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This review will be split into two sections; the first, being brief and spoiler free, the second, being longer analyzing specifics where spoilers are unavoidable (this section will be clearly labeled).

Story: 6, Chaika has a story with a decent design, that is thought out, and makes sense, but ironically the major problem with Chaika's story is due to its characters--our ability to understand other people ultimately boils down to how well we understand what they want, and that is where this story fails. Tooru choosing to help Chaika in the first place is a great example, while there is the argument of, "he needs work", ... he is clearly overly attached to Chaika for no reason. These loose character motivations make the story (despite feeling well-planned) feel overly orchestrated and unrealistic--it seems like characters are walking down paths, not because they wanted to, but because it was necessary for the writer to get the ending they wanted. Lastly, the world of the story seems to have a rather unique lore, but not enough time is spent developing it.

Art: 8, The overall quality of the art is pretty good, and it manages to be consistent with that quality. There's a few scenes that are especially good. Also, this kinda ties into what I just mentioned about lore, but some characters have unique designs that you would think have some kind of lore-driven reasoning behind them (like the guy with the weird face tattoo/marking)

Sound: 6, None of the music was bad, but none of it was very noteworthy either. The main issue here was the English VA cast--most notably Fredrica and Akari, both of whom I wanted to gag.

Character: 4, This score is highly reflective of what I mentioned above (lose character motivations), but another massive problem here is that the majority of the cast members can't even be described without mentioning their appearance, because that's how little personality they have (the members of the Clemen agency are a great example of this--there are too many of them, and they have too little screen time to actually have complex personalities, or personalities at all in most of their cases).

Enjoyment: 8, You might be surprised with this, but I actually liked Chaika a fair bit, it was only when everything came to a conclusion that the problems with it became so obvious.

Overall: 7, Chaika is a story with a deliberate design, that unfortunately was overly concerned with its design, and not concerned enough with its characters' abilities to fit that design.



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First and foremost, let's address the well-designed story I mentioned before--ultimately, the entire purpose of everything that happens in this anime, is all apart of a machiavellian plan by Arthur Gaz to reincarnate into a stronger body, and honestly, I don't think this is bad. Gaz is shown to be truly obsessed with magic, to the point of doing countless inhumane experiments, so the idea that this guy would purposefully die in the exact way he did, so that his remains would become super-enriched with magic, that way when he reincarnated using parts of other creatures and his old remains, he would reach unforetold levels of strength that basically no one could stop. Up until this point, I think everything about Gaz makes sense, but then he did something that was so clearly just a way for the writer to kill Gaz--the writer added an insanely strong weapon that Gaz created (ya know, the kind of weapon that is of course strong enough to kill Gaz, but is completely unnecessary for him to have because he's already the most powerful living being). This is the first glimpse of the inconsistencies in character motives, and unfortunately it is merely the tip of the iceberg...

Let's rewind slightly to the beginning of the final arc of the anime--basically some nut job(one of the former heroes) decides to throw a massive death battle, with the prize being a piece of Gaz's remains, to use as bait to get the owners of the other pieces to come to him. I don't have an issue with this, what I have an issue with is the fact that the main characters (who possess the majority of the remains) decide to partake in this event... Why do I see this a problematic? If you know that there is a giant death-bout that ends with a winner walking away with the prize you want, what would you do? Go risk life and limb for that reward, or wait until after so you can steal it from the winner? (Also, let's not forget that the MCs aren't above stealing, and also have already tried to steal this specific reward before entering the competition). However this isn't the worst of it...

Remember how Gaz orchestrated everything? Yeah, so he's not actually Chaika's dad, and her entire identity is just a fabrication--which she learns, BEFORE the final arc. A guy, who worked for Gaz, literally tells her how they made countless Chaika's all who were given various reasons to attempt to gather the remains, but for some reason she presses on with finding the remains. The biggest problem here is that, ultimately what Chaika is told is "you're a tool for gathering the remains" and she insists that she isn't a tool, and how does she prove him wrong? By continuing to collect the remains... (I wish this was a joke). I will say, I'm not sure how the anime would've continued if she gave up on the remains, but it simply doesn't feel genuine in its current state.

Ultimately, Chaika was an anime whose narrative works well, and the ending makes sense. However, when analyzing the legitimacy of how genuine the characters act, it falls flat on its face. Despite this, I would recommend Chaika, simply for the interesting narrative, if nothing else.

For sake of anyone who wants a spoiler-free review, this review will be split into two parts; the first part will be shorter and the second, longer part will be prefaced by a large spoiler warning. I don't typically do this; I usually opt for vague word-choice or providing an example that equates to a similar meaning in order to avoid spoilers, however Grisaia no Kajitsu goes for a shock-and-awe approach so often that it's hard to talk about a lot of what it does without mentioning spoilers. So, without further adieu, the spoiler-free section:

Story: 4, Contrived and convoluted are the first to words I ... can think of to summarize the majority of the problems with in Grisaia no Kajitsu's story. Let's start at the basic setup: a special school meant to imitate a normal school, which was built for kids who have some type of issue that makes it impossible for them to attend a normal school. This isn't awful, but it's questionable why a school that was originally built for only one person, and now has a total of six, is so damn big. Even given the excuse that it's to "imitate a normal school", a big-ass school with only 6 students and a single faculty member does not feel normal, what would feel more normal is if things were scaled down to a more understandable size, but I digress... The issue with its story isn't as simple as this somewhat minor example I've just provided, the issue is that these minor issues are everywhere. Little unfilled holes like when the MC thinks "she doesn't look like a girl who would know how to pick a lock", then we catch her picking a lock, and we never learn how/why she knows how to do that. I'll leave off here, before I end up delving into spoiler territory, but the point is, these issue are everywhere.

Art and Sound: 7 and 7, I don't normally pair these categories together, but I have pretty much the same thing to say about both of them. In both art and sound, Grisaia no Kajitsu provides exactly what is expected out of it with little variation. There are some minor complaints about sound, like the gunshot sound effects were pretty "meh", and there are random scenes in a completely different and completely shitty, cutesy/chibi, 2d-esque art style. Neither factor is enough to dock more than a point, but it has nothing positive in these categories that exceeds expectations.

Character: 4, My major issue with a lot of the characters is realism and inconsistency. Our understanding of a character and the actions they take do not always coincide, and while this can sometimes be justified via a later revelation through character development, time and time again, I found inconsistencies being left throughout. The characters aren't actually that unenjoyable, but they're just not written well. Everyone has an overly tragic backstory, and that's basically the extent of their personalities.

Enjoyment and Overall: 6 and 6, (I have combined these sections for the sake of keeping this part of the review shorter.) I unfortunately have to save what I enjoyed about Grisaia no Kajitsu for the spoiler section, however, it certainly wasn't as bad as this review may have led you to believe up to this point. The major issue issue is that Grisaia no Kajitsu isn't really designed to be "enjoyed"; Grisaia no Kajitsu wants to make you "feel" in order to come off as a story with depth, and thus to achieve this, events are overly orchestrated leaving behind character inconsistencies and plot-holes. There were a handful of laughs, and other genuinely enjoyable moments, but the overly contrived nature of this show actually made it so predictable that the "shock and awe", "make you feel shit" moments made the general vibe so "blah" for so much of this anime. However, I'm going to stop obsessing on these factors before I convince myself to re-examine the scores I gave it. Point is, if I haven't already turned you off from it, then give Grisaia no Kajitsu a try. It wasn't overly unenjoyable, and if you're less critical than I am (which, especially recently, I feel like I've been analyzing things a little hyper-critically), then I think you might be able to get more enjoyment out of it than I did.



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Alright, no holds-barred, there is nothing sacred in this part of the review; I will address things that might be considered as major spoilers, and I don't want to ruin someone's viewing experience, so I would really only recommend reading this section if you give absolutely no fucks about spoilers or have already watched the anime.

Grisaia no Kajitsu operates in what is unfortunately the very standard harem-anime format: focus on one girl for about 2-3 episodes and then forget she exists for the rest of the anime. It really shouldn't be any surprise that these girls actions are under-explained, when we can only focus on a girl for a couple episodes and then instead of building an actual character for each girl, we spend that time creating overly-complicated, tragic-for-the-sake-of-being-tragic backstories. Let's tackle all 5 really quick...

1. The suicidal girl who has two personalities, her original-self and another person??? whose personality was transplanted into her via a heart transplant??? Yeah, makes sense, and what's even better is the way the writer attempts to fix it; they have the MC think "wow its like a b-movie plot, but its real", WHAT!? You're just going to confess that you wrote a shitty backstory, and your way of fixing it is by confessing??? Sorry, but planning someone's murder and then killing them while announcing to the world that you're not actually killing that person, while they continue to watch as you kill that person, will in no-way ever make you innocent.

2. "Imma stab you for no reason" bitch, who does exactly what that name implies. Really this behavior is never justified (at least not within realism--I don't trust him does not equate to, I should stab him, and if it does for her, then she should be on medication). Additionally, the only excuse we have for her not be punished for this behavior is that this school was originally just built for only her. While I would push the issue of why anyone else is even allowed to attend it, I assume it's for the sake of building a normal atmosphere. However, what is completely uncertain is why she knew of the 4 other girls before they began attending, but why she doesn't know of the MC, and why he would even be allowed to attend under those circumstances when the school was built for her. Also, her backstory is just basically, "I was hated because I wasn't a boy", and her personality, beyond that and being quick to pull a knife, basically doesn't exist.

3. We have the overly generic loli (aka childlike appearance and behavior), who has major daddy issues. She was actually kind of an enjoyable character to watch, and even her backstory wasn't written poorly, but the story in regards to what happens during the present for her is rather atrocious. The entire idea that her mom would have left her alive for as long as she did, when she so easily had her own husband killed is rather asinine. Additionally, the loli just so happens to have a photographic memory and just so happened to see the incriminating evidence, so I really don't understand why someone who operates the way her mother does would have waited this long to try to kill her except for plot convenience. (Speaking of her photographic memory, isn't it kinda weird that two different characters both have photographic memories, like is that supposed to be that common?(The other being MC's sister.)) Lastly, remember when she hardcore made out with the main character for no reason, and then we never saw anything remotely romantic between them for the rest of the season, yeah? awkward, amirite?

4. The girl whose parents died in the stupidest way possible; by not looking before crossing the road, oh wait, no that wasn't it; BY NOT LOOKING AND THEN BY CONTINUING TO STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. Like, it was so stupidly obvious that they were going to die (okay, I think one actually survived and is comatose, but basically dead, we just wanted to give a small glimmer of happiness apparently). This is also an example of how overly coincidental this anime can be; I don't care if you want to use a car accident to kill off someone's parents, that is an unfortunately quite realistic backstory, however, having them get ran over right in front of their daughter is that unnecessary, over-the-top, "shock and awe" shit I keep talking about. It's like how the loli girl's sister got car-bombed when she just so happened to have just walked past her (which is pushed to an even greater extreme of coincidental, because the last time she saw her sister was years ago to our knowledge, and she just happens to see her the day she gets car bombed? Seriously?
Anyways, im getting off topic, back to the maid girl; this girl makes bombs and shit which is waaaay not explained by her backstory. Also, why anyone would resort to trying to blow up a school in order to prevent a test is beyond me, but the obvious answer is to orchestrate an intense situation. My point is, she's really just a tool to get things to happen in the story.

5. Lastly, we have the girl whose content makes me think, goddamn, why is everything suddenly about sex? It's not a simple factor of her having the most fan-servicey scenes or her generally rather promiscuous behavior, but the fact that there's literally almost no even remotely sexual scenes when she's not on screen. Even with the make-out session that the MC has with the loli that I mentioned earlier, she of course makes an appearance that cuts them making-out short. Let's also not forget to mention the teacher who turned into a crazed cannibal/sex-fiend/murderer and the grieving parent who decides that not only am I going to murder this girl for being a survivor, but because she's hot, I'm gonna try to rape her too. It's just making itself more extreme for the sake of making it more extreme, and probably also to help "justify" the MC shooting said grieving parent. Also, her backstory was definitely both my favorite and least favorite part of the entire anime, but I'll need start that in the next paragraph...

The super-long flashback of girl number 5 and MC's sister was actually both really good and really bad. First off, right after the accident and they're discussing what to do, whether to; stay put, conserve energy, and wait for help to find them, or try to find a way home, they somehow (even though the MC's sister is apparently really smart) don't think of splitting into two groups: one which stays back with the wounded members to take care of them, and another that ventures out to find a way home and get help. With the combined knowledge of students there, they should have been able to deduce a way to safety within a week at most. I'd realistically think it'd be at most a few days though, considering that with the trail that was made after the fact, it took only 3 and half hours to get back to the highway. Meaning, they couldn't have been much more 10 or 11 miles from civilization (given average human walking-speed and factoring in the increased time due to terrain).
Anyway, enough about the logistics of the set-up, I actually really liked how the portrayed the slowly decaying mental states of the students and thought it measured up realistically. I had mixed feelings of the dog scene, I'm really surprised the girl whose dog it was didn't end up puking when she tried to eat it. Also, this is minor, but I felt like the fact that there was even a dog there was just completely neglected up until that scene (yes, I remember seeing it before that scene, but we really never saw anything happen with the dog up to this point). Really, I didn't have another issue until the end of the the flashback; where the MC's sister for some unbeknownst to anyone with rational thoughts, decided to take girl number 5 and go show her what had been really happening (cannibalism, plus the teacher banging the class president(ya know, because this is girl number 5's story, so it needs as much sex as possible)) and of course this backfires, and they get discovered. Which of course leads to a tragic scene where MC's sis tells girl number 5 to save herself and sacrifices herself (or atleast supposedly? They left it open-ended in the most confusing way was to whether or not she's alive, probably for the sake of a future ass-pull).

I think that's about everything I wanted to say about Grisaia no Kajitsu; the writer tried to make overly complex webs, but the design was so faulty that too much pressure on a single thread can make the whole thing fall apart. The most shameful part about it, is that it does have enjoyable moments. For example, I found plenty of the character interactions more than enjoyable, but as a whole Grisaia no Kajitsu is riddled with plot-holes and behavioral inconsistencies.

I entered this anime, thinking it was about space garbagemen, and I left knowing that its actually about space garbagemen who fight terrorists, which is actually a little disappointing. Workplace dramas (i.e. what I thought this would be) don't need big "save the _____(city, country, planet, universe, etc.)" conflicts, and in my opinion, Planetes is one of those. This is unfortunately one of many things I believe is holding Planetes back. Planetes is one of those anime that I enjoyed, but could've enjoyed so much more if it had simply been written better. It is by no means, bad or enjoyable, but when I reflect ... on it, I can't help but think about what could've made it better.

The most pressing issue right off the bat for Planetes is the very nature in which it is told, which is a semi-episodic structure. The first half of the series is heavily episodic, which forces individual story arcs to unfold at high-speeds with the most predictable fashion possible. If an episode starts by looking at something from the perspective of one of the characters that they haven't focused on, get ready, because here comes that person's entire backstory. The overarching issue is a question that all writers need to ask themselves when they create any kind of conflict, and that question is, "why now?" We, the audience, need to know why something is happening at that exact moment, or it feels overly orchestrated and highly unrealistic. Which is why, when Yuri has been searching for something lost in space for X amount of years, and then he happens to find it in the exact episode we learn about it, it ends up feeling like a fresh pile of bullshit.
Fortunately, in the latter half of the series, Planetes takes a much more linear story-telling method that causes the later episodes to be written significantly better overall, however, it is still far from being without its faults. One of the "nice, little bows" that Planetes tries to wrap itself up in, is an ending that pitches the idea that everything in the universe is connected, and while I think that conclusion was little too forced down our throats, it has the much bigger issue that there are simply too many coincidences in this anime--like characters repeatedly just happening to bump into each other (ya know, because coincidences are "better" than giving a logical reason for two characters to be in the same place at the same time).

Speaking of characters there are a number of issues here too. Obviously, the aforementioned issue of the episodic storytelling in the beginning does negatively impact the development of the characters, and forces their growth to feel forced and fake. Additionally, the main duo, Hachimaki and Tanabe have their ups and downs as individuals, but they also feel kinda forced as a relationship. The series starts through the eyes of Tanabe, an obnoxious girl who believes in over-idealized realities and is-in my opinion-the worst character in the show. However, I will say that she was certainly more annoying in the earlier half, but the opposite could be said for Hachimaki. Hachimaki felt like the better-written and more enjoyable character of the two, but he ends up treating Tanabe bad enough at the end that I feel like his actions should've rightfully torn the two apart permanently, but of course, a coincidental meeting happens, where he swerves of the road, and then who does it happen to be that is nearby at the time, of course it's Tanabe! Regardless of that, I'd say both of them are still written in better than Yuri or Edel, whose characters are basically forced down our throats. Lastly, I think my favorite characters have to be Robbie and Fee; I say, although I ironically don't like Robbie that much, HOWEVER he does have some of the most genuine-feeling growth, and watching him transition from a corporate drone to a man, who takes pride in what he does because he wants to be the kind of man his children can look up to, is quite enjoyable. Fee does not have the same levels of character growth Robbie has, or even close. No, actually I'd say Fee has one of the least built in stories (next to the chief, who is the only member of the debris section who doesn't have any kind of character growth), but regardless, Fee is a smoker ... in space, which as you can imagine, is quite the hard habit to maintain in an environment where air is incredibly valuable. While this isn't all that interesting by itself, it is quite entertaining to see just how far she'll go to have smoke (which in my opinion, is far enough to create the best episode in this series).

TL;DR -

Story: 6, Has some major issues in the structure in which its told; the overly episodic approach for the first half of the series was basically Planetes's attempt at shooting itself in the foot, and lets just say it definitely shot off a toe or two.

Art: 7, Standard quality and consistency.

Sound: 8, OP and ED suited the anime, but weren't to my personal tastes. OSTs were solid, and the VAs (English DUB) did a pretty good job.

Character: 7, None of the characters are fundamentally poorly written, however there are several issues here.

Enjoyment: 7, If I hadn't been so focused on what could've made this better, I think I would've liked it more.

Overall: 7, Definitely enjoyable, but shoots itself in the foot, and prevents it from being something truly great. Would still highly recommend.

How Not to Summon a Demon Lord was never a great anime, even though I did find the first season to be quite enjoyable. However, this season almost felt more like a movie than a second season. Most of what happened here felt more like a one-off tale that doesn't feel like it had any relation to what happened in season one, which actually shines a light on this anime's biggest issue: a lack of focus. Put simply, there are always too few obstacles that are too easily overcome whenever conflict happens in the story, which inherently leads to two things: 1. an unnecessary amount ... of forgettable villains and 2. the "big bad" villains are always lame, because no matter how much hype-sauce they're slathered in, you know that they'll maybe last two episodes at most. Regardless, lets dive in and analyze the rest of the problems, alongside a few positive notes:

Story: 2, Obviously the matter that I just discussed, "too few obstacles that are too easily overcome", plays a heavy role in the score for story, but that only loosely glossed over the bigger issue: a lack of focus. To elaborate, What does Diablo (MC) want? Heck, what do any of them want beyond the events of the first season? I mean, really the only unifying wants we had season one were: 1. remove collars (this gets ignored because they decide they like the collars) 2. save rem 3. save shiro, and that basically sums up season one. This is a HUGE issue, why? Because it really gives us nothing to build on for season two, which is why it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone when I say things like, "this feels like a movie", because these two seasons feel completed detached from one another. Almost nothing in season one has any relevance in season two, and why is that, what is the focus of this season? Well, basically we meet some random girl in the woods who is crazy and thinks Diablo is God. Since people are trying to kill her, the group helps her, and that's literally what happens this season. Also, the first 7-8 episodes are just them running around stupidly (the only thing productive in any of this, is going to Diablo's dungeon), and they really could've just stormed the cathedral and beat-up the "big bad" of the season basically right away. I'm not saying the events of this season won't have future relevance in the story, but given the two seasons we've seen thus far, I'd say there's a pretty fair chance that it won't.

Art: 8, There's really nothing different to mention here than what I said for season one, so ... "I wouldn't say there's anything spectacular about the art in this series, don't be expecting any beautifully animated scenes like you'd see in Demon Slayer, and other high-action series. On the positive side, the series keeps the quality of the art very consistent, which is something I always appreciate. A bit more work might've gone into the ecchi/fan-service scenes, after all, Shera's jiggly bits are, well, always jiggly."
This is from my season one review, but I think it still accurately summarizes my feelings on the art of season two.

Sound: 8, All of the OSTs serve their functions well, and I liked the OP for this season quite a bit. The ED on the other hand was "meh" for me personally, however I definitely preferred it over the ED used in season one. All the VA's did a pretty good job (English dub), but I wasn't really a fan of Horn's voice.

Character: 4, Diablo is definitely our savior in regards to this category; just like in season one, diablo is a socially-awkward, self-proclaimed Demon Lord, and holding up that act whilst still being socially-awkward is of course, as hilarious as ever. However, outside of him, the rest of the cast this season is pretty worthless. The first, and perhaps the biggest, of our problems is Rem and Shiro who do absolutely nothing all season. I don't mean "they never help in fights" because they actually do that a couple times, but what I do mean, is they are both just there because diablo is and that's definitely the vibe you get. It feels like they just don't matter at all this season, which is ironic because MAL labels both of them as "main" while Horn (one of the new girls this season) is only labeled as "supporting" despite having much more importance within the season. However, despite her being more important, her entire existence feels unnecessary. First, she leads them to Diablo's dungeon, which he could've easily found himself, I mean he literally made the damn thing. Then, we find out that she isn't a boy (I'm only including this, because I had no idea that I was supposed to think she was a boy). Finally, she "rescues" everyone, as in tries to rescue, but then ends up getting beaten up so Diablo just breaks free, because he literally could've done that at any time. While Diablo spins the situation to say that her actions weren't worthless her entire character boils down to, "omg I always feel so worthless," and then everything we see her do makes us think, "but that's because you're worthless". Lastly, we have Lumachina, the character that this season focuses around, who is the basic beyond-pure character you've seen countless times, there's really nothing more to say about her.
Ultimately the biggest issue in characters is that we already had a more than sizable cast by the end of season one, and instead of using this season to develop/grow existing characters, we instead waste it by just seeing how much we can expand the harem, and seeing how many minor-ass villains we can introduce just to kill off.

Enjoyment/Overall: 6/6, I don't typically combine these two sections of my review, but really, my overall score and my enjoyment for this season were basically one in the same. What I mean is, the major difference between my enjoyment in season one and my enjoyment in season two, boiled down to the factors I've already listed in this review. Put simply, I spent a lot more time being critical of this season than the first and that boils down to the fact that this season is unfortunately worse in almost every way (if you're curious these are the way points changed: Story 6->2, Art 8->8, Sound 7->8, Character 7->4, Enjoyment 9->6, and Overall 8 ->6).
If you liked season one, or you just have a thirst for Ecchi, then you'll probably get some entertainment out of this, but if season two is any sign of the future, then this series might just be a lost cause.

Before I dive into the review, I just want to quote and comment upon something said in the "most helpful" review for this anime, "Please don't say it is bad just because you find girls in panties horrifying". To which I have to say, "What the hell are you on about that is this anime's one redeeming factor?"

Strike Witches is easily the most overly mechanical show I've seen in a long time, and that is not a compliment. To showcase exactly what I mean, the following is a list of overly mechanical, nonsensical issues that take place in the first episode alone:
1. Nothing important happens ... until our main character decides to dump an entire expositional onslaught upon her best friend about her dead dad, which is completely nonsensical because why wouldn't her best friend already know all this given that her dad died many years ago, and its too much information to just be a passing mention. It's obvious this scene only exists to give our character a "want" (the driving force behind her actions).
2. During this same scene she mentions how much she hates the war because it took her dad from her, but her feelings about the war are completely irrational. She wants to do what her dad told her, which was basically to save people, but despite this she hates the idea of fighting in the war, because it killed her dad, like not fighting in it is somehow going to make the war not exist? It's a completely irrational and illogical way of thinking, which was clearly constructed just to create a point for internal conflict.
3. A character who wants to recruit the MC into fighting in the war happens to be spying on them during this conversation, and it just so happens that the cart they are riding on crashes. This crash gives the MCs best friend a completely illogical injury--she was thrown from a cart into the grass and somehow her chest was bleeding after? Like, I could understand a broken bone or something, but whatever, not the core issue here. Beside the illogicalness of her injury, the real kicker is that this is so obviously done only for the purpose of showcasing the girls powers in front of the recruiter.
4. After this a letter just so happens to arrive from her dead dad, which JUST SO HAPPENS to have a picture in it, and in the picture is the girl who was trying to recruit the MC, WHAT AN AMAZING COINCIDENCE. Okay, okay, I'll chill out with the caps lock. Point is, this is the most overly orchestrated bullshit to force the main character to come to the conclusion to go with the recruiter even though she, "isn't going to help fight a war" which she's definitely going to end up fighting in. I can go on with more examples, but let's just skip that and talk about how Strike Witches scores in each category:

Story: 2, The start of the story is very similar to a hero's journey story. Basically, the first couple steps of a hero's journey simplifies down to: a hero(es) has a cry for adventure, they're reluctant at first, but they ultimately overcome this reluctance, and they set out on their journey. This is exactly how the first episode goes, but after that the story-telling shifts to an episodic style with every episode focusing on "building" the character of a particular member of the Strike Witches (plot twist, all of the characters are exceptionally flat). Last couple episodes switch back to a linear story-telling style, where you actually need to see the episodes in order to understand what's going on (well, kinda, truth is every "plot development" has one thing in common, which is that none of them are threaded through the story in a way that makes you go, "oh that made sense". No, instead, they're just randomly happening, because fuck foreshadowing). Small example: there's a scene where someone says, "but who would do this", and then another character is like, "I can think of one guy", then proceeds to mention someone we've never heard of before, who (I know epic plot-twist) ends up being the villain of the season, woooo.
(PS. I actually thought the strike gear was kinda cool, but I can't help but feel like they made no sense and weren't explained in any actual depth, oh wait, that's because all of that is true...)

Art: 7, I'm not sure why there's a law in the Strike Witches universe that all women must never wear pants, but I'm for it! All joking aside, this is clearly another OVERLY MECHANICAL decision in order to provide the viewer with an absurd amount of fan service. Ultimately, while I felt it worth discussing, this doesn't actually have any weight in my scoring; this scoring in fact is completely representative of the overall quality and consistency of the art work, which is fairly standard, but satisfactory.

Sound: 4, While generic, a few of the OSTs served as a redeeming factor here, but both the OP and ED were so bad that I couldn't even listen the full way through once, and every time after that, I immediately hit fast forward the second I heard them start. A couple VA's were decent, the MC's VA was annoying as hell and if I ever have to hear Sakamoto's fake laugh again I might have to commit sudoku (yes, I'm memeing, calm down).

Character: 2, Strike Witches has two fundamental problems. First there's like 11 "main" characters and 12 episodes, and while it's not impossible to write a story with 11 strong characters in that amount of time, this story fails to make a single one of them more dynamic that a cardboard cutout. Second, they're all ridiculously troupe-based, and even though none of them have actual character arcs, they all say they've changed a lot because of the MC. The truth is that the writer just wanted that overly idealized protagonist who just magically changes the people around them because they are so cool and awesome.

Enjoyment: 5, This number feels like it might be inflated, because I've basically forked over some pity points to Strike Witches because it gave me ironic enjoyment. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty to be annoyed by, but the level of nonsensical bullshit that Strike Witches achieves is actually kind of enjoyable ... to make fun of. It's definitely not something I'll ever rewatch, but I'm actually tempted to watch season 2 just to continue making fun of it.

Overall 4, I didn't know much about Strike Witches going into it, and my expectations were anything but high, but somehow this still fell below them. I don't really want to quote this again, but don't listen to anyone saying, "Please don't say it is bad just because you find girls in panties horrifying", because Strike Witches is very bad and the only way I can think you might be able to milk even an ounce of enjoyment out of it is because either you really want to make fun of a bad anime or because you really want to see girls in panties.

Samurai Champloo is an anime that's highly regarded by the community, but is it worth such praise? It certainly has strong elements; high action with well-scripted fight choreography and quality animation, a sound track that blends together Classical Japanese music alongside modern hip-hop, and a main trio who are as chaotic as they are mysterious. However, these are simply pieces of the story, and while those are certainly important, for them to work to their utmost potential, the pieces need to be held together by a strong glue, and... Well, they're not. This is in no way meant to say Samurai Champloo is a bad ... or unenjoyable anime, however I couldn't help but wonder how much better it could've been if it had more focus, and to emphasize, I'll start with what Samurai Champloo struggles with the most...

Story: 5, Samurai Champloo is the story about a girl named Fuu who "hires" two bodyguards named Mugen and Jin to help her find a man that she refers to as, "the samurai that smells of sunflowers". You've probably noted how I put the word "hires" in quotes in that last sentence, and this is because she doesn't actually pay them. The entire reason the two help her is because they agreed that if she broke them out of their captivity they would do so. However, this was actually my first issue with the entire story. Mugen and Jin actually free themselves on their own, and while Fuu helps create a distraction that does help them escape, I highly doubt that they wouldn't have escaped without that help. More so, while I could Jin as being more honor-bound by the obligation, I have no idea why Mugen, whose catchphrase is literally, "I don't work for anyone but myself" didn't decide to say, "no, thanks" and leave. Especially considering the fact that their group does completely split up to go their separate ways on more than one occasion only to be drawn back together by "fate", which really just comes off as a cheap excuse to bring the trio back together without actually resolving the conflict that broke them up in the first place. Additionally when you factor in the overly vague phrase of "the samurai that smells of sunflowers", and the fact that Fuu refuses to say more about him than this, it really makes you question just why Mugen and Jin decided to stick around.

Regardless, this is only the tip of the iceberg in regards to the problems that exist within the story, as another problem rears its head in the form of the very structure that the story is told through. Samurai Champloo is a mainly episodic story, and these kinds of stories aren't inherently bad, but it's definitely a lot harder to weave a cohesive narrative throughout a series of events that aren't clearly connected. A good example of a story that does a good job at tying together seemingly unrelated events is Avatar the Last Airbender. During big moments in Avatar, you end up seeing a lot of the characters that they've met along their journey, however nothing like this ever occurs in Samurai Champloo, why? Well, probably because characters are killed off for no reason other than because they weren't planning to be used again and unfortunately that's the best answer I have for that question. It's hard to say why exactly they did this, it's possible that the creators thought that by killing more characters, that would make the story more realistic given the time period it was set in, however given the fact that this story is a mix between historicism and modern hip-hop, it's hard to believe they went this route for realism. Ultimately, it's disappointing, Fuu, Mugen, and Jin are portrayed in a semi-mysterious light that makes you want to get to know them more, and instead of slowly developing these characters over 26 ep, it's like everything to learn about each character was crammed into the last 3 episodes.
PS. There are some interesting decisions made with the individual episodes, like one which is told through an incredibly minor character recollecting the episode's events some thirty years after they took place. Ultimately, these decisions just feel unnecessarily experimental.

Art: 9, As mentioned in the opening of this review, Samurai Champloo has some top-notch animation that matches perfect with its high-action setting. Additionally, there are a lot of really creative decisions throughout the entirety of Samurai Champloo, and while I would say a lot of them come off as experimental, there was only one that I disliked, which was using a record being spun by a DJ as a way to transition scenes. It was certainly creative, but creative doesn't always equal enjoyable, and the way it rewinded before the transition just felt overly jarring. Despite this, I still thought about giving a 10 in art because there is just so much going on with the art that is positive, however... the consistency just isn't there. There are so many amazingly well-done scenes that I have to give this at least a 9, but honestly, a lot of the time if there isn't any action going on, the art quality can dip below a 7/10.

Sound: 10, Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have any complaints under a category that I gave 10/10 in, but... there was one particular VA (English dub) who sang a part of the narration for one of the openings, and it was atrocious, worst thing sound-wise in the entire anime. I literally skipped ahead, luckily it was like only in 1 or 2 eps. However, I despite this gave it a 10, why? Well, while I'm not going to go watch the Japanese version to make sure, but I doubt this was nearly as annoying in that version, and outside of that single nitpick, the sound is absolutely phenomenal. This is a soundtrack that I will be listening to for years to come, and I literally can't get the ED out of my head while im typing this. Personally preferred the ED to the OP, and honestly, at first I did NOT like the OP, but it grew on me. It sounded really weird the first time I heard it, but every time i started another episode, I found myself enjoying it more and more. All of the OSTs were phenomenal, and excluding one man who shouldn't have been hired, the VA cast did an exceptional job.

Character: 6, Unfortunately, this is another category that Samurai Champloo suffered in from a result of its episodic nature. As mentioned before, despite the fact that Fuu, Mugen and Jin are introduced as a trio of rather strong characters, they're actually exceptionally flat, and don't have nearly as much history to them as the story initially leaves you to believe. Additionally, when Fuu realizes that their journey is almost over, she points out that none of them really know each other that well, which is exceptionally bizarre. I mean, they've traveled across a decent chunk of Japan on foot and given the fact that they are constantly having to stop to make money to keep journeying, it would be presumable that they had spent at least a few months together... I'm starting to tangent, but the point is that the way most humans pass the time (especially back in those days where you didn't have things like a phone to distract you) is by sharing stories, so its rather ludicrous to think they've come all this way and never asked questions to get to know each other better, and share stories with each other to pass the time on their journey.

Another problem that I mentioned earlier also hurts Samurai Champloo's characters, and that's a combination between the episodic nature and killing so many characters off. Because it's an episodic journey, it's rather logical that many characters aren't going to be seen again, but when you kill off so many characters, it becomes rather impossible to logically make characters appear again. In truth, I can actually only think of 1 minor character that appears in more than one episode (not including characters who appear in episodes that are broken into parts), and while he is ironically my favorite character just because how goofy he was, he was still an exceptionally flat character. Ultimately, despite being a cast filled with flat characters, they're really not that bad, but they could've been so much better with more time and effort put into them. Also, I was kind of annoyed that Fuu's major role is constantly being a hostage.

Enjoyment: 8, I have mixed feelings here. On the one hand, I truly did find Samurai Champloo to be quite enjoyable, but as someone who is always looking for something to learn from everything I watch, I find myself constantly thinking about the ways in which something I'm watching could be better, and thinking about what it could be, and then being reminded by the reality of what it actually is, can be a little disappointing. Additionally, if it wasn't for my desire to write this review on Samurai Champloo, I'm not sure if I would've finished it. It's not that I wasn't enjoying myself, but this was another expense that came from the episodic nature; I never felt like I had to watch the next episode right then and there when I finished the one before because I never really had anything i was looking forward to in the next episode. Personally, I enjoy the kind of story that I don't want to put down, but Samurai Champloo was something that I primarily kept consuming just so I could see if it would change my perspective on it by the time I finished, and I'm unfortunately left with the answer of, No, it could not.

Overall: 8, The most accurate way to describe Samurai Champloo is highly experimental and surprisingly enjoyable. There are a lot of decisions that held this anime back, but on the flip side, there were even more that pushed it forward. I know this review heavily focused on the negative aspects of this anime, but I just found myself constantly wishing Samurai Champloo was better because despite the fact that I was really enjoying it, I simply couldn't be blind to its faults. Regardless of everything said in this review, I genuinely believe that the only kind of person that wouldn't enjoy this anime is the type of person who just doesn't like any anime.

I have regretfully come to the conclusion that Get Backers is not worth the frustration that continuing to watch it would invoke. If you simply watch a show, but you don't sit there asking questions to yourself like why? and how?, then I can see how you might be able to enjoy this, but every episode I found myself loathing it more and more until I said no more. I don't typically write reviews on anime I haven’t finished, but this is definitely one I have quite a few things to say about despite the fact that I have no desire to continue watching it. ... There are so many various issues with this anime, I almost don't know where to start, but you see, just before I dropped Get Backers, I had a realization, and that realization is the perfect place to start...

During my time in college studying creative writing, there was a professor whose teachings I took very much to heart, and perhaps the most important thing he ever taught me is the most basic and primal thing to keep in mind in any story, and it's the author’s job to convey this clearly to the reader. What is it? Well, In any given scene, for a reader to truly have interest in the scene they have to know what the character wants, and this doesn’t just apply to standalone scenes; we also need to know what that character wants on a grand scale within the story. The reason there are so many shonen leads who shout “Im gonna be king of the _____(pirates, ninjas, heroes, wizards, shamans, etc.)” is because it gives the readers a point in which to understand that all of the MC's motivations in any scene are ultimately going to boil down to how well that can relate to what the characters goal is. It gives you expectations, but also a point from which a reader can grow attached to a character.

However, this isn't simply important because of the above mentioned reasons, it is also important because it is the first of three very important questions, all of them together being; “What do they want?” “What happens if they don’t get it?” And “What now?”. The first tells you what the characters goal is and gives you a point of attachment, the second shows you the stakes and gets you invested, and the last tells where we go from here, giving you something to look forward to. Ultimately, without answering that first question, you can’t answer the two after, because if we don’t know what the character wants, then we don’t understand what is at stake if they don’t get it, and we have no idea where the story will go next, because there is no clear goal.

This is where Get Backers goes terribly astray. 27 episodes in and I can’t tell you what either of the main characters want on a grand scale. Basically they want to complete whatever job they have so they can get paid, and why do they want money? Because they need to eat. I know, it sounds so terribly interesting, doesn’t it? Joking aside, let’s use Naruto as an example of how you make it actually interesting. You see, Naruto isn’t interesting because Naruto wants to become the hokage, but because what Naruto wants isn’t really to be hokage. What Naruto actually wants is to be respected, and the most respected person he knows of is the hokage, so that becomes his goal. A goal should say something about the person whose goal it is. The goal of making money so you can fill your belly isn’t at all interesting, if it were, we would be more focused on doing that in our own lives than watching anime. Since they suck at making money, this “goal” could technically work within a comedy, but the comedy is lackluster at best, and given the general narrative--comedy definitely doesn’t seem to be the focus. No, the focus seems to be on weirdly attempting to force all the character to tie something about the current situation back to christianity, but I’ll hold off on that til later. The truth is that this story simply lacks focus, and its why I never felt rooted in the main characters; Get Backers never gave me a reason to get attached. Unfortunately, despite the fact that this entire truth is a massive tragedy in its own right, it truly is just the tip of the iceberg.

The second biggest issue in Get Backers is repetition. The second biggest issue in Get Backers is repetition. Sorry, I promise I'll only do that once, but that is an accurate example of how stupidly repetitive this show is. Basically every character has some clearly supernatural, heavily unexplained ability, and when they fight someone they will always reveal some “super cool” ultimate technique that everyone will talk about like its the most powerful thing ever only for it to be defeated 0.2 seconds later. 90% of the villains are “friends from the past” (a past that we are never shown, and simply hear about it random snippets, so we have no real attachment to any of it). These “villains" then get their asses kicked by the MCs, so then they decide to be good guys again, and the main characters are just fine with that even though one of them built an atomic bomb and threatened to kill a ton of people. Also, if someone’s trying to count the uses of Ban’s Jagon (I think that’s how you spell it, don't know, don't care) they’re always going to get the count wrong, and don’t get me started on how stupid it is that every character not only seems to know about his ability, but the inner-workings of his ability, information that you would think you would only share with your closest of acquaintances.

Get Backers is just an endless parade of the most cliche methods of trying to hype up a scene, hell, there’s literally a fight that gets put on hold for a bunch of dialogue, and then out of nowhere, one of the characters thinks to himself “he’s gonna use his ultimate attack now” and then the other guy was like, “I'm gonna use my ultimate attack now!”. I wish this was a one time thing, but its really not. All the fights have the exact same flow, and they use the same tricks again and again to try to make everything seem a lot more impressive than it is. There was literally a guy who went on and on about how he mutated his body to be unbreakable, and then literally got broken a whopping 5 seconds later, and the examples just go on and on. And as much as I would love to sit here and continue to list them, I'm thinking its about time to wrap this up, so ill leave you my scores and short breakdown for each:

Story: 2, Why a two? I mean, I made it pretty clear that there is no overarching narrative to be invested in, so how did it get more than a single point? Well, while the overarching plot was nonexistent, there were a few almost decently written scenes. Also, to finish the mini-tangent I tried to start earlier, Get Backers likes to think its super symbolic, so it constantly has characters attempt to relate things back to christianity. My “favorite” example of this is every time they talk about there being a traitor, they refer to the traitor as a “Judas” (the apostle who betrayed Jesus), and if that’s how we are supposed to do symbolism, then I clearly need to go back to college.

Art: 5, The art is nothing to write home about, but I'm pretty sure you could've figured that out by looking at the cover image for Get Backers. Ginji is also randomly drawn chibi and I wanted to die every time not just because how his chibi-self is drawn, but also because he becomes 10x cringier in this state.

Sound: 3, The dub is bad; there’s really not a better word for it. There wasn’t a single voice that I thought was good, and the sound quality wasn’t very good either. The first OP is the worst OP of all time, but the second one was actually kind of decent. EDs were fine, but OSTs weren’t memorable at all.

Characters: 2, You know the difference between flat and dynamic characters? Well, Get Backers doesn’t, and in case you don’t either, a flat character doesn’t change, but a dynamic character does. A flat character might sound worse, but it's not inherently worse, the two types are just used differently. In most stories, the less screen time a character has, the more likely they are to be a flat character, and the more screen time they have the more likely they are to be a dynamic character. In Get Backers its flipped. All the the MCs are flat as hell, and the closest thing we have to dynamic characters, tend to have little to no screen time. Ultimately no one has any real character development in this anime, but as mentioned before, most villains are “friends from the past” so we have “character development” because they were bad guys, but now they aren’t…. (If you think that’s character development, then idk why you’re reading an anime review, you’ll clearly be happy with anything). Also, there was actually a kind of interesting moment where a character realized she wasn’t a real person, but ya know, she was so unimportant that we really had no reason to care.

Enjoyment: 3, You’re probably surprised this isn’t a 1, but believe it or not, Get Backers had a few decent moments amongst the several hours of filth I watched. Not good enough to recollect, but hey, it took me 27 episodes to get to the point that I decided it was an unrecoverable dumpster fire, so it clearly wasn’t all bad.

Overall: 3, I went into Get Backers with mild expectations at best. With a score of 7.6 I thought, heck this might be kind of decent, and boy was I wrong. I have a weird habit of thinking about how i'll rate an anime while im still watching it, and the further I got into Get Backers the lower and lower this score kept getting. I was originally thinking about a 7 based on the first episode, but by the time I started writing this review, it had already dropped to a score of 4, but as I reflected more heavily throughout the course of writing this review, I realized even that was too generous. I should really hire the Get Backers so I can get back all the time I wasted on this anime.

Anime like this tend to really catch my eye, and if that sentence made you look at the genre tags, you're looking in the wrong place. See, it has nothing to do with the anime itself as to why it caught my eye, but it was the fact that while this anime has an average MAL rating of around 7.2 (as of writing this), all of the most recommended reviews have it rated at least an 8. This is inherently interesting to me, because I am instantly curious why there is a large enough of percentage of viewers thinking this is good, to the point ... that only highly positive reviews have gotten the most praise, but there are simultaneously enough people rating it negatively that despite all the positive reviews, its score still got bombed heavily. Dependent on your perspective, you could easily consider this anime to be "underrated" or "overrated", but why is that? What makes this anime so controversial amongst fans?

Most people seem convinced that it's because Kinji is a heavily flawed character. Similar to the MCs from KonoSuba and Combatants Will be Dispatched, Kinji isn't some altruistic "good guy" who is just going to help because some random stranger asked him to, but if he finds a way for it to benefit himself, then he won't mind lending that helping hand. This is actually one of the strongest points of praise I’ve seen for this anime again and again, and while I would definitely say its a nice change, I don’t think its enough reason to throw an objective-driven appraisal out the window. Despite this, even if this is the reason The Dungeon of Company Black gets so much praise, we still haven’t seen exactly why it gets enough hate to swing the score down to a low 7.

After a full-watch, I have to conclude that it would be episode 1, and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if I read that a lot of viewers dropped after the first episode, why? Because I almost did, and, while I ultimately decided to stick around and give it the good ol’ 3-episode-try, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of others didn’t. Now, assuming that you have no knowledge of this show, you’re probably wondering just how bad the first episode is, and well, its honestly not written poorly at all. You see, the major issue with episode 1 actually ties back to Kinji’s character, while Kinji is in no-way a "good guy", he’s honestly not a "bad guy” either, except in episode 1, where he definitely is a “bad guy". Kinji basically gets Isekai’d and then forced into working in hellish conditions for shit pay, but he’s also kind of acting like an elitist asshole, so you don’t really feel bad for him. Then, he happens to find a brainwashing staff that he uses to force his coworkers to work incredibly hard to the point that they’re constantly exhausted while Kinji enjoys the good life at their expense. Personally, I hate watching characters commit to asinine schemes that are clearly going to blow up in their faces (just like this one does for Kinji, shocking I know), but that’s not even the crux of the issue, the more pressing matter is that this entire first episode does a bang-up job of painting him as a “bad” person. This first episode makes Kinji out to be a way worse human being than he actually is, and I would say that his brainwashing stunt is downright the most manipulative and self-centered action he takes in this entire season.

I wholly agree that the best characters are heavily flawed, however there is a mountain of difference between “heavily flawed” and “an un-relatable asshole”. Although, I would definitely say that by the end of the season Kinji is at least somewhat relatable, unlike how he is in his first episode debut. This creates another issue and which I'm going to call skipped-growth. As mentioned before, Kinji doesn’t act nearly as selfishly as he does in the first episode, that could lead someone to believe that there is some level of character growth that explains this change, but plot-twist, there isn’t. I genuinely believe that a stronger episode, with a more accurate depiction of Kinji’s true nature would have resulted in the overall MAL score matching more closely to its most popular reviews. This is ultimately the heart of what I wanted to talk about in this review, but it feels wrong to only talk about the first episode, so here’s a short breakdown of my scores:

Story: 6, Not overly impressive, and a little overly predictable at times, but unfortunately most of the points of praise I have go into a bag labeled “spoilers”, so I'll leave those out, just know that it definitely has its positive moments.

Art: 7, Honestly was tempted to bump this up to an 8 just because I liked the character designs, but I feel that a 7 is the most accurate representation of the quality of the art and the consistence of said quality.

Sound: 8, Voice acting (English and Japanese) were both good. I transitioned to sub when I ran out of dubbed episodes, and I gotta say, the voices between both versions seemed pretty similar. Solid OP and ED, ost fit will, even if not the most memorable.

Character: 7, Mr. Wanibe is best, fight me. Genuinely though, I could’ve given this more points, but overall most of the characters lack enough depth and growth for me to think it deserving of more than a 7.

Enjoyment: 9, I found myself enjoying this a little more with every episode, but given the fact that I almost dropped it to start, I suppose that shouldn’t be too surprising.

Overall: 8, Im one of those weirdos who thinks about the score they’ll give something when they rate it while they are watching it, and about halfway through I only though id be giving this a 7, but as it progressed I felt it more deserving of something in the high 7 to low 8 range.

If you decide to check this anime out, I’d highly recommend giving it a 3-episode-try, it’ll be worth it even if you didn’t like the first episode, in my opinion.

If I had to define O Maidens in Your Savage Season with a single word, it would be "messy", and that is neither a compliment nor an insult, in truth, it is both. The messiness works, because, I think one thing we can all agree with is that high school is one of the messiest times of your life, and in this way, the fact that this anime is so messy works in its favor. However, it is also messy in a, "wow, the more I think about this, the less it makes sense," kind of way. I find this anime to, in many ways, ... be incredibly relatable, while also feeling distant and foreign in a way that isn't a result of my own lack of understanding, but the seeming lack of understanding by the writer. This anime does do some things well, and while I'm not going to burn down the accomplishments of this anime in order to point out its downsides, I would be lying if I said that this review wouldn't be more focused on its problems than what it does right.

Story: 5, The story is by far the biggest problem with the entirety of this anime, and if you have an experience alike my own, then you won't even question it until it's too late. O Maidens in Your Savage Season manages to suck you in deep enough that it's easy to overlook cliched and wholly unnatural events. I will attempt to refrain from any major spoilers, but; there is a scene where a girl decides to try to hookup with a guy from a online chatroom, and low-and-behold the guy she's meeting up with just so happens to be a teacher at her school, and more so, one that she actually knows. This is a single example amidst a sea of them, and while these events aren't necessarily bad when you watch them, when you reflect upon it later, you can't help but think, "wow, that was really unrealistic". The shameful part is, I think a lot of what gets represented in this anime is realistic and applies to the real world, but the abundance of completely unrealistic events drags the anime's story down significantly, and effects the credibility of the rest of its message.

Art: 9, O Maidens in Your Savage Season doesn't have singular standout moments in its art, instead its a ride of a beautiful and consistent quality. I like to think back on certain artistic scenes when I'm writing this section of a review, and with anime like Hyouka, there are a plethora of these moments, and when i reimagine them, the experience of doing so emits an emotional response from me, but even after just having had binged this, I can't think of any scene that really managed to do this for me, and that is the sole reason I am giving O Maidens in Your Savage Season a 9 instead of a 10 in art.

Sound: 8, Nothing too important here, the OP and ED both fit well, but (in my opinion) aren't standout enough to warrant actual discussion. Most of the OST are widely unremarkable, but the voice acting felt solid (English dub).

Character: 7, I don't really think the supporting cast is stand-out enough to spend a considerably time talking about, thus this section will briefly talk about the five main characters, however I've decided to split them into the "good girls" and "bad girls".
"Good Girls" - this group is made up of Rika, Kazusa, and Hongou; these three feel the most genuine, and they also have the greatest amount of time invested into them. Kazusa definitely gets the most time out of the three, but all of the plot-lines involved with her are so convoluted. On the other hand, I think Rika has the most believable and genuine plot-lines. I personally find Hongou to be the most fascinating character of the three, and perhaps its even why she squeezed her way into this group, but she suffers from plot-lines similar to Kazusa's.
"Bad Girls" - the remaining two main characters, Niina and Momoko are, in a single word, awful. Nina suffers from childhood trauma, well kinda, (there's a creepy old guy, who has been openly creepy towards her since she was a child, but has also never attempted anything illegal with her) and for some reason that's supposed to justify her acting like a lunatic. I really think that every time the writer wanted to do something, he/she just thought, "oh, Niina is under-defined enough to do this". Literally the only thing that "makes sense" about most of her actions is that her character isn't defined enough for us to say, "that makes no sense". Momoko also suffers from being under-developed, to the degree that she really doesn't feel like a main character at all. We spend so much more time in everyone else's heads compared to her, and while I'd say that's a similar issue for Niina, its definitely more of an issue for Momoko.
One final, overarching statement on characters--I think that O Maidens in Your Savage Season does a really good job at accurately describing the mental state of high schoolers in regards to sex. Much of what it does in this fashion I found to be very mature and enjoyable, and because of this, it is a shame that this air of realism doesn't reach other parts of the anime.

Enjoyment: 8, Up to this point, I've been highly critical on the flaws of O Maidens in Your Savage Season, but honestly, some times that's actually easier to do for an anime you really enjoyed. While it kinda sucks to pick it apart in your head and realize that the writing wasn't quite to scale with your level of enjoyment, there is also a certain beauty to something that has been orchestrated in such a way, that while watching it, you don't take direct notice of the presence of things you know to be cliched and/or unrealitisic.

Overall:8 (7.5 feels more accurate), Despite its flaws, I do believe O Maidens in Your Savage Season to be worth a watch, and while I'm not gonna say "turn you brain off", it would be smart to turn off the little voice in the back of your head that sees a scene, and thinks, "that's so unrealistic". If you don't manage to do this, (especially after reading this review that heavily focused on its flaws) then I can definitely understand if you don't find O Maidens in Your Savage Season enjoyable, but at least give it the three-episode try, as the first episode feels pretty generic.

If you looked at the MAL page for this anime, then you probably already figured out exactly what this anime is, but just in case... Chio's School Road is a Comedy/SoL(primarily comedy) anime about Chio's everyday walks to school, and, while that is the most accurate way to describe the anime, that description still really downplays just how hilarious this anime is. Chio is an absurd high-school girl; she's the type of character that says she wants one thing, but all of her actions seem to send her hurtling in the other direction. Primarily, Chio wants to just be a below-average girl who fades into ... the background. It isn't that she doesn't want social interactions, but she doesn't want the anxiety that can accompany those interactions, and even more so, she wants to avoid any situation where she is the center of attention. Nonetheless, Chio manages to constantly do things that would obviously make her way more likely to stand out, like deciding to climb on top of roofs to use them as a short-cut since her usual route was blocked by construction.

Story: 7, As with a lot of comedy-heavy shows, I have split my score for story into story (3/5) and comedy (4/5). The simple reason I do this is because comedy-centric anime don't need a strong story to be entertaining, but I usually keep story as part of the criteria because comedy-focused anime with a strong story should shine out amongst those that are simply funny, but have no story (in my opinion). While Chio's School Road definitely doesn't have a plot to write home about, its not one to be ashamed over either. There is nothing conclusive to the anime, and it doesn't feel like its building towards a goal, but it also feels like every comedy-bit is built well. They aren't overly long, as in one episode usually contains multiple skits, but they're built in a manner that isn't overly predictable. It's not really a surprise to me, but after watching so many comedy anime I've found myself at the point that I sit there thinking about what will happen next, and while there are certain scenes that have me saying, "Somebody better pick up that phone, because I fucking called it!", there were also a significant number where I got it wrong, which was a pleasant surprise, as I'm usually less likely to laugh at something that I found overly predictable.

Art: 9, Similar to other Comedy anime like Nichijou, Chio's School Road uses its art to really make the most out of its comedy, and while I'd say Nichijou probably still takes the cake for the "Best Use of Art in Comedy" award (that I totally didn't just make up), Chio's School Road could easily take home the silver medal. The art-style is pleasant to look at, and excluding the stylistic changes to emphasize and enhance the comedy in certain scenes, it stays consistent in both style and quality. Also, the OP is quite the visual spectacle, and I greatly appreciated it, regardless of how I feel about the...

Sound: 8, I wasn't a huge fan of the song in the OP, as in, it wasn't my cup of tea, NOT that it didn't fit the anime, because it definitely fits, and to further that, I'd say that all of the sounds, music and voice acting (English dub) were done very well, and if I had to point the finger at which of those were the best it would probably have to be the voice acting. I was tempted to give a 9 in sound, but I decided to drop a point since I felt that the OSTs didn't really stand out, and while I would define everything Chio's School Road does in this category as, "Good", I wouldn't go to the extent of calling it "Outstanding".

Character: 8, Chio's School Road excels at making characters that feel well-defined without too much effort. Chio, our absurd protagonist, has no impulse-control and gets so wrapped up in the problems in her own head that, rather than approach the problem directly, she'd do something absurd like "accidentally" trip and roll into a pile of garbage just to attempt to avoid making a scene... Mañana is the kind of girl who gets blinded easily by her own greed, specifically in terms of a chance to join the "popular kids", and she is blinded to the point that she'll treat her friends, um, let's say, "less than spectacularly", but she's not a total scumbag--she just needs a reality check every once in awhile to restore the balance. While I'd like to dive into a few of the other characters, the rest have a lot less screen time, and I don't want to just fill this review with spoilers, but I will say that I think the minor characters are handled very well in this; they are a few I disliked, but they're just there for one skit, nothing more, so they're acceptable enough.

Enjoyment: 9, I binged this all the way through, only stopping to make myself food, that I proceeded to eat while I continued to watch. It wasn't an anime I wanted to put down, and quite frankly I really hope that another season comes out in the future.

Overall: 8, Personally, I can see several different ways this could've been better, like if there were more overarching plot-lines, but if you're just looking for something to laugh your ass off to, then look no further. Chio's School Road is hilarious, and while comedy is (in my opinion) probably the most subjective genre ever, I think its hard not to laugh at this, unless you have a whole-bundle of sticks shoved up your.... ANYWAYS, the point is, if you want to laugh watch it, if you're looking for anything other than a comedy, well I'm confused why you made it to the end of this review, but congrats.