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This was going to be a quick review of my thoughts on this series, but it seems that I write quite a bit in a short amount of time...


I'm not sure how Toei does it, but they constantly make revolutionary, iconic, and incredibly memorable anime. Sailor Moon, One Piece, Digimon Adventure, Slam Dunk, Saint Seiya, Yu-Gi-Oh, Fist of the North Star and Pretty Cure are some of their biggest names, and all have arguably made huge impact on anime as we know it, socially and production-wise. In fact, six of what I just named are listed as some of the biggest media franchises of all ... time.

But arguably their biggest, most iconic, and possibly one of their most influential is the 1986 to 1989 anime Dragon Ball.

Toei has pretty much perfected everything for this series. The animation is great (and seems to be constantly improving since 1987 with the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai arc), the characters are recognizable, there's no wondering why this series is so widely recognized. It honestly deserves to be iconic.

The series was more comedic until roughly 90-100 episodes in, when the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai arc began. From here on, things get really serious as the King Piccolo arc begins, and genuinely rises the stakes beyond what I could have imagined.

One thing I notice with Toei's shows is that they often have a "slower" pace to them. Dragon Ball is no exception, and some times it benefits more than others. Sometimes it means adding in new, interesting scenes or anime-original episodes to elaborate on certain events, and other times it means to give characters and the world time to breathe. Meanwhile, other times it feels needlessly slow.

Besides all of those (mostly) meta aspects, the characters are awesome. I love the comedy and atmosphere of the show, and both the Japanese and English versions have top-notch voice acting. From some very clever one-liners to genuinely hilarious moments.

Dragon Ball is uniquely invested in its world that gives it that atmosphere of feeling "natural." It's invested in its environments, and gives a "quiet" atmosphere throughout the duration of the show. Even the combat in the show is great, because the characters utilize their environments in combat.

One random thing I really liked is the crossover episodes with Dr. Slump—another manga/anime by Toriyama & Toei that ended immediately before Dragon Ball began.

To think the King Piccolo arc is just the end of the beginning for this series is mind-blowing, but not surprising. Honestly, while I'm giving credit to Toei Animation, most credit should go to Toriyama Akira. Some may not like Dragon Ball, due to its slow atmosphere, comedic style, art style... but I feel that every anime fan should watch a good amount of Dragon Ball at least once. It's arguably one of the most important anime ever created, and is part of the history of how anime got to be the way it is today. You get to see what makes Dragon Ball so iconic and influential.

Thank you, Toriyama & Toei Animation. You outdid yourselves.

IyaPan.

I've known of 40hara since 2014-2015; I thought it was awesome that an anime adaptation was coming when it was announced in 2017!
When the anime released, I was not a big fan. Honestly, I avoided it like it was a rancid plague. I just didn't get how something like that could even be remotely popular.

However, over two years after the anime aired, I was browsing for manga and stumbled upon this. The iconic 40hara art style and the maid girl... but, something was different. It wasn't just girls, it wasn't just a point-of-view. There was a boy on the cover who deeply clashed with the ... 40hara character. Immediately I felt from his tall, straight pose dominance was an unwaveringness, and a willpower that speaks waves of being undefeatable, uncrushable, and that it would attain anything it desired. There was something so... absolutely magnetic about this cover. Something about this character that I knew would change the game entirely.


The IyaPan manga stars a wealthy teenager of nobility named Issei. He has wealth, fame, intelligence and power. However, he also has one extra thing; An unwavering will that yearns to see the panties of specific women.

What makes Issei so magnetic is his unorthodox nature. He's incredibly direct and doesn't care about the human state of emotions; After all, he believes it is unlike his status to care about such things. He's a protagonist with an unusual drive for a familiar motivation; He wants to see panties, but leaves it at that. Even though he wants to see panties, he almost has an innocent nature. Because of this direct and innocent nature, he brings up some of the most interesting, yet comedic conflicts and confrontations I've ever read.


Upon reading ONLY two chapters of this manga, it immediately slid into my favorites. The comedy train never stops, the art is phenomenal, the character interactions take into care the nature of Issei's personality and is never NOT interesting. This manga prioritizes the story above the ecchi, which just happens to be an addition that you'll see maybe once a chapter. It uses detailed art for comedic immersion, then changes to simplistic art for comedic relief. There is resolution, context, and it totally changes the 40hara game.

IyaPan, or should I say, YoPan, is one of my favorite manga, PERIOD. I've only read three chapters and I absolutely adore it. Its sense of changing the established 40hara art is breaking the absolute boundaries and setting a new precedent, its characterization is like no other and gives a sense of comedy to always be entertaining. I never expected to be so invigorated by a manga adaptation of IyaPan, let alone EVER be invigorated by IyaPan.

I just wish that there were more chapters, but this is published in Tonari no Young Jump, which typically have larger gaps between chapters in contrast to Weekly Shounen Jump, and mangaka typically prioritize taking their time actually writing and drawing above all else, so I don't mind at all. In fact, two of my other favorite manga also come from Tonari no Young Jump: One Punch-Man and Kuro.


Overall, absolutely give YoPan a read. It is incredibly inventive and engrossing like no other manga I've read, and creates an unmatched magical atmosphere through its art and characters. Kudos 40hara, you started something amazing.

I really loved this. It's a bag of mostly great things! If you're a Detective Conan and Yaiba/Gosho Aoyama fan, you should definitely watch this (but recommended to watch at 150 or more episodes). When I watched this, I also happened to realize that Gosho Aoyama seems to love writing romcom-like stories, and that many elements of Detective Conan were shaped from these stories.

My personal favorite was the first one in the collection; Wait For Me. It was one of the most beautiful and moving stories surrounding time travel that I have ever seen. Seriously, Gosho Aoyama is a god of romcom elements.

The Making of ... Detective Conan is also surprisingly good, and my second favorite; The Detective Boys (minus Haibara) are in the real world, where they enter the TMS Entertainment studio, believing that there are businessman attempting to kill Conan. However, the truth is, they're producing an episode of Detective Conan, and we get an entertaining, yet educational and short look at the main process. Unlike the episodes airing at the time that were animated in cels, the short seems to have been animated digitally.

The Wandering Red Butterfly and Ten Planets in the Night Sky are prequels to the Detective Conan anime; It stars Edogawa Conan/Shinichi Kudo's parents, Yusaku and Yukiko. The first one takes place before Conan was born and before the two got married, and the second one is during their marriage and Shinichi is a toddler. We are shown that Shinichi was closer to his mother and even takes off from her.

Detective George was my least favorite. It felt relatively slow, and was overall just alright, but seems to be an earlier prototype of Detective Conan.

Santa Claus in Summer was another really great romcom, and I really loved the characters in the story. Without spoiling anything, the boy is the only one who can save the world, so to figure out how he is granted any wish, one of which is meeting his favorite idol.

Definitely take the time to give these a watch, especially between Detective Conan episodes. It's really worth it.

I just want to start out saying that this is the first manhua that I have ever read. I have never read any webtoon, manhua or manhwa prior to this series.

This will be a pretty basic review of what I've read up to this point. I read them all in one sitting, and I was quite intrigued on how good it was. I'm very glad that this was my first webtoon.

I just want to express how great the artwork is. The format is so immersive that it feels like you're "reading an anime", not just because it's a manga with color (although that's the main ... reason), but the panel layout and artwork as well.
The art is extremely like One Piece with bits of Bleach. The art is so good to look at while reading every bit that I found myself already saving over 100 of the pages by favorites alone. I looked back at the first few chapters after catching up, and realized that the art greatly improved. It has become more consistent and refined, somewhat identifying with its own style.

The story is intriguing enough and the humour + the protagonist are two other things very reminiscent of One Piece. Some may call the protagonist "generic", but I don't care for labels like that. He's a character that I love, and I love characters with colorful and light-hearted personalities like Wu Di who just don't care a second about trivial matters and love expressing themselves through their dreams. I guess you could say that I am very similar to these type of characters, which makes sense why they are my favorite and personally land for me.
It seems that the author had everything down-packed including structure and character introductions, so it's a shame that a story with potential for longevity was cancelled so short in. Because of its "battle shounen" style, it might not be for everyone, but I certainly enjoyed it. Overall, I found it to be a relatively good manga and I'm glad it was my first manhua read. :)

What the hell can I say? It's so bad yet so laughable. I'm just wondering... is there something I'm missing? Am I severely wrong for giving Utsu Musume Sayuri such a low score? Is this the lowest scored anime on MAL? Is this the long lost love child of Crashbox and Courage the Cowardly Dog? Is this a lost Family Guy skit?

"Hey, Lois. Brian. Stewie. Chris. Everyone. This exact moment reminds me of the time that I was The Revolting Slob on steroids."


That's it. I can sit here and try to make sense out of nothing. Or am I just not getting something from a ... brilliant piece of work that speaks in many values and addresses many themes in a short amount of time? All while doing nothing to explore it, make it seem like a disgusting fetish fantasy, while simultaneously being an excuse to test your animation/3D rendering skills, your English skills and your talent for voice acting.

Isn't it so sweet? How close she is to her family? This is the moment of "bonding" that Sayuri has been waiting for all of this time!


I sound stupid trying to make sense of this. What's best to be said by my example alone is that you shouldn't make sense of this. If you think you've seen it all, please give Utsu Musume Sayuri a watch!

"Don't judge a book by its cover."

This one sentence is said time and time again. Every time I seem to think that I've learned my lesson, and not to judge a book by its cover, I do it yet again.

How I stumbled upon this manga was in quite the weird manner. I was seeking to find what rank One Piece was at on the manga list. Upon pressing "Manga Search", I was brought to quite a bulky genre selection. I ended up finding myself astray, looking through the vast amount of genres. One of such that caught my attention was "Doujinshi". "Does independently published fan-manga ... count as doujinshi?" I knew that it probably didn't, but I went on to see the library anyway.

One of the first results under the "Doujinshi" section was ●Rec. "Is this a HENTAI?! Why is there no hentai tag?!" I had thought to myself. Can hentai be tagged with solely doujinshi? What's going on here? Upon reading a few sentences of the top review, my curiosity grew much wider. So I searched for the manga online and read it.

I was left both pleasantly surprised... and emotionally touched.

The manga starts off with a man filming. A sixth grader. On a bed. "Fuck, I know where this is going." Even despite the top review telling me that things turned out differently than expected, I personally expected a manga, that at the very least, had an implication of sexual intercourse. So, things kept going as if it were going to end up that way.

Until the eleventh page came.

Even after the girl was asked to call the man daddy, even after everything that was set up in quite the meticulous pattern. It was all executed to mislead you. It was structured for you to expect something differently. The build-up was intense, and it turns out to be different than what you had expected in the first place.

The man is actually the girl's father. They are on a hospital bed, and to top it off. She's getting her surgery done. Despite the sad nature of the situation, the art is done in such a way to relieve the atmosphere with tame comedy. Yes, the father seems like a pervert, or at the very least quite suspicious, but the truth is that he deeply cares for his daughter and wants to see her survive. He will cherish his daughter throughout everything, and show her how much he loves her.
The comedic timing was great, and the squishy form of the art matches the atmosphere quite well.

I expected the worst, and when there were huge hints that things would turn out differently than expected, I still expected implications of the worst. The author purposefully sets this up for you to question your expectations. From now on, should I expect the best? If not the worst, should I be expecting nothing?

I entered expecting to be emotionally appalled, and I came out being emotionally swayed. I felt relief and hurt in more ways than just one. In a structure that leaves you questioning and feeling, in the timespan of a cover and 28 chapters giving reflection and thought. I was given, and I was tested. I was hurt and I was motivated. I set my own expectations for something I didn't even create. Thinking twenty times isn't enough, nor thirty, fourty, or fifty. From this book alone, I have learned to say not to judge a book by its cover doesn't mean to not expect a result from what you see, but rather to not judge whatsoever. To keep yourself open at all times, and of course, if you see a book with a cover that leaves you expecting one thing, do not expect anything.

Time and time again, I am told not to judge a book by its cover, figuratively, and literally. Yet, I find myself doing it all the time.

Brave Witches is the story of Karibuchi Hikari, who joins the 502nd Joint Wing, hoping to meet the expectations of her older sister and become a greatly skilled witch. It is a sequel and spin-off to the Strike Witches anime series, and the second anime in the World Witches series.
When I started Episode 1, I'd expected a direct clone of Strike Witches. Due to the similarities in some characters, I didn't expect to like Brave Witches much at all. However, one concurrent theme used between characters in Brave Witches had me like it a slight bit above Strike Witches.

I found Brave Witches to be its ... own underlying story about meeting the expectations of someone who is more skilled than oneself. Our main character, Hikari, aims to be like her older sister, Takami. However, living in the shadow of Takami, Hikari finds herself being treated as the much lesser and weaker sibling. Hikari's story arc is hinted from Episode 1 and is explored more thorougly throughout the Brave Witches anime. Yoshika had a similar character arc in Strike Witches, although it was more of an internal struggle where Yoshika wanted to have powerful magic like her mother and grandmother. Hikari constantly fights to be as strong and skilled as Takami, centering around both an internal and external struggle.

By using Takami to tell the "expectations" narrative, it gives some of the best developmental moments for World Witches series' characters by far. Hikari goes through the challenge of trying to be like her sister, although she slowly learns that to grow her skills, she must distance herself from meeting Takami's expectations, attempting to do what Takami does, and to accept and be herself.

Kanno, another character with a major story arc in Brave Witches, has become one of my favorite characters in the World Witches series. Kanno, along with Hikari, have brought the most interesting character arcs I've seen in Strike Witches yet. Kanno, at first, loathed Hikari. She simply saw Hikari as the "total opposite" younger sister of Takami; No skill outside of stamina. However, being exposed to Hikari's unwavering will to improve her skill, and that Hikari's undergoing a similar struggle of wanting to become stronger, Kanno opens up much more and becomes more relaxed around Hikari.
Outside of her character arc, I enjoy Kanno's personality, as she has a slight "rebellious" nature. This is characterized by her dressing style, foul-mouth, and her fighting style. Oh man, Kanno's fighting style is awesome. She uses her fists rather than just firearms.
Hikari and Kanno definitely get the most screentime, as Kanno's story arc closes around Episode 10. Though, because of the focus these characters get, the rest of the 502nd Joint Wing get little to no screentime. This is to the point that I don't even remember most of their names, save for Sasha and Krupinski, both of which have miniature story arcs.

Furthermore, the art is a lot more pleasing than the 2007-2014 period of Strike Witches. It seems that the art style and animation for the World Witches series improves with every new release. I don't have any problems with fanservice, but when compared to Strike Witches, it has been severely toned down. Though in Brave Witches, the toned down fanservice has its benefits, mainly in action scenes where we get extravagant shots of a character's attack.
Speaking of World Witches, Sanya and Eila, two characters of Strike Witches, had little screentime in Operation Victory Arrow and The Movie. So, the two receive spotlight for half an episode and an OVA, effectively a crossover between Strike Witches and Brave Witches.

In terms of sound, there are some repetitive songs in the anime's soundtrack. They are not bothersome, nor memorable. The soundtrack is serviceable. The opening song, however, is amazing. It elicits emotion and describes how it would feel if an anime came back after several years, which for Strike Witches to Brave Witches was 6+ years (not counting the movie and OVA). The visuals in the opening aren't spectacular. Once again, they are serviceable. It gives you everything you need to know, including Hikari's story arc and the Brave Witches in action. The song itself carries the opening, being so good that there is not a single episode that I skipped it. The ending song is alright.

Overall, I found the underlying themes of attempting to meet the expectations of someone that overshadows you, and the attachment the Brave Witches grew for Hikari incredibly moving. I can't wait to see the Brave and Strike girls return in 2020 with Road to Berlin!

"My Hero Academia’s third season is quite an outstanding product."
Before I finished this third season, and I had only watched the first twelve episodes, that is how my first review began. The season's first twelve episodes are probably the best in the series up until this point. The Forest Training Camp and Bakugou Arcs that these first twelve episodes adapt bring out the best of the main characters and setting in stone a new fate for the future of the anime.
Unfortunately, I picked up the anime and manga series almost a year and a half later, watching the next thirteen episodes, and witnessed the true ... nature of My Hero Academia.

First off, I would like to say that Bones offers great animation and sound for the My Hero Academia anime. But there is no fixing the problems I experience with this series that come straight from the manga.
Most of our characters, after 60+ episodes, have almost no development. I've come to conclude that outside of Deku, Bakugou, Todoroki, and MAYBE Uraraka and Kirishima, all of Class 1-A are background characters that exist solely for pleasing fans. When they appear on screen, they are there simply for "funny anime moments" and for the sake of screentime. They don't actually get development that matters in the grand scheme of things. For the most part, they are not needed in any important situation, and the series could easily do without them existing at this point. I notice that the series has a habit of introducing new characters and making them SUPER important, but doing frickall with Class 1-A. If they're going to have screen time, at least give them proper exposition and development.

Then there's the entire Hero License Arc from episodes 14-25 of this third season. It honestly feels like an arc that exists solely for hype, just so we can see the characters fight. The entire arc's theme is really tired out, in every season since the first we seem to have an arc where Class 1-A trains and/or fights in "unique terrain" that includes generic city and rocky formations. Compared to the first two arcs in the season, the arc feels dragged out. Though this is more of a personal thing, it could have carried on faster. The fillers added throughout the arc add virtually nothing, including a fight with an anime-original "all-girls high school". And here we go introducing new "competitor schools", building tension without release, because they do absolutely nothing within the arc and the only ones that even slightly matter are two characters from Shiketsu High. At this point, I feel like the story is introducing too much characters to know what to do with. Overall the Hero License Arc was incredibly boring despite its importance of obtaining licenses.

I would like to conclude that the series has a formula that goes from Deku and 1-A funny antics, training/student combat, fight the bad guy. Rinse, repeat. U-A Arc to WSJ Arc. Tournament Arc to Stain Arc. Forest Camp to Bakugou Rescue. Hero License to the next saga. It really takes out any sense of progression and makes it seem like no matter what the series will return to the status quo. While Episodes 13-25 sucked out my enjoyment, I cannot deny that the first 12 Episodes, the next season and even everything before has a crazy amount of potential for growth. I just wish My Hero Academia would give more time nurturing the things it needs to blossom.