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As a remake of an old classic, Urusei Yatsura is a show I really wanted to like. To my understanding it's one of those early cases of the harem genre, or a precursor to it at least, so I wanted to see what it was all about and what people saw in it that was so great. However, as the episodes went on I found myself wanting to skip more and more of the episode and finding myself able to tolerate the character's antics less and less. It's not like there were no funny moments, but the vast majority of the comedy only managed to ... bore me. Part of this is likely just that the show's sense of humor doesn't resonate with mine very well, but I think there are two much bigger problems at heart here, both which put together I would describe as "the show is too one-sided".

The first problem is the characters. For one thing they seem to be perpetually metaphorically if not literally talking past each other. They all have their own consistent goals, motivations and personality, but it becomes clear that its actually kind of rare for two characters to engage in dialogue without dismissing what the other is saying in one form or another, such as by anger, but putting on a farce and looking down on the other, by literally ignoring them, or only responding in quips for a banter or a joke. The plot doesn't seem to so much progress by the logical interactions of what characters are saying or doing but because each character is acting of their own accord and happens to ram into what another character or characters are doing. The one exception is some jealousy-based plot where someone is actively attempting to sabotage another or otherwise be antagonistic to them.

Then there's how so many of the characters seem to continually act in a really mean way. It's not like they (or some of them, anyway) don't have a reason to be the way they are (Shinobu's treatment of Ataru is kind of understandable considering his general behavior, for instance), but only Ataru and Lum seem to do anything genuinely kind for another - and even then Ataru is difficult to put up with due to his sheer inability to have an ounce of self control, and Lum may be an incredibly devoted wife and kind person but still acts like it's strange that Ataru who spend the whole first episode being motivated by his love for Shinobu (and declaring as much to the world) wouldn't just accept her one-sided declaration to be his wife.

Ataru's occasional kindness is what leads me to the second problem: The show only seems to understand half of the concept of karma. The show is really good at punishing people for their misdeeds - and Lord knows there's plenty of them - but the other way around is hardly ever the case, at least not the in short term. In fact, when a character does display some kind of kindness or integrity they seem to be punished for it anyways. As an occasional joke this can work very well, and the fact it occurs right at the start of the show is kind of justifiable as a set up to the premise and because in the long run the show clearly wants us to believe Lum is the right fit for Ataru and his efforts, but as with the other issue, it's all the time. This is especially bad considering Ataru is supposed to be the protagonist, so the fact that when he does try to act better he gets punished for it and stars will align to make sure nothing goes right for him and his good deeds are not appreciated, leaves nothing but a sour taste in my mouth.

All of this put together makes the humor and situations in the show just come off as really mean-spirited. Comedy is supposed to lift your spirits, not crush them. And that tone only makes the worst aspects of the characters stand out more, especially of the side characters who are often just plain horrible people and get automatically shown more appreciation for their mere existence. The characters the audience knows best are treated awfully, and though yes they do have pretty bad traits and actions themselves, they do at least seem to have some redeeming qualities which many of those side characters seems to entirely lack.

I know there are plenty that enjoyed the original and honestly I doubt it's that different, so there are people who will enjoy this. I don't think it's a bad show - it's tone and sense of humor is just worlds apart from what I and people like me would enjoy. If you can enjoy a never ending parade of very flawed characters getting into terrible situations either by the stupidity of surrounding characters or of their own making, it's a show for you to watch. If on the other hand, the positive side of karma or a break from things being awful all the time are things you don't think you can go without then it might be best to look elsewhere for your comedy.

As for the romance... It's kind of the same thing. There is a pretty clear plot train and you can kind of see a gradual progression, but it almost feels like Ataru growing feelings because he is just getting used to his predicament because Lum just does not (to the point where I watched anyway) seem to really even try to grapple with the fact that their supposed engagement was entirely one-sided on her part.

You know, if you told me this gacha game adaptation with Konosuba-esque animation and seemingly wanting to imitate it comedy-wise (while, in my personal opinion, not really achieving that level of comedy) would end up being one of the anime that most hit those notes of true epicness and feels in the entire season, I would have taken that to be a joke, until I watched the last few episodes of this season.

Now, I will say, I have never played the games. I do have more information than your average anime-only viewer but that's because I'm not the type that's overly concerned with spoilers. Still, ... even if this wasn't (I hear) an anime-original plot, my point is that I am coming at this with fresh eyes. And what do I see? In two seasons, they established characters, kept them dynamic and consistent, pursuing individual goals despite the slice of life elements, and it gradually builds up to the things that give it that amazing finale. There's a lot of easter eggs you could easily miss, and I certainly missed a whole lot of them since I don't play the game, but you don't need to be familiar with the game to understand the story... for the most part. There's still a lot about character powers and the like that really seems to be pulled out of the writer's ass to Deus Ex Machina an issue. This mostly comes from how vaguely defined most of the character's powers are, leaving one with little ability to form a real expectation on what they can or not do. Still, I generally found things engrossing enough that it didn't take me too much out of the scene.


Speaking of those characters, of course there is adorableness and quirkyness all around, as you might imagine from the general light-hearted tone of the story and artstyle. As for the comedy, this show employs a mix of normal gag comedy, and what I've come to know as "character first comedy", where rather than writing a particularly comedic situation, one simply takes characters with comedy-prone, often pretty absurdly exaggerated traits, and puts them in regular situation and lets things happen organically. Examples of this kind of comedy are in Konosuba, and Girlfriend Girlfriend. If you're fond of the character's quirk, like their dynamic, or get attached to a character over time, then this type of comedy can really consistently deliver, and though it needs build up and can get repetitive, thus relying on a certain sweetspot to be most effective, it can feel like a pretty novel and organic way to deliver comedy, while at the same time reinforcing character. In this sense, Princess Connect Re:Dive season 2 really excels. It's not that great at gag comedy in my opinion as the jokes often end up feeling a bit dry or forced in that department, but it can be really fun to see how characters try to deal with situations once you see what those characters are all about and understand why and that they make the choices they make.

I can't comment much on the sound, but the artstyle was brilliant. There's just about every type of artstyle quality you could want. There's a lot of good, detailed designs that you could stop and take a screenshot of, and it would be absolutely beautiful. There's great fluid, borderline abstract animation that people always seem to fall in love with. There's more boiled-down, very expressive and energetic konosuba-esque animation. You name it, you probably have it in this season. I think this variety of artstyles is representative of the overall versatility of the show, in that in keeping both comedy, drama and action to tied to the characters had an amazingly smooth transition for such a jarring different between cute, kinda funny slice of life misadvantures to a real ramp up of the action for a big epic finale.


And that finale is the cream and the cherry on top of the cake. If you don't watch this show for the tender moments, the bits of funny comedy, or the cuteness, then I still recommend you watch the previous season and this, simply to get to watch those last four or five episodes. That's how good they were, in my opinion.


I'll leave it at this, as I notice I'm rambling and not as coherent as I'd like to be, but I really wanted to take this opportunity to recommend the show, because it really deserves it. Is it a true masterpiece, the greatest anime of all time? No. But it's very good indeed, or so I think.


I hope if you take my recommendation, that you enjoy it at least as much as well.

Before anything else, one thing must be kept in mind: This entire show is a series of shorts in a chibi artstyle. It's a lot more immediate comedy and dialogue focused, so don't go in expecting great fluid action scenes or a big enthralling story out of it. However, the show does just keep going through several POV characters, so there is variety in backgrounds and the like.

That said, if you are a fan of re:zero WATCH THIS SHOW. There is some funny in Break Time, but where it really proved outstanding for me was in what it added to the main Re:Zero show, even ... though I binged break time after having already watched the whole second season of Re:Zero first. Break Time's shorts add some context, and more importantly, add some great characterization to the various characters in Re:Zero, including some rather emotional ones or which flesh out characters that might otherwise just come off as 2-dimensional if one only watches the main show.

Sound-wise there is occasional music, nothing original though, just stuff taken from the main show and used for comedic or even dramatic purposes. The art is relatively fluid (it is still chibi), with some energetic variation in movements and expressions. Not my favorite thing in the world in terms of enjoyment, but certainly a very worthwhile experience.

Cautious Hero is an anime that relies a lot on how funny you find the premise. While the show explores said premise quite well, it ultimately doesn't really deviate from that central idea much, and pretty much every conflict is resolved entirely in relation to it. In that sense, the show would be pretty mediocre, if not for one small feat:

The hero's cautiousness isn't limited to the hero. It's present in the antagonists as well. They also stratetigize and try to take advantage of tropes and trample on preconceptions in order to go for the best strategy. It is a show where both the ... hero and the enemy are aware of their own strengths, weaknesses and limitations and work to create the best strategy with nothing held back. Were this not a comedy show, I could really see it becoming an intense match of wits the likes of which you'd expect from Death Note. That said, it does have that comedy spin to it, but I do believe the strategies here can be taken more seriously while still appreciating the comedy - but I wouldn't recomend leaning too much on either. It's good for someone looking for a mix, but not for someone who wants either extreme at their best (the comedy or the battle of wits). In this sense, I overall feel like the story did a good job at being solid and expanding itself consistently, creating a narrative that was always progressing towards the goal without stop (heck, the characters by the end even comment on how they didn't get any rest), so overall I believe it was good in that department.

In terms of art and sound, I found that the art was really excellent. I'm not a good judge of animation, but I loved the team's ability both when they wanted the more comedic art and the more serious polished art. It was highly reminiscent to me of Konosuba, which I think it was really trying to take after, but that's' just my guess. Sound-wise it didn't do so great, the sound design wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly memorable.

The characters I feel were lacking. Not every character was as one-dimensional as Seya, but most that weren't seemed to easily drop their issues at the (excuse the repetition) drop of a hat, and thus it was hard to really feel invested in their stories. Seya treating everyone else like NPCs on an escort quest didn't really help fix that sentiment either. Adadenla, for reasons I won't spoil too much, was the one character I really liked in the show, but let's just say it was both adorable and hilarious.

Personally, while I found the show entertaining enough to keep watching weekly and want to make sure I got the next episode, my investment in most of the story was passing and most of the comedy except for a few moments here or there, weren't bad but felt like one of those jokes being told when you've already laughed too much to keep going, it feels kinda funny but it doesn't actually make you laugh. There were a number of very surprising moments, but once the shock passed the scene didn't hold up as well as before (rather than due to plot holes, mostly just cause it wasn't that impressive in retrospect).

Overall, I recommend this show to fans of isekai comedies, and those who found the premise funny- funny enough to carry a short 12 episode run at least.

Let's start by pretending that this show isn't trying to be a mystery show, a task which itself is pretty difficult as "Lord El-Melloi II Sei no Jikenbo: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note" is 50% mystery and 50% fate sequel/spin-off. What's left of it?

Well, the art's great and polished like one would come to expect from the fate franchise at this point. The sound is eh...I don't think any insert theme stuck out, though the voice acting was definitely not bad (Waver's last line is so well voice-acted that it almost got me to bump the sound a little higher) and the intro was decently ... catchy. Nothing atrocious there. Character-wise, there's variety and expression, and while basically none of them had development, one did have some: Waver himself. Still, the way every character is portrayed is certainly colorful but also so very... 'anime'. There are complex characters that express themselves normally, trope characters that express themselves entirely through anime gestures, and then there is this weird thing this show has which characters which do have complexity yet seem to express themselves entirely through anime phrases and expressions. It's hard to explain, and I don't entirely hate it, but does hinder a bit their chances of development throughout.

With this said, the show seemed like it was designed (again, still ignoring the mystery part) by someone under the premise of a bet of how many fate references can we stick in one show. These come in two times: a stream of exposition about random trivia on fate and niche mythology facts, and more direct references like character cameos and its very own saberface (come and get your own for just 298 Yen!). They are mostly integrated with the story and definitely get to show their cool side in a way that I hadn't seen or hadn't seen enough of in other fate properties. As for the lore dumps...

This is where we bring back the mystery element, because "Lord El-Melloi II Sei no Jikenbo: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note", DEFINITELY wants to be a mystery show, it makes no secret of it. It employs a very traditional mystery structure including straight up using the formulas for a couple of mystery classical set-ups. It also continually uses thoses "whydunit" and "whodunit" and so on..phrases. I think I made my point there. The show, on the other hand, completely misses the point (of a mystery).

L.E.M.II.S.N.J: R.Z.G.N. wants to be a mystery, however it botches the most basic elements of what makes a good mystery. The show always centers its mysteries on elements of the nasuverse lore, sprinkled with a few random mythology facts or rumors to make itself seem more clever. However, either it assumes the audience is informed of these things, or it doesn't want the audience to be able to follow along with the plot until things are resolved by our protagonist in the end.

I repeat: this show fails at the most basic elements of a mystery. Sheer curiosity might generate a bit of intrigue for you, but I'm not genuinely going to be questioning myself about how something is done if the answer is always going to be 'magic' and the only reason I have to think any of what I'm seeing on screen is at all odd, out of place or "mysterious" is because characters state it. Nor will I ask myself "who did it" once I learn that they can pull a new potential perpetrator out of their ass without ever introducing them.

It's impossible to follow along with the gathering of clues and trying to guess, as even if you are the most hardcore fan of fate lore, you still need to know basically everything about every mythology in the world to be able to guess the answer to some of these questions- when they are even answered. Throwing dice to see who might have done is about as reliable as trying to do it yourself and since the answer is often something out of the blue without any basis on what came before it, it's hard to even be surprised by it.

And of course, there's the resolution of the mystery itself, which as already mentioned a few times is often pulled out of the writer's ass and while it does tie the threads together, we need Waver to explain how. Through exposition, sorry, MORE exposition.

All the explaining bogs down the pace of the shown and what action there is isn't executed all that well either most of the time, with tension being constantly undercut by random spells of unpredicatble nature at best, and pseudo-philosophical concepts that sound like a kid who thinks using bigger words will win them the argument.

If I had to boil down the problems with the plot down to one single thing, this is what it would be: The complete inconsistency of the nasuverse's rules creates a disconnect between the set ups an pay-offs in this show. It thinks that by being fate it can keep you excited as long as it is pulling stuff from the fateverse, that you will feel it is earned as long as its coming from that fandom universe. It thinks that you will be happy with the explaining as long as it is referencing something from fate, that you will be happy with any way for the plot to be resolved as long as it is somewhat tied to fate, that any characters just needs to belong to fate to be interesting. Because of that, it can't make good set ups and payoffs, which means it does a horrible job as a mystery, which in turn really stands out because it sells itself as a mystery show.

Despite all of this, I still found myself entertained by the show, and it was one of my favorites to accompany weekly. I was always eager to see the latest episode when they came out. However, I was still bothered by how cheaply they used fate's content, and it put a bad mark for me on what the show is without the awesome concept of the holy grail war at its back.

I have very mixed feelings when it comes to this series. On one hand, it was surprisingly entertaining. I found myself laughing my ass off at all the parody and visual comedy of the show, though I never expected to given how cringy the initial premise sounded and still sounds. On the other hand, though, the show revealed to be completely empty and one-sided in its approach and doesn't even have the courtesy of at least matching that one side with the viewer's side.

Going over its most surface level elements, the music is entirely forgettable but they do make an interesting use of sound effects, ... even if the majority are the same old video game type sound effects. It's to help sell jokes by reinforcing the comedic timing, or to transition from one position of the camera to another more smoothly. As for art, the show definitely looks pretty and there's plenty of visual comedy to enjoy, as it itself becomes part of the parody (and makes me wish I could show you a snippet of what I'm talking about, but unfortunately one can't use images in these reviews). Speaking of the comedy, I really feel like this is the series's strong point, however as it goes on a lot of the gags are re-used a lot more than they should, but more on that later.

Where the show really starts to fall apart is in story and characters. The plot is always moving in small arcs that pretty much function like monster of the week types, a problem is introduced and we follow along for a few episodes until the status quo returns with maybe a new addition to the party. Characters also have some depth, though mostly simple to classify into tropes this show's typical harem banter is pretty much nonexistent so at least in that front you're safe, and I'm not generally one for disliking tropes anyway.

Here's the kicker though: the show doesn't go anywhere. Other than the specific characters the arc is focused around, which are new for any arc, no character has any change, and often are turned redundant by random plot contrivances so that the conflict will be resolved in a way that lets Mamako (the infamous mother at the center of the show) save the day with some good old fashion moralizing. I repeat. This show follows a simple structure: Someone causes problems. We go into a little arc focusing on entirely new characters while not negleting but certainly not giving any growth to the main cast. Then, make everyone virtually useless (or give them pet tasks to do that are ultimately meaningless, but just to say they aren't doing nothing) and have Mamako come out, solve everything on her own, and moralize a bit about motherhood in the process.

The problem isn't that it is formulaic though, I can deal with that. The problem is that the formula barely tweaks itself and there's never a new form of resolution nor anything actually gained overall. The show isn't bad, it knows its way with comedy, and is able to handle a bare minimum in terms of characters, but it consistently fails to follow through, like the entire show is just killing time for something that never comes. That said, I do know what this missing piece, this massive resolution that would have vastly improved my viewing of the show is: Mamako's and her son's relationship.

It's the most obvious thing to do. The son keeps complaining about it through the whole show, the whole formula I just mentioned is a giant recurring gag, and the son's entire thing is wanting to be the hero but getting constantly overshadowed by the mother who easily solves all the problem with deus ex machinas even Skynet would find a little extreme. By the end of the show, and without getting into too much spoiler territory, we do get to see a bunch of genuinely annoying, if not necessarily bad mothers, and we do get a potential play on the conflict that has been inflicitng Masato (the son) this whole time, a chance to capitalize and really resolve it properly. The finale has not one, not two, but three perfect instances to deal with this from what I noticed on first viewing alone, and yet what does it do with it? It brings it up, then does NOTHING with it, again.

Maasato's problem with his overbearing mother is constantly treated as him being childish. His desire to be independent and reliable treated like folly, his distaste for the overprotectiveness of his mother as a vile thing. Mamako never gives him any space, yet is treated by a saint by the narrative. This one-sided treatment of the central theme of the show would be bad enough, but the side it roots for (Mamako's) is the opposite of what the audience would be expected to experience. Your average viewer of this show isn't an overprotective mother, it's an otako with a mother complex, mother fetish or just a regular otako looking for isekai or comedy, in other words, people who much more easily relate to Maasato who just keeps getting trashed for the plot for daring to think that maybe he should be allowed to contribute for a change. The first lesson he learns is to appreciate the value of what his mother offers him, but then this is the lesson that keeps getting repeated over and over again, and while the show is fun enough to keep watching, it's incredibly frustrating to never get any pay-off for all the pay off of HIS frustration.

The one thing the show has that is close to resembling a real overarching arc, even for just a 12 episode season goes nowhere. It's a decent road, but the destitation is a pit. I recommend watching if you're super into the idea of a mother in isekai, or if you're looking for a relatively fun parody, but keep some low expectations and just enjoy the journey if you genuinely plan to watch it.

The first time I saw Kaguya-sama it was as a manga. At the time I paid no heed to it, and though it caught my eye as it became an anime, I still didn't think much of it. Little did I know that talks about how funny it was and a collection of Chika memes would drive my curiosity up the wall until I finally decided to binge it.

Boy did it deliver.

It's a slice of life episodic comedy series with a relationship that already starts out formed, in fact the comedy is largely formed from this fact and the contrast with the mind games ... played seemingly in opposition to it. I would describe them as a miniature version of a hypothetical Death Note romcom, employing mostly the hyperbole that the characters atribute to even the simplest actions and their attempts to manipulate the situation in their favor.

I personally utterly loved this show, but it's really banking on you liking the humor derived from the character's starting personalities (which don't really change) and this very anime-ish self-inflicted misunderstandings humor (in this case not by coincidental events, but rather due to the character's trying to manipulate one another or by completely misinterpreting things). If you like this solid but fixed characterization and that kind of humor,you'll have a blast with Kaguya-sama. If you don't, it might all go over your head.

Given the kind of show this is, there's not much more to say, but I do want to give a shout out to however came up with that OP. It's just jaw-dropping to hear and watch, there's a lot of creativity in it and in the EDs, not to mention small snippets of visual jokes that the show doesn't bring attention to, but work as nice easter eggs for those paying attention (say hello to the yeti on episode -redacted-).

If you want to know whether you should watch this anime, the most basic notion I can give you of it is that it delivers very visceral enjoyment- good music and clean art, a bit of action, the glee of seeing how they adapt each tale, and so on...however, in what I surmise to be the result of a far too direct adaptation, this anime fell quite short of what it could have been. It's a classic case of a jaw-dropping premise resulting in work with a pile of wasted potential. It can be enjoyed, I certainly did, but don't expect any life-changing experience out ... of it.

By far the best aspect of the show is the way they adapt the classic European and Japanese tales. A bit of anime flair is given to them, but more importantly they breathe life and energy into characters which are staler in the more abstract notion of the tale, and explore the way the inhabitants of those tales, especially those who, in this world, have to watch the cycle repeat itself experience it on a more personal level, such as Red Hiding Hood's fear of being eaten in the first episode.

The story could have done a lot just by banking on the sheer variety of possibilities with the characters and stories, as well as exploring the central premise of the show and its implications. While the handling of characters is so-so, due to the main cast being rather mediocre and receiving little to no development, a lot of the stories carry in themselves quite interesting characters which can really carry you through an episode. Unfortunately, however, the anime does little to take advantage of what it could be beyond this, and it can start to fall apart once you get too used to the formula and main cast.

Of the problems, the worst offender is probably the fights, which are what made conclude many of these issues come from the source of the adaptation. Grimms Notes was originally based on a turn-based fighting game (I believe), seemingly similar, in part, to the likes of Fate Grand order. Because these games involve relative simple fighting mechanics which don't create the kind of varied effects freeform writing would allow, the lack of liberties taken by the anime resulted in every fight becoming a bunch of projectile attacks, mostly laser beams, being shot until the enemy drops defeated and the world promptly gets brainwashed back into place. Unsurprisingly the few times when the anime did deviate from that mode of dealing with things vastly improved the episodes in which they were featured in.

The overall quality and percentage of those moments was more or less stable throughout the series, though their absence became more evident each passing episode, until things really spiraled into the foreshadowed (if a bit too well) last episodes, which were unfortunately riddled with the same formula problems, some pretty big plot holes, and a Deus Ex Machina which maybe made sense in the game, but made for a pretty disappointing and anitclimatic finale for the anime, but which could make for an interesting plot point if there was any hope for a season two. Unfortunately, due to the anime's flaws, the game's worldwide version closing, the lack of discussion on this anime and some perhaps unjustified comparisons, there is a "grimm" chance of that happening.

In spite of such issues, I did very much enjoy the experience of watching this anime, due in part to the absolutely adorable (and fitting) character designs and voice acting, as well as the very soundtrack, and would recommend it to anyone looking to see a nice anime version of some of their favorite fairy tales.

If you do decide to check out this anime, I very much recommend watching the full ED each episode, as it does feature some notable changes (despite being mostly walking), and one fun thing to try is to use the ED to try to guess what story will be featured in the next episode.

Non-spoilerely short version: Digimon Tri is a "meh" series of movies that will be pretty enjoyable for those with a strong imagination, very specific shippings or a nice dose of nostalgia. If not, you may still enjoy it, but I recommend you try thinking of Tai as the real main character as opposed to the group being, and that you don't get your hopes too high about any particular idea or plot-point.




THE REVIEW BELOW IS FULL OF SPOILERS! DO NOT READ IT UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIES OR DON'T MIND SPOILERS!!!!!



...
Digimon Adventure Tri is centered around it's main character, Tai, three ship-fodder characters (Mimi,Matt and Sora), two plot devices (Kari and Izzy), two filler characters to round out the stereotypes (Joe and T.K.) and one ghost (Meico), though the three later can barely be said to have anything centered on them at all, plus 9 weapons of mass destruction and a few NPCs. Whether you liked the movie or not, that may seem like an unfair assessment, but the point I'm making is that the characters were simply THAT compartimentable in terms of the narrative. My experience of digimon Tri was that of an excutive movie, always hesitant on whether to deviate or follow convention, but with a lot of technical aspects pretty well handled. The few characters that didn't pass the Chekhov's gun test were pretty much put as backdrop and much of what the story failed at to me was it's inability to fully explore it's cool ideas. While I could rant about particular scenes or movies, I think I'd rather adress more general aspects, positives and negatives alike, of my impression of the movies in general, with a special focus on part 6 due to it being the topic of this thread.

Part 1: Tai​
What better way to start this off than with the character that seems to be at the center of everything, Tai. Now, on the original show, Tai (the de-facto leader of the group) always had this sort of special attention showered onto him. He got most of the big moments and was the only one to get a mega back then, aside from Matt his rival. Screen time and presence in the plot weren't at all evenly distrbuted even between those two back then (for instance, Tai defeated two dark masters while Matt kill-stealed one), but Tri takes it to a whole other level, blanding Matt to a T while Tai had the majority of the internal conflit, themes and big moments again all laid onto him. In fact, the movie in retrospect seems like one really big contrived way to retcon Mei into the group to "justify" the end of 02, but we'll get more on that later. For now the thing I'm trying to bring attention to is that despite the large cast of supposed main characters, the writers seemed almost oddly fascinated with treating Tai as the real MC.

Now, don't misunderstand, it's perfectly fine to have an MC. However this breaks the notion that the entire group of eight children are supposed to be MCs on pretty much equal footing, which is a bit lame but also not so bad. That said, I want the odd fascination that the movie seemed to put on Tai to stay in the back the heads of anyone reading this for a bit, because it will come into play when I talk about something else.

Before that, though, let's talk about the real changes to his character. In universe, I believe at least 3-4 years have passed (6 I'm told) since the original adventure. The children then were considerably young and it's rather understandable that in the time in-between adventures they would mature and grow. In a very cleverly written sentence Tai even states that "He sees more now so he sees less now" or something along those lines, basically implying that as he grew more aware of the consequences and the world around, his determination wavers because of the loss of his naivety from when he was younger. One of digimon's great appeals was always seeing the characters grow and develop over time and even in-between seasons, feeling like you're growing alongside them rather than leaving them behind while they go on some perpetual monster hunt limbo like a certain other anime protagonist.... That said, while the changes that occurred with Tai's character were thematically appropriate and make sense intelectually, I couldn't help but experience them as them trying to slap Matt's former self onto tie to switch their dinamic around, which just seemed plain lazy, but it could have even made sense maybe Matt influenced him or something, if not for the fact that it seems this is the first time Matt is even noticing it and that somehow the personality change made Tai utterly retarded, unable to recognize that yeah, maybe the just towering monster shooting lazer beams at a small moving cat may need to be fought off...like eveyr other villain ever that he ever experienced.

The problem is with Tai's character, aside from the whole obsession with him thing, is that he doesn't seem to be developing, he seems to be constantly backtracking from a backtrack. His character "growth" is more of a regression, and that ends up being so much that they don't have time then to actually flesh out the other 17 more. For instance....

Part 2: Kari And Izzy Are Just Plot Devices, And It's Getting Worse​
When I first watched digimon as a kid, I was in one of those "cooties" phase that a lot of boys go through, so the whole time I wanted her off screen. I liked Gatomon though. As I grew up, I started viewing Kari as this character that seemes increasingly cute and increasingly a mary sue, at least as far as the first season goes. They tried fleshing her out a little more in 02 and now in Tri, however most of her cuteness from before was lost and was replaced with exposition dump and other plot-device-powers. it was pretty nice of them to give her a moment of breakdown, and to show her fragility in terms of health (a nearly forgotten fact after a brief side-plot in the original adventure), but the way they matter-of-factly gave her a dark digivolution like it's in her blood or somehting and then that dark digivolution merged with the other digimon was just so forced and barely went anywhere at all... Still, the show once again utterly failed in giving her any semblance of an actual character flaw or character arc, the only conflict she had to face at all lasted for 2 seconds and her resolution was "yes because my brother told me so".

Izzy, while he was my favorite character as a kid, always was a plot device from the beggining. Now, unlike Kari, Izzy was treated as a more than a plot device in the original character, with great interactions and character, but this guy can seriously make anything the plot needs him to, at the exact pace the movie needs for drama. HE CAN PROGRAM DIMENSIONS! His abilities are god-like and the only reason he doesn't solve the plot all by himself is probably because he wasn't actually trying or something.

However, moreso than just generally complaining about this, I want to get a look at the progression of these characters. Kair started as a cute girl too young and innocent for any flaws beyond that, with a controversial partner to complement that. In 02 Kair gets extra spotlight, is treated even more like miss perfect, and her partner is less interesting too (but still adorable to boot, gatomon). In tri, she barely exists other than when she is called upon to be possessed and her big scene of focus is when she passes out. She remains flawless and has a less than 10 seconds-long character arc that changes nothing about her.

Izzy started out as a really smart guy with a laptop given a basically magical upgrade. Sure he was smart, but a ton of the amazing things he could do were because Jennai gave his laptop an extra upgrade. His intellect was just one way of getting to certain results, and the reasons he could do this or that were at leats moderatly justifiable. In 02 he is kinda rewarded for his intelligence and is pretty much summoned as a plot device or exposition machine, but other than that he is pretty harmless and it's forgivable because he is just a complete side-character. On tri, they try focusing a bit more on him at times, and his relationship with Mimi in particular, but in return his "smart-kid powers" get blown completely out of proportion and he can basically do anything sitting in his computer, to the point where the abridged version turned him into an ego-maniac that basically runs the world and it's a running gag that he can do anything.

Overall, the biggest problem with these two is that they are becoming more and more flat, and anytime an opportunity to round them out appears it is thrown out of the window in favors of presening powers that are just purely nonsensical and could be taken up by a million other roles. However, Izzy did have a very good moment in the movie, one BIG mistake he did. And while he wasn't totally willing to admit it and in the end he was nonetheless rewarded for that mistake, it was a BIIG step forward to show him as fallible.

What was this mistake you ask? Well, that brings me to my next point.

Part 3: Homeostasis Was a Pretty Swell Villain Group​
Back when Mei was still a Meicrackmon (I think?) and the kids were all trying to push her out of the human world, each getting infected and all that, Izzy desperately tried finding a way to save them and because he is almighty, he created a magical cube that would somehow save their data and memories from the reboot. While the digimon ultimately failed to get on the cube on time, it got worse: The cube itself later came to be a source of power for Ordinemon, the final boss, which implies that, had Izzy not tried cheating the reboot with his magic cube, Ordinemon wouldn't exist to begin with. The reboot would have actually worked. Homeostasis, regardless of anything else had a clever last resort plan they put into motion after things couldn't go any other way and the only reason it failed was because the kids couldn't let go. And even after that, Homeosttasis was STILL willing to give them a chance of undoing their errors and after they refused Jesmon still aided them regardless.

Admitedly, I might be a little biased because Jesmon is my favorite digimon, but this to me seems to be a genuiley well-intended, well-managed organization that is only antagonistic because their methods are at times a bit more drastic than those of the kids, since they don't have access to magic plot devices like Izzy and Kari. Both times, the organization tries to help the heroes organize, and when they refuse and inevitably fail, Homeostasis takes matters into their own hands BEFORE it is too late, send their best digi for the job to handle and cooperate while they buy time for plans that actually would have worked, while still staying ready up to the last second to backtrack on those plans if the kids succeeed on pulling a miracle out of their asses.

I'm honestly quite impressed. Which makes it all the more of a shame that Jesmon gets no resolution, and he's far from the only one.


Part 4: Many Characters, Few Resolutions​
For all the characters that populate this movie, few seem to have character arcs and even those that do don't all finish them. Tai finishes a character arc, even Kari has a ridiculously small character arc and many of the character have a pseudo-character arc when their digimon get rebooted. However, and especially among the antagonists, barely anyone seems to get anything resembling a resolution. We get to see Maki (the traitor woman who wanted the reboot) finding her digimon partner with the lost memories but we don't know what happens to her after that. Does she go back? Does she befriend the digimon again? Does she use her gun to put herself out of her misery now that her digimon has no idea who she is?

Picking from my previous topic, the last thing we see is Jesmon just going through the portal and we're told they confronted Yggdrasil and Alphamon. Like, seriously, that's THREE resolutions to character arcs we don't get to see. How they did change, have their views or positions altered at all? I mean Yggdrasil didn't since he is a computer but then again...he is a computer. Who the F MADE Yggdrasil? How were they not in on this whole action? How did Izzy not immediately track them down and hack them with his god-like abilities?

What happened with Jenai? Why is he suddenly an insane sadistic prick and how did he get back to being so young? Why does he shapeshift, why does he keep taking the form of the digimon emperor? There are so many questions and things that went unresolved that it seems like sequel bait, and it probably is. On top of that, it's also trying to be a prequel to the ending of the previous season, as it tries to retcon Meico into the story.

Part 5: is Meico Even Really a character?​
Digimon movies have always had this sort of issue where instead of exploring established characters better they tend to side-track to focus on newly invented characters for the movie specifically. This has helped bring many fun concepts into the potential pseudo-cannon of digimon, but it also tends to come at the expense of the old characters and part of the audience's supposed investment. Digimon Tri, on the other hand, tries to have it's cake and eat it too, in the process spilling said cake on the fllor and the trying to lick it directly off there.

This is because Meico does consume time that could dedicated to other members of the actual team we follow from before, but she also gets...nothing. Her existence in the movie is resumed to two things: Meicomon's partner (oh that naming is cringy...) and Tai's future romantic interest. Nothing else. She barely has a personality and her backstory is she's from out of town and her faster works on secret government project #375. Honestly, with Tai's changes, his breakup with Sora, the ressurection of characters like Leomon (only to be killed again) and the flat-out-disappearance of the 02 characters, I think Tri could easily have been just some delusional fever dream Tai is having. Meico acts and feels like she's Tai's imaginary friend to quope with the shock from the break-up and the only time when she is even useful she is just a magnet for Meicoomon/Ordinemon.

The cold hand of corporate executives is easily felt on this project and that is probably the origin of the greatest issue of all with Digimon Adventure Tri:

Part 6: Digimon Adventure Tri HAS NO BALLS​
Remember what I said earlier about the weird fascination the show had with Tai? Don't get me wrong, I like Tai, but this is the kind of sudden out of nowhere character development a death flag character has. And then they killd Tai, or at least they really wanted us to believe they did. They had emotional moments, Kari breaking down, and even a symbolic goggle passage to Matt with him struggling to become team leader and all that. It was a nearly perfect set up, that they just didn't go through with , as instead they felt the need to bring him back. if I may, let me help you envision a digimon Tri in which Tai actually dies.

Fans of Tai are understandably upset, but if his death scene was made a little less sudden and a bit more epic, I think even them could have enjoyed it, and it would feel more appropriate for his character. Tis would in a sense, wrap up his character arcs and prove he is still the brave leader willing to gamble and put everything on the line for his friends. With it, charcters like Kari (say, forcing her to be more independent) and Agumon could have gotten a shit ton more development and even been brought to the forefront. All the emotional scenes we got about it would not be pointless and Matt becoming the new leader would show how far Tri was willing to go and how great the stakes could actually be, after all if they killed TAI of all people, then anyone could perish. So, the whole time, my fingers were crossed for this to be the case, even though I already knew it wasn't going to happen.

This is hardly the only time, especially in the last movie, when the destruction of narrative stakes and consequences just wrecked what could have been really brave and frankly fantastic moves. A permanent deletion of the digimon's memories instead of them being restored seemed like a great way to show that the characters can in fact fail and that it means something for them to fail. Homeostasis going through with their second plan could lead to some interesting post-credit exploration. The 02 kids being dead would kill Davis. The conflict between yggdrasil and homeostasis and the kids having to pick a side, or homeostais teaming up with the adults, making the kids have to go rogue....

This is the tip of the iceberg of the cool ideas that digimon tri half-asses, and that makes it come off as a really pointless. If you want to be a light-hearted flick that goes nowhere at least don't try pretending like you are more than that, and have the consistency to not pull random plot devices at least. And if you want to bring new and innovative ideas and maybe you need a new plot device for it, that's fine, but at least explore the idea to it's fullest extent and don't backtrack on all forms of consequences, specially if the character genuinely made a terrible mistake for purely selfish reasons.

Part 7: Themes, Art, Sound and Animation​
Now, I do have to give Tri credit for being rather clever about it's themes, and ultimately having a resolution that is more unexpected thematically than a typical digimon series (to kill a foe for mercy, instead of trying to rescue them like a shonen protagonist). Even as it butchered it's own consequence it explored themes of consequences, the need to act BEFORE shit goes down, order vs peace, growing up, letting go and many others... If tri had actually went full-out with it's ideas,I think these themes would really have stoof out a lot more and made it a pretty amazing movie. But even if they didn't, at least the seeds were definitely there.

Apart from some awful constantly re-used 3D for evolutions that just made otherwise badass digimon look like flacid cartoonishly silly plastic figures, and a few overly generic sound effects, digimon's shiny art style was actually pretty great, the animation was fluid enough and the sound track was well-timed, even if a lot of it were just remixes at most.

Part 8: Theorizing about Ordinemon and Jenai​
Now, this isn't so much in trms of review, but I do want to bring up a couple controversial topics and kinda try to justify one while the other I will just provide a personal theory that while likely wrong, I think would be cool.

First, that ass shot, I mean that angel ass, I mean Ordinemon. Yes, I know, that sentence probably made me come off as an asshole ( :P ) but jokes aside I don't think it was made for fanservice. I mean it would be just weird for this monster that mixes basically two cats and turns into a grey angel with spiky teeth for be meant for fanservice. If they wanted fanservice that badly I doubt they would need much of an excuse to Rip Sora's clothes off or something and Mimi is probably changing half the time. Rather I think it ws just a poorly planned consequence of the digimon's design being seemingly based of renaissance-styled paintings, which often showed extremely slender, almost marble naked angels like that. In fact if not for some church censoring the sistine chapel would be a collection of nudes. So I think the animators were just viticms of an unlucky accident where I guess the story-boarders and the original designers didn't meet to discuss their work or something or nobody realized how it looked until it was too late.

Now, as for Jenai going psycho evil, I can't justify that, however, i do have one theory which would be cool if it were true, but most likely isn't. I hope that Jenai is playing the kids, as in, his goal is actually to wipe out all these evil digimon which he knows will eventually threaten the digital world. What he wants is to hurry and do it before every kid becomes like Tai was becoming in this movie's beggining, so he plays the bad guy to create an incentive for the kids to, on their own, push forward with all their might against these incoming threats.

Part 9: Overall Thoughts​
There is a lot more I could talk about, but I think this should suffice for now as my hands are killing me.

In any case overall, Tri had some great foreshadowing, themes, art sound and ideas, but it failed to take advantage of any of what it had by trying to be too tied to prior convention. It was a "meh" movie, but a nice nostalgia trip back to the world of digimon for me :)



Hope you liked reading this review!

It is a trick as old as time, to flip conventions on their heads and have the reverse of a common idea play out. We´ve seen it time and time again, sometimes deep and tragically other times bubbly and funny. This element, that we call "irony" and in other cases "parody" is what the premise to "Karin" promises us.

Like any good romance, the show takes a great focus onto it´s two main characters Usui Kenta and Karin Maaka. Setting aside the random detail of Usui´s stare, the story doesn´t really play into anything too unconventional. It´s plot and a lot of character interactions are ... practically transcribed form the great book of clichés and the show seems to have little self awareness about it, as it takes such story elements far more seriously than an audience which is aware of them ever could. The usage of tropes doesn´t really make something bad, though, as it can be used as a platform to save time and focus on other things, but the way the plot takes itself so seriously in spit of the lack of attachment the characters have to it , makes it feel expendable and mostly just a way of parading the characters.

By no means, however, are the characters bad. In fact, I would argue they are the best aspect of the show, which is excellent considering this is a romance, a genre which relies on how much and in which way we want characters to interact. Every character, in both isolation and in their relationship with the other characters feels unique and develops organically, which in turns allow you to not only root for them and their progression as characters (even the psychopathic doll) but also look back and suddenly feels nostalgic about those previous moments that you understand better and better over time. As far as characters go, the show is definitely cohesive and through, contrasting with the plot in that the tropes it does use are meaningful, whereas in the plot the tropes fill like just filler.

With felt less cohesive was the mix of drama and humor in this show, which I think wasn´t handled too well. There was an intended progression into darker set ups as the show went along, and well, that much was accomplished, but the insistently repeated jokes that weren´t all that good to begin with (some jokes even being distinctly bad such as a certain Winner Sinclair) and the over the top reactions of pretty much every character to just about everything made the earlier goof feel exhausting and the usage of a plot saturated with cliché turns was enough to dismiss a lot of the drama for me. The first part did allow some contrast with Maaka´s sister, allowing her presence on screen to almost always feel like a breath of fresh air and while the drama wasn´t too effective as drama, it did make me think more deeply about the themes of the show: our nature as people. What makes you be you.

This surprisingly deep and even more surprisingly well-explored thematic grants the show a whole layer of new potential. Whether you allow yourself to go with the tide and can enjoy the humor and drama as they go along without concerning yourself with the disparity or you choose to swim deeper into the river and find the golden themes at the bottom, the show has something for you to taste and to help you immerse in what the characters are going through. Even the ending allows the relief for those that follow through with the drama and also resolves the issue in a way that is rather consistent with it´s worldbuilding that far instead of pulling a deus-ex-machina. The only complaint about this I would have is that the answers the show appears to present to it´s conflicts are vague and dreamy at best which could be rather disappointing.

Overall, Karin is a very "middle" show, good enough to be watched and enjoyed by almost everyone, excelling in the middle but being a little rough on the beginning due to us not caring enough about the characters yet and in the end , due to the repetitive content (unless you have a particular taste for certain themes or the humor of the show). It´s not something I´d go out of my way to recommend to anyone, but it is not a waste of time either , providing and enjoyable twist on the vampire romance trope.