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Sep 30, 2023
At first glance, this show seemed very sketchy. The adult "loli" with huge oppai made me concerned that I was about to witness some fanservice trash. I am happy to report that this is only partially the case. My Tiny Senpai tries to go down the cute and fluffy route. There is lot's of forced blushing and bashfulness from our resident loli, and lots of catgirl moments (is the mangaka a furry). On the other hand, each episode is fresh and lively, and ideas aren't really recycled which is another fear that I had coming in. I thought that their office would be the main
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scene the majority of the time. The comedy might not hit all of the time, but I think that it was up my alley for the most part.
Positives: I'll elaborate on comedy here. It writes it's jokes in a way that falls into common tropes, but actually satirizes/makes fun of those tropes. This can come in the form of misunderstandings and teasing primarily but it can go other ways as well. For me personally, I enjoyed the comedy a lot and when it was paired with the plot, it really elevated my enjoyment of the series. My next main positive is the plot. Each episode has a standalone conflict or event the characters are working on and it was always fresh and positive. From design competitions to cosplay events to working at daycares to more cliches, it was honestly a lot of fun. As I said earlier, I think that it was enjoyable, was it quality or groundbreaking, no not really. But it did a job that not every romcom can pull off.
Negatives: It gets a little creepy. Right off the bat, Shiori Katase (female MC) and her character design gross me out. An adult woman in a child body with huge tits. It's a pretty disgusting kind of fanservice that is catering to some.... audience. I also think that the way she acts is off-putting. She is always doing this "cutesy" stuff that feels super unnatural and it goes against the grain of the episode. She doesn't act in a normal way that makes her likeable. I don't like them putting cat ears on her and having her blush super hard and play this mommy/older sister figure. Say whatever you want, DM me, argue, but I am absolutely 100% hellbent on the fact that this character is just shameless fanservice, and the series could have been much better off making her anything that isn't a loli who acts weird.
In conclusion, My Tiny Senpai can get bland sometimes, and it gets creepy as well, in particular the character of the female lead. The character designs are disturbing as well (this is more subjective). Despite that, the plot is fresh and exciting, and the comedy is pretty funny and works well enough in tandem with one another that I can recommend this rom-com for you to at least give a shot. Final score: 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 24, 2023
This very well might be the most controversial anime of the last few years. I want to make one thing clear though. Mushoku Tensei is an anime and Light Novel, NOT a political statement. Are the controversial aspects of MT cause for concern and gaping holes in the consistency of the show? Depends on how you look at it. But it isn't fair to the series if it is judged based on today's standards as it is clearly in some medieval/fantasy world.
Mushoku Tensei season two can be separated into two arcs essentially, the post-Eris adventuring arc and then the Ronoa school of magic arc.
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The first arc is standard Mushoku Tensei, business as usual. Rudy, being the stud that he is, goes adventuring solo, finds a group of people, and does his thing. Obviously, I don't want to spoil things but then he finds himself at a school. Here, the style changes, there is less action and an increased emphasis on humor, more than what was typically present in episodes past. There is also a large romance element at play as well. Towards the end of the season, there are some major plot developments that keep viewers guessing. Sound, animation, and voice acting are all TOP NOTCH, I need not say anything further, the production team absolutely killed it yet again.
Now on to my criticisms, first off is the story. I know that Mushoku Tensei is an adventuring story but there is no real tension in the series, there really isn't any end goal. This is a major issue because it just saps a lot of the tension and excitement from the series. I guess it is fun to watch Rudy and his friends/lovers run about and have fun but there is no goal for Rudy, which is made evidently clear at one point later in this season. We get almost nothing about Hitogami and Orsted in this season which is yet another bummer. Rudy is also stupid overpowered so we know he's probably not going to die as he is eons more powerful than anybody and everybody on campus.
The main purpose and moral that Mushoku Tensei is trying to push is that Rudeus, having been reincarnated into this world, has turned over a new leaf and actually wants to work to improve himself unlike in his previous life as a shut-in. Here's where the controversies of MT finally become a cause for concern. Rudy is SUPPOSEDLY trying to fix himself but almost everything he does is contradictory to that very goal whether that is worshipping literal panties or groping random girl's breasts, it just hurts to see no sign of improvement in a character that I try to support and defend. In the first cour or two, yeah, I can understand some lapses in judgment but in season two we don't get any of those inner character shifts where he strives to become better. Moments like Paul's reunion and Rudy's bond with Eris were very beautiful parts of the first and second cour but it seems like most of these moments are just gone in season two. Remember how I said that Rudy has no end goal? Let me tie that back here because, in season two, the world just feels like Rudy's playground. The inspiring story of the shut-in on his way to start fresh in another world is paused so that he can let his degenerate fantasies of old run free with his newfound power in his new world. That sentence alone encapsulates what goes wrong with Mushoku Tensei season two. If you love Mushoku Tensei, you'll most likely love this. If you were skeptical about the first and/or second cour. You might want to steer clear of season two. Final Score: 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 23, 2023
A lot of us were confused when we saw Horimiya getting a new season. Hadn't it already concluded? Horimiya rose to immense popularity and it left fans looking for more, especially manga readers who were infuriated by the fact the adaptation only received 12 episodes when it could have easily gotten 24 plus. As a standalone season, the original Horimiya was honestly a great watch if we exclude the fact that they cut out a bunch of chapters. It honestly felt very seamless, probably because they focused specifically on Hori and Miyamura outside of the extensive side cast. That's where Missing Pieces comes in. It
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shines light on the side cast, which I always thought was the strength of Horimiya, but glaring weaknesses are present.
I feel that some of the more casual Horimiya fans will be disappointed by this series. The diehards will love to see their series animated no matter what, but those who enjoyed Horimiya as a romance will be disappointed. I think that you would be very hard-pressed to call Missing Pieces a romance. It's almost exclusively slice-of-life, with comparatively little Hori and Miyamura in comparison. On the romance topic, I want to express one of my criticisms of the series. Nothing happens. Yoshikawa, Ishikawa, Sakura, and Iura, these guys are stuck in an eternal love polygon. There are so many advances, especially with Sakura in the main series but nothing ever happens outside of Remi and Sengoku and Hori/Miyamura. One of my absolute favorite moments in the original series was the exchanges between Sengoku and Remi exchanging books that they thought the other would like. The author chose to keep everything static and while all the characters are constantly frolicking about, laughing and smiling. By no means does it feel satisfying. Missing Pieces is adapting chapters that were skipped, and some of those chapters are from earlier in the series, and it just kinda hurts to see Sakura laughing around Ishikawa when we know that she has feelings for him. When the chapter was originally drawn, we weren't supposed to know about her feelings so it doesn't feel natural. It was moments like this that made me feel like missing pieces was just a cash grab, too little too late.
Knowing that this is a chill slice-of-life primarily, it changes how I would go about recommending it. As mentioned previously, I like Horimiya's side cast, I think the characters are generally really likable. It keeps a good balance of alternating in and out of the school setting. I think the comedy is flat and euphoric though. When characters try to be funny, the voice actors are doing too much and the jokes are often overused, boring, flat, and stale (except the one teacher who likes high schoolers who was funny [I don't condone this], I wish he would have gotten together with the female teacher). I have a problem with the disposition of the characters, they all seem overly happy all the time. To put this in context, you know how guilty people who are bad at lying act overly agreeable and crack jokes a lot? That's how I felt about the cast sometimes. I personally like most of the characters (Remi, Sengoku, Ishikawa, Yoshikawa, Sakura, Iura) even if I don't like Hori and Miyamura that much, which made this for a generally enjoyable watch despite being boring and cringe at times.
Final Score: 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 20, 2023
Netflix gets a bad rep for the anime it produces but I think they have outdone themselves with my happy marriage. I glossed over the manga (the Light Novel is slightly different I think) and I wondered if Netflix would be able to capture the attention to detail that a work like this demands. I think they did wonderful. The tone of My Happy Marriage is what sets it apart from the rest. It is rather slow and has this pensiveness to it. The early episodes are dark and depressing and while it enjoys its brighter moments down the line, the lifeless feel that the
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series produces, through it's soundtrack, voice acting, and animation, resembles Miyo's character, as someone who was essentially conditioned to be lifeless having been subject to abuse and labor, shouldering it all alone in a sense. The most common criticism I have seen of My Happy Marriage so far is that Miyo (the MC) has no personality and/or character. I would probably agree with this, but to call it a downside to the series makes no sense to me. It's like watching a children's movie and complaining it isn't realistic enough. The idea or moral that the anime tries to depict is the progress that Miyo makes and the resolve she gains as a result of her feelings. I said this before, and I'll say it again, because it's something you need to know about this series, it's a slow burner. What makes you appreciate and enjoy it is the small details and bits and pieces of progress the characters make over time.
I would love to talk about the production. Netflix does a great job here. The color scheme is nothing short of beautiful. The colors often reflect the mood of the story, it's dark and dingy during it's traumatic moments but vivid and colorful. The colors aren't extremely vibrant because the color palette is sort of "light." It's hard for me to describe it but it's sort of like a watercolor painting, compared to oil it isn't as rich and vibrant but it creates a different kind of beauty. It's honestly a pretty unique art style for an anime. I think the voice acting is mostly average but I think Miyo's VA does a great job specifically. Her voice is timid and fearful, longing and hopeful at times, and lifeless at other times. Next is the sound. No track really stuck out to me which I like, especially in a series like this, because I think that it is important the sound does not overpower the other stuff. There aren't any huge plot developments in this season (it's slow, like I've said) so I suppose an epic orchestral piece wouldn't be necessary here. Like the color scheme, the sound does a great job of mimicking and setting/supporting the mood. I'll give it a 7/10
I would recommend My Happy Marriage to slice-of-life fans for sure. Romance fans would probably like this but it's a different style of anime, even amongst Shojo's. In the latter half, an action sort of element develops, and the romance is far from intimate and is quite infrequent. For this reason, some people might not enjoy it. I think it is cliche and tropey at times but it's not as frequent as in other newer romances and it's done good enough not to be annoying. I'll also note a personal qualm of mine, some of the voice actors are doing TOO much, and it's pretty annoying. My final point is that an actual plot and storyline comes together towards the end of the first season. I noted that there are action elements, and those elements become especially prominent and function as a main plot simultaneous to Miyo and Kudo's relationship. Overall, this is my pick for anime of the season, maybe along with Bleach, it might not be for everybody but if you watch a few episodes, you'll know if you are appreciative of its slow, but subtle beauty. Final Score: 8/10. Thanks for reading, -nashy
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 9, 2023
Statistically speaking, I am almost certain (I haven't checked shit) that merchandise for this series has sold exponentially higher than anything we have ever seen for the romance genre. The Quintuplets fanbase isn't huge on Anilist or Myanimelist but rest assured, this series has a massive following. On top of that, its fans take it seriously, true die-hard supporters who love the series with all their heart. I would like to think I'm not as delusional but this is one of my favorite series of all time, period. I understand the ending rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and made them ultimately dislike
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the series, due to the ending. I can understand why, even if I don't necessarily understand. BUT, look back on the series. If you truly enjoyed it enough to sit through both series and get to the movie and ending, it's time you gave the series a second chance (unless you loved it of course).
When I say this, I'm not saying you should like the series even if you didn't like the ending, nor am I trying to convince you to reconsider your opinion of the series. The whole reason I say the series deserves a second chance is because I feel that so many people turned their back on the series that it left the animators stuck between a rock and a hard place. (SPOILER WARNING, but I mean, surely you have seen/read the series if you are considering watching this) People who were mad that Yotusba won complained that she didn't have any screentime, wasn't foreshadowed well and didn't get enough development with her relationship with Futaro period. On the other hand, the Miku and Nino fans would have ultimately dropped the series prematurely if it became evident that Yotsuba was gonna win, which would have been inevitable if she randomly started getting a lot of panels in the manga, and screentime in the anime. I'm not blaming Yotsuba haters or Miku or Nino fans here, nor am I blaming the studio. It's just the way it goes in a harem. Unless you go for the polyamorous route (which nobody would have liked), something has to be sacrificed. For that reason, I don't think the series should be written off ENTIRELY because of something that is simply an inherent flaw of the genre. Imagine the scenes if Miku or Nino won, the opposite fanbase would go even more ballistic. I want to reiterate, i'm not trying to argue against or convince people who didn't like the series because of the ending. The ending matters. I agree. However, I think that people have greatly overreacted to the ending, it certainly isn't one of the worst ones of all time.
Shaft goes for fanservice here, big surprise. I mean the series already ended but they are animating extra chapters, of course it's a cash grab. But the animation is top-notch, on par with Monogatari one could say. As I mentioned previously, the animators are stuck in a tough situation where they have to provide development for the seemingly random and arbitrary Yotsuba victory while satiating the desire of Miku and Nino viewers to come back to watch this special despite losing out to Yotsuba. This movie/special does just that, it gives Miku and Nino their screentime with Futaro to start, showcasing their cute and loveable characters, then seamlessly transitioning into the heartfelt Yotsuba segment, and how they met years ago as well as her feelings for Futaro which she locked away in favor of giving her sisters a chance, just like how they gave her a chance after her academic failure at her previous school. When it's all said and done, this movie/special can make everyone happy. All it needs is a chance. If you have seen/read Quintuplets, watch this. It's only 50 or so minutes and provides everyone with entertainment, even if the series may have left a bad taste in your mouth. I didn't like some of the fanservice, I felt like those were the wrong chapters to animate and made the characters not themselves in a way. It's still one of my favorite series' tho and this special gets the job done for everybody I am ultimately quite pleased even if they simply reopened the series just to make a few extra dollars. Final Score: 8/10; thank you for reading!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 23, 2023
We all know the drill for tonikawa. Two seasons two ova's same thing really. 99.9% of the time when shows follow this pattern you don't really expect anything more. Some sort of improvement or change, and why should we expect anything? Studios will obviously stick to the method of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Despite all that, I believe tonikawa may be a rare outlier, a "fine wine" of sorts that will improve with time. After two seasons and two ova's, you probably either like tonikawa or you don't. It's very repetitive and vanilla and some people like that and others don't. Or
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so I thought, tonikawa high school days gives me hope that this franchise has a lot more left to offer than what meets the eye.
I may have talked up this 4 episode special but obviously the series still sticks to it's roots of the main love interests being touchy-feely and shy all the time. That hasn't changed and it never will. There are a few major changes here I must add though. I think the series takes more of a focus on the side characters. I think the side characters have always been brilliant in tonikawa but we get to see more of them here. For all the people that think that tonikawa is cliche and tropey, they have made a fundamental misunderstanding. Tonikawa is a SATIRE a lot of the time, the whole joke is that it makes fun of said tropes. I think that while it takes the light-hearted thing too far sometimes, I really like how tonikawa does jokes. It's fun to watch and considerably better than most other romcoms which actually are tropey.
Now for the big news, tonikawa has a plot and a backstory! Now who would have thought this to be the case? Why did they wait so long to introduce this? Well I guess the manga has to make money somehow but the manga isn't popular for no reason. Character development and plot were the major things holding this series back from becoming among the best romcoms in the game. The backstory of Tsukasa and her relation to the princess kaguya and the moon masterfully created a suspenseful cliffhanger of an ending that will leave anime-only's fiending for season three. The final two episodes of this short series almost serve as a prelude, a trailer to the impending shock that will await us in the third season. Mind you it was all foreshadowed from the very beginning, what was all that in season one regarding chitose, tokiko and the moon rock? Why was the moon rock offered to Nasa at the end of season two? We are about to find out all that and more and the sudden shift to a vague, roundabout storytelling method is brilliantly juxtaposed with the otherwise vanilla and straightforward comedic nature which only electrifies the suspense and excitement for the viewer as the fourth episode draws to a close. Tonikawa is like a big, unfinished puzzle, and high-school days only puts the first few pieces together in what maybe the resurgence of the century in a romcom we thought was done and dusted after a slow first two seasons. Buckle up folks, because what we thought to be a "vanilla boring repeitive romance (myself included)" might just have played us all for fools as the imminent plot twist, or twists, awaits us. Thanks for reading. Final score: 8/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 17, 2023
It pains my heart to see all of the positive feedback for this series. Perhaps if you can swallow a few massive pills, you may be able to see the light in this series and it's so called "message" or "moral." Which is I guess don't settle for the one you don't love (terribly portrayed). But when I saw terms like "masterpiece" and "realism" being thrown around, that's when I realized many people just want to see the world burn. It wouldn't be possible to review this without jumping into mild spoilers, but as I begin, I just want to say that this is going
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to be a very passionate and heartfelt review, because I cannot stand for trash like this to be praised when it is so very wrong and poor. Let's begin
Perhaps the only reason why I wouldn't give this a 1/10 is the first 7 or so episodes. It was good, fun, dramatic, entertaining, but nothing romantic really happened. It wouldn't be fair to rate a series solely based on it's final few episodes but such is the nature of a romance anime, it's the reason why everyone clicked the series in the first place. A huge problem I have with this series is that the characters just turn into completely different people after 7 episodes. They go on LONG tirades about wanting to "stay together forever" as the tropes goes on and develop this very deep friendship. And they all throw it away "in the name of love." And yes, of course, love is something deeper than friendship, but what happens is that both the MC and the two love interests begin to start backstabbing each other like crazy. It's as if they never knew each other and it's just terrible writing to be honest. The writers really didn't opt for realism here. I have absolutely no fucking idea how you can call this show realistic. Mild spoiler: the MC is in love with two girls at one time, but surely you already knew that, it says love polygon in the description. Another mild spoiler: the horny fuck ends up hooking up with both girls. The show isn't packed with fanservice but there is definitely enough to sexualize both the girls. Just because the virgin losers are sex deprived and would fuck both girls does NOT mean the MC is relatable to you in any way. This terribly written MC is simply the idiotic writers way of ensuring this damn-awful anime finds it's way to it's target audience. Afterwards, the writers don't know what to do so they just pull out plot-twist after plot-twist along with random backstories to simply create as much chaos and melodrama as possible.
We need to discuss what really makes a drama good. I really really hope that most people would acknowledge things like TENSION and BUILDUP and EMPATHY. There is NONE of that present. Obviously one girl has to lose out in the love triangle, and while I was completely neutral (I promise), the authors had the audacity to have said girl say that she is "vile and rotten for making her move." What a load of absolute bullshit. There is no consistency in your writing, from the very beginning of the series onwards, the Main character acted in a way as to say to her "I promise I will be with you forever" MULTIPLE times and then the other girl tells the losing one that "she had no competition" initially. Listen here, whether or not she deserved to lose or was the best option is far from the point. The whole connection regarding this has to do with the production team/author's opinion of "wholesome" is, and let me tell you, it is completely warped.
Spoilers start to get a little worse here:
The authors develop a friendship and a number of dialogues that just get thrown away later on. You can't just develop a character like that and then throw her away as if she was a mere plot device it is just bad writing. It goes to show that the authors have no sense of what is right and wrong as the MC and winning love interest start to become intimate right in front of the other girls face. But then they realized that this is somehow wrong. I'll go ahead and narrate how they chose to write this.
Writer 1: "guys what do we do I don't think you can just cheat on a girl in front of her face." Writer 2: "hmmm idk bro i've never been in a relationship"
Writer 1: "yeah me neither bro I only know my body pillows and harems"
Writer 2: "WAIT BRO THATS IT!"
Writer 1: "wtf are you talking about."
Writer 2: "lets just throw her in there and have her act like she doesn't care that her best friend and lover are fucking in front of her knowing her feelings and then she acts like she doesn't care as long as the three of them are together and then they live happily ever after!"
Writer 1: "that's genius bro, then we can act like it's deep and realistic because apparently, in real life, people get cheated on!"
Writer 2: "that's crazy bro, my waifu's would never cheat on me!"
I am not sure if you have any friends or not but if you do have somebody you are close to, I implore you not to watch this show. I understand that there can be different perspectives, I totally get it. However a lot of the reviews of this anime tell me that some people just couldn't care less about the bonds between friends. Yeah I know it's just an anime, enjoy what you want or whatever the fuck they say. However, when it comes down to evaluating the writing and story of a piece, you can't just skip over such elements just because you enjoyed it.
To conclude, from the bottom of my heart, I implore you not to watch this anime. It's just pure trash, and not the good kind either. A lot of trash (rent a girlfriend, all isekai harems, girlfriend girlfriend, scums wish, citrus) know that they are trash. But the shows are still alright? Why? How can that be? I'll tell you, the writers aren't stupid enough to think their show is alright, that their characters are realistic. Because in order to truly bring about realism, there must be a level of self-awareness from the creator. The series' I mentioned do this in some shape or form, whether that is character development and change in the series' that try to be serious (citrus, scums wish) or just endless anti-climactic moments and laughter in the comedy ones (rent-a-girlfriend, girlfriend girlfriend, classic isekai harems). I'll say it once, i'll say it again, and i'll say it forever, this show is poorly written and complete trash. plot sucks character sucks art is mid, soundtrack and voice acting are good, there you have it. If you disagree with me, have a reason why please. My DM"s are always open, if you wanna discuss anything I said in this review, I'm game. Thanks for reading, -nashy
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jul 15, 2023
Tsurezure Children is a series of short 3-4 minute segments featuring about 10 or so couples. Funnily enough, I started watching the anime after watching a few of the clips on Tiktok. That's how I would describe this anime. It's like those Youtube videos that pop up in your recommended regarding anime or some tv series like Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen or sports highlights. A main reason why I will rate Tsurezure Children so high comes down to presentation and delivery. I am impressed with the ease in which I watched the 12 episodes. I am a big fan of the pacing. That is without
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a doubt the number one attraction to this series.
Each episode reaches about 12-14 minutes in length, half of a typical episode. Consequently, the entire series is about the length of 6 or so traditional episodes, which is just over 2 hours. This is another reason why I strongly recommend the series. It's a quick and easy watch, it's nothing crazy but because of it's short and sporadic character involvements, it's very difficult to see someone NOT enjoying the series in some capacity.
Because of the fact that there are different pairings with different scenarios (already dating, talking stage, etc.) This has two major benefits in my eyes. One: You are bound to find couple(s) that you enjoy. The wide variety of characters means that you are very likely to enjoy at least one of them. And if you get frustrated by the dialogue/think it's cringe/don't like the couple, their sequence only ends in about 3 minutes so you don't have to bear with them.
The dialogue in the series is quite high quality. The series is generally anti-climactic as a romcom but can also do the serious stuff quite accurately without being cringe most of the time. I was impressed by the series ability to transition between comedy and more serious/dramatic romantic tone, sometimes even within the span of 3 minutes. Obviously any drama isn't anything crazy (it's mostly just a singular conflict) due to the sporadic nature of the series, they can't develop anything nuanced. However, in the romance world, I have generally found that series' that are able to drama and comedy well, are generally high quality. Examples include Oregairu, The Quintessential Quintuplets, and Love Chunibyo and other Delusions.
In conclusion, Tsurezure Children is really just a highlight reel. It's pacing is fast, appeals to wide variety of people, it's easy likeable, it's a short watch, and it fits in everything we love about romance while doing so, some confessions, some drama, some comedy, some tsunderes, and some tears. I wholeheartedly recommend Tsurezure Children as a unique, creative and intriguing presentation of the age-old high-school romance genre. Final Score: 8/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 13, 2023
My overall thoughts on fate/stay night UBW is that it had something promising after season one but ultimately was lacking and was missing something. I think that the animation alone is a reason to watch the fate series despite it's flaws.
Plot [7/10]: I'm assuming you have seen UBW season 1. There are a number of plot twists within season two but I am not a fan of them. Frankly put, it is revealed that information that was given initially to Shirou, Rin, and the viewers are essentially just lies and the true nature of the Holy Grail War is something different altogether. Compared to the
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VN, UBW is considerably shorter and things have to get cut inevitably. Sometimes things aren't well explained and things simply happen. My issue with the plot twists is that they simply aren't significant to have any shock value. Now I'm not saying that Shock value is anything necessary, but regardless of the true nature of the holy grail war, they still have to fight the same people, so what's the point. Moving on, the story has an overabundance of plot armor. This is a big issue for me, Never did I feel that Shirou was going to lose and this is amplified by the attitude of the characters. Both Rin and Shirou by nature tend to be very stubborn and steadfast and they never really lost hope, even when the odds were literally zero to none. Obviously, the MC is going to win out in the end but in UBW, everything just runs too smoothly and happily-ever-afterly. Shirou's main ideal of being a champion of justice is rarely challenged outside of long rants from the antagonist. I feel that a major setback like Shirou failing to save somebody would be a welcome plot point to develop Shirou's standing desire to attempt to save everybody even though it's impossible, yada yada yada
Characters [7/10]: I won't say that the characters are unlikeable by any means, because they totally aren't. What I am saying is that the story is so plot-focused that there is rarely any opportunity for character development. The characters are pretty one-dimensional so it was hard for me to discern whether I liked them or not. I will say that a majority of time is spent on Archer in UBW season two. Regarding this, I will say that he is the saving grace of season two because the dialogue regarding Shirou's ideals of being a "champion of justice" were thought provoking and intriguing, even if they were heavily drawn out. Regarding Rin, I like Tsunderes (Asuka, Nino, Kurisu) but she gets flustered toooo easily. She's cute but overdone for me.
Voice Acting [6/10]: I want to add this separately from soundtrack. I feel like some of the characters did not fit their voice actor. For example, I don't think Sasuke Uchiha's voice actor fit the mold for Shirou's character at all by any means. I thought the Voice Acting quality wasn't bad, and it didn't hinder the show, but I 100% think that they were dull, stale, and lifeless at times and the show could have been better with a better performance in this department.
Soundtrack [8.5/10]: The orchestral music that was used in fight scenes is epic and awe-inspiring just like in season one. I don't think there are any groundbreaking sounds but the timing in which they used their sounds was excellent.
Animation/Art [10/10]: It really does not get better than this. For a 2D production, the fluidity of the animation not only holds up in comparison to, but exceeds many anime, nearly a decade later in 2023 compared to 2015. It's something that you have to see for yourself, mere words on a screen does not do it justice.
In conclusion, I think that many, or even most people will definitely enjoy Fate/stay night UBW. I personally enjoyed and appreciated it but was ultimately disappointed given the heaps of praise it received. I think the animation and visuals did a lot of heavy lifting as someone who cares deeply about the plot and characters. The final verdict is that you will probably enjoy UBW more than I did but it really isn't anything groundbreaking plot/character wise, you can find better anime there. However, when it comes to animation, ufotable x type moon are second to none. Final Score: 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 7, 2023
ufotable, as a studio, has done wonders in the animation department regarding demon slayer: kimetsu no yaiba and the fate franchise. Criticize each series all you want, you cannot deny the animation quality. Fate as a series fluctuates between and action/fantasy and a slice-of-life kind of series. As it goes along the action does become more and more frequent. I wouldn't say the series was as thrilling as a code geass or steins;gate, it kept enough suspense for the next episode.
Plot [8/10] Without a doubt the strongest element of fate so far. The watch order I am using (and have been recommended) puts fate/stay
...
night ahead of fate/zero. So far it's been pretty intriguing. Essentially our MC gets thrown into a war in which he can't exactly refuse to participate but willfully chooses to do so anyway but the war is between like 7 people. The world building and fantasy elements are good. If you haven't already, watch the prologue to this which explains the master and servant power structure/bond. The plot undergoes various development and larger as well as smaller twists. Information is revealed in a way so that suspense and surprise is added which made for good entertainment. With that being said, it also did feel like the main characters plot armor is a little bit too strong. This made it feel like certain near-death high octane suspenseful scenes are in fact meaningless because he had a way out after all.
Characters: [7/10] I think this is where fate/stay night was weakest. The characters are really just average. There isn't a wide variety of characters introduced so far but they weren't really impressive so far. What I enjoyed are a few of the character dynamics. I like how saber and shirou interacted for example. I also thought saber was super adorable lmao. Even if characters are not the most well-written, if they are enjoyable, I have no problem scoring them high. TLDR: Characters itself are nothing special but their dynamics are good and you will probably find at least a few that you like.
Animation/Art: [9.5/10] The fight scenes were done really, really well. They felt smooth and crisp but they weren't rushed so much so that you cannot see what is going on, which is a major criticism for much of the animation these days. It was clean and crisp, but also something you can actually comprehend. Art was a little bland at times but also really clean. Great character designs and background visuals, especially during the nighttime.
Soundtrack/Voice Acting [7/10]: I thought the Voice Acting was pretty average. What I liked more is the soundtrack. I don't think the opening or ending were groundbreaking, but they were good. However some of the "epic" fight music and fast-paced orchestral music really elevated the action scenes are brought it to a new level. In pretty much every action scene, the soundtrack is brilliant.
To conclude, I would give fate a shot. While I would presume that there are better anime out there, I have seen enough from the first season of Unlimited Blade Works to convince me that Fate is a quality series, especially compared to most anime and is thus deserving of a watch. As mentioned previously, it certainly helps that ufotable is very adept in terms of their quality of adaptation. Final score: 8/10. Thanks for reading
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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