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Alright, I tried.

The internet brain rot finally got to me and after slumping through the first season, I got to the ever awaited second season. Visually, it’s stunning and the animation is just … WOW. I know those mappa animators haven’t seen their families in a loooooong time. But the plot is just so damn boring to me. I don’t care about each character being more OP than the other. There’s just nothing interesting about it.

If you’re fine with generic shonens or are a first time anime watcher, then go for it. Otherwise, I really don’t see what the hype is about.

Fair warning: I went into this anime with no interest and came out with ... well... still no interest.

Shounens don't particularly appeal to me and this certainly didn't appeal to me when I tried it when it first aired because I thought Gojo was hot and even after watching it it still doesn't do it for me. I only tried again recently because the second season looks PHENOMENAL (animation-wise) and as someone who's interested in that field I feel I need to have a least a bit of back story before I jump into the second season.

As I was "watching" (ie: doing other ... things while the dub played in the background ((also, the dub was ... not good...)), it seemed to have pretty standard character arcs and motivations. The only thing that made me actually watch two-ish episodes was around 11/12/13 - that was a great arc, made me VERY emotional. Then it went back to being boring by starting their school exchange arc.

A little bit on character design. I really did not like the design of the monsters/demons. I think the use of a different brush medium was great, but the actual designs are so ... tacky? Like that cyclops volcano dude. From what I understand he's supposed to be the main villain, but he just looks goofy as hell. Instead of feeling terrified I just wanted to laugh!

The only reason I can fathom why this became popular is because it has heavy starter anime vibes and the animation was superb. I asked one of my friends why she liked it and she explained it was one of her first anime and the animation was amazing, but admittedly it felt like a Naruto rip-off. To that I replied, well, there are tons of other anime out there that have better plots AND really good animation... so i suppose jjk is a starter anime for lots of people who don't know what else is out there.

I don't think it's bad though. I think it's very predictable and catered to people who have different tastes than me. There's no particular plot holes or logical discrepancies that make it "bad". So to that I say, if you're looking for a starter show, this is a good place to begin. If you're a seasoned veteran and like more outlandish shows, don't bother.

y’all … what does gege mean

I’ve seen tons of this show through internet osmosis and always wondered about these dudes with long hair and now have finally had time to check it out. Since there seems to be every sort of media to exist about this story, I decided to try the donghua first, since animation is a medium I'm very familiar with. I will say that this is a donghua-only review, so it will be mostly about how it’s production affected the story for me.

I’m not sure what I expected, but I’d say I was pleasantly surprised. Right off the bat, I can ... see it’s popularity - I love a solid action-adventure story with a solid romantic subplot, and this seems to be one that’s done properly - incorporating the development into the story and not being thrown to the side. I feel like it’s very rare to find shows like that nowadays, especially in the isekai-ridden anime world. One side note on the romance though- it wasn't explicitly obvious, so I thought I was tripping ... or maybe it's because of censorship... but I have no knowledge of how that works, so I'm going to trust the internet on this one. Something that I loved though, was Xie Lan's character - while we know he's an underdog, it's very refreshing to see a main character that is good for the sake of being good. I also think "San Lang" was quite interesting as well. One big thing during their relationship that confused me is why Xie Lian seemed to have no interest as to San Lang's true identity. Sure, I can get behind the idea of "I like you for who you are now and that's it" in theory, but it IS a bit strange considering what San Lang actually is ... Lastly, I am not that well versed in Chinese mythology, so I just kind of went along with everything that was happening in terms of magical systems. In that sense, I wish they had explained the lore a bit more.

Lastly, my biggest problem was the pacing itself was strange - both in the overall series and within episodes, down to the interactions between characters. On the whole, it seemed to be a “monster of the week” story, which I don't mind, but there were only 2 monsters - usually, the golden rule is to use 3 of something to round it out - so I was a bit confused as to where the series was heading. Furthermore, the pacing within an episode was strange - there were interactions which would go on a beat to long or had an awkward pause which made everything feel strange. As an example, as one character would go to attack another, the side character would just stand there and watch, only reacting at the last minute. I guess this is more of a timing issue than one with pace, but it did make it feel like each episode was longer than it was and slightly off-kilter.

Art: The only big qualm I had was that sometimes the art did not line up with the actors emotions. The animation for normal movements was OK, but it did deliver during action scenes. I especially think they did a great job with Xie Lian's bandages.

I’ll be reading the novel to hopefully flesh out my experience as I can sense that there is more to the story than the donghua was able to portray.

*This is a review of the ANIME only and does not reflect my opinion on the manga)

I went into Chainsaw Man very hyped. Of course, I knew that I was going to naturally have some bias. I feel it’s easier to have a bias when you’re adapting two visual mediums (manga —> anime) vs, say, a book into a movie. As such, I was trying to figure out whether the show was actually good or if I was just biased because for the most part, it copied the visuals of the manga pretty well. However, as the episodes progressed, I realized that the directing style ... didn’t work. To me, CSM read like sort of an “indie” type manga, and the anime didn’t deliver that to me. Certain scenes that I felt had a lot of meaning in the manga weren’t given the same importance and/or brushed over completely. Some of the shots were pretty stationary and didn’t convey the same sense of dread. I know it’s not fair to compare a show to it’s source material, so I will say if I had watched this show as a stand-alone, I probably would not have finished it. There was something about Fujimoto’s pacing and weird framing that made it a great read.

Animation: I will start by saying that the animation for a 12 episode series was insane. It was obvious they invested a lot of time and budget into this. However, I feel like as if they were a kid who had just gotten a bucket of candy on Halloween - they were too excited and went overboard. By this I mean they over-animated scenes that did not need to be. Scenes like characters walking, dawdling in the background, or very small secondary actions were animated practically on 1s and it felt like a visual overload. It was to the point where action scenes didn’t feel particularly special because EVERYTHING was animated in the same way. This is not a dig on the technicalities of the animation itself, but in the way they distributed it throughout the series.

*The OPENING song and animation is amazing. Also every single ED song. Bangers. Every single MAPPA animator deserves a kiss and a good night’s rest.

Everyone in the anime community is acting like this show is the next best thing since sliced bread which I am incredibly devastated to inform you that it is not. I guess a wholesome family relationship is something new for the community cause this was the most average show I've watched that's been this hyped up. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the cute nature of the story and the character's relationships, but ultimately it did not go in depth with any of them and stuck to a normal family fun gag show, leaving me kind of bored while watching.

Story: As I've said above, ... the story did not go in-depth and stuck to it's genre as a family-friendly comedy. As someone who likes character-driven stories and plots I did not enjoy it from a critical perspective. There's nothing else really to critique, as someone who likes to watch more critical shows, this was just not for me. But from an enjoyment perspective, Loid best boy argue with the wall.

Animation: It's WIT studio so everything is 11/10. The characters movements felt realistic and the character designs were nicely incorporated from the manga's style. They of course went hard on every single fight scene. As such, the animation for me definitely bough the score up, otherwise it wouldn't be as enjoyable, which is why I gave my overall score an 8, but for this review it's a 7.

TLDR: If you want a nice, wholesome, funny, heartwarming watch, go for it - but do not expect any in-depth character arcs.

As soon as I cried during the fifth episode I knew this anime was gonna be great. Honestly, this was my first time watching a Chinese animated show and I was very pleasantly surprised. When I got to the last episode my jaw was on the floor. The second season better be coming soon !!

Story: What a nice way to learn about characters through the way they interact with other characters. In this case, it's the way the main character interacted within the person's body he was temporarily inhabiting. So in this way the characters all felt realistic, and I like the message that you ... really have to be in someone's shoes to know what they're going through. I also liked the somewhat episodic nature of each episode, and how in the end they all ended up being connected to each other. I really have nothing else to say except just how amazing and solid the writing was. It takes a great story to make me cry. I guess the only problem, if any, is that I wanted a bit more of a background as to how Lu Guang attained his powers and overall a bit more of his own backstory? But perhaps that will be covered in the second season.

Art: The animation production was slightly different from a Japanese production. To me, the animation looked more consistent overall - more consistently animated on 2s than anime. This also meant that the characters sometimes went off-model more often, but at the same time I felt like it lent it to making the characters' movements more natural and realistic than anime. The only issue was in one episode there was a notable mistake with compositing a 3D bike into certain scenes, but other than that, it was pretty flawless. The backgrounds and shading were phenomenal.

I really loved this show and I cannot wait for the second season !!

Disclaimer: I watched this in the background while doing work so I did not give it my full 100% attention.

I think this is the only KyoAni show I watched that somewhat fell flat. The characters were bland and the story just did not appeal to me. Unfortunately, their cute boys/girls doing cute things formula did not work, maybe because I generally don't like slice of life anyway, but there was nothing about the characters or story / the way it was told that particularly appealed to me.

Story: The story was pretty standard for a sports anime. My main issue with the show though is ... that since Kyudo is a non-gender specific sport, there are both boys and girls on the team, and KyoAni decides to focus only on the boys, which makes the girls awkward side characters. The problem, then, is if the show is about how friendship and teamwork can help the main character solve his performance anxiety, why make the girls sit on the sidelines? There are no good excuses to make the girl characters be barely fleshed-out and not feel like a true part of the team like the guys. Other than that, there was some emotional trauma from the main character and his mother that did not really hit well either until maybe the last episode, which I think did do a nice job at tying the themes of how friendship, love, and perseverance can help one succeed in anything; in this case, a sport.

Art: It's KyoAni so... no problems there. I will say that the backgrounds in this show were pretty distinct and especially beautiful. However, I'm surprised that a story like this was adapted for animation - I feel like it did not utilize animation to its fullest extent. By this I mean that this probably should've been a live action: there was nothing about this story that needed illustration to bring its message across, at least in my opinion. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here is being conveyed correctly, but think Mob Psycho: animation is the art of exaggeration, and works perfectly for a show about a kid with psycho powers and the wacky occurrences around him. Tsurune is the opposite of exaggeration. It's a slow slice of life about character interaction. As such, I feel like animation was not the correct medium to convey the feeling of Tsurune. Or rather, it could be, but whoever was the director for this project did not do a great job of doing so.

Overall, I wish the anime had made me feel the way the opening sequence made me feel. Emotional and sad, yet powerful.

It wasn't bad but... I was expecting more tbh. Considering the fact that this has a movie I guess I thought it was something mind-blowing but then I remembered that it doesn't mean anything because anime studios will keep adapting the same isekai with the same plot over and over again until we somehow become in an isekai too. Anyways, my feeling reading this was mostly disappointed, mixed in with the occasional gasp at how pretty the art was.

Story: The story felt a bit fast. The author did intend for it to be a short story, but I feel like there were so many things ... happening that you couldn't all fit it satisfactorily into one. Both Mio and Shun had pretty traumatic experiences with their families - especially Mio. I wanted the author to sort of marinate the characters and let them sit with these problems and have them show up in their personalities. I thought the idea of Mio always feeling lonely because of his parents death was an interesting concept but he never acted that way. Mio and Shun both easily make a deep emotional connection which I find kinda unrealistic given their circumstances. Again, I liked when Shun's ex-fiancee showed up, but I feel like it was too fast and too sudden and I wanted them to ~marinate~ in those feelings. Also, it's never explained wtf Shun is writing about, which I feel would give a great insight into his character. All in all, I think the key idea I'm getting at is that it didn't necessarily feel rushed, but instead I feel like the author could've chosen to make it longer to really dig deeper into the themes and feelings they were exploring.

Art: So beautiful. The shading was excellent, and the backgrounds were amazingly detailed for a manga. It all felt so heartwarming and drawn by someone who has lived near the seaside their whole life. It really felt like you were on a remote island with them. I will say that there is little variety in the character's facial designs, but honestly with such a small cast it wasn't a huge deal, just something that I noticed.

Despite my negativity towards the story, I still think it explored interesting themes and was overall a great heartwarming read.

This was such a genuinely funny and entertaining show. My one big qualm is just, at the end of the day, it's all one big gag...
Disclaimer: I watched this with a friend over a period of 2 years cause ~busy~ so I'll do my best to write about what I remember

Story: The story, like the first season, has a great cast of unique and quirky characters who clearly have some sort of mental illness and for whatever reason have shunned general society and are living under a bridge like the coolest hobos you've ever seen. There were parts in this season where we ... were so close to finding out some people's backstories, (cough cough nino) but then the show immediately would switch back to it's gags and episodic nature. It started to kind of feel... annoying at one point. We had one chance to find out why Nino lives in Arakawa and the creators where like haha psych !!11! and pulled some of the funniest shit out of their asses and honestly I couldn't even be mad because, well, it was actually funny. So, if you're looking for an in-depth character study and emotional plot, do NOT watch this season. Or this anime at all. I'm glad I watched it with a friend though cause it's good for exactly that!

Art: my bois at shaft always deliver !! There were no awkward frames or movements and the animation quality did what it had to do when it needed to. They keep you on your toes with the visual switching of styles in order to enhance plot points / jokes which I loved. Overall, very fresh and successful animation.

All in all as a person who likes character driven stories, this show began to irk me mid-way through the season, but if you're not looking for that, you've come to the right place.

A healthy relationship??? With characters who respect each other's boundaries?? In MY anime?? Absolutely unheard of. I put this on to be background noise while doing work and I was completely blown away how good it was - especially the dub.

Story: The story was nothing crazy but it was surprisingly wholesome. I didn't mind that it was an extremely slow burn.

Animation: The animation was good where it needed to be. Any shot bigger than a cowboy you could see some clunkiness and inconsistencies (ie: everyone had legs that stretched to next tuesday). I really thought it was creative to redraw scenes in flashbacks with ... a thicker, more dynamic brush to give a different feeling - I've never seen that before and I appreciate the effect it added! There were also a few compositing issues here and there as well.

Overall a really great show with a great atmosphere.