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Mar 21, 2025
Ao no Hako (Anime) add
Blue Box isn’t breaking new ground—it’s a straightforward romance with a dash of sports thrown into the mix. But does its familiar setup make it any less impressive? Not in the slightest.

This take on Kouji Miura’s well-loved Shounen Jump manga nails plenty of what made the original work shine. Romance adaptations often fall flat when compared to their origin, but Blue Box stands out as an exception. The animation pops with sharp, stunning visuals that bring every feeling and movement to life with real care and depth. Yuki Hayashi, as expected, delivers a knockout soundtrack that tugs at the heartstrings.

The characters here feel genuine and ...
Mar 18, 2025
Mixed Feelings
Watari-kun no xx ga Houkai Sunzen is essentially a standard love triangle romance tale, though it involves more characters than just three (however, one of them is so minor they barely matter...)

During the initial 30 chapters or so, the story might mislead you into expecting something darker or more intense. The characters come off as slightly unhinged, and there's a lingering tension that keeps you on edge. But most of that buildup fizzles out into nothing significant, with explanations that feel pretty ordinary.

The romance itself is decent, nothing extraordinary. The characters make plenty of irritating and baffling decisions, which is not uncommon for this genre. ...
Mar 14, 2025
Kimi to Tsuzuru Utakata is a tale that doesn’t shy away from its mission to tug at your heartstrings, delivering many an emotional gut-punch by the time it wraps up. Spanning just 32 chapters, it skillfully burrows into your affections, making you genuinely root for its deeply relatable protagonists, each grappling with their own inner turmoil in a way that feels authentic and human.

Beneath the layers of melancholy lies a touching lesson about forgiving oneself, the value of meaningful relationships, and pushing forward through life’s challenges with resilience and hope.

The artwork is stunning, capturing every flicker of feeling—whether understated or intense—with precision and ...
Mar 12, 2025
Terra Formars (Manga) add
Preliminary (182/? chp)
Terra Formars starts off as a manga with a fairly intriguing concept, hooking readers with its intense focus on survival and suspense. These elements carry the story effectively through its initial arc, keeping you invested in what’s unfolding. However, once that arc wraps up, the series takes a sharp turn away from what made it engaging, plunging instead into a convoluted mess of war and government conspiracy themes that, frankly, fall flat and feel absurd.

What were once minor annoyances—quirks you could shrug off while waiting for the manga to return to its strengths—become the main course. The manga morphs into a lackluster battle shounen, bogged ...
Feb 3, 2025
Tower of God season 2 might be one of the most frustrating viewing experiences I've ever had.

Why? Because in just about every sense of the word, the show has been an apparent failure, and yet, underneath the sheer below-adequacy, you can tell there's a great story underneath, wanting to be told - bear in mind that I approach this review from the perspective of someone that has not (yet) read the source material.

There is more or less only one positive thing to mention about ToG's second season, so it makes sense to mention it first: the music. Kevin Penkin returns as composer, and does not ...
Nov 15, 2024
In my opinion, one possible mark of a truly great comedy is when it manages to interweave poignant moments within, tugging on the heartstrings without delivering tonal whiplash.

To that end (and many others), Ponkotsu Ponko is a fantastic manga. The comedic elements are never far away and land practically every single time. There exists a wide array of interesting side characters, all bringing something to the table with their banter and quirky personalities.

The dynamic between Yoshioka Sr. and Ponko is incredibly sweet, even if the former often refuses to respond with much beyond irritation or indifference. Coupled with the close-knit small town they live in, ...
Sep 20, 2024
You would be forgiven for seeing the title of Gimai Seikatsu - or, rather, its English translation, "Days With My Stepsister" - and assuming it to be something skeevy or exploitative. However, you would be absolutely wrong.

This show displays a surprisingly tender, contemplative and mature approach to the theme of taboo love - in this case, between (recently established) step-siblings.

The dialogue and scenes are realistic, calm and generally free of melodrama - much at odds with many typical romance titles. For example, moments of extended silence between characters as they eat a meal are not uncommon. Character motivations, while occasionally a bit twisted, are completely ...
Sep 15, 2024
ReLIFE (Manga) add
ReLIFE begins as a somewhat goofy comedy, and over time masterfully builds up to an emotional crescendo, with an extremely satisfying payoff.

This series follows Kaizaki Arata, a late-20's NEET who gets invited to join a program which involves getting temporarily de-aged into a high school student for one year, and attending a high school to rediscover themselves.

The premise is interesting, and is initially presented in a mostly humorous manner, given that the underlying Kaizaki is still almost 30, despite having a younger appearance. Over the course of the manga, the impact of the surroundings on Kaizaki - and his impact on those around him - ...
Aug 3, 2024
Mixed Feelings
Preliminary (430/432 chp)
Boku no Hero Academia requires no introduction, and closer to the time of its meteoric rise, was oft toted as the "next big shonen". The question is, did it live up to those expectations?

The premise is simple: people are born with a superpower (named Quirk in this universe), and the MC doesn't have one, until a chance encounter with the world's current #1 strongest hero changes his fate.

Arcs in the early to middle portions of the manga are generally very strong, proving difficult to put down once you pick them up. There is a wide array of characters, and the various Quirks they possess gives ...
Jul 31, 2024
Mixed Feelings
Kuzu no Honkai is, without a doubt, one of the least enjoyable manga that I have ever read. However, that doesn't mean to say that it's bad; rather, it is simply unrelenting in its misery.

The story follows a pair of high school students that find themselves in a similar situation - one of unrequited love, with little to no hope of the situation changing for the better. To make things worse, both objects of their respective affections attend the same school (as teachers), and we discover early on that a spark exists between them. To relieve the suffering brought about by this miserable situation, the ...


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