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Aquariums present their visitors with a glimpse into the deep sea, including all the marvelous and colorful aquatic lifeforms found in our world and they also provide many avenues for educating the public on the richness of marine life and the importance of our biosphere. Aquatope, an original PA works anime focused on aquariums was the first significant aquarium related series in the anime medium and it brought the aquarium experience to life with its excellent visuals and interesting educational facts. While the story, like many anime originals, eventually loses track of its original goal, the anime still delivered quite an enjoyable experience and did ... a lot of things right. This review will cover the various aspects that make up the Aquatope anime and will generally cover both the good and bad points that the audience can expect.

Story: 6

The review is going to start with Aquatope’s arguably weakest point, the story. It’s a sad thing to see when a series that essentially has everything going for it, suddenly forgets its roots. Aquatope started fundamentally as a story about a failed idol, Fuuka, who was trying to find a distraction from her despair on being graduated from the show business and ending up at an aquarium by chance when she decided to fly to Okinawa instead of going home. The aquarium, Gama Gama, was in dire straits as it was crumbling apart and had declining revenue, there was also a threat of a new aquarium being built that would take away its remaining customers. Fuuka has a fated encounter with a girl named Kukuru and she gets a job at the failing aquarium, much of the early plot is about Fuuka halfheartedly performing her new aquarium attendant job and not really caring much beyond trying to escape from reality. Over time however, Fuuka totally falls in love with her job and the viewer gets to really understand how captivating aquariums are and how rewarding it can be to work at one. The tension comes into play when Fuuka realizes that Kukuru is going all out trying to save the aquarium, but no matter what they do it appears that there are no ways to actually salvage the business. There are also a number of supernatural elements as well including a sea god they offer food to, an ED that delivers a supernatural atmosphere and multiple scenes of people having visions at the aquarium that help them come to terms with their lives.

The main problem with the story is that the show solves the plot about halfway through the episode count and then the anime doesn’t seem to know what to do anymore. The supernatural aspects of the plot are largely ignored and Kukuru becomes the main focus, and the show turns into a SOL about Kukuru complaining about her new job at Tingara, a new aquarium, as Gama Gama became a failed business. Now while the slice of life story was decent, the amount of build up through the first half of the series and the tension that was present felt like it was all thrown away for a very slow paced after story. It is like the directors got more episodes than they first anticipated and unlike most anime originals where the episode count limit results in rushing the story, Aquatope instead is forced to slow down the pace of the story with a lot of pointless material that is not in line with the tone set at the start. Overall, even though the SOL aspects were enjoyable enough, the complete change in pace and removal of the drama present first season compared to the second season greatly weakened the story, the series should have chosen a single main focus but instead we essentially got 2 different shows in one anime.

Art: 9

The single best thing in Aquatope is the art, the absolutely incredibly detailed backgrounds and lifelike animations for the marine animals serve as a top quality advertisement for Okinawa and aquariums in general. Everything in the backgrounds are lifelike and look detailed to ridiculous levels, from the beaches littered with shells to the orange sunsets and the star filled night skies, you could easily make dozens if not over a 100 high definition quality backgrounds out of them. The main attraction of the series, the aquatic life, is also depicted in a beautiful way, so many different species covered and all of them animated in fluid ways, swimming in groups and their physical movements captured in a completely natural way. The effort put into the art in this series is something to marvel at and even better is that this is one of the few anime original series where the production values did not fall apart near the final episodes. The show looks consistently amazing from start to finish, characters look attractive and distinct, they are well animated and move properly whenever they speak or show emotions, the food looks great like someone traced freshly made cooking at a nice seafood restaurant and even the cars don’t use noticeable CGI to cut corners. Overall, the art is definitely the strongest part of the show, and its more than enough to make a weaker story worth watching.

Sound: 7

The voice acting, first opening and both endings were all very good, the sound effects for the aquarium were immersive and there was great background music playing during the scenes where characters had visions at gama gama. However, the second opening wasn’t nearly as good as the first one, there wasn’t any particularly good background music outside of the visions and major dramatic events, and for the most part the show overused its few good soundtracks. In short, it’s an example of good enough sound design, there are definitely some very strong points, but enough issues that I couldn’t really say its solidly above average. As long as the viewer doesn’t set their expectations aren’t very high, they should be overall satisfied with the music, especially the first opening and the high quality voice acting.

Characters: 8

For the main cast, Kukuru and Fuuka both had dreams they were chasing and both of them struggle a lot with dealing with the fact that their dream’s may not entirely come true. Both characters were heavily developed with a strong focus on their goals and then focused on help finding new things that they wanted to do afterwards, the girls have very strong chemistry and they had lots of touching moments during the show. The comedy was also done fairly well, lots of entertaining bits of humor thrown in the right places so the show never got that heavy even when things were looking down and the girls always had fun moments together or by themselves that helped remind the audience that not everything goes wrong even if things are hard. If there is one aspect of the characterization between the 2 leading characters that I did not like, it was the soft girls love undertone that persisted throughout the show even though it was indicated that Kukuru already had a good male match, and no romance subplot was actually pursued. This sort of soft girls love can be annoying since its clearly thrown in to bait people into watching something for the cute girls acting sort of like they are in love, even though its clear that storyline wise they won’t ever be more than friends. While yes, people can have very close friendships, but the amount of touching and feeling along with lines that seemed like they were romantic in nature got a bit over the top, especially the number of times the girls stare into each other’s eyes and say they will support each other and such.

The side cast is actually pretty rich and interesting on their own, the rest of the staff at gama gama each have their own unique traits and they are explored and explained thoroughly. The guy who is clearly working only to really get close to Kukuru ends up quite enjoying working at an aquarium, the guy who hates girls has his backstory explained and it is made clear that its more due to trauma over say something like entitlement, the adults are all written in a way that feels quite realistic as well. For example, the director of gama gama reminds me of how many experienced experts act in real life, they are very down to earth and never really show off their knowledge and you wouldn’t expect them to know as much as they do, but the moment when they are needed, they are able to explain things that clearly took many years of experience to understand in a clear and understandable way. I also really appreciate that both the family of Kukuru and Fuuka are both supportive, especially Fuuka’s mother. I had totally expected her to show up to the aquarium and slap her daughter and tell Fuuka off for not coming home, but she was reasonable and actually tried to understand why her daughter was struggling to handle the end of her idol career and why she was in Okinawa trying to move on from her past life. These sort of realistic portrayals of people are much more interesting than typical anime characters done 100s of times before, we have reasonable and understanding parents, we have a friend circle who have lives outside of interacting with the main characters, the side cast is thoroughly explored, and the adults are competent even if sometimes they are not very likable such as the marketing director at Tingara. Overall, the cast is very solid, and this show easily gets and 8 for its characters.

Enjoyment: 8

For Aquatope, your enjoyment depends heavily on whether or not you really got into the cast and enjoy slice of life series, the production is great but if you’re not into the characters then this show is going to be rather boring with its plot. However, if you happen to have gotten into the whole cast and wanted to see them grow up and live their lives like I did, then this show is quite enjoyable even with the weaker story after the first half.

Overall: 8

Despite the story largely forgetting its origins and the plot not really living up to the initial supernatural atmosphere or dramatic tension set during the gama gama aquarium focused first half, I quite enjoyed the slice of life moments and watching the cast grow into their adult lives during the second half. The Visuals throughout the show incredibly good, and the cast still had strong chemistry, the slice of life stories of each of the cast members struggling to make their careers work or making new friends or dealing with problems in their lives were still interesting as well. Music in the show wasn’t super strong outside of the first OP and the ending songs, but it was good enough and the aquariums were amazing to look at due to how much effort was put into them alongside the backgrounds. Overall, this show still provided a great viewing experience, and if you go in not expecting the second half of the show to be focused on actual plot or there to be any significant dramatic story, then you should have a decent time.

Most anime original series can be broken down into 2 distinct categories, high production value passion projects that attempt to tread new waters, or uninspired surface level creations that exist as additional advertising for some mobile game or plastic merch. Fena Pirate Princess is an anime original series, created by Production IG, that falls into the high production value category with spectacular visuals and a gorgeous introductory episode, I had very high hopes for this series and while my expectations weren’t fully met this show is still beautiful and worth giving a watch. This review will consider the various elements that make up this show ... and attempt to provide an answer as to why this anime is overall worth watching along with explanations on the aspects at which it excelled and what it overall lacked.

The story telling in Fena Pirate Princess engages the audience with a strong “show not tell” direction, details of the world are built up through character dialogue alongside references to both eastern and western mythological tales. World building in this show is quite unique, it’s rare to see such an interesting mixture of European explorers and Imperial Japan in a cohesive world, alongside mythical weapons and references to various religious figures. Normally this sort of world building leads to some LN series type chuuni nonsense however Fena manages to deliver it in a respectable manner that grips the viewer in a story about searching for an island that contains treasures and historical artifacts from multiple cultures. This series also contains a large number of mystical elements that are left to the imagination in a completely refreshing manner unlike the dozens of sword and magic settings we see in modern anime where the magic is completely broken down into scientific rules or even worse, programming logic.

Now, although Fena did achieve excellence in terms of interesting world building, the story itself despite being rather captivating at first, failed in the final leg of its journey. The problem with original anime is that they rarely stick the ending and unfortunately the same can be said about Fena, the ending simply felt incredibly rushed and much of the events were not sufficiently foreshadowed or designed in a manner that was coherent with the story that led up to it. As such Fena does lose a point for story telling as the quality of ending and rushed pacing generally demolished a lot of what was previously built up and was inconsistent on a narrative level with the previous episodes, especially Fena overcoming her fate and finding freedom only for the story to have her run down a predestined route due to her lineage. Still, this might not sound objective, but the ending still was gripping and beautiful to watch in its own way, so it wasn’t a horrible ending, just a failure from a story telling perspective. If you’re capable of putting up with an ending that feels jarring compared to the previous story but it is otherwise very beautiful to watch and emotionally powerful, then this lack of a properly constructed and paced ending shouldn’t bother you that much.

In terms of visuals, Fena Pirate Princess is definitely high performing, with excellent smooth fight scenes and beautiful backgrounds that feel alive, alongside very interesting character designs, the show definitely scores high in terms of production values. One thing I especially adore about the character design is the reflection of skin tones between ethnicities, I am tired of anime taking some super white looking character design and slapping black hair on the character then calling them Japanese. This show carefully gives the Asian characters a slightly off white to tan tone to their skin while giving the European characters a strong pale complexion, it genuinely feels like you can tell the ethnicities apart without it being determined by black hair. Overall, the visual production might be the strongest aspect of the show, with the amount of attention and detail put into the world reaching near movie quality during some episodes, it really helps bring the mystical world to life and adds a lot of impact to the emotionally charged moments, definitely a 9/10 on the visuals category.

A Major drawback to the series was how a lot of the cast was wasted, this show would have been much better with 24 episodes to flesh out the characters, its utterly awful to have such great character designs and such interestingly depicted characters show up only to be flat cartoonish villains for 2 episodes and then die. Building up the female pirate cast, or the British naval forces would have been much better than speeding through plot and having most of the characters die quickly, it’s a waste of potential and probably the single biggest annoyance one will face while watching this show. There are also a large number of wasted plotlines, such as why did the Japanese want those ancient swords or what happened to the guy who was supposed to target the group if they did not return to Japan once they got the information they needed. Not to mention that the show was about adventuring pirates, where are the pirates and where is the pirate princess, its almost like the title itself was forgotten.

Sound design for Fena is strong, with a very good opening, excellent soundtrack and background music alongside great sound effects for weapons. The effect on the mood of the show is incredible as well, a lot of the scenes that made very little sense in terms of story near the end still were beautiful to watch because of how captivating the sound alongside the visuals were and it delivered quite the scene even if the viewer may not be sure what exactly is happening.

Overall the series is a solid 8/10, although the production values are incredibly strong, the pacing was rushed and the story could have had a significantly better executed plot if there were 24 episodes. Like most anime originals, the ending was also not really all that great and did not close all the storylines or explain what was happening in a satisfactory way, with antagonists suddenly showing up and character personalities suddenly changing, it did not feel like the same series at the start and there wasn’t enough character development or foreshadowing to explain or justify what happened. Still despite wasted characters, rushed pacing and not the best ending, the anime was quite beautiful and entertaining to watch, it is still recommended to watch for fans of mystical adventure type series with some decent action scenes.

Shaft has always been my favorite animation studio due to their exceptionally unique art style and story telling methods along with creating or adapting several of my favorite series including 3 gatsu no lion, Monogatari and of course Madoka Magica. Ever since finishing up 3 gatsu it felt like Shaft has been on a steady decline as a studio, animation quality dropping and story telling becoming sub par, it was disappointing to see my favorite studio fall so far. When I first saw Magia Records season 1 I could see a low quality gacha game cash grab coming from miles away, but I still held ... onto my belief that maybe it could be good, but unsurprisingly it wasn’t. This all brings us to Magia Records 2, it was a season that I intended on skipping but I decided to watch when I saw an amazing clip of Sayaka fighting a witch that blew me away. I still set expectations low going in, but this might be it, Shaft might have finally come back to its peak and this review will cover everything done right in Magia Records season 2 compared to its predecessor.

This review needs to talk about the incredibly strong intro into this season, normally the intro episodes of most series don’t need to be highlighted in a review however with Magia Records it feels like the start in this case set the tone for the rest of the series and essentially redeemed the boring first season all at once.
The first and second episodes of the new season started incredibly strong. The original cast of Madoka was back and we finally got to see how the fight against a previously off screen witch really plays out in one of the most fluidly animated scenes of the entire year. This scene alongside getting to see and hear Madoka again, watching the less capable and confident version of Homura and a still alive Sayaka all team up and perfectly execute the witch after a great set of motivational character speeches, transformation sequences, and the original soundtrack felt the original series all over again. In fact, these 2 episodes might have been even better than the first episodes of the original series for a short moment due to well made the fight was. The fight against the witch also highlighted the general threat level of the world, a witch doesn’t have to be anything like Walpurgis Night to be a threat, normal witches like Sayaka’s witch form or Charlotte are more than enough to destroy the average magical girl. Essentially these episodes were the perfect intro after a messy and confusing first season, the audience basically gets a reset without the use of filler material or recap episodes, the strong introduction was engaging and was enough to let me see this series in a new light and continue watching.

Due to how strong the first episodes were the series became engaging again and this time some how the plot was explained in a manner that was easy to follow and had deeper layers to think about at the same time, there weren’t all that many flashbacks or information drop scenes, yet despite the first season being hard to follow this season was very clear. The story has gotten noticeably better and supposedly the anime is no longer following the game completely and used a decent amount of original content, which actually had greatly improved the story, its still a dark psychological thriller series like before but this time the story is competently set up and given enough exposition so that the audience can follow along and understand the motivations behind different characters and why there is a conflict overall. The mystery element still exists as well but its not as incredibly drawn out, slow, and unexplored like the prior season, it feels like the viewer is finally given steps on resolving the plot and understanding what this alternate timeline is really about. If you did not like season 1, this season fixes pretty much everything bad about the previous story and builds on it in a way that is engaging and suspenseful, its not as good as the original Madoka but it’s a solid story that can stand on its own.

Shaft has gotten back to its peak for the art, every single episode was a display of top quality animation and incredibly detailed background art and particle effects, the only thing that might be a weakness is that some of the fights were a bit hard to follow on the first watch. Despite the weakness in choreography for a few scenes, its still not a stretch to say that this season possessed some of the best fight scenes out of any anime this entire year and that the quality is very close to movie production values. When the girls fight their hair moves in a realistic and fluid manner, their hands move fast and smoothly, the entire background, debris and particles all move alongside them perfectly, the entire world is lively, and every type of motion is perfectly captured. Its very rare to see animation of this quality with character designs that are so detailed, backgrounds that are so unique and a world that genuinely feels alive with all the realistic effects. An example of the detail is shown whenever the environment and battleground are broken up, especially how the rocks shatter and the dust spreads across the battlefield, such aspects are usually ignored in most series or used as a pause sequence, but not in Magia Records where it flows alongside the battle all at once. Some of my favorite Madoka witch designs were also added this season, especially the artificial witch. The art quality gets a solid 9/10 and it can singlehandedly make this show worth watching even outside the improved plot and return of the main cast.

The soundtrack was overall effective, using themes from the original series in the right places when old characters were on screen but otherwise sticking a newer soundtrack for the new main cast. Background music and combat sounds were done very well, and the battles sounded very alive and suspenseful. Even when soundtracks were used from the main series, this season did not just throw them in whenever, they were only occasionally used and only at the best moments. Overall, not much to complain about and the series managed to handle sound noticeably better than the last season where the original series sound track was overly used to get an emotional response instead of the series trying to stand on its own.

As far as the story is concerned, Magia Records season 2 noticeably diverges from the game it is adapting, but its actually a very good decision because the original storyline wasn’t particularly well written as it was for a mobile game revolved around rolling characters, you know the type. The change in the story was focused on making the doppel system a lot darker and giving Iroha and the main cast actual reasons to oppose the system, in the original storyline it barely made since for the characters to oppose a system that could arguably save them, but in this storyline the doppel system has notable drawbacks to its use and many people are being sacrificed in order to even make it work.

Overall this season is a significant improvement and is an 8 in rating, while the first season felt directionless and poorly executed, this season was executed with competence and was overall very enjoyable on multiple levels. From a new improved story to top tier production values, Magia Records 2 is a step up in every way and is a strong come back for Shaft, while not as good as the original Madoka series this show is still worth the watch and is recommended even if you have to get through the first season.

It’s time for a change of pace, there are definitely countless series involving sparkly idol girls who overcome every challenge easily through the power of friendship and put on expert level performances with a little bit of practice, but there aren’t enough series that are focused on how difficult it is to actually excel at performance arts. Sometimes it’s simply more entertaining to watch a brutally realistic depiction of a highly competitive industry, in this case live opera performances. Kageki Shoujo is a down to earth show about teenage girls struggling to break into a competitive industry and it is also a fairly well executed ... character drama series. This review will predominantly cover how Kageki Shoujo effectively delivered an intense story of a group of girls who struggle, fight, and suffer to achieve their dreams, the review will also cover various elements such as art and sound design and expand on what Kageki Shoujo did well at and what it lacked.

Kageki Shoujo covers the academy to theater pipeline and paints a clear picture of the struggles involved in becoming a top performer, from a competitive entrance process to constant pressure to be perfect, the series never lets the cast take a breather on their journey to becoming top stars. Before we go any further, it is important to note that this show does touch on various topics that some viewers may not enjoy or find difficult to watch including sexual abuse, body image issues, stalking and bullying. These problems are very common in the entertainment industry and the show handles the prior mentioned topics in a tasteful and realistic way that doesn’t exploit the characters for an edge factor. Each one of the issues are generally well-grounded and touched on in an intelligent manner, maybe except for one girl getting over her eating disorder a little too easily, but overall, the issues are covered competently. Due to how well Kageki Shoujo handled these issues, they are a lot more tolerable to watch, however if these topics are very likely to bother you then it’s recommended that you don’t watch the anime.

Now that we got that out of the way, expanding on the story and cast, Kageki Shoujo is predominantly centered on 2 girls enrolled in an opera academy, although the rest of the cast is fleshed out it is clear that these 2 girls take precedence over everyone else. The first girl, Narata Ai, is not initially interested in Opera at all, she gets into the school due to her good looks and overwhelming performance talent that was cultivated during her idol career. Narata however only joined the academy because the student body happened to be all female and she suffers from a severe phobia of all things related to men. This phobia is explained later on to have stemmed from early childhood sexual abuse and is a major reason on why Ai has a very reclusive personality, it also causes or is related to a good portion of the conflicts between her and the other main character Sarasa. While Ai initially has no interest in opera, Sarasa from the start has every interest in becoming a top star and has gone far out of her way to get into the academy, her background story is quite well fleshed out as well and its worth seeing how their different perspectives and upbringing leads them to interact initially.

Although the main 2 girls don’t get along at first, they eventually play off each other and the character dynamics between them as they grow closer are quite interesting to watch, we get to see intense background stories along with them standing up for each other and actively working to bring out the best in each other. Next to the main cast are the other girls who are a mixture of competitive, insecure, driven and incredibly jealous teens who will have conflicts with our 2 main girls, try to undermine them, be inspired by them, or grow alongside them and some of the side characters even get amazing individual episodes dedicated to them. The character drama is really good, the dialogue is funny, and the conflicts feel both real and captivating as every girl from their perspective is quite sure about their feelings and its quite easy to see things from each girl’s perspective, none of them are necessarily in the wrong, they just have competing interests. Outside of the awful stepdad we see in one episode, it’s hard to say that Kageki Shoujo has villains, there are antagonists, but they tend to be of a competitive nature such as rivals or upperclassmen who try to undermine the new girls, these antagonists are written very well and although you may end up hating them, it’s very easy to see understand why they do what they do.

Overall, the cast is really interesting, and the story has a great mixture of comedy, tragedy and interesting drama, there is never a wasted moment and every part of the show either explores the girls or involves the girls moving forward towards their goals of being successful opera stars. It’s fair to give this part of the show an 8/10 as it achieves everything expected out of a character drama-oriented series and gives the audience a great look into the cutthroat world of performance arts.

There are some technical elements that should be discussed as well, the character designs are fairly interesting, they look very pretty and unique compared to how most anime girls are drawn. Although all the girls do technically fall into a specific type of pretty girl like idol characters do, they do have more masculine looking girls as well as tall girls. This is because all female opera requires that the actresses cover the male and female positions, which leads to a variety of body types of appearances.

Character designs aside the rest of the art isn’t particularly impressive, it’s a standard high school setting type of art style and background design that you probably have seen in countless seasonal anime, nothing about it is super impressive except the visuals in the ending song which were done very well. The animation for the show as well is simply alright at best, it fulfills its purpose but don’t expect any mind-blowing scenes, nothing is bad in the sense of delivering slide shows but it’s not some sort of excellently choreographed masterpiece with incredibly fluid performances. There was however a decent portrayal of what an eating disorder looks like, and it was a nice touch that Ai grew her hair back slowly through the show which is the opposite of how girls in anime usually move past trauma but applies perfectly in this series, carefully applied details like this added a nice touch to the show.

This review will not go very in depth into the sound design but will note the highlight points. The ending theme and visuals were very good while the opening was fairly solid but outside of that the music in this show is forgettable and if I were it to rate it the music is a solid 8 out of 10 at best. Although the instrumental soundtrack is great and adds a lot to the competitive atmosphere, it just isn’t exceptional or remarkable enough that it would be worth listening to on its own. However, the ending theme really is something special, its recommended to check it out, every version has its own visuals for the girls that are front and center for that episode, and they all look great.

Overall, this anime is recommended if you want to watch an excellent character drama, one where difficult social problems are touched on in an effective way and the conflicts are intense and impactful. It also helps if you like predominantly female casts and enjoy learning about an industry you may not be familiar with. Drama alone would be a 9, however the other aspects of the story are not really that deep and nothing about the soundtrack or art style appeal strongly overall, so the show is at best an 8, however it is still enjoyable enough that it would be recommended to anyone who enjoys drama related series.

Yoru No Kuni tells stories about problems kids face like moving on from loss or jealously between friends, its an age old story with very common themes and nothing new or original is necessarily presented, the characters are not especially memorable either.

However the music and visuals are stunning and make this short series stand out in an absolutely magical way, if you enjoy series that are short and to the point but carry strong emotional impact with how they are presented, you will enjoy this story and beautiful night world it takes place in.

This work seems like a first time production for a new studio, ... not sure if they will continue, but I definitely wouldn't mind seeing more of these shorts in the future.

With various relaxed slice of life series coming to their end I was worried I would not be able to find something to properly replace slow paced shows I watch for relaxation purposes. Thankfully Supercub brings us a warm story of a girl and how a motorbike changed her life. Its worth bringing to your attention that this show is episodic and you should not expect anything significant in terms of plot or overarching story, the show is simply a glimpse into the life of a girl and her friends who bond over their hobby. This review will cover various aspects of the show including ... art quality and characters but leaving out story as its not relevant, there will be an overall score at the end. This review will not contain any plot relevant spoilers, mainly because there is nothing to spoil.

The animation in this series is effective but in a rather subtle way, there is no flashy sakuga or over the top highly detailed scenes, instead the whole show is portrayed in a very fluid and lifelike manner. Characters pouring water looks great, hair movement looks lifelike, perfect transitions to smiles, characters clothes move well with the wind, snow is knocked up by the bikes in a way that feels natural, essentially the animation style carefully immerses the viewer by animating everything to a realistic degree. Nothing is animated in a particularly advanced or flashy way, but everything that should move does move, there is some CGI used for the bike that is a bit distracting but otherwise its some of the most carefully executed motion I have seen in a TV anime in a while.

For characters, Koguma and Reiko were a down to earth and realistic portrayal of friends bonding over a shared hobby, very little drama and just 2 friends messing around with each other while having a great time. The friendship displayed here is carefully crafted, from an awkward introduction to assisting each other with their bikes and finally adventuring together, the progression of their relationship through the series is enjoyable and perfectly executed. There is a third girl who rides a bike and works at a cafe who shows up later in the show, she complements the cast well and helps Koguma become more of a senpai. These characters will likely interest you if you want to watch a more grounded friendship over a typical highly energetic and over the top anime friendship, it’s a slow burn but its realistic and feels heartwarming when the characters, especially Koguma, flash their smiles of satisfaction due to the fun they had.

This review will not go very in depth into the sound design but will note the highlight points. The primary highlight points being that the bikes actually sound like bikes and sounds vary by terrain, the ambient sound effects for everything complements the lifelike animation style that was used for this anime very well and the OP along with ED were relatively decent.

Overall, this anime is recommended if you’re a fan of the SOL niche or are interested in watching a realistic portrayal of girls motorbiking as a hobby, it has good production values and the cast is grounded well, there is nothing that really detracts from the show and it was most importantly very enjoyable to watch. In consideration of the niche this anime is focused on, points will not be deducted for a lack of a story or any significant themes, Supercub gets a solid 8/10 for delivering a relaxing and warm experience.

This series nearly went under my radar at the start of the season, but I am glad I noticed it. An original by WIT, an excellent VA cast, and a well known director, its rather amazing that this series had so little hype leading up to it. Vivy ended up being a rather excellent sci fi series and this review will highlight the various aspects of the series that were excellently executed along with a few things the series struggled with.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Story: 8

In a world where AI will eventually wage a genocidal war against mankind, a scientist decides that they will prevent ... this disastrous future by sending an advanced AI back in time to guide an idol robot into stopping the development of hyper advanced AI. The plot does sound a bit ridiculous based on the former description, however its also fairly unique for an anime premise, yes it has been done to death in western movies however its still fairly rare to see time travel AI plots in anime. As for execution, Vivy is well done for the most part, there was a decent amount of apprehension given the complexity of properly executing time travel stories and this being an original anime however the story was generally executed with competence. From the introduction of the 2 AI characters, to the development of the changing world over the time period the series takes place in, and the overall strength of the cast, the series manages to tell a very immersive science fiction story. There are some very sad moments that are handled with care and delivered with impact, the show does not shy away from killing additions to the cast but handles it in a way that the characters are decently built up before their deaths to make it all the more effective for impacting the viewer. There are also some hard to watch moments involving an AI making conflicting decisions, such as choosing between saving people they have gotten close to during their life or sacrificing them in hopes they can prevent a much greater tragedy in the future.

As for the single best aspect of the story, it was how the time travel element was handled, specifically when it is explained who set the singularity project in motion and how their interactions with Vivy shaped them and lead them to choosing her as one of the 2 people leading the mission. It is very easy to mess up time travelling in anime, so it was great to see an excellent twist with a very well thought out and developed delivery, the scientist background episode was actually one of the most emotional episodes of anime I have ever seen.

The series, despite the earlier strong points mentioned, does lack a few notable things. First the antagonists of the story are generally sort of idiotic and hard to take seriously. Terrorists who oppose technological advancement, yet with each of their moves they simply strengthen the odds that hyper advanced AI will come about eventually and that they will not be friendly to humans. The AI themselves are not really the antagonists but victims who are manipulated, which hurts the fact that during the series Vivy is developed as a fairly human like character, one with troubles expressing herself, but human acting none the less. By reducing the AI to unthinking victims who had no part to play in the genocidal war in the future, the show ended up weakening the whole premise of intelligent AI coexisting as servants to humans, even though this was one of the better themes in the series. Some other aspects of the show that hurt it are that the time skips are not very impactful, time passes very quickly in the anime, yet the audience needs to pay a lot of attention to notice that decades have passed, the scenery in the primary location barely changes, with only the AI control tower growing larger. These flaws do hurt the story and keep it from being perfect, but its still a very good story and one that is definitely worth watching if you enjoy sci fi series.


Art: 9

The artwork is far above average, as expected of WIT studio the series looks absolutely gorgeous in every scene. From the beautiful movie quality rain animation to the fluid fight scenes, including some of the most expression facial animations, and stunning character designs, this series has some of the best artwork in the current season and possibly some of the best this year.

We are introduced to the show with a dreamlike atmosphere in an amusement park, rapidly things descend to chaos as a massacre occurs, the way the park is designed contrasted with the violence that occurs really exemplifies how horrific the machine uprising was and why all steps were necessary to prevent it. The use of beautiful scenery and backgrounds, contrasted with the dark side of the actions taken on by AI throughout the show and the general graphicness of the underlying story, really paint an exceptional picture of struggle. Struggle to maintain this pristine and perfect world despite all the terrible things occurring in the background, the pristine and pretty world may be considered fake to some extent, however the people living in it find it to be very real as does the audience due to how captivating it is. This contrast is incredibly well played, although present in many other series, its exceptionally well executed in Vivy due to the incredible details put into the world and the way the art despite the heavy contrast does not clash between the beautiful world and the terrible events that occur. Both the Opening and the ED further take this point home and really go above and beyond in how well the contrasting imagery is executed while they play out, it really gives the audience a taste of what to expect and the show afterwards even exceeds the high expectations set out by the starting sequence.

The character designs are all really well done as well, the characters look very human and the AI characters are differentiated from humans in slight ways that do not seem jarring and help the audience understand how the AI managed to be integrated into society so well despite being quite different from humans in status and behavior. Vivy especially has an exceptionally aesthetic look, from her perfect lips, pretty blue hair and striking eyes to her perfect shiny pale exterior and every outfit she wears exemplifying how cute she is, Vivy definitely feels like a robot Violet Evergarden. Its worth adding that the other sophisticated AI, especially the girls, are all very well designed and look astonishingly attractive, if you are interested in robot girls this show will definitely appeal to your tastes. Given that Vivy’s Song is a performance based anime at its heart, and Vivy is a performer AI, it would stand to reason that the performances she puts on should be the most well choregraphed and animated instances of the show. The show definitely lives up to expectations and delivers to us very lively solo performances from Vivy, performances that entertain, performances that impact and performances that move the audience, Vivy easily captivates hearts with her performances and continuously improves throughout the series.

Some other aspects to note are that the fight scenes are very well animated, even individual shots are top quality and the show does not take its combat scenes lightly, from intelligent choreography and camera work to excellently impactful combat and environmental effects, the fights are definitely executed with both competence and style. There are some drawbacks to the combat scenes, in that they could probably have been extended and most of them skipped a good portion of the action just to focus on highlight moments between Vivy and the terrorists, but its still quite entertaining to watch and exceeded expectations given the type of anime this was supposed to be. In addition, the scenes where Vivy is in her inner mind are delivered in a way that really captures her feeling and anxieties, the subtle changes in her mental room as the show goes on is nice to watch and makes sure to keep the audience on the same track as where Vivy is headed. Another aspect, the facial animations, are almost perfect, there is no laziness taken in this series, where other anime may blank out character faces when in a distance or avoid animating eye movement or lips consistently, Vivy’s Song takes no shortcuts and makes the entire cast look like they are alive.

The sound: 9

As expected, given that it is a show about a singing robot, the music was one area where the series did not fail at. Every single performance was filled with a catchy lit song, excellent dance choreography, astounding visuals and of course a great conclusion. Vivy, regardless of the audience she gets, always puts on the best performance she can, and the sound quality and performances slowly improving throughout the story really capture how much she has grown. Its not just Vivy performing either, the sister series also put on great performances and even AI that you least expect to perform have moments where they will sing and perform. The performances are always transitioned into well and they always fit the atmosphere and add value to scenes, it does not feel forced at all.

The opening was incredibly good and is the type of song that you would be willing to put in a playlist, although the ED wasn’t particularly outstanding compared to some other series this season, it was fairly solid as well and closed episodes well, and this season had some ridiculously good Ending songs to compete with.
Other aspects of the soundtrack like the excellent combat sounds, background music and sound effects in general were also handled with care. From the scene where Vivy is in the mental landscape to the space hotel evacuation and the immersive high speed car chases, even the early episodes covered exactly how well the sound brought this series to life. It only gets better after as well, as the sound design continues to exceed expectations and deliver movie quality sound effects and performances for the entirety of the show.

Characters: 8

The main protagonist, Vivy, has stellar development throughout the series. She begins as an unexpressive doll that performs to entertain guests at a theme part, but over time explores the world and grows very human over time. Her performances captivate audiences and move people, she influences many people with her heroic actions, and despite her mission being to simply perform music, she manages to manipulate her programming to achieves goals she cares about. Vivy having astounding development throughout the story of course could not be achieved without the large cast she interacts with, she meets many people throughout her century long journey, friends, enemies, spectators, and people with their own dreams that may conflict with hers at some points. She grows by familiarizing herself with them, by saving them, by fighting people, by improving her music which allows for reaching a greater audience and through loss which is ever present in this series.
Many characters do die, but they shine brightly for the time they were present in the story, Vivy impacts their life and in turn they impact Vivy and her growth, it does hurt the show a bit they were sacrificed for the plot but it did stop their characters from having an impact. The deaths and the salvation in this series is handled very well and Vivy is grown in a very thoughtful way throughout the show, every interaction adds up and has an effect, its definitely interesting to watch how Vivy takes in the world.

The growth of the AI characters on the side, and how human like they are, even when certain AI characters are not designed to look like humans or act in a particularly human way due to not having interaction focused missions, is another highlight of the series. Although it’s been done many times, the execution of the human like AI in the world in this story is handled with a lot of care, there are no poorly paced or rushed moments and its completely believable.

The reasons why this series only gets an 8 for characters is due to a few things, the first is initially how absolutely insufferable the little AI companion was and the other is due to the antagonists being rather poorly characterized or outright stupid for most of the series and a large number of the AI characters being reduced to victims or sacrificed for the plot despite how well thought out and human like they were. As for the final antagonist, it was fairly predictable who it would be but their reasoning barely made any sense which also kept the score from being any higher.

Enjoyment: 9

The plot was handled as well as expected and the visuals were near perfect, the amount of effort put into this anime really stands out and is very evident given the unbelievably beautiful frames, the excellent music and exceptional voice acting. It was a pleasure to watch this every week and despite a huge number of shows dropped on the same day during this season, this one stands out the most and above the rest easily. In short, this anime ranks high for enjoyment and is one of the best original anime created, definitely one of WIT studios best work.

Overall: 9

The story, while done to death in other media, was executed with competence and gained a fresh perspective in anime form. The visuals had next to no flaws, the characters, especially Vivy, had great development and overall, the music was some of the best I have heard in anime. There is nothing notable detracting from the show enough that I feel like a high score is unrealistic and I personally enjoyed it greatly, due to this Vivy will be receiving a 9 out of 10, as a stellar example of how to execute an original sci fi themed anime.

Mashiro no Oto was a bit low profile during the season, most music anime tends to be and its primary competition this season was Vivy, a Wit Studio series with incredible production values so its not surprising that Mashiro no Oto ended up being overshadowed. However, this show is definitely a music anime that is worth watching and this review will expand on the reasons as to why you should consider giving it a try, it does a lot of things right and its one of the better recent music anime made.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Story: 7

It is the typical story of a talented genius who ... never really participated competitions or put significant effort into self improvement outside of solo training, who now needs to work with others to win a competition. This type of story is seen in many sports and music related anime and its nothing new, the format is fairly established and its very predictable on how its going to be played out. Where stories like this shine are the characters and execution, given how predictable these types of stories are they need to be able to get the audience invested in the cast or impress viewers with good writing. in the case of Mashiro no Oto the characters and execution were pretty solid, nothing particularly exceptional for execution but I did enjoy the characters. The entire main cast had great development and chemistry, overall had enjoyable dialogue, and they all had likable personalities.


Art: 7

While the artwork is no where near that of top music anime such as Sound Euphonium or this seasons Vivy, it’s by no means weak. The instrument playing animation was intricate and the visuals during deeper parts of the song accompanied the music really well. Characters looked good and they all had solid facial animation and movement, some of the camera work was a little bit strange and there were a lot of still characters in the audience and in background scenes, but overall, none of this detracted all that much from the animation.

The sound: 9

It would be very bad if the soundtrack was not excellent, given the nature of show, thankfully the music is really well directed. From the excellent OP during the first few episodes and the follow up OP which was also rather memorable, the background sounds, the highly effective performances, Mashiro no Oto showcases a beautiful variety of sounds. It cannot be understated how great the first opening song is, easily in the top 3 this season, its worth adding to a playlist and listening to it on repeat, while the second OP is not bad it doesn’t live up to the first one, the ED has a nice somber tone to it and closes episodes fairly well. Performance wise, there are some beautiful songs and musical pieces that really bring out how lively the shamisen can be and how many different types of sound can be created with it.

From people starting out to expert level performers, each performance captured and conveyed the sounds of the players accurately in a way that did not break immersion, some performances early on in the series along with the finals really draw the audience in as well. Although it may not be at the level of Sound Euphonium or top tier idol anime performances, this show went really far with what is at the end of the day a traditional Japanese instrument, its actually quite impressive how good the music was when most of it involved at most a few performers with the same instrument. The general sound effects in the show were solid as well so nothing to complain about there, the show has earned high points in the music category and lives up to the expectation of a music themed anime.


Enjoyment: 8

The music was impressive, and the series started strong, it did decline a bit in quality mid way to the end and the formula for the story as previously mentioned, is very obvious due to the nature of the series, overall though the show left a great impression on me. I had fun watching the characters prepare for their competition, I enjoyed the performances, especially the final performance the main character had. I also thought the development of the characters and their backgrounds were fairly interesting, although maybe some more development could have been had, overall, my enjoyment was fairly strong and as such an 8 is a reasonable score.

Overall: 8

Although the series was not exceptional, it was competently executed and did everything right for a music themed anime, it deserves a recommendation as a solid music themed anime. There are definitely some aspects that may detract from your enjoyment such as obvious storyline and character development that was lacking for the other characters outside of the main guy. However, this should not be that big of a concern, competition anime tends to be the same with few exceptions, execution is all that really matters, and this show delivered. If the characters were better developed and relationships explored more deeply this show could have been exceptional, but it was not the case, still would recommend though.

There are series that tend to fade into obscurity when they are finished, whether it be because their sequel took to long or perhaps they never generated a large following to begin with. Princess Principal is a series that falls into the latter category, though it has fairly high production values and arguably a very interesting setting, it never gained much traction. Personally I actually really do enjoy this series, a lot even, and as such I decided that it would be worth reviewing the first of the new movies. This review will look at the various qualities that an anime requires to be good ... and consider how this movie performed.

The story seems to involve another regular mission for the commonwealth spies, they are attempting to stop a major disaster from occurring and give their side an edge again. Nothing about the plot is particularly deep but its executed decently enough, don’t have any complaints, the character growth in the first movie isn’t really there but it is just the first movie and it should get better later on.

Visuals and soundtrack were the strong suits of the first season and this movie continues to deliver, from an aesthetic and catchy opening to a very detailed steampunk world, Crown Handlers continues to build on what the original series gave us. Characters, as expected, looked cute and attractive, while the fights were fluidly animated and chisato’s swordplay is an impress as ever, though not to the level of the train scene in the original season.

Character wise, it’s the same adorable cast, nothing particularly new with them or any notable growth, but its great getting to see them again and they certainly felt done right similar to the first season with no significant out of character behavior or decline in quality.

In short, this movie is worth watching if you liked the first princess principal and want to see more of their world and watch the other movies in the future. As it’s the first movie and nothing to notable occurred, I will have to give it a lower rating than the first season at an 8, but its still a good watch if you enjoyed this series.

It has been a long time since an original anime truly pushed the bounds of the medium and really diverged from standard cookie cutter series. Wonder Egg Priority is not only original in that it has no source material, its original in that its concept has rarely been done before in any other anime series. If you have long been awaiting an anime with a dark magical girl atmosphere similar to that of Madoka or Flip Flappers, along with Mawaru Penguindrum style character designs and color pallets, with all the symbolism included of course, then this is a must check anime from the 2021 winter ... season. This review will delve into why Wonder Egg Priority stands out among anime originals and why it is a contender for anime of the season even among one of the most stacked anime seasons in years.

Story: 7

Initially the premise seems like the backstory for a high school set drama, however this quickly shifts during the first episode. At the start the protagonist, Ai Ooto, goes full hikkikomori due to personal issues, some of the issues include a close friend committing suicide and Ooto generally being ostracized while at school. She lives her days full of regret and dreaming about her friend, Ooto knows she should have stood up her for her friend who was being bullied, especially since it was because her friend protected her that she became a target. All of this is just the prologue to the actual story which begins when Ooto picks up an egg which asks her if she wants to change her future.

The story really launches at this point, the audience is introduced to a dreamworld full of the regrets and the personification of inner problems that suicidal girls face, Ooto is given the task to save the girls who are in the eggs. She obtains eggs from a gacha machine and cracks them open, afterwards she needs to find a way to solve their regrets or help them overcome their inner problems. More is revealed about this later on, the plot twists involving the gacha eggs and the system are really well done and the messages the show deliver are executed in a completely satisfactory way. Every important scene is full of symbolism, this is definitely the type of show to watch with your full attention, it is also highly recommended that you pause and reflect between each episode. There are also a lot of heavier themes in place mixed with the lighthearted atmosphere, the themes are handled well and do not conflict with the more easy-going atmosphere outside of the dreamworld events. The director very effectively balanced the show so that it was never oppressively dark or painfully edgy but still carried the serious tone that should be expected given the themes and subject matter. Overall, the story is, until its ending, fairly well executed and one of the most original ones in recent anime, it tells a wonderfully crafted story of self redemption and overcoming inner turmoil, it gets a 7 out of 10 for its creativity and originality but it loses points for failed execution near the end.

Art: 10

The artwork is movie quality, it does not feel like a TV anime at all, every single scene looks like something out of an anime movie. From the background art which looks lifelike at times due do some absolutely amazing tracing work, to the food which looks like it belongs in a Ghibli film with its detail and rich colors, everything in the show has a lot of love and care put into it to an extent that is shocking for a TV anime. Most of the transition scene backgrounds, such as Ooto walking in the rain or the flowers in the fields can very well work as wallpaper for a 4k computer background, it cannot be understated exactly how detailed all the art is for this series. The symbolism is reminiscent of Mawaru Penguindrum and Madoka, while the action is about as fluid as Mob Psycho despite the massively more detailed character design. With a combination of rather unique looking enemies, excellent fight Choreography and cuts during major attacks, Wonder Egg Priority might have some of the best action scenes among recent anime even though action is not even the main focus given the nature of the story.

Character designs for all the girls were quite well done as well, the studio used a very saturated vivid color pallet for each character which can conflict with lighter backgrounds, however the characters actually contrasted in quite a beautiful way with the scenery present. The girls had unique traits such as a variety of skin tones, eyes colors, hair highlights and subtle differences in body type that set them apart from each other in a bold way, the studio did not use cheap tricks like recycling the character model with different hair colors or overdoing the body type differences between the girls to differentiate them. Every girl also has a unique outfit, texting style and accessories that convey their personality, an interesting weapon in the dream world which reflects their trauma, and they all have some of the most detailed reaction facial animations for when the girls are tense, excited, smug, frustrated, upset. Its worth adding that very few shortcuts were used like blank faces during distant convos, characters speaking without being seen, and there was next to no CGI at used at all for character movements despite the intense detail in their character design. Now the combat animation wasn’t perfect in that characters did have a lot of transition cuts during fights, however it was done in a tasteful way that actually added a lot of impact to the hard hits, blood splatter, knock back effects present. Wonder Egg Priority also managed to achieve something only a handful of anime have ever achieved, true horror during a fight scene, anime by design is pretty terrible at conveying a sense of horror due to how difficult it is to make a scene looks revolting, but that crocodile and butterfly scene really does it.

Overall, the presentation of Wonder Egg Priority is spectacular, the show essentially has no notable flaws and exceeds expectations in every way, there is nothing present or lacking that lowers its score and due to this it receives a very rare perfect score for its art production values.

The sound: 8

Interesting OP, an ED that closed each episode perfectly, sometimes in a hilarious tonal shift, but I maintain that it was perfect, the show also highly effective sound effects for fights. The OP itself including both the sound and the visuals really fill the audience with a strong sense of familiarity, it genuinely feels like the richness of daily life and all those small moments we take for granted being highlighted in the form of a warm and slow song. The background music soundtrack by itself was not that impressive, unlike other shows this series is compared to, for example Madoka Magica. However, on its own, it still complements the show well enough, and its memorable, therefore an 8 feels like a fair appraisal of the music.

Characters: 8

The cast is all female, and they are all focused on saving someone they knew that committed suicide, this binds them together and gives them a common background. Outside of the common tie, these girls come from entirely different socio economic and familial backgrounds and they all have entirely different, but complementary personalities. Every girl is well fleshed out and this anime feels like an inverse Bechdel test in ways, there are next to no men present, if they are present, they are either a source of trouble or irrelevant to the cast. In short, the cast is very similar to most magical girl shows; however it goes a step above and beyond in both their characterization and their distinct designs, all of the girls have an important story to tell and they are all in this important journey together.

As noted, before, men in the show are usually portrayed as bystanders or active antagonists, there is not much character development for them except one man who was very relevant for the protagonist. This is a notable weakness for the show, the antagonists are not really solidly fleshed out, the final antagonist was thrown in without any significant foreshadowing. It can be argued that the system itself and the girls inner problems can substitute as an antagonist, but its always nice to have a well characterized antagonist with their own motivations and goals that are clearly explained, while a true antagonist is sort of provided near the end of the series it felt a bit too rushed in to be counted. Despite missing a properly built up antagonist character, the main cast does grow together and complement each other well, they have their disagreements, conflicting opinions on whether or not they really have to undertake the egg gacha, and their moments of coming together after a major event. Overall, the main cast do feel like real characters with a lot of substance and depth, with multiple motivations for their actions and solid foundation behind the friendship they form with each other. The characters are a solid 8, it would have been better if there were solid antagonists and if the secondary cast such as family or the girls being saved had some more interesting moments, but the strength and development of the main cast was still quite well done.

Enjoyment: 9

Between the exceptional visuals, the original plot, interesting cast, and initial great direction, Wonder Egg Priority was easily among the 3 best shows this season. This is despite the fact that some of the most well awaited and popular sequels came out in the same season. Every episode was a fun ride, and it was entertaining to come up with theories on where the show was going to go and ending up being right or wrong. It ranks very high on the enjoyment scale overall, definitely one of the most fun anime in recent history, probably the most fun original anime in years.

Overall: 9

The production values, direction, story, cast all being excellent lead to this show being given a 9 overall. This was one of the best recent anime that made, definitely one of the best original anime in years, it had an excellent approach a lot of hard issues without making the story edgy and outside of the last leg of the story it was executed with perfect direction. If you enjoy visually impressive abstract shows with a psychological thriller plot, Wonder Egg Priority is right for you.