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This is a really light-hearted and sweet anime adaptation of a parody of sentai, shounen, and even shoujo works to a degree, with a delightful cast, phenomenal voice acting, lovely art and music, and overall a very funny and sweet feel to it. Each episode just makes you relax and laugh. It's all around a very relatable story about work-life balance, worker protections, friendship, and found family. It plays delightfully with the never-ending nature of the genres it's parodying, with the, "I'll get you next time" nature of it. Underneath the humor and warmth is a lovely layer of of intricate and fun world-building. The ... character designs are really fun, too, whether it's Shogun's two character models, the cute and supportive little alien who holds up his phone, his various other subordinates, or the different Rangers and other humans who make up the cast. Shogun himself is such a fun and amusing character, and it's fun to see him explore Earth and its various curiosities.

Overall, it's a great addition to the manga (this started as a webcomic on twitter/pixiv, and was later published as a manga through Square Enix), with phenomenal art. Not all of the cuteness makes it into the anime, but what they did do is outstanding. A lot is expanded, and Shogun is just so funny and sweet, and his interactions with all the cast members are lovely. Almost everything he does is relatable if you've ever worked a 9-5 or minimum wage job, focusing in on minute details and appreciating the little things in life.

If you like superhero stories told from the perspective of the villain, (e.g., Megamind, Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy, Venom), but with a warm tone, this might be your thing. And if you like the anime, Morikawa-sensei's manga is beautiful and worth picking up.

There's still material for a second season and the manga is ongoing, so here's hoping it gets one!

This is largely a good adaptation of a very funny and sweet (and currently ongoing) manga, that doesn't precisely hit the landing in the end, but overall it's a fun anime for boys love fans.

The music is cute and the art is largely nice, if sometimes kind of rushed and bad-looking, particularly stylistically. I wonder if they just had no budget like a lot of boys love series or just... picked an odd art style. It's not quite Toyota-sensei's style, but it's not bad. It just sometimes looks quite bad. But when it's good, it's really great. The characters look good together, and there are ... some really sweet couple shots, particularly in episodes 11 and 12. The actors also did a great job.

The story is centered around two couples, centrally Adachi and Kurosawa, office coworkers who fall in love, with a side couple of Tsuge and Minato, the former being Adachi's friend. The anime up through episode 10 mostly does a very good job of going through the manga plot without rush, and Kurosawa/Adachi and Tsuge/Minato are both quite funny and adorable. The concept of the telepathy is quite funny and Adachi and Tsuge are both disasters with it, and Adachi in particular has a great partner in his disaster journey, but it all ends well. Tsuge is also very silly, and his and Minato's love of Udon is adorable.

A central issue is after that episode 10 bump, I think largely because of episode 12. The manga is currently 13 volumes and ongoing, but episode 12 includes material from volumes 6-10, which is kind of terrifying for a 23 minute episode, and it handles it to varying degrees of success and lack thereof. It cuts out a large chunk of the cast and several plotlines, and makes the end feel very rushed, even more so than the manga does. I have to wonder if part of the issue is they didn't trust they'd get a season 2, which is strange, considering this already had a successful live-action adaptation prior to this. The ending of 12 still leaves 3+ volumes of material and Tsuge and Minato's relationship if they do get it. They could even go back and better develop the stuff they rushed if they wanted (though the end title kind of makes it seem like they have no plans to continue). But because of the rush and I imagine that belief they wouldn't get a season 2, they also had to squish Tsuge and Minato's relationship into a place where it could be a comfortable enough conclusion. Their relationship as we see it is largely manga-faithful, so it wasn't rushed too badly (Toyota-sensei noted that they didn't get as much time on the page early on because Adachi and Kurosawa kept going, so in 10 volumes, this is pretty much where they are, still). At the time of episode 11 I figured they were just trying to keep the couples roughly on par pacing-wise for the end of the season (they could have had Adachi and Kurosawa move in together and ended things nicely that way, saving the rest of what was in these volumes for a season 2), but after episode 12, it's clear they needed both couples to have relatively comparable but firmly conclusive conclusions, and had no room to squish Tsuge and Minato into the sprint of episode 12. I guess we're lucky that by their stopping point, Tsuge and Minato haven't developed much. I dread to think what squishing them so much would have looked like.

There are a number of other situational/context changes they made in adaptation, none of which are particularly bad exactly, and were seemingly made for time reasons, but they are a bit odd. It all works relatively fine, and the biggest moments are handled beautifully, which is what matters.

I would recommend people read the manga first before watching this. It's a nice addition to that, and the ending feels less weird. But maybe it's better if you don't know what's been cut, because the middle of episode hits and suddenly it's a roller coaster from volume 7 to 10. If you liked the anime, I'd recommend reading the manga, because it fills in a lot of the cast and world-building, has more humor, and is quite sweet. There's a number of nice plotlines that make no appearance in the anime. If you're into comedy boys love, office romance, author romance, idol romance, and adult m/m, this is a good one, and even with the rush, it's still not a bad series. It's just unfortunately fast in the end.

It feels like a strange love letter to Princess Mononoke, Seirei no Moribito, Sword of the Stranger, and kind of Dune that mostly works, largely due to the characters, pretty art, music, kind of the dialogue, and really not to the story. I enjoyed it a lot, but I wouldn't rank it on par with its deepest love, Princess Mononoke. The more it struggles to be like that film, the weaker it becomes.

The story is very environmentalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-cycles of violence. There's not... all that much else to it, other than a focus on character relationships, which is strange, because you'd think the strongest ... relationship is the one between Van and Yuna, or even Van and Sae, but it's actually strongest between Van and Hossal, largely because Yuna isn't really a character in a lot of ways. She's just kind of... present? To be the cute thing that Van worries about. Sword of the Stranger and Seirei no Moribito dealt with this by giving The Child a lot more agency and more embellished backstory. Weirdly, you can get a lot of Yuna's backstory and who she is from this, but she feels... less present than she should be. Yuna doesn't listen to anyone, but that's because she's like a toddler no one scolds, not because of anything about who she is as a person. You can editorialize Sae's reasons: her loyalty to her homeland, her wish to help her own people, perhaps her own life as an orphan. She's a good character, and she works well with Van and Hossal, and even Yuna. But the narrative focuses a LOT on Van and Hossal, even interrupting moments with Yuna to do so, in ways that are kind of funny. When I saw Hossal I thought shipping him with anyone would just be fun because "oh look at the cute bishounen", but it's hard to say that the narrative intent wasn't to ship him with Van. In any case, their relationship is quite sweet, and I really loved that a central character in the narrative was a doctor.

Scene transitions are a bit too fast and random, and the fighting is oddly fast yet feels weirdly slow. It's not overall distracting, but it is noticeable.

The art is beautiful, with gorgeous forests, landscapes, and cities, though it pales in comparison to an average Ghibli, let alone something like Garden of Words. It's a very nice-looking film, and mostly the art makes the weak plot less weak.

The music is quite nice, particularly the ending song.

It's honestly hard to explain what doesn't work about this. Something about it just doesn't really work, and it's not just that Yuna can be annoying or Van can be a bit obtuse or the weird magic. It doesn't quite hit that special something that makes it an absolutely amazing film. But it is an enjoyable one, and one I'd rewatch. If you're watching on Amazon, some of the English subtitles are kind of screwy. All in all, if you're looking for something to pass the time and liked Mononoke, Moribito, and/or Sword of the Stranger, this is not them, but it is enjoyable for what it is.

All in all it's an interesting take on the Set & Osiris myth, with a lot of tie-ins to other parts of Egyptian mythology, and also a sort of isekai, as well. It's a quick read, so if you're curious it's not a major time investment. And short as it is and with the potential for more story, it's complete, so you're not missing anything other than the potential for more.

The male character designs are quite beautiful, and I love Seth's design, as well as the antagonist's. The way ancient Egypt has been designed is also quite beautiful, and the costumes are lovely. Unfortunately Isis ... and Nephthys - the only two named female characters - are quite boring, and their characters are pretty flat and generic. Barely anything is explored with Isis and nothing is explored with Nephthys. It almost feels like a character assassination of her if she were a real person.

The series has good angst, and the character relationships - particularly between Seth and Osiris, and Seth and his father - are quite enjoyable to read about, and Osiris is a fascinating character here. The central plot itself is interesting, if a bit odd.

People often compare this to "Ennead" by Mojito, understandably, because they deal with similar parts of Egyptian mythology: namely when Set killed Osiris and seized the throne. But whereas "Ennead" focuses on Seth's battle with Horus for the throne, this comic focuses on Set and Osiris' relationship. Also "Ennead" is a lot better written and drawn, with better character designs and more detailed backgrounds, and a more interesting plot. If you're looking for more of the good writing you see in "Ennead" here, the manga sometimes get close, a little, but never quite makes it there. That being said, this is complete, and "Ennead" is currently on hiatus, so if you're looking for something quick to pass the time, here it is.

The biggest flaw is that there's not more of it. This series had a lot of interesting future potential. But all in all, not a bad short read if you like Egyptian mythology and want a neat little Japanese take on it with some bishounen and boy's love tropes.

On some level, it's not as unenjoyable as "Ponyo", so it's got that going for it, at least.

The basic premise of this story - that the protagonist doesn't understand what a subsidy is or how to use Google - is central to why I find this film incredibly moronic at the best of times. She knows what a sanitorium is, but not a subsidy for adopted children. On one level, she is a child, there are concepts she's not necessarily going to understand just yet about how the world works. On the other hand, she has access to the Internet and isn't using it. And ... didn't just... talk to anyone about it. At all. I mean I love me a good miscommunication plot, but this one's just kind of silly, particularly since she is on some level intelligent.

What's also very silly is this isn't even the only twist, and I can't really decide which is worse. I'm not mad there's an incest subplot or even fully that they queerbaited the story in the various ways they do it. It's lazy and I expect nothing better at this point from a Ghibli film. If you want very pretty friendships and straight romances, Ghibli does it like nobody's business, and that's fine. I absolutely love several of them, particularly "Princess Mononoke", "Howl's Moving Castle", and "From Up On Poppy Hill". Marnie, however, is unsurprising, but also quite boring. It's an odd "you thought we were being revolutionary!" gotcha that's so overly complicated yet somehow lazy, badly written, and just plain ridiculous.

It's a pretty film. If you step away from the stupidity, the story about two girls who form a friendship - and perhaps one-sided romantic attraction - is quite sweet. It's still not even remotely as enjoyable as most of Ghibli's better films. I disliked "Tales From Earthsea" less than this film. If you want animated queer relationships, watch yuri, any number of shoujo, boy's love, "Steven Universe", "The Owl House", "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power"... anything that's not this.

All in all if you liked the anime, this is more of the same in many ways, so you'll probably like it. If you're looking for improved story, the first OVA is all right, and Sherlock is in it. The second is fluff and Moriarty-centric.

The art was about on par with the main series, with the usual very pretty backgrounds and variably okay-looking main characters (which is funny when episode 2 has a tropey bishounen/ikemen moment meant to wow us with how "gorgeous" the Moriarty + co fam are and it's just... really unimpressive because the characters just aren't drawn well or by and large ... interesting to look at). The music is by and large the same as the series, with nothing to stand out.

Of the two, the first episode is definitely the more enjoyable, and worth checking out, particularly if you want more Sherlock & William, or want to see an anime set in Bath, England. The second is nice if you really wanted to see the tea party manga chapter animated. Neither story is particularly good, but the second episode is infinitely worse, and at least the first is kind of cutely shippy. This isn't to be mean to fluff (I like a good fluff story) but the second episode seems to focus more on the fact that the audience should recognize and like the tropes being used already, so they'll like the episode, rather than writing a good story with the tropes or using the cast well. It's particularly unfortunate because a lot of the tropes rely on attractive character designs, which this series almost uniformly fails at producing. But if you find most of the cast attractive, maybe that'll be your favorite episode. It's otherwise overly corny and boring in a way that I found unenjoyable.

I honestly really enjoyed this, though I didn't grow up with this series and so have no nostalgia glasses for it. If you like Reinhard and Kircheis' relationship, I would highly recommend you not skip this, as I see a lot of people suggest. It's not the best film there is, and the writing is often quite bad, but it's really a treat for their relationship in particular.

The writing is quite bad in a number of places. It's predictable, too. But honestly, the character interactions were the more compelling aspect, so I didn't mind.

I watched this after watching the first film and some of the ... first animated series, so I was familiar with the characters and had already seen versions of scenes included in the story. One of the scenes I saw before starting this was when Reinhard and Kircheis meet for the first time in the first anime, so it was quite fascinating to see a more recent version of the same scene. Although there honestly are animation updates that are pretty neat (the development of our understanding of how technology would advance, for instance, and how to represent that on screen), the art isn't that good in a number of places - faces in particular sometimes melt in odd ways - but the art style was by and large fine? The biggest issue I took with the changed art was the redesign of Iserlohn to just outright look like the Death Star, rather than the neat liquid metal sphere it is in the anime and other films. But outside that, the art emphasized Kircheis' gay panic a lot more than the series did, and it gave people seatbelts in the ships, so I think it's doing fine on the whole.

Yes, it was weird how many characters had odd face changes in this. I read that this is similar to the manga style, which might be part of the issue. And for better or worse, most of the story focuses on Reinhard and Kircheis anyway, so at least you don't have to be bothered too much by how strangely different Yang Wenli and Dusty look here.

The sound wasn't all that remarkable. I've played in orchestras for most of my life, so yes, I appreciate the neat usage of famous pieces in the anime series. But it wasn't exactly a compelling draw for me, so its absence here wasn't that big of a deal.

The film is basically "Reinhard can't keep his hands off Kircheis", and it's lovely. If you wanted a story where that happened, and where you see the depth of Kircheis' love of Reinhard (and vice versa) on display, this is for you. People have commented this is like fanfiction, and as usual, I don't think that's a criticism, at least in my book. It IS like fanfiction, and it's a nice treat for people who are fine with that. I had fun, I laughed. Maybe if you're a diehard fan of the series this really sucks, but if you just like shippy stuff, platonic or otherwise, this is great.

"Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu" is an absolutely wonderful drama series with beautiful art, a wonderful cast, amazingly written plot, and is full to the brim of love for rakugo. It also has a really beautiful and well-made anime adaptation if you liked the manga.

The art is simply gorgeous, and character expressions are excellent. There's also a lot of sensuality in the story, and it really emphasizes all the minutia of the various relationships.

I love the whole cast, though Kikuhiko is my favorite. His relationship with Sukeroku is absolutely wonderful, and the best moments in the story are when they're together. It's dramatic and heart-breaking and ... sweet, and you want them both to be happy. Sukeroku is also a wonderful character, trying so hard to change things up and upend things. When you realize that Kikuhiko's actions after his death are ultimately revenge for Sukeroku, it's so infinitely tragic and poignant.

I truly love this series, and I love that it got a wonderful anime adaptation, which kept just about everything in. It's a short manga if you want to check it out, and well worth the time, even if you know nothing about rakugo. If you're struggling I'd suggest watching the anime first: it's a little less overwhelming to learn about rakugo that way than in the manga, though the manga does include a lot of well-written and helpful information about rakugo.

Absolutely wonderful. Haven’t seen a sports/club show this enjoyable since “Free!” was airing. If you like “Free!” and want more of that, but not a knock-off, despite the fact that these are both for sports that take place in water, try this. It’s tropey in an absolutely wonderful way (honestly it gets really cliche at one point but it’s used quite well, or at least worth sticking through for the painful but good character moments), with beautiful animation, beautiful music, a wonderful cast who are lovely and also mostly ikemen in speedos, and honestly a lot of great messages.

I haven’t seen a series that ... handles major injuries and deconstructing stereotypes the way this one does, particularly the former. Yes, it’s cliche, but it treats Minato’s injury and recovery in a way you don’t really see that often. At least not since “Yuri on Ice!” or “Fullmetal Alchemist”. It also really focuses on how self-centered most everyone is around Minato’s injury, and how hard it is for junior high and high school athletes to excel, and the many pressures they have. There is a time crunch at that age, and people can break at the smallest losses, because the pressure is that bad. The show doesn’t present a solution for the problem (not that it has to), but it does point out that it’s not just one factor in the whole area of sports that creates the problem overall. It’s everything, whether it’s unsympathetic coaches, toxic masculinity, distant family members, the issues of growing up as a child of separated or divorced parents, particularly with a sibling involved, class status, simply time and effort… It’s just a lot. And the story also focuses on the fact that it is effort, not talent, that gets people ahead. That’s typical of sports shows, of course, but it’s emphasized in really unique ways.

The show also deals with little oddities you might write off as bad research or narrative shortcuts via anime cliches, but later brings it up “oh yeah, no, this is something that is a sign of inexperience/lack of knowledge on the characters part” and it’s really brilliant world-building that you just discount until you’re like “ohhhh”, though if you’ve been paying attention, you already took in the details and could have figured it out on your own. For instance, when they eat before a match (I used to be a competitive swimmer, this one bugged me). The pay-off isn’t typically immediate, but when it shows up, it makes perfect sense. Not as I guess a plot hole filler, but in a way you realize why it hasn’t been addressed prior to this. There’s a brief moment in episode 11 that was honestly perfect for this, and that’s littered throughout the story.

In a way there’s narrative frustration between “I want a story with a typical anime underdog” and also “I want to see the characters do well at the sport”, and the show favors the injury and character relationship plotlines more than the sport itself, which leads for an odd ending pair of episodes that at once feels a bit overwhelming but also puts you in the mindset of a bunch of players who have been practicing water polo for what sounds like around three months, versus players who have been practicing for literal years. Also, the latter has been practicing matches, not individual skillsets. And it’s kind of frustrating that the message is “friendship and having fun is what matters”, when a lot of the messaging is “we want to do well at this team sport in competitions”. “Free!” worked because they only had one underdog, and the guys mostly all knew each other, and a central message was about how rivalry is toxic. “Re-Main” tries to convince you that bonding with your teammates will make up for years of discipline and varied practice… but also that it literally won’t, and if you expected it to um… What is wrong with you? And then tries to sell you on the idea that it’s a satisfying story.

And that CAN work, in a way. If you’re happy with the parts that aren’t necessarily water polo. I personally enjoy most of the rest of the stuff, and even a lot of the water polo specific stuff is still enjoyable, even if it’s honestly painful to watch how predictably bad these newbie and untrained players are. And the fact that honestly, reminding us that your life shouldn’t be about medals but about enjoying what little time you have on this earth, particularly if you have good friends and something fun to do (a la “Sk8 the Infinity”), isn’t a bad message either, which is probably why so very many of these shows have that as a message. It just gets a bit muddled here. This gets closer to managing it better than other shows do, though.

If you want a story about a neat group of guys with interesting backstories and characters who don’t abandon their personalities for cliches (well… except in two cases, but it’s fun angst, anyway), and follows through on those things, and has a lot of really sweet heart-to-hearts between characters and supportive friendships, and episodes that just make you smile (and also hot guys), this is for you. It also honestly made me start tearing up around episode 7 on the regular, so there’s that for it. It’s not the easiest watch, but it’s enjoyable. And it honestly has an amazing set-up for season 2 if there is one, unlike a lot of other series that just continue to continue.

As someone who's really not into Sherlock Holmes adaptations and found the manga to be one of the most boring I've read in some time, the anime is okay as a popcorn show.

Story-wise it does a pretty decent job of walking you through the mysteries without being boring, because unlike the manga it shows you more of the mystery character backstories rather than speech bubble dumping. And they're far more interesting that way.

That being said... the story is still kind of overly slow and boring, particularly near the end. And yes, this series does borrow from many Sherlock Holmes adaptations (which is more obvious in ... season 2), but it is very specifically "Sherlock" fanfiction, almost uncomfortably so. Don't get me wrong, I love and write fanfiction. It's not the fact that it's fanfiction that's the problem, or even because I don't care for "Sherlock". It's just... kind of boring after a while. But at least it delivers more than "Sherlock" does, and is better written (and has a far better cast of characters who are actually likable people on some level, particularly in Sherlock's case), so there's that.

A lot of folks compare this to "Bungo Stray Dogs" and "The Case Study of Vanitas" for handling similar character tropes, or as something that would appeal to people who like those. And there are similarities. But both of those series are far better written, drawn, and animated than this, with far more interesting characters. If you're coming into this because people know you like those two and recommended this while those series are awaiting more animated seasons and chapters... You are going to be disappointed. I was, anyway.

The art varies between generic modern anime pretty and honestly kind of ugly. I'm not sure how much of that is trying to stick to the manga art and how much of it is just... cutting corners and being cheap or something. The backgrounds are lovely. It fixes a manga mistake and gives Sherlock's violin a chinrest. Louis is pretty and Sherlock is quite pretty (about half of the time). But William's design is often even uglier here than it is in the manga, and that holds true for a lot of the cast. It's just... not a very good-looking anime a lot of the time. At best it's average. The OPs and EDs are pretty, as those tend to be, but the episode stuff is... well...

The music is decent. I like the OPs and EDs.

The characters are so incredibly bland. I truly am not a Sherlock stan, but he's far more interesting than William, who's literally just a walking smirk who knows everything all the time and is truly never compelling. Unlike the manga, none of his compatriots get any background exploration (except Albert and kind of Louis), so they're one-note as well. It's neat to see his relationship with Sherlock, so I guess on that level the story delivers. The relationships the characters have with each other generally is the highlight of the story. Unfortunately this is supposed to be a mystery serial, and the mysteries are the most boring part of it.

Overall this is definitely a better way to take in this story, though it does cut out a lot. The additions are largely improvements (particularly the violin thing). But although it does a largely faithful job of adapting the parts of the manga it adapts, it really cuts out a lot. But I honestly can't recommend the manga in good faith because it's even worse. Season 1 is a fine popcorn show if you're bored between other stuff. I'd recommend stopping here, though.