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I have seen every single episode of the ryo ohki ova series up until this point.

I turned it on and had no idea what was going on or who was even talking and what they were talking about.

What is happening? Who is it happening to?

AND WHY IS EVERYTHING BEING EXPOSITED WHILE SITTING IN ROOMS DRINKING TEA INSTEAD OF JUST SHOWING IT HAPPEN?!?!!!!

...I get the idea from reading other reviews that maybe this is only supposed to be taken in if you have read the supplemental material outside of just the anime series(s). If thats the case, its just a terrible show. It ... felt more like watching a comic con panel instead of an actual series.

Its sad, but dont waste your time folks.

If you're reading this, by now you know the premise so ill spare you more of that. So ill cut to the meat and potats: Is it worth watching?

No. It really isn't. At least- not if you're enough of an anime fan to be reading reviews on this site. Its has one "joke" and its the same one every Shonen gag manga and anime has done since goku first kicked a bus in dragonball. Dude is really stronk, can we make his absurd strength into a funny? In my opinion, most people who have seen this joke will be bored to tears by the end ... of episode one, but will try to soldier on bc rule of threes.

Let me save you some time- it doesn't get better. Much like a nice Romano Tour with Adam Sandler- you will still be YOU when you watch this anime. If you aren't the kind of person who enjoys "haha muscles make magic", this anime will not make you into the kind of person who finds that funny. If you are the kind of person who is tired of Shonen tropes and archetypes, this show will do nothing to change that opinion. In fact it might just reinforce it.

This show is like what would happen if you took the fun out of black clover, or the commitment to the bit of One Punch Man, and expected them to still be likeable.

You might be wondering, what makes those things work in other anime, but not this one? The short answer is sincerity. But the long answer:

Black Clover wears its inspirations on its sleeve and has no shame about it at all, it doesnt try to break the mold just be the best fitting pastry (or whatever other mold-fitting thing) it can be. And once you realize that its just meant to largely be a fun piece of media that's there to celebrate the genre its from, its pretty fun (if you enjoy Shonen in the first place).

One Punch Man understands its central joke PERFECTLY. It makes an effort to take the world and the characters that populate it seriously. As seriously as possible from every conceivable aspect of production from the character design to the voice acting to the animation. All to build up its world and characters as big as possible so that when Saitama knocks them down with a single punch, we laugh because of all of the tension we built up in ourselves in the situation. The world isn't ending, no evil fish guy is coming to eat everyone or ruin our day- its just an anime. And what's more, OPM's commitment to taking its characters and world seriously creates some seriously engaging character drama whenever saitama isnt onscreen. But in terms of the joke, it helps that saitama is just as enthused in the character melodrama as a typical cynical Shonen hater, so it makes his one hit kills even funnier because yeah dude, he just wanted to chill or whatever. Meanwhile- Mash struggles far too much and comes across as far too invested in the stakes of the world to really properly sell these kinds of jokes to the audience.

At least- that's my opinion.

My girlfriend and I really enjoyed this show when it first started. A vaguely gay distopian story with hints of Trigun and some Cowboy Bebop esque Episodic storytelling? Sounds like a great time!

Where it lost us was in its villain. Its villain is the achilles heel of the entire series. The following will be an exhaustive breakdown of everything wrong with the villain that contains spoilers from episode 8 onwards. Thats really where the troubles began.

The villain goes from being the Darth Vader to the Emperor in about two sentences. What I mean by that is- initially he is introduced as feeling similar to just ... a high level henchman ala Jaws from James Bond or the Aforementioned Darth Vader. When in Reality he turns out to be the Uber BBEG of the series in the vein of the Emperor or Zuul from Ghostbusters (Idk why I couldnt think of anyone else- dont @ me).

Not only is the Villain literally a massive capitalist dickweed by wanting to monopolize the only life-saving medicine available for a world that has been plagued by this disease. BUT he is also the asshole who made everyone hate the protag by spreading rumors about the hero's sacred order AND he also used to be one of them! Realizing now that the emperor comparison is really apt given their backstory... ANYWAY! The villain then completely turns into not a cold, calculating badass who is confident in his every breath, but a complete whiny baby who freaks the fuck out whenever anything even slightly goes haywire in his halfassed plans. Part of this is on the blame of the animators I feel for making him too expressive in these moments, but most of it I think has to do with the writers and the VA for just completely hamming up his performance and dialogue.

After episode 8 most of the logic that was present in the series kind of goes out the fuckin window. So much so that the hero and villain (SPOILERS SPOILERY SPOILERDOO) both die in the 9th episode, and both come back to life by the 11th episode. But now they have god powers and immortality and shit.... yeah its just... yeah...

The only saving grace is that the ending goes SUPER gay like.... these guys might as well go around summoning rainbows everywhere, but the mushroom allegory kinda gets the same point across so its fine. But im not kidding, the second the villain is defeated, the show goes back to the same show that my girlfriend and I loved beforehand. So- if you're looking to be edged in terms of satisfaction derived from entertainment this is probably a good bet if you feel up to binging it.

Overall Id say this show is a fun distraction if you feel up to it. The animation isnt great most of the time but when it slaps it really does. And the ending makes me think a season 2 might not be AS bad. But I reckon that this show will more likely be remembered for its homo-eroticism than anything so if anything it'll probably just provide context for all those horny fanfics you might see on AO3 for the next few months.

4/10 needs more gay

Yeah, I read the manga.

That said, I didnt go into this season having read the manga. Something felt off around ep 5, so I went and binged all of the now completed series on the Jump app (highly recommend for all shounen fans btw, Kaiju No 8 is the next naruto fuck you fight me), and while neither story is perfect, everyone saying that the manga did it better here are so much more right about this that Trump just released a statement saying that "There were good and bad people on both sides". That is to say, if you've encountered both and think ... the anime is better, you're either straight lying to yourself or you are clinically braindead and you accidently hit the wrong button out of the yes/no that your doctors gave you to interact with people after the accident.

But at risk of completely undermining what ive just said, the actual production on this adaptation is absolutely top notch. Visuals and sound design is on point, the OP slaps harder than my aunt after her third sherry on thanksgiving, and the voice acting is pretty spot on for what you'd want.

Again, the issues stem from the story here. For the five of you scouring the reviews page on this that were not aware already, this season (at least so far, watched 9/11 so far so it made it hard to forget about that) rushed through the remainder of the original manga's story. That is to say it aimed to adapt approx 150 chapters of the story in a mere eleven 22 minute episodes. For those who dont know how adaptations of manga usually work they typically do 2-3 chapters per episode. The first season of this adaptation was 13 episodes and covered approx 38 chapters for example. How do you cram that much story into eleven episodes you may ask? Well you dont for starters. That is to say, they removed at least 60 of those chapters (2.5 arcs from the manga) and cut out the material in the final 2 arcs that would keep it from ending as quickly as possible short of the characters saying "Hey maybe we just fuck all this story and theming shit and just bail yeah?" (Though to be honest, that is almost said verbatim around episode 9).

This leaves the anime only viewer incredibly confused as mystery boxes are set up, revealed, and then a new mystery set up sometimes within ten minutes of each other. With the final product feeling less like the promised neverland, and more like some cokehead's scribblings after telling all of his friends that he was going to write a screenplay. For example, the 6th episode covers the approximation of about 15 chapters in a single episode. And none of it is really properly handled.

A lot of people ive seen online are squaring the blame on several factors, the studio (clover) is overbooked for this season (3 including this one), the manga ending leaves little incentive for people to want to adapt it, and even possibly the original author, who was brought on board as the creative director, wanting to try and correct the mistakes that fans and possibly he felt were made with regard to the ending, which is itself controversial amongst fans of the manga. Personally id say its a happy mix of all three with more of a lein on the former two reasons. Maybe one day when the manga goes down as a classic then another studio will come along and do a brotherhood style remake, but until then I'd say just read the manga. Its sadly the only way I can see any fan of the first season getting anything close to a satisfying story out of the amazing setup of the first season.

TL;DR: Adaptations are hard, they're harder when people dont want to adapt 2/3rds of the entire story. This ones a big disappointment folks, I just wish that they would've shown it more love. Go read the manga b/c this story clearly deserved better

Final rating breakdown:
Story-3
Art-8
Sound-8
Character-4
Enjoyment-2
Overall: 4/10

Y'all this show is cringe incarnate.

The most frustrating thing about it is that it has genuinely good moments in there. Spots where you can see a good idea, an interesting possible character exploration, etc and it just doesnt follow through on any of those. This series has only nostalgia going for it, and for someone who really only cared about the original was tbh, because of this ships, this show has none of that. You might think that maybe the original cast popping up here and there could fix things with a burst of nostalgia, but no. The original cast has all but disappeared ... after the first episode (Which is a flashback for little/no reason) and what has happened to them is treated as a big mystery box that the actual characters, despite being their family/origins etc, they could honestly give a damn about.

Now that is interesting in how they characters view it, but what it ends up leaving the show with is three leads who buy and large go down to this basic formula (As of episode 9):
Moroha: Wants to actually do something
Towa: Will only go along with it b/c what moroha wants to do somehow ties back to her goal of restoring her sister's memories
Third girl (I honestly forgot her name. She has that little bearing on anything): Will go along with whatever Towa wants to do bc reasons. Despite stating previously that she doesnt remember or care about towa or moroha. But will be there to do her cyclone attack but never the finishing blow.

Thats really it. Two of the three characters really have little to no bearing on what happens in a given episode or where they go. Now, they will disagree with what moroha wants to do initially, but they'll eventually do what she wants to do anyway, because reasons.

The biggest thing that bothers me about it though is the pacing. This show is quick. Way quicker than the original show at least. The central conflict thus far has the three characters going around killing what are called "The Four Perils". Thing is, these perils are described as basically generals in the army of the guy who (presumably) killed Inuyasha and Kagome. Sound like pretty tough folks right? With one exception, all of them are killed in a single episode. And most of the time its just by happenstance that they run into the Perils. Theres no planning, no searching, nothing. Literally theres a character who fast travels them directly to the Peril's base to go kill them. Its ridiculous, and I hate it. Maybe im just too used to the original series, but why would they even bother making a nostalgia based sequel series if they weren't going to try to mimic as much of what people enjoyed about the original as possible?

Also the OP sucks more ass than Donkey from Shrek's Vaccuum.

3/10

Whose ready for a Hot Take!?! Get it? Hot take?....And the shows about fire fighters? Get it? Oh god im so funny...

I, like most people doing these reviews, was very interested in fire force when I first saw the trailers for it. The concept seemed familiar but still unique, the world seemed like it had some potential, and the creator of Soul Eater was on board so hey, why not?

And then I saw it. And boy oh boy, was I dissapointed.... Well, thats probably a bit of hyperbole on my part, as the parts that intrigued me, still did (and do) at this point ... in the show (just finished episode 8). The animation is insanely good compared to some other shounen this year (lookin at OPM S2), with some absolutely gorgeous frames that are beyond screensaver worthy. And all of the fire powers in the show are each unique while telling us a little bit about the character (for the most part). And while all of the characters are largely cliches, deep characters arent exactly what I look for in most of my shounen, if they do happen its usually just a fun little addition to my overall enjoyment.

!!!!!!!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All that being said this show does have some serious problems and they all begin and end with the story. We are introduced to the main plot of the story at around the end of episode 4, with the reveal that not only is the protag squadron a new squad led by one of the few people in the fire force with no fire powers, but its also been put together to serve as a bit of internal affairs for the entire fire brigade. But in secret. Now, on paper this sounds pretty awesome, but when it comes to the actual execution it leaves a lot to be desired. We are then introduced to the first corrupt squad that needs to be taken down by fire force. You would then expect the first major arc of the story to be about investigating said squad, trying to catch them doing something corrupt or whatever, but no. Immediately the bad squad kidnaps a member of the good squad and now we're fighting. Like in the same episode we're introduced to this bad squad..... Then when its all over, nobody is arrested, there isnt some big scandal in the papers or any fallout to deal with. It was just "Hey, stop being so obscenely evil all the time... okay? Bye!!!!" And thats it. With the only fallout in the story being that the bad squad captain now works with the good squad to solve the greater mystery of human combustion. Also she wants the protag's peen. Thats it. Thats the only consequence to the story.

Basically robbing the entire show of any dramatic weight if the only punishment for villains is "You've gotta be a good guy now mmmkay?" It's all very frustrating and maybe it will be addressed in future episode of the show, but for now its just frustrating as a viewer when I feel like nothing that the protagonists do really effects the world of the show that much. At least in a shounen.

Also I know that I said earlier that the cliche characters dont bother me that much, but what does bother me is when the show tries to have its female empowerment cake and eat it too. Mostly because its a crappy cake. What I mean by that is,they'll add in female characters that are supposed to be strong, and powerful, but are always undone by their emotions. This is a cliche that has always and will always bother me. Especially given in the 8th episode where the female character that we have been led to believe this entire series that she is the strongest female member of fire force (so far), and then is victimized by the guy she likes and cant defend herself whatsoever for no reason other than "Her emotions wouldn't let her". It was extremely offensive to me to watch. Especially since the entire sequence was obviously going to end up being (and it did end up being) just another way to make the protag yet another "hero" moment.

I'm not going to lie and say that I am an expert on the mindset of a person who has been emotionally manipulated like that character was, but when everything else in the show has shown me how strong a character is, and to decide to betray that all for the sake of some cheap mustache twirling villainy and a hero shot for our male lead, it really pisses me off. Just gets me into full-on, run-on sentences, pissed.

Given my emotions on this show are very fresh as I JUST finished the latest episode that made me madder than any other episode thus far, I still think this show is very very rough from a story standpoint. I would suggest to anyone reading this to wait until the entire series is done and just do a 48 hour binge session over a weekend with your body pillow of choice instead of watch this one week to week. Maybe seeing the whole picture at once will make the annoying parts more tolerable.

Final overall score (as of episode 8): 6/10

Everyone has been freaking out over the severe downgrade in animation quality from season one. However, in reality, the animation has just gone from euphoric to average. Which, while a huge disappointment, still doesn't make the animation awful. There are dozens upon dozens of other shows that have a similar level of animation quality that go on to become classics in their own right, the only difference with this one is the first season is one of those classics largely because of its animation, and so people are understandably upset.

However, when you really get down to it, this is still a highly enjoyable show. ... The characters are all just as deep and enjoyable as before. With all of its new characters so far proving to be real highlights. King in particular makes a massive impact with the first episode. And I for one find the change from an episodic format to a serialized one to be much more enjoyable.

I realize that most of this so far has been more of an "in defense of" instead of a review, but I think that's because I feel like most people that will read through the reviews here will see more people harping on the animation style than actually talking about the anime itself. And while I think those criticisms on the animation are fair, they don't really ruin the show. At least they shouldn't for most people who aren't here strictly for sakuga. And I think that's a real shame, because when it comes down to it, this season has made me laugh just as much as the previous season, with the added bonus of making me care about some of the other characters. Hell its even making me start to relate to saitama a bit, something the previous season hadnt really done. Though that is moreso because the pace has slowed down a lot more than before- something that I would chalk u more to writing instead of animation or direction- but its really more because of a personal love I have of tournament arcs rather than anything. And boy howdy, am I psyched to see what a one punch man style tournament arc is going to look like.

Here is my score breakdown:
Story-8.5
Art-6.5
Sound-6.5
Character(s)--9
Enjoyment- 8
OP-5 (but the song is a bop)
ED- 3
Overall- 8

This franchise is easily (In my Opinion), the most fascinating franchise in all of anime. From a Meta standpoint that is. If only because this is probably the biggest example of a franchise evolving over time that I can think of. With the original series being mostly comedy, the series slowly etched over into a heist drama, and now a crime drama. For an american reference point, that would be like if Scooby Doo eventually started solving murder and rape cases in its most recent series. (Also, see scoobynatural if you haven't already).

What this does is show how the series has grown with its ... audience a bit. The kids who used to watch the original series of Lupin III now having grown up and have started making the show. Of course I would argue that the series' new grittier tone has everything to do with the financial success of "The Woman Called Fujiko Mine", its sequel "Daisuke Jigen's Gravestone" and likewise the more recent Goemon movie achieving similar success. However none of that would have happened, if the audience that grew up with the series weren't interested or hungry for more adult oriented stories with these characters. And that isn't at all a criticism of this new direction, far from it. But I do think that it distinguishes Lupin III as one of those very rare cases of a franchise growing with its audience, while still maintaining, if not improving, its overall level of quality. In he states recently I would argue that the closest thing we've had to that is the Netflix Voltron series, though that certainly doesn't even come near the mature themes set in this most recent Lupin installments.

To get to the point, this show is good. Damn good. In fact I would say that this show (so far) has proven to be my favorite of this season (Spring 2018). Something that is certainly no small feat given its competition. But week after week I tune in to watch the show and delight in its subtle character moments, intriguing mysteries, layered characters, and silly humor that the series has become known for. With the only exception being what I assume is the Golden Week episode where the series returns to its more child friendly and less realistic tone for just that one episode. Id recommend skipping it if at all possible. I'm surprised it wasn't an OVA.

Now given I am a bit of a Lupin fanboy, that doesn't change the fact that I have been known to turn away from the franchise from time to time when I feel the narratives either bore me, or try too hard to be edgy. I wont lie and say it doesn't skirt the latter quite a bit sometimes, but it certainly isnt do the former for me. And the single arc side characters introduced arent always the best or most interesting at first, Lupin and his gang are still made the stars of the show enough to where I dont mind it much.

TL;DR: Lupin sure has aged weird in the best possible way, and this latest installment shows it. 9/10 just skip episode 6

The main draw for this anime is that it uses the fun premises and world building done by reki kawahara for SAO (Easily the best parts) and throws away everything else. This allows an actually talented storyteller to play around with the world. It feels like fanfiction, but in a good way. Kind of like the team behind this production saw the first two seasons of SAO, noticed its flaws, then told reki to hold their beer.

This series definitely improves on every aspect of SAO, at least in terms of the shows more obvious flaws. The main character has actual emotional struggle, has actual ... friends outside of the game world, and has genuiune charm. The female characters (main character included) arent just there for some fanservice (though its unavoidable at times), with each of them contributing to the plot or at lest doing something other than obsessing over a man that they know very little about. Also nobody in this series is trying to have sex with their sibling and (so far) theres no rape-y scenes so thats an instant win.

That being said there certainly are some flaws here and there. For example, it really feels like the episodes were shown out of order. With the second episode better serving as the introduction to the character than the actual one we got (which should have been the third). As well right now theres no real stakes to the story at all. Which is realistic to the subject matter, but doesnt really get my excited to see what happens next. Which is fine, not all anime have to be hype, its just weird to not feel that way going into a show where gunbattles are kind of the whole point of the setting.

However! Something else that this series does better than SAO, at least in terms of the GGO arc, is the action sequences. In the original GGO arc, the action was incredibly boring. It mostly just felt like a ripoff of the star wars prequels with kirito almost immeadiately just using his lasersword to rip through faceless goons until the final battle with the awfully named Death Gun. Whereas here, battles have a real sense of tension in them that can only come from gunplay. In addition, theres actual names and faces to the goons that our main characters face off against. With at least each group having their own personality that sets them apart from our heroes as well as other groups. This makes them seem, at the very least, like actual threats that could realistically take them out.

However, at the time of my writing this review, I have only seen the first four episodes, so I feel all of these opinions should come with a big ole asterisk til then. Just because things take a turn for the rapey down the line. It certainly wouldnt fit the tone very well, but it didnt the first two times in this series either so who knows? But for now, this is an easy recommendation for me, 8/10.

I was one of the folks who first got introduced to this show by bingeing the first season on netflix. And personally, I think this is a show that works far better in a binge setting than a traditional viewing experience. Mostly because I find myself slogging just to watch each week's new episode. I find myself often dreading it. Mostly because what usually keeps me going back to a series are things like intriguing plotlines, interesting villains, or good characters.

Seven Deadly Sins, as a series, has nothing extraordinary about it. At all. Which is why digesting it all in one or two sittings ... over the course of a bored weekend on netflix fits the show so perfectly. Its an empty, hollow experience that will leave you with some decent action setpieces, some fanservice (Okay, A LOT of fanservice), and little else. Personally I was very excited for the prospect of this season due to my personal obsession with arthurian lore. But instead of any intrigue about the political system and/or reinterpretation of this universe's camelot, we get what mostly boils down to what most non-erotic fanfiction is in terms of writing. With some of the worst parts of Dragonball Z thrown in for good measure. This includes, but is not limited to; Bullshit Power levels, Big bads becoming good guys and vice versa for (in the anime's logic) little reason other than they didnt think theyd get another season out of this last time around so they cut out A LOT of the story from the manga that would've made stuff make sense (or so i've been told), watching the side characters struggle like incompetents with the villain(s) until the main character shows up to beat some serious ass, and absurd amounts of exposition dumping.

This show is probably the best example of what not to do in regards to show dont tell that i've seen in quite a while, certainly this season at least (Winter 2018). I would only recommend this series if you have a case of alochols (or your preferred mind altering substance of choice), the entire series on netflix, and a three-day weekend with nothing and I mean NOTHING better to do on your hands. Otherwise I'd suggest going to rewatch FMA: Brotherhood again. Its a far better execution of the european aesthetic in anime with a far more engaging story.

Also: Gowther is made into a huge prick this season for seemingly no other reason than to be a huge prick that doesnt know what it means to be human (i.e: Data from Star Trek, but a huge asshole) and everyone else is WAY too cool about it. Thats just weird.

TL;DR: This show is painful, either rip it off quickly like a band-aid or just skip it and save yourself the aneurysm. Art style is cool though. And Dat muzak. 6/10