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Jul 7, 2022
"Cue!" is a series that I will defend until my dying breath. What an absolute gem of an anime.
"Cue!" pulls one of the greatest bait and switches of all time. It was immediately made known that the anime was going to run for two seasons, and while following Haruna and her unit was enough to hold my attention for the first few episodes, it made me wonder how quickly it would become repetitive with about 18 episodes left to go.
Then without warning, the show starts branching out into the lives of the other characters. 16 total characters, to be exact.
And 16 characters means 16 stories.
"Cue!"
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is a series without side characters. Each of the 16 voice actresses is given ample time for the viewer to learn their personality, struggles, and inspiration for pursuing voice acting. While certain character traits can bleed into each other at times, every unit of 4 is given a unique dynamic that makes their interactions meaningful, and even emotional at times. I had an amazing time with this one through its entire run, and it's a shame it's not available on any Western streaming platforms because I believe this is a series that any slice of life fan can dive right into.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 16, 2021
Senyoku no Sigrdrifa (also known as Sigururi) is one of the most underrated anime that I've ever seen. It's not anything groundbreaking or life-changing, and the animation is fairly average, but I absolutely love how this show handles itself and its themes.
The decision to make the first episode double-length is the smartest thing they could have possible done. Had it been a normal length and the episode ended at the 22 minute mark, I probably would have dropped the show. The way the series opens is incredibly bleak, with Claudia at the end of her rope following another failed mission. What I wasn't expecting at
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all was for the show to do a complete and total 180-degree turn with her transfer to Tateyama, and for the show to hit us with the one thing that can make any premise interesting:
CUTE. ANIME. GiRLS.
The show doesn't become bleak again until its characters have been established and we actually feel the stakes at hand. When this shift does occur, Sigururi really begins to handle its themes of failure and the definition of family incredibly well. It would be a lot easier to elaborate on this by diving into spoiler territory but obviously I can't do that here. All I'll say is that if anything I went over sounds interesting to you, I'd definitely recommend checking Sigururi out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 17, 2021
This is the second time I've gone into an anime and had to look at it as an adaptation, the first being Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san. I'm honestly incredibly glad that I watched the trailers first because that allowed me to damper my expectations a bit.
The first thing I will say is, PLEASE read the manga. Shuumatsu no Walkure is pretty easily the best manga I've ever had the pleasure of reading, and it is certainly the best way to enjoy this franchise. The animation in the adaptation is definitely more stiff and slideshow-y than it should have been for a proper adaptation, and if animation is
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what you value most in a fighting anime then you should probably give this one a pass.
That being said, I do give the anime adaptation passing marks for a number of things. The voice acting for most characters is absurdly on-point, a lot of the character interactions are great and I actually prefer those scenes animated to their manga counterparts, the music is legitimately fantastic and it feels like most of the budget went to the sound department. These elements do let the emotional weight of many key scenes still come through even if the animation isn't entirely fluid.
Had I gone in completely blind, with no trailer or knowledge of the studio, my expectations would have been sky-high and I would have been far more disappointed. I do NOT disagree with anyone who deems this adaptation a disappointment, because there are aspects that certainly underwhelmed me as well. With all of this being said, however, I have seen far worse, and there are other aspects that I do feel were adapted properly. Brunhilde and Hermes come across as great characters, the show sounds great, and I do think this is, at the very least, a SERVICEABLE adaptation. Would I prefer it to be done by a studio like MAPPA? Sure, but I do have to review this with what we've been given and I believe what we've been given is pretty decent. Could have been better but could have been worse. A 7 is probably higher than I SHOULD score it but I love the franchise so much that I have some sentimental bias towards it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 13, 2021
I don't watch a lot of anime movies, I really need to get on that, but Josee to Tora to Sakana-tachi is one that had my interest from the moment I saw the promotional art... and one that didn't end up being anything like what I expected.
I suppose that's not entirely true. Being an anime movie I expected the art direction to be great and it surely is, full marks for the animation department. Additionally it is kind of a box standard romance movie, but there are things that really make the standard conventions feel unique here, and it's not solely the fact that
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Josee is in a wheelchair. Josee's abrasive personality is one of the things that I certainly wasn't anticipating, and it makes the chemistry built between her and Tsuneo feel EARNED. Josee isn't just another tsundere, she actively holds disdain for Tsuneo until feelings begin to form through their adventures. Yet there's always that sense that they'll never truly see eye-to-eye, until a life-changing event occurs that quite literally has Tsuneo looking at things from Josee's perspective. It's not sympathy, but empathy, that keeps their relationship alive in the most trying of times.
Josee to Tora to Sakana-tachi isn't exclusively a romance movie. It's a movie about chasing dreams, going to any means to finally be able to grasp them, and how even when things seem bleak you can find the motivation to keep chasing them from people you may have never expected to get along with. The theme of ambition that the movie pursues for its entire runtime culminates in one of the greatest final acts I've seen in any anime, movie or full series. The final library scene is one that will surely stay in my mind for quite some time. All in all, I love this film, and it definitely makes me want to watch more films like it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 29, 2020
Hypnosis Mic is a prime example of a premise that should not work, but is executed wonderfully. I'm incredibly surprised that this ended up being one of the shows that just blew me away this season, but there are a lot of really great components to it.
First thing's first, Hypnosis Mic has what is probably the best usage of CG that I've seen in a 2D anime. The transitions to CG animation feel like you're jumping from the show to a music video, which is a perfect mood for these sequences that keeps the switch from feeling jarring. On top of that a lot of
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the music just slaps, not just the rap itself but even the background music goes in hard sometimes.
What really makes this a fantastic anime though is just that it's really fun. I'm personally not a fan of yaoi-centric shows like Free or Yuri on Ice, and I see a lot of the criticism against Hypnosis Mic talking about how it appeals to fujoshi similar to those series... and I just don't get that critique at all. This isn't about male-oriented fanservice, this is a show about guys bein' dudes and spittin' some hot fire. For better or for worse, I think HypMic is something truly special.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 28, 2020
Burn the Witch is a joke. A sad, overhyped joke.
I personally have not seen Bleach, so I would not understand the connections between this miniseries and Bleach, but I feel like I don't have to to be critical of this pure waste of time. While Burn the Witch is incredibly well-animated, it's so devoid of substance that I couldn't feel any emotion towards this whatsoever. All I could think was that I was glad it only lasts an hour so I wouldn't waste any more of my time on it.
There are so many pieces introduced that don't end up playing any role in the show's
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outcome, and the pieces that do play a role are really stupid. For example, Balgo is one of the worst characters I have ever seen in an anime. His only purpose in the story is to be protected for reasons that are far beyond me, there is no indication as to what his relationships to Noel or Ninny are, and he somehow ends up as a Mary Sue in the very end. What hurts the most is that far more interesting characters get no development whatsoever. Ninny is a protagonist that simply exists, without getting nearly enough of the backstory or development she could have used to become a good protagonist. And yet somehow, Noel gets even LESS development. The show just leaves you with so many more questions than answers because it's so dedicated to the idea of doing nothing with its characters.
Burn the Witch also has perhaps one of the worst climaxes I've seen in an anime. In retrospect I'm glad I felt nothing towards it because if I had somehow become invested in these characters I'm sure the final battle would have been even MORE insulting. There's no story, no satisfying combat, no genuine attempts at comedy (seriously it's almost exclusively the "panzu" jokes"), no good characters, and overall just nothing positive going for it aside from the animation. I wanted to enjoy Burn the Witch, everyone told me I would, but that's just not the way it goes sometimes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 17, 2020
My Next Life as a Villainess is now my favorite anime of all time, and I honestly feel weird saying that. I've seen anime that are better in terms of objective quality, but I've never felt a connection to an anime quite like this one, and given that I'm not well-versed in the isekai genre AND I've never touched an otome game in my life, I think that really speaks to its strengths. One of Hamefura's greatest strengths is, of course, its characters, without a definitively unlikable one in the batch. The fact that there are so many great romance options for Catarina is great
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for a harem anime, but it's the fact that we get a firm understanding of why each and every character is attracted to Catarina that makes the story really shine.
This is the first anime to make me tear up after the FIRST EPISODE. I went into Hamefura expecting another everyday comedy harem, but I ended up with a strongly-written, emotional story that struck a chord with me from the get-go. What really helps the show as an isekai is that Catarina isn't acting nice towards the other characters out of obligation. While the conversations in her head might give off that impression, that's just the kind of person she is naturally, and the juxtaposition between game events and real-life events as they happen makes this abundantly clear. Catarina's childhood arc was especially strong, giving me some of the best individual episodes I've ever seen.
Add in plenty of actual character development, a plot twist that surprised me when it happened but was obvious in hindsight (perfect for a comedy anime), a complete absence and/or subversion of the tropes I despise from typical harem anime, story beats that don't depend entirely on the magical school setting to happen organically, and a mountain of heartfelt moments, and you get My Next Life as a Villainess, my new favorite anime that probably shouldn't be. While other anime I've seen like Kaguya-sama or The Promised Neverland are certainly stronger when viewed through an objective lens, there's never been a series that's pulled me in from the very beginning the way Hamefura has. It's definitely one of the most pleasant surprises I've encountered in anime so far, and it certainly gave me a lot to talk about. I'd easily recommend this series to anybody who enjoys the isekai genre... or the harem genre... or romance... or anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 16, 2020
I've reviewed shows that have a bad reputation for their fanservice before, but Kakegurui is the first one of these that absolutely floored me. Its reputation should be completely ignored; not only is the fanservice not even that bad to begin with, but this series has so much going on under the surface that it's a non-issue. The show is consistently exciting (even if it's predictable at times, the presentation is top notch), the characters are captivating, and the animation is just... holy shit. They did not have to go in that hard on animating the facial expressions but by god do they make the
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show. I can't think of anything else I've seen in anime that perfectly conveys the sheer weight of specific scenes as well as Kakeguri's animation, it is a PERFECT match.
I had a strong feeling that Kakegurui would join my 10/10 club after the fourth episode, and 20 episodes later that viewpoint didn't change whatsoever. I absolutely love Kakegurui and will be eagerly awaiting a third season.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 13, 2020
The Kaguya-sama doujin operates on a very strange level of quality. Initially it starts off as an ero-comedy going solely for shock humor. However, it eventually takes a turn into wholesome content and solid storytelling in certain chapters, ditching the ero content almost entirely. The second half of Doujin-ban makes the experience a positive one in the end. While I wasn't having any fun scanning the first 11 chapters and being subjected to out-of-character perversions of characters I hold very dear (Kaguya-sama is my favorite anime after all), reading through them ended up being worthwhile in the end as the kindergarten arc and other chapters
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actually made me genuinely smile. It's just a MASSIVE hill to climb before you get there.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 8, 2020
Gleipnir starts out by following the edgy death game formula to a tee, but then creates its own identity and becomes something truly special. It's definitely the kind of series that you have to be open-minded to get through because the first episodes are a bit slow and dominated by fanservice, but once you hit the last third of the season you're in for a treat. In spite of its faults, throughout it all Gleipnir has very well-choreographed action sequences, characters that are more-than-decently fleshed out, and a concept that becomes more and more interesting as the series progresses and new information is given. Also,
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I honestly think Episode 12 is the best individual episode of anything from the Spring 2020 season, it's an emotional masterpiece and the episode that made me decide "Okay, if there is a Gleipnir season 2, I am definitely tuning in."
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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