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When I read the synopsis of "Cima Backstory" I wasn't sure what I was getting into, but I pleasantly enjoyed this!

Animation is beautiful, but its 90s Gundam, so what else is new. I loved this look into Cima's character-- what's there is vague, but I like that. Something so short doesn't need things spelled out for us, I love that we can make our own interpretations as to what happened with her. I think she's portrayed very well overall. Makes me form a deeper connection with her character. Must watch if you got through '83, since Cima was one of the standout characters from that. ... I probably wouldn't recommend checking this out if you haven't seen '83, though. Criminally low score on here.

Better than I was expecting in some ways, but like a 5/10 overall. Stunning animation. Like, truly stunning, from start to finish. The mecha moves like waves on water, and the explosions were particularly beautiful. I love the interior cockpit designs as well, because of all of their bits and bobbles. Character design is also on point, in at least making designs that are pleasing to the eye.

Plotwise, I was not very invested. I just couldn't get into it, mostly because of the characters, which I'll elab slightly in a bit. I was so not invested in the plot + characters that my friend (who ... I was watching this with) and I made up Kou x Kei secret dating BL to keep us somewhat invested. That is, until our dreams were crushed in episode 6. We made a whole idea doc and everything.

The characters...... sure did character. A lot of them felt really one note to me, even if I personally found them endearing. Keith, Maura, and Cima ended up being favorites, but really only because they had good vibes. Mayfly helps Cima out a lot, but I'm talking about Stardust Memory, not Mayfly. The characters had great potential, but it just never really got started.

Kou was.... Kou did not hit for me. I feel bad, because I really can't put a finger onto why, so my analysis feels undeserving. But he just didn't click with me. I fucking loved his expressions though, especially towards the end.

I did not hate Nina nearly as much as I thought I would! Going into Stardust, I knew she had a terrible reputation, but her category five woman moment at the end actually made her shoot up in the rankings for me. It was fun to watch, especially since at that point no one character really stuck out to me from a writing standpoint.

Overall, unless you like, really, really, really like Gundam and want to get through everything, you can skip this. Just watch AMVs on YouTube for the animation.

Very enrapturing premise, lots of trope subversion. Interested to see what it does for the full series. I’m a big fan of Rokuto’s more open and puppy-like personality compared to Nanami’s more serious one, especially with how it subverts reader expectations. Nanami’s manipulative personality is really yummy to me. The dynamic between Rokuto and Nanami--and who's really in control, here--is very interesting to me.

The art is ok— Though, I’m not a huge fan of more traditional anime art styles, so this may just be a taste thing on my part. I wish it was a little more cartoonish in some regards, like if the ... artist pushed expressions/body language more. Poses feel pretty static.

My score for this may be low, but I’d love to see where this story goes. I think it has a lot of potential to be great. Excited for the serialization announcement, I hope it gets an official English translation!

Revolutionary Girl Utena, but if it was hype as fuck.

Not to much to say about this movie, because it's just so much fun. Beautiful art, for one-- the school is wonderful to look at, and everyone's new designs are great. Everything moves and flows beautifully, it's hard to put my finger on it. The mechanical designs are also a marvel.

Anthy was phenomenal in this movie--RGU is Utena's finale, while I consider this movie to be Anthy's. She's so fun to watch in this movie, and her arc is wonderful, especially her bit at the end. Watching her growth brought tears to my eyes.

It took Touga ... and Akio in a different direction than the television show. While Touga is much more likable here than he is in the show, I think his show's portrayal is a lot more nuanced and interesting. Akio, on the other hand, is great-- it's such a stark turn in presentation for him, but it's just as good as he is in this show, just different. His new voice actor brings such a different look to him, it's a great alternative exploration of his character.

The entire movie is really a love letter to Utena, I consider this and the television show going hand in hand; I wouldn't watch one over the other.

I really don't feel like I am qualified to write a decent review on this anime. So to that end, I'll try to separate this review from any analysis, because this is really a story that invites multiple rewatches.

Utena is good. Utena is a damn good anime, and I'm genuinely shocked it somehow comes in at #360 in popularity.

Start with what I'm least qualified, which is the animation: some episodes (The Nanami early focuses especially) can be off-model. However, it's never impacted the story in a way that I think holds any merit. Barring that, the animation is gorgeous. Everything looks beautiful. ... The direction in this series is masterful, and something that should really be examined. I recommend watching Utena with a friend, as I did, to bounce ideas off of each other at what each little thing means. It's actually a blast.

Story & characters are phenomenal. Each and every character is, in some regards, a bad person, with deep, innumerable flaws, and they all end up hurting each other, constantly. But they're still extremely charming, and mostly sympathetic. The cast as a whole is extremely strong. They're funny, interesting, and you just want them to win so bad. I never felt disappointed or disheartened with a turn in someone's arc, only continuously enthralled, only wishing for them to overcome the obstacles they faced, especially towards the end. Utena, Jury, and Nanami were standouts to me. Watching their journeys throughout the 39 episodes was always entertaining, sometimes harrowing, and deeply satisfactory. Utena's arc is a particular standout; she goes from plucky, stereotypical protag, to something so much more, every detail affecting her life, arc, and trajectory.

Utena is a must watch. It's a damn shame no one seems to talk about it more these days, even within "philosophical" anime analysis circles. The only reason it's not a 10 is purely personal bias, as I didn't feel that final "click"-- but that doesn't mean what I'm seeing her isn't masterful, in every sense of the word.

Also the music is fucking spectacular.

This show is pretty awesome.

Balls to the walls high testosterone action, paired with absolutely stunning animation from the late, great, Studio Gainax. Everything here is so fluid, each expression pushed to extremes. The big choppy outlines on the characters are great aesthetic touches. The action itself is nicely choreographed--nothing out of this world, by any means, but it's cheesy and perfect for the OVA's overall tone. You should watch this for the animation alone.

The story is pretty bare-boned, all things considered, but the characters are all delightfully cheesy and delightfully charming. I wish Yukari had a little more agency in this, but you ... get what you get with 90s OVAs.

Overall, deeply enjoyable 90s action fun. Short, quick, great watch.

Just a heads up, this anime does have sex slaves in like the first episode, and later episodes have squeamish IMO pregnancy plots, so if that gives you the heebie jeebies, letting you know right now Re:Monster is not worth pushing past your boundaries.

This is really bad, but let's talk about the good first.

Definitely succeeds in being a power fantasy, which NGL, I did find some satisfaction in. It is nice to see the hero win and be cool all the time, even if it is immature.

Sometimes, the show is funny. My favorite character was probably the fujoshi goblin. She was great.

The ... animation is a lot more brutal than I expected. Not like, super gore heavy, but they're not afraid of blood and flesh for the most part, which is interesting. There were some moments of slightly unique animation.

The bad:

The whole cast kind of sucks. There's so many characters and none of them have time to really do anything. Characters keep joining Protagkun's army for like no reason, and stay when they really don't have any reason too--particularly the members that were kidnapped by the gang, where the rest of their group was killed. Ogrekichi/the big dude who gets almost an arc about how much he wants to beat Protag-kun. But nothing really comes from that. Protag-kun whose name I already forgot was boring despite almost having an interesting backstory. He is more morally grey than he'd like to admit, especially in regards to how he treats women, which couldve been interesting but no one challenges him on that ever.

SPEAKING OF THE WOMEN!

Yeah they're not great. Everyone in this anime has less personality than the pebbles I kick on the road. But the female characters, particularly the human women Protagkun kidnaps. The girls are just, so fine with being kidnapped after Protagkun calmly assures them that they won't be raped. Sure, let's trust the leader goblin of the squad that just kidnapped us. Yes, protagkun did beat up the Bad Goblins who were going to rape them, but he's still a member of the kidnapping party. Maybe if these women were coming from significantly worse backgrounds I could believe it, but they were just wandering merchants. ALSO ALL THEIR MEN WERE KILLED! BY THE SAME GOBLINS!

Also the human women Protagkun "takes in" don't get their names revealed until the end of the series and for a really horrific reason. So there's that.

The monster women are kind of ok. Save for one, they aren't apart of the haremn so they get saved from that. But again everyone has the less personality than the dead wasp on my windowsill, so they really don't get much.

There are some cool-ish moments with the worldbuilding, particularly the evolve system, but it just feels like kind of ominous sometimes and nothing interesting happens from it. I feel like you could've done something cool with the game mechanic systems in a world that isn't explicitly from a videogame, but nothing really cool happens with this either.

Unless you just really love power fantasy isekai and can get over the sexism, hard skip.

Unbelievably fun. Beautiful animation, beautiful robots. Wish I got to see the white base more but I get why they weren’t in it as much. Marcos was good but I wish Cara his character instead. The music was really good too. Sleggar was a lot better here, and Bright’s character improved tenfold with the more expressive animation. Villain team was meh but the island residents made up for it. Fraw Bow was also really good despite having like six lines the whole movie. Kai Shiden and Hayato Kobayashi, mayors of losertown, got their asses beat by a goat. I wish the secondary pilots didn’t get ... the floor mopped with them, and that the fight scenes were longer in general, but that’s not a huge deal IG.

it was ok.

characters just needed way more than six episodes. Everyone kind of fell flat except for Solaria, and that's not saying a lot. The only character I was really interested was the Gundam pilot-- a generic, unnamed child soldier. I was (unreasonably) hoping the pilot would be someone we recognized, but I like that he was unamed. It allowed him to be none of the pilots we know and love, so he could represent all of them at once. all of the young boys who went out into space. amuro, kamille, judau, and all those after and all those before.

The fight scenes ... were ok, the gundams did feel like they had a lot of weight. Nothing spectacular but nothing horrible.

a very condensed gundam, mostly of its general themes/characters. the gundam was pretty threatening itself but i wish it killed off more of the charas we care about. It can work as an entry piece into gundam, honestly it's probably the best I've seen, but I still think starting with the original series or an AU is your best bet.

Just a kind of nothing burger. I feel like everyone's character development, especially HIromu and the Masaki, had a chunk of their character development off screen three years ago. In the omega's case he does learn and grow, and he's the character that changes the most throughout the course of the show, but it wasn't enough to keep me properly engaged. The two side characters, Matsuo and Yuki had more chemistry than the main duo, but the bar is still in hell. The twins did not need to be there. Masaki's cousin was okay I guess but I don't even remember his name.

The kids ... are cute i guess. There are some cute moments in the show that made me laugh, but it really isn't enough. I wish the kids were more annoying. They felt too perfectly cute. Kids are fucking little assholes, thats what makes the cute moments even cuter. They felt really flat.

My main issue with the show is its treatment of omegaverse. I am no omegaverse connoisseur, but I am on Tumblr, so I know a fair bit. I will give the show credit: it does utilize the omegaverse trope throughout the whole show... but it doesn't really do it well. And I think that's the highest insult.

For the uninitiated, omegaverses across media can vary **very wildly,** and there's really only a few general rules--and even those rules get broken. The show generally follows the main "rules." For the sake of gross simplification, generally speaking alphas are the semes, ukes are omegas that can get pregnant, people release "pheromones" like wolves, omegas go into heat, and omegas/alphas do mating marks. Betas also exist. (No one knows what betas do in this hierarchy. Not even tumblrinas.)

These are the only real rules Tadaima Okaeri follows, which usually would be a great thing--shows that feature an original cast must have a very nuanced/well thought out/unique take on the omegaverse. But those are the only rules it follows because Tadaima, Okaeri doesn't remember anything else. Packs are flown out the window, despite the four or five rotating dudes that keep inviting themselves over to the main couples house. Even stilll, the only real rule that Taidama Okaeri cares about for most of its run is that alphas are semes and ukes are omeagas, with the other stuff not appearing until the final conflict. Something interesting that Tadaima Okarei does do is that omegas and alphas aren't encouraged to be together; what's normal in this verse is dating within your type. This is the main piece of worldbuilding that drives a lot of the show, and to be fair, I've never seen anything like it before. However, it ends up just being a copy paste bad discrimination story, and you could honestly replace it with "they disapprove of this marriage because I'm gay/transgender" and really nothing would change.

I'm just... who is it for? Back when this was airing every anituber i saw treated this like it had the fucknig measles, and while we're all allowed to have our likes and dislikes, this show was so milquetoast that the fear from people like Glass Reflection seems like it's for a different show. that's another thing, despite omegaverse being what this show is about, it never really leans into the strangeness of it all. Masaki literally has gets pregnant and has a baby in the middle of the series, and all we get is him saying "I'm having a baby" to a jump cut of the baby in their crib. Like, seriously? The only people watching this are comfortable with omegaverse content, they can withstand a pregnant man. It just felt like it never wanted to commit to anything weirder than it's bland discrimination angle. And even still, even still!! With that discrimination angle we never saw anything beyond how people in the couple's personal lives felt about it. Nothing about systemic opression of omegas, which IMO, you HAVE to deal with if your'e doing an omegaverse with original characters.

Overall this is a hard skip, for both casual BL fans, omegaverse fans, and everyone else. Don't waste your time.

Also the budget for this show appears to be four pieces of lint and a toothpick, but since this is a BL, that's kinda a rite of passage.