This anime was very interesting at the beginning, though there were some scenes (mainly the attempted SA scene) that stuck out as poorly done, but it quickly turned from interesting to somewhat frustrating to just not interesting as the show continued. Where the animation was passable and the cell renders of a clean and refined quality, and the voice acting at least somewhat emotive in some scenes, I was hoping this would be a fun if simple anime to watch between some of the others playing this season. Unfortunately that isn't the case.

Filled with misogynic men, unhealthy relationships, and plot that moves so fast as to make any character development near meaningless, this show hand waves increasingly problematic behaviour away without care. With poor redemption scenes (not arcs, as this show blisters through the main story arcs too fast for anything substantial to exist), and hand waving away dangerous/toxic behaviours as romantic or just misguided, this show that while trying to show a woman taking control of her destiny, simultaneously has her torn down with meaningless trials.

The straw that broke the camels back was the memory loss trope with more careless handling of the existing relationships and more YA novel level "politics". While I don't expect perfect logic or fantastic empathy, I expect some to exist and here, I find they are lacking.

While an interesting concept with good bones to the actual show, the way the concept was developed feels pretty gross. This show follows a man who buys an android, confesses to her, and then proceeds to awkwardly date her.

The part where this gets awkward is that the androids in this series are subservient to the owner even though they are intelligent and appear sentient and able to express some minor forms of individuality. With the power dynamic, the sentience, and the fact that the android can't truly reject the owner, this feels somewhere between grooming and assault.

While the art and humour are decent, the overall writing of this anime, and even the subject matter are a giant walking Japanese candy ad. Add in the fact that everyone is trying to get MC to ignore their dreams, no thanks

I've definitely grown out of this show. While not a bad show necessarily, it feels so overly tailored to pre-teens. As an adult, Fairy Tail feels stilted and overblown even for an anime.

While a well made show with a lot of really nice messaging for younger people, which seems to be the target audience, there is a lot with this show that doesn't sit well with me as I watch as a 30yo. From incredibly problematic elements in the show

The first red flag is there is a lot of characters who make lewd comments about 15-16 y/o's, the main being the dog and snake zodiac and they are pretty insistent on fetishizing Tohru and the other young women they meet in the show. It feels like some sort of representation of maybe not the author, but a very pervasive element of anime of pedophilia and its incredibly gross and not well handled in the show.

The next red flag is the extreme repetitive usage of abuse against minors to show someone is a bad person. Multiple pre-teen children are implied to be tortured/beaten over the course of days at least, if not weeks in the case of Yuki, by the head of house because they did something they do not like. There are many ways to show that someone is unrepentant and vile without having to just repeatedly have them beat children, and it is a very lazy and disgusting way to attempt to reinforce someone's character.

The last red flag is something that actually reflects reality in a way, but the way its implied/presented in the show is incredibly disheartening. There are multiple adults in the show that are witness to the horrific abuse and sexualization of minors, and no one does or says anything. While it does happen in real life to an extent, and some perverts and awful people slip through the cracks, its apathetic and would prove to be a good mechanism to use to provide at least some semblance of hope for people in these situations. While I understand some hand waving as a plot device, the extent that people accept these behaviours is frankly appalling.

As it stands, I have no interest in finding out in the following seasons how they address this. What a shame, as this show still stands as high as it does for me even considering all of these points. It truly has some highpoints, but I'll be honest and say they don't really matter with the overwhelming negatives against the show.

For a well regarded and high rated romantic anime, god was the romance absolutely awful. Nothing feels important as all of the relationships swing hard and instantly without any build up, and the characters don't leave you rooting for them. In an anime about relationships, if the main relationship feels shallow and poorly introduced, it makes the whole show (and audience) suffer.

While the source material is interesting, and has good revenge vibes without going evil, the 2d and cgi animation both greatly hold this show back. With the constant switching between styles and no great strength at either, it almost highlights how bad the animation is.

Combine that with the fact that this show while an adventure isekei has extremely lacklustre fighting and instead focuses on planning and tenacity, the fight scenes feel even more sluggish and anemic.

With a more coherent art style with more allocation to character posing and expression, this could have been a pretty good anime, but instead trips at the start.

Moe girls do contrived moe things. This feels like a cliche wrapped in a cliche, where the "healing power of music" heals people who are ill better than actual medicine. Its cute and inoffensive, other than the fact that nothing interesting happens.

"When I turn evil, I want you to kill me". This one phrase managed to turn an okay if lackluster isekai into a joke, and not the good kind either. While otherwise passable, the plot and characterizations are pretty poor in this show.

An incredibly lazy follow up to a decent entry in the isekai genre, season 2 of "In another world with my smart phone" faces a problem that a lot of other OP MC fantasy stories face, what to do when you make your MC too powerful, or too prepared? In this case, either a boring montage of how they become more OP, or facing against an enemy who has shameless plot armor and doesn't bother to hide it.

Other than the story, the quality of animation and drawing is decent but nothing fantastic, with the voice acting being roughly in the same boat. While this could have been a standard but good fantasy isekai, the plot and characters really leave something to be desired.

While the animation quality has kept up, the story telling certainly hasn't. While in the first season it was funny that MC didn't realise the power he has though personal and through Shadow Garden, it was starting to get old last season.

This season doubles down on the sheer stupidity of the MC, and he starts to actively harm people who look up to him and support him. All of this seems to be because of derealization and boredom, and isn't a fun watch.

While the first half was interesting and had good development, the characters awful wish-wash attitude and ability to introspect makes it incredibly frustrating.

SPOILER:

After the first 10 episodes that develop the romantic setting for the 2 main characters, they then introduce the "sister" as a romantic interest, though it is one-sided, and stick to their guns about the doomed-to-fail relationship with the priest girl. Watching MC flail about unsuccessfully with someone unsuited for him as his sister tries to catch his attention is incredibly awkward at best, and often just unpleasant to watch.

While the show has promise, with good for its time animations and render quality, the main plot development of the MC is painful with tons of backtracking. As people grow and learn to overcome obstacles, some with help from the MC, the MC refuses to recognize the world around him. While you can see the MC become more personable and vulnerable as the show progresses, he still will very frequently revert and treat all of the people around him like trash out of false entitlement.

I might not be the best person to flog the MC for this, as a gamer and bit of a weeb myself, I can at least recognize shortcomings and work on them, and actively try to be a good person to those around me. This thought only lives in the MCs head long enough for him to open his mouth and it flies away.

While this show had a very strong start, it becomes very frustrating to watch about half way through. While there was a lot of cute moments, any time anything happens, the FMC will run from the relationship. It becomes incredibly difficult to watch

Art: 6/10 - While the cells are beautifully drawn, and there is good attention paid to some of the explosive magical effects (like the original), this show is hurt by pretty lazy cell animations and half-assed battle animations which could have been a selling point of the show.

Story: 4/10 - I loved the original, but man does this one fall short compared to the original. We knew that Megumin didn't cast anything but explosion magic, but watching her go to school and learn nothing is truly dull. While there are some interesting or funny story beats it truly isn't enough to provide a real hook to "Girl goes to school and intentionally learns nothing".

Humor: 5/10 - While sometimes the humour in the original shines through, this series focuses on a group who regularly try to out cringe each other and all have "8th Graders syndrome" or Chuunibyou. As someone who doesn't really like cringe humor to begin with, this was painful to watch for the most part

Characters: 6/10 - I loved the dynamic in the original, but this show is banking too hard on cringe being funny. It drives home the fact that almost everyone in her hometown are crazy/unhinged, with only Yunyun really providing any relief to the insanity, and even then its as a straight man to the loony bin. Without any foils to highlight the insanity of the village, or to help temper the humour, it just feels forced

Too much politics. While the other seasons were very enjoyable, the anime took a sharp turn this season and essentially cut out the action in favor of pure politics. While this show was always political, there was always a fun balance of romance and fantasy action to even it out and make it palatable.

Coming on the back of a truly well done first season by Wit, the second season of AMB delivers decent visuals and consistent VA work, but with less flair in most departments otherwise.

Moving from a supernatural show of self and reflected growth in Chise and Elias, the show moves to essentially a high school, with a bunch of the more typical HS tropes thrown in. While there is still some of the charm from the first season present, there's less luster to the performance.

From the minor tonal shift in the show from home schooled to an institution to address a plot thread from the first season, a lot of the wonder in the visual story telling is lost as the show shifts to a modern school setting. While there is still some magic happening, it feels less raw and primal, removing what was one of the truly well done facets of the show.

The pacing is incredibly slow compared to the first season as well, with not much happening overall through most of the first season narratively. While a lot of characters are introduced and developed, they all feel a lot less fixed to the plot compared to the previous season for the most part, which makes the show suffer.

The music, while still present and well composed, lose a lot of the flair as well that the first season had, maybe partially due to the more sterile environment the show takes place in.

Very boring power fantasy where they ignore the premise of the character after episode 1. While the animations aren't bad, the story is a very basic power fantasy/OP MC story where the twist is left behind at episode one (That he's a farmer).

While the show itself is a parody of common rom-com tropes, it felt too much a lot of the time. There are some good gags, and well enough done animations and scenes, the characters truly put themselves into stupid situations. This mainly happens because the 2 male protags are toe rags, and all of the characters in the show seem to enable the toxicity.

The end of the series turns NTR which is an immediate drop from me as its a giant ick. Earlier in the season, the character who is "stealing the girl" threatened sexual assault on her so the whole thing feels incredibly gross.

Just no. I don't mind ecchi, but damn. Feels like it was written by a horny teenager that was failing their language class. Story isn't well constructed, the views on women and intimacy are bonkers, and the MC is entirely contemptible.

While initially a decent ecchi/harem rom-com, this devolved into nonsense pretty quickly and sadly not the good kind. Every episode, the show makes less and less sense and just leaves you feeling a little confused as to what happened. Magical girls, assassins, and virtual worlds with a yandere, and that's only half way through the season.

Insurance fraud and IRS tax avoidance, the show. The show follows an entitled girl in another world who, instead of trying to do good, continuously tries to find ways to abuse technology for her own gain with no benefit to those around her.

An incredibly mid show in all aspects, with lots of plot holes to accompany you on your journey in a new world. This is another entry into the OP MC isekei list, with a laundry list of plot holes and inconsistencies to carry the trope.

While a lot of OP MC isekei shows have the same problems, a lot of the times plot holes or inconsistencies are done in parody, or the show is good enough to dismiss the few plot holes. When added to a main character that isn't all that likable or charming, this show falls flat on a lot of the promise that's held in the first episode.

I would love to watch this some time, and the show from what I can tell is fantastic. I had a hard time watching as while the show is presented well with nuance, a lot of scenes are through the eyes of a 4yo. I think this show would have been better though less funny if we didn't know everything going on in the kids mind.

While the story itself held some promise and I could see how it is so widely seen as a cornerstone anime, Steins;Gate really didn't age well. While there are some VNs that can survive the conversion to anime (see clannad), the jokes, conversations, and some of the interactions were incredibly canned, flat, and overused. The MC comes off as incredibly annoying at best, and most of the supporting characters (along with and especially MC) are very flat characterizations that don't add much to the story.

While it looks like the series gets better the further you get, I just don't want to find out. I could be doing something more interesting, like brushing my cat.

On the recommendation of a friend, I gave SAO another chance after the train wreck of the 2nd season. They promised that the SA/rape-y themes were gone from this season. Unfortunately, he was mistaken. The author of SAO has a fixation on using SA as a tool to show that these people are the villains, which is a poor crutch to use once, let alone repeatedly. This along with poor character arcs and development show a lack of ability to write compelling villains or story lines.

Along with the shoddy writing, the characters almost seem to have some kind of chronic disorder that makes them absolutely naive in the face of obviously villainous people. Through the previous plots he has been through, Kirito should absolutely know better, as should honestly some of the other characters in this show.

While the animation and quality of the art are good, and the dub is decently done, everything else about this show holds it back, and that can't be fixed with a high quality studio.

This show had a lot of things going for it, but absolutely brain dead plot/characters in dramatic scenes are what really held this show back.

The romantic development between characters, some of the gags, and the general interactions all held up well enough, and the animations were also good. The sound design is decent, but nothing special, with the VAs putting in passable work.

When it comes to plot though, the major conceit to the antagonists plan is that he needed magic to overturn the power dynamic in the kingdom, and give commoners power by force...except his sister already made tools to do just that. The MC stands there letting the brother assimilate power while someone she promised to take care of is dying with a hole in her chest. If she had disarmed him and just said I can give the tools for you to realize your goal, the anime would have had better resolution about halfway through.

Towards the end, it drops into a stupid contrived fantasy monarchy cliche where MC, who has been dead set on living her own life and being free, decides to fall in line and become queen. It is such a drastic shift and feels like it spits on the plot lines established earlier in the series.

Interesting, but the show was shot before it could get off the ground due to issues from the studio in delivering the show. When added to the other flaws the show had, it's a shame as the art style was unique, vibrant, and utterly captivating.