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Dec 8, 2024
An above-average ROMCOM with AAA production effort. Standard trope characters, solid humor with *fantastic* facial & body-language animations. Great OP/EP animations as well. It's definitely worth a watch but don't expect anything extravagant. The story isn't all that unique... loner-kid finds a rag-tag group of dumped-chicks & the group becomes an after-school club harem. What makes anime enjoyable is the character interplay, the humor, and the AAA animation/art. Also the OST is quite peaceful & relaxing, gently easing you into that chill slice-of-life vibe each episode. The anime is at its peak when its playful & goofy & its valleys when it tries to get
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serious & leans too much into drama.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 3, 2024
This particular rendition of Bleach should be seen as a master-class of what an S-tier anime looks like. But let me be clear, that fact has nothing to do with the source material or the story (i.e Bleach). Obviously the source material being GOOD makes it an enjoyable watch. But the implementation of its presentation, art-style choice, animation quality, and filmography techniques take it from A-tier to S-tier. I can count on 1 hand the number of anime I'd rate as "S-tier" and just take a look at my list - 400+ complete titles, starting from early the 2000's (which I consider "the golden age").
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First, the tributes to nostalgia of early-2000s style anime making it truly feel "Bleach" are greatly welcomed. A beautifully animated OP with banger song, the short-cut previews with the OP still playing in lower volume afterwards, the sharp-edge art-style reinvigorated in glorious HD, the beautiful balancing of juxtaposition between comedy and seriousness. It's such a throw-back and it made the immersion feel like I was watching the OG Bleach. This was just great creative choices from the director(s)/producer(s) for the source material.
Second, the artistic filmography techniques are just so skillfully implemented. The camera management is fluid, robust, and epic. The quick-cut emotional sequences, the rotation/panning during action sequences, the intensity of the up-close shots for shock-factor. This is the best it gets in the industry. Period. No contest. Also the animation quality, you can easily tell the sweat put into this; clearly all hand-drawn with a high number of key frames. The action sequences are so fluid its easily to tell. Truly top-class.
That's all I really wanted to say. I'm glad to see such a quality anime release again; it took YEARS for it to happen, but it did. I was beginning to lose faith that any quality anime would be produced post-2015. The industry's quality has dropped as a whole due to content saturation, time-crunch culture, over-use of 3D, and just a lack of creativity from all the mass-production & enterprise-ownership of the industry (coughsonycough). This was breathe of fresh air.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 22, 2021
No Spoilers, simple and short review:
Story:
A refreshing mix of sci-fi and rom-com.
The story was well-developed and kept me intrigued the entire way through.
The story is very integrated with the characters themselves, so character development plays a big role which was a refreshing experience since newer, big-name anime series kind of forget about it or drop it all together.
Art:
The art is pretty simple but the creativity with each world was a fun experience.
Nothing spectacular. Character design was good, meshing with their stereotypical character arch-types. Honestly, most of the flashbacks probably had the best artistic direction.
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Sound:
The sound track fit the bill but wasn't a masterpiece.
Nothing really that memorable stood out.
I'd remember if it did.
I remember liking the OP/ED a lot since I didn't skip them most of the time.
Character:
The true stars of this series was the story and characters which is what carried it for me. The backstories of each character made them feel truly believable and gave the view a solid sense of empathy and compassion towards each of their backing plots and personality quirks.
Enjoyment:
Enjoyed it a lot. I don't write reviews for every anime. Only the ones I care enough to voice opinions about meaning the time spent on it gave me some good value.
Overall:
More than watchable. Watch it.
It's a good series. Not the best you'll ever see... but definitely worth the time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 30, 2017
First off, let me say, I'm not ripping on the second because it "didn't live up". The review is simply based on the overall, actual mechanics and execution which I felt was extremely poor; especially compared to the first season. I was a huge fan of the first season, mainly because the production was of such high quality. Regarding the second season, that quality simply isn't there. I will explain in detail in each subsection while keeping it spoiler free.
Story:
The first half of season 2 has no consistent sense of time; the narrative jumps all over the place leaving the viewer confused and agitated. Essentially,
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I felt like the beginning half was just a series of subplots stitched together haphazardly. I have never felt more agitated and irritated watching an anime. The root cause of this agitation was simply because the narrative refuses to give you any relief of anticipation. It just keeps building tension and more tension without giving the viewer any release or even any expectation of a release. After about the halfway point, the plot finally starts unfolding but honestly, not even in an interesting way. Literally, the least interesting way possible (you'll know what I mean). As a result, it felt like the action sequences had no sense of purpose anymore. Also, any sense of character unity that was prevalent in the first season starts crumbling apart. In short, the second season has some serious pacing problems coupled with uninteresting plot development. It's like the writers were trying to make the plot interesting by artificially injecting a sense of anticipation and the result is just a viewer who gets let down.
Art:
Given the spectacular art in the first season, I did NOT think the second season would pull some of the s*!t it did. Excessive use 3D models with terrible motion on top of it. Dark, muddled environments gave it a medieval look... but honestly, RuneScape did it better.
Parts of the anime are gorgeous while other parts look worse than a video game from the late 1990s. The colossal titan was modeled and animated fully in 3D at one point and it looked terrible; my jaw dropped. This is not even close to the same quality of art as in the first season. The 2D art maintained its look but I could see that they did their best to cut corners. Less landscapes, less close ups, less color contrast and just less complex 2D animation overall. Towards the end of the season, that began to change but for 3/4ths of the season it's pretty obvious.
Sound:
This is the one area that kept up well and probably actually outperformed the first season in my honest opinion. The beautiful piano etudes during emotional (and action) scenes, the clever use of shepard tones to build tension and anticipation during down time, the music kicking in right at the perfect moment of action; the type that gives you goose bumps. Attack on Titan 2's music and sound team pulled off a great feat and honestly, it's one of the only reasons it kept this anime in the "epic" category for me.
Character:
As I mentioned in the story part above, the one of the biggest downfalls in the plot is the lack of character unity and character purpose. Only a few supporting characters really get developed while the rest are forgotten about and get barely any screen time. The whole aspect of a character using their "cleverness" or "what makes them unique" is thrown away for a titan brawling s%^t-show. It's the same trap that many shonen series find themselves in as their plots progress. It goes from being "weak character(s) using clever, interesting solutions" to "ridiculous OP characters using raw power and all the useless, supporting characters watching in awe".
Enjoyment:
I enjoyed watching it. I wasn't particularly upset with the overall plot. I just wasn't expecting the series to turn out the way it did and it didn't have the same animation and story telling quality I was expecting from the first season.
Overall:
Fun to watch and glad to get more of the story. It has it's disappointments being plagued with pacing problems, bad art direction, and lackluster character development. It it makes up for it with the epic nature of the plot and with some seriously fantastic sound and music design/execution. As such, i'll give it an overall rating of 4 (Decent).
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Sep 2, 2016
Quick Review.
Story:
Decent story derived from Fate/ series. Collection of cards by magical girls.
Not deep by any means but works for the series and the fact that they keep it at 10 episodes actually helps. The pace was quick which worked for it.
Art:
Grade A++. Phenomenal artwork, animation work. Gorgeous lighting.
Small things such as the refracted lighting, glow of the outlines, beautiful backdrops; just really, really skilled execution in the art section. Principles of animation used often and successfully gives personality to the characters (squash stretch, pose-to-pose, etc). Effects are corful and fun.
The quality of art made this series fun to watch.
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Sound:
Good music. Loved the opening and EDs. Mood music set the mood right.
Love the piano work. It's subtle but fits in well with the slower sections of each episode.
Character:
Decent character development. Not fully developed as there are more seasons to come. But, good start. Typical magical girl anime character development. Drama ensues. Lots of crying. Lots of good feels too. Also some etchy but not too much.
Enjoyment:
Fun to watch. Fate/ references and cameos welcomed.
Animation and effects top notch.
Overall:
9. Fun to watch.
Don't expect a deep series. But expect to enjoy it since it is short and fun.
Also if you watched the Fate/ series, you'll enjoy the twist on each character.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 11, 2009
Overall, this is a very laid back, slice-of-life type anime. However, don't let that stop you from watching this because this is an amazing anime. It surprised me just exactly how deep this anime is, and it really made for a good watch. Characters and character development is probably the strongest point in this anime - you will see a change in their personalities overtime, and personally that's my favorite part. The cast is great. If you can compare this, it's similar to lucky-star but less humor and a tad-bit of drama. Great mix.
Story.
Not too much happens but its 13 episodes, and we get to
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see the life of a group of high school girls who slowly become inseparable. Its touching, it has humor, and its a great watch. Not much depth to the story but it is a deep (emotionally) anime. Too short for my liking tho...
Art.
Nice art, beautiful colors. Kinda has this orange-y feel to it. Fits the theme and main character perfectly. Drawn with this, distinct lines and good color contrast. Overall its above average :)
Sound.
Not that great but good enough to the point where it doesn't hurt nor make better the anime. Above average.
Character.
This receives a 10. I dont want to give anything away, watch the anime, you'll find out why this part receives a 10.
Enjoyment.
Awesome watch, a bit too short tho... can't complain though because there wasn't that much of a story. For example, I felt like lucky-star dragged on too long, but this felt too short. 9.
Overall.
Great anime, good watch. It's not perfect but it's definitely a good watch. Not a waste of time at all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 18, 2008
This anime is my all time favorite romance anime at this time and probably will still be my favorite for a long time. The overall package that Myself; Yourself has to offer is what makes this anime great. After watching the series through TWICE, I'm ready to evaluate it thoroughly.
Story.
*slight spoilers about the plot*
Myself; Yourself starts off with a boy named Sana who decides to return to his home town from when he a young child in middle school. The story is heartwarming and sweet yet as the series progresses it turns very serious. I like this story because unlike other romance/harem animes, there aren't
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tons of girls in love with the same guy who is indifferent about all of them. Instead, the story focuses mainly on friendship and family problems. I think this anime portrays what it feels like to have a real high school group of friends and at the same time it mixes it up well with family problems, trust issues, and more. The story is original and I think that makes it very unique. Also, there are a lot of little hints and foreshadowing. The way the story spins a web that eventually connects all the characters and their lives together is unparalleled.
Art.
I never have a lot to say about the art in reviews for anime but for some reason this anime has an amazing feel about it. The character designs are great. The scenery is beautiful, especially at dawn. The colors they use really bring out certain things you wouldn't really notice and after watching this anime in 720p all I gotta say is it pays to watch this anime in HD. Beautiful. However, I've seen prettier art in anime. I really enjoyed Clannad's art style for example. While this anime's animation isn't perfect, it is top tier and I'll give it a 9. (9.5 If I could).
Sound.
Ahh.. here we go. Easily the second best part of the anime. The opening and ending themes are pretty catchy Japanese pop songs. I even have them on my iPod I liked them so much. But the opening/ending themes really aren't the true magic here. The music made the sad scenes much more intense. At the same time the music made a cheerful, happy scene with all the friends together just that much more enjoyable. It cut out at the right times, and came back in noticeably. The second time watching through, I payed heavy attention to the music/sound effects and it deserves a 10 if not more.
Characters.
All the characters have a certain charismatic nature to them. I was surprised how much I actually enjoyed every single character's personality and voice acting for that matter (Aoi-chan can get annoying though!). The characters are also very believable which I think is very important to a slice of life anime. I already mentioned they were well drawn too. Since characters are intertwined emotionally and got separated while young then reunited later in life, character development plays a HUGE role in making the anime great. Definitely a 10.
Enjoyment.
10. You'll enjoy it if you like romance anime's with drama. All that needs to be said.
Overall.
10. This anime did everything it needed to do right. A few things could have been changed for the better but either way it's a great watch and still my second favorite anime after seeing over 100+ series
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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