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Spoiler-free review

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ACCA is a curious anime, certainly not the usual modern flair. I'm NOT surprised it's not more popular, given it doesn't rely on cute girls doing cute things, mindless action or pointless filler episodes, which seems to be something many actually enjoy. This is a slow burner that'll satisfy anyone looking for intrigue and political conspiracy. It's also just generally a well-executed story, so if you want to just sit back and take your time watching something that's more relaxed and still manages to keep your curiosity high, ACCA is also for you.

The characters here are all rather likeable and most of the main ... ones will have their stories fleshed out to a decent degree. Each of them will also have their own quirks explored and I didn't think any of the characters felt dull, although Lotta could have used some more development.

As far as art goes, it's very good. I don't have anything else I can compare it to, but I would say the style is modern and slightly unusual. I thought ACCA was quite pleasant to my eyes. Landscapes look pretty, sceneries are often quite detailed and most characters feel unique. When it comes to sound department, it's also not lacking in any way! Both the OP and the ED are worth listening to, I didn't feel I needed to skip them even once. The OP is a nice jazzy, upbeat tune - while the ED leans on a more calm and almost melancholic sounding composition. The songs played during more mysterious/suspenseful scenes are also appropriate and they added a lot whenever they were played.

There's a few details one could nitpick if one so wanted but, overall, this is an enjoyable show with a non-cliché story, very good sound/art and likeable characters. Give it a go, you won't regret it. This should certainly be more popular and I'm glad I decided to watch it despite it not being as well known as some other shows out there.

Review written for both seasons, pretty much Spoiler free.
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The reason why this review encompasses both seasons is that, my opinion about Kaiji changed drastically after finishing Season 2. Bear in mind that despite the relatively "low" rating I gave to Kaiji S1 that you see here, for Kaiji S2 I gave it a score of (overall) 8. If you read this review, you don't need to read my review for Season 2.

Have you ever felt like a failure?
Have you ever felt true despair?
Have you been through a bottomless pit from which you felt you could not escape?
How about addiction of any kind? Have you dealt ... with it?

For people who have had such experiences in life, Kaiji is a good option. The story mostly deals with these very complicated problems many people face in life, and it does so in a mostly rather mature way, showing the ugly side of gambling, the flimsy nature of friendships and so on. If you're not familiar with Akagi/Kaiji art style, don't be discouraged, after a couple of episodes you get used to it and rather start to appreciate it for its uniqueness.

Kaiji has decent soundtracks and good OP/ED that fit the anime's vibe quite nicely. Sound effects are also mostly good - I will say, as far as sound goes, the only thing I disliked was the narrator, but he seems less intrusive on Season 2. All in all, Season 2 was superior from my PoV, as it feels more grounded in reality and more of what I would expect from a Seinen anime. It also deals more directly with gambling - whereas S1 has "challenges" instead, which I did not much care for. This is also why I decided to write this review for both seasons - S1 was a bit disappointing for me, but S2 more than made up for it. If you have watched Akagi and want more like it, or more of a "challenge"/gambling anime, Kaiji will certainly scratch that itch.

Parasyte, AKA ayyy lmao meets real human bean

Many guts and many laughs are had, but perhaps the parasyte were the friends we made along the way.

Art style is nice and all but not spectacular. What you'd expect from a modern animu with decent budget. OST gets repetitive real fast specially during battles/tense scenes.. OP is annoying IMO, screamo-trying-too-hard-annoying kinda. NGL I skipped it errrry time. ED is kawaii and bretty good 5/5. Decent characters though some could've used more development but the MC is really the star of the show so maybe it doesn't even matter. Highly enjoyable and somewhat gory but not all that ... much really.

Great if you're looking for Seinen/Horror/Sci-fi stuff. I suppose great overall regardless as far as animu goes, story is original and fun.

ダイヤのエース - (Ace of Diamond)

What a great anime. Great characters, great art, great story of growing up and discovering yourself while dealing with hardships, great variety in OP's and ED's (even though not all of them are memorable), great source to bring you knowledge about a sport you may not care much about but which you definitely WILL care about once you start watching the show.

I used to know nothing about Baseball and thought it was boring. That started to change when I watched Cross Game, but I still didn't care much about it - then I watched Ace of Diamond and everything changed.

Honestly, this ... is one of the most ''gripping'' shows I've ever watched. I completed all 75 Episodes in a little more than one week, and I'd have completed it sooner if I didn't have to work a lot during that week. It looks and sounds great, the animation during the games is so good that I went back to see the characters batting and pitching just because of how gorgeous it is.

There's a character for everyone here too, you'll not be disappointed (even though you may be annoyed by Sawamura every now and then).

Overall, if you like sports (any sports, not Baseball necessarily) or if you're just looking to laugh out loud while watching great action during games, you can't go wrong with Ace of Diamond. Just watch it, you'll not be disappointed.

"Simple is best" isn't always an accurate statement. So instead of doing the usual score / followed by explanation, I'll give you a rundown of why I liked and disliked this show.

I know I'll probably get some hate for saying this, but this show isn't as perfect as 95% (or so, or more) of the reviews would have you believe. That doesn't mean it's bad though, it's actually a very solid show.

What's wrong with it then?
In MY opinion, some of the characters (or rather, how they were used), the sound and art aren't up to par with a "perfect" show. I also think the Studio ... made more episodes than were needed as "fillers", which made them sort of rush the ending to complete the story.

I believe a character like Azuma could have received more time on screen during the first half of the show, with more time allocated to him, rather than simply tagging along with Kou or the rest of the squad. He's a nice and important character which wasn't explored as much as he could have been. After his ''bad guy'' act when he's first presented, he seems to turn into a Kou magnet - he goes where Kou goes and often scolds him or "tags along" with him, but that's that. He does receive some love later on though...

Then you have Senda - though I suppose he is simply doing what he's supposed to do - being an annoying arse. If that was the intention, then they surely hit the spot.

There's one "character" which I do despise though and I'm not sure if any other reviewer covered this. The cat. That cat honestly almost made me drop the show - He serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever and he's not even ''cute'' or anything of that sort, he's just a disturbance.

This cat will show up at random times, FOR NO REASON, and simply ''meow'' it out. Ok, had it been once or twice, or thrice, I wouldn't have minded it. But more than THIRTY times? Yes, I did count it and I'm not talking about him being present in different situations either, I'm talking about this freak showing up to *MEOW* with the exact same face and annoying sound, THE EXACT SAME - they didn't even bother recording a different sound for most of the time he's on screen. That alone brought the quality of the show down quite a lot - also, it's not only during the episodes either, during the 2nd half of the show they add an Intro Quiz and the Answer to that Quiz after the ED, in which he's ALWAYS present doing that stupid annoying *MEOW*. Good Lord is that annoying, and now DOUBLY so since you'll be seeing that shit in the INTRO, episode and after-ED. Good luck with that - talk about Anger Management....

But I digress - since I mentioned that intro right above, I'll talk about the OP and the ED. As Yuuhei, Azuma would say ''Who are they?'' - I think there were 2 different OPs and 3 or 4 different EDs. I say I think because all of them were so ''so-so'' that I really can't remember them even right after watching an episode - in fact, the one thing I can remember from two of the endings is that they were really "forced", the vocals annoyed me a lot. I believe that I started to skip the OP and ED right at the 3rd episode, and simply stopped to check them when there was a new one. Oh, add a DOUBLE SKIP to that because there's the annoying Quiz with the cat and another annoying song sung by MOMIJI before the Quiz. Maybe it's the case that I'm just not the target audience.... yeah, maybe, but maybe not, I don't think I'd have liked this even in my early teen years. Actually, I'm sure I wouldn't have.

Enough of that now, let's talk a bit about the art. What's the problem here? Not much, really. It's just that, it's just cookie cutter "modern" anime art, there's nothing outstanding about it, absolutely nothing. At the beginning some of the characters looked a lot like each other and I had some trouble identifying which one was which, but that quickly stopped being the case once the characters grew up. The backgrounds are not as great as I hoped them to be, even during the action scenes, which sort of let me down. There's one thing that sort of irked me though, there are times when the art looks "flat" - you'll get this if you pay attention to game scenes - look at the stadium, it seems like the audience and the characters look like "bent flat papers" - it's hard to explain but you'll see what I mean if you just look closely during the game scenes. I've also noticed this lack of "depth" at other times. Having seeing great art in other Anime, even anime from as far back as 1994, I was disappointed by this.

The one thing that does deserve a lot of praise is how Cross Game manages to captivate you despite all of its flaws, it has a gripping power hard to find - you want to know if X will confess to Y, or if they actually hate each other, and how Z will develop throughout the show. There was a "twist" mid-season which was mildly entertaining - I won't spoil it though. I also like how Cross Game deals with the loss of a loved one and relationships within the family and friends, growing up etc. Teenagers will get the most out of it, but even adults will probably take the time to remember their own hardships and moments of sadness/happiness when watching it.

Have you noticed that I still have not mentioned Baseball? That's because Cross Game is able to present something other than "just" Baseball, which I appreciate. This doesn't mean that Baseball is left aside, so if you're a ban of Baseball, you'll not be disappointed.

If, like me, you had no knowledge of Baseball beforehand, you don't have to worry - even though they could've explained a little bit more in detail how things like conceding a walk / safety bunts work, you'll get the gist of it soon enough just by watching the show. Actually, I do have to say what an amazing job they did here, because not only did I not know anything about Baseball, I had this idea that it was a very boring sport and that worried me before watching Cross Game, but I was fairly surprised to discover what Baseball is like - I actually may end up watching real Baseball now, because I quite enjoyed what I saw from the games in Cross Game. I think this concludes what I set out to achieve here - explain why the show is worth a go if you were unsure about watching it, while at the same time keeping in mind that it is definitely not perfect and you will notice its flaws if you're paying attention.

I hope you enjoyed reading this review as much as I enjoyed writing it, I'm always trying to improve and will gladly read any criticism you may have towards the things I wrote - send me a PM if you feel like it!

Let me be concise, because Black Lagoon does not deserve any better, and this is not me trying to bash on the show, I endured through it even though I needed more than 6 months to finish it.

If you're after mindless action, minor to non existent character development, forgettable soundtracks (with the exception of 1 - and that is not the opening or the ending), gory fights and ridiculously ''overpowered'' characters - this is your show.

I dreaded coming back to it because I knew exactly what was coming EVERY time before it came. This is not only for the first season, but also applicable to ... the second and the OVA.

I honestly can't think of a single redeeming value for Black Lagoon.

TL;DR - Not worth it if you value your time.

Angel Beats! (or AB!, as I shall refer to it for the remainder of this review)

I didn't have any idea about what was waiting for me before starting AB!. I had simply read the synopsis a long time ago and that was basically it, that was my knowledge of this show.

I finished it in a very short time, even though I started it during the week (while working/going to Uni/hitting the gym). I think it only took me two or three days to complete it while being very busy.

This should already tell you a bit of how much I enjoyed it, and also that this ... anime is really worth your time.

Story - 7/10

The story was quite refreshing, it has many mature themes featured into it without being overly dramatic or cheesy, and what's nice is that those themes are presented naturally, they fit the story perfectly . The way the story is told makes you want to keep watching the show episode after episode with no pause. I really love how they were able to tie so many funny scenes into each episode (I was laughing all the way from the 1st till the last episode), while also being able to deliver a storm of feelings only a minute after said funny scenes. These sad ones WILL make you bawl like a little kid, specially if you have lost important people during your life.

I see some reviewers saying that AB! lacks depth and that ''much more could've been done/explored with it''. I'm not really sure why they think this is the case. AB! Never tried to be that ''deep'' It's goal is to present a nice story that many people can relate to while also making fun of some of the tropes we see in anime these days, and they were able to reach that goal. I don't think there's much more that could be done / fitted in 13 Episodes (admittedly they could've done more if they removed some of the gags, but I think this would have ruined the show).

The reason why I don't give this a 10/10 is because the ending seemed to lose some steam, and also because I understand that not everyone is going to enjoy the constant jokes that appear throughout this show (some of which are repeated over and over *not to the point of exhaustion though), but also because it really isn't perfect to warrant a 10/10.

Art - 7/10

This is, IMO, the weakest part of the show. While the characters look good, that's just it, they just look good. There's not much that makes them stand out, and you'll soon notice that most of the males follow the same pattern, while only having different hair/eye colors etc. Most of the scenery is decently done, but again, it's mostly the regular school setting.

Do notice that this doesn't mean it's bad or even generic, it's just nothing special.

I do have to say that I put great value into the Art, so take my word with a grain of salt.

Sound - 10/10

There are no doubts here, right after the weakest part comes the strongest one. I mean, I don't think I've seen many series that put so much effort into their soundtracks/effects. It's not just music either, the Voice Actors did a great job here. You feel as if they actually care for their characters. I watched the OP every single time, I even replayed it many times just because of how nice it sounds.

Some of the music you'll hear here will just tear your heart apart, they're brilliantly connected to the characters/scenes they represent. Even when you see a character playing an instrument, they're just mindlessly doing so, they look like they are ''doing it for real''. The weakest link of the sound is the ED IMO, it's a nice ending song but not as striking as the others. Still, this isn't enough to bring down the general score.

Character - 8/10

I have to say it's nice to find a male MC who isn't a total wuss and doesn't act like he's a brat all of the time. If this is the kind of MC you like, you'll probably enjoy watching Otonashi.

With that being said - Yes, some of the remaining characters are cheesy and cliche. Yes, some of them are one-liners. Yes, that's done on purpose.

This isn't a bad thing, it's a good one, because the way they are used makes sense in pushing the story forward and pulling jokes out of nowhere.

Enjoyment - 10/10

Not much to say here, I thoroughly enjoyed AB!. There wasn't a single time where I regretted watching it or where I felt bored.

Overall - 8/10

If you're a fan of anime (why'd you be here if you weren't?), I'd say you pretty much have to watch this one. I can certainly understand if it's not your cup of tea, but please, do yourself a favor and at least try it. If you enjoy it, it'll be something you'll be thinking of for a long time.

If you don't enjoy it much, I highly doubt you'll think it's bad or that you didn't take something positive from it.

As always, I'd like to thank you for reading and also to apologize for any grammar mistakes, English isn't my native language so mistakes are certain to happen every now and then.

I hope you have as much of a great time with AB! as I had.

Right, Blassreiter.

I didn't really expect much going into this, and I have to say that was a good thing.

Don't take me wrong, there were a few times where this show actually shined, but aside from those times, it felt mostly boring.

Many characters felt somewhat predictable (with the exception of Amanda, but that's mostly because after a bit of development she remains the same for the entirety of the show...).

As a positive note, they did focus on many characters (which is nice if you like a diverse cast).

While watching the episodes, you'll soon notice something quite annoying, which may be a minor point to some of ... you, but it may also make you *sigh* because there's no point to it.

There are some intervals during each half of an episode, it's just a splash scene with some of the characters and some sound, however, the music played here is bad (specially during the 2nd half of the series), and this also servers no point. It's just a useless gimmick.

Something I thought I should say - I usually have a very high tolerance to the shows I pick to watch, even if they are bad, and I usually marathon them. However, with Blassreiter, I found myself wanting to do other things and simply not come back to it.

One last thing before I continue, there is gore on this anime, and the general theme is grim.

Now that I got that out of the way, let me go over some specific points (art, sound etc).

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Sound: 4/10

The music is mediocre IMO. The OP and ED are forgettable, and I found myself skipping over them after the very first episode. This is not to mention the 2nd OP/ED, which are even worse. Sound effects are okaysih, nothing to praise or hate. I have to mention yet again the cringey splash screen which you'll be seeing every episode (not too bad during the first 12 episodes, but gets ridiculous later on).

Art: 5/10

This is the first thing you'll notice, and if you're like me, this will bother you a lot -

BAD CGI. Now, when I say bad, it's really bad. The art assets animated through CGI seem like something you'd see in a 1998's movie or so, it's glaring and annoying. Of course, art isn't the end all be all of anime, many more seasoned anime viewers know this, but for a show that doesn't really deliver anything special on many fronts, this is a big problem. I'd much have preferred traditional animation here but ah well... The only good thing I can say about the art is what I already said earlier, there's very diverse set of characters, so you'll most likely find one you can identify with.

Story: 7/10

I'm giving this a 7/10 for creativity, the premise is something I hadn't seen before, even though you'll find some cliches here and there. The problem is, there isn't anything new in the way it was executed, in fact it was quite predictable who would turn out to be a bad/good guy, when someone would sacrifice him/herself etc.

Also - the ending felt rushed in some ways, but I don't want to go into much detail because I'm not really sure how to convey what I mean with this without spoiling it, so I'll leave it at that.

Enjoyment: 5/10

I didn't enjoy this that much. It was so-so, but there were times when I wasn't really sure I could endure it for much longer, and I just wanted to play games/study do something else instead of watching it.

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Overall, this wasn't horrible, but it also wasn't good. Which is why I'm giving it an overall score of 5/10.

If you have nothing else to watch, then maybe you should pick this up, given that you are willing to deal with bad soundtracks/CGI/gore, if not, then don't even come close to this one.

I hope this review was helpful to you, thanks for reading, and sorry about any grammar mistakes!

There are many reviews out there for this anime already, so why write another one?

Well, because it deserves it.
Not only that, but this won't be one of those ''structured'' reviews where I give scores to Sound/Art etc, rather, I'll just try to be ''different'' (as this show is) and talk about it in a way that would be more appealing and natural, as if I were an actual friend of yours telling you bits and pieces of it so that I can convince you that this really is worth your time.

I apologize if I'm not able to convey much though, as this is only my ... second review and I'm still not used to it. I may also commit some grammar mistakes, as English isn't my native language.

Tatami Galaxy was an anime I decided to watch on a whim, I didn't care much for it after reading its description, thinking it wouldn't be all that interesting... Well, I have to say it was one of the best decisions I have made.

The very first episode had me hooked. Now, before I go any deeper, I must say -

Do not judge this anime based on its Art (that is, if it doesn't suit you the very first time you look at it). The art is quite different and the characters rather exquisite, but this has a purpose, it fits the theme beautifully, and in fact, after 1 or 2 episodes you understand why it looks the way it does and it grows on you.

Tatami Galaxy shows us something many of us have thought about before:

What would I do if I had the chance to go back in time and do things differently? How would I change my path? What could I improve? Would I have the guts to ask that girl out?

Obviously, this isn't the first time a form of media deals with this issue, however, the difference here is how they present it, which is magnificent.

You'll just have to trust me on this one and watch it for yourself because no amount of words will do justice to it.

I know I said I would not give separate scores here, but I must point out that the sound in this anime is really great.

If you're tired of formulaic/generic/typical anime or just want to try something new, this is the one to shoot for. You won't be disappointed.

I'll try to tell you why this isn't worth of your time without writing unecessary things or trying to sound cool like so many reviewers do.

Bear in mind that I have not played the games this OVA is based on.

This is as generic as generic gets.
It fails to deliver anything (except boredom) and it tries to cope with its flaws by adding unecessary elements to it - examples being:

Cheap ''sad'' scenes
Even more blood than is necessary (it just gets silly at a certain point)

... Now - is it bad to have a lot of blood and gore when it comes to horror/gore/slasher media?
Absolutely not, if there is a point behind it.

There isn't one here. They just keep adding it for the sake of shock, but said shock loses its meaning quite fast (I already wasn't surprised with it on the very 1st episode).

The art used for the environments is okayish but the characters look generic. They are different from one another yet they still resemble one another in many ways. The bland faces just make it hard to care for them.

The voice actors don't seem to have put a lot of effort into what they were doing, I could not feel any empathy towards their cries. In fact, there was a point at which they just became very annoying to listen to.

The OP/ED are forgettable and I just endured through them because, well, this is only 4 episodes anyway.

There, I tried to be as objective as possible. If all of that isn't enough as a warning to try to prevent you from wasting your time with this OVA, then the last thing I can say is that this is the first time I have watched such a short anime (OVA) which made me feel so annoyed.

I felt annoyed because I just wanted it to end.

In fact, this is the first review I have ever written, and I did not want it to be for this OVA, but I just couldn't let other people waste their times with this.... thing.