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On the surface level, everything about PET will drive most audiences off: the subpar character design, the mediocre animations and horrible mixings and sounds designs. As for voice acting, the Japanese side is decent, but considering large chunks of the dialogues are spoken in Mandarin by non-Chinese people... It's very bad for anyone who speaks the language like myself.

With all that, I am confident to say that if you like good drama and usually look for good stories in anime. Then you own it to yourself to ignore the downsides and watch this anime. Because it has the best story of anything from 2020, ... by far.

The unique relationships between characters are defined by their special powers, creating conflicts impossible in any other stories. With the setting and supernatural abilities acting as a metaphor for the message the anime is trying to convey: what drives a person to continue living? That question being challenged time and time again throughout the story and ultimately elevated to another level by the end.

Enough has been said about studio geno and their inadequacies. Yet I can't but feel respect towards them. They could be adapting shitty light novels like every other company in their calibre, yet they choose to not do that. If it wasn't for studios like this, most would have forgotten niche stories from 10, 20 years ago like PET. I think there is something quite commendable and even romantic about it, preserving stories that should not be forgotten with time. Sometimes, before we talk about how good something is, we should talk about how many of its kinds are left.

Lastly, I would like to talk about my interpretations of what the writer is trying to tell us. Full spoilers ahead, only proceed when you have completed the series.

In my opinion, peaks represent a person's drive and motivation. Since pets borrow theirs from someone else, you can say their will to live is based on someone else. Tsukasa did all the shitty things because of that dependency on Hayashi. When he lost that connection, he lost his drive to live and did everything he could to re-establish that bond. I think that's the reason for Satoru and Hiroki finding out where Hayashi's peaks came from. Even though their peaks will still look the same, they have a different meaning now. Theirs are no long borrowed from someone else's but are their own now. Unlike Tsukasa, they no longer live for someone else but are their own person now.

Unlike characters in the anime, we don't have superpowers and our peaks are not as well visualized and defined. What we do have are motivations and reasons that drives us forward. Things that we live for. We can be like Tsukasa, borrowing others' peaks and dreams. In other words, living for someone else's sake. Eventually, when you have to be separated from that person, you will have nothing to protect you from all the valleys in your heart and the world. Eventually, we will have to develop our own peaks and live for our own sake.

This is not a review, since most of the points I could talk about concerning this manga has already been said by others. The score I'm giving it does represent my opinion, but this "review" is more about the background information surrounding it.

Right of the bat, this kind of situation did happen in history. In fact, there are so many similarities that I'm convinced that Samura, the mangaka, was directly influenced by it(more on this later). The event I am referring to is the second Sino-Japanese war. Specifically the comfort women in the war. I am not going to go over any details about ... the war itself since I am not qualified enough for it and you can Google it at your leisure but I will specify what "comfort women" are.

If you are an eastern Asian, then you probably already know what those words mean, but it is very rare that a westerner knows them. During WWII, the Japanese military would trick young Japanese girls, often underage, into joining the military and turning them into sex slaves. They would lie to the girls about how they can become nurses or medics on the front line. Telling them that if they join the army, they are serving their empire and making the emperor proud. After they run out of domestic girls, they start to kidnap girls from China and Korea.

As I said, there are a lot of resemblances between the manga and the real-world event. The manga promises the girls in the orphanage a better future in the theatre. While the military manipulates girls with patriotism and a promising career. The manga states the carnival has been going on for 7 years, while the war lasted for 8 years. The cabinet abolished the carnival after learning they could be exposed, while the military executed most of the comfort women after Japan lost the war to silence them. A very interesting point is that the noble who started the carnival was killed by a plane piloted by two men crashing into his castle, while Japan lost after being hit with two atomic bombs, named fat man and little boy.

What I have provided is just one example, but not the only one. There are tons of instances in history where young, innocent girls are traded as sex workers, either for money or supposedly stability (watch Sandakan No.8 for more details). Orphanage forcing its kids to work under harmful conditions is nothing new.

The final question then becomes why? Why did Samura create a manga with such cruelty and depressiveness inspired by real-world historical events? This has to do with how he writes and draws women in general. Samura believes women are superior to men, and in his work, women are always mentally or physically better. Makie is the strongest character in the blade of the immortal with most female characters being either very courageous or strong-willed. This all might sound conflicting considering the ill-fated girls in the manga, but that is kind of the point. Just like how the festival is abolished in the end, the treatment for women is getting better as time goes on. But we must not forget the poor treatment of them in the past. Or he is just a huge hentai who gets a kick out of seeing women suffer.

TLDR: Although it has an interesting concept and a strong start, the plot starts slipping around the middle point and ends in an unsatisfying manner.

The first 80 chapters are probably as good as the manga gets. With the world slowly unravelling itself, new characters are being introduced while still struggling to survive. It felt it could've been a very special manga within the survival game genre. You are filled with questions and excitement towards the future of the series.

Unfortunately, you will soon realize all the characters are one-dimensional and severely lacking in character development. None of them will grow in any substantial ways in ... the next 100 to 150 chapters.

Characters only make up half of a story, so let's look at the main plot: it's not that much better. I won't go into any spoilers but know the main conflict isn't all that bad until the last 1/3. The dramas are fairly interesting and there are some good dialogues. But the plot took a nosedive after the death of the boss. The main villain reveals himself and he isn't even a character. There was no build-up, no foreshadowing, and his existence makes barely any sense.

Speaking of which, let's talk about setting. Remember how you had all those questions about the world, well you do get some answers, but they are so conflicted and meaningless that it will only leave you scratching your head more.

All good survival game series have one thing in common: high stakes. Because in order to make the readers care, you have to give them a reason to. That's why the characters are often in a disadvantaged position with a high penalty for losing, ie dying. However, when characters can one-shot any enemies they encounter, there is no more tension.

One of the ways to solve this problem is to introduce more powerful enemies, which is what the series did. Yet the power-scaling racked up so fast that the writers themselves couldn't control it and quickly spiralled out of control.

A short-term manga requires talent, but a long-term manga requires commitment and planning. To me, this manga lacked in the planning aspect. With plenty of unfulfilled potentials. If you want something similar to this, Btoom or battle royale are all better than this.

Creating a manga about music is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks for any artist. After all, mangas are seen, not heard. Which is why the music itself is often downplayed, while the appeal of these types of mangas is to see how music can affect people and their life.

With all that said, blue giant still does a terrific job at depicting jazz music, it often spends pages or even an entire chapter depicting a performance. With thick line works emphasizing the intensity. And a great focus on both the performer and the audience's face and body parts to show us the power ... of music. Although we can't hear anything, we can imagine it.

The main character, Dai Miyamoto is very simple. He fell in love with jazz and aim to be the greatest jazz musician in the world. Simplicity, however, doesn't mean bad. Although he can come across as being naive for how optimistic he is, it's that same quality that I think a lot of people can sympathize with. People probably wouldn't know the magic of jazz and the point of playing saxophone for hours in the snow, but people will understand his drive and his love for the art.

If I have to be honest, throwing away the topic of jazz, this manga is not really special. The art is above average, the character designs are non-inspiring, and the story is just a cliche came-of-age tale. So why did I give it a 10?

Whenever I see Dai practicing beside the river, I always think back to myself. How I once had a wild dream and worked hard for it. Just like many others, I had to give up due to reality. Yet here's a person who picks himself up no matter how many times he falls. A boy who's persistent about his goals. That drive that is communicated to me is perhaps the reason I fell so in love with this manga.

If you are as lost as I am, not knowing what the goal of your life is and living the same minimal routine. Then blue giant might be the manga that reminds you what putting your blood, sweat, and tears into something was like.

Edit: I read the manga in madarin, which is fully translated. The English version is not.

I often see people making the comparison of this anime to Clannad. But in my opinion, that is a little misleading. Unlike the focus on family with a general tone of warmth. ef is more like finding that dwindling bit of fire in the cold world and live on with an iron will.

Otowa, the place where the story takes place in, is spelled as 音羽 in kanji. "音" means "sound", referring to the Suuichi's violin, and how the music will stop when the bow stop. "羽" refers to the eternal feather of Yukko and the continuation of hope.

In fact, the theme that carries throughout ... both season of ef is the decision of eternal and temporality. Like 13 hours of memory that Chihiro has and Renji's untiring pursuit of her. Or the conversation between Hiro and Mihako on the telephone. Unlike other shows that ask rhetorical questions and never answer them. ef gives its solution.

"No matter how much you treasure them, both people and things will die someday. The bonds, the feelings, the memories, the hearts, and their lives. There's nothing in this world that won't die. There's nothing that won't break. Happiness is nothing more than a fabrication; a false mirage. That's why... That's why we should treasure them. So that we can face the farewell that'll one day visit us without regret. Because it'll break, it is precious. Let's make it precious."

The anime is also filled with symbolism and clues in its progressively changing op, use of colors, camera transition screens and even the tiles of each episode. (hint: the first letter)

I guess the reason why I spent this much time writing this "review" is that I don't think people truly appreciate this anime and how barely anyone mentions it in anime discussions. I guess that's the fate of being an art piece: not being financially successful and is only enjoyed by the few. Yet, a part of me almost doesn't want it to be popular. Like that small cafe down the corner of the street. You enjoy its quietness and the coffee and want to share it with more people. Yet that would ruin why you like it in the first place: the peacefulness.

This anime is a complete piece of trash, in fact, I don't even know why TF am I writing a review for this piece of garbage. No matter how you try to look at at this anime, it's a trash. It is nothing more but a much of editing created by a bunch of idiots.
Just like the people who gave this a 1, Kamikaze Douga never wanted to create a masterpiece, they wanted to create a piece of sh*t. And the anime tells us loud and clear:"We poured our heart in to make a piece of trash."
Thus, ... 20 minutes of completely random, pointless and bad jokes were created. What? You didn't have any pleasure while watching it? Perfect! Because that's exactly what the creators whats, to completely sh*t on your face. To play you around their weird and old references like a toy.
And for those who saw the first episode, went on this site filled with rage, gave this anime a 1, and never touched it again, then congratulation, you at least are serious when it comes to watching anime.

"You mad?"
"I'm not mad."
"You mad?"
"I'm not mad."
Perfect, let me beat you up, deep fried you and then cookies out of you.
"You mad?"
"I'm not mad."

Lastly, for those who analyze this anime frame by frame, joke by joke. Can you tell me, what does this piece of sh*t taste like to you?