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Taking place in a world where an empire lost control of its AI-controlled war machines and now they’re trying to conquer the other nations. We follow the deeds of the ‘Handler’ Vladilena Milize, an officer of the Republic of San Magnolia whose job is to oversee the advance and defense of the Republic’s AI-controlled military machines and see that the Giadian Empire machines don’t invade their territory. Since the war against the empire commenced there haven’t been any casualties in the Republic because their AI-controlled combat units are in fact human-controlled, they are controlled by people from the 86th district and they aren’t considered human ... anymore.

From the first episode the basis for the entire series is set, it has a well done and easy to follow discussion about race and class that will remember you about other works like Iron-Blooded Orphans or Legend of the Galactic Heroes, since it has a more teenage appeal to it, its themes don’t go all the way down to be too political or maybe too complex, nevertheless, they are greatly executed.

At first, I was somewhat doubtful about the show but as the story progressed it just kept getting more interesting and intense with each episode, so by the third episode I was entirely hooked by it. It also has a somewhat non-linear narrative with two perspectives (one with Vladilena and the 86 squadron that she commands, in that perspective, we mostly follow Shin A.K.A. The Undertaker, their captain) that has an amazing edition to it, sometimes we start following the 86 squad till we get to some kind of climax to instantly backtrack a little and follow Vladilena, now with more insight of what’s to come it is also possible to unravel some of its twists beforehand. This two-sided narrative it’s excellently done and it speaks of the amazing editing skills of the team.

Along with the two-sided narrative, the anime plays a lot with the episode title screen and makes it part of the narrative in some dramatic way, sometimes a character will say a motivational speech that will end in a climactic quote, just for the title screen appearing and show the final phrase to accent it more, it's pretty effective. The same goes for the ending theme, it is used to accent certain scenes and it even appears way before the episode really ends, it even changes the ending song depending on what is going on. I like these two narrative details a lot.

It is one of those shows where characters die a lot with each episode, and they die at such a fast pace that sometimes it is hard to feel anything for them, but the story tries to balance that out with some backstory and making that episode focus more on them. This strategy sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t, since it could hint to you who’s going to die next. The cast is likable for the most part, they are on the tropey side and can be dull at first, but, they also will grow to you gradually.

Animation’s very pretty, as it has some fluidity and it is well drawn for most of the part, it goes back to back between 2D and CG but they’re so well integrated that you won’t feel those transitions. The CG is only applied to the mecha battles which are intense, well-choreographed, and intense scenes, so they help a lot to maintain good tension and the stakes high.

I was somewhat reluctant to watch 86, as the characters looked more SAO than I would like to (there is nothing wrong with that mind you, but I don’t prefer that kind of design anymore), and it took some time for the thing to get really good, but once you’re fully committed it goes from good to great and it even has one of the best episodes I’ve seen in recent memory (episode 10). It doesn’t go full speed with its denser themes but it is a good approach nonetheless, if this sort of escalating keeps going on I can’t wait to see what it is in store for the next season.

The first season of Kobayashi-san was a very entertaining and at times wholesome anime to watch, I wasn’t expecting the more serious parts as I was looking to have a fun time as a way of escapism from my busy everyday office life, and yet those were the parts that I liked and remember the most. So my most anticipated aspect of this second season was the mini character development arcs with its bitter-sweet moments just to have a good chuckle right after that. Surprisingly enough this season had more and longer moments like that but the results are a little mixed.

Right in the first ... episode, we are introduced to the new character and seemingly new antagonist of this season Ilulu. She is a chaos dragon that literally only wants to burn the world (although she has her reasons), and at first, I thought she will be a prominent character that will pivot the plot of the entire season but I was far from wrong, as she instantly becomes one of the supporting characters. I don’t dislike that decision though, as she isn’t particularly charismatic or as entertaining as the other dragons, at least to me.

In this season we get to see more of Tooru’s backstory and how it intertwined with the supporting dragons. I can’t say that it is handled badly, because it is not, but it was a little off to go between that kind of narrative to a silly joke, it didn’t transition that smoothly. So most of the season feels a little inconsistent in that regard.

That’s not to say that this season was bad, there is a lot to like and love about this season, and also probably it will work for any other person. For instance, they are genuinely funny moments and I think the last episode might be my favorite of the two seasons. Also, it still has terrific animation that shows off the studio’s skills for the fight scenes, it has without exaggerating a movie quality to it that makes you want that other anime focused in battles like Shingeki no Kyojin (just to give an example) had this kind of quality to it,

Kobayashi-san’s season two doesn’t reach the heights of comedy and good balance between jokes and drama as the first one but it still manages to be a wholesome ride that will keep you engaged for most of its runtime, hopefully, the next season will increase its threshold.

Entering an anime without not knowing anything about it can be risky and time-consuming, but sometimes one can find a big mine of gold while looking for copper stones, and that is exactly what I found with Odd Taxi.

In Odd Taxi we follow the everyday life of Odokawa a stoic walrus with a mysterious upbringing but one day an idol for an uprising group is reported missing and it seems that maybe he would give her, her last ride, so both the yakuza and the police (the corrupted police) is trying to persuade him to work with them. In the meantime, we get to ... know a large cast of charming and well-designed characters that could be or could not be involved in that accident.

Wrongly assuming that it will be about comedy sketches about the rides of a walrus taxi driver I was super wrong (well mildly as there is some comedy here and there). In turn what I got was an almost non-linear story about yakuza, complicated love, grudges, and the recurrent theme of being an outcast or being the second option (maybe feeling like a loser). Odd Taxi is constantly reminding you of the unfairness and hardness of life while having some fun with that ugly side, after all this is an anime where characters are portrayed as anthropomorphic animals.

Every character in Odd Taxi has something important to add to the main narrative and for the overall themes of the anime. Every single one of them is interesting and maybe you'll have someone you don't prefer but as soon as you watch their focused chapter you will probably fall in love with them, at least that was my case every single time.

I was expecting some laughs before watching Odd Taxi but what I've got instead were introspective moments about life and depressive thoughts, and for that, I'm grateful as I didn't know how badly I needed Odd Taxi.

In Sukeroku Futabi-hen we now follow the growth of Yotaro as a Rakugo performer, he now is somewhat famous on radio and T.V. but he is struggling to get his true voice as a performer. On the other hand, we have Yakumo who is getting older and fears that one day he can no longer do Rakugo, which he intends to take to the grave when he dies.

Things aren’t looking too hot for anyone involved but there is always Rakugo as a means of connection for them and us the public. This season punched me in the gut too many times to count as it ... did the unbelievable for me, as I didn’t think that it would surpass the first story arc with such beloved characters but then here we are.

This season tastes like a refined and better-preserved liquor, every episode is packed with a wide range of emotions that it is hard to imagine how they can fit in a 20-minute episode. It has some of the problems of the first season but they are so minimal that it isn't worth mentioning.

Something that blows my mind of SGRS is that among the reasons it was created was to make consciousness of the art of Rakugo, an art that I certainly didn’t know existed but thanks to the show I now have the privilege to know it. I entered SGRS not knowing how I will love it, but I’m very grateful it turned out this way.

It’s hard to sell out Fumutsu no Anata e (or To your eternity) to someone, it is about a semi-sentient orb created by a god (?) that can transform into any life form that dies beside them and that no matter how deep a wound is or how badly destroyed is their body it can restore it with time. It is hard to sell it out to someone but it’s worth trying.

In Fumutsu, we follow the random adventures of Fushi as they develop their abilities, speech, how to behave like a common human being and also learn their reason for existence. As we tag along ... with them, we get to know a bunch of likable characters both friends and allies, who try to help Fushi to understand the world as well as control their power for their benefit.

The rhythm of the anime is a little mixed, it is divided by mini-arcs and every time we start with a new one with new characters can be a little tiresome or repetitive, and that is the main issue with Fumutsu, yet, this repetition could be a little obligatory to make the plot advance or better said, to make Fushi grow as a character or as a person. Fushi’s growth is one of the strongest aspects of the show as we see them struggle a lot, at first they barely can communicate but slowly but surely they gain access to speech, speaking of which Fushi’s seiyuu did an unbelievable job portraying their character, words elude me to describe his talent.

Every character Fushi meets is colorful and have an interesting background, what is also pretty commendable is that the story talks about oppressed people by one thing or another and makes it in such a grounded and relatable way that makes their arcs more believable and in some instances more rewarding as they conclude, however, don’t expect a story with happy endings here and there, it has a dark tone after all.

Fumutsu was one of my favorite shows of its season, but even if it was a great time altogether by the end of its runtime I felt somewhat tired with its formulaic approach, however, once you get used to each new arc you’ll be assaulted by some pretty but sour moments.

Taking place right after the events of the last movie everything is seeming dry for Shinji, Azuka, and Rei. They arrive at a little Japanese village where people are trying to rebuild their lives, while Misato and her team are preparing for the last attack against Gendo.

I'm one of those people who didn't like Evangelion: 3.33 that much (although I have the strong need to watch it in a new light), so I was a little anxious about how this final movie will fare. While I didn't love it like Evangelion: 2.0 (I'm one of those people) I liked it quite a lot. It has ... a good mix of good, wholesome, sad, frustrating moments that makes it hard to not like it. In many ways, it is a goodbye letter to the characters and for the series so it works both in plot context as well as meta context.

The flow of the movie is mixed though, the first half of the movie is the strongest one at least to me, we see our protagonists do stuff and develop their characters beautifully and sadly that keeps the progression of the story in a steady rhythm. The second part however is when things get a little rocky and in some parts make you think that a scene has been taken too much time, I'm talking about the action scenes. In the original anime, the action scenes were beautifully animated and choreographed, if an Eva connected a punch or fired a rifle you could feel the weight of them and each fight had the stakes up to the sky so it was easy to be fully engaged. The problem with this movie (and maybe with many of the fights of the Rebuild tetralogy) is that the fights didn't feel meaningful, in many of them we see our pilots shooting at enemies like it was a shooting gallery and every one of them dies with one bullet, so the danger is almost nonexistent, sum it up with serviceable but not great CG animation and you'll have a scene that will be (sad to say this) boring to watch. This pattern repeats in almost every fight so it really impacted my enjoyment of the movie.

Speaking of CG, I don't have a problem when they decide to use it but some scenes by the ending are tainted by an unrefined CGI that would be beautiful and memorable if they decided to do it in 2D (maybe) although it is a budget problem so I understand why they decided to go this route.

Evangelion has always been synonymous with religious and symbolic narrative with a lot of interpretation and that tradition still is true for this movie, it has a lot to chew on and what is so beautiful about it is that everybody will have an interpretation of it, for instance, after watching it, I was talking to a couple of friends and it was surprising how the three of us have a completely different interpretation of the ending and the fun part is that all of our theories could be the "real" ending, and that speaks a lot of the greatness of Evangelion.

The Rebuild tetralogy has been a polarizing series, it has very high and very low points through its entirety and they all are far from perfect (except for 2.0 lol) it somewhat shifted to a more spectacle route instead of a more introspecting one and that is OK, Thrice Upon a Time tried to do both and while it was a good choice the result was a mixed bag. All in all, even when there are things that I didn't prefer 3.0+1.0 was a satisfying sendoff to the tetralogy.

Right after the events of the first season on Mugen Train, we follow Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu, and the best boy Inosuke on their last assignment of supporting the Fire Pillar Rengoku to investigate a suspicious demon activity in this infinity train.

Overall the pacing is good, I can’t remember a moment where I felt bored or anything but it also isn’t that engaging either, I would say that it has a very safe narrative. In the first half the stakes are set and the characters somewhat developed but the second act stumbles a little as it feels somewhat lazily written, with characters appearing out of nowhere ... and giving directions to other characters.

The movie does a great job to remind us how kind Tanjiro is, it’s hard to not like him and root for him. He represents good people that have been caught in an unfair and oppressive system, he knows it but he’s still willing to do his best. Is pretty easy to make a character like him so boring but he is the total opposite. Same as the show Inosuke and Zenitsu are so much fun to be around and I think they are one of the strongest aspects of the anime, here they have some cool moments and Inosuke have more screen time than I anticipated but I would prefer any day to have these three interacting more. Nezuko on the other hand, I like her but is easily one of my least favorite characters as she is too tropey for me.

One of the stars of the movie is Rengoku, he is a very likable character and the movie takes its time to develop him and shows us enough of his backstory to care for him, every time he appears the animation goes full kinetic and energetic, and because he is so fun and compelling to be around by the end of the movie you’ll likely want more of him.

In the same vein as the show, the quality of animation it’s good but most of the time its quality will be more like an episode than a movie, however, fights are where the money is probably at as they are pretty intense, especially the last one on which the stakes went from 0 to 200. That being said, to me, Kimetsu no Yaiba’s antagonists aren’t that good, at least to this point in the story they felt generic and their personality tends to be pretty similar between each other, what the anime did great with them, however, are their backstories as they feel strong, sincere and easy to relate.

The main antagonist for the movie is serviceable to the plot but isn’t a compelling one. He falls into this new kind of trend of deviant antagonists who has some kind of sexual pleasure when they murder people, and that trait isn’t bad per se (speaking in terms of storytelling mind you, any type of murder is bad, don’t do it), but this character doesn’t have more to them.

The ending was surprisingly great, it certainly elevates the movie by just having it, as it is pretty effective and it has the perfect timing for everything, there was a kind of plot twist that seemed out of nowhere but the more we follow that thread the more I feel it is right, so who knows.

Mugen Train it’s like a long episode of the anime, and that is both a good and a bad thing, as it maintains a good standard of everything but it also doesn’t surpass your expectations by much. For fans of the anime, it’s a no-brainer to watch it but if you’re currently struggling to continue the series I don’t think this movie will change your mind.

Before watching Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu I wasn’t aware of the beautiful art form that Rakugo is, for those unaware, Rakugo is a one-man show where a performer tells classic stories (of comedy, horror, romance, you name it) where they portray several characters with the only help of their skills and maybe a hand fan.

SGRS tells the life story of Kikuhiko an aspiring Rakugo performer who doesn’t really want to do Rakugo because he prefers to dance but he couldn’t dance anymore as he had an accident. In his misadventure, he becomes the apprentice of a renowned Rakugo performer along with another student called Shin. ... Both Kiku and Shin are like oil and water but they get along pretty well and the story will revolve mostly around their developments as Rakugo performers and their relationship. In a way is a tale of love, for what you love and the people you love, to learn how to love and the parts in between, like being in love with a person that won’t be loving you.

It has great pacing overall, every chapter was engaging and the only real issue I can find was at the very beginning and end of the show as there is a character shift that is way too violent for the narrative’s own good as we have to be invested in characters that weren’t that plot-heavy for the story, but it isn’t the greatest of problems so it can be overlooked with some time.

The narrative does an excellent job foreshadowing themes with its Rakugo stories that not only made sense in the particular episode they appear in but to the overall narrative, it is truly exquisite.

Watching SGRS made me realize the impact it has made in Japanese media like anime, movies, or even comedy, thanks to it I now understand a little bit more were some of the comedy of shows like Osomatsu-San come from. SGRs has a lot to offer for anyone who can give it 2 minutes of their time, it sure it’s a treasure that I didn’t know existed.

Every 1000 years the gods of the world assemble to decide what to do with humanity, this time around all of them chose to wipe it out because of reasons, but, out of nowhere as a miraculous saint the valkyrie Brunhild appears to challenge the gods and make a tournament with 13 gods vs 13 humans and let them have an opportunity (if impossible) to survive for another 1000 years. And so begins the story of Shuumatsu no Walkure or Record of Ragnarok as it was localized in the Western world.

As with many of these types of anime, the interesting part comes in the selection ... of historical figures that will fight for humanity or the heavens, and the selection it’s pretty good on both sides along with the expectative of how figures that you know (or don’t) have been fleshed out. Another thing that I like about this type of story is that I get to know historical or mythical characters that I wouldn’t know otherwise.

Battles are the thing that you will be expecting to watch and for the most part, they work well, it has a style of narrative where one of the fighters throw a punch or an attack and we get a narration or flashback explaining both the attack and the character’s backstory, to make it more compelling. I believe this type of narrative is handled well and keeps things interesting but fans of flashy and high-budget fight animation might get a little disappointed since they aren’t that complexly choreographed or anything.

In general, it has a nice flow that keeps you interested for all its runtime, it’s hard to see how the outcome of the fight will be as they seem on equal ground for the most part, or even when the situation looks overwhelming for one of the contestants you can always have some hope that the tides will change the other way around.

Shuumatsu no Walkure is not the best anime with this formula, but it will keep you engaged from beginning to end if you are a little bit committed. Characters are fun and interesting to watch in particular Brunhilda which has a wide range of expressions, but every character has something to offer as the plot slowly develops. It isn’t the most amazing of times although, one of its fights has one moment where I was so pumped up that I was on the verge of tears because it filled me with grace and hope, no joking. That aside, it is a fun and safe anime to watch and recommend.

One would think that after the events of the final episode in the first season things will be great for Joe and everybody else but that couldn't be far from the truth. Several years after being the Megalobox champion Joe has become a wandering and aimless fighter that goes town to town to win or lose arranged fights, he now has an addiction to a certain drug and it seems he's running away from his past.

If season one of Megalobox focused on the fights while having darker themes in the background, Nomad twists the formula around to first the themes then the fights and it ... works wonderfully. Several heavy topics are discussed like racism, xenophobia, classism, child labor, etc. Each of these topics is handled pretty well and only shows how skillful and informed the writers are.

The season could be broken into two parts being the first the smallest as it kind of unfolds its arc in 4 or 5 episodes, the moment I realized that it was going to have a new direction I was kinda nervous as I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to go that way, obviously I was utterly mistaken as this new direction expanded and furthered the themes of the first part in an excellently done fashion. The show has a seamless flow to it from scene to scene and from episode to episode, and by the time we reach its emotionally heavy conclusion we and the characters have been through a lot, there isn't a single dull moment in its entire runtime.

The characters are most interesting than ever as they have grown up and been more complex than before, each one of them has their own beliefs and fears, also they're portrayed extremely well by their seiyuu that I think it's impossible to not like them unless you don't have a soul or something like that.

Being fewer fights than before one would think that the animation wouldn't be as good but rest assured that it is still handled greatly, it still has the same old-VHS stylization as the previous one that only adds to feel more melancholic and kind of eerie.

The first season was good, I liked its characters and cool presentation, it made me want to have another season but nothing more. Nomad struck me with a heavy punch and escalated everything to the highest level, it did everything it wanted with me, made me laugh, and made me cry. It is simply a masterfully created work that feels almost perfect and I can't wait to see what the animation team has to offer in newer projects.