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Mod Edit: this review may contain spoilers.

I have adjectives galore for this movie. For those experienced in Makoto Shinkai filmography, the art and animation are par for the course, but heads and shoulders above what is the next most visually beautiful animated movie you’ve seen.

Had I watched Kimi no na Wa for the scenery, I’d likely have considered it a passable film by Shinkai’s standards (because frankly, Garden of Words was just so much more aesthetically pleasing). However, like Garden of Words, Kimi no na Wa’s characterization and plot range from potently bad to practically non existent.

5 Centimeters per second had a particular air of ... nostalgia and loss to it that was palpable and painfully relatable. Kimi no na Wa tries to build up on the same premise, but with more of a linear plot, only to fail miserably.

First half was actually tolerable, it worked out just like your typical body switch romcom, which is sad considering the kind of budget and effort that must have went into making the beautiful backdrops come to life. Second half. Oh, the second half!

Whatever semblance of logic that the movie had up until that point was mercilessly crushed and flushed out of the toilet. And then the movie decided to shove a typical sci fi time travel cum disaster prevention plot down our throat, when I thought it couldn’t get any worse.

Sooo, the final product was a body switch slash time travel slash romance slash metaphysical slash philosophical plot that gets zero explanations throughout the movie. Actually, it does; body switch, time goes out of sync, weird dreams, disaster, kids save the day, turns out this has been in the family because comet.

TL;DR, ridiculously overrated pretentious hogwash. Crap like nothing ever was. Don’t waste your time if you’re looking for a movie that makes sense, but by all means watch it if you’ve seen Shinkai’s drop dead gorgeous art and want more of it.

Pros
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+Outstanding music
+Powerful, fully realized main characters
+Wonderful, charming, developed and three dimensional side characters
+Female lead's unassuming, eccentric charisma draws you inexplicably
+Male lead is a refreshing dissent from usual wimpy and indecisive leads
+Romance is never melodramatic, overstated or contrived
+Neither leads are excessively dependent on each other or have their lives construed around their better halves
+Refreshing and impeccably timed humour superbly woven into the narrative
... +Assertive drama - never too maudlin or overblown - but carries weight nevertheless
+Sends the message of hard work and dedication - those who are good are only good because they put in more effort than anyone else.
+No characters are perfect - All of them have flaws.
+No injected drama or outside conflicts - the root of all problems are personalities and individual differences
+Genius and eccentricities that come with it is highlighted but not exaggerated -talent is hardly shown to guarantee success
+University setting. Not high-school, yay!

Cons
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-Plain art and awful CG
-Some side characters are developed and then abandoned. Sad.
-Esoteric, techno-babble about music scores
-Sometimes classical music suffuses the better part of an episode. Learn to enjoy classical or you'd be dragging yourself through the series


Recommended for:
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Those who like drama and slapstick humour. Classical music buffs will also love this. Probably. I don't know much about that, all the instruments sounded good to me - even when they were apparently making mistakes.

For those who don't want to read the entire drivel;

Pros:

+Good dialogues, well written script
+A plethora of interesting and deliciously real characters
+Consistency in ideals and believable character development
+Great banter, witty conversations and well placed references
+Dialogue oriented comedy delivered with a slightly nihilistic edge, perfect for those who want to indulge in the feeling of watching an intelligent work without being bored to death
+Understands the flaws of various characters and exposes them, never glorifies a reclusive lifestyle despite the nature of the main characters
+Impressive social commentary and a very insightful take on the nuances of social hierarchy, in a group environment and with regard to ... individual perceptions
+Subtle and heart warming development of relationships, does not treat the concept of 'friendship' lightly
+Healthy and adorable sibling relationship that is not incestuous
+Visual cues that contribute to the themes of the work, art style used to contrast the occasionally heavy atmosphere and reflective character designs
+Good OP and ED, well placed music

Cons:

-Romantic development is minimal and might be unsatisfactory for some
-Crudely drawn faces and awful animation rears its unwanted head every now and then
-A couple of episodes in the beginning felt unwanted, in spite of them being crucial in setting the mood
-Few side characters are there to establish its rom-com origins and nothing more
-A very cliché set up that can be a turn off to potential viewers

Recommended for: All teens, those who are past their high school years and feel like watching a different high school rom com. Fans of Bakemonogatary-esque repartee and artful humour

Log Horizon. The basic premise, as is evident in the synopsis, centres around a group of players who by some - as of yet - unexplained phenomenon, got stuck in an online massive multi player role playing game.

I can imagine anyone familiar with Sword Art Online doing a double take at this point, obviously comparing the two anime, itching to see how one holds up against the other. SAO lovers and haters alike will travel down this line of thought. To be honest, I was and is one of the latter. Infact, I went into the series hoping to find all I missed ... in SAO after reading some assuring extracts that put this above Sword Art Online. And it did deliver.

I should mention, however, that this anime is not everyone's cup of tea. If you're not the type to sit down and enjoy a dialogue heavy show such as this, the anime will most certainly come off as dry and boring. To be fair, if you're on the extreme end of dialogue-heavy fanaticism, the end-result won't vary. Log Horizon is the kind of anime that sits on the neutral ground - its dialogue heavy, but the concepts are not overly complex, thought provoking or riddled with worldly wise philosophies.

That is not to say the show is not intelligent, but nonetheless, if you take the word of Log Horizon fans(a.k.a SAO haters) that judge the show as the intellectual's SAO, then you'll end up sorely let down. Because, at the end of the day, Log Horizon is still a kids show that shows no shame in shying away from the more ugly facets of the scenario, and the devious schemes that characters keep praising as something phenomenal are rather elementary.

Not that its a bad thing, the anime itself doesn't go out of its way to show its characters as human super computers or anything. We just get a normal gamer guy with above average intelligence, and one who actually does his homework to get things done. Seeing he's surrounded by other normal people and AI, it might even be a good thing. The situations themselves doesn't call for anything more than some rudimentary marketing and administrative tactics and strategies.

The story is in any case, fairly well executed and implemented; you won't find the characters doing utterly pointless actions or going on completely fruitless endeavours. Although, like they say, don't judge a book by its cover, because first arc of Log Horizon can mislead you on the show's main focus. Without spoiling too much, they first go on a rescue mission and the short arc serves as an exposition of sorts to give us a gist of the combat and gameplay mechanics, which while not a central theme, does get some focus later on in the series. Even so, combat is not heavy in Log Horizon. When there is action, it mostly relies on tactics and strategy. There is no one-man show where the mc's love overrides the game mechanics or anything. But, if you forget the two arcs where action is important - Log Horizon is about economics and politics at its core.

One significant factor that differentiates Log Horizon from its thematic predecessors like SAO and .hack series is that death in the game does not equate to death in real life. That is, the players can respawn infinitely. It is not without consequence though, as there is something even more terrible than death that await the players who carelessly let their HP bars easily chip away to zero. Oops, I said too much. Maybe you should go watch the anime, because I won't be dropping any more spoilers.

Now, onto the sound. The OST at first didn't at all sit well with me. It was sharply contrasting to the shows feel and theme. However, slowly but surely, I ended up loving it and started humming along. I can't honestly speak in-depth about the back-ground score...But they were certainly mood building, though I have my doubts about whether they went overboard with it. Some of the mood-building has gone to water and left me with a facepalm because the epic moments were made epic only because of the soundtracks. Without those, I wouldn't have batted an eye at the game winning strategies the characters employed and would have wrote them off as common sense. Meanwhile, the ending has already found a place in my favorites. Never skipped it, infact, I'm listening to it as I'm typing.

The art was quite mediocre. Nothing to speak of. Its not too bad and its not too good. I felt that it didn't quite feel like a game for most part. But you really can't complain, for all we know, they may not even be stuck in a game per se. The character designs were pretty generic and all of anime's usual motifs are used. I particularly liked the mc's design.

Characters of Log Horizon are not unique or spectacular in any sense. But they get their job done, and the mc is a wits above fists guy for once, and he's good at it. There is also the charismatic guy who gets all the praise, but luckily, we see him as a side character for the better part of the show. Not really surprising given Log Horizon takes a radically different route than most mainstream shounen shows by focusing on the action behind the scenes far more than the frontline adventures.

I have noticed the characters getting blamed for reacting too calmly towards their predicament and this is one of those criticisms I don't understand. If you came across such a criticism, take my word - that is baseless. Completely baseless.

One character I was thoroughly disappointed with was the loli assassin, Akatsuki. I actually had high hopes for her. But much to my dismay, her potential as a character was left untapped in terms of both execution and elucidation. I certainly won't condemn her character for development as she seemed to be wallowing in sadness because of her inability to be of sufficient use, and even more her because of her being unable to empathize with the mc towards the end. She still has a lot of potential for development, especially in the light of next season coming shortly. No, my problem is with her lack of chemistry with the mc. The same slap-stick jokes with the show's resident pervert can get old really easily, and the whole cosplay facade she uses to interact with Shiroe doesn't help either. Heck, Shiroe himself thinks her antics are nothing more than cosplaying when her personal monologues shows that she is invested in Shiroe on a more than superficial level. If there was some backstory for such an introverted personality, then I could have let it slip. But sadly, nothing of that sort came up. I'm hoping that the next season will take some time to flesh out her character, seeing she's the main female lead.

Rest of the characters were great for the duration of the show and we can hope that they will play more important roles in the upcoming sequel. Some of the secondary cast got a lot more development than the main cast, both a positive and negative point in my books.

Another weakness in its character department comes from overuse of certain gags. Shiroe adjusting his glasses when thinking making everyone go 'Ooohh the villain in glasses', Henrietta's obsession with dressing up lolis, Naotsugu's openly showing perverted tendencies only to get interrupted halfway by wrathful Akatsuki etc being only some of the examples. While this is not uncommon or ineffective, too much of these can be frustrating.

As I mentioned at the beginning, this anime is not for everyone. For those who like dialogue heavy anime that is not dark or depressing, with some light slapstick comedy thrown in for good measure - this is exactly what you're looking for.

As a last note, I must warn anyone who has been pushed onto taking up this anime by SAO haters - Granted, its different from SAO and does decidedly better than SAO on the story department, particularly the pacing. But its not the masterpiece that many of them paint it to be. Log Horizon is a little above the average shounen, however, its still an anime with flaws that cannot be overlooked. My own overall score is a result of the kind of entertainment I derived and not at all reflecting of the show's quality from an objective standpoint.