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Haikyuu review


A great anime... Is what I'd like to say; but having garnered sufficient experience of the actual sport, as well as an understanding of sports psychology, its premise was not as good as it advertised itself.
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that "haikyuu!! Secando season" has never left me since hearing it.
I'm so late in watching this and to be honest, this ismy first time properly dipping into this pool known as sports anime (my "first" first time was inazuma eleven, which wasn't a sports anime as much as it wasn't a shounen hero anime -it ended up being some weird crossover where football/soccer was to save the world ... etc)
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From what I've watched, anyone (myself included) can see that the creator has a clear understanding of the sport. Heck, they probably played the sport themselves in the past; but, my main two issues with this anime is the way they progressed with the story thereon:

•Every time I expect a technique to be used, the entire team somehow end up acting out in such an amateur manner; it's like it was a game where you have to constantly do the same thing until you've gotten enough XP and can now unlock a new move -and then the team you're controlling decides to rinse out that new move because it's some strange super move.
•then there was issue of how the sorry progressed, it was inevitable for them to have a big defeat because the build-up had made it growingly obvious (particularly because the characters had been made to emphasise their hopes and aspirations.

But hey, don't get me wrong, the journey is always the best part of the story -and it couldn't be any truer in these circumstances. It's not a lie when I say the characters have been given such a life of their own that the anime allows us to explore the immediate story from each of their perspectives and gave us the dynamics where we're having to see the characters come to be a team... For this we see the general groundwork needed for a team to play together, and analysing it, these were:
Forming- the anime opened with two rivals of sorts having to Jon the same due to them attending the same school, which causes arguments to ensue,
Storming- as we'd have it, there's a tension between the two as they get on each others nerves,
Norming- but they get through this, and after a number of or rices the team comes together
Performing- and, well yeah, this component is rather more organic in comparison those mentioned priorly since they're now participating in matches etc.

So moving back onto the sport of the anime, I hated the fact that the MC was made to have these extraordinary abilities which were as far from unnatural, but I guess it's appropriate since it is, at it's core, an anime of the shonen genre... But that doesn't give reason to enjoy it, and anyone else that has fallen to the curse of what a sports anime's sport comprises of will also twitch in annoyance having seen the MC's capabilities like, "are you for real?!" cue the jackie chan confused meme... "How are you lapping the court so fast, that ain't possible?!"
In other cases, there wear times where blocks hade taken place that didn't seem to be humanely conceivable... There is a level of unpredictability in volleyball that no player, no matter how good, can visualise; yet somehow, there were teams with such rhythm you'd be thinking that nobody would do that in real life -much like a game of football, there is a need to maintain the postion you're in because in normal cases, your vulnerabilities are what they monopolise (this is true to both football and volleyball. E.g. Me being short had meant that I was more of libero (defensive player) in volleyball, and in lesser height orientated position in football... I played winger as standard and even then I was at a disadvantage. So the point of having a position in team sports has been pretty ambiguous in some part and they really should identify the mechanic is of volleyball before rushing to put three players as a block when three players make up 50% of the on-court team
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But hey, it's all good 'cause it's an anime
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So, let's get down to the nitty, gritty of this anime

Story: 6 (fair)
It follows a typical storyline of underdogs wanting to reclaim a title that has been taken from them, of them wanting to become the best... I've no issues with that, many shonens are built on that premise, so its what they do with the story that fleshes it out and leaves a mark on us; for that reason I felt that it was a letdown in this aspect because in this regard the story was becoming more and more obvious.

But that's not to say it bombed, the anime made up for this in the emotions the characters conveyed and in this aspect I felt drawn to the anime due to its realism -the wanting to be on a team, the want above and beyond with that team and for that team, the emptiness of being left out, the dreams and aspirations now being a far cry... All of which I now know all too well having been released from a team of my own recently.

Having said all this, the reason why I gave this a "fair" rating is really just down to it having a poorer story than what I had expected -and this is without taking my enjoyment into consideration and only considering the foundation of the story and how they had gone about building on its foundation.

Art: 10 (outstanding)
Can I just say, the artwork on this anime is mesmerising, why is it that shonen-style anime that is not expressed as an action anime has action scenes so much more better than it's action shounen counterpart I.e. Shokugeki no souma, haikyuu!! etc.
My reason for saying this is because the black outlines that frequents characters in anime were so crisp and the colour palate gave the characters an amazing definition; furthermore, at those high energy moments where adrenaline is clearly coursing their veins the switch from those crisp lines to the inky speed outlines was instantaneous and allowed is to follow the speed of those epic heats

Sound: 8 (very good)
What more can I say, it really did seem as though they're playing volleyball... The sound of the serves, the spikes, the ball hitting the floor. That, along with the accompanying OSTs, had orchestrated this sound that sucked me in and kept me engaged with the match -even wen what had transpired didn't truly reflect an actual game of volleyball. The fatigued breath, the push to secure a point; sometimes it felt that time had slowed down so as to hear a twitch of muscles reacting to the stalemate of the rallies.

Characters: 9 (great)
Typical of anime, your main cast have iconic/unique hairstyles whilst your salads are a bit bland, that ain't a problem; however, it was sad to see a number of characters (probably from the previous year's team) bring cast aside and not giving them as much of a role now that the MCs have taken the stage -in any other case, that'd be fine but considering the setting of the story the previous should have had better or more influential roles since they've had the time to build a level of rapport amongst the senior members. That being said, they fleshed out the characters we do know, fairly quickly, we grasped an idea of each the characters... This was in due part to having those forming and storming stages which gave us valuable insight towards the mechanics of volleyball all the while building on the character personalities through volleyball.

Enjoyment: 9 (great)
I mentioned earlier how the story was fairly pedestrian but the emotions and goals were what had really had made this story what it is - and to that end, it is no lie. This emotions and desire of the characters resonated with me, their will in pursuing volleyball felt no different to my pursuit in football, the dream being so close, yet so far; the loss suffered by that team translated to the emptiness of being released... Perhaps of I had watched this earlier I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much but watching it now made all the difference.
But my enjoyment isn't solely down to the empathy created by this show so the reason why it isn't a 10 (outstanding) is because, in my humble opinion, this show really didn't do much to feel inclusive; what do I mean by that, well... There's a bunch of terminology in volleyball which the anime seemingly expects you to know, and unless Japanese viewers know everything about volleyball, it does nothing to help them.

Other than that, all in all, this anime is well worth the watch...
Bearing in mind you come prepared with all the volleyball lingo needed.
I'll probably won't be back for a season two review since the first seasons is the make or break for any series.

Bye Bye

I gotta say, four episodes in and I am enthralled by the story... Heck, it's pilot even created a compelling storyline that I'd hate to miss.

Character: 7
It sets the scene whereby the MC (I guess she's the MC) follows a progressive plot through, what I'd refer to as levels -I say levels since her "spawn point" is a basement from which she must navigate to go up a floor.
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This is affirmed by it's most recent episode.
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Furthermore, it is a level because she has to escape what could potentially be her cause of death...
But that's not what got me into it, rather -straight off the bar- ... it had incorporated psychological elements that can only be further elaborated with each episode; this created the foundation for mental growth of the characters. But that's not all of what it would seem to be; whilst maintaining the theme of "levels," it was quick to throw a wrench into the works and the dynamics of the anime had become growingly distorted -much of that distortion contributed to the already ambiguous storyline given... However this gave a sense of closure to the MCs story which made me think, "seriously, you're gonna end it here!"
I mean, it obviously didn't, but if they had allowed the protagonist to continue this devilish game allow for at least one and a half episodes would have more benefits to it than consequences; anyway, since it's only been three episode it's not done much harm either so... Meh.
So, the reason why I rated the characters rather lowly in comparison to the other aspects of the anime is because they felt a bit lacklustre and fell flat in terms of depth... Due to its game-like progression, each character is given a specific role and does not display behaviour out of it's role; whilst I say this, there have been implications of dark secrets that each character carries -in my opinion, this is extremely suggestive of a more rounded character which we may learn of in future episodes.

Story: 8
So, for the story, it's built up quite nicely I would say; It gave us a good understanding of the story mechanics -or the mechanics that they want us to know (plot twists are fully welcome).

Art: 9
Art, I gotta hand it to JC, they know how to make it work and with this anime, no less. I've not seen the source material so I've nothing to compare it to, but considering other anime e.g. Shokugeki no souma etc. it seems to be fairly consistent.

Sound: 8
Keeping true to the psychological/thriller genre, the suspense music doesn't fail to deliver... It was captivating and had sucked me in; I had become wary of what was to come, and that had inevitably heightened my reactions, making me vulnerable to being startled.
Moreover, we have bakugou's (Boku no hero academia) VA (okamoto nobuhiko) filling one of the characters positions, which to me, is a massive bonus as his voice has a tendency to act as a form of comic relief -and when considering the darker tropes this series seems to be adhering to, I feel that having such a voice actor will strike a balance to an anime akin to a seinen. But time will tell.

Enjoyment: 8
In conclusion, this anime had created an awesome opening guaranteed to pique the interest of further viewing for anyone that sits down to watch the beginning.

Edit*
I just found out that the source material is a game haha😂. An' here I was goin' on about levels... I guess Ima go play this game now (if possible😅).

P.S.
This review had been written during the pilot episode but is still relevant to all the aired episodes thus far.

TO SET THINGS STRAIGHT, THIS IS NOT A PRELIMINARY REVIEW... I HAD JUST FAILED TO UPDATE MY LIST BEFORE MAKING THE REVIEW. TO CLARIFY, I HAVE WATCHED ALL 24 EPISODE 😅😅

This anime, from start to finish, remained a fairly mixed bag... On one hand it incorporated elements of common tropes that we know and love; on the other hand, it also seemed to be thriving off these elements as they felt as though they were a remodelling of those concepts found in other anime -namely, I refer to neon genesis Evangelion (the original 90s anime, not the reboot).

Why, because although it was of a brighter ... theme it had imagery reminiscent of NGE; and it being a mecha didn't help its case in standing its own as an anime -many were quick to point out its similarities. From my perspective this wasn't the case... Whilst it incorporated psychological aspects to some extent it was quick to show complete disregard for it as they had allowed for it to just boil down to a story of lost love; so I feel as though it is safe to say that this anime showed great potential, but ultimately failed to deliver what I had believed they had intended. This led to its story inevitably becoming generalised and conveyed a more forced character and story dynamics -nevertheless, this anime still managed to pull me in because of the potential it carried (and I guess this owes to the fact that it built on concepts of NGE and developed in a manner favourable to its creator).

The reason I say it took from NGE is because it played with the premise of having a "top-secret" organisation that ran everything behind the scenes, as well as the story climaxing towards this plot of having mankind join a single collective conscience. I mean, they were even introduced in the same manner

That was last straw, I carried on watching since I what they had built up until then was too good to let go; furthermore, the creator teased with the idea of imminent deaths but as it were a tease, nobody worthwhile had been killed which made the emotions invested into the show meaningless.

The reason why I love it so is because of the underlying theme it had carried for most part of series; " humanity is on the brink of extinction as a result of exhausting their resources," it was a theme that produced a sense of inevitability which meant that you would assume the worst case scenario as fate is already against them. I mean, what the hell, they've found a resource known as magma energy and they saw its benefits so they extended that resource to almost everything in the world... Now that it is running out, they are screwed. This allowed it to develop into a "you reap what you sow" ideology.
All of which that had positively contributed to the series.

I say all this, but I still loved it; for what it conveyed, in my opinion, meant a lot more to me than what is was to others and I'd personally rate it higher. Whereas, with a review, I should be as unbiased as possible and review it based on the anime adaptation as a whole.
So, the story: it built up really good during the first half of the series but I believe that the creator was running out of ideas during the second half which meant that some episode had the vibes of a cringe compilation and others had me face palming because of blatantly oblivious cliche tropes.

However, the animation for this series was, although fight sequences were somewhat short in my opinion and usually ended up with the MCs doing what would be considered the main attack, but in credit to the creator, the distribution of fights eventually evened out amongst the wider protagonists and, all in all, the fights did pack a punch I was in awe many a time.
Sound is something that I don't know what to expect but in any case it remained consistent with the anime, some of the OSTs had me so irritated because they sounded so familiar but I couldn't put a name to it.

I had seen that some people disliked the fact that there wasn't much of a backstory to the characters, which they didn't like; on the contrary, the reason why it was good because it lacked this factor and I say this because it plays in to the environment as they are supposed subjects whose sole purpose is to fight for that too secret organisation... Moreover, none the characters had enough of a unique history to say anything worth mentioning, they were all raised together anyway. This also meant that we could see each character during the process of growing as well as giving a sense of justification to the cringe/face palm moments.
All in all, I throughly enjoyed this anime even whilst it had a number of shortcomings that deserve to be rectified and because of the themes it had explored, it'll have a place as one of the better anime I've watched in my library.

Let's get this straight, this anime is a rip-off of anime greats we've had in the past; although it delved off into its own domain in the second season -albeit, not so much as it should've- the first season reeks of code Geass
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FAIR WARNING. THE FOLLOWING IS A SH**LOAD OF SPOILERS. I CAN'T HELP IT. ALTHOUGH IT DOESNT GIVE AWAY THE STORYLINE ITSELF, IT'LL GIVE YOU AN IDEA (AND IT WILL SLIGHTLY TOUCH UPON THE SECOND SEASON)
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•As you should realise, it is a mecha themed anime, like code Geass.
•Its main theme is human vs. humans in a bid for supremacy; particularly the Martian humans (due ... to their supposedly superior Tech). This is reminiscent of the Britannian empire being supposedly superior, watch'em Both as I tell no lie!
•They both feature a beloved death
•Both protagonists share a justifiable claim to their cause and the following states the character each mimics:
Code Geass aldnoah
Suzaku. Slaine
Lelouch. Inaho
But when it came to morals, these roles had become rather fluid.
It was weird to see this interchangeable behaviour, but it probably came as a result of attempts to differentiate. So why is it such?
So slaine had the technical superiority with the kataphrakts -basically, aldnoahs answer to create geass' knightmares- but lacked the strategic superiority imbued within inaho; both of which display similar odds to that of suzaku and lelouch in code Geass. Furthermore, is treated as a more honourary figure (again mirroring suzakus role) i.e. he is a “terran” (name given to the earth-born) that was allowed to become a citizen of Vers, this honourary position had left Slaine open to discrimination by those that felt he was undeserving.
To top things off, he ends up being in the control of a superior kataphrakt called tharsis of which had specs not dissimilar to code geass’ suzaku's Lancelot knightmare-frame and they -suzaku and slaine- got through a series of rank promotions etc. Etc.
When I had said their morals were interchangeable, this becomes visible when we have know what the two protagonists' goals were; and here is where Slaine assumes the qualities of lelouch as in “he had a noble cause that, along the way, had deviated,” but in this case the comparisons remains a little more ambiguous.
Now, I’ve said a lot about Slaine's role, but how about Inaho's; in terms of position, he shares the fate as lelouch and had many adversaries and obstacles to overcome (which I will explore when explaining the anime itself... [Cue Yoda voice] ‘so annoying, it was.’). In regards to his goal it steered more towards selfish than noble as he found a girl that he likes and he tried taking out the guy who saved him to stop the girl that he likes from being taken away...
SPOILER ALERT
That 'guy' was slaine, and he had a better thing going on with the girl in question anyways
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Back to my main point, he had the same character style as lelouch also in the fact that he was primarily a strategist and also had the same ‘pseudonym' – I say pseudonym, but in Inaho’s case it was more of a nickname and the was Mustang 00, barely any different to lelouch's Zero.
Other than that, there was also the use of “Orange” as a sort of taunt and the fact that Inaho eventually got a special left eye that gave the terrain humans another advantage.
Yet they still remained below the Martian humans in terms of technical superiority
...
Onto the anime itself, I can’t say the storyline was great since it was imitation but I also cannot say it was bad as that wouldn’t do code Geass justice, so for this I left it a 6/fair
I guess it was trying to make for some more lighter themed differences to code Geass as that pulled our heartstrings due to the deaths and made a poor attempt to reverse our anguish; so it effectively made an attempt to make the deaths meaningless, but forgot that death itself was the defining factor of our love for the anime.
However, the dissent built up is not about its similarities it had to code geass... It’s nice to see someone riding the coat-tails of a great anime for a more similar attitude towards theirs. Because in hindsight they realise that it has backfired and will now become the butt if a joke for copying another anime’s storyline, I bet the creator didn’t even catch on to this as they may have felt that they’ve created a sad story that must be rectified -i mean more often than not, it happens!
But what ticked me off is that fact that to the creator, superior technology is not superior... Any ill-constructed plan can take them out. Why is it that the creator did not understand the fact that nobody goes into battle guns ablazing 'cause they gave superior technology, for some reason the Martian humans were passed Off as dumb as they couldn’t comprehend the fact they got outwitted by the enemy coming straight at them. That’s the anime in a nutshell.
As for the art, it was body when it came to the characters e.g. their eye shape, but such shortcomings were only natural when dealing with anime/CGI blends; however, the CGI fight scenes were so action-packed whilst remaining ever so fluid, that it became the main reason why I continued watching both seasons and was inevitably let down
Most characters were known at face value and the only ones with the deepest construction were the two protagonists; that being said, they were just rip offs of lelouch and suzaku’s so not all that great. They tried build up the supporting characters but it never worked and so they remained in the sides e.g. they attempted to build on a character suffering PTSD. It didn’t work out.
One thing’s for certain. I did not enjoy that anime, I was too busy picking out what it had taken from code Geass
“turned out to be a lot!”
P.S.
From what I’ve written, you can see that the anime did not have as much unique substance as it’s substance was derived from code Geass.
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Hope you enjoyed what I wrote, and thanks for reading

Although the finale presented some excitable moments, it's still felt anti-climactic for the best part of the episode.
Obviously, romance themed anime in general tread a very bumpy road, it's Yuri equivalent fared no better and largely remained with those cringy awkward scenes where you question the likelihood of it actually happening in reality.
Not the greatest anime, and I'd be lying if I said there was no part of me here for the exaggerated Yuri tropes.
However, I do see it slated for a second season.

Recently there's been a movie release dates Love, Simon which explores homsexuality; I haven't watched it but what I've heard and from ... the clips I've seen is that of the closet mentality typical of people of that orientation and how to come to terms with it. This anime does not cover ihomosexuality from this perspective, which let me down; it's built a setting where towards those people around you it is a taboo, but when leaving that crowd it is a social norm i.e. the kisses that took place in public locations.

Now, this isn't homophobia, but at this moment of time even though strides have been made in equality for different orientations it has not compleely integrated with society yet; which is a shame.

Moving onto Japan, I've read up on Japan time and time again for various things (because of my interest in japan); historically, lords were allowed young boys (before maturity) as servants with which they could have intercourse with -however further research is pending, so don't take my word for it- what im getting at is this suggests sexual tolerance, but recent reports have suggested that there is a number of homosexuals in Japan who get into heterosexual relationships out of fear/humiliation/embarrassment.

In any case, such symptoms are naturally more severe in younger individuals, particularly because of expectations from parents, guardians, elders etc. So yeah, whilst it may be a harmless anime, it had the potential of helping homosexuals adjust and empower them by going through the same circumstances -of which it failed to do.

Apart from this rant, this anime in general had an average story but whatever me the most were that pedestrian themes of the anime had somehow elevated e.g. the glittery eyes, the flowing hair, the sadist, the dangerous rival, the silver haired wildcard...
It had everything, and everything was enhanced by the artwork.

From time to time. It was gripping. The suspense had my heart skip a beat. I made memes FFS. MEMES. And it was because I hated on the rival.
Then there was the calm... The quiet... The intimacy between the two protagonists (yuzuha and Mei it seems).
I'm a guy, not gonna lie, fingers crossed for some scenes to cross the threshold. Honestly, some scenes were on thin ice that I am not at fault. Some scenes were suggestive.

To summarise, the romance story was generic... Who cares, anime's a tendency to do that; but if you like borderline suggestive Yuri, I don't see why not.

I'm gonna try to keep this short and sweet

This anime had the premise to develop an amazing story; however, they under-delivered... It feels as though somewhere along the way the director (or whoever was charge of production) lose sight of the direction they wanted to take.
Nevertheless, it produced aspects of comedic behaviour, which allowed viewers to adjust to the anime.

In my opinion, though, they still managed to create properties of depth, even if they lacked the ability to accomplish what they wanted,; the overall journey to it was full of gag comedy that provided some balance to the deficit left by the closing of the ... story.

On the other hand, the transition between love and revenge was much too quick, which made them unable to clearly navigate, rendering it useless to actually develop an end that was befitting the story...
Thus why it ended ambiguously with karaoke -this also was reflected on the fact that they attempted fan service of aki and neko. Which ultimately failed (opinion, really?)

I wouldn't expect a sequel in the short term, so anyone still interested should move on to the manga

Before I start I just wanna say, for the sake of argument, is that at most I'll be comparing it to what we know of the fairy tail anime.

Personally this movie came as a massive underwhelming addition to the fairy tail franchise , ascalthough it remained it's comedic properties, the story became more and more distorted...but introduced new moves of which we have no knowledge about, adding to that (after understanding the time restraints) the character build up was slightly poorer in contrast to movie 1; the phoenix priestess.

At first, going in, I immediately assumed that it is set after season 2 and ... before season 3; however, for now it should be assumed as canon because I have a feeling that the moves that saw will be explored in the third season.

Other than that, aspects of it did keep me surprised...
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SPOILER_ALERT
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E.g. Natsu's true form... For me it felt as a bit of a 'tell tail' (tell tale, a pun?..) because it didn't seem as though Lucy had seen Natsu's e.n.d form (I think, i just watch the anime😅), moreover when he did change, the image was something that kept flickering between his normal self and that form... Which is also suggestive of hallucinations on his enemy's part as they may be aware of something similar (still up for debate in my opinion. But hey, we'll truly learn it's meaning in the 3 season.

What I can safely say is, that with the knowledge of the movie by information in the third season, it will begin to fit in a lot more and rate higher as well.

The biggest bummer for me was the idea of not screaming out the moves before you do the move, and they explicitly teased this area of the anime by Gray shouting 'ice make..' but finishing with 'wagon wheel' in a monotonous voice ('cause he was trying to fix a wagon wheel 😂😅😅)

Apart from that, there was some great fan service of Lucy dancing but poor progress was made in terms of relationships (I shouldn't have expected too much anyway)

Miscellaneous:
-the animation for the movies were the same as it's anime counterpart

So lastly, if you're not a diehard Ft fan, I'd say watch this movie after some episodes of season 3 so you're no questioning as much, but it's your opinion entirely....
Anyways, do let me know what you think

this is weird

I thought it was a PR stunt that ran for 12 episodes; then at the end there's a cliffhanger WTF
(＃`Д´)

lemme get this out there though; IT IS A 'PR' STUNT (￢_￢)

first of all, no base story line whatsoever; it revolves around an all female cast (which doesn't really matter once you get into it), of which most of them are in mini skirts
"like really mini, and for some reason always has some sort of pants angle"

... again, don't really mind

so... story line. its just a show where female action figures are geared with artificial intelligence and they're pitted against each other in a holographic world.
so they battle each other to gain data for themselves and the factory that is going to produce them -they sent prototypes to be tested

its not the sort of thing where it is good vs. bad, just something you'd watch for fun.
and this is funny, but not in the way you'd expect... it's 'dumb funny'

most of the characters were a CGI style; this was so that they could be separated from the humans present and all the toys went through a process of evolution in emotion and behaviour
oooh yes, the characters were all initially diverse to begin with; this anime gave the masochists, the sadist, the dumb, the tsundere, the childish, and the egoists... moreover they gave the god archetype and the clever but socially dumb type.
the character build ups are so good that you dont even realise there arwe no prominent male figures
there was a protagonist and deuteragonist... but the lack of an solid antagonist kind of broke down the prior two's purpose

If it was CGI, it wasn't slow and the movements were quite fluid at the crucial times

____________________SPOILER_ALERT_____________________
the end was weird, like really weird; somehow the show turned into some idol concert and they're dancing aroung with those hunks of armour on.
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all in all, this is the sort of thing you'd watch when you're not looking for anything specific so you just want to laugh e.g. sitcoms etc. (like the big bang theory)

some spoilers, not too explicit tho

straight off the bat lemme just say if youre up for exaggerated homosexual innuendos then this anime is definitely for you. not that i'm against homosexuals but the way homosexuality is interpreted in this anime is a bit too vulgar... 'cause homosexuals are normal people with different opinions.

(honestly, you''l find yourself thinking, he's gay, he's gay, he's gay.. i mean the author was stuck deciding whether he/she should make kaneki gay -if youre tryna say that ghouls and humans have existed since before time then it's only natural that you'd have different sexual preferences as well)

sorry 'bout that; there are ... two races in this world (but they only focus on japan... "i be like, whaaaat?" but it makes sense about why they did that since this is anime)
its episodes dont have fluid continuation, so from one episode to another you may think to yourself 'what's goin' on, i didnt leave off here'
the anime was also inconsistent with the protagonist's role
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spoiler alert
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kaneki "please don't make me a murderer"
then he went off and joined one of biggest threats to tokyo... "aogiri"
his motives consistently remain unclear and though he doesn't murder, he doesn't mind aogiri doing the murdering.
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oopsy, 'nother spoiler... actually its probably in its sypnosis
it follows kaneki ken, a human turned ghoul (after a horrific accident). he has the body of a human with the organs of a ghoul.
now this is a fantasy, it can have aspects of the supernatural which we cannot judge; but to a certain extent realism should be kept... the author, however, failed to do this.
it simply cannot make sense as to why kaneki can't eat human food (apparently to a ghoul human food tastes disgusting) just 'cause he has organs of a ghoul didn't mean his tongue was transplanted, rize (the killer) didn't even go for his tongue, her kagune (a ghouls arsenal) only pierced his abdominal area. it would've made more sense if kaneki was an individual who can survive for a bit through normal food but he cannot resist the urge of flesh after some time
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the anime itself does generate some emotion but the best thing going for it was the sound track of season 1.

the action scenes were great; i can say that indefinitely since i found myself taking screenshots for reference. its story line did make me think "why, please see that they can coexist"
and that particular notion is what i believe is the driving force of this anime; but being a seinen it means that everything will not remain hunky dory (<- haha i was able to use this word)
art wise, this anime wasn't amongst the best i've seen, it was similar to naruto shippuden (my favourite) and that was probably because of studio pierrot (kudos to them). they ain't the greatest but they know how to tell a story.
the story remains in an infinite grey state where the lines between good and evil are blurred; it'd have been better for it to remain that but it had already been outlined that the driving force is for coexistence; of which the ghouls (not so much ghouls as it is ghoul; kaneki ken) are trying to create.

other than that, the use of distinctive characters had constantly captivated each character had their own dreams but at the same time shared a common goal (peace for ghouls). this distinctiveness meant that you will take to a character quite easily and you'd wanna know more about them; i constantly went onto wikia to just read up on characters ('cause for some reason i consciously enjoy spoilers -whereas the human mind subconsciously loves spoilers)
I can't say i enjoyed it so much 'cause at some points i was like "hurry, hurry, hurry..."
so for a review i think it would be overall 7 considering all components (my list might say different but that's 'cause i gotta keep my scoring in proportion to other anime and its genre)

The story is popular, but in my opinion it was a bit too hyped; sure i can see why its more popular than naruto but i could never rate anything more than naruto since its so relevant to my life (so no messages to me that say, "what do you know, you rated naruto 10")
the sound was really similar to naruto and its best sound was the track of the first season

so in summary this is an hate it/love it anime which depends entirely on your tastes

my fist impression after completing the manga was that it was quite amazing; it was something fresh and it had a storyline that'd grip you from the very start.
afterwards i started another manga and at the same time watched the anime adaptation of it
this made me realise that the story had some inconsistencies on it -but that doesn't mean i'm going to change my score since i base it solely on its story.
its overall story was pretty good
the art was great since it had more realism to it unlike other manga; in some cases they did keep the long wavy shoujo male hair i.e. the ... male protagonist, naruse kakeru. but with the supporting males they sported a normal hairstyle that wasn't too out there (naruto hairstyles).
though they didn't give any back stories on the characters, there wasn't a need to since the character design allowed to correctly assume their personalities, an interpretation of this could say that the design was generic as a result.
it did allow me to enjoy the story because it was mainly in scenarios that were relatable and allowed the reader to feel empathy, but not so much empathy as it is sympathy because they ain't real. so the empthy you'll feel is in the characters realism and the exploration of topics such as life, death and suicide; the feeling of regret when losing loved ones nad the sdness of not being able to help them. one of its main points is to not let regret build up and the fact that you should confide i others when yourself is simply not enough.
as a review for others i'd say that this manga would be an overall 8 since it may not be to your tastes but I am definite that any reader will be aroused by the emotions in this manga anyway so you would go out of your way to read it
If anyone was interested in "Orange," i hope this review helped.

P.S.
I actually wanted to write some spoilers, but MAL guidelines says 'try your best not to' which is, in my opinion 'don't'
just keep a look out for inconsistencies...
At which, you'd react with "but you've already said that you would"