A Silent Voice Anime Review
By: Cyranical
[This review contains spoilers, read at your own risk]
Have you ever felt super down and demotivated off online class? Have you every just felt tired, but finally got that rest that you really needed? Well that's exactly what happened to me, and this movie helped me out emotionally. The reason it did is because me and the main character practically come from the same roots? Wanna know what I mean? Wanna know what movie I'm talking about? Stay tuned then. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Cyranical; and welcome to my A Silent Voice review; let's get it!!!
A
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silent voice, also known by the original English translation as the shape of voice is an infamous Japanese animation movie that won multiple awards. These awards range from the Japanese movie critics awards for best animated feature film; the Japan academy film price for excellent animation of the year; and was nominated for Mainichi Film Award for Best Animation Film. It was produced by Kyoto Animation, a studio known for its excellent and highly innovative symbolic visuals. It was written by the K-On, D-Gray-Man; and Bakuman Japanese screenwriter Reiko Yoshida,
additionally it was directed by K-On; Tamako Market; and Sound euphonium director Naoko Yamada. The film is known for it's amazing animation and psychological depth of it's characters.
Now let's start off with the positives, now there are a lot; since this is not only a beautiful piece of media, it has also resonated with many viewers worldwide including myself. Im going to tackle the most obvious one first, the category that this movie won awards in. Yes,
It tells the story of Shoya Ishida a middle school student that lives a relatively mundane life, before a deaf girl that goes by the name of Shoko Nishimiya transfers in to his school. After a while Ishida and his friends Naoko Ueno and Kazuki Shimada start bullying her because of her known disability. This then prompts her to transfer out of school. After her transfer the principal of the school finds out and exposes Ishida and his friends for bullying Nishimiya; the two retaliate by putting all the blame on the former which causes him to get in trouble with his parents; damage his social reputation rendering him a school outcast; and him being bullied by his friends and their new acquaintances. Years later Ishida is shown selling off everything that he has, and marking his calendar with the reasoning of that he will commit suicide. When the day finally comes, he's about to jump off a bridge when something stops him, that reason being is that he wants to be forgiven for all of his past crimes. He starts off by going to apologize to Nishimaya, but is unsuccessful; which delays his suicide attempt; he decides to get her forgiveness before said deed. Unbeknownst to him his decisions and actions will cause him to find happiness by meeting new friends, reconciling with old ones; and being in good terms with the person that he used to bully; but this is only after he overcomes all of his inner demons that ranges from depression, low self-esteem; being a social outcast and having social anxiety as well.
Now let's start off with the positives, now there are a lot; since this is not only a beautiful piece of media, it has also resonated with many viewers worldwide including myself. I’m going to tackle the most obvious one first, the category that this movie won awards in. Yes, that is correct; it is none other than animation. Back then in the early 2,000's Kyo Ani was making waves because of the studio's brilliant use of cinematography which pertains to the prime visual structure of the anime or movie itself. The studio was known for having colorful and eye catching scenes, full of details and symbolism that provided depth to not only it's scenes but also to its characters. A silent voice is not an exception to this, it not only has amazing animation; but it also has this thing going on where Ishida sees x marks on people's faces. This is a defense mechanism that allows him to feel safe so that he will not be able to hear the voice of other people including his bullies. The film also has this animation style that makes everything feel innocent and lukewarm, which pertains to its two main characters which I'll discuss later in the character's section of this review; now let's get back on track while everything looks innocent and lukewarm for the basic scenes, for happy scenes everything lightens up and is highlighted; for sad and serious scenes there is a dark atmosphere complimented by darker colors and a fantastic soundtrack. Additionally the animation style is highlighted by its character's, Ishida and Nishimiya has this air and this look that makes them feel like they're innocent victims; while Ueno has this air and look that makes her be highlighted as a source of conflict for our two main characters. This movie truly has brilliant animation, what more can I say; and even today where there are some films and anime that could rival it in terms of visuals such as weathering with you; it still ages properly even throughout all these years. Watching this movie in 2021 actually made me breathe a sign of fresh relief, because in this current time where studios are known for pumping out anime with mediocre animation, this movie being a product of Kyoto Animation stands out from that even now; unfortunately the studio is no more because of a fire incident that burned down the studio along with its workers and staff. Condolences to the families of those who passed away and to the studio itself, I and everyone else will miss you for bringing us wholesome stories with stunning visuals plus animation.
The next pro that I am going to be talking about is the OP and the ED, and the soundtrack of the film; now obviously these are two different categories; but since they are both sound then I will just group them up together to make my life a lot more easier than usual; plus they have the same reason that makes me consider them a pro in the first place. The Op and ED really suits the themes while highlighting the feelings of the characters and the events that are unfolding between them. The opening song is a sort of rock upbeat oriented song, and it plays at the opening of the movie obviously; as you can see it works with the visuals being played so well because it blends in with the mood of Ishida and his friends having a fun school life; this is obviously before Nishimiya is introduced to them. As for the ED, it starts off with a soft tune but then really molds itself to be a sort of a redemption song, which fits in perfectly with Ishida's redemption and change in the ending of the movie. Now for the soundtrack of the movie, my reasoning for it is practically the same, the score that plays while the events of the story takes place just works, they just fit; that's basically it.
Now let's move on to next pro, that's the ending; the reasons for it being a positive are the following; the visuals of the ending are really good; it serves as a good conclusion to the movie as well; showing everyone that Ishida with the help of his friends is now finally able to face the music which pertains to what other people are saying about him; he now is able to hear them all and it doesn't pace him as much as it did before. Next up the soundtrack that plays during it blends in perfectly; let me elaborate it starts off all moody and then it slowly brigtens up perfectly in synch with when the x marks of the people around Ishida start disappearing; that in itself is a beautiful work of cinematography.
Now I'm going to move on to the most important positive of this movie and why it is so impactful. The themes that it presents are very heavy and impactful to us the audience, because they are relatable and furthermore they can also be considered real; all of the themes expressed can legitimately happen to an individual. These themes are, feeling of isolation; social anxiety; depression; feeling of numbness; being bullied because of your disability which makes people think you are abnormal or different from everybody else; being deaf and how it affects not only the person suffering from it; but also the people that are close to them. One of the reasons why these themes struck out to me as individual is that back then when I was in high school and elementary, I was very lonely and wasn't good at socializing; so seiing Ishida be a portrayed as a social outcast; with moments such as him just staring out of the window while overthinking with his negative thoughts really stood out to me; and it reminded me of myself from years back. Now I did gain confidence and made friends after a couple of years; but it wasn't easy and it came with trial and error. While yes having your other classmates start trying to integrate you to their friend group is a thing that could happen and did happen to me, the process and the pressure that you feel in order to be fully one of them is tremendous and is only exclusive to you as an individual. Now at the start they try to coarse you into going out to specific events with them which you will eventually get used to, but at the start the pressure was definetely there especially if you were in uncharted territory to begin with. Now me being bullied in elementary and not having that many friends was one of the reasons to why my self-esteem was low back then and why I was so careful on leaving a good impression on friend groups and friendly people in general, now I did gain confidence and many friends later on but I had to constantly reinvent myself and there was even a point where I was lost and didn't know what really was the true me; but though sheer effort and the support of my friends I was able to overcome all of that. Which brings us to Ishida and his character arc, he went through the same experiences that I did; he got bullied in school; he was a social outcast at one point; and at the end of the movie he was now what you can call a normal person despite all the pain that he went through and his long journey that it took to get him there though himself and his friends he got through all of it, this just resounded with me and when it all clicked it made me almost cry. I'm not done yet, themes of anxiety and being numb is also a thing that me and him have experienced. Before I started online college class I was full of motivation and confidence in pursuing my chosen coarse, but after three weeks everything just started crumbling for me. My motivation was nonexistent, I loss my motivation when it came to studying medicine; my confidence was dwindling; everyday felt the same it didn't even feel like I was a human; it just felt like I was an academic machine that just read books and researched everyday; I also wasn't learning that much; and it was very painful to me; since back then I used to be super motivated to study and pursue high grades. Now everything just feels like a chore, and it's super sad and dissapointing; there was even a point where I started crying due to not being able to rest due to the overload of activities which I didn't experience in my first year of online class back in 12th grade. I remember this one time where I hugged my mom before college started then I suddenly started crying because I coudn't take it anymore, she comforted me and told me to keep on going; the same thing my friends did and it helped a little bit; my brain at this point was dominated by negative thoughts such as, "Oh you need to get high grades in order to shift coarse" which I did consider and am currently pursuing, "You should just give up, you're talented enough to get a job and you're not learning stuff anyway" "Shut up, you're a machine that doesn't deserve happiness" "What if you just failed and reenrolled somewhere" "If I failed and had to repeat everything, I don't think I can bear it." those thoughts kept getting louder and more pessimistic while I though of them every second, but I kept on praying and kept asking for emotional support from the people closest to me; thanks to them I now am feeling better and have started recovering from what I call college anxiety. Ishida went through all these things as well, and I know it sounds stupid but he had balls he really tried to kill himself; which I did taught off but way too much of a pussy to try. When I saw this man try and jump off the bridge I was like damn this guy might be more of a man than me, that shit takes balls respect; but then after that I finally came down to earth and realized just how stupid that sounded; I did realize that giving up now would not be beneficial especially since I feel like I can really make my dreams come true if I do graduate from college, and I need this degree for that; I need to stomach the pain and keep on going; I don't care if it makes me numb just keep on coming I'll endure them all I'm strong like that. Now getting back to Ishida, he overcomed everything through the help of Nishimaya and his friends and of coarse himself as well which is practically the same as what happened to me; good for us man.
As for the final positive, and possibly the most important one; this is the characters section. Remember when I told you that the cinematography makes the two main characters feel innocent and lukewarm, well that's because they are. In order to elaborate, Ishida and Nishimaya are both victims of people's immaturity and society's dark parts. Sure Ishida was a horrible person back then for bullying this girl, but he was a child that was influenced by his friends and was very immature; maybe seeing that this girl was being treated differently; being treated special just because she was deaf made him jealous because he wanted to be the center of attention too; this then could have potentially lead him be lash out to her because he was jealous of the way she was treated; or it could just be a case of him being a immature bastard; we don't know only the author does. After he was exposed everything went downhill for him; his friends turned on him and started bullying him by spreading nasty rumors about him; not to mention they also made him a scapegoat for their sins; his social status flunctuated; his mom felt disappointed and angry at him; he started becoming a social outcast which lead to him developing severe mental illnesses like depression and social anxiety accompanied with low self-esteem and being a coward; eventually as a defense mechanism his brain reverted him to his true nature a gullible cowardly innocent idiot; this was who he truly was before he started being a bully; in addition to that he also developed this mechanism where he puts an x on people's faces; that way he doesn't hear all the bad things that they say about him which is a pretty extreme but could be realistic reaction. The movie portrays his battle with himself extremely well, as it highlights multiple times in the film that he battles his guilt for what he has done in the past and even constantly blames himself for every bad thing that has happened in his life; thats why it's so fulfilling when finally attaines peace and happiness; while being reconciled and accepted by everyone around him. As for the other characters, they are portrayed as a bit more mature than standard teenagers; which sounds so stupid because they are all super immature; but my justification of this is that there was this one time where after an argument in the classrooom; the friends came over and tried to fix it with Ishida which unfortunately leads to him falling out with them; but it was still a valuable effort; as most teenage characters in anime will just doable down on their mistake and either avoid the person entirety till they apologize out of guilt; or act hostile towards them. As for Nishimiya she was also brilliantly portrayed, you can see her deteoring emotional health throughout the movie when she fails the confession to Ishida and when she sees how much her sister and family really looks out for her; this eventually prompts her to think that everything would be so much better without her weighing them down; now I don't know about you but I think this is a natural reaction. The ways the film portrays all of these using themes and emotional turmoil though the use of unique animation, visuals, storytelling; soundtracks; OP and the ED; and through visual effects just makes this entire movie that much better; and I love all the characters to death as well. In addition to all of this, I don't know a single thing about deaf people; but I did notice that they are some moments in the movie that show how they live; and how special they are to society despite them having a disability; so props to the film for that.
Now it's finally time for the cons section. There are only three negatives that I have noticed from this film. The first one is that the pacing was a bit off in certain times, which I noticed when it came to the ending parts was that everything just started working out in the last 15 minutes of the movie; and everything just went by so fast.
The next negative was that I felt like there should have been more backstory about Ishida's friends and what went throught their heads; that would have allowed us to understand them better, now I'm not a manga reader; but apparently thanks to me seeing one at a youtube comment section while I was looking for the title of the ED and the OP of the film; I saw that he listed the differences of the two; and apparently the manga was more detailed and offered more explanation for the backstory of Ishida's friends; which I thought could have appeared in the film and could have provided more light to Ishida's backstory. I did some research and found out that the manga came first, so while the movie was condensed pretty well according to manga readers; I thought that the backstory of the friends was important and needed to be in the film.
This final one I'm not really sure if it's a negative, but I would like to point it out eitherway before I forget about it. Ishida sometimes makes me cringe, because of how stupid he is sometimes; like yeah I get it you're a dense moron which isn't really his fault; but the writer's because every MC nowadays seems to be a dense moron so that the story goes on for longer; but the amount of times that Ishida cannot read between the lines and all the stupid shit he does just makes me cringe sometimes. "How is he so relatable yet so stupid and cringe at the same time, I don't get it?" Yes he does have various mental illnesses which could potentially factor into it. "But is that really the reason or was he just written that way?" That's what I really want to know, writers.
Pros:
- Stunning visuals, and great creative animation from Kyoto Animation as always
-Great OP, ED
-Amazing soundtrack
-A really fitting ending
-Emotional attachment to the audience
-Explored mature emotional themes that are realistic
-Great psychological depth of characters
Cons:
-A bit of a pacing problem
-Ishida is a bit annoying and cringe sometimes because of him being stupid and gullible for a majority of the movie.
-Backstory of Ishida's friend's could have been included and helped shred light to his story.
This wraps up my a silent voice, also known as the shape of voice anime movie review. This movie was not only amazing, but it was also emotional; explored realistic themes; and also made the audience relate to it at an emotional level. Too bad I didn't cry while watching it, as I felt like I could have had a way better watching experience had I did; since everything did reasonate for me; but at the end of the day I decided to be a man and hold back my tears like I usually do when it comes to emotional pieces of media like this. As for the recap, here we go. The movie had a bunch of positives for me those being, great animation and visuals; great storytelling; fantastic OP and ED that complimented its scenes well; interesting and deep characterization; explored mature and realistic themes that are highly relatable to it's audiences; a well fitting soundtrack that complimented the movie nicely; managed to appeal to the audience and be relatable on an emotional scale; and of coarse had a fantastic conclusion to it's story. As for it's negatives; well there was a bit of some pacing issues, me being annoyed at Ishida for him having cringeworthy moments; furthermore the exception of the backstory of Ishida's friend that I felt like where really needed to the story.
Overall this was a wonderful movie, and an even more fulfilling experience. I highly recommend it to everyone looking to unwind from a long day of academics, work; or just a stressful day in general; but don't be deceived this movie can be watched plus enjoyed by everyone as it has plenty of lessons while being extremely enjoyable as well; in short I highly recommend it to everybody out there that hasn't seen it yet; what are you doing go stream it on netflix or crunchyroll; it will totally deliver in terms of your expectations. To close things out; I give A Silent Voice/The Shape Of Voice a 8/10 for my overall rating. This has been Cyranical, thank you so much for reading this in depth review of A Silent Voice; I really enjoyed making it and it took me a lot of effort and time to finish it; show some love by liking it and sharing it on social media to everyone you know if you enjoyed this review. This has been Cyranical, signing off.
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Nov 1, 2021
Koe no Katachi
(Anime)
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A Silent Voice Anime Review
By: Cyranical [This review contains spoilers, read at your own risk] Have you ever felt super down and demotivated off online class? Have you every just felt tired, but finally got that rest that you really needed? Well that's exactly what happened to me, and this movie helped me out emotionally. The reason it did is because me and the main character practically come from the same roots? Wanna know what I mean? Wanna know what movie I'm talking about? Stay tuned then. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Cyranical; and welcome to my A Silent Voice review; let's get it!!! A ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 7, 2021 Mixed Feelings
Cyranical's Kaiji Season 2: Against All Rules anime review
By: Azrael Rex B. Anacleto aka "Cyranical" Let's get it!!! Kaiji Season 2 continues the story of our glorified gambling addict Kaiji. He is now on the run from Teia after losing the gamble against Hyodoi from the final arc of season 1. While covering his tracks he eventually runs into Endou, the same loan shark that got him in debt in the first place; he asks him for another gamble claiming that he will not make any more mistakes plus he will win it all this time. Due to Tonegawa's demotion after his loss to our hero, ... Endou himself is in a bit of a financial pickle; so he decides to drug Kaiji and take him to the underground labor camp so he can work to pay off his debts. While Kaiji is inside the camp, he makes various plans against new enemies in order to get the one day outside pass claiming that he will gamble on that said day in order to buy his freedom. Pros: -Still explores real life themes of pain, disappointment; gambling addiction; corruption and betrayal like its predecessor; which is fantastic for this sort of anime. -Has a good Opening Song. -Continues the plot and premise of our protagonist Kaiji trying to gamble his way out of debt once and for all, while making different types of enemies; and putting himself in the most inhuman advantages ever; incidentally he pulls them off cause anime I guess. -Has a good, satisfying ending. -Has a good soundtrack Cons: -Has a bad ending song. -Is an inferior season compared to the first one. -The two arcs that it has are not that satisfying, exciting, plus breathtaking like they were in its predecessor. To elaborate the gambling against Otsuki arc wasn't even that good, it was just mediocre; sure it did have its moments but most of those came towards it final phase; not in its earlier phases which is not gonna cut it for a Kaiji arc; meanwhile the Bog Arc has bigger problems. -This season has pacing problems, a good example of this is The Bog arc, it is way too drawn out, how many episodes do you need in order to beat a goddamn Pachinko machine; like jeez okay at the start it's pacing was okay and it did peek my interest on how he was going to beat it; but as more and more episodes just felt wasted by him just repeatedly trying to beat it; it just become super stale and boring; we even have a freaking recap episode for Christ’s sake; that's how you know we are just trying to pat out more episodes; plus when the anime production is going downhill as well. Back then I could watch multiple episodes of this show every day, but during The Bog arc I just felt so drained and bored that I only watched one or two episodes of this show every other day; that is how stale this arc is; which is disappointing because Kaiji is known for its breathtaking and exciting arcs. Overall Kaiji season 2 is not as good as the first season because of production, pacing; and it's arcs just being more lackluster. It does still have some positive points though such as it having a good Op, a good soundtrack; same premises and concepts like it did in S1; in addition to that it also has a pretty reasonable ending. This season is not really that bad, it's just below the standards that the show has set for itself; let me put it in a much more easier way to comprehend this season is just mid. Though if you are a fan of the series and the manga then this is worth the watch, just be wary of its sudden decline in quality. In conclusion I give Kaiji Season 2 also known as Kaiji: Against All Rules a 6/10 for my overall anime rating. Thanks for checking out this anime review Cyranical out!!!
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 22, 2021
Zankyou no Terror
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(8/11 eps)
Welcome to Cyranical's Terror Of Resonance anime review let's get it!!!
Terror In Reasonance tells the story of two terrorists that go by the name of Nine and Twelve. At the start of the show they steal plutonium and are on run, they pretend to be highschool students in an attempt to remain innocent. Six months later they post videos as Sphinx one and two while adressing their demands and playing cat and mouse with the Japanese police, until one of their exploits includes one unplanned factor that being the highschool girl at their class Mishima Lisa which they decide to save and make an ... accomplice. As their plans continue on they eventually taste defeat by stumbling into the mysterious american agent Five that appear to be connected to them; which sets flags for the trio of terrorist while making the story that much more fascinating. Pros: -Banger soundtrack, every piece of music fits the scenes that it was played on -Great visuals and animation, most noteworthy are the eye pleasing action scenes -I like Nine as a character, he's interesting; calm; collected; and has a purpose; too bad he's executed pretty badly. -Great OP and ED, I listened to the op 3 times and the ED 2 times; I know that's not much but I don't normally listen to OP's and ED's more than once since a majority of them are just mid; nonetheless the ones here are top notch. -The premise is really intriguing, it's about terrorism and at the time that this show was released that was something new that made people flock; and I'm no exception. Cons: -The script is really bad. The story could have been executed way better, too bad what we got instead was just one of them generic thrillers with a lot of action; now granted there was subplots here and there that would have made the anime way better; unfortunately everything was just all over the place. The subplots were ignored and when they remembered it they just made a halfass conclusion for each one. -The show falls off; before Five was introduced everything was good, the story was shaping out well; the characters were about to get interesting; the action was amazing; plus we had consistency and a definite direction that the plot was following. It started out so well, but then after the first four episodes everything just went downhill; it's honestly just so dissapointing. -Lisa as a character, now I get it she's there for a purpose; that being that she's supposed to be the one that loves Nine and Twelve for who they are since no one else loved them; but she's executed in a way where she was just there. Yes she is one of the main characters of the show, yes she get's a lot of screentime; unfortunately all of that doesn't matter when her purpose is misunderstood plus the execution of her character is really bad; she's part of the trio yet I forget about her all the time. Fun fact I actually forgot about what her name was when I was doing my synopsis for this review so I had to look at Mal in order to clarify it. -Five, oh five why? She had so much potential as a character, yet they butchered her. Like what was that? What was her purpose, she was just obsessed over Nine was that it; they did her so dirty. You know up until to this point of the review I'm still contemplating what her purpose is. -Finally the ending; now the ending actually fits with the theme of the anime and what it was trying to achieve; but it was done in the most horrendous way possible. It's like Mappa ran out of budget because of all the explosions and action scenes that they just decided to wing the final episode; which is really bad since the ending is important. It's meant to serve as a conclusion to the story while clearing everything up as well; unfortunately this one doesn't do that it only leaves you with questions and head scratching moments. After the show ended I was just sitting there scratching my head, thinking "What did I just watch" What were the main characters trying to accomplish?" It took me a couple of minutes to actually realize and connect everything up to speed; that's how bad and unclear the execution for this show was. Overall Terror in Resonance is an anime has that has an interesting premise, starts out strong but quickly succumbs to its problems, such as having a bad script; directing and poor utilization of it's characters; therefore it ending up being a dissapointment in the long run. I would not recommend this anime to anyone, which is really unfortunate because of it's unique premise plus earlier promise. I will wrap up this review by giving Terror in resonance a 6/10 for it's overall anime rating. Thank you for reading my anime review of Terror In Resonance; I greatly appreciate it; hopefully you enjoyed as well; Cyranical out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 4, 2021 Recommended
Cyranical Anime Reviews presents "Kaiji The Ultimate Survivor anime review"
By: Cyranical {Review contains minor spoilers} Kaiji the Ultimate Survivor is the anime adaptation of the popular japanese manga by the esteemed gambling manga maker Nobuyuki Fukumoto. It tells the story of Kaiji Itou a good for nothing bum that takes cars tires, gambles and drinks a lot. One day a person from the Mafia comes and states that he has a massive depth thanks to him co signing his friend Furuhata who fled away from his debts; Kaiji is then offered a shady deal that states that he needs to gamble in an underground crew ship ... in order to make it big and be able to pay-off his debts once and for all; he accepts this deal. Unfortunately for him this marks the start of the highest stakes that he has ever had in his entire life along with a lot of gambling, mischief; cheating; betrayal plus deceit. First of all I will be making this review a lot shorter than usual since there is nothing much to critique about Kaiji. Okay let me kick off the pros section with this, Kaiji is a very interesting and exciting anime that has that crave factor that I look for. The crave factor is when a piece of media makes you invested and makes you want to stick around for more, which is something that I rarely find in both anime and light novels. At it's core Kaiji is a gambling anime that makes our hero bet everything he has in terms of his wealth and even himself, basically everything he has from 12 million; to ears; to fingers whatever can be betted; for unfavorable and overexaggerated odds that his enemies can think ;which unfortunately for him most of the time are disadvantageous. This anime made me feel excited and and pumped up plus crave for every single episode that it has produced; I found myself even on a tight schedule watching multiple episodes of this show a day; in addition to that this has ever rarely happened in any piece of media that I have encounted; so props to you Kaiji. Next up the OP and ED are both fantastic, man it's been a while since I reviewed an anime that has both an outstanding and fitting OP and ED; it feels magical in a sense. Like I said the visuals for the OP and ED contain images of death, loneliness, and struggles; which not only fits the show perfectly but also sets it up nicely for whatever is to come or is to be shown next. Both the OP and ED do this aspect magnificently, also if you pay attention to the lyrics you will see that some of them are a bit deep; while some of them are a representation of Kaiji's cruel life so far. Moving on to the third positive, this show is not only an exciting gambling show it also has some things that you can learn a thing or two on. It actually explores themes of gambling addiction, people being desperate when they are in a pickle, lack of trust in other people, betrayal; and discrimation of the higher-ups of society against those who are poor and have nothing in life. These said themes are very rampant in both arcs of the first season of this show, those being the Espoir and the hotel of death arc; if you pay close enough attention while watching the show even as an average viewer then you will be able to notice these themes sprinkled around the show throughout it's runtime of 26 episodes. Next up the fourth pro, the show does a good job with it's camera angles; the camera moves in a a way that highlights what the other characters are thinking and what they are feeling; for example it constantly zooms in on Kaiji's worried face during his game of E-card against Tonegawa; furthermore this allows it to highlight the intense game deciding movements of the show and make them even more intense; good examples of this is when Kaiji is slamming a card into the table during E-card or when the chairman finally pulls out the winning lot out of the tissue box. Also I cannot forget the sound effect that goes ski ski ski or something like that whenever a character is feeling uneasy, massive amounts of tension or even fear; they also used a different sound effect on the bridge but it doesn't really matter that much since both have the same effects anyway. Okay finally moving on to the final positive of the first season of this show, that being it's uniqueness. Now it has two aspects of uniqueness, the first one is the uniqueness of the plot; a anime or manga about gambling is unique because it is different and uncommon; that makes it interesting and underrated. The same goes for Kaiji I can bet that not many people know about it, since it is an underrated anime and way different than all the stuff the industry normally produces. I can also bet that the people that watched it probably watched it for the unique gambling premise, or because they taught they found an underrated gem in the mines which is true; I can bet these things and have a pretty high chance of winning. Moving on to the cons section of this show, the first one is that this man Itou Kaiji makes the most irrational decisions at the most crucial times consistently. Let me state some examples, these are when he frees the glasses guy instead of keeping the money for himself and living a normal life; another one is when he decides to all in and challenge the chairman instead of walking away safe and sound; I mean I get it it's the gamblers mentality and all; but you gotta know when to not fight losing battles man. I theorize two reasons for this, the first one is that the mangaka does it to raise the stakes of the show even higher; plus to make the manga keep on going since if the MC gets out scott free then that's it for him and his story. The next one is that it is in order to illustrate that our hero is also human too and is not perfect, when he is backed into a corner or in a high pressure situation then he will make mistakes and irrational decisions; this allows the viewers to both sympathize and relate to Kaiji and his struggles. Now the final negative which is actually just a nitpick on my behalf that being the artstyle; the artstyle is a bit weird and goofy looking to me. At first that is what I taught, but then I looked up the author of the manga that made the original source material of this anime and saw that all his stories and characters just look like these; so yeah I kinda just moved on and accepted that it is what it is; I still don't like the artstyle though; but it is unique I'll give him that. Pros: -Good OP and ED -Has great camera angles to highlight emotions and important events in the story -Unique premise and concept though a bit straightforward when executed -Is very interesting and is a fun watch -Has themes of discrimation of the rich against the poor, betrayal, people make rash decisions when driven into a corner; greed; and gambling addiction sprinkled throughout the show Cons: -Kaiji constantly acts stupid and makes irrational decision is the most crucial events -The artstyle looks way too weird and goofy Overall Kaiji The Ultimate Survivor is a gambling anime that makes the hero of its story bet everything he has in order to clear off his debts and earn a place in society; it explores some interesting themes and uses them to great effect in order to strengthen the story as well. It also is a very interesting watch because of its unique yet straightforward premise. I recommend this show to everyone that wants to watch an underrated gem, I throughtfully enjoyed this first season and I am so hyped for the next one; I hope that when you watch this that you will be hooked and be in love with it as well. I give Kaiji The Ultimate Survivor a 8/10 for my overall anime rating, this has been Cyranical signing off.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 3, 2021 Mixed Feelings Spoiler
Cyranical Anime Reviews Present Higehiro anime review let's get it!!!
[This review contains spoilers] Higehiro also known as "After I get rejected, I shaved and brought a teenage girl home" is the anime adaptation by Project No. 9, of the light novel series published by Shimesaba. It tells the story of Yoshida a salaryman who after getting rejected by his boss Gotou decides to get drunk to drown away his pain and sorrow. On the way home he stumbles upon Sayu, a teenage runaway that offers him sex in order to be able to stay at his place. He declines about the matter regarding sexual intercourse, but ... feels bad; and lets her stay anyway. She in turn does the housework for him, since he is busy with work. After some time staying together Sayu falls in love with Yoshida's caring and thoughtful nature, she tries to hide it since she thinks it would ruin their relationship; but little does she know the latter is also catching feelings as they grow more and more closer together. Okay first things first Higehiro is a very weird anime, let me tell you why; its an anime at its core about teenage angst, artificial drama; and learning from your mistakes; it also has a very pretty moral lesson as well. The moral of the story is that you should never run from your problems as the consequences will become even more severe in the long run if you do, you must face your problems head on; and solve them yourself. Now the problem here is that yes while all of the above mentioned are positive, there is a huge prevalent problem with this show which is that it basically condoning pedophilia while it acts like it doesn't. Now this problem is very noticeable that even the average viewer would be able to see that the show has themes of sexual abuse, saying that age is but a number, but you can argue that yes age is a number, but jail is but a room how's that you sick bastards. The show also showes us scenes of other people presumably older around their high 20's to early 30's having intercouse with the 17 year old heroine Sayu; just let that sink in for a bit. The show ultimately tries to dissuade us that yes pedophilia is bad by having a scene where the MC depends the heroine from a pedophilic rape attempt from one of her old quote on quote "customers". While that is nice and all, the show quickly goes back on it's word by developing and condoning the romance between a 26 year old salaryman and a 17 year old girl living in the same roof; the show also constantly shows us that the said girl wants to sleep with the MC and even forces herself on him multiple times; thankfully the latter declines on her advances. But just how messed up is the author's brain that he continues to make the heroine try and force herself over and over again on the MC, at this point it's intentional and kinda looks like a long running messed up joke; you know this show just made me realize that yes Japan is indeed a breeding ground for degeneracy. Now before I move on to all the people that will say "Oh but he didn't do anything to her and offered her a temporary place to live, even going as far as acting as her temporary guardian; he even got her family's permission at the end, lol dumb ass shoujo fag reviewer" Okay man let me debunk your point right now, if you would please kindly remove your man juice infested hand from your dick and think with your brain instead of your groin then you will easily be able to see that what the show is stating is indeed improper and illegal. Okay he didn't do anything; but at the same time he also didn't call the police and notifed them that a missing person is taking refuge at his house; now yes he did get permission from her parents later on the show but that still doesn't excuse the fact that he doesn't have papers nor any concrete documents to prove his innocence plus that he is indeed Sayu's guardian for a couple of months; now my good sir now that you're miscellanous claims have been throughtfully eradicated and analyzed by yours truly quote on quote "shoujo fag reviewer" would you please stop relieving yourself every two seconds to your fictional Sayu body pillow and listen to your mom; actually get a job for once; have a good day bastard. Let's move on to the positives of this show, shall we imma start the op is the first one up, now granted it's visuals are a bit lacking and seem mediocre which they are; but the song itself is not only relaxing but it also sets the mood for the show; it shows an innocent vibe to it that gets you hyped for what will be shown later on; which is ironic since only the first 2 episodes of the show is innocent. Onto the next positive this show does try to convey some positive themes, and explores some real life problems here and there, now it doesn't do a great job of it as it cop outs a bit afterwards and returns to aimlessly wandering around right after it does but atleast it tries, which I appreciate. The themes I told you guys about are feelings of grief explored by Sayu's loss of her bff who committed suicide because of being bullied. Themes of bad parenting and it's effects on children are explored on the final episode, furthermore themes of sexual abuse which went on for a bit too long but it was there I guess; and of course themes of pedophilia and defiance of the law brought to you by the main couple themself. The final positive is that yes the characters are streotypes and some of them are hollow cliches, but the show atleast gives them some character development like Mishima and Gotou; though not that much since most are showered onto the main couple. Now let's move on to the negative section of this review. The production quality leaves a lot to be desired in this show, that is partly the fault of Project9 since the studio is not versatile enough. Let me elaborate Project9 makes slice of life shows that have the almost exact same artwork and animation every time, a good example here is this show itself, since this show looks like Tomozaki kun; the way the characters are drawn plus animated has that Tomozaki-Kun vibe to it; now the anime is not to blame for this; but the studio definitely is since Project9 definitely needs to step up their visual asthethics. Secondly we have the ED, now I put the OP in the positive section since it was indeed good, I even listened to it a number of times; like I said the visuals for it are mid but the song itself kinda slaps a bit. Unfortunately this is not the case for the ED, the song is not only the most mediocre thing ever, it's visuals are also; plus the lyrics are just aight; I mean the lyrics of the OP are shallow but that one is hella catchy; while this one is just kinda there so I just skip it everytime; hell the only time I ever listened to it was the first. Thirdly the execution of the themes and real life problems that the anime is trying to convey are executed horrendously. Let me explain why, first of all once they actually think they did a decent job at one of the themes/real life problems that they are showing, they cop-out immediately and start moving on to other things such as even more themes and real life problems without fully conveying or seeing through the end of it; its so cringe man they legit just thrash it without finishing it; the results end up being that they're trying to do everything but nothing is hitting. If you're going to do something or try to show us something worthwhile then atleast do it well. This brings us to the next negative, artificial drama; this show brims with it; for example when Sayu is telling us about her super tragic backstory of having a anime cliche for a friend; girl literary has no purpose but to be bullied and kill herself resulting in the person close to her most of the time that being her friend being riddled with guilt; which causes that said person to act and behave stupidly while making braindead decisions. Examples of this troupe is Fruits of Grisai the one girl from Mitchiru's backstory, and various shoujo manga as well; I'm so sick and tired of old troupes and cliches being recycled for the 100th time. This is not the end of it btw teenage angst is the main conflict of the show, this is further elaborated when Sayu and his mother are about to make up then the show adds in more additional drama. At first the show was good, now it just makes me cringe; and honestly I'm just glad that I'm done with it. Now for the final negative, the show does not give it's characters enough character development nor enough depth; which I understand is reserved for it's main cast; but come on man there are light novels and anime out there that have better and more interesting characters than the main couple. For example the empty box and zeroth maria which is a personal favorite of mine since Daiya Oomine is just better plus more interesting than Kazuki Hoshino; and for anime we have Amigami SS; for shounen Promised Neverland since S1 Ray greater than Emma and Norman; I could go on forever but I'll just cut myself short. Anyway back to my point the pieces of media above have had some really good side characters that are even better than the mains of their show, why can't this one as well; like I literary cannot name any of the other characters except for Gotou and Mishima; look I'm not asking for some clannad afterstory type of character development here; but just make the other characters more interesting; they are legit just walking cardboards in this show. Overall Higehiro is a pretty generic romcom slife of life anime, that seems fluffy and innocent at first; but is actually trying to show deep themes and real life problems throughout the course of it's runtime. Too bad it sucks at executing these themes and real life problems, so it just falls flat on it's face; it also gets cringer and more cliche as it goes on. The characters here could have been so much more, but unfortunately with the exception of the MC and the heroine they are just there. As you can tell from the tone of the overall section so far, I would not recommend this anime to anyone in particular, please do not watch this as it is a waste of time; furthermore there are way better fluffy slice of life romcoms out there like Takagi-san and Tomozaki-Kun; if that's what you're after. Overall I give Higehiro also known as "After getting rejected, I shaved and bought a teenage girl home" a 5/10 for it's overall anime rating. This has been Cyranical's Anime reviews signing off.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 11, 2021
Yakusoku no Neverland 2nd Season
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
Cyranical's Promised Neverland Season 2 Anime Review
Warning this review contains minor spoilers, you have been warned Promised Neverland second season is the anime original continuation of the ever so popular manga faithful first season, both made by Cloverworks. Now here's the question how does the second season fair up in terms of quality compared to its magnificent predecessor? Well that's what I'm here for lads, ladies and Gentleman my name is Cyranical and welcome to my Promised Neverland season 2 anime review, let's get it!!! Let's start with the positives, okay so first things first in terms of aesthetic and how this looks, well it looks ... about the same; the characters; the artsytle the show really looks the same; well that's to be expected since this is the same show with just a different setting and different plot; now this is a positive since we have shows that look way different by that I mean look way worse compared to their first season. Next up they have the same quality of the songs, by that I mean the ED and the OP; they are both still mediocre but the ED for the first season was a banger; unfortunately for this second season neither of the songs are noteworthy they are just mid at best. Finally the final positive, the new plot and the changes that they made, now the new plot and the changes aren't bad they are not what ruined the show I'll get to what did later on the review; these changes actually made the show feel like a breath of fresh air; plus personally the new plot actually had potential to be better or equally as good as the original source material that being the manga or atleast as exciting; well on paper it did. Now let's move on to the negatives of this season, "Ohhh boi now there are lot so brace yourselves for this one" The first negative is the characters, all the characters with the exception of Emma feel like a husk of their former selves; especially Ray and he was my favorite character from season 1 man was absolutely goated back then; R. I.P to season 1 Ray you will be missed; now this version of Ray I don't know this guy he's not him he's a shapeshifter since this new quote on quote version of him has no personality he's just moral support for Emma like what; what did they do to you man? Screw this imma hold a funeral for you man, that's how much I used to like you. Now another example of this is Norman, he was a fairly interesting character in season 1, now he's literary just Sasuke from Naruto, or atleast the shounen archetype of "I went through pain and despair now I will become edgy and hate society; oh but you know what my friends are still there and I still have people to protect and a place to come back to" except with Norman it's way worse, it's literary the power of pussy that brought him back; like come on bruh Emma walks up to him does her usual heartwarming inspirational speech of "Oh no matter what you have done or what you have become we are all still here for you and we are family" then Norman just magically returns to normal and all the pain in his heart disappears; I know it's shounen bro but come on this is just way too overplayed at this point, can you guys make a new character type instead of just recycling the same thing over and over again, I'm starting to question you guys creativity at this point. Next case for concern is that this season is just straight up boring. Compared to the first season where there was something to look forward to since almost every episode ended up with a cliffhanger or a plottwist, this season is just not that entertaining or executed well at all. A good example of this is in season 1 where the end of the episode is Isabella cornering the children near the wall, that got me hyped I sacrificed sleep to know what happened next for that, see that's what's the crave factor is all about; it makes you want to watch or read more in a media since if you don't then it will keep you up at night that's the type of stuff that makes or breaks a great anime; unfortunately season 2 just doesn't have that. Let's compare my reaction to Isabella cornering the children "Holy crap man what is she gotta do, proceeds to rapidly click the next episode" to Norman is actually the one that has appeared to save Emma and the others from the demons "Oh it's Norman took him long enough, okay go next episode I guess proceeds to yawn" the sad part about this is that season 2 could have been good man. In fact when I was watching the first 4 episodes I was like okay this isn't that bad, I don't understand where the hate is coming from; but boy did I find out after the next episodes where it comes from. Speaking of crave factor this season looks the same as the promised neverland, but unlike it's predecessor whenever this season tries to act all gritty, edgy and mature it just fails miserably; the original season had this way of building tension while being able to act mature and gritty when it needed to; it was able to do it pretty well; but season 2 is not able to and when it tries it just looks silly. Moving on to the plot and premise, as I said earlier it looked good on paper; when you sit down and honestly think about all the potential things that could have happened and been shown on screen then you sorta get excited and dissapointed for what it could have been well if you're like me; a majority of people just left because it wasn't faithful to the manga; honestly I coudn't care less if the story was different as long as it was executed well; unfortunately this was not. Which brings me to my next point the studio Cloverworks didn't give enough of a crap for this anime season unlike it's predecessor since if it did then they wouldn't make make something this bad; the execution completely went out of the window and they literary half-assed it; that's why there are so many skipped events; characters; and plot lines. Finally the final negative the ending, now I don't even know what I'm supposed to say to this ending, I don't like it obviously; but it's not even an ending it's literary a 3 minute montage like what; Cloverworks really didn't care enough about this season lol. The anime is 12 episodes actually since one episode was labeled 5.5 which was a freaking recap episode; now if they are gonna pull the excuse of not enough number of episodes and budget, then that's not valid literary one of your episodes is a recap; you could have used that episode in order to fully showcase the finale" Why didn't you do it Cloverworks?" Well it is what it is perharps if they didn't spend too much time on Norman's pointless shounen archetype arc then maybe they could have used that animation budget for the ending, jeez man they just didn't care enough at all. Pros: -Kept the same quality of music -Decided to make changes and provided a new plot different from the manga -Wasn't afraid to make changes -Is the same in terms of animation and artstyle Cons: -Didn't execute the plot well enough -Had a montage for an ending -Characters did not get enough character development -Skipped a lot of things and plot points -Failed to execute it's changes and new elements miserably -Is very boring -Studio doesn't care enough about it -The whole thing was rushed from start to finish Overall the promised neverland season 2 is a dissapointment, it had potential to be good but it had too much problems such as the studio handling it coudn't give enough of a crap about it, execution of the new story falling flat on it's face, a horrendous ending, it being boring to watch furthermore it's characters being hollow copies of themselves. I will not recommend that you watch this season since it's a waste of time and it's very bad; after watching it I felt like I have wasted 1 month of my life. If you are a fan of the series then after watching season 1 go read the manga, or just read the manga from start to finish since the first season is good but it's follow-up is garbage; stay away from promised neverland season 2 as much as possible; but if you didn't heed my warning and still watched it then that's your fault. Overall I give the promised neverland season 2 a 4/10 for my overall anime rating. Final Thoughts: What the hell did I just watch? Jeez man I need to drown my eyes in bleach after that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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May 1, 2021
Yakusoku no Neverland
(Anime)
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Recommended
[This review contains minor spoilers]
Have you ever wanted to watch one of the most well known and most celebrated anime adaptation of one of the most popular mangas out there, well I do too; and no I'm not talking about Kimetsu no Yaiba. I do since people keep telling me that the anime is good and the manga is as well; some even say I can't believe you haven't watched this anime yet and you call yourself a critic. Wanna know what anime adaptation from Cloverworks I'm babbling about, we'll stay tuned. Ladies and Gentlemen my name is Cyranical, welcome to my Promised Neverland first ... season review, "Let's get it!!!" Promised Neverland is the anime adaptation by Cloverworks of the popular manga of the same name from 2016. It tells the story of Ray, Emma and Norman, three smart children that live in a foster home supervised by Isabella the Mama of Grace Field House. At the start they live very carefree plus are happy with their life at the house despite their being some things that seem strange to them like how there is a fence that they are forbidden to cross in the woods. One night this all changes though when Conny one of the foster children leaves the house because they had found foster parents, the former leaves with Mama, but in the process forgets her stuffed toy Little Bunny, so Ray asks Emma and Norman to deliver it to her at the gate. Norman and Emma's expedition leaves them terrified and confused, because upon delivering Little Bunny they accidentally stumble upon the dark truth about Grace Field house plus their unfortunate circumstances. So let me start off with the first positive of this anime adaptation, the op and not so much the ed, "What do you mean" Well let me break it down for you then, the first time I listened to the OP I immediately taught that it was an absolute banger, when I heard that Nanana part at the ending of it I was just like wooh!! that's something brand new ha, okay I mess with it 7.5/10 for this OP, but then as I listened to it more I realized that it was just mid AF, and that I only overreacted on my first listen of it, that Nanana part was still something unique for me, but the screenplay and the lyrics for it was just aight for me, I mean yeah it was good in terms of an OP, unfortunately I've heard so much better Op's like YuYuHakusho's HitmanReborn's the only good part of SAO the first OP Crossing Fields by Liza in my time as an anime watcher and reviewer that the OP for promised neverland didn't quite reach me anymore after my first listen of it, 6.5/10 for the opening song. Now for the ED, the first time I listened to it I was just like this is not bad, but it's also not good, then as I listened to it more and more I realized that it was way worse than that, this is something that I actually can't rate; it's not bad and it's not good it's just like Phil it's just there, so after 3 times of watching it I have decided to just skip it for the rest of the episodes. Now for the rating, the sad part about the ED was that there was nothing about it that stood out or made it good nor bad, it wasn't mid it was just a level before mid, furthermore there was nothing to look forward about it since the anime didn't even have a episode preview; it didn't have one of those shikai episode screenplay, nor ending voiceover's with the next's episodes title, it was just a song that was there at the ending of the anime, that's like the worst and hardest thing to give a rating on, something that was just there; well I'm done with this part I'm just gonna give it a 5/10 to be safe. Moving on, the anime had good animation plus decent art style, probably thanks to being a Cloverworks project as they have been stepping up their visual quality as of late, so props to them and props for promised neverland for having good aesthetics, and looking great visually. This anime also does a good job at building tension and at keeping the viewer hooked, I found myself craving for the next episode after every cliffhanger only to kick myself in the ass because I need to do schoolwork instead of being able to watch more, damn that must be why this review took like 2 months even though I've been breezing through the 12 episodes of this show. Back on the topic, the characters are interesting, and their Keikachu even more, like for real though the type of plans that Ray and Norman comes up with are almost Ayanokoji level, that's why their fantastic, they're not only subtle but also very effective. Now back to tension, the anime does a good job in building tension while maintaning good pacing something that you rarely find in anime, it utilizes camera angles during scenes where the characters are talking about their plans, making the viewer question if they are being watched or not, this little tidbit alone makes the anime that much more engaging for the viewer while also allowing various speculation and hypothesis on our part; is what I would like to say if this degenerate manga reader didn't spoil the crap out of the story when I was watching the anime, but then again that's probably on me for reading the comments section before watching the episode but come on man, why did you have to do the comments readers like that? Why? Oh btw, if you didn't realize all the stuff I said about the anime being good at building up tension and camera angles were actually true; don't misunderstand I just wanted to complain about manga readers spoiling me. Next up the story, now the story was pretty average, nothing too crazy it was just orphans produced through artificial insemination, then bred through a farm in order to be eaten by demons, them finding out the truth about the so called Grace Field House, then playing a game of cat and mouse with the adults around them trying to escape; sounds kinda interesting for the average viewer ha; but nothing too spicy for me. Anyway the anime does a great job at executing the story, it makes it so much more interesting and more fun to watch than it really is. For example at the start, it makes you think that it's just you're average orphanage slice of life story with a little bit of romance sprinkled into it, but then as the characters find out the truth of their circumstances about the house, the anime along with them ships from a calm tone to being dark and dreadful, like just imagine how you would feel and what you would do if you were in the three protagonist's shoes while being an ordinary child, now that's spooky, but aye it's just fiction so it is what it is, props to the anime for being able to pull off changing the show's atmosphere appropriately when it is needed. Now it's finally time for the final positive of this adaptation, the characters, they are without a doubt the best part of this show, everything goes through them, not only does the three MC's complement each other and play off each other perfectly, like with Ray the one that looks like he's the mastermind of the three, to Emma the cheerful and socially adept people gatherer, to Norman the actual mastermind and con-artist of the group even outplaying my boy Ray. These characters are not only really entertaining, they also have great plans that they come up with, disregarding the fact that the depth of their personality are linear like with Ray being a self deprecating sacrificial kid, to Norman's and Emma's desire to save everyone, good thing Emma decided to change her mind in consideration for the infants since I agree with her that they in their current state are more of a con than a pro. Hell the side characters are even entertaining, I like Sister Kroune since she has that explosive and unpredictability factor to her, Don at the start is someone that I hated and was annoyed with, but as the show went on he really manned up and got himself together; Gilda is a budget Emma but she's decent either way, finally there's Isabela, now I don't like her, but she does a damn good job at being the antagonist, you can't quite grasp if she has ulterior motivates for the three MC'S or if she's a loyal dog for the plants, unfortunately Manga readers beg to differ and gave me the full rundown of her character and how she will be in season 2 and the rest of the manga, so shootouts to you guys I hope you guys get your eyes burned out soon, jebus man they never learn. Oh and about Phil he's in the cons section, speaking of the con's section, here we go. For the first con, I wish they executed sister Kroune's character a bit better, she had the potential to be a real dark horse and blow everyone's expectations of her out of the window; sucks that all her plans failed and she died trying, but that's just my opinion. Next up the ED, I know I said that the ED was something that I couldn't rate, but the more I pondered about it while writing this review, the more I hated it, so Imma say that it's ass now, pretty immature right but it is what it is. Up next a plot hole that I found out at episode 11, it goes something like this, how come only Emma and Ray cut off their ears, and not the other children, now let's eliminate the argument that the kids were too young for that, when we can see in one episode; 6 I presume that she used her tracking device in order to track down one of the kids and bring them back, so why didn't the other kids cut off their ear in order for Isabella not to track them down; I honestly just think the mangaka forgot this little tidbit or the anime just messed up, but aye I don't read the manga so IDK at the end of the day. Finally the final con, Phil now my problem with him is that he's the leader of the infants, the only one wise enough to find out that there was something fishy going on with how Emma and Co were acting; plus the only one that was told by the latter among the infants on their situation, this kid also walks in on important events such as Don and Gilda snooping around and the sister going through Ray's stuff, now he's my interpretation in the later parts of the story where Ray and the others will come back and rescue the remaining infants, but he's the issue with that he doesn't get that much screen time, he's just kinda there, maybe we could have gotten him agonizing over almost coming up with the truth but failing at the end, that could spice up his character a bit, but it is what it is I guess. Pros: -Decent OP -Good animation and decent art style -Great and entertaining characters -Anime does a good job at executing it's premise -Side characters are also nice -Anime does a good job at building up tension and shifting the atmosphere when needed -Is overall very entertaining and a fun watch Cons: -Not enough character development and screen time for Phil even though he could be a important character later on -Did Sister Kroune dirty -ED that is not that good -Plothole with the tracking device planted in their ears Overall The first season of Promised Neverland was a pretty good anime. It has good animation, and a decent artstyle, good OP yet sub far ED, manages tension; atmosphere; mood, has great pacing; a strong set of characters behind it especially the main ones, furthermore is a worthwhile watch in the long run. It is not perfect as it has a plot hole, and some characters that could have been used a lot better, but I'm just nitpicking at the end of the day, so feel free to decide for yourself about this anime. I highly recommend watching this show if you're looking for a big brain psychological anime, other recommendations include Monster; Death Note; One outs; plus reading the light novels for the Empty Box and Zeroth Maria and Classroom Of The Elite; you would listen to me now right random normie fan since I already watched you're show and I am now a certified anime critic; ridiculous the type of brains that some of these people have jeez. I give The Promised Neverland first season a strong 8/10 for my overall anime rating. This has been Cyranical, thank you so much for reading my The Promised Neverland review it's greatly appreciated, again this has been Cyranical signing off tata.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 10, 2021
ef: A Tale of Melodies.
(Anime)
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[This review contains spoilers, read at your own risk]
EF a Tale Of Melodies Anime Review By: Azrael Anacleto aka Cyranical Have you ever wanted to watch and see what happens to one of your favorite anime of all time? Have you ever been real excited since one of your favorite anime is getting a season 2? Did you feel you're heart get pumped with joy, since you will get to see what happens to your favorite story and characters. Well ... I know I certainly experienced this with EF a tale of melodies the sequal to my top 7 anime of all time EF a tale of memories, but what do I think of this sequal to one of the best pieces of media that I have ever seen ever, we'll tune in and you'll find out. Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Cyranical and welcome to my EF a tale of melodies review, let's get it!!! Ef a tale of melodies is the second season and continuation of EF a tale of memories, like the latter it is managed by studio Shaft and based of the visual novels EF the first tale and EF the latter tale. It tells the story of the supporting characters from memories, those being Himura Yuu, Chihiro's guardian, Amamiya Yuuko the former's lover, a girl that has suffered a tragic past at the hands of his poster guardian after being separated from Himura at the orphanage they grew up on. The first story is told in the past since the events have already unfolded, and it serves as the backstory for why Yuuko and Himura are always in the churches of both cities named Otowa despite being on different countries, one being in Germany and one being in Japan, despite this not being mentioned in memories it is highlighted to the viewer here in melodies. The second story takes place in the present timeline where Kuze Shuuichi a dying violinist and best friend of Himura meets the carefree and passionate 16 year old girl Hayama Mizuki aka the girl that has a crush on Kei in memories, the two then fall in love and everything goes into disarray as soon as Kuze's secret is revealed to Mizuki, and also since this story is practically encouraging ahem ahem pedophilia, a 30 year old man and a 16 year old girl great job anime, also don't worry the first story also has rape and pedophilia in it since the teacher is around his 30's as well and Yuuko is 16 , the anime must really love fucked up shit ha, anyway Imma go into further detail into this at the negatives section later, onto my expectations and positives first. When I first started watching Ef a tale of melodies I had a lot of expectations for it, since if you've been following me recently you would know that I have updated my top 10 anime list of all time on my myanimelist account, and on the updated list I have memories as my number 7th anime of all time currently at the time of this review, personally that's an amazing feat for an anime to land on my top 10 list after my immediate completion of it, well done memories, this just speaks volumes of how good memories is as a romance anime, so everyone please check it out and you won't be dissapointed, now about Melodies, let me just make this clear, did it live up to my expectations, well yes and no, it fulfilled it's purpose of serving as a backstory for the supporting characters, since they are actually very important in the visual novels even though they are unplayable characters they act as our narrator's and catalyst for beautiful stories like Renji and Chihiro's, I guess in a sense melodies also lives up to definitely looking and feeling like a part of the anime series, since it has the same mood, atmosphere, symbolism and same set of characters, yes it definitely feels like it's a part of the franchise rather than being a weird sequal that feels disconnected with the original season like Fireforce season 2 and Cocoon of Caprice does, now let's get on to why it did not live up to my expectations well it had the same problems that season 1 has where the other story was way less interesting and worse than the other one, like don't get me wrong Hiro's story wasn't bad it was just way worse than Chihiro and Renji's, but with melodies I can't say the same since Himura and Yuko's story is not that great but when you put it next to Kuze and Mizuki's pedophilia story it looks like a masterpiece, also this season has a lot of unecessary drama in it, that's all I'll say since if I don't stop myself I'll pretty much go in depth here which will not be efficent for the negatives section, now since I'm done with my expectations of the series let's move on to it's positives. First things first it's really good that melodies doesn't feel disconnected or out of place in the series, since if it does then that pretty much negates it's reason for being made, plus it would look really bad since EF is a story that focuses on continuity and it's characters, if season 2 ended up not being about the side characters from memories then it would be a disaster since yes in theory new stories could be good and a lot more interesting, but that's not EF's identity, Ef specializes in simple almost vanilla like slice of life stories that are very dramatic and have really good execution, for example EF is the only anime that can make a generic love triangle story look investing, interesting and actually way better and more complicated than it actually is, this has been proven by memories specifically Hiro's story. Now melodies has all the elements that made the original great, and that's why it's not a bad anime, it's actually good, but compared to it's predecessor it's looks average since it's trying too hard to be good if not better than memories which it failed miserable at. It has great animation courtesy of studio Shaft, and has that same effect in season 1 that when a character is feeling worried or is thinking about something real deep then it goes for dark colors and it has objects in the background associated with the character themselves, if they're feeling happy then it's the opposite the colors are all cheerful and vibrant which in turn makes the series way better to watch, furthermore highlighting it's mood and atmosphere and of course what the character's are experiencing and going through in their respective stories, in a sense the symbolism and color highlights make the characters and the story feel a lot more alive and investing for the viewer. Next up we have new elements, now these elements are stuff I've already talked about in the review, and they create new drama, now it doesn't make the show good, in fact it hinders it, but I'll go way more in depth with that later, though I will commend them for trying something new since memories is a tough nut to surpass anyway, so I appreciate the innovation coming through for their part since they are trying to make a better anime or a show that is as good as the first one they had made. Next up we have the OP and ED's they are decent, not as good as the first ones but they still have that EF vibe to them, now I only listened to them for 3 times and here's what I have concluded, the ED is way better than the OP which yes there are some anime that are like that but they are very few, but for me personally that list has been growing lately and I'm glad to see that melodies join the list of anime that have way better ED's than OP's. Finally we have the final positive Himura and Yuko's story which is practically the saving grace for this anime since yes it does have good production, but let's face it good production does not automatically mean good anime, since we have shows such as his and her circumstances that have bad production and animation quality, but are still really good story and character wise. Now let me go through why Himura's story practically carries melodies, it's the better story out of the two, and even though it isn't as good as the past stories, it still looks way better compared to Kuze's story, and Himura's story suffers less from the new elements, those elements being artificial drama and sub conflicts that may or may not have been intended by the makers of the show, now his story does have the rape tidbit with it being revealed that Yuko his love interest and childhood friend that wanted to be his sister, but since he felt bad about using her as a replacement for his real sister that died along with the tragedy of his town, he rejects her which causes her to get adopted by a near relative that then dies then their guardian status get's transferred to Amamiya sensei, now Amamiya Sensei is a character that I still don't understand to this day, like how fucked up is this guy in the head, sure he serves as good conflict for Himura's story, "but besides that what's he's purpose?" This guy raped and physically abused Yuko because she started growing and didn't look like her sister anymore, like what bro, seek medical attention man, he claimes that the rape and physical abuse is punishment on Yuuko, the fuck is wrong with you man? He's also really cunning and gives Yuko a knife that he says can be used to kill him anytime anywhere , this psychological tactic then causes Yuuko to not reach out for help nor contact authorities about her unfortunate situation, "like what excuse me, if I was in her shoes even with the knife and shit I would still have reached out for help like what, that psychological tactict sucks anyway and seems like a risky one since if the people in this show used their brains then they would have been able to put two and two together that something is happening to Yuko especially Yuu and helped her sooner, also Yuko would have just killed this guy in his sleep no? Anyway all this stuff is not really much of a big deal in the story, or atleast that's how it's executed, which is a positive for this anime personally, let me explain it a lot better. The rape and pedophilia aspect of the story is mentioned and shown in order to create drama and make Amamiya sensei a stronger antagonist, along with the circumstances that have plagued the two main characters in the story, those being Himura and Yuuko, now yes this guy legit commits physical and sexual abuse on an underage minor from a day to day basis and that's seriously messed up and immoral, and yes the reason this guy has for doing so basically boils down to him being crazy and psychologically damaged, but the anime somehow manages to make that less of a big deal, it somehow makes it look like a stepping stone for the conflict of the story, and at the end of the day upon further reconsideration this is based of a japanese visual novel anything is acceptable and possible, even if it's severaly messed up there are some people that like these types of things since they are degenerates with weird taste, now I don't know if this makes me sound lika a hyprocrite but I think the rape and pedophilia aspect this story has makes it more interesting and flavorful, since it has achieved it's initial goals, first it has managed to be a good and interesting story, while it also made Amamiya sensei a strong antagonist, I hate that guy so much btw screw him I hope he burns in hell, anyway to summarize my point, the story adds an interesting and sensitive tidbit to it to make it a little bit more spicy than usual, that in turn helps it stand out of the other story, btw the other story does have pedophilia written all over it but it does try to hide it just fails miserable at it, unlike Himura's story. Aight we're finally here the negative's section, now I know I have hyped out this section a lot but I don't know if I can deliver since I've already spilled out a little bit of what I wanted to talk about in the Himura story rant, but however it turned out just know that I'm already tired and I still need to revise and do a grammar check for this review, and I have ranted already about the negatives without intending to, don't get me wrong I will go in depth and all, but if it comes out as repetitive or less hype than I envisioned it to be then yeah I've already warned you. Let's get started, first of all let's go with the big fish first, why is Kuze's story lackluster compared to Himura Yuu's, imma also adress the new elements that I have talked before which is unecessary drama and subconflicts while I adress this negative. Now Kuze's story I could care less about it, not only is it's execution weak, the main characters are also weak, like Kuze and Mizuki are not that interesting, if anything I'm more interested in Nagi and what Chihiro is up to nowadays, but instead we get a pitiful guy that put's up a font that he's not scared of death and that he's ready for it, when in truth he's super scared of it and it frightens his very soul every second, his facade is so weak that a 16 year old girl is able to break it so easily. Then there's Mizuki, this girl is your average cheerful girl that is still searching for her path in life, which is natural since she's only 16, but come on she's not that interesting and she's so boring, like her whole thing is being cute right, but in memories she was not cute at all, in fact she's annoying and in melodies it also feels like that, no scratch that she's even more annoying than usual, like it's to the point where she makes me cringe a bit every time I see her in my screen, also some main heroine she is, have you ever seen a heroine with less impact and screentime than her, come on melodies man full yourself together you had so much potential and you wasted it ha. Moving on the production quality of Kuze and Mizuki's story is not as good as Himura and Yuko's story, like yeah the story is there, but it feels lackluster compared to it's other counterpart, the two stories should be equal right that's the whole charm of EF, it's what it does, it goes for two stories and executes them both well that they make a simple love triangle feel like an absolute masterpiece of a romance story that it is easily able to surpass other shows of the genre, but how come the Himura story got two full episodes dedicated to it, but not one full episode was handed over for Kuze and Mizuki, it feels like the studio itself is ashamed of their second story since they found had it had pedo tendencies in it, now they just want to scap it, because it feels like they themselves feel ashamed of this story, like how are you able to mismanage the right amount of screentime for each stories, if you were able to do it perfectly for the it's predecessor, it's like they either hated Kuze's story or they just already stopped giving a fuck altogether. Let's talk about the final negative so that we can move on to the pros and cons section shall we. Aight so it's about the new elements that they added right , unecessary drama, now let's talk about what the purpose of adding new elements are in correlation to making the finish product good, new elements are added in order to spice things up and help the story out a bit more right, they're added in order to make the show a lot better, but how come they did the opposite effect of what their purpose was, then what's their purpose, it ends up being nothing since they didn't do their job, they come off as a hindrance instead, let's start off with Kuze's story this guy is legit a shallow character, so shallow that even added drama elements can't save him. He put's up a font that he's not scared to die, but in reality he's very scared and he curses the heaven's on why they had to give him a heart disease and why can't he just have a normal long life like all the people around him, yet when people like Mizuki figure him out, he pushes them away because he thinks he's preventing the damage that way, that he's not making them feel attached therefore preventing them from getting hurt with his death right, but since he's so stupid like normal people are he doesn't realize that people are already attached to him, and that they are getting hurt even more by seeing him sad, seeing him bear the burden along, seeing him distance himself from them, what an idiot, he's not deep as a character at all he's a normal person at the end of the day, like I came here to watch unique and interesting characters and stories right, instead I get weak heroes and heroines like Kuze and Mizuki, do you realize how dissapointed I am right now, isn't this japanese fiction where everything is possible and people are interesting and out of the ordinary, like what is this you're showing me instead, a lame story with shallow leads, like come on man, I came here to watch and relieve my boredom of my boring life and this is what you give me a boring male lead with pedo tendencies and a lackluster execution of a story ha, whatever, I'm over it. The pedophilia tidbit is implied but not heavily right, it's supposed to be lowkey and the show is trying to conceal it right? How come it's so blatanly obvious if you have good observation skills like me, a critic, or is using you're brain as a viewer, like come on did shaft just did a terrible job of concealing it, okay so the show has a mood and atmosphere that avoides it right, but how come as a viewer it's too damn obvious that the show itself is contradicting it's own mood and atmosphere and is blatanly advertising the story is about pedophilia. What the actual fuck melodies? Then with Himura's story we get this subconflict that is constantly brought up that it feels like it's the main conflict, that's right were talking about the" oh I didn't mean to use Yuko as substitute for my dead sister, but deep down that's actually what I wanted all along even though I keep on denying it whenever it is pointed out to me everytime, I have a problem of getting through my past and not being able to move on from it" I mean yeah that's his character even when Yuko herself asks her to forget about him and be happy with someone else, he's still not able to do it after all these years, yet when people asks him about it he says I have forgotten all about the past. Shaft come on, this subconflict worked the first time around, but it won't work if you keep on bringing it up every single godamn time, it loses it's value over repetition, just please notice you're anime's problems and fix them before showing your finished product on T.V. Lastly what's up with Kuze's ending, the operation that allows him to live for three more years wasn't even shown. His ending was just adlibbed, oh here's a scene that's actually lowkey Kuze's ending, you're never seeing him after this again btw, the said scene goes like this, Himura and Kuze talk then he casually drops a oh I'm doing exercises in hopes of them helping out my condition. Excuse me what is up with this no effort ending, isn't the ending of a story supposed to be really important, why did you just butcher it like that, now I don't like the cheezy power of love cures Chihiro's memory problem ending that memories had, since if platitudes healed people's problems then everyone would be a doctor, but Imma just chalk it up to japanese literature I guess, since I liked everything else about memories, but with Kuze's ending I would have liked the Mizuki's love was strong enough to cure Kuze's heart disease ending a lot more no matter how bullshit it is compared to what we have gotten, jesus christ man. Pros: -Still has the same elements that made EF a great series -Decent OP and ED -Himura and Yuko's story hard carries -Good animation -Himura's story has a decent ending Cons: -Has way too many problems -Leads for second story are very weak -Introduces unecessary drama -Introduces subconflicts that hinder the show -Has pedophilia and rape in it -Garbage ending for Kuze's story -Not nearly as good nor as entertaining compared to memories -Both stories are decent but aren't executed as well as in memories Overall EF a tale of melodies is a decent second season to a really good anime, too bad it has a lot of problems that are hindering it from being as good if not better than it's predecessor, the show itself can be described simply with the phrase wasted potential. If you're looking for a really good romance anime then I recommend Ef a tale of memories, check it out you won't be dissapointed, it's an absolute banger, also I don't really recommend contuining to Ef a tale of melodies unless you're really invested in the characters and the story. I give EF a tale of melodies a 7/10 for my overall anime rating.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 3, 2021 Recommended
[ This review contains minor spoilers since it goes in depth]
Horimiya Anime Review By: Azrael Anacleto aka "Cyranical" Let's get it!!! Have you ever read a good romantic comedy manga before, and then you found out that it had an anime adaptation. Only to be dissapointed because the adaptation did not live up the expectations, and you got bored of it quickly making you appreciate the manga a lot more. Well ... I certaintly did with this Horimiya anime adaptation right here by Cloverworks. Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Cyranical, and welcome to my Horimiya anime review. Horimiya is the second anime adaptation of the famous webnovel and manga series by Hiroko Adachi. It tells the story of a loner high school boy named Miyamura, and her ever so popular classmate Hori-san, the former being seen in class as an otaku weirdo outcast, while the latter is recognized as your typical most popular girl in school. Little do their classmates know they both have hidden personalities, Hori being a klutz that's not really into trends and all the normal normie stuff that you would expect her to be since her parents are always home late, so she's forced to spend her time housekeeping and taking care of her brother Souta. Miyamura on the other hand is an only child of a bakery owner that has a lot of piercings and tatoos on his body, now he is indeed a weirdo just not as much as people think he is, since he is actually described as handsome and charismatic by people especially after he cuts his own hair and glows-up for the sake of Hori-san, by a chance of fate the two individuals meet and their life circumstances intertwine with each other and start changing for the better. Now first things first this Horimiya adaptation right here is not the first one that it has, the first one is actually an OVA series titled Hori San to Miyamura-Kun which is based off the original web novel, since the manga is also based on that, the latter is not the og source material unfortunately, the Ova series was made by Gonzo in collaboration with Hoods Entertainment. Now where do I start here? I think Imma kick it off with the positives first. Let start off by praising how the anime executed it's premise, the premise is very simple and can be found in many shoujo manga and anime, a gloomy isolated mc meets popular girl with hidden personality they get closer and fall in love together, sound familiar kinda like Kimi no Todoke, but reverse it this time. Normally romcom anime utilizes all the cliches and ever so popular troupes of the genre, since people seem to think that by doing so they make something great, but that is wrong in order to make a good romcom you need to focus on the characters, and the main couple's dynamic together, that alone can carry a show, and then put in some spicy conflicts here and there, now if you wanna make a generic romcom then yeah go for the utilization of the troupes and cliches, also make sure you put in characters that are self inserts and don't develop them further than their initial character stereotype, there you go, congratulations you have generic thrash. Fortunately Horimiya is not generic thrash it does use the troupes and cliches, but not as much as it's predecessors and then it combines them with shoujo elements, which makes the anime feel like a breath of fresh air for this reason alone. Okay let's move on to the animation and the artstyle , the animation is great and compliments the anime well, for example the show has this thing where it changes the background colors to vibrant colors when the characters are happy and full of resolution, while it changes it to darker colors if they are feeling worried or reminiscing about their past that they would rather forget than remember, though the latter is mostly just done with the MC Miyamura. Now the artstyle is very shoujoish, I mean it's very obvious, you can tell just by looking at the characters maybe the author was a shoujo mangaka or something, anyway I've never been a fan of shoujo artstyle but there are some that I liked such as maid-sama, code geass artstyle, and kareshi no kanojo since it just oozes with "oohh the show is very low budget" but they still managed to make it extremely good somehow. Horimiya's artstyle is something that grew on me, I used to not like it as much, but since I fell in love with the characters and grew to like them even more and more, even though that's mainly because of the manga and not the anime, I've come to like the artstyle a lot more now over time now, I say that but it just feels like I don't notice it anymore, well not in a bad thing but in a good way since the artstyle just feels synonymous with the show and it's characters now, that's how much it has grown on me ever since. Now let's move on the last positive the characters. Let just start off by stating that the main couple absolutely just steals the show ever single time, like they even managed to awaken my crave factor that made me finish the manga in a mere four days, like that was the time where schoolwork and college applications where on the line, I guess that really just states just how much I enjoyed reading the Horimiya manga, now with the anime it practically remains the same, since the characters are the same, so is their traits and characteristics, everything about them is the same except for maybe the fact that they are all on the big screen now, anyway as I was saying the main couple's dynamic is crazy good, like there is no time when the story or the scenes revolve around Hori and Miyamura does the anime remain dull, since they compliment and play-off each other perfectly, and it's an absolute shame that their screentime got cut since omakes exist. Now the side characters, a lot of people actually hate them, but I don't I actually like them a fair bit, my favorites are Yoshikawa, Sengoku, Kouno and Remi, I despise Iura and Yanagi though since they don't really do anything and are not really that interesting, even though they did try to make Iura a decent character he just didn't come off like that to me. Now let me get on to why people hate the side characters and maybe I can depend them a bit, granted they are nowhere near as entertaining nor as interesting as Horimiya and Miyamura, but those two are only great since they play off each other perfectly, maybe excluding the part where Hori is a masochist and wants physical abuse from Miyamura, but that doesn't really bother me that much unlike other people, since that was a change I wasn't expecting and I honestly found that little tidbit a bit interesting. Now back to the side characters, I actually liked Yoshikawa more than Hori in certain cases, which is weird since she's more shallow as a character than the latter , but she strikes me as more of a real person than someone like Hori or Miyamura is and that contributes to the fact that I like her too, since I like her I also like her relationship with Ishikawa Touru, plus the dude seems like a chill, cool, caring guy anyway so what's there not to like about about it, next up I absolutely adore Sengoku and Remi's relationship together since it's literary the cutest thing ever, and Kouno is a decent character it's a shame she didn't win the love triangle with Yoshikawa, but the latter fit Ishikawa more anymore, so it is what it is. Now the reason people hate these characters is because they rob us of screentime for the main couple, and yes when you compare their endeavors, relationships and interactions with each other alongside Hori and Miyamura then yes these characters do feel lackluster and kinda fall flat on their faces, you can even say their annoying like Iura and Yanagi, but at the end of the day, their side characters so just let em off the hook a little bit, since the author likes these characters and wanted them to shine just like the main couple, though they couldn't ever do, they still an appropriate amount of time for character development and a bunch of screentime anyway, so you're just stuck with them anyway so just let em be there for the ride, if you don't wanna encourage them, then yeah that's fine, but if you do like some of them like me, then I'm glad these characters don't come off as annoying or worthless to you, as I like some of them and found them fairly entertaining. Now let's move on to the negatives, I did say I was dissapointed with this anime adaptation, so let me explain why that's the case. First of all it has no consistent pacing whatsoever, like how do you go from chapter 37 to all the way up to around chapter 112, like what and that's not just the case for it, it does this many many times where it adapts a chapter, then it goes for an omake and then it goes way back to the earlier chapters, like chill anime where is your continuity, it's so confusing to watch and interpret if your a manga reader like me. Next up all the parts that I liked were not adapted, for example the part where Ishikawa is asking Miyamura for advice on what to get for her present is funny af, and they cut off their bromance as well which was entertaining and hilarous for me, so when Hori jokes about in the anime that some guy was gonna steal Miyamura from her it's not nearly as funny, and comes off as kinda weird and out of place. This is why the anime became boring for me, since if I didn't see the parts or chapters that I absolutely adored from the manga then what sense would it make for me to watch the anime, you know I started feeling like the fact that this show was airing weekly and I only needed to watch a episode once a week was a real blessing in disguise. Now I get it that the studio rushed the anime in order to capitalize on advertising the manga since it just ended about a week ago, but come on man, this trend of making anime just simply to cash in on source materials like LN's, VN'S or Manga needs to stop since it's ruining the industry, granted their are making hella money for it, but by doing so they are making the quality of these shows horrendous, and it's really a shame since I really enjoyed the Horimiya manga. Pros: -Good animation and decent artstyle -Main couple is interesting and has good character dynamic -Decent ED and OP -Side characters are entertaining and great -Combines troupes and cliches with Shoujo elements making the show feel like a breath of fresh air Cons: -Show has no consistent pacing whatsoever -Some side characters like Iura and Yanagi are annoying and pointless -Anime was rushed since they wanted to capitalize on the ending of the manga in order to sell it -Did not adapt parts my favorite parts and chapters that I think are important and necessary for the story -Some scenes come off as weirdly placed since they don't have any prior context to them -Get's boring and feels terrible to watch if you're a manga reader like me Overall Horimiya is a good romantic comedy based off a really good, fun, plus wholesome manga of the same name. Too bad that compared to it's source material that it's inferior in every way shape or form. As for a seasonal anime it did it's job of attracting attention and changing up things for the romance genre even just for a little bit, and no normies it is not the new goat romcom sit down first and develop taste, so cringe jeez. It was entertaining and decent though I have to admit, but nowhere is it as good as the manga nor did it live up to my expectations of it unfortunately. I would recommend reading the manga though if Horimiya has somehow managed to catch your eye, instead of watching the anime, trust me on this one, it's the better decision anyway at the end of the day. I give Horimiya a 7/10 for my overall anime rating. Thanks for checking out my review of Horimiya, I really appreciate it. Cyranical Out
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 26, 2021
Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun
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Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki-Kun Anime Review
By: Azrael Anacleto aka Cyranical [This review contains minor spoilers, read at your own risk] Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki-Kun is the anime adaptation of the light novel by Yuki Yaka. It tells the story of a gamer named Tomozaki that has given up on life, and has decided that it is thrash compared to the game that he been playing and top ranked in, Attack Families also better known as Atafami, that game being a parody of Super Smash Bros. Tomozaki continues to spend his days as a loner gamer, he doesn't fix himself up and doesn't bother to do ... anything except play Atafami all day everyday. All this changes after he beats the rank 2 player in Atafami that is known by the alias of No Name, the latter then arranges a meeting for them, manages to convince Tomozaki that life is actually a good game, and then becomes his coach in how to live a better high-school normie life. Okay so when I first started watching this anime, I was expecting it to be generic slice of life romcom ass, but it was surprisingly better than how I expected it to be. It got me hooked and I marathoned all 9 episodes in 1 day, then I heard it's based off a light novel originally, so I started reading that while waiting for the future episodes, it even got to the point that I read volume 3 first before I continued episodes 10 and beyond, so that I wasn't spoiled on what was going to happen in volume 3. The anime is surprisingly entertaining, for having a pretty generic premise and plot. Now if you ask me what makes it stand-out compared to the generic gamer life romcom slice of life anime out there, then I would have to say the characters, they are surprisingly likeable and have some depth into them, now only a couple of them actually have depth, and that depth is not as deep as what you're probably expecting a good example of this is Mizusawa's character, he appears to be the generic right hand man in the clique character but he actually has a true personality that he doesn't show people, now granted when that was revealed it was less appealing and shallow than I expected, they are already a lot of characters in the anime verse that have a social mask that makes everyone like and adore them, furthermore deep inside they are either ruthlessly cold, or are unable to follow their true feelings or what they truly want to do, this is the case for Mizusawa, now this may be shallower to Hinami's impregnable mask and depth as a character, but for a supporting character in a show like Tomozaki-Kun that has a very carefree, laid-back and has a relaxing atmosphere to it, it works perfectly. Now let's move to the other character's; Tomozaki is surprisingly a interesting MC even tho he doesn't appear like it, and he can come up with exciting and unique plans sometimes, since let's face it the dude is practically gamer Hachiman lol. The other supporting characters such as Tama-Chan Izumi, Mimimi, Takei and Nakamura are very entertaining and funny when they are on screen, which was a surprise to me that I somehow enjoyed generic semi-abstract character archetypes, but hey I guess the anime did a pretty good job at that front. Next up the animation was also pretty good, since it feels great to finally see these characters come to life in the big screen. The ED and Op were also decent, but they don't have replayability for me unfortunately, maybe listening to them 2 to 3 times is enough for me, but I'm sure the people that liked this anime also liked the ED and OP, and have listened to it multiple times. Finally the anime makes some changes, though they are very minor in size and don't really affect the story, they just change a few things here and there in how certain events will unfold, but besides that everything practically stays the same, which I love, incidentally if you've been following me and my reviews for a while you'll know that I'm a sucker for when an anime or movie changes things up, and manages to still execute things properly despite not ruining the show, Tomozaki-Kun does that although to a very minor degree, but still it manages to change things up a little while negating some of the cringe parts and interactions in the light novel. When I was watching the anime it made cringe parts, character interactions, and some dialogue a lot better, a good example of this is when Tomozaki messed with Nakamura 3 times, in the light novel he did it by telling him off the first time, then by making back to back dick jokes for the next times, which was kinda cringe for me since it was super obvious that's what he was going for and the ones he made wasn't that funny, especially the first one, the second one was kind of a savage moment tho hahaha. Moving on to the negatives, first one is that come on man I know it's an anime based off japanese literature, but how unrealistic and full-off plot conveniences can you get, okay so the hottest girl in school is a top gamer and is also willing to help out some loser in order to be a better person, lol this is definitely not the case in real life, next up this guy Tomozaki ends up in spots where he's either doomed to get clowned, embarrass himself, or needs to get bailed out because of his timings, non-existent social skills, and weird dialogue; but every single time it's supposed to be the end of the road for him he either says some really stupid stuff and the characters just chew it up hook like and slinker or he get's bailed out by Hinami and company like what, like okay sure it happened one time just so the story can progress, okay sure I'm willing to let it slide, what it happened again for the same purpose as well okay whatever it is what it is, but then after those first two times it just keeps on repeating and repeating, like come on that's like the 6th time they did it man, "Like Why are doing this?? Like what is the purpose of this man?? It's just annoying and done for plot conveniences only, unfortunately the sad part about this negative right here is that it is extremely blantant and a repeat offender as well. Secondly, the dialogue man, author come on dude are you actually speaking from personal experience here, since this guy might actually be a gamer loner otaku turned light novel author that went through a shitty life like Tomozaki but without ever changing or having a Hinami that will help him out by his side. The reason I think so is because this guy legit writes the most cringe, unexpectedly bad dialogue out there, like during some conversations in the anime and in the light novel, I'm just sitting here like,"Did he really just say that?' "Oh come on how did that worked?" "How did you even come up with that bro?" Author!!! See what I mean there are certain times when I'm just, I'm just befuddled and yet cringing at the same time, I don't know if I'm supposed to laugh at how bad the dialogue is or how stupid it is. Come on author; do a better job at your character's dialogue for pete's sake, the anime is starting to get good, "Why are trying to ruin your own work man?" And here I thought this guy finally learned his lesson, guess he still didn't. Finally the final negative, some arcs such as the Mimimi consulation arc are kinda lackluster, compared to the opening arc, the election arc which is techinally a part of the Mimimi consulation part as well but I would like to think that it is not, and the normie BBQ trip arc, like what I was saying the Mimimi consulation part just kinda falls flat on it's face when compared or put beside these other parts, I mean sure it's not bad it's just kinda boring and annoying compared to the rest of the show. I even remember that I had to drag out time, and pause for a little while to do something else when I got to that part and then go back later to finish it, since I was really bored and annoyed of that part during my watch of the anime; well I guess it helps out that after that it get's better from there. Pros: -Changes minor things up and succeeds making some scenes and dialogue a lot smoother than in the light novel -Entertaining and fun characters -Decent OP and ED -Some characters have depth that makes them interesting to watch -Surprisingly decent despite it having a generic plot and premise -Good animation Cons: -Cringe and really bad dialogue from time to time -Sometimes Mc get's away unscathed out of sticky situations because there is too much plot convenience -Highly unrealistic -Certain arcs are lackluster compared to the other ones Overall Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki-Kun is surprisingly better than what it seems like, it manages to have entertaining characters and decent story arcs surronding a what seems like a dull MC on the surface, but is actually a decent one once you get to know him a lot better through the show. Now granted it does have some major flaws, like how it feels like a gamer loner's fantasy story, it having cringe and weird dialogue from time to time, and some of it's other arcs being less interesting and lacking in quality compared to the other ones, but it's surprisingly a fun and interesting watch, especially it's light novel, btw maybe you wanna read it imo it's better than the anime, but yeah if you're looking for a new seasonal romcom anime to watch, then yeah give Bottom Tier Tomazaki-Kun a watch, you should be able to enjoy it fairly decently. To conclude this review, I give Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki-Kun a 7/10 for my overall anime rating. Cyranical out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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