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Ah, the long awaited 2nd season of Link Click, which has divided a lot of fans because the mostly happy vibe the 1st season had... has been replaced by angst, sadness and one tragedy after the other. The execution is up to debate, but this shift was very big.

The story starts right after last episode ended and it honestly... never lets up. The focus is only on the mystery killer, so there's no "case of the week" but a continuous effort to find them and put an end to it. Every episode is intense on its own way from touching sensitive topics such as abuse ... to seeing likable characters meeting their demise, which at the moment you get sucked into the events, but after thinking about it, a lot of events seem very convenient and driven by final goal of creating more angst.

This season manages to be fast-paced, but at the same time slow. You reach towards the last few episodes and realize that things could have gone way faster instead of just dragging the heavy atmosphere endlessly. However, the story keeps rewarding your patience with enough tidbits of information, more lore and heavenly choreographed and animated action. It cannot be just me that loves watching them all fight. It raised the question for me as to how everyone is basically a master of martial arts, but getting all this eyecandy makes it enough to not dig too deep into that.

You get to see new characters and basically the story revolves around the people you see on the poster only. There are enough twists to make you rethink scenes and events and there is so much sadness in backstories, that you will need tissues. They make it work well with interconnecting almost everything; there might be an insignificant detail and 2 episodes later you go "Ahhh, now it all makes sense" and even by the end of the series, you'll get hit with more twists, cliffhangers and details. So, of course we will be getting a season 3!

The characters... well, they are mostly bleak. Almost every episode feels like time is running out and there is more angst by the second that you don't get to smile a lot. Gone are the happy people from season 1. This is all about testing their boundaries and their thinking skills, which is my main problem. The main trio will either be overly smart or overly stupid. Depends on what the plot demands and it gets frustrating to see them going from one extreme end to the other just for more drama. We also have our old and new villains and their motive is explained pretty thoroughly (and naively). It is most interesting how warped a character can get due to circumstances or your own mind. All I can say is that this season really gut-punches you with every character.

Visual/Sound-wise, this series is a gem. OP/ED are tracks that you will keep listening on repeat and visually, it brings its best self. I already mentioned the beautifully choreographed fight scenes, which need to be the most detailed, however the series pays attention to everything and gives a flair when it tries to convey metaphorical messages. It is honestly surprisingly how well it kept up the quality (at least to my eyes!).

If it wasn't made clear enough, this season is out to get you. Sometimes it might be too much, but for the most part it worked well. My fear is how convoluted the plot will get if it keeps spiraling with more super powers and time traveling and all that, but as a whole, it was a very good experience.

Dance Dance Danseur is a mixture of overdone stereotypes and fresh details, so it can make you both feel frustrated and eager to see what happens next. The art and sound are mesmerising, but the characters tend to be annoying at important scenes, because adults are missing and middle school kids act like adults.

The premise itself is an interesting one as works about ballet are not many and the artistic part of this is stunning throughout the series. I think many expected or waited to see when the quality would drop, but it really stood its ground and gave a lot of detail in the ... dancing scenes and generally when things were intense. Albeit having no knowledge of ballet, the choreography and direction made me swallow any kind of complaints I had and I watched until the end. There is something magical watching Ruou acting as villainous Rothbart and Junpei as a naive prince. You really cannot take your eyes off of them. The only thing I did not like in the art department was the eyes. THOSE EYES. I needed at least 2 episodes to stop looking at them because of that line in the middle. That design just put me off, but I got used to it.

Story-wise, it is mainly an underdog story and that is where the overdone stereotypes start. It has some very nice parts of exploring your individuality, especially at this young age and coming to terms not only with what you want, but how you fit in the society. There is bravery in able to stand on your own 2 feet and follow the path that makes you happy, despite the misconceptions. But then, it also has the part in which our underdog, Junpei, has to have hidden talent and can shine from almost day 1. Of course, he also gets to be in the same place and level as other dancers who have spent YEARS on training, but he is good so we can forgive that, can't we? *rolls eyes* I will admit though, that his joy in what he is doing does make me want to cheer him on.

Then, there is the part with Ruou and Miyako. At this tender age of teenhood, hormones are rampant for all of them. Liking someone while finding yourself is not easy and it is not depicted as easy. It is realistic, with the second-hand embarrassment being strong and generally being "kids". Yet... Ruou does not act like a kid. Of course, we also needed the stereotype of a character with a traumatic past and while, it is well done for the most part, I can't help thinking... where did all the responsible adults go? You have a kid that is holed up in a room and you try to get through to him by bringing another innocent soul in this to challenge him. Yes, I know it is an anime and all, but it reached a point where those kids act like they were adults and I do not want to spoil, but their behavior just hit a nerve. Get the kid in therapy for his issues and do not expect that only dancing will somehow make him a functional human, while sacrificing others like they are just pawns.

Would you enjoy it? Yes is my answer. If nothing else, the dancing parts will hook you on with how well made they often are, while the story can sometimes surprise you despite its flaws.

"Do Whatever You Want" is a refreshing story because it really does whatever it wants. There is nothing truly predictable in this, because in a sense it does not really have a beginning, middle or an end. Then again, most slice of life stories do not have some specific goal, but this does not follow a path; characters you assumed would play an important role don't, though they remain a constant throughout everything; relationships you were sure would happen don't and instead you get a much more solid and natural development among characters; plot points that were obvious would happen never did, which led to ... a different kind of development.

It is a surprising read, because you can never be too sure where it will lead you next and the characters are also surprisingly interesting. That being said, the cliches are there one way or another, but the takes the creator decided on bring balanced results. The only true problem would be time gaps, which means that sometimes something important was happening but we do not see it, we only hear about it from the characters, usually days later and creating question marks above our heads.

The art is not everyone's cup of tea, I believe as sometimes the anatomy can be wonky and characters have really long limbs, etc, but most characters are distinguishable and rather pretty to watch. The backgrounds are generic without much detail. Nevertheless, a fun read for anyone into school drama.

What a refreshing revenge story. You expect it to go down the cliché tropes of things turning out for the best at the last moment and everyone gets their own happy ending, alas…

Once I started reading this, I thought this was meant to be a comedy with a story, because the first season is riddled with misunderstandings that could rival a soap opera. They all have the same source, more or less, with the main 3 characters not knowing the true identity of the other characters and thus, missing important details. It honestly gets hilarious the more you read the first season despite the more ... serious background of usurping and reclaiming the throne. So, it is natural to expect that the rest of the story will follow the same path and then a solution will appear to everything, everyone laughs, maybe there is a loss here and there, but there is a happy-ever-after.

Yet the story never came down that predictable road as it made those silly misunderstandings into real problems and situations that the characters could no longer escape from and it is a bit astounding that it managed to keep up with it. The main triangle of characters consists of the fallen prince who wants to avenge his family, the childhood friend that treasures a past memory and sticks to the third character, the emperor, who is irresponsible with many childhood issues. The balance among them is so fragile, but none of the 3 really understands it until it becomes too late. How far can you follow your goal while ignoring your heart?

The supporting cast brings the entire kingdom to life and it truly becomes a war behind the scenes with politics becoming a very important facet of the story. The creator had said that due to length, she had to cut down some characters and I assume that meant the focus on existing characters, which in the end turned out for the better, because the subtle history of some characters were enough to give flavor to the story and make it more whole. You do need to explore everything at the same amount to have a good story.

Then comes another surprise as the ending provided a double unexpected twist, which covered some holes in the story that weren’t important enough to truly think they were on purpose. However, it only meant that thought was given to details that were half-hidden to not raise any suspicion.

Art-wise, the webtoon is fully coloured, yet the design is both simple and detailed enough. Almost every character is distinct with different expressions and details, yet somehow the general look lacks detail. The backgrounds are surely simple, it almost feels like everything fades away in a sense, probably because the colors most of the time are not so vibrant, but it is still pretty pleasing to the eye.

All in all, a very surprising historical drama that managed to escape the usual mold and albeit a few convenient flaws, it provided a solid story with some very tragic characters that do not always get a happy end but a satisfying one.

A quick review for a fast manga! I want to preface this by saying that I really wanted to like the manga and expected I would, because it seemed right up my alley. Sorely mistaken for the most part, albeit easy to read (with some eye rolling).

The setting itself is not a unique idea, but it was still interesting to find out about the mystery of a group of friends being thrown 10 years into the past, but ultimately, it is not handled properly. We are given false hints by purposefully hiding important information, because the key answer to everything was obvious but it just ... did not fit without the manga finally revealing the events. From that moment on, it starts spiraling out of control, which is understandable to some extent, because humans make mistakes and stacking them all together makes a mess. But that is the thing with this manga, the mistakes and lies those children did and said were not really even that important and while the actions of a certain individual are comparable to the story, the rest are really too much.

Unfortunately, the characters were not the saving grace either. They start off normally, but most of them start acting so… nonsensically, to put it kindly. For some crazy reason (which is not that crazy I suppose, since this is a shoujo), EVERYTHING must revolve around romance. EVERYTHING. Which in turn makes everyone act like an imbecile with the main female being the most cliché archetype of goody-two-shoes, who everyone wants and she just can’t hurt anyone, but she’s always oh-so-helpful, etc. The main trio of protagonists were kind of barf-inducing after a while. The rest is… interesting, to say the least.

All in all, I find the concept cool, but the main characters just destroyed any potential it had and it tried too much to be this soul-cleansing work with ill-timed comedy. The art is good, above average, but nothing memorable, just like everyone else. Just don’t expect anything good and it’ll be a breeze to read.

Ever felt something was plagued by problems, but could not help enjoying it either way? That is exactly the case with “The Children's Teacher, Mr. Kwon”, hence my high score. It manages to capture your heart and make you turn a blind eye to the abruptness of events.

Seemingly, the story seems as a slice of life about a gangster who somehow managed to become a teacher at a remote school with 5 kids of different ages. You would expect various adventures with the kids and how they slowly bond with Kwon, but in reality there are not that many of those moments. There are some ... chapters and generally comedic panels, where the kids just do normal, silly stuff, but the heart of the manga lies in the backstory of each child (and Kwon) and that is where the problems begin. Almost at the very start of the webtoon, it gets into a serious problem where one of the children gets abused at home and the teacher is the one to save the very dire situation, as if the story was waiting for him to get the ball rolling. Very abruptly, the children always find themselves in situations they need to be rescued one way or another and Kwon just does that, which feels a bit disappointing. Towards the last 1/3 of it, the coincidences seem to pile up even more, which can make you wonder.

Having said that, the children are adorable and Kwon, as well, which make such problems seem a bit inconsequential. Even with the normal slice of life scenes being mostly the minority in the grand scale of things, it sets firmly the bonds among the characters and establishes their personalities and way of thinking without force. Albeit the story being riddled with “fated” events, you cannot help feeling for Kwon and his endless trouble as he is between vengeance and a new life, as well as the kids who face pretty amazing things for their age and have to mature. The characters keep their good points throughout the work and you get attached to them easily. The drama is good, but it is difficult to fail when your main cast mostly consists of children, since children are innocent and Kwon, their protector, does everything in his power to help them, while figuring his life out.

Bonus kudos to one of the children who had the least interaction with Kwon (because there was no need to) and managed to solve the arisen problems on their own or with help of another child. Amidst the several adult problems, it was nice to see a child getting through somewhere with only their own power. Extra bonus to the doggo!

If it is not apparent, I thoroughly enjoyed the plot and I believe this would have been even better if the things did not dive in right away with serious problems. Not everyone needed to have something that difficult to work on, but I digress. Finally, the art was not spectacular, it is pretty simple and maybe a bit crude with the lines, but you get used to the design easily and while still a bit amateur-ish, it fits the kids to a T. I generally have no problems when it comes to art and so, no problem with this one either.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

Now, that is a solid advice and one that applies 100% on this case. Stumbling upon this work, I did not expect much especially because the premise of a teenage girl getting married is always silly, but the art seemed cute on the cover, the score was positive and there was happy feedback. So, I thought that it being 3 volumes long, how wrong could it go?

Oh, woe is me! OH, WOE IS ME! We all know that we must give up some part of our common sense sometimes when it comes to fictional stories like these, such as ... living alone when underage or how conveniently everything happens when the story demands it, etc., but it comes to a point that you have to ask yourself: “How much is enough?” This manga just has a bottomless pit of illogical stories and even though you might think the cuteness will save it, it just gets exasperating from the first few chapters.

First of all, the story starts with our 16yo main heroine becoming an orphan and her friends somehow assume that she will live alone now even though she is underage and the main girl agrees. And then, she actually gets shocked when she is told that she would have to leave, because she has no money to pay the rent. I mean, how on earth is that possible? So, she does the next logical thing and decides to live with her 18yo landlord as a trial period to see if she would marry him, which in the end she agrees to no one’s surprise. Normal teenage things, amirite? How did she do anything when she had no legal guardian? Oh yeah, somehow he becomes her guardian even though they have no relation.

The story continues with a multitude of stupid stories like that (with only a few actual cute scenes) trying to force cute elements with her coping in her unrequited love and him apparently being devoid of any social experience and missing all his cues. Her parents died weeks ago and there was no mourning even, she only thinks of how she will make her husband happy. Which is hard, I agree, because for the 2.5 months that they had been living together (~1 month trial period and 1.5 being married), she had not even realized she was using his only futon and he was sleeping on a chair all this while. 2.5 months! But oh no, it is cute because now they will have to share the only and only futon! /rolling eyes

There is not much else to say about the characters, because the story does them no justice. They are both as cliché as it gets and actually they are even worse than cookie-cutter characters, because their interactions sometimes are so randomly cringe-y and unnatural and they totally do not behave as teenagers. There are some secondary characters who are as interesting as watching wet paint dry, so there is not much need to mention them. There is not any remote relatability.

The art which seemed cute at first, was indeed cute for the most part of the manga. It was not really detailed, but the rounded edges in everything and the often chibi versions and reactions were pleasing to the eye. All that changed in the last 2 chapters when it felt as if I was reading an old gag manga, with some deformed expressions and such. Thankfully, it was not like that throughout the entire 2 chapters, but it was enough to just let me down even more.

There is really nothing else to say about it. I am mostly just shocked I got tricked that it would be a pleasant enough experience and I got this! I do not even know anymore who the target demographic was or how old the mangaka was to write this seemingly fanfiction for kids. I can at least say that this was an easy read.

After the first series aired with its numerous problems, not many of us had any expectations for the continuation. Rough work on the pacing, narration and execution was detrimental to the final work. However, CloverWorks worked on some of the core problems the prequel had and it brought forth a much acceptable result.

The theme of the anime remains pretty much the same with Phoenix (Naruhodo) going through a few cases, but this time there is much more attention to the pacing, leaving enough time for a case to unfold in a more natural way than rush through everything. There were 23 episodes to animate only ... 1 game, which meant there was plenty of time for everything and indeed, they gave the final case the space it needed which made the series shine in the end with some great moments and a most well done climax, unlike the prequel.

Of course, this does not make everything great, as things still may be fast and there are various fillers that are just really boring (albeit some being on point!), but the changes have been welcome and it makes the experience much better for people who may have not played the games. It is still pretty far away from a perfect narration of a mystery (but that is not really the anime’s fault), but combined with the intricate story the 3rd game has, which involves our main characters deeply and has a span of many years, and the better storytelling, we have a series we can at least be happy about this time.

Character-wise, there is not much change other than the inclusion of Godot, who is by far the best character in the franchise, and Dahlia (Chinami), who is surprisingly very good at what she does. The downside of the characters is that the franchise itself is peculiar in ways that just do not make sense with characters acting so unnaturally sometimes, ignoring the obvious thing or somehow making the most absurd (yet right) assumptions, etc, so this happens in this series as well. It all comes down to how much you can like them and ignore such things, but of course it is not a good thing either way. Thankfully, there is a touching story involving a lot of characters this time and the more we learn, the better it gets.

Unfortunately, the art and animation have a lot of problems to the point that even in some close-up stills, the anatomy is pretty terrible which is astounding. I still consider it an upgrade though, because the opening/ending sequences were much better this time around and with better songs and I found myself rewinding to check some specific scenes created solely for the OP/ED. But that is all the positive feedback I can give to it, since the animation seems very simple most of the time and I was not a fan of some of the special effects used. However, they really tried bringing to life some of the game’s animations, which was welcome. Sound-wise, there was nothing impressive, but the voice actors were good (especially Godot, even though I didn’t like Hiroaki Hirata as a choice at first) and the OST is decent, with the 2nd OP being a weakness of mine.

Summing up, this is still not a great anime, but CloverWorks fixed to a big extent the problems that were there before and offered us an enjoyable watch, at least. If you are a fan of the game, you should definitely watch this. And if you are not, this deserves a chance someday!

I jumped into this with very low expectations, but it turned out to be a big surprise. It seems to have been influenced by Japanese works of that time and it delivers a basic, yet interesting fantasy story.

My experience with manga of that era (around ‘80s-‘90s) has been mostly with narratives about space and various adventures of that sort with some direct storytelling, accompanied by stereotypical of that time art. Dai Zhan Tian Shi follows that direction to a T having an Earth with humans, which is protected by an angel, while there is also another race with supernatural powers that looks like humanity.

The tale ... is divided into two timelines, the one in current time and the one in the past, yet the past works more as a flashback to fill in the blanks and it honestly works pretty well! For its length, the development is always going forward introducing key players left and right at the right timing with enough exaggerated flair and straightforward story telling; there is the initial mystery, but everything seems pretty forward. That being said, the pacing is steady for the most part and apart from some twists or turn of events that are a bit too much/fast (such as the romance between the main cast), it can keep your interest going until the end. Thankfully, it does not drag on and as for the ending, I guess it fits with the trend of that era.

Character-wise, there is not much surprise in the sense that everyone has a very specific role that is expected. The storytelling plays a big role here, since everyone is really straightforward, yet there also is that dramatic knack in everyone’s actions, so it is kind of like a soap-opera. They are not really realistic characters because of that, but the story is not about realism either way. On the other hand, they can be relatable, at least the likable cast and so you can get invested in them a bit.

The art also was very detailed and unexpected! There were various pages that were more fantastically drawn and the detail can be amazing from hair to clothes to objects, although in simple panels, sometimes the drawing can be basic. Yet again though, I felt Japan's influence since it really resembled some other works of that time, for example that trope of having blank eyes when someone is shocked/angry.

For my low expectations, I am truly happy I stumbled upon this manhua and I want to give a special mention to the Dragonbird, which was pure comedy relief in the work and it hit the mark most of the time.

From the mangaka that brought us “Taiyou no Ie”, we are given a work smaller in size, but packed with well-deserved teenage angst that delivers quite fast, unfortunately. Albeit the tropes used are very common (sibling inferiority complex for example), the story manages to portray the slice of life element in an easy way that makes the reader get absorbed in it.

The plot itself is nothing original (although, one of my favorite tropes) with the main girl feeling inferior to her twin sister who seemingly has everything and so, she tries to stay as low key as possible to avoid any chance of her getting ... hurt in any way. This has been imprinted in her brain so much that she avoids any general happiness due to imminent disappointment and so, her journey through her issues begins. We can all imagine her efforts at trying to come to terms with her problems slowly once she makes friends and a boy asks her out and for the most part, it works great showing her again and again how her thoughts get in the way and she just does not randomly wake up one day and is over it. A big bonus is given for the fact that it shows the sister’s point of view about the relationship the 2 siblings have and she is not oblivious to what is happening (unlike their parents, probably).

However, where the work falls short is the character build-up it tried to present. As it comes to such stories, everyone has a share in it, but towards the final chapters, it seemed to create a lot of situations and try and tie up a lot of loose ends into some positive message. Thankfully, it did not aim for the stars and the plot still remains relatively simple with everyone gaining a bit more, but it can feel forced at times so specific characters will act in specific ways. Even the main boy who had a lot of screen time, it feels as though his part fell a bit flat towards the end.

I personally related to the main character a lot, simply because I also vehemently believe that good things bring bad things, though she certainly takes it to a whole new level since the manga tries to make that her main trait. The development of the characters is a steady process with the main character facing herself and her sister, her admirer facing his past and their friends trying to make more mature decisions along the way. They are simply students and for the most part, they are acting that way, give and take some drama or general exaggerated situations. Although in retrospect, the whole premise of each character is a bit too much, they always kept things light and fresh for the reader.

Art-wise, it is not that detailed, but it is very pleasing to the eyes with rounded lines and simple designs. Every character is distinct and even between the identical twin sisters we can see the true difference in their countenance. There is no heavy dialogue and you can read it pretty fast too.

I was mostly invested in this because of the similarity I have with the main character, although our approach to this is not the same, and as I am a sucker for such stories, I enjoyed it sufficiently. I would very much like if the main boy had more time to work on his own story and even more so the sister, but it seems this ended rather abruptly and there was not enough time to present everything naturally. Nonetheless, it is a fun read, but it does not bring anything new on the table.