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First of all, probably the best music from any music-themed anime (after all the Monogatari op/ed & Garden of Sinners). A lot of great rock music. I got it all on Apple Music, and I love it.

Second, this shows the potential of cgi for animation beyond fights and explosions. There were no lazy scenes in this. So much care was put into the characters, and it shows. I get the feeling the team that did this decided they would show the anime world that cgi could stand next to hand-drawing. It stands above most, in fact. The standard for not just cgi but all anime ... gets raised.

The writing is excellent. Yes, they did the mandatory "oh dear i'm in such crisis" thing a bit too much; yes, they pretended the band's future was at stake. Beyond that, the character development and overall storytelling was first-rate. Actual comedy happens.

And the big song in episode 11 - wow. Just wow. Right there with the big concert scene from Hibeke Euphonium S1. The series' OP is one of the best, too.

In short, don't get distracted by the cgi or weird title. This is the best of Spring 2024. A top five or ten any year.

first, make getting to the choices like "Episodes" watched easier to edit. i've only seen the first 3, of course.

S1 one started beautifully; one of the best first episodes ever. it kept its essential soul for most of the way, but became more and more of a battle series. S2 is nothing but a series of on-going fights made very confusing by characters coming and going. the main character? lost in the noise. the purpose of this series has disappeared: the pain of watching loved ones come and go. it's simply brought up and then tossed aside.

hugely disappointing.

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ok, somehow the site automatically thinks i've not ... given enough info. i have. i'm not writing to please your formula; i'm writing to tell people, with as little spoilage as possible, why i'm so disappointed. i've said more than enough on that.

This is an anime that rewards patience and a calm mind. This is not an action show; the plot is minimal. That is the case with the Monogatari franchise as well: a series in which story matters far less than presentation.

The artwork is gorgeous. The cute girls are very cute, and it matters little that what they do most is sit around, have tea and baked goods, and chat. There is just something about how it's done that makes this series work.

The impending doom of the evil, murderous men that pop up now and then adds an edge to the show that cuts through any ... possible treacley-ness. Week by week, we wait for something horrific to befall the girls.

In the end, we really do not know who or what the girls are or their purpose. Maybe there'll be a season two that explains things, but that would be boring. This is a show like Hidamari Sketch: I'll rewatch to simply enjoy a respite from the noise & clutter of daily life. It's lovely to look at, and every episode left me refreshed. Even the final one.

Yet another potentially good show that dragged itself into unwatchability.
The basic concept was pretty interesting: A threat hangs over the planet, and the girl swears to stop it so she can destroy the Earth instead. Her next door neighbor, another vapid boy with nothing in his life to give it meaning, decides to serve her.
And he interits a supernatural lizard with no powers but who now declares the boy to be a knight of some kind. Turns out the knight’s only power is to run away from danger. And then more guys show up who want to fight, who oppose the girl, who are knights ... with animals, and so on. None of them are interesting, no matter how hard the show’s creators try to make them engaging.
The plot line that is supposed to be driving our main characters becomes a footnote. The only dangers are easily defeated by the girl. And out of nowhere in episode 7, the real bady guy suddenly appears? The only way this works is for the story to be so compelling that we are easily carried from each incident to the next, but we’re not. Instead, we get one meaningless scene followed by another. The main points of the story – the impending doom of earth and the relationship between the boy and the girl – just sit by the side, as we grow more and more bored with the nothingness of this.
An opportunity lost, which is an all-too-common outcome of anime.

So, yea, expecting much of anything from this was a fool's errand, but the mutt-and-jeff trope can often lead to an enjoyable story. And I always live in hope that fantasy animes can provide some kind of fun and escape.

KnV was somewhat promising despite the ridiculous size of her breasts. Anime production is run primarily by grown men who are still 14-year-old horndogs inside. But what's pathetic, beyond the endless and pointless sexualization of female characters, is how cowardly they are. Not just in regard to Japan's idiotic laws and standards on what can be shown or not (is a pixelated penis somehow less "indecent" ... than a more realistic drawing?), but in how they portray relationships.

Time after time, a good-looking girl shows her interest in the boy who is the main character, and he runs away in terror. (God forbid their hands or shoulders even touch.) This cliché was old 20 years ago, and it gets more insulting as time goes on. It is never funny. Achi Kochi made slipping on a banana peel funny once, but they made it part of an entire bit, and they made it ridiculous. Here, and in too many other shows, it's just trotted out witlessly because very few shows have the slightest bit of creative energy. Or even creative effort.

Maybe at some point in this show, little scared boy will decide to enjoy the oppai opportunity. I doubt it. This type of show isn't about sex or fantasy; it's about stupid little boys making stupid titty jokes and then running away, giggling.

I wanted to like this show, with the demon fighting demons. I was even willing to overlook how convoluted the plot was, with the whole thing about contracts with demons not being clearly explained and yet central to the story.

But in the end, I just could not take the stupid, hackneyed, cliched, and stupidly pointless menage-a-trios jealousy side story. "Hey, let's have adults in this story and have them act like 14-year-olds!" And everybody on the story committee, said "Wow. Brilliant. How fresh and innovative." If the show were better on other fronts, I could tolerate that.

But it's not. It's a second-rate story, and ... it's made unwatchable, for me, with this trite nonsense. He is clueless, she is still crushing, and second she is a demon acting like a super-possessive imouto in love with her nee-chan. Gag. Who has time to waste in their life for this garbage?

Not me.

I generally enjoy KyoAni a lot, but one thing about this show just got to be too much: Yuuta resolves far too many of his own issues by hitting Rikka, repeatedly. yes, i know, it's just supposed to be silly and possibly cute. a random chop here & there is one thing; this is repeated, over and over. no idea why anyone thinks that kind of thing is fun or cute. it's gross, unncessary, and ruined this anime for me.

mal demands a longer review, but i've said all that i have to say about this. pretty stupid. but i'm used to mal having certain pointless ... rules.

As one reviewer put it, Cute girls doing cute things, and the cute thing is fishing. Unfortunately, despite the potential for this being both a chance to share what some love about fishing while at the same time dealing realistically with some of life’s deeper tragedies, this series opts for superficial sweetness that had me dropping it after episode 9.

Both main characters have lost a parent at a young age, but the pain of that loss is treated like a trope to make the plot work. Instead, everything works out well – the two girls are now sisters and get along great – and their ... adventures all have happy endings. That makes it a nice anime for girls who want to enjoy nice anime, but do they really care about fishing? The anime itself makes it clear that girls fishing is a strange thing to do.

Perhaps as a manga this works better. Perhaps as a 10-year-old girl it works better. I enjoy sweet slice-of-life anime a lot, but this one is all sweetness and very little life. I would recommend it to others, but with all the cavaets above.

In case you get distracted, as I did at first, by the art style, keep watching. Yes, it's simplistic and even childish. But this is how the original webmanga was drawn – actually, this is an improvement in terms of quality, skill, etc. It's a style, and it serves a purpose: to tell a story.

No one takes Boji seriously as a prince, and he seems simple-minded. But being deaf and not having been taught how to talk, he lives in his own world, exploring the city and the land beyond the walls. His father and step-mother love him, and the knights and guards care about ... him.

Then he meets an assassin who at first steals from him but then is possibly the first to learn of the depths of character and resolve within Boji. And this is where the story becomes one of the best of 2021.

The story gets more nuanced and richer with each episode. The art style fades into the background as the characters move forward. Many anime start out strong and then fade (or, Wonder Egg, crash and burn at the last episode). Ousama Ranking just gets better and better. I can't wait for Season 2.

Will, the protagonist, was never the good part of this anime. His three guardians were what interested me. (Having Horie Yui's voice as one of them was bonus points.) The pathos of their circumstances, and the changes having this young human to care about, was touching and why I kept watching.

Now that Will's on his own doing the usual isekai thing, the show is unwatchable. He's bland and pointless. The story has no movement. I couldn't even remember the previous week's plot.

Then they bring in that over-hyped "halfling" as if to capture our hearts with her energy and singing, and that was that. Had this ... show begun with Will wandering as an itinerant priest, I would have dropped it from the beginning. It took 7-1/2 episodes, but I'm done with it.

It bums me out when an anime begins with promise then fizzles. This one is a most definite defizzled bummer.