Back to kaz_77's Profile kaz_77's Profile

I feel like I'm several months late on this, but why not. Mob Psycho 100's second season has received universal praise within the anime community. It's fair to see why, as the show features a unique setting with tons of potential. Being a fan of One Punch Man, I watched the first season of Mob Psycho, and while it started off kinda slow, I felt like it left a good taste in my mouth. Here Mob Psycho season 2 had arguably stronger moments than the first season, but the end result was kinda mixed. Let's take a more depth look to see why.

Story - 6/10

Slice ... of life shows have been rather spotty for me. I'm totally fine when a show doesn't want to have continuous and would rather divide the story into arcs or separate episodes. Plenty of my favorites follow this format! However, the consistency in Mob's arcs is certainly questionable.

The first few episodes start off rather well. I mentioned that the last season left a good impression on me with the ending, and the second season seems to continue on that streak. But..then we get to Mogami. While there are some strong points to be here, I'll focus on the negatives since I think that they really ruined what could be a rather emotional arc. First off, the writing is.....crap? To be more specific, it feels something that a child would think up of. Ok not specific enough...alright, it's because of THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. This arc revolves around a damn ghost telling Mob he has nooo friends to make him sad. Then he realizes that he does have friends, and boom, he wins. This is literally something out of a children's cartoon or another generic shonen.

Past this we get an arc that focuses on Reigen, which is actually quite good! Here is where the peaks of this season come in. It hits those high notes much higher than anything in the previous season. It's unfortunate that it took this long for certain plot points to become more developed, but I won't spoil otherwise I'll ruin the best arc of the season!

Now the last arc sucks, it's basically just MHA. You get plenty of action from villains whose motives are really underdeveloped. My attention was wandering around the room as opposed to watching the show by this point. This ending left a really bad impression on me and ruined what looked like a truly great 8/10 series after the previous arc. Both of these weak arcs are honestly pretty dark for a series like Mob Psycho and result in a jarring shift in tone. I think it left a poor taste for the series as a whole

Characters - 7/10

They're fine. I never found the characters to be that funny nor compelling in Mob Psycho. Each of them are about as deep as a puddle and are scrambling for any jokes. It just comes off as awkward. I've already mentioned the wonderful Reigen arc, but again, a lot of this stuff comes off as moments, and not genuine characterization. OPM didn't have any "deep" characters, but Mob fans act like this is the deepest shit. Everyone besides Mob and Reigen are just a blur. I can't remember anyone!

Art - 7/10

In terms of animation, Mob Psycho II is exceptional. It can be too flashy and hard to follow at times, but most of the action scene look sick! Why I gave this section a 7 though? The art style is ugly. Just a matter of taste. Not a fan of this in the first season, and I still don't care now

Sound - 7/10

Music is pretty good, especially the openings and endings. The voice acting leaves much to be desired though. Most of it is dull. The characters sound like they're mumbling half the time which detracts from my attention

Enjoyment - 7/10

I was really into this series but the bad parts are kinda bad. A couple other shows from this season were consistently enjoyable while the ending here really left much to be desired. Mob Psycho II is still fairly good, I just can't put it among the greats this year

Overall - 7/10

Not a bad series overall, just not something for me. At one point this had over a 9.00 on MAL! Seriously? Mob Psycho II still follows plenty of shonen tropes and lacks the nuance in its writing to separate itself from the flock. But hey, at least this beats out OPM2!

After finishing both seasons of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, I feel compelled to give a review. This will focus on the second season, but I will draw comparisons to the first as well. If you want to watch the first season then skip this review to avoid any spoilers. While some people may be disappointed by Kai for a multitude of reasons, I found it to be about as good as the first! Let me explain.

Characters - 9/10

The characters are still awesome just like the first season. However, the focus is shifted to different members of the cast. Rika and Takano didn't get much ... attention in the first season, but now, they have all the spotlight!

Rika Furude is a very determined character that the audience really wants to root for. Her main conflict throughout the series is challenging fate, as she has failed countless times. The audience really feels for Rika character and wants her to succeed. While she does doubt herself, she is not a weak character, and will pull through even the most difficult of times. I thought she had great development in this season, as she learns to place trust in those close to her in order to change the future.

Hanyuu is a new addition to the cast. She does have a noticeable character arc, but I don't want to give any details so you can see for yourself.

Miyo Takano is one of the greatest villains that I've seen in an anime! She is sly, cruel, and manipulative. You will end up DESPISING her, yet she still gets a nice backstory to back her motivations.

The rest of the cast is still decent. Not too much is developed from the first season, but considering the shift in focus to Rika as the protagonist, it makes sense. The first season gave even attention to the club members, and while focusing on one cast member can appear more boring, I will assure you that is not the case.

Story - 9/10

My main gripes with this season is the plot. Now, I still found it to be really engaging and a rewarding experience. However, there were quite a few problems with it that made me give this section a lower score than the first season. To start, Kai is devoid of most of the horror elements from the first season. The original did a great job at building suspense. Much of the tension and atmosphere is lost in this series with the removal of the horror. If the first season was "Silent Hill", then the second is basically "The Goonies". All of the recommendations on the MAL page include shows such as "Steins Gate" and "Madoka Magica" as opposed to "Elfen Lied" and "Another". I wouldn't say that this different approach is bad, just very different, and viewers should be aware before going into this series expecting more slasher action.

This brings me to my next problem, and that is basically the ending. Without spoiling, I will just say that the last few episodes were a little silly when it came to resolving the conflict. Many of the situations towards the end are pretty unrealistic and hard to take seriously. If you think Ewoks beating Stormtroopers in "Return of the Jedi" was dumb, then you will NOT like the last act of this season. From such a mature series, I was definitely disappointed with the direction the story took by the end. Not to say that I wasn't satisfied with the outcome, I was more disappointed by how clumsily it was resolved.

The last problem I have with the plot is how the mysteries from the first season were answered. The first season of Higurashi mostly covered the "Question" chapters from the visual novel, while the second season covered the "Answers". Now, you do get answers to everything brought up in the first season, because honestly, the first season could be confusing for a lot of people. However, this season does the complete opposite by disrespecting the intelligence of the audience. You get your answers, but everything is extremely straightforward and forced. The writers REALLY want you to get what happened. This issue isn't that significant since you do in fact get resolution to all the shit in the first season, I just wish that it was executed better without all of the hand holding.

Despite my complaints, the plot of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai is pretty good! There are many twists and turns and excellent world building to make up for the shortcomings.

Art - 7/10

The art is a step up from the first season, which didn't have the best animation. The scenery of Hinamizawa looks great. All of the character designs stand out. Animation is generally very smooth and not jarring to look at. I don't have much more to add, the art in Kai is fairly well done.

Sound - 9/10

Sound design is once again amazing in the Higurashi. Voice performances are spot on, the soundtrack is used very well, and the cicada cries can't go unmentioned. I also loved both the OP and ED, never skipped them!

Enjoyment - 9/10

Despite my issues with the plot, I still enjoyed Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai just as much as the first season! With an engaging story, great cast of characters, and an awesome soundtrack, it's hard not to enjoy this season if you liked the first.

Overall - 9/10

This is an amazing series, and if you've never seen the first season, then give it a chance! I don't like how this series gets compared to yandere schlock, there is much more to Higurashi than that. Every aspect of the series is very exceptional, and I think everyone should give it a try if they like murder mysteries and horror series.

I'm gonna be honest, I bought into the hype of this show early on. I tried hard to defend it, but after several episodes, it became pretty apparent that Darling in the Franxx was a load of crap. Being a collaboration between two big studios, Trigger and A-1 Pictures, it is obvious that Darling in the Franxx would generate a lot of hype throughout the anime community. While it did start off with some potential, the end product certainly missed the mark.

Story - 2/10

It's gonna be pretty difficult to talk about the "plot" of this show without mentioning some spoilers, so be warned.

Wow, they ... really shit the bed with this one. The story in Darling in the Franxx is just plain awful. Everything is told at an extremely slow pace, and ultimately ends up being unoriginal and not worth the time. Have you seen Evangelion? Gurren Lagann? Eureka Seven? Elfen Lied? Gunbuster? Shinsekai Yori? Well then, absolutely nothing in this show will surprise you in the slightest! The core problem with this show is its lack of identity. It tries to tackle many different themes and make references to many other popular shows, but does so with poor execution. This show has absolutely no balls and none of the plot lines go anywhere. Everything is just severely underdeveloped.

One of the main themes of this show is sex. The pilots are all underage and have to control the Franxx robots together in a doggy style position. Given how much fanservice is in the show and the absurdity of its metaphors, it is almost impossible to take anything seriously. I do give credit to the show for attempting to tackle these issues, but the execution was really clumsy. Many of the episodes try to comment on puberty and marriage, but end up being really cringy to watch. Franxx tries to take itself seriously, but none of the commentary bears any meaning. It seems like more of an excuse for underage fanservice.

I have already mentioned the world building, but let me elaborate more since it was one of my greatest disappointments with this show. Take episode 10 for example. Zorome gets lost and is taken in by a couple for most of the episode. Both the man and woman are adults, but the husband is kept frozen in storage. Is this every mentioned again? Nope! This is the most boring dystopia I have seen in recent memory. Darling in the Franxx does not develop on any of these details. It prefers to pull out beach episodes and talk about sex instead of creating an interesting world. In retrospect, it seems like the studio had no real plan for this show, and just made stuff up along the way. This is evident by how stretched thin the plot is and all of the boring twists that occurred in the last few episodes. Everything stopped making sense by that point.

Another key aspect of Franxx was the romance. It was obvious from the beginning that Hiro and Zero Two were going to get together. What leads up to it is a bunch of teen drama and inconsistencies between the characters. Only in an Elfen Lied-esque flashback episode do Hiro and Zero Two finally accept each other and become a lovey dovey couple for the rest of the series. Honestly, even Elfen Lied had more emotion behind this lazy plot device than Darling in the Franxx. If I'm saying that Elfen Lied did something better, then that should REALLY put into perspective how half-ass Darling in the Franxx is. Honestly, resolving the romance half-way through only made the show even more boring. After episode 15, I had lost all interest in the show and knew that nothing could save it.

The ending was the final nail in the coffin. I was nearly on the floor laughing at how much of a joke the ending was, if you can even call it an ending! All of the ex-Parasites work together to rebuild society while Hiro and Zero Two go off to fight VIRM with no definite answer on whether they will actually win? At the very least show the could have had a satisfying final battle, yet the studio denied fans even that. Usually I don't think an ending can break a whole show, but stringing viewers along for several months only to give such a disappointing ending is a huge punch in the face. There are still plenty of plot holes left open. Who is going to govern society? What's the deal with the adults? Are they all sterile? If so, are all of the parasite, in their short lifespan, expected to bear enough children to continue the human race? Are they all going to be manufactured in test tubes? What about the rest of the world? Did VIRM control this city, or the whole planet? Are the Klaxosaurs just gone now? I could go on and on. Sitting through this show for 24 episodes gave absolutely no satisfaction.

While there is plenty more to discuss, I feel like most of it has already been said in one form or another. The story of Darling in the Franxx was really bad, and probably the worst aspect of the series.

Characters - 3/10

The cast of Darling in the Franxx is extremely boring and uninspired. By the end, I did not give a shit about any of them in the slightest. Let me give a brief rundown on each character.

Hiro is the main character. A complete joke of a main character I might add. In the first few episodes he had some sort of internal conflict going on. He was not getting along with the rest of the squad. Very quickly this got phased out and he became duller than wonder bread. Hiro is more like Kirito from SAO. A Gary Stu with no real flaws. He really lacks development in this show and words cannot emphasize how boring his personality is.

Zero Two is the only reason why people watched this show. Honestly, she was certainly an entertaining character in the first half of the show. She had a fiery personality and was the center of attention in every scene that she was in. Once the romance is resolved however, she became a boring moe and does almost nothing for the rest of the show. Her character development is a joke. She does a complete 180 when she finds out Hiro was her real "dahling" and suddenly gets along with the whole cast!

Everyone hates Ichigo, but honestly, she was ok by the end of the series. It was frustrating to see her gang up on Zero Two in the beginning. She didn't end up being a good character either, but I at least felt indifferent about her by the end.

Goro seemed like a cool character but basically got no attention in the second half of the series. Basically a background character for the most part.

Kokoro wants to have babies with Mitsuru, whose character was really confusing. Mitsuru had this burning hatred for Hiro at the start of the series but this sort of fizzled out. Mitsuru cuts his hair to signify his change of character and decides to make babies with Kokoro instead of bullying Hiro.

Zorome and Miku were basically background characters too. Zorome did have an episode of his own and he also bullied Hiro in the beginning. Even with this attention early on, he came off as really uninteresting, sometimes even annoying

Ikuno was a lesbian I think?

Futoshi's entire character is being fat. He likes food and Kokoro. Gets forced to run the wedding between Mitsuru and Kokoro. How embarrassing.

Naomi was Hiro's original partner. She was in the first episode and came back in the last episode. Ok.

Dr.Franxx appears early in the series, gets an episode to flesh out his backstory, and then dies. Cool.

None of the characters are interesting enough to mention. There were a couple that I liked and I couple I didn't like. Nothing offensively bad, just really underwhelming. Which is....awful.

Art - 7/10

The animation in Franxx is usually pretty good. While there are some shortcuts made, everything about the show looks pretty nice and smooth. The scenery is very lush and colorful, everything stands out well in this show. Each of the parasite kids wear the same outfits, but they are still easy to tell apart by their hair and facial features. Zero Two, while not necessarily original in her design being a cross between Lum and Lucy, certainly looks appealing and stands out among the cast. After all, her design is the sole reason why people probably watched the show in the first place. Franxx designs look like McDonald's toys, but I found the Klaxosaur designs to be interesting at the very least. The few action scenes in the show, primarily occurring in the earlier episodes, are well animated and fluid. The action scenes toward the end were anticlimactic, but didn't look bad at all. Visual direction is solid in the show. Future events are definitely foreshadowed earlier in the show using the visuals. I should also mention that both of the openings for the show are well animated, but honestly nothing mind blowing.

While the art of this show deserves praise, it is not without its shortcomings. I have already touched upon the usual shortcuts made in the visual production and the stale designs. The greatest issue I have with the animation is the missed potential when it comes to the mecha battles. After the first few episodes, the mecha battles are kept to the sideline and are barely even highlighted in the middle of the show. While I thought the mechs themselves looked silly, the show would have been more worthwhile if there were more action sequences to compensate for the stale narrative. Instead, the show switches between a lot of the same locations which boring really quickly. Darling in the Franxx is honestly a good looking show, but was still lacking in this department.

Sound - 6/10

When it comes to sound, Darling in the Franxx wasn't bad, but certainly underwhelming. Most of the battle music is pretty average, with no tracks that really stand out. I thought the OP "Kiss of Death" was fairly good, and it fit with the narrative of the show, but it still wasn't a piece that really stood out to me. The second OP was just a remix of the first, so I don't have much else to say other it being a lazy move. I really liked the first ED "Torikago" and thought it was really catchy. I especially liked the way that they ended each of the episodes off with it. However, the show really disappointed me by only using it for the first six episodes, and switched to mediocre tracks for the rest of the series.

The voice acting was alright throughout the show. Most of the voices fit the characters and their "personalities". Although most of the performances felt kind of boring, I did think that Haruka Tomatsu did a fine performance as Zero Two. Simply uttering the word "dahling" causes millions of adolescent males around the world to squeal. As for the English dub, I thought it was ok. If that's what you prefer, then by all means go for it.

Enjoyment - 3/10

The first six or so episodes of Franxx were fairly enjoyable, but it only started to go downhill from there. Franxx's lack of identity made for a conflicted viewing experience. Did it want to be a cool mech show? A teen drama? Nonsense? Probably the latter is most appropriate. The filler and fanservice were cringe worthy. The plot went absolutely nowhere and I had to force myself to finish the last few episodes.

Overall - 3/10

I admit that I bought into the hype of Darling in the Franxx, but I was completely delusional. I do not recommend watching this show. If you really like Zero Two then litter your room with figurines or watch some highlights online. Alternatively, if Darling in the Franxx does interest you, or you finished the show and actually did enjoy it, then I would suggest looking at the recommendations below. Almost all of the shows there are probably better than Darling in the Franxx. My personal recommendations are Eureka Seven, Evangelion, and Gurren Lagann.

I went into theaters knowing that this was not going to be good film, but coming out, I was very surprised by just how awful Fireworks ended up being. This is such as headache inducing and boring film that it's hard to believe that the producers of Your Name were involved in this. Anyways, I'd rather start this review off with the better aspects of the film.

Art - 6/10

The visuals were not bad in this film at all, I'll give it that. There are plenty of interesting shots, most notably in the first half of the film. Everything was colorful and clean. The 2d art ... work done in this film was, at the very least, good. The score is only a 6 mostly because of the CGI. A little bit of it looks good, like the effects used in the pool, but most of it looks mediocre at best. Building interiors look like models taken from an HGTV series. 3d substitutes for characters in distant motion look really rough and art poorly animated. Just the abundance of this CGI was enough to drop the score of the art work. Also, none of the character designs were very notable. The only character that stood out was Nazuna, but mostly because of her color and importance to the narrative. Visuals were probably the strongest part of this film, yet they're still full of many problems.

Sound - 5/10

The sound design was fairly mediocre throughout this film. The whole soundtrack is fairly generic, with nothing standing out or worth listening to on my own. Sound effects were ok, but certainly nothing to write home about either. The voice acting for the female characters sounded fine, but when it came to the male characters, it was just bad. Norimichi's had little to no emotion and was just dreadful to listen to. This is especially bad considering the fact that he's the main character and speaks more than anyone else.

Story - 2/10

Oh boy, now we have the story. Without spoiling what actually happens, I'll say this. The narrative structure is fairly simple and very small in scale, yet feels so convoluted. It poorly makes use of plot devices such as time travel. The mechanics behind these supernatural elements make absolutely no sense with little explanation. There are quite a few pointless scenes in this film that are completely pointless by adding little to the plot or characters. Everything happening is so boring and confusing. The ending is especially bad since it sort of just fades out with little resolution to the story. There was no satisfaction with any turning point in the story, and I was just left even more confusing as the film went on. Conflict did not exist, I did not care for anyone or anything. Despite having such a simple storyline, Fireworks ended up being such a complete mess.

Characters - 2/10

They are just as bad the story. Character development is practically nonexistent and the motivations behind these characters make no sense. All of the characters have no personality, they were flatter than Ms.Miura's chest. Norimichi and his friends either make perverted jokes or talk about fireworks. That is what their friendship boils down to. It was absolutely hilarious how poorly the chemistry between these characters was handled. They all seem horribly inconsistent as well. Also, there was no distinct antagonist, which was probably part of the reason why there was no tension in the film. Nazuna is really just used for fan service, having no respectable qualities whatsoever. Her relationship with Norimichi also make no sense, as there is no build up to their relationship. Why they are interested in each other is beyond me. I don't really care anyways. Absolutely nothing was memorable about this cast, and it was a chore to watch each of them on screen.

Enjoyment - 3/10

I was really bored throughout this film, and trying to decipher the reasoning behind the plot and characters gave me a headache. This whole film felt completely pointless. I was hoping to see some nice visuals at the very least, but none of it really impressed me, even the ending.

Overall - 3/10

My advice is to not even bother with this film. My expectation were fairly low yet I still managed to be disappointed. Going back and watching Your Name would be a better use of your time than seeing this trash. Or, you know, go out and see real fireworks? Who even cares if they're round or flat, they're more worthwhile than the ones in this film.