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Kiniro Mosaic, a franchise probably best known for its AYAYA meme, ends with the movie, Thank You. So how does that pan out? While I will try to minimise spoilers from the movie and the manga equivalent, there will be some spoilers.

Animation: 8/10
The animation isn't exactly masterpiece tier (For a slice of life). However, it does maintain the level set by the other parts, so not much to say here.

Music: 8.5/10
The music is pretty good, with more new character songs to drive home the theme of graduation, and a great classical music bit with a montage of the previous seasons.

Characters: 9/10
The characters do grow and ... develop, with Aya becoming less of a tsundere, Karen being able to part ways with Alice properly, and Shino improving her English to the point she can go to college in England. However, Kana (who has some more prominence in the manga), is unfortunately reduced to being only a side character, with little development and only a few lines.)

Story: 5/10
From an anime-only perspective, the story isn't that bad. However, I've read the manga before watching the movie, and that's where the disappointment comes from (cramming 5 volumes in 82 minutes always means a lot of things gets cut out.)
1. The story's cuts have very little transition (like there being zero buildup to the Kyoto trip, and then quickly jumping to Aya and Youko).
2. A lot of good stuff was cut out (In the manga, there's the visit to Karen's summer villa, the cultural festival featuring Karen Cafe, and most annoying of them all, the graduation trip to England being cut out despite being hinted in the movie)
(I would like to note that K-On, which has no connection to England, has a London trip in its movie, while Kiniro Mosaic, which has a lot of connections to England, does not.)


Overall: 6.5/10
The movie isn't bad, but the problem is that it rushes through the story, cutting a lot of good parts out, making it a bit of a weak conclusion to such a good series. I would recommend reading the manga (from volume 6 onwards at least) after the movie. Personally, I feel it would have been served better if there was at least a season 3 beforehand.

Hanayamata, a masterpiece of an anime in my opinion. So how does the manga stack up?

Story: The first 34 chapters (and 5 volumes) is where the anime adapts to. Unfortunately, the part that I loved most in the last 2 episodes is much shorter in the manga.
After this, we do get new characters and their backstories, although I don't feel the same sense of magic it had. 8/10
Art - The art is still pretty good, though depicting yosakoi is hard in manga format. 8/10
Characters - The characters are where it shines, with each character having their own weaknesses and issues that are resolved throughout ... the course of the manga. 9/10
Enjoyment - It was a good read, and I did look forward to new chapters every Sunday. 8/10
Overall - If you're a fan of CGDCT I'd recommend this manga. 8/10

Shoulder-A-Coffin Kuro Side Story is what the name suggests, extra stories of Kuro not in the main series

Quick note of advice: Read only after finishing volume 7, as the chapters take place before, during, and after the timeline of the manga

Now for the review. The stories are still the same as the main manga, although disconnected from the plot of the main series. The chapters taking place after the main series timeline simply serve to show the story still goes on, and that Kuro's journey still goes on

The art is still as beautiful as ever, and the characters are still the same as ever.

Overall? ... 8/10. Definitely a must read, as we get to see more of Kuro's journey in this beautiful last volume.

Shoulder-A-Coffin Kuro is a manga that is quite underrated. Having heard rave reviews from a fan, I had high hopes reading this, and it delivered.

Story: 10/10
Kuro's story is simply beautiful. What might simply be an episodic chapter for one, is a part of a subplot that slowly tells itself over the course of the many chapters. Each chapter on its own is great, with Kuro being changed by and changing the people she meets, through what they say or what they do. Each of these subplots create a beautiful story that is what makes it a masterpiece.

Art 10/10: Despite being in 4koma format, Satoko Kiyuzuki ... manages to make their great artstyle show, with beautiful designs, and this especially shows in the colour pages. The art gives a nice fantasy vibe that is lovely, while the more dark chapters have the appropriate art and framing to bring out the vibe of the chapter.

Character 9/10: The characters are well written, and do grow and change over the course of the story, like Kuro as an example. In addition, we see the characters have their backstories, and how they came to be this way, expanded on throughout the story. The side characters also serve a key role, popping up every now and then, just like how a traveler can meet the same person a few times on their journey.

Enjoyment 10/10: A very fun read, with a lot of well written story, I enjoyed this manga.


Overall 10/10: A must read, especially if you're a Sousou no Frieren fan or Girls Last Tour fan, as these 2 serieses do share similarites with Kuro.

Depending on what genres of anime you watch, Winter 2022 may or may not have been a good anime season for you. For me it wasn't, with 2 of the 3 seasonal animes I watched getting dropped. However, the last seasonal would prove to be a masterpiece in my opinion. That anime is Slow Loop, and in my opinion, is very underrated (even being overshadowed by Winter 2022's other CGDCT, Akebi).

Story - 10/10

Slow Loop's summary gives you the idea that it's a fishing anime, and that is true to an extent. However, family plays a key role in the story itself. Throughout the anime, we ... see the characters dealing issues regarding their family, be it Hiyori and Koharu, Koi and her parents, or Ichika and Futaba. The drama moments, blended in with the comedic moments found in a lot of CGDCT, makes for an anime that can make you laugh, and make you cry. Slow Loop also looks into the backstories of each characters, and how it shaped who they are. The anime's tagline: "connected by fishing line, the loop of family" really makes sense here.

Art - 7/10
With slice of life in general, art isn't something that is a high priority. Connect's animation doesn't match the heights that Silver Link hit with Non Non Biyori or say Doga Kobo hit with Koisuru Asteroid. However, to heavily focus on the art would be missing the point of the anime.

Characters - 9/10
Slow Loop shines strongly in this aspect, with Hiyori's and Koharu's dynamic being strongly reminiscent of character dynamics like Rin/Nadeshiko (Yuru Camp) or Ao/Mira (Koisuru Asteroid). Koi's character is quite unique, and really adds some uniqueness to this anime (a character who has a dislike towards to the main interest of the show for good reasons is quite rare). Slow Loop also does avoid a pitfall of CGDCTs by adding a decent number of recurring male characters. Hiyori's character development was good, as she looks to deal with the grief of losing her father. Koi has multiple sides shown to her, improving on her already well-written character. Koharu delivers many of the show's good gags, through their faces and jokes, making Slow Loop extremely enjoyable.

Sound - 9/10
Slow Loop's OP (Yajirushi) and ED (Shuwa Shuwa) are both quite enjoyable to listen to. Along with that, it has great background music, being composed by Takurō Iga, who also worked on Koisuru Asteroid's OST.
(Note that for Yaijurshi, both Kiyono Yasuno and Nao Touyama sang it)

Enjoyment - 10/10
Slow Loop in my opinion is very enjoyable. The educational bits are pretty nice, and don't feel like boring monologues (and is a nice addition to the series itself). The show's dramatic bits are nice, and really show the theme of family. These 2 elements combined really reminds me of 2 of my favourite anime: Hanayamata and Koisuru Asteroid, along with the show already giving off strong Yuru Camp vibes.

Overall - 10/10
If you are fan of Koisuru Asteroid, this show is definitely for you, as they are very similar in my opinion. In general, I would say this show is definitely worth a watch for CGDCT fans, as it also has strong Yuru Camp vibes. Slow Loop in my opinion is the sleeper hit of winter 2022, avoiding a lot of the tropes of CGDCT, and exploring the topics of family in a way that's not commonly seen in slice of life.

Welp, with the manga being stuck on what seems to be a long hiatus, time to write a review based on what we have so far.

Now firstly, I should note that this manga takes place after the manga ending, not the anime ending. So if you are looking at reading this after watching the anime, do so after reading the manga, as there is a significant jump from the anime ending to the start of the series. (And in addition, the anime ending is anime original.)

Now, for the review.

Story:
Can't really say much of the story yet, as we are currently looking into who is ... doing what. However, there certainly seems to be the romantic progression from the 5 chapters so far.

Art: 9/10
Isshuukan Friends' art is one of the big reasons I love the manga, and the art here is still as great as it was in the prequel.

Character:
Again, not much to say here, but the characters are still as lovable as before.

Enjoyment: 8.5/10
The 4koma comedic strips mixed with the more serious pages really makes every chapter nice, and it is very much an enjoyable read.

Overall: 8.5/10
Whether or not you liked Isshuukan Friends, Sono Ato no Isshuukan Friends is definitely worth reading

(and if after having read it, you need more, you can read Boku ga Boku de Aru Tame ni (same mangaka)'s volume extras, which are also Isshuukan Friends afterstory chaps, although completely different in a way.

Of all the reviews that have been written so far, I might be one of the few reviews who didn't like Akebi (dropping after 4 episodes). Here's why.

Story: 2/10
Now, maybe I've watched too much slice of life and so have become more critical of the story events. But Akebi's plot feels boring when I compare it to other slice of lifes I like. The story feels slow and bland, and there's not much to like about it. (I'm ignoring the plothole of the uniform thing by the way, without it, the story can't function)

Art: 9/10
Probably where Akebi shines, with top tier animation, as expected of ... CloverWorks. However, Akebi has much more fanservice than other slice of lifes onscreen and offscreen (like say the nail clipper scene), which imo, makes it worse.

Sound: 7/10
Not much to say here, it was fine.

Character: 4/10
I literally forgot the names of every single character except Akebi in the one week between episodes, so there's that. Now, normally I do like the more energetic airheaded characters in slice of lifes (be it Yuru Camp's Nadeshiko or Slow Loop's Koharu), but Akebi's so positive to the point that she starts giving me second-hand embarrassment.

Enjoyment: 5/10
I normally complete most of the anime I watch. However, Akebi managed to bore me so much that I couldn't be bothered to watch episode 5, and so dropped it.

Overall: 5/10
Honestly, I would say watch maybe 1-2 episodes and decide if it's for you. But I wouldn't recommend it. Of the 2 CGDCTs I decided to watch this Winter 2022, Slow Loop outshines Akebi in almost every way, to be honest. Comparing to other slice of lifes, Akebi is just boring in my opinion.

Hakoiri Drops is one of those underrated mangas that everyone should read. It is about a girl, Shizuku Nishimori, who has been sheltered all her life, going to high school, with a boy, Kasugai Yoichi, who has basically been assigned to show her the outside world, with a bit of romance thrown in.

Art: 9/10

Well it's 4koma, so art is much harder to judge. However, I like their character designs very much, especially Shizuku, and brings out their personalities.

Characters: 10/10 The interactions between the main 4 or great, as it shows them growing over 3 years in high school. The development of the romance is very ... natural, without feeling like it’s forced (unlike, say, Komi for example). Shizuku’s backstory is very nice, and it shows that she wasn’t just sheltered on a whim, and helps explain what she’s like.

Story: 10/10 The story is great, and really is a great example of slice of life. The ending was bittersweet, as we watch as the main characters leave the high school where they made many memories and move on with their lives. Even the more standard slice of life tropes are well-written, and are comedic, and serve to move the story forward.

Enjoyability 10/10: I really loved reading this manga. The ending and the last volume cover really help make me feel sad as the manga ended, and really gives me nostalgic vibes. I enjoyed the comedy bits, and I wish the manga had more story (although, it is a complete story in itself and doesn’t need anymore, to be honest.)

Overall: 10/10 Hakoiri Drops is a must-read for anyone, but especially for Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu and Komi readers. It is a great manga, and it’s a shame that this never became an anime. I will recommend this manga with a crazy zeal, and for good reason.

This is a review of Komi Can’t Communicate. To facilitate writing this review, I will compare it to the anime and manga Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu, so there will be spoilers for both, though I will try to minimise it.

Story: Now, both Komi’s premise is about the main character, Komi, being unable to communicate, and wanting to make 100 friends with the help of Tadano. This is true for the first 130 chapters, where Komi makes good progress with making friends. But after chapter 130, it devolves into a romcom love triangle manga with Tadano and Komi, absolutely forgetting its original premise. Mainly ... in Chapter 284, it’s shown she’s only made 39 friends. Comparing that to Hitoribocchi, whose premise is the socially anxious Bocchi making friends with her whole class, Bocchi actually completes her goal, in 97 chapters.
Komi’s story flow is not to my taste, with me being confused at how some characters just appeared, with no memory of their introductions, while Hitoribocchi’s character introductions are more significant and impactful. Komi is too prone to jumping to chapters just focusing on an insignificant side character, while Hitoribocchi focuses on what’s important.
Komi is mainly a gag manga as well. Now, what makes me laugh might be random, but even Komi runs into the issue of aggressively reusing jokes, mainly the cultural festival and the introduction of Komi-kun. Meanwhile, Hitoribocchi doesn’t reuse gags, and even the running gags, like Aru’s headbutts, are rewritten each time, so they are actually original.
Lastly, there’s the interaction between friends. Komi and Tadano interact very awkwardly despite being friends, while Bocchi interacts with her friends more naturally as she gets closer with them.

Characters: Komi’s characters are severely lacking in character development. Despite 300+ chapters, none of the MCs go through significant character development. Tadano effectively loses his ability to mind-read, and Komi’s communication skills don’t improve. Most of the side characters are only invented for 1 chapter gags, and as such, receive no character development. Even on the rare occasion that a character receives a little character development, it’s instantly thrown away. Conversely, Hitoribocchi’s main 5 receive good character development, all having changed in different ways at the end of manga.

Art: Mostly the art does gradually improve, but the art is mostly decent, not especially standing out.

Enjoyment: Overall it’s at the stage where it’s simply brings me no joy when a new chapter comes out, but I’m reading it in the hopes it goes back to what it was. I would say 5.5/10, just read Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu instead. Alternatively, Hakoiri Drops also partially fulfills the romance aspect without deviating too far from the goal.

This is a review of the anime and manga series, Koisuru Asteroid (KoiAsu). I will principally focus on the anime, and do note that there will be spoilers for this series.

Now what is KoiAsu about? To put it simply, it covers the Earth Sciences club, and the members as they carry out activities about geology and astronomy. We have Morino (Monroe-senpai), Mira, and Ao on the astronomy team, and Inose and Sakura on the geology team, with Chikage and Nanami (interested in meteorology) joining the team later on in the anime. For both Mira and Ao, they have a common purpose for joining this club: ... Years ago, when both were young, they had made a promise to each other to find an asteroid and name it Ao, as a result of Mira sharing a name with the variable star Mira (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira), but Ao not sharing a name with anything.

Story: Now KoiAsu the manga is a 4-koma, and as such, the anime has a lot of original stuff not seen in the manga. The anime does this very well, with the general plotlines of the story and characters generally remaining the same, but however there are a lot of mini details added to it that really make the series pop, like for example Inose’s rather slow sidestepping or after Inose’s first event as club president, showing how Inose’s blur photos were due to her nervousness. Now, the studio for this anime is Doga Kobo. Doga Kobo is known for adding a bit of yuri to the CGDCT animes they watch (but obviously not converting it into a yuri anime). Suzuya is the main driver of the yuri in the anime, with a lot of implied yuri scenes being instigated by her, like ”confessing her feelings” to Misa, or getting Mira to tell Ao a pickup line when they visit her because she’s sick, on top of the fact that Mira mistook Ao for a boy when they were younger, which was already in the manga. The manga name might be “Koisuru Asteroid”, but the characters go beyond just sticking to their own respective fields, with the geology team learning more about asteroids, and vice versa. This shows when Inose, during the Earth Science Olympiad, is able to answer the astronomy questions easily. On top of just the club itself, the anime also shows ||Inose’s interest in geology, and Suzuya working at the bakery, and how she is inspired by those in the Earth Sciences club, helping them during the cultural festival.
The manga also expands on the anime. The anime contains and usually focuses on directing the story in a way that made you feel emotional. There were many moments where things got more interesting, such as Ao's moving away, or before that, we have the end of the cultural festival where Ino got promoted to club president, and the anime attempted to cut out a few jokes just to make these moments at the end feel genuine, and worth watching. Unlike many other CGDCTs where many girls felt slightly shocked and surprised, and at the same time they were like 'yeah it's just a joke and the end and we're not serious about any of these after all', the method of flowing a story's tension and the like in KoiAsu anime overall left a lasting impression on me. The manga is where more jokes (especially ones that are omitted from the anime) work better - it's a normal 4-koma read after all, and also the place for latest update of most of the parts getting adapted and animated.

Characters: The characters undergo good character development throughout the anime itself. For example, Ao goes from being a nervous person when speaking due to a past mistake, to someone who has the courage to attempt to join the Shining Star challenge despite not meeting the requirements and asking her parents to let her stay with Mira so they can continue to find an asteroid together. Inose gradually becomes more confident after being made club president, from someone who was unconfident about taking the role, to being able to take on the Earth Science Olympiad.

Art: Now, I’m not a great judge of art. However, 2 scenes stand out in my mind: The ED, which shows the different characters at home, then young Ao and Mira together, then the characters observing the night sky. Fun fact: The storyboard for the animation in the ED was created by the same storyboard artist who worked the Chika dance in Kaguya-sama, Naoya Nakayama.

Another scene which stands out for me is where after Inose finds out why she took bad pictures, she gradually turns and puts her head on the table.

Sound: Again, I’m not the greatest judge of VAs, but I can tell you that the ED (Yozora) is an absolute masterpiece and one of my favourite anime EDs, especially when paired with the outro mentioned above.

Enjoyment: Overall, I really loved the anime, it really makes topics like astronomy and geology (which can be highly technical) enjoyable to the average watcher. The anime is one of the 3 animes (the other being K-On and Takagi) to make me feel sad at its ending, and that’s one of the reasons I love it.