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I use the word melancholic a lot as it is one of the most interesting emotions to have, and one of the hardest to get right. This show is the walking definition of melancholic. Melancholy, technically, is sadness with no reason. But I always took it to be a bittersweet emotion. It’s happiness and sadness, hope and isolation, a personal feeling that lands a slight grin on your face and a light burden on your heart. Happy things are happening and you can enjoy it, but there are introspective elements that have this personal reflection and somberness to it. Like going separate ways with someone ... you once cared about (or still do) with no hard feelings, or knowing it’s the right thing to do. That is what this show is to me and why it is so personal. It is about these two innocent, naive and ignorant little girls forced to question heavy subjects concerning their own mortality. The plot of the show is these two girls travel a war torn city. Through this they question civilization and societies behaviors like religion, war, the desire to destroy, the importance of books and life and friendship. They reflect on time and monotony, on Darwinism, on memories and dreams, on the purpose of living and bodily necessities like hunger and baths, and fun, song, humor, art, hope, homes, death, companionship, society, survival and everything in between. These girls question the purpose of life and everything it has through the innocence and ignorance of children. They are in constant hunts for food and amusement, taking pleasure in simple things. They are absolutely adorable and their friendship is precious, as they are all they have in the world. Both characters are lovable and adorable and mostly hopeful, never thinking too seriously about their situation. This show, with all philosophical points I’ve described can be seen as a very serious and sad show, but because of the personality of these girls, who only focus on making the most of their situation, making for genuinely funny and heartwarming scenes, it makes for a melancholic tone. This is a very light hearted show for the most part, with the girls getting on each other's nerves and getting into many antics. The girls are content and even happy at times, leading to funny moments and wholesome interactions, all the while with weapons over their shoulders and a desolate war-torn infrastructure around them. Their philosophical conversations aren’t shown as existential (even though they absolutely are) but more like a neat idea they came up with. It’s simple conversations to pass the time with meanings they don’t fully understand. You smile at their antics, but feel sadness in your heart from their situation. “Getting along with the loneliness” is a repeated phrase that perfectly describes the show.

This tone isn’t only carried by the astounding dialogue and charming, yet introspective characters. This show’s tone and themes are also expertly crafted through the unique world they inhabit. It’s not our world they are traveling through, but a towering, desolate infrastructure of machine and cement. So industrialized that a fish is the only other surviving animal in the entire show (other than human), and has great significance in its existence. Other characters are rare and a breath of fresh air and relief when you do meet them. The religion and stone figures, along with the indescribable, yet very industrialized artifacts leads to a world of unease and mystery. As you explore the world, through mazes of pipes and fields of cement, the more ominous it becomes, leading to one of the most existential endings to a show I have ever seen. There is no exposition, all adopting a show-don’t-tell story method, which is very much against the usual anime. It allows you to make your own conclusions about the world. It introduces heavy, yet subtle themes of over industrialization. The effort of ascending this multi-layered city is inspiring, yet dreadful. The mystery of the world is filled in by our understanding of the themes, and is explored by the ignorant children who were left behind.

To aid in this atmosphere, this show has some of the best sound design in all of anime. I haven’t hear foley this thematically rich and enticing since Wall-E (which actually has similar themes). The mechanical trotting of the vehicle, the subtle wind, the isolating echoes and the sound of emptiness make for a very lonely experience, only made hopeful through the voices of our protagonists. It’s not something that gets enough attention but the subtle sounds and lack thereof, leads to a much more isolating and thorough world. Just the different uses of water alone, from eerie drips, to beautiful rain drops, to relieving baths and and the somber tank of the fish, it all leads to different emotions from the sounds alone.

The cinematography is also astounding. The color is so devoid of life, so grey, that whenever color is in the shot, it’s so impactful and that much more dazzling. The wide shots of this lifeless world shows just how small our characters are. Every camera angle and shot size is intentional, there is not a wasted moment visually in this entire show. The soundtrack is equally as melancholic and matches perfectly with the sound design. It’s very simple and very effective, carrying the whimsy of a child dampened by the isolation of the world. This anime is a masterclass in every sense and is so underrated.

Just ignore the fact that they dab in the OP please.

I feel like most of these anime are written by teenagers. So many are catered around immature (or even toxic) depictions of love, power fantasies, shallow themes/characters and/or edgy ‘maturity’. Jinwoo has no depth and is just a teenager's image of what being badass is. The other characters have one character trait that they play off as being thematically deep like ‘she’s scared of dying’ or ‘he’s caring but knows it’s dangerous’. If you can describe an entire character’s conflict with one sentence then that character needs work. I feel like people only think this show is mature because there are government policies, business jargon, ... blood and killing, people being afraid to die (which should be a no brainer), no sexualization (it’s there but very subtle), the main character loses every once and a while and the screen is dark. Which is all very surface level shit. There’s no room for interpretation, no figuring anything out yourself, no speculation, everything from the world building to the characters thoughts to the themes is all just spelled out for you. It’s a temporary dopamine rush. (That’s not just a problem with this show (only) but anime in general. Even the animes I like have this problem, Attack on Titan especially.) The animation is amazing and the fight scenes are cool but the concepts are lazy and stupid. The whole video game aspect is so fucking lame and lazy and I can’t take it seriously. The characters are so one note I can’t remember any of them. There’s no clear statement on what the characters can and can’t do so the Jinwoo is free to do whatever the fuck he wants to deus ex machina himself out of any situation (there’s literally a point in the finally where they just say ‘fuck it, the game wants him alive). The pacing is shit because the story wasn’t thought out. They seem to just write it chapter by chapter with no direction in mind. Great stories should have the beginning, middle and end thought out to the goddamn story beats of every scene before the first scene is finalized (yes, I took screenwriting classes, I know that doesn’t make me an expert but at least I have an appreciation for hard work in storytelling). I know it’s different with shows but that should at least be the case for the season. So much of anime is just make it up as you go and it’s so obvious. The ending to this shit was so anticlimactic because you know that’s just where they had to stop in the manga. There is nothing for this show but the edgy teenage coolness factor and the stellar animation. I’m getting sick of this shit.

This show exemplifies a lot of things that have just been annoying me about anime, especially modern anime. First thing that is pretty inconsequential but actually pisses me off is the long and overly specific titles. It is a title, not a premise. Why couldn’t this just be called Villainess Level 99? That’s all we need. It tells us the main character and the premise of them being OP. If we want to know more we could read the synopsis or, I don’t know, watch the fucking show. This next complaint might just be a cultural difference but it is the utter unoriginality in anime. ... And what I mean by this is that there is an entire genre to “getting trapped in a otome video game as the villainess”. This is such an oddly specific concept and yet for some reason, there are countless anime and manga on it, each with just a tiny little caveat that makes it ‘unique’. That’s the extent of the creativity that goes into these shows. It’s the same thing except ‘she’s op in this one’ or, ‘she’s in love with the hero’. It’s the same damn thing. I have watched the first episode of every anime that came out this season and 90% of them were isekai or some fantasy world setting. I only finished 3 of those shows. Everything is just a tweaked version of the other. But the unoriginality doesn’t stop there. Because every anime is an adaptation of a manga. It’s a teaser saying to read the manga or for people who are just too lazy to read them. It’s a waste of an entire medium. Saying the show is unoriginal is not fair because actually, it’s the manga that’s unoriginal. On top of that, the premise of entering an otome game is unoriginal. It truly is just a self-insert. It’s looking at another person's work and saying “I would have done this if I was the character.” Every person thinks that and if you really want to see shit like that play out for whatever reason, go to Wattpad. Why are these actual studio productions? I feel like most manga now are just fanfictions. That’s why they are all power fantasies. It’s unoriginal and hinges on validating and playing out fantasies instead of actual compelling storytelling. This show is nothing. Every character is bland, it’s inoffensive, it’s predictable (it ended exactly as they said it would 3 episodes prior), it gave you the mindless rush of “yeah, show the people who doubt you!”, the cgi sucks dick and I’ll probably forget it exists by tomorrow. The only reason it’s so high is because it’s just inoffensive. I don’t hate it, I enjoyed parts of it. I don’t need to talk about specifics because of how unoriginal it is.

There’s something fundamentally cathartic about watching someone who was underestimated prove people wrong. It’s just in our nature. We love it when we know how powerful someone is and someone doubts them arrogantly. That’s why One-Punch Man becomes frustrating at times because you just want Saitama to prove them wrong already. This show (whose title really doesn’t need to be that long) survives only off of that catharsis. That thrill of outsmarting everyone and then seeing how impressed they are. The only reason I continued watching was because it was satisfying in a way; watching the heroine find a way to outsmart everyone. But that’s ... really all this show has going for it. The protagonist has no flaws because if she did, then the catharsis wouldn’t be there. It’s a type of power fantasy in, ‘if I knew what I did now back then’. I’m glad, even though technically an isekai, she doesn't have knowledge of modern technology. It makes it so any accomplishment she does is completely hers. But even with that, the power fantasy is still all this show has. The characters are one-note, despite how complex the show tries to convince you they are. Although she does outsmart everyone, the problems are never too complex to begin with. The challenges just come one at a time and never pile on top of each other and so you never doubt she can come up with a way out of it. You’re just sort of waiting for the moment to happen and then collect the dopamine when it does. The romance is bland and seems more like admiration than love. He gets in close and she blushes like once every 2 episodes just to remind you that this is in fact (technically) a romance, even though it really doesn’t feel like it, but that’s the extent of it. I enjoyed it when I was watching it because it succeeded with the power fantasy dynamic, and it actually felt like she earned the victories which was thrilling, but I can’t really call it ‘good’. I had fun with it. I enjoy things more when the MC outsmarts everyone over overpowering them. But once again, it’s really not as smart as it thinks it is and the story is nothing of note. Just cathartic fun.

This may be my Ghibli bias coming out. This should be an 8/10 movie, but the Ghibli charm is enough to bump this and any other movie up some.
There is so much love put into the animation. Every setting is so meticulously detailed and beautifully drawn that every frame looks like a painting. And there are not mystical elements whatsoever in this movie. All of this beauty comes from the love of the mundane and the ordinary. They make the common street and the average house feel so magical to be in because of the love they put into drawing it. All of the animators ... pack as much detail into every facet of the screen making you realize the beauty in daily life. This is the power of Ghibli.
The music is whimsical and fun. My goodness did I love the score. It really encapsulated the energy of youth and I was smiling throughout.
Nothing is dramatized. There are so many scenes of simply getting ready in the morning, daily routines, and the actual drama is done so realistically. This all creates this connection that no other studio has been able replicate. These are all real, relatable people, who deal with the drama of life in a way that makes you feel like it's part of your own. Changes to your person and to your life are usually subtle. I moved, I started college and I barely know anyone and it feels like nothing changed. I'm still the same me. Ghibli understands that and because they don't dramatize anything, because they handle everything with maturity, I can connect to these characters and these stories in a way that feels so personal.
These movies are fun, they always have me smiling from start to finish, and I can feel the love of everyone working on it. This is the Ghibli charm. This is what makes a 7/10 story, an 8/10 movie into the 9/10 it so rightfully deserves. And this one isn't even Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata.
Damn I love Ghibli.

This is the best straight-up kids movie of all time. It really just embodies the joy and innocence of being a kid.
The art style is bubbly and brilliant (and extremely well animated). The colors are simple, bright and beautiful. The world is wonderous, imaginative, charming and colorful. The music is soaring and whimsical (average Hisashi W). This is the most adorable movie I've ever seen. The characters are so much fun to watch and are great role models for kids, without being unrealistic. It's narratively and thematically simple, but it works in this movies favor because of the intended demographic.
It's fun, cute, and I was ... smiling and laughing the entire time. This is not a movie you just play to distract your kids while you work, this is a movie to sit down and watch with them. Another Ghibli masterpiece.

Definitely the most overwhelmed I've been in a movie. It's so creative, the editing is top notch, it's the most mind-bending thing I've ever seen, the score and sound design is great and it uses animation so thoroughly and wildly that there is no way I wouldn't love it. But maybe it was too confusing. I found myself trying to figure out what was going on a bit too much where I couldn't get invested in the characters. It felt more like a fun puzzle than a story. I wasn't emotionally invested in the slightest and I'm not really sure what the movie was trying ... to be or if was even trying to say anything. I love it for the visuals, the editing and the unfiltered creativity, but not his best work. Perfect Blue did it better. Maybe I'll change my opinion on the fifth rewatch or something.

There are two requirements you have to fulfill to understand why I rated this show so highly. 1: You have to have seen a lot of anime romcoms to accustom yourself to anime cringe and be able to tolerate it. 2: You have to know and except that anime romcoms are complete fucking garbage. Once you recognize the inherent flaws of that genre of that medium, you realize that this anime, knows exactly what it’s doing and that it is one of the greatest pieces of satire I have ever seen. It’s so good that many dumbasses don’t even realize that they’re being made fun ... of and take it seriously. This shit is so dumb, so fucking incomprehensibly retarded, that it is one of the most ingenious romcoms I have watched. This makes fun of everything that is harem anime. Like the whole reason harem anime’s exist is because they’re the power fantasies of romance. Like, because I’m a good guy all these girls should fall in love with me. It’s inherently misogynistic and lazy and it is based around the ideology of the “nice guy” which is an issue in it’s own way. And the worst part is how these harem shows justify the harem: they either just lead everyone on without creating boundaries, which is very harmful and manipulative. They’re dense and don’t realize they have a harem which is frustrating and a lazy way to cop out. Or they do the whole “I’ll make everyone happy”, which is probably the worst among them. This show on the other hand takes the idea of a harem and shits on it, giving the best explanation to why it’s there: Because God himself decreed it, making it so if they don’t get with you, you die. That is fucking hilarious and is a genius way to make us root for the harem without supporting all of the harmful and cringy justifications other harem plots generate. It’s literally God himself made a mistake forcing these girls to fall in love and forcing their hand to cause a harem. This is satire because it is the only reasonable and justifiable explanation for this shit: act of God. I mean it was a mistake but that doesn’t change the fact. And what’s really genius about it is that the way they explain it, with the whole ‘soulmate’ thing, makes it so it doesn’t feel like the girls are forced to fall in love (though they technically are) because they choose to stay on their own volition. This makes the whole situation feel less disgusting and give us room to get invested. Now I will admit, that part kind of goes against my previous praises. The main character knows that if they leave him they die, but the girls don’t, and while that makes it so they aren’t threatened to stay, you then have the justification of why they do, which isn’t handled well. I just chalked this up the the forceful nature of the soulmate gimmick but either way this is the inherent issue with a harem and they couldn’t really find a way around it. There is no reason the girls should stay in that kind of relationship. This of course means that the main character has to be the “I’ll make everyone happy” but because of the divine meddling, it feels more of a inevitable behavior than it does deceitful misogyny. Moving on from that, the satire doesn’t stop there. They take all the different ‘dere’s which are lazy ways to avoid making complex characters, and take it up to 11. None of these girls have much going for them character-wise, but that’s intentional. They play into their archetypes to show the ridiculousness of them by making them incomprehensibly stupid. You want the serious mature girl who thinks love is pointless? Here’s a super computer. All of this genius I’m talking about is hidden under a pile of the most retarded shit you can imagine. They take all of the already ridiculous cringefest of harem romcoms and play them up so much that it wraps back around to being good. I mean just the premise of the show is an example of this. All of these guys in these animes get half the school to fall in love with them and it’s ridiculous. So this show sees that and says, fuck it, watch this asshole, this guy’s going to get 100 girlfriends. It’s over-the-top and stupid. All of the drama is played out in situations so stupid that you know they aren’t taking it seriously. This show is just taking the stupid elements of romcoms and harems and taking them in the most stupid direction possible to show their shortcomings. And it’s hilarious. Now the actual quiet moments where the drama is addressed are still boring and cringy but they are kind of necessary to hold the story together (and they hide the fact that it’s a satire). I’m also not a big fan of 4th wall breaks which is why I gave up on the manga. Overall some of the shitty elements of romcom animes do slip there way into this show without being meddled with, but the attempt at satire is still hilarious and well appreciated. Or maybe this show is just retarded and I’m reading too much into it. Either way it’s a blast. Also the end of episode 10 is funny as shit.

Is this show good, no not really. Did I have fun with it, yeah absolutely, I enjoyed it from beginning to end.
I said in my Warehouse 13 (not available on this website) review that the reason I watch so much anime is because now matter how bad it is, or how cringy it gets, it is always energetic. Unlike western media, where bad tv shows are just boring and forgettable, bad anime is memorable, cringy as fuck, annoying, and fun as hell to talk about. I don’t actually start to dislike shows until they reach 3/10s, the rest are just shows I admit are bad ... but had a fun/ok time with or just didn't care for. This is one of those shows. This is full of anime cringe, but I had a blast with it. It was so energetic I couldn’t help but have a good time. In fact it felt like a 7/10 when I was watching it but brought it down in retrospect. Rae is a really fun protagonist and though the drama was hamfisted, it was based in a very true reality that made the whole “Romeo and Juliet” aspect work a lot better than many other romance stories. I thought the romance and the chemistry between the two heroines are great and what made the show so much fun (even if it was a bit creepy in hindsight). Rae’s antics were really enjoyable and funny, I love how the video game aspects are incorporated, and once again, despite being hammed up, the drama with Claire was heartwarming and effective. Now, I do say that the drama is hamfisted but I actually don’t think it’s a bad thing in this case. The show is very clearly going for a fairy tale Shakespeare fantasy vibe so I think the way it’s played up actually works in favor for the lovable and charming tone, which is the reason I had so much fun in the first place. I’m not going to pretend it’s super smart or deep, but keeping it simple might work better for the tone. However, I will admit this show does think it’s a bit smarter than it actually is. Now there of course were things I didn’t enjoy: the worldbuilding was lacking heavily, the plot driven revolutionary drama was unengaging (because of said worldbuilding), I’m not a fan of love triangles (though that’s just personal preference and not an issue with the show), the themes were lacking and the fight scenes were boring. Now, that last part I can’t really blame them for because of budget restraints, but the characters were just standing around waiting for the person to play their next move, like it’s fucking turn-based combat, so it was a little frustrating. Anyways it’s not a masterpiece by any standards but I had a lot of fun with it and loved its energy. It was a good fun way to pass the time.

I know most anime has a teenage demographic, but this one feels the most as if it was written by a teenager. Specifically a teenager who thinks he’s smart. The whole point of this was to make a realistic isekai where it breaks down the power fantasy with a realistic and weak protagonist. It would take a dark tone as the main character’s mental health is pushed to its limits as he witnesses the deaths of his friends over and over as well as has to face his own fear of death. Pretty novel idea. And I think that aspect is handled pretty well. Subaru ... is overall a (moderately) well-written character. I mean he’s pretty insufferable near the middle, but that was the point: to showcase the hypocrisy and arrogance of normal isekai protagonists and to have him hit his lowest. It makes his arc throughout the first season pretty satisfying, though it is really difficult to get through the thick of it, and he is still really annoying. His reaction to his own demise and the deaths of his friends is understandable and earned. Maybe a bit over dramatized, due to the fact he could see it coming and mentally prepare himself, and that because he knows it’s not ultimate. It makes it so when he’s too emotional to the point he can’t think straight, it’s hard not to get frustrated, even if you do understand where he’s coming from. Not a fun character to watch, but they hit what they were going for. And that is the only semi-decent part of the show. You know, for someone who was trying to make a “realistic” protagonist, they sure as hell forgot to make the rest of the characters realistic. The way the female characters were written was the same way a racist would try to convince everyone he wasn’t racist. Like, “no guys, they’re stronger and outsmart him. The girls are strong too, see?” But they are literally the bland, cookie-cutter, one-dimensional characters you expect from every other isekai. Rem and Emilia are boring as fuck and they try so hard to get you to like them. They go for a darker tone, but then push in this harem of ‘deres’ like it’s a fucking shitty romcom. The harem funny moments clash so terribly with the darker tone they parade around that it makes the whole thing cheesy and cringy. The only thing they go dark and realistic with is Subaru’s relationship with death. Everything else is the stupid isekai trash you’ve seen a thousand times. And if Subaru is so realistic, why the fuck didn’t he have a bigger reaction to entering an entirely different world? And they have absolutely no interest in exploring this world either. This magical fantasy world is so unexplored that the only explanation is “it’s a fantasy world”. This character is thrown into a whole different world and has no intention of learning how it works. He’s not cautious about what he says, which any normal person would be, and although it’s part of his character to be arrogant, it’s still annoying. The thing that really irks me is that the writing is different from Japanese. Ok, then why is the language the same? And if he takes the effort to learn the language, why doesn’t he take the time to learn the history, or the political system, or any useful information at all about the world he now inhabits? This show tries to parade how realistic it is but nothing about it is realistic. The side characters are unrealistic and underdeveloped, Subaru’s reaction to the world is unrealistic, the world itself is unexplored making it feel unrealistic. The big climactic battle at the end of season one is against the Witch Cult and the White Whale, two entities we only hear of right before they become the focus. The White Whale, which was the best fight (Ok, I do like Wilhelm), doesn’t have anything to do with anything. He’s a fucking detour. I just don’t care about any of this. The princess selection, the dragon, the witch cult; the show doesn’t give us any reason to care about any of these. I was playing Geometry Dash during the finale. Also, to have the first person Subaru meets be a princess, fuck off. Also, time is really fucked in this show. For example, the most unrealistic thing about this show is Emelia’s feelings towards Subaru. If we look at it objectively: Emelia’s first memory of Subaru is meeting him at the thieves den where he’s trying to buy her stolen insignia. He says it’s so he can give it back (to curry favor). Pretty suspicious for someone in her position and as cautious as her. She doesn’t know who he is so how did he know it was stolen and why is he trying to give it back? He did risk his life to save her which is effective, but then his demotism to her is just creepy and obsessive (looking objectively from the last day). He wants to stay at her house and tries everything he can to get as close to her as possible. Why does she trust him so much? If you look at everything this way, it adds a whole other layer of unrealism. This is a pretentious show that tries so hard to prove it’s smart, and so many people try to defend it, but if you look at anything other than what it shoves in your face, you see it wasn’t well thought out after all.