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Jan 10, 2022
I think the hate for this anime in some reviews is really uncalled for. It is definitely a cut above a lot of the other juvenile harem isekai. I mean, In Another World With My Smartphone is just the worst drivel ever. Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody was a bit interesting for a hot minute, then became almost as bad. How Not to Summon a Demon Lord was okay in some ways, and overall I think is probably closest on par to this one, as both are imperfect and have that annoying harem trope with incredibly sexist female characters,
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but still have some redeeming stuff going on. I think I prefer Rise of the Shield Hero, but this was not too far behind.
Story: The strength of this anime is that the plot is cool, the way the MC gets strong, the exploration of dungeons, etc. While I wish it did not have the lame harem trope, you get through half of the 1st season before this even becomes a factor (i.e., episode 6 before MC picks up a 2nd female follower and thus begins having a "harem"). The fact the MC came to the fantasy world with classmates, one or more of whom are basically engaged in treachery the others don't know about, is a notch up on those really simplistic and juvenile isekai like Smartphone and Death March. The political / social picture also gets complicated by revelations about the gods of this world. Anyway, the point is there's some originality, some unique elements, though not much developed in only 13 episodes, but I liked Overlord for being original and this has a bit of that (e.g., the anal penetration stuff).
Art: Adequate. Some stuff I liked, some I was iffy on, but overall it was fine.
Sound: Overall good. There is sometimes some jazzy stuff going on that, in places, seemed not to fit well for me, but it was minor. The dub is good quality.
Character: The weakest link. The MC switches personalities when he goes from weak to strong basically with the flick of a switch, and is then acting like a totally different person with almost nothing said about it. In a good story, the character goes through inner change, but it is kind of lame for the whole change to happen in the blink of an eye. He becomes too much of a one dimensional tough guy / bad ass complete with corny lines, out of some blockbuster action flick. That said, his willingness to kill is a bit dark and makes it a bit more interesting that average isekai MC.
I hate harems in anime. I mean, an adventure party made of one OP guy and a bunch of girls in love with him and devoted to him is really cringy. Fine having some hot girls in the group, but throw a few dudes / male friends in there PLEASE (e.g., Sword Art Online). Plus why do they insist on giving the female characters the most annoying baby-girl voices? In both the Japanese and English versions? I mean, it's sick how they idolize sounding like a 12 year old girl. It might be bearable if the harem actually was based on a decent plot point, like if the MC had some kind of charm spell or mind control he used to create his harem, then there's some valid reason for it. But just to have him randomly encounter hotties who fall madly in love with him instantly is just lazy writing, and it is very common in isekai, and is also a flaw with this one.
Some redeeming stuff though is that they don't go as overboard with the cattiness as some isekai, which is also super annoying (there is some of this still, alas). Also, there seems to be some evolution of the relationships between these people, like going from distrust of each new party member to acceptance/friendship over time, and the MC basically being pretty committed to the notion that he is romantically interested in the first member of his harem and the later additions are barking up the wrong tree because he prefers being a one-woman man, or something like that. Again, with only 13 episodes, there's minimal content to fully determine how this is going to play out.
Ultimately, I thought the characters showed more promise than most isekai, similar to how I felt about Overlord (not as much promise as Overlord, admittedly, but then I found Overlord to get tedious at some point).
Enjoyment/Overall: With the weak characterization but some interesting plot/story aspects involving an OP MC in a fantasy world, this ultimately is a "guilty pleasure" anime, not fine art, at least through the first 13 episodes. Ultimately, I just found each episode a bit unpredictable as to what they'd do next, etc., and I like that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 19, 2021
This is a tough one for me. I have tried a lot of isekai that really fell flat, super predictable, tropish, poor characters, juvenile, etc. (Trapped in Another World With My Smartphone, Death Marth to a Parallel World Rhapsody, etc.) And at times I thought this one would fall into that category.
The MC is rather annoying, seems pretty shallow, a 30-ish year old virgin recluse reincarnated and horny for girls, who happened to die in a selfless act and so was reincarnated with some OP abilities in an RPG fantasy world. Sounds very tropish, and predictable and boring.
However, the art was surprisingly
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good -- great, even. Really fantastic production values on this. Why, I thought, would a studio do this for some banal crap? So I kept watching, expecting to give up on it.
It was a little odd that the MC was such a shallow horndog given he was reincarnated as a baby, so he was a lecherous baby, toddler, small boy, etc. This was odd to the point that I was kind of intrigued, as it creates weird feelings -- do I cringe at this? is it just silly? is it okay for this 6 year old to be lecherous for some 13 year old girl since he's a child, too, though in his mind he's a middle-aged dude? I was confused on the appropriate moral stance.
But I thought that might be part of the point. I mean, when a young boy needs a bath and his friend (who he thinks is also a boy) also needs a bath, and they are given bath water, and the young boy pulls the friend's clothes off thinking "he" is just shy, and only realizes too late that he's ripping clothes off a protesting girl, what am I supposed to feel? It's a humorous misunderstanding. Is it made dirty because the friend turned out to be a girl? Because that girl is a minor? Because the boy is the reincarnation of a middle aged man who still has his memories? At what point does this become pedophilia and not innocent playfulness? Because a couple pre-pubescent kids taking a bath, of either gender, should be a wholesome situation, not a pervy one. To some extent, Puritanical anti-sex attitudes have us on a witch-hunt about stuff that is perfectly natural, and not even sexual. A nude child can, in fact, be art and not pornography in the right context. And while this series seemed to veer towards the line at times, it actually never crossed the line for me. The fact the author was even flirting with that line was, to me, rather surprising.
Anyway, I did not think that a studio would invest the level of art and production values here, for just some predictable tropish isekai with some extra pedophilia-ish stuff, so I stayed with it to figure out why the studio was invested in it. And I think I'm getting it. In various ways, some small, some bigger, the series provides a payoff to the viewer in terms of real heartfelt emotion, interaction, and maturity far beyond what you are expecting. I mean, it seemed like I was watching some genius-level inspired writing at times, like it was mixed in a blender with some cringe stuff and tropes, and maybe it cannot be extricated, you can't get the one without the other. Ultimately, I find it intriguing and worthwhile to watch even though I sometimes find myself annoyed / frustrated with some of the cringe / fan-service / shallow / trope stuff.
The bottom line is that there just seems to be some really high quality inspired art in this series, and I can't tell whether it could exist without the more questionable elements of the story-telling. I feel like some one (the author?) is really baring his soul to some extent with this one, and that is something rare to see.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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May 30, 2019
The show is rather "one note." I mean, over and over it is basically the same sappy shtick leading to tears and frustration and insecurity.
Now, the feelings the characters display are the type of feelings real people have -- romantic insecurity,f or example -- but where in a real person these feelings are one color among a rainbow, in this show those feelings are 100% of the show. It feels kind of like emotional porn for tween girls, who dream of that super sweet and cut guy who is hurting and they somehow are able to help him heal.
I feel like
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the show has a very specific audience in mind -- teenage girls? They have 14 year olds falling in love, dating, but never a kiss or the least hint of any actual sexual urges. Totally FAKE, but similar to certain romance stories aimed at younger girls
The biggest flaw is just how repetitive stuff is. Kousei goes through basically the exact same emotional journey related to his mother a half dozen times, maybe a dozen, just with minor changes in the setting. He also goes through the exact same soul-searching romantic angst about Kaori a dozen or more times. Meanwhile his life-long friend tsubaki is going through the same soul-searhcing romantic angst about Kousei a dozen times. I mean, there is almost no change in what happens from episode to episode except some very minor details.
Even on stage, the performances, we keep seeing the same formula played out where the person starts playing, but its not so great, then they totally lose it and all hope seems gone, then somehow they find some epiphany and it translates to some astoundingly brilliant finale. I mean, geez, you have to vary up the formula or it just is stupid.
And the characters say dumb stuff no one would really say. Like the best pianist in Japan who teaches Kousei sometimes says something about how there's something bittersweet or melancholy in his playing because of his mother dying, and she wonders aloud if he will need people in his life to die in order for him to advance as a musician... First, it's dumb because immediately after that the girl he has a crush on is hospitalized. Like, the brick over the head version of foreshadowing. Second, it's dumb because...really? Really, he plays the piano for the first time in years, since his mother died, and there's a bittersweet tinge to it, and you decide that's his calling? For his whole life, he's the "melancholy piano guy" who needs sad stuff to keep happening to him so he keeps having fresh inspiration to pour sadness into his playing? Really? Like, you don't think that's a bit narrow? You don't think if he can pour his emotions into his playing, maybe he can show a whole range of emotions, and be as good infusing joy into his playing as sorrow? Really? The sort of line no one would really say, but if you are a hacky writer who is just trying to pile on as much of the same "one note" story as you can, since it seems to have struck a chord with some audience segment, I guess it's seems like a good line.
Look, I like musical anime. And this can be enjoyable particularly if you keep jumping past the sappy repetitive drivel. However, there is no way it deserves a rating over 8.0. I mean, Forest of Piano is SO MUCH better, more balanced, more varied, less repetitive....but it does not cater to the nth degree to a particular demographic that will gobble up a particular formula.
Yeah, this is emotional porn for girls who are still afraid of, or ignorant of, sexuality and dream of a world of cute and safe and non-sexual guys, where being a guy's boyfriend means you go to a carnival with him and don't even hold hands let alone kiss.
Oh, I should also mention the sort of Charlie-Brownish lack of parental figures. I mean, it's like these kids live in a world with practically no parents or adults at all so that groups of 5 year are just freely wandering the town, going to the beach, getting into trouble. Just another choice the writers made to simplify the world and employ literary tunnel vision on the particular "one note" they want to hit over and over and over with this story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 18, 2018
I think this is a really good "light-hearted" fantasy shounen. Not a genius masterpiece like HxH, but quite a bit better than average.
I think the art is very good, professional, though not really creative or new like, say, Grimgar. The sound is good, the American voice actors are very good so the dub does not suck compared to the sub like some anime (I'm looking at you, HxH).
I think this would be rated significantly higher (7.8 or so?), but for the superficial similarities to other shows. The plot sort of invites claims of copying. The main character is a
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boy born without magic who insists he wants to be the Wizard King, seems very much like Izuku Midoriya born without superpowers who wants to be the greatest superhero, and also even more like Naruto, a boy with crazy determination to be the next Hokage but who (at least to start) is a loser when it comes to harnessing his chi power or whatever they call it (I have not seen the Naruto shows in years). Despite these similarities, let's face it -- having a fantasy shounen sort of requires you to have a weak MC who, through determination, gets stronger, so I don't know that this is a fault.
For the genre, it is refreshingly good. I consider it a step above Naruto, about on par with My Hero Academia (though in a fantasy setting rather than superhero setting), and a couple steps below HxH. The problem I found with Naruto was it got too formulaic and simultaneously contradictory because we are to believe Naruto and Sasuke are so gifted and strong (once Naruto finds his strength after the first couple arcs), yet every arc they introduce new ninjas who have some crazy power that rivals them. Over and over. And simultaneously, all of Naruto's classmates and buddies are variously featured in battles where they find a way to defeat stronger opponents. And pretty soon, Naruto does not seem special at all.
And every battle is predictable. And Sasuke leaving to get more powerful by letting an evil ninja poison his soul was really a stupid notion, and the show "jumped the shark" around then. Anyway, I got annoyed with some of the contrived, contradictory and predictable stuff that kept happening in Naruto after about 50 episodes, and lost interest. Frankly, I could see the same thing happening with Black Clover, but it hasn't happened yet. Thus, to me Black Clover is a better version of Naruto.
I also have regularly laughed out loud during Black Clover, which I cannot recall doing for any other show, except maybe One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100. Black Clover has a very good sense of humor.
Ultimately, I don't see anything super original about it, but it seems like it borrowed a lot of tropes I like from fantasy shounen, blended them into an original product, and so far have made that product as high or higher quality than the shows it borrowed tropes from. I'm on episode 44, we'll see if this keeps up.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 2, 2018
This anime is way overrated, but still good. The characters are often two dimensional, though there are some exceptions, particularly toward the end, where there is more complexity and depth.
To me, the story felt very contrived, both in terms of characterization and in terms of plot. In terms of characterization, I just do not believe that the bad guys would actually want to do what the bad guys want to do, at least the human ones. Even so-called evil people have families and friends they care about. Power struggles in real life are more like a battle over scarce resources (or
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resources perceived as scarce) rather than individuals being purely selfish and willing to destroy anything and everything to help their own individual situation.
The worst examples of contrived, 2-dimensional characters are those fantasy stories where there is some "Dark Evil Lord" with a horde of monsters whose goal in life is to cause pain and suffering and ugliness, who have to be beaten by the morally good people, elves, hobbits, whatever. FMA-B is not that bad, but it is not particularly good, either. I just do not buy into the bad guys as realistic.
In terms of story/plot, there are conspiracy elements throughout. I don't think that's a spoiler because it comes out almost immediately as a primary element of the story. Depending upon the scope of any conspiracy, it may be more or less reasonable to believe it could remain secret for a long period of time. Without saying where this all falls in this story, I find it highly unbelievable that the conspiracies at issue would have remained so.
There are various power inconsistencies. An alchemist in one scene might be struggling and fighting hand to hand with some bad guys, and in another episode he basically snaps a finger, does a bit of alchemy, and defeats a greater number of stronger bad guys. It seems like the power level of the character is based on whether the author wanted to make the character just barely survive, barely win, or show he totally dominates the opponent, without actually having a reason for that (like the character has studied, and powered up). This is a contrast to an anime like, say, Hunter X Hunter, where the main characters are constantly working to get stronger, and their performance in fights is very appropriate in light of where they are in their continuum over the various arcs. There really is no powering up to speak of in FMA-B.
The rules of magic are not very well-defined. Initially, it is presented like studying a science such as chemistry. As you learn the rules, you can create complex formulas to create a desired result. And the Elric brothers are studying this stuff obsessively from early childhood and seem to be geniuses to boot, so they are really great at it even being young. However, then it is all changed up when we meet other alchemists and they all have their own "niche" powers. The flame alchemist who basically just makes fire, the water alchemist, etc. It seems like some alchemists are basically one-power specialists. But if you need to learn the "science" to advance, it seems like every alchemist that rises to a certain level should be able to do all types of alchemy at a certain proficiency. So when it later is implied that only one alchemist can do fire, only a couple can do healing alchemy, etc, I was somewhat confused.
And why, in a nation where alchemy is real to the point that the government employs State Alchemists as sort of like government-sponsored superheroes who roam around dispensing justice, would you ever have a city where some guy is able to dupe the whole city into thinking he's a messenger from God by doing some alchemy tricks? That was very confusing. There were a lot of things that did not really seem to flow too well in the story.
A lot of the dialogue was too cheesy and long-winded. The number of times there were characters who had to move, with no second to spare, and they stopped to have a conversation with some one that went on and on and on with stuff like, "You promise me, you won't die! You'll come back to me! You got that? I won't let you die!" And boom, they all die, because they really did have to hurry, and that means they did not have time for five minutes of heartfelt goodbyes and declarations of affection. Well, no, they did not die, but the point is that kind of thing is rather annoying and, to my view, sloppy.
I guess the main thing it had going for it was originality. I mean, to conceive of a world and nation with a very original combination of tech and non-tech, magical system, political history, etc., is a feat. So many anime are just the same old wandering around in a land of fairies and dragons and magic and knights, or battling in some kind of robot suit. It's nice to have something very different. (I wrote a scathing review of Death Note, also highly over-rated because of contrivances, wherein I similarly applauded its originality as the thing that really made everything else forgivable).
So, ultimately, the flaws of FMA-B are forgivable. It's a good anime. But it sure does not deserve to be in the top 5 all time, or wherever it is rated on this site.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 14, 2018
Boring. There is basically no drama because the hero is so over powered. He just goes around without a care in the world, accumulating girls for his pseudo-harem.
I find the notion of regular person transported into fantasy game world appealing. I also think that having an over powered hero can be fun, as in One Punch Man, or Gate (where Japan's military is OP compared to other-world feudal military). However, both OPM and Gate have a lot more depth and complexity. In OPM, the hero's absurd power creates drama in terms of how'd he get it, what does
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he do with it now, how does it affect his world-view. Anyway, in Death March, there is none of that, just a god-like hero who walks around having fun surrounded by eye-candy.
So, basically, this is the most vanilla of anime, but I guess sometimes vanilla can be nice, so I could see where this could be enjoyable for a few shows, but it gets old fast as you realize the writers have nothing more to offer, no plans to shake things up.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 20, 2017
SPOILERS
I'm disappointed in the ridiculous worship this anime series has gotten. The problem is that the story has WAY too many fake contrivances. Moreover, it suffers from perhaps the most common failing when a writer tries to write a story about geniuses... Because the writer himself is not a genius, he will necessarily fail at coming up with believable strokes of genius. Instead you get contrivances.
Would a genius really think the way to make Earth a paradise is to implement the death penalty for all crime? No, a genius, or even any pretty smart person, would realize that crime is
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a symptom more than a problem, and the harm from crime is frankly trivial compared to the harm of unfair allocation of world resources (so that millions starve while others throw away millions of tons of food each year), wars based on misplaced nationalism and prejudices, poor educational systems that spawn societies full of people who do not have the critical thinking skills needed to make democracy work as it was intended, and rampant environmental destruction, to name a few. Seriously, no "genius" is going to come into possession of Death Note and then dedicate himself to wiping out crime.
A number of really serious contrivances have to take place for Light to actually becoming the prime suspect of being Kira. I mean, seriously, he can kill by writing a name down with absolutely no physical evidence linking the death to himself. It is literally the perfect crime. It should have been impossible for him to come under suspicion. Even if the first few deaths led investigators to focus on an area of Japan, that is still thousands (tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions?) of people.
Or the contrivance that Light's father happens to wind up working on the international team to stop Kira?
Or the crazy contrivances needed for L to go from viewing Light as the prime suspect, to then suspecting a famous model of being the prime suspect, then deciding neither is Kira, then Light and the model wind up dating... Seriously? Your two prime Kira suspects are a couple, and that does not make you suspicious?
How about the way that, in a world based totally in science like ours, when L and the cops realize there is a magic book that can kill if you write a person's name in it, all they can think about is catching the guy who has the book? Wouldn't this require a HUGE amount of soul-searching, re-thinking everything you thought was real and phony? Is the real mystery here who is using Death Note to commit murder, or HOW THE HELL IS THERE A MAGIC BOOK THAT KILLS IF YOU WRITE A NAME IN IT?!!! Somehow that conversation never comes up.
Oh, and basically every conversation between L and Light, it is as if Light is screaming "I'm Kira!" Seriously, if you ask some one if they are Kira, and they answer, "Well, if I was, I sure wouldn't tell you, right, so I guess the question is kind if pointless..." Uh, yeah, that guys guilty. That's not how innocent people talk. Every conversation, Light says stuff that is absolutely what you would expect him to say if he was Kira toying with Light, not if he was Light who was not Kira.
No one bats an eye that this friggin' HIGH SCHOOL student is suddenly dating a celebrity model?
What are the odds Light and L both are tennis gurus? I mean, there are a lot of sports to excel at.
What the heck is wrong with the model chick that she actually surrenders half her life to find Kira, and when she does she then agrees when he wants her to sacrifice half her remaining life again to further his plans? What are the odds the finder of the second Death Note is going to be so incredibly ripe for jumping into slavish cult-like devotion to the first Death Note holder? I'd imagine that personality time is VERY VERY rare. Yet as it turns out Light basically NEEDED her to be like that to get himself out the ridiculous jam that he became the prime Kira suspect in the first place.
Overall, the cat-mouse game between L and Light was not "genius," it insults your intelligence because is so fake and contrived.
Oh, and am I the only one bothered by Light's total lack of libido? He's a teenager. A top model is worshiping him, and all he can think about is his Death Note plans? There is no explanation given for his total lack of libido or passion.
Lastly, if you watch, you'll notice that L and Light basically talk the same, in the same kind of faux-smart-person way. The writer could not even come up with two distinct voices for them.
This anime had a couple things going for it: I very interesting, original and edgy premise; a high amount of wish-fulfillment (gee, main character is smartest kid in Japan? check Adored by model? check Had special powers? check... And add to that a very slick production. Oh, and it 's quite short.
When an anime series has only 37 episodes and people admit it really starts to drag somewhere in the 20's... Well, that basically confirms that this is not a deep anime, nor one that can stand the test of time. It is a flash in the pan. Now, when an Anime goes hundreds of episodes and is getting better, and fans are crushed when it ends....that can be called a great Anime.
Death Note is crap, and if you like it, you probably have not seen much anime at all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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