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First, the superficial: Art, great; Sound, fair; Enjoyment, very good; and Overall, great. This anime is, hands down, the most consistently good isekai of the Summer 2022 season. Many others tag this as being bad because of its edginess and pseudo-philosophizing, but in my opinion those aspects are as well handled as the pseudo-philosophy of Evangelion 1995. Spoilers ahead for why.

. . .

Spoilers:

The MC is female. This is a direct departure from the norm, and unlike in other anime, I as a female can relate to this female character. So much to say that both female MC's of this anime feel human and do not ... suffer from any of the uncanny valley, trope filled, or character foil faults of female characters in other animes. For as much thought and effort as was put into the two MC's, as much thought was put into most of the NPC's. Although many of the NPC's were foils to more plot-centric characters, they were minimal and their placement was well organized. That is, they did not feel out of place and were in character. It even took me a few minutes to realize the 'blatant bad guy' trope in the only instance(s) it occurred.

As for the story, the story was fantastic. I'll not spoil it except to say that the pacing is good, save for a minor pacing issue around episode 7/8, and an overly brief denouement.

This review is based on J-Novel translations and the complete series up through to Volume 4.

It is easy enough to understand, but everything is summarized. Literally everything is summarized. Huge battle? Here's a summary. Heartwarming moment? Here's a summary. Interesting plot point? Here's a summary. It was interesting enough due to the fair quality of the story, but new plot development slows down after chapter twenty or so.

The last book and a half has been dry of plot-A development, and I'm not invested enough in the characters to continue because the characters, though initially interesting, are quickly reduced to paper-thin tropes. For example, two ... powerful warriors join the team. Aside from a recipe, we never hear anything about them again. Like what?

Anyway, 4/10. The manga/anime are a lot better.

I am basing this review off of the J-Novel translations for "Madougushi Dahlia wa Utsumukanai: Kyou kara Jiyuu na Shokunin Life."

Overall, the story is increasingly repetitive and attempts to explain various plot elements using various narratives. Such was the ultimate reason I dropped it a few pages into the third volume.

Elective plot elements that are only loosely related to the primary plot comprise a majority of each novel. Further, these elective plot elements lack variety and often focus on superficial details that have no direct importance to the main plot. The reader is therefore encouraged to skip paragraphs. For me, this encouragement built and ... built until I was skipping entire pages.

The book also suffers from a lack of consistent narrative, often jumping from third person limited to third person omniscient or third person limited to third-other-person limited within the same chapter. Sometimes these jumps in narrative serve to flesh out the motivations for characters other than the protagonist. Unfortunately, they frequently repeat themselves and distract the reader from the main plot, causing the story to feel drawn out and stretched thin.

4/10.

I am basing this review off of the J-Novel translations for "Madougushi Dahlia wa Utsumukanai: Kyou kara Jiyuu na Shokunin Life."

Overall, the story is increasingly repetitive and attempts to explain various plot elements using various narratives. Such was the ultimate reason I dropped it a few pages into the third volume.

Elective plot elements that are only loosely related to the primary plot comprise a majority of each novel. Further, these elective plot elements lack variety and often focus on superficial details that have no direct importance to the main plot. The reader is therefore encouraged to skip paragraphs. For me, this encouragement built and built until I was skipping entire pages.

The book also suffers from a lack of consistent narrative, often jumping from third person limited to third person omniscient or third person limited to third-other-person limited within the same chapter. Sometimes these jumps in narrative serve to flesh out the motivations for characters other than the protagonist. Unfortunately, they frequently repeat themselves and distract the reader from the main plot, causing the story to feel drawn out and stretched thin.

4/10

"Rust Eater" goes to join "Yuri on Ice" as one of the few anime that get homosexual romance right. "Rust Eater" does not virtue signal with its homosexuality. Homosexuality is featured as a primary plot point without appealing to its novelty. In this anime, homosexuality feels completely in the right place.

Other than that, the art is good; the sound is fair; the story is alright. Nothing to write home about regarding the art and sound. The story suffers many major cinema sins, but overall the anime is highly enjoyable.

All in all, I rate this anime an 8/10.

"Rust Eater" goes to join "Yuri on Ice" as ... one of the few anime that get homosexual romance right. "Rust Eater" does not virtue signal with its homosexuality. Homosexuality is featured as a primary plot point without appealing to its novelty. In this anime, homosexuality feels completely in the right place.

Other than that, the art is good; the sound is fair; the story is alright. Nothing to write home about regarding the art and sound. The story suffers many major cinema sins, but overall the anime is highly enjoyable.

All in all, I rate this anime an 8/10.

For a romance anime, this is a 9/10. It has a definite ending which leaves the user fully satisfied. The romantic interests are fully valid and viable. There is a realism to it which keeps the viewer watching.

For a slice of life anime, this is a 10/10. I felt fully absorbed and represented as a 20-something woman with bad luck in work and love. The only nitpick here is that there is some anti-gay sentiment, but even that is handled nicely with some pro-LGBT and some anti-LGBT. It's mere coincidence that the MC is anti.

For an action/adventure anime, this is maybe a 7/10. Although the ... adventure and combat aspects are well done and add to the story, they are not so spectacular that they could carry themselves as anime shorts.

For a comedy anime, this is a 10/10. The slapstick nature of its scenes captivated me in a way that I haven't experienced since K-On first aired. Nearly every episode was a knee slapper!

All in all, this is a solid 10/10 for me. The top-tier characters and plot development in addition to the romantic and adulthood realism were together the perfect escape from the teenager-centric style which plagues anime today. (Seriously, can we get another Samurai Champloo?)

"Daughter of the Emperor" is a bafflingly low depth story about a woman who died and was reborn into a foreign realm.

Even as far as Chapter 23, we know next to nothing about the world, its people, the MC's past life, or even how the MC spends her days.

She was born into a baby's body with a fully developed brain. She hasn't the ability to do anything except think, because her body is so weak. How is it that in an entire year she has not put any thought into her past life beyond a single passing statement that she wonders what her parents are ... doing? Surely her own sudden death and memories of her loving parents should warrant they be in her thoughts often. Does she not miss them?

What of her current surroundings? How is it that in a year, despite having a fully developed adult brain and literally nothing else to do, she has not had any meaningful thoughts on the language, the culture, the sciences or even the persons who surround her except for her father? Yet even of her father, she thinks very little. I count on one hand the ponderings of this MC. Was she merely stupid in her past life? Even a dog has deeper thoughts than she!

How is it that she isn't experiencing culture shock when she has been thrust into an foreign age with foreign people, foreign language, foreign culture and foreign science?

Why is it that she hasn't drawn a single parallel against her past life?

Like, good god, I can get down with the cuteness but this is just dull.

In a world so foreign that no parallels may be drawn against reality, the viewer finds herself watching a trilogy beginning from its 2nd installment. As such, despite the interesting visual and aural elements, Dorohedoro comes off as confused, disorganized, and uncanny. Often while watching the series, the viewer will see something interesting and stop to consider the fantasy world at large. However, because Dorohedoro never discusses context outside of the superficial concerns of its main characters, the viewer gathers so many questions that her immersion into the fantasy world becomes impossible.

All in all, it may be that Dorohedoro the animated series was not adapted ... well to a video format. However, based solely upon the animated series, it may just be that the source material is also confused, disorganized, and uncanny.

Humor, even, is lost upon Dorohedoro's fantasy world. Its common joke, albeit slapstick, is always gruesome and lacking creativity. If anything, its gore filled "humor" further alienates the viewer by solidifying within Dorohedoro's canon a type of humor which is simply incompatible with the neurotypical viewer.

I have a weakness for isekai. This anime is an isekai. Therefore, I picked up this anime.

Eight episodes in, however, I am dropping this anime. Although it had a promising start, and contrary to my expectations of it based on the light novel which "Hachi-nan tte, Sore wa Nai deshou!" is sourced from, this anime is complete and utter garbage.


==spoilers ahead==


After the first major timeskip, the anime simply falls apart. Instead of focusing on the intrigue of Wendelin's family dynamic, or his impressive magical abilities, or the difficulties of high society, or anything else even remotely interesting, the anime introduces several weak characters not even ... worth the character tropes they're based on. The anime then proceeds to skip around from scene to scene, causing each episode to feel like a highlights reel and mid-season recap than a single coherent episode.

The straw which broke my back precipitated within episode eight, where my favorite genre ever, dungeon-core, was executed so poorly that I watched the episode mouth agape in abject horror of its awfulness.

Just... do yourself a favor and don't watch this anime.