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Blue box is a romance about a group of students in a sports school. While feeling at times a sports anime, it manages to leaving out the training arcs, special moves.. and well most of the games. If you are expecting an exciting sports rivalry you will be let down. It follows normal people who are balancing school, extra curricular, and their love lives. The creator did a good job of balancing these elements - not leaning to hard on any one, but making everything feel a bit more real.

Taiki is conflicted to share his feelings with his senpai who is focused on her ... basketball performance, and has suddenly moved in with him - making it even more awkward to confess. His senpai is unsure about what love really is. His best friend, Hina, is torn between her feelings for Taiki knowing full well he likes somebody else. Hence, the love triangle takes center stage while the characters deal with each of their individual situations.

This isn’t a story about two people clearly in love dodging each other and misunderstanding each other. It is more nuanced as each deals with their unique emotional situation. The sports and living situation facilitate the plot to progress forward as they live their lives. As they become aware of this triangle each understand that if their feelings are real, then somebody has to get hurt.

Blue box isn’t a super fast paced drama. The premise isn’t particularly special. However, it manages to execute well on the ideas it has keeping you interested until the last minute. Taiki/Hina experience the most development and that is the strength of the show - if that is not your cup of tea then this may be somewhat boring. Chinatsu is probably the weakest character in this show - she is the polar opposite to Hina, who is lively and bubble, instead being quiet and invisible - almost to a fault.

This season manages to give some closure, which contentious amongst reviewers, is the logical and congruent decision making me even more a fan of the series. I do recommend, and eagerly await season 2!

P.S. first OP is a banger.

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 2 takes an additional leap and embraces a new more episodic formula than i recall from season 1 - perhaps since Kusuri was introduced. It involves a singular type of joke and then application through the personalities of all the girlfriends. This season seems to embrace the full off-the walls comedy setting with various success. Some jokes are truly obnoxious, and a handful are also truly hilarious.

The appearance of new girlfriends is spread in-between. You have the masochist, the beauty queen, the super shy girl, and the hungry girl introduced this season. ... The type of humor mostly depends on which girl was just introduced, and lets be honest this isn't a show about characters really developing - although Karane gets her own arc at the end.

Overall, if you enjoy the humor of the series it then you will enjoy it. If you were looking for plot then you were maybe in the wrong show.

Arise from the Shadow is every shounen fan's dream. It is one of the best pure-power fantasies and it nails the feeling you want from it. This isn't a show for plot. This isn't a show about character development. This a show about being OP AF. The strength of this season is Jin-Woo's path into the spotlight among the other S-rank in Korea and Japan. There is only one chance for the reveal and the stage is set for it.

Animation is still full of 'sakuga' moments that capture some of the magic of the original Manhwa. It is really intriguing that they can ... carry over the art strength of it into the anime adaption. Pacing is good with no fight lasting more than 1 episode, allowing some movement between fights without big gaps. Story is classic Gate fantasy genre and still just as questionable as the first season. I think the added budget allows it to pass as more unique than it actually appears. At least, if you don't think about the plot at all. To be fair, not many gate fantasies have been adapted (as opposed to non-modern day adventure guild fantasies) which adds to it's mainstream popularity. Some plot points can be added for the sub-plot of his father, his mother, and the general raid on the island that periodically get alluded to in parallel which helps make things seem more immersive than focusing on just the other adventurers.

Jin-Woo and all of the other characters don't show any development this season. Jin-Woo continues to be almost 'controlled' by his leveling ability and acts overly rationale at all times; although there is one moment which breaks this mold and provides a glimpse of the human within. Nobody else really acts as anything other than a tool to progress the plot.

Overall, if you liked season 1 you will like season 2. The animation and feel of the show stays while progressing towards Jin-Woo's grand reveal - arguably one of the greatest/most satisfying plot devices a shounen has to offer.

Nina is a orphan who is betrayed by her friends to the prince of the kingdom to replace a dead princess. While the show contains many light-hearted moments given Nina's overly positive personality, it depicts the reality of her being a replacement relatively well. Some suspension of disbelief is needed, but overall the political intrigue in the kingdom was well formatted and capitalizes on her role as a peace offering to the larger nation. I think the best scene is where she uses that leverage to blackmail the king.

However, the plot greatly derides itself. Going to the new nation to protect those she has ... grown to love is good, but Azure's appearance and actions quickly makes everything worse. While it was always a josei love story, him randomly becoming king and loitering around the other kingdom for a few episodes is infuriating to watch. I understand they wanted him to reappear, but it felt very contrived. Sett as a character is rather frustrating, with all the brothers being a horrible addition to the story.

Nina is definitely the best character, and while a bit over the top, it is always exciting to see how she will react and handle the situation. I just wish the male love interests were more than just some hot perfect princes.

Overall, Re:Zero has been airing a while. Considering the amount of episodes given to this show you come to expect more and more as the plot thickens. The issue is this season does feel like more of a tournament arc rather than what is expected of the series. Subaru is somewhat of a full knight now, and i think with it comes a struggle: "what is next for our protagonist?"

The writer attempts to leave behind reliance on the return by death mechanic, although still present, with little success. In this season after a 1 year time skip, Subaru with every character goes to a city ... to... well that isn't important. What is important is when i mean everyone I am not joking; almost every archbishop of sin, election candidate, and their full cast of characters is present. Not to mention a few introduced for the city. Unfortunately they do not synergize leaving you with a shallow sub-plot for each of them. All of these are also progressing simultaneously giveing a serious sense of nausea. There is nothing more loathsome than a battle that spans more than 1 full episode never mind 4-5 at once. Yet, the second half of this season only contains long drawn out battles. I love action, but there has to be more than a shounen-esque discussion about the arch-bishops weakness! Where is the concise battles from either of the earlier 2 seasons? The battle in the shop season 1 was quick and exciting. Even the battle for the whale was epic. These feel like cheap thriller grabs.

Complaints aside when applied the return by death gave me similar feelings to season 1. The fights are pretty well animated if lacking in depth and overall direction. While annoying and slow, it is good to see the candidates together (although none of this progresses the election plot). Seeing more arch-bishops initially feels epic. Subaru actually learning to fight is interesting to watch and he does have some good moments.

Re:Zero is a victim of success. It has built up expectations as a thrilling and gruesome story, but the writer has made it devolve into a more lighthearted shounen action series. The dialogue feels more forced, the theme a bit brighter, and battles more of a focus. I was still excited to watch each week of this season, but have mixed feelings on the shift in tone and theme as the seasons progress.

No - even for a trash isekai fan this is not a good isekai. Takumi gets alchemy and literally every other skill and starts making everything from toilets, to inter-dimensional wagons, to pocket storage. There isn't anything he cannot do, but the magic system is all over the place making it annoying to grasp. You never get a very satisfying OP protagonist moment.

The saving grace is that the plot is fast. It felt like every two episodes might be covering a new story arc, sometimes a single episode felt like it covered what a normal LN would take a entire volume to cover. The ... events themselves might have been acceptable if the animation wasn't abysmal. Every action scene is a shot of a single still frame with movement lines drawn on them. As a viewer there is no excitement brought by watching this show, and with a lackluster story everything else falls apart.

Yes, there is a lot of slavery in this as well - and girls who protest being released from their slave contracts. The other summoned Japanese people are constantly shown and are mostly irrelevant, but they spend 2-3 minutes each episodes showing them being generically evil. Takumi doesn't develop at all as a character; maybe towards how he views his slaves, but nothing that distinguishes him over any other protagonist. It feels like he just reacts as a nice guy would to everything going on around him.

Overall, i would suggest watching any other isekai that has somewhat half decent animation over this show.

Zenshuu is a anime that one can tell is a love project and that the team poured a lot of feelings into it. The theme of a anime director unable to direct a show about a first love novel and who ultimately chokes on a piece of food only to be transported to the world of her favorite anime - a movie "A Tale of Perishing" that was known for being corny and a flop. Natsuko enters into this strange world where she joins the crew of heros with her amazing power to bring to life any animations she conjures up.

The show has great animation, ... track, voice acting. However suffers from a episodic drawing of the week (for you of the episode) format with no real tangible plot movement. Yes, Natsuko interacts with each of the characters but the overall feeling is that you are following the story of a mediocre kids movie which she struggles to correct throughout the entire series. There is a artistic message that, if you care to follow, might speak to you... If not it makes it feel like you are not the target audience for this show.

While the plot severely is lacking - the characters do feel like they develop, the little unicorn voice acted by Kugimiya, Rie fits her typical niche and feels like he matures as he sees the changes in his best friend, the hero Luke whom Natsuko has been obsessed with drawing her whole life. Natsuko matures as well as she learns to rely on her new friends in this weird world.

Overall, this show is animated with a lot of sakuga moments, characters are corny but likeable, and a mediocre plot. I kept thinking this is why the movie "A Tale of Perishing" in the anime itself probably flopped. Unless you are like Natsuko and become a huge fan you may end up like the viewers in the show - disappointed.

Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon overall is a fine romantic drama, but lacking any impact that distinguishes it. However, it has a lot of aspects which made me enthusiastic to watch all the way through. For one, the production value of the visuals is breathtaking. Every scene, has a high attention to detail. The setting is, while not unique, intriguing as it is set in a feudal early 1900's Japan where powerful families have unique powers - which the story does not rely heavily on at first.

Which is interesting because this story is at it's best when it doesn't rely on the fantasy elements ... and focuses on the human emotion and politics. The first 7-8 episodes were very enjoyable and i think i might recommend it to anyone purely because of that. However, they go for a full fantasy superpower arc and it feels... Dumb. New characters are introduced and motives hastily explained at the end. Suddenly all the fantasy elements are front in center instead of being a cool aspect in the background. It almost feels like a different story. To make matters worse, they basically repeat the same damsel in distress plot as the first arc which really hurts Miyo's character. In a weird analogy; it felt like one of those rushed anime original endings - the type that is thrown in to mark a dramatic end to the story but doesn't fit.

In my opinion Miyo is a good character, her backstory is well written and interactions with other characters feel genuine. However, good does not mean interesting. She is a meek character who has been abused all her life, and she plays that role perfectly the entire cour. It can get frustrating to watch her suppress even the most basic responses because she is afraid. As an introverted hermit, even i was rolling my eyes at how annoying she felt to watch. She does develop, but even when there isl development (where she opens up to the lead) at her core she is still the quiet introverted character she was at the start and it is hard to notice the difference. Somebody who is analyzing her can see it but there is no payoff for the viewer.

The other characters were fine- weird vibe that the entire show revolved around everyone being infatuated with marrying her except for Kudou and her own family. Kudou is cool, but does seem like mostly your white knight character who can do no wrong.

I would recommend if you enjoy the setting and theme, but i do have to put this slightly above average at a 6/10.

Overall summertime render is a thought provoking mystery, with a moderately decent cast of high school students and a few adults unraveling the truth about a small islands history and mystical aspects. I enjoyed the show - but as you may find if you watch there are aspects that change between the first and second cour which make it unable to stick the landing.

Per the synposis; shinpei is essentially investigating the murder of his childhood friend and connection to the "shadows." Odd events start happening which leads him to try and protect his adoptive family members and friends on the island. Throughout the first cour ... there are exciting and surprising events as well as some cool action moments. The biggest take away is the first half is more grounded in reality and is a mystery with cool twists and reveals. The characters can feel somewhat one dimensional as most anime characters do, but despite that they don't feel fake or unrealistic - they are all rational, sensible, and likeable. It's more of this character defining trait is they are the good friend character who likes girl A, or this character is the old man with the gun who is good at shooting... and nothing else.

However, to no surprise the mystery gets exposed and the murder solved at some point which results in a change of tone - no longer is he investigating now he is fighting. You feel like you have a good grasp of the fantasy aspects of the show, only for them to keep increasing the stakes and powers. For me I enjoy a good thoughtless power system - i watch a lot of isekai - but one of the greatest weaknesses in this show is the fact that it doesn't establish the limits of the "shadows." I feel like the best part about the show was when it was grounded and you were trying to figure out what was going to happen within the established limits of the fantasy elements. However, when they start playing 4D chess, literally see time travel tag, and using powers you didn't know they had it starts to turn into more of a shounen battle anime than a suspense mystery.

That being said the action in the second half is very well choreographed. I binged the first half on the edge of my seat and was mostly far back in my seat the second. All that being said - i would still recommend this to anyone. The time traveling is relatively well done, and i think any show that can pull that off deserves some attention. Despite the above i really did enjoy watching this show and definitely deserves an above average rating.

I always find it amusing to watch BL as a straight guy. While i don't relate well to the relationship it is interesting to get the perspective. To start it seemed promising it was more serious than not. Nothing wrong with suspension of disblief, but always refreshing for a mature take. However, as it started to go past the first 10 minutes i was starting to get more confused.

Having looked at other reviews i now understand that this is an adaption, and they are right that it is a very poor adaption at that. I somewhat understood what was going on, but at the ... same time there was a lot of little details missing. Combine the fact that this is a short 50 minute movie, and well... There are two separate arcs in the movie as well which felt very distinct from each other. Half way through i was asking myself if it was finally over or what they were going to do. Putting in the second arc just made it seem even more rushed.

I didn't feel anything special for any of the characters as there was not time to develop them. I appreciated the flashbacks as to why he felt he did about being gay, but overall think they didn't do a good job at fleshing out the characters. That being said the art is decent and sounds is average. Overall i appreciated the serious tone, but the story was way to incoherent for me to recommend.