Panma

I watched Shine Post recently and it gave me an itch to watch another idol show that also had interesting animated dance sequences. Unfortunately, the animation in Idoly Pride just isn't as good. It's kind of sad because they fully 2D animate some of the earlier dance numbers and they look fantastic. But then they switch to 2.5D for the later actual idol performances and they end up just... okay. The story is kind of interesting because it's very similar to how [Oshi No Ko] started with a bit of a subversion. But then it gains a sort of magical twist that's, thankfully, not altogether central to the story... See full review

I don't normally watch idol series, but I'd seen a showcase of the dancing animation and got curious. First and foremost, this show has some pretty darn good production values. The show is a 2.5D combo and it actually looks really good considering how awful some of the other 2.5D or 3D shows can be (looking at you Overlord S3). Of course this is still an idol anime and comes with all the expected drama. The series comes with the typical episodic flow where each episode or two is spent overcoming some personal hangup of each member of the troupe, then culminating in the rousing success of the group as a... See full review

[Oshi no Ko], with the brackets for some reason, is a show that subverted my expectations but not in a good way. Nearly every description I've found about this show is about the prologue (the long first episode) and the reason this is an issue is that there's a very clear and abrupt pivot in tone and substance from the prologue to the actual show. Admittedly, the prologue was very good and I have strong suspicions it's basically the entire reason this show is currently ranked 8th of all time on Anime Planet (and 13th on My Anime List). However, I'm not going to spend much time talking about the prologue... See full review

This show is a weird one to rate because it's trying really hard to be two things in one. On one foot, it absolutely succeeds as a show focused on Ecchi/Harem elements. If you like shows with scantily clad women all vying for the attention of a single man, then you will probably like this show as these elements are done fairly well. Nothing is overt, no straight up nudity and very light on panty shots, but lots of revealing body suits and the odd visible-nipple-through-clothing. There's also a number of suggestive scenes where the show hints at sexual relations but doesn't actually say one way or the... See full review

This show really wanted to be a great mixing bowl of elements but ends up sort of failing. On one hand you've got an almost sickeningly sweet story of the relationship between a child and their caregiver. On another hand, the show's got a ton of flashback episodes where they're trying to flesh out the characters. Then again on even another hand, you've got a semi-revenge fueled yakuza/madman plotline.  Unfortunately, I don't think this show mixed all those different ideas well. The flashback episodes get kind of repetitive as they tend to repeat the same scenes over and over again, just with... See full review

This show is basically two separate stories mashed together in a jarring way. In the first half you have a slapstick/fantasy/daily life combination story with a human hero who is forcefully "retired" and goes to work for the demon army. Then we spend several episodes being introduced to each of the main demon cast and their personal/professional problems. Up to this point the show is mediocre and a bit cliche, but nothing bad. If this formula had persisted for all twelve episodes, I probably would have rated this a 6.5/10. But that isn't what happens. The author takes a super weird... See full review

This show was hard to review because it sets itself up to completely defy expectations from the beginning. It has rather crude animation that may make people think of older children's shows but this is deceptive and it's almost as if the show enjoys the juxtaposition between its child-like visuals and its adult themes. Thankfully, the show's story is actually decent. It's paced well with new elements being continually added or revealed that keep the watcher's attention. Given how well the show executes the above, it's all the more of a disappointment when the entire show gives up its entire persona for the... See full review

This series has a serious issue with pacing. This entire season is nothing but fluff and filler. Six episodes of people sitting around talking and maybe, maybe, there was enough exposition in all six to be condensed to one. I'm no stranger to slow burns with lots of character growth, world building, or intrigue. But this season (and most of last season) has none of that. We literally spend an entire episode just so we can learn what we've already been told. A pretty good synopsis of the season: Did you know bad things are happening? Did you know there are other reincarnated individuals? No really... See full review

Synopsis: an otaku outcast gets himself a pretty girlfriend. As secondary titles I nominate "how to abuse the social outcast, the anime" or "another good premise ruined by a terrible script, part 54".  Story At its heart this story is supposed to be a romance where both characters are "broken" and their relationship is one of self-discovery. It tries to accomplish this through a mixture of slice-of-life and drama but the problem is that the show fails on all fronts. They only ever focuses on a single character's development (hellllooooo shallow side characters)... See full review

Review in Brief If you are someone who is old enough to have lived through the "golden age of gaming" when arcades were all the rage, this anime series might strike you as something special. For the rest of us (myself included), the nostalgia factor is lost on us and instead this series feels like a mix between a bad romantic comedy and a documentary on the early days of the video game industry. Story At its heart, the plot is about two young kids who grow their relationship over their mutual love of video games. However, this over-arching plot plays second fiddle to the... See full review

Overlord III continues the story... slowly. Story Overlord is different than a lot of other action/adventure series. The original author of Overlord wrote the series to be less about any single character and more about the world our protagonist is now inhabiting. This is why each episode is so slow and there's very little actual focus on our protagonist. If this type of story bothers you then I can tell you that it's only going to get worse if they continue animating based on the light novel. The story, if anything, gets slower.  Animation Everything's pretty basic here. At least... See full review

Zombieland Saga was kind of a surprise series. The first episode smashes any preconceived notions you may have had about what you were about to watch. The second episode was even better and set the series up the be a very unconventional parody of an idol series. But, unfortunately, you almost need to separate this series into two parts: the first two episodes in the first part, and everything else in the second. And the second part, which is also the largest go figure, is just... bad.  Story As I said, it starts out with great promise. Let's completely surprise the viewer and just leave them... See full review

First and foremost, I was turned onto this series due to the YouTuber Mother's Basement where he mentions this as one of his top romance picks. Well, I'm here to tell him he's completely wrong. The romance in this series is basically non-existent. So, if you're thinking of this series for the same reason - don't. Just don't. So, now that we've pretty firmly established this is not a romance series, how is it as a sports anime? It is completely and utterly... adequate. My entire impression of this series is that "it's okay". But let's break it down: Story:  At heart, this is a series very... See full review

This series is almost like slice of life but for hitmen. Kind of a weird premise and it almost seems to work. The problem is that it feels like it's a periodical where it's a bunch of unrelated stories and they're trying desperately to tie them all together. And they actually do a relatively good job given the obvious problems.  First the unimportant stuff: animation is good when they choose to animate. There's a rather significant number of action sequences and you can tell they were picking and choosing what was important because we'll go from LOTS 'O ACTION to cut-to-still... See full review

At it's heart, this is a slice of life series. It's good, heartwarming at times, and uplifting overall but it still leaves a certain sense of... sadness. Be warned, slight spoilers ahead: I'm going to get the rest of the review out of the way before the spoilerish part dealing with the story. The animation was decent but there was never really anything I'd consider fast-paced. The whole story is relatively slow so there's a lot of framing rather than complex movements. Sound was about the same, but there was definitely some oddity when they'd switch to the "gaming" scenes. Like some of the... See full review

Let me just get it out of the way: I liked this series. I like it a lot. I liked it so much that I binge watched all 24 episodes in a single day because I just couldn't stop hitting the "next episode" button. For me, this series was reminiscent of Nodame Cantabile (minus the romance) or Haikyuu in that we, the audience, are introduced to a world that we probably knew very little about and it teaches us while the characters within the series learn as well. And, honestly, if you had told me "an anime about ballroom dancing will be fantastic" I would have just rolled my... See full review

The easiest way to describe Parasyte the maxim is by calling it a story of exaggerations. Obviously it's a work of science fiction but that's not the kind of exaggeration I'm talking about. When was the last time someone seriously asked you "are you human?" My guess is never but if you were to watch this anime you'd think people question the literal humanity of those around them all the time.  This story had a significant amount of promise, but, as mentioned before, the completely over the top exaggerations ruin the message and the pacing. The main character starts as an over-the-top brat... See full review

I genuinely believe the director/writers for this anime couldn't decide what story they wanted to tell and instead mashed a bunch together. They introduce a main character who they never expand on beyond a few quips at odd times and choose instead to focus on another character who faces the exact same internal crisis in nearly every episode. After about the third time of hearing the same dialogue, about the same issue, it just became annoying. There's never any explanation of why the problem exists in the first place. Then you throw in the fact that the first episode doesn't set up the... See full review

First and foremost, you need to understand that this is a very slow paced anime and given summary has very little to do with the actual story. A better synopsys is as follows: We're introduced to a class full of "defectives" where every person is harboring some secret flaw. The protagonist, arguably the most "defective" of all the students, is placed in various puzzle-like situations where he must use his reasoning skills to find the best solutions. All of this is happening while the protagonist is trying to maintain a low profile. Given the above, you quickly come to realize the... See full review

If you enjoyed the first season of Overlord, you may enjoy the second season too but be prepared because the second season has very little, if anything, to do with the MC. The entire second season is world building where they explore various other races or political drama.  Which, if you're anything like me, is extremely annoying. What made the first season enjoyable was watching the MC interact with his new world. It wasn't the greatest story, but it was still interesting and fleshed out fairly well. And so, what made the first season great, is completely absent from the second season. Like I said... See full review

If you are reading this review before watching the anime, please understand the title of the anime doesn't really have any bearing on the anime at all. It's almost disappointing that the very mechanic in the title With My Smartphone ended up being a very insignificant piece to the entire story. The story is essentially an Isekai story. Protagonist dies, "reincarnates" (not an actual reincarnation) to a medieval world, and gains phenomonal cosmic powers. This is a very popular genre in manga and light novels right now so it's not a surprise one from the genre was made into an... See full review

Overall this anime is fairly good, the problem is that you need to go into it with the right mindset. There's (barely) an overarching plot that ties the entire season together but in reality this series is more along the vein of Amagami in that every 3 or 4 episodes is a new, and separate, story. There's some continuation but for the most part once you watch the first few episodes to grasp the basic story you could jump ahead fairly easily; they even number the episodes within each arc. Lastly, be prepared to have a lot of unsolved mysteries unless there's a second season. Story The story itself isn't... See full review