- Last Online8 hours ago
- JoinedJan 22, 2020
Fantasy Anime League Fantasy Anime League Fantasy Anime League RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Jun 27, 2024
I really wanted to like this show as the opening premise and some of the ideas were interesting and fun, but overall the story fell flat in the end.
Each of the main characters are enjoyable, but they hardly grow over the course of their journey. Shizuru arguably is the only one that changes, but just barely.
The beginning of the story was interesting, the first few episodes seemed like it might go dark places with how the world changes and how society was adapting, but it never really explored that. Mostly just each town has a wacky gimmick and through some comedy of errors they succeed
...
through. Other aspects of the story just don't make sense, mainly in the behavior of the regular people.
The premise and the world they built up was interesting and had potential for a unique story, but that potential just seemed wasted with the relatively light hearted comedy story they told. The series wasn't terrible, but it was just fine and just unique enough to put it over just average.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
Jul 27, 2023
These four short stories really show off Tatsuki Fujimoto's wacky imagination and a bit of his dark humor. Shikaku he noted as being written from a fever dream. Initially the completely wild stories were amusing, but overall felt empty as I didn't really connect with the characters or found them that relatable. Sasaki Stopped a Bullet I feel is the best story of the bunch, but is still weaker compared to the stories in the second set of short stories in 22-26.
If MAL allowed half points I'd actually give this a 6.5. The imaginative stories makes this better than 'fine', but compared to other one-shots
...
I wouldn't consider this set a solid 'good' rating.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
Jul 27, 2023
Compared to Tatsuki Fujimoto's other short story anthology book, 17-21, 22-26 is the better of the two. Each of the stories were more interesting and felt more complete. Even with the wacky nature of each of the short stores, I still found the characters in each to be real and relatable. I enjoyed each of the stories in their own unique way. I'm partial to the sci-fi fantasy of Nayuta of the Prophesy, but Sisters is the best story. Sisters had a nice balance of a sweet serious story with wacky dark humor sprinkled throughout.
Other short story anthologies that compile one-shots from multiple artists and
...
are more refined are certainly better than this, but 22-26 is still a solid set of stories.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jul 25, 2023
This is a relatively generic rom-com of two adults that get together initially because of their unique fetishes, but learn to love their significant other beyond their fetish attraction. The comedy and story telling is in a 4-pannel gag manga format for the most part, though were gag manga tend to have simplified drawings, the art in this series is quite good.
The story of the flourishing romance between two adults was entertaining and I did find myself rooting for them, but at a certain point in the series (I think volume 6) the story shifts to the rom-com between three high schoolers each attracted to
...
one of the two others by their own fetishes thus forming a thruple dynamic. When it got to the high school drama, that's when I stopped really caring. It sort of just became another harem story of one not very interesting male student having two good looking girls falling in love with him and who will he choose in the end? There were cameos from the original cast of characters that was nice to see, but for the most part I checked out of the high school arc and just speed read my way to the finish.
If I was just counting the first part I would give this an 8 or a 7, but because of the uninteresting high school arc in the end I have to give this a 6.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jun 13, 2023
Overall, the series was enjoyable. Cute girls doing cute things and cute girls being badass. The overarching story and a few plot holes that kind of appear near the end of the story keeps me from giving it a better score.
The Good Parts - The most interesting part of the series is the character development of Takina. Watching her going from an anti-terrorist killer completely dependent on the Lycoris institution to doing odd jobs for the community and learning to loosen up with Chisato are the best episodes. Episode 4 where they go shopping for clothes after Chisato is mortified to learn that Takina is
...
wearing men's boxers as underwear was great. Or Episode 8 when Takina takes over the cafe business expenses to keep them out of the red and the money saving techniques they employ was just great.
The Bad Parts - Unfortunately the overarching story around Chisato's backstory, the Alan Institute, and Majima just didn't have much payoff in the end. Shinji and the Alan Institute's motivation was weird or too confusing. They support "genius" people to reach their maximum potential including genius assassins. It's not really clear how nurturing a child assassin or aiding a terrorist provides any kind of return on their investment. Majima just wants to bring a balance of evil to the world because he doesn't like how Lycoris is covering up all the crime in Japan but in the end decides to be nice and not blow up the tower in a way that would cast doubt on the Lycoris cover story? I was hoping there was more to that story line but it kind of just amounted to the evil people were doing evil things because they are evil.
The Weird Plot Holes - The final few episodes introduce various elements that just didn't make sense. It didn't ruin my overall enjoyment of the series, but did make the final episodes fall a little flat. I'll look past the idea that Chisato can just dodge bullets and Majima can just do echolocation because they are "geniuses". Chisato they at least address that her ability is visual base so if she can't see the shooter she can't dodge the bullet. Majima's echolocation works because he has ultra sensitive ears, yet he doesn't damage his hearing ability or get stunned by firing full automatic machine guns in an enclosed space without hearing protection or detonates explosives in a subway station, while in said subway station. The public for some reason is willing to believe that the shootings they see on TV is fake including the shooting between the Lycoris agent and the civilian right in front of them? In the final episode Majima is revealed to be wearing a bullet proof vest which is why the body shots Chisato was doing with her non-lethal rounds were ineffective but the body shots that Chisato did when they first captured him some how worked. He would have had to put it on after he was captured for that to make sense. The solution the government comes up with for covering up the reveal of the Lycoris agents killing terrorist on surveillance video by Robata is to kill them with their male child soldier counterpart again on surveillance video as at that time Walnut hadn't yet stopped Robata.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
May 27, 2023
If you are an anime only kind of person and don't read manga, light novels or visual novels, don't bother watching this if you haven't at least seen Unlimited Blade Works anime first. But even then, you might still struggle to understand what's going on. Heaven's Feel part 1 had amazing visuals, animation, and music, but the story telling was not up to par. The pacing of story related scenes seemed fast and some of the dialogue disjointed. Transitions between scenes were often abrupt and had little explanation for why did they suddenly visit the temple or why were they just strolling around town. I
...
had originally thought about going into the movie "blind" in that I had only seen fate/zero and Unlimited Blade Works anime up that point, but decided to read the visual novel first. I'm glad I did as I'd probable wouldn't have understood anything other than bare bones gist of things. In some cases it is better to show not tell story when it comes to movies or anime, but when the things they are showing are just so fantastical and foreign to anything you can relate to it's not going to have any meaning to viewer.
Overall the movie is a good if you already read the novels and know all the lore around it, but as a standalone movie with minimal background knowledge from Unlimited Blade Works or Fate/Zero it's fine.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Mar 30, 2023
Like many who are familiar with the original '80s version of the anime, I also questioned who asked for this or who is this for when they first announced that they were remaking Urusei Yatsura. Being a fan of original anime, the manga, and Rumiko Takahashi's other works like Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha, I decided to give it a shot and from the first episode, I was all in. The art style and the music were updated for a modern audience, and yet the voices for the cast was still reminiscent of the original.
Urusei Yatsura 2022 is a great retelling of Rumiko Takahashi's earliest slap-stick
...
comedy series. I love the original, but it's not something I could recommend due to length of the series and due to some of the stories and jokes not aging well. So far, the remake has been altering or straight up skipping certain stories from the original anime or manga that aren't particularly interesting. If this keeps up this could turn into a great condensed version of the anime, cherry picking the best episode to retell.
The biggest criticism I have for the remake is that I wished some of the more series episodes that focused on Ataru and Lum's relationship were drawn out more. Episodes like Since Your Parting or Big Bottle, Little Bottle hit harder in the original anime and it did a better job showing that deep down Ataru really does care about Lum.
Would I recommend this series? Yes, but not necessarily to new anime fans. Though not in every episode, a lot of humor is fully appreciated if you already have a good understanding of Japanese culture. In the end, the art syle, the music, and the voices all makes this an enjoyable anime that I intend to keep with when the next season drops in 2024.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Mar 10, 2023
Hinamatsuri has quickly become one of my favourite manga series of all time. It’s a shame it’s not as popular as other comedy manga like Grand Blue Dreaming, which I’d argue Hinamatsuri is just as funny.
Story - The story is unlike any other slice of life I’ve read. At it’s core this an odd couple kind of comedy as the two main characters Hina and Nitta learn to live with each other and help each other out, but the cast of characters and the sometimes satirical situations they’re put in really make the series special.
Characters - The characters really drive the comedy. From their absurd
...
solution to a problem to their expressions when faced with utter defeat or a completely illogical situation.
Art - As the setting is in modern day Japan, the art and design is not too unique from other slice of life series. The base level art from panel to panel is simplistic but that seems to be standard for most other gag manga or comedy series I’ve read. However, the art goes up level whenever you get the zoomed in facial expressions when characters are faced with the absurd, similar to Grand Blue Dreaming.
Overall - Hinamatsuri is an amazing comedy series. The series is a good recommendation for manga readers of any age whereas something like Grand Blue Dreaming is equally good but due to its more adult themes I can’t recommend it to as many people.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Mar 5, 2023
I can understand how some people may have had a hard time getting into the series from season one. Aside from the bullying being a turn off for some, there seemed to be little to no progression. But season two in both the manga and the anime really stepped it up in character development. The characters have clear motivations now for viewers to be invested in. The series can only get more exciting from this point forward.
Story - The story is not that unique from any other romance comedy in a regular high school setting. Nagatoro is a bit eccentric, but in general the story
...
beats episode to episode are somewhat obvious. However I still enjoy the story as it’s more about seeing the characters react in these romance tropes.
Art - The art style is quite similar to the manga. It’s not the most beautiful art style but it matches the comedy aspect nicely.
Character- The characters really make the anime, especially Nagatoro. She was a bit annoying in the beginning of season one, but by season two she became less of a gag comedy character and more of rom-com character. The MC has gotten to be less of milk toast boring character from season one and has started act more like a normal person would if put in his situation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
