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Akira is not a film about motorbikes, not a movie about side slides, not a movie for bike bigots and certainly not something you would recognize just under the tag of ‘80s film’, because Akira in its whole coverage becomes much, MUCH more, than what you could have possibly wanted from it’s advertised side; while there maybe bikes, side slides, and animation at its peak in the 80s, it builds itself up to be the japanese icon of the 80s, that it deserves to be.

My motto with anime is to look at it for what it attempted to achieve rather than what it didn’t achieve, ... to simplify it, it’s like watching Attack on Titan and then rating it injudiciously low because you didn’t like that your favourite character died, regardless of how needed or crucial it may have been to the plot. My point? In defence of Akira, the quality it isn’t excusable objectively, when there are objective flaws spottable to any normal viewing eye, some noticeable like the strange transition choices which feel less than fluid, and less noticeably, weird mouth placements and wonky keyframes, and while there are plenty more factors of the movie I could point out which some could rightfully use to excuse or even at worst disregard this movie’s qualities in exchange for somewhat valid critique, I feel the objective qualities far inundate these and deserve a lot more praise than deserved, simply because it didn’t try to be what you expected it to be, because we should just all be honest with ourselves and say that unless you relentlessly studied the synopsis of the movie or manga before you consumed it, you didn’t expect what it delivered, so why should it be judged off your expectations vs what it wanted to actually be, until it’s at the point where the content is totally unfathomable to you and you can just go ahead and slap a 1/10 on it and give it those comical insults that you came up with for a laugh with your friends.

To look at Akira more subjectively we should take a look at what people think is subjectively incorrect with it, in order to get an accurate depiction of the film's quality by showing its substandard elements and then debunking them.
The one thing I hear most about Akira when I hear from people giving their watered down and undeveloped opinion, is that it feels incomplete and lacking in context, which in its bare bones makes complete sense, “What we all really wanted was a story on a single person and a single story right? What we really need is just another disposable movie about the apocalypse with no take-away thoughts and changed mindsets, and just some bland and mindless entertainment!” said those who couldn’t figure out for themselves at Akira isn’t only just a story but a representation of a larger and more general subject. “But Frogs, why should the story be told in the perspective of an individual and their subjective experience with it, like in most romances which don’t go any further than a first season.” Because we weren’t supposed to understand Tetsuo, or Neo-Tokyo, we were never meant to understand it and you know why? Because what we were meant to understand was a general perspective, Tetsuo shouldn’t be viewed as Tetsuo, but should be viewed as just a human experiencing the lashes of reality in a seemingly zany story with hardly any decipherable tied ends and conclusion, because that is just what Akira is, a story told in the perspective of a niche environment to tell a much broader story which could be given relevance to much other concepts than you might have initially realized. Akira is the beginning and the end, everything and nothing, destruction and self-destruction, not just Akira, and Tetsuo is not just Tetsuo.

In further question of the silly banter regarding the faithfulness in the movie adaptation, we should consider that an adaptation isn’t something that should live out its source material word by word, as to just at best, be an already experienced journey simply in a different dimension, but should it not be the same story expressed in a different manner to tell the same morals, same experiences, and same beginning and end, in a way which makes it feel as though it is being told all over again? The backlash I have seen given to the movie by the fans of the manga, ultimately feels like the viewers do not in the end really understand Akira as they can’t even manage to grasp the knowledge of this simple fact, not that I understood Akira myself, or many other people for that matter, but being able to feel a show’s message and portrayal should be reason enough to understand the value of the retelling of a story in a whole new frame of reference, and you should look no further for this than Akira, where it might not be faithful and cut a lot of corners, but in this case maybe those cuts turned a piece of paper into a stunning labyrinthian snowflake.

Thanks for your time

-Frogs

**Extremely vague spoilers in 3rd paragraph**

Manipulation is dangerous, harmful at best, and life changing at worst, and here we have this fantastic show Tomodachi Game, which handles manipulation with expertise. What? No, no you're mistaken, not that kind of manipulation, I mean the kind where you manipulate the audience into thinking that the writing is ample and sensical, whilst you simultaneously pull the most village-idiot plot twists in any show downright, since the infamous, deplorable Platinum End had gaped its tight brown sphincter for the entire world to see the kind of haemorrhoids it had in store for us.

What makes this anime so dangerous to ... get into is its genius and "unobtrusive" means to taking advantage of the shounen audience, and the best example of this is the 'e' word, which plagues every noticeable anime to this day; edge. Personally, I like to call it adult seasoning, because it makes it taste like its for adults but really is just a spiced up ox cock. In said anime, 'Tomodachi Game', we have been given an unhealthy dosage of this kind of edge, but of course like any unhealthy substance, you take it like it's a drug, shortly you'd have experienced and felt the withdrawal effects, and start depending on your next fix of posed theming. Unfortunately, like the world has come to acknowledge the misfortune of, drug users start young. All it takes is a short walk to the corner alley downtown to find it at dirt cheap prices, for purely educational reasons I will name a few of these lovely locations you could obtain such a remedy. Here, there, and every corner you turn are some lovely shows like Demon Slayer and 86, which deliver their malignant levels of 'pick-me' energy and forced plot-points. Tomodachi Game just ends up being another one of the easily accessible life destroyers, and delivers us this adult seasoning by giving us twist after twist where the characters actually aren't what they seem and they're doing this abysmal nauseating crime against humanity because the writer just decided that would spice things up, it's basically like the rat poison they put in most cigarettes, that IS what makes it addictive isn't it? Hey cool, you couldn't predict it, that means it's good right?

Time for my reviews bullshit twist, twists. Tomodachi Game has given us twists that no one has ever done before except it has been done, and many times before at many times better quality. "You want a twist? Here have it, what's the point behind it? I don't know!!", is how I imagine the writer had communicated with his editor, and still getting the green light to publish it for every heedless shounen-tard in otaku culture. In spite of this, I guess I can respect his strategies; the writer knew full well that by making the characters over the top edgy, and by forcing as many smart sounding words and procedures that he could into a terribly plotted time span, eventually he could convince people that what is truly a detestable pile of chicken shit, is a master-class seinen with deep characters and story value. Which unfortunately results in how popular it is with shounen culture today.

This has to be one of the most blatant and easily noticeable examples of when you making unpredictable; predictable. What I mean by this is that every turn and decision the writer makes is so predictably terrible and perverse, that it actually personally insults me to even know that the writer took himself seriously writing it, and I mean it when I say that I "predicted" that I couldn't predict what would happen, and just when I thought it couldn't have gotten any worse, it gave us the abomination that we call 'Episode 6'.
To get to my point on predictable unpredictability, we have ourselves an amazing example, episode 6, which without fail delivers us the same effect that the absolute genius Tsugumi Ohba had done for us on the 4th and 5th episodes of Platinum End (so points off of my rating for not doing it faster Yamaguchi, I'll give you a 1/10 instead of 2/10). What I was quietly promised from the first 5 episodes, was bullshit. Howbeit, what they had given to me, steaming hot on the platter with a side of cow-shit, was 2 of the single worst plot points (because I refuse to give such buffoonery the title of a "plot-twist"), I could've ever imagined, with so little foreshadow that I would consider it had foreshadowed the total opposite.
Where did the detail go? Did it become homosexual as well, as an excuse to not matter? Only time will tell, maybe the plan was just to be so abhorrent that the serial killing details we missed, were actually masterfully implemented by the show transcending dimensions and committing mass murder on not humans, but my very own braincells.

Just when you think the anime couldn't possibly mess up how bad it is, it does, but not by being good, but by being so horrible that it integer-overflows itself and reverses back around to being positive again, and then negative, by consistently creating the worst plot-hole ridden plot-points and character developments you could have ever predicted (not to say that it even was predictable, back to the point I made about it being predictably unpredictable). But I guess you can implore that this series does teach a valuable lesson, and that is you get what you are given, taught to us by a brilliant legend himself, who squeezed the nipples of the psychological genre so dry, to get even a speck of interest for it's gullible viewers, enough for them to believe its even worth considering for anything above a 2/10.

Some people make it difficult to remember the entire point of movies and TV shows, and that is just to entertain, there was never meant to be lessons told, there was never meant to be deep intertwining plot points, and that is just what cinema has become, and that's not to say it's bad, it's just to say that there is a huge disregard for movies and shows that don't wish to achieve what most movies and shows try, and that's to having a meaning intended for a specific audience, instead of just being something you can plainly enjoy for the sake of it.

Now I ... may sound like a massive hypocrite, coming from the person who doesn't like Demon Slayer's story given it's painful simplicity, and a bunch of other aspects of plenty of my reviews recently for casual viewing shows, and I can see your point, but the entire reason I give those points is because I believe I have the right to criticize a show about something that it tries to do but doesn't manage. To get onto the topic of Bubble, the movie definitely shows it's colours through not only the insanely well plotted visuals and sound directing, but in it's enjoyability through it's easy and smooth structure. Modern art has become highly demanded and there is a reason for that, most art pre-WW2 had so many common characteristics making it hard to differentiate between artists and their works, so much detail, so much meaning and definition, that it's just become hard to have a piece of work you can just simply enjoy because it's art, the Constructivism movement in Russia post-WW1, had imposed a movement to popularize the simplicity of art through basic and blatant words to get messages across in ways everyone can understand rather than to be so under-surface and difficult for other people to understand, which in turn worked in favour of artists and designers using such techniques and changed society into the minimalism loving society it is with the simple modern art that we see today, and movies since then have seemed to reflect it in one way or another with their simple messages and themes that any child and their mother can appreciate.

Bubble gets its inspiration from The Little Mermaid, which can be seen in its romance genre plug, between the 2 protagonists of the film, and of course the numerous times it was directly quoted throughout, (be honest with me, if you missed them talking about The Little Mermaid and have no idea what I'm talking about you need to re-watch the film again but awake this time) it's easy to see what else was inspired. Given the need for detail in structure that viewers seem to crave, we have overthrown films with simple structure and themes, like Words Bubble Up like Soda Pop, and now Bubble, for failing to comply with our needs, when in-fact, Bubble aims to achieve only what its predecessors have and that is, again, just to be entertaining. The Little Mermaid thrives of its simplicity and became one of the most iconic hit films to ever reach cinema with its romance and mystic touches, simple enough to be enjoyed by all and somehow to shape the way movies are created, and now we can worship the creators of Bubble for bringing this back to us in the form of anime, thanks to the brilliant staff behind the movie, the animators of Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song, director of Attack on Titan, and the music composer for 86, Guilty Crown, Nanatsu, and many more.

The last major thing I wish to point out is that I wouldn't be surprised at all if this show took inspiration from Made in Abyss, and before you go and burn me at the stake for giving such an outrageous statement, allow me to justify myself: The movie sets itself around a mega phenomenon unexplainable by modern science, daring residents create it as their home in or around the phenomenon. A curious unexplainable character is introduced as the main character is about to die by cause of the mysterious phenomenon, and they almost instantly hit it off, the mysterious character is introduced and given a 3-letter name. The main character has a problem with one of their five senses which later has purpose for the premise, and the main protagonists come across villain-like characters with black masks. Hold on a moment I'm not finished yet, there is also a huge black hole like thing in the center of all the abrupt chaos, and finally, the mega phenomena has connection with the mysterious character, who is called back to the center of it all by the end of the film.
Put both Made in Abyss and Bubble side by side and you can see the clear common characteristics, and in some way this is a huge compliment to the producers on this one for creating a movie so simple and understandable, comparable to one of the best crafted and complex shows I have ever seen, while it stands obvious which stands triumph over the other in most aspects it's beyond impressive what they've pulled off with such a theme, with some seriously beautiful writing within it all.

Bubble shares a common theme throughout the movie and it's the theme of loneliness, it's easy to shut yourself off from the world when all seems at loss and to lock yourself away, as though it makes everything simpler and easier to handle, and it's beautiful the way the film represents this. Bubble tells the story of someone suffering loneliness and inability to communicate without having some kind of issues whether physical or mental, and giving them someone who is able to live past these problems and bring some companionship back into their life, and once it's taken away and the main character re-lives the purpose of intimacy, and it becomes clear that there is a purpose to get along with people and to live your life out alongside others; this is the true beauty of Bubble, a simple movie telling the story of loneliness in a way which anybody can understand, and in such a crazy and vibrant environment, to really emphasize and make clear the impact one can have on someone who is alone.

You'd never expect a show about an ancient roman architect making bathtubs to be this entertaining, no, seriously, that's what the show is about, a roman emperor sporadically being teleported into the future after falling into water over the course of his life and finding himself among bath related situations in modern day Japan, where he learns their culture, and hastily rips them off when he randomly returns back to his original time period with his architectural skills.

Now I'm not a comedy fan, alright, but this show is fucking funny. During my torturous bus rides to and from school I get a time ... span enough to watch an episode of whatever show I want to watch each trip, normally I just pick a show with no serious connotations to it so that I don't have any episodes during the bus and drag too much unwanted attention, but I think that backfired, I found myself giggling so childishly at the absurdity of each scenario I think I got a few piercing stares from my neighbors thinking I need to be submitted to a psychiatric ward. What I find to be so special about this show in particular is how it manages to turn a subject no one tends to give a shit about into an educational and engaging watch, kind of like that one elementary school teacher everyone without exception loves, I now know 100x more things about baths than I did before I had watched this show and I am damn well please about it, I will brag to anybody that I know more about baths than they do and that I hold zero regerts spending my time watching such a show do so, historic fantasy aspect and all.

Irony aside, the greatest thing this show does which I have yet to see another show properly do is manage to serve proper purpose, maintaining its goal, and being a comedy, comedy and end goal do not mix in the anime medium and we all know it, take The Genius Prince from Winter 2022 as a good example. This show manages to create a funny way of educating the dumbest of comedy watchers into learning the bathing cultures of both Japan and Rome, and in some way the world, it even manages to slip in a 3-minute documentary at the very end which I have never skipped because of how fascinated I became with whatever Yamazaki was looking around at this episode.

It's difficult to find an engaging comedy that also prospers at achieving its goal of educating the viewer on whatever subject they so please, some of the most outlandish stuff can be taught without you even knowing it, and you my dear friend have just accidentally learnt how to cool down baths with a wooden plank.

A masterpiece among masterpieces, the true holy grail of fantasy, a find worth the time it takes to watch, 4.5 hours of your life lived to the fullest, version 2, the failed sequel.

Unlike most anime I come across, that can successfully adapt a second season, The Promised Neverland promises you a neverland, and delivers one of if not the single worst season 2 you could possibly ask for, the reviews left in most sites for the second season leave absolutely no exaggeration behind, aside from the select few that exaggerate the GOOD things about it. While The Promised Neverland is able to maintain a sense ... of "quality" in animation and arts, within the visuals itself, the story veers off to a completely different road, a road that isn't even fucking finished construction yet, fucking moronic driver busting through the traffic cones and onto a bridge half built only to zoom off into the gaping chasm below at Mach 2 speed.
The main and overwhelming flaw in The Promised Neverland is the horrible excuse for a timeline, while the manga deals with this as any good anime should, The Promised Neverland introduces this magical thing called time travelling *cough* cheapskate tomfoolery *cough* I mean what? Essentially what season 2 does on multiple occasions is skip out on 80% of the content which is what you are actually watching the show for, and instead of delivering so much more content which could've made the studio so much more money, those lazy "money saving" assholes, turned up to 2 seasons of action and magnificence, into about 3 minutes of Norman the 11 year old Einstein talking. Not even a flashback to go with it, it was literally Norman and the other kids around a campfire dancing around with bongos while discussing shit about breaking out of a lab which experimented on him or something I forgot, wasn't even really worth remembering.

Another flaw in the entire series was that everything just seemed way to convenient, in addition to the fact that everything that could've created 2 more seasons of content was straight up just replaced with 3 minutes of dialogue, the lack of explanation results in a lot of "coincidences" and "conveniences" which just prove absolutely destructive to the plot, I kid you not Norman is just ass pulled into the plot and just comes out of no where at the most convenient possible time and he's like "Ayup yeah i got this acid thing whatsmacallit that can create an atomic gas bomb which only kills demons and not humans", I am literally not joking when this is what happens, probably one of the worst examples of plot convenience I have ever seen in any show or movie ever.
However, this show is almost redeemed by the one quality you cannot ignore, The Promised Neverlands concept, is really fucking cool, the first 4 episodes, phenomenal. Was it forgettable? Absolutely not, and even during the bad stuff the show managed to give some emotional scenes and foreshadowing, and even with how horribly rushed and half-assed the ending is, it still has a sense of completion to it, like things turned out well, and also, Phil, Phil is a good boy.

A masterpiece among masterpieces, the true holy grail of fantasy, a find worth the time it takes to watch, 4.5 hours of your life lived to the fullest.

The Promised Neverland is the story of a happy family of orphans and a mother, in a world which appears to be innocent and wholesome from the start, with a warm welcome to all anime fans who enjoy the wholesome content, the ultimate bait to any neko loving, kawaii seeking lolicon, the cure to innocence, the fishhook that can catch any trace of innocence, and mutilate it.

One of the most horrific stories told in a world of colours ... and rainbows, a secluded world that is, a small world for short lived children, inside a larger world of anguish and torture. The Promised Neverland gives you really strong hits of suspense and overwhelming anticipation, real emotions built up over characters with no hope, like willingly walking into your own suffering, why form feelings for those in an inevitable demise, setting yourself up for grief and sorrow.

Each scene spits in the face of Cliche, bringing in new content and ideas that you wouldn't see in most if not any other animes, or even just cinematics in general. This anime really gets you thinking, showing you so much content that you can't even begin to predict, in such a way where everything just makes sense, and keeps you thinking about how the plot could progress on, or what the outcome could be, keeping you highly engaged and on edge, with the right amount of suspense, plot building, character development, and action, to tie it all together in a magnificent knot, called The Promised Neverland.

If Phil was a genre, it'd be a favourite genre.

From the animators of Fate/Zero, God Eater, and more of the Fate franchise, we get a long awaited adaptation of a long running series of manga by Gotouge, and along with the unspoken promise of fantastic animation, Ufotable has delivered to us once again some of the best visuals to be seen for years to come, but where exactly does the good bits of the show stop at? Quite frankly, despite the amazing animation and pacing of the first few episodes, it could be easily debated between many people that it drops off about as quickly as Platinum End did, becoming about as boring as ... the mindless fighting that Demon Slayer had boiled down to be for an unprecedented amount of time.

To introduce all of my main points, I've spent a bit of time in the community, especially since the initial release of the Demon Slayer anime adaptation, and I find that it really isn't hard to find people who see Demon Slayer as an easy way to get to sleep on a troublesome night, but you also get the fair share of people who think that mindless fighting is the peak of anime culture, and by today's standards, this seems more and more true, and I can't disagree with that mindset any more than I already do. Demon Slayer is definitely an expert at activating a viewer's fight or flight response mid arc with its excellently animated and showy fight scenes, this along with its brilliant and vibrant character designs bringing in that daily dosage of dopamine that we all crave so much, and that may as well just be what Demon Slayer is good for, to its core and outer ends Demon Slayer is about just that, showy fighting with vibrant and outlandish character designing, the perfect drugs to a 14 year old boy's action fantasies. While I disagree that shows like this need any sort of philosophy or deeper thought, what I definitely agree with is that Demon Slayer definitely had a shot at it half way into Season 1 but almost missed entirely, hitting only the most inclined shounen fans who wish to see only everything good in the show, and to completely dodge anything they see that may be bad. But it appears that this is what held Demon Slayer back from how much more it could've become. It should be clear to everyone that the ratings are carried by the brilliantly choreographed action and bright flashy lights, but I also feel that this show is given way too much credit for things it hasn't done, like story telling.

First point I wish to discuss on why I didn't rate this show any higher than I already did, is that the story telling in this show is extremely flat-lined, kind of like the heart monitor on a grandmothers death bed; it's difficult to tell if the writer was even alive while writing it, while it's up for debate whether or not this show manages to branch any further than its desire goal, it's objective and undebatable that Demon Slayer can not beat its predecessors at their own game with this. Hunter x Hunter, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Attack on Titan are definitely fair competition to compare this to, considering the undeserved amount of hype this show has gotten in the sense of story, each of the anime I have mentioned above have all achieved to create a large branch out from the original story in order to create, and USE, room for innovation, and above all; detail. Hunter x Hunter foreshadows and eases itself into dark tones, Attack on Titan foreshadows all of its detail and manages to introduce insane twists, and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was able to make everything work together with not only strong pacing but character arcs and explanation.
Some people have said that the story is "paced masterfully" or that it "has a deep meaning... ...showing the story and reason behind the demon's life and existence", while I agree that a small portion of these statements may be true, it definitely is not executed well to almost any extent at all. Yes I did like the arcs towards the end of the show, namely episode 19-21, but in most departments it was extremely dull, not only lacking in proper depth by teaching any applicable lessons like a normal battle shounen tends to do, but also making the entire point of the show very mono-dimensional and skewed to one side of the story, showing the writer has neglected or even straight up avoided to tell the other half where there was SO much room to make, it isn't hard to imagine how anyone could hate the show for this exact reason, so in the story department, this show has an extreme lack despite the huge amount of potential the premise has set itself to work with.

My next point, and something of common debate within the community about Demon Slayer is that it's boring. I agree with this a fair amount, the first 19 episodes had just the characters walking up towards a place that I don't care enough to remember, and then they'd randomly confront some air of danger and then boom 3 or 4 episodes of imaginative fight scenes and glowing colours for seemingly little to no reason other than "they happened to stumbled upon it", which definitely feels less like effort in the animation and more a cover-up for how monotonous the fight really is. Some people have described it as staring at a wall while listening to a screaming baby for hours on end, while I feel this may be over the top in description, and maybe just a teeny bit exaggerative, it's hard to debate against the show being even a little boring and unenjoyable for an absurdly long amount of time, this is commonly due to the show being extremely dull in not only the writing as I said before but also how plain the primary concept of each fight is and ESPECIALLY the build-up. My largest complaint about the enjoyability of the show is the build-up and mainly the build-up, I get that shows need to add an air of random to get the twists it wants and added shock value, it had a very poor plug in Demon Slayer, to the point where it didn't feel like a necessary point in order to demonstrate power scaling, but more like just to have an excuse for a fight scene to not keep the show boring, in turn making the show boring. In defense of Demon Slayer, build-up may definitely not be its strong point for character or creation, but I can at least respect the main build-up to Kibutsuji, broadcasting him right in front of Tanjiro's face, never to be seen again for seasons to come in the show, in order to set the tone for random encounters enough to take seriously to some extent.

This review seriously has a lack of proper balancing such as Demon Slayer, so why not add a good point to the mix? We have to cut the show some slack because another department that Demon Slayer tries to execute is its structure. Demon Slayer is very episodic, or at least in its characters and shorter arcs, there are indeed of course, longer arcs during the shows duration, but it isn't hard to see Demon Slayer as episodic, which actually heightens my opinion on the show, for a battle shounen, it is very difficult to execute an episodic structure, so for how well it managed to pull this off you have got to cut it some slack. The same people with Demon Slayer in their favourites list are the same people who downplay Violet Evergarden, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and Monogatari series, which are all debatably episodic in descending order, so for them to be as attached to Demon Slayer as they are despite it's apparent episodic structure is impressive, so props to the author for managing to do something that most writers find difficult to achieve.

The cherry on top point of this review will be yet another positive part, and it's that while this show definitely shows it's boring side more often than not, the later third of the show definitely has improvement. While it clearly lacks in its other segments during the later ends of the currently aired show, such as aspects of randomness, it most definitely becomes a lot more prominent in how entertaining it is. Ironically, the Entertainment District Arc was not only one the most entertaining story arc this show has offered us so far but is also one of the most visually gratifying experiences that anime can offer us, falling short only to anything Kyoto Animations and Wit Studio. The story in the Entertainment District Arc had definitely shown clear improvement since it's prior season and movie, not branching too far with OVERALL story for the show, but definitely was engaging enough to keep my eyes off of my phone, the reason for this I am unable to exactly pin-point but I can definitely tell why Demon Slayer fans say it's the better arc of the currently released ones, and unfortunately for my ego I have to agree with them on this one, not only was it extremely innovative but also had a good sense of sacrifice, destroying lots of stuff and lightening the strong sense of plot-armour the show had prior to the arc making it a lot more engaging to more than just the typical Demon Slayer fan.

While I definitely have a strong opposition to this shows popularity and the wrongly spread idea that the story is the greatest thing since Brotherhood, it has clear author development in the writing, as the show adds outlying factors separating it from other battle shounens making it all the more entertaining as the show progresses, each arc being better than the last.

Death Note, a symbolic piece of anime, something everyone who has watched anime for any period of time as likely come across, and for good reason, with Death Note becoming a symbol in the anime community you can expect it to be for either a really messed up reason, or for being a top quality anime that lives up to its hype, and Death Note definitely lives up to it's hype. With #1 most popular anime on MyAnimeList alone, it definitely lives up to that reputation and fulfils all expectations.

Death Note is a true masterpiece in symbolism, a perfect portrayal of the world and it's ... tendencies to follow in fear, a horrific and worldly truthful display of the reality the world faces, the power of fear, the disgracefulness of humans and their habits, and the pity. The truth hurts, and Death Note tells the truth, a masochistically enjoyable experience, like getting into a relationship with a sadist. Power driven by arrogance, becoming the powerful driving force of arrogance, changing the world itself, and dividing it, friend turning against friend, relationships destroyed and betrayed, being unable to trust anyone, brother on brother, family on family, total chaos driven by greed, and lust over power, driven by the blind end goal of becoming a god.
SPOILER AHEAD:
In Death Note the difference between right and wrong is almost blurred completely and you start to lose your sense of the difference between the two, it's like you can't tell who even to root for anymore, but knowing in your heart who the real enemy is, but not wanting to believe in it. Light Yagami is a respectable character from the start and you follow his motives and wish for him to become successful, but as he betrays the trust of everyone around him, he also betrays your trust, you feel as though he knows what he is doing and that he is in the right as everything he does perfectly falls into place, his ingenious plan blinding you, only to later realize the truth behind it and the possibility of the final outcome, which only becomes clear when he commits the ultimate crime of betrayal, and not only kills the trust between him and his own family, but even you. Who even is the bag guy anymore? L? Light? You? The sense of right and wrong manipulated to work in Yagami's favour only to finally realize the truth, and come to your own conclusion of what is right and wrong.
In order to understand Death Note you have to pay close attention, as everything has a reason and a purpose in Death Note for happening, every mistake, every action, every word all has a meaning, and as each mistake is made, all realization comes in and you starting feeling a heavy amount of pressure and exhilaration, in anticipation of the consequence of such mistake as if you were at cost for it.

My one soul criticism on this is that after the main event in the middle of the series had taken place you felt a real sense of emptiness, followed by the rest of the season not living up to the first, new characters coming in to take their place but just not quite reaching the potential it first had, while the second half was still brilliant, it just doesn't live up to the first. The ending definitely saves it there, one of the most emotional watches ever, your mind starts fighting in itself if that ending was good or not, whether justice was served, or whether the characters were wronged and should've continued going. Death Note concluded perfectly.

I think I speak for everyone when I say that an old looking show doesn't mean that it's bad, and for the minority of you who have the brain to think that a shows age determines it's quality, you probably watched Ranking of Kings and then Mars of Destruction in that order in order to satisfy your shitty take, rather than watching something like Neon Genesis, Hotaru no Haka, or even Tokko.

Tokko may not stand the test of time like other shows such as One Piece or Yu Yu Hakusho, but what it definitely stands the test of is whether writing ages well or not, ... because for a show adapted by a manga written in 2003, this show really slaps with it's writing and personality. While the show is cheesier than a mozzarella stick throughout it's full duration it definitely doesn't disappoint with how well rounded the writing is, many if not all questions you may have on the series pre-finale are answered and foreshadowed throughout the show and it's really interesting realizing this as each plot hole is filled by the shows dialogue and events. Which I guess you can really just expect from the writer of GTO Great Teacher Onizuka.
Regardless of the writing in Tokko, it isn't exactly anything worth paying attention to at this point in age, so allow me to direct you to something that is, and that's the shows successful genre-blend when it comes to shit like comedic accuracy in common sense. We all find lack of common sense in our favourite shows and get pissed off sometimes by it, but this show throws common sense in your face so much that when someone so out of the ordinary in anime but so normal in real life occurs you can't help but laugh and respect the little details. Such as the HORRIBLE troupe in anime where you can yell about incest loli rape in a crowd quiet enough to hear a pin drop, and NO one notices your existence or seems to have a mind for themselves, but no, no in Tokko these guys talk about all the shit they want like irresponsible teenagers and EVERYONE knows they're doing it and stare at them like they're having a schizophrenic episode, and you just can't help but laugh at such a troupe being totally overthrown in Tokko, which adds to Tokkos well executed genre-blend.

Lastly, while Tokko may have personality and the appropriate mix of genres, it's hard to excuse for the lack of originality in concept. As stated prior, this show manages to cover up how cheesy it was, but not entirely. Tokko is undoubtedly a perfect example of edgy teenager bait, like something the 15 year old goth girl from high school would fan fic draw instead of writing up their english essay, it's just way to easy to understand why someone would hate the show or be put off, which in turn ruins a lot of the shows authenticity, unfortunately making what could've been one of the best shows of the 2000s period of anime, forgettable and overshadowed.
Gore softened by comedy, comedy softened by personality, and personality softened by cheesiness, a prime example of how no matter how good you mix and match, it's nearly impossible to create an objectively good show with an edge lord concept written for rebellious teenagers. Oh yeah, and the dub is hilarious.

This show is carried by its near flawless character development, unlike any I've seen aside from Violet Evergarden, and A Lull in the Sea, you get to watch children grow as if they were your own friends. Watching them learn in a hostile environment, and overcome the restrictions given and expected by the entire world that they know. Defying all laws and growing up as if it were the modern present day, while fighting to keep those they hate the most, alive.

The first 19 episodes of Darling in the FranXX were great episodes, very memorable, the characters each having a distinct and relatable personality, and ... overall just being works of arts themselves. The episodes in question were of high quality compared to the rest, great story telling, great internal plots, overall just a watchable experience. While the art of the anime itself can be ignored due to high quality I feel it rather fits in some parts, with the simplicity of the characters designs contrasting with the backdrops and scenery you can feel the difference and feel as if they don't fit where they've been placed in society.

SPOILER AHEAD:
My personal favourite episode, is Episode 13, which I found to be one of the most heart wrenching episodes in anime that I have watched up to the point of me writing this, the sheer horror, guilt, hatred, and realization you feel while watching how the two were treated, experimented on, and confined, gets you feeling a great hatred for those who oppose them, and a great sorrow and empty feeling for Hiro and Zero Two.
However, as I stated before, the episodes from the beginning to episode 19 were high in quality and production value compared to the later section. While I beg to differ that the very end of Darling in the FranXX was terrible, one thing I can agree on was the episodes building up to the finale weren't, as you could say, horrible, but more like just completely unrelated to the rest of the series and steers from the plot entirely, as if they just gave up and decided to change the genre, theme, moral, and even the characters personalities.

Episodes 20-23 felt like a rush to use up their budget, introducing a new concept, VIRM, to the mix could've been executed a lot better but you can see where they could take it from there and handle it well, but they definitely didn't. The following episodes was a whole lot of 'What in the fuck is happening?! Someone has got to remind me that ZeroTwo is a woman, Ichigo is a bitch, and the fat dude who we forget the name of was absolutely betrayed!'. In Short, those episodes strayed so far from the initial plot build that as it moves from the plot you move with it and you totally forget the point of everything, it felt as if 2 seasons worth of content passed in less than two hours. 90% of the stuff within the episodes has to AT LEAST be explained.
The very final episode in the last few minutes was pretty good however, the first half of the episode was more of a 'This happened 20 years in the future by the way', which I felt could've been executed better in some way, but the last few minutes of the episode, with Zero Two and Hiro, having prior sacrificed themselves for the protection of their people, eventually returning to earth and reincarnating as a young boy, and girl, to cross paths together and join once more. Which I found to be just a beautiful way to end the series.

Overall the plot and character development was pretty good at the beginning, but the end ruined it and threw away all potential they had created for themselves, and I just do not understand anything.