"Watch Alicization, it's SO much better"
Because it is. Because normal people don't cling to their hate of a series and use everything it did wrong in the past as a reason to hate it in the present.
Normal people won't go on about how "SAO's biggest problem is itself," or try their damn hardest to try to prove how Reki fails as a writer because of what he's done in the past. They don't compare every little flaw in Alicization to what SAO was in the past because THIS ISN'T THE PAST. Alicization isn't perfect, it has its flaws, but rating this series a 1, 3,
...
hell even 5? No, Alicization is in almost every possible way lightyears ahead of the past seasons, and even the movie (which I enjoyed significantly more than either other season just fyi)
Spoilers for any of the 3 people reading this who haven't already watched Alicization; of pretty much the entire thing.
"Boring infodumps"
Pretty much the biggest problem of Alicization as a whole. If it wasn't bad enough in ufotable's adaptation of UBW, Alicization is loaded to the brim with pausing in the middle of battles to make time seemingly stop in order to express dialogue that I can only imagine was a lot better in the original light novels.
This was my biggest flaw with Alicization, yes. I won't deny that. But here's where I offer pushback as my reason for bringing this up first: THIS WASN'T AN ISSUE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING.
I don't understand what the issue is with so many people having problems with how Alicization decided to set the scene. It was a completely new setting in every way; the only relative similarity between it and past seasons of SAO is the fact that it's not a part of the real-world. Though, in a lot of ways, it might as well have been.
This isn't me trying to tout moderate improvement to past seasons either, as something that's a little better than complete crap is still crap... this is more me saying that bad exposition turned into slightly above-average exposition. I had a lot of fun watching how Alicization started off and I got tons of great vibes from both the writer(s) and the general direction of how everything was handled. Kirito isn't just being thrown into this world nonsensically to kickstart a completely new story with the "Sword Art Online" branding that stars someone as famous as "Kirito," this is the SAO world in a completely new light.
"Time skips"
This is about one of the most laughable complaints I've ever heard for any anime, hell any piece of media as far as I can remember. People really wanna try to compare the two-year time skip of Aincrad to the two-year time skip of Alicization. Alright, let me explain something very simple that's literally nothing more than basic understanding of the material you're writing about (ironically the people who don't have this probably shouldn't even be writing reviews in the first place) -
Aincrad: Amidst a plethora of extremely interesting plot points, including (but not limited to) the overarching plot and setting, the introduction of cool characters, and the feeling of "growing pains" that surrounds all of these things, there was the decision to have an extended time skip pretty much RIGHT to the end. Aincrad's biggest issue is that it skipped past all the cool stuff that everyone would've not only loved to see, but even NEEDED to see to be able to comprehend why everything that happened happened.
Alicization: Amidst a plethora of extremely interesting plot points, almost all within the same parameters of Aincrad right before its infamous time skip, there was the decision to have an extended time skip right to the "meat and potatoes" part of the season. Alicization's biggest strongpoint is that it skipped past all the boring stuff that nobody would've enjoyed seeing, essentially saving everyone a bunch of time by quickly filling in what would've otherwise been a bunch of boring filler. God bless the team behind Alicization for not milking SAO out to be a generic battle shonen with 50+ straight episodes of filler, and instead cutting to the chase and saying "ok, so this is what we did. And then we trained and grew for 2 years and now we're here. Now let's get to the good stuff."
Putting it frankly, Aincrad skipped over the good stuff and Alicization skipped over the bad stuff. Remember, just because something is a horrible writing decision in one scenario doesn't mean it's going to be just as bad in what is literally the EXACT OPPOSITE of the same scenario.
"It didn't have enough _____"
To fill in the blank, the most common terms other reviewers have used have been "world-building," "definition," "focus," and other terms people have thrown around.
To a certain point I can agree, but to the most basic of points I cannot.
Let's start with world-building. Common complaints you'll hear essentially say that "because Alicization isn't an ACTUAL open-world MMO it fails at world building." Except... how many anime have you seen really nail world building to the level that it would be sufficient in an MMO scenario? It just doesn't happen, because anime is a different medium to an actual MMO. Even top-tier world building, like what you'd find in something like FMAB, wouldn't compare to an actual lore-rich MMO.
Kirito, Eugeo, and Alice grow up in one town, and the main goal of that town is specifically the tree Eugeo has to cut down. So why exactly does every little village need to be covered? Then they move onto a more upper-class city because they're trying to become nobles. So why does everything need to be covered there? And then they move onto the cathedral, where it's made very clear that they only fight against knights on very specific floors. So why does every floor need to be covered?
A lot of people think that because an anime is based inside of what is otherwise an MMORPG that it needs to have the same caliber of world-building as one. However, this isn't World of Warcraft. This is SAO, an anime series. And personally, I think the quicker that you begin to realize that, the more you'll end up enjoying Alicization as a whole.
This is a 24-episode anime series, so not every single town, camp, NPC, and even table can have the same huge backstory that those respective things would in an actual MMORPG. Of course this isn't me saying the world-building of Alicization is absolutely amazing either, I'm just saying it does its job. Not every anime needs to have world-building as good as FMAB to be sufficient.
Now for definition. I don't have a lot to say about this because I actually agree with people saying Alicization isn't extremely well-defined. Personally, I think it does its job well, but it definitely isn't perfect, hell I'd probably not even say its good; just a bit above average, really.
The main issue Alicization has with its overall definition and polish is the simple fact that it will fall really flat in being overly cohesive as an anime. It tells a lot more than it shows sometimes, which is something I will forever consider a flaw in a visual medium. But as I said, I don't have a ton to say because I don't think it's as good as the fanboys say or as bad as the haters say. It's average, maybe just a bit above it.
But man, focus. This is where I have a bone to pick with certain individuals.
I will agree fully with the fact that certain things DID deserve more focus than they got, particularly around Eugeo's backstory and the fact that a lot of things went completely ignored. It really does bother me that the issues he (apparently) had with his family went completely ignored, and how he suddenly remembered that it wasn't just him and Alice together as children, but Kirito as well... except, he just conveniently forgot what happened during the 6 years that they weren't together (between when Alice disappeared and when Kirito spawned back into the underworld at his real-world age). I wanna know more about this kind of stuff, and the fact that these things weren't really covered does bother me quite a bit, and definitely worked towards impacting the story in a negative way.
But, just because the story had a few glaring issues suddenly means that EVERYTHING it did was wrong? No way.
See, even though I said earlier that Alicization isn't an MMO, there's still the blatant fact that it's definitely ABOUT an MMO. Of course something about an MMO that takes place in an MMO is going to have MMO characteristics, just like how it DID have an overarching world and the world was built around the plot despite not being built to the level you'd expect from a traditional MMO. To say that Alicization lost focus by putting too much attention on "unimportant matters" is just foolish.
Fluctlights are important. As are sword skills, and how they happen. As is the villain and what they're gonna do, the same way you would talk about taking on a boss in an MMO. Remember, this isn't just purely a simulation/video game, but that it also isn't JUST a battle of humanity challenging a greater evil. It's both.
Before I start rambling, let's wrap up this "reviewer rant" section with a few other points before getting into MY review.
1. Alicization intentionally doesn't always take itself seriously. Much like many fans of comedy (both in and out of anime) understand very clearly, even the most serious things can have comedic breaks without seeming out of character. Alicization does the same thing except with both comedy and absurdity. It likes to be fun, and if it doesn't always take itself too seriously, you shouldn't either. Just have fun, you'll enjoy it a lot more.
2. The actual content of the plot is different from past seasons of SAO solely because things have a reason for happening. Nitpicking every little issue from the plot doesn't necessarily take away the real substance of it and what makes it great, which is something I don't see enough reviewers talking about (and it honestly bothers the hell out of me). They talk about the flaws in a way that creates a two-page wall of text, and then end it with "and this is why it sucks." That's only part of it, though; be fair and respectful towards the creators and talk about BOTH parts.
3. I'll go deeper into this later, but I want people to understand that the "casuals will be casuals" argument is about the dumbest thing any person can genuinely use against Alicization.
Now for my own words that aren't at all intended to be used directly against anyone else's.
What was the main grabber that made me realize that the general story of Alicization was different from past seasons of SAO? If I had to pin down one exact thing, it would be everything that happens happens for a well-defined reason.
It wasn't just the time skip, insane plot armor (Jesus-kun), and nonsensical BS that ruined Aincrad (and the entire first and most of the second season as a whole). What it was was that even an outstanding majority of the sections that were complete and coherent had no real reason to be happening.
Kirito meets a girl and she dies. Waste of an episode. Three episodes of watching him and the female lead screw around. Waste of three episodes. Cut away to a period of time where they spent 3 episodes getting a sword to make Kirito even more overpowered and then some random girl is sick and we're supposed to care about her. Waste of literally half a season.
Alicization not only improves on this array of crap, but handles it in ways that aren't hard to get attached to.
As opposed to introducing an interesting character and immediately forgetting about them for the rest of the series, Alicization introduces multiple interesting characters that fully fulfill their role in the series. When something happens, it makes sense why it happens and it's typically very enjoyable. The long-term static growth of these characters often happens off-screen, but the main kicker is the fact that when there's a significant amount of growth in a short amount of time, we see it and are able to understand fully why it's happening, and it always makes sense.
The time that's wasted in Alicization isn't wasted with events that make no sense, because everything makes sense and there's always a good reason for it. The issues each character faced were clearly cut out and made sense, and were enjoyable to watch, even if some of them ended up being dumb, mindless fun without much real substance.
Even with the controversial way of handling a topic as sensitive as sexual abuse, there was never a time where it felt overly edgy or at all like fetishizing the subject, instead the themes were mature and the audience was respected throughout the exploration of the subject.
Alicization doesn't do a lot to question the way people think or how you do things; it isn't psychological or philosophical. Instead, you have this action series that handles itself like an action series, staying true to itself throughout the entire thing, start to finish, doing everything in a way that makes sense and is enjoyable to watch.
If my discussion of the story sounded at all basic, open-ended in a bad way, or generally stretched out without much substance, that's because it was. The story of Alicization was the worst part of it, it was a pretty good story that wasn't great, and most of the reason I liked it came down to personal enjoyment of action anime and the fact that it was coherent enough to get by. As I mentioned earlier, not everything NEEDS to be taken super seriously, and it's a lot easier to enjoy things that aren't perfect (or in this case, great) when you decide to just sit back and enjoy it for what it is.
That isn't to say that the story of Alicization was bad, though. Just not amazing. Still pretty good. Flawed. Not perfect, but definitely above-average.
But the characters... this was definitely the biggest improvement to past seasons of SAO.
Alicization completely obliterates every past season of SAO in the character department for 3 main reasons:
1. General character layout
2. Number of characters
3. Purpose of characters
Let's dive deeper.
What I mean by "general character layout" is the fact that Kirito, beyond the first episode, understands fully well that he's in a virtual world and that none of these people are real. This is a huge deal because of how characters have been handled in past seasons; Kirito understood that all the people in SAO, ALO, and GGO were real, living human beings.
It's different, but why is it important? Fantastic question. Because it allows Kirito to question the decisions he makes.
Aside from how the season ends, the idea that sits in the back of Kirito's brain throughout the entire season is that the world is virtual and nothing huge is lost if he doesn't complete his mission. Despite that, he still draws huge ties to the individuals he meets and fights as hard as he possibly can to ensure that the mission is eventually completed.
I consider this extremely important for one reason: Kirito was once the most basic anime protagonist to ever exist. Now, he has layers and it's a lot easier to relate to him on a personal level, beyond that of a basic "haha I like video games too Kirito is a cool anime character." Hell, there may even be times where you'll forget that this is the same Kirito from the last two seasons; god knows I felt that way a few times.
Number of characters is a lot more important than many will realize; there really isn't an actual "wasted" character here.
If you learn as little as the name of any character, you'll be quick to understand that they're probably gonna be important to the plot, and 100% of the time that ends up being the case. This contradicts from past seasons of SAO purely because you had characters like Klein, Liz, Silica, Suguha, and Agil that had no actual meaning to the plot... and if you're like me, you understand that that was a MAJORITY of the "primary" characters in the first 2 seasons.
Alicization takes a different, FAR superior approach, to the characters; everybody means something to the plot, and the ones who don't are just simply left as non-characters who aren't even properly introduced. A lot of ways this is proven are by things like characters being introduced early-on and having an important role later on, characters being or not being introduced by name quickly after their first on-screen appearance, or characters doing something for the plot early on. The amount of organization that comes from something as simple as NOT creating a character unless they have a reason to exist increases the overall quality of the season significantly.
The purpose of characters is quite possibly the most important thing here, but the thing that requires the least explaining just because of how obvious it is and how much better it makes things.
Let me give you a quick example. Sinon was a female lead many considered badass because she wasn't a Mary Sue like Asuna, and actually had some definition and substance whereas Asuna didn't. The problem was, despite Sinon's positive attributes, she still became part of Kirito's harem.
Alice is similar; she's by far the best female lead in SAO history (even if she is basically just a thought until halfway through the season), and has tons of definition even compared to Sinon. But... she doesn't become part of Kirito's harem, instead she remains mostly independent in personality and thought.
This didn't just apply to Alice, either. Eugeo wasn't Klein; a quick sidekick abandoned after two epiodes. His existence was just as important as Kirito's, something that couldn't be said about any other character in either of the past seasons besides Asuna's in Mother's Rosario.
Selka didn't just sit as lolibait to make people feel like they had their own "imouto-chan" to love and cherish, she actually sat as positive progression of Alice's character later on. Complete 180 compared to Suguha.
Ronie and Tiese weren't just random waifus to add to Kirito's harem like Silica and Liz, they were essential parts to progressing the story of Kirito and Eugeo, essentially the reason their journey of saving Alice truly began in the first place.
Etc, etc.
It's really hard to ignore how in SO many ways Alicization just takes the parts that made past seasons of SAO complete crap and makes them great. This isn't just polishing a turd, this is completely restructuring the turd and turning it into pure gold. Again, more reviewers need to talk about this kind of stuff.
This is something I can brush over quickly, before wrapping everything up: the art and sound of Alicization was near perfection.
While you will get the ufotable UBW vibes of "let's slow down/pause the battle to add in dialogue" pretty often throughout Alicization, what you'll also get is the artistic fidelity of ufotable UBW, or at least damn close. The art is beautiful; the still scenes are absolutely gorgeous, the environments are a treat to look at, and the quality of the battles are nothing I'd consider any less than majestic. The art and animation of Alicization are not up for debate; they're amazing.
The sound does the same thing, just to me perhaps a little better. As a die-hard Yuki Kajiura fanboy, it's quite easy for me to enjoy every little detail of the music here, to the point where even tracks that I felt like I'd heard too much in the prior 2 seasons felt really great (and slightly nostalgic) when mixed into Alicization; if anything, they felt a lot more at-home here than in the past. Of course, all of the new music was incredible down to the finest detail as well, including both opening/ending themes. And like with all Japanese dubs, the voice acting was also nothing less than superb.
So let's wrap everything up into a nice little package.
Haters gonna hate, and I don't say that in a preppy teenager way either. I mean it.
If every reference to SAO were pulled from Alicization and it were otherwise the exact same thing rebranded into something new, the top 3 reviews wouldn't be negative and the series would absolutely, no question about it, sit a lot closer to an 8.2-8.3 in overall average rating.
This is SAO, and with how bad the first two seasons were (ESPECIALLY the first), people can't handle SAO being good for once. Because of that single bias against something that's nothing more than a label, the haters will drag every little flaw it has through the dirt until they can make it look so bad that nobody will even be willing to talk about the plethora of things it does insanely well.
This is not a crappy season that only casuals praise. Far from it. Anyone saying, thinking, or believing that "casuals will be casuals" and that "watch Alicization, it's SO much better" is the battle cry of casuals in denial are just foolish. The casuals that made SAO as popular as it is in the first place only existed initially, and since its first year or so of post-airing existence, the series has been considerably dragged through the dirt more and more to the point where there's so few new SAO fans appearing out of thin air these days. The casuals who made the series popular literally 5-6 years ago went from being edgy middle schoolers to now being working, bill-paying adults who likely wouldn't praise the series "just because it's SAO." These are individuals with taste who likely dislike the first two seasons of SAO just as much as you, and only praise Alicization BECAUSE IT'S ACTUALLY GOOD.
And really, in the end, that's what it all comes down to. People praise Alicization because it's good. They praise it because it does things right. They praise it because instead of the abundance of meaningless "primary" characters, there's significantly less characters and all of them have meaning. They praise it because the bland, 2D cardboard cutout protagonist is no longer Jesus-kun, and is now fully a respectable protagonist somewhat worthy of his popularity (though as a whole still quite overrated). They praise it because sometimes you'll even forget Kirito is the same protagonist of the prior 2 crap seasons, just because he's that much different, and when you ARE reminded that he's the same person, it's for a good reason; he flaunts his unique duel-wielding style or he starts wearing his Aincrad clothing without being absurdly overpowered.
Alicization has flaws, but they're not the crazy things that so many people consider comparable to the flaws of the first two seasons. Instead, Alicization fixes most of them by creating its own thing that ends up being great due to careful planning and quality writing.
I'm excited for season 2, and for once in my life, I'm starting to think I may have an overall positive view of SAO.
Apr 4, 2019
Sword Art Online: Alicization
(Anime)
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Recommended Spoiler
"Watch Alicization, it's SO much better"
Because it is. Because normal people don't cling to their hate of a series and use everything it did wrong in the past as a reason to hate it in the present. Normal people won't go on about how "SAO's biggest problem is itself," or try their damn hardest to try to prove how Reki fails as a writer because of what he's done in the past. They don't compare every little flaw in Alicization to what SAO was in the past because THIS ISN'T THE PAST. Alicization isn't perfect, it has its flaws, but rating this series a 1, 3, ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 8, 2017
Yuri!!! on Ice
(Anime)
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Not Recommended Spoiler
Obviously spoilers. Don't see how a review could be written for this series without them.
Alright, so here we go. Blah blah blah Crunchyroll anime awards blah blah x series deserved this award blah blah blah blah blah. I kid, of course. No mention of those in this review. However, I do think that some things really do need to be talked about as to why this series is as overrated as it is, and why those things are absurd. So watch close as I get into them. Let's start by discussing the premise. Funny enough, one thing most YoI fans can agree with is that the premise ... was nothing too amazing. It was somewhat unique in its own way, as it does remain a fact that up to now, a sports story being started the way it was in YoI hasn't really happened in anything that's been significant/at a moderately blockbuster level. That being, a star athlete wants to quit but is visited up by an even bigger star athlete who wants to become his coach. Usually, in most sports anime, what we're typically given is the protagonist being motivated by something else, not somebody else putting motivation into them. I originally watched YoI from the very beginning. It wasn't anything I viewed with high regards, but I made it through 3 episodes initially because that's what I promised to give it even prior to when it started airing. Ultimately, I thought nothing of it. Or should I say initially. Nah, that doesn't work because I still really don't feel anything towards it. The predominant thing about it here was the fact that a fair amount of "manservice" was involved, similar to Free!. I had almost instantly assumed it'd be that way; homosexual innuendos, abs, and a massive fujoshi following, so I gave up on it. Same way as I did with Free!. Now, inevitably so, I was begged by quite a few people to continue it because of "how amazing it gets eventually." Seeing the scores it was plastered with all over the internet, I thought maybe it had been an unexpected surprise and would turn into a huge hit one day in the future... so I continued it. Onto continuing plot development. Up to episode 6, the series had very little change besides what you'd expect from a sports anime. More about the actual sport was talked about, and the development was cliche and nothing special. The funny thing in the situation of figure skating, however, is the plain and simple fact that if you've never followed figure skating before in your life, you really won't have any idea about the actual fine details of what's going on. You'll be JUST as aware of what a toe loop, flip, and salchow are on the 12th episode as you were before you even started the first. And to be entirely honest, that fact is just, simply, sad. Why is it sad? Not for reasons you'd think, such as it being detrimental to the series and your enjoyment is hindered from not knowing what it all means. Though that COULD possibly be the case (I wouldn't know since I know nothing about figure skating), there's another huge problem behind the audience's lack of understanding: how the series tries to get you to understand what everything means. What YoI does is something that happens a fairly decent amount in anime, but really shouldn't ever happen. Its methods of trying to get you to understand things, and I mean actual things canon to the story (not JUST the things about figure skating, or recaps, or any one specific thing), are done on a 1:1 talk-type of basis. Ever heard of the term "show, don't tell"? YoI does the exact opposite in many situations. And in a medium of entertainment like anime, one that's based more on visuals than anything else, this kind of thing shouldn't be happening. If novel authors are able to show their explanations without directly telling them to you, anime writers should definitely be able to do at LEAST the same thing when it comes to select crucial moments. In other words, YoI is filled to the brim with annoying infodumps. This is the exact case with literally every single situation when it comes to figure skating explanation; instead of trying to show you each jump, presentation score, technical scores, competition layouts, and everything else, they just infodump all of it through a method that makes it seem like the main character, Yuri, is talking directly to you. It really is annoying, a huge sign of poor writing quality in an anime, and finally, it really makes a show difficult to enjoy. Now, there are a few things you're able to understand while going through the series, and that is the value and importance level behind the performances. We're given the ideas that more stunning visuals behind their outfits, general step sequences, and appeal towards the certain criteria/genre that they're working in are all good things, in addition to more successful jumps and better jumps are overall better for their performance as well. It's obvious that there isn't a ton to take in as a spectator when it comes to figure skating, as most things can just be taken at face value directly from your eye and don't really require complicated evaluation unless you're actually a judge of the competition. But a problem lies within that as well. Figure skating seems to be very limited in how great it is to spectate it unless you're EXTREMELY knowledgeable of it, like to the point where you could be a judge. And I say this all despite what I just said in the above paragraph. Things CAN be taken at face value, but they obviously won't be all that enjoyable if there isn't already a level of knowledge about ice skating as a whole in your brain before even watching the first episode. Without the knowledge I speak of, you're pretty much missing out on every single thing that makes spectator sports fun to watch in the first place; no thrill, no sense of competition, and no way to really prove your self worth. Of course, 100% of all of this changes IF you're extremely knowledgeable in figure skating. But I get the feeling that even if you are, seeing it in anime form will still be a bit boring since things can change completely at the discretion of the animators/writers, thus removing all of the 3 things that I claimed make spectator sports enjoyable in the first place. Overall, the plot development alongside a premise like this was just not good, ultimately because of how difficult it is to create something enjoyable out of something as niche as figure skating. So far, we have a failed first 3 episodes that were just unnecessary fanservice, and a failed following 3 episodes that were just badly formed infodumps and a lot of boredom. What's funny, however, is how YoI's first half was actually significantly better than the second. How could it possibly get worse? Here's how. The "most heartwarming scene of the year" (sorry, just had to make that small reference) happens in episode 7, aka a really lackluster kiss that wasn't even fully shown and also lead to absolutely nothing in the long run. This really is when the series took off in terms of popularity and how much the people who watched it from the beginning began to brag about "always being a fan of it" and started to claim themselves as huge/hardcore fans of the series. However, what it did was spelled a major hint of inevitable downfall of the series, which is exactly what it ended up being. The series reached its peak at episode 4, when it started to be quite enjoyable just for what it was. At this point on, all it was was pretentious fujoshibait. As sad as it was, it's true that YoI from episode 8 and on literally was JUST fujoshibait. Despite the kiss, absolutely nothing happened between the two main characters (Yuri and Victor). The continuation of their false relationship was limited purely to hand holding, snuggles, and rings that were really just meant to be mementos of their promises to each other, and the fact that they were each placed on each other's ring fingers by each other as if they were wedding rings, and the FACT that Victor claimed that they're getting married to a group of friends was just... coincidence? Literally not even TRYING to hide such an absurd amount of bait. It was all just pure cringe, from start to finish, and it made me question what had ever caused this series to become as popular and beloved as it is. Makes no sense to me whatsoever. Could it get any worse? Maybe just a bit. The final 3 episodes were absolutely nothing of importance. It continued on in a cliche way, had a very significant yet obvious and mildly unimportant goal from the eyes of the viewer, and was just so incredibly boring. As Yuri is close to fulfilling his promise of winning a gold medal in the figure skating Grand Prix, he's off to the final competition with Victor. What we get for the next 3 episodes is a bunch of mindless animation scenes of skating that look NO different from the last scene of the same skating program; like, you CAN tell that it isn't reused animation, but the animation we are given is like the Endless Eight in the Haruhi series... it's the exact same thing, just with different money poured into it from the last time. The only differences are if there's mistakes made by the skaters that weren't made last time, or vice versa. Of course, all of these skating scenes are boring. They fall into the ideals I stated earlier of making very little sense and having no sense of thrill or anything else you'd expect from a spectator sport, just because animators decide what happens as opposed to actual human beings being the ones who perform. And it's just, simply, depressing. What's also depressing is how little there is to say about the series at this point. To me, it feels like I almost rushed through this review in the last couple sections, but after multiple re-reads I realize I haven't... there just is so little to say overall. Regardless of how acclaimed a series is, even if it's bad, there should at least be a lot to say about it whether in positive or negative light... why is YoI not this way? Was it really that badly written? I can't even be 100% sure in this case. My final verdict on the story, after my very general analysis of it, is that there really is absolutely nothing that comes from it that's anything special in any way possible. It just makes no sense; what is it that people see in this show that causes them to love it so much? If only I could understand for even a second the answer to that, I'd be more than satisfied with my spending 4.5 hours watching this show. However, I get the feeling that I really never will understand simply because there is nothing there to truly enjoy, and that the entire fanbase of this show really did fall straight into the traps that the show set from the very beginning. The characters were just a bit different, but not completely in a good way. To me at least, there wasn't a single positive thing about the main character, Yuri (apparently his name is spelled Yuuri, though subtitles spelled it Yuri. I'll just continue to say Yuri since that's what I've been saying this entire review), that stood out enough for me to say he's a good character. He's extremely bland, and his anxiety seemed to be one of the most forced mental disorders that I've ever seen in anime. He would act like he was more nervous than he's ever been in his entire life, despite the fact that he's just going out to do something he's done hundreds of times with even LESS on the line than some of his other performances... he has nervous wrecks, cries, acts like he can't do it, but then... goes out and gives an amazing performance? At least stick to your roots, YoI writers, or at least give Yuri bipolar disorder instead of anxiety. Victor was without a doubt more charming and enjoyable to watch on-screen than Yuri was. However, he really does fall into the same cliches as Yuri in the end; his character feels extremely flat, doesn't have any huge personality traits that cause him to stand out more than another similar character, and feels like he only exists because of the plot, as if this kind of person would never exist in real life. That is a MAJOR red flag in an anime that obviously needs to feel realistic to even sustain itself. So overall, Victor still doesn't feel like a good character, despite being enjoyable to watch. Not a lot to say about him in the end since his character formula is so similar to Yuri's. The best character in the entire series was actually the second Yuri, the Russian one who everyone thought was a huge douchebag. Which, yeah, he definitely was. Without a single doubt. The reason why he was the best character in the series was simply because of how refreshing he was as a whole. He was a guy who refused to ever be looked down upon by others, which a lot of people did because of the fact that he's 15 and already claiming he'll win a Grand Prix gold medal. You also have the fact that Victor broke a promise he made to him and he just simply didn't wanna just take that like he was a little bitch, and he stood up to him and completely destroyed every ounce of main character Yuri's confidence when it truly mattered. Then he actually DID what he claimed he would and man, that honestly was the nicest feeling part of the series just because it felt like the main character wasn't AS plot armored as a typical sports anime protagonist would be. Russian Yuri for the win, without a doubt the best piece of this entire series. What about other characters? There were a few other skaters but the thing is, their entire existence was yet again just another flaw in the formula of this series. Their entire personalities were shoved down our throat faster than we were able to chew them, and their overall importance to the plot was very little over time because of how they were basically just a bunch of mindless robots meant to serve the purpose of being in the competition with the two Yuris, like they didn't even exist outside of those select situations. Now, this kind of writing is a problem no matter how you look at it, however it could've been a MUCH smaller problem had it been handled differently. If the plot calls for people to compete against the two Yuris in the competition, it'd be fine to just insert characters that mean nothing in to fill those roles. The main source of problems with the side characters ultimately came from the fact that they actually tried to give them all distinctive personalities and a fair amount of development. It was all unneeded; all it did was take up more time that could've been used to make the series better just to make it worse in the long run. Luckily, the presentation behind YoI as a whole was pretty well-done. The art lacked a bit for a typical 2016 anime, as there weren't a whole lot of well-animated still scenes. They were mostly just blurs or silhouettes that were only really there for the sake of minor distinction of things. What did need to look good, however, was the characters themselves in their situations, and I can promise you that all did indeed look very good. Also, the skating scenes themselves were extremely well choreographed (apparently from actual live-action skating programs) as well as very well-animated with no CG at all. The art and animation of YoI wasn't perfect by any means, but was still pretty good for what it was, and great when it truly needed to be. The soundtrack was also very good. The music chosen for pretty much every skater's program sounded very well-composed and generally was of higher quality than most music you'll find in a sports anime. The generally calm yet tense atmosphere of everything helped with that as well, since there was never any reason for forced rock music or anything. Everything sounded nice and chill, and I can't really say I have any direct complaints for any of it. Well, time for my final verdict. At this point, for the most part at least, I feel like I've gotten my points across pretty well. So, Yuri on Ice is ultimately just a huge plate of the highest quality bait to ever exist on the anime market. There is very little more to it aside from one good character, a lot of female-friendly fanservice, fujoshibait, and boring sports with seemingly reused animation. I was hoping for more when I began to hear the reasons why people loved it before getting back into the series at episode 4. However what it ended up turning into was pretty much just more of the same. TONS of bait that was literally nothing more than total bait for fujoshis to fangirl over, boredom, and a lot of really forced emotions. It really does sadden me to say that Yuri on Ice had a fair amount of potential, because the fact of the matter here is that every single ounce of it was wasted in every possible way. I loved seeing the Russian Yuri on-screen just because of how good of a character he was, however how quickly he was kicked off almost entirely of the show until the very end really did show you exactly what the creators of the show had in mind for it. The rivalry behind the two Yuris was supposed to seem important, but it didn't feel important at ALL because, like I said, it was made extremely obvious from very early on what the creators had intended this show to truly be. If only things had continued on in a good way, and not a way that they knew would just simply guarantee them a lot of easy money. Yuri on Ice is a beautiful looking, even better sounding failure. A very nice, pretty decorated box with a tag saying it came from the most important person in your life... but the box itself is completely empty. I don't at all look forward to a second season, because with Russian Yuri completing his goal, I'm almost positive that very little attention will be given to him until the VERY end... almost exactly like the first season, just somehow worse.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 31, 2016
Hibike! Euphonium 2
(Anime)
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If I had to thank KyoAni for one thing, it'd be for their ability to prove that it's really hard not to enjoy a good anime, which they've proven many times. Regardless of its art style, the way it presents its characters via voice acting and personalities, the setting of the series, or whatever else it may have that turns a lot of people off (and even causes some to denounce the series completely because of it), KyoAni proves to you that if it's good, it's good. And for that, you will enjoy it.
Ultimately, that was exactly how I felt about Hibike! Euphonium's 2nd season. ... The first season, to me at least, was disappointing in many ways because of various little things like the ones I listed above. To me, the fact that it had an extremely moe art style, characters that played well with the art style, and a very cliche school setting... and the cliches that applied to series' of this type seemed to all apply there as well. Because of all that, I really didn't like the first season a whole lot, though I was very hopeful because I believed a sequel had potential, and luckily I continued onto the end because what I ended up with was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had with anime in my entire life. And with all of that out of the way, let me begin to explain to you why I feel the way I do about this fantastic series. So, before I begin, I want to mention two things, and delve a bit deep into one of those: 1. This is a review of the second season, so expect spoilers of the first. 2. Given that I never actually wrote a proper review of the first season (at least not on MAL, but a very select few of you might have seen my brief analysis of it on the internet at some point), I wanna first talk about my overall thoughts and verdict on the first season before I begin talking about the second. It'll better allow you to understand why I feel the way I do about the second season here. Basically, to kind of repeat what I just said above, Hibike! Euphonium season one in a nutshell, at least to me, was that it just exploited every single possible "generic slice-of-life" (moe) trope that it possibly could. Things like embarrassment, unnecessary dialogue, forced drama, yuri (or yuri bait), CGDCT, and was all wrapped together with a pseudo-story that could even be seen as mildly pretentious because it tried to be far more serious than it actually was, in addition to trying to create more value/importance than it actually had. To me, however, I also believed that the series had a TON of potential just because of how interesting the premise was. Although I wasn't given it even slightly in the first season, I was really (and I mean REALLY) interested in seeing the struggles of making it in an industry as niche as the one of high school concert band. And yes, I understand that it wouldn't necessarily make a ton of sense to use words like "make it" and "industry," since it's an extracurricular group-based activity within high school, meaning you won't be making any money off of it and you also won't be suffering anything too huge (besides maybe psychologically) by failing within it. However, that doesn't change the fact that I'd LIKE to see something serious done with it. Something that depicts the struggles of making it to the top, where as the first season of this series really did just the opposite. Kumiko seemed far too plot-armored to really feel any sense of relating to her on a personal level. It seemed almost like she was given success served on a silver platter, and not necessarily earning it. You also have the fact that concert band seemed to be a second-highest priority for the series, with other events (primarily the yuri bait between Kumiko and Reina) taking top priority. There were way too many episodes completely dominated by fluffy SoL moments and unnecessary dialogue about nothing. There was also very little drama besides the restoration of Kumiko and Reina's friendship, in addition to flashbacks (but I intentionally don't count those because they're, well, in the past). So, for the most part, I didn't like the first season. It ultimately came down to the inability to tell a proper story by always changing itself whenever it felt like it wanted to and by just telling the actual "story" in a way that makes it seem far too forced and plot-armored. To keep it simple, it was very unrealistic, which is a HORRIBLE thing for a series like this that tries to be as realistic as it can be. And now, onto the second season here. Initially, Hibike! Euphonium's second season didn't really leave much of an impression on me simply because I didn't really feel much difference between it and the first season within the first few episodes. Of course, the second season still had better execution; it wasn't far into the second episode that we started to realize that different things really were happening, and that the way the story as a whole would be presented was going to be a lot different. Thus, I really did feel like it was a better series but not a LOT better, possibly worth a 6/10 in comparison to the 5/10 I gave the first season. Ultimately, however, the series really does find a way to pick itself up and become something incredible. Let me explain the main things that it does. Starting off: DRAMA. Yes, Hibike! Euphonium season 2 has a fair bit of drama, and ALL of it is quite well-executed. There are different types of drama, but the type used within the second season actually happens to be my favorite kind: uncomfortable deviations from the "norm" where progress is made by getting things back to where they were. The reason why I like this kind of drama is because it really throws the audience a curve ball. As opposed to progress being made via progression, via constantly becoming better and better, this type of drama demonstrates progress ONLY being made by bringing things back together, meaning your ONLY goal is to make things the way they once were, bring things back to normal. And the primary reason why I absolutely LOVE this kind of drama is because it really helps to flesh out a lot of characters all at once, as you get to see how they react to such an interesting situation. There are a lot of good examples to give on how Hibike! Euphonium demonstrates this kind of drama almost perfectly, but I'll only give one because it leads perfectly into my next point, which is the entire situation of learning about Taki-sensei and his wife. Kumiko learns this news, and it's a lot to take in for her not just because she feels bad, but because she knows how Reina feels about Taki-sensei and knows this kind of news would be huge to her. Thus, we see Kumiko attempting to keep things together, to pretend almost as if she forgot what she was told by burying it deep enough in her heart and mind that she doesn't think about it, all to keep from accidentally slipping it out to Reina. Next: DEVELOPMENT. There was little to no actual character development within the first season, the only "grey area" that could really be given to that claim is within Kumiko and how she goes from not giving a crap about the competitions and making it to nationals to wanting to make it to nationals as much as anybody else. There was definitely no grey area here in season two, however, as it's quite obvious that there is TONS of development going on for everyone, and even including the story itself. The biggest sign of development within the second season here really is when Taki-sensei gets a fair amount of it. I consider this the biggest sign because it was, primarily, the first occurrence of it. Sure, we learned a few minor things about Reina and even a couple other side characters, but I really feel that none were even CLOSE to as important as what we learned about Taki-sensei simply because it did add a lot of much-needed depth to his character. What was mainly just a mysterious character that we constantly questioned about why he acted the way he did and what was up with him, became a very heart-filled character who we could understand greatly and, in some cases, even relate to. And to me, that's how development should always be in a series like this one. Taki-sensei wasn't the only case of development, however. While he was certainly the biggest sign of change within the series, as well as for future development, many others also had some well-deserved development as well. Ironically enough, however, this development wasn't really inflicted upon the main characters... of course, Kumiko has received a fair amount, and even a SLIGHT bit for Reina, but it was mostly side characters that received it. And the reason I consider this a pretty big deal is because of the fact that these characters almost didn't even feel like side characters any longer; at this point, they felt very much like main characters just because of the amount of depth they were given. And let me tell you what... a large slew of important, lovable characters is definitely what I look for when watching a series like this one, simply because it really IS the characters that carry a series that isn't primarily dominated by its story. And my final point is going to be: PLOT PROGRESSION. Plot progression within the second season here is DYNAMIC. What I mean by that is that you are truly able to understand the struggles involved in succeeding in a type of "industry" like this (which I only say due to a lack of a better word, like I addressed above). The overall feel of the series, in both atmosphere, tension, and sustainability is almost completely different because of how it's handled. There really isn't a moment that goes on within this second season that isn't relateable in SOME way, shape, or form, whether it be via personal experience or experience that you're aware that someone has went through before. And let me tell you, if you don't get it from what I said about the first season earlier, that that's the COMPLETE opposite of what the first season felt like. And, as I said above, that's DYNAMIC progression within the plot itself. I also want to mention that the story is definitely the top priority here in comparison to other things. The unnecessary fluff is gone, the yuri bait is almost completely obsolete, and the dialogue is cut down to either being very little, or being equally or more-so important. This was the primary thing that I was BEGGING for while watching the first season, simply because I didn't think a series composed of this kind of premise, this slew of characters and their various archetypes, and this kind of series direction could survive without at least a fairly high level of sustainable dialogue. We didn't get it in the first season, not even CLOSE, but this is something we certainly get here in the second season. Alright, so I've said all the changes (or, at least the major ones). Does changing what I considered to be just a bit above complete garbage into something quality and sustainable necessarily mean it deserves the absurdly high score I've given it? Not at all, so let me explain to you what makes everything so good. So, the primary thing I love about Hibike! Euphonium season 2 is the fact that everything is displayed in a way that's almost perfect in what it tries to do. From the emotions each character tries to display, to the feelings each character tries to commit to exposing or explaining, to the struggles each character displays in their attempts to become better than they already are. All of these things, wrapped up by a simple, yet extremely effective and EXTREMELY hard thing to perfect... how realistic they feel. Like I said above, almost every single event that takes place within this second season is relateable in some way, shape, or form simply because of the fact that these are common events used in uncommon ways. You have Kumiko being unable to properly portray her feelings to Asuka in a way that both understand and are able to connect with... of course, her reasons for doing so are a bit odd when viewed from the perspective of a viewer who I can at least assume has never had much experience with high school concert band (or band in general), so it may not come off as COMPLETELY relateable. However, it'd be absurd to say that there's anybody over the age of 16 that's never had to go through an experience where they'd been unable to explicitly explain their feelings to someone in a way where both understand. It's just a hard thing to do, and it makes for something extremely enjoyable to watch when it's portrayed correctly from a different perspective where we, as an audience, can all view it in a different way from one another. I also think the choice to take a lot of attention off of Reina, at least in comparison to how much she was given in the first season, is extremely smart simply because it takes a lot of pressure off of one of the biggest problems I had with the first season. Of course, that's the yuri bait. I just didn't think it was a necessary plotline simply because it both didn't make a lot of sense from both a plot AND character perspective, in addition to the fact that it felt extremely forced and unrealistic. Believe me, I don't mind yuri or yuri bait within an anime, heck I actually cheer for it in some shows where I think the plot and story in general would benefit from it. However, in a series where it tries its hardest to be realistic like Hibike! Euphonium, that kind of thing just doesn't work, and for obvious reasons. Primarily, just that it doesn't fit the plot, but also mainly because it's neigh-impossible to create a realistic yuri bait-based plotline within any kind of story. Of course, I would be lying if I said that I don't like it at all. It definitely CAN add a bit of flavor to a series, a good example to that is the Nico x Maki ships that usually happen within the Love Live fanbase. Thing is, however, that isn't carried out very hard within the series... they just poke fun at it a bit from time to time. And guess what? That's basically what the second season of Hibike! Euphonium does. With far less attention on Reina, there's not many situations where that kind of thing can even be executed well. In addition, it also makes for a LOT more room to develop other characters, which as I said earlier, is definitely taken advantage of and ultimately creates a slew of important characters that you can feel attached to in some way. Now, another thing that could be viewed as a general problem from the first season: the ending. While I won't go into detail about the events of it, I will briefly talk about the ending just to give you an idea of what you're in for. So yes, the Hibike! Euphonium series, as a whole, is over after this second season. The second season concludes the story, and might I say that the ending was actually EXTREMELY good and was about as conclusive as you could've asked it to be. Sure, some could argue that it would benefit from continuing, but I honestly think the story it told was perfect in timing and that the spot it ended was absolutely flawless in that it lets your imagination go to work and write the rest of the story for you, as well as not stretch it out for too long. But, with that said, it certainly IS an ending that will cause a void, so be somewhat prepared for that (though it's impossible to fully prepare for a void). So, as an attempt to keep things a bit short, I'll cut my discussion of the story and characters right here, simply because there's a bit too much to talk about that'd ruin the full experience if you haven't already seen the series. So, to put it briefly: Hibike! Euphonium season 2 takes literally every problem present within the first season and not only corrects it, but it also capitalizes on its strong points and creates even more to form a nearly flawless experience. Things happen that you not only didn't expect to, but that you were also BEGGING for to happen if you felt the same way about the first season as I did. Not only were the problems fixed, but it also went a way that I absolutely LOVED, and did things that I also absolutely LOVED and just LOVED to watch. To put it simply, I really LOVED this second season here, and I'm just really ecstatic that things happened the way that they did simply because that was exactly how I wanted them to happen. After the mildly slow start that Hibike! Euphonium's 2nd season had, the rest was basically everything I wanted it to be, and for that reason exactly, I really do love it. Briefly talking about the overall presentation of the series, since there really isn't a lot to discuss that isn't already obvious to everyone... The art is fantastic, like everything KyoAni is. The bright colors, the unnecessarily detailed settings, the flawless character designs, the amazing animation. There's not a single flaw to the art or animation of Hibike! Euphonium season 2, and for that I don't think there's much to talk about regarding it. For the sound, I do have just a bit to talk about. First off is something interesting, something I've never actually had to talk about before: I actually did have a MILD problem with a small aspect of the Japanese dub. That thing primarily deals with Kumiko's voice. Funny enough, I didn't think the voice for the main character, Kumiko Oumae, really fit her general personality very well at times. Of course, the voice acting wasn't bad by any means, as it seems every Japanese dub in anime has fantastic voice acting. I just really did feel a bit indifferent with the decision to work Tomoyo Kurosawa, who's generally done a lot of work with KyoAni and who I'd say her most famous voice would be Tina from Black Bullet (not KyoAni, just a moderately famous voice), into the series as the voice of Kumiko. The primary reason I say this is because Kumiko's general character design and personality don't really fit my ideal perception for a mildly loli yet still very monotonous voice. Yes, Kumiko is naturally a very stoic character, and for good reasons. So, a monotonous voice doesn't really sound like a terrible thing. BUT. I still think Kumiko's bright side shows off a lot in her character design, and occasionally in her personality, thus I always thought a higher voice would work better for her. There have been a lot of times where I've felt stupid for thinking something like this, because there are TONS of instances within the Hibike! Euphonium series, both seasons included, where Kumiko goes through situations where her voice seems to be on-the-dot perfect for her character. These are typically very strenuous situations, where she's either exhausted and her voice shows that, or she's yelling at someone and the increased pitch of an already moderately low voice fits perfectly for her. And let me say, there are a fair number of moments where Kurosawa's voice is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. Not necessarily for Kumiko 100% of the time, but my god, she really does outdo herself at times with these slight little glimpses of absolute perfection where you wanna just rewind and relisten to these little specks of voice-acting perfection. These are more significant in the second season as well, so at this point, I've been able to completely forgive and even partially ignore the problems I have with the overall choice of voice acting for Kumiko. Otherwise, the sound of this second season is great. Every other voice actor/actress is perfect, and being mildly well-versed in classical and orchestra music due to one of my exes being heavily involved in it, I also really love the sound of the high school concert band during their live shows and when small glimpses of it are given to us within the soundtrack of the series itself during its regular/typical moments. No, this isn't any kind of super amazing high school band, because I don't really think that kind of thing exists... there certainly are flaws present. But I also believe that the flaws that are there play well into the composition of the series as well, given that it's meant to be the work of young high school students, thus mildly flawed music makes everything feel even more realistic. The opening theme, while I'd say it's just a VERY small bit below the first season's in terms of quality, is still very good and fits the series extremely well. The ending theme is the same case, except I would put it just a bit above the first season's in terms of quality. Though, in general, I just really like when OPs/EDs are vocally composed by the primary voice actors/actresses of the series they're from. My final verdict is a bit of a hard one to give, because I, simply, find it just a bit too hard to briefly sum up what I like so much about this second season of Hibike! Euphonium. Overall, the primary thing here is improvement from the first season, however there is more to it than that simply because I just love how everything was executed in its own accord, not even considering the first season in my judgement. The story really kicked itself in the behind to create something great that was exactly what I'd been wanting from the series from the very beginning. I also loved the mild change of paces within the overall structure of character distribution, as there WAS a pretty significant need for change there... and the change we got was perfect. Overall, Hibike! Euphonium season 2 was, to be completely honest, next to flawless. It was literally everything I could ever ask for in this kind of series, and what it did was something that I absolutely LOVED and was craving for in a kind of series like this one. It is one I recommend others to watch, and that's despite the mediocre first season. So, hopefully you understand how much I loved this second season as a whole, and are motivated yourself to go watch it regardless of your situation... whether you've already seen the first or not. And even if you've seen it and ultimately decided you didn't like the first season, just please, give the seasond season a chance to redeem itself. I can promise you that you won't regret it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 3, 2016
Selector Destructed WIXOSS Movie
(Anime)
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EDIT 9/25/18:
I've gotten some messages regarding people who were slightly confused over this review, so I'd like to clarify something. At my time of writing this review, the Lostorage WIXOSS series had only just began airing (literally five days after I wrote and posted the review), and as it hadn't quite been a thing at that point, I want to mention that any mention of the "WIXOSS series" in this review is SOLELY directed towards the Selector WIXOSS series, whether it be Infected, Spread, or the Destructed movie. Even to this day, I have yet to watch the Lostorage WIXOSS series and currently have no plans to, ... and the series itself is COMPLETELY unrelated to this review. Sorry if that was confusing to anyone, but this review was written at a time when it didn't exist, so I didn't have any way to know whether or not my usage of specific terms would be confusing within the context of this review. The rest of the review beyond this line has been untouched; hopefully MAL staff doesn't take my review down for editing it two years later. Contains spoilers of the first and second seasons (none of the actual movie, however), so read at your own risk. This will be less of a review of the actual movie and more of a review of the fact that it was a movie. I'll explain that in more detail later. I have every right to believe Selector Destructed WIXOSS was just as good as the second season, and even better than the first. What I don't quite agree with 100%, however, is the fact that it was made into a movie. Please, do NOT panic when I say this. Don't consider this an automatic dealbreaker if you've seen the first and second seasons and are trying to decide whether you should watch this movie or not. But, about 70% of the movie is recap of the first and second seasons. This may come off as a bit of a disappointment to some, especially for people like me who had been waiting nearly 8 months since its original February 13th release date in Japan for this movie to be released on BD and subbed. And hell, I'm sure there are MANY other diehard WIXOSS fans who had been watching the entire series weekly since it started airing, and it's felt like a seemingly endless journey waiting for the series to be concluded. However, just in-case you don't understand based purely on my rating, I was the exact opposite of disappointed. Here's some facts about the state of recap present within Selector Destructed WIXOSS. It gives you just enough to enjoy the movie if you're one of the people who have never seen anything WIXOSS-related and just decided to go out and see the film, but at the same time, doesn't overload you with stuff you already know if you're a returning fan who's already seen the first and second seasons. In its own way, it's a perfect way to bring up more WIXOSS fans. They'll watch the movie, and sure, they'll already know all that happens. But some things that aren't explained in the movie (that, as someone who's seen both seasons, can confirm ARE explained in the TV series) might draw curiosity out of some of the viewers, and cause them to go and watch the first and second seasons. And, with how underrated WIXOSS is, I'm MORE than welcoming to any attempt to draw in more fans. Why were things done this way? Simple. The entire sequel aspect of this movie comes from things being explained within the actual storyline present within the first and second seasons. The movie starts out with a bit of a prequel, explaining one of the loose ends I actually audibly spoke about having a problem with within the first season. It continues with more recap, but as the recap continues on, more and more plotlines that perfectly (and I mean PERFECTLY) tie up some other loose ends present within the series are sprinkled within the film, making it feel like a much more fulfilling experience. It, then, ends with a very well-written ending that I couldn't have asked to be any different. The reason that I don't agree 100% with the fact that this all was turned into a movie is simply because I do think that this all could have just been added into the first and second seasons. The prequel aspect could've been added in a way similar to the psychokinesis scene in Shinsekai Yori, where it seemed random and out of place but as time continued on, you begin to understand it more and more. The rest could've just been placed within the series chronologically, with no problems. And the ending, at the very least, could've been an OVA of the 2nd season. Let's face it. 70% of a 90 minute movie being recap doesn't sound very appealing, it means that only about an episode's worth of content was actually fresh. To think that that couldn't have been squeezed into a 26-episode multi-cour series is absurd. It's quite obvious that the purpose of the movie was just to milk the series, and bring up more fans of it by forcing them to sit through it in a movie theater in order to watch it. But, while I did say I don't agree 100% with their choices to do this, does that mean I truly disagree? No, not at all. If their goal of this movie was to milk it by bring up more fans of the series, then I am completely okay with that. It just gives me more WIXOSS to watch, and more people to talk about it with. No problem with that. So, as for the new content, how good was it? It was nearly flawless when you look at it a certain way. My biggest problem with the first season was that it only deconstructed aspects of what a majority of the card game sub-genre has been up to now. When I started watching the series, by around episode 3 I was really craving a full deconstruction, but that wasn't what I got. What I got was a story written similarly to Madoka Magica, in how only certain aspects are deconstructed and the rest are left out in the cold. It was definitely still a great series simply because of how well characterized every character was, in addition to how well the story went with what it had to work with, many of the situations being handled really well, and overall great directing. But I was still left a bit underwhelmed. Then we continue onto the 2nd season, which pretty much fixed every problem I had with the first season. Every single aspect of what makes the card game sub-genre what it is was completely deconstructed in pretty much every possible way. The psychological aspects behind how well developed every character was, the loopholes in the system, the way everything was created. Just everything. I really was amazed, and I didn't really expect such an amazing season out of it. But, here's a fact: there was a reason why I didn't really expect things to go the way they did. You see, while I DID want things to go in a way that completely deconstructs the card game sub-genre, I didn't expect they would because I knew the process of creating a story that did just that wouldn't be easy by any means. It was going to be a heavy load to carry, and I thought it was kind of a miracle that they pulled it off. However, given how heavy of a load it was, things weren't pulled off flawlessly, and there were still quite a few unanswered questions by the end of the 2nd season. So, I thought it was amazing but wasn't quite at the level of being a masterpiece. Then, we continue on with this movie. Every, and I mean EVERY, single unanswered question, loose end, and confusing plot point was answered flawlessly. What we were given was a completed work, one that showed that everything was planned from the beginning, and how well-written the story was as a whole. The things that were missing from the 2nd season that made me not consider it a masterpiece were present within this movie. Even though I wouldn't consider either a masterpiece, I have every single right to say that the WIXOSS series as a whole is deserving of being called one. I do want to say that the way things were presented was kind of fun, in its own way. It reminded me a lot of the presentation of the Monogatari series, where everything was aired in non-chronological order and felt a bit like a puzzle, which made it kind of fun. The WIXOSS series, up until the movie, was definitely chronological, and even the movie itself was chronological. But, the fresh content introduced within the movie that wasn't within the first and second seasons wasn't chronological to the first/second seasons. So, it was a bit fun in that regard. And, in the end, the movie really was just about as good as I expected it to be. All my questions were answered, and I end with a fulfilling experience that I think is worthy of being considered one of the best I've ever had with anime before. I don't completely agree with the fact that it was made into a movie, but with everything all said and done, I think it's fine that it was just because I still got to experience everything in a way that was quite close to perfection.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 13, 2016
Kimi no Na wa.
(Anime)
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Fair warning: this review contains MAJOR spoilers of basically the entire movie. First off, it's a movie that has taken people by storm, so I'm sure that if you want to watch it, you already have by now. If that's not the case, I recommend you exit off of this review immediately. You've been warned.
With that out of the way, assuming that since you're still reading, I assume you've already seen the movie or don't mind being spoiled. Either way, I just wanted to let you know the reason why I'm writing a review filled with spoilers. Basically, Kimi no Na wa isn't a movie ... where the quality remains consistent from start to finish. It starts off pretty good but ends bad. To completely justify why I rate it the way I do, I need to analyze the entire movie. So, with that out of the way, I'll now begin. There comes a point where anime becomes so highly praised among the anime community to the point where it becomes unavoidable, though this isn't ALWAYS in a good way. Sometimes, things are popular just because they fit a specific audience that enjoys the things present within the series, despite potentially bad writing (SAO is a good example for that). That's really how it is with just about any "shut your brain off and watch the fights" action series... people care more about what's seen and less about the substance, thus poor writing is excused because everything looks cool. I've always thought of the company behind a lot of well-known visual novels, Key, is similar to what I've stated above, though with more dramatic works as opposed to action-filled ones. They write very tear-jerking stories that border on the line of being melodramatic, and bundle them together with a lot of pretentious plotlines and themes and fantastic art+a great soundtrack, all things that allow people to completely avoid the fact that the writing isn't all that great and just enjoy the way it's all presented. And to me, Makoto Shinkai, the writer and creator of various other anime films including the one I'm reviewing right now, is like the Key of the anime world. Kimi no Na wa isn't QUITE the same in the regard that I listed above, but I do think it's on the same boat in its own way. As opposed to being very popular, whether for good or bad reasons, what this film has done is jump almost instantly to the top of the MAL ratings, which makes it nearly unavoidable in its own way because you begin to think, "what is it that makes it so good? Why are people so in love with it?" That's what caused me to watch it, and I was left severely disappointed. Here's my reasons why. The movie starts off as a typical school comedy with very typical characters that seem like they're not meant to have any definition or substance to them, which is okay as long as the writing remains consistent and doesn't try to take itself too far (unfortunately that isn't the case). The movie reminds me a lot of Kokoro Connect, with a boy and a girl occasionally switching bodies at unknown times and trying to adjust to their new lifestyles. The cause of this new phenomenon is never given. This was one of my very first problems with the movie. The setting is within a fictional world, but that doesn't excuse plot convenience. Stories CAN include fictional things that don't exist in the real world, things like giant robots, or monsters, inhabiting another planet. Things like that are okay, because they're meant to be fictional, and their worth as a story is presented in the very beginning. But, with Kimi no Na wa? The film tries to set itself up in a realistic world, where everything is normal like our own but... this strange thing happens between these two people. In situations like that, explanation needs to be done. Why it's happening, why it's only between these two people, things like that. Even horrible explanation, such as saying, "a loop in space and the fact that they met on this day at this time at this spot," or something like that, would be far better than no explanation at all. All it does is show why you shouldn't be too pretentious when writing fiction. Very poor writing right there. However, the first half really isn't all that bad, simply because it's something you can stop thinking about completely and just enjoy it for what it is. A lot of stuff made no sense, but it was still fun to see how each person was affecting each other's life and how they dealt with it. It was still kind of hard to not catch some of the problems, such as how they adapted to the entire situation so easily and even went along with how the other was affecting their life without a whole lot of trying to stop them. Regardless, it was still fun for the most part, something I'd view in similar light as a typical school comedy/slice of life with a small twist... rating it around 7/10 and considering it a very safe watch if you're looking for a way to comfortably pass the time. The second half comes along and it's where all of the problems of the film begin to show. More mishaps occur that make you realize that the film trying to take place in a realistic world similar to ours is complete bullshit. They don't just switch bodies, they also travel in time. They never realized this because it seems people don't talk about current events in each timeline. It seems calendars or phones/computers with dates on them don't exist either. Many things that make you think it SHOULD take place in a fantasy world, but it doesn't because that would require a completely different style of writing. The entire second half just stops making sense. One character actually tries to take the initiative to meet the other person in real life, which is something that is supposed to seem out of the ordinary simply because, for whatever reason, they never attempt to talk to each other in real life besides through notes they leave during the times that they switch bodies. I've heard some people around the anime community try to dismiss this with "they thought it was all a dream," but there's absolutely no way that that's possible because their lives were affected by it and they understand that fully. So go ahead and completely dismiss that idea of yours if you were one of the people who have it because it's completely impossible. Regardless, the girl does finally take the initiave to meet the guy, but the fact that they're in different timelines is almost instantly seen as a problem, thus the guy has no idea who the girl is. And for WHATEVER reason, the girl doesn't question this at ALL! She pretty much just accepts it, with hardly any struggle. Not asking the guy if he's had any strange dreams recently, nothing. She doesn't even think for a second to wonder, "why doesn't he know who I am?" Even though, if she DID think that way, she'd realize that something's wrong and might even be able to figure out what's going on. However, all of that is thrown away when actual time travel happens. After they managed to meet physically on a train, which was the situation I described above, they eventually meet again in spirit form thanks to the power of plot convenience. Neither meeting affected the plot at all, all it did was gave the audience a potential pairing to ship together even though they had no face-to-face contact that they didn't end up forgetting about shortly after. Gotta love amnesia being used as a plot device. Yeah, this film doesn't shy from using amnesia as well. Whenever the two speak to each other, or share messages, or anything, it's almost instantly afterwards that they forget about it. They're left with a lingering feeling of "I feel like I'm missing something" but they still fail to remember anything in the end. This is all because of plot convenience, because it allows the plot to continue on for far longer than it really needs to. Eventually, the characters are trying to affect history, which is to prevent the deaths of people caused by a natural disaster. As if enough amnesia hadn't been used between the character interactions alone, the boy forgets completely about this natural disaster, like it wasn't important enough for him to remember or how he's somehow never heard of it despite it being one of the most tragic natural disasters in recorded history. They attempt to pass this over as "he's been traveling through time and doesn't remember everything that hasn't happened yet in the current timeline" but that's complete bullshit as well. That has NEVER been a theme in any sort of story related to time travel; that's just not how it works. It's time travel because you visit times you haven't been to, or were once in in the past, while keeping all of your current knowledge. Otherwise, you're just visiting another spot on the timeline; that's not actual time travel, that's time jumping. And even with all of that said, it's still bullshit simply because the guy DOES retain some knowledge throughout the various timelines, the most notable one being that he remembers that he's there to save someone. It's all just selective memory, all for the sake of plot convenience. Everything is saved because the girl manages to convince her own father to evacuate the people in time. This is another form of plot convenience, similar to the one pointed out above. She remembers perfectly that a disaster is coming and even has an extensive plan to prevent it from killing all of the people that it did in a different timeline, but doesn't at ALL remember how she knows that the disaster is incoming? How does that make any sense whatsoever? And the girl convincing her father to evacuate all of those people? It all happens OFF SCREEN. Why? Because there's no way it could be shown in a way that makes ANY sense, because it's such an absurd thing from the viewpoints of the entire village. The girl's original plan to cut off all of the electricity with a bomb and make everyone believe that a terrorist attack is incoming, despite it also being stupid, actually made a lot more sense and if that would've been used as the method to evacuate everyone and save all the lives they did, then okay. Stupid, but it would've worked a lot better. But, that's too simple, and would've ended the film too quickly, so we just have to stretch everything super far until it doesn't make any sense. Doing things the Makoto Shinkai way. The tragedy is prevented and somehow, no time paradox is caused even though literally hundreds of people who should be dead in the current timeline are still alive. Life continues on as it normally would for the guy and nothing changes for him into the future. After an unspecified number of years later, the two of them meet again by pure accident and it's implied that they end up remembering everything, since the movie is ended with, "do I know you?" All thanks to the power of nonsense and plot convenience. And bullshit. The movie is a perfect example of exploiting every single type of lazy plot convenience that exists out there as opposed to actual good writing, but that's all forgotten about because it's animated well in order to maximize the amount of feels you get without having even a small hint of good writing or logic. You're expected to forget what's going on and instead view everything like you would a show with a laugh track. Enjoy the amazing art, laugh, cry, and not give a single shit about the actual quality of writing. Kimi no Na wa is yet another example of how bad a majority of modern anime are. Tons of plot conveniences; time resets, amnesia, all without any explaining. Imagine a gift box, wrapped up very nicely with tons of bows and ribbons with a tag that says it's to you from the most important person in your life, or the biggest crush you have, or whoever you'd most want a present from. But you open it up, and it's completely empty. That's basically what Kimi no Na wa is. A pretty box with nothing in it. Something that looks nice but has no substance. In short, Kimi no Na wa is a film that looks amazing, sounds even better, but fails in so many other regards. The story isn't that bad at the beginning because it plays off like a comfortable time killer with only a few issues outside of the actual series composition. However, during the second half, everything turns to an absolute shitfest of plot convenience and nonsense. The characters throughout the entire movie are extremely one-dimensional, as they're simply just horribly characterized AND developed, which during the first half really doesn't matter but it's definitely a problem in the second half. Overall, Kimi no Na wa is simply just a failure of a film, only saved by great presentation and how comfortable and safe of a watch it was during the first half, and the first half ALONE. Given how sick I am of talking about this series, the only recommendations I'm going to give are extremely obvious and extremely lazy: 5 Centimeters per Second, Garden of Words, Children who Chase Lost Voices, and The Place Promised in Our Early Days. They're all of Makoto Shinkai's other full-feature film works, and they all follow very similar story structure and overall film composition that I'm sure you'll like them if you're one of the many Kimi no Na wa fanboys out there. Outside of those obvious recommendations, I have nothing that I'm gonna attempt to offer you as of right now; maybe I'll edit my review one day and add some actual unique recommendations of series' that do what Shinkai tries but ultimately fails to do. Who knows.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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May 28, 2016
Selector Spread WIXOSS
(Anime)
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The thing with the entire Wixoss series is that it really isn't the most amazing thing ever. While I do find it EXTREMELY underrated, I really can understand why people feel the way they do about this series.
For starters, people like to compare this series to Madoka Magica. Usually, claiming that it is like a carbon copy of it, and that it stole most ideas from it. In every piece of honesty, and thinking of 100% completely objective facts, Wixoss is barely anything like Madoka Magica. I mean sure, they are both "deconstruction" anime. However, I don't really think of Madoka as a true deconstruction of ... the mahou shoujo sub-genre, only a deconstruction of SOME of the tropes within the sub-genre. The other tropes that make the mahou shoujo (magical girl) genre are still present 100%, which is exactly why it's not a full-on deconstruction. Wixoss, however, is a full, 100% deconstruction of the card game sub-genre. It takes EVERY single trope present within a "generic" card game anime, and completely rebuilds it from scratch. Thus, the tropes remain intact but are just used in completely and utterly different ways. There is absolutely NO trope that exists within the card game sub-genre that isn't deconstructed in some way or another. Thus, it is a complete deconstruction, unlike Madoka Magica. Yes, that is one plus to the series that puts it above Madoka. But that doesn't mean that it's the only one. And there are also tons more differences between Wixoss and Madoka that I'll explain throughout this review. However, the entire review will NOT be a comparison between Madoka and Wixoss, so if you're expecting that, prepare to be disappointed. Before starting, let me begin by saying that this is going to be a review of ONLY the second season. That means that I expect that you've seen the first season and are wondering if you should watch the second, or have seen the second and want to compare my opinions to yours. Either way, by reading this review, I assume you've seen the first season because there's a high chance that there might be major spoilers of it throughout this review. Either that, or you just don't mind being spoiled. Which ever works for you. There won't be any specific review of the first season present within this review, but I will make quite a few references to it as the review continues on. Now, let's begin the review. Starting out with the story: The first season of the Wixoss series was one that was really easy to follow in almost every aspect. It played off as a simple series that deconstructed elements of the card game sub-genre, much like Madoka Magica. The second season here is far different. One of the most significant differences is how the entire series sacrificed world-building, which they did despite MANY chances to create very intricate, well-defined world-building. Wanna know why they did this? For the sole purpose of character development. That was one of my initial problems with the first season. The characters were definitely well-defined, but characterization is only a miniscule part of a successful series. And hell, even in situations like Tokyo Ghoul where the characters define the entire series, there's still a major lack of true flavor/spice when a series is structured on something like that. That pretty much all changed during the second season here, as basically every primary character received a copious amount of much-needed development. However, this section of the review is reserved for the story of the series, so enough talking about the characters. We'll get to that later. The story of Selector Spread Wixoss specifically is a bit convoluted at times, but if you're willing to put some brain power into figuring out what's going on, you'll be able to tell that everything within the series makes great sense, might I even say perfect sense. No bragging is intended here, but when it comes to me and anime, I'm almost 100% of the time able to follow exactly what's happening without requiring a rewatch or even a rewind of the series. I've always been that way as well, being able to follow series' that a lot of anime connoisseurs consider "some of the hardest anime to follow." Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain are some examples that come to mind, but there really are a lot more. And yes, I am saying exactly what you think I am: Selector Spread Wixoss was harder to follow at times than both NGE and SEL. Sounds kind of crazy to people who haven't seen the second season, or maybe even the first if you're reading this without caring about being spoiled, doesn't it? It's definitely true, though. The convolution present within Selector Spread Wixoss is almost 100% within the story. As I said, everything can be pieced together, but it's quite hard to do so without rewatching. For me, it even got to the point where I had to take out a piece of paper and write out every plot point and how it fits in to the whole structure of the plot, which actually did take some time to accomplish. So, for those reasons exactly, I can see why people would want to drop this second season here, even if they finished or even ENJOYED the first season. One of the best things to do in a situation like this is give it your full attention, and possibly even rewatch it upon first completion. And also, the second season is set to come out on DVD/Blu-ray sometime in July I believe, and given that it's licensed by Funimation, there will definitely be a dub alongside that. That will, likely, make the series far easier to follow. Let me just tell you this: if you are able to understand the story eventually, under any circumstances, you will end up enjoying Selector Spread, as well as the entire Wixoss franchise, in some way/shape/form. The second season here picks up exactly where the first left off. For the sake of trying not to spoil the first season TOO much, as I'm sure at least one person who hasn't seen the first season will end up reading this review, I won't explain exactly what has happened within the first season. Aoi Akira is still out for bloodlust, despite what's happened to her. The specific development behind Yuzuki and her character remains in-tact, and is even capitalized upon more as the story continues along within the second season here. As I said earlier, one of the major differences was sacrificing world-building for further character development, which was a sacrifice that worked HUGELY to its advantage given that Wixoss focuses on its characters more than anything. The way that they do this is introducing a new extension to the universe that this series takes place in, but without explaining it too much. It's played off as some sort of "void," and that's even how its referred to by some of the other characters. The fact that it wasn't explained exactly how it works, with only some slight hints being given (which is one of the major situations behind why you'll need to think hard to completely understand what's going on), is what I mean by the series sacrificing world-building. And as I said, it was completely okay because the series was able to focus more time on developing the characters which, in the end, gave them TONS more flavor than the first season did. And also, as I said above, as long as you're able to piece together all of the information you're given, everything will make sense even without it being explained very thoroughly. Another thing that makes this second season so great, even better than the first, is how the psychological aspect of it is kicked up about 300% from the first season. Within the first season, only aspects of what was going on within the Wixoss game were explained. Here in the second, there's a true psychological battle that becomes obvious around episode 3-4, depending on how quick you were able to catch on. The entire point behind the deconstruction aspects of this series was to bring a psychological battle of wits within a sub-genre that's always been so solid on its tropes, which have always proved to be quite childish in the long run. Wixoss, especially the second season, does an INCREDIBLE job at doing just that. While the first season could be seen as something that casual anime fans could enjoy, but the second season here is very far from that. And despite the fact that the first season still isn't something for kids, unlike most anime that fall under the card game sub-genre, the second season is on a COMPLETELY different level. As I mentioned earlier in the review, the first season is similar to the structure of Madoka Magica in that it only deconstructs ASPECTS of the card game sub-genre. The second season deconstructs every other aspect, leading to an absolute and almighty deconstruction that doesn't fail to be so in any way, shape, or form. I truly believe that I've explained every point behind the story of the second season of Wixoss, so I don't really think there's much more to say here. Hopefully it was enough, because in the end, there's really not a whole lot to say. Onto the characters: The characters are definitely what drive this season to being as good as it is, and it really is good. As I pointed out a couple times during the story part of my review, the second season of Wixoss sacrifices world-build in place of character development, and it does so to its advantage. The characters present within the first season of Wixoss seemed almost like self-inserts for a while, with only Ruuko and Yuzuki receiving any character traits that set them aside from other characters. However, as we were introduced to Iona and Akira, things began to change, which affected both the story and the characters of the entire series. The characters that receive the most development within the second season are easily Ruuko, Tama, and Akira. However, Iona also receives much development as well, but for completely different reasons that I'd rather not explain due to spoiling the entire first season. Yuzuki eventually receives the exact same treatment as Iona, which causes her to receive some much-needed development as well, though as I said, in a completely different way. Until later on, within the final 1/4 of this season, we're not really introduced to any new characters. The trend within this season that dominated the entire structure behind this character-focused series was development. The development went far, and I mean FAR, beyond around 99% of the anime that I've ever seen in my entire life (though not the very best; that'd probably go to NHK or HxH). Every single character is given some sort of a personality, and the entire season by the very end completely and utterly lacks ANY type of character that could be seen as a "self-insert." I mean hell, even Hitoe becomes a well-defined character, and I'm sure anyone who's seen the first season is aware of how she was the dictionary definition of a self-insert. Tama, despite her becoming a character that it seems people among the internet seem to hardly give a crap about after this second season, did become far more developed than she did in the first season. Within the first season, she was extremely naive, and only ever wanted to battle. She finally learned the entire truth behind the Wixoss game and how the entire system functions, and became a completely different character after that. Even to the point where she sacrificed herself to save Ruuko from having to give up her entire life. And I suppose that this is the best time to point out that Tama was, without a doubt, my very favorite character within this entire series... within both the first and second seasons. Ruuko received an extreme amount of character development as well, but it was mostly driven by the plot, which I've mentioned a few times that I won't go into detail with that. The details I can go into is that Ruuko learns a lot about the world of Wixoss, which causes her to understand more of what goes on and exactly what she should and shouldn't do. It was actually quite a good way to develop her if I may say so for myself, because for the longest time, she also felt like a self-insert protagonist. Given that kind of status, I really can't imagine her being developed in any other way besides the plot basically doing it for her. Onto Akira. The changes she faced within the first season play a HUGE role into the character she becomes within the second season, but not in a way you'd expect. Instead of being completely against Iona, like she was within the first season, she ends up siding with her because of specific reasons (that would spoil both the first and second seasons). Iona, which I can just go ahead and describe here because she doesn't receive a whole lot of development overall during the second season, is used in a completely different way. It's the same for Yuzuki, just in a way that allowed Iona to seduce Akira a lot easier. Yuzuki's situation was a lot different, as the other "Yuzuki" (no spoilers) didn't really ever do anything to change the plot a whole lot, she was just kind of there to fulfill a certain wish of a certain character. Unlike Iona, however, Yuzuki received a hell of a lot of development, which again I won't explain 'cus spoilers. It really is hard to explain the full effects behind the character development present within the second season of Wixoss, simply because a lot of it would spoil the entire series, both first season and second. I just heavily recommend you go and watch it. Even if you haven't seen ANY of the Wixoss series, and have had the entire first season spoiled for you because of this review, I still give everyone reading this my 100% full-fledged recommendation to go and watch the series because the character development present within the second season really is like no other. It's among some of the best I've ever seen before, only really being outmatched by series' that I consider to be within my top 5 of all time. And yes, as I've mentioned before, this is a character-driven series, so the character aspect is without a doubt better than any other aspect present within Selector Spread Wixoss. With the important stuff out of the way, let's get onto the presentation aspect of the series: animation and sound: The art itself really wasn't anything special, but it did its job. This isn't a series that requires very good art, so it being crisp and clean is definitely enough. And it certainly was just that. The animation, however, was quite a bit better. It wasn't amazing, nor anything close to it. But, there were some major spikes in quality, as some of the fight scenes looked absolutely gorgeous. I've sent a video of the opening to probably 10 people before, just because of the animation scene after "We...Cry...Opennnn" is sung within it. Absolutely beautiful, and for that scene only, I watched the opening every single time. There were even times that I wanted to replay it right after it ended, just because of that small piece of eye candy. And also because the song itself was quite good as well. The sound is something special. Selector Spread Wixoss is one of the few anime that features a soundtrack that's actually memorable beyond a few small beats/rhythms. I've listened to the entire soundtrack on its own accord probably about 3, maybe 4, times so far. And I love it so much. Like seriously. I'd probably say it's my 2nd favorite anime soundtrack of all time, behind only the incredible Mashiro Iro Symphony one... which was just simply epic. The voice acting. The FREAKING VOICE ACTING. Like holy CRAP, don't even get me started on how freaking amazing the voice acting was. Most Japanese dubs are good just because they feel the most natural to the medium that they're presented in, and aren't thought about a whole lot simply because they all sound quite good. But this isn't the case within the Wixoss series, and it's the same deal with the first season. Just the sheer quality behind every character's voice actor/actress is nothing less than pure perfection. And my lord, I just have to give a few words of praise for Chinatsu Akasaki for her STELLAR performance as Akira Aoi. Seriously, that was literally the greatest performance that I've ever heard in ANY Japanese dub in anime. I'm not even joking, it was that good. In short, the soundtrack and voice acting within the second season of Wixoss were nothing short from absolutely incredible, and there's nothing I'd change about them, even if I were given the chance to. Simply amazing, and I applaud everyone who was a part of the voice casting/soundtrack composition. Final words: The second season of Wixoss, Selector Spread Wixoss, is without a doubt better than the first season. I've seen many people praise the first season more simply because it was easier to follow/it made more sense, but really, as I've said before, the series is just composed and structure tons better when you are able to make sense of it. And believe me, anybody can, it just takes a bit of brain power is all. I love the Wixoss series as a whole. But does that mean I think it's the best thing ever? Not necessarily, but I will say that the second season comes somewhat close to being just that. I absolutely love the Wixoss series as a whole, but the second season is just on a whole other level, despite the first being great as well.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 21, 2015
Grisaia no Rakuen
(Anime)
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Let me explain something to you guys, before I get on with this actual review.
Is Grisaia no Rakuen (also known as The Eden of Grisaia) an anime that is necessarily an "amazing" one, at least to the eyes of most critical anime fans? And what I mean by that is this; does Grisaia no Rakuen have everything needed for a series to be amazing in the eyes of most anime fans, and use those things well? Things like; serious/deep/though provoking themes, elements of suspense used correctly without deus ex machina, a fluid and linear story, psychological/dark plot lines, well-characterized and developed characters, all bundled together ... with stellar animation and an ass-kicking soundtrack? In some aspects, yes, Grisaia no Rakuen has those things. In others... well... One thing I feel I should mention before going on with my review of this absolute treat is that, you shouldn't go into Grisaia no Rakuen expecting those things. Does that mean I'm directly implying that this series is nothing more than mindless fun, and can't be enjoyed as something deeper than that? No, not at all. But I think that Grisaia no Rakuen has a meaning to it that's different from the typical "norm" of what makes an anime so amazing. The absolute greatness behind Grisaia no Rakuen is, in a very small way, similar to that of Masaaki Yuasa's masterpiece The Tatami Galaxy. It, in no way, follows the norm of what people consider to make anime as great as it is, yet is still something many people consider to be one of the best anime of all time, if not the very best. Grisaia no Rakuen is similar to it in that regard. So what I'm saying is, Grisaia no Rakuen should be thought of as mindless fun, because in a way, that's all it really is... yet, it's enjoyable at a level FAR above your typical mindless fun series. Hell, I'd say it's far above ANY mindless fun series, no matter how good it is/how good people consider it to be. So today, I'm reviewing the recently-finished 2015 visual novel adaptation by Studio 8bit, sequel of the highly acclaimed visual novel Grisaia no Kajitsu, is the anime adaptation for Grisaia no Rakuen. Let's begin. Small thing to note before we continue: Do understand that Grisaia no Rakuen is the final installment to the Grisaia anime series. The first 2 are Grisaia no Kajitsu, the main series, and Grisaia no Meikyuu, an hour-long prequel special. If you are here looking for a new series to start, please visit the page for the anime [Grisaia no Kajitsu] which is where this series is meant to be started. If you're still here, then you probably understand that this is meant to be a review of Grisaia no Rakuen, the sequel to Grisaia no Kajitsu/Meikyuu. With that being said, in my head, there's only 2 reasons why anyone would want to read a review for a sequel series like this one: 1. You've seen the first season, and want to know if it's worth it to watch the next, or... 2. You've seen the whole thing, and want to see what someone else thought about it, purely out of curiosity or because you want to compare your opinions to someone else, or something along those lines. Whichever you fall under, it proves you've seen the first season... and given that, there WILL be some spoilers (though minor, spoilers nonetheless) to both Grisaia no Kajitsu and Grisaia no Meikyuu within this review. So, I'd advise you do not read any further if you haven't seen the first season/hour long special and don't want to be spoiled. With that aside, let's begin the actual review. Initial Thoughts (prior to watching): Going into Grisaia no Rakuen, I was actually quite hyped, and not for the reasons you'd expect. After finishing Grisaia no Kajitsu, which I happened to finish about a week after it finished airing, I was left with an EXTREMELY bitter tasted in my mouth... though, I still had hope for the future, but I'll talk about that later. The reason for my bitter taste was simply because of how terrible an adaptation Kajitsu was. While I firmly believe that comparing an anime too much to its source material is stupid (because if you want the source material, go read the source material, don't give the anime slack for not being an exact copy of it), I usually only say that as an attempt to justify a series that goes the route of being an anime-original adaptation and not specifically an adaptation of any source material. My logic behind liking those things is because it gives is a new take on a story, and basically gives us two different versions of it... since, well, more is always better. However, my original claim of "comparing an anime too much to its source material is stupid" is completely null and void when the reason for making those comparisons is due to the series being extremely rushed. Basically, when a series tries to be an animated copy of its source material, but fails to do so because way too much was left out. As a visual novel reader of the entire Grisaia series, I'm able to say that that's EXACTLY how it was with Grisaia no Kajitsu. A visual novel that took me about 85 hours to complete, crammed into a 13-episode anime adaptation barely even 5 hours long. And my god, when people tell you that a lot was cut out, don't think they're just complaining and not believe them because that's EXACTLY how it was; so much was cut out, and it was almost impossible to enjoy. Though, I can understand why people do, and I tried to take into consideration how people who haven't read its visual novel felt about the series when scoring it. Thus, I gave it a 4/10; enough to mainly think negatively about it, and enough to be vocal about my problems with it, but not bad enough to curse at it or truly call it bad. Then came Grisaia no Meikyuu which, honestly, can be said to be pretty dang rushed as well. While not NEARLY as rushed as Grisaia no Kajitsu, a 15-20 hour visual novel being crammed into an hour long special (about 48 minutes in total) can be considered quite rushed as well, as typical GOOD visual novel adaptations tend to be about 1/4 as long as the original source material. However, I still think Meikyuu was given an amazing adaptation for the plain and simple fact of what it "truly" was as a visual novel: something MANY people considered to be, primarily, a fan disc. Meaning, fanservice was the prominent thing here, and the story was only a small part of it. Almost every important aspect of the Grisaia no Meikyuu visual novel was included within these 48 minutes, and to be quite honest, I don't think I'd ever ask for better, even if I was given the chance. Though, it's a given that I didn't think Meikyuu was the most amazing thing ever, but I won't deny that it was done in, most likely, the most amazing WAY ever. Which is why I gave it an 8/10. Remember how I said earlier that I still had hope for the future of this series? The main reason I felt this way was due to the confirming of sequels at the end of episode 13 of Grisaia no Kajitsu. While I didn't know what was in store for the future, I assumed another TV series would be on the way, and that's why I thought good things for the future. I though, "unless they plan to make a 3 episode anime adaptation, there's no way they can screw this up." Well, here's the thing. Despite it being EXTREMELY rushed and barely enough to understand even part of what's really happening, the things that WERE animated in Grisaia no Kajitsu were actually done quite well. So, the way I thought about it was that IF it were given a good adaptation, and wasn't rushed very badly, it would be an amazing anime. So, all we needed was an episode count that made it hard to be rushed, and Grisaia no Rakuen could almost be confirmed to end up being a really good anime. Once the episode count was announced, the things I said were pretty much confirmed in my head, as I thought there was no way Grisaia no Rakuen could be screwed up... and I was predicting it to be one of my favorite anime series' by the end had that been true. And look who was right. And now, let's begin the actual review! Story: Grisaia no Rakuen starts off as a continuation of Grisaia no Meikyuu. We continue on with Yuuji's backstory, visiting his life after his childhood, after being taken in by Asako. With Yuuji's life being as terrible as it has been up until this time, Asako was prepared with the challenge of healing Yuuji's wounds and helping him to live an enjoyable life (flashback to the beginning of Kajitsu, where Yuuji claims he wants to join Mihama Academy so he can live a "normal life.") This piece of the Grisaia story is one of extreme importance, maybe even the most important in the entire series. While it can easily be noted that Yuuji acts much different within custody of Asako than he does within the story of Kajitsu, you are easily able to tell how each thing that happens to him plays a part in the way he acts as a character within Kajitsu, as it takes place after the events of Meikyuu. And let me just tell you this, Yuuji is an extremely well-written character... though, I'll save that for when it needs to be talked about. Yuuji within Kajitsu seemed a lot like a mystery. We wondered what exactly happened to him to cause him to act the ways he does; and we were given answers. Many answers. Many of the answers brought up questions we didn't even have, which were promptly answered not long after. Yes, everything was made clear, and what we were given from the story of the first 4 episodes of Grisaia no Rakuen was absolute perfection in what we needed to know. And, really, that's all there is to say about it. It was simply amazing. And then, we get to the sequel... episodes 5-10. Given what I said prior about Grisaia no Rakuen and the entire aspect of "mindless fun," it's a bit of a given that the story aspect of the series won't necessarily be the most prevalent throughout it. And, for the most part, that's true. What is most prevalent, however, is something that can be considered even BETTER than just a simple story. While elements of storytelling remain throughout everything that happens, and not a SINGLE thing happens without playing a part to the main story line (no matter how big or small), what we take from most of what happens is everything but a super developed story. And honestly, that's perfectly fine. No complaints here. We're given information of a certain enemy appearing at a certain place at a certain time, and that he needs to be taken out. Simple enough, right? Sounds pretty common for a series like this. So what we're given to do just that, is a 15 year old loli girl being given a pink sniper rifle that's just as tall as her. Did you just drop gas bombs onto the streets of an urban city? Are alive enemies that need to be taken down lurking through the gas? Just give a pink-haired maid a gas mask and two knives. I mean c'mon, it's first grade, isn't it?! Just in-case it hasn't been made obvious, Grisaia no Rakuen is extremely larger-than-life, absurd, and just plain nonsensical (at least the sequel portion of episodes 5-10). Like really, almost nothing makes real sense... but at the same time, it does. Now, what do I mean by that? Think about it this way: bad things happen, and things need to be done ASAP to fix them/prevent them from being worse. Those things are the solutions. What's absurd isn't necessarily the situations, or the things happening, or any other thing that plays towards the aspect of battle. What's absurd is the solutions. These solutions are things like detecting an enemy riding up the side of a mountain. Instead of just trying to block him off on the mountain, why not just fly a chopper with machine-gun-turret equipped over the mountain and shoot straight at the mountain with it? Do you see what I mean by absurd and nonsensical? And yet, they just seem to work so well. While I'm not going to say this style of writing is the most perfect thing ever, it's kind of the optimal way to do things with a series like this. After all the crazy, borderline-supernatural things that have happened, something like this seems to just be called-for... none of it really feels out of place. Now, does "it works for the series and doesn't feel out of place" make a good reason for giving the story aspect of this series a 9/10? No, not at all. That only has to do with a small part of what makes a story good. The rest has to do with the extreme awesomeness that exists within this series. The brilliantly well-thought-out psychological scenes, the erection-throbbing action, and the absolutely emotional scenes of attachment are what make Grisaia no Rakuen as amazing as it is. These things aren't really meant to be described here in the story portion of this review, but I'll go over them briefly. 1. Amazing antagonist introduced. 2. Incredible plot twists (this could be explained, but impossible to do so without spoiling). 3. Well-written characters EVERYWHERE. 4. Everything just feels so amazing. Hard to get a feeling like this from anywhere else. 5. All looks and sounds amazing. Character: Now, let's start to explain the things that make Grisaia no Rakuen as amazing as it is. If you were like me, you didn't specifically like the characters of any girl that was part of Yuuji's harem in Grisaia no Kajitsu... you only really liked their stories or what we learned from them. This was, almost completely, fixed in Grisaia no Rakuen. What were originally really annoying and slightly one-dimensional "SUPAH CUTE!!" harem girls in Kajitsu, turned a total 180 and turned into pretty dang good characters in Rakuen. While I won't say that any of their personalities changed, it was more the lack of extreme attention put onto them and the WAYS their personalities were used that made them as amazing as they were. You see, I didn't necessarily think any girl was THAT bad in Kajitsu. What I thought made them as annoying as they were was the plain and simple fact that they were given too much attention, and used in ways that made people think that they were meant to be seen as the most important people ever. When it's proven that that isn't the way they're meant to be seen in Rakuen, they almost instantly become great characters that are extremely hard not to like in some way. What if I were to tell you, these characters are a lot different than you most likely thought they were after watching Kajitsu? If that got your attention at all, you'll definitely enjoy watching Grisaia no Rakuen. Though, that isn't to say why I gave the characters of Grisia no Rakuen the score I did. It wasn't quite that simple, nor that effective. Grisaia no Meikyuu introduced Asako, and she became such a great character within Rakuen once we learned who she really was. She was one addition that I truly thought was perfect, and the emotional value we, as viewers, placed on her after the short time we saw here was just great, and I have to hand it to the writers for being able to do something like that. Honestly, Asako may have been my favorite side character from the entire series if it weren't for one other character in specific. There was only really one other "introduction" of a new character in this series, and not really one I'd really call much of a true introduction (hence the quotes). Despite that character being, without a doubt, my favorite character in the entire series (and even my 2nd favorite character of ALL TIME), they're a character that I can't talk about at all without giving spoilers. So, please remember the name "Thanatos," and enjoy watching the series. Despite liking that certain character I mentioned above more than him, Yuuji Kazami was without a doubt the most developed character in this series. It can be said, without difficulty, that he's the most well-written harem protagonist of all time. Speaking of harem, the entire Grisaia series is a very interesting take on the aspect of harems. While it can be said, without a single doubt, that he Grisaia series fulfills everything that's required to be a harem, it has a very interesting take on it. The girls are constantly in battle over who will win over Yuuji, but it's not the focal point of the series, and many other things are paid more attention to than that. Just wanted to mention that, to anyone who might be turned off by the fact that it's tagged as a harem. Well, really, nothing else can be said about the characters. Development is off the charts for Yuuji, and a specific side character is heart-stoppingly amazing, with the rest of the harem being great as well. I give this a 10 for being perfect in every regard that I could ever ask for. Animation and Sound: This won't take a while, since there isn't really a lot to say. While it was still animated really well, Grisaia no Kajitsu didn't have a lot to animate due to the fact that nothing really required an extremely high budget. For the most part, Kajitsu was a pretty still series that just looked well-done for what it was. That wasn't necessarily the truth for Rakuen, however. Rakuen was flooded with different action scenes, and a lot of "gotta go fast!" scenes that required detailed animation (commonly referred to as "sakuga"). And yet, the animation received NO sudden decline in quality... it remained amazing for the entire duration of the series, and man, did it look good. The action scenes were absolutely flawless. The sakuga was a little overused at times, but still looked amazing each time. The battles were so intense, and the incredible artwork just made it so much more engaging. And, like with Kajitsu, the still scenes also looked amazing. There was absolutely no decline in quality at any moment within the series, which was incredibly surprising. Completely deserving of a 10. The soundtrack was also quite great as well. Usually, I don't place much of a high value in an anime's soundtrack, since it's not something that I really think about beyond watching the series. And usually, soundtracks are done well enough to get by anyways, so there's not a whole lot that's needed to be thought about deeply. In short, the soundtrack of Grisaia no Rakuen does its job without being completely outstanding. It's deserving of a 9 just because of that, since a bad soundtrack doesn't really exist in modern anime and thus soundtracks kinda "should" be overrated. Overview and Final Thoughts: Grisaia no Rakuen is a treat. That's all I really need to say. What can come off as a huge load of absurd crap ends up being one of the most fulfilling experiences ever, and it's just SO amazing. What you'll get out of Grisaia no Rakuen is a nearly unmatched experience of absolute blood-pumping action alongside emotional sub plots and incredible character writing. It's just simply an amazing series. While I don't find it to be the most perfect thing ever, it actually is in some regards. Some things about this series are just simply unmatched, and the most perfect example of that thing that's ever been seen in anime thus far. While there are times where the quality of the writing seems to dip, and ends up being a little too dumb, the overall product of this amazing series is exactly as I just said, amazing. Story: Given that I try to combine the aspects of the above-average story with the amazing absurd fun, I give the story a 9. Character: Pure amazing development, writing, and the changes some characters were given was just perfect. Definitely a 10. Art: Perfect. Nothing more needs to be said. Easy 10. Sound: I overrate soundtracks because not a lot comes from them. Grisaia no Rakuen's does its job and thus deserves a 9. Overall score for Grisaia no Rakuen: 9.5/10, rounded up to a 10 for this review. Who would I recommend this series to: Anyone who's seen Grisaia no Kajitsu. If that was your intent of coming to this review, the answer is yes, Grisaia no Rakuen IS DEFINITELY WORTH WATCHING! Otherwise, given that Grisaia no Kajitsu wasn't very good, it's really hard to recommend the entire series to someone. But, if you understand, even for a second, my burning passion for Rakuen, then that should be enough to persuade you to watch the entire series, starting from Kajitsu. Rakuen is a treat, and should be experienced by most people, if not everyone, just because of that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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