Back to pumpkinnmayo's Profile pumpkinnmayo's Profile

Reviewing why this series fails requires major spoilers for later chapters, since poorly written plot twists make the story implausible and the writing lazy.

A classic tale of opposites attract, Sumire wants to fall in love for the first time, and is seated in her high school class near the mysterious adult Leo with dangerous rumors swirling about him. In his 20s and seemingly born into a wealthy family, Leo's seemingly violent and dangerous past and intimidating facial expressions scares those around him, until Sumire discovers a soft side to him. He, however, tries to distance himself from her, worried about his past harming her. And ... his past definitely haunts him and harms those around him: random people attack him and threaten those around him, due to his criminal past. Although born into a wealthy family, he works part-time in a bar seemingly due to his alienation from his wealthy grandfather.

There's redeeming qualities, at least early: Sumire falls for him pretty quickly, and unlike many stories, takes the initiative. Leo's backstory actually threatens her, giving him a legitimate reason to be fearful of getting close to her. He's flirty and smooth in his interactions with her and he deeply cares for his younger sister, softening our initial impression of him.

But the story completely falls off the rails. Leo comes clean about his past and why he's been so distant to her: he kidnapped her as a child and nearly got her murdered. So what excellent foreshadowing did we get for this monumental reveal? Well, nothing, asides from the cheapest plot devices to justify it. Although was likely 16 when he kidnaps her (making her 9), she has no recollection of it at first. Selective amnesia, my old friend. And we see him "save the cat" to show us he's no longer a bad guy at heart. The only clues we had previously were that she has a curfew and that she feels guilty for causing her parents divorce the revealed the chapter before we learn Leo kidnapped her. Truly, excellence in writing.

It gets worse. Leo's been secretly sending her dad money daily for the past 7 years, remorseful about his actions. When is this revealed? Well, of course moments after we learn he kidnapped her. Does the dad know who her love interest is? Of course not. And the "small sum" of money he's sending daily from his part-time job? ~$150, so he's making ~$55,000 per year working part-time in a bar.

The age gap romance actually gets worse with later developments: rather than him be 20 and her 17, she's 16 and he's 23. He also fell in love with her and was watching her from afar when she was 15 and just starting high school. If you're weary of age gap romances, their relationship gets downright creepy later on.

And finally, the characters are weak and barely resemble real people. In romances and especially dramas, this is one of the few critical parts of a story: if the characters aren't relatable or realistic, the story falls apart. And our cast is anything but. When another student has a crush on Sumire and Leo threatens him, he starts actively helping Leo and Sumire get together. Why? He wants to become the third listed character if this was a play. He swoons over their interactions, and helps them find scenarios to be alone together. Is he jealous or wearing a thinly concealed mask? Of course not. Upon learning Leo's been sending money daily, Sumire rushes to mend things with him. Kidnapping and attempted murder be damned, nothing can stop true love.

Simply put, the terrible writing and mediocre characters simply aren't worth your time. The art isn't particularly good, and is fairly average fair. What starts off on a promising foot quickly devolves into a mess of a story.

The first few episodes immediately hook you, suggesting a fun and light hearted series of a girl who decides to court the demon lord to avoid dying in an otome game. Aileen is endearing and crafty. Claude, despite being the demon lord, is surprisingly soft and affectionate. How Aileen decides to avert her own doom, sometimes through ridiculously concocted plans, is hilarious. The song for the ending credits goes hard.

Only, the pacing is entirely off. Somehow, the series feels like it's planning to adapt 8 volumes in a short anime. Supposedly emotional movements are introduced and discarded within the minute. Most episodes after the ... first 3 feel like they should have been given 3 episodes each. The plot isn't advancing at a breakneck speed, unlike some other series: it's just skipping too many important details to make you care in any capacity. There's a few issues with the animation which sometimes falls to embarrassingly bad but it is mostly passable, but these aren't the primary issues with the story. With such engaging and fun leads, it just needed a longer adaptation.

Noriko, a typical Japanese high schooler, is suddenly caught in a terrorist bombing and transported to a sea full of trees with giant insects and dragons. A mysterious man Izark with seemingly superhero strength saves her from giant worms, and she's now the center of a giant hunt as The Awakening, with the power to awaken the power of a mythical sky demon. From Far Away helped define many of the tropes central to modern isekai before the deluge of a lifeless, never-ending cycle of low quality isekai. So, although many of these tropes have been seen before and will be seen again, the story ... stands on its own because of how it manages to execute these tropes long before they were ubiquitous in Japanese media.

Despite the excellent plot twists in the first 2/3rds of the story, From Far Away suffers from a weak plot and poor characters at the end. Although not a short series, it introduces too many characters for us to get close to, and the entire story revolves around Noriko and Izark. This dynamic starts on an excellent foot, understand that a character transported to a new world cannot speak the local language, and how they slowly bridge that gap is engaging and fresh. That our lead may awaken a nearly omnipotent demon that will destroy the world is an interesting twist, a story suggesting moral ambiguity of a character who we relate to potentially being central to causing great evil. Despite this promise, it ends in lazy storytelling of extreme good versus evil, rather than the idea of good and evil being two sides of the same coin hinted at earlier. Rather than end with shades of gray, with characters with different moral compasses leading to thorny issues and an epic ending, or blue/orange morality on how a foreign land's ethics might be diifferent to our own, the villains are uninspired and comically bad. It's light against darkness, and it doesn't get less uninspired than that.

We also get little to no insight into Noriko's life back home, despite the pain Noriko must feel from leaving everyone she knew behind. This is haphardly reintroduced for moments when needed as a plot device, but never sufficiently explored.

That said, it's easy to judge From Far Away by the standards of today, at a time where these tropes weren't as commonplace. The execution in most of the series is good, and coupled with the plot twists still stands even today. The ending, however, and the deluge of poorly developed characters, drag this story down to barely above average.

As far as the art, it's above average for shoujo art of the genre, and Izark's design is quite well done. Despite the similarity between Izark and a few others, there's also a large number of supporting characters with good character designs superior to the norms of the time period. All in all, it's hard to recommend this series today. Not all classics withstand the test of time and this seems to hardly excel even at the time it was written.

Spy x Family blends spies, assassins, and childcare to glorious effect, simultaneously a thrilling and relaxing story with fun action and a heartwarming tale of what it means to become family. By blending two seeming contradictions, it appeals to both young and older audiences alike. Kids will love the undercover spy and action scenes. For older audiences, many of us have felt the enormous joy and stress that comes with becoming a parent, with a hell spawn that wakes you up at 2AM but also brings you irreplaceable happiness. The responsibility and stress of raising a child feels like it transforms your entire world, but ... it's also immensely rewarding. As parents, try your best to help them succeed, feel the pain of their failures, and have to learn that they have their own wants, needs, and goals that differ from your own. They get into trouble and repeat your own mistakes, exasperating you while you bring to heart it's part of growing up.

Spy x Family drives this to the extreme: in order to prevent the death of millions, an undercover spy named Loid needs to raise a loving family and help his adoptive daughter Anya excel in a prestigious private academy. Him and his wife Yor need to play the part of a loving couple with a marriage of convenience. Their projected image distracts from their reality: Loid's an undercover spy, Yor's an assassin, and Anya's a psychic. Playing the part of a family literally carries the potential to alter the entire world.

But Spy x Family succeeds in both the comically exaggerated and the slice of life. The characters have depth and it understands how people the relationships of people drawn together by convenience evolve as they get close to each other. Anya's is nearly universally loved and a meme all over social media, but Loid and Yor are no slouches either. Both Loid and Yor understand the idea of personal space, and that they don't need to pry into every aspect of each other's lives while still getting to know each other. The exaggerated also thrives, from comically absurd gifts for good behavior to exhilarating action with a daughter hellbent on throwing herself into harm's way.

Even if you normally avoid spy or action shows, like myself, Spy x Family brings so much more to the table than that. It's fun, it's heartwarming, and the characters grow on you as the story progresses.

Queen's Quality is yet another example of a novel, fun premise that morphs into an uninspired adventure, complete with the excesses popular in manga. I originally rated this as a 9 after 45 chapters, so my mediocre rating signals a rapid decline in quality.

What happens when our emotions take control? When we lash out at others, overwhelmed by feelings of anger, inadequacy, fear? When we bully others for being different, cursed, and these fears spread and so does the pain to others? Queen's Quality takes a very literal approach to this, with malice and other emotions visualized by "bugs" that spread and overwhelm our minds. ... Sweepers "clean" individuals of these bugs by entering their mind vault and purging the person of their rampant emotions. Some nefarious people use this to their advantage, spreading fear and doubt to take over someone's mind, effectively brainwashing them. In a rare few cases, however, someone can attain much greater power. After realizing their full potential, queens can control and manipulate thousands simultaneously, with nearly unlimited power, and can either purge much of the darkness from society or become a plague that spreads through it.

Queen's Quality is anything but the first to tackle human emotions, how they overwhelm us, and hurt us. But it takes this to an engaging, comical extreme, where we can see this malice forming around others, thwarted by those cleaning with dish rags, broomsticks, and toilet brushes. To combat evil, our leads spend bootcamp-style time purging every nook and cranny of the faintest hint of dust. And the art complements this incredibly well, with rooms turning to black as someone is overwhelmed with malice. Unfortunately, the story completely loses the plot and its emotional core later on, adding on poorly thought-out layers until the story barely resembles what it started.

Our leads balance each other well. Kyutaro's is strict and good at controlling his emotions as part of his discipline in becoming a sweeper, although he's isolated and a bit of a loner as a result. Fumi lives the hedgehog's dilemma. After losing her childhood memories and seeing everyone she gets close to hurt and lash out at her as a cursed child, she both needs a home while fearful of hurting those around her. There's some excellent, unresolved romantic tension between the two, balanced by Kyutaro being the embodiment of Mr. Clean. Fumi's adventure to become queen forces her to confront her emotions and trauma, and Kyutaro adjusts to how he can protect Fumi has her consort.

As the story continues, Queen's Quality increasingly trades style for substance and replaces the excellent storytelling around human emotions with some generic adventure with an evil villain. The rituals, like cleaning, to control our emotions cease entirely for epic scenes in battle between mythical opponents. The soul of the story slowly dissipates, becoming a hollow shell of where it started. Much of the focus seems to be beautiful shots with an exquisitely clad cast decked out with powerful weapons. It's a promising lead with a semi-satisfactory midpoint that then falls apart while dragging on without purpose or direction.

Part of becoming an adult is finding hobbies that enrich our life and fill the time after exhausting days at work. Wotaku centers around 4 main characters who are obssessed with hobbies society frowns upon, some of whom have little to no social skills at all. Momose, the main lead, is obssessed with manga, especially Yaoi, something she's had to hide from all her previous boyfriends and friends. The other 3 aren't much different: Hanako is also into yaoi and cosplay, her boyfriend Kabakura obssesses over yuri and gaming, and Nifuji games almost to the expense of all else. Momose and Nifuji are childhood friends, ... and he comes to an idea: they won't have to hide they're both otakus if they date.

The art and character models are stock standard for modern anime, and the soundtrack is sufficient but nothing special. There's promise in a story of adult couples who pursue their own hobbies, finding their own group that values what they do. Let's ignore Momose and Hanako's love of fetishized yaoi, or Kabukara's hyper-infantilized yuri, which is opening a can of worms. The major flaw is the characters are engaging as soggy noodles in a watered down broth. The female leads have their boy's love extend into their real life partners, getting excited by any close interactions between the two. They debate in a single scene which one is the top and which is the bottom. The character dynamics revolve around their eccentric hobbies, but we never get more than a superficial glance at those hobbies.

But the biggest flaw is the characters seem to not care for each other. Nifuji and Momose's relationship never extends past childhood friends, even after they start dating. She's not particularly attracted to him, and he makes it clear he'd be into a girl with larger breasts. Their relationship and interactions barely progress or regress. It feels like one of convenience and never develops from that. We never really dive into their actual interests, besides passing references and some stock standard online gameplay.

Hanako and Kabukara constantly fight when others are around, even if their interactions are much more lukewarm when they're alone together. Hanako's hobbies are probably the most engaging: she's a well-known cosplayer, and diving into the process she designs and creates the costumes could be an excellent story. At least they seem to care for each other, and spend some enjoyable moments together.

The entire character dynamic is "are the straights ok" the anime. With a stronger cast, a deeper dive into their interests, or a stronger plot, Wotaku could be engaging with an adult cast so desperately needed in romance anime. Instead, we get something that anyone but a hardcore otaku could really enjoy. Wotaku pales in comparison to other stories revolving around otaku like "Princess Jellyfish". The dive into online gaming is superficial unlike "Recovery of an MMO Junkie". The obsession with yaoi never extends to what we see in "Kiss Him, Not Me". It's not particularly bad but it's uninspired at best.

I'm not sure how this series has such high ratings, because the author has no idea how to show, only tell. The premise is quite promising: a witch named Karin longs to reunite with her childhood friend Lisette, with them promising to reconnect one they could both ride broomsticks. Karin, now an adult, is still unable to ride a broomstick and runs a magic shop in town. When a competing shop in the neighboring forest starts taking all of her customers, run by a mysterious witch named Lise, she investigates to discover it's her friend Lise, who is actually a man. They open shop together, ... run errands for various patrons, and fall in love.

The art is beautiful. The premise is solid. And the author has no idea how to write a story. It's as if the two leads kissed, and rather than show the kiss, a text bubble appeared saying "and they kissed". It's necessary sometimes to tell, especially for such a short story, but a majority of the dialog is telling the audience what is happening and speech bubbles overwhelm the panels. Most one-shots have much better exhibition and storytelling than this, despite the limited number of panels they have to work with.

Do yourself a favor: skip this manga altogether.

Everything about this story feels out-of-place, and it suffers from poor pacing, uninspired takes on common cliches, mediocre art, and egregious fan service. This is a middling at best shounen, ecchi manga written in a shoujo magazine, and if I had known that going in, I never would have started this series. I dislike fan service in general, and only considered the series because it was highly recommended, so I'm warning others to not make my same mistake. But even ignoring the creepy fan service, the plot, characters, and overall dynamic between the leads is uninspired and trite at best.

The plot is quite simple: a ... high school girl Akasaka is dumped by her older boyfriend, and has difficulty moving on. She dislikes all the attention from men she gets, which heavily objectifies her based on her physical appearance, rather than on anything else. She meets a fellow classmate, Aoyama, who has a crush on her, confesses to her, and she agrees to go on a trial dating period after he saves her from a humiliating situation. The end up getting together, and it's a story of their romance, a familiar high school romance.

There's a few ways to execute familiar plots well, and unfortunately, Furare Girl fails at it. You can either have novel takes that break the cliches (Mars), have well-developed characters, execute common tropes to excellence (Kimi Ni Todoke), focus on small interactions in the day-to-day (Love So Life), put the story in a novel world (Vampire Knight, Fruits Basket), or do them in comedic excess (Ouran Host Club, Maid Sama) so the story is a novel, affectionate parody of itself. Furare Girl tries for the comedic excess and falls flat almost all the time. The story is common, the characters are dull, the jokes miss, and it feels painfully contrived at every step.

That's not to say this series does everything poorly: the trial period and "will they, won't they" is very short, and they get together almost immediately. Their trial dates are cute, from taking her to a "cat cafe" (just an outdoor park where cats gather) to a picnic. They lie down looking at the stars and the beautiful lights from the nearby factory. She meets her ex-boyfriend right at the end of the trial period, finally comes to terms that she's moved on, and the two leads get together. The characters actually act their age, which is a rarity in a lot of high-school romances, which are often sanitized and more platonic than real portrayals of kids that age. Akasaka's jealousy of Aoyama and her brother's relationship is actually justified: it's clear Aoyama has some interest in him. But, that's about it.

The plot mostly delves around short arcs that last 1-3 chapters before moving on. But almost inevitably, each arc requires extreme levels of male gaze, and even makes jokes that break the fourth wall for this. Women's bodies are the object of the camera's attention. The cover pages and extras make this even worse. It's painfully obvious this story was written for horny men. The only redeeming part here is that the objectified characters are supposed to look older than they are, and the art is so poor it's hard to tell if they're 15 or 30. You can have characters act their age without egregious objectification. In Horimiya, both Hori and Miyamura have active sex lives but neither is the object of the camera. Nana and Paradise Kiss both have adult characters with intimate relationships, but none of the characters exist as a fantasy for the audience. Furare Girl doesn't suffer from more "adult" relationships. It's just creepy.

The pacing is just terrible. For the Valentine's day arc, we learn that after Aoyama has moved in with Akasaka (his home collapsed), he's gained what seems to be ~100 pounds. He's worried that Akasaka may no longer love him if he stays overweight, so he decides to join a military-style bootcamp. Of course, it turns out it's practically just a concentration camp and he won't be able to leave after shedding all the weight. The others at the camp sacrifice themselves so he can escape in a passage dug under the grounds. We learn Akasaka is working a part time job now. Somehow, she's been only mildly concerned that she hasn't seen him in a week even though they live together. Finally, they reunite on Valentine's day, and we learn she's saved up her money to buy plus size clothing for him, still loving him even after he gained the weight (awwe).

All of this happens in a single chapter of 30 pages, rather than a natural arc over 8 or so chapters. We don't learn anything interesting of Aoyama's bootcamp. There's no comedy, no humor, nothing of interest. It just passes by so quick it's almost like it never happened. We are told Akasaka is working a part-time job, but we never get to see anything significant of her at it. They reunite, she gives him the present, realizes he can't use it anymore, but they're glad to see each other in only a few panels. And then, of course, the story moves onto something completely different.

The plot contrivances to drive conflict in the story are haphazardly made on the spot, feel cheap, and mostly exist to maximize the objectification of Akasaka as possible. Aoyama suffers from severe nosebleeds at first when having any contact with Akasaka. Of course, this randomly switches to him literally melting into a puddle of water when it's convenient. And once that's over, spirits randomly are haunting her house, so she accidentally comforts him in the most sexual manner possible, with of course, the camera leering at her in the worst way. He's freaking out and having nightmares and... the entire family apparently already knows the house is haunted by spirits? It's silly, but it's not clever or funny.

It uses most tropes, but in an entirely uninspired fashion. Akasaka's shirt gets wet and see-through, so the love interest saves the day. They sneak out at night to spend time together on the school trip. There's a cross-dressing cosplay cafe for the cultural festival. The female lead is the idol of the school, with everyone wanting to date her, and the guy is relatively unknown. Aoyama tries to defend Akasaka from being hit on or leered at by fellow classmates, only to get beat up. That's especially ironic given the story seems to be a pretense to objectify her as much as possible. Also, two muscle men are standing right there to protect the girls, so he's getting beat up just for fun? Aoyama manages to recognize a disguised Akasaka when the rest of the school can't, but it's because... he searched "How to give hickey" with her and then just randomly gave her one sitting outside of the school. She's wearing a dolphin mask while half the school is searching for her, and she's the only one in a mask. There's promise, but it's always executed poorly.

This story is just bad. It's creepy, leering, and the plot devices are uninspired and mediocre at best. The only seeming difference from your stock high school romcom is to make it as horny as possible. It doesn't even have a clever take on a perverted lead, like Lovesick Ellie, where Eriko basically exists in a world of hilariously inaccurate fanfiction. It's not worth your time and there's nothing more to it.

A cute story of a young boy named Dali who wishes to become a witch after being enchanted by the kindness and warmth of a witch he meets at a festival. Despite witches traditionally being women and having little magical prowess, this great witch takes him in as her apprentice. It's short, it's sweet, and the scenery and magic is pretty.

The story is only 30 pages, but we get cute interactions between Dali and the witch's familiar on her commission to cast a spell for an early spring.

-----------
Insert filler words such as genre/setup, art, realistic, enjoy, well-rounded, characters, strong because MAL expects a lot of ... words for a 30 panel one-shot.

Spice and Wolf 2 is a severe let down. After the promising first season, this new season starts with a focus on the uncertainty of their relationship with another merchant vowing for Holo's affections, to disastrous results. In season 1, a distant and career-focused merchant named Lawrence comes across a quirky wolf spirit named Holo searching to return to her home in the north. Lawrence promises to accompany Holo to her home, as long as she pays for her expenses on the way. While Lawrence is focused on earning enough money to open a store, Holo seeks companionship after feeling abandoned since humans have turned ... their back on a promise she made with them eons ago. Both seek different outcomes, but they quickly bond with each other and come to care for each other a lot more than they'd care to admit, enjoying the small pleasures in each other's company. Holo, with her charming personality and wisdom to know if others are lying, quickly complements his calculating nature and business experience. As Lawrence chases various business deals and Holo seeks local food specialties like honeyed peaches, their journeys intertwine and... stop me if you've heard something like this before. But the dynamic mostly works because it their journey and goals are a vehicle to explore their interactions and growth, with a satisfying and emotional ending. It's a tale of opposites who are temporarily set on the same course, and wondering if they'll realize how much they care for each other before they drift apart.

Season 2 was all the more disappointing as a result. Rather than have their journey and Lawrence's trading the vehicle to explore the growth and romance between the leads, instead a new trader falls in love with Holo and tries to win her out through a business contract. With this new dynamic, the hollowness of the story is laid bare. Lawrence almost loses Holo by treating her like an asset, a piece of cargo he's attached a price value to, rather than clearly communicate to her how much she means to him. Despite her usually teasing nature, she makes clear her fear of being abandoned to Lawrence and even asks him if they can raise a child together so they can stay together. She wants him to make it clear he values her, and he cannot bring himself to do it. No, he tries to solve this through a business deal. In any real story with such an emotionally vacuous lead, we'd explore his undoings and how this causes the lead's relationships to deteriorate, causing him to grow and cultivate new ones or self-immolate entirely. Neither happens. Miraculously, his improbable gamble pays off and him and Holo realize their affections for each other. And despite trying to solve a relationship issue through a negotiation, his contact in the town Mark finally feels like he's found a real friend rather than merely a business partner. And it turns out, him potentially losing Holo was effectively all a test. And despite failing miraculously, he somehow fails upwards.

For such a character, dialog-driven story with promising chemistry between the leads in the first season, this quickly derails in season 2. Rather than explore romance through a the story of a god and a traveling merchant, it seemingly tries to explore romance through short selling. His major moment of growth is viewing his love of Holo as that of a risky investment, and if this isn't some emotionally vacuous bullshit I don't know what is. That somehow not wishing to maximize his returns but wishing misfortune on someone else while still making a fair killing is a moment of growth. That this somehow leads him to realize the value of true companionship rather than being merely having professional acquaintances. There may be some self realization in the moments afterwards, but it's much too little way too late. Spare me.