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Season 2 had promise but was just a rushed mess. They overloaded with so many fights with little in between time, and it didn't explain what was happening. It is almost impossible to feel anything due to how they had to wrap it up and fix season 1's slow pacing. Aside from the main fight, most of them were pretty forgettable, only one maybe daeriblade vs mihaelis.. This is largely because you didn't have a central suit, and factions weren't easily defined. They crammed so many suits, you have to literally pause to find which is which. This show had the most suits pushed into ... the small amount of cours ever. Many characters as a result struggle to have purpose especially Miorine who seemed to have done nothing all season. Suletta largely did not feel she went through hardship. Guel was the only good character in this show. The show struggled to have an antagonist and the last minute reveals while foreshadowed, cannot save all the series misteps.

There is really nothing too much redeeming about this series and not even anitube can explain why this show was so good, and have a poor frame of reference not seeing the classics. Please see stuff like UC and Cosmic Era. This is just another in a line of gundam au flops

As a huge fan of kentaro yabuki's To Love Ru, and someone who enjoyed Black Cat, this show sort of missed on all cylinders. It basically tried to fuse those 2 shows, and it didn't excel in either. What happened. Why is everyone so apathetic towards this show. Needless to stay, this probably isn't getting another season based on comments from twitter, so we are reviewing this based on what is here so far. Yabuki may not get another series animated for a while.

It wants to be an ecchi, wants to be an action show with lore, wants to be a romance, wants to be ... a comedy. So there is a fundamental identity crisis. As an ecchi, it is incredibly uncreative an just goes for the usual topless scene, usually focused just on Matsuri. Compared to Love Ru, it just feels lazy.

As an action show, nothing to write home about in 2023 with unimpressive action. It will look great in manga form, but this studio unfortunately won't be able to meet modern standards. Powers more or less ripping off Naruto characters like Sai and Ten Ten. Sosuke was a cool villain but unfortunately a fairly villain of the week one.

The story lacks a lot of structure, and if you aren't a fan of his art style, you will likely lose interest fast. It switches between action then sol, and more or less does the same thing. As a result, the simplistic story is not going to cater interest. It more or less just there to explain the transformation and becomes less relevant later on.

The biggest problem is definitely the characters since despite a smaller cast than TLR, Lucy and Yayoi feel way too secondary to even most of the TLR cast with no role to right home about. So there role feels gimmicky like Risa from TLR.

Comedy was good at the beginning with the transition but sort of fizzledo out later on, and I don't think the romance is well written. It is basically I have feelings and such.

He is a phenomenal artist but probably shouldn't try to tackle a manga by himself. To Love Ru didn't deserve to die for this. There are extremely talented writers like Koshi Tachibana that can fuse ridiculous fan service elements into an amazing epic. But Yabuki has shown he isn't one of them.

Congratulations aqua, you are no longer considered the most useless part of Konosuba. This spinoff is literally lazy filler writing only saved by cameos. The positive reviews are just crying megumin and Yun Yun without any evidence to show any actual plot and character development. 

Megumin feels the exact same before and after spinoff. Same know it all loli wizard. Yunyun is the same Clutz. They could have put a backstory for the villain but no. MEGUMIN, YUNYUN PEAK FICTION my ass. I cannot believe people are just blindly giving good reviews to this fillerfest since most of the community does not like the spinoff. The ... crash in ratings and polls proves it. It is being positively review bombed now which is just as toxic as the negative review bombed.

We have had many good ln spinoffs and prequels over the past couple of years. This unfortunately isn't. They gathered so many resources from fan support from Konosuba fantastic days over the years only to produce a redundant snoozefest devoid of the original comedy and any real plot. It is almost impossible to believe that 4 years ago, people were saying Konosuba is one of the best lns of all time and this spinoff dropped off top 10 in polls so early.

There is no real plot here but megumin going around with yunyun helping with meaningless tasks all the way to meet aqua. Megumin efforts to act funny don't work without Kazuma's pervertedness. The only saving grace is the cameos which is quite lazy and the animation which you barely see anyways due to lack of eventfulness. Konosuba itself isn't as action or lore driven as other lns. So if you decide to create a prequel to that which extends a season, it will bore people.

The worst part is viewers finish this without feeling this added to the viewing experience or lore. This spinoffs feels like the prologue you have the option to skip and not really miss anything. It is like a recap episode/compilation movie carefully packaged as a new season. Any relevant stuff like the Axis Order you were already familiar with in the second season. This probably would have been better made into an ova and not extending this into a series. Then using the resources to proceed to season 3. I cannot give this a good rating or review whatsoever. Most fans felt this season was a chore to get through. If you were to binge the series now, you would fall asleep through this one.

This series is a joy to watch. It doesn't try to waste the audience's time, shows an excellent side not explored in anime before, has very well rounded characters, fairly good animation, and overall not something similiar to what you have seen in anime before.
It also knows how to do ecchi well.

The story has people on death row basically sent to an island to kill each other off and with their executioners. But Gabimaru is immune to deaths and is against killing. So seeing them try to kill him and the explanations shows how much research the creator has done into the topic.

We haven't had ... many series like the Hunger Games. This is definitely one to look forward to.

For the animation, I don't think it looks as clean and polished as Chainsaw Man. But the action is still good nevertheless.

What initially was advertised as a punching bag for virtue signalling anitube ended up being an extremely enjoyable slice of life.

Uzaki chan second season is a massive step up from the first season. They didn't make the common mistake of reusing the big breast gags like how To Love Ru. Nor did it try to force a romance too fast like Aharen.

Uzaki's family is absolutely loveable and a blast to be with. Fujio really is a dad you want to root for since he is flawed, but also really wants the best for his daughters. Kiri definitely feels like he has personality. Ami is a ... great side character.

Sakurai is really one of the best rom com MC's we have gotten in a while. Not only is he kind of cool and someone you want to idolize, but he actually feels well written and down to earth. He seems more believable as the lone wolf senpai vs someone like Gojo from dress up darling who is way too much of a walking floor mat that happens to get into ecchi situations. His hobbies are relatable like going out to the gym, hanging out with guy friends, taking school seriously, making friends with people. It makes sense he is distance with his family since that is how a lot of lone wolfs chads act.

The plot is surprisingly unpredictable and it does give a good breath of situations to see how the Uzaki family reacts.

Overall Uzaki chan is the season that improves a rom com in every single way by exploring and expanding on every aspect of the characters vs relying on too many forced gags. Highly recommend to watch, since it vastly improves your opinion even if the first season felt full of gag.

This anime is not as bad as the VN purists would like you to say. As a matter of fact it is actually a much superior product that the disappointing gundam AUs of the 2010s. This is definitely the mecha show of the season and it certainly feels that way vs that new Gundam show that is more like a parody.

What people expected to be the berserk 2016 of VNs due to low funding, actually had phenomenal mecha action and sound mixing. I promised you the action does feel like it has proper build up, and you can really feel the tighter stakes and thrills. ... The sound doesn't feel like background noise and endless beam spams like the Gundam shows, but actually has the rhythm as they are building up to larger and larger stakes. It makes you feel like you are actually playing a video game vs watching a cutscene. The CGI rarely has blemishes like the regular 2d mechs where you can pause and see the bad drawings. Overall very well done for such a niche studio

The plot is definitely top notch and doesn't suffer from being proedictable. There is great surprises and you can really feel the trauma. There is definitely a ton of highs. They really did flesh out Takeru. Kouzoki for the most part does most of the talking for the series.

Overall, this is still definitely worth watching even if you haven't played the VNs. I do recommend watching Total Eclipse and Schwarzesmarken for more background knowledge.

Spy X Family sadly became the most overhyped and most disappointing anime of the entire year. Even as someone who has caught up to the manga, I can assure you don't expect to be be pleasantly surprised later on. This review will contain minimal spoilers.

What promised to be a hilarious comedy ended up being dry and full of cliches. Ultimately the praise and hype it got in spring ended up resulting to nothing. This is kind of what happens when the mainstream media overhypes a show to such a degree, people can no longer form opinions on their own and we are forced to accept ... one show as the best without solid proof. We completely now ignore things like foreshadowing, imagery, plot progression in favour of mindlessly getting shows shilled by anitube. The same anitube that barely pays attention to the 1 episode of each show, not even caught up to most long running shows, and knows immediately the best shows without really watching anything.

Let's discuss the primarily issues here.

The first is pacing. Going chapter through episode pretty much leads to uneventfulnness throughout series. The characters monologue way too much. A lot of these monologues have very little impact. This makes the show feel like a Boruto and Pokemon that is filled with filler

Second is events. Cliche ships and love triangles where Fiona almost solely exists. As well as Damian.

Third is predictable plot. They get into a minor situation only for it get resolved very quickly at the end of the episode. It gets very very repetitive

Fourth is awkward dialogue. Characeters who have barely met each other are now monologuing.

Fifth is lack of interesting events. This is supposed to be a spy show yet we hear little to nothing about the spy world. This makes the work feel amateurish vs being very profesional. Something like Blue Lock while does have a lot of cliches the author did make it feel polished and professional.

The fundamental problem of Spy X Family is that a slice of life without a fundamental anchoring plot and a show needlessly drag out to fulfill the japanese tv airing quota creates a flawed product. This war thing hardly gets mentioned. Something like Saekano can have a plot where they develop the VN and that can actually anchor the show together. Love is War although often lacking in plot still has

Ultimately Spy X ended up being a show largely of lows and not many highs. There is very little in the show that you will remember too fondly of. What we thought to get Mission Impossible end up being the spy next door.

Engage Kiss this season I say so far didn’t really lose my interest, and really did captivate me.
The largest issue with anime criticism in the west is that it is just tied to genre as opposed to actual writing and literary analysis. Which is often one of the laziest and worst ways to grade something. If you automatically think of harem when looking at every show, you are most likely someone whowants an insert an agenda into entertainment and have it ruined like what is happening to western entertainment at the moment. There are shows for audienes like that such as she hulk and batwoman.

The ... execution is great and it doesn’t look they forced action to take away from the dialogue. It captures Tsunako’s art very well and is unlikely we will see her design in animation of this level sometime in the future since a1 is generally the highest. IT doesn’t feel weird at all and easily rewatchable.

What is important of any good story is how much is put into the world and scope of the story. This makes people more interested as the story goes on. The scope of the anime is big which increases rewatchability. Vs other animes that tend to have a oversimplified plot. When I was browsing the discussion threads, I generally find myself more interested in what the show is talking about.


As a perceived 2 cour season, very little time is actually wasted throughout the show. None of it feels like it is filler and does work towards building somethingThe first 4ish episodes effectively tells us the characters personality

It does make excellent use of its characters. Miles Morgan who at initial glance looks to be a minor character actually has a role towards development of others. Sharon is a surprisingly has a huge role to play in not only the plot going forward but what leads to the plot as well. Shu’s past manages to connect with a lot of the cast. We see huge decisions made with the characters as they begun to unravel the mysteries of the characters.

Engage Kiss is overall a well animated and efficiently run show but will obviously pale to the creators past works. It is amazing to look at and the best cinematography to come from anime.

EDIT: Up to episode 11
Overall my verdict on DAL IV up to episode 11 largely hasn't changed too much since episode 3. It is still one of the best spring 2022 animes and the anime corner rankings largely reflect that. If people didn't like DAL IV, why would they vote for it or buy any related merchandise?
I do highly recommend you outright ignore the reviews saying there is no plot, generic harem, skip this. These were clearly made by people who are upset by DAL's ranking on Anime Corner and don't know really anything about the series. DAL IV is definitely NOT overhyped when media ... outlets are there praising SxF and Kaguya as peak fiction and high art. As someone who has watched a good chunk of the anime this season, there is much more plot going on than other shows with tons of foreshadowing, very clear explanations onto the lore, really hard to get confused at this point, great odes to the prior seasons.
I would say I am docking a score off art since there is way too heavy emphasis on CGI used for the fights, in particular the tohka vs mukuro one. I do hope they sort of dial it back for further seasons. The mecha battles was overall well done and better done than prior seasons.
I largely don't have a problem with some of the skipped contents like the shrine visit or shrinking the fairy tail. I definitely think having a lot of that in an anime can drag it too long. I rather have faster pacing than for them to drag out 1 ln per season like Tensura and be padded with filler, and thus sacrifice any chances of a complete adaptation. Remember Re Zero goes at a similiar pace of 4 lns per season.
There is overall a lot of positive things to look forward to the future for the show. I say DAL IV was pretty much the testing grounds and it has hit pretty much all boxes so far. If you watched enough seasonal anime, you are going to realize DAL IV is underrated for what it offers for your time. You have mecha battles, witty comedy, fights, beautiful character designs, very well unique lore, a nice fantasy episode which is a lot packed for 1 season.

Review for up to Episode 3 so far.
Date A Live anime debuted in 2013 and a lot has changed then. It began as a production mainly from smaller studios that have done not big budget shonens and its imprint Fantasia Bunko mainly did harems but also other genres as well. As the years progress, the amount of newer hit series coming out is astonishing high. With the increased production values of newer shows, it can get harder for people to revisit or got back to older shows. So the question is has the fourth season changed for people to jump in. Answer is resounding yes.
Music (10/10)
Once again we have the heavenly song from sweet arms. Also the classic mix from the prior series. And a banger op. The sound mixes perfectly with the tone and action.
Art, Animation. (9/10)
The first immediate thing people will notice is the drastic art change, that borrows more from the Date A Bullet light novel/anime vs the older 2013/tsunako style. Vibrant coloring nowadays has become more common, but we manage to get a perfect balanced that really fleshes out the characters, background, and action. The background animation is extremely detailed and well composited like the bookshop. The character animation is super smooth and doesn’t have the common blemishes, plus the art with the existing designs are some of the best in the medium. There is a reason Date A Live has done well in the figure market despite Fantasia Bunko not really being a big brand. Just check the images on the official website. The OP easily looks one of the best this season.
CGI tends to stick out like a sore thumb in anime, but thankfully it wasn’t overdone here and not as obvious as other animes. The special effects in episode 3 were also well done and fit well with the overall visuals.
Story, Characters (9.5/10)
Being in the fourth season, not much to explain here. Avoid the common harem story of best girl wins. Also avoid the common trope of excessive nudity. We already have the villain of Wescott and DEM set up from II season. The major spirit introductions from first, and the additional from the third. The story avoids dragging the dates or slice of life parts for too long, and makes sure to switch to the action and build up the main villain as well as his motives and power. There is definitely a ton of surprises along the way. There is definitely appeal to those into more action oriented anime.
Writing is the thing that many shows nowadays fall flat on. Rather than having interesting dialogue and interactions to draw people in, they tend to substitute for excessive animation or action. Or they just drag out the length with pointless dialogue to fit the runtime. Enough to surprise people yet not feel predictable as indicated by the first date. Date A Live IV quickly makes the interaction between the new spirits interesting and not dull. Amazing performances with Shimazaki who captured cosplaying well. Nabatame instantly capturing people’s hearts through her quirks, affection, and mischief. Okiayu well portraying the evil side of Wescott. All of these characters feel unique, stand out, not copy-pasted from other stories. Also knows how to put humour that feels natural to the progression (no one liners) and not forced. When it comes to the overarching conflict and villain, it makes sense, doesn’t confuse the watchers, and feels like a natural progression with proper build up. The first scenes tie into later scenes.
Conclusion (9/10)
Date A Live IV has greatly exceeded the fans expectations providing one of the best looking shows this season. It is amazingly entertaining, funny, lots of memorable moments. In the end of the day, I want to watch anime, enjoy it, be surprised but not always rely on extreme an audio/visual experience. The only reason I haven’t given it a 10 is because there is more to come with the rest of the LNs and I am happy to support the series. Definitely one of the best animes of Spring 2022.