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I've known about Ao no Orchestra for about as long as I have been actively engaged in seasonal anime. I am a musician who has participated in band and orchestra. Hibike Euphonium is my favorite anime of all time. I watch almost anything music related that airs. Needless to say, I have been anticipating and looking forward to this adaptation for a while now. I will go into some minor music details that I appreciate, so stay tuned if you like that stuff.

The story poses a common backstory which some pretty cookie cutter characters, but don't get the wrong idea, that doesn't necessarily need to ... hinder its performance. In fact, the kind of backstories presented here remind me of the people I was surrounded with in my time in band and orchestra. It feels very homey which gives it a good personal connection. I will have to give it some more time for more characters to develop as there looks to be a decent sized cast, but that's only speculation. They will need to do that well in order to compete with some of the other highly praised music anime shows.

The music so far has been about what I expected, but what I like is how real it is, and there's 2 reasons for that. First, you can tell, at least in the individual playing moments, that these are real and not just some MIDI recordings. You can hear the human touch in the sound. I have yet to listen and understand if they did the same for full orchestra settings, so that will have to wait. They also don't overdo the music visuals in other shows such as Piano no Mori and Nodame Cantabile. It was one of the biggest things that goes against music listening etiquette. This allows you to fully listen to the music without the visual distractions unless you get distracted by CGI.

As the trend continues, the orchestra plays in CGI, and with an ensemble of that size and the complexities of individual performance, I understand why. When they showed a full orchestra, I am led to believe that they were accurate in tracing musician playing. Accurate fingering, mallets, slide positions, and bowings added to the experience. Once again, can't confirm that the audio comes from that same tracking, but it does lead to a good case for it. I hope to hear some more great orchestral pieces from this show.

CGI aside, the rest of the visuals are okay. They're certainly no KyoAni, but they're fine. There's enough going on there to not deter my attention elsewhere.

Looking forward to how the story and characters develop along with maybe some cool little small details that trigger my musician history and hopefully add to my experience. Will hopefully do a full review at the end of the 2nd cour!

I'll keep this one short and sweet.

If you've liked Dr. Stone previously, this is not one you are going to want to miss out on. It provides an important link between seasons while maintaining the same Dr. Stone feel we have come to love.

I could go through all the individual scores, but read literally any other Dr. Stone review and it will be the same.

I think it's easy to be critical on the fact that it felt like it may have cut some corners at some points, but this is completely original and canon all while keeping an important story arc moving while achieving the ... story it set out to tell. Incredible job from the production team.

If this special doesn't hype you up for the next season, why are you still watching?

Okay, I have had enough of this crap. I am tired of sitting on this gosh darn masterpiece of an anime.

Those of us watching are currently wrapped up in this absolute gemstone of an anime in a season where it is so easy to be covered up. I am here to unravel this wonderful anime about cute girls scooting.

Before we get into the categories, let me address my first thoughts that made me wary. With all I'm about to say, you may ask "well, who is this being done by?" Well well well, funny you should ask. It's none other than.... *checks notes* Studio ... Kai? Who? Oh, the one's who made such legendary classics such as... uhh... Okay. So the best thing they got going for them before this anime is Uma Musume S2. This may be a big throw-off for people, but I can assure you that their work on S2 made incredible gains after S1. I was blown away. I genuinely enjoyed Uma Musume S2, but this isn't about that. This is a relatively new studio that is really starting to push out some great works. This is not the time to be sleeping on them. Keep your eye out. Alright, now on to the categories...

Alright, let's start off with the story. Wow. Like... WOW!!! Without getting into too much detail about our characters (you will have to wait a minute for that), this story is currently handing pacing at a great level. It brings us interesting characters that have much to either learn or share that balances out very well for the first 4 episodes of an anime. It doesn't feel rushed, but it doesn't feel dragged for said processes along the way. There is absolutely no need to feel rushed about this anime despite what it may seem at first glance. We are along for a great story at whatever pace the directors feel and it feels great to enjoy that gentle breeze of SoL.

Let's talk about that art. It's calm, cool, and collected. There's not incredibly much going on here with the art, but that's what makes this art pop. When I think of your typical CGDCT anime, I think bright and cheery with popping colors and illustrations. You will not find too much of that here. And you know what? That's alright! It doesn't need bright and flashy characters, scenery, and pops that cover up for what the anime has to offer, instead it is raw dogging the watcher for pure anime-watching experience. We see simple, yet effective, art. It really makes it worth it when they add just a bit of color at just the right moments to bring this anime around to looking as it should through the lens of both a watcher and a character. Wonderful.

Man, where do I get started on sound. How about the fantastic OST? If you are a connoisseur of piano music like I am, you are going to appreciate the literature provided in this show. There are a couple classics and some that have an appeal on their own to really add to the show. I don't think it will ever match the repertoire we see in Nodame Cantabile or Piano no Mori, but that's to be expected. What's important is how I am reminded of those shows yet keeping the atmosphere created by said music true to what the show is trying to convey. I can't wait to hear more.

Our characters. What we have gotten so far is fantastic. Our MC for various reasons has found no major enjoyments in life. Going through the motions at the pace set by the rest of the world. She doesn't seem to mind as there's nothing to really make her question it. Going the same route to school everyday, having the same lunch, going home club. Rinse, repeat, victory. Victory until our heroine finally decides to break her normally emotionless state and, get this, decides riding up hills is too much of a chore. I'm thinking "man, now that's some relatable content". She stops by a shop and long story short, gets a cub to make that one part of her life no longer an inconvenience. This will bring out many people around her that she had no idea were there that will change her outlook on life. We have now I guess I would say 3 set-in-stone characters and maybe a couple others that I hope get some more time that have been introduced at a nice and steady pace,The dynamics felt between these characters who never seem to meet is strong and they are all connected by our MC and how she develops through her journey of getting a cub. I want to say more and have left out some really good details so I really encourage you to get on this.

Enjoyment. I don't need to say much here. I am literally containing my excitement for this show and oh-so desperately wanting everyone to watch this. I want to talk about this anime with people and there just aren't that many people out there. I come rushing home to this anime every week now because I know I am genuinely in for a great show. I don't have many words for this, but I am almost certainly considering this in my top 3 anime of the season at this point.

I want to start this one off with a little note. This anime is a little outside of my comfort zone. I generally dabble in slice of life and music anime. With that being said, I don't have much context on what is typical of more anime in this genre so my knowledge and accuracy may be a bit lower, but I still felt compelled to write about this show. I only picked this up because I wanted to watch it while reaching 91 days of anime watched on MAL. Good reason, yeah? What I did not expect was how I really came around to ... this show. Now, with that in mind, let's continue back on track...

We will start off with what I thought of the art and sound. Luckily with a music background, I can still find some closure in my thoughts of this. This show is based in the prohibition era in America and has to do with the mafia around the Chicago area. With those in consideration, I think the show did a good job occasionally throwing in some nice musical ideas commonly associated with such things. Nothing really stood out to me except maybe some climax scenes, but nothing out of the ordinary. Art seemed a little dry at times but wasn't bad either. Both things got decent scores.

91 Days did excel in many other categories, though. I thought the story was really intriguing and had my attention a couple episodes in. I didn't really get bored of what I was watching and I think it had good progression. There were a couple minor parts that seemed a bit off to me, but ultimately a lot of things came around giving good contribution to the story.

The characters blended incredibly nicely in this show. You got a little bit from everyone and that's about all I can ask for when it comes together. Sure, I have seen other shows do it better and in much bigger numbers, but for a show with 12 episodes, I thought the character balance felt right. The backstories of different characters and finding out more details (especially about the initial murder in the beginning of episode 1) drove home the idea of the characters' humanity. There was emphasis on family and I think that really helped drive the characters home for me and I think they did a good job developing that theme, especially with the climax in episode 10.

Finally, the enjoyment. I really enjoyed everything that was wrapped into the show. The character and story interaction is what really got me to rate this show up at an 8. I was not expecting to enjoy the show as much as I did due to it being really outside of my comfort zone, but it brought in enough ideas that I liked and connected to that I just couldn't help but to enjoy my time watching it. Thanks for a good watch!

I saw nothing was written on this yet and it was fairly cute so meh, why not.

The show is a minute long so not much of a commitment but at the same time it means it won't provide all that much for our entertainment. With that, what I judge the story off of is how it draws out the life of the woman and her pets. It is super relatable to anyone who has dogs or cats. In the first four episodes, it just goes through things I assume the writer's animals do in her life. It's good for a few good laughs during the ... minute episode and makes me think about my pets at home, which is never a bad thing. Nice and comfy feeling. Art is pretty cute, but nothing unusual or out there. Not much sound to go on or judge here. Characters are pretty normal.

Not much of a review, but I at least wanted to make something for people to see for a show that has given me just enough smiles to make me want to share my happiness with others. Hope you enjoy it :)

Never in my life would I have thought I would have to drop an anime. Ever.

Here we are, the 25th day of April in 2020. A year surrounded by chaos as Covid-19 runs rampant and we are all locked inside. Well fortunately, that doesn't change me much as I will continue to watch anime. The biggest change is me dropping an anime. I have watched and finished far worse anime in my life. I will tell you why I made this decision.

So let me focus on some good things before I dig into it. I like the characters. While not amazing, they seem to have ... a lot of fun and great personality to go along with it. Lots of energy was put into the characters and I can appreciate that. I think the art style is fun and enjoyable in the animation. We will get to my score later. There were some really wholesome parts with Kaede and dino in the first 4 episodes that I watched which I really enjoyed. The OP is pretty catchy too.

Okay, so it had some things going for it, but it definitely had things not going for it (and a lot at that). That is my first complaint. There is literally so much going on. The animation part can be divided into two separate things: the main animation and the "between scenes" animation. There is some main story which is actually pretty fun and nice. I enjoy that part. There are some silly intermissions, that while I don't particularly love, I can at least watch them with respect. Then the other part of the show is live action. It was a struggled after episode 1 whether I wanted to deem this worthy of an anime title, but I decided to let it slide. The live action parts don't really go well together and it just makes me feel like I am legitimately wasting time. The one in Episode 3 I guess was better than the rest by a bit, but still. It didn't feel right. I definitely would have had this show be a short instead of adding in what they did. It was like when Cartoon Network started adding in live action stuff. It just didn't feel right. Overall, there was just such a variety of substance packed into these 20 minute episodes and it just was a mess.

I feel the need to mention my art score. I liked the actual animation quite a bit. I would have given it an 8. It felt fun. I am balancing that with the live action part of 0/10 which gives it a 4. That's all. Not that deep.

The sounds were really fucking weird. I swear, air horns and lightsabers as sound effects probably aren't the best choice. There were a lot of other sounds in there but those were the most notable. Like I said tho, at least the OP bopped.

I got most of my complaining out of my system now. I really think dropping this anime may not be for everyone, but I think it is important to talk about and fairly assess the show as is as an anime on an anime site. I just cannot continue to watch and support this abomination of clutter and mess. From what I understand, this is nothing like the manga so far so there is that whole factor too.

If I had to sum up this show into a small sentence, it would be "A show with disappointing potential".

My scores on this show are all over the place, anywhere from a 3 to a 9 in different categories. It was incredibly frustrating watching this show throughout the season because I wanted so incredibly bad to enjoy it. It showed amazing things that I think did better than a lot of anime out there, but it just slacked so hard on other things that it was just heartbreaking or even cringey to watch at points.

Before I get into where I evaluate the scores, I want ... to note something. It is just an observation, but a lot of the voice actors for this show are pretty new to the scene. The manga itself wasn't very popular (at least over here). From what I can deduct, this show just didn't have much to lose. I mean, you couldn't just throw a popular manga like currently airing Kaguya-sama in the water like this. People would have been furious. I think this show was used as a stepping stone to help people get experience. This is, of course, giving the benefit of the doubt to the crew that worked on it. This is something I haven't really encountered before, but I will still judge it the same way I would for any other show. I genuinely hope this is the case because then it would fall under an honest attempt and it is good experience for people who are trying to get into the scene. Once again, shoutouts to the voice actors who got roles in this show and are getting experience. Onto my evaluation.

Story: 9/10 - Starting off on a good note, I thought the concept of the story was amazing. There were a lot of moments of testing friendship and overcoming some of the real struggles of life and the main characters worked through them. The dynamics and synergy that existed between them was written well. Definitely the most well-done part of the show in my mind. It made me want to love the show. Unfortunately, that isn't the case.

Art: 3/10 - The art was bad. Like, just real bad. It just looked rough and unpolished. The character designs felt rigged and not really the best to look at. The attention to detail was so minimal that I feel like I would have just scrapped the show if it were to go through my hands in the concept stages. When you have essentially a CGDCT show and it is visually unappealing, it really takes away what you are going for.

Sound: 9/10 - The sound was the other really good thing that came out of this show. With people that write music for BanG Dream (more on that in a minute), you can expect good music. The OST matched the setting well and helped with the story in a positive way. There is a certain song that has a correlation to another (won't spoil it) that is pretty important and it was the use of the two different styles of the song that helped make it effective as a watcher and listener. Music played an important role in this show and I am glad they got people with good musical experience in on it. Back to BanG Dream, the group Pastel Palettes did the OP and I thought that was incredibly cool and I am glad Bushiroad does that with their shows. Just look at some of the other shows they've helped with for more examples like Vanguard. The ED is incredibly fun and is just sung by the girls. Definitely one I wanted to hear more of!

Character: 7/10 - The characters were pretty fun if you don't pay attention to the art as I pointed that out earlier. Not as trope-y as I thought they were going to be but there were definitely moments that they were lacking. I think this isn't one of the categories where I was disappoint because I feel like it probably stayed pretty true to the source. Not disappointed, just felt average.

Enjoyment: 3/10 - Unfortunately the enjoyment of this show was where most potential was for me (art has to be fixed completely differently). There were decisions that had to be made for this show and I felt at every possible turn where a decision had to be made, they took the wrong one. I definitely don't think I could name them all but here are some... liquids in cups underwater, sandwiches underwater, baths underwater, electricity underwater, watering plants underwater, lack of buoyancy underwater, etc. Do you see the main problem? The whole being underwater idea is fine, but how they handled and tackled certain logical problems when creating this show just distracted from the show and just showed a lack of care for the show. It was things like that in the show (and not all of them had to do with water to be fair) that really brought down how good the show could have been. It was really disappointing. It was just a comedy show at some points because how poorly the show handled some of these issues.

Overall: "I wish this show could try again" 7/10

Endro has to easily be the comfiest show of the season. If you are in for a light-hearted and heart-warming anime that will leave you with a smile on your face at the end of each episode, you have stumbled across the right show.

Ah yes, the CGDCT genre. This time we feature cute girls doing cute hero things. I don’t think I generally lean towards the “fantasy” side of anime (although there are exceptions), this show definitely uses the cute girls to make it feel just different enough from other fantasy genre anime. I think the blend of the two certainly felt fresh in it’s ... own respect. Although I have not seen it at this point, Konosuba takes this approach, but from what I understand has more fantasy leaning intentions as compared to this show. It is a lot more focused on the cute girls aspect and they just happen to be in this fantasy world.

Story: 6/10 - I’m kind of conflicted on the score of the story as it was warm, but there wasn’t too much going on and felt a bit generic as much as it can. I felt if anything was lacking from this anime, it would have been the consistency of the story aspect (although it tried to cover it up in the last episode, but that’s okay because it was super effective). Not bad, just nothing notable in my mind.

Art: 9/10 - What I like about the art in this show is how it impacts my interpretation of the show. You could have thrown in the art from another fantasy show like Konosuba, SAO, or Shield Hero from this season and it would just not have the same effect. As this is more light-hearted, I think the art style had to be different. I think other anime in the fantasy genre tend to lean towards the style of the shows I mentioned earlier as it makes you feel more like you should be there and it is relatively more realistic. The art style found in Endro almost seems like a picture book or a children’s book, like a fairy tail. It felt like I was reading one of those books myself which allowed me to take a different interpretation of the show which had its own charm and appreciation to it. There were some small things that I didn’t like all that much, but definitely not taking away big points from the amazing work it did.

Sound: 10/10 - The music in this show was incredibly fun and I would definitely walk away from an episode with one of the songs from the OST in my head. Definitely throwing it up there in my top OSTs of the season. I think the emotions and actions that followed the music was done incredibly well and the mood was set for a fun-filled adventure every time. The OP and ED are both really good and have definitely added the full versions of them to my playlist. The OP feels like a generic CGDCT OP with some hints at fantasy. There’s one part I really enjoy where it shows Princess Rona and has a cool harmony with the main melody and it feels very adventurous. The ED has a very Baroque sense to it. It is light, playful, and really captures the image of a castle and the fantasy idea of the time. It was a touch that I appreciated.

Character: 8/10 - The characters were pretty generic and “trope-y” but I liked it. I mean, at this point, you should know what you’re getting yourself into. I know what I enjoy, you know what you enjoy, and nothing stands out too much in this category (with the exception of the main antagonist who actually has some cool plot points). Just trust yourself in this category.

Enjoyment: 9/10 - My enjoyment of this show was kind of unstable about 60-70% through the season. It kind of got to a point where I was unsure if it was all leading somewhere (although this kind of attributes to the story score), but it ended just right for me and I was happy with what I saw in the show. I got a comfy show that I could relax to and leave with a smile on my face. A comfy show is an enjoyable show in my opinion.

Overall: “Comfy show made me comfy” 8/10

Beryl and Sapphire is a show that I randomly stumbled across on an anime site. I thought the premise seemed intriguing enough and I didn’t have high expectations for it… I was wrong.

To say this show is different is most definitely an understatement. The first and most blatant thing you will notice from either the title of the show or watching episode 1 is that it is in Chinese. This kind of threw me off, but I decided that I would watch it anyways. Another cool thing that I enjoyed is that they are comprised of a bunch of different stories rather than just one ... long story. I think this approach was very effective as it connected the commonality of characters to different stories which gave it a unique feel. One last unique thing I found is that the episodes are divided into groups of 6. This is comprised of 5 - ~6 minute episodes and 1 - ~25 minute episode as a “weekend special” when it aired. I thought this idea was cool and it gave something to people who like the different types of shows so you don’t need to say “this would have been better as a short” or “man, I wish these episodes were longer”. This issue is tackled well and I can guarantee you will not walk away disappointed in regards to that issue.

With that out of the way, it takes more than just “uniqueness” to make a show good. As you can see, I scored all categories with at least a 9 because I truly felt like it exceeded and performed well in all the categories.

Story: 10/10 - The story was a bit hard for me to score as there are multiple stories to follow as I mentioned before, but I think the two main characters being a “pivot role” if you will helped keep it interesting in a fresh way (although I will touch more on this in the character section of my review). Using the characters as pivots allowed the stories to feel like the same show, but different in their own respects. I gave it a 10 because I haven’t seen another show tackle it like this show did and I thought it was very effective.

Art: 9/10 - The art looked great and they did something that I think seems lazy at first glance, but I think it helped the focus of the show. Almost all background characters and occasionally the main characters would go from having a “normal” animated face to just a simple round head with eyes and a mouth. For the background characters, this allowed social scenes to feel like real life. You don’t recognize faces and it allows you to focus on the important characters at hand. As far as the main characters, it would generally do this to help with the emotions of the characters. I never found it out of place when they would switch to the round heads. Also, small last side note, CGI animation is used at some points of large crowds moving. It looked weird, but it wasn’t important to the show and it was probably much easier on the team making the show, so I chose to let that one slide.

Sound: 9/10 - The OST wasn’t memorable but it wasn’t bad either. I can’t think of any particular tunes standing out as great or awful. I just thought during the show that it always fit well (which can’t be said for all anime). The OP and ED are pretty catchy too I might add. I’m usually pretty big on music, but this music just felt right and I just walk away with a “good job, it worked” feeling. Not much to say unfortunately, but it was good.

Character: 10/10 - As far as the characters go, the show generally revolves around two main characters: Beryl and Sapphire. Not matter what personality or arc is being played on any given episode, there is some sort of relationship between these characters that brings them together (whether a romantic relationship or not). These stories take place in a multitude of different demographics. You have them either in the work place, in school, or just out in public. The best part is that they all work and manage to keep a basic outline of the characters. It felt right in each of the roles that they were playing. Although I don’t think I would take a singular Beryl or Sapphire to my top 10 character list, the interactions between all of them has to be up there in some of my favorites (but MAL doesn’t have a place for that… RIP Hibike Euphonium interactions). I think having this level of interaction value isn’t something a lot of anime can do this well so hats off to the team.

Enjoyment: 10/10 - Not much to say about enjoyment that hasn’t been said already. What I can say is that I knew I was hooked after the first block of 6 episodes. I’d say give the show about 1 to 2 cycles of the 6-episode cycles to see if it’s a show you should continue. I think that there is definitely something for everyone in this show which makes me think the enjoyment of this show is something that can be shared among a lot of people in the community which is why I put it in such high regards. I could easily recommend this to a lot of people.

Overall: “It just felt right” 10/10

I have seen my fair share of music related shows now and since music has a big part in my life, I feel pretty passionate about shows that tackle the idea. Here is another idol anime. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. I love Love Live but I know not everything is going to live up to that. What I didn't expect was for an idol show to fall so below the standard that I felt necessary to rant about it (check the episode 12 discussion). This is why Music Girls was one of the worst shows I have ever seen.

A little bit of background ... first... Ongaku Shouju started in 2015 with a 25 minute movie that was part of a bigger project (you should watch some of the other movies associated with it that are absolutely fantastic). One of those characters carry over and it throws in a nice reference, but overall doesn't really contribute much. I would much more recommend the movie, but even that didn't blow me away, just thought I'd put that information out there.

As far as this show goes, I saw many problems with it that just killed the show in a genre I love so much and usually give preferential treatment to. The most main of our main characters is Hanako, a girl with professional musicians as parents. She happens to notice this group of idols in the airport in the first episode as they put on a show. Although she has a slightly different idea of an idol, she still loves it. She decides she wants to help the group. What can she do to help you ask? Well the first episode leaves you with a very promising start and let me tell you why. She was an amazing dancer. She picked up what the group did after just one run. Sick, she has talent. Her parents are musicians, so she must be able to sing, right? Wrong. Her singing is awful and rather embarrassing. That, however, doesn't make the show bad. I would have LOVED to see her grow as a musician to help this group. So that's where the first episode leaves off. i'm invested, let's see her put in those hours. That wasn't it chief. Episode 2 essentially has her give up that dream and just sit on the sidelines as the manager for (almost) the entire rest of the show. Remember that for later. Also, Hanako's parents just kind of abandon her when they are on a trip in a foreign country. Umm, yeah, wtf. -10 points for bad parenting skills.

As far as characters overall, they weren't the worst I've seen by far. There were in fact some rather interesting and lovable characters (as to be expected from idol anime). They even have a cute lobster. Who doesn't love a cute lobster? Most of these characters get episodes with them getting over their own struggles, some more than others, and they weren't awful. There was actually one episode that made me tear up a little but that doesn't really make up for a garbage show. So characters, not awful, but not overly amazing either.

The art and animation was very subpar for an idol show. A lot of scenes looked really lazy and some looked pretty poorly drawn. Inconsistencies with main characters looking like background characters really turned me off from a visual standpoint. There just isn't much to say about this subject except very underwhelming.

For an idol show, the music throughout wasn't great. I have an entire section of my profile just for idol music and not a singular song from this show even came close to making it. The OST in the show was very forgettable on top of that. They created a show about music, and couldn't even deliver the music. That's saying something.

My enjoyment was affected by everything I wrote so far and my enjoyment score probably would have been a 1 if it weren't for that one episode that got me in the feels as it hit a subject a little closer to home. I'm ashamed but I can't deny it so it gets that. GGs.

Oh, you thought I was done talking about the story. Nah, I just needed a breather before I got too heated. It's a 1/10 for a reason. To wrap everything I have written about above has quadruped in awful quality in the last episode. A huge plot hole that was in the last episode is what caused me to rant about ep. 12 in that related discussion post. Read that for my full thoughts but I will keep it brief here and spoiler free since this part is at the end of the series. Essentially, episode 12 is just a land mine for a bad episode. One thing after another goes off in a pathetic attempt to close out the series. I have no idea how they were on time for the last episode, but it is very apparent that they did not put a lot of effort into it. It was incredibly hard to watch. The ending doesn't really make any sense at all and leaves an even more rotten taste in my mouth about the series as a whole despite just being one episode. I would have never thought that one episode could dish out such an effect, yet here we are.

Verdict: I would ABSOLUTELY NOT recommend this show to anyone ever. If you are thinking about watching this show after reading this, you are a masochist beyond myself and are just looking for a show to crap on.