Aug 28, 2018 5:31 PM
My thoughts on anime from 2010-2019
Here's part five of the "My Thoughts On Anime From Different Decades Series".
Winter 2010
Spring 2010
Summer 2010
Fall 2010
Kuragehime
My thoughts: When I finished this anime, I initially thought this was just average. However, I thought about it more not very long afterwards, and became more aware that this was worse than I actually noticed while watching it. Mind you, this is far from the worst anime I've watched, but I don't find it as great as most people make it out to be. For one, most of the comedy felt forced, and only two handfuls of it made me at least chuckle. Second, nearly all the characters are either obnoxious or despicable. The only ones that didn't fall into either category were Tsukimi and Shu, but even with the latter, I was very frustrated with him in the second half of the show. So yeah, Tsukimi's the only character in this anime that I found fully likable. As much as I hated Kuranosuke, I do appreciate how unashamed he is with his love of fashion. In fact, that's probably the thing I liked the most out of whole show.
Score: 4/10
Winter 2011
Spring 2011
Summer 2011
Fall 2011
Winter 2012
Spring 2012
Summer 2012
Fall 2012
Winter 2013
Spring 2013
Summer 2013
Fall 2013
Winter 2014
Spring 2014
Summer 2014
Bakumatsu Rock
My thoughts: If I watched this as a teenager, I'd probably love the shit out of it, mainly 'cause of the attractive guys. However, I was 20 when this was released. At that age, I was (And still am) looking past appearances, and thus won't go squealing at the aforementioned men here, regardless of how handsome they are. And I'm gonna tell ya, I really hate this anime. There were too many things that I found stupid, and not in a good way. One of the biggest examples was when Sakamoto and his band played a concert inside an onsen...which is massively ironic, considering those types of places are made for relaxation. Speaking of concerts, for at least half of the anime, they sing one song over and over again, which got annoying and not to mention lazy. The song itself wasn't good to begin with, so them repeating the same damn thing only made it worse, at least to me. Also, for some reason, there're moments where Sakamoto, Katsura, and Takasugi's tops get ripped off while they're playing the music, which came off as beyond forced (And magically, their tops are back on when they're done). The only characters I kinda liked were the female singers in the filler episode; I was pretty saddened we never saw them again after that, because the rest of the characters are very uninteresting. I'm honestly happy I didn't watch this as a teenager; otherwise I would've been really oblivious of the faults this had.
Score: 3/10
Glasslip
My thoughts: My biggest problem with this is it has no idea what direction it wants to go. Part of Glasslip is about Touko receiving very vague fragments of the future, but another is about the friendships, along the new kid, Kakeru. Now my issue with the latter is there is so much focus on it, that we rarely, if ever, see any exploration related to the future fragments Touko was having. Even when we do, it's not much, which utterly disappointed me. I wouldn't make a huge deal out of it if the characters were likable, but with the exception of Hiro, I was nothing but mad at them, specifically towards Touko's friends. Throughout the anime, they intensely dislike Kakeru because fuck you, that's why (The closest I can think of is he's weird, but I don't think that's enough justification). Hell, there was one moment where Yanagi literally said this towards him, "It's your fault Yuki's not attractive anymore." Are you serious? How the hell did he make Yukinari not attractive anymore in your eyes? He didn't even do anything. The overall story goes absolutely nowhere, and there're times where it feels padded. Considering this is a slice of life show, that is saying quite a bit. Well, you know what they say. Such a waste of potential.
Score: 4/10
Fall 2014
Akatsuki no Yona
My thoughts: Without question, the best thing about this show is Yona's character development. She started off as the typical naïve princess character, but after her father gets killed, she grows stronger throughout the anime. My favorite moment is when she gave a man who kidnapped a lot of women a death glare. That moment...holy shit, that is one of most awesome moments in anime history! I could just rewatch that scene over and over again, and I'd still not get tired of it. On the topic of characters, there's a guy named Zeno who gets introduced and be a part of Yona's group at the last episode. In fact, now that I look back on it, I think this should've ended on 23 episodes instead of adding an extra one, because it felt incomplete. Good thing the OVA was made afterwards.
Score: 8/10
Winter 2015
Spring 2015
Summer 2015
Fall 2015
Winter 2016
Spring 2016
Summer 2016
Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan (TV)
My thoughts: Not many short comedy anime have made me laugh as consistently as Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan. I lost count on how many times I've laughed out loud, even occasionally replaying certain moments over and over again. That very rarely happens, so that is saying something. I love how the titular character is written, especially when he doesn't give a shit about a lot of things. If you were to ask me what I didn't like about this anime, it was these two characters named Toritsuka and Makoto (Teruhashi's brother). They're the least funniest and least interesting characters in the entire show, and every time I saw either of them on-screen, I just groaned. Toritsuka is the type of character who sees ghosts, but he's also a pervert. He doesn't have any personality beyond that. As for Makoto...oh boy. He's one of those characters who has a sister complex, and like with Toritsuka, he has no personality besides that bit. Hell, Nendou's more interesting than either of those two, and he's stupid!
Score: 9/10
Fall 2016
Winter 2017
ēlDLIVE
My thoughts: First off, I didn't find any of the characters interesting (The closest to interesting characters were some of the aliens, such as Chips). Not only that, but I never once believed Chuta and Misuzu were becoming friends. Chuta's the typical unconfident loser who, for some reason, keeps going back and forth between being confident in what he can do and doing a total 180, telling himself, "I can't do this" or whatever. I know you're probably gonna say, "But changing takes time." Yes, but sometimes I felt like Chuta wasn't even trying to change. Then we have Misuzu, who's, you guessed it, the bland, annoying Tsundere character. It was especially annoying when she—at least in the first few episodes—kept on telling Chuta to "disappear without a trace". I can kind of understand her attitude (Because he's a bit of a pervert as well), but did she really need to constantly say that? By the way, the thing with Drew is honestly confusing. They stated that they will only leave Chuta's body when he dies or if they get hurt, Chuta feels the same and vice versa. There've been numerous times where whenever Chuta is being negative towards himself, Drew fades a bit. In the second to last episode, they completely fade, but shouldn't Chuta be dead then...? Also, even though people can see Drew, they can't hear them somehow. It makes sense when Drew's just a voice in Chuta's head, but it doesn't when they show their body... Oh, and Vega's character direction from appearing to be by ēlDLIVE's side to the reveal where he's actually a villain was the most predictable thing in this goddamn anime. Even when he first appeared, I immediately knew he was gonna be a bad guy. Not a good sign when I'm able to tell how the writing of a character's gonna go...
Score: 4/10
Spring 2017
Summer 2017
Aho Girl
My thoughts: I swear to god, this anime does not go one minute without a character screaming their lungs out. I get some people find characters shouting funny, hell, even I can find it amusing at times. But here's the thing. The yelling here is so profuse, that I was on the verge of getting a headache. Now there were moments where I laughed out loud, but I think only a handful of the comedy made me do that...? As for the characters, I hated every single one of them, and they're the main reason why I didn't like this anime. You have Yoshiko, who's the most obnoxious character ever (Although that was intentional, so kudos, I guess) and is deeply in love with A-kun. A-kun is the bland violent Tsundere character who constantly beats the shit out of Yoshiko, but considering her actions throughout the show, I'm not gonna fault him too much. As for Sayaka...next. Then we have Iinchou, who is also in love with A-kun, even going as far as stalking him. And the last character that's worth mentioning is Yoshie, who, in my opinion, is the most vile and despicable person in the show (There was even an implication in which she took her husband's virginity by raping him, which made me uncomfortable). Oh, and do you know how Yoshiko fell in love with A-kun? When they were little kids, he gave her a banana, which made her literally cry in joy. Yep, that's how it happened... I'm honestly happy each episode is twelve minutes, because if they were over 20 minutes, there's no doubt I would've actually gotten a headache.
Score: 4/10
Fall 2017
Animegataris
My thoughts: Man, did they exaggerate the whole concept of the anime club. But I wasn't expecting it to be realistic, so I accepted the way it was presented here. Anyway, for most of the anime, I thought this was just okay, nothing special. What surprised the hell out of me, though, was the last two episodes, where it got so ridiculous, that it floored me, but in a good way (Even if I got frustrated a few times). There was one thing which confused me, however. In the beginning of the anime, Neko-senpai explicitly told Minoa to not tell anyone that she's able to talk to him, yet not long before the penultimate episode, he talks with the other anime club members on his own will. So why did he bother telling her not to say this to anyone at first? That honestly ended up being kind of pointless, if you ask me.
Score: 7/10
Blend S
My thoughts: This is a very funny anime. Though there were plenty of times where I laughed out loud, my favorite bit would be the one related to Maika's hair and why she keeps it in low pigtails, especially the part where she accidentally smacks it on Dino's face. That was just priceless. However, what kills the anime for me a tad is the "running gag" of Dino being accused of doing anything even slightly perverted, often times leading to characters nearly calling the police on him. Yes, that kind of cliché... If they played that "joke" only once or twice, I would've simply brushed it off, but it happened so often, that it got old very quickly; it wasn't even funny the first time. Not to mention that Mafuyu's smacked the girls' asses on purpose without their consent, and forced Maika to cosplay at one point (Hypocrisy, much?). Oh, and let's not forget Maika's older sister, who turns out to be a Yandere, because at one point, after Hideri accidentally makes Maika cry, she mistakes that it was Dino who did it (Who just happened to try comforting her) and even goes as far as threatening him with a naginata! Come on, it was bad enough having him be accused constantly, do we really need to have weapons involved?! I actually felt genuinely sorry for Dino, mostly because all he wants to do is cheer Maika up. Seriously, cut that shit out.
Score: 8/10
Dies Irae
My thoughts: It's hard for me to describe this anime other than "painfully average". Average story, average characters, and average score. Pretty much the only things that weren't average were the art and animation, which I thought was decent. So yeah, this is just...meh.
Score: 5/10
Dynamic Chord
My thoughts: My god, I haven't watched an anime this boring in a long time. It is so sluggish, that there were times where I struggled to sit through it. I'm not joking, nothing interesting happens throughout all the twelve episodes of this show. Now I wouldn't be saying this if any of the characters were intriguing or likable. Alas, all of them are shallow, and don't have an iota of a personality. As for the music, the songs here are forgettable, to the point where I tend to skim through them. The animation that's used during the concerts don't help it, either. What I mean is every time one of the group of musicians play, whether it's at a live concert or they're just practicing, it has animation where it looks exactly like it was taken from a game (I get this was adapted from a visual novel, but this is ridiculous). It's so stilted, and they reuse the same animation over and over and over again. How lazy can you get?! Not that the 2D animation is any better, though; it's also stiff, and the art style looks like it came from 2007 instead than 2017. Oh, and I can't stand that paparazzi character. Actually, scratch that, he's not a paparazzi, he's a profuse stalker (Even though he's the one who gets followed at one point). Whenever I saw him on-screen, I wanted to smash his head with his fucking camera. *Sighs* This anime is just...extremely dull.
Score: 4/10
Evil or Live
My thoughts: I'll be honest, the only reason I watched this was to laugh at it, due to the premise sounding so absurd. And I did laugh a few times...at the unintentional comedy. I will talk about the intentional humor, but I wanna bring up the other elements this show has to offer first. The story is supposed to be about a school "helping" teenagers get over their internet addiction, but most, if not all, of the things the teachers do to the students has nothing do with internet addiction (How, exactly, is physically beating them up constantly supposed to help them?). All the characters are either shallow or assholes; even when we first met Shiori and Jun, I thought either of them would at least be decent, but nope, they're no better than the rest of the characters. The animation is so blatantly bad, that even a kid would notice it, and don't even get me started on the lip syncing. On top of that, the character design for our main character, Hibiki, keeps on changing after he toughens up from being in the jail cell, sometimes to the point where he's unrecognizable. *Sarcasm* I didn't know toughening up made you have a different appearance. You learn somethin' new every day. *End sarcasm* There's also apparently a relationship going on between Hyo and Jun...even though Jun's a student and Hyo looks like he's in his 40's. *Shudders* For the comedy that was supposed to be humorous, all of it came off as forced, out of place, and worst of all, unfunny, especially the bits where one of the girls kept on calling Hibiki "My Darling~". For a few weeks, I considered this to be just as bad as King's Game The Animation, but then I thought about it more, eventually coming to the conclusion that it wasn't. The reason is this anime simply made me feel apathetic less than halfway through. King's Game, on the other hand, had bigger issues which infuriated me to no end. Still, I couldn't give two shits about this show.
Score: 2/10
Houseki no Kuni (TV)
My thoughts: First things first, I'll admit it took some time for me to get used to the CG, but after a few episodes, I came to believe that the CG works here. My favorite moment is when Dia attempts to fight a giant Lunarian, which is the most well animated and fast paced fight scene I'd seen. Besides the animation, everything else was good, but I felt like the ending was pretty underwhelming. I'm very neutral towards Phos; they're one of the few characters in anime where I'm very mixed about. On one side, Phos is a whiny brat, but on the other side, they're an interesting character. So at the end of the day, I did like this anime, but didn't love it.
Score: 7/10
Inuyashiki
My thoughts: Although I really enjoyed the story, and the character of Inuyashiki, my main issue with this anime is Hiro. I am aware he was not supposed to be liked, but please hear or read me out. For the first half, I found him to be well-written, and he deserved my hatred for him. But then in episode five or six, when his mother discovers that he's been massacring for quite some time, he panics, even going as far as crying about it. I found him to be a complete idiot, because after he finds out his mother commits suicide, he kills all the news reporters that arrived at his fathers' place! Seriously, what the fuck did this asshole think was gonna happen?! He didn't even bother disguising himself, so he was inevitably gonna get caught sooner or later! What I find even worse is the anime apparently tried to redeem Hiro by him healing people - like what Inuyashiki does - after Shion and he talked. I'm sorry, but after all the shit he did beforehand...there's no way he could be redeemed. On second thought, it doesn't matter, because after Shion and her grandmother get shot, he goes back to killing innocent civilians, which ends up making his attempt at "redemption" completely pointless. *Slow claps* Anyway, I teared up a bit at the ending. Very bittersweet, but at least Inuyashiki saved millions of lives.
Score: 8/10
Itsudatte Bokura no Koi wa 10 cm Datta.
My thoughts: I found the relationship between Miou and Haruki cute, but there was one element which irritated the hell out of me. That's the cliché where one character refuses to talk to or see their love interest for some time, leading the other to get confused, if not frustrated on why they don't want to see them. I understand why Miou didn't want to talk to Haruki, but what good would it be to just flat-out tell him, "It's better if you don't talk to me anymore"? That'd only frustrate him to no end! And big shocker, when she did tell him, he was angry at her for avoiding him until that point. I think this would've been a lot better if they didn't use that cliché as conflict. I know you're probably gonna make the argument that if they didn't, Haruki wouldn't have "realized" that being a filmmaker was his late brother's dream, not his. However, Miou made him snap out of it by telling him it was his own dream as well, subsequently having Haruki become aware that that was true. So do I dislike this? No. There were enough decent things to make me at least say it was okay.
Score: 6/10
Juuni Taisen
My thoughts: You don't know how disappointed I am with this anime. The start of this show was great, especially with how well animated the fight scenes were. I also thought this had a ton of potential, since this was a death tournament with Zodiacs (As you can probably tell, I have a soft spot for Zodiac related stories). I was genuinely impressed with the start of it, that I went as far as beliving this was going to be my favorite anime of fall 2017. Then about halfway through the anime, I came to realize a major issue, and that's the repetitiveness and predictability of the story. Here's how an episode usually goes: We focus on a character by giving them their backstory and learning why they participated in Juuni Taisen, further hearing them monologuing for a lengthy amount of time, then when it's done, they get killed off within minutes or an episode or two by another one of the participants (Or in Horse's case, die from asphyxiation from immense smoke). It got so redundant, that there ended up being a complete lack of tension. As for the characters, because this is a Battle Royale-esque story, there was no point in me actually caring about them, even Sharyu, who I liked the most out of the whole cast. The only character we didn't get a backstory was Usagi, but then again, he's a necromancer and wants to be "friends" with everyone, so I guess we didn't need to learn more about him beyond that. So if the characters aren't worth caring, are they at least interesting? Well, some of them are, but most are either meh or boring. When all is said and done, this is no doubt the most disappointing anime I've watched.
Score: 6/10
Konohana Kitan
My thoughts: It was a rather cute slice of life anime, and I liked the relationships to a certain extent. The character I liked the most was Yuzu. She's adorable, and I like her personality. Now while I'm on the subject of characters, Satsuki left a bad first impression on me. She starts off as the hardworking asshole cliché, who constantly criticized her for every mistake she made, regardless of how small it was. Satsuki, I understand why you're hardworking and want to do the best for Konohanatei, but for gods' sake, Yuzu was new! You can't expect her to know everything by her first day! Thankfully, she does get better as the anime goes on, although she's still rude at times. But the character I ended up disliking the most was Ren. The biggest reason comes from the third episode, where it's focused on her and her backstory. That's nice and all, but her backstory, ironically, made me dislike her! I never thought that'd actually happen! Ahem, anyway, the gods that visited the inn were pretty interesting, especially the one who turns into literal baby bubbles.
Score: 7/10
Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau
My thoughts: I was very fascinated with the story, and the culture in the Mud Whale/Falaina. Not only that, but I love the artwork, the opening song, the relationships and the concept of the Marked and Unmarked people living in Mud Whale. I get that some people won't like this show, but for me, I really enjoyed it.
Score: 9/10
Net-juu no Susume
My thoughts: My favorite thing in this anime is how it creates a balance between focusing on what happens in the game the main characters play, and what goes on in real life. I especially really like Moriko, and her interactions with Sakurai. However, one of my biggest problems is it was very apparent that Sakurai stalked her. I say "apparent", because at first, when Koiwai mentioned it, I couldn't remember at any time where Sakurai did such a thing. But then I looked on TVTropes for this anime, and even though there're a few things I wouldn't say was stalker-ish (Such as him over-analyzing his interactions with Moriko), I don't feel comfortable calling their relationship cute, because I don't want to sound like I'm endorsing stalking (It's the complete opposite). And speaking of Koiwai, I really fucking hate him. Every time he's with either Sakurai or Moriko, he mercilessly jests at them. I'm not saying you shouldn't tease your friends, but not every conversation has to involve someone playfully poking fun at others, yet that's exactly what he does throughout the entire anime. I hate him so much, that I was nothing short of relieved when at one point, when Moriko sleeps from drinking too much, he brought her home instead of taking advantage of her. I'm not joking when I say that's the most relieved I've ever been while watching an anime.
Score: 8/10
Ousama Game The Animation
My thoughts: All the characters are fucking stupid, the pacing is awful, the reveal as to who the titular King is makes no goddamn sense, and the overall story's a freaking mess! Oh my god, I'm actually stunned at how horrible this show is! And don't even get me started on the ending! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE WORST ANIME I'VE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO WATCH!
Score: A big fat motherfuckin' 1/10
Pingu in the City
My thoughts: I won't lie, when I first heard about this, I thought it was a troll (Even though it wasn't on April Fools Day). I had to do research on this, but it turned out that this was real. Since I do enjoy the original show, I gave this a watch, and I ended up really liking it (Which isn't really a surprise). I love how despite this being CG, the animators were able to capture the look from the original series. As for the actual content, it's cute, and Pingu is as fun to watch as he was in the original show. If I were to give out any complaints, it'd be that some of the jobs Pingu participates in do get pretty repetitive, but even then, they're executed differently, so this isn't a huge issue. All I'll say if you like the original series, then you sure as hell will like this.
Score: 9/10
Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou
My thoughts: You'd think a premise like this would be boring, but surprisingly, it really, really works here. I was not bored once throughout the anime; in fact, I was very intrigued by the world building, and our two characters, Chito and Yuuri. Speaking of which, they're what make this anime shine brilliantly. I loved their interactions (Well, minus the moments where Chito gets physically violent with Yuuri, but thankfully, those are few and far between), whether it'd be them trying to figure out what certain things are that people used a long time ago, or occasionally meeting someone, additionally knowing what they do for a living. This anime proves that you don't need to have a show filled with explosions, loads of characters, or even goals. This is just a show featuring two people who only want to survive, and be with each other. I honestly don't have any major issues with this, although I found Yuuri to be very annoying in the ninth episode, where she continuously asked if she could eat the fish. However, she's only legitimately annoying in that episode, so I didn't have much of a problem. This is the most relaxing anime I've ever seen, and I definitely recommend it to people who want to feel the same, and are also fans of slice of life.
Score: 10/10
Two Car
My thoughts: I'm gonna be straightforward here; Yuri and Megumi are the same goddamn character. Seriously, you could just switch them with each other, and you wouldn't notice the difference. The reason I'm mentioning this is because other characters have constantly brought up about them being "alike", which just makes me not believe them. Writers, there's a difference between two people being alike and being the same person. Then again, nearly all the characters have no personalities, so I suppose it doesn't matter. While on the subject of "characters being exactly alike", there're these twins who - unlike Yuri and Megumi - purposefully act so identical, that they're like clones. After the show finished focusing on them, I came to realize that their backstory is the most meaningless one in the entire anime. You could cut out their backstory, and you'd still know everything about them, minus them formerly being in love with the same man. By the way, if he was so surprised about them being twins, then how did he not already figure it out when he asked two identical people to go on a date with him? Well, unless he thought he forgot... Anyway, in the end, the twins decide to go back to being exactly alike. Was that supposed to be character development? If so, then that's not character development, that's reverting back to your old lifestyle. Besides all that, this show is mediocre, but the things I did like were the animation and the idea of sidecars requiring two people. I thought it was an interesting idea, but it wasn't very well executed. Didn't help that Megumi and Yuri frequently made petty arguments with one another, which got obnoxious very fast.
Score: 5/10
Urahara
My thoughts: Hoo boy...let me start off by saying that when this anime started, I found it to be just dull, with bland, uninteresting characters. Then episode seven and eight came, and holy shit, that was when this show went downhill. The eighth episode is without question the worst episode in the entire anime. Why is that, you may ask? Firstly, the dialogue got so repetitive, that you could make a drinking game out of it. Secondly, the episode just drags for an eternity until the end credits play. I even asked myself at one point how far I was in the episode, and I was shocked when I found out I was halfway through. Not to mention the characters became completely unlikable, especially when Mari and Kotoko (Who were being brainwashed from eating so many of the Scoopers' snacks) were pissed off at Rito for killing Sayumin (Who, out of nowhere, turns into a giant) when Rito had a good reason for doing so! Then after Rito eats the Scoopers crepe, she goes insane, and the other girls apparently get out of their brainwashing somehow...yeah, that made no sense. Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest, because that episode infuriated me to no end. So what about the rest of this anime's content presented here? Well, the art style is supposed to come off as cute, but the way it's crudely drawn makes it come off as ugly rather than cute. There're split screens (Most of which is unnecessary) that happen six plus times per episode (With the exception of episode ten, which, shockingly, had very few split screens). There's also this twist where it's revealed that almost everything inside of the bubble that "protects" the city the story takes place in was a fantasy, which I thought was utterly confusing (Does that mean they also imagined Sayumin turning into a giant at one point?). By the way, the bubble thing I mentioned...the anime made a vocal point that the barrier was supposed to be very strong, to the point where the Scoopers couldn't break in. However, we've constantly seen them throughout the anime (Hell, there're even two instances where we see them break into the bubble on-screen!), which makes me convinced that this is the shittiest barrier ever. Now you could argue that without Scoopers breaking in, there would be no conflict, but if you're going to say the barrier's really strong, don't flat-out contradict yourself! Also, the woman who voices Rito sounds so disinterested in being in this anime; even when the character she plays is supposed to sound surprised, she still sounds flat. And no, this being her first role is not an excuse. She could've put at least a little more effort in. If she gets any more anime roles in the future, I hope she doesn't sound this dull.
Score: 3/10
Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Washio Sumi no Shou
My thoughts: I liked how we got to learn about Mimori/Sumi's past. I also found Gin's death incredibly sad, especially seeing that this is one of the rare instances in a Magical Girl anime in which a character actually dies. That honestly is what nearly made me give this a higher score, due to how powerful it was, but overall, this is just another typical decent Magical Girl anime.
Score: 7/10
Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Yuusha no Shou
My thoughts: I'm genuinely impressed with this. I actually liked this more than the first season and the Washio Sumi Chapter. Do you know how rare it is for me to like a sequel more than its predecessor? This is mainly because of the story, and the ordeal Yuna goes through. The scene where she's crying on the snowy ground made me desperately want to comfort her. The last episode was fucking intense, especially with how Yuna defeated the Shinju.
Score: 9/10
Winter 2018
Koi wa Ameagari no You ni
My thoughts: To say I was looking forward to this would be an outright lie. I was actually hesitant to watch it - for obvious reasons - to which I considered skipping it. But the back of my mind was telling me, "Come on, you know you're curious about this; just watch it." So I gave in, and decided to give this anime a chance. After finishing, I'm honestly impressed. I first thought it was going to be one of those stories where the main character has a crush on someone way older than them, but acts and does stuff in a creepy manner. I can safely say that isn't the case here (Really, the only creepy thing Akira did was smell Kondo's shirt in the first episode, so I was beyond happy when she didn't do any more creepy stuff afterwards). And I'm gonna feel weird saying this, but I felt chemistry between Akira and Kondo. I know this anime doesn't focus on the drama very much, but what I was confused by was one of the male characters named Kase essentially forced Akira to go on a date with him after discovering her crush on Kondo for blackmail in the fourth episode. Yet, after that episode, Kase mentions her crush on Kondo once, and even then, he came off as, "Even though I made you go on a date with me or else I'd blackmail you, I'm chill about your love for the manager." I just feel like that didn't make much sense, which makes me think that most of the fourth episode was pretty pointless.
Score: 8/10
Kokkoku
My thoughts: It's another one of those stories where it sounds boring on paper, but the execution here was amazing. I was enthralled by how the plot was developing, and every time Juri slammed her hand onto someone (Specifically the antagonists) to get the "jellyfish" out, I thought, "Fuck yeah!" I wasn't expecting how the last two episodes went, though. Sagawa being defeated, only to be reborn. Well, I hope he'll be a better person after being reborn.
Score: 9/10
Mitsuboshi Colors
My thoughts: This surprised me, in a good way, of course. Yes, this is another show where cute girls are doing cute things, but here, the main child characters actually do things that I could see real children do. I really liked our three leads, to the point where I couldn't tell you which one I enjoyed the most. The supporting characters are also really enjoyable, and their encounters, especially with Saito, were really fun to watch. I think it's safe to say that this is one my most favorite CGDCT anime ever.
Score: 9/10
Poputepipikku
My thoughts: Let me make this clear. I wanted to like this anime, I really did. However, I didn't laugh for a majority of this; there were a couple of episodes where I didn't even smirk once. I didn't have a very good impression at first, but throughout the show, I did laugh on occasion, which made me like this just a tinge more (It wasn't much, but at least it was something). Since this is full of skits, my favorite one is the first bit in episode five, which is titled "Donca*Sis". I found it the funniest one out of all the skits in the anime.
Score: 5/10
Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san
My thoughts: Koizumi's the best part of this anime. If she was portrayed any differently, I would've liked this way less than I do now (Albeit I'm also a huge ramen lover, just not to her extent). The main reason I didn't care for this anime was because of one of the other main characters, Yuu. She constantly stalks Koizumi and won't take no for an answer. It's even made worse in episode ten, where we see one of her bedroom walls covered in pictures of Koizumi, with her picture taped beside them. She also has a fucking observation notebook, writing down what Koizumi ate, along with scary music playing in the background. I love how the anime doesn't even try to hide the fact that Yuu is a fucking creepy stalker. Yes, I know Misa also stalked Koizumi, but she only did that once, so she's a saint compared to Yuu. But even without that element, this is a painfully average anime.
Score: 5/10
Sanrio Danshi
My thoughts: I really liked how the show presents as there's nothing wrong with guys liking certain things that're "girly" (I use quotation marks, because I don't consider anything to be feminine or masculine nowadays). If they enjoy it, that's all it matters. The thing that weirds the shit out of me in this is at least once per episode (With the exception of the last three episodes), it randomly goes into first POV. I'd accept it if it was like that throughout the entire anime, but here, it feels awkward, out of place, and unnatural. There was even one episode where the first POV came from a freaking crab. Like, seriously?
Score: 7/10
Slow Start
My thoughts: The perfect description for this is "generic cutesy slice of life moe girls". Now this being generic doesn't mean it's bad, per se, it just doesn't stand out from the rest of the shows that feature "cute girls doing cute things". The characters are also very typical, as you'd expect in this kind of anime. The shy, but sweet girl (Hana), the very energetic girl (Tama), the kind, mature girl (Eiko), and the girl who's supposed to be a high schooler, but looks like a child (Kamuri). The most interesting part was Hana being a gap year student because she got the mumps on the day for the entrance exams. Speaking of that, I was a little disappointed she never got to confess this to her friends, especially since she mentioned that she didn't feel right keeping it a secret from them. Then again, by the end of the anime, she did say she'd tell them someday, so I shouldn't dwell on it.
Score: 6/10
Sora yori mo Tooi Basho
My thoughts: When this was first announced, I thought it was going to be a bland anime, with young girls doing silly things in Antarctica. Well, I'm happy to inform you that it's far from being bland, and while there're certainly girls being silly at times, it's much deeper than that. I'm also pretty happy it took time for the girls to actually head to Antarctica, because if they'd gone too soon, that wouldn't have been in the slightest bit realistic, since they're teenagers. As for the situation about Shirase's mother, I'm not at all surprised she passed away, because since she was in such an awful blizzard when Gin lost her, there's no way she would've survived a week, much less three years. But even when I kinda saw it coming, I was very close to crying when Shirase saw how many of her messages were sent Takako had on her computer, unread. By the end of the anime, I felt really satisfied with how this concluded.
Score: 9/10
Violet Evergarden
My thoughts: I loved this. I really, really loved this. Yes, I know this was very hyped before this began, but I actually hate hype, because I don't like having my expectations unrealistically high. For me, the higher your expectations are, the more disappointed you'll be. So I went in this anime neutral (As I do with almost every anime I'm about to watch), but after finishing it, well, I already mentioned how I feel about it. Anyway, the element which made me adore this the most was, unsurprisingly, our titular character. She may come off as a stoic character with no other personality, but to me, she has way more depth than that. I especially love how she grew throughout the anime. At the end, I was wondering what she was surprised at, but I hope it wasn't Gilbert. If it was, then I'll be mad, because that'd be a huge cop-out.
Score: 10/10
Yuru Camp△
My thoughts: Even though I don't like going camping myself for multiple reasons, I found this very relaxing and entertaining, especially the character interactions. The only thing I thought this didn't need were the constant narrations, but it's pretty minor, so it's not a big deal.
Score: 8/10
Spring 2018
3D Kanojo: Real Girl
My thoughts: Where the front flipping fuck do I start on this? Well, I suppose I'll start off with the animation. It's utter shit. Now, I didn't notice it when I first started watching it, but as I watched the last four episodes after months of putting this off (Because, y'know, the whole fuck up this site went through back in May 2018, which killed my mood to watch anime for some time), I came to the conclusion, "Wow. I didn't realize the animation was this god awful." But unfortunately, that's not the worst part of this train wreck. All the characters are unlikable pricks, though I'd be lying if I said I didn't find Iroha somewhat interesting upon her first appearance. Hell, I could even say I kinda liked her. However, as the anime went on, she grew less of an interesting person and more of an irritating bitch. By the way, I need to ask: Why do Ishino and Takanashi hang out with the main characters? Because at one point, Takanashi hated Tsutsui to the point of making his sister cry out, causing the police to think Tsutsui was a pedophile. Then later, when he found out Tsutsui's younger brother had been depressed (I should mention Tsutsui's mother and brother believed he was a pedophile when they heard about it. No questioning him, no feeling skeptical about it, they just flat out believed it. WOW), he was shocked. You piece of shit, what did you think was gonna happen?! I can't remember if he apologized, but even if he did and even though Tsutsui isn't likable either, that was inexcusable. As for Ishino, she's a total asshole (Who also initially believed Tsutsui was a pedophile), so I find it extremely hard to believe everybody's all chill with those two hangin' out with them, even letting them go on a trip with them, additionally bringing along Ayado. She's the least unlikable character in this anime, but she's also boring, so that's not saying much. I swear, the dialogue is obnoxiously repetitive. Characters constantly say it's their fault when it's really the opposite, they get jealous when their love interest is hanging out with someone of the opposite gender (Can we please not have this bullshit for once?), they question if they're worthy of having a boyfriend/girlfriend, they misunderstand, blah blah blah. Doing a drinking game every time someone does either of those things wouldn't last long. That's how redundant it is. Oh, and the comedy? I laughed more at this shoddily drawn screenshot from episode eleven than the intentional humor. One last thing I have to mention is it's revealed in the penultimate episode that Iroha has a brother, who obviously has a thing for her. But surprise, surprise, they pull this dumb cop out where they're not blood-related. Why do a lot of anime/manga use this excuse that because they're not blood-related, it's somehow okay for one to romantically love their sibling? It doesn't matter if they're blood-related or not, it's still incest by law! God, fuck this anime...
Score: 3/10
Mahou Shoujo Ore
My thoughts: The first two episodes were so ridiculous, that I was already having a blast with it. But while there were some hilarious moments throughout, the anime kinda went downhill about halfway through. Unlike other anime where I had hopes for it, only to be disappointed in the end, however, I actually expected the show to get weaker as it went on (Don't ask how I knew it was gonna get weaker, I just did), so...I suppose I'm not that disappointed. What I am sad about is how Saki went from having a simple harmless crush on Mohiro (Who doesn't speak unless he's singing) to being a total creep for him (Even Sakuyo admits this, and she's in love with Saki!). I find it sad, because I actually liked her. I found her charming and funny, but after realizing what she became in the second half of the anime, I ended up feeling the opposite for her. Despite that, I'd mostly recommend this anime for the comedy.
Score: 6/10
Summer 2018
Ongaku Shoujo (TV)
My thoughts: When I watched the first Ongaku Shoujo anime from 2015, I thought it was decent. Nothing special, but it was fine and also cute. This, on the other hand, ended up being a generic, mediocre idol anime with about a dozen characters. Usually, having that many characters in a one-cour anime is a bad idea in my opinion, but surprisingly, they were able to focus on most of them, even if I thought they weren't very interesting. I suppose I'll give the anime props for that. Anyway, as I've mentioned, this was a mediocre show, although I did like the twist of Hanako being tone deaf, and also having her be the Music Girls' staff to support them...but then it gets ruined by them having her actually be a part of their group at the final scene of the anime. Now, my problem with this isn't that she's a member of the Music Girls (Even though it would've been better if she stayed as their staff, but I digress). My issue is throughout the anime, Hanako has not once practiced her singing to get better at it—in fact, she rarely sang at all. Hell, she even sang mere moments before she joined the Music Girls. Then all of a sudden, she's good at singing. Yeah, that makes total sense. I know you're gonna say, "Well, the other girls are covering her crappy singing". I'm pretty sure we'd still be able to hear it. Thus, her being a part of the group was unearned. Jesus, and I thought the drama in episode seven was stupid...
Score: 5/10
Fall 2018
Winter 2019
Spring 2019
Summer 2019
Fall 2019
Spring 2010
Summer 2010
Fall 2010
Kuragehime
My thoughts: When I finished this anime, I initially thought this was just average. However, I thought about it more not very long afterwards, and became more aware that this was worse than I actually noticed while watching it. Mind you, this is far from the worst anime I've watched, but I don't find it as great as most people make it out to be. For one, most of the comedy felt forced, and only two handfuls of it made me at least chuckle. Second, nearly all the characters are either obnoxious or despicable. The only ones that didn't fall into either category were Tsukimi and Shu, but even with the latter, I was very frustrated with him in the second half of the show. So yeah, Tsukimi's the only character in this anime that I found fully likable. As much as I hated Kuranosuke, I do appreciate how unashamed he is with his love of fashion. In fact, that's probably the thing I liked the most out of whole show.
Score: 4/10
Winter 2011
Spring 2011
Summer 2011
Fall 2011
Winter 2012
Spring 2012
Summer 2012
Fall 2012
Winter 2013
Spring 2013
Summer 2013
Fall 2013
Winter 2014
Spring 2014
Summer 2014
Bakumatsu Rock
My thoughts: If I watched this as a teenager, I'd probably love the shit out of it, mainly 'cause of the attractive guys. However, I was 20 when this was released. At that age, I was (And still am) looking past appearances, and thus won't go squealing at the aforementioned men here, regardless of how handsome they are. And I'm gonna tell ya, I really hate this anime. There were too many things that I found stupid, and not in a good way. One of the biggest examples was when Sakamoto and his band played a concert inside an onsen...which is massively ironic, considering those types of places are made for relaxation. Speaking of concerts, for at least half of the anime, they sing one song over and over again, which got annoying and not to mention lazy. The song itself wasn't good to begin with, so them repeating the same damn thing only made it worse, at least to me. Also, for some reason, there're moments where Sakamoto, Katsura, and Takasugi's tops get ripped off while they're playing the music, which came off as beyond forced (And magically, their tops are back on when they're done). The only characters I kinda liked were the female singers in the filler episode; I was pretty saddened we never saw them again after that, because the rest of the characters are very uninteresting. I'm honestly happy I didn't watch this as a teenager; otherwise I would've been really oblivious of the faults this had.
Score: 3/10
Glasslip
My thoughts: My biggest problem with this is it has no idea what direction it wants to go. Part of Glasslip is about Touko receiving very vague fragments of the future, but another is about the friendships, along the new kid, Kakeru. Now my issue with the latter is there is so much focus on it, that we rarely, if ever, see any exploration related to the future fragments Touko was having. Even when we do, it's not much, which utterly disappointed me. I wouldn't make a huge deal out of it if the characters were likable, but with the exception of Hiro, I was nothing but mad at them, specifically towards Touko's friends. Throughout the anime, they intensely dislike Kakeru because fuck you, that's why (The closest I can think of is he's weird, but I don't think that's enough justification). Hell, there was one moment where Yanagi literally said this towards him, "It's your fault Yuki's not attractive anymore." Are you serious? How the hell did he make Yukinari not attractive anymore in your eyes? He didn't even do anything. The overall story goes absolutely nowhere, and there're times where it feels padded. Considering this is a slice of life show, that is saying quite a bit. Well, you know what they say. Such a waste of potential.
Score: 4/10
Fall 2014
Akatsuki no Yona
My thoughts: Without question, the best thing about this show is Yona's character development. She started off as the typical naïve princess character, but after her father gets killed, she grows stronger throughout the anime. My favorite moment is when she gave a man who kidnapped a lot of women a death glare. That moment...holy shit, that is one of most awesome moments in anime history! I could just rewatch that scene over and over again, and I'd still not get tired of it. On the topic of characters, there's a guy named Zeno who gets introduced and be a part of Yona's group at the last episode. In fact, now that I look back on it, I think this should've ended on 23 episodes instead of adding an extra one, because it felt incomplete. Good thing the OVA was made afterwards.
Score: 8/10
Winter 2015
Spring 2015
Summer 2015
Fall 2015
Winter 2016
Spring 2016
Summer 2016
Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan (TV)
My thoughts: Not many short comedy anime have made me laugh as consistently as Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan. I lost count on how many times I've laughed out loud, even occasionally replaying certain moments over and over again. That very rarely happens, so that is saying something. I love how the titular character is written, especially when he doesn't give a shit about a lot of things. If you were to ask me what I didn't like about this anime, it was these two characters named Toritsuka and Makoto (Teruhashi's brother). They're the least funniest and least interesting characters in the entire show, and every time I saw either of them on-screen, I just groaned. Toritsuka is the type of character who sees ghosts, but he's also a pervert. He doesn't have any personality beyond that. As for Makoto...oh boy. He's one of those characters who has a sister complex, and like with Toritsuka, he has no personality besides that bit. Hell, Nendou's more interesting than either of those two, and he's stupid!
Score: 9/10
Fall 2016
Winter 2017
ēlDLIVE
My thoughts: First off, I didn't find any of the characters interesting (The closest to interesting characters were some of the aliens, such as Chips). Not only that, but I never once believed Chuta and Misuzu were becoming friends. Chuta's the typical unconfident loser who, for some reason, keeps going back and forth between being confident in what he can do and doing a total 180, telling himself, "I can't do this" or whatever. I know you're probably gonna say, "But changing takes time." Yes, but sometimes I felt like Chuta wasn't even trying to change. Then we have Misuzu, who's, you guessed it, the bland, annoying Tsundere character. It was especially annoying when she—at least in the first few episodes—kept on telling Chuta to "disappear without a trace". I can kind of understand her attitude (Because he's a bit of a pervert as well), but did she really need to constantly say that? By the way, the thing with Drew is honestly confusing. They stated that they will only leave Chuta's body when he dies or if they get hurt, Chuta feels the same and vice versa. There've been numerous times where whenever Chuta is being negative towards himself, Drew fades a bit. In the second to last episode, they completely fade, but shouldn't Chuta be dead then...? Also, even though people can see Drew, they can't hear them somehow. It makes sense when Drew's just a voice in Chuta's head, but it doesn't when they show their body... Oh, and Vega's character direction from appearing to be by ēlDLIVE's side to the reveal where he's actually a villain was the most predictable thing in this goddamn anime. Even when he first appeared, I immediately knew he was gonna be a bad guy. Not a good sign when I'm able to tell how the writing of a character's gonna go...
Score: 4/10
Spring 2017
Summer 2017
Aho Girl
My thoughts: I swear to god, this anime does not go one minute without a character screaming their lungs out. I get some people find characters shouting funny, hell, even I can find it amusing at times. But here's the thing. The yelling here is so profuse, that I was on the verge of getting a headache. Now there were moments where I laughed out loud, but I think only a handful of the comedy made me do that...? As for the characters, I hated every single one of them, and they're the main reason why I didn't like this anime. You have Yoshiko, who's the most obnoxious character ever (Although that was intentional, so kudos, I guess) and is deeply in love with A-kun. A-kun is the bland violent Tsundere character who constantly beats the shit out of Yoshiko, but considering her actions throughout the show, I'm not gonna fault him too much. As for Sayaka...next. Then we have Iinchou, who is also in love with A-kun, even going as far as stalking him. And the last character that's worth mentioning is Yoshie, who, in my opinion, is the most vile and despicable person in the show (There was even an implication in which she took her husband's virginity by raping him, which made me uncomfortable). Oh, and do you know how Yoshiko fell in love with A-kun? When they were little kids, he gave her a banana, which made her literally cry in joy. Yep, that's how it happened... I'm honestly happy each episode is twelve minutes, because if they were over 20 minutes, there's no doubt I would've actually gotten a headache.
Score: 4/10
Fall 2017
Animegataris
My thoughts: Man, did they exaggerate the whole concept of the anime club. But I wasn't expecting it to be realistic, so I accepted the way it was presented here. Anyway, for most of the anime, I thought this was just okay, nothing special. What surprised the hell out of me, though, was the last two episodes, where it got so ridiculous, that it floored me, but in a good way (Even if I got frustrated a few times). There was one thing which confused me, however. In the beginning of the anime, Neko-senpai explicitly told Minoa to not tell anyone that she's able to talk to him, yet not long before the penultimate episode, he talks with the other anime club members on his own will. So why did he bother telling her not to say this to anyone at first? That honestly ended up being kind of pointless, if you ask me.
Score: 7/10
Blend S
My thoughts: This is a very funny anime. Though there were plenty of times where I laughed out loud, my favorite bit would be the one related to Maika's hair and why she keeps it in low pigtails, especially the part where she accidentally smacks it on Dino's face. That was just priceless. However, what kills the anime for me a tad is the "running gag" of Dino being accused of doing anything even slightly perverted, often times leading to characters nearly calling the police on him. Yes, that kind of cliché... If they played that "joke" only once or twice, I would've simply brushed it off, but it happened so often, that it got old very quickly; it wasn't even funny the first time. Not to mention that Mafuyu's smacked the girls' asses on purpose without their consent, and forced Maika to cosplay at one point (Hypocrisy, much?). Oh, and let's not forget Maika's older sister, who turns out to be a Yandere, because at one point, after Hideri accidentally makes Maika cry, she mistakes that it was Dino who did it (Who just happened to try comforting her) and even goes as far as threatening him with a naginata! Come on, it was bad enough having him be accused constantly, do we really need to have weapons involved?! I actually felt genuinely sorry for Dino, mostly because all he wants to do is cheer Maika up. Seriously, cut that shit out.
Score: 8/10
Dies Irae
My thoughts: It's hard for me to describe this anime other than "painfully average". Average story, average characters, and average score. Pretty much the only things that weren't average were the art and animation, which I thought was decent. So yeah, this is just...meh.
Score: 5/10
Dynamic Chord
My thoughts: My god, I haven't watched an anime this boring in a long time. It is so sluggish, that there were times where I struggled to sit through it. I'm not joking, nothing interesting happens throughout all the twelve episodes of this show. Now I wouldn't be saying this if any of the characters were intriguing or likable. Alas, all of them are shallow, and don't have an iota of a personality. As for the music, the songs here are forgettable, to the point where I tend to skim through them. The animation that's used during the concerts don't help it, either. What I mean is every time one of the group of musicians play, whether it's at a live concert or they're just practicing, it has animation where it looks exactly like it was taken from a game (I get this was adapted from a visual novel, but this is ridiculous). It's so stilted, and they reuse the same animation over and over and over again. How lazy can you get?! Not that the 2D animation is any better, though; it's also stiff, and the art style looks like it came from 2007 instead than 2017. Oh, and I can't stand that paparazzi character. Actually, scratch that, he's not a paparazzi, he's a profuse stalker (Even though he's the one who gets followed at one point). Whenever I saw him on-screen, I wanted to smash his head with his fucking camera. *Sighs* This anime is just...extremely dull.
Score: 4/10
Evil or Live
My thoughts: I'll be honest, the only reason I watched this was to laugh at it, due to the premise sounding so absurd. And I did laugh a few times...at the unintentional comedy. I will talk about the intentional humor, but I wanna bring up the other elements this show has to offer first. The story is supposed to be about a school "helping" teenagers get over their internet addiction, but most, if not all, of the things the teachers do to the students has nothing do with internet addiction (How, exactly, is physically beating them up constantly supposed to help them?). All the characters are either shallow or assholes; even when we first met Shiori and Jun, I thought either of them would at least be decent, but nope, they're no better than the rest of the characters. The animation is so blatantly bad, that even a kid would notice it, and don't even get me started on the lip syncing. On top of that, the character design for our main character, Hibiki, keeps on changing after he toughens up from being in the jail cell, sometimes to the point where he's unrecognizable. *Sarcasm* I didn't know toughening up made you have a different appearance. You learn somethin' new every day. *End sarcasm* There's also apparently a relationship going on between Hyo and Jun...even though Jun's a student and Hyo looks like he's in his 40's. *Shudders* For the comedy that was supposed to be humorous, all of it came off as forced, out of place, and worst of all, unfunny, especially the bits where one of the girls kept on calling Hibiki "My Darling~". For a few weeks, I considered this to be just as bad as King's Game The Animation, but then I thought about it more, eventually coming to the conclusion that it wasn't. The reason is this anime simply made me feel apathetic less than halfway through. King's Game, on the other hand, had bigger issues which infuriated me to no end. Still, I couldn't give two shits about this show.
Score: 2/10
Houseki no Kuni (TV)
My thoughts: First things first, I'll admit it took some time for me to get used to the CG, but after a few episodes, I came to believe that the CG works here. My favorite moment is when Dia attempts to fight a giant Lunarian, which is the most well animated and fast paced fight scene I'd seen. Besides the animation, everything else was good, but I felt like the ending was pretty underwhelming. I'm very neutral towards Phos; they're one of the few characters in anime where I'm very mixed about. On one side, Phos is a whiny brat, but on the other side, they're an interesting character. So at the end of the day, I did like this anime, but didn't love it.
Score: 7/10
Inuyashiki
My thoughts: Although I really enjoyed the story, and the character of Inuyashiki, my main issue with this anime is Hiro. I am aware he was not supposed to be liked, but please hear or read me out. For the first half, I found him to be well-written, and he deserved my hatred for him. But then in episode five or six, when his mother discovers that he's been massacring for quite some time, he panics, even going as far as crying about it. I found him to be a complete idiot, because after he finds out his mother commits suicide, he kills all the news reporters that arrived at his fathers' place! Seriously, what the fuck did this asshole think was gonna happen?! He didn't even bother disguising himself, so he was inevitably gonna get caught sooner or later! What I find even worse is the anime apparently tried to redeem Hiro by him healing people - like what Inuyashiki does - after Shion and he talked. I'm sorry, but after all the shit he did beforehand...there's no way he could be redeemed. On second thought, it doesn't matter, because after Shion and her grandmother get shot, he goes back to killing innocent civilians, which ends up making his attempt at "redemption" completely pointless. *Slow claps* Anyway, I teared up a bit at the ending. Very bittersweet, but at least Inuyashiki saved millions of lives.
Score: 8/10
Itsudatte Bokura no Koi wa 10 cm Datta.
My thoughts: I found the relationship between Miou and Haruki cute, but there was one element which irritated the hell out of me. That's the cliché where one character refuses to talk to or see their love interest for some time, leading the other to get confused, if not frustrated on why they don't want to see them. I understand why Miou didn't want to talk to Haruki, but what good would it be to just flat-out tell him, "It's better if you don't talk to me anymore"? That'd only frustrate him to no end! And big shocker, when she did tell him, he was angry at her for avoiding him until that point. I think this would've been a lot better if they didn't use that cliché as conflict. I know you're probably gonna make the argument that if they didn't, Haruki wouldn't have "realized" that being a filmmaker was his late brother's dream, not his. However, Miou made him snap out of it by telling him it was his own dream as well, subsequently having Haruki become aware that that was true. So do I dislike this? No. There were enough decent things to make me at least say it was okay.
Score: 6/10
Juuni Taisen
My thoughts: You don't know how disappointed I am with this anime. The start of this show was great, especially with how well animated the fight scenes were. I also thought this had a ton of potential, since this was a death tournament with Zodiacs (As you can probably tell, I have a soft spot for Zodiac related stories). I was genuinely impressed with the start of it, that I went as far as beliving this was going to be my favorite anime of fall 2017. Then about halfway through the anime, I came to realize a major issue, and that's the repetitiveness and predictability of the story. Here's how an episode usually goes: We focus on a character by giving them their backstory and learning why they participated in Juuni Taisen, further hearing them monologuing for a lengthy amount of time, then when it's done, they get killed off within minutes or an episode or two by another one of the participants (Or in Horse's case, die from asphyxiation from immense smoke). It got so redundant, that there ended up being a complete lack of tension. As for the characters, because this is a Battle Royale-esque story, there was no point in me actually caring about them, even Sharyu, who I liked the most out of the whole cast. The only character we didn't get a backstory was Usagi, but then again, he's a necromancer and wants to be "friends" with everyone, so I guess we didn't need to learn more about him beyond that. So if the characters aren't worth caring, are they at least interesting? Well, some of them are, but most are either meh or boring. When all is said and done, this is no doubt the most disappointing anime I've watched.
Score: 6/10
Konohana Kitan
My thoughts: It was a rather cute slice of life anime, and I liked the relationships to a certain extent. The character I liked the most was Yuzu. She's adorable, and I like her personality. Now while I'm on the subject of characters, Satsuki left a bad first impression on me. She starts off as the hardworking asshole cliché, who constantly criticized her for every mistake she made, regardless of how small it was. Satsuki, I understand why you're hardworking and want to do the best for Konohanatei, but for gods' sake, Yuzu was new! You can't expect her to know everything by her first day! Thankfully, she does get better as the anime goes on, although she's still rude at times. But the character I ended up disliking the most was Ren. The biggest reason comes from the third episode, where it's focused on her and her backstory. That's nice and all, but her backstory, ironically, made me dislike her! I never thought that'd actually happen! Ahem, anyway, the gods that visited the inn were pretty interesting, especially the one who turns into literal baby bubbles.
Score: 7/10
Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau
My thoughts: I was very fascinated with the story, and the culture in the Mud Whale/Falaina. Not only that, but I love the artwork, the opening song, the relationships and the concept of the Marked and Unmarked people living in Mud Whale. I get that some people won't like this show, but for me, I really enjoyed it.
Score: 9/10
Net-juu no Susume
My thoughts: My favorite thing in this anime is how it creates a balance between focusing on what happens in the game the main characters play, and what goes on in real life. I especially really like Moriko, and her interactions with Sakurai. However, one of my biggest problems is it was very apparent that Sakurai stalked her. I say "apparent", because at first, when Koiwai mentioned it, I couldn't remember at any time where Sakurai did such a thing. But then I looked on TVTropes for this anime, and even though there're a few things I wouldn't say was stalker-ish (Such as him over-analyzing his interactions with Moriko), I don't feel comfortable calling their relationship cute, because I don't want to sound like I'm endorsing stalking (It's the complete opposite). And speaking of Koiwai, I really fucking hate him. Every time he's with either Sakurai or Moriko, he mercilessly jests at them. I'm not saying you shouldn't tease your friends, but not every conversation has to involve someone playfully poking fun at others, yet that's exactly what he does throughout the entire anime. I hate him so much, that I was nothing short of relieved when at one point, when Moriko sleeps from drinking too much, he brought her home instead of taking advantage of her. I'm not joking when I say that's the most relieved I've ever been while watching an anime.
Score: 8/10
Ousama Game The Animation
My thoughts: All the characters are fucking stupid, the pacing is awful, the reveal as to who the titular King is makes no goddamn sense, and the overall story's a freaking mess! Oh my god, I'm actually stunned at how horrible this show is! And don't even get me started on the ending! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE WORST ANIME I'VE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO WATCH!
Score: A big fat motherfuckin' 1/10
Pingu in the City
My thoughts: I won't lie, when I first heard about this, I thought it was a troll (Even though it wasn't on April Fools Day). I had to do research on this, but it turned out that this was real. Since I do enjoy the original show, I gave this a watch, and I ended up really liking it (Which isn't really a surprise). I love how despite this being CG, the animators were able to capture the look from the original series. As for the actual content, it's cute, and Pingu is as fun to watch as he was in the original show. If I were to give out any complaints, it'd be that some of the jobs Pingu participates in do get pretty repetitive, but even then, they're executed differently, so this isn't a huge issue. All I'll say if you like the original series, then you sure as hell will like this.
Score: 9/10
Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou
My thoughts: You'd think a premise like this would be boring, but surprisingly, it really, really works here. I was not bored once throughout the anime; in fact, I was very intrigued by the world building, and our two characters, Chito and Yuuri. Speaking of which, they're what make this anime shine brilliantly. I loved their interactions (Well, minus the moments where Chito gets physically violent with Yuuri, but thankfully, those are few and far between), whether it'd be them trying to figure out what certain things are that people used a long time ago, or occasionally meeting someone, additionally knowing what they do for a living. This anime proves that you don't need to have a show filled with explosions, loads of characters, or even goals. This is just a show featuring two people who only want to survive, and be with each other. I honestly don't have any major issues with this, although I found Yuuri to be very annoying in the ninth episode, where she continuously asked if she could eat the fish. However, she's only legitimately annoying in that episode, so I didn't have much of a problem. This is the most relaxing anime I've ever seen, and I definitely recommend it to people who want to feel the same, and are also fans of slice of life.
Score: 10/10
Two Car
My thoughts: I'm gonna be straightforward here; Yuri and Megumi are the same goddamn character. Seriously, you could just switch them with each other, and you wouldn't notice the difference. The reason I'm mentioning this is because other characters have constantly brought up about them being "alike", which just makes me not believe them. Writers, there's a difference between two people being alike and being the same person. Then again, nearly all the characters have no personalities, so I suppose it doesn't matter. While on the subject of "characters being exactly alike", there're these twins who - unlike Yuri and Megumi - purposefully act so identical, that they're like clones. After the show finished focusing on them, I came to realize that their backstory is the most meaningless one in the entire anime. You could cut out their backstory, and you'd still know everything about them, minus them formerly being in love with the same man. By the way, if he was so surprised about them being twins, then how did he not already figure it out when he asked two identical people to go on a date with him? Well, unless he thought he forgot... Anyway, in the end, the twins decide to go back to being exactly alike. Was that supposed to be character development? If so, then that's not character development, that's reverting back to your old lifestyle. Besides all that, this show is mediocre, but the things I did like were the animation and the idea of sidecars requiring two people. I thought it was an interesting idea, but it wasn't very well executed. Didn't help that Megumi and Yuri frequently made petty arguments with one another, which got obnoxious very fast.
Score: 5/10
Urahara
My thoughts: Hoo boy...let me start off by saying that when this anime started, I found it to be just dull, with bland, uninteresting characters. Then episode seven and eight came, and holy shit, that was when this show went downhill. The eighth episode is without question the worst episode in the entire anime. Why is that, you may ask? Firstly, the dialogue got so repetitive, that you could make a drinking game out of it. Secondly, the episode just drags for an eternity until the end credits play. I even asked myself at one point how far I was in the episode, and I was shocked when I found out I was halfway through. Not to mention the characters became completely unlikable, especially when Mari and Kotoko (Who were being brainwashed from eating so many of the Scoopers' snacks) were pissed off at Rito for killing Sayumin (Who, out of nowhere, turns into a giant) when Rito had a good reason for doing so! Then after Rito eats the Scoopers crepe, she goes insane, and the other girls apparently get out of their brainwashing somehow...yeah, that made no sense. Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest, because that episode infuriated me to no end. So what about the rest of this anime's content presented here? Well, the art style is supposed to come off as cute, but the way it's crudely drawn makes it come off as ugly rather than cute. There're split screens (Most of which is unnecessary) that happen six plus times per episode (With the exception of episode ten, which, shockingly, had very few split screens). There's also this twist where it's revealed that almost everything inside of the bubble that "protects" the city the story takes place in was a fantasy, which I thought was utterly confusing (Does that mean they also imagined Sayumin turning into a giant at one point?). By the way, the bubble thing I mentioned...the anime made a vocal point that the barrier was supposed to be very strong, to the point where the Scoopers couldn't break in. However, we've constantly seen them throughout the anime (Hell, there're even two instances where we see them break into the bubble on-screen!), which makes me convinced that this is the shittiest barrier ever. Now you could argue that without Scoopers breaking in, there would be no conflict, but if you're going to say the barrier's really strong, don't flat-out contradict yourself! Also, the woman who voices Rito sounds so disinterested in being in this anime; even when the character she plays is supposed to sound surprised, she still sounds flat. And no, this being her first role is not an excuse. She could've put at least a little more effort in. If she gets any more anime roles in the future, I hope she doesn't sound this dull.
Score: 3/10
Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Washio Sumi no Shou
My thoughts: I liked how we got to learn about Mimori/Sumi's past. I also found Gin's death incredibly sad, especially seeing that this is one of the rare instances in a Magical Girl anime in which a character actually dies. That honestly is what nearly made me give this a higher score, due to how powerful it was, but overall, this is just another typical decent Magical Girl anime.
Score: 7/10
Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Yuusha no Shou
My thoughts: I'm genuinely impressed with this. I actually liked this more than the first season and the Washio Sumi Chapter. Do you know how rare it is for me to like a sequel more than its predecessor? This is mainly because of the story, and the ordeal Yuna goes through. The scene where she's crying on the snowy ground made me desperately want to comfort her. The last episode was fucking intense, especially with how Yuna defeated the Shinju.
Score: 9/10
Winter 2018
Koi wa Ameagari no You ni
My thoughts: To say I was looking forward to this would be an outright lie. I was actually hesitant to watch it - for obvious reasons - to which I considered skipping it. But the back of my mind was telling me, "Come on, you know you're curious about this; just watch it." So I gave in, and decided to give this anime a chance. After finishing, I'm honestly impressed. I first thought it was going to be one of those stories where the main character has a crush on someone way older than them, but acts and does stuff in a creepy manner. I can safely say that isn't the case here (Really, the only creepy thing Akira did was smell Kondo's shirt in the first episode, so I was beyond happy when she didn't do any more creepy stuff afterwards). And I'm gonna feel weird saying this, but I felt chemistry between Akira and Kondo. I know this anime doesn't focus on the drama very much, but what I was confused by was one of the male characters named Kase essentially forced Akira to go on a date with him after discovering her crush on Kondo for blackmail in the fourth episode. Yet, after that episode, Kase mentions her crush on Kondo once, and even then, he came off as, "Even though I made you go on a date with me or else I'd blackmail you, I'm chill about your love for the manager." I just feel like that didn't make much sense, which makes me think that most of the fourth episode was pretty pointless.
Score: 8/10
Kokkoku
My thoughts: It's another one of those stories where it sounds boring on paper, but the execution here was amazing. I was enthralled by how the plot was developing, and every time Juri slammed her hand onto someone (Specifically the antagonists) to get the "jellyfish" out, I thought, "Fuck yeah!" I wasn't expecting how the last two episodes went, though. Sagawa being defeated, only to be reborn. Well, I hope he'll be a better person after being reborn.
Score: 9/10
Mitsuboshi Colors
My thoughts: This surprised me, in a good way, of course. Yes, this is another show where cute girls are doing cute things, but here, the main child characters actually do things that I could see real children do. I really liked our three leads, to the point where I couldn't tell you which one I enjoyed the most. The supporting characters are also really enjoyable, and their encounters, especially with Saito, were really fun to watch. I think it's safe to say that this is one my most favorite CGDCT anime ever.
Score: 9/10
Poputepipikku
My thoughts: Let me make this clear. I wanted to like this anime, I really did. However, I didn't laugh for a majority of this; there were a couple of episodes where I didn't even smirk once. I didn't have a very good impression at first, but throughout the show, I did laugh on occasion, which made me like this just a tinge more (It wasn't much, but at least it was something). Since this is full of skits, my favorite one is the first bit in episode five, which is titled "Donca*Sis". I found it the funniest one out of all the skits in the anime.
Score: 5/10
Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san
My thoughts: Koizumi's the best part of this anime. If she was portrayed any differently, I would've liked this way less than I do now (Albeit I'm also a huge ramen lover, just not to her extent). The main reason I didn't care for this anime was because of one of the other main characters, Yuu. She constantly stalks Koizumi and won't take no for an answer. It's even made worse in episode ten, where we see one of her bedroom walls covered in pictures of Koizumi, with her picture taped beside them. She also has a fucking observation notebook, writing down what Koizumi ate, along with scary music playing in the background. I love how the anime doesn't even try to hide the fact that Yuu is a fucking creepy stalker. Yes, I know Misa also stalked Koizumi, but she only did that once, so she's a saint compared to Yuu. But even without that element, this is a painfully average anime.
Score: 5/10
Sanrio Danshi
My thoughts: I really liked how the show presents as there's nothing wrong with guys liking certain things that're "girly" (I use quotation marks, because I don't consider anything to be feminine or masculine nowadays). If they enjoy it, that's all it matters. The thing that weirds the shit out of me in this is at least once per episode (With the exception of the last three episodes), it randomly goes into first POV. I'd accept it if it was like that throughout the entire anime, but here, it feels awkward, out of place, and unnatural. There was even one episode where the first POV came from a freaking crab. Like, seriously?
Score: 7/10
Slow Start
My thoughts: The perfect description for this is "generic cutesy slice of life moe girls". Now this being generic doesn't mean it's bad, per se, it just doesn't stand out from the rest of the shows that feature "cute girls doing cute things". The characters are also very typical, as you'd expect in this kind of anime. The shy, but sweet girl (Hana), the very energetic girl (Tama), the kind, mature girl (Eiko), and the girl who's supposed to be a high schooler, but looks like a child (Kamuri). The most interesting part was Hana being a gap year student because she got the mumps on the day for the entrance exams. Speaking of that, I was a little disappointed she never got to confess this to her friends, especially since she mentioned that she didn't feel right keeping it a secret from them. Then again, by the end of the anime, she did say she'd tell them someday, so I shouldn't dwell on it.
Score: 6/10
Sora yori mo Tooi Basho
My thoughts: When this was first announced, I thought it was going to be a bland anime, with young girls doing silly things in Antarctica. Well, I'm happy to inform you that it's far from being bland, and while there're certainly girls being silly at times, it's much deeper than that. I'm also pretty happy it took time for the girls to actually head to Antarctica, because if they'd gone too soon, that wouldn't have been in the slightest bit realistic, since they're teenagers. As for the situation about Shirase's mother, I'm not at all surprised she passed away, because since she was in such an awful blizzard when Gin lost her, there's no way she would've survived a week, much less three years. But even when I kinda saw it coming, I was very close to crying when Shirase saw how many of her messages were sent Takako had on her computer, unread. By the end of the anime, I felt really satisfied with how this concluded.
Score: 9/10
Violet Evergarden
My thoughts: I loved this. I really, really loved this. Yes, I know this was very hyped before this began, but I actually hate hype, because I don't like having my expectations unrealistically high. For me, the higher your expectations are, the more disappointed you'll be. So I went in this anime neutral (As I do with almost every anime I'm about to watch), but after finishing it, well, I already mentioned how I feel about it. Anyway, the element which made me adore this the most was, unsurprisingly, our titular character. She may come off as a stoic character with no other personality, but to me, she has way more depth than that. I especially love how she grew throughout the anime. At the end, I was wondering what she was surprised at, but I hope it wasn't Gilbert. If it was, then I'll be mad, because that'd be a huge cop-out.
Score: 10/10
Yuru Camp△
My thoughts: Even though I don't like going camping myself for multiple reasons, I found this very relaxing and entertaining, especially the character interactions. The only thing I thought this didn't need were the constant narrations, but it's pretty minor, so it's not a big deal.
Score: 8/10
Spring 2018
3D Kanojo: Real Girl
My thoughts: Where the front flipping fuck do I start on this? Well, I suppose I'll start off with the animation. It's utter shit. Now, I didn't notice it when I first started watching it, but as I watched the last four episodes after months of putting this off (Because, y'know, the whole fuck up this site went through back in May 2018, which killed my mood to watch anime for some time), I came to the conclusion, "Wow. I didn't realize the animation was this god awful." But unfortunately, that's not the worst part of this train wreck. All the characters are unlikable pricks, though I'd be lying if I said I didn't find Iroha somewhat interesting upon her first appearance. Hell, I could even say I kinda liked her. However, as the anime went on, she grew less of an interesting person and more of an irritating bitch. By the way, I need to ask: Why do Ishino and Takanashi hang out with the main characters? Because at one point, Takanashi hated Tsutsui to the point of making his sister cry out, causing the police to think Tsutsui was a pedophile. Then later, when he found out Tsutsui's younger brother had been depressed (I should mention Tsutsui's mother and brother believed he was a pedophile when they heard about it. No questioning him, no feeling skeptical about it, they just flat out believed it. WOW), he was shocked. You piece of shit, what did you think was gonna happen?! I can't remember if he apologized, but even if he did and even though Tsutsui isn't likable either, that was inexcusable. As for Ishino, she's a total asshole (Who also initially believed Tsutsui was a pedophile), so I find it extremely hard to believe everybody's all chill with those two hangin' out with them, even letting them go on a trip with them, additionally bringing along Ayado. She's the least unlikable character in this anime, but she's also boring, so that's not saying much. I swear, the dialogue is obnoxiously repetitive. Characters constantly say it's their fault when it's really the opposite, they get jealous when their love interest is hanging out with someone of the opposite gender (Can we please not have this bullshit for once?), they question if they're worthy of having a boyfriend/girlfriend, they misunderstand, blah blah blah. Doing a drinking game every time someone does either of those things wouldn't last long. That's how redundant it is. Oh, and the comedy? I laughed more at this shoddily drawn screenshot from episode eleven than the intentional humor. One last thing I have to mention is it's revealed in the penultimate episode that Iroha has a brother, who obviously has a thing for her. But surprise, surprise, they pull this dumb cop out where they're not blood-related. Why do a lot of anime/manga use this excuse that because they're not blood-related, it's somehow okay for one to romantically love their sibling? It doesn't matter if they're blood-related or not, it's still incest by law! God, fuck this anime...
Score: 3/10
Mahou Shoujo Ore
My thoughts: The first two episodes were so ridiculous, that I was already having a blast with it. But while there were some hilarious moments throughout, the anime kinda went downhill about halfway through. Unlike other anime where I had hopes for it, only to be disappointed in the end, however, I actually expected the show to get weaker as it went on (Don't ask how I knew it was gonna get weaker, I just did), so...I suppose I'm not that disappointed. What I am sad about is how Saki went from having a simple harmless crush on Mohiro (Who doesn't speak unless he's singing) to being a total creep for him (Even Sakuyo admits this, and she's in love with Saki!). I find it sad, because I actually liked her. I found her charming and funny, but after realizing what she became in the second half of the anime, I ended up feeling the opposite for her. Despite that, I'd mostly recommend this anime for the comedy.
Score: 6/10
Summer 2018
Ongaku Shoujo (TV)
My thoughts: When I watched the first Ongaku Shoujo anime from 2015, I thought it was decent. Nothing special, but it was fine and also cute. This, on the other hand, ended up being a generic, mediocre idol anime with about a dozen characters. Usually, having that many characters in a one-cour anime is a bad idea in my opinion, but surprisingly, they were able to focus on most of them, even if I thought they weren't very interesting. I suppose I'll give the anime props for that. Anyway, as I've mentioned, this was a mediocre show, although I did like the twist of Hanako being tone deaf, and also having her be the Music Girls' staff to support them...but then it gets ruined by them having her actually be a part of their group at the final scene of the anime. Now, my problem with this isn't that she's a member of the Music Girls (Even though it would've been better if she stayed as their staff, but I digress). My issue is throughout the anime, Hanako has not once practiced her singing to get better at it—in fact, she rarely sang at all. Hell, she even sang mere moments before she joined the Music Girls. Then all of a sudden, she's good at singing. Yeah, that makes total sense. I know you're gonna say, "Well, the other girls are covering her crappy singing". I'm pretty sure we'd still be able to hear it. Thus, her being a part of the group was unearned. Jesus, and I thought the drama in episode seven was stupid...
Score: 5/10
Fall 2018
Winter 2019
Spring 2019
Summer 2019
Fall 2019
Posted by
FaidraGalaxy
| Aug 28, 2018 5:31 PM |
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