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After finishing this show, I only have one thing to say... I need a second season bro.

Genjitsu no Yohane started out as an April's Joke from the sunrise staff surprisingly became an actual anime with deep messages and gripping character development. They could've made this anime as a joke, but they didn't. The staff went above and beyond with this anime, and I praise them for that. This is a spin-off with a lot of heart put into it.

The story - I'm gonna keep this review spoiler-free so do not worry. The story of this anime is more of a character-driven story focused on Yohane, ... rather than LL Sunshine where the focus is on everybody. Every episode focuses entirely on Yohane, tackling each and every one of her flaws., and by the end of this season, she grew so much to the point that I could honestly say that she's a better written and developed character compared to her LL Sunshine counterpart.

The characters - as you can expect from a spin-off, the characters here are the same characters that we know and love from LL Sunshine. Not entirely the same because it's a spin-off, and they need to at least alter one or two traits of the characters in order to fit in to a new setting. They are all well-written and competent characters that amplifies the enjoyment I watch from the show. Yohane, of course, is the best written character here as expected of the main character, but the other characters also gets better and get development. I won't say who they are to keep this spoiler-free. I'd say though, my favorite character in this show is Chika, because she heightens up Yohane's character, she felt like a mentor-figure, like once a main character before, so she teaches the knowledge that she has to Yohane, which in turn makes Yohane develop.

The animation - even as a spin-off, the main selling point of Love Live is still the songs and the dance that comes with them. And let me tell you, the dance animation here is on another level. Sunrise really is the Best in the industry when it comes to human CGI. I've praised them a lot before, but I really feel like they reached another Peak here. The action scenes are also amazing as well. It's not ufotable level of course, but it's not lacking for an anime made in 2023.
The art of course is beautiful. The art of Love Live has always been top-notch since Sunshine, and I'm happy to say that they've continued to be Peak here as well.

The music - It's originally a music anime. So do you really expect me to give this category any less than 10?

Overall, I'm really happy with my conclusion with this review. It's unbiased and really tells you the actual quality of the show.

I have to admit, I wasn't the biggest fan of Nijigaku Season 1. It took me a while to enjoy the solo idol thing and even now, I'm still not 100% sure what my stance on it is. But I don't hate it and there's one character here in particular that makes me enjoy solo live... and spoiler alert, it's Lanzhu.

First, let's talk about the plot. Even in Season 1, there's not much plot going on compared to its predecessors (SIP and Sunshine). But here, there are at least some conflicts and character backgrounds going on that make the episodes entertaining and have a linear ... narrative that it's following.

Next, are the characters. There are three new main characters introduced in this season. And they did the two of them justice. Especially Lanzhu. Man lemme tell you, everyone and I mean EVERYONE Hated her in the games but the anime staff did a great job of portraying what kind of character she truly is. Shioriko was done decently. She got her episodes dedicated to her and while I felt that her arc was kinda rush, it was still fine imo. But the one that got the short end of the stick was Mia. It felt like she was there just to be there for no reason at all. Her arc was done poorly (if you can even call it an arc) and her characterization was pretty terrible. And that's a shame cause I like her in the games.
As for the OG 10 members, they're all still pretty good characters. Much better than they were in Season 1 because here we have different interactions for each member. The forming of subunits helped their characterization imo.

I have nothing to say about the animation and music department because this is Sunrise at its peak. I'd always stand by what I've said that Nijigaku has the best animation in all of Love Live. The CG is incredible and most of the time, it's better than the 2D. The direction and camera movements here are also absolutely amazing. It's on par with Sunshine and I don't say that lightly because Sunshine is the BEST Love Live. The only thing that holding me back from giving the animation a 10/10 is that the clothes and costumes for the songs are extremely uninteresting aside from Lanzhu's and the first season's outfits.
The music is an absolute banger. From the first episode alone, you know they weren't holding back when the first song is Eutopia. You know they're serious about everything. And the opening and ending... man they're the Best Opening and Ending in all of the 2nd Seasons of Love Live.

Overall, it's just so much better than Season 1. The addition of Lanzhu, Shiroriko, and Mia helped this series and gave the characters some meaningful conflicts that they desperately needed.
(8.4/10)

It's been so long since I last smiled while watching every episode of an anime. And to think this was the anime that made me do that... I'm smiling again just thinking about it.
Now, before I review this anime, because I am 100% sure that a lot of people skipped this series and wrote it off as "generic moe sol anime but with healing", I just wanna say that technically you're not wrong for thinking that. What I'm trying to say is that this anime is not for everyone. If you hate music anime, then this isn't for you. If you hate female protagonists then ... this also isn't for you. Are you still here reading my review? Good. Now let's start breaking down why I think this is the Best Anime this season (and possibly the Best Anime this year).

First, is the plot. It's not the strongest plot out there ngl. It even started pretty generic with the protagonist (Kana) showcasing her abilities, as well as the concept of this whole show. Healing via Singing. This type of concept is not unique to this anime, but it's definitely the first series to dedicate a whole anime just for the concept alone. And I have to say, they handled the healing via singing thingy pretty well. There's not a point in this anime where the girls healed someone via singing and broke my immersion, because the singing ability is still grounded in real-life rules. For a simpler explanation, the singing is strictly for helping the patient lose their pain or calm their nerves. In other words, they're like a band-aid and an anesthetics in one package. They're not like the go-to solution to every pain and disease, no. That job still goes to doctors, and the Healer Girls are mostly there to assist the doctors.
These things are so simple yet so effective to make the world feel believable in my opinion. And that is this anime's strongest strength. Another one of its strength is the pacing. Each episode have perfect pacing that perfectly handles the conflicts in that episode. My only complaint is how in a certain episode in the latter half, they kinda f*cked up the whole sequence of cuts with present and flashbacks which is kinda confusing. Other than that, it's all perfect.

Then the characters. The characters here are all interesting and likable. Sonya is definitely the Best Girl for me. But all of them are all good girls that deserve headpats for how hard they work. They each have their development throughout the series which makes their growth a joy to watch. And their interactions with one another and how different they are from another person are also fun to see because it shows how they aren't just one-dimensional cardboards that can be replaced with anything. They're not complex and full of nuisance kind of characters, but they are still well-written characters. The side characters as well are memorable characters that had some kind of impact on the story and the characters, whether it's to develop them or to further the world-building of the series.

Let's move to the animation department. It's amazing. This is probably the best animation that I've seen that is not ufotable, kyoani, wit, or mappa. This is just that good. Its fluid with its every movement, and it barely has off-models in each frame. The art is also very consistent which is always a plus in my book. The direction too is pretty well-done. There are always meaningful and interesting shots, as well as a beautiful sequence when the girls start singing. It's just a joy to watch.

Then lastly, the music. I'm not someone to be considered when talking about music, but I know good music when I hear it. And this anime has plenty of bangers in its catalog. The ost, insert songs, opening, ending... all of them are so good. And that's to be expected from a music anime. But this is just so great, definitely up there with Love Live music imo.

Overall, I just love how solid the foundation of this anime is. It has a strong concept that greatly integrates with irl mechanics that keeps my immersion from breaking. The cast is strong and full of interesting personalities. The animation and music departments are all top-notch. It's just an anime with minimal flaws, and that's why I think that this is the Best Anime this season.
(9.6/10)

Well... that was a unique experience. It really feels like a horror version of "Lord of the Fireflies".
One thing that I learned from this manga... Sakiko is too precious for this world. She's the Best Girl in this manga BY FAR. As well as the Best Character in extension.

The story is quite good and bad at the same time. The story beats, the plot, was fine. But the execution and the pacing was kinda bad. It definitely didn't aged well.
The premise was pretty unique (for the time) and the problems that was thrown at the main cast were good and kept the story interesting ... because of the mystery. But it really felt cheap because some of the plot threads were entirely dropped without really any explanations. I mean, it's a horror manga so some supernatural sh*t without explanation is something that we should expect. But my God, the amount of sh*t that happens "just because" kinda took me out of immersion. It really felt like things are happening for the shock value, and not because it's integral to the story. Like, some of the plot threads could be taken out and this would still go the same way as it ended without any problems.

The characters are not bad. They aren't great by any means. But there's one character that took me by surprised because of how much I loved her. Yes, Sakiko. She's pretty much the only reason why I continued reading despite the not-so-good story of the manga. The other main characters were very flawed but I also enjoyed them. Though Shou was on the edge of being a Gary Stu ngl. That's the only aspect where I kinda feel iffy about the characters. The other kids and adults were kinda boring and was just there to serve as shock factor for the readers, so they ain't good characters.

The art was solid. It serves its purpose of being scary and not being too overly gory. It certainly added to the experience because the art isn't gory for the sake of being gory. Well... most of the time lol.
Though I really think that the art aged poorly, I respect how the panels conveyed the situation and the severity of the events was in this manga.

Overall, it's a nice read if you turn off your brain. It's made in the 70's so this isn't suppose to be overly complicated and sh*t. It's made to question ourselves as the manga's message is pretty deep and there's a lot to dissect here that mirrors what is currently happening in our world.
Though even if the message and themes are deep, it doesn't excuse the poor execution of the story. Hence my score. I still recommend it though.
(5.75/10)

That was a good 40 minutes movie. Though I felt like it could've been better if it was longer. Like, a good 1 hour and 30 minutes is probably the best runtime for this in order to flesh out the characters' backstories, motivations, and adding more depth to them.
Cause as it stands for now, characters just happen to be that kind of characters for the story to function. Like, the girl was just getting bullied just because. Or the other guy is [spoiler] just because. There isn't really a "why?" on the things that are happening. And that's a shame because if we had gotten ... a bit more reason as to why things are happening to those characters, we would have gotten more attached to them and felt the weight of their circumstances.

Well, moving on cause I don't wanna spoil anymore. The animation was pretty good. It was as expected for a movie anime. It's smooth, fluid, and pretty to look at.
The music was also pretty nice. The ost had a lot of weight, and most of the time, was carrying the emotional weights of the scenes. It's good.

Overall, I still enjoyed this movie and I'm sure a lot of new anime fans will get their heartstring tugged by this movie, but for us old gramps who have seen hundreds or thousands of anime out there, this movie will feel like it's missing something. But that's okay. Watch it for yourself to see if you'll like it or not. It's just a 40 minutes movie, akin to 2 episodes of anime.
(6.8/10)

I like this more grounded slice of life CGDCT compared to the usual yuri-bait CGDCT animes.
There's this satisfaction when the girls are actually talking with their parents and getting permission for everything they wanna do. It just feels so realistic and there's this feeling of growth from the characters that we see from the perspective of the parents (like how they see their children going to their own adventure, that kind of feeling).

The story is as expected from a CGDCT anime. Average. The only plot thread that was fairly important is the MC's father. Other than that, there's no stand out in the plot.

The ... characters are all good. They don't excel in any areas nor lacked anything. I quite like how each characters grow in each scenes, which shows progression to the series and development for them. They aren't particularly memorable, but the time I have watching them is something that I won't forget... probably lol

The animation is pretty standard. It's better than most anime out right now, but comparing it to some of the CGDCT animes in the past... well, it's not really excellent if you think about it. One thing I like though is how consistent the art is. It's great stuff.

The music is nothing out of ordinary. I like the OP and ED, as well as the ost. But there aren't any time where the ost blows me away. The op and ed grew on me, but that's really about it.

Overall, a great show this season and definitely stands out as one of the better anime in the CGDCT genre.

What a good anime. There’s not much to say about this anime that hasn’t been said already. Hidden gem, most underrated anime this season, etch.
The story telling in the first cour was exceptional. With how the pacing is, the emotional beats, and character introductions that was out of the norm; it makes for an extremely fresh and unique anime. That’s how I can describe the charm of this anime. Though, the second cour wasn’t as good as the first cour. It had a lot of plot conveniences, plot threads that was revealed pretty underwhelmingly, and character changes that came out of nowhere. It was ... a mess. But even with all of those problems that the second cour had, it’s still kept the charm of the first cour intact.

The characters are amazing. The cast are full of strong and memorable characters.

The animation is pretty much within the standard of Wit animation. It’s nothing mindblowing or anything. It’s consistent, had some highs and lows, and is pretty to look at. Nothing more, nothing less.

The music is decent. The openings and endings ain’t my cup of tea, but the OST was pretty good. It was also utilized in many scenes and made those scenes very memorable.

Overall, it’s a good anime. The first cour raised my expectation so much high that I kinda felt empty about the second cour because of how messy it is. Still good nonetheless.
(7.6/10)

Wow, this one really surprised me. It's a pretty good music/idol anime that I never heard of before. I'm glad I gave it a chance.

The story, while it's pretty fast-pace and a bit cheesy at times, I think that it told what it needed to tell from it's initial premise. But 12 episodes isn't really enough to flesh out the plot to bring out some depth or meaningful messages to it. Though I really enjoyed the story nonetheless.
But regardless of that, this show really has some trouble in balancing the magic and reality aspect of it. There's no fine line on what magic can and ... can't do and it's always just so convenient when magic works in certain episodes but suddenly isn't even used in other episodes.
The settings of this anime is also quite shaky. There's a lot left unexplored and unexplained. Though it's mainly just it's missing potential and not really plot breaking problem of sorts.

The characters are quite trope-y but it's understandable since there's A LOT of characters here. Mostly they are here for Waifu bait (and Yuri bait cause why not), but that doesn't stop them from being forgettable or something. The only characters that I forgot are the ones that get zero to no focus so I think that the rest of the characters are good and got pretty decent spotlight.
The main cast isn't as strong as I think, but Lavie mah girl carried the team. Everything she does is so crazy that it's entertaining. She a great girl.

The animation is pretty fucking good. Considering that they ain't Sunrise (known for Love Live franchise, undoubtedly the Best music/idol anime), I think they made a decent job for the CG models. My only complaint is how they never utilized the CG models for some memorable camera work animation. It's a wasted potential tbh considering that this anime was made in 2020.
Though episode 8 had some great camera movement that utilized the CG models to it's utmost potential.
Moving on from the CG, the handrawn scenes from this anime is great. It's consistently drawn and never go off-models. It's just pretty to look at.

The music is one of the most important, arguably the most important, aspect for Music/idol animes. So how does this one do? Well, pretty f-cking good.
While there's no immediate bangers like in other music anime, the songs are consistent and catchy that I never found anything that I didn't like.
Though the opening and ending are bangers. One of the most underrated op/ed that I've heard yet.

Overall, it's just a good music anime. It's probably one of the better anime adaptation of a game.
(6.6/10)

Wait... where's Banana? Why isn't she here in this movie?
Welp, worst movie of all time smh

1/10
Not recommended


But seriously speaking, that's the only major disappointment to this movie.
The story, or at least the pacing for this movie is much better than I expected after the disappointment the two Camelot movies. The story base (from the game) is already great, the only thing the movie needed to do is to fit it in a movie format, and I'm glad to say that they did a decent job.
The game is better overall due to more fleshed out dialogues and better paced, but this movie is a great ... alternative for people who ain't a gamer (lol)

The characters are kinda meh. This movie was created for FGO players, so anime-only watchers might get confuse on who's who and what's their relationship to the MC because the past singularities weren't adapted.
It also doesn't help that more than half of them didn't even get a dialogue and was just grunting and appear as cameos. Still salty that Banana didn't even appear as a cameo (rewatched this movie dozen of times and I didn't find her smh).

The animation isn't as good as the Camelot movies, much less the ufotable ones, but it's serviceable.
There's a few sakuga here and there, but some shot just looks goofy and iffy.

The music is decent. Some tracks came from the game so I wasn't really impressed. The timing for the OST could have been better tbh.

Overall, the best FGO movie for now.
It could've been a better movie if the characters gotten a few more dialogues just like in the game, but I guess it's okay. Just don't think that the whole FGO anime is the definitive version for the story of FGO because it's not. The game is still far superior and is the definitive way to enjoy the story of Fate Grand Order.
(6.8/10)

Damn, that was a great Sakuga Compilation of the movie. Now where's the complete version of the movie? Huh? This is the full movie? What?

My opinions and thoughts from the first movie didn't really change much after this one. The pacing was still all over the place, and the character interactions are some of the weakest.
The two movies fails as adaptation and as stand-alone movies.
It's frustrating to watch as a fan of the game's story, with all the cut characters and noodle-wet interactions from the characters. And I imagine how boring these movies can be from an anime-only perspective with the butchered pacing and characters.

The ... only good thing that came from this movie is the sakuga-fest animation and some good-*ss ost. The insert song at the end was also great. Those are the only good things I can list from this movie.

Overall, if you want to watch flashy and fluid animations, then I recommend this. Otherwise, just don't touch these movies.
(5.6/10)