Terminator 2 is a story about a young boy name john conne- Sorry I shouldn't compare this story to something with thought and effort put into it.
Somali and the Forest Spirit is by far one of the most painfully stupid anime I've watched period. So stupid that I was actually angry that a story this poorly written could be published to any capacity and get a rating above 6.
With that said not everything I have to say about the show is negative but the majority of it is... So I'll start off with the positive.
The animation and art direction are quite nice
...
and, depict a stunning world that feels lived in and believable. You can clearly see the level of care that went into designing every environment and they are varied and detailed. Every village legitimately feels like a separate location which is a nice change of pace from your run of the mill fantasy crap. Despite the imagery becoming very fantastical the artists did a good job making everything seem as if it could exist within the world they crafted which is another impressive feat.
Though the soundtrack isn't anything phenomenal and neither is the voice acting it's serviceable and Smoli despite being a child never came off as annoying but I wouldn't put them on the level fo quality as Gon or Killua or Reg and Riko.
For the story
it starts off with enough narrative hooks to keep the viewer invested with an interesting dynamic between the main characters one being an "emotionless" machine and the other child. The former acting as a father figure for the latter. This concept has been done before, but the tender moments of emotion the golem shows to Somali almost work.
That's about everything positive I can say for the show.
But I'm going to backtrack a little.
We're never really shown the Golem being consistently emotionless throughout the anime there are parts which he comes off as inconsiderate sometimes even to the extreme but he never really crosses over to machine territory. Which is a problem because it weakens the shows premiss. But the mediocrity wafting off the series like a wet fart from the ass of a Kardashian doesn't stop there, as bad writing is a force powerful enough to rival faith in god.
The golem's changes in character (as limited as they are) are forced, happening nearly spontaneously once another character mentions he's being a bit of a dick or Somali cries. Then after a brief moment of self-reflection Mr.golem becomes more tender until he starts being insensitive again for virtually no reason other than the plot decided readers needed to see more character drama. This problem could have been avoided if they made the Golem completely emotionless from the start like the terminator and slowly had them grow over the course of the series But, quite frankly that would require a level of writing that wasn't even present in the manga and Gureishi, Yako isn't even capable of delivering.
For Somali, she never once came off as an actual child to me. And instead seemed closer to a character and not a well-written one because she gets over things extraordinary quickly. Someone tries to kill her and she just goes back to being friends with them. It's as if she's there to be cute rather than be there to get invested in like Gon in Hunter x hunter. I gave a shit about Gon I never cared about Somali because she's a prop for the story to bank off of. For people to go "Oh this is so wholesome" or "Oh look how cute she is" or other stupid shit that only makes the story better from a braindead perspective. She never learns from her mistakes and never seems to understand that she's in mortal danger nearly 24/7 which would be fine but someone already tried to kill her. The golem also insists that she stay by his side for this reason. Children are rebellious, yes but they aren't completely unreasonable and they aren't stupid this anime seems to think otherwise, however.
Now when the main premiss fails to fully work as a method to engage the viewer when looked at from a critical standpoint where does that leave us? What does this story do to set itself apart from other stories that have tackled a similar premiss?
It has furries take over the world because humans are meany heads. Which brings me to the general patronizing nature of the show's worldbuilding.
You are told the history of the world multiple times not through visual storytelling but by characters dumping exposition until episode 8 where you get introduced to a completely unneeded character and informed "No that's not exactly what happened this is what happened. I know because I was there" this story does nothing but add filler to the worldbuilding something you'll often see in a Bethesda game. You're told information that doesn't necessarily enhance the world and instead only really serves to make it bigger while completely destroying any reason for the previous info dumps exist. But the main problem with this flashback is this singular quote
"Humans are a frail and cowardly species whenever they encounter a creature that does not conform to their worldview, they can not regain peace of mind until they purge it from existence"
This one quote perfectly sums up what the series has to say about the human race and the entire flashback. This quote is false from an objective standpoint. Petty and spiteful we are but not cowardly and not genocidal cause "They LOok different than us" throughout history almost every single case of genocide against another race or species has been done for a reason not just because they looked different than us. And the author either seems to not understand history and human nature at all or just intended to demonize humans without taking a look at what we've actually done wrong. After all, humans are just all cartoonishly evil on mass with only three out of every 30-40 people having any sense of compassion or basic morality. Which is what the show pushes. The majority is evil, irrational, and bloodthirsty. Which is a world you can build you just have to have a fucking reason for the humans to be like that in the show. You can't just have that be their default because that's not how people work.
So I'm going to summarize the review so far.
The dynamic between the main characters and the evolution of the golems character feels rushed if not forced and fails to work, to begin with, due to the Golem clearly already having emotions and his "moments of growth as a human" I should say seem to not really affect his overall behavior. Somali isn't worth investing in as a character because she's almost purely reactive. And isn't really much of a character outside of "Little girl" and that's it. The characters lack a general layer to them to have them approach the level of humanism you see in Dorohadoro or Castlevania leading the slice of life aspect falling a bit flat. Character conflicts never really feel like they approach naturally. The series, in General, lacks any sense of tension which is a massive missed opportunity.
In short, though the series had a relatively untouched premiss and had the potential to become great, it generally falls short from a narrative perspective as there's no sensation of moving forward to the goal the characters are seeking.
The dialog isn't dynamic enough to get most people invested in the personalities of the characters that are shown. And very few of them are actually striking, the majority mostly consisting of a handful of traits rather than a fully fleshed-out personality.
Condescending and poor worldbuilding that demonstrates a distinct lack of care or thought. Along with exposition that has no real reason to exist...
Characters that serve no real purpose other than to just introduce a contrived and poorly thought out conflict *cough* Uzoi *cough cough* or to dump information about the world which as mentioned before isn't even worth looking into.
But most of all the pacing of the story is horrible, with vast swaths of progress made but never feeling like a triumph. It generally feels like you're watching a journey for the sake of having one rather than a race against the clock which would be fine. But the main Duo isn't interesting enough to carry that type of story and it was already established that they do have a time limit.
In the end, I can say for a fact that the anime is better than the manga but that's not a very high bar to leap over...
Edit: Fixed some grammatical errors.
Mar 10, 2020
Somali to Mori no Kamisama
(Anime)
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Terminator 2 is a story about a young boy name john conne- Sorry I shouldn't compare this story to something with thought and effort put into it.
Somali and the Forest Spirit is by far one of the most painfully stupid anime I've watched period. So stupid that I was actually angry that a story this poorly written could be published to any capacity and get a rating above 6. With that said not everything I have to say about the show is negative but the majority of it is... So I'll start off with the positive. The animation and art direction are quite nice ... 
Dec 5, 2018
Goblin Slayer
(Anime)
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Goblin slayer is an anime so cliched that most of its characters don't have a name. Not that giving these elegantly crafted robot people a name would make much of a fucking difference considering every one of them is about as memorable as a yeast infection and twice as unappealing as that experience. But I suppose I should move back to my original claim about goblin slayer being cliched before I start this shitty review properly.
The protagonist aka goblin slayer aka the motherfucker who better die at the end of the series. Is a bruting cold-hearted anti-hero looking man with a tragic backstory that causes ... 
Aug 11, 2018
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(Anime)
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I should warn you that this review has harsh language but this anime has content more extreme than any cuss word I can think of so with that in mind.
With that out of the way we'll begin with a brief synopses of the plot Inuyashiki is a pathetic old man with cancer and no friends. Realizing that his family doesn't love him and his only true companion in life is a dog that he kidnapped off the street, He decides to run through the park crying like a bitch. Where plot happens and he along with someone else is transformed into one of the most disgustingly ... 
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(Anime)
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(This review will contain mild language.)
Black lagoon is about a Rokurou Okajima a Japanese man with no friends who becomes a pirate. But instead of doing stupid things like singing sea shanties and making people walk the plank he's fighting neo nazis and getting into gunfights against other smugglers . Despite having no formal training with a firearm of any kind and having a gigantic gaping cunt where his balls should be Rokurou isn't immdietly gunned down during the first-fire fight that happens in the anime. And that's going to bring me to my next point. Early on Black lagoon stabs to death any sense of ... 
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Juuni Taisen
(Anime)
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THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
Fate zero is an anime..... Juuni Taisen is an anime about 12 scumbag mercenary's named after the Zodiac signs or whatever the fuck, fighting to the death for one wish. Each of the fights are dynamic and interesting, but the charismatic characters, over the top action scenes, and its complex commentary about how war changes people in different ways ultimately fail to make this show anything more than a predicable death game with little more to offer than a stripper bunny and blood shed. Watch it...If not for the near mindless gore watch it for the bunny. There's 12 characters and 12 episodes and since ... 
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(Anime)
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Attack on titan is an anime about large genderless naked men running around cities eating people, breaking shit and being general dicks.
The story follows Eren yeager; He lost someone he loved and now he's filled with more edge than a swimming pool filled with razor blades. If you could imagine shadow the hedgehog with swords instead of guns that's basically Eren.... Mikasa is amy, she's obsessed with protagonist to an unhealthy level. Then you have Armin who's just tails. his personality trait is that he's smart and admires the protagonist. Sure there's other characters in the show but considering how attack on titan derives great ... 
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Tokyo Ghoul
(Anime)
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(This review will contain minor spoilers)
If the creator of "Coldsteel the hedgehog" and "Jeff the killer" teamed up to make an anime this would be the embodiment of sin that resulted from that cringe filled coalition. Tokyo ghoul is pretty much a story about zombies with super powers. Our main character fuck wit crybaby protagonist number 287 is a normal human who's turned into a half vampire/zombie/ghoul after running into the undercover mental retard known as Rize. The story is pretty much parasite to a degree. it revolves around a main character coming to terms with the fact that they're half monster now. But ... 
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(Anime)
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There are some reviewers that would whine about the story not being very good but listen to me that's not the god damn point of this anime.
Afro samurai is a simple revenge story about a badass samurai with a radical hairstyle travailing though a world where everyone wants him dead. The world that the story takes place in is given a special kinda flair by his fighting style, and the god tier level of hip-hop music that was chosen to accompany him. Afro doesn't say much but he doesn't have to if you're looking for something with narrative depth this isn't the anime you're ... 
Aug 23, 2017
Mousou Dairinin
(Anime)
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Oh hello Mr.acid trip it's been awhile since I've seen you....
I went into this anime knowing pretty much nothing about it, and I don't think I was ready to watch it. This review is going to contain minor spoilers because there's no way to do this show justice without spoiling it a little. Paranoia agent is a story that follows a different protagonist in each episode. It catalogs each character's decent into madness and the story normally reaches its climax upon the arrival "lil slugger" who may or may not exist. What is real, and what isn't in this anime is never really made ... 
Aug 23, 2017
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
(Anime)
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Honestly I liked this anime when I first viewed it but then I re-watched it and noticed how shallow all the characters were.
The protagonists are the typical "I'm a good guy" And there's nothing else that defines them other than "They want to do the right thing" And the Antagonists are just Saturday morning cartoon villeins. "I like to use people! Money greed power! ROARRRR" Only way they could be more evil is if they strapped the female lead to a set of train tracks, oh fuck one of the antagonists did do that... Magi has a rich world ripe for the calling of adventure ... |
