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It's a good, thrilling revenge story, enjoyable and worth my time. I sincerely recommend it for its dramatic tension, interpersonal dynamics, and interestingly realistic yet satisfying resolution.

However, I did have hangups with aspects of this manga's premise. Why would a wealthy family not have insurance to cover a house fire? Why would a man outright divorce his wife for accidentally leaving the stove on, even if the house does burn because of that? Why would he just abandon his two daughters and never contact them for over a decade after? Why would he remarry his wife's poorer single mother friend who only visited occasionally ... and was less competent than his wife in just about every aspect?

Mr. Mitarai is undeniably the weakest written character in this respect, even with what we learn of his background. I didn't feel these questions of mine were satisfiably answered by the end. While I did suspend my disbelief on those points, it was definitely harder to do so, and I felt it made the story less tightly written overall.

That being said, this didn't HINDER my reading experience, just made it slightly less perfect. In other words, I'm nitpicking, because the rest of it really is that good. Give this story a go.

Ghost in the Shell is visually and aurally stunning. Its animation is smooth, its music is gorgeous, its art holds up to the test of time, and its futuristic setting is captivating. However, watching it for the first time in 2024 clearly left me with different thoughts than someone who might've seen it for the first time at its release nearly thirty years ago.

That is to say, this movie failed to have any actual substance in its characters or plot. It is purely a vehicle for existential philosophy. Which is painfully ironic considering it's literally a movie called "ghost in the shell".

Of course ... it can be fun to contemplate the integration of rapidly developing technology with the human condition and what it literally means to be human. It is not fun to be beaten over the head with it in blunt monologues from one person to another, especially when you have no reason to care about the people spouting it.

I honestly can't even remember most of the characters. Nearly everyone is either a mook or a stoically badass cop with bare minimum details to differentiate them. The only memorable people to me were Batou, who has an actual subtle character arc, and the garbage man from the first third of the movie, whose mini-arc left me with the strongest impression in spite of him being largely irrelevant. The antagonist, Puppet Master, and the protagonist Motoko Kusanagi, are both underdeveloped to the point that I didn't care for just about anything they did. I didn't root for either of them. I didn't learn anything about them. They aren't fully, biologically human, which may have been the point. But they're still characters in a story, and the audience still needs SOMETHING to derive anything from what they're watching these people say and do.

The main plot is meant to be a conspiracy drama, but its pacing is fairly atrocious. It speeds up and slows down worse than a teenager struggling to work out their first car's accelerator. Longwinded existential rambling devolves into quick-paced action scenes which are then followed by minutes-long city montages overlaid with traditional Japanese music. Rinse and repeat. And even if you CAN follow the plot, there's little reason to care about what has happened by the time the credits roll, because none of the characters are explored in depth or made memorable whatsoever.

I understand why this movie was so influential, and I appreciate it for its role in anime and sci-fi history. It does look and sound great! But it utterly fails to tell a story or create interesting characters, which... is literally what a movie is supposed to do. My barely-positive impression of Ghost in the Shell is largely because of its legacy rather than its actual contents, and for that I really can't rate it higher than a 6/10.

Hear me out: this is a very Japanese story.

I don't know what Bingo Morihashi's gender or sexuality is, but I think it's Western-centric and dismissive to write them off as a cisgender heterosexual man who doesn't know what they're doing. Kono Koi ni Mirai wa Nai is indeed a story where a transgender woman stays closeted and ultimately none of the characters get what they want. But it's important to understand what LGBTQ culture in Japan is like to really understand this manga for what it is.

Kono Koi ni Mirai wa Nai is a touching, sobering, and brutally realistic display of queer hope and apathy. ... Things go your way, and then they don't. Characters continue living on with the middle ground, sometimes sacrificing what they want and other times being forced under certain lifestyles and comforting themselves under the guise that staying the same as before instead of being openly true to themself was "my choice". This is VERY common for queer people in Japan (and throughout Asia). Often they are relegated to lying, hiding, cross-dressing and wearing makeup in secret. They don't make radical changes like coming out. Most of the time, the people they like do not like them back and never will (hence the story's title), and the alienation and social backlash associated with coming out is enough that a majority lives with their own closeted sexualities and terrible gender dysphoria, suffering in relative silence. Even outside the trans main character's narrative, none of the cast is fully happy. They might find brief moments of respite or connection, but it is not cathartic. It is not long-term.

From an outsider's perspective, this story is rife with the Japanese concept of 'gaman', of weathering it through and toughing it out and being forced to bear with things. It is dense within this story. 'Shikata ga nai'. It can't be helped. A deeply engraved cultural norm wherein nobody has control and everyone is at society's whim, without noting that society is comprised of individuals who can all make their own choices. They are the ones who care what others think. They are the ones holding themselves back. And so they live on this way.

I can easily see Western audiences-- especially Western queer audiences-- feeling alienated by or angry at this story for portraying a transgender person this way. Westerners much prefer the individualistic story, where someone takes charge of their own life. Coming out is hard, but everyone should do it if it makes them happy in the long term! This mindset neglects to take into consideration that not all queer people have that level of self-acceptance, pride, or luxury to do so. I can also equally see Asian audiences finding this work relatable and comforting, of knowing that even if they are closeted, there are others who are like them. As an Asian-American queer person, I understand both these viewpoints and wanted to clear the air for anyone who might not have this type of cross-cultural insight.

Ultimately I didn't really like this manga, but it pushed my comfort zone and I think that's a good thing for literary works to do.

4/10 - it didn't leave me feeling positive, and I wouldn't reread it, but it wasn't a bad story either.

I feel duped.

The Victorian horror vibes from the cover made me begin From the Red Fog believing that it would be at least somewhat intelligent. But no, it is not. It is a hodgepodge of messy, clashing ideas and an even worse execution rushed into a nonsensical train wreck of a finale, and in spite of only being 25 chapters long, you'll feel awash with the sense that you should've wasted your time on something less pretentious.

Every character is either a grimdark edgelord or a forgettable shounen Power-of-Friendship-Speech machine. Though I cringed a little at the protagonist's incredibly gory murder exploits, excessively traumatic backstory, and ... edgy worldview, I was willing to read through it. I thought that From the Red Fog might be a gorefest with a villain protagonist who outsmarts everyone.

I was baffled by the subsequent twists and turns. Some plot twists practically retconned the protagonist's backstory. One major character was so underutilized that their entire plotline got ignored even through the final chapter. The atmosphere at the start of the story implies that the protagonist will remain an axe-crazy loner who wants connection and gets revenge in fucked up ways, but then there's a jarring shift into everyone making cliche, preachy shounen-esque speeches about friendship and family and love. There's a timeskip that leads effectively to nowhere. There is no plot resolution. The characterization is half-assed and inconsistent throughout.

I realized, much to my misery, that this manga is an edgy, juvenile foray into exploring philosophy and human connection. The stereotypical "this serial killer is actually just lonely and doesn't understand feeeeelliiiiiings" type of story.

So if you want to read that, go ahead! But if you're anything like me, I recommend that you don't.

When your story's first chapter feels so good and complete that many people, myself included, mistake it for a oneshot, you know something isn't quite right.

It's not that Earthchild is bad. That's not quite true. Earthchild has love and heart in it. But the plot feels rushed to the point that each chapter could be its own massive story arc or even manga series of its own.

Contrived and convenient excuses allow for breakneck development that honestly should not happen that fast. Overall, the story can't breathe, and it feels like an awkward mishmash of different tropes or storylines that the author wanted to write, ... but instead of making them separate they just shoved it all in one. Or perhaps the author is afraid the manga will be axed and wants to get through things quickly.

Seeing how short Earthchild is now, I'd recommend giving it a try (*EDIT: this review was written as of chapter 3 out of 27). The first chapter alone felt like a solid 8/10 for me that I'd want others to read, but with each subsequent chapter, the quality dips.

I feel tempted to just pretend it IS a oneshot, and that's not a good thing.

It pains me how much My Hero Academia's animation is declining.

Season 2 and the first half of season 3 really were the best in this regard. I'd rate those a 9, easily. Season 3's second half, however, was a lot like this season in terms of decreasing quality. Even though the story and characters are still enjoyable, the fact that one of the story's most important fights this season has been reduced to a cheap slideshow a la Food Wars really shows just how deeply producing a filler movie at the same time as a canon season hurts the TV production.

Now, I do like ... this show, and it's really not garbage by any means. It doesn't warrant a trashy rating unless you're just on a circlejerk of hating popular mainstream shounen series. But even though My Hero Academia's popularity is at a high, it's undeniable that the anime's quality is waning.

And really, even if the characters and story are good, and if the sound and art are just as okay as they previously were-- anime is anime, and the animation is most important. It's obviously less fluid and inspired now that most of the more talented staff is set to working on the filler movie(s). That aside, one thing I can definitely praise 100% is the voice acting. It continues to remain strong even in the face of weaker animation.

As a manga reader, it's sorely disappointing to me that this show's animation isn't as good as it used to be. It sucks knowing that things can be great, but just isn't anymore.

I can only hope that future arcs I actually care more about won't be overshadowed by a third movie's production.

Obviously the conventional rules for reviews aren't going to apply here, since there isn't a story, sound, or characterization to speak of. The art is cute, and my enjoyment was high since I personally like history a lot.

Katsudou Shashin ("Moving Picture") from 1907 is the oldest "anime" ever. Over a hundred years ago... it really leaves you in awe.

I love seeing bits and pieces of history like this, so even if this is only about three seconds long and has no real story elements to it like modern anime, I do think it's a masterpiece, especially given the time period it was made in.

I heard that apparently Robot x Laserbeam is getting axed after another chapter or so. And honestly? It doesn't surprise me.

While Tadatoshi Fujimaki hit the jackpot with Kuroko no Basket's success, Robot x Laserbeam doesn't bring anything new to the table. It seems like he's rehashed a lot of tropes and cliches that he's used before, and this manga doesn't really incite any emotion in me. I don't care about any of the characters (except perhaps Youzan) and I'm also not interested in the sport or the matches with how it's being presented either, even though the art is pretty good.

The story started out decently ... enough, but once Fujimaki wrote in a timeskip that jumped from the beginning of Robot's first year at high school to being an adult pro, it was essentially over. For a sports manga, skipping all of the high school years just to focus on the pro world is basically suicide. It kills all of the necessary aspects of a sports series, such as teamwork/partnership, friendship, and most importantly, the mental and emotional growth of teenagers.

I get the feeling that Kuroko no Basket's fame has held Fujimaki back a little bit, because instead of breaking through his shell to explore new ideas with Robot x Laserbeam, it ended up being nothing really special.

It's a shame, honestly.

I don't like this season the same way I liked season one.

For one thing, the influx of supernatural elements is way too sudden and strange. Why is a realistic slice of life show about friendship, diving, and discovering yourself suddenly having episodes where there are witches and ghosts, dreamlands, and time travel? Even if some of the unrealistic things happen in characters' dreams, it's such a sharp change in tone that I can't help but be confused and utterly uninterested.

And while I'm on the topic of being uninterested: There's nothing about any of the characters or plot that keep me drawn to the show at ... all. Almost anything and everything that happens is essentially forgotten and never addressed again, and I have never once found the ability to care about anything that occurred this season.

It's not exactly bad... But there's nothing in Amanchu Advance that draws in the viewer and makes them want to stay the way there was in season one. There's too much going on that has nothing to do with the original genre and plot, and it makes me sad to see that a show with so much potential is being wasted doing things that make no sense and don't even matter in the long run.

While Shokugeki no Souma is overall a decent show, it bothers me how increasingly contrived the plot and setting are becoming with the addition of Central as the series' new overarching villain.

Central forces certain rules and regulations on the students and restricts their freedom of expression while cooking. They also attempt to sabotage certain students attempts at passing their final exams. It's true that Souma and his friends have always been underdogs, but this just seems like overkill. Constantly having bad things happen to the main cast because practically the entire cooking world is against them isn't entertaining-- it's honestly cruel, and isn't really ... fun to watch.

It's also incredibly boring to see anime scenes directly cut and paste from the manga, with no movement or action being implemented to actually make use of the animation medium. There are SO many still shots and camera pans while characters just stand there and talk. Why animate Shokugeki no Souma if you're just going to keep everything still and listless, and not give any sort of dynamic to what happens in the manga panels?

All said and done, there isn't anything technically wrong with cour 2 of season 3. The art, sound, and characters are all fine. However, because of the jarring shift in plot and setting, as well as the lack of novelty in the animated adaptation itself, my enjoyment of this show has definitely gone down from previous seasons.

EDIT: I use a new rating scale now. This was previously 7/10.
Overall: 5/10