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Goated manga tbh. Maybe it's just that I havent read that many psychological thrillers or those death game show type of works, but this one was really enticing. The stakes being so high and stressful clashes with the simplicity and childness of the games, ahh it's so good. I also love how detailed everyone gets about the strategies and intellectual twists. like in a shonen or live action show, they'd just have an ass pull or give some contrived answer but here it gets so in depth i love ittt.

Theres plenty i don't care for. The philosophy of life is fine but it gets ... overbearing and repetitive after a while. The art style,, while unique, is very noisy and at times things are hard to make out. I'm also not the biggest fan of the sexual assault stuff. ..

But this manga has this special thing where it can hit all the right notes in a huge spectacle. This author knows how to make a moment have weight and presence. There'll be times when the art, story and stakes will all come together in a beautiful way to be super striking. Yes there are parts that drag, but the key beats are delivered in spades.

This was the most "pirate" out of all the one piece media i've seen so far. Wagers, hunting bounties, pillaging and burning, full out ship battles, chaotic bars, and fights breaking out over the dumbest things.

There was too much of the movie MCs. I don't mind those characters having distinguished roles in the story, but those roles should have intertwined more with the straw hat crew, or at least been interesting enough for me to care. There was an abundance of backstory and sappy moments, but it was too boring and generic for me. The story dragged and lost me in the second half. ...

The main themes were your boilerplate one piece themes: what is one's purpose and identity, what do you fight for? Who's that dying uncle/grandpa/sister that you're staking your life on? There's the idea that pirates are heartless killers, which is shattered by Luffy's values.

The villain was basically Wapol (from the drum island arc) with his final fight being something akin to Luffy vs Crocodile. Speaking of the fighting, I was pretty impressed with the fight choreography in general. Especially in the first third of the movie. Any time Shuraiya was on screen, he killed it. Even though the guy didn't have any special powers, his hand to hand combat was quite resourceful - Flipping over tables to block bullets, wrapping up pirates in chains, or spinning a giant oar to knock foes off a ship. In fact it reminded me of jackie chan in some aspects. I was impressed by how often the background was utilized in the fight scenes. Usually, one piece has its character fight on the foreground and only shows interactions with the bg in the form of explosions or debris. This movie used the environment to its full advantage to make each location feel 3d dimensional and alive.

The pseudo 3d camera in the beginning was a little nauseating, but also very cool , as I genuinely haven't seen anything like it.

I also want to speak on Nami. Someone turned up her psycho-crazy personality trait to 11 and I kinda love it. She threatens to kill a kid with Zoro's katana and generally was more brash than usual.

The art and animation was top notch. The main one piece anime production is too tight to dedicate a lot to actual animation, so it tends to use shot composition and limited animation to tell its story. This movie had a lot more movement and action with its animation. It made the fight scenes feel tense and alive. The animation also emphasized the characters personalities: zoro was so dense he didn't notice he was hit by food bones, or nami choking zoro.

So, good art, mid story.

This movie was subpar. The best thing I can say about it was that it had really vibrant colors. The lighting and bold color scheme made every scene feel reminiscent of a 90s toon. From the rich reds to the deep purples, this movie feels like the embodiment of a lively summer day. The lighting shifts dramatically through the movie, which transforms the scenes of the movie into like paintings. Even with the already colorful tone of anime and cartoons, this one stands apart. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for sunset colors.

It was cool that Chopper got a spotlight story. The supporting cast of ... animals and the little kid were kinda annoying though. Anyway, this movie got a bit darker than I expected. People get severely beat up. Even chopper and the little kid get walloped. Though I was disappointed that a lot of the fights were resolved by "willpower" rather than any tactics or anything creative. That's kinda par for the course with one piece.

The main villain always spouting off his plans was pretty funny. I always like the sillier one piece villains

The ED was bomb though. Good music.

9 years later i watch one of the first anime I'd ever seen. Interesting to see all the symbolism and deeper themes I kinda forgot on my first viewing. The world building, background design and smaller details in the interactions between the characters pop out as things I hadn't remembered. Those are the good parts! However, the second half of the film, which is a bit tricky to dilute into words was not only a mind boggling rediscovery upon my rewatch, but also an aspect confusing and tonally dissonant with the warm, slice of life film up until that point. I wish it had stayed ... forgotten. The themes of love and emotional sacrifice mix clumsily with the nuances of time paradoxes in the second half. Genre/theme whiplash if you will. This is a personal problem but being dumb as a brick those complex time paradoxes never go well with me, so i fell out of the immersion of the story when all that hit. Time be like : "oh i jumped back in time to save you and so then you got your time back and jumped back in time to save me " and idk.. in someways i love time movies for their tackling of creative narrative structure and breaking from the traditional linear mode of storytelling, but when it gets convoluted like this, i wish there'd be a on screen diagram to help dummies like me.

I thought time hopping plus slice of life plus a little romance was enough on its own. The narrative on the preciousness of life and art adds a shade of maturity and purpose to the film. However, I would have been fine with a carefree mind empty summer flick where Makoto just learns about how to grow out of adolescence after fooling around with time shenanigans. Like the whole troupe of "skipping and stopping time renders life meaningless, the fact it's finite makes it worth living" So yeah the extra themes are cool and all, but they feel crammed on top of an already fine film.

Production is top notch, love the animation, character designs and lighting of the whole movie. It's so extravagantly detailed yet ordinary enough to resemble a modern day Japan without being some far future space or fantasy concept world. It's simply an exquisitely captured essence of reality. The attention to details is paid in dividends when we go through the time loops and get to relive the wonderful environments over and over, in different contexts.

The characters are whimsical and a little weird. It's really only Makoto that stands out with her bombastic energy, but Kosuke and Chiaki serve their purposes well. The mini storyline of the guy who keeps getting bullied as a result of Makoto's selfish actions is better than it needs to be as well.

No comment on the music, it's fine, but not super memorable tbh.

So yeah it's a pretty fine film and I can respect the labor that went into the story, but some aspects don't jive with my personal preferences.

Greatest anime in the world!!!!.. not. Spy X Family was very over hyped, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. It just doesn't live among the laurels of highly esteemed shows that feature broader themes, polished design/animation and a deeper, more mature story. The premise of Spy x Family is very good, i mean you take 3 very distinct and dysfunctional roles in society and you mash up together with a pretense they all have to get along and pretend to be a family. The brightest moments of the show come when you see the facade fall away, and the trio actually resembles a ... loving family. That's a big part of it too. There was this meme: "I understand why Spy X family is getting such high praise because it's the first time anime fans have discovered what a loving family looks like". But like it's true, there are great loving family dynamics here, something that isn't really a big part of most anime. Most stuff I see is magic shonen battle hero, isekai'd into getting a harem of girls, school anime, or cute girls doing cute things. I don't really understand what works or turns a profit for the japanese anime industry, but the medium really lacks enough shows with an acute focus on family.

I think the main problem I have with the show,, which really isn't a problem but a lack of characteristics and refinement that those classic shows have. Everything is rather surface level and you rarely need to stop and think about what's being presented. It's only as deep as what you see. Any type of ambiguity or possible use of critical thinking is vaporized by Loid, the side characters or even a narrator explaining what's going on. Here are some of the main themes: family, discipline, prestige, secrecy and spies, authority and loyalty to the mission and making friends with the shitty rich kid. The problem is that nothing is really explored on a deeper, more nuanced level. They establish the theme or trope once, and then fall back to the same commentary every time it's brought up. They'll fill an episode with a couple of these themes, but it's all flat and banal. Comment about loid keeping his cover as a spy, comment on them keeping up their family image, comment on how anya isn't maintaining a level of honor and prestige expected, comment on needing to discipline her and make her study more, a comment on not going to far or else their family unit will be compromised, a segment where the higher ups remind loid of whats at stake for the operation. Like.. idk maybe I'm doing a bad job at explaining, but there's really nothing new here once you get accustomed to these rotating tropes. There's never a morally ambiguous decision, or a scene that causes actual intrigue and questioning on what the characters are going through, never a line of dialogue that has a multilayered, deep commentary on society. Everything that is said and happens on screen is just that. None of this is necessary to make a good show, but without this, I don't think it can be a great one.

Characters are very good. Loid and anya are the most interesting and developed. Loid as the leader of the family unit, is often the one to spur on the story, either by a mission by his organization or of his own volition to increase the image of his family. I quite enjoyed his overwhelming ethic to be perfect. Like something minor will go wrong and he'll immediately over analyze the situation in a spy scenario and act to remedy it. My favorite moment was when, during the initial examination phase for anya, Loid rescued a kid in the sewer and ruined his suit with dirty water. Then announced he expected something like that might happen and reveals a change of clothes, remarking the new grey suit looks much better.

Anya is also a very well developed character, especially during the school sections. There's a nice balance between the childish immaturity she has, throwing fits, lacking discipline when it comes to homework or her favorite food, or playing pretend spy -- and the quiet mature discipline she occasionally displays. This often is in tandem after reading someone's mind. Speaking out to proclaim how good of a father Loid is to put someone at ease, trying to befriend the rich kid because of the operation, staying up late to try to study. Because Anya is able to read and understand the minds of the adults around her, she mirrors their motives and does her best to please her foster parents and gain their approval. Also the reactions to overhearing the deadly work of the parents or the smug meme faces are top notch.

Not much to say on Yor. She is very badass when it comes to unleashing her assassin nature. It's usually accentuated with incredible animation. Her ditzy, oblivious nature towards most other things is sometimes cute but mostly annoying and too reminiscent of other dumb anime girl tropes. I actually liked the first episode or two when we saw her sorrow and quiet contemplative side before she became the housewife.

Other characters: the elder headmaster is the best, I love his overreactions. Yor's brother and his chaotic mind games and flustered interactions with the Forger family is pure chaos and I love it. Loid's assistant spy guy, the rich kid and Anya's best friend are more eh, I didn't like them that much.

The sound and music are nice. Both themes are great, with the OP being a real bop throughout. The ost had catchy entertaining music too, not just generic anime stuff. Some tense spy songs, some slice of life goofy music, and some beautiful heartfelt songs for the emotional bits.

Art and animation is fine, nothing incredible. I mean it's not studio Shaft level of set design or studio bones/trigger level of movement and animation, but its designs and set pieces are serviceable and the animation quality is good when it needs to be in fights or dramatic moments.

The general story arcs, pacing and mood are well polished. There's a nice mix of serious super *plot episodes and some cute/fun side episodes. The side stories, while feeling like filler, are wonderfully creative and help to develop the family dynamic the most. The episodes also have a great emotional roller coaster throughout, usually ending in something heartwarming or climatic that ties everything together in a sweet and satisfying finish.

I can see why a lot of people like this. Anya provides the kawai need, Loid the dramatic stakes and over analyzing monologues in shonen needs, and Yor the goofy humor and pretty waifu need.

This review contains spoilers. Sorry if it's wordy and a bit incoherent.

I had heard a lot of good things about Vivy before watching it. Things like it was the best anime of the year, that it was the most refreshing, beautiful thing for anime in a long time. That it had gorgeous animation, music, story, characters that made it an instant masterpiece. So needless to say, I went in with high expectations. After finishing, my feelings were .. lukewarm.

The concept was quite intriguing. Take a idol protagonist, add in a society between human and AI, talk about social and ethical issues with what it ... means to be human, what it means to have a purpose, put it on a futuristic backdrop and give it a touch of fun time travel, and you have vivy!

The story was a bit of a mess. I'm not an expert when it comes to analyzing stories, but it seemed like this one tried to be everything at once. Lets list some of the bigger plots. You have Vivy's goal of becoming the best songstress and had her struggles in popularity and what it meant to sing from the heart. You have the destruction of the world via AIs rising against humans, dealing with what it means to be human and AI's social rights, as well as the whole time travel aspect of changing past events to alter the future. You had the crisis of identity between Vivy and Diva, and the dual nature of how each of them served as an idol. Then you had the general plot among all AI on what was their one true mission, and how they failed or succeeded in fulfilling their purpose.

It felt like all of these story lines were competing for our attention and an arc would try to cover all of them, and came out a master of none. Even when an arc reached its supposed climax, like with Vivy killing Grace and then having her and Dr Saeki's blood on her hands, I never felt especially moved. Things just could have hit harder.

The ending was also quite lackluster. I don't know exactly why it fell apart for me but here are some possible contributions:
-Plot holes of the operation and time travel inconsistencies

-how barely any of the strategy of the final operation was explained

-introducing that new wheelchair girl character at the end

-how the pacing was terrible comparing episode 12 and 13, with the former being full of high stakes consequences and adrenaline filled action and the latter being a series of long conversations between vivy and her companions, reminiscing on their journey and promises. It just felt like such a downgrade and sucked out all the tension of the final battle.

-how we established that vivy's unique song would be able to distract and shut down the central servers, but in the finale, she was just on a stage singing to no one. it came across as matsumoto and beth in the midst of the battle while Vivy's was just singing backup. I think it would have been cooler if vivy was there in the fray, singing and disabling the rogue AIs with her voice, and delivering the final blow to the system.

This isn't to say I hated everything about the story. I enjoyed the mini arcs of the duo solving the landmark cases of problematic AI and it was cool to see the time skip and how far AI evolved at each point. The emotional arc with osamu and it going full circle with him sending the Matsumoto robot back in time was quite a cool twist. When the Singularity project failed, and you heard the defective AI singing a distorted version of vivy's song, it was really bone chilling. Finally the emotional moments that flashed before Vivy in the last couple episodes was very heartwarming.

I liked the themes of humanity and robots, especially when it came to purpose, identity and ethics. Seeing the AI struggle and come to terms with their purpose was entertaining; I found the AI rebelling from their purpose cool too, like with Beth and Antonio. Seeing Vivy grow, not only as an idol, but as a soul searching for answers to her purpose, was satisfying to watch. The essence of "acting from the heart" was an important theme and served as a center point for a lot of the show.

Even so, the show never seemed to delve very deep into these themes beyond surface level. We see the AI say, "this is my true purpose" or "my mission is to protect my master" or "to change the world, just smile first and they will smile back". There was probably an open-endedness to the messages, so viewers could draw their own conclusions. And I certainly saw many inferences by people in the comments, but it would have been better if the story had dug deeper in its messages to probe more questions, because to my simple mind, a lot of it was surface level.

The animation was great. I do prefer the styles of Trigger and Bones, where everything on screen is animated and bursting with life, but WIT did a good job of keeping things moving when needed and adding interesting angles or pans when there were static shots. The sakuga and fight scenes were some of the best I've ever seen, definitely one of the highlights of the show.

The character and set designs were pretty solid. I was impressed by the originality and level of detail put into the backgrounds, buildings and props, as well as the costumes and designs for all the main characters. I loved both the cube and bear versions of Matsumoto. Some sets and background characters did feel like generic sci fi futuristic stuff, but it was good overall.

The music was also amazing. I loved the main theme and appreciated how the motifs would pop up in various emotional scenes to great effect. Hearing Vivy sing was great and I loved when the OP would occasionally merge with what was happening in the story with unique scenes and animation. It really solidified the song with what was happening with the plot. It was also enjoyable hearing other songs that she would sing now and then. The ED was great. The other background music and sound effects were fine. Nothing terrible but not overly incredible.

I think a bit part of this show was me trying to force myself to stay interested and invested, when a lot of it was kinda boring! I realize that maybe the genre and style of the show aren't quite my thing, so it makes sense I wouldn't 100% vibe with it, but at the end, I didn't feel happy, sad, or satisfied. I just felt disappointed.

Gurren Lagann is a burst of pure joy, fun and unadulterated action and adventure, but unfortunately there isnt much substance once you peel back the surface. The art designs, animation, cinematography and music is top notch and is pure eye candy. I love the sharp and bold stylization of everything and how much flourish and flashiness is put into the animation. Even small things like the bumper cards are amazing (theyre actually my favorite bumpers ive seen). But things fall apart for me when you look to the story/characters and pacing, especially in the second part. I dont know how to exactly describe the phenomenon ... that is "trigger productions" but it doesnt sit right with me.

**SPOILERS IN MAIN REVIEW AHEAD YOUVE BEEN WARNED**
One of the main concerns I have with gurren lagann is how it handles its story and pacing, ESPEcially after the time skip.trigger has a very specific way of telling stories , ie triggerisms, that I'm sure many people can get hyped over, but it just becomes bothersome and somewhat of a tirade for me . Their themes are often crazy simple, laser focused on a single idea or driving force for all the of the characters and general plot. could be: trying to be the best, finding the confidence to believe in oneself, standing up to an evil tyranny. it's all awesome and simple at face value but it lacks depth and subtlety that I can appreciate in other stories.

Gurren lagann goes with the main motto "my drill will be the one that pierces the heavens" and runs with that idea. The MCs rise up from their underground suppression and go on an epic journey to take out all the baddies occupying the surface and eventually become the supreme rulers. A lot of the battle episodes after the first few feel very worn out and copy pasted. I dont feel much changing from one battle to the next in terms of character growth. there is also a lack of danger or excitement. The episode will start with the gang encountering some new greater evil, they will struggle and flounder, how will they ever defeat this impossible force. then through some inspirational speech, new gimmick or deus ex machina, they will overcome the evil and their power grows. rinse and repeat. I rarely ever feel emotional turmoil *(exception to this later) that isnt going to be solved by the end of the episode. Even when the odds are against the gang and everything feel hopeless, there's never any acutal loss or change between episodes. The only exception to this is the part where kamina dies and simon goes through an emotional breakdown. Then nia's introduction refocuses him and steers him towars his new destiny. That emotional arc was quite strong and threw me for a loop as it was something i usually dont see in anime. For the most part however, the gang will take on one villain after another and grow in physical power, but rarely will they develop emotionally or mentally, at least in a way that touches me. In short it was just too shounen.

After the time skip

At first I was initially excited, eager to see how the characters had matured and grown, how the world had changed under a new peace. I was anticipating the new direction the story was going to take, but as the episode (17) went on, I quickly became very disappointed. It became clear that even though this aesthetically a new environment, thematically it still had the same problems of emotionless shounen. Simon lacks any of the traits that made him likeable, instead becoming the new kamina, recklessly rushing into dangerous battles. Nia gets captured by the anti spirals and disappears from simons life just as they were about to be together. It works as good cliffhanger and taking the story in a wildly new direction but it blue-balled so hard it messed me up.

Rossiu's new arc as a military commander then kicking out simon seemed so uncharacteristic and seemed to act soley as a reason to progress the plot and drama. Yoko's development as a teacher was nice as it sought a balance between maturity but also old personality traits. We see the younger kids from before become the new soldiers of the dai gurren. Remember what I said before about the story being simple and focused? This felt like the opposite, in the worst way. We start introducing too many changes too fast. The story tries to move into a lot of subplots making it feel disjointed and unfocused. Maybe I'm a hypocrite for bashing one style of this show then attacking when it tries the opposite, but I do believe there is a proper way to balance pacing and themes in a inviting and engaging manner and it just didnt work for me.

Anyway the rest of the second part describes humanity gearing up for a do or die scenario of human extinction. they try to eject everyone on giant ship to escape while the dai gurren force combines for one final effort to defeat the ultimate evil. The latter is what the final few episodes are about and I found it incredibly boring. While the visuals were off the charts, it didnt instill any excitement, because of the monotony of the action and "tension" and the cosmic scale being difficult to relate to. I'll cover these two points in more detail now.

You see a lot of setbacks as members of the gurren lagann team sacrifice themselves to edge closer to saving nia but few of them feel impactful. This is the endgame so even though characters die off, you won't be able to really see the fallout or impact it has on the show since it'll be over soon. Furthermore they all die unceremoniously in this chaotic space battle. we see the others grieve their death but it doesnt carry any weight. none of it resonates with me. Same thing with like the dai gurren being dragged into some inescapable void that shut down all the power. I know simon is just going to call upon the power of the spiral and his friends and escape so wheres the tension.

The second part is just a quirk I have where I find it difficult to relate to things that go beyond mortal realms, like it just escapes my capacity to understand what is happening because it's so alien and grand. Many people like shows that go on a universal scale for the final climax, but it doesnt work for me. Same kinda goes for mechas in general. **more at end

Characters are ok. All the main cast are defined well enough. They display genuine comradery with each other yet keep distinct traits of their own. Simon is the standout of the main cast. I especially like how he grows from his shell as a coward to a strong leader with heart and brains. Kamina is overly flashy and fundamentally what trigger stands for, so he comes across bold and memorable. Yoko is more than a sex symbol which I appreciate, but I feel like she still came off as the weaker and less developed of those main three. Nia was a breath of fresh air as she is fundamentally different from the humans and her personality and aspersions show this clearly. Littner is my favorite from the side cast. He's the techie guy and I love his flirtatious attitude. The rest of the side cast are pretty one dimensional and dont get a lot of development. I've already stated what I think about the characters after the time skip. Some improve, but most derive wildly from their origins to the point where they feel like new personalities completely.


**i think part of it comes down to the fact that mecha anime just arent my favorite thing. even though i can undersatnd that mechas are never the primary focus on these types of anime . and more are a "means to a end" they just create a sense of fantasy and sci fi that I find hard to relate to. I find human emotion realistic fights, and person to person intereactions in anime more relatable than having to dig through the layers of robot metaphors.

The anime if Sanji gave up cooking and kicking and became a quality inspection checker in the modern day world, was my first impression of Acca 13. This anime was recommended to me by a friend, and is very different from the type I’d usually watch.

Enjoyment
Initially I was bored with this anime. I wanted to see lots of action and fights of my beloved Shonen anime. However, I realized that was not the case for Acca 13. Even when there were tense moments, they seemed subdued to the thriller or action I came to expect from other anime. In addition, the theme of government, coup ... d’états, and bureaucracy departments wasn’t too appealing to me. However around episode 6 or 7, I started to accept the fact that this anime wasn’t going to have giant monsters and the conflict instead came from the tension between the Royal family and the individual countries, and I actually became invested(talk about expanding my boundaries huh).

Story
The story started off too slow for me, and due to the fact I was expecting some intense thriller/spy anime, I was disappointed in the beginning. As I progressed, I liked it more and more and became invested in what happened to the characters (wow!) Each episode left off with a new piece of information that was intriguing but not frustrating as some cliffhanger shows could be. The story switched between serious and casual beats, which was nice, but some of the casual parts seemed kinda dumb. Do we really have to hear over and over about how much food Lotta wants Jean to pick up? But the complexity between the different countries, organizations and motives was played out well, even to someone like me who likes simpler stories over ones that have a intelligent narrative. I feel like if I rewatched this or cared more about analyzing the underlying themes that the show presented, I would have enjoyed it more. So those that are into that sort of stuff might like this more. The ending was also pretty good, and while a keen viewer might be able to pick up the hints, I wasn’t prepared at all.

Art/Animation
I really enjoyed the almost graphic like art style of the characters. I don’t know how exactly to word it, but the style was very pleasing to me, not too realistic nor cartoony/moe. The background designs were also absolutely beautiful. I loved how each country’s culture, environment and lifestyle was drastically varied, with the art design reflecting that. The animation was a bit lazy, with lots of characters standing around and simple pan shots, but I still felt invested most of the time so it wasn’t too big a deal. The OP was also a total banger, with vivid colors and great flow.

Music
The music was fine. Jazzy tunes and piano tracks complemented the scenes they were played to. I watched the dub (I usually prefer dubs) and the voices were fine, I suppose. The only standout one for me was Lotta’s voice.

Overall
This show had a distinct style and impression on me, and it definitely broadened my horizons on the type of anime I could watch, but I can only call it good not great because of the lack of enjoyment for the first half. I’d check it out if you’re interested in shows about government and power, lots of subtext and a touch of intrigue.