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Sep 30, 2016
I came into this show somewhat optimistic. It has a nice premise: Set during the Prohibition Era, a man returns to town after years of being away because he receives new information into the deaths of his family. This is a revenge story, which is a popular focus in the mafia business – you leave one person alive in a killing spree and it will come back to bite you in the ass. However, the execution of this tale is terrible for a number of reasons.
The story starts off in Episode One by showing how the Lagusa Family was betrayed by the Vanetti Family and
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killed – all but one, our protagonist, Avilio. The episode concludes by introducing our “antagonist” Nero – who, by the way, is the guy opposite Avilio on the poster. This automatically left me with a bad taste in my mouth as I ended the episode, because this is a revenge story and that means no matter what happens these two people are going to be alive until the end, when one or both inevitably die by the other’s hand. A lot of the drama of the show is sucked up by this rule, and it adds to the predictability of an already subpar story. If the creators wanted this show to be remarkable at all, they would have kept the revenge plot from us for the beginning of the series and let the “friendship” between the two blossom before hitting us where it hurts. Now that would have been entertaining.
However, this show is so predictable it hurts. Sure, I was surprised in episode two, enough to keep me interested in the story and not drop it, but very rarely since then have I been genuinely surprised by a plot development. Some of this has to do with the rule stated above: neither Nero nor Avilio can die until the end. But some of it also because the writers feel the need to hold our hands so that a plot development doesn’t confuse the audience. For example, the head Don of a rival gang loves lasagna, so much so that we get reminded of this at least three times in the first six episodes. So, when his gruesome underling challenges him, wins, and then brings all of the top gang members in for a “nice” dinner of lasagna, it’s immediately apparent that the meat in the lasagna is the ex-head (Frey Pies, anyone?). The show also tries to convince us many times that Nero’s life is in danger – how can it be when he is the “last boss”, if you will, in Avilio’s revenge plan?
There are many other flaws in this story, all because the writers want to spice up the action with as much 1920s gang violence as they possibly can. There’s Prohibition style law breaking, betrayals among many different families, violence galore, and barely explained gang politics. Major plot developments can be introduced in minute 3 and resolved by minute 13. Can I not have more than an episode of suspense? Will this character be caught? Will they drive out that cop in more than a day? Character motivations are glossed over at best for most of these events and we are just expected to go with it because plot. It doesn’t help that the person I like the most is Corteo, a character that is barely seen in the first half but is probably supposed to be Avilio’s moral compass. The writers of this series are trying too hard to add edgy things and Gotcha! moments to a story that might have been somewhat decent without all of that spice. The overall story is therefore mediocre at best and predicable and boring at worst. The ending is also completely unsatisfying, unsurprisingly, even though there were a few good moments sprinkled into the last few episodes. The last episode is weak, disjointed, and pointless and ultimately left me feeling cheated and angry.
I mentioned above that my favorite character is a background character – this is because almost every other character is complete garbage. Both Avilio and Nero are weak, horrible characters. Avilio is defined only by his need for revenge, and most of his dealings in the story revolve around that goal. Nero is a similarly weak character: he is the heir to the Vanetti family and kind of a complete asshole. The show tries to make him somewhat sympathetic with a flashback to the night he killed Avilio’s family from his perspective, but the moment is immediately glossed over because he reveals crucial information about the night to Avilio, and Avilio only cares about his revenge. Avilio is somewhat decent at lying his way out of tight situations and getting on Nero’s good side, but only a complete moron would trust someone so completely as Nero trusts Avilio is such a short period of time. This guy is asking to be killed. These characters are not convincing and, quite frankly, both of them are unlikeable assholes.
Almost every other character is the same. Either the show doesn’t spend much time on them or they are complete moronic assholes. Nero has a small group of friends, who, I can only assume, are all going to be cannon fodder because that guy is such a moron. I’ll mourn for the dude in glasses, he seems pretty cool. Nero also has a father and two siblings, none of which are given any kind of screen time unless the plot demands it. Nero’s brother is ridiculous. Nero’s father is a pushover. Nero’s sister seems nice but easily manipulated. None of these people are given any kind of development and some act certain ways because, as stated above, the plot demands it. Some of the things these characters do are never hinted at until it happens. There are people from the other two mentioned gangs that pop up occasionally, but the most important one is Fango, who is a crazy person working for the Orco family. A lot of the B plot in the first half revolves around him and his shenanigans – suffice to say, even then, it was difficult to decide who to root for in these fights because everyone in this show sucks. He comes into a lot of power as the show progresses, and it is fun to just sit there and laugh at the morons who helped him into power and immediately regret their decision. Idiots.
There’s not much else to say. The animation is mediocre and the color palate changes to fit the mood of the scene. The sound is not much better; I don’t think the opening fits the show very well and I was hoping for a more Baccano! type song. The story is mediocre at best and predicable at worst and the characters are very poorly developed, which only adds to the story’s problems. I don’t usually complete shows I find this many problems with, which does show that it is somewhat entertaining, and by the end I was only invested to see how the Avilio vs Nero showdown happened. But entertainment does not equal good quality. All in all, 91 Days is horrible, from story to characters to even the animation. The creators are waving a set of shiny, blood red keys in our faces, hoping that it distracts us from the blatant problems with the story and characters. Well, I wasn’t distracted. Do a better job next time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Sep 17, 2016
*Minor spoilers for Golden Age and Berserk 2016 below*
Miura’s Berserk is a classic manga series beloved by many and deals with dark, gritty violence and mature themes. Miura started writing Berserk in 1989; however due to many factors, most of which I am not aware of, the manga has turned into Hiatus x Hiatus over the past decade or so. Berserk received an anime adaption in the 1990s covering the famous Golden Age Arc, a flashback/prequel that covers roughly 13 manga volumes, and ever since fans have been asking for a sequel. This manga is held in such high esteem by so many that a
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sequel would never be able to live up to its hype. Manga lovers love the manga so much, and when they saw the first episode of Berserk 2016 and didn’t get exactly what they had yearned for for twenty years they immediately wrote it off as a horrible adaption. I have read the manga chapters this anime adapts and, as a whole, this is a very good adaption of the Conviction Arc.
Story (10/10):
Berserk 2016 starts two years after the Golden Age Arc with Guts wandering the countryside looking for apostles so that he can question them about the God Hand, a collection of five demon-like creatures that follow the guidance of the Idea of Evil, or God. The Idea of Evil is an entity born from humanity’s unconscious desire for something to blame suffering on. Among the God Hand is Femto, who was once the human Griffith and Guts’ best friend. During the events of the Eclipse two years ago, Griffith became Femto by sacrificing the Band of the Hawk, his army of companions. Only Guts and Casca escape, but not without injury: Guts has lost an eye and an arm and Casca has lost her mind due to a truly horrible gang rape. Both are branded as sacrifices and these brands bleed whenever evil is near. As these brands also attract evil beings, Casca is kept safe at a friend’s house while Guts roams the countryside killing apostles. He is haunted by a demon-like baby, the remains of Guts and Casca’s miscarried child after Femto raped her.
Guts’ experiences during the Eclipse have shaped him into a cynical, violent, untrusting person. He saves Puck and inspires Isidro at a bar but doesn’t warm up to either of them until later on in the story. At the same time, the Holy Iron Chain Knights have been searching the countryside for the prophesized Hawk of Darkness, a being that would plunge the world into a dark age. The Knights, led by Farnese, believe this Hawk to be Guts after encountering him in a forest and they become recurring antagonists for him throughout the anime. Guts eventually learns that Casca has been missing and goes off in search of her at the Tower of Conviction.
The most compelling part of this arc, besides the characters, is how Miura handles the concept of religion in this world. The Holy See parallels the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages and the Tower of Conviction is home to an extensive torture chamber. Refugees from war and famine surround the Tower and daily “heretics” are dragged into the Tower to confess their sins. One priest claims that only priests are able to interpret the Holy Scriptures. The God Hand are continuously referred to as angels, leading to the question: How do you know what you are praying to is actually a benevolent God? Some of the heretics actually go off to unknowingly worship one of the God Hand. As a whole, the followers of the Holy See are ultimately painted as hypocrites, either too blind in their faith to realize that they aren’t worshiping a benevolent God or using religion as a way to excuse their personality defects. This arc is about surviving, and in a world where anyone could claim you were a heretic, all most of the refugees can do is bow their heads and do what they are told. In the end, those that ran away from the Tower survive, while those who believe in God and run to the Tower are killed. As a non-religious person, I could probably write pages on all the ideas that popped into my head about religion. It’s simply fascinating.
Characters (9/10):
Another compelling part of Berserk is the rich characters that make up the story. Guts in particular is especially riveting as he slashes his way through his enemies. After the Eclipse, he cares for no one except Casca and he is a violent, untrusting person. He doesn’t get much development here in the Conviction Arc, but I’m excited to see him grow next season. Puck is my favorite and is the series’ comic relief character along with Isidro. When he isn’t a chestnut head, he usually badgers Guts about being a better person and is a source of morality for Guts early on in his quest for revenge. Unfortunately, most of this material is cut from the anime. Nina is annoying at best, but I think it’s important to realize that she represents the average person and she does what she does to survive. Lastly, Farnese is simply horrid here in this first arc as a devout follower of the Holy See. There is a lot of backstory to her that makes her who she is. Eventually, her faith has been too shaken by her encounters with Guts and malevolence that follows him. I’m excited to see her grow next season as well as her character gets so much better. Griffith’s character is also fascinating as the series’ main antagonist, however, that is a story for another time.
Art (4/10) and Sound (8/10):
Unfortunately, the animation is terrible. Many have already complained about the awful CGI that makes up the majority of the animation, so I won’t go into too much detail. Towards the end, the quality gets better, though that may be more because I got used to it. I will admit, if the story wasn’t Berserk level quality, this anime would be shit. The sound is better, though the sound Guts’ sword makes is jarring at first. The opening and Hai Yo are amazing.
Many manga lovers will complain that the first arc and the Lost Children arc were cut and cry foul. They were cut for reasons we can only speculate on, though I do believe that the graphic depictions of children dying, killing each other, and being brutally raped were a factor in the Lost Children arc being cut. Perhaps I’m just more sensitive to that sort of thing. In any case, this anime was meant to be an adaption of the Conviction Arc with background plot sprinkled into the first few episodes. Should they have marketed the anime to reflect that? Probably. Should people really be so up in arms that it cut material? No. Anime adaptions do that all the time. To be upset about such a thing is ridiculous. It’s like being mad that the Harry Potter screenplays weren’t directly lifted word for word from the book.
Enjoyment (8/10) and Overall (8/10):
Berserk 2016 is a good story packaged with shitty animation. The main problem many people have with this adaption is the animation and the fact that the manga wasn’t copied panel by panel to match the Berserk anime image most dreamed of. Berserk may not be my favorite manga, but I do understand your pain (I'm a One Piece fan and the anime is killing me slowly). Yes, the animation was bad. Yes, it doesn’t do the manga justice. Yes, the best thing about it is Miura’s story. But is it still a good, entertaining anime and I believe that any fan of action, adventure, or fantasy will end up liking it. And if you’re thirsty for more when you’re done, I would recommend starting at Volume 1, Chapter 1!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 13, 2016
There comes a time when you've watched a few shows of the same genre that you unconsciously start to compare new shows to those that have come before them. Sports anime in particular is a hard genre to kick this habit, particularly because many of the same tropes are used throughout each show's plot. In Haikyuu's case, these comparisons actually raised the show up in my eyes as I watched this highly enjoyable spectacle do many of these tropes better than shows previous.
Keep in mind that I have only seen a handful of sports anime in the five years I've been watching anime. But
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Haikyuu does hit many of the same beats that Kuroko no Basuke does; as such I will be referencing that show to some extent throughout the review.
The biggest hindrance of Haikyuu is the plot's predictability, as it does incorporate many familiar tropes of sports anime into its story. We have the underdog sports team hoping to claim national glory. We have the slightly weak new first year coupled with the prodigy first year. Training camps happen and the all important Inter High tournament comes up in the second half. All in all, the plot of Haikyuu proceeds in typical sports anime fashion and while the action is certainly captivating the outcome of certain matches can be all too predictable. Once you learn that there are two national tournaments a year in volleyball, those familiar with Kuroko no Basuke's plot can easily predict how the Karasuno team will fair in the Inter High tournament. . It’s harsh to judge an anime like this on predictability because the beats it follows are the beats of sports anime, but it does detract a little from the drama when you can already predict the outcome.
However, a major boon to the series is its action sequences. Beautifully animated and directed, the show pulls you right in as soon as the first serve flies and you're captivated for the rest of the match. The plays are fast paced and each serve is action packed with drama. Here in Haikyuu, while some plays are flashy, the show does a wonderful job in making you believe these plays could be done on the real world by real people. This is in contrast to Kuroko; while a wonderful show, throughout it I kept thinking to myself that no real person could actually pull off most of the plays the Generation of Miracles did. The show also does a superb job in explaining the basic rules of volleyball for those who, like me, have no experience with the sport.
The characters are also well done throughout. Though most of them are fairly one dimensional, its truly a marvel to watch these players come together on the court to form a functioning team. You can feel it when they are happy, excited, and sad. Kageyama is the only one who really has any development this season, but it is desperately needed because of the background he's coming from. All of the others have fairly hilarious personalities and their interactions with each other provide most of the comic relief.
Lastly, I come to the art and sound. The soundtrack fades in fairly well with the action and quite good overall; the openings and endings are also decent. The voice acting is fantastic as well. The true gem though is the animation, which is overall very tight and well defined and frankly quite beautiful. The color palate is soft but the colors stand out well, especially brighter colors like Hinata's hair. The direction is simply superb, especially during action sequences.
Overall, this ride with Haikyuu has been a long one. I had it on hold for at least a year before picking it up again in preparation for the third season; this probably just says that the first half, like most sports anime, is fairly slow, but the action does pick up in later episodes. This was riding at a 9 for a long time because of the predictability, but the top notch direction in the later episodes as well as the ending melted my cold heart enough for me to say screw it and give this thing a 10. Truly a marvel and my favorite sports anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 1, 2016
*Spoilers below, though I have not given away the villain's identity or the ending*
The supernatural has captivated our imagination for generations. For all the horror that usually abounds these tropes, many storytellers use supernatural elements to comment on human nature. In the many titles focusing on zombie apocalypses, this is especially true. Rick and his merry band fight humanity at its worst throughout much of The Walking Dead. Joel and Ellie battle hunters and cannibals as they try to find the cure for the fungal zombie virus in The Last of Us. It fascinates us and horrifies us when we see what humanity is capable
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of to survive in a world that turns against them. Kabaneri tries to comment on the human condition, it really really tries. It’s too bad that it doesn’t get to that point until halfway through the season.
Story: For at least ten years, humanity has been plagued by the unrelenting appetite of the Kabane, Kabaneri’s version of zombies. Kabane are portrayed as strong, mindless undead humans who can only be killed by piercing their glowing heart, a feat near impossible by normal methods. Most humans have found shelter in walled cities connected by railroads, though many of these “stations” have fallen to the Kabane over the years. The mysterious Prince Biba roams the countryside in his armed train killing many Kabane and the country’s elite find protection in the capital. Kabaneri begins at a peaceful station that is quickly overrun when a train carrying a hoard of Kabane breaches the gates. Ikoma, our green haired protagonist, is bitten in the ensuing chaos, but is able to stave off the infection by choking himself. The survivors flee in a train named the Koutetsujou, with Ikoma and Mumei allowed on with huge trepidation.
And thus the title of the show is explained. Ikoma and Mumei are both Kabaneri, or people who have been bitten by Kabane but whose brains are still human. Kabaneri are inhumanly strong, but with that strength comes a price: they need blood to survive. The first few episodes are sprinkled with prejudice and distrust towards both Kabaneri despite their repeated help. This whole plot point quickly becomes tired and boring, with people welcoming Mumei one minute and decrying her the next. Ikoma is kept locked away for the most part, but many fear him. They are not fully accepted by the people until they save everyone again in episode four, and by then it’s been at least three solid episodes of distrust, prejudice. and even a coup on the train.
The writers for this series take many liberties in the face of advancing the plot, usually coming up with idiotic ways for humanity to fuck itself over. In episode one, for instance, the guards for the gate into the city decide to lower the drawbridge for a fast moving, oncoming train (later revealed to have many Kabane on board) instead of waiting for the train to come to a complete stop. This of course jumpstarts the plot, but it puts into question how humanity has survived for so long when the guardians of the city can’t even perform basic checks on a train before letting it into the city proper.
In spite of all this, as a survival story Kabaneri was fairly enjoyable. The battle against the black shadow was a marvel to look at visually and the music only added to the fight. But the shows’ hubris catches up with it and inexplicably the story tries to focus on the human condition instead. It is a badly done critique though, because the main villain is one dimensional and ridiculous and the whole thing spirals into a terribly done revenge plot instead. The villain's motivations are thin at best and the loyalty of his soldiers is laughable. The story tries to pin the emergence of the Kabane on the elites in the capital but even this is barely explored. The direction the plot decides to go is completely terrible. Remember what I said earlier about how the writers come up with bullshit reasons to advance the plot? It’s not a good critique on humanity when a crazy person is the one bringing all of the misery in the last few episodes. Tearing apart the rest of Kabaneri’s flimsy story means tearing apart the characters, so on we go.
Characters: I’ll be blunt: I don’t like Mumei. Or Ikoma really. But Mumei’s character really irks me. She’s incredibly naïve and idiotic at the best of times. Her personality is constantly shifting: one minute she’s cute and smiley and the next she’s intense and frowning. She says or does something that doesn’t sit right with the people around her and doesn’t offer a logical explanation. She doesn’t listen to what the leader of the group tells her to do when they are on missions. She’s constantly thinking about how only the strong can survive, weak people should die, etc. etc. It’s amazing that these people actually like her. She doesn’t think badly of the villain ever, and even when he betrays her trust she still goes back to him. She knows he lied to her but she goes back. She trusts him to not do anything to her when she just witnessed a friend get fucked over by him. Yes, she’s only a girl, but it’s insane that she still trusts him after she saw him do. The rest of her plot is predictable, boring, and contrived. The villain proves that her badass characterization is moot, manipulates her, and eventually turns her against her friends. The fact that she’s responsible for the deaths of thousands of people doesn’t help my opinion of her.
Ikoma is also frustrating at times, but not on the level of Mumei. He is the typical shounen protagonist: young, naïve, and mostly weak. His contribution to this world is a steel piecing projectile weapon. Most of the time he’s tagging after Mumei trying to make her a decent human being, which is almost impossible. His naivety is frustrating and as a character he really doesn’t add much to the story. He isn’t really necessary. He is only Mumei’s link to humanity and since I don’t care for Mumei at all, I really can’t care about Ikoma either. In the last few episodes her gets an appearance change (arguably to indicate that he is a badass now) and his character arc seemed to be going a a good direction. It's too bad the writers didn't have the balls to follow through with it.
And then there’s The Villain. Until episode 7, the only thing the audience knows about him is that he is Mumei’s “older brother” and that he is the one that has told her that only the strong should survive. This person is our antagonist and until episode 7 we have not seen him ever. This is terrible writing. At this point in the story I was convinced that the Kabane would continue to be the antagonists because who else could it possibly be? That guy Mumei talks about occasionally? No goddamn way. How could I get invested in an antagonist’s motives with only five episodes left of the series? How could I possibly care about this dude? Right from the beginning when he was introduced I knew he was an asshole. He kills people with a smile on his face. He’s cruel, manipulative, and callous. He treats his servants like expendable objects. He throws away a kabaneri like it’s nothing. He lies to Mumei and destroys an entire station, killing thousands, just to send a message to his father. And why? Why is he doing this? Because his father was mean to him when he was younger. Because his father didn’t care about him enough to try to save him. And so now, he has to go around and kill thousands of people just because he has daddy issues. It’s a ridiculous, tired motivation and the fact that this is the antagonist a zombie anime is going with is ridiculous. This guy manipulated a young impressionable girl who had just lost her mother and turned her into a kabaneri because he was angry with his dad. The fact that he has people that are still loyal to him is baffling. He’s throwing a humongous temper tantrum, but it’s not cute because he’s killing everyone instead of yelling at them.
Animation and Sound: The animation is great. The composer is the same one that did Attack on Titan, so the soundtrack is wonderful. I could say that it sounds a little too much like AoT, but composers have their own style, so I can’t fault him for that. The voice acting is good for the most part. Yuki Kaji is distinctive as he always is for me, but it’s not distracting. Tasuku Hatanaka’s voice work for Ikoma is painful to listen to. He did good work on Ushio to Tora, but because his voice is so distinctive it felt like I was listening to Ushio talk about zombies for the entire show. It didn’t help that the second season of Ushio was airing at the same time.
Kabaneri looked like a promising anime at the beginning, with a decent survival plot unfurling nicely. However, the story suddenly does a huge 180 into a story that has no relevance to the one previously set up. In the end, all that’s left are the shambles of a promising story and a garbage pile of shitty characterization, contrived plot points, and terrible writing. It was good as a survival story, but it’s terrible as a revenge story. I’ll just play The Last of Us again next time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jun 30, 2016
Many people have heard the saying “The book is better than the movie.” Heck, I’ve said it quite a number of times when watching my favorite books get transformed into movies or TV shows. I just never thought I’d say the same about an anime, excluding One Piece. It might be because I never thought I’d ever finish a manga series before it was fully adapted into an anime. But that’s what happened with Assassination Classroom and I have to say I’m disappointed in the adaption I just finished. The manga is indeed better than the anime.
Story: This series is interesting in many regards. It
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forces you to suspend your disbelief at a number of plot points, but in doing so it is able to paint a picture of a group of kids rising above many expectations. It’s truly a joy a watch these kids grow over the course of the series and defy those around them to be able to lead lives that they are proud of. At its core, this isn’t about assassination at all, it about a group of teenagers growing and maturing with the guidance of a truly remarkable teacher.
At the start of the second season, we pick up at the tail end of the summer vacation plot and the story progresses through the fall and winter terms and ends with graduation. The kids get into a number of problems relating to school in the first half with a sprinkling of assassination here and there, but the second half revolves exclusively on assassination plots. The first half was fairly enjoyable for me, though, as a filthy manga snob, I would have liked to see some plots done differently. The second half was poorly done though, culminating in a terribly adapted and awful final battle and death scene. And it is here where I need to explain my utter loathing of this adaption to any non-manga readers out there. The first season adapted 73 chapters in 22 episodes. The second season adapted 107 chapters in 25 episodes. The manga wasn’t even finished when the second season started airing! They condensed plots that should have been expanded on, left in unimportant plots that could have been cut, and completely left parts of the final battle out of the anime entirely.
The only complaint I really have about the first 16 episodes is that I would have cut some of the school related storylines to make room for a better adapted Reaper arc (13 chapters in 2 episodes?), Past arc, and second half. I was disappointed that they left out a three chapter plot revolving around glasses guy, but it wasn’t important to the story as a whole so I understand why they cut it. Episodes 17 through 24, however, were boring and poorly adapted. Plot points that were exciting to witness in the manga were glossed over in the anime. I wasn’t excited, I wasn’t entertained, I was bored. It doesn’t help that two of my most hated plot points happen in this back half as well. In episode 19, the kids train to go into space. What the heck is this? It’s terrible. There’s suspension of disbelief and then there’s just out of left field ridiculous. There is no goddamn way a group of kids can train for a month and be ready to go into space, especially on a space shuttle that is still being tested for human survivability. And then there’s Kayano’s “death”. At least in the manga she wasn’t resurrected in the same chapter. In the anime she dies and ten minutes later she comes back to life. It’s nice that Korosensei has this kind of backup plan, however terribly contrived and medically inaccurate it may be. But, as I was just saying, he lets his students go into space, far away from him, on a space shuttle being tested for survivability. Korosensei being able to resurrect Kayano is just a terrible plot device so that we the audience aren’t sad. Also, why does the badass Korosensei need Kayano to sacrifice herself to be able to beat the bad guys? Some say it’s hearkening back to her sister’s death; I say it’s bad writing on the Mangaka’s part.
But I would have been able to overlook all of that if they had tried to adapt the final battle properly. But this adaption is absolutely terrible. In the manga, a group of mercenaries is protecting the mountain and these same mercenaries capture the kids and lock them up. These mercenaries are hyped up to be the biggest threat these kids have faced. In the anime, the people protecting the mountain are nobodies. In the manga, the kids aren’t entirely certain that they’ll be able to meet Korosensei and say goodbye. They are locked up and trapped, and it’s only through Irina helping them that they are able to escape and go to him. Along the way, they have their own final battle on the mountain and are able to use their tremendous skills to beat the mercenaries. In the anime, this is a piece of cake for them. There is no question about whether they’ll win: they are winning. This is my biggest problem with the anime: it doesn’t give the kids a proper final battle. There is no respect for their skills or all of their hard work, it just happens because they have to get up to the classroom and there’s no extra time because we have to spend an entire episode on Korosensei dying. The pacing of this last arc is terribly done as well. We only get an episode of Korosensei fighting his student, Kayano dies and revives in the same episode, and episode 24 was just a pile of drawn out garbage. At least episode 25 was well done for the most part. I understand that they wanted to finish the series, but if you can’t properly adapt the ending of a beloved series, don’t be so ambitious and do a third season!
Characters: This is a series about a group of thirty children coming together to kill a threat to the world, with three teachers imparting the skills needed to achieve that goal. The series tries very hard to focus on each kid and give them some characterization, but in this season (heck, in the first season too) many characters are thrown by the wayside in favor of advancing the story. It’s obvious throughout this entire series that Nagisa and Karma are the main characters of the kids, and it certainly shows. Throughout this entire series, if you had held up a picture of this class and asked me to name them all, I would have gotten Nagisa, Karma, and Terrasaka every time and Kayano, Isogai, and Sugino some of the time. I probably could have pointed out some members of Terasaka’s gang, glasses guy, the snipers, and the computer girl and the white haired guy. But the others? I have no idea who they are. They don’t get any time for character development or any type of personality as far as I know. The show doesn’t build up any of these kids and then suddenly expects us to care about a battle we know is going to boil down to Nagisa and Karma? It expects us to care about who’s going into space when we know it’s going to be Nagisa and Karma? I don’t care about any of these kids! At least in the first season, when that hotel battle happened, the mangaka had the sense to whittle down the cast with “food poisoning”. Don’t even get me started on the snooze fest that was roll call in episode 24. Seriously, I. Don’t. Care.
I couldn’t even really care about the bad guys in this series. The Reaper and Kayano’s crazy brother in law both made it very clear that they don’t care about putting kids in danger as long as Korosensei dies as a result. It’s a very simple way of putting the audience firmly against them, but do we really need that when they’re trying to kill a very beloved character? Can’t the villains have a little more depth to them than just they’re evil? I know I’m asking a lot of a shounen manga, but the Asano’s were done very well as villains, even if they do seem a little cartoonishly evil. Kids aren’t idiots, I’m sure they would be able to understand more than one complex villain. They try to give the Reaper a bullshit motive for doing what he did (Oh, I’m sure he just wanted you to notice him!). Whatever.
In the end, I think what really did this anime in is the fact that they didn’t actually have a complete ending until March and had to rush the ending because of it. I think both manga and anime suffered from this second season airing so soon. When I was reading the last few chapters, it seemed like the mangaka rushed the ending because the second and final season was airing so soon. What creator wants an anime to finish their series for them? I wish that they had waited for the mangaka to finish the series before they aired the second season; maybe then it wouldn’t have felt so rushed at the end. Maybe they could have actually created a decent piece of work, instead of the rushed ending that we got. Even with a rushed ending, the manga certainly treated the cast, especially the kids, with more respect than the anime did.
I think that if you haven’t read the manga, you will probably really enjoy the second season of Assassination Classroom. Just don’t finish the manga before you watch it.
TLDR: While the first half is decent and fairly faithful to the manga, the second half becomes boring and the ending is rushed and terrible because the manga wasn’t even finished when the season started airing. Most characters are bland and underdeveloped and most of the villains are one dimensional. If you haven’t read the manga, you will probably enjoy it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 7, 2016
It is rare indeed when I find a slice of life show I actually want to watch, let alone one that I consider one of my favorite shows. But Barakamon is different from many of those shows. Like many slice of life shows, it is character driven and focuses on everyday events instead of action and adventure. For the most part, I find these shows to be boring and unengaging, but Barakamon pulls you in through the top notch characters and underlying story. Truly a wonderful experience.
The story is fairly simple, yet also very engaging. Handa-sensei exiles himself to an island after disgracing himself
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at a calligraphy exhibition. His arrival to the island coincides with the start of summer and he finds himself constantly bothered by the neighbors children as he tries to reinvent his calligraphy style. Episode one covers his arrival to the island and his introduction to many of the nearby residents, including Naru. Many of the following episodes follow Handa's exploits on the island and many of his experiences start to shape his new calligraphy style. The audience is treated to a look into what country living is like in Japan, which is a nice reprieve from the constant Tokyo setting in many other anime. City boy Handa is often out of his element on the island and around his neighbors, but he ends up experiencing many things on the island that he didn't in Tokyo, including summer festivals, the ocean, and Bon festival. Through it all, Naru is a fixture is his life on the island and many of the other kids are impressed by the "Sensei" and follow him/force him to participate in their summer adventures.
The characters, however, are what make this anime amazing. Many of the supporting cast are hilarious and its fun to watch Handa try and navigate his way through their large personalities. Most of them are largely defined by certain personality traits and none of them really change throughout the course of the story. And they shouldn't, because they are there to help Handa change, to help him see there is more to life than calligraphy or grand prizes.
Handa and Naru's relationship is one of the centerpieces of this anime. Naru is interested in this new person and wants to play with him; Handa gets dragged along. At first, he is annoyed with her, he tells her to get out of his house, to stop bothering him. She is persistent, and she slowly worms her way in. She worries about him when he has to be hospitalized and he in turn worries about her at the beach. He wonders about her parents and what happened to them, on her birthday he's scared of disappointing her with a mediocre present. She becomes one of his best friends on the island, no matter how hard he tried at the beginning to make her go away. She helps him change as a person without realizing it, and she gives him inspiration in his calligraphy. In the end, even though he knows staying in Tokyo would be more practical, he chooses to go back to the island for Naru, and for everyone else.
Handa's character change is also important. If he had stayed the same disgruntled, entitled city boy, this wouldn't have been an enjoyable anime. The contrast between his first drive to the village in episode one and his second drive in episode twelve comes to mind. In both, Naru's grandfather drives him from the airport to the village. In episode one, he is unimpressed by the view of the ocean. "It's just the ocean," he says. Whats so special about it. When confronted with the same view in the last episode he looks out and says, "It's gorgeous." Another example is his reaction to his results from the exhibitions he enters throughout the series. When he gets second place early on in the series, he is convinced that he is getting no where with his style. When he gets fifth place at the end of the series, he accepts it because he was proud of the work that he submitted. Seeing Handa struggle with reinventing himself throughout the series is an enjoyable watch, and it is through his friendship Naru and with everyone else that he is inspired to change and to grow and to write beautiful calligraphy.
This is certainly the best slice of life anime I have ever seen. Most of the time I got lost in the episodes and when it was over i was honestly surprised it had been twenty minutes. The opening and ending are spectacular as well and the art is good, but I have seen better. All in all, this is a solid 10/10, I have no complaints. Truly perfect.
(Scores: Story 10/10, Art 8/10, Sound 9/10, Character 10/10, Enjoyment 10/10)
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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May 17, 2016
Konosuba is a new take on the "guy goes into an RPG" trope that was made popular by Sword Art Online. I am not a fan of SAO by any means, which is probably why I enjoyed this anime so much. Konosuba takes this overused trope and turns it on its head and parodies the crap out of it. The protagonist is a weak novice asshole adventurer. The main female protagonist is a tsundere asshole goddess. The two supporting characters are a crazy pyromaniac and a perverted cavalier. It's hilarious.
Story: Kazuma Satou, a NEET, is walking down the street when he sees a lady
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in danger of being run over. He runs over to save her and in the process, dies. When he comes to, a goddess is sitting in front of him and tells him that he died for nothing: the vehicle was a slow moving tractor and when Kazuma realized this he died from shock. After the goddess, Aqua, finishes tearing him apart for this, she tells Kazuma that he has the option of being reincarnated into an RPG-like world to defeat the Demon King and may choose to bring with him a weapon of enormous power. Kazuma decides to bring Aqua to spite her for laughing at him, and, horrified that it is actually allowed, she is reluctantly pulled into Kazuma's adventure.
The story is great at setting up the tropes that are prevelant in RPG animes and abruptly slashing them to pieces. Kazuma has to start out from the bottom, fight weak monsters to level up, and live in a stable because he can't afford anywhere else. The show makes fun of OP characters when in most shows they would be the protagonist. In one episode, one of the Demon King's leaders casts a curse on one of the party members, and it seems as of the episode is setting up an arc to invade his fortress to save her. Nope! Aqua dispels the curse in seconds. The fact that the series actively makes fun of the premise of the show and other types of RPG series is refreshing after the veritable sea of these types of shows in recent years.
However, Konosuba suffers from its 10 episode order. In episode 8, a character that the audience has never seen before is introduced in a way that makes it apparent that the anime didn't animate the actual scene where the character is introduced. It's jarring to meet this person the characters are familiar with and too see flashbacks to a fight we didn't get to see. This persists throughout the rest of the season. The series didn't build up to the final fight. We randomly learn the Darkness is a rich girl...okay? They spend an entire episode on fanservice instead of actually showing something with the Destroyer or Wiz's introduction. I can only hope that if a full season of 12 episodes had been produced, the last few episodes would have been much better.
Characters: Kazuma, Aqua, Darkness, and Megumin are all hilarious, but they are also all one sided and most of the comedy in the show is either on emphasizing their primary character traits (Kazuma: being an asshole, Aqua, being a self absorbed tsundere, Megumin: being reliant on her explosion magic, Darkness: being a masochist). There is no character growth for any of them throughout the series, none of them change, and it seems that none of them ever will because the comedy of the series revolves around their bad character traits.
There are no other characters that I can remember the names of without looking them up, but I do need to touch on Wiz again. I get the feeling that she is an important side character in the series, but we only see her three times in the anime. She is introduced in the most bizarre fashion and I really wish we could have seen how she was actually introduced in the series. I want to like her, but I don't know anything about her! I didn't even know she knew explosion magic until she started reciting the words with Megumin! A very bad character introduction for what seems to be a good character.
Overall: I do think that Konosuba is a good anime, in fact, at the end of episode 7 it was a solid 9.5-10 for me. However, the last few episodes really hurt it overall and the characters are static and sometimes annoying. Watch it for the laughs and parodies, but keep in mind that the story quality dips exceptionally at the end.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 12, 2016
*There will be spoilers in this review*I have to start this off by being frank: I dropped this series after the GGO arc finished airing back in 2014. Recently, I became aware that the last half of the season was actually somewhat good, so I put my reservations aside and watched the rest of the series. Keep in mind that my memories of the GGO arc are a year and a half old and my views may have been swayed by other reviews of the series.
So, what do I think of the sequel to the horrid Sword Art Online? It’s shit.
Art & Sound
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(9/10 & 8/10): Starting off easy. You have to give A-1 pictures credit, they can make good looking animation. The art style is beautiful, as always, and the sound is fairly decent too. There is one battle soundtrack that gets to me though, but it might be because Gigguk ruined it in his original review of SAO.
Story/Writing (3/10): The writing for this series is horrendous. I can't recall much about the GGO writing, but the Calibur arc was complete garbage and there were two (2!) entire episodes (15 & 18) in the last ten that were entirely devoted to exposition dumps through talking. I got to the end of episode 15 and thought to myself, did I just watch 10 straight minutes of some lady talking to the party about this quest? I don’t remember anything she told them beyond, “Excalibur is at the bottom of that upside down pyramid. Now get it before all of my pets are killed or this Troll king will take over the entire game. Lol.” Episode 18 has the same formula: Liz (?) tells Asuna about Yuuki for 12 minutes. Isn't there a better way to dump all this information on us than just talking at us for 15 minutes straight? Do you not know about show, don't tell?? Can we not see these things happen, instead of being talked at for 10 minutes? Goodness. There are also some weird time skips in the later half that have to do with a vaguely defined New Year's break and it left me confused, especially in episode 18.
Gun Gale Online (3.5/10): I’ll be honest, the reason why I picked up this series back in 2014 was to see if it could possibly be as bad as the first series, and also because I had heard that Kirito turned into a girl. The premise of this monstrosity is simple: In a game called Gun Gale Online, a scary dude called Death Gun starts killing people in the virtual world and they end up dead in the real world. Kirito-kun is recruited by the government to investigate Death Gun in GGO. In the game he meets a girl, there’s a tournament (oh, joy), and in the end, things get rapey. At the start, the story seemed pretty solid, and I’ll admit I was hooked by the mystery of Death Gun. However, the ending had many problems, including the whole Death Gun reveal, and it pissed me off so much that I ended up dropping it.
The ending was bad. So bad. I don’t understand why SAO continues to put its females in these sorts of situations (Asuna was bad enough), but there has to be another way to put women in danger than to instantly go the rape route. The whole Death Gun mystery ended up being convoluted and disappointing, and I had honestly forgotten that Laughing Coffin existed from the first series, so that threw me for a loop. Add in some PTSD for Kirito from a battle that would have been nice to see in the original series instead of being introduced like the author just willed it into existence for the sake of the plot, and you get a bad arc. Bad writing, bad story, bad characters, bad everything. It’s a horrible waste of time that leads into another horrible waste of time.
Calibur (2.5/10): This three-episode waste of time only exists for Kirito to get his hands on a sword that will make him even more OP than he already is. This sword was apparently introduced in the first season’s battle between Kirito and the crazy butterfly rapist, but I had completely forgotten about it. Kirito, Kirito’s harem, and Klein, bless him, embark on a quest to save some people god knows where in ALO (is it beneath the tree? I don’t know). They get Excalibur and Mjolnir for their troubles (writer-san, I think you’re getting your mythologies crossed!). Anyway, Thor appears and Kirito almost throws his beloved sword away, but Sinon saves it for him. The resulting interaction between the two made it obvious that this situation only happened to fan the Kirito/Sinon pairing and to get the rest of Lord Kirito's harem of forgettable women pissy.
This arc is a mess. The writing sucks, the characters still suck, this whole thing was useless filler garbage.
Mother's Rosario (8.5/10): The beacon of hope in a sea of garbage. This is the arc I was waiting for, an good god is it good. I can't tell if I think so highly of it because it's legitimately good or because it's the best arc SAO has yet to offer. Anyway, this arc centers around Yuuki's guild and their quest to beat a boss by themselves so that they can create an unforgettable memory together. They recruit Asuna to be the seventh party member and go off on their adventure. Other things happen, but this arc is too good to spoil. Watch it.
Characters (2/10): Let's do this.
Kirito: It's not Kirito's fault that he is written this way. Most LN protagonists are written in such a way that the males reading it can easily insert themselves into the story. Kirito is just the most prominent anime LN male protagonist. The main problems I have with Kirito are that his personality sucks, his motivations for doing anything are thin at best, and he is so OP that in a game about god damn guns he chose a lightsaber and fucking won. In GGO, he suffers from PTSD from an event that was never adequately shown or explained just to, in my opinion, have something in common with Sinon. In Calibur, he throws his new, OP sword away because he can't carry it and doesn't even think to throw it towards his friends because, fuck them, they can't even touch this sword. God, I really dislike Kirito. He will always be a problem with this series. Points to MR for making him a background character.
Sinon: When Sinon was introduced, I had high hopes for her as a character. She seemed like a badass, but those hopes were instantly dashed the moment the first panty shot flashed across my screen. Oh no. She’ll become another Asuna, I thought. Hyped up as a badass, but ultimately needing help from Kirito-kun, god of VRMMORPGs. And I was right. Sigh. It was disappointing to see Sinon go from a badass to just another girl for Kirito’s growing harem of girls I can’t even remember. The one thing the story did do well was her trauma surrounding guns, and the way she tried to overcome it by playing GGO was very well done. Bravo, SAO 2, you get a point. Too bad she was invisible for the later half of the series. Oh yeah, and sexual assault. Boo, SAO 2, you lose 100 points.
Asuna: Practically invisible for 17 god damn episodes, Asuna, the main female character of the series was pushed aside in favor of Kirito's ever growing harem of forgettable girls. It was only in the MR arc that she got to shine and become the protagonist (progress!) of the arc. Her battle prowess is highlighted in this arc, as well as her insecurities over her worth as a team mate. She also gets a side plot with her mom and really grows as a character under Yuuki's guidance. Her friendship with Yuuki is really good too, and its nice to see her with out Kirito for once. However, this is too little too late in my opinion. Asuna's character has been declining since the middle of the first arc, and I see no reason why the writers won't put her on the back burner again in favor of Kirito-kun. Oh joy.
Klein: Not much for him, but he did try to get two (!) girlfriends. Too bad one of them turned into Thor, but he did get a nice hammer out of it. Also, the party would have been fucked against Troll dude if he had just left that woman in the cage. Good job, dude.
Kirito's Harem: Forgettable, badly written, useless.
Yui: At least she allows them to cheat by yelling out attack patterns and weaknesses!
Bar guy: We learn that he is married. Revolutionary. His bar is ousted as a meeting place in favor of the cabin.
Yuuki: A wonderful ray of sunshine and hope in a sea of garbage characters. A better Kirito than Kirito. Uplifts her teammates. Doesn't let her situation in life get her down. A beautiful soul., a beautiful character, I love her. I can't into too much detail about her without spoiling MR, nuut she is my favorite SAO character. Perfection.
Enjoyment (3/10): I have to give props to SAO 2, it certainly was able to capture my attention and an episode seemed to go by very quickly. This says nothing about the quality, but at least I was entertained.
Overall (5/10): I do have to give credit to MR and Yuuki, which is where most of this score is coming from. However, the shitshow that was the first 18 episodes cannot be overlooked. The writing is bad, the characters are bad, the story is passable at best. Asuna is constantly in the background to make room for forgettable harem girls and Sinon. Kirito is Kirito. There appears to be no other males in this gaming world except Klein and the bar guy. The harem is always annoying.
Without MR this would most likely be a 3/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Apr 5, 2016
At the time of writing this review, I have dropped this anime, with no plans to ever return and finish the remaining five episodes. This anime is boring. It is basically a Japanese candy commercial in anime form. Each episode is typically divided into two parts, with each part focusing on a different candy. There is also a weird crazy girl that knows too much about candy, and she is usually the one that introduces the candy of the episode.
The plot of this anime is relatively simple: Kokonotsu wants to be a manga artist, but his father wants him to take over the family
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business: a candy store. Hotaru wants Kokonotsu's father to work for her family's candy company, and he agrees as long as she is able to convince Kokonotsu to take over the store. This makes Hotaru begin to harass Kokonotsu about candy all the time and allows the anime to become a Japanese candy commercial. Honestly, I had forgotten about the premise of the series because they hardly ever mention it again in favor of talking about candy all the time (can you tell how annoyed I am that I was roped into watching an anime that is literally just about candy?).
The one redeeming quality of this anime is Saya. The episodes, or parts of episodes, that focus on her really stand out for me, but sadly weird crazy girl (Hotaru) gets most if the focus of the anime. I suppose if you want to learn more about Japanese candy you might find some enjoyment in this show. Being a foreigner with absolutely no previous knowledge of any of these candies led me to being either confused or bored at most of the content, and I couldn't justify finishing the series if I was just forcing myself to sit through it. 3/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Dec 13, 2015
After seeing the scores I have given this anime, many people might be confused by my overall score. Don't get me wrong, One Piece is my favorite manga, hands down. The story is wonderful, the characters are great, the art style is unique and colorful.
However, One Piece is a long running shounen manga that is no where near being finished. Usually with these types of series, the anime will add in long filler arcs to allow the manga to put out more material for the main story. Naruto and Bleach are notorious for this and even Fairy Tail had to resort to doing this
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as well. During its early years, One Piece did this as well, but currently it has resorted to animating one chapter per episode. And this leads to an enormous amount of filler in each episode. Fights are drawn out. Running places takes five episodes. An entire conversation or death scene can take up a full episode. After a while, this sort of thing gets very frustrating, and I have had to put the anime on hold twice now.
Another issue I have with this show is the animation and this also ties in with the filler problem. The animation is very sloppy and its pretty bad when you're watching an episode and notice at least three separate occasions where the same animation is used (I'm pointing fingers at you, Coliseum animation!). The animation will also pan over crowds or go between different characters for 15-30 seconds to fill time, and it could be that no one is actually speaking at all during this.
Honestly, if you're really interested in getting into One Piece, I would recommend reading the manga instead of watching the anime. You'll only get frustrated with the filler and animation.
EDIT: As mentioned above, I have dropped this series twice: once in Puck Hazard and once in Dressrosa. I am currently four episodes into the Mink/Zou arc and am probably three episodes away from finally rage quitting this horribly animated adaption of my favorite manga. The filler is unbelievable and the animation is terrible. DO NOT watch this anime past the Timeskip if you are interested in One Piece. Please, for the love of god, just read the manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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