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it's over. it's finally over.

what started out as a charming, albeit slightly unsettling, story of cute rock humans fighting fluffy moon aliens quickly became one of the wildest, strangest and most provocative plots i've read yet in manga. seriously, this manga gets really weird. not too incomprehensible, nor pretentiously abstract, but if you want a simple action mystery story Land of the Lustrous probably isn't for you.

PLOT:
plot is good. it's not what i'd say is the selling point of LotL, but it's definitely paced well enough to never feel like a scene drags too long. the plot gets really weird halfway through, and some might ... complain that the second half feels extremely disjointed but i dont know, it works for me.

i will say, there's a portion in the middle of the manga where it does get a bit repetitive and it starts to drag a little. this is due to the setting that the manga confines itself in, which does start to get stale after awhile. thankfully there's a change in setting soon enough, and that's when things start to progress again.

CHARACTERS:
the protagonist (phos) is handedly one of the best ive seen. many amazing protagonists in manga are unlikable or not particularly interesting in the begin compared to the path they will later undertake (i.e. eren, thorfinn) but phos is immediately charming and interesting from the start. there's a sense of incompleteness in phos, which makes their development one of the most fascinating ive seen done in manga.

the other characters are pretty solid too. most of the Gems are dysfunctional in their own way, which makes for an interesting character study on each of them. they get ample page time to establish themselves, and overall i have no issues with them. they do feel set up to flesh out phos further at times, but i really have no issue with that in a manga that is laser focused on its protagonist's development as LotL.

ART:
there are two kinds of amazing art in manga. on one hand, you have the berserks, the vagabonds. those are meticulously drawn to perfection, trying to capture the human anatomy as accurately and as realistically as possible with the pen. on the other, you have LotL.

ichikawa excels at creating evocative, beautiful art while achieving a sense of minimalism in her art. there's no intricate shading, no miura-esque every-pixel-must-be-perfect philosophy behind her art style, but her impressive use of negative space, symmetry in her page compositions and panels are simply incredible. every panel flows seamlessly to the next, and it makes for a great reading experience.

only nitpick is that it can be quite tough to differentiate the Gems, especially at first.

TONE:
i love how bleak this manga can get. i also how love how hilarious it is.

the humour is a constant in the series. unlike many manga out there, where humour is often highly exaggerated and slapstick, LotL's humour is often more quippy, and even in many occasions, pretty damn dark. it's never too frequent to become grating, and the jokes tend to land well.

THEMES:
existentialism and a whole lot of buddhist motifs. sounds pretentious i know, but don't worry, ichikawa does not shove it down your throat to the point where it affects the plot. ive never read a manga with themes that get as existential and abstract as LotL, and as someone who does believe somewhat in Buddhism it is handled in a really interesting manner without getting preachy.

OVERALL:
also the ending's good. it's not anything mindblowing, but it's a fitting, beautiful ending for our protagonist.

a must-read if you're someone looking to read all the classics in the medium. i can promise that you will find NOTHING like LotL, love it or hate it. an imperfect masterpiece.

9/10

Being a slice of life fan is difficult. On one hand, as a high school student, I adore the genre for its relatable themes, cozy setting and low stakes, feel good vibes, but on the other hand, there's just too much soulless repetitive trash out there that it's difficult to filter out the gems from the trash.

Shuukan Shounen Girl isn't the greatest slice of life manga I've read, hell as you can tell from the score I struggle to call it good. But what it definitely delivers on, and hence why I'm recommending this, is that of its memorability.

A collection of episodic, disconnected romance-focused stories ... situated in the mundane confines of an ordinary high school, but with a twist: every chapter depicts either our new female lead or male lead being stricken with some bizarre supernatural oddity. How bizarre, you may ask? One chapter revolves around a girl who has manga mysteriously printed on her stomach every week. Another revolves around a girl who encounters a guy with the exact same name and similar physical appearance as her, only to be notified by God himself that there is a glitch in reality that brought two alternate realities of her together.

If you're craving for something weird, this is the manga for you.

As expected from an episodic series, most chapters are hit or miss. Some will leave you awed and in amazement, while some will leave you cold and underwhelmed. Not all the ideas stick here; some don't really go anywhere, and some are just plain...weird. But the chapters that do actually stick? They're wonderful.

Even if not every chapter hits though, there is a consistent effort to experiment in the manga that I adore. The best chapters in the series are the ones where the mangaka messes around with the medium of manga itself: playing with art style, paneling and hell with even one chapter allowing two pages to overlap each other when you shine light on it to further highlight the emotional poignancy of the scene.

My biggest gripe with the series however, is how it weighs itself down by only ever tackling the theme of high school love. It gets stale really quickly, and while the ways it communicates the theme is usually fresh and inspired, the theme itself isn't. If the mangaka expanded his horizons and tackled other themes related to adolescence, this manga truly could have been something even more special.

Overall, I really really like this manga, and I recommend it to just about every slice of life enjoyer out there, but it's definitely no masterpiece.

Fate Strange Fake might only be halfway through its grand narrative, but I can already safely say that this is by far one of, if not the most epic Fate entry so far.

As much as I adore the original Stay Night, one gripe I had with the narrative was how the Fifth Holy Grail War felt rather constrained. Maybe it's the fact that we're seeing events through the perspective of one observer, or that the Fifth Holy Grail War was broken to begin with, but the execution of the concept of a Battle Royale between famous legends across history wasn't as impactful as it could ... have been. The other Holy Grail War entries did seek to remedy this, like /Zero and /Apocrypha. That said, /Zero, while having a much more grander scale than Stay Night, still felt a bit limited in how awesome a Holy Grail War could be due to it having to tie back to Stay Night, and Apocrypha was quite the mess.

And thus, I was left rather disappointed. The Holy Grail War is easily one of the coolest premises in all of anime, and yet none of the Fate entries could truly satisfy my craving. Until I read Strange Fake.

Fate/Strange Fake essentially is what happens when you give a writer, who is clearly extremely passionate about not just Fate but all of the Nasuverse as whole, free reign in handling his version of a Holy Grail War. And the resulting product is fucking glorious.

The Servant and Master lineup is easily the best in the entire Fate-verse, not just because of how famous some of them are but also because of how crazy strong their abilities are. Everytime you're introduced to a new servant and master pair and think, "Bro that's really broken, they're gonna win this so easily", you get introduced to another that makes you retract that statement. In most Fate stories, one look at the lineups and you can tell who's gonna last till the final stages, but in Strange Fake, it has you constantly guessing. What's even better is that unlike Apocrypha, the masters are actually hella interesting too. Without giving too much away, they aren't your de facto mages or high school students.

The first few volumes do take a while to kick things off, but they're ironically my favorite bit of the story. Getting introduced to a new servant and master, being awed and floored by how interesting their abilities are, seeing their interactions with their respective masters, it feels like a showcase of every servant and master's skills and abilities, and it just creates so much hype. Once the plot kicks off, it's also well paced and with many different developments to ensure every lineup has their moment to shine. Every battle feels like a clash between two Titans, impactful and tense. It does get a bit hard to remember the staggering number of characters, each with their own motivations and abilities, but that just goes to show how great of a writer Narita is in making you at least bother about most of the cast.

Praise aside, I do have some, not really criticism, but just gripes in general.

While the characters do have their varying motives and abilities, due to the nature of such a complex story, it is pretty hard to get attached to anyone emotionally. Strange Fake in a sense feels like watching a sports tournament, and while you do cheer for the teams you're rooting for in sports, you don't actually have much of an emotional attachment to the players competing in it. They feel more like concepts than actual characters. The only characters that I genuinely adored reading was Saber and Gilgamesh. Also because of that, when the narrative does start giving characters more introspective moments, it honestly falls a bit flat at times. I do appreciate the effort regardless.

Also, if you go into Strange Fake expecting the depth of Stay Night or even Zero, you might be disappointed. But that is certainly not a criticism to Strange Fake, since it's obvious that Narita is more interested in capturing the spectacle of his Holy Grail War, and that's perfectly OK. Not every story needs to be deep and emotional.

Overall, I had one hell of a time with Strange Fake. I implore every Fate fan to give it a shot, or at least wait for the inevitable serialised adaptation, since this is shaping up to be one of the best Battle Royale stories told in this medium.

Garden of Avalon serves as Type Moon's official interpretation of Arthurian legends in the grand scheme of the infamously grandiose lore of the Nasuverse, starring best girl Saber as it tackles her origins, her reign of Britain and her eventual downfall.

For whom is this novel written for? Do I need prerequisite reading before reading this? While GoA serves mostly as a lore piece to not really explain but elaborate on Saber's character prior to Fate Stay Night, there isn't much of a need to read anything related to Fate before jumping right in, though the last chapter might be a bit confusing without ... knowledge of the Fate route in Stay Night, but hey, all the more incentive to read the Visual novel eh?

If you're someone who's already a Fate fan and want more Saber content, this novel is for you. As much as I loved Saber in Fate route, I did want to see more of the kingly side of Artoria, which this novel provides. If you're someone who has watched the Ufotable adaptations and still don't understand why Saber is best girl, while this novel might not fully convince you since Fate Route is the route that fleshes out her character the most, it will still hopefully make her a more interesting character in your eyes. If you're someone completely new to Fate and just want a good old Arthurian story, I can't say that it is for you, but it is an interesting reinterpretation of Arthurian legend in my eyes nonetheless.

The various narrators that tell the tale each shed light on the different sides of the story, painting the canvas that is the King of Knights. Is Saber an unfeeling, inhuman machine that possesses no feelings of her own? Or is she a tragic, misunderstood king that only hoped for the best of her people? Nasu has always been one of his best amongst his peers in conveying a sense of mysticism and romanticism in his works, and the way he portrays the tragedy of Artoria feels like something straight out of Shakespeare, with elegance and deftness that sets him apart from his contemporaries.

If I had any complaints, it would be that it wasn't any longer. GoA is an incredibly short read for the amount of content it could have covered, however I understand the reasoning behind its lack of coverage on other more important events in Arthurian lore. The focus is and has always been on Saber, not the exploits of the Knights of the Round Table, but even then my inner Arthurian fanboy does crave more. Also, while I am thankful to the translators, the translation itself is not the best, with a lot of awkward phrasing and grammatical issues, which does impact the prose of the story and therefore the enjoyment.. However, it is still decent enough to not be too big of an issue.

This is NOT a remake, neither is it a good starting point at all into the When They Cry franchise. I have no idea what ryukishi07 was thinking recommending this to new fans, but there's a lot of context needed from the original Higurashi, and even a bit of Umineko for good measure in order to truly get the most out of this... sequel...?

So what even is Higurashi Gou? It's obviously a sequel, but the way it presents itself is so half assed in the beginning that one really has to wonder what the writers were thinking. If you're going to continue the Higurashi plot ... in a new direction, then there were much more efficient and effective ways to go about doing it. The likely answer is that 07th expansion wanted to attract new fans into the franchise through Gou, except that the second half of the season really requires you to know your Higurashi, and even Umineko lore to be interested in what's going on.

With all that said and done, there's surprisingly a lot of interesting developments tackled in Gou. While I wouldn't go so far as to call it good, the second half is a hella more engaging than the first half, and ultimately after the final episode I was left with the most indescribably muddled feelings towards Gou. Without having seen Sotsu, I think I can summarise my thoughts with Gou as this: with every positive I have with the series, comes with two or more complaints. It's a sequel that's definitely interesting to discuss at least.

PLOT: 4/10
The original Higurashi had one of the most satisfying and complete endings in a story as comprehensive as Higurashi's. It tied up almost every loose end, gave every major character one last chance to shine and solidify the character arcs they went through, and was just a very conclusive final chapter. Saikoroshi-hen, the epilogue to Higurashi, also setlled Rika's arc in a very satisfying manner, and tied back in with Umineko with the birth of a certain Bernkastel.

So what's left to tackle? How would Gou justify bringing back a story that ended almost 2 decades ago?

Surprisingly, the direction Gou headed was actually...decent? Fine, I'll give it props; it got the Umineko fan in me practically squealing in delight once I realised what Gou was gonna tackle. The When They Cry universe has one of the most delightfully fascinating lore in all of anime, and strengthening the bonds between both Umineko and Higurashi, heck even Ciconia, is the best possible gift 07th expansion could have given to me.

Except that, well, the execution kinda sucked. Without giving too much away, the first three arcs of Gou are basically three of the original vn's arcs all over again, except with a major twist in the respective final episodes of each arc. The problem arises when you realise that the show spent a whopping THIRTEEN episodes, a single cour worth of television, to achieve so little. The first thirteen episodes are essentially to lay out the different scenarios the villain used to trap Rika all over again, except that it's just so pointless.

The first three question arcs of Higurashi are absolutely amazing precisely because of how little you know what's going on. You barely have anything to work with, and through the eyes of a terribly unreliable narrator of Keiichi you'll start sinking into this pit of paranoia and suspicion of the events happening. It's beautiful because once you get the answer, everything clicks into place and when you look back at how confused you were back then it's extremely amusing.

The problem with Gou's new arcs, is that it's not even a mystery. The answers to these arcs can be found simply by using the answer in the original answer arcs as a key. Sure, the who-dunnit is pretty vague, but the how-dunnit is easy as cake to solve. A mystery is intriguing not just because of the who-dunnit, but the how-dunnit. And that just makes the first thirteen episodes an absolute slog to go through.

The second half of Gou, however, is when things thankfully get interesting. Nekodamashi-hen is easily the most disgusting thing the entire When They Cry franchise has ever done, and it did get my attention, if anything else. Satokowashi-hen, at least its first few episodes, had also genuinely good moments that made me, strangely enough, touched. I never thought going into Gou after hearing all the negativity surrounding it that I would be touched by it, but it's surprisingly there.

The problems lie with two aspects.

Firstly, the shock value. The original Higurashi visual novel was definitely violent and disturbing, but there was a strange sort of respect and decency when handling the violence. It wasn't an overly gratuitous edgefest that shocked for the sake of shocking. I can't say the same for Gou. To be fair, I haven't watched the DEEN adaptation, but Gou just rubbed me the wrong way throughout. For example, the end of the first arc, Onidamashi-hen, has a character bleed so much blood, that I could not resist laughing at how absurd it was. It's so gorey that it's hard to take seriously. And then you have the infamous scene in Nekodamashi, which is right up there with one of the most unnecessarily disgusting and drawn out sequences I've seen in anime. The strange thing is that the original Higurashi did a really similar scene, but that was handled with much less sadistic connotations than this scene. It's sad that ryukishi07 who once criticised people who indulge in needless suffering in fiction is now one of those who fuels that, though I'll cope with the fact that he probably wasn't in the position to influence the anime in its portrayal of the ideas he presented.

The other lies with the characters. I'll elaborate more in the other section.

CHARACTERS: 5/10

[SPOILER WARNING FOR HIGURASHI GOU]

Oh boy, where do I even begin.

I've always liked Satoko ever since Tatarigoroshi-hen. I know she isn't as memorable of a character as Shion and Rena, as charming as Mion nor given as much screentime as Rika and Keiichi, but she's an incredible character none the less. The struggles she goes through, her tragic past and self-worth issues were very understandable, and I found the end to her character arc in Matsuribayashi-hen satisfying.

Gou decides to head into a new direction with her character, exploring her relationship with Rika, how it ultimately collapses and falls apart, and her descent into madness.

I'll give Gou credit where I think it's due. The second part of her development, the collapse of her friendship with Rika and her refusal to let Rika leave Hinamizawa, was handled well. As said before, the first few episodes of Satokowashi-hen with Rika asking Satoko to accompany her to St Lucia's were pretty great. It lacked the hyperviolence of the arcs before, had much more depth to its characters and was extremely bittersweet. I related to Satoko's struggle in accepting change in her life, and the somber fact that some friendships simply can't last forever. Unlike some, I can very much understand Satoko's resentment towards Rika, even if I don't find Rika to be at fault, and it made much sense for Satoko to be this attached to Rika. Growing up in a rather traumatic childhood with family abuse, it makes sense for Satoko to be this attached to her best friend who stuck with her through thick and thin, who was her family of sorts when her brother left her.

What I didn't really enjoy was Satoko's descent into villainy. While it wasn't handled badly, it wasn't as good as I would have liked either. Sure Satoko was no saint back in the original Higurashi, but she was never this malicious either. Her reason to inflict such pain and suffering onto Rika boils down to having Rika never want to leave Hinamizawa, but I find it difficult to believe that a character who has received such abuse and suffering would ever do it to her best friend, even if the whole cycle of abuse thing is valid. Again, it's not handled terribly, but I found the intensity of Satoko's torture to be way too overboard. Hell, she even doesn't give a shit about Satoshi, something that genuinely makes no sense to me. Satoshi was the most important person to Satoko, and she wouldn't even use her looping powers to help him? One could argue that it shows how deranged Satoko is by now, but no matter how much she wants to possess Rika I find it harder to believe that that feeling is stronger than reviving and restoring the most important person in her life.

We also get Teppei redemption. ...And it's not handled very well. Once again, the development is way too rushed. In like 10 minutes Teppei suddenly becomes the kind awkward uncle after receiving a lot of nightmares of him getting murdered. Even if the concept is somewhat believable, the task of redeeming arguably the scummiest character in Higurashi is impossibly high, and that episode did not do it for me.

The other characters are mainly the same. Rika's more of a reactionary character in this one, so there's not a whole lot to say about her.

Lastly, Featherin- I mean Eua. I've always wanted more from Featherine in Umineko, so seeing her on the Higurashi game board without using Hanyuu as a piece was just so satisfying. She still doesn't do much other than lying on her couch and commenting as though as she was watching a television show, which is what I've come to expect of Featherine, but I'm excited to see more of her in Sotsu.

ANIMATION: 4/10
DEEN's adaptation is pretty infamous for its subpar quality when it comes to the animation department, but at its best some of the art that came from it was genuinely amazing. The lighting and colors of the original Higurashi nailed the creepy and unsettling horror vibe extremely well, as dated as it might look.

I cannot say the same for Passione's work. The colors are far too saturated, there's too much polish on the facial expressions, and the face shape looks so... round(?) There's a desaturated clip of Gou somewhere out there that actually looks much better than the actual product, because god damn everytime I see Satoko's bright yellow hair it just feels wrong especially in the "spooky" scenes.

However, it's not entirely bad. The slice of life scenes do look pretty good with the character design barring the colors, and the lighting of some scenes are genuinely good, though it still didn't capture the atmospheric charm of the original adaptation. The first ED also has some of the best art of the Higurashi cast out there, each capturing the struggles the cast goes through.

SOUND: 6/10
The music didn't stand out much, which is perfectly fine. However, everytime the original Higurashi theme plays, or when the first opening first drops at the end of the first episode, while not being particularly clever, were still highly enjoyable. The opening theme of "I believe what you said", ED1 "God's syndrome" and ED2 "Irregular Entropy" were perfect choices for their respective roles, and just a bop to listen to overall.

TL;DR: 4/10
It's not good. It really isn't, the concept of Lamdadelta and Bernkastel's original battle is such an amazing idea, but it didn't work out. Even then, even then, the WTC fan in me really enjoyed the callbacks to Umineko, dug the emotional turmoil of Satoko (for awhile, at least) and did love all the ideas tossed around in Gou. With a massive overhaul and restructuring of the plot of GOU, this could have been an absolute masterpiece. A pity that probably wouldn't happen, but at least Gou did renew interest in When They Cry.

And now we wait for a Umineko remake.

Have you ever wanted to know what happened to Sodachi after the events of Sodachi Lost?
Have you ever wanted magical girl Ononoki?
Have you ever wanted vampire Hanekawa?
Have you ever wanted a Karen POV arc?
Have you ever wanted a glimpse of pre-vampire Kiss-shot?
Have you ever wanted Nadeko to become an even better character?

Look no further, Off season has all of it in spades.

It's a season of fillers on surface value, yet a season that should NEVER be skipped. Every book is an absolute blast to read.
...
The writing is still impeccable. NISIOISIN justifies the existence of this season exceedingly well by fleshing out the other aspects of Monogatari he hasn't touched upon, such as the lore and certain characters that may have been left hanging. Every arc, bar one, is either stupidly fun or just plain beautiful to read. Nadeko and Sodachi easily become some of the best characters in this series since this season finally gives them the much deserved resolutions to their character arcs.

It might be no masterpiece, but my inner Monogatari fanboy has nothing to give but a 10. I even have this season higher than the first and final, because this season is filled with the best possible fanservice.

If you truly lack the time to read all of it however, at least read Musubimonogatari. It's a book taking place years after the present day, answering the question of what happened to the gang after the events of Final Season. At face value it's just a book made by NISIOISIN to milk the series further, but once you reach the third arc it gets really interesting, to put it without spoilers. You might love what NISIOISIN did, or you might hate it, but it is definitely a rather heartwrenching read.

4 arcs have been fan translated as of writing this, Shinobu Mustard, Mayoi Snail, Mayoi Snake, and Yotsugi Buddy. I plan to read Yotsugi Shadow and Ougimonogatari someday, since there are fan translations in Chinese, but this review shall only cover till Yotsugi Buddy.

Let's cut to the case; how does Monster Season compare with the other Monogatari seasons?

if I had to rank all of them, it would be like: 2nd>Off>1st>Final>Monster.

Now granted I have not read all of Monster Season, and who knows, Monster season might somehow rise up the ranks and become the 2nd best season or something (2nd season is untouchable), however I'm ... feeling pretty confident on where Monster season is heading, or at least the sort of setting and tone of it. (Of course, knowing NisiOisin he might just flip the board and shatter all my expectations)

Monster Season takes place after Off season, in which Koyomi Araragi is now a college student. Yes, Mr Muraragi has finally graduated from high school, and is now somewhat of a grown up. The overarching theme of Monster season lies in the concept of Adulthood, and what it means to Araragi. It's certainly a very different shift of themes compared to the prior seasons' focus on Adolescence, but it's interesting to see Araragi continue his lifelong struggle of saving girls with issues with his status as an adult.

And yes, Monster season does feel like Bakemonogatari once again. Whereas Second season went off the rails and focused on the Araragi harem, and the final season focused on Oshino Ougi shinnenigans, Monster season feels like a return to the form of the original premise of this series. Shinobumonogatari has obvious parallels with Kizumonogatari even beyond surface level examination, Yoimonogatari has elements of Tsubasa Family etc, it's once again back to Araragi solving girls issues.

This time, the focus is on other girls. Yes, it sounds incredible, but Monster season decides to introduce new characters to its already pretty big roster of girls. However, it's obvious that NisiOisin doesn't want to allocate too much time on fleshing out these characters, which sounds like a bad thing but honestly isn't so in my eyes, since stealing screentime from preexisting characters to promote a new wave of girls would obviously backfire on Nisio this late into the series. They're more of plot devices than actual characters, but that's not too bad of a thing itself.

Let's talk more about these girls shall we, since Monogatari is ultimately a harem, or a harem-bait. Whatever.

There's a codebreaker college classmate Araragi befriends, though I'll be real she doesn't do jackshit other than a MacGuffin for Araragi to find clues. Kanbaru's friend who appeared in Hanamonogatari is also a recurring character throughout the season. I find her too similar to Kanbaru, and hope that Nisio branches her out from her pervy kouhai shtick.

The new main characters, basically the girls Araragi saves in the season, are all one-shot. They don't appear after their arcs, since Monster season is an Araragi-centric season.

As I said, there isn't much to talk about these new characters. They're necessary so that readers will feel that Araragi is finally stepping out of his comfort zone and meeting new people, but not important enough to justify long page lengths of random banter to flesh them out.

Our lovely original harem also has their time to shine too. Shinobumonogatari, obviously has quite a lot of fun Shinobu moments in it, Yoimonogatari has Hachikuji doing God things, and Amarimonogatari has Ononoki tagging along. They aren't necessarily the main stars of their arcs, but they do have their scenes. We also get more of Gaen Izuko, and it's always fun to know more about the specialists.

However by far the most important character after Araragi HAS to be Nadeko.

Nadeko fans who are anime onlys, I beseech you, read Off season and Monster season. Nadeko feels like the deuteragonist of Monogatari, with her development and growth being such a joy to watch. Whereas Second season completely destroys and deconstructs Nadeko as a character, Off and Monster season builds her back up. It is extremely satisfying to read, and her personality is far more appealing now than ever before. She also works really well with other characters like Ononoki, Tsukihi and Hachikuji, which is funny because I've always cited Nadeko as the weakest link all the way back in first season. I'm glad NisiOisin proved me wrong. Monster season continues Nadeko's journey, and from the glimpses of Shinomonogatari it seems like she'll meet best grill Kaiki once again, which is extremely welcome.

On to the plot. Monster Season is very much mystery centred. The three books, Shinobumonogatari, Yoimonogatari and Amarimonogatari are of...varying quality. I'll start with the worst: Amarimonogatari.

Now I haven't finished the un(English)translated Yotsugi Shadow, and who knows maybe it's so good it changes my opinion, but as of now, Amarimonogatari is probably the weakest after Koyomimonogatari. It's not bad by any means, just bland. Ononoki is fun, however she honestly can't carry the arc with her banter with Araragi. The Ononoki-Araragi pairing is fun in small bites, but stretched to one entire arc it's a bit stale. The mystery is interesting, however the themes are rather similar to the previous two books and it's not that entertaining either. I would probably adore this book if we actually got Sodachi somehow roped into this, but nope. Overall, an alright arc. It's far from the highs of Monogatari, but it's not offensive or a waste of time either.

Shinobumonogatari is pretty good. It's the first of the season, laying down a lot of the grounding for the tone of the season, and it does it quite well. It's nice seeing callbacks to Kizu, entertaining with its assortments of appearances from the likes of Suicidemaster, Gaen Izuko etc. Also, seeing Araragi solve issues not by charging headfirst recklessly like in the first 3 seasons but by actually considering and judging his actions makes me extremely proud of him. Overall, it's fun, with a nice message and character development of our protagonist.

Yoimonogatari is amazing. This is one of the best books in this series easily, and this is the same series with installments like Koimonogatari and Otorimonogatari. The mystery is very compelling, the narrative paced well, the message is refined and clear, seeing Araragi make up of sorts for his quite terrible handling of Hanekawa's situation is interesting, and the emotional moments are very touching. There are a lot of genuinely gripping and beautiful moments in this book, making it one of my absolute favourites. There's twists and turns, fun banter, a great mystery, and a very important message, what more could you want from Monogatari?

In conclusion, Monogatari Monster Season is very solid. As a monogatari fan, it gave me quite a lot of enjoyment. If you like the mystery aspect of monogatari, you would love this season. The score might increase once I finish this season, but as of now, it is an 8/10. It's a sort of End Story Sequel, except an entire season, for the grand narrative of Monogatari. I highly recommend it to any Monogatari fans.

With the announcement of a new "Trigun" anime, Trigun: Stampede, and a very eye-catching visual, I finally decided to give the original Trigun a shot. A charismatic yet badass protagonist set in a sci-fi western setting of a dystopian wasteland definitely sounded like something I would absolutely adore. Add on to the fact that the posters just had so much personality in them, a killer soundtrack, the 90s artstyle and a succinct, perfectly reasonable run of 26 episodes, as a massive Bebop fan myself I knew I had to check it out.

As you can tell from the score, Trigun is pretty damn solid. It's far ... from a masterpiece, however if you told me that Trigun was your favourite anime of all time I will give you my approval. It's extremely charming, and its cult classic status despite it being more than 2 decades old now is still perfectly warranted.

THE GOOD:
1) Vash the Stampede. While I was slightly let down by some of the series' aspects, Vash was definitely not one of them. I'll admit I was slightly put off by his overwhelmingly goofy nature in the first few episodes; it wasn't that he was insufferable or particularly unfunny, sure, but he seemed nothing other than a goofball. Donut-loving, raucous and loud, horny and very very whimsical, it was a tonal whiplash from a lot of what you would expect from a wanted criminal with a literal 60 billion bounty on his head. Once the whiplash settles in however, and once the more serious and compelling aspects of Vash arises, he quickly became everything I wanted from and so much more. There is something very genuine about Vash that helps him stand out from the cesspool of edgy brooding protagonists with a tragic past anime has an obsession for. He has all the angst you would want from a protagonist like him, and yet all the heart and laughter to help balance it out. And the way his ideals get tested throughout the series, while not particularly legendary or outstanding, is still plenty compelling stuff to watch unfold.

All in all, definitely one of anime's coolest characters period.

2) THE SUPPORTING CAST
The cast is very solid, despite this being Vash's story.

Meryl and Milly are very enjoyable female characters. They don't get hyper-sexualised as waifu characters, in fact Milly has broad shoulders and a larger frame than most of the male characters in the entire series, which is extremely refreshing to see some good representation without being preachy. Both provides good comic relief roles, though they are nothing to write home about. They're an audience surrogate to witness Vash's journey first and foremost, though I would say Milly later on in the series has one genuinely bittersweet moment that I did not see coming.

Wolfwood is obviously where all the praise gets, however. Immediately upon his first introduction he is insanely likable. He's kindhearted, good with children, goofy and lighthearted and yet extremely badass. My only issue is that he overlaps a lot with Vash's personality at first, though he does feel more down-to-earth than Vash. Thankfully, throughout Trigun, Wolfwood sets himself apart from Vash, with his philosophy being a natural counter to Vash's pacifist ideals and them butting heads frequently due to their conflict of interests. Also, he uses a fucking cross as a gun. How metal is that?!

3) ANTAGONIST
Not much to say here, other than the fact that I thought Legato was a great antagonist. A non-existent character, that's for sure, but as an antagonistic force? Straight up chills. His presence was very much felt throughout the anime, and the way he challenged Vash by playing a sort of pseudo-Joker was something I very much enjoyed. He reminds me of Vicious in that regard, except I will argue that he's actually better than Vicious imo.

4) (SOME OF THE) CHARACTER DESIGN
Vash has the coolest design in all of anime. Or at least, he's up there with the best. I will not entertain any opposing points.

Wolfwood looks sick too, spotting a Spike Spiegel esque attire, with a very rugged and weathered look.

Legato is pretty over the top, but it fits his character perfectly.

5) SOUNDTRACK
A banger. Vash's theme is one of my favourite character themes of all time. There's a sense of melancholy and sorrow in its main motif, which fits Vash so much. Other soundtracks are good too.

I'm not the biggest fan of the OP, though I'm sure it's a source of nostalgia for old fans. It does set the mood quite well, I guess.

The ED on the other hand, is great. It's not something I would listen to as enjoyment or anything, but it certainly fits Trigun's world extremely well. Also seeing Vash goof off is always good fun, and the opening shot of the ED is some great wallpaper material.

6) (SOME OF THE) ART
Some of the emotional moments have just extremely good shots that oozes with so much emotion. The ones that come to mind are the climax of both the Diablo and the final encounter with Legato which name eludes me right now, and it does sort of show why 90s anime fans always say that old animation looks better than modern.

7) MESSAGE
The message of Trigun, at least from my interpretation of it, is the importance of a life. It's also a message about how to struggle on with life even if we might have make a mistake, and how to carry our sins onwards. I'm not gonna try and claim it's anything revolutionary; MANY anime have tackled such a message already, and even tackled it better. I do want to give brownie points to Trigun for actually testing Vash's ideals and not be too unrealistic with his ideals. I don't want to spoil, but there's a moment in the series where I think the writers made quite the bold choice to have Vash do something, well, not very nice, and it messes Vash up internally really badly. Seeing Vash carry on, acknowledging the sins he bears is nice to see. Also, Vash is just a genuinely good person. It's nice to see someone be good while also being morally grey. His nature is good, however he isn't a saint.

8) THE VOICE ACTING
It's decent for the most part, but Vash's voice actor is really good at being extremely silly yet tragic, a good range of acting

THE MEH:

1) THE FINAL ANTAGONIST
Not sure if this is a spoiler but I won't go into much detail if it is. The main antagonist, is fine. He's a fine villain. He isn't as chilling as Legato, but he's not entirely bad either. I think Legato just filled his role for too long for him to truly usurp Legato as the scary final boss of the series.

2) THE HUMOUR
It's quite funny at times, but let's be real, it's a very anime-style, slapstick kind of humour. If you don't like it, grit your teeth and bear with it, because it does become less frequent as the episodes go by.

3) THE EPISODIC NATURE
I've always had a somewhat mixed reaction towards episodic structure in anime for the most part, and Trigun is basically that. Some episodes/arcs are great in their episodic nature, feeling self contained and satisfying to watch in one sitting, while other episodes are just...whatever. It's good that the series shifts gears into a more serial structure once we reach the halfway point, since the episodic nature serves to introduce and get you to like Vash.

4) THE GUNG HO GUNS
Firstly, they have a really weird group name. Secondly, they're very gimmicky, almost like a roster for the knockoff Sinister Six or something. But they aren't that bad I guess, just that they're...alright.

5) THE ENDING
It's fine. It adheres to the themes and message of the story, but it's not the most satisfying. It's no Bebop episode 26, that's for sure.

THE BAD:
1) THE START
The start of Trigun kinda..sucks. You get hooked on the premise of a man with a 60 billion bounty and his misadventures, and you get a first episode of silliness and unappealingness. There's no hook or anything whatsoever. It might work as a kids cartoon's beginning, but for an anime airing on Adult Swim it was quite an unconvincing start. Luckily, it doesn't take like 12 episodes for it to get good, rather it takes like 4 episodes ish(?) but it doesn't change the fact that the start is not the best.

2) THE ANIMATION
There, I said it! Trigun's animation is not very good. Yes, some shots and scenes were done wonderfully, but those are the exceptions that prove the rule. For the most part, "action" revolves around bullets miraculously missing Vash, very cell-animated style fighting which is just still images moving, certain shots looking not very polished etc. It gets better as the series progresses, but it's still not good.

People will say that it's because of the 90s, but that's no excuse at all. Cowboy Bebop aired at the same time, and Bebop looks fucking amazing. Look at a Bebop fight and compare it with Trigun's; it's incomparable.

It's charming, I'll give you that, but cmon. It's not very good.

3) THE MINOR VILLAINS
Cartoon villains, that's what they are. Zero personality nor charm, just ugly brutes who get their asses kicked. Character designs look way too goofy as well.


TL;DR: A classic sci-fi with a superb protagonist, great soundtrack, good villains, alright pacing and not very good animation.

Here's hoping Studio Orange does Trigun justice!

Congrats, kaguya sama, for finally attaining the top spot of the top anime on MAL! now obviously it's gonna get bashed by fma fans before i can even finish typing this review, but nonetheless it's a moment that I wouldn't forget.

Which begs the question, does kaguya s3 deserve the title of "best anime of all time"? well, no it doesn't, but seriously speaking the same goes to most of the top ranked anime on this site. Anyways, what even qualifies as the best anime? It's ultimately all subjective, no?

I am someone who has put kaguya sama near and dear to his heart. It was ... the first non shonen thing I've ever experienced, and till this day it's still my favourite manga to reread every now and then, when things get too stressful, or I'm just burnt out of manga to read. The anime was my first experience with kaguya, and I loved it, but it was the manga that truly hooked me and made me a lifelong fan of this series. So I'm gonna be honest; this review is heavily biased, and is written by someone who finds the manga to be his preferred medium when revisiting this series.

I will be judging this based on its merits as an adaptation, and not from a perspective of an anime-only. Once the manga ends, I will sum up my full thoughts on this series with a review for the manga.

So, where shall we begin? For a great anime, I'd prefer to start by getting the negatives out of the way.

Ok, I wouldn't go so far as to call it the negatives, but rather the not-so-good. I genuinely have almost nothing to say, other than the fact that the kaguya anime does struggle a bit with the same plight any adaptation of a slice of life manga faces, and that is the accursed "P" word.

Pacing.

It's precisely the same reason why I dropped the Spy x Family anime, despite being quite a fan of its source material. The fact that I am revisiting the series requires at least some level of willpower to compel myself to watch it, what more revisiting a series that you already know what's going to happen but you're forced to watch things play out at a far slower and drawn out pace. And don't get me wrong, that's most of the time not the fault of the adaptation, it's just the reality that comes with adapting a manga. Pacing is especially crucial in a comedy series, since pacing is one of the key components of delivering a good punchline.

The Kaguya Sama anime has always done rather well in that regard, and Season 3 does not disappoint, however it's also not as snappy and, well, perfect as the manga's delivery often is, leaving jokes that used to have me chuckling now merely having me crack into a smile.

Yes, that is a nitpick. The kaguya sama anime still does make me smile, which is an incredible feat since comedy adaptations whose source material I've read before always leave me cold. It's not really the adaptation's fault, just the fact of the medium.

I will also say that reading through the manga is an absolute breeze, however watching the anime is a tad bit more tedious since you have to follow the events at the show's pace, something that manga as a medium always had an edge over anime on.

Also, one last nitpick. The big scene (you know what i'm referring to) does keep getting intercepted by other scenes during the climax, which while understandable is still a bit grating.

Yeah that's it. Other than that, season 3 blew it out of the water.

What a great adaptation. It might never be the manga in my heart, but as a fan I shed tears not once but twice, first during the rap episode and the second during the last. This is not an adaptation the people working on want to release just to get a quick buck, or an adaptation that aims to meet the bare minimum and deliver an unoffensive, albeit boring take on the source material. This is a work of passion and love. You could tell that the animators and directors working on this really went above and beyond with making this anime, it's honestly beautiful. Season 1 and 2 were incredible already, and season 3 somehow blew it out of the park. The absurd imagery that the Kaguya sama anime relishes in, also the defining trait of the anime out of the cesspool of slice of life shows, is perfected in this season. It is so bizarre yet hilariously overdone, that I can't help but have an idiotic grin plastered on my face despite seeing this joke done in the manga before. The animation is also plenty fluid, with no janky scenes standing out to me at least. The visual touches on the emotional moments are also wonderful, such as the redrawing of manga panels during the flashback episode, or the touching imagery during the final episodes driving home the characters' feelings towards each other. There are so many things that the animation did to enhance the experience of the manga, that just excited the inner fanboy out of me. Especially the rap episode, which I will talk about later.

The background music is decent. It hits all the right beats, and is quite catchy, but yeah definitely not a soundtrack I will religiously listen to.

The OP is not as catchy as Love Dramatic or DADDY DADDY DO!, both of which are some of the best romcom OPs of all time, but it's still quite the slapper. Also visually it's probably the best out of the three.

The ED is quite catchy, but let's be real here the animation is the best part. Sci-fi Kaguya-sama with characters reimagined as scifi characters, with an art style that is aesthetically pleasing. The other ED, My Nonfiction, is a certified banger, not because Shirogane is a good rapper but simply due to the fact that you can really hear him attempting his best, and it actually sounds decent. As a big Miyuki fan, that is very touching. And of course, the animation is sick af, though the character models do look pretty weird (especially Kaguya).

Lastly, the voice acting. Stellar as always. Aoi Koga is still in my mind by far the best in the series, and one of my favourite seiyuus in general, but everyone else's voice is amazing as well. I did enjoy Shirogane and Hayasaka's performance in the more emotional parts of the season, and the comedy parts are perfected by the voice actors by this point. However the real stage where Shirogane and Kaguya's seiyuus get to show what they're truly made off is next season, by far the most emotional season yet, and from the looks of this season's performance I have faith they'd kill it.

So, with all these elements, you get an amazing adaptation that adapts faithfully what the source material did while also pushing their limits to flex their creativity and talent in the animation department. It's so good, that I would honestly not have any issues with calling this the second best animated comedy I've seen, right after Nichijou of course.

The episode that truly embodies these elements is the rap episode. Now, the final episode is a close second, but in terms of adapting an arc in the kaguya sama manga this episode is the best. It's not even close. Fireworks? Sports Festival? Even cultural festival?

The rap episode was incredible. The manga's version was always hilarious to me because visualising how it'd actually be like with voices and movements was the most stupidly hilarious shit ever, so you could say that adapting it does take the fun from that. However, the animation more than makes up for it. This is a hundred times better than anything I visualised in my head. I remember back then people were discussing about how awesome it'd be if rap arc was adapted, and yes, it was as glorious as I'd hoped for. The rap itself, the visuals, the voice acting, and finally Shirogane saying "Blue ass" made everything worth it.

I guess I should talk about the last episode. Yeah, that was everything I wanted. The music was fitting, the flashbacks were extremely effective, the emotion from the seiyuus. I was literally tearing up watching the scene from my tiny screen of a phone while standing uncomfortably in a train cabin jam packed with people, trying not to be a public nuisance but probably failing miserably at that. It was everything I wanted.

I've seen the final episode a billion times with the manga, but it was my first seeing it animated. And that was such an indescribably awesome feeling. I could only imagine what it must be like for anime only fans to finally get to that episode.

I love Kaguya sama. And just like a mother who is fiercely protective of her child, I am extremely critical when viewing this adaptation. And suffice to say, it nailed it.

Is it the best anime I've watched? Nah. Am I happy that it's number 1 for now, and the fact that I have faith this season will be talked about for many years to come?

Fuck yes.

Cheers to Kaguya-sama season 4, and all of its potential sequels to come. This season might be epic, but I would argue the best has yet to come. I'll see you when season 4/ the movie drops, and until then, I'll be rereading the manga for the billion-and-oneth time.

Doraemon but a hella more dark, that's probably the perfect way to describe Takopii's Original Sin.

The manga revolves around a magical alien with special gadgets that lands on planet Earth, before meeting a young girl who is, well, let's just say she has a pretty rough life. It sounds eerily similar to that of Doraemon's premise, but it takes this concept and explores some really dark and depressing themes of suicide, bullying. inferiority complex and more.

The plot flows really well, considering the fact that it only has 16 chapters. However it doesn't drag the story out and waste time on pointless moments; its snappy, ... thrilling story makes every chapter feel poignant and emotional. It does feel rushed at the end, but it's not too big of an issue personally.

The characters are also extremely well rounded. No one is presented as truly evil, or truly good. Takopi, the alien, is initially just a happy go lucky, sickeningly naiive creature, however as the chapters roll it's increasingly clear that Takopi isn't good; he just doesn't have a concept of good or evil, at least in the human sense. Shizuka is also a well done character; instead of being framed as an object of pity so that readers will root for her, the author shows her as a very human character. That being a human that has feelings of jealousy, of hatred, and of revenge. Other characters of note that shine very brightly despite the short span of the manga include the boy character, whose name eludes me at the moment, and the bully character, who serves as a believable foil and parallel to Shizuka's character.

The themes are also explored well for a 16 chapter manga. Violence and bullying will only beget more suffering, and the endless cycle will go on and on. The effects it has on people, especially children, is made extremely clear with its main three human characters, and it serves as a cautionary tale for parents to never ever treat their children in such a way, even though it might be understandable for them to do so. The final chapter of the manga presents an answer to the endless cycle of violence, and it's such a simple yet effective answer that it ultimately shows that this manga isn't a manga that is meant to simply shock you and horrify you. It is not mere despair porn. This is a manga meant to say something, and personally I think it worked.

The art is also impressive. The facial expressions are very expressive, which works wonders on the more emotional scenes, and the mangaka's ability to convincingly draw both light hearted and cute scenes and the more dark and harrowing moments is also worth commending. Some of the double page spreads do look wonderful.

Overall, give this a read. Looking at the MAL score, it's clear that not everyone seemed to love it, but I definitely did.