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Really fun anime! Although not perfect.

This anime is not a self-expose by Mappa as many would hope but I still like the love letter to animation this show ended up being, especially if you are someone who has an interest in anime as a medium or someone who is also a creative, this will appeal to you. I like the homage to the various genres of animation that have become staples in anime (magical girls, isekais, missiles, mecha, joseimukes, etc). Natsuko tho kind of annoying at the start, I too just like Luke, got charmed by her as the series goes. Speaking of which, I ... quite like the other characters. A lot of them fit into tropes, and while most stay that way, characters like Unio, Natsuko, and Luke do get more development. I find her dynamic with Luke pretty fun and convincing.

Now, this anime has some pacing issues. The monster of the week formula of the first half, while fun is pretty concerning to me knowing this is a single cour show and I start to worry when we are nowhere near the final arc halfway through the season. I am proven correct when the climax only started to build up at the 10th episode, meaning we only have 2-3 episodes to wrap things up with so many unanswered questions.

The climax and final battle is fine by itself. But I was hoping the epilogue could be longer to tie all the loose threads, ideally a single episode just for the epilogue would benefit a lot. I would love it if we could get into more of the director's POV. Her character in the show remains sort of an enigma, someone who also got "isekaid" to her own creation after similar death as Natsuko. It implies so much about her circumstances than meets the eye only to have none of it elaborated on in the end. I feel that's pretty unsatisfying. Maybe it could've delved into what makes ATOP end product such a disaster. Maybe ATOP has a troubled production just like Hatsukoi, parallels her and Natsuko, to show what Natsuko could've become if she hadn't changed her ways. Maybe we could get into the lore of ATOP and how beyond the world that the director made, this universe began to take its own life.

I think there's just some missed potential and maybe I'm focusing on things that is not what the anime intended to convey. Still, I had fun with this anime. And I definitely enjoyed it as an artist myself, I relate so much to Natsuko and the other characters around her. Overall, definitely one of the more interesting and unique anime to come out recently! I applaud Mappa to put so much care to an anime original with a unique premise. Fun story, fun characters, good animation, and some missed opportunities: 7/10.

Okay so Vivy isn't terrible but it isn't amazing either. I'm not gonna say Vivy is the best show this season like many people say but I also wouldn't call it garbage either. Vivy is the most 7/10 anime I've ever watched this year (so far).

Story - 7

The story is alright I guess. It's imo just like every other AI dystopian futuristic sci-fi setting with questionable world-building. The systems behind the AIs sometimes just doesn't make sense but well maybe I shouldn't think too much about it. The story is also typical AI have feelings too! Which is not a very original concept but it's ... alright, there's nothing wrong with overused trope and what matters is the execution which is how you either brings something new to the table, or if not, be really good at it. And Vivy does neither of that. There are other media where I think does the "moral questions over AI's rights and feelings" way better than Vivy, such as Detroit Become Human. I gotta say episode 12 is where this show peaked tho, really good and hits all the eerie atmosphere and I can truly feel Vivy's emotion, and the way the antagonist decide things, I really like it, but then episode 13, the final episode came and it becomes meh again. When the show ended, I just left feeling nothing, like there's nothing for me to take from the show.

Art - 8

The art is fine but I don't think the art is the saving grace for Vivy like other people who give a lower rating to Vivy's says. It's okay but not breathtaking. If I can say there's nothing special and can I rant how everyone's outfits here are hard to look at, they're so ugly except for Vivy's Diva outfit from the last few episodes. And the constant art style changes where they would add extra details and colouring to Vivy's face... I'm not really a fan of them. Sure they're pretty but it doesn't work all the time, sometimes it just looks out of place and jarring imo. I may argue on art alone I think Great Pretender is way better but that's maybe just my personal preference.

Sound - 7

They're alright but if we're talking about the songs that Vivy and other AI idols sing then... They're not that good imo. The main song is probably the most decent but Ophelia and Vivy's last song are just so forgettable. They're all just generic jpop songs that aren't catchy in the slightest, yet they treat these songs like it's the most touching masterpiece in the world lmao and I just don't buy that. But other than that the soundtracks did an okay job. I gotta admit the part where the AI's were singing Vivy's song in the last few episodes we're really eerie tho, good job on that.

Character - 4

The worst aspect of this show. This anime tries so hard to convince me that these's characters have thoughts and feelings but lmao they just feel like plot devices. They have literally no personality. They all act based on very vague reasons and super fixated on it and made it their whole personality. They just don't feel like people that I just can't help but give zero fucks on whatever happens to them. Funnily enough, the most sympathy I've ever felt to anyone in this show was towards the worker robots at the metal float.

Enjoyment - 6

It's really meh. For a sci-fi show, I expect it to take me on the edge of my seat every episode and makes me wonder and excited about what's to happen next but this show despite being an action sci-fi doesn't give me that. There were even some episodes where I just dread watching just because it feels very boring and flat

Overall - 6

Flashy show but not really interesting. I can understand why a lot of people have high praises for this anime as it's really flashy with great production value but it just doesn't do it for me. If you like action maybe you will really like this show.

It was pride month and I was just binging a bunch of LGBTQ mangas when I stumbled upon this one from a random person's list and... Whoa does this manga confusing, both literally and figuratively.

It's difficult for me to even rate this manga as I'm cis-gendered and I don't know how accurate are the trans depiction here is. But the thing that I can say is, this manga do be trippy. Sometimes we would jump from one scene and go back, then jump again, then a character is talking about something, then it just cuts off, or we will even follow some random ass character's ... dialogue who we thought would hold some significance later but we're never brought up again. It's just so random and convoluted I don't even know what's going on most of the time.

The author would bring up some plot points, then never got mentioned again. I just don't know what to say... There are even some really interesting topics and issue being brought up only to be abandoned, or never got resolved, no anything that we can take something from it. [spoiler] Like the plot point where the mother founds out that her child might be trans and she's struggling to come with terms with it while also being reminded of all the signs, I think that is mad interesting and I really wanna see the journey of her dealing with these emotions but it never goes anywhere from that. [/spoiler]

And oh my god the ending... I binged this whole 123 chapters of this manga because I just wanna know the conclusion, only to be presented with nothing... I'm not even mad at the fact that [spoiler] the character that we thought are FTM trans were actually cisgendered all along as I seen people saying it's realistic and they went through the same thing. Well imo people are different and she was a kid and in that age people are still in a journey to discovering themself, not that I invalidate those who are actually trans but I'm just saying those people exist. [/spoiler] But the fact that it just end for the sake of ending. Like as I the author just like, "okay idk what to do with this manga anymore so imma just peace out", and never resolved anything, no conclusion, nothing that we can take away as a reader, and at the end I were just "what's the point of all of this?" I feel like I just wasted my time. Though I do think that the first few arcs are really good, like when we experience the two main characters gender euphoria, I really like those moments.

But still, it does also makes me remember the two creepy adult character... I just can't help but cringe every time this one character appear and doing some really grooming ass rapey ass creepy-ass shit like geez. May I say it kinda perpetuates that queer people are associated with being predatory which leaves me with an icky feeling.

The characters... They're also confusing. They're realistic in a way but also extremely unreasonable at the same time. Like I wonder if they're like this for the sake of being realistic because well human stupidity knows no bounds and it never fails to surprise me. But man does it makes it so hard for me to relate or even understand these people. Like you wanna believe that some characters have some reason to logic behind their actions and we can hope that it will be explained later and we can finally understand their behaviour but like anything in this manga, it never did :) Never got explained like the readers are just expected to deal with it. They do all these crazy things things over some really vague reason and we are expected to understand. Yep. [spoiler] but not Sasa, best girl. My unproblematic queen. [/spoiler]

So yeah. Hourou Musuko, has so much potential to be amazing but it just doesn't. I really want this to be good but I'm just pissed most of the time reading it. If you're a masochist like me who patients enough to expect something interesting from this manga, yeah you'll be disappointed.

Story (7): the story is pretty straightforward. Not revolutionary or anything but it aware if ut and not trying to be something else. So they use that to their advantage. The ending and revelation is quite predictable but what makes me enjoy this is the atmosphere. Idk how but they really got the disturbing factor spot on it gave me chills at every chapter. Just a simple depiction of horrifyingly big swollen bug bite, thousands of insects crawling all over your body and attacking your pets, relatable daily things like that and dramatise that just really works for horror. I like how it doesn't ... rely on ghosts or gore too much to scare the readers.

Art (9): Is probably the strongest point in this manga. It has a delicate, soft pen strokes, to have such pretty art style on a disturbing horror manga just adds the creepyness. Did I mention the word pretty? The character design is nothing unique (not that it has to tho) but it's pretty. It's gorgeous. The paneling is also awesome. And some shots were just beautiful like the scene where it has a spread image of dead bodies all over a lake with a kayak (?) in the middle. Powerful and pretty I could print that in a poster and hang it on my bedrooms. Also the insects, inflected bodies, monster designs are so grossly drawn it's so good. And the main girl (the instect Princess is terrifying, omg.

Characters (7): it doesn't have many chapters so it's not like we can explore the characters that much so nothing special. The characters reaction to things are pretty realistic which I really appreciate, not like some airhead horror main character that has the dumb mentality of "I neED tO sAve everYonE!". As if "saving everyone" is the only personality trait they have. The Insects Princess on the other hand does a really good job at being creepy and terrifying.

Enjoyment (9): this manga did a really good job at making me feel disturbed and creeped out like a horror manga should so thumbs up for that! I haven't really found a nice horror manga that's actually creepy aside from Ito Junji's work so this is really refreshing. I love how this manga doesn't really rely on psychopathic killers or such to make it terrifying.

Overall (8): totally recommend this if you're just bored and feeling like having an insect related nightmare at night!