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Aug 6, 2022
Short
This rather simple slice of anime was relaxing to watch. It isn’t doing anything in particular except being a story about the everyday life of a game designer brought in moe style. While this is more like ‘cute girls doing cute things’ there is not much story to it. Fun to watch but nothing to serious.
Plot
There is this girl, Aoba Suzukaze, who looks like a high schooler but she just got rolled into a game producing company. There she learns that she works on her favorite childhood game and starts to work with her new colleagues. Of course she super happy about that and
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starts with her job. She is a graphic designer and has art skills but no 3D modeling. So she learns 3D modeling quite fast. Meanwhile she hits it off with her colleagues. Later her friend joins the company as a clumsy part-timer. When the deadline nears most of the required work is done but a few things need to be finished like debugging. After the product lounge she learns that she will work on the next game with Kou Yagami (her super visor) and is thrilled to work again.
Overall the plot isn’t something that would excite me with slice of life. The lack of character development or technical info in game making is making this show kind of boring. What it does try to do is make this up by placing cute girls in the office. And its just girls. Last time I saw a male in the anime was in the last episode with announcement of the game. I wished it was more detailed on the theme of ‘game making’ instead of putting a girl in the office and she happens to make a game.
Story
What was kind of a bummer was that everything went to smooth. There was no conflict or time to grow or develop as gamer. Even when the game was finished I had no feeling of satisfaction. Since the anime does a poor job of translating how much time passes it feels like Aoba was only working on it for a week. There is not much to say in the story department as there were 6 characters worth noting and they didn’t have particular deep going personalities.
The way how Aoba just rolls in the company and befriends everyone goes in quite a natural fashion. The one who was really interesting was Hifumi but she wasn’t that deep dived into. At least Hifumi had her thoughts displayed as well as some extra background information which formed more of a character than the rest of the cast.
I think the overall weak point of this anime is that it does a bad job translating the feelings of the character into a dynamic conversation which draws the watcher in. rather it brushes quite easily over the more serious parts like the fight between Aoba and her friend with humor and more slice of life stuff.
Throughout the anime there were hints of girl love with the perverted CEO Shizuku and other characters. I thought this was a neat touch but turned out to be yuri-bait only. There was no romance in this anime. Not even when it tried to be romantic.
In the closing scenes we finally get some spice due to knowing more of Kou her background. This got me stocked on how they were going to tackle the problems of forming the teams for the next game (season)
Characters
All characters do look very cute. Most of the characters personality can be summed up in two sentences. They have all very bubbly personalities in their own way.
As said earlier the more interesting character is Hifumi since she’s the silent one. But one extra we see is that she values her pets reaction a lot. Besides that she likes to cosplay which is very funny. She has an eccentric hobby for being an shy person.
I do have to mention Nene Sakura. Damn she’s annoying. Being called a high-schooler while sitting on university is no compliment. But Nene takes that tittle with pride. Her short sighted vision and her inability to calmly asses the situation makes her very hyper. I thought that this didn’t fit the show at all and overall her performance just annoyed me. Her loud appearance didn’t really contribute to my enjoyment of the anime
Cinematics
Hmm. Well it wasn’t anything special here. The build up of tension or the stretch of world building was really absent here. We get half body shots and mostly just seeing the walls of the workplace. There was exactly one scene where they did a continuous 180 degree shot at the end and that was the most impressive shot. But this isn’t the anime to boast about having great cinematic feeling.
Part of the boredom was how the “camera” was always a body length away. So no closed in or far away shots to add a bit of moodiness to the scenes.
Closing thoughts
I liked the anime for the cute character design and the easy going plot. If I would point an anime out of being the sliced of life then this would be a good pick. Not overly exciting and not terrible either. Its okay. It’s entertaining to a degree. Maybe I’ll enjoy season 2 more know how season one was as a whole.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 19, 2022
This is an anime which was refreshing to watch. Yet it has some shortcomings which can be forgiven if you’re into fantasy anime with tsunderes. The familiar of Zero is light, funny, sometimes surprising and so playful. I finished this in 2 days and it kept me hooked, looking for a second season. So in terms of entertainment a job well done. So what is The Familiar of Zero and what can you expect form it.
This is a fantasy isekai anime with a touch of ecchi and drama. If your alarm bells go off by the word “OMG NOOOO ISEKAAAAAI ASKFAOWFJ” then yeah, run for
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it. Oh you’re still here? And you’re not Gigguk? Okay then well let me explain why I liked this but also loafed it for it. The isekai part self is kind off underwhelming. It’s obvious the newcomer has no information about the current world nor the standards and history of it. It bothers me that he didn’t get taught that but I’m also fine with it. “usually” the protagonist of an isekai uses its knowledge. However this MC refuses to do that. The otherworldly aspect is just shoved aside as one of his personality traits. This gives something raw and something different to look at.
The characters are all so loveable. Easily categorizable and predictable behaviour. This makes the contrast of their action even more pronounced and enjoyable to watch. The biggest growth and change in personality are from the two MC Saito and Louise.
Louise isn’t your typical tsundere nor is she a special case. Her actions are often more justified as a class trademark rather than the “it’s not that I like you or anything bakaaa”. I think the way how she softens over time and changes her way of interacting with Saito is very subtle and charming. Sometimes I wish she was a bit less obnoxious but I can’t blame her when the feeling of being the odd one out is bothering so much.
I’m glad Saito isn’t your run of the mill MC who will protect everyone just because. He protects them cus of oppai. And that is a cause I support. But jokes aside. His reactions are almost never what I expect and that is what I like about him. He’s strong and knows what defines him. His yearning for his home isn’t something that is a bother to others. His cunning way of using information to his advantage is often done more so in a way it’s his own skill instead of a convenience.
Special note: I would totally be fawning over Kirche.
The other characters are not super special. The great thing about the other females are that they are not presenting themselves as part of a harem. So if you don’t like the harem aspect, this is a good anime for you. The antagonist isn’t such a bother and there is not much to write about them. They probably are going to shine in the next season.
The music is good. It sets the mood and perfectly accompanies any scenes there is. With a variety of background music there is no feeling of unnecessary repetition. The animation however is just average. It doesn’t look bad but it was never stunning.
It’s a sort of slice of life with a simple story behind it. I like it for not making it to complicated or more sophisticated than it needed to be. While some things could have been more exciting there were plenty of moments that held my attention and excitement. Check out for yourself if you love fantasy or cute tsunderes. Sometimes funny more often times just okay, an anime which you will love for it’s simplicity.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 6, 2021
Cowboy Bebop takes you on this awesome journey accompanied with a perfectly matched soundtrack. It has a retro vibe and uses the power of different types of genres to glue together an interesting story.
First of all, the music totally slaps. With a mix of jazz and blues it creates the perfect mood for each scene. Music is also import as it matches the pace at which events happen. It’s composed just like live music at a musical and that is what makes it so magical.
Sound design overall is just very pleasant. FX is very fitting for the devices used.
The last aspect about sound is that
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the voice acting is superb. Each character just lives on your screen , partially due to the lively voice acting and fitting voices.
Each character has a load of personality. Each is very defined but also refined. Modern characters could be summed up in a few sentences, but the character from cowboy bebop their mannerism let them write books about themselves.
First off our protagonist Spike. A charismatic person, long slender and surprisingly strong. He’s a real marksman when it comes to shoot-offs and he’s a great pilot as well. We don’t know much of him but a few fragments from his past. So you can add an air of mystery to him as well. What makes him so likeable is that he unlike modern protagonist, Spike is actually doing is job as a cowboy, not being bother about doing the right or wrong thing.
Jet is also a lovable person. He almost looks like a toy monkey. Being the engineer of the ship we get to see him a little bit less in action. An interesting thing is that he sees Spike as a comrade but not as a necessity.
Lastly we have our fairy Faye Valentine. My personal favorite of the show. She’s a femme fatale, being also skilled at flying and shooting she helps Spike in getting bounties or into trouble. Her amnesia makes her yearn to know more about her past.
All these 3 characters are desperately trying to look forward but they are bound by their past. They have something to look back to or to regret and that is also what motivates certain story elements. When the end of the series is nearing everything sort of beautifully falls into place with each other.
Bonus mention Edward (aka Ed). She’s absolutely adorable. Her carefree attitude and her hacking skills are so funny to watch. She’s a real waifu 10/10 with such a great skin tone.
I could thoroughly enjoy this anime. The plot elements are amazing. Everything fits within that one episode but also connects to the bigger picture. It mixes a bit into action and slice of life. There were episodes which had a very light and joyful tone and others were very heavy. Cowboy Bebop mixes just the right amount of mood each time creating a perfect ambiance thorough the story without feeling out of place once.
For some scenes I was really feeling up or down, with the character. The anime succeed in making me emotionally invested in the events largely because of the right soundtrack.
The action was also plenty. It was really nice to see a skilled gunman without him being overly protected by plot armor. On top of that the flow of hand to hand combat was also really refreshing to see.
In summary, Cowboy Bebop brings a mix between action and slice of life accompanied with the perfect soundtrack. The 26 episodes together are one coherent story but every episode can also be seen as a standalone. The feeling of them just being free and roaming the galaxy is so liberating. If you like retro styled space cowboys then this your perfect fit!
Cowboy Bebop also reminds me of the style of Trigun and Gurren Lagann
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 10, 2021
Beautiful story
Capture the essence of SoL
Full of colours
For a while I was just mindlessly binging slice of life (SoL) anime. Then I stumbles on this gem, hidden between the other Netflix movies. Words bubble up like soda pop really captures the essence of the SoL genre; showing the adventures of people which happen in daily life, but just a bit, enough to become attached by them. I was first surprised by the style of the anime and then later on by the story. Here’s a review for those interest in my interpretation and enjoyment of this anime.
Story
For a movie this was very much directed towards
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the growth of the two main characters and a bit of adventure for our old man (grandpa Yamazaka). It touched the subjects of bodily insecurities as well as shyness/comfortability around other people. And this anime did it not in a overbearing way which made me all the much more invested into the characters.
Cherry develops himself more sociable around others and Smile learns to loosen up about her buck teeth. As by fate they meet at the mall when Cherry is working and Smile is doing her live-stream. From this point forward its just a go happy time where Cherry and Smile interacts with each other to grow closer. The beauty of this part is that no development is forced upon the story but it very naturally flows forth from “teens doing teenager things”.
As we progress further we find out that the grandpa is looking for a record. It turns out to be more emotional than it was for the sake of adventure. At the end of the anime when all ends come together it was a climax of emotional moment for me.
The mix of interacting and showing stuff here was pretty well balanced as well as showing the serenity of a suburban city.
The fluent transition from character introduction to being friends and then towards the festival really smooth. Somethings doesn’t have to happen for a reason. They happen because you want to or simply because “it happens”. If you’re the type who wants a deep plot or story connections on deeper levels (lore diggers) then this might provide to little cohesion. Other than that, it was a perfect entertainer for a weekend night.
Characters
While the characters don’t really get to be fleshed out, the anime presents it’s cast like you would get to know other persons to. Not to detailed and not to in depth. For an anime of roughly 3-4 episodes long, character expansion was sufficient. The supporting characters were like, you would expect it, not to much shown. But other than other shows, these side characters are often besides the main character instead of being available but absent. The use of nicknames also implies that the characters have more history together than we know.
Cherry is a timid boy. He’s shy and doesn’t like to talk/listen to people. So communicating is hard for him. He express his feelings in his haiku. What I like about him is that he tries to be more sociable. He also show signs of being a hard worker by planning his to do stuff in advance as well as wanting to help others out.
His shyness is often more cute than it’s disturbing (unlike most shy characters). Seeing him grow and change at the end of the anime is so satisfying to see.
Smile is our vlogger, looking out for cute things to report in her stream. Smile represents the teens which feel insecure and unhappy about their own body. She hasn’t accepted who she is and is ashamed for her buckteeth. The funny thing is that the buckteeth seem like normal anime teeth in other anime. Ironic for her name Smile, you hardly see her true face.
Her enthusiasm and sociability makes you love her very quickly.
Anime
My first impression of this anime was that it was very colourful. Everything looked like it could just pop out my screen. The upbeat soundtracks as well as the dynamic camera angles made me stick to my screen. While I did notice the use of CGI background and objects, it didn’t bother me at all as this was perfectly blend in the environment. It made it possible for some impressive 1st person perspective shots as well as a one-take movement. Maybe you’re put off by the first view of the more cartoonish style, but all of the charms of anime is still very much visible.
Enjoyment
I like this anime very much. It has some flaws like the superficial characters and plot overall, but even then it’s a very good story. As I said in my intro, this anime is very much at home in the slice of life genre. It’s about the small victories as well as the character interactions. Getting to know the cast by hints of reactions and simple foreshadowing. I enjoyed it for it’s simplicity and bravery of trying something new. Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop is a perfect midday enjoyer.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 28, 2021
We got from the underdog, to top dog. Once this series got in motion, it didn't stop moving. Megalobox season 1 was a banger and for me an instant classic. The suburban vibe and the strive to survive were great underlaying motives for a story which is simple yet so appeal because it didn’t seek for deeper meaning, but rather an honest fist fight between manly man. Raw emotions and fights with a punch (badum-tsss). Imagine now, where would you go once you stand on the top? Megalobox Nomad has a perfect story for this. It delivered a great story and what I thought to
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be “just a sequel” turned out to have more beautiful themes and contrasting concepts. This review will look at Nomad as a sequel as well as a standing anime.
Animation
The animation style got a change and I like it. Where the first season showed a style with rather a rough edge and a more American vibe, Nomad showed a softer style in line-art. It is for me a subtle yet striking resemblance to the personality of our main protagonist Joe. Where Joe in S1 was a lot of bark and bite he calmed down quite a bit in S2. Knowing what is dear to him and knowing how to let it be known what is dear to him he has gained some peace on mind.
Yet the “softer” drawn style isn’t making the fights feel any worse. It has the same quality it had before and there is still the “weight” of the punch you can feel. Each fight is captured in multiple angles emphasizing the stress, the tension and the passion of a match. Some match-ups felt there were fluid movements and other matches had a more biting like tone. As a sporter myself I could feel the connection between the fighters and how well it was brought to us as viewers.
Overall character design is still loyal to the first season except that the kids grew up and Joe looks like…. a nomad. The side-characters are still done very well and it mostly defines their personality. In a way you could say that the characters behave as you would expect them to behave. And if this is my expectation or rather how the anime pushes this idea on you with storytelling I think it’s done very well and exactly what made it enjoyable to watch.
Sound
The VA and the soundtracks were all very good. There is one song that plays in the OP and gets recycled everywhere in the episodes which isn’t all to bad, because it’s presence is subtle, but I still think they could have added just a few more variations. The VA are doing their job very good and you won’t tell a difference with S1 and their VA style.
The fighting FXS is crispy to listen to. Punches sounds like real punches and add a lot to the “depth” of a certain move. The music which accompany scenes with high tension or a relaxed mood was perfect to.
The OST is perfectly crafted to fit the new theme and style of Nomad.
Story
Well I honestly didn’t know what to expect from Megalobox Nomad. As I said in the intro, Joe went from a low-life to the number one boxer. So I was afraid that it either went on a drag with “Joe is number one” or that he would simply fight other and newer stronger opponents which would result in the typical shounen tournament arcs. I wouldn’t be thrilled for either of those stories. But Nomad took a different turn.
I was first shocked at what was the current status of our hero. We see him alone, almost downed and drug addicted. Seemingly he has even more scars now and looks like a professional hobo. This start made an impression and kept me thinking. What happened, and how did it happen. Joe still looked like Joe, but he acted vastly different than he used to be.
As the story progresses we see Joe opening up to our newly acquired friend ‘chief’. A short rehabilitation arc starts and Joe gets back on his two feet. It showed the hardship of being a family and losing family. Chief had some wonderful fights as well as there were some side themes like immigration and bullying. I thought that overall it wouldn’t be necessary to the story but it added a lot of depth to world building when nearing the end.
But Joe went as fast as he came. He finally went home. Or rather, what was left. In the second half there is finally some light to the question of what happened with team “Nowhere”. The answer is shown in a way like Joe wants to open up and reconnect with his lost family. What really hit it for me was that the answer wasn’t a plot element but that it was a story driver. The event right after the finals with Yuri and Joe really meant something. The flashbacks and reference to past events really showed how impact full his actions were and what they meant to him and his family.
And well, at last we get to see our third and final hero Mac ‘n cheese!!!, wait I meant Mac Rosaro!!! Who has a not so coincidental connection to the homeland of our Chief. Sidenote: the importance of being an immigrant and the connect story of the humming bird plays a viral roll. The story acts as a stage and as an anthology for the events which occur at a time and beautifully shows the resemblance between a wishful bedtime story and the reality.
The hero Mac has a beautiful story development. He is Joe’s final opponent, but he isn’t painted as “the opponent”. Mac is a man and has his own life and worries. Especially if you wear tech from Shirato company. But the thing with Mac is, is that lot of pain and worries goes unseen to the public. A “hero” doesn’t have weaknesses. It shows what a man can do when has the opportunity to rise once again.
While thinking back to S1 I also saw some interesting contrasting story elements. Season 1 had Joe which had to fight for his life. He had to give everything while he had nothing. Mac lost everything he had and now in the ring he has to protect everything what he regained and more.
There were also similarities with season one, like working up from the bottom to the top. Failing tech from Shirato company and actually 2 men who don’t want to think about politics but just want to have the clash of their life.
Conclusion
Megalobox nomad is an awesome story and continuation . We got to enjoy more epic battles with high quality frames and even more story and drama than in the first season. It hold everything that the first season had built up and expands on that without giving the feeling of a typical, cliché shounen or similar. The power in Megalobox Nomad is definitely it’s cast and their interactions. It feels warm, lively and sometimes prickly. Along the story you discover that they are people and that they do struggle to, even if they are called champions and heroes.
This anime is a must watch if you loved the first season or if you like sports anime in general. This anime has it all, tasty fights, good plot and likeable characters. Exactly like intended, I didn’t expect much from this anime. Truly an underdog in terms of MC and in anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 26, 2021
Wow what was this a let-down of an anime. Its either the best power-point presentation ever made or the most boring ACTION anime ever produced. But alas, get on the hype-train people, one-way ticket to down town dumpster fire!
An over-the-top anime with an underwhelming little action. Guess what’s wrong. I like the idea for an all-out action anime with humanities survival at stake. There is numerous anime which took different approaches to this. Either in the form of a natural disaster, interstellar-invasion and such. This anime chooses for a tournament like arc. Nothing wrong with that, but the way the story presented itself and how
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the fights played out were all… not to impressive overall. I’ve mixed feelings about the anime. It is a good concept and the characters and setting are very interesting, yet it somehow doesn’t deliver an enjoyable feeling when I finished the anime.
•••••••• Animation ••••••••
I’ve seen several anime with well-drawn styles and effects. However, it is also extremely important to add motion to it. Otherwise, a scene will look dull or will get a ‘cheap’ feeling. Like the effects are put over the scenes. Sometimes I saw some interesting sequences like the hammer throwing with Thor, the parrying from Sasaki and the Valkyrie transformations. These scenes had movement, weight and lovely effects. I wished that all the fighting scenes had this.
The other fighting scenes seemed like a fancy PowerPoint presentation where you can see a picture either sliding up or down. And oh boy, that was a disaster to look at. To add to the boring slides there were also accounts of some lifeless CGI and still frames that just made everything feel so slow or dead.
Bad CGI encounters with the background characters. When the 2d style switched to 3D felt disconnected and to alienated. It took me out of the moment which made me enjoy the hype-scenes less and less.
As I said before, I was taken aback by the lazy generic “to fast to see” style. This includes simply showing a blur and then adding an attack name to it. It was disappointing to see because they HAVE good animated actions scenes. So, the constant switching to this got pretty annoying.
All in all, the art style and the quality of scenes are good, mostly above your average run of the mill shounen anime. However, they sacrificed good interesting fighting scenes for good looking boys.
•••••••• Characters ••••••••
well if it’s something that Ragnarök did (almost) entirely right were the character design and the personalities. The lively vibrant characters are really appealing to look at. From the more muscle than men types to hot goddess, they all have a ‘fresh’ feeling to them. They look like what you would mostly expect them to look like, they the design doesn’t feel reused.
My favourite character, Brunhilde, packs a lot of personality. She takes the stance of a dignified deity as well as she packs some ‘personality’. It’s like looking at an office lady with a lot of spice to her personality. When battling gods you really need that level of confidence. I also love it how she does know most things, yet she doesn’t seem too overconfident. Her reactions to the match out-comes are golden and overall, I liked it to see her.
Then the other main character Zeus. A hopeless pervert and ofc that ‘old but badass’ look. While he looked like a one-dimensional character at first, he developed some more character traits over time. You get the feeling of wanting to know more and more of him. It’s well-written character exploration.
The other combatants had their past and techniques all chewed out by the narrator. You can’t get them more one-dimensional that that. The first bout was monkey vs monkey a clash between muscles, the second bout was monke vs the man in the mirror and the third match had some more personality to it, yet it still wasn’t too deep of an experience.
So the main characters were fun to look at, what was a deal breaker were the supporters. Having a main character with the personality as thick as a sheet of paper is one thing. But to make narrator-parrot-one-liner type of character is so annoying to look at. With overly predictable reactions and unnecessary copied comments they mostly took up unnecessary screen time and feel more like a nuisance to the flow of the fight rather than that they add the feeling of ‘emotional support’. The other gods which were there for reactions purposes did add some flavor the bland mix of reactions, but they really could have left out the crows. The only rare case where they reacted with the audience was Poseidon being pissed off by the boring chants, just like me.
And now a special column dedicated to Goll. God I hate her guts. When Brunhilde was my favourite character, Goll was my most hated character. With over annoying squeaky voice and spine like a broken twig she single-handedly ruined every moment she could bash in. she’s so damn loud and obnoxious. If she was the element to get everything explained then I could understand her role. But that role is already fulfilled with the narrator, the match presentation and the excessive audience commentary. She breaks the tension or victory moment you feel when you watched a satisfying scene. You really need to love the airhead, loud, dumb, disturbing type of crybaby character to stand her.
•••••••• Sound ••••••••
Well nothing to impressive or bad. There was not something that stood out as either well designed or to horrible to listen to. The OP and the ED are forgettable but the VA did a great job (except Gol).
The sound effects are nice and while I recognized some ear rape-like explosion sound from Fate/Apocrypha and Fate/Grand Order Babylon (if you know, you know). Other than that it was really nice to listen to.
•••••••• Overall presentation ••••••••
You can also rephrase Record of Ragnarök as “An isekai battle royale picture slide about the fight for humanity that was triple narrated and explained while one character cried her brains out”. The real charm of the anime did take some time to take off. At the same time the annoyance about some elements also increased with the number of episodes watched.
The first thing that bothered me, as written before, were the slideshow like fighting scenes. It made the action feel dull and stopped the flow. While that wasn’t the worst part, what was even worse was the narrator. Every detail and every movement had to be explained and chewed over for 3 times. It didn’t give the viewer the chance to enjoy the moment of seeing it and figuring it out for themselves. This effect is multiplied by the generic audience almost repeating what the narrator said or what exactly happened on screen. To add yet another explanator in the form of the match narrator was simply boring to look at. To top it all of Brunhilde also needed to take the role of explanator to explain what was happening on her side. To have 4 parties explain and explain and only explain things and repeat what just had happened is simply overkill. The narrator really took out the momentum of excitement or disappointment with his almost monotonic slow explanations.
The way of speaking from the narrator and the match narrator was also a bit too much. Speaking in climatic form is only climatic if it happens once or twice, building it up to a climax. Yet these figures just had to pop this cliché in every moment they seem fit.
The second deal breaker was the tournament format. Whenever a hyped-up fighting move was used, all the build-up tension was lost by pushing in a flashback down the throat. Every. Single. Time. They hoped to rile up the viewer with a quick explanation of what move was coming, but it was done with soooo much foreshadowing and repeated scenes that it got boring after the 4th one. The flashback wasn’t even just a quick head up or something, it just took out half of an episode to ‘establish’ a move that was to come. They could have done an “in-action” explanation where the move is explained right before or during the moment. At most of the times the extra added layer of screen filler is more of a miss than a hit for me. The most enjoyable match interrupting background story was with Sasaki and his losing streak. The focus of wanting to explain everything was yet again a disaster.
The final deal-breaker were the interactions, or rather the lack of. With an average of 1 real interaction between characters this anime felt so ‘distant’ to watch. A generic background character spit out some monkey sounds, the fighters spit out some comments or Zeus is being weird again. It all just didn’t land or connected with the opposing party and we miss the opportunity to see a conversation between man and god or god and god or man and man or actually character and character. Most of the time the thrill of a match is to watch a conversation or connection unfold, is it with the opponent or the supporters.
•••••••• Conclusion ••••••••
Well if it isn’t yet another hype train going off a cliff. With the little moments I could enjoy in the fights I got yet again and again interrupted by one of the weak points of this anime. By just looking good this anime doesn’t excuse itself from being poorly written in terms of character interaction, explanation form. The triple style commentary didn’t help the almost lifeless battles. The lack of a real conversation got me craving for some slice of life anime while the drought of action made me long for just the most generic battles scenes. I think this anime had lost its real potential with the dead-angles of showing a certain move (refer to Fate/ or Megalobox) to get that on-action feeling.
If you came looking for an awesome narrated slideshow, then yeah go watch this. Otherwise you’ll be disappointed by a shounen wannabe anime. You’re better off watching Fate/, Megalobox or even (oof, me saying this…) My Hero Academia for seeing tournament like anime.
Cool concept, good design, terrible direction and execution overall.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jun 21, 2021
Tsurezure Children Is like a love-comedy marathon. A romance perfectly blended in slice-of-life pace, molded in the from of a 4-koma style. I never enjoyed watching love confessions go right like this. The unique couple dynamics and the cute fluffy round character designs is what sucked me into this anime.
We follow several couples instead of just one main character. Each couple got their own dynamic. At the start of the anime I just thought that it was only going to be comedy skits of couples confessing (and not getting blocked by some random firework show). Looking back the start felt rather “slow” but introduced the
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couples perfectly. Each time a confession went in the right way I was so happy. Finally the characters got their rose-colored high school life, right?
Spoiler: yes we’re right! It’s so refreshing to see a couple actually going through the couple troubles, the ups and downs and finally, the actual romance itself. Sick tired of all those anime which takes a season just to confess or even get close tsure x dure is a fresh breathe to the romance genre.
What I like most about the couples is that the couples are matched up with seemingly opposites, but somehow mesh really well with each other. And most of the dynamics is done without the usual gimmicks of a character type. The kuudere isn’t that cold, the tsundere isn’t to sadistic and obnoxious and the soft type girl isn’t too soft and silent.
The breaking of these character tropes is what I think what I liked most about it. There was something genuine about the confrontations and interactions.
Animation
Consistent quality overall. The style is very cutesy. The girls all look so soft and fluffy for some reason and the boys have a certain coolness to them. The character design isn’t anything flashy, but still very original. I loved the bright colors and the “died” faces.
The blush animation are done well, but what really struck me was the happy smirks.
Voice acting
The other thing I liked about this anime was the superb voice acting. The VA was spot-on, really bringing over the character traits and emotions. The emotional moments or the nervous moments felt really moving. I was sucked in with their way of talking and actually spinning a conversation.
The conversations felt real instead of characters getting disturbed at every sentence (and which the speaker stops before interruption).
The music takes a background role. Its really subtle but fitting.
Story
Like a true slice of life, there isn’t really an objective. We just observe some pair of characters living their days in blissful romance. Although I wanted to see some more from delinquent x student council president I was very happy to follow the popular boy x kuudere and bakadere x bakadere. The only weird thing was the episode with the stargazers which happened to pop up around the corner and went away just as fast.
I enjoyed that there was a light connection with all the characters all together and that they came together at the end of the series.
TLDR
All in all this comedy sketch like romance anime is nice relaxing and fast watch. The humor strikes where you wouldn’t expect it to go and that is exactly the appeal to this. The romance is heartwarming. It feels like you’re watching a warm mug of thee with sugar melting on top of it. Its fragrant, warm and so sweet.
If you love something with drama, ‘plot’, action or fanservice then High School DxD is the SoL you’re looking for. Otherwise Tsurezure Children is the perfect paced romance comedy to wath in an evening.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 11, 2021
How not to summon a demon lord, a fine chapter 2 to a guide of summoning a demon lord the wrong way.
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Well this isn’t a sequel I was looking forward to see nor was I against it. I remembered that it was somewhat ecchi and had a decently mediocre plot with a more likely cast than average. And oh boy this second seasons was a nice sequel to that, but still could use some improvements overall.
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About the plot. It wasn’t terrible, in fact it was quite enjoyable. Isekai Maou s2 reminded me that this world was based from an action fantasy MMORPG with high level
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of customization and seemingly tons of events. These events translates in real world crisis or encounters. I liked it when Diablo had ease at recognizing these things and thought about counters he learned in the game. This shows that the writer had thought about the expertise of Diablo as player instead of some generic surprise reaction.
At the same time this was also a point which I hoped had a more rich experience. The part with the dungeon was very detailed and the lore behind it was very nice. But that same level of world building and detail sometimes fell a bit short at the “bigger” fights.
In the end the 10 episodes proved to be entertaining but if only it was a regular 12 episode season then the fights could have been richer and longer.
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About the characters. Our harem grows yet bigger. If a tsunderedere neko girl (yes more dere than tsun) and an exhibitionist wiener sucking elf wasn’t enough we need some more girls to get the full fanservice experience this time. With moments of “how is this not hentai” I’ll share my thoughts about Diablo’s new possessions.
This seasons kicks off with the tentacle tag. 2 girls of which one with unnecessary big bouncy breast and dummy thick cheek clapping thighs. We have identified one of our main heroines! Our holy maiden Lumachina is so damn annoying. She’s kind, soft, death(?) and wrongly ‘summoned’ our demon lord Diablo. Perhaps the biggest thing that bothered me is that she was just extremely weak and didn’t grow or improve at all. In the end this annoying behavior was needed for Diablo’s character progression.
Horn (no not the item) is a cute jailbait loli bunny. She’s cheerful and positive. She brings some fresh air in the character dynamics and is a character I like for her design and character growth. Starting from a naïve adventurer she hopes to get a fun adventure. Unfortunately her adventurer is Diablo and his party. She quickly gets a nose dive into action she hasn’t seen before. It’s not until later she admits its to much for her to handle.
Her struggle and comeback are somewhat lackluster. The idea and execution are good and I like that the character has such developments. The downside was simply the lack of screen time to fully connect with the viewer (10 episodes are to short…).
Rose, so beautiful but get to close and you’ll feel her thorns. A combat mecha maid with an open back uniform. Perfect. While she is almost the generic “I’ll serve you to the end of the world” type of character (like Raphtalia - shield hero) she actually has a decent amount of lines and her personality shines through them. Its almost impressive how generic yet unique and likeable she is. I wish I had such a great assistant.
As for the rest of the party. Well they stay mostly the same. I still like it that Diablo’s true nature gets exposed over time but that he also learns to adapt and sometimes even enjoy the lucky-lecher moments he gets. This makes sure that not every encounter turns in a generic embarrassment moment. The other side characters had plenty of fill but weren’t anything to special. The subtle foreshadowing of a bigger event is done very neatly.
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The things I disliked about Isekai Maou S2
The damn fighting animations. I mean specifically that the screen turns almost black when there is fast paced action going on. If it’s one thing I hate is this in action scenes.
Sometimes the story felt a bit shallow at some points but it wasn’t a deal breaker. Overall a very nice story.
The ending feels to rushed and there was no dedication towards a real fight. Making the main character looking strong by throwing a stronger enemy in front of him is a bad plot mechanic. I’m glad that it was avoided here by using enemies which simply are clever are at least present with a decent amount of brains instead of the evil types that laugh and proceed to die anyways.
This one is a double edge sword. Yes I do like spice and fanservice in my anime, but damn. I had so many scenes where I thought “how is this pg-13 rated??”. You either like it (and watch with headphones) or this is a hard skip for you
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All in all Isekai Maou S2 is a fine sequel which picks up the pace very nice. We get to see our favorite characters again and some of the side characters get their screen time replaced for others. The overall animation and music was good, but mind the severe lack in decent combat animation. I enjoyed seeing perverted elf stuff and the casual bakadera x tsundere fighting for harem-kun but it wasn’t a bother to look at. This is just your average trash-harem-isekai but I had fun watching this and I definitely recommend it if you’ve seen season 1.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 5, 2021
Modest Heroes is a 53 minute movie about 3 short stories. These shorts are beautifully animated and each carry a raw emotional power with them. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and I would recommend you to watch it as well.
The animation is insanely good. The movements feel alive, the CGI is superb and best of all, the scenery is amazing. Each short boast an impressive amount of details as well as a natural feeling. Looking at each scene give you the impression of immersion while keeping it as simple as possible.
The movements act with stretched lines and exaggerated body movements which makes it lively and
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smooth to look at (I forgot the animation technique). This is close to anime like Redline or Gurren Lagann. An impressive feat is that you can “feel” the weight behind each action.
The sound design is very fitting for a movie format. Listening to it feels in a word “Grand”. The heavy drums or the high chimes sets the tone of the scene and beautifully accompany a certain feeling. The music was what sucked me into the dramatic scenes very well.
Another thing is that the sound effects sounds so crisp. I once heard that David Production (studio behind Fire Force and JoJo) had a good sound design within their anime, but this feels even better. Just try to focus on the sound of bubbles or on a door opening. It makes me think that the world I look at is real.
What the three movies have in common is that there is a struggle to overcome, hence the name Modest Heroes. Each short carries their own theme but captures the essence of a modest hero. The “heroes” overcome a problem greater than themselves. But their act of heroism is just perfect for them. I think that the focus on the character themselves is done just right. They know how to paint a start very quickly to let it escalate to the point of their deepest point. To see how they turn the tides is a feeling equal to taking a fresh breathe of air.
There is little to no narrative, so the anime heavily focus on the animation part. If you’re into a good spoken plot, then this might not be your cup of tea. On the other hand, if you love to focus on greatly animated short drama then this is your pick! I liked it for what it tried to be. A simple yet powerful story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 1, 2021
Heavens Feel 3 – Spring Song is the last part of the Fate/Stay Night routes. It is part of a grant story and told in 3 different fashions. From the 3 routes, HF feels like the most theatrical. It is because its in a movie format, the music is more composed and the fights feel a bit grander. This animated piece of bliss is wonderful to watch but there are also some points where it fell short
The story is just a continuations of the Sakura route. Were now up the point where things are looking grim and the main actor takes the stage. The dazzling
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kouhai takes place for a dark side, a dark past and an evil which must not be released upon the earth. This spectacle was so good due to the fact that rider had more screen time. Gotta love that Greek booty.
----Likes----
What I liked about the last movie is that the animation quality stayed the same. The CGI looks good and the characters looks awesome. If you liked the first 2 movies like I did, then there is not much new to discover here. Same goes for the sound department. I noticed a grim but cutesy tune going on the Sakura transformation in HF 2 which had a more pronounced appearance in HF 3. It really set the tone and the focus of the movie to Sakura. That she is cute, and innocent but at same time very creepy and dangerous. Not to mention her submissive kink side of her. The overall music is what kept me interested in the scenes overall as well as seeing buff daddy Kotomine in action.
Of course the praised trademark from Ufo-table is also here. Most of the fighting scenes looks crisp with a masterful display of camera rotation and CGI.
Fate fans would probably like how Rin got quite a bit of time to shine next to her beloved sister Sakura. The whole movie feels like the missing puzzle to a grand piece. It stiches part of storylines together that were loose ends in the other routes.
Another thing to look forward to is yet another legendary quote from our wise hero Emiya Shirou, yorokobe shounen! We get to see Father Kotomine Kirei in action as we’ve seen it in Fate/Zero, making a beautiful link to the last battle. And ofc there is a happy part for our little grail Illya.
----Dislikes----
But there are thinks I liked a lot less, and those things were very prominent for me and also part of the reason why I didn’t gave it a high score.
I didn’t read the visual novel (which I’m planning to do) but even then I felt the underwhelming feeling of the lack of context or descriptive narrative. Fate is based of a novel where the reader can “see” inside the minds of the cast. They can perceive things differently by knowing certain motifs or feelings. At the most critical points I just felt like that such a narrative missed or wasn’t as well showed as I wished it to be. An example is the fight with Heracles. Shirou could have died by using the noble phantasm “9 lives” but survived by the interference of Illyasviel. This crucial part where we get to know his pain and anguish and the part where Illyasviel interrupts Heracles is omitted and simply replaced with some flashy flash move. There were a lot of scenes which felt empty because of this.
While I loved the music overall, there were some moments where the music simply didn’t deliver. It wasn’t powerful enough or the tone didn’t match the mood of the scene.
Lastly the final battle felt kinda meh. The fight was really fun to watch but some of the movements/punches didn’t feel satisfying. When the camera panned out it sometimes felt like they just flailed around with their arms.
---- Final thought----
Maybe my expectations were to high of HF3 or my mental image of what Fate could have been is to different. Nonetheless I really enjoyed watching the final part and I’m content with the ending. The critical moments like Rin vs Sakura or Kotomine vs Hassan just felt good to see it happen and that is also what I came looking for. I’m glad that my whaling in FGO didn’t go for naught. Thanks for reading and see you at Grand Carnival!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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