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Pretentious. This anime is the very definition of that word. Its attempts at presenting something deep and meaningful unfortunately falls flat due to how poorly the author handled the premise, which is a pity considering how this series could’ve actually been something that’s really impactful.

In this anime, an immortal being known as It is casted down to Earth, and as an immortal being, it has the ability to take on and change forms of various living creatures. Later on, it takes on a form of an injured wolf who is eventually helped by a young, nameless boy. After spending some time with the nameless boy, ... he died and It took on its form and began to explore the world It was in, and along the way, learn about how other people lived and how those people impacted It and the vice versa. Initially the story itself had an amazing start but as the series progressed, the amazing start it originally had began to fade away, and the way the story was executed is to blame. Almost all the arcs in this series were very underwhelming. Not only that, all the events that happened in the story felt so contrived, and for a series that’s supposedly depicting how each character’s interactions with other people affect one another, none of the characters interactions with each other had a long lasting impact on the viewers whatsoever. Its attempts at giving the viewers thought provoking questions feels extremely forced, as if the creator is desperately trying to make the viewers get something of value out of each arc in the story to the point where it’s taken priority over the actual story and hence making the overall story just feel extremely lackluster. Although I appreciate the pacing of this series, there’s no balance between the actual story and the themes the creator is attempting to convey, one aspect always overpowers the other. Not only does this series tries too hard to make itself feel meaningful, it also tries too hard on the emotional appeal factor as almost every moment in here is essentially trying to tell the viewers to emphasize with the characters because they’re in some sort of difficult situation that’s supposed to get some sort of melancholic reaction from the viewers.

The characters in this series were just as dull as the story itself, including the main character. Every characters in this series were almost deliberately created as plot devices, and as a result, the characters don’t feel like actual characters but almost more like plot devices used just for advancing the story. Oftentimes, when something major happens to a certain character, the events that led up to such point is almost always all planned from the beginning in such a straightforward way that the whole emotional attachment to a character aspect of the series is lost as a result. Obviously the viewers aren’t expected to feel emotional attachment for every characters, that’s absurd, but when almost all the characters are just used in the story at a surface level point, there’s no emotions to be felt from it. Sure it’s an apathetic way of viewing the characters but if there’s no efforts put into the characterization, quite frankly there’s no need to care for them in the first place. As a matter of fact, this series’s attempt at trying to make the viewers feel emotionally connected with these one-dimensional characters is kind of emotionally manipulative.

The art is alright. Some of the character design definitely feels out of place but for the most part there isn’t really much to say about it asides from the fact that there’s some really stunning background art that blends in seamlessly with the characters. Definitely the best aspect of this series, can definitely see some of background art being used as wallpapers.

Although there’s nothing remarkable about the sound effects, the music has a nice, ethereal sound to it and it does a good job at capturing the rather dull world of Fumetsu, which is honestly such a pity. Had the writing been on par with the music, there’s no doubt that Fumetsu would’ve been something that’s genuinely impactful.

While Fumetsu had its great qualities such as the art and the music, the story and the characters ultimately falls flat and hence making this story concept feel like a waste. The story itself felt too unbalanced and the characters were all unremarkable. And although this isn’t exactly the best recommendation when it comes to slow paced animes that focuses more on characterization, which, this series didn’t do well on, for what it’s worth, it’s not the worst thing to ever exist.

When Lycoris Recoil was first announced, I’d admit, I was excited. I believe that it wouldn’t hurt anime creators to create more proper gun-oriented combat series like Black Lagoon and Jormungand, firearms can be just as cool as swords, y’know? And although Lycoris Recoil did deliver in some aspects, other aspects sort of dragged it down.

In this anime, we’re introduce to this seemingly perfect world where crime rates are very low due to a secret government program that uses orphans as child soldiers in order to prevent such crimes from happening in the first place. And in this anime, we’re introduced with our protagonist, Takina ... Inoue, who was forced to transfer due to her actions after her last mission. In her new base, she’s introduced to her partner, Chisato Nishikigi, who is a rather eccentric girl with secrets of her own. And together, they take on odd jobs, ranging from delivering food for the mafia to teaching Japanese at a local school. Now this anime’s story if you can even call it one is quite frankly, confusing. There’s almost no sense of direction at all, it switches from episodic to plot oriented in a blink of an eye. I know there are cases of animes where seemingly episodic episodes actually all ties up together, but this anime didn’t take its time to properly tie all those points together to this giant plot scheme that’s happening. Granted you can only do so much with 13 episodes but if that was the case, the story should’ve just gotten right to the main point instead of showing some pointless side mission that has nothing to do with the plot at all. And on the topic of the main story itself, without going in depth about it to prevent any potential spoilers, is just, nonsensical. The story is all over the place especially towards the latter half of the anime and it seems like to me the creator’s attempt to present multiple plot points at once failed terribly. Asides from the messy story structure, the themes presented in this anime were also all over the place. Perhaps I’m looking too deep into this and the creator was just likely presenting a fun popcorn entertainment but if the was the creator’s intention to present something dark and mature, at best, it’s just surface level shit and at worst, the theme isn’t even presented at all and is just there and as a side thought.

The characters in this anime is a mixed bag for me. Although our main stars shares some amazing character chemistry with each other, without going too in depth, they were either confusing to understand, like Chisato, or just forgettable like some of the side characters, such as Kurumi. With Chisato, not only are her actions and ideals somewhat illogical, it also just doesn’t make sense as she contradicts herself occasionally throughout the story. Without spoiling the story, her actions, especially later on in the story will definitely make you think “wait, what.” And as for the side characters who aren’t as developed as Chisato and Takina, they’re alright, nothing to really write home about although some of the characters like Robota was annoying to watch.

As for the art, I believe this is easily the best aspect of the anime. The character designs were definitely memorable especially with the main cast, and I also liked how detailed some of the guns were drawn. And asides from the nice well drawn details found in this anime, the animation is really smooth and to whoever was in charge of directing the series, they knew what they were doing as some of the scenes actually managed to build up genuine suspense so good job.

As for the music and sound, I can’t really say the same about the art as it was just there as mere background noise. It’s not a bad thing nor a good thing either, I just feel neutral about it.

Overall, I felt like the story was what really dragged Lycoris Recoil down as a series, and it’s kind of shame because had the story been as good as the art, this anime would’ve been another nice addition to an otherwise almost niche market in the anime industry, which is gun-oriented combat without any fantasy and magic involved. But for what it was worth, I had fun with it, so if you’re just looking for something to unwind at the end of the day, this is for you. But for those who’s looking for something with more value in it, I suggest looking somewhere else.

Underwhelming. For all the praises I see regarding this series, it simply doesn’t live up to the hype. Although it isn’t exactly a mindless gore galore, I can’t exactly say this has a “good” story either.

In this anime, we have this protagonist, Akira Fudo, who’s a huge crybaby, and I mean it, he gets extremely sentimental especially for those who he cares about, and has been like this for his entire life. He has this friend, Ryo Asuka, who one day decides to take him to some sort of demon party orgy with the goals of transforming his friend into a devil, and succeeded. Although ... Akira has obtained new powers along with a new body, he still retains a part of his personality and begins to refer himself as a “Devilman” and uses this power in order to protect the people he cares about the most. Although I’m aware of how influential this story is to the anime and manga industry in general, in terms of the actual story itself, it’s not that good. While it does have its fair share of intense and terrifying moments, a lot of the actual dark moments just ends up being unintentionally funny due to how overly edgy it is. Look, I love media that’s not afraid of portraying violent themes but unfortunately for this series, it was poorly portrayed. Often times it relies on too much gore to the point of being extremely repetitive and annoying, and as an unfortunate result, the brutal and violent scenes feel mindless. Also regarding the themes such as who exactly qualifies as a devil in the moral sense, I felt like some of the arcs in the story were kind of pointless as it didn’t really serve any purpose with portraying the themes that’s shown in the series.

The characters in this series is a mixed bag for me. Obviously our main stars, Akira Fudo and Ryo Asuka are the most well developed characters in this series and although Akira’s character was interesting to watch, I don’t feel the same for the other characters. I won’t go too in depth with Ryo for spoilers reason but I have mixed feelings about him as I find his motives and goals to be rather, weird. And by weird I mean in the sense that his motives aren’t very clear. Although I’m aware that some motives don’t always have a clear purpose in it, the way Ryo’s motives were presented was just out of place. And as for the side characters, asides from Miki Makimura, I honestly didn’t care for any of them. They felt like they were just, there for the sake of the story and don’t really feel like actual characters but rather tools used to progress the story itself. I’m aware the story is suppose to focus on the main characters but it wouldn’t hurt to develop the other characters more, y’know? Characterize them more than just their surface level personalities.

The art was, interesting. Masaaki Yuasa’s directing style was definitely unique for a series like this and although I do like his directing style, I wasn’t a fan of the directing style in this particular series. Although the action sequences looked very cool with its trippy and psychedelic feel to it, I feel like the whole dark and brooding atmosphere wasn’t there due to the wacky directing style Yuasa’s known for, and there are certain times where I felt like certain scenes didn’t need the wacky directing style because it ruined the mood and atmosphere for that scene’s intentions. In general, I felt like this anime didn’t need a wacky directing style like this as it didn’t really add anything meaningful to the series asides from it looking cool and that had it been directed like a standard anime series, some of the scenes would at least feel more frightening.

The music is likely my favorite aspect of this series. Kensuke Ushio’s style of music has always been a personal favorite of mine due to how he incorporates electronic instruments into the OSTs he creates, and for a series like this one, the music really enhanced an otherwise mediocre story from thrilling fight scenes to sentimental moments the characters have from time to time. The sound effects were top notch, too as it was very satisfying to hear since it also helps enhance certain scenes.

Overall, this entire anime was a mixed bag for me. There were a lot of aspects to like about this anime, but other aspects such as a poorly executed story and a weak character cast really dragged it down. If you’re looking for an action series with a trippy feel in it, this is definitely right up your alley but for those who wants an engaging story with thought provoking themes, this series isn’t exactly my go to recommendation.

“I want my 8 hours back” was the first thing I thought to myself when I finished the final episode. I’ll be completely honest, this anime is one of the most appalling animes I’ve ever watched to date. Despite the somewhat interesting story concept presented here, the execution for this anime was simply atrocious in almost every single aspect.

In this anime, we have our protagonist, Ibuki Keita, who meets this girl, Kuro, and makes a contract with her due to sudden unforeseen circumstances. And throughout the anime, the ideas of “fate” is presented as a common motif as Keita and Kuro tries to find a ... way to stop all the sudden deaths that’s happening around them. Although this isn’t the most original plot idea, it could’ve been at least an entertaining show but I believe this is the worst aspect of the entire anime. From the beginning to the end, the entire concept of “fate” and how it connects to all the random deaths that’s been happening in this world is just thrown out the window for some mediocre martial arts styled fight sequences with the concept of “fate” just lazily shoved in the fights in order to present some sort of “meaning” in said fights (they don’t). The story structure is not only just repetitively boring, it’s also just pretentious, shoving in “meaningful” conversations that your characters are having while fighting isn’t how you present your motif effectively, and the scenes where the characters aren’t fighting each other are just as stale as the fighting scenes since the conversations the characters have never adds any sort of real progression to the story and is instead just used to show their defining “characteristics” if the dialogues isn’t forced in to talk about the plot itself. Also, when you’re attempting to present some sort of theme in the story, just stick to the one theme and try not to present more than you actually can do as this anime also attempts to bring in the concept of doppelgängers in this story, which was ultimately just used as a mere plot device that somehow connects to the ideas of fate without properly expanding on it.

Another dreadful aspect of this anime are the characters themselves. None of the characters are remotely interesting at all as all of them feels like cookie cutter characters you see in most animes, you have the action girl who loves to eat, the tough buff guy, the one minor antagonist character that has a very inconsistent goal, you get the idea. Now I do understand that creating interesting and meaningful characters that’s relevant to the story is a difficult task to do, but when all of the characters behave like ripoffs from other popular anime series, it’s just very hard for me to feel any sort of connection at all to any of the characters even if they have some sort of sob story that’s going to be revealed at some point. I understand that sometimes there are characters that aren’t meant to be likable but at least make them tolerable, and for this anime’s case, they aren’t. They’re either unlikable pieces of shit or just side character A.

The art is probably the only redeeming aspect of this anime as there are some designs that I found appealing but it’s not enough to redeem all the other shitty aspects that’s presented in this anime. It’s your standard late 2000s anime art style, nothing more, nothing less.

Although there isn’t much to say about the sound effects, I will admit that the music is very dull due to the lack of variety. Throughout this show, it seems like rock music is just everywhere in this show, and not in a creative way either, it’s just the most dull stock type rock tracks with almost no variety in the songs itself. I felt no sort of emotions at all whenever watching scenes with music, the music didn’t add anything to enhance the experience at all, it was just there to serve as background noise.

Overall, I highly recommend you to not waste your time with this anime at all. Trust me there are so many other animes that are worth your time instead of this. This anime is so dull and I don’t want any anime watchers to make the same mistake as I did by watching this anime in hopes of “maybe it’s gonna get good at this point” which spoilers, it doesn’t. The ending of this series will definitely make you go “so what the hell was all of that for?”

note: this review is covering the entire franchise itself, not just the first 201 episodes. as such, this review may contain minor spoilers. read at your own risk. also this is my first review, so any tips/criticism is welcomed.

Gintama is something I really don’t know how I can put into words (in a good way). The way the story first present itself may turn off some viewers (especially new anime fans) due to its comedic nature, as people were expecting a full on action packed battleshounen. It IS an action packed battleshounen if I say so myself, but the comedy bits in Gintama is where ... it shines too.

The first couple hundred episodes usually are mainly episodic comedic skits, ranging from Gintoki not paying his rent (again) to having a perverted ninja stalking him. The comedy in Gintama tends to be extremely absurd, and not everyone likes those kind of humor. What I like about Gintama though is that even thought I’m not big on absurd humor, it’s pretty creative. I like how the anime will try making some sort of joke regardless of the situation they’re in, as well as sneaking in references mainly from Japanese media in general and not just anime and manga. And the timing for the humor is absolutely hilarious too. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve laughed so hard because of not only how crude the joke may be, but also how well it’s paced. It’s just stupid fun you can turn your brain off and laugh when you’re in need of some comedy. But what makes this series has its own special charm is how you’ll eventually miss these stupid days the Odd Jobs gang had as the story progresses further. Without saying too much, the story much later on is also pretty good since certain plot points connect with other points, and it’s really fun to see how certain “stupid” things actually connects with the current storyline present, leaving no plot holes present.

The cast in Gintama is beautiful. They may feel like characters who only have one defining trait about them, but as the series progresses, they feel like actual human beings, like ones you’ll meet in real life. Gintoki especially feels like a real human being many of us can relate to. He doesn’t really have a goal unlike your typical battleshounen protagonist (e.g. becoming the hokage, collecting the seven dragon balls, etc.) and let’s be honest, many of us here probably don’t know what we truly want to do with our lifes either. Most of us are probably just wandering around, whether it’s hanging out with your friends or enjoying a hobby you really like doing. His dialogues is also very funny, whether he bluntly says it out loud or if it’s just in his mind. I don’t think any voice actor can top off Sugita’s performance with Gintoki. The rest of the cast has its own charm too, although it’s best not to spoil the other character’s characteristics.

I like the artstyle in Gintama, the facial expressions the characters make is really funny. I don’t think any anime can make expressions as ridiculous as ones shown in Gintama. Not only facial expressions, but also how some of the scenes are presented. Generally some of the scenes are funny because it’s animated, and if it was live action, it wouldn’t be as funny. Comedy aside, the fight scenes in Gintama are fun to look at, too. Not only are the visuals pleasing to the eyes, the choreography of the fights are fun to watch too, even if it’s not realistic. Then again, we’re watching anime because we aren’t looking for realism, but for enjoyment (although realism does play a factor in anime, which is what I like about this type of media too).

The music and sound in Gintama is also pretty good. Some of the OST track names are absolutely hilarious, one being “It’s Surprisingly Hard to Name a Generic Track.” The OSTs also fits in the mood, whether it’s Shinpachi complaining to Gintoki about how much of a lazy bum he’s being to some epic battle OST that can pump your blood up for the upcoming fight Gintoki has to face against his opponents, and sometimes, some sad OST that’ll tug onto your heart strings. What I’m trying to say is that the OSTs are pretty memorable. As for the opening/ending themes, there were really some great ones, personal favorites being OP13, OP15, OP21, and ED30. The lyrics to some of the theme songs also holds a meaning to it, and it also sometimes foreshadow certain events that’s going to happen in the series.

There were very few factors I didn’t like about Gintama, although it’s really just characters like Otae, who ruins the mood of the show everytime she tries doing anything “funny,” or Otsu, whose stupid songs I can’t stand, along with her stupid “Otsu” phrases that just makes her come off as annoying. But overall, it’s a really fun series. There’s very little things to dislike about this series. Fun character casts, amazing music/art, and a really well written plot. It’s something I’d recommend to people who are looking for a good anime to watch (although definitely not to newbies). I’d also like to add on to NOT rush this series, even though the earlier episodes may start off slow. Otherwise, just enjoy your time with the Odd Jobs gang!