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Apr 17, 2022
You know "that moment" that takes a manga from good to great, right? "I want to live" from One Piece, "Thank you, Gyro" in Steel Ball Run, the rollercoaster finale of Chainsaw Man. Good stories are defined by those moments that gather up all the investment that we've developed to this point, and uses it for that one moment that sticks in your heart forever. Earthchild is a seeming attempt to mass-produce those, and it kinda, uh...
Blows ass.
Earthchild has a dynamite first chapter that a lot of people mistook for a one-shot, and understandably so. It took a whirlwind romance to an unexpected but cathartic
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conclusion, with an implication on what the future might hold. The linchpin of the opening chapter was its incredible climax, and perhaps the author got a little too hooked on people's reactions to it, because the second chapter attempted to have a big moment as well. And then the third, and then the fourth, ad nauseum, trying to recapture that magic.
Big moments that stay in our memory happen because they're timed with the pace of the story and our investment in the characters. Done right, one of these can be pulled in the opening act, but after that you have to pump the breaks a little, cool the pace and aim for another big moment at the end of a story arc, perhaps. But when Earthchild tries to be nothing but highs, it just feels like it's trying to manipulate you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 24, 2021
Well this is just awkward to talk about now, isn't it?
It's hard to even put myself in the mindset of talking to someone with no knowledge of the series for the purposes of recommending it or not. Even putting a score on this review feels like an oversimplification. This manga has been a part of my life since 2013. I've read it chapter by chapter, month by month, endlessly dissecting with online friends the entire time. Your experience will be fundamentally different, but I'll try my best anyway.
Attack on Titan is a series whose greatest legacy is perhaps its handling of escalation. It starts as
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a very small story with very large zombies. From there, it builds, not just in the scope of the story but also in its complexity. Over the course of about 80 chapters you go from people just trying to survive against monsters to a grand battle putting humanity's very survival at stake, all leading up to one of the most legendary lore bombs ever dropped.
From there, it's... not quite the same. My opinion here is definitely very different from some of the more vocal fans, but from here on out Attack on Titan stops growing and starts focusing on the complexity of its setting. It's never quite as good, mostly because there's a sense of some of the more sensitive concepts not seeming to be as well-thought out as they should be, but when it hits, it hits real good.
All of this leads up to a final battle that's the reason you're seeing such a spike in negative reviews. It's one of the most visually astounding things I've ever seen in the medium, but it leads to a thoroughly "well okay I guess" ending that, depending on your reading of things, may seem to come out of nowhere. If you ask me, it didn't, but that doesn't stop you from feeling a bit lost when it's all over.
Is Attack on Titan worth your time? Aboslutely. Now that the zeitgeist of hype is behind it, you can enjoy it for what it is - an epic adventure of a grand scope with an explosive finale, followed by a mixed bag of an adventure with a bleh finale. Those little moments along the way are what make it all worth it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 18, 2021
I'm writing this from the perspective of a manga reader, but that doesn't mean I think this story is sacrosanct. Honestly I thought the majority of what this adaptation covered was mediocre at best, and guess what? They somehow make it worse.
Obviously the big news is that entire limbs have been hacked off of this story. The one part of the manga post-season 1 that was actually good is skipped entirely, and the remaining material is covered at record speed. They technically achieve a complete story out of it, but the damage from taking an axe to the story is catastrophic. Character motivations make significantly
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less sense and plot holes from the new structure are plugged up with insulting contrivance.
And yet, it gets worse. TPN Season 2 occasionally flirts with making more direct changes to the story, and what's crazy is that almost all of its ideas are good. The parts of the anime that add to the manga near universally address aspects of the original story that were poorly justified or just plain stupid. But the problem is, at this breakneck speed, none of these good ideas have time to properly take root. They're crammed in next to all the bad ideas and ultimately mean nothing. I've always said that "almost good" gets more hate from me than "bad", but this anime is a rather staggering case of both.
Despite the pace, this anime somehow feels like its dragging its feet. Many episodes are mostly dialogue presented in the most bland way possible, in drab environments with zero fanfare. The production values in general feel significantly worse. On top of lowered visual fidelity and animation quality, there's no life to the directing anymore. The music very rarely feels like it really takes off. Season 1 thrived on its intense moments but Season 2 delivers none. Even when the story really seems like it should be making you feel something, it doesn't.
On my rating scale, the negative ratings go like this: A 4/10 could have been alright but went wrong somewhere. A 3/10 isn't entirely awful but still leaves you thinking "wow that sucked". A 2/10 fails entirely in what it sets out to do. A 1/10 goes the extra mile to be bad and draws immediate comparisons as an exemplar of awfulness for years to come. At times, TPN Season 2 feels like it could be any of these, but what really clinches the 1/10 is how unnecessary this all is. No one asked for an abridged season. Just adapting Goldy Pond and telling us to read the manga would have been better than this. Literally doing nothing would have been better than this. We really all thought that Tokyo Ghoul-level adaptations were obsolete and a thing of the past, but this anime really had to bring them back for one last awful hurrah.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Aug 8, 2020
Fitting for a show with a magical setting, Bakarina has you under a spell for a good portion of its run. But after that spell fades and you begin to come back to your senses, you realize you aren't sitting in a mansion after all, just a decrepit sewer.
Maybe I'm just bitter because this anime had a really excellent opener. Proactive protagonists can make any story far better, and Bakarina takes it a step further by, as the nickname suggests, making its proactive protagonist an absolute moron. But she presses on, utterly demolishing the timeline and winning everyone over in the process, including the viewer.
But
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then the status quo starts to settle and the madcap pace comes to a stumbling halt. The protagonist stops taking such an active role and just bumbles through the events of the story (or the filler). The supporting cast are seemingly present in every scene on sufferance, endlessly repeating their one joke each. That's when the spell begins to fade, and you realize what was in front of your eyes all along. The character designs are good, but was the art always this bad? Was the world building always so low effort? Yes, yes it was.
Read this review and see what a sad and salty man Bakarina has turned me into. I enjoy anime, you know! Don't turn out like me. Watch a show that knows what to do with its potential.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jul 3, 2019
Have some standards, weebs.
Yes, a show is more than its animation, but this franchise was never all that deep. OPM always functioned on three pillars: great animation, great comedy, and hype as hell fights. When the first pillar is completely shattered, and the other two are frankly not as strong as they used to be, you're naturally going to be on very unstable ground.
And the visuals really are that bad. If you can ignore it, good for you. But I really couldn't. The reason this is an issue is because it becomes distracting how low-effort every episode looks. A brief summary of the issues
- Downright
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ugly new art style, with many characters having this bizarre gradient that makes it look like there's a dark smear on the middle of their faces
- At least once an episode there's a shot where they start zoomed in on one part then zoom out to show it in full. They didn't even bother to animate it properly, instead literally zooming in on the frame, so it starts out blurry and looks incredibly unprofessional
- Metal characters like Genos or Metal Knight are either rendered in ugly CG or drawn so horribly that it makes no difference
- GHOSTING. It's everywhere. Almost every fast-moving scene blurs frames together which makes it really difficult to see what's going on
- Shot by shot, it's just plain less interesting. There are far fewer dynamic shots than the first season and the big hype punches have far less impact
But the thing is, it's kind of worse than that. Manga readers may burn me at the stake for this, but I think the story is significantly worse too. I don't know or care if they diverged from the manga or followed it exactly, because either way what ended up on screen just wasn't very good. Saitama, the heart and soul of the series, has a fraction of his former screen time, leading to many battles played completely straight.
Then there's a downright insulting scene in chapter 9 that baits any fans that think the story of this series might actually progress a bit before yanking it away. Stay static if you want, OPM, at least if you do that I can just leave. But episode 9 pretends that character development is about to finally happen before snidely dismissing the whole idea. At this point I decided to power through the series rather than drop it just so I could shove a 3/10 up its ass when it was over.
There's still some of the former glory in here. The main villain is definitely a step up from the previous ones, even if his story takes way too long to hit the road. There are usually a few reliable chuckles per episode, but this is where those aforementioned standards come in. You can't excuse an entire season of poor concepts and worse execution just because it occasionally reminds you of better days.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Mar 28, 2019
Promised Neverland is one of those shows I find a bit tricky to review, because my opinion of it wavers a lot from episode to episode. Not that any of it is bad, but the distribution of its good parts is pretty uneven. On the bright side, that means that when it's good, it's REALLY good.
The art style is the one thing that stayed pretty consistently great. Manga readers may crow a bit about an animated show not having as much detail as a static manga, but they're every bit as wrong and irrelevant as every manga reader is. For some reason I really love
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that particular shade of orange in Emma's hair, and the purple in Mama's eyes. The real star of the show, though, is the character designs on the adult characters. They seem normal in screenshots, but in motion their hulking size relative to the main characters and powerful presence really solidifies one of the best aspects of this show, which is nailing how overwhelmingly powerful adults feel as a kid.
The story is one of those annoying things that's hard to talk about because of spoilers. It's decent. Some parts can get pretty predictable but it has some solid curveballs I didn't see coming. Incidentally, this show has one of the best "shit hits the fan" episodes I've ever seen, and a solid entrant in the "shit hits the road" episode contest as well. The moments where it feels like everything is crashing down around you are when Promised Neverland is at its best.
When it's not doing that, well, it never quite gets boring but you can feel the stretch as it attempts to cover the distance to the end of the episode. It can do tension well, it can do revelation well, but it's not quite as good at being quiet. You'd probably be looking at a very different score if it could.
I'm ultimately glad I picked up Promised Neverland. At its worst, I was mildly disappointed. At its best, I was on the edge of my seat.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 31, 2018
I think one of the biggest things that keeps people from watching Hunter x Hunter is its length. They hear from everyone that it's great, but 148 episodes is a huge commitment. That was certainly my case before I watched it. However, after finishing it, I've reached the seemingly insane conclusion that Hunter x Hunter's length is not an obstacle.
Its a strength.
If I were to sum up HxH's presentation in a word, it would be "confident". Half the writers in anime or manga wouldn't have the balls to attempt a lot of what happens in this show, especially in regards to how long certain arcs
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are. But they're never this long just because they can, but because that's how long they NEED to be in order to communicate what needs to get across. The writing in this show is good, and it knows that it's good, so it doesn't shy away from getting crazy.
My one regret in watching HxH is that I felt like I rushed a lot of it. There were some parts later on that I was pretty sure I was going to like, so I tried to get through earlier parts faster. In reality, all of HxH is excellent, just in different ways. The first arc in particular is seriously underrated. Which isn't to diminish how mind-blowingly fantastic the later arcs are, of course. Just don't forget, sometimes the journey along the way is more valuable that what lies at the end.
What earns Hunter x Hunter its 10 out of 10, other than the aforementioned confidence, is that it has a variety of tones and knows how to use them. Earlier arcs are very light but have a sense of pure adventure with some of the best action beats in anime, while constantly throwing curveballs that keep it from getting even slightly predictable. Later arcs, particularly the Chimera Ant arc, lean far darker, becoming a compelling dive into the chaotic nature of conflict and how fundamentally an experience can change someone after just a brief period of time.
My preferred stories have always been ones that start with a distinct ending in mind and never lose sight of it, but Hunter x Hunter taught me to love the journey.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Nov 25, 2018
Girl's Last Tour occupies a world of shows that not many are aware of and even fewer comprehend, and I can't necessarily pretend to be a part of the latter category. It's certainly unconventional by traditional standards, but there's also a quality to it that's hard to look away from.
"Comfy" is the word of the day, and Girl's Last Tour is committed to the idea regardless of how you feel about it. Not a lot happens on an episode-to-episode basis, but it's all thickly atmospheric. You're mostly invited to take in the bleak scenery while the characters muse on some light philosophy. Not that there
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aren't regular beats of comedy, moe, and even action, but the broad impression is still a very quiet one.
This makes the show very easily enjoyable, but not much more than that. It's an easy way to chill out, and that may be all that you want, but it makes it a bit light on the ground for those expecting something more substantial. However, every once in a while everything comes together into some truly incredible moments. Episode 8 is the absolute peak of this, and there are a few others scattered throughout the series. For these glimpses of brilliance hidden inside the comfy, contemplative whole, I'd say Girl's Last Tour is worth a shot.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 18, 2018
I don't know how accurate Shirobako is about the nuances of the anime industry, but what I do know is that it absolutely nails the heart of why creative pursuits are so challenging yet so rewarding.
There's a short but definitive list of the things that make Shirobako the absolute best.
1. This is an anime for and about adults. I don't mean this like it's super edgy extreme hardcore, I mean that despite its occasional goofiness, the show takes place in the working world and focuses on the struggles of its chosen line of work. The characters all have goals and challenges that relate to how
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they fit their careers into their vision of what they want to be as a creative. Not that I don't enjoy high school supernatural adventure like the rest of us, but Shirobako dives right for an under-served niche in this medium and knocks it out of the park.
2. Production value (cue Super 8 joke). This anime is all gorgeous, all the time. It's not just a manner of consistently top-notch art and animation quality. Nor is it just the massive cast with an array of fantastic designs. It's all that, plus unflinching attention to detail and no cut corners on the aesthetics. The backgrounds are always detailed and contain little personality-adding tidbits, and all the major characters have a variety of outfits that keep the visuals fresh. This is obviously an all-out production from P.A. works in story and art, and it absolutely shows.
3. Everyone is a good person. The story of Shirobako is fraught with constant drama, and it always feels like the world is falling apart. Despite that, with one exception, there's no true villain in this show. There's conflict, but its all borne of people with limits in a line of work constantly pushing them to the brink. You can't help but root for everyone, even that dumbass Tarou or that prick Hiraoka.
Shirobako is an overwhelmingly positive show about connecting with your passion, and I couldn't recommend it highly enough.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 24, 2018
When all was said and done, I enjoyed Citrus, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to most people.
The first few episodes are a real barrier and I wouldn't blame someone for not being able to get past it. It's a romance show that relies entirely on non-consensual advances (we call that "sexual assault" where I'm from) to move the plot along. While most of it sorta makes sense in the context of the characters if you read between the lines, it's also clearly done for the titillation of the viewer, which is kinda gross. Nonetheless, I kept watching because I like yuri and thus have
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no standards.
However, the show makes a pretty big shift in episode 5. The main character, Yuzu, previously motivated purely by her desire to fuck her sister, has an epiphany moment, and suddenly wants to... be a good person and a supportive sister.
Huh.
She's still monstrously thirsty, but from this point forward I'd say the main character is probably the best thing about the show. She's an adorable ball of awkwardness and a genuinely good person that doesn't deserve all the soap opera drama bullshit that happens to her. And oh man, do they ramp up the soap opera drama bullshit, and I ate that shit up no matter how cheesy it got.
Citrus is an overly dramatic smutty Drake and Josh with lesbians that I would definitely never admit I watch to anyone in real life, but if you're into that kind of thing you could probably do worse than this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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