- Last OnlineMay 5, 2:00 AM
- GenderMale
- Birthday1998
- LocationValhalla
- JoinedDec 30, 2015
Also Available at
Your mom's house
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Jan 29, 2024
Awful, awful comic, for all the reasons listed below:
- Ridiculously overpowered mc, which wouldn't be bad if it weren't for the fact that the author glazes him to high heaven in every scene he's in
- The mass-produced manhwa artstyle (just look at almost every top-manhwa on Webtoon), which is charactersitically over-saturated, grainy, too cartoonish, and generally personality deficient (i.e. lacking any real edge)
- The World of Warcraft type plot-structure, and lack of interesting character dynamics or creative fight scenes, which in practical terms means that there is no incentive to read the story besides the self-insert, male power-fantasy aspect of it
- The half-assed attempts at
...
intertwining different story-lines and expanding on the premise, which are always sidelined anyways in favor of said glazing (OH MY GOSH HE'S SO FUCKING HOT AND STRONG OMG HOLY SHIT I'M CUMMING AAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! HUAUIOPA HSYDFH AIDBASDHYASDHIPASHDG PIUH HOLY SHIT HE'S ON THE NEWS I'M LOSING IT!!!!!!!! x420 XD)
- No real threat to the mc's life ever materializes, since any conflict that is built up eventually fizzles out because the battles are postponed until they're no longer a legitimate challenge for the mc (take Hwang Dongsoo for instance)
- This series, unlike a good manga such as Hunter x Hunter, has no clearly defined rules within the universe for how powers work or what limits exist (with the exception of some of the mc's abilities) - largely because it's not necessary when the mc chows down on most his opponent as if they were wet noodles anyways
- Sexist as fuck: All the women are thrown in solely for fanservice, and then quickly replaced once they've served their masturbatory purpose, so as to not have to develop any of them (I don't usually throw out the sexism allegations, but this time I feel like it's warranted)
For clarification, I read this only because the anime adaption had kept me interested for the first two episodes; it wasn't amazing, but in the very least it was entertaining. Though, when I read the manhwa, it quickly dawned on me that the author had zero intention to develop anything that made the first two episodes mildly intriguing. Nonetheless, I ran through a whopping 129 (!!!) chapters, knowing it would suck, out of boredom - then I thought "Why not write a short review summarizing my own bad life decisions?". So here we are.
That's a couple hours of my life I will never get back, which is my own fault, but still...
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Nov 27, 2023
I'm confused: Is this meant to be a parody? Because I really can't tell. It certainly has all of the hallmarks of one, what with the ridiculous levels of pandering (male power fantasy, escapism etc.) and goofy character-designs.
Another reviewer claimed that it's better than Sword Art Online, which is a fair comparison, but I have to disagree on the conclusion; in the very least SAO had some tension, while in Shangri-La the protagonist is constantly yelling and overreacting to everything happening, but... y'know... no one can actually die in this game! That's right, there is no risk of bodily harm, which makes you wonder
...
what the point of any of this is. It's not like SAO, where the VR-headsets have a microwave emitter installed for the purpose of keeping the players in the game, here it's just a videogame.
Not to mention the horribly boring romance which feels like it was tacked on in the very last minute to make the protagonist more enviable, because if they hadn't included that element to the story he would be like any other loser who does nothing but play videogames all day. He barely even interacts with the female lead for the first 9 episodes. I'm not exaggerating when I say that they've had like 5-7 minutes of screentime together.
The character-writing is also superboring. No one has any actual personality or struggles that it's worth connecting with: The main character, who is allotted the vast majority of the screentime, is essentially a blank slate; we don't know anything about his family, friends, any other hobbies or things that 'capture his imagination' - nothing. All of his dialogue amounts to, "If this swamp monster has a half-second delay on his upward slash, then I can get one hit in before having to dodge." In the very least, in the show it's a little more in-depth than what I just portrayed, so that I can get a little engaged in the... videogame he's playing that he can't die in, and where all the social interaction he gets is with an npc bunny. Riveting stuff.
Sometimes, he also rambles on for way too long about the game's mechanics. There's this one part in episode 8 where he spends 2 whole minutes describing a series of enemies he's defeating in arena-style combat, which I realize sounds pretty exciting, but it isn't because it's depicted with still images - sort of like a powerpoint presentation. It would have been fine if they had instead quickly regurgitated the names of the enemies whilst the protagonist is posing in the foreground, and the enemies bodies are dissipating in the background or something like that, but the way they chose to do it is incredibly obnoxious. Even the show itself points out how goddamn tedious this whole rigmarole is. So why do it then?
And whenever 'conversation' happens, it almost always commits the most deadly sin of all bad media, which is to have the characters talk at each other, instead of with each other. This is due to the fact that none of the conversations have been written with the intention of strengthening the characters' bonds, they instead exist to exposit information to the audience. For instance, in the first episode when the main character picks up the MMORPG that the series is named after in a videogame store he frequents, he hits up a 'conversation' with a woman who works the cash register. We don't really get any understanding of their relationship with each other, other than the surface-level reading that he's a regular customer who always buys trashy games. Most of the 'conversation' revolves around, again, the protagonist rambling - this time about a shit game he played. The whole interaction is so incredibly stilted; she just stands there, willingly listening to him complaining about a bad game he bought - that he knew was gonna be bad (because he only buys bad games) - which is presumably a 'conversation' they've had tens if not hundreds of times in the past. I can't tell if she's supposed to be annoyed or not at him, or if she's enjoying it, but she basically only responds shortly to his complaints, before recommending that he plays Shangri-La.
Why does she do that? Because the girl who's inexplicably crushing on him plays the game, something the cash-register lady of course doesn't disclose to him, instead giving some bullshit explanation about how playing a 'godly' (actual expression used all the time in the show, yes it's cringe) game will help cleanse his palate of the shitty games he's always playing, to which he agrees. The main character doesn't even know who the girl crushing on him is by the way. I'm not joking. It's so fucking stupid and annoying I can't believe I wasted 3 hours of my life watching this garbage. I'm obviously only writing this review to ramble myself, which I think I've reserved the right to do after having listened to the protagonist's rambling dialogue for a whole 9 episodes.
I could also talk about how many horrible design decisions there are in this supposedly 'godly' game that has over 30 million active players, but that would be even more time of my day that I'm throwing away, so let's not do that.
So should you watch Shangri-La Frontier: Kusoge Hunter, Kamige ni Idoman to su? No. If you're thirsting for some escapism, just play an actual videogame. Then, you might even feel some adversity, as opposed to what you will get from watching this frankly brainless anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Aug 24, 2023
Let's get this out of the way before anything else is said: Yes, this story is creepy, and no it is not justified. The author of Mushoku Tensei chose to make the main character a pedophile, he chose to have him make sexual advances towards children, and he chose how those children would interpret said advances. All of those were CHOICES; no one forced Rifujin to write his light novels this way. And as such, it is not the pedophilia itself that is disgusting, but rather how it is portrayed - as you can have a series about a pedophile without implicitly endorsing their behavior.
...
The touchy-grabby, non-consensual ways in which Rudeus treats women is almost always played up for laughs.
Case in point - the penultimate episode of the first season - when Rudeus has sex with Eris, and puts on a goofy voice in the aftermath, as he does victory-laps around the ruins of Buena Village. Eris had ostensibly been a daughter figure to him up to that point - blindly following his advice with the belief that he knew what was best for her, while at the same time he had fostered a romantic relationship between them. This is grooming, and if it weren't for the fact that Rudeus looks like a child, it would not have been received with the same indifference. And it doesn't matter that Eris leaves him in the end either, because the reason for her leaving had nothing to do with how disgusting his actions were.
So while Rudeus faces consequences, now in the second season, through the erectile dysfunction arc that is currently in progress - the viewers have had to reflect on next to nothing. To a certain extent, this also normalizes what he did; while most people aren't pedophiles, and agree what Rudeus did was wrong, a pedophile watching Mushoku Tensei might not feel the same way. They may in fact come away with the impression that what Rudeus did was morally neutral, since the series is so popular. After all: "He did wait until Eris was 15 before having sex with her." Oh, fantastic, I'm happy no one was hurt! :/
As for the actual story of Mushoku Tensei - it is competently written for the most part. Actions have consequences, and the show isn't afraid of taking things in new directions. It's interesting to see the varied locales Rudeus travels to throughout his journey to return Eris home, and the characters at times have surprising depth. At times, not always, as the series does a bad job of balancing the wacky anime elements with the attempted realism of a medieval society; like having a magic school where everyone acts like teens from the 21st century; or beast people that literally have a "nyaa UWU" language; or a pervy prince that looks like a celestial dragon straight out of One piece, who locks Rudeus up because he wants to fuck Rudeus' 40 year old master who looks like a 14 year old; or the celestial dragon's superhuman otaku brother, who wants Rudeus to make him anime figurines. The tonal inconsistencies makes it hard to take anything seriously sometimes.
Everyone has already said this, but the art is gorgeous; it's expressive and fluid, and there are some very good shot compositions throughout the show. I also liked Rudeus' inner dialogues when he exposition dumps the audience in some of the episodes. They were funny, as he found himself in darkly humorous scenarios. Eris was especially interesting to me. She clearly has ADHD or some learning disability, and it's reflected well in the character. That being said, not all of the cast was equally as interesting; Ruijerd honestly didn't have much of a personality that I was able to connect with, or really a very compelling character arc, since it ended up feeling unfinished once he parted ways with Rudeus.
The current season has also been enjoyable so far. Unlike some other reviewers I have enjoyed the monster hunting and the temporary companions that Rudeus have come into contact with. They're not very complex, but I don't think they're meant to be too deeply involved in the story either; they fill their roles well enough, and that's all that really matters as far as I'm concerned. Only the confrontation between Sara and Rudeus could have been handled better in my opinion, but I've read that they changed things from the light novel, so I take it that is true. I also mentioned that I wasn't particularly impressed with the whole school arc either; I've read the manga, and I just don't like this arc in general, so I expect if I watch any further that the score might fall from a 7 to a 6.
This is a competent show, but discussions about its writing have, perhaps deservedly, been overshadowed by the discourse around its portrayal of groomer behavior. If I just ignore the unsavory parts and focus on the whole - it is neither a masterpiece, nor is it offensively bad - it is somewhat above average; it is pretty entertaining. So that is what I have chosen to do, with the asterisk [*] that you shouldn't watch Mushoku Tensei. I'm kind of at odds with my own enjoyment of the show here, so I don't endorse you watching it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Aug 1, 2023
Premise: A girl is ousted from and treated like a servant by her family, after her mother dies and her father marries a new evil woman. The girl is ruthlessly mocked, shamed and abused by her new family for her entire youth, particularly by her step sister, before she is married off to a supposedly abusive guy, who turns out to be a really swell fellow [What a twist!].
It didn't bother me that the family was comically evil, unlike some other reviewers - that's fine. But was it necessary to hammer the point home for three episodes straight? At least approach the abuse from
...
different angles if you're going to place so much emphasis on it. The female protagonist is also depressingly boring, to a degree that I got uncomfortable. The character's demure personality is in contrast to her evil step sister's brashness, so maybe it's just jealousy on part of the author? I don't know, and frankly - I don't want to know.
But what's really depressing is how beautifully animated this show is. I couldn't help myself from sampling the unknown pleasures that might have awaited me; now I know that I should have been more selective.
I really am very impressed though. It must have been difficult to write something this boring. 4/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jul 5, 2023
"Yep! I won't ever let you run away!" - Yui Yuigahama
Hey, you know that feeling when you've spent some days at your friend's crib, and you have to leave early in the morning, so you just sit there silently waiting to leave because you can't find any more good conversational topics, and don't want to phone in some milquetoast talk? That's what this is, only your dumbass can't shut up.
By the time of the third season, I already felt this inclination creeping in, it's just way more apparent now; what's had to be said has been said, but the author either doesn't want to leave
...
the fans disappointed, is afraid of the response if he does, or him and/or the studio wants to cash in on the series' success even further. And that's fine - I came in with almost zero expectations, and therefore I was not disappointed.
It seems that I can even still somewhat appreciate the humor, like the brief moment where Hachiman, in his typical dry demeanor, wonders which utensils he's supposed to use at a fancy restaurant. It's almost like I'm watching a moment from the first or second season again - only now, no one really wants to be there, which is to be expected of Hachiman, but not of everyone else too.
I think if you're going to do something like this, it should come in the form of a time-skip, so that you can allow for new situations to arise. It's very hard to write about the same topic for seasons on end, not just because it becomes boring (for the writer), but also because there are only so many ideas one person can produce about a stoic and asocial, but otherwise entirely normal highschooler. Hachiman is not a magic-user, an alien or anything else of the sort, he's just some dude, and his story has for all practical purposes been finished.
If there's anything that really bothered me, it's the fact that Hachiman doesn't thoroughly reject Yui. The writer even jokingly points it out when she criticizes him, saying, "I hate when you only do things halfway." But it's not funny, and it's not clever! It's just sad. Whatever you might feel about her, I think that Digibro described this sort of subversion best in her video "Anime Is Getting Lazy With Its Meta" as follows, "That's why there is nothing subversive about this guy trying not to grab this girl's boobs, because his face still ends up in her panties anyway. They didn't change the basic meaning of the scene, they just called attention to the fact that they're doing it. It's like if someone was pissing in the middle of the street, and everyone was staring at him, and then he yelled out "I'm pissing in the middle of the street!" and "calling attention to the fact that you've put a bunch of stupid bullshit in your anime series, doesn't stop it from being stupid bullshit."
It's also apparent how much has been cut from the light novel. The pacing is fast, and scenes that feel like they're supposed to be important come and go at a moments notice. The change of emotional tones between scenes are also jarring. Right after Yui's emotional exchange with Hachiman, that I was just making fun of, they're back to the nonchalant, clubroom tea sipping, after eight chocolate eating state of affairs that has been a staple of the series. There's no build up to anything important. It just ends because it can't commit to any of the paths it has dug, so it just lies down, conceding all ambition. Just like you viewer! You also lack commitment, right? Isn't this relatable?
Okay, I admit it. Maybe I was a little bit dissapointed :/
Edit: I should preface that I know that studio feel wasn't entirely faithful to the source material, and I know that a confession happens in the 6th volume of the light novel, but it in no way changes my opinion on this ending. I'm still dissatisfied with the writer's approach.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Mar 11, 2023
I read TOG for a long time between, I wanna say around 2016/2017 to 2020 - not because it was particularily good, although I imagine I enjoyed it in the beginning, but rather because I was very bored at the time and had nothing better to do than to play videogames, watch anime and read manga.
The number one issue this manwha has is the fact that the tower is way too fucking tall, and despite the fact that there is an ungodly amount of content to get through, the chapters are nonetheless paced like if something tied cement bricks to a sloth and then
...
broke its kneecaps. I have only taken a glimpse at the newest chapters, and I imagine that if the story is to finish within -idk- like the next millennium or so, then it cannot continue at the pace it is currently going at.
The number two issue is that the art is extremely homogenous; it's just panel after panel after panel of yellow, blue, green and red lightbeams, over and over and over again, in perpetuity. Like fuck me, how is there so little going on on screen? It's so monotenous. And all the backgrounds are the exact same flavor of uninteresting temples and floating islands, or alternatively a matrix of anime action lines and led colours. If someone put me in an interrogation room for a day, showed me random panels from this manwha, and told me I would be liquidated on the spot if I couldn't correctly identify which 10 chapter selection at least 50% of the panels were from, my brainmatter would undoubtedly be splattered on the walls come Monday, even if I were to read the entire manwha over again the week before.
The third issue is that all the characters have paper-thin personalities. Baam is the most boring protagonist in any shonen-esque show I have ever seen or read. He has close to no personality besides mildly content and slightly disturbed. The whole point of shonen protagonists is that they're exciting, and that they make you want to root for them. Baam has got the whole overpowerdness of the male power fantasy down without any of the excitment to go along with it. Like what's the point?
I don't remember why I stopped reading TOG, I think it just got super uninteresting to me at some point, and I realized that I was wasting my time. So please head my advice: if any of you are considering reading TOG, read something else instead. There are probably thousands of better manga out there.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Mar 4, 2023
If the unoriginal character designs and cliche synopsis didn't turn you off from watching *insert unnecessarily long name here* let me do that for you.
Anime writing has truly only become more incestuous in the last two decades. At some point, I guess the industry collectively understood that well-crafted narratives, human-like personality traits and eye-catching artstyles weren't a prerequisite for making a good return on investment - because holy shit people will actually watch garbage like this and enjoy it!
I get that I'm not the target demographic for this anime as a 25 year old man; I should probably only be watching a few
...
select shows that are actually worthwhile like Chainsaw Man, Mob Psycho 100 III, Vinland Saga, Attack on Titan etc. (I couldn't find any recent shows that I really enjoyed that weren't action oriented. There probably are some that aren't that popular idk), but I just cannot help myself from doing some dumpster-diving since I kinda quit watching anime for some years.
Point is that this show is really bad, and for some reason every anime on this site, quality notwithstanding, will have a score of anywhere between 6-8 unless they are absolutely unwatchable, and somehow this anime sits at a score of 8 (almost) on this god forsaken website.
Why? The characters talk like actual fucking robots. I am not overexaggerating when I say that the dialogue sounds like it has been written by an outdated AI; surely, ChatGPT would be able to churn out more compelling conversations than what is at display here, right? Like, while I was watching this, bored out of my mind, I decided to re-enact the dialogue but in a robotic manner - and I could feel something I can only describe as a convergence between how I interpreted the text on screen in my head, and how I imagined it would sound if someone actually held these conversations in real life. It's hard to describe exactly what that means, so you'll have to take my word for it... or actually watch the anime yourself (don't) and try and mimic my scientific findings.
The main character looks like a Kirito-clone. It is actually a little offputting now that I think about it. In the very least he doesn't look like Kyouske, in which case we would have bigger problems ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).
No, but seriously: Nothing actually happens in this anime. They stay inside some tiny apartment throughout at least 70% of the runtime. Which I assume was a cost cutting measure? The romantic interest is the most cookie cutter, boring excuse for a waifu I have ever laid my eyes on. She is so devoid of any interesting character-traits that don't boil down to being a stereotypical anime love interest, that it is almost deserving of some kind of reward. She has good grades, makes food for the main character because he can't cook, is really shy, and can't read a romantic social queue to save her life.
The side characters are so forgettable that I don't even know if anything were to change if they just disappeared entirely from the story. I guess that could make for a better story in the very least, if this piling steam of shit just did a 180° and turned into a post-apocalyptic setting, à la Steins;Gate when Rintarou changes timelines.
It really does boggle the mind how anime like these can continue to be shat out the asshole of these lazy studios without the audience ever growing tired of it. There are probably some redeeming aspects of this anime that could be mentioned, but I don't wanna do that because fuck this garbage, that's why.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Mar 4, 2023
I'm all for tomboys, but god damn this show is so boring.
I don't really care about any of the characters. All of them combined have about as much personality as a the average "person" in a post on r/offmychest, and the personalities that are there are astoundingly one-dimensional. Take Misuzu for example. Literally her entire personality is being emotionless and smart; she's Mikasa Ackerman if you took away all of the badassery, tenacity and underlying trauma, and put her in a shitty slice-of-life romance show where she plays the author's self-insert character. Arguably every other character is also just as uninteresting as Misuzu is,
...
if not more so.
Follow our ensamble cast of cliche dimwits on their journey of retelling assembly line anime romance subplots, but with much less interesting interpretations than those of better shows in the same vein. The only thing that is worthy of praise in this show is the rare good insults like "squishy bitch", and the fact that the romantic progression is more fast paced than in many similar shows.
The art and animation is also above average quality, so that's good I guess... Ehmmm what else? Oh yeah, I'll give them praise for not including the typical accidental groping scenes that have become an anime-standard over the last 20-30(?) years now, so that's commendable also. But yeah, that's about it.
I wouldn't recommend people watch this anime unless they have watched every other ꧁༺ 𝓰𝓸𝓸𝓭 ༻꧂ romcom anime out there, and are starving for shows in the same genre.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Mar 4, 2023
There's not much to say about Nagatoro; it's light fun with more serious themes occasionally sprinkled in. It's better than most similar shows out there - because it treats its characters with more respect then the average anime romcom, which might not be saying all that much lol. The girls in particular are much more likeable than others in similar anime. I won't go into detail about why I feel this way; I am sure there are plenty reviews of the first season on this site that expand on this.
Nonetheless, this is a rather cliche show. The first season was also more enjoyable in
...
my opinion. As a returning viewer, the first thing you'll notice is that the opening song is much less interesting than in the first season, as is the ending; in fact, the art and animation has taken a hit in quality in general. I feel that the characters are less expressive than before, which is "concerning" when that is one of the core appeals of Nagatoro and its ilk, considering how thin the plot is.
These types of anime are tedious by design. What do I mean by that? Well, here's a simplified illustration of the average anime romcom structure:
1. Set the characters in a cliche episodic dilemma (cultural festival, bullies, uncontrollable diarrhea etc.).
2. Have the characters, mostly the main-character(s), learn some life-lesson in the progress.
3. The experience briefly deepens the romance between the two mains.
4. Act as if nothing happened/Have the characters brush away the possibility that the other person is romantically interested in them.
5. Rinse and repeat.
I am up-to-date with the Nagatoro manga, and I think it does a better job than certain other romance-manga cough Rent-a-girlfriend cough as far as progressing the plot is concerned, but the material that is being adapted in the second season is (for the most part) following this very repetitive structure. That being said, I am looking forward to new chapters of the manga, and I'll finish this season despite not enjoying it as much as the first season, because I have a thing for dominant women I guess.
TL;DR for both seasons: Anime escapism for dudes who like women that get sexual satisfaction out of playful bullying. Don't have high expectations and you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
