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Apr 4, 2020
Yo. So far I’ve written reviews for every season of Haikyuu! and figured I’d keep it going. Most of the times I have been critical, but it’s been hard for me to figure out why I haven’t liked Haikyuu without saying “I just think it’s overrated”. I think this time I actually know why: It tries way too hard.
The plot progresses in unnatural and extremely structured ways that doesn’t flow naturally, the new characters are introduced with such strong personalities that they don’t feel real, and the conversations between characters are either so unbelievably stereotypical that it makes me cringe or so inspirational that
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it makes me cringe. The humor is also wayyyyy too slapstick. I feel like they should add 1960s Loony Tunes BOING and WAHOO sound effects to all the epic goofy moments that Hinata and the other silly boys go through. It’s just way too over the top and makes me enjoy the show less.
So now to the latest season of Haikyuu!. Hinata sneaks into a freshman training camp and does his ball boy job so well that he starts to actually pay attention to what’s going on around him. I know they had to find some way to force his game to develop but I felt they could have done a way better job, this is just such a dumb plot point. People naturally learn to pay attention to their surroundings as they get better at their role in a sport. Once Hinata had played like 4 games he should have started this process. I was watching these episodes completely uninterested just wondering when we were gonna move on and Hinata finally stops being useless.
Then the Kageyama portion of these initial episodes where he goes to the select training camp. I thought it would initially be cool to see a display of some of the other good players in Japan and that it would be a great opportunity to showcase stuff that ACTUALLY takes place in sports, like detailing routines, work ethic, raw talent, and passion of top players in the country, and instead they use it as an excuse to introduce more quirky and non-relatable, uninteresting characters that I do not care about. They had an opportunity to have a great animation showcase in the scrimmage they had but even that was wasted because there was no fluidity at all in the animation and the entire thing played out in the minds of Kageyama and the other setter.
Then we get into the preparation for the tournament. These episodes were pretty good. You have to have some balance between character interaction, training, and intense games, so this middle transitionary period was completely fine for me. Just the usual issues of wacky humor that tries way too hard, too often and doesn’t land.
Then they actually start traveling for nationals. Literally the dumbest episode of the entire series so far was when their team manager had to go get Hinata’s bag and they turned it into a character development opportunity with her doing hurdles in track. This episode was dumb. They tried so hard to get us invested in this character that is so uninteresting by dumping an entire life’s worth of backstory in 10 minutes, and Hinata losing his bag was such a contrived, unnatural plot turn that just came off as forced and served no purpose other than to develop this character. And her backstory wasn’t even interesting, it was kind of pointless and I still didn’t care about her after hearing everything.
Onto the tournament itself. I know they are just gearing up for part 2 of this season so I can’t comment much on it because we have only seen one game so far. The depth perception thing was ridiculously stupid though, I’ve played volleyball tournaments in arenas with even higher ceilings and no stands, just 60 courts in a big cement rectangle. There is absolutely no difference in depth perception that 3 minutes of warming up won’t fix. You would be right to say “That’s such a minor issue, why are you even talking about it?” That’s because it was the subject of an ENTIRE EPISODE FOR NO REASON. If it had been mentioned in passing I wouldn’t even have to mention it.
Ok now for the actual production and quality of the show itself. It is very underwhelming. The music and animation has not improved since season 1 (which was made 6 years ago). For a show that staggers it’s seasons every other year to maintain production quality, you expect some sort of improvement. There are 3 second sequences that are breathtaking, of course, but 99% of the show is a slideshow with moving mouths and recycled hitting, setting, and passing animations that appear every episode. I’m just not impressed with the sakuga animation because it’s short and predictable and they try so hard to make it “epic” that it ends up being predictable and not as shocking of a visual experience.
Anyway, these are just my thoughts on this season, extending a little bit to the series as a whole. If you disagree, I’d encourage you to message me on my profile, I’d love to discuss it more. Thank you for reading!
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Aug 4, 2018
The reason this show was not successful is not because it was bad. Personally, I actually enjoyed it and would recommend it to people if the original did not exist. But it does. And to make a long story short, this show is just a slightly inferior version of the original.
What made this show unsuccessful was the conceptual planning of the show as a remake and certain creative choices by Production IG.
See, the problem in remaking the first 12 episodes in Legend of the Galactic Heroes is that these episodes are objectively the least interesting and eventful part in the show. They quite literally took
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the worst part of the show and made it into a series. I get the feeling that if this remake had been a COMPLETE remake of the entire original series, by the end of its run we would have a very different opinion of the remake as a standalone piece due to it giving us time to get used to its own style and actually letting it get into the parts of Legend of the Galactic Heroes that make it so fucking good. Think about how much you would've liked the original if only the first 12 episodes existed. I would probably argue that (while much more subtle) it is less entertaining than this version. You can argue about which you prefer all you want, but the fact of the matter is, the original is 110 episodes and this is 12. For what this had to work with, it did a good job. The problem is that it just didn't have the best source material to work with. So this show only gets kudos, no actual bonus points.
Production IG has a very distinct style in almost all of their shows. It's a sleek, clean, modern look that carries through into this LotGH remake. The problem with that style is that it just doesn't fit the story of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. This is a political war drama, not a military battle show with some politics and philosophy sprinkled in. The main problem is that they tried to infuse their style on an already established franchise and story, which caused a clash between what we are used to vs what we are being given. People don't like change. Regardless of psychological tendencies, the character designs (which is the main subject of complaint for most fans of the original) are truly bad. They took the elegant bourgeois designs of the Empire and the distinguished and serious designs of the Alliance and just made them so generic and uninteresting. Also going back to what I said about Production IG's style earlier, Reinhardt and Yang Wenli both had appearances that matched their personalities in the original, yet in this they looked like an imitation of an already established design, with nothing new added to them. This causes a dissonance that is hard to ignore.
TLDR: The style of Production IG clashes with the story it's trying to tell. The quiet, methodical subtlety of the original does so much more to build to an ultimate climax than this could.
I will say though, Production IG did get one thing right. Remakes almost always fail because they try to make it new without changing anything about the events that take place or the story of the original. Successful adaptations all have various creative liberties taken in order to ensure that whatever is being made is actually good as it is on its own, not just a copycat product. They really used the increase in animation quality to make the battles much better and the technology used in the show so much more futuristic and cool. They also moved away from what the original had done story-wise to add their own twists, which is something I actually appreciated. I already watched the original, I don't need to see the same events play out in the same order they did last time, show me something new. The best example of this is the capture of Iserlohn. While the main concept remained the same, the execution was different enough that it still excited me despite me having already seen it before.
All in all, this was a good show, but it wasn't great. The reason it was good is because the story it was based off of is good. It didn't take enough risks and it didn't adapt a complete enough version of the source to make it a standalone piece that I would recommend to anyone. However, that is not to say that this is a piece of trash.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 24, 2017
When something moves you to tears, it's daunting to explain why. How can I possibly put into words how much of an emotional impact a single piece of media had on me? All I can do is try and hope that you decide to give it a chance.
PS When Yotaro performed "Shibahama" in episode 8 that shit got my ass crying real hard.
The best part of this show is the story. It’s complex without being confusing and is always interesting. I was never bored while watching. If you combine both seasons into one story, I think the structure of an introduction to the present, backstory,
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then jump back to present to continue the story and see how the events from the past have changed the present and continue to affect characters really made the show what it is. And then a beauty of this show is that the conclusion to this story is the conclusion to Yakumo’s story. Very satisfying and appropriate to how I think the show should’ve ended. The combination of all of these decisions that change the tone and flow of the story make it something to behold.
(START SPOILERS)
It wasn’t perfect though. One of the main problems I had with this series was that the story focused too much on the past. I think that while this focus on the past demonstrated Yakumo’s inability to move on well, there comes a point where it becomes frustrating to watch the same decisions being made for the same reasons over and over. We all know that Sukeroku and Miyokichi’s death affected Yakumo’s life forever after, but sometimes his obsession over it in the most trivial of situations seemed unrealistic and just overemphasized. I very much liked the scenes of hallucination that put Yakumo in the hospital both times, and his journey in the afterlife and reuniting with the two, but the day-to-day trauma he’s experiencing 20+ years after their death seems just a bit overdone.
I had a sort of crisis while watching the show due to the nature of episode 7’s reveal that the ending Yakumo told to us in the first season was a lie and that Konatsu was partly responsible for her parents’ deaths. I was shook when I found this out due to the profound effect the original ending had on me. I was more than a bit disappointed initially, but after much reflection on how this changes Yakumo’s character and his relationship to Kontasu, I decided that I also think this was a great plot twist that adds to the story. I still like the original better because it was more tragic, but I think that’s the point and I just fell for a story trap. Oh well.
(END SPOILERS)
Another part of the first season I found to be refreshing and captivating was Yakumo and Miyokichi’s relationship. Usually in romance anime, relationships are either lovey-dovey or they’re both unbelievably awkward around each other. Rakugo makes their relationship compelling, mature, and quiet, yet ever-present. I loved the handling of this aspect of the show. This kind of continued with this season. The same dynamic was kept in place, but Yotaro was just a more loud character who wears his emotions on his sleeve, so it’s natural that it would be different, but I’d say of the 2, I prefer the former.
This also brings me to my only other main complaint of the show. In the first season, I just liked the characters more. Not necessarily how they’re written, I love the aspects of them all, but my views are best demonstrated in the Rakugo they perform. Sukeroku’s was informal, fast, yet strong and clear, while Yakumo’s is dignified, deliberate, and refined. To me, Yotaro’s personality and his Rakugo seemed loud, a bit goofy, and sometimes unpleasant to listen to. This was only rarely, but I sometimes would just wish he would stop talking. That being said, Kontasu is one of my favorite characters in the show and I thought old Yakumo is just as good as young Yakumo. Also, the story of Yotaro’s past interfering with his career was a good conflict of the show.
Rakugo is a show about art, so it’s only natural that its art direction be some of the best I’ve ever seen. Perfectly set the mood in every scene, managed to blend traditional traditions in a modern world in a clean, appealing way. My desktop background is even a screenshot I took from the show, that’s how impressed I was. On a similar note, I am continuously impressed with the OP and EDs in this show. They’re perfectly reflective of the show. I feel like the video itself for the OP in the second season reveals a lot about the plot, so if you’re trying to go in blind, consider skipping watching the OP.
Overall, I can’t recommend this series enough. If you think you will like the show, I can guarantee that you will. I’m not here to tell you that this is a perfect show (it’s not), and I’m also not here to tell you that if you don’t enjoy it you have shit taste and there’s something wrong with you, but I can say this: In my opinion, Rakugo is the best series to come out in the last couple of years and it will be one of those “hidden classics” 5-10 years into the future, due to how under-the-radar it was, yet how profoundly excellent it is.
Thank you for reading my review! Feel free to leave any kind of feedback on my profile if you feel the need to, I appreciate everything.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 27, 2016
(Review got removed because it was updated to completion ;-; gotta make the climb back)
Well, pains me to say, but I’m gonna be the wiener who has to tell everyone the flaws of Haikyuu! again.
I’m going to preface this review by saying that because I actually play volleyball, lots of the issues I have with the show are specific to someone who has knowledge of high-level high school volleyball, so because the vast majority of this fanbase doesn’t know anything about volleyball outside of this show, you might not be as annoyed at certain things as I am. This is just one humble man’s opinion.
I
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want to make clear that Haikyuu is not a bad show by any means, and in fact, I think it’s better than the vast majority of sports anime. Unfortunately, I don’t like shounen, which Haikyuu makes itself painfully obvious that it is. There’s no subtlety, everything is tell, don’t show. They try to teach you the sport of volleyball as you watch and act like you’re 8 years old while doing so. They have to explain each and every little intricate rule, which ultimately makes the show less entertaining and harder to sit through, especially when you know everything they explain in the first place.
Obviously the animation for this show is fantastic, as expected. There is nothing to complain about from the art or sound departments, except for the fact that S2 had a better OP, but that’s subjective ;) Soundtrack can’t be expected to be incredible for a 10 episode series about literally one match, but the sound design and effects are spot-on as usual, so I don’t think it really matters at all.
One thing I can truly say is a virtue of the show (aside from the gay undertones, those are always of quality) is that the atmosphere of the matches in Haikyuu are great. There’s enough tension and stress without it causing the viewing experience to suffer, but it’s also realistic enough to not just turn into a joke or feel like there are no consequences. The rivalries are quite plausible and well-developed (if a bit cheesy at times) and I love the camaraderie between members of different teams, it warms my heart.
Another thing I like about Haikyuu is how nothing comes easy. You sometimes see in sports shows that if you just put training in, you can’t lose. That’s not the case at all, you have to have talent or your work means nothing. The players in Haikyuu all have to use their individual skillsets to better the team’s chances at winning, and while it’s not necessarily a revolutionary concept, it’s executed well beyond mediocrity.
There are many other things I like about this show, these are just the ones I’m best able to provide my unique opinion on rather than just the standard “i like haikyuu beucase haikyuu has good plot and characters and hype!”. If you want to know my opinion on anything, go ahead and ask me.
Now we have to get to the things I don’t enjoy about Haikyuu!
The main complaint I have is how stupidly overpowered Ushijima is. Even the players on the US youth national team aren’t as unstoppable as him. That kind of power to just blast through blocks does not exist, his inability to be stopped, and the fact that he only hits hard (no variety) just grinds my gears. They also pretend like he’s special for being left-handed as if no other players in Haikyuu! are lefties?
I feel like that this show has reached a point where they’ve run out of ways to make each match interesting and unique. In the last season there were so many matches played and there’s only so much variation that can exist before it all begins to blend together. Their way of mending this problem was to add massive ass-pulls to add extra flavor such as the “Guess Monster” bit, the whole Shiratorizawa underdog setter thing, Tsukishima for no reason at all just becoming a blocking lord, the forced backstory for the third-years in episode 6, all the little annoying conversations under the net, and various other little quirks that feel forced and unnatural.
Now on to the games. They’re too perfect and choreographed. Everything that happens is either pass, set kill, or bad pass, cover, free ball, other team passes, set, kill. There’s no chaos, which is what makes volleyball such a unique sport, the unpredictability and sheer magnitude of sensory overload and things you have to pay attention to all at the same time. Now I understand that they can’t animate all of this because that’s just unreasonable, but it still makes it feel like Haikyuu! is doing the sport of volleyball a disservice because of it. The games don’t feel smooth, they feel like a writer mapped them all out (which obviously still would’ve happened if they DID feel random, just don’t worry about it and hit that “Helpful” button below my review) and eliminated unpredictability. This could’ve been helped by all the actions and transitions being sped up, but I recognize that you gotta fit 5 sets into 10 episodes so whatever.
The final thing that made me want to poop my pants were some of the ridiculously basic things these players are just learning. I cannot believe in episode 2 they had to explain what the position “Opposite” was. Position names are quite literally the first thing you learn in volleyball and the opposite is just anyone who hits on the right side. Boggles my mind. Something else they mention is using the strategy of taking away angles to force them to hit to certain areas. That is also something you learn the very first time you learn how to block. Why does it take Tsukishima explaining every single move to his outside for them to just put up a competent block on their own? So frustrating how easy it should be, but Haikyuu! takes everything easy and makes it difficult. Yet again, I don’t get how these national-level high school athletes don’t understand this basic stuff.
I don’t really understand why everyone is so crazed with this season. Rank #6 overall is ridiculously high for a 10 episode show about a match of volleyball. In my opinion, it was worse than the previous 2 due to its lack of diversity and having to always take itself way too seriously. I’m also fearful of what’s to come. The ending was very predictable and with them going to nationals, it’s going to be potentially annoying to have to see the writers try (and possibly fail) to come up with unique, engaging ways to present challenges posed by foreign teams. Is it going to be basically just the same thing as the last 2 seasons except with different characters? Who knows?
Thank you for reading my review! I’m always open to feedback, so if you have some, feel free to hit up my profile.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 26, 2016
This review comes from someone who actually plays volleyball, so my opinion is god ;)
Hello everyone, it’s your family friendly, volleyball playing, review writing member of the MAL community here, bringing you what is known as a "review”. I hope I can do the series proper justice and be fair to the quality of the show while also conveying the series from the perspective of someone who is passionate about the sport. This review is going to be pretty unconventional and non-structured, so I’m sorry about that, do your best to follow along with my style of reviewing.
To start, I want to say that Haikyuu
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is not a complex show. This isn’t necessarily bad, but if you’re going in expecting sophistication and subtle themes to be brought up in a thought-provoking manner, you’re not going to get it. If you’ve watched season 1, you generally have a pretty good idea about what you’re getting into, but if you haven’t (not sure why you’d be reading this if you haven’t lol), don’t expect anything more than a really good shounen. Not an FMA or HxH type shounen, but still great nonetheless.
One of the main problems I had with the first season and in my review after the show had begun airing, was how basic it was. The moves they were doing weren’t that significant if you’ve ever played volleyball, and nothing was very noteworthy or impressive, yet they were treated as such. This seriously put me off at first and I couldn’t get over it. Now, however, I’ve come to tolerate it much more than I did before, so I won’t get into all of the technicalities I had previously listed out because I simply don’t care anymore. Well, except one that needs to be brought up. The whole “Kageyama putting crazy spin on the ball so that its momentum stops and Hinata hits it” is illegal. A set ball is not legally allowed to get more than about 3 rotations. Anything more than that and you’ll get called on a double. I’m not even going to bring the stretching of physics into it, but it shouldn’t matter. The set has no practicality and is completely illegal. I don’t know why this was included and it does bother me a bit, but if you didn’t know it was illegal, it probably didn’t bother you at all, so this is mainly a personal gripe.
Throughout the middle part of this show, I began to get a little bored. There were a lot of matches that started to blend together and I was craving for something to change. I was even considering dropping my score to an 8 because of it. This is probably only a problem if you were watching it as it’s airing, week by week. I imagine that a marathon would help make each part more distinct because you’re being fed it faster and can thus make the distinctions more easily. Anyway, this issue I had was completely shattered in episode 23 and 24. These two episodes were phenomenal. For sake of not spoiling anything, I won’t go into detail, but the final match they played, specifically how it ended, had me sitting on the edge of my chair throughout. The very final still-frame scene gave me chills. The build-up was great, the final play was appropriate, the atmosphere was perfect, and everything in the 5 minutes leading up to it were nearly flawless. I was extremely impressed.
In this season, each major character was developed to a much greater degree than in the previous season. This is probably because we had already been introduced and familiarized with them, so it was now possible to go into depth with each of their personalities. I really appreciated this and it was much improved from the first season in which only Hinata and Kageyama received a serious amount of backstory and motive explanation. The side characters (meaning the people on the opposing teams that received at least a considerable amount of screentime) were very appropriately handled. They didn’t get much depth, but they didn’t need to. They’re outsiders after all. It would be weird to give them so much development seeing as they don’t affect anything about the story at all aside from one match or a practice session. It was very realistic. I can say from personal experience that during club season, you do pay attention to certain people more than other people and you gravitate towards watching their matches because you think they’re good, have an interesting playstyle, are an athletic freak, or any other reason. When you play these people you want to do as well as you can, subconsciously trying to impress them, even if you’ve never spoken to them in your life. This is what happens for Hinata and Kageyama quite a bit, and to restate, it really captured a realistic feel.
The animation is stellar as always, but this is Production I.G. we’re talking about, so that’s to be expected. The slow motion shots looks great, it’s fluid throughout, and everything is high quality, so you’ll find no complaints from me. Similarly to the soundtrack, however I must say that nothing truly stood out for me. With the OST, everything is solid, but nothing is exemplary. It makes the show better, but it doesn’t go above and beyond, which is certainly all right. Not every show needs a grammy nominated soundtrack accompanying it.
I personally found the comedic aspects of the show to be spot on. I cannot tell you how many times I had to pause the episode, take a screenshot of whatever was going on, and then send that screenshot to my friends in Skype, usually pissing them off while I’m laughing throughout the whole process. I wouldn’t say I’m a comedy critic or expert or whatever, but I’ve listened to a lot of standup comedy and I can at least say that I can usually weed out good comedy from bad comedy, and while this isn’t necessarily the most witty and clever, it’s absolutely better than most of the shows that try to do the same thing. It was almost always hit and rarely miss.
Time to bring it back down to earth for a minute though. I have heard many people say that this anime got them into volleyball, either playing or watching, and I have to warn you guys. Haikyuu volleyball is not like real volleyball. Haikyuu is a lot more exaggerated and precise because it’s an anime. You can’t capture the complexity of the sport or the sheer amount of things going on around you and the chaos of volleyball in an anime. Just as an example, there are many times in real life where you get a great set, you go up to hit, and you just hit the ball into the net or straight out. I’ve done it plenty of times, your average player does it a lot too, and it commonly happens to even the best players. These simple mistakes just aren’t present in Haikyuu. If you want to see what high-level, real volleyball is like, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEB96RVl_Ww (if you don’t care about all the warmups or the preliminary commentary, skip to 7:30).
I think I’ve sufficiently summarized Haikyuu, so I suppose it’s time to wrap things up. With this show, there just aren’t a lot of things that you can point out as problems. The pacing in the middle, sure, the lack of complexity or depth, maybe (but it’s a sports shounen, don’t come into a show expecting something you know you won’t get), and the OST, maybe, but that’s about it. My problems with the volleyball playing itself and the fact that I dislike drama is exclusive to me, so others may not have these issues. Everything else ranges from very good to outstanding leaving little room for criticism. This is the most overall enjoyable and well-made show to come out in the past 2 season, which says a lot considering the fact that we’ve been bombarded with One Punch Man and Erased hype throughout each. When all's said and done, Haikyuu is a show that you should not miss. I’m looking forward to watching season 3 when it comes out.
Thank you for reading my review. If you have feedback of any kind, please tell me, I’m always open to conversation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 7, 2015
(Spoilers obviously lol)
This episode is fantastic. THIS is how I wanted Steins;Gate to end. One of my only complaints with the original series is how they had to have episode 24 and how it felt like they undermined the tragedy in the story to give everyone a happy ending. To me, it was like the creators were afraid of leaving it as a tragedy for fear the fans wouldn't like Kurisu actually dying as if to discard the entire point of the series itself: The choice. Who do you choose to let die? Your childhood friend who has become part of your identity? Or the
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only girl you've loved?
I honestly enjoyed the throwback with the art and animation. I appreciate that they didn't update the look and instead it felt like a alternate version rather than an addition. I understand completely that Steins;Gate 0 will look relatively different (it'll be 1080p, have the look of the VN, and will obviously be better funded) and I have no problem with that, but it was really nice that they stuck with what they did in the original series in this one.
I thought that the mini-development Okabe went through in this episode is terrific. Obviously having previous knowledge about his character helped our foundation, but we could see before our eyes him mentally snapping. He just crumbled. With this crumbling, he matured. We could see at the end how Okabe is now a college student, he's accepting adult responsibilities, dressing in a more conventionally appropriate way, and he even remarked that he's socializing. I could be wrong, but the phone call Okabe had sounded like he was either going on a date, or meeting up with some friends to eat or go to a movie. This is something the Okabe of the original series wouldn't have done. His development is masterfully portrayed.
After watching this episode I am even more excited about Steins;Gate 0 than I already was, and that's all a special really is, isn't it? A way of putting out something for people to see and get excited about. This is a wonderful "prequel" episode to the events that are about to unfold and I, personally, can't wait to see what comes next.
Thank you for reading my review, and as always, feel free to leave a reply on my profile if you liked or hated it and need to tell me why. Either is fine, I don't mind.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Sep 25, 2015
I am extremely disappointed with the way this show ended. Seeing as that is the case, this review will basically be all spoilers, so read at your own risk.
I'm gonna admit, this was one of the more enjoyable shows for me this season. I rate heavily on personal enjoyment, so for the most part, this series was high up on my seasonal watch queue. No, I did not like the characters although I do understand that they were meant as a contrast of the world they were living in. No, I didn't like the sudden, out of the blue tone shifts that the show presented.
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No, I didn't think that this show was tapping into the full potential of what it could have done, but hey, it was enjoyable, so I kept coming back.
Now let's go to episode 11, shall we? This was, by far, the best episode School-Live! had put out. It felt like the characters were truly desperate, they were genuinely terrified, and that all hope seemed lost. They were struggling with just about everything and on the brink of death throughout the entire episode. Not only that, but holy shit was the music in this episode good. I'd say around the 9 minute mark when the portable radio was played and the soft, enchanting singing started drifting out as you see the character's struggling to stay alive was phenomenal. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was extremely excited to see what episode 12 (the grand finale) would bring us.
And it completely let me down. It was bullshit. I'm about to list all the things awful about this episode, so be prepared for a shitstorm of complaining.
First, it's not possible that Taromaru remembered Yuki and saved her life. It's a zombie. Everything leading up to that point would have suggested that, while the zombies are relatively aware, they do not have control over their actions, they act to kill. Taromaru saving Yuki would blatantly state that the zombies can control themselves and enact self-restraint, of which none do, let alone a dog which has about 1% of the mental capacity humans do.
And then all it fucking took for the whole problem to solve itself was to say "School's out, go home"?! Are you fucking kidding me?! That's just bullshit and I refuse to accept that. It was almost comical it was so overly simple and stupid. That is in no way how a zombie apocalypse story should end. Not only is it just utterly off tone with how the entire series went, it's just illogical. I cannot stress to you enough how bad this ending was. I'm a perverse person. I wanted them all to die and for the series to end. I would have easily given this show a 9 and called it the best of the season. Unfortunately, School-Live! decided that they just weren't going to do that and instead opt for a cop-out.
How were they to know that there was another dog down there? If I were in that situation I would've just assumed the dog heard a noise and went down there because, let's be honest, it's a dog. That's what dogs do. There is no reason for them to have assumed that, and yet they did, so whatever.
And the graduation ceremony. Oh man, the graduation ceremony. Don't even get me started (it should be evident that I'm about to get started, it's an expression, leave a "Helpful" on my review please). Basically, they just decided that instead of closure, they were gonna go the Angel Beats! route and try to just make you cry as their way of forcing people to like the show. It was disgusting watching high school seniors cry at every slightly inspirational thing people said. And it dragged on for so fucking long. A solid 10 minutes were spent just saying goodbye and whatever else they felt like crying about.
And finally, the last main problem I have with episode 12 is the lack of closure. So many things left unexplained. How did the outbreak first happen? What was Megu-nee's connection with it? Why did the girls in the school not just construct a ton of weapons so they wouldn't have to rely on that damn shovel for everything? Did they ever get to a safe-house? How do the zombies not starve and rot away? Why has nobody made any attempt to establish long-distance contact? Is the infection localized or is it on a global scale? Where are all the zombies in that final scene where they're just cruising down the highway and there's no one to be seen? And where the fuck are they going?
This show just made me so mad after how well it set itself up to just dissolve into a mess of emotional crap that I cannot give it a recommendation and the only reason I give it a 7 is because of episode 11.
Thank you for reading, and as always, feel free to tell me what you thought.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 8, 2015
This is not a traditional sports show. If you're looking for a generic shounen sports anime, don't bother with Ping Pong. It transcends the genre, almost to the point of a deconstruction. Instead of focusing on the sport itself and the main character's fight to the top in said sport, it focuses on the playing of the sport itself, who plays it, why they play it, and what their motives and ultimate goals are. It also demonstrates a magnificent amount of personal crisis and searching for the understanding of one's self within the sport. Ping Pong the Animation is a fucking masterpiece.
If you don't play
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sports, you may not understand the intricacies of the issues these characters deal with (not to say you won't), but if you do, you're in for a hell of a show.
Story:
The story is basically about a group of high school athletes from different schools, different backgrounds, different environments all competing to be the best at Ping Pong. This show is about each character's struggle to the top and how they find success. The story is heavily reliant on characters and seeing as not much happens that isn't spoiler, this is all the analysis you're gonna get.
The finale to this show is so good that I cried from the sheer magnitude of emotion emanating from each character. One of the best I've ever seen.
Sound:
Excellent. The OP is incredible. The best of the year by far. The entire soundtrack is pretty much equally solid and always fits the mood perfectly.
Art/Animation:
If you want an idea of what the series is like, watch the OP and look at how much detail it contains. It is extremely unconventional, but it works.
The main gripe people have with the show right here. I don't understand the complaints at all. The animation is incredibly expressive, makes each character stand out in their own way, and hell, if nothing else, makes the series feel all the more unique than it already is. It makes everything look real and look like controlled chaos, very much what sports is for the most part. It's the perfect choice for the anime, there is absolutely nothing I wish changed in it.
Characters: (Warning, spoilers)
Now for the real meat of the show, the reason it's so fucking good. The characters. Not a single main or secondary character felt recycled. Each had their own distinct personality and look so you never confuse any of the characters with each other.
Our main character, Tsukimoto, is very quiet, reclusive, and introverted. He really only has one friend, Peco, and he seems to not have a lot of passion about the sport whatsoever. This is problematic because he has the most potential out of any character introduced. His coach doesn't want to let him waste this potential so he tries to inspire him using any method possible. This ultimately leads to Tsukimoto agreeing to enter the high school championships where he hopes to face Peco and take him on in the finals. The imagery used with him is phenomenal. At one point he's locked himself in a classroom and you're given a still, black and white shot of him with these magnificently large, vibrant, orange butterfly wings demonstrating how his true potential is beginning to blossom from inside of him. Tsukimoto goes through incredible development, you can just feel the difference in his personality by the end of the show and you can see in how he plays his final match that he's truly better off than when he began. Peco is his literal hero who saves him. It is unclear to anyone what Tsukimoto truly wants and that's one of the most interesting things about him.
Now on to Peco. He's one of those kids that doesn't take anything seriously, goofs off a lot, plays to have fun, etc. But here's the catch: he hates to lose. He puts on a farce about not caring how he does, but when he gets floored by Kong Wenge, he shuts down and sinks into a shell of what he used to be, too depressed to play. He then struggles the entire series with a personal comeback, intensive trainer, and a character reform. He ends up overtraining and hurting his knee before the final match against Tsukimoto (Karate Kid style) and has to deal with added challenges that put him to the test. Throughout the series, Peco always struggles with wanting to be the best of all time, but not wanting to do what it takes to get there.
And now to Kong Wenge. He's the Chinese exchange student, sent to Japan because he wasn't good enough to make the Chinese national team. He's disgusted when he shows up to find that everyone their isn't very good (except Tsukimoto who refuses to play him), and has to deal with the fact that he's saddled to a bunch of losers for a year. He eventually gets beaten by Kazama and has to face the fact that he may never make it back to China and play ping pong ever again. He works his ass off to get back for the national championships to get back to China. His main motive is to go home and play for the national team.
Kazama Ryuuichi. The dragon. The unbeatable. The local hero. He's seemingly untouchable throughout the entire series, yet near the end, you start to realize how truly vulnerable of a character he is. He locks himself in the bathroom in the search of complete solitude before every tournament, he deals with not really wanting to be the best, but not really wanting to lose because it's the only form of respect he receives. He views ping pong as a cage in which he cannot escape.
And here we have the last character I am going to talk about, Kekota. He's always lived under Peco's shadow, always looked up to him, but despised the way he never takes anything he does seriously. He works the hardest out of anyone, but never seems to get the results he desires. Tsukimoto has to break it to him that he's inherently bad at ping pong. It doesn't matter how hard he tries, he's never going to win because he's just not talented enough. He struggles to come to terms with this, but when he does, he's a completely different person. Everyone who plays sports or band knows someone like this. Someone who works so hard, but just sucks and it's genuinely depressing to watch, but it's put in an optimistic way so that the viewer never truly feels like they're watching someone's life shatter in front of their eyes (even though that's basically what happens).
Entertainment:
This was honestly one of the most profound, impactful shows I've ever watched and one of three to make me cry (Zankyou no Terror episode 9 and Steins;Gate's entire second half lmao), but not due to sadness, due to pure understanding and revelation. Ping Pong is probably the most accurate representation of the realities of sports ever created.
Overall:
If you haven't watched it yet, just please do so. You can watch it for free, legally on YouTube, so start now, please.
As always, leave me some feedback on my review. Feel free to criticize, I won't care one bit.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 17, 2015
[Spoiler Warning]
Uh oh, I'm about to do something not many have done: bring up problems with Haikyuu! Disclaimer: I do play volleyball, so please understand where I'm coming from.
Don't get me wrong, I liked Haikyuu! and will be watching the second season, but in this review I'm going to talk about what I didn't like because everyone else gushes over it. Remember, I did genuinely like it.
When I first found out there was an anime about volleyball (and not only that, it was really popular and well-liked) I kind of got really excited and placed it near the top of my "Plan to Watch"
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list. I'm not quite sure what I expected, but this wasn't it. I had expected something intelligent, engaging, and meaningful, what I got was a typical shounen.
[b]Story: 7[/b]
Let's start with the plot. Nothing really special about it. A band of unlikely heroes come together one year to form a volleyball team that just so happens to be really good, they set their goals to be in the Nationals, they go through certain hardships to get there only to come up short when they near their goal. But fear not! There is a second season! The plot was pretty generic sports anime for me. Not much else I can say about it.
Here's where the problems I, personally, have begin. Everything feels dumbed down, like it was made for someone who knows absolutely nothing about volleyball to watch. Now I'm not saying "You should only watch sports anime if you've played the sport", on the contrary, in fact. But they shove down explanations of the most basic moves into your throat, even down to the second to last episode. They always try to mask it (by explaining to other people the rules), but they never do a good enough job at it. It should be implied that your viewer is smart enough to be able to pick up on certain things with the sport after watching, rather than having everything explained in crystal-clear clarity. Take [i]Ping Pong the Animation[/i] as an example. They lay everything out to you clearly, but don't tell you specifically what it is you're supposed to see. It's your job to figure it out. That's a smarter show with more subtlety and more respect for the viewer's intelligence.
There were so many weird volleyball technicalities. I didn't understand if volleyball in Japan was that different, or if Haikyuu just honestly thought nobody watching would know anything about volleyball so they could cheat a little? I tried to look up the rules for Japan, but could only find certain things, nothing decisive. Here are all the little, weird, things happened:
Kageyama is supposed to be a genius setter and yet he's never set a back-row attack up until this point? And he's never even attempted to do a jump-float? Those are things we learn to do in club volleyball when you're like 12. And it also seems like he never dumps despite it being an easy strategy to get 2-3 points per match (also, he's tall and can jump high, it'd be even easier for him than most).
They don't use any conventional terminology when being set. They just say "set me". This doesn't tell the setter how fast or where you want it. A Go ball, a Shoot set, and a 4 set are very different sets, but all to the same person. There's never any indication anything changes. They also have a position called an "Ace", which I have looked up, but cannot confirm to exist. I know that Japan has "Wing Spikers" instead of Outsides and Opposites, so no problems there, but I don't know if Ace actually exists. It seems to just mean their best player?
How is there always a triple or double block on every hit? Most of the time, you're lucky if you can get a double block on a outside hitter, but they get triple blocks, even on quicks! Even at the Olympic level they don't do that. And when every hitter goes up to hit the ball, they always hit straight down the line. I honestly saw 3-4 cross hits the entire series, no joke. They always hit straight, which leads to them getting blocked. Then when they do get blocked, they don't go "Hey, next time roll/tip it over the block, put pressure on the back row to get that", they just say "[b][i]Hit it harder![/i][/b]", like that's not how it works. They also never intentionally aim out so the other team accidentally blocks it straight down out of bounds, and they never wipe the ball off the block. There's never any strategy in their hits.
And there's almost zero free balls (or "chance ball!") in the show. Even if it's a bad first dig, they somehow manage to get a full attack almost every single time. That's just not how it works. And one of the one times the opponent's had to just pass one over, everyone was downright amazed with how smart it was to pass it to the setter. That's not that clever at all. A common strategy to break teams with really good setters is to hit, pass, and block everything in their direction to either force them to have the libero set or to get them out of rotation to compensate for it. It's something almost every team of every skill level does, surely a team that has a chance to go to nationals would know this stuff.
This is more of a minor detail, but the portrayal of the females in this show was slightly derogatory. I'm not going to go full SJW and preach to you right now, but this stuff was kind of obvious. The females were all strung over the hotshot athletes, the female volleyball team was the weak and helpless team that needed the boys' team's strength to pick them back up after the loss, and all the explaining that got done to help the audience was 80% of the time done to some "helpless and confused" girl watching from the sidelines. Sure, the main girl (if you can even call her main) had some strength, but it was just stereotypical, shounen strength, nothing resembling a real personality.
[b]Characters: 7[/b]
I'm going to be honest with you, I just absolutely couldn't stand Hinata, the MC. He was the stereotypical genuine, happy-go-lucky protagonist. His motivations were extremely one-dimensional and weak. You lose 1 game in Junior High to a good team while you have a shit team so you swear revenge for life? And that's your driving motivation for the rest of the series? To beat him in a 1-on-1? His personality was so bad. Every interaction he had with other people was a "feel-good" talk, something to pick another guy back up on his feet, which got really stale after about, hmmm, 2 episodes. This problem existed with lots of other characters as well. Interactions that just started with someone feeling down and ended with them magically being inspired again, after like 2 sentences. Super cliché, shounen nonsense.
Kageyama and Asahi were the only ones who went through any type of development (although Asahi's was condensed within about 4 episodes), which isn't [i]too[/i] big of a problem, if I actually liked any of the other character's personalities. Honestly, the only 2 I liked were Tsukishima (because he has the same kind of "wtf are these people doing" attitude I have) and Nishinoya because all liberos are cool.
[b]Art/Animation: 9[/b]
The art and animation were definitely great all-around, but I did have some issues with them as well. For one, some character's necks were really long or really weird, which honestly made some characters look like literal dickheads (Oikawa I'm looking at you). Also, there were tons of reused and recycled animations. Because everyone hit line, all they had to do was switch the character who was "receiving" the ball and reuse the animation over and over. There was no variety with the hits so they cut corners on animation. I don't know if this was due to limited budget, but it was quite noticeable.
One thing I do have to commend them on are the volleyballs themselves. They were well-detailed and looked almost exactly like the ones we use in real life, down to the little tiny ridge details on the ball.
[b]Sound: 8[/b]
I have no complaints, but I honestly don't think sound matters that much (unless it's awful or amazing).
[b]Personal Enjoyment: 7[/b]
I genuinely did like this show and I will be watching the second season as it airs. I'm just confused as to why so many people heap praise upon this show. It's a good shounen, absolutely, but it's too much of a shounen.
Thank you for reading my review and if you have any feedback (positive or negative, I don't mind) feel free to message me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 3, 2015
No Game No Life is visual and suggestive exploitation and exposure of underage females pawned off as entertainment. And people wonder why the anime community receives so much hate and scorn and are labeled as "pedophiles" and stereotyped as fetishizing little girls.
There is nothing clever about this show. It's everything Death Note could have done wrong, done wrong. The main characters are already established as being unable to lose, so why become invested in anything they do? They're just gonna win anyway. It doesn't help that the rules of the game aren't even well explained half the time.
With 11 episodes, there's no room for any
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character development (not that they tried) and the characters themselves are barely established as people. They're just 2 no-lives who like gaming an unrealistic amount and are placed in a dream-fulfillment reality where you game to win. The concept is promising I guess, and there a few well-executed mind games, but that's as far as the creativity and entertainment stretches after you realize they actually won't lose, no matter what.
I don't really remember anything about the soundtrack (which shows how little impact it had), but I don't claim to be a soundtrack critic. A show should be good without relying on music to boost its score.
The art and animation is really the only thing the show does right. It was pretty fluid and consistent throughout and the backgrounds were well done. It was too bright and vibrant for my personal taste, but that's all it is, personal taste. It fit well with the fantasy setting, but my eyes didn't care.
This is a show perfectly tailored for people who want to see some indecent exposure and get a few good perverted giggles out of it and then pretend like it's a masterpiece because it's masquerading as a games anime. "Let's have an episode entirely dedicated to explaining the rules of the world and showing the consequences for losing. Then let's follow that up with a sauna scene where an 8 year old girl is almost naked as her brother gets hard for her and this other chick" HAHAHA FUCKING GENIUS WRITING!!! SUPER CONSISTENT THROUGHOUT!!!
Overall: 3/10 (For good art/animation and a few decent games)
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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