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I'm gonna start this review off by stating that I'm rating this adaptation as what it's supposed to be: a motion comic. I understand that everyone's disappointed and even furious at the animation "being just a slideshow" or whatever, but that's 100% Netflix's fault (or at least Netflix outside of Japan) for advertising this as a fully animated adaptation instead of the motion comic that it is and that it was advertised as in Japanese. Motion comics are NOT fully animated. They are one-for-one panels of the original comic/manga with animated parts and sound/voice acting.

With that being said, here's my review.

STORY - 8

I've ... only seen bits and pieces of the manga (I do plan on reading it eventually, though), so, from an anime-only perspective, I can say that I do really like it. There isn't a whole lot of overarching plot, just short "stories." They're all really fun, and they made me laugh more than a couple times.

ART - 6

The art style looks great (though I know that's really the mangaka's work since this adaptation directly translated the manga panels to screen), I just wish they had animated some more parts of certain scenes. Overall, not bad though. After the first few minutes of episode 1, I wasn't even phased by the stills anymore.

SOUND - 9

Since there isn't as much animation, they have to rely on sound a lot, and I think they did a great job. The voice acting is fun, the background music adds to the silly nature of the show , and the sound effects are well done too.

CHARACTER - 9

I just love 'em. Not much else to it.

ENJOYMENT - 8

Like I said before, I quickly got over the fact that this is a motion comic within the first episode. The voice acting and the comedy carried me through the animation (or lack thereof) and made watching this show a very enjoyable experience.

OVERALL - 7

Had it been fully animated, I would have probably rated this a little higher, maybe not, who knows? Either way, I appreciate Gokushufudou for the fun and lighthearted motion comic that it is. Wish other people could get over their knee-jerk reactions and appreciate it too.

"Bungou Stray Dogs Wan!" definitely ended up being one of my favorite shows of this season (as it's been going so far). It's a silly show with short, fun episodes that are only about 11 minutes each. If you're already a huge fan of BSD, then this is definitely the show for you, but even if you aren't super into it, I think "Wan!" could be a good place to get more into the characters and their shenanigans.

Of course, it's important to note that "Wan!" has such a different tone from the original series. It has a few serious moments here and there, but ... is mostly joking. If you go into the main series expecting the same thing... You will be very disappointed lol. (The main series is absolutely incredible, though! Just much more seinen).

Some shorts were better than others, I'll admit. There were some episodes where a short would just cut off in the middle of what I thought was the build-up. There's a possibility that this was for time's sake or even maybe because of translation (Japanese humor has shocked me before), but either way I wished they were a little longer. In the end, though, each episode has to fit in about 3 shorts, and they still manage to be super funny and sweet! My favorites are the shorts in Episode 7!

Overall, I'm really gonna miss "Wan!" and all the fun interactions and adventures it gave us. And the art style! Oh, how I'll miss the cute chibi art style!

Santa Company, at least this version, does a pretty mediocre job of telling a story with an environmental message for kids. I know there's another short film and a full-length movie from a few years ago, but as I haven't seen those, I'm just going to judge this on its own.

There are going to be slight spoilers from here on out, but since it's a 30-minute short film... I hope it's not too inconvenient.

Story - 4

Although this is a PG film, definitely meant for kids, I feel like the story was still really underdeveloped. Kids don't necessarily need super complex stories, especially if ... the focus is the message rather than the characters' development, but I do think this could've been better. There's no motivation behind what the characters do, at least no good motivation. Mint wants to be as good as her brother/live up to Panal (I think), Noah wants to clean up to prevent animals from dying like his pet(???) whale did, but these are all motivations that are dropped more than halfway through the film and without further elaboration. Also, the reveal of the trash dragon Mook was quite strange. The only other time we hear about him is when the teacher from the beginning says that Mint was working on an assignment about "Mook, Santa's enemy," and even then that's all we hear about it.

Maybe I'm being nitpicky, but I feel like there could've been something more coherent for this film.

Art - 9

I think the art style is super cute and the color design is awesome. The main cast certainly look unique without being gaudy. One point off for the CGI though. It wasn't bad, just... strange.

Sound - 9

Sound design was pretty good. I don't usually listen very hard for sound design, but nothing sounded bad to me. The voice actors are all also really incredible. So, a 9.

Character - 5

Like I said in the story section, the characters just didn't feel fleshed out in any way. They were all pretty one-dimensional. They don't have to be super complex if they're just for a short environmental story, but I wish there was more of a sense of their goals and motivations. Or some kind of change in their characters...

Enjoyment - 7

Despite all of the flaws in the characters/story, it was still kind of fun to watch. It was visually pleasing and the music during the credits was definitely really nice.

Overall - 5

I think the message behind the short film is a great one. We should all do our part in keeping the world, especially the oceans, clean and not contributing to the large amounts of litter out there. I admire the team's efforts to make an entertaining film meant to entertain and educate the public about this issue. I just think audiences would enjoy it more or take it more seriously if there was some more work put into the story so that it doesn't seem so heavy-handed.

I really like the concept, I just wish there could've been a better product for such an interesting idea and such an important issue.