Back to AeroGunz's Profile AeroGunz's Profile

“I've Always Liked You” is what happens when… honestly? I have no idea. Maybe it’s what happens when You have a metal rod stuck in Your frontopolar cortex and yet someone forces You at gunpoint to write a script.

It’s hard for me to even call this a movie. It’s just a series of scenes stitched together in a chaotic way. There is an overarching motif (confessions) but its execution is so bland You’ll forget about it in an instant.

Let’s get this out of the way. This is one of those cases where the story is plot driven and not character driven. The focus isn’t the ... relationship between characters but just the act of confessing their love. Everything happens not because it makes sense, not because the characters made the best possible decision in their eyes. Everything happens because the plot deems it so. Even if it doesn’t even make a lick of sense.

All the characters are annoying and poorly written. I couldn’t tell You anything about any of them if You held me at gunpoint. Maybe it’s done on purpose. After all, teenagers are annoying twats in most cases. If that’s the reason… 10/10 character design. The main character (and I use that term extremely loosely) is loud, obnoxious and kind of a moron… and also a ripoff of a much better character from “Lovely Complex” (go watch that instead).

Another problem is the amount of characters. There are too many for anyone to actually give a damn and ALL of them are just one trait pumped up to 11 to pretend it’s a personality. We have a shy girl, a shy guy, a friend next door, a ripoff of Risa from “Lovely Complex” (yes, I’m not joking, they are almost 1:1 in design and “character”) etc. You get the idea. None of them get the screen time needed to get invested in them. Even in the more dramatic scenes I felt nothing, because I didn’t care about them. I had no idea who they were as characters. All I knew is their function in the story and that’s not very immersive.

You could easily delete about half of this movie and the plot would stay the same. What’s more strange is that one of the “romances” isn’t even resolved during the movie itself. The resolution is shown during the slideshow with the end credits. Clearly a 300 IQ move. Who would want to get everything in the movie? It’s much better to use the part that most people don’t care about. It’s just so… amateurish. It almost looks like there was no one with experience in actually writing and directing an actual movie.

I have seen and read many stories, in many forms but this script is probably one of the most nonsensical and amateurish I have ever witnessed.

“The Unwanted Undead Adventurer” is what happens when You have a solid premise and execution.

One day an adventurer is killed by a dragon. He did not perish however. He regains consciousness in a skeleton body. Not sure what to do he begins to wander the dungeon he’s in. Through sheer coincidence he discovers that he can get more powerful by killing other monsters. Remembering his friend's lecture about monsters and evolution he decides to evolve to a creature most similar to a human. After helping a newbie adventurer he acquires some cloth that covers the fact that he’s an undead and heads back ... home.
From that moment he takes on jobs to help out people and to become more powerful to evolve into a vampire.

“The Unwanted Undead Adventurer” is a character driven (actually character driven, not just an excuse for some lame action scenes) action-adventure fantasy show that uses the daily grind of its protagonist to tell its story.

The protagonist is Rentt Faina - a 25 year old veteran adventurer that dies and gets turned into an undead. In life he spent 10 years as an adventurer but never really accomplished anything great. He did however help a lot of newbies to be better adventurers and even took some jobs, not for money but for the fact of helping someone. Yes, he’s just a nice guy. Unfortunately that seems to be a trope that won’t die anytime soon so let’s just accept that and move on. God knows I could write a doctoral thesis why it’s bullshit.

There are other recurring characters but they are just there so Rentt will have birds to bounce off of, give info dumps or to just change the pase. There is one who matters to him as a person but she’s mostly useless in the grand schemes of things.

Unlike a lot of fantasy shows this one takes a different approach to tell its story. Because of its slower pace (for most of the time… I’ll get to that) it has a very slice of life feel to it. There isn’t a big, overarching plot point (except maybe evolution) but a lot of small (mostly lasting 1-2 episodes) plots. Most have the same structure. Rent takes a quest, he meets the employer, struggles (not really) and accomplishes his goal. It’s not a terrible structure, the quests he embarks on are different enough that You don’t mind the first part that much. What I do mind is that a lot of the time (mainly in the second half of the show) there isn’t shown HOW he deduces something or conquers an obstacle. It is painfully visible with the maze and earlier with the monster of the lake. The first one is infuriating because the task was difficult, he defeated it but no one from the writing team decided that mauve they shoes fucking SHOW HOW! The second one is annoying because it could show how Rentt’s mind works. Unfortunately the reason he was right is because… the plot demanded it. There were numerous conclusions one could have based on the clues he had. Nope. The plot demands he be right and by the Almighty Robot Policeman (That’s a Borderlands The Pre Sequel reference) he will be right. Even if that means he will be right with little clues. Yes, he used his knowledge well but he is living (unliving?) proof that weird shit happens in this world. He could have (and I think he should have) been wrong. Honestly, he's always right and his actions have no negative consequences for anyone.

Another moment when writing annoyed me was when at one point Rentt is experimenting with his abilities by activating all the types of “magic” he can use at the same time, something that is even said by him to require a master, and the mofo did it. Granted he did struggle a bit but the fact that someone who most of his life had little power is able to do things that require mastery is absurd. He got a new body that did empower him, but didn’t grant him new skill levels. At that point I got worried that the show would devolve into another bullthis OP AF MC type of story. Unfortunately it did. Not that it hasn't given an unfair, and not exactly earned, powerup to Rentt before but it at least pretended to keep it moderate. Fortunately it never fell to the basement level of something like Sword Art Online.

My gripe is that for someone who spent all his life being cautious, he became rather reckless too fast in my opinion. That said, from a certain point in the story, the fights aren’t really a focus in the plot so maybe getting them over quickly isn’t such a bad idea.
That said, let’s give credit where credit is due. Rentt is a pretty solid, evolving (pun intended) character. The Rentt we get at the end of episode 12 isn’t the same we got in episode 1. In more than one way. It’s really nice to see when writers actually care about their character in a character driven story.

Honestly? I enjoyed this show a lot more than I thought I would. It’s not groundbreaking in any sense of the word, the writing has a pacing problem and the MC is just a point above generic when it comes to his character, but the execution is enjoyable. The character designs are solid, even if some are generic to the point I thought they were ripoffs, and the premise itself is pretty cool. As long as You don’t think too much about the fact that our hero has a goal but absolutely no plan and just rolls with "life", You can have fun with this one.

“Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka” is what happens when You have a pretty interesting premise but lack the writing skills to elevate it into something great.

War against the magical race called the Disas suffering from a boner for murdering humans ended. Mainly thanks to the efforts of 11 magical girls. Only five of those girls survived. After the conflict ended the squad was disbanded and the girls went their separate ways.
Now, 3 years later, a new conflict is threatening to start.

“Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka” is a show that tries (and mostly fails) to juggle different genres. I went into this show blind and oh boy, do ... I regret that. I was not prepared for the level of cringe and fuckery I was going to experience. On one side it’s a semi realistic show that uses political drama, military and pretty serious topics like PTSD, terrorism and some other delicate subjects. On the other it shoves fan service, feel good crap and borderline cute bs that comes with almost all mahou shoujo shows. Normally there wouldn't be a problem with such a mix. You need contrast and some space for the elements to breathe, to make the most out of them. This show however does a 180 on its genres to the point it sometimes feels like someone stitched two different shows together by accident.

The main heroine is the titular Asuka. The leader of the five magical girls who survived the war. She quit the military and decided to be a normal, if You can call it that, high school girl. She suffers from PTSD but does nothing to remedy the problem. She just lives day by day with no regards to her mental health. Until her PTSD disappears for some time, then re-emerges because Asuka needs to pretend she has some deep thoughts (spoiler alert, most of those are just cringe or some obvious bs). She isn’t a tragic idea, to be honest there are moments where her writing could even be called good. The problem is those moments are scarce and far between.

There are other characters but to be honest they are just one trick ponies and are there just to have an excuse for an info dump, trigger an event for Asuka to deal with or to force fan service. Honestly, most of the cast could be cut out and nothing would change in the plot.

The show uses pretty heavy subjects but it does it mostly for shock value. It handles those subjects in a very surface fashion with no real thought about the implications. Most of the time the dramatic events are just said as an excuse for some actions, or are shown and forgotten the next episode. It’s obvious no one had any actual idea how to use them properly. The most interesting thing that shows how shitty this aspect is handled is that, for some reason, only Asuka is shown to have any kind of trauma from the war. Well… that’s not entirely true but there is nothing to indicate that the others who have emotional and mental instability got them from the war and at least one of them was like that before.

Logic isn’t exactly this shows cup of tea. A lot of times the only reason why the heroines survive is plot armour. A very thick layer of plot armour. We are talking about at least 2 metres of kevlar plot armour. They should be dead in episode 5 but because of writing laziness they survive. Later in the third act all of them should be dead but, once again, they survive. It honestly annoys me how bad the writing is then it comes to a logical cause and effect.
The most infuriating thing in this whole show is the bullshit they pull with “healing” the PTSD of one of the side characters. It’s so fucking insulting to anyone who even suffered from it that it should be cut out entirely. The writers know jack shit about handling delicate subjects like that. And don’t give me that “It’s magic” bullshit. Incompetent handling of the subject is still an incompetent handling of the subject.

That said, if You don’t really care about writing and just want to watch some cute magical girls trying to fit into a semi realistic military You could find some enjoyment. I didn’t.

“The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes” is what happens when You have a cool idea and a shitty execution.

One day a young boy finds a mysterious tunnel filled with strange glowing trees. Turns out this tunnel is the tunnel from the urban legend that says that it can grant wishes in exchange 100 years will pass in the outside world. Spending just a couple of minutes in it and finding something from his past, he discovers that the time really does pass with different speed in it. Soon a Young girl finds out about this tunnel as well. Both wanting to have ... their wishes granted, they team up to discover the secrets of the tunnel.

To be honest I love the premise. It gives so much space to create any kind of story. What we got is… not so great.

“The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes” is a supernatural romance with a dash of drama for good measure. We follow two highschooler:

Kaoru Touno - our MC for this movie. Because of the death of his little sister, 5 years prior, his family was torn apart, his father turned to alcohol and abused him which led to him being reserved. He seems to have at least one close person but the movie doesn’t show them interacting outside of school.

Anzu Hanashiro - not much is known about her. He’s a new student in Kaoru’s class and wants to be a mangaka. She’s serious, in the beginning rather antisocial but with time (and a secret) she warms up to Kaoru.

Ok… let’s get to the writing..

Let’s start with the pacing. It’s incredibly fast. A lot of character bonding is done in a fast speed montage showing only the bare minimum to not being a Rocky training montage. What that does is kill any kind of sympathy I could have for Kaoru and Anzu’s relationship. There are moments when it slows down and shows how the relationship evolved and those are really solid scenes. If the movie showed more of them the impact of the finale would have been much greater and maybe even get me to care.
It’s the same problem with the time skip in the third act. We don’t really get to see how Anzu lives for those years. We just get one scene at the beginning showing her sorrow and then just jump years ahead. I call that lazy. Especially in a movie that wants to be character driven.

The second thing is the god damn logic of the main duo team up.
Anzu proposes to join forces but that doesn’t make much sense. She claims that they have the same objective but that’s bullshit. The only thing they have in common in this regard is that they both want something (at this point they don’t know each other's wishes). That’s not the same as having the same objective. For all they know, they could be in their way. Granted in the end it turns out fine but still, thinking You have the same objective just because the form is the same is a bit naive. The same form doesn’t mean the content would be the same. I don’t know. Maybe I’m overthinking it but that kind of logic really annoys me.

Another thing is the tunnel itself. It should be more important in the story. As it stands we see the protagonists experiment with the time differences but not much more. We don’t really see the drawback of using it. The negative aspect of the first time Kaoru went in is practically non-existent. It’s a tunnel that fucks with time. The risk-reward aspect should be more prevalent. Something that would actually make them (or at least him) think about using it for prolonged time. Anzu is given a very good reason to rethink her plan of joining Kaoru in the tunnel. Kaoru is given (almost) nothing and what he is given is wasted.

I think the worst part for me is the ending. I don’t think a happy ending is appropriate for this kind of story. Yes, I get it, it’s a romance but it kills the theme of losing the one You love. Despite making his choice, realising what he lost, Kaoru still gets what his heart desires. It also portrays Anzu as a very weak character. It’s been years and yet she hasn't moved on. Still living in the past, still carrying a torch for Kaoru, even after being practically abandoned by him.
Kaoru isn’t in a much better situation. He abandons Anzu for his goal. He achieves it (in a way) just to abandon that goal for a girl he abandoned earlier. The worst part? The mofo gets rewarded for that.
So let me get this straight. The moral of the story is that You can abandon everything, change Your mind and still profit from it? Eff off!

Now there are some positives in the writing department. Like I said earlier, when the movie slows down and actually shows Anzu and Kaoru interact with each other it’s pretty solid. Their interactions are a little stiff and I wouldn't call all of them organic but they’re passible. The writing in the scene in Anzu’s house and at the summer festival should be the standard for the whole movie. They are not great but they do convey their feelings and the gravity of their plan. Unfortunately they are a stand out in writing. Most scenes are more plot driven than character driven and that’s what kills the drama for me.

Now listen, despite all the bullshit writing I actually enjoyed most of the movie. The ending is shit, the pacing is too fast but the moments when it slows down... there is some charm there. Shame there isn’t more of it but I’ll take what I can get at this point.
If You don’t care about writing and just want to see a feel good, a bit naive, coming of age story, this might be entertaining for You.

“My One-Hit Kill Sister” (I seriously love the title of this one) is what happens when You have a brocon deficit.

One day a highschooler saves a child from being hit by a car, (did he just save someone from being isekaied and having an awesome life as an OP AF MC? Who knows? That’s not important) as a “reward” he gets into a coma and his body lies in the hospital bed. His… spirit? Mind? Soul? Whatever, gets sent to a fantasy world where he starts his new life as an adventurer. A not OP at all adventurer who gets into some serious trouble. Lucky ... for him, his sister arrives in the same world to help him. How? By hitting her head on the wall until she gets into a coma herself I guess. Unlike her brother, she’s overpowered af, quickly saves our hero and… demonstrates she has some serious case of a brother complex. From that moment on the siblings begin their new life in another world.

“My One-Hit Kill Sister” is a fantasy, isekai comedy with some ecchi elements to it. Because it lacks a main goal for its characters it’s mostly episodic. The previous episodes have little influence over the later ones. They aren’t completely self-contained but the watch order isn’t as important as in a show with an overarching plot.

There are two main characters that the plots revolve around.

Asahi - technically our MC with power levels that makes Kazuma from Konosuba seem like Conan the barbarian. For reasons known as “plot bullshit” he is given credit for his sister's deeds which makes him jump in adventurers ranking. He has more luck (both bad and good) than anything else, but he’s not a total moron. He’s aware of his place in the food chain and wants to get stronger but because of bad luck he lands himself in a lot of trouble. Luckily for him his sister has an unhealthy obsession with him and always saves his ass.

Maya - obsessed with her younger brother Asahi, young woman with power levels normally reserved for protagonists of shitty written self indulgent power fantasies. When I say “obsessed with her younger brother” I really don’t give it justice. To be with Asahi she inflicts blunt force trauma repeatedly to her head just to end up in a coma. In the new world, for some reason, she’s OP AF, which is lucky for Asahi because she is more than willing and able to save him from any danger. She also has a habit of adding “Big Sis” in the front of her attack names… yeah… make of that what You will. That said… she does want to go to incest town with her little brother (and judging by some of his actions and reaction I would say he isn’t 100% against the idea) and often uses her advantage over him to hug, cuddle and grab his ass. With a sister like that, who needs enemies?

There is one more character that we meet pretty early and she does appear often so I’m gonna add her to the list, even though she has a more supporting role.

Kilmaria - basically a demon version of Maya when it comes to power. She’s one of the Demon King's officers. Ok, seriously, why does it always have to be a Demon King or Demon Lord? Why not a committee or a democratically elected official? What’s with demons and monarchy? She has a major boner for fighting strong opponents which is why she quickly develops an obsession with out main siblings and tries to fight Maya on many occasions and often saves Asahi from trouble and even acts like a substitute sister.

When it comes to writing the show is a mixed bag. On one hand there isn’t much originality when it comes to the situations our heroes get into, on the other, the execution of them and the little twists are solid. The lack of main goal allows the show to experiment both the genres of episodes (most are still just pure comedy) as well as modify the group dynamic and the amount of characters. When a character is not needed they just disappear doing their own stuff without the need for the waiver to give a damn about it. It is a solid (but not great) substitute for a coherent, overarching plot line.

The drawback is that most of the episodes follow the same main route. Get a quest - fuck around - find out - get rescued by the sister. It is repetitive but thanks to the fact that the show has only 12 episodes it isn't as infuriating as it could be if it had 20 or more. It does however make it feel like it overstays its welcome a bit (about 1-2 episodes). Especially because things don’t really change. Asahi does get stronger over those 12 episodes, that is something that I can, and will, always commend - having a hero who actually evolves. But despite that his place in the group and the amount he contributes when shit hits the fan, doesn’t. Maybe except the last episode where he has a chance to shine.

The show is a dumb comedy (to be honest I sometimes got a flashback to Konosuba, especially in the way our main duo gets a house) and wears that on its sleeve and that’s something I can respect, even if the writing isn’t something to write home about. If You want some dumb fun without the need to remember details from previous episodes, You will have fun with this one.

“Rokka no Yuusha” is what happens when You want to write a fantasy mystery but have no idea how to do it organicaly

Six people are chosen to be heroes (called braves) with a quest to defeat the demon-god. As proof of that a sigil appears on their bodies. On their way to their enemy land they get trapped in a very elaborate barrier. As a bonus, it would appear there are seven people with the hero crest. One of them is an impostor and possibly someone who wants to stop them in their quest.

Yeah. Nothing truly original so let’s just meet the coterie:


Adlet Mayer ... - a self proclaimed “strongest man on earth”. He’s the most generic character You could think of. He’s honest, knowledgeable, gullible and acts before thinking. He has a lot of knowledge about fighting fiends but is a terrible judge of character. Despite cosplaying as a hero his morality is questionable, especially when it comes to Fremy. In combat he uses a lot of different tools and tricks to get an edge and defeat his opponents. I think that’s the only redeemable quality of his. That he’s not about some supernatural bs but actually uses tools, deceit and strategy. Granted most of those strategies work only because of plot armour thicker than a neutron star, so don’t get Your hopes up.
He has a tragic backstory that’s so generic and boring I couldn't care less about it.

Nashetania - the most annoying character of the bunch. She’s the “saint of blades” which means she can create and control blades of different types. She’s also a princess of a country and yet everyone is ok with her leaving on a life threatening quest. I quess princesses can be bought in bulk in this land.
Every Time she’s on screen (apart from the first part of the first episode) I want to turn the show off. She’s childish, loud, needy and not exactly emotionally stable. Normalu that could be an awesome starting point to an awesome character but that would actually require a competent writer.

Goldov - a 16 year old warrior with two faces. A stoic one he uses on a daily basis and a jealous one that shows only when it comes to Nashetania. He’s just there to take up space. He brings nothing to the table and could be easily erased and nothing would change.

Fremy Speeddraw - A petite, young sniper, I mean “The saint of gunpowder” because of the skill to create, You guessed it, gunpowder. She’s withdrawn, antisocial and distrustful to anything that’s not a dog. To be fair he’s the main focus of one of my biggest gripes with writing, but I’ll get to that. Out of everyone she’s someone who actually has something that could be called a character arc. Not a very good or original one but I’ll take what I can get at this point. She uses a rifle she loads with cartridges created partially by her power. It seems that she still needs the bullet itself. She uses her eye covered by an eyepatch to aim the gun. It looks pretty dumb but I lost hope for logic in this anime in episode one.
She has a tragic backstory, because of course she does, that’s anime 101 to give it to the edgy emo kid. The problem is that the story wants me to care about her but I really don’t. She is a villain in this story. Maybe not the main one but a villain nonetheless. She killed a lot of potential braves and did it willingly. The fact that she was betrayed by her own faction doesn’t change the fact that she did it, but for some reason the writer portrays her as a tragic hero. Lazy AF.

Mora Chester - saint of the mountain, seriously how many saints does a show need? She’s the head of an organisation that keeps tabs on all the saints. She’s knowledgeable about the saints and their powers, apart from Fremy, who is a new creation. Her powers allow her to cast her voice, control earth and augment her physical abilities. She’s also the only one who can control, to an extent, Chamo.

Chamo Rosso - You know the trope of creepy little kids being the most psychotic and powerful? Yeah, You guessed it. This is it. Chamo is a 14 year old (although she looks to be 10) saint of the swamp. Despite having a pretty weird title and powers she’s a real powerhouse. She is able to summon and control creatures to do her biddings. She’s also a little psycho, being just too willing to torture someone even though there isn’t any real need for that.
Fremy and Hans have a healthy amount of fear when it comes to fighting her, but she’s more than willing to follow Mora’s instructions.

Hans Humpty - despite having the most annoying manner, he’s my favourite character in this coterie. Clever, knowledgeable, intelligent and an extremely skilled fighter. He developed his own fighting style inspired by cats and has an annoying pattern of speech when he sometimes uses cat noises. Similar to what You can see in some romcoms when a girl is trying to be cute. In his case it’s just creepy and unsettling, but I want to believe that was the point. He’s a good judge of character, seeing right through Fremy and her feelings. His also logical, analytical and methodical and the only reason why he isn’t the one who solves the case is some plot bullshit and the fact the show would be over in 6 episodes.

Now let’s get to the writing. Which… isn’t all that good.

First episode is just one big infodump. The characters talk about things that are common knowledge in their world but for some reason (ok, we all know it’s for the viewers) they have to verbalise everything. It’s so dumb and inorganic it almost made me facepalm. We have a narrative opening sequence. Why not use that and give more and more common knowledge info to the viewers?

The main problem is that the show sets up a mystery (who is the 7th brave) and despite characters solving it at the end the SAME GODDAMN PROBLEM REMAINS, only now there is a new 7th brave. I know about reusing plot points but god damn it, this is just lazy and undermines the whole mystery aspect of the show. You just replace one piece in the same system
What’s worse, the clues for solving the mystery aren’t shown at the right time. Most are shown only after the characters solved parts of it. There are some but not many and despite Hans providing a solid logic, the only reason why this show is so long is plot armour of the main cast and the fact the writer wanted a more convoluted resolve.
I guess I’ve seen worse mystery shows with even less to work with but in this case there is a different problem. I solved the mystery the next episode that it was introduced, but despite having the right answer I did it with none of the elements the characters used to solve it. That tells me the mystery itself was an afterthought and the writer had no idea how to wrap it up in a logical way.

Another problem is that most of the cast is useless and contributes nothing. If they weren’t there nothing would change really. They are used just to pad out time and introduce drama that isn’t necessary or even properly resolved.

I honestly can’t recommend this to anyone who enjoys mysteries, because this one is pretty pathetic, and I can’t recommend this to those who like action because the action in this is just generic and a lot resolved with a bootleg talk-no-jutsu.

“My Tiny Senpai” is what happens when You want to write an adult romcom but have no idea how adults act.

The show revolves around two idiots that have the personalities of teenagers despite being, supposedly, adults. Shimozaki is a new hire in a company. He’s kind and… not much more. He has no hobbies and verbalises no interests, he’s just plain white bread in human form. The other is his senpai Katase - fun sized, big breasted, cheerful young woman who loves the company's mascot. So yeah… she’s just a little bit better than her kouhai.. Both are into each other and both have communication ... skills worthy of an ameba.
Along for the ride are their manager - Akina, who schemes to get them together and Shimozaki’s childhood friend Hayakawa - an otaku who tries to hide her hobbies. Everyone has one trait turned into a pseudo personality.

Like almost all romcoms this show goes nowhere. Despite having some scenes that should have long term consequences, they don’t and the show ends maintaining the status quo between the characters. Ok, that’s not totally true. They change the label they use… and nothing more. They act the same and the show even acknowledges that. The most annoying thing is that the secondary characters get more development than the main duo.

Despite having a workplace setup the characters act like they are in highschool. There is little here that could convince me they are adults. There wouldn't be a problem if they would act like that after hours but they act like that the whole effing time. Inferring from the way they act I have a hunch that the writers wanted to write a highschool show but were forced to change that by someone. I refuse to believe that this writing is the effect of any kind of long term plan. The show even acknowledges their strange, for coworkers, dynamic, but being self aware doesn’t change the fact that it’s still subpar writing. For effing sake, You even get the same shitty tropes you see in every highschool romcom: taking care of a sick love interest, hot spring episode, characters that could avoid 80% of problems with just a little bit of communication skills and even getting drunk with chocolate.

Calling this show “lazy” and “unoriginal” would be an affront to most lazy and unoriginal anime from the last decade. This show has little to no creativity. Everything in here You saw in (hopefully) much better shows.

I’m gonna be honest. I can’t recommend this show with a clear conscience. I guess if you've never seen any kind of romcom anime You could find it entertaining, but there are buttload better romcoms out there. This one isn’t worth Your time unless You have a very specific interest in small, busty, overly cute women.

“To Your eternity” is what happens when You think too much about the idea of tabula rasa.

One day a mysterious being casts an orb onto earth. In the beginning it takes shapes of a rock and moss. As time goes on a white wolf dies on it. In response the orb takes the wolf’s shape and becomes conscious and from that moment its main purpose is to travel the world, collect experiences and learn more about itself and the world it now inhabits. It meets new people and learns from them about what it means to be human and alive.

Because the show swaps characters regularly ... there are only two that really matter. Those are:
Fushi - a mysterious orb that can take many forms. Most of the time it’s in the form of a nameless, white haired boy it met in the first episode. The name “Fushi” was given to it by a young girl that professed herself it’s “mother”. He’s (yeah, I’m gonna call it “him” for convenience and the fact that it's usually is in the form of the boy) a manifestation of a tabula rasa and as such he may be forgiven for acting like a moron. To an extent, after some time watching him do the same mistakes gets pretty old. He’s a pretty good idea with a somewhat solid execution in the beginning but during the last arc of the season I was really getting fed up with his antics. There is a problem that he’s mostly passive for the whole 20 episodes but in this case it’s not as much of a problem as in other shows.

The man in black - Fushi’s creator. He said he created him to collect information and gather experiences but if that’s the case he picked a really slow and inefficient way of doing so. For the whole of 20 episodes he’s the narrator that often gives info dumps and… not much more. He’s the worst character of them all. Almost like the writer created him and didn’t really have a plan for him. He acts like he would want to be a mentor for Fushi but in the end he’s just a useless waste of space. He demands Fushi defeat the nokkers (creatures whose goal seems to be destroying Fushi) but does jack shit to help him get stronger apart from giving half assed advice. Shame because I really like the idea of him, but I find his execution abhorrent.

My main problem with writing is that this show uses very, VERY cheap tricks to create sympathy for the characters. One of them being illogical situations. It’s obvious especially in episode one. The hero of that story is in a situation that makes no sense and would never happen in any world where people even pretend to be logical. The other arcs aren’t as painfully ridiculous but they do have their flaws in logic. Now listen, I get it, it’s an anime, most anime are full of bullshit but most at least pretend to have a functioning, semi-realistic world. The crap we see in episode one? Yeah.. no effing way.
The second is that almost everyone Fushi meets has some tragic or at least pseudo tragic backstory. Shown in the most dramatic way possible. From a boy left on his own in an environment that makes it hard to get food, the girl that is about to get sacrificed for no good reason to a bunch of kids in a place full of criminals. It’s all just so forced. Not all the time. There are moments when this is done organically and when that happens it’s really solid. Unfortunately that’s in the minority.
That’s not to say You can’t enjoy it. Even knowing what the show is doing I had fun watching it. Those cheap tricks that I mentioned are executed pretty well. Nothing groundbreaking mind You, but I won’t blame anyone for liking it.

The second thing that rubbed me the wrong way are the info dumps given by the narrator about Fushi. Most (but not all mind You) are totally unnecessary because what he’s talking about was shown just a moment ago. “Show don’t tell” is something this show struggles with. I’m not a big fan of treating Your viewers like idiots, so maybe it’s just me, but I still find it annoying.

The show doesn’t exactly give a damn about morality. During the last arc despite the fact that the kids that hang out with Fushi are pretty much assholes and the reason why he’s in deep shit the show portrays them as sympathetic and innocent. Hell it even wants me to actually care about them (It failed at that, I had zero fucks to give about them the whole time). I know, I know, a lot of anime do this damn thing where morality is swept aside when it comes to the main cast but it’s still annoying.

That said, the show isn’t bad. I’m not confident enough to call it great. I would say it’s enjoyable. The most interesting part is the protagonist himself. Fushi isn’t a perfect character, there are moments when the way he was written is annoying af. Still I will give credit, where credit is due, he is a character that is evolving. Something most anime protagonists don’t have a clue about. He starts as a tabula rasa and with each encounter and challenge he becomes something more.
The only real problem with his development that I had is that his first encounters were with people that could be considered good. He wasn’t mentored, even a little by someone with a twisted moral compass or an opportunist (that came later and even she was ultimately a “good” person) or even a kind of assassin or murderer. No. People that made the most impact on his early “life” were all good eggs. To me that was a bit lazy. Fushi didn’t get a proper contrast in his development and up until the final arc that made him rather flat. He witnessed evil but didn’t understand it. I’m not even saying that he had to become evil himself. He could have gotten a mentor that was grey as they can be, someone who would teach him about good, evil, their function and different perspectives early on. But I guess that would make too much sense and kill some of the later events. His creator could work as such but he’s kind of an idiot and an asshole so…

All in all the show is enjoyable and if You don’t really care about logic and proper worldbuilding it can even be called good.

“Restaurant to Another World” is what happens when You have a lack of food porn in Your life.

One day a young, hungry demon girl, named Aletta, stumbles into a place that she has never seen before. Thinking it’s a dream she helps herself to the food she finds there. The next day she is found by the owner of the establishment. Terrified, she explains the situation and hearing her story the Owner offers her a job in his restaurant. A restaurant that has connections to different places in another world.

Let’s get this out of the way. If You want a show with an overarching ... plot, character arcs and goals… this is not it. You will find none of these things here. The show is episodic in nature and shows 2 short stories that go mostly nowhere, but I’ll get to that. First let’s meet the cast.

The main cast consist of two characters:
The Owner - the owner (I know, shocking) of the restaurant. He doesn’t seem to fully understand the magic that is responsible for creating doors to his establishment. When asked about it all he could do was to apologise for the inconvenience. He hired Aletta, and later Kuro, as help and doesn’t seem to ask too many questions. Given the type of place he runs I guess that comes with the territory and is probably the smartest way go about it. He’s calm, collected and, judging by the guests' reactions, extremely skilled in the kitchen.

Aletta - A young demon girl with small black horns on her head. You could say she’s the main character but that’s not entirely correct. We do however see most of the plot through her eyes and learn the world with her. She’s cheerful, kind and mostly competent at her job.

Kuro - A late hire to the restaurant. She’s a black dragon that uses an elf disguise that is probably addicted to chicken curry. She’s cold, collected and a little distant at first. With time she does seem to catch some warm feelings towards the Owner and Aletta.

Yeah… sorry but that’s about it. There are some regular customers that show up often but they also are just one trick ponies with little to no character arcs. All the characters have one trait that it’s used as their core.

Now… Like I said before, this show has little to no overarching plot. There are some crossovers but not many and they still lead nowhere. That said, it's not all bad. Most of the short stories presented are enjoyable. They are, as one might put it, short and sweet. All of them have some kind of feel good conclusion so if You’re into that You’re in luck. That said, some of the stories are pretty solid and could work as a prologue to something greater. Of course this being the type of show it is, I doubt that will ever happen. Oh well, c'est la vie.

The core of the show is a very relaxed (apart when the customers are arguing about the best dish) atmosphere and the feel good short stories. Just don’t expect anything deep, dramatic or thought provoking and You’ll be golden.

All in all I really enjoyed the show. The relaxing atmosphere and the trivial challenges that the main duo, later trio, encounter was a pretty entertaining mix.

I can’t really recommend this show for everyone but if you like iyashikei You should like this show. That said it’s not 100% iyashikei but it often gives off similar vibes.

“The 8th son” is what happens when You have no imagination, no original ideas and was force fed the most generic, middle of the road fantasy anime in existence for the first two decades of Your life.

One day a young office worker dies after completing a hard day of work. It’s never stated outright but we can easily assume that karoshi claimed another victim. He wakes up in the body of a 5 year old boy. The seven years he spends on understanding his new environment and training in magic, which is a rather rare skill in this world. Due to events, mostly, beyond his ... control, he gets dragged in a number of political plays and even becomes a key figure in a political move that will determine the future of not only his house but the whole region where it resides.

I’m going to say it out right. This anime has some very good ideas, ideas that could truly put it above other isekai anime from the last decade. Unfortunately, the writers do absolutely nothing with those ideas and just stick to the road most travelled. But, I’ll get to that. For starters let’s look at the members of the cast that actually matter to anything.

Wendelin - the main protagonist. Once a simple office worker, now a OP AF magic user with more money and women to know what to do with. Basically a standard issue, boring avatar that the viewer can project himself onto. When he was 5 the world pretty much started to bend over backwards for him. It started when he was found (because of course we can’t have an MC with any kind of active motivation. That would be silly) by a powerful mage that offered to teach him for no charge. Yes, it is explained why, but it doesn’t make it any less of a plot convenience shit. After that is just one success after another. He even gets a new “mentor” figure who, despite not teaching him directly, at least tries to teach him how the world of nobles work… and how to become filthy rich in less than a week but that’s neither here nor there. Of course, like most isekai MCs go he has no personality. He’s kind, shy, helpful and all that other boring stuff you've seen a million times. To complete isekai bingo… he has no ambitions or long term goals.

Elise - Another boring cardboard cutout that I could live without. Elise is a holy magic user with the ability to heal wounds. Something even out MC can’t do. She’s also Wendelin’s… fiancée. Yeap our “hero” got engaged almost as soon as he flew out of the home nest. She’s kind, boring, shy, a bit introverted and lack anything that could make her an interesting character. If You ever wanted a wife that would make You a cup of tea while healing You with magic and be practically a “yes girl” You will probably like her.

Brantack - an old mage with a taste for alcohol. He was Wendelin’s master’s master. He seems to truly care for for his disciple’s disciple but that doesn’t really stop him from manipulating him info situations that could be described as a pain in the ass.

That's it. There are 4 more in Wendelin’s coterie but truth be told they are just there to take up space. None of them have anything close to plot meaning. All of them are cardboard cutouts with no personality whatsoever. A dude with a sword, a chic with a spear, a chic that punches and a magic chic with a giant weapon. You saw it all in other shows.

I mentioned that the show has some good ideas that are underutilised. The main one is the succession line. The show makes a big deal about it in the first episodes but later just drops it. It is mentioned from time to time but with no real impact on anything. We are led to believe that benign anything other than a first in line is a bad thing but we don’t truly see why. We don’t get to witness the social isolation or even any kind of drawback to benign second, third or even eight.

The other pretty solid idea was the political game that is played in the background of the main story. Despite Wendelin being blissfully unaware of it, he is constantly a pawn in someone else's game. I would love to see more of it and how different games impact not only the main cast but the kingdom as a whole. Unfortunately the writers weren’t interested or competent enough to show us this side of the coin.

What we got is a pretty standard, deprived of any kind of tension, middle of the road show. It’s not horrible but it’s not good enough for me to recommend it to anyone unless You just want to watch something You saw many times over just with a new coat of paint over it.