I think a quote that speaks to me, my experience with anime and the internet in general is Shakespears famous verse in Hamlet: “Brevity is the soul of wits”, which basically means “don’t waste my time”. I like shows more that are shorter (from 10-26 episodes), I actually prefer movies (because they are shorter, more compact and normally have higher production value) and I try to write my reviews on point and not waste too much time. If you think I ever did babble on too much in one of my reviews, excusez-moi, that was not my intention.
Also: don’t take the tags in my anime list too seriously, I guess they are supposed to be a bit funny and since they are quite old they may not reflect the current view I hold.
I would say 50% subjectiv 50% objectiv, but ofc enjoyment plays a big factor into my rating as well, which means when the overall enjoyment of the show is very low I will give the show a very bad score, even though I might find some of the shows aspect to be nice.
Subjective things are: setting, artstyle, soundtrack, character likeability, story etc
Objectiv things are: Plotholes (contradictions), originality (or if something is cliché), convinience of storytelling, realism and logic of story and characters; so overall efford made in writing the story plus efford in the arstyle and soundtrack.
Though subjective and objective goes hand in hand. I mean, score itself is about preferences, so it is by all means subjective, but people tend to judge things better with certain measurable quailities. Can you call these qualities objectively good or is it just the subjective agreement of the majority? But then again, isnt our subjective opinion formed by our life experiences so determined objectively by our suroundings? So maybe everyones opinion is objective and there is no subjective opinion? As you can see defining these kinds of things is quite tricky and very open to ones own interpretation. Thats why setting a fixed set of rules for judging a show seems quite naive for me. The way i think it, I try to judge shows in a way that i like objective efford more than lazyness, in all aspects of a show, which would probably be the reasonable approach, or do you disagree?
the scores:
1-4.... shit
5.... already kinda recommended
everything above 5 has at least something to it
Nowadays I try to model my ratings after a bell curve which is basically the ideal rating system. However, some of my ratings are a bit old and I dont feel like going over everything. Normally with a rating system from 1-10 a 5.5 as a mean score would be ideal, but I also drop a lot of shows and then rate them which screws my rating system a litte. And I also think it would be a little unfair to rerate all my shows without watching them again.
I like anime a lot more that try to focus (or include) certain philosophical questions. Very good examples for that would be "Casshern Sins" and the first "Ghost in the Shell" movie. A deeper message inside a story is something i would recommend ANY storyteller since it makes the audience care about the story more, especially when they can connect to the idea.
A second thing i really like to see in anime is the psychological aspect of characters. A very good example for this is Evangelium with Shinji and Ping Pong the animation (where they even added some very well done character development). All this makes the character way more likeable. When they show weaknesses, regrets, motivation, emotions.. all this makes them more realistic and more relatable to me. The exact oposite are the most character used in the shonen genre or the slice of life genre, which mostly consist of clichees. The thing that mostly botheres me about them is the fact that characters in those shows (and in most anime in general) dont feel like real people, or people who would act if they were in the situation they are. That is the main reason why I drop anime so fast, because they are often alienating me.
I appretiate music and artstyle a lot, but good music and good arstyle is very rare. High quality is especially rare in anime. The anime with one of the best artstyle there is, is for example Redline, with incredible detailed background and characterdesign (everything is very well drawn anyways) and very fluid animation. Redline is also a good example for action movie without much deeper meaning which i can enjoy as well. That is also connected to the music it plays. Why i think the music and soundtrack are very important is a lot written in my blog (there are also many interesting things what i think about certain things written)
So thats basically it, if anything is unclear, just ask. :)
If you are interested in good anime soundtrack (or moviesoundtrack) i can recommand you many more. And if you have any soundtracks (if movie or tv-series, anime, or whatever) you like feel free to recommand it to me, im gonna listen to it. :)
Thoughts about some of my recently finished/ dropped /rewatched anime:
REWATCH Mushishi, Score: 10/10
The rewatch made me realize how good this show is. Its a episodic show with each episode being a different topic, but each and everyone of them was interesting. Some of them very tragic and thought provoking. Its very hard to pick a favourite episode, but I like the tragic ones more. Like the one where the woman used the white bamboo to give birth to a baby which is then half human and half mushi might be one of my favourite, or the one where the man on the beach cant let go of his wife who was lost in the fog. Or the one where the woman who was blind started to see the future and past and wished she was blind again. All just so good. For the second time I watched the english dub and I like Ginkos voice a lot more... he is too emotionless in japanese. I also rewrote my review about it which I made 10 years ago... so read that if you want to know more
Regarding season 2. Part 1 was not as good as S1 since most of the episode didnt have the same level of tragedy and impact for me. S2 part 2 on the other hand had some real banger episodes. The one with the time loop, the one with the shadows swaping people, the one where the boy turns into water, the thunder boy episode and the last one with the big tree are all really good.
REWATCH Samurai Champloo, Score: 8/10
Opinion didnt change too much. Still like it. It is mostly goofy but has some nice emotional moments. I think I started to dislike Mugen and Fu more. Only Jin is a really likeable character to the 3.
FINISHED Yuru Camp, Score: 8/10
Very nice and realxing anime about camping. Really makes you want to go camping, especally around Mt Fuji. Its quite realistic and wants to teach a lot. The characters are all likeable. ED song was very nice (especially the one of season 2).
The movie I didnt like too much. It didnt focus so much on camping and more about building and it had situations in which threads and stakes were introduced... really dont need that in my laid back relaxing anime.
FINISHED Sousou no Frieren , Score: 8/10
Nice fantasy anime, the beginning was probably the best part. There were some annoyances already, like the constant belittleing of Heiter by Frieren, but overall the start felt refreshing. It added more and more action, which was a bit unecessary and it was obviously just done to make the show more appealing to a younger, shounen liking fanbase. The mage arc at the end took the cake with how much mindless action it put into the show, but at least it ended on a good note. Characterwise I like Frieren. Fern was ok at the start but became more and more annoying.. especially her interaction with Stark are the worst parts of the show (its like a highschool rom/com... and not the good kind). From the original party I only dislike Himmel, he just felt like the typical shounen protagonist and not very interesting.
The german names are very weird (and also funny) to say the least. Hearing names like Denken, Laufen, Übel and Lernen is just so unfitting for a show to be taken serious, but the show had lots of comedy so it just made it more light hearted.
FINISHED The Apothecary Diaries , Score: 7/10
Felt unique and interesting, especially Maomaos character. Maybe a bit repetative and its also kinda weird how Maomao is so much smarter than everyone else. So i cant take it too serious, but for a light hearted relaxing experience it was nice.
REWATCH The vision of Escaflowne , Score: 10/10
Basically the epidomy of fantasy and its an isekai too.. lets you think about how much this genre has been dragged into gutter with all the garbage videogame shit. That a masterpiece like Escaflowne has a mean score of 7.67 while the human waste that is Re:Zero is above 8 is the best prove that democracy doesnt work and most people are just mindless sheep consuming trash without the slightest hint of critiqual thinking. Its a shame.
To watch Escaflowne was very refreshing.. you have actually believeable character for a change, a well thought through world, good romance (very rare for anime), interesting villains and villain-main character dynamics and one of the best OSTs in anime making every emotional scene that much more gripping and the action scenes that much more exciting. My favourite part is probably when Duke Freid died and he remembered his dying wifes last word... hits very hard. The part when Van kills all of Dilandaus men was also very nice (first time the song "Eclipse" was played). I have to say though that I usually watch the german dub, because it is by far superior to the japanese (the english is an insult, with hitomis voice actress being an emotionless brick).. I made a blog about the difference between the japanese and german dub and why the german one is better.
FINISHED Mushoko Tensei , Score: 6/10
Nice isekai anime, like the worldbuilding and the progression. The MC being a pathetic loser reincarnated is a little weird and wishfullfillment. The fanservice and sex references were a bit much as well. Part 2 had some nice episodes (like the Roxy visiting her home town) but also some stinkers. Season 2 was not so good, the whole a acadamy arc is like a highschool romance and the MC gets more stupid by the episode.
FINISHED Sakamoto , Score: 6/10
Over the top comedy anime with some nice moments. A bit repetitive maybe but overall a nice watch.
FINISHED Yurikuma Arashi , Score: 3/10
I remember starting it back when it came out in 2015 but never makeing it past ep.3, because the story is weird as hell and the fan service is borderline softporn. Finished it now with 2x speed and was exactly that: weird shit happening with lesbian soft porn sprinkled in. Artstyle is nice though, especially some of the industrial background shots.
FINISHED Re:Zero , Score: 2/10
One of the most unlikeable main characters, he is both pathetic and arrogant at the same time. The show is basically a harem with him as the center and like 90% of all scenes have him in it with dialog. It has a bunch of cute waifu characters though. Got one for every taste. And the action somewhat distracts from these god aweful characters. Maybe I missed the part where this whole show is suppost to be a comedy, with the dimwitted jackass surrounded by a bunch of cute waifus, a little bit like Konosuba. But unlike Konosuba there are no jokes in Re:Zero and Konosubas MC is at least somewhat capable. At least you see the MC of Re:Zero die a lot and scream in aggony, that part was nice.
FINISHED Baki 2018 , Score: 4/10
Pretty much an unintended comedy. Everything is so stupid and over the top that is somewhat funny again, but other than that its quite repetative and drags out too long. A positive side note it is unpredictability and leaving the typical shounen formular of the MC beating the bad guy.. but I guess only for this season, not sure about the rest
FINISHED Spy X Family Season 2 , Score: 6/10
A bit better than season 1, especially the cruise ship part was nice. Basically evertime the focus is on Yor its nice, and everytime the focus is on the school its boring. Yor is just the most funny and interesting character. Anja also sometimes has her moments.
FINISHED Kaguya sama: Love Is war Season 1 , Score: 9/10
Hilarious comedy anime. The dynamic between Kaguya and Miyuki is unrivalled, especially their imaginations of each other are priceless. Kaguya with her inner monologues is one of the best characters I have ever seen, but Miyuki comes right after her. But Kaguyas evil stare is just so funny. The side casts are also quite nice, especially Ishigami was great in that season. Personally I prefer the English dub, because they added a ton of new really good jokes and almost all deliveries of the jokes are better, but the Japanese dub also has its moments, especially Kaguyas cuter moments are maybe nicer in Japanese, while her more evil moments are definitely better in English. Fujiwara was probably the only part I didnt fully like about S1. She has her good moments and servers her purpose of being the setup to a joke (especially the boob jokes) but the moments focusing on her are rather uninteresting and unfunny (like the ramen part in episode 11 was a bit cringy).
FINISHED Kaguya sama Love is war Season 2, Score: 7/10
Not as good as season 1. The newly introduced side character Miko IIno is neither interesting nor funny. Ishigami became more and more bland and the focus on Hayasaka was also unnecessary (if she was just an unimportant side kick to Kaguya as in S1 it would have been way better). The only really good part was more of Miyukis father (who is even better than in season 1) and the shoujo episode. It overall became less comedic and more romantic, especially Kaguya lost a bit of her edge and became more of a romantic in this season. I know its supposed to be her character development to become more normal, but as a character she is very interesting unique and funny in S1, making her more of a normal romantic lessens her as a character.
FINISHED Kaguya sama Love is war season 3, Score: 6/10
It became even more bland than season 1 and 2. Focused more about romance, less about comedy, and it’s a pretty generic kind of romance. The ending was pretty drawn out and could be a lot faster
REWATCHED Another, new Score: 6/10
Found the mystery build up nice. All the puppet shots were a bit annoying, also the beach episode was a bit unnecessary and so was the dance scene, so it sometimes ruined the atmosphere it build up. Maybe I wasn’t in the mood for horror since I watched a lot of comedies recently, but couldn’t really get into it anymore. I remember liking this show a lot back when it came out but now it was a bit of a let-down.
FINISHED Liz and the blue bird, Score: 2/10
One of the most boring movies I have ever seen. I am not sure if you are required to watch Hibike euphonium before that, because the movie didn’t make any effort of making the characters interesting or likeable.
FINISHED Spy x Family, Score: 5/10
The show is ok. I actually have not that much to say about it and I think most of the conversations online revolve around that Anja is so cute. I found her ok cute, Yor was probably cuter. Since there are a lot of comedy elements in the show with character being batshit stupid, and the whole premise being so silly its hard to see it anything but a comedy, but for that they included too little funny elements in my opinion.
FINISHED Konosuba, Score: 6/10
Nice comedy, gets better the further it goes. A bit too much fanservice maybe. Season 2 was a bit better with the hotspring town and the crazy aqua followers.
DROPPED (after 6 ep) Nichijou, Score: 1/10
The show tried so hard to be funny that it made it so unfunny. I think I didn’t even giggle a single time I watched the first 6 episodes. It deserves a 1 even though the artstyle is nice, because it fails so hard in its main objective, being a comedy. This is the most unfunny thing I have seen in a long time. The thing is I am watching a lot of comedies recently, so I cannot give it the excuse that I am not in the mood for comedy.
REWATCHED In this corner of the world, new score: 10/10
Wrote a review about it now, also a discussion entry with my new thoughts about this movie
REWATCHED Koe no Katachi, new Score: 5/10
Them including suicide twice felt a bit overdone and creativly bankrupt. If it at least had some lasting consequences from the fall, but no .... Ending was pretty unfullfilling as well since they didnt get together and it only revolved around him now "being able to look people in the eyes"... i dont know but he was doing that with his 5-6 friends for the largest part of the movie anyways. I dont get what people see in this movie.
FINISHED My happy marriage, Score 3/10
This is so bland my face melts when I watched it. Every character is so zero-dimensional, they create a time rift. The main character constantly feels sorry for herself, the evil sister and step mothers only existence revolves around hating her out of jealousy. The only conversation topic they have is how much they hate the MC… I mean wtf? Even Cinderella made they it more believable (probably, cant remember).
FINISHED Wotaku, Score: 4/10
Its nice and all (especially since its not a high school comedy), but since it only revolves around otaku culture and doesn’t develop the characters all too much it became a bit boring towards the end (and it only has 10 episodes)… it only as like 4 real characters anyways, so it doesn’t go anywhere.
FINISHED The 100 Girlfriends who really love you, Score: 3/10
Beginning was a little funny, but it became a bit repetitive and boring from the middle. There was not much thought put into the comedy and they just resulted into a ton of ecchi jokes and clichees.
FINISHED Non non biyori Season 3, Score: 7/10
Pretty similar to S1 and S2, just with improved visuals. I like the first two episodes the most with the frog moment with Renge and in episode two the train moment of Hotaru.
FINISHED Pluto, Score: 7/10
Nice. Monster is better. The whole connection to astroboy I didnt like.
I dont accept random friend request without stating any reason. If you think we have similar taste, or like my reviews feel free to send me a friend request, with the reason attached to it.
One rule for my comment section: If your comment takes too much space (by being too long or by attached pics or videos), put a spoiler button over it to make the comment shorter. If you do not follow this rule and I find your comment to be redundant I will delete it without warning. Also if your comment is basically just an insult or only consists of nonsensical arguments I will most likely ignore it and not respond, but I guess many of you guys dont really expect a reply from me anyways :)
2nd gig was kind of tho, It wasn't as bad as lotgh or Ergo Proxy but it was still about filled with philosophical stuffs,Well Innocence was a chore to watch it was so pretentious. I only care about a good story, I don't want philosophy classes, I just want to enjoy, 2nd gig was still pretty enjoyable but it still wasn't able to top SAC s1 for me
Hey. It has been a long time. I've been okay. Keeping busy, having fun when I can, relaxing when needed. How are things on your side?
Sure, if you'd like to talk about it, I'll be happy to read. I know it's one of your favourites and that motivated me to watch it in the first place.
Attack on Titan was disappointing, in short. I did have more to say when I watched it but I've more or less become exhausted with the series. It's one thing to have a bad ending but it's a whole other level of bad to also have the ending retroactively taint the series. At least watching it was fun. I watched it with my cousin and his three friends, one was a big fan who even cried at the ending.
I enjoyed Frieren, but not to the point of revitalizing my interest in following anime. I thought it was mostly decent. Endearing at times and corny at other times, but never embarrassing like certain anime that try to do sentimentality. I have no idea where the super high score comes from, especially being at number one here. I don't see it coming down from that spot in a long time though. I would give it a 7 if I had to rate it. I see you gave it an 8. Maybe there's a bias because it uses German words? Lol. Let me know what you thought of it
You claim "Re:Zero" is a harem; thus, name three characters who are in love with Subaru. Only those who don't understand the series would make such misguided assumptions. For example, some say Echidna loves Subaru even though she tried to manipulate him and has a different concept of love.
Thinking what this guy did is Elitism just shows you don't know what the word means. If I critique the Mona Lisa, list a bunch of things wrong with it, state no real reasons why, blatantly incorrect statements, and have almost no real knowledge or analysis of the Art or its artist, I'm not elitist, I'm a fool. You're probably calling him an Elitist over his absurd grading curve but this sort of "Elitism" loses credibility when your statements are empty and nonsensical.
Mononoke requires a deeper understanding of Japanese cultural nuances than most anime ask for, so I doubt you'll like it later on if the beginning doesn't excite you. It's not the type of show to teach you along the way. It's worth trying out just because the 'unique' look it has. Didn't care for Carole and Tuesday.
I'm looking forward to some shows next season so I doubt I'll start 12 Kingdoms soon. It is on my watchlist though. I read recently Escaflowne was supposed to be 39 episodes but was cut to only 26. Do you feel that the show had a faster pace in the second half? I don't remember it so well.
The early movies benefitted from the characters being children so it was fun watching them discover things about their new school. The older the characters became, the more boring and serious everything became. There was too much focus on spectacle later on. My memories hazy on the movies but that's how I remember them. The third one had a distinct atmosphere to it that the other movies lacked and had an edgy aesthetic everyone liked at the time.
Random sparks of interest are great. It's just difficult to balance work and other personal life matters with sitting for hours at a time watching or playing something. That's what happened when I played God of War. On the first day I got calls about asking how to do something in the office. Next day was similar. Third day I ended up working from home. Such is life...
All Comments (754) Comments
Sure, if you'd like to talk about it, I'll be happy to read. I know it's one of your favourites and that motivated me to watch it in the first place.
Attack on Titan was disappointing, in short. I did have more to say when I watched it but I've more or less become exhausted with the series. It's one thing to have a bad ending but it's a whole other level of bad to also have the ending retroactively taint the series. At least watching it was fun. I watched it with my cousin and his three friends, one was a big fan who even cried at the ending.
I enjoyed Frieren, but not to the point of revitalizing my interest in following anime. I thought it was mostly decent. Endearing at times and corny at other times, but never embarrassing like certain anime that try to do sentimentality. I have no idea where the super high score comes from, especially being at number one here. I don't see it coming down from that spot in a long time though. I would give it a 7 if I had to rate it. I see you gave it an 8. Maybe there's a bias because it uses German words? Lol. Let me know what you thought of it
Sorry for the late response, by the way.
Also fix your anime list, it's very ugly to view like your existence.
Nice taste
I'm looking forward to some shows next season so I doubt I'll start 12 Kingdoms soon. It is on my watchlist though. I read recently Escaflowne was supposed to be 39 episodes but was cut to only 26. Do you feel that the show had a faster pace in the second half? I don't remember it so well.
The early movies benefitted from the characters being children so it was fun watching them discover things about their new school. The older the characters became, the more boring and serious everything became. There was too much focus on spectacle later on. My memories hazy on the movies but that's how I remember them. The third one had a distinct atmosphere to it that the other movies lacked and had an edgy aesthetic everyone liked at the time.
Random sparks of interest are great. It's just difficult to balance work and other personal life matters with sitting for hours at a time watching or playing something. That's what happened when I played God of War. On the first day I got calls about asking how to do something in the office. Next day was similar. Third day I ended up working from home. Such is life...