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Too beautiful for this plot.

Story
Subpar. Honestly, wasn't enjoyable. The beautiful background and scenes are wasted on this story. Story has 2 distinct parts. First half is on the Main Characters interactions revolving a small, closing down aquarium. All the main characters love this place, and tries to salvage it from its imminent demise. Hence the first half is about the main characters finding themselves and bonding over their efforts and intentions for this small aquarium. All intentions and wishes were very reasonable. But the actions are a little too weak. The story just goes on about how they wish to preserve the aquarium, but their ... actions are not exactly shown, except for a few. No team discussions, or seeking outside help, or taking more down to earth methods. There was no effort in advertising and improving the old aquarium... Most of the first halve content was filled with "I will not give up" and "I am there for you" drama. Is a very empty plot. But they are just 16-17 Year olds, so I am "fine" with the lack of sensible actions here, but 12 episodes on this is pretty boring.
Second half is a little disgusting. It starts after a time skip with main characters finishing up their high school stage and stepping into the working world. It show case a horrible working environment. Now their interactions revolve around the new big aquarium that was the new tourism hotspot, while the old one in the first half was teared down. Main lead herself was put into a role she did not sign up for, but decided to go with it believing she could still do things for the benefit of this new aquarium. Which I believe too. All departments play a part in keeping a company(aquarium) going. Somehow for a big new aquarium, they are pretty short staffed. In her department, for her team, the main lead is the only staff other than her supervising manager who also happens to be the assistant director. So is a 2 man team. The main lead was already established as a young girl with full of passion for sea life, armed with sea life knowledge and expertise. Yet in her role in this new company, she wasn't guided or taught the basic scope of her work, just dumped with work, and to learn on the job. learning ion the job is not a bad method except for when the manager provides 0 assistance for guidance, or help with corrections. All the manager does was to try to keep her in her place, moulding her into a robot. And all her friends (the rest of the characters) are equally terrible for telling her she should just do it and commit to her work more, despite all the Over time, and additional leg work to coordinate between departments (that should be the manager's job?) . telling main lead that she is not committed to her job enough because she took a bit of time out of her day to do things that she enjoys that will mentally rejuvenate her.
Is definitely gross how everyone who knew the main lead's passion and her over worked schedule tries to tell main lead she is still not dedicated to her work. (????????)
If she is doing over timed everyday, is the company's fault for not employing enough personnel to do the work that they have. Why is main lead being gasllighted to blame herself for "underperforming" in a role she did not asked for and have no official experience in.
And they managed to beat down main lead to just being a dead fish eye worker with 0 interest in her work, or her favourite working environment (aquarium) . Then main lead revived on her own after seeing her best friend (gf) and some baby turtles....
There's no moral of the story here. No deep philosophical meaning in their actions. No point at all actually. With all that senseless drama and toxic behaviour, is hardly a slice of life style too.
There is a supernatural phenomenal appears in the story here and there during the first half, as though they are teasing something magical/ beautiful will tie they story up nicely. But that just vanished in the second half until the last episode.... that plot point could have saved this story a little, but the never developed it. As if it is as casual for that magical phenomenal as breathing to occur.

Art
Beautiful. Stunning.

Characters
Bad. Thy made the whole story bad. Whiney and wimpy and illogical. Unnecessarily self righteous and selfish. All their actions baffles me. Over the top optimism, zero considerations for anyones feelings except for when someone is crying. Like crying is the only expression they will care about. Main lead is also naively obsessive. Neglecting basic foundational studies, not thinking about the inconvenience she can caused, and has some sister complex with a girl she barely knows for 2 weeks.
All other characters are there to enable the main lead and not even try to broaden her perspectives.

I wouldn't recommend it, but I am putting this as mixed feeling because the art is very pretty to look at.
In conclusion, is boring but pretty.

Starting off with personal opinion:
Mou Ippon! has too little attention, but can't say is unexpected. I love watching sports anime, typical shounen plot, typical suspense etc. And I have been looking for a decent group sport anime with female cast (female category sport), but is so hard to find one as the ones out there usually are ecchi/hentai domain, or just not shounen enough (No excitement, no suspense). Mou Ippon! is different. I went in apprehensively, but came out hoping for a season 2 in making. It has the typical elements for a good shounen sports anime: Determined MC (typically positive) who has mysterious ... charismas to attract supportive teammates, Friendly rival School/Teams, Going for tournaments, Well executed "fight" scenes, and the failure/losing plot. Is all there.
BUT, a big BUT, Mou Ippon! definitely falls short of a good sports anime. It has the key elements to being good, but just did not use them well enough.
Even if the formulas for most sports anime are the same, I enjoyed them as they are portrayed differently (Different struggles, different mindset, different sports lol)

TL;DR of the review below: First half of the show almost made me dropped it, sloppy work with flimsy storylines(Boring, uneventful, so maybe watch at 1.5 speed). Second half was decent, infact good enough for me to want a second season that hopefully do justice for the second half, excitement and suspense are there, pace is also more stable here.
**There are TL;DRs under long review segments below.

Review:
Story
Like I mentioned above, this show has the key elements to make a good group sports anime, but it doesn't have the right formula. MC is the typical sunshine shounen persona, and we have a small group of teammates being drawn in to the team/sport by her charisma. Premise of the show is nothing new, "new' team formed with new teammates, clearly the underdog start up. Then after the team is formed, they go through the "journey" of the various highschool sports tournaments with the clear formula of : "Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn".
There are plenty anime out there with the same elements and characters, so Mou Ippon! actually has various "winning" formula to reference from (Maybe it will execute some good formulas in the coming seasons, but not in here).
The show did well to show the camaraderie of the main team, which is important in group sports, it did well in this aspect, showing how the MC connected with each teammate, and her influence of them that draws out their passion.
The tournament journey of sometimes you win, sometimes you learn starts off well, but there is only 1 season, so that part of the storyplot obviously still has more ways to go, so I won't say much on this. Just hoping for a training arc to fulfill the "sometimes you learn" part of this plot.
Thus, the only key element in the story telling that the show did right: camaraderie.

What didn't go well was everything else. The show did not established what sort of sport Judo is, the principles, the rules, the typical landscape of the Judo sports scene. It also did not established the relationship of the "primary" friendly rival school well. It just somehow came to be. It has the same setup as Haikyuu with one teammate having a rivalry status with a member of the "rival" team (Haikyuu > Karasuno vs AobaJousai : Kageyama vs Oikawa = Mou Ippon! > AobaNishi vs Kasumi : Hiura vs Amane). Honestly, I have to look up the school name and the girl's name of the rival team while typing out this review. That's how little they established the status of the primary rival team. There's so little emphasis on them that they seem so insignificant, yet they somehow are on friendly terms, makes it even more questionable. And they went ahead to show how the primary rival team's support and acknowledgements matters to our main team... That just does not work, there's just so little interaction and relationship portrayed between them. The show also tried inserting some Yuri baits(??). They actually showed some romance level of dedication/sacrifice of one of the characters in an effort for her to join the Judo team and get close to the MC, to "spent more time with her". Girl in question was a national level Kendo sportswoman, Kendo is also her father's love sport so it meant a great deal to the family, and she just uprooted herself to join Judo all for spending more time with the MC. Honestly, if there was an element of romance, and she did it for love, I could at least make sense of this story line, afterall love is irrational and they are highschoolers still. BUT there was no romance-like development in this show ever since that one episode early in the series where Kendo girl makes the switch to Judo. In fact, the most damning things of this show all happened in the first half of the series.
The pace was a mess, the formation of the team was wishy washy, the primary rival team was established half-heartedly, the sport(Judo) was not introduced well with impact.

I am just glad I made it to the second half of the show where the action begins. Like I mentioned, the camaraderie was done right, and really showed in the second half, the sports tournaments plot was also paced well here with a good amount of excitement. would have been more exciting if they allocated some time showing how difficult certain techniques are.

12/20
TL;DR: First half was half-assed. The show had good elements but the execution is too flimsy. second half was on the "actions" during the tournaments, so it was a more focused plot which was executed fairly well. Strong Yuri baits in first half. subtle in second half (Would be good if the baits weren't baits and there's some sort of romance development, if not is just another half assed storyline they included).

Characters
MC is a literal ball of sunshine yet not needlessly loud (like Sawamura from Dia). She's just so lovable. Then we have a reliable but weak side kick who is always pulling everyone in the team in the "right" direction, the captain quality teammate. A talented serious one, and a senior (must have) who has had sad experience with the team (before main protagonists join) as it does not lived up to her potential/expectations, and an earnest advisor. Then we have a childhood friend of the MC who seemingly have a crush on the MC and decided to uproot her life and go into Judo (Yes the Kendo girl that made the show dodgy for me). These main protagonists are all well established with their distinct personalities, that meshed well in the story. Other side characters like the competitors/rivals were also reasonably interesting and distinct. Back stories were also okay. The interactions between each characters in the main cast were also nicely done (except for the yuri bait parts). Interactions with side characters really need more work, is so shallow. So overall characters creations is good. But development not much. there is very little character development, but that's because the story only really solidify in the second half of the show.

7/10
TL;DR: Decent character designs, decent interpersonal relationship established in main cast. Half-assed first half of the show made for some shallow connections with the side characters. also first half of the show was wasted on redundancies that real character development only took place in the second half. So yea, decent development for half the show, but weak development if you divide across 13 episodes worth of screen time.

Art
Well I have nothing to pick a bone with for art and animation style. Of course is not as stella as Haikyuu's first 3 seasons, but is alright. I like the characters' look and realistic designs. Background art is decent. animation quality is decent (some intense fights have pretty good animation to show the moves). Nothing much to be unsatisfied with, only thing that is better than other sports anime is the realistic character designs, and the anatomy definition.

9/10

Music/Sound
Decent OP and End, pretty to look at and listen to. not memorable though. VAs were really good, especially MC's.

9/10

Honestly, show is about a 7.5, I rate 8 to compensate on the low score on MAL

What I thought I am getting: I started this anime thinking it would be rom-com, where the ML is a "scum" and the FL is the nice girlfriend, typical romance of a girl turning the bad boy around kind of plot.

What I got: 10 minutes in, I could tell both (starting) ML and FL, are the scums. 1 whole episode in, More than half the casts are scums.

#LazyReview

The first half of the anime was going good, in fact I had thought I would rate this show an 8. Most of the sexual scenes (Non explicit) were also in the first half. The second half, just ... seems like a jumble. So I would break my review into the first half and later half of the anime.

First Half:
The main ML and FL were prominently showcased in these episodes. The story revolves around 2 young high schooler who are connected by their unrequited love AND their desire(?) to make sense of this complicated feelings in the world of love. It tells the story of how toxic the main characters are. Getting themselves entangled in toxic relationships, and then acknowledging how awful they let things turn out to be. The sexual scenes to me were more of an emphasis on how their emotional turmoil connects to their physical intimacy, and the conversation they have during such scenes does add more depth to how twisted their POVs are (definitely not porn/hentai quality when they barely showed anything). The storyline thus far was pretty interesting to me. I was able to interpret that the story is about how complex and irrational, selfish and toxic, yet so pure a young heart in love can get. Felt like a coming of age story where young delicate kids explore the cruelty and disgusting side of love, and adults' love.

Second Half:
Somehow the main ML and FL in the first half starts getting lesser scenes here (until the last couple episodes where they focus on the FL). And the story shifted to focus on another scum (female character that was the main ML's unrequited love, adult). It just started to have many story lines of this character's POV. Initially it showed how much of a scum she is, then as the show was ending, they seem to want to build a redemption story for her (??). She manipulates people with no redeeming backstory, just that she enjoys watching people suffer through her manipulation. Then for some reason, she gets a happy ending (very abruptly). And this other male character (FL's unrequited love, also adult) is the one that gave her that happy ending(?) despite knowing of her actions. He accepts her for who she is apparently. He even did not mind it when she told him flat, she would cheat on him (definitely). Up until this point, I always thought this is the only character that is not toxic, but is just kind and innocent (and oblivious). That's definitely a kink or he is also very twisted in how he interpret love. Forget about the female's unfaithfulness, is a fact that she plays around with people's feelings with full sincerity to see them suffer. But he just accepts her for who she is....? So he is okay with being cheated, and also having his love interest just go around intentionally hurting people. What's worse is, for this whole second half, we don't get much of this male character's POV. and for the female adult scum, all we get is her POV of wanting to manipulate people being show several times throughout these episodes, nothing deeper, nothing more introspective. And the initial high schoolers ML and FL just continue getting affected by these 2 adults and makes even worse decisions with no extra thoughts like they were showing in the first half.
In addition they have a female side character who is a lesbian, but shows nothing of her personality. She was a great addition to the story in the first half when I thought this was a show about self exploration, but in the second half, she is just there as a convenient tool to have the high school FL make mistakes. No development of this lesbian character, no development for any characters in fact.

Overall:
Started out good as I thought is about self discovery journey using the ugliness of humanity in the face of love as the main theme. But then each character just went off the rails with unfinished development and uncharacterized actions. At the end there was no meaning to anything that played out in the show.
Also the setting of this story helps the bad storylines appear even worse. They could have used college kids instead of showing a bunch of 16 YOs having sex with flashback of their sexual and twisted romantic views beginning at 13-14 YO. I don't even understand how they get such complicated viewpoints at such age when I just barely understood myself now (double of their age). The "deep", twisted, yet insightful feelings make more sense if they are older with more experience with interpersonal relationships..
I really like how they showcased the ugly side of love, and the complexity of such feelings when you connect it to another person, in the first half. The second half felt like a picasso art.

Recommend if you want to feel unfulfilled. Recommend if you want to see the complexities of love. Recommend if you like trash shows.
Don't recommend if you can't handle abit of adolescents' sexual desires.

This show definitely fall under my cup of tea for supernatural/occult genre. Which is why I think this show's rating here is a little on the low side. I hope my review can bring about the right audiences for this show to support it.

TL;DR: Decent animation and sound. Story is paced slower than the usual shounen, but not boring. Premise is easy to understand and accept. World building is done well enough to not leave questions as the story progresses. Would have been better if is a full 24 episode season instead of a half season. adding 1 more point for my rating as this ... is my kind of story (Rate 9/10, overall review 8/10), and it got me excited for the next season. Recommended if the fast paced, adrenaline pumping, noisy shounen is not the only kind of shounen you can accept. But fight scenes are less than desirable, so will have to tolerate that.

Just going to split the review into a few basic categories.

Story
-------
Background: There are spirits(supernaturals) in the land of living, and like humans, there are good and bad ones. But unlike the average normie humans in this world, the average spirits have (you guess it), super natural powers. So like any civilized world, there needs to be order and sanctions involved. Of course land of living belongs to the living humans, so they have more authority in the rules etc.
The premise of the show is that the MCs are living people who are very connected to the supernaturals due to their family. They both have very high/ unusual importance among the community of people involved with supernaturals, and the supernaturals. So the show starts them off with their connections in the community, and also their stance/pov on this community.
Story includes understanding of the characters, and their circumstances through both action(fight) scenes, and daily (very) normal interactions. Slight use of comedy to diffuse non- critical tension, which gives the character an added depth, and a more realistic(?)/humane/ personal touch (Just makes the characters more dimensional like how real people are)
Pros:
- World building is great, no nonsense, they even used narration to help speed up the understanding of the world
- Story starts of with a few characters and their importance, then progress naturally to include more characters. In most story-telling, the introduction of each character means more information about the world and the general direction of the story. But I think the author handles the new character introductions well to not overwhelm the story with a lot of information, even if the characters may be of complicated background, they managed to only bring in information that is concerning to the situation at hand. So there's no long winded back story for each character if the current situation have no need for them, the information that each character brings will be revealed throughout the show slowly.
- Premise is clean and simple, easy to understand and accept (probably fall on the side of cliche, but I like this formula)
- (Subjective) Pacing is smooth (or slow). I like the way each critical character or information slowly gets revealed. Anime is only 12 episodes long, so honestly is not the best pacing to make an impression on people(might be better with a full 24 ep season). Pacing falls closer to a slice of life story-telling than of a shounen style story. is not exactly slow-burned, but is not exciting enough for they typical shounen expectation. I would actually say the pacing is similar to Attack of the Titan first season, ofcourse this story is less dynamic as AOT has a more complex world and more characters involved from the get go. But is similar as in there's so many things you learnt by the end of the anime but then nothing essentially happens. Such story pacing and story telling really gets me to crave more. Also knowing the next 12 episodes is planned for this year kind of calmed my nerves(unlike AOT S1 where I was pretty annoyed and bewildered by it ending where it did). Everything that happened in these 12 episodes is a build up to the main event. So there is no win/lose yet as you see in typical shounen (like Onepiece have a clear villain to defeat that impacts the development of both story and character)

Cons:
- Is only 12 episodes!
- Fight scenes are not very exciting. There's little tension in the fights though the characters' expressions and monologues all indicate how serious the fights should have been. Pretty sure animation plays a part in the lack of tension, but also the focus on the fights are pretty shallow. Other than the monologues/dialogues saying out what the exact key technique or tools being used, there's very little going on to show strategies or even critical thinking of the fight itself. (if there is more emphasis on the fight scenes, there will be more excitement to the show, like how in My hero Academia, Deku was able to strategize his first 'fight" scene to save Bakugo from a random slug villain on the streets, and then each action was well animated and focused for us to see his strategy playing out)

Story points: 8/10 (if fights were more thought out it would be 10/10, I do like my action scenes exciting where it mattered)

Characters
--------------
Background: There are 3 main group of characters in the show. We have the enforcers to keep law and order between the world of the living and the spirits, aka Saenome. We have the Tsukumogami who are the focused supernaturals in this show, they are beings who don't belong in this living world, but yet able to exists, thus there's law and order necessary to keep the peace. Then there is average humans who by right should have no involvement with the Tsukumogamis and the Saenomes in normal circumstances.
So we have a Male MC being a Saenome, Female MC being a normal human who have deep involvement with Tsukumogamis (not out of her own will), and we have many important side characters who are Tsukumogamis.
Pros:
- Characters in all these 12 episodes are all very distinct. (I do love a wide variety of personalities even for non-essential characters)
- Most characters that plays a role in developing the story are multi dimensional (they are not just cardboard standees there acting like a NPC)
- Male MC character is endearing (Slightly), and also not overly dumb/naive like typical shounen MC, AND most importantly not noisy like typical shounen MC. MC is also more grounded and realistic as compared to (yeap, you guess it) the typical shounen MC. Smart, serious, straightforward, pure (not ignorant) boy with a sad and traumatizing past. (first impression of male MC is that he is a Sasuke from Naruto)
- Male MC's past defined his actions, but not his personality. This really gave the author a lot of room to grow the character, and create a multi dimensional MC
- Female MC is cute but not annoying (this is a plus point because somehow many authors think annoying cute girls are the only cute girls in the world). Female MC is draped in a layer of mystery because she is the key to the climax of the story anyway. But not overly mysterious to the point that we don't see her as just a piece in the puzzle, but also a player. there's a good balance in trying to bring out the personality traits and the backstory of the Female MC without exposing too much of the core pieces of the story.
- Side Characters are fun, and each plays their role really well. In 12 episodes, we are able to understand most of their back stories, and also get a grasp of their core personalities, as well as a hint of how they will be developing the story together with the MCs.
- Redundant characters are appropriately involved in small drama without strong focus or long-winded "redemption" story
- Characters are generally what they are, if you are bad, you are bad. No weird redemption/sob story.

Cons:
- Is ONLY 12 episodes!
- Honestly though, because of the slower than usual pacing, I do find myself wanting abit more backstory on some obscure characters, and also more interactions from the important side characters. Since is not fights after fights, but there are proper day to day interactions, it would be good to see more of the side characters to build more feelings towards them
- MCs growth are well written as compared to side characters. If the side characters weren't written so endearing, I wouldn't have noticed the lack of focus on their growth.
- Lack of technical growth, even in main fighting character. Male MC does not grow in terms of his fighting skills or fight related critical thinking. Only grow mentally and emotionally and spiritually (those intangible stuff). At the end of the anime, it does show the Male MC trying to train himself to be stronger for fights, but details of training are glossed over. Somehow, doesn't seem like there will be a sort of "training" arc to level up the Male MC.

Characters points: 8/10 (would be a 10/10 if there's more technical growth, I like training arcs is my shounen anime, hahah)

Visuals
---------
I like the art style, I like the watercoloured, blurred background. Basically , decent art quality to me. Aesthetics is also my cup of tea. easy on the eyes. Characters are physically distinct.
Pros for art:
- Everything. From character designs to colour scheme to background works, I like all.

Cons for art:
- Nothing

Animation is decent quality, up to par with 2020s quality. No glaring ugly CGIs that I absolutely hate, like the choreograph sequence of Bakuten!!. Animation quality is consistent in all 12 episodes, so no wonky looking characters appearing out of nowhere, like Haikyuu!! season 4 onwards. Though there's also no amazing animation happening like how in onepiece Wano arc, audience gets treated to very good animation for crucial fight scenes.
Pros for animation:
- Consistent, easy on the eyes
- foreground characters are well animated. Detailed facial animation
- Nothing ugly lol

Cons for animation:
- Lack of effort of background activities and characters.
- Fight scenes are too boring. There's not enough oomph! No tension, no dynamic panning, no speed . I might as well have read the fight as a paragraph of texts. Even the animation in a running (sports) anime, kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteriru, got my heart thumping. Think there's only 1 fight scene at the end of the show that got me slightly excited.

Visuals points: 8/10 (and same as above, if the fight scenes were better animated this would have been 10/10. I really like my fight scenes hahah)

Sound
--------
Sound points: 8/10
Because nothing awful stood out. By default, sound is usually 8/10 for me if there's nothing unusually awful, like a super noisy main character (like in Black clover) hahaha. But VAs are decent here for the characters. sound effects are not overwhelming. OP, ED are nice (their OP, ED visuals are also very pretty and enjoyable to watch). Not above an 8 because there are even more exceptional OPs and EDs out there, and higher points are ofcourse reserved for them. No noticeable flaws. but maybe they can up their fight scenes if they employ better bg music and create tension for it.

Overall is 8/10

#LazyReview

Because this show already has plenty of Good reviews, so I do not want to repeat and tire myself out, hahaha.

Is a good show, a VERY good show.
The songs are Great!
Characters are distinct and fun. Main Character's growth was well done over 12 episodes.
I enjoyed the comedic storylines, but I definitely will have find them cringey and awkward if I was younger (If you are in a phase in your life where you take everything very seriously, slapsticks and cringe joke probably won't appeal to you, don't watch if you can't understand comedy). Main character was relatable which makes it funnier because I had ... those instances happened to me (even now), but honestly her social anxiety portrayed here may borderlined annoyance since is very extreme, at least she has some funny moments that helped with tolerating the paralyzing social anxiety.


8/10.

Reason for watching: I went into this thinking it would be more Comedy than Romance, and had thought some negative reviews were exaggerating.
But honestly not much exaggeration.

*Mild spoiler as I do give out the basic premise and gave a general layout of the storyline.

TL;DR at the bottom.

Let me do a quick review and opinion on this:

Visuals: Definitely up my alley. I like the animation of the story, the art style of the animation, the OP, and ED. They are beautiful to me. Of course the animation could be better, but is not like this is some shounen show with lots of action, ... so I do not expect them to put a lot into animating each scene. 8/10

Audio: Seiyuus performance were fine. Is as good as you can expect from such animation. The female lead is able to show emotions through her voice so is not that bad. Male lead on the other hand just seem pretty bland, even for the humane/sentimental (not his stoic persona) scene, there's pretty much not much tone difference. OP and ED are nice, which is the only reason why audio score is above average. 6.5/10

Characters: Very simple. The story relies more on the story plot than the characters personality to tell the story. You can switch around the characters' personality, and the story can still work with a a little tweak here and there. Very average character, and subpar character "growth". Not like I expected much character growth for a 12 episode show. But Male lead essentially just became "kinder" because he fell in love. I get falling in love will make someone happy, but to change how they interact with almost everyone (in a matter of weeks, WHILE not seeing the love of his life frequently) is kind of a stretch. Male Lead's dad just somehow became more understanding because of a one liner from the Female lead... That is not character growth. that's just superpower. 5/10

Story:
Oh this is the part where is ridiculous.
I will echo many reviewers that the premise of this story is unpleasant. To put it badly, is Pedophilic. To put it nicely, is border lining Pedophilic. Yeap.
Is of course not as jarring as the porn genre. But this story definitely has a pedophilic undertone. There is no other way around this. A "Japan's culture..", A "is fictional...", A "consenting age is different...", doesn't change the fact that is pedophilic. You don't see people all up in arms with the porn genre of pedophile(hentai, I know child porn is a big offense) or sexual assault, because we all know is fake. Doesn't change their genre, no excuses to "defend" them either. Also the circumstances leading to those genres in porn aren't as realistic as this story.

The story is of a full grown man, 26 Year old, falling in love with a 16 year old high schooler who is also his sister's BEST FRIEND. Reason for falling in love is sketchy but I do believe we are not able to control our feelings and emotions. But what we, humans, and definitely grown adult, can control, are our actions.
So Male lead falls in love, confessed, got rejected harshly, but still decided to pursue a 16 year old kid openly. Obtains her address without her consent, and consistently ignoring her "NOs" (this part is infuriating actually. regardless of what culture there is or which part of the world this story takes place. When a 16 year old repeatedly rejects you, respect it! Don't tell me is fiction, so NO can be seen as a YES, or she has a tsundere character or she's shy. What world do we live in if we can't understand CONSISTENT "NO" means NO even from a fictional character?).
Male lead tries his best to win the heart of the female lead even when FL is uncomfortable. Then every other side character that knows about this aggressive courtship is accepting of it, enabling a full grown adult with a good number of romantic and sexual experiences, and exposure to mature interactions to pursue a 16 year old child who has zero experiences with Romance, and limited interpersonal interactions, AND obviously much less exposure to the world and its complex dynamics, AND also not fully in touch with her emotional and psychological state yet.
The first 3 episodes are disgusting. Middle 6 episodes are fine if we can ignore how it all started. Last 3 episodes is a pathetic attempt to "correct" the show's logic (or just some sort of subpar redemption arc).
If the story had started with ML and FL having normal interactions that grew closer and their feelings for each other developed independently, the age thing would not have bothered me this much.
I do enjoy a plot with aggressive courtship like what male lead is doing here, but not when the other party is lacking so much in experiences and emotional and psychological development. If the female lead was a regular 20 year old university student, this wouldn't be as disturbing. She would have went through university meeting all sorts of people, and have much more experience as well as more maturity to assess her emotions and mental state.
10 years age gap is not a problem here. Is the age itself that is a problem.
Middle 6 episodes are just normal cliché rom com scenes where ML not so aggressively courts FL, and both the ML and FL have alternate love interests popping into the story.
Last 3 episodes are FL's 16 year old feelings developed romantically while ML realizes that he might be hurting/treating FL badly, because of their 10 years age gap that would be a cause for concern in society's standard... No is really not the age gap. No one really cares if a 45 YO and 35 YO falls in love. Not sure why they think making the 10 year age gap as the biggest problem actually makes sense. Even if japan culture generally raises sensible children, and consent is younger, doesn't change the fact that FL was not able to make an informed decision as well as ML due to their experiences. Is not fair game when FL was robbed off of growing up herself without all that calculated and targeted gaslighting.
So is a happy ending as ML will brave through criticisms of the 10 years age gap and is determine to protect FL from the less understanding society's judgment, while FL with all her 16-17 years experience on Earth (more than half spent on studying and novels and anime) makes the determination to trust her feelings of LOVE and reciprocate ML's advances.

I honestly don't know how anyone can think pedophile/ manipulation/ grooming elements is okay in a regular anime show because is a fiction.
If mutual sex scenes between adults in shows require R21 rating. We should at least have rating for pedophilic story lines, maybe like rated C-reep? At least porn/hentai will rate them R21 and tell you the genre outright. This is not RomCom, is RomCriminalOffence. 5/10 (Story is okay, premise is bad).

Total: 6.1/10 (6)

TL;DR
Definitely has pedophilic undertone no matter how fictional this story is (even if you add in talking clouds and flowers). Uncomfortable premise if you have awareness on how pedophilic crimes are the absolute worst. If you imagine FL to be at least 18 years old or have the maturity of a 20 years old, the story gets a little better lol. Cute songs and art style. Cute storylines in the middle 6 episodes lol.
Mixed feelings because FL is not TOO young and there's no sexualization in here, If she's any younger, this would be a "Not recommended" sentiment. Basically a "vanilla Pedophilic" plot.

- coming from someone who is not saintly or overly reserved (Eye for an eye plot, SA, cruel gangster plots, torture, murderers, anything with blood I do enjoy, even if it was 2 16 YOs falling in love and maybe get a little sexually curious, I am also fine), but when you exploit children, then is a no-go for me.

Recommend:
If you already like the Given anime series, then this is a nice extra to the little events after the series. This is largely focused on Akihiko x Haruki. If you only want the main couple, there's an OVA that focuses on them in the same timeline as this movie.

Review:
The innocent high school romance of the main couple is sweet, and give little butterflies flying around when I watched the main series. But this movie focuses on the adult love lives of Akihiko and Haruki, which is definitely more complicated and highlights the complexity of the human heart.
"All is fair, in Love and ... War" - John Lyly.
I interpret this quote as all is fair in Love and War, because nothing is fair, and getting hurt is almost inevitable in these situations (Whether is due to strong feelings or the circumstances that you are thrown in), thus it is fair in the sense that (almost )everyone is hurt.

There's so much more at stake for every decision we made as we grow older, and some struggle between ambition and love (Ugetsu), some struggle with love and envy for the same person (Akihiko), while others are lost in uncertainty and unrequited love (Haruki).

This story(and song within) reflects how it is so difficult to make a decision and let go, then believe that letting go is okay even though it hurts so badly, because the dawn will come again.
The flow of the story is smooth, and well paced. The movie though focuses on Akihiko x Haruki, it doesn't diminish the influence of the main character (Mafuyu). The characters in Given definitely are properly developed and appropriately focused to allow viewers to understand where they are coming from and how some situations progresses.
The animation is of standard slice of life quality, so not much to nitpick.
The song, definitely is the true highlight of Given, did not disappoint.

10/10 might be a little exaggerated, because I truly like the more complex and mature love story (yet not roundabout and infuriating) of Haru/Aki and this movie gave me the closure I need from the series.
Also the main series kind of hurt me with Mafuyu's dark past, and this movie is more "happy" as compared to that, hahaha.

Just going to put it upfront that I am a huge Haikyuu! fan. I don't even know how many times I have rewatched it. I am also rather into sports anime in general.
With that said, I do know what I am getting into for this anime. Is tagged as Slice Of Life too, a genre that I also enjoy. From the visuals art, is pretty obvious is not going to be a shonen sports anime with lots of tension. I did not start this show with a sport bias.

Recommend: Do not watch this as a shonen sports anime, and don't have high hopes for its ... slice of life element. Just watch it light heartedly or as an in-between anime if you just ended something really good

Review:
The storyline itself is pretty decent overall, kind of standard which I don't mind, most stories are a variation of each other anyway. The pacing however is pretty bad. It jumps between a chill/delicate slice of life moment, and random time skip that will then be followed by some weak attempt in replicating a high tension sports scene. The story might be smoother if is read from a book, instead of the way the anime portrayed it. The directing is all over the place as though the anime has mood swings.
The dialogues of this anime stand out to me too. In a bad way... More often than not, I rely on the characters' actions and expressions to gather the gist of the scene than the dialogues. Not sure if is because I am unable to comprehend the culture behind the kansai accent or that the lines said by the characters are somewhat abrupt. Like it doesn't mesh into the mood, or the story. Is just words coming out to fill some void, no build up, no context.
Characters are also pretty boring. No one really stood out due to their character, they stood out due to the description of their persona. E.g A genius, an excellent coach, alethic etc. I don't actually see them portraying those characteristics. This would really be better being read as a book, than watched.
The animation is also quite inconsistent, they have some really good animation at certain sports scene, and then just cut off impactful momentous scenes with some background monologue or time skip.


The opening and ending kind of bumped up my score by 1 too. Enjoyed the songs that I added them to my playlist. Sound effects are pretty cool too. The team handling sound and music should at least be acknowledge here.

Overall, is a cute show with kids doing what they love with a pacing that doesn't allow the viewers to feel anything. No chance to build up feelings, and no chance to process any feelings.

Lastly, for any Haikyuu fans~ The main genius character is definitely a Tsukishima that wasn't betrayed by his older brother, kept his passion for volleyball obvious while having the same logical and crude attitude to people.

Reason for watching: Thought it had a good premise for occult themed story lines, base on its synopsis.

TL;DR: I thought wrong. The story is shallow and messy, with weak animation for its battle scenes, and the characters are as flat as a deflated balloon.

Story
The story is so incoherent. That's the only way I can describe it. I have come across animes with messy, borderline incoherent story-telling. But this is on another level, not only is the story-telling rocky, the concept on a whole is not even clear. The episodes were originally aired in a non-linear pattern, where the First episode is the Sixth in chronological ... order. And whichever way you choose to watch it, whether is using the chronological episode numbers, or the broadcasted jumbled pattern, both ways don't make the show any better. Maybe the novel tells the story better, but the anime really did not tell any sort of story. The different magics weren't explained, the state/ rules of the world weren't properly established, the storylines were all vague. The romance genre in here is at best, surface value, the storylines on the romance element were just there as a convenient way for the characters to interact with each other to increase the dynamics between them, there is no real substance in their interactions. The "mystery" element is just a poor by-product of not having the characters' backstory smoothly relate to the current events, and not having establish the characters' power/magic/capabilities and throwing them straight into battles with suspense music. The events that happens in the anime just seemed to happen with no reasonable cause. This makes the story very shallow. There is potential in the story, but the anime really disappoint in not bringing out even the bare minimum.

Art
The character designs are interesting and very fitting to their personas. Basically the art quality and design is not bad in this anime, including the backgrounds, there is nothing much to dislike. But the animation of the battle scenes really lowered the overall art score for me. For a show that is basically based on battle scenarios to move the plot and grow the characters, the battle scenes really are too weak. The movements are not smooth, the crossfires are underwhelmingly portrayed (is like they are depending only on the sound effects to bring about the intensity of the fights), and the characters are seemingly just standing still when the scenes focus on them.

Sound
The sound score is highest as I am also acknowledging the VAs work. The sound effect is above average. While the opening and ending themes are average at best.

Character
The characters are like empty Kinder Bueno Surprise Egg chocolate. You will expect some sort of surprise, whether is good or bad, but turns out, is empty. The characters started out with very vague personas, and yet could still fail to develop into a reasonable, story contributing character. The growth of the characters are forced, and more dialogue based than actions. And even after such forced development, the story doesn't use them effectively, is like a mental note to the audience that the characters have changed, but the changed characters won't be acting any different from before their changed. The character development is so superficial, is insulting.
I honestly can say a lot more on how disappointing the characters are, but I shall stop, for reasons like, I am tired. I will at least have to say that, the characters really had way more potential than the story itself.

Reason for watching: Well, is a sequel, I watched this to wrap up a big childhood anime.

I honestly thought I would leave a short review since I am still overwhelmed by this sequel...

TL;DR:
The story pacing is way faster than the first anime, but do not felt rushed, more of dynamic. The story stays very focused to the overarching plot, with minimal strays to unimpactful storylines. Art and Sound improved from the first anime, but the opening and ending themes cannot compare to the few well known classics that the first anime had.

Story
I won't go into details on what the story is about since the bulk ... of the plot is in the first series, and you should really watch that before coming here. And also, there is only one main story in Inuyasha, the side stories are actually more characters oriented than actually having any story substance.
The overall story of Inuyasha is a little bit lacking for me, but specifically tor the sequel, is a solid 9. The most thankful moment I had here was the very beginning that picks up where the previous anime left off. (There are too many anime series out there that leaves a gap in time and/or story plot when they start a new sequel several years later) From what I have read in online forums, these 26 episodes are actually 200-ish worth of chapters. For them to be condensed into 26 episodes, you can expect much details to be skipped, naturally. Despite, the lack of finer details to support the storylines, the anime did managed to sewn this sequel into a beauty with the storylines that they decided to use in the anime. This, actually packed the anime full of highlights and climaxes. The sequel moved at twice the speed when you compare it with the prequel. It was a roller coaster of emotions from start to end. Though at the end, I felt like it wasn't enough, I needed more of their daily life after their big goal(the main drama) is completed, but the story does not feel rushed. There were just so much emotions all thrown at me throughout the series (especially the last episode), that I was overwhelmed, but story-wise, the pacing is acceptable. Though I high key do not mind if the sequel was in 50 episodes, I enjoy savouring small moments and good build-ups to climaxes. For the story to be condensed into 26 episodes, and delivered all the emotions and highlights so well, is also a feat to be praise.

Art
Art style wise, I do prefer the art style at the very start of the first Inuyasha anime, but the art style have been changing slightly since the during first anime up to this sequel's, I can't say I dislike it, neither can I say I love it. Hahahha, overall art style is okay. The blood scenes were definitely better. The blood are no longer super dark to the point of black, or in shining purple colour, they are actually in normal blood red colours. And the scenes with blood are no longer of brightness 0, they are much brighter and natural, making the scene more impactful. The animation did improved a lot from the first anime, with a lot of finer details being animated with more care, and the fighting scenes are more intricate.

Sound
The first Inuyasha anime already had opening and ending themes that are pretty much among classics (anime classic, not music world classic), the opening and ending themes here are alright, but they can't top some of the ones used in the first movie. The music and sound effects used during the animation though is pretty good, that's how they hit me with one emotion after the other like fireworks blooming in the sky. The VAs are okay too, some of them really did improved. There were a few characters that had more emotions in their lines now as compared to when they were in the first anime.

Character
= main characters:
There are no whole episode of side stories that focused on the various characters here like in the first anime, so there is hardly trivia or fun facts of the characters here (Is not like the first anime did not have way too many of them). The few storylines of individual character development were concise and not draggy. While the connection between the characters are developed really well. The focus on the interactions between them made the story more dynamic and actually developed the characters more fluidly. It fits the nature of the overall story plot well when the characters develops along with their interactions with each other. After all, this isn't a one OP main character with a group of slightly less OP friends fighting the antagonist for the same reason (e.g. for the guild, for a single friend, for mankind). This is a story with characters of different walks of lives (era too), who each have their own ill-fated entanglement to the antagonist, and they support each other while heading to the same goal. That's why the characters in the sequel are much more polished and complements the story so well.
= side characters:
There's almost zero focus on the side characters if you compare this sequel to the first Inuyasha. It doesn't affect the main story much, but like I mentioned, I do enjoy the little details. Even if the character doesn't add much to the main story, I do still like to see a bit more of them. Especially Kagome's family in the final episodes. Felt like there was some sort of a hole, while I was being overwhelmed with many other emotions as Kagome's family were so neglected on so many levels.