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Oct 9, 2024
A very fun action series. I've sort of caught up with the updates (with a few chapts left) and I genuinely cannot find a second series that gives me the same experience. It's not the deepest or most thought-provoking manga, nor does it try to be, but it is very consistent with the things it does give you: that is character interactions & well drawn fight scenes.
The basic premise of the show is Jiwoo discovered his power really late, when the more competent among his peers are almost always trained and raised in an environment tailor made for growth. This coupled with Jiwoo's teacher, who
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is infamous for both being sought after but refusing to take any pupils, got him into all sorts of trouble. Jiwoo grows remarkably fast and gains prestige as he fights his way out of whatever he got himself into, with Kayden cameoing in fight scenes pretty frequently.
Jiwoo's a people magnet who accumulates prestigious people by existing. At first they make characters monologue about it, but eventually it just becomes a Jiwoo thing and the narrative stops trying its darnest to convince readers of it. So at this point you either buy it, or you don't. Personally...I think he's vague magnetism is being a bit too convenient as he collects the life long knowledge of goated power users like they're pokemons, but will I trade this for found family dynamics? Absolutely.
Regarding his friend group: They're very fun to watch and behaves just like teenagers. If you're waiting for them to interact meaningfully about their trauma...unfortunately that's gonna have to wait until they are graced with their own arc, since Jiwoo is the only one afforded screentime for mental turmoil consistently. Other than that, they're really just chilling. Like sharing food, petting cats, etc.
Jiwoo's powers: so this is something I really loved about this series. I think it was tacitly shown that Jiwoo's power is kinda sad next to stuff like literal gravity manipulation or elemental powers that can be made into weapons/shields/mobility tool/etc. I've encountered this 'protag's power's kinda disappointing' trope all too often but I think eleceed did it the best. Although Jiwoo accumulates powers, it's clear that they're all based on extremely intelligent use of his speed instead of him just 'getting' other stuff. It's even specifically said that kayden's really good at these sort of battle stuff, which is why Jiwoo got to be 'made' into whatever he had become. (As a comparison, black clover started with Asta basically just having a 'bonk' weapon that slowly involved into what was essentially dark magic manipulation, when the whole premise was how just having physical powers was a problem for him.) So: I think the power scaling here is pretty solid, though Jiwoo's tearing through the ranks a bit TOO quickly for the longevity of the series.
Some criticisms: if you're a fan of ANYONE that's not Jiwoo's immediate friend group/his parental figures, then that kinda sucks for you. They disappear and occasionally cameos. And I don't just mean they don't show up often, cos minor characters barely appearing is 100% normal. I mean they get set up for obvious arcs that just don't. pay. off. Like Sucheon had his whole life uprooted and...idk, he's just back to normal? kind of? but just less of a threat but more like Jiwoo outgrew him? And Arthur had that whole thing with Duke (no spoilers) but he's just...kind of gone. I hope he comes back but who knows? I can live with minor characters getting crumbs but they are weirdly inconclusive.
I don't think the characters really evolve with Jiwoo. They do improve but he outpaces them rapidly. Literally outgrew them like a game character levelling up & the opponents from earlier not even being a threat anymore. Which is...kind of boring in some ways.
Anyway, do give this a try. It's a very fun read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 8, 2024
This is just a chill slice of life/comedy-ish drama. Very hit or miss.
Good things: Yumi's fun to watch, the magic is cool (nothing special but pretty flashy), animation does it's job.
Overall, it has some wholesome themes (though very tropey) and decent execution.
The fight scenes are...okay. Like...if you enjoyed Saiki and Saitama one-shotting enemies you'd enjoy this too. There's not much else in terms of action though.
I mean, honestly this is like the many many overpowered reincarnation animes just that this one is female-led and without a harem. So yeah.
I did like Yumi and Alicia's relationship, she seems to have the most organic reaction
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to Yumi. Yumi and Patrick's cute too. Alicia and her trio of admirers less so, mainly because the 3 boys are reduced to brainless animatronics in her vicinity, bound to fawn over her and attack whoever she's interacting with without the least provocation. The show needs to understand that just because the premise is an otome isekai, doesn't mean you can write your entire secondary cast like otome characters.
More flaws: Edwin is annoying as fuck. Like I get that Yumi's terrifying, not to mention a new phenomenon to them and everything but I feel like Os and William had much more tolerable and reasonable reactions to her. I'm glad he got over it eventually but it really overstayed its welcome.
Also, the ending is...kind of cringy...but I liked that they remedied everything (unlike the other versions of this story) because I really did like Alicia quite a lot.
SO: you'll probably know if this is for you within 1-2 eps
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Oct 7, 2024
In the grander scheme of things, this calm before the storm arc is pretty wholesome. We get to know the Hashira's a bit more, which is great because they really get about 1 major battle each before the series ends, 2 or 3 if they're lucky.
However, from the way the anime is structured, waiting such a long time for another season that's a big nothing burger, before facing up another long wait for the actual substantive arc is pretty unsatisfying. And given that this pace is THE reasonable speed that animation of this quality gets released, I suppose it's a big pacing issue for
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the story.
Additionally, this arc unearthed shed a troubling light on the state of the corps. Are we supposed to believe that some of them can't even survive basic training? Oh dear, I'll try to be brief.
If this arc was to be a fun 'wow tanjiro's awesome' showcase, then it failed because the predominant emotion is 'why the fuck are the rest of them so bad?'. The fact that Tanjiro's training with them killed any comforting notions that we are simply watching the bottom of the barrel. No, these in fact appear to be all the corps have to offer beyond the hashiras, the few retired grandmasters here and there, and the tanjiro prodigy generation that have apparently materialised for narrative purposes.
I genuinely don't know what these guys are supposed to be doing in the final battle. I don't think they can even pick off demon fodder when they can get annihilated by the aftershocks of the hashiras fighting upper moons. At this point it's wise to start giving them range weapons or employ them in some mass production of whatever poison shinobu finds useful.
It really just feels so incomplete in terms of worldbuilding because...like...no other shounen can have this sort of arc? because normally you wouldn't have legends + civilians with sword with nothing in between?
Anyway, if you want filler x 12 + cool hashira fights (very rare tho), this is fun and wholesome. Otherwise, no.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Oct 7, 2024
I always had a soft spot for blue exorcist but this season was a disappointment unfortunately.
The animation was quite lifeless despite it being higher quality in terms of resolution and smoothness. I did love the demonic possession dance. But the og manga material carried a lot of weight in making it hauntingly beautiful, while the extra adaption scrapped by while being inflicted with many the flaws mentioned above.
There are some very good ideas in this season. Izumo's whole arc is very interesting, but it really faltered on the execution to the point of making her unbearably annoying when she doesn't have to be!
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The problem is that it depicted her as growing up around some really shitty people who're supposed to care for her but didn't, and this trauma carried over into her cutting herself off from her friend group. This just didn't make sense because they already went through a lot together. They've had this sort of arc SO many times before. It just takes a bit more effort tying everything together, but this the anime did NOT do.
Instead, it felt like a back and forth between the main group whacking the evil doctor's experiments, then cut to evil doctor (which, honestly, adds no value past a point), then cut to Izumo/her mother being tortured (again, unnecessarily repeated), cut to her isolating herself. I found myself skipping rapidly past everything only to kinda stop and enjoy the climax eps.
Another thing is the show lost its best bits: their friend group is really wholesome and the clear highlight, but izumo's mental state and the betrayal will-they-won't-they (no spoilers) of it all meant we didn't get to enjoy it. The thing with Rin and Yukio is always interesting and occasionally wholesome but here it's both vague and decidedly grim. Lastly, Rin's more contemplative and sad side always adds some much needed levity that gave him a step up from the annoying mc archetype. But with the show focussing on izumo, it significantly cut his development back and he is...very. annoying.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jun 25, 2023
Overall, if you liked the previous seasons, you'd find this one fairly entertaining. Animation is amazing, soundtrack does it's job well-enough, characters and plot are serviceable, but you can find plenty of things to dislike if you want to. It's not going to offer you an insightful story, but it's great to sit back, relax, and enjoy the action.
The good thing is that if you've made it through the past seasons, you've probably gotten used to (or didn't even mind) some of its weaker points, such as: lackluster comedy, Nezuko being more like a pokemon than a character, locations being one-off instead of built into
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a cohesive world, and characters being uninteresting or too loud and annoying. These elements are certainly still present though.
The story itself is formulaic to the extreme. More Upper Moons are being sent on nefarious missions. Tanjiro & co, with Hashiras in toll, once again magically bumps into them in some location which exists purely for this arc and this arc only.
In many ways, this is a lot worse than the previous seasons. First off, pacing. Muichiro's fight drags out as Upper Moon Gyokko does WAY too much talking (yes, even by shounen standards), before finishing abruptly. Suspense is lost as the hashira, empowered by his long, drawn out flashback, steamrolls over Gyokko. Gyokko pulls out more and more lethal attacks but it hardly enhances the fight becauses Muichiro continues to breeze through the rest of the fight.
Mitsuri and the main character's fight against Hantengu is unsatisfying for different reasons. Hantengu makes an abundant use of pulling clones and other forms of diversion out of his ass whenever things get tough. Realistically this is a great power to have, but it gets infuriating in the worst way possible for the audience. We have multiple instances of Tanjiro finally penetrating his defence, only for it not to be his main form, leading to yet another long chase through the forest. Meanwhile, the more visually interesting fight of Mitsuri against the most powerful clone is quickly ignored so we can watch Tanjiro chase an ant-sized old man through the forest. Instead the fight ending powerfully (like the fight against upper moon 6, or Rengoku's fight against Akaza), Mitsuri apparently brute-forced her way off camera and was bailed out by Tanjiro cutting off the weakened main form's head, causing Mitsuri's opponent to turn into ash right as the situation got dire.
The pacing was not the only issue. Nezuko, once again, gets in danger. But, at this point, with her main character status and her being a demon..., I already know that her plot armour is thick beyond comprehension, so the impact didn't hit me the way it should. My enjoyment for the beautifully executed end scene is undercut by my frustration that Nezuko, once again, mysteriously acquires a very useful power for unexplained reasons: the one that the demon lord himself spent centuries to acquire.
At this point, we're nearing the finale arcs. The Upper moons have been diminished by half. Hashiras are getting more powerful, but for some reason, this season failed to build up the hype.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Feb 19, 2023
Look, I keep hearing about how Blue Lock isn't supposed to be inspirational, realistic, or like football at all.
Fine. But what is it supposed to be? If you want to drop the tried-and-true formula of friendship, teamwork and positivity for something new, I'm all for it. But what IS that something new? Teenagers being jerks to each other and staking their careers on a maniacal guy's training program? Point is: I'm not really sure how this thing's supposed to bring me enjoyment.
Let's get into some specifics: The characters. Despite how the show seem to pride itself on subverting sport anime tropes, its protagonist is
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your typical loud, brash idiot who starts off with very mediocre physique and technique but a very useful ability. In this case, it's his ability to visualise the field and foresee moves. This is all fine and all, but because the setting of the story has all but destroyed football as a concept for 'subversion', the protagonists can't use actual theory and gameplan to overcome opponents the way people in Ao Ashi, or Haikyuu, or Ace of Diamond does it. Instead, Isagi simply 'smells' out goals, while his talented friend Bachira listens to 'the monster in his head'. Fantastic.
The execution of the story also got on my nerves. This is a very subjective thing so I'll just list out my issues here: Overuse of metaphors. These guys cannot stop talking about weapons and formulas and chemical reactions and it's starting to annoy me, especially with the lack of concrete details. I'm not looking at sports anime to because a master strategist at football, but if they're going to ramble, I'd appreciate it if they make it actually informative instead of useless vague monologues. This hyperfixation on 'my weapon' is annoying as hell, because it leads to some truly dumb moments such as how Isagi, despite apparently being able to learn the footwork to get behind an opponent in seconds, didn't bother to try learning it because he was so fixated on doing stuff to 'his weapon'.
Speaking of metaphors, I'm not a fan of how the things in their mind are literally drawn out: I don't need to see literal chains to understand Chigiri's struggle, nor do I need to see a broken and battered court reminiscent of a battlefield just because some character treats this like combat.
Some of the characters are truly insufferable. Isagi perpetually sounds like he's on the verge of crying when he's trying hard. Most of the most talented guys are needlessly rude and intent on shoving the MC's uselessness in his face. And people like Kuon act like realising 'being selfish is the key to survive in blue lock' means they've discovered the secrets to the universe. Then there's the two Wanimas...I mean, these annoyances (Isagi excluded) are few and far between, but when they do show up, they make sure they take up a large portion of the screentime. Not a single event can happen in-game without the Wanimas cackling in the most obnoxious way possible.
Good things: some of the characters are pretty fun. The animation is solid, especially when it showcases some of the more talented player's technique. I love the animation of Bachira's footwork and Nagi's control.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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