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(mild spoilers)

I've had this anime on queue on cr since pretty much forever, I intended to watch it until someone mentioned it had similarities to Mawaru Penguindrum, which I hated because it felt shallow and had lots of tropes I dislike, and consequentially dropped. Well, so just to start, no they are not similar at all, and I wish I had watched it earlier (beware of recommendations, I guess?).

Story: This is a story of a family and the bond between them. A story about growing up, accepting responsibility, learning to love yourself and let others stand by your side. And monsters.

I've seen several reviews mention ... the plot is convoluted, which I don't think it's the case. It's just that the storytelling is non-linear, so you get flashbacks and revelations, but they all make sense and aren't particularly complicated. It's basically like a 10 episode long movie. The pacing is very fast, but slows down during the episode 8-9 and the finale is excellent. It also tells a complete story and doesn't leave you hanging, which is a major plus for me.

Art: It's colourful and whimsical, reminded me a bit of Mononoke and Kill la Kill.

Sound: The OST is beautiful, lots of strings, bells and chanting, reminds me a bit of old Disney and was perfectly fitting.

Characters: They all have their personalities, and they're not too cliche or tropey. Not all need to grow and change, some bring the change in a very positive way, others need to learn to move on and grow up. There are no annoying tsundere or stupid fanservice. Their bonds are all relatable and don' feel contrived.

Overall I unexpectedly enjoyed this very much, and loved the family unit and the supporting characters. Watch it.

Contains spoilers:

I tend to stay away from anime with little kids as main characters, because let's face it; it can get pretty weird. Before watching this anime I read the reviews, and most of them mentioned how the little girl isn't sexualised and acts like a child so it's fine.

Well... That's true until about episode 5, which is where I dropped it. Until then Naru is just a cheery kid and very funny. In episode 5 she seems to have developed a crush for the MC (a 23 year old), and it's suggested how in about 10 years she could bunny drop him and that ... he should date her. In the same episode there's also an inappropriate visual gag involving this little girl. I like crude humour, Gintama is my favourite anime. But unlike Gintama which always made a point of treating little kids with respect, Barakamon exploits the whole loli aspect in an uncomfortable way. I honestly don't know how people in the other reviews missed it and wish someone had mentioned it.

I hope this review can help those thinking of watching it, as I wish someone had warned me.

(contains spoiler)

Having just recently finished Karakuri Circus I've been sitting on a review for the past few days.

It took me ages to get through this anime, at first watching it weekly, but it started to become rather frustrating, so I tried to catch up once it was done but I still struggled to even remember things (it wasn't my fault btw, they simply omitted a lot of plot points from the manga so nothing made any sense unless you had previous knowledge, and what was omitted from the manga simply looked like plot holes in the anime both in terms of plot and characterisation). ... Eventually I rewatched the whole thing and it was somewhat enjoyable when taken as a full story, but still left much to be desired.

Nevertheless, I don't know why they thought to adapt such a massive manga in 36 episodes. Sure, a lot of the manga content could have been cut and condensed, but not to the extent the anime attempted to do. Actions made by one character are given to another, and as such their characterisations are changed. Some of the stuff that was skipped was essential to the story. Some things are never explained.

For instance, why do they never mentioned that the Midnight Circus and the automatas not only spread a deadly disease, but they survive by feeding on the blood of humans and that is why they leave such a destruction on their path? Most of the shirogane have a direct beef with the automatas and that is why they're so determined to fight them, as victims of the disease who lost their towns and families through the attacks. This is only explored briefly in the form of a few characters telling their sad backstory before dying, whereas this fact is pervasive in the manga.

Some of the characters have longer arcs in the manga where you come to care for them, for instance Narumi travels with Lucille and Guy for a long while and their relationship is much more lighthearted in the manga. When Narumi snaps and takes the role of the "demon" they worry for him and try to mentor him. Lucille has such a beautiful and tragic story, she lives with the guilt of what she has done to her daughter so she finds a replacement daughter of sort in Ming-xia and it's quite poignant for both of them, in the anime this is rushed to the point that they share this emotional moment and you wonder where did it even come from.

Some of the story were done justice, Francine and Angelina's for instance. The 3 protagonists all have good arcs. The ending was an absolute mess, but this was true for the manga as well so I can't really fault the anime for that. Overall though they missed the mark on most of the themes explored in the manga.

I don't think the manga was perfect, but it has original ideas and it's quite beautiful and moving in many parts. The anime rushed and compressed the story way too much so it was unsatisfying overall, hopefully one day they can make a proper adaptation.

As a manga reader, I find this anime quite frustrating. When they adapt from the manga it's fairly well paced and enjoyable, even with its episodic nature for the smaller comedic arcs. But it seems like they insist on adapting the AU novels all the time, which messes up the overall pacing and content.

Still it's Bones, so art and animation is fantastic. The latter part of the season with the main arc was the best, the first 3 episodes were pointless to the overall story, not in the manga, and only adapted because of the popularity of certain characters. Overall this season was ridiculously disjointed, ... and while adapting the extra content from the novels worked well last season because it all tied up into the story, the Chuuya story was just fanservice and easily skippable. The rest was pretty great, but the manga remains an overall better experience both in tone and content.

7/10

It started out very promising, but lost its was pretty quickly (contains spoilers).


Story: 6/10 the most interesting story was the the overarching arc between Hyakkimaru and his family. Unfortunately the monster of the week format ruined the pacing, and was generally not very engaging.

Art: Was off in the second cour, character designs were fine but a bit too similar.

Characters: Underdeveloped, which is odd for 24 episodes. Like I said, the most interesting conflict was between Hyakkimaru and his family, but none of them were really developed enough. I would have preferred more focus on them and less on the monster of the week.

Overall: It ... was fine, but I expected more. The ending was a let down, and it was happier in other adaptations. Idk why they went for such tragic ending after writing Tahomaru as nothing like a villain, but just a very conflicted young man trying to do the right thing.

This was frankly just baffling, and unless you're into fanservice and don't really care about characters and a coherent plot, just skip this one even if you like the series.

For context, I've been enjoying the anime and the manga in the last few months or so, and I was looking forward to watch this. The art/animation in the anime is just beautiful and in this sense the film did not disappoint. The action scenes were all great as well.

The problem is that the tone was somewhat off compared to the previous 2 seasons and the manga. It's in fact an anime original (not based on ... the manga or a LN) and it shows, because it's a lot of fan pandering, mostly to the fujo, I guess. The manga barely has any of that, the anime did but in a sort of lighthearted Gintama way so it never felt bothersome before. Yaoi pandering to me is like ecchi; if I can avoid it I gladly do, as I find it generally lowers the tone.

The characterisation of many of the characters was also weird, as in characters regressing out of nowhere and making decisions that felt ooc, especially MC. The plot didn't make much sense, I kept thinking I missed bits and that's why I didn't get it, but turns out they were just plot-holes.

I hope this isn't a reflection of what a season 3 will look like, although given that they'll (I guess, right?) adapt from the manga again that shouldn't really be the case.

It started out quite strong with great action scenes and animation, but like many original anime, lost it somewhere in the latter episodes. In terms of genre it's somewhat similar to a less edgy Hellsing, Owari No Seraph, B the Beginning, with some Naruto thrown in it.

*Minor Spoilers*

Story:
It's actually quite simple and straightforward, which isn't a bad thing at all. The problem is that for the sake of 'mystery' and misdirection the plot unfolds ridiculously slowly, for instance we don't find out the main villain's true intentions until episode 10. Some plots which seemed relevant in the first half of the series turn out to ... be just a waste of time and you're left wondering why didn't they concentrate on the main storyline instead. Some overall themes in the story are quite engaging and touching, even if they're not offering anything new. Others, are just unimaginative. 6/10

Art:
The art if beautiful for the most part. Characters' designs are all interesting and intriguing. The fight scenes are mostly well animated, some of them are excellent. Unfortunately they don't keep this high standards of animation throughout the series, and the latter episodes have some pretty bad animation and underwhelming action. 7/10

Characters:
The only character that has some growth and development is MC. Some of the supporting characters are explored briefly and rather well and their relationships with each other can be quite poignant, however everyone else is underdeveloped.

The villains, characters I consider an incredibly important part of the story, are played mostly as a straight baddie trope, which is boring. They have a tendency for maniacal laughs which genuinely made me giggle (and I don't think I was meant to react that way). At some point they attempt a redemption arc, but it's sloppy because that character is introduced too late in the story to have any emotional impact.

Female characters get the worst end of the stick. The one character who gets the most focus is often clumsily forced into the story, 11 episodes in and I still don't really understand her purpose other than being the love interest, I guess. The other female characters are basically non-entities. 5/10

Sound:
Sound is great, OST is very good as well and compliments the aesthetic. All the VA are good, which is to be expected as most of them are very well known and experienced. 8/10

Overall:

I was by no means blown away. There's still one episode to go so that might change, but I doubt it. Mostly it had some good ideas and animation, but was poorly executed in many parts. I give it a 6/10 overall, as it's decent enough, but could have been far better.