Back to tokomata's Profile tokomata's Profile

Pretty unique and fun story. It takes getting used to because it's bollywood realism(not physically but stuff that happens). There's lots of filmy exaggerations and "plot holes" that's meant to be looked over. Once you get the expectations right, it's amazing. The artstyle is probably a turn off for many and the reason for the low views. I disagree with the rest that it's about business, or any topic for that matter. It's a drama that lightly explores everything from video games, to florist business, to AI, to competitions, news, cabaret club and weaves a story through all of them.

If you're specialised in any ... of the above fields you might twitch at the things shown , but you're not supposed to take anything too seriously here. Consider it as an VC Enterpreneur adventure. The farfetched convoluted plans the characters pull off is where the fun is at.

The characters are well structured, but it's not a show to experience character growth. Different people, different talents. You accept their antics and ride with them to see where the road takes them to.

The voice-acting, OP/EDs are all fine. The artstyle is a conscious decision but there's no faltering production. It has been pretty consistent. It's new Madhouse after all.

That said, it does kinda feel it's missing something, especially around the antagonist who gets featured from time to time. I don't think it's a full adaptation and the ending had no climax but also not anticlimactic. It just randomly wrapped things up, probably because there likely won't be a season 2 greenlit. I think the choice of artstyle really ruined the show's chances. I checked out the manga a little and that's much normal and cleaner. Not much else to say.

The production is absolutely dogshit but the story screams potential through the gaps. I'm conflicted about the studio Satelight. It is picking up and giving visibility to old great mangas like this and Helck but adapting them bad. Since Helck didn't get a season 2, I suspect Ubel Blatt was decided to be given worse pacing to fit more of it's story. I have only looked a bit of the manga yet and the anime adaptation has heavily avoided gore, snuff and worst of all fights. I don't know whether limiting the fights is due to lack of skill in the studio or to go ... through the plot fast. The last episode particularly, had pretty good production first half, for once in the entire series, especially the fight; so the reason might be the latter.

This is a revenge story but does not look edgy yet as most are. There's bit cringy masochist melodrama at times. It probably has good worldbuilding judging from all the travelling and glimpses of unique societies in different locations but the anime simply doesn't give time to experience that. The pace is so fast it feels some characters are outright teleporting from one place to another. I plan to read the manga eventually and you should too. Ultimately it's worth the watch for the plot, if you can ignore the production and have no plans to read the manga..

This is a very decent and alright casual comedy anime that is unfortunately under-rated(relatively) because the beginning was just generic bad and probably failed 3episode rule for most. If Salad bowl of Eccentrics was the Hinamatsuri of it's season, then NEET Kunoichi is the Salad bowl of it's season. There are many similarities in characters and premise.

It takes a considerable number of episodes to introduce all of the cast, which also might have worked against the show. But once the cast gets established it becomes pretty good enjoyable comedy. The characters get well defined early and shorts turn into enjoyable gag comedy. Not sure ... how to put it in English, it's a women centric show? As in the "main" MC is the FMC, the other girls are the next in focus. The male "MC" and another supporting male character seldom appears and pretty mob-like. It's not a bad thing, just setting your expectations.

It is slightly ecchi, but below average number of fanservice than in your random anime. Most places had tagged this show as ecchi initially which would be wrong in this regard. Some might also dislike a biologically male but female-identifying character being a stalking creep on female characters. It's also not a harem, triangle, polygon or polycule, even though most cover/PVs might imply that.

The production is quite a bit hit or miss. The face caricatures are pretty well done, the narrator that pops up occasionally is also pretty funny. Rest of the elements of production is subpar, but not actively(lazily) bad, just likely budget constraints. I would say watch 6 or so episodes and judge

This is officially 24x 12min episodes but was broadcasted two at a time. The stories are majorly separate shorts with only one or two pairs being full fledged connected 24min episodes. It's easily better than the isekai slops this season, two of which couldn't even make their protagonists look different(Secret shopper and Salaryman).

Reddit Zero: Isekai Shonen 3: Started Yapping in a Disney World.
I can't believe I ever liked this repetitive slop. Of course I was gaslighted into believing there's more that meets the eye before. Last season for me. The only thing going for this is it has some semblance of an original story, something that is woefully lacking in anime industry these days.

RZ is back with it's usual mutilation loop in the beginning that contributes nothing to the plot, the usual generic medieval danmachi fantasy plot, the usual edgy af comically evil cuckoo villains with no tangible motivations; and I don't know is this the ... first time it became an exposition dump wasting time while cutting off source content? I seriously hope content was cut because this was the worst season by a mile. Anywho I have grown resistant to the shock novelty, and it's just murderporn soap opera slop that old people watch in their mundane lives, and WWE shonen slop that kids like. It's so bad, I went back to rate the first two seasons and OVAs low.

The single biggest problem with season 3: Direction and Art Character Design.

You start the season with a scene in the initial episodes where an antagonist mutilates a character in a second, by kicking a small stone with tremendous force at him/her. That clearly showcase the ridiculous skill gap between the two. There should be no way the latter survives a second against the former solo in their later fights taking place in a matter of two days, right? I mean forget the fights, the Direction puts the latter in completely exposed public spaces multiple times as he/she wastes time lecturing cringy pretentious Disney Demon slayer expositions in front of enemies with killing intent. If I'm plotting something with someone I would at least move out from the middle of the road and go to an alley so that I don't constantly have to look out for shots aimed at me. It's also insane it's implied he/she is somehow "holding out" the later fights with villain without any mutilation, off-fucking-screen ofc. (E: I guessed right, I learnt in LN character was supposedly master of evasion through buildings, windows etc which makes the holding out possible, cut from the anime)

This similar direction is repeated elsewhere in other character showdowns, people having time to sing, kiss, grope, nosebleed on each other in front of serious villains with no worry of getting killed. Of course fans will distribute copium that the enemies weren't considering them seriously and "playing with food", ...which would make sense if they weren't butchering mobs without reason earlier, and weren't getting bored and annoyed easily enough to eliminate the cringe that was in their way.

The character designs echo the same sentiments, physically ripped enemies losing on pure strength(not agility) against weak, lean, fragile twinks. Villains be munching huge ass dragons and scyllas but too "bored" to wipe out brigades of ant people. Make it make sense. Also unrelated, there were some of the most non-thematic out-of-place sakuga fights I have ever seen towards the end of the season. The sakuga was itself good but woefully anti-thematic.

Another Direction problem is the decision to not include some recaps/flashbacks. It's not my fault RZ production took it's sweet time to return after so many years. Some obscure shit from the previous seasons will be used as a deux ex machina plot device to save people at the very last moment. Only fans and TV junkies would remember or rewatch and flex that people don't watch properly especially on cableTV. I won't rewatch and waste my time as it's not my responsibility. It's the production's responsibility to insert appropriate recap clips to remind what happened after producing this season after so many years. Even worse some critical info is only available in BreakTime omakes and isekai quartet. Rz is no MCU to risk pulling this shit.

The Second problem is the plot and is independent of production. Just a few episodes ago people treated Subaru like literal gnat's piss. But suddenly after the 2nd season fights, the same people are rushing and queuing to suck his dick like blind followers like Subaru-sama yOu sO gReAt!! OMFG. Endless patronising of Subaru. Can the characters stop yappin, STFU and not repeat the same pretentious bs with minor variations, whether the toxic positivity "You can do it!" comments, or the shocked "How could you do such a thing!" despair, it's cringe, boring and repeated adinfinitum. The demon slayer expositions legit triggered me to write this review. Is this how the LN is? jfc. I should have watched with dub instead and wash my dishes meanwhile.

And the constant chuuni manicspeak from the villains. Not VA fault, more like the decision to pack more of the same archetype of crazy villains in a single arc, as if it wasn't already bad enough with one per arc before. All the villains were carbon copies, nothing like say the unique homunculi in FMA/B who are also monsters based on 7 sins, or Made in Abyss White whistles. What is the appeal here? It's the lowest common denominator edgy shit that reddit bogans would consume to fit in the crowd.

I'm trying to find any redeeming qualities and see none. It's just shock, rimuru tabletalk, fights, the anime. Greatest Isekai my ass. No wonder fans are insecure of MT and One Piece.

Also can someone go isekai into their world and teach Emilia sex education? Else the author will use her ignorance on the matter into a plot device again. Someone clearly went already and injected something in her boobs to grow like a cow, among several other ecchi baits in the season.

Disclaimer: This sort of stuff is not even remotely my cup of tea, but I won't impose my conformist conclusions on people who consumes this "deviant" stuff; just as it wouldn't be my place to decide whether a shoujo/josei or LGBTQ content is good or not if I can not relate as a straight male.

This is not NTR in the most conventional sense, this is more of Netorase which is a very special kind of NTR where the MC masochistically revels in the defilement of his partner/crush. I did not know what this manga was before getting into it. I wasn't aware it was a ... "safer" version of an existing h-doujin. I had just clicked on "I'm feeling lucky" on the site I read mangas and came across this, and clearly it was not a lucky option for me lol.

I read the doujin after reading this. There's obviously more content, characters and arcs in this manga. However vol3(out of 5) of the doujin is missing from the story which basically would have made readers realize this is Netorase in the middle of the story, and MC is not exactly like a Kazuya type wuss. Instead the realization is made towards the end. I had read a similar netorase doujin before about a netorase MC, his sister and stepfather so I kinda understood what this work was going for. I do hate this wasn't made obvious before especially when one has to be more committed to reading a manga than a doujin and with a chance of sunk cost fallacy.

I would seriously not recommend this to fellow normies like me because it's really annoying and hard to read, but I suppose it isn't really bad bad for people who crave this sort of thing. There's no plot holes and the character growths(to their unconventional things) are sane. Beyond a 6/7 I'm not the person to refer whether the story is good or not.

"I'm a bird, Morty"
6/10
Alternative title: I max out Attack and Luck, and Truck-kun never got me, but VRMMO did. Am I actually the Strongest Lvl1 with solo-levelling OP cheat "debuff" skill in Another World?

Are the Visuals great? Yes.
Is it better than Sword Art Online? Yes.
Is Shangri-La just another generic non-tensei isekai without the visuals, and without SAO being the godforsaken benchmark? Also, Yes.

Takt Op Destiny, Lycoris Recoil of this season. Eyecandy hiding a boring AI generated story. One Piece levels of pace with barelarely 14mins of anime every episode, rest are recaps, omakes and mascot doll cringe. A short/ONA masquerading as a fullfledged TV anime
/EndReview.rtf
...
If you're new to anime, if this is your entry to this media after your friends recommended aN1mAyy, prefer visuals(=/=sakuga), or you have to participate in [Current Year] isekai fad to be accepted by anime society, then sure I recommend this over the rest.

In fact ShangriLa has some good pros:
1) No harem, No Ecchi(yet), No lolita, No Slavery or other morally ambiguous stuff
2) Visuals
3) Swapping to real life once in a while. Less escapism
4) MC is not some rejected by society, or crippled by overwork trope
5) Video Game Isekai and as such mensuration of xp, skills, equipment actually make sense vs Tensei Isekais

As for cons, the usual issues with generic medieval fantasy/isekais from japan. Just another OP MC with cheat level beginning aiming to be the top LoL player in some local ass server, but this time it's cringy Souls player in a WoW VRMMO, where he can endlessly respawn and succeed with enough grinding on meaningless fights. Zero Stakes. Usual MC in a tacky "I'm so special" half-naked+helmet outfit like no one has ever tried that in an online game. Copypasted mundane supporting characters with the usual archetypes and tropes. Supporting male character being a yesman and a nice_guy, while supporting female character being dumb about video game mechanics. No name AI beeg monstas as possible mid-season boss. The only thing partly new/rare is the FMC stalking her crush through the videogame depending on whether you consider Akane from Lvl[ArbitraryNumber] Yamada-kun and Suguha from SAO to be stalkers. It's Japan so karens stalking men is wish-fulfillment end of the day.

FMC is in one of those top guilds in video game because of course she is. She is totally not cuckoo to search for MC in the beginner pool of a massively played online game. In my 7k matches in a once popular game called DotA all match stats show I have met the same person twice only once. Now consider that for a currently popular game with majority players being beginners as the game is on a growth trajectory. This is the difference between random MMO inspired anime and .Hack franchise which was made by a game studio. That's not to say MC's path is entirely unrealistic. Top irl professional players like Grubby, s4, jerax have stomped other games purely due to skills carrying over from their signature games. But not failing even once to normal goblins is unrealistic. As for luck, I too played a Fire Emblem character Nephenee who's skill set enabled her to survive fatal blows with 1Hp and land a critical hit back which in turn she could lifesteal off of. Might as well could have added lifesteal too for MC and complete the OP trifecta.

There's barely ANY strategy shown. MC just stomps monsters while at 3Vitality and max Luck. The most unrealistic aspect for a game. Including the uNiQuE rare monster, he survives for more than a few seconds without knowing anything about it's skills and strategies it employs. Imagine stomp[ing an Elden Ring boss on the first try without knowing anything about it prior. Worse he gets the equivalent of magic resistance end of the arc, like that is TOTALLY NOT defense.

It's particularly funny when MC at ep3 screams at beeg "unique" AI monsta something like "I'll get you BigMonsta! I'll get you for sure next time!! I'll get back my treefiddy with treefiddy Interest!". Paraphrasing. Him saying that to a programmed monster should give you an idea how the rest of the season is going to be. I really have the urge to give a "Not Recommended" tag as I note all this but this is 2023 and it's about time for a new generation of zoomers to like a bland .hack clone like SAO was 10years ago and I know how rabid fans would get with sending deth threats and what not. So Mixed Feelings it is. Or rewatch and decide better. Imagine I wasted my lifespan watching a rando unlicensed game story and I can't even be bothered to remember MC's name. It reeks of the gazillion gachatrash available on app-stores.

The annoying cardcaptors keroberos type doll contributing nothing but plot armor doesn't help either. Worst of all is each episode is around 15mins of runtime and the gaps filled with after-credits moe gags. Production only puts in effort for 15mins, rest are all OP/ED, pointless gacha fillers and recaps.

Obligatory Disclaimer for potential blind people, this is a preliminary review and MAL allows for one post-watching three episodes so it's perfectly valid review. I can turn out to be entirely wrong later on like I was with my Eminence in Shadow review. So don't come to my profile after consuming laxatives for the brain unless there's anything useful to say. Just put confusing emoji and move on.

Remakes without any creative liberties apt for the times, no matter how small, are just cashgrabs reliant on nostalgia. One can see in the countless remakes in Hollywood without a soul. And Rurouni Kenshin remake showcases the same. This is an insult to the original not only for those who watched the original but also newer people getting in to this in 2023. Urusei Yatsura remake was so much better as a remake. UY remake wasn't as good as it's OG but the remake did it's own twists and unique production.

Rurouni Kenshin remake is not only a blind copy, it's actively worse for 2023. ... The artstyle is reminiscent of the inorganic/machinic shiny varnish feel in Death Note or Bíble Black which was common for anime softwares around 2005. It was good then, monumentally lazy today. To think this studio did Insomniacs previous season and regressed to Tokyo Revenger production this season.

The backgrounds are just static screens, the characters in the background don't move half the time. One can compare the Market scene first episode on the OG and the remake, the OG has very lively market scene going on in the background. There are similar problems everywhere with focus only given to the middle of the screen. This reinforces the fact that it used some generic anime software with no special touches added. I'm going to bet it will focus on animating only fight scenes well and continue being lazy on the rest; as opposed to the OG which excelled in both. I won't wait till Sanosuke appear and ruin my hopes further.

I'll get hate for this but I have mixed feelings on Kenshi's VA. It's not bad, in fact it is somewhat similar to OG but yet to feel there is any baritone scope on the vocal range. It is important because far far into the story there is an arc where Kenshin breaks and makes an iconic kamehameha like scream. I don't know how it can be remade here.

4/10- Would give 5-6 if all the things below are intentionally done like Eminence in Shadow
This anime offends me with its averageness like Saiki K loves staring at that most average guy in his school. Everything this show does, it does by the book, as if it aims to be the middest of mid consciously. Good to know the technology is there now to input some character archetypes, plot skeleton, color filter and a Computer will massvomit such generic content. Finally able to finish till ep3 on my fourth attempt. Before this, my brain made me wash dishes, clean my room walls instead, rather than ... watch this. So much unnecessary verbose while completely void when needed. The plot is bad, the production follows Tokyo revengers style adaption, doing no creative interpolation for the plot.

(Made things as abstract as possible to prevent spoiling. Find TLDR at the bottom)

Plot or the lack of it, Plotholes, Inconsistencies:
At 2minutes in, 6 random characters walking by the street on their way to school orientation become great friends just like that. Big Monsta at 4th minute, these not-even-first-year group up and tackle it while some 70 people watch and do nothing. Oh, they are already proficient in kinetic spells but later on why attends class on basic magic? All mob characters are static, the FMC is in a silent crowd in small ass room, talking to MC yet her facial expression looks like she is shouting. 2nd episode ends with a cliffhanger of a fight only to have nothingburgers in the 3rd episode.
There's a 20% fatality rate for the students, because too much magic is dangerous and imploding of character, but it appears that all danger so far originates from students maliciously attacking each other hunger games style, sounds like edgy survival fight plot, but why at school? We are told that fights without safety spells are strictly forbidden, but then they are attacked with killing intent by older students. Except that for some reason this aggressive behaviour is perfectly normal and they could have gotten in trouble for fighting back? Later a teacher uses illegal torture magic on a student, in front of other students and another teacher but there are no consequences. he even admits to ignoring the law and says he'll do it again.
Safety rules only apply to swordfights, but in another class a teacher was expecting the students to get injured and did nothing. Well, that fits the narrative with the fatality rate, but why such double standards? Characters with little importance or mobby choosing a 20% fatal murder school is ridiculous. There are two AnimalLifeMatters characters which while not wrong, why would they join a murder school lol?

That reminds me, there is no reward mentioned for surviving the school. Do they get a plum civil position, do they get infinite god powers, do they get pensions, or do they just get a piece of paper. Whats the reward, why people especially those can't even hurt a fly want to join this school?

This show can’t decide whether the school is hunger games no holes barred, or it has some law and order. Person gets hexed into a deadly situation, survives and reports to the authorities, then no action. So, there is a reporting process in school yet a hunger game situation is also present and punishments are little to nothing for hunting noob’s spines and dicks? Headmaster even talks about being independent and free and that life and death is in the individual’s hands, legitimizing violence. How does it even make sense?


Environment:
There is no worldbuilding and foreshadowing, nor any real setup, everything is so disconnected, isolated and contextualized. The plot is so random and all over the place. They are doing too many things at once. And all this in the midst of continuous barrage of useless convos either explaining dumb basic stuff, or just fillery talk and sequences like putting a blanket on a sleeping roomie. Instead of fillers there could have been some creative sequences connecting isolated contexts by detailing useful info.

Character:
With such a big cast they should have focused on 1-2 character per episode instead of all at once like Monogatari. The MC is especially boring but somehow I feel like MC+FMC going to spellblades just because they look the complementary pair and the others will also be paired up for no reason.
Can't even figure out whether it is a school college or university. On one hand people already know spells so they must be teens or adults but then FMC claims "she was in a war" just before. What war, woman? The war does not have a name?? You were there last week!! Teens and Adults would know of some war going on by name even if its overseas, c'mon. Such a dumb script.


Art: generic/10
Main Character: Kirito/10
Characters: forgettable mass isekai/fantasy shounen characters/10
Music: Japanese dubchestral you decide/10
Story: Negative/10

Conclusion:
Initial Impression was it is Shikimori isn't just a cutie level of blandness, now my impression is it’s on the level of SAO. Production did no creative interpolation and much like Tokyo Revengers, just feels copied frame by frame from manga. I know source is LN but that’s how the adaptation feels, 1:1 inappropriate copy. Combining how bad and generic each and everything was, I am vociferously offended, maybe not to the level of animes that exploit blindness, cardiac, pancreas issues in FMC or animes that exist to promote idols and figurines but this show is somewhere up there.

One of the best manga I read and I've been binging quite a lot recently. No pointless arcs, no mindless action, concludes the story with the right number of chapters. Helck is plot, plot is Helck. However, it is a solid 9/10 that I'm reducing to 8/10 because of the frustrating and regular chapter number retconning from the publisher themselves. Good luck finding a site or source that maintains all the chapters with all the pages. One has to keep 3/4 sites open and confirm they didn't skip chapters and pages.

It's somewhat dated manga and the initial parts may feel generic but the story is ... pretty straightforward unlike myopic or franchise milking repetitive storytelling from the likes of JJK, DS, CSM, Dandadan, One Piece, OPM spanning gazzillion chapters. The closest similar story that comes to mind is actually Attack on Titan and not the myriad generic medieval fantasy stuff. Just that unlike AoT it is not very serious, but not comedic either.

I'll add more as I finish rereading it.

I have an active dislike for shounen genre buuut JJK was something I begrudgingly admitted it was very good initially...that was until the end of Shibuya incident arc. It turned gigabad with the PubG hunger games type Tournament Arc that I can't recommend it anymore.

Without spoiling, the greatest issue by far is Gege's need to revive a character Archetype after the first instances of the archetypes get good opinions from crowd. The result is the "revivals" make new "characters" with 1:1 motivation and make for extrachromosomal plotholes. There's the Tojo type revived twice, Geto type revived once, NobaraxMegumin type revived once just to name the ... main few. It's expected when Gege claims he consulted a sTrInG theory physicist to rebrand the typical chi/mana/yokai fantasy mechanic to the convolutedcolorclusterfk of a system of cUrSes.

The motivations for the tournament arc was dubious. The antagonist sets whatever rules and the protagonist team decides to participate in it instead of focusing on reversing what happened on the Shibuya Arc. But the dumb rules are not all set by the antagonists though. The more one gets to know how "magic" works in the JJK world, the less it makes sense as to why fights have to be like old turn based Final Fantasy-esque. For example, someone "dies" but not really because the battle is not over and the equivalent of a "revive potion" can be applied by team member to resurrect him before the battle ends. Like what??

Somewhere in middle of Shibuya Arc itself, the author seems to have wanted to cash in on the endless carnage trope that titles like CSM, Dandadan etc do. The change is reminiscent of when Yu Yu Hakusho deviated from a proper story into doing tournament arcs because DBZ popularized it. I can't like this anymore because how videogamey it has become, similar to how isekais quantifies experience, whether cyber or fantasy.

The plot hasn't felt like it has moved in the last 3years. If one considers Shabooya arc's intention to enable development of supporting characters, that fix has only created more holes, more complications and more plot armor. It feels so much fillery-ish especially with new characters out of nowhere, going nowhere; that I hope JJK doesn't embrace DBZ, Naruto, Bleach and One Piece's footsteps to become a long running series. The fact how the story has often changed course abruptly tells me that the author never planned far ahead on how to close the story, which could only mean JJK will get stretched and milked down the line.