mdchan

I picked this up half out of boredom and half out of trying to find a hidden gem; this was most certainly not the latter. -- Story There's a plotline in here somewhere...perhaps three of them.  The first plotline revolves around the police's Division 5, Unit 8 which uses some sort of unexplained technology called "Will Wear", which pretty much takes a person and puts them directly as a mecha instead of having to pilot one.  Of course, this means that the mecha are all human-sized for the most part.  A new member is sent directly from the police headquarters to... See full review

I've been meaning to get around to reviewing this, so here we are.  If you've played Nier Automata through to Ending A, you already know what's going to happen and what it's all about...with a couple minor changes. -- Story In an apocolyptic future, the androids of YoRHa are fighting a war against the Machine lifeforms on Earth.  Their mission is to destroy the Machines in order to make the Earth safe enough so the humans on the moon can return...or is it? The story follows battle-android 2B and scanner-android 9S as they encounter increasingly more difficult machines as well as even... See full review

The summary should be more like:  A girl joins the zany, underfunded Space Debris Section of the Technora Corporation and has to learn how to safely use the equipment to collect scrap in space before it can drift into a commercial, or other, vehicle and cause another tragedy.  While working with them, she encounters situations from terrorists to strange men cosplaying as ninjas and starts to fall in love with her space-loving co-worker. -- Story Although the story started out with a girl protagonist, it's instead a rather interesting bait-and-switch as the protagonist is actually one of... See full review

This season is honestly what season 1 should have been, as they finally get around to addressing the murderer. Also, the spelling of the names changed in the subtitles on Netflix from season 1...soooo...I'll just, uh, check the Wiki. -- Story There's actually a plot this season besides teenage angst and a yiff-happy rabbit, and it's finally trying to find Tem's murderer. That said, the school board seems more interested in the fact that the school hasn't produced a beastar candidate in a long time rather than an herbivore getting slaughtered and devoured by another student... So anyway, Legoshi... See full review

Did...did all the other people giving this anime such high reviews watch the same anime I did?  Could have sworn what I saw bounced between a confused wolf and a horny rabbit with guest appearances by a perfectionist deer. -- Story ...because there's pretty much no plot.  Well, there is a plot, but it dies off as fast as the poor herbivore in the opening sequence.  Aforementioned herbavore is chased through the school building by a carnivore student before becoming a statistic at the business end of the other student's teeth. The school mourns, and then focuses once more on... See full review

Imagine, if you will, an anime about girls attempting to form a team and learn to play baseball to challenge a team aiming for the Nationals...all within the constraints of a 12 episode cour. Twilight-Zone intro reference aside, this anime unfortunately suffers from its attempt to pack in slice-of-life historical drama, romance love triangles, and baseball into 12 slow-paced episodes.  And there's an episode with a movie filming, too.  Yes, you read that correctly. -- Story The anime centers around 14 year old Koume Suzukawa, a "my pace" sort of girl, as she's dragged into... See full review

If someone told me that there was an isekai cour out there which didn't have the typical ecchi and-or harem hackneyed garbage that plagues 99% of all isekai anime, I wouldn't have believed them... ...until this anime.  Yes, it does exist!  The rare and good isekai anime which doesn't need to rely on unrealistic boobs, a harem of girls throwing themselves at the protagonist, loli characters, or a perverted character!  -- Story Tsuyoshi Mukouda seems to be a typical salaryman who knows a thing or two about cooking, but that doesn't mean he isn't excited when he finds himself... See full review

This anime does a great job at introducing a slew of characters with their own circumstances, but an absolute lousy job of wrapping up any of its plot points.  Rather, by the time one finishes this series, they will have more questions than answers as it tends to either dangle an information carrot in front of the viewer without ever explaining it, or just doesn't bother to explain the current dangling carrot. It's sad, because this probably could have been a great anime if it bothered to explain all the intrigue it dropped on the viewer. -- Story ...called "story" because the... See full review

I sat throughout the movie thinking:  "If they kill the dog, I'mma be PISSED." That aside, I don't understand the hype surrounding this movie.  It's an older movie, but with the ratings it had I expected an instant classic.  Not at all the case. -- Story A young boy named Kotaro has to flee from his home, with his dog Tobimaru, when it is attacked.  He is told by a man to take some sort of item to barter with and go to the Mangaku Temple to fully escape because the people who attacked were after Kotaro, and on the way, he meets the wandering samurai Kensh--I mean... See full review

Now that the Doom Flags were conquered in the first season, the true harem experience kicks in.  I was expecting it, but I still was a bit surprised at how it started to go down. -- Story Catarina successfully prevented her death, she can truly relax and enjoy what the game world has to offer...NOT. Her plans are cut short when she is kidnapped and held (rather cozily) by the mysterious butler, Rufus, on the orders of a master she (nor the audience) has ever seen or met.  And she's not the only one who winds up kidnapped, as Keith finds himself in a lot of trouble later on.  To... See full review

This is an amazing anime, and did a great job...for a first season.  Sadly, as of writing this review, the anime is about eight years old (and the manga being 13 and still unfinished) which means that at least for the anime, it's very unlikely we'll see a second season to conclude the story. -- Story Yona, the princess of Kouka, is betrayed by someone she trusted the night of her 16th birthday.  With the entire castle seemingly out to get her, her loyal friend (Hak) manages to guide her to safety in order to escape the usurpers who came for the throne. Upon meeting with a priest, they... See full review

It's not the first time an anime concludes before the manga finishes...but instead of giving the audience an anime-only ending (ie - the first Fullmetal Alchemist series), it just...doesn't conclude. At all. Thus is the case with World Trigger. -- Story Four and a half years ago, a mysterious gate opened up in the middle of Mikado City in Japan; through it came monsterous creatures which destroyed, killed, and captured until they were finally put down by a group of people.  These people went on to establish "Border", which is a headquarters built in the leveled section of the city... See full review

I don't know what they were thinking when they mapped out this season.  The first couple episodes, along with the last two episodes, are excellent.  Everything in between (aka, the bulk of the season), however...well, let's just say that I actually caught myself nodding off one or two times.  This is going to be hard to score. -- Story Picks up where the last season left off; the five surviving teens from the Spearhead division were saved and picked up by the Giad Federacy and are offered a chance at actually living a peaceful life.  But of course, out five favorite teens can't... See full review

History is there so that people can learn from it and not repeat its mistakes...yet, they always seem doomed to do so anyway.  Such is the case with the premise of 86, which takes racism to an extreme. -- Story Nine years ago, the Empire of Giad created (automated?) war machines which, as per usual with the trend of "technology which went wrong", killed their creators and continued rampaging throughout the world.  These mobile weapons became known as the "Legion", and are oddly organized for robotic weapons which, unlike the Machines of Nier Automata, never show any... See full review

I wouldn't put this on a level of Steins Gate, but it was still very well done.  That said, I wish there had been some sort of warning that, shortly after the anime starts, the pixelation on the screen is deliberate.  I actually stopped watching and went to find a different version because I thought the file was corrupted. -- Story On Hitogashima island in Wakayama, there is an old legend about the Shadow Sickness:  Any person who sees their doppleganger (shadow) will die. Shinpei is a student who returns to the island from his studies in Tokyo in order to attend the funeral of his... See full review

...what did I just watch?  A comedy, right?  They were going for a comedy, I hope?  Or a parody?  But there's no tags for that...wait, they were serious with this movie?  They legit wanted the audience to take it seriously? Alright, so preface:  I never played Dragon Quest V, which this movie is based on.  I played the very first game (called "Dragon Warrior"), as well as VIII and XI.  So, I didn't know what to expect or what sort of story would be told.  Anyone who has played Dragon Quest V will be familiar with the story as well as its twists and... See full review

I'm going to be perfectly frank:  I didn't understand any of the allegory/symbolism one bit as I always struggle with that sort of thing.  So, all the talk about the whale (Moby Dick).  That aside, the movie was fairly good up until about halfway through...but not without its issues and moments where the audience has to suspend their disbelief. -- Story Nine year old Ren's mother has just died, and since his parents had a divorce and his mother got everything, it meant that his father (whom he hadn't seen in a long time to boot) wouldn't have been able to get custody of him... See full review

Wait...you're telling me it's possible to have a romance-genre anime/movie with teenagers which isn't cringey?  Apparently so, as this is probably one of the better anime movies I've seen lately. -- Story Middle school student Miyo Sasaki, aka "Muge", is a cheerful girl on the outside to always hide how she truly feels; that she doesn't feel like she belongs with her father and step-mother, or that her actual mother ever loved her.  Rather, she feels nobody can or will ever love her... ...except for her classmate, Kento Hinode.  She acts out and doesn't seem to care about... See full review

Ahhh...nothing like a slow journey despite a looming time limit.  Perhaps the slow journey wouldn't have been as bad if they didn't use a montage to show some of it when they could have dedicated that time to character interaction, but even so it was easy to forget that they were even on a time limit. -- Plot A year after her elementary school student Kanna isn't sure whether or not she wants to keep running; a passion she had shared with her mother.  Rather, she even has something of a trauma associated with it...so when she puts on her mother's amulet one day and finds out that her... See full review

This is a nice and relaxing movie.  It's far from fast paced and only has a single "action" scene, only a few minutes in to boot, so if you've come here for something a bit "louder" then you're in the wrong place. -- Story The plot centers around a shy, introverted teenaged boy named Yui (aka, "Cherry") who gets easily flustered if he has to speak in front people.  He even wears noise cancelling headphones to avoid conversations, and expresses himself on paper/online via haiku. One day, he (quite literally, though through no fault of his own) bumps into a... See full review

If I had to sum up this movie, I'd say thus:  A series of events with no logic what-so-ever to them.  I expected, from the summary, it to be a movie about a kid learning to be brave (going from being a coward who runs away from everything to learning to confront things), and...well, it sort of did?  But at the same time, not really. -- Story Grade-schooler Wataru comes home one day to find out that his father is leaving them due to a divorce between Wataru's parents.  As Wataru is trying to make sense of all of it, he meets a strange boy who is somehow able to use magical... See full review

They finally went and did it; they finally animated the Just a Worm arc.  Yet...somehow, the manga had way more impact. -- Story As the group continues to head West to stop the Minus Wave and Gyumaou, they encounter a strange priest named Hazel who has a frightening power:  He can bring the dead back to live with the souls of demons. In addition to him, there seems to be a familiar crow of darkness behind everything; watching and sometimes interferring with the events as a struggle occurs for the meaning of life, death, and nothingness. "Even a worm will turn." Honestly, it... See full review

Not gonna lie, I was expecting a little more tactics even if it was in the form of Home Alone meets Japanese high school students.  That said, it was still a rather good movie with some twists and turns in regards to the characters which even I didn't see coming. -- Story When finding out that his childhood friend (and crush) is going to be moving to Tokyo shortly after her birthday in a week, high school student (and history enthisiast) Mamoru gathers his courage not to ask her out but to suggest that they run away together.  Aya, the girl, takes it as a group suggest and invites some... See full review

What a mess.  I'm usually very easy to move to tears, but this movie did absolutely nothing for me...probably because the protagonists (look'n at you, Natsume) spent about 90% of the movie moping.  It got very old, very fast. While the concept was good, the execution was far from it. -- Story When investigating his old house for the "ghost kid", spurred on by a friend, Kosuke bumps into childhood friend Natsume who is taking a nap in the condemned building.  After the two get into an argument which nearly leads Natsume to falling off the roof because of the world's... See full review

Occasionally, one stumbles upon a memorable and interesting anime cour which leaves a lasting impression...This ain't it. I'm not sure what this anime was trying to be, but it's a good time-killer. -- Story There's a story in here?  Let's see...a couple middle school girls, on the verge of high school, decide to sign up for a free trial hockey class hosted by the local team (the Dream Monkeys).  They enjoy it enough to keep coming back, and eventually join the team entirely. But instead of being regulated to second-string members, as one would expect of newbies to a team, for some... See full review

A peculiar yet interesting anime with a very slow pace, yet even in 11 episodes manages to deal with body/gender dysphoria very well...once you can tell who is who that is.  If LGBTQ+ themes are not your cup of tea, then you should probably take a pass on this.  If you do enjoy that sort of thing, or perhaps are a little curious yourself, this is a fairly good anime to watch. -- Story There are multiple stories going on due to each character having their own "secrets" to deal with.  Two of the characters, Shuichi and Yoshino, constantly deal with gender dysphoria; Shuichi... See full review

I'll admit:  I started watching this as something to listen to while drawing...but I quickly became invested in it.  I feel like this sort of anime is what I've been searching for, and while it does have some drawbacks, I'd definitely watch a second season (I heard the manga/source material isn't too much farther ahead, so it'll be a bit of a wait). -- Story After demons attacked, the great hero Leo managed to single handedly take them down.  However, rather than praise for his efforts, the townsfolk grew afraid of his monsterous power and strength to the point where he wound up... See full review

Reviewing this is a little difficult due to how freaking confusing this anime is...and by the time you hit around episode 20, it feels like there's an info-dump every episode which, combined with its own terms, just gets far too convoluted to keep up with. It would have been great if, after episode 3 (yes, the "intro" arc takes three episodes), the anime did a better job explaining it all...but instead, it waited until almost literally the very last moment and then crushed the viewer under the weight of all the information. Something I wish I had known upon starting to watch it (aka, some much... See full review

Rarely does an anime live up to its hype.  I passed on this when it first came out despite the hype surrounding it.  I'm actually rather wary of hyped up anime as the majority of them have me scratching my head wondering how they got hyped up so much...but this is an anime fairly worthy of its hype. ...and no, you don't need to be a science major or know much about quantum physics to understand what's going on. -- Story One day at the library, high school student Sakuta Azusagawa sees a spectacle not often seen in such a setting:  A senpai in his high school walking around in a... See full review

Certainly, when it comes to isekai anime, they tend to follow similar patterns:  The protagonist is either summoned by a higher power, stumbles into a dimensional rift, or meets an untimely end via the infamous Truck-kun.  So while one would presume that "if you've seen one isekai anime, you've seen them all", there are a few anime which, though similar, still don't really fall into that category. Tsukimichi is one of those.  And to be quite frank, I enjoyed it ten times more than That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime. -- Story Makoto Misumi seems to be an ordinary... See full review