Definitely one of the more unique shows out there. The twists were good. The show was stylish too. Nero was a likable character. The anime had some clever moments. The ending was unique, different, heartwarming and kind of funny.

Watched it right after I completed the main show but forgot to update.

I loved the art and the character designs. OP was good. Soundtrack was good. The characters were all interesting and memorable. World building was good. Little Latta is the cutest thing ever. Loved the dynamic between different characters, especially Nino and Jean.

It's a very laid back show that doesn't actually need a binge watch. You could sit back and enjoy it. And it's consistent too. No big twist, even in the end.

I don't know if an anime need to evoke strong emotions for me to rate it above 7. 7. 5/10 show, but 8/10 because of its uniqueness.

Totally forgot to talk about how much food is an important part of the show is lol. Gave me a craving for something sweet.

Even more laid back and chill than the main show. Nothing really happens. But I still liked it. That's ACCA for you. And man, this show makes being an important govt. official seems like something to aspire to be.

Brief and comfy shorts...

Very funny. Loved the meta jokes and Planet of the apes reference.

I don't remember the last time I saw an anime with this much action and consistent high quality animation. Nice music which sounded like Indian music sometimes. First OP was okay. The starting part of the first ending was beautiful. I can't say that I fully understood what this anime was trying to say, especially with that ending. MC and main girl didn't have a romance plot which was great. I felt that Leoni's death was forced. All action scenes were great. At first I felt that the characters were edgy sometimes but later, unlike many other anime, the characters' behavior didn't feel like a strange overreaction after going through the series and seeing favorite characters die left and right. Funny scenes were really entertaining. Lablac, the green haired guy had many badass scenes. It was sad to see him go. But the saddest I felt was when Maine died especially with the romance plot. I liked her character very much even before the romantic scenes began. What else? The first episode had one of the best twists I've ever seen in anime and how they revealed the night raid and directed that episode was amazing. Also, I loved how the abilities of the characters were fully defined and there weren't any asspull moments like in *chivalry ofk* which I consider as bad writing. So...it was very entertaining and is definitely worth a watch. Good animation almost always gets an 8 in my book automatically and this anime didn't even have any heavy use of CGI which I'm not a fan of. The writing was good and it had many good and clever moments. Since the ending was a bit confusing, I think it deserves an 8/10.

Forgot to add a few things. Everything was black and white. Good vs Evil. The villians were unbelievably evil and stupid and almost every one of them liked to torture people for fun. The second thing is that most of the deaths felt forced. Like there was no need for all of the night raid to die. I read somewhere that the anime was trying to break clichés. I commend them for the attempt because it's an extremely difficult thing to succeed at. I think it's easier and better to an extent to make great anime using clichés as strength like MHA S1 for example. I also read a review which said that the animations weren't good? I think I might be blind or might have forgotten how good animation looked like? Anyway, the anime was very entertaining.

I thought it would be completely bizarre but everything made sense except maybe the ending. Maybe it's because I've seen way crazier shows but I didn't feel that the movie was so complex that it would be difficult to comprehend what was happening. The 24fps animation was great. Overall, as a movie, I'd say that it still holds up really well.

8.5/10. Good anime. Some moments were too anime-y but a lot of it was great. Even after watching many anime, I still have trouble pretending that little children have the maturity of adults. The breaking down scene of Poppo was the most moving scene for me. OP was good. The character design of Menma was really good. An entertaining show but I felt like it was missing some things.

It was good. Wish I had a Koro sensei. The premise and children assassins are kind of out there, but whatever.

One of the best, most satisfying endings I've ever seen in anime. Still hurts me about my education though.

Nice movie. Enjoyed it. Noticed Hosuda's style similar to Wolf Children.

Okay. Too short for emotional investment around 'missing the island'. Nothing ever happens. Typical SoL I guess?

Originally added: 22-09-15
Originally watched(first 22 eps): 2011-2012 on Animax

So, I originally watched this show back in 2011-12 on Animax. Although I don't remember much now, it must have had a good enough impact on me since I added the show to my MAL. I had remembered the opening songs well.

Coming to the main aspects of the show, I don't think there's much to say about the overarching story since it's basically a gag anime with some shounen elements in between. The art/animation ranged from below average to decent but that wasn't a big deal since goofy looking low quality animation usually fits gag anime pretty well. The soundtracks weren't memorable, but the openings and endings were pretty good and most of them ended up growing on me.

The biggest strengths of the show were the gags and the memorable cast of characters. The jokes where the show became self aware and made fun of itself were the best. It even broke the fourth wall once if I recall correctly. The anime almost never took itself too seriously and that's when it was most enjoyable. I wouldn't say the anime was funny throughout but it did have a lot of hilarious moments. Some of the gags like Aoi having a crush on Oga even though repetitive, never felt boring. The gags with Alaindelon and Furuichi were creepy and amusing at the same time.

All the characters had unique designs and personalities. I was particularly impressed by how the mangaka wrote the female characters. They were badass without losing their femininity. Their strength wasn't shown by them acting like men like in typical Hollywood media. A lot of the female characters were also different from the usual archetypes in anime. They seemed like normal people, had interesting personalities and seemed like a natural part of the Ishiyama class and not like the 'girls' in the class like in most anime, if you know what I mean. The anime didn't put them on a pedestal or do the usual romance/harem cliches. The author's refusal to make the women in the anime typical waifubait could have been a reason for its low popularity. Even the character who was supposed to be the main girl, Hilda, stayed true to her character throughout the anime and didn't turn into a softie who falls for the protagonist like you usually see in anime.

My favourite characters would be Furuichi and Baby Beel. Furuichi because he's a relatable and funny perv who's usually the character who makes self aware jokes in the show. And Baby Beel because he's cute af.

Coming back to the overall plot, the show was mostly enjoyable during the first Ishiyama arc even though I had watched it already long back. The Saint Ishiyama arc was fun as well despite the shounen elements. The story was decent and some of the gags till the end of this arc had made me certain that this show was going to be an 8 for me. But then Lord En was introduced. The gags involving him were boring most of the time. The shounen parts that followed fell flat as well, as they were half assed and because the big bads/bosses of the guys the main characters were fighting, were Lord En and the Demon King who aren't serious characters. As a result, the long training arcs and the villain introductions and expositions were too boring. Then the show ended just like that.

I don't know if the mangaka was forced to add the shounen elements since it was being published in Shounen Jump. The show worked best when it was purely focused on the gags and didn't take itself too seriously. Some of the jokes were so clever, especially the ones where the author acknowledges that the anime is weird and not realistic and calls out different tropes. There were a lot of hilarious dialogues and character interactions in the show as well. However, the latter half of the show, namely the gags with Lord En and the half assed shounen bits were honestly terrible and brought down the show from being an 8 to a 7.5/10. I do want a second season but only if the show focuses primarily on comedy.

Edit: Read the rest of the manga and the side story. Many cleverly written hilarious moments despite the run of the mill shounen arcs. Loved it.

Fun anime. Unique OST. Indian music in episode 9. Unique premise.

Meh. Not that funny or enjoyable.

Edit : ED 1 is good.

Good anime. Liked it! Good OP and ED. Good MC. Full of Positivity.

Short shounen. Nothing great about it. Enjoyable if you want a short shounen anime. Felt similar Soul Eater.

Great music, great animation. Twists given to usual clichés make things interesting and unpredictable. Allmight makes me sad (because of the inevitable end). I wasn't bored even for a moment. Good show. However, I don't feel like giving it a score above 8 for some reason.

First arc was okay. The second wasn't that interesting although many more characters were introduced. After the Hero Provisional test, things really got interesting. As always 8/10 is for the music and animation.

Yeah, this season sucked. I don't feel hate or disappointment since I'm not a fan of this series. While watching this season, I wondered if I wasn't enjoying it that much because I had forgotten the events in the previous seasons, but then I realized that this season just wasn't good, even when compared to its prequels. I'm not going to complain about the lack of character development or bad writing because I had no expectations in those regards. The most amusing thing about this season was that it felt like filler although it's not. None of the events advanced the plot or affected the characters in a meaningful way. All they did was introduce a bunch of new characters. The biggest strengths of this series are the high quality animation by Studio Bones and the amazing soundtracks but for me, the music unfortunately wasn't on point most of the time this season. I thought the animation was fine but didn't enjoy the biggest fights as much as I wanted to, mostly because I wasn't emotionally invested which could be due to the writing being not good enough. The dimming during flashy moments was annoying and could have been another factor. Gentle's backstory was unexpectedly sad and kind of made me want to root for him/sympathize with him, so I guess that was one of the few parts that I enjoyed. I don't know why Deku's powers are so lame. Why are we still doing finger flicking in the 4th season? No one gives a shit about the percentages or whatever if the power itself doesn't look cool.

The art/animation were nothing special. The music wasn't really memorable either. Didn't notice any new tracks. I liked the second ending.

About the story, the first arc felt so unnecessary. And it took almost half the season. The only interesting part was the revelation about Deku's new quirks. But it wasn't that exciting. Just something to look forward to since everything else is boring. The Endeavor arc didn't go anywhere. Didn't particularly care about Endeavor's family problems but enjoyed the funny moments during their interaction with Bakugo and Midoriya. Bakugo has become a favourite character of mine but I don't know if I like the reasons. It could be because of his extreme competence and cocky attitude with the ability to back it up. Or maybe he has become relatable since he doesn't care about the things that the other characters take too seriously, just like us viewers. Which is hilarious when you think about it. The last arc of the season was My Villain Academia. I guess it was better than the other two arcs even though I don't really care much for the villains. Twice and his backstory was almost cool? I thought it had potential but it ended up not meeting my expectations. His power up made most sense as well, since his mental block was because of his worry that he isn't the original. Shigaraki's backstory was fucked up. The Liberation Army came out of the nowhere and didn't feel like a huge threat. Honestly, all these power ups and the introduction of the army which supposedly has 100k members seem hastily set up so that they can have a huge 'war' arc. In short, it wasn't done very well. All for One still seems like a scary villain though.

While I appreciate things like how most villains and even some heroes in the show are mentally ill or fucked over by society and not evil just for the sake of it, I don't think the mangaka is good at writing serious plotlines. Or maybe I just can't take their world that seriously when the character designs are so goofy looking. He should stick with a more lighthearted tone with occasional serious stuff in between instead of getting too philosophical and sombre in my opinion, but it looks like the show might be going in the opposite direction. Also, if my memory serves me correctly, most of the school related arcs in the show after the first two seasons were boring. I get that the show is called My Hero Academia, but I don't really care about the whole class and don't want to see boring episodes of every single member of the cast making minute improvements. Like most shounen, the anime should have moved on to more interesting settings and conflicts, and focused on the main characters alone. Let the power ups of the side characters no one cares about happen off screen. There are over a hundred episodes now, and the only big change I can think of after the introduction of the main cast in the first two seasons, is All Might retiring. Everything else has been the same. Deku and friends gradually getting stronger and villains showing up occasionally. At least that's how I remember it. Hawks was another character I liked by the way. The way they are hinting about his childhood makes it look like he's someone who probably had a fucked up past and still does the right thing, which is cool.

Overall, pretty meh. Hopefully, they'll focus on the next season instead of a new movie and have their A team work on it like the fans want.

While preparing for S6, I watched multiple recap videos and still couldn't get the timeline straight in my head. I guess part of the reason for that are the cour long training arcs in every season that never really advanced the plot that much. Anyway, this means I don't think I can no longer judge this series as a whole properly. Will try to do my best regardless.

The art/animation was decent. Don't remember seeing a lot of mindblowing sakuga moments, but nothing was distractingly bad. Then again, I'm not someone who cares too much about animation like some hardcore viewers on certain internet forums. Out of all the openings and endings this season, the second opening was decent. The music was good since the anime had always had a great original ost, but I'm not sure if the narrative highs were able to match the peaks of the soundtracks. I could feel the soundtracks trying to elevate the scenes emotionally, and while it might have worked to a certain extent, the music didn't sync as well with the story moments as it did in the first few seasons. When some tracks played, I was reminded how well the music had worked in the past but couldn't find the same magic in the scenes I was watching.

Coming to the story and characters, this season was a lot better than the previous seasons especially S4 and S5. The best thing about the Paranormal Liberation War Arc is that the show just jumps right into the action from the first episode and stays that way throughout while advancing the main storyline which was refreshing compared to the training arcs with no real threats or direction. The heroes had two simple goals which made the whole 'war' easier to wrap your head around. Mirko was a cool character and her parts were awesome as she was not only hot but also a certified no bullshit badass. Couldn't really care for Twice's death and his whole thing about villains being his friends or whatever even though as I mentioned in my S5 review, his character was kind of interesting.

The pacing was good until the Shigaraki vs the heroes fight. From a certain point in the fight, things started getting unpredictable in a bad way since Shigaraki kept on going no matter how much damage he took, as if he had some kind of plot armour and could do anything the mangaka wanted him to. If I'm not wrong, the explanation they gave for this was his neverending hatred, but that wasn't satisfying despite the anime hinting later that this will become important in the future.

The whole vestiges situation, while convoluted, made sense. Dabi's revelation was interesting but it didn't blow my mind since I had forgotten about that detail in Endeavor's backstory. Nonetheless, Dabi being Toya and the subsequent developments and revelations were pretty intense and fun to watch. Overall, the War arc was better than expected and executed decently, despite not having a lot of high points that worked. Also, one thing I want to add is how sexy the female characters in this show are. Characters like Midnight, Mt Lady, Mirko etc. are so hot that it almost takes your focus away from the story.


Next came the Dark Hero arc. The way All for One escaped the prison was again, convoluted, but I could buy into it. The Todoroki family's backstory was fascinating. This is probably a good place to mention that Hawks is one of my favourite characters from this anime. Him doing the right thing as his duty despite having a tragic backstory, is inspiring. I liked him in the last season too, even before knowing his backstory. Hawks is just a cool character with a cool attitude towards life. It's interesting to note that the adult characters in this anime and their motivations/challenges are way more intriguing than the kids who often seem too idealistic and honestly dumb. The ability of the mangaka to bring about this air of seriousness whenever adult characters are involved, is commendable, and is one of the few redeemable qualities that makes it hard to write off this anime as completely mediocre.

Izuku's power set is something that I'm not really impressed by. I remember being excited when they introduced the whole awakening of the previous One For All users' quirks concept in the last season, but the powers ended up being disappointing. I'm not saying each quirk had to be mindblowingly strong. Just wish they were more unique or at least worked together better, like pieces of a puzzle. Instead, we've got this Spider-Man clone freak whose powers are often redundant or too simple or just weird. For example, why do you need float when you have whips? I can see them being used together but that doesn't change the fact that they're too similar. Smokescreen and danger sense seemed like powers that the mangaka artificially added as smaller abilities and not like quirks that the previous users would have actually had. Fa Jin is unnecessarily complicated. Yes, the mangaka can make it all work together if he wants to, but it just doesn't feel right or exciting. Deku seems more like the Frankenstein's monster than a superhero and every time he beats a villain by combining his powers, the viewers won't get to appreciate it fully because it won't click in their heads as it's all too complicated. They'd have to read up on it to fully understand what exactly happened. The introduction of these powers could have been done in a better way too. Deku unlocked all the powers too quickly.

Deku vs Lady Nagant was cool but I don't know if it was as entertaining as it should have been since there was just too much happening to make sense of. You had this battle that was mostly happening in the air, with Deku using his newfound powers back to back and also this brand new character explaining her backstory, all at the same time. The whole 'it's not all black and white' thing didn't land for me.

I guess the class bringing Deku back was cool since the show is called My Hero Academia. It makes sense for the final battle to be in UA with all his friends by his side. This show, I guess, is an example of a shounen actually sticking to its core concept and developing all the side characters properly instead of abandoning them when the main character becomes too strong. Bakugo's apology was touching, I think. Ochako's speech was cringy and that whole part was too melodramatic. The ideas of All Might being a bad teacher, his effect on the world as the strongest hero and symbol of peace etc. were interesting. The scene with the woman and All Might's statue was also moving. Overall, the Dark Hero arc was decent, mainly because it was about Deku going all out and being completely free, which was new and refreshing.

I suppose all that's left now is the final battle and to see what All For One really has up his sleeve. Hoping for an amazing finale in the next season. 8/10 for being better than the previous seasons and actually moving the plot forward in a significant way.

Watched two recap videos on YouTube before going into this season. Liked the second opening and the first ending even though those were pretty generic. The music overall was on point even though it didn't reach the highs of the earlier seasons, but that's probably a shortcoming of the story. The art and animation ranged from above average to great consistently.

Coming to the story and characters, it's hard to judge the whole storyline as a whole since I'm not re-watching the older seasons, but I will leave some thoughts anyway. Let's go by the episodes as it's easier.

The Star and Stripe fight was cool. The traitor arc was alright. The way Aoyama got caught was random and it wasn't really much of a shock anyway as he was a minor side character. People seemed to have a problem with Toga messing with Deku so easily, but it didn't bother me, probably because MHA was never a show that made perfect sense and has had plenty of asspulls.

The Shoto vs Dabi fight was good but I guess I expected more considering it was meant to be like a final showdown. In the fight against All for One, Hawks again proved why he was a favourite of mine. No bullshit and so pragmatic. All for One has always been a great villain and the difference between his internal monologues and the trash talking was amusing.

The whole All for One/Shigaraki unification concept turned from scary to borderline silly because of how messy it became. At one point, it was like 2% away from completion, then it was revealed that Shigaraki was still in there, and then it was also used to explain random things like All for One's change in behaviour. Bakugo's death did hit hard, although looking back it feels like his character was wasted considering how important he was from the beginning.

Mirio, who seemed like a favourite of many due to his heroism, turned into a joke in this arc with his big moment being distracting Shigaraki with his butt. Deku's reaction to Bakugo's death was also hard hitting emotionally but the way he regained his composure wasn't really satisfying. The show decided to shift the focus away from Deku vs Shigaraki to the side characters which messed up the pacing that was fine till then.

The whole Spinner/Shoji hospital invasion was fine but ultimately not that interesting as it didn't advance the plot all that much except for the ending. All for One returning to his prime self should have been frightening but he mostly just stood around doing nothing. Hawks getting his quirk taken from him was unfortunate, but ultimately I'm glad that he got enough moments to shine in this arc.

The Todoroki family arc worked so well and is the biggest reason why I gave this season an 8 despite the flaws. The mangaka is weirdly good at writing these serious mature adult scenarios and should probably try to do something in that genre after MHA. Didn't care about the whole Toga/Uraraka subplot at all and I even think that Ochaco caring this much about Toga was kind of forced. The Armoured All Might vs All for One fight was cool.

Overall, a weak 8/10 season. The entertainment value was high enough for an 8 despite the flaws because of the general urgency and seriousness that was present throughout the season as it was the final arc, the hard hitting Todoroki family arc and I guess also the tempered expectations for a show that started with the promising premise that it would be the story of the greatest hero but ended up never going past the first high school year of the said hero. This season tried to give closure to a lot of the side characters which while not boring definitely messed up the pacing as they practically paused the main fight between Deku and Shigaraki to do it. All for One also became way less threatening and scary than he used to be and I'm not sure if that was earned as it happened due to his own miscalculations and because of the arguably bad writing that wanted him to fail and conveniently be dumb. Hopefully, the final season will have highs that match the early seasons when it comes to action and also otherwise.

The movie felt like a long episode of the show and the quality of the story was on par with the main arcs. (Since the show isn't that great.) Wish that the artstyle could have been a little easier on the eyes though. Rounder or whatever. Overall, I enjoyed it. Standard shounen movie.

Wasn't as entertaining as I expected it to be for some reason, even though my expectations weren't exactly high since I know how anime movies generally are. I guess the reason for this was because usually in shounen anime movies, the main characters go to a new place like a country far away that looks very different from the setting we see in the main show, and meet a bunch of new interesting characters and villains. There's a lot of cool worldbuilding involved as a result. In this movie, the setting wasn't anything interesting since it was still Japan and there were barely any new characters. All we got was two kids that needed 'saving' and four new bad guys. They didn't even bother to flesh out the main villain properly. I get that they probably focused on making them look cool visually, but it's hard to get invested in fights when the writing is half assed. The only good thing about the movie was the last fight sequence that happened after Deku transferred his quirk to Bakugo. It looked amazing even though the way they gave Deku the power back later was pretty stupid.

Finally watched this one after the dub's release. Like always, I expected a mediocre film with great animation and even downloaded a large torrent to enjoy the visuals. But the movie surprised me, in a bad way. The animation quality ranged from below average to decent with the former being more common than I would have liked. The writing was just bad and lazy. Villain attacks people all over the world, hero meets with the movie only character, side characters become busy with 'saving people' and finally the main trio fights and beats the main villain and his powerful followers. Yes, this is the predictable format that these shounen anime movies normally use, but I didn't know it could be done terribly. The obligatory final battles of the trio were so boring. There was zero story buildup and the flashy animations looked aimless and mediocre. The writing wasn't any better. The main villain only got 5 seconds of backstory and the reveal of the quirk of the movie only character turned out to be ridiculous. He has a bird that shows his true feelings? Seemed less like a quirk and more like something the writers made up to be useful just for the climax of the film. Deku's powerup after going on and on about how great heroes are was uninspiring. Also, I was waiting for Rody's father to wake up from the coma in the end but instead they showed us a series of images of him being happy with his siblings which was weird since their dad was probably fighting for his life in the hospital in the meantime. Anyway, bad movie. Wouldn't recommend. Even the soundtrack failed to deliver.

Nice Recap.

It was a decent movie. I couldn't care less about Boruto and don't plan to follow the series after this. Watched it just to see the old gang. They have all become overworked adults which was just sad to be honest. I didn't like how Naruto was captured so easily, although I get why, it's not his show anymore. The third half of the movie was too rushed though. I like fast battles in movies but this was just a little too fast. And Sasuke bringing Boruto along with the other Kages to save Naruto and making him land the final blow didn't make any sense. Anyway, that's that. Goodbye Naruto.

This was more about Boruto than Naruto. Then again, I guess that was to be expected since this was an extra in the Boruto movie Blu Ray.

Btooom! was better than I expected. A lot of people didn't like this but I have to say that I disagree with most of their opinions. This was a fun show, especially the first 9 episodes.

The animation/artstyle was good. The OP was good. The ending too. One of the positives of this anime is how realistic the characters are. They weren't the usual one/two dimensional characters that we see in anime but were complex and acted that way. A lot of people complained about how unlikable all the characters are but I don't see how that's a flaw since the author isn't trying to make them likable. These are all horrible people. Even the main character is a useless piece of shit who used to physically abuse his step-dad and play video games all day. He is not meant to be likable or good. But he realizes his flaws over the course of the show and grows as a person. Now, another criticism is how unrealistic all the action scenes are and about the plot armor, but I didn't really have any problems with this since the entire premise of this show wasn't realistic in the first place.

People seemed to hate the rape part. Now, I agree that the female lead was used for fan service and wasn't much help. Also, her trying to kill herself to 'remain pure' was cringy too. But I felt like her reaction to the rape attempt in the beginning was really well done. It wasn't used as an opportunity for the MC to save her. And she was really shaken about it and it took a long time for her to trust even the MC. This was also used to show the progress of the MC in the last episode. So, I felt like this was done very differently compared to the other shows. Some people said that the old guy's actions in the end didn't make any sense but it made perfect sense considering how much psychological and mental stress he was under and that was clearly shown in the anime too.

So, while being flawed and far from perfect, I felt like this show was different especially by having three dimensionsal characters and was definitely enjoyable. I'm not sure if this show deserves an 8, but considering the fact that I liked it enough to binge watch most of the episodes without getting bored, it probably deserves a soft eight.

Great OP, great ED 1 and great OST. A very unique show. I'll admit that I didn't understand it completely but it was enjoyable. Probably the only slice of life-esque episodic *action* anime out there. There's a lot of action but you don't get excited but instead develops an indifferent attitude towards it. Overall a good show with extra marks for its uniqueness.

Edit : Holy Shit! The first version of this anime aired in 1973!

I don't really know where to begin. So, I'll just go the traditional route. OP and ED were okay. The background score was good but I felt that the usage of certain tracks was weird sometimes. The art and animation was phenomenal but I feel it was wasted during the later half of the series.

The anime is unique. All the main characters are female but that's not the only thing that makes it special. It's one of the few shows where the MC was in utter despair and every encounter with an enemy felt like it could be the end of the MC. The action sometimes reminded me of DBZ with the lightening fast attacks and super saiyan like power ups.

The first half of the show was an 8 or 9 for me but what dragged it down to 7 was the second half. It was really hard for me since I rarely give shows with this many episodes less than 8. I felt like the show lacked direction. Revenge against Priscilla wasn't relatable since she and almost all the characters in the anime are always suffering. The latter half was too long and boring. The anime severely lacks world building and the viewer never gets an idea about the endgame. Now that's okay with me if what we get is entertaining but all we get is severely underpowered claymores suffering dying, fighting big bad beings who are gathering an army for reasons not revealed to us. I just found out that Claymore is a shounen. Well, I guess it is a typical shounen anime, in a way, without the reasons for why the baddies fight. They couldn't even give a generic motive like the villian wanting to take over the world which might have been more entertaining. They don't even reveal the motives of the organisation. All the mindless action in the latter half of the show wastes the gorgeous animation because of this. Claymore does so many things right in unique and spectacular ways but it also has many shortcomings that are impossible to look past.

Never did I think that I'll come across a 10/10 after watching 100+ anime. This anime is a masterpiece. Every episode ends in a cliffhanger. Not one moment in an episode bored me. And nothing in anime fucked me up more than that episode, even more than red wedding, maybe.

It ended perfectly by tying up all the loose ends. I don't care about the Sword of Akasha or God after putting up with shows like EoE. Lelouch is a unique MC who owns his fuck ups without a moment's hesitation. However, I don't think it deserves the title of masterpiece which I presented the first season with.Also forgot to mention the sweet fluid 2D animation of the Mecha fights. I wonder what season 3 will bring. All OPs and endings except Flow's songs suck. That's all. Edit : Changed score from 9 to 8 because reasons.

It was OK. Dated maybe. Idk

It was okay.

First of all, I need to clarify that this review and the score are based on my experience and enjoyment of the show as someone who had already seen all the other major installments in this series. So it was not a proper watch at all, since I already knew about the future of most of the characters. The dub was also inaccurate a lot of times, which didn't bother me at first when the show was more of a gag anime than a serious shounen, but then became infuriating when they unnecessarily deviated from the original script.

The OP and ED were nice, and the lyrics fit the anime well. I listened to the English versions of the songs most of the time as I was watching the dub. The music had the signature 80s sounds and was amazing. The soundtracks were able to capture the soul of Dragon Ball beautifully. The show also had many insert songs, which I thought was amusing.

About the art and animation, I can't recall an episode that looked bad. I guess the show had good to great and often incredible visuals throughout.

Coming to the story and characters, I'll go arc by arc.

Emperor Pilaf Saga: Goku was endearing from the start. The show gave me a longing for the simpler times. They set up a big adventure from the beginning. There was so much plot happening in each of these early episodes. I used to find Pilaf and gang annoying in Dragon Ball Super but grew to like them by the end of this anime.

Tournament Saga: I remember the episodes of Roshi training the boys to be wholesome. I suppose the parts where he's being a pervert would be one of the very few aspects of the show that might not sit well with the politically correct modern audience. The tournament episodes were really entertaining and just flew by. Must be why that became a big part of the anime from that point. I remember the Goku vs. Jackie Chun fight being legitimately great and epic.

Red Ribbon Army Saga: The story got more serious with this arc. The episodes until the Muscle Tower were entertaining. The animation was great at times. There were many Hollywood references, like Silver boxing like Rocky, Pilaf having a flying fortress that was reminiscent of Star Wars, and an almost invincible android in the Muscle Tower that was basically Arnold's Terminator. The Muscle Tower episodes were a bit boring, probably because it was a familiar trope with a predictable ending that went on for too long, at least for me as a viewer from 2024. I felt that the kind Android 8 was a precursor to Android 16, and Buyon, the pink monster with a crazy appetite, was a precursor to Majin Buu.

General Blue Saga: This arc was alright, I suppose. The Arale crossover didn't do anything for me as I'm unfamiliar with that IP. Bulma And Krillin being homophobic against General Blue was amusing. And him being a p*do was even more amusing considering the implications.

Commander Red Saga: I suppose Mercenary Tao was the first real threat Goku had to face in the anime. These episodes were really entertaining and went by fast. Goku wiping out the Red Ribbon Army as a one-man army was fun too.

Fortuneteller Baba Saga: This arc was boring until they showed us a glimpse of Grandpa Gohan. I guess regular viewers wouldn't have known who he was, and this was a unique case where knowing his identity only made the episodes more exciting. Goku vs. Grandpa Gohan was amazing, and the show literally peaked there. The music during the fight was so phenomenal that I had a hard time grasping how great it all was. Goku's reunion with his grandpa was heart touching and was one of the most emotional, tear-jerking moments in the show. Goku grabbing the four-star ball during the dispersal after making the wish was cool as fuck, and something I used to wonder about. I guess that's what makes Toriyama one of the greats. He had the imaginative capability to think in terms of action like that. The filler episodes between this arc and the next one were actually fun and helped add to the adventure aspect of the show.

Tien Shinhan Saga: The dub inaccuracies really started to bother me around this arc. There were so many unnecessary deviations from the original lines. I didn't expect Tien to be such a strong adversary. He was basically #2 after Goku in OG Dragon Ball. Who knew? I get the complaints about him being sidelined now. Yamcha vs. Tien was actually a good fight if I recall correctly. I guess almost all the fights in this tournament were entertaining. Krillin vs. Chiaotzu, Tien vs. Jackie Chun, Goku vs. Krillin—all of them. The final match between Goku and Tien was great and ended spectacularly. Tien growing two extra arms in the middle of the fight was too wild even as an asspull.

King Piccolo Saga: I noticed that the art and animation got much better at the beginning of this arc. The colours, detailing, and shading were so good. While Krillin's death was kind of sad, it didn't have the intended effect on me since I knew about his future and had even seen him die and come back in Z. At episode 109, I noted that the fights were just peak with great animation, art, detailing, and choreography. Watching Goku pounce around and be the little fighting machine that he is was such a feast for the eyes. Enjoyed these episodes a lot. Roshi's death didn't move me for obvious reasons. I found the final fight between Goku and Piccolo in episode 121 to be another peak of the show after maybe Grandpa Gohan's episode. So freaking good, and like I said in the notes, 'Peak peak peak.' This arc was so good that I couldn't believe I missed out on this show for so long. The fights were on par with the best in Z and maybe even better if you consider the action choreography and the strategic aspect.

Piccolo Jr. Saga: This was the arc that got spoiled the most by my knowledge from Z. The reveal of the connection between Kami and Piccolo didn't surprise me, as I already knew about it from the sequel anime. This also meant that a lot of the tension about Kami dying with Piccolo didn't have an effect on me. The dub inaccuracies got even worse in this arc as they didn't want to acknowledge that God was a character in the show, and that forced me to turn on the subtitles for the rest of the anime. The filler episodes before the next tournament was a good idea but turned out to be boring and didn't even make sense a lot of the time. Things got interesting again with the tournament. But the highlights of this arc, like Chi-Chi, the tension regarding the Kami-Piccolo connection, and the final fight with Piccolo, were all spoiled for me because of Z. It was hard to see Piccolo as a threat when I knew him as Goku's strongest ally after Vegeta in Z. This wasn't a problem with Tien in the second tournament, as he barely shows up in Z. Nonetheless, the final fight was engaging, with great animation, despite all the asspulls. Piccolo poking the hole in Goku's chest with his elbow and breaking all his limbs was particularly brutal. I think I enjoyed the Krillin vs. Piccolo fight the most out of them all, as him doing so well despite being outmatched was unexpected. The final wedding arc was cute and was a good ending to the show despite being filler. The only thing I didn't like about it was them bringing Grandpa Gohan back and making him look like a wimp.

Dragon Ball is a timeless classic full of heart. It is not some optional entry in this series that you can skip to directly get into Dragon Ball Z. The anime gives context to all the side characters who got relegated to minor side roles in Z. It also makes viewers coming from Z fully understand the general themes of the Dragon Ball series. I used to hear people say that they didn't like how other Z fighters were sidelined as Goku became more and more powerful in Z. After watching this anime, I realised that it was the case from day one. Goku was never really a hero who fought for justice or whatever. Dragon Ball had always been about the journey of a very special boy who loved fighting. It is also a great action-adventure anime in its own right that's not inferior to Z in any way. I'd say it's probably underrated at this point. As I finished the show, I realised how special Kid Goku was as a character and how fun it was to watch him fight and go on adventures. Maybe even more than the adult version. Kid Goku was much more agile, and his fights were a lot more creative. Overall, an 8/10 experience, which is purely based on my enjoyment of the show as someone who knew a lot of the spoilers. Would have been a 9 or a 10 otherwise for sure.

Thank you, Toriyama, for making such a wonderful gem of a series. I'll miss it.

It was good.

Edit from April 25, 2022: The best ending to Dragon Ball and a lesson on how to give a proper send off to a character like Goku.

I don't know what to say... I took long breaks between some episodes, at 52 and then at 123 due to board exams. I watched the first 52 episodes and couldn't bear waiting for a week for each episode, so I stopped and waited for the complete dub. At some point I got back watching the dubs and continued till the end with the subs.

My relationship with Dragon Ball : I had watched bits of Dragon Ball when I was a kid but I never knew the complete story. Then, in 2014 I binge watched DBKai and Final Chapters and realised that this was the greatest anime of all time. Then came Dragon Ball Super.

Summary of how I think I felt during the story :
First 28 episodes were retelling of the movies with shitty art and animation. Watch the movies instead.

Next came the Tournament arc with Universe 6. Finally, got new content. It was good. This arc introduced many new characters and new information like Universe 6 Saiyans, Multiple Universes, Super Dragon Balls and Zeno. It opened up infinite possibilities for the series and I was really excited to see the direction in which the series would have gone, only to be let down afterwards.

Then came the Future Trunks saga. This arc had its moments but overall it was a bad arc in my opinion. Trunks getting emotional was really sad to watch and you could feel his pain. The animation had improved slightly for the fights. The idea of Black Goku was intriguing and the villain was well written. He was not just another generic baddie. Beerus killing Zamasu was one of the best moments in the entire series. However, later the arc went downhill. We couldn't make any sense of the power levels(but that's a problem that plagued the whole of Super), and the fights were too fan fiction-ey. The ending didn't make any sense with Trunks somehow defeating the villian with a power up.

Next was the Universe Survival Saga. It was great until the last few episodes. They changed how the anime looked to give it the old feel and the art and animation got a lot better. I didn't mind the bad animation of Super until then since I was watching a version of the show where Goku was voiced by an old lady. This change in the look of the show gave a lot of fans including me, the hope that the series might be finally getting better. The animation and art was brilliant at some points and the episodes were really entertaining. There were many twists including the inclusion of Frieza which was unexpected. We even got a mysterious villian called Jiren who looked invincible who was then revealed at the end to be an uninteresting baddie with a shitty backstory. The final episodes were...different. Overall a 7/10 anime.

Pros:
-More Dragon Ball
-World building and new possibilities with the introduction of multiverse.
-Beerus and Whis
-Some epic moments, fight scenes, twists and some slice of life episodes.

Cons:
-Subpar art and animation for the majority of the show.
-No sense of power levels.
-Power ups without explanations and new forms just to sell toys.
-Turning Goku from a battle genius who didn't give a shit about anything else into an idiot whose good at fighting and achieving new asspull forms just like that because that's what Saiyans do.(according to Vegeta anyway).

-Turning Dragon Ball Z and all its characters kids friendly. (I know Dragon Ball was a kids show but still...).
-Turning the bulky characters to stick figures.


Music : Some tracks from Final Chapters were reused for this anime. I felt that the number of tracks were low. Same music was played throughout the anime with very few additions in the last arc.

I hope that the new movie turns out amazing.

I was kind of underwhelmed. It was good till the end of Broly vs Vegeta fight. After that, it was all just mindless action. People who like Dragon Ball just for the action might love it but as someone who cares about build ups and high stakes, it wasn't that entertaining. Battle of Gods was the last time the characters took the fights seriously. Now, it's all just fun and childish, even when the universe is at risk. Don't think there going to change this direction anytime soon.

When the movie was announced, I had little interest in it, probably because it was CG. The news about the new forms of Gohan and Piccolo killed even that. However, after the announcement of the new Dragon Ball series, I was suddenly craving for some new Dragon Ball content and here we are.

Before even getting into the story, I have to talk about the visuals, that is, the CGI. I had hoped it would surprise me, at least in some way, but that didn't happen. Yes, there were some good moments here and there, especially during the flying scenes, like when Piccolo just blasted off from the Red Ribbon base and reached the sky in an instant, but most of it was meh despite them moving the camera as much as they could, and made me think about how better the 2D animation was in the Broly movie by comparison. The music was pretty generic.

Coming to the story and characters, while the idea of focusing on Piccolo and Gohan sounds good on paper, the execution left a lot to be desired. It wasn't bad per se, just alright. And that wasn't good enough since they decided to introduce two new forms in the movie. The writing needed to be better. The stakes needed to be higher. Sure, they say in the movie that the big bad might have given a hard time even for post Super Goku and Vegeta, but it's hard to buy that. The power levels were all over the place but I guess that problem started with Super. Another problem with this movie is that everything is too easy. Androids more powerful than most Z characters ever were get made in such a short time because the new character they introduced happens to be a 'super genius'. They didn't even try with setting up Piccolo's new form. Basically, they made it possible using the Dragon Balls and then showed Orange Piccolo for the first time during a fight with no build up. The set up to Gohan's new form was such a mess. Piccolo tells him to wait for the right moment and gets beat up. Sad music plays for some reason and when he seemingly dies, Gohan snaps and transforms just like he did when Android 16 died. Compared to the original, this felt like a lazily put together cheap rehash and perhaps even a little disrespectful. The only cool thing about it was maybe the Special Beam Canon.

Overall, an average movie. The good parts were everything Piccolo did even though I'm not even his fan particularly, the character bits and humour(the part where Krillin gets stopped by 17 for trying to console Hedo still lingers in my mind. Beerus having a thing for the green chick was also amusing.), and Gamma No. 2 who was a surprisingly likeable character. Might have enjoyed this more as a low stakes story that it actually is if they hadn't had the audacity to introduce new forms in it.

I underestimated this anime. Loved the leveling up and the action. The protagonist was struggling for the majority of the series which I loved but in the end he became OP and was revealed to be special.

It was entertaining and had a unique way of storytelling. Not a fan of sibling love or 'anime philosophy', you know what I mean. Nice OP1 and ED1.

I watched it along the main anime. The specials were okay. The second one's animation was not that great on my opinion.

Dialogue heavy season. You know, I thought I would get attached to the characters and the setting after 65 episodes but that didn't happen. Kind of felt bad for Izaya in the end. Don't know why. I couldn't really like the anime because of the characters Mikado and Anri with their anime philosophy and anime way of thinking. Maybe this is how Japanese people think? Anyways that's all. I'm hoping to take an indefinite break from anime after this.

Looking back at Season 1, I just wanted to say that both the anime and the animation quality got progressively worse in the later seasons even though I hoped for the opposite.

Funny OVA. No dub yet.

Less entertaining than the first. Celty is likable. Nothing more to add really. Hope it gets better.

Nice special. That's all.

While the stakes were higher this time around and even when big events happened compared to the last season, it didn't necessarily make the season better. Can't say if I'm enjoying the anime or just watching to complete it. Somethings I forgot to write for the first season : Don't know how to feel about centuries old Celty being a typical anime girl but her antics definitely makes her likable. Also, I hate characters like Izaya who say that they love watching humans or shit like that even though he is one of them. It annoys the hell out of me. This is one of those of anime which requires your full attention while watching to understand the plot. That's all I guess. Forgot to add that I'm not a fan of characters like Mikado who becomes bipolar out of nowhere and says things like he wants to make the city a safe place for Anri and Kida which makes no sense.

Can't get enough of Shinra and Celty and even the dude who couldn't get the signal. Loved it. Watch after episode 1 for best experience.

Need to read more on this probably.

Background:

I started watching Fairy Tail around 2011 on Animax. At the time, it was a 10/10 show for me. Could have been because of my age and inexperience. Who can tell? Till then, magic for me was dark and gloomy, like the kind seen in Harry Potter. But Fairy Tail blew my mind. Magic was so colorful and the world was just full of life. The lore was interesting, the characters were lovable, the music was god tier and even the OPs and EDs were great. The show looked amazing too, from what I remember. Then the original series ended and the sequel series came out which I really wasn't a fan of. The biggest reason I didn't like it was the change in visuals. I don't remember if the animation quality degraded but the colors were muted and the magic circles were removed, presumably to match the manga's style. I used to think that this kind of got me out of the series which was already getting too repetitive and formulaic. The power of friendship("Because I'm a wizard of Fairy Tail") and the same old formula of fighting the underlings before getting to the boss was exciting the first 100 times, but at some point the show needed a desperate improvement which didn't happen, or rather wasn't done well at all. The nakama power ups as they call it even made me question sometimes if I was too old to watch shounen shows. They changed the OST too, which was still really good but honestly wasn't as great as the music of the original series. The show also has a problem with fanservice. I don't usually mind fanservice, but in Fairy Tail, when you see clothes of the female characters getting ripped apart even during the important moments and fight scenes, it becomes hard to take the show seriously and you start to wonder if the story is just there for them to show off the big boobs and curves of the female characters, like it's only secondary. I dropped Fairy Tail (2014) by episode 39 when it became intolerably terrible and I couldn't recognize the show I once loved so much anymore. Later, I came to know that it was a filler arc. Now, after 5 years, I've decided to pick up the show again and complete the series.

Thoughts: I wish I could compare this show with its prequel but I don't remember much about it and I was really young when I watched it, so I can't really tell if the story or even the show in general became worse although I have seen those opinions and would like to believe those are true.

I don't remember much about the first 39 episodes. The arc I started with was the Sun Village Arc, which was your average shounen arc, I guess? I did enjoy parts of it despite its mediocrity. It wasn't really a standalone arc anyway but kind of hinted at the bigger things that would be revealed during the Tartaros arc.

I thought the Tartaros arc was terrible, especially since it was supposed to be a proper and serious arc with high stakes. The demons as villains weren't that good. I was sick of how the power of friendship just throws all the concepts of power levels out of the window. It just takes all the seriousness out of the battles because you know that the protagonists are going to win no matter what. Don't know if it was bad writing or because I didn't remember much from the original show, but the demons destroying the magic council and that whole setup didn't have an effect on me at all. Don't know what Jellal's fight was all about but I enjoyed the interactions between him and the Oracion Seis. I thought the dialogues were good and the lines were so quotable, like "There is a victim in every villian but that doesn't absolve them of their crimes." for example. Lucy summoning the Spirit King wasn't as cool as it should have been probably because she seemed so weak during the whole thing. Probably bad writing.

The whole Gray's father subplot was underwhelming and seemed like it was made up just to give Gray a power up and a reason to eventually fight Natsu. The whole dragon thing while interesting since it gave us bits and parts about the bigger story, was again underwhelming and even Igneel's death didn't have that big of an effect on me. Can't tell if it was bad writing or if it's because I was out of touch with the series for a long time. Erza's fights have become unbearable to watch since while other fights have at least some semblance of logic even with the nakama power ups, she wins her battles 'because she's Erza'.

The last Mavis arc was fine and I was surprised by the twist. There are so much to be revealed, so I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Happy is a really funny character by the way. One of his hilarious lines from the last episodes was this: "So, where are we going?" "I was following you" "I thought I was following you the whole time" "That's the price we pay for walking side by side.(with a straight face)" I don't exactly know what kind of humour this is but it's good.

Don't know why the author doesn't do training arcs and prefer shortcuts like timeskips instead to level up the characters.

Overall, a very mediocre show. I don't know if it was because of the poor animation, the fights sucked too. Most of the battles weren't fun to look at and didn't even make much sense most of the time. No OPs and EDs that I partcularly like except Masayume Chasing. Don't want to spend too much time dissecting the show since I won't able to write a decent review anyway because of the break. Normally 7 is the lowest rating I give for shows, but since I really cared about this series at one point, I think I'll give it a 6 for messing it all up.

I liked it. Of course, my expectations were low since anime movies usually suck. It was good to see the characters in the old style without the washed out colors. Some of the backgrounds were just beautiful. I read some comments that said the animation wasn't good but I thought it was fine although the character models looked a bit weird at times. Maybe it's normal for anime movies but I noticed a lot of small details that added a lot of life to that world. In short, I liked just watching this movie and the story was good enough to be not too distracting.

Prologue. Watching the movie in the old art style is going to be fun.

It was really bad. Felt like a long and boring episode than a movie. The previous movie had that cinematic quality which this one completely lacked. This movie had a lot of fights, yes but none of them were enjoyable. The story sucked too. In short, a terrible cash grab.

Where to start? I thought the last OP was decent. The music was good as usual. The story was a mess. The animation/artstyle sucked even during the most important scenes. It bothered me even with the low expectations because I wondered if the main events would have been more effective if the animation was good.

I guess all these flaws of the final season were more tolerable to me partly because I already knew how bad it was going to be and partly because, since the series was ending, watching the show was meaningful in a way and didn't make me ask myself why I was watching this during the bad moments.

I'm not going to whine about the story or the animation because I did take a long break and also because I went into this season with low expectations after the series ended, unlike a normal fan. The amount of fan service that's almost disruptive even during the final arc amused me though. Like what was going through the author's mind when he put all that fan service in between the pivotal moments of the last arc in the show. Hell, what was he thinking when he wrote these last arcs? Did he want to do it well or did he just want to end it as soon as possible even if it's rushed. It's not like Hiro Mashima is a bad mangaka. I read that his previous work was a lot better and that he had only planned Fairy Tail to be a short series before it became too popular which actually makes a lot of sense. People claim that Fairy Tail is just a fun but mediocre show. I think they're wrong. Fairy Tail definitely had some unique qualities and did some things well that made it as popular as it was during its peak.

One of the those is how Mashima made almost every one of the characters so likable and memorable even though they did not have a lot of screen time and differed greatly in terms of power levels unlike most of the other shows where you couldn't care less about the side characters who are weaker than the main character. The power of friendship and "We are Fairy Tail" worked so well for such a long time only because we actually cared about all the characters and even felt that we're actually a part of the Guild. And I don't think this happened by accident. It's clearly proof of the skill Mashima has at developing such unique characters and integrating them into the story.The humour in the show was above average too. Another thing Fairy Tail does well is how it handles the emotional moments. Emotional moments usually end up being cringy in a lot of anime but in Fairy Tail, even with questionable narrative choices and poor development, the emotional moments hit hard. Same for the asspulls in the series. While a lot of people were dissatisfied with the last arc, I don't think they were pissed about the explanations and the revelations. Sure the story sucked, but I never felt betrayed or angry with how things were explained. The revelations made sense. I'm talking about the larger story of course. The individual fights never followed logic in the first place. Okay, I might have been grasping at straws there. Anyway, when Fairy Tail was good, it was really good. I don't want to call it wasted potential because I don't think the mangaka ever wanted this show to be great or that he failed at making it so. This is obvious just from the ungodly amount of fan service he put in the anime. I just wish it stayed as good as how it was in the earlier parts of the series till the end.

Now, about this season specifically, I liked the first arc more than the last one. The show was more self aware in that arc and that made it funny and entertaining even with the terrible animation. The last arc was such a mess in multiple ways. I didn't even get the point of multiple character deaths and their immediate revivals for no good reason. This arc made me feel like the music was always the best part of Fairy Tail. Kudos to Yasuharu Takanashi for making such incredible soundtracks. Don't have much else to say, I guess. I wish the mangaka didn't continue the series with the 100 year quest manga and ended the series here. With all its flaws and merits, Fairy Tail is one anime that I'm sure will stay with me till the day I die.

Watch only dub. Liked the opening.

The show's good. 7/10. Watch it if you want something stupid and fun that's not heavy on story. The MC is unique since he's 33 and divorced instead of a 17 year old kid who is somehow an army general like many other shows.

Twas okay. Wasn't really satisfying. Things were happening just because and there was no definite goal for the protagonists. Or maybe there was and I couldn't see it because the story was too big to cover in just 2 cours. 7/10. Watch it if you want to see modern military forces destroying medieval armies.

The OP wasn't half bad. Guild girl best girl. Goblin Slayer's obsession with goblins was funny at first. Fanservice could have been avoided. I think it brought down the serious tone of the show. It's a good anime. Solid 7/10, I guess.

Made the huge mistake of not checking if all the episodes were dubbed and ended up watching the last episode just now; two weeks after I started the show. So this won't be a proper review.

The OP grew on me. The banter and dialogues between the characters were often realistic and amusing, which is not something you often see in anime if I'm not wrong. Apparently, people were disappointed that this season didn't have an overarching plot and big moments, but I was mostly fine with it being a slice of life-ish show about one man's obsession with slaying goblins. However, I can also see how this might be underwhelming since it took 5 years for Season 2 to come out which is just too long.

Can't compare this season to the first since it has been years since I watched that one. This season had a lot of fanservice, which I didn't really mind. It also felt disjointed at times, which might be a sign of a bad adaptation due to the change in studios. Anyway, I can always enjoy more stories featuring Goblin Slayer's one track mind and will watch the next season when it comes out. Goblin Slayer is almost like a comfort show or would have been if it had more episodes.

Looks like a lot of people were disappointed because of the movie tag when it was actually like a long episode/OVA, and because apparently it didn't adapt the novels well.

I didn't have any of those problems as I didn't go in with any expecations. I thought the recap was needed since the show came out almost two years ago. The animation and the direction weren't great to be honest and weren't any better than the original series, but i really enjoyed the movie nonetheless. It was fun to watch Goblin Slayer in action. The priestess was surprisingly good too. I liked her. Even though, there wasn't much time to develop the Noble Fencer, her PTSD and the actions that followed because of it seemed very realistic. It was done well. I liked the OST too. Overall 8/10, because of how much I enjoyed it.

A comedy which handles unexpectedly dark themes like it's nothing. The anime portrays Onizuka as this amazing teacher when in reality he's an incapable and irresponsible pervert who always does crazy sh*t and comes up with dangerous and nonsensical solutions to his problems. It is not entertaining and the only reason his crazy plans work is because the mangaka wills them to. The anime gives too much emphasis on student-teacher relationship and its importance and sanctity which doesn't make much sense most of the time. I wonder if I didn't get it because of my unfamiliarity with Japanese education system but I doubt it.

Animation wasn't great. I think I liked one of the soundtracks which was jazzy. Steve Blum was good as Onizuka, I guess. Overall, 7/10 but I won't be recommending this to anyone.

Copy pasting this from a review :
"How refreshing. After slapping the Demon King's shit around and stealing his daughter, our beloved hero Akatsuki returns from fantasy-land as an overpowered motherfucker. He rides lightning-charged motorcycles, gets bitches, makes em' piss, and crushes others using only his testosterone."

Yeah, this is you average 7/10 magic school anime with an OP MC.

What are the good things about this show? Well, there are two.
First is the protagonist. Why? For the reasons in the first paragraph. He's a badass motherfucker, the kind of guy you actually want to see in a silly show with an OP MC. He is neither your typical shounen nice guy MC nor is he oblivious to his OP status and the effect he has on his surroundings. Now, I'm not saying that this makes him a great character or anything. This is just what I expect and maybe want from an 'OP MC'. This is what I expected Tatsuya from Mahouka to be. But that show took itself too seriously while this one has just the right amount of camp and self awareness. Also, I usually don't care for the voice acting that much but I felt like the English VA for the protagonist was really good.

The second thing I liked about this show was the animation and artstyle. The animation was good and I loved the artstyle because the characters had realistic human body proportions instead of being stick figures. This also really made the ecchi scenes a lot better. I'm okay with this anime not getting a second season because I don't think it's good enough to deserve one although I do admit that I wouldn't mind more OP MC shenanigans. Overall this show is nothing special but I'd definitely recommend it to people who are craving for an OP MC anime with decent ecchi scenes.

Borderline hentai. I'll be honest, loved every second of it.

One of the most beautiful anime I've ever seen. It's really pleasing to the eyes. The story, the character designs and everything else was superb. SoL + Gritty action. A hundred times more interesting than SAO. Music is nothing to write home about though.

Fan service episode.

Ecchi done right. Like they say, came for the *plot*, stayed for the plot. I really liked all the characters and the story. Too bad it'll be unfinished forever. In a way that makes the ending kind of bittersweet, I guess.

Fanservice episode.

The show had some very hilarious moments but a lot of jokes were a miss for me. So, 7.5/10.

Stunning visuals, good ost and an unpredictable story set in a strangely charming world. CGI didn't look bad at any point of the show. I don't hate CG anymore. Probably couldn't enjoy it to the fullest since I have an exam tomorrow.

A solid 8/10 show. While it is unique and unpredictable, I would like a better sense of the direction of the story, tbh. Good ED, I think. MC is kind of unique too, I guess. Her mannerisms and the way she responds to everything was refreshing and amusingly funny. And yeah. I know that the characters are supposed to be genderless but I see them as girls because that's just easier. That's all.

The first part was really good and I was going to give this movie a 9 but then everything became really confusing. Wait, I gave this a 9? Oh, it's because I gave ponyo and arrietty an 8 and this was way more visually appealing and the beginning was great. So, I had to give HMC a greater rating.

Watched 20+ episodes per day to finish this anime. It was a surprise because I could barely watch 13 episodes a day before getting burned out. So, the show was entertaining than most.

Story was not bad. I like the interconnectedness of all the arcs and how characters show up again instead of being dropped and forgotten after their specific arcs. That's actually the thing that the author does best. Characters and relationships. The characters aren't one dimensional and feel so real. Same for the relationships between them. Also, the characters aren't defined by how strong they are physically.

Art and animation was really impressive for a long running show without breaks. Gon vs Hisoka fight was a favorite. Music was good. OP was good but I would have liked it if they had new openings other than Departure. The endings were nice, especially 2,3 and 4.

Arcs :

The Hunter exam arc was really entertaining. It didn't have to be great because it was just setting up the world and the characters. But it was good.

The world of Hunter x Hunter is kind of unique? I mean, it looks like one of those anime fantasy worlds but has modern tech like the internet, so that was kind of surprising and a little weird. I can't say that I've fallen in love with the world but it hasn't bothered me either.

I thought the Zoldyck arc would be boring but it was short and ended in an interesting way.

Heaven's Arena happened next. It was really entertaining. Loved it, especially the relationship between Gon and Hisoka. Loved everything about the arc tbh.

The next was the YorkNew arc, which was kind of all over the place compared to the other arcs? Like things were just happening and we really didn't get a idea of where the story was going to go. This can be said for the subsequent arcs of the anime too. Anyways, it was entertaining and Kurapika (and his theme) was badass. The ending of the arc where Hisoka realizes that Chrollo has lost his Nen ability was hilarious.

That's the thing about this anime. It never goes the conventional anime shounen story way. The arcs don't begin with the heroes fighting the lackeys and they don't end with the hero defeating the main bad guy. The show is unpredictable. But it's not a thriller. So, unpredictability isn't always a good thing but it makes the anime more fascinating most of the time.

The next was the Greed Island card game arc. It was fun. After YorkNew arc ended, the anime started giving this beginning of an awesome adventure with friends vibes. The episodes where Gon and Killua spend time in Whale Island were my favorites. GI was a low stakes arc. The arc was about the characters having fun playing the game. They enjoyed it and so did we.

After this came the Chimera Ant arc. Oh boy. Here goes. I had heard a lot about this arc before watching the show. Some people even consider this as one of the best arcs in all anime. Didn't go in with any expectations but still found it to be really boring and drawn out. The arc was around 60 freaking episodes long compared to the other arcs in the show which was 20 episodes long max.

So, was the story bad? Not really. The problem with this arc was the length, basically.

So, in a lot of anime, especially shounen or maybe in general, when a character is introduced or when details are revealed, it's usually for a reason, right? In most mediocre shows, it makes everything predictable to an extent. When we get a lot of details on a character or an event, it's usually for a reason and we know that it'll become relevant in the future. Now, in better shows, the details might be given just for viewers' entertainment/amusement or world building.

Let me say this first. The mangaka of this show is a clever guy. Everything in this arc, including the fights and the mind games are superbly planned and explained down to the last detail. There are a lot of philosophical themes too. That's another thing about this show. There are more mind games and schemes than actual fights, which I guess makes this show stand apart from other shounens. But the mangaka really went overboard with the overanalysis and overexplaining of the mind games and the fights with this particular arc. We were being told the intentions and thoughts and the backstories of a lot of characters had for every single second. That wasn't really necessary. There was no point really for these detailed explanations except for maybe entertaining the viewers. Even if it did have a point, the arc could have been way shorter. For example, the overanalysis for fights which didn't really have any impact could have been cut short. Same for the mind games and character motivations, thoughts and whatnot.

Overall, the arc wasn't bad. It actually was a lot darker and had a few wtf moments compared to the previous arcs. All I'm saying is, it didn't have to be this long. You're giving me episodes of details about the internal conflicts and thought processes of some random characters. Doesn't matter if the explanations and events are superbly detailed and cleverly planned. I'm just not that interested. Just because it's clever doesn't mean it's entertaining. Also, Gon going crazy over Kite was kind of stupid imo. I mean, they knew each other only for a couple of days. I guess Gon is just another crazy shounen protag that I don't just get.

Anyways, like I said, the arc wasn't bad and the themes were good. Just wish it wasn't that long.

Another interesting thing about this show is that, after the Hunter exam arc, we thought the story would focus more on Hunters but it didn't. In fact, we still don't know much about Hunters or their world. Even though I was bringing 20 episodes per day, sometimes I felt like I missed something about the Hunters that should have been explained somewhere before.

The next arc was the election arc which reminded me what I loved about this show. It was a short and fun arc.

About Nen. So, I guess it is a more interesting power system compared to other shounen which usually just comes up with random powers and explains it by saying it's magic. As the anime progressed, we did see characters with more and more bizarre powers just like other shows but the fights are explained well, so I guess it's okay.

So, overall a pretty good show which could have been great if not for the unnecessarily long Chimera Ant arc.
8.5/10. I hope I see Season 2 someday but not going to wait for it.

Edit : Hunter x Hunter is unique af. That doesn't mean it's entertaining all the time though. It's unpredictable af too. Not just with the individual arcs but everything about it is unpredictable.

Edit 2 : The show ended well tbh. Gon met his Dad. I don't think there were any loose ends that desperately needed exploring/explanation.

First of all, let me just say that the anime looked extremely beautiful. And it is no surprise since it's from Kyoani. I had looked forward to this show and waited months for the dub after hearing about it. Like tradition, I went in blind, thinking it was a supernatural mystery. Surprisingly, I was a little disappointed after watching it when I realised it was a slice of life anime . In the beginning, I was expecting this to be a 9/10 show especially during the Hyouka arc. But after that even though there were new mysteries with Oreki solving them beautifully, I couldn't care less about them except for a few. I still enjoyed the anime as a whole. Mayaka is my favorite character from the show. I just love her. I could relate with Oreki during some parts. I didn't really like Chitanda and found her to be annoying. I felt like she was a waifu made for Japanese fans with ideal qualities for a Japanese woman. Beautiful, rich and from a great traditional family. She also does very well academically but also acts like a 6 year old at times for some reason. Didn't really care for Satoshi. The first OP and ED were great. ED1 was 'pleasing' if you know what I mean. The music was really great too even though sometimes I wondered why they played the serious music for silly puzzle solving. Overall a good SoL with beautiful animation.

Just wanted to add another thing. The high school really felt real and lively due to Kyoani's attention to detail. If this was animated by a mediocre studio I would have probably given it a 7/10. But great animation like this automatically gets a +1 from me.

It was OK. A simple episode where nothing really happened. The only mystery that I solved before Oreki was in this OVA. Not much fanservice as you'd expect after seeing the poster.

The ED song was really good. The animation may not have been great all the time but I barely noticed any shortcomings if there were any since it kind of suited the artstyle of the show. The music was very good and did an amazing job of hyping me up/evoking emotions in me during the right moments. There was a surprisingly high number of insert songs which were always on point.

All the characters were well written and even the minor characters were oozing personality. The main characters being realistically old and not teenage geniuses was refreshing. Even the loli looking character was 23.

The story had a lot of sci fi elements which reminded me of movies like Inception and Minority Report. It was all meshed together really well and didn't feel boring or too derivative at any point. They might not have explained every single detail of the story, and there might have been moments that required suspension of disbelief, but the anime handled the parts that actually mattered for making the show entertaining extremely well, like the setting, the characters, the backstories, the reveals etc. without seeming like they were taking it too far by having too many asspulls. I was never bothered by "anime logic" while watching this show and I think the reason for that was because the show had such a strong conviction about what it wanted to be that the 'plot holes', if there were any, didn't matter. I had fun piecing together what was happening in the story by using the information that the anime gave me because every single thing in the show mattered. Nothing was there just for the sake of it and every single detail was a piece of the puzzle and relevant to the story. While the ending/final reveal could have been better, I thought it was fine. The makers didn't pretend like the reveal was mind-blowing and moved on to the subsequent action scenes quickly without spending too much time on it.

The best things about this anime were results of the show being an anime original done really well in almost all aspects. The pacing was near perfect to a degree that would be possible only in an anime original, since in normal anime that are usually adaptations, more often that not, you get a feeling that some things are missing due to cut content, or that the pacing is slow as a result of the makers trying to stretch the original material, both of which weren't problems that this show had. While this was also a result of the show being extremely plot driven, the makers didn't forget to add nuance and small details and enough foreshadowing wherever necessary which undoubtedly elevated the show to another level. Overall, 8.5/10. A fine example of anime original done right.

I kind of wanted it to have more action but the show is exactly what the title indicates it to be. An SoL romantic comedy set in high school where the characters have superpowers but it's not really a big deal to them or the story. The character designs were cute and the animation was consistently good, probably because of Studio Trigger. I wish the story had a direction because it was kind of all over the place. Also didn't know it was a harem show. The show did have some really funny and thoughtful moments and dialogues and it was also surprisingly meta at times. I guess ultimately the show was about the characters and their relationships. They were all likeable despite the cringyness of the show since it's a harem and all the girls had fallen head over heels for him just because he's normal and not a creep. The English dub was weird because most voices of the teenage characters sounded too mature. Overall a fun, light watch. I'd give the show an extra .5 for its clever, above average use of humour, hence making the final score a 7.5/10.

Edit : And yeah, that monologue scene took me by surprise. It was really intense and the whole exchange was too real, weirdly.

Boring protagonist. Side characters have equal importance. Monster of the week. Not a big fan of stands.

Edit : Changed score from 8 to 7 after watching season 2.

Better than season 1.

It was okay. Not a big fan.

So, I don't know if I can review it properly like the other anime I've watched since I followed the show while it was airing. But here goes.

First OP was amazing. ED 1 was nice too. OP2 was okay. Didn't like it at first but it kinda grew on me, I guess.

Music : This show has an excellent soundtrack. I don't know if I can call it god tier but maybe I should? Because it's not just one good track, there are multiple great soundtracks that are often used in the perfect moments. The music really elevates show to a different level.

Animation/Artstyle : Everything looked really good and the animation was always beyond amazing during the iconic fight scenes. The stand powers looked cool af and the action scenes were incredible and fluid. Buccarati's stand Sticky Finger and its action scenes are probably the coolest in all of the parts. I can't imagine anyone making it better even if they try.

Characters : First of all, the character designs were amazing but I guess the credit for that goes to Araki. About the characters, they were memorable and lovable. Almost all the main characters got as much importance and screen time as the protagonist. Everyone just oozes style. I guess this is true for most Jojo characters but the ones in this part is on another level.

Plot - Now this is where my dilemma comes in. Because like most of the Jojo Parts, the story is fucking stupid. Asspulls after asspulls and nonsensical explanations for everything that doesn't even make sense but you probably won't be annoyed by it since you get used to this if you've been following the series from the beginning.

My dilemma is whether a decent story is necessary for an anime like this to be considered good where its every other aspect is amazing and where the anime is also really unique unlike other shows since everything in the show is about setting up bizarre situations for the characters and the fight scenes to look as cool as possible.

Golden Wind is the example of a beyond perfect adaption, not just a proper one. David Productions does an excellent job and you can see how much they care about the series when you watch the show. I'm probably not giving enough credit to Araki since I haven't read the manga but I think the studio took a 7/10 manga and made it into an 8.5/10 anime by putting their heart and soul into it.

This was a jolly good time. Watched the dub this time and it fit well since the story takes place in Florida. The stands are definitely weirder and perhaps even more complex than usual. The show in general is more serious than before and not as campy, maybe because of the higher stakes. Jolyne is likeable and so are the side characters. Nice OP. I like the ED song too despite it being kind of basic. The music was fine I guess, but I did miss the Part 5 piano for sure.

This season so far truly lives up to the bizarreness in the title. The plot felt a little disjointed in towards the end . For example, even though I liked Weather Forecast, he kind of came out of nowhere. I suppose you can't expect Jojo to make complete sense. The animation was alright. I don't remember getting impressed by any of the scenes. Coming to the art, the classic Jojo colour switches and all were nice to see again.

Overall, had fun. 8/10. Wonder where the story is going to go from here since they seem to have revealed a lot about the villain this early into the show. Anyway, hoping for a settling change because I don't know if I want the majority of the show to be set in a prison.

Edit: I thought McQueen was a uniquely funny character that maybe hit too close to home at times.

I guess a lot of the observations from the first cour's review apply to this too. Same opening and ending. Didn't notice anything special about the music either.

Coming to the art/animation, I suppose it might have been subpar compared to the previous season even though I don't remember it all that well. Again, there were no sequences that stood out.

While some of the fights were interesting, a lot of those were not fun to watch and a few were just plain confusing, like the Feng Shui one. The fact that some of those are based on terrible logic or are just straight up ass pulls didn't help either. Apparently, according to some reddit comments, this started in Part 5, and while I don't remember much about that season, I think it was more fun despite all this, either because there was a certain level of camp in it that's lacking in this part or because Giorno came out on top in most of the fights in the end with a bang. Another criticism which I thought had merit was how the characters survived and healed from major injuries too easily, making it hard to take them getting seriously hurt during fights seriously.

Overall 7.5/10. Not as good as the first cour. I think the biggest problem with this season so far is it takes itself too seriously. And that brings down the entertainment quotient a lot, because Jojo has always been a dumb, unrealistic show and it's harder to look past all those flaws when the anime is too serious without any fun elements. Couldn't even enjoy the prison setting because of this. If I recall correctly, all the previous parts had those fun factors and seemed self aware of how ridiculous it all was to an extent. On to the final cour.

Didn't like the new opening. I guess the art/animation was better than the last two cours.

The fights didn't make any sense. Things just randomly happened and I just went along with it. I guess that describes most of this show. All the characters dropping random obscure trivia that they normally wouldn't know was more noticeable this season. The constant swearing definitely made the anime more entertaining. I was also surprised a little bit initially maybe because it's not the norm. While I don't know what to think about Weather Forecast's backstory, it was definitely entertaining and made their fight emotional even when the logic behind their moves made little sense. This last cour was entertaining in general as the plot was moving fast since it was the final act. The final few episodes especially were just too wild and engaging despite the story being a mess. So, I think it deserves an 8/10.

Now, about Part 6 as a whole. The anime started off nicely but got really boring in the middle due to the stand-of-the week episodes that were reminiscent of Part 3 in terms of how pointless those were to the plot. The fact that the fights made no sense made it even worse. Apparently, Araki mentioned in the afterword that his creativity peaked in this Part, which is ironic since most of the fights were just illogical and needlessly convoluted. Like I mentioned in my previous review, the lack of fun elements made all these flaws hard to look past. Even though the final cour was engaging, the story as a whole left much to be desired.

Jolyne was a good and likeable protagonist, but most of the side characters including Jotaro felt really underused. Some of them like Weather Report and Anastasia randomly showed up instead of getting proper introductions and the show didn't even have an episode were all the characters were just chilling and not fighting for their lives. I didn't like Emporio as a character because him as a character and his motivations seldom made sense to me. Ermes was likeable from the beginning. Pucci was a decent villain.

About the ending, it was fine if Araki was done with the Joestars and wanted to move on. It's just, this Part wasn't good enough for an ending like that to work. So it feels like a loss, and not in a good way. It feels like Parts 1-5 were erased from the world and the reason wasn't good enough. Definitely one of my least favourite Jojo parts.

Here I am again, after watching this new incomplete shounen even though I had promised myself to watch only completed/fully adapted shows. Was it worth it? Should I have waited for the show to be completed? I think I should have, although I'd have no reason to look forward to it if I hadn't watched the first season.

About the story first. The first 8 or so episodes went by really fast. While the motivations and personality of the main character Yuji were shaky, it didn't really bother me since a lot of shounen protagonists tend to be that way and because the story was really interesting. The arc with Mahito was okay. Liked the misdirection they did with Junpei in the OP. One thing I like about Jujutsu Kaisen is how it isn't afraid to kill off people or get gory when the plot requires it. The danger is real and the characters are fully aware of it. This was refreshing when compared to other contemporary shounen like My Hero Academia where everything feels too kid friendly and childish. The tournament arc wasn't as entertaining as I thought it would be. I had expected it to be predictable but it turned out differently and not necessarily in a good way. The students didn't fight each other and when they did, the reasons for it were weak. Now that I think about it, the problem the series has with character motivations and reasons isn't because they are hidden from us but because they don't seem good enough or aren't explained well. Can't tell if the anime is withholding information or if that's all there is. Another weird thing about the show is how empty it feels. This was especially apparent during the tournament arc because usually in a shounen anime, a tournament arc means lots of people including new characters. Here, it was like 12 students and a few teachers/elders watching them. No background characters or audience to watch the tournament. On the other hand, this might have helped to make the characters more unique because I remember every single one of them clearly. The last arc about the bridge curse was fine but I wasn't really satisfied by any of these arcs since the motivations/reasons/goals of the villains and even some of the heroes weren't really revealed to us even though they're heavily featured in the show. "We just want the cursed to rule the world" just wasn't good enough. Overall a decent but average story that doesn't get boring mainly because of the brilliantly animated and creative fights. I liked how the mangaka subverted some tropes occasionally that are usually seen in shounen shows and even made jokes about them but it also made me wonder if a lot of the story-lines like how the main character got his powers and the tournament arc wasn't developed enough simply because of some 'you have seen all this before in other shounen anime countless times, so let's just get on with it' attitude.

The art/animation was just 10/10 incredible and is the best thing about this anime. Nothing more to say about that. I don't know if I've seen such consistently brilliant animation in a shounen anime before that has non stop action scenes back to back in every episode. One Punch Man would be an example I guess but it's an exception and not really a shounen. Jujutsu Kaisen is definitely a show that follows the rule of cool. Everything about it including the art/animation and character designs oozes style which is reminiscent of shows like Bleach and that's one of the reasons it's easy to forgive its other shortcomings and makes it such an easy and entertaining watch. The visuals of the opening and ending songs were incredible as well even though the songs weren't that good.

I listened to the whole soundtrack after watching the show. A lot of the tracks were of the electronic/dubstep genre. I guess they were fine during the show but honestly none of the songs were memorable. Liked the slower melodic tracks better than the ones that played during the fights.

The characters were unique and each one of them had their own definitive personalities that made them memorable. It was interesting how we could see the mangaka's modern liberal values through the characters. Satoru Gojo's ultimate goal for example is to overthrow the old conservatives who control Jujutsu Tech which probably mirrors the sentiments of young Japanese people who have to live under conservative elders with outdated views. There are also mentions of feminism inspired dialogues throughout the show. The one that stuck with me was the moment when Momo Nishimiya talked about the problems sorceresses face. The only problem with all this is how the way it was communicated had zero nuance and subtlety. Now about the characters. The main lead Yuji is fine but I don't think he's as likeable as someone like Naruto for example. Getting powerups by training or by in some other way is one of the best parts of any shounen but in JJK, it just unceremoniously happens. Yuji getting stronger while training with Gojo made sense but him learning Black Flash with Todo came out of nowhere. This also reminds me of another problem I have with this show, which is the power level system. The most powerful cursed spirit level is supposed to be Special Grade, but that's the only type of enemies our heroes encounter from the beginning. The lower level monsters pose no threat to them even though they're just novices. I know that Satoru Gojo is a favourite for most fans of the show but the handsome and unimaginably overpowered character doesn't really do anything for me. Hopefully, things will get interesting in the future when the villains somehow beat him or if the show at least gives his backstory and a reason for his strength. That reminds me of another problem I had with Yuji. He was super-humanely strong even before eating the Sukuna finger and we're never given a reason for that. It'll be disappointing if they don't give a reason for it in the future. Characters who are special for no reason just aren't interesting to me anymore. All the other characters like Nobara, Maki, Megumi etc. had distinctive personalities and were memorable. Hopefully, the show will make some changes and add new characters so that it doesn't feel like the whole world is populated by just the heroes and the villains. The reason for this may not be the low number of characters in the show. It could also be a result of the way the show is written.

Overall, Jujutsu Kaisen is a decent shounen that is elevated by its outstanding art/animation. While the later episodes of the show weren't as entertaining as the first few, I don't think all the credit for the show's enjoyability should go to the brilliant visuals. The slightly unconventional mode of storytelling, interestingly written characters and the overall aesthetic of the show is an important factor as well. A solid 8/10 shounen.

Tried watching a recap of the TV show but that didn't help much, which I guess says a lot about how much of a mess the latter half of the anime was. And since I didn't remember much, the reintroduction of characters, concepts and the world in the movie didn't bother me and probably helped the movie to stand on its own. I also spent a good amount of time wondering if the main character Yuta was Megumi since I didn't remember any names either.

While the animation was great, it was also subpar sometimes. Saying this mainly because I dislike characters going off model. Didn't like the black bars on either side because of the widescreen format and wasn't a huge fan of whatever filter they were using either. Everything seemed too bright and clean. Maybe that's a fault of digital animation of this era. The background art was definitely a step above normal. Also, I could be wrong but the characters in the movie were thinner than they were in the show which is a trend that I dislike when it comes to character designs. The fan service shots of Maki were glorious. The usual trend of fast-paced fights that are too hard to follow in the climax, continued in this movie, but I guess I can't blame them for not giving the fights time to breathe because of the runtime limitation.

I actually enjoyed the story and was satisfied with how everything was placed and spread out. The only part that was underwhelming was probably the ending, not just of the movie but also of the villain who I thought was cool. It wasn't as satisfying as it could have been. The movie actually felt like the first few episodes of a shounen anime combined together without all the bloat, probably because the original manga the movie adapted had 4 chapters. As a result, there were a lot more cool fights, story progression and peak moments than your average anime movie which I liked a lot. The whole Rika backstory worked for me even though it was nothing new. Enjoyed most of the other story beats too, but the climax fights while well animated weren't as entertaining as they could have been since none of the heroes and the people they were fighting had any shared history. So, the fights had the emotional weight of someone fighting a rabid dog basically. Coming to the characters, I guess the standouts for me were Maki and Getou. The other classmates, Toge and Panda were likeable too. In the case of Maki, the fan service helped a lot as it was done really well. I don't think she was this hot in the TV show. I found Getou to be a good villain and a cool character even though his motivation was cliche af. The movie showed flashes of his life in the high school before becoming evil, but most of them went over my head. His death was unsatisfying as I felt they could have done so much more with that character. The protagonist was nothing special or particularly likeable. His attitude change during the climax was kind of interesting though since he seemed a bit unhinged. None of the soundtracks were memorable.

Overall, an enjoyable movie that's definitely better than your average shounen anime film probably because it was an adaptation. A very solid 8/10.

So Jujutsu Kaisen S2. I liked the first opening more than the second, even though it was more generic, and the second opening was more interesting in terms of animation. Perhaps the quality of that arc also contributed to it. The music was forgettable.

Coming to the art and animation, I guess I didn't have high expectations since I had heard about the production troubles, so even the lowest points didn't bother me all that much. I read that the art style changed from the first season, but I didn't really notice it, maybe because it had been 3 years since I watched it. It's better to talk about the animation while discussing the story, so let's get into that.

The first arc, that is, the Hidden Inventory arc, was undoubtedly the best of the season. Great animation, fast-paced story, interesting characters... It all worked well together. Then came the Shibuya Arc, which lasted until the end of the season. Instead of going episode by episode, I guess I'll just put down my general thoughts on the arc and the show as a whole.

A criticism I had about the first season was how I wasn't a big fan of Gojo as a character, as he seemed to have been designed to be instantly likeable through the easiest means possible, that is, by making him really attractive and insanely overpowered. But this stopped being so annoyingly devious when it was made apparent in this season that the world of the anime acknowledges how special he is as a character and how he's so important that his birth literally changed the balance between the good guys and the baddies.

Another criticism I had was how empty the world of Jujutsu sorcerers was. Even Jujutsu High seemed deserted, even with the students and the teachers. I tried to find the positive side of this and to view it as a feature rather than a flaw, but I had a hard time doing it. I guess that is something that's strange about this anime. The cast isn't just small, but even from the beginning, the show mostly is about the stupidly powerful characters in its world, like late-stage DBZ, and there aren't enough low-level characters for the viewers to fully grasp or appreciate the insane feats of the main characters.

Coming to the Shibuya arc, I guess it was just a series of back-to-back fights that often felt pointless or not as impactful as those should be. I have wondered if not establishing a final goal like becoming the hokage or defeating the big bad is the reason why these fights and the show in general often felt directionless and as if the plot is happening just like that without any buildups or anticipation. For example, I didn't understand what Sukuna's fights with Jogo and Maharaga were for apart from fanservice, basically. Had expected him to make big changes to the plot after coming out, but nope.

The animation quality of the fights often varied, and even the good ones sacrificed detailing and had the characters look like blobs, which I was never a fan of. Also, a lot of the big fights were just flashy noise that was hard to follow. I doubt that it would have been any better even with extra detailing, as I've had the same problem with movies like Dragon Ball Broly. I read somewhere that the anime expanded upon the fights in the manga that were shorter. Don't see the point in doing that if you're not making it better.

I guess there was some logic and rules that the fights adhered to, but I often had to rely on the Reddit discussion threads to fully understand everything. Apparently, the manga has text boxes explaining everything. The favourite fights in the Shibuya arc would be Yuji and Megumi fighting against the old man, the Dagon fight probably, Toji vs. Megumi, and maybe Chose vs. Kamo.

Coming to the characters, Mahito was annoying because of the plot armour he had. Never liked Todo. Toji was an instant favourite. Everything about him just worked. Nanami's death didn't bother me that much, as I never cared much for him. Nobara's death did feel premature, especially since it accomplished nothing. Couldn't be bothered to understand Yuji's character motivations. Even though the execution and timing are questionable, the fact that no character in this anime is truly safe does stop it from becoming too boring, even when nothing else works.


Overall, a solid 8/10 despite all the flaws because it did keep me engaged throughout. Want more of the story despite all the shortcomings, because I'm sucker for centuries-old secrets and stuff like that, and the mystery regarding Sukuna and the main villain is just that. So looking forward to that, knowing fully well that it could be disappointing. The fact that this anime has two protagonists is kind of amusing and not something you usually see in anime. So far, Yuta looks more interesting than Yuji to me, mainly because he has a better backstory and because Sukuna hasn't done anything too interesting.

Recap. Useful.

Was going to take my time writing this review but my ankle got twisted and now I just want to finish this as soon as possible before the pain comes back.

So, how did I end up watching it? I already knew how controversial the anime was, but wasn't really interested in it. A few days ago, I was visiting a hentai website and came across the uncensored episodes of the anime. This piqued my interest and I decided to watch the show.

The OP and ED songs were decent. The animation/artstyle quality ranged from below average to decent, especially during the sex scenes. The characters were memorable and their designs were good, with most of them being female characters specifically created to be additions to the main character's diverse harem. If I have to choose a favourite girl, it has to be Flare/Freia because she is the sexiest of them all.

Coming to the story, the show was basically a hentai anime with a plot and worldbuilding that was as good as your average fantasy anime. The first few episodes were interesting. I knew that the author was going to show the protag suffering and getting abused to justify the revenge rape but the way it was done was too contrived. Keyaru knowingly went through all that torture a second time just to confirm that the girl was still evil which is pretty crazy. Couldn't really get into the revenge sex/torture scenes because of the artificiality of the setup, but I did enjoy him violating her when she kept saying how he wasn't good enough for her. Now that I think about it, this was probably the only revenge sex part in the show that I kind of enjoyed. In the next episode, you see the protag getting a wolf girl who needs to have sex with him to level up. And later on in the story, he adds an elf girl to his harem. Everything about this show indicates that it was made to tick all the boxes of a list of fetishes which was a bit disappointing because I feel like the show would have been more interesting if the author had put some more effort into the story rather than use it as an excuse to add more sex scenes and fulfill more fetishes. The Sword Saint falling madly in love with the protag after being exposed to an aphrodisiac just once is an example of the lazy writing.

The next few episodes were boring. Every single one of them had mandatory sex scenes which I couldn't care less about especially since they had no relevance to the story. The sex slaves concept was amusing at first but it got old pretty fast. The way the protag trapped Blade was funny. Bad writing struck again when Keyaru got mad after Karman was killed by Norn's soldiers. It's hard to understand how a mastermind such as him couldn't predict the possibility of people like Anna and Karman getting hurt during the events of the story. Hawkeye was an interesting character and seemed like a real threat, but he was killed off quickly because sex is the most important part of the show after all. The anime ends with Keyaru adding another girl to his harem. The scene of him having sex with four girls was kind of fun to watch.

Redo of Healer isn't actually that disturbing or extreme if you exclude the first 3 episodes, which basically show what Keyaru went through in his first life and set up the anime. I went in expecting a series of revenge sex, but most of the sex in the show was surprisingly consensual, even though some of the girls had technically been brainwashed. Also, unlike what people who I assume haven't watched the show might think, the anime doesn't really side with Keyaru on his quest for revenge despite all the horrible things he went through and clearly shows that he is as fucked up as the people he's after. The only thing to look forward to in the next season, if it happens, is Keyaru taking revenge on Bullet. Overall, a 7/10 show. Interesting concept but mediocre in other aspects.

As someone who loves mysteries with good twists and space adventure, this anime didn't disappoint.

The show is not a hard sci fi and although it's about a bunch of teenagers who are lost in space with no supplies, it doesn't have a survival tag, which should give you an idea about the tone of the show. The show had a lot of funny gags and jokes even during serious moments which were hilarious although I did feel that the show could have been even better if they had toned it down in the second half. It wasn't a shortcoming since the author clearly intended it to be a lighthearted adventure. The show was never meant to be that serious or heavy, I guess.

The best thing about the show are undoubtedly the twists which even made me wonder at the time if this show was going to be a 9 or a 10. But that didn't happen because after the revelations, the anime didn't have much in store and the aftermath was only briefly discussed before moving on to the one hour long overly optimistic grand finale which I felt was overkill and something the show didn't earn since it was a short 1 cour long adventure that was mostly lighthearted.

Loved how the studio put a lot of effort into making this a great adaptation like the 1 hour episodes and the skipping of OP and ED to effectively give us 15 episodes and also little touches like the changes in the aspect ratio.

The characters were all likable although tropey. Overall a very good and entertaining show that could've been great if it was a little more ambitious. 8.5/10

None of the OPs or EDs were remarkable except maybe the first ED.

I was confused about the score of this anime. Didn't know if it really deserved a 9 since I didn't think it moved or impressed me to that degree. But then I remembered all the things that this show did right. The animation/artstyle was excellent and even the use of CG wasn't distracting. The music was fitting although it was nothing new or special. Even though, the story was fairly simple, it was done well and 23 episodes felt like a breeze to binge through which is always a good sign. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the show, even during the final moments since there was absolutely no guarantee that the main characters would succeed, which is something that was very unique and refreshing since you almost always know that the protagonist is going to win in most shows. I desperately wanted them to win and there was always a sense of unpredictability and danger. Also, all the characters and their problems and motivations and backstories and everything in general was very realistic and relatable, which was great since a lot of shows suffer from anime philosophies and logic that really don't make much sense in real life. This realism was probably due to the fact that the show was based on a real novel. I also liked how they handled Moosa who's a black "gaijin". The show was very mature in lot of aspects. And I don't have criticisms like "they could have expanded on X" because ultimately the show was about running and they focused on that and handled it really well. The show even motivated me to run and get fit.

Overall, an excellent show. I enjoyed it very much.

Good show. Giving it 8 only because the story was just beginning. Unique soundtrack, borderline great OP. You know that feeling when you hear great things about a show and then after finally watching it realise that it is great but is also anime-ey? This anime was something entirely different. You could never predict what was going to happen next or even what the anime was really about. I'm really sad that the manga doesn't have a good adaptation other than this. Overall a good experience. Just realised that the music director worked on Paprika. That's why the soundtrack sounded similar to that movie.

As always, really beautiful visually but not as beautiful as Garden of Words(not a flaw or anything, just pointing it out). The twist was good and unexpected. Really a Japanese movie. Wasn't interested much in the romance. The fact that they couldn't remember much about the body switching made the whole premise a lot more interesting. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece but it is a really good movie. Interestingly, I wasn't that into the music as well.

This movie was actually a little worse than I actually thought it would be in the worst case.

I Want To Eat Your Pancreas is the latest addition to the lonely cynic meets manic pixie dream girl stories that are so common in anime. I mean, I get it. Some men like to fantasize about a seemingly perfect girl taking an interest in them and changing their lives for no apparent reason. And most of the time, the protagonists in these stories are self insert characters with no redeeming qualities. So, while I'm not a fan of this trope, I don't mind them as long as they are executed well and maybe have some new twist to stand apart. In this story, I guess the interesting part was supposed to be the fact that the girl was dying. Unfortunately, I found the movie to be full of clichés. The girl meets the guy who's painfully uninteresting, starts going out with him for no reason, plans an overnight trip with him for no reason, starts giving him basic advice like 'talk to people to make friends' for no reason and even asks him if he could be her boyfriend for no apparent reason. Well, I guess according to the movie, all these actions should somehow make sense since she's dying. The movie ends up being so basic that the only difference it has from the usual format in this kind of stories is how the girl dies earlier than expected which didn't even change or add anything to the story except for the shock factor.

In short, a very average movie. I agree with everything the top review(Karhu) said.

I enjoyed all the episodes and actually left wanting more after each one. The animation/artstyle quality were incredible. Loved the music too, especially that track from the third OVA. Jojo is a truly bizarre and wonderful series. Wish they made more of these OVAs.

Didn't 'get' it. Couldn't relate to the characters. I always feel that making cute characters suffer is a cheap way to influence the viewers who obviously won't be affected to the same extent if it was an ordinary looking person. Overall its watchable, I guess. Beautiful Kyoani animation does that to any anime.

Funny show. Great MC. I haven't seen much isekai to really appreciate this show. Bad animation can be distracting at times. The show had really funny moments but I don't know if it was that good. I guess I couldn't stop watching the first half of episodes. 8 it is.

One thing I've noticed about the series is that, even though it's a comedy with not much of a plot, the show constantly references previous episodes and the funny moments are set up gradually through the earlier episodes. It is well written.

It was a good OVA.

The story was alright but the real strength of Konosuba is obviously the banter between the quirky characters. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had just finished the main series before watching this one. I didn't catch myself laughing at any of the jokes. The animation didn't impress me either. Don't get me wrong. It didn't bore me at any point. A decent experience, I guess. I can see why hardcore fans of the series loved it.

Fan service OVA.

Ending was really good and was different from other ghibli movies

Black Butler was a childhood show that I was fond of for reasons that I can't recollect even after this revisit. I guess it might have been because of the dark fantasy and procedural drama aspects. Who wouldn't like the idea of solving mysteries with the help of an invincible ally?

This was a hard watch for me as I went into it knowing fully well that more than half of the episodes were non-canon. I couldn't take the filler episodes seriously. Also had a difficult time judging the show properly because of that and also because I still remembered a lot from my first watch on Animax. So this review is going to be far from ideal.

The first ending song was an old favourite that I used to sing all the time. The OST was also pretty good and unique with some Indian-sounding tracks at times, if I'm not wrong. The art and animation were good. I especially noticed the background art that seemed like paintings. Not sure if they still do it that way.

The characters were all interesting, unique, and well designed, even the filler ones, which I guess is not something a lot of anime can claim to have. Coming to the story, I'll try to go by arcs. The first six canon episodes were decent, but I also found them to be very basic, but that could be because I already knew a lot about the events and revelations from those parts beforehand. The filler episodes that came after were noticeably boring. The subsequent canon arc featuring Indian characters was significantly better and more enjoyable even though I was already aware of most of the plot points from that arc. It also had some surprisingly funny moments.

Even though I can't say that I enjoyed the long filler arcs that followed, I did kind of enjoy the increasingly serious tone of those episodes and the continuous nature of the plot. The part where Sebastian seduces a nun and has sex with her for information was cool as hell. It came out of nowhere, and I was surprised by how the anime was so nonchalant about a sex scene like that when it wasn't even ecchi. The final filler arc was messy, predictable, and didn't make any sense most of the time. I could sense that it was going for one of those pretentious endings that I guess was common in 2000s anime and was seen in shows such as Soul Eater, which also had an anime original ending. It was these final arcs that made me certain that I wasn't going to give this season a score more than 7.

Onwards to the second season, which is completely non-canon. Wonder how I'll like that one.

I didn't know what I was getting into with this season, except that it was non-canon and that there is another noble with a demon butler who Sebastian will fight at some point.

The show had two openings and endings despite being a single cour show. I guess that's proof that they weren't half-assing it and were fully committed to their vision for the show. The music was good and successfully conveyed the melancholic, mysterious, and dark themes of the anime.

One of the first things you notice in this season is the change in the art, especially if you are coming off from the first season like I was. While it's more detailed, most of it is much more digital and lifeless. In fact, I'd say the first two seasons of Black Butler are a good example to study the transition from traditional to the digital art we see in anime these days. The sad and dreary Victorian atmosphere was just gone. The animation was decent, I guess. The characters and the world looked slimmer and smaller in a way, which could be an effect of going digital.

Now about the story and characters. While watching the show, I was baffled by how this season was such a departure from the themes and feel of the first season, even if you include the filler episodes of that season. For starters, it was much more gory, disturbing in general, and also more sexual. The disturbing parts weren't just the bloody scenes but also everything about the character that is Alois and the whole soul business. The narrative structure in itself was pretty unconventional, with the plot being confusing at first and all the secrets getting revealed only towards the end. Even though this season wasn't episodic like the first one and had a single continuous story, there were some episodes that seemed stand-alone, like the one on a train, which seemed like an attempt by the makers to pay homage to the Agatha Christie-Hercule Poirot novels. While that was fine on its own, it felt like an abrupt addition to the overarching plot and left me confused.

Coming to the characters, Sebastian had the most interesting and drastic change from the first season. He was no longer an enigma that was hard to figure out, but very human, as ironic as that sounds. We could easily understand his frustration, obsession, and desperation regarding Ciel. Ciel was more or less the same, just in very different and weird circumstances. Among the new characters, Alois was definitely the most important. You could even say that he was the main character of the second season. He was unlikeable from the beginning due to his derangement, and his tragic backstory that was revealed later didn't really change that. A very disturbing character. The only other notable character is Hannah, who was the hottest and kinkiest thing in the show despite the creepy eye injury.

Even though this season was a sequel to the first and featured mostly the same characters, it is very much its own thing. While I could see that the makers had a strong vision and were experimental in some ways, I find it hard to appreciate the show for those reasons and am leaning towards the writing being bad or just mediocre at best, even with all the twists and revelations it had. It simply wasn't very entertaining.

My next challenge would be to forget all these filler stories and characterisations before starting the canon sequels.

Never did I expect to give these specials an 8/10, a score higher than what I gave the first two seasons of this anime.

The art and animation were noticeably better than the second season, which I guess is not surprising for OVAs. But still, it was nice to see that improvement and quality. More than that, what made these specials above average were the unique concepts and ideas that they went with instead of the usual tropes.

Didn't really care much for the Ciel in Wonderland episodes except for that fan service part with Ran-Mao and Ciel, which was pervy and hot as hell. While the 'Welcome to the Phantomhives' POV episode didn't do anything for me personally, as I'm a straight guy who's not that into these characters and the world, I could appreciate the novelty and the effort they put in to make the female viewers feel special.

Making of Kuroshitsuji II was entertaining, and I especially liked how unhinged and chaotic it got towards the end while making fun of the countless tropes from movies and TV shows.

I guess I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Story of Will the Reaper, considering how little I cared for that character and how annoying I find Grell to be. It was just a solid good episode that maybe even made me want more of the same.

The last OVA, The Threads of the Spider's Design, was even more of a surprise considering how much I hated or had a disdain for Alois and everything about him. I found the special to be so touching that I started sympathising with Alois and Hannah by the end of it. The bits with the triplets were funny as hell. And the special employed a narrative technique that worked so well, although in hindsight it might have been a way to decrease the workload. All this was accomplished with a runtime of 16 minutes, which I honestly find to be brilliant.

It's amusing when a less important work like this that's based off of a mediocre product can be so good that it can literally change your perception of the characters. Not the first time I've come across this phenomenon, but it's fascinating always.

After finishing the second season, I had wondered if having Alois as my MAL profile picture for almost a decade was a blunder, considering how repulsive I found the character to be. But after this OVA, I realise that it was more fitting that I thought, considering how he's just an unstable guy with a tragic backstory yearning for unconditional love like a lot of us are. I could even relate to his sadness during the final moments of the special.

So yes, 8/10. For the better art and animation, the novel ideas, and the last two episodes, especially, which I feel shouldn't be overlooked.

Well, I certainly didn't expect this one to be as good as it turned out to be. The movie is basically James Cameron's Titanic but with zombies and Black Butler characters, and the makers surprisingly pulled it off in a spectacular fashion.

The music was good. The visuals were noticeably better from the start, and I'm not just talking about the art and animation. The resolution was higher than normal, probably because they mastered it at a higher resolution, as it's a movie.

Coming to the story, the setup was intriguing from the beginning. The maiden voyage of a ship, investigating a secret society and all that. The horror elements and the zombies were handled so well despite it not being the show's genre. Inspiration from the 'Titanic' was too obvious throughout the film, with even the captain of the ship resembling the one from the Hollywood film.

One of the unexpected high points of the movie was when Elizabeth fought back. That revelation and the flashbacks, backed up by the amazing animation, were just great and lovely.

You could say I finally got what I wanted and expected from this series in this movie, as there were plenty of moments of Sebastian fighting and being useful as a badass demon butler. Enjoyed all the action that you usually don't get a lot of in this series, even though I felt like the animation could have used a couple more keyframes at times.

The Undertaker reveal was surprising even though him being a Grim Reaper was spoiled by the filler season. No idea why they chose to spoil the canon so much in those fillers. The cinematic record of Sebastian's and Ciel's early days was definitely interesting as it revealed that Sebastian wasn't always the perfect butler and Ciel had a hand in moulding him into one. It was also interesting to see how Sebastian viewed Ciel. Definitely made him seem more human and less of an enigma. Seeing Sebastian struggle with the Reapers also changed the perceived dynamics in the show and made the story a lot more exciting, as we now know that he isn't invincible and there are greater threats in that world that the duo may not be able to handle.

This movie was a gift that kept on giving, with one high point after another. A complete package that had a bit of everything, like adventure, action, drama, comedy, romance, mystery, horror, and plenty of twists and revelations.

Overall, 8.5/10. A very entertaining movie. I couldn't give it a 9 because it didn't have a satisfying conclusion with all the answers regarding the zombies and the Undertaker. Maybe it deserved a better review, but I decided to wait a day, so this is the best I can do.

I liked the guitar riffs and the visuals of the OP, but the song wasn't really memorable or very good. The ED was decent. The music was fine. I found the English dub to be noticeably good, especially with the different accents.

The animation was good and even impressive during certain scenes. Coming to the art, it was noticeable from the very beginning that they tried to recapture that moody and dark Victorian atmosphere from the first season, but as it was all digital, the colours looked washed out. The characters were all too slim as well, which I'm not a huge fan of.

Now to the story and characters. Sebastian was more emotive and hence more 'human' in this season. The first half of the season was so bingeable and intriguing that I kicked myself for not skipping the fillers from the previous seasons. I could clearly sense the difference in the entertainment value. But the second half turned out to be anticlimactic and lacked any payoff. The main villain was more than happy to die by Ciel's hand, and all the circus members, who were unique and distinct in their character designs and writing, were massacred nonchalantly. Even the doctor whose behaviour I guess was supposed to evoke anger in the viewers fell flat just like his revelations.

The way the anime fizzled out in the second half was confusing. I wondered if watching the filler seasons affected my enjoyment, as it turned out that those filler episodes had some canon characters and reveals for some reason, like about the abilities and backstories of the Phantomhive servants, which was supposed to be a big reveal in this season, and also some Reaper-related stuff. Even Sebastian's flirting and sex scene with Beast probably wasn't as impactful as it could have been, as I had already seen another version of this in a filler episode of the first season. It also made me doubt my ability to judge the tone of the anime as a whole, since I had seen more filler episodes than canon ones.

Even with all this, I do think the mangaka fumbled with the second half. While some of the concepts seemed new and interesting, like how the main villain got obsessed with the Phantomhives because of their looks, it didn't really go anywhere. I thought maybe we'd be surprised by a reveal of his face, but nothing like that happened. So the guy got obsessed with beauty, adopted some orphans, asked them to start a circus so that he can kidnap kids to recreate Ciel's worst night, and also collaborated with a mad doctor to use the children's bones to make prosthetics for the circus members. It's all too random and contrived to be a satisfying explanation.

Another thing that kind of irked me was Ciel not doing anything when so many kids got murdered in front of him. Sure he's a grey character and all, but it was his job to save those kids. So that definitely seemed strange. His explanation for burning all the lobotomised kids wasn't entirely convincing either.

I really didn't understand what the mangaka was trying to convey in the second half except maybe show how dark and indifferent the world is or something in a very edgy way. I guess the backstories of the circus members that were shown in the last episodes were supposed to make the viewers sad, but I just found it to be really pointless. Overall, a 7.5/10. Underwhelming second half, yes, but never boring. Also, Grell finding out about Sebastian in Beast's cinematic record was unexpectedly funny.

The music was alright. The art and animation were fine. It was a classic whodunit set in the Phantomhive mansion. The author clearly didn't have what it takes to write a satisfying story in this genre. The plot was too contrived, and the revelations didn't always make sense. Nonetheless, it was engaging and sometimes funny till the end, except for the part after Snake's reveal, which went on for a bit too long.

7/10. I guess Black Butler is kind of a mediocre series that doesn't really have an overarching storyline, at least so far.

The OP was decent. Had nice visuals. The ED was also decent. The music was good. The art and animation were good. The CG didn't bother me. I did feel at times that they were cleverly keeping the budget low by spending too much time on closeups and with that bokeh effect. But I liked the modern visuals overall. Made the anime an easy watch. Not a huge fan of Sebastian's new eyes, though.

The show got right into the plot without any introduction or delay. The episodes were intriguing and went by pretty fast. As usual, the anime had a good balance of humour and thrilling moments. Soma's entry and the scenes involving him were hilarious. He was more likeable this season for some reason. I appreciate the positive representation of Indians as well. The prefects' reaction to Ciel enquiring about Derrick was done so well. The flashback featuring Ciel's father was an unexpected treat.

The two cricket episodes that came after weren't that entertaining, maybe because I was very familiar with the game. The build-up to the reveal that the headmaster was the Undertaker was great, but the reveal itself was a bit underwhelming, as I guess it would have been more enjoyable if it was a new character with an interesting backstory and explanation.

I found the prefects' behaviour and reasoning for murdering Derrick to be believable and satisfactory, as it was established that they were too self-important and considered Derrick to be a threat to the bright future of England since it was the top school in the country that produced future leaders.

While the conclusion of the arc was not very satisfying, just like some of the previous arcs, the anime overall had enough moments of brilliance for me to give it an 8/10 without any doubts.

A fun OVA that was filler of course. The art and animation were slightly better as those usually are for OVAs. Some of the jokes were a lot more sexual than they were in the main series which was a bit surprising. Wonder if I would have found the special to be funnier if I had remembered more about Hamlet.

Great MC. Nice Music. Hype moments doesn't involve action?!! Definitely better than I thought it would be in the beginning. Low quality animation, I think.

Nice EDs by Yun*Chi for both seasons. Very few good OSTs too(some similar to Fairy Tail ;same composer) . 1st season was better. Few very funny moments.

So, this movie caught my interest because I thought it would be interesting to see a full CGI film that doesn't have the Disney/Dreamworks/Cal-Arts influence. From the trailer, I had expected a typical Lupin adventure story with decent animation. But the movie was way better than I thought it was going to be.

The best part of the movie was undoubtedly the animation. The translation of 2D anime style to 3D was brilliant and flawless. It was so entertaining to watch. I was thinking that the movie was going to be a 9/10 until the story faltered in the last part from the point where Leticia's "grandfather" suddenly decided that he was going to conquer the world. It was just too stupid and rash for his character. The movie kind of had a rushed and lazy last act. Lambert's betrayal, Geralt getting a call from the gang about Hitler and him meeting a disguised Lupin, the final battle and the happy ending all happened in the last 15 minutes of the movie. Moments like Lambert's sacrifice and the villain's death could have been more impactful and memorable if the movie had given them more time to develop. It wasn't just rushed but the logical leaps the movie wanted us to be okay with during that last part was considerably larger than the ones we were used to since the beginning of the film. This was the reason I had to bring the score down to an 8.5/10. But apart from that, the movie was a wonderful experience because of the incredible visuals. I came across a criticism that Lupin was too heroic and Indiana Jones like in the movie and didn't really act like a thief, which I agree with, but in the end, it didn't really bother me that much because the scope of the story was so much bigger than I had initially thought. Lupin literally had to save the world from the Nazis in this one and I believe that it's not out of character for him to be a typical hero in a situation like that. While the rest of the gang didn't get a lot to do in the film, I was content with what we got and found the new character Leticia to be likeable. Looking forward to the sequel if they'll ever make one.

Very unique world, story and characters. Kind of depressing and horrifying at times. Music was good. Animation was great. Really looking forward to S2.

Recap, so same rating as the TV show.

Recap, so same rating as the show.

First of all, the animation was phenomenal and was probably the best thing about this movie. Just getting that out of the way. The movie was disappointing to be honest. Not because it wasn't as good as I expected, because I try to not go in with that kind of expectations, but because this movie seemed to have lacked what I loved about the TV show. It turned out to be just like cash grab anime original movies with a paper thin plot, fights caused by confusing character motivations and an underdeveloped random new character that dies by the end of the movie and that was weird since this was a sequel to the TV show adapted from the manga.

I had two main issues with the movie. The first one was the confusing plot and character motivations. It's not that the reasons and explanations weren't good enough, they were just not presented in a satisfying and impactful way that would have made me care about what was happening. And it honestly seemed like a problem with the source material and not the adaptation. As a result, I couldn't really get invested in the incredibly well animated fights or the story because I didn't exactly understand why they were happening and at times, couldn't get a sense of the direction the story was going in.

The second issue I had with the movie was the characters whining and being emotional about things I couldn't care about, for instance Prushka. While I would have preferred the movie to show the characters surviving the fifth layer and the challenges they might have to face, I would have been fine with it exploring the relationship between Nanachi and the Bondrewd since the base was a big part of that layer and was foreshadowed earlier in the series. But instead, we got Prushka, a character that barely got any development and wasn't really that interesting. The characters crying over her was annoying and the flashback that revealed her past didn't change anything.

Another problem that I had with this movie was the torture porn and the sexualisation of kids. Let's start with Prushka's design. Why would a kid her age have breasts? A lot of the disturbing things like torture scenes of the characters and the nudity often seemed like they were unnecessarily graphic and were there only for the sexual gratification of the author. The scenes like the one where Reg gets a boner wasn't entertaining but just distasteful. I hope they would tone this aspect of the series down in the upcoming arcs.

About Bondrewd, he was a cool villain. I mean, he looked cool, sounded cool and the fights with him were cool too. I guess his motivations didn't need to make much sense since he's messed up in the head.

The music was fine. None of the tracks stood out to me, maybe because it was a movie.

I agree with Scarlet_Neko's review. "Right now it seems no different from any seasonal popcorn anime where everything can be solved with the power of (poorly written) friendship or sudden power ups. I want dark fantasy adventure story about the Abyss, not a crybait melodrama with the same reused twist about suffering lolis."

Overall, a 7.5/10 movie. I had wondered if I should give it an 8/10 just for the animation, but decided that an extra 0.5 was enough, since no amount of great animation can make a boring anime interesting.

So, Made in Abyss S2. Didn't have much expectations going in, as I had found the movie after the first season to be a letdown. Didn't like the opening song at first, but it grew on me, mainly because of the visuals. Developed a liking to the ending song too, because of how well it was placed in certain episodes.

The art/animation was good. Didn't notice anything particularly great or bad about it. The music was great as usual. It plays such a crucial part in giving Made in Abyss the vibes of a dark and epic adventure unlike any other.

There were so many good things in this season. The new characters were fascinating. The iruburu village was unlike anything else I've seen before in any media. Mindblowingly unique. Their backstory was bone chilling. While I have issues with the mangaka's questionable fascination with certain deviances, I've also come to realize that only from a mind like that, can something as new and unique as the village and its twisted backstory be born. This season had elevated itself to a new level with episodes 7 and 8, and I had decided in my mind that this was definitely a 9/10 season at least. Not because the events in those episodes were horrifying beyond belief, but because it all made perfect sense and never in a single instance was there an asspull or a completely new addition of some sort that made it seem like the author was coming up with fucked up shit just for shock value.

Unfortunately, the episodes that came after fumbled in tying up all the loose ends and concluding the arc in a satisfying manner. Don't want to get into the details as there are so many moments that didn't make sense or have the intended impact and were rushed. Some of the events like Vueko's transformation into a Hollow seemed too convenient. Also, the woman who saved Vueko by throwing her down the stairs was apparently her lover in the manga, but since they don't show this in the anime, it seemed like another cheap moment constructed to get an emotional reaction out of the viewers.

And because of all that, an otherwise great season went from a 9 to a solid 8 or even 8.XX, due to the messy final episodes. Looking forward to the next season, even though I don't have any expectations, since it'll be exploring the most anticipated final layer of the abyss.

That was fun. Very aesthetically pleasing animation/artstyle. The song was nice too.

Second half was funny and entertaining. I enjoyed the show but hated Sinbad being the chosen one. It just makes the original character from Magi look less cool.
Nice ED.

Season 2 was a lot better than season 1. A lot of funny moments. This anime excels in creating morally grey characters and situations which makes it impossible for the viewers to root for one side during a battle. The only epic moment that I can remember is when Sinbad appeared in the last episodes. The character designs are bad in my opinion because a lot of side characters have the exact same face with different hair colour(and sometimes same hair colour). Overall, an entertaining show. Forgot to mention that the battle scars on the characters never disappear magically like in other shows. So, that's something new.

It was entertaining and funny at first with its unique middle eastern setting. But then lots of stuff about the Dark Organization happened which was boring. A soundtrack was similar to one from AoT. I hope that season 2 is better. Season 1 was a mediocre shounen anime in my opinion.

I got into the series after hearing about the infamous and overpowered main character. Probably because of my expectations, I was disappointed by the lack of fights involving the MC. I was really hyped when the series approached the Nine School Competition. I hoped that this would be an awesome tournament arc and instead, I got side characters playing retarded games. The incestuous undertone in the relationship of Tatsuya with Miyuki was weird and disturbing to the point that it hindered me from fully enjoying the show. Ending 2 was good. I did watch some episodes eagerly but the series was kind of a let down as a whole. The explanations for the magic and technology, while deep, wasn't unique or interesting.

The art and animation were really good. The characters had realistic body proportions and weren't stick figures like in the original anime. Overall it was short and enjoyable.

There's not much to say about them to be honest. Decently animated shorts.

Too much symbolism or whatever. I'm not saying that this isn't a great anime but I couldn't understand or enjoy anything(except for the survival tactics sequence and comedy). So 7/10.

(Ammachi)

Good. More funny than action heavy moments.

The second season of Mob Psycho 100. Art/animation was good, but can't say I loved it since most of it was formless and low in detail. I think I heard people praise the opening a lot but I found the first season's OP to be better still.

Coming to the story, you could say that this season was all about Mob growing up which was interesting to see, but also a bit weird because we usually don't see consistent growth like this and change in character until the very end in action anime. Perhaps, that's common and deliberate so that the viewers won't be confused, because it wasn't easy to digest these developments since the character dynamics and personalities had remained mostly the same throughout the first season.

The first episode was very touching and done brilliantly. The subsequent episodes seemed episodic at first, but ended up having an impact on the overall story as some of the events forced Mob to think about himself. Also, some of the characters and elements from these episodes appeared in the later episodes as well. Next was the Mogami arc. His motivations weren't anything special and Mob's realization about how people can change and about his friends wasn't something unique either. However, I did find it interesting that Mob in this arc and this season in general, was perhaps a kinder, better Naruto. Mob trying to convince the villains seemed more genuine maybe because we were with him throughout this journey and saw him struggling and coming to these realizations. Maybe him being a non violent guy unlike Naruto who's a fighter, was a reason as well. Wasn't a huge fan of the animation style when Mob went inside Minori and had a hard time keeping track of the action.

The Reigen/Mob separation arc came next. Learning more about Reigen's personal life was interesting. Can't say I could empathize with him struggling, but some aspects of it was incredibly realistic and funny, like the internet discourse and the fat undisciplined guy passing judgements. The high point of the arc that got me was obviously the part where Mob says he knew Regien was a good person.

The anime rushed into the Claw arc next, which was like a traditional shounen arc where the good guys fight the big bad and his evil organization. The burning of Mob's house, while a surprise, didn't shock me like the showrunners probably intended to.

Can't say I liked this arc very much. It seemed like a run of the mill shounen arc but shoddily set up with a bunch of uninteresting baddies and a generic main villain hell bent on world domination. I get that the villain was supposed to be how Mob would have turned out if he didn't have his friends, but his motivations could have been way more interesting.
This arc and the bad guys reminded me of My Hero Academia. Just like how MHA uses the concept of quirks as an excuse to give the characters all kinds of random powers, the characters in this season can do all kinds of wild stuff just because they're psychics. I liked it better when the powers were just levitation, telekinesis etc. that were more on brand.

The Shimazaki vs espers fight was fun to watch, not because of story reasons but because the way they portrayed the teleportation power was new and unique, and perhaps never before seen in any other media. The final fight was decent I guess, but it's a shame that we couldn't really tell what was happening with Mob because they gave him so many random powers and because the 100% meter became pointless since they abused it so much for metaphorical reasons.

I would describe Mob Psycho 100 as a kind show with the parts where Mob talks about his feelings being one of the most endearing things about it. The best aspect of the show is undoubtedly ONE's often subversive and refreshing humour. The possessed fat guy breaking his Achilles tendon and Reigen continously spraying the buff guy over and over are some examples of the kind of humour you won't find anywhere else.

While all the episodes are connected and plot points from some of the seemingly irrelevant episodes come up later, the story doesn't flow that well and you don't get a 'Oh shit, that thing from before' moment either. Even though the show is mostly a lighthearted parody, when the author tries to get serious, it usually falls flat and you get something like the last arc, that is incredibly generic and makes even shows MHA seem more creative.

Overall, a decent season. Was glad to see Reigen still being funny and being the best thing that came out of this show. Would have been an 8.5 if not for the rushed and generic last arc, I think.

Liked this season more than the second which is apparently a masterpiece according to many. The art/animation were great and the direction was exceptional at times. The opening song was amazing. Both the visuals and the song were incredible which is rare. The glass painting visuals of the ending song was cool too. The music was interesting to me. Mob Psycho 100's soundtracks have always sounded old and traditional. And some of those tracks fit incredibly well but there are times that make you wonder if the scenes could have been elevated if they had used a better/modern soundtrack.

Coming to the story and characters, I gotta say that the English voice acting in this show is amazing. Not just the main cast but even minor ones like the Yokai hunter's actor did such a wonderful job. The first few slice of life episodes were great since that's where ONE's impeccable sense of humour shines the most. The comfy visuals and chill soundtracks helped too. The whole Dimple arc was done well but the part where the real Psycho Helmet showed up felt like an asspull to set up for the emotional climax. Nonetheless, I'd be lying if I said the sight of Mob turning back and waving at the small Dimple who waves back with his tiny hand didn't tug at my heartstrings. Regardless of how it was handled, their relationship and Dimple's feelings for Mob felt genuine and that's what ultimately matters.

The next arc was probably my favourite of this season. The telepathy/aliens arc. I feel like Mob Psycho 100 is at its best with these short, slice of life-ish self contained stories. The arc introduced Takenaka a former member of the telepathy club. I loved how he wasn't a completely new character but someone we were told about seasons ago. I was also amazed by ONE's ability to make him so likeable and portray him as a genuine person you can empathize with in such a short time. Not just him but all the characters and their interactions felt so real in this arc. The humour was on point too, especially the Reigen being late bit. The second episode of this arc was even better. It was straight out of an older slice of life anime. It felt like we were going along with the characters on a small trip. The visuals were comfy, the soundtracks were relaxing and these factors only added to the already realistic portrayal and storyline of this group of genuine and likeable characters going on a small adventure. The unusually fluid animation especially played a huge part in giving that comfy slice of life feel. Apparently, this whole episode was done by a single guy. While the reveal of the aliens with anime eyes ruined the realistic, SoL vibe of the episode, they compensated for it with the wholesome interactions inside the spaceship and the dream like Inukawa bit that gave Space Dandy vibes.

The storyline of the very last arc of the anime was definitely an interesting choice by the mangaka. Mob's conversation with Reigen about asking out Tsubomi was so freaking good. It was both funny and genuine. The whole sequence of Mob walking slowly towards his room while on the call with Tsubomi, with him stopping in the middle to scratch the small hole in the wall, was so realistic and exceptionally directed. I have said before that this season was well directed, but it really shines in this arc. Despite my criticism regarding how generic and boring the villains were in the second season, I really loved seeing the flower guy being wholesome by giving Mob a bigger bouquet. It reminded me how genuinely kind the show is. Of course, in the end of this episode, in true Mob Psycho 100 fashion, the wholesome story is put to an abrupt end by Mob's accident.

Loved everything about the Teru vs Mob fight that came after, if you can even call it that. Always liked Teru as a character. Watching him try to stop Mob because he's a friend and to protect others was heart touching. We could feel his genuine gratitude and admiration for Mob, which made the futility of his efforts even sadder. I keep using the words 'genuine' and 'real' over and over in this write up because that's what makes this show so good. The animation and direction during this part was fantastic and really did a great job showing how desperate and sad the whole situation was.

In the next episode, we saw Toichiro fighting Mob. Sure, it's always nice to see a reformed bad guy fighting for the good side, but I really loved how he chose to run away with his son instead of sacrificing his life because it's such an overused cliche. Just another way this show subverts the usual tropes in a touching way. Ritsu remembering Mob's backstory about how he became a silent kid was moving.

The two Shigeos concept made sense. Can't say the whole Reigen sequence with the S1 OP worked for me that well. Maybe because we didn't really know why he was trying to get to Mob or because it had become such a cliche that I almost anticipated it and was immune to the emotional impact it might have created on a more casual viewer. I had expected Ritsu to be the one who gets Mob to wake up, so I suppose it was a nice surprise that it turned out to be Reigen. Reigen's confession was nice, but I'm not really sure why it had an effect on Mob. Maybe because even though Mob knew deep down inside that his master was a fraud, hearing it from Reigen must have been a shock. Also, the whole speech about everyone having different sides must have had an effect.

Anyway, Tsubomi rejecting Mob was realistic and on brand for the show. Her waiting for him despite not knowing him that well and the storm also made sense because we had known from the previous episodes that she was aware of his existence and did care about him in a way maybe because they were childhood friends. Nicely done. Reigen's birthday was a wholesome way to end the show and Mob's laugh in the end really sealed the deal. There was something that I found interesting though. We never see anyone using their psychic powers in the epilogue, even when the characters were trying to save the cat or when the cake fell off. Wonder what the author was trying to tell us with that. Maybe the whole world realized that they don't need psychic powers to live a good life, just like Mob always knew.

Mob Psycho 100 is truly a special anime. I used to think media being too wholesome and positive, whether it's anime or Hollywood movies, would always be dumb and annoying, especially if your life sucks. This anime proved otherwise. Mob Psycho 100 is choke full of characters talking about their feelings and being kind to each other, but it never feels cringy or not relatable even if you're going through a hard time in life. I think I've said this before. Mob is Naruto done right. Talking villains into being good and kind, done in a much better way. I said in the beginning of this write up that the music in Mob Psycho 100 sounded old. Like it belonged to the 90s or something. Now I realize that it might have been deliberate and even if it isn't, very fitting regardless. One of the best qualities of this show that makes it so good is how real and genuine the story and characters are. So, Mob is closer to older anime in that regard compared to its contemporaries.

Overall, a very special anime full of kindness. While I will miss Mob and Reigen dearly, I don't think this is the kind of show that needs to go on for more than a decade. I'm not completely sure if this season deserves a 9/10. I think it's a mistake to analyze this show by splitting it into seasons. The score was really for the whole anime. A unique show like this deserves that. Good job ONE. Looking forward to what you'll come up with next.

Edit: The observation about the epilogue turned out to be wrong. The cake was stopped using psychic powers.

Funny as hell. This anime is so much better as an episodic show. Reigen at his best. The visuals were nice too.

It was okay. The chibi dance in the ED was really cute. I don't know if I'm just dumb but I couldn't understand completely what they were talking about most of the time. I liked the cat girl.

It was good.

I didn't feel like giving it a 9 but...you understand. Wow! I changed my mind. Don't know why. Probably because I didn't like the ending very much.

Both of the OPs were good, especially the second one. The music was good but that one track which made me watch this show is god tier. I had thought that it would be used for an epic moment but it was used frequently from episode 1.

Animation/artstyle was okay but I didn't really mind since it's a battle shounen. I needed my shounen fix. An anime with lots of action and bare minimum plot requirements for setting up the action sequences since mindless action is not my thing. And it delivered. It is a good shounen.

The MC was cool but the inconsistency in the power levels during the fights made him kind of boring. The character design of the princess was amazing(She was hot. I enjoyed the action and the fast pacing. The story and the setup weren't great or without flaws and the power levels seldom made sense since the mighty sins struggled with smaller villains but they were good enough. And yeah. Hawk was such a likable animal sidekick. To season 2 I go.

I just wanted a fun movie and I got that. Still sad about the underuse/misuse of that one god tier soundtrack although its use was kind of epic in this movie.

First ep was a recap. The side stories were fun.

Oh boy. Where to start. Animation was okay, I guess. The music was lacking. I liked the first OP. This season was a mess. S1, even with all the problems that plagued it, held everything together in the end and came out to be a decent show.

S2 was weird. So many asspulls. Too many events were happening at the same time. Everything felt like the author was making it all up as he went. But that's the weird part. Although everything seemed so random and illogical, the anime supposedly has an overarching storyline which was hinted from the beginning of the series. But most revelations seemed like they were made up on the spot too. Like, when something is revealed, the viewer doesn't go 'Now it all makes sense!', but instead just feels like he's given some new info.

The anime had weird pacing issues and I felt like I missed an episode or two many times. The best episode of the season was definitely Ban's backstory. That was legit heartbreaking. The introduction of power levels were not just completely unnecessary but was actually detrimental to the enjoyment of the show.

Also, I don't get why people love characters like Escanor just because they are super strong. There needs to be build ups to epic moments and the story should also add to it. Otherwise it's just boring.

Apparently, this season was only a build up to the upcoming final arcs of the show. I can't imagine this show going beyond a very generous 8/10 status even if it ends nicely. Let's see.

Edit: The fights might have less entertaining because the first season had a legendary director and his contacts while the second didn't.

Recap.

Not really into this SoL season. Can't wait for S2. And so I go.

Watched because of the short episodes. Stupid fun. Borderline hentai. Sometimes it's amusing how ridiculous the situations in the show are.

Edit : Just found out that this director also did Tsurezure Chilldren. No wonder this show reminded me of that one.

Nothing more to add.

So, this review or whatever you want to call it has very little credibility since instead of going in blind like I usually do, I started the series long after its conclusion and had been exposed to some spoilers and other info regarding the series which might have ruined some key moments and made me guess the plot with what I know already while watching instead of fully enjoying the anime. As a result of all that, this might end up being an incoherent mess although I'll try to bring some semblance of structure by dividing this based on the arcs. Skipped all the fillers, by the way.

Land of the waves : I just realized that I might not remember my feelings about the earlier parts of the series. Then again, I didn't want to take notes or anything since I watch anime primarily for entertainment and try to avoid a critical mindset as much as possible.

In this arc, you get introduced to the characters,the power system and the setting, all of which were actually interesting. I was kind of skeptical about liking Naruto at first since he had already been gifted this amazing power/chakra source from birth, but the writer did a fantastic job of making him a likable underdog. The relationship between Naruto and Iruka sensei warmed my heart. Kakashi was really cool, just like I thought he'd be. Actually, this is something I didn't expect from this show. All the characters and their relationships/chemistry between them felt real and I really enjoyed it. The world and the power system also seemed well thought out and intriguing at this point in the series.

Apart from all that, this was actually a run of the mill shounen arc that had the usual tropes like protecting someone who's precious to you, a troubled character finding a purpose/realizing something with the help of the protagonist etc. The battles were fun too, partially because they introduced the battle techniques and abilities of the main characters and that world for the first time.

Chunin Exams Arc : In the beginning of this arc, we are introduced to the rest of the cast, like the other batch-mates of Naruto; the Rookie Nine who are all unique and interesting characters and also the participants from the other villages, especially the sand village trio. The introduction of new villages like rain and waterfall confused me since I only knew about the five villages mentioned in the last arc until then.

The first chunin exam was kind of boring. The second one was a battle royale in a jungle, which was something I had seen in a lot of anime, like Hunter x Hunter or Btooom! Not a criticism of course, but I wasn't expecting to find anything new or refreshing in this part. During the exam, our main characters have an encounter with Orochimaru which, while being cliche, was still enjoyable. I guess Part 1 Orochimaru is just that. A cliche villain done well. I loved how unsettling Orochimaru's theme was. Like, it kind of added a lot to his character although it was just a song. Orochimaru reminded me of one of the reasons Naruto caught my attention all those years ago which was how genuinely creepy and bloody the show seemed to be, especially with the weird powers/jutsus and unique character designs/mature art-style which is not seen in shows these days. I mean, sure, there are creepy villains but most of the time they overdo it and make it too edgy as a result.

I was expecting that this phase would cover different teams and the unique challenges they face like what I believe had happened in Hunter x Hunter if I'm not remembering incorrectly but most of the teams met up with Naruto's and they were actually the main focus which was fine, I guess. We are then given a hint about the politics behind the exams after the teams complete the second exam.

Then, the preliminaries happened. Naruto's fight was kind of underwhelming to be honest. The highlight of this part was obviously the famous Rock Lee vs Gaara fight. Again, I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to since it was spoiled for me by a guy in 2013. The reason it was a great fight wasn't just because of the 'weights off' moment. The whole fight had god level animation and a few other surprises like the chakra gates. I love the comedy and clever sarcasm of this show. A great example of this that made me laugh out loud was when Naruto asked Kakashi if Sakura was stronger than him after he heard the sensei praising her. Kakashi's reply was a sarcastic "Noooo, you're the greatest" which was just too clever and hilarious.

Then came the finals. Naruto's training with Jiraya was really entertaining. I guess the highlight of the finals was Shikamaru's fight, although I wasn't a huge fan of the high IQ explanation.

Konoha Crush Arc: This one actually had a lot of great battles. The best ones that come to mind is the Sasuke/Naruto vs Gaara one where everyone was mindblown by Naruto's ablilites and of course the epic battle between the 3rd Hokage and Orochimaru where he fought the first two Hokages and fucked up Orochimaru. The only negative, if any would be the "anime philosophy" and the weird character motives and flashbacks but that's not really surprising in a shounen.

Search for Tsunade: I remember this arc being fun, mostly because of the comedic moments and because of Naruto learning a cool new ability. The Akatsuki stuff was entertaining as well since they're mysterious. It was a little weird to see Kabuto going toe to toe with the supposedly powerful and legendary Sanin Tsunade. The ending fight with the three summoning of the beasts was cool though. Side note: The way how Guy sensei was waiting for Tsunade to examine Rock Lee was so fucking adorable and heartwarming.

Sasuke Recovery Arc: I could be wrong and this could be the fault of the anime, but I think this is the arc where the mangaka kind of mildly retconned a few things so that he could progress the story in the way he wanted to. Until this point, the story had gone from making a lot sense that made that world seem realistic, to a decent shounen level where things make enough sense for the story to move forward.

I have a couple of problems with the events in this arc. It started with Sasuke asking Naruto to fight him since he hates that Naruto is stronger than him. While I thought this sudden change in attitude was kind of strange, I could totally imagine Sasuke feeling that way, stuck and stunted in the leaf village with his peers surpassing him while he was too weak to beat his brother which was his ultimate goal. Then we got an awesome fight between Sasuke and Naruto. Sasuke leaves the village to become more powerful, which made sense too, from his perspective.

Side note about Sakura: People usually hate her because of how useless she is, but the problem I have with her character is that it is really hard to empathize with her. The only reason she likes Sasuke is because of the crush she has on him since childhood. The guy has no interest in her, while Naruto and Rock Lee actually do and have even put their lives on the line to save her from villains. How can anyone feel bad about her?

When the news of his departure spread, the Hokage called for Shikamaru to gather a group of genin to get Sasuke back, which made little sense since this event was linked to Orochimaru who nearly destroyed the leaf village. This mission should have clearly been top priority but nevermind that, since our main cast have to be involved somehow.

Anyway, the team leaves the village for Sasuke and we get a few decent fights between the main characters and the Sound Ninja. Then we are introduced to Kimimaro, who seemed like a character that the mangaka created as an afterthought and had no real impact on the story. After this, Rock Lee appears to fight him and is apparently revealed to be a drunker master which made little sense since he could have used this to his advantage during his fight with Gaara instead of destroying his body by opening the five gates. But I didn't really mind it since the whole thing was really entertaining. Then we see the sand trio returning to save the leaf village team which was cool. The fight between Gaara and Kimimaro was entertaining as well.

Now, we get to the epic final fight of Naruto Part 1. There are three problems I have with this.

First, it is revealed that Naruto always had a soft spot for Sasuke since both of them grew up alone. While this is entirely possible, this leaves a bad taste in my mouth since that's not at all the impression we got about the relationship between these characters from the beginning of the series. I'm fine with adding flashbacks for the side characters to flesh them out, but when you do it like this with the main characters who we've been following throughout the show, it feels kind of cheap.

Second, the whole Uchiha clan murder story is revealed. While it was a cool backstory, in the end, Itachi says to Sasuke that the only reason he is sparing him was because Sasuke has the potential to be a worthy opponent one day and asks him to acquire the Mangekyou Sharingan by killing his best friend just like how it is written in the family texts. All this sounded too silly and like a retcon especially since in an eariler episode Itachi said to Sasuke that the only reason he was being spared was because he wasn't even worth it, which kind of contradicts this new reason.

The third one is what I feel is a plothole. Naruto is almost killed by Sasuke during the fight but is seemingly revived by the Nine tailed fox. This didn't happen when he was almost killed by Kabuto in the last arc.

As I'm typing this, I've realized that none of these are major dealbreakers when it comes to enjoying this anime. I guess the mangaka wanted to end Part 1 with a bang and that's why a lot of this seems weird and doesn't make a lot of sense. The final fight was epic and the animation was god tier, although it lacked in detail.

Overall, Naruto Part 1 is a good shounen anime and honestly I can't wait to start shippuden and see where this story goes. 8.5/10 because why the fuck not.

Edit: Forgot to talk about the music and some other aspects. So, about the OPs and EDs, I didn't particularly like any of them. Didn't have any problems with the art and I felt the animation was great when it counted. The music was good and fit the world of ninjas perfectly.

Unlike my previous write up, I'll try to make this as short as possible considering the fact that there are more than twice as much episodes in this anime as its predecessor even without the fillers.

Kazekage Rescue Mission -

The way Shippuden started, with the future clip of Team 7 finding Sasuke and that awesome OP got me really hyped even though I didn't have huge expectations or anything till that point. The ED song was good. I was never a huge fan of Gaara or Naruto's relationship with him, not because of any problems with the writing but probably due to the anime overusing the flashbacks or maybe it was because I was never a fan of Naruto's 'Talk no jutsu'(TnJ) from the beginning. We were introduced to Deidara and Sasori, who were members of the Akatsuki. Deidara's powers annoyed me and I had thought that he would be killed off soon, but he ended up being one of the most showed Akatsuki members. I enjoyed this arc till the fight with Sasori began. That battle was fine, it was just dragged out for too long while Naruto and Kakashi kept chasing Deidara for episodes. This was the arc where they revealed the Nine tails cloak which I wasn't a huge fan of probably because Naruto had no control over that power. Lady Chiyo revived Gaara in the end which was fitting since she was the one who made him a Jinchouriki.

Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance Mission -

New Team Kakashi was fine. Didn't really care about Sai's backstory but I thought Yamato was cool. I think I really enjoyed all the parts till the encounter with Orochimaru and Naruto's transformation. If I'm recalling my feelings at the time correctly, I probably couldn't enjoy Naruto vs Orochimaru because Naruto getting triggered by even the mention of Sasuke was annoying at that point and again, he was a mindless beast and couldn't control the power at all. Sai's story made sense, I guess, although I think the flashbacks during the War arc kind of ruined it as it seemed that Sai in the flashbacks couldn't have been oblivious to his bond with his 'brother'. The encounter with Sasuke wasn't all that but the Nine tails name dropping Madara Uchiha piqued my curiosity.

Akatsuki Suppression Mission -

This arc was fun. The OP was good. I really enjoyed Naruto training. Was slightly annoyed when Kakashi made a Rasengan since it was supposed to be this special Jutsu that only two other people could do. Shikamaru's fight was entertaining, probably because the enemies were dangerously strong. Not a fan of Shikamaru's high IQ moments though, mostly because his strategies are usually basic. The episode after Asuma's death was weirdly well animated. Team 10 and Naruto vs Hidan and Kakozu was fun, I guess although the well choreographed fights lacked in detail which I'm not really a fan of. Watching a new technique after training is always fun.

Itachi Pursuit Mission -

They did Orochimaru dirty. I guess he was killed off because the mangaka hadn't thought of any plans when he was introduced and when plans were finally made, Orochimaru didn't have a place in them. Couldn't care less about the Hebi members. Jugo's retcon backstory with Kimimaro and his reasoning to follow Sasuke were stupid and Karin's antics were annoying. Deidara vs Sasuke wasn't boring, mostly because I was curious to see all the new abilities Sasuke had learned.

Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant -

This arc was really entertaining because it involved investigating Akatsuki and the final fight only made things more interesting with the introduction of Pain. RIP Jiraya Sensei. And yeah, this arc confirmed that Naruto was the son of the 4th Hokage.

Fated Battle Between Brothers -

This arc had a lot of very entertaining episodes, mostly because they revealed the history of the Hidden Leaf, the Uchiha clan and the involvement of Madara in all that. The fight between Sasuke and Itachi was cool. I probably couldn't enjoy it as much since I already knew that Itachi wasn't evil. Susanoo was a bit too much as an ability of an ocular jutsu. It didn't feel right. It was like if Iron Man had the ability to bend water or something. Sure, they can explain it, but it's weird and takes away from the cool factor. Also, I don't think Itachi or his story is cool. Killing your whole clan including your parents in order to prevent a war is not right no matter what way you look at it. Another reason I wasn't fond of this reveal was probably because I could clearly see that he wasn't meant to be a good guy during the earlier parts of the story. The retcons became more and more confusing. Then in the end, Sasuke decides to destroy the Hidden Leaf because that makes sense. People should be angry at the writer for failing so hard to think of a reason to pit Sasuke against Naruto and friends. Naruto didn't explode with anger when he heard of Jiraya's death which I thought was good character development. I enjoyed his training in Mount Myoboku too.


Pain's Assault (Arc) -

Again, maybe DBZ spoiled me, but I didn't enjoy the fight between 8 tails and Taka that much, partly because no buildup since we barely knew 8 tails at that point and that mission came out of nowhere. It was a well choreographed battle but like most fights in this anime, they sacrificed detail in the art for quality, which I was never fond of. Pain Invasion was good. I didn't think that the village would be completely obliterated which made Pain stand apart from the usual villians. Konohamuru using Rasengan was annoying. Chakra receivers and the split powers of Rinnegan was a cool concept. Naruto vs Pain was definitely a cool fight since Naruto had come just after training, at the right time, to face this powerful villian. That's classic shounen right there. The animation could have been better though. People say it's an artistic choice but I think they're wrong. Animating the fight properly with enough detail would have taken way more effort, so it was definitely not just a choice. I thought Hinata's interruption was unnecesary and was there only because she was supposed to end up with him. Naruto's moment with his father who helped him seal the nine tails again was amazing. Wasn't a huge fan of Naruto's talk no jutsu, but I was happy about how the arc concluded, with everyone brought back to life and Naruto hailed as the hero of the village. Pain arc was definitely a very good arc but I think most people praise it so much not because it was great but because the show went downhill after this arc.


Five Kage Summit (Arc) -

I think it was from this arc everyone started 'believing' in Naruto no matter what he does. I don't have anything to say about the summit or the Kage vs Sasuke battle. Never like Killer Bee that much. Maybe his rapping was funny to the Japanese fans. Sakura's confession and all that drama was really weird. Naruto's panic attack/breakdown when he couldn't take it anymore was fucking real. I guess that's something you don't often see in shounen anime. Sasuke vs Danzo was entertaining.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Countdown -

I thought Naruto training to gain full control over the nine tails chakra was the next logical step. And how he did it was done well too. Guy vs Kisame fight was good and I thought Kisame was a badass for doing what he did. Naruto's S rank mission was funny.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Confrontation -

Fucking Deidara came back from the dead. To be honest, I think I got used to him by then. First of all. calling this a 'war' is a joke when it's all of the shinobi world vs white zombies and some reanimated dead people. The first battle was better than expected. Some of the moments with the reanimated enemies were touching. None of the subsequent battles were exceptional tbh. Naruto mastered his new powers too fast but I guess that matched the pace of this whole arc. A lot of new characters and their special abilities were introduced. The fights with the reanimated Kages were interesting, I guess. Naruto vs former Raikage was good. Gaara's dad being surprised about him having friends was funny.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Climax -

I kind of forgot how much of a clusterfuck this arc is. Maybe I should have done this differently. Madara Uchiha vs Allied Shinobi Forces battle was epic. Naruto and friends vs Tobi was okay, I guess. And of course, Naruto befriends all the tailed beasts because apparently, he's the chosen one. The Five Kage vs Madara wasn't that great. Tsunade's three rules speech fell flat imo. It was fun to watch the Uchihas vs Kabuto, I think. I actually liked Kabuto's flashback. The moment they revealed the gigantic asspull that is Izanami is when I couldn't handle how OP they had made the Sharingan. Then Madara frees himself from the reanimation which I thought was another asspull that didn't seem right. Orochimaru's revival didn't make any sense either but I was okay with it since I liked that character and also was excited to see where that group would go next. So many asspulls, new attacks and concepts were introduced too fast. Naruto lent his Chakra to everyone else which protected them. Neji's death was so unnecessary from a storytelling perspective. It's not like that had any impact. Never liked how the mangaka never wanted to kill anybody. The flashbacks which revealed the events that led to the creation of the Leaf village was good. I wasn't impressed by Kakashi vs Obito mostly due to the lack of detail. Never liked Obito and how all the other villians were actually good guys with questionable methods and goals.

Birth of the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki -

Honestly, I'm not a fan of this reanimation jutsu and how dead characters were a huge part of the story. The dead should stay dead. Even if someone was revived, it shouldn't have been on a massive scale like this. Was I happy about the Team 7 reunion? I don't think so. Didn't care that much. Countless battles and asspulls... Too much going on... What's next? Oh, Guy vs Madara. I wasn't a huge fan of this fight for some reason. Probably because it was just two big moves instead of a proper taijutsu fight. And I think that it was okay that Guy was revived by Naruto since he wasn't able to kill Madara. Then came Hagoromo and the story of how everything began. Apparently, Naruto and Sasuke were destinied to fight each other? I wasn't impressed by this for two reasons. Firstly, it took a lot away from Naruto's struggles, since he would have become a great fighter anyway, as he was born to fight the incarnation of Indra. Secondly, this kind of justified the rivalry between Naruto and Sasuke, which was something that never made much sense in the first place. Oh yeah, and both of them got a massive power boost which they probably didn't deserve, but then again except for the first few arcs in the series, their powers had been handed down to them anyway. Also, Naruto gains healing powers, because why not?


Kaguya Ōtsutsuki Strikes -

I didn't have a problem with this villian like many others, mostly because it's not like the previous ones would have been any better. All of them are misguided good guys anyway. So, black zetsu was behind most of the shinobi history. This whole history of chakra and all was a cool concept I guess, but at this point it was just weirdly set up exposition. Couldn't care less about Obito. Kakashi's double sharingan moment was cool though. Naruto vs Sasuke fight was probably the best fight in the series since Part 1. It didn't sacrifice detail for movement. The reasoning behind the fight was illogical as usual.

Konoha Hiden: The Perfect Day for a Wedding (Arc) - This was a fun arc. However the fact that they didn't adapt the last chapter of the manga, that is the one in which Naruto was Hokage was unforgivable. I suspect it had something to do with Boruto and that's bullshit. This anime was about Naruto's journey to become the Hokage. It should have ended with him being one.

Remarks during the watch -
OP 1 and ED 1 are great.
Leaf village Pain attack OP is good.
4th ninja war ending is good.
The Power filler arc felt kind of weird mostly because the fat dude seemed like some animator inserted himself into the story and gave him a hot partner.
Favourite fillers : Naruto/Sasuke stuck together, prologue to road to ninja
Episode 82 weirdly had some great animation and direction.
Closer OP is good.
Episode 180 and 194 with Squad 7 were great. Espeically 194 which didn't jsut have incredible animation but it was so entertaining. Definitely a 10/10 episode.

Final thoughts :
Probably forgot to mention all the good OPs and EDs. I thought the music was decent but didn't fall in love with any of the tracks although I loved the Konoha Peace track long before I started the series. Maybe it was because I was too familiar with the composer's work from Fairy Tail. I honestly don't care about the animation quality unless it's noticeably bad except for fights. Most fights in Shippuden sacrificed detail for movement which I don't really like. Like I read in one of the reviews here, I think Kishimoto has a problem with setting up events. I think he's great at coming up with great and unique characters, both design-wise and personality wise but he's not so great with the relationships between the characters since most of the conflicts in that department fell in the weird anime philosophy territory for me and didn't make much sense. He's also good at coming up with cool concepts like the various abilities and the history of that world(which was admittedly too Japanese for me at times although that shouldn't be a problem since ninjas are Japanese) but isn't great at using those at pivotal moments to generate maximum hype. I don't remember getting excited about a character using an ability during a fight even once in this anime. I think most of the fights are loved just because of the choreography and the cool factor of the abilities since they are seldom build up the battles properly. I think he's also good at humour and that's probably why he overuses it a lot even during key moments in serious situations. The reason Chunin exams are one of the most favourite arcs for a lot of people is probably because there was no need for setting up the fights and all you had to do was focus on the cool abilities and battles.

And I think this is why Naruto ended up being such a mess. The mangaka had planned the major plot points but failed in taking the story to those points properly. We can see a lot of cool concepts being introduced but Kishimoto had a problem with using those effectively which ultimately made the series what it is. The War arc was the prime example of this problem. New things were introduced and revealed left and right but without proper set up, it was just too much and became an incoherent mess. The author's unwillingness to kill characters was also annoying. By the end of the series, I really couldn't sympathize with Naruto being an underdog considering how special he had become which didn't have much to do with his hard work. Also, I can't imagine how a person can watch this without skipping the fillers, considering their terrible placement. It was borderline criminal to have fillers this way in a series that became painfully mediocre by the end. Also, even though I don't care about plotholes or logic in shounen to a certain extent, the number of asspulls the show had towards the end of the series broke my threshold by at least a mile. I wouldn't recommend Naruto to anyone unless they are specifically looking for a series that has cool abilities. Favourite characters apart from the obvious choices like Kakashi would be Orochimaru, Might Guy who's an inspiration and Tenten for some reason. Overall, a decent shounen that turned mediocre, or rather a mess to be more accurate, by the end.

It was a beautiful movie, especially when watched together with the prologue. The animation was good. Although, I've seen this trope of opposite world a few times before, the movie subverted my expectations and was refreshingly new instead of following the same old formula. The story was very well done and didn't irk me with inconsistencies or done to death cliches. I kind of wish that the movie was canon.

A good movie. I didn't like the artstyle since it was a bit different from usual ghibli style. The greatest + about this movie was that time flew like wind.

I think I'm obligated to give this anime 9/10 as I'm a NEET myself. Good music, great voice acting, lovable characters especially the MC. Animation quality was OK. Loved the anime and I got very attached to its atmosphere. While I wasn't interested that much in the beginning, by the last episodes I didn't want it to end. Great quotes too.

Very mediocre although it looked promising in the beginning. The writing was just bad. I could be wrong, but I felt like the animation/art which was the only thing I liked about the film got worse as the movie progressed. Hearing the main theme brought a smile to my face though.

Both OPs were fun. The animation/art were incredible at times which I guess is to be expected from Kyoani, although I do have an unfounded suspicion that the quality kind of went down a bit in the second cour. Could have been an artstyle change.

The show is a comedy gag series. Most of the bits were more miss than hit for me, probably because of the Japanese humour and wordplay that don't translate well. I feel that Kyoani is what Makoto Shinkai would be, if he was a studio. Visually stunning works which are mostly mediocre and nothing special otherwise.

I wasn't a fan of the Shenonome household and its inhabitants which unfortunately formed a huge part of the show. My favorite moments from the show involved Yuuko, Mio and Mai and I found Yuuko to be really likable out of the three.

The physical comedy coupled with excellent animation was the strong point of the series. Overall, a 7/10 show that was rarely boring despite not being great, owing to Kyoani's top tier animation and incredible attention to detail which adds a 0.5, making the the final score 7.5/10.

It was a drag.

I expected this to be an 8/10. Blew me away. Animation was amazing. The funny moments were hilarious. Some moments were heartbreaking. "You can't feel this feeling." This movie was so well done. Not 10/10 because this is not a standalone movie and lore might confuse even people like me who have watched the show.

8

Superb action and animation. Story not that great.

Although people hated on the show because of the change in studios and justifiably so to a certain extent, I really enjoyed it. The animation/artstyle quality was a step down from season 1 but the show did have some amazing action sequences that were above average, especially the ones featuring Garou and some with Genos. Garou's theme was good. He is likable, but I wouldn't call him unique as he reminded me of many other anti heroes in anime.

While I found the first season's animation quality to be more impressive than the story, in this season I found the story, world building and comedy to be entertaining. I also liked the fact the power levels were consistent unlike so many action shows where they throw it out of the window for cheap hype moments. I don't think it'll be wrong to say that this season is thematically different compared to first season. However, I have to give the season a 7.5 even though I found the show to be enjoyable and the animation quality to be satisfactory, because the arc we were on is far from over, resulting the show to have an unsatisfying ending and also because the story was bare-bones and wasn't anything out of the ordinary compared to other action anime. Like the first season, the action scenes were the most entertaining parts which weren't always great in quality compared to its predecessor. So, overall 7.5/10.

The first one was kind of funny and the second one had surprisingly good animation.

The third and fourth ones were okay too. Again, animation quality was better than expected.

The fifth one was good. The sixth one was really entertaining.

Overall, surprisingly good specials.

Okay.

Meh.