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Solo Leveling is another one of those "turn your brain off" anime in which fans of good animation can't get enough of. We saw this with Demon Slayer, then JJK, and now Solo Leveling. As of writing this review, the anime is currently 28th highest rated anime on MAL, which is just plain ridiculous. It doesn't surprise me that modern anime fans just watch badly written characters, a boring and repetitive plot, then completely ignore all those aspects just to watch it for the fights and rate it a 10/10.

Characters (3/10)
Every character in Solo Leveling just feels like they're there for plot purposes and plot ... purposes only. I couldn't even tell you upwards of 5 different characters in the entire series due to the lack of screentime and the vast amount of them. Now a lot of characters isn't a bad thing, the problem is they're just not that memorable at all. Jin Woo is a good character for the most part, but even he lacks much of a personality after he started gaining too much power. He has glimpses of a personality in the beginning of the show, but just becomes another generic "I'm a killer badass who can't be defeated by anyone" character which everyone seems to like just for being cool. There were certain scenes where the show tried to address what happened to Jin Woo when he killed people, but it was quickly sidelined and completely forgotten about. Jin Woo had moments where he actually showed his vulnerable side like when he revived his mother, but these moments and others where he shows more of his personality don't show up enough for him to be deep enough as an MC. As for the rest of the characters, they're just so...bland. Every single one of them is just a template of a character, but nothing on the inside or outside to actually make you remember or care about them. At the beginning of the season, S-Ranked hunters were seen as extremely powerful and even Jin Woo, who was only about A-Rank at the start of the season, said he probably couldn't beat. By the end of the season, the S-Ranked hunters are just cannon fodder for Beru, which Jin Woo handles by himself of course.

Plot (5/10)
The plot is pretty much exactly the same throughout this entire season: Jin Woo has to get stronger to save his mother. The problem I have with it is two main reasons: 1. Jin Woo gets way too strong way too fast. 2. The plot is just repeating but with different scenarios. For my first complaint, I don't like when a main character progresses too fast in a story, I think the author should've gone with a slower process of Jin Woo getting stronger, that way, the payoff feels much more earned when he beats bosses. I liked that in the first season, Jin Woo struggled with pretty much every fight, but now, he just wins way too easily for my taste. By the end of season 1, Jin Woo was around A-Rank, and by the end of this season, he's pretty much unstoppable and is undoubtedly the strongest S-Rank in Korea. For my second complaint, there isn't anything unique about the plot in any way from the start of the season to the start of Jeju Island. All Jin Woo does is either help some hunters out in a raid and defeats the boss, or go to the underworld and fight demons, that's pretty much it. This is repeated again and again and again with some character interaction in between until it hits the Jeju Island arc, which was hyped up for most of the season and only lasted for about 3 episodes. I also want to point out the obvious inspiration of the arc, which almost exactly mirrors Hunter x Hunter without any of the aspects that made it so good. The arc might as well be just another dungeon raid and people would think no differently of it. The only reason it doesn't feel repetitive to some people is due to the fight choreography and animation. But as someone who actually pays attention to the plot, I find it repetitive. Anime like Demon Slayer and JJK suffer from this as well, an interesting plot is thrown out for the sake of fights, fights, and more fights. The difference between DS, JJK, and Solo Leveling is DS and JJK actually tries to spend time fleshing out characters before big fights, while Solo Leveling barely does that with any of the S-Ranked hunters. I see so many people talking about "just because the plot doesn't have 1000 IQ plotlines are characters doesn't mean it's not a good show," which I somewhat agree with. You can have a good show with ok characters and an ok plotline, the problem I have with it is when the show has to focus on good fights to make it interesting. The characters don't carry the show, the adaptation does. I don't know, maybe I'm just tired of fantasy action that carries itself on only good animation and fight sequences. The only thing about the plot that legitimately intrigued me was Jin Woo's father, who shows up for a maximum 4 minutes of screentime for the entire season. Hopefully they do something with his character until he becomes more cannon fodder for Jin Woo's constant aura farming.

Animation (9/10)
As I said earlier in this post, the animation is the one bright spot in a wide array of mediocrity. The fights are dynamic and fluid and each fight feels like a standalone moment for Jin Woo and his army of shadows to beat the ever-loving dog water out of the enemy. I have to give it to A1 Pictures, it's obvious they put a lot of passion into this project and it definitely shows. Very little amounts of CGI are used and for the most part it's used when depicting a large amount of enemies on the screen at once, which is very common and unnoticeable for the most part. The most unsurprising part of all of this is the fact that the manhwa got so much popularity because of the amazing artwork, and the anime is doing the exact same thing but with animation.

In conclusion, Solo Leveling is just another power fantasy with good animation. The characters are forgettable and the plot is repetitive. Without a good adaptation, this would just be another failed overpowered MC fantasy action anime just like all the others. The only reason I don't give this show a 3 is because of the animation. So, I give it a 5 for being the personification of mid.

Depth, depth, and more depth.

In the modern day, the most popular anime always tend to be action-packed, balls-to-the-walls, extremely well-animated shows like Demon Slayer, JJK, etc. But I've truly never seen an anime like Monogatari. If I went back in time and told myself: "Hey, watch this anime about talking and walking around a city." I would've immediately told myself that I was crazy for being entertained by that, but here we are, hundreds of episodes later and I absolutely love everything about the Monogatari series. The characters are the most well-defined characters I've personally seen in any anime. Each character gets their time to ... shine eventually, and despite the huge cast, it always feels like each character gets just enough time for them to be memorable enough to remember, and the main characters get plenty and screentime to the point where they become unforgettable. The best thing about this anime for me is the dialogue, easily. There is legitimately no anime other than Monogatari that has truly made me think and gain the desire to write a story myself. You just get that feeling like everything each person is saying has a meaning towards it, an ulterior motive to a bigger mystery, or just increases the depth of the characters all the more. Even though the animation isn't extremely flashy, it more than makes up for it with little semblances of sakuga, combined with Studio Shaft's distinct animation and directing style that keeps the watcher engaged despite the long talking sequences. All I can say is: beautiful writing, great characters, amazing direction, and don't watch it with your parents or siblings. You will thank me later.

I was kind of torn between giving this show a 4 or a 5 but after watching the last episode I can't give it anything less than a 7. The last episode was so amazing that the rest of the season didn't really matter all that much to me, which is why it brought the score up. If the rest of the show had been like the last episode, I would've easily gave it a 9 or a 10. If you can ignore some of the obvious bad animation then I don't see why anyone wouldn't enjoy this anime if you like sports anime. There's ... a reason why Blue Lock was the most sold manga last year and after reading some of the manga I can definitely see why. If only the anime lived up to the manga's standard, then I would even call Blue Lock one of the best sports animes of all time.

I like that a ton of characters, old and new, had their chance to shine throughout the match, and I also liked getting more information on Rin and Sae's past. Seeing Isagi's growth throughout the series has been awesome to watch. The celebrations were great (even though they could've been animated with more fluidity). We got to learn each of the players' skillsets as the match went on, along with the skillsets we already know about. As for the goals themselves, I'm glad the studio gave more time to each of the scoring goals and allowed them to have more animation compared to just moving the ball downfield. But the last episode is easily the best, and I would even argue it's the best Blue Lock episode yet. The matchup between Rin and Sae was so fun to watch, and it helps that the animation was extremely good compared to the rest of the season.

Now for the bad parts of the show, the animation. As someone who doesn't mind obviously bad animation in some spots, I still didn't like it. There was almost no movement or fluidity in everyone's movements, it literally looked like a powerpoint presentation of someone moving the ball across the screen and onto another player's foot. But luckily the animation does get better as the season goes on, and on some occasions, such as goals and dribbling, the animation looks great. But other than the last episode and some moments before that, it's just very hard to watch if you expect good animation.

All in all, I personally enjoyed a lot of the moments in this show, but I can see how people wouldn't like it just because of the animation alone. it's a shame it couldn't be better, hopefully animators get more time, money, or whatever it was that hindered the overall production of Blue Lock.

This anime is bat sh*t crazy and I loved every minute of it. Going into this show I expected another boring isekai with meh characters and a harem protagonist, oh boy was I absolutely right. The main reason why I enjoyed this show was because it was such an obvious shitpost on isekai as a genre. You have the OP MC, a ton of girls that basically worship him, and a plot that seems to go somewhere and nowhere at the same time. But at the same time Cid completely revolutionizes what an isekai MC can be. Cid doesn't make the plot happen, the plot ... happens around him. I think that's the reason why I found the show to be intriguing; Cid basically just goes along with the plot and just kills the bad guys while his shadowy organization of hot women praises him without knowing that he has no clue what he's doing.

The plot makes no sense, Cid is a walking meme, "I am atomic" made me cream my pants, solid animation, absolute bullshittery everywhere and for some reason it was the most fun I've had in an anime in a while. I can definitely understand why some people wouldn't like this anime, especially if you focus only on the plot, but if you enjoy cool fights, a dumbass plot, and an enjoyably crazy MC then I definitely recommend this anime.

Alright, this is my first ever review on MAL so I guess I'll go with the first anime I ever watched. I've watched the entire Fairy Tail series from episode 1 to now 100 year quest. Fairy Tail as a whole holds a special place in my heart in terms of characters, story, and the series as a whole. But unfortunately the final season just has too many problems that I just can't ignore.

Let's get to the first main problem I have with the story, that being E.N.D. When E.N.D was revealed to be Natsu I thought it was a great way to gain ... intrigue about not only Natsu and Zeref's origins, but also had the potential to completely change Natsu's character and the way we see him forever. But, that was not the case. After Natsu thought Lucy was killed by Dimaria, he was successfully taken over by E.N.D. He defeated Dimaria offscreen and left to find and kill Zeref, until he was confronted by Gray. They then proceeded to have their skirmish until Erza comes and stops them like old times. Now, I don't necessarily have much issue about Erza stopping the both of them, since it's a decent callback to the start of the series. The main problem I have with it is when Natsu comes to his senses and later destroys the core of E.N.D. E.N.D was built up for hundreds of episodes to be the most powerful demon in The Book of Zeref, but the only chance we get to see E.N.D in action is when he fights Gray. I hate it when writers build up an intriguing and potentially intimidating villain and then proceed to throw the whole villain in the trash, ESPECIALLY with a huge twist like Natsu being a demon the entire time. Also, it seems the state Natsu was in was just a lesser form of E.N.D, that or the design of E.N.D was just really bad. His design is just Natsu with claws. To say I was disappointed that the author basically trashed the whole idea is an understatement, and I've found the series as a whole has had this problem since it started.

Alright, Let's move on. My second big problem I have with this season is the fact that MAKAROV IS LITERAL JESUS. I mean for the love of God this guy has escaped and faked death so many times throughout the series it's just getting old at this point. I actually went back to see how many times I could find the author trying to trick us into thinking Makarov is sacrificing himself or dying. I counted at least 4 times in the entire series. 1. When he was poisoned while Laxus was trying to take over the guild in the first season. 2. When he was "pierced" by Hades during the Grimoire Heart attack on Tenrou Island. 3. When he was fighting Acnologia and trying to get the rest of the guild to safety on Tenrou Island. And 4. In this season, when he used Fairy Law on the soldiers and was supposedly "sacrificing" himself, and I bet I missed a few. We were even told that using Fairy Law on that many soldiers would kill him but NOPE, he's perfectly fine when the war is over. If Makarov HAD died I think it would've been one of the most impactful and emotional moments of the series. Makarov was pretty much a father to everyone in the guild, and we even got his backstory in Fairy Tail Zero, which makes his death so much more impactful. I swear this author is just allergic to killing important characters that aren't the main characters. I mean most of the Alvarez army dies and they're supposed to be some of the most powerful mages in the entire world. Examples being Irene, August, Bloodman, God Serena (who is one of the most underused characters I've ever seen), I don't think there is a single meaningful death in this entire season besides I guess Zeref and Mavis. More on how Zeref lost later in this post. That's not even mentioning how it's not even Makarov who fakes their deaths. BOTH GAJEEL AND JUVIA ALSO DO THIS. My God STOP FAKING CHARACTER DEATHS. I absolutely HATE it when a series tries to trick you into thinking a character is dead and then they just come back later for some convoluted reason. Just stop faking their deaths and just say they're badly injured or something.

Ok this is getting a bit long so I'll continue with my last few points. Third, how in the HELL did Zeref lose to Natsu? My guy Zeref literally has INFINITE magic and is the most POWERFUL wizard in the world. Well, I'll tell you how: THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP ALWAYS PREVAILS!!! God I hate this power system. If someone talks about friendship in this series one more time I'm going to smash my head into a brick wall. So, by using the power of friendship Natsu manages to "defeat" Zeref because Zeref has no friends. There you go, that's the explanation of the vast majority of how Fairy Tail wins their fights. I also have to mention that Natsu's fire can now burn magic and time??? Apparently? Going back to my previous criticism, I hate how authors build up villains and make them so extremely powerful that the main character's victory makes little to no sense. It's just so disappointing when a character you believe is unbelievably powerful only for them to get defeated so easily, but that's just me I guess.

There are many more little problems I have with this season but I don't want to spend more time on this already long review so I'll just name them. 1. Irene losing to Erza and Wendy. 2. Acnologia losing to the dragon slayers by, you guess it, the power of friendship. 3. The animation of this season was OK at best. 4. The fact that most of the Alvarez army is nerfed so badly in order for the main characters to win (Brandish can potentially one-shot everyone, Dimaria can stop time and kill everyone easily, Irene killed herself, August took Levi's words to heart and gave up on his dreams and died, Jacob can teleport people into a pocket dimension but just...doesn't, Bloodman has every curse yet never uses their full potential). Now, this post may seem negative (which it is) but It's not like I completely hated it, it kept my attention for the full 51 episodes which I guess is better than the majority of anime.

In conclusion, I really wish I could enjoy this season more. I think the author had some great ideas but just couldn't execute them effectively enough to make a great story. Even so, Fairy Tail gets a free nostalgia point since it was my first anime. I give it a 4.