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Anime of the Year. 10/10 *spoiler-free review*

There are two distinct mindsets to be in watching this, either you have played the game and know the story or are new and watching it for the first time in this anime. I'm so jealous of the latter. This is a story that is so incredible and near to my heart that I, early on, really disliked how they started the first season. Why do we need an anime recreation of this already fantastic story, one where having choice in game makes it so much more interactive and impactful and personal and gut-wrenching. A-1 Pictures answered this with ... this season.

Early on in Season 1 I felt wrong and like I actually was watching something pretty masterful. With the obvious CGI early, I was so worried and watching with my eyes covered how they would do one of my favorite moments of the game justice. Turns out they went all out and nailed it. I ws in shock and disbelief in the best way possible. But the really impactful moments in the game build later on, and as season 1 started to wrap up, I applauded the effort involved to put the first half of this story into anime form. It was great and I enjoyed it and did not have much to think about a recreation of the second half, even when it was announced and began airing. I was excited to continue the story, but it is so much more.

What A-1 Pictures and the staff and everyone involved have done here is brilliant and worth crowning it Anime of the Year. To take such an incredible story and adapt it so stunningly in its own way is more than I could ever ask for. There is not one moment of bad CGI I recall from this season. There isn't a single moment where I wasn't taken back to the story of the game and had my memories built on, in a way eerily similar to the androids. Like it re-defined what this story meant to me. And it became a crucial part in understanding it. This is not just a re-creation of the game's story. This is a continuation of it. And Yoko Taro is a madman genius and this is my anime of the year and I'm going to leave it at that.

This is something that needs to be experienced, by anime fans in general YES and for Nier fans 100/10. This is still this story. We are still up. Masterpiece.

10

I really appreciated this series and found it to be so unapologetically gay and cute and fun! It is so refreshing to see a BL or even a story with gay characters where there wasn't really a single implied moment of homophobia in the setting of the world. It just set a stage with great pieces and let it play out in a light-hearted and entertaining way that made me feel good every time I watched it.

First though: --- my big critique is with how the show starts very early on. There is one interaction that is very uncomfortable and immediately had me on my ... red flags drawn type of viewing. I was wondering if we were going Banana Fish-level trauma or sub-5.0 rating yaoi dumpster bin. Luckily it spins out of that interaction pretty fast. And while it does help build one of the lead characters story, looking back it really doesn't fit the tone of the show. Immediately thinking this was going to be one of those BL I force myself to sit thru until things go so left I finally drop it. ---

That said! +++ The great thing is that right after that bumpy start with a past acquaintance, they introduce a much more pleasant and engaging setting and new quirky characters with realistic interactions, but still told in a lighthearted after-dinner anime watch style. Relating to my own experiences, I found everything underneath to be so well-written and relatable to real life gay world existing, growing up and figuring yourself out, finding love and questioning yourself and questioning people around you and potential interests. Just human relationships in general, in pursuing and trust and doubt and discovery and revelation. It all is low-key written really well for how lite it comes across. +++

Without spoiling, the different character interactions offer such a nice change of pace episode to episode. It can be such a tone-shift going from one couple to the next, and I absolutely loooooove one of these characters and how they present him as. It's one of my laughably favorite presentations of a gay man in all of anime and I should add him to my favs right now actually.

As a BL fan, this just fit a certain spot in my heart I appreciated. It's all so unserious but with great care and detail still felt within it. This probably won't be in my top top for this year by any means, and you can find deeper stories out there for sure (Tian Guan Ci Fu from this year being one of them) but it really is one of the most enjoyable BL I have watched. (And I have watched... a looooot...) A nice casual evening watch. And after that little initial stumble in the beginning, I am so happy that I stuck with this.

It was so enjoyable and hopefully signals more great BL storytelling in anime like this in the future. I'm always refreshing that boys love tab on anime search hoping a new series gets announced that looks like an actual good story. This was one of those for sure.

Ratingbomb-haters have a nice day and stop missin out on life! ;)

Solid 9!

This is the greatest anime of all time. Behind Samurai Flamenco. This is the greatest anime of all time, the second. Because it is. If you want a series of passing=by figures to tingle your brain-lobes this might be the one for you. If you want to feel something or not feel something, give it a try. This is a creation for both the person that has watched every anime and watched no anime at the same time. Someone just trying to get thru high school. This is one of the most brilliant works of fiction I have ever experienced because it says everything and ... says nothing without trying to say either. And the soundtrack is bussin

10/10 the goat anime no one and everyone hasn't watched yet

Without any specifics, in a way... This is the photo negative of Banana Fish and I am in love with it. This is Great Pretender that sticks the landing. This is real-world Gurren Lagann. Our coming of age with all the 90s Sailor Moon memories. This could end up being my favorite anime of all time.

I feel like maybe watching it a decade later with the lenses I have now might've made me see what so many archaic posts here didn't seem to but wow. I think this is such a daring and whimsical and impressive piece of art. How they were able to lean ... into every single jump-the-shark curve ignoring any ridicule that could come (and did come) is fascinating. I binged it in a day, and maybe so much was lost in a week by week episode format but flying thru it non-stop, it all comes together. This was before the Avengers and Marvel franchises tried to go higher and higher with every sequel, and it called it. It called so much. It's a decade ahead of its time, and that I'm seemingly one of the few psychopaths that actually understand it makes me feel like I'm insanely a part of it. I love this work and I appreciate everyone who made this creation become what it is in the face of whatever 2013 was. We didn't deserve you and we thank you for your magic.

I absolutely loved everything about this series. Let's get right to it. Underage thing, questionable thing, all the thing that is thing. I'm not sorry but while I get immediately nah-d to so many series that go left with weird stuff, this one, I gotta go against the energy it got. For me, it was an incredibly beautiful depiction of that bridge from adolescence to adulthood where everything is scary and exciting and you don't know where you are going, and meanwhile the adults you are looking up to are lost and confused, miserable and alone. There are so many nuanced moments of the pain ... of adulthood in here, I think any focus on any perceived underage thing is just misplaced. There is nothing blatant in this series that isn't adolescent looking at porn, there's nothing here that is adult trying to take advantage of child, it's the fear of both sides and the reckoning of each other. Young guy wants to become a vampire to be cool, old vampire just wants to chill play videogames and not worry about any adult shit. The art style is incredible, the music is outstanding, the pacing is there, the plot goes to awesome angles, and the whole thing truly is just vibes. I think this series is beautiful and very much worth a watch if you're able to not label everything as suspect. Also I watch every boys love I can so I know what I'm talking about when it comes to questionability -_-