A 5.5 kind of a show. There's nothing especially bad about it, it's fine, but there's no real spark to it either. There's some degree of an illusion of depth to it with some tragic backstories sprinkled about and repeated (shock) betrayals which all somehow seem to work their way out, giving an illusion of progress. The creators evidentially got tired of trying to maintain the uncomfortable fatalism of the first few episodes and migrated to a slightly more upbeat but awkward dynamic. All very generic anime with fantasy characteristics really.
If you're looking for a power fantasy which has some of the aesthetics of misanthropy
...
May 17, 2024
May 8, 2024
Dekisokonai to Yobareta Motoeiyuu wa Jikka kara Tsuihou sareta node Sukikatte ni Ikiru Koto ni Shita
(Anime)
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Dekisokonai is isekai.
It is the genre reduced down to its most basic parts, it is the generic. There is almost nothing more to say about it. If you need the anime equivalent of fast food this is it. Everything about it is pretty much in the just hovering in the passing grade territory, a big old C- of show. High points: an almost accidental story about the need to release from grief and revenge by embracing the freedom of "failure" (although in this show failure means being god-tier, it doesn't make sense, it's not supposed to, it's isekai.) Low points: it doesn't have any, it's flat, ... 
Feb 20, 2024
Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru
(Anime)
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Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru is not great. It could have been a lot better than it is, but it doesn't explain its world well enough nor give itself time enough to cook through. What it is though is compulsive viewing, it has a soap-opera quality to it where you want to see what happens next, even if you know it's not going to be good.
So don't think too hard about it and just slide on through. If you want to think about where it falls down (and I wouldn't bother...), then it sets up a dark fantasy world with elements of the tedious "don't ... 
Nov 15, 2023
Ethical Non-Monogamy the Anime. It's dumber than a bag of rocks but good lord it's having fun doing it.
While not quite fully embracing the slightly more innovative polyamory route of say Kanojo mo Kanojo, Hyakkano is putting its whole ass into being silly and having a cast of characters that just play around with the dumb tropes of the genre. In the current crop of cynical but somehow not introspective dumb harem shows this is a little bright spot, even if it is, and I cannot stress this enough incredibly dumb. If you start watching this you don't need someone to review it for you to ... 
Jul 31, 2023
Kaminaki Sekai no Kamisama Katsudou is an odd show. It's also accidentally a little bit topical following the assassination of Shinzo Abe, seeing as its central idea revolves around modern marketing/pop-psych and cult formation (but it's an isekai so obviously godly magic powers are real).
It is a "pull ideas out of a hat" show that drew some interesting themes but fell short on being able to stitch them together properly. We got the standard "realistic" cynical hero, the power of friendship, the gratuitous smut (which despite being driven through the story like lead in a pencil it still feels oddly forced most ... 
Dec 28, 2022
Fuufu Ijou, Koibito Miman.
(Anime)
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Fuufu Ijou, Koibito Miman, "More than a Couple, Less than Lovers" gets my goat, it's just serious enough that it sets itself up for a fall. It couldn't just be a mindless tropey romcom it had to show a little glimmer of competence that it could have been better and there's the sin. It hinted that it knew how to be more interesting and complex and chose to be wet instead.
Where More than Love Triangle, Less than the Sum of its Parts fails its promise is that the female lead starts the show with her own motivations and desires, she wants some of that ... 
Nov 3, 2022
There are people that seem to believe this show is parody, a deconstruction of the ridiculous power fantasies of isekai-genre enjoyers. If that was the authorial intent, then they missed the mark. They missed it by a very, very long way.
This somehow manages to be a deformed mash up of a typical irony-poisoned rom-com and a real isekai offender like overlord. If it is a parody then lacks any sense of humour in its execution, somehow imagining that just being irony-poisoned would carry it through, but, what possible literary objective could you have with an irony-poisoned god who is not crippled by a soul rending ... 
Oct 18, 2022
Imagine if instead of being a wannabe school shooter the Shield Hero guy was just like "Oh I'll just get on and enjoy life instead" this is that story.
Solidly mediocre, a mystery appearing girlfriend come isekai come harem anime. No doubt as it progresses MC will gather up new pokem... err, well developed female characters with their own coherent drives and independent desires and motivations... nah, just kidding. It's nothing but caster sugar and well worn tropes. A return to naive fantasy with a slightly goofy but earnest male lead and his growing flock of dotting lady followers. No obvious room for real genre defining twists, ... 
Sep 27, 2022
Yofukashi no Uta
(Anime)
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Take Welcome to the NHK and the Monogatari series, gently whisk them together and you get this. The apparent horniness is something of a ruse disguising the psychodrama and totalising sense of ennui (well, assuming one can truly separate the horniness from the human condition) as MC is forked between his whimsical dreams of the freedom of the night and his belief that his real life in the day is alienating and devoid of any real spark.
Probably the strongest show of the Summer 2022 season. TL;DR - Society is a mess, all the characters are really mentally ill and it's an interesting exploration of that. 
Jul 4, 2022
A solidly mediocre show. You've seen this before. You know, MC has powers that just put him so many tiers above everyone else that he's effectively a god. Everyone in the world loves him and/or wants to be him. It's all trope all the time.... except, the ending.
I don't think that the show is actually the harem show it at first appears to be, MC is rather distant and reserved with the main two girls vying for his affection, well, he is thousands of years older than them and functionally a god, so I suppose it's probably rather less creepy that way... but that's actually ... |
