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5.0/10
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There are certain tropes that exist within the realm of anime, well, less obviously, comedy anime. Said tropes seem to inhabit the majority of these programs and, to my dismay, negatively influence my enjoyment of these products. Tropes are not inherently bad, as they are a kind of backbone for every piece of entertainment. However, certain tropes you, as a viewer, can grow to harbor an inner disdain for.

Comedy anime, especially of the romantic nature, tends to exude and indulge in these tropes to the point where they instantly put me off of a show. One of said tropes is the idea that our ... protagonist needs to have some kind of moral or ethical restriction or rule imposed upon them by nothing but their own will or experience, which often rings hollow since it is such a preposterous idea, to begin with. This trope, I'll agree, is present in a lot of anime, especially Shounen action, but it also persists in comedy for no reason other than to create over-the-top situations, naturally.

This is just one of those tropes that always rubs me the wrong way because it never breeds situations that I believe or find funny, and while comedy is generally unbelievable, there does need to be an air of verisimilitude that inhabits the scene for it to work in context.

With this knowledge, we enter "Arakawa Under the Bridge".

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[Character, Delivery, Execution]

The trope here is utilized of course. Our protagonist, Kou Ichinomiya, kindly nick-named "Rec" or "Recruit" early on in the series, is a rich business elite who grew up with a tough, no-frills father that seemed to not care much about him at all. He taught him one lesson, to never take favors from anyone as you never want to be indebted.

So here stands Rec, on a bridge, pantsless, and wondering what he did to deserve to be stripped by a group of schoolboys. Here comes Nino, fishing his pants up from a hanging railing and handing them over to him. At first he rejects her assistance but then comes around to accepting her favor and is therefore forced to become indebted to her. She asks him to be her lover and well... you can probably guess where this goes. He is forced to be the lover of this surprisingly attractive strange girl who lives under the bridge. Woe is Rec.

Under the bridge, Rec meets a group of equally strange and zany characters that have all kinds of odd interests and hobbies. Ranging from a man in a Kappa costume who believes he's actually a Kappa, serving as the chieftain of this little group, to a man who is perpetually in love with Nino whilst also wearing a star-mask and making bad music. The designs here are all distinct and quite good, actually, specifically the gun-toting nun and peppy, yet clumsy farmer girl. This group of somewhat loveable and oafish characters don't get much development, as the series' thirteen episode stretch is more oriented around sketch comedy.

Unrelated skits backend each episode. These episodes are split up into multiple "chapters", each one signifying a different theme or concept and play out in one to ten-minute sketches that don't correlate with one another until the main psuedo-arc of the series comes into play. It's a cute format that is in-line with something like Nichijou, a favorite of mine. Unlike Nichijou, "Under the Bridge" doesn't have as much diversity or prowess in its execution, and unfortunately, a lot of the comedy falls flat. More on that later.

Ultimately, these colorful characters are not at all detailed enough, in my opinion. It's not like they have to be since there are plenty of comedy series' out there that don't have three-dimensional characters, but they make up for that in pure wit and amazing comedic chops. With "Under the Bridge", there is a specific effort for emotional moments and moments of actual romance, and unfortunately, they all fall flat.

Which is sad because the series is definitely at its best when it is being funny. Even if it isn't always funny. The first episode, also, doesn't feel like anything else in the series because it is substantially better paced and entertaining than anything else in this series, which is somewhat low on highlights and more just showing blips of inspiration a few moments of joy every episode.

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[Comedy in Anime]

Since I don't have too much to say about this series apart from "it's okay" and "occasionally funny" and "somewhat unremarkable", I rather focus on the broad experience I've had with comedy anime and the "style" is is often off-putting for me. I don't even think it is a cultural thing since there are plenty of anime that have had me laugh and there are plenty of Japanese films that are equally hilarious as some of the better productions coming out of Hollywood.

No, it's something more. It feels like so much comedy in this series, as well as a lot of the comedy anime I've seen hits the same way, with the same delivery, and the same kinds of shots and effects and even voice acting. Honestly, a lot of it seems very repetitive to an almost ludicrous level.

The same can be said for the way humor is handled at all. Jokes seem to go on for far too long, their punchlines run their course and instead of cutting, they either repeat the punchline or exposit the punchline, which makes it far too obvious and very clunky to sit through. It happens a lot. For example, a scene would lead up to a pretty decent punchline, and then, for no reason other than to explain to the viewer what is happening, the main character or whoever else would just yell out exactly what the punchline was.

This is what I call 'reactionary humor', where the writers try to add another moment of comedic timing and delivery through a character's reaction to the piece of comedy, however, it is so rarely funny. Especially since it is delivered the same way every damn time. It's always yelled loudly with a multi-colored background and action lines. It doesn't look good, it doesn't sound good, and quite honestly, it ruins the joke.

This problem persists throughout this series and throughout a lot of comedy anime because I guess a wacky face that I've seen a hundred times in a hundred different anime is enough to be a punchline now? So there's the problem, this odd, clashing style really detracts from the punchlines. I suppose it works for many, this very abrasive, loud, and reaction-based style of comedy. However, for me, it really doesn't do anything and "Under the Bridge" was brimming with it.

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[Aesthetic and Sound]

This is all solid. The SHAFT style is ever present. It feels a bit too much like Monogatari at times, but I suppose that style is what defines studio SHAFT at this point. It is especially jarring when the protagonist, Rec, is voiced by the same VA as Araragi from Monogatari.

The style here, while visually solid, isn't really necessary. I never felt the indulgent need for it, similar to Monogatari, and it very rarely actually affected the core of the show, which is the comedy. There are some pretty scenes, but in general, the entire show takes place in one, very green, very bridge-oriented location that isn't all too interesting after the first couple episodes.

The OP and ED are both solid, providing something that wasn't outstanding, but definitely is worth noting as a positive for this show's sound. Then again opening and endings in anime tend to blend together for me, so who am I to judge.

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[Conclusion]


It's okay. That's the best thing I can say about this series. There were stretches where I was bored and genuinely uninspired by what's happening on screen. There were moments where I enjoyed seeing these characters interact and seeing their little world grow, and there were, very rare moments of actual, laugh-out-loud comedy that was delivered well. Unfortunately, this makes for an unremarkable package that I don't see myself recommending to people who aren't already fans of anime-style reactionary comedy.

Describing this series, one of my friends called it "Monogatari-lite", and in a way, it is. The style is not as interesting, neither are the characters, or the setting, or anything, really, but the presentation is in line with what SHAFT has done with Monogatari and I, for the life of me, can't figure out why. There is no reason to include this kind of aesthetic in a show like this, and SHAFT shouldn't be pigeon-holed into over-relying on their developed style, which was pioneered by Shinbou. They are perfectly capable of utilizing something different like with Madoka Magica.

The music is solid, and the voice acting is generally really unremarkable. The most impressive voice work has to come from Chiwa Saito, who plays the cute young kid, Stella. Thi character is a brat and often changes metaphoric forms, which prompt the VA to have quite a few different inflections for this character that are not only endearing but are bordering on funny, too.

"Arakawa Under the Bridge" is a fairly unremarkable series wrapped up in the guise of something better. The style doesn't seem to fit, although it is visually pleasing, and everything from the story to the characters tends to flatline more so than anything else. Even if the characters themselves are well-designed. The attempts at romance fall completely flat due to the totally ridiculous premise, which fits the show's comedic tone but doesn't actually make for a believable romance or likable romantic prospects. The father/son relationship is a bit more interesting but honestly isn't explored enough to call well-done. Overall, it's "just there" as a series that I think doesn't do enough to actually maintain interest through the meat of its execution, which is the humor and characters.

The presentation is fine, although ill-fitting, and the music is decent, too. But ultimately, there's a dissonance between what works and what doesn't, and I will always find myself wishing that this series portrayed a more captivating world.

[8.5/10]
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What do you get out of world-building? A sense of creating a universe that is so fantastical yet dealt with pragmatically. The experience of wonder, of awe, of wide-open eyes and dropped mouths with a string of saliva rolling down the side of your cheek. The figurative light-bulb lighting itself above your head as a new piece of crucial information is revealed. The feeling of descent, thematically and literally, as every step you take with these characters feels harder, slower, more exhausting. Beads of sweat drip off your temple. The ecosystem suffocates you. The monsters lurk at the edges of an oasis.

Made in Abyss, ... above all else, supports creativity. It supports the feeling you get when the seed of creation sprouts in your mind and you are left with a blooming flower of concept that you can't help but expand upon. The sustained creation, the never-ending magnitude, the all-encompassing awe. This is what is provided in what I can only call the most jaw-dropping world I have yet seen in anime. Something that explodes and never lets up. Every environment whispers in your ear, shrieks in agony, and curls up unease.

For all the faults that this series' harbors, one shining example of unrelenting vision and creative strength carries it through the occasional tedium and narrative missteps. Through the thick shrubbery of clunky exposition and thorny veins of confounding character decisions into the open meadow of inspiring and seat-gripping thematic resolutions. A passion project through and through, we are left with one of the most unique anime on television.

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[Presentation and Sound]

Made in Abyss may be the prettiest show out. Not just the background art, or the character design, or the animation in and of itself. Which is lead by names like Kazuchika Kise, the key animator of Ghost in the Shell, Osamu Masayuma, the background artist of Spirited Away, and Kou Yoshinari, the key animator for Steamboy and Kizumonogatari. The talent is palpable. But the prettiness comes from the combination of these elements. The ability to blend everything that works so well into a package that is as astounding as it is subtle with presentation.

We go from sweeping shots of different biomes and ecosystems to confined rooms that ooze personality from every pore. A soundtrack that not only utilizes fully written music with consistent reprisals to wondrous backing tracks that act like blankets on some of the shows biggest revelations. Plucking strings to extensive violin.

The animation here is also quite solid. While at its peak in the magnificent first three episodes, it remains fairly consistent throughout the series' run-time, with very few dips in noticeable quality. You get a product here that excels in its art, and it needs to, because the art here is almost the forefront to this whole adventure. Without exceptional art we would've been thoroughly underwhelmed by the magnitude of concept being shown here.

The presentation, in this case, doesn't just cover the visuals but the way the narrative presents us with the world. Detailed maps that cover the journey that we have yet to forge our path within. Named and unnamed beasts that roam the lands, concepts of physiology that is alien to us but explained in intriguing bouts of exposition. These are all elements which consistently impress in Made in Abyss. When the characters talk about the world, I am never bored, because I am at the edge of my seat wanting to learn more about a place that is as alien as it is familiar, in the sense of human conflict. The world, not just the abyss itself, is so well realized that even the most miniature detail is not left behind or without visual explanation.

The city of Osu doesn't just feel lived in, it feels realistically inhabited. The way civilization works, the way the abundance of orphans correlates with the deaths in abyss. How kids are raised looking to die within the chasm that heaves below them. It is so compelling, the morality of it all, that it could've inhabited an entire series on its own without even stepping foot in the titular abyss. Yet this is only a spring board for a series which writhes in its potential.

The presentation here is perfect.

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[Characters]

We follow Riko and her robot companion Regu as they leap into the darkness and begin a vast journey to find Riko's mother, Lyza. Riko, our plucky, eccentric girl is surprisingly one of the best elements of the series. She's excitable and energetic and curious, but never really dumb enough to truly become frustrating to deal with. Which is a fine line to skirt with a character that is essentially a curious twelve year old girl journeying into what has to be the most dangerous place in the entire universe. With that in mind, the viewers could easily become frustrated with her actions as a curious kid. However, the writers here smartly maintain a grip on how her actions lead to effects without losing grip on her as a character.

Regu, on the other hand, is a bit more reserved. As a boy could be. He serves as her guardian, as he isn't prone to the aspect of this Abyss that is perhaps most curious and frightening, its curse. Which gets heavier and heavier the further you go down, and each layer you enter poses a bigger threat to you, not only in experience but in your chances of being able to come back up, as the curse only effects you if you attempt to go up. Regu plays as somewhat of a young boy straight-man, and the relationship he develops with Riko is fairly endearing. He is quite powerful, but they thankfully put a hard limit to his power as a character, which surprisingly leads to character conflict that feels natural rather than completely unbelievable.

On their journey they meet plenty of characters which range from exposition-dumps to engaging personalities. My personal favorite is Ozen the Immoveable, a friend of Riko's mother. Ozen is a towering, immensely powerful women that bares the scars of the abyss in more ways than one. With a suitably cartoony voice by Sayaka Ohara, we get a joyfully appealing character. Other characters aren't as strong, for example, Ozen's servant, Mararuk, who never quite forges a believable bond with Riko and Regu, making for a "goodbye" scene that doesn't really hit its mark at all.

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[Story]

Perhaps Made in Abyss' most hit-or-miss element. Thankfully, the story here is more hit than miss, but regardless, there are some notable narrative missteps that I feel impact the show's story overall. Most importantly, the stagnating pacing that effected episodes five through nine that lost a lot of this series' momentum that was developed within the first four episodes. The first three, in particular, being some of the most exceptional episodes in anime this year.

The narrative here gets suitably dark, too, which I really found myself fearing at first. I heard rumblings of this series getting "dark", and I wasn't quite excited for that specifically because television anime has the track record of being painfully weak when it comes to frightening and gory material. It feels very censored and limp. This fear ended up being a very good thing in the long run, since when this series does end up getting dark... well, lets just say I wasn't expecting it to get that dark. It is faithful to the manga in just about every way, not shying away from some of the most gruesome material and that put an endlessly long smile on my face.

I love dark material. I'm a fan of gore and bodily horror. It all is very appealing in the most human sense. The idea that something so fake can really affect you in a cathartic way is a interesting aspect of television and film that is shockingly not utilized in anime often, which is strange since Japan is at the forefront of some of the more gruesome and horrific live-action films and manga.

Made in Abyss definitely, thankfully, gets dark. The gut-punches here are so enjoyable because you get to see the grisly results. I loved every second of this. What I loved less, however, are the narrative beats that led up to some of these macabre scenes, as they often relied on some convenience or rushed storytelling. This is the series' biggest fault. It often rings as corny when it really shouldn't, which is understandable because anime as medium is pulpy and over-the-top. However, Made in Abyss has moments where it isn't those things, and also has moments where it is. It goes from an action sequence that is reminiscent of a shounen to this heart-wrenchingly brutal destruction of a character we ended up feeling attached to. This is tonal whiplash through and through it causes for a disjointed viewing experience on occasion.

Overall, though, I was pleased with the way the story went. It didn't rush through the most important moments and that is really what matters most. If a second season isn't announced soon, I doubt i'd be able to wait for long before I pick up the manga and read through that. What also helps the story is its lack of anime cliches that permeate through so much of this medium's storytelling. Whether that be fanservice or otherwise boring comedic relief that doesn't provide anything. There is comedy here, which helps make this journey more believable, and thankfully, for the most part, it is generally okay, if a little forced at times.

I hate even having to talk about fanservice because this show mostly follows characters in the twelve year old range. But this is anime after all and perversion is one thing that can infect even the most appealing series'. Made in Abyss doesn't have any abrasive fanservice, thank fucking god. I can point out some more fetishistic elements, however, I feel like they are decently well-placed within the world here that they don't become something that rips you out of the series. The show's least interesting moments often come with some comedic delivery that doesn't work too well.

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[Conclusion]

Made in Abyss doesn't rest on the laurels of its art. While the world undoubtedly carries this series in more ways than one. Providing what I can only call as one of the most intriguing and awe-inspiring creations I've ever seen in anime. There are other elements to enjoy here as well, albeit not as much. A great, love-able protagonist in Riko. A progressively darker story that ends up catching you by surprise. Outstanding creature design and animation. The narrative suffers from some pacing issues as well as occasional bumps in believability, but overall provides a positive experience as well.

I look forward to watching this show again and seeing if I can get even more out of a second viewing. I think it may very well benefit from that, and if it does, I won't hesitate to raise the score. It is undoubtedly a unique anime that I can't help but promote enough. It is so different than just about anything else being created in the medium that that alone is enough reason to support it. Watch this series. Tell people you want more of this. Even if it isn't perfect, it is so inspiring to see this medium, which I often call the last bastion of 2D animation, being used to its fullest.

Take a step into something new. A world that hides behind every unturned rock and unexplored crevice. Every skeleton dug up and analyzed. Every monster that patrols within the far reaches of a terrifying world. Travel into the Abyss.

[6.0/10]
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Starting reviews with a quote is often cheesy and forced, however, I figure i'd fall in line with the series if I do, so...

"Mama Mia!"

That was Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's first season and it was indeed bizarre and quite the adventure, with a sprawling cast of characters and two massive arcs that end up giving more than they take. What felt like a generic action shounen, which I am strictly not a fan of, ended up transitioning into something just a little bit more... bizarre. Perhaps not quick enough, though, but the end result here is undeniably fun. I think that's the easiest way to ... characterize this series as a whole at the moment. Fun. It is a fun show. It has fun characters. It has wacky fun twists.

Thanks for reading!

Fun/10

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[Presentation]

Just joking! I wouldn't be myself if I didn't criticize everything and hate on things that are hardly even made for me. Onto the animation, or, as I could put it more accurately, the moments that are actually animated. In classic action shounen fashion, this series has the air of a slap-dash production. A lot of it feels rushed, as most anime does, and that shows the most in the animation quality.

It is sparingly good with a deeper pang of mediocrity to downright ugliness. That being said, it has some smart tactics up its sleeve to cover up said ugly animation with what can only be called "signature Jojo-isms", which is how i'll be referring to them from now on. Signature Jojo-isms are the parts of the series that we, and to a certain extent, I, recognized immediately as unique to this product. The moments and artistic choices that I was aware of coming into the series because they span seemingly throughout all of culture.

Shoddy animation is hidden behind posing, rumbling text on screen, awesome use of color and ultimately an appealing visual style. I feel like a series like this can actually be consumed frame-by-frame and the end result wouldn't actually be any worse than what we have here. The animation feels like a transition from one pose to another, rather than just something fluidly paced. If anything, it is a clever use of budget. It feels natural to have these characters move less when they're so focused around standing still and looking good. This isn't me excusing the poor animation in some areas, but it is me complementing the series in understanding its strengths and not trying to amend impossible weaknesses. This is undoubtedly the smart way to go about presenting a series.

The sound is also standout. What effort and time they didn't have for the animation they clearly outsourced well for the sound. Both the music and the sound effects have a great cheese to them that really brings the series to life. The opening to the second arc is a total ear-worm that I don't see myself forgetting anytime soon. But this design goes past just sound-effects and the opening, the backing music even has personality to it. Each character ends up having a somewhat memorable theme. In the shows superior second arc, we get plenty of recognizable stingers and bombastic techno-anthems that seriously pound your eardrums in the best possible way.

From the Pillar Men to our favorite Nazi, everyone gets a time to shine, musically. Once again, I feel like this show could've easily been consumed in some kind of less movement focused visual medium, like a Visual Novel. Especially since it is so focused around the music. What you'd be losing, however, is the grandiose voice acting. Don't get me wrong, everything here is over-acted to shit but I think that's how it was meant to be. It is all silly, and the actors are clearly having a hoot yelling just about every line they read.

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[Characters & Story]

The series really ramps up in quality as it progresses, not necessarily in the art department but in the overall enjoyment of what is transpiring in front of you. We start with a mildly generic battle-arc that has sparring moments of entertainment mixed in with a jambalaya of boring nothingness. The first arc really leaves a lot to be desired. Both the settings and our protagonist feel incredibly weak in comparison to the second arc, where the series really decides to take off.

When we meet the second JoJo, Joseph, you end up seeing exactly what direction this show is going and understanding exactly why this is positive. It went from a slightly wacky battle Shounen to an off-the-wall batshit insane battle Shounen, and honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. I find that most battle shounen in anime tend to go down the same path and I rather not harp on the entire genres problems this review since I do that so often in my other outings. All that needs to be said is that JoJo is bizarre enough to stand out from the already bizarre selection of battle shounen that end up getting mushed together into one lump of over-moralizing strung-out garbage.

Of course we get plenty of the cliches that come with the genre, though. From the over-abundance of still images with a few action lines thrown in to training arcs and jobbing that act like the cherry on top of the action shounen pudding. We have side-characters that do nothing but gawk at the action, and the general illogic of battle, where every moment feels like decades and characters just stand around chatting and explaining rather than actually fighting. We also have one of my least favorite cliches, as a character watches their friends get decimated before doing something, instead of helping them right away. Because of course they have to monologue and let the story unfold as dramatically as possible. For example, Joseph battles one of the three main baddies in this chariot race. Joseph cheats by piling rocks at the starting line and makes the baddies chariot unable to begin the race, while he flies by. Moments later, however, it is revealed that the baddy actually wanted this to happen and needed to be behind Jojo all-along. Yet his reaction to the initial rock pile-up, even when Joseph was hundreds of meters ahead of him, was that of shock. Why? Who was he playing to? The viewers?

These are issues that even Jojo can't overcome. That being said, what it does within this genre it does well. The villains were both memorable and the unfolding battles, during their peaks, were solid. Even if the barrage of episodes leading up to the final climax, or what I call "battle build-up", where the characters fight through seeming gauntlets of nothingness is just tedious to sit through. What's great about Jojo is that it does its best to even make those moments funny, and I think at its best, Jojo's is hilarious.

As something that can be defined as the pulpiest possible anime, which is already an insane sentence to write since most anime is pulpy. Jojo's embraces that title and really runs the miles with it. You have man-eating squirrels, bubble-blowing Italian men, and every character death, major or not, treated as the worlds greatest tragedy. It is so unabashedly corny that you can't help but laugh. And maybe that's not the emotion I should be feeling during the sad moments, but the fact that the show so willingly plays every one of these bizarre and silly scenes as totally straight makes it so endearing and comical.

There really isn't much to analyze here, though. The thematic elements are blunt and childish, as they are supposed to be. Every piece of symbolism is so hammy and funny that it really doesn't hold any weight. But it really shouldn't in a series like this. You should understand exactly what kind of show this is and revel in the mawkish glory.

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[Conclusion]

What I can't help but think about is how this series does just about everything a parody should do, yet can't really be classified as a parody. Everything is definitely exaggerated, but I wouldn't even say it was deliberately exaggerated for comedy. The author, I feel, just wanted to make something bizarre and indulge in that quality. Comparing it to something like an earlier series I ended up dropping, Food Wars, the differences are palpable. Food Wars can be classified as a parody of action shounen, yet it was both less funny and less creative than Jojo. It was even less bizarre! A parody is supposed to over-exaggerated elements, but when non-parodies like Jojo's are already so absurd I can't help but feel like this entire genre is beyond parody at this point.

Which is interesting. Maybe I just haven't thought of a proper approach to parodying a genre that already comes off as way over-the-top. Maybe Jojo's really is a parody of sorts. But it plays like the kind of B-movie you end up really attached to because of how seriously it commits to the role of being that crappy B-movie. At the end of the day, that's all you can really ask for. A fun, campy series that embraces the cliches of its brethren with enough vigor and prowess that you end up with a product that not only exceeds your expectations, but completely surpasses them, for the most part.

Still weighed down by the genre trappings, much like any above-average Shounen action series that I've seen, Jojo's crafts its own visual style and personal identity, while also wearing its faults and scars like a cloak. Don the mask, become a supreme being, indulge in the inanity. Get in on the campy fun.

[9.0/10]
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Owarimonogatari was ultimately the end of the first, and most likely the main story of the series. These last three arcs provided a good conclusion and I wouldn't be upset if that's the final Monogatari-related product adapted by SHAFT. Although I doubt it, since there are tens of side-stories, epilogues, prologues and everything in-between left to adapt. This, however, felt like a proper conclusion. Even if it wasn't what I wanted, I can't help but feel happy about the ending regardless.

Monogatari, ever since I began watching it, always left me with an air of ambivalence. If you go venture forth to the past and ... dig through to find one of my earliest reviews on this website, one of Bakemonogatari, you'd see exactly that. Me struggling endlessly with coming to terms with my feelings about the series. It left me feeling sleazy and gross, but compelled and intrigued. I initially described it as the guiltiest possible pleasure and while my opinions may have changed with my tastes, I think that outlines the overall complexity of emotions I felt towards the product. On one hand the presentation is outstanding and unique, hearkening back and taking from the French New Wave, but what its presenting is often perverse and over-indulgent. The main narrative is fractured and presented in a spectacularly interesting fashion with the unreliable narrator quirk, but is often sidelined for pandering sexuality. The characters are multi-faceted and endlessly dynamic, but aren't often presented as such. It is an enigma, truly.

While my opinions have changed and my appreciation for this series continuously grows, due to the amount of inspiration it has given me as a creative, this idea of conflicting feelings still remains the same. Even throughout this end-story. I get a conclusion, and the conclusion is quite good with just about every story wrapping up in a feel-good bundle of catharsis. It is still something that I wasn't expecting nor really wanting from this show. I was expecting something darker, something more somber, something with pain and eventual sacrifice and I was expecting the specialists to play significantly bigger role in the story after their buildup through Owarimonogatari's first season as well as the awe-inspiring conclusion to Koyomimonogatari.

Maybe my expectations weren't deserved and built completely upon my own desires for the series, but that feels redundant to say as that's pretty much defining expectations for anything. Owarimonogatari's second season and conclusion does have problems, however, it is packaged and delivered so well that they don't feel like problems as much as they feel like additions that I may disagree with. Maybe that's why i'm so happy to accept this conclusion even if it harshly isn't what I wanted or expected, that's my mea culpa.

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[Presentation]

Before we delve deep into the semi-spoiler conversation, I think it is safe to say that this series is the best presented television anime. While it may not be as beautifully animated as something from Kyoto Animation or as viciously energetic as a Trigger production, it is a SHAFT product through and through. Harsh yet understated, with pronounced colors and a focus on bringing the most from dialogue heavy scenes.

The coloring in these episodes is as good as ever, with beautiful shot-composition mixed in with spectacular changes in art-style in the first arc of this series. The other two were equally beautiful, with harsh changes of color and space, presenting even the goofiest character moments as if it is high-art strung up in a gallery.

The violent, stinging violins in the climactic soundtrack continuously impress. While most people may point to the admittedly catchy opening themes of this series as examples of its musical prowess, I can't help but point to what I find more impressive. The memorable backing tracks to the shows most climactic moments. From the badass theme at the end of Nisemonogatari, where specialist Kagenui flexes her muscles in a scene so brutally cathartic that it is one of my all-time favorite anime moments. To the plucking strings and winding synths of the shows most surprising scenes, when Gaen reveals her vampire-slaying sword and chops our protagonist into a thousand pieces. The music here is as wonderful as ever.

Monogatari has never been the most animated series, and for good reason. Much like most TV-anime it is a rushed product on a deadline. However, SHAFT make even the most still scenes feel alive and vibrant with the setting and shot composition, and as always the direction here is astounding.

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[Story and Resolution]


Presented in three arcs, the final moments with these characters and their eventual graduation feel spur-of-the-moment. The show, for the first time ever, feels as though it has a distinct narrative purpose. Since it has one goal, to end its main story, it never decides to linger on moments that are otherwise unimportant to the series narrative. Even the second episode, the extended date between Senjougahara and Araragi feels as though it plays a direct part in the climax, Araragi's waning adolescence, Ougi's mysterious plot, and the growth between these two from a relationship standpoint.

However, before we delve into that, we have the first story. Between Araragi, Hachikuji, and the involved Tadatsuru, which delivers something visually astounding and narratively intriguing, yet creates a few worries that may find themselves wriggling into the shows core climax.

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[Mayoi Hell]

Obvious spoilers. Hachikuji is back and she's in hell. Some pretty funny reasoning is provided for that. More importantly, SHAFT gets to flex its visual style to the fullest here, providing one of the most visually impressive arcs since the gorgeous Tsukimonogatari. As Araragi ventures through hell, and to a certain extent, his past, he discovers how to return and what the reasoning behind his murder was. An elaborate plan by Gaen to return his humanity.

Good stuff. Even if Hachikuji's return wasn't all that interesting to me. Especially since we have already said our goodbyes to that character and coming back after a pretty good send-off feels as though i'm holding in a sneeze. Unrewarding and kind of painful. I like Hachikuji, she's quirky and engaging with a pretty great catchphrase that gets probably the best payoff of any joke in the series. However, I couldn't help but feel disappointed in her return as an establishment of norms and the lack of consequences. It robbed the series of some weight. More on her later.

They meet with Tadatsuru and in beloved Monogatari fashion we get a gloriously long exposition sequence full of fascinating insights by this really intriguing character, as well as a quick look at the network of specialists that Gaen has established as being the backbone for oddity-hunting. Tadatsuru's powers are great and paint a understandable picture of Ononoki's creation, even if we lack the insight of her "big sister", Kagenui, more on her later.

Araragi is sent off with Hachikuji captured in his legs and brings her into the real world. Initially I had even more of an objection to this, as it totally undermined her exit even further. If it is so easy to leave hell, what is even the point of it? However, that gets amended further on in the series. The introductory arc here really set the tone for the show. It was lean-mean, and without filler, which was great.

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[Hitagi Rendezvous]

Before I even talk about the date, I want to express how deeply upsetting it was to see Kagenui's character and her potentially incredible importance to the series being brushed off. It undermined the entirety of her disappearance in Koyomimonogatari as well as never quite explaining how Ougi got anyone to leave. It felt like an underhanded and obnoxiously pandering way to just keep Ononoki around the harem, which honestly doesn't fucking matter to me. Ononoki is pretty much useless right now, she is literally a doll and since Kagenui isn't around, has virtually no power. She is there to provide a few sparring dialogue driven moments and her inclusion in this arc felt completely unnecessary as she virtually did nothing.

If they kept Kagenui relevant to the story and didn't chuck her to the side for literally no convincing reason, Ononoki and Kagenui could've been back to actually matter and provide some interesting insight to spar with Gaen's own bias arguments against Ougi. Yet nothing like that happened. She's gone, and the reasoning given was that she was practicing "Martial arts" at what was later revealed to be the North Pole. Why? Why would she be doing that? Isn't she an immortal oddity specialist? Isn't her goal and job to exterminate immortal oddities? Isn't Shinobu back in her full-form? Isn't that Ougi? Kagenui expressed no fear in fighting Shinobu with her powers back in Nise, so it makes no sense for her to leave now. Way to completely under-utilize a dynamic and potentially interesting character. What a farce. This was probably the most upsetting moment about this three-parter and probably the only reason I had to take a point off.

Especially since the date between Araragi and Senjougahara was wonderful. I always felt as though their relationship was a bit tepid. They said they damn-near love each other yet Araragi runs around fucking with plenty of other girls. It really doesn't make any sense and makes the entire relationship feel phony, especially since Senjougahara got almost no screen-time recently. Her return is welcome. She is the most dynamic and fascinating of the harem-girls and definitely proved that here. Her character growth since the first arc in Bakemonogatari is palpable and honestly very endearing. Her various little idiosyncrasies really paint an engaging portrait of her character.

The resolution to their date is endlessly lovable and actually helps create a more believable relationship between the two, even if I still object to Araragi's lascivious and scummy behavior otherwise. I really enjoyed this, and I didn't find that it meandered or lacked any meaning. It was well-placed in the middle of these other two, more serious arcs.

What i'd be remiss not to discuss is the dream sequence with Ougi, which is not only a spectacular insight on her character but also plays as a wonderful hint at who she really is. Everything from her saying being a riff on Gaen and Hanekawa to her knowledge of the star-systems being Araragi's own knowledge, the pieces of the puzzle were finally falling into place and this fractured narrative was finally become clear. At this point, in my eyes, it was clear with who Ougi was, even if I wasn't sure what role she exactly played.

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[Ougi Dark]

To refer back to my initial thesis, this arc's progress and climax wasn't something I was expecting or wanting, but a great part about growing up is being able to look at something as a whole and really determining whether that is a bad thing. I think the more I look back on this arc the more I'll come to enjoy and appreciate that it did something that I wasn't expecting nor wanting, but still managed to be entertaining and pretty damn impressive, narratively.

My fear that the specialists would ultimately play a small role in the climax was unfortunately confirmed, as Gaen dumped some exposition and moved on. This and Shinobu's ultimate uselessness in her hyper-powerful form needs to be accepted as a narrative loop rather than a flaw, in my opinion. Because of course Araragi will ultimately have to face this issue on his own. It is, after all, always been his issue and no one else's. The narrative here had me hurdling through various flaming hoops of acceptance while also trying to follow along to the somewhat complicated explanations for everything. Needless to say, it was a gripping experience none-the-less.

What particularly impressed me apart from Ougi's true reveal was the use for Hachikuji who's inclusion I have previously expressed my distaste with. Gaen's proposed solution was actually quite clever and made sense within the grand scheme of the story and provided the best use of Hachikuji's signature 'I stuttered" catchphrase. It was great. I went from disliking her inclusion to totally buying it, which speaks volumes to how well this entire aspect of the narrative was delivered.

Onward to Ougi's true reveal. I say "true" because her being Araragi's oddity didn't come as much of a surprise, of course she was. Especially the opening to this final arc solidifying that. What was more interesting a reveal was her role as Araragi's oddity, manifesting as adolescence. This actually paints a unique picture of Araragi's character and growth throughout the series.

I'm no stranger to criticizing our boy Koyomi here, since I think he's kind of a scumbag, however, the portrait of his adolescence was poignant none-the-less. This somewhat esoteric conclusion helped me understand the rest of this series' motivations as well as his character progression overall. What could've been myopic ended up being quite engaging, even Araragi's rejection of his own change to saving Ougi, which I was initially against but over the course of the past few hours warmed up to. Because of course he'd save her, he's Araragi.

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[The Moral of the Story]


And now for the epilogue, or rather, the punchline. What Monogatari does so well is provide an experience unlike anything else in anime. An industry and medium that indulges in pulpy entertainment has this series which indulges in the idea of indulging. Consuming everything that is inherently right or wrong with the industry and presenting it as if it is high-art. Taking ideas from the most influential, yet also the most cherry-picked movement in cinema, the French New Wave, and crafting a narrative that not only doesn't treat its audience like children, but goes out of its way to be esoteric and challenging. Very much in line with the New Wave, Monogatari has a kind of style and essence to it that separates it from anything else in the medium. Especially since at its core it has these sleazy elements to it.

Relating back to the initial point of contention, my dissonance with this series manifesting as a love and appreciation for it. These last three arcs, ones which lack the fanservice that some of the other parts of the series indulge in, are some of the most solid parts of the series, up there with the flawless masterpiece which is Hitagi End, my favorite thing I've ever seen from this televised medium. It proves to me that this show could've been better without its over-indulgent obsession with childish sexuality and pandering which often took up big parts of other episodes in other arcs, however, is that really true? I undoubtedly didn't, and don't, enjoy those elements, yet they are inherent in Monogatari being Monogatari. Without them this wouldn't be Monogatari, and the lack of them in these final arcs proves to me how big of contrast there is, which helped elevate the stakes and create tension which otherwise wouldn't have been escalated if the entire series was devoid of these elements.

I feel like I always wanted Monogatari to be more mature than it was, however, once again, maybe that was wishful thinking. Much like Araragi says as the final line in these arcs, he is himself, and this series is itself. And expecting it to be something different when it so well-established exactly what it is makes no sense, logistically. Because much like Araragi, Monogatari experienced an odd kind of growth as well, where the maturity may not have increased but a realization did happen. The self-awareness here is palpable and as with any product that has displayed a knack for multi-faceted storytelling, I don't think it is out-of-line to analyze this series so extensively.

During Ougi Dark, there is a scene where the characters dissect Ougi's formation as a cake. Each character representing a slice. Which honestly feels like this show being self-aware about its own indulgence, both having the cake and eating it to, which is an element I've been bringing up in reviews since their conception. The cake here being Araragi's division and eventual realization of purpose, while also doubling as context for this shows harem elements. Which I wouldn't say is as much of an excuse as it is a justification, and a good one at that.

Its harem elements were never the strongest parts of the series, and being myself I'd go so far as to say they were the weakest parts. However, they, in the end, felt necessary to this show having the conclusion it did. For me, the strongest parts were always the main narrative and the specialists, who were characters that were infinitely more fascinating than the main group and harbored more interesting traits and purposes, but as I've already said, it wasn't their story and I shouldn't have been expecting them to play a huge role here. My own, negative idiosyncrasy.

In the end, this series which still confuses me emotionally provided an exceptional conclusion to its first and most likely main story, as it wrapped up its final arcs in an acceptable and thoroughly understandable way. At its most basic, the story of adolescence and accepting that adolescence permeates through the entirety of this series. Because if we were to fully strip it down, the punchline is that there is no need to let go of that. Much like Araragi isn't willing to let go of his own, even while saying that his adolescence has left him he acknowledges that he isn't fully an adult to Hanekawa. And I don't think that is really the point of this experience. It isn't much of a coming of age story. At the climax, he doesn't let go of the oddity manifesting as his own adolescence and that's the final realization. But I don't know.

But who knows, really? A series like this is so esoteric that even its most well-defined moments can be read into as something else and that's exactly what I appreciate about it. It proves itself worthy of being analyzed, as any great piece of art should. As I said in my very first venture into Monogatari, I only know what I know.

[8.0/10]
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Going into Kizumonogatari III I was somewhat worried. Part two, for it's spectacular visuals and astounding fight sequences really left a hollow first impression from it's character perspective. The inclusion of Hanekawa as a focal point was disappointing, and her sequences with our protagonist, Araragi were either barebones fanservice, with understandably beautiful shot composition, or tedious, obvious dialogue-driven moments that were unexpectedly banal for a series that has illustrious and hilarious writing. With the focus on Hanekawa, there was a lack of development between Kiss-shot and Araragi, which made me extremely worried for the eventual climax of this film since it is reliant on that ... relationship to be real.

Monogatari has never been a series to handle emotion well, in my opinion, mainly because it always undercut it with misplaced humor or fanservice or character development. Araragi never felt like someone I could relate to through his romantic responses because I know how many girls he fucks with daily. That nature is at total odds with itself, which makes this series very emotionally dissonant, even if it is one of my favorites. With this knowledge, going into Part III was a bit unnerving, how would they handle this?

Well, for one, they upped the length by a solid twenty minutes, which made it feel like a proper feature film. Second, they obviously decided to give Kiss-shot more screentime, which thankfully established her character more. If only they cut half the Hanekawa moments from Kizu II out and placed Kiss-shot in her place, we could've been dealing with a deeper more impressive character arc. That being said, the second I clicked play and the first shot exploded on screen I was grinning from ear to ear.

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[The new A E S T H E T I C]

This is the Monogatari effect. This is the result of having some of the most unique and jaw-dropping shot composition in anime. It looks gorgeous, and the new aesthetic these films embraced was in full affect. Awesome uses of colors, lighting, and CG. Just about every environment was a 3D CG mesh, with some stylized realistic textures. They composited the 2D characters into this CG environment to create some very unique visuals that you don't see every day.

Needless to say, this brand new aesthetic, which emphasizes the "new" feel to an old world we've already become used to within the context of the main series does wonders in emphasizing the new thematic elements. A world that focuses on the night and dusk, with the black hue of night mixing beautifully in the orange morning sun, this new color pallet meshes harshly with the sculpted CG environments in a very purposeful manner.

A french noir aesthetic is further accentuated by the series' already utilizing a wide variety of filming techniques popularized within the French New Wave. Monogatari as a whole is already New Wave inspired in its dialogue and editing, so this trilogy really takes that to new heights. From a purely visual standpoint, this final chapter was near-perfect, only a few moments breaking my gaze of awe. One specific moment, where they try to composite a CG head into a character's hands looked pretty bad, but apart from that, it was glorious from head to toe.

The new character designs are also much more dynamic and less stiff, with thinner lines than in the main series, creating for much more fedility-intense movement. This fits these film's capability of creating some really spectacular looking motion, as these characters stumble back, or run forward, or clash with one another. I wish there was some more character-animation, though, as some character seem to take on very similar movements, particularly Kiss-shot and Hanekawa had a paralleled scene where they walk along an elevated edge with their arms out. I wasn't sure whether this was meant to be a callback or if the art team decided to animate them in the same exact way, it felt overly similar for two characters that felt incredibly different.

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[Story/Character Developement]

This final act really did a great job showing more Kiss-shot, which as I've said was a big worry coming into it. With the disappointing focus on Hanekawa in part II, part III really did need most of it to be Kiss-shot oriented. Thankfully, that's exactly what we got for the most part. A lot of Araragi/kiss-shot development, which thankfully made the final act of this final act, the climax, really engaging and surprisingly funny.

The fight scenes in Monogatari, even in the series, have always been brisk and amazing. The directors consistently crafting the kinds of action scenes which I wish more anime would embrace. Heavy violence and shorter, more action-oriented moments that weren't bogged down by constant exposition. Here, in Kizu III, the team at SHAFT really got to play around, creating some utterly insane visual moments and scenarios that expounded upon the already insane story.

The climax also helped paint the more somber, and intriguing conclusion which paved its way brilliantly to the start of Bakemonogatari. Yeah, I was just so happy with the way this film rounded out. I felt a complete connection between Bake and Kizu. With the eventual connection between Kiss-shot turned Shinobu and Araragi becoming evident.

Oshino plays a bigger role here too, which is great because the specialists are always the most interesting part of Monogatari to me. I was saddened to see we wouldn't get to witness more bad-asses make their way out of the mist to witness the clash between two titans, but regardless, Oshino is more than enough to satisfy me. His stiff coolness and spectacular character design speak perfectly towards the kind of character he is, and once again paint a better picture of him once you come back into Bakemonogatari. I eagerly await re-watching this series once Owarimonogatari finishes so I can get a better picture of it all.

The fanservice is the fanservice. It's a bit more palate-able here since it didn't feel so lacking in purpose as it did in Kizu II, however, it was still exactly what I believe is the weakest aspect in Monogatari. Not the sexuality, but the way that sexuality is portrayed. For a series that had the moment between Senjougahara and Araragi in the car, and that whole episode really, it really saddens me that it still treats sexuality in the same childish manner I see most other anime treat it. I get that anime, as a medium, is aimed at teenagers and their view on sex is obviously immature, however, it still disappoints me no less.

The idea here is that the scene between Hanekawa and Araragi could've easily escalated, not in rediculousness, but in a much more intimate, sexual manner, but never did due to restraint shown by the writer, director, creators, and what I can only assume is the entire culture in Japan that indulges in this medium. Why is sex is such a taboo? Why can't two characters fuck? Why is it okay to show a nude twelve year old but not to indulge in two consenting human beings banging it out in an abandoned gymnasium?

This whole scene obviously played as totally over-indulgent fanservice but also as comedic relief, albeit surprisingly serious comedic relief. But the relief wasn't necessary. While the scene itself wasn't bad in the grand scheme of things, it still felt like it jutted out of the story like a splinter. Sexuality is an inherent part of Monogatari, but I feel like for a film that has a much more mature vibe to it, and Araragi isn't necessarily being as unreliable of a narrator as he usually is, this could've been ample reason to give a more mature look on sexuality that this series definitely needs. In the end, Araragi hardly even tells this story, with very little monologuing and exposition driven moments from him.

Overall, these moments, or, I should say, one moment wasn't as obnoxious as part II, but it still could've been played and done better, and in the end never quite meshed with the entire film in my opinion. Especially since Araragi's arc, as he battles between humanity and monster, wasn't really assisted by Hanekawa, who in the end plays more like a cheerleader and "obvious dialogue sayer" than anything else. Sure she comes to a few important realizations, but since we never see how these realizations where come up with, it just feels like she's there to answer questions and have her utterly unbelievable udders bounce around like two Christmas hams.

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[Conclusion]

With that said, everything else worked very well within this film, which against surprised me. I think that this film really relied on the previous one to be narratively sound, and since part II wasn't all that impressive from a story standpoint, this film could've really suffered. Thankfully, the suffering was kept to a minimum, with only a few moments that could've improved if they were expounded upon in the previous product. I'll take it. Even the emotional resolution of the climax felt good from a dramatic standpoint.

What this trilogy, and in return, this final part has to offer is astounding directing from series veteran Oishi Tatsuya, spectacular shot composition, melodic and stylistic sound design and music, a decent narrative, and somewhat underdeveloped characters. I think that some people may call this, and most of Monogatari a very "style over substance" product. While I may completely disagree with the series being anything but brilliantly put together, narratively, I can at least see some weight to what that critic would say about these films. I think they paint a great picture as a prequel, but for how rich a lot of Monogatari characters are, don't really do a lot of them justice in the highest degree, even if that would be near-impossible.

I do want to challenge that comment, though, the idea of "style over substance", and really ask why people always make "narrative" or "character" the sole inhibitor of "substance". I disagree with that. Substance is whatever you want it to be. Monogatari is so encompassed within it's unique and astonishing visual style that to say it isn't a part of the substance of the series is being either ignorant or totally avoiding the entire concept of the visual medium. Monogatari's visuals are definitely substance, and these films prove that. If I see someone walk out of this film completely satisfied with the product I know he or she is thinking the same thing. To a certain extent, I think the same thing too, even if it isn't a flawless work it is still great and shows the strength of the series it is piggy-backing off of.

The Kizumonogatari trilogy may not even be a mandatory product from a holistic narrative standpoint, but it is undoubtedly a welcome one. I may not have needed this trilogy, but damn it if I'm not happy I watched them. At best, they are visual feasts with spectacular moments of somber resolution, but at worst they are overly-pandering and empty from a character standpoint. Treat that as you will. I think the positives far outweigh the negatives here in just about every way. A bloody good time, really.

[3.0/10] - DROPPED

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For anime that I've decided to drop and do have something to say about, I decided to write up some short thoughts on the subject matter. This isn't as structured or well put together as some of my other reviews, however, I figured to try my best and describe what exactly about this series didn't do it for me and determine why exactly it didn't work.

Shokugeki no Souma is a series that follows Yukihira Souma, a kid who just entered a prestigious cooking school that's treated like some kind of Olympics training camp in this world. In this special school, he meets ... all kinds of colorful characters and scenarios in which cooking determines the end result of everything. Want to go into your dorm room? Cook off! Want to decide what to do in class? Cook off! What time to go to bed? Cook off! If you've seen virtually any shounen action anime then chances are you've seen this kind of setting before.

It's No Game No Life, it's Hunter x Hunter, it's FMA, well, maybe not that close to the latter two. The point here is that the setting isn't unique, and the entire idea isn't much of a twist, either. When I rolled this show to watch, because I usually let fate decide the next series I will consume, I was fairly interested since I heard that it has a very unique and satirical take on Shounen action shows. However, to my unfortunate realization, Shokugeki isn't really a twist on anything. It's just a shounen action show but now it has food in it. That's not a twist. That's just an idea. It's a shounen action show but the idea here is they fight with food rather than fists. But is that idea enough to carry the series?

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Short answer : No, not in my opinion.

The biggest issue here is that I've seen this all before, and I haven't even watched that many anime. It goes to show how repetitive this medium has become when I could predict virtually every cliche chucked on screen carelessly. "Oh, is this girl taking a bath? I guess it's time for the protagonist to walk in on here!" The humor here is kind of awful. There's an over-reliance on wacky faces, which isn't necessarily unfunny, but when it's all just chibi reaction-images with a few "foodgasms" thrown in for good measure it all just blends together in this jambalaya of boring nonsense.

It is almost as if the creators are checking off a list of "Shounen must-do's" while creating this series and it all feels inconsequential. All of these characters have been done before. All of these interactions have been done before. And I don't need a massive catalog in anime watching to understand that, which is so disappointing for a pretty huge medium with hundreds of shows coming out every year. How come one shounen action series can speak for them all? Where's the subversion? Where's the "twist" that is talked about?

Another saddening downside is that to my knowledge this show might actually provide some engaging and subversive material but i'm in the camp of people that believes that a series needs to put its best foot forward. I don't have all the time in the world to sit through something I'm genuinely not enjoying just to hopefully get to something good. Don't confuse this mentality with slow series, or series that may start out with a poor example of their abilities.

There are plenty of shows out there with bad first episodes but end up providing some amazing entertainment. The problem here is that I always find something to attach myself to. For example, a live action series by the name of "Black Sails," delivered a pretty awful first season but quickly picked up within its second, third, and eventual fourth season and became a great product. The difference between shokugeki and Black Sails, though, is that there were elements which I enjoyed within the empty and stupid first season of Black Sails. While in Shokugeki I often found myself checking the time and yawning.

I'm sure for anyone who enjoys Shounen action tropes and generic anime fanservice and humor would enjoy this series. But for me, it really doesn't offer enough of anything, especially since I found its over-reliance on said tropes to be banal. There was nothing here other than this collecting of cliches that are accessibly translated into a food-related atmosphere. Of course everything else is textbook.

This leads me to the characters, which are all boring. Our protagonist, Soma, is near-unbearable with his monotonous characterization that speaks to this shows formulaic design. He's just the anime every-man. His flaws are non-existent within the first seven episodes I've seen and that's really not inspiring. His flawless nature and natural talent leave an empty husk. His mannerisms and actions are all the same stale bullshit you see within most other shounen protagonists.

Whether they give him more character or not in the future, the point is that this isn't worth sitting through. Perhaps they develop his flaws more, however, there needs to be a base of it all. There needs to be initial intrigue. Virtually every other character, regardless of their screentime, is the same level of lifelessness. We have Megumi who's the shy one, there's a few other no-name secondaries that serve no purpose other than to fill an anime girl/guy archetype, and then a few villains which are equally mundane and end up jerking off the main character at some point.

That's the point, though, a self-insert protagonist that plays towards a power fantasy. With a newer concept that is less punch-oriented and more food-centric. If you like well-drawn food that's absurdly sparkly then this show could be visually engaging, but to me, again, it just sang tediousness. The food didn't really look good, being a mesh of brown coloring that's significantly over-blown and sparkly with all kinds of juices leaking out. They portray it in a sensual light, but it's the kind of sexual nature that most anime has. By that I mean very childlike and lame.

There are plenty of "foodgasms" to be had here. So guys having decently funny slapstick mixed in with girls just having boring sequences where they are naked. I guess I'm expecting a bit more? Oh man, this guy had this crazy reaction to this food! And then the girl character tried it and she lost her clothes and moaned really loudly. That's... funny? Ha...ha?

I really don't see the creativity here. Every girl has two body types. There is the loli-esq student and the crazy-busty student. They all have unnatural proportions. The girls in this series are just a set of titties with colorful hair and some outfit accessories. Which is the same complaint I had towards the exploitative nature of No Game No Life. It's not as bad here, but that's because this show is just not as fanservice-heavy from what I can tell.

However, the fanservice here is very blatant and still constant enough for me to realize how laughably childish it all is. I know I sound like a grumpy old man here, but can't we actually have some adult sexuality for once? This is not funny. This is not creative. This is not anything. It's just a checklist of anime cliches that permeates throughout this inherently pulpy and childish medium and it is consistently making me more and more jaded.

"Oh man, the camera focused on her titties which make a sloshing sound akin to two wet rags smacking each other!"

"Oh man, another shot of her jugs! How creative!"

"Oh man, they're focusing on her two personality traits!"

You see what i'm getting at here? Sexuality isn't inherently bad. If a character dominates her own sexuality and wears it on her sleeve then I'm much less annoyed than I am when I see this completely unrealistic anime archetype with a "pure yet totally obscene and sexual girl". However, even when a character in this show definitely does own her sexuality, like Mito, it's quickly used to ridicule and dehumanize. Instead of having this be a character trait, she quickly becomes an object of embarrassment and it's just cringe-inducing.

The characters aren't inherently unattractive, either, they are just drawn in such amateur and childish ways that nothing about this successfully proves interesting. The constant lingering on their breasts or legs is repulsive enough, but nothing about these character's appearance is emphasized apart from these more sexually exploitative parts. It creates for walking sacks of meat rather than sexually interesting characters or even interesting characters at all. Whatever this series was going for, I never really felt like it succeeded.

The comedy here is really sub-par, as well. It lacks any flavor, no pun intended. There is nothing to it. Just a bunch of reaction images, wacky faces, chibis, and moaning with a heavy dollop of generic-as-all-hell fanservice.

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[Conclusion]


Unfortunately, Shokugeki failed to captivate me in just about any way. The presentation here isn't too bad. The animation is fine and occasionally lively, the direction is boring, but everything else falls totally flat. The story is just any generic shounen, the characters equally so, with the over-reliance on the creative idea to carry it. That being said, an idea rarely ever carries a series, especially since it requires more than a concept to really create a spectacular, believable world.

The biggest issue here is that it's not ridiculous enough to be considered satire, either. Shounen has a tendency to be over-the-top and extremely pulp-oriented, so what exactly is this show accomplishing? I mean, if you've seen any of the escalation in something like Attack on Titan or FMA then you'd know exactly what i'm referring to. Shounen action as a concept is already absurd, so associating it with food doesn't really point out anything bizarre or over-the-top. What i'm saying, is that this show isn't goofy enough. It isn't creative enough for this concept to really flourish within it's generic pool of archetypal characters.

Apologies for the abridged review, but I felt like I should address my issues with this series. The reason I try with all these kinds of genres in anime, even if they are naturally unappealing as an idea is due to the fact that I believe a genre has more to offer than one kind of story. So I try my best to give every kind of genre its deserved due diligence.

The saddening idea here is that this show doesn't capture that idea, and if it does in it's later episodes then I'm sure the people who pushed through this fairly horrendous initial showing are ecstatic. This show is just generic and that doesn't mean that it is mediocre. Our standards shouldn't be set that low. I found that every sub-par episode made my attitude towards this series consistently negative and that regrettably created for a lousy watching experience plagued with disappointment.

[1/10]
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Oh no. Oh no...

I was holding off on publishing a review until I finished watching. Not for any hope that something like this would get better, but simply due to the fact that I couldn't bring myself to write about whatever this is. Eromanga-sensei is everything wrong with the anime industry. And you know what? That's not funny. I see so many jokes about that concept. How viewers laughingly remark about this series' and how horrible it is but eat it up regardless, promoting this utter shit until it becomes the most popular non-sequel of the season.

And it is. Eromanga Sensei is the most popular ... non-sequel in Japan. Can you believe it? A show about a fourteen year old trying to fuck his twelve year old sister while she molests other twelve year old girls is the most popular program in Japan. It is probably the most popular program amongst western anime fans too. It baffles me. Coming from a western background, series like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad steal that limelight. Sure we have duds like The Walking Dead drifting about with their cable appeal, but even that is understandable to me. At least that has elements of redeemable quality.

Eromanga has none of that. Eromanga is the mutated lovechild of everything that's hate-able about this industry and the sole reason why anime series' won't ever be taken seriously. For every angered fan of anime that realizes that their favorite show or non-ghibli film will never see the light of day in any extended theater run or any major awards show; this is why. Eromanga Sensei is hopefully the worst series I'll watch to completion. That's because as a viewer I've mostly stuck with some of the most popular anime. I've made my way through the highly-touted projects and ignored the seasonal popularity. Well, this is my first time delving deep into it and it yields an unforgettable, but totally forgettable product that fails at even the most basic storytelling.

This will have spoilers. If you are reading this and haven't seen the show, good. Don't watch it. It isn't worth it. It's not funny, or engaging, and the memes you have seen about it don't give a holistic representation of the insane tedium which this show revels in. This show isn't "so bad it's good." Far from it.

Eromanga-Sensei is just fucking garbage.

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[A Dancing Girl and a Pedophile]


This series follows a harem protagonist on a mission to fuck with a plethora of forgettable girl archetypes that you've seen a million times in a million different anime. The girl that he will end up being with is Sagiri, his twelve year old NEET sister who has not left her room in years. He also happens to write shitty light novels, much like the ones this series is based on, and his artist just so happens to be the twelve year old non-blood related sister living upstairs. What a coincidence! And of course he finds out and helps her hide her identity.

Then we meet a few other girls who are also light novel writers and play no role other than to create fanservice scenes that aren't just of the main girl. Honestly, the first ten episodes of this series really don't matter. The eleventh episode provides some much needed backstory which just renders the rest of the series up until that point completely useless. Anyway, Eromanga is just a series of empty husks waddling around on screen. It is a collection of sexual gifs that patrol the internet. From the totally inexplicable character writing to the horrendously boring direction to the non-story that is told throughout this series, Eromanga struggles to get anything right.

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[Visuals]


The visuals are probably the most positive aspect in this series, and even they are incredibly uneven. You see, A-1 hired a unique key animator for Sagiri, the little sister, and only Sagiri. So her animation is often much more fluid than the rest of the characters. This creates an animated whiplash of epic proportions. You go from a well-animated movement to a seizure-like stutter within the same scene. So even if her animation is good, this show has a tendency to skimp out on everything else.

Some highlights are absurdly off-model characters that kind of look hilarious. Really egregious oversights, even in the shows forgettable OP. A-1, like they do, put the minimal effort required into making this show palatable to look at while forgetting to actually give it direction. It looks like any generic as all hell sitcom. Bad.

Every episode is mostly just a compilation of characters sitting around talking exposition for minutes on end before they get to the two minutes of fanservice that peppers the internet for the next few days. They virtually just include the last eighteen minutes for no discernible reason. This could've been just two minutes of soft-core porn and I think the fans would have been just as happy, if not more so, with this series.

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[Sound]


It's bad. The OP is forgettable but not painful, the ED I already forgot. The show has a seasoned atrociousness, as it's unfunny and bland writing is often back-ended by painful background music. Now this ranges from "fat guy walking" tuba to "Squidward playing the clarinet" and it was initially funny that this series had such abrasive background music. But it got tedious really quick and ended up just making me angry by episode four.

What can I say. This show sounds horrible.

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[Characters/Story]


Now lets get to the meat. And by meat, I mean the meat of a bunch of underage girls that are endlessly used as tools to turn on a bunch of creepy fucking virgins watching this series to get off. I get it, it's okay to imagine children naked if they are fake. And i'm a supporter of the notion that thought-crime shouldn't be illegal because it doesn't harm anyone. I don't honestly care what you think about on your free-time and I care even less if it is totally fictitious and not exploiting anything.

So my problems with this series isn't that it sexualizes kids. That's nothing new in anime (as disturbing as that is) and it is far from its biggest fault. It's pedophilic and gross, and I often felt ornery watching this series due to the kind of framing devices it used to express its sexuality. For example, instead of diagetically forcing fanservice on us, the director made the 'brave' choice of literally just having shots of characters from below. It felt like a pedophiles hidden camera every time a character was talking.

Whether the show is being serious and dramatic or light-hearted and unfunny, the fanservice never ends. Character is being cute? Show them being cute with a below-the-skirt shot. Character crying? Have it framed so their still developing tits take up half the shot. It's cringe. It is a repulsive way to shoehorn this nonsense into your show. But on the other hand, this is the only thing this show has going for it anyway. It is riddled with plot-holes and totally clueless characters that defy any logic whatsoever.

In one scene it is established that Sagiri cannot draw girls with big tits. Why? Because she uses herself as a model for all her drawings and she is twelve. So her brother, being the great, enabling guy he is, tells her to look up idols on google to discover how to draw big tits. It works! She can now draw big meatsacks. However, two episodes later she regresses back to not being able to draw titties because... a girl showed her, her panties on skype. Let me get this straight, seeing panties made you unable to draw tits.

But it gets better.

The way she says she can resolve this issue is if her brother literally lures girls into her room and has them show her their panties. Not only is that fucking creepy, but more importantly, how does drawing panties even relate to drawing tits? Why are glaring issues like this not resolved in the initial adaptation phase?!

This would be fine. Well, no it actually wouldn't, but not as bad if it didn't lead to one of the most genuinely disturbing scenes i've seen in anime. Now i'm not one to be disturbed, although I am definitely one to cringe. But her brother does it. He finds a girl and drags her to her room, ties her up and blindfolds her and has Sagiri draw her panties. But get this, Sagiri, the twelve year old girl, rips that other twelve year old's panties off. She literally molests another girl. And it isn't really played as anything either, that girl is genuinely uncomfortable and so was I. Get this. They become great friends afterwards too. Talk about Stockholm syndrome.

I wish this was the only ridiculous inanity that occurs, but it isn't. A character called Elf exists. She has pointy elf-ears for literally no reason. It is never explained or mentioned. She just does. Her characterization is as confusing as she is repulsive. Very much so. She shifts between big-sister-esq and comforting to childish and annoying to a complete tsundere from episode to episode and it makes virtually no sense. She is also a part of our protagonist's harem.

Which leads me to the third character. Muramasa. Who's probably the most well-designed of the bunch, but has the personality of a grapefruit. She's a best selling light-novel author yet it is revealed that she was inspired by our harem protagonist's work ever since she was young. Well, younger. This was an element I guessed the second I saw the character simply because you can't have a character in a harem that is better than the male protagonist. You just can't. This is a power fantasy series for lonely kids and adults that want young girls to flock all over them in their dreams. So you can't have them be worse at anything. You need them to be virtually perfect. And our protagonist is.

These days, i'm developing a blase attitude towards the inherent sexism showed in anime. Which is a bit sad because I do love me a strong female character who "don't need no man". But you know, when the entire medium is marketed towards teenage boys it kind of makes sense to have every male be the best and every women be a toy to be played with. Even if it is obnoxious and kind of distressing.

This show is obviously not any different. In one titular scene we have our protagonist chat with the big brother of Elf, and when he discusses the great things about Elf the only thing he can say is, "She's nice and is a good cook." Wow. What a charmer. And this isn't even played off as a joke, this was a genuine scene with sappy, saccharine music in the background.

This kind of character writing extends throughout the series, too. The character writing is so bad that it feels like our protagonist is maliciously playing with these girls, since he's shown to be so oblivious that it becomes hard to believe. He rejects a girl, but obviously she keeps pursuing him, but then he proceeds to invite her to plenty of social events, as if it won't be awkward as all hell for her. It truly is a baffling kind of attitude.

I get the excuse, too, that he's just a "stupid teenager", and he is. But you know what? Using character stupidity as a plot contrivance isn't good writing. It doesn't make the protagonist or the story any better knowing this dude might actually be handicapped. It just makes it even more frustrating.

We are getting front row seats to this idiot fucking with these girls. And it isn't funny. Whether he understands that he is doing this or not, it's happening, and it is the least funny thing in a show that is already aggressively unfunny. If it was well-written comedy then it could be played as dark humor, but it isn't, it's just a bunch of girls yelling "baka!" really loudly.

To refer back to that scene of our protagonist talking with Elf's brother, who by the way asked him to marry her in that very scene. Get this, marrying a fourteen year old. He says that he would if he wasn't in love with someone else, referring to his twelve year old sister. However, the episode before he actually told the sister he would be with Muramasa if he wasn't in love with 'someone', as he puts it, since he's unable to admit his love of his sister, sometimes. So this entire scene played as a total contradiction, unless the protagonist was supposed to be a total lying scumbag fuck. I don't think that was intended, though.

...

When it comes to script writing this show is a masterpiece. Much like a Michael Bay script, Eromanga has a tendency to describe everything that is shown. I'm not talking about emotions, i'm talking about literally shown. In one scene they are goofing off instead of working, and when the brother of Elf walks in to catch them in the act of goofing off, Elf stands up and literally explains what he is seeing. It is this baffling mixture of having to exposit a moment and also badly adapting dialogue from the light novel.

You are seeing everything she is saying. It isn't even the whole "show don't tell" rule, that doesn't apply. That's a criticism for bad writing. This isn't bad writing. This is like the a new universe of writing. It is so abysmal that it bore it's way out of the crust of her earth and floated off into space. This kind of writing extends to multiple different episodes too, often times characters restate their purpose multiple times and it still leads to nothing. For example, the entirety of episode ten was about how Muramasa loves the protagonist, but that's been established since her second introductory episode. She literally just reuses the dialogue she used that episode. It is a special kind of absurd.


...


[Speed Round : This show is shit!]


* After a one-episode tournament-esq arc finishes, there is an after party to which everyone who participated in the competition established gets to come. Elf ends up going, even though she wasn't in the competition and this wasn't addressed at all. It was just an excuse to bring all the girls together.

* Everything ties back to the MC for virtually no reason but to make him the focal point of every characters lives. Every character backstory has something to do with our main character and it might be the most contrived bullshit I've ever witnessed on screen. And I watched the entirety of SAO.

* The backgrounds lack any detail whatsoever. We are in a character's room but their room doesn't have any personal mementos or knickknacks. In fact, the only room that has detail is Sagiri's, but she's a NEET with the cleanest room I've ever seen.

* To piggy-back off that. She's a NEET hikikomori, stating she hasn't left her room in years. Yet her room is perfectly clean. There is also no bathroom in her room. How does this even work? Does she shit out of the window? This entire show plays this seriously negative affliction as totally okay.

* Uninspired character designs. The parents of our two protagonists are virtually just the same characters but aged up. It is lazy as all hell.

* This show lacks any timing whatsoever. Not only for it's comedic punchlines, but for its fanservice as well. Fanservice can strike at any time and it is distracting and undercuts any potential catharsis this show is trying to establish.

* Episode eleven changes the entire story of the series and renders the past ten episodes totally irrelevant to where the conclusion is heading.

* The finale was completely and utterly pointless, playing more like an OVA than a finale. It was nothing. Much like the rest of this series.

* Girls get embarrassed for virtually no reason. As in, in one scene our protagonist is getting hit on by Elf on the beach as she asks him to spread some sunscreen on her back. Then once he repeats her orders she gets embarrassed about it. Why? Why is girls being embarrassed about inane shit such a cliche in anime?

* In one episode of the series Sagiri makes Elf and Muramasa her models so she can draw them in revealing positions. Yet, to describe the positions, she draws them. So they are models she already had drawn... so why did she even need them to model in the first place? It made no fucking sense.

* Muramasa was often played as the really "cute" one, as in, the characters acknowledged how pretty she was. However, since she has the same kind of body-type as any other girl, apart from bigger tits, it wasn't convincing at all. The usual anime presentation of "same-body, different standards" that makes no sense.

* If you've noticed I haven't actually said what our protagonist's name is, and that's because it doesn't matter.

* Every girl is a fucking slut.

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[The state of anime]


My biggest gripe with this show isn't that it is bad. Well, it is, it's abhorrent in every way. But the biggest problem, and perhaps the most upsetting issue, is that it is so incredibly popular. It is, undoubtedly, in the mainstream. A show like Eromanga is the mainstream in anime. That is so fucking confusing to me. I tried to explain this earlier but the people who genuinely love this show seem incredibly insecure about their love for it.

They explained to me that I'm simply being bias and that I'm "trying" to hate this show. When that isn't true at all. I actually discovered this show through a meme, which is ironically why it is popular in the first place, because it's made to be a meme, and I thought the meme was kind of hilarious and I decided to watch the series. Sure, once I realized it is awful I went into every episode expecting nothing but terrible nonsense, but that's logical. You shouldn't go into a snake pit, get bitten, and then go into a snake pit again expecting not to get bitten. Maybe i'm just a masochist, but I feel like I needed to finish this series simply to experience the most awful possible thing.

However, to many people from what I've seen, this is far from the most awful possible thing. I was constantly told that this is just a "mediocre" show. That i'm over-exaggerating it's awfulness. To that I say, if this is mediocrity to you, then you might have the most incredibly low standard for television. If this is "mediocre" for anime, then anime fucking sucks. If this is "mediocre" for anything, then that anything is the worst.

It is paramount we criticize it too. Supporting a product like this will help fuel more products like this. In 2014, Miyazaki said something incredibly poignant about anime as an industry, and the fans, instead of taking it seriously, decided to take it as a joke. He made it clear that as an industry, anime is spiraling out into nothingness. There is an endless loop of self-inspiration that will never actually prompt original or groundbreaking content.

As an industry, anime is otaku driven, and as a people, according to Miyazaki, otaku's aren't usually capable of understanding how people work. And if you are writing characters to represent people and don't understand how people work, your characters will take roles that are wholly unrealistic. We already see this in anime constantly. Completely stupid character archetypes that simply don't exist in the real world, from Tsunderes to the concept of a pure, yet sexual girls that seems to inhabit essentially every anime with inherent, childish sexuality in it.

So when these totally unaware shows become popular and are roots for inspiration, they spawn more shows like them. Much like SAO did, much like Re:Zero is doing, much like Eromanga sensei will do, and it is a constant loop of something getting worse and worse. It's not funny. It isn't worth joking about. It genuinely makes this industry look awful. I care because I love animation, and while anime and I have mixed feelings about each other, I can't help but support animation as a medium and I want to see it succeed and be utilized to its full potential. But as it stands, anime is hardly scratching the surface and it will continue to scratch less and less as this loop of uncreativity continues. Which is deeply saddening.

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[Conclusion and Criticism]


Criticizing something is important. Critics help spur movements and change notions and promote something of quality. Look no further than the French New Wave, the most influential movement in film history which was spawned in the palms of upset critics that wanted to change the status quo. This movement permeated throughout the world and ended up inspiring the greatest films and directors in of all time. Without the French New Wave, some of the greatest anime wouldn't even exist. Satoshi Kon wouldn't have edited like he did. Monogatari wouldn't have its signature style. At its base, this starts with a criticism. Bringing attention to something. It is incredibly important to fight for the kind of television you want to see.

I get it, though, not everyone wants this in their television. Some viewers just want to see cute girls prance around on screen saying random shit and yelling "baka!" loudly. I get it. Some people don't care about a narrative, or characters, or even visuals half the time. This show being popular makes that clear. However, on behalf of everyone that does care. That does want television, specifically anime to push itself further away from the stigma regarding the quality of the medium, I ask you to perhaps watch a series with cute girls but in a narrative that actually exists. Characters that are actually there. And there are plenty of shows like that, too. You don't have to settle for something like Eromanga-Sensei.

Kyoto Animation specializes in cute girls but with engaging characters, exceptional directing, and spectacular visuals. If you are looking for porn, look up porn. If you want to watch a series, make the sacrifice of watching something that at least has an element of positivity past sexualizing its objects. This'll promote series that will actually create maybe something a bit more interesting and original.

Eromanga-Sensei is genuinely a saddening experience. It is so incredibly bad in just about every way, yet people really love it. It is so popular that it will spawn plenty of sequels and shows copying its already cliche formula that it truly makes me upset. An industry that is already a mecca for unoriginal concepts that virtually just copy one another will just continue to be an industry of looping inspiration and nothing to break up the tedious formula.

Eromanga-sensei is truly the worst.

[5.0/10]
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For a series that's all about a plethora of characters yelling loudly, Attack on Titan definitely finds itself whining a lot this season. Even with the aptly titled final episode, "Scream", AoT rarely finds breathing room to develop its scenario or characters past bluntly exposited backstory or nauseatingly boring dialogue. For everything it lacks in subtlety, it thankfully makes up for in bravado, as this season, even in its shorter length, is louder, dumber, and more abrasive than the last.

Don't get me wrong, I actually prefer shorter seasons in anime and I was happy to see that we won't be sitting through twenty ... four episodes of Attack on Titan. Especially if Season 1 is any example, there would most likely be a very tedious air about it all. With a shorter, more compact season, AoT had the opportunity to tell a more impactful story with better animation, presentation, and a tighter narrative.

Unfortunately, I can't say that it succeeded. Much like the first season, Attack on Titan feels incredibly inconsistent in presentation and narrative. One episode feels like it is totally inconsequential while another feels like everything is moving by at lightning pace. I rather have the pacing be fast, rather than crawling to the finish line like some abnormal titan, but this constant rubber-banding can become tedious. Season 2's shortened length definitely proves beneficial to the short narrative being told.

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[Story, character, and resolution]

There is a distant focus on our protagonist as the writers adapt a more wide scope of characters onto the screen, trying their best to create sympathetic and morally intriguing humans that pepper this sprawling landscape. I very much enjoyed this change, since our protagonists, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin aren't very interesting or charismatic. There's a squeaky blond kid who shouts a lot, the main protagonist Eren, fueled by revenge, who shouts a lot, and Mikasa, who's soft spoken but also totally insipid as a character. They're a complete bore.

Although the first half of the season really struggled to maintain my interest, I still appreciated them trying to develop a vast array of characters. I will unfortunately say that they don't do this too well. A lot of the episodes focused on certain characters, especially our favorite potato-lover, Sasha, feel totally redundant and misplaced. Her conflict or specific idiosyncrasies don't come off as clear or well-thought out and she gets completely sidelined as the season continues.

On the other hand, Reiner and Bernholdt get a lot more attention and end up providing much of the shows fast-paced narrative, which is welcome. Although their characters and motivations are left so vague that it often feels stilted, as in, I don't find the way they speak to be realistic of the situation they are in. They purposefully keep things vague which makes it sound like they are hiding from the viewer, rather than the characters.

The last group of characters that gets the most focus is Christa and Ymir, who are responsible for probably the most compelling, albeit cheesy story of the season. Spurned lovers and the like. Some of their choices made them seem stupider than what the writers may have wanted, however, in the end, at least there was some emotion there. Comparing that to our protagonist and their motivations, that is a major positive.

...

As the season progresses, there is an obvious escalation happening, and Erin is unfortunately at the center of it. While I will say that the latter half of the season is more entertaining from a popcorn fun perspective, it is also where the show becomes completely off the rails as a story. More on that in later sections.

There are constant monologues during the fights, which create for tension-less encounters that are often back-ended by meaningless cliffhangers that lead to nothing. Each episode ends on a cliffhanger and each cliffhanger rings less and less true or interesting. It's a crutch that most Shounen action series have.

Erin is often praised by the characters, however, I never felt as though he should be. He is painted as completely bullheaded, yet that is a positive. In one scene one character monologues to another about how Erin would charge into a fight against five people all stronger than him and risk his life, but that's a good thing, apparently. To me, it just comes off as stupid. It doesn't make me like this already shallow, revenge-driven character more.

Mikasa is virtually just the girl who's a badass during the inconsequential action scenes and then is reserved to just yelling "Erin" really loudly during the parts that yield narrative results. Of course during the climax she gets sidelined because god forbid these characters ever work together. The entire climax felt cheap.

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[Presentation]

I'm getting the boring parts out of the way before I talk about some of the more interesting elements of the series and what comparisons I can draw from it. The presentation here is fine. Much like the rest of the series it is horribly uneven, drifting from impressive animation to some really hokey and pathetic CG filler scenes that pepper most of the series. Every episode we got one or two filler cuts where a bunch of characters ride their horses along a texture wrap, and they're horses look really stiff and lifeless. The entire thing gives me flashbacks to Berserk(2016). It looks awful.

On the other hand, when WIT decides to put in some time there are some pretty engaging and fun action scenes, albeit poorly choreographed, as most of the time I really didn't understand the distance between objects. Coming off the heels of Kabaneri, I really was hoping for more in terms of animated fidelity here. Kabaneri, the last, and probably equally mediocre series that WIT worked on had significantly more impressive animation, character design, and set pieces, which made Attack on Titan feel like a pale imitation, which is all the more strange since Kabaneri was the actual imitation.

It was really clear that most of the effort was put into the first episode and the last few, since those are the episodes with the most consistent level of animation. As I said, when WIT decides to put that work in, it looks great. There are plenty of spectacularly designed and perhaps unintentionally hilarious Titans that waddle about on screen, and I maintain the notion that the titans are perhaps one of the coolest baddies I've seen. There are some genuinely fun designs here and those are often backed up by funny animation cycles which makes some of these abnormal creatures more memorable than many of the human characters.

...

The music is about as solid as ever. The OP is a shadow of season 1's initial opening, but it is still fine. The ED is better, and I appreciate that these openings and ending credits are actually attempting to be relevant, rather than just a super-cut of the characters flying through the air and posing.

The musical cues are amazing. From the electric guitar riffs to the awesome distorted violins, each one is memorable and never fails to bring your attention back to what is happening on screen. The shift into the orchestral themes of the series are alright, although I can't say they are as engaging.

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[Character death and you]

Oh man, I remember having an argument with someone on reddit about the character deaths in the series. They, for some absurd reason were set on the notion that Attack on Titan was successful due to its characters being in constant threat of dying. He compared it to the likes of Game of Thrones, which I found preposterous since I don't believe Attack on Titan's characters are under any threat whatsoever.

Game of Thrones has revolutionary narrative structure, visuals, and compelling character motivations, dialogue, and so on. Attack on Titan doesn't really have any of that, but more important, GoT truly excels with keeping you on the edge of your seat with character deaths solely because it lacks a protagonist. There is no "plot armor" here because there is no main character. Attack on Titan obviously has main characters which are obviously in no real danger, so that fear is coming from nowhere but from the viewers mind.

So with this in mind, none of that concept ends up ringing true. Characters in Attack on Titan do die, and I appreciate the length of which the director and animators go to show that death in this show is brutal. But it really doesn't feel as though everyone is at risk. With that being said, the violence here is actually pretty entertaining. I say that with the idea that violence in television and film is inherently entertaining and anime really kind of sucks at violence.

Attack on Titan is far from what I'd call a "gory" series, however, it is definitely a few nice steps above what I'd say is a "regularly bloody anime". The censorship rules in Japanese television, which are unfortunately in affect for most anime, are really disheartening, since nothing really feels spectacularly gory. All the blood here looks like ketchup and there are no guts or bones or anything like that. All the humans can get dismembered with a spurt of ketchup and that's that. This is surprising to me since Japan is definitely a body-horror oriented audience, with the "horror" genre being huge in Manga and some of the greatest horror films in Japan having these elements.

But that's a problem for another day. Attack on Titan at least tries to shock its audience with the horrors transpiring, and while they aren't really that effective when compared to the likes of, once again Game of Thrones, or even a significantly inferior and somewhat awful series like The Walking Dead. Even through all these unfortunate restrictions I still found myself enjoying some of the more horrific elements in the series, which is definitely a positive since not many anime really impress me in that aspect.

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[Shounen action cliches]

Inevitably, we have to touch on Shounen action shows and the cliches that come with them. Attack on Titan is undoubtedly a Shounen action series with the target demographic of boys ages thirteen through seventeen. Which is expected, as by definition Shounen is a teenage-oriented show. With that said, Attack on Titan is far from a mature series, despite it's 17+ rating. Sure there is blood and a hint of moral gray, but it really never strays any further than that.

The themes are blunt, the story is clear, and there isn't much depth beyond man-eating titans and the crazy plot-twists that end up coming with that. Which leads me to my next point, and a trope of Shounen action that I call "escalation". Where the show starts at one point in terms of situation and narrative, and then as the story progresses it escalates the drama and action to the point of absurdity.

When Attack on Titan started it was a series oriented around survival. Man versus beast, and that was the show at its best. For the first five episodes of the series, I really loved it. However, as it progressed and that escalation started occurring it shifted from survival to flat-out action and became more of a flesh-mecha. That unfortunately cheapened a lot of elements from the show, and I personally just don't find that concept all too interesting. It continued like this and as the season 2 finale shows, it really isn't stopping this escalation. I'm convinced that in a few seasons we'll have the moon reveal itself to be a titan and crash down into the earth as Eren becomes an amalgamation of all the titans to fight it. Or something like that.

It really could go anywhere, and that escalation unfortunately ruined a lot of potentially good shows. For example, Full Metal Alchemist:Brotherhood became absurd towards the end, breaking any and all verisimilitude and left me disappointed. As the series progresses, AoT feels as though it will begin to do the same. The plot developments are all either really obvious or so hilarious ridiculous that you can't help but laugh at them. Which isn't a big positive for a show that is incredibly devoid of humor through much of its run-time.

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[Conclusion]

I have a natural bias against superhero programming. I'm going to be honest here. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy some or fully avoid others, it just means that by concept, superhero shows rarely interest me in concept. The idea that some random kid gets insane powers without even trying is lame to me. I much rather see people work to get where they are. Attack on Titan became a superhero show the second Erin got this ridiculous power out of nowhere and now is, as plenty of characters made it clear, the "last hope of humanity." It really plays as generic and uninteresting. Even the moral conflicts are all just cliches at this point.

So with Erin inhabiting this role, I find myself with a blase ideology when watching this series. I have absolutely no interest in this escalation specifically because I know it will escalate. However, Attack on Titan still manages to keep things fresh by throwing some decently engaging fight scenes and some characters that I find myself a little more interested in than our protagonists. Christa and Ymir's story this season was definitely cheesy, but it was a nice kind of cheese, like a fine a ricotta, rather than the stale american that this show often forces down my throat.

Attack on Titan is a shounen through and through, and that occasionally prevents me from really just enjoying it for its action. It is the little things, here. For example, when a character is in a scary situation with Titans piling on top of them and then another character tries to speak to them, all the titans just kind of stop moving to let them finish talking. These blatant over-sites aren't as innocuous as you may think, since each moment that rips you out of the scene adds up to you not treating this show with any respect or care, making for a fake experience.

The finale continues to elevate the series' stakes without managing to create a world in which those stakes feel feasible. The twist was obvious, however, the implications of it are yet to be explained and I'm sure they'll need another thirteen episodes of the already announced third season to do so. A lot was supposedly happening this season, and some of it was pretty fun, however, the plethora of honestly disorienting flashbacks and blunt, repetitive dialogue created a lack of interest that continued through the season. This made the entire experience feel grand, yet completely mediocre at the same time.

Unless it really fumbles, I feel like this is the kind of attitude Attack on Titan will have for its run-time. It is undoubtedly carried by its genuinely creative premise and spectacular monsters, however, it falls short in the narrative and dialogue, making the entire experience palatable, but not something you'd want to eat every day.

(8.0/10)
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If you watch as much film and television as I do, there is nothing you grow to not expect. I'll be the first to admit that my experience with anime is limited, however, my experience with other mediums is unbelievably large because I dedicated myself to consuming as much entertainment as possible. That, now a days, does involve anime. While anime does bring some new tropes to the table, in structure, it is still similar to other mediums. So getting surprised by something you feel as though you've already made up your mind about is a very rare occurrence...

So lets talk about Koe no ... Katachi.

I feel like I often repeat myself when discussing Kyoto Animation's work. Their consistent, impressive, in-studio work is of such high quality that there really is nothing else in the anime industry to compare them to. They stand on their own as the single most talented animation studio in the business, in my opinion. I felt their fingerprints all over "A Silent Voice", a film that I surprisingly really enjoyed as a whole.

Yamada Naoko, the KyoAni alumni takes lead as the director, delivering exceptionally throughout the film. What struck me about "A Silent Voice" over another anime film I watched recently, "Your Name", was how much more personal it felt. I suppose this extra touch of "love" from KyoAni is what makes them such a amiable studio. Each endeavor they embark upon always feels as though they have their absolute all put into it. They often change and deviate from their source material to create more palatable stories for this visual medium, and they often save potentially mediocre shows with their passion and ability to create from nothing. This is what makes me love Kyoto Animation so much. There is a passion here, whether it is in their films or series that I simply do not feel from any other studio.

What leads me to this emotional conclusion is their ability to create personable people in these fictional worlds through the character animation, which i'll touch on later. I've been becoming blase to the nature of a lot of more slice-of-life anime, where even a film like "Your Name", which I unfortunately find myself comparing to "A Silent Voice" often feels disconnected from my own emotion. While "Your Name" was sleeker, it never felt more personal, which is what makes cell-shaded two-dimensional animation superior to any other form of animation.

What "A Silent Voice" does above all else, however, is subvert expectations, and maybe not even on purpose. Going into this film I had a totally different image of what to expect, and I left completely baffled by the result. Going into "A Silent Voice" expecting a romance is perhaps a bit assumptious on the anime medium, but I see a teenage boy and a cute teenage girl and then my limited, but somewhat jaded experience with anime kicks in and I tend to expect a romantic film. This is not a romance film, though, in fact, it's a lot deeper than that.

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[Premise]

We get taken through the early life of Ishida Shouya. We see him in early grade school, no older than thirteen, and we expect nothing from him. A shy, adorable, deaf girl transfers into their class and, well, Ishida and his group of friends don't take a liking to her. A seemingly innocuous yet disheartening moment occurs, where Ishida makes a joke about the way she talks and everyone in the class laughs. He notices that he made people laugh by making fun of this girl and he continues. And continues. And continues. It gets worse, and worse, and worse. She leaves the school. He gets blamed. Everyone, including his friends turn on him. As is life.

Enter him during what can only be his senior year. Lonely. Unable to communicate with anyone else. Shunned. Suicidal. His momentary choice had repercussions that rippled down to his very being and totally changed him as a person. No longer is he just a regular, friend having, fun loving kid. He's just the "loner" now, no one expects him to socialize. This drastic change of character within just the first quarter of the film would be very hard to swallow if it wasn't for the superb direction and surprising restraint shown from the creators.

Anime is often criticized for its over-emotional nature, it's need to create drama and cloying sappiness whenever it feels like. These early scenes could have easily been that. They could have been a "Your Lie in April"-esq cry-fest where nothing is established and the only thing you know about these characters are their basest traits and their ability to cry. Yet this restraint shown goes a long way. The visual flair that KyoAni puts on "A Silent Voice" is palpable and surprising, to say the least. There is some pretty impressive cinematography, sound design, and overall direction. Especially in these early scenes. The stylistic choices made are blunt, yet creative enough to really give this film its own feeling.

I thought this would be a story about Ishida's redemption, and it is, but more importantly it is a story about repercussions. The lack of romance really helps not make this some redundant flick made to appeal to the masses, what 'A Silent Voice" does is pull back and show a more nuanced look at depression. That nuanced look wouldn't have worked if it wasn't for the subdued and tasteful VA work by both Irino Miyu, as Ishida, and Hayami Saori as Nishimiya, the deaf girl. These characters don't wear their emotions on their sleeves and they aren't supposed to. They, as well as the decently large cast of side characters have more subtlety to them than I expected. Apart from some pacing issues and somewhat unnecessary catharsis, the film's premise is solid.

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[Characters]

Ishida meets plenty of side-characters, from Nishimiya's sister to plenty of his old acquaintances from his past. Instead of giving them basic traits and letting those be their defining features, there are some smart characterization choices being made here. The characters are given somewhat vague motivations that make them feel distinctly more human in their emotions. Emotions are never black and white, so motivations shouldn't be either.

"A Silent Voice" does its best with these secondaries and gives them ample screen-time . There are some ham-fisted moments during the latter half of the film; however, it isn't ever a scene that doesn't end up benefiting the narrative. Just scenes that don't play out well enough, even if they do end up being useful to have. This is where narrative structure comes into play. The idea here is that every scene included is important, but the way they are included isn't smooth.

One particular scene at an amusement park never quite resonates and ended up being completely buried. The structure here was messy, but necessary. I wish there was some re-organization, however, the film itself was long enough. It needed to be to tackle a topic like this.

...

Let's talk Nishimiya, the unforgettable blind girl that plays as this shows empathetic piece. Or does she? As I slowly realized that she was significantly more than just an object of affection for the protagonist, her roll in this film becomes decidedly more intriguing. She's this really nice, well-meaning girl that got dealt a really shit hand. She has no choice but to hide behind a completely fake smile, therefore causing people to generally feel as though she's totally fake as a person. This interesting character flaw shines a light on the meticulous character building this film surprisingly succeeds presenting.

Who was initially a breathtakingly beautiful character design turned into a breathtakingly beautiful character. The voice work does wonders too. Deaf people sound different, as they are unable to hear themselves, and can often sound a bit goofy. The choice to actually retain a deaf person's voice when I sure as hell expected them to go with the usual overly-cutesy shtick was startling but ultimately a risk worth taking. The Voice Actress really had to commit to making this believable and for the most part, she did. Nishimiya's voice ended up being such a important aspect to the film as you realize its significance. As she hardly has a voice, Ishida loses his. And therefore we enter his arc and ultimate catharsis.


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[Art]

If I haven't harped enough about how amazing Kyoto Animation is, let me do it again. Kyoto Animation is the fucking best. There isn't a single series' oriented studio that produces work of this fidelity and artistic merit, in my opinion. "A Silent Voice" is them turning their talent to eleven, as they get to exercise their talent with a lot of time, money, and effort. The result is jaw-dropping.

The designs translate extremely well from the manga. The characters here are drawn dynamically, yet also detailed to an awe-inspiring level. Nishimiya is almost always heart-stopping with how well she's drawn and animated. The dreamlike, soft colors of this film help create a somewhat melancholic atmosphere that you feel nostalgic towards. A malaise blanket covered the first half of the film, aesthetically, and I loved it.

Comparing it once again to the sleeker production of "Your Name"; I actually vastly prefer 'A Silent Voice". Both in direction and visuals, "A Silent Voice" is much more interesting to look at. The dialogue is taken good care of, and the framing is often exceptional as well. I'm just so pleased with the way this film looks.

I can only recall one issue with CG, which I honestly thought was somewhat misplaced. Everything else is so beautifully drawn in cell-shaded 2D glory that CG really wasn't necessary and I think some extra time could've fixed this one moment. However, that is far from anything but a nitpick. This film is gorgeous.

The last outstanding quality I want to touch on in presentation is KyoAni's ability to create character qualities through animation. I have yet to see a studio perfect this, and KyoAni is incredible at it. Often times an actor in live action will give the character they are playing certain quirks and physical traits to personalize them for the viewer. Whether it be a nervous tick or just the way they greet someone. Voice Actors don't have this courtesy because they don't control the character.

Instead, the animators, and in turn the director are in control. KyoAni has incredibly talented in-house animators that work tediously on some tiny, meticulous details that really go the extra mile to give a potentially flat side character a bit more flair and personality. This doesn't have to be some overtly quirky thing, either, just something simple like the way they walk or open doors. Character animation is so important, and "A Silent Voice" excels in facial animation, especially for Nishimiya. In anime, the eyes are often considered the most important way to express an emotion. KyoAni attempts to make that the entire face. For Nishimiya, who doesn't talk much, there is a lot of expressive facial expressions that you really don't see all too often in anime.

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[Issues]

"A Silent Voice" isn't without its problems. As I mentioned, there are issues with the pacing and overall narrative structure. While every scene feels important in establishing key characters, they still feel misplaced and occasionally messy in design. One particular confession scene really threw me off and was hardly even addressed later on in the film, which made its entire purpose feel null and void. Especially since it felt as though it came randomly and without purpose.

This film is incredibly depressing, especially in its earlier half and while I appreciated its somber, heart-squeezing moments earlier on, I did feel like it dipped a bit too deeply into the "anime drama tropes" bucket with some of it's later moments. Especially with a fireworks festival marking a pivotal moment, as they often do, and some unabashedly corny climax-oriented moments.

But even with those issues in the melodrama, the melodrama itself still works. It works so well due to the extra effort put into establishing the characters and giving them some overtly human qualities. You buy it because you buy the characters, and in turn, are invested in the story even if the story itself isn't perfectly constructed.


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[Conclusion]

Ultimately, "A Silent Voice" shines brightly. The strong, assured direction, calm, reserved music, spectacular editing, and ability to let scenes breath without backing music make for a visually and auditory film that impresses greatly. The deeper topics are addressed with surprising nuance. While it isn't the most nuanced piece about depression I've ever seen, it still shocked me to see how much effort was put into communicating this emotion through imagery, rather than expository dialogue.

That's what "A Silent Voice" is, though. Not a romance like I stupidly though. Hardly even redemption. It is more about stepping into the shoes of someone you don't understand through ways that don't reveal themselves until you've experienced what they have. The symbolism in this film isn't too subtle, but it's creative and more importantly, effective. The eventual catharsis is so powerful because there is so much effort placed into these characters. "Your Name", while good, often felt a bit innocuous and overly saccharine, "A Silent Voice" earns its sugar-coated moments because its more heartfelt narrative is surrounded by poignant, relate-able characters. It feels everything but innocuous.

What can I say, there is so much positive to "A Silent Voice" that I feel like it'd benefit from a re-watch. While far from perfect in structure and narrative progression, those just happen to be the most formula-driven aspects of creation. That isn't what Kyoto Animation ever excels at. They excel at personality. They bath in attitude. They indulge in aesthetic and love, whatever that means. I feel like this kind of narrative needed that to be adapted properly, and KyoAni have once again proven as exceptional and incredibly talented.

I'm eager to recommend "A Silent Voice" to any drama fan. If you are as experienced in film as I am, you tend to get a bit jaded to overly-formulaic attempts at cloying emotionality and obnoxious romance, so when something does end up surprising you, even if it is due to your own ignorance, you can't help but dish some praise. Goes to show that maybe you shouldn't judge a film by its cover.

[6.5/10]
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The year of surprises. Recently, both western media and anime have been surprising me, usually in a good way. From Kong to Dragon Maids, I've found shockingly enjoyable entertainment in places where I really wouldn't expect it to be. Maybe i'm becoming softer, as the escapist entertainment slowly drags me through the depths of "why don't you just have fun!" and "just turn your brain off, dude!" and whatever other insipid statements tend to spring from the bad taste crowd. I'm not above making fun of someone for the kind of shit they watch, so when i'm conscious of the kind of shit i'm watching, ... well, it creates a whole new self-aware dynamic within my mind.

I think that's my own idiosyncrasy though. I try to be as tepid as possible whenever introduced with an outlandish concept, like a salary man-turned loli in an alt-world war 1 with magic. Maybe that's why I've been getting surprised more and more. Gauging how excited you are can possibly salvage an iffy premise. Youjo Senki, or Saga of Tanya the Evil is one of those premises that becomes synonymous with stereotypes in anime.

I'm prone to indulging in those stereotypes too. Whether it be laughing at blunt storytelling, bad character chemistry, or more vague things like farcical story concepts, like meeting a dragon while drunk and having it turn into a cute girl who is also a maid. Concepts that are generally reserved to this kind of escapist entertainment also known as anime. Senki is no different. But surprisingly, it does have some pretty awesome and memorable qualities about it. I feel like this is what some action fans may be looking for.

As someone who has come to the conclusion that action anime isn't all up my alley simply due to the way the way it is very often constructed. Senki surprised me. It's strange because I am definitely a huge action fan in the live action medium, as well as a huge horror fan (anime doesn't really have much horror, though), yet the kinds of shows I've seen within this animated medium haven't done all that much to impress me with the action itself.

Maybe i'm being overly cynical since I really dug Kill La Kill, and thought Mob Psycho 100 was pretty solid recently, as well, and while Mob definitely excelled in its action, Kill La Kill was more interesting to me with its characters. I guess what i'm saying is that my experience with the actual action in action anime has been rough.

Here is where Youjo Senki comes in. While not something that is revolutionary or particularly awe-inspiring, there are elements here that any action fan can really get behind, not another dragged out twenty episode Shounen.

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[The War]

As I briefly explained, a salary man gets murdered by a co-worker he just fired and gets reincarnated into a German loli who tests positive for "magical capabilities" and becomes a powerful, yet very young battle mage in what can only be described as World War 1 Alt-Germany. With all the other parallels to other countries landing square in the "tasteful" zone. This salary man-turned-loli is incredibly cynical. Of humanity, faith, and just about anything in between.

He gets greeted by a "god", which he aptly refers to as Being X who gives him the opportunity for reincarnation but only if he takes up the name of the lord, pretty much. Of course this cynical guy doesn't want to do that, hence getting transported into wartime. The interest here stems from his relation with this pho-God and how this "God" is portrayed. Greedy, unfair, and somewhat petty, similar to some of our gods, but not all-knowing.

So a battle begins. Being X fights for this salary man's faith, and the salary man, who is now Tanya Degurachaff, fights with all her will to never bow to a being like this. A fight of faith versus humanity, with the humanity being cynical of humanity. Interesting, but may straddle the line of pettiness. Thankfully, Senki never journeys deep into that rabbit hole, and apart from a very well-placed monologue towards the end of the show, this show stays preach-free, which is a big thumbs up. Again, that stereotype of "moralistic anime preachiness" is, maybe not subverted, but surprisingly not all there.

Tanya rises in the ranks, trying to establish a comfy space in the back-lines, but gets constantly thrown face-first into the brunt of the action. She ends up commanding a battalion of semi-forgettable characters that follow her headlong into battle. Her stature (and age) are questioned, but only lightly, creating a very strange verisimilitude within this world. On one hand this is absurd, on the other hand this introduction of magic can actually excuse their recruitment of such a young officer. She's prone to incredibly powerful magic, but not powerful enough to be some overpowered main character, which prevents this show's Shounen-action roots from showing at all.

Senki feels more of a globe-trotting adventure with a lot of very colorful pit-stops. Very similar to something like a Call of Duty campaign. Not necessarily a bad thing, especially since this show puts a lot of effort into creating political conflict which ends up being back-ended by the action. Not every episode ends with action, and not every episode really needs to. Tanya, and her VA, Aoi Yuuki, do an outstanding job in conveying this persons feelings as the show progresses, even if sometimes I could do without the constant introspection.

It always feels as though the war is bigger than Tanya herself, even if she is responsible for a very powerful battalion of mages. Which is great. This is a massive war with a lot of political ideologies colliding and it really wouldn't make sense to put this character at the forefront of it all, even if her eventual influence on a lot of the leaders who we see constantly sitting around important tables talking politics and smoking cigars feels a little too easy.

The technology of this war is confusing, but I suppose it ought to be. Being X is constantly interfering with other people, giving them advice and occasionally even empowering them with more powerful magic. The progression of technology is sudden and important, as years pass in the blink of an eye. I think Senki is at fault with not showing character growth as these years pass, which is unfortunately up to the artists to do, by aging Tanya accordingly. While she definitely matures in the sense that she becomes more seasoned to the war, no character feels different after the multiple-year conflict, visually. No scars, nothing.

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[Presentation]

The presentation is a bit of a mixed bag, however, there is definitely more positives to be said. The best thing I can say about Senki is how breathtaking its sound design is for a low budget TV anime. The gunshots, explosions, and everything in between sound crisp and powerful. Some moments truly stand out due to the sound, here. The OP and ED aren't too bad, inhabiting a grunge-rock base with some more pop-oriented elements thrown in during their chorus. I think they are good enough to be memorable. The OP itself is somewhat disappointing, with boring imagery and overall not too much creativity injected in it.

The sequences where new-comer studio NUT put visible effort into turned out awe-inspiring. Especially a prolonged ten-minute battle sequence near the end of the season was truly one of the better sequences in recent memory. However, there is some really blatant and unfortunately bad use of CG throughout the shows less-than-exceptional battles. One glaring moment was with a battleship cruising on what I believe was 'water' but the rendering was so hideous that it looked like a PS1 game. There is some frame rate issues with soldiers marching. All these things plague so many TV anime.

The sound, and surprisingly, the editing does a lot of the heavy lifting. While this show was often dark and brooding, the editing and direction in many cases actually gave it a lot of life. Yutaka Uemura, whom I have not seen any work from, does some very solid work on Senki. Certain scenes and cuts really stick out as creative, fun, and even exhilarating. Even some more dialogue-driven scenes are cut well, which brings a new air to the way you listen to two people discuss war politics, which isn't always the most interesting topic.

Character design is generally not too memorable, as it focuses mostly on realistic designs that contrast hard with our main characters design. It isn't a bad thing, since I actually enjoy more realistic approaches to design. Many of them just don't stand out as much.

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[Characters in an Alt-History]

So Tanya is an attempt at an anti-hero. She's called "evil", but words like cruel, greedy, conniving, self-righteous, and powerful come to mind more often than evil does. There was one scene where "evil" can be attributed to her name, but everything else more lays towards the "Chaotic Lawful" side of things. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I never really got the idea that she was some evil psychopath. If anything, she was just self-absorbed and only caring about herself, which is a fine character trait.

As a protagonist she's the most engaging character in the series. I also really want to thank the show for not relying on poorly-placed comedy to make light of certain scenes. While there is comedy, it is often more understated apart from a few glaring places, which is acceptable. With Tanya harboring more of an anti-hero roll, you end up siding more with some of the people she kills, rather than herself. One scene particularly worked well, with imminent civilian casualties being swept under the rug due to a law-interpretation she wrote the paper on. She values logical solutions over emotional ones, which may make her, as I said, cruel and ruthless, but she doesn't really indulge in a lot of what she does. She simply is uncaring towards it.

Viktoriya is the most prominent secondary in the show. Her design is perhaps the most questionable, as her eyes are a bit too big for her face. It looks odd. What is the most questionable is her role within the show. She really just plays a cute girl that slowly becomes encapsulated in Tanya's world. Viktoriya doesn't have much of a character arc. I wouldn't call her all that pertinent to the show and her eventual role is mostly just another girl, however, it just ends up pointing out the complete lack of females within the show overall. Weird.

While I do say she's supposed to be a "cute" character, I wouldn't say the show overly relies on the "cute" aspect of her or Tanya for that matter. I'm really happy about that. This could've easily just been a show where a cute character murders people, and that would've lost my interest within the first episode. Thankfully it springs for a more in-depth approach to a character, even if it is definitely a result of marketing a character like this.

One of the biggest issues that Senki develops is its lack of actual consequences. The show itself has some moral ambiguity to it, which really surprised me since I virtually can't think of any action or drama anime that has moral ambiguity. With that said, though, the ambiguity is all it really has. In the end, you are still supposed to like the side you see the most on screen. Especially some of the comrades that fight alongside Tanya in her battalion. They get hurt, but there are hardly any deaths. There aren't many characters that you see for more than an episode that die, and the show often does a fake-out for their deaths, which robs it of any impact whatsoever. This is such a disappointment because Senki does have an interested aura of moral grey to it, which is sorely missing in anime.

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[Conclusion]

The Saga of Tanya the Evil is a surprisingly solid series. Even if it is plagued by a rough start, with the first few episodes being either incomprehensible or kind of boring, it makes a quick transformation towards the middle and end of the series. The story isn't anything to write home about, but Tanya's battle against faith is interesting and the refreshing morality of Senki elevate it to being pretty damn memorable.

Even the opening and end credit themes are stuck in my head hours after watching the series. This is the kind of series I may want to see more of within this medium. Although it doesn't have the brutal emotional impact I feel it could have, there are some really positive elements here. Unfortunately, it doesn't have all too much violence or consequence, but the character interaction and eventual evolution of Tanya is worth the watch on its own, with the crisp, explosive sound design being the icing on the cake.

If it weren't for the sub-par animation at a few time-saving moments during the series, this would be one of the more visually fresh and arresting shows recently. I think there is a lot to say about Studio NUT as well, who definitely have a lot of passion behind their first project, and rightfully so. There are issues with the product overall, but the end result is a positive one. Maybe the cynicism of Tanya makes me want to contrast myself here, but Youjo Senki was a surprisingly entertaining series, and I look forward to seeing more, if there is more to come. It sure has a hell of a set up.