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tl;dr: A sequel season that’s still pretty good but is somewhat losing its charm.

The second season of Nagatoro picks up where the first left off. Nagatoro still teases Senpai, but its not that serious and it’s never to the degree that he really seems to mind. To be honest, it all feels really casual and kind of like background noise. What is being focused on instead this time is better fleshing out Nagatoro, Senpai’s character development, and actual proper relationship development between the two.

Fleshing out Nagatoro was decent, but not particularly engaging. We see a bit of her older sister, who’s amusing in how similar ... she can be to Nagatoro, but beyond that there isn’t much more to her in what little of her we see. We also get background and somewhat of a character arc for Nagatoro. She previously had a strong interest in something, due to a fear of failure she lost that interest, but Senpai helps motivate her into picking it up again. This is incredibly simplistic and to be honest feels pretty rushed. All in all, I suppose it’s nice to get to know Nagatoro better, but that’s about it.

Senpai’s character arc I don’t really like. He’s gaining more confidence and becoming more proactive, which is pretty nice to see. However, the framing around this is less him becoming more comfortable with himself or developing more as an artist or anything like that, but more so in the direction of him becoming more of a normie for a lack of a better way to say it. It emphasizes him trying to become physically stronger and trying to improve his appearance. Him switching from glasses to contacts is supposed to be an inflection point, but I can’t say I’ve ever been a fan of the whole ‘the glasses gotta go’ trope, so I rather dislike his new look.

Their relationship development is decent enough, but it’s also becoming a pretty generic innocent teen romance. As mentioned, the teasing is completely lacking in bite so their dynamic is just two kids that clearly love each other but are evasive in order to not have to admit it. I know I complained that Nagatoro was too cruel at the beginning of the first season, but I feel now its gone too far in the other direction. It’s a pretty solid execution of a simple teen romance but it doesn’t really feel as unique as the first season. The comedy also just isn’t as good in terms of the main couple. The comedy focused around the side characters, such as Gamou and the club President, is still great though so overall I would still say the comedy is good, but less so than the first season.

The art and animation are slightly weaker, but overall still pretty good. Though I would have to say I’m not fan of the way Nagatoro is starting to be portrayed at times. I like her wiggling and such, but her being portrayed as just a black blob is kind of strange. The OP kind of sort of has the same concept as the OP of the first season but isn’t as good in terms of the song or visuals. The ED I would have to say is better in terms of both aspects this time. The soundtrack was also surprisingly good.

tl;dr: A messy and generic cyberpunk ninja manga.

This is the manga adaptation of a novel series about a ninja’s fight against a criminal organization in a cyberpunk version of Japan. The manga begins by showing how the protagonist was originally just a salaryman, but that after his wife and child were killed as a result of simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time in the middle of an operation by the Soukai Syndicate, he made it his life’s goal to destroy them. This is where the manga gets a bit messy. It fast forwards a year into the future at which point ... the protagonist is now known as Ninja Slayer and is an incredibly powerful ninja that the Soukai Syndicate is after. You can pick up a lot of what’s going on from context, but it doesn’t really explain anything properly so it isn’t really clear at all how things got to this point or what is going on exactly.

At the end of the first volume it goes back to right after the protagonist’s family was killed. The rest of the manga is basically filling in the gap that the original time skip created. It shows how the protagonist is possessed by what is referred to as a Ninja Soul. It’s never quite made clear what that is or how it works exactly, but in essence if he allows it to take control of his body, he gains incredibly powerful ninja abilities, but he loses his humanity and starts mindlessly killing everyone around him. The story mainly involves him fighting against various ninja from the Soukai Syndicate while ensuring he stays in control. Along the way he gains a few allies, mainly a ninja sensei that teaches him techniques that he can use so as to rely on his Ninja Soul less, and a hacker that helps him deal with the cyber parts of the cyberpunk setting.

All in all, I found it all really generic. There isn’t really anything unique or particularly interesting about the cyberpunk setting. It’s basically just the standard stuff like high income inequality leading to a class of people that are treated as trash, corporate syndicates that have more power than the government, and cybernetic implants and modifications that make all sorts of superhumans. This manga leans towards being battle shounen so all of that is used as a framework for intense fights between people with wild powers. But it’s not particularly good at action either as the fighters and their abilities aren’t that well fleshed out. The cast overall is very flat without any depth to any of them. I also don’t find the art all that impressive as it was often trying to go for rule of cool, but only rarely succeeded. Combine that with how the plot is incredibly simplistic and even then doesn’t make any progress at all due to the strange structure, and the end result is a manga that’s mostly just dull and unsatisfying.

tl;dr: A pretty good girl bullying guy rom-com.

This anime is about the budding relationship between a gyaru named Nagataro and her timid Senpai. The senpai is apparently named Hachiouji, but I don’t remember that name ever being used so for the sake of this review I’ll just keep calling him Senpai. This is one of those anime that heavily involves a girl teasing the guy she likes. It starts quite a bit more extreme than any of the others I’ve watched. In the first episode I felt that Nagataro was just downright sadistic, and that Senpai actually seemed to respond well to her cruelty only ... made sense if he was a masochist. That’s a fair enough dynamic to write a story about, though one I’m not particularly interested in.

Thankfully for me, the rest of the show is nothing like that. Nagatoro keeps teasing Senpai, but there’s very quickly a major drop in how cruel she is, with things continuing to mellow out even further as the show progresses. By the end of the season, her teasing is mostly just superficial other than specific instances such as her trying to motivate him to run faster when training for a marathon. She’s still throwing out loads of insults, but they’re repetitive to the point they lose all meaning and Senpai takes literally no damage from them.

To be honest, at this point it kind of felt like Nagatoro was the one taking more damage due to Senpai than the other way around. Mainly because she’s clearly incredibly in love with him. Senpai remains a doormat and doesn’t really fight back at all, but occasionally still manages to turn things around and do something that completely flusters Nagatoro. She also gets jealous incredibly easily, and her gyaru friends basically use that fact to screw with her. She’s still trying to maintain that she doesn’t care about Senpai at all and thus whenever something happens she does her best to hide how she’s feeling, but that just makes things more amusing. The dynamic between all of them is mostly just funny.

Relationship wise, there is slow and steady relationship growth between the two. It’s nothing too deep or exciting. It’s simply a result of them spending time with each other, but that’s fine and works well. Rather, the part near the end that involved actual drama between the two of them felt pretty forced and wasn’t really enjoyable at all. Still, the finale involved Nagatoro and the gyaru’s legitimately for the first time helping out Senpai without any pretenses, so it was a nice point to end on.

The art and animation were pretty great. It managed to convey Nagatoro’s expressions really well, which was absolutely critical for this anime to work at all. But even beyond that I felt the character designs were pretty good for the simple setting. The OP was great in terms of the song and visuals. The ED was decent in both regards. The soundtrack was not particularly memorable but seemed to work well enough.

tl;dr: A manga with a very fun and unique main couple, but with a weak second half other than the ending.

This manga is about a romance between highschoolers that are both really straightforward. Shinichi has absolutely no filter and says everything on his mind with complete confidence very loudly without holding anything back. Mako is better at holding back but is still just as intense a lot of the time. She’s also overtly honest and somewhat gullible. Their relationship development is hilarious and heartwarming. There’s a bit of light drama but nothing too extreme. There are other girls that like Shinichi, but they’re there mainly ... just to push the main couple forward or act as comedic relief. It’s not like things happen instantly, but it’s absolutely clear how progress is being made without any ambiguity or dilly dallying. It’s pretty refreshing and enjoyable.

About halfway through it becomes more of a mixed bag. It begins focusing on a side couple that isn’t terrible, but they’re kind of boring compared to the main couple, and ultimately their story doesn’t really go anywhere. Shinichi and Mako also have relationship drama, which starts out pretty intriguing and in tune with their personalities. However, as it progresses it feels incredibly forced and contradictory to the type of people they are, and is thus just a drag. Still, it’s not like fun moments with the main couple dry up completely. And the final stretch is pretty much back to being as strong as the first half, leading up to a really satisfying ending and epilogue.

The art is pretty interesting. The best word I would have to describe it is loud. But everything else about this manga is also loud, so I would say it actually fits pretty well. Within that context, I thought the art was great.

tl;dr: A sequel that still has good comedy but tries to have more serious content and isn’t very good at it.

The second season of Uzaki-chan is a lot like the first. It’s still primarily about Uzaki teasing Shinichi for being a loner and the two being combative despite clearly liking each other. And the focus is very much comedy. However, there are quite a few differences, and not all for the better. I had two big issues this season.

The first is that there’s a lot more of Uzaki getting genuinely angry at Shinichi, in which case he becomes a complete pushover and apologizes incessantly regardless ... of how unreasonable Uzaki is being. A lot of people haven’t liked the dynamic between Uzaki and Shinichi in regards to her teasing him, but I thought it was fine because it was all in good fun and Shinichi was always at least trying to respond in kind. Seeing Shinichi being a doormat somewhat sours things.

The other issue is the emphasis on the relationship moving slowly. I absolutely do not mind slow moving relationships as long as there’s other things to compensate. In this case there’s a lot of good comedy so I’m perfectly fine with their relationship development moving at a snails pace. What I don’t like is how much time is spent on characters lamenting how slow their relationship is moving. It would be fine if this was solely for the humor, but its done completely seriously and feels like actual drama. But that really doesn’t fit at all and just makes things feel like they’re dragging on tediously. And of course, as expected, in the end things don’t really progress all that much regardless.

Both of these end up taking away from the good points of the first season. But on the other hand, there were some great additions this season as well. Mainly that we spend much more time seeing both Uzaki and Shinichi’s families. Uzaki’s family have a pretty fun dynamic. Shinichi’s family is wild. Both of them add some good variety to the comedy. And the stuff with Shinichi and Uzaki’s father is probably the funniest content in the show, in either season. So while some of the character and plot related stuff is getting somewhat annoying, the comedy is still pretty great, and that’s enough to hold up this season pretty well, though I’d still consider it weaker than the first.

The art and animation are solid. Though the pool episode is kind of strange in that it seems to be an ad for an actual place (Yunessun) and is using actual photos of the place as backgrounds in a way that looks kind of cheap. The new character designs are fine. The OP and ED are pretty good in terms of the visuals and song. The soundtrack is also works well enough but is nothing too special. Though there is a track that reminded me of TWTNW in KH2 that I found pretty memorable.

tl;dr: A manga targeted at experienced Mazinger fans with not much to offer those who are not.

This is a direct sequel to Shin Mazinger Zero. In fact, the first chapter is essentially an epilogue to the first series, and a pretty good one at that. However, after that the manga overall is vastly different from the first series, or at least that’s how it appears to someone without any prior background with the Mazinger franchise. The first manga was still easy enough to follow, but with this one I don’t think I was really able to appreciate most of what the mangaka was trying to ... do. The background to the various references seem to be much more important, and the deconstruction seems to be much more specific to Mazinger than the mecha genre overall, and thus I felt like I was missing quite a lot by not being able to understand them. And that’s not even getting into how things get incredibly meta with fourth wall breaks that felt like they were talking to an audience I am not in. The art and action are still well done, but without the necessary context surrounding them I can’t say I was able to enjoy them either.

tl;dr: A manga that clearly builds upon the Mazinger franchise, but that is still a pretty great standalone mecha manga.

This manga is described as a fresh take by a new author on the legendary Mazinger Z series that builds directly upon its predecessors but takes things in a different direction. Thus, I will begin this review by making clear that this this was my first foray into Mazinger franchise. I of course have known about it due to its historic importance to the mecha genre and have picked up various things about it through osmosis. But I’ve never actually watched a season or read through ... any other manga of it. Thus, this review is from the perspective of someone who is new to Mazinger and is not coming in with any preexisting appreciation for the franchise, nor any built up knowledge to use as a lens to better comprehend.

Coming at it in such a manner, it was pretty clear immediately that this manga wasn’t really intended for me. The manga begins right in the middle of things without any explanation of what is going on or who the characters involved are. Throw in some time loops and as a newcomer things got really confusing. However, in volume three it went back and through an extended flashback fully explained the background of the world and essentially explained who everyone was and their relation to what was happening. After this point things were easy enough to follow. Now, I’m sure that there were still loads of references to other Mazinger media or deconstructions of common Mazinger tropes that I completely missed. And I caught a few references to other Gou Nagai works, so I’m sure there was a lot I ended up missing there too.

However, even without any of that, the manga still felt like it was telling a complete story, and a pretty great one at that. The plot is well paced with big twists thrown in at great moments to keep things interesting. The characters are well written and very likable and thus easy to get invested in. The romance between Kouji and Sayaka isn’t particularly complex, but it’s still pretty cute and heartwarming. The mecha action is exciting and incredibly well presented. And even though I don’t have any background with Mazinger, Mazinger was the origin of a lot of common tropes and themes found in the mecha genre. And thus, while I may not be able to appreciate this manga in the specific context of the Mazinger franchise, there was a lot I found very cleverly done in how it twisted and played around with core aspects of being a mecha work. The biggest issue I had with the manga turned out to the be the ending, wherein although the climax is fantastic, the manga ends incredibly abruptly immediately after without even the simplest of epilogues.

The art was very interesting. It was clear the mangaka was trying to emulate the style of the original work, but at the same time their own style was clearly also shining through. I think there were some rough spots early on, but things eventually settled into a style that worked really well. There were great character and mech designs, though I’m not sure how much of it is original and how much is from earlier Mazinger works.

tl;dr: An anime that’s strangely a non-harem harem that is still somehow pretty generic, but is well executed enough to be good.

This anime is about Rokudou, a high school student who’s just trying to have a normal school life. Unfortunately for him, the school he attends is full of delinquents and thus he and his friends are the primary targets of a lot of bullying. This changes when he find a magic scroll from his late grandfather that infuses him with a spell that causes all ‘bad girls’ to fall in love with him whether he wants them to or not, wherein ‘bad girls’ for ... the most part just seems to just mean delinquent girls. Getting strong delinquent girls on his side is enough to stop the bullying. However, Rokudou isn’t comfortable with a spell forcing girls to be in love with him. And as he knows nothing about magic, the only way he can think of to stop the spell is by helping reform the delinquent girls so that they’re no longer ‘bad girls.’

This anime is generally listed as harem, but it really isn’t one at all. I’m not saying that as some sort of defense as I actually generally like harem anime. However, this just doesn’t really have what is appealing about the genre, though it does have it’s own type of appeal. While this anime does have a lot of girls that are attracted to the protagonist, most all of the ones that matter seem to like him less over the course of the anime. For example, one of the first main characters that falls in love with Rokudou is Osanada. He successfully reforms her and it is explicitly made clear that this results in her no longer being in love with Rokudou, though she remains a constant presence in the story due to remaining a close friend.

How the rest of the heroines are handled is a bit more complicated. For example, Rokudou does help reform another bad girl named Himeno somewhat. But it’s not like she was a simple delinquent beforehand, so it’s kind of hard to judge just how reformed she is and it’s not like it’s clear how reformed she would have to be for the spell to stop affecting her. She definitely doesn’t seem to be in love with Rokudou as much as she was initially, but at the same time she still kind of sorta seems to care about him more than just a friend.

With others, they just kind of stop appearing after their arc so it isn’t clear where they stand. And with the main heroine, Ranna, it seems reformation is going to take a looooong time and thus the spell is just as strong at the end of the anime as the beginning. But my broader point is that the only time you’ll see Rokudou surrounded by girls that love him is when his spell actives and this causes a bunch of nameless girls that will never be seen again to mob him. Rather than girls, the vast majority of the time Rokudou is hanging out with his male friends. As such, this really doesn’t hit the notes that would be necessary to classify it as harem.

So the story isn’t really about romance with the girls, but rather about their reformation and the role Rokudou plays in that. This is where it gets complicated. While this isn’t a harem anime, Rokudou is still a lot like a generic harem protagonist. He’s overall just incredibly average. He’s not all that smart and he’s completely useless in a fight. The only things he has going for him is that he’s really strong willed and very kind. And that’s generally enough to allow him to help the girl in question overcome whatever it is that is causing her to be a delinquent. There’s usually a lot of fighting involved in this, and thus Rokudou’s traits generally manifest in things like him managing to inspire people through refusing to stay down despite how badly he’s beaten or things like his friends becoming his power. It’s all very cliche, but at the same time it’s pretty decently written and there’s a charm to the simplicity. The plot flows pretty well, though characters do seem to act very abruptly quite often. And in the end, combined with a lot of good comedy, it’s a pretty exciting and enjoyable watch.

The art and animation in this are decent. The art style is pretty unique and it definitely took some getting used to. And even then, I only find it decent and not especially good. The animation was pretty great with some surprisingly good action too. It’s obviously not at the level of the mainstream shounen battle anime, but it is much better than I expected. The OP is pretty solid in terms of the song and visuals. The ED has a pretty good song, and though the visuals are really basic I still like them. I also liked how both of them changed in the second half. Though I didn’t like how the OP played normally in the final episode, but it used the OP song as an insert in the climax too. It should be a rule to skip the OP when they do that. The background music was decent enough with some good tracks, but I can’t seem to find the soundtrack so I can’t be more specific.

This direct sequel continues in much the same vein as the previous season. The primary focus is still on the relationship between Yukimura and Himuro and scientifically determining whether it can truly be considered love. Similarly to the first season, they continue doing experiments that aren’t all that solid scientifically speaking, though the associated explanations provided by Rikekuma are still pretty well done. But more importantly, Yukimura and Himuro are still a great source of science themed romantic fluff. It’s a very bizarre relationship, but it’s one that’s definitely making progress which is pretty satisfying to see due to the two being pretty likable characters. ... And in turn their research is also evolving and growing in scope which results in the anime too having more variety.

On that note, I felt this season had a much stronger focus on characters other than Yukimura and Himuro. One of the focuses was the relationship between Ibarada and Inukai which definitely made some clear progress. Watching Inukai deny his feelings and Ibarada play around with him was pretty amusing, but this season it definitely felt like there was some depth to the characters as well. There were also a few new couples and a few side characters thrown in as well that weren’t all that interesting per se, but I suppose they helped things from getting stale. All of this in combination still wasn’t enough to make this season all that different from the first season, though I’d have to say the first season was better written. Thus, for the most part I’d say this anime is very similar but slightly weaker than the first season, but not significantly so.

The big exception however was Kaede’s arc this season. That was pretty terrible to the point that it drags the anime down a decent amount. I’m totally fine with Kaede’s character arc exploring what it means to be normal and how she’s obsessed with the concept. I’m also open to where Kaede’s story went romantically and can definitely see some potential to it. However, the execution was just bad. It didn’t really fit the tone of the work at all and was just all around really rough. And that being the big finale results in the anime overall leaving a pretty weak final impression. Though the issues shouldn’t really effect the story beyond the end of the season at all, and thus I’m still very interest in seeing the rest of the story.

The art and animation were okay but not particularly good. There was a lot of cosplay so I suppose they had fun with the character designs. The eye catches were also of the main cast wearing what’s supposed to be trendy clothing, but I didn’t think it looked all that good to be honest. The OP and ED were both solid enough in terms of the song and visuals. The soundtrack wasn’t particularly memorable.

tl;dr: A sequel that’s mostly a solid continuation, but has some badly out of place parts.

This manga is about the incestuous relationship of two long lost fully related blood siblings. Hitomi starts going to the same college as Shin and joins him in the filmmaking club. They immediately hit off and start going out. At this point it has been made clear to the reader that they are siblings, but the two have no idea. There’s a bit of a social thriller element here because the manga keeps on throwing in situations where it feels like they’re about to find out, but they don’t, and the two just continue progressing in their relationship. I felt this phase of the manga ... was handled really well. It’s not really trying to do anything too deep yet, but the flow of the story really draws you in.

In the second phase, which begins with the second volume, Shin discovers that they’re siblings but Hitomi is still unaware. As such, Shin tries to push Hitomi away to get her to stop being in love with him, but also tries to support her as her big brother because he feels familial obligation. However, he also doesn’t want her to realize he’s her brother because he wants to spare her the trauma. But Hitomi on the other hand is just completely confused and hurt by what’s going on. This phase of the manga I also thought was well done. It manages to convey the complexity of the emotions that Shin is feeling really well. And how Hitomi reacts to what in her mind is being unreasonably pushed away also conveys just how much she loves Shin. This phase ends at the end of the second volume, after which they decide to continue going out despite being siblings.

At first this is actually pretty lighthearted. There’s a sense of danger to things in that they have to keep their relationship a secret, but for the most part things go well and they’re happy together. The focus of the story becomes less about the relationship itself, and more them living their lives in the context of their relationship. This involves various things like making a movie and entering a beauty pageant. Some of the side characters are also a lot of fun. It’s nothing too deep or complex, but there’s a good amount of good romantic fluff and everything is paced decently well so it’s pretty enjoyable.

The final phase of the series begins halfway through volume 5. Things get much more serious and much more angsty. The mangaka seemed to have decided to tackle the themes of the manga properly, but unfortunately the writing just isn’t up to snuff. Shin and Hitomi suffer quite a bit, but ultimately it didn’t really feel like there was much of any point to it. It doesn’t really feel like it led to either of them growing as people, or that their relationship gets stronger as a result. It also doesn’t really feel like this portion of the manga had anything to say that the earlier lighthearted portion didn’t manage to say just as well. Drama and pain are often necessary for a good romance story, but for me afterwards it has to feel like there was a point to all of it. Here it all ultimately felt pointless. And thus, that made the ending pretty unsatisfying.

The art in this manga is great. It’s pretty good when it comes to backgrounds and such. But where it really excels is in how it portrays the female cast, especially Hitomi. This is ultimately the point that leads me to consider this a great manga.

tl;dr: A manga about taboo romance with great art and mostly good writing, but a terrible final stretch.