to preserve her existence but then later reveals she was not at risk of not being born and just wanted to spend some quality time with her parents, but that's about the biggest character development she gets. Faris, Ruka, and Moeka all serve as background characters to the original characters and don't get a sprinkle of character development.

All that lack of character development aside, here's what frustrates me. All throughout the original Steins; Gate, I complained how Mayuri was never treated as a round character and never got the development she deserved. Well of course now in 0 she gets it! Removing Kurisu from the show was the surest way of ensuring her character development, unfortunately. It was so nice to have some life breathed into her character and to see her voice her opinions and fight with Okabe and have more of a personality compared to the original. And I appreciated even more that they addressed her feelings for Okabe in this series, as it was always underlying in the original but was never addressed. BUT WHY WAS HER CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT LEFT OUT OF STEINS; GATE THEN?! I really wish they'd given this much attention to Mayuri's character in the original rather than this subpar sequel series, as this was one of the huge gaps that was missing in the original for me. And even then, I still felt like she could've used more in 0! For being represented as a major character of this franchise, she sure doesn't get as much attention from both the creators of this show and even the characters within this show! I stand my ground as Mayuri's #1 defender. She had so much potential as a character, and while 0 fleshed her out much more, I really wish the original series had done so much more with her.

Back to my dislikes of 0 and some other issues i had with it though. The first was how 0 seemed to copy all the same plot devices from the original but...worse. There were so many unnecessary scenes where Mayuri was put in danger to mimic what spurs the time loop in the original series. That one episode where they make it seem like she dies but only hits her head? Why did they do that to us? And why when she actually died a few minutes later did it feel way less impactful because they'd already done such a dramatic fake-out? The time loop arc was much smaller in this series and way less interesting, in my opinion. There was none of the suspense, tension, or heartache of the first series when Okabe is trying to prevent Mayuri's death. 0 tried so hard to invoke the nostalgia of the original series, and while occasionally it succeeded, often it did not. The lab dynamic in 0 is much less fun and inviting than the original series. I hate to say it, but without Kurisu, Steins; Gate just isn't Steins;Gate.

Finally, one last note about the pacing. I enjoyed the beginning and end of this show the most (as in I moderately enjoyed it. I surely wasn't dancing for joy watching these episodes) but what was up with the middle? I don't remember the original show having so much filler. The excitement I had when first starting this show quickly dissipated once I got to Episode 8/9 and didn't really return until Episode 18. I think that's what frustrates me most of all. There are some good episodes within 0, but collectively, the show itself is a mess, and the bad episodes far outweigh the good. While the ending was still satisfactory, I was happy enough knowing that I had the existence of the original Steins;Gate show to serve as my ending, because I sure as hell will not ever be returning to this series again or believing in this alternative ending over the one that's in the original.

Anyway, ready for all the butthurt watchers who enjoyed this series to go "But in the light novel sdhsdkghlsdkgh." Nope. I'm right, you're wrong. Let me have my opinion. 0 isn't good, and while I don't think the original Steins;Gate deserves such a high rating on MAL, it's at least a much more satisfactory conclusion to the story than whatever 0 tried to conjure together.

TL;DR: Steins;Gate 0 is a disorderly story of weak plot elements, utterly stupid plot twists, flat characters, and a handful of new characters who you couldn't care less about. Don't expect any major character development or a meaningful story. Stick to the original Steins;Gate, and don't go time traveling to the Beta Worldline because I just watched 23 episodes of it play out, and it is not worth your time.

Another great season of Attack on Titan, dare I say even better than the Final Season Part 1! Major spoilers ahead for this season and some manga spoilers as well.

Firstly, I love how excellent the story becomes in this season. While I have some small gripes with how this arc ends, the War for Paradis arc is an exciting concluding arc to the story. Marley’s invasion, the Paths scenes, and the Rumbling all come together beautifully to create an action-packed and thrilling conclusion to the story.

Even in the climax of the story, each character continues to be portrayed with care, and no character is exempt ... from continuing to receive excellent character development. I know for me, Annie’s return was a major highlight for me in this part of the story, and despite her long absence, I felt she was integrated back into the story appropriately. I additionally am happy to see MAPPA continuing to treat Mikasa’s character with more respect than WIT’s portrayal, especially since she plays a pivotal role in the conclusion of the story. Beyond these two specific characters, all of the other major characters play important roles in the climax (besides Historia but that’s a rant for another day). I’ve always appreciated Isayama’s ability to continue to give ample attention to all of the story’s main characters despite the extensive cast.

Briefly, I also wanted to discuss the move of Chapter 123 from before the Rumbling to the final episode of Part 2. While I was initially annoyed by this change, I see why it was done. Given the contrasting roles that Eren and Mikasa play in the final story elements, positioning Mikasa’s flashback to counter Eren’s internal thoughts was a nice touch that will surely set up their conflict nicely in Part 3. As a plus, I think the repositioning also helped having a little lightheartedness before things really take a turn in these last few episodes.

Beyond the story elements, I think MAPPA did an INCREDIBLE job with this part. I appreciated their accuracy to the story in Part 1 but was disappointed by some animation choices, as the 3D wasn’t my favorite and several characters were drawn off model (cough cough, Mikasa). However, I think MAPPA very much improved in their animation style this season. The 3D was less jarring, the animation was much less off-model, and they returned to a lot of 2D styles that had previously been reserved for 3D in the first part of the final season.

This season was flawless in my opinion from the animation, the music, the characters , the story, and the AMAZING openings and endings that perfectly represented Eren’s inner dialogue.

I am so happy to see that this will continuing into a Part 3, and I look forward to how MAPPA will wrap up the series. Based on this season, I have no doubts they will do so beautifully and give a proper farewell to this story.

I'm convinced there are no good cat anime. I hated The Cat Returns, but it was thankfully only an hour and the problems I had with it were mainly concerned with its short runtime. Meanwhile, I had to sit through this 1.5 hour atrocity of watching a girl creepily stalk her crush. Spoilers ahead.

I just...where do I even begin with A Whisker Away? The only positive thing I can say is that the animation is good. Studio Colorido did a great job. But I absolutely hate everything else.

Muge is quite possibly one of the worst protagonists I've ever seen in an anime. The movie attempts ... to give her a tragic backstory through her parents' divorce, but it doesn't make me sympathize her all that much, especially when that trauma manifests in attachment issues that lead her to turn into a cat and unhealthily stalk her crush. Even in human form, Muge is obnoxious to Hinode and harasses him day in and day out. There's a crazy double standard occurring here because I know if the gender roles were reversed, there would be far fewer fans of this movie.

And yet, Hinode's feelings toward Muge gradually become more mutual during the course of the movie. Why? I have no idea. If I learned the girl who harassed at me at school was turning into a cat in the afternoon and visiting me, I don't think I'd be so cool about it. But Hinode barely bats an eye. Mostly, he seems to be guilted into a relationship with Muge. Hinode's feelings never seem to change as the result of an interaction between himself and Muge. Rather, they only seem to become romantic when he's at a distance from her and learning about her through others, for example, when Muge runs away or through Kinako when she's explaining the difficult situation Muge is in. The relationship never feels authentic or earned. Rather, it feels grossly forced onto Hinode.

The pacing of this movie is all over the place. It rises and falls but never seems to stabilize. Even the climax, which you would expect to be faster-paced, feels weirdly drawn out over the last 40 minutes.

The fantasy and worldbuilding elements also feel underdeveloped. I fully support not overly explaining your world, but there's barely anything to go off of. There's a magical cat-human mask seller who gifts Muge the mask, but that interaction is never laid out in explicit detail, and we never even really find out his place in the cat-human world, let alone his name. The movie hints that many of the cats in the cat world were once humans, but if that's the case, why has no one teamed up against the mask seller yet? And then what's the ratio of cat-human to cats in the cat world? Because Kinako, the housecat living at Muge's father's house, seems familiar with the world but clearly isn't a human. The world feels like a cheap rip-off of the Cat Kingdom from The Cat Returns (a movie which I also hated), but I can admit the worldbuilding was better explained in that movie.

I honestly thought the only interesting character was Kinako. Her jealousy toward Muge for receiving motherly attention from Kaori and the actions she takes to prevail over Muge would have made for a much better story than Muge stalking her crush until he finally gives in and agrees to be with her. I felt more sympathy for Kinako during her one-minute backstory than for all of Muge during the movie. How is it that a short story about a housecat wanting nothing more than to prolong her life so she could loving her owner resonates more with me than Muge dealing with a broken household?

A Whisker Away is one of the worst anime movies I've seen in a long time. Its protagonist is heavily unlikable, the romance is forced, and the worldbuilding leaves something to be desired. I can't believe I'm saying this as I hate both movies, but somehow or other this film is the Antichrist to The Cat Returns.

Well, it's the first time I've ever had a half rating on MAL. 6.5 stars from me, but unfortunately MAL doesn't have half-ratings, so I went with my gut and gave it the lower rating. [Spoilers ahead.]

I really wanted to like Aquatope on White Sand, and in the beginning, I really did. The first cour appropriately set up its conflict, gracefully introduced its audience to the main characters - Fuuka and Kukuru, and set the groundwork for what I thought was going to be a fairly good slice-of-life anime.

The first cour really pulled at my heartstrings. While Gama Gama is a fictional aquarium, ... at times I felt like I was there, experiencing all the emotions and memories that the characters did. Some of those earlier episodes made me teary-eyed, and during that episode where the storm shuts the power off? Damn. I felt Kukuru's grief deeply. In the first cour at least, I really felt that Aquatope portrayed Fuuka and Kukuru's troubles in a way that felt real and raw. It's not very often that I can feel emotion seeping from an anime.

And then the second cour happened...

The first cour wasn't flawless by any means. I felt a lot of the plot points were predictable (Kukuru sister reveal being one). Aquatope tried to throw in several curveballs, all of which were predictable and all of which never impacted the plot that heavily. In the episode where Kukuru learns she had a twin sister, I felt after all the build-up to that reveal, there was a brief moment of acceptance and then it was never addressed again :/ I'm sorry, if I learned I had a deceased twin sister, I might have some trauma from that. But Kukuru just nods and adds her mother's pregnancy book to her shrine and that's that.

Additionally, the side characters never really received much attention beyond Fuuka and Kukuru. I was okay with this since the series seemed focused on their emotional journeys. Plus, I figured the second cour would help expand some character arcs (lmao I THOUGHT).

As the first cour came to an end, I was surprised that Gama Gama did shut down. By normal anime trope standards, I assumed this would be a heroic story of how a ragtag group of teens managed to save the aquarium, but I felt Gama Gama closing was an original touch and once again brought an element of realism to the story. The first cour was a solid 7 for me on MAL, so I hoped the story would continue to keep me entertained, or even improve.

No.

I hated the second cour. I'm sorry. I absolutely hated it. It felt like I was witnessing an entirely different anime, and all the elements of the first cour that I liked were absent. I really didn't care much to see Kukuru's struggles with her career. The repetition each episode of Kukuru hating her marketing position at Tingarla and wanting to return to attendant work got annoying rather quickly. That annoyance increased with the addition of all the secondary characters who had no real relevance to the plot.

I felt like the first cour had an appropriate number of characters. Sure, they weren't developed to their highest potential, but they felt like appropriate members of the story, and I figured they would have bigger purposes in the second cour. Instead, we were introduced to a whole new gang of characters, none of which have any real purpose to the plot besides taking up some filler episodes. I never felt I emotionally connected to any of the new characters because of the sheer number that were introduced, and I think that's my problem with the second cour. Its story is too big.

What I enjoyed about the first cour was the simplicity of the story. It was about two girls "who met on the ruins of broken dreams," and were trying to help save a small town aquarium. The first cour's smaller story and lesser number of characters allowed the story to be character-driven and emotionally impactful.

The second cour was entirely plot driven. Except the plot wasn't that interesting and continued to be entirely predictable. None of the raw emotion I felt from the first cour was there. Even at the cour's climax, when Kukuru finally cracks and runs off, I felt nothing. With all these other nonsensical side character plots thrown in, I think the main story of Kukuru and Fuuka navigating their broken lives got lost in the second cour. In fact, Fuuka felt like a secondary character most of the second cour.

What really frustrated me however was in the last episode, when suddenly all the visions from Gama Gama come to Tingarla. I'm sorry, no. That was not okay. Tingarla did not earn that right, not when the story centered around Tingarla was weak compared to that of Gama Gama. Nowhere did I feel that the second cour had developed its characters enough and invoked audience emotion to reach that conclusion.

I am at least thankful that no romance plot was thrown in, as there were hints that Kai liked Kukuru all throughout Aquatope. I fully acknowledge this show queerbaited me, but I was happy that there was no romance at all rather than a forced heterosexual romantic relationship. Did I hope that Kukuru and Fuuka would end up together? Of course. But I fully knew I would be queerbaited entering into this show, and I'm glad the ending at least left it ambiguous for me to pretend that somehow Kukuru and Fuuka would be together. I didn't really appreciate the sister-zoning though, c'mon P.A. works. Queerbaiting rant aside, that does bring me back to the subject of the useless side characters, because at the end of the day, what was Kai's purpose, and why bring up his feelings for Kukuru if they were never addressed?

Overall, Aquatope is painfully average. It starts out as a beautifully animated, emotionally deep, character-driven tale of two young girls on broken paths in life. But past the halfway point, its main message gets lost in a sea of side characters and plot points, leaving behind an unsatisfying conclusion to what initially started as a promising emotional journey.

TL;DR: Just watch the first cour and pretend that's the end of the show.

I have so many thoughts about Steins Gate (both good and bad) that I don't even know where to begin. So I'll start with this: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD in this review.

Having heard of Steins Gate's popularity for years (and seeing that it was #4 on MAL) made me want to finally check out the show for myself a week and a half ago. I wasn't hooked right off the bat. The D-mail experiments were interesting, but I wasn't understanding what it quite was that made everyone lose their minds over this show. Then I got to the middle. Wow. All the D-mails coming to fruition, ... Mayuri's death, and the endless time loops were what really stuck out to me. I was suddenly more invested in the story than I had been before and was curious how the main characters would try to defeat fate.

The writing in this show is phenomenal. I will give it that. I think Steins Gate executes the concept of time travel practically flawlessly (and I've watched A LOT of time travel anime). It perfectly set up its beginning episodes to complement the ones that followed in the middle and completely circled back to its beginning episode in the end. I never felt confused and occasionally was awestruck by revelations (at the end when Okabe stabs Kurisu? I SCREAMED). I felt that this anime was really going somewhere, and while I never thought it was flawless enough to warrant a 10 on MAL, I thought a 9 was well-deserved.

And then things took a turn with the last few episodes. As someone who has consumed a lot of media, I am no stranger to the fatal flaw of this show that has plagued many like it. The romance.

Let me paint you a picture of what I witnessed in this show, and then the direction it went. It's no secret that Okabe flirts with a lot of women on this show, but during the middle of the series, when Mayuri is murdered in front of him, one thing was clear to me. This was someone very important to him. Someone he loved. There were many points leading up to this moment in the show that made me think this. One great example I can think of is when Okabe is receiving ominous texts from SERN, and his first thought is to run back to the lab to make sure Mayuri is okay through a pretty amazing animation sequence. Up to this point, while the two had been portrayed as friends, there was no doubt in my mind that their relationship went deeper into something that was emotionally-complex and quite honestly, beautiful. I think the dream sequence that Okabe has of Mayuri around the time of her death is testament to this, and even the opening puts such a large emphasis on them that I knew their relationship had to be one of the major focuses of this show.

Once Mayuri dies and the time loop begins, it is clear how much Mayuri's death torments Okabe, and it's easy to see she is his priority with the sacrifices he asks his friends to make to try to save her. The latter half of the show is heavily Mayuri-focused, and as Okabe tried again and again to enter into a world line that would allow Mayuri to live, I was looking forward to see how that would be accomplished and how their relationship would progress. From my understanding, seeing how important Mayuri was both to Okabe and this arc in the show made it so I had no doubt in my mind that eventually Okabe and Mayuri would enter into a relationship.

And then in Episode 22 Okabe confesses his love for Kurisu. I'm sorry, what?

I won't pretend to deny that there was flirting occurring between the two, but at the end of the day, I saw them only as friends. They lacked that emotional connection and beauty to their relationship that Okabe and Mayuri had, and while Okabe was clearly distressed to go back and alter the world line, causing Kurisu's death by doing so, I assumed this conflict was because, like Okabe has demonstrated before, he wants to protect all his friends and keep them alive. I did NOT expect Okabe to confess his love out of nowhere and an awkward, out-of-place kiss scene between him and Kurisu. Afterwards, Mayuri is completely forgotten as a character.

Please tell me why I wasted my time sitting through so many episodes focused on trying to stop Mayuri's death when in the end, it didn't seem to mean anything for either Mayuri or Okabe. There seemed to be no closure between Okabe and Mayuri when it came to this event and the consequences it brought. During the time loop arc, Okabe is clearly distressed over his failure to keep Mayuri alive, and Mayuri misses his company and has suffers from remnants of memories of her being murdered. The two characters never discuss this despite it being such a pivotal plot point. Once they enter the world line where Mayuri lives, Mayuri only gives him an okay to go date Kurisu, and that whole multiple episodes of torment where Okabe is trying to prevent Mayuri's death is just seemingly forgotten, like it was just a bad dream, when in actuality I expected some real repercussions from all of this and some character development between the two. Hell, it doesn't even feel like their friendship has strengthened by the end of this. Their relationship feels no different from episode 1.

So quite honestly, I think this show would've been better with no romance at all.

Getting past the romance, there were other issues I had with the show. One had to do with its predictability. Now don't get me wrong. There were a few plot twists that shocked me. Suzu being John Titor was one, and of course Okabe being the one who actually killed Kurisu in the beginning (or did he? hmmm). That being said, I felt like I predicted every other major plot point - Mayuri's death, a plotline with Okabe going back in time to save her (I am not even kidding, I predicted this about five minutes into episode 1 because Mayuri had such *killable main character* energy), as well as Moeka having ill intentions, Mr. Braun being involved with SERN, Faris sending a D-mail to bring her dad back to life, the list goes on and on. I never felt like the show hid these facts that well, and that made me lose out on the fun of figuring out the mysteries of this show.

Prior to watching this show, I just finished watching Higurashi, another time loop show with very similar qualities to Steins Gate. While the shows are different, they share similar plotlines - repeating time loops and trying to defeat fate to stop a character's death (and Suzu and Rika share the same VA). I'm not here to argue which time loop show is better than the other, but there's something Higurashi does so much better when it comes to revealing mysteries. Higurashi always kept me on my toes and made me always stop and ponder, but I was disappointed to be predicting so many "jaw-dropping" moments in Steins Gate. Perhaps Higurashi gave me galaxy brain when it came to time loops, but I also think there could've been a better written mystery in Steins Gate.

I also felt Kurisu's arc with her dad was not given enough attention in the show to warrant such a strong emphasis in the end. It only comes up a few times, much less than the whole Mayuri time loop arc, and yet it plays such a big role in the final few episodes, and for what? Suddenly we're reminded that Kurisu's dad is a dick again, and it plays a role in her stabbing, but again, compared to the whole Mayuri death time loop, it just feels like such a minimal plot point in the entire frame of the show.

I also almost lost it with Suzu returning so they could prevent World War III in the final few episodes. Like, you're kidding me, man. What? Why do we need to throw this random ass plot point in too? Convenience-sake so we can save Kurisu? Yup, seems like it.

I don't know what it is about anime and their third arcs a lot of the time, but I just wasn't satisfied with the last few episodes of Steins Gate, which was such a let-down since I had been thoroughly enjoying it up to that point. My disappointment tonight honestly makes me not want to rewatch it anytime soon, which is sad, as I felt this was going to be such a good show, and while maybe not one of my favorites, an anime that I could fondly look back on and rewatch from time to time. But now I just get irked every time I think about the ending.

In conclusion, despite its flaws, I do still think Steins Gate is a really good show, far better than a lot of anime I've seen, and I won't deter the curious viewer from watching it, but as someone who was misled by the romance, let down by the mystery, and given an unsatisfactory conclusion, the highest I can really give it is an 8, and I definitely do not agree with its ranking on MAL, but to each their own.

(Major Spoilers Ahead)

Going into Sotsu, I was extremely excited after the events of Gou. We had been left on an exciting cliffhanger, and I figured the Satoko and Rika battle was imminent. I was looking forward to seeing their conflicts with each other come to fruition.

I waited. And waited. And waited. And then when the last 2 episodes of Sotsu aired, I got a mediocre telling of the events following the infamous "Satoko pulling out a gun" scene.

What was the point of this season? One could argue it was an "answer arc," but the story was not as masterfully told as Kai by any means. ... In fact, I felt like I was just anxiously sitting through all of Gou again, waiting to get to where the story had left off. The beginning arcs were at least interesting, probably because they aligned with the more interesting arcs in Gou and because there was extra original content to splice in. But then as the season progressed it just felt like I was watching episodes of Gou again with 25% original Satoko content thrown in. That was extremely disappointing.

Finally, after what felt like forever, we finally returned to the "Satoko pulling out a gun" scene, but I was less than satisfied with what followed. I was not a fan of the shounen-like battle scenes thrown in near the end. I enjoy this series for the mystery and suspense, not because I want to see the same shounen battle that I repeatedly see every anime season. The supernatural elements were really heightened in this sequel series too, and I'm not really sure I was a fan of that either.

I was extremely disappointed with the confrontation between Satoko and Rika. With the way their character arcs and the main conflict had been built up, I was upset to see their battle reduced to a shounen-style scene rather than a battle of wits which you'd always see in the original Higurashi.

In my last review I commented that I thought this was an excellent idea for a sequel, but now I'm leaning on the side of others that this does feel more like a cash grab. It's so disappointing to think that. I still think the set-up for Gou was spectacular, that it made sense to have Satoko become the villain after Rika leaves Hinamizawa. I still enjoy Gou tremendously. I just don't know how a masterful answer arc like what we saw in Kai could not carry over in Sotsu.

That being said, I do think the ending was appropriate. Having Rika and Satoko separate was what I thought would be the best resolution, and as lonely as the ending felt, there was a bittersweet nature to it which I felt was appropriate. I do think at least that the character arcs were still well done, especially since prior to Gou and Sotsu, I never even cared much for Satoko as a character prior to Gou, but now she is one of my favorites. This series had me rooting for both Rika and Satoko simultaneously, and I often switched sides on who I wanted to "win." As much as I'd love to continue sharing my disappointments with Sotsu, I have to admit, that's good character writing. (So why was the plot written so shittily?)

It's been about a year now since I became entangled in the Higurashi series. I do not regret it for the world, but I was disappointed to see how this sequel series turned out in the end. For a story that set up its characters, plot, and mystery so well in Gou, it was a shame to see it all go to waste in Sotsu, especially when I know what Higurashi is capable of from the original story. I wish we had been given a more satisfying ending to this story and these characters, but that's what I get for falling into a sequel series.

In conclusion, I don't hate Gou and Sotsu. I can see myself rewatching them in the future, but I think after watching these two series, it very much confirms for me that the original Higurashi will always be a step above these sequels (and maybe also that Takano is a better villain). If you're looking for a great story, then yes, original Higurashi is the way to go, but if you want maybe some more fun content for spooky season, then turn on Gou and Sotsu. Just know you will not be getting as satisfying of a conclusion.

Delightfully charming and serious when it needed to be too. Spoilers ahead.

With reboots becoming much more common these days, I've subscribed to the "watch reboot first and then watch original for nostalgia's sake" club. I found this a satisfactory method when watching Fullmetal Alchemist and decided to do the same when watching Fruits Basket. I watched all 3 Fruits Basket (2019) seasons as they were airing and absolutely fell in love with the franchise. When it came to an end in June 2021, I decided to pick up the original because I wanted to consume every last bit of this franchise that I could.

When I ... watched the original Fullmetal Alchemist after watching Brotherhood, I enjoyed it somewhat but was mostly bored and upset at all the cut characters and plotlines. I expected a similar situation watching the original Fruits Basket. That was not the case.

I see why this show was popular back in the 2000s. It was absolutely a joy to watch. The charm and humor that makes Fruits Basket so wonderful is still there, and while much of the drama that occurs later in the manga never made it into this series, the show still tackles serious themes well, and I think the last few episodes are testament to that. I laughed and cried and thoroughly enjoyed my time watching the original Fruits Basket. I think that if the manga had been completed and this series had chosen to tackle all of it, it might have done a pretty satisfactory job. Story-wise, nearly everything was the same compared to the reboot besides the ending and a few changes here and there.

There were, of course, some issues I still had. Obviously a HUGE chunk of the story is missing (the better chunk I would argue too), which is why I couldn't really rank this higher than an 8 since most of the 10 quality plots occur in later seasons of the Fruits Basket reboot. This series also really emphasized humor more than the reboot, and while that was enjoyable, I found I cried much less at this series compared to the reboot. Don't get me wrong, I love to laugh, but that sense of beauty and sadness so prevalent in the reboot was lost in the original series. Yes, I still cried multiple times, so this series was still adapting the wonderful story elements of Fruits Basket well, but I cried much less than I did even watching Season 1 of the reboot.

In terms of story elements, super strange having Akito being male, not a huge fan of Yuki's feminine voice, and yeah, the ending is as poor and vague as you would expect watching an anime trying to find an original ending when the manga is not yet complete. I have to give the anime credit for Tohru trying to reach out to and comfort Akito as it was very similar to what actually happens in the manga and reboot, but then afterwards everything is left extremely vague and there's no true closure (again, expected, but I would argue the vague ending of 2003's Fullmetal Alchemist tackled this same issue better). The animation really isn't great either considering this anime's older age and Studio Deen, but I was mostly here for the story, not the animation quality.

That being said, I did really like watching this, and while I never could imagine myself watching the original Fullmetal Alchemist again, I could definitely see myself rewatching the original Fruits Basket when in the mood. Of course, I will always give priority to the reboot for its better, complete story, but I see now why so many people enjoyed the original.

I'd probably still recommend that if you're on the fence between watching this and the reboot first, definitely watch the reboot and just pop this on afterwards for some nostalgia's sake. Both are pretty equal I would argue in terms of sharing the first few arcs of Fruits Basket, but obviously the reboot is going to be the one that gives you a more satisfying and complete story.