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Solo Leveling is about as generic of a shounen story in a game-esque setting as it's going to get

Your character basically fills the list of main character characteristics

- is a coward
- is dumb
- lots of yelling
- lots of flashbacks about being weak

The biggest issue isn't the guy being a coward, it's just repeated too much, and doesn't feel explored properly. But second to being weak is that he's also dumb. The guy has no thoughts about how to play around his weakness, doesn't try to analyze the situation or the enemies to get an advantage. He basically goes head first into everything, and guess what, ... it always works out.

Are you struggling to fight off 2 wolves? Don't worry, you'll suddenly be able to fight off a dozen wolves easier (for no real reason).

Did you put all your points into strength? No worries, you'll move like you put them all into agility, while tanking hits like you put them all into vitality.

Did you leave your intelligence at default? No worries, you don't need it anyway, because everything will work out because you're the protagonist.

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As for the rest of the show, the yelling and flashbacks are per usual to these kind of stories, and they're always bad because they last longer than needed and detract from the current scene.

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Overall, this is basically main character syndrome made into an anime. There are basically no other characters, besides a love interest who's currently sidelined.

Dungeon Meshi should be the golden standard for fantasy style cooking.

Often times, we will have isekai stories where the protagonist basically just reintroduces Japanese cuisine into the new world, without ever really utilizing the native ingredients in creative way.

Then we have stories (like Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi), where the protagonist basically actively avoids interacting with the new world, and we have a very boring slice-of-life where the protagonist is just basically living in Japan in terms of meals.

And lastly, we have the reaction style shows where isekai people eat modern/Japanese food and we just see their reactions (Isekai Shokudou)

Dungeon Meshi properly utilizes the ... environment to create new, yet familiar dishes, which are prepared in a believable manner. It is also not lacking in action, which leaves the show with a very good blend of humor, food, and action.

Hyakkano initially started off as a parody to the harem trope, in the sense that the jokes poke fun at the usual romance paths and introductions. But quickly, the shown as grown into a true and well-developed romance show itself.

We have our male protagonist Aijo Rentaro, who is pleasantly assertive. He actually pursues the girls and gets them in a convincing way. He is also very respectful of them, without coming off a some sort of beta cuck. And the girls reciprocate by showing him their affection.

The girls themselves are also exceptional and not just there just for the sake of being obtained, they have ... a surprising amount of character development. From a shy, quiet girl who tries to open up, to a academic focused girl learning about the necessity of fun, to a tsundere who's body conscious and learns to accept her own form of appeal.

The art is also great, making the girls highly attractive. Mixed in with ample, but not overbearing fan service, and it's a show that you'll want to play over and over again.

The OP and ED are also great. The OP being satirical in nature, while the ED being more cute and lovey.

Overall, this show condenses the drawn out nature of courtship of most other romance comedy shows (like Kaguya-sama), and leaves a very satisfying conclusion because everything is done with sincerity and bravery on the male's part; as opposed to the usual "finally, they got together".

Liar Liar, sounds like a good show about deception right? Except it isn't. Because the whole premise is about cheating, and not even in a smart way. Let's begin with our main character.

Our main character is secretly a very intelligent person, like Senku from Dr. Stone, and uses subtlety to... I'm kidding, the main character is literally just a background character. He has no special ability and basically beats the end game boss on his first day through sheer luck. And through a series of convoluted reasons, she and him now have to keep up the mask that he's actually a really great player. ... And the way they do this... is through cheating.

However, this cheating is absolutely dumb and is literally just deus ex machina. In fact, this whole show is just ass-pulled "abilities" that we don't get introduced until the game actually starts, and you have to try and play catch up with what's going on. Each game is different, has different rules, and abilities aren't recycled, so watchers will feel like they're just watching some random stuff happening, then a "MC WINS!".

If you want a comparison to what this show is basically like, then Iseleve would be the reference point.

An excellent show that highlights the psychology of women and should be a must watch for any man.

If you are a man who's been nice to a woman suffering from familial abuse for many years, to the point that she develops feelings for you. None of that will matter, because the moment she encounters a man who is better looking, richer and of higher status, she'll instantly forget about you.

Based blackpill anime.

Oh, I should probably mention that there's also some supernatural elements thrown in as well. As well as something about aristocrats marrying for political reasons, but they're not very important to the message.

In an anime era where shows are visually sparkly clean and plots are derivatives of each other (super strong protagonists who will get through anything and everything, and where their struggles feel forced or disingenuous), we finally have a show that harkens back to a time when stories actually portrayed more realistic people, rather than superheroes without the label of a superhero.

The art style is reminiscent of earlier eras and the color palette is desaturated to emphasise the premise of the story, which is that people can no longer use real fire, as otherwise they will combust, which makes the world feel much darker.

The animation ... and art style is a juxtaposition to every other title in this day and age, but they sometimes fail to come across as an artistic choice, and may feel like just poor execution.

Character design is also nice, in the sense that facially people do look quite different from another, whereas modern characters, both men and women, tend to have the same face, with the only visual distinction being largely hairstyle/color and eyes.

The story is its strongest point as we explore how people live in a world where they can no longer use fire, and are reliant on a form of pseudo-fire which can only be gained through hunting monsters. There are some underlying politics as well which is very light as of now, as we are still exploring the worker/hunter side of living in a world filled with monsters that are humanity's main source of fuel.

A show that feels like it's trying to ride on the tailwind of Spy x Family and The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting, but captures neither the enjoyability of either show.

To sum things up, Miri is just plain annoying without redeeming qualities, and the two dad are just plain incompetent.

Spy x Family is great, because while Anya can be incompetent at times (which is actually presented in a humorous way), she actually also does help out and does understand her place within the mission; by providing opportunities. In this sense she is even more of a spy than Loid, because not even he knows of her ... efforts.
When it comes to Loid and Yor, they accomplish their missions through competency, which is consistently reinforced through everything they do, from disguises to playing tennis.

In Yakuza's guide, Yaeka displays a mature, yet still childish personality. When she pouts, she does it in a cute and mature way, that makes her even more lovable.
Meanwhile, Tooru is shown as being highly violent and strong. So him, suddenly having to look after a child, his own boss's no less, lets the viewer see Tooru develop a different side of him. And at no point is Tooru suddenly shown as being incompetent.

However, in Buddy Daddies, they do the opposite of what makes the other two shows great.
Kazuki is dumb and dumber combined. He is initially shown as an intelligent hitman who can plan for a contract and has the ability to disguise himself. Yet, all this intelligence is thrown out the window when he seemingly can't even plan childcare, and is oddly attached to a child he has no real connections to.
Rei is pretty much how Kazuki should be, but of course if they were both roughly the same, there wouldn't be a story since Miri wouldn't have been looked after. And then there's Miri, which is the main source of the show's problem.
Miri may exhibit qualities of a real child, but realistic does not mean enjoyable. Her place in the show is basically a bad luck totem that brings down literally everyone around her. Kazuki and Rei's hitman skills are negated and the enemies are made even more incompetent.
To use a game analogy, it's like watching a gold ranked player playing against a bronze ranked player. You can see all of the mistakes that the gold ranked player is making, but they defeat the bronzed ranked player simply because they are even worse. And that's basically how the missions play out. Kazuki and Rei will live simply because of plot armor. Which gives the viewer no reason to watch nor care, because you know that no matter how incompetent they may become, the enemy will always be more incompetent. If they were to accidentally drop a grenade in front themselves, I'm sure one of the thugs would somehow end up grabbing the grenade and running off with it before it explodes, thus saving the two protagonists.
In fact, the attitude of Miri isn't the main issue, but Kazuki. Because it's like watching a kid running and screaming in a mall. While the kid may be annoying, equal or greater blame is going to be placed on the parent for not properly disciplining their kid.

To sum things up, this show is just annoying to watch. And there are plenty of other similar shows that are simply NOT annoying.

So, this is as generic with as heavy of a plot armor as it can get. Intelligence is unneeded, consequences means nothing, everything will fall into the protagonists lap despite basically doing everything to undermine himself.

Like a lot of these type of shows, the protagonist is a bashful male who happens to just have women (2 in this case) swooning over him. He also has hidden powers (high mana), that the teachers did not detect, for some reason, and can act as a goody-two shoes without real consequences, because someone will always bail him out.

So why is intelligence not needed? Basically, everything is going to ... explained right up front for you, because the protagonist has literally 0 understanding of what's going on around him. In episode 6, the villain (professor) literally makes two attempts at letting the protagonist guess what was going on, and still ended up needing to spell it out.

So why do consequences means nothing? As previously mentioned, the protagonist just gets bailed out.
- Fight one of the most powerful students in the school? Just keep casting one spell and your familiar will sort it out. No need to learn or prepare for anything.
- Die while trying to protect the villain (because you're a goody two shoes), don't worry, your familiar will just revive you!

With such a lack of stake and development, there's nothing to get invested in.

To summarise it simply, Hai to Gensou is basically a story that doesn't know what audience it's trying to target and what genre it's trying to be in.

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*Spoilers henceforth*

Story: 2

First of all, if it wasn't for all the combat and amount of fanservice I would have thought the story was targetted towards women, given the amount of emotional drama that keeps going on. People keep crying about the guy that died earlier throughout the series, along with all the whining about how incompetent they are, as well as some blame games going on. They don't seem to properly resolve their emotional issues as they just ... flip in and out of their emotional states like a switch, with us only knowing that they probably overcame their sadness because the guy is eventually mentioned very little.

Next. It's yet again, an RPG theme, not that I particularly mind. However, it doesn't seem to know whether it wants to be a fantasy RPG (like Log Horizon) or a real life RPG (like Danmachi). It seems to want to be a fantasy RPG because of stuff like classes and the characters waking up with amnesia. Yet it wants to be a real life RPG as well because of hunger, money management and actually dying.

But the most striking thing is the lack of exploring the mechanics of the world. Why are there classes? There is a magic system in this world and it comes in the form of chanting, but we're not explained how it works. Can only special people use it? And what does it run on? We don't know, other than "I can't cast anymore". If everyone has magic, then why can't you just cross classes and have everyone learn a healing spell? Also, there's nothing really stopping our protagonist, Haruhiro, from learning to use the bow as well to provide support from behind. Another thing is that goblins and kobolds (our introduced creatures) are treated like some sort of thoughtless grind mobs, even though we see a lot of what looks like human qualities.

The third thing that irks me is the atrocious communication as a team. No one seems to know what their other party members are capable of doing or what their strengths and weaknesses are. They only have a vague idea and pretty much always just rush in and ad hoc it, yet they somehow manage to pull it off. But it's not only just their dialogues which are horrible, it's also their actions. So much of the time it's as though they're waiting for prompts from someone else before doing anything. An example is in Ep11 where Haruhiro just fell off a tower and gets grabbed by Ranta. Then silence... After which Ranta then immediately yells at Haruhiro to start climbing. Yep, you got that right, Haruhiro just starts AFKing or something after he gets caught and needed Ranta to wake him up.

Another problem is their illogical decision making. They literally spent the first few eps trying to kill a goblin because everyone has to go in one at a time. The other plot device was basically going to the kobold mines. Now there's a good reason why they shouldn't go to the mines, which everyone already knows why, and what prompted them to need to change hunting grounds was because the original spot became too dangerous. Now, the reasoning for going to the kobold mines was literally "I don't know where else to go".

This had potential to be a decent slice-of-life or maybe even romance story given that those moments weren't actually too bad. What ruined that potential was that the author wanted to write an RPG story but seems to have no basic concepts on how fantasies, let alone, RPGs work, while also wanting to include fanservice.

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Art: 8

I'm actually not too fond of the background art, yet it was pulled off quite nicely. The background art is some sort of watercolour, yet the typically drawn characters don't actually stand out from the background, rather they actually blend in pretty well.

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Sound: 8

I actually like the OP and ED songs and the voice actors did a pretty good job distinguishing themselves as unique characters. Haruhiro has a pretty nice monologue voice and I liked Mary's somewhat mature voice.

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Character: 2

Basically, apart from Mary, everyone is just whiny. Everyone is always either complaining or moaning about something. There's never actually any thought put into their occupation.

I feel that Manato was killed off because the author realised the imbalance of genders as he already wrote it, and needed to kill someone off so Mary would join, thus making it 3 girls 3 guys.

Mary and Haruhiro seem to be getting pretty close, while Ranta and Yume might eventually, which leaves Moguzo and Shihoru.

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Enjoyment: 2

Every episode was basically me thinking: "So... are they going to grow a brain now or is the plot armour going to wear off".
But then I was surprised and disappointed by the deus ex machina at the very last episode.

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Overall: 2
Everything about this title feels half assed. It's like the author only had nominal ideas in his mind then just wrote down what he learnt in drama school. Teamwork is non-existent, decision making skills are that of a toddler, and worst of all, the ending is deus ex machina.

And if I had to make a comparison. This story feels like it wants to be something like AnoHana, but the emotional side gets smudged out by people's consistent whining of the same thing and stagnant fights.

Dagashi Kashi doesn't really feel like an anime per se, more of an advertisement along with a history lesson.

So the general story is that Hotaru one day appears at Kokonotsu's candy store to persuade You (his father) to join her company, but You will only agree if Kokonotsu takes over the candy store. And... that's pretty much where the story ends because from thenceforth every episode is exploring a different Japanese candy, how delicious they are, and their history, along with some light fan service. So basically, this is like Shokugeki no Souma lite.

In regards to art and sound they're okay. The art is better ... than average so it's an 8 while the sound is an average of 7.

The characters are pretty stagnant which would've been okay in a slice-of-life but I feel as though there should be a bit more to them. Kokonotsu also has a childhood friend who secretly likes him and for whatever reason she serves, we don't really know.

Overall, the anime is okay. It's really something that's acceptable to watch while you eat to pass the time, but it's not something I would recommend you to go out of your way to watch unless you're really interested in learning about Japanese candy that you may want to try.