Shichisei no Subaru

Video games are part of our society’s norm. I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy video games today. One of the most popular genres is MMORPG where socialization is part of gameplay. As an unwritten rule, many people play MMORPGs to connect with others. Here, we have this show called Shichisei no Subaru (Seven Senses of the Re’Union) that unites in-game characters together in a fantasy world. You probably heard this many times before but shows like this are not going to disappear any time soon. It’s a popular concept with great potential. But unfortunately, Shichisei no Subaru breaks that potential and ... limits itself to mediocrity.

Noritake Taro’s novels expands for over 6 volumes at the time of this writing but the anime consists of only 12 episodes. Red flags should already be raised as you would expect certain material to be omitted. It’s an issue found in many light novel adaptations but that’s the least of this show’s problems. By reading the premise, there’s some questions to keep in mind. It also takes place in a futuristic setting (year 2036) and the popular MMORPG “Union” is at the heart of this show’s story. Fast forward to 2040 and we have a new game called “Re’Union” launched that adapts similar mechanics to Union. We also meet a group of players including protagonist Haruto Amou who tries to move on from the past. Oh but the past comes back to haunt him when he realizes that his childhood friend, Asahi returned after her supposed death. What could possibly go wrong?

Anyone who’s familiar with anime like AnoHana may find this anime similar at its base context. We have a girl coming back from her assumed death and reunites with the protagonist. What does set apart is how Asahi exists in both in real world and in-game. In essence, the show attempts a blur between fiction and reality as both worlds’ stories connects with each other. My impression of the first episode made me realize how the creators wanted me to feel something for the characters. When we first meet Haruto, he seems just like a regular guy who actually seems a bit indifferent about his life. Until he meets Asahi again, his behavior hardly felt noticeable. After reuniting with Asahi, we can see how much he begins to doubt himself and wish he could’ve saved her back then. Did it make me feel sympathetic about him? The short answer is no and the long answer is why should I. We don’t really know much about their past in the beginning and although the show attempts to bring out characterization, it doesn’t come with good writing. This could have really been written by anyone who played a fantasy video game and Haruto’s character is blend as it can get. His actions are often motivated by his insecurity and it’s hard to get attached to him. Later in the series, he does seem to regain more of his confidence back but his development is still lackluster.

The guild Haruto used to be in is known as “Subaru” and has quite a reputation by name alone. Satsuki Usui is a mage of this guild and is one of the very few people who still maintains contact with Haruto. However, it’s pretty easy to notice that she fills this show’s role as the childhood crush. She is hopeless in love with Haruto but the latter seems to never notice her feelings. Childhood romance in a series like this is hardly surprising but because of its nature, I can’t say it works for the show’s story either way. That’s because Asahi is always on Haruto’s mind so tough luck to our mage girl. Throughout the rest of the show, we also meet other members who were members of the guild including Takanori Mikado, Clive Vivaldi, and Nozomi Kusaka. It’s pretty obvious at the same time that the show adds more romance angles between these characters. At some point, it made me wonder what this show’s true intentions are. It felt more like a teenage soap opera than a fantasy drama. To my displeasure, every episode focused more on character relationships rather than plot development. There’s far too much emphasis on relationships at the expense of crafting a creative MMORPG story. In reality, I felt very disappointed by this series’ inability to capitalize on its MMORPG concepts as well. Socialization between the characters are often repeated dialogues that you’ll hear over and over again. The only bright side is the occasional battles that shows the testament of these guild members. Even then, these battles are hardly memorable to recall despite the stakes.

Sci-fi fantasy game genres being adapted into the anime medium takes guts if you want to see a creative world. Studio Lerche probably knew this but the world fiction of this show is average at best. By technical quality alone, it looks mildly creative with the fantasy elements like the basic-looking towns and landscapes. Weapons, armor, and spellcraft is pretty typical of what you’d expect from an MMORPG game. Even the bestiary in this series are hardly inspiring. They look half-assed with minimal effort without unique traits. Character expressions in the show often looks forced with the same faces. Only Satsuki occasionally shines from the main cast but that’s mainly because of her personality. Oh and we can’t forget about Asahi. Because of her childish nature, there’s questionable fan service that will pop up at times. On the other hand, I am satisfied with the real life character designs of its cast. They look like real people and their age fits within the category of gamers. Similarly, their voices matches with their characters that is convincing to the ears. You can even hear their expressions of feelings in their voice tone that connects with their dialogues.

It’s too bad really. Shichsei no Subaru turned out to just be another one of those shows where people will forget to talk in the future. The main cast couldn’t hold a candle to impress anyone with their mediocre personalities. The story felt like it’s a copy-paste of any fantasy shows you can find on the web. Hell, even some similar light novels I’ve read had more personality than what this show had to offer. What a waste.

"This anime is worse than the ones I saw 5 years ago, because I saw this one today."

There is no limit to the ripoff and plagiarizing claims in the current "critical" atmosphere. In 2011, we got AnoHana, an anime which originality was limited to its ridiculously long name no one to this date has been able to memorize. And in 2012, we got Sword Art Online, anime which originality was entirely limited to the fact that it had none. Apparently, this anime produced in the lord's year of 2018, Shichisei no Subaru, is a ripoff of both: Sword Art Online and AnoHana...... Great.

Story:

Party ... of friends is having the time of their life inside this MMORPG game where they rock. While normos go to work and school/whatever, these fellas are doing the enjoy your life thingy and it's beautiful. Unfortunately, this thing only lasts for half a lifetime before the servers need to go down (or something, I wasn't really paying attention because it was irrelevant), what happens is these fellas get separated for a long period of time until one of them logs in and finds out that a party member who was supposed to be dead is now a spooky ghost thing still living inside the game. This starts off a journey that is exactly like SAO because it takes place inside a video game and exactly like AnoHana because there is one dead person in the series. Kudos for figuring this out.

I also spotted a red colored door here which I'd claim is a ripoff of Shakesperian literature, but then I remembered it's a smart piece of literature, and therefore red door is actually a reference to it and not a ripoff. Or would be if this anime had psychological tag in it and some nerd was claiming it's full of obscure philosophical references. ... but in this case, the door just happened to be red. There was also a deja vu in this which makes me believe this entire story takes place inside The Matrix.... just how deep does the rabbit hole go? moving on.

The story is rather weak. Mystery elements are thrown from here and there like it's a middle age stoning in progress. There are memorylosses, and sudden "realizations" like it's that ending scene from Interstellar where Cooper's daughter ponders, and dead people being alive, and characters who teleport to the screen in the right time to give some "hints" on what is going on. Also, dragons. It's pretty cheap and essentially no planning or effort is put into making any of it believable or in any way logical. The best part is how the anime just doesn't care, so it's practically impossible to get annoyed by any of it.

Most interesting factor of the narrative centers around the subject regarding stuff like how much people and the world around them changes in 6 years. What occurs is practically a timeskip of 6 years that doesn't influence one of the cast member's virtual self but removes her from the current IRL timeline. Not to leave the impact what one person's death can carry unmentioned. This is practically the only reason why the story is worth of following at all, but I thought it was dealt pretty well with, mainly because it made me feel some emotions and I don't typically care for drama this shallow.

Characters:

Anaru.... I mean the girl with red eyes and red-ish hair has real cute reaction on everything that is related to romances and and deeper feelings. Otherwise her presence is almost calming.

Menma... I mean the girl who ded really likes hugging. Her voice is quite annoying, but otherwise it warms my haarto when she tries to be strong and more mature than she is.

The real mc is kinda Jesus especially considering how smooth he is with the ladies when it comes to understanding their feelings. I like he ain't embarrassed of no hugs.

No in-depth character portrays or strong personality traits will be found here. Almost the entire cast is really light-hearted and positive. This is a casual anime and the only way to enjoy it is to take it as one.

Conclusion:

This anime is spectacularly average. It doesn't do quite anything that is impressive in terms of negative or positive. Even the "negative" parts of the story are less meaningful due to them being "average bad". My reason for enjoying and thinking this series reached the common mediocrity level is almost entirely based to the character centric drama and happy hugging scenes that were also very mediocre but I really liked them.

The atmosphere of this show is close to charming. Smooth and very easy to watch. Works especially well as background entertainment.

*I actually was paying attention, but the real events are a spoiler, hence the alternative line

Anime 👏 Review 👏

Top 10 anime crossovers of the century

My last "review" got deleted and I saw some flaws in it, I decided to write new one with pros and cons.

Story:
When I say the story is like Anohana's, I obviously don't mean the whole story is exactly the same. What I mean is that the setting which builds up the rest of the story is similar to Anohana. I think this is both a pro and a con since it's similar to Anohana's and therefore it doesnt have originality but since setting is implemented to vrmmo I think they can go ... many directions with it. Although I'm expecting it will be shit anyways

Art and Music:
Lerche has done OK job in art but CGI is bad as ever. My CGI standards rose after watching Houseki no Kuni. And sounds are nothing special and in my opinion pretty dull.

Characters:
Pros:
-Bustier Nishikino Maki. Legit only good thing in the show
Cons:
-same brick wall looking Kirito with over-powered sense
-copy and paste Menma

Powers:
In the game, players have unique skills and the protagonist has presumably the most op skill in the game and he can defeat the game's most powerful boss with few slashes. Kirito had to do some combo shit but basically the same.

Enjoyment:
Normally I like my garbage shows since they are usually harem, ecchi and/or isekai kinds of shows that are so bad that their enjoyment value is much greater than objective value, but this just a crossover of imo garbage shows. I just can't enjoy it and I get overly bored while watching it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The summer 18 anime season is one of the worst anime seasons I have ever seen period. Yes the summer 18 anime gave some shows that I really liked such as Banana Fish, Planet With, High Score Girl and Grand Blue but at the same time it was a season that gave us a bunch of anime shovel-where to a point it overweight the good meaning this was indeed a shovel-ware anime season. Seven Senses of the Reunion is the embodiment of the summer 18 seasonal anime shovel-ware because not this is fundamentally awful in every way possible but it simply does not care ... that is ripped off Sword Art Online and Anohana without giving a damm. Now with that said let's dive in into this shitfeast shall we.

Story.
In 2034, There was once a legendary party named Subaru in the globally popular MMORPG Union. The group was made of elementary school friends. They earned fame in the blink of an eye for their unparalleled abilities in the Sense system at the core of the game. However, there was an incident where a player passed away inside the game. As a result of the death, Union ended service. Six years pass. Haruto Amō, who was a key member of Subaru, has become a hopeless high school student. His personality has changed, and he has no friends or ambition. A classmate gets him to log in to the new Re'Union game, and he ends up having a "reunion" that is hard to believe. He meets his former in-game partner and real-world childhood friend Asahi Kuga. The girl who was supposed to have died six years ago was there.

Am just going to say this right now if you have seen Sword Art Online and Anohana then you already have seen this anime. Why because this is easily one of the most uninspired animes I have ever seen from this decade. Seriously there is not a single that is original about this show as it shamelessly recycles story elements from SAO and Anohana without giving a second thought about trying to be original.

Like with any other bad isekai anime that came before the world-building is shit as it rather shows avoid presenting it's own MMO world in great detail in favour of crappy character drama and crappy rule of cool elements that is done better in other animes that this show ripped off. The pacing and writing as horrendous as the show only took thoeses two shows worst elements and somehow make them downright insufferable.

Am so sorry if you thought the story selection of this review is so short but let's be real here this show story wise feels like a horrendous fanfic where the person who wrote this shit feast only seen thoses two shows aka Sword Art Online and Anohana.
1/10

Characters.
The characters aren't much better they all bland and uninspired Anohana and SAO knockoffs.
Our main character is a generic husk He suffers from (quote) "depression" (unquote) because he couldn't save Asahi from death. The reason why I quoted depression because that shit only last 3 before he completely dropped the depression act where he magically goes back to his old self again completely killing of what little character that he had to begin with.
The of the characters are all just as bad as Haruto walking cliches, void of actual personality and they all just Anohana knockoffs.
Overall like with the story the characters are awful.
1/10
Visuals
Now let's be honest with ourselves. This anime was made in 2018 however when you actually start watching the show you can easily tell that this anime could have been made in 2004 and even then the show would still be outdated. The characters deigns in this show are nothing but character rejects from Anohana that the director decided to scrap during the production of Anohana back in 2011. While the art in this show is bad the animation is actually was pretty okay than again the show uses crappy cgi on the monsters.
2/10

Sound.
The soundtrack like with every bad isekai anime is generic and boring to listen.
The same things can apply for both of the opening and ending themes of the show as they feel like every other Isekai opening and ending that you heard before.
3/10

Final Thoughts.
So there you have it Seven Senses of the Reunion is horrendous. This is probably by far one of the most uninspired animes I have ever seen.
The story is unoriginal and lazy. The characters were nothing but Anohana/SAO rejects, the visuals are outdated and the soundtrack is generic.

I strongly don't recommend this show to anyone as it will not only bore you to tears due lazy the show writing but it also insult your intelligence greatly as the show never at one point gaves a damm of what it's ripping off.

Final Score 1.5/10

Edit 2:
While obviously not a masterpiece, the show doesn't deserve ALL the hate.

This is one of those shows that takes time to build up, heck by the end of this season I bet we haven't assembled the team yet.
- Though I'm concerned with the recent pacing as it seems like they are gearing up for rushing the team building.
With shows that feature a large team of main characters like Akame ga Kill, you typically have to have an arc for each member, or kill them early in the story to fit the show's episode count.
The problem with this show is that it will only have ... about 12 episodes, at its current pacing we'll get even more characters into the anime while not having any character development for the characters we DO have.

Just so you don't get misinformed;
While the Anohana connections are clear, the SAO factor is not.

First of all, Shichisei no Subaru up to the most recent episode (5) has little to no similarities with SAO.

To call Shichisei no Subaru an SAO copy is like saying Log Horizon, Grimgar, Accel World, and Overlord is a copy because they involve a Virtual MMO.

The only similarities this anime has with SAO besides them both being Virtual MMOs is;
A touch screen you can summon with your right hand.
Character not being able to log out.

The characters are fairly generic, you got the main character Haruto that is borderline OP but not too op that he makes the rest of the team useless.
- Like Asahi, he needs more character development.

There's Asahi, the loli in the main cast who is in a similar situation as Meiko from Anohana. - Only concern about this character is that she is almost the centre of the plot yet up to episode 6 we get little depth of her character.

The borderline tsundere that can not express her feelings to the MC while being jealous of the bond of the loli and the main character. - The jealousy is more tolerable than other anime characters of this archetype that I have seen before. The love triangle between her, the MC, and Asashi is one of the more interesting parts of the series.

And the glasses boi Takanori that is also jealous that loli is close with the main character.
- I honestly find this guy the most annoying, they have not given an explanation as to why this guy is so obsessed with Asahi besides it being a childhood crush.

There's also the shy glasses girl who is in love with glasses boi but also can't express her feelings.
- Hoping that she'll be a season 2 character and not in season 1.

The American boi that seems just there to be the Ban (Seven Deadly Sins reference) of the group. - Hoping that he'll be a season 2 character and not in season 1

Besides glasses boi being too much of an annoyance, the characters are very DECENT.

Love Triangles:
This anime probably has one of the many love triangles I've seen in recent years, while some are tolerable some are not.

Main-character kun is close to loli chan, but tsundere san is jealous of loli chan of how close she is to main character kun. - tolerable
Glasses tan likes loli chan and is jealous of main character kun. - annoying
Shy Female Glasses tan likes male Glasses tan but can't express her feelings. - unexplored
And American dono is just there. - give this man a romantic tension

Shichisei no Subaru

The MMORPG game world called "Union" is a legendary party known as "Subaru". The party has seven members who are actually childhood friends and schoolmates. Because of an incident, "Union" was forced to turn off the server and make the Subaru party split up.

Six years later one of Subaru's party members named Haruto logged into a new gane and it turned out that he was reunited with his old friends. And one of them was the one who should have died six years ago.

Story (4/10)
from the beginning of the story I was surprised that the main character Asahi was killed in the dungeon ... that might be quite surprising, from this series it might be similar to anohana and sword art online series.

Character (6/10)
for my own character, I'm not sure in this series there are so many characters that change their character and can't be guessed just like that

Art (6/10)
from depictions might be good enough so I don't need to add more comments

sound (7/10)
from voice actors and sound effects is good especially Asahi's voice gives its own impression on the character of the effects of fighting is also no less interesting this helps the fight to be more interesting

enjoy (7/10)
I was bored to watch this series again but when Asahi was rediscovered from there I continued watching this series until it's finished.

I first saw this show on the 'later' tabs and thought that it would be interesting to see a mix between the two famous shows: Anohana and SAO. It potentially had the good story of Anohana and the actions of SAO. I then immediately look over to its original work, the light novel, and it HAD a score of 9, making me feel excited.

Out comes the preview and I was appalled. I didn't expect the artwork to be low budget and it destroyed all my hopes for this show. I also looked at the cover image and it looked like a generic "one of those" ... shows.

The first episode was poorly executed and had an unbelievable premise. The about-to-come romance between the main character and the heroine also confused me. Is the main character, now a high schooler, written in a way to like an elementary schooler? (Not to mention that children don't act like children in this show)

Besides its cringy plot and the horrible art, the characters bemused me. That's when I noticed, the story tried to mimic the Anohana characters one to one. A direct copy, except inferior!

There is the main character, the dead girl, the guy who hates the main character because he liked the dead girl, the girl who will get rejected at the end, the shy girl, and the guy who's not going to get much screen time.


So why did I decide to watch three more episodes? I'm not sure.

I'll keep this review short and to the point.


Shichisei no Subaru is one of the most unoriginal Isekai/Fantasy stories that exist. As noted by many other people it tries to do too much while providing so little. You may have thought this was one of the most promising shows of the season, but like me were left feeling very disappointed. The manga/source material has a fairly decent score with a 7.81 at the time of my initial review, so naturally I came in feeling hopeful. Before the first episode had even ended I had lost almost all of my interest in it. I continued ... watching, thinking that it would get better after a few episodes, and man was I totally wrong. Five episodes later and I'm seriously considering dropping this show altogether. With me being my usual, stubborn self would still love to give it a chance. My overall review is a two, but when you look at my profile you'll see a seven. That is because I'm waiting for this show to possibly redeem itself and prove myself and countless others wrong. As of right now watching Shichisei no Subaru would be a complete waste of your time and you are far better off checking out the other Isekai show of the season, Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo no Dorei Majutsu. It may have a lot of fan service but it actually executes this well unlike the aforementioned heaping pile of trash. I may update my review depending on if this show ever gets any better, but I wouldn't count on it.

So the concept of the anime is very similar to Anohana, and I think that may be part of the reason why people hate it so much - it seems like a bland copy. But just because the concept is similar, it doesn't necessarily mean that Shichisei no Subaru is a complete ripoff. Yes, there are some similarities, but Subaru does execute them differently (though it's hard to be specific about this without spoiling). The main difference though, is the fantasy and action aspect. I think these were implemented well enough to give the anime an original feel, and the monsters were surprisingly cool sometimes. ... I also enjoyed the characters for the most part. Some of them were similar to anohana, painfully so. But they were still given development at least (the main ones anyway) and character development is always nice to see.

My main problem is that it just feels incomplete. I hope we get a season 2 or something to tie up the story, but if the reception there is anything like the reception over here then unfortunately we'll be stuck with this incomplete story.

TL;DR It's not as good as Anohana, but it's still good and worth a watch as long as you don't compare them too much.

Shichisei no Subaru is nothing. Nothing unique, nothing memorable, nothing worthwhile.

This show has no individuality and it will assuredly be remembered by no one. If you've watched even a quarter, no, a sixth of the anime shows I have (which isn't much mind) you've seen everything about and to this already, and yeah, that by itself isn't too bad; I mean there's a whole lot of anime out there and "originality" to a degree, is a fallacy, right? Except... none of it is repackaged in any way to create individuality for this show, there's no "effort" made past simply putting the blocks together. There's ... no effort to BE something itself. It's an accumulation of all the common tropes and characters we've all come to know, put together and packaged in see-through plastic. There was no effort here to do anything more than that. There's no decoration around it, or even anything so much as a "hook" to entice and keep you in disillusionment until the end. It's as it at start all the way to the end.

Even the worst of shows usually at least TRY to reach for the stars in an attempt to create and be something. Anything... But no, not this one. Out of all the time I've spent watching shows thus far, I have never once quite experienced a show so void of any distinguishing characteristic; usually there's at least ONE artist's distinguishable flair in the whole package, be it in the directing, the writing, the art, or hell even the soundtrack... Even in the most unoriginal and uninspired of shows. Or there's usually SOMETHING that'll shine and take an elevated place in your memory and make you, if nothing else, think to yourself "hey, I guess that's pretty cool", but this? There's nothing. Absolutely nothing"! And it's to a level that's so astounding that I feel like I could never quite hammer down that fact here enough...
This is what I'd imagine the future first generation of androids would be capable of making anime-wise, you know, when they can take in information, perform complex tasks and reproduce the idea; but before they develop consciousness and the ability to develop any individuality (and murder us all)... This show is so perfectly uniform in it's blandness and so transparent in it's cheapness that it's nothing short of depressing.
I'm doubtful I will remember anything about this show in a few weeks time, even now, after just finish the last episode ON the day of release, all of the other episodes leading up to this one have just come to form this huge, foggy white blur. Hence, I guess, why I've yet to actually talk about the show's parts and provide evidence. However, I will try... By painfully going back through the episodes (let me be straight, it's the only way I could do it).

Firstly, let's talk about the characters. Oh god, the characters... The characters are arguably the worst part about the show, and so it should be of little surprise that the show first and foremost centers around those characters and not the "plot"... More importantly, it centers around those characters' relationships and interpersonal (love) drama... (yay..) Firstly we have the main protagonist, Kirito. I mean Yuki. No wait, Haruto! Yes, that's the one. Haruto is... nothing. Yes, he's a really good figurehead for the show. He's oblivious to all, without any appearance of discernible conscious thought, has the hearts of the main girls by, uhhhhm.. being the protag, and has deus ex machina powers (I mean, every mc does in this show but still) that are used whenever the plot needs it (and that's a lot). You know the character already. His motivations are non-existent, he has absolutely no personality to speak of, and he has about as much depth as the moon's ocean. Really, he's perfect for the show. He's everything wrong with Kirito, on steroids, with none of even slightest of redeeming parts. Make no mistake, he's every bit as bland and uninspiring as his design makes him out to be.
Next there's his love interest, the 8 year old Asahi (okay she's not 8 years old, but she's godamn close enough. Every bit as innocent, thoughtless and unsuspecting as you'd think one would be... Now. I don't mean to throw accusations around, but that producer that got arrested for trying to fuck a teen... I think he had a part to play in her character. That's all I'm saying.), and her love rival (because, c'mon, what do you think this is?) Satsuki. Unlike Haruo, these two both at least rely on something to stand on as characters. Asahi's thing is being the oh-so-innocent and oh-so-cute loli of the group and Satsuki's thing is being the angsty, big-breasted love rival that just wants her senpai (the protag) to notice her. Now you're probably expecting me to talk more about them, but that's it. There's nothing else to their characters. Sorry.
Anyway next there's Haroto's love rival, Takanori/the "Glasses" of the show, who manages to standout by actively being insufferable (it's at least something okay). The "thing" about this character, other than being the protag's love rival and ""friend"", is that since he's the *protag's* love rival, he's a real big cuck, and is just as full of childish, angsty frustration as you would expect. And yep, he never made or makes a move either but wow is he defensive and clingy to the point of creepiness. He's the standard, antagonistic "glasses" character. You know the character. Don't worry though, it only takes 9 of the show's 12 episodes and 8+ in-universe years for the guy to realize the protag's loli girl doesn't love his edgy ass. After that he manages to become as bland and forgettable as every other character in the show.
Finally, there's two other "main" characters that are part of the group. Who both somehow managed to be even more bland and forgettable than the others. Clive is the "haha mysterious, funny 'n cool foreigner with the weird fashion sense" character and Nozomi is just Satsuki but in love with Glasses and who was originally a shy nerd (but now a model btw). There's really a love pentagon going on in the main group, and for whatever reason the show chooses to be about that. And all 5 of them have this amazing inability to grow up and/or get over childhood crushes.

Which brings me on to the plot... There is no plot. There's something that looks (and at the start feels) like a plot that plays around in the background while we spend 4 hours watching the most cringey and stereotypical of teen romance drama. The villains, what villains..? Throughout the 12 episodes we learn absolutely nothing about them except from 1- they're an evil group of people who want to use the "senses" (which we are never told what they exactly are or how they really work or how they are of use in the real world or how they can be manipulated...) and 2- they have a thing for Asahi and her magical (and also unexplained) "sense" for seeing the future within the game. We don't learn a single thing about their motivation or goals, and I don't remember the name or face of a single one of them, and there's no discernible "head" of the villainous organisation either (the one thing they could have done to make them just a bit memorable...). There was one who looked like a clown in-game and one who's a snappy girl dressed in a black hood. That's all there is to remember about the ones the show introduced us to. Don't expect ANY conclusion in regards to them, even the final ""fight" fails at giving you that. Oh, and don't expect even any progress to be made in regards to the main mystery of the show either (the other thing, they could have AT LEAST done..). Again, there is absolutely no plot here, don't be fooled.
I wish I could talk more about the "plot" since this doesn't really feel like a great review right now, but there's nothing that can be said. Since it's as non-existent as everything else important in this show, I'm really at a loss for words. All I can say is that if you're going to watch this don't expect one. You learn just as much about the ""plot"" from the synopsis as you do in the season's whole 4 hours.

Lastly, on to the soundtrack and animation, they're both just as unsurprisingly bland and cheap as everything else is in the show. The fights look awful, with no fluidity or choreographing whatsoever, and they feel like they were storyboarded by a child, and the soundtrack will just as quickly get under your skin as everything else with how repetitive and uninventive the scoring is. As for the designs, well, you can tell the quality of those from the cover...

To conclude, this show is cheap, bland and amazingly forgettable. It's value is that it's a 12 episode anime show, and that's all. That's its value. It's a husk of plastic that contains everyone else's trash. If you watch this you'll forget about it in less than a week. Stay far, far away from this if you value your time.
And just in case my words can't dissuade you, I'll finish with a serious (yes, serious...) quote from one of the "villains", that should say it all I think...
"Coffee can't turn into tea, and cake can't turn into jelly... They'll either just disappear.. or rot and fade away"
I would include the context for those words, but there really isn't any. It was really meant to be deep..

It was the day that he'd just finished Anohana. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he clenched his Asuna body pillow in anguish.

"What a beautiful story."
That was the thought in his mind.

It had reminded him of what life was truly about. It made him want to reach for the stars, achieve the dreams he'd once given up on. He looked at his Asuna pillow, and his eyes began to sparkle.
He took out a notebook, and began to let his thoughts pour out onto the paper.

"A story of love."
"A story of letting go of the past."
... "A story of friendship."

He wanted to write a meaningful story, and in the end, he accomplished that goal.

The greatest crossover story of all.

'Anohana Art Online'.

-

Honestly, should this review exist? I could just say it's an Anohana/Sword Art Online ripoff. It's literally Sword Art with an attempt at a dramatic, heavy storyline. Notice how I said 'attempt' and not 'there is.'
Because in the end, there is no melancholy. There is no emotion in this show.
Of all the anime I've ever watched, I've never seen such a lifeless, copy and paste show like this.
But here I am, reviewing this husk. So let's get to it.

Story: 3/10
The concept of a more melancholic VRMMORPG story isn't bad idea. In fact, what upset me the most is that this could've been good. But if it was good, I wouldn't be bashing on it like I am.
If I could describe this the best way I possibly can, it's a badly written fanfiction. It's a total mess, there's no weight to anything, and the characters are absolutely laughable. But sadly, I've seen anime far worse than this, so I can't exactly call it the worst. It had potential, but stabbed it several times and said, 'To hell with this, who needs a good plotline?'

Art: 7/10
I feel bad that my favorite anime studio of all time, Lerche, is working on this (Although this is for sure not their best work so far). Because the animation and art in this show is good. Yeah, it's good. When it comes to art and animation, Lerche practically nails it every time, even in their older works. I will say though, the character designs are pretty bland, but good ol' Lerche made them super appealing to look at. Even though this anime pretty much sucks, good on you Lerche for making beautiful art and animation.

Sound: 6/10
I don't have much to say here, just an average soundtrack overall. I will say though, I really like the OP. ED is average.

Character: 2/10
The characters in this show are hilarious! They're absolutely lifeless, they're cookie cutouts of archetypes, aren't interesting at all, and most of all..
I DON'T CARE ABOUT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM.
Did the staff really think writing the characters so lifeless was okay? Did they actually even think of putting effort into them. Just thinking of how void these guys are makes me want to read the original light novel just to see how bad they are in the original source material.
Let's see, we've got:
- Brown haired Kirito
- Menma and Sachi's love child
- angsty glasses man
- red haired asuna
- random chick that dont get enough screentime
- Laughing Coffin but it's a circus act
and so much more!
They're just so bland, it's bad.

Enjoyment: 3/10
The animation made it bearable, and it had so much potential, but it just threw it all away. Don't bother with it.

Surprise, surprise, we have yet another Isekai on our hands this season. As per usual, a few questions would come to mind when dealing with this genre like,

Is this anime just Sword Art Online? No.

Is this a good Isekai? No, but it has the potential to be.

Is this a bad Isekai? At some times, yes.

Is it worth the watch? That depends on you.

What this series has shown us so far (being 5 episodes in) is that it has a unique gameplay element based on their visual reality headset that classifies users into roles based on their 'sense'. It truly is an interesting game quirk, partially ... the reason why this show has potential. If you are into the gaming quirks of a series, you will probably enjoy this show, as those elements are present quite often via. guild interaction, boss slaying, and showing off of the capabilities of different players 'senses' and their specializations.

However, if you like a well-grounded plot and a great character cast, this anime probably isn't for you. The characters are just bland and by episode 5 I really see no attachment to them at all and gives me absolutely no reason for me to care about them. We were shown in episode 1 that these characters have had previous interaction, and if the show had shown us more of their bonds and why their guild, Subaru, was so great due to their teamwork, then my opinion on the show would've drastically changed. But the show doesn't do this at all. It tries to build a cliche romance from the get-go and tries to gun for the romantic tension it just isn't ready to delve into yet. However, I really want to hold off on this series, as it is only episode five and I really have no right to judge the whole package of the story until the series is completely done.

So again, should you watch this series? Yes and no.

Are you stressed for time and can only watch a limited quantity of shows this season? If so, I would say no. This show is not worth your pleasure. There are plenty of other great shows for you to watch this season. If this show does get big, you can always come back to it after its rocky start is over.

On the flip side, if you do have enough time, I definitely recommend you take a look at this anime. At episode 5, it has a unique RPG element and guild interactions, but not a cast worth caring about yet. If this were to change, I would definitely recommend this anime to you, which is why if you do have enough time, stay with this series to see if this element really does change.

That's all folks, if you got this far, thanks for reading the review! I hope this was helpful in your decision

There is to me nothing special about this anime; I knew that would be true before even starting episode 1. Though anything that makes me think of Anohana is worth at least seeing the start of the show.

The characters are annoying to listen to so I find myself skipping over scenes of dialogue when it falls into the classics. Though there isn't point that largely sticks out me and shouts, "Nah dog, in an anime the MC would never do that."

So why when everything about the show is cliches am I giving it a six?

The story intrigues me. I'm curious to see who the ... main character will choose. I'm curious to see how they explain Asahi being alive in the game. I'm curious if the tsundere will ever say her feelings by the end of the show? Okay, the last was rhetorical but I digress.

The music is nothing special and is quickly forgotten.

The art is nothing special either and at points is goes into bad CGI.

It's a good casual watch don't expect the next Log Horizon but a budget fantasy Anohana.

Apparently today I want to write many reviews .

Well this anime The only thing I can say is that choose to SAO and Anhoana it mixed and came out this anime.
Here in LatinAmerica in really like this anime , i only see because it is interesting but apparently I think I will leave because I really do not find emotions when I see it bores me sometimes
I hope when I finish this anime keep quiet but for now is one of the worst that have left this season, I gave a 6 not to kill him so

well this i say this anime for ... now

Have you ever wanted to see Ano hana in a MMORPG setting?

Well, Subaru is pretty much a mash up of Ano hana and SAO, but fails at everything it wants to do.

Story- (3/10):
The story is about a group of elementary schoolers who used to play a MMO called Union, had some legendary guild called Subaru, but disbanded when a girl from their party named Asahi dies. Fast forward 6 years to when they’re teenagers, and through a circumstance of events it turns out that the dead girl is still alive in the new ‘Re: Union’. Haruto and Asahi’s goal becomes to unite the former ... members of Subaru and uncover the mystery behind her death.

The story from it’s premise down to the characters, their personalities, designs (you can’t tell me Asahi doesn’t look like Menma), relationships is a Ano hana rip off.

Characters- (1/10):
The characters are one dimensional, generic, Ano hana rip offs.

Haruto: The overpowered, dense, Kirito 2.0 MC who suffers from ‘depression’ after what happened with Asahi, to the point where he becomes a shell of his former self and stopped playing games. He feels guilty and blames himself over her death. It doesn’t help that Takanori (his supposed friend) constantly said it’s his fault.

I emphasised ‘depression’ because the tramua only lasts the first 3 episodes. It’s so poorly written that it just comes across as Haruto playing the role of being depressed and acting emo, instead of it being a traumatic illness. It’s hilarious spotting out the times Haruto drop the facade and acts like his old self throughout the show.

Asahi: A airhead with the mental age of a toddler that constantly talks about how she wants to bring Subaru back together, that’s it. She’s a Menma rip off. I hate the way the show depicts Asahi as this weak, damsel in distress that everyone wants to possess, especially Mr. Possesive, obessesed Takanori. Asashi is just a massive plot device due to her prophet art, which allows her to change timelines of the future

Satsuki: Haruto’s ‘childhood’ friend who loves him. It baffles me how Satsuki is supposed to be his childhood friend, and yet she abandoned him during the toughest part of his teen years. I mean what kind of shit friend does that?

Takanori: “Don’t you mess with MY Asahi”
“I’m prepared to spend the rest of my life in a video game to be with Asashi.”

I think those quotes pretty much sum up Takanori. Takanori’s is undoubtedly the most annoying, unlikeable cunt in this show. He’s supposed to portrayed as a ‘intelligent’ and logical, but he’s rash, narrow minded, possesive and manipulative. He unfairly blames Haruto for Asahi’s death because he subconsciously knows Haruto and Asahi both love each other and that he never stood a chance against our Kirito! Takanori’s one sided love obsession with Asahi is still infuriating to watch.

The other characters aren’t worth talking about. These characters are so unrealistic to have a crush on a person they haven’t seen for 6 years since elementary school. The fact that Haruto and Takanori love Asashi who has the mental age of a elementary schooler is fucking disgusting.

Animation- (5/10):
The animation is subpar at best. The world is very bland and shallow

Sound- (4/10):
The opening is catchy and the visuals are interesting, besides that I don’t recall the osts and ending.

Enjoyment- (3/10):
I’ll highlight some of my problems with this anime:
Re union is supposed to be a MMO, yet the world is incredibly shallow and barely explored, we haven’t seen any adventuring, characters fighting mob, the levelling system is non existent, game mechanics e.g. senses are poorly written and vague. We know a bit some guilds, but that’s about it. There’s just a massive lack of detail in this series. The ‘one death= game over’ is the most retarded concept I’ve ever seen all year. How the fuck do you expect characters to grind or even gain a proper gaming experience if they’re worried about dying

Re union is just a platform, better yet a plot device to have these characters interact, so we can see their stupid drama. They try to introduce romantic elements, mystery and love triangles, but it just doesn't work because the character development is non-existent

The love hexagon is absolutely ridiculous. Just when I thought the love triangles were starting to end with Takanori and Satsuki confessing and being rejected, the author adds another spanner in the mix. I face palmed so hard when Nozomi saw Takanori dancing with Satsuki, instead of clarifying the situation Nozomi runs away. It’s just another misunderstanding because the author can’t write nothing else but forced drama and stupid love triangles. Takanori fighting Haruto just to get him to admit he liked Asahi was cringe. Not only did it remind me of how possessive and obsessed Takanori is over Asahi, but there were better ways to getting Haruto to admit his true feelings.

Overall- (3/10):
It’s one of the most generic isekai’s and a Ano hana rip off not worth watching

It took about five minutes to label every character as cliche and entirely bland, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I originally had some hope when I put this on my watch list; I know a lot of people are tired of Isekai, but I still sincerely love the genre. That said, that doesn't mean I want to watch the same stories and identical characters repeatedly reworked by various companies for pure profits.

The premise is very much "Anohana goes MMO Isekai", and although I haven't seen enough of Anohana to say just how closely the storylines match, the basis is known well enough that even I ... thought of it just reading the synopsis. I've seen a bunch of SAO references in the reviews, and certainly it seems like the same world setting if I'm honest, with the headset and log in for the VRMMORPG virtually identical, and there are a few similarities in the MC too, but I wouldn't compare the stories.

The art style is solid enough, but, as is immediately evident, there's nothing at all original or outstanding about it. It hints at cute, but is broadly mainstream; in short I'd say a decent staple that get the job done nicely, but generally forgettable. The noses kind of annoy me though. Probably just me.

The OP and ED are 100% idol, I'm not quite sure what's going on there - I mean they're decent, but I feel like it's the sound I'd expect from something like Love Live?
As for the overall OST, I can't recall it at all, but I guess it did the job, I don't have anything bad to say about it after two episodes at least.

As mentioned in the synopsis, at the start of the story, all the members of Subaru are elementary schoolers. And yet aside from the girl who dies, none of the characters act even remotely like children. What childish qualities they do have (like blaming you friend for causing your crush's heart failure) are entirely unaffected by the next six years. And for a supposedly invincible team, there certainly seems to be a lot of doubt and jealousy flying around, just saying.
MC-kun is entirely OP, until he's reset (he's probs still pretty OP, but I'm not waiting to find out); RIP-chan also has a ridiculously OP ability that clearly oversteps any normal game's bounds, but no one thinks that's strange - least of all her, because she legit doesn't think about anything for more than five seconds. Jealous megane-kun seems to be an obnoxious twat with a stick up his ass, and other than that he's just Mr. Megane through and through, while jealous oppai-sama at least seems to be somewhat understanding/considerate of others' situations - did I mention they're also both super OP? Then there's the Mr. foreigner-nice-guy, and super shy megane-chan who will probably have to overcome her feeling of being useless to the team later on, and have some kind of power break through, but that's just speculation.
I'd like to make a special note for the characters who drag MC-kun back into the game, who were so badly written they wouldn't have been misplaced in a parody anime like The Disastrous Life of Saiki Kusuo - like seriously, are those lines a joke? I swear they evaporated the moment the story no longer needed them. Who even were they, for that matter, that our emo MC suddenly makes his gaming comeback after 6 years because of a little nagging? I think I've made my point, but the other side characters aren't much better.

I could tell this was flat trash before the first episode ended, but watched the second because the story hadn't actually started, and I needed to A) reach some kind of resolution and B) confirm it was shit and was going to stay that way, because generally the rule is 3 episodes, but I kinda hate all the characters already, so that's not happening.

Try it if you want, it won't hurt you, although you may lose a few brain cells, if you've read this far then I've hopefully lowered your expectations enough for this to be watchable by now. If this didn't cut it, not much will.

Honestly this anime is very underrated. Why? It doesn't have the commen flaws every anime has. I'm talking about bad communication leading to endless problems that could have been forseen had they JUST talked. Or girls who are to afraid to ask a boy out, etc..

Basicly, this anime doesn't have those problems, the characters are far easier to relate to. Sure they are still shy, quick tempered, sly, ... but we don't waste endless episodes on feelings or never get to see them confess at all, it's the opposite. I really like that because short animes ( 12 episodes ) usually don't give you much.

Story
I ... didn't like how we got the most important information in (I think?) the second episode. Took the mystery away, I've seen enough 'video game trapped' animes to understand what could sort of be going on, but don't litterly tell me! I want to guess, wonder, discover. Don't spill the beans so fast! Apart from that we get a nice full picture of these guys's lives and that's great. I love that. But really, should have been 24 episodes. It deserved at least 24 episodes.

Art & sound
I loved it, we got a nice display of backrounds and magic. It was very amusing to my eyes. Also loved the music, calm and portraying love in stead of action and danger. I like it when, even amidst danger, friendship and love prevail, even in the music.

Character
This, I think, they did great. Every character had it's own backstory and different set of feelings. All of them got the chance to show how they felt and how to deal with it. I saw some really nice character development.

Overall I really enjoyed watching it and I was sad when it was over. I hope I get to see more of this. So many things they did right in my opinion, I want to see more of these people's work.

Re'union kept me really hooked. Never before have I seen a show that was so bad that I couldn't stop myself from watching just so I could hate it even more. Like it's such a terrible show that I genuinely felt happy when I saw it's scored so low on MAL.

The main character of the show is Haruto who is basically budget Kirito from SAO. He's overpowered as crap and of course he has a whole harem at his back and call. However, unfortunately for the show, Haruto is somehow even worse than Kirito because instead of being this character who at least smiles, ... he's this depressed boi that cheers up literally less than half way through the show even tho he blames himself for the death of his friend for six years. Like WHAT?!?!?!? I don't know about you but that right there is just so dumb, and if you watch the show (which I recommend you don't unless you like watching ironically bad things just for laughs) you'll find out the reason why he's not "depressed" anymore is even stupider than he is.

Moving on from Haruto because the previous paragraph could fill up the whole MAL page if we were to go into anymore depth about him is his dead childhood friend Asahi. Asahi is basically Asuna (except somehow shes even worse than Asuna which boggles my mind) because instead of being a strong independent woman (once in a while) Asahi is this useless character that does absolutely nothing besides constantly getting saved and then cucking the guy who cares about her for your Kirito ripoff.

Speaking of cucking, we have the saving grace of the show who rescues Asahi and Haruto more times than they can count: Satsuki. Oh man, I actually felt so bad with how they treated her. Like she didn't even go to the rejected woman's club (spoilers my bad) but they instead sent her to the shadow realm. Throughout the whole show, she was constantly getting sharted on by the author for no reason. Oh, she musters up the courage to talk to Haruto after he stays inside like a little B for 6 years, too bad shes gonna be forced to cry because Asahi said to words to Haruto which sways him (for god knows what reason). Oh, she saved Subaru during this epic battle that would otherwise cause a game-over for like 3/6 members, well then thats just too bad, Haruto is going to compliment Asahi instead. Like shes so much better than Asahi that even MAL put her before Asahi because they know she isn't a piece of trash unlike the other two previously mentioned characters.

I would talk about everything else wrong with this show but I'm pretty sure the other reviews will have you covered.

To be honest, this isn't a wonderful anime. So far, I have come to completely dislike Satsuki. But first, I'll talk about the others. Haruto is someone I have sympathy with. All at once, he lost his friends in the heat of a game. I think it's good that he is trying to help Asahi as much as he can, even if his motivation is mostly guilt. Takanori is honestly just a guy who had his crush taken away from him because she chose to protect Haruto. Of course he would hate him. Now that she's back, he is trying his best to protect her ... and prevent losing her again by keeping her close. Of course she has other motives like reviving Subaru. Asahi didn't even know she died in real life. I'm glad this hasn't completely changed who she is. Now... Satsuki. She is just horrible. First of all, I don't like her shitty tsudere act. Secondly, I cannot believe that she has the nerve to be mad at Haruto for being concerned about Asahi and her situation. For years, he had the burdern of being blamed for Asahi's death and now he can redeem himself. Satsuki is actually, JEALOUS. I don't understand how a boy could be more important to you, than helping your somewhat dead friend. SMFH.

The story of Shichisei no Subaru was actually pretty decent until the anime ended and nothing really escalated story wise. You wish as the viewer that something would be solved but no nothing gets answered and the only thinkg this anime becomes is a far lesser...and I mean like Rock Bottom lesser version on Anohana...the Asahi we Lost that day.

The Art and Animation was average at best. Which is a surprise because Lerche usually does really good work. I guess they heavily focused on a better anime in Asobe Asobase this season.

The sound and Music was nothing special.

Character wise I gave it a 5 and ... thats generous because less then half of the Main characters were actually enjoyable. (Satsuki, Clive, and Elicia) Taanori was growing on my because he did not stay fixated on Asahi but yeah he came up just short for me liking him.

I would have enjoyed this anime a lot more if it had a solid or acceptable ending. It was okay watching it though.

Overall I wouldn't waste my time with this anime unless you were watching it week to week.