Rascal

Audience Bias vs True Artistic Achievement The only thing that keeps this from being considered a true classic and one of the best anime ever made, is audience bias for the original. If this was the first trigun adaptation ever made, this may have been regarded as an instant modern classic and one of the best anime of all time. but since it wasnt... it isnt. Feeling bad for and also laughing at everyone who hasn’t watched this because “it’s cg” or “it’s a remake”. Just forget that berserk 2017 ever existed. As someone who watched the original Trigun years and... See full review

Welcome Back My past two reviews on this show have been largely negative. It may even seem, to people who just looked at the scores I was giving the seasons, that I hated My Hero Academia and all that it stood for. But that's not true. It's SO not true, because this season right here, THIS is My Hero Academia. This is what it stands for, and this is what I like. Ever since season two I have wanted this anime to stand tall and deliver on its high amount of promise and potential. But for a while I felt like it wasn't doing that. I felt like it just forgot about everything it set up and all its own themes... See full review

To Your Adaptation tl;dr Read the incredible manga after watching the amazing season one, instead of continuing with this mediocre adaptation of Oima's masterpiece. Unlike my review on the previous season, I don't have quite as much to say about this one, except to air my complaints on how badly the director and studio change has burned me. The first season is my favorite anime of all time and the manga is my favorite manga of all time. The first season made excellent use of pacing, music, and dialogue to set a fantastic atmosphere which was easily a big part of why I liked it. The director of this... See full review

Why We Watch Shounen The shounen subgenere/demographic of anime is characterized by continually building on what came before, and inspiring people with unforgettable moments of character growth. It isn't always the best, nor most artistic column of anime out there, and it's rarely, if ever, revolutionary. But when you think of Anime that are simply fun to watch, designed to give you a feeling of excitement that you can watch with your friends and make a night out of it, you'll likely think of a shounen. Blue Lock fulfils all of these requirements for being a good memorable shounen while also being... See full review

Bruh what if AI was like, god or something When I started the first episode of this, I was thinking what a joy it was to have another hard scifi anime in my life with well-realized technology, a lived-in world, and complicated systems explained smoothly and brilliantly. And then I saw a dementia-ridden old man in a transforming robot rabbit spacesuit wearing a sailor uniform transform into the incredible hulk. Even so it was the best sci-fi I had seen all year; and the only anime to have something really intelligent to say about science, AI, and our society. I won't claim that it does so with the... See full review

Sweets & Cafe & Fascism When I first heard of this anime, I thought for sure it was a light novel adaptation. It might as well be. Generic character designs, weird name, ect. But it turns out, it's an anime original. Which is disappointing on a number of levels. Anime originals should be free from the recent moefication of all anime caused in part by such light novel adaptations. But I digress. What I thought would be my problems with this anime did not end up being what amounted to my very huge, unavoidable problem with it. The animation and soundtrack is good, super good even. It has excellent... See full review

A Flawed Magnum Opus BELLE is two movies. The more visually artistic and experimentive one, the "U" one, is a quickly written Disney bootleg. It's less refined in its story and characters, and feels like it was written by somebody who watched "beauty and the beast" and only wanted to emulate the motifs, artisticness, and contrast... but didn't have the same vision that made that movie and story so impactful. Or rather, he wanted to do that but didn't actually understand it. He was trying to emulate something that wasn't appropriate for the story he was trying to tell. The... See full review

Shikimori's Not Just a Gimmick I really didn't expect this to be the show that impressed me the most this season, if anything I expected that from Summer Time Rendering. I think that one is full of anime tropes that it doesn't really do anything with.

The two aren't comparable in terms of plot or goals but there's something to be said for the value of playing with tropes in a medium where so often things are exactly what they seem. The girl character is a girl with the personality of girl, there are like three types and every character is one of them. It gets old.

Shikimori's... See full review

Zero to Zero Cranking out a movie adaptation of a current mainstream shounen seems like it's becoming the more and more popular thing to do, so why not take advantage of the existance of a spinoff that adds nothing to the world or characters. Under such a popular IP, it's sure to make a quick buck regardless of it's quality, so this kind of thing is easy to shit out with a big return on relatively low investment. That prospect may sound good, but it sounds even better if you're MAPPA and you have some idle slave labor to throw at it and not pay. Thus Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was born.  --intermission-- Hey... See full review

Written by Writers, Played by Gamers If you put a bunch of musicians in a room wtih some storyboarders, what kind of story do you think they would make? Well since they love music so much, they might write a story about musicians using the power of music to fight evil monsters who hate music, and make the villains the antithesis of the joy and beauty of music. Surely they would go for some all encompassing statement on music in general, right? After all they love music so much, they are obsessed with it and would marry it if they could. That's probably the same thinking the writers of this anime had... See full review

No Pirate's Life Anime originals are an exciting thing. It's a pain to get them greenlit as opposed to manga adaptations, they can be a source of unlimited creativity and use of talent, and for that reason, most of my favorite anime are originals. But for some reason, writers of anime originals can sometimes completely miss the mark on their subject and write like they're flailing around on a stage, getting all their lines wrong, and then expecting applause by the end. How I picture it going down was, the idea for this show was pitched just as the title, Fena: Pirate Princess, and the writer who was at... See full review

Isn't living the reason for life itself? Before I begin, let me preface this by saying that if you haven't seen this anime yet, at least its first episode, then don't read this review. In fact, don't read any review. Just take this first paragraph as a heartfelt reccomendation, to pick this anime up, and experience it for yourself. Because this review WILL spoil the first episode, which for me is necessary for a review of this anime. Now, with that out of the way, let's move on. let's see what's out there I don't want to jump the proverbial gun and say this is the best anime ever made. But I can at... See full review

The Hummingbird and the Nomad *spoiler-lite review. Spoilers of Season 1 will be given. There is no getting around it.* "The winged one carries the wingless one, and the wingless one blesses the winged one." Wherever you may wander, and whatever may happen, all roads lead back home. But sometimes, you need a guide to lead you there. Life will provide this guide to you in some form. For some, it takes the form of whatever you have left after the journey of life; whatever you have to go back to. While Megalo Box season one was the perfect example of a hero's journey, Megalo Box: Nomad is the... See full review

Let's Fly While We Can *spoiler-lite review* "I don't like sports anime" Right now, you're looking at a quote attributed to... me, about two years ago. I've come a long way since then, huh? I mean, you're reading this review, and you've no doubt looked at the score, so you must realize my opinion on sports anime changed a lot since I first said those words. However, it wasn't really because my feelings on it changed overtime or anything like that. As time went on, the definition of what I thought of as "sports anime" broadened by a very wide margin the more I explored the medium... See full review

Going Nowhere PLUS ULTRA *spoiler-free review* This will be a review for the first half of the season. Let's start this off by establishing one thing. There have been many shounen anime brought into the public eye which feature some kind of gimmick that covers every relevant character. For anime like Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Demon Slayer, Black Clover, it's all some interchangable word. "martial artist", "pirate", "ninja", "soul reaper", "demon slayer"...? "wizard". For My Hero Academia, it's "heroes". Now, usually the... See full review

The Avengers of Tortured Souls Originally, I was going to wait until this anime was over to write a review on it, because it very well may drastically change in the later few episodes, but I've come to realize that it really doesn't matter what the last few episodes are like, when it pertains to my opinion of the series right now. I might as well just write it all out, so that even if later on my views on it change, this review will still be a testament to how unbelievably impressive this anime was during it's run and how much of a profound effect it had on me while I was watching it. The hearts and... See full review

*disclaimer: the author of this review is a shounen fan.* Bad Juju The latest turd to fall out of the ass of Shounen Jump Weekly has gotten an ill-advised Studio Mappa adaptation, and man does it suck seeing all that talent go into something so painfully undeserving. This anime is essentially the lovechild of Bleach/Naruto and Fairy Tail if it was raised by Mob Psycho 100 had less interesting characters than all three. I cannot overstate how generic this anime is. If you're looking for a show that breaks new ground or offers anything of substance, this isn't it. The main thing you can't trust is the... See full review

Wandering Bitch: The Journey of Who Gives a Shit When the man who wrote Kino's Journey: The Beautiful World came up with the splendid idea to have an episodic fantasy show starring an individual traveling from country to country philosophically handling metaphorical quandaries representing the human condition, I bet he never expected his vision would one day get twisted into the pretzel of misery and misguided ignorance lookin like a snake 69-ing itself that is Elaina's Journey: the Bullshit world. However, watching Kino to get the gist of the general idea this anime was based on can never truly prepare... See full review

I Want to Make Anime! Jesus christ, where do I even start with this one. There's a lot of personal appeal this one had for me, and it's hard to exactly pinpoint down where it all came from. Eizouken is an anime about three middle school girls who want to make animation, in a film club they founded during their school lives. The episodes follow their escapades in the struggles to get animation done, covering all the nuances of the process, as well as the creative process and expressing best it can the pure passion and spirit of those who love anime. This lively, imaginative experiment of an anime from... See full review

Hunting in The Clear Blue Every now and then an anime will come along that will just completely pass everyone by, no matter how impressive it is. And I can definitely say that Drifting Dragons may just be one of the most underrated anime of all time. It at least is that for this current year. This anime takes great inspiration from Monster Hunter and Guns of Icarus, bringing a fresh, interesting Fantasy world to the table that just feels adventurous by nature, which is rare to come by in anime. The Worldbuilding is what contributes a lot to the score I'm giving it. This is a world where Drakers earn money... See full review

Somewhere Between Edgy and Boring Darwin's Game is quite possibly the best Death Game anime ever. Do these words not excite you? Do they not enthrall you? No? Well that's probably because it's not such a high bar to clear. Death Game anime where a bunch of people fight until one person survives are commonplace in the industry. There are multiple problems with the genre, such that by its very nature, most endeavors into it will be overwhelmingly edgy, and difficult to praise critically because it relies on this trait for entertainment. So how does Darwin's Game rise above the rest like a unenthusiastic... See full review

Lovebusters Ah, love. An NP-complete problem that will challenge scientists until the end of time. But what if a couple of the brightest young lovestruck minds in the scientific circle put their heads together to finally solve the great mysteries of human romantic connection? Science Fell in Love sets out to answer just that. The comedy is the centerpiece of the series, and you either will get the joke or you won't. For some the concept that they repeat in different forms may seem mundane, after all it's just two silly kids over-analyzing their feelings for each other in terms of scientific hypothesis... See full review

You Say Garbage My Hero Academia continues its quest to systematically murder the battle-shounen genre in its 4th installment, which promises to be more epic than any that came before it. Can it end its previous seasons' trends of never developing its secondary cast in any meaningful way, making its characters mary sues, never giving enough time to important events, and using one repeated piece of OST to cover for its lack of substance? Nope. To elaborate: The overhaul arc happened. And when it happens, oh boy does it happen with a whimper. It wasn't like the show had built up a reputation for... See full review

The Aggressive Knife Salesman *spoiler-free review* Ah, feudal Japan. How I love you. So many Feudal-japan-set things that I just absolutely adore lately. Dororo, Champloo, Sekiro, I'm super excited for Ghost of Tsushima, but until recently there's been a particular thing missing from my repitoire of edo-era goodness. The proverbial soul stone of the eastern warrior infinity collection, as it were, and one I had been wanting to get at for quite a while, and that was Sword of the Stranger. Created by my favorite anime studio, bones, animated mostly by my favorite animator, Yutaka Nakamura- I had no idea... See full review

Zootopia: The Yiffening *spoiler-free review* Beastars is not just for the furries. Yeah, everyone was thinking it was, but it's really not. You may be slightly more comfortable with some of the themes if you're a furry, but that's about it, and no matter who you are, there's a good chance the show will effect you in the same way. Such is the power of a well thought-out story and relatable characters. Story - it isn't the most complex story in anime or anything, but that's not what we're going to be focusing on. Long synopsis short, it's about a wolf boy who falls in love with a rabbit girl and has... See full review

You're just too beautiful girl, that's why it'll never work, you'll have me Suicidal *spoiler-lite review* [Anime of the Season Edition] Where oh where to start with Babylon. There's a reason it's my favorite anime of Fall 2019, but the thing is, it's hard to put my finger on it without spoilers. Babylon is one wacky ride, one minute you think you're watching another boring Novel adaptation, the next you realize there's some genuinely disturbing terror unfolding right before your eyes, one half baffling, the other half extrordinary, the whole thing intriguing to a fault. The Story is pretty... See full review

Getting Stoned *spoiler-lite review* In a world where everyone has unexpectedly gotten stoned, it's up to anime Sheldon Cooper who unexpectedly awakens thousands of years later to rebuild civilization from the ground up, while assisting others in overcoming their vices, all through the incredible power of SCIENCE!!! Yeah, it's unfortunate that this anime doesn't count as a cautionary tale against legalizing weed, but alas, the show must go on. At least, it does go on 3000 years after it starts. One of the best things about Dr. Stone is how inherently interesting its premise is and how it presents... See full review

Otterly Painful (Spoiler-free review) Sarazanmai is the latest brain-fart of "visionary" anime director Kunihiko Ikuhara, creator of such acclaimed cult classics as Penguindrum and Revolutionary Girl Utena. As the first of Kunihiko Ikuhara's works I've encountered, Sarazanmai, needless to say, does not exactly convince me of the quality of the others, so I can't comment on expectations that come with this show having seen the director's other works, as I went into this with a fresh perspective. If you want a perspective from an Ikuhara vet or fanboy, look elsewhere. No strings or bias... See full review

Ticket pays for the whole seat but you'll only need the [] spoiler-free review Mahou Shoujo Site is an anime about little girls with big dreams. Wait, no, scratch that. It's about little girls in a nightmare whose dreams have been crushed by a memetic hydraulic press of dispair and depression. This anime is so... full of angst that it's almost offensive at times, and underwhelmingly weak at others. The combination is an unusual one but definitely disappointing. Following madoka magica's example of a dark magical girl anime, this starts out with a story that follows a young girl who's relentlessly... See full review

AITAAA! Hinamatsuri is a very pretty Slice of Life Comedy, or as I like to call it, a SolCom, about a girl with psychic powers named Hina, and a yakuza boss name Nitta, as well as their relationship. To start off the review of this disappointment I'll admit my biases: i fully expected this anime to be primarily comedy at the beginning and make good use of psychic powers in both its presentation, and story, as well as its comedy that I hoped would be frequent and well-done. But this is not that. If you're expecting a good comedy with a quirky premise and a great story and real vision behind it, go watch... See full review