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This story is less fairy tale and more psychological horror, but it didn't lie to us in one regard: it is indeed cruel.

We got a hint of the princess' tragedy and the immensity of her curse from the continuation of the original story's ending, but it is only now that we come to fully realize what a dreadful curse beauty and adoration can be. Fascination upon contemplating the sublime, leading to a demure and understated madness, which for all its kindness is stained with red all the same.

Each and every time we've stumbled into a fragment of Shinobu's backstory, the medium has changed and distorted, ... diverting from whatever it is we may have expected and haunting us with its unnatural beauty. There is no salvation nor morals to these tales, not ever, only regret and death, yet they keep drawing us in all the same. They are by far my favorite parts of this long and convoluted tale.

As we keep contextualizing and revealing new faces of this monster of a story, each revelation only leads to further questions. Humanizing this monster has only left it looking more inhuman than ever, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

This one had a rough first episode, but its earnest and serious heart far outweighed the unwanted levity of its stumbling start. The way the reveals kept slowly being drip-fed, and the deepening motives of each characters, had me coming for more and checking after the ending every time, hoping for just one more scene. And I am sure glad I stuck around to watch them stick one hell of a landing.

This isn't an in-depth look into the psychology of a professional gymnast, though we do get a window into how their career and passion impact their lives and relationships. The Gymnast Samurai is rather ... a glimpse into the many ways art and sport demand the totality of a person's life, and what such a choice takes not only of an individual, but of everyone surrounding them.

A story like life:
Impossibly long, and yet...
So painfully short.

The episodes of this detective story had always an engrossing tinge of sadness to them that I couldn't quite put my finger on for the longest time. After merely twenty minutes, I felt as though my heart had been immersed in the stories of these poets for hours. Every time, without fail, this time distortion only grew, and after a while, I began to enjoy it.

I put off watching the final episode for almost a year, precisely because a part of me couldn't believe all these hours of serene storytelling could, or rather should, come to ... an end. It left me feeling both empty, like a church without faith, and incomplete, like a letter left unwritten.

But that didn't make the finale less beautiful. Even without faith, the psalms remain gorgeous verses, and even without dramatic twists and turns, the much more intimate and human tales I had been told made me glad to have heard them. If anything, they made my heart ache for more, but I suppose that's the way life, and specially death always are.

If each life is a book, then one's love is a poem.

I know this review isn't useful, nor did I want it to be. The technical aspects matter little in this tale, yet they were always sufficient. The story was muted and methodical, yet the characters were anything but, and the music seemed more like that they would choose to enjoy, rather than anything meant for us, much like the entire work. But I love it all the same.

The way of the house husband is by far and away the best comedy to ever come out of Japan, and I will not rest until each and every one of my friends has experienced its gut-busting glory. A short and sweet story about a terrifying yakuza subverting expectations with a short and sweet anime, and I honestly cannot wait for season 2.

I am seeing several people complaining about the adaptation, but honestly, I found it perfectly fitting for the kind of story Gokushufudou wants to tell, and whitout Netflix, I and most everyone would have never even paid the manga any mind.

This is ... the same thing that happened with One Punch Man season 2, with picky fans upset they didn't get an all-star animation team to turn short gags into sakuga, and completely missing the fact that the heart and soul of the comedy remained not only intact, but stronger than ever.

Yes, the animation is sparse and the visuals are nowhere as detailed as the source material, but the voice acting, soundtrack, and directing more than make up for it, doubling down on the hillarious writing and unique atmosphere Kosuke Ono so expertly crafted.

Also, can we take a moment to appreciate the opening and ending tracks? They alone work wonders to elevate the material and set the mood for the antics to come. I cannot fathom consuming this story without them, and I pity those poor souls who have.

Watch this if you are a man, and bring forth your inner house husband!

Honestly, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

If you, like me, came to see Alice in deadly school without any context, then you'll likely come out of the whole experience intrigued, amused, and pleasantly surprised. These two episodes felt like a proof of concept for a studio putting their craziest ideas out there, like "what if we took the core components of zombieland saga, emotional idols and horrific undead, and split them into two distinct, yet entwined plots?"

And you know what? It kinda works. The direction was solid, the shots were interesting, the dialogue was clever, and the designs were cute. Both sides ended up being great on ... their own merit, and left me wanting to see more.

It just so happens that there's a lot more to be seen.

As I found out while trying to figure out why other users scored this show so low, it turns out these two episodes were not standalone, but merely a part of the 12 that compose Gekidol. Hindsight is 20/20, it seems.

I may yet find out, like everyone else seemingly did, that the entire run does butch the attempt, but if I am being honest, that's not enough for me to regret watching these 40+ minutes. I had a blast, and if I can count on this experience as a primer for the other 10 parts, then maybe the twists and turns to come wont bother me as much.

With that in mind, and strictly as a stand-alone experience, I've gotta give Alice in deadly school an overall 8/10. Even if the story threw me for a loop, the sheer charm of its cast and novelty of its execution really got to me, and on a technical side, this is nothing to scuff at.

I'll be seeing you again after watching whatever awaits in Gekidol!

Section 9 is back, and I didn't know how nostalgic I would feel when writing that.

Let us settle a few things first:
-2045 is a direct sequel to the original Stand Alone Complex anime, following a decade or so after 2nd gig.
-The character designs were revamped by Ilya Kuvshinov, and the entire series moved from 2D to 3D animation.
-This show will be compared unkindly both to the movies and to the other animes, and maybe even the manga. All of these have passionate fandoms that have little sympathy for new, fresh takes of their beloved world, but I do believe this new entry in the ... canon has earned its spot and should be given a fair chance by all. After all, GITS as a series has been around for long enough, and taken so many forms, that the people working on it now grew up with it as a formative piece, and when faced with the challenge of writing a new story for today's future, they decided to thread new ground valiantly while never forgetting the series many, many pasts.

Now let us dissect this shell one part at a time:

The major is back as the driving force for the remaining members of Section 9, and in this particular adaptation I would peg her as more human than previous incarnations, though the path leading to the robotic monotone of the Motoko we see in the movies is starting to show. When she takes the lead, she is the most magnificent lithium flower, but more often than not she takes a backseat so that other members of the team can share in the spotlight.

Batou, Togusa and Chief Aramaki are as brilliant as ever, with the shocking news of our human detective having gone through a messy divorce after the wake of section 9's disbanding. They all have fantastic stand-alone moments, which can proudly stand amidst the best their characters were ever offered in any previous entries.

The rest of section 9 is sadly as unexplored as ever, though. Ishikawa and Saito reprise their usual roles almost bit by bit, and Borma even gets a line or two this time around! Sadly, Paz doesn't have anything else to say to us (maybe a wink to a certain theory after his one prominent appearance in the original series?), but at least I remembered he was in the show when first writing this review, unlike the new rookie, Clown.

Some new faces that do stand out quite a bit, are Japan's new prime minister, Section 9's new technician, and the NSA's operation leader, all of which made me hate them the second they showed up, but quickly grew on me as they each interacted with the rest of the cast. I am reserving my opinions till the next season drops, but these, alongside the new villains, have all been extremely promising new characters, which I'd very much would like to see more of.

Also, the Tachikoma tanks are back and in full force, for better or worse. Do with that what you will.

On the technical side, we have more of a mixed-bag. Some of the shots were jaw-dropping and clearly only possible thanks the 3D camera, while others seemed rather uninspired. It really depended on who was directing each episode. The music is not half-bad, even if the new intro really took me by surprise. If you found yourself skipping it, you are not alone, though the ending song feels right at home with the show's older tracks.

The writing, however, was absolutely spectacular. The moment to moment banter between characters hits all the right notes, while the overarching plot felt complex enough to be familiar, while bringing a veritable barrage of new ideas into the mix. I constantly found myself grinning at bits and pieces of foreshadowing and pay-off, and the last episode actually made my jaw drop... before it made me jump off my seat in disbelief as I found out I'd have to wait for the second season to come out sometime later. If anything, I must congratulate Netflix for giving us the version of GITS most apt for binge-watching.

Overall, I am happy, really, extremely happy to have this adaptation and to see the stand alone complex expanded with such love, care, and mastery. Is there room for improvement? Of course there is. Tons, actually. But I can say this iteration of the story managed to hook me in a way I hadn't experienced in a long time.

Watching SAC_2045 is like running into a friend you haven't seen in years and sitting down for some drinks with them while you catch up, and that's something I sorely needed right now.

What is just is never as important as what is good.

What is good, is often not as important as what is right.

No choice is harder than that between what is good and what is right.

Babylon is the bleak, implausible, and excruciating tale of a good man sinking further and further into despair as his notions of justice and goodness are shattered time and again. It is also the tale of an implausible, excruciating, and above all evil woman, who wishes for nothing more than to turn the world and the man's heart into a dark and broken mirror of her own twisted desires.

Ai Magase is ... Love twisted into its most evil form. She is lust made manifest, and she revels in her own wickedness. If Zen represents the ego, then Ai is nothing but pure id. And it would seem her goal was to consume the super-ego and become a sort of super-id for the entire human race. To face her is to have your morality challenged by the intoxicating promise of absolute pleasure. To face her, means to face the temptation of death.

The way the story unfolds is slow and methodic, but also unrelenting. There is no breathing room, there is no respite. Tension runs throughout the entire plot, from the second Ai's shadow enters the world until the very last scene, and just when you think you've finally been released, she is there, waiting in the shadows, ready to twist the knife again. There is no happy ending to this story.

When confronted by absolute evil, all that Zen can do is to keep the light of hope from dying a little longer, by throwing his own life away so that the entire world may live. He is not alone in this, but as one by one the champions of good fall, he is left with the impossible task of shouldering their weight and his own sins against an enemy he can neither stop nor understand.

In an era like ours, where the very pillars of morality we share as a species would threaten to crumble, Ai Magase is there to topple them one by one, while Zen is left with the choice to use his own body as the foundation atop which the people of this new world may rebuild. In the end, he realizes what's right is to throw away his own life in order to save countless others, even if doing so would stand in direct opposition to his original goal.

Such paradox is the crux of Babylon. Committing murder is evil, and committing suicide is not any less wrong, but choosing to die so that others may live is the most virtuous thing a man can do. It is the path of a saint.

Ai, Zen, and the whole of Babylon will linger in the back of my mind for a long time to come, giving me much to think about. Thankfully, I can take my time, but when I do come to a conclusion, I'll make sure to let you know.

With each new entry, it becomes clearer to me that the Fate series has grown aware of its own shadow. Back when Apocrypha came out, I described it as a love letter to the entirety of the Fate canon. In contrast, I believe that Lord El Melloi II and his case notes are its shadow. And a shadow aware of its existence as such.

A war survivor following after the shadow of a king long gone, not one, but two different shadows of kings, dreaming with the shadow of a love they assume unattainable, yet worth fighting for. Lingering shadows from time past, and the looming ... shadows of the fights yet to come. Its no surprise that little Waver became a detective, living his entire life looking for a light amidst such shadows.

Even the production of this show seemed aware of the legacy they had been granted the opportunity to belong to, and saw themselves as working under the shadow of a giant. I believe that is why, given the chance to create original stories for the start of this adventure, all they conjured up were shadows of other tales, past, present and future.

Nearly all entries in the remaining fate lore end up touched in some way by the shadow of this work, and in that sense, it achieves the greatest peek any shadow could aspire to: tracing the limits of the light that spawned it.

This show was a shadow of all that I loved from the Fate universe, and in that, I cannot hate it in the ways it is cast over such love.

Suppose you were born with a blessing countless girls before and around you all struggled and suffered trying to attain. Suppose you witnessed as one by one those you loved lost everything and made the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of this blessing, all failing and disappearing in the end, surviving only as a lingering shadow burdened with regret within your own heart. Would you be willing to sacrifice your blessing if it meant sparing others from the same cruel fate? Would you be willing to pay that price if it also meant condemning those precious ghosts within your soul to fade as well? Would you, ... if what was asked of you was to surrender your only friend's existence? Would you end her to end all suffering, even if she begged you to?

The hidden gem of this season came to us in the form of Granbelm, a seemingly insignificant Mahou Shoujo / Mecha Battle Royale that instead of trying to awkwardly subvert expectations and tropes like most animes with such tags in recent years, decided to embrace and refine the core strengths of its small niche as closely to perfection as it could muster. War is hell, and being Meguca is suffering, but the human heart is capable of so much more than what we realize. Selflessness, purity, hope, love. The typical concepts you'd expect from a lesser show exposed in a painfully human manner as principles worth dying for and not only that, but the only meaningful reason to go on living.

The introduction of the show was confusing, but it turned out to be diegetic in a way that I could only appreciate upon a second watching of the show. The designs of the mecha were simple, and even infantile at first, but that changed over time and had a beautiful reason to be that way in the first place. The characters were every bit as lovely and tragic, and each choice they made and word they uttered held weight and meaning behind it. And most important of all, every turn in the story was unexpected, captivating and kept me wishing for more. This is one show where you should absolutely stick around for after-credit scenes.

In the end, the seemingly clashing elements of the story complemented each other and informed a unique identity, which bravely decided to go for a decisive and definitive end, tying up loose threads and providing us with tranquility rarely found nowadays in the world of storytelling, so often focused on remaining forever relevant and present.

Granbelm is not a show I will forget anytime soon, as it encapsulates so much of what I love about the stories that preceded it, while blazing a trail forward into the unknown for the stories yet to be told. After all in a world without magic, we humans only have each other to give us strength, and I do hope this tale will inspire many more over the decades to come.

Also, Suishou did nothing wrong and she is the best girl. Fight me!

Amateur is the word of the day.

This show could have been great, had it only come out a decade ago, when its concept was fresh and original. But in this day and age, with so many shows holding similar storylines and executing much better, 7 Seeds simply looks amateur. A masterpiece can build suspense and drama by feeding misinformation to the audience and even the characters, an amateur production on the other half, stumbles to do so properly, making twists look like retcons and story-beats seem meaningless, random, and at worse poorly thought through.

Yet somehow, I was not able to stop watching this show to ... the bitter end, when I caught myself shouting in exhasperation as its first (and likely only) season ended not with a bang, nor a whisper; not even a cliffhanger, but instead a dead cut in the middle of a scene. No build-up, no send-off, no tease of anything else to come. Just a sudden and abrupt sense of meaningless finality. But it didn't have to be that way.

It is clear there is both passion and talent behind this show. Its platform is big, and its source material is not half-bad. It was just that the talent on board was not capable of pulling through with their vision. It was painfully clear at several times that a more experienced director could have done wonders with the effort the art team put into painting and animating, but with the shoddy editing and framing of an amateur, all that effort went to waste. The same could be said for the work of the voice-actors, not only in japanese, but also in english and spanish, which really brought life to the characters, or at least as much as the rigid script and tactless direction allowed them to.

If Carole & Tuesday from the same season was a passion project helmed by a beloved and trustworthy star, making the best of the talent and resources at his disposal, then 7 Seeds is the first shot at a serious production from an amateur director who didn't know what to do despite the backing of his staff and producer. My only hope is that this amateur can come back for a second round after listening to the (likely too harsh) criticism of his work, so that he can prove himself and make things right for the source material he now represents.