Awkward, unfunny, and oddly sexual, Dandadan is a overall strange show involving the supernatural and beings from beyond with the emotional depth equivalent to a piece of paper and has the subtlety of a gasoline truck crashing to a firework building.
Its art style is excellent and I loved all the backgrounds of the show along with the animation and color palettes, but the immature and gross sense of humor, and most of all, the constant need to dump exposition in your face and act like these characters are likable because of the audience getting a lore dump, really turns me off the show. Some will
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Apr 19, 2023 Not Recommended Preliminary
(2/6 eps)
This show's animation is stunning and beautiful. Quite a sight to behold. The animation is fluid and crisp, the stills are amazing, the drawings and key frames are very impressive, and the overall style is eye candy.
Now on to the rest of the show. This is pretty unwatchable. The plot is pretty nonsensical and idiotic. The characters, especially pink hair girl, are pretty obnoxious and not much to write home about. The show is pure spectacle and that's about it. But by far the worst part of the show is that it's basically a shotacon. Ironic that people dog pile on Boku no Pico but this ... show gets a pass (not that Boku no Pico is anything but unwatchable dogshit that is). Now, this show is no where near Boku no Pico shota hentai levels of bad, but this show still prominently and features a 6th grade, 11-12 year old boy having some, erm, pretty inappropriate interactions with a 17 YEAR OLD GIRL AND 19 YEAR OLD WOMAN. Yet the fans of this show gloss over that stuff and don't mind. Look, I could care less about getting people riled up and trying to cancel this or whatever, because ultimately it's just a bunch of drawings and I don't feel compelled to waste my time trying to save imaginary kids. I just cannot understand why people like this junk so much. I wonder if it was a late teen guy going after a 12 year old girl it wouldn't be acceptable...But again, they're just drawings, so all I can really say is, this show is super nasty and I don't see any reason why I can't label this show a pseudo soft-shotacon. That being said, it might be a bunch of drawings, but I still have more than enough reasons to never watch this. If you like cool visuals and "deep" plot and don't mind a little suggestive shota action, have at it I guess. As for me, burn it with fire. I rated this a 3 for visuals alone.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jan 9, 2023
Yu☆Gi☆Oh! 5D's
(Anime)
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Recommended Spoiler
Total rating-- 8.5/10
I am going to be conducting this review with the assumption that the reader knows the premise and general plot of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. I really hate summarizing plots in reviews. Sorry. This review is going to be very, very long by the way, so I really don't want to make it any longer than need be. Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's on its surface seems like one of the stupidest shows ever made. It's conceptually very strange-- a futuristic semi-cyberpunk post apocalyptic-esque setting combined with motorsports combined with card games. Yu-Gi-Oh! on its own is already a conceptually strange show, but this one takes strange and borderline ... stupid to a whole new level. On paper this should be a failure of a show. The concept alone is enough to drive a lot of people away, and in fact already has since its debut in 2008. "Card games on motorcycles" is as much a meme as it is an exact truth, and like it or not, has tarnished the show's reputation to some degree as being one of THOSE Japanese animated shows. Once you get past that premise (well...if you ever), you will find yourself enjoying one of the strangest, yet most entertaining and thought provoking "game" related anime to ever be made. Paradoxically, despite the seemingly ridiculous premise, this third entry in the Yu-Gi-Oh! series is perhaps the most mature, philosophical, and down to earth entry in the entire franchise. The show grapples with societal oppression and the contrast of rich and poor lives in a way very few dare to, where it not only shows the struggles of the poor and oppressed and the blessings of the privileged, but it also shows how not all of the blessed in society have perfect lives either, with some arguably having even worse lives than the oppressed, or those who are stuck in Satellite. On top of that, it also shows that one's birth is irrelevant to your outcome in life, and how individual decisions can change your life for better or worse. Yusei Fudo and Jack Atlas are the absolute best example of this. Yusei, despite living most of his life in the abandoned post-apocalyptic slums of Satellite and being treated as an outcast because of his citizenship in Satellite for the majority of his life, was actually born in Neo Domino City. Jack, who is the unanimous King of Dueling and basically worshipped as a god to Neo Domino City residents, was actually born in Satellite and spent most of his life there, and his rise to fame was to some degree rigged as a ploy for Rex Godwin to gather all the signers together. This idea of "not everyone has it easy regardless of class and anyone can make a difference" is further emphasized in other characters, such as the critically acclaimed and adored Aki Izayoi, who was a Neo Domino City citizen and the daughter of a very wealthy family. Despite being handed every opportunity to succeed, she was born with deadly powers which unintentionally causes her to harm those around her. This results in her classmates, friends, and family alike to all become afraid of her and turn on her. Even, seemingly, her own family. Despite everything being handed to her, she still became an outcast and was rejected and bullied by society. This is another theme of the show, "regardless of who you are or what you've done, some people will still hate you and sometimes bad things will happen to you." Another lesser talked about main character in this show is a great example of this. My personal favorite character in the show, Lua, or Leo if you're more used to the dub (he is also called Rua occasionally...let's just call him Lua for simplicity lol). Lua was on the surface by every stretch of the imagination a textbook example of a privileged child. He was not only born and raised in Neo Domino City, he was also raised in the Tops, the richest and most privileged area of the entire city. Lua had a loving twin sister, Luca, very wealthy parents, attended a prominent school, had butlers to clean the house, access to endless entertainment, and one of the best views in the city from the tip-top of his high-rise very rich and high tech looking home. Despite all this, his life story is by far one of the biggest tragedies in the show. Lua's parents were never around. His sister became critically ill when they were very young, and even up until they were 11 he was forced to take care of her due to their absent parents. Due to this, he missed out on a normal childhood. He wanted to get his idol, Jack Atlas' signature, but was never able to due to his sickly sister being unable to leave the house for very long. Because of this he was also unable to duel as much as he would like, preventing him from reaching his dream of becoming the King just like Jack, and resulting in him being a very, very bad duelist who is unable to win a single duel by himself for nearly the entirety of the show. Because of his sick sister and absent parents, he was forced to attend online school instead of going to a normal school, which also resulted in him having basically no friends outside of one person and his sister. Despite all of this he loves his sister with all his heart and does everything that he can do to protect his sister. However, Lua is not very strong or nearly as smart as his prodigy sister. Despite trying his best, Lua can rarely protect his sister and Lua starts to feel very worthless. On top of all of this, his dream of being a "hero" for his sister is further thrown aside by the fact that all of his new companions in Team 5D's are nearly all revealed to be Signers, who are blessed people destined for great things, including his twin prodigy sister who was already remarkable. But he does not have this power. Lua begins to hate himself, but it is shown in a very subtle and very well written way. He even goes so far as to say he doesn't want to come with Team 5D's to help stop the Dark Signers, as he feels like he's a burden on everyone. Lua, despite seemingly being so privileged, was essentially abandoned by his parents, forced to take care of and worry about his very sickly sister, lead to social isolation for years because of it, was forced away from his dreams and essentially forced to drop them, his broken dreams were rubbed in his face as all his new friends became what he could not, and every attempt he made towards his dreams or to protect his sister all lead to complete failure. All this was happening to an anxious and self-hating 11 year old child, who likely could barely even process any of it and likely could never properly take care of his sister. He also despite everything never ever blamed his sister or ever acted out and blamed everyone else as someone his age probably would, instead he loved her so much he only blamed himself. Lua is in my opinion the greatest example of some of 5D's major themes. I haven't even touched several other major characters who echo the show's incredible themes. For time sake, I won't be able to, but to be brief, Yusei, Jack, Lua, Aki, and several other major and minor characters perfectly show examples of the show's core theses in an eloquent and subtle way. The premise and themes of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's is honest to God, some of the most profound, unusual, unique, thought provoking and beautiful premises and themes to any piece of literature period. Especially coming from a show with such a bizarre and memeable concept, and a show that was probably originally planned as an over-glorified advertisement for children's collectible trading cards. The premise of the show is perhaps too good for what the show is. There are many points during this show's 154 episodes where I feel like the card game element holds down the story from its true potential, which considering that I'm very positive that the show was probably heavily persuaded to have a least one duel per episode regardless of what was going on, one could argue that the premise is too good. However, don't fool yourself, this anime still has some of the best dueling the franchise has seen. Unlike the first entry where the rules were constantly changing and there seemed to be no consistency, 5D's came around at a time where the rules were set in stone and the anime followed them very closely. Duels on occasion were won by "power of friendship" esque powers, but for the grand majority of time, the victor was determined by the better strategist and victories were won by outplaying the opponent. Regarding "power of friendship", 5D's does feature the "power of friendship" anime and Yu-Gi-Oh! troupe. However, it is used in a very tangible way. The Crimson Dragon mythology and the signer marks in the show is quite good and actually interesting, as not only does it actually tie into the plot and directly, massively affect the characters (Aki for instance who's life was ruined through it, and Lua who felt alienated because of it), it makes old Yu-Gi-Oh! cliches like the power of friendship into something more akin to an actual mystical power and helps change the troupe into something more interesting and practical. Although there were definite times where I felt deus ex machine-like endings occurred, I feel like the Crimson Dragon really helped to make that element more compelling. The "power of friendship" element felt more real as well, as many of the characters faced division amongst themselves because of the mark (Aki, Lua), and some faced a forced unity between characters who were on bad terms and hated each other (Yusei, Jack). The first season of this show is, in my opinion, is approaching a borderline masterpiece at times. The World Cup arc and the Dark Signers arcs are very, very tightly written for a majority of its runtime and are some of the best arcs in anime. However, this show is not without its faults. In my opinion one flaw with this show in its first season is it dumps in a major character who has never been brought up before and expects the audience to suddenly feel attached to the character despite him not being introduced naturally, and results in the major conflict of Yusei's choice to kill him to save his friends feeling rather shallow, as we are TOLD that this character is important to Yusei, Jack, and Crow instead of truly SEEING it. This character is a major villain in the Dark Signers arc, Kiryu Kyosuke. Not one character to my knowledge, Yusei, Jack, or any of his Satellite friends alike bring up this character prior or even vaguely allude to him, which makes me and by extension the audience doubt that this person was ever a part of the three's life. Perhaps this could be forgiven however by the fact that the three agreed to never talk about him again, which I find believable. That aside, I find Kiryu to be a good character, especially in the Crash Town arc. A major problem this show and by far the biggest problem I have with it, is its resolution to the Dark Signers arc, multiple Dues ex Machinas, and the beginning part to the middle of season 2. The Dark Signers arc ramps up quite well, tension is rising and everything seems to be at stake. The stakes were very personal and kept me on the edge of my seat, constantly jumping to the next episode. Rally's death felt very tragic, as did Martha's. Unlike Kiryu's death where I didn't feel much, the audience DID get time to be with Martha and Rally, which made their deaths all the more emotional and made me want to stop the Dark Signers just as much as Yusei, because we could SEE that Yusei cared for them and that he was affected by their deaths. Carly in particular had a very tragic and heart wrenching double death, first all alone, and then in the arms of her lover. Jack and Carly both transformed as characters so much over the course of the Dark Signers arc, and her death was a beautiful ribbon on top of one of, if not the greatest duel in the show. All these character deaths which added so much weight and consequence to the show were undone in a very simple and out of the blue way, which personally felt very cheap and it felt like the writers chickened out. This lead to Carly, although being alive, was essentially dead as her love relationship with Jack went no where afterwards, their character arc together got no satisfying conclusion (even after Jack literally promised he truly loved her...), and Carly became a shell of a character who served no further purpose other than being "there". Another problem with the Dark Signers arc, which might be something of a hot take, is I feel Aki's fall as a character began in the Dark Signer arc's latter half. After her beautiful duel with Yusei in the medical room, I felt like her story became a bit rushed, as Divine somehow survives the fall to his death in an unexplained way and the narrative regarding Aki accidentally killing people with her powers was bent in a artificial and silly way to make it so Divine actually was responsible, and made Aki's guilt over those deaths just end in a very disjointed way. Aki not being responsible for their deaths could very well be a good resolution to that plot thread, but the way it was handled I personally find a bit crude and rushed. I could see this being a nitpick however, as Aki's character as a whole as of this point was still really good. Let's talk about season 2. A good chunk of the beginning part of season 2 is a confused, boring, and filler filled mess. There were several very slow episodes, and at times I even skipped an episode or two. It isn't a complete disaster, but considering how damn good season 1 was it the beginning of season 2 might as well be. All the societal problems that Team 5D's and Satellite/Neo Domino City faced was magically resolved and completely fixed after a year as the two cities joined together, which is totally unrealistic and completely glossed over. You could certainly have an optimistic narrative in which the society's problems are resolved and they are able to move forward, but it is done in such a clean and quick fashion that it feels a little too perfect, especially when we as an audience never see ANYONE, EVER who is harsh towards the other city. The idea that every single person could magically just change like that is nothing short of unrealistic and illogical. The societal problems in the show were largely a part of the biggest conflict of the show and the driving force to much of its plot, and to see it all duct taped and magically fixed basically overnight is pretty disappointing. Some of the transition to the character's new society and lives did feel genuine, such as Jack being unable to find a job since he grew up on the streets, but it was largely a grossly undeveloped area that really needed to be. Regarding the cast, I believe 5D's has a very strong cast in Yusei, Jack, Aki, Lua, Luca, and Crow. Crow and Luca are easily the weakest members, but despite that they still have good things to offer, though mostly because of their connections with more interesting characters, those being Yusei and Lua. In season 2, nearly every character becomes flanderized to some extent and it can be pretty frustrating to watch. Aki stops having a purpose in the messy narrative and is sidelined for the very 1 dimensional Crow multiple times. Although I find it was fine for Yusei to only lose twice (yes, twice :P) in the first season, Yusei never once lost in the entirety of season 2, including during tournaments, which felt incredibly unrealistic and honestly really hurt the conflict of much of season 2, as I was always sure of how it would all end. Yusei unfortunately really felt like a Mary Sue at times in early season 2. Jack, personally, did not feel very flanderized (he did feel more silly than usual however), but like Lua, Aki, and Luca, he just didn't really have much screen time as Yusei and Crow. Crow was a very okay and underdeveloped character from season 1, which was fine, but he unfortunately did not really ever improve despite having a moment where he definitely could have (the duel where he got his signer dragon and the tournament match where he was forced to step aside for Aki to come in). Crow is the subject to much of 5Ds' criticism and for good reason, he is constantly shoved into the narrative when he is adding basically nothing and never developing as a character or doing much of anything interesting while many more interesting characters are being ignored. I personally do not hate Crow as much as some, as season 2's flaws were more the fault of a writing staff with a divided attention thanks to Bonds of Time than they were solely Crow's, and Crow genuinely does add to the show in some good ways, but largely I would agree that he became an annoyance. Lua and Luca as I said were pretty absent from the show for a lot of season 2 unfortunately, and although I think it works fine for Lua more or less, Luca could've really used more development considering how tacked on the Fairy World plot was to season 1 and how underutilized her prodigy nature was as a whole. Let me get some other lesser criticisms out of the way, first regarding the world. As I stated, there is basically a duel every episode. Considering the setting however, there were times conflict was resolved playing a Duel Monsters where it felt out of place and inappropriate. Especially regarding the police in season 1. Although it makes sense for Ushio/Trudge to duel Yusei and let Yusei go after he wins due to Ushio's pride, there were many times later where they are being chased by other police and after winning the police vehicles are simply disabled. This, combined with many other times, such as when Yusei broke into a warehouse to steal his motorcycle back made me question "Why doesn't anyone have a gun?". I genuinely do not understand why the police are forced to play a card game in order to disable their motorcycles when a simple gun or electric club like once used by the police could easily suffice. I would understand if they couldn't catch them since turning the bikes on Riding Duel mode messes with the speed, but if you can hack into their bikes that well why not just completely stop them? It just feels unexplained if anything, but there are ways to explain around it I suppose. This just makes it feel like dueling is forced into the plot when it doesn't really have to be, which goes back to my "dueling weighs the plot down at times" criticism. I understand this is not a R rated anime, but considering that dark elements and topics like suicide, police abuse, on screen deaths, alcohol/alcoholism, on screen torture of a child(ren), cults and so forth, I don't see why a gun would be too out of place for this age rating or any Japanese laws, and I'm pretty sure I saw a gun a few times. This worldbuilding is made in such a way to where the show feels pretty down to earth, but moments like this take me out of the story a little. However, moments like this do not happen very often, as most duels are handled with appropriate stakes and set up, such as in the Dark Signers arc where the loser of the duel gets their soul ripped from them, or in the Ark Cradle arc where anyone who loses not only dies, but allows the Ark Cradle to destroy the city and kill thousands. One other silly moment regarding world building happens when a very top secret, and plot important file on a computer is guarded by a duel puzzle and the characters "hack" into it by dueling to complete the puzzle, which is perhaps the most overly forced dueling has ever been in an episode. I feel like I can forgive this however, as stupid as it may be, as it really only is a small part of the show. One more criticism to get out of the way is the art and visual presentation. Although the art for the most part looks pretty good, and at times looks genuinely stunning, for a portion of the show the art can get pretty crude at times and can be pretty distracting, but I'd say you have to be looking for it to see it mostly. The animation as well on occasion can be a bit overly stiff and and low-frame rate, even for anime. Despite the art feeling rushed at times, I'd say for the majority of the show it looks pretty good, and at worst average. Season 2 isn't all bad. Crash Town was an overall pretty good arc despite the cheesiness of the "gun-duel" thing and the old west city, and I felt like it made Kiryu a much more compelling and 3 dimensional character, though I felt like his development from being suicidal to wanting to live again felt a little too fast. The arc is a little bit overrated, but its still nonetheless a highlight in the otherwise pretty dull beginning section. The show really picks up again around the mid point of it and with the introduction of the new villains, José, Placido, and Lucciano. These villains were a part of the Illiaster organization, and were the people responsible with starting the whole mess with the Dark Signers. They are from the future and wish to eradicate Synchro monsters entirely, as they caused the world in the future to be destroyed due to another, much more powerful Zero Reverse (the same explosion that separated Neo Domino and Satellite and killed Yusei's parents, leading him and his friends to his troubled life in Satellite). The tournament duels in the middle of season 2 are entertaining enough despite an occasional slow section or two, and by the time the characters get towards the end of the tournament, nearly every duel is very exciting to watch and the strategy that is displayed is very enjoyable, even if Yusei always ends up being the savior. There's a couple of faults here and there in this section of season 2, but to be honest none of them bother me too much. I'll finish this very long review talking about in my opinion the best arc in the series, the Ark Cradle arc. Although the starting portion of season 2 is mostly unfortunately pretty poor, I feel like the latter part of season 2 and especially the Ark Cradle saga more than makes up for it in my opinion. José, Placido, and Lucciano's plan is set in motion, and a mirrored, destroyed version of Neo Domino City known as the Divine Temple appears above in the sky, slowing falling down. The main villain of this final arc, Z-One, I believe is the strongest and most compelling villain in the entire show. The slow build up of events is quite stunning. The Ark Cradle saga grapples with many complex and gray themes, one of them being "is it better to kill a few to save many"? Z-One's desire to destroy Neo Domino City was not out of some cartoonish desire for blood, rather it was a desire to save his future world, as Neo Domino's destruction would guarantee that the Ener-D would be destroyed and his future would not be ruined. I really like the fact that Z-One isn't necessarily a bad guy and that he was just trying to save the future. Z-One's entire character is a questioning of the hopeful themes of 5Ds' first season, including the theme of "anyone can make a difference". Many people did not like that Z-One wasn't literally Yusei from the future, however I see Z-One as future Yusei, as Z-One literally cloned Yusei's DNA to become him, so in a way, he was future Yusei. I think that works for the narrative, as from Z-One's point of view, he took on Yusei's appearance and his values (5D's major themes), and despite everything still could not save the future. A major theme of Ark Cradle is despair, and how Z-One and his companion's past experiences lead them to believe that there was no hope and that it was better to be realistic and put away any hope for change so that they could preserve the future as much as possible. This directly parallels Yusei's upbringing and the old Satellite, where Yusei, his friends and the citizens let go of hope. It parallels Yusei's story, Aki's story, Jack's story, Lua's story, and more. A major point of this arc is to call into question the purpose of hope at all if everything ends up going poorly. Ark Cradle is everything to do with anxiety for the future and a desire to make a difference but not knowing all the answers and not knowing if you'll even make a difference. To Z-One, he had done everything he could and still failed, which made him falsely believe that hope was an illusion. He was a troubled man traumatized by his ruined future and just wanted to do whatever he could to save it, if even for someone. In some narratives, Z-One would be a hero. Z-One's perspective is completely understandable, and it makes his actions all the more morally gray. He is a villain and yet isn't, which are signs of very good writing as it inherently creates compelling conflict. Z-One is by far the strongest written antagonist in the show, and one of the best in anime. I haven't even brought up Bruno yet. Bruno was a character who was introduced in early season 2, and although he was introduced during the show's lowest point, he slowly grows on you while simultaneously introducing questions regarding just who he even is. In the Ark Cradle saga, his amnesia is cleared by Z-One and he is revealed to be Antinomy, one of Z-One's allies. Yusei is forced to duel his friend to the death to save Neo Domino City, however Yusei dooms both of them in a desperate attempt to save his friend. Antinomy, also Bruno, was caught between two alliances with no right answer to choose and didn't know who to fight for. What I really respect about Antinomy as a character is, unlike Kiryu, we got to see this character live alongside Yusei and his companions and really be a part of Team 5D's. So it makes his death all the more upsetting and tragic because we get to SEE that Yusei and his friends cared for him and are upset by his passing, instead of being told. It makes their bond more believable and realistic. And unlike the Dark Signers arc where any sense of consequence is undercut by the sudden revival of characters who died, the characters who died in Ark Cradle stayed dead, including Bruno. He is one of the most complicated characters in the series and by far one of the most fascinating. Although many characters' screen time was cut short in season 2, I feel like Ark Cradle and late season 2 made up for it by giving pretty much everyone a proper final duel and character conclusion. Aki moves past her guilt in a somewhat rushed but believable way. Lua is finally able to protect his sister because of his refusal to give up hope despite his circumstances and despite how weak and unable he was, and reflected not only 5Ds' final major themes, but the show as a whole, leading him to save Luca and his idol Jack's life and be a part of saving the city from destruction, all while becoming the final signer (which has been foreshadowed since his first appearance as a character in episode 13). Crow is finally given a bit of development and has shared themes with Aki's character development in their duel against Sherry. Jack decides to become the best duelist in the world, at the same time not neglecting his friends as he did before, finding a proper balance in his life. Yusei learned to see past his fear, let go of survivor's guilt and his friends' death, and truly save the world through working as a scientist like his father to prevent the Ener-D from ever destroying the world, even with his friends moving away. Luca unfortunately got the short end of the stick regarding development, but I can't say anything else is new regarding that. The ending of 5D's is also perhaps one of the most mature, and realistic ways a "friendship" kind of story ends. They all go their separate ways, but as Yusei says, "even though we may be apart, our bonds will never break" (I probably paraphrased that lol). The ending to 5D's is a very rare, but beautiful, end to this kind of story and it was quite unexpected. Despite the show's bizarre premise, and its mid-show hiccups, I believe the first season and latter half of season 2 more than make up for the show's faults and ends the show satisfyingly, which is something very very rare in anime. Despite some quirky things which undercut the show, the writers pushed the entire concept of Yu-Gi-Oh! to its absolute limit, which is an incredibly hard feat, and I feel like is worth the highest praise. Some find season 2's faults to be unforgivable and give this show a 7 or even lower, which in my opinion I may have been tempted to do as well if it were not for the Ark Cradle saga. But I feel like season 1's very high peaks and the absolute complex beauty of Arc Cradle is far too good for me to give this show anything lower than a 8. Most people have probably only seen the dub of this show, which completely cuts out the Arc Cradle portion of the story and censors many other key factors to the show, which has probably lead to the show's more "meh" reputation. Although I almost always watch dubs since I prefer to hear things in my native tongue over reading, I feel like the censorship, horrible script changes and cut content alone makes the sub the better show 2 to 1. Lua, my favorite character in particular, gets his defining moment cut from the show, and all of his best emotional moments are undercut by some sort of added, mis-timed joke. I feel the subbed OST also adds a lot of emotional and atmosphere to the show, and makes the subbed version the even better experience (although I do love Hyperdrive). I feel like I've been going on way too long. I don't totally feel like I covered completely everything I admire about the show, why its one of my favorite anime of all time, and why I believe its a underlooked pseudo-masterpiece at times. I also didn't totally cover some other more minors faults, such as Fairy World and some of the weaker villains. But I feel like this review has been going on long enough. All in all, this is a weird but incredible anime that is somewhat weighed down by some faults that unfortunately keep it from being a true masterpiece. However, the highs of this show are so, so high, the duels are very exciting to watch, and the emotional impact the show leaves on you is absolutely ethereal and changed my life for the better. The faults of the show will be a deal breaker for some to get through the whole show, and whether or not that will be true for you will be up to you personally, but for me, I absolutely adore this anime and I implore you to give it it a second look.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 31, 2022
Black Blood Brothers
(Anime)
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Not Recommended Preliminary
(5/12 eps)
Spoiler
Let me be clear, I've seen worse anime in my life. But it's more than obvious upon viewing this anime that it was exposition hell and there is little enjoyment to be found.
Writing rule no. 1 is "show, don't tell". Of course, there are plenty of times when telling is okay, which is why I prefer "try to show more than tell". This sorry excuse of a show however didn't even get that balance. Episode 1 admittedly wasn't half bad. We're introduced to our main character and the world seems...well, convoluted but its not the worst ever. The visuals are serviceable and the action's alright. My ... main problem with episode 1 was that it spent so much time talking about the war between the vampires that it forgets to actually give us time to know our character. But you know what, its the first episode I can forgive that lots of anime start slow. Then episode 2 rolls around. We're introduced to MC's blonde lil bro, who is likely the most generic little brother protagonist I've ever seen. All that aside, hey there was a funny joke! Maybe this episode will...oh, more exposition...but hey that one action scene was cool. Episode 3 happens and I notice something. We're three episodes in and I still know barely anything about the main character, or hell anyone. The show just dumps exposition on your head every 5 seconds. And exposition isn't necessarily horrible mind you, but it is when all of this exposition barely involves any of the main characters and you begin to wonder why they're even talking at all. Episode 4 and 5 are no different. There are no characters in this show. Only exposition vehicles. MC is generic overconfident MC, lil bro is generic overly happy lil bro (who of course gets kidnapped, taking lessons from Mokuba I guess)...everyone else isn't worth talking about. I guess its sad that MC's girlfriend died or whatever, but we never really see him grieve from it. Every character exists to dump some nonsense about vampire group no. 1 and vampire group no. 2 and the Chinese war or whatever...its boring as hell and I had to really push myself to keep watching. The worst thing about all the exposition is that it's just unnecessarily convoluted, weird in a bad way, and totally uninteresting. All this stuff can work if THEY ACTUALLY CONNECTED to the main characters, but it doesn't. I don't give a rat's ass about this stupid war because it has nothing to do with the main cast and feels more like a side quest. A side quest, as the main story. Genius. Maybe it connects better at the end of the story, but honestly I don't feel like sitting through an hour+ of more filler just to get there. Your 12 episode series shouldn't be entertaining only at the very end. Conflict is the driving vehicle for a compelling story. But when most of the conflict involves external affairs, and the few that don't are generic and predictable beyond belief, it means your story sucks. Was anyone really surprised when the unnaturally happy generic child vampire girl died? By the way, this "twist" and the entire scene on that bridge was beyond pathetic and awkward. The conflict of this show is further hurt by the predictable fight scenes. MC is just way too strong and he wins basically every battle without breaking much of a sweat, so there's no real danger to anything, ever. If I can nitpick a little, the main protagonist has inconsistent abilities. For instance, it's clarified to the audience that he hates sunlight and that he shouldn't be in it. There's a literal joke where he washes up on a beach as a skeleton. In another episode he has to walk around with an umbrella. But in one episode he's literally fighting enemies on boats and buildings in broad daylight, no umbrella no nothing (also the fight sucks). He just stands there on a building in the middle of the day at one point because we need more exposition of course. Did anyone even think about this? The cherry on top of this dogcrap is the sex scenes. Yes there's sex scenes, or as the show calls them "Vampire blood sucking". It's extremely awkward every time and the show plays it out as sensual as possible. When everything else makes me bored to tears, this is NOT the way to spice things up. If I had to say something nice about this show, I suppose the character designs are alright. MC looks pretty slick and generic lil bro can be cute at times. The visuals are serviceable, and the OST doesn't make me throw up as much as everything else. There's an occasional funny joke and I think in a vacuum if you just turn off your brain and don't think about anything there's enjoyment to be had occasionally as long as you skip the boring parts. This show was very close to being a 5 for me, as it doesn't do anything completely unforgivable, but in all honesty the bad writing and the piss poor exhaustingly dull moments make me not want to watch this. I kind of feel bad for this show as I feel like its condensing a very long manga or light novel into 12 episodes, which would explain all the exposition issues. Nonetheless, I have to give this a hard pass.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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