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Jan 28, 2025
Welcome to yet another fantasy regression manhwa starring some misbehaved noblewoman who gets betrayed or whatever, pays the price, and uses their second chance as a do-over. From the outset, this one is definitely a little different from the norm: Calmia, our protagonist, decides she's not satisfied with just being the daughter of the house, and chooses to chase the exact same thing she sought before she regressed. Whoop-de-doo. Revolutionary. From then, you get some genuinely really compelling, interesting, and unsettling stuff in the first season, as Calmia and her surroundings in childhood are explored. This all culminates in a dramatic, shocking, and really interesting
...
season finale.
The first season really is excellent. It knows what subtlety is, and it's not afraid to ask its readers to engage their brains. Great stuff.
But in season 2, why is there SO MUCH sex????? I'm not reading all these goddamn webtoons just to watch people fuck every five chapters and not do anything else. If I wanted something *this* trashy, I'd be reading action manhwas (which I actually do sometimes!); that's not what I wanted going into this.
Now, sex scenes aren't inherently bad. I think depicting two people sharing themselves with the other person in (arguably) their most vulnerable position can be a great storytelling device for a romance like this. Even if sex is casual to some characters, I think it can still be a very important moment in a story. And if characters enjoy having sex, that's okay! Puritanism is a thing of the past, after all (at least in theory).
But I don't really think this author understands romance. I understand that the protagonist and ML's relationship is somewhat casual (largely due to the disconnect between Calmia and Rudbeckia) but characters that already are in a healthy, loving relationship probably wouldn't be acting like this. Even after Calmia and Rudbeckia "actually" become a thing, they still act like this. Where's the character interactions? Where did the chemistry go? Was the author replaced by Cathy from high school? This is a very juvenile way of writing romantic relationships, where everyone's horny all the time and ready to go at the drop of a dime. It's like a teenager wrote this! I mean, I do honestly get it. I've been there before. But I grew up, and compared to the first season, where actions had meaning, this is just mind-numbingly trashy and stupid that at some point I couldn't even take it seriously anymore.
Relationships are all about communication. Sex inherently isn't communication. Rather, sex is the result of communication. Sex happens through communication. You don't ever see these characters properly communicate with each other; all they do is flirt and then fuck like 3 panels later. Their interactions amount to either that or being passive-aggressive assholes about each other. And then Calmia boasts about how she loves having sex and has a lot of premarital sex to her critics who try to come after her for various things (ok you know what I fully support her on this one). Point is, the story loves to conflate eroticism with romance instead of letting them supplement each other. It's different from, say, Moby-Dick, where Ishmael gets real freaky but also expresses genuine affection for others, namely Queequeg (so long as he isn't talking about largely incorrect whale facts). And Moby-Dick isn't even a romance—it's a book about a guy trying to kill a whale and failing miserably. Like, come on.
And as an aside, if you're gonna include THIS much sex, at least let me see Rudbeckia's thighs or something.
Season 2's story also ends up feeling a lot more rushed and shallow. If you read it you'll see what I mean, but the climax really ends so abruptly and has no real payoff. The story uses the first season to build up to some really high highs and immediately catapults itself into the Grand Canyon (though with a parachute to slow its fall).
Overall, did I enjoy it? I mean, yeah, I guess I did. The first season was really, truly very good stuff. But season 2 is just a clusterfuck, literally, to the point where it kinda becomes the other kind of "good" story; one where you're having fun, but you aren't really sure if it's actually that good.
Also, this got paywalled by Webtoon about a week after I finished reading it, so keep that in mind if you REALLY want to check this out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 26, 2021
So, it's 02:51 on September 26, 2021. You just finished playing Halo 2 for the night and decided to go and relax. You go to hulu.com. You see that the final episode of How A Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom has finally aired. You are filled with a wave of disappointment, but click on the episode anyway. You are me.
Why did I watch this? Because of a stupid, pointless quest that was really just an excuse for me to watch Shield Hero (which was also quite not good) that I'm just continuing for the sake of continuing.
STORY: 5.0/10
It's generic isekai, with all the bad writing
...
that's commonplace in this godforsaken genre present too. Not really much to say here, but it was actually pretty interesting in the first couple episodes. Eventually, it turned into a crappy harem power of friendship OP Kirito protagonist thing and that was where this anime really tanked. It even had bad warfare, to boot. Just read Kingdom instead if you want that kind of stuff, it's so much better than this. All in all, this was bad.
ART: 5.5/10
It's JC Staff, what did you expect? Sure, they made Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T, which looked really good by JC Staff standards. But they also made Food Wars whose later seasons look like a goddamn PowerPoint I would've made in 4th grade. This isn't much better than the latter. Does it tell you what's going on? Better than Berserk action scenes half the time, honestly. Does it make your eyes scream in pain? Sometimes. Does it get the job done? Sadly, yeah. But that's it. It has visuals, and nothing more, and half the time they look like trash, too.
SOUND: 6/10
Literally all of this is generic, but I liked the ED. There really isn't anything else to say about this topic.
CHARACTER: 4.4/10
Easily the worst part. You've got OP Kirito man (except he paid attention in macroeconomics). You've got generic love interest marketable waifu. You've got generic tomboy warrior waifu who also happens to be a love interest. You've got big tits love interest (she also wears sandals a lot for those of you who are into that sort of thing). You've got besto frendo (tall woman with a big ass). You've got fox girl. You've got loli (wolf girl or something too i think, rejoice lolicons). You've got asocial introverted glutton who is morbidly obese. You've got edgy guy who's really really smart and totally doesn't just have insane plot armour and some common sense and also he has no screentime because OP Kirito man. All of these characters are so goddamn generic that it hurts my soul AND my right wrist. They start out fine, but they only get worse, and worse, and worse, and eventually I start getting pissed off that they're even capable of speaking.
ENJOYMENT: 5.5/10
There were some funny parts (the parts that were just so stupid and ridiculous that I couldn't help but laugh). The beginning was a lot more interesting than most isekai. And that's about all the enjoyment I could get from this thing.
OVERALL: 5.0/10
Just don't waste your time with this. It's a generic trash isekai, not even an average/decent isekai. It's no Arifureta or Tanya the Evil either, because while both of those are trash, at least they're funny. It's also definitely not Re:Zero, which is actually good. It's more like Wise Man's Grandchild, a show that doesn't take risks, doesn't do anything exceptional, doesn't do anything horrible, and just sits in the limbo of "safe cash cow" that every Hollywood movie seems to find a nice little cave in these days. Just play Halo 2 instead. At least that's actually fun.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 25, 2021
I always have one question to ask myself after I watch things like this. And that question is: "Why do I do this to myself?" I cannot fathom why I ever bother to push through these kinds of anime. I've seen a few isekai, but nothing I've seen has been as soulless, as devoid of any passion or creative drive, as much of a cash grab as Wise Man's Grandchild. Every time I say this show's name all my energy gets sapped.
STORY: 1.8/10
The story is dreadful. Not only is it generic, it also has horrible writing. The main villain is really stupid, and his backstory
...
is just an illogical sob story. All the situations the main villain forces the protagonist into are really dumb. There is no logic behind any of the events that happen here. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about this garbage. It's clearly just there because a story needs to have a story, go figure.
ART: 5/10
The art makes me shudder. I hate it so much that I can't stand it. It's not horrible art on its own but everything else about this anime makes me hate it that much more. The art looks and feels super generic, like everything else about this garbage. The resemblance My Next Life as a Villainess had to this anime made me like it less too, even though these two are completely unrelated. Keep in mind that this isn't the art's fault and rather the fault of everything else.
SOUND: 5/10
I cannot remember any piece of music from Wise Man's Grandchild so I'll just give this a 5 and move on.
CHARACTER: 1/10
These characters have got to be the most generic characters I've seen so far. Nobody has a personality, and a lot of them are really stupid. The protagonist is overpowered but he has no personality whatsoever. He's just really good at magic. He was just a random office worker in his previous life but then he died and reincarnated into this world for no reason, either. And they rarely ever bring this up. The reincarnation thing is only there so the protagonist can remember the events of his old life so that he can be overpowered (quick explanation: spells can only be cast by visualizing them, and spells will get stronger with better visualization. the way the protagonist visualizes things is unlike others because modern science does not exist in the world even though tuxedos do. the protagonist visualizes things being created instead of visualizing the thing after it's completely done. this allows him to be much more powerful than others when it comes to a magicka battle). Every other character has nothing going for them. The main love interest is clearly just supposed to be a marketable waifu, and it is extremely annoying. She's shy, kind, and gets flustered when interacting with the protagonist. The main villain is completely idiotic and over-the-top evil for no good reason. His backstory is just a sob story that you can't feel bad for, and all of his lackeys are just really evil, really loyal, and really stupid. There is nothing that guides his actions anymore. He's just killing and fighting for the sake of that, and nothing more.
ENJOYMENT: 1/10
I'm sure I don't need to say much here, because I've already talked quite a bit about why I do not like Wise Man's Grandchild. It's soulless and devoid of any and all passion and creative spirit. It's just a cash grab and nothing else. Please do not watch this.
OVERALL: 2/10
I'll admit, I was kinda amused for the first part of the first episode. This show just leaves a sour taste in my eyes though, and I really don't want to think of it again.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jul 25, 2021
Whenever I think of Boruto, I let out a huge sigh. This isn't just a disappointing anime, it's horrible. There isn't a single thing I could enjoy about this anime, and I'm pretty good at finding a couple things to like in anime I'm not fond of. This is just too much, though.
STORY: 2/10
This is a half-assed attempt at a story that really only feels like it was made to make money. There is absolutely no effort to be found in anything it provided from what I've seen. Every single scenario is done-to-death and has no personality. A lot of the time the scenarios presented
...
don't matter to the viewer in the slightest. This unoriginality and meaninglessness are bad enough on their own, but when combined the detrimental effect multiplies to make something really not worth wasting your time on.
ART: 8/10
Literally the only thing this anime succeeds at outside of making money. I think both the art and animation are pretty good, and it's nice to see that most of those familiar faces haven't changed much. Gets the job done, and does it pretty well too.
SOUND: 6/10
There is nothing in the OST that I actually care about. It's there, it does its job, but that's it. The OST doesn't have a lasting impression on me at all.
CHARACTER: 1/10
Easily the worst part of this anime. I started watching this back when it first started airing, and stuck with it for 122 goddamn episodes. It was a waste. These characters were a waste. None of them deliver anything worth hearing. None of them are compelling. Most are just bland and don't really need to exist. They're all one-dimensional and none of them really seem to get much in the way of development. Every time someone says something, I cringe and feel like shriveling up and dying. The dialogue is absolutely horrible.
ENJOYMENT: 2/10
I enjoyed it purely because the animation was pretty good. The rest, however? No. Absolutely not. I should not have put up with this for 122 episodes. I hate the story, I hate every character, I hate the minor inconsistencies that seem to be littered throughout the whole anime, and I hate how much of a waste of time this really is.
OVERALL: 3/10
Please do not watch this. It is a waste of your time. You will never be able to get this time back, so please do something better with your time. Even watching Bleach is a better use of your time. Even fighting Darkeater Midir from Dark Souls 3 is a better use of your time. Stay away from this anime. You won't gain anything from it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jul 25, 2021
when I watched the first two seasons of Toaru Majutsu No Index I thought that they were decent or pretty good, but I thought that they were wasting potential in quite a few areas. there are quite a few things that aren't explained in the anime or are just left out, so some events don't really make much sense. this third season, however, takes all of the issues of the previous seasons to the next level. there is absolutely no cohesion anywhere. nothing makes sense. things seem to happen at random. it was definitely enjoyable to watch but it only really left me with questions,
...
not answers.
STORY: 4/10
the story for the adaptation is not good. in fact it's actually very bad. they screwed so much up here. the plot is just Touma running around from one European country to another and punching people in the face without any explanation whatsoever. the ending is just a guy who gains infinite power due to his master plan and it crashes and burns along with the rest of this season. I don't doubt that the light novel is much better, even though I'm only really at the very beginning of that at the time this review was written.
ART: 5/10
it's JC Staff as usual. I finished Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T right before finishing the rest of this season and it was insanely underwhelming, but I didn't have any other expectations for it. a lot of the anime is just still frames with shaky cam or camera panning. sometimes they have the revolutionary idea of using both. when there is movement it usually looks choppy and weird. some things look like they were made using blender's video editor. overall this is bad, but it's not abysmal or anything. you can still look at it and it gets the job done. it just doesn't do it well, especially after watching a ufotable movie trilogy and something made by the same studio that looks much better.
SOUND: 6/10
the soundtrack wasn't actually that bad. I wasn't the biggest fan of the openings or the first ending but the soundtrack itself isn't that bad, although it is a little generic. it gets the job done and that's all that matters.
CHARACTER: 7/10
the characters are worse than in the previous seasons or in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun but they're still the best part of this season, especially Accelerator. not only is his laugh funny, he also gets quite a bit of development this season. there are other characters in this season that are fun to watch, like Tsuchimikado for example. most of the characters are average though, and they don't bring much to the table.
ENJOYMENT: 9/10
this was very very fun to watch. from Accelerator getting pissed and screaming to Accelerator going insane and laughing, there's a lot to enjoy here. I liked how stupid and random a lot of things seemed to be, even though it negatively impacted the season as a whole. Tsuchimikado doesn't seem to get old and Touma pulling random stuff out of nowhere never fails to amuse me.
OVERALL: 5/10
I can't give this anime anything higher than this in good conscience, despite how good episodes 19 and 20 were. there's so much that this season gets wrong, and it feels like JC Staff just gave up on this series for the most part. episodes 19 and 20 were actually very good, but those are only two episodes out of 26. there could've been so many simple fixes like showing more of what happened in the light novel, or just including a narrator. these are simple things that are in other anime, and while I understand that it can be hard to include a narrator for a light novel adaptation, that doesn't mean it's impossible. this adaptation really just felt like it had no heart put into it, and they just made it for the sake of making it. it was completely different from the first two seasons and Toaru Kagaku no Railgun.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 7, 2021
story - 4
art - 7
sound - 7
character - 2
enjoyment - 4
overall - 6
I detest the protagonist. I don't like or hate Nagatoro, but the protagonist, whose name I cannot even remember, takes the cake for being an annoyance. He has no personality but the trait of being exceptionally meek, can't hold a normal conversation or eye contact and is just overall painful to watch. The side characters are less than one-dimensional, so they aren't much help either. Don't watch this even if you're a masochist. I haven't had such a boring or annoying time watching anime in ages, and I recently watched Redo of Healer.
final
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thoughts: pain
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 6, 2021
I don't know where to begin, and I definitely don't know where to end with this. In 2017, the world was still not ready for this masterpiece, and even today, it still isn't. It's absolutely glorious if you witness this on your favourite pirating site (or Amazon Prime Video if you're into that). It's so bad that it ends up becoming one of the most enjoyable experiences I've watched in a while. It's not even Ex-Arm or Skelter Heaven levels of bad, but it's still just as enjoyable as either of those two war crimes.
STORY: 4/10
I honestly thought that this would be a drama about
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an old man trying to live with his estranged family and a teenager finding his place in the world, and how the two help each other out, but I was wrong. Very wrong. So insanely off the mark that I ended up opening my back up and shooting a whole skyscraper down with lasers. This anime is basically just about a flying grandpa trying to kill a guy with finger pistols, and it's one of the dumbest things ever. This story did make me ask myself some questions, though. During the story I was asking myself things like "who IS my favourite One Piece character?" and "damn, that girl and I really both like Zoro?" and "they really just made up like that?" Some of these questions may not have answers. And I think that's okay. Because profound questions like these cannot simply have one answer. Every single viewer must draw their own conclusions.
ART: 7.8/10
I don't really have much to say about the art other than that I wasn't the biggest fan of it usually. The CGI was great, and it was also so funny that I loved it. And the 2D art also looked funny to me sometimes too. MAPPA was the studio behind this, so the animation was very good, but it wasn't really anything to write home about. I've seen a couple other things MAPPA has made, namely Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack On Titan season 4 part 1, and Banana Fish, and they all had much better animation. I get that this could just be because technology improves as time passes, but even Hellsing Ultimate, the one anime that this reminded me of the most, looks so much better. Hellsing Ultimate even had better CGI, which was very strange to think about.
SOUND: 7/10
I love the OP for this anime. Part of it might be because it made me crack up, but it was actually a good OP. The ED isn't as good but it's actually still pretty good to listen to. Now, to get to the real topic: the voice acting. Inuyashiki's voice acting is very, very strange. Inuyashiki himself sounds so off, and Hiro's voice just sounds apathetic. The way he says "Bang" makes it all worthwhile, though. Hearing both of them just saying "Bang" and "Dadadadadadadada" while firing finger pistols or pretending to hold machine guns is just gold, and I'm so glad that it's like this. Outside of Inuyashiki and Hiro, the voice acting isn't really anything special. It's just okay, and it gets the job done fine.
CHARACTER: 4.4/10
Please read what I'm about to say here before doing anything. Inuyashiki and Hiro are amazing. They're just so hilarious that it's hard to look away from them, and I think they deserve all the love and praise in the world, and this show having Donald Trump in it just makes it even better. However, all the side characters are bad. Really bad. There's nothing about them that's actually engaging in the slightest, and they're all one-dimensional. There's no real reason for them to even act the way they do, save for Hiro's childhood friend who was so unmemorable that I forgot his name. I legitimately cannot remember the names of any characters in this anime outside of Donald Trump, Inuyashiki (which is only his last name by the way), and Hiro (which is only his first name by the way). The rest of these characters were all just generic, stupid, illogical, and unmemorable. They were still funny at times but most of them were just bad.
ENJOYMENT: 9.8/10
I enjoyed watching this so much. It was one of the funniest things ever and the animation wasn't bad at all. I think that the side characters should've been worse, but aside from that, this anime just completely destroys the enjoyment category. It's a must-watch for someone who just wants to have a little bit of fun.
OVERALL: 4/10
You'll definitely have fun while watching this, and the production value is too high for me to not give it at least this score. Don't watch it expecting anything profound or deep, because you'll just get this train-wreck of a story with these atrocious characters as icing on the cake. It's a must-watch, I'd say, and there isn't really anything to lose, either. It's also only 11 episodes, which is pretty short. I'd highly recommend this to someone who just wants a quick dose of fun, because this anime is just perfect for that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jun 18, 2021
Fruits Basket season 1 is a great example of a shoujo anime. I've never really gotten into shoujo anime outside of Ouran High School Host Club before watching this, but this anime really was good. It had great characters, a good story, decent art and music, and was fairly funny too.
STORY: 8/10
The story of Fruits Basket is in the description on its MAL page. Although the story moves slowly, the more you watch it, the more you'll get dragged into it. This anime will keep you glued to the screen for a while. That being said, it's REALLY slow. It doesn't really go very far
...
by the end of season 1.
ART: 7/10
The art is decent. I was a little unsettled by how everything looked at first but it wasn't actually that bad. It didn't have exceptional animation and the art didn't look amazing either, but it wasn't bad to look at at all.
SOUND: 7/10
For the most part, the music of this anime really just intrigued me. I don't typically listen to music like what Fruits Basket had in store, so I ended up listening to it a lot. Lucky Ending, which is Fruits Basket's first ending theme, was nice to listen to and is still my favourite song in the anime. Aside from that, the rest was just interesting to me.
CHARACTER: 9/10
The characters in Fruits Basket season 1 are very good. They're all complex and have a lot of depth to them, and a lot of them are fun too. As you watch through the first season, the characters get more and more fleshed out, while more information gets added to your brain. It doesn't feel overwhelming, though. Although I wasn't really a fan of Tohru at first, all the characters were endearing to me.
ENJOYMENT: 8/10
I used to only watch shounen anime and read shounen manga. Eventually I started watching and reading seinen anime and manga too, as well as watching light novel adaptations. Most things I've seen don't come close to a shoujo anime, though. This was essentially my first time really watching a shoujo anime, so I was really just intrigued and confused at first. I didn't really know what to think of it until around two-thirds of the way through. I also typically don't watch slice of life or romance anime either, so this was one of my first of those as well. That being said, I did like watching this. The characters were all interesting and fun, the story was interesting, the music was decent, and the anime did look pretty decent, too. Overall, a great first impression of stuff like this.
OVERALL: 8/10
It seemed like it was just building up to something greater. It seemed like it was just setting up for the hits that season 2 would throw at you. Even if it was a bit slow, or it didn't look or sound exceptional, or the story wasn't a complete masterpiece, it was good. And it was enjoyable. I would recommend this first season.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 18, 2021
Fruits Basket season 2 was great. It had a lot going for it and it also had high expectations placed on it because of how good the first season was. It does manage to meet most of these expectations, and it does pretty well with handling some serious topics.
STORY: 8/10
Fruits Basket's story is pretty obvious if you're already on the second season, and I won't summarize it here because there is a description on this website. This second season focuses on a lot of characters, some new and some old. The characters begin to change, grow, and become better as a result. Other characters start
...
to get shown more and explored. All these characters are shown off and their connections and relationships are starting to make more sense. Even then, though, the story does seem like it's going to random places at times. While the characters do get fleshed out more, it's at the cost of the story not really knowing what the hell it's doing.
ART: 7/10
The art is decent. It's not really anything special though, and the animation isn't like Jujutsu Kaisen or SAO Alicization War of Underworld season 2 either, to name a couple 2020 anime that looked great.
SOUND: 6/10
I don't really like season 2's OPs and EDs, but that's just personal preference. I prefer season 1's, but I don't really like those either save for Lucky Ending. Others may like it more but it's just not for me.
CHARACTER: 3/10
Fruits Basket's characters are great. They're very complex and they have so much depth to them. They might not all be good people, but most of them are great characters. A lot of these characters get some form of development, even if it isn't major. They're really endearing and you can't help but like most of them.
ENJOYMENT: 3/10
I had a lot of fun watching this show. Watching Yuki and Kyou finally expressing themselves more was great. Akito was shown off a lot more and we get to understand why Yuki's so afraid of her. New characters, such as Rin, get introduced. It was interesting to watch all these characters interact with each other and grow.
OVERALL: 6/10
pedophilia bad
if you're a grown man, high schoolers are off limits
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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