Back to jc9622's Profile jc9622's Profile

I haven't watched "New Game!" in like a year now but this OVA just further proves to me why I fell in love with this series. Characters are still great and their interactions are as great as ever. This OVA should be enough while I'm impatiently waiting for the 2nd Season (Why can't July come soon enough?? X0)


Anyways, the cover should give you an idea of what this OVA episode is going to be about. After finishing their project, they hold a company vacation and decide to go to a ski resort. Just like the series, I love this episode because of its hilarious moments ... (Aoba scared to skii are one of the highlights for me) and the undertone yuri moments which remains prevalent as ever.
Seriously, seeing Kou and Rin together is too pure, innocent and sweet for me. I might need an insulin or some shit.

There's also a bunch of fanservice scenes, which should have been expected when looking at the cover. Like I said in my previous New Game review, I am completely fine with New Game's fanservice scenes because this is one of those rare series that does fanservice right and they're all over 18 anyways so FBI-san can't arrest me if I'm caught watching Hifumi's 4K naked body on my laptop :P.

The OVA is pretty much the same case. Basically, you get to see them all naked in the hot spring. Like damn, Hifumi's body is a gift I never knew I needed.

If you're like me who loved the 1st Season of New Game then this is definitely a must watch. If you can't wait for Season 2 then what are you waiting for? Go watch this right now and embrace Hifumi's hot body.


[OVERALL]: (9/10)

Hibike Euphonium getting a sequel was a big surprise for me but I was excited nonetheless. As someone who loved the first season so much (mostly because I'm part of a concert band (Percussionist) ), I had high expectations for the sequel and now that it's over. It definitely lived up to my expectations.

(There will be SPOILERS in my review)

[Story]: (8.5/10)
The 2nd Season of Hibike Euphonium picks up right where the first season ended. The Kitauiji High School Concert Band has won a gold and they now have have a new goal: To reach and win the Nationals.

You'll notice something different when you ... decide to watch the 2nd Season of Hibike. Unlike the first season which focused more on band performances and the Kitauji Band trying to improve so they can win a gold, this season focuses more on character development. That also includes the much needed development for Asuka. The first season also had character development, but it was pretty much focused on Reina and Kumiko.

The 2nd Seasons starts off by expanding the whole "2nd/3rd year drama" the first season told us about. I can almost assure you right now that some people won't like this arc and I understand their views towards this arc because it does feel a bit melodramatic. However, I'm probably going to be in the minority when I say this but I liked this arc because of how they handled Mizore's character and her development. To me, watching the arc felt close to home because I experienced something similar that Mizore went through (back in my first year of high school, without the drama) and I sympathized with her character because I knew how she felt. Knowing that Mizore is just "one of" Nozomi's friends and the whole misunderstanding. It felt a bit melodramatic, sure but the arc was still amazing for what it tried to show us.

The arc that I really loved the most was the arc that focused on Asuka. It was perfect. It was something that I have been asking for the most since the first season and now that she finally got some focus, I was amazed at how KyoAni (or the author, to be more specific) handled this arc. In the first season, Asuka was shown as someone perfect and someone who you want to admire. She's great at playing the Euphonium and it seemed like she didn't have any personal issues whatsoever. She didn't give a crap about other student's problems and all she wants is for her band group to succeed. However, in this season, the arc finally unmasked her. It shows us why she's good at playing Euphonium and why she wanted to win that gold so badly. It also shows us that Asuka is not as perfect as people might think she is because, after all, she's just a human being. She also has personal issues except she tries her hardest to not show it because she doesn't want other people getting involved with her issues and feeling sorry for her. This is the MAIN reason why I found this arc to be perfectly executed. The fact that she's not perfect and she's just a human being, just like us, gives Asuka more depth and not just some character who is beloved by many just because of her personality. She's now truly the best girl of Hibike in my eyes.

I'll talk more about the characters later. I just wanted to get my opinions out for those arcs because they were the highlights for me. Moving on, the dramatic aspect is great just like the first season but it's a bit better, if I say so myself. For example, there was one dramatic scene that was executed really well. The scene that I'm talking about is when Kumiko was trying to convince Asuka to return to the band. Kumiko's VA deserves a pay raise, honest to God. That's mostly the reason why that dramatic scene worked. Part of the reason is, of course, the outstanding cinematography by Kyoto Animation. They really know where to place the shots.

Lastly, the band performances or using the technical term "The Wind Ensemble" remains flawless as ever. The attention to detail remains the same and if you're in a concert band, like me, then you'll truly appreciate how much detail KyoAni has put not just on the wind ensemble but also when they tune an instrument. Even the minor mistakes that some of the characters make when they're playing their instruments can be spotted by ear. It truly is amazing! You know what's even more amazing? KyoAni providing a full-on, uncut ensemble with no monologues whatsoever for this season. This is what I have been wishing for since the first season and the Gods of KyoAni granted my wish. It was simply mind-blowing and I was left speechless after the ensemble finished. Hell, I still had goosebumps 15 minutes after the ensemble finished.
______________________________________________________________
[Art/Animation]: (10/10)
See? This is why anime studios needs to chillax with their usual 1-2 anime per season. If they do what Kyoto Animation does then they can also achieve beautiful and breathtaking visuals like what we see in Hibike Euphonium. Even though the art and visuals for both seasons of Hibike looks almost exactly the same, it doesn't really matter because they're both simply outstanding to look at so nothing needed to be changed. The animation is also as smooth as it can get.
______________________________________________________________
[Sound]: (10/10)
The soundtrack for Hibike is absolute masterpiece. As someone who is a part of a concert band, it is absolutely mind-boggling how amazing and how there's so much attention to detail when they're performing an ensemble. I can tell that the ensembles weren't just played through some electronic computer but rather, a real-life band playing on some sort of sound room to record their musical pieces. I gotta give props to KyoAni for doing all that shit. Now the OP and ED theme song(s)

The OP theme song is "Soundscape" by TRUE. I still prefer the first season's OP theme song. What made the 1st OP so unique was that it felt like an ensemble with vocals in it but the 2nd OP felt like your typical J-Pop song. Now don't get me wrong. I still like the 2nd OP for what it is. It still sounded great.
The ED theme song is "Vivace!" by Kitauji Quartet. Now, this ED I like. The 1st ED was decent but I didn't liked it that much. The 2nd ED, on the other hand, is a major improvement. Both vocals and the melody/tune.

I don't generally review Japanese VA's but I want to for this series. I've already said this but I'll say it again...for a millionth time. Kumiko's VA deserves a huge pay raise. I don't know how she does it but she makes Kumiko sound like a realistic teenage girl and not some typical "Tsundere" or "Onee-chan" girl with a squeaky-ass voice. Her acting is on point and it's how a teenage girl character should mostly sound like.
______________________________________________________________
[Characters]: (9.5/10)
The first season didn't really have that much character development, besides the development for Kumiko and Reina. However, this season focuses on A LOT of characters with the most amazing character developments I have seen in this series. Of course, the 2nd season also introduces a few new characters like Mizore, Nozomi and a couple of teachers. While the new teachers were just a bunch of supporting characters, they were useful because we get to learn more about Taki-sensei or Taki Noboru, who I thought was just "some music teacher" (They were also Taki's college friends). In other words, I was surprised when Taki got some focus in this season. We get to learn more about Taki's past and why he's a music teacher right now. His development was definitely impressive and added more depth to this character.

Since Kumiko and Reina got the most focus in the previous season, both main characters felt a bit like supporting characters in this season as the show makes way to focus on other characters. That isn't necessarily a bad thing because now, we get to see both Kumiko and Reina having casual conversations and being comfortably close so the development between them in the previous season was worth it. I want to talk about Kumiko because while both of them felt a bit like supporting characters, Reina was pretty much pushed to the sidelines more than Kumiko and it wasn't until after the first two arcs (Mizore and Asuka's arc) that this season reminded us that Kumiko is still the main protagonist of the series. She still got some focus, along with her older sister. The portrayal of Kumiko and Mamiko's relationship development was amazing. My perception on Mamiko pretty much changed after they showed us why she was acting the way she is towards Kumiko. As for Kumiko, the show still did a great job developing her character even further and I learned one new fact about her that I never bothered questioning (How and why she gained interests in instruments?) in the previous season.

Speaking of relationships...No, the yuri ship between Kumiko and Reina did not sail and it won't ever sail. It doesn't happen in the source material and it won't ever happen in the anime. Stop being delusional yuri shippers. KyoAni played you fuckers like a damn fiddle and they're laughing their asses right now. *ahem I do wish they did get together though ahem*.
______________________________________________________________
[Enjoyment]: (9/10)
Not once did I get bored of this series. Ever since the very first episode of this series, I knew this would end up being one of my favourite anime series of all time and now that it's over, this anime has definitely become one of my favourite KyoAni titles. I'm definitely going to be re-watching the series, now that's there's 26 episodes in total.
______________________________________________________________
[VERDICT]
"Hibike Euphonium 2" is a great sequel from its predecessor. It's one of those rare sequels that further improves upon all the things that worked/did not worked in the previous season and it didn't feel like an unnecessary cash grab. While the ensembles (band performances) was a bit lacking in amount, it made up for it by having the best character development I have seen in the Hibike Euphonium series. Also, the show has uncut, beautiful ensembles with no monologues, something that wasn't really present in the previous season, so that definitely makes up for having less amount of ensembles in this season. Finally, this season still retains it's beautiful and breathtaking art and it's great music. I'm really happy with how this series ended. Although, it's a bit saddening that we won't get anymore future seasons since the 2nd Season adapted every material left in the book.


[OVERALL]: (9.5/10)

I was excited when I heard that Working!! is getting a new anime series. Working!! ended on a beautiful and conclusive note but it wasn't enough for me. I wanted more so I prayed for more and I guess the Gods of Anime must have heard my prayers by giving us this "spin-off". You know what I have to say about this new series? It lived up to my expectations.


[Story]
WWW.Working!! is technically the first in the franchise. This was adapted from a web manga called "Working!! Web-ban" which came first before the beloved "Working" which we all know and love. Basically, it was like ... the author's first draft before she (or he?) got serious and started writing Working!!. For the sake of this review (and the sake of simplicity) though, I'm going to call this series a "spin-off" and the previous Working!! as the original even though it's the other way around. Why am I providing you this info? Because I'm a nice guy and to also inform you why this series is the way it is (i.e, this spin-off is more crazier than the original, rushed romance and etc.).

WWW.Working takes place in the same old "Wagnaria" restaurant but the characters are entirely different. The MC is now about a serious first year student (who is also not a lolic- I mean, loli-loving) Daisuke who decided to get a part-time job after his father's company goes bankrupt.

Some fans of the original Working series might crucify me for saying this but WWW.Working's comedic aspect is a lot better than the first two seasons of Working. However, the 3rd Season's comedy is on par with this spin-off. The gags didn't consistently made me laugh per say but it definitely made me laugh more than the first two seasons of the original Working!!
Why is that? It's because the character dynamics in this show is perfect
When both of the characters' personalities clash together in this show, it leads to a whole wide array of funny moments. To top it off, the character's quirks are more crazier here than the original Working. It's like their quirkiness level is turned up to 11 out of 10.

The gags did get a little bit repetitive like the whole chocolate joke thing (They even skipped a whole year just to repeat the gag) but for the most part, they were creative enough to make the jokes interesting and funny almost every time.

One last aspect that I want to talk about is the romance. The original Working's romance was simply heartwarming and beautiful. It moved at a slow pace and nothing felt wrong when they got together because they spent enough time to justify them being a couple. In this series, that wasn't the case. The romantic progression was very rushed. You'd think they'd produce another season for this series just like they did with the original to spend time on the relationship development but nope..All of the characters got together with someone in this season.

While I thought the romance aspect of WWW.Working was ehh, this wasn't really a big issue for me. Since this was like a first draft for the author, you can tell that she didn't take this work seriously. All of the romance in this series was played in a comedic kind of way. Hence, the reason why this show isn't really tagged as "Romance". So if you're expecting a more serious romance like the 3rd Season of Working brought to us then you're not going to get it.
______________________________________________________________
[Art/Animation]: (7/10)
The art and visuals looks slightly worse than the 3rd Season of Working!! and that season was released at least a year ago so I don't know what the hell happened here. Reduced budget? Different staff? It doesn't really matter that much because it wasn't that painful to watch and it took a very short time to get used to WWW.Working's art style and its visuals.
______________________________________________________________
[Sound]: (8.5/10)
Just like the previous Working, the soundtracks are ok. Nothing really stood out, it was just ok. Now the OP and ED theme song(s)

The OP theme song is "Eyecatch! Too much!" by Haruka Tomatsu, Yoko Hikasa, and Sora Amamiya. Ahh, Working..Back at it again with the over-the-top, hilarious and somehow very catchy OPs. I pretty much love this OP just as much as the previous OPs. It sounds very catchy because of its very fast melody.
The ED theme song is "Muchuuryoku Fever" by Yuuichi Nakamura, Kouki Uchyama, and Kensho Ono. Hmm, I see that A-1 Pictures is still following the trend where the male characters sings the ED and the female characters sings the OP. Well, I love that trend so I'm glad it's still the same thing for this show. The ED sounds really good and I'm glad the voices are light and aren't so over the top like those rock songs. It perfectly fits my taste.
______________________________________________________________
[Characters]: (8/10)
It's quite disappointing that none of the characters here came close to living up to the greatness of the characters from the original Working!!, like Yamada (best girl) or Popura but the characters here in WWW.Working are still a bunch of good characters nonetheless. One of the main reasons why I liked the characters here are their personalities. I love their personalities and they were extremely hilarious. That's the reason why I thought this show was more hilarious than the first two seasons of the original Working!!

The character dynamics is what this show nailed though...perfectly. For example, one of the character dynamics that I really enjoyed watching was between Shiho and Yuuta. They both have quite a bit of history together and that's the reason why our "tsundere/sadist" here tortures (not physically) our poor Yuuta. Their dynamics just kills me. I ended up laughing whenever I see Shiho torture Yuuta in so many ways possible and the more hilarious part is she enjoys it, hence the reason why she's a sadist. Also, Shiho just became my best girl of WWW.Working because I like girls that are a mix of tsundere and sadism.

Of course, I also love the other character dynamics like the interaction between Higashida and Miyakoshi or between Muranashi and Adachi and many more but Shiho and Yuta's dynamic is the one that I enjoyed the most.
______________________________________________________________
[Enjoyment]: (8.5/10)
Aaaand here goes another seasonal anime that I'm going to miss and another symptom of "Anime Withdrawal Symptoms" that I need to deal with. I'm really going to miss this anime because this was one of my weekly dosage of comedy and I really enjoyed this show so much. At least, there's KonoSuba S2 next season so I don't have to worry about my weekly dosage of comedy running out ;).
______________________________________________________________
[VERDICT]
Working!! is much better than this series but that doesn't mean I hate this series. In fact, I love this series just as much as I loved the original Working!! While the romance aspect of the show was ehh compared to the original series, the great comedy makes up for it. WWW.Working!! made me laugh just as much as the 3rd season of Working!! did and it was definitely better than the first 2 seasons in terms of the comedic aspect. The reason for that are the characters and their dynamics. If you're a fan of Working!! or shows that has great comedy then this is definitely recommended. Just don't expect it to live up to the greatness of Working!!


[OVERALL]: (8.4/10)


Pros:
+Even though I'm a big fan of Working!!, I still enjoyed watching this series
+Great Comedy
+Catchy OP and ED theme songs, as always
+Fun cast of characters with enjoyable and hilarious personalities
+Great Character Dynamics

Cons:
-Romance is the weakest aspect of this show
-Gags can get a bit repetitive
-Art and Visuals looks cheap compared to the 3rd Season of Working!!

I know you're looking at the studio right now and thinking "Hmm White Fox? I bet this is also going to be dark like Steins;Gate or Re:Zero". I'll get right to the point but this is NOT a magical girl show with a dark atmosphere. This is just a regular magical girl show. However, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy this show.


[Story]: (6.5/10)
The story of "Soushin Shojou Matoi" (or Matoi The Sacred Slayed in English) isn't anything special like Madoka Magica or Yuki Yuna is a Hero. It's basically about a normal middle school girl named "Matoi" who wants to live ... a simple, ordinary life. Due to a sudden turn of events, she suddenly became a magical gir-...woops, my bad....I mean, an exorcist girl whose job is to exorcise the demons known as "The Nights". She and other exorcist girls teams up to defeat the Nights that's ravaging their world. Think of other magical girl shows out there and you'll barely notice any difference between this show and other magical girl shows. I guess the only slight difference here is that the girls here have their own "familiars" or what the show likes to call them "Kami" (Gods) which fights alongside them.

Now that doesn't mean the show is bad. Sure, this type of story has been done before but the show was surprisingly pleasant to watch. The show had a very mediocre start (1st episode was honestly bad, albeit really boring) but it progressively got better bit by bit as the show went on and by the 2nd half of the series, the show was enjoyable to watch and I ended up enjoying the story (The mystery about the Nights, who they are, what they're doing in this world and their purpose) as it unfolded. I also enjoyed the development between Matoi and her dad, which is, in my opinion, one of the best aspects of this show. Just ignore the scene where Matoi's dad accidentally groped her daughter's boobs, which is very disturbing even if it was only used for comical purposes.

Speaking of grabbing someone's boobs, the show doesn't have a lot of fanservice. Most of the fanservice scenes that you'll see are only present in the first half of the series. 95% of them are Matoi getting stripped and running around naked because anime. Thank God, my mom didn't walk in and spot a naked middle school girl running around on my screen or else she would have called the cops on me immediately even though I'm her son. Anyways, in the second half, the fanservice got very light. There's still the "obligatory" beach episode but unlike the other beach episodes out there, it wasn't some useless filler fanservice-heavy episode. The episode was still relevant to the plot which kinda surprised me.

The comedic aspect of the show was alright. Yuma is supposed to be the comic-relief character of this show but before the "Yuma-focused" episode, Yuma's actions weren't funny for the most part and at that point of the show, it became apparent to me that the show was just trying too hard to be funny. However, the episode that focused on Yuma was legit hilarious and it's when Yuma truly shined. Moving on, the dramatic aspect of the show was also ok but I'd be lying if I said that there wasn't one part of the show that made me emotional.
______________________________________________________________
[Art/Animation]: (8/10)
If you've watched any of White Fox's shows before then I can almost guarantee you that the first question that will pop up in your mind when you look at this show is "White Fox made this?" or somewhere along those lines. Judging by the art style, this doesn't even look like a White Fox show. This looks like something "Studio Trigger" made. That cheap-looking but somehow beautiful and unique looking art that Studio Trigger is known for is what Shoushin Shojou Matoi looks like. It makes me wonder if this is White Fox's insurance policy just in case Re:Zero flops because this show looks cheap compared to their other shows. Anyways, I actually like the art style. It looks somewhat unique and beautiful. The animation for the action scenes were also fairly smooth and wasn't a pain to watch.
______________________________________________________________
[Sound]: (9/10)
The OSTs for this show is awesome. No, it's not awesome. It's AMAZING!! Reading it off my review can't properly convey to you how amazing the OST is though so you have to listen to it for yourself. The OSTs for this show's action scenes is what made them more exciting to watch. I actually decided to research who did the OST and it turns out that Tatsuya Kato is the person who composed the OST. The same person who also did the OSTs for both seasons of Shokugeki no Souma (Food Wars) which explains everything. Now the OP and ED theme song(s)

The OP theme song is "Chou Musubi Amulet" by Mia REGINA. This OP is one of my Top 10 OP for this season. The song sounds very...I don't know how to say it properly....powerful. You'll understand once you listen to the song. The song is also very catchy and the singer's voice sounds wonderful.
The ED theme song is "My Only Place" by Sphere. I love songs that have dramatic/melancholic tune and the song was exactly just that which is the reason why I love this ED.
______________________________________________________________
[Characters]: (7/10)
Matoi Sumeragi, the main protagonist of the series, is a character that I ended up liking more and more as the show progressed. At first, I thought she was an annoying and useless character and I thought she was going to constantly whine throughout the series about her wanting a regular life despite the fact that she was chosen to become an exorcist girl but I'm glad she changed for the better at the end. Matoi isn't just some character who wants to fight because "Fuck it, I'm a Mahou Shoujo". She clearly doesn't want to fight because she wants a regular life but she fights because she wants to protect those she cares about. Especially her Dad.

Matoi and her Dad's relationship is one aspect of the show that I really enjoyed watching. Hell, I loved watching their relationship grow. At first, their relationship was a bit weird. The fact that Matoi calls her dad by his first name should already tell you that they have a strained relationship. As the story progressed though, you'll understand what happened between Matoi and her parents and why Matoi calls her Dad by his first name. The last 2 episodes which further enhances the father-daughter relationship are the scenes that they handled really well. It wasn't too melodramatic and it was a right amount of drama that admittedly made a guy like me emotional.

Matoi is a really good main protagonist and she also got a good amount of character development but unfortunately I can't say the same thing about the other characters. Yuma Kusanagi, a friend of Matoi, is at best a decent character. She was annoying at the start and truth be told, she almost ruined the show for me with her annoying-ass personality and her unfunny jokes but after she got her own dedicated episode, her character improved but she's still not as good as Matoi's character. She also got a decent amount of character development. Her backstory pretty much explained almost everything about her and why she's an exorcist girl.

One last character that I want to talk about is Claris Tonitolus. If it wasn't for the fact that she's one of the main character of the series, she would have been a completely forgettable character. Her personality is boring and they did explain why she is the way she is and her purpose for fighting the Nights but that doesn't change the fact that she was boring to watch at the first half of the series, besides her being a badass when she turns into an exorcist. Although, her character improved slightly on the second half so she was more bearable to watch on the second half.
______________________________________________________________
[Enjoyment]: (7.5/10)
Soushin Shojo Matoi was painful to watch at first. It was boring and I even thought of dropping this show but thank god, I stuck with it because it ended up being a good series at the end and a show that I enjoyed watching every week.
______________________________________________________________
[VERDICT]
I had somewhat of a high expectations when I decided to watch this show because it was being animated by White Fox and while it didn't really live up to my expectations, I still like the show for what it is. A regular magical girl show that isn't trying to be too dark or edgy and with a decent story and a good cast of characters which took time to get used to. This show is definitely recommended if you just want a magical girl show that isn't too dark in nature or characters suffering in despair.


[OVERALL]: (7.5/10)

When it comes to anime that's focused on hotspring setting, you usually get a lot of fanservice but Hanasaku Iroha is not one of those anime. This series is one of most captivating and relaxing slice of life series I've watched.


[Story]
The number one criticism that I heard the most in this series is how the staff didn't stick with the plot that the first two episodes showed us and instead showed us a bunch of random slice of life "filler" moments until the last few episodes where they "finally got back on track". I put those quotes there because I did not say ... those words. I mean, while I agree with them, I just have to say that this is, in fact, a slice of life series after all. When I decided to pick this series up, I was expecting those random slice of life moments and since I've watched a lot of Slice of Life before (and I'm a fan of the genre too), I didn't have any problems with it.

Hanasaku Iroha is more of a character driven series rather than a plot-driven series. The first two episode may have seem look like it was going to have a plot, albeit a romantic plot but it's more focused on Ohana's character, her character interactions with other people working in the inn and how she's living her life in a hotspring inn called "Kissuiso" after her mother decided to run away.

Also, the hotspring setting might have caught your attention because if you think of hotspring in anime, it's usually filled with fanservice but I can assure that this anime is NOT filled with obnoxious fanservice. There was only a couple of fanservice scenes that I could think off and that was in Ep. 3 (Onoha getting strapped on by a red rope which made it look like she was a sex slave and that Onoha x Minko "yuri" scene). Other than episode 3's fanservice, the fanservice is pretty much non-existent. I mean, the series has 26 episodes so I'm pretty sure you can handle one episode with fanservice scenes. That means 25 episodes without unnecessary fanservice scenes.
______________________________________________________________
[Art/Animation]: (10/10)
I believe P.A Works is currently the only anime studio right now that can produce a crisp and beautiful animation in a 2 cour run. Not even ufotable can produce a 2 cour series without their animation becoming inconsistent once they are on their 2nd cour. Just like other P.A Works' shows, Hanasaku Iroha's visual looks beautiful. It's very relaxing to watch and this is making me want to move to Japan just to check out the "Kissuiso" hotspring inn.
______________________________________________________________
[Sound]: (9.5/10)
A relaxing show with a relaxing atmosphere needs to have a relaxing soundtrack and the show did just that. The soundtrack perfectly fits and whatever the situation is, whether the characters are fooling around or having a serious dramatic moment, it just fits. I don't know what else to say since I can't explain it properly. Now the OP and ED theme song(s)

The OP theme songs are "Hana no Iro" by nano.RIPE and "Omokage Warp" by nano.RIPE. I thought the 1st OP was really annoying at first because I wasn't used to nano.RIPE's voice at that time. Later on, I grew to love her unique voice and I ended up liking the 1st OP. On the other hand, I love the 2nd OP more. I love the relaxing tune of the song and the melody sounds really nice. The ED theme songs are "Hazy" by Sphere and "Hanasaku Iroha" by Clammbon. I really love the 1st ED theme song's relaxing tune, the catchy melody and the singer's voices. The 2nd ED, on the other hand, is a song that I really didn't care about and I wish the 1st ED was kept for like the entire 26 episode run.
______________________________________________________________
[Characters]: (9.5/10)
Hanasaku Iroha has one of the best and one of the most realistic female lead I have ever seen in my X amount of years watching anime. Since the anime standards corrupted me, I was expecting Ohana, who is a 16 year old teenage girl, to be in one of the dere types but surprisingly...She's not. She really acts mostly like a 16 year old teenage girl and yes, I know how they act.

Ohana Matsumae, the female main protagonist of the series, is honestly one of the best female MC I have ever seen and I really wish more female characters in anime acted like her because I'm done seeing the typical violent tsundere girl. Just like every other teenage girls, Ohana fits that image. She's a naive, stubborn but cute and beautiful young girl. At first, she didn't fit in when she moved to Kissuiso but she didn't waver and little by little, she got a grasp of how everything works in the inn. She's a stubborn and arrogant girl because she likes to meddle in other people's business even though it's got nothing to do with her but her determination is what caused her to not give up. She also has that typical teenager "rebellion" side. In short, Ohana fits how most 16 year old girls acts like and I like her character because of her personalities that I recently just mentioned.

Ohana's character development is also absolutely wonderful. At first, Ohana is an optimistically naive girl. She likes to live in the present and doesn't want to think about her future until it hits her right in her face when that day comes. As her days go by in Kissuiso, she learns what life is and how it's not that simple and linear and her actions there changes her little by little as the series progresses. The show also explored more about her relationship with her mother and why she is what she today.

Don't think that Ohana is the only character to receive that amazing tool called "character development". Pretty much everyone in the series has an amazing character development and it will either happen in the 1st or the 2nd half but what I can assure you is every character that you see in Kissuiso (and this also includes Ohana's mother) gets their own time to shine.

There's this one character that I want to talk about because not only did she annoy me but she will annoy most of the viewers watching this series. That character is Minko Tsurugi. Minko has a cold personality and she lets her emotions run wild and that's is why I found her annoying. She has a jealousy streak (Spoiler reasons if I say the reasons) towards Ohana and I really don't get if she's friends with Ohana or she just likes to hang out with her because she argues with her...like a lot. Despite all of that, I still somewhat like her even though she's annoying. Her character development is the reason why I didn't throw her aside and just plain out ignore her.
______________________________________________________________
[Enjoyment]: (9.5/10)
We really don't get a lot of slice of life anime like this show because 95% of the slice of life genre are "Cute girls doing cute things". Hanasaku Iroha was a breath of fresh air and I really enjoyed the series. This is making me wish for a 2nd Season but the movie's good enough and there's really nothing more to expand.
______________________________________________________________
[VERDICT]
Hanasaku Iroha is a captivating and relaxing slice of life series that made me want to watch more on the end of its run. The story is pretty nice, even though there's really not much that happened. The characters are enjoyable and it was nice seeing the show giving every single character a spotlight. The visuals are also eye-pleasing and breathtaking and the fact that they managed to keep the animation and visuals consistent throughout its 26 episode run is just amazing. The Art and Animation is on par with one of P.A Works' other anime works like, Nagi no Asukara and even Charlotte.


[OVERALL]: (9.2/10)


Pros:
+Beautiful and captivating slice-of-life series
+Impressive Art and Visuals and Great and Consistent Animation
+Ohana is one of the best and almost realistic female MC I've seen
+Impressive Character Development for almost every single characters
+Very minimal fanservice
+Great Soundtrack

Cons:
-Minko got really annoying at times

It's honestly sad that this series sold like garbage in Japan when this series is clearly better than a bunch of magical high school harem ecchi garbage that we get nowadays. Out of all the A-1 Pictures anime shows I have watched, Shinsekai Yori is definitely one of, if not, their best series that they have ever made.


[Story]: (9.5/10)
The story is set in Japan a millennium from now. Five children—the protagonist Saki, Satoru, Maria, Mamoru, and Shun—have been born and raised in a tranquil town that can be described as a utopia, overflowing with water and green foliage. After a certain incident, Saki and ... the others come to realize the true nature of their world. The five throw themselves into life-threatening adventure and fighting to protect friends and a world on the brink of collapse.

Judging from the cover, I though this show was going to be your typical middle school/high school kids with superpowers set in a utopian world. That's one of the reasons why I decided to ignore this show for a while. I was like "There's no way in hell I'm going to sit through 25 episodes if the show is going to be what I think it's going to be". Later, I decided to finally watch the show and the first few episodes didn't do the show any justice. It was boring and I thought of dropping this show a couple times but I forced myself to watch the rest. After about Episode 4, I started to realize that this show was not what I thought it was....

I just want to say that the show did an amazing job on world building. I think it was on Episode 4 where they explained everything about the world that they're living in. The history about said world, the present, everything. Yet, when they explained "everything", you know that not every question was answered. You can tell the adults were hiding something and those are one of the many questions that started popping up in the first half. The first half was pretty much just an introduction to the world and society that they're living in, their abilities, and etc. All in all, nothing much happened in the first half and the second half is where the show truly shined.

Every single question that I had in the first half like how their powers truly works, why some kids in the village are just mysteriously disappearing, the history of the world that they live in and of course, those goddamn "Queerats" were all answered in the second half. When these questions were answered, I was satisfied. They made perfect sense and it didn't feel like the answers were pulled right out of their ass. Like that question "Why some kids are mysteriously disappearing"?. When the show answered that question, it just goes to show how paranoid the people on the top are but it does make sense on why they do it. It all depends on the person's morality and how far they're willing to go to keep the world safe and make sure "it" doesn't happen again. This also ties in with the history of this world and what caused the demise of the world that came before theirs. If you did watch the show then you know that there is another side to this argument and explains that their approach on this situation is all wrong. Again, this all depends from person to person and that's what I loved about that show. It explore's the person's moralities.

Speaking of moralities, another thing that I loved about this show is there is clearly no good or evil in this show. It will all come down to the person's definition of good and evil and how they see both sides. For example, the "Queerats". Basically, they're like our "Dogs" in this world expect they literally act like human beings and they are as smart as us. The only difference is the way they look. They don't have the psychic powers that the humans have but they do have weapons likes Swords, Bows, and Spears. The Queerats serves as slaves or workers under the humans and their lifestyles are quite similar to a homeless person. There are Queerats that don't like to serve under humans while some do. Would you consider them as "evil" creatures after what they've done to the village and the people? I mean, I wasn't surprised they did what they did because I understand what they've been through. The humans are aren't any better too because they have done some disturbing shit behind the scenes like those "mysterious disappearances".

The anime is separated into three arcs and it's super obvious when an arc begins or ends. Every-time an arc ends, there's a huge time-skip and you'll see the characters have aged. Arc 1 features the characters as little kids. Arc 2 features the characters as teenagers where they begin to see the reality of the world that they live in and Arc 3 features the characters as adults where they learned a lot of dark secrets about their society and its people. In my opinion, Arc 1 was the most boring arc of them all. It felt like a slice-of-life series and I did say that there were a couple of times where I thought of dropping this show. Arc 2 is where I began to get interested in this show after it proved me wrong on this series being a typical high school students with superpower and Arc 3 was clearly the best arc of them all because the story got even better than the 2nd arc and there's more intense action in the 3rd arc.
______________________________________________________________
[Art/Animation]: (5/10)
As someone who likes great visuals in their animated shows, Shinsekai Yori's visual was a complete turn off for me. Most of A-1 Picture's work always looked bland to me but for this show, they took it to a whole another level. The character design looks very boring and the visuals overall is just very unappealing. It's like I was watching a 1990's anime or something. The animation is very decent, at best and very mediocre, at worst. 50% of the time, the animation is inconsistent and it seemed to me that they couldn't keep up the quality for 25 episodes straight. The action scenes were also......meh..
______________________________________________________________
[Sound]: (8.5/10)
Shinsekai Yori doesn't really have a lot of notable soundtracks because half of the time, the show was just the characters talking and doing whatever with no soundtrack playing in the background. The OP OST does sound nice and it somewhat made me feel like I was watching an American TV show because there's no OP.

The show only played one OP theme song and that's the official 2nd ED. Although, I don't really count it as an OP theme song..more like an insert song played at the beginning.
The ED theme songs are "Wareta Ringo" by Saki Watanabe (Risa Taneda) and "Yuki ni Saku Hana" by Maria Akizuki (Kana Hanazawa). I actually liked the 1st ED theme song more than the 2nd ED theme song. I love how the song sounds so simple with only the guitar playing in the background and right when the chorus hits, the percussion suddenly jumps in and makes the song sound more epic. For the 2nd ED, as much as I like Kana Hanazawa's voice, her song here just didn’t do it for me. 1st ED is just better overall.
______________________________________________________________
[Characters]: (9/10)
I love how the characters in this series are represented. At first, you thought they (the humans) were the ultimate good guys who clearly did nothing wrong and are just protecting themselves but later on in the series, you start to question their own actions and whether or not they're in the right or in the wrong. At times, you want to side with the queerats because they're the ones being enslaved by the humans in that world. Of course, they had their reasons for doing such actions but are their actions really justified? Hell, I’m even going to say that “Squealer did nothing wrong!” and “Quuerat Lives Matter”. Like I said above, this all depends on your morality and that's one of the things that I loved about the series.

I'm surprised at how likable the main characters are, especially Saki who is a very competent person and can handle difficult situations without breaking down easily. Of course, just like every other human being, she is susceptible to breaking down because in her mind, she's panicking but she's able to keep a cool head, assess the situation and make sure she solves said situations. I love her because of that and I'd like to see more anime that features a character like Saki.

As good as the main characters are, they are without flaws. Besides Saki and Squealer, who received the most character development out of everyone and they are pretty much the only three dimensional characters in the series, the rest of the main characters were either two-dimensional (not a bad thing, actually) or received little character development. For instance, Mamoru along with Maria was pretty much ignored in the 2nd half of the series. It does have its reasons though so it’s not something that I can rant on because it connects with the plot. Did I also mention that this series is more plot-driven rather than character-driven? That’s why I'm letting those flaws go.

Another minor thing that I didn't like was how almost everyone in their teenage years suddenly turned gay and almost every teenager was hooking up with the same sex. This is also the same case for the main characters. For example, after the 1st arc ended and a timeskip, we see Saki and Maria holding hands/kissing and they're now a couple. Look, I'm not a homophobic but I just find it unbelievable that almost everyone in the school were suddenly a bunch of homosexuals. The abrupt transition to the 2nd arc and the fact that there was no hints to suggest that they’re gay were also huge factors. I did say this issue was a minor issue for me right? It goes to show that this anime is not afraid to show things like this and how far the society has gone, to the point where gay people are considered a norm in the society.
______________________________________________________________
[Enjoyment]: (9/10)
I came into this show with very low expectations. Reasons for that is because the cover didn't quite appeal to me and the synopsis sounded like some sort of generic high school teenagers with superpowers. I gave this show a try and it really surprised me. I didn't expect Shinsekai Yori to be this dark and though-provoking.
______________________________________________________________
[VERDICT]
"Shinsekai Yori" is a captivating series with a dark and deep story that's very well written. The world-building is amazing and while the show might have a slow pacing at the start, it starts to pick up its pace at the late 1st half - 2nd half. Don't be thrown off and suddenly drop the series just because of the first four episodes. The series is also thought-provoking and makes us question our own moralities because believe it or not, we act like these guys but we just don't notice it that much. This is one of the best A-1 Pictures show to date and this show is highly recommended

[OVERALL]: (9.5/10)


Pros:
+A Great, Dark and Deep Storyline
+Amazing World-Building
+Impressive 2nd Half
+Amazing job on the exploration and representation of a person's morality. It also makes us question our own moralities
+Great characters with an amazing and strong, competent female MC

Cons:
-Pacing issues, mostly in the first half of the series, especially the first 4 episodes
-Terrible Visuals and Animation

I learned two things while I was watching Tales of Zestiria the X.
1: Ufotable is one of the few studios in the world who can adapt a video game properly and with extreme care
2: Their visuals and animation never ceases to amaze me.


[Story]: (6/10)
Tales of Zestiria doesn't really have the best story out there. It's nothing innovative, it's nothing new and it's been done before. I played the game and I wasn't really impressed with the game's story and it's the same case here. It wasn't shit or anything. The story was just decent, at best. It's just a story of "Good vs ... Evil" and the evil masterlord (Lord of Calamity) is going to eradicate the world and a certain someone becomes the hero that everyone needs (The Sheppard) and he will save the world from evil and darkness. There's also the "two races that can't live side by side" and all that other crap. I basically just summarize the whole story for you.

The story may not be that impressive (It wasn't shit either) but I was really impressed with the show's eyegasmic visuals and animation. The action scenes was really smooth and very appealing to watch. Whoever's the Animation Director clearly knew when to place the shots to make the fighting scenes a lot more amazing than your usual regular anime fights. Also, the action scenes' Animation Style felt really similar to another one of ufotable's works "Unlimited Blade Works". It's not like I'm complaining or anything since I love UBW's action scenes and I don't really care if they use their style in Tales of Zestiria. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is what I'd like to say about UBW's and Zestiria's similar Animation style. The rest of my impressions towards Zestiria's animation will be on the "Art/Animation" section.

The show moves at an extremely slow paced so I'd understand if some people ended up dropping Zestiria because the first couple of episodes can get really boring and some parts later on in the show can also get boring. Do I consider this one of the show's flaws? Ehh, not really. Due to the show's slow pacing, I was able to understand all of the information that they were throwing at me and it was easier for me to get connected with the characters and their purpose/motivations. I also prefer slow pacing so that's one of the reasons why I didn't get bored at the show.

One thing that I found really annoying in Zestiria is how they decided to abruptly stop Zestiria's story just to put in a Tales of Berseria advert-- I mean.. a "special flashback". I admit that based on the two episodes that was focused on Berseria and its characters, it was a helluva lot more interesting than what we have right now in Zestiria. The MC in Berseria "Velvet" is, in my opinion, a lot better than Sorey. Sorey is just an adventurous type of person and Velvet's motivation for revenge is more exciting to watch. They could have made this into an OVA but what's done is done, I suppose.

Seeing as how there's a Berseria advertisement in-between Zestiria, it looks like Bandai Namco funded this series solely just to advertise Berseria. Then again, why would ufotable go through all these trouble just to try and change the original game's storyline into something good. Hell, they even gave Alisha a lot more character in the anime compared to the game plus the anime is getting a 2nd Season. So I think this adaptation is a little bit of both. Advertising and they (most likely) wanted to do Zestiria justice in terms of its story and characters because the game suffered from both aspects, more so in the characters department *ahem Alisha in the game sucks major ass ahem*.
______________________________________________________________
[Art/Animation]: (10/10)
After watching Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, I thought ufotable has reached their peak in terms of what they can do with the Animation. I thought that they already reached the ceiling since improving the Animation even further might turn their future series from 2D Animation to 3D Animation. I guess I was wrong. As of this writing, Tales of Zestiria the X has better Animation than any anime I've seen that was released in the past 5 or more years. Everything from their outstanding visuals, impressive character designs, very smooth action scenes and their almost-perfect utilization of CGI into 2D Animation. Just watching Episode 0 alone, I thought I was watching a fucking anime movie. That's how perfect Zestiria's Animation was.
______________________________________________________________
[Sound]: (9.5/10)
I am SO GLAD that ufotable decided to keep the game's OST in the anime adaptation. The game's OST was beautiful (right up there with Final Fantasy's OST, if I say so myself) and hearing the OST in the anime version (Sorey's theme, anyone?) made me glad that they kept it in the adaptation. It felt like I was playing the game all over again except this time, I wasn't controlling Sorey or any of my party members and I don't have to go through those boring-ass dungeons. Man, I can't wait till the 2nd Season reaches to "that" point where the "Rising Up" song plays. It's going to be fucking hype if they actually use that song in the 2nd Season but that's all I'm going to say.

The OP theme song is "Kaze no Uta" by FLOW. I'm going to piss off a lot of fans here (probably) but I love the anime's OP way more than the game's OP. Don't get me wrong, I also like "White Light" but Kaze no Uta is just a whole lot better for me. The chorus, the buildup to the chorus, the first few sec. of the OP that sounds like some hymn from a church, and FLOW is why I love this song and this is also in my Top 3 Anime OP this year.
The ED theme song is "calling" by fhana. I actually heard fhana's performance first in HaruChika's OP and that song sounded really good so I couldn't wait to hear her performance here in Zestiria. Once again, she delivered. I really love her high notes and her beautiful voice.

I played the game in English so it would make perfect sense for me to watch the show in English Dub so I did. I'm honestly surprised that FUNimation managed to get all the cast from the game back since most of the VA's don't even live in Texas and while Funi said that the original VA for Mikleo didn't return, I'm willing to bet my life that he did because his voice in the anime sounds EXACTLY like him. I'm pretty sure the original VA for Mikleo used a pseudonym because he's part of the union. Finally, as expected from FUNi's dubs, their voice acting was really good.
______________________________________________________________
[Characters]: (7/10)
[Skip the first paragraph if you don't want to read my rant about Alisha's role in the game]
I really appreciate what ufotable is doing to Alisha in this anime adaptation. In the game, she's supposed to be the main heroine of the series. In the trailers and even the advertisements, they portrayed her as the main heroine. You know, as someone who's going to be important in the Zestiria storyline. Then I played the game.....Yea....I was disappointed with what they did to Alisha. Appearantly, whoever's the director of the game had some fucking gripe with Alisha that he didn't bother giving Alisha that much development in the 1st half of the game and later on, she left and never came back. They even released an "Alisha DLC" as a sort of apology to the fans but I was even more disappointed with the DLC. The only saving grace of that DLC was me being able to control Alisha but every part of that DLC sucks. (Don't even get me started on that long, tedious boring-ass dungeon that took me over an hour to get through)

So going back to my point, I'm glad that ufotable did Alisha, in this adaptation, justice. She got a helluva lot more screentime and character development in the anime compared to the game. Hell, Episode 0 (which was anime original) tells me that ufotable is doing everything they can to show the viewers (and the fans of the game) that she's the main heroine of Zestiria. Not Rose and not Mikleo (Don't even ask me "Isn't Mikleo a guy?" because that's the joke). Alisha in the game came off as "that character" who I didn't give a shit about and Alisha in the anime version came off as an independent badass princess who'll do anything to achieve her ideals and I actually cared more about Alisha while I was watching Zestiria than playing Zestiria.

As for the protagonist of the series. Sorey, as the MC, is not that impressive. Sorey is just a pure-hearted person who is an adventurous type of person but after learning about the relationship between Humans and Seraphims and after he became the Sheppard, he vowed to saved the world from the Lord of Calamity and to also restore the relationship between both races. Like I haven't seen his type before. Velvet, the MC of Tales of Berseria, is already better than Sorey just by watching the two episode special. Her goals and motivations are more intriguing than Sorey. Moving on, Sorey got a decent amount of character development in this season but he'll get more focus in the 2nd Season but he doesn't get any better.

For the rest of the characters, you know how when you play an RPG, your party expands the more you play the game? It's the same case here. Throughout the series, they each join Sorey's party because they have the same goals and ideals or Sorey offers to help solve their problem. They don't really get that much character development though. The only reason why I like them are their personalities.

One minor aspect that I didn't like was how ufotable removed and/or skipped most of the funny side of the characters. Yes, I know that they made up for it by showing the characters' funny side in the post-credit "Skit" scene but to me, that wasn't really enough. For example, Edna wasn't being "Edna: best girl" (In the game, she was fucking hilarious) after she got introduced. However, in the post-credit scene, that's when Edna (sort-of) truly shines and shows off why she's the best girl.
______________________________________________________________
[Enjoyment]: (8/10)
Despite the decent-but-not-so-impressive storyline, I still enjoyed Zestiria because of its breathtaking and visually appealing animation. Watching the show just for its characters and the animation was enough for me.
______________________________________________________________
[VERDICT]
I'm amazed at how how ufotable handled the adaptation. They managed to adapt a video game-series that I didn't like that much, in terms of its story and some characters, and turned it into a good video game adaptation. They also handled Alisha better than how the game handled her and honestly, I can finally say that Alisha is better than Rose. Edna is still the best girl though :P. The anime also gave off that "I'm playing an RPG" vibe and it's very rare for a video game adaptation to give off that vibe for me. Now the wait for the 2nd Season begins

[OVERALL]: (8.2/10)


Pros:
+A very rare, good video game adaptation
+Alisha is handled better in the anime version than the game
+Re-use of awesome soundtracks from the game
+Outstanding and Visually Appealing Animation
+Impressive utilization of CGI into 2D Animation
+Action scenes gives off multiple but pleasant "Eyegasms"

Cons:
-Not-so-impressive storyline
-Sorey, as the MC, is meh
-Not a lot of character development for most of the main characters.

We all know that Love Live! is an economically successful franchise. I admit, I've also sinked some of my money on Love Live! 'cause I'm a big fan of the franchise. So it's no surprise that this got a spin off. I was really hyped for Sunshine and now that I finished the series, did it live up to my expectations?

(This review will contain SPOILERS)

[Story]
When Sunshine got announced, I got really excited because I wanted to see more Love Live!. I was skeptical though because when I saw the 10 minutes character introduction PV for LL Sunshine, not only do some characters of this new ... group look like the original cast from Love Live! (You and Kotori, Mari and Eli, and etc.) but also, some of the characters' personalities are alike. They basically show you the bio of the new characters in the video and that's how I learned about their personalities.

Just like the 1st Season of Love Live!, the story here is relatively simple and fairly similar to the 1st Season of LL. The difference here is Love Live! Sunshine!! takes place about 5 years after µ's disbanded and now focuses on a new group called "Aquors" (pronounced as Aqua) which consists of 9 girls aspiring to become the next famous school idol like µ's. Just like the previous seasons of Love Live though, I don't really give a shit about the story since the school idols are the main focus of the series and the songs.

The aspect that I found a bit annoying, but nothing major, in Sunshine is the constant references of µ's and callbacks. Yes, I get it. They won Love Live and they're very famous but I just found it really annoying that the show constantly mentions µ's this and that. For example, the episode that introduced us to Hanamaru. I got really irritated at the end of the episode because of how much they were focusing on Rin's shot. I get it, she's relating herself to Rin but it was too much. Now, there's a reason why I didn't exactly dislike the said aspect that much.

In the first 7 episodes, Chika was basically following µ's' footsteps and thinking that if she does exactly what µ's did, she and her group would become just as popular as µ's. I'm glad that the 8th episode completely blew my conception of Sunshine being just a "blatant rip-off of Love Live!". I really love the 8th episode because it was reality slapping Chika's face. Aquors got 0 points in the preliminaries and she realizes that ever since µ's won Love Live, the idol competition has become way more competitive than before and she also realized that simply copying µ's won't get them to where they want to go. Man, I am loving this "From nothing to something" concept that I've been seeing in anime lately. Aquors' song "Step!Zero to One!" now makes perfect sense. Btw, that song is really good.

Love Live Sunshine is also aware of the fact that Aquors is copying µ's and that's the reason why I mostly changed my mind about the constant references and callbacks of µ's in earlier parts of the series. In the 12th episode, Chika realized how µ's exactly got successful and also realized that she needs to stop copying µ's, be their own selves and forge a new path, breaking away from µ's. This whole season is basically about Aquors forming and learning about who they truly are. I'm quite excited for the 2nd Season, now that Aquors is heading on their own path towards success.
______________________________________________________________
[Art/Animation]: (9.5/10)
The art style of the original Love Live was decent, at best and the character designs looked good but was too moe, for my taste, but I got used to it. Also, just like everyone else, I hated the use of CGI in µ's Live Shows. However, in Love Live Sunshine, every aspect of the show's visuals and animation is significantly improved. The art style looks better, the visuals and backgrounds is more superior than the predecessor and the character designs looks like more work was put into it. The Live Shows, for once, doesn't burn my eyes. It's looks like Sunrise learned how to utilize and blend the CGI and 2D Animation perfectly. Seriously, watching Aquors' CGI performance was a lot more bearable than watching µ's CGI performance.
______________________________________________________________
[Sound]: (10/10)
As a µ's fan, I'm sorry for betraying µ's by saying this but Aquors' songs sounds A LOT better than most µ's songs. Aquors songs sounds more energetic and lively as opposed to µ's dramatic-tune and sometimes melancholic but with a touch of happiness (That's the best I can explain µ's songs). In LL 1st Season, the only songs that I liked was START:DASH and Susume Tommorow. In Sunshine, I love almost every song. Some examples are Kimeta yo Hand in Hand, Daisuki Dattara Daijoubu (which completely shits on almost every µ's song that I've listened to in the past few years), Omoi yo hitotsu ni nare, and more because you get what I'm trying say here. I just wished that they used "Step!Zero to One" in the last episode because it would have fit the show's context.

The OP theme song is "Aozora Jumping Heart" by Aquors. I really love this OP the same reason I love the mentioned songs earlier. It's better than the 1st OP of Love Live but it's on par with the 2nd OP of Love Live.
The ED theme song is "Yume Kataru yori Yume Utaou " by Aquors. Just like the first OP, I also love this song but if I have to be more specific, I love the version where only Chika and Riko were singing. I think this is better than the 1st ED of Love Live! but the 2nd ED of Love Live! is still better than Sunshine's ED.

I watched the show in English Dub and Subs but I'm only going to review the Japanese's VA's singing talent. Chika, Riko and You's singing voices are godlike and they're 50% of the reason why Aquors' songs are great. Hell, that's the reason why I think "Daisuki Dattara Daijoubu" is better than most µ's songs. Their voices are just absolutely amazing and I'd prefer if Chika, Riko and You have their own subunit. I still don't know why one of Aquors' official subunit comprises of Chika, You and Ruby. It should have been Riko instead of Ruby :/
______________________________________________________________
[Characters]: (8/10)
Despite all the good things that I've been saying about Aquors, I still like the members of µ's more than the members of Aquors. It's not because Aquors is uninteresting. It's because the characters from Love Live! has way more screentime and character development than Aquors at the moment. Once Sunshine gets 2nd Season and a movie then I'll love Aquors just as much as I love µ's.

Like the original Love Live!, Sunshine has 9 characters and evenly split into 3 girls per grade. I just want to say that the difference between Aquors having 9 members and µ's having 9 members is that µ's 9 members group had meaning into it and makes perfect sense because of the name of their group while Aquors' amount of members is just....umm..yea.....Who cares, right? Gotta stick with the winning formula and I'm not complaining. Anyways, the first years are Ruby Kurosawa, Hanamaru Kunikida and Yoshiko Tsushima (Yohane). Ruby is Dia's younger sister and she's shy and bit of an introvert girl. To make it more simpler, she's like Hanayo except I found Ruby to be a lot more cuter but Hanayo's extreme love for rice was what made her more likable. Hanamaru is Ruby's best friend and she loves to read books and she has little to no knowledge when it comes to technology since she lives at a temple. She says "zura" at the end of her sentence all the time. To make it more simpler, she's like Rin except she's a bookworm and she doesn't get on my goddamn nerves. Then there's Yoshiko, a chuunibyou girl who thinks she's the "fallen angel" and she prefers to be called by her persona "Yohane". Honestly, I still prefer Nico over her but I can't help but love her "Yohane" persona. I wouldn't mind sacrificing myself to become her little demon.

Then there's the second years Chika Takami, You Watanabe and Riko Sakurauchi. You (Pronounced as Yo) is Chika's longtime childhood friend and has a habit of dressing up in a sailor suit since she's a marine enthusiast. You is currently my best girl of the series. Judging by her appearance, you'd think she's like Kotori except she's not. Besides her designing Aquors' costumes, hers and Kotori's personality are nothing alike. You is more lively and her voice doesn't make my ears bleed while Kotori is the cute girl but with an ear-piercing voice. As much as I want to make a You pun right now, I don't want to because I love "you" and I really don't want to break "you" 're heart by making all these terrible puns xD. Chika is the enthusiastic leader of Aquors. I just want to mention that Chika got way more character development than Honoka did in the 1st Season of LL. In the original LL, it wasn't until the 2nd Season where Honoka got a character development. Even so, Chika's character development is already more impressive than Honoka so even though both characters' enthusiasm and determination to reach their goals are the same, I still prefer Chika over Honoka. Riko is a transfer student from Otonokizaka High (µ's school) and a girl who plays the piano. Riko is like a mixture of Umi and Maki and I really like her Maki side. In other words, I like it when Riko gets all flattered over something.

Then there's the third years Dia Kurosawa, Mari Ohara, and Kanan Matsura. Dia (Pronounced as "Daya" or as in Diamond) is the student council president. She's mostly like Eli, in terms of her being stubborn at times and the way she acts as a student council president. The similarities are there. The difference here is Dia has a legitimate reason for rejecting Chika's application sheet to form a school idol club. I mean, Eli has a legitimate reason too but both of their reasons are completely different. Mari is a rich girl who decided to come back to Uranohoshi after hearing about someone forming a school idol. I really thought Mari was going to be either Nozomi or Eli but boy, was I wrong. I mean, the only similarities between Mari and Nozomi is they both like to grope someone's breast but other than that, their personalities are completely different. I also love Mari's "Engrish" catchphrases. Especially her "It's joke" quote and my most favourite is her "Oh My God!" quote. Fun fact: Mari's "It's joke" quote was kept in the English Dub version but almost every one of her Engrish quotes was changed to an Italian accent. Kanan is that almost non-existent character who barely made an appearance in the first half of the series but had more screentime in the second half. I started liking Kanan more when the third years were getting more focus on the early 2nd half of the series.
______________________________________________________________
[Enjoyment]: (8.5/10)
Face it people, µ's time is over and it's Aquors' time to shine. The sooner you accept that, the more you'll enjoy this show like I did. I really enjoyed the characters, especially Chika and her determination to never give up even though she got cornered but managed to got herself out of the position. Plus, the songs are better than most songs from µ's. Currently, my Aquors-created playlist in my phone is now at over 13 songs and counting.
______________________________________________________________
[VERDICT]
When Love Live Sunshine and Aquors first got introduced, I was a bit skeptical at first because I thought they wouldn't live up to µ's' greatness. Now that I finished Sunshine, the series blew away my expectations. As of right now, µ's is still better but Aquors has a lot of potential to overtake µ's and as time grows on, they'll either be on par with them or end up being better than them. I mean, most of Aquors' songs are already better than what the 1st Season of LL offered.
The story is recycled but I kind-of saw this coming since the 2nd Season of LL did the same shit. Also, the µ's references and callbacks were a bit dragged out. The character is where it's at though. The character development for the third years and the 2nd year, especially Chika were really good but just like the 2nd Season of LL, their character development will definitely get better (and hopefully more character development for the first years) once Sunshine gets 2nd Season.


[OVERALL]: (8.5/10)


Pros:
+Aquors turned out to be a very lovable idol group at the end of the series
+Aquors' songs are great and better than µ's songs from 1st and 2nd Season
+Enjoyable characters with amazing character dynamics between two or three Aquors members
+Great character development for Chika and the 3rd years
+Visually Appealing Animation
+CGI in Live Shows is significantly improved

Cons:
-Constant references and callback to µ's got a bit annoying

Barakamon is one of my favourite slice of life anime of all time and I was disappointed that it only has 12 episodes. After hearing about the prequel, I got a bit too excited because I get to see more of Handa but I also told myself that the prequel exists just to capitalize on Barakamon's success. And.....After finishing the show, I guess I was right.


[Story]
There's a lot of reasons why I love Barakamon. From its relaxing settings to Naru being one of the cutest and most fun anime characters to watch to Handa’s amazing growth and him coming to terms with his career ... anxieties by living in a rural countryside, it was a great piece of quality show that I really enjoyed. The comedy was also one of the best I've seen in anime. I'm all for more Barakamon content so that's why I was a bit excited for Handa-kun. After watching the first few episodes, I was honestly a little bit disappointed.

So what happens when you take out all the core strengths of Barakamon and turn Handa into a teenager and put him in a high school setting? Well, you get this. Although, just because I'm a big fan of Barakamon doesn't mean I hate Handa-kun. Handa-kun actually turned out to be a decent series. I also admit that Handa-kun's comedic aspect was good at times but decent for the most part and it made me laugh at some parts of the episode. Except the first 10 minutes of the first episode breaking the 4th wall, that scene didn't make me laugh at all. Though, I still think Barakamon's comedy was 2 times better.

The show, as a whole, is built on misunderstandings. Unlike Barakamon, which impressively portrayed Handa's amazing character development, this show only focuses on Handa's school life and the things that he has to face every day because of this "misunderstanding". He thinks that everyone hates him but in reality, almost everyone loves him. Now, why does he think like that? It's all thanks to Kawafuji (Remember him from Barakamon?) trolling the shit out of him and Handa actually believing his joke. Since Kawafuji finds the situation funny, he's letting all the events happen. That's the whole joke of Handa-kun. "The misunderstandings between him and the students". Though, it never gets tiring because the jokes has its twists every episode that keeps the joke fresh for the show's entire run. Plus, there's about 2-3 different segments per episode so it isn't just 24 minutes of Handa and that same student for a whole 24 minutes. Each segments focuses on different characters with a different situation and I, admittedly, was laughing my guts out on some of the episodes (mostly in the second half of the series). I just find it hilarious that Handa and the students, especially those on the Handa Force, are never on the same subject and they see things differently.

Also, some of the jokes on Handa-kun were references to Barakamon and it was a nice touch. The reference that I loved the most was the episode about a student who is a fortune teller, with a very accurate fortune telling, and she predicted Handa's future and said "So many children despite not having a single sense of sex drive!" which then shows a background with the kid's silhouette from Barakamon. I love it and I'm glad they did that. God, I miss Barakamon
______________________________________________________________
[Art/Animation]: (7.5/10)
The Art and Visuals were pretty decent for the most part. The animation was ok, for a slice of life setting and the character designs are good but not the greatest I've seen. The background, on the other hand, looks really cheap. I mean, what the fuck? It looks like a shaded drawing but was horribly rushed. Is there supposed to be some meaning in the cheap background or is it cheap because they didn't have enough budget? Either way, I didn't like it.
______________________________________________________________
[Sound]: (7/10)
The soundtrack wasn't really anything special and nothing stood so none of the OSTs is worth mentioning. It's just your typical soundtrack for a slice of life anime. Now the OP and ED theme song(s)

The OP theme song is "The LiBERTY" by Fo'xTails. I did not like the OP theme song at all. I'm ok with songs that are rock but heavy rock is not my cup of tea. I ended up skipping the OP after hearing it on the 1st episode.
The ED theme song is "HIDE-AND-SEEK" by Kenichi Suzumura. Now this song, I like. I really love the song's upbeat tune, the melody and that amazing chorus. Plus, the singer's voice is amazing. Also, the ED Animation, while simplistic, was stunning to watch. I love how the amount of characters walking in the ED grows as more characters gets added throughout the series.
______________________________________________________________
[Characters]: (7/10)
There's really nothing much to say about the characters except that they're just there for the sake of comedy. A new character or a bunch of new characters gets introduced almost every episode and some of the characters will either be back in the future episode or they won't make an appearance again after getting introduced. For example, Mori Maiko, who has feelings for Handa, and her friend with a big-ass head Juri gets introduced in the 1st episode but they barely make any appearances in the future episodes. Like I said, they're just there for the sake of comedy and they get little to no character development (Except the Handa Force members. They get a decent amount of character development). The characters are enjoyable to watch though. The characters vary from a librarian girl who has deep feelings for Handa, a yandere girl, a "normal" boy, a "trap" student council president, the "pretty boy and etc. The show has a lot of variety in terms of characters' personalities that makes watching these characters very interesting and not boring at all.

Handa was a lovable character in Barakamon and watching him in the 1st episode was just.......I don't know. The way he acted in the 1st episode was not the character I fell in love with (No homo). He wasn't even THIS dense in Barakamon. Then I realized that Handa is a teenager in this series. I just couldn't believe that Handa is that dense to the situation around him. Even I'm not that dense and I can read the situation around me (Teenager here). Yea, don't remind me, it's all for comedy. Though, it took a while for me to get used to his teenager side and after that, I enjoyed watching him go through his high school life with full of misunderstandings.
______________________________________________________________
[Enjoyment]: (7/10)
For the most part, I enjoyed Handa-kun but it doesn't even hold a candle to one of the best slice of life series ever "Barakamon". Handa-kun was just a hilarious and fun mindless show, for me, and I enjoyed the comedic aspect of the series and also, most of the characters in the series.
______________________________________________________________
[VERDICT]
Handa-kun, a prequel to one of my most beloved slice of life anime series of all-time, turned out to be an alright series at the end. The characters were somewhat enjoyable to watch, especially the members of the Handa Force and while the comedic aspect of the series may not be perfectly executed, it still made me laugh at some parts of the show. Overall, I enjoyed this show but to a certain extent. Of course, if you were to ask me which show I enjoyed more then Barakamon will be an obvious answer from me. If you were to view Handa-kun as a standalone series (or you haven’t watch Barakamon at all) then you might enjoy this series even more. Now that I've finished Handa-kun, I'm really hoping for a sequel (sort of) or an extension to Barakamon that expands more on Handa's life on the island because it felt way too short.


[OVERALL]: (7/10)


Pros:
+Enjoyable series to watch
+Show turned out to be alright at the end
+Decent comedy, with some parts of the show that made me laugh
+Enjoyable characters with different varieties in their personalities
+Nice touch on the Barakamon references.

Cons:
-Cheap looking background
-Handa's dense level annoyed me on the first couple of episodes
-Handa-kun, being a prequel to Barakamon, doesn't exactly feel like a prequel to said series.

I have to admit, the "Romance" genre is a bit overdone right now because there's only so much story they can tell (Girl A and Boy A meets, gains feelings for each other and some obstacles in their way before they can truly love each other) but "Orange" stood out to me because of it's Sci-Fi twist and the Dramatic aspect of the show, which was really well-done.

(There will be some SPOILERS in my review)

[Story]: (8/10)
Orange was one of my most hyped anime of Summer 2016. I'm a real sucker for Romance and I'll pretty much watch any anime that has a tag Romance ... in it (Except harem shows that also has a tag Romance) even though I'm starting to get burnt out of the genre (That doesn't mean I'm starting to hate the genre) but the Romance nor the Drama wasn't the only reasons why I was hyped for this anime. It was the "Sci-Fi" element. The future self of the main character sending a letter to herself in the past, which was the present in the show's main timeline. I thought it was an interesting take on the Romance genre and I wanted to see how it plays it out. I have to say that, for the most part, I was not disappointed.

The story of the series is about Naho receiving a letter to herself claiming that the writer is herself but 10 years in the future. Future Naho claims that she must watch over Kakeru, as he's no longer with them, and fix all the mistakes that her future self did and to erase any regrets that her future self has.

The romance aspect of Orange wasn't really anything ground breaking. It's also not that complicated. It's a simple love story between Naho and Kakeru but with a few hiccups here and there. Though, I have to say, that Naho and Kakeru barely did any work for them to get together. It was mostly the side characters helping them get together. The Sci-Fi element on the other hand was decent. It wasn't bad but it wasn't impressive either. The reason why I don't really give that much shit about Orange's "Sci-Fi" aspect is because it's fairly obvious that the Sci-Fi aspect wasn't really the show's main focus but rather, it focuses more on the romance/drama side of the show and the characters, especially Naho's struggle to live her high school life while getting a bunch of letters from her future self and making sure that Kakeru is doing a-okay.

The dramatic aspect of the show was done exceptionally well and I think that's an understatement because I can't find a better word to explain how the staff did a great job with Orange's drama. In my opinion, it's right up there with Your Lie in April. Anyways...At first, I was expecting the show to make me cry (Based on the source's material high score) but I WASN'T expecting to get this emotional after watching just a couple of episodes. Seriously, after watching 2 episodes of Orange, I was already teared up twice. I honestly can't count how many times I got emotional before the final episode. One of the major themes of the show that got me really emotional was Depression and Regrets.

As someone who actually noticed (up close and personal) one of my family members (My Aunt, to be more specific) suffering through depression, I have to say that Orange's portrayal of Kakeru's depression was absolutely spot on. When my aunt was suffering through depression, I'd always question her behaviour (She was getting mad at me randomly) and since I was just 12 at that time, I didn't know what she was going through. Most of the time, I was being insensitive and looking back at the events, it's fairly obvious that she was putting a fake smile when she's playing with me. Seeing Kakeru suffering through depression reminded me of those days and I was able to connect with this show, emotionally. When people say that "Kakeru is just a pussy who's always on the verge of suicide", I just view them as a bunch of ignorant dumbfucks who hasn't experienced depression personally or someone in their family members hasn't experienced it and they just don't understand how it feels. Since this is a review and not my personal life story, I won't write everything that happened to her or why she was even depressed to begin with.

As for the show's portrayal of regrets. That was also well done. That was the main reason why the letters exist. Their future selves regrets not being able to save Kakeru. You're also going to see a whole lot more regrets from Kakeru as the show goes on.
______________________________________________________________
[Art/Animation]: (8/10)
"Episode 1-8's Animation Quality: 9/10"
"Episode 9-13's Animation Quality: 6.5 - 8/10"

That's how I'll sum up my thoughts on the show's Animation Quality. Now the long version. The first 8 episode's of Orange has one of the best Visuals/Art/Animation Quality I have ever seen. It reminded me of Your Lie in April. The character designs felt a bit weird at first, especially with how their faces look like compared to your average anime character designs, but I got used to it. As for the Animation Quality in Ep. 9 and so on, the quality dipped for whatever reason. Time Constraint? Budget Issues? I really have no idea but it looked bad. The art looked somewhat worse and the character designs looked derpy as fuck. The quality did improve on the 12th and 13th episode but it wasn't the same as it did in the first 8 episodes.
______________________________________________________________
[Sound]: (7/10)
The show's soundtrack were ok. None of them were bad but none of them were great either. They were completely average, at best. Now the OP and ED theme song(s)

The OP theme song is "Hikari no Hahen" by Yu Takahashi and the ED theme song is "Mirai" by Kobukuro. Whoever's the fan of these songs, I'm sorry to say this but I completely hated both the OP and ED theme songs. I did not like the singers and their voices. I have nothing more to say.
______________________________________________________________
[Characters]: (8.5/10)
The main character, Naho Takamiya, is the reason why I held off my rating to 8. Well, that and the bullsh*t reason they gave us as to how the letters were getting sent back to the past. It honestly felt like a kid came up with the idea. At least they explained how the time mechanics here work, something that a lot of anime these days tend to ignore for whatever reason. Anyways, back to the MC. At the earlier parts of the show, Naho was an acceptable character. She wasn't too great but she wasn't a bad character either. She's the kind of person that you'd want to cheer for just to save Kakeru.

That's how I felt for the first 8 episodes. After episode 9 and so on, my opinions on Naho was gradually changing each and every episode. I couldn't believe how dense this character was. On episode 8, I thought she already confessed her feelings to Kakeru but on episode 9 and the future episodes, she was still acting like some pure, innocent and shy girl who just recently met him. She can't even hold his hands without acting like some idiot. Appearantly, in the manga, there was a monologue from Naho explaining why she was acting that way but they didn't adapt her crucial monologue from the manga which would have explained why she was acting like that and instead, she came off as some dense character. She's in high school, for god's sakes. There's no way she's THAT dense. I read the manga after watching the anime and I have a different opinion of her compared to the anime version but I'm not going to write it in this review.

Next up is Kakeru Naruse. Two realistic characters in one season? (You can guess who's the other realistic character that I'm talking about). Geez, am I still watching anime? Anyways, Kakeru is one of the most character character I have ever seen, in terms of the way he acted. Kakeru suffers from depression and he likes to deal with his problems alone rather than telling his friends because if he gets his friends involved (like he did in the past), he believes that they're going to think he's lying or they're just going to blow him off. That's completely understandable because only a few people would get involved with someone's personal problems like Kakeru. His portrayal of depression is spot on and the moment that led to his suicide was absolutely believable. I would've probably done the same thing because I wouldn't be able to bear with that much regret.

Now the side characters of the series, Chino Takako, Hagita Saku, Azusa Murasaka and Hiroto Suwa. Here's my opinion about them. They are one of -- if not -- the best group of friends I have ever seen in my entire life. I've had a different variety of friends from Elementary to High School and they don't even come close to these great side characters. Not even my best friends. If I were in Kakeru's shoes, I highly DOUBT my friends would go through this much trouble just to help me get better. They're going to believe that my parents are going to be there for me or I'm going to be able to solve it on my own. Even though they're just side characters and got little to no character development, they're still an enjoyable cast. They made such an impact to the story that it makes it hard for me to believe that they're just side characters. Suwa is best guy for me because of all the things that he did in the show that thoroughly impressed me and Hagita and Azusa are one of my favourite characters because they are hilarious.
______________________________________________________________
[Enjoyment]: (8.5/10)
I really enjoyed Orange despite a few bumps on the latter parts of the series. It was like an emotional rollercoaster ride for me. It made me laugh, it made me cry and I even connected with this series, on an emotional and personal level.
______________________________________________________________
[VERDICT]
"Orange" was one of my most hyped anime in Summer of 2016 because it's a romance show and the "Sci-Fi" aspect piqued my interested. While the show wasn't as great as I wanted it to be, due to the latters parts of the series hitting a few bumps and was quite shaky, it still turned out to be a really good romance show. The realistic portrayal of Kakeru's Depression and his regrets and the side characters was, honestly, the saving grace of the show. Naho almost killed the show for me but she redeemed herself at the end. Mostly...

[OVERALL]: (8.3/10)


Pros:
+Realistic Depiction of Kakeru's Depression and his regrets
+Still a good romance show despite a few bumps in the latter parts of the series
+Great Art/Animation Quality in the first 8 episodes
+Great casts of characters, especially the side characters

Cons:
-Naho can be irritating to watch after episode 8
-Dip in Art/Animation Quality after episode 8
-Unlikable OP and ED theme song