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I like this one, it looks good, it sounds good, the story is good, it's a fun watch.

However, first impressions matter and I do not think that this anime did itself any favours.

For reasons unknown they went out of their way to give off Harry Potter vibes, set in a Magic School the MC has that Harry Potter hair style and has a pair of circular Harry Potter glasses, add in the school robe and the aesthetic was complete minus the scar, we even get a Snape like teacher, with Snape like looks singling out the MC to make a fool out of him for ... the class' enjoyment.

This is in the first few minutes, and first impressions are really important when it comes to deciding if you want to stay with a series or not.
You don't want the first impressions to be bad, or in this case, you don't want to give the impression that you are just going to be ripping off other ideas wholesale, because usually in those cases such series end up being rather poor, which means people are either going to have low expectations or will drop the series without even giving it a chance.

I bring all that up because this series deserves a chance, it isn't a rip off, and if you get past those first impressions you soon find out that it is its own thing and when you do give it a chance, it is actually a good series.

So I don't understand why the mangaka did that as it feels like such a big misstep, this should have focused on being on its own thing as it sits well as its own thing, it certainly shouldn't be making you think of any other franchises, instead it should be focused on keeping your entire attention on this title.

That is my one main gripe with the series, but if you look past these initial first impressions and stick with it, what you have is a diamond in the rough.

The story, while hardly original in other ways (it's rare to find something that is totally original) is well crafted, and we actually have character development throughout the series so most are not flat, but are fleshed out enough to make you actually care enough about what is going on and to keep watching. The characters also have agency, goals they are working towards, which then in turn drives the story forwards, none of them feel like they are just along for the ride.

The animation is good, its a step up from a lot of the average anime series, but not as good as the best animated series that are out there, which means there is no bad CG, the fights look good (but not amazing) and overall its been given a quality to the animation.

I liked this a lot, but I don't think it did enough to stand above the crowd, if anything it is very much a part of the crowd. It played things a bit too safe and is a bit too generic, but that doesn't stop it from being an enjoyable watch, and I am looking forward to the second season

My thoughts are complicated on this one
The premise is good, I actually liked that it didn't take itself too seriously with the inclusion of the pig and succubus characters giving a comic relief (even if I'm in the minority on that) The story itself is fine.
For me, I have issues with a lot of the execution, it thinks it is smarter than it is, Ike is supposed to be a genius tactician yet it is hard to see that being the case. also the use of weapons and siege tactics is often totally wrong.
For a series that is a medieval fantasy and features a lot ... of medieval warfare, it lacks even a surface level understanding of the subject matter

It felt like the series tried to do too much, tried to be too many things, it needed to focus in more on just a few elements and then it might have been a better series, as it is, it just ended up average.

Simply put, there are better series out there.

This is one of those trash isekai that I enjoyed watching as mindless entertainment, but it is unquestionably a bad anime.

There was a time in anime when people used the three episode rule before deciding if a series was good or not, these days you can generally tell just after the first episode.
But I also put it to you that the OP also tells you a huge amount about the series. The OP sets the tone, it tells you what the studio thought was important to focus on, and how they want to present the series.
More than that, a great OP where the studio has ... put in time and care, usually means the series itself is going to be good.
A generic average OP pretty much is always tied to a generic average series
And a bad OP is a bad sign, because if the studio couldn't even put any effort into the OP, then you know the series will also be bad.
In just 2-3 minutes the OP allows you to set your expectations for what the series has in stall for you.

With Failure Frame, the OP tells you all you need to know about this series, of cause the problem is like a lot of anime these days, the OP is used as the ED of the first episode.
A class of students are Isekai'd, one student is separated from the others and is in a cave where he faces a horde of monsters alone, the other students are off training, while he meets a blonde elf girl and forms a party with other fantasy world characters from the fantasy world.
It has terrible animation, using that oversaturation and halo effect that is the anime equivalent to the lens flare, it doesn't look good especially when it is overused, bad CG, and yes, this is all featured in the OP

Without even going into the plot in any detail, it should sound familiar to anyone who watches isekai, these tropes have been done before, but most famously by Arifureta, the problem is Arifureta is better in almost every single way, and yes, even down to its bad CG, because even though Arifureta also has bad animation and bad CG, it isn't used constantly, 50% of Failure Frame uses bad CG, even in scenes where you would expect regular animation.
The only reason I give this the same score I gave Arifureta is because Arifureta S1 was badly paced and a bad adaptation. I can't judge this as an adaptation, but the pacing doesn't seem that bad.

Another issue is that it takes itself too seriously, so it isn't as fun as it could be, it is still fairly over the top in places, which is why I call it mindless fun, but there are better series out there for just pure enjoyment.
However watching the MC kill everything in sight in these types of anime is never boring, it's why trash Isekai will always be my guilty pleasure.
This is one that is only for fans of trash Isekai, otherwise avoid it like the plague.

I love Isekai, I even love a lot of trash anime, as long as it is fun and entertaining, I generally don't care much about the rest.

So I'm A Spider however tested me like no other, this review is three years in the making because that is how long it took me to finally finish this thing.

The first thing you notice about this series is that you have the cast split into two separate groups, the main body of students and the MC who is a spider.

The MC is stuck in a cave on her own for the first part of the series, with no ... one else to talk to, so all she can do is level up and seek the exit while talking to herself, if that sounds bad, then it is. The first few episodes are really dragged out and monotonous I initially dropped it after 7 episodes as it wasn't going anywhere, the pacing is just terrible, so the first few episodes end up becoming dull with its monotonous repetition
If the aim of those episodes was to show her struggle to survive, and just how slow and painful her levelling up journey was, they achieved that fairly early on, these episodes did not need to be so drawn out and so void of progression, they could have been easily condensed into three episodes and the series would have been improved by it.

All I found myself thinking was, Arifueta did a better job than this.

I need to stress that in the first seven episodes the events surrounding the MC lacked plot, they lacked progression, there were no events driving the story (levelling up for levelling up sake is not progression, seeking to leave the labyrinth is not plot, just needing to survive is not enough, something else has to happen)
The problem is that the story, the plot is happening elsewhere, it is happening with the other students, and although I haven't touched on them yet, they are just dull, they are a vapid waste of space bunch of generic side characters that the series has the gall to waste the actual events on.

It should be no surprise that I stopped watching after seven episodes, but, three years later, I came back and finally finished the series
Coming back and skipping the first six episodes and skimming the seventh was the best choice I made, it made me see that the best way to watch this is to just watch the first episode, then skip to episode six, as you miss nothing of value

After those episodes, things DO get better
Yuki Aoi finally has someone to talk to and interact with, the MC's other personalities played by Yuki Aoi, to say that she carries hard is an understatement, she is hands down the best thing in this anime, but as good as Yuki Aoi is, she can't carry an entire anime on her own.

While it may take a while, the story and plot eventually land at our MC's door, this was long overdue but changes the dynamics of the anime, our MC is given actual agency in the story, we actually have the beginnings of a story.
It also changes the dynamics in a really big way, before the other students 'side story' was the only scenes where we actually got the story and plot, now because we're finally getting a functional series cantered around the MC, the 'side story' with the other students feels like an unwelcome distraction because they are so bland and uninteresting, I don't care about those characters, this actually created a problem with the ending with the series.
I didn't care, I just wanted more Yuki Aoi

Even though it did improve after the first seven episodes, it didn't stop it from being a bad anime

The pacing is beyond dreadful
The writing is bad, the story / plot isn't that good, for the most part, the only interesting areas come in far too late and aren't given enough focus because time and energy is wasted elsewhere
The characters are bad and poorly developed beyond the MC
And the animation is terrible, the CG is just bad, we know that studios are capable of doing better, but it just shows that a lack of time and budget was put into this thing

The fact that Arifureta is a better anime than this, speaks volumes, because as bad as that is, at least it is entertaining throughout, at least they got the MC out of the cave early and meeting and interacting with other characters. as well as involved with the story early on.

For context, I'm writing this after re-watching the series after watching the first half of the second series.
I will preface this by saying I like this anime overall however for Season 1 it is a poorly executed adaptation, so much so that Season 2 had to go back and try and fix many of the things that Season 1 messed up.

Overall the series is fun, it has interesting concepts that allow it to stay fresh and stand out from the masses, the characters are likable, however season 1 doesn't give enough time to develop them, this is a common issue with season 1, it doesn't ... give time to anything.

The story is horribly paced, everything is so rushed and even without reading the source material I can tell that huge amounts have been skipped over to 'save time' which is such a baffling decision by the studio as you need that development to give context to events within the story, in fact you can tell much of it was needed by the way Season 2 had to go back and put back in a lot of that missing context.
A Second season should exist to progress the story, not be there to fix the mistakes of the first season, and the fact that they are having to do this is a condemnation of the first season.
The problem is that story arcs seem to be condensed into single episodes, sometimes two episodes if you are lucky, the worst case of this is the ending where we go from Point B, to Point D, to Point H, to Point M, to Point W, to Point Z and every other letter in the alphabet is left out. I wish I was exaggerating but huge amounts are just cut out for no good reason.

Season 1 is a hot mess, it needed 24 episodes, or it needed to cover less material, it's not like they needed to get to a certain point in the story for Season 2, because as said, Season 2 spends a lot of time going back and filling in gaps.

With this anime, I like the world, I like the characters, I like the overall story (what butchered fragments remain) but it is hard to recommend Season 1 to the point that I almost feel like saying skip it and go straight to Season 2, however Season 1 still provides some context that is needed

I loved the first season, so I was looking forward to seeing this second season.
A quick disclaimer, I did rewatch the first season before watching the second season, mainly because I had forgotten much of what had happened in the first season and had mixed up the plots between it and Bibliophile Princess, but thanks to that I was able to better compare the two seasons.

The reality is, season 2 is just not as good as season 1, the first episode is good, the ending is great, it has a few good moments here and there, but overall it has far too many problems and ... is just lacklustre, don't get me wrong, it's not bad, but this was a series I rated as 'Great' but now it is mealy 'good'

So initial thoughts on the opening scene of episode 1 were, they increased the budget and quality of the animation, it looked impressive, visually stunning and it drew you instantly into the series, it was a very strong start. However there is always a catch, it was of cause a 'flash forward' a tease of things to come, and we would have to wait almost the entire season just to get to that point.

And then there is the animation, because as you guessed, the high quality animation was only for those big 'money shots' beyond that the animation is mostly similar to season 1, except we have more extreme contrasts in the quality of the animation, it is inconsistent on which scenes are given a higher focus on detail and which are not, and some scenes you would expect to be given more of an animation budget, they either cut short or just reduce to a sequence of still frames. It is also jarring that you can have really high quality animated scenes, and then within the space of a few minutes a scene where the characters are sat in a room, and their faces aren't even drawn / animated.

So I guess its time to discuss the story and the big issues with season 2, and don't worry I will keep this spoiler free.

Episode 1 as stated teases Sei on one of her expeditions dealing with the monsters and the miasma that causes them - so far so good, after all, this has been the entire setup of season 1.
After that teaser it quickly picks up where season 1 left off, she has returned from her first expedition, so a plus for consistency, she now however wants to do cosmetics because its an isekai cliché, but apparently she already sells stuff and has has traders sell her ideas because that was a thing we didn't see in season 1 and was just skipped over, but well, here we are.

But now she also wants rice, so its suggested she goes to a port town to check there for it, but she'll need a disguise, but Al can't go with her because he will stand out, even if he wears a disguise? This doesn't make much sense, nor does the need for her to wear a disguise, but lets not think too hard on it.

Now we also get a tease of the big upcoming storyline, which is, when the national situation is over and Sei has helped them cleanse the miasma from all over the nation, all that will be left is the question of her engagement, but lets not dwell too long on it because here comes the first story arc for season 2

Due to an incident in the port town, a Prince from another country has come to study, but has obvious other intentions, but what is he after, what are his intentions, and why is he so keen on finding out about Sei?
Well, none of it matters because it may as well be a filler side story, none of it adds anything to the main story, it just pads out the episode length, and during this time we don't get to see much of Al at all

Considering that the main point of this series is that it is a love story, following the relationship between Sei and Al, I do not understand the point of the first half of the second season as it artificially separates our main characters, meaning we don't get to see them spend time together and have their relationship grow, and as I also said, it doesn't further the main story, there just is no point to it other than to waste everyone's time.

The Second half of the season actually gets back to the main story, we have a return to Al and Sei's budding romance, and a need to deal with the miasma and monsters that spawn from it.
This is where we see things finally get back on track and it is more like the season 1 that we know and love.

The only thing that was jarring and superfluous is when we get a scene in which Sei suddenly finds herself confronting her own feelings and thinking that she may be in love with Al. However season 1 ended with the reveal that her power is love, and she had become aware of that and had to confront that, knowing that her power was linked to her feelings towards Al, so at that point she was aware that she loved him.

Then we got a little bit of for a lack of a better phrase, political machinations and very quick relationship angst, followed by a very satisfying ending that almost made up for all the issues of the season.
However I do wish the ending was given more time as it felt a bit rushed, if only there was a filler arc that could have been cut, maybe then they could have also included one of the other subjugation expeditions, rather than just saying she's been on several on them without showing any of them.

Another issue I have is that we spend far too little time with main characters from season 1 like Liz, Johan, Aira and Kyle doesn't feature at all.

Season 1 felt special, Season 2 feels like it spends a lot of time treading water.

So with all that said, you can start to see why I feel it fell from greatness, what we have now is simply, 'good' which would be enough for many other series, but for this series, it is rather disappointing as we know it can be better

There have been a lot of these lately, usually the plot is reincarnated into an Otome Game as the villainess and trying to avoid the doom ending using the knowledge of the game, here however the twist is that the 'villainess' reincarnates back into herself six years before she meets her own doom with nothing but her memories and her diary of the intervening years to help her avoid her fate.

I will say that because this current trope hasn't been overdone, I do find myself enjoying these types of series, the only issue I've had with most of them is that in most cases, they ... start strong, but then tend to lose their way, usually ending with you feeling unsatisfied with how it ended.
This is in my opinion one of the better entries in the genre, while it doesn't do too much special and certain things are easily predictable, it's strengths lie with its consistency. It takes what is the standard formula and executes it well.

Even though the story may feel 'standard' and you can predict certain aspects, it actually sets up those plot points in the story, which probably aids in the audience predicting where things will go, there is no random ass-pull or deus ex moment, we're not throwing in a random amnesia plotline, or putting in literal gods for a shocking twist, and characters actually follow an internal logic that actually makes sense.
The series is well paced, and also doesn't have any obvious plot holes,

Which brings me to the characters, which is the strong point of this series, the characters are actually given depth, they get to grow. The characters, like real people have well preconceived ideas, and they all have reasons for having those ideas, after all preconceived ideas often don't come out of no where, but when those ideas are challenged, they have to slowly change their way of thinking.
Of cause Mia takes the biggest journey and undergoes the biggest change without realising it, but she's had more time to reflect on things.
However it is satisfying to see see Sion's growth, because it wasn't just something that happened at the end, but because we had Mia challenging his notions of justice for a while.

If you like the genre then you can't go far wrong with this entry, for me it sets a standard baseline that the genre should be looking to achieve. Hamefura is still the GOAT though.

There have been a few of these series now where the MC leaves adventuring or just starts a new life in some remote place / village and settles down to the 'slow life'. And when it sticks to that premise, I do find myself enjoying those kinds of series, though a few have disappointed when they quickly abandon that premise.

So would this series be confident in its core premise and trust its audience? Or would it feel the need to add in extra elements because it lacks the faith that it can hold our interest without them?
Yeah, it's the latter.

For me this series is at ... its best whenever we are at the village, and any scene that features 'best dad' is a winner, short scenes with Angeline and her adventuring ways, as well as how they would come to obstruct her ability to return home were fine, for me that did add to the overall series as a whole.
All the 'conspiracies' and the slow shift towards being more focused on Angeline, that is where things for me dipped in the overall quality, a lot of it was unnecessary, I know it feels like it wants to have some greater story, but all it does is take us away from what should be the 'heart' of the series, and its a distraction. Give us more time in the village with 'Best Dad' the friends he makes, and the slow life he cherishes.

On the whole this is a good series
If they kept it simple and straight forward it would have been a better series
But with the plots, conspiracies and all cliched elements that were added because it clearly thought people would be bored without them, for me it stops it from being a great series and just winds up being 'mostly good' which is why it gets a 7/10 but I don't think I can easily recommend it

This series is a bit of a mess as it lacks focus and isn't sure what it wants to be

The Harry Potter comparisons are apt, but clearly in an attempt to avoid those comparisons the series tried to add in all these extra elements and became an even bigger mess than Harry Potter is.

It's a magical high school romp, except they are either skipping class a lot or the school just doesn't do more than two classes a week.
It's a revenge story, except the MC doesn't seem to have much interest in carrying out his revenge
In an overall story premise that makes little sense
The school ... is dangerous because magic is dangerous and can consume the person, but its also made even more dangerous because the teachers and other students are actively out to harm all the students for no real reason other than 'they can'

So you see where everything breaks down, its a mass of ideas, but the worst thing is, they aren't all mixed together in a blender, its like the ideas are all put into a tombola and then drawn out one at a time, focusing on whatever has been drawn out and forgetting about pretty much everything else.
This is why I say it does not know what it wants to be.

One big issue is the cast, it has a cast of six 'main' characters, and yet that cast is often just stripped to two or three of them, and they are just painfully dull
It's actually some of the characters that aren't the main cast that are some of the most interesting and are given some development, backstory and also quite crucially, personality

Thing is, there is clearly potential here, somewhere amongst everything else, and it is not an outright bad series, but nor is it a good series, it does have some good moments, but those good moments aren't enough to elevate it.

To understand my thoughts on this series, you need to understand my thoughts on the past few seasons of anime and how much of a disappointment much of it has been in general,
Anime that lost their direction, or anime that tried to stand out by either putting a new twist on things but but just ended up being boring, or looked to be edgy, and forgot that they also had to be engaging.
Not to mention the amount of anime that have stumbled and lack consistency, that have left me feeling unsatisfied or unfulfilled.

To use food analogies, it's like being served the salad as a ... main dish
Now I won't deny that we've had some really good steak getting served up, but not often enough

Berserk of Glutton is not a steak, but it is a burger, and that is all it needs to be

It doesn't try to do anything different, to do anything new, it doesn't seek to deviate from the recipe and deviate from the path of a good burger, instead all the tropes, all the ingredients are there in the right quantities, after all there is a reason these tropes are so common and overused, its because they work, and in the hands of a competent cook, they taste good.
It is seasoned / paced well, and the end result is a tasty / fun burger that will satisfy your stomach until you get to yet another bad anime.

What? Is that not enough of a review? You want more? Such gluttony.

On the surface the story is very cookie cutter

OP MC starts out as Weak MC with apparently a weak skill that turns out to be an OP skill, which he doesn't know until it triggers and we know how the rest of this trope plays out
He finds a sword that is ignored in the bargain bin, that is pretty much perfectly suited for someone who has a talent like his, and it also talks, think Familiar of Zero and Reincarnated as a Sword.
He is mistreated by obvious bad / evil guys, but is protected by female hero who he admires, who they plot to send to her death, and he then vows to protect.

It is when we get to the character Myne that things get more interesting and we also get a hint of a wider story

Which brings us to characters
I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but the majority of the characters at the start of the series are pretty much two dimensional. The only exception are Roxy and Fate themselves.
It's only when we leave the capital that we see a shift in this
I would say Set is the first character to be given this treatment, even though we do briefly encounter Myne before him
But Set is the first person who is given a proper character, he has to deal with his past while trying to protect his future. The fact that he has such a minor role in the series, and yet is able to stand out far more than some of the others tells you the significance of good character writing.
Aaron is another character that is given heavy focus along the way and is well written.
Myne we don't get to know much about as a lot about her is kept a mystery, but we do get to know her personality, and certain things about her are slowly revealed as she starts to trust and like Fate more

The only reason I'm not going into more detail here is I don't wish to get into spoilers

In all honesty, I can see people giving up on this after the first few episodes as it doesn't do enough to set itself apart, it walks those same tropes far to closely at the beginning and it's only when he leaves the capitol and heads for Galia that we actually get some development going and the burger starts to come together.
It's enjoyable, and sometimes, that is enough